Humanity has reached the stars. Massive, internationally-owned trade ships use wormholes to jump from one star system to the next, in a network of looping routes known as Circulars. Circulars are administered by an intergovernmental organization called O-12, an offshoot of the United Nations that has been vested with greater autonomy and capacity to enforce its decisions than its predecessor ever had. A single Artificial Intelligence, named ALEPH, is allowed to exist with the purpose of aiding O-12 maintain the fragile balance of power. The old nations slowly agglomerated into a few great federated blocs and claimed as their own those star systems that could sustain human life. These new superpowers, although mightier than the old ones ever were, are still motivated by the same compulsions that have always driven human history: living space, resources, power. Coexistence is hard when everyone is competing for the same things. Friction is constant and confrontations—open or covert, high or low-intensity, brief or prolonged—are commonplace. These are not dull times to be a soldier.