Fifteen years have passed since the Axiom Siege. On a Mars that is now a secret, independent city, a generation has been raised under the shadow of a terrible truth: humanity has a deadline. With only thirty-two years left before the star-consuming Great Shadow arrives, the colony's entire existence is dedicated to a single, desperate gamble—the Sol-Bringer Project, a planetary-scale psychic weapon built from the archives of a dead Martian race.
Leo Anders, now a man burdened by the knowledge of two species, leads the project, convinced it is their only path to victory. But his singular focus is challenged when a new messenger from the stars arrives—an ancient alien probe carrying a message of both hope and despair. It contains the scientific key to perfecting their weapon, but also a dire warning from another civilization that fought the Shadow and lost, destroying their own world in the process. Their final message: "Run."
The revelation shatters the colony's unity, creating a bitter schism between those who would stand and fight for Earth, and those who would build a lifeboat and flee to a distant star system designated "The Last Refuge."