When Brood Company of the Star-System Elite Guards receive a distress call from a disabled vessel, they discover things are more dire than originally believed. Stranded in the middle of the Lawless Zone, the heavy freighter, Dead Ringer, has been overrun by Slugs and possibly... something even more diabolical, and deadly. Donovan "Dreadnaught" Vance, noob to the Guards, must survive along with the rest of his company to shut down an out of control shipbrain--Electra Five-Seven-Niner. Aliens meets Ex Machina in this homicidal race against the clock.