[2] It follows the adventures of the mercenary Lawrence Newton as he attempts to capture what he believes is a fabulous treasure, only to find something of much greater importance.

In the preceding centuries, a means of Faster-than-light (FTL) space travel was discovered, allowing a speed of one-half of a light-year per day.

This led to a series of colonization efforts in a radius of about 70 light years around Sol, but these ended as their costs proved prohibitive.

The only major ongoing starflight efforts are carried out by the Zantiu-Braun megacorporation, who use their fleet of starships to periodically plunder their colonies in technically legal "asset realization" raids, typically involving military occupation of the planet in question.

As it is cheaper to copy technology than ship it, these efforts normally collect single samples of interesting goods, or raw materials that are expensive on Earth.

Zantiu-Braun is controlled by clones of Simon Roderick, who is motivated by the idea of uplifting the entire human race to his ideal.

In the current time, Newton is a mercenary in the Zantiu-Braun strategic security forces, who leads a squad of troopers wearing organic armour suits called "Skin" that render them practically invulnerable.

His father takes him to a holiday resort, where a gorgeous girl named Roselyn breaks through Lawrence's isolation, and the two develop a passionate relationship.

The biological augmentations make them an equal match for the Skins, which they invented years ago, and inflict severe casualties on the asset realisation force.

They eventually destroy a captured asteroid in orbit to create a Kessler syndrome that closes the sky, making further trips to the planet impossible.

Newton concludes that the asset realisation concept is no longer workable; the technology levels of the colony planets are growing so quickly that future missions will be too dangerous to be worthwhile.

A small group has formed an effective resistance movement in preparation for the next asset realisation mission, led by Denise Ebourn from Arnoon.

They reveal that their wealth comes from a damaged alien dragon with greatly advanced technological knowledge such as the nanotechnology used to enhance the resistance movement.