The first novel is set years after a plague has afflicted most of the Earth's population, dubbed "subs" (as the disease turns people into zombie-like sub-humans).

Skyler and the crew become entangled in the political plots and power games of Russell Blackfield, the head of the Nighcliff elevator base, and Neil Platz, "owner" of the space stations.

As the aura protection begins to fail, Platz and scientist Dr. Tania Sharma discover that another Builders vessel is due to arrive.

Things are made worse by the existence of a new group of plague-infected humans who are enhanced by strange alien technology and by the presence of a religious cult back in Darwin, Australia.

[5] Hough did not immediately begin writing the trilogy, as he felt "in novel form the genre had largely alienated all but the hard-SF reader".

[5] He began writing after reading John Scalzi's Old Man's War (2005), which he stated showed him that the literary genre still had potential.