Lieutenant Commander Edgar Fitzpatrick is sent to begin the recruiting effort, right under the noses of Earth's governments. A twenty-nine-year-old escaped prisoner, 1553441, who had been a college professor before he annoyed the government, was one such man. The sixteen-year-old runaway, Argentina de la Fuentes, was another such perfect recruit. Two strangers from backgrounds worlds apart, along with thousands of other undesirables are to be trained to fight a terrible enemy, huge Reptilian beings who live to fight. Yet the Separatists, who recruited them, have their own dark secret, a secret that would threaten them all and could lead to the destruction of worlds including Earth.