The USS Brawley is dispatched to Vaabanth IV on a joint maintenance and diplomatic support mission alongside an unlikely fleet. Joining them are four Orion Space Navy vessels, a heavily-armored Orion yacht, and a Klingon Vor’cha-class cruiser. Their charge is to assist the influential Orion terraformer Reesshad Dvor. His kilometer-long atmospheric processor and sky-piercing chemical towers aim to push the world into the system’s habitable zone. Along with the massive atmospheric processors that orbit the planet, Reesshad’s equipment turns the sky a vivid emerald hue.

The Brawley’s crew find themselves amid a triple wedding uniting Orion and Klingon officers. These unions grew from alliances forged during a past skirmish with a Romulan cartel. Their unorthodox camaraderie is being formalized through ritual and revelry. The wedding is in full swing when The Blackout strikes.

Suddenly, warp travel is limited to Warp 1.95. Communications across the quadrant fall to static. Long-range sensors go blind beyond a 20-light-year bubble. The pre-warp world of Vaabanth III, once carefully monitored for first contact, is now a vulnerable target.. A target those rising from the dank corridors of the Underspace mean to exploit.

The Vaadwaur fleet is led by a powerful Astika cruiser, flanked by two heavy escorts and a swarm of fighters. Orion, Starfleet and Klingon ships are forced into a desperate stand. rallying around the disabled cruiser to keep its heavy weapons online. The celebration is turned into a skirmish command post.

As the Vaadwaur bypass the wounded flotilla and begin raiding Vaabanth III, the crew of the neglected California-class vessel must do what they were never prepared for. They must unite factions, defend a pre-warp civilization, and survive the shadows of a new galactic threat.

Under green skies, only hearts tempered in fire can endure.