"Baron Lucius Giovanni, Captain of the battleship War Shrike, finds himself without a home or nation, his ship heavily damaged, and crew in bad shape. The odds against their personal survival are slim. The time of humanity has come to a close. The great nations have all fallen, either to the encroaching alien threats or to internal fighting and civil war. The aliens who seek to supplant humanity, however, have not taken one thing into account: Lucius Giovanni. He and his crew will not give up - not while they still draw breath. If this is to be the fall of humanity, then the crew of the War Shrike will go down fighting ... and in the heat of that fight, they may just light a new fire for humanity ..."--Cover