IT HAS BEEN SEVENTEEN YEARS since the Nine Veils abducted half of the Nenets children and their bonded Huahuqui from Antarctica. Despite years of searching by Jonathan Teller and the NSA, no one has heard from the clandestine organization, or the abductees.

KJ Nilsson, the remaining children, and their Huahuqui--collectively known as the Stratum--have grown up in relative safety at Alpha Base in Antarctica. Thanks to the work of Lucy Taylor, now President of the United States, the Stratum are to be recognized as a unique, symbiotic, race and legal citizens of several great nations.

But, things do not go as planned when the Nine Veils come out of hiding--with their own army of Huahuqui--determined to become the most elite power on the planet.

Now, KJ and the Stratum must prove they deserve their new status by defending the citizens of Earth--against their own kind.

Whoever wins, the age of man is over.