Owen Payne was a machinist from Wooster, Ohio. So it came as a complete surprise when he was asked to protect Earth from the most powerful and malevolent space fleet ever assembled.

That sort of thing wasn’t supposed to be his responsibility. Combat actions came under the purview of Ira Malhotra, an ex-Indian Air Force officer who now commanded the fleets of Sirius. Not only that, but Payne had only recently become a mining supervisor! Unfortunately, the only solution Malhotra could come up with involved far too high a body count on both sides. She needed some out-of-the-box thinking.

That's where Payne came in. He had an idea. It was a long shot. Dangerous. And stupid enough to work. His reward for sharing his idea? Malhotra said, “Good work, Owen. Now go make it happen.”

Payne wasn’t a soldier. He was just a machinist from Ohio. But now, he found himself responsible for the fate of two worlds.

All he could think was, “Man, I hope I don’t screw this up.”