Not every planet, nation-state, or backwater colony is willing to quietly accept the authority of the ruthlessly expansionistic Iron Star Alliance. Though the Alliance offers its people security and the promise of prosperity, it does so as a conquering power willing to assert its dominion over any who would stand against it. To accept membership into the Alliance is to accept its draconian law, the monopolies of its corporations, and the crippling economic obligations required to support its military. Those many billions who would resist the Alliance and live on their own terms have retreated to the fringes of explored space and now fight for their freedom in the Marches—the borderlands between the mapped Hyperuranion and the unexplored worlds beyond.