One hundred and seventy-five years into the future Humanity has managed to survive despite itself, but for how much longer?
The human race has reached the stars. Travelling through worm-holes, enormous commercial ships - known as Circulars, run by the international community - jump from one star system to another. Circulars are controlled by O-12, an international organization that is the second-generation United Nations...but with much greater capacity for decision-making and for taking action.
A single, massively powerful Artificial Intelligence - present in the entire Human Sphere, and indispensable for the great powers - assists the O-12 in maintaining a fragile balance. The old nations have grouped themselves into great international federations, and have allotted between themselves the star systems that have been shown to be adequate for human lift. These new powers, much more powerful than the old ones, continue to be moved by the age-old driving forces of human history: the quest for living space, resources and power. They all want the same things, and that makes peaceful co-existence difficult. Confrontation and conflict are the constant norm, whether they be open or concealed, of high or low intensity, of long or short duration...the profession of soldier in this epoch is far from dull....
