Freedom is on the march as the rebellion against the Kurian Occupation of Earth takes the offensive. David Valentine has recruited an ad hoc company of former Quisling soldiers to put them through a trial by fire with a successful raid against an enemy armory. Now they?re ready to join forces with a guerrilla army planning to establish a new freehold in the Appalachian Mountains. Valentine knows that a permanent outpost near the East Coast would provide a strategic victory over the Kurians?and he believes that only his old friend and ally Ahn-Kha could possibly be leading the guerrillas on such a daring endeavor. But nothing could prepare Valentine's fighters for what awaits them at the end of their journey.