Sometimes, in order to live you have to die first. Jon Ryan has met and won many insurmountable challenges. Now he faces one he never expected and seems unable to master. All the fighting, all the death, and all the suffering are changing him. He's growing darker and less human with each passing crisis. Will he become the emotionless machine he is housed in?The dark forces of The Berrillians are relentless. Having lost the technological war to The Alliance, they revert to guerrilla tactics. They threaten to terrorize the galaxy into submission. It's a game they are very good at. With no relief in sight, humanity turns once again to a weary Jon Ryan for answers. He develops a plan, but if it succeeds it's brutality threatens to push him over the edge. Jon must answer the question as to whether survival is worth his soul?