Matt Lowell is in hell - and there's no place he'd rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to take on the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, who are constantly invading Universal Union territories. Yet before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training. Although their robotic avatars are their greatest weapon, they may also be their greatest weakness...