Seventy years after the old world collapsed, civilization has returned to the desert - but peace has not. The Nation of Deseret is pushing south, reopening forgotten roads, securing trade routes, and drawing isolated settlements into something larger. Staff Sergeants Gordon Alsum and Joana Juarez are sent ahead of that expansion. Their new medic, Nathan Thompson, knows how to keep people alive. What he lacks is experience surviving the places where that training matters most. Their first mission seems simple: enter the fractured settlement of Moapa, learn who holds power, and bring stability without starting a war. Beyond Deseret's frontier lie armed gangs, isolated communities, and signs that the violence spreading through southern Nevada may be more organized than anyone realizes. Rebuilding civilization takes more than soldiers, walls, and good intentions. SOMETIMES THE FRONTIER MUST BE NEGOTIATED. SOMETIMES IT MUST BE DEFENDED. AND SOMETIMES THE PEOPLE STANDING AT ITS EDGE ARE ALL THAT KEEPS EVERYTHING BEHIND THEM FROM FALLING APART AGAIN.