The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch: a cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm, a sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates, a smart-ass tech whiz with the galaxy's biggest chip on his shoulder, an alien warrior with anger management issues, and a tomboy pilot who, for the record, is totally not into Ty. And Ty's squad isn't even his biggest problem -- that would be Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, the girl he just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryosleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst for a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler's squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.