Xandros is stranded in the ass-end of nowhere, in a star system claimed by a "reformed" pirate lord and other dregs of life. The price of air, water and every little necessity eats through the meagre profit he turns in an ever-dangerous job mining asteroids. There's not a single hope of him or his love Nova ever escaping the event horizon of greed and misery.

That is until one day when he finds something that has been lost for millions of years: An artefact of the Primogenitors, which becomes the start of a dangerous journey towards a better life.