The world wakes to the brink of war as a mushroom cloud rises over the devastated Japanese port of Monbetsu. An economic partnership between Japan and Russia dissolves into chaos with a punitive Russian sneak attack on the home islands. The timing is perfect-for the Russians. Rising public hostility has forced Americans to shutter their bases in Japan, putting the Mutual Defense Treaty at risk.Admiral Robert Bondurant, Commander of the US Seventh Fleet, now based in Guam, scrambles to generate a measured response to the Russian aggression when he learns his wife and daughters have vanished from their Yokosuka family residence during the chaos of the Russian attack.His counterpart, Russian Admiral Aleksandr Vostrotin, Commander of the Eastern Military District, finds himself fighting this conflict across multiple fronts, not the least of them the warmongering factions in Moscow who forced the attack on the flimsiest of prevarications. The last thing he needs is American involvement.Surprising both opponent and ally, the Japanese invade the Russian-held Kuril islands and begin destroying Russian military satellites, effectively escalating the conflict across air, land, sea and for the first time in history-space.