John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wifes grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce and alien races willing to fight for them are common. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. We fight to defend Earth from our new enemies and to stake our claim to planetary real estate. On Earth, the bulk of the resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Only those of retirement age can join the CDF; they want people who carry the skills from decades of living. CDF members are taken off Earth to serve two years at the front. If they survive, theyre given a generous homestead on hard-won colony planets, never to return to Earth. John Perry is taking that deal with only the vaguest idea what to expect.