Collier South is one of the last independent beltrunners mining the frontier between Mars and the Jovian colonies. The mining rush is over, Ceres colony is long established, and humanity has been mining asteroids for fifty years. What started as a handful of small prospectors seeking fame and fortune has become the heavy-handed operations of mining corporations swallowing the independents as they go.

Collier has no interest is selling out, and his debt load is rising. He'll have to land a strike soon or he'll end up trading his own biologicals to pay for his next meal. But Collier has faith. If nothing else, he knows his instincts as a rockhound are good. Problem is he's not the only one who knows that. When he finally sniffs out a promising rock, his ex-lover and her shiny new corporate ship are there to steal it from him.

Broke and desperate, Collier has one last chance to pay down his debt. What he finds this time has the power to change his life forever. Worse, it has the power to change the fate of the entire system. And it isn't long before the corporations are on a hunt to pry it from his stubborn fingers.