Welcome to Locus-1, a research station on the frontier, using magic and science to study a strange cosmological phenomenon known only as the Locus. But the inhabitants of Locus-1 are far from civilization and they have a problem: pirates, led by a fierce vesk captain from her starship, the Executioner, terrorize the system from a hidden base, and the station's Science Council has turned to the Azlanti Empire for help.