Corporal William Thompson is a man haunted by two things: the heroic, yet ruinous, stand he took against a corporate execution order that branded him a traitor, and the family he lost because of it. Ten years after his acquittal, he's trading one nightmare for another, taking a security job with the all-powerful Sol Union Corp on the red dust of Mars-a distant, desolate posting the crew calls "the abyss."

Thompson just wants a paycheck and a chance at a new start, but Mars is already bleeding. Whispers of a corporate cover-up, a mysterious scientist, and a base consumed by dread greet him the moment he lands. Before he can even process in, an urgent mission and a terrifying struggle in the lower levels plunge him straight into the action.

Now, Thompson must confront the same ruthless corporation and the same dark choices that shattered his life on Earth. But this time, the stakes are higher, the enemy is closer, and the monsters might not be alien, but the people he's sworn to protect. He came to Mars to escape his past-but he may have walked right into the middle of a new one.