Geary, under heavy onslaught, escapes with his fleet to the Lakota system, and manages to set a booby trap for the pursuing syndic fleet, who walk right in and are defeated. Before they are destroyed, they send a command to destroy the hypernet gate. This essentially wipes out the entire system; all planets, satellites, ships. But the alliance fleet manages to escape with relatively minor damage by using the star as a shield.
By this book, Geary builds up both his skill and his reputation as a formidable commander, and few remain who question his authority, but those few now work in the shadows.
The move on to a couple of other systems, and right before the next jump, Geary receives an anonymous coded message describing a worm in the jump drive. This would have left Geary’s ship Dauntless and a few other loyalists stranded for eternity in Jump Space. They eliminate the worm, and go on to another system, where they find a settlement of Syndic civilian citizens about to die as their life support fails. They rescue them, and go on to the next system and leave the citizens there. They also win a battle against the syndic fleet there, and capture a CEO, who admits to the existence of the aliens.
There is a romantic triangle side story involving Geary, Rione and Tanya Desjani, the captain of the Dauntless. Geary and Rione break things off, and Desjani and Geary dont take things further because he is her commanding officer. This sub-plot actually pulls an otherwise strong book down.