One of the largest, most powerful space stations ever constructed, the Alhambra Anchorage sits at the edge of Sirius sector and is the headquarters for the combined militia fleet of the fortress worlds known as the Colonies of the Line. The Colonies of the Line are a militarized wall of star systems fortified against any potential invasion from the unknown horrors that lurk beyond the Terminus Line. The Terminus Line was established two generations ago by the Terran Protectorate, which ruled that no human should travel beyond that line, leading into the Orion Expanse and the Sea of Dead Stars. There is to be no colony beyond the Terminus Line. No ship that ventures beyond the line is to receive aid, no matter how desperate their distress signal. Over the past two generations the inhabitants of the Colonies of the Line have become religious fanatics, seeing the defense of mankind's flank as a holy calling. They tell unconfirmed tales of nameless horrors that test and probe the colonies defenses and who they say have attempted full scale assaults. They have become isolated, eccentric in their beliefs and alienated from the rest of human kind. Alhambra is now the headquarters of a great Inquisition meant to purify the colonies of the line from corruption. From this mighty battlefortress the Grand Inquisitor, the Inquisitor General and the Council Supreme send for edicts for purges and accusations of heresy. More and more they turn their eyes toward the rest of the Terran Protectorate, and more and more they whisper that perhaps the best way to secure humanity is to spread their new faith and strength to the entire human race...by force if necessary.