On their way across the ocean, a flotilla of wooden schooners of Marines and Mardukans encounters a giant predatory fish and loses one of the ships and almost its entire crew. The surviving ships free a pirated supply convoy belonging to a coastal theocracy that practices ritual sacrifice and cannibalism of captured captives, slaves, and even guests. Through all the hardships and battles, the remnants of Bravo Company make their way to the spaceport, but before they even reach it, they receive news of an actual coup in the capital of the empire and the announcement of Prince Roger and all those accompanying him as the perpetrators of the death of his closest relatives, the direct heirs to the throne. Taking the spaceport almost without a fight, the Marines and their allies then, with huge losses, capture an off-schedule “cargo ship” in orbit, which turned out to be a disguised landing ship of the holy men, competing in space with the Empire of Man.