Andromeda is orbiting the planet Samsarra, where Pyrians have dropped a number of "atmosphere generators", which are "pyroforming" the planet, making it inhospitable to the current Commonwealth colonists. Knowing they are likely to be drawn into conflict with the Pyrians, Dylan orders Andromeda to launch missiles, destroying the generators, and sends a courier to High Guard command. Before the Commonwealth reinforcements arrive, however, a Pyrian fleet emerges from slipstream.

Trance thinks that the Pyrians are somehow testing them, by attacking an unarmed world.

The Pyrian fleet includes two dropships, carrying more atmosphere generators, which leads Dylan to wonder how they knew they would be necessary. He intends to try to negotiate with the Pyrians, but is not counting on the negotiations to be successful.

Beka briefs the slipfighter pilots from the crew, in preparation for combat. She is distinctly uncomfortable with the military protocol.

The Pyrians attack the Andromeda with AG mass packets, slowing her down. Dylan returns fire, then orders Beka to take them to cover behind Samsarra's largest moon.

The Pyrians contact the Andromeda, but the image on the screen is not a Pyrian, it is a humanoid woman. Dylan postulates that it may be a computer projection, to make communication easier. The woman says that the Pyrians "will not be deterred".

Trance says that she feels sick, and Dylan dismisses her from the Command Deck, but sends Tyr to find out what is wrong with her. He finds Trance in the corridor, and asks why she is not headed towards the med deck. She says that everything she needs is on the Maru. He is clearly dubious about her illness, and asks her about her symptoms. Trance says that he cannot force her to tell him anything, but he insists that if he needs to, he will try. Trance leaves to "be with her plants".

The slipfighter squadron launches, with Beka in the lead, to blockade the planet. They engage the Pyrian torchships. In the course of the engagement, the Pyrians launch neutron bombs, which will only kill living things, at the planet. Dylan decides that the colonists must be evacuated, and he will try to maintain engagement long enough to make this possible.

Harper has managed to clear the mass packets off of Rommie's hull, but the torchships are, once again, moving to engage the Andromeda. Dylan recalls the fighters, but in the course of the combat, one of them is destroyed. Beka is a little shaken by losing a person under her command.

With the evacuation 83% complete, the High Guard battle group arrives, but there is one medical transport still on the ground that cannot launch, because of technical problems. Beka, just returning from her fighter mission, volunteers to take the Maru on a rescue mission, but Tyr objects. He notes that she is tired from her fighter mission, and needs to rest for the next one, so he will take the Maru. He does so, with Trance still aboard.

The Commonwealth fleet engages the Pyrians as the Maru descends to Samsarra.

Tyr is piloting the Maru, but Trance seems rather distracted. Tyr is very frustrated by this. They manage to get close enough to the crippled transport and capture it with the bucky cables, but the Pyrians hit the Maru with more AG mass packets. They push the engines to compensate, get the transport pointed at the nearest slip point, cut the bucky cables, and let inertia carry it to safety. With the mission complete, Tyr chews out Trance, telling her to "get a grip".

The High Guard fleet has managed to corral the Pyrians, and Dylan states that they will drive them away from Samsarra forever.

When the Maru returns to the Andromeda, Rommie greets Tyr, informing him that their courier returned with a package for him. It contains seeds of the Dragonia Vine, which was Drago Musevini's first genetic engineering success, and was thought to be extinct. It is a plant with lush flowers with an intoxicating scent, but it strangles anything that gets close to it. Tyr explains that this is an expression of a philosophy – that the universe is a beautiful place, but it wants to kill you. Tyr does not know, or does not say, who sent the seeds.

Beka checks in on Trance in the Maru. Trance is still not feeling well, but coaxes Beka into admitting that she is feeling unsure of her role, since she was leading the slipfighters while Tyr took her ship on a rescue mission. Trance reassures her that, soon, the universe will start to make sense again.

Dylan orders the Pyrians to withdraw immediately, but does not expect them to comply. He explains the battle tactics to his crew. The fighters will engage and draw off the torchships, while a group of warships engage the dropships' cruiser escorts. Once the cruisers are engaged, the main element of the fleet will attack and destroy the main objective – the dropships.

The battle goes according to plan, but immediately after the dropships are destroyed, more Pyrian ships arrive, inflicting heavy damage on the High Guard fleet. As there were no slip events to herald their arrival, Andromeda concludes that they must have been hidden on the far side of the sun. Dylan realizes he has walked into a trap, and Rommie starts to think that the coincidences are getting to be too great.

Another warning message arrives from the Pyrians. Dylan orders the fleet to withdraw to the outer system and regroup. He feels he let the fleet down by not being ready for this.

Rommie and Dylan conclude that the Pyrians seem to have advance knowledge of what the High Guard fleet is going to do, as if someone is giving them information. Rommie analyzes the communications traffic, and finds something in the ultrasonic range, going out from the Andromeda, but omnidirectionally, so she cannot be sure who it is being sent to. Tyr, however, has a theory about who may be sending it.

A High Guard courier arrives, informing Dylan that the Pyrians are massing fleets throughout the galaxies. It appears that they are preparing for war.

Tyr confronts Trance, and accuses her of sending messages to the Pyrians. Trance tells him that she is not sending the messages to the Pyrians, but to her own people. Tyr assumes she failed to contact them, but Trance tells him that it is worse: She succeeded, but they did not tell her what she hoped to hear.

Rommie informs Dylan that the Sabra fleet has withdrawn to defend their own planets, citing an obscure clause in the mutual defense pact. Dylan is upset by this. Rommie informs him that, by her analysis, they can no longer win this engagement. Dylan is preparing to order the fleet to withdraw and regroup at Sinti, when Tyr arrives on the Command Deck and tells him that he might want to reconsider this, based on what Trance has told him.

Trance tells Dylan that they cannot afford to withdraw and lose to the Pyrians. She tells him that the woman with the Pyrians is one of her own people, and her people have come to the conclusion that the Commonwealth cannot stop the Magog, but the Pyrians can.

Dylan is upset about being used as a "game piece", but orders the fleet back into the fight. Tyr does not like the odds, but Dylan tells him that sometimes victory is simply a matter of denying your opponent his objective.

Beka and the fighter wing launch and engage the Pyrians, punching a whole in their line. The fleet drives through this hole towards the planet. Dylan issues an ultimatum to the Pyrians, informing them that this is their last chance to resolve the matter peacefully. There is no response. Dylan orders an attack on Samsarra, destroying the planet.

The woman with the Pyrians opens communications, and informs Dylan that they are willing to open negotiations on the status of disputed worlds.

Dylan observes that they have let the Pyrians know that they are willing to die fighting.

Beka talks with one of the fighter pilots, who was a friend of the one who was killed in action. She assures him that he did a good job. He asks her if it ever gets easier to lose people. Beka responds, "I hope not."

Tyr plants his Dragonia vine.

Dylan confronts Trance in the Maru, where she has a new plant – a climbing fern from Samsarra. Dylan observes that they made a big sacrifice for the victory, and Trance tells him that he will be doing more of that in the future. Dylan says that he realizes that this is bigger than the Commonwealth, bigger than the Magog – it is them vs. the Abyss. He asks Trance to promise him that she will not run away when the big fight comes, because he needs to know he can trust her. Trance seems hurt, and somewhat afraid. She insists that they are on the same team, but Dylan insists that he needs more than that. He says that he will stay and fight, and fight to win.