Sky Command fighter pilot Hector Crossman is impulsive, dedicated and determined, and he doesn't believe in leaving anyone behind. So when he disobeys orders to locate a missing lifeboat, he is shocked to be dismissed from his squadron, the only home he has known for the last seven years.
Transferred to a regional replacement pool, Hector waits, along with other forgotten pilots, for a new squadron. When war breaks out in a distant star system, Hector is sent to the front.
At the front Hector makes new friends and falls in love with Lisa Mauros, an intelligent and caring young Search and Rescue pilot. Yet not everything goes well for Hector. His superiors dislike and distrust him. And another pilot in his squadron also loves Lisa; he will do almost anything to keep them apart. Then there is the war itself, against an alien race that hates humanity and desires its destruction.
While flying cover for a downed pilot Hector witnesses an alien atrocity against a helpless human prisoner that propels him over the edge into darkness. He realizes that any of his friends can suffer the same fate. To protect them he seeks to slay every alien he encounters, whether in the sky or on the ground. Yet his darkness drives him away from everyone that he loves.
Eventually, Hector finds himself in a battle where he must decide between defending encircled soldiers on the ground from advancing aliens or flying to his friends' assistance as they fight against overwhelming odds in the sky. Who will he leave behind so that others might survive?