Ryland Hauke, the youngest son of the Crimson Hawk Banner Company of mecenaries, is summoned home from the Imperial Academy to treachery and death.  His family is dead, his family's former retainers want him to join them in the grave. But Ryland has a plan- he's going to rebuild his family mercenary company step by step. Armed with the vast and ancient knowledge of the Imperial archives and his encylopedic memory, Ryland plans to not just pay his enemies back, but show them what it really means to go to war with a Hauke.