It's Lucie's birthday, and her birthday treat awaits. But whatever she's expecting, it's not what she’s getting on the colony world of Castus Sigma in the year 3025: ringside seats for the interplanetary Retro Roller Derby – sponsored by Heliacorp, "turning sunlight into gold"!

It's more than just a game, though. For the competitors, it's a matter of life or death – a New Life with Heliacorp, or a living death on Castus Sigma.

Or, on this fateful day, a very actual death. Because there are strange creatures living out on the plain, beyond the colony. Creatures with every reason to want to sabotage the games. Creatures with a grudge.