When Hypron and Oxim heard about the terraformed planet New Day, it sounded like a paradise where they could escape their miserable lives as coal-mining orphans and start an algae-farm afloat sparkling waters. Reality finds them instead penniless and starving atop a mud-sea, unable to breathe the air because of terraforming gone horribly wrong. Isolated by a civil war and plagued by pirates, their opportunities to flee New Day are dwindling. Hypron contracted a neurological disease from the failed terraforming's atmospheric effects and can no longer use his legs. When he discovers his brother and caretaker, Oxim, murdered by sea pirates, he realizes the only way out now is suicide. Soz Valdoria travels the galaxy as a Jugernaut, a lethal assassin with the ability to read minds and a body reinforced by biomodifications. She's come to New World to clean up the corporation's mess and save as many lives as possible. When she stumbles across Hypron, she's astonished to discover he possesses the same mind-reading abilities as her. As Soz and her crew nurse him back from the brink of starvation, she shares an intimate moment with him and recognizes her growing attraction. Later, the same pirates who killed Oxim attack. Soz displays the full force of her terrifying body modifications, single-handedly fending them off. Consumed by rage, Hypron kills for the first time in his life, blasting the Captain who beat his brother to death. After the battle, Soz and Hypron promise to stay by each others' sides. Soz tells Hypron he could receive the same body modifications as her, ensuring he'll once again be able to walk. Together, they flee the dying New Day.