In the far future, extraterrestrials wage war on Earth. Despite the aliens’ comparative strength, mankind’s tenacity fascinates one extraterrestrial soldier to the point of absolute endearment.

When a posthuman 'hardshell' robot finds an injured biological human who has committed war crimes against hardshells, the hardshell's programming will not allow it to let the human come to harm, so it must use all the resources it has to find a way to bring this war criminal to justice.