Ikta and crew are assigned to a garrison in the far northern region of the empire: a lonely, desolate place at the foot of a massive mountain range. The garrison staff are petty and corrupt, and don't like it when Ikta slacks off and defies orders. But when they try to throw him in the garrison prison, he stumbles across a secret that they want desperately to keep hidden.

Ikta and his soldiers are sent to deliver supplies to the struggling imperial armies as the war continues. Unused to fighting in the high mountains, and led by incompetent leaders the imperial soldiers suffer heavy casualties. Ikta devises a brilliant stratagem to retake an enemy fortress, but when a messenger begs him for help in saving his allies, he's forced to choose between risking his own soldiers life, and bringing another imperial force to certain doom.