After a short and bloody war on foreign soil, the Expeditionary Army of Ashkent is preparing to return home. Captain Jon Forge and his company, however, are assigned one more task - to oversee a workforce of enslaved Bantusai tribesmen as rebuild a remote and long-abandoned bridge. With construction already underway, a band of fleeing trappers brings news of a fast-approaching barbarian horde and the Captain quickly realises that his de facto commander, the devious Duke Burns, has sent him and his men into a deadly trap.