In a remote star system, a prison transport ship is seized from the inside when its inmates overpower the guards—but the uprising leaves the ship's controls badly damaged and the vessel drifting without direction. After days adrift, the surviving criminals realize their only chance is to lure a military vessel close using a distress signal and take it by force. The collision between the two ships kills most aboard; eight survivors—four from each vessel—discover that only a single escape pod remains intact. They fight for it.