A new, potentially devastating threat to America's safety looms large—and Operation Rampart has been executed to combat it. A controversial test base located in Southern California and run by Major Jason Richter and his high-tech special operations unit TALON, it is the last line of defense against the firestorm of violence, bloodshed, and terror that is rapidly approaching from the south. But an even greater force might be behind the impending catastrophe: a powerful nemesis fanatically dedicated to vengeance . . . and annihilation.