Some choices are easy. For Lio Frye joining the Rhoth Initiative was a no-brainer. But enlisting as a mercenary in an intergalactic conflict spanning millennia poses other questions. Like:

Why are humans so squishy? I'm fighting that? Why did evolution give me crappy stats?

As a fresh recruit, Lio has to train and earn her rank among a coalition of alien species through the Proving. Failure means being shuttled to administration, forced to serve out her contract by pushing paper and bound to a cubicle. But if she succeeds Lio scores an Aether Regulation Apparatus - where users can level and gain abilities beyond human limitations.