Energy is the foundation of a Global economy and energy equals political and social power. While mankind receives a per capita ration of power if more is needed it must be won from the AI's that control the power source through competition in Full Immersion Realities. The AI's deliberately designed the Full Immersion Technology to be usable by those with a specific genetic trait present in only three percent of the population. Those that can use the technology are called Travelers and while they are considered a 'privileged' social class they are controlled by the enormous 'educational' debt they acquire learning to use the technology.

Robert Karlyle was just another Texas farm boy until his eighteenth birthday when he was discovered to have the genetic trait required to be a Traveler. Four days of training and a twenty million credit educational debt later the govenment determines he is best suited for a planetary battle Reality called Mecc 12 where ten to one hundred ton walking robots rule the futuristic battlefield. The future may look bleak but Roberts great-grandfather bought the family farm with his earning from Traveling so Robert knows it can be done. One thing that every farmer knows is that a good harvest takes time and a lot of hard work, but first you have to plant a seed.