The war rages on, with several starbases, planets and systems already fallen to the Iconians. The information from the Preservers has proven useful in assisting the alliance in reverse engineering some aspects of Iconian technology, and developing defensive technologies against their weaponry. However the Iconians still have one tactical advantage that there is no defence for; Gateway technology.

The Tokyo is ordered to rendezvous with the USS Armitage, USS Broadsword, USS Akagi, USS Graf Zepplin, and USS Ark Royal, Starfleet's Armitage Class Ships for a top secret mission. A new Iconian starbase is nearing completion in the Atarilla system. Intelligence reports show that the base will become a staging point into several key sectors against the alliance, as well as acting a invasion 'hub' for Iconian troops. Reports state that the base not only possesses several iconian gateway portals, but also acts as a hub for existing gateways.

However the base is protected not only be external defences, but it sits deep in the middle of a dense asteroid field making it impossible for any large ship to approach it. Starfleets solution, pull the assets of the fleet and form a new task group, of carriers and starfighters. Their mission, to take out the starbase which no ship can reach.