Hunting for the source of the killer robots terrorizing the Arizona wastes, a team of Desert Rangers stumbles into the town of Darwin’s Village. The people there are weak and getting weaker, dying of a disease born inside the research facility that employs them all. As the rangers search the facility for a cure, one of them, Ghost, is also looking for other answers. Only days before he awoke in a cloning chamber knowing nothing of his previous life except that he’d worn a ranger’s star and he’d died in Darwin’s Village. But who killed him? And why? And more importantly, can he fill the boots of the man he used to be?

Deep within an ancient bunker, the Desert Rangers uncover the secret to defeating the Base Cochise AI, the crazed computer responsible for spawning the killer robots terrorizing the Arizona wastes. But the secret is hidden under a mountain, and protected by a cult known as the Guardians of the Old Order, who hate everything the rangers stand for. As the Rangers fight the Guardians, Ghost, the clone of a clone of a ranger, fights a battle of his own. Should he continue to help the friends of the man he used to be? Should he sacrifice himself to save humanity? Why bother, when the only person who treats him with any humanity at all might not be entirely human herself?