In the future, humanity is preparing to launch an attack on the homeworld of an alien race, called the Formics, that had attacked Earth and killed millions. The Formic invasion was stopped by Mazer Rackham, who crashed his F-35 Lightning II into a Formic queen ship at the cost of his life. Over the course of 50 years, gifted children are trained by the International Fleet to become commanders of a new fleet for this counterattack.