Newly promoted to captain, Dan Lenson's first glimpse of his command is of a ship literally high and dry. The USS Savo Island, which carries a classified, never-before-deployed missile defense system, has run aground on an exposed sandbar off Naples. Captain Lenson has to relieve the ship's disgraced skipper and deploy on a secret mission -- Operation Stellar Shield -- which will take his ship and crew into the dangerous waters bordering the Middle East.