In the future, humanity has mastered interplanetary spaceflight and begun to explore the galaxy. In doing so they encounter an alien race called the Formics, commonly referred to in the series as the "buggers". The discovery of a bugger base in the asteroid Eros leads to war between the species that the humans narrowly win, resulting in the discovery of advanced alien technology, including gravity manipulation. Ostensibly in preparation for another bugger invasion, an International Fleet (I.F.) is established on Earth, which creates a Battle School in Earth's orbit to develop gifted children into commanders capable of defeating the buggers in the next war.