This is the first fiction written for the Shadowforce Archer Ultimates series (but not the first chronologically). The characters were all designed after a post on the original Spycraft message board that posed the question: "If you were going to play a 20th level character for a game set in the Shadowforce Archer universe, going up against the likes of Eva Kraus and the major villains of that setting, what would you play?" Characters were designed using Spycraft 1.0 rules and Living Spycraft guidelines.

Point of fact, the vast majority of the characters were not designed as combat-heavy characters. As an interesting side note, there were very few people who would have chosen to play psions. This is worth mentioning because there were several detractors of Spycraft and Shadowforce Archer who were concerned that psions would overshadow the setting and be too powerful. It is also worthy to note that many of those detractors had never played the game or owned the books.

The Shadowforce Archer Ultimates series was originally intended to be several unrelated vingettes, but after Equinox (the author of the story) began writing, the story began to take a life of its own. This fiction spawned several other fictions and inspired many other posters to write stories of their own - sometimes using characters who appeared in the fiction, and sometimes using entirely new characters. There are currently no set 'rules' as to writing in the Ulti-verse, as it is sometimes called, except that authors are careful not to contradict any character backgrounds or previously established fiction. In fact, many authors leave 'throwaway lines' in their fiction with the intent of going back to revisit those lines, or in the hopes that someone else will.