Gene Starwind and his eleven-year-old partner Jim Hawking scrape by on odd jobs until a bodyguard contract from an outlaw calling herself "Hot Ice" Hilda drops them into the middle of her feud with the Kei pirates. Hilda leaves them the prototype starship Outlaw Star and its bio-android navigator Melfina, and with the blade-for-hire Twilight Suzuka rounding out the crew, Gene takes on bounty work and rival outlaws across the galaxy while chasing down what Melfina's missing past has to do with his new ship. This manga is the original source material behind the Outlaw Star anime.