paulkellis
Synopsis
Technology from the lost Mnoren Empire could save a race, or destroy it!
Twenty-five years ago, Captain Thomas Swift of the Strategic Space Command witnessed the aftermath of Epsilon Eridani Massacre; Terran Sphere colonists slaughtered by the rabidly xenophobic Scorpio Tetrarchy. The planet was scorched and the atmosphere burned off in order to claim a Mnoren technology cache that was not there.
Two weeks later, the infuriated Terran Sphere responded by literally battering a Scorpio-held planet to pieces. But, the intelligence was incomplete, for that planet had been the Scorpio homeworld, the only place in the known universe where the hivemind could reproduce. The Tetrarchy's death throes wound up costing Swift his wife and only child.
Now, humanity chafes under the supervision of the Orr, the self-appointed inheritors of the Mnoren Empire and chief among the Known Races. The Orr limit the Sphere's access to advanced technologies for the rash humans "own good". The SSC views the Orr as weak and indecisive. They order Swift to procure advanced tech, regardless of cost and create a new type of weapon; one to throw off the yoke of the Orr.
As he completes the weapon, Swift uncovers something unexpected and profoundly unsettling: there is a new player in the great black of space. One that is cunning, elusive, better armed and armored. One that appears to violently detest humanity. One that has proven it knows the location of Earth and is unafraid to destroy humanity's cradle.
One that he cannot stop.
