Humanityhas reached for the stars, pushing far beyond the solar system in adesperate search for a second home. Colonies on Mars and nearby moonsthrive, but every expedition to distant worlds ends in failure:hostile environments, deadly microbes, incompatible ecosystems, oralien species that react unpredictably to human intrusion. Asexploration fleets journey ever deeper into space, tension escalateswith each encounter, revealing a species that is bold, ambitious, anddangerous in its own right.

Back home, fear grows within human command. What if a unifiedalien force retaliates? Discussions of planetary defense andprotection intensify, leading to massive engineering projectsdesigned to safeguard Earth, Mars, and the outer colonies. Unknown tohumans, some of their supposed allies work quietly behind the scenes,guiding the construction of systems far beyond human comprehension.

As the network grows, so does uncertainty. Glitches appear,strange behaviors at the edges of the solar system are reported, andthe line between safety and something far more ominous begins toblur. Humanity must confront its own vulnerability, its limitations,and the unpredictable nature of the universe it seeks to conquer. Howfar can human ingenuity go before the cosmos pushes back?