The words of a construct, an artificial mind, ring truer than ever. Humanity has angered a powerful foe and cannot weather the growing storm. The Toralii are coming. But instead of warships, the Toralii Alliance send an ambassador to the Sol system. The message it brings is a startling, marked departure from all other contact with the species... and one that heralds a shift in the balance of power in the Milky Way, the most significant in hundreds of years. The Toralii face a larger threat. A something their ships cannot catch, their weapons cannot touch and gravimetric interference cannot stop. The Toralii, for the first time in centuries, know the crushing grip of fear. The TFR Beijing must face an old enemy, an enemy who has not been idle; an imperfect being whose ambition seems matched only by his capabilities. Liao's child is born into an era of war and fear, and the spectre of oblivion looms over all mankind.