“Six days ago, Benito Sandoval, formerly of the Fleet of Human Nations, took possession of the ship the SHN Minerva and led an unsanctioned attack against a human colony on the planet known as Guan-Yu. The SHN Minerva was destroyed in the attack and Sandoval and his crew are presumed dead. All have been charged with high treason. It is believed that there are no survivors of the attack.” –Official statement of the League of Human Nations, dated June 17, 3643 No species has ever stood against the Henth. Hunted to the brink of extinction, the Aireni are fleeing across the galaxy when they stumble across a weapon that can turn the tide, a living weapon with speed, strength, and brutal cleverness: a fragment of humanity on a long-forgotten planet. Believing themselves to be befriended by angels, the tiny tribe is bred, modified, and honed in their preparation for an encounter with the Henth, a force they know only as the Great Evil. When the human fleet discovers what has been done, they send Admiral Benito Sandoval to recover the experiments for use in humanity’s wars. Instead, horrified by the desecration of his species, he launches an attack on the colony in an attempt to destroy it. The human fleet arrives too late, finding only rubble—and the cryptic warning of the lone Aireni survivor. As humanity searches the stars for the Henth, they leave the ruined colony behind them. But the tribe is not dead, the weapon not destroyed. What has been left behind is a race of super-soldiers, endowed not only with speed and strength, but a fanatical belief in the power of the angels that brought both friendship and destruction. They have survived. They have hidden. And they know who their enemies are.