Prologue

Time has passed.

Long gone are the days when humans thought they were the only intelligent life in the universe, so too are the days when First Earth teamed with life. All have passed as new discoveries are made and the old promises are forgotten to pave the way for progress…such as the Kelada Corporation.

A single family, the Kelada, ran the giant military and energy manufacturing empire as if it truly were an empire. At first, they fought to preserve and provide the much-needed resources to the population of NeoEarth, not wishing another disastrous exhaustion of natural resources that had befallen First Earth over two thousand years prior. The solution had been a simple one; find an energy source capable of supporting an exponentially growing population that would not be exhausted. It was simple, yet far too complex for anyone to have seen the eventual disastrous outcome in the plan’s infancy.

The completion of craft capable of normal air flight and deep space flight, machines called aerocraft, made it possible for the Kelada Corporation to launch explorations into the desolate reaches of space and the outer rim, to the surfaces of any planets found. What they discovered was extraordinary, countless habitable worlds with intelligent and advanced beings already flourishing upon them and sources of energy and resources ready to be used. This, however, was not enough for the needs expressed by the desperate plea for more.

Reaching farther than anyone in any system had yet to explore, the Kelada found one planet on the outer rim that no one had yet known existed. It was the planet that was essentially the solution to the growing resource problem. Undahi was virtually overflowing with fertile grounds and natural energy, such so that even the native people, the Wertoni and Haturi had developed to produce and manipulate its almost electrical ebb and flow.

Harvesting the energy of Undahi and its people like a leach with gigantic transfer stations dubbed as “Strata Stations” like a simple battery, the Kelada processed and made it into a universal commodity. However, this, like every battery, had only so much to give, and the planet's life force was being malevolently drained by the constant exploitation. Though aware of the harmful effects, the Kelada continued to function without remorse…until the Wertoni started to fight back in a war that would last over twenty years.

Soon after riding the wild tidal wave of events that created heroes of a group of rebels and misfits whose checkered pasts were marked by disappointment and tragedy, it landed them directly in the tumultuous aftermath of that war. Each one will struggle to forge a new future while coming to terms with their pasts, discovering in the process that control is only an illusion and the irony of fate is always cruel....