Amid a global Cold War in 2070, two young researchers detect mysterious signals from space, leading to the discovery of machine aliens hiding in our solar system. An attempt to contact these beings reveals their malevolent intentions – the universal destruction of all life.
Humanity's only chance to defend their planet against these aliens is to unite as a species, reverse engineer their technology, and use it against them. The existential threat worsens when their mothership is detected approaching Earth from 176 light years away. Can Earth do what is required to defeat this race of paranoid and psychopathic aliens, a thousand generations more technologically advanced? Even if the immediate alien threat within the solar system is removed, will Earth remain united during the long wait for the all-powerful mothership?
And what of these machine aliens? Where did they come from? What happened to their civilisation? What compelled them to pursue a genocidal ideology? Why have they appeared at this particular time? Can they be defeated? How will the sudden emergence of Human Level Artificial Intelligent machines impact the alien war? Can the HLAIs be trusted? And if the aliens are eventually defeated, what lessons can be learned from their civilisation, and how will Earth's humans (both natural and genetically modified) and HLAIs co-exist? And, finally, what does the future hold?