Alien Invasion

They are coming. The countdown has begun. First visible only as blips on a telescope image, the discovery of objects approaching from Jupiter's orbit immediately sets humanity on edge. NASA doesn't even bother to deny the alien ships' existence. The popular Astral space app (broadcasting from the far side of the moon and accessible by anyone with Internet) has already shown the populace what is coming. So the news has turned from evasion to triage, urging calm and offering the few facts they have: The objects are enormous, perfectly round spheres numbering in the dozens, maybe hundreds. They are on an approach vector for Earth. And they will arrive in six days.

Find the missing. Fear the found. Three months have passed since the aliens' arrival, but little has changed in the skies. Motherships still hover, impervious to attack and communication. Spherical shuttles ferry about with unclear intentions. But the abductions of select humans have ended, and most of those taken have been returned - dazed, incoherent, and prophesying glory or doom, but home where they belong. Still, nine seemingly unconnected people remain missing. Trapped in their besieged bunker outside Vail, Piper, Trevor, Lila, and Heather wait for one. All of this has happened before.... For his entire life, Benjamin Bannister has sought the connections uniting the planet's ancient wonders. And for years he's pursued evidence that extraterrestrial life isn't new to Earth. For years he was dismissed as a fool. Now the spheres have arrived, and Benjamin has found vindication...along with troubling theories. His research facility rests on a paranormal hotspot in Moab, Utah - but Vail, Colorado is where his interests lie. He's sent an emissary to Meyer Dempsey's ranch to find out what makes the Missing Nine so special to the planet's invaders. What news will those nine bring when they return? And what, as the motherships again move like pieces finding positions on a chessboard, will happen next? And...it will all happen again. Vail and Moab, Moab and Vail - two epicenters in the cold alien war. The locations' fates seem somehow intertwined as Earth's clock ticks toward midnight. The roads and communications have been closed, but now it seems that the planet's future might depend on a journey from one to the other, no matter the cost. Humanity must find the value of those who have been taken...or become mere fossil evidence for future archaeologists to puzzle over.

Humanity isn't all they left behind. Two years later, the world lives in fragile peace. But a clandestine search has begun...and a clock has started ticking. Two years after first contact, Astral forces have established their fragile kingdom around the globe. Motherships occupy the cities. Shuttles patrol the lawless outlands. The pacifist class of Astrals known as Titans assist humans in running their alien empire while bloodthirsty Reptar peacekeepers ensure that order is kept. And unseen in the ships above, a third class of visitor calls the shots - the unseen Divinity, worshipped and feared by citizens in equal measure. Meyer Dempsey sits on his plinth as Viceroy of Heaven's Veil, on the old site of Vail, Colorado. As with other Viceroys in the eight other world capitals, humanity's remains revere Meyer almost as a god. But below the surface, both colonies and outlands have begun to crumble with unrest. Until now the rebellion has been quiet. Now desperation bubbles as they learn the Astrals have begun digging for an ancient device buried beneath the glowing blue Apex at Heaven's Veil. But twin truths of the forthcoming alien war (or a possible alien apocalypse) have dawned at Benjamin Bannister's facility in Moab, sending plans into action: The Astrals have lost what they hoped to uncover. And humanity's only chance is to find it first.

What they have lost, we must find. The resistance has nearly been wiped out, its numbers reduced to a scant fraction of what they once were. Meyer has fallen. With hope nearly a memory, something must turn the tide of war. A deadly weapon, known only as Thor's Hammer, brings promise of salvation. Now the scattered remnants of the human race must find the device and recover it before the aliens can discover its location. Because if the rampaging Astral forces beat them to the weapon, the fate of Earth will be sealed. This relentless, pause-resisting tale of colonization and alien empire is the fourth in the Alien Invasion series by masters of story Truant and Platt, authors of The Beam, Robot Proletariat, the Dream Engine series, and many more. Fight for hope. Search for survival.