Anguilar have been defeated with the destruction of their stronghold moon-sized starship. Those that were saved, mostly women and children, plus the military in orbiting spaceships were directed to the planet Copperell. There they settled but under conditions spelled out by Charlie Travers. The Copperell people were to be freed from slavery and paid a wage if they decided to stay. This was their home planet after all. But, those that didn’t want to stay could go to Waypoint and settle there. Charlie assumed the Anguilar would abide by these rules or else the war would start up again. He had left Danaan and Von-To as the defacto leaders of the remaining Anguilar and they were trying to set up a new governing system.
But, at the end of the last book, you’ll remember Charlie and company got a call from the far distant space of Fillios. They had sent a single message requesting help. Charlie couldn’t understand why they would need his help. The last time he went there, he had seen a system that was loaded to the gills with military starships and defensive platforms. Even their moon had military facilities designed to protect their home planet. He had ask if they could spare what appeared to be a wealth of military might for his rebellion against the Anguilar. They had turned him down with a sharp and definitive, “No!”.
Yet, there was one that did help Charlie. She was Princess Ursula and she had shown Charlie how to find some very ancient starships that were stored long ago in a secret and hidden place. Charlie and his people found those starships and they did a great deal in helping him fight the Anguilar, but that was the only help the Fillios gave Charlie. They wanted to be left alone and not be bothered.
Well, now something had happened and they were asking for help. Charlie had a tough time convincing Laranna, Gib and Chuck of the need to go and find out what was going on out there. What they found was almost beyond comprehension. The home planet of the Fillios was completely blackened. Nothing was now living on what once was a thriving colorful, world full of live. Now it was a blackened ball! How could this have been done? What kind of weapons did the Zha’-Rath, as the message called them, have that could completely devastate an entire planet. They had done the same to the moon. All the orbital platforms were now junk as well as all the starships that orbited the planet. Nothing was alive in this entire system.
Except they did find one single escape capsule. It was weakly sending out a beacon but it was slowly losing power and whomever was aboard was soon going to be dead. They brought the capsule aboard and immediately sent the person inside to medical. Once at medical, she was placed in a med pod hoping they could save her life. Charlie went to medical to see if he could talk to the person and find out just what had happened. He was shocked to find out that the person was Princess Ursula. She was dying and there was nothing they could do about it. She did have just enough energy to tell Charlie that the Zha’-Rath had done this destruction and they would be coming to his galaxy soon. She said he had to stop them, but didn’t know how. The Zha’-Rath had made no demands of the Fillios, just destroyed everything.
So Charlie and his small fleet headed back to their home galaxy and then to Earth. He wasn’t very happy about having to tell Earth’s government of another enemy after just ending the war with the Anguilar. Still, he knew that Earth wasn’t safe considering how powerful the Fillios had been and there was nothing left of them. So, he set up a meeting of all the members of this new alliance which had no name yet, telling them they needed to come under the guise of creating such a government when he really had to tell them they had another enemy!
Charlie has learned that the Zha’=Rath travel in moon-sized starships that seem to have no means of propulsion. He’s seen the results of their weapons, but he can’t imagine how any weapon could exist. He’s soon going to find out. There was one faction of his rebellion that were late to the meeting on Earth. So, Charlie and his group traveled to their home planet to find out why they hadn’t attended. He found out that the Zha’-Rath had arrived and that planet and its species no longer existed! Yet, again, they found a single escape capsule containing a single small boy. He had a story to tell Charlie and something else.
So, this story will continue with a new enemy. We’ll find out more in the next book, “Exiles of the Void”, now available on Amazon.