The end of the world is just the beginning. Earth has suffered a devastating attack by an unknown force of extraterrestrial origin, wiping out a civilization ten thousand years in the making in one day. Who are they, and why have they come? The survivors include Char Nelson and her team of powered combat armor 'Jockeys,' Nathan Bradley, a soldier who fights at the side of an alien of our own making and Arlan Moncrieffe, and analyst that must determine what our attackers want... and how to stop them. Together they will fight a guerrilla war against their technologically superior adversaries in the vain hope of driving them off before they can strip the world of life. But they may be doomed to fail unless they can find a way to strike directly against the aliens, unassailable in their fortress-mothership orbiting high above the earth.