When mysterious aircraft wreak havoc across Earth’s skies, it is revealed that there are clusters of other planets where humankind resides, distant worlds where the people wield the power of the stars themselves. It is an energy force that can bring about miracles or, as the alien fleet’s ruthless leader displays, unleash horrors beyond imagination.
After experiencing a loss during the onslaught, Colton Samson, an ordinary college student, vows to protect his loved ones at any cost. But to learn the power to do so, he must enlist into the Army of the Universal Throne—a second alien force with its own agenda.
With the revelation of a secret prophecy foretelling humanity’s demise and Colton’s improbable role in preventing it, he embarks alongside a diverse group of friends to the Throne’s capital, the planet of Vintara. There he faces prejudice from supposed allies, lifelike combat simulations that test him to his core, and the looming threat of a universal war. Only by embracing his true potential can Colton hope to secure the safety he seeks, in a universe that views him as nothing more than Forsaken.
A gust blew a group of red, yellow, and green leaves across the road where Colton Samson drove with his windows down. He soaked in the fresh fall breeze as it rustled through his car, enjoying the last bit of warm air before the winter cold rushed into the New England states.
Exhausted from a full day of classes, he narrowly beat the rush hour commute home. That is what, in a stupor, he thought over when the cell phone's vibration in his pocket jolted him back into focus. His dash flashed the name of his best friend, Tommy Wilmont.
“What’s up, man?” he answered.
“What’s going on? You home yet?”
“No, hit a little traffic. People don’t know how to drive.”
Tommy grunted. “I get it. I’m on 95 this morning and see the guy behind me somehow driving with coffee in one hand, a tablet in the other, laughing hysterically while watching something on the stupid thing.”
Colton shook his head as he rounded a corner, almost to his house. “I got stuck behind a guy a few minutes ago, holding a line of us up at a green light so he could get the right selfie to post.”
Tommy chuckled. “What a world.”
“So what’s the deal with tonight?” Colton asked.
His friend yawned. “I don’t know, but I’m not in the mood for anything crazy.”
Colton agreed, considering he had to work in the morning.
“Maybe a small fire in my backyard,” Tommy suggested.
Colton’s stomach grumbled as he turned onto his street. “All right, that sounds good. I’m just pulling in now. Let me eat, shower, and I’ll call you.”
“Will do. Later.”
Colton pulled into his driveway, shut the engine off, grabbed his books, and walked out into the fall air. He lived with his parents in the suburbs, about an hour from New York City. There were six houses on a dead-end street, all surrounded by a long stretch of woods. They lived in a house on the end of the cul-de-sac, the right side of his home facing the deepest stretch of trees. For a small but busy town, they lived in one of the last private and peaceful areas left.
He smiled as he stared into the woods where the leaves were all changing color, one of the many things that made autumn his favorite time of year.
Walking into the house, Colton smelled food cooking. He headed straight for the kitchen, where his mom stood over the stove, work clothes and curly hair in disarray. She smiled as he walked in. He smiled when eyeing the roast in the oven.
“It’ll be ready in a little while,” she said.
He nodded as his dog, Kado, came running down the hallway to say hello. The black lab jumped up, placing both paws on his chest. Colton rubbed the dog’s head and asked, “What’s up, bud? How’s your day going?”
The dog didn’t answer. He only had one thing on his mind: to take Colton to the ground.
After wrestling for a couple of minutes, Colton made for the shower. He soaked under the warm water for a long while, dwelling on term papers and projects, about work at the bookstore in the morning, and about a slab of meat and gravy on a plate. When finished, he headed to the kitchen.
Sometime during the shower, his dad had gotten home. Wearing his usual zippered fleece and khakis, he was already sitting and eating beside Colton’s mom.
“Thanks for waiting,” Colton chided as they both chowed down.
His dad snorted. “Oh yes, because you would be the first to do that.”
Colton made a plate and took the empty seat at the end of the table. As he sat, he felt a familiar weight on his lap and looked down to see Kado grinning up at him. His mom didn’t like the dog begging. So he waited for her to look away when she asked his dad about work and slipped a piece of meat under the table.
“Busy,” his father answered, running his fingers through his graying hair. “I’m still backed up from taking Joe and Mary to New York the other day.” He frowned and looked over to Colton. “Speaking of work, have you figured out what you want to do with your life, Colton?”
That was a favorite question of his. Colton shoved a piece in his mouth and answered in a mumble, “Oh, I’ll figure it out eventually.”
His dad grunted.
Colton shrugged. He worried about it enough. At that moment, he only wanted to focus on the tender and tasty roast.
While he ate, his mom asked about his brother Joe and Joe’s wife, Mary. “So, no luck finding them a place in the city, Rob?”
His dad grunted. “Nothing in their price range.”
As they discussed Joe, Colton finished his food, let Kado lick the plate, and had just risen to put his dish in the sink when his phone rang down the hall. He ran to catch it.
“What’s going on, Tommy?” he answered.
“Not too much. Ace is coming over with the boys in a bit. I guess we’ll have that fire unless something else comes up.
“All right. I’m pretty much ready, so I’ll head over in a few.”
After hanging up, Colton gathered some things before walking down the hall to the living room. His parents sat on the couch watching television. Kado greeted him with a cotton-filled football in his mouth.
“Sorry, pup, I’m heading out. I’ll see you when I get home, okay?”
“Heading out to find your way in life?” Apparently, his dad wasn’t all that focused on the TV.
His mom glanced at her husband before shaking her head.
Colton grabbed the football and chucked it at his father before saying, “I’m going to Tommy’s.”
“Be careful,” his parents said as he walked to the door. “Love you.”
“Love you too, see you later.”
He stepped outside into a star-filled, cloudless sky. A full moon lit up his yard and the street. He walked into the garage and grabbed a few beers out of the fridge there.
Tommy lived close, so it was less than five minutes before Colton pulled into his friend’s driveway. It was a short walk past his colonial style house, into the thick woods, and down a twenty-foot dirt path to the fire pit.
“What’s going on?” Tommy called out as Colton entered the clearing, where a fire was lit.
“What’s up, brother?” he responded. “Where is everyone?”
“On their way.” Tommy grabbed a beer out of the cooler and held it up in offering, the fire’s reflection sparkling in his amber-colored eyes.
Colton refused, showing one of his own.
Tommy put the drink back and began picking at a callus on his dark-brown hands.
Sitting next to his friend, as always, Colton felt small. Tommy was a few inches over six feet, the tallest in their group of friends. And with a broad build from working as a carpenter, he was also the strongest.
Minutes passed while the two listened to the game and talked amongst themselves. They got into a heated discussion over who the best pitcher in the league was when footsteps approached.
Ace Castillo sat to the right of Colton, chiming in, “Definitely Perez, Colt.” He turned his hazel eyes toward Tommy. “Don’t let his stubborn moronicness try to tell you differently, Tom.”
Tommy gave the ‘told-you-so’ look.
“Oh yes, like I’m going to listen to someone who thinks ‘moronic-ness’ is a word,” Colton replied.
Ace laughed, shaking his head of finger-length brown hair.
Charlie Morris, referred to as ‘Morris’ by the group, sat to the right of Ace. His pale white skin stood out in contrast to the dark night, and being short and stocky with a chubbier physique, he looked different from the rest of their tall, leaner-built group of friends.
Behind Ace and Morris came the final two, TJ McPhee and Scotty Dockson. Always the most put together, TJ showed up to the fire in a tucked-in-button-down and khakis, while Scotty’s dirty blond hair was neatly combed and slicked like he was about to go to the club.
Colton was surprised to see TJ. He lived away at a college in Pennsylvania. Studying to be a lawyer, everyone always assumed he would be the most successful in their group of friends. “What the hell are you doing home?” Colton asked him.
TJ smiled. “It’s too boring back in the city, wanted some fun.”
That caused a chuckle from the entire group, as they believed they lived in one of the more boring towns in the country.
“No, it’s my dad’s birthday,” TJ added. “I’m taking him out to eat tomorrow.”
Colton nodded.
Scotty took a seat before saying, “Oh man, TJ, I forgot to tell you about the fight the other night.”
TJ’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
Morris grunted. “Yeah, Ace wanted to get laid, and we all almost got arrested because of it.”
Ace frowned. “Hey, I did nothing wrong. A cute girl sits next to me and starts talking; I’m going to talk back. It’s not my problem if she overly enjoys the conversation.”
“It was when her boyfriend became pissed,” Colton noted.
“Here we go,” TJ said in anticipation.
“Boyfriend comes over with some big douche bag,” Ace explained, shaking his head. “He asks me if I have a problem. So I point to the girl leaning over in my lap, not knowing she’s his girlfriend, and say, ‘With this beautiful thing next to me, does it look like I have a problem?’”
“Oh no,” TJ chuckled.
“Ace got pushed off of the stool,” Scotty confirmed.
“And kicked while I was on the ground,” Ace added. “Thank goodness for Tommy over here. Before any of these other schleps even moved an inch, Tommy threw one fool over the bar and planted a black eye on the other.”
Tommy shrugged. He wasn’t one for violence, but he also wasn’t one to watch a friend get stomped while down on the ground.
“Nice, Tom,” TJ said. “So you guys bailed?”
“Yeah, we weren’t waiting around for the cops,” Morris answered.
A couple of hours flew by quickly as they talked and caught up. They hadn’t been together like that in a while, and Colton found it pleasant. But even enjoying himself, he couldn’t kill his fatigue or stop thinking about the work he had to do in the coming days. He was about to call it a night and catch up on some sleep when Scotty banged the radio and asked, “What’s wrong with this thing?”
Everyone stopped to listen as Scotty turned the volume up.
The signal kept bouncing in and out. The announcer’s voice fluctuated over the static, “I’m sorry ladies and gentle... difficulties with the... not quite sure... give us a min...”
Colton quit paying attention as he thought the game sucked, anyway.
They all shrugged it off when Scotty again drew them back. “Wait. What are they saying?”
“Crowd seems distrac... can’t see from here... pointing towards the sk... people are panicki... tumbling over... players running off...”
The radio died out, and all they heard was static.
Ace remained frozen with a beer halfway up to his open mouth. Morris looked just as confused, with one eyebrow raised in an arch. TJ scrolled through his phone, looking for what was happening. And Scotty sat on the ground slapping the radio.
Tommy looked worried, making Colton decide to break the silence.
“We should get to a TV.”
Tommy stared at him a moment, lost in thought, before he got up and darted towards his house. The rest all followed suit.
What the hell is going on? Colton wondered.
He stepped out into Tommy’s backyard, where Tommy’s parents stood on the porch in their robes, hugging one another and staring up into the sky. He was about to ask what had happened when he noticed his friend doing the same. He stopped walking and looked up.
At first, he couldn’t tell what was different, but he knew something wasn’t right. The nighttime sky appeared more crowded than usual, as if every star in the universe had become visible.
And then the stars moved.
What started as a few turned into hundreds, then thousands, of red, yellow, and orange lights getting closer in the sky. He stared awestruck as they changed from tiny clusters of shapes to separate visible objects. They reached a point he estimated was a little higher than the altitude of a commercial airplane before stopping. They remained scattered in all directions, sitting still and hovering.
A minute went by as the aircrafts remained unmoving.
Colton was just about to say something when from the corner of his eye, he saw one shoot forward with a speed he wouldn’t have thought possible. Two more followed, but the rest stayed in place.
As the crafts got closer, he noticed they had a triangular look and some sort of flame-like insignia on their side. A blue light at the back seemingly propelled them forward, glowing brighter in intensity the faster the craft moved. They maneuvered straight toward where he stood, leveling off at a couple hundred feet and passing over his head. The only sound he heard was the slight rustling of the wind.
A circular object flew out of the ship that had been the first to head toward the surface. The object hovered in midair for a second before dropping out of sight behind the tree line. A moment later, an explosion vibrated the ground at Colton’s feet.
He flinched and threw his hands up as a massive black cloud rose above the trees.
“What was that?” TJ yelled from behind him.
“A bomb,” Colton responded in a numb tone.
“Where’d it hit?” Morris asked.
Colton knew. He realized it the second the object dropped straight down. There was only one thing besides woods in that direction.
Tommy must have known, too, because he turned around, and his horrified face stared into Colton’s eyes.
Colton could barely mutter, “My street.”