For seventy five years the people of Earth have been migrating to new colonies among the stars. Earth is dying, killed by greed and waste. And each year that passes, those who remain get a little more desperate. The scarcity of the world’s remaining resources drives every decision on Earth, and in space.
Humanity mustn’t make the same mistakes on its new worlds. This time, growth must be gradual, and sustainable; the native populations must be accommodated, not conquered. This time there are no more worlds to waste, no abundance to squander. This time we have to get it right.
Colonization is managed by Earth Union’s Department 6C, and the Fallschirmjäger, aka “the FJ,†is the Department’s military arm. They are the Earth Union’s elite Special Forces, whose task is to analyze new worlds, build strong ties with the natives, and regulate the growth of the colonies – by persuasion and reason, if possible…but by force if necessary.
Captain Dieter Chen is the leader of FJ One, the first, the best unit in Department 6C. And in all his years of contact with other worlds and other civilizations, Humanity is still the most technologically advanced species out there.
Until now.
The Visitors come bearing gifts – the ability to clean our soiled world, restore our air and water and food supplies, cure disease and bring new hope. But his boss, the formidable Mrs. Director Huizhong McAllister, is suspicious. Are the Visitors really that magical, hoped-for “post-scarcity culture†that’s come to solve all our problems?
Or have Earth’s problems just become much, much worse?