Publisher's Synopsis
After an atomic detonation renders almost the whole of the Middle East a barren wasteland, world leaders decide to pursue peace. The atrocity moves the governments of the world to abandon their weapons of mass destruction and it isn't long before the people of Earth start to focus their energies on projects that will ultimately prove beneficial to the species as a whole. Before this era of peace can be realized however, the resistant, violent members of society must choose: Embrace peace or leave Earth forever. Those who try and stay behind and live violently on Earth are forcibly exiled to space... 300 years pass, and mankind has made great strides in technology. War on Earth is unknown, and even conflict between individuals becomes rare. Mankind has outgrown its need for violence, and the people of Earth have entered into a new, enlightened age. A renaissance with no need for guns or war. What the Earthlings couldn't have anticipated was that they might someday encounter a threat from beyond their world. When a major city is devastated by an alien force from the galaxy's edge, the planet's population finds itself at the mercy of a new and insidious foe. Bereft of weapons and military forces, the Earthlings cannot defend themselves. World peace ain't all it's cracked up to be. The Earthlings have one hope however, and it lies with the star-flung descendents of those exiled to cold space centuries prior. The culture of the nomadic space-farers retains the traditions of human violence. Living in space, relegated to the periphery of human affairs, the space-born have weathered the demands of space over generations and used their resources to develop powerful weapons. The exiled are called upon to save Earth from the alien menace. The space-born are not an organized unit-- like pirates spread out across a vast sea of stars, they are fragmented and tribal. Some among them would meet news of Earth's invasion with indifference, others with glee. When Earth comes calling, only one man heeds the call. His name is Faust, and his command is the Battlecruiser Methuselah.
