Phillip Nolte

The Callisto Catacombs Phillip Nolte

Mankind has recently been presented with an unprecedented opportunity - an invitation to join the Grand Amalgamation of Galactic Civilizations, an interstellar organization representing over five-hundred different intelligent species... The downside? Failure to achieve citizenship places Mankind at the mercy of the Custodians, a brutal and ruthless Amalgamation archrival, who've already enslaved over a hundred "undesirable" species... Citizenship requirements are simple: Humanity needs to establish a peaceful relationship with their closest galactic neighbors, the Hordea, a peculiar race of intelligent plants, and they have to put a stop to the endless internal wars which have plagued the species since inception... On the surface, things seem to have gotten off to a good start. The Human race is about to establish formal diplomatic ties with their Hordean neighbors, and a general cease fire has taken effect throughout all of Human space... Behind the scenes, however, all is not well... Peace negotiations among the various Human governments continue to teeter precariously on the edge of failure... Upon arrival in Hordean space, the Human diplomatic team is greeted by a nasty surprise... The government of New Belgrade, in Soviet space, has been infiltrated by Custodians. With the assistance of greedy, traitorous Humans, the foul creatures are planning a takeover... Could the Belgrade takeover mark the beginning of an all-out war the Amalgamation itself?To complicate matters further, recent visions and ancient legends hint that another Archeon artifact, of unknown purpose but larger than any ever found, awaits discovery in the ravaged and lawless Sol system...