ABOUT THE EXODUS PROTOCOL In Beyond the Rift, the Jinn, a Type IV Alien civilization from the Andromeda Galaxy that invaded the Milky Way, was defeated and driven off by the Great Lyrian Empire, but not without a severe cost. The Lyrians had seen so many worlds destroyed, and such chaos visited upon the central core region, that they soured on their stewardship of this galaxy, packed up, and decided to leave their holdings in the Milky Way and go elsewhere. This left all the surviving minor races on their own, to thrive or perish as they might. Humanity was one minor race the Lyrians had great faith in, and thus far Humans expanded to found 80 other colonies within 12 parsecs of Earth and prevailed over the Colony Virus, the Kroth, the Fendi, the Kiring, and the Khel. Yet some of those victories had help from the Lyrians, and now they were gone. Then, while making a long range recon to the distant future in the year 2300, Fedorov and Karpov learn that the Jinn will return to the Milky Way in the year 2297. Being far too advanced as a Type IV civilization, Karpov realizes that there can be no military solution to the return of the Jinn, and shifts forward in time to discover the colonies and the Earth itself are destroyed, and Humanity is exterminated. In the next volume, Sanctuary, they discovered what had triggered the wrath of the Jinn, and launched a plan to stop the chain reaction of events that led to the their attack. Instead, with the help of Gates and here telepathy, they were able to communicate with the Jinn to negotiate a tentative peace with this dangerous Arachnid race. That saved the Earth and Colonies, but the peace came with a hard price-servitude and subjugation by the Jinn. Realizing they have very little time before the Jinn would occupy the Earth, another plan was hatched, the Exodus Protocol. Should this peace ever fail, Earth must save some segment of the Human population to prevent extinction at the hands, or the claws of the Jinn. They had to flee, just as the Centaurid Saurians did, to save a small seed of Humanity before the Jinn arrived on Earth. 250,000 people were selected to join the Exodus Protocol, and they would board 250 starships and flee along the newly discovered Startide Epsilon to parts unknown. The protocol called for the expedition to split into three groups to increase the chance that at least one would survive. This is the story of how the Exodus Protocol is planned, organized and launched in the year 2250, a full 47 years before the known first arrival time of the Jinn in 2297. The story will join Group Orion of the protocol, led by Karpov and Fedorov. Their mission? Find a place to hide 100,000 souls and 130 starships in the Orion Nebula and the Dark Orion Molecular Clouds beyond. Along the way they will explore three star systems, uncover an interstellar war, make some amazing discoveries, and Fedorov also makes a ghastly finding that stands as an omen concerning his own personal fate. With the Jinn approaching, they must now struggle to find a new world to seed their colony. In the end, they find they must fall back on a star system with one of the few planets in the region known to be capable of supporting Human life. Yet in doing so, they find other life already exists there in great abundance, and it wants no visitors.