The Forerunner

Zed is a washed-up MMA fighter when he meets a woman with an impossible claim: aliens will take over the solar system in two years. He dismisses her — until she heals his chronic injuries and reveals she isn't human. There's no stopping the takeover. Humanity will be sent to an already-populated alien planet and must find a way to survive. A few humans are to be sent ahead to prepare the way. They are the Forerunners.

A group of mage martial artists gave Zed a stark choice: indentured servitude or death. They belong to a military sect whose purpose is to kill invaders like Zed and the Earthlings arriving in a year and a half. Their leader spares Zed for unclear reasons, but forces him to steal, destroy, and kill on command. Zed desperately wants to return to the refuge he was building for humanity. He slowly realizes that to escape his captors and save a portion of his species, he may have to sacrifice a part of himself.

Zed escaped the Ever-Fruitful Tree sect and returned to Formenos, where his friends have been building a settlement for the coming humans. With only six months remaining, the pressure mounts as Zed seeks new allies and develops new weapons. When eight billion humans arrive, chaos, starvation, and war follow close behind. Zed and his friends take in as many people as they can — but they must still face the sect that seeks to eradicate every human on the planet, and this time the sect is bringing an army.