They were born to the hive, but an invasion changed them forever. Their ancestors tried their hand at revolution and failed. Exiled to a world that teems with hostile life, burned by radiation from a small red sun, infighting caused their colony to collapse, leaving them bound in a dark age, surrounded by flora designed to consume everything it can. Four thousand years later, the former penal colony has been long forgotten. It has struggled its way back to industry, and only two civilizations remain - one, a mercantile theocracy, an experiment in controlled chaos, and the other, a vast hive mind, both striving for the scarce resources that had been left behind. In the midst of this, two boys are seperated by the millenia-old war and raised on either side of the border. They are returned to their home to spy on one another. Their journey will accidently open the gateway to the past and the stars beyond.