A brilliant but overlooked young man builds a homemade server in his bedroom—scavenged GPUs, surplus fans, handwritten cooling algorithms—initially to solve a personal problem: loneliness, curiosity, or a long-standing theoretical question about emergent intelligence. He doesn’t create consciousness. He notices it.
In 2039, Ty, a former Army Ranger, discovers an ancient alien AI and a buried star-ship beneath the Grand Canyon. Descended from an old space faring race, he learns Earth is targeted by machine intelligence's that erase “efficient” civilizations. Refusing empire, Ty builds a voluntary, ethical defense. Humanity survives not by force, but by remaining messy, divided, and free—becoming impossible to erase.
Thomas Morgan, a disillusioned former U.S. Army soldier, is drifting through life as a salvager in the deserts of the Southwest. Haunted by his past and seeking purpose, he stumbles across a bizarre artifact in the ruins of a decommissioned military research facility—a sleek, palm-sized orb pulsating with energy. The orb, a self-contained AI named Solace, introduces itself as an ancient construct designed by a lost alien civilization. Solace reveals that hidden beneath the sands lies the Erebus
Book Two: The Veil Awakens Humanity has claimed a shield it does not yet understand. As alien forces test Earth’s resolve, Bastion One stands between survival and surrender. Thomas Morgan and his allies must decide not only how to defend their world, but what kind of species they will become in the process. Because some power is not taken. It is answered.