Sequel to national bestseller Nebula Award finalist & Compton Crook Award winner Fire with Fire Science fiction adventure on a grand scale When reluctant interstellar diplomat & intelligence operative Caine Riordan returns from humanity’s first encounter with alien races sudden war clouds burst With Earth’s fleet shattered by a sneak attack & its survivors fighting for their lives Caine must rely upon both his first contact & weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy & when the technologically-superior attackers sweep aside the solar system’s last defenses & traitorous corporations invite the invaders to land "security forces" humanity fights back with its best weapons cunning inventiveness & guts But as Earth hurtles towards a final trial by fire that is certain to scar its collective memory Caine discovers that there may also be large & disturbing gaps in that memory Clues point to a much earlier inter-species apocalypse buried in humanity’s own prehistory Which raises a terrifying possibility what if the aliens& invasion of Earth is not one of conquest but preemption? & what if their harrowing memories of a long-past cataclysmic war makes them willing to do anything to keep it from reigniting? Even if that means exterminating the human race