The Obsidian Front

Military Scifi

by John Nairn

In 2225, an alien fleet arrives at Earth - "The People," an emotionless coalition of three species executing a 40-year sublight mission to preemptively exterminate humanity as a potential peer competitor. But humans are not the warriors the aliens expected. They are chaos - fractious, inventive, impossible to control, and transformed by every attempt to destroy them. Over four series spanning 125 years (32 books total), humanity fractures, unites, transforms itself through forbidden technologies, and finally takes the war to the alien homeworld. The self-fulfilling prophecy is complete: by trying to prevent humans from becoming a threat, the aliens created exactly what they feared - a bio-AI-replicant hybrid civilization unrecognizable from the humanity of 2125. SERIES ARC: Series 1 (TheFracture 2225-2232): Earth, Mars, and the Outer Rim drift toward civil war while an alien fleet approaches undetected. Series 2 (TheArrival 2232-2240): The People arrive mid-civil war. Three human factions must cooperate or die. Series 3 (TheConvergence 2240-2248): Desperate measures - personality duplication, AI-human fusion. Victory at the cost of transformation. Series 4 (TheReckoning 2248-2256): Humanity takes the war to the alien homeworld. Both species transformed forever. THREE HUMAN FACTIONS: Earth Coalition (The Cradle, 8B): Traditional, hierarchical, entitled. Deep gravity well - cannot evacuate. Mars Confederacy (The Forge, 2B): Innovative, resentful, pragmatic. Key tension: defend Earth or let it die? Outer Rim Synthesis (The Changed, 500M scattered): Post-human, individualistic, technologically extreme. Homo Stellaris - cybernetic/genetic mods + AI neural integration. THE ALIEN THREAT - THE PEOPLE: Nature: Emotionless, efficient, methodical - like a force of nature. Government: Military dictatorship with racist ideology. Philosophy: Pre-emptive extermination of potential peer competitors. Weakness: Cannot adapt, rigid doctrine. Internal Conflict: Reformers oppose dictatorship, help humans in Series 4. CENTRAL THEMES: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Aliens attacked to prevent humans becoming a threat. War transformed humans into exactly that threat. Cost of Survival: Every tactical gain has personal cost. Victory that destroys what you fought for. Identity and Consciousness: When you copy your mind into a ship, which one is you? Adaptation vs. Tradition: Aliens = rigid tradition. Humans = chaotic adaptation. NORTH STAR QUESTION: "When humanity becomes unrecognizable to survive extinction - has it won or lost?" The Black universe explores this question across 32 books and 125 years, showing that survival always has a price, victory transforms the victor, and the line between monster and hero is drawn in perspective, not biology.