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"On his sixteenth birthday, the AEtherian Rex Himmel learns that he is special--but no one will tell him why. Ordered by AEtheria's leader to join the militaristic AEtherian Cover Force, Rex soon finds himself involved in an investigation of several mysterious, frozen Cthonian bodies that have been discovered in AEtheria. Just as his team finds a reason for the bodies' appearance, AEtheria's power plant is destroyed in a violent attack from below"--Provided by publisher.

"Having escaped AEtheria, Aral and Rex take refuge on Cthonia near the impact site of AEtheria's power plant. At the same time, a team of armed Cthonian scouts sets out to recover their dead from the destruction. Among them, the AEtherian refugee Maire Himmel offers her knowledge of AEtheria to identify remnants of the destroyed power plant. Upon her arrival, though, Rex recognizes Maire as his mother, who was forced to leave him with a foster father sixteen years before"--Provided by publisher.

"Sent by their command to the AEtherians' water-extraction site, a group of ten Cthonian scouts travels for days across the desert. Their mission: to find water for their drought-afflicted civilization. When a reconnaissance team joins them, the Cthonians send scouts up to AEtheria through an access pipe to request water while wells are being dug. But when two of the scouts' bodies plunge to the ground from above, the plan changes--and one enraged Cthonian commander strikes back"--Provided by publisher.

"With their power plant destroyed, the AEtherians send a reconnaissance group down to AEtheria to investigate the disaster. While below, they encounter Aral, a sixteen-year-old Cthonian--the only person left alive after the Cthonians' botched attack on the AEtherian power plant. But when Aral realizes that Rex Himmel is related to an AEtherian asylum-seeker living among the Cthonians, Rex understands that Aral might be the connection he needed to rebuild his broken family"--Provided by publisher.