Jon Messenger, born 1979 in London, England, serves as a United States Army Major in the Medical Service Corps. Since graduating from the University of Southern California in 2002, writing Science Fiction has remained his passion, a passion that has continued through two deployments to Iraq and a humanitarian relief mission to Haiti. Jon wrote the "Brink of Distinction" trilogy, of which "Burden of Sisyphus" is the first book, while serving a 16-month deployment in Baghdad, Iraq. Visit Jon on his website at www.JonMessengerAuthor.com.
KERYN (WYNDGAART):
Colorful tattoos that trace the curves of the face and bodies are the visual trademark of the Wyndgaart race. Natural warriors, the Wyndgaart hail from a series of island nations on a water-dominant planet.
All Wyndgaarts are born with a genetic imprint of their warrior relations. This embodiment, referred to as the Voice, is sentient and contains a wealth of combat knowledge inherited from the warrior’s maternal and paternal lineage. At the age of sixteen, all Wyndgaart undergo the Initiation, a tradition during which young warriors merge with their respective Voice and are granted full access to the generations of combat experience.
Keryn Riddell is an abnormal Wyndgaart youth. Resisting the call of the Voice and the Initiation, Keryn forgoes tradition and instead enlists in the Fleet Academy on Arcendor.
Her brother, Eza, serves in an Alliance special operations unit guarding the Demilitarized Zone between Alliance space and the Terran Empire.
LITHIDS:
Oily black skin and featureless oval faces mark the most enigmatic of the Alliance races: the natural shapeshifters, the Lithid. From their dark carapace, the Lithid exude a putty-like secretion, which can be sculpted and hold any form. From their general height to color of their skin, the Lithid can change every feature except for their coarse, raspy voice and barbed tails. As a result, the Lithid have been utilized as assassins and spies.
Once insectoid with soft shells and natural chameleon abilities, the Lithid lived under the thick clouds of their homeworld, which was hidden in the core of a swirling nebula. Over generations, the thick atmosphere of their homeworld broke down, allowing radiation to ravage their planet’s surface. The plants withered and died. Water boiled under the radiation, evaporating into the air and leaving behind harsh ravines where the rivers had once flowed. The clouds burned away, allowing irradiated light to scorch the planet’s surface.
The LIthid shied away from the radiation, hiding in the caverns of their homeworld. Millions died of exposure and dehydration. For those that survived, the radiation left their future generations forever changed. Their soft shells hardened and darkened. They were able to exist with nearly non-existent water supplies, living for months at a time with no fluid intake.
Hundreds of years passed before any other alien contact was made with the reclusive Lithid. During the initial colonization of the Universe, a Terran Empire colony ship drifted off their assigned flight path. Inadvertently entering the Lithid nebula, the colony ship’s engines stalled and the ship dropped out of faster-than-light flight. Rushing to stop the tax on their engines, the Terran crew expunged their solar energy charge as they had done dozens of times before: by purging their cells over an uninhabited rock. The Lithid colonists on the barren planet were unaware of their impending death until the fire washed over their caverns.
In response, the Lithid launched their technologically advanced fighters, destroying the colony ship and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on board. The mutual decimation of both started the Great War, which spawned the Interstellar Alliance and eventually lead to the establishment of the Taisa peace accord.
OTERIANS:
Massive and bull-like, the Oterians are often related by the Terran soldiers to the Minotaurs of Terran mythology. Standing between seven to ten-feet tall, the Oterians tower over their Alliance counterparts. Coupling their massive muscle structure with the forward-jutting horns on their head, the Oterians are natural hand-to-hand combatants. Their savagery in combat is well known to the Terran Empire, and Oterians are often targeted by Terran crew-served weapons early in battles to eliminate such a dangerous threat.
The Oterians are the only race in the Alliance that did not discover space travel technology on their own. Once slaves to the enigmatic psychics, the Muir'Rathi, the Oterians rose up against their masters and slaughtered the mentally strong, but physically weak oppressors. Those who survived the revolution stole the remaining ships from the defeated Muir'Rathi and set off to the stars. Eventually, they encountered the Uligart, who invited the brutish race into the Alliance.
Oterians males follow a tribal social system, with established chiefs and faith healers. As a result of their superstitious beliefs, they are often viewed as simple and uneducated by the rest of the Alliance. Oterian females lack cognitive and communicative abilities. After the birth of a female, they are taken to pastures to graze until they come of age for reproduction.
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