SYNOPSIS
AD 3619. BioGorilla Leonardo Da Vinci is an ape with a human brain, genetically engineered by scientists frantically creating an army of superhuman warriors to repulse an invasion of Orphics – murderous spiderworm creatures threatening mankind and its Delph hexapod allies with elimination.
Endowed with the strength of 20 men, a superior intellect and primitive survival instincts that centuries of evolution have erased from humanity, Leonardo’s superhuman powers are regulated by six spine-implanted nanosilicon chips. His human masters can turn off these chips with a killswitch, rendering him comotose if he refuses to follow orders or becomes threatening. Created to be a lethal soldier, Leonardo is aware of his unique cyborg identity, begins to question who he is, and opts to free himself from his human masters. Aided by Mythica, an iconoclastic female BioGorilla who becomes his partner in crime, his quest for freedom in the midst of a brutal galactic war slowly evolves into an irresistible urge.
Leonardo and a squad of elite ISMs (Interstellar Marines) have captured a rare Orphic spiderworm Queen above Callisto 6 – a remote wilderness world at the edge of the Eta Carina Nebula. During the past 10 years, the Orphics have destroyed Earth, 20 Earthling colony worlds, and 40 Delph planets. How can the onslaught be stopped? The tranquilized Queen, constrained in a Cryogenic BioModule, may hold the answers. Advanced thought-capture technology will be used by Science Officer Miranda Bluefin to extract the secrets in her head.
Sergeant Bluefin, Leonardo’s closest human friend and confidant, has a brother who’s been lost for 20 years. She’s desperate to find him, but can’t because she’s stuck on a hostile, alien world. Leonardo’s superior officer, Lieutenant Gabriel Thorne, a resourceful hunter who kills enemy soldiers with merciless precision, is haunted by the death of his family. He enjoys terminating the monsters who murdered them, until it becomes evident his furious obsession has consumed him. Yanked into an epic mission they can’t avoid, Leonardo and the two Marines must find a way to overcome their personal vexations and defeat the enemy to survive.
The Marine squad is forced to hide on inhospitable Callisto 6, where most of them are killed by violent weather and carnivorous indigenes. Leonardo and five surviving ISMs use every trick possible to stay concealed from the spiderworms occupying the planet. Meeting up with a Delph Spec Ops Group that’s been hiding undercover, they learn that a spacetime fissure above Callisto 6 allows the Orphic invaders to move seamlessly between Delph/human space and an alternate universe where their homeworlds are located. The fissure must be destroyed to end the invasion.
Bizarre dreams about Mythica – a seductive, iconoclastic female BioGorilla – coincide with an unanticipated upgrade for Leonardo. The cyborg ape suddenly realizes he’s got massive powers extending far beyond the abilities programmed into his System Cognitivo Artificial. He can read minds, has x-ray vision and his physical strength has dramatically multiplied. What do these powers and his dreams involving Mythica signify?
Stranded in the jungle, Leonardo is forced to rely on his newfound skills to elude the spiderworm swarms hunting him. When Mythica saves him from an overwhelming attack, he realizes she’s no dream. The captivating female BioGorilla tells him about Primogenitor, a clandestine doomsday project activated by Earthling dataprinces to save humanity from destruction.
Leonardo learns that he and Mythica are 2 of 20 upgraded BioGorillas gifted with “novel genes” to perpetuate mankind. Convinced the war won’t end well, the dataprinces have programmed a top secret interstellar to convey the Primogenitor BioGorillas to a distant planet where they can reproduce and be free of killswitches and human oversight.
Interrogating the Orphic Queen, Leonardo realizes she’s a peaceful emissary, not an adversary. His intuitive dialogues with the spiderworm verify her amicable intent and uncover a major revelation. There’s an army of good spiderworms on Callisto 6 ready to battle the bad spiderworms. As the effort to close the fissure above Callisto 4 commences, and Leonardo uses his vastly superior talents to end the enemy’s invasion, he wonders if he and Mythica can survive and prosper afterwards.
Will Delphs and humans accept BioGorillas into their society in the aftermath of a war that brought them all to the brink of extinction? Or is fleeing from those who can killswitch them off on a whim the only option for the BioGorilla superwarriors?