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Martians and Moon-Men

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. – H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds

Man is not alone in this universe. There are others, who even now are watching the Earth and waiting for their moment to strike. Mars is known to have canals, canals which bring life-giving waters from the frigid poles to the more temperate lands. And our closest neighbor, the Moon, is home to yet other strange and mysterious peoples as well.

There are three alien races in the universe of The Widening Gyre – the Hemipterans, the Observers, and the Martians. All three races realize the importance of humanity and all three are keeping a close eye on mankind’s tiny blue-green globe.

The Hemipterans
The Hemipterans are an insect-like race which makes its home in great tunnels and chambers beneath the surface of the Moon. The Hemipterans are odd because they are not a single race, but a myriad of strange creatures, each one suited to a particular task. There are the ant-like workers, who range in size from 20 kg to over 100 kg and who specialize in simple manual labor. There are the massive caterpillar-like beasts of burden, used to haul heavy loads and to travel great distances. Then there are the leaders, who look like nothing less than enormous preying mantises with huge heads.

The leader-caste rules the others with unquestioned authority, communicating their commands to the lesser castes by a complex blend of pheromones, hand signals, and telepathy. The leader-caste has mastered many obscure sciences, and many of them have learned how to speak human languages, because the ever-growing number of humans on the Earth has begun to alarm them. They know it is just a matter of time before the humans come to the Moon in large numbers, and they plan to be ready for it when it happens.

To this end, the Hemipterans have become more militaristic in the last few decades, building massive war-engines to defend their lands. More disturbing than this, there are factions within the Hemipterans that intend to take the fight to Earth, and are constructing a massive fleet of spacecraft to bring their war host to the small blue-green planet below...