"The Ancient One:
Reckoning" by Sergei Tarmashev, summary Automatic translate

This science fiction novel was published in 2011. The plot revolves around the forced retraining of a pacifist humanity in basic military skills in the face of total annihilation by a coalition of aggressive alien races secretly directed by a superior hostile entity. It is part of the "Ancient" science fiction series, being the fifth book in the cycle.

The onslaught of aggressors and lost skills

The peaceful Commonwealth of Man faces a massive invasion by Insectorate armadas and Vaarsi fleets. Terrified citizens flee en masse into dead space, hoping to wait out the war on isolated, autonomous stations. Centrospas hastily forms improvised defensive fleets of volunteers, using modified "Unshakable" rescue vessels and heavy "Titan" construction and assembly exoskeletons. Humanity is completely dependent on virtual neural interfaces, which are easily jammed by enemy electronic warfare systems, and the skills for direct control of combat vehicles were irrevocably lost a millennium ago.

Former museum worker Lena Niss undergoes a four-day accelerated training program using hypnograms and is promoted to junior lieutenant. She obtains a genuine combat suit from the Ros Museum on Earth, where she bids farewell to the veteran caretaker, Pyotr Serebryakov. Meanwhile, the ambassador of the Riul race, Priest Eauuris, who taught Lena how to pilot manually, urgently leaves the Sol system, obeying the call of the Voice of the Ancestors.

A hastily assembled allied fleet of Humans and the Delphi Empire is ambushed in the Myrnaya system. The enemy deploys powerful communications jamming technologies and breaches the camouflage fields of the ambush regiments. The squadron suffers a crushing defeat, and the Supreme Commander of the Delphi forces, the Crown Prince, perishes under fire from heavy battleships. Lena’s ship is destroyed, but an ancient spacesuit saves her life, placing the gravely wounded girl into bioregenerative stasis. The surviving veterans, whose bodies were restored thanks to ESS modules, insist on the reconstitution of the First Rescue Fleet, ready to fight to the death.

Returning to his home space, Eauuris discovers the worlds of the Riuls devastated by the armies of Vaarsi’s allies — the civilizations of Gredrin and T’Hassmoa. The remnants of his people have taken refuge in the deadly and inaccessible Death Nebula. With the help of a sacred artifact, the Tablet, the Guardian discovers the true cause of the war. The ancient Enemies of the Creators — the so-called Unseen Enemy — have exterminated the Vuzei race and are now remotely controlling the minds of the Insectorate’s rulers.

Secret summit and diplomatic failure

The Rhyul Synod makes a risky strategic decision. Eauuris intercepts the fleet commander, Vaarsi Vaau, luring his flagship into a trap and forcing him to organize a secret summit of the leaders of all civilizations. The purpose of the meeting is to demonstrate direct evidence of the Invisible Enemy’s mental control over the aggressors.

After fully recovering in a hospital on the Mars orbital ring, Lena Niss enlists in the revived First Rescue Fleet. Unexpectedly, the Council of Leaders appoints her to a diplomatic mission. A secret meeting takes place at an abandoned Riul space observatory. Eauuris shows the leaders a holographic vision of the Tablet, but the meeting is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Founder-General Vaarsi Ivva and the First Councilor of the Insectorate.

The tablet reveals that the arriving leaders’ brains have been completely replaced by parasitic clots of the Invisible Enemy. Realizing this revelation, the puppets kill the high-ranking Riul and Delphi hierarchs with a powerful mental attack. Insectorate soldiers burst into the room and commit a wholesale massacre of all the delegates present. Only Eauuris, his pilot, and Lena survive the bloody melee.

The Guardian notes that the Invisible Enemy’s mental attack only caused the girl a severe headache. Humans possess an absolute genetic immunity to telepathic control and similar killing. Realizing this, the Invisible Enemy orders the immediate eradication of the Commonwealth from the face of the galaxy. Riul and the girl fight their way to the airlocks, escape in a shuttle, skillfully fake their deaths in a reactor explosion, and head for Earth in a reconnaissance ship hidden under a secure refraction field.

Revelations of the Primordial

An entity calling itself the Primordial was trapped in cosmic confinement on the outskirts of the universe for billions of years, tormented by an endless hunger. Having escaped thanks to the carelessness of the Wuzei race, it completely consumed their galaxy. The Creators’ defense mechanisms — the Executioners — leave the Primordial alone as long as it doesn’t directly attack other lifeforms. Therefore, the parasite employs the tactic of covertly infiltrating the minds of civilizational leaders.

Infected rulers unleash bloody galactic wars of mutual annihilation, while obedient Inses freeze billions of captives as food supplies. The Primordial fears only the Children (the Creators’ automated security fleets) and Humans, whose emanations frighteningly remind it of the hated Creators. This is why the obedient puppets receive direct orders to quickly incinerate the Commonwealth of Man.

Searching for ancestral heritage

Eauuris and Lena break through the fiercely fought Delphi border systems and reach Earth. Vaarsi’s sabotage fleet has already launched a massive orbital strike on the Ros Museum, reducing it to rubble. However, a colony of intelligent bats — the Lemov — unexpectedly activated ancient automated defensive fortifications and completely incinerated the Vaarsi landing force. Academician Pyotr Serebryakov discovers an ancient communications device, "Thread," amid the smoking ruins, which all historians dismissed as a decorative prop. Eauuris deduces that it is a genuine electronic key to the Battle Fleet’s top-secret archive.

The Priest and Lena head toward a deadly gravitational anomaly, a remnant of the Tragedy of Exodus, when the army of the Ancients vanished without a trace into the depths of space. The black hole’s monstrous power threatens to tear their tiny scout into subatomic particles, but Lena manages to press the button on the retrieved "Thread." The anomaly instantly collapses, revealing the gigantic artificial planet of Deya. The stunned heroes are met by armed Commonwealth special forces.

The planet utilizes a unique temporal compression technology: in the twelve centuries that have passed outside, only six full years have passed here. Lena learns that Commander Thirteen and his legendary army did not perish, but were actively preparing for a triumphant return.

Return of the Legend

The combined fleets of the aggressors descend upon the cradle of the Delphi Empire — the planet Iilatu. The younger Prince Oeaoo assumes command of the imperial fleet after the heroic death of his father and wages a desperate but hopeless defense. The defenders are inevitably defeated, the enemy’s electronic warfare fleet successfully exposes invisible minefields, and the Insectorate’s heavy battleships prepare to systematically scorch the planet’s surface.

At a critical moment, the spatial metric ruptures, and the Ancient Battle Fleet appears. Hundreds of thousands of highly maneuverable interceptors and heavy strike cruisers, wielding the powerful Silver Tears weapon, reduce the multi-million-strong Alien armadas to radioactive ash in a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, a final cosmic tragedy unfolds in the Sol system. The orbital rings of Earth and Venus are completely destroyed by enemy fire. Presiding Chief Fatno, having barely escaped the blazing Prime, drifts amid the wreckage on a dilapidated fireboat. The surviving rescue teams, equipped with obsolete exoskeletons, voluntarily sacrifice themselves, fending off the ubiquitous enemy fighters of T’Hassmoa and Gredrin, trying to give the vessel a chance to escape.

Suddenly, Ancient battle cruisers emerge from the ancient memorial Zero Gate. The legendary interceptors dispatch the invader squadrons in seconds, demonstrating a mastery of filigree manual control unattainable by modern pilots. Commander Thirteen broadcasts a message on all frequencies announcing the complete destruction of the invasion force. The ancient, invincible Human army has returned triumphantly, saving the Galaxy from certain destruction.