Talerium

ABOUT TALERIUM:
The Earthforce Saga Continues into Volume #26 as the story begins on the planet Gorodin where Marines find and attack an Ivexian slave ship hidden under the desert sands. They destroy the ship but must leave when huge apex predators arrive at the scene, intent on a good meal.

Talerium then begins with the sole survivor of the Marine attack, a lone Ivexian Slave trader named Lorcha, who is himself searching for an object reputed to wield terrible power somewhere in the ancient ruins of Planet Gorodin--the Talerium. A stunning event involving the Lyrian return to the Milky Way has given Humanity hope for its future, and the Lyrians give Orion a quest-- "Find the Talerium."

Then Orion encounters a massive exotic object that looks like an enormous asteroid, but is alive with exotic particles, including axions, neutrinos, and even Mirror Matter. They soon suspect the object is inhabited by intelligent aliens, and Gates is able to make contact with them, learning they call themselves the Tal, who say they have come to destroy a world that is now doomed. Then the object moves, and on a course bound directly for Sol, which has Orion rushing to the Home System to give warning and prepare a defense against this strange object.

Fedorov thinks this is the Talerium, and learns the Tal were an ancient species that once fought a war with Lyria, and lost. But the slave trader Lorcha back on Planet Gorodin, also thinks he has found the Talerium. Which is correct? Meanwhile, there is Trouble in Paradise, when a war breaks out on Planet Eden.