My ambition for "First Contact Chaos" began simply enough: two alien science vessels arrive, setting the stage for the eventual "lights out" for our entire galaxy. It took four books to achieve that galactic blackout, but "The War of the Worlds" and "Forbidden Planet" were my guiding lights. Both of those stories uniquely tap into the fear of the unknown and wisely avoid tropes like superheroes, genius scientists, creating weapons, time machines, or divine intervention. That approach helped me keep all four books grounded in hard science.

While I didn't plunge the galaxy into darkness in the first book, I did permanently erase Alpha Centauri and our Sun's planetary system. Humanity is no longer a development that brings tremendous relief to write about. "First Contact Chaos" itself details the arrival of these two benign alien probes at Earth, and the subsequent realization that we are truly not alone leads to the complete disintegration of humanity and all its institutions.

I took a detour from my "lights out" quest to introduce the Industrialist, a being who extracts water from both living and dead star systems. I don't delve into the Industrialist's identity, motives, or methods, focusing instead on their peculiar habit of stealing and corralling water into deep-space ice lakes.

The Industrialist's handiwork is discovered by a space probe from the Tau Ceti system, whose mission is to investigate the fate of Alpha Centauri and Sol. Unable to identify the force behind the water theft, the Intellect from Tau Ceti dispatches three Guardian Cruisers to the Bernard system on a hunch—a hunch that proves correct.