PROLOGUE

Zela is the name of a planet located in the Sigma galaxy of the Cygnus constellation, 6000 light-years far from the Earth. In the beginning, its environmental conditions were those of the Earth and this allowed the birth of a civilization that enjoyed an extremely advanced technological and scientific culture, beyond the appearance of vegetal and animal life forms on the planet. Also, the population of Zela began an exploration of outer space that led them to Earth, where those pioneers built a civilization which left many traces of its presence: the gigantic drawings on the Nazca plain, the mysterious pyramids in the Sahara desert, the extraordinary mathematical culture of the Mayas and many other unexplained mysteries are all testimonies of the passage on Earth of those colonizers who came from Zela thousands of years ago. Suddenly, the Sigma, the sun that gave name to the planetary system Zela’s in, collapsed and turned into a black hole that slowly attracted and annihilated its whole galaxy. After the collapse of the Sigma, life died on Zela’s surface and the population had to take shelter and create a new, alternative underground world to avoid being sucked down into the black hole and disappear.

A NEW GOD

This would not avoid Zela’s fate of dying like the rest of the Sigma galaxy, then the inhabitants decided to place their hope in a computer that was programmed to host the whole knowledge of the Zela civilization and process it to find out how to save the planet and its people, which meanwhile worshipped it like a god and called it Darius. Its solution was to migrate the population of Zela to the Earth, whose environment was like Zela’s before the collapse of the Sigma, then Darius began planning the extinction of mankind to invade the planet and start the exodus from Zela before the black hole had destroyed it. To this purpose, Darius created the Black Horror Army, Zela’s army whose mission was to fight the human kind, and the Four Generals, the 4 robot commanders of the Army which had to plan and lead the battle for Earth.

WAR HORIZONS

Fearing a threat coming from outer space, but still unaware of Darius’ plans, the Earthlings started the project of new combat machines that could protect their planet from an extraterrestrial attack. In association with the world scientific community, Prof. Daimonji, a Japanese scientist, completed the Space Dragon, an enormous dragon-shaped spaceship, the Gaiking, a mighty humanoid robot, and three vehicles for air, land, and sea support, recognition and combat (the Skyler, the Buzzler and the Nesser, respectively), whose futuristic projects represented Earth’s main defensive resource against any alien enemy technology. Daimoji’s strategy was based on a team of people which could use these machines at full power using their superhuman capabilities. The search for all members of the Space Dragon’s crew terminated when Prof. Daimonji discovered the extraordinary gifts of Sanshiro Tsuwabuki, a Japanese baseball champion who accepts Daimonji’s proposal to become the new pilot of the Gaiking after retiring from sports because of an accident caused by the Black Horror Army, whose killers went to Earth to kill all humans like Sanshiro that could interfere with the invasion prepared by Darius. After the difficulties of a new life style, totally different from the one he had before, Sanshiro becomes the front line of Earth’s defense in a long and cruel war that will derange his life and make him risk his life every time Prof. Daimonji needs his help to repel the assaults of Darius’ Army.

EPILOGUE

The black hole and its slow, continuous destruction of Zela will set the duration of the war against the Earth, more than valour and weapons of either side warriors will do. When Zela can’t resist the deadly attraction of the black hole anymore, Darius commands a general mobilization for the last offensive against the Earth, but it will just meet its people’s indignation when they realize that the entity they trusted is using them to create somewhere else the same destruction it had to avoid instead: the last survivors of Zela will see their planet’s death seconds after leaving it on makeshifts, while Darius and the Four Generals reach the Earth to face the Space Dragon and the Gaiking personally in the last battle of a war that Daimonji and his team will win fighting heroically on the slopes of Mount Fuji.