Earth Afire

Plot

A century before the events of Ender's Game, an alien vessel arrives in the Solar System and shows hostility by destroying unarmed human ships. It then annihilates a makeshift fleet of asteroid miners who unite to oppose it. Every adult male in Victor Delgado's extended family perishes in that fight. Since the survivors cannot send a warning, Victor volunteers for a nearly hopeless mission: reaching Earth in a small, hastily modified cargo ship meant for unmanned flight.

He gets as far as the Moon, but officials there dismiss his story, so humanity remains completely unaware of the threat when the First Formic War begins. The alien ship dispatches three huge landing craft to southeast China. Formics emerge and release a gas that strips the vegetation from the area. Despite heavy casualties, the Chinese government refuses any foreign aid.

Before the landing, Mazer Rackham had been instructing the Chinese military on a new transport plane called the HERC. During the invasion, he rescues an exceptionally bright eight-year-old boy named Bingwen, then his own aircraft is shot down. Together, they head out to destroy the nearest Formic lander. The Mobile Operations Police, a small elite international unit, crosses into China without permission.

Their captain, Wit O'Toole, acquires a tactical nuclear weapon from anonymous Chinese officials who oppose their government's policy. They blow up the lander, but Captain Shenzu arrives and arrests Mazer. Meanwhile, Victor and Imala, a Customs Agent assigned to him after his unauthorized arrival, use a disguised ship lent by Lem Jukes to drift close to the Formic vessel without being destroyed. Victor then breaks into the alien ship through a gun port.