The Legacy of Haven The Exiles of Orion Book5 Illustrated: The Exiles of Orion, #5

By A J Maraine

This is the illustrated version of the Legacy of Haven. It is the fifth and final book in the series. A text version is also available

Haven has survived the impossible before. But the Drellek return with a weapon more terrifying than invasion: erasure. Entire colonies vanish into dust. Outposts collapse into motes of static. And when New Arcadia, the beating heart of Haven, is wiped clean in a single strike, the world teeters on the edge of despair.

Ava stands at the center of the storm, her body fracturing between human and Caelari resonance. As the Drellek pour psychic corruption through Haven's lattice, she becomes anchor and shield, held together only by the dying syncs and the will of her people.

Jace Merin fights to hold a shattered council together. Seren Arin works against time to unravel ancient Builder harmonics buried deep in the world's foundations. Rin Halos builds hybrid cannons from scavenged alien cores, forging weapons the Drellek never anticipated.

And across the stars, Earth hears Haven's cry.

When Terra's fleet emerges through the broken horizon, armed with sphere-compression projectors and rift weapons, the balance shifts. Humanity fights as one, Terran precision beside Haven improvisation, turning defiance into momentum.

But the Drellek have not yet revealed their full hand.

Legacy of Haven is the darkest, most explosive chapter of The Exiles of Orion, a story of unity in the face of annihilation, of resilience forged from tragedy, and of a world that refuses to be erased. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: A J Maraine
• Release date: Dec 3, 2025
• ISBN: 9798232266592

A J Maraine

A.J. Maraine writes visionary science fiction with human roots and cosmic consequences. From AI-driven revolutions to galactic diplomacy, their stories explore the tension between survival, identity, and transformation.

Book preview

THE LEGACY OF HAVEN

The Exiles of Orion Book 5

The Last War

By AJ Maraine

The Legacy of Haven

© 2025 AJ Maraine

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews or scholarly works.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover and interior images © Sci Fi Signal 360 / AI-generated under license.

First digital edition published in 2025 by Sci Fi Signal 360

Table of Contents

The Black Horizon

The Siege Begins

The Tide of Battle Turns

The Fractured Alliance

The Siege of Shadows

Ashes and The Dawn

When a world stands at the edge of erasure, its true strength isn’t found in weapons or walls, but in the people who choose, again and again, to rise together. Unity is the oldest force in the universe, and the only one strong enough to rewrite destiny."

— A.J. Maraine

Legacy of Haven

Exiles of Orion Book 5

Chapter 1: The Black Horizon

The shuttle came in low over Haven’s equatorial sea, its hull gleaming a pale silver that caught the sunlight like a blade. For many, it was the first Terran vessel they had ever seen. It wasn’t as sleek as the Builder skimmers or as rugged as Haven’s improvised frigates, but it moved with a confidence that drew every eye.

Crowds had gathered on the landing terraces above New Arcadia. Children sat on shoulders, vendors shouted over one another, and elders who had lived through the first war leaned on canes, whispering that this meant something. Earth had come back.

When the shuttle’s ramp extended, a hush fell. Out stepped three Terrans in polished uniforms, their insignia stitched in blues and whites unfamiliar to Haven eyes. The leader, a woman with iron-gray hair cut close, scanned the crowd before raising her hand in a gesture of greeting.

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I am Commodore Raines, she said, her voice carrying through the translators. We come from Earth, not as conquerors, but as kin.

Applause rolled across the terraces like thunder. Haven had rebuilt much on its own, but the sight of Terrans from the cradle of humanity stirred something deeper, a reminder that they were not forgotten.

Jace Merin stepped forward on behalf of the council. He was dressed simply, no medals, no ornament, but his words were smooth. Haven welcomes you. The distance between our worlds has been more than light-years, it has been history, silence, misunderstanding. Let us begin again.

The Terran delegation bowed slightly, and the tension eased.

Inside the council hall, discussions stretched long into the night. The Terrans brought crates of supplies, medicines, seed strains, refined alloys. More intriguing were the sealed containers of technology, glimpses of which sparked eager debate among Haven’s engineers. Raines revealed only fragments, careful not to overwhelm her hosts: weapons that compressed matter into dense spheres, drives that folded space along unfamiliar vectors.

Rin Halos couldn’t keep his hands off the crates. You’ve actually field-tested this? he demanded, squinting at a core no larger than his fist.

Against raiders, Raines admitted. But not against what you faced here.

A silence followed, heavy with implication.

Seren Arin leaned forward, her dark eyes reflecting the glyphs still etched into her memory. Then you know they’ll come again.

Raines nodded. We intercepted fragments. The Drellek don’t forget what they call insults. And they don’t leave enemies alive. If they failed here, they’ll come in force. That’s why we’re here first, better to fight them in Orion than on Earth.

Murmurs rippled through the chamber. For many Haveners, this was the first confirmation that Earth truly believed in their struggle.

Ava appeared then, her form shimmering at the edge of human and something beyond. The Terrans stiffened at the sight, unsure whether to bow or reach for weapons, but she raised her hand gently.

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You need not fear me, she said, her voice resonant with layered tones. I am Ava. I was once as you are. Now I stand between worlds.

Raines studied her for a long moment. And you lead them?

No, Ava said. They lead themselves. I only hold what they cannot yet bear. She glanced back at the chamber where the three failing syncs sat tethered into Builder systems. Their bodies were thin, their faces pale, but their minds still glowed bright in the lattice. And I do not bear it alone.

One of the syncs stirred, his voice carried through the conduits. The lattice holds us all. Haven is more than flesh and stone now. It remembers.

The Terrans shivered, though none spoke of fear.

Jace broke the silence with practiced ease. Then let us speak of alliance. Haven will share what it has learned of Builder systems, and Earth will share what it has made from its own path. Together we may be stronger.

Raines inclined her head. That is why we came.

The agreement was not signed that night, but the air shifted. Engineers from Earth pored over Haven’s records. Haven scholars studied Terran alloys. Musicians from both worlds filled the terraces with songs that blended rhythms no one had heard before. For a brief span of hours, war seemed distant, and the dream of unity close at hand.

The Terran envoy stayed for only a week. They exchanged technology and set up a formal systems for cultural exchange, civilian communications, and if needed, military response.

Yet even in celebration, shadows stretched across the sky. Elias, half-man and half-system, spoke quietly to Ava as the hall emptied.

They will come sooner than you expect, he murmured. The lattice hums with their echoes already. We may have months. Perhaps only weeks.

Ava’s gaze turned toward the horizon, where the docks glowed with the sparks of new ships. Then let us make those weeks count.

The stars above Haven gleamed sharp and steady, unmarred by the shadows of warships. For the first time in years, the orbital docks glowed with a steady pulse of industry rather than frantic repairs. Welders sparked along the frames of new frigates, their hulls blending Builder alloys with Terran steel and Haven’s own improvisations. Beneath the planet’s pale clouds, the scorched scars of the first war had begun to fade. Fields of grain stretched again along the river valleys, and children ran barefoot in streets that had once been filled with refugees.

It was a fragile peace, but it felt real.

Ava stood on the Council platform overlooking the docks, her shimmering outline haloed by the arc of the Builder lattice. Though her form flickered faintly, human one moment, translucent Caelari shimmer the next, she radiated calm. Behind her, the three failing syncs sat in their chairs, motionless except for the faint rise and fall of their chests. Tubes and filaments connected them to the lattice chamber. Their mechanical bodies had decayed beyond function, but their minds remained sharp, tethered directly into the Builder systems.

They had once been men, warriors, thinkers, builders. Now they were something else, voices half-merged with the lattice itself. When Ava faltered, they steadied her. When the strain of Haven’s defense threatened to burn through her mind, they absorbed it. None of them called it dying. They called it serving until the last light.

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You are fading again, murmured Elias, the AI whose presence hummed through the chamber.