The routine voyage of the merchant ship "Zabuldyga" turns into a deadly puzzle for the crew when a ship of an unknown race comes into the orbit of the Wasteland following the merchants, and a diplomatic visit is not part of the aliens' intentions - they begin an invasion of the planet. A convoy of combat robots in a mountain gorge is destroyed, a shuttle with military equipment crashes, which traders are trying to deliver to the base, and the crew of the shuttle itself - Somakha Oliman and his friends - survive only by a miracle. The military base "Zero", which turned out to be an annoying obstacle on the way of strangers, burns to the ground. A handful of survivors are trying to take refuge in the depths of the mountains, in the tunnels leading to the research laboratory, which was guarded by the military. They do not suspect that this is where the goal that the strangers are striving for is located...