While trying to help Hope, the woman he has rescued from being beaten up, Justin stumbles upon her secret. She is an escaped prisoner from the notorious Nova Colony. All is not as it appears but before she can explain the truth of it all, the mechanicals, hybrid robots that work on his farm, go berserk and try to kill the couple. While fighting to stay alive, fires and explosions devastate Justin’s farmhouse. By the time the mechanicals are destroyed he is left with only a pile of rubble. Justin blames Hope for his troubles but fears that she is being tracked by government agents who will believe he is in cahoots with her. He takes Hope to a friends place looking for sanctuary. With an agenda of their own his friends are not keen to have the pair stay long. In the Outland Region, an alien presence reaches out to Hope with its mind. With its partner, The Oracle, the presence manipulates the actions of both men and machine to drive Hope and Justin to them. The lavender crystals that litter the uninhabitable land of the Outland Region are the true inhabitants of the planet. With Hope’s willing co-operation and Justin’s ignorance of the consequences they take it back from the people of Settlement 864.