Orphans Vol. 1: The Beginning

A devastating energy beam strikes the Earth, instantly killing a sixth ofthe world population. Deemed to be a premeditated attack by aliens from adistant planet, a Serbian scientist named Jsana Juric and a Japanese armycolonel named Takeshi Nakamura gather a group of orphaned children who survivedthe disaster to become lethal soldiers trained to invade the hostile planet inhopes of preventing a repeat attack. Divided into teams, the children get toknow each other, and begin to understand that surviving the training will itselfbe a brutal test. Lives are sacrificed and difficult lessons are learned, all inthe interest of turning children into hardened killing machines. One suchimpressionable child is Jonas . . . Meanwhile, in a parallel storyline set inthe future, a ground invasion force reaches the alien planet from which theenergy beam supposedly originated. Before setting foot on the planet, everysoldier receives a vaccine to combat the deadly radiation on the planet, acourse that must be repeated every day. The battles are tough, and the humanforces suffer massive casualties, until a team of five soldiers appear and makeshort work of the aliens. These five heroes are Jonas and hiscompanions--the "Orphans." A massively popular series by Italian authorsRoberto Recchioni and Emiliano Mammucari, this series has spawned five spin-offseries (or "seasons").