Protector of His Kind

My name is Carter Riley. I am a veteran peacekeeper--once a one-armed, homeless, jobless father, now the first human ever to come into contact with the Precursors' Cube on Mars, and proud owner of the most combative hamster in the galaxy. The artifact is what brought me to Sidus, a mysterious space station at the center of the galaxy. A dozen or so alien civilizations have also found their way here, seemingly to unite against a common enemy. Or common enemies. Honestly, we don't know what it is that we need to face, for all the species on Sidus combined have barely explored a fraction of the galaxy. We can only guess at what other secrets are held by that dark, obscure expanse. It does hold something, that's for sure. Something sinister. And it's up to me to find out what. After all, I am the first, the protector of my kind. Before doing that, though, I need to tie my laces and swap out this crappy blaster for something a little more high-tech.