It shouldn't have come to humans as a surprise when even Aliens didn't want to deal with their politics.

Machinations and natural processes on a galactic scale forced the aliens' hand, and accelerated the integration of the Milky Way into the Galatic Consensus.

Disadvantaged and excluded from walking the easy path back to Earth, Humanity has to fight its way through The CRAWL or give up and return to an Earth they might not be able to inhabit any longer.

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Like the rest of humanity, Max and Jamie ended up in the Crawl as a pair of humans.

They need to find a way to safety and thrive under the new system with the skills revealed by the system.

Things go wrong quickly when one of them gets injured on their first day, with no help in sight.