From the future of Earth, two factions wage war: the evil Inheritors and the scientific Futurians. The Inhertitors cause the sun to turn into a red giant, then escape the end of the world by traveling in time. Determined to stop the Inheritors by manipulating the past, the Futurians send genetic time bombs backwards in time, seeding past humans with superhuman potential. Callistrax then sends his mind to the past, taking over a transient in 1962. 20 years later, Vanderveckan --the man that the Callistrax possessed-- reaps the rewards of that genetic seeding when he creates his first line of defense against the Inheritors: The Futurians.