Mysterious Destiny

Brett Nighthawk has been through some pretty rough stuff in his 50 years but had always walked with a sense of destiny. He had to have a purpose if he could just find it. After time in a prison camp as a hostage and losing his best friend there, he vows to find that destiny. His early attempts are a failure as he tries to find purpose in lost treasure and ends up broke. He vows once again to find his destiny as he learns survival in the rugged Western Alliance desert and works at a deadening government job, hoping his skills will land him a place in space flight.
10 years after the treasure hunt fiasco he has a chance once again to fulfill his destiny. He and 19 others are chosen for a mission to a new planet. Terra, their home planet, is a dying planet, ecologically used up by the human population. Circumstances place Nighthawk at the head of the mission to Moros and there he finds his mysterious destiny.