The novel “Anvil of Stars” by Greg Bear was published for the first time in 1992. It’s the sequel to “The Forge of God”.

The Benefactors have failed to save the Earth from destruction but had time to save thousands of human beings. In addition to starting the terraforming of Mars, they offered the survivors the support of the Law, a galactic code which requires among other things that the Killers, the species that created the machines that destroyed many planets, including Earth, are found and destroyed.