Gods and Conquerors by Aaron Kane Heinemann

James Verne and his crew have travelled almost a thousand years to visit life on a distant planet. But when they arrive to find their destination a smoking wasteland, desolate and uninhabited, their hopes of encountering a new civilisation are left as damaged as their ship. Stranded with dwindling supplies and no contingency plan, their morale is held up by only one redeeming fact: they are Conquerors, and they have made it this far. So they begin their search for life, and in doing so, discover that the people of this planet knew more about Earth than the humans knew about themselves, and that they might not be so alone in this world after all. Gods and Conquerors is a story of redemption, survival, and the relentless search for hope in a seemingly hopeless world.