The cliffhanger ending of Frank Herbert's Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) and his subsequent death in 1986 left some overarching plotlines unresolved.

[2][3] Released on August 22, 2006, Hunters continues the story of the danger posed to humanity by a remote, unnamed, but ever-present "great enemy".

On Chapterhouse, the only remaining source of spice, Murbella, now the leader of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, is attempting to merge the groups into the New Sisterhood and prevent civil war.

Though the Honored Matres had destroyed all Bene Tleilax worlds, their descendants (the Lost Tleilaxu) have returned from the Scattering.

Working with Daniel and Marty, Khrone offers their advanced navigation technology to the Guild as if it were of Ixian design.

Uxtal has been forced to use Tleilaxu axlotl tank technology to produce the adrenaline-enhancing drug used by Honored Matres.

Khrone tasks Uxtal to make a ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, which is as sociopathic as the original.

He seeks a tank-based source of spice to break the Bene Gesserit monopoly, but everyone believes that technology died with the Tleilaxu Masters.

The Tleilaxu sustain their lives indefinitely using gholas; Scytale's current body is dying, and he does not have a replacement.

Murbella accesses the Other Memory from her Honored Matre ancestors and learns their true origins: they were vengeful Tleilaxu females, freed and assimilated by Fish Speakers and Bene Gesserit fleeing in the Scattering.

Murbella also accesses a memory showing the origins of the mysterious force the Honored Matres call the Enemy.

On the no-ship, rebel Bene Gesserit attempt to murder the Leto II ghola, but are foiled when he transforms into a sandworm.

The Paul ghola steals and consumes an overdose of spice in an attempt to remember his past, but instead has a vision of being stabbed by an evil version of himself.

Murbella contracts Ix's competitor Richese to provide armaments for a confrontation with the great enemy, but the rebel Honored Matres destroy the planet to cripple the Sisterhood.

An exploratory party from the no-ship discovers that the Handlers are actually Face Dancers, and barely escape back to the ship.

The Oracle of Time is revealed to be the living consciousness of Norma Cenva, somehow also still in existence millennia after the Jihad.

Before its destruction, the Omnius incarnation on Giedi Prime had launched 5,000 probes capable of constructing new machine colonies on any planets encountered.

Brian was cleaning out his garage to make an office space and he found all these boxes that had 'Dune Notes' on the side.

Anderson said that Frank Herbert's notes included a description of the story and a great deal of character background information.