I really like this series. It’s just my kind of military science fiction. We’re with a young guy who is growing up real fast. He’s a Drop Troop Marine and has found out that the top brass considers him and his fellow Drop Troopers as very expendable assets as long as the overall mission gets done.
Well, that’s the military for you. The mission comes first. Yet, Sergeant Cameron (“Cam”) Alvarez isn’t necessarily going to accept that he and his battle buddies are just “throw-away” Marines. He believes the current attack tactics used by the Fleet is nothing but suicide attacks with almost a zero chance that his Drop Troopers will survive. They have to go in on attack shuttles and are exposed to a lot of devastating enemy missile and beam attacks while flying through way to much empty space. The carriers that drop the shuttles can only get in to a system at a certain distance and it’s always no where close to the planet they are attacking. Cam doesn’t like seeing his guys die before they even hit the ground. He’s watched it once and won’t do that again. He’s also been lucky that the attach shuttle he’s been on hasn’t been directly hit, yet!
So, Sgt Alvarez sets about studying some ancient military history. He’s forced to do that since all the current tactics he would like to see are classified way beyond his level. In fact, he’ll get into some trouble just trying to ask some innocent questions. The thing is, Cam comes up with a possible new attack tactic that could work in a certain situation. It would save a whole lot of Drop Troopers and Recon Marines as well. But, he’s only a Squad Leader and not any where near high enough to propose something like this to the brass. They would laught their heads off — that is until they didn’t!
The computers tell Sgt Alvarez that his new attack plan could indeed save a lot of Marines, except for those executing the plan and their chances of survival are, you guessed it, zero. It’s still his plan and someone’s got to do it, but really, what will it cost?
Good read and on to the next one, “Danger Close”.