Obviously these books are already done and published, but I can not stand the cover art! It is absolutely terrible. If I had to decide to read these books just based on the cover, I would never have read them. Luckily, I can go beyond the terrible art work and get into some good story telling inside.
The Confederation is about to go to war with Mars. Yet, the Outcast Marines are not totally involved. In fact, Gold Squad, commanded by Adjunct-Marine Commander Solomon Cready, was specifically pulled from the Mars mission and sent back to Ganymede. They were still training for some unknown mission under the direction of Brigadier General Asquew.
Then, while out on a unit run, Cready noticed a Marine transport vessel heading towards the HQ doom. He also noticed that the ship was coming in way, way to fast and was apparently going to smash right into the doom if it didn’t stop soon. As he watched the rapid decent, he started alerting all those Outcast Marines in his vicinity to take cover and prepare for the impact. And it was a huge impact.
All that was left of the HQ doom was a crater. Why this had happened was unknown, but the more important issue was to rescue all the survivors trapped in other parts of the HQ complex. If they had environmental suits then they had only a limited amount of oxygen and that would be used up pretty soon. Then Commander Cready found he had bigger problems. From the wreckage of the downed transport vessel came huge man-machine cyborgs that he and his squad had faced on Mars. They were almost impossible to take down, but he had to do what he could to survive. At the same time, he had ordered two of his Marines to attempt to communicate with the Rapid Response Fleet using a transport that was permanently grounded for training.
You’ll find that this episode is just the beginning of Solomon Cready’s troubles. But, he also finally sees the end of his days as an Adjunct-Marine. From is previous actions and his demonstrated leadership on Ganymede in a disaster, Brigadier Asquew finally promotes all the Outcast Marines to full Marine status. This comes with better equipment which means a some what better chance at surviving the coming war, not with just Mars, but with the unknown aliens.
While these books seem short, they do tell a pretty complete story with several different scenes. Solomon Cready and his team are now battle-hardened Marines, that’s for sure. He’s still on the super secret drugs that Dr. Palinov has been injecting him with, but so far there’s not been any side effects. In fact, the drug seems to be working as it should making him stronger, faster and much smarter. Let’s hope that keeps up.
The next book, “Invasion: Pluto” is out and I’ve already started reading it. It sounds just as good as the previous other five books