The Marines were told it was a simple peasant rebellion -- but the mission proved to be far deadlier....

The truth is out. No longer are the Skinks just a horrible secret haunting the Marines of Company L. Now the aliens are all-too-real invaders whose savage attacks have devastated planet Kingdom, a world of squabbling religions where the men of the 34th FIST confront a desperate situation. Cities that haven't already been reduced to rubble are under siege, while starving refugees roam the land. And still the Skinks come, rising from stinking primordial swamps to slake their thirst for slaughter, armed with an uncanny ability to locate the enemy and with weapons so deadly that a single blast can drop a warplane or a decimate a squad.

It's painfully evident that 34th FIST is no match for these near-invincible killers, which is why third platoon's been ordered to whip the citizens of Kingdom into fighting shape. With their backs to the wall and time running out, there's only one way the Marines can turn these timid, quarrelsome men into warriors: Take the battle to the enemy. It's a brilliant strategy, sure to succeed -- if it doesn't get them killed first....

A few good Marines beat the fierce, fanatical aliens once before. But that was a skirmish'not a full-scale invasion. The truth is out. No longer are the Skinks just a horrible secret haunting the Marines of Company L. Now the aliens are all-too-real invaders whose savage attacks have devastated planet Kingdom, a world of squabbling religions where the men of the 34th FIST confront a desperate situation. Cities that haven't already been reduced to rubble are under siege, while starving refugees roam the land. And still the Skinks come, rising from stinking primordial swamps to slake their thirst for slaughter, armed with an uncanny ability to locate the enemy and with weapons so deadly that a single blast can drop a warplane or a decimate a squad. It's painfully evident that 34th FIST is no match for these near-invincible killers, which is why third platoon's been ordered to whip the citizens of Kingdom into fighting shape. With their backs to the wall and time running out, there's only one way the Marines can turn these timid, quarrelsome men into warriors: Take the battle to the enemy. It's a brilliant strategy, sure to succeed'if it doesn't get them killed first. . . .

The hugely popular Starfist saga featuring Marines at war in outer space is the only military science fiction series written by real combat vets: David Sherman and Dan Cragg. Now comes the explosive hardcover debut of this series -- packed with hell-torn action and blazing adventure.

In their fiercest combat yet, the hard-charging Marines of 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) have finally won their battle against a full-scale alien invasion of planet Kingdom. But victory over these savage enemies comes at a terrible price, especially for the Marines of Company L's decimated third platoon. The leader these men would follow into hell itself -- Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass -- was consumed in a fiery ambush that obliterated everything but his dog tags and a few scraps of DNA.

On planet Kingdom, citizens try to return to some semblance of normalcy as the military conducts patrols to search out and destroy any remaining alien Skinks. The old government of squabbling religious leaders has been replaced by a ruthless new regime. All power rests with Dominic de Tomas, a depraved despot who will stoop to any means to achieve his vile ends. His reign of terror bodes ill for the fragile planet still reeling from the chaos of war.

In a cave in some forgotten Kingdom backwater, several humans slowly regain consciousness. Their minds have been probed repeatedly... by whom and for what reason they cannot say, for they've been stripped of all memories of themselves and their past lives. In time wounds will heal, but who knows if they will ever fully recover.

For now, finding food and water takes precedence. And so these half-dead outcasts begin a journey into the unknown -- in search of civilization, in search of themselves. And one survivor's journey will take him to places of overwhelming danger, where his identity will be revealed to the shock of all.

"CAUTION! Any book written by Dan Cragg and David Sherman is bound to be addictive... The authors have a deep firsthand knowledge of warfare, an enthralling vision of the future, and the skill of veteran writers. Fans of military fiction, science fiction, and suspense will all get their money's worth.... [These novels are] fast, realistic, moral... and hard to put down. Sherman and Cragg are a great team!"
   RALPH PETERS, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF RED ARMY

With its down and dirty depiction of warfare written by men who know what it’s like to be under fire, the Starfist saga is a runaway success across America. Now, in the explosive new Starfist adventure, packed with fierce action and danger, Marines at war in future space find themselves pitted against a faceless, insatiable foe bent on destroying them. And that’s just for starters.

How bad is the upcoming mission facing the battle-hardened Marines of 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST), the military’s unofficial alien first-contact force? Bad enough to make the brass take the unprecedented step of issuing 34th FIST replacements for combat losses before the Marines even leave their home base.

In response to a series of unexplained deaths on a lonely outpost on the frontiers of human space, 34th FIST has been dispatched to investigate–and eradicate– the problem. Beyond that, the information available to Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass and his men is meager even by Marine standards. No one knows what awaits them, for the newly colonized world remains largely unexplored. That means 34th FIST can expect creatures they have never seen, or even heard of, much less trained for. It could be Skink acid shooters, could be anything, for the barren station has several secrets–all of them deadly.

But the last thing these Marines expect to find is themselves in the middle of an invasion and a mysterious war–with none other than 34th FIST as Enemy #1. Whatever happens, they’ll deal with it, because they’re Marines, determined to be ready . . . and to give worse than they get.


From the Hardcover edition.

David Sherman is a former U.S. Marine and the author of eight novels about Marines in Vietnam, where he served as an infantryman and as a member of a Combined Action Platoon. He is also the author of the military fantasy series Demontech. ’s website at .

Dan Cragg enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and retired with the rank of sergeant major twenty-two years later. He is the author of Inside the VC and the NVA (with Michael Lee Lanning), Top Sergeant (with William G. Bainbridge), and a Vietnam War novel, The Soldier’s Prize. He has recently retired as an analyst for the Department of Defense.


From the Hardcover edition.

An exciting new special-ops adventure from the battle-tested vets who created the popular Starfist series

Jorge Lavager, charismatic leader of the mysterious Union of Margelan, ferociously guards an agricultural research facility on the planet Atlas. What that facility conceals will prove whether Lavager is an idealist seeking to unify Atlas under a banner of freedom and prosperity–or a tyrant aiming to control all of Human Space.

The Marines of Fourth Force Recon’s second platoon are dispatched to Atlas to uncover the truth. They will have to sneak past state-of-the-art surveillance equipment barring unlawful entry to the planet and land in a desolate area miles from their target. And if they discover lethal new weapons instead of legitimate research, the thirty-six Marines are to seize the compound–guarded by merciless, armed-to-the-teeth soldiers–and destroy it. But what the recon team finds on Atlas sets off a chain of events that will force some hard decisions on the Marines . . . and end in a deadly surprise.


From the Paperback edition.