This is a very complicated book. Although, if you just assume everything you’re going to read about dies during the story, then it might seem a little less complicated. We know that Cygni Corps is a unit of supposedly misfits from the regular MEC Marine Corps. For whatever reason, its members did something that didn’t quite qualify as getting a dishonorable discharge, so they throw them into this Corps and basically figure they will eventually all die! A simple way to get rid of a bunch of misfits without them going back home and telling their side of the story.
But, it hasn’t quite worked that way. Cygni Corps members are often used as guinea pigs and that starts with their Proteus injections. These injections have turned the Cygni Corps into super soldiers. One of these is Sergeant Marco Morelli. Marco has a history, just like everyone else, but he’s also learned to survive in Cygni Corps and learned how to fight very well. While the members of Cygni Corps tend not to last long, those you started out with due become your only friends and family as long as you and they live. He has developed an intimate relationship with a Staff Sergeant Ellen Weaver, a.k.a. “Hottie”, which is not favored by the command structure. Both he and Hottie were once just squad mates, but they both got promoted so now Morelli works directly for Hottie, an arrangement they both love very much.
The problem is that MEC Hq seems to always send them out on suicide missions one after another. Lately, they have been fighting different clans within known space and these clans are developing human/mechanical mutants to do their fighting. It’s almost impossible for “normals” to fight and defeat these mutants and the supply never seems to end. Mutants are coming in all different sizes and shapes all armed to the teeth or bigger than anything should be. They can survive in the vacuums of space, can be shot multiple times before it seems to affect them and some just plan don’t seem to die. Marco and Hottie have seen their share of mutants and would prefer these kind of engagements stop.
But, who or what is producing these mutants or at least giving them to the various human clans in the human sphere of influence. They don’t believe it’s an alien race that’s involved, but there are some pretty weird human clans that now barely appear to be human. Not long ago, one human Cygni Corps Warrant Officer doctor seems to have defected to the hive mind entity called the “Praetor”. This entity is believed to be the ones responsible for all these mutant strains but their location of origin escapes everyone. Then this human traitor doctor leaves a strange message on a mutated system that says she’s actually trying to help humanity defeat Praetor. But, is she truly trying to do that or is she laying a trap.
Well, of course Cygni Corps is tasked with trying to find out. And Antares Company of which Hottie and Marc are members are assigned the point of the spear to lead the charge against Praetor. The problem is that WO Dr. Hagen, the believed traitor, was in love with Marco and just maybe Maro had feelings for her. Will that have any influence on his ability to fight her? She has infiltrated Praetor and is supposedly trying to defeat it from the inside, but that’s kind of hard to tell unless they are very close to Praetor and Praetor doesn’t seem to be anywhere near known human space.
I find the space battles really confusing as there are a lot of parts and pieces flying around. There are also numerous companies/platoons and squads involved in the fighting that General Okoro is trying to manage. It’s hard to keep track of everybody during the intense fighting. I also don’t understand these Sergeants calling each other “Sir”. They do this all the time and that’s definitely not done in the US military. Of course, you can do anything you want in military science fiction and that’s what I like about it, but please keep some things normal! As they say, “Sergeants work for a living!”
This is the end of this series or so it seems. Not sure there’s many left to fight another day anyway. I doubt very seriously if any group of military to conduct such intense operations and a continuous basis as done in these books, but it is military science fiction and that’s probably what I like best. You can do it all, get shot, die and do it all again if the author wants.
==[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]==
==[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]==