Suffering a brain concussion, West is rescued among the corpses of several US Marines. A Silicate decides that either Vansen or Damphouse will die and leaves the choice up to them. Wang is tortured and broken by a ruthless Silicate while West discovers that Kylen is among other prisoners. The 58th crash-land on a moon deep inside enemy territory and Wang, West, Vansen and Damphousse are captured by Silicates while Cooper and McQueen manage to flee and evade capture. The plan is to attack the aliens' homeworld in order to raise troop morale - a plan that goes horribly wrong. The USS SARATOGA captures a Chig bomber and McQueen suggests that they use the vessel as a Trojan Horse. Unable to control their innermost fears they begin to turn on each other. The members of the 58th are victims of a Chig mind-altering weapon on the contested planet Tartarus. Meanwhile West is informed that high-ranking UN officials knew about the alien threat before the colonists were sent to the Vesta Colony. The UN assembly decides to gather upon the USS SARATOGA to choose a replacement, while a mandatory loyalty test is imposed upon all In Vitroes in the military, including Colonel McQueen and 1LT Cooper Hawkes. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is assassinated by an In Vitro. Recruiting the Wild Cards for a classified mission, he changes the mission's objective as soon as they're behind enemy lines. A mutiny forces Hawkes and McQueen, both In Vitroes, to make a difficult decision.Ī mysterious Colonel arrives unexpectedly on the USS SARATOGA. The ship is attacked and the captain decides to sacrifice part of his In Vitro cargo in order to save his ship. The 58th travel upon a civilian cargo hauler. The Wild Cards are sent to secure a major fuel ore mining facility, only to find it in the hands of enemy Silicates. Hoping that his missing girlfriend Kylen somehow survived, West goes AWOL with a hammerhead and flies down to the planet. The Space carrier USS SARATOGA passes close to the planet Tellus where human colonists were ambushed. However not everything is as it seems and the inexperienced 58th are suddenly thrown into a desperate battle. The half-trained 58th Squadron, The Wild Cards, based upon the space carrier USS SARATOGA is deployed to the far rear. The recruits are sent on a training mission.Ĭaptured enemy information reveals the battle plans of the alien attackers. While they train to become aviators, war is declared and human military forces suffer several costly defeats. A human colony 16 light-years away is attacked and destroyed by an unknown alien force (the Chigs) while a group of youngsters enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

Above and beyond