The first of a new line of novels set in the SF world of Infinty.
Four very different soldiers with four completely different views on the
conduct of war are left to lead the defence of Alpha Four Four as a full
scale offensive is mounted against them, all the while being left in the
dark as to what lies beneath MagnaObra's mysterious facility.
Sub Officer Kyle Hawkins is two days out of his training as a Knight
Hospitaller when he is sent to the jungle planet of Paradiso. After four
years of gruelling training as a warrior of the NeoVatican, criticised
by his superiors for his liberal, pacifistic theological views, he
volunteers for the Paradiso assignment in an attempt to prove his worth.
However, after arriving he finds that it is little more than a simple
security detail, attached to a platoon of Fusiliers of the PanOceanian
Light Infantry, guarding a sleepy MagnaObra research facility not far
from the border of Yujingyu territory known as Alpha Four Four. The
platoon Hawkins works alongside is led by Lieutenant Priya Shankar, a
driven, serious minded officer whose professionalism makes her popular
with her seniors, but seemingly cold and unapproachable to the soldiers
under her command. Experienced with peacekeeping, disaster relief
operations and ceremonial guard duties, Shankar has done everything
expected of a Fusilier officer - except actual combat.
Shankar is assisted by her veteran deputy, Sergeant Jim Cochrane, a
brash, gregarious ex-Indigo SpecOps soldier whose charisma and respected
combat experience holds the loyalty of the platoon. When the sleepy
research facility is probed by an unseen enemy force, Hawkins is
propelled into action alongside the Fusiliers as political tension
between PanOceania and Yu Jing quickly mounts. The secrets of what is
hidden beneath the research facility are rumoured to hold information
vital to the delicate relations between the Human Sphere, the mysterious
alien Tohaa and the deadly forces of the EI. Major Lisette Beckmann, a
beautiful but explosively violent operative of the PanO Strategic
Security Division is sent to Alpha Four Four just as the fighting begins
in earnest to act as a 'defence consultant'. Four very different
soldiers with four completely different views on the conduct of war are
left to lead the defence of Alpha Four Four as a full scale offensive is
mounted against them, all the while being left in the dark as to what
lies beneath MagnaObra's mysterious facility.
