2565 A.D. Five centuries ago, Earth sold 1% of its children into slavery, the price of protection from the regional superpower. One group of slaves was bio-engineered and augmented to fight for alien officers as the Human Marine Corps. To most alien eyes the Corps is a joke: plasma fodder equipped with third-rate cast-offs and so stupid that they go off to die actually believing they are genuine warriors. But there are others who look deeper and see...