Eamon Tauk was literally born into the Space Corps. They spent two decades forging him into a Marine. Training him to be a killer. Twisting him into a fanatic. Then they assigned him to protect Dr. Jella Duverii, a mildly subversive alien zoologist who could very well undo all the work they put into him.

When the young cadet and his charge crash land on Kanaris with the survivors of their Recon battalion, they find themselves leagues away from their objective, marooned in an environment so hostile even the trees seem hellbent on killing them. After the Marines are denied rescue for no other reason than to protect the reputation of a high-born coward, Jella begins to educate Tauk on the dynamics at play that have the Kyperion League teetering on the brink of civil war.

As Tauk watches over Dr. Duverii during the long slog to Narman’s Pyke, she teaches him how to combat the horrific creatures stalking them through the rainforest. He must figure out for himself, however, that the biggest threats to their lives are not the beasts lurking beneath the Kanarisian underbrush.

It is the monsters who sent them to Narman’s Pyke in the first place.