Major Arthur Farrell and the troops of Strike Force Company C41 had
seen too much war with the alien Kalendru. They had too many screaming
memories to be fit for combat again, but they were far too dangerous to
themselves and others to be returned to civilian life.
The bureaucracy that administered human affairs arranged a final
mission with the same ruthless efficiency as it conducted the war
against the Kalendru. C41 would guard a colony being sent to a hell
planet. If the troops succeeded, they might be ready to return to human
society.
When the mission went horribly wrong, Art Farrell and his troops
found their lives on the line as never before, protecting civilians to
whom bureaucratic injustice was a new experience. And there was one
more thing...