War is forever The people on Earth no longer remember how the human race was nearly obliterated centuries earlier during the terror visited upon them by the merciless Xul. But the Star Marines, thirty thousand light years from home, know all too well the horror that still lives. In the year 2886, in the midst of the intergalactic war that has been raging nonstop for nearly a decade, the unthinkable has occurred. Intelligence has located the gargantuan hidden homeworld of humankind's dedicated foe, the brutal, unstoppable Xul. The time has come for the courageous men and women of the 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Force to strike the killing blow. But misguided politics on an Earth that no longer supports their mission could prove the Marine's greatest enemy—as they plunge bravely into the maelstrom of conflict . . . and into the heart of a million-year-old mystery. “Well researched and quite imaginative.” - CNN Online War is forever The people on Earth no longer remember how the human race was nearly obliterated centuries earlier during the terror visited upon them by the merciless Xul. But the Star Marines, thirty thousand light years from home, know all too well the horror that still lives. In the year 2886, in the midst of the intergalactic war that has been raging nonstop for nearly a decade, the unthinkable has occurred. Intelligence has located the gargantuan hidden homeworld of humankind's dedicated foe, the brutal, unstoppable Xul. The time has come for the courageous men and women of the 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Force to strike the killing blow. But misguided politics on an Earth that no longer supports their mission could prove the Marine's greatest enemy—as they plunge bravely into the maelstrom of conflict . . . and into the heart of a million-year-old mystery. Ian Douglas is one of the many pseudonyms for writer William H. Keith, the New York Times bestselling author of the popular military science fiction series The Heritage Trilogy, The Legacy Trilogy, The Inheritance Trilogy, The Star Corpsman series, The Andromedan Dark series, and The Star Carrier series. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania. Galactic Corps Book Two of the Inheritance Trilogy By Ian Douglas HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2008 Ian Douglas All right reserved. ISBN: 9780061238628 Chapter One 1506.1111 First Platoon, Bravo Company Carson Gate/Cluster Space 0540 hrs, GMT Gunnery Sergeant Aiden Garroway wiggled a bit deeper into the bottle's embrace as the armorer swung the dome canopy down over his head and sealed it in place. "Link check," he heard, the Navy chief's words forming in his mind. The canopy was opaque, a nanosurfaced ceramic-iridium laminate impervious to almost anything up to a direct hit by a 100-gigawatt laser, but the bottle's electronics fed the external view directly into Garroway's brain, channeling the data through his cerebral implants. The armorer's face leered down at him, distorted by the feed's fisheye effect, and by the reflections from the fishbowl helmet of the man's vacwear utilities. "Link is on-line," Garroway replied. "You're going to have to fix that, though, Chief. God , you're ugly." The man laughed. "Not as ugly as the Xulies. Good luck, Marine." "Ooh-rah." With a thoughtclick, Garroway switched the data link to an external view, fed from the Ishtar 's outer hull. The view here, high above the stargate, was stunning, spectacular. . . . Carson was a nondescript double star near the fringe of Commonwealth space, a planetless pair of cool M-class dwarfs circling one another in a tight embrace. Two light hours out, so distant that the two suns themselves were merely bright ruby points of light against the background scattering of stars, the local stargate drifted in slow orbit, an immense, slender- rimmed hoop twenty kilometers across, gleaming silver and red in the somber light. The Marine transport Ishtar was drifting slowly toward the gate belly-first, some fifteen kilometers above the structure's center. Her ventral hatches were open, her forward dropdeck exposed to hard vacuum—hence the need for the armorer's helmet and sealed utilities. He switched the feed back to his pod's external optics. Around him, caught in the glare of overhead lights,were the launch racks holding other bottles, and Navy and Marine personnel—armorers, deckhands, and technicians—were moving among them, prepping each for drop. "Be sure to bring back some good suit vids, okay, Gunny?" the armorer told him. "I hear it's real pretty over there." "I'll see what I can do, Chief. But I imaginewe're going to be too busy to get anything artistic." "Shit, I didn't say artistic. I just hear the view's nice, is all. What I really want to see is some after-op combat footage of a bunch of dead Xulies!""You and me both, Chief." " Bravo Company ," another voice said, cutting in. The dry, staccato tones were those of the company commanding officer, Captain J