China Mike

Lieutenant Fortis Is Back! Fresh from fighting bugs and clones on Pada-Pada, Second Lieutenant Abner Fortis and Third Platoon look forward to some well-deserved liberty on Eros-69, a plutoid colony built to provide all the earthly pleasures available in the far reaches of space. When Fortis’s nemesis reroutes Third Platoon to Eros-28 instead, though, the Space Marines discover they’ve been sent to an industrial colony with limited R&R opportunities and no way back to the flagship. Everything goes downhill from there as two Space Marines are arrested and accused of dealing China Mike—a highly addictive and illegal synthetic drug—and Fortis is forced to either get involved in the war against the cartel or abandon his Marines to the local legal system. However, as their involvement in the drug war deepens, Fortis suspects the platoon has been plunged into the middle of something much bigger. Rumors of a growing resistance movement against the colonial government abound, and it appears his men are being used to do the security force’s dirty work of putting it down. As Fortis navigates his way between the corrupt colonial government, a corporate espionage agent, intergalactic mercenaries, and his own chain of command, he has to find the truth of the situation and answer one important question—is there any way for Third Platoon to be successful when everyone else on the planet wants them to fail?