A World of Hurt — David Sherman; Dan Cragg

After a series of unexplained deaths on a lonely outpost on the frontiers of Human Space, the battle-hardened Marines of 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST), the military's unofficial alien first-contact force, are dispatched to investigate--and eradicate--the problem. Yet the information available to Charlie Bass and his men is meager even by Marine standards. No one knows what creatures await them, for the newly colonized world remains largely unexplored. Hardly surprising: the barren station has several secrets, all of them deadly.

But the last thing these Marines expect to find is themselves in the middle of an invasion and a mysterious war--with none other than 34th FIST as Enemy #1. Whatever happens, they'll deal with it because they're Marines, determined to be ready . . . and to give worse than they get.