ATM — Walter Knight

In the nineteenth installment of this super-sillious science fiction series, the CIA continues to plot and scheme, enlisting wary partner legionnaire Manny Lopez. The Arthropodan commander of planet New Colorado's New Gobi Desert spider troops is included only by default and kept in the dark about ‘need to know' details â€" but there's bound to be some time travel involved. Their ambitious secret plan to build up troops for the coming scourge of space locusts involves a Legion recruitment ATM that achieves the ultimate in sentience and mobility in the form of an artificial human being. Luckily, Colonel Joey R. Czerinski knows nothing about any of it, or he'd surely screw up everything.

As Private Atm tries to blend in with surrounding humans, it becomes clear even to Czerinski that the private is a little ‘different.' And that's saying something, considering how peculiar Privates Krueger and Knight are. But Czerinski blithely assumes it can all be chalked up to good old-fashioned stupidity. However, even the spider commander realizes there's something more to Private Atm than meets the eye, and he's determined to find out what it is.

The naughty camel Hargundu and even the Grim Reaper make cameo appearances as the legion continues with its old tricks under Czerinski's bumbling command. A native spider population is culturally contaminated, and much destruction and ado takes place over a new casino with suspected uranium deposits underneath. The humans and spiders clash with their usual ‘up yours' attitude, and the perpetual preposterousness continues!