Bestselling author Tanya Huff returns to the Confederation series of military science fiction with a novel where nothing is as it seems, even in the most familiar places…

For Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr, it's a relief to find that no matter what changes shake the Confederation, basic training stays the same. Fresh recruits arrive, get their butts kicked by a drill instructor, preview combat conditions on Crucible, and leave remade as Marines. When she reaches Ventris to debrief on her encounter with the most alien life form yet, she finds her very own drill sergeant shepherding along his final batch of recruits. By the time she's offered a chance to follow her DI's platoon to Crucible—instead of answering yet more suspicious questions from every officer in the galaxy—twenty days of simulated war sounds almost like a vacation.

But as soon as their boots hit dirt, Crucible's controlled combat environment starts looking entirely too realistic. Platoon 72 is facing actual battles, with no idea who they're fighting or how they've infiltrated the system. No one offplanet knows. And if Torin can't figure out what's happening, fast, none of them will be leaving alive…