This is the third book of this series, and due to prior events, Torin Kerr has been promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. She’s also stuck giving briefings to officers, on a seemingly endless rotation. So when Major Svensson, who has recently come back from being reduced to pretty much a brain and spinal cord, asked her along as an aid while his new body is tested, to be done on the Marine’s base camp planet – Crucible – Kerr jumps at the chance. They’re going along with one of the trainee platoons, so things should be easy, right? Unfortunately, someone seems to have overridden Crucible’s training protocols, and they’re under fire from live rounds.
I really enjoyed this book, like I have the rest of the series. The story is mainly about Kerr, but the other Marines are always featured prominently – it’s interesting to see a bunch of raw recruits turn into real soldiers. I also like the bad guy in this story – it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t the first choice for baddee, but I did not see the actual villain coming. Really good story all around – I’ll be reading the last book in the series shortly.