James 'Red' Maddox was born in a cloning tube for one purpose: to work. That's all his life offers, just the prospect of decades of back-breaking labor until he dies.
That's until a Federation dropship touches down on Genesis-526. Suddenly hard labor doesn't seem so bad, because the Federation Ground Corps needs fresh meat. And they don't take no for an answer... The problem, in Red's eyes, is their 7% survival rate.
Until he's offered a lifeline - the Mech Corps. They're the elite. The first in and last out of every fight, piloting twenty foot tall steel beasts of war. But no tuber has ever made it into the Corps, and they want to keep it that way. The instructors want him out, the other recruits want him gone, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure it happens.
Red's about to find out that he's jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire. And over the course of four books and more than 1,000 pages, he'll be forced to battle fellow recruits, aliens, the Federation's greatest enemies, and eventually, the Federation itself...