Book 1 Cherry Drop by P.A. Piatt 4.33 · 717 Ratings · 45 Reviews · 3 editions
The ISMC Wants You!

Abner Fortis joined the International Space Marine Corps for two reasons: to escape a life of drudgery building biodomes for his father’s company and to pay off several billion credits in student loans, which the ISMC promised to do.

Every Space Marine starts out as a cherry, though, and Abner is no different. When he makes his first combat drop, or cherry drop, he’s a know-nothing second lieutenant added to the mission roster as an afterthought.

The Space Marines are tasked to support the Galactic Resource Conglomerate (GRC) while they test a revolution in military technology: Precision Crafted Soldiers (PCS). All the Space Marines have to do is kill bugs. Even when a tragic accident leaves Fortis in command, the mission is still an easy breather.

When the Space Marines discover proof of a long-buried betrayal, though, friends become enemies, and their mission goes awry. Does Fortis have what it takes to lead the Space Marines to survival in the face of overwhelming odds?


Book 2 China Mike by P.A. Piatt 4.44 · 463 Ratings · 19 Reviews · published 2021 · 4 editions
Lieutenant Fortis Is Back!

Fresh from fighting bugs and clones on Pada-Pada, Second Lieutenant Abner Fortis and Third Platoon look forward to some well-deserved liberty on Eros-69, a plutoid colony built to provide all the earthly pleasures available in the far reaches of space.

When Fortis’s nemesis reroutes Third Platoon to Eros-28 instead, though, the Space Marines discover they’ve been sent to an industrial colony with limited R&R opportunities and no way back to the flagship. Everything goes downhill from there as two Space Marines are arrested and accused of dealing China Mike—a highly addictive and illegal synthetic drug—and Fortis is forced to either get involved in the war against the cartel or abandon his Marines to the local legal system.

However, as their involvement in the drug war deepens, Fortis suspects the platoon has been plunged into the middle of something much bigger. Rumors of a growing resistance movement against the colonial government abound, and it appears his men are being used to do the security force’s dirty work of putting it down.

As Fortis navigates his way between the corrupt colonial government, a corporate espionage agent, intergalactic mercenaries, and his own chain of command, he has to find the truth of the situation and answer one important question—is there any way for Third Platoon to be successful when everyone else on the planet wants them to fail?


Book 3 Fresh Fruit and Ammo by P.A. Piatt 4.58 · 424 Ratings · 15 Reviews · published 2021 · 2 editions
“It took us three thousand years to find an intelligent species among the stars and only three months to pick a fight with them.” After the United Nations of Terra (UNT) Fleet Frigate Nelson reported an encounter with an alien spaceship, she disappeared without a trace. An alien race called the Maltaani have made their presence known by landing a mass of troops on Balfan-48, a desert planet located far too close to Terra Earth for comfort. Tensions are rising and tempers are growing short.The UNT responds by deploying ISMC’s Ninth Division aboard the flagship Atlas to the scene to investigate the Maltaani aggression. Blinded and deafened by enemy jamming, Ninth Division drops on Balfan-48 to counter the alien provocation.When Ninth Division is decimated by a sneak attack, it’s up to Second Lieutenant Fortis to lead the surviving Space Marines in a fight for their lives. Trapped in a shrinking perimeter, cut off from Fleet support, and short of everything except the enemy, the Space Marines fight the only way they know like hell.After Fortis samples a batch of DINLI brewed from lima bean rations, the radio-telephone operators ask him what message to send to Atlas in case the jamming ends. His response becomes a legend in the ISMC.“Tell them to send fresh fruit and ammo.”


Book 4 Gnamma by P.A. Piatt 4.52 · 413 Ratings · 15 Reviews · published 2021 · 3 editions
After a year-long war bond tour of Terra Earth while his battle wounds healed, Lieutenant Fortis is ready to get back to the ISMC infantry. When Fleet medical refuses to clear him for full duty, he faces a bleak future behind a desk in Personnel or Logistics. Instead, his mentor from Ninth Division, Colonel Anders, recruits Fortis for the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Branch of the ISMC intelligence organization.

Fortis’s first assignment is a top-secret mission to investigate a distress signal originating from Menard-Kev, a frozen planet on the far side of the Maduro Jump Gate. The Law of Space requires all distress signals be investigated, but the law never considered that the signal might come from contested space, or that an investigation might spark a resumption of open hostilities between races.

What they discover at their destination, though, is so stunning and disturbing that it could re-ignite all-out war between humans and the Maltaani. Far from home, unable to report their findings, only quick thinking and decisive action by Fortis and his team can save the day.

It’s not the mission they wanted but it’s the mission they got, and their orders are always the same: DINLI.

Do it; not like it.


Book 5 Diplomacy by P.A. Piatt 4.46 · 308 Ratings · 11 Reviews · published 2022 · 3 editions
Peace in Our Time!

After human and Maltaani forces cooperated to rescue the hostages being held by slavers on the icy planet of Menard-Kev, leaders on both sides agreed that peace between the races was desirable. A treaty was signed, and embassies were established.

Unrest between the Maltaani royalists, who rule their home planet, and their nationalist subjects—already at a low boil—intensifies with the establishment of the Terran embassy in the Maltaani capital city of Daarben, and, when a report is released stating that humans and Maltaani are of the same genetic stock, things are pushed to the breaking point. In the midst of this unrest, the Galactic Resource Conglomerate is operating in the shadows, completing deals that are sure to only push things further toward catastrophe.

With the security situation in the capital worsening, First Lieutenant Abner Fortis, now the executive officer of Lima Company, is ordered to establish a forward operating base at the spaceport near Daarben and stand by to assist the embassy in whatever way they need.

But, with things already falling apart, will Lima Company’s presence help keep the peace, or will they cause an international incident that finally pushes everything over the edge?


Book 6 Tango Two Two 4.60 · 323 Ratings · 8 Reviews · published 2022 · 3 editions
When diplomacy fails, send in the Space Marines

The Maltaani home world has been plunged into civil war. The anti-human nationalists have driven the royalists out of power and forced the government into exile aboard a Maltaani fleet orbiting the planet.

On Terra Earth, war fever grips the populace. Opportunistic politicians and war profiteers manipulate public opinion to demand the United Nations of Terra get involved. It’s a war everyone wants, and it’s a war everyone will get.

Brevet Captain Abner Fortis takes command of Tango Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment—Tango 2/2—just in time to join the fight. Tango 2/2 is a reconnaissance company, and their mission is to lead the way for the invasion force. The entire fighting force of the ISMC—nine divisions, forty-five thousand Space Marines—is depending on Fortis and Tango Company to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds. It’s a risky strategy, but if they can do it, the payoff is nothing less than the liberation of the Maltaani from their nationalist oppressors.

Fortis is reunited with his trusted comrade and Space Marine extraordinaire, Gunnery Sergeant Petr Ystremski. Together, they lead Tango Two Two on an increasingly desperate gambit as the invasion stalls, and they’re stranded behind enemy lines. With no good options, they do what Space Marines always do—pick a bad one and execute. After all, they’re paid to do it, not like it. There can be no failure. Win… or die.

DINLI!


Book 7 Uncivil War by P.A. Piatt 4.54 · 272 Ratings · 6 Reviews · published 2022 · 2 editions
The Space Marines won the war. Can they win the peace?

The newly formed Military Assistance Command-Maltaan (MACM), led by General Ellis Boudreaux, is facing serious problems.

The Maltaan rainy season has begun, and the unpredictable weather has significantly reduced flight operations. The east-west highway which connects the capital Daarben to Ulvaan, the only major city in the east, is choked with convoys transporting Precision Crafted Soldiers (PCS) to the helenium mines controlled by the Galactic Resource Conglomerate (GRC). The increasingly vulnerable rail line is the sole means of moving supplies to support Space Marines deployed in the east.

Thousands of PCS were abandoned by their Maltaani and human mercenary handlers, and it’s up to the Space Marines to collect them for the GRC.

The most recent harvest failed because there were no farmers to gather the crops, which has created severe shortages for the Maltaani in the east.

The royalist government, led by King Taalbin, has shown no interest in returning from exile, preferring to leave Maltaan in the hands of General Boudreaux.

And worse, the repatriation program designed to weed out hard core nationalists from the thousands of Maltaani POWs captured during the Space Marine invasion failed. General Staaber, the nationalist leader, slipped through the system and has returned home to lead the burgeoning insurgency. Captain Abner Fortis and his team of operators are only worried about the last problem, though. Their mission: kill General Staaber.

Easy to say, hard to do.

DINLI.

Book 8 Harvest by P.A. Piatt 4.45 July 7, 2023
Sometimes war isn’t a matter of victory, it’s a matter of survival.A year ago, Captain Abner Fortis led a dangerous mission to kill the leader of the Maltaani insurgency, a mission that almost cost the life of his best friend, Gunnery Sergeant Petr Ystremski. Since then, he’s been assigned to a research and development project while Ystremski recovered from his wounds.The United Nations of Terra (UNT) transformed the mission on Maltaan from military occupation to reconstruction and development, and the Military Assistance Command – Maltaani (MAC-M) was drawn down to a skeleton force.When an unknown fleet of ships arrives in the Maduro Sector and destroys the fleet supporting the Terrans on Maltaan, the UNT government is slow to react. General Nils Anders is deployed aboard the unarmed reconnaissance ship Eclipse Wonder to gather intelligence on the situation, and he’s accompanied by Captain Fortis, Gunny Ystremski, and the newly designated India Company.When Fortis leads India Company back to Maltaan, the Space Marines are forced to deal with an uncertain mission and little support. Outnumbered and outgunned, they do the only thing they Fight like hell.