Recruit

Bred to work.Trained to fight.Sent to die.James Maddox is a colony rat. A tuber: born in a vat to live, work, and die on Genesis-526. The only way off a toxic dustball like Genesis is to enlist. But with a 7% three-year survival rate, the Federation's Ground Corps doesn't look too appealing...Still, the recruiters are always looking for fresh meat. And they don't take no for an answer.So when a Federation dropship descends from the sky, Maddox isn't given a chance to run. Hell, the damn thing nearly kills him. And that's before he's picked up, strapped to a rocket and fired at a training carrier in orbit. Ready to become cannon fodder on some alien battlefield.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. But they've never met a tuber quite like James Maddox. Compared to working to death on Genesis, training is a piece of cake. And it's definitely better than getting shot at. After all, boot camp is a long way from the front line. But when your ship is capable of interstellar travel, it's closer than you might think...