Kirov Series

In 2027, a powerful Chinese destroyer, Anshan, was sent on a "Freedom of Navigation" cruise through the famous Tsushima Strait—and it vanished. The Chinese blame the Japanese, but no one can solve the mystery except Director Pavel Kamenski, who visits Anton Fedorov again in Moscow. Another mission is proposed for Kirov, and both Fedorov and Karpov are eager to get underway. For Kamenski knows what happened to Anshan, and where it is. Now he sends Karpov, Fedorov, and the mighty Kirov to go and kill the wayward ship before it can unhinge the history of the Boxer Rebellion. Yet the disappearance of Anshan  has already started another conflict in 2027, as both China and Japan refuse to back down in the East China Sea. Kirov must return to help restore order when it looks like another war is imminent when two empires, one old and one new, begin a fateful clash at sea. In the meantime, the British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour launches an expedition to relieve the diplomatic legations in Peking, and the roots of the long enmity between China and Japan are chronicled in the First Sino- Japanese war at sea. It is a vendetta that persists even to our time and Kirov's point of origin in 2027.

Linked directly to Volume #69, the story begins with Fedorov still trapped inside the ancient Sphinx, but where it soon goes from there is a wild new twist, and a new story line. Hold on to your hats, Director Kamenski has another mission for Karpov, Fedorov, and crew, and it is different from anything  they have ever been asked to do. The problem is the dread Grand Finality rearing its ugly head again. Karpov thought the mission to the polar bases using Baikal  to plant hidden tactical nukes had made an end of the Finality when the initial Skeletal invasion was stopped, but now Kamenski reveals that the fierce Alien race is not yet through with Earth, and that they have planned for the annihilation of humanity another way. Kamenski gambles that men like Karpov, Fedorov, Troyak and his Marines are just the type to  foil the plot the Ice Men are hatching, but to do this they have to go to the strangest farthest place the saga has ever reached. The Skeletals are once again the primary antagonists, and it will take all Fedorov's reasoned wits, Karpov's razer sharp military instincts, and the muscle and bravado of Troyak and his Black Death Marines to pull this mission off against the most dangerous foe they have ever faced. It's an amazing twist in the series to try and save the earth itself and everything on it.

ABOUT EARTHFORCE MARS    Linked directly to Volume #70, Earth has completed a 100 ship navy in space and chosen Vladimir Karpov as its CIC. Now Karpov leads a Task Force from the new Earthforce battle fleet to Mars to seek out and eliminate any alien presence there, but he and Fedorov find much more than they were expecting.    The year is 2130, and learning that the Kroth, or the Skeletal Ice Men, will arrive with a new invasion fleet in just five years, Karpov intends to use that time to scour the Solar system and eliminate any Krothi outposts, bases, or ships that remain. He will also establish a military footprint on Mars to hold that planet as Earth's forward base.     Leading a twelve ship squadron, Karpov soon finds Mars is already under attack by raiding Krothi forces. So the war begins early, on Mars, in the Inner Asteroid Belt, at the Moons of Jupiter and Saturn and even farther, to the outer limits of the Solar system near the Kuiper Belt.        In the deep Marineris Valley, Earthforce enters a system of caves in the canyon wall to root out a suspected Krothi base. There, Troyak, Karpov, and Fedorov make a startling discovery about Mars that will change everything then known about the rise of Humanity on Earth.

ABOUT INVASION MARS: After a whirlwind campaign to discover and eliminate Krothi bases in the Solar System, the action on Mars intensifies when the Vanguard of the alien fleet arrives early with 36 ships. With only 24 Earthforce Ships provisioned for active duty, Karpov relies on his inherent skill to try and defeat the Kroth in detail. At the same time, hidden Kroth forces on Mars and others reaching the moons Phobos and Deimos, begin a round of new attacks on Earthforce bases and outposts on Mars. Earthforce struggles to surge ships and Marines to Mars in a wave of successive convoys, while Karpov must divide his attention between close support of Mars operations and his campaign to scour the inner and outer system of Krothi support bases. Meanwhile, Fedorov begins a series of Recon missions aimed at finding any hidden Kroth "Sleepers" on Mars. His efforts lead him to some amazing discoveries about this alien adversary, their biology, and a greater threat that may already lie hidden right beneath the surface of Mars. An attempt to purge their nests with  stronger weapons leads to a disaster that underscores more unknown capabilities of the Kroth, and shakes Fedorov and Karpov when Director Kamenski makes a startling revelation. Answers to unsettled mysteries rooted deep in the Kirov Series are revealed here for the first time, and long time series readers will not want to miss the sequence now underway as the "Mars Trilogy." Here is Volume two of that group—Invasion Mars!