Cainan and Sharan survive a meteor‑induced quake and an unexpected base assault; they meet Eneshan commandant Aten Randt, attempt an underground rail escape, Cainan kills Aten, and are captured by human forces led by Lt. Jane Sagan, who discovers the base’s seismic‑rock camouflage, Cainan’s research on human genetics, his Fronig’s syndrome condition, administers a chemical antidote, and learns of an imminent three‑race genocide plan.
Robbins discovers the morgue body is a genetically perfect clone of Dr. Charles Boutin; military leaders debate the ethics and legality of cloning a civilian and transferring his stored consciousness, then decide to grow a Special Forces soldier from Boutin’s genes and attempt to upload his copied mind using Consu‑derived technology.
The Union clones Dr. Charles Boutin, grows a Special Forces body, attempts to upload his stored consciousness, and wakes the unfinished soldier without the BrainPal, resulting in a scream and a debate over the soldier’s fate.
Jared Dirac, a newly “born‑grown” Special Forces recruit, is awakened by Judy Curie, learns that his thoughts are fed by a BrainPal implant, receives his name, and is taught the difference between accelerated “born‑grown” soldiers and normal “realborn” humans. He is escorted by Lieutenant Cloud, who engages him in a series of jokes during a shuttle ride to Camp Carson. Upon arrival he meets his instructor Gabriel Brahe, who brings him to a barracks where fifteen other Special Forces trainees are waiting. Brahe initiates a forced neural integration that instantly uploads the memories and emotions of the entire squad into Jared’s consciousness, causing him to collapse before the squad helps him up and begins to interact with him.
Jared Dirac, a newly “born‑grown” Special Forces recruit, begins a two‑week accelerated training under Sergeant Gabriel Brahe. The squad undergoes forced neural integration that instantly shares the memories and emotions of all fifteen members with Jared. Brahe explains their purpose‑born status, superior speed of learning, and distrust from “realborn” humans. The trainees rapidly acquire drill basics, learn the multifunction MP‑35A “Empee” rifle and its nanobot‑generated ammunition, and receive assignments to study etiquette, Frankenstein, and other cultural material. They experiment with humor, profanity, and interpersonal conflict, and practice combat integration, including vision‑sharing on an obstacle course where they run blindfolded using each other’s perspectives. The chapter also details Jared’s reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the parallel drawn between the Special Forces and the monster, and his subsequent exploration of other created beings. By the end of the week the squad has mastered basic combat, weapon options, and the neural‑integration technique that allows them to fight as a single, aware entity.
General Szilard assigns Private Jared Dirac— a “born‑grown” Special Forces recruit implanted with Charles Boutin’s brain pattern—to Lieutenant Jane Sagan, who worries about latent traitorous consciousness. Administrator Cainen (Rraey) explains that Dirac lacks the “software” (memory) to host Boutin’s consciousness. The Kite battles a Rraey cruiser with Skip‑Drive surprise, rail‑gun projectiles, and nuclear missiles. The Kite’s crew, including Sagan’s 2nd Platoon, lands on the wildcat settlement Gettysburg. The platoon suffers internal tension, then engages Rraey troops; Dirac is gravely wounded, uses SmartBlood to burn a Rraey attacker, and is rescued by Sagan. The team discovers the colonists slaughtered in a cold‑room, including children. Sagan orders identification of the victims. After the sweep, the platoon holds an after‑battle orgy, reinforcing neural integration. Sagan confronts Dirac about his first mission and the political cause of the wildcat settlement, and warns him to stay vigilant.
The 2nd Platoon conducts a high‑altitude night insertion over Dirluew during the Chafalan celebration, using three disguised satellite‑borne particle beams to cripple the Hierarch’s Palace, create a precise shaft to the heir’s nursery, and open a secured corridor. The squad breaches the palace, kills the hierarch’s consort, captures the pre‑metamorphic heir Vyut Ser, sterilizes her with nanobot‑laden injectors, suffers heavy casualties (Sarah Pauling and Julie Einstein), escapes under fire, and Lt. Jane Sagan hijacks a live feed to the Hierarch, demanding an end to the three‑race war, a new consort, and leveraging the heir’s sterility to force Eneshan political collapse. The chapter concludes with Sagan ordering Dirac to kill the heir, then taking the knife herself as the infant stops crying.
Jared Dirac’s consumption of black jellybeans triggers vivid memories of his deceased daughter Zoë and causes a sudden, uncontrollable green mutation of his arm. He vomits in a public corridor, is pursued by CDF security, and violently forces his way past a guard to reach his laboratory, where he encounters the Rraey scientist Cainen, who claims to be a “trap‑soldier” created to catch a traitor. Cainen’s presence leads to Jared being struck in the head with a stun bolt and taken to the Phoenix Station infirmary. General Szilard interrogates Jared, confirming his designation as Private Jared Dirac, his assignment to the Kite, and probing his lack of knowledge about Dr. Charles Boutin—yet noting Jared’s fleeting belief he was Boutin while in the lab. General Greg Mattson appears; Jared instinctively punches him, after which Mattson and Szilard debate the significance of Jared’s emerging Boutin memories. Mattson assigns Jared to Colonel James Robbins for further observation and orders his BrainPal set to continuous recording and GPS tracking. Lieutenant Jane Sagan delivers a personal exhortation urging Jared to remember his own identity. Later, in Robbins’ lab, Cainen returns, explains three displayed consciousness signatures (Boutin’s archived mind, Jared’s original training‑phase mind, and the current hybrid), and offers Jared a decisive choice: to undergo another full‑scale consciousness transfer that could overwrite his own mind, or a less invasive method to coax more Boutin memories. Jared chooses to continue the integration, expressing a desire to uncover the truth about Boutin while affirming his own self, prompting Cainan to prepare the next phase of memory extraction.
Szilard proposes a covert insertion of Private Dirac into the Obin‑controlled Omagh system using a miniature Skip‑Drive sled; Dirac and Wilson infiltrate Covell Station, find it largely intact, encounter the space‑adapted “Gameran” rock‑creatures, recover personal artifacts of Charles Boutin (his daughter’s drawing and a Babar toy) that trigger vivid memories, survive an Obin scout attack, and return with new insight into Boutin’s motives and the upcoming conflict.
Jared confronts General Mattson about Zoë’s death, learns he now carries Charles Boutin’s memories, and is warned by Rraey scientist Cainen that his new mindset could make him repeat Boutin’s betrayal. He is reassigned to Special Forces under General Szilard, receives a mission briefing that Boutin was last seen on the Obin moon Arist, and, after a brief interaction with Lieutenant Cloud and a visit to Zoë’s grave, is ordered by Lieutenant Sagan to prepare for a twelve‑hour strike on Arist as the Obin begin targeting Special Forces units.
Sagan is given a mind‑reading BrainPal upgrade and uses it to listen to Dirac’s squad as they ready the Arist mission; the team’s BrainPal integration is suddenly blocked by the Obin, causing loss of shared perception, the death of several squad members (including Alex Roentgen), and a chaotic retreat. Survivors regroup, decide to send Seaborg back with the capture pod to report to CDF, and realize the Obin are now aware of their presence and moving in.
The squad is forced to surrender to Obin, fenced in with flechette guns, taken to a Consul science station, and meets a clone of Charles Boutin who explains the Consul uplift of the Obin, reveals a hidden BrainPal back‑door that he used to jam the squad’s neural links, and begins recording Jared Dirac’s consciousness while showing him his dead daughter Zoë.
Zoë is revealed to be alive, kept in a containment box while Boutin conducts an experiment; Boutin explains the Obin rescued her after the Rraey attack on Covell and details the Obin’s lack of consciousness. Jane Sagan, Daniel Harvey, and Seaborg test the perimeter gun emplacements, discover their limited elevation, and exploit a tall flexible tree to launch themselves over the guns—resulting in Wigner’s death and Sagan’s successful escape, after which she destroys an Obin hover‑craft using its crew as a projectile. Boutin delivers an extensive monologue about the Obin’s engineered lack of self‑awareness, his plan to grant them consciousness as a weapon, the Consul’s role, the Colonial Union’s oppressive policies, the Conclave’s peace project, and a proposed BrainPal‑based virus that would wipe out CDF soldiers; he reveals that Jared’s cloned mind is intended to be the carrier for this virus. The chapter ends with Boutin confirming his recording of Jared’s consciousness is complete and confronting Jared about the pending transfer.
The team carries out the raid on the Obin‑run science station: Harvey creates a loud distraction, Seaborg sabotages the generator, Sagan moves in to extract Boutin (and faces Dirac), a massive explosion forces a forced consciousness transfer from Boutin to Jared, Jared dies, and Zoë is left in a precarious rescue situation.