The ATLAS mechanized battle suits are the pinnacle of military technology, boasting awesome destructive power—but what is behind the armor is only human. Rade Galaal, elite soldier and ATLAS operator, has been tested—and broken—by savage battles and devastating losses. Now, an old enemy poses a new threat.

The vile insectile aliens that once threatened Earth have regrouped to engineer a new apocalyptic assault on mankind, and the ATLAS mechs are called to defend the very survival of the human race.

On the desolate, far-flung moons of Tau Ceti II, there will come a reckoning. Earth’s adversaries are legion, and the planet’s soldiers—for all of their rigorous training and amazing ordnance—are only flesh and blood. But they possess a defiant will to survive. Will Rade find the strength to reforge his shattered spirit and defeat the alien onslaught before all is lost?

The desperate battle on far-flung Geronimo may have ended in a qualified victory for the elite MOTH soldiers in their devastating, atomic-powered ATLAS mechs…but the cost was a massive one, paid in blood. Rade Galaal, graduate of the toughest military training in the universe, barely survived the terrifying mission in deep space that claimed the lives of the two people he couldn’t afford to lose: a comrade who was more than a brother, and someone who was his whole world.

Lost, broken, and questioning his place as a MOTH and as a man, Rade faces a new crisis when an enemy force—a terrifyingly familiar one—threatens the future of humanity itself. Entering human territory from the depths of uncharted space where Rade lost everything, this massive alien vessel wears the face of death.

Once the nightmarish invader begins threatening total annihilation, can Rade and his team hope to prevail…or even survive?

The future of warfare has a name: ATLAS.

Three times the height of an ordinary man and ten times wider, the ATLAS mech represents the peak of combat engineering. Rade Galaal will become a one-man army…if he can survive the training.

The MOTHs: elite warriors, products of the most arduous military training known to man. Only the MOTHs can master the devastating, atomic-powered battle suits dubbed ATLAS, massive weapons-laden mechs that constitute an unstoppable ground force when piloted by the consummate soldiers of the MOTH teams. Can Rade make the grade, ascending from raw recruit to ATLAS war machine?

Careful what you wish for: when Special Warfare Command sets a mission beyond the limits of explored space, all of the conditioning, sacrifice, and hard-won skill—and the awesome might of the ATLAS technology—may not be enough to confront the unforeseen horrors found there. Rade’s dream of military glory might just turn out to be the ultimate nightmare.

Revised edition: This edition of ATLAS includes editorial revisions.