New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglass virtuosic Star Corpsman series proves one thing: The Marines are still the toughest sons of guns in the galaxy.As Bravo Company defuses a hostage crisis on an orbiting mining station, Navy Corpsman Elliot Doc Carlyle not only saves the lives of a wounded Marine and two extraterrestrial friendlieshe averts a terrorist strike intended to kill billions. His reward? Deployment on a recon mission into the darkest depths known to man.Abyss Deep is a foreboding ocean planet torn by extremes: boiling storm world on one side, unbroken glacier on the other. Humans established a research colony there to study the planets giant sea serpentsbut the colony has gone ominously silent. When Carlyles team arrives, they discover a vessel belonging to a warlike alien species hovering above the atmosphere. But below the ice lurks a mystery so chilling it will make even Elliot Carlyles blood run cold.