Prologue
How we got here
The Bug War had been dragging on for many years. Humanity had created many new weapons and devised and redivised many strategies and plans to drive the bugs back. None of this seemed to be helping Humanity win the war. The simple truth Humanity had to face was the bugs had the numbers. The Arachnids could and did just keep laying eggs and hatching warriors who were ready to fight immediately. Humans even when the Strategic Integrated Coalition Of Nations (SICON) officially lowered the enlistment age to 16 and dropped training time to six months, still needed that 16 and a half years to get a warrior ready and out into the field against the bugs.
Logistics were also a major problem for SICON. It took more then a ton a week in supplies to keep one human warrior in the field on an alien world. The Arachnids did not have this problem. They could adapt themselves to any environment and come out ready to fight, living on whatever was own hand even each other. Arachnids did not need factory workers and administrative and support staffs. They had some subspecies for this but all of them could be pressed into the fight if needed or be cannibalized to keep the warriors fighting.
This was a war of genocide. There could be no surrender, no peace terms worked out, no diplomancy. If Humanity was to win this war then not only were even better weapons needed but better strategies and tactics to use them with were needed. This new strategy would need to be one of total war using and reusing everything and everyone available.
One of the most basic problems was bug infested planets could not be bombed out of existence. First, habitual planets are rare. Humanity would need them during the war to stage the next attack and after the war to rebuild and expand. Second this would not guarantee the bug infestation was removed. If any Arachnids survived then they could adapt to the devastation, radiation and even complete barrenness and launch new attacks against Humanity.
What the Federation needed was greater and more accurate Intelligence on the Arachnids. What they needed were troopers who could go in with limited supplies and no hope of relief to provide Military Intelligence on whether a planet had been infested or not. On what level of infestation there was and what kinds of subspecies were present. Robotic and Drone vehicles could not do the job. They did not have the intuitive senses and responses Federation needed suicide squads for these and hundreds of other similar missions, but SICON knew that they did not have any troopers to spare for these suicide missions.
The latest military leader charged with solving this and many other problems was Sky Marshall Bennet. She pondered on this dilemma for many days and nights. One day during a few brief hours of relaxation, she was partaking of her only vice and she was watching an old pre-Federation vid. This one told the story of a one of the old wars between nations of Earth about a unit of soldiers composed entirely of condemned soldier criminals. These soldiers were given a choice between a certain death sentence or going on a suicide mission. These misfits all choose to go and they scored a great victory for their side even though most of them died on the mission. She quickly realized this was a perfect answer for the new strategy. As with any war throughout history the bug war was producing many criminals along with a great many heroes. So now the Federation could get some use out of these malcontents and have them serve a better purpose then just dying for their crimes.
Sky Marshall Bennet's plan had no problem being quickly approved and put into immediate action. Condemned military prisoners were put into units and sent on missions to risky and dangerous for anyone else to attempt with a reasonable chance of coming back in one piece. In order to get them to go they were promised many things. They were told their records would be cleared and their families would never be told of their disgrace. They would be granted full citizenship in the Federation if they died on mission. If they performed well and survived then they would be allowed to rejoin regular military units with new identities and clean records.
What they were also told was depending on what they had been convicted of they would have to survive a certain number of missions based on their crimes. The lowest possible number was three, the highest never more then ten. They were not told that the actual odds of surviving one mission were calculated at worse then winning the lottery and sinking a whole in one on the same day.
It did not take long for the members of these new criminal squads to realize just how bad they had it. Since their only other choice was a death sentence, most carried on hoping to get that win against the odds. They were not given names for their squads, only numbered designations. Since they were all dead troopers anyway the members of these criminal squads began to call themselves a name of their own creation, the Walking Dead.
After five years and uncountable successful missions and even more failed ones, only one trooper has ever fully completed their mission count and was eligible to be released and returned to their unit. Reluctantly SICON returned him to a Regular Mobile Infantry platoon. However SICON does not know how one of the Walking Dead can return to life. But he does. Former Captain Daniel Ferguson has returned from the Walking Dead with not only a new life but a new mission. He will not only bring himself back to life but he will bring the entire Federation and back to the original goals the founding mothers and fathers set for it.