This is the final part of the novel The Forever War, Mandella whole on Stargate is put into an ‘Accelerated Life Simulation Computer’ and he is linked up to the system where he begins going through simulated environments, learning how to use weapons effectively as well as being pumped full of 500 years worth of intense army training and history. The newly promoted major takes up his position aboard the Masaryk II star ship with a mission to set up base on a far out portal planet just the other side of the Sade-138 collapsar in unknown territory on the edge of explored space, which was discovered from an interception of Tauran information. There was a high probability that the portal is used by the Taurans to make jumps into our solar system which made the mission high priority in tracking the Taurans back to their home planet. Over the course of the last 500 years Earths population I has fluctuated greatly rising to a high point of over 9 billion before the government starts to promote homosexual relationships as a way of stopping the population increase, this then resulted in heterosexuality being made illegal for a short period and the introduction of test tube babies on a mass scale who can be born within a much shorter period of time, this then results in the fact that Mandella is the only heterosexual on the whole ship.
Once on the portal planet just the other side of the Sade-138 the base is set up on the inhospitable planet with most of the base underground the base is surrounded by mines a trench and anti aircraft lasers. After months of waiting out their time in the base the strike force has fallen into the idea that their posting was in the wrong place and that the Taurans would never come. With the Masaryk II still in the planets orbit the Taurans arrive and send out drone ships as well as fighters in which the Masarky does the same but through Sade-138 a second Tauran cruiser appears and as a result the Masarky is destroyed. The Taurans sustain damages and with only one cruiser left they wide out the remaining drones and fighters deployed by the Masarky are destroyed apart from one fighter who flees away through space accompanied by two drone ships.
After the Taurans have re-assessed the situation some time later the turn their attention on the base by deploying their entire force of drone ships to take out the bases defences. After they defences are somewhat neutralised they then send out 16 troop ships to finish the job. Upon this happening the Mandella deploys troops to fight against the incomeing waves of Taurans which are advancing into the mine field surrounding the base. The rogue fighter that fled the battle with 2 drone ships then slingshots around the collapsar and sends one of the drone ships crashing through the star ship destroying it and another into the planet itself this then causes a huge earthquake which take out a number of Taurans and Humans alike.
With the collapse of the underground base Mandella then gives the signal to fall back to the statis field which is a large force field like dome which cannot be penetrated or have any kind of laser weapon fired through or in as well as having the same effect on explosion and most weaponry. The statis field is being used to encase one fighter near the base encase needed for escape as well as an armoury of primitive weapons such as swords spears and bows and arrows that can be used inside the statis field itself. The only drawback to the statis field is that there is no means of communication inside it and there is no way to see out of the outside walls of it.
The Taurans then start catapulting darts through the statis field taking out the soldiers then they pile through the outside and Mandella’s troop fight them back until the Tourans start retreating outside the statis field and Mandellas crew take two bombs off the fighter and drop them outside the edge of the field then detonate them wiping out the rest of the Taurans. Once the lower the field the pilot of the fighter that was left returns and the remaining crew divide between the two remaining ships and head for Stargate.
When the crew return to Stargate the base is buzzing with other ships and the troops get the idea they’ll be sent straight off again however they are greeted by a race of clones with a single consciousness which is now the most part of the human race and they are told that the war was over some 200 years ago and that a ship of these clones which are collectively called ‘Man’ made contact with the Taurans as they were themselves clones of the perfect Tauran and the Taurans had been cloning for thousands of years and had no experience with war until humans started attacking them, so they were forced to relearn what they had forgotten all those centuries ago. Due to the war ending over 200 years ago all the soldiers still in action had their records turned to paper form as the records computers were being shut down and on receiving his Mandella has a letter in it from Marygay who is in constant interstellar fight on a shuttle that goes between Earth and the planet Middle Finger where she is living until he returns home so therefore she ages much slower.
The final page of the novel is a short epilogue, a news paper article telling of Marygay Potter the second oldest person living on Middle Finger giving birth to a baby boy.
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