BIOWEAPON Eclipse

The year is 2220, and Mars has been settled for a century. Rather than becoming a second home for people, the planet is inhabited by therians, genetically engineered beast-human hybrids whose name comes from the Greek word for beast. Their makers were scientists backed by dictators on Earth who hoped to turn them into super-soldiers for conquest. The creations turned on their masters instead. The Beast War, also called the first interplanetary war or the Earth-Mars war, ran from 2197 to 2200. The therians, calling themselves the Chimera Regime, tried to invade Earth under Alpha Amarok Kron, a merciless wolf-therian who held that the strongest should rule. At first their strength, speed and stamina gave them the advantage, along with experimental weapons their creators had left behind. That changed when Earth built battle androids stronger than the therians. An elite special operations unit called Eclipse drove the Chimera back to Mars.

Marcus Valko is an android, the son of Masumi, a leading AI programmer and head of Valko Industries, the company she built with her late husband Audric, who died during the war. Five years ago, Marcus was presented to the world as the first techno-organic android, the most human-like robot yet made. He has accepted this story without question until now. Marcus has found an armored battle mode he was never told existed, and that discovery has drawn him into conflict with the Chimera Elite, a special operations team led by Randor Kron, heir to the Chimera Regime. He has also encountered a mysterious fox-therian who can shapeshift and wield fire, powers normal therians lack.

The story asks who, or what, Marcus really is, why the Chimera Elite and the Regime's heir are so interested in him, and what role the kitsune-like fox-therian plays. It also asks whether Marcus will be happy with the answers he uncovers.