The Inheritance Trilogy is a series of military science fiction books written by

William H. Keith Jr. William H. Keith (born August 8, 1950) is an American author mainly contributing to military science fiction and military fiction and related game design, who writes also under several pen names, such as Ian Douglas, Robert Cain and H. Jay Ri ...

that focus on the United Star Marine Corps. The trilogy is the sequel to the Heritage Trilogy and the Legacy Trilogy.

List of novels

*''Star Strike'' (2008) *''Galactic Corps'' (2008) *''Semper Human'' (2009)

Background

When the centuries-old refugee ship ''

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...

'' is destroyed by a Xul sentry, Earth is in danger yet again. After conquering Alighan of the Islamic Theocracy, the United Star Marines must fight the Xul, but unlike previous encounters, the Marines are taking the offensive. The United Star Commonwealth sends the 1st Marine Interstellar Expenditionary Force (1MIEF) to fight the Xul out in space so as to buy time for the rest of humanity. The 1MIEF decides to investigate a system where it appears an alien race caused its sun to go

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

. There they discover a race of aliens that fought the Xul before by destroying their suns. The Marines use one of these weapons to destroy a Xul base. Ten years after the events of ''Star Strike'', humans have located the homeworld of the Xul, deep within the Galactic Center. The 1MIEF wants to destroy the system, but misguided politics on Earth no longer support the war against the Xul and attempt to shut the mission down. Eventually a compromise is reached with a peace mission going along with the 1MIEF. The humans arrive at the exact center of the galaxy and discover a dyson sphere (or cloud) around the

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

in the center of the galaxy. Worse, the Xul are developing a weapon that can rewrite nearby reality, making targets like starships no longer exist. The peace mission fails and the Marine forces cause a star to go off course toward the black hole destroying the Xul's dyson cloud. In the epilogue this awakens a trans-galactic intelligence previously unable to access the Milky Way due to the Xul's interference.

External links

* Novels about ancient astronauts Military science fiction novels Fiction about novae Science fiction book series Science fiction novel trilogies Space marines Novels by Ian Douglas Novels about the United States Marine Corps {{2000s-mil-sf-novel-stub