An original novel based on the groundbreaking and award-winning military sci-fi-action video game series Gears of War�written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss!Marcus Fenix. War hero. Decorated Gear. Loyal son. Traitor. As the Locust Horde advances into one of humanity�s last bastions�Ephyra�after ten years of a bloody global war that has seen billions die, Marcus does the unthinkable: he defies Colonel Hoffman�s orders and abandons his post in the middle of the battle in a bid to rescue his father, weapons scientist Dr. Adam Fenix. But Adam is buried in the rubble of a ferocious assault on the Fenix estate, and Ephyra falls to the enemy. As the Coalition of Ordered Governments struggles to defend Sera�s surviving humans from the invading �grubs,� Marcus faces a court martial. Deserting his post in wartime means the death penalty. But his sentence is commuted to forty years in the COG�s most notorious prison�known as the Slab�where a prisoner�s life expectancy is less than two years. In the Slab, there are no rules and no mercy. As Marcus begins a nightmarish day-to-day existence, it will finally be revealed why his sentence was commuted and who intervened to save his life. While his friends and fellow Gears Dom Santiago and Anya Stroud try to secure a legal appeal for him, Marcus learns to survive in an institution populated by the most dangerous dregs of society�not just the criminals imprisoned there, but also the corrupt guards.