Total Assault Book Series

Total Assault Book Series. The Book Series takes place some 17 years before the games do, and mainly explain humanity's earliest encounters with The Spawn.

A Total Assault (Novel)
The book is about the crew of a ship known as the UEM Valhalla. In this book the UEM are supposedly an alliance of different military factions, UEM stands for United Embassies Military. Humanity has been at war with an alien covenant known as the Zodiac, and they are fighting a loosing battle. Captain David Shepard is ordered by General William Cutter to investigate a floating Zodiac Planet Killer known as The Blood Well to search for Zodiac weapons that they can use against them. Shepard and his crew dock at the ship found in orbit around a planet known as Tamria. When they board the ship, however, it is completely deserted, and dead bodies of the aliens known as Arians are found everywhere. The Arians are supposedly the Founding Fathers of the Zodiac, and are thus so dubbed Purists by the Humans. Falser, one of Cutter's head crewman, finds a dead Arian, and brings him aboard the ship. Cutter notices that the Arian appears sick, and, Donahue, the Science Officer, notices a malformity in the Arian's Pituitary Gland, and that the creature might be 'infected' with some form of Virus, or Parasite. About an Hour later, the Arian begins to mutate, and the infected alien breaks out of the Med-Lab and escapes into the Valhalla's air-duct system. The 6 crewmembers, Shepard, Falser, Donahue, Miller, Fetch, and Lambert go on a search for the Arian, to kill it before it destroys their engines, which is where they find out that it is headed. When they get to the Engine Room Antechamber, Lambert is killed by it, but they find out that it has mutated beyond recognition. It has grown tentacles and extra flabby skin and had grown tendrils out of its face, its head had been enlongated into a point, and it had no visible face. The Parasite that had infected its Pituitary Gland had morphed its body into a killing machine. Miller managed to drive the creature off by activating the heat jet. They try to shut off the Engine Room automatically, but the Heat Jet fried the control panel, leaving the only alternative being to enter the maintenance shaft and close it manually. Unfortnatly, it is connected to the Air Ducts. Donahue volunteers to go in. He goes in alone. Donahue manages to close off the Engine Room, but is killed by the Creature soon after. The 4 of them split into teams of 2, prepping the Shuttle for Evac, realiing that the creature was inside the Engine Bay when it was shut, in there with Donahue. Fetch goes with Miller, and Shepard goes with Falser. Miller and Fetch went to grab the fuel reserves whil Shepard and Falser went to close off the Evac Bay. While Millet and Fetch are getting the fuel, they are attacked by the creature, which had mutated further into a massive gelatanous blob of swarming Parasites copied from the original. Shepard and Falser rush to the scene but on their way there they are contacted by an Entity, known only as The Entity, or TE. TE tells them that the creature onboard their ship is descendant of a race of creatures responsible for the fall of a might Empire of beings known as the Havonians who supposedly created the Universe and Universes that they (Humans) call home. TE calls the creature, the Spawn. TE then tells them that they must stop the creature and that it is very vulnerable to extreme temperatures. Shepard and Falser enter the Fuel Cell room to find the butchered bodies of both Miller and Fetch. Shepard and Falser realise that they must kill the Spawn before escaping. Shepard devises a plan to lure it into the freezer and lock it in, with the temperature gauge locked on negative. They find the spawn in the showers and turn on the showers on hot to lure it out. The spawn then follows them, as planned into the freezer. But when they try to exit, the spawn attempts to follow them. Falser tell Shepard to go and get off the ship and that she'll hold it here. Shepard then leaves and Falser shuts the door. Falser is devoured alive by the swarm of spawn while she locks the temperature and the creature(s) freezes and explodes, and the sudden drop in temparature causes the ship to explode. Shepard is left drifting in space at the end of the book, and little else is known what happens.

Total Assault: Survival
Ambrose has announced he will be writing and publishing a sequel to the original book, A Total Assault. So far, only the following has been confirmed:
 * David Shepard is returning as a Major in the UEM.
 * The Spawn will return in new horrific forms.
 * Will take place on the nearly deserted colony of Ayne.