Atom-Age Combat #5

Buck Vinson commands an elite squad of commandos testing the Crawler, a revolutionary atomic-powered war machine, on a harrowing combat mission across enemy-held Baltic territory. Their objective: reach a top-secret ordnance laboratory hidden on the frozen tundra, free its captive scientists, and destroy the lethal weapons within—all while the enemy throws jets, tanks, and rocket launchers at them. As the Crawler proves its devastating firepower against mounting opposition, Buck and his crew race toward their goal, unaware of the catastrophic defenses waiting ahead.

Two Earth officers manning the first orbital space station face an unexpected threat when an alien vessel from Venus docks alongside them with a crew of sixteen—but their captors may have overlooked a dangerous organism already growing on the station's hull. "The Hungry Moss" pits Roger Hall and Jack Barnes against both their invaders and a ravenous, oxygen-consuming moss that thrives in the vacuum of space.

Blake Hutchinson returns to his quiet Vermont hometown after five years leading a secret space program—only to witness a flying saucer abduct his old flame Janet Allerdyce and the entire town. Summoned to the White House, he volunteers to command Earth's first interplanetary rescue mission to the distant planet Hyston, where he discovers the alien Hystonians are converting kidnapped humans into mind-controlled zombies for an invasion of Earth. Now stranded on a hostile alien world with his crew, Hutchinson must find a way to free the captives and stop the Hystonian plot before their army of enslaved humans returns to conquer his planet.

Nels Landrum, an older draftee who takes a methodical, safety-first approach to soldiering, earns a reputation as a coward among his younger, more reckless squad mates when his caution is mistaken for fear during basic training and the early days of combat in Korea. When a dangerous volunteer patrol is assembled to rescue a Korean agent trapped behind enemy lines, Landrum finds himself selected alongside the very men who've mocked him—and a chance to prove what his careful discipline is really worth.