Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tophet Campaign
The Roughnecks take a breather from combat (or so they think) to scout  the desert planet Tophet for a possible base, and meet a race of tall,  lizardlike, apparently friendly aliens they dub "skinnies." But nothing is as it  seems in this intergalactic war, not even the double-crossing skinnies, who have  laid a deadly trap for the humans. The truth behind their collaboration hides an  even more disturbing twist in the bug infestation of the universe. Dry,  desolate, and full of wide-open spaces, "The Tophet Campaign" is a sci-fi take  on a World War II platoon drama in the African desert. It lacks the visual  spectacle of other adventures but makes up for it with heavy artillery  (including an experimental cyborg soldier loaded with firepower) and more  complicated character dynamics. The eerie mental breakdown of telepath Jenkins  gives the Roughnecks their first casualty of the war.--Sean Axmaker