
The Roughnecks are dug in on Klendathu and are facing an inevitable Bug attack. High Command order them to hold the position at all costs. Higgins finds an unfinished letter home an anonymous trooper had begun but not finished. This gives him the idea of taping a series of ""Goodbyes"" from the rest of the squad to the folks back home - just in case. Through out the night the troopers individually record messages to their families on Earth. At day break the Bugs attack but the Troopers manage to hold them off just long enough for a major air strike to hit the Bugs. As they prepare for retrieval Higgins asks Lt Razak if he wants to tape a message to his family - Razak points him at the squad and tells him that these are his family.
Rookie troopers Rico, Flores and Jenkins journey to Pluto as part of Alpha Team "Razak's Roughnecks" on what is supposed to be a simple mop-up operation, but find a major threat to the research stations from plasma-shooting alien Bugs.
When the Roughnecks pick up a distress call from pilots Ibanez and Barcalow, who are under attack at a research outpost, Rico risks the safety of his own squad to save Carmen.