C.A.D.S. #5 TECH SATAN BY JOHN SIEVERT

Copyright 1988.

Its been three years since the Soviet sneak attack has reduced America to a shattered land. They have not made much progress in occupying America thanks to the C.A.D.S. force. Yet they continue their efforts. They have decided to airdrop troops in the Midwest to start growing food for the starving masses back home. At one of these outposts in Arkansas Robin Adler the wife of C.A.D.S. leader Dean Sturgis is captured and brainwashed into loving the Soviet commander Major Denirov.

Anyway the C.A.D.S. are heading back to the secret base at White Sands, NM. They find it locked down due to mysterious microwaves that are bombarding the base. They find out it was started by arch traitor Pinky Ellis who didn’t die last book. They manages to destroy the transmitter but then Sturgis has to deal with the President’s cabinet who try to get him court martialed on some trumped up charges. Beating those he than gets his next assignment. The leaders have decided to split the C.A.D.S. up to take out these Soviet outposts in the Midwest. They also plan to get some prop planes and fly salvaged nukes and bomb the Soviet harbors on the east coast.

Sturgis thinks the plan is nuts but obeys orders. With his team he is assigned the post in Arkansas. Along the way they let their guard down and get captured by some nutjob who has control of some kids. But they manage to escape and continue on. At the outpost the Soviets have allied with a Sister Anetra and her kooky mind control cult. Sturgis gets captured while visiting her to negotiate an alliance and gets mind controlled and becomes a drone in her cult. Yet he manages to break the drugs and lead his men to destroy her. Although Anetra escapes to cause trouble in the future.

Later he gets an offer from Denirov. He is a member of a faction that wants peace. So Sturgis doesn’t destroy the fort and heads back to White Sands with the message from Danirov. Reluctantly he also leaves his wife who claims she is now in love with Danirov. Of course she’s brainwashed but we’ll see how that turns out next book.

Well this an interesting book. It has all the trademarks of a Syvertson book. A kooky cult that uses drugs to control it’s members. The very decadent Soviets. This Danirov is just a major in an isolated garrison but somehow manages to live like a king. His quarters are opulent with his own butler. He has plenty of exotic foods, Dom Perignon, and other luxuries. He also brings back Pinky Ellis who continues to cause trouble. Although Pinky is obsessed with getting back Morgana Pinter who he kept as a slave. Which is why he doesn’t tell the Soviets about White Sands.

Finally poor Sturgis loses to love of his life to the evil Soviets. Fortunately he gets plenty of sex from his girlfriends Dr. Decamp and Morgana Pinter so that helps him get over it. A very strange book. The writer gives us Martel who supposedly committed suicide in book two. This was faked for some reason never really explained. The President’s cabinet has some bug up their ass with Sturgis because I guess their assholes. Oh and the kooky plan to use prop planes to nuke the Soviets is never really told how that turned out but it is assumed it failed. Gosh I wonder why? Still another enjoyable romp in the kooky post-nuke world.

C.A.D.S. #4 TECH STRIKE FORCE BY JOHN SIEVERT

Copyright 1987.

The C.A.D.S. have successfully destroyed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and now have to escape the Soviets. The group has split up and Colonel Dean Sturgis with Billy Dixon are together. They run into a Soviet patrol and get captured in Colonial Williamsburg. They are taken to the super sub Lenin to get tortured and interrogated. They mainly concentrate on Dixon to break Sturgis. Dixon gets his fingers broken and sodomized by the KGB torturer. Well the two are rescued by their teammates as the sub docks in Norfolk. They make it to a Revengers base in North Carolina. There Sturgis meets one of his flings and finds out she is pregnant. She also is now not just a hillbilly but a crystal healing specialist. The resistance has discovered the power of crystal healing. Something that comes in handy.

For when they reach their base in the Okefenokee swamp they find a disease ravaging the place. Sturgis’s girlfriend Dieter dies of it before they can use the crystals. Well after that they get new equipment to upgrade their suits to use any captured ammo since they are running out of their own. Then they have another mission. Pinky Ellis the corrupt owner of the Exrell Corporation is going to sell the Soviets a powerful new tank. The Bandersnatch is a hover tank with a laser cannon. He also has technical data on the C.A.D.S. suits. He is going to meet the Russians in New Orleans. So the gang goes there and first has to fight off the crazies from the insane asylum they met up with in the first book. Carl the King and his kooks now control Biloxi and cause some minor damage. Then they reach New Orleans and fight Pinky and his mercenaries. Luckily Pinky was ripping off the Pentagon for billions and his tank doesn’t work too well. Pinky ends up buried in an ant hill in the swamp by Dixon.

So this book has most of the trademarks you find in a Syvertson book. He really had something about that mumbo-jumbo new age crystal healing bullshit. There is also plenty of sex that Sturgis gets. First the sexpot hillbilly girl who has become a crystal expert. She tells him that due to the war those men that are healthy must forgo monogamy and sleep with many women for the sake of the human race. Well that doesn’t seem to be something Sturgis has a problem with. In addition to this girl he does lose his main girlfriend back on Sanctuary Island Dieter but manages to get a replacement in Gloria real easy. Than there is Dr. Sheila Decamp the tough doctor who has fallen madly in love with Sturgis. In New Orleans before the battle they have a little romp which Sturgis somewhat regrets. For Decamp than gets a little too clingy and wants to make a big thing about it while Sturgis wanted just a quickie. Yet this doesn’t stop him from sleeping with her many times later on. I guess when your a superstud you just can’t help yourself. All this time between banging women he continues to find time to lament about his one true love Robin who is still out there.

Syvertson brings back some of the villains for past books. Namely the insane Carl the King and his goofy escaped inmates. I thought they were dead but apparently are still causing trouble and survive to continue in the future. Then there is the fat Pinky Ellis who is still his loathsome self. Billy Dixon who had some trauma from his corncobbing by the KGB has issues with impotence and acting like a dick. Yet a good talking to by Sturgis helps him come to terms. Apparently burying Pinky up to his neck in an anthill is the therapy he needs.

Another wonderful entry in a kooky series.

C.A.D.S. #3 TECH COMMANDO BY JOHN SIEVERT

Copyright 1986.

Col. Dean Sturgis has taken off to find his wife in post-nuke Georgia. He does find out she is still on the move and has just missed her. Unfortunately he is ambushed by some biker scum that are collaborating with the Soviet invaders. The leader was the loathsome guy from the first book that prevented Sturgis from reuniting with his wife the first time. Strugis manages to wipe them out except the leader who I’m sure will appear in a future book. He also loses his C.A.D.S. suit and must go on without it.

So he decides to head back to the secret base in the Okefenokee but falls into a pit of quicksand. Fortunately for him a kindly old man named Boss Peppercorn comes along in a motorized wheelchair with machineguns. He saves him and after being convinced Sturgis isn’t a Soviet agent takes him to his home. A nice comfortable place in the devastation of the world. Although apparently he can’t keep the snakes out which doesn’t bother him. (It would bother me.) Gives Dean a baloney sandwich then the two head out to find his secret base. They have no trouble thanks to the Scotsman of the unit who has to play his bagpipes.

So no sooner than he gets back does he receive his first mission. The C.A.D.S. must destroy the Fidel Castro Brigade which has established themselves at Epcot. Along the way they meet up with the local resistance and team up to wipe out the Cubans and a Soviet helicopter reaction force. After this they must than head north to destroy the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The Soviets are repairing it for their forces in Maryland to go south and than spread out all over America. They manages to destroy this bridge in an action packed sequence that has them fighting tanks, helicopters, fighter bombers and the Greysuit’s of General Petrin.

So we now establish the C.A.D.S. in their own base for raids against the invading Soviets. Thankfully the women that they freed from the swamprats from the last book are their to help out. This gives the men female companionship. Sturgis himself hooks up with the leader Dieter while still lamenting that his one true love Robin is still out there. Still the guy has needs. Boss Peppercorn is another of the standard troupe of goofy characters that you find in a Syvertson book. This is also the second time this year I have read about Epcot being used by an invading force after the apocalypse. Never been there but maybe it is perfect for a base. Anyway there is something about Disney always being used in these post-apocalypse books by the baddies.

Also not really sure about the whole strategy of the Soviets that makes sense. Seems it would be easier to land the troops at Norfolk which they control than bother with fixing the bridge. What do I know. It managed to set the stage for another exciting book filled with action, crusty old men in machinegun equipped wheelchairs, decadent and evil commies. Not to mention the various sex with the hot women. All made this as enjoyable as when I read it as a teen back those many years.

C.A.D.S. #2 TECH BATTLEGROUND BY JOHN SIEVERT

Copyright 1986

C.A.D.S. has successfully rescued the President from Washington and are now heading back to White Sands. First they have to deal with some cannibalistic mutants at a farmhouse. Then a Soviet squad of helicopters but they do manage to make it to the base. There they find a coup has taken place and must then defeat the rebels. After getting settled in Col Dean Sturgis and his Omega Force must go out on another mission. Intelligence points that the Soviets plan to use the port at Charleston, South Carolina as a major launch point to conquer America. So the C.A.D.S. force must travel back to the east coast and destroy the Soviet ships coming into port. Along the way they meet a corrupt industrialist named Pinky Ellis and have to fight his men. Than at Charleston they use the suits to go underwater and destroy the Soviet transports and naval vessels. After that success they find a base for their East Coast operations deep in the Okefenokee Swamp. An old island called Refuge Island where escaped slaves during pre-Civil War days established a society. First they must defeat some evil cannibalistic swamp scum and free their captive women.

So the second book sees Ryder Syvertson take over the series all by himself. Jan Stacy moved on to do the balls to the walls wacko series The Last Ranger. Definitely worth checking out as Ryder got rid of Sturgis’s pitbull named Excaliber. Which I’m sure was a Stacy creation but you can read about this goofy human-dog relationship in his series.

Actually I think Syvertson may have been the better writer. I really enjoyed this second book much better than the first. It seems more focused and flowed better. Still it has all the elements you expect from a book from this time. The villains are truly loathsome. Pinky Ellis a corrupt industrialist is super fat, cheated the government with his substandard equipment and sold to the Russians. He also keeps a woman as a sex slave and his just a general A-hole. The Soviets are deliciously evil and decadent. Supreme Marshal Veloshnikov takes glee in seeing all the dead Americans from the neutron bombing of Charleston. He berates some of his men for not showing the same glee. He also goes on about the Capitalist waste of Americans but insists on taking a palatial mansion that reminds him of Tara for his personal HQ. The Greysuit general Petrin spends his time in a townhouse in Georgetown playing looted video games and watching movies. They condemn the American lifestyle but insist on living it.

The heroes are also a bit over the top. The resistance called the Revengers are hillbillies that Sturgis has to convince to not feud with one another and fight the Russians. A TV televangelist who is secretly passing on intelligence using a code that is linked to biblical scripture. Of course Dean the leader is always worrying about his wife Robyn but finds time to go to poundtown with a young hillbilly sexpot. Oh and the C.A.D.S. suits in addition to flying can also go underwater. This is a classic series.

C.A.D.S. BY JOHN SIEVERT

Copyright 1985.

Christmas Eve 1997. The Soviets decide to launch a surprise preemptive nuclear attack against the U.S. Using their advanced technology they can track every nuclear sub and take them out. Their satellites knock out America’s early warning satellites. Laser defenses are to knock out America’s response. The attack succeeds with a resounding victory for the Soviets. They do lose Leningrad and nineteen other cities but they complete pound America into the ground. Now hordes of Soviet troops are invading the east coast. The President and his cabinet are trapped in the war room beneath the White House in a neutron bombed Washington.

Yet there is one force still around to fight the Soviets. At the secret base in White Sands, New Mexico are the C.A.D.S. or Computerized Attack/Defense System. Seven foot tall armored suits designed to function in a post-nuclear environment. Armed with machine guns, liquid plastic flamethrowers, darts and e-balls they are formidable weapons. Under Colonel Dean Sturgis U.S.A.F the C.A.D.S. head out to Washington to rescue the President. Their trip is across a nuked out America with the various hordes of crazies, rapists and murderers that these apocalypses usually bring out. They make it to Washington were the President is besieged by Soviets including their own version of giant battlesuits called the Grey Suits. An epic battle ensues for the future of America.

So back in the eighties I found this series. Looking at it doesn’t look all that exciting. The title sound like some kind of computer program and the cover is a nondescript picture of some futuristic laser handgun. Well luckily for me I did check it out and read on the back Soviets invading after a nuclear war. So I grabbed that up right away because that was my thing back then. In it was a fun exciting action packed story. The Soviets are their typical evil and decadent selves. The main baddie is a Marshal Veloshnikov has a personal grudge against the Americans for killing his family in the bombing of north Vietnam during the war. Now he sits in this huge sub called the Lenin stocked with women and delicacies. They have parties that Caligula would probably find a bit too much.

This book was written by the team of Syvertson Ryder and Jan Stacy. The duo that brought us the awesome Doomsday Warrior series. In fact this could be a prequel to that series. Soviets launch a surprise attack and conquer the world. A brave group of American resistance fighters operating out of a secret underground base in the west. The main leader is the quintessential alpha male. Sturgis has a wife named Robin who has a subplot of her surviving after the war and Sturgis always worrying about finding her. Yet he does have time at a rest in West Virginia to have sex with a beautiful eighteen year old virgin. I mean this guy is just too manly to be contained. Just like Ted Rockson from the Doomsday Warrior.

Yes the whole concept of the Soviets launching an amphibious assault across the Atlantic is absurd. Yet it is a fun goofyness that I loved as a teen back in those days. So instead of mutant creatures you get seven foot tall flying computer suits armed to the teeth. Otherwise it is the Doomsday Warrior. It isn’t as good but then again what is.