The third movie in the franchise sees Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) reprising his role as the commanding officer of an outpost on a bug planet. A visit from the popular Sky Marshal Anoke (Stephen Hogan) and his assistant Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe) brings tension as their pilot Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock) and Rico are old friends, but Beck is now seeing Hauser. During the visit the bugs break through the electrified barrier protecting the outpost and the Sky Marshal is evacuated. Hauser stays, blaming Rico, and thinks he can salvage the situation and take command, but is injured. Meanwhile, the ship is forced to make a crash landing on planet OM-1, but Admiral Enolo Phid (Amanda Donahoe) denies a rescue mission suspecting Anoke as being under the influence of the enemy. Anoke's behavior on the planet becomes more disturbing and Beck begins to suspect something. Rico is scheduled to hang for the failure at the outpost and for a physical confrontation with Hauser, but Hauser helps Rico escape as he needs someone to unofficially rescue Beck and the others. Rico takes a team to find Beck and to stop Anoke before he can permanently damage the Federation.