PATTERNS OF CHAOS

Ace SF paperback, may 1978. Cover art by Paul Alexander.

"LORD, WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN ME? HAS NOBODY EVEN TOLD YOU? THEY SAY THAT GOD IS DEAD. 

He awoke without trace of memory. But as the echoes of the telepathic trigger phrase faded soundlessly from his mind things slowly fell into place. 

1. He was on Onaris. 27th Rim Planet to fall prey to the Destroyers. 

2. He was an operative in the Special Assignments group of the Stellar Commando. 

3. His was the crucial role in saving the remaining Rim Worlds from the rapacious inroads of the Destroyer forces: he was point-man, victim, and helpless puppet all rolled into one, under the absolute dominance of a sadistic bitch-goddess whose voice spoke within his mind, who saw with his eyes - and who could punish him utterly. He hated and adored her. 

What he would not learn until much later was that he was the focal point in a plot older than humanity, a plot before whose menace the threat posed by the Destroyer forces paled to insignificance."