Trilogy: Alien-insects invade earth and are resisted by cyborgs

Question

Looking for a trilogy published around the early 80s.

Insect-like aliens are invading earth. Humans' brains are placed in robotic bodies. The protagonist is a child in one of these bodies. He has to learn how to control the robot & conserve his battery power. Once train, he can fight back against the aliens using heat-guns + physical attacks.

The aliens are landing/spawning on sites all over the globe. Part of the plot is discovering a method to disrupt their staging points.

It was probably young-adult oriented.

If anyone remembers this, thank you.

Answer 1

This sounds likes a trilogy of books based on the Cyborg Commando RPG that were published in 1987/88.

• Planet in Peril
• Chase into Space
• The Ultimate Prize

The plot points generally match - blurb from Planet in Peril gives a pretty accurate summary

Cris Holman’s world is turned inside out when insectlike aliens attack and destroy his hometown, murdering his family and his friends.

Motivated by vengeance, Cris volunteers to become a Cyborg Commando, a new breed of soldiers who allow their brains to be removed from their bodies and placed inside computer-operated fighting machines specially designed to combat and conquer the alien menace.

As Cris Holman’s body lies in cryogenic storage, the new Cris is dispatched to help defend the planet – before all of mankind becomes subjugated to the awful plans of the aliens. He and others like him are Earth’s best defense…and its last hope.

The "cyborg commando" bodies have limited energy (batteries) and managing this is a big part of the training. They are also able to shoot lasers and microwaves from their hands, have superior senses & engage in hand to hand combat.

The only difference is that in my (very vague) recollection the main character is not a child - he is a young man, possibly a teen.