Soldiers

SURRENDER WAS NOT AN OPTION

After centuries of horrible high-tech wars, galactic humanity had at last emerged from The Time of Troubles, firm in the belief that nothing was preferable to war, convinced indeed that to believe otherwise was psychotic. But soon the Commonwealth of Worlds is going to need every “psychotic” it can get its hands on—because trouble is heading straight at them in the form of more than 14,000 warships from somewhere.

Every inhabited planet that armada encounters is wiped clean of human life to make room for alien colonists. Either humans will again learn how to be soldiers, and quickly, or humanity will join the dinosaurs as an interesting extinct species.

“Too many military SF novels ignore the essential unevenness and tragedy of war. . . . John Dalmas knows better. His Soldiers have both courage and heart.” —David Brin, Hugo Winner and author of Earth and Startide Rising

“Slam bang action . . . with a heart and soul. . . .” —William C. Dietz, author of By Force of Arms

Cover art by David Mattingly

Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, May 2001

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-671-31987-6

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Typeset by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com

This novel is dedicated to gamers,
and particularly to Rod Martin,
Cory Rueb and Bill Cooper.

And to an extraordinary warrior

Bill Ashby

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks to novelists David Brin
and Jim Glass for their critiques
of an early draft of this novel.
To the Spokane Word Weavers
for reading critical chapters
in preliminary form.
And to Gail, who as usual,
read and commented on the
very first, very rough draft.

BAEN BOOKS by JOHN DALMAS

Soldiers

The Regiment
The White Regiment
The Regiment's War
The Three Cornered War

The Lion of Farside
The Bavarian Gate

The Lizard War