The Fleet

THE FLEET—MAKING THE GALAXY SAFE FOR THE ALLIANCE AND MANKIND ... ONE WORLD AT A TIME

They're Pledged to Protect Us All: The soldiers of the Alliance come from different worlds, different cultures. But they share a common mission: to reclaim occupied space from the savage Khalian invaders. The ruthless aliens, armed with lasers and plasma cannon, have overrun our colonies with their warships, spies and slavers. Now mankind is fighting back, searching for allies in lost human colonies, and for a shot at taking out the Khalian home world itself. It’s a desperate mission of galactic seek-and-destroy. And even across a thousand light years, the best defense is still .... THE FLEET!

The second in the great military SF action series, with stories by the editors and other SF greats: Piers Anthony, Mike Resnick, Christopher Stasheff, Janet Morris, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Janny Wurts, Jody Lynn Nye, Shariann Lewitt, Judith R. Conly

from "When the Devil Drives", by David Drake:

   Only a handful of Marines from each platoon was clear of the hampering trucks, but their fire converged on the Khalian vehicle from four directions. Tracers and sparks from bullet impacts flecked the target like a festival display —

   Until Sienkiewicz’s second plasma bolt turned it into a fluorescent bubble collapsing in on itself.

   One of the weasels was still alive. Maybe it’d been in the cab and shielded when the bolt struck the back of the van. Whatever the cause, the weasel was still able to charge toward Security headquarters, firing wild bursts from its machine pistol.

   You expected the little bastards to be tough, but this one was something special. Kowacs himself put four rounds into the Khalian’s chest, but it had to be shot to doll rags by the concentrated fire of a dozen rifles before what was left finally collapsed . . .