Paying the Piper
HAMMER'S SLAMMERS Lt. Arne Huber was old enough to be a veteran but still young enough to have principles. He commanded a platoon of combat cars, leading from the front because he was a Slammers officer and that's the only place you can lead. From Huber's first minutes on Plattner's World, he was in the middle of hot, flaming war. He knew that wasn't going to change until the Slammers either left the planet or his relatives back on Friesland got a coffin with a warning to bury it unopened. FOR THE LOCALS, THE WAR WAS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE; A score of separate states and factions fought to rule Plattner's World. That was bad enough, but the planet's great wealth had attracted not only mercenaries but a worse kind of looter: interstellar investors with no qualms about making a profit on blood, so long as the profit was high enough and the blood came from somebody else. From a weed-grown landing strip to the narrow corridors of a modern office building, Arne Huber's survival depended on quick reflexes and the blazing cyan hellfire of his gun. He and his troopers didn't like some of the choices they had to makebut they'd make them regardless, because they were the Slammers and it was their job. DECEIT AND BETRAYAL WERE THE ONLY CERTAINTIES Arne Huber and his platoon had to face government officials with private agendas, politicians with armies of street thugs, and a hostile armored division with the most powerful tanks on the planet. The climax would come as it always did, when the Slammers slugged it out with the best the enemy could throw at them. Tank cannon, automatic weapons, and the world-shattering thunder of massed artillery would turn the night into an inferno and a slaughterhouse. Arne Huber and his troopers knew they could die, because they'd watched friends die on every planet where they'd served. Maybe they could even be beaten BUT NOBODY'D BEATEN THE SLAMMERS YET! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vietnam veteran, former lawyer, former bus driver, and now bestselling author, David Drake tells a military story like no other. His readers recognize that he can take them where no one else can, with gut-wrenching description that puts them face-to-face with the enemy, and in the midst of the action right on the battlefield. He helped create the audience for mercenary military science fiction with his bestselling Hammer's Slammers books. Drake graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history (with honors) and Latin. His stint at Duke University Law School was interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. Drake has a wife, a son, and various pets. In addition to his celebrated novels of Hammer's Slammers, his works for Baen include With the Lightnings and its sequel, Lt. Leary, Commanding, as well as Starliner, Ranks of Bronze, Redliners, the General series (with S.M. Stirling) and the Belisarius series (with Eric Flint), the latest of which is The Tide of Victory, and many more. Illustration by Larry Elmore Cover design by Carol Russo Design |
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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, July 2002 Distributed by Simon & Schuster Printed in the United States of America |
ISBN: 0-7434-3547-8Copyright © 2002 by David Drake All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Production by Windhaven Press Electronic version by WebWrights |
DEDICATIONTo Larry Barnthouse, who long ago as another 96C2L94 was missed by all the same bullets that missed me.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis book involved computer adventures unusual even for me, The Man Who Kills Computers. (Three dead within two weeks.) My son Jonathan, Mark Van Name, Karen Zimmerman, Allyn Vogel, and my wife Jo, were of particular importance in making it possible for me to continue working. This book required a lot of attention by Dan Breen, my first reader. I'm very fortunate to have him. BAEN BOOKS by DAVID DRAKEHammer's Slammers |
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Maybe the tariff dispute on Planner's World could've have been settled by arbitration, but when war broke out, the United Cities hired the best mercenaries money could buy: