There he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a U.S. Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was a Navy guy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aerobatics were bad enough—but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy. With nukes. Little ones at first, but winding up with a 500 megatonner at 90 miles that fried every piece of electronics within line-of-sight.
Richard Ashton thought he was just a ringside observer to these now over-the-horizon events. Until the crippled alien lifeboat came drifting down and homed in on his sailboat; suddenly he has his hands full of an unconscious, critically wounded and impossibly human alien warrior who also happens to be a gorgeous female.
That's when things got interesting.
"... a particular delight, offering nonstop action that's both well executed and emotionally satisfying." —Publishers Weekly
"It's a rollicking fun tale that's impossible to put down." —Philadelphia Weekly Press
"... the best work (Weber] has done ... the rewards are ample ... recommended...." —Starlog
When the Lokaron suddenly appeared in the skies of Earth, America was enjoying victory in the off-and-on war that had occupied most of the 20th century. That's why they chose America to occupy and use as their puppet in dominating the planet. We were already set up to do it; now we would do it for them.
Not that they were evil; they just insisted that we trade with them. By their rules, rules backed up by irresistible weapons. In terms of those rules, they would even play fair—but in the long run, if they didn't own something, it would be because they didn't want it.
At first we tried to fight, but just as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Hindus and all the rest had learned, when the ones with the guns say "Let's trade!" they really mean 'Trade or bleed." And so you trade—even if you won't have a country—or a planet—left when the last round is played out.
But worms turn, and just as had the Europeans a century ago, the Lokaron were going to learn a lesson from their victims, a lesson that they weren't going to like one bit....
Eagle Against the Stars
Praise for Steve White:
"Highly recommended ... exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science." —Kliatt
Killer hornets will be bred to attack only the enemy . . .
The forerunners of tunneling combat vehicles already exist. . .
Manned aircraft could actually dodge laser beams of orbital platforms . . .
Shoulder-fired rockets will be launched without heat or flash . . .
Crews of space cruisers will be nested inside fuel pellets for protection . . .
NOW DUCK!
Publisher's Note: Firefight Y2K is a millennial Edition of Firefight 2000, with authorial retrospectives plus two chapters from the author's The Chernobyl Syndrome on how to survive the coming festivities.
