Steve White - Extremis: N A (Starfire)

Extremis-ARC
A Starfire Novel

Steve White &
Charles E. Gannon

Advance Reader Copy

Unproofed

Baen

ALSO IN THE STARFIRE SERIES

by David Weber & Steve White

Crusade

In Death Ground

The Stars At War

Insurrection

The Shiva Option

The Stars at War II

by Steve White & Shirley Meier

Exodus

BAEN BOOKS by STEVE WHITE

Blood of the Heroes

The Prometheus Project

Demon's Gate

Forge of the Titans

Eagle Against the Stars

Prince of Sunset

The Disinherited

Legacy

Debt of Ages

Extremis

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.

Copyright 2011 by Steve White & Charles E. Gannon

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN: 978-1-4391-3433-7

Cover art by Dave Seeley

First printing, May 2011

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

tk

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

PROLOGUE

Sandro McGee dove sideways into the dirty alley just as the rooftop defense blister spun and fired a flechette round in his direction. The corner of the alley was immediately and ferociously flayed by a swarm of zipping and spatting high-velocity micro-darts.

Damn, those alien gizmos are fast, commented Harry Light Horse Li.

McGee rolled up into a crouch, readied his assault rifle, prepared to lunge toward the corner for a peek-around. Theyre not faster than me. He ducked his head around the now-ragged masonryand flinched away from the blast of automatic gunfire that greeted him.

Yes, theyre faster than you. McGee could hear Harry Lis satisfied smirk.

No, theyre not. McGee tugged off his helmet. He rose to his feet, he toed it around the corner. That elicited a slightly different greeting: individually fired slugs. McGee smiled at the uneven intervals between impacts. Ah, now thats being fired by meatware.

McGee swung around the cornerjust weapon and eyesand let the Serrington Arms sight do its work. The Serrie sight was the one relatively modern device on McGees obsolete battle rifle. Its combined audio-optical threat-trackback system instantly assessed the directionality and intensity of sound waves from enemy fire, did a quick laserscan of all objects moving in its front 120 degrees, and threw a targeting solution into the scope. Which McGee followed, elevating the barrel until the crosshairs lay on a partially seen Baldy, hunched low in the cupola of the town hall. The Baldy looked almost human as he profiled himself for a momentbut then McGee registered the absence of ears and nose: he squeezed the trigger. The venerable 8.5 mm battle rifle began hammering against his shoulderjust as the Baldys smaller, higher-velocity slugs started gouging at the concrete next to McGees left cheek. For one surreal moment it was more like a personal duel than a firefight: the big humans denser, slower stream of metal punched at the Baldys armored rooftop cupola; the Baldys intermittent counterfire stabbed down at the human, fast and vicious. Neither would cede the advantage.

McGee counted through another second, knew his clip was about to burn dryand then the incoming fire ceased. Shifting down to a clear view over his iron sights, McGee saw a hint of faltering movement. He popped his eye back up to the scopejust in time to see his adversary duck unsteadily down beneath the lip of the cupola.

Move! Move! McGee shouted to his rear as he started sprinting toward the front steps of the town hall. Get tight against the buildingunder their field of fire!

Li was right behind McGee, but Varazian, the guy from the Resistance cell out in Lemnos, wasnt. Probably delayed by another snafu with his civvy com-set: the store-bought system occasionally skipped a beat while syncing with the milspec rigs. Whatever the reason, Varazian was the last on his feet and trailed Li by four meters as they charged across the square.

McGee reached the heavy concrete balustrade of the front stairs, looked back to check his teams progressand saw an antipersonnel rocket rush down and catch Varazian square in the chest. The forty-one-year-old reservist corporal was blown clean off his feet and backward, out of sight.

McGee suppressed a sigh as he put his hand up to his com-rig. He was surprised to feel the wrist flare of his Kevleuron gauntlet graze his ear roughly. Oh, yeahI left my helmet behind. Varazian, report. Varazian?

Biorelay indicates Varazian is KIA. Captain Falcos voice boomed into the link; there was no mistaking a milspec command set. Cestus 3, proceed to objective.

Olympus, Cestus 3 is down to two combat effectives, I repeat, two combat effectives. Request

Youre on your own, Cestus 3. Everyones up to their asses punching through Baldy weapon blisters. No help to send your way. Advise when you have taken objective Alpha to receive new orders. Olympus out.

Well, aint that special, McGee grunted as he swapped magazines: only two left. Damn. Whats with this shitty load-out, Harry?

Old guns and spare ammo is all weve got for local raids. Light Horse Li shifted his AK-74 so that, when he started running again, it would rise directly into an easy assault carry. Think youve got it bad? Look at this antique.

You aint joking. Whered you get that? Museum?

Harry shook his head, gathered his legs under him to lead the rush up the stairs. Nope. From a reenactment group. Here we go.

And Light Horse was off, bounding up the stairs two at a time. McGees treelike legs launched his 1.8-meter frame after the smaller man, whose shorter limbs cycled faster and had the advantage over short distances. While Li bounded toward the entry, McGee followed him upward at a fast, crabbed crouch, keeping his Alliant-Rimstar battle rifle sweeping across the upper-story windows. Hed just finished sweeping right when he caught a hint of movement to the far left. Typical: wait for the sucker to be facing the other way. But Im no sucker.

McGee spun down into a tight kneel: two Baldy rifle rounds spat over his head. He sent a matched pair of five-round bursts back at the offending window; the second blast of 8.5 mm discarding sabot rounds chewed through the facade, and a Baldy rifle tumbled down into the street.

Im clear! yelled Harry. Covering you!

McGee lurched up and took the remaining steps three at a time. Light Horse had come out a bit from the buildings double-doored entry, sweeping the upper-story windows at an impossibly narrow arc but ready to hit them with suppressive fire even so. McGee bounded abreast of Liwho peeled off and joined him in a two-step rush-and-spin that ended with their backs smacking firmly against the wall.

Well, that was fun, Li observed.

And Im sure it gets better.

Probably so. You take point.

Me?

Of course, Sandro. Age before beauty.

You little shit

The truth hurts doesnt it, Tank?

And Tank McGee had to admit that Light Horses semi-Sino features were smoother and finer than his own, and that the little corporal was three years his junior. But these trivial idiocies had only meant something back in the Real Worldwhich they, and the rest of Bellerophons human populace, had left behind months ago.