J F Holmes

The first day of a war is easy, compared to what follows. Plans become undone, victory is in doubt, and your friends start falling, one by one. You have to have the heart to endure mind numbing loss, excruciating pain, overwhelming grief, and a tiredness that goes down to your soul. The battle to liberate Sol System has begun, with the Confederated Earth Forces launching a combined arms attack on one last, desperate throw of the dice. A decade of alien occupation has worn equipment out, devastated key personnel, and left the fighting forces a shell of what they once were. As the war rages on, the CEFS Lexington, Earth's last starship, executes a bold plan to take on impossible odds. At sea, heavy battleship guns duel with advanced plasma cannons, providing covering fire for the Marines to take back the West Coast. Armored columns battle on the Texas border, while shell shocked civilains deal with the problems of sudden freedom. In space, the Invy main base houses a horror thousands of years old, and the soldiers of the Irregular Scout Regiment prepare for their most challenging and daring mission yet: To raid into the very heart of the their enemy's defenses, and conduct a final, devastating blow. Invasion: Total War is the third and final book of the series, started with the Dragon Finalist Invasion: Resistance and continued in the highly acclaimed Invasion: Day of Battle.Excerpt: It was a smell he knew too well. Colonel Morgan McCargar sat patiently in the rubber zodiac boat, watching the plasma bolts go over his head, making his hair stand on end. Ozone, cordite, burnt flesh and blood.A silence fell, and a Marine peered over the edge of the pier, calling down, "All clear, Sir!" The Scotsman stood, and, with his Sergeant Major steadying him, climbed the ladder. He wanted to go first, but the Raiders wouldn't have let him, so he didn't bother even trying. His accent had almost disappeared in his thirty years of service, and he had seen far too many wars, but the scene in front of him drew a curse from his childhood. The remains of two Invy APC's sat burning, their iridium hulls glowing cherry red. More than two dozen Wolverines and three Dragons lay dead, mixed in with a half dozen human bodies. Figures in USMC digital camouflage ran past him and towards the far intersection. McCargar knelt by one of the human casualties, a pretty blonde woman with hole burned through her leg and blood on the front of her uniform. Her eyes fluttered open, and he yelled for a medic. She tried to say something, and he leaned close, holding her hand and telling her it would be OK. "Scout Team Five, Sir, LZ secured," she whispered, "so can we go the hell home now?" She drew in a deep breath and said faintly, "I've got a date..." There was a faint smile on her face, and then her eyes lost focus, staring into eternity. He closed them, but the ghost of the smile still remained on her beautiful face. "God, I hate this...," he muttered, then stood. His command staff was assembling radio antennas and the XO was managing the offloading of heavier weapons from the pier. "Sir, first wave is in, battalion commanders are establishing their CP's, and we've pushed out three blocks with no resistance," said his S-3. "That's not going to last. Hold there until we get more manpower onto the beach, and the dolphins bring across some heavier weapons. Push a recon team out forward to establish an OP as high up as they can go, some building with overwatch, but no radio, signal lights only. Get Charlie company into the sewers, ASAP, and have them push forward if they can, without detection. And try to get the battleships on the horn." They both could feel the vibrations under their feet as the huge shells impacted on the Invy positions, less than two miles to the west

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