Vorpal Blade

TO THE STARS—WITH GUNS AND DUCT TAPE

LTC William Weaver, PhD. ("Call me Bill...") and SEAL Chief Miller, the heroes who saved Earth from alien menace in Into the Looking Glass, are back and this time Bill's got hisself a ship! The former SSBN Nebraska has been converted, using mostly shade-tree mechanics and baling wire, into a warp ship, Naval Construction Contract 4144, ready to go where no Adar, SEAL or academic has gone before!

Yay for the heroes! But who cares for the poor Security guys, Force Recon Marines who are kept in the dark and fed manure all day? That is until they land on an alien planet, get partially wiped out and then load back up again. It's a dog's life in the Space Marines but somebody's got to save the academics and the universe—at the cost of horrendous casualties.

Ranging in topics from the best gun to kill armored space monsters to particle physics to cosmology, Vorpal Blade is a return to the "good old days" of SF when the science problems were fun, the women were smart, tough and beautiful, and the beasts were ugly. The monkeys are out in the space lanes and ready to rock. As soon as they find the duct tape.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

John Ringo is author of the New York Times best-selling Posleen War series which so far includes A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances (New York Times best seller), and Hell's Faire (New York Times best seller), and is the hottest new science fiction writer since David Weber. Among his other novels for Baen are Into the Looking Glass, the fantasy adventure Princess of Wands, the Council Wars series, which began with There Will Be Dragons, and the Kildar techno-thriller series, which began with Ghost

His collaborative novels include Von Neumann's War with Travis S. Taylor, Cally's War (New York Times best seller) and Sister Time with Julie Cochrane, the New York Times best selling Prince Roger series with David Weber, which began with March Upcountry, and The Road to Damascus with Linda Evans.

A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Ringo brings first-hand knowledge of military operations to his fiction. He had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school.

Travis S. Taylor—"Doc" Taylor to his friends—is the author of Warp Speed, The Quantum Connection, and the forthcoming One Day on Mars for Baen. He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a master's degree in Physics, a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a master's degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney, and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University.

Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. In his copious spare time, Doc Travis is also a black belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, races mountain bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands.

Cover Art by Kurt Miller

Hardcover
Paperback

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, September 2007

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Pages by Joy Freeman (www.pagesbyjoy.com)
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2129-7
ISBN-10: 1-4165-2129-1

Copyright© 2007 by John Ringo & Travis S. Taylor

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
http://www.baen.com

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webscription.net

DEDICATION
To Bob Heinlein, Andre Norton, Doc Smith,
Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt and all the rest of the
greats who sparked a young man's imagination.
And to Jim Baen, for giving us both
the chance to pay it forward.

Last As Always:

For Captain Tamara Long, USAF
Born: 12 May 1979
Died: 23 March 2003, Afghanistan
You fly with the angels now.
Baen Books by John Ringo

Into the Looking Glass
The Vorpal Blade with Travis S. Taylor
Manxome Foe with Travis S. Taylor (forthcoming)
Von Neumann's War with Travis S. Taylor

The Legacy of the Aldenata Series

A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances
Hell's Faire
The Hero with Michael Z. Williamson
Cally's War with Julie Cochrane
Watch on the Rhine with Tom Kratman
Yellow Eyes with Tom Kratman
Sister Time with Julie Cochrane (forthcoming)
There Will Be Dragons
Emerald Sea
Against the Tide
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Ghost
Kildar
Choosers of the Slain
Unto the Breach
A Deeper Blue
Princess of Wands
The Road to Damascus with Linda Evans

with David Weber:
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few

Baen Books by Travis S. Taylor

Warp Speed
The Quantum Connection
One Day on Mars (forthcoming)