TLDR; fantastic book – you need to read it!
I finally, finally found a book and a series that is absolutely just what I like. I’ve never read anythning by Kevin Ikenberry, but I guarantee you I’ll be looking for more. If you want detailed descriptions of what the battlefield looks like in the future and how it’s managed, then this is the book for you. Outstanding story-telling!
Humanity has gone to the stars in large numbers. We have colonized planet after planet and found nothing like intelligent life. It seemed as if the universe is humanities to conquer and settle. That is until the encounter on Tycho-3. The aliens came out of the tree lines moving faster than anything living should do. They reach a small girl on a path back to her village. The girl didn’t know who or what these things were but she extended her hand in friendly curiosity…and quickly got it amputated by the slashing arms of the alien! So, there were thousand of these aliens with short subby wings that gave them the capability to fly short distances. The moved on to the town and began slaughtering its inhabitants. Some humans were quick enough to grab a weapon, but killing one or two of these aliens when they were being attacked by thousand upon thousands did little good.
Both of the larger cities on Tyco-3 were quickly wiped out. Every human was cut to pieces with very dead aliens littering the streets. An emergency call did go out to the Galactic Territorial Forces and they sent the Vanguard Recon Team One to find out what was going on. All they saw were burning cities. First Lieutenant Michael Sandhurst was in command of a Vanguard Team and while he had experience he was not sure what they were walking into. Most of their previous actions were again non-sentient lifeforms on various colony planets. They knew something was down their on Tyco-3 and they were going to find it and kill it.
Lt. Sandhurst’s team is a specialized unit of ATLAS armored recon infantry. The ATLAS is a unique set of armor that completely encloses the wearer in a cocoon of steel with a multitude of weapons available to the wearer. His unit was well trained with the ATLAS armor and they knew their business, but they didn’t know what they were going to face and that puzzeled Lt. Sandhurst.
They were airdropped from thier Chimera at an LZ near the town of Alsace where the initial attack appeared to have ocurred. As his unit scouted through the town, they only saw human bodies sliced to pieces or burning along with everything else in the town. They moved onto the outskirts nearing the forest tree line when they picked up a strange noise. With no one around and the sounds of the town dead silent, the noise Sandhurst heard was like a buzz. Then that sound got louder. Sandhurst called for immediate backup since he was by now sure that he was facing something far more in number than his small team. Only he then realized that he had lost all comms with everyone except those immediately around him. He would later find out that the entire planet was in a electronics blackout of unknow origin. Still, Sandhurst believed they could meet this enemy, defeat it and then regroup at their designated pickup point.
That was until the buzzing got much louder. Then these things came flying from the tree lines just in front of his troops. Some of these aliens were firing some kind of plasma weapon which wasn’t having much effect on their ATLAS armor except for the fact that they were facing thousands of these three-meter tall beings. A significant number of small impacts started causing significant damage to the ATLAS armor but then the aliens were amongst them and they began slashing the armor with there blade like hands. Sandhurst was stunned to see some of his men actually cut in half by the slashing and several were losing arms and legs. That shouldn’t be happening. This was supposed to be hardend protective armor, the best humanity had ever made, yet his Vanguard Team was getting cut to pieces. Sandhurst was busy trying to call back to his HQ asking for additional help, fire support or even orbital strikes, but no one was hearing his plea. The one of his Sergeants was hit and knocked into Sandhust so hard that the Lieutenant was thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious. His part of the battle was now over.
Meanwhile, high above this ground action, the Galactic Territorial Fleet had arrived and were flying sorties attempting to find where the largest concentration of the enemy was located. They also wanted to see if this enemy had air assets that they could engage and defeat. Lieutenant Vivian Llewelyn was a combat pilot flying the latest and greatest of human aircraft, the Peregrine. She and her squadron had launched above the planet finding nothing much to fight. Llewelyn knew that all comms with the ground had been lost, so she really wanted to fly a close to the deck reconnissance with her Peregrine. Her flight commander didn’t agree with what she wanted to do, but finally relented and told her to take her wingman, go down and make one pass above the cities and return to report the situation.
She and her wingman, LTJG Page Dixon, headed down towards the burning ciites. They saw nothing but dead bodies and noticing that most of the ground forces previously sent down were also among the dead. It was just as they were heading back up out of the atmosphere when they encounted the first aircraft for these aliens. Flying a series of dog-fights, Llewelyn and her wingman, Dixon, fought them off with two kills apiece. Once out of the atmosphere they were driected to recover at their carrier. Llewelyn wonder why they weren’t vectored to their squadron to rejoin up with them. Much later after she and her wingman are on the carrier, she finds out that her entire squadron had been routed, only a single other pilot had made it back.
So, you’re going to get a story about aviation and ground combantants that haven’t learned to fight together. Apparently the lessons of combined arms hasn’t stayed with the military of 2121. Lots of learning is going to take place if humanity are going to ever be able to defeat the new enemy now called the Buzzers. Tyco-3 wasn’t lost because this enemy withdrew from the planet unexpectedly, but they will return again. Lt. Sandhurst finds himself the sole survivor of his ATLAS Vanguard team although those around him don’t understand why. He may find himself in trouble just for surviving this first encounter. Lt. Llewelyn is also not in a comfortable position since she didn’t stay with her squadron and went flying on her own even if she knows her commander gave his approval. Both of these individuals will have to fight just to clear their names. But, it’s going to be a long war with the Buzzers and neither of them are done yet.
Fantastic start to a new series. I can’t wait to get to book 2, “Forged by Fire”, now available on Amazon.