Star Strike

Star Strike
Ian Douglas

Planet by planet, galaxy by galaxy, the inhabited universe has fallen to the alien Xul…Now only one obstacle stands between them and total domination: the warriors of a resilient race the world-devourers nearly annihilated centuries ago . . .A power vast, ancient, and terrifying, the mighty Xul have lost track of the insignificant humans hundreds of years after devastating their home world—which has enabled the United Star Marines to operate unnoticed and unhindered. A near-autonomous intergalactic policing force, they battle in defense of an Earth they may not live to see again. Now, following the trail of a vanished twenty-fourth-century transport, they are journeying through an unexplored stargate to the edge of an unknown galaxy many light years from their sun. For the last, best, and only chance to defeat the tyrants of the universe may at long last be at hand . . .

STAR STRIKE

BOOK ONE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

IAN DOUGLAS

To CJ and Garin, good friends who saw me through rough times. And, as always, for Brea.

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u9e3297a9-569d-5d65-aee2-30d9e372f34e)

Dedication (#u3d4f92c1-17db-5cb2-9b18-10efe52a95a3)

Acknowledgments (#ue8d80418-15fc-52ae-b980-13e9066b6f6c)

Keep it simple. Secure the spaceport. Hold until relieved. (#u32b49e06-db77-541f-8678-647dc361ef00)

Prologue (#ue9ee251b-8e95-5042-9ccb-ce9b27898d51)

Chapter 1 (#u7ba41b8a-573f-57ab-9265-ea23108cef9d)

Chapter 2 (#ud50904b1-f532-5843-91f9-a89116f370bf)

Chapter 3 (#u1a43296d-a73a-50dd-803a-046902d9b61b)

Chapter 4 (#uc2511864-34f4-5a6e-956d-418cfcaa5dc9)

Chapter 5 (#ub6f09395-c5b7-56b1-aaf3-54e83de6977e)

Chapter 6 (#ufc0f2df2-693d-5af1-92f2-7e01f64f1153)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Ian Douglas (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#ulink_28df9022-4ed1-51fa-9c97-bff1ae01fb5e)

My special thanks to David Plottel, friend, programmer, mathematician, and ubergeek, for his insights into Leonhard Euler and the God-equation known as Euler’s Identity.

Keep it simple. Secure the spaceport. Hold until relieved.

Nothing new there.

Remember your training.

The question was whether the landings would be enough. Alighan was a heavily populated world in the Theocracy of Islam, with over two billion people in the ocean-girdled world’s teeming cities. The Marine assault force consisted of the four companies of the 55th Marine Aerospace Regimental Strikeforce, a total of five hundred eighty men and women … against an entire world.

True, they were exceptionally well armed and armored men and women, and they seemed—for the moment at least—to have the element of surprise. Even so, fewer than six hundred Marines against a population of two billion who would fight to the death and take as many Marines with them as they could.

Impossible.