The Butcher's Bill — David Drake

YOU THOUGHT VICTORY CAME CHEAP?

Tanks don't fight without crews. The men and women who crew Colonel Hammer's tanks are the best in the human universe--and they're ready to prove it for anybody who can afford to hire them.

Facing an enemy whose soldiers can't be found but whose civilians can.

Enforcing an embargo on friends--in the certain knowledge that their enemies are rearming in violation of that embargo.

Route marching through unexplored--and increasingly hostile --jungle.

Trying to live after the shooting has stopped, when peace is beyond the imagination of those to whom war has been life.

A gun doesn't care who it kills--and neither do the shooters, often enough, when they're under fire and the only way to survive is to hit hard, hit fast, and keep on hitting until nothing moves in the target zone. Afterwards, the shooters--even the hardest, most ruthless veterans among them--may care a lot about what they've done.

And what they'll go on doing, in battle after battle, because that's what they're paid to do.