In space, when you lose the high ground, you lose the war. Eleven years before, General David Warren was the best and brightest, in charge of defending the Earth from an attacking fleet. Overmatched in battle, the Earth forces were devastated, and the enemy moved into the high ground and proceeded with orbital bombardment. Civilization fell, and then two years later, the enemy landed and the occupation began. Now Warren lives with his sister and nephew, trying to farm the land while avoiding detection by the occupiers, the Invy. When two travelers show up at his doorstep, his carefully constructed life starts to unravel. Earth, and humanity, may be down, but not out. In the grand tradition of Ender's Game, Footfall, and War of the Worlds comes a tale of human struggle against immense odds.

There comes a day when every soldier may be asked to lay their life on the line; today is that day. After a decade of occupation, the Confederated Earth Forces are coming out of hiding, betting the liberation of Earth from its alien overlords on a throw of the dice. The sequel to the 2017 Dragon Award nominated Resistance, Day of Battle picks up at the beginning of this fight, and follows regular soldiers as they wage desperate warfare. From a Special Forces team leading an uprising, to heavily up-armored M1 Abrams tanks dueling Invy armor, even hand to hand combat in the corridors of an orbital space station. Twenty four hours of combat in the opening shots of a war that may see the end of humanity. “UP!” he yelled, and Dizzy yelled “ON THE WAY!” The gun rocked backwards, the tank with it, pushing it down onto its springs. Dash could have demanded that the gunner run through the standard fire commands, but she trusted Dizzy Lehmkuhl to do a good job. Hers was to keep them alive. Ibson didn’t wait for a command either; from here on out it was sabot until either the gunner or the commander ordered differently. Fine by him. “Driver, back up!” she ordered, as return fire started to come their way. Their opposition was a company of Invy tanks, if the crews managed to get to them before the artillery cut them down. She had to assume they would face the full dozen the Invy organized their companies in, though. The Abrams dropped backwards, and she started to give the driver commands to maneuver them to the next spot, when the left side of her vision temporarily whited out, accompanied by an explosion that rocked Bad Bitch sideways on her tracks. A hundred meters away the turret of Suzie Q leapt upward into the air, flipped over twice, and then fell back on top of the hull, almost snuffing out the fire that raged inside. The track commander, less experienced than Dash, had let his driver expose the shot trap, the space between the hull and the turret, while scanning for targets. The 100mm plasma bolt had blown through the drivers’ head, under the main gun, across the loader, and hit the anti-matter reactor that drove the tank. The resulting explosion had come back into the crew compartment and vented its fury in that contained space, incinerating the crew and lifting the forty ton turret high into the air. She had no time to mourn her friends, just fight the tank. They were to engage at long distance, draw the enemies’ fire while the infantry swung wide around the base. Could be that, tonight, nobody was going to get out of here alive, but she’d take some of the bastards with her. Bad Bitch rolled fifty meters west, shielded by the hill, and then moved though the ruin of a house, the muzzle of her gun being given a narrow view to scan. Lehmkuhl caught a glimpse of the angular side of an Invy tank also shifting position, rotating on its air cushion, and fired, the sabot round punching through the skirts. The Invy vehicle bounced backwards and settled on the ground, but the plasma cannon started to rotate in their direction. Dash yelled at the driver to back up, but the gunner yelled, “HOLD!” even as Ibson raced to load the gun. The commander was tempted to kick Lehmkuhl in the head for countermanding her order, but settled on triggering the fifty caliber from her position, hoping the tracer fire and impacts would distract the Invy gunner. With a HISS CRACK and a charge of static, the plasma bolt scored the top of the turret, melting a groove and overloading the active camouflage. Lehmkuhl a second later, the sabot arching out and crashing through the engine of the Invy tank, a small spark followed by an explosion that was so bright it shone through the metal. Ibson turned to load another sabot round, but Dash shouted, “HEAT, APC, FROM MY POSITION!” Two seconds later Ibson yelled, “UP!” and the commander fired, knocking out an Invy armored personnel carrier that had been crossing the runway.

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.