Old Guard Created by Keith Laumer This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictionaland any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright c 2001 by Bill Fawcett amp Associates quotIncursionsquot c 2001 by Mark Thies quotRooksGambitquot c 2001 by John Mina quotThe Sky is Fallingquot c 2001 by J. Steven York amp Dean WesleySmith quotBrothersquot c 2001 by William H. Keith. All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in anyform. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale NY 10471 www.baen.com ISBN: 0-671-31957-4 Cover art by Dru Blair First printing February 2001 Distributed by Simon amp Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York NY 10020 Production by Windhaven Press Auburn NH Printed in the United States of America In memory of J. Andrew Keith 1958-1999 Author historian wargamer brother friend. NO BATTLE PLAN SURVIVES CONTACT WITH A BOLO . . . Ad-akradai Khorris was pleased with his position. His concentrated dischargers had shrugged offthe Humans heaviest bombardment. His nuclear cannons were in position to be moved up forfiring when the human forces had moved into his trap. But he would wait before deploying his armored vehicles. His infantry and