March to the Sea

SOME DAYS IT JUST DOESN'T PAY TO
GET OUT OF YOUR SLEEPING BAG

The successor to March Upcountry

It wasn't so much that Prince Roger and his surviving remnant of elite bodyguards are marooned on a barbarian planet. Or that they have been on continuous operations for so long they are getting shocky. Or that they still have half a planet to cross. Or that they are basically out of ammunition for their plasma and bead rifles and just about out of cash. Sure, those are all problems, but they're not the real problem.

No, the problem is Roger is in love. With one of his bodyguards. And the romance is not going well. Damnbeast? Sure. Vampiric moths? Okay. Screaming waves of barbarians? No problem. But when you have Nimashet Despreaux and Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock at sword's point, that's real danger.

And it's just the beginning.

To get to the distant port that is their only way off the planet, they'll be forced to battle enraged monsters, displaced mercenaries, religious fanatics and a barbarian horde to shame the Huns. Along the way they'll have to recreate the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. And do it all in a context their four-armed, horned, grizzly-bear sized native allies can handle.

It will strain all their experience and knowledge, as the most elite, the most multitalented and above all the toughest bodyguards in human space. But the really hard part will be keeping Roger and Nimashet from killing each other.

Cover art by Patrick Turner
Interior maps by John Ringo

Hardcover
Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, August 2001

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weber, David, 1952–

March to the sea / by David Weber & John Ringo.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-671-31826-8
1. Princes—Fiction. 2. Life on other planets—Fiction. I. Ringo, John, 1963–
II. Title.

PS3573.E217 M35 2001
813'.54—dc21 2001025925

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-31826-0
ISBN-10: 0-671-31826-8

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webscription.net

For "Uncle Steve" Griswold, USMC,

The "barbarian" who taught me that people are always responsible for their own actions, but that sometimes good people have to take the responsibility for fixing other people's mistakes. You did . . . for thirty-one years. God Bless.

Dedicated to Charles Gonzalez:

The sort of person who would discuss quantum mechanics, dialects of Amazonian tribes and garroting German sentries with an impressionable twelve-year-old.

ALSO IN THIS SERIES

March Upcountry
March to the Stars (forthcoming)

BAEN BOOKS by DAVID WEBER

Honor Harrington:
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies

In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory

edited by David Weber:
More than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds

Mutineers' Moon
The Armageddon Inheritance
Heirs of Empire

Path of the Fury

The Apocalypse Troll

Oath of Swords
The War God's Own

with Steve White:

Insurrection
Crusade
In Death Ground

BAEN BOOKS by JOHN RINGO

A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances