Chicks in Tank Tops

Table of Contents A Modest Foreword (or, Mistakes Were Made) by Esther Friesner Editor’s Note by Jason Cordova Gadreel’s Folly by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Hold the Line by Kevin Ikenberry A Girl and Her K’t’ank by Jody Lynn Nye Airborne All the Way! by David Drake Airborne: The Next Mission by David Drake Goddess of War by A.C. Haskins Barbie and Gator Ken versus the Hurricane by Joelle Presby Jeanne d’Architonnerre by G. Scott Huggins Operation Dad Liberation by Lydia Sherrer and David Sherrer Between a Knight and a Hard Place by Philip Wohlrab Next Question by Marisa Wolf Belle’s Fantastical Mechanical Beast by Jason Cordova and Ashley Prior Mother by Robert E. Hampson Tread Softly by Esther Friesner About the Editor and Authors Chicks in TANK TOPS edited by JASON CORDOVA Baen Chicks in Tank Tops Edited by Jason Cordova THE CHICKS ARE BACK! CELEBRATING FEARLESS AND FEARSOME FEMALES WITH ALL-NEW STORIES. Featuring all-new stories inspired by the classic Chicks in Chainmail series! A boy and his dog. A girl and her tank. Tropes have been with us throughout all of history. Any girl would gladly trade in her skimpy armor for a tank. While a little bit of chainmail can take a chick far, heavy armor can take one even farther. Besides, what’s not to love about chicks in tank tops? From pure near-future military science fiction to Pride and Prejudice with zombies, AI tanks, and true love! All-new stories by: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, David Drake, Jody Lynn Nye, Kevin Ikenberry, Esther Friesner, Joelle Presby, Robert E. Hampson, A.C. Haskins, Lydia Sherrer & David Sherrer, G. Scott Huggins, Philip Wohlrab, Marisa Wolf, and Jason Cordova & Ashley Prior. Chicks in Tank Tops 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. Copyright © 2023 by Jason Cordova; “Editor’s Note” copyright © 2023 by Jason Cordova All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 www.baen.com ISBN: 978-1-9821-9235-8 EISBN: 978-1-62579-896-1 Cover art by Dave Seeley First printing, January 2023 Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022948062 Printed in the United States of America Electronic version by Baen Bookswww.baen.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my sisters Jessica, Jenny, Kristin, Nikki, and Courtney Story Copyrights: “Foreword” and “Tread Softly” by Esther Friesner appear here for the first time. © 2023 by Esther Friesner. Published by permission of the author. “Gadreel’s Folly” by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller appears here for the first time. © 2023 by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Published by permission of the authors. “Hold the Line” by Kevin Ikenberry appears here for the first time. © 2023 by Kevin Ikenberry. Published by permission of the author. “A Girl and Her K’t’ank” by Jody Lynn Nye appears here for the first time. © 2023 by Jody Lynn Nye. Published by permission of the author. “Airborne All the Way!” © 1996 by David Drake. Published by permission of the author. “Airborne: The Next Mission” by David Drake appears here for the first time. © 2023 by David Drake. Published by permission of the author. “Goddess of War” by A.C. Haskins appears here for the first time. © 2023 by A.C. Haskins. Published by permission of the author. “Barbie and Gator Ken Versus the Hurricane” by Joelle Presby appears here for the first time. © 2023 by Joelle Presby. Published by permission of the author. “Jeanne d’Architonnerre” by G. Scott Huggins appears here for the first time. © 2023 by G. Scott Huggins. Published by permission of the author. “Operation Dad Liberation” by Lydia Sherrer & David Sherrer appears here Chicks in TANK TOPS A Modest Foreword(or, Mistakes Were Made) Esther Friesner Gentle Reader, it behooves me to wonder, because it beats doing actual work, whether you picked up this slim, sensibly sized volume because you have some familiarity with that gem of Western Literature, the effervescent and delectable Chicks in Chainmail series, another fine Baen Books production. What in the name of Hades’ hand sanitizer do you mean, “Uh, never heard of it”? Wretched child, you shame your cats! (Not your ancestors. Your ancestors don’t really care about stuff like this. Sad but true.) (PS: If you don’t have cats, forget I said anything and pick your own whatever for you to shame. Go on. I’ll wait.) (Okay, who suggested “You shame your breakfast”? sigh Well, if that’s the best you can do, fine, I’ll work with it because I don’t have all day. We proceed . . . ) The germ of the first Chicks in Chainmail book made itself manifest unto me at a science fiction convention. I was at the art show and for no logical reason thought of those old, exploitative movies about women in prison. Hey, Orange Is the New Black actually has cinematic ancestors. (Which it does not shame.) My mind not only wanders, it hires a tour bus and tootles all over the landscape, in this case turning to thoughts