The Warrior — David Drake

THEY WERE THE BEST
COLONEL ALOIS HAMMER. He welded five thousand individual killers into a weapon more deadly than any other in the human universe.

LUKE BROGLIE: His brilliant mind could have succeeded in any business; but war was the business he chose.

TESS KUYKENDALL: She knew what her job was, but she also knew what was survivable.

SLICK DES GRIEUX: War was his life, and that made him almost too dangerous to live.

The collision between different styles of being The Best meant a bloodbath, even by the grim standards of THE WARRIOR