Daniel Arenson

Aelar, a mighty nation, spreads its tentacles. Its oared galleys storm the seas, and the waters run red with blood....

The universe is dangerous, wondrous - a vast canvas upon which humanity sketches its hopes for the future. In this anthology, you'll find 17 tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. Flee the apocalypse of modern-day Earth, fly a fighter in the cold...

They came from deep space. They came to destroy us. Fifty years ago bloodthirsty aliens devastated the Earth. Most of humanity perished. We fell into darkness. But now we rise....

The final battle is here. The final stand of the starship Freedom. The final hope for Earth. Two galactic civilizations face off....

We hide in shadows. Our planet is lost. We are the last humans, and we must go home. Two thousand years ago, aliens destroyed Earth. Our fleets shattered. Billions died. The last humans fled a burning planet, heading to the stars. Today we are still refugees. Hungry. Afraid. Our enemies hunt...

WWII flares again. This time in space. It's 2207, and the Allies and Axis clash. On Earth, the Wehrmacht marches across America, heading toward Washington. Across the solar system, Nazi starships bombard our fleet. And among the stars, the SS hunts us like ghosts. But we fight back! Two universes.

The starship Freedom was once a mighty warship. Today, she's a tourist attraction. The space wars ended long ago. The Freedom is now a flying museum; the tourists love it. Then, on Christmas day, the aliens attack....

A noble leader is dead. His five children, once heirs to a bustling port, are scattered around the Encircled Sea....

The Aeolians. The galaxy's most mysterious aliens. For a million years, they've been hiding. No human has ever seen them. Until now. James King, commander of the starship Freedom, travels to their secluded world. He seeks to forge an alliance. To learn from the Aeolians....

The galaxy burns. The enemy, a race of alien scorpions, storms from star to star. Planets smolder in their wake. Across the galaxy, they hunt humans. Long ago, we humans had a planet of our own. Long ago, we could have resisted the scorpions. But today we are refugees. We are lost in darkness...

On Mintari, dinosaurs live again. Brontosaurs roam the forests. Mosasaurs haunt the deep blue seas. Tyrannosaurs prowl the plains. Life thrives. Yet life is also fragile. Amissa Triplehorn, a deadly huntress, leads an army of poachers, and only one man can stop her: her brother....

War flares between man and monster...between Earth and the terror from the stars....

In 1944, a secret Nazi experiment split the universe in two. In our universe, we won. Hitler died. Freedom prevailed. But in a parallel universe, the Nazis discovered the atom bomb first... and conquered the world.

It's all-out war. Our cities fall. Millions die. The scum, these cruel aliens from deep space, are determined to kill us all. So we must kill them. Humanity musters its greatest fleet....

Not long ago, the starship Freedom was a museum ship. A relic of a bygone era. A rusty old warship converted into a tourist trap. Then the aliens attacked. Now, once more, the legendary Freedom flies to war....

They say the world used to turn. They say that night would follow day in an endless dance. They say that dawn rose, dusk fell, and we worshiped both sun and stars....

They called her a relic. They said she would never fly again. They said she was too old. Too large. A floating museum. But now the starship Freedom is the only hope of mankind....

Earth burns. We call them the scum. They came from deep space. Creatures of claws and endless malice, they ravage the world. As the war flares, as cities crumble, Private Marco Emery....

Zohar, an ancient land of sand and splendor, rallies for its last stand. The genocidal Aelarian Empire sends its legions to destroy the small desert kingdom....

In the shadows, evil stirs. A race woven from arachnid and human DNA. They hunt like spiders. They think like men. They are the perfect killers. Like a virus, they invade the Freedom....