Daniel Arenson

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....

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 emptiness of deep space, and find new life on the distant shores of an alien world....

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....

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.

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....

Riff and his crew have never faced anything like the skelkrins before. As these cosmic killers invade our solar system, will Riff be the one hunting aliens...or will aliens hunt him?....

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 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....

Marco and Addy, veterans of the Alien Wars, are retired. They fought for many years. They saved Earth many times. Now they're raising their children in a peaceful forest. They've earned this peace. But Earth needs them. More than ever. Because a war is coming. A war unlike any before....

Long ago stood the kingdom of Requiem, a land of men who could grow wings and scales, breathe fire, and take flight as dragons. Requiem ruled the sky....

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....

The marauders, terrors from deep space, hit us hard. Our starships shattered. Our armies collapsed. Our cities crumbled. As Earth smolders, the marauders imprison us in camps....

They call themselves the next step in human evolution. But we call them "scummers." They are hybrids. Humans with alien DNA. They attacked us. They butchered us. Now we fight back. Under the leadership of Einav Ben-Ari, our brave soldiers fly to the scummer planet. To war.

It begins. The final battle between man and machine. Earth burns. The Dreamer, a cruel artificial intelligence, brutalizes our world. A band of heroes undertakes a dangerous quest. Some call it a suicide mission. They fly to a computerized world, deep in space, where the Dreamer dwells....

They emerge from shadows. Hungry for flesh, they scurry forth. They are the marauders, the galaxy's deadliest predators. And they crave Earth....

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

The final battle is here. The final showdown between man and monster. Years ago, the aliens hit us hard. Tentacled aliens. Bloodthirsty aliens. They burned our cities. Devoured our children. Conquered our world. It ends now. We lost in space. We lost on land. We lost our world.

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've faced aliens before. But nothing like this. This enemy is stronger, smarter, and crueler by far. And they want to kill us all....

Across the ruins of Earth, we rise in rebellion. In the depths of space, we seek allies. And our last warship prepares for one final battle....