Hostile ships arrive, attacking the fledgling fleet and decimating it with ease. Only the intervention of strangers, benevolent aliens prevents the total annihilation of not only the starships, but the planet itself. Offering the means to defend themselves in the form of shared technology and a liaison, humanity prepares to fight back. They refit the Behemoth, the only surviving ship from the initial attack and embark on a quest to join their saviors. A war is brewing against a zealous enemy, one with a single minded notion to destroy every colony, every world, all civilizations. As humanity works to prove themselves to their highly advanced allies, they travel to the far reaches of the galaxy. Every test pushes them toward their ultimate confrontation, a final match with those who attacked them in the very beginning. But will their preparation be enough to defeat a culture literally designed for war? Box set includes: Behemoth: Rise Of Mankind Book 1 Warfare: Rise Of Mankind Book 2 Raid: Rise Of Mankind Book 3 Conflict: Rise Of Mankind Book 4 Pursuit: Rise Of Mankind Book 5 Artifact: Rise Of Mankind Book 6 Rebellion: Rise Of Mankind Book 7 Extinction: Rise Of Mankind Book 8 Offensive: Rise Of Mankind Book 9 Showdown: Rise Of Mankind Book 10

     If Corps Tech Sergeant Aly Erikson wants to survive another day, she will have to give up everything: her identity, her rank, her attachment to her brothers-in-arms, and most of all, her guilt. After doing her duty as a member of a ground infantry squad tasked with “neutralizing” an insurrection by non-citizens on a mining planet, Erikson realizes that everything she thought the Corps stood for, thought she stood for, is crumbling away. Where is the honor, the justice, the spirit of law? When the enemies are nothing more than outclassed and outgunned dregs of the Algol System’s forgotten people, being part of their execution squad has put her as far from the ideals of justice as Erikson can imagine. Haunted by their ghosts, she struggles to maintain her military bearing until even that is suddenly ripped away in an act of terrorism that sends her, her brother, Tech Sergeant David Erikson, and another Corpsmember, Rebecca Soltznin, on the run on a hostile planet. Forced for the first time in ten years to blend in with a civilian population, the three are faced with a single choice: regroup with their brothers-in-arms or become deserters. For Aly, it’s easy; why go back to being a cog in the death machine the Corps is becoming? But for the other two, the price for making the wrong decision may be higher than they’re willing to pay. On the run, under attack from the scavengers who plague the system, and out of options, the three face conflict from every direction. If they can’t find a way to fight together, their chances for survival are less than zero. And for one of them, the best solution may come down to one simple act: betrayal. In this prequel to the popular Spectras Arise Trilogy, readers get an intimate look into the events that led Aly and David Erikson on their path from decorated and dedicated soldiers to black-market arms smugglers, and ultimately, to rebels against the Political and Capital Administration of the Advanced Worlds.

    He watches her grow up on screens. Misses her first words. Misses her first steps. She's never kissed his scratchy cheek, or fallen asleep on his shoulder. He's never wiped away her tears, or sung her to sleep. Now she's a toddler, and he's about to enter hibernation sleep -- and when he wakes nearly 150 years in the future, his family will be gone. This is a short story for every father who never wants his daughter to grow up.

    She erred in not considering commercial and political consequences. Now, someone wants to steal or bury her research and, perhaps, her with it. With no way to fight this unknown foe, Jaswinder knows she has but one chance—complete her research and publish. To do that, she has to stay alive and stay free. Pilot Johannes Yrden desires a courtesan, someone to keep him company on the 8 month trip to the planet Liberty and back. He wants someone not from the Yrden Family spaceship and to hell with his brother, Captain Matt Yrden, who believes the TransPlanetary Corporations will stock his line-up with spies. Yrden's plan runs afoul of circumstance, which throws him together with one 'Jazz Saro', a woman on the run. Forced to run with her, Yrden allows her to convince him to sign her on as courtesan. He needs a companion; she needs a ship, a place to hide. It seems a simple enough arrangement. Jaswinder thinks she's found her perfect solution: a hiding place in hyperspace, where she can complete her research using the ship as her laboratory. Unfortunately, she hasn't reckoned on the possibility of one of her pursuers booking passage, forcing her to maintain the fiction of her alias. The pilot's family, with troubles of their own, grow suspicious and it becomes apparent she cannot complete her research openly. That leaves her the choice: Do what she needs to do to in order to save Jaswinder's life or become Jazz Saro.

    Fighters bombard the ruins. Monsters hunt the wastes – some humans serving the Welorin in order to indulge their petty cruelties. The last free survivors struggle against starvation and capture. It’s a world where friendship costs too dearly and heroics verge on suicide.One young man simply can’t resist either. Welorin torture machines ravage his world, filling it with literal nightmares. Cannibalistic aerobics instructors hunt him and snatcher teams dog his every step. Alaric attempts one rescue after another, hoping someone might possess keys to unlock memories stolen by the initial assault.An aborted rescue lands him in a three way fight between Welorin forces and interstellar raiders. He takes cover in the pirates’ ship, coercing its AI, Cassii, into helping him. Success comes with unexpected consequence as Cassii abandons her crew, his friends and Earth’s solar system.Cassii refuses to return to Earth, decrying her former captain’s despoiling of the ship’s weapons and armor. Alaric leverages goods stolen from Earth by Cassii’s former crew into a bid at privateering. Surrounded by tech he barely understands and exotic life forms, he’s easy prey for the Protectorate’s mercenary population.Escort Captain Manc Shepherd and the sultry pirate Tyne Ren – Manc’s onetime partner – manipulate, exploit and seduce him across the stars. Alaric’s perilous heroics complicate their tug-of-war, endangering both and Alaric’s ship – their intended prize.Alaric must decide who he is, what he holds dear and how far he’ll go to protect both. He must choose who to trust: his mentor, his temptress or his smitten ship’s AI. The right choice could save worlds. The wrong one could throw him into a desperate battle to save thousands from his betrayer at the cost of his truest friend.

    Neither a soul nor a message returned. The fourth time, the Rulers sent a single man: Nils Hansen.Commissioner Hansen had a mind that saw the shortest path to each task's completion and a ruthless determination to do what the task required. The cost - to himself and whoever happened to be in the way - didn't matter. Hanson's Special Units had kept his planet safe from the most sophisticated and violent criminals in the galaxy. Now Hansen was being sent to penetrate a spacetime enigma which had made gods or demons of the first humans to discover it. He would succeed or die.Northworld: a place of slashing violence and mystic transformationNorthworld: a place of treachery and dazzling beautyNorthworld: a place of honor, of faith, and of love.Hansen's iron will and strong arm confront godlike power and godlike cunning while a galaxy trembles for the outcome. And if Hansen dies - he will not die alone!

    Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.The year is 2322. Humanity has expanded into the stars, inhabiting over 100 worlds across a third of the galaxy. Though thriving as never before, they have discovered neither alien life nor the key to utopia. Earth struggles to retain authority over far-flung planets and free-wheeling corporations while an uneasy armistice with a breakaway federation hangs by a thread as the former rebels rise in wealth and power.Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero and her mother an influential military leader. But she seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune by reading the patterns in the chaos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars.Nothing about her latest objective suggests the secret it conceals will turn her life— not to mention the entire galaxy—upside down. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy leads to a discovery which will thrust Alex into the middle of a galactic power struggle and a sinister conspiracy, whether she likes it or not.When faced with its greatest challenge, will humanity rise to triumph, or fall to ruin?Aurora Rising is an epic tale of galaxy-spanning adventure, of the thrill of discovery and the unquenchable desire to reach ever farther into the unknown. It's a tale of humanity at its best and worst, of love and loss, of fear and heroism. It's the story of a woman who sought the stars and found more than anyone imagined possible.

    But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.Mercenary Instinct is a full-length, stand-alone novel of 90,000 words. It is part of the “Mandrake Company” series of science fiction romance stories and is recommended for readers who enjoy space-based adventure (such as Firefly) and steamy love stories (in the style of Linnea Sinclair).

    The difference between the well-ordered Union air fields and this dusty garrison is made painfully clear when she runs afoul a brutal commander of ground troops.Her assignment takes her from the midst of a bloody uprising to the elegant new space station where she hopes to train for her Hunter Class pilot grade. But not all runs according to protocol and she soon suspects that more than farming is being done up there. When she uncovers the treacherous and illicit schemes taking place, it seems that local riots are the least of their troubles.

    Mistakes might be made, but they are never acknowledged, especially when billions of embezzled dollars earned from illegal weapons sales are at stake. But where does one run when all Earth and the planets are under the aegis of one government?

    Brad and his comrades realize the war for humanity has only just begun. And there's no guarantee any of them will survive the long journey home...Escaping The Dead:Alone in a foreign land. The radio goesquiet while on convoy in Afghanistan, a lost patrol alone in the desert. Withhis unit and his home base destroyed, Staff Sergeant Brad Thompson suddenlyfinds himself isolated and in command of a small group of men trying to survivein the Afghan wasteland.Every turn leads to danger. The local populationhas been afflicted with an illness that turns them into rabid animals. Theypursue him and his men at every corner and stop. Struggling to hold his teamtogether and unite survivors, he must fight and evade his way to safety.Tales Of The Forgotten:The world is at war with the PrimalVirus. Military forces across the globe have been recalled to defend thehomelands as the virus spreads and decimates populations.Out on patrol and assigned to a remote base inAfghanistan, Staff Sergeant Brad Thompson's unit was abandoned and left behind,alone and without contact.They survived and have built a refuge, but nowthey are forgotten. No contact with their families or commands.Brad makes a tough decision to leave the safety ofhis compound to try and make contact with the States, desperate to find rescuefor his men.What he finds is worse than he could have everpredicted.Only The Dead Live Forever:The escape from Afghanistan was only thebeginning.The Trio survived the initial fall, and built arefuge, they thought they had reached safety, but only to find themselves onceagain abandoned and surrounded by the primals. No contact with their familiesor commands, no relief from the rabid enemy. The fight continues as Brad andhis men struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where the enemy is farmore dangerous than anything they had been trained for.Over land sea and air they will do anything to reach home.

    His mother has his life planned out, with a seat by her side, running the conglomerate. Tyler has other ideas. With the help of a great-grandfather who was a United States Marine when there used to be a United States, Tyler changes his face and his identity, becoming Randall Munroe and enlisting in the Fleet Marine Corps, qualifying for the point of the sword, Force Recon. Plunged into an interstellar war against the relentless Tahni Empire, Munroe is stranded alone on an occupied colony and forced to organize a civilian resistance to the enemy. The year of constant violence and death wears him down, yet sharpens him at the same time. After the war, Munroe once again takes up arms, this time against his will, when his uncle, Andre Damiani, the head of the Corporate Council, blackmails him into leading a special squad of trouble-shooters, eliminating threats to Council business among the criminal cabals in the Pirate Worlds. But the real enemy is still the Council, and Munroe vows to take the fight to them, no matter what the cost.

    He owes crime lord Alec Brondi 10,000 sols, and his ship is badly damaged. When Brondi catches up with him, he makes an offer Ethan can't refuse. Ethan must infiltrate and sabotage the Valiant, the Imperial Star Systems Fleet carrier which stands guarding the entrance of Dark Space, and then his debt will be cleared. While Ethan is still undecided about what he will do, he realizes that the Imperium has been lying and putting all of Dark Space at risk. Now Brondi's plan is starting to look like a necessary evil, but before Ethan can act on it, he discovers that the real plan was much more sinister than what he was told, and he will be lucky to escape the Valiant alive. . . .

    Not on Earth. Not in space. Not on other worlds. Join first colonizers, space marines and rebel forces as they battle for domination against separate factions, alien nations and, sometimes, themselves across the galaxies. 10 of the most recognizable names in space opera today bring you a value-packed bundle like no other, containing everything from full-length novels to tantalizing episode starts to popular serials. The same works you see right on Amazon's bestseller lists. About 2200 pages of rocket-fueled adventure! BONUS: Most of the authors have provided special content — from deleted scenes to complete short stories — you won't find anywhere else! This LIMITED-EDITION bundle includes: MARINES (Crimson Worlds 1) - Jay Allan PENNSYLVANIA: Book 1 - Michael Bunker OMEGA RISING (Omega Force 1) - Joshua Dalzelle FOREVER GATE: Part 1 - Isaac Hooke THE EMPIRE'S CORPS - Christopher G. Nuttall REBEL - Edward W. Robertson DARK SPACE: Book 1 - Jasper T. Scott THE TERRAN GAMBIT (Episode #1: The Pax Humana Saga) - Endi Webb THE SYNCHRONICITY WAR: Part I - Dietmar Arthur Wehr GALACTIC EMPIRE WARS: Destruction - Raymond L. Weil

    College beckons, as does her dream of becoming an engineer. On an early evening walk, her cocker spaniel charges into the woods on the other side of the pond. Aimee trails after him, and in the stillness of that forest the unthinkable happens. She becomes paralyzed and watches in horror as her hands vanish before her eyes. Waking to the sound of voices, Aimee realizes that she has been kidnapped. Little does she know how far away from home she is, though. In an attempt to flee her captors, she launches from their confines only to freeze at the view outside the window. The sky is black and filled with stars, and in the distance is a familiar blue globe. The planet Earth. A group of humans forced to flee their planet after an epidemic destroyed their civilization now travel the galaxies in search of an antidote. Retrieving samples of plant life from every solar system, on this occasion Aimee was accidentally seized instead. Aimee must learn to avoid the advances of an awkward young scientist who seems intent on dissecting her, as her own fascination turns to the exotic young warrior, Zak. Having fallen in love with Zak, she is now torn with the decision to return to Earth or live beyond the stars.