Fifteen extraordinary stories. One bestselling universe. It’s the Twenty-Second Century. The galaxy has opened up to humanity as a hyperactive beehive of stargates and new technologies, and we suddenly find ourselves in a vast playground of different races, environments, and cultures. There’s just one catch: we are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain, and there’s only one way for humanity to move up—by becoming mercenaries. In every mercenary’s life, though, there comes a time when things go wrong and even the best laid plans go awry. When they do, though, the best mercs fall back and work out new plans, and you can bet on one thing—hope is not their strategy. Whether you’re a kid looking to get off your planet, or an unarmed merc facing an overwhelming force, or even the sole survivor of a pirate attack, there’s always an edge—and it’s up to the merc to find and exploit it! Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, “Hope is Not a Strategy” includes all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by some of the bestselling Indie authors currently in the business. These authors take on various aspects of the universe, giving you additional insight into a galaxy that isn’t at war…but definitely isn’t at peace. There’s only one thing for sure in the 4HU—anything’s possible…for a fistful of credits! Inside, you’ll find: Preface by Chris Kennedy Golden Ticket by Jonathan P. Brazee The Tide Changes by Craig Martelle Something You Are Not by Kevin Steverson Hijacked! by Terry Mixon The Wagner Method by Josh Hayes Paying the Price by Scott Moon Without a Shot by Chris Fox Raid by Mark Wandrey Second Chances by Kevin McLaughlin The Problem of the Qualis by Brian Niemeier Eye on the Prize by Nathan Hystad Earworm by Robert E. Hampson A Guilded Affair by Chris Kennedy Sunset by A.K. DuBoff Survivor by Kacey Ezell

    Once a proud member of the Fleet Marine Corps’ elite Terrestrial Advance Combat teams, the battle on colony planet Luyten C left him broken and scarred. But after a year of surgeries and physical therapy, he’s ready to complete his enlistment as Master of Arms on the exploration vessel Rihla. It should be a simple, stress free assignment - but things rarely work out as they should.For decades humanity’s efforts to spread across the galaxy have been hampered by the violent Orrkasi, an intelligent, space faring race of which little is known. But Staff Sergeant Vanhorn is no stranger to the Orrkasi. He’s a veteran with eight combat engagements, a harden warrior, a man who knows how to improvise, adapt, and overcome. But he’s facing challenges he never expected before. His body is crippled and scarred, the TAC Team brotherhood he once thrived in see him as a pariah, and he’s haunted by the horrors of combat. Just getting through his first cruise after returning to active duty won’t be easy.When the explorer ship Rihla reaches the Leonis system after almost a month in hyperspace, they find a habitable planet with a rich atmosphere, liquid water, and the ideal climate. It’s a perfect world for human colonization, but they aren’t the first to arrive and the Orrkasi have a surprise waiting for them.Survivors is an exciting military science fiction novel by master storyteller Toby Neighbors for fans of Starship Troopers, First Blood, Battle Los Angeles, and Heartbreak Ridge. With a cinematic feel, and characters you’ll love, Survivors is a smashing first book in a series that you’re sure to want more of.

    A vast barren tract of space lying between the besieged stars of the Kingdom of New Avalon and their distant allies. And it is the latest battlefield in the war burning across the void.Admiral Valin Sarven of the Hegemony fleet is as cunning as he is ruthless. A master tactician commanding the most powerful vessel in space, the battleship Behemoth. He is dispatched into the Reach with a single goal; to sever the long, tenuous supply lines linking the Kingdom to the Liberty Federation.Captain Hal Cutter and his ship, Achilles, join the flagship of the Kingdom’s fleet, the legendary KSS Cronus, in hunting the monstrous vessel lurking in the dark.But nothing has prepared the proud Kingdom Navy for what they’ll face as battleships clash in savage combat. And when Cronus is lost in the first brutal engagement, Cutter must play a deadly game of cat and mouse among the dim stars of The Reach.For these warriors, no quarter will be asked or given.It isn’t just admirals, captains and officers fighting this war, though. It is often those below decks who pay the highest price. And two spacers, one on either side, learn that even amid the fires of war and hatred, an act of mercy may save a wounded soul.Turrets will roar and hulls will buckle in this epic tale of battleships clashing in the night.

    It's time to move on to something more... obscure. Battlegrounds Online is the only game of its kind. A VRMMOFPS. A military warfare game so realistic that it scares away most players daring enough to try it. Realistic in the combat but not in the setting, the game is based around a toy property from the 1980s—a property that Eric's Grandfather was a fan of, passing that love down to Eric.Now, as a soldier codenamed Zag, Eric gets to play in that near-future world full of colorful and insane terrorists. He gets to be one of the characters he heard his grandfather rave about.But Eric will find that not all games are created equal. Some are more real. So real, they can affect you both in and out of the game. Experience this high-adrenaline LitRPG / LitFPS adventure from the Amazon Bestselling author behind Sky Realms Online. An action-packed thrill-ride that puts you right in the crosshairs.

    Occasionally, taking a short term contract job to pay the bills, Talon is marooned in Washington, D.C. when the nation is attacked by a series of false flag operations against our infrastructure and is then devastated by a series of EMP attacks. With every major city burning and the nation’s electrical grid down, civil order has deteriorated to the point of no return, at least for the immediate future. Separated by over 1400 miles from his family, Talon sets out on foot to get home as fast as he can relying on his skills and experience. With only about a week’s worth of supplies in his get home bag, Talon must find supplies as quick as he can and get out of the D.C. Metro area before the chaos overwhelms him. From his first steps he finds out nothing is going to be easy or fast.

    Then one day the Empire discovers another human civilization millions of light-years away, but it lags behind technologically. This distant civilization is also in a war for its very existence. The Empire sees a chance for its salvation by joining with this potential ally. A portal consisting of a pair of hypergates on each side is needed, however. Meanwhile, the Empire's Brigadier General Dean has been exposed to deadly radiation in battle with the aliens, and he is preparing to meet his death. Unexpectedly, he is offered to take part in a top-secret experimental project -- to have his mind transferred into the brain of an incurably sick young man lying in a coma in that distant human civilization. Dean’s task in this new body is to find a cure for his disease, then make a military career, strive to a high position in their society and ultimately to ensure that a second hyper-portal gate is built so that it will connect the two civilizations.

    It will take a new savior to inspire the masses, and once again lead those willing to fight against oppression. But who will the new savior be?

    But the bloody war with the alien Tahni has hit close to home and Tyler wants to join the military, something his powerful mother won’t allow. Desperate to escape her control, Tyler changes his identity to Randall Munroe, a product of the poverty-stricken Underground, and enlists in the Marines. There he flourishes, becoming a member of an elite Force Recon unit and striking deep behind enemy lines. But when his platoon is assigned to take back the colony on Demeter from the Tahni, the mission falls apart, most of his comrades are killed and Munroe is wounded, separated from his unit and left for dead on an enemy occupied world. With no other choice, he organizes the civilian colonists into a resistance movement and begins fighting against the occupation with limited supplies and no support. As the situation becomes more and more desperate, what began as a high-tech, interstellar conflict will become a war to the knife…

     A researcher studying the virus suffers a fever and launches into a bloody killing spree that ends with two police officers dead. A second researcher, Dr. Meg Perriman, has just flown home for the Easter holiday with her family in North Carolina, unknowingly carrying the virus. Within days, the infection spreads across the planet, sparking martial law, chaos, and widespread slaughter as many of the infected turn into flesh-eating zombies. Meg and a few others appear to be immune, however, and the survivors gather in a megachurch called Promiseland that the U.S. government has established as an emergency shelter. The Rev. Cameron Ingram, a charismatic televangelist the president has appointed as the “zombie czar,” believes the catastrophe is a sign of the Biblical apocalypse. When a rash of natural disasters accompany the outbreak and civilization breaks down, people turn to Ingram for salvation in the face of fear and despair. But Meg and her group of friends soon discover Ingram is not what he appears, and they are caught between the devil and the living dead.

    So began the First Interstellar Expansion Era, catapulting humanity into a deadly race for the limited resources of navigable space. Now tensions between the human nations are threatening to boil over into open hostility. Into this maelstrom steps the exiled Commander James Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. Banished from London to the survey ship HMS Drake he is about to make a discovery that may change his fortunes and throw Britain into a deadly war with its closest rival. The Void War is a military science fiction novel and first book by new author D. J. Holmes

    Fight to win. Survive the future. With the galaxy in turmoil, the Legion initiates Article Nineteen, a hard reset designed to halt the corruption and ineptitude that continues to spill forth from the Galactic Core. But when the House of Reason aligns itself with the bloodthirsty zhee extremists, the Legion has no choice but to commit to a savage campaign of Total War. As Legion Commander Keller attempts to coax the Republic and Black Fleet into a winner-take-all battle at the heart of the Galactic Core, Wraith uncovers secrets from Tyrus Rechs’s past. Determined to liberate his crew from the clutches of a dormant fleet controlled by a hostile AI, the soldier-turned-rogue comes face to face with the galaxy’s greatest threat. Meanwhile, Captain Chhun and Victory Squad follow intelligence that could land a powerful blow against Goth Sullus and his fledgling empire, and Exo and Wraith, in an tenuous alliance, move toward a slumbering fleet that could permanently alter the delicate balance of power among Legion, Republic, and Empire - or could just as easily eradicate the galaxy altogether. Chhun and Kill Team Victory find themselves taking on new roles inside the Legion, and the fight for control of the Galactic Republic hits its zenith with the arrival of the malevolent Cybar.©2018 Jason Anspach and Nick Cole (P)2019 Podium Publishing

    Jesse Rollins’ family disappeared in the desert during a family camping trip. Jesse was ten years old when the event took place and they were never seen again. Jesse turned sixteen and ran away from the orphanage the state put him in after the disappearance and returned to the place they disappeared. He decided that if it happened once; it could happen again. He had no idea he would cause the world to be thrown into a world war with the Military Leaders in the United States, China, and Russia planning to overthrow the governments of the planet's three most powerful nations. He also had no idea he was right. Excerpt from; Jesse’s Starship Suddenly a bright spotlight lit up the night and the two aliens were frozen for an instant. They heard a voice said over a loud speaker, “You will stay where you are and raise your arms above your head.” The Apache swooped down the rise toward the two Neman with its machine guns targeted on them. One of them raised his arm and pointed it at the fast approaching helicopter. The Apache exploded and pieces rained down into the depression. The other Neman fired a beam at Gresam’s dead body as the first pressed his wrist unit extending the force field around their ship to cover them. They sprinted toward the open port as two Raptors came roaring in. The pilots were circling and saw the Apache’s destruction; the lead pilot contacted his commander, “The Apache has been hit and destroyed. We’re arming missiles and going in.” Two of the four Raptors roared in and locked their sights on the place in the depression where the two beings had disappeared. They toggled two hellfire missiles and fired them as they topped the rise. One of the Neman yelled, “Remove the hostiles!” Two bright white beams shot out of the ship’s hull and hit the two Raptors exploding them in midair as they passed overhead. The second pair of Raptors roared in a moment behind the first two and launched their missiles just before they were hit by white beams and destroyed. The wreckage of the four Raptors was scattered for a mile as the debris rained down on the desert at high speed. The wreckage that hit the force field surrounding the spaceship was vaporized. This review is from: Dahlia's Deception (The Annihilation Series) (Kindle Edition) I have all of Saxons books at least I hope so; adventure of the highest level await all who venture into his books. I have everyone in my family hooked on the series from The young teens to the old timer that's me at 73 thanks For the ride keep it up PLEASE. Visit us at on face book at www.facebook.com/SaxonAndrewsUniverse or our website at www.annihilationseries.com. You may contact us directly at saxonandrew@msn.com

    If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed adventures on strange worlds with even stranger aliens, this series is for you!

    The ship never reached its port, while the soldier woke up a thousand years later on an operating table.The Old Federation was gone, most planets hurled back into the Stone Age. A devastated Earth used spies instead of spaceships to compete against the tougher richer worlds.The Director of Earth had doctors suppress the super-soldier’s memories, giving him an undercover identity and mission: grab advanced technology from a prohibited planet before anyone else could and bring it back to Earth.The soldier turned spy felt desperately lost, alone and out of place. There were no familiar faces. But an intense sense of duty drove him headlong into danger. And yet…and yet…there was something more, something missing that he increasingly wanted to know.So began The Soldier’s odyssey in a future time that would change the destiny of the universe.

    Their father was murdered, leaving them sitting in their spaceship waiting for his return. They remember almost nothing from before that time, when two Calavari who were business associates of their father took them in and told them they could never be seen outside their full body armor. They've honored their father's dying wish, living and working on the Calavari's farm while exploring the barren wastelands looking for bits of technological salvage from the time before the great cataclysm. They don't know they're Human, just that they're different and they can't show their skin in pubic. The two siblings have lived almost their entire lives in their self-styled body armor and dream of leaving the farm and doing something that mattered...but there's nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Then one day that all changes and Esna is set forth on a rollercoaster ride of a life she could never have expected once the word 'Human' is once again spoken on the planet...only its a word of rage and fear, with the local aliens trying to kill whoever it is applied to, though they've never seen one before. Regardless, the word is tagged to her and she must run...with a little help. -------------- Excerpt from 'Lost Destiny': “Donovan!” he called out, running towards him with plodding footsteps as his nose picked up the scent of burnt flesh even before he saw the hole in the chest plate of the full body armor the man wore. Whatever race he was his blood flowed a sickly red, a fact that he’d prefer to not have known as he leaned over and gripped the man’s shoulders, prying him up into a sitting position. “What happened?” A shaking hand rose up to the neck of his armor, fumbling for the latch that Yammar finally helped him with. The helmet cracked opened with a hiss and the Calavari helped him pull it off, revealing the pale skin beneath that had alarmingly become even more so, now nearly white. “Gladers,” he said, wincing horribly as he half bent over. “Jumped me from behind. I got two of them, but the third…” “Where’s the latch for the chest piece?” Yammar asked, pulling back the cloak that covered most of the hard plates as he looked, but the man took a death grip on his lower arm and locked eyes with him. “My children. In the ship. You have to…please. I’m all they’ve got. They’re dead without you.” “Where’s the latch?” he repeated, searching around with his other three hands and finally finding something that looked promising. He pressed and turned the small button, being rewarded with another hiss as a crack formed along the side beneath the man’s left arm, but suddenly that arm went straight to Yammar’s giant head and gripped it tightly, forcing him to look into the dying man’s eyes. “Promise me. Promise me…” he said, wincing again. “I don’t know anything about your race,” Yammar said, feeling helpless. “Good…” the man spat in a cough but no blood came out of his mouth, though it was continuing to pour out of his chest and seep down over his waistband plates in spurts every time he jerked in pain. “Good. Don’t ask questions…just…make sure they wear armor…in public. Promise me.” “I promise.