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

    This ability now tells him that something is in the air when he almost become a victim of an attempted murder and the upcoming mission to the fringes of the Imperium does not give him a good feeling. The more they talk about how it is just a routine test of a brand new communication ship, the more suspicious it is. Central Imperium is too big, too fragine and holds together by too many compromises. External enemies are about to také a bit of its territory but the internal ones are even more dangerous.

    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.

    An alien race called the Oghaldzon has decided that mankind is dangerously insane… and must be forcibly taken under control. The invasion fleet’s technology is decades ahead of Earth’s best. They have more ships than the human fleets combined, and a seemingly-inexhaustible number of ground troops. And they’re not afraid to kill billions of people. Humanity is outnumbered, outgunned, and divided. But they have a few cards left to play – and they’re not going down without a fight.

    Still, the merciless mental, physical, and psychological torture may be worth it for Lance Warder to have a chance to fight in space.The space that awaits isn’t for the faint of heart. He’ll have to shed his mental chains to prove his mettle. Because no one cares who your father is when you’re faced with unknown threats in a dark, infinite void.To help deal with the everyday grind of survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training, Lance will join a boxing league and even find himself in the middle of a mysterious AI takeover that may spell doom for mankind.

     Humanity is within months of losing an interstellar war to a species of aliens known as Fangrin. Giving up isn’t an option. Victory doesn’t seem like an option either. When assault craft pilot Commander Jake Griffin is sent out with the Eternity carrier group to hunt down and destroy enemy facilities, he has no idea what’s coming to him. The planet Graxol-4 out in the middle of nowhere hides a critical enemy base with vital resources just waiting to be stolen. The only problem is, it’s guarded by a war fleet and surface troops, while the planet itself is toxic and gripped by constant storms. The coming fight will be relentless. It will test Griffin’s combat skills to the limit against a vastly superior foe. In a way, he’s got it easy – the troops on the ground will have to beat the Fangrin in the most challenging circumstances imaginable. That job falls to Lieutenant Tanner Conway, a man who just wants to go home to his family. Victory on Graxol-4 may not win the war, but it will buy time for humanity to regroup, toughen up and come back harder. However, a third - unknown - player has an interest in this game and their involvement will turn everything on its head. Iron Dogs is a sci-fi action adventure in which human bravery and technology come up against the might of an alien war machine in the harshest of environments.

    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.

    He, and the 128 men on board, depart their home port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on a six-month deployment as part of the USS Carl Vinson battlegroup. The San Francisco, SSN-711, is the state-of-the-art in submarine technology of the U.S. Navy. The Akula class submarine Kasholot, K-322, is the state-of-the-art submarine of the Russian Navy. These two ships, commanded by very different men, are destined to hunt each other in the Cold War game until a science experiment gone wrong takes them back in time to December 19, 1941, and the beginning of World War II.

    Stalin’s War told the story of the build up to war, and now Truman’s War tells the story of two superpowers at war in the devastated landscape of post-war Germany that soon spreads across the globe. The drama opens with a massive series of attacks across a four hundred mile front as Marshal Zhukov’s powerful Red Army launches Operation Stalin’s Revenge against the ill-prepared Allied armies. The American and British armies having never faced such a powerful foe are sent reeling back from the opening attacks as entire units are soon overwhelmed by the advancing Soviet forces. The relatively untried American President is forced to grapple with the realization that the United States is threatened with its most deadly enemy in its history and a choice must be made…fight or retreat across the Atlantic in disgrace. Will President Truman rise to the occasion or instead falter and fail to live up to the exalted legacy of his predecessor. Massive battles in the air, land, and sea break out as Allied forces strike back but at an appalling cost. Massive pitched battles from Hamburg to Pilsen try to stem the Soviet onslaught, but victorious Soviet tanks push hard for the Rhine to secure a swift victory ever mindful they are up against the clock trying to win before American atomic arms can be brought to bear. Heroes emerge while others fall in disgrace unable to stand up to a new type of war, a total war unlike any the Allied armies ever thought possible. Truman’s War tells the story through the lives and actions of numerous historical figures from Truman, Churchill, Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, Bradley and countless others while also focusing on the great Soviets figures of the era, Stalin, Zhukov, Khrushchev, Rokossovsky, Chuikov, and others. Plus, numerous lesser known historical figures play their parts and fictional characters are also introduced to play important roles in the drama that plays out page-by-page until we reach the stunning conclusion setting up the third and final volume of the World in Flames trilogy.

    He and his team battle to drive the enemy from star systems under protection of the Confederation. His courage and fighting abilities are tested to their utmost, as he rises through the ranks of the LRS and beyond. Small unit skirmishes build to full-scale combat on planet surfaces, and serve as a counterpoint to violent conflict in space.

    Falkenberg was created by Jerry E. Pournelle and made his first appearance in “Peace With Honor” in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1972. That and other Falkenberg stories appeared in his fix-up novel, The Mercenary. Colonel Falkenberg and his 42nd Marine Regiment served as the last line of defense of the CoDominium and its many colonial words. This book continues the Falkenberg story, detailing his adventures and those of the 42nd CoDominium Marines on Haven (War World) and on Churchill, as Falkenberg and Admiral Lermontov struggle to keep the CoDominium from fracturing. On Haven the Colonel finds himself set between the Mahdi and his fanatical forces, on one hand, and Dover Minerals and the Bronson family, on the other hand. While on Churchill, Falkenberg is called upon to rectify the problems caused by the CoDominium Bureau of Relocations wholesale dumping of antagonistic populations on the hardscrabble world of Churchill, previously settled by British subjects in favor of the monarchy. Nor, does it help when the Brotherhood, a conspiracy of colonial CD military officers, gets involved providing weapons and money to the rebels.

    But humanity survives, out on the frontier, growing and looking boldly to the future. But man has never been able to live in peace, and even Earth’s sad fate has failed to slow the call to war. Lacking the resources to sustain their own armies and navies, the worlds look to the mercenaries of the Great Companies for aid, futuristic condottiere who contract themselves to the highest bidder. Darius Cain is the leader of the Black Eagles, the most renowned of the Companies. The Eagles command the highest rates of any of the Companies, and leaders bankrupt worlds to pay their price. But there are signs of a force working in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to launch a final war to reduce all mankind to slavery. As Cain slowly uncovers the truth, he must forge an alliance among old enemies, the other Companies his soldiers have fought for years…and the twin brother he hasn’t seen in a decade. The Crimson Worlds are about to explode into a war that may be mankind’s last. The Prisoner of Eldaron (Successors 2) Darius Cain’s veteran warriors have fought dozens of battles, and they have never met their equals. But there is another power, The Triumvirate. For decades, it has operated in the shadows, interfering secretly in the affairs of the colonies while steadily building an invincible war machine. The Triumvirate fears the Black Eagles, and the decision has been made. Darius Cain’s private army must be destroyed before the final invasion of human space can begin. A message reaches the Eagles’ base, word that the father he’d thought long dead might still be alive, a captive of the shadowy enemy. Darius Cain is skeptical, but he didn’t build the greatest military force in human space by being cautious or timid…and even the slightest chance his father was alive compelled his course of action, and leads him to a highly-developed planet called Eldaron, ruled by a dictator who calls himself the Tyrant. Darius knows he is walking into a trap, but he has no choice. He will free the prisoner of Eldaron…or he will extract a vengeance beyond the imaginings of dark nightmares. The Black Flag (Successors 3) The Triumvirate. Three clones of Gavin Stark who survived their evil master’s destruction. Now they have cheated death again, downloading their minds into an alien intelligence, a relic of the First Imperium. Vali, a secret planet, a hidden and haunted world covered entirely with factories and fortifications, worked by legions of slaves, the kidnapped and forgotten of a thousand worlds, working in darkness, building the tools of war for their masters. Erik Cain, the legendary hero of the Marines Corps, the man who killed the real Stark. For years he was a prisoner, held in brutal captivity on a dark world. Now he is free, and ready for the final struggle. Darius Cain, Erik’s son, and the commander of the feared Black Eagles, the greatest of the mercenary Companies. Darius freed his father, and now he is ready to rally the free forces of human space. Augustus Garret, the legendary admiral. He is old, but the same heart beats within his chest, and he will stand with the Cains, fight alongside his old allies one last time. From the barren ruins of shattered Earth to the farthest reaches of human habitation, the final battle has begun.

    That means going to the Geist System, which is about to become the most prized looting target in the galaxy. Governments, raiders and corporations alike are ready to go to war over the advanced technology there, and Spin has to lead her people straight into the middle where she's unsure of what other obstacles the mad artificial intelligences have left for them.

    Voracious and relentlessly, the Creednax consume everything in their path, including people, planets and themselves if necessary. Only the Rose of the Dawn has the smallest chance of stopping them — if the abducted captain and shanghaied crew can figure out how to run the alien ship in time. Unfortunately, time is the one thing they don’t have.

    He never knew how soon he and his fellow Raiders would have to prove themselves on the field of battle. After the failed coup to oust the emperor, the Novacks do not fade quietly into the background. They continue a low-grade insurgency, but in doing so, they open the door to other players that bring the entire empire to the brink of destruction. Sergeant a’Hope Hollow must lead a ragtag group of fellow non-humans in an attempt to avert a catastrophe that can wipe out humans forever. Read DEVOTION now.