Atriox, the legendary Brute who questioned the Great Journey and the will of the Prophets as he watched his comrades die for their cause. Atriox, who created the faction known across the universe as the Banished!The story of Atriox, his rise to power, his contempt for the Covenant and the formation of the Banished is told across this five-chapter anthology featuring characters and stories from Halo Wars 2.This collects stories by acclaimed comics creators Cullen Bunn, Jody Houser, John Jackson Miller, Alex Irvine, Josan Gonzalez, Jonathan Wayshak, Eric Nguyen and Hayden Sherman.

    After discovering a cache of Prothean technology on Mars in 2148, humanity is spreading to the stars; the newest interstellar species, struggling to carve out its place in the greater galactic community. On the edge of colonized space, ship commander and Alliance war hero David Anderson investigates the remains of a top secret military research station; smoking ruins littered with bodies and unanswered questions. Who attacked this post and for what purpose? And where is Kahlee Sanders, the young scientist who mysteriously vanished from the base hours before her colleagues were slaughtered?Sanders is now the prime suspect, but finding her creates more problems for Anderson than it solves. Partnered with a rogue alien agent he can't trust and pursued by an assassin he can't escape, Anderson battles impossible odds on uncharted worlds to uncover a sinister conspiracy . . . one he won't live to tell about. Or so the enemy thinks.

    

    The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war with humanity that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and its colonies. For the first time in thirty years, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting has stopped, the war is far from over: it’s just gone underground. The United Nations Space Command’s feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five—a clandestine team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a Spartan super-soldier, and a diabolical AI—to accelerate the insurrection within the Covenant’s warrior species, the Sangheili, even as their notable defector-turned-leader Thel ‘Vadam—the Arbiter—struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people. Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died in the Covenant attack on the planet Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartan program, and now she’s broken some more rules to save them. Marooned with Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, Halsey finds that this place has been guarding an ancient secret—a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind. As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity’s violent past begins to catch up with all of them as the disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth…and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone’s loyalty to the limit.

    When the negotiations are ambushed by a mercenary fleet, Infinity is drawn into a plot which leads them to the discovery of a long-lost UNSC asset trapped behind enemy lines. This graphic novel collects the comics Halo: Escalation 1 through 6.Don't miss the thrilling new adventures set in the Halo universe!

    The future of war, and the fate of man, lies with one machine: the Bolo. With plated armor, a laser cannon, an electronic brain, and wheels, it defends humanity from aliens that threaten the entire species. Now comes the amplified history of the Bolo in stories by David Drake, S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey and others. Cover art by Paul Alexander.Contents:Lost Legion [Bethany Martins • 1] / novelette by S. M. StirlingCamelot / novelette by Shariann Lewitt [as by S. N. Lewitt]The Legacy of Leonidas / novella by Andrew Keith [as by J. Andrew Keith]Ploughshare / novella by Todd McCaffrey [as by Todd Johnson]Ghosts / short story by Mike Resnick and Barry N. MalzbergThe Ghost of Resartus / novelette by Christopher StasheffOperation Desert Fox [Bolo] / novelette by Mercedes Lackey and Larry DixonAs Our Strength Lessens [Bolo] / short story by David DrakeBased on the fighting machine created by Keith Laumer. .

    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. . . .

    With his girlfriend Ada, he joins a team excavating the underwater crater, determined to find the source of the baffling message. The artifact, named "The Black Marker," possesses a mysterious power. Close proximity to the stone causes strange occurrences: visions of the dead, vivid dreams, and violent murders. When Michael secretly obtains a small piece of the marker, he too begins to dream.The Black Marker has chosen him to hear his message: You need to prove yourself worthy of eternal life, or the slate will be wiped clean on Earth.This is the story of the origin of "The Black Marker," the foundation of the Church of Unitology, and a discovery that will change the world.

    - Patrick Ness

    The amazing illustrations come from a variety of renowned illustrators, including Jean-Sébastien Rossbach, Leonid Kozienko, Benjamin Carré, Isaac Hannaford, and 343's internal art team, too.For the first time ever, the timeline of the Halo universe is available in one place, charting humanity's battles against alien forces of the Covenant, Forerunners, and the Flood--making this book an absolute must-have for Halo fans.

    July 1951. Three years ago, Russia went dark. Nothing got in. Nothing got out. The world assumed it was political strife. But it was the Chimera: voracious extraterrestrial invaders. And in December 1949, they burst across the Russian border and poured into Europe. The luckiest humans died. The less fortunate succumbed to an alien virus–and changed.Within a year, most of Europe had fallen. Only Great Britain, after struggling desperately, had kept the conquerors at bay. But as the Chimera were repelled, they were evolving. Building. Planning.America. November 1952.The Chimera have crossed the Atlantic. Their lightning strikes on American borders are devastating. Cities are lost. Small towns overrun. Citizens transformed into monstrosities. Enter Lieutenant Nathan Hale, U.S. Ranger. A veteran of the Chimeran conflict, he is uniquely immune to the alien virus. And when regular troops can’t stem the Chimeran onslaught, Hale and his special-operations team meet the menace head-on.But while they battle the relentless Chimera, deadly power games rage in the White House. And when Hale discovers a far-reaching conspiracy, one with deadly consequences for the human race, his allegiance to country and mankind is stretched to the breaking point.

    This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets – the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade.Based on the bestselling video game from ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games, this all-new adventure from acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson digs deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable, and even life and death are not what they seem.

    * 65 · A Hole in Hell · Dane Helstrom · ss * 73 · Graceland · Allen Steele · nv * 101 · Every Man a God · Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg · nv * 141 · Blandings on Riverworld · Phillip C. Jennings · nv * 173 · Two Thieves · Harry Turtledove · nv * 207 · Fool’s Paradise · Ed Gorman · nv * 237 · The Merry Men of Riverworld · John Gregory Betancourt · na * 283 · Unfinished Business · Robert Weinberg · nv *

    Each species struggles to ensure its own survival among the stars in a war that will herald the beginning of mankind's greatest chapter--or foretell its violent, bloody end.Danny Liberty was a good reporter...too good. When his investigations struck too close to the heart of the corrupt Terran Confederacy, he faced a simple choice: continue his current series of exposés, or take a hazardous new assignment covering the Marines on the front lines of the Koprulu Sector. It didn't take him long to decide...Behind the attacks of the Zerg and the Protoss lies the story of a lifetime, but every piece of information blurs the mystery further. Thrown into the middle of a war where the outcome will determine mankind's very survival, the only thing that Danny Liberty knows for sure is that the only person he can trust to keep him alive is himself.

    A. Corey . . . Somewhere in the vast expanse of space, a group of prisoners lives in permanent captivity.The only company they have is each other and the Belters who guard them. The only stories they know are the triumphs and crimes that brought them there. The only future they see is an empty life in an enormous room.And then the man from Mars came along . . .Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of the Expanse, The Vital Abyss deepens James S. A. Corey's acclaimed series.