War is everywhere. Not only among the firefights, in the sweat dripping from heavy armor and the clenching grip on your weapon, but also wedging itself deep into families, infiltrating our love letters, hovering in the air above our heads. It's in our dreams and our text messages. At times it roars with adrenaline, while at others it slips in silently so it can sit beside you until you forget it's there. Join Joe Haldeman, Linda Nagata, Karin Lowachee, Ken Liu, Jay Posey, and more as they take you on a tour of the battlefields, from those hurtling through space in spaceships and winding along trails deep in the jungle with bullets whizzing overhead, to the ones hiding behind calm smiles, waiting patiently to reveal itself in those quiet moments when we feel safest. War Stories brings us 23 stories of the impacts of war, showcasing the systems, combat, armor, and aftermath without condemnation or glorification. Instead, War Stories reveals the truth. War is what we are. Table of Contents: Foreword -- Gregory Drobny Graves -- Joe Haldeman Part 1: Wartime Systems In the Loop -- Ken Liu Ghost Girl -- Rich Larson The Radio -- Susan Jane Bigelow Contractual Obligation -- James L. Cambias The Wasp Keepers -- Mark Jacobsen Non-Standard Deviation -- Richard Dansky Part 2: Combat All You Need -- Mike Sizemore The Valkyrie -- Maurice Broaddus One Million Lira -- Thoraiya Dyer Invincible -- Jay Posey Light and Shadow -- Linda Nagata Part 3: Armored Force Warhosts -- Yoon Ha Lee Suits -- James Sutter Mission. Suit. Self. -- Jake Kerr In Loco -- Carlos Orsi Part 4: Aftermath War Dog -- Mike Barretta Coming Home -- Janine Spendlove Where We Would End a War -- F. Brett Cox Black Butterfly -- T.C. McCarthy Always the Stars and the Void Between -- Nerine Dorman Enemy States -- Karin Lowachee War 3.01 -- Keith Brooke Cover art by Galen Dara.

    And that was the good news. The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are. I'd better start at the beginning....