Daniel Arenson

The universe is dangerous, wondrous - a vast canvas upon which humanity sketches its hopes for the future. In this anthology, you'll find 17 tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. Flee the apocalypse of modern-day Earth, fly a fighter in the cold...

It is a dark hour. Admiral James King and the Freedom Fleet face war on two fronts. In space, the Weltraumwaffe conquers planet after planet. Nazi Germany's space force seems unstoppable. Its grip tightens around Earth, and the Freedom Fleet struggles to survive.

WWII flares again. This time in space. It's 2207, and the Allies and Axis clash. On Earth, the Wehrmacht marches across America, heading toward Washington. Across the solar system, Nazi starships bombard our fleet. And among the stars, the SS hunts us like ghosts. But we fight back! Two universes.

The final battle is here. The final showdown between man and monster. Years ago, the aliens hit us hard. Tentacled aliens. Bloodthirsty aliens. They burned our cities. Devoured our children. Conquered our world. It ends now. We lost in space. We lost on land. We lost our world.

In 1944, a secret Nazi experiment split the universe in two. In our universe, we won. Hitler died. Freedom prevailed. But in a parallel universe, the Nazis discovered the atom bomb first... and conquered the world.

Welcome to the alien zoo. In here, you’ll meet a variety of life from across the universe. Floating balloons of flesh from a gas giant’s storm. Sentient moss that controls golems of stone. Towering arachnids whose webs can entangle starships. And in one enclosure… humans. Us.

The hydrians, squids from another galaxy, topple our forests, fill our oceans, storm our cities. Years of civil war have weakened Earth. As the aliens attack, we fall fast.

United we stand. Divided we fall. We stood together once. United. Proud. Humanity was one. Together we colonized the stars. Together we built an empire. That was a long time ago.

They call themselves the next step in human evolution. But we call them "scummers." They are hybrids. Humans with alien DNA. They attacked us. They butchered us. Now we fight back. Under the leadership of Einav Ben-Ari, our brave soldiers fly to the scummer planet. To war.

They say hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. Marco Emery was born into hard times. He was raised in war.

Dinosaurs. Majestic beasts. For millions of years, they ruled the Earth. Today they live again on planet Mintari. Risen from the past, these beautiful animals inspire all who see them. Titanic sauropods roam the land, devouring forests. Ceratopsians herd across the plains like living tanks...

They came from beyond. From beyond the galaxy. From beyond human understanding. They came with one mission. To kill us all. Some call them aliens. Others call them gods. Their tentacles grip worlds. Their malice destroys civilizations. They've crushed a million planets. Now they crave Earth...

The Aeolians. The galaxy's most mysterious aliens. For a million years, they've been hiding. No human has ever seen them. Until now. James King, commander of the starship Freedom, travels to their secluded world. He seeks to forge an alliance. To learn from the Aeolians their ways of war...

They called her a relic. They said she would never fly again. They said she was too old. Too large. A floating museum. But now the starship Freedom is the only hope of mankind. The aliens attack us everywhere. Vicious aliens. Bloodthirsty spiders from deep space. Our fleets burn. Our cities fall...

For years, Earth's heroes fought united. They faced alien armies in war. They defended Earth as friends. As a fellowship. Now they break apart. Lailani de la Rosa, heroine of the Alien Wars, aligns herself with a new enemy....

They walk among us. They look just like us. They plot our doom. Some call them the scummers. Hybrids. Humans with alien DNA. Years ago, they hatched in alien labs. They came to Earth as sleeper agents. Since then, they’ve been mingling with our society....

The starship Freedom is marooned in deep space, far from home. Crippled. Barely flying. But she is not alone. In the shadows, evil stirs. A race woven from arachnid and human DNA. They hunt like spiders. They think like men. They are the perfect killers. Like a virus, they invade the Freedom...

The starship Freedom. The hope of mankind. The defender of Earth. Under the leadership of James “Bulldog” King, the Freedom won battle after battle. Yet now Freedom faces her most terrifying foe. Not an alien fleet. Not a charging armada. But one ship. Nobody knows where...

War rages. Two planets fight. Neither will back down. Earth, the center of a galactic empire. Bahay, a rebellious world. Heroes and villains fight on both sides. And die on both sides. Maria, a young Bahayan, was once a humble rice farmer....

Conquering this backwater planet should have been easy. But the natives are fighting back hard. The bodies pile up. The bombs keep falling. There is no end in sight. Jon is an Earthling, a soldier eager to serve his world. But now he’s bogged down in the jungles of an alien planet....