The Union is gone. Interstellar travel is no longer safe. Enter ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins. More than four years after being wrongfully stripped of his rank and decorations in a court-martial stacked against him, ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins suddenly finds himself a free man. The galaxy to which he returns, however, is changing. The Union of Free Planets is on the verge of dissolving. Many of the shadowy political players working behind the scenes to end the Union are the same people who sent Cliff away. Yet, in the coming political upheaval, Cliff glimpses an opportunity.

Bad luck seems to follow navy officer Archer Devereaux like toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Even when he tries to do the right thing, he ends up in hot water—or behind bars. Hemmed in by circumstances beyond his control, his reputation, particularly among graduates of the Phlegraean Naval Academy, has become a mess. Fortunately, one of his superior officers knows that Devereaux is more than his mishaps. She sees that he's a clever young officer. Cool under fire.

Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire. Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void. Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

In the near future space debris around Earth has made it impossible to traverse our solar system. Or it would be, if not for prisoners sentenced to clearing that debris known as Orbital Garbage Removal Experts, or O.G.R.E. for short. Former linguistics professor Dax has made it a habit of working aboard The Junkyard with a small crew, the conspiracy theorist, tech-savvy hacker Mark and the once decorated military hero turned war criminal, Kane.

When the over-driven hyperdrive on their mobile shipyard burned out, the Chhrt'ktk't abandoned it in an inhabited system along their path, hoping it would work as a decoy to buy them more time to escape the Khreetan fleet pursuing them. They didn't anticipate how far the pre-spacefaring species they turned over their broken-down maintenance facility to would subvert their plan.

When Thomas heard the cries for help, he didn’t hesitate to do the right thing. It was his chance for redemption. Until everything went wrong. The cave should have been deserted. The perfect place to hide. Instead, it’s crawling with soldiers and engineers working to unearth the impossible: Excalibur.

I was a Hunter, and I honored the Code. For my services to humanity and for leading a "proper" life, I was to be rewarded. A new life after death, and a new world to give me some well-deserved rest. But something went wrong. Once again, I must fight. The Monsters that face me here are far more terrifying than those of my past life. They are cleverer, crueler, more unpredictable. And their name is.

Drake steals artifacts so they can benefit all of mankind. They belong in a museum, after all, not hoarded by a select few in their private vaults. It's a dangerous life, but someone has to do it. Until he learns of a map to the location of a lost mega-freighter once belonging to the ancient royal family. Drake, like so many before him, can't resist the siren's call. After all, it's the find of a lifetime.

I have been reborn from an advanced techno-magic world into a world where magic is still in its infancy. In this new world I have the body of a young baron and my entire worldly possessions are one village—a village surrounded by monsters and hostile aristocrats on the fringes of a young, rapidly expanding empire. The other thing I have, though, is knowledge beyond what this world has dreamt of, and nothing will stop me from building my own magic empire!

Sam Levine knows what it means to struggle. After several missed opportunities, he's been forced to turn his talents to freelance work, picking up whatever dirty job he can find only to make ends meet. But there's an end in sight. An opportunity to change everything. And when a dangerous, high-profile job comes his way, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. Hope has been in rare supply, but even with the dangers inherent in his decision, he puts his life on the line for a chance to elevate his situation.

Alex went for a walk in the woods and ended up changing the world. Chased by a bear, or maybe a squirrel, he finds a spaceship that lets him control an AI and nanomachines. Join his adventure as he changes the world and the galaxy as he builds the Nano Empire.

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.

My name is James Thorne, and I wasn't supposed to matter. Before the invasion, I was just a guy in a dead-end job, keeping my head down and my past buried. The Gehenna want our annihilation. Thankfully, they angered the Aetherion who may help humanity not only fight back, but turn the tide. When I’m offered the chance to be Cleansed, to become something more than I was, I take it. And it turns out I’m special. No, I’m not the Chosen One. And yes, there are others like me, but as a Psyker, I can do things most can't. Things that make me very dangerous.

Sergeant Paxton Alejo is a League of Humanity Marine Commando, the best of the best. After getting sent to oversee a batch of fresh conscripts, Pax makes the fateful decision to sacrifice his life to save his subordinates. He is posthumously awarded the Cross of Honor, the highest military medal . . .

Mitch's mediocre life has just taken a turn for the worse, so his buddy tries to cheer him up by showing him a secret starship. Unfortunately, everything goes south when hostile aliens arrive. In an effort to save his buddy and the starship from the aliens, Mitch does the obvious thing: he accidentally warps hundreds of light-years away. Marooned in a distant star cluster, Mitch is forced to deal with a snarky teenage AI, a rogue auto-pilot, and a beautiful alien soldier who's ready to steal his ship at any moment—so she can fight an oppressive military faction, of course.