Showing results by author "David VanDyke" in All Categories

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 emptiness of deep space, and find new life on the distant shores of an alien world. You might even discover something about yourself as each author opens a window on the soul of mankind.

The Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves. The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military output, and they raise specialized soldiers to save our species. Assault Captain Derek Straker is one such man among many.

The Breakers find a new home among the stars: Utopia. An engineered planet that is vast beyond comprehension with plenty of room to grow. They set up trade routes and work as mercenaries for their supplies...but trouble lurks. Pirates strike their merchant lanes. Key personnel are captured and enslaved. Straker is called upon to do something, and thus a new conflict is set in motion.

It’s been five years since the end of the Hive Wars. Straker has handed over the burden of governing the Earthan Republic to civil authorities. This should be a happy time, as Straker and his most loyal soldiers retire to a planet and step off the galactic stage. Unfortunately, authoritarian forces within the Earthan Republic are still simmering with rage at his victory. Rumors reach Straker of a growing new Republic Fleet manned by state loyalists. Planets begin to fall under their influence and go dark. Even in retirement, they see Straker’s Breakers as a threat.

The Republic, the Opters, and a strange Crystalline race of unknown origin all meet in a series of titanic battles. Commodore Straker summons thousands of ships, but he soon learns he’s technologically outclassed by the enemy. With traditional victory impossible, the race is on for each side to destroy the key worlds of the other. Billions die, entire planets are destroyed. Even while the war rages, dark suspicions grow. There are traitors in the midst of the chaos. Straker realizes the worst enemy is the one you believed to be your ally....

Commodore Straker faces new enemies as neighboring interstellar empires decide his New Republic is a growing threat. A two-front war develops, and the Liberator must face both the Mutuality and the Hundred Worlds. Even as the fighting rages, the mysterious Opters are on the move. They make a diplomatic effort to reach out to Straker - but can he trust the Hive Masters? Will they help or stab him in the back?

Star Force is called to arms again! Outcast is a new beginning, the first book in a new spin-off series. Many peaceful years have passed since the Macro Wars ended. Most of those who fought against the heartless machines have aged - but not the ingenious artificial construct known as Marvin. His insatiable curiosity is as strong as ever, and he’s brought home fresh perils to humanity’s doorstep.

Three stars, three worlds, three civilizations...one massive war. In a triple star system, not all planets are equal. When the Demon Star swings closest in her orbit, the Insectoids always invade. They raid the inner worlds with grim regularity, riding hordes of stealth ships in ever-growing waves. Their mission is to destroy all opposition - alien, human or otherwise. Cody Riggs, lost among an endless chain of interstellar rings, flies his task force of starships into the middle of an eternal struggle for survival.

Lost and cut off from Earth, the crew of the starship Valiant seeks a way home. In the 11th book of the Star Force series Cody Riggs collides with the overwhelming power of the Ancients. They fly incomprehensible ships and consider humans to be curiosities. Caught between ghosts of the past and demons of the present, Cody is abandoned by everyone. His girl, his crew, and even his ships change sides, exiling him in the cold depths of space.

Commodore Straker's rebellion grows in strength - but his enemies are growing even faster. Faced with a dozen rebel planets in their territory, the Mutuality finally takes notice of the upstart known as the Liberator, and they gather a vast fleet to crush him. Preparing for a titanic interstellar battle, it's clear Straker has no chance. His tiny enclave of free planets can't survive the weight of 1000 worlds. His own officers realize this, and some of them begin to turn against him....

Colonel Muzik and Master Sergeant Repeth fight a life-and-death battle to return civilization to the nuked and plague-ridden nation's capital. With a homicidal alien spacecraft inbound at high speed, Skull and Raphaela fly to meet it in a desperate bid to buy time for the Earth. In the meantime, Brigadier Spooky Nguyen presses to build the world's first space battleship.

When special operations veteran DJ Markis finds armed invaders in his home and it all goes sideways, he turns to his brothers in arms to fight back. On the run from the shadowy Company, soon he finds himself in a war for possession of a genetic engineering secret that threatens the stability of the world. But who is behind it all - and are they even human?

Book #1 of the Stellar Conquest series... In 2115, EarthFleet sends its best warships and bravest Marines on a one-way trip to conquer an alien star system - to win or die trying.

Ten years after Infection Day, Daniel Markis struggles to unite a shattered world in the face of nuclear attack and extraterrestrial plagues, while others grasp for power and dark technologies. Skull mounts a one-man campaign to thwart the fascist Unionists, while Jill Repeth, Spooky Nguyen, and his team gamble their lives to change the course of the Second Cold War.

The Terran Coalition faces repeated and brutal attacks from the repressive League of Sol. To defend his home planet, David trades his dream of becoming a rabbi for a battlefront in the far reaches of space. When particle beams fly, his courage under fire brings quick promotion. But in the lulls between battles when he must confront his soul, David finds a different enemy: the ghosts of those killed under his command. Yet in war, it’s kill or be killed - and the enemy shows no mercy. David must square the tenets of his faith against his responsibility to crew and country.

Sometimes defending those you love means risking everything and attempting the most dangerous task in the universe: making a planetary assault against a heavily entrenched enemy. It's grim and always ugly. But as long as men refuse to bow their heads to conquerors, they will take the fight to the enemy or die trying. Three masters of military science fiction have come together here to tell harrowing tales of high-tech mayhem.

When U.S. Marine Sergeant Jill Repeth's blown-off legs begin to regenerate, she thinks it's a medical miracle. But the breakthrough that's healing her war injuries is exactly what the government desperately wants to contain - by any means necessary. Hunted, she must cross an America wracked by strife, to try to find a family who may already be dead, searching for the inhuman secret of what started it all.

When oppression by the Unionist-dominated federal government becomes intolerable, the Republic of Texas secedes from the United States. As the Unionists respond with immediate violence, Daniel Markis and Spooky Nguyen send Reaper and Skull on missions to help the fledgling nation survive in the face of overwhelming odds. Can they win through to establish a haven for Edens on North American soil? Or, shall the world edge further into darkness?

When an enormous and potent alien ship appears in the colony system of Gliese 370, EarthFleet's Marines must investigate. What they find within will change the course of humanity's future yet again, as they face Desolator. The risks are high and so is the price in blood - and the payoff: new technology far ahead of their own, which may provide the key to fight the alien Meme Empire

Armed with alien technology and a complete refit, Henrich Absen captains Conquest on a voyage to take back what humanity has lost. Along the way he must confront a new form of life as well as his own demons in this shocking episode of the Plague Wars/Stellar Conquest saga.