Showing results by author "Scott Bartlett" in All Categories

The return of humanity's oldest enemy... An alien prophecy that predicts our species' downfall... And a captain who's the only thing standing in the way of his starship getting mothballed. Wait, what? Imagine Captain Keyes’ surprise when the fate of the galaxy turns out to depend on him, his decrepit ship, and his oddball crew.

Out of the blue, a young Space Fleet officer's dream becomes reality: He's made captain of a starship. Just in time for the return of humanity's most terrible enemy, after 50 years of peace. To survive against this enemy, Captain Tad Thatcher will have to do more than learn how to become an effective commander, or how to wrangle his wayward crew. He will need to reinvent space combat. From scratch.

As a Marine, Henry Morgan would have said it was more likely he’d die from enemy fire than from being struck by a flying lawnmower while at a baseball game. But it was the lawnmower that ended up taking him out. A century later, Henry wakes up as a reconstituted intelligence, and is promptly drafted to be the governing AI for America’s first military starship. After decades of model-trained AIs wreaking havoc across the globe, humanity is ready to try something a little more…human.

Planet Nibiru wants them dead. All of them. Trapped by the destruction of their own satellites, the Marines on Nibiru suddenly find themselves without orbital or air superiority. With help months away, Po and his brothers must quickly figure out how to stabilize and survive against an exploding alien insurgency. Po learned young to rely on no one but himself. Now, he's slowly realizing that nothing from bootcamp, or from his trials on Earth's moon, could have prepared him for this. If he can't rip up some deep-rooted beliefs about his place in the universe, and fast, it may cost him his life.

When the Ornu came, they took Earth in a single night. Humanity never stood a chance. Now, they force us to crew their ships and fight their wars for them. They hold Earth hostage, and if we refuse to do their bidding, they’ll lay waste to our precious blue marble. Slaughtering the billions who live there. But when Captain Bill Henderson is sent to claim a small moon for his masters, he finds something they never accounted for. An ancient warship – a behemoth abandoned for millennia by a species that reached its peak at the dawn of the universe.

The Imperium does not take it lightly when its slaves revolt. Earth's population has been decimated, and Captain Bill Henderson is fleeing imperial attack dogs with his crew and two million refugees—the last of humanity. Starship Omega could be the answer to turning the tide and finally ending the Imperium's tyranny. But not in its current form. The Omega is capable of so much more—but to unlock the enormous ship's true power, Bill must lead those under his command into the heart of empire space.

Max Edwards has always felt like something was wrong with the world. Like something was...off. Like his entire life was a lie being told by the people around him. Then, it begins. From his friend’s acreage outside Oklahoma City, he witnesses a giant saucer descend from the sky to hover over the city. Countries all around the world report the same thing - mysterious vessels that refuse all attempts to communicate. As the world comes apart at the seams, Max realizes everything that’s ever happened to him was leading up to this.

Years after defeating aliens bent on burning down the galaxy, the Interstellar Union is breaking apart, its member species undermining each other at every opportunity. When an interdimensional distress signal arrives, only humanity is interested in helping. Captain Vin Husher is given command of the UHS Relentless, and sent in as part of a carrier strike group...right into a trap laid by humanity’s old enemy. Surrounded by a bioengineered super-species and unable to return home, Husher must draw on decades of experience just to keep his people alive.

March 15th, Earth Year 2290. The day the aliens returned. The memories are still fresh. Of colonies burning. Of millions dying in agony. Fifty years later, we’ve built up our strength. Using a wormhole, we colonized both sides of the galaxy. It was the worst mistake we could have made. Our enemy has returned and the wormhole has collapsed. Commander Thatcher finds himself on the wrong side of the divide. Separated from his pregnant wife by countless light years. He’s just been given command of a light armored cruiser. His first command.

Nothing brings change like war. A surge of new tech. New weapons. New tactics. To lead a crew to victory, a captain must understand change. He must understand command and that it is a test. A test most men fail. He must be brilliant. Resourceful. Every second. Of every day. And at night during scarce moments of rest, he must sleep the sleep of the righteous. The time has come for Commander Tad Thatcher to look in the mirror. The time has come to ask himself...am I that kind of man?

Hunted through system after system. Veronica Rose is gone. Frontier Security has fallen. And so goes Captain Thatcher’s last lifeline. Cut off from the rest of the star cluster, and surrounded by enemies, all seems lost. Thatcher must reach deep inside himself to find the resolve to keep fighting. The spacers under his command are counting on him to bring them safely home. In the darkest hour, someone must provide a light.

Commander Joe Pikeman has his share of demons. But after a long deployment, he just wants to enjoy some home leave with his daughter. The galaxy has other plans. His last assignment takes him to Earth, humanity’s deserted homeworld. There, he finds Earth’s last settlement littered with the bodies of the people who lived there. As he hunts down those responsible, he runs head-first into some galaxy-shaking questions.

Raised fatherless in a galactic Brinktown, Joe Pikeman only ever wanted to escape. The Galactic Guard offered that escape, with the promise of regular meals to boot. Now Joe is a full Guardsman, with his own ship and a snide partner bot who hates humans almost as much as he hates other bots. To the pirates he hunts, Joe is known as the Butcher. His bloody reputation has landed him in the center of a sweeping conspiracy that threatens to stamp out the galaxy’s last surviving human settlements.

The star cluster is awash with the blood of those whose lives have been spent by two men maneuvering fleets like pieces across a chessboard. Only one man can come out on top: Thatcher or Moll.

Captain Keyes is loved by the public but hated by Command. He captains the UHS Providence, an aging supercarrier and the last human ship not dependent on dark tech - technology humanity has used to rule over the galaxy since barely defeating the Ixa in the First Galactic War.

Po Abbato turns to crime in a desperate attempt to free his younger siblings from debt slavery. He's caught, and offered a choice: Spend 25 years in a digital prison while his body rots...or join the Marines.

The Ixa smashed the galaxy to bits before they were defeated. Captain Husher has sounded the alarm in the decades since: the Ixa’s creators will return to finish the job. But unlike Husher, the galactic government didn't battle the Ixa, and the politicians have convinced themselves that maintaining peace means limiting the ability to wage war.

The star cluster's super-powers tried to make peace last. Truly, they did. But everyone knew war between Ascendant Horizon and the Coalition of Giants was inevitable. Saddled with an alliance that seems to struggle with the basics of space warfare, Captain Thatcher must fall back on his tactical prowess—along with the steadfastness of the crews under his command—just to keep his people alive. But an enemy lurks around every corner, and there is dissension even in Thatcher's fleet.

This star system is burning down. Seaman Jake Price's "betters" have failed the people of the Steele System, so he's taking matters into his own hands. Darkstream has tricked the public into believing the Quatro are the enemy, but the company has already sold the system's security to the true enemy: the Progenitors. Now, Jake is calling on everyone who remembers what it means to fight out of duty instead of money. If they can't stop Darkstream in time, the system will burn.

Captain Keyes has succeeded in forging an uneasy alliance - at the cost of making some powerful enemies. Now, he's wanted throughout the galaxy. Even worse: they're after his ship. His enemies inside the UHF have realized that only the Providence stands even a slight chance of stopping them.