The aliens tested humans on an individual basis for miner rentals. Do well on your pilot test, get a spaceship, sign up with a corp, and you can mine the belt. For a puddle-jumper pilot like me, yeah, I was so interested I became obsessed. When I finally tested, I performed above and beyond, being offered a contract for some better than a miner - Earth's First Starfighter.

When the research starship Galileo vanishes without a trace, the powers-that-be are quick to bury the incident, eager to prevent escalating tensions that could lead to war. As a former POW, Soren refuses to give the ship up for lost. His daughter is one of the missing. Taking matters into his own hands, Soren starts pulling strings and calling in favors, determined to launch a clandestine mission to bring Galileo home. When an old friend offers him a ship for the operation, he expects a rusty relic headed for the scrapyard.

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.

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.

Maxwell Carter works a maintenance job at a government research facility. The research lab he works at has an accident, more energy coming through the wormhole than anticipated, enough to completely rupture the shields that were supposed to contain it until they finished determining how to convert the energy into electricity. Previously harmless animals are changed to nightmare threats and people are dying, seemingly due to incidents related directly to their interests.

What if a Florida Man gets OP Wizard Magic? Zarian Darkrun, a Marine Corps Veteran, is tired of being a homeless reject and ends his earthly ties. He opens a portal in a busy mall and sends himself, some koi fish, and nine other Floridians into another world. Welcome to the Infinita Star System, a universe of epic fantasy and game-like magic. Only the strong can adventure and ascend from the lower worlds to the higher worlds of the Star System. Among those powerful few are tyrants and crusaders, each seeking godhood or the empty Throne of the Adventurer King.

When Robert’s mother dies, his whole world caves in on him. Fatherless, he has no one, and nowhere to go. The royal mage shows him kindness by putting him on the royal guard as a “boot” to keep a roof over his head. Robert’s quick wit and willingness to help others serve him well in the guard. He becomes friends with the king’s second son, Randal, who was placed in the guard by the king to teach him discipline. As he ages, he develops mage abilities but keeps them secret. While on a weekend pass in the city, Robert saves Randal’s life and is rewarded by being made Randal’s liegeman.

Traditional claims, modern borders, and the dreams for a better tomorrow clash when the IndoChina, backed Eastern Alliance, takes a new and aggressive stance on the world stage, ushering in the last great World War. A patient wait that was over a century long is rewarded when the Chinese portion of the Eastern Alliance Bloc makes their move in the Pacific. For decades, only the US Navy has held them back from reclaiming what they believe to be theirs. Now, the American forces are tired after decades of small wars, underfunded, and unprepared for what is coming.

Titus Briggs is an Earth Defense soldier, a grunt, a decorated war hero—it's all he's ever known. So when a career-ending injury leaves him lying in a hospital bed, missing both legs, he struggles to accept his new reality. He can no longer walk, which means he can no longer fight. That is until a mysterious colonel arrives and offers Titus the opportunity to step into a new kind of war, a new kind of fight. To become a new kind of soldier. Mobile Combat Suits—MOCOMS—represent the next stage in human warfare. They enable soldiers to fight like never before.

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

Jason Burke was a man hiding from himself in a small cabin high in the American Rocky Mountains when his simple, quiet life was shattered one night by what he first assumed was an aviation mishap. But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.

For decades, the governments of our world have been fighting a desperate and secret battle to keep hordes of alien invaders away from our planet. When the guardian of the United States falls, a new champion must be chosen. Sadly, the choice of a champion isn’t ours to make, and the Galactic Conflict Authority selects a human, seemingly at random, to lead the United States of America’s efforts at holding back the tide.

For more than fifty years, the Terran Republic and the Terran League have been killing one another. The death toll has climbed ever higher, year after year, with no end in sight. But the members of the Five Hundred, the social elite of the Republic's Heart Worlds, don't care.

Go to war or go to jail. For small-time street hustler Cam Alvarez, the choice is simple.... He has no family, no friends, no place in the world...nothing to lose. When his latest con results in the death of a cartel hit man, Cam opts to join the Marines and leave Earth to fight a vicious alien enemy. Drafted into the Marine Drop-Troopers, Cam discovers there’s one thing he’s even better at than running street-con games, and that’s killing the enemy.

Keiran of the Night Vale has staved off death for two thousand years. His mind and his magic remain as sharp as ever, but his body is old, worn out, and failing. What he needs is to reincarnate into a new, young body, and he bends his prodigious talents towards doing exactly that.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.