Military Apocalyptic

The best-selling Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith first introduced listeners to a world ravaged by an engineered virus that turned men into monsters. Humanity's only hope was not a cure, but another bioweapon. When deployed it killed 90 percent of the infected, but the remaining 10 percent transformed into even more terrifying creatures called Variants. Here's a collection of Extinction Cycle short stories that explore the human spirit and the fight for survival in the face of overwhelming odds from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre.

Alone and weaponless, with a remote controlled bomb in his neck, Ajaya Gurung must plan and fight better and harder than ever before. The last Spider is out there, in the Zone, plotting the end of man, and man is ignoring the danger. Left with only his skills, wits, and courage, he must adapt and overcome before it's too late. If only he had an ace in the hole...oh wait...he does!

Humanity faces extinction. A few stubborn governments fight back, caught on the defensive. But even their concerted efforts may not be enough to stem the tide of the biological weapon sweeping the world. As people succumb to this genetically engineered weapon, they devolve into weaponized monstrosities hell-bent on destruction. But humanity hasn’t breathed its last breath yet. Those that are determined to vanquish these abominable creatures and the fanatical organization behind them still fight.

The world is in the throes of economic decay and at the mercy of terrorists. Across this post-apocalyptic landscape marches one extraordinary soldier and his band of brothers. In a novel as disturbingly plausible as it is powerfully gripping, they are headed into a battle in which they will have to come to grips with the power of technology and the true price of freedom.

The nine hybrid barons — mysterious oligarchs who ruled the fortified cities that emerged after Armageddon — are no more. Gone, not by the civil war fought by a courageous band of exiles, but trapped in a web of evil 4000 years in the making. As Tiamat, a living, sentient ship, hovers in orbit over Egypt, the nine Overlords of an ancient civilization are reborn. The planet Nibiru will live again on Earth and humanity will be enslaved, or die. He is a being of inhuman evil: a melding of dragon, myth, and machine.

Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos and her team were trained to clean spaceships. They were absolutely not trained to fight an interplanetary war with the xenocidal Prodryans or to make first contact with the Jynx, a race who might not be as primitive as they seem. But if there's one lesson Mops and her crew have learned, it's that things like "training" and "being remotely qualified" are overrated. The survival of humanity—those few who weren't turned to feral, shambling monsters by an alien plague—as well as the fate of all other non-Prodryans, will depend on Captain Mops and her crew.

The Nukecaust radically altered the face of the globe and even the secret malevolent architects of mankind's history could not predict the will of the human spirit to survive - and to rebel. As Earth's destiny remains pawn to sinister forces not of this world, an underground resistance movement is fighting back against the ruling barons and their hidden masters. Kane, once an enforcer of the evil he now seeks to destroy, is joined by his compatriots in a brutal, covert war to reclaim the future for its rightful owners.

When John Rourke's daughter is kidnapped by a Russian agent, Rourke follows their trail across a frozen Arctic wasteland - and stumbles upon a small pocket of humanity living in a tropical paradise surrounded by ice and snow. The community of Icelandic descendants has flourished in seclusion during the long years following the fiery holocaust, unaware of the fierce and bloody struggle in the outside world between the forces of freedom and Communist tyranny.

Steele and his followers retreat before the might of Colonel Jackson's rogue military unit. Jackson is always two steps ahead in their apocalyptic war, and Steele's back is against the ropes. He must find a way to outlast his opponent while holding his loose confederation of allies and former enemies together or face certain annihilation. Back in her small hometown of Hacklebarney, Iowa, Gwen struggles to convince her cautious neighbors to provide refuge for Steele's haggard forces. If she doesn't succeed, Jackson's noose will tighten, and her friends and loved ones will be crushed.

The end came fast for Lieutenant Nathan Ward. One moment he was participating in an international convention of mounted police officers, the next he was in a command bunker watching the world’s two biggest corporations - Obsidian and Teledyne - destroy it in an exchange of nuclear hellfire. While Columbia, Missouri, was spared a direct strike, a near-miss EMP fried most of the vehicles and the electrical grid. Then the corporations started a shooting war in the streets, and they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. But Columbia was one of the last cities still standing.

Gordon Van Zandt is a man accustomed to adversity and hardship, but now he is left with dwindling options. With his fledgling republic teetering on the verge of collapse, he must find a way to seize an unlikely victory from what appears to be certain defeat. President Cruz is no stranger to the position he holds, having served in Conner's absence before. However, this time the job is proving to be difficult and downright impossible.

Regan is hoping for a few minutes to breathe, but the universe has other ideas. The demons from the world of Deorus have finally arrived. He expected a tough battle, but he underestimated just what the demons would bring to bear. That doesn't mean he is giving up. Regan is not averse to a challenge. Yet the demons aren't the only threat that seems to be rearing its head, and he just can't seem to grab the new one by its tail.

World War III was just practice for what's coming. And even those who survived the original firestorm — like John Thomas Rourke — won't have a chance when the next round of carnage begins. But Rourke, ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer, weapons specialist, and survival expert didn't struggle to stay alive in this brutal world only to die in a final holocaust of fire and blood.

In 2035, the southwestern United States is ravaged by drought, reeling from an environmental catastrophe that has left the landscape a chaotic, depleted ruin. California, still viably inhabitable due to its oppressive social controls, marshals state-of-the-art surveillance technology and totalitarian policies to preserve its fragile hold on rapidly dwindling resources and an increasingly unsettled population.

After waking up with no memories in an underground facility, a squad of elite soldiers and scientists must try to recall what their mission is. But first, it’s a race against the clock to escape their collapsing bunker before it becomes a tomb. Topside, an even more dangerous world of fiery skies and desolate terrain awaits. As they venture out to explore their strange new surroundings, bits of memory begin to return, though nothing can prepare them for the strange forces protecting this bleak landscape.

In the eight years since the bombs fell and the dead rose, not once has Scratch Sullivan wanted to hang up his guns and retire from hunting THEM. But after failing to save his girlfriend, Kara, from a fate worse than death, he's a broken man, lost and adrift in an even more broken world. Yet, the apocalypse is a fickle mistress, and fate has more in store for the former spec ops soldier and war vet. And as Scratch and his companions face a new and terrifying threat, he uncovers a sinister plot threatening the last remaining threads of humanity....

The world is at war with the Primal Virus. Military forces across the globe have been recalled to defend the homelands as the virus spreads and decimates populations.

Cryogenically preserved before the nukes obliterated their own way of life, an elite team of battle-hardened American fighting men have now been reactivated for duty, commanded by this supreme manipulator. Their first mission in a tortured new world: Move in and secure Cerberus Redoubt and the mat-trans network at any cost. In a world where trust is hard-won and harder kept, Kane and his fellow exiles must convince Team Phoenix that they are on the same side — for humanity and against the hybrids and their willing human allies.

The loyalties that united the Cerberus warriors have become undone, as a bizarre messenger from the future provides a look into encroaching horror and death. Kane and his band have one option: Fix two fatal fault lines in the time continuum — and rewrite history before it happens. But first they must restore power to the barons who dare to defy the greater evil: the mysterious new Imperator.

When Soviet nukes destroyed the United States, Hawk Hunter took refuge in the only place he has ever felt safe: the sky. One of the finest fighter pilots of all time, he used his talents to found the Pacific American Air Corps (PAAC), a democratic counterweight to the corruption that dominates the rest of the country. Their first action was the Circle War: a Russian invasion led by the sinister terrorist Viktor Robotov. The PAAC expelled the Russians, but Robotov managed to escape.