Space War #27

Admiral Reedy has survived three major space wars, but his greatest test arrives when he's captured by the Fire Apes—a technologically advanced primate species from a scorching planet intent on conquering Earth. Taken prisoner to the Fire Planet itself, Reedy must endure impossible heat while uncovering the aliens' true motivation and deciding whether Earth's survival depends on understanding his captors or defeating them outright. It's a tense face-off between humanity and a civilization born from desperation, where the line between enemy and tragic mirror grows dangerously thin.

An Earth pilot volunteers to be captured by the Didians as bait—his apparent weakness is meant to lull an entire warring civilization into dropping their guard, while an armada waits for the perfect moment to strike. When his cover is about to blow on live television across the enemy planet, the real battle begins, and a chance encounter with his captor, Sala, becomes far more complicated than anyone anticipated. Written with sharp Cold War spy-thriller logic, "Exhibit A" turns a prisoner-of-war gambit into something unexpectedly human.

Cadet Willa Norris faces an impossible choice when the gamma radiation of deep space begins to shatter the sanity of her crewmates aboard a tiny scout ship—first the electronics technician Georgi Shukov turns violent, then Commander Bryce Duffield succumbs to the same cosmic madness. Alone and forced to act, Willa must find a way to survive when those meant to lead her have become her greatest threat. A tense tale of isolation and desperation among the stars from *Space War* #27.

Commander Nicholas Rickles commands Earth's newest super-weapon—a state-of-the-art cruiser built by scientists across the solar system—as he leads a daring assault against a numerically superior alien force in deep space. When his ship survives a devastating gauntlet of enemy fire to reach the invaders' home world, Rickles discovers that the true measure of warfare lies not in superior technology, but in something far more fundamental to the human spirit.

After two decades of devastating war with the Gogetkoes, Earth's savior Colonel Lael receives a medal and citizenship in the world community—but this 1964 tale reveals a twist neither she nor her creators anticipated. The Gogetkoes designed her and her crew as perfect facsimiles to conquer Earth on their behalf, yet something unexpected blooms as the synthetic soldiers study their target world. When their masters' weapons prove useless against Earth's defenses, Colonel Lael and her comrades face an unforeseen choice that will determine the planet's fate.