The plan had been to un-man the battlespace, replacing flesh and blood with steel and carbon fiber. Machines, both remote-controlled and autonomous A.I.s, would fight and be destroyed in the name of freedom; sparing the troops at the cost of the nation's treasure.
However, as with any arms race, the opposing side's technology eventually catches ups to yours, resulting in the need to put lives back in harm's way on the frontline; to deal with, and adapt to the unknown, as only humans can.
With stories by Brenda Cooper, Bud Sparhawk, Jennifer Brozek, Ronald T. Garner, Aaron Rosenberg, James Chambers, Nancy Jane Moore, Patrick Thomas, Jeff Young, Eric V. Hardenbrook, Robert E. Waters, Anton Kukal, and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, and an afterword by the late CJ Henderson.
Brenda Cooper writes science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories, and sometimes, poetry. Her most recent novel is Spear of Darkness, from Pyr and her most recent story collection is Cracking the Sky from Fairwood Press. Brenda is a technology professional and a futurist, and publishes non-fiction on the environment and the future. Her non-fiction has appeared on Slate and Crosscut and her short fiction has appeared in Nature Magazine, among other venues. She is a two-time winner of the Endeavour Award for best Science Fiction/Fantasy novel by an author in the Pacific Northwest. See her website at www.brenda-cooper.com. Brenda lives in the Pacific Northwest in a household with three people, three dogs, far more than three computers, and only one TV in it.
Bud Sparhawk has been a three-time novella finalist for the Nebula award: Primrose and Thorn (Analog, May 1996), Magic's Price (Analog, March 2001), and Clay's Pride (Analog, July/August 2004). His work has appeared in two Year's Best anthologies: Year's Best SF #11 (EOS), David Harwell-Editor) and The Years Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, (St Martins Press, Garner Dozois - Editor.) His novel Distant Seas (Fantastic Books) is available from Amazon and other booksellers as trade paperback and eBook. He has a mass market paperback novel: Vixen (Cosmos) and two print collections: Sam Boone: Front To Back (Foxacre Press, 2001) and Dancing with Dragons (Wildside Press, 2008). He has three e-Novels available through Amazon and other channels. Bud's short stories have appeared frequently in Analog Fact/Fiction, less so in Asimov's, as well as in five Defending the Future and other anthologies, publications and audio books. He has put out several collections of some of his published works in ebook format. A complete bibliography can be found at: http: //budsparhawk.com. He also writes an occasional blog on the pain of writing at http: //budsparhawk.blogspot.com.
Author and graphic artist Mike McPhail is a member of the Military Writers Society of America. He is dedicated to helping his fellow service members (and those deserving civilians) in their efforts to become authors/editors/artists, as well as supporting related organizations in their efforts to help those "who have given their all for us." www.milscifi.com He is best known as the editor and illustrator of the award-winning Defending The Future series of military science fiction anthologies, which just celebrated it's tenth anniversary. www.defendingthefuture.com In 2015 he added the title of publisher, as the co-owner of eSpec Books LLC, Speculative Fiction Publishing. www.especbooks.com
