China has triumphed in a long war that has devastated much of the world and left the United States weakened and isolated. Chinese space forces maintain a cordon around the earth and patrol an uneasy peace throughout the solar system. A peace that is about to be broken by a sudden act of war. Bumbling Chinese pilot Liu Hong is ambushed and shot from orbit during an American sneak attack. He narrowly survives a landing in a vast London garbage dump. He must rely on an English phrasebook to convince a group of urchins to help him navigate the criminal underworld and reach safety. He has twelve hours. It should be easy. The American liberation force raining down on the city might complicate things for him. Phrasebook is the first novelette in Outer Echelon, a series of loosely-related, satirical military science fiction from Zack Parsons, author of Liminal States, My Tank is Fight! and contributor to Welcome to Night Vale.

The army will make you into a man. The fleet will make you into a sailor. The doctors will make you into a rakshasa. Alamvusha was once a boy living in an overcrowded apartment in one of India's overcrowded cities. Now he towers over buildings and smashes tanks beneath his feet. Few weapons can hope to harm him. With the help of a faceless rakshasa named Ravana and a whispering horror of snakes called Taraka, Alamvusha has massacred an entire planet in service to his country. In exchange for his service, his country left him to die. Instead of perishing, Alamvusha has awakened from a long slumber to find new colonists arriving on the desolate planet. Tortured by the knowledge of his atrocities, he must decide whether he wishes to cling to his fading humanity or seek revenge on those who betrayed him once he served their purpose. Rakshasa is the second novelette in Outer Echelon, a series of loosely-related, satirical military science fiction from Zack Parsons, author of Liminal States, My Tank is Fight! and contributor to Welcome to Night Vale. The first novelette, Phrasebook, is available now.

Specialist Martel is one of the most fearsome warriors of the Carolingian Pact, the Christian empire that now dominates most of Western Europe. Martel's experience as a killer is so valued by his commanders that they ignore his insubordination and, when he falls in battle, he always finds a new body waiting for him back home. When distant colony worlds begin to go silent, a military and diplomatic expedition is assembled to investigate the cause. Martel is convinced to join with the promise that he might finally be allowed to die. For ambitious fleet intelligence officer Karizma Nox, a maniac like Martel is just the man she needs to ensure diplomacy fails. Severance is the third novelette in Outer Echelon, a series of loosely-related, satirical military science fiction from Zack Parsons, author of Liminal States, My Tank is Fight! and contributor to Welcome to Night Vale.