Collection of the Yearly Strange
Icarus, like any good Solaran lad going to war, gave his prayers to his god, the god of the Sun, Helios, and patron deity of spacefaring and of soldiers before pulling on an emerald tunic that fitted around his body. Like many of his comrades, he headed out to the hangar of the battleship to board his fighter. He was no god gifted being with great magical powers. He was just a pilot of his race. Though a tall body and curved ears may seem otherworldly to us modern men, for a Solaran man in the deep future, such features and long life were just normal characteristics. Such characteristics didn’t make entering the deep endless and timeless voids of space any less pleasant for him. He received his briefing from his commander, the order was to breach a Drakkar blockade over an Alpha Centaurian border planet. Once the briefing was finished, Icarus fitted on his space suit. It was an armour that was sleek enough to fit into a cockpit but durable enough to resist space. It had two small oxygen tanks on its back while a spherical helmet was worn on Icarus’s head. It had a golden looking visor to protect his face. He gathered his courage as he climbed up the ladder into the egg-shaped vessel that was the fighter of Icarus.
Once in the cockpit, the window closed down over it, firmly securing Icarus in his craft. After that, he did his checks of his equipment to make sure everything was good and secure for the mission ahead. Once all the checks were complete, the fighters were shot out into space so that they could be deployed as rapidly as possible. Icarus felt a vicious bump which caused his body to launch back into the seat, making him feel as if he was glued to it. Once the craft was in space, Icarus was tightly strapped to his seat by two pairs of seatbelts. As the fighters flew into position, curved wings unfolded from either side of the craft. These fighters had arrays of torpedoes and plasma guns. Icarus was now flying as part of a formation that kept its distance from each other. A tight formation could get knocked out in one go should a heavy plasma round come their way.
The Collection of the Yearly Strange is a short story collection that details terrifying encounters throughout history into the future. These tales will take you from the gas lit streets of early 20th century London to the Mid Western US at the height of the Cold War and then towards the deepest depths of the Atlantic Ocean and even to the furthest reaches of the Alpha Centauri. Along the way, you will meet a plethora of creatures ranging from heroic humans to robotic and insectoid monstrosities to even alien invaders ready to abduct. Though the tools, culture and weapons may change throughout history, one constant in these tales remains. And that is that there is always something that goes bump in the night when you least expect it. Because of that these tales are not for the faint hearted.