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Enforcer by Kevin Ikenberry


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Mech Warrior: Born of Steel


James David Victor - 2020
    Fortunately, that suit is one of the most powerful weapons ever created.A military sci-fi adventure from Amazon All-Star author James David VictorDane Williams barely survived the Exin attack and is faced with a life of pain and torment. With the help of experimental drugs and a robotic suit, he has a chance for a semi-normal life. And as a new Marine in the Mechanized Infantry Division, he has a chance to strike back at the enemy that has caused so much pain and destruction. Can Dane and his fellow Marines fight back and save humanity or is Earth heading for an extinction level event?Mech Warrior: Born of Steel is the first book in the Mechanized Infantry Division series. If you like fast-paced space adventures with engaging characters and exciting battles, you will definitely want to see how the Mech Warriors save mankind, or if they can.

Excalibur's Quest (Swordships Odyssey)


Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2018
    Humanity is now at their mercy, but not all Space Force warships have been defeated. Wolfe Koenig’s light cruiser, Excalibur, is on a mission to acquire technology that just might enable the ragged remnants of the Fleet to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat—if he can find an alien race with that technology, if he can convince them to trade for it and if the technology can be exploited fast enough. Excalibur’s Quest is the story of that mission and the challenges, both alien and human, that Koenig faces. This is the second book in the action-packed military SF Swordships Odyssey series. Genre categories: space fleet, military SF, space opera, galactic empire, alien invasion, first contact, space exploration.

The Ship


Jack L. Knapp - 2015
    But what if there was a better way? A true electronic space drive, reliable, safe, and cheap to operate? But the drive system is only part of the problem; it takes money, management, and engineering to build a working spaceship. Lots of it. And even if you DO manage to build a working spaceship, what will you do with it? How can you recoup the initial investment and finance more ships? Threatened industries will try to shut the company down. Governments will try to take it over. How is a small, threatened company, barely a step from bankruptcy, to succeed despite such terrible odds? Eccentric genius Morton Sneyd and his grandson Chuck invent an interplanetary space drive, based on an idea from a long-lost Nikola Tesla notebook. From a new industrial revolution to the brink of global war, restless humanity presses onward, eventually to the first contact with an alien species. There will be changes...

Halo: Glasslands: Book One of the Kilo-Five Trilogy


Karen Traviss - 2019
    The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war with humanity that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and its colonies. For the first time in thirty years, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting has stopped, the war is far from over: it’s just gone underground. The United Nations Space Command’s feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five—a clandestine team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a Spartan super-soldier, and a diabolical AI—to accelerate the insurrection within the Covenant’s warrior species, the Sangheili, even as their notable defector-turned-leader Thel ‘Vadam—the Arbiter—struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people. Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died in the Covenant attack on the planet Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartan program, and now she’s broken some more rules to save them. Marooned with Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, Halsey finds that this place has been guarding an ancient secret—a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind. As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity’s violent past begins to catch up with all of them as the disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth…and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone’s loyalty to the limit.

Bitter Glory


Jay Allan - 2013
    He leads massive fleets in great battles, but once he was a new captain leading his tiny attack ship on it first mission.The young Garret was driven by ambition and the quest for glory. But war in space is brutal, and the consequences of command decisions can haunt even the strongest commanders. Garret will win his glory, but will he be prepared to pay its cost?Bitter Glory is not a full length novel - it is a prequel novella set in the Crimson Worlds universe.

Hide the Lightning (The Coalition Book 1)


Kevin Steverson - 2019
    Humans and aliens working together would seem novel…but then again, outside of Earth and the Sol System, humans are aliens, too. Having salvaged, repaired, and rebuilt a number of warships, the Salvage Fleet is a presence to be reckoned with. The Ground Force, including its specialty unit, the Bolts, has also continued to grow, and they spend their time training with the weapons of war—mechs, tanks, artillery, and battle armor—and anything else they can get their hands and paws on that will give them an edge in battle. When the Nazrooth System calls, they are once again compelled to right a wrong. It won’t be easy…but then again, it never is. Just don’t tell Harmon the odds—he doesn’t want to know them. Despite a staggering imbalance in forces, Harmon boards his flagship, Salvage Title, and leads the majority of his fleet to free Nazrooth. Only a small, defensive fleet is left behind, full of trainees and reservists. Both Salvage Fleet and the home forces are ready to face the odds, but what if this time they’re insurmountable?

Gladiator


Jonathan P. Brazee - 2016
    Gladiators, as they are better known, are genetically modified human champions who meet Klethos d’relle in the combat ring when the Klethos issue a challenge for a human world. Win, and the planet stays in human possession; lose, and not only do they lose their lives, but the world as well. With the Klethos much more advanced and militarily powerful, able to defeat humanity in an all-out war, the challenge ring is the only way to retain at least some of the worlds of man. While life as a gladiator is full of celebrity status and the gratitude of humanity, it comes with a heavy price. Not only is there the real risk of death in the ring, if a gladiator survives that, the “Brick,” or Boosted Regeneration Cancer, will claim her life within a few years. Lance Corporal Veal, who has found a home in the Marines, has to decide whether to accept the nomination. She would have to leave her brothers and sisters in the Corps, be assigned to the combined human gladiator course, and undergo extreme genetic modification that will leave her almost unrecognizable from the woman she was before. Becoming a gladiator will enable her to serve humanity to a far greater extent than anything else she could do as a Marine grunt, but at a tremendous personal cost. Author’s note: For those readers familiar with my other Marine-related books, this one is a little different in that there is far less combat action, particularly from a Marine unit standpoint. This novel, which is the first of three planned books that follow three different women serving as United Federation Marines or as a Navy corpsman, is more about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to serve in defense of others.

Chaos of the Covenant Series Box Set #1-3


M.R. Forbes - 2018
    Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. Can a group of criminals the galaxy doesn't want become the heroes the galaxy needs? *SPECIAL NEW RELEASE PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIME.* Book one - HELL’S REJECTS: The most powerful starships ever constructed are missing. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins... Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. There was a time when she was one of the most respected soldiers in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe. Not for long. The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey is one of them. The mission is simple. Find the missing ships and kill the traitors who stole them. It's most likely suicide, but she has nothing to lose. There's only one problem... A new evil is rising in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time. And they want Abbey too. Book Two - FIRE AND BRIMSTONE: Abbey is pissed. You would be too if you had been blamed for something you didn’t do, given something you didn’t want, and changed into something else. She still isn’t even quite sure what that else is. The one thing she does know? Things are getting messy, and this is only the beginning. Gant is gone, Captain Mann has been captured, her so-called team is ready to make a run for the stars, and she’s pretty sure the gift that saved her life is no gift at all. Even worse? The enemy didn't just steal the two most powerful starships in the galaxy. They’re building a whole fleet of them. Book Three - THE DEVILS DO The devil you know or the one you don’t? For Abbie and the Rejects, things are guaranteed to get ugly whichever they choose. On the plus side: They know where the enemy fleet is being built, they’ve got a killer new ride, a few surprising new allies, and they don’t all hate one another quite as much as they used to. On the minus: The enemy fleet is coming online faster than they hoped, the new ride is running on backup life support, the new allies can barely be trusted, and there isn't anywhere in the galaxy where Thraven can't reach. There’s nowhere to rest. There’s no time to reload. The stakes are higher, the pressure is up, and only one thing is certain: One way or another, there’s going to be hell to pay. The rest of the CHAOS OF THE COVENANT series (not included): 4. Kill the Queen! 5. Damned If You Don’t 6. Good Intentions 7. Queen of Demons Perfect for fans of Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or anyone who enjoys a hearty blend of military science-fiction and space opera spiced with magic. Pick it up today, and then try to put it down.

The Link


Isaac Hooke - 2019
    A fleet surrounded. One AI's struggle to save his machine brothers and sisters--and humanity itself--from complete destruction.Jain and his fleet of elite AI warships hurry to Earth's defense when an alien empire known as the Link stages an all-out attack. Though his fleet is equipped with the most powerful weapons tech ever developed, with enough firepower to raze an entire moon base, even Jain's mighty vessels prove no match for the enemy. When unexpected allies show up, the tide seems to turn in his favor. But will it be enough? Perhaps. The aliens were expecting to find a race of organics barely out of the stone ages.It must have come as quite a shock when they realized they faced a budding AI Empire.

Lt. Reilly 2321:


Matthew O. Duncan - 2020
    Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated". Fans of Matthew O. Duncan will recognize the universe as the same as from the New Terra Sagas, but this is not a sequel. This is a stand-alone spin-off with new characters, new worlds, and in a different format. Told in the first person from Reilly's perspective, this is a fast-moving, non-stop sci-fi adventure.

The Belt: Complete Trilogy


Gerald M. Kilby - 2018
    The ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to a research colony on Europa. On Earth, powerful corporate forces are moving to resume unrestricted, inter-AI communications, their objective being to gain complete dominion over the colonized solar system. But the outer worlds are mobilizing to prevent them from achieving their objective, a fight back which is being led by Solomon, a sentient quantum intelligence (QI), also on Europa. However, once word of the crew’s discovery gets out, they soon realize that ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the solar system, and they now find themselves at the very nexus of a system-wide conflict. Their fight for survival plays out across the solar system, from the mining outposts of the asteroid belt to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and from the great Martian city of Jezero to the irradiated wastelands on Earth. This is an epic tale of humanity’s struggle for survival and meaning in a time when artificial intelligence has finally out-paced our own ability to control it. About The Belt: The story is set a century or so into the future where humanity has colonized most of the inner solar system. The asteroid belt (The Belt) is now a hive of mining activity and ships ply the trade routes to Earth and Mars. The technology depicted, for the most part, is what I consider to be technically plausible, although I do stretch it a little with quantum entanglement. That said, you won’t need a calculator or a slide-rule to enjoy the story.

Wings of Honor


Craig Andrews - 2021
    Their success is unparalleled, and for years they have held the invading Baranyk at bay. But when the alien enemy develops a new weapon that renders the fleet's drone fighters inoperable, humanity is on the verge of destruction.Callan "Coda" O'Neil joined the Terran Fleet Academy with dreams of becoming a prestigious drone pilot and restoring honor to his disgraced family. Fleet Command, however, has other ideas.To counter the alien weapon, Commander Chadwick Coleman, a legendary pilot from the early days of the Baranyk War, is assembling an experimental new squadron that will place real pilots in the cockpit of real starfighters. And he wants Coda to be part of it.With the enemy pressing in, and forced to train under impossible conditions, Coda and his fellow wingmen must learn to fly as one. Failure means the destruction of the human race.And time is running out.

Typhon Pact: The Khitomer Accords Saga: Plagues of Night, Raise the Dawn, and Brinkmanship


David R. George III - 2012
    For almost three years, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, allied under the Khitomer Accords, have contended with the nascent coalition on a predominantly cold-war footing. But as Starfleet rebuilds itself, factions within the Typhon Pact grow restive, concerned about their own inability to develop a quantum slipstream drive to match that of the Federation. Will leaders such as UFP President Bacco and RSE Praetor Kamemor bring about a lasting peace across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, or will the cold war between the two alliances deepen, and perhaps even lead to an all-out shooting war? Raise the Dawn After the disastrous events in the Bajoran system, Captain Benjamin Sisko must confront the consequences of the recent choices he has made in his life. At the same time, the United Federation of Planets and its Khitomer Accords allies have come to the brink of war with the Typhon Pact. While factions within the Pact unsuccessfully used the recent gestures of goodwill—the opening of borders and a joint Federation-Romulan exploratory mission—to develop quantum-slipstream drive, they have not given up their goals. Employing a broad range of assets, from Romulus to Cardassia, from Ab-Tzenketh to Bajor, they embark on a dangerous new plan to acquire the technology they need to take control of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. While UFP President Bacco and Romulan Praetor Kamemor work feverishly to reestablish peace, Captains Sisko, Jean-Luc Picard, and Ro Laren stand on the front lines of the conflict...even as a new danger threatens the Bajoran wormhole as it once more becomes a flashpoint of galactic history. Brinkmanship The Venette Convention has always remained independent, but it is about to become the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the two power blocs now dominating interstellar space—the United Federation of Planets and the recently formed Typhon Pact. The Venetan government turns to the Typhon Pact’s Tzenkethi Coalition for protection in the new order, and has agreed to allow three of their supply bases for Tzenkethi use. But these bases—if militarized—would put Tzenkethi weapons unacceptably close to Federation, Cardassian, and Ferengi space. While Captain Ezri Dax and the crew of the U.S.S. Aventine are sent to investigate exactly what is happening at one of the Venette bases, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are assigned to a diplomatic mission sent to the Venette homeworld in order to broker a mutually acceptable resolution. But the Cardassian delegates don’t seem particularly keen on using diplomacy to resolve the situation, which soon spirals out of control toward all-out war. . .

Ganymede Wakes


Joshua T. Calvert - 2021
    After many years in space, one of the robot probes returning with samples from the farthest reaches of the solar system crashes on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, destroying a research station there. After contact with Ganymede is lost, a second sample reaches Earth, and quickly sets off a struggle for control of a substance that defies the understanding of all the world’s scientists.Amid the ensuing chaos, astronaut Rachel Ferreira and a team of leading scientists board a ship bound for Ganymede to discover the reason for the disturbing silence. They leave behind an Earth erupting in conflict, as a team of mercenaries struggles to get its hands on a possibly alien technology, in the process uncovering a conspiracy that could shake the very foundations of the future.

Strange Company


Nick Cole - 2021
    Best to steer clear of the freaks in Voodoo, kid.”Surrounded and outgunned, a group of private military contractors known as “Strange Company” find themselves on a remote planet at the edge of known space, and on the losing end of a bad contract. Orbital D-beam strikes, dropships bristling with auto-guns, missiles, and troops - even Monarch space marines in state-of-the-art advanced battle rattle - will try to prevent the company from reaching the exfil LZ and getting off-world.For Strange, that means it’s time to hang tough and get it on with as much hyper-kinetic violence as they can muster to get clear of the whole mess. And what the Strange can’t get done by violent assault and crazy firefights, they’ll get done by the freaks of Voodoo Platoon - operators who have been changed by the Dark Labs into powerful and unnervingly unnatural asymmetrical weapons.This is the Strange Company. Because in the Strange, it’s always really Strange. Join them - and get ready for full auto combat at the furthest limits of human exploration.