The World of First Command
The Coven Empire has struck without warning, and Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting becomes a nightmare: his ship is gone, his crew is a handful of malcontent techs, and the only way back into the fight is a dead warship drifting in the void. To survive, he’ll have to turn strangers into a team and a derelict into a weapon.
First Command is military science fiction about young people finding out what they’re made of, and what a leader owes the crew who trusts him with their lives. Across the series, Cole and his misfits go from salvage crew to the tip of humanity’s spear.
Perfect for fans of Daniel Gibbs, J. N. Chaney, and Vaughn Heppner.
Published by Aethon Books.
Book 1
First Command
An alien attack leaves them adrift in space. Survive, rebuild, and rejoin the war.
Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire.
Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void.
Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.
With the timer on survival ticking down, Cole must find the confidence to take control, whip his tiny crew into shape, and bring Hood back to life—repairing communications, propulsion, and even weapons.
He's got one chance to transform the derelict ship into a combat-ready vessel. One he can take into battle and alter the course of the war.
Book 2
Second Chances
Humanity’s war with the Coven is going badly.
Fleet simply doesn’t have the ships or the manpower to counter the alien’s vast reserves, so Cole Jackson is hauled out of his self-imposed exile and ordered back to the front. The Admirals are gambling on a miracle; that he and his crew can repeat the success of his First Command by repairing vessels and sending them into battle. And maybe snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fleet has been gathering damaged and deserted ships in a remote system on the edge of human-controlled space. Without transport, Jackson’s crew must travel on an obsolete military simulator, without shields or weapons. When they run into a Coven warship, it’s all Jackson can do to keep them alive as both ships crash-land on the planet.
In a running battle with cyborg warriors, Jackson must avoid alien patrols, build rudimentary weapons, and cobble together some type of ship that would see them escape the death planet and change the course of the war.
Book 3
Trinity
Humanity balances on the cusp of extinction.
The Coven Empire is preparing one final push to penetrate Fleet lines and invade the inner planets. What follows will be servitude, suffering, and death.
Cole Jackson and his small crew of misfits are trapped behind enemy lines, frantically trying to cobble together functioning starships while avoiding enemy patrols. It’s Fate that sees Jackson resurrect Freedom, the ship where he was first posted but now a derelict relegated to the military scrapyard. Using stolen alien technology, they seize a Coven prison colony and rescue captured Fleet personnel.
Jackson receives word that Fleet is ready to launch one final Hail Mary; a task force equipped with a revolutionary new weapon. But first, they must learn the location of the Coven Home World and only Jackson is in position to gather that intel.
Commanding a small fleet of salvaged vessels, Jackson ventures deep into Coven space. The human race is running out of time, and it’s up to him to find the Coven planet and rally the remnants of the task force in a last gasp attempt to defeat the aliens and save mankind.
Book 4
Fourth Wave
Cole’s motley group of misfits were tip of the spear when Fleet struck deep into Coven space and destroyed their Home World. And plunged the aliens into a bloody internecine war.
But the respite has been short-lived. The rising Highborn, Grom, has forged new alliances among the warring tribes, focusing them on their one true enemy: the humans.
Cole, Sergei, and a skeleton crew must summon the courage to battle their old nemesis, the Highborn who tortured and murdered many of their friends. They are all that stands between mankind’s survival and extinction. But for Cole, the coming battle is about something more personal than survival or supremacy.
It’s about revenge.
Landing April 13, 2027
Book 5
Fifth Horizon
A crew of young soldiers musters the courage to fight back against both a vicious alien enemy and the terrifying void of being stranded in space.