Frontier Fire: 3

They ran out of places to hide. So they picked a place to stand. When a frontier colony no one will defend is marked for extermination, a mercenary captain must turn a fractious coalition of outlaws into a fleet - and hold the line against a hundred-to-one invasion. Six months after going rogue, Captain Kade Soren commands something he never asked for: forty-seven ships, a hundred captains with a hundred opinions, and a coalition called the Outriders that exists mostly on paper. They have no charter, no fleet doctrine, and no reason anyone should follow them. Then New Rhodesia calls. A frontier colony bled dry by years of raids, written off as collateral damage by the Drift Council, and a Szareen battle group inbound with three hundred hulls and orders to leave nothing standing. Kade takes the contract. The Szareen arrive on schedule, but this isn't just an invasion, it is a message.