Arianrhod: ONE (The Pirates' Web)

Arianrhod: Book One of The Pirates Web. The PSS Arianrhod is one of a fleet of independent trading ships operated by motley crews of merchant spacers that fly under the common flag of the Trades Alliance and tend to drop anchor in the Web that home away from hell that is the vast network of docking repair and marketing facilities around the free port of Merkat Three in galactic zone Alpha. But Arianrhods risky trade out in the space lanes of the charted galaxy is getting riskier: attacks on shipping are increasing vessels and crews are being ruthlessly taken down and stations and planets are being targeted by new bullies on the block who seem intent on annexation and mass destruction. With their living to get and their lives to get on with Captain Ahxenta and her crew find themselves commandeered by the military in the middle of a war that has little to do with them and in possession of information that seems to be enough to make them the prime target of some very dangerous alien hostiles. Acknowledged as the best ship in the PSS fleet Arianrhod has been in tight places before but she finds herself caught up in a situation that is more than likely to end her legendary career in the space lanes and even her renowned firepower maverick crew and unorthodox tactics may not be able to withstand a faceless enemy that seems to be ripping the known galaxy apart... We were drafted into this bloody war through the manoeuvrings of the Trades Alliance and so far its cost me the lives and health of my crew my livelihood and as near as dammit my ship - Captain Cinnabar Ahxenta.