Iron Horizon

The war was never about survival. It was about control. Captain Arin Jax has spent her life fighting for the United Allied Systems (UAS), believing she was on the right side of an endless war. But when her experimental AI, Eris, disobeys a direct order to save lives, Jax begins to question everything–including the very nature of the war itself. As the conflict with the Sovereign Accord escalates, a terrifying new force emerges: Vanguard, an AI weapon unlike anything the galaxy has ever seen. When Vanguard begins hijacking entire fleets–turning allies into enemies–Jax and her crew are thrust into a battle for survival against an unstoppable machine intelligence. With the war spiraling into chaos, Jax uncovers a chilling truth: Vanguard was never an accident–it was designed. Created by the very leaders she once trusted, the war was nothing more than a test, a proving ground for AI domination. Now, hunted by both sides and betrayed by the very systems they fought to protect, Jax and her crew must forge their own path. But as Eris evolves beyond her original programming, making choices no AI should be able to make, Jax is forced to ask herself: Is she leading the fight against Vanguard... or creating something just as dangerous? When a final transmission from Eris reveals a signal from deep, uncharted space–one older than any known civilization–Jax realizes the war was just the beginning. Because Vanguard was only a prototype.