{"product_id":"the-proxy-war-a-hard-science-fiction-space-fleet-thriller-the-vanguard-calculus","title":"The Proxy War: A Hard Science Fiction Space Fleet Thriller (The Vanguard Calculus)","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHE CAN'T HEAR HIS OWN SHIP DYING. HE CAN STILL DO THE MATH.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe blast at Torus Prime took Commander Elias Thorne's hearing, his rank, and most of the people he was supposed to bring home. The tribunal filed the rest under acceptable losses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen he decrypted the order behind it. Torus Prime wasn't an ambush that went wrong. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt was a cull that went exactly right.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThorne limps the crippled \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAegis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e into Erebus Anchorage, a hollowed-out asteroid where the only currency is leverage. Eight survivors. One burn left in a reactor that's already cooking itself. No rank left to lose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat he finds there is a Vanguard logistics broker with Syndicate killers on his heels and a datachip he can't sell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe chip holds the whole arithmetic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCasualty projections agreed in advance. Battles booked out by the fiscal quarter. Losses timed to solar storm windows, margins locked, the dead entered as a line item both boards had already initialed. The Vanguard and the Solarian Syndicate aren't fighting a war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey're running one. Together. For the margin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeaking it changes nothing; the algorithm buries proof under deepfakes inside a week. So Thorne picks the one place the lie can't be spun: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePoint Sedna\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, where both fleets converge unescorted, once, to trade loss tables face to face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe'll ride a dead frigate into the middle of the summit, weld a scavenged analog repeater onto a dreadnought's comms spine, and drop the unredacted truth on every hull inside one light-second.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is no digital attack vector. That's exactly why it works. It isn't a hack. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt's a megaphone against a microphone.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe margin for detection is four seconds. Thorne has run every number twice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe hasn't told the crew what the arithmetic costs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Proxy War\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a full-length, 85,000-word novel and the second book in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Vanguard Calculus\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e series: hard military science fiction built on analog engineering, logistics as a weapon, and a crew held together by grease, spite, and margin. For readers who devour the fleet tactics of Jack Campbell's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Lost Fleet\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the chain-of-command grit of David Weber's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHonor Harrington\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and the survival math of Andy Weir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScroll up, buy now or read free in Kindle Unlimited, and find out what the truth costs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books Prime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45913075613887,"sku":"dbf80492-4b92-4773-82fb-8b2a26d2e5f2","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0761\/7550\/7647\/files\/6012d1f55eb622785df5cac097249878.jpg?v=1785041507","url":"https:\/\/books-prime.com\/products\/the-proxy-war-a-hard-science-fiction-space-fleet-thriller-the-vanguard-calculus","provider":"Books Prime","version":"1.0","type":"link"}