The Wandering Engineer series by Chris Hechtl

Books

1. New Dawn (2010)
It it always darkest before the dawn. For 713 years the scattered survivors of the Xeno-Federation war have known this. Sol and the core star systems are gone.
The scattered survivors on far flung worlds and space colonies must try to survive a universe gone mad. They have spent that time scratching an existence out of whatever they could. Those trapped aboard surviving space colonies waited until the parts failed and life support was snuffed out.
But a free trader with an all female crew are about to change things. Fleeing a pirate they will stumble across a relic from their distant past. When that lifepod opened they will begin the journey back into the light of a New Dawn.

2. Fool's Gold (2011)
Fresh from his adventures with the crew of the Io11, Fleet Admiral Irons, aka the Wandering Engineer has a new challenge ahead of him. The Pyrax system is ripe for change. But first he has to get Anvil sorted out before he can really roll up his sleeves and get started. One thing after another happens though, Pirates, politics, ego driven scientists, and change. Lots of change, mostly for the better. He'll find out if Pyrax is his golden opportunity to restart civilization or is it...

3. Destiny's Choice (2012)
Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons woke from stasis to his next to worst nightmare 2 years ago. Civilization as he had known it was gone. The Xeno War had torn his beloved Federation apart.
He didn't give up though, Irons persevered, rolling up his sleeves and doing his best to restart civilization whereever he could.
Smarting from his exile from the Pyrax star system, Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons, hero of the Federation has to pick up the pieces of his tattered reputation and rebuild. But some things are easier said than done when a virus strikes, and then a series of suspicious accidents begin to strike.
Irons has seen and done a lot in his long life however. It's hard to kill someone who has nanites in his blood and body and is watched over by not one but 3 AI. But he's about to find love... and find some of the cruelest lessons of all can come from that vulnerability. He may be invulnerable to almost anything, but can he handle losing his new love?

4. Ghost Station (2013)
After everything that has happened to Fleet Admiral Irons since he'd woken up from stasis after nearly 700 years after the last shots in the brutal Xeno War left Earth and civilization a memory... you'd think he couldn't go any lower. Smarting from his 'exile' from Pyrax he'd saved the frieghter Destiny several times and dodged an assassin only to find and loose love to a near miss.
At the bottom of the well Irons knew he had only one place to go, up. Kiev 221 wasn't much to look at, but for now it was home. Getting the crew to realize he was there to help was his first problem. But when a navigational error pops them out in the outer edges of the Antigua System the real trouble begins.
Kiev 221 has stumbled into a fabled Ghost Station. One that was haunted by cyber apperitions and occupied by some who will do anything to protect their home. Even kill.
But Irons and his AI aren't going to be deterred easily. While the crew of the Kiev can only see short term profit, he sees much more than that. But if he can tame the station can he get others to see and work towards rebuilding the Federation? Or will he become once more a victim of his own success?

5. Plague Planet (2013)
Things just weren't looking good for John Henry Irons, Fleet Admiral of the once mighty Federation of Sapient Planets, ever since his awakening five years ago he'd been through the ringer emotionally. First, finding his beloved civilization destroyed. But he'd vowed to rebuild.
Twice in moments of seeming triumph he was cut down, kicked out or driven out of a system he was trying to help.
Now things were starting to look up, he had his own courier ship, the Phoenix, to get him around the sector. With his loyal AI crew he was fairly certain he could finally get started on laying the ground work of the new Federation.
He thought Epsilon Triangula would be just a stopping point, the place to refuel before his long jump across the sector, but once again events conspired to involve him in local affairs and his reputation and the desire of others to find people like him brought him face to face with an old and terrifying enemy.
Irons has fought many battles in his lifetime, but how can he fight something he can barely see? Something that can reproduce a thousand fold in the blink of an eye and is carried by the winds of the planet? And how will he deal with the terrified people he's trying to help?
Is he going to be forced to watch millions die on this PLAGUE PLANET?

6. Pirates Bane (2013)
Fresh from fighting the ghost of a terrifying bioweapon On Epsilon Triangula, Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons has taken on a new task, to get to the fabled star system of Bek on the other side of the sector. But to do that the admiral must do what is now unheard of, a long jump through uncharted space. The jump is a test of man and machine. But when he arrives at his intended destination, new challenges await. Old foes, who learn why he will become...