SOLVED. Adult Sci-fi set in distant space. The main character starts out as the leader of a group that hacks into military combat sims, gets busted, then gets command of a ship, along with his other hacker friends. [s]

[Steve]

I was given the ebook by a co-worker who raved about the author and his series of books. This was around 2017-2018. I lost the ebook and cannot for the life of me remember the title or author, so...

Spoilers, I guess...

The main character is a guy that had military experience and is living on a space station. He leads a group that hacks into official military combat simulations and they kick butt. But, early in the book they get busted. And that leads them to get recruited to work for that (government?) organization. Before the arrests they were all anonymous to each other. They repair a broken starship, strip off all alliance markings, and go out gathering intelligence for said (government?) organization. There's also something about it all being controlled by corporations, and Earth is a distant memory, in both time and distance.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Steve]

Finally googled the right random detail and found out that it's Spinward Fringe Origins by Randolph Lalonde

[Bargle]

Link Spinward Fringe Origin by Randolph Lalonde.

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Steve. Thanks for the update.