The Flight Engineer Series by James Doohan, S.M. Stirling

Peter Raeder was an ace pilot in the war against the Mollie rebels until he lost a hand in combat. Now he's Flight Engineer on the Invincible -- and has to find the saboteur who is plotting to destroy the ship....

THESE SPACE PIRATES ARE THE GOOD GUYS! Peter Raeder was an ace pilot until a battle cost him his hand -- and his right to fly the fighter ships he loved. So he became Flight Engineer on the fast carrier "Invincible," a crack new ship with a picked crew, ready to fight the fanatical Mollies and their spiderlike alien allies. On his first mission, he faced pirate raiders, attacks by Mollies and a hidden saboteur on board who came close to destroying the "Invincible," before Raeder unmasked him... moreTHESE SPACE PIRATES ARE THE GOOD GUYS! Peter Raeder was an ace pilot until a battle cost him his hand -- and his right to fly the fighter ships he loved. So he became Flight Engineer on the fast carrier "Invincible," a crack new ship with a picked crew, ready to fight the fanatical Mollies and their spiderlike alien allies. On his first mission, he faced pirate raiders, attacks by Mollies and a hidden saboteur on board who came close to destroying the "Invincible," before Raeder unmasked him.Unfortunately for Raeder, his heroism didn't follow the rulebook, and his reward for saving the ship was a reprimand and a deskbound assignment -- a fate worse than death for a born spacehound like Raeder. Then a less rulebound General offers Raeder an escape: command of a hidden base deep in Mollie-controlled space from which ships, posing as space pirates, will harry Mollie shipping, like the seagoing privateers of Earth's past. And Raeder finds a dangerous mission preferable to exile to an office cubicle...even if his chances of surviving are very nearly zero. less

THEY'RE SWARMING FOR THE KILL...AND WE ARE THE PREY! Everybody knows how despicable the alien Fibians are. Allies of the fanatic Mollie rebels against the human Commonwealth, they show no mercy, they have no remorse, and they find human flesh delectable -- at least when served live. Fielding a gigantic starfleet against Earth and its colonies, they march like the giant spiders they resemble through humanity's nightmares, and soon they will march across its devastated worlds... moreTHEY'RE SWARMING FOR THE KILL...AND WE ARE THE PREY! Everybody knows how despicable the alien Fibians are. Allies of the fanatic Mollie rebels against the human Commonwealth, they show no mercy, they have no remorse, and they find human flesh delectable -- at least when served live. Fielding a gigantic starfleet against Earth and its colonies, they march like the giant spiders they resemble through humanity's nightmares, and soon they will march across its devastated worlds.When the captain of the starship Invincible is incapacitated after a Fibian attack, only Peter Raeder -- former fighter pilot, starship flight engineer, and unorthodox hero of the war against the Mollies -- can be entrusted with command of the ship. His mission: to track down the alien raiders who took out his captain, and then to start hitting the enemy behind the lines.It's a suicide mission, and Raeder knows it...until the fortunes of battle drive him deeper into alien space than he'd ever intended to go, the Invincible too damaged ever to return home. There he discovers that the monstrous Fibians may not be monsters after all... less