Dark Galaxy Box Set

The Tarazet Galactic Star Empire should be a realm without hunger, disease, violence, or suffering, but the nobility is out of touch, terraforming entire planets just so they can hunt the best game. This is creating the conditions for... rebellion.
Over the course of three books (Galaxy Dog, Iron Dart, and Sun Chaser) Altia, the most prominent young scientist in the empire, Knave, a young soldier, and Jay, a humble logistics robot, are sucked ever deeper into this rebellion, and then rise to become its leaders. There are plenty of space battles, unknowable aliens, and galactic power struggles in the series. These are not dry old books full of visionary concepts but dull on the action, plot, and characters, it is a series that combines the action of militaristic science fiction with the heart of good space opera.
The only reason the heroes have any chance of surviving in the face of the repression of the Tarazet Star Empire is the alien starship they discover. What this spaceship is capable of becomes apparent in the second book, and in the third installment, the entire star empire is slowly destabilized by this new force in the galaxy. It seems, at last, as though the empire might topple, bringing a new utopia, or possibly just political chaos in its wake.