Warstrider series
The Warstrider series is a BattleTech-esque series by William H. Keith, Jr.. The series is based upon a futuristic world where Japan has taken control of Earth politics and of the majority of human colonies on other worlds. Humans are engaged in a war with creatures known only as Xenophobes. Human-kind has never managed to communicate with the creatures and only has their attacks to base what information is known about them on.
Later books detail humanity's conflict with itself, and a race of artificial beings called the Web. It also involves subplots related to collective intelligence.
Books in the series:
Warstrider, published 1993, re-release as e-books in 2014
Rebellion, published 1993, re-release as e-books in 2014
Jackers, published 1994, re-release as e-books in 2014
Symbionts, published 1995, re-release as e-books in 2014
Netlink, published 1995, re-release as e-books in 2014
Battlemind, published 1996, re-release as e-books in 2014
"This was my baby, my first SF series that was entirely my own universe. It's set in the 26th century and involves fringe-of-empire settlers breaking away from an overbearing Earth government dominated by the Japanese Empire ... which had the sense to grab the high ground of space when the U.S. abandoned it in the early 2000s. Most of the first book revolves around a war with some VERY strange aliens, while the rest pit frontier rebels against the Empire ... then involve both in a struggle against a malevolent AI machine threat from the Galactic Core." From the William H. Keith, Jr. website[1]