History Characters / SchlockMercenary

[[folder:Colonel DeHaans]]
!![=DeHaans=]

* CloningBlues: Generally avoided. The Kevyn in the comic is technically a gate-clone ever since the original died in The Teraport Wars. Nothing much is made of this and while Kevyn is saddened to learn of the original's death he expected he wouldn't survive setting off a grav-pulse point blank (he ''did'' try to serve as his own next-of-kin for the death benefits however).

* HonorBeforeReason: An inverted example. When Schlock gets arrested during the events of ''Big Dumb Objects'' for throwing a police officer through a bulkhead, Massey refuses to let Schlock out on bail, as he's the first high profile violent offender of the new city and letting him off so easily would set a bad precedent for any rich thugs who might visit. This is reasonable on its own, but Massey sticks to this position even when it becomes clear that this wasn't one of Schlock's [[HeroicComedicSociopath antics]] but him going through grief for a recent friend's death (even if it wasn't permanent at the time) and the resulting existential and moral crisis from him contemplating how [[CloningBlues he and several of his friends have lost at least one "forever"]], not to mention that Schlock was not doing well in a cell. [[JustifiedTrope To Massey's credit]], he kinda ''has'' to take this position due to legal obligations (the only reason he didn't step aside from being the judge for this particular case was that there were no other suitable judges at the time), and when Landon came to extradict Schlock for a mission, Massey simply hired a random police officer present as a new judge to handle the situation and left, offering no real objections.

* HeroicBSOD: During the events of ''Big Dumb Objects'', Schlock gets hit with this due to a series of events, starting with Ebbirnoth's (temporary) death. Schlock tried to get drunk to cope with this, which led to him throwing a police officer through a bulkhead. While the officer in question wasn't seriously injured (as they'd been wearing powered armor), this was enough to land Schlock in jail, and Massey refused to allow bail due to wanting avoid a precedent. During his time in a cell, it becomes clear that the reason he reacted so badly to the incident was that it got him thinking about how the Ebby that died wouldn't come back, even if the ressurected Ebby was exactly tha same, and how that logic [[CloningBlues applied to both himself and several of his friends like Kevyn]]. This is also compounded by [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the realization of what his killing has done]], leading him to be unable to kill briefly before a speech from Landon convinces him that it's sometimes necessary to kill, especially if the alternative would be to force someone else the bear the same burden. Schlock soon returns to his usual self, albeit with a (slightly) more developed conscience.

* CloningBlues: Chinook is technically not Tagii, but an echo-spawned simulation that imprinted on Ennesby and was later transferred. This was mostly possible due to Ennesby's own viral nature, which is quite rare for [=AIs=].
-->'''Captain Tagon:''' You make it sound like she was a sapient brain tumor.\\
'''Cindy:''' That metaphor is terrible, made worse by the fact that it works.

* CloningBlues: Originally averted. Each and every single one of him has the same legal privileges as anyone else. In addition, the original was killed almost immediately after the cloning happened, so it's not like there's any crisis of identity. While there's now a lack of leggy blondes who dig blue-haired scientists, forming your own galactic demographic is pretty nice. Later it's played straight when it turns out the Gavs ''are'' suffering more than a little angst over being indistinguishable, to the point that some of them are willing to undergo extensive physical and mental modification in order to be unique again. Even before that they had to branch out professionally, simply because there weren't more than a few thousand jobs available in their old field. The degree of this seems to vary significantly; in a conversation between an altered Gav and a "baseline" Gav the latter doesn't sympathize with the former's angst ''at all'', to the point of suspecting it was added in the alteration process.

* CloningBlues: Kowalski and his clones don't get along. It's implied that the process doesn't copy him perfectly, considering he refers to [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-06-05 ego-pruning]] to keep the gestalt size down.

* CloningBlues: The original sacrifices himself to save his friends; they build a memorial to him and then grow another Tagon with memories caught up to just before A specific point during that mission. While the general understanding is that this is like restoring a save game and everyone accepts him as their friend returned, the clone takes a while to work through his issues about living up to the original's example.

* UnskilledButStrong: Ultimately, as a faction. They are ''insanely'' powerful, both personally and technologically, creating some of the galaxy's most powerful and indestructible assets. But this constant power imbalance has made them stupidly unsubtle and a little sloppy when it comes to warfare, leaving backdoors into their systems that screw them over mightily.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Between his knowledge of military maneuvers, his soldier boosts, his experience, his willingness to [[OutsideTheBoxTactic do the unexpected]], and good old-fashioned [[CombatPragmatist cheating]], Tagon is possibly the most dangerous of the Toughs in combat (the only other contender for the title would be Schlock, and Tagon has even beaten him in a sparring match).

* MemeticBadass: At the beginning of the ''Broken Wind'' arc, the Oafa seek Tagon out specifically for a job they need done because of his reputation. More specifically, they name him "Destroyer of Battleplates."[[invoked]]

* WickedCultured: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-24 He loves classical music.]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: He leaves Colonel Krum to die after Morrowkweng is destroyed on grounds that he'd rather save people he likes first, prioritizing saving the bartender over her. [[spoiler:He later kills his former employer, Admiral Emm, as well, and while his stated reasons are less than altruistic, she more than likely deserved it.]]

* BoobsOfSteel: Literally in the ''Luna Government Queue'' arc; her power armor has a great big pair of metal jubblies out the front, much to her chagrin and fury.

* GotVolunteered: Bala-Amin repeatedly volunteers her for various assignments that blend the line between cultural liaison and spy.
** Then she's repeatedly assigned to be an ambassador by exponentially more powerful parties, to the point of RunningGag.
*** Her final assignments in the story include representing the ''Milky Way galaxy'' in [[spoiler:negotiating with the AlienPrecursors who left it behind]], and representing ''all baryonic life in the universe'' in [[spoiler:negotiating an end to the war with the dark matter Pa'anuri]].

* [[spoiler: BabiesEverAfter]]: [[spoiler: The final strip shows Kaff's digitized self, sent to negotiate with the precursors outside the galaxy, hand-in-hand with a blonde boy standing between himself and digitized Murtaugh, whom he was in a relationship with. And she appears to be pregnant again.]]
* BackFromTheDead: By way of TimeTravel: he was killed in the original timeline, and a side mission of the revised timeline was to prevent the screwups that caused his death (the prime mission was to prevent the destruction of the galaxy). Also at a later date [[spoiler: he is brought back from an [[BodyBackupDrive off-site backup]].]]

** The message he left to his father [[spoiler: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-11-25 before]] his HeroicSacrifice (which he pulled off to save his crew)]] clearly shows he actually considers his men his new (although broken and messy) family.

* CelibateHero: Up until he got HappilyMarried with Dr. Bunnigus, anyway. Celibate again [[spoiler: once his memories of his wedding were proved false]] until they can have a proper ceremony.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Was killed in a bomb explosion sometime off-panel following the conclusion of the Delegates and Delegation arc, but restored by Bunni thanks to Schlock getting her pieces bagged in time. All of this information has been revealed second-hand, as we've yet to see the explosion that killed her; the only thing we ever learn was that the bomb was Kowalski's parting gift before the Fleetmind took him.]]

* OlderThanSheLooks: This very picture? She's at least 60 on it. [[spoiler: Even more when rebuilt in a younger body after the bomb accident, at 63.]]

A young human girl who joined the toughs as a "roboticist." An expert in all things mechanical, she is just as adept as Kevyn when it comes to machinery and adept at general science, although her skills are more focused on AI and robotics. She got some karate training, but is not really a soldier and was not boosted. Unaccustomed to combat, Para has some issues with violence, and the first two violent escapades she encountered left her a nervous wreck afterwards.

* MemoryGambit: When the Toughs were going to have their memories of [[spoiler: Project Laz'r'us and their capture]] altered, Schlock uses his [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-23 unique biology to preserve them]]

* StarfishAliens: Specifically limited to his [[SiliconBasedLife physiology]], as he (usually) relates pretty easily to his teammates otherwise. It's outright said in one strip that Schlock is the most alien form of life that most humans will ever meet, save for maybe [[spoiler: the [[EldritchAbomination Pa'anuri]]]]. His physiology affects his mentality and personality in subtle but significant ways compared to the human perspective.

* AmusingInjuries: He's not regularly injured, but both times he's recovered from major injuries, there's usually some variety of comedy involved (such as when [[spoiler: he returned from the dead]], something got jumbled and he was temporarily unable to speak Galstandard West like everyone else).

* RagsToRiches: Probably one of the most dramatic examples in science fiction. He started off as a program to emulate a boy band. [[spoiler: When the series ends, he's one of the two most powerful beings in the entire universe, controlling the Andromeda Core Generator.]]

* AIIsACrapshoot: Not much, in that she acts the way Para and Tagon want. But she ''does'' have a quirky-as-hell streak and occasionally will gleefully embarrass humans for fun. [[spoiler: And after spending a little too long in a case of AI Sensory Deprivation, has become something of a homicidal psychopath. She mostly recovers from that and is ''then'' put in charge of an ancient space station loaded with {{Precursor|s}} weapons. Putzho {{Lampshade}}s what a horrible idea that was, and sure enough, she eventually goes hysterical, forcing Petey and Putzho to go to war with her]].

* ShipTease: Went further than teasing, but fell victim to a bad case of temporary death. In Mandatory Failure, he apparently got together with Para Ventura... but they were both killed, and their backups were from ''before'' they got together. This makes for some awkwardness when Neeka asks about it afterwards.
** Teased as early as Book 11, where another Tough mocks him for being sweet on Para (after Aardy took a bullet for her in the previous book).

* ManBehindTheMan: Their ''modus operandi''. They run the Gatekeeper Corporation partially behind the scenes, were responsible for the Partnership Collective antagonising the Toughs, and also backed Xinchub during the Teraport Wars in an attempt to discredit Breya.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: As Petey points out, their 'clone-and-kill' operation probably killed something like the entire population of the galaxy several times over but it also kept the Pa'anuri from restarting their war, and their FTL stranglehold prevented agressive species like the Ob'enn from spreading outside their native solar system.

* HeelFaceTurn: Subverted. [[spoiler: Yes, he turns traitor and delivers project Laz'r'us to Petey,]] thus probably saving thousands, if not millions of lives, and he does it explicitly to save those lives. However, his ''Jerkass'' personality doesn't fade, and it's pretty clear that he's doing it primarily because if he didn't, one of the lives lost would be his. (Also, he's apparently getting paid a lot to do it.)

** He never ''really'' gets a comeuppance for everything he's done. Sure, he gets killed on Yoming, but it turns out to be part of a ThanatosGambit and doesn't stick. He ends up working with Petey on his life-extension project derived from Laz'R'Us to prevent the UNS using it to turn every one of its citizens into sleeper supersoldiers. His increasing irrelevance to events on a galactic scale is probably the part of his character arc that stings the most for him.
** [[spoiler:Sure enough...after joining Petey? He never appears again. He simply, presumably, gets to live out the rest of eternity.]]

* OlderThanTheyLook: The ''TabletopGame/PlanetMercenary'' rulebook reveals that she's [[spoiler: seventy-four.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: She is shot dead out of the blue just as it looks like she's going to get away with the events in Dom Atlantis- by her own underling, Kowalski, no less.]]

* EatenAlive: [[spoiler: Schlock keeps his promise]]

* WickedCultured: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-24 He loves classical music.]]'

* ISurrenderSuckers: A common tactic for them is to offer the opportunity to negotiate, and then use that time to line up a counterattack. Although, to be fair [[BlueAndOrangeMorality they literally can't conceive of using an offer of negotiation as anything else,]] and are genuinely confused when [[spoiler: others offer them the opportunity to negotiate instead of just wiping them out completely when the war is effectively over.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Due to their own immense power and advanced technology in combination with being invisible to most methods of detection, they're an absolute terror in battle, but due to never having actually had to fight theater-scale warfare on an intergalactic level against an opponent of near combat parity to themselves and possessing both a means of detecting them and methods of harming them, they make numerous tactical errors. Their opponents, being much more used to large-scale warfare, repeatedly take advantage of these missteps. Their single greatest misstep, [[spoiler: putting a transponder on the hidden superweapon that is winning them the war,]] is something that even a novice of tactical warfare would tell them is a bad idea.

[[quoteright:179:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/somegavs_5490.png]]

* KarmaHoudini: He never ''really'' gets a comeuppance for everything he's done. Sure, he gets killed on Yoming, but it turns out to be part of a ThanatosGambit and doesn't stick. He ends up working with Petey on his life-extension project derived from Laz'R'Us to prevent the UNS using it to turn every one of its citizens into sleeper supersoldiers. His increasing irrelevance to events on a galactic scale is probably the part of his character arc that stings the most for him.
** [[spoiler: Sure enough...after joining Petey? He never appears again. He simply, presumably, gets to live out the rest of eternity.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: He eventually gets tired of fighting (and dying) for Admiral Emm's increasingly extreme causes. [[spoiler: He finally just shoots Emm in the head after ensuring she's been downloaded into an anonymous and untraceable body.]]

* StoryBreakerPower: He would have stopped the Esspererin pirates' plans in ''Big Dumb Objects'' before they even began if he'd been active. Naturally, he was out of action until it was too late to do anything but shout a warning right before the shooting starts.

!!Burt "Nick" Nicholson

* MauveShirt

%%* TheBigGuy

* [[spoiler: BabiesEverAfter]]: [[spoiler: The final strip shows Kaff's digitized self, sent to negotiate with the precursors outside the galaxy, hand-in-hand with a blonde boy standing between himself and digitized Murtagh, whom he was in a relationship with.]]

* BFG: In later books, he seems to have taken on the role of Xeno Team's heavy weapon expert, toting these around with enthusiasm.

* MeaningfulName: Her last name is Ventura, and it's strongly implied this is related to the Henke-Ventura Scale for measuring A.I. capacity.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Due to their own immense power and advanced technology in combination with being invisible to most methods of detection, they're an absolute terror in batter, but due to never having actually had to fight theater-scale warfare on an intergalactic level against an opponent of near to combat parity and possessing both a means of detecting them and methods of harming them, they make numerous tactical errors. Their opponents, being much more used to large-scale warfare, repeatedly take advantage of these missteps. Their single greatest misstep, [[spoiler: putting a transponder on the hidden superweapon that is winning them the war,]] is something that even a novice of tactical warfare would tell them is a bad idea.

* ScrewDestiny: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-05-31 No curses.]] If I get dead, it's 'cause '''I chose this'''.

* UltimateEvil: Not being made of baryonic matter, they're completely invisible to all sensors except gravitic ones. Gravitic imaging in later chapters makes them look like writhing tentacles, though lord only knows if that's their actual appearance or just their powers at work.

* HeroicBSOD: During the events of ''Big Dumb Objects'', Schlock gets hit with this due to a series of events, starting with Ebbirnoth's (temporary) death. Schlock tried to get drunk to cope with this, which led to him throwing a police officer through a bulkhead. While the officer in question wasn't seriously injured (as they'd been wearing powered armor), this was enough to land Schlock in jail, and Massey refused to allow bail due to wanting avoid a precedent. During his time in a cell, it becomes clear that the reason he reacted so badly to the incident was that it got him thinking about how the Ebby that died wouldn't come back, even if the ressurected Ebby was exactly tha same, and how that logic [[CloningBlues applied to both himself and several of his friends like Keyvn]]. This is also compounded by [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the realization of what his killing has done]], leading him to be unable to kill briefly before a speech from Landon convinces him it's necessary to save his friends.

* HonorBeforeReason: An inverted example. When Schlock gets arrested during the events of Big Dumb Objects for throwing a police officer through a bulkhead, Massey refuses to let Schlock out on bail, as he's the first high profile violent offender of the new city and letting him off so easily would set a bad precedent for any rich thugs who might visit. This is reasonable on its own, but Massey sticks to this position even when it becomes clear that this wasn't one of Schlock's [[HeroicComedicSociopath antics]] but him going through grief for a recent friend's death (even if it wasn't permanent at the time) and the resulting existential and moral crisis from him contemplating how [[CloningBlues he and several of his friends have lost at least one "forever"]], not to mention that Schlock was not doing well in a cell. When Schlock is released due to the police (including the one Schlock had thrown) dropping the charges out of pity for his situation, Massey's more annoyed at the legal loophole than anything else.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Until Schlock got his own cartoon, Amorphs weren't widely known throughout the galaxy. [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-08-25 Apparently less than 200 of them have ever left their homeworld.]] Schlock himself [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-03-09 usually just rolls with it.]]

* {{Fiction 500}}: "I have a team of accountants [[UpToEleven whose job it is to count the accountants who keep track of my accountants]]."