History Literature / Aristillus

* UpliftedAnimal: Dogs were granted sentience and intelligence by a government agency, resulting in a whole species that can talk, program computers, and work to understand their own place in the universe.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The U.S. military has quotas for so-called "alternately-abled soldiers" wherein disabled soldiers, even those in wheelchairs, are included in military combat operations, along with all the accommodations this requires.

The technology featured in the series is mostly [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness accurate to real life]] but for three "special" techs: an anti-gravity drive, talking dogs with genius level intellect, and a pre-singularity AGI. As Corcoran takes consistency and realism seriously, anytime a ship (or other object) is entering or leaving orbit you can bet that he's done the math and made sure it would work in real life, so expect absolutely minimal handwaving of any implications of the technology at play here.

%%[[folder: Staking a Claim]]
%%[[/folder]]

The short stories ''Staking a Claim'' and ''The Team'' take place shortly before the events of the novels and serve explain the backstories of certain main characters.

%%* BanOnAI: Earth's explicit policy, as enforced by the Bureau for Sustainable Research.

%%* DramatisPersonae: Each book has one, and thankfully so as there are dozens of characters making regular entrances and exits, so the handy reference helps remind us who is who.

%%* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Blue considers his own species to be this.
%%--> '''Blue:''' He had to admit the truth: his entire species was a band of misfits - Max always ranting about genocide and fighting back, Duncan playing RPG's when he should be paying attention, and Rex was hacking anything and everything from cameras to -well- piss bags.

%%* SlidingScaleOfLibertarianismAndAuthoritarianism: Aristillus is about as far up the Libertarian Scale as you can imagine. The Earth occupies the opposite extreme, although it wears a friendly face.

%%* AlmostOutOfOxygen:
%%** Befalls John and the dogs when they lose contact with the colony and are too far from anywhere they could walk to before they run out of Carbon Dioxide scrubbers.
%%** Tudel and his Troops also face this fate when the ''Wookkiee'' begans to launch into space while they are stuck on its open-air deck

%%* PetTheDog: Used literally when Darcy [[spoiler:rescues John and the dogs from eventual death by asphyxiation. Duncan and Rex enjoy affectionate scratches.]]

%%[[folder:The Team]]
%%[[/folder]]

* FrickinLaserBeams: Earth uses ground-based lasers to fry Gamma's satellites so Gamma can't spot the incoming invasion force and to prevent the lunar forces from communicating.

The technology featured in the series is mostly [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness accurate to real life]] but for three 'special' techs: an anti-gravity drive, talking dogs with genius level intellect, and a pre-singularity AGI. As Corcoran takes consistency and realism seriously, anytime a ship (or other object) is entering or leaving orbit you can bet that he's done the math and made sure it would work in real life, so expect absolutely minimal handwaving of any implications of the technology at play here.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Toyed with. John constantly wonders if Gamma is working towards an imminent 'hard takeoff,' even as Gamma tries to assure him that it has reached the limit of its intelligence. In fact, Gamma worries more about this trope than any other character, as it [[spoiler: pre-emptively destroys any instances of itself that slip beyond its control so as to avoid a power struggle later.]]

* ArtificialGravity: Not as such, although the AG drive can make a mockery of the very concept of gravity.

* ArtificialIntelligence: Gamma, who was rescued from destruction by John and brought to the Aristillus colony. Able to wax philosophical but also very reluctant to reveal too much to its 'friends,' Gamma drives much of the plot of the first two books.

* {{Ban on AI}}: Earth's explicit policy, as enforced by the Bureau for Sustainable Research.

* {{Democracy is Bad}}: Given the situation on earth, this is an implicit theme of the novel, often explicitly stated by Mike or Max. The U.S. still holds elections, and politicians still worry about these elections, but the deep dysfunction of the U.S. Government and earth in general is a direct result of democratically elected policies.

* DogsAreDumb: Explicitly inverted, as the dogs in this story have been purposefully uplifted to grant them sentience, the ability to speak, and heightened all-around intelligence. In fact, they are by all indications ''far'' smarter on average than humans, and very aware of this fact.

* DramatisPersonae: Each book has one, and thankfully so as there are dozens of characters making regular entrances and exits, so the handy reference helps remind us who is who.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Technically all of Aristillus counts, as it has few aboveground buildings, the entire city is made from tunnels cleared by tunnel boring machines, which was easier than building on the surface. To the earth forces, it has all the appearances of a supervillain lair.

* HeroesLoveDogs: The dogs hide on Aristillus because the earth Government sought to destroy them, and still does, and their entire species was rescued by one heroic human, John, and his team. John is extremely protective of the dogs as a result, and the dogs are (mostly) extremely respectful towards John.

* ImmigrantPatriotism: In spades, as ''every'' citizen of Aristillus is an immigrant, and almost all of them have good reasons for being there and, by the same token, good reasons to keep the U.N. Peacekeepers out.

* LibertariansInSpace: Taken to an extreme heretofore unseen.

* MacGyvering: Most of the main protagonists are extremely good at problem solving on the fly with limited materials.
** In book 1, The dogs need to check on some satellites in lunar orbit, but don't have a telescope. That's alright! They make one using cameras from their spacesuits and some coding to interpolate the image.

* NoodleIncident: The CEO trials, which are repeatedly referenced and is explained as the earth Government's arrest and trial of the executives of various earth companies as part of the process of nationalizing all industries. We have an idea of what they were like but the process is never actually explained.

* {{Oppressive States of America}}: America remains nominally a democracy but has succumbed to one-party rule for decades and the economy is now fully nationalized, all economic ills now scapegoated on a handful of rebellious territories.

* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Aristillus is this explicitly, with every single inch of land (or, technically, tunnel) held by one private entity or another, and the whole colony works on the principles of private property.

* {{Ragtag Bunch of Misfits}}: Blue considers his own species to be this.
--> '''Blue:''' He had to admit the truth: his entire species was a band of misfits - Max always ranting about genocide and fighting back, Duncan playing RPG's when he should be paying attention, and Rex was hacking anything and everything from cameras to -well- piss bags.

* {{Settling the Frontier}}: The Moon Colony represents the next step in human expansion, even if most people on earth ''don't even know it exists.'' By the time of the novels, the colony is self-sustaining and isn't far from turning into an economic power in its own right, but is explicitly stated to lack advanced fabrication capacity and other accoutrements of a developed city/nation. The concept of settling a frontier is given much philosophical examination in the second book.

* {{Sliding Scale of Libertarianism and Authoritarianism}}: Aristillus is about as far up the Libertarian Scale as you can imagine. The Earth occupies the opposite extreme, although it wears a friendly face.

* {{Stealth in Space}}:
** The ''Wookkiee'' and other space-faring container ships have specialized coatings to avoid detection via radar. This is apparently very effective.
** At multiple points during the story a ship or ships sneaks up on the lunar surface with little-to-no warning.

* UpliftedAnimal: The dogs in this story were granted sentience and intelligence by a government agency, resulting in a whole species that can talk, program computers, and work to understand their own place in the universe.

* VastBureaucracy: Implied to exist on earth and the U.S. government in particular, numerous agencies are mentioned by name, especially the Bureau of Sustainable Research, which prevents any innovation that might disrupt the planned economy. Many times in the story it is implied that to get anything useful done on Earth you must contend with miles and miles of red tape. Those mentioned by name include: The Internet Control Bureau.

* {{Almost out of Oxygen}}:
** Befalls John and the dogs when they lose contact with the colony and are too far from anywhere they could walk to before they run out of Carbon Dioxide scrubbers.
** Tudel and his Troops also face this fate when the ''Wookkiee'' begans to launch into space while they are stuck on its open-air deck.

* AStormIsComing: This is Mike's constant refrain for about the first act of the book, where he tells anyone who listens that they're at best a few years out from an invasion by earth. It consumes his thinking, and when the first waves come earlier than expected, it is Mike's preparations that save the day. Through the second act, his message remains mostly unchanged, except that he now believes a ''bigger'' storm is coming.

* AugmentedReality: The Dogs code an augmented reality overlay for their spacesuits to spice up the barren terrain on their trek across the lunar surface, so they can pretend to be hiking through African desert, snowy mountains, a magical mushroom forest, a dusty southwestern trailer, or a hardwood forest. Later they add in AI monsters which can be battled and 'killed' for experience points, RPG style. To top ''that'' all off, their game is then connected to an existing MMORPG so they can interact with other players and they gain a significant following. Not bad considering dogs don't have thumbs.

* {{Blinded by the Light}}: When US/UN Peacekeeper forces board the unarmed Wookkiee, the crew catches them in the act by turning on the Klieg lights, causing a couple of the soldiers to freeze. The crew unconvincingly demands a surrender, but without any other weapons their only option is to attempt a launch.

** During the hostage standoff between Mike and PK forces, [[spoiler: members of Mike's militia are executed via headshot when Mike attempts to call their bluff.]]
** Tudel [[spoiler: finishes Rex off this way, after landing a few shots center of mass.]]

* TheCassandra: Mike Martin, who constantly foretells of invasion and subjugation by earth forces, which generally prompts eyerolls from his friends, who think he's either exaggerating or going completely mental.

* ColorblindConfusion: John sometimes forgets the dogs don't have the same acuity for colors as he does.
--> '''Blue''': Maybe we'll be able to engineer trichromatic photoreceptors for the next generation.

** Leroy Fournier fits this stereotype to a T. He sees nothing wrong with employing dirty tactics, blackmail, and sabotage to beat his rival, Mike Martin, and worst of all he's ''petty'' about it, believing he's just claiming the success to which he's entitled.
** Note that from the perspective of the U.S. Government, ''every single CEO'' on aristillus is corrupt, dodging taxes and 'stealing' productive capacity. And this is ''after'' earth imprisoned many executives and nationalized their companies.

* EmergencyAuthority: Gamma mentions that an ''Emergency Powers Act'' was passed sometime ago in the U.S. after Baltimore was nuked by the Sudan Alliance. Given what else we see in the novel, it is unlikely that this act was ever repealed or expired.

* {{Failed a Spot Check}}: Multiple times during the battle on the ''Wookkiee.'' First a PK [[NoPeripheralVision fails to spot Iosif]] who is hovering above him in the room. Then Iosif fails to spot the PK Sergeant with a grenade launcher, the grenadier then fails to spot Luka, who takes him out with a wrench, and then Luka misses the last PK, who ends his rampage.

* GrenadeLauncher: Deployed briefly by the Peacekeeper troops during their seizure of the ''Wookkiee.''

* GroinAttack: Captain Kear indulges in one after he overpowers PK Captain Tudel, as vengeance for Tudel breaking his nose. Justified in that if Kear broke Tudel's nose he might asphyxiate in his own blood due to the microgravity.

* HonestCorporateExecutive: Mike Martin, to the extent that it hurts his interests when someone takes advantage of him or he can't effectively fight back against dirty tactics. Indeed, his direct approach makes it difficult for him to pull off the political manuevering necessary to prepare Aristillus for war. Thank God for Javier!

* {{Howl of Sorrow}}: The dogs engage in a very literal howl of sorrow when [[spoiler:Rex is killed by Tudel.]]

* {{If My Calculations are Correct}}: Darcy and Wasseem work on figuring out whether they can land the off-course ''Wookkiee'' safely on the moon and, ''if their calculations are correct,'' conclude that they can, barely.

* LuxuriousLiquor: Both Mike Martin and Leroy Fournier (each quite wealthy) have interludes that involve drinking whiskey or gin while engaging in introspection.

* MyInstinctsAreShowing: Toyed with constantly with the dogs, as their enhanced intellect is often at odds with their canine proclivities
** Rex programs an application that not only simulates the sound of urine splashing when peeing in a spacesuit, it geotags the location so that it can be 'marked' as territory.

* NaiveNewcomer: Hugh Haig, and to a lesser extent his companions. Hugh is young and inexperienced, but is especially out of his element in the unregulated and unrestrained capitalistic colony that is Aristillus.

* {{No Gravity for You}}: Captain Kear and couple of the ''Wookkiee'' crew take advantage of the ship's transition to microgravity to get the jump on PK soldiers who have captured the ship, and have not trained for zero-g manuevers.

* PetTheDog: Used literally when Darcy [[spoiler: rescues John and the dogs from eventual death by asphyxiation. Duncan and Rex enjoy affectionate scratches.]]

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Earth has some ''interesting'' policies in place.
** The U.S. military has quotas for so-called 'alternately-abled soldiers' wherein disabled soldiers, even those in wheelchairs, are included in military combat operations, along with all the accommodations this requires.

* {{Shout Out}}: Gamma directly references ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'' and its 2019 movie when talking about sci-fi models of succesful revolutions, then snipes a reference to ''Starship Troopers'' from Max while debating the merit of violences as a means to an end.

* SoleSurvivor: U.S. Army Captain Frank Tudel, who is the only member of his whole unit to survive the (otherwise successful) attempt to capture a Lunar ship with an AG drive. Although the deaths of his soldiers were largely his fault, he only mourns the loss of his career. Yet he is ''rewarded'' by his superiors because of the unique intelligence he now possesses, and his continued incompetence helps save the Lunar colony.

* {{Pretext for War}}:
** Very early in the story the U.S. President Themba Johnson lays out various causes for invading the expat colony: tax evasion, theft of productive assets, and most importantly gaining support to win the next election.

** After the Colonist's open defiance of the UN forces, the case for invading is, from the earth government's perspective, made stronger.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Mike Martin and Mark Soldner. Mark (a devout Mormon) wants to enforce morality and a family-friendly society, even if that means creating a government. Mike is utterly opposed to even entertaining the 'suggestion' of a government. Both men work together to fight the war against earth, even while fighting over the personal issues.

* WavingSignsAround: A boardroom group meeting is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of protestors with masks, cameras, banners and rocks.

[[folder: Causes of Separation]]

* BadassGrandpa: Samir Akthr Abyd, who takes on a horde of PK troops by his lonesome. Based on real-life Badass Grandpa [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Whittemore Samuel Whittemore]]

* GoingNative: Captain Matthew Dewitt. Originally tasked with infiltrating the colony to aid the invasion, he starts to befriend the locals and eventually comes to prefer their way of life, or perhaps their standard of living.

* ShellGame: [[spoiler: Darren Hollins pulls off a very smooth operation to remove all the gold from the colony prior to the U.N. invasion, without anyone knowing it was gone. Important since seizing the gold was a large factor in the decision to invade.]]

[[folder: Staking a Claim]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Team]]

[[/folder]]

* VastBureaucracy: Implied to exist on earth and the U.S. government in particular, numerous agencies are mentioned by name, especially the Bureau of Sustainable Research, which prevents any innovation that might disrupt the planned economy. Many times in the story it is implied that to get anything useful done on Earth you must contend with miles and miles of red tape.

The series largely focuses on the Founder of Aristillus and CEO of a tunneling company Mike Martin, and his immediate associates including girlfriend Darcy Grau, who pilots [[CoolShip the Wookkiee]], as they try to navigate through the increasingly dire threat posed by the earth's military forces, even as the colony continues to grow. The Book also follows a quartet of dogs and their friend/rescuer John as they undertake an expedition to circumnavigate the moon on foot, which quickly becomes a dangerous endeavor as the conflict with earth heats up.

** The Wookkiee and other space-faring container ships have specialized coatings to avoid detection via radar. This is apparently very effective.

** Tudel and his Troops also face this fate when the Wookkiee begans to launch into space while they are stuck on its open-air deck.

* AStormIsComing: This is Mike's constant refrain for about the first act of the book, where he tells anyone who listens that they're at best a few years out from an invasion by earth. It consumes his thinking, and when the first waves come earlier than expected, it is Mike's preparations that save the day. Through the second act, his message remains mostly unchanged, except that he now believes a **bigger** storm is coming.

* FalseReassurance: When Gamma answers a question it is usually truthful, but also words its answer specifically so as to avoid divulging information he might want to keep secret. John doesn't buy it, but there's not much he can do.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Earth uses ground-based lasers to fry Gamma's satellites so he can't spot the incoming invasion force and to prevent the lunar forces from communication.

* GrenadeLauncher: Deployed briefly by the Peacekeeper troops during their seizure of the Wookkiee

* {{If My Calculations are Correct}}: Darcy and Wasseem work on figuring out whether they can land the off-course Wookkiee safely on the moon and, ''if their calculations are correct,'' conclude that they can, barely.

* LuxuriousLiquor: Both Mike Martin and Leroy Fournier (each quite wealthy) have interludes that involve drinking whiskey while engaging in introspection.

* ManipulativeEditing: Leroy uses some footage of Mike and his old friend Kevin Bultman to make an attempt at blackmailing mike with reputational damage. The out-of-context footage makes it appear that the two are agreeing to fraudulently alter some drilling records, which is ironically exatly what ''Leroy'' did.

* NuclearOption: Ordered and initiated by the U.S. government when the USAF/UNAF ship Paul-Henri Spaak crashes after losing a philosophical then military confrontation with one of Gamma's facilities. The ship is 'scuttled' via nuclear blast with the intention of preventing the expats from seizing cryptography hardware, but whether the action was actually *justified* is somewhat left as an exercise for the reader.

* {{Shout Out}}: Gamma directly references ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress''and its 2019 movie when talking about sci-fi models of succesful revolutions, then snipes a reference to ''Starship Troopers'' from Max while debating the merit of violences as a means to an end.

* ShellGame: Darren Hollins pulls off a very smooth operation to remove all the gold from the colony prior to the U.N. invasion, without anyone knowing it was gone. Important since seizing the gold was a large factor in the decision to invade.

* Shoutout: Gamma directly references ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress''and its 2019 movie when talking about sci-fi models of succesful revolutions, then snipes a reference to ''Starship Troopers'' from Max while debating the merit of violences as a means to an end.

''The Aristillus Series'' is a (mostly) hard Science Fiction series of novels by author Travis J.I. Corcoran, taking much inspiration from Robert Heinlein's *"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" but asking, among other things, "what if every moon colonist had an [[{{BFG}} anti-materiel rifle]]?" Set in and around the year 2064 at the start of the series, it portrays earth as a stagnant economic power in the midst of a decades-long depression thanks to the iron-fisted/velvet-gloved global government that has complete control over the planet's productive capacity. Rather than a prison colony where malcontents are exiled, the moon colony was founded by the CEO of an earth corporation and the scientist who invented the AG drive escaping the nationalization of earth companies (and likely prison sentences for each CEO), and the lunar 'culture' reflects their entrepreneurial spirit. The colony, located in the Aristillus crater, has become economically independent and is drawing more and more settlers, which is causing the Earth powers to finally sit up and take notice.

* BenevolentAI: Gamma's actions during the story are all beneficial to the Lunar Colony, but his real intentions and goals are not revealed.

* FalseReassurance: When Gamma answers a question he is usually truthful, but also words his answer specifically so as to avoid divulging information he might want to keep secret.

* ImpededCommunication: Earth forces destroy communications satellites in orbit around the moon, cutting Gamma off from it's other sites, cutting John and the dogs off from Aristillus, and the City off from the rest of the Moon. For Aristillus this is inconvenient, for John and the dogs its life-threatening, for Gamma this literally ''splits his mind into pieces.''

* LuxuriousLiquor: Both Mike Martin and Leroy Fournier (each quite wealthy) have interludes that involve drinking whiskey while engaging in introspection.

* Shoutout: Gamma directly references ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'' and its 2019 movie when talking about sci-fi models of succesful revolutions.

The series largely focuses on the Founder of Aristillus and CEO of a tunneling company Mike Martin, and his immediate associates including girlfriend Darcy Grau as they try to navigate through the increasingly dire threat posed by the earth's military forces, even as they try and keep the colony growing. The Book also follows a quartet of dogs and their friend/rescuer John as they undertake an expedition to circumnavigate the moon on foot, which quickly becomes a dangerous endeavor as the conflict with earth heats up.

* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Aristillus is this explicitly, with every single inch of land (or, technically, tunnel) held by one private entity or another, and the whole colony works on the principles of private property

* {{Almost out of Oxygen}}: Befalls John and the dogs when they lose contact with the colony and are too far from anywhere they could walk to before they run out of CO2 scrubbers.

* TheCassandra: Mike Martin, who constantly foretells of invasion and subjugation by earth forces, which generally prompts eyerolls from his friend, who think he's either exagerrating or going completely mental.

* {{Failed a Spot Check}}: Multiple times during the battle on the ''Wookkiee.'' First a PK fails to spot Iosif who is hovering above him in the room. Then Iosif fails to spot the PK Sergeant with a grenade launcher, the grenadier then fails to spot Luka, who takes him out with a wrench, and then Luka misses the last PK, who ends his rampage.

* HostageSituation: The US/UN ship *** lands on the moon and captures members of Mike Martin's militia to use as hostages and human shields.

* {{No Gravity for You}}: The captain and couple of the crew take advantage of the ship's transition to microgravity to get the jump on PK soldiers who have captured the ship, who have not trained for zero-g manuevers.

** The U.S. military evidentally has quotas for so-called 'alternately-abled soldiers' wherein disabled soldiers, even those in wheelchairs, are included in military combat operations, along with all the accommodations this requires.

* BadassGrandpa:

** The Wookkie and other space-faring container ships have specialized coatings to avoid detection via radar. This is apparently very effective.

* AugmentedReality: The Dogs code an augmented reality overlay for their spacesuits to spice up the barren terrain on their trek across the lunar surface, so they can pretend to be hiking through African desert, snowy mountains, or hardwood forests. Later they add in AI monsters which can be battled and 'killed' for experience points, RPG style. To top ''that'' all off, their game is then connected to an existing MMORPG so they can interact with other players and they gain a significant following. Not bad considering dogs don't have thumbs.

* {{Blinded by the Light}}: When US/UN Peacekeeper forces board the unarmed Wookkie, the crew catches them in the act by turning on the Klieg lights, causing a couple of the soldiers to freeze. The crew unconvincingly demands a surrender, but without any other weapons their only option is to attempt a launch.

* {{BanonAI}}: Earth's explicit policy, as enforced by the Bureau for Sustainable Research.

''The Aristillus Series'' is a (mostly) hard Science Fiction series of novels by author Travis J.I Corcoran, taking much inspiration from Robert Heinlein's *"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" but asking, among other things, "what if every moon colonist had an [[{{BFG}} anti-materiel rifle]]? Set in and around the year 2064 at the start of the series, it portrays earth as a stagnant economic power in the midst of a decades-long depression thanks to the iron-fisted/velvet-gloved global government that has complete control over the planet's productive capacity. Rather than a prison colony where malcontents are exiled, the moon colony was founded by the CEO of an earth corporation and the scientist who invented the AG drive escaping the nationalization of earth companies (and likely prison sentences for each CEO), and the lunar 'culture' reflects their entrepreneurial spirit. The colony, located in the Aristillus crater, has become economically independent and is drawing more and more settlers, which is causing the Earth powers to finally sit up and take notice.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Toyed with. John constantly wonders if Gamma is working towards an imminent 'hard takeoff,' even as Gamma tries to assure him that it has reached the limit of its intelligence. In fact, Gamma worries more about this trope than any other character, as he [[spoiler: pre-emptively destroys any instances of himself that slip beyond his control so as to avoid a power struggle later.]]

* BanonAI: Earth's explicit policy, as enforced by the Bureau for Sustainable Research.

* ImmigrantPatriotism: In spades, as *every* citizen of Aristillus is an immigrant, and almost all of them have good reasons for being there and, by the same token, good reasons to keep the U.N. Peacekeepers out.

* NoodleIncident: The CEO trials, which are repeatedly referenced and is explained as the earth Government's arrest and trial of the CEOs of various earth companies as part of the process of nationalizing all industries. We have an idea of what they were like but the process is never actually explained.

* {{Oppressive States ofAmerica}}: America remains nominally a democracy but has succumbed to one-party rule for decades and the economy is now fully nationalized, all economic ills now scapegoated on a handful of rebellious territories.

* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Aristillus is this explicitly, with every single inch of land (or, technically tunnel) held by one private entity or another, and the whole colony works on the principles of private property

* StealthinSpace:

''The Aristillus Series'' is a (mostly) hard Science Fiction series of novels by author Travis J.I Corcoran, taking much inspiration from Robert Heinlein's *"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" but asking, among other things, "what if every moon colonist had an [[{{BFG}} anti-materiel rifle]]? Set in and around the year 2064 at the start of the series, it portrays earth as a stagnant economic power in the midst of a decades-long depression thanks to the iron-fisted/velvet-gloved global government that has complete control over the planet's productive capacity. Rather than a prison colony where malcontents are exiled, the moon colony was founded by the CEO of an earth corporation and the scientist who invented the AG drive escaping the nationalization of earth companies and likely prison sentences, and the lunar 'culture' reflects their entrepreneurial spirit. The colony, located in the Aristillus crater, has become economically independent and is drawing more and more settlers, which is causing the Earth powers to finally sit up and take notice.

The series largely focuses on the Founder of Aristillus and CEO of a tunneling company Mike Martin, and his immediate associates including girlfriend as they try to navigate through the increasingly dire political/military threat posed by the earth's military forces, even as they try and keep the colony growing. The Book also follows a quartet of dogs and their friend/rescuer *** as they undertake an expedition to circumnavigate the moon on foot, which quickly becomes a dangerous endeavor as the conflict with earth heats up.

The technology featured in the series is mostly [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness accurate to real life]] but for three 'special' techs: an anti-gravity drive, talking dogs with genius level intellect, and a pre-singularity AGI. As Corcoran takes consistency and realism seriously, anytime a ship (or other object is entering or leaving orbit you can bet that he's done the math and made sure it would work in real life, so expect absolutely minimal handwaving of any implications of the technology at play here.

[[folder: The Team]]

[[folder:Staking a Claim]]

[[caption-width-right:314:What is a large ocean shipping freighter doing on the Lunar Surface? The book makes good on its cover.]]