History Literature / ShadowsunTheLastOfKirusLine

* DirtyCoward: Shadowsun initially considers Hollett one after he begs for his life and surrenders rather than "die with honor" like a soldier captured by the enemy should. This gets subverted when its revealed that the true reason Hollett is desperate to live is because he has a daughter back home and doesn't want to leave her orphaned.

* DirtyCoward: Shadowsun initially considers Hollett one after he begs for his life and surrenders rather than "die with honor" like a soldier should when they get captured by the enemy. This gets subverted when its revealed that the true reason Hollett is desperate to live is because he has a daughter back home and doesn't want to leave her orphaned.

* DidntSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Given how sparsely populated and underdeveloped the planet was, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was unaware that she was landing on a world considered holy to the Imperium. She is completely unprepared for the massive defense cannon that blasts her ship out of the sky nor the presence of an entire Imperial Guard regiment eager to prove themselves in battle.

* DidntSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Given how sparsely populated and underdeveloped the planet was, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was unaware that she was landing on a world considered holy by the Imperium. She is completely unprepared for the massive defense cannon that blasts her ship out of the sky nor the presence of an entire Imperial Guard regiment eager to prove themselves in battle.

* DidntSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Given how sparsely populated and underdeveloped the planet was, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was unaware that the planet she was landing on a world considered holy by the Imperium. She is completely unprepared for the massive defense cannon that blasts her ship out of the sky nor the presence of an entire Imperial Guard regiment eager to prove themselves in battle.

* DidntSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Given how sparsely populated and underdeveloped the planet was, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was unaware that the planet she was invading was considered holy to the Imperium. She is completely unprepared for the massive defense cannon that blasts her ship out of the sky nor the presence of an entire Imperial Guard regiment eager to prove themselves in battle.

* DidNotSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Given how sparsely populated and underdeveloped the planet was, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was unaware that the planet she was invading was considered holy to the Imperium. She is completely unprepared for the massive defense cannon that blasts her ship out of the sky nor the presence of an entire Imperial Guard regiment eager to prove themselves in battle.

* DidNotSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Diepr-3. Since the planet was almost completely undeveloped, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was blindsighted by the planet's massive defense cannon which blasts her ship out of the sky the moment it comes within range.

* AdaptationalNameChange: The planet Dieper III is referred to as "Diepr-3" in the novella.

* BearsAreBadNews: The apex predator of Dieper III's ecosystem is a bear-like animal called an ursaloth. At the start of the book, the creature attacks Shadowsun's escape pod, mistaking it for some kind of animal, nearly resulting in her drowning when the ursaloth tosses her pod into a lake after puncturing it with its claws. The ursaloth later returns during Shadowsun's trek through the swamp and causes the deaths of numerous Fire Warriors.

* DidNotSeeThatComing: The circumstances which led to Shadowsun's flagship crash landing on Dieper III. Since the planet was almost completely undeveloped, Shadowsun assumed she was invading some minor Imperial outpost and was blindsighted by the planet's massive defense cannon which blasts her ship out of the sky the moment it comes within range.

* IgnoredExpert: Having been stationed on Dieper III for his entire military career, Hollett is the closest thing to a native guide that the survivors of Shadowsun's flagship have after they capture him during a battle. When he warns Shadowsun that traveling into the swamp would be a mistake, she decides to ignore him and do the opposite of what he says after his previous advice led to her troops getting ambused by a squadron of Valkyries. This act costs her the lives of nearly all her men.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Hollett claims that most of the Imperial Guard regiment stationed on Dieper III view their posting as a waste of time since they are basically looking after a nature preserve for no other reason than "this land is considered holy because the God-Emperor once made a pit stop here during the Great Crusade." The Tau's invasion was the first time that any of the Imperial Guardsmen on Dieper III could remember ever having to fire the planet's defense cannon.

* CareerVsFamily: After learning that all of her sisters have died in combat and she is the last of her family's line, Shadowsun spends the remainder of the novella trying to decide whether she should continue being a military commander or retire to a civilian life in order to raise a family and continue her bloodline.

* TheLastOfHisKind: Shadowsun learns from Aun'va that both of her sisters were killed in action during the two years that she had been away on her campaign, meaning that she is the last of her family's bloodline.

* IgnoredExpert: Having been stationed on Dieper III for his entire military career, Hollett is the closest thing to a native guide that the survivors of Shadowsun's flagship have after they capture him during a battle. When he all but begs Shadowsun to not travel into the swamp, she decides to ignore him after his previous advice led to her troops getting ambused by a squadron of Valkyries. This proves to be a huge mistake that costs her the lives of nearly all her men.