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5[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/out_of_the_dark_city.png]]
6->"We've been on the recieving end of the Hegemony's benevolent policy towards inconveniently located sentient species. We've found plenty of other examples of it in your own databases as well. And we've decided it has to stop."
7-->--Judson Howell
8
9Expanded from a short story by Creator/DavidWeber that first appeared in Creator/GeorgeRRMartin and Gardner Dozois's anthology Warriors (2010), ''Out of the Dark'', released the same year, is a series known for its unusual take on military science fiction.
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11[[NextSundayAD In the very near future]], Earth has been targeted for colonization by a galactic empire known as the Hegemony. Deemed "lunatic local sentients" by a survey team that witnessed [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet King Henry V]] and his troops [[UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar slaughtering the French at Agincourt]], humankind has essentially been written off as [[BarbarianTribe bloodthirsty, backwater barbarians]] that no one will particularly miss. It's TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Technologically superior, carnivorous, [[IntelligentGerbil canine-analog aliens]] have [[AlienInvasion invaded Earth]] with the intention of killing most of us and enslaving the rest. [[LetsGetDangerous Things don't go according to plan]].
12
13'''If you don't want to spoil the ending, don't scroll down to the Index list at the bottom of this page, or even glance at the review page.''' The sequel, called ''Into the Light'' (coauthored by Chris Kennedy), was released on January 12th, 2021, after more than a decade in DevelopmentHell. The third installment, ''To Challenge Heaven'' was released on January 16th, 2024.
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15----
16
17!!Tropes in this work:
18
19* AbnormalAmmo: Shongairi mortars use a wide range of ammunition types, which include two different High Explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, smoke rounds, and one that releases some kind of fast-acting neurotoxin.
20* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: InUniverse example. In the second novel, [[spoiler:Vlad explains that the one movie to get close to getting his origins is ''Film/DraculaUntold''. While he doesn't look nearly as attractive as Creator/LukeEvans, the real Vlad and his surviving men did happen upon some cave in the mountains, although they did not meet a monster there. They found a chamber filled with light. Then Vlad lost consciousness. When he woke up, he found nothing of his men but their empty clothes, while he himself was transformed.]]
21* AlasPoorVillain:
22** Ground Base Commander Shairez. She may be responsible for kidnapping humans to develop a plague to wipe us all out, but through most of the book she's shown as an intelligent, curious, hard working, and capable aide who is one of the more likable enemies and often serves to draw out the Admiral's softer side. [[spoiler:In the end, she's tortured for info for several hours by someone who knows a thing or two about torture.]]
23** It's possible to feel ''some'' pity for Thikair in the middle of his VillainousBreakdown at the very end when, after already being worn down and speculating he'd be made to commit suicide, he's left facing a CruelAndUnusualDeath he's confronted with the fact that [[spoiler:His entire command is being wiped out, and that his entire clan, and entire ''species'' will likely follow soon]] as a direct result of his actions.
24* AmbitionIsEvil: The Shongari hope to harvest Earth's scientists and resourses to give them the power to move against the rest of the Hegemony.
25** Averted with Colonel Sanders, who desperately wants to get promoted to general, but only to put a stop to the [[UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken jokes about his name]].
26* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: The Shongairi vehicle operators are very grateful for Human made roads after the prehistoric planets they've gone to before.
27* AlienInvasion: The whole plot of the first book. I mean, just look at the summary.
28* AliensAreBastards: The Shongairi and the Hegemony are condescending about those they see as lesser species and have no compunctions about exploiting them or being complicit to genocide. [[spoiler:In the third novel, though, we learn that the Shongairi aren't as bad as initially thought. In fact, Thikair's actions would never have been sanctioned back home, as they go strictly against their honor code (no slaughtering civilians, no attacking without announcing yourself, etc.).]]
29* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Most galactic civilizations tend to be unified under a single government long before they become space-capable, and tend to focus their military development on spacepower once they get to orbit. However, humans are still fractious even at the level of having an orbital satellite network, and though human technology is necessarily cruder than spacefaring alien tech, in areas of ground and atmospheric combat it is necessarily advanced. Other species simply never had the need for things like heavy armored vehicles or fighter aircraft when such things were easily dispatched with OrbitalBombardment.
30* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Most high ranking Shongairi personnel seem to be able to speak some Human languages such as English thanks to "belt translators", though they do have their own language.
31* AlternativeCalendar: Various chapters provide the date in both the Gregorian and the galactic standard calendar. The epilogue of the first book introduces a third calendar, replacing the Hegemony's calendar with the notation [[spoiler:"Year 1 of the Terran Empire"]].
32* AlternativeNumberSystem: The Shongairi appear to count in base-twelve.
33* AndThisIsFor: When Mircea finally lets Buchevsky have his revenge by [[spoiler:executing Thikair]], he states that this is for his daughters, who were killed in the pre-invasion orbital strikes.
34* ApocalypseHow: The Shongairi start off with a plan to only go up to a Class 2 and enslave the survivors but switch to a Class 3a when the invasion's forces are getting chewed up on the ground. The second novel expands on the aftermath, with isolated pockets of survivors all across the world desperately trying to survive, with the winter coming and little food, shelter, or medicine available, while warlords and criminals use the opportunity to establish their own fiefdoms. The largest stable governments are North Carolina, Saskatchewan, and one of the Brazilian states.
35* ArmorIsUseless: Shongairi troop and vehicle armor is great against primitives with sticks and crossbows. Not so much against combat rifles, tanks, and rocket launchers.
36* ArtificialGravity: Inverted. While the Hegemony races possess countergrav generators that allow their vehicles to hover, their starships still use rotating sections to generate pseudogravity. When human engineers get their hands on Shongairi countergrav generator specs, they are surprised to discover governors that prevent the generators from being used to generate positive gravity either by accident or intentionally.
37* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In the second book, people keep referring to Mexico as a South American country. Except one look at a map will place it firmly in North America. Why they simply didn't call it Latin American is anybody's guess.
38* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: It's a bone-deep part of Shongairi psychology, and (at first) they view humanity's "never say die" mentality as consciously dishonorable; when they realize it's innate to our species, they decide we're clinically insane.
39* AttackItsWeakPoint: The Shongairi hover tanks have no belly armor, leaving it defenseless against anti-tank mines and [=IED=]s.
40* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: When the alien invaders are about to make the human race extinct, someone on Earth finally decides to come out of his self-imposed exile and show them what ''real'' monsters can do.
41* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: [=M3A3=] Bradleys assist the Abrams tanks in Afghanistan in taking down Shongairi armored columns.
42* BadassBoast:
43** Lieutenant Colonel Alastair Sanders gives one to his troops in ''Chapter XV'' (15).
44--->'''Lieutenant Colonel Alastair Sanders:''' All right, people. Let’s get back to our units. But first let me just say I’m proud, damned proud, of all of you and all your people. I always have been, but never more than I am right this minute. I know how every one of you has to be worrying about what’s been going on back home. I’ve been worrying about it, too. But for right now, it’s time for us to go on doing our jobs as well as all of you and all of them always have before. As far as we know, we’re all the United States has left. I hope and pray that’s not the case, but if it is, then we are by God going to give these murderous bastards the frigging boot, and I want our toes so far up their asses the only thing they can taste is made-in-the-U.S.-of-A. shoe leather! I want them to frigging choke on it!
45** Sharon Dvorak in ''Chapter XXX (30)'' explains to her husband Dave that [[MamaBear she will die defending the kids before any of the "floppy eared bastards" come anywhere close to them.]]
46--->'''Sharon Dvorak:''' If those long-eared freaks ever get this close, my kids -- our kids -- are going to be hiding inside that cave, scared out of their minds. Those kids are our lives, Dave. They're our future. Hell, they're our hearts and souls, and you damned well know it! And if anything happens to you, I'll see you in their faces, hear the echo of you in their voices. Nothing is going to take that away from me. Nothing on God’s green earth -- and I don't care how it got here! -- is getting past me to hurt those kids! Don't you worry about what I'm ready for, David Dvorak. Not when our kids are involved!
47* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. By the begining of ''Chapter XXVII'' (27), Thikair notes that Ground Base Commander Shairez appears to have "aged" thanks to the ongoing conflict with the Humans.
48* BenevolentAlienInvasion: Discussed. Both the hostile Shongairi and the humans fighting them both realize that a benevolent invasion would have been a lot more effective than the regular Alien Invasion that triggered the violent, stubborn human resistance that is turning the aliens' occupation into a bloody slog.
49* {{BFG}}: Everything from sweet, sweet Barrett .50 cal rifles to Bushmaster chainguns.
50* BigBlackout: Averted -- for a while. Despite the elimination of major cities, power and internet stay up for a good while before the Shongairi specifically take them out.
51* BigDamnHero: Ukrainian soldier Pieter Ushaklov saves a young girl and her infant brother, who almost got caught in Shongairi motor fire.
52* BittersweetEnding: By the end of the first book, [[spoiler:Humanity has all it needs to strike back at the Shongairi homeworlds and the Hegemony, and to rebuild Earth]] but at the cost of three billion human lives thanks to the pre-landing orbital strikes and an unknown amount lost during the fighting on Earth.
53* BizarreAlienSexes: Sarthians have three sexes: male female, and neutro. Male and female impregnate the neutro with their gametes, which merge to form a zygote in the neutro's body. Unlike the largely male-dominated human societies, the child-bearing neutros tend to be higher on the social and political hierarchy of Sarth, probably since they tend to act as peacekeepers between the more aggressive and emotional males and females. Many national leaders are neutros. There is almost no sexual dimorphism between males and females, except for their plumage coloring and patterns, while neutros tend to be a little smaller and also have a unique plumage pattern. Sarthian families also consist of three partners.
54* BlueAndOrangeMorality: For the Shongairi, refusing to submit to an obvious superior, especially after that superior has demonstrated unquestioned strength, is horrific. They also don't see why humans get pissed when Shongairi eat the corpses of those they killed, including children; to the Shongairi, eating the corpses is the only way to honor them and not let the soul go to waste. Humanity's refusal to back down and fight viciously out of a need to protect their families or to seek vengeance for the deaths of loved ones is utterly alien to the Shongairi.
55** [[spoiler:The third book further expands upon the Shongairi's attitudes, revealing that they possess a CodeOfHonour called Jukaris based on their pack mentality. A conflict with this honor code actually caused the botched invasion of Earth, due to Thikair realizing that, if he openly challenged Earth as the precepts of Jukaris required, humanity would manage to actually beat him on the planet's surface, and he might have to surrender to THEM. As a result, he initiated the orbital bombardment of Earth in a gamble to try and force them to submit without a challenge, and hope no one would ever realize he didn't.]]
56** [[spoiler:In the same book, we also get the Liatu, one of the founding members of the Hegemony, and their own sensibilities, where violence between members of the same species is abhorrent, but pretty much anything leading up to violence, such as "assassinating" a political enemy by stranding them in a desert, or forcibly devolving a native sapient species through a virus, is fair game. They also have a form of communism that, on paper, seems equitable and encourages economic growth while also allowing for everyone to benefit together, but just like human communism, some end up FAR more equal than others.]]
57* BodyLanguage: After arriving to the orbit of Sarth and studying the natives with their spy drones (modified from Shongairi drones to be even stealthier), the human emissaries study the natives' body language and learn that their nonverbal cues for "yes" and "no" are the exact opposite of those common on Earth (i.e. they shake their heads to indicate an affirmative and nod to indicate a negative). After first contact, Sarthians note that humans tend to often start nodding, only to then shake their heads, as if catching themselves.
58* BoringButPractical:
59** You don't need a military grade {{BFG}} to kill Shongairi troops, even hunting and recreational firearms work well against them.
60** When Dave Dvorak gets a good look at the standard Shongairi rifle, he is somewhat confused as to why they aren't using their equivalent of an Eotech sight instead of iron sights. Dave then remembers that Humans have been killing each just fine for centuries with good old fashioned sights.
61* BrainComputerInterface: In the second book, one of the scientists is obsessed with adapting the Shongairi neural educators into this. He sees multiple benefits to being able to control equipment with but a thought. His bosses eventually transfer to him to other projects, although he [[spoiler:tries one last experiment and ends up frying his brain. Which is fine, since he also accidentally [[BrainUploading uploaded himself into his computer]]]].
62* BreakTheHaughty: The Shongairi slowly start to lose morale as they realize that the backwater spear swinging primitives are anything but.
63* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Weapons stockpiles in Romania contained surplus Soviet weapons dating from as far back as UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and are used by the resistance forces in the region.
64* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: The Shongairi eventually start knocking out Human satellites in orbit. Assuming this means the space stations such as the ISS are among them.
65* CallARabbitASmeerp: Shongairi equivalent to rabbits are known as "garishes".
66* CanadaEh: In the second book, Canada is revealed to be one of the nations to suffer least in the Western Hemisphere, alongside the US and Brazil. With Saskatchewan surviving relatively unscathed, it becomes the new seat of government. Canada is the first to accept President Howell's offer of forming the Continental Union.
67* TheCartel: With Mexico City a smoking crater and the federal government in shambles, the drug cartels have taken the opportunity to carve out their own little fiefdoms over what used to be Mexico. Since the US needs a strong ally in the south, they have been sending squads of [[spoiler:vampires]] to take out the cartel leadership in order to re-establish the legitimate government of Mexico.
68* CassandraTruth: After [[spoiler:driving away the Shongairi]], the government of North Carolina sends out a broadcast telling the rest of humanity of what happened, including how it was accomplished. No one believes the latter part, of course. After all, who's going to believe something as ridiculous as [[spoiler:vampires]]?
69* CasualDangerDialog: An F-22 Raptor pilot takes time to criticize the F-35 while shooting down alien dropships.
70* CrazyPrepared: Of course, if there hadn't actually been an AlienInvasion, it just would have been... crazy. On the Hegemony side, all the tech has dozens of layers of redundancy, since it's designed to work for centuries without fail. This means that a [[ArtificialGravity countergrav]] generator could potentially be 80% smaller than what it is now, if they were willing to go down to the expected equipment lifetime of ''only'' 80 years or so.
71* CrazySurvivalist: It's all justified (AlienInvasion, remember), but the menfolk of the mountain cabin have clear plans to put lots of [[{{BFG}} half-inch holes]] in anyone who might threaten their little commune.
72* ClarkesThirdLaw: Brigade Commander Harshair briefly reminisces that the savages from their earlier colonization campaigns were convinced that the Shongairi troops were wizards who could see in pitch black darkness thanks to their night vision tech.
73* CombatPragmatist: Eventually, the Shongairi, realizing that the humans have far too many personal firearms and experience in warfare than they do, start to use their control of Earth's orbitals to their advantage. Any time a Shongairi patrol is wiped out in a partisan ambush, the area is bombarded using a kinetic strike in DisproportionateRetribution to eliminate any survivors. Even with this tactic, the expedition's command staff later authorize kinetic bombardment fire missions to be called in by any of their field commanders.
74* ComicallyMissingThePoint: It only becomes funny during the Shongairi invasion, but the take-away from the original hegemony survey of Earth counts as this. The Barthoni team took away that humans are barbarians from watching a battle from the hundred years war when they should have learned that, even when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, humans will try to find creative solutions to problems before giving up. From the way the invasion was conducted, that simply never occurred to anyone even though everyone had access to the same data.
75* CoolPlane: Several F-22 Raptors shoot down Shongairi drop ships in American territory. During the assault, one of the pilots even bashes another cool plane, the F-35 Lightning II, as he shoots the ships up.
76* CoolVersusAwesome: At the end, the book is essentially about WolfMan aliens with orbital bombardments vs. various modern armies and [[spoiler:''fucking Dracula!'']]
77* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The humans point out that the entire war could have been avoided if the Shongairi hadn't announced their presence with orbital bombardment and instead simply showed up to offer humans "carrots" i.e. gifts of advanced technology. The Shongairi eventually realize it too, but far too late.
78* CripplingOverspecialization: The Shongairi are prepared for two kinds of combat -- kicking the crap out of primitives & space warfare. They are shocked to realize that humanity is far, far more advanced at warfare inside a gravity well; their tech could have done everything we did better, but they just never needed to.
79* CrusadingWidow: Most of the main male characters lose their entire family in the invasion.
80* CurbStompBattle:
81** The Shongairi preemptive cyber attack that completely destroys all human cyber security in mere minutes including the security of the ''Pentagon and CIA databases''. It's even referred to as a "fucking cyber massacre". The second book reveals that they have quantum computers, explaining why it was so easy for them to break our encryption.
82** Then when the Shongairi make their first attempt at landfall, they are destroyed by eight F-22 Raptors attacking unopposed due to the aliens having no doctrine or equipment for aerial combat.
83** Of course now, they are now dealing with human guerrillas and soldiers that refuse to surrender that curbstomp the alien's ground forces repeatedly as they're unused to an enemy that won't quit once their cities have been flattened from orbit.
84** In the third novel, [[spoiler:the space battle over Shongaru results in every Shongairi warship and military base being wiped out by a human MacrossMissileMassacre, with the Shongairi's own weapons failing to so much as scratch the paint on the human vessels]].
85* DeadlyGas: Shongairi mortars are able to fire a round the releases a fast acting neurotoxin.
86* DeathFromAbove: Humans have their aircraft while the Shongairi have Kinetic Weapons.
87* DeathOfAChild: In one [[MoralEventHorizon particular scene]] in ''Chapter XVIII (18)''.
88* DeconstructedTrope: The story deconstructs HumansAreWarriors and HumansAdvanceSwiftly. The Hegemony witnessed the English slaughtering the French at Agincourt and see how fast human tech is progressing compared to "civilized" races and are scared to hell. So they tell their enforcer race that everyone will turn a blind eye if an accident were to happen to us...
89** Weber also goes out of his way to briefly deconstruct GunsAkimbo and [[OnlyAFleshWound shoulder flesh wounds]].
90** MamaBear and PapaWolf also get deconstructed when Buchevsky argues that winter will bring the need to defend against good people with starving children.
91* DefeatMeansFriendship: In the third novel, [[spoiler:Dvorak intends to utterly curb-stomp the Shongairi Home Fleet and capture their orbital habitat in order to satisfy the requirements of Jukaris (the Shongairi honor code) and allow the Shongairi emperor to submit (the emperor privately laments not being able to do it without having to send thousands of his warriors to die first, but his people would never accept the submissions otherwise). After being going to the PUNS ''Relentless'', the emperor is told that humanity doesn't need servants, they need allies, and that's why Dvorak stopped Vlad from wiping out the Shongairi]].
92* DevolutionDevice: After discovering the presence of an Iron Age civilization on Tairyon that advanced far too rapidly for Hegemony's tastes (but nowhere near as fast as humans), the Liatu, one of the founder species, deployed a bioweapon that reduced the intelligence of the Tairyonians to barely above animal level, and the vast majority of them died out, unable to support a population that size through hunting and gathering with primitive tools. The Liatu then moved in and settled the planet, treating the natives as "nuisance animals" (which is their actual name for them).
93* {{Determinator}}: Mankind as a whole to the Shongairi; it turns out that while humans ''do'' possess a submission mechanism, it is subordinated to our instinct to [[PapaWolf protect]] [[MamaBear family]]. It's also pointed out that "family", in this case, can include up to ''entire countries''. [[spoiler:Then Dracula]] extends it to humanity itself, at great cost to the invaders. And, implicitly, the Hegemony and its allies.
94* DepopulationBomb: The Shongairi open up with a bombardment that kills about half of the world's population, and note that starvation and disease will kill many of the survivors. When resistance continues that severely threatens their ability to maintain control, they plan to instead just wash the whole thing by releasing a bioweapon and wiping out all the survivors.
95** The Liatu used their own bioweapon on the Tairyonians that did this indirectly, reducing their intelligence to "somewhere between a golden retriever and a four-year-old" and letting their burgeoning Iron Age civilization collapse as a result. With the natives no longer able to sustain their numbers without their original intellect, the Liatu moved in on the planet once the dust settled. By the time humans arrive around Tairyon, the Tairyonians number only a few million, tend to live in the more arid areas of their planet that the Liatu prefer avoiding, and the Liatu of the planet have a term for them in their language that translates as "nuisance animals".
96* DeusExMachina: Throughout the story, the Shongairi invaders consistently lose ground battles to humans but pulverize the entire area from orbit afterwards. Towards the end they learn enough human tactics to capture a rebel village without resorting to orbital bombardment and develop a bioweapon to destroy what's left of humanity (clearly unaware that we happen to be ''extremely'' well versed in biological warfare). But just as they're about to deploy the virus [[spoiler:the leader of the village they captured to experiment on turns out to be freakin' Dracula and he and a handful of newly-spawned vampires single-handedly wipe out the entire invasion force]]. Hints that [[spoiler:Dracula]] was present were scattered throughout the book, but were relatively subtle, and the reader is expecting a hard sci-fi war novel, and not [[spoiler:fantasy elements to creep in and sucker punch them. Granted, the subsequent books revealed that [[OurVampiresAreDifferent there's a very good sci-fi explanation as to how these vampires work]].]].
97* DieHardOnAnX: Up until the {{TwistEnding}}, it's basically ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' in the twenty-first century, with the political and technological issues adjusted accordingly.
98* DisasterScavengers: Alluded to and prepared against, but not actually seen. Humanity holds together pretty well rather than turning on each other for the most part. There are some mentions made of characters being attacked by other, desperate scavengers, and a couple of groups of National Guardsmen attempt to become local warlords and meet suitably bad ends. Then again, the plot doesn't last until winter, when people will get desperate, though what may happen then ''is'' discussed.
99* DisproportionateRetribution: The Shongairi retaliate for a group of tanks wiping out one of their ground convoys with an orbital kinetic strike that not only destroys the human tanks but also the nearby city. This eventually becomes standard practice as a reprisal against any ambushed patrol, and even near the end of the first novel, any Shongairi field officer can start requesting kinetic strike fire missions if they deem it necessary.
100* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Fleet Commander Thikair hijacks Humanity's TV and Internet to demand Earth's surrender after the kinetic bombardment.
101* DoNotGoGentle: Around halfway through the novel, most Humans decide that if they can't beat their orbital firepower, then they will kill as many as they can on the ground.
102* DoingInTheWizard: [[spoiler:Vampires turn out to be more like ''[[Series/StargateSG1 Stargate]]''[='s=] Replicators. Their bodies are composed of advanced nanobots that make them invulnerable to most things and allow them to "disassociate" into gas form that can levitate. It's also why they don't require any sustenance beyond electromagnetic radiation. The scientists studying them state that this is way beyond what the Shongairi have and may also be beyond what the Hegemony has.]]
103* TheDreadedDreadnought: Shongairi dreadnoughts are powerful warships, capable of bombarding the surface of a planet with projectiles. They're also armed with missiles and lasers, although the latter are mainly used for close-range engagements and to shoot down missiles. [[spoiler:Human-designed dreadnoughts in the second novel are significantly larger and more powerful.]]
104* DropShip: The first ones sent to Earth were destroyed by USAF F-22 Raptors and a French antiaircraft battery took out three more. They're stated to be the size of missile cruisers but are utterly lacking in anything that would protect them in case of an attack. Even their radar is incapable of picking up human stealth fighters or detecting a missile lock. Apparently, they have [[ArtificialGravity antigravity]] drives, but tend to use the boring old aerodynamic wings, as antigravity is too power-hungry.
105* {{Eagleland}}: Type 1. America is awesome, and the aliens recognize the US as one of their biggest threats.
106* EarthIsABattlefield: Earth first has every single military base struck with a kinetic projectile, followed by every single political capital of every nation. And that's just the opening salvo that is the PRELUDE to the invasion.
107* EarthShatteringKaboom: Thikair eventually just decides to [[spoiler:blast Earth to asteroids.]] Later, [[spoiler:Vlad threatens to do this to the Shongairi worlds in turn using dreadnought weapons.]]
108* TheEmpire:
109** The Shongairi Empire.
110** [[spoiler:Year one of the Terran (aka Human) Empire begins after the defeat of the Shongairi.]]
111* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Humanity is so screwed. [[spoiler:Until Dracula decides it's the Shongairi's turn.]]
112* EnemyMine: An American Major and a Muslim extremist working hand in hand, with little rancor.
113* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Subverted. The Shongairi war technology is drastically inferior to Human tech. The real problem is their orbital firepower.
114* EnemyMine: According to the blurb for the as-yet unreleased third novel, [[spoiler:the humans are going to try turning the Shongairi into allies against the Founders, but first that requires crushing their planetary defenses in order to satisfy their honor code]].
115* EnergyWeapon: The Shongairi "tank's" main armament is a laser emitter rather than say a 120mm cannon. These are very powerful and can tear through our armor easily, but is weakened by Earth's atmosphere and can't go through depleted uranium-augmented [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobham_armour Chobham armor]], but it ''can'' go through Ferdinand armor.
116* ETGaveUsWiFi: Discussed. When the Shongairi arrive at modern day Earth, they are confused as to how we have advanced so fast, they speculate that perhaps that one of their recon drones crashed and gave the Humans a head start on the technological game.
117* EverythingIsOnline:
118** We youtubed shooting down alien dropships!
119** Fleet Commander Thikair broadcasted to all of Humanity online to announce the invasion.
120** Also one of the primary advantages of humanity, allowing us to coordinate strikes and keep up morale.
121* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: In the second book, following the DividedStatesOfAmerica, the state government of North Carolina consolidates power in the surviving enclaves in the US under Governor Judson Howell. Since the entire presidential line of succession is gone, Howell is appointed the new president. The trope is zigzagged, though, as Howell's plan is to create a new supranational governing body, first over the Americas, and then across the entire world. Being American himself, he wants the new Continental Union of the Americas to be a federal government like the US, with individual countries retaining their autonomy where it doesn't interfere with the established CU constitution and the laws passed by the CU congress. The congress is to be bicameral, mirroring the US Congress, except senators will be appointed by the countries' legislatures instead of elected by the people (the way it was for the US originally). There will be an Electoral College to ensure that countries with the larger populations don't dominate presidential elections. While the US isn't going anywhere, it will now be a part of this supranational body, equal to any other. The first member nations are the US, Canada, and Brazil (the latter is necessary to convince the rest of the world that this isn't going to be dominated by English-speaking nations). In the second part of the book, set [[TimeSkip 15 years later]], it's mentioned that the Continental Union only existed for 5 years until the first nations from other continents began to join, at which point it was reformed into the [[OneWorldOrder Planetary Union of Earth]].
122* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The Earth delegation to Sarth wants an opinion on a discussion between one of their own diplomatic attaches and Myrcal, the Qwernian Foreign Minister, from a native Sarthian. [[spoiler:It is there that they discover that the Qwernian word for "councilor", which the humans have been using as a title for their junior diplomatic attaches, also means "deputy". Myrcal has been under the assumption that Arthur [=McCabe=], a junior member of the delegation, is their Ambassador's immediate subordinate, due to this mistranslation. And the members of the Earth delegation begin to wonder what else Myrcal has incorrectly assumed about the humans, and how that might be shaping Qwernian foreign policy...]]
123* ExplosiveBreeder: Humans, compared to most other races at this stage of development. The Shongairi are shocked to discover that Earth is home to 7 billion people, whereas the next closest example is only half a billion.
124* EyeScream: Squad Commander Gunshail is killed by a .308 Winchester round to the left eye.
125* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Human militaries outmatch the Shongairi, but cannot defeat them thanks to the Kinetic weapons on the Shongairi's side.
126** [[spoiler: Both the Shongairi and Liatu navies face the same when they [[CurbStompBattle come up against the highly upgraded human space navy]].]]
127* FalseFlagOperation: The aliens use Iran as a cover when hacking world military installations right before the invasion.
128* FantasticRacism:
129** Within the Hegemony, between carnivores and herbivores/omnivores.
130** The Shongairi have nothing but contempt for humanity as well, at least at first.
131** [[spoiler:The revelation of the vampires makes a lot of mankind...''uncomfortable''.]]
132** The entire Hegemony, but the Liatu in particular as the only Founding Race that humanity has had knowing contact with, appear to view less technologically sapient species as lesser. Their "Improper Use of Planetary Resources" is the justification used for displacing, enslaving, genetically modifying and/or outright exterminating planetary natives who can't match their technology.
133** In the case of the Tairyonians, [[StupidityInducingAttack who were stripped of their intelligence during the invasion]], Howell literally equates the Liatu's views to those of the Nazis.
134* FantasticShipPrefix: The Planetary Union Navy uses PUNS for its spaceships, which presumably stands for "Planetary Union Navy Ship".
135* FantasticSlurs:
136** The Shongairi use "weed-eater" as an epithet for the herbivorous members of the Hegemony
137** Humanity calls the Shongairi "puppies."
138** The Liatu call the Tairyonians, the native sapient species of a planet they invaded, "Nuisance Animals".
139* FasterThanLightTravel: The Hegemony has phase drives that allow them to travel several times the speed of light. This requires the use of {{Sleeper Starship}}s in order to get anywhere meaningful, since trips routinely take decades or even centuries. [[spoiler:In the second novel, human scientists have managed to improve on the tech and increase the speed by 50%.]]
140* FirstContact: Humanity's first contact with alien life is the Shongairi launching kinetic energy weapons and wiping out half of the world's population, including most major cities, military bases, and naval vessels. Only later do the Shongairi announce themselves to the survivors and demand surrender. A more proper first contact happens in the second book, when the PUNS ''Outlook'' reaches Sarth orbiting 61 Cygni A (roughly 11.4 light years from Earth). After a period of covert observation, Dave Dvorak sends out a radio broadcast across the planet announcing humanity's arrival and offering to meet all the world leaders (or their representatives) at a UN-like building the Sarthians call the Nonagon.
141* FridgeLogic: The aliens think humanity deserves to be mass-murdered and enslaved or just outright exterminated because humans fight each other (even if the fighting was tiny compared to the species size) and the only reason we have militaries to resist theirs is due to our in-fighting. So...what does that say about the aliens since they ''have militaries, too''?
142* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: [[spoiler:Vlad is ''trying'' to be one of these, but the Shongairi are ''pushing'' him. He deliberately makes Stephen a vampire in order to be one of these and his MoralityPet.]]
143* GalacticConqueror: The Shongairi had already conquered two planets before arriving on Earth.
144* GameBreakingInjury: Dave Dvorak, after taking a round to the shoulder, is forced to sit on the sidelines and take care of intel.
145* GenocideBackfire: The Shongairi invaded Earth, wiped out half the population, and eventually tried to kill the rest. Then we [[spoiler:jacked their neural educators and industrial ships]], and noted that [[spoiler:their extremely slow FTL means mankind has centuries before anyone even realizes they haven't reported in.]] The novel ends with [[spoiler:mankind prepping to turn the warships and weaponry back toward the Hegemony that condemned them in the first place.]]
146* GenreShift: The genre shift doesn't take place until near the end of ''Out of the Dark'', resulting in a cry of TwistEnding or DeusExMachina. The issue is that the novel's expansion of the short story is entirely before the twist, resulting in 90% being in the genre of hard sci-fi alien invasion. The last 10%, however, involves [[spoiler:Dracula]].
147* GlassCannon: Shongairi ground vehicles are very well armed, with lasers that punch through modern tank armor like paper and advanced and powerful mortars. However, their ''armor'' is only rated to fight crossbows and catapults, so human anti-armor weapons go through theirs like paper too. Subverted in that they are later revealed to have designs for better hardware, but it took them a while to get their production facilities up and running.
148* GodzillaThreshold: Thikar eventually concedes the use of [[spoiler:genocidal bioweapons]] as the only option against a planet full of humans who refuse to submit, and are rapidly depleting the invader's reserves.
149* GoneHorriblyRight: Thikar planned the Shonghairi invasion to take place immediately after an extensive covert intelligence gathering campaign, followed by the simultaneous [[OrbitalBombardment kinetic bombardment]] of every major military base and government center on record. The idea was to cripple humanity's ability to fight back in a massive opening salvo with minimal infrastructural damage outside of that, forcing them to surrender. However, as the targets included the major administrative organizations that might negotiate surrender, no one was left to tell their forces and civilians to ''stand down'', leading to partisan actions, reprisal strikes, more partisan actions, and a protracted quagmire for the Shonghairi.
150** There are some implications that parts of the Hegemony might have picked up from the scouting report that humans could be actually dangerous (and not just ''potentially'' dangerous if allowed to develop), and set the Shonghairi on Earth in the expectation that the Shonghairi might expend more resources than gained. They did, alright. [[spoiler: To the point that the novel ends with the year noted as Year 1 of the Terran Empire.]]
151*** Furthermore, one of the reasons Fleet Commander Thikair chose to act the way he did was to try and harness humanity's rapid technological progression so the Shongairi Empire can gain an edge over the rest of the Hegemony. [[spoiler:By the end of the third book, the Shongairi Empire begins to do exactly that...as equal partners with humanity in a growing interstellar alliance.]]
152* GoodGunsBadGuns: Averted. Old Soviet hardware is lovingly appreciated by the resistance in Romania.
153* GreaterScopeVillain: The four Hegemony founder species appear to be this to the Shongairi.
154* GreenAesop: A minor example. Apparently, the Shongairi value prime grazing lands as food for their food animals. So they do their best to avoid polluting the environment. When they saw that humanity was still heavily using fossil fuels despite developing nuclear power, they're shocked. It may have contributed to Thikair's decision to [[spoiler:attempt genocide of humanity]].
155* GunsAkimbo: Rob Wilson does this out of desperation when Shongairi soldiers are closing in on him and an injured Dave. The concept is even deconstructed during the same scene.
156--> Over the years, Rob Wilson had instructed more Marines and cops than he could count in the proper use of handguns, and he’d always made a point of depressing the pretensions of any would-be two-gun pistoleros who crossed his path. That kind of fancy shit looked good in movies, he’d told them cuttingly. Of course, in that case both the writers and the director were on the side of the hero as he [[RuleOfCool unerringly picked off individual targets with each hand while simultaneously hurling his body in a graceful, headfirst, slow-motion, midair roll of a leap through a solid hail of automatic fire.]] In real life, the hurlee would almost certainly end up shredded and dead, he’d pointed out. And even if the idiot survived—miracles did occasionally happen, after all, and he’d been told God sometimes took pity on lunatics, drunks, and fools—all he’d really achieve was to totally waste the ammunition from both of the guns in question. Even standing still he’d waste most of his shots because the human brain had this odd little quirk: it found it quite difficult to focus on two separate sight pictures simultaneously.
157* HiddenAgendaVillain: Fleet Commander Thikair realizes that humanity's inventiveness could be used to bootstrap the Shongairi's reverse-engineering processes to give them a technological edge over the Hegemony, which sees them as a potential problem, but a useful proxy to deal with any ambitious junior members. [[spoiler:By the end of the third book, the Shongairi, indeed, begin to benefit from human inventiveness, but not at all in the way Thikair intended.]]
158* HigherTechSpecies: The Shongairi technology is ''very'' carefully calibrated to be just advanced enough to avert a CurbStompBattle—and permit [[HumansAreWarriors humanity to show what determined and gallant warriors we are]]—while still ensuring the eventual outcome will not be in our favor, necessitating the DeusExMachina in the TwistEnding. Also, due to a quirk of human psychology, we're the only species that has ever reached our current tech level without world peace and thus invented things like modern stealth fighters. The Shongairi are far higher tech, but are just kitted out for the wrong war and could dominate us if they weren't. They still hold the top of the gravity well and have better bioweapons and cyber-warfare tech.
159* HitAndRunTactics: Human Tank battalions rely on such tactics due to having to get the hell out of Dodge before Shongairi Kinetic weapons get a lock on them.
160* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
161** [[spoiler:Neural education gives humanity what it needs to commandeer Shongairi capital and construction ships and begin the GenocideBackfire.]]
162** The puppies fail to realize that wiping out all of Earth's capitals leaves no one to tell their military and civilians to stand down, not understanding that we wouldn't find it self-evident. The Shongairi also failed to realize that revealing their presence by bombing the hell out of mankind and demanding surrender without offering any sort of incentive to surrender (beyond "we'll bomb you more") was likely to result in a lot of mankind just getting pissed.
163** Leaving the internet in place to demand surrender lets humanity use it to rally and boost their morale, until the bad guys decide it's too much trouble.
164** Eventually starts happening to humans. The Shongairi, paying attention to human tactics, start to wise up and allow regimental commanders more flexibility in calling in air and orbital support. Eventually they start using human grenade and rocket launchers to supplement their infantry weapons. One even notes that when it's all over, the Shongairi will have learned a lot from humanity. [[spoiler:He's right, but not entirely in the way he thinks.]]
165*** Not quite an example, though, as humanity has counters to such things and counters to our tactics and strategies and counters to those. If anything, playing war our way just makes it easier for us to fight you.
166* HonorBeforeReason: The Shongairi follow a strict honor code called "Jukaris" that has been compared to bushido. After studying it extensively, Dave comes to the conclusion that [[spoiler:Thikair acted of his own volition, and his actions would likely be seen by most Shongairi as dishonorable (by attacking without announcing himself or allowing humans the chance to fight back; also by killing women and children rather than warriors). That is why he rushes the newly-built fleet to the Shong System in order to beat Vlad there and stop him from laying waste to the Shongairi homeworld. His goal is instead to force the Shongairi to submit to Earth (as is normal for a Shongairi "beta" to submit to a stronger "alpha") and become their allies in the coming war against the Hegemony. The Shongairi emperor laments the necessity of sending his warriors to die in a hopeless battle against the humans instead of simply ordering them to stand down and surrender, but Jukaris is clear on what has to be done]].
167* HopeSpot: Senior Squad Commander Laifayr has when when Dave's .50 Cal Barret rifle stops firing since it is out of ammo.
168* HopelessWar: Though mankind fights tenaciously and wins small victories, it ultimately has no way of defending itself from an enemy that controls the orbitals. It's hopeless for humanity, until the TwistEnding.
169* HoverTank: The Shongairi tanks are able to hover, but this just leaves its unarmored bottom side exposed. Their ground transports are still wheeled, though, as hover tech is expensive.
170* HumanityOnTrial: Offstage, but it does happen, and we're given the death penalty.
171* HumanityIsInsane: The puppies' horrified conclusion.
172* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: We've advanced three times faster than the fastest known race (which advanced twice as fast as the next best), and no one can figure out why such a warlike species hasn't blown itself up yet. The Shongairi actually intended to take advantage of this, putting humans to work in their R&D labs as well as using them as shock troops. [[spoiler:Then we hijack the Shongairi's neural educators, and the end of the novel implies we're getting prepped to eventually return the favor.]]
173** The second book expands on this and proposes several explanations for why that's the case. For one, the Hegemony is dominated by herbivore species, whose mindset was that technology should help protect them from predators instead of finding better ways to hunt prey. This means that after a certain point, there's really no need to advance at a breakneck pace. This mindset seems to propagate even to omnivores and carnivores in the Hegemony, since they're in the minority. Additionally, pretty much all races in the Hegemony have a PostScarcityEconomy, limitless energy, and [[WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture perfect health]] that allows them to live for centuries. All those factors result in them designing technology to last for a ''long'' time and viewing change in a negative light. As a consequence, they're not used to having to repair broken stuff as much as we are. And when things don't break, there's no need to innovate. Humans of the 21st century are used to the mentality of "next year's model will be better" and planned obsolescence. The Hegemony races have no such views. The galactic culture's advancement curve has plateaued around 150,000-100,000 years ago. In contrast, humanity's curve continues to rise. When engineers and scientists get their hands on some specs of Shongairi tech, they're shocked at how overengineered everything is (to the point of having a piece of equipment be 5 times larger than it has to be due to all the redundancy). The engineers' immediate reaction is to scale back on the redundancy to something that is still acceptable by human standards (but would be unforgivably risky to the aliens) to miniaturize the components. And some applications of tech are either absent (any form of AI) or are deliberately suppressed (artificial gravity on ships).
174** The third book reveals that humanity isn't the first rapidly-advancing species the Hegemony has ''suppressed''. The Tairyonians were also omnivores (but with a strong carnivorous streak), and their rate of development, while not nearly as fast as that of humans, was seen as scary to the Hegemony, so the Liatu released a bioweapon that reduced their intelligence to "somewhere between a Labrador retriever and a four-year-old" and then sat back and watched most of them die out. The survivors live a primitive existence as Liatu subjects. [[spoiler:Humans intend to kick the Liatu out and repair the genetic damage to the Tairyonians, while uplifting them technologically and culturally in order to recruit them as allies.]]
175* HumansAreMorons: The Shongairi are initially convinced of this, based on "idiotic tactics" from Agincourt, and a further convinced of it once they understand the current situation. For example, they believe that the refusal of First World powers to use nuclear or biological weapons against their enemies in the Middle East is idiotic (specifically citing the US's tolerance of Iran's actions) and the presence of a public information network like the Internet, allowing free, ready access to vast stores of information, is considered completely insane.
176** The whole reason the aliens want to kill us is because they believe we're mindlessly violent and would lash out uncontrolled against other species. The Shongairi think we're stupid for not using weapons of mass destruction against the population of the Middle East to kill off the terrorists, regardless of the ecological damage and the countless innocents who would die horribly.
177* HumanityIsInsane: Humanity is the only race that doesn't have the instinct to surrender permanently when beaten by a superior force, since we're far more individual and family oriented than the pack and herd oriented aliens. Guerrilla warfare, passive resistance, and sabotage are utterly foreign to our would-be conquerors because a Shongairi confronted with an obvious superior will automatically submit; the notion of resisting against the "pack leader" in anything other than an obvious show of force intended to seize control of the pack is considered vile and dishonorable.
178** They will soon learn that humanity isn't likely to accept their surrender when we exterminate them right back. The Hegemony will then learn that we hold those who ordered our extermination as even more guilty than those who attempted to carry it out.
179%%* HumansAreSurvivors
180* HumansAreWarriors: This novel has strong, pervasive themes of "HUMANITY, FUCK YEAH!"
181* HumansThroughAlienEyes: Generally, the alien perception of humanity is that we're [[HumanityIsInsane insane]] or [[HumansAreMorons idiots.]]
182* {{Hypocrite}}s: The Hegemony, who consider themselves peaceful enlightened folk and regret allowing the aggressive Shongairi into the fold as required by their laws, decide to sweep humanity under the rug (by literally throwing us to the wolves) rather than having to let us join someday. The Shongairi repeatedly {{lampshade}} this in contempt.
183* IComeInPeace: Dave Dvorak uses that in his greeting when making first contact with the Sarthians.
184* ItsAllMyFault: Stephen Buchevsky blames himself for the villagers he was protecting getting killed or captured. Mircea helps convince him that it isn't.
185* ImprovisedWeapon: From [=IED=]s to homemade Claymore mines.
186* ImmuneToBullets: Shoot [[spoiler:the vampires]] as much as you like, it won't do anything.
187* InsaneTrollLogic: How Foreign Minister Myrcal of the Qwernian Empire acts in the last third of ''Into The Light''. Ou is so fixated on victory over the Republic of Dianto that ou regularly makes rookie diplomatic blunders just to gain a perceived advantage. Some select actions include using choice passages from the Earth Ambassador's speech proclaiming that no Sarthian nation will get preferential treatment to suggest the Earth delegation is making a secret deal with Dianto, exposing several key intelligence assets for minimal returns, and plotting to hold human diplomats hostage to force the Earth delegation to submit to their demands based on rather flimsy evidence even ous immediate subordinates are questioning. Unfortunately, ou also manages to maneuver ouself into beoming the second-in-command of the Qwernian Empire, and serves as the primary antagonist of the latter part of the book.
188* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Orbital bombardment is just about the only thing the Shongairi have going for them (though to be fair, RocksFallEveryoneDies ''is'' [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer pretty effective]]). Their ground forces don't have any experience going up against anything more advanced than crossbows, and it really shows in their tactics and equipment. They do eventually start uparmoring their equipment and adjusting their tactics, and their actual heavy and support weapons are quite effective; the humans note that the puppies' mortars in particular are very deadly and have a wide variety of ammunition types.
189* {{Infodump}}: Several chapters are devoted solely to outline politics on Earth or within the Hegemony that led to the current situation. One chapter is mostly devoted to excessively detailing survivalist preparations, and there are some entirely irrelevant infodumps (e.g. the one regarding Iranian politics or several pages devoted to an F-22 pilot bashing the F-35 while in the middle of attacking alien landing ships).
190* IntelligentGerbil: The two alien species described in the first novel resemble dogs and cattle.
191* InvadedStatesOfAmerica: Shongairi forces eventually land in America and they get all sorts of hell from the US Military and Partisan fighters.
192* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Happens off camera to some captured Shongairi {{Mooks}} and [[spoiler:Ground Base Commander Shairez]].
193* JustFollowingOrders: On the Shongairi side we have Ground Base Commander Shairez, who is often portrayed as the more likable Shongairi, whose only concern is to just follow her orders and get the job done along with not seem to having a severe hatred for the Humans.
194* KarmicJackpot: Governor Howell, the Governor of North Carolina [[spoiler:who acted as TheMole to the Shongairi and had all National Guardsmen and law enforcement covertly assist the rebel forces in his state. Because of his actions, which saved many lives, he seems to be well on his way to becoming President of the USA and the nation's capitol will be moved to Raleigh.]]
195* KillAllHumans: The Shongairi plan to kill most humans and enslave the rest turns into this thanks to one asskicking after another.
196* KillSat: The Shongairi use their kinetic weapons to try to pound Earth into submission.
197* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter:
198** Dropping a MeteorOfDoom is a cheap way to soften up a future colony. Plus, the Shongairi have effective energy weapons on their heavy assault vehicles, but mostly rely on mediocre conventional firearms. Human firearms and artillery become the stuff of nightmares for them.
199** In the second novel, the humans decide to go with [[MagneticWeapons railguns]] instead of energy weapons, since railguns pack a lot more of a punch and are very good at penetrating armor. For tanks they particularly prefer discarding sabot rounds for better penetration. As for handheld rail weapons, they pretty much pulverize any flesh they encounter and can easily go through three or four people.
200* LadyLand: The Liatu are a matriarchy with women holding nearly all positions of power. There may be an occasional man as a high-ranking advisor, but women are still at the top. The only exception is the military that consists entirely of men, but even they obey their female leaders without question.
201* LastStand:
202** All of Humanity is pulling this since they have no way to stop the Shongairi kinetic weapons.
203** Stephen Buchevsky and a small band of rebels pulls one so that the refugee village can evacuate.
204* LaResistance: Partisans operate all around the world, and prove to be a major thorn in the Shongairi's side.
205* LeaveNoSurvivors:
206** When Shongairi soldiers attempt to surrender, Stephen Buchevsky again sees the children they have killed, he is reminded of his own killed daughters and has them all executed.
207** Eventually, the Shongairi just decide to kill all humans from orbit. [[spoiler:Dracula ain't going to allow it]].
208** In the second book, [[spoiler:this is Vlad's intention for all the Shongairi in the galaxy. It takes Stephen decades to convince him to spare some of them. And that's just on their homeworld. Their colonies will be wiped out completely. Vlad's amended plan is to obliterate all their space assets, including off-world colonies in the system, and to bomb them back into the stone age, making sure to destroy any and all industry and about 2/3 of the population]]. Based on the ending to the second novel and the blurb to the third novel, [[spoiler:Dvorak intends to instead turn the Shogairi into allies against the Founders of the Hegemony, although this will still necessitate the obliteration of their planetary defenses to satisfy Shongairi honor code]].
209* LetsGetDangerous:
210** The poor Shongairi did ''not'' expect backwater omnivores to pack armor-piercing, antipersonnel ammo, IED expertise, or the F-22, the M1 Abrams, or the T-72.
211** In the second novel, the Qwernian Empire on Sarth get a dose of this after [[spoiler:they capture a number of human diplomats in order to hold them hostage and force humans to deal with them exclusively. Humans instead mount a full-scale assault on their capital city and easily storm their palace without a single human casualty]].
212* LightIsNotGood: The Galactic Hegemony presents itself as the bastion of galactic civilization, keeping everything orderly and peaceful amidst hostile darkness around them. They do this by forcing all members to stay in a technological stasis, punishing any members who stray away from their precepts with extinction or forced de-evolution, and using the junior members to jockey amongst one another in endless political games lasting millennia and deal with potential threats to the senior members, the Founders.
213* LightspeedLeapfrog: [[spoiler:Vlad and the vampires]] spend all of the second novel flying to the Shongairi homeworld at roughly 6 times the speed of light, taking them about 40 years. Just as they're preparing to repay the Shongairi for their attack on Earth, they detect a massive spindle-shaped vessel gaining on them at an unbelievable acceleration. [[spoiler:Then Dave Dvorak contacts Vlad from his brand-new ship that has left Earth 6 years ago and has actually beaten them there by a month. And she's not alone -- there's a fleet of nineteen ships, ranging from transport and supply ships to enormous superdreadnoughts. And then we find out that the fleet sent to Tairyon a few years after Dvorak's departure is even faster and more powerful (Dvorak knew that there was going to be another breakthrough in FTL tech, but he had to arrive before Vlad did).]]
214* LikeASonToMe: Pieter Ushaklov comes to view Zinaida, the girl he saved from Shongairi mortar fire, as his daughter.
215* MacrossMissileMassacre: In the third novel, [[spoiler:each ''Relentless''-class superdreadnought has 2700 missile launchers and can bring two-thirds of them on any firing arc. If every one of those missiles has a Mjölnir bomb-pumped laser warhead, that can potentially mean over 27,000 lasers delivered at point-blank range on a target. And Dave brought four of these superdreadnoughts to the Shong System. During the battle over Shongaru, the opening salvo of the human superdreadnoughts and heavy cruisers consists of 8100 missiles (although only a third of them are actual ship-killers, the rest being penetration aids, decoy generators, and jammers). By the time the first missiles engage their targets, 6 more salvos have been launched. It's stated that a superdreadnought is capable of putting 21 salvos into space before running out of missiles]].
216* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident:
217** One of the Hegemony's more pragmatic founding races basically tells the Shongairi that they'll look the other way if humanity doesn't happen to make it through this.
218** Later, when the Shongairi decide we're too dangerous to use as slaves, they plan to make the release of their bioweapon look like an accident to deflect political fallout.
219* MeaningfulName: Mircea Basarab. See GeniusBonus on the YMMV page.
220* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:After capturing the Shongairi ships, Vlad renames the flagship ''Star of Empire'' to ''Târgoviște'', his former capital city.]]
221* MixAndMatchCritters: On a previous planet they colonized, the Shongairi's bases were attacked by "cat-apes".
222* TheMole: [[spoiler:Governor Howell]] appears to be working with the Shongairi to make everything go smoothly. The puppies never even suspect the truth that he is undermining them at every turn.
223* MolotovCocktail: Molotovs become standard for resistance fighters, and are easily able to land inside alien vehicles through the infantry firing ports.
224* MookHorrorShow: The book is full of [=POV=]s of Shongairi soldiers [[VillainousBreakdown freaking out]] as their comrades are slaughtered by human weaponry [[spoiler:and vampires]].
225* MoralityPet: Stephen becomes this for Mircea.
226* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Also Mother Afghanistan, Mother Ukraine, Mother Romania, and even Mother North Carolina... Weber really makes an effort to show that he views Earth as a WorldOfBadass.
227* NeckSnap: How [[spoiler:Ground Base Commander Shairez]] is put out of her misery.
228* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: The Shongairi come off as [[InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien insufficiently advanced]] because their entire war doctrine revolves around conquering pre-industrial races. Guess what happens when troops trained and equipped to curb-stomp natives with pointy sticks comes up against modern military hardware?
229* NextSundayAD: We are never given an actual year, but we do get some subtle hints such as America having a female president.
230* NicknamingTheEnemy: English-speakers tend to call the Shongairi "puppies" due to their canine-like appearance.
231* NoPartyGiven: What party the Premier of Saskatchewan belongs to isn't specified, even though the Leader of the Opposition is identified as belonging to the New Democratic Party.
232* NothingIsScarier: The Shongairi, [[spoiler:when the vampires attack]], find the silence more disturbing than facing the destruction humans can cause in direct combat.
233* NotSoDifferentRemark: Mircea to Stephen in ''Chapter XXVIII (28)''.
234-->'''Mircea Basarab:''' It is just that we are so much alike, you and I. Deny it as you will, my Stephen, but there is a Slav inside you!
235* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Enforced thanks to the Shongairi keeping a close eye on our missile silos and nuclear subs.
236** The Shongairi keeping an eye on our nuclear capability means nothing as if they had the power to get rid of it, they would have done so ASAP and if you shoot everything at once, it doesn't matter if they manage to destroy the silos and subs (which they aren't necessarily capable of doing anyway).
237** This doesn't stop the radical factions in India and Pakistan from taking the opportunity to settle old scores by nuking one another after their population centers are wiped out by the Shongairi. In the aftermath, the angry Shongairi proceed to launch another salvo of rocks at the Indian subcontinent, further devastating it.
238* NumberedHomeworld: The Hegemony designated Earth "KU-197-20".
239* ObstructiveBureaucracy: The Hegemony. It takes them ''600 years'' to go from deciding humanity is a threat to finally sending the Shongairi after us. The Shongairi are aware they can probably get away with subjugating or wiping out a Class Two civilization because it'll take at least a couple of centuries for the Hegemony to check up on them; more if they stall for time. Justified because Hegemony FTL isn't that much faster than light and their first contact teams are most made up of a race specifically known for adherence to procedure.
240* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Decapitation is the only way to kill a Vampire. That being said, good luck managing that if you're not a vampire yourself.]]
241* OhCrap:
242** Thikair has one when Ground Base Commander Shairez informs him that Humans have no submission mentality.
243** Dave Dvorak has one when he realizes that a Shongairi patrol will encounter him and his small resistance group during a supply run.
244* OhMyGods: The Shongairi use names such as "Cainharn" and "Dainthar" in this fashion.
245* OnceMoreWithClarity: The start of the second half of the third book begins with the Liatu military garrison of the colony world of Tairyon driving away the "nuisance animals", the local semi-sentient pest of their planet, in a fairly surgical operation, showing more concern for their own ground troops than the creatures they are herding with sirens, flashbangs, and gunfire. The Liatu characters joke amongst each other and approach the operation with a routine detachment. The next chapter reveals that a human expedition has been watching the feed from near the planet, and they note the "nuisance animals", the native Tairyonians, resemble gorillas or early hominids, and several of the events from the previous chapter play out, but this time emphasizing the Tairyonians' perspective and the abject terror they are experiencing from being driven in a stampede.
246* OneWorldOrder:
247** The Shongairi are confused that humanity managed to get to our current level of advancement without becoming this. [[spoiler:It's starting to shape up in the sequel, as the governor of North Carolina seeks to unite all the human survivors under a single federal government modeled after the US (bicameral legislature, state-appointed senators, electoral college, etc.) in order to rebuild Earth and prepare for round 2 against the Hegemony in a few decades' time. By year 15 after the invasion, the Planetary Union of Earth consists of most of the nations, including the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Spain, both Italies (it split into Padania and Sicily), Portugal, Romania, India, and South Africa. Switzerland is on the fence, trying to lobby for "associated status", although President Howell makes it clear that it's either in or out, no middle ground. Pakistan has become a hotbed of radical Islam and steadfastly refuses to join, as the Planetary Union constitution includes clauses for fundamental human rights, which the Pakistani leaders are vehemently against.]]
248** Averted with the Sarthians, who are at about the 1930s-1940s level of technology. They still have plenty of nation-states, but the two dominant ones are the Republic of Dianto and the Qwernian Empire. The others tend to be members of one of the two blocs. The humans compare them to Athens and Sparta of Ancient Greece. The Dianteans are a lot more like the humans in terms of their politics and values. They revere the rule of law. They are an island nation with a powerful navy. The Qwernians, meanwhile, have a strong warrior tradition and scoff at laws, preferring custom and tradition over the written word. They have a powerful army and control lots of natural resources, but their navy is lacking. The humans are adamant that they wish for the Sarthians to establish some kind of supranational governing body in order to help distribute the human technology equally.
249* OnlyAFleshWound: The concept of shoulder flesh wounds commonly seen in media is deconstructed in ''Chapter XXXIII'' (33).
250* OurVampiresAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Instant intangibility/gaseous form, invulnerability to conventional weapons, undetectable to thermal or night vision, no need to breathe, and no vulnerability to holy items. Although the second book reveals that they're actually robotic beings composed of nanobots. Presumably, when a person is exposed to nanobots by drinking a vampire's "blood", they start to quickly replace their organs and cells with more of themselves until there's nothing of the original biology left. Furthermore, the supposed weakness to the sun is due to their systems being overloaded by light on the ultraviolet spectrum, which they appear to be able to process like photosynthesize in plants, but Dracula found out that he could develop a gradual resistance over years to this weakness, and spends the first book walking in broad daylight like a normal human.]]
251* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Of the President Minority variety as POTUS is female in this story.
252* OutsideGenreFoe: Both sides are this to each other for various reasons. [[spoiler:The vampires]] throw this trope back in the alien's face. Subverted in the sequel, where it's revealed that [[spoiler:the vampires were created using by aliens using technological means and aren't supernatural in the least]].
253* PapaWolf: Humanity's [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. The Shongairi's psychology is built around a pack structure, and thus they automatically submit to superior members of the pack. Most herbivore species' psychology is herd-oriented, causing them to submit out of automatic fear-response and a desire to deflect threats away from the herd as a whole. Humans, however, are ''family-oriented'' - and they respond to threats against members of their families with swift and seemingly-irrational violence.
254* PlanetOfHats: Earth is a planet of {{Determinator}}s who happen to be {{Mama Bear}}s and [[PapaWolf Papa Wolves]]. Notably, this is the conclusion reached by Base Commander Shairez because there is ''no'' other truly common thread she can discern, due to the violent diversity of human culture.
255** The entire trope is discussed and deconstructed in-universe, though not by name, at the end of the first half of the third book by a delegation of humans, Shongairi, and Sarthians. The Hegemony tends to boil down species' psychologies based on specific stereotypes pertaining to their biological origins, namely herbivorous, omnivorous, and carnivorous categories, but the humans and their allies realize that a species should be best understood based on how similar and how different they are to others, as neatly filing them away into boxes means that anything outside of that box gets disregarded.
256* PostScarcityEconomy: Thanks to assemblers (3D printers that work on a molecular level) and unlimited energy, all Hegemony races are this, especially since space travel makes it easy to obtain resources from asteroids and uninhabited planets. [[spoiler: Humanity is starting to become this in the second novel 15 years after the invasion, with the assemblers left behind by the Shongairi being wholly owned by the Planetary Union government.]] The assemblers back the global currency, the Planetary Union dollar. Any PU citizen can get their basic needs satisfied for free, although luxuries still require money, which means people have to work.
257* PoweredArmor: In the first part of the second book, powered armor is being developed under the name [[Creator/RobertHeinlein Project]] [[Literature/StarshipTroopers Heinlein]]. In the third novel, we see Heinleins being deployed alongside the heavier M4 Bangalores that can take a heavy anti-tank missile and shrug it off.
258* PronounTrouble: After encountering the Sarthians and learning that they have three sexes, Dave Dvorak wonders for a short while about what pronoun to use for the neutro gender. But then the sophisticated translation software they're using comes up with a solution to use the Old English pronoun "ou" and its derivations: ous (his/her), oum (him/her), ouself (himself/herself). The narrator starts using these even before the Sarthians are contacted for the first time, which is likely to confuse the readers before the explanation is given.
259* TheQuisling: Largely averted as a whole by humanity thanks to our collective outrage and the Shongairi's failure to understand human psychology and their "no carrot, all stick" approach. Then we get Governor Howell of North Carolina, [[spoiler:who is actually [[TheMole a mole]]-- something the Shongairi can't really conceive of until late in the book. Not only that, but he is instrumental in the sequel in trying to unify all the isolated pockets of survivors into a OneWorldOrder.]]
260* RageQuit: This is, basically, how the Shongairi decide to end the war. They haven't been able to occupy the world, they can't complete their bioweapon, and now all their bases are getting assaulted by something they can't stop on the ground. Thikair withdraws his entire devastated army from the surface and then prepares to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the entire planet]], mostly out of spite.
261* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [[spoiler:Haymar-zik-Shayma, [[TheEmperor Shathyra]] and absolute ruler of the Shongair Empire, is actually quite reasonable. When he learns of what Thikair has done to humans, he's horrified by such a blatant violation of Jukaris (their honor code). He also reaslizes that humans are now much more advanced than the Shongairi, and their home fleet can't possibly stand up to the human task force in the system. And yet he knows he can't officially submit to David Dvorak without first sending his warriors into battle as demanded by Jukaris. He laments the necessity of so many having to die when the outcome is already certain.]]
262* RebelLeader: Mircea Basarab leads a [[LaResistance human resistance group]] in Romania.
263* RecursiveTranslation: A major plot point of the latter third of ''Into The Light''. The Earth delegation to Sarth uses the term "Councilor" for some of their minor civilian dignitaries, as it has a common equivalent amongst most Sarthian languages thanks to the democratic influence of Dianto[[spoiler:, except in Qwernian, where the same word can be translated as "deputy". This leads to the Qwernians completely misunderstanding the Earth delegation's command structure, and who is actually in charge, which causes them to make successive diplomatic blunders]].
264%%* RecycledPremise: It's {{Literature/Worldwar}} in the 21st century.
265* ReluctantRuler: [[spoiler:Dave Dvorak becomes this after "Clan Dvorak" defeats Clan Qwern, thereby becoming the new ruling dynasty of the Qwer-- Dvorakian Empire. This allows him to sign the agreement to join the alliance with Earth. While he could have refused rulership, the result would've been chaos caused by a lack of succession. When he meets Vlad in the third book, he has three Sarthian bodyguards following him at all times, wearing the tartan kilts of the Scottish Clan Gunn, of all things. After becoming pack lord to Haymar (and, by extension, the entire Shongair Empire), he keeps shutting down any suggestions by the Sarthians and Haymar that he needs to be an emperor in order for their people to accept his rule. The eventually find a compromise by forming a new supranational governing body with Dvorak as its official representative.]]
266* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: Zigzagged with [[spoiler:vampires. While shooting one in the head has no effect (they often demonstrate their invulnerability by shooting themselves in the head), it is possible to kill a vampire, but only Vlad and Ushakov know how. Ushakov kills Cecilia, who's gone off the deep end and started killing indiscriminately, by decapitating her with some kind of special kukri he got from Vlad's mansion. After a moment, her head and body crumble to dust (actually nanobots)]].
267* RestrainingBolt: Much of Hegemony technology has built-in restrictions to keep it working within acceptable parameters. This also includes their self-learning software (what humans would call primitive AI), which is kept in check by dozens of subroutines.
268* TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies:
269** The aliens usually do this successfully but get way more than they bargained for with humanity.
270** We see more of that attitude in the third novel with the Liatu, who came across an Iron Age culture that was developing faster than they liked (but not nearly at the human rate of development) and decided they could nip the possible threat in the bud and take the nice planet for themselves, claiming they could find a better use for it than some primitives. So they infected the natives with a virus that reduced their intelligence level to that of primitive hunter-gatherers who can barely build a spear and watched 90% of them die of hunger and exposure. [[spoiler:When confronted by Ambassador Howell, the local Liatu leader keeps mentally referring to the human as "it," showing its contempt for some upstart species that dares to threaten one of the Hegemony's founders.]] As for the natives, the Liatu name for them literally means "nuisance animals," and they see no problem with using guns and loud sirens to chase them off their land in order to, say, build a new mansion for one of their higher ups.
271* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
272** The war against the Shongairi becomes this as soon as it is confirmed that we can fight back and that they have landed on Earth.
273** Platoon Commander Rayzhar goes on one when his two little brothers were killed in an ambush. He does not discriminate against military and civilian targets.
274** It's clear at the end of the book that, [[spoiler:with the help of captured Shongairi tech, Humanity will exact its revenge on the Hegemony and the Shongairi home worlds.]]
275* RockBeatsLaser: As it turns out, the depleted uranium-augmented Chobham armor on [=M1A2=] Abrams tanks literally beats Shongairi vehicle mounted lasers.
276* RuthlessModernPirates: In the second book, the breakaway Conch Republic raids coastlines for any ship or boat that dares to sail. They capture the vessels and either keep them or sell them to warlords in exchange for food and supplies. The re-established US government puts a stop to that.
277* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Colonel Sanders]]. Lasts a good ways into the novel, and inflicts a brutal defeat on the Shongari that gets talked about for the rest of the novel, but is killed in the bombing that follows.
278* SchizoTech: How Earth is viewed. Not only is it weird for us to still be using fossil fuel power and yet to be avoiding chemical & biological weapons, but we've done things with military technology no other race ever would have because they would've been unified by that point.
279* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Thikar decides to scrap the invasion and [[spoiler:destroy Earth from orbit]].
280* SelfMutilationDemonstration: In the sequel, [[spoiler:the vampires]] demonstrate their nature by [[spoiler:either allowing themselves to be shot or shooting themselves in the head]].
281* SequelHook: The end of the book makes it clear that [[spoiler:since we have decades until the Hegemony realizes the Shongairi haven't responded back to them, Humanity plans on bringing the fight to them with captured Shongairi tech.]]
282* ShoutOut:
283** David's dogs are named [[Literature/{{Safehold}} Nimue and Merlin]].
284** Also, the second novel's epilogue features a [[Literature/HonorHarrington spindle-shaped ship]].
285** And the space combat in the third novel might as well have taken place in the Honorverse.
286* SelfInsertFic: So what, a main character is named David; it's a common name. And his wife's name is Sharon... and they live in South Carolina... and their dogs are named [[Literature/{{Safehold}} Nimue and Merlin]]? Oh, come on, Weber!
287* SemperFi:
288** Master Sargent Stephen Buchevsky is a US Marine and was an instructor when he wasn't stationed in the Middle East.
289** Rob Wilson, David's brother in law, is a former Marine Corps instructor. When it comes time to form the Continental Union Armed Forces, Rob is livid that there won't be a marine corps. To his credit, he manages to convince the brass to rename the nascent Continental Union Armed Forces Expeditionary Forces to Space Marines, especially since he finds the acronym CUAFEF ridiculous and sounding like a cat coughing up a furball.
290* SlasherSmile: When [[spoiler:Dracula and other vampires]] board the Shongairi ships, Thikair is terrified of his smile.
291-->Thikair only stared at him, unable—not allowed—even to speak, and the human smiled. There was something terrifying about that smile... and something wrong, as well. The teeth, Thikair realized. The ridiculous little human canines had lengthened, sharpened, and in that moment Thikair understood exactly how thousands upon thousands of years of prey animals had looked upon his own people’s smiles.
292* SleeperStarship: Despite the existence of hyperdrives, interstellar travel routinely takes from several decades to centuries (just being several times faster than light isn't much of a speed in galactic terms), requiring cryogenic suspension for the crew.
293* SpaceMarines: Dvorak's brother-in-law, a retired [[SemperFi US Marine]] is angry that the Continental Union is thinking of abolishing the term "marine" as no longer necessary. Instead they're thinking of calling the assault branch of the army "Continental Union Armed Forces Expeditionary Forces". He thinks that CUAFEF sounds like a cat throwing up in the corner. He lobbies for calling the new branch "Space Marines", and apparently it works, much to the chagrin of certain staff officers.
294* SpaceNavy: The Planetary Union Navy is exclusively space-based. If there's anything the invasion has demonstrated, it's that a wet navy is utterly useless to anyone holding the orbitals and can see any ship in the ocean plain as day, being able to drop rocks on them well outside their range. Thus there no longer needs to be a wet navy. On the other hand, in order to standardize uniforms and rank insignia, as well as to avoid confusion, all the military branches now use the same ranking systems, so no admirals in charge of fleets or captains commanding ships. This does end up changing, however, as the naval personnel demand to be allowed to continue the old "wet" navy traditions, including the ranks.
295* SpaceStation:
296** The space platform ''Bastion'' is built not long after the founding of the Planetary Union in order to house the seat of PU government, as doing it anywhere on Earth's surface would result in accusations of favoritism to a particular member state. The platform is home to the PU Congress, the Terra House (the residency of the president), the Citadel (the PU's version of the Pentagon), and the people who make it all work, so it's grown to a decent-sized city and is constantly in the process of being expanded.
297** There are three massive space stations in orbit over Shongaru. Two of them are defensive battlestations, and the third is a civilian habitat. All use spinning to achieve pseudogravity. [[spoiler:The battlestations are destroyed during the space battle, while the habitat is stormed by SpaceMarines in order to satisfy the honor requirements for the Shongairi to submit to humans.]]
298* StealthInSpace: As far as the Hegemony knows, there's no way to conceal a ship in space from detection. Dropping out of FTL anywhere close to a star system produces a characteristic energy splash that will definitely be picked up. [[spoiler:In the third novel, we find out that humans have upgraded the FTL technology to function a little differently, which means that no energy splash happens when they drop out of phase space. Plus they're able to direct a ship's emissions in a specific direction (such as away from the plane of the ecliptic, where no one is likely to be scanning for them). While it's not perfect, and anyone actually looking will be able to spot occultations of stars and planets. But the Hegemony has become so complacent, they don't bother looking for threats beyond the bare minimum.]]
299* StupidityInducingAttack: The Liatu used a genetic weapon to do this to the Tairyonians when they invaded their planet. It turned their entire speices from Iron Age city builders to the intelligence equivilant of Earth's Gorillas. For humans, this is treated as MindRape.
300* SuccessionCrisis: Since the President and the entire line of succession, in accordance with the 25th Amendment, has been wiped out, there's no clear candidate to take the post of President. North Carolina Governor Judson Howell takes the reigns as the largest and most organized part of the country. While a congressman manages to survive the Shongairi attack, he wisely chooses to step aside, as Howell represents a far larger constituency than the people who elected him. This is less of an issue in Canada and Brazil, as the two people who become Prime Minister and President, respectively, were in the line of succession, albeit very far down.
301* SuicideAttack: Major Dan Torino and Abu Bakr were going to use a suicide truck bomb to destroy a Shongairi base. [[spoiler:Becomes unnecessary when the Shongairi evacuate the planet]].
302* SuperweaponSurprise: Humanity has barely left their gravity well, and are facing a species that has FTL capability. Humanity has superior ground weaponry, but there's no way mankind can win, and both sides know it. But ''no one'' expected [[spoiler:Dracula!]]
303%%* SurvivalistStash: See CrazyPrepared and CrazySurvivalist.
304* TakeThat: The author does not have a high opinion of the [[CoolPlane F-35 Lightning II]] as shown during a scene where an F-22 Raptor pilot is criticizing it... [[CasualDangerDialog while shooting down alien dropships.]]
305* TankGoodness:
306** [=M1A2=] Abrams and Romanian T-72 tanks do just fine against the invaders.
307** Shongairi tanks (called [=GEV=]s) have powerful lasers for armaments and can easily punch through our armor.
308* TestedOnHumans: The Shongairi attempt to capture humans several times to prepare [[ThePlague a bioweapon]].
309* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Dracula]] delivers one of these to Thikair at the end, noting that, among other things, the Shongairi were going to sentence humanity to extinction for ''daring'' to defend themselves and fight back against an invader.
310* TheRemnant: The remaining Human military units of the world are still fighting the Shongairi.
311* TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies: The Shongairi usually do this successfully but get way more than they bargained for with humanity.
312* ThemeNaming: [[spoiler:Task Force One consists of 19 ships: four ''Relentless''-class superdreadnoughts (all named ''Relentless'' in various languages), eight ''Sword''-class heavy cruisers (no names given), three troop transports (all named after company commanders that fought at Harirud River), and four ''Foundry''-class industrial ships (all named ''Foundry'' in various languages).]]
313* ThisIsUnforgivable: Absolutely no one on Earth will even consider helping the Shongairi thanks to their repeated orbital bombardment and the billions of human deaths. The Shongairi discovering this (which is completely incomprehensible to their own pack-based instincts to not bear grudges over defeats and demonstrations of superiority) is what prompts them to decide they're better off exterminating humanity completely, having finally realised that a planet full of bereaved humans will drive themselves extinct in a war of eternal vengeance before sincerely submitting.
314* TimeSkip: The first part of ''Into the Light'' takes place not long after the invasion is over. The second part jumps forward 15 years. There are additional jumps by months and years in the novel. In fact, the epilogue takes place about 40 years after the beginning of the novel.
315* ToServeMan: Played with. The Shongairi are carnivores and consider ''not'' eating their fallen foes as almost disrespectful to them. This does not endear them to humanity or to any other race, for that matter.
316* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The [[http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7653-2412-2 Publishers Weekly summary]] leaves no doubt as to the nature of the twist at the end of the novel.
317* TwistEnding: The last few pages of this novel shift this novel's genre signficantly away from Weber's usual Hard Sci-Fi [[spoiler:by introducing vampires]]. YMMV, but few reviewers seem to appreciate it. The sequel partly untwists it by [[spoiler:explaining that the "vampires" are actually robotic beings composed of nanobots]].
318* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: The book is basically [[spoiler:vampires versus aliens]]. Plus that's just the first part of the trilogy!
319* UncertainDoom: Admiral Robinson, who briefly takes command of the U.S. military after most of the cities and military bases are destroyed and organizes the first (quite effective) counterattack. He's targeted by the Shongairi immediately afterwards and multiple characters question/specualte whether he got away in time but are often told there's been no word of him since.
320* UnfinishedUntestedUsedAnyway: [[spoiler:When assaulting the Shongairi ships in orbit, Vlad and the other vampires hang on to the outer hull, as they don't need to breathe. However, Vlad didn't know if they'd survive being outside the ionosphere, with the sun's electromagnetic radiation (which feeds vampires) possibly overwhelming them. But it was the only way to stop Thikair from unleashing the bio-weapon.]]
321* UpgradeArtifact: The Shongairi test direct "neural education" on humanity and finds us surprisingly better at receiving it than most of the Hegemony's species.
322* TheUnmasquedWorld: Once [[spoiler:the vampires come out in to the open]], there's no real way to hide their existence. Though many people don't believe the announcements about [[spoiler:vampires helping fight off the Shongairi invasion]].
323* VillainousBreakdown:
324** Brigade Commander Harshair undergoes one while his entire platoon gets decimated by American [=M1A2=] Abrams in the Afghan desert.
325--->'''Brigade Commander Harshair:''' They’re primitives! Barbarians! They don’t even have interplanetary spacecraft, far less supralight capability! They can’t be doing this! It can’t be happening!
326** Thikair as the novel progresses, especially when [[spoiler:humans begin destroying his ground bases.]] He eventually just decides to RageQuit regarding the entire invasion and blow up Earth from orbit. [[spoiler:Vlad disagrees, and the subsequent scene on the bridge of the alien dreadnought ends with Thikair breaking down into a sobbing wreck.]]
327* VirtueIsWeakness: The stated opinion of the Liatu where other, non-Liatu, species are concerned. Any species, like humans for example, who actually care about the well-being and humane treatment of races besides their own must be of inferior intelligence.
328* WarIsHell: Something the Shongairi finally learn after treating it like a safari for so long.
329-->Now the horrifying, thundering monsters [American [=M1A2=] Abrams] came straight for the rest of the Shongairi in Harshair’s column, grinding contemptuously through or over the flaming carcasses of their dead comrades’ vehicles, trampling the wreckage underfoot, and the entire brigade began to come apart.
330* WarRefugees: There are many of them in Romania, and the Shongairi aren't afraid to target them either.
331* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Averted, but it is mentioned that survivors will do what they must to keep themselves and their families from starving.
332* WeakenedByTheLight: Zig-zagged. While [[spoiler:vampires do indeed feel pain when exposed to sunlight, it's not because they're dying. It's because their changed bodies are fed by electromagnetic radiation, and sunlight overloads them. Older vampires have learned to control their intake and no longer suffer from it. That said, Vlad wasn't certain that the vampires, especially the new ones, would survive the unshielded trip into space with all the cosmic and solar radiation up there. He didn't tell the others because it wouldn't have a made a difference]].
333* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: The Shongairi's trump card is their orbital firepower, which they use in lieu of effective ground forces. Whenever someone resists on the ground, the Shongairi orbital forces bomb them, or the nearest town within three or four miles. They don't seem to get that this is just making things worse. This is reinforced by Shongairi pack-based psychology, which tells them that the best way to force compliance is by bombing targets to demonstrate superiority, but [[HumanityIsInsane those insane humans]] just keep on fighting. [[spoiler:Actually invoked in the third novel while explaining what happened on Earth during the first book to the Shongairi emperor. He is told the expression itself and finds it quite useful, filing it away for later.]]
334* WolfMen: The Shongairi strongly resemble bipedal canines, to the point where several people refer to them with the FantasticSlur "puppies".
335* WoodenStake: An SAS soldier-turned-mercenary, who has started working for a Mexican drug cartel, [[spoiler:breaks off a chair leg and tries to use it to stab one of the vampires who have just slaughtered his elite unit. He misses and stabs her in the gut. She points out that it should be the heart and demonstrated on herself. She drops to the ground, with the other two vampires gasping. A second later, they all burst into laughter, as the stabbed one gets up. They explain that none of the "traditional" methods of killing vampires work, right before one of them rips out his heart]].
336* WorthyOpponent: Regiment Commander Harah, despite hating them with a passion, still admires Humanity's ingenuity and resistance. Of course, he would never dare say this aloud.
337-->'''Harah's Inner Thoughts:''' Actually, Harah, part of you admires these creatures, doesn’t it? Once you get past their total lack of any concept of honor, at least. If you can ever accept that they truly don’t realize how completely and utterly dishonorable it is to refuse submission to a proven superior, it all looks a bit different, doesn’t it? After all, we’ve killed thousands of them for every Shongair we’ve lost, and they still have the guts—the absolutely insane, utterly irrational, totally dishonorable, mind-numbingly stupid guts—to come right at us. If they only had half as much brains, they would’ve acknowledged our superiority and submitted months ago, psychology or no psychology, of course. But, no! They couldn’t do that, could they? That would be the reasonable thing to do!
338** You aren't exactly doing a good job if you have to count people killed by orbital bombardment and civilians murdered by soldiers in your kill count to feel better about how badly your ass is being kicked:
339*** ''we’ve killed thousands of them for every Shongair we’ve lost''
340* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The Galactic Hegemony, being composed of peace-loving enlightened herbivores, absolutely abhors violence. Which is why, if they encounter any upstart species that could potentially upset their delicate balance, they decide to take care of them, whether by granting a more violent junior member the opportunity to expand into that space and crush their potential threat, or by engineering a de-evolutionary virus to collapse their civilization and cause their population to be adjusted to something much more manageable.
341* WrittenByTheWinners: In the second book, [[spoiler:Vlad explains that while some of what he's done before his transformation would indeed be called cruel by modern standards, it was actually no different than what many of his enemies were doing. It's just that most of the stuff about him was written by the Ottomans, who wanted to portray Vlad as a bloodthirsty murderer]].
342* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Abu Bakr el-Hiri's reaction to the thought of using a suicide truck bomb.
343* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Buschevsky when discussing the scenario of nearby villages selling them out to looters to save themselves.
344-->'''Stephen Buchevsky:''' If their kids start starving, then any parent worth a single solitary damn is going to do anything it takes to feed them. I understand that, and I’ll give any kid the last slice of bread I’ve got. But if any of those other enclaves out there decide to sell us out, or throw us to the wolves to save their own asses by pointing somebody who comes after what they’ve got in our direction—or if they’re stupid enough to try and use your agreement just to get close enough to us to hit us themselves—then I’m going to be really, really unhappy, you understand. And they won’t like me when I’m unhappy. Hell, I don’t like me when I’m unhappy!

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