* At the very start of the book, a Culture warship manages to ambush the ''Hand of God''. How had it remained hidden? By ''[[OutOfTheInferno hiding in the outer layers of the system's sun]]''.
* Horza's certifiably-insane IndyPloy escape from the ''[[MileLongShip Ends of Invention]]'' -- once he figures out that the Culture's onto him, he literally '''blasts his way out of the ship''', nearly getting everyone onboard the ''Clear Air Turbulence'' killed innumerable times while performing extreme aerobatics... And he gets the old ship through the whole thing unscathed, something so ludicrous that even the Minds probably wouldn't have expected it.
* Unaho-Closp, the tiny little engineering drone the crew accidentally kidnapped from Vavatch, ramming an [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Idiran]] in the head to save Horza...TWICE.
** The first time doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny, as it comes completely out of nowhere and hits the Idiran straight in the chin with enough force to send him up into the air and down onto his back.
* A villainous example, but [[DyingMomentOfAwesome you have to hand it to Quayanorl]]. While he's the primary cause cause of the book's EverybodyDiesEnding, this is due to him pulling off an ''epic'' TakingYouWithMe. He is literally shot to pieces, [[BoomHeadshot including once in the head]], but because he's an [[MadeOfIron Idiran]], and [[{{Determinator}} just really damn stubborn]], he manages to drag his shattered body to the controls of a [[CoolTrain Command System train]] ([[{{Gorn}} described in excruciatingly gory detail]]), and ''just'' survives long enough to [[RammingAlwaysWorks direct it towards the protagonists]].
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