Characters / Destroyermen

US Navy

Almost 300 men and 6 women of the United States Navy crossed over aboard the destroyers Walker and Mahan and the submarine S-19. They are joined by Lemurians who officially swear in and enlist in the Navy, making them not only American Sailors but also official members of the "Amer-i-caan Clan." The Navy eventually starts getting large numbers of human female recruits, women who were formerly indentured in the Empire of the New Britain Isles. The British, Australian, and Dutch teenage boys who crossed over with S-19 eventually join as Midshipmen (officer candidates).

• Anyone Can Die: They are fighting a multifront war on a Death World. It's gonna happen.
• Schizo Tech: Two WWI-era Wickes-class destroyers, a WWI-era S-class submarine, an old tramp freighter converted into a warship, and WWII-vintage airplanes, plus a fleet of wooden sailing ships armed with muzzle-loading cannons, with multiple all-wood aircraft carriers. All of those wooden sailing ships have radios, active sonar, and depth charges. Most of them also have oil-fired engines. Many carry a spotter plane. They've recently added some PT boats. Later on, they start churning out more Wickes-class destroyers and even produce a light cruiser (basically, a scaled-up version of Walker) and torpedo bombers..
• Vehicular Turnabout:
  • The Alliance makes extensive use of captured Grik ships, converting their Indiamen into "razeed" destroyer escorts or auxiliaries. Later on, they even capture several Grik/Kurokawa ironclad dreadnoughts and cruisers.
  • In "Devil's Due", the Alliance captures the League battleship Savoie more-or-less intact, and fully intends to make use of her against her former masters.

Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy USNR

"Wherever we are, we're still Americans."

Captain of USS Walker (DD-163). Reddy was born and raised in Texas and graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Although he wanted to make the Navy his career, he was squeezed out in the mid-1930s as part of a peacetime Reduction In Force due to budget cuts forced by the Great Depression. With war looming in 1939, he was recalled to the Active Reserve, and within two years had been sent to to the Asiatic Fleet to command one of their old destroyers. Though initially disappointed, he soon grew to love his ship and crew, and the feeling is mutual.

• Action Survivor: Matt sometimes wades into hand-to-hand combat in boarding actions and on land with an M1911 .45 and his ceremonial Naval Academy sword on his belt. It's regularly mentioned that he never thought he'd actually have to fight with his sword when he bought it, and has no idea how to use it other than, "stab the other guy with the pointy end." He knows exactly what he's doing in ship-to-ship actions, though.
  • His swordsmanship gets a little better after Jenks starts giving him lessons on Respite Island. This later comes in handy against Reed's assassin.
• A Father to His Men: Matt's crew will follow him to Hell and back, because they know he will deprive himself to take care of them.
• Berserk Button: Suggest that his Lemurian crew members are in any way inferior to humans, and if you're lucky you'll get away with most of your teeth. Do something to really piss him off, like kill one of his men and try to sink his ship in a sneak attack, like Rasik did, and he will hunt you to the ends of the Earth.
• The Captain: At the beginning, his rank is Lieutenant Commander (O-4), which is normal for a destroyer skipper not Captain (O-6), but as commanding officer of a ship in the United States Navy, he holds the official title of "Captain," regardless of his actual rank.
  • He finally agrees to take the rank of Captain (O-6) after Keje, Adar, and his own officers won't leave him alone about it. Still refuses to take Flag rank (that would be "admiral" to landlubbers). In any case, he's now Supreme Commander of All Allied Forces by acclamation.
• Military Brat: It is revealed at his wedding to Sandra Tucker that Matt's father was a Chief Quartermaster's Mate who earned the Medal of Honor, and this status allowed Matt to enter the Naval Academy via Presidential Appointment. Truth in Television, as Presidential Appointment to Annapolis or West Point is reserved solely for the sons of Medal of Honor recipients.
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Reassigned to Antarctica: How he initially felt about being given command of a Wickes-class destroyer in the Asiatic Fleet before the war started. He changed his mind pretty quick, though.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Captain Matthew Patrick Reddy, United States Navy (Reserve), High Chief of the Amer-i-caan Clan, Commander-in-Chief (By Acclamation) of All Allied Forces United Beneath (or Beside) the Banner of the Trees, and Commanding Officer of USS Walker DD-163.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gives out quite a lot of these, to other Alliance leaders more often than not.

Lieutenant Sandra Tucker USNNC

• Hospital Hottie: She's easy on the eyes, but not to a ridiculous extent. She's not even the prettiest of the nurses.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: She chooses to go aboard Walker to care for the wounded while the destroyer is aground and about to be boarded by a hoard of Grik, just a few days after telling Matt that she's pregnant. He's not happy about this.
• Southern Belle: Of the "Bonne Belle" variety. Sandra is an attractive woman from rural Virginia with an accent to match, but she's also tough, dedicated, competent, and generally a nice girl.
• You Are in Command Now: After escaping from Ajax, she takes command of the small party of American and Imperial survivors, with Silva as her ramrod. At one point, she threatens to shoot Captain Rajendra for insubordination. Nobody doubts that she would do it if he pushed her.

Lieutenant Brad "Spanky" Mc Farlane USN

• All Love Is Unrequited: He spurns Tabby's advances, partly because she's a 'Cat, but also because he sees her as more of a surrogate daughter than a romatic or sexual partner.
• Guns Akimbo: When Billingsly abducts Princess Rebecca, Spanky responds to the alarm clad only in his underwear and officer's hat with a 1911 in each hand. He doesn't actually do any shooting, though he does give the order to fire to two men with rifles. He was almost certainly hungover at the time.
• The Engineer: Spanky is the Chief Engineering Officer of USS Walker. He commands the "snipes" of the Engineering Division and oversees the maintenance and operation of her engines and boilers. He's also the go-to guy when damage needs to be repaired below the waterline.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Even though he's not attracted to 'Cats, he's thrown completely off his footing whenever Tabby works topless in the engineering spaces.
• You Are in Command Now: When the Battle Off Scapa Flow begins, Reddy is ashore and Walker has to sortie without him. The XO, Lieutenant Commander Frankie Steele, is mortally wounded when Walker takes a full broadside at close range from a Dominion ship of the line. Out of necessity, Spanky has to leave Tabby in charge of the entire Engineering Division while he goes to the bridge and takes command for the remainder of the engagement. Everybody agrees that he did a great job and kicked Dom ass.

Chief Bosun's Mate Fitzhugh Gray USN

• All Love Is Unrequited: He has feelings for Diania, and she feels the same for him, but he refuses to do anything about it because she's so much younger than him.
• Da Chief: Sort of. He yells a lot, and he is a Chief. As the senior enlisted man aboard, he holds the official title of "Bosun," and he's also in charge of the "deck apes" of the ship's Deck Division. It's occasionally mentioned that while Walker has several CPO's, he's the only one known universally as "The Chief."
• Father Neptune: Minus the beard.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When Walker runs aground in Grik City's harbor and gets boarded, he saves Matt Reddy's life at the cost of his own.
• If Jesus, Then Aliens: After hearing The Multiverse theory of Bradford, Gray wonders (only half-joking) if that means there's a universe where the Earth has been conquered by Martians.
• Sergeant Rock: He's the ship's senior enlisted man and often acts as Captain Reddy's right hand in some matters. He also handles smaller problems so the Captain won't have to.
• You Killed My Father: Chief Gray's son was a Machinist's Mate on the battleship USS Oklahoma. Before passing through the Squall, Gray had been notified that his son was one of the men trapped in Oklahoma's engineering spaces when she capsized after being hit by Japanese torpedoes at Pearl Harbor. Understandably, he hates the Japanese, even Shinya.

Gunner's Mate Dennis Silva USN

"Why is it ever' time somethin' like this happens, it's 'Lawsy me, what's ol' Silva done now'?"

• Boisterous Bruiser: Silva likes to fight and enjoys the hell out of combat. He doesn't like it when his own people (human or 'cat) get hurt, though.
• Buffy Speak: Does this a lot.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: After Gravois hands Sandra, Adar, and a bunch of hostages over to Kurokawa, Silva vows that if any of them are harmed, he'll rip the Frenchman's spine out through his asshole and beat him to death with it. Bradford breaks the ensuing Stunned Silence by informing Gravois that, Artistic License – Biology or not, Silva will keep his word.
• Disney Death: While assaulting the Celestial Palace, Silva is badly wounded and collapses alongside Horn and a Cat Marine known as "Not-Dewey," leaving Lawrence, Isak, and Laumer to press on by themselves. We later find out that Not-Dewey regained consciousness and saved them both.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Silva is pretty much the Patron Saint of this trope. Prank him into chewing "tobacco" that's actually a powerful laxative? He will scandalize your sister (with her willing assistance). Break his favorite gun? He will beat you to death with it. Kidnap Princess Rebecca? You and everyone you know are going to die.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Freaks out when Shinya tries to make him an officer, to the point of being openly, ridiculously, and self-consciously insubordinate. Basically, he tries to piss off Shinya enough to make him withdraw the promotion. It doesn't entirely work, as Shinya is at least as stubborn as Silva could ever be, but Lieutenant Tucker is able to mediate a solution.
  • Strangely enough, Silva's reaction to Shinya's attempt to promote him indicates that Silva fully accepts the Japanese officer as his superior in the Allied chain of command and respects his authority.
  • Silva is aware of his own ruthlessly-pragmatic Sociopathic Hero nature and believes it’s better for everyone if he carries no more authority and responsibility than a Petty Officer. His greatest value is as an instrument at the direction of officers he respects.
• Eyepatch of Power: Gets one after losing his left eye to a piece of shrapnel. It doesn't slow him down too much, as he's right-handed, right-eye-dominant, and aims with his right eye anyway. He openly acknowledges that he doesn't see as well with a single eye and his depth perception is gone. While they are marooned on Yap Island, he relies on Lawrence to scout for predators, especially the color-changing shiksaks.
• Freudian Excuse: Silva was raised by his uncle, a violent, abusive drunk, until he was 12. At which point, he killed said uncle with a gardening hoe. As a grown man, he has no qualms about killing anyone he feels has it coming, and if he thinks someone "needs to be taught a lesson," he'll deal with that, too. At the same time, if someone actually earns his loyalty, he will move heaven and earth for them. To Silva, Chief Gray and Captain Reddy (especially the Captain) are the surrogate parental figures he never had, and he will gladly dive face-first into Hell itself for them. He also has a soft spot for kids, and, having grown up without anyone looking out for him, is fiercely protective of children.
• Gun Nut: Before lying about his age to enlist in the Navy, Silva spent some of his early teenage years apprenticed to a gunsmith. He possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of firearms, how to use them, how to fix them, and (most importantly) how to make them. He can MacGyver his "superlizard gun," which he refers to as the Doom Whomper, out of a wrecked Japanese antiaircraft mount or hand-machine a Civil War-vintage Allin Breechloading Conversion for a musket (essentially making it a reproduction "Trapdoor" Springfield) from memory. And did we mention that he's an artist with a BAR?
• Hidden Depths: Silva is a lot smarter than he lets on. In a possible case of Obfuscating Stupidity, Sandison notes that he sounds "less like a hick" when talking about guns.
• Implacable Man: Silva won't move mountains...because it's usually easier to just blow them the hell up.
• Insane Troll Logic: Whenever Silva comes up with a batshit-crazy solution to the problem at hand, he will offer up a comically ridiculous justification for it.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Silva adores Princess Rebecca as his adopted little sister. Threatening her is a very bad idea.
• Mission from God: According to Sister Audrey, it's as good an explanation as any for Silva's combination of near-indestructibility, strong sense of duty, penchant for turning up where he's needed most, and uncanny ability to kill just about anything that walks the Earth.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: He gets one while working underwater in a diving suit, with nobody to hear it. A sail has been rigged to protect him from the voracious "flashies" while mounting a replacement propeller on Walker, but the predatory fish keep hitting him through the canvas. Just as he finishes, a flashy gets inside and rams him like a sledgehammer. Luckily, Silva recovers first, grabs the fish, and pulls it up on deck with him, where he beats it to death against the three-inch gun. His initial reaction to the impact: "Shit! I think it was a Buick, Officer!"
  • He then tosses it to Laney, who was beaten nearly to death by the flashies before Silva relieved him, saying, "Here, Laney! I brung ya a present!"
• Not Afraid of Hell: As he puts it in Storm Surge:
  Silva: "This war, what I do — in spite of how I do it — is the best thing I ever did. I expect to burn in hell for how, but good folks, folks like you, will maybe have a chance. To make sure o' that, an' to make sure all the folks I care about have the same chance, I'm in this war to the bitter end, an' I don't see that comin' anytime soon."
• Odd Friendship: With Lawrence, as described below. Also with Sister Audrey, after he kept her and number of other castaways alive on a Death Island for several weeks.
• Self-Made Orphan: Zigzagged. Silva's parents died in the Spanish Flu pandemic when he was an infant, leaving him in the care of his abusive alcoholic uncle. His uncle was the first man Dennis Silva ever killed—at the age of eleven, no less—though it was self-defense. Afterwards, young Silva wandered the South, apprenticing to a gunsmith for a while before lying about his age to enlist in the Navy.
• Serious Business: Silva's One True Love is undoubtedly his homemade "Doom Whomper" rifle, to the point that he sheds tears whenever it gets so much as scratched. After the Doom Whomper is ruined, his most emotional moment is when Sandison gifts him a new breech-loading replacement, which Silva promptly christens the "Doom Stomper."
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Captain Rajendra tries to chew him out for blowing up his ship, HIMS Ajax, in order to get Princess Rebecca to safety, Silva snaps that he's one to talk after he let Billingsly intimidate him into destroying two helpless Alliance ships.
  Silva: "It wadn't your ship no more, genius! You were in the same fix we were. Don't you dare stand there an' act all sancti-fidious at me when you wouldn't even rear up on your hind legs an' try to take your ship back! When you blew Cap'n Lelaa's ship outa the water with all her people on it! You coulda saved your ship then, if you'd pulled your pistol an' shot Billingsly square betwixt his eyes! That prob'ly woulda been the end of it right there, because whatever else you are, or your crew was, you were the goddamn captain! Instead, you said, 'Yes, sir! You're the boss!' an' killed two hundred of our folks! Then you slunk around whinin' how it wadn't your fault!"
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Laney, though it becomes less of a thing when they get assigned to different ships.
• Southern-Fried Private: He's from Alabama, and his Rebel accent practically drips from his dialogue. He's also a Petty Officer (exact rank varies, he gets promoted, then busted, then promoted again frequently) with the rating of Gunner's Mate, and is initially a Gun Captain. He eventually gets promoted to Chief Gunner's Mate (E-7).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: with Lawrence. Silva actually shot him the first time they met. In fairness, he thought Lawrence was a Grik, and Lawrence lived. They've been pretty tight ever since.
  • At the end of Iron Gray Sea, we find out that he has a similar friendship with Gunnery Sergeant Horn that goes back to some legendary event in pre-war China in which the big Marine NCO allegedly saved Silva's life by knocking one of his teeth out.

Machinist's Mate Dean Laney USN

• Everyone Has Standards: Laney is uncharacteristically subdued when Chief Gray and Chief Donaghey hold an informal trial for the scumbag who raped Blas-Ma-Ar. He recognizes the necessity of what's going on, and agrees that the bastard deserves it, but doesn't relish the thought of doing it himself. He points out that he will do it if necessary, but won't like it. He quietly admits to Silva that, "I'm just not the killer you are, Dennis." Silva's reply is, "Yeah, well, few men are."
• Heel Realization: Laney starts to realize in River of Bones that maybe being a consummate Jerkass isn't the best way to spend his life, and resolves to square up, "quit bitching" as he says, and simply do his best to take care of his "baby", Santy Cat...and possibly earn the affection of the one person he'd like to be able to call his baby, one Kathy McCoy.
• Jerkass: Laney is promoted to Chief Machinist's Mate after the death of Chief Donaghey. He (usually) means well, but his leadership skills are nonexistent, so he mostly acts like an asshole. Lemurian Sailors consider it a punishment to be assigned to Laney's division. He gets better in River of Bones, after realizing that his "baby" Santa Catalina is likely never coming back from the raid on the Zambezi. Not only does he start treating people better, but he nearly dies staying behind, keeping the boilers running, as the ship is filling with water. He survives, and Russ asks him to join him on Savoie to run the battleship's engines.
• Noodle Incident: In Storm Surge it's mentioned that there is a rumor that Silva and Laney had once been friends (and it's confirmed by Horn in River of Bones), but there's no word on what initially caused their mutual antagonism.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Everybody thinks Laney is a prick. He does absolutely nothing to prove them wrong.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Chief Donaghey was able to focus Laney's Jerkass behavior to make him the snipes' answer to Dennis Silva in terms of pranks and fistfights. Their rivalry continues, but since their new assignments tend to keep them separated by several thousand miles, it's no longer at the forefront.
• Stout Strength: Is described as being about as big as Silva, but rather overweight in contrast to Silva's Heroic Build.

The Mice

Firemen Isak Rueben and Gilbert Yeager are a pair of young, uneducated former roughnecks from Oklahoma who tend Walker's boilers. They are later joined by "Tabby" Tab-At.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Everyone finds them weird and Spanky considers them a pain in the ass, but they're very good at their job. Their experience as roughnecks proves invaluable when they design a primitive drill rig and jury-rigged refinery to pump oil and make fuel.
• Character Death: Gilbert is killed in the final book when a shell from Leopardo wrecks Walker's engine room. Both Isak and Tabby are devastated.
• The Gadfly: A Running Gag in the first few books is that Tabby refuses to wear a shirt while working around the boilers, ostensibly because it's too hot but really because she gets a kick out of Spanky's reaction to seeing her topless. She stops doing it when she realizes she actually has feelings for him.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Gilbert and Isak are practically inseparable. Nobody knows the real reason why: they had the same mother.
• Punctuated Pounding: Isak shouting, "Why don't people understand that SOMETIMES! YOU JUST! GOTTA! KILL! SHIT! while bayoneting the Celestial Mother.
• Secret Siblings: Other destroyermen frequently note that the Mice look and act like they could be brothers. That's because, unbeknownst to anybody else, they are half-brothers born to the same mother.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Even after Tabby accepts that Spanky doesn't reciprocate her feelings, she never really moves on. Probably because they've been serving on the same ship all this time.
• Wrench Wench: Tabby works the boilers and is a ('cat) girl. She's also cute by 'cat standards.

Cook 1st Class Earl Lanier USN

• Agony of the Feet: During the Battle of Guadalupe Island, Dominion "dragons" attack Walker. Some of them drop cannonballs, one of which crushes two of his toes. Afterwards, Lanier hobbles around on a single crutch yelling at the "deck apes" to clear the carcasses away from the galley if they ever want to eat again.
• Badass Normal: It's often joked that his normal "battle station" is the ship's head. That doesn't stop him from hosing down a Grikbird with a Thompson submachine gun when a bunch of them swarm the ship in Firestorm. He takes up arms a lot more often afterwards, surprising everyone with his effectiveness in combat. He fights like a maniac to keep the Grik away from the Coke machine when Walker runs aground and gets boarded at Grik City, and later volunteers as a machine gunner at the Wall of Trees.
• Camp Cook: Ship's Cook, actually. He's actually dedicated to his job, but damned if he'll admit it.
• Character Death: Killed when the galley is hit by a shell in the massive battle with the League fleet in the final book.
• Companion Cube: The Coke machine. Lanier is inordinately attached to the little refridgerator and goes to great lengths to keep it running and safe from damage. It somehow miraculously survives the shell impact that wrecks Walker's galley and kills Lanier, Jeek and twenty other crew-cats in the Battle of St. Vincent in Winds of Wrath.
• Fat Bastard: Very obese, and a Jerkass by anyone's definition.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lanier is acerbic, grouchy, and abrasive to everybody, but it's all an act. He believes that as long as the crew is bitching about what an asshole the ship's cook is, they won't spend so much time worrying about the very real danger they face and will be able to focus on their jobs more easily. He makes the crew hate him to keep them all alive.
• Kevlard: Sarcastically lampshaded by Chief Donaghey when Lanier takes an arrow to the gut in "Crusade" and freaks out. Sure enough, thanks to Lanier's impressive layer of fat the wound is superficial and easily treated.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: Has this problem with a .30-cal machine gun on the Wall of Trees at the Second Battle of Grik City. His reaction brings some badly-needed comic relief to a dire situation.
• Serious Business: The ship's Coke machine. Never mind that Walker ran out of Cokes long ago, he will keep that thing running as long as he draws breath.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Juan Marcos, to the point where he supplies Lanier's cooks with laxatives to get back at him for being such a Jerkass.
• Stout Strength: Few expect Lanier to be as strong or as quick as he is. Silva observes that as heavy as he is, Lanier would have to be strong to get around at all.

Bosun's Mate 2nd Class Chack-Sab-At USN/Colonel Chack-Sab-At USMC

• Berserk Button: Chack dearly loves his sister, Risa-Sab-At. He first discovered that he was a badass when Risa was wounded in the Grik attack on Salissa. Chack, who had never been much of a fighter, started mowing down Grik with a battleaxe to rescue her, and doing it so well and so violently some of the other Lemurians found it scary. And then there was the whole thing with Risa and Silva...
• Colonel Badass: As the war progresses, Chack spends more and more time in his Marine officer billet, and he's damn good at it, too.
• Hopeless Suitor: He was originally this to Keje's daughter Selass-Fris-Ar. She cruelly strung him along to get the guy she thought she really wanted, Saak-Fas. Saak-Fas was captured by the Grik, Selass realized she loved Chack and repented for her cruel treatment of him, Saak-Fas turned up alive, Saak-Fas said his "mission" was the only thing that mattered anymore, Chack met Queen Saafir Maraan...it's complicated. Now the tables are turned; Chack is happily betrothed to and madly in love with Saafir Maraan, while the now-widowed Selass pines for him in shame.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Chack decides to prank Silva in the first book. Silva gets back at him by declaring himself "mated" to Chack's sister Risa (who happily runs with it). Cue Chack's comically futile attempt to beat Silva to death in front of everybody, with Silva effortlessly holding him off and laughing his ass off, while Risa licks Silva's face and declares herself mated, and four other guys try in vain to break it up. He and Silva become good friends in spite of this.
• Reluctant Warrior: He used to be an Actual Pacifist. Then six Grik troop ships beseiged Salissa, and he had to adapt or die. He's gotten pretty good at fighting in — and planning — battles.
• Semper Fi: One of several 'Cats who have both a Navy and a Marine billet.
• Token Non-Human: The first 'Cat to join Walkers crew, and for a while he was one of the only Lemurian "regulars" on the ship.

Mess Steward 1st Class Juan Marcos USN

• Gratuitous Foreign Language: When he gets really pissed at someone (Lanier, for example), he will rip them a new ass in Tagalog. Anderson avoids any problems with Filipino readers by describing Juan as "swearing in Tagalog," rather than quoting specific words.
• Handicapped Badass: He loses a leg protecting the Captain from Dominion musket fire on New Scotland. Despite his obvious pain, Juan just states that now he's pissed and continues killing bad guys with his rifle.
  • He loses his prosthetic while fighting off Grik boarders at Grik City. He still fights his way, one-legged, to Reddy’s side and continues to defend his Captain.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After getting his leg mangled at the Battle of the Dueling Grounds, he tells the Captain to leave him, knowing that they'll never escape while dragging a non-ambulatory casualty. Reddy, Gray, Stites, and Jenks refuse to abandon him. Luckily, Chack and Blair show up with two-hundred Marines a few minutes later. Juan loses the leg, but not his life.
• Hidden Depths: Juan's official US Navy billet is Officer's Steward. Once the Alliance is established, he assumes the role of Captain Reddy's personal steward/secretary in his own, just as Bosun Gray becomes his bodyguard and "Chief Armsman," and also like the Bosun, he quietly handles many smaller administrative matters to ease the Captain's workload. Think of him as Alfred to Matt Reddy's Batman.
• Old Retainer: Sort of, albeit to the ship herself rather than any officer. It's mentioned in Into The Storm that Juan was the only Filipino sailor who refused to jump ship during the evacuation from Cavite. Marcos is dedicated to Walker and to Matt Reddy personally, perhaps even more than the rest of the crew. His devotion to the Captain is not servile, it's based on his great respect for Matt and the fact that Juan is a damn good guy.
  • When Captain Reddy has to face Reed's assassin in a formal duel, Marcos acts as his "Second" without ever being officially appointed as such.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Earl Lanier, to the point where he supplies Lanier's cooks with laxatives to get back at him for being such a Jerkass.
• Token Minority: He's the only Filipino. Walker's crew used to include several other Filipino sailors, but they all left the ship at Cavite in the hope of saving their families (and those of their American shipmates with Filipina wives) from the Japanese. Unlike the Chinese who would occasionally come aboard at Shanghai, the Filipinos were actually enlisted in the Navy and trusted as members of the crew.

Chief Electrician's Mate Rolando "Ronson" Rodriguez USN

• Once Done, Never Forgotten: His nickname refers to a cigarette lighter, due to an incident in which his hair caught fire during combat. Ever since then, he's shaved his head bald and cultivated a Pancho Villa mustache.

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Alan Letts

Formerly Walker's supply officer, now promoted to the rank of Commander, served as the senior logistics officer and the Alliance's Minister of Industry, and the Chairman of the Grand Alliance after Adar.

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• Brilliant, but Lazy: During the war in the Pacific, he was a very good supply officer but never really applied himself beyond his obligations, and Reddy privately considered him to be a disappointment. However, once it sinks in that Walker is stranded on a Death World and everyone needs to step up, Alan rises to the occasion and quickly becomes one of the most valuable members of the crew.
• Killed Off for Real: Dies in Winds of Wrath from a bomb meant to assassinate the Alliance's top leadership.
• Prone to Sunburn: He spends most of his time belowdecks, or wearing wide-brimmed hats, because his fair skin burns very easily.
• Took a Level in Badass: Letts used to be a slacker. Now he's a self-made whirlwind of productivity and Chairman of the Grand Alliance.

Ensign Irvin Laumer USN

The only surviving officer of the submarine USS S-19.

• Determinator: In Distant Thunders, Reddy orders Laumer to lead the expedition to Talaud Island to recover S-19. Laumer will be damned if he's gonna let trivial little things like mountain fish, giant man-eating lobsters, tsunamis, or a freaking volcano stand in his way.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Courtesy of one of the Celestial Mother's bodyguards in Deadly Shores.
• New Meat: Ensign Laumer was a brand-new officer on S-19 when the war started. After passing through the Squall and getting stranded on Talaud Island, he was the only officer who survived the island's predators. Laumer was smart enough to know he was out of his depth, and deferred to the Chief of The Boat, CPO Billy Flynn. The submariners respect Laumer's humility and agree that he's learned a lot.

Captain "Tikker" Jis-Tikkar USN

• Ace Pilot: The best and most experienced 'cat pilot, and an expert in every plane in the Allied inventory.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Tikker was the first 'cat to ever set foot in an airplane, having started as Ben Mallory's observer in the PBY. His first attempts at flying the plane were rather exciting. Since then, he's become an excellent pilot and mechanic, been commissioned as a Captain in the US Navy, and given command of Salissa's air group.

Captain Lelaa-Tal-Claraan USN

Captains the USS Simms, a corvette captured from the Grik during the Battle of Baalkpan. She later takes command of the new aircraft carrier USS Maaka-Kakja, and is soon promoted to Admiral.

• Accomplice by Inaction: She hates Captain Rajendra because he didn't do anything to stop Billingsly from destroying Simms. She eventually lets it go because it likely wouldn't have made a difference in the end, though they never really make proper peace.
• The Captain: Lelaa grew up sailing feluccas from Baalkpan all over the southwest Pacific and was quickly commissioned as a Captain when she joined the US Navy. Her first naval command was the razeed corvette USS Simms, which was sunk by the HIMS Ajax on Billingsly's orders. She's later given command of the USS Maaka-Kakja, the Alliance's first purpose-built aircraft carrier. Lelaa's skill and authority are unquestioned and several human Americans are under her command. Silva himself addresses her as "Cap'n Lelaa" from the first time he meets her and obeys her orders instantly and without question.
• Gunship Rescue: She takes a page out of Keje’s playbook at the Battle of Malpelo, driving her carrier right through the Dom fleet, guns blazing, while her remaining planes hammer every ship with red sails. Maaka-Kakja is a bit banged up, but turns the tide, allowing Jenks’s battle line to rout the rest of the Dominion fleet.
• Rank Up: Eventually makes Admiral and is given command of 2nd Fleet, also becoming Jenks's Number Two.
• Sole Survivor: Billingsly has her ship destroyed to send a message to the Alliance leaders. She survived because she was aboard his ship for negotiations at the time.

Chief Torpedoman Billy Flynn

Formerly the COB (Chief of the Boat—submariner's version of a bosun) of USS S-19. Chief Flynn decides he wants nothing to do with this world's sea monsters and chooses to transfer to the Army, where he is commissioned as a colonel and given command of a regiment.

• Colonel Badass: Chief Flynn was in the Army in WWI and fought at Chateau-Thierry. He joined the Navy after the war and became a submariner. He goes back to the Army in this war, where his infantry experience is invaluable.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: He calls his regiment Flynn's Rangers and trains them as elite unconventional fighters.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He and most of his surviving Rangers go down fighting while the 6th Maa-Ni-Laa Cavalry evacuate their wounded from North Hill. Lt. Leedom last sees him bayoneting a Grik berserker while shouting at them to get out while they can.

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Fred Reynolds USN

• Ace Pilot: He mastered the learning curve pretty well and knows the PB-1 Nancy inside and out.
• Captain Crash: He's totaled three PB-1 Nancys so far, though none were really his fault.
  • One at the Battle of Scapa Flow, when he's brought down by Dom musket fire while trying to bomb their troop transports. He manages to land close enough to Walker to get himself and Kari-Faask to safety before the plane burns to the waterline.
  • Another during a scout north of St. Francis, where he and Kari are attacked by "Grikbirds" and crash in the surf before being captured by the Dominion.
  • And one more is shot down at the Battle of Malpelo, which earns a Lampshade Hanging as he tries to land close to USS Simms.
• Field Promotion: Originally Seaman Fred Reynolds, a bridge talker (listens to the intercom and relays messages between the Captain and the rest of the ship). Now Lieutenant JG Reynolds, naval aviator.
• Heroic Willpower: He's able to successfully resist Don Hernan's "cleansing", and it's hinted that he was the first person in history to do so. Even better, he manages to fake being indoctrinated for long enough to get himself and Kari-Faask to relative safety, eventually making it all the way back to Second Fleet.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: His first action as a pilot was against Company ships west of Respite. Since his plane was unarmed, he gave it his best shot by firing his .45 from the cockpit, until his last bullet punched a hole through his plane's nose. Afterwards, Jeek and the rest of the deck crew circled his bullet hole and painted a big NO next to it, where he can clearly see it from the cockpit. After that plane is lost, every other plane Reynolds so much as looks at gets the same message painted in the same spot.
• True Companions: With Kari-Faask. They bicker Like an Old Married Couple, but it's obvious they care deeply for each other.

Chief Aviation Bosun's Mate Jeek USN

• Deadpan Snarker
• Tragic Keepsake: After Chief Gray's death in Deadly Shores, Jeek succeeds him as Bosun and reveals that he has learned how to blow a Bosun's Pipe properly (thought to be impossible for Lemurians due to their felinoid cleft lip). Matt knows he should be impressed, but hearing it reminds him too much of Gray. Matt later notices that Jeek carries Gray’s Thompson into battle, and stays at his side whenever there is danger, just as Gray would have.
• You No Take Candle: Jeek doesn't bother to learn English any better, but he's a hell of a mechanic, and a very good CPO. What he lacks in grammar he more than makes up for in volume and profanity.

Ensign Kari-Faask USN

• Despair Event Horizon: After spending weeks in a tiny cage, being gawked at and periodically tortured by the Dominion, she finally loses all hope after seeing that the Dominion has converted Fred Reynolds. Luckily, it turned out to be an act, and she got better after they escaped.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The Doms rip out her canines and claws after she's captured at St. Francis, presumably to make her safer to handle.
• True Companions: With Fred Reynolds. They bicker Like an Old Married Couple, but it's obvious they care deeply for each other.

Commander Simon Herring USN

One of the few surviving Allied prisoners from the "hell ship" Mizuki Maru, Herring is an officer from the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

---

• Actually Pretty Funny: His reaction to being mortally wounded by a spear of all things in 1944.
• Fantastic Racism: When he's first introduced, Herring doesn't think much of Lemurians and is uncomfortable with the fact that the men of Walker, Mahan, and S-19 regard them as equals. He soon gets over it, though.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: At first, but he gets better.
• Redemption Equals Death: He eventually learns to trust Captain Reddy, but takes a spear to the gut on Madagascar and dies right before he can finish conveying crucial information about the kudzu weapon.

Lieutenant Ruik-Sor-Laa USN

Captain of the second USS Simms, a steam frigate “DD” named in honor of Lelaa’s ship.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: One of his hands is shot off at Malpelo. He accepts only basic first aid for the traumatic amputation and continues to fight his ship. He only submits to proper care after the battle is won, and even then Admiral Hibbs has to order him to do so.
• The Captain: Of the second USS Simms.
• The Chains of Commanding: Ruik exposes himself to enemy fire to inspire his crew, as the Captain must never show fear. When Simms can finally take no more, he seizes a surrendered Dominion ship of the line to continue the fight, but is clearly heartbroken at the loss of his ship and so many of his crew. It is quite heartwarming when a ‘cat Sailor risks his life to save the ship’s Colors, presenting them to Ruik to fly from their prize’s mast.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Risks his ship to rescue Fred Reynolds and Kari-Faask when they are forced to ditch their damaged plane at Malpelo. When HIMS Icarus is dismasted and disabled later in the battle, he takes the Imperial frigate in tow rather than leave them at the Dominion’s mercy.

Lieutenant Perry Brister

The engineering officer on Mahan. He temporarily takes command after much of her crew is killed by Amagi, and is later given command of USS James Ellis.

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• Bring Help Back: After Kaufman's mutiny aboard Mahan, he, Mallory, and Signalman Palmer take off in a PBY Catalina to warn Reedy.
• The Engineer: He's Mahan's engineer at the start of the series.
• Ensign Newbie: A young-looking officer.
• Rank Up: He's later promoted to captain of his own ship.
• Uncertain Doom: In "Winds of Wrath", Ellie's bridge is devastated by a direct hit and Ronson Rodriguez feels a cold certainty that no one could have survived, but it's never 100% confirmed that it did kill him in the aftermath of the battle.
• You Are in Command Now: He was the highest survivor of Mahan's original crew (and one of only two surviving officers), although he soon turned over command to Jim Ellis.

Coxswain Tony Scott

An old buddy of Silva's.

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• An Arm and a Leg: He is attacked by a super lizard on Borneo and the others just find his severed leg.
• Ironic Fear: Laney mocks him for being a coxswain who's terrified of the water. It's justified since falling overboard is a death sentence, and Tony continues to do his duty in spite of his fear, and at one point even dives into the sea to rescue Sandra Tucker.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: He's assumed to be dead for several books after being attacked by a super lizard, only to turn up alive, having been living in the jungle and been made king by a nomadic tribe which reintegrates into the Alliance.

United States Marine Corps

Sergeant Pete Alden USMC

Alden was part of the Marine Detachment of the doomed cruiser USS Houston but was sent ashore at Surabaya to be treated for a shrapnel wound. He was picked up from there by Walker before she passed through the squall.

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• Badass Boast: Gives one to some belligerent Fristar warriors after one of them challenges him to a Duel to the Death.
  "We can fight if you want, and I promise you'll be dead so fast you won't even know how it happened. Or you can fight [Chack], if you're afraid of me, but he'll kill you just as fast. Because I taught him how! So what'll it be? You want to die? Or do you want to learn how to really kill?"
• Disney Death: His fate looked uncertain after Esshk launches his yanone weapons (basically the earlier Grik piloted bombs on steroids) at the ship he's on in Lake Galk in Winds of Wrath, but it's mentioned near the end of the book that he survived.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Alden takes this role early on with a cadre of Lemurian warriors, but is soon promoted past it.
• Field Promotion: When the Alliance is formed, Reddy gives Alden a brevet promotion to Captain (Marine O-3, not Navy O-6). Within a few months, he is also appointed General of the Armies of the Alliance with Reddy's approval.
• Innocently Insensitive: When Hij Geerki surrenders at Rangoon, Alden is startled by his written message and quickly asks Lord Rolak if he can read before handing it off. Rolak is mildly annoyed, but recognizes that Alden means no offense, and snarkily replies, "Yes, I can read English."
• Odd Friendship: He is initially assigned to guard captured Japanese Lt. Shinya, and soon befriends the prisoner once Shinya formally gives his parole. He is the first American to do so, or even to call Shinya anything besides "the Jap."
• Semper Fi: Alden is a Marine's Marine.
• Sergeant Rock: Alden lives by the creed of "Every Marine a Rifleman," and he is highly skilled with his rifle and bayonet. With Lt. Shinya, Alden trains the newly-commissioned Lemurian Marines and often leads them in battle.

Captain Bekiaa-Sab-At USMC

Chack's cousin.

• Action Girl: A skilled combatant and gifted leader.
• Rank Up: Becomes the Alliance's military liason with the Republic of Real People.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The siege of North Hill leaves her deeply traumatized. When she rejoins Donaghey's Marine Detachment for the assault on Madagascar, Captain Greg Garrett openly worries about her.
• Tragic Keepsake: Billy Flynn's M1903 rifle.

Captain Blas-Ma-Ar "Blossom" USMC

• Action Girl: Starts off as an enlisted Marine, but rises rapidly through the ranks by personal courage and fighting prowess.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Chief Gray looks out for her after she gets raped in Crusade (he, Donaghey, and Silva killed the rapist for her). He's the one who nicknames her "blossom," and everyone else is not so much surprised by his soft spot for her as they are that he even has any soft spots at all.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: A self-proclaimed "Kard-Karrying-Klansman" from Mahan's crew forced himself on her. He got sentenced to death in an informal trial held by Chiefs Gray and Donaghey, with Silva on hand to carry out the sentence.

Gunnery Sergeant Arnold Horn USMC

An “Old China Marine” of the 4th Marine Regiment (which was deployed to Shanghai from 1920 to 1941 and was the Marine counterpart to the Navy’s Asiatic Fleet). Horn was captured by the Japanese at Bataan and was aboard the “Hell ship” SS Mizuki Maru when she passed through the Squall. Horn was among the few POWs to be rescued by Okada and his lemurian Samurai.

• Disney Death: While assaulting the Celestial Palace, Horn is badly wounded and collapses alongside Silva and a Cat Marine known as "Not-Dewey," leaving Lawrence, Isak, and Laumer to press on by themselves. We later find out that Not-Dewey regained consciousness and saved them both.
• Noodle Incident: He and Silva only hint at the event in China that started their friendship, but apparently Horn is responsible for Silva's missing tooth, and somehow it saved Silva's life.
• Odd Friendship: He hits it off pretty well with Lt. Toryu Miyata while the two of them are recovering on Amerika after the events of Deadly Shores. Possibly Fire-Forged Friends at work here since Miyata and Horn were both part of the small party that made its way to the Celestial Palace in Grik City in order to take out the Celestial Mother.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Horn & Lawrence are both the Blue Oni to Silva's Red, as they're much less prone to cooking up insane plans.

Corporal Ian Miles USMC

Another former POW rescued by Okada from captivity aboard Mizuki Maru.

• It's All About Me: Miles looks out for Number One, period, and has no loyalty to anything beyond his own survival. He later admits that his experience in Japanese captivity made him that way, and deeply regrets it.
• Jerkass: Silva is quite forthright about the fact that he’s considering killing Miles, telling him so to his face. That nobody raises any objections is a great indicator of his behavior towards others.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Miles was captured by the Japanese and survived the Bataan Death March. That atrocity was only the beginning of the hellish and inhuman treatment suffered by American and Filipino prisoners in Japanese hands, and it affected Miles very deeply.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Fighting alongside Silva, Chack, Bradford, and the Shee-Ree tribe—and seeing what the Grik have done to their prisoners—causes him to finally admit what an asshole he’s been. He commits to the Allied cause and volunteers to stay with the Shee-Ree to help lead their guerilla campaign while also building a forward airbase for the Allies.

Other US/Allied Human/Non-Lemurian Personnel

Courtney Bradford

Originally an oil drilling engineer for Royal Dutch Shell, this eccentric Australian is now officially the Grand Alliance's Plenipotentiary-At-Large and Minister of Sciences.

• Action Survivor: He's not a trained soldier but he makes it through more than one battle and ends up with an honorary rank in the Republic of Real People's military.
• The Alcoholic: Goes through a period of this in Crusade, once it sets in that he'll never see his son again, or even know whether or not he survived the war. Matt helps him get past the alcoholism, but he still tends to overdo it during social occasions.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's weird, talks like he went to school at Oxford (probably because he did), and wants to study everything in sight. But they need him, and he wants to help. Sometimes he even exaggerates his weirdness, because he knows some of the guys find it entertaining.
• Deer in the Headlights: On the expedition to kill the superlizard believed to have eaten Tony Scott, Bradford is the only one who didn't fire a shot. The others, including Silva, don't blame him, though. Bradford is no coward, but the superlizard was goddamn terrifying.
  • Later reversed at the Battle of Baalkpan. Bradford is brave enough and knows how to use his rifle, but is not a trained fighting man and is too valuable to risk in close combat. He is assigned to "guard" Sandra Tucker's hospital, where he constantly fidgets with his rifle and clearly feels like he's not pulling his weight, but he maintains his post and helps out with the wounded. When the ramparts are breached, he stands ready to fight, but Alden's troops recover before any Grik reach the hospital. When Sandra finally leaves the hospital to see the returning Walker, Bradford doesn't let her out of his sight, just in case.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Bradford is an intellectual who is a "naturalist" as a hobby. He also was an oil engineer for Royal Dutch Shell. By his own admission, he's not an expert on anything, but "knows a little about quite a lot." He's also willing to admit what he doesn't know, and wants to study everything he sees. His professional and extracurricular knowledge make him indispensable to the destroyermen, even if he is a little weird.
• The Xenophile: It's often joked that everything that's happened since the Squall has been God trying to overwhelm Bradford's curiosity. So far, it hasn't worked.

Lieutenant Tamatsu Shinya IJN

The only survivor from a Japanese destroyer sunk by Walker immediately before entering The Squall, Shinya gave Captain Reddy his official parole and now helps his friend Sergeant Alden train and lead the Lemurian Marines. He graduated UC Berkely before the war and speaks fluent English.

• Awesomeness by Analysis: Shinya learns very quickly, never makes the same mistake twice, recovers quickly in the rare event that he does make a tactical error, and is able to read his opponents like a book. Sharply demonstrated at Guayak, where he kicks the absolute dogshit out of a Dom force that significantly outnumbers his own (though having air support certainly didn’t hurt).
• A Father to His Men: Shinya would gladly lay down his life for any of his Lemurian troops.
• The Chains of Commanding: Has some guilt over having to put soldiers in harm's way (and without sharing the details of the plans with them) where he knows for a certainty that many of them will die, in order to defeat the Dominion. When the time comes to storm the Dom Pope's inner sanctum in Nueva Granada, he joins the assault himself. He takes a severe wound on the way and doesn't make it to the end, but survives.
• Four-Star Badass: Shinya proves to be a remarkably talented commander on land, and is eventually made a General and placed in command of Allied ground forces in the east, reporting directly to CINCEAST Lord High Admiral Jenks.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's not afraid to use distasteful tactics — sacrificing Blas’s Marines in a defensive feint at Fort Defiance, using the Pegadores as Cannon Fodder to protect his more valuable troops, etc — to give his forces an edge against the legions of the Dominion, though doing so clearly takes a toll on him.
• Master Swordsman: Played with. To everyone's surprise, he's not very skilled with a katana. However, he was the captain of the Berkely fencing team and is an expert with a rapier. His weapon of choice is a specially-modified US Navy M1916 cutlass, a gift from Ensign Sandison.
• Noble Demon: The Americans tend to view him this way early on, at least after they stop thinking of him as "the Goddamn Jap." As time passes, he becomes more and more "one of us." Although the terms of his parole stipulated that he would not act against the Japanese military, he is thoroughly committed to the Allied cause and fought valiantly against Amagi. Though he agonized over the decision, he concluded that as an officer of the Emperor's Navy, he is obligated to fight against any and all who would aid the Grik or anybody like them. Later, he is utterly disgusted by the atrocities committed by Hidoiame and wants that ship exterminated as much as anyone.
• Rank Up: Rises through the ranks all the way to general and is essentially the commander-in-chief of Allied land forces in the Dominion theater.

1st Lieutenant Ben Mallory USAAF

An Army P-40 pilot who was being transported to Java aboard the USS Langley when she was torpedoed, Lieutenant Mallory boarded Walker at Surabaya with Bradford, Alden, and the nurses. His skills as an aviator are invaluable.

• Ace Pilot: Mallory is trained to fly P-40 Warhawk fighters. In Books 1-3, though, the only plane in this world is a derelict PBY Catalina seaplane bomber. Despite having never flown one, he is (barely) able to get her airborne, and becomes much more familiar with her through extensive practice.
• Field Promotion: With the 'cats building their own planes and the Alliance establishing an Air Corps, he gets promoted to Colonel (O-6).
• Heroic Sacrifice: Narrowly averted. During the Battle of Baalkpan, Mallory and his PBY crew make a near-suicidal attack on Amagi using depth charges. They barely make it out, and the tired, shot-up PBY finally crashes into the harbor. Mallory, his 'cat copilot, and his 'cat gunners survive.

2nd Lieutenant Orrin Reddy USAAF

Matt Reddy's younger cousin, an Army P-40 pilot who was forced to surrender in the Philippines. He was among the POWs aboard the "hell ship" Mizuki Maru when she crossed over.

• Ace Pilot: To the point where he is considered nigh-indestructible.
• Anti-Nepotism: He refuses to let Matt show him any favoritism, to the point where they never even have a private conversation in the entire series.
• Character Death: His fighter is shot down during the aerial raid on League-held Martinique in Winds of Wrath and crashes into a fuel depot. The explosion takes out the entire dock and creates a fuel crisis for League forces in the region.
• A Father to His Men: Very protective of his aviators, and serious about ensuring they have the best possible chance of survival.
• American Accents: Keeps his Texas accent, even though his family moved to the West Coast.
• In the Blood: Orrin is a lot like Matt in many ways, especially in his devotion to the men and ‘cats he commands.

Sister Audry

A young Dutch Benedictine nun from Java who was one of the refugees aboard the USS S-19.

• Badass Pacifist: She leads Los Vengadores de Dios, but leaves military decisions to Sergeant Koratin and Colonel Garcia, as she knows practically nothing about warfighting and doesn’t claim otherwise. Nevertheless, she insists on accompanying them into battle. Garcia thus insists that she carry a sword and a sidearm for personal defense, while each Redentore soldier of Los Vengadores is sworn to make sure she never has to use them.
• Character Death: She is bayoneted by Blood Drinkers in the Dom Pope's inner sanctum for speaking there (a big no-no for a woman) and for criticizing the Dom faith. Her last moment is to fire her pistol, which she had been carrying for several books and had never even used once, to save Blas. Her death drives Silva into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Good Shepherd: She occasionally butts heads with Bradford over the question of evolution, but is nonetheless a selfless woman of God. Her example inspires the mass-conversion of Dominion POWs, who call her Santa Madre—“Holy Mother”—to Roman Catholicism.
• Messianic Archetype: Inadvertently becomes one, of a sort, to the captured Dominion soldiers. Having been indoctrinated since childhood in the Holy Dominion’s twisted and cruel pseudo-Catholic religion, the POWs not only adopt actual Catholicism, but volunteer to join the fight against the Dominion and its church as Los Vengadores de Dios —The Avengers of God. As far as the Vengadores are concerned, they owe her their very souls for turning them away from the Dom church.
• A Mother to Her Men: Her spiritual leadership and insistence on sharing the risks they take in battle (and as a Badass Pacifist at that) earn the Undying Loyalty of Los Vengadores de Dios. There is nothing they won’t do for La Santa Madre.

Lawrence

A Tagrenesi/Sa'aaran from the South Pacific. Lawrence was shipwrecked and wound up on an island with Princess Rebecca, O'Casey, and the crew of the USS S-19. His people are physically very similar to Grik, but have formed a peaceful society.

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: As a 'Grik-like' being he has these, but keeps the ones on his right hand filed down to make it easier to load his rifle.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Like his buddy Silva, Lawrence adores Princess Rebecca. While he's normally a pretty nice guy, he will do terrible things to anybody who tries to hurt her.
• Sssnake Talk: Lawrence speaks English very well, but can't pronounce sounds that require human lips (mostly letters B, F, M, P, V, and W). This fact tends to frustrate him so he deliberately avoids words requiring those sounds where possible.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lawrence & Gunny Horn are both the Blue Oni to Silva's Red, as they're much less prone to cooking up insane plans.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Silva. He often notes that hanging out with Silva tends to result in him getting shot at with alarming frequency.

Colonel Dalibor Svec

• Colonel Badass
• The Remnant: Svec and his men were members of the Czech Legion, who fought for Tsar Nikolai II against the Germans, were betrayed by Trotsky and the Bolsheviks, and had to fight their way out of Russia to get home. His contingent was on their way to join the rest of the Czech Legion at Vladivostok in 1918 when they crossed over. They eventually teamed up with a band of Lemurians and formed the Brotherhood of Volunteers, waging a guerilla war against the Grik (who didn't even know they existed).

Hij Geerki

A civilian Hij who surrenders to the Allies at Rangoon, becoming Lord Rolak’s "pet Grik."

• Defector from Decadence: Initially surrenders for sake of self-preservation, but becomes genuinely loyal and committed to the Allied cause.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: His English gets better with practice, but his negotiation with other Grik in later books reveals that he’s quite well-spoken in their language.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: By Straits of Hell, Geerki reflects on how disgusted he is to be a member of the same species as the “old” Grik he negotiates with.
• Sssnake Talk: Like Lawrence, he can’t pronounce letters that require lips.

Sergeant "Pokey"

A then-Uul who surrendered to the Allies at Aryaal in "Distant Thunders".

• Undignified Death: In "Pass of Fire", Pokey gets driven mad with lust by the (new) Celestial Mother's pheremones and charges at her, only to be grabbed and decapitated by one of her bodyguards while writhing in "what struck Silva as a decidedly obscene fashion". Out of respect, Chack decides not to report the exact circumstances of his death.
  Silva: They got poor ol' Pokey.
  Cook: How?
  Silva: Well... let's just say he went down hard.
  Chack: Sergeant Pokey was... overwhelmed by the enemy. Let that be the end of it.

Lemurians

High Chief Keje-Fris-Ar/Admiral Keje-Fris-Ar USNR

"I declare Cap-i-taan Reddy is my Brother as surely as any High Chief, and I offer combat to anyone saying he does not deserve to speak."

High Chief of the enormous home ship Salissa (or Big Sal). He and Sky Priest Adar are close friends and allies of Captain Reddy and Walker, and were in fact the first 'Cats to encounter them.

• A Father to His Men
• The Big Guy: Keje is of average height (about 5'7") for a lemurian, but is built like a tank. According to his good friend Matt Reddy, Keje is more like a bear than a cat.
• Four-Star Badass: Whether he's fighting off a Grik boarding party or directing Salissa Home's new cannons, Keje leads from the front, sword in hand. He's also the first Lemurian to officially become an admiral.
• Gunship Rescue: At the Battle of Aryaal, he nearly ran Salissa aground to give fire support with his cannons to the Alliance Army, helping turn the tide at a crucial moment. His fire support, along with the timely arrival of Queen Maraan's Six-Hundred and Lord Rolak's forces, saved Matt's life and won the battle.
• May–December Romance: He strikes up a relationship with Tassanna-Ay-Arracca, who's far younger than him, about halfway through the series.
• You Are Worth Hell: While praying before the Battle of Baalkpan, Adar offers to give up his soul in exchange for the safety of the defenders. Keje immediate makes the same pledge.
  Keje: "Idiot. Do you think I would be separated from you in this life or the next, brother? The boredom would destroy me."

Sky Priest Adar

"I see nothing but the Grik. At night my dreams are haunted by the lower decks of Revenge. The bones, the smells, and the eyes of those still living... Against the fate that awaits our people, [Aryaal] is insignificant. [...] Captain Reddy, you have wronged these chiefs. I alone bear the guilt of perhaps too much zeal for our cause."

The Sky Priest of Salissa Home, lifelong friend of Keje, and a good friend to Matt and his crew. After the deaths of Naga and Nakja-Mur, he becomes High Chief of Baalkpan and chairman of the Alliance as a whole.

• Good Shepherd: Adar is a genuinely good priest by anybody's standards. He's secure enough in his core beliefs to accept that some details of his dogma may need to be adjusted based on scientific discoveries, respect the beliefs of others, and theologically regards Christianity as "sailing a different course to the same destination." His only reservation about the spread of Christianity among Lemurians is that some may not be as tolerant and open-minded as he is.
• Like a Son to Me: Adar has never taken a mate and has no living relatives, but loves Alan Letts, Karen Theimer Letts, and their baby daughter as his surrogate children.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: For the most part, although...
• Revenge Before Reason: ...His single-minded obsession with destroying the Grik has bitten the Alliance in the ass a few times, as demonstrated in the above quote.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Upon discovering the true nature of the Grik and what happened to those unfortunate enough to be captured by them, he swore an oath to exterminate them and ensure that no more Mi-Anakka would suffer that fate ever again.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: At Herring's recommendation, he ordered the creation of a biological weapon based on a deadly kudzu species found on Yap Island, to be used in the event that the fight against the Grik turns into a Hopeless War. If deployed, the weapon has the potential to render entire continents uninhabitable.

Lord Muln-Rolak

Lord Protector of the city-state of Aryaal and commander of its army. He is a legendary warrior in Jaava (Java).

• Four-Star Badass: Rolak is a general from Aryaal's warlike culture. He became a general by leading warriors armed with swords and axes. From the front. He's a guy you really want on your side.
• Honor Before Reason: He frequently makes trips to the front lines, despite Alden's insistence that he remain farther back to get a better perspective of the battle.
• I Owe You My Life: Pledged Aryaal's support for the Alliance at the Battle of Aryaal. Was ordered by his king to go back on his word and withhold Aryaalan reinforcements. Led his loyal troops in a revolt against the king to fight their way out of the city and keep his word. Offered his life to Matt Reddy as reparation for his king's betrayal. Has since become one of the Alliance's top generals. Frequently has to be talked out of volunteering for suicide missions.
• Scars Are Forever: Has many scars all over his body from years of fighting against B'mbaado.
• Worthy Opponent: In Aryaal's many wars with neighboring B'mbaado, he often fought his counterpart, General Haakar-Faask. He remembers Faask fondly, saying that they gave each other plenty of scars over the years, and was proud to fight alongside him against the Grik. Since Faask was killed, Rolak has taken his place as Queen Saafir Maraan's surrogate father figure.
  • He's come to regard General Halik this way.

Queen Protector Safir Maraan

The Orphan Queen of B'mbaado.

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Though she's mostly grown up now, she's called The Orphan Queen for a reason.
• Eye Scream: She loses her right eye defending the new Celestial Mother from General Esshk's Dorrighsti in "Pass of Fire".
• Lady of War: She's renowned for her prowess in both personal combat and field command.
• Like a Son to Me: Orphaned at a young age, she was raised by the legendary B'mbaadan General Haakar-Faask. Since his death, she has developed the same relationship with Faask's lifelong Aryaalan opponent-turned-ally, Lord Protector Muln-Rolak.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Her people were at war with Aryaal when the Grik besieged the latter city. Recognizing the greater threat, she personally led her elite troops to assist her former enemy. She also wastes no time evacuating her city and burning it to the ground upon learning the Grik Grand Swarm is on its way. She also wastes no time getting the Alliance under control after the assassination attempt on Captain Reddy, Alan Letts, and other key Alliance leaders and was nominated Chairman of the Grand Alliance after Letts was confirmed dead.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Her personal guard, "The Queen's Six-Hundred," are an elite fighting force. She usually leads them personally.

Sergeant Koratin

Formerly Lord Koratin, an Aryaalan noble and courtier of King Fet-Alcas. Now an enlisted Marine.

• The Atoner: Koratin used to be neck-deep in the petty intrigues of the Aryaalan royal court, but he always hoped his children would grow up to be better people than he was. He tried to warn the Allied Expeditionary Force about King Rasik-Alcas's plot to sink Walker, but his messengers were all killed along with most of Koratin's retainers when the royal troops came for his head. He left Aryaal with his mate and children aboard Neracca Home when the city was evacuated. A few days later, he saw his family incinerated when Neracca fell under Amagi's guns. Broken with grief, he abandoned his noble titles and enlisted as a Private, fighting with distinction at the Battle of Baalkpan. Now a well-regarded NCO, he has devoted his life to being a better role model to his slain children.
• Heel–Faith Turn: He was one of the first 'Cats to adopt Christianity.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He and a few other Marines from Aryaal deliver some of this to Rasik-Alcas after the son of a bitch is found alive in the ruins of Aryaal. Not right away, of course. Koratin is living proof of the old maxim "Beware the wrath of a patient man." Koratin makes it very clear that everyone in Aryaal could have been saved if not for Rasik's scheming.
• Morality Chain: Koratin loves children, and his Heel–Face Turn is directly tied to his desire to make the world a safer place for them.
• You Are Worth Hell: In "Pass of Fire", the Doms are sending hundreds of Child Soldiers at the advancing allies, and none of the commanders can bring themselves to fire. Koratin, realizing that the entire eastern theatre is at stake, and that he can't allow Blas or Sister Audry to have the blood of children on their hands, fires the cannons himself before charging the Dom lines, effectively damning his soul to the blackest pit of hell.
  He usually hid it well, beneath his gruff facade, but his blinking now betrayed an anguish even deeper than Blas could fathom. She saw him look at Sister Audry, now screaming hysterically for the children to stop, disperse — even as those same children started chanting "Matarlos! Matarlos!" with every step. Koratin's blinking came so fast, Blas caught only impressions of tenderness, appreciation, even sympathy. Then Koratin looked at her and very distinctly blinked protective love — from a doomed spirit that would never touch the heavens.

Moe

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Was known only as "The Hunter" until Silva started calling him Moe. He doesn't even remember his real name.
• Killed Off for Real: Dies in Pass of Fire when Esshk tried to assassinate the Celestial Mother.
• Scarily Competent Tracker

Empire of The New Britain Isles

The Empire was founded by passengers and crew of a convoy of British East Indiamen who crossed over in the 1740s. They established a new government modeled on the early British Parliamentary system in the Hawaiian Islands, and have colonized much of the Eastern and Central Pacific, as well as the west coast of North America from San Diego to Alaska. The Governor-Emperor is a hereditary monarch who rules in the name of the King of England, while sharing legislative power with the Court of Proprietors (analogous to the British House of Lords) and the Court of Directors (analogous to the House of Commons).

Since their arrival on this world, they have independently developed steam engines for their ships and percussion caps for their firearms. The Imperial Navy favors side-paddlewheel propulsion on their otherwise full-rigged sailing ships, but have experimented with screw propellers.

Her Highness Princess Rebecca Anne McDonald

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Becomes the Governor-Empress after her parents are assassinated.
• Friend to All Living Things: First O'Casey, then Lawrence, then the submariners, the destroyermen, the lemurians, and now Petey, the little lizard-bird-thing that's clung to her shoulder since her party was marooned on Yap Island.
• Princess Classic: Despite being the only child of the royal family, she is neither spoiled nor bratty. She is genuinely friendly, kind, caring, and loyal. Almost everybody who meets her adores her, especially Silva and Lawrence. Even when events force her to toughen up, she maintains a heart of pure gold underneath.
  • She gave Lawrence his English Christian name because his Tagranesi given name is unpronounceable to humans. When they meet more of his people, she asks if he would like to go back to his original name. Lawrence refuses, both out of pride for everything he's accomplished as "Lawrence" and out of his genuine affection for "'Rincess 'Ecky."
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She may be only ten years old, but Princess Becky is very smart and mature beyond her years, and she tries hard to be useful.

Commodore Harvey Jenks

An Imperial officer commanding the frigate HIMS Achilles. Becomes the Lord High Admiral after McClain betrays the Empire to the Dominion.

• Bold Explorer: Jenks is a living legend in the Empire for this.
• A Father to His Men: Refuses to land a single man or 'cat in Dominion territory unless he has the ability to pull them out if things go sideways.
• Four-Star Badass: After being promoted to Lord High Admiral and appointed CINCEAST.
• Happily Married: We first meet Mrs. Jenks in New Scotland in Rising Tides. Despite his previous Jerkass behavior, it turns out that he's a very loving and devoted husband. In the Empire's notoriously sexist society, this says a great deal about the man's character.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jenks is not a nice man, but he is a good and honorable man.
  • Chief Gray says he's an asshole. Matt agrees, but qualifies that he's a good asshole.
    • Jenks and Gray have buried the hatchet by the time they reach Respite. The fact that Walker and Achilles fought a major action together against a Company fleet on the way doesn't hurt.
• Master Swordsman: As would be expected of a classical British (or New British) naval officer in the Age of Sail. While ashore on Respite Island in Rising Tides, he takes it upon himself to give fencing lessons to Captain Reddy, who admittedly needs them.
• Smug Snake: His conduct during his first two meetings with Alliance personnel was ... less than polite. He softens up pretty quickly once he gets a close-up look at the Grik and how the Alliance fights them.
• Undying Loyalty: To his lifelong friend Gerald McDonald, and to his new friend Matt Reddy. In Rising Tides, Jenks willingly enters a Duel to the Death against Reed's representative over an insult to Reddy.
  • After her father is assassinated, he displays the same level of devotion to Governor-Empress Rebecca.

Governor-Emperor Gerald McDonald

• The Emperor: He rules the Empire of The New Britain Isles in the name of the King of England. He's also a good guy.
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• We Hardly Knew Ye

Sean "O'Casey" Bates

• Character Death: Killed by Blood Drinkers in the Dom Pope's inner sanctum in the final book.
• Handicapped Badass: Lost his left arm saving Princess Rebecca from a mountain fish. Still not a man to fuck with.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The official story is that Bates was a childhood friend of the Governor-Emperor who wickedly turned against him in rebellion. In truth, his rebellion was against the Company and its subversion of the Imperial government. He always served his country and the Governor-Emperor. With Reed’s treason exposed, the truth finally gets publicized.
• Old Retainer: O'Casey is a lifelong friend of Gerald McDonald and Harvey Jenks. He led a failed rebellion against the New Britain Company's influence over the Imperial government. When her parents are killed, Governor-Empress Rebecca Ann McDonald appoints him Prime Factor of the Empire.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Royal Family. He serves as Princess Rebecca's protector and bodyguard out of loyalty to her father and genuine affection for her.

Commander Walter Billingsly

Officially, he's Jenks' first officer aboard Achilles during her mission to rescue Princess Rebecca. Unofficially, he's a Political Officer whose mission is to acquire her for the Honorable New Britain Company to use against the legitimate government.

• Politically Incorrect Villain: Definitely. This exchange drives it home:

Billingsly: Is that ridiculous ship still there? I believe I gave them fair warning that I did not wish to be pestered again! Open fire!
Captain Lelaa: What! Wait! You said 'the next time', damn you!
Billingsly: When you had the insolence, the gall to raise your speaking trumpet and answer back at me ... at me! You who are not only a lesser species, but a female! That was the next time.

• Unwitting Pawn: He would have been horrified if he knew that the Company was conspiring with the Dominion against the Empire.
• You Are Already Dead: Silva tells him this before the two part company. Billingsly's ship explodes five minutes later, killing him and everyone aboard.

Sir Harrison Reed

Head of the Honorable New Britain Company and senior member of the Court of Proprietors.

• Dirty Coward: Sets up a formal duel between his assassin and Captain Reddy, not wanting to take the risk himself or get his hands dirty in public. When Jenks calls him on it and challenges him to a duel, Reed accepts, then promptly hires a professional swordsman to face Jenks in his place. Once the invasion starts, Reed is found hiding in the Dominion embassy, hoping to escape with Don Hernán.
• The Mole: Reed has expanded the Honourable New Britain Company's influence to the point that they practically own the Imperial government, have Company reps like Billingsley on most Imperial warships, have their own army and navy, and can even legally impress Imperial Navy vessels into Company service on the spot. Very few Company men know that Reed follows the Dominion's religion and is actively assisting their invasion.
• Smug Snake: He has no remorse or introspection about the vast ethical and practical quandaries brought about by his plans.

Republic of Real People

A society of humans and Lemurians who thrive in the bitter cold of South Africa, where the climate keeps the Grik at bay. Their technology is roughly on par with the 1910s.

• Giving Radio to the Romans: Literally. Their government and military are heavily influenced by the Romans. Their leader's title is Caesar, their soldiers are Legionaries, their uniform is a modernized form of lorica segmentata, and they have radios, steam engines, and bolt-action centerfire rifles.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The Gentaa, who are supposedly descended from Chinese castaways and Lemurians inhabiting southern Africa. Although Bradford suggests in Blood in the Water that they are really just a separate species (possibly from yet another alternate world), believing that humans and Lemurians are simply not capable of producing offspring.
• The Multiverse: Their human members come from multiple societies, including Germans, Britons, Koreans, and Romans. The Brits and Germans are confirmed to be from another alternate universe. The Romans were a Legion who appeared in South Africa in the 11th Century, 600 years after the empire fell and 3000 miles south of the deepest part of Africa any Roman ever laid eyes on. It's safe to say they didn't come from our world.

Caesar/Kaiser Nig-Taak

• Reasonable Authority Figure: Wants to aid the Allies, but is mindful of the League’s threat to his own people.

Kapitan Zur See Adler von Melhausen

• A Father to His Men: The old man has a kindly disposition that has always endeared him to his crew, and was also unfailingly chivalrous to British sailors his ship captured in the Great War, with some of them now serving in his crew. And, kind old man that he is, if you threaten his ship, his crew, or his passengers, he will either kill you or spend his last breath going for your throat. The men and ‘cats of Amerika adore him for it.
• The Captain: Commanding officer of SMS Amerika. Now a trusted advisor of Kaiser Nig-Taak.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: When Savoie intercepts Amerika and takes Sandra, Adar, Lange, Horn, and Diana hostage, Von Melhausen utterly snaps. Slipping into an episode of dementia, apparently coupled with a stroke, he mentally reverts back to 1915. He takes the helm, orders his gun crews to engage the French battleship, and tries to ram it with his armed passenger liner. He almost succeeds before Savoie's 13.5-inch guns find their mark. Unfortunately, Amerika is also carrying 3,000 wounded men and ‘cats from the Battle of Grik City, most of whom go down with the ship.
• Exact Words: He assures a worried Lange, “Don’t worry about me, Becker. I will live as long as this ship lives!” Actually, his ship outlives him by about a minute.
• Father Neptune: Old man: check. Spent most of his life on the water: check. Badass beard: check.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Von Melhausen is a professional officer who was already well-respected in Kaiser Wilhelm's navy before he came to this world. Since then, he has earned the Undying Loyalty of not only his German crew, but also the captured British sailors who crossed over with them. Unfortunately, he has also lost a step or two in his old age. Kapitanluetnant Becker Lange repeatedly states that Von Melhausen is truly a great man, even as he has to pick up the elderly captain's slack.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: In Blood in the Water, he pits Amerika against a League battleship. It goes about as well as you'd expect. In fairness, he clearly wasn’t in his right mind at the time.

Kapitanleutnant Becker Lange

• The Multiverse: Crossed over during WWI aboard the SMS Amerika, from another universe besides the one the Americans and Japanese came from.
• Undying Loyalty: He ends up having to compensate for his captain's increasingly-frequent bouts of senility, and sounds genuinely heartbroken when he insists that Von Melhausen is still a great man in spite of it.

General Marcus Kim

Inquisitor Kon-Choon

• Non-Answer: His default response to any question. Greg Garrett and Bekiaa-Sab-At discuss whether or not this behavior is deliberate or just a habit he picked up from his career.
• The Spymaster: Head of the Republic's intelligence service.

Lieutenant "Doocy" Meek

• Defeat Equals Friendship: Formerly a junior officer on a British ship sunk by the SMS Amerika in WWI, captured by the Germans. Now a line officer of the Republic under Kapitan Von Melhausen, loyal to Kaiser Nig-Taak.

Japanese Imperial Navy

Captain Hisashi Kurokawa IJN

Captain of the battlecruiser HIMS Amagi.

• Axe-Crazy: There's nothing he won't do to achieve his goals. Murdering civilians by the thousands, handing his own men over to the Grik butchers to save his own hide, and performing brutal experiments on Grik "volunteers" are just means to an end for him.
• Big Bad: Of the Grik front, if not the whole series.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Which makes his horrific fate in Devil's Due all the more fitting: shot twice (non-fatally), and then infected by the Alien Kudzu from Yap Island.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: His ultimate goal is to supplant the Celestial Mother and seize control of the Grik Empire (and by extension, the whole alternate Earth). All in the name of His Majesty, Emperor Hirohito, of course.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Also the The Strategist: Actually, he is clearly a more competent strategist than his opponents, and his plans rarely fail because of his mistakes. All his most crushing defeats are caused by a lack of correct information about the enemy capabilities.
• Evil Counterpart: To Captain Reddy. While Reddy is A Father to His Men who fights to ensure the safety of his crew, friends and allies, Kurokawa is a Bad Boss who holds his crew in disdain and fights only for himself.
• Evil Genius: Very much of this, considering how much he was able to accomplish in a short time with very limited resources.
• Heel Realization: By Devil's Due he's finally begun to recognize what a piece of work he is, and even muses that he probably should have teamed up with Reddy against the Grik from the beginning. By that point, though, Reddy's fleet is practically knocking on his door so he resolves to see his war through to the end.
• I Have Your Wife: The League turns Sandra and a few other prisoners over to Kurokawa in Blood in the Water, which he initially plans to use to lure Reddy to a final, decisive battle at Zanzibar. It's heavily subverted, though: Sandra knowns Reddy's been hardened enough not to come until he's ready, and convinces Kurokawa as much. And when the battle for Zanzibar is all but over, Kurokawa actually plans to return her to her husband, unharmed, in return for amnesty.
• It's All About Me: As noted above, he's only interested in gaining power for himself.
• Jerkass: He's pretty much the boss from Hell.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: He's very much a sadist, and had to make a conscious effort not to burst out laughing during Tsalka's torturous execution. General Esshk picks up on this and is very disturbed by it.
• Mad Scientist: He performed a number of excruciating experiments on Grik "volunteers" in an attempt to make them better fighters.
• The Neidermeyer: He flies off the handle at the slightest criticism, to the point where few dare to question his plans even when said plans are fundamentally flawed and/or directly set up to improve his own status at the cost of his own people. Pretty much all of his men hate his guts, but they're too afraid of him to do anything about it.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He has no qualms with inflicting this on his test subjects and "traitors" among his crew.
• Omnicidal Maniac: In spades. He regards his crew with utter disdain, frequently calls them traitors and cowards, and considers them expendable, and detests his Grik allies and considers them disposable. He hates Americans and holds a personal grudge against Walker and hates the Lemurians because they're allied with the Americans.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He blames Walker and Mahan for stranding him in the alternate world, and has every intention of making them pay for it.
• The Starscream: Constantly to his Grik "superiors". Even in his dying thoughts he expects Reddy to rescue him and take him prisoner, and plans to prove just how loyal and useful he can be... until the right time.
• We Have Reserves: He doesn't usually have a lot of assets at his disposal, but when he does he's perfectly willing to use up as many of them as he needs to achieve his immediate goals. The attack on Task Force Alden, for example, costs him two of his three brand-new aircraft carriers (and several of his most experienced officers), but he still views the operation as a success because he's proven the Alliance has lost its air superiority.
• Worthy Opponent: He starts to grudgingly respect Reddy as time goes on, eventually prompting a brief Heel Realization in Devil's Due.

Commander Sato Okada IJN

Executive Officer of the HIMS Amagi.

• Defector from Decadence: He can't stomach the thought of genuinely aiding the Grik as his captain is willing to do (even if it's just for his own interests).
• Honor Before Reason: While he's more than willing to tell the Alliance all he knows about Kurokawa and the Grik, he refuses to join the Alliance outright because technically, America and Japan are still at war. He has a change of heart after a new Japanese destroyer crosses over and he discovers what that war is turning his people into.
• Killed Off for Real: Dies in Iron Gray Sea when Mizuki Maru was sunk by Hidoaime.
• Master Swordsman: After being captured at Baalkpan, Okada settles down in Japan with a handful of other Amagi survivors and a large population of nonaligned Lemurians, establishing the neutral Shogunate of Yokohama. He establishes a Samurai class among his followers and trains them in the use of the sword. Sadly, it doesn't do his Lemurian Samurai much good when HIMS Hidoiame shows up with automatic weapons.
• Only Sane Man: While certainly not the only one who despises working with the Grik, most of the other crewmen are convinced Kurokawa knows what he's doing (despite clear evidence to the contrary).
• Token Good Teammate: He's the only Amagi crew member who's willing to go behind his captain's back to do the right thing, even though Kurokawa would kill him (at best) if he ever found out.

General Orochi Niwa

Originally the officer in charge of Amagi's detachment of the Special Naval Landing Force (commonly known then and now as the "Imperial Marines"). After Amagi is sunk, he is made a general and tasked with helping train a new Grik army capable of defense as well as offense.

• Anti-Villain: Has become this, along with Halik, in Blood In the Water. Niwa leads Halik to understand (though Halik was already well on his way already) that Halik’s “Hatchling Host” army is not just an expendable tool for Esshk and/or Kurokawa to use and discard, but the future of the Grik race and the proof that they can be so much more than they have been.
• Death Equals Redemption: After being mortally wounded by a sniper, he warns Halik that Kurokawa is plotting to overthrow the Celestial Mother. He's saved by Alliance field medics, however, and he ends up returning to the Grik simply because he has nowhere else to go.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He hates Kurokawa and the Grik, but still feels obligated to obey his captain.
• Odd Friendship: He and General Halik gradually become close friends, even though the concept of friendship itself is almost completely alien to Halik.

Lieutenant Hideki Muriname IJN

Formerly Amagi's senior scout plane pilot, Kurokawa has tasked him with building an air force to match the Allies.

• Beleaguered Assistant: To Kurokawa
• Enemy Mine: With Kurokawa dead, he realizes he can't serve the Grik anymore, as they are likely to get rid of him when he's no longer necessary to their "Great Hunt". He opts to try to contact the Alliance and offer his services (and his bombers) to them.
• The Smart Guy: While all of the surviving Japanese personnel have helped drive the Grik’s technological advancement, Muriname has been handed the most difficult problem requiring the most innovation, and he delivers.

Grik Empire / Celestial Realm

A massive empire stretching from East Africa all the way to India. It is inhabited by a race of raptor-like saurians covered in down-like fur and picnofibres called the Grik, or Gharrichk'k. They are intelligent (if properly educated), but also naturally very aggressive.

---

• Balkanize Me: As of "Pass of Fire", they've split into two blocs: the loyalists led by Jash and the new Celestial Mother, who have joined the Alliance, and General Esshk's Dorrighsti, who have retreated to the north of Africa following the fall of Sofesshk to continue the fight.
• Bee People: Grik society has a lot in common with popular depictions of an insect colony, with hordes of expendable, barely-sentient Uul toiling at the behest of a smaller number of intelligent Hij. Their architecture also has a lot of hive-like features, with their largest structures resembling termite colonies.
• Creative Sterility: Grik aren't particularly imaginative creatures, preferring to copy technology captured from others when the opportunity presents itself. Even with Kurokawa and his officers sharing their technology and tactics, it's a very slow transition and many of Grik simply fail to adapt fast enough for it to make a meaningful difference.
• Decadent Court: Regent-Consorts, the Lord Chooser, the First General, and other top Hij constantly vie for favor and influence with the Celestial Mother, and First General Esshk has risen handily to the top of the pile.
• The Dreaded: They've been the Lemurians' boogeymen for generations, and it isn't until Walker starts teaching them how to fight that this changes.
• Eaten Alive: How they prefer to eat their captives. Also how they execute traitors.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Uul are workers and cannon fodder, while the Hij are rulers, officers, technicians, shipwrights, etc. Uul are barely sentient, though they gain intelligence and awareness with age, with the lucky ones being elevated to Hij status once they are deemed ready (most are instead fed to younger Uul). Many lower-level Hij, including industrial professionals, are elevated Uul. Others are selected for immediate elevation when they are hatched, including nearly all rulers and senior officers.
• The Horde: Grik attacks usually take the form of hundreds of Screaming Warriors slaughtering everything in their path and burning entire settlements to the ground, taking only enough prisoners to feed them for the return trip.
• It's Personal: They're gunning hard for the Lemurians because they were the only prey to ever escape extinction at their hands.
• Medieval Stasis: The Grik have been fighting with swords and shields (and tooth and claw) for countless generations, and thanks to their Creative Sterility, they only advance when they capture something worth reverse-engineering.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: They'll happily devour each other if nothing better is available. Many of the higher-ups eat their own young as a status symbol.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their maws are packed with so many teeth as to look almost cartoonish.
• Precursor Worship: They revere the beings who once inhabited Africa and India as "Vanished Gods", and believe that they will return once the world has been cleansed of all Worthy Prey.
• Proud Hunter Race: Their culture revolves around an endless hunt for Worthy Prey around the world.
• Raptor Attack: Heavily implied to be descended from Deinonychus, or a similar raptor species.
• Red Is Violent: Their ships are painted crimson, reflecting their murderous culture.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Although they're actually more closely-related to birds, they look like lizards, and their rabid ferocity make them quite abhorrent indeed.
• Space-Filling Empire: Spans the East African coast all the way to Mozambique, Arabia, Persia, Madagascar, India, and are pushing through Southeast Asia by the time the series starts.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Grik hunting parties instinctively attack any target that they perceive as "prey", no matter how outnumbered or unprepared they are for such a fight.
• War for Fun and Profit: When not engaged in genocidal expansionist invasions, or "hunts," Grik regencies will often fight each other to satisfy their Uul's aggression and as a means of population control. These "wars of sport" are considered friendly affairs and are arranged by the Regent-Consorts of the involved regencies.
• We Have Reserves: Their military doctrine, if you can call it that, emphasizes numbers and spectacle over precision and efficiency. They can always make more Uul, after all.
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men: Downplayed on the "iron men" bit — Grik are pretty much expendable — but their ships are made of wood and based on an Indiaman they captured in the eighteenth century.

Regent-Consort Tsalka

• Eats Babies: Grik babies. Apparently that's a thing for the Hij ruling class.
• Ironic Death: He's executed via the "Traitor's Death": tied down and eaten alive by Grik hatchlings.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: He can't stand the thought of losing his regency to "prey", and constantly urges the Celestial Mother to divert more forces to defend India. When he finally convinces her to do so, and it not only fails miserably but exposes Kurokawa's zeppelin program to the Alliance, he's put to death.

First General Esshk

• Ace Custom: His personal airship is painted black so it can travel unseen at night.
• Ambition Is Evil: Following the fall of Madagascar and the death of the Celestial Mother, he and the Chooser begin consolidating their own power behind the new CM's back.
• The Chessmaster: He's very good at manipulating friend and foe against each other within the Grik power structure. Especially good at manipulating Kurokawa, who knows it and freaking hates it.
• Devoured by the Horde: In "Winds of Wrath", he gets ripped apart and Eaten Alive by his own starving troops.
• Functional Genre Savvy: Recognizes that the old ways don’t work anymore and innovation is the key to victory.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Considered Kurokawa to be an asshole from day one. Esshk now adds "sick, twisted bastard" to his assessment of the Japanese captain.
  • One of Kurokawa's experiments involved testing whether Grik "prey" hatchlings would defend their mother from their more aggressive siblings. While the experiment is successful, the Grik female is horribly mauled. A sickened Esshk notes that her fate is alarmingly similar to the "Traitor's Death" and points out that she has done nothing to deserve it. It seems as if he's trying not to puke.
• Taking You with Me: When it becomes clear his Renegade Splinter Faction can't defeat the Allies, he blows up the ancient locks holding back Lake Galk, flooding much of the battlefield as well as everything downriver, including Old Sofesshk.
• The Man Behind the Man: Sets himself up to be this with the new Celestial Mother.
• Uriah Gambit: When Regent-Consort Ragak opposes his reforms (and his influence over the new Celestial Mother), Esshk sends him to lead an army of "old" Grik against the Allies in Madagascar both to rid himself of an opponent and to wear down Reddy’s forces. Ironically, after Ragak dies in the attempt, Esshk notes that his tactics were actually very good and he would have made him a proper general had he survived.

General Halik

A recently-elevated Hij general, charged with raising the new Grik army with the help of General Niwa.

• A Father to His Men: The Grik equivalent. He's much more careful with his troops than usual, if only because they're much more valuable than the typical Uul warrior.
  • He has explicitly become this as of Blood in the Water, to the point where he goes to war with a Grik Regent to protect their right to exist.
• Anti-Villain: In Blood In the Water, Halik not only starts a civil war to save his veteran army from traditionalist Grik leaders who believe they must have “turned prey,” but cuts ties with Kurokawa and Esshk in the hope that he, his army, and the Grik refugees with them can create a new, more advanced, more civilized society. By Winds of Wrath, he agrees to side with the Allies against Esshk so long as his new regency of Persia is independent of the Celestial Realm while still acknowledging the Celestial Mother as their sovereign.
• Character Development: From mere gladiator to dangerous enemy leader to Worthy Opponent to Anti-Villain.
• Token Heroic Orc: The closest thing to this the Grik are capable of producing.
• Would Hurt a Child: Before his elevation to Hij status, Halik was a gladiator. He knows that two of the opponents he slaughtered in "sport fights" were his own sons. He was barely aware of it at the time, and it doesn't seem to bother him much now. The very concept of parenthood barely exists in Grik culture.

The Celestial Mother

The Grik Empress, revered as a god-like figure.

• Adipose Rex: She's so fat she can't even leave her throne.
• A God Am I: The Grik revere her as a god-empress, and though quite intelligent, she lets it go to her head.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Orders the evacuation of her sisters upon being told that an attack on the palace is imminent (although this also has pragmatic goals to see that the empire will continue).
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Refuses to believe the Alliance poses a real threat to the Grik, despite constantly losing ground to them. When Laumer's team storms her throne room in Deadly Shores, she calmly orders them to kneel before her, not understanding they aren't interested in worshiping her. Isak shoots her in the face.

The Second Celestial Mother

The second Grik Empress after her predecessors' demise.

• Adipose Rex: Not to the extent of the previous Celestial Mother, but she is still quite big.
• Defector from Decadence: She sides with the Allied Powers after recognizing that the Grik have to reform and Esshk failed assassination attempt against her.
• Redeeming Replacement: She has a much keener grasp of military matters, develops a sense of loyalty towards her people, and is even willing to make peace with the humans and their allies and halt the hunting swarms.
• Walking Spoiler: Her mere existence gives away the fact that her sister, the "first" Celestial Mother, dies midway through the series.

Ign

A general who works with Esshk in the latter half of the series.

• A Father to His Men: He manages to form some connections with lesser Grik under him and is reluctant to throw away their lives. Also giving them his blessings to join Jash while dying.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He questions many of Esskh's strategies but follows him dutifully and with some resignation.
• Redemption Equals Death: Of a sort. In Winds of Wrath, he dies fighting Esshk's Dorrighsti Grik after they start killing his army, telling Jash that he wished to see the new world despite not having a place for himself there and gives Jash command of his army before he expires.

The Chooser

A member of the royal court who decides which hatchlings and elderly are kept alive.

• Corrupt Politician: He's a sleazy figure who wields political power amongst the empire.
• The Corruptor: He's the one to get Esshkh thinking about Taking over the Empire.
• Dirty Coward: He easily panics and strives to avoid risks to his life or power.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: He has little to no personal loyalty.
• Redemption Equals Death: An ambiguous example. He dies protecting the new Celestial Mother from assassins but it's unclear if this was still self-serving.

Jash

A recently hatched fighter who, through survival skills and ingenuity, rises through their ranks in the final books.

• Conflicting Loyalty: Between Ign and the Celestial Mother in the final book. He chooses the Celestial Mother, although he hopes to convince Ign to make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Rank Up: He goes from just a commander of one hundred to "First Colonel" of the Grik swarms.
• Token Heroic Orc: Like Halik, he is willing to adapt his line of thinking and develop a feeling of loyalty towards other Grik soldiers, while gradually finding it harder to hate the humans.

Holy Dominion

A theocratic dictatorship founded by Spaniards and indigenous Mexican tribesmen aboard a fleet of treasure galleons that crossed over some time in the 16th Century. Their empire stretches from Mexico to at least as far south as Colombia, maybe farther. Their state religion bears superficial resemblance to Catholicism, but has far more in common with old Mesoamerican beliefs, placing heavy emphasis on Human Sacrifice and slavery, with lots of extra sadism.

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• Corrupt Church: Even the most lapsed Catholic among the Americans considers them heretics. Actual Catholics on New Ireland suffer horribly under Dom occupation.
• Creepy Crosses: Their state symbol is a cross wrapped in barbed wire.
• Enemy Civil War: It turns out that some of the Dominion's population are "Jaguar cultists" who keep their forefathers' animistic beliefs. They are persecuted by the Dom church, and at any given time are about a heartbeat away from open rebellion, but can't hope to match the might of the Dominion military. Even so, a low-level insurgency is active in Nueva Grenada, with covert assistance from the New United States of America. Upon seeing Lemurians for the first time, they consider them to be some kind of divine messengers or angels.
  • Blood In the Water reveals that there is also an underground movement of Catholics in northern Colombia who fight alongside the Jaguar cultists.
• God Is Evil: Their interpretation of the almighty is decidedly Old Testament.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: It's commonly agreed that, as horrible as the Grik are, the Doms are worse simply because they're human beings who should know better.
• Human Sacrifice: Practiced on a ghoulish scale, with hundreds or more gruesomely killed each day. Depending on who you ask, this is done to either stave off God's wrath, or celebrate the Doms' own devotion to him.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Imagine the worst, most exaggerated horror stories about the Spanish Inquisition. Yeah, the Doms are worse. And that's on a good day.
• Misery Builds Character: Exaggerated and played for horror. They belive that emulating the suffering of Christ is the only way to earn grace and be accepted into Heaven, and they're more than willing to "redeem" nonbelievers by subjecting them to unspeakable torture.
• No Woman's Land: Women in the Dominion are not treated well. The lucky ones get sold into Indentured Servitude in the New Britain Isles; the rest can expect to live short, bleak lives as slaves before inevitably being used as Human Sacrifices.
• The Theocracy: Their whole civilization is built around a Religion of Evil.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Doms consider Lemurians animals, and refuse to even acknowledge that they are at least as intelligent as the average human.
• Would Hurt a Child: Children aren't exempt from any of the above, and in at least one instance, a group of them are used as human shields to protect the Doms' Elite Mooks.
• 0% Approval Rating: The further out from the capital, the more readily the Dominion citizenry defects to the approaching Allied army. Apparently daily human sacrifices aren't a great way to foster loyalty in the general population.

Don Hernan DeDivino Dicha

A Blood Cardinal and the Dominion ambassador to the Empire of the New Britain Isles.

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• Big Bad: Of the eastern front.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To His Supreme Holiness, who is unable to take an active role in the planning and execution of the war.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's a sadistic man who dismisses any noble impulses as "heresy".
• Expy: He's pretty much the R-rated version of Judge Claude Frollo.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's impeccably polite and acts chummy even as he's talking about seeing people as subhuman or indulging in mis tortue and executions.
• For the Evulz: His only apparent motivation for torturing Kari-Faask during her captivity. He didn't ask her any questions, and wouldn't even acknowledge that she clearly speaks English.
• Karma Houdini: While his power base is utterly broken and the entire country turns against him he ultimately escapes with his life in the final book and remains as unflappable as ever.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Even by Dom standards, Don Hernan is quite the sadist, and delights in redeeming the souls of heretics via Cold-Blooded Torture.
• The Man Behind the Man: He was responsible for everything the Honorable New Britain Company was doing, even if most of its members didn't know it.
• Never My Fault: He has General Nerino Impaled with Extreme Prejudice for failing to take Fort Defiance in Straits of Hell, the fact that said failure was largely due to his own Glory Hounding notwithstanding.
• Overly Long Name: It partially translates as "divine happiness".
• Pedophile Priest: Keeps multiple young teenage girls as slaves. Constantly naked slaves. Do the math.
• The Remnant: Even after the fall of New Granada in "Winds of Wrath", he plans to flee south and rally of the rest of the Dominion against the Allies, with Gravois' help.
• Sinister Minister: Smugly insists that everything he does is God's will. Even the most lapsed Catholics aboard Walker call him a sick heretic.
• We Can Rule Together:
  • He tries to groom Fred Reynolds as his protige after capturing him at St. Francis. When Fred refuses, Don Hernan tries to forcibly convert him to the "true faith" via Cold-Blooded Torture.
  • Toward the end of the series, he makes an offer to Gravois to begin merging their two nations into one, combining Dom fanaticism with the League's technology and industrial base to create a regime that can crush the world beneath their heels, with the two of them calling all the shots. Gravois recognizes this for the Deal with the Devil that it is, but nonetheless accepts.
• Would Hurt a Child: Sexually assaults his slave girls (average age: 14), and personally murders them before fleeing the New Britain Isles.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Say what you will about Don Hernan, he is amazingly good at manipulating events to serve his own interests. In "Winds of Wrath", he easily out-gambits Gravois and Ciano, and manages to escape with his life — and Gravois, now his slave in all but name — with plans to rebuild the Dominion in South America.

His Supreme Holiness, Messiah of Mexico, and, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the World

The Dominion's pope. Worshipped as a God-Emperor.

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• The Alcoholic: Subverted. Dominion Popes are kept in a perpetual state of drunkenness to keep them tied to the mortal world. The current pope, however, is capable of making rational decisions in spite of his stupor.
• Obliviously Evil: He's genuinely confused and terrified when the Allies storm his inner sanctum in "Winds of Wrath", believing that such a thing should be impossible.
• Puppet King: Don Hernan has been calling the shots for a while, and is quite good at manipulating His Supreme Holiness into doing what he wants.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Lampshaded by Courtney Bradford.
  Bradford: "The whole world? How impressive!"

General Ghanan Nerino

A "hereditary commander" who has been in charge of the Dominion's Army of the South since he was twelve years old. Despite over four decades of command experience, he has never fought a real battle against a real army.

• A Father to His Men: After a peasant girl in Chimborazo nurses his burns, he becomes much more compassionate towards his men and doesn’t want to see them slaughtered in pointless human-wave attacks or tortured to death for retreating.
• General Failure: At the Battle of Guayak, his army outnumbers Shinya's mixed American-Lemurians-Imperial-Dominion rebel force by at least four to one. Shinya hands him his ass. It happens again at Fort Defiance, but that one may have been Don Hernan's fault.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Throughout Straits of Hell it's made clear that he's reconsidering the Dominion's religion (or at least, Don Hernan's extra-sadistic interpretation of it). This is rendered moot when Don Hernan has him Impaled with Extreme Prejudice for his failure to take Fort Defiance.
• Ignored Expert: Don Hernan ignores his best advice, which results in defeat.
• Taught by Experience: Nerino is very intelligent and learns from his mistakes almost as well as Shinya.

New United States

A nation founded by three US Navy ships sailing to Mexico City in 1847 during the Mexican-American War. Known as "Los Diablos del Norte" by the Holy Dominion for invading and capturing their original capital in Mexico Valley, the ships sailed to North America with several Dominion refugees and settled along its Gulf Coast. They have since occupied what would be Texas up to the Rio Grande River, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, parts of Mississippi state and have since captured Cuba from the Dominion in the 1920s. It is a democratic nation with up to mid-19th century technology. Their ships are wooden steam-sail hybrids like the Empire of New Britain except they use screw propellers, their ships are fuelled by oil and are armed with muzzle-loading rifled cannons.

Captain Samuel Anson

An NUS officer and expert spymaster who is legendary within the NUS military. He saved Fred and Kairi from Dominion captivity at the end of Iron Gray Sea and has been their close contact and friend ever since.

• Character Death: Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by Blood Drinkers in the Dom Pope's inner sanctum in the final book.
• The Spymaster: His main job, as well as an insurgent leader in the Holy Dominion.

League of Tripoli

A fascist state founded by a large multinational invasion force from the fascist Confederation Etats Souverains (Confederation of Sovereign States) alliance, comprised of French, Spanish, Italian, and German forces from another alternate universe. Their fleet passed through a Squall in the Mediterranean city of Tripoli in 1939 while on their way to invade British-held Egypt and sent to this world along with a large part of Tripoli itself. They are the most advanced military force in this world and seek to manipulate all possible opponents to ensure that no one can ever challenge their dominance.

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• The Empire: The most straightforward example in the series, being a repressive fascist state that includes literal Nazis in their ranks. Slightly deconstructed, however, in that they haven't quite sorted out what their goals are aside from consolidating power in the Mediterranean and ensuring that the Allies and the Grik don't become powerful enough to challenge them. Some Leaguers, like Gravois, advocate for a more aggressive, expansionist foreign policy, while others are content to maintain the current status quo for the time being.
• Evil Is Sterile: Of a sort. Since their conquest of the Mediterranean was largely unopposed due to their technological superiority, most League capital ships are in a state of disrepair due to lack of maintenance, and they've made little attempt to build more. Also their infrastructure and industrial capacity is markedly inferior to the Alliance.
• French Jerk: Many of their leaders are French, and they’re all pricks.
• Greater-Scope Villain: They're shaping up to be the Alliance's biggest threat. While the series ends with an armistice between them, nobody expects it to last for more than a generation.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Their modus operandi. They generally aren't willing to actually fight the Alliance or the Grik, so they instead conspire to ensure the war between them is mutually destructive.
• Putting on the Reich: In their universe, the rise of Bolshevism was quickly stamped out by aggressive fascist/nazi movements in continental Europe, who seized power and formed an alliance against the remaining free powers: the UK, the United States, and Russia (which never became the Soviet Union). Ironically, Nazi Germany is a lesser player in the club, subject to the whims of Paris, Rome, and Madrid, which irks the Germans to no end.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: Unlike the Grik and the Dominion, who have to rely on superior numbers (or a more-advanced patron) to counteract the Allies, the League's military is modern, experienced, and well-equipped by WWII standards, though their industrial capacity is far less than what the Allies can achieve. This effectively reverses the Quantity vs. Quality dynamic the Allies are used to, forcing them to send dozens of "good enough" ships to engage the League at St. Vincent, with the expectation that most of them won't make it home.

Contre Admiral Raoul Laborde

Commanding officer of the battleship Savoie.

Capitaine de Fregate Victor Gravois

The League’s envoy to Kurokawa, and later to Don Hernan.

• Ambition Is Evil: He secretly wants to take control of the League for himself, believing the Triumvate that runs it is inefficient and cannot rule effectively.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Makes a show of smoking cigarettes made of real tobacco (nonexistent in this world) to show off the League’s superiority.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He finds the Dominion and its practices absolutely horrifying, even as he grudgingly negotiates a treaty with them.
• French Jerk: He's very sarcastic and condescending to Reddy and the rest of the Alliance, and only slightly less so to prospective allies such as Kurokawa.
• Villainous Breakdown: He suffers multiple ones throughout the final book as he sees the true might of the Alliance and becomes more dependent on Don Hernan just to survive.

Ships

Warning: Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the series, some of the ship names may spoil character deaths.

USS Walker, DD-163

A Wickes-class destroyer launched in 1918. In the real world she never saw action and eventually became a damage-control hulk, scuttled in December 1941, but in the series she was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet and participated in the Battle of the Java Sea before being swept to the alternate Earth by the Squall.

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• Cool Ship
• Back from the Dead: The ship is sunk during her final battle with Amagi, but eventually raised and repaired.
• Dented Iron: The ship keeps going despite severe damage. She even gets sunk at the end of the third book, but is refloated and put back in service. Baalkpan Navy Yard soon develops the capacity to fix just about anything (they actually start building new Wickes-class destroyers!), but Walker is usually far, far away from those facilities when she needs them most.
• The Dreaded: Has become this to the Grik by Straits of Hell. The captain of the Grik flagship is driven into a panic when the destroyer shows up to intercept his hundred-ship task force.
  Shipmasters and their officers, as a separate class of Hij and as required by their trade, were particularly social creatures. Other Hij—generals, engineers, artisans of every sort, even choosers—jealously guarded their methods and thoughts to promote their own value, but shipmasters had to share their knowledge of the sea, the weather, and the meticulously crafted charts they were taught to make. They also shared tales of places they'd been, shores they'd seen—and enemies they'd fought. That information spread much more widely than any passed by comparatively insular regency generals, and the one ship that had entered the collective nightmares of Grik shipmasters everywhere, particularly those still commanding the hopelessly outdated "Indiamen", was USS Walker.
• Heroic RRoD: As the Battle of the Go Away Strait develops, Walker is hundreds of miles to the north. Tabby finds a serious problem with one of the steam condensers that threatens to ruin the three remaining^note  The Number One Boiler was long since converted into a fuel tank boilers unless they are taken offline to fix the condenser. With Jarrik-Fas' task force heavily engaged and badly outnumbered, Reddy decides that there’s no time. Furthermore, high-speed maneuvering in heavy seas causes the steering engine to break down, crippling the destroyer’s handling. When the battle is over, one of the boilers is ruined, another only narrowly saved but taken offline for repairs, severely limiting her speed. The boiler can be replaced at Baalkpan, but that’s unfortunately 4,000 miles away, and there’s plenty of enemies in between...
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Woefully outdated by WWII standards, but kicks ass against the primitive sailing ships of the Grik and the Dominion. After a few refits, she's even a match for modern warships like Hidoiame.
• What a Piece of Junk: As of the start of the series, her overall condition can be charitably described as "functional". More than twenty years old, she's spent much of her career serving in the long-neglected Asiatic Fleet and is pretty much held together by prayers and foul language, and that's before she narrowly survived two crushing defeats at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Despite this, she and her crew keep her running as smoothly as they can under the circumstances, and even inflict a few Curb Stomp Cushions to the IJN.
• The Worf Effect: She's more powerful than anything the Lemurians ever imagined, but she gets mauled every time she engages Amagi.

USS Mahan, DD-102

Another Wickes-class destroyer that entered the Squall alongside Walker.

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• Back from the Dead: Twice.
  • In "Maelstrom" she blows herself up to destroy Amagi during the Battle of Baalkpan and what's left of her stern sinks in the bay. The hulk is eventually raised, and the ship rebuilt.
  • After losing her bow (see below) she's towed back to Madras for repairs, but work on her is suspended indefinitely due to more pressing concerns. Then, in "River of Bones", she turns up out of the blue to aid Reddy's strike on the Zambezi river. Turns out repairs had been largely completed for a while now, but an Obstructive Beauracrat who opposed the war had been holding her back and sending false reports. Mahan had ultimately been commandeered by loyal officers who brought her down to join First Fleet, where she contributes greatly to the campaign down there.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: Like Walker, she existed in the real world but was decommissioned long before WWII.
• Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Non-fatally. After the Second Battle of Madras, Walker and Mahan race off in pursuit of Kurokawa and his remaining battleships. They successfully sink all enemy ships while suffering only minor damage ... and then Mahan loses her bow to a misguided torpedo from Walker (or, Reddy theorizes, perhaps it was an accurate torpedo from a League submarine).

USS S-19, SS-124

An S-Class submarine built in 1921. S-19 passed through the same Squall as Walker, Mahan, and Amagi while sitting on the bottom, trying to repair damage inflicted by depth charges from Shinya's destroyer. She had no torpedoes, but was carrying women and children (including Sister Audrey) from Surabaya hoping to reach Australia.

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• Glass Cannon: After being rebuilt as a torpedo boat.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: The real ''S-19'' was decommissioned and sunk as a target in 1938. Many of her sisters remained in service throughout the war, though, mostly fighting with the Asiatic Fleet.
• Hufflepuff House: Of the three U.S. Navy vessels to come through the squall, S-19 is less notable compared to the Walker and Mahan. It takes far longer to show up, and sticks around for far less time before being destroyed. Furthermore, only twenty-six members of her crew (plus the passengers) survive long enough to meet the main cast, only around a dozen people from the ship have names, and several of the survivors die over the next few books. Only a handful of the sub's passengers and crewmen-Sister Audrey, Laumer, Leedom, Billy Flynn, Hardee, and Tex Sheider-have notable recurring roles, and several of them are among those who die.
• Not Quite Dead: Happens at least four times: nearly sunk by Japanese depth charges in the Java Sea; beached and abandoned on Talaud Island; caught in the first major eruption of the Talaud volcano, and nearly sunk by a tsunami caused by a bigger eruption. Seriously, it's hard to tell if this sub is lucky or really, really unlucky.
• What a Piece of Junk: Like all the S-boats, she was already obsolete and broke-down before the war even started. Her class was commonly nicknamed "Pig Boats" and "Sewer Pipes" in 1941.

Salissa Home/USNRS Salissa/USS Salissa, CV-1

Keje's ship, and the first Lemurian vessel encountered by Walker. Salissa, or "Big Sal," is a Lemurian "sea home," over 1,000 feet long, 250 feet at the beam, drawing almost 40 feet of water, with 100 feet of freeboard. She's built entirely of wood and is estimated to displace around 20,000 tons.

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• Back from the Dead: She's pretty much burned to the waterline during the Battle of Baalkpan, but is resurrected as an aircraft carrier afterward.
• The Battlestar: By Iron Gray Sea, Salissa has steam engines, a huge broadside battery of heavy muzzleloading cannons down each side of her hull, a pair of 5.5-inch guns salvaged from the secondary battery of Amagi, and the "great gun," a monstrous breechloading piece built from the tube of one of Amagi's 10-inch guns. On top of all that are a flight deck and hangar deck accommodating sixty planes.
  • The "great gun" was removed after the First Battle of Madras, mainly because the allies didn't want Keje to fight his carrier like a battleship anymore.
• Colony Ship: Like all Lemurian "sea homes" (before her reconstruction as an aircraft carrier), she is a self-sufficient city at sea with thousands of inhabitants in four different clans. Her superstructure is topped with gardens, and various industries are contained in her hull.
• Gunship Rescue
• Mighty Glacier: She's big and slow. Even after getting engines installed, the best she can do is about 8 knots on a good day. But after her reconstruction, Salissa can lay down some serious hate.
• Took a Level in Badass: Rebuilt as a steam-powered battlestar following the Battle of Baalkpan.

Revenge

A Grik "Indiaman" captured by Walker at the Battle of the Stones and delivered to Baalkpan as a prize. Nakja-Mur christens the vessel Revenge, has her armed with cannons, and places her under Captain Reddy's overall command.

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• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The battle to capture her makes up the climax of "Into the Storm".
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Unable to escape the Grand Swarm, Revenge singlehandedly engages them and sinks several warships before the crew violently scuttle her to prevent capture, catching one of the Grik flagships in the blast.
• Legacy Vessel Naming: A Scott-class destroyer is named USS Revenge in her honor.
• Vehicular Turnabout: The first of many Grik ships captured and repurposed by the Alliance.

HIMS Amagi

A Japanese Imperial Navy battlecruiser that fought Walker and Mahan shortly before the two destroyers entered the Squall. Like her American opponents, Amagi was a real ship.

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• Damage-Sponge Boss: Three torpedoes, intense shelling, and a dive-bomber colliding with her bow weren't enough to sink her. Even Mahan's suicidal charge didn't pull it off, and only a lucky forgotten mine let Walker claim victory in the end.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Her final battle with Walker took place in book three, not even a quarter of the way into the series.
• Evil Counterpart: To Walker.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: In the real world, Amagi was a battlecruiser that was still under construction when the Washington Naval Treaty rendered her illegal. While her more famous sister Akagi was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier, Amagi was badly damaged in an earthquake and later sunk as a target. In-Universe, she was completed as planned but had her main battery downgraded from the original battleship-caliber 15-inch guns to intermediate-level 10-inchers (still much bigger and more powerful than any cruiser's guns) to exploit a loophole in the treaty.
• The Juggernaut: She is probably the most powerful ship in the alternate world (until the League of Tripoli showed up with Savoie). Only Walker and Mahan come close to being a threat to it, and even they are hopelessly outclassed in a straight-up fight.
• Never Found the Body: Amagi was nowhere to be seen after the first encounter, and the destroyermen assumed she'd either sank or returned to her task force. Turns out she was swept through the Squall right behind them and ended up joining the Grik after limping to Singapore for repairs and discovering what had happened to them.
• Vehicular Turnabout: Not exactly, but close enough. With the ship sunk in the shallow waters of Baalkpan Bay at the end of Maelstrom, the Lemurians decide there’s no good reason to let all that good steel (35,000 tons of it) and ordnance go to waste. A salvage operation is immediately set up, and every functional radio, gun mount, fire control director, or other usable device is removed and put on an Allied vessel (Walker herself gets a pair of 25mm antiaircraft mounts). With that done, the wreck is broken up and the steel recycled into new guns and new ships to carry them. By the end of 1944, she had been fully scrapped.

USS Donaghey

The first dedicated warship build by the Lemurians. Named for Chief Machinist's Mate Harvey Donaghey, who sacrificed himself to save Walker in "Crusade".

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• Bold Explorer: She's relegated to this task after it's decided she's no longer capable of serving as a front-line warship in the face of new Grik ironclads. The ship and her crew are tasked with probing the coast of Africa to see what's out there.
• First Day from Hell: Her first action goes horribly wrong when it turns out the three Grik ships she's engaging are armed with cannons. Though Donaghey is still victorious, she's badly mauled when one of the ships explodes and blows half her stern off.
• Super Prototype: Donaghey is still going fairly strong despite being completely obsolete, while the other two ships of her class, USS Kas-Ra-Ar and USS Tolson, were destroyed in the third and sixth books, respectively. In Devil's Due, with a little help from a captured Dominion frigate, she even manages to sink a League destroyer equivalent to Walker by luring it in close and then delivering a full broadside. In Winds of Wrath she openly leads a fleet of New United States ships against the League at Martinique (albeit after they'd already been softened up by air attack) and emerges unscathed.

HIMS Hidoiame

A brand-new, state-of-the-art Kagero-class destroyer of the Japanese Imperial Navy that crosses over in the western Pacific south of Japan in late 1943.

• Artistic License – History: Hidoiame is described as the twentieth ship of her class. In the real world, only nineteen ships of the type were ever built. Three additional Kagero's were authorized on the books in 1939-40, but they were only a bureaucratic ruse to hide funding for the Yamato-class super battleships then under construction.
• I Am a Humanitarian: Her crew was willing to eat the prisoners on Mizuki Maru after discovering they'd been swept to the other world. Fortunately, Okada prevented that from happening.
• Karmic Death: After her fight with Walker, Hidoiame captures Fristar Home and enslaves her people. When the Corps of Discovery (including Silva, of course) assist the Khonashi in attacking the Japanese encampment and anchorage, a few unforeseen variables and an inconvenient tide push the enormous sea home into the side of Hidoiame. The much smaller Japanese destroyer is partially crushed and rolled onto the beach, a total loss.
• Never Found the Body: After Spanky takes command of Walker during the battle with Hidoiame, he decides to break off the fight because both ships are critically damaged and the Japanese ship doesn't have a chance of survival without a tanker to replenish her fuel stores. Hidoiame is later found at Borneo, her crew forcing the people of Fristar Home to drill for oil at gunpoint.
• The Remnant: Like Amagi, her crew still considers themselves at war with America.

SS Santa Catalina/USS Santa Catalina CAP-1

An American merchant ship that was carrying crated P-40 Warhawk fighters, spare parts, and ammunition to Java in February of 1942 when she entered the Squall to escape Japanese dive bombers south of Tjilatjap.

• Took a Level in Badass: After being recovered from Java, she's taken to Baalkpan and turned into a protected cruiser that serves as Commodore Jim Ellis' flagship during the Second Battle of Madras.
• Uncertain Doom: The ship's original crew and embarked USAAF personnel left the ship in the swamp north of Chil-Chaap, but no trace of them has been found.
• You Shall Not Pass!: She almost single-handedly blockades the Zambezi river to prevent the Grik "Final Swarm" from attacking Madagascar. It works, but Santy Cat is blown into a smoldering, irreparable hulk before it's over.

SS Mizuki Maru

A Japanese freighter that crossed over with Hidoiame in 1943. She was a "hell ship" that carried a large "cargo" of Allied prisoners of war in unspeakably horrific conditions.

• Hellhole Prison: The ship is used to house prisoners in starvation, disease-ridden conditions that are made worse by a crew of guards and sailors that seem to almost unanimously enjoy torture and murder and even want to cannibalize the prisoners before the vessel's Token Good Teammate cook refuses to prepare any meat that comes from humans for his crew mates.
• Redemption Equals Death: The ship is sunk and all hands are presumed lost while fighting Hidoiame.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The ship itself doesn't do much, but she does bring a number of new characters to the series, such as Gunny Horn and Orrin Reddy.
• Took a Level in Badass: After limping to Baalkpan under the command of Sato Okada, the ship is refitted and turned into a warship.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Introduced in "Firestorm" and sunk at the beginning of the next book, "Iron Gray Sea".

SMS Amerika

Originally a German high-speed passenger liner for the Hamburg America Line, SS Amerika was launched at the turn of the century and was a contemporary of RMS Titanic (in fact, she was even built at the same yard, Harland & Wolff of Belfast, and transmitted ice warnings to Titanic, only to be told, "Shut up, I'm busy," by Titanic's radioman; she was too far away to assist after the iceberg collision). This ship, however, comes from a different universe than ours. This one was appropriated by the Deutsch Kaiserliche Reichsmarine (German Imperial Navy) and given her "SMS"^note  Seinar Majestat Schiff, “His Majesty’s Ship” designation at the start of WWI and converted to an armed merchant cruiser.

• Colony Ship: Ever since crossing over and joining the Republic of Real People, Amerika has become the Kaiser's floating mobile capital and is often referred to as the War Palace. Though badly in need of a drydock, her machinery and guns are still in good shape. Her crew (including British sailors she had captured) are all loyal to the Kaiser.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The abduction of Sandra, Adar, and their entourage by Admiral Laborde and Savoie drives Kapitan Zur See Von Melhausen over the edge. Wracked by dementia and utterly furious, Von Melhausen charges the League battleship in a ballsy but suicidal Roaring Rampage of Revenge, attempting to ram the hostile ship, but not quite making it. Amerika goes down with her guns blazing. Savoie needs some touch-up paint.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: Averted. In our universe, Amerika remained a civilian vessel until 1917, when she was seized by the US Navy, renamed USS America, and served as a troop transport for three decades. This Amerika was converted to an armed merchant cruiser (sometimes called a Q-ship) by the Imperial German Navy.
• Kaiserreich: A ship of the German Imperial Navy, which crossed over during World War I.
• Worthy Opponent: Had one in RMS/HMS Mauritania, sister ship of the ill-fated Lusitania. Like Amerika, she was originally a civilian passenger liner, and competed for the prestigious Blue Riband award for high-speed Atlantic crossings. In their universe, Mauritania was then used as an auxiliary warship by the British. The two peacetime rivals fought an inconclusive battle right before Amerika crossed over. Becher Lange says that while the engagement was brutal, he honestly hopes that Mauritania survived.

USS James Ellis, DD-21

The first Walker-class destroyer built by the Lemurians. Named for Commodore Jim Ellis, who died shortly after the Second Battle of Madras.

• Flawed Prototype: Being the first of her kind (other than Walker and Mahan), the relatively inexperienced Lemurians ran into a lot of issues getting her up and running and Captain Perry Brister admits that her sister, USS Geran-Eras, is probably a Superior Successor since the lessons learned to build Ellie were applied to her. Although that's rendered moot when Geran-Eras is sunk at Mahe just weeks after launch.

USS Fitzhugh Gray, CL-1

A light cruiser, and first of her class, built by the Allies in late 1944. Named for Chief Bosun's Mate Fitzhugh Gray, who died at the First Battle of Grik City.

• Awesome, but Impractical: Gray is certainly more powerful than anything the Grik or Dominion possesses, but against the might of the League she's already obsolete, and Henry Stokes grumbles that they might have been better off building four more Walker-class destroyers, which are flimsier but more versatile, instead.
• Big Damn Heroes: Comes to Walker's rescue in "Winds of Wrath", savaging a League cruiser that was about to destroy Reddy's ship.
• Flawed Prototype: Her shakedown cruise goes badly: while testing her engines at full astern, her steering gear is damaged and her rudder shaft torn out of alignment, forcing a month-long retrofit at a time the Allies really can't afford it.

USS Savoie

A French Bretagne-class battleship from an alternate reality in which France turned fascist and joined the Axis powers. The vessel was part of a fleet sent to invade Egypt, but was caught in a Squall and wound up in the Lemurian world instead. The fleet ultimately formed the League of Tripoli, with Savoie serving as Admiral Laborde's flagship.

• Artistic License – History: While justifiable due to her alternate-universe origins, the vessel's counterpart was apparently known to Greg Garrett from before crossing the Squall. In the real world, the closest match would be Lorraine or the fourth unfinished Bretagne-class battleship, which was originally ordered by the Greek Navy and was to be christened Vasilefs Konstantinos. After World War I, the French considered finishing her under the name Savoie but ultimately scrapped her. Savoie's description in the book matches the post-refit design of the Lorraine.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In "Blood in the Water", Kapitan Zur See Von Melhausen of SMS Amerika charges the League battleship in a ballsy but suicidal Roaring Rampage of Revenge, attempting to ram the hostile ship, but not quite making it. Amerika goes down with her guns blazing. Savoie needs some touch-up paint.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Attacked by SMS Amerika receiving very little damage in Blood in the Water. Torpedoed later on in Devil's Due, damaging her rudder which completely jams it and forces her into a left turn with no way of correcting causing her to run aground, once again with minor damage more or less (from colliding with the shoreline, along with one of her guns getting blasted courtesy to Horn and Lange and the deck near her stern being burned from an earlier attack) which not only renders her harmless but convinces Reddy to launch an attempt to capture her (which succeeds) and use her in the future rather than outright destroying her..
• The Dreaded Dreadnought: A literal example. A superdreadnought to be precise.
• The Juggernaut: Holds the Republic of Real People at gunpoint (along with USS Donaghey when she arrives to check on the Republic) to prevent them from mobilizing against the Grik with the Republic having no way of fighting back. Easily sinks SMS Amerika in Blood in the Water, and completely destroys a Grik battleship (along with one of her own guns) thanks to Gunnery Sergeant Arnold Horn and Kapitanleutnant Becker Lange hijacking one of her turrets in Devil's Due. She is easily one of the most powerful ships to appear in the series so far.
• Vehicular Turnabout: After the incident mentioned above, the League turns the ship over to Kurokawa in the hopes that his and Reddy's forces will wipe each other out and leave the League's supremacy uncontested. In "Devil's Due", not only does the Alliance decisively win, but they also manage to capture Savoie intact and plan to use her against her original masters.

Leopardo

An Italian Leone-class destroyer from an alternate reality in which France, Germany, Italy and Spain formed a fascist alliance. The vessel was part of a fleet sent to invade Egypt in 1939, but was caught in a Squall and wound up in the Lemurian world instead. She is commanded by Capitano Ciano.

• Artistic License – History: While its existence is justified in that it is from an alternate reality, in the real world only three Leone-class destroyers were built by Italy out of the planned five, the final two Lince and Leopardo canceled in the 1920s.
• Final Boss: Walker's last opponent of the war, in "Winds of Wrath".

Impero

An Italian Littorio-class battleship from an alternate reality in which France, Germany, Italy and Spain formed a fascist alliance. The vessel was part of a fleet sent to invade Egypt in 1939, but was caught in a Squall and wound up in the Lemurian world instead and is part of the League of Tripoli's navy.

• Artistic License – History: There were four Littorio-class battleships planned but the last one christened Impero was never finished, the hull used as target practice and sunk by Allied planes. Justified as she is from an alternate world where she was apparently finished and put to sea.
• Vehicular Turnabout: At the end of Winds of Wrath, she was seized by the Allies. The New United States lay claim to her, but Reddy knows they won't push the issue since they can't actually fix or maintain her, so she's likely to end up in the hands of the Alliance.

Hessen

A German D-class cruiser from the same reality the League of Tripoli came from. Sent to the Caribbean, while her sister ship Elsass remains in the Mediterranean. Both of these ships are the heaviest warships in the combined task force that ended up on this world.

• Artistic License – History: Neither D-class cruiser was ever built in our history. Presumably, in the League's original world, they were.
• Vehicular Turnabout: Her captain stays out of the fight at Martinique after being convinced to switch sides by the commander of U-112, an old friend of his. Hessen still sustains damage when the U-112 torpedoes the League's arsenal ships. The cruiser's captain is not pleased.

Francesco Caracciolo

An Italian battleship of the eponymous class. Her crew panics during the battle with the Alliance and flees, only to surrender to the Republic battlecruisers the following day.

• Artistic License – History: In our world, none of the 4 ships of the Francesco Caracciolo class were ever completed. Presumably, at least one was built in the world the League came from.
• Vehicular Turnabout: The battleship's crew surrenders to the task force from the Republic of Real People on the morning after the battle with the Alliance.