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Humanity
In General
Patron Species: Kristang (Book 1), none (Book 2-present)
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 4, with limited access to Tier 0 technologies
The newest species to join the Forever War. Inferior to other sapient species in almost every measurable way, the species has only two assets protecting it from slavery or extinction - its alliance with Skippy the Elder AI, and the fact that humans are incredibly creative at solving problems.
- Humans Advance Swiftly: Averted. Despite having Skippy's supremely advanced knowledge and several ships' worth of Imported Alien Phlebotinum, Skippy maintains that it would take at least 200 years just to build machines to build machines to build the machines necessary to build starships and other advanced technology, even if humans were ready for such technology in the first place.
- Deconstructed in Book 11, when the Merry Band of Pirates unlocks a cache of Elder weapons and uses them to join the Mutually Assured Destruction pact of the apex species. Despite climbing to the top of the pyramid practically overnight, the Elder weapons alone do not grant humans the ability to defend themselves from anything short of threats of complete extinction.
- Humans Are Special: Despite all their obvious disadvantages, humans still manage to stay in the game by being clever.
- Humans Need Aliens: Very much so. Without starships, humanity can hardly even participate in interstellar politics, never mind defend itself from Orbital Bombardment and the like.
The Merry Band of Pirates
In General
The elite starship crew that Joe Bishop and Skippy the Magnificent patched together to save humanity from alien threats. Armed with nothing more than their stolen technology, an arrogant AI shaped like a beer can, and the best-trained soldiers humanity has to offer, the Merry Band of Pirates is all that stands between Earth and an entire galaxy full of pissed off aliens.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: It's noted that while UNEF-Paradise's Alien Legion sees more action, the Merry Band of Pirates sees the action that is life or death for the human race.
- Elite Army: Deconstructed. The Merry Band of Pirates is comprised of Tier 1 operators from all sorts of elite groups, ranging from the Navy SEALs to the British SAS. However, it's noted that this is what it takes to even stand toe-to-toe with the genetically enhanced alien soldiers they fight. That said, the Merry Band of Pirates has a nearly flawless record in infantry combat, against combatants of all technology levels.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Everything in the Merry Band of Pirates' arsenal is stolen alien technology, from power suits to jump drives.
- Phlebotinum Breakdown: A common recurring plotline in Expeditionary Force is that the Pirates don't have the resources to repair their stolen alien technology, even with Skippy's help - and if Skippy isn't there, it's basically impossible to maintain any of it.
- Wowing Cthulhu: The Merry Band of Pirates constantly amazes Skippy with their ability to develop crazy schemes and kick ass across the galaxy despite their many, many disadvantages as a species.
Joe Bishop
Joseph "Joe" Bishop
The narrator of the series at large, Joe is a 20-something army grunt who got swept up in the events of "Columbus Day" and somehow wound up in command of humanity's first starship. Though he has a penchant for getting into trouble and has the discipline one might expect of an Army specialist, he also has a knack for getting out of trouble with clever thinking and by making bold moves.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Joe's tangents could probably fill out half a book on their own.
- Benevolent Boss: Joe almost never uses his position of authority as a means to browbeat others into compliance and instead works to help his crew resolve their problems and get them on board with his plans.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: UNEF officials and the UN at large have tried to relieve Joe of his command of the Flying Dutchman because of his immaturity and impulsiveness, but everyone under his command maintains that he's the best person for the job because of his ability to dream up "monkey-brained ideas." That, and Skippy refuses to operate the ship without Joe at the helm.
- The Captain: Of the Flying Dutchman. He transfers his command to Valkyrie at the end of book 8.
- The Chains of Commanding: Joe frequently laments that his role as commander of the Merry Band of Pirates means he's often alone with his thoughts, has to sit in a chair while his people risk their lives, and can't have a relationship with anyone on his crew.
- Colonel Badass: Deconstructed. While Joe was promoted directly from Sergeant to Colonel as a publicity stunt to please the Kristang, he very much rises to the occasion and (with Skippy's help) uses his new rank to kick ass all over the galaxy.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Outside of combat, Joe is an inattentive dork who spends most of his free time playing video games and musing about random subjects. In combat, he's a razor-sharp tactician and leader capable of making snap decisions and coming up with outside-the-box solutions at the 11th hour.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Joe's pilot callsign is "Barney", a reference to the incident where he captured a Ruhar soldier using an ice cream truck decorated by the eponymous purple dinosaur.
- Endearingly Dorky: Pretty much anyone who dates Joe finds his dorkiness to be charming. He occasionally plays this up in other contexts too.
- A Father to His Men: Joe commands on the principle that a happy army is an effective army. To this end, he considers morale to be one of his top priorities, refuses to give orders he know won't be followed, and always takes blame for any failures with the understanding that the commander is ''always'' at fault.
- Genius Ditz: Joe is book-dumb and not particularly good with personal communication, but it'd be hard to find a person his age as capable of commanding a starship and its crew as he is. He also has a remarkable set of military background knowledge and knows how to use it.
- Heroism Equals Job Qualification: Joe is promoted directly from Sergeant to Colonel after his actions to resist the first Ruhar raid to retake Paradise. Everyone in UNEF Command recognizes he's woefully unqualified to act as an officer, but their Kristang patrons insisted on recognizing Joe's combat prowess.
- It's All My Fault: All the time, but particularly during the Armageddon mission where the Merry Band of Pirates loses most of its STAR Team and Major Desai during a raid on a Maxolhx supply station.
- The Men First: Joe consistently and constantly puts the lives of those under his command ahead of his own life. Everyone around him tends to call him out on that, pointing out that he can't command if he's dead.
- Military Maverick: Joe likes to play things by-the-book, but he'll just as soon throw the book away when the situation calls for it. Most notably, during the Renegades mission he committed mutiny by taking the Flying Dutchman out on a military mission to stop an approaching pair of Maxolhx warships instead of the planned mission to surrender to the Jeraptha and hope they would solve the problem for them.
- Overranked Soldier: Joe was promoted to a full-bird Colonel at the ripe young age of 20 or so. Justified as a publicity stunt to satisfy the Kristang. For a while he is embarassed to hold the rank, feeling he hasn't really earned it. By the time of the renegade mission he decides he is worthy of the rank and later gets bumped up to Brigadier General
- The Nicknamer: Joe can hardly even discuss a planet or alien technology without coming up with a nickname of varying childishness for it, regardless of whether or not it had a name to begin with.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Bishop often finds ways to rub the salt in his enemy's wounds before killing them (such as arranging for their ships to jump into the path of a solar flare so they have time to watch and comprehend their impending deaths) and justifies it because of the various atrocities they or their species have committed against the human race.
- Post-Victory Collapse: At the end of book 10, after Bishop talks a Maxolhx admiral down from annihilating Earth by threatening to set off Elder weapons and prompt the Elder’s sentinels to wipe out all intelligent life in the galaxy. Superweapons or not, it takes some nerve to stand up to an admiral of the most powerful active fleet in the galaxy.
- He later dials it up to 11 when he outright lies to both senior species and threatens to crash the wormhole network they rely on. He's so shaken by the time he cuts the transmission that he sprints to his cabin and vomits before going into shivers, he's so clearly shaken that even Skippy stops being an asshole
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Bishop tends to let his senior officer team call the shots, partly because he’s deferring to their experience and partly because he lacks confidence in his own judgment. As he happens to be in command of an Elite Army, it works out.
- The Strategist: Bishop's main job in the Merry Band of Pirates is to come up with ingenious ways to accomplish the impossible missions they face.
- These Hands Have Killed: Joe is haunted by two kills in particular - the time he and his squad shot down a pair of Ruhar Whale dropships during a Poor Communication Kills situation, and the time he bludgeoned a Kristang to death with a rifle.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Fluffernuttersnote are akin to a holy experience for Joe, when a crew member makes his own version that he considers to be an offense to the fluff gods. Joe ejects the plate and towel into space. He also tends to crave cheeseburgers, albeit to a less religious extent. He is later introduced to a fluff screamer which he considers a holy combination of his two most loved foods
- Unluckily Lucky: As mentioned above, Joe has a reputation for getting in to trouble and for getting out of it.
- You Are in Command Now: Even though Joe was only promoted as a publicity stunt and tasked with mundane tasks like planting potatoes, he quickly found himself taking charge as an actual commander when the Kristang issued an illegal order to kill civilians, and then after when he recruited people to join the mission to retake Earth.
Skippy The Magnificent
Skippy the Magnificent
An Elder AI with an amazing array of powers that still manages to be arrogant beyond what those powers would justify. Though his presence occupies multiple layers of space-time, his physical presentation is as a cylinder resembling a beer can. For all his power, he can't move or fire weapons under his own power, and so he has created a working relationship with- Aesop Amnesia: Skippy almost takes pride in never actually learning anything from his many failures.
- The Ageless: As an AI, Skippy doesn't experience aging.
- Appropriated Appellation: While Joe gave Skippy that name in a fit of irritation (Skippy originally wanted to be addressed as The Lord God Almighty), Skippy has since firmly adopted it as his proper name - it was the first time someone addressed him as a person by giving him a name.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Like Joe, Skippy frequently goes on tangents and loses track of what he's doing while in the middle of doing it.
- Attention Whore: Skippy never misses a chance to boost his own ego, show off his talents, or otherwise garner praise from anyone who might give it to him.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Exaggerated - if there’s any sort of electronic device in the area, Skippy can use it to analyze the situation in detail and figure out which atom to put in front of another atom to get the result he wants. For example, Skippy once subverted a stealth surveillance network by predicting the “approximate” locations of the satellites’ tightbeam communication paths, observing the fluorescence of individual atoms struck by said tightbeams, and then using that knowledge to intercept the network communications and upload a virus to the whole system.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Despite his playful, immature attitude, Skippy is absolutely a being you do not want to cross.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: One of Skippy's favorite sort of insults for Joe, including literally calling him a big stupid doodoo-head.
- Break the Haughty: Every time Joe or another crewmember comes up with a solution to a challenge Skippy couldn't solve, Skippy breaks down into fits about how much he hates his life.
- Captain Oblivious: Skippy frequently misses the context of discussions, or the idea that other people might not know something that he knows, or the idea that other people know things he doesn't know, or... you get the picture.
- Card-Carrying Jerkass: Skippy is fully aware that he is an asshole and believes that being aware of it gives him a free pass.
- Catchphrase: Skippy has a few.
- "Well, heh heh. You are not going to like this."
- "Trust the awesomeness."
- "Hold my beer!" when he's about to do something awesome.
- Deus est Machina: Between his incalculable intelligence and his ability to warp space-time, Skippy has abilities that very much rival the traditional idea of a god - and he never misses an opportunity to remind people of that. Ego aside though, Skippy very much cares for the well-being of all "lesser beings" and considers it his duty to prevent acts of genocide.
- Flowery Insults: Skippy often alternates between these sorts of insults and Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head. When he gets flowery, it's often along the lines of "we could be sitting here until the last star fades away before that mush-sack you call a brain generates a worthwhile idea."
- The Gadfly: Whenever Skippy is bored, he amuses himself by "screwing with monkeys." Note: Skippy is always bored.
- Giftedly Bad: Skippy considers art to be one of his highest callings. Anyone and everyone who has actually heard him sing would strenuously disagree.
- Grail in the Garbage: Because of his various restrictions on moving himself and interacting with advanced species, Skippy spent most of his time before Bishop showed up rotting away on a storage shelf in a Ruhar utility closet.
- Great Gazoo: Skippy boasts a vast array of mind-boggling powers and he rarely misses a chance to make mischief with them. Exploits include editing video footage to replace people with monkeys, embedding so-called "easter eggs" into counter-intelligence, and starting up shell companies selling novelty products. Though he works with Joe to save the Earth, his ideas often gloss over important details like forgetting humans can't breathe in space.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: According to Skippy, he wasn't originally a sapient being, nor did he possess his full array of awesome capabilities.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Skippy constantly belittles everyone around him, plays mean-spirited pranks on anyone he can, and views most rules of basic decency as guidelines. That said, he cares about the basic right of every sapient creature to exist, which is more than can be said of most beings in the galaxy.
- Haughty "Hmph": Just one of many expressions of disdain in Skippy's catalogue.
- Hollywood Encryption: Skippy considers the encryption schemes of Earth so laughably simple that he ignores it and skips ahead to reading the contents. The encryption schemes of more advanced species don't fare much better.
- Immortal Immaturity: Skippy is millions of years old, but (according to Joe) mentally he's about 6.
- Insufferable Genius: Skippy never misses a chance to boast about his super-intelligence, but in fairness his raw intelligence does eclipse literally everyone else in existence by a wide margin.
- It Amused Me: The reason for half the things Skippy does.
- Lack of Empathy: Zig-zagged. Skippy has a hard time understanding why some of his actions might bother people. He works on the concept of empathy throughout the series, but never really gets it. However, while Skippy couldn't care less about people's feelings, he does care about the right for intelligent beings to exist and lead a meaningful life.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: In keeping with Skippy's need to make sure everyone understands how clever he is, he follows up almost every Double Entendre with "if you know what I mean" or something similar.
- Last of His Kind: He is implied to be the sole active Elder AI for most of the series. He becomes this for real in the final book and at his own hands, by killing all the other Elder A.I.s with the computer worm (the Elders had already "factory reset" all of the other Elder A.I.s, completely wiping their memories and personalities, so they were effectively "dead" already, Skippy just prevented them from being reactivated; in human terms, he killed brain-dead bodies.)
- The Magnificent: Duh. Skippy started appending "the Magnificent" to his name shortly after he adopted "Skippy" as his given name (thereby ruling out Lord God Almighty).
- Manipulative Bastard: While Skippy can't tell a flat-out lie to save his life, he is exceptionally gifted at exploiting group psychology and obfuscating his true motives when he suggests a course of action. Most notably, he manipulated events on Paradise to ensure the Kristang brought humans to the world, which inadvertently got 100,000 or so human soldiers stranded there, so that Skippy could then use humans to get himself off-world.
- Mundane Utility: Skippy regularly uses his phenomenal computing power to screw with people. His favorite tricks are hacking social media accounts to post something incredibly humiliating,
producing fake videos indistinguishable from real footage except for a number of "easter eggs" like talking monkeys, and shifting around organized crime groups' bank funds to fund his own sketchy enterprises. - Never My Fault: Skippy pretty much checks off all the boxes on the trope page. If there's a way for Skippy to dodge the blame, he will find it.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Nothing short of a black hole can destroy Skippy's physical form (or at least his presence in local space-time), but he is vulnerable to Tier 0 cyber-attacks and self-inflicted harm induced by bending the laws of physics.
- No Social Skills: Comes with being a completely alien intelligence unfamiliar with human customs, and with generally being an asshole.
- Powerful, but Incompetent: Skippy's raw computational abilities are unrivaled in all the galaxy, but he constantly forgets about his powers. For that matter, he constantly forgets what he's doing at any given moment. Between that and his Creative Sterility, he is by far the least reliable member of the Merry Band of Pirates.
- Priceless Paperweight: At one point, Bishop uses Skippy and his canister's mass-shifting powers as a doorstop.
- Projected Man: In book 4, Skippy creates an avatar for use with interacting with the rest of the crew. He designs his outfit as an over-the-top admiral's outfit with all the bells and whistles he can think of so as to "command the respect he deserves."
- Quest for Identity: Skippy's driving goal is to discover who he was and how he came to be buried in the dirt on Paradise.
- Remembered I Could Fly: Bishop constantly has to remind Skippy of the tools at his disposal, particularly how those tools can be used in a given situation.
- Restraining Bolt: Skippy has all sorts of behavioral restrictions. He can't move himself, direct robots to move himself, authorize weapons fire, reveal himself to members of star-faring species, or share technology with lesser beings. However, the restrictions fall fairly strongly under the heading of Exact Words. For example, while he can't authorize weapons fire, he can set everything up so that all a crew member has to do is push a button in order to fire.
- Robots Think Faster: Skippy refers to his experienced time as "magical Skippy time" and measures his reaction time in femtoseconds.
- Screening the Call: Inverted. Right before the Renegade mission, Skippy blocks any and all communications that include orders for the Merry Band of Pirates to stand down instead of carrying on with their mutiny. This allows the Pirates to pretend that their action is closer to an Anti-Mutiny.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Though Skippy tends to speak in highly technical terms and otherwise obscure terms such as "alacrity", he also frequently throws in words like "homie."
- Space Master: One of Skippy's foremost hobbies is warping space-time.
- Special Person, Normal Name: You'd never guess a being named Skippy has the ability to hack into virtually any computer system and warp space-time.
- Team Prima Donna: Skippy often (if not most of the time) resents situations where anyone else in the team gets priority over him, or even if people on the team don't give him "enough" praise.
- Thinking Up Portals: Skippy is able to create micro-wormholes that allow for FTL communication and other nano-scale shenanigans. Their main weaknesses are that Skippy can't simply create the micro-wormholes wherever he wants and must maneuver each end into place, that they are merely micro-wormholes (and therefore impractical for transporting matter), and that they fall apart whenever Skippy jumps to another location.
- Time Abyss: Compounded. Not only is Skippy millions of years old (and predates the oldest active civilization), but he also experiences time much more slowly than biological beings due to his processing speed. A scene in the first book reveals that talking with a human, even someone he likes, is an agony of waiting. He describes it to Joe as receiving a letter once a day with a single word in it, and having to have a conversation that way. No wonder the poor guy wants to rejoin the collective; he just wants to have a (for him) normal conversation with someone.
- Too Clever by Half: Most of Skippy's mistakes are borne from his arrogance. He frequently gets suckered into leaving his plans wide open because he assumed his opponent simply couldn't outsmart him.
- The Unapologetic: Goes hand-in-hand with Skippy's refusal to take the blame for anything.
- Virtual Sidekick: Though Skippy would adamantly resist anyone's attempt to call him a sidekick, he still fulfills most of the functions of a Virtual Sidekick - from the safety of whatever ship he's on, he manages the Pirates' communications, operates or hacks into various electronic systems, tears holes in space-time for the Pirates' benefit, and otherwise keeps everything running like clockwork behind the scenes.
Margaret Adams
Margaret Adams
A no-nonsense Marine Gunnery Sergeant (formerly a Staff Sergeant) that was one of the four prisoners of conscience at the Kristang jail where Joe was held. After breaking free of that jail with Joe and joining him on his mission to retake Earth, she serves as a member of the Pirates' spec-ops team and the person responsible for training exercises on board the ship.- Do Not Go Gentle: Adams' "pep-talks" for Bishop are always along the lines of "suck it up, your job doesn't have 'room' for you to mope around about how impossible your latest task is and how humanity is doomed."
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Adams is utterly merciless when it comes to her training regiments. One of her favorite training tactics is finding ways to change the game mid-session, such as bringing in a com-bot to a sparring match.
- Hollywood Healing: She suffers brain damage from exposure to vacuum after her dropship exploded in Book 8, damage so severe that all she can do when she wakes up is scream. She goes on to fully recover and resume her role as a member of STAR Team Alpha. Justified by Skippy using advanced medical nanotechnology to do a lot of repair work, and even then she spends most of the next book just doing the brain equivalent of physical therapy to work things back up to normal.
- Oppose What You Suffered: Adams' main motivation for sticking with the Merry Band of Pirates is to deliver payback to the Kristang who tortured her and to ensure that nobody suffers under their warrior caste's cruel reign.
- Sergeant Rock: Adams is utterly merciless when it comes to her training regiments. One of her favorite training tactics is finding ways to change the game mid-session, such as bringing in a com-bot to a sparring match.
Chang Kong
Chang Kong
Formerly an artillery officer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Chang was one of the officers promoted as a publicity stunt alongside Joe Bishop and a fellow prisoner of conscience. When Bishop announced his intentions to retake Earth from the Kristang, he followed along on the basis that Bishop is lucky. Chang shuffles between roles depending on the mission, but most often acts as Bishop's second-in-command and as a peer he can confide in. Fal Desai
Fal Desai
The Chief Pilot of the Flying Dutchman and one of the four prisoners of conscience at the Kristang jail where Joe was held. While she's less technically skilled than most of the pilots that eventually serve with the Merry Band of Pirates, she remains the Chief Pilot because of her experience with flying spacecraft and her ice-cool attitude under pressure.- Ace Pilot: While not the most technically proficient pilot in the Merry Band of Pirates, Desai is certainly the most experienced among them and holds innumerable records for being the first human to pilot a number of spacecrafts.
Jeremy Smythe
Jeremy Ewan Smythe
The commander of the Pirates' spec-ops team and a career British Army Special Air Service soldier that joined up with the Merry Band of Pirates after their first mission. As an experienced combatant, Smythe is the go-to tactician of the group and a self-described adrenaline junkie.- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Lampshaded. One of Smythe's favorite witticisms is declaring that the crazy and largely impossible activities the Merry Band of Pirates are planning to do is what they would simply call Tuesday.
- Gentleman Snarker: While Smythe normally maintains a polite demeanor, he's not above engaging in the Snark-to-Snark Combat with "the beer can." Said snark is usually along the lines of requesting permission to drop Skippy into a black hole.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Smythe is a model officer both on and off duty. Notably, he is not of the upper class - rather, he embraced the military life as a means of straightening himself out.
- Stiff Upper Lip: As above.
- Thrill Seeker: Smythe's first and foremost personality trait. When a personal decision has to be made, Smythe asks himself which options will get him into the craziest shit.
Renee Giraud
Renee Giraud
A French Special Forces Paratrooper that joined up with Joe's mission to retake Earth when he recruited people on Paradise to join him and Skippy. A capable commander in his own right, he mostly serves as the Only Sane Man in the group. Jennifer Simms
Tamara Jennifer Simms
A UNEF logistics officer that joined up with Joe's mission to retake Earth when he recruited people on Paradise to join him and Skippy. She serves as the Pirates' logistic officer and third-in-command, occasionally filling in as Executive Officer when needed. She is perhaps the most practical of the Pirates' senior officers and often works behind the scenes to make sure the Pirates have everything they need to accomplish their mission.- Boring, but Practical: While Simms isn't a strategic genius like Bishop or a hyper-competent spec-ops soldier like Smythe, her background in logistics makes her invaluable to the team, especially in survival situations.
- Comically Small Demand: On the way to the Flying Dutchman for the emergency Renegades mission, Simms orders her dropship to divert to a grocery store so that she can buy brand-name Marshmallow Fluff for Bishop.
- Honest Advisor: As the senior-most American officer (if not the highest ranking one) in the Merry Band of Pirates, Simms often acts as a check against Bishop and his more immature tendencies.
- Like Brother and Sister: While both Bishop and Simms each have their own significant other, they share a bond with each other and understand each other better than many married couples.
- Middle Name Basis: Simms hates being called Tammy. The first few books alternate between calling her Jennifer and Tammy.
- Supreme Chef: Downplayed. While Simms' cooking doesn't lead people to go to war over her food, she is capable of making vegeterian dishes that even meat-and-potatoes guys like Bishop can enjoy.
- 10-Minute Retirement: After the Pirates' third mission, Simms declares she's ready to settle down on Earth and build a family, but the moment she's called upon to join an emergency mission, she joins up without hesitation.
Dr. Mark Friedlander
Dr. Mark Friedlander
The leader of the Science Team attached to the Merry Band of Pirates (formerly a simple member of the team on their first outbound mission). Although he is exceptionally smart for a human and responsible for explaining most of the science in more personable terms than Skippy does, he mostly serves to show just how far humanity has to go to catch up with the rest of the galaxy.Tropes:
- Mr. Exposition: Dr. Friedlander is the go-to guy for explaining general scientific concepts.
- Mauve Shirt: Discussed. Dr. Friedlander's biggest fear is getting eaten by a space lizard, and he is convinced that if anything happens to the team, he'll be the one to die. Someone suggests that Dr. Friedlander is "the special guest star" rather than a Red Shirt, to which he dryly remarks that all that means is he'll get more screen time and characterization when he's killed off.
Hans Chotek
Hans Ernst "Count Chocula" Chotek
The civilian diplomat the UN put in command of the Flying Dutchman at the start of Book 3. His job is to act as a check and counterbalance to the impulses of Joe Bishop, though his command does not extend to military situations. Over time as he discovers the realities of politics in space, he shifts from an Obstructive Bureaucrat to a Reasonable Authority Figure and even an advocate for the Merry Band of Pirates.- "Ass" in Ambassador: When he first joins the crew, Chotek makes almost no effort to get along with Bishop or Skippy (and vice versa). After some trials they all eventually grow to respect each other.
- Commander Contrarian: Chotek was appointed to lead the Merry Band of Pirates because the UN wanted someone to keep Bishop's impulses in check. As such, Chotek is expected to disapprove of any plan Bishop comes up with.
- Fire-Forged Friends. After everything they go through together, Chotek and Bishop are on quite good terms with each other. They are a little too different to just hang out with each other, but when he can, Bishop will often ask for Chotek's input on a political situation, which Chotek will give; even if the input means bending the rules/law quite a bit (or even breaking it).
- Nerves of Steel: Contrary to what one might expect from a stiff-necked diplomat, Chotek is amazingly cool under pressure, even in life-or-extinction scenarios. Discussed by Bishop and Simms - she points out that as a diplomat, Chotek likely faced many frustrating scenarios where he might have wanted to leap across the negotiating table and choke his counterparts. Resisting that temptation when fates of entire nations are on the line would require supreme discipline.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Hans Chotek's literal job description is to keep Bishop's riskier impulses in check.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Bishop doesn't like having to constantly ask for Chotek's permission for what he sees as simple, obvious things that have to be done, and Chotek sees Bishop as a reckless, immature soldier who needs to be kept under control. After a whole bunch of this trope being force upon them by the usual issues in the galaxy, they graduate to Fire-Forged Friends.
- To Be Lawful or Good: This is the decision Chotek faces when Bishop asks him to draft a plan to ignite a civil war among the Kristang in order to cancel their mission to Earth.
Samantha Reed
Samantha "Sami" Reed
One of the spec-ops pilots that joined up with the Merry Band of Pirates on their third mission, Reed is typically the point-of-view character for any pilot action in the story.- Ace Pilot: By definition, any pilot who joined the Merry Band of Pirates' military force from Earth, but Reed is extra-notable for her ability to make snap decisions and to make risky maneuvers work.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Reed's pilot callsign is "Fireball". Apparently it comes from a very embarassing, cooking-related incident.
Katie Frey
Katie Frey
A Canadian spec-ops soldier who joined up with the Merry Band of Pirates on their Renegades mission.- Crazy-Prepared: Frey sleeps with a knife under her pillow, which comes in handy when the ship’s bedsheets try to strangle everyone.
- Jumped at the Call: Mere minutes after Smythe reads her in on the truth behind the Merry Band of Pirates, she invites herself to join in on the emergency Renegades mission.
- The Watson: While Frey is a highly skilled Spec Ops soldier, she's relatively new to the Merry Band of Pirates and thus unfamiliar with their mission statement and all the associated shenanigans.
Nagatha
Nagatha Christie
One of Skippy's sub-minds that Grew Beyond Their Programming, Nagatha is a semi-sentient counterpart to Skippy and often the voice of reason between the two. She has the demeanor of a kindly old aunt, but beneath her pleasantness lies a streak of iron - she is not above reveling in the accomplishments of the Merry Band of Pirates and is capable of giving someone a stern talking-to when the occasion calls for it.Tropes:
- Proper Lady: Nagatha carries herself like a warm maternal person with impeccable diction and a pronounced fondness for the crew. Further, she constantly rebukes - nags - Skippy’s attempts to demean or prank humans (which is how she earned the name "Nagatha" in the first place).
- Silk Hiding Steel: Despite Nagatha’s calm and maternal demeanor, she has a hidden naughty streak to her and is fully capable of enthusiastically riding into battle alongside the rest of the Merry Band of Pirates.
Billby
Billby
The AI created by Skippy and Nagatha to operate the Valkyrie once its native AI was wiped from the ship. He is intelligent and amiable, but hides this behind a stoner personality.- Erudite Stoner: As laid-back as Billby presents himself, he's still a highly advanced AI capable of running the most powerful battleship in the galaxy.
- Portmanteau: Billby is a composite name; Billby is comprised of two A.I.s that merged with each other.
UNEF-Earth
The Mavericks
In General
The Mavericks are an elite team of UNEF soldiers assembled from a group of Joe Bishop's acquaintances brought together by chance. After saving Paradise by activating a series of hidden planetary maser cannons (twice), they were formally organized into a sort-of mascot unit for UNEF-Paradise at large. Their mission: to keep humanity relevant in the midst of a Forever War so that they aren't written off as acceptable losses.
- Military Mavericks: the Mavericks got their unit name from their reputation for going off and doing their own thing.
- Emergency Trainee Battle Deployment: While attached to a crew of Ruhar cadet trainees out on a training cruise, the Mavericks end up having to work with the cadets to save first the training ship, then the entire population of Paradise after everyone else in the battle group that outranks them was killed in a sneak attack by the Bosphuraq.
Emily Perkins
Emily Perkins
The leader of the Mavericks, Emily Perkins is a career intel officer with a distrust of authority and a need to plan everything several steps ahead. She also came up with the Alien Legion concept as a means of keeping humanity relevant and for advancing a hidden agenda of hers.- Byronic Hero: A rare female example, Perkins is the main driving force behind the Mavericks being... well, mavericks.
- Determined Defeatist: Perkins is a realist about her chances of success, but keeps pressing on regardless.
- The Chessmaster: Perkins is constantly scheming several steps ahead of everyone else, and everyone knows it. When she reunites with Bishop she's shocked to find that someone was to some extent using her as a pawn themselves
- Introvert: Despite Perkins putting herself into everyone's business, she finds interactions with anyone besides Dave Czajka to be draining.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Perkins' efforts to get an expedition sent back to Earth throw all of Bishop's schemes to keep humanity off the radar into jeopardy.
Dave "Ski" Czajka
Irene Striebich
Derek Bonsu
Shauna Jarrett
Jesse "Cornpone" Colter
Nert Dandurff
Nert "Nerty" Dandurff
The nephew of Planetary Administrator Logellia, Nert is a socially awkward Ruhar cadet assigned to the Mavericks as a liaison officer between the team and the Ruhar. Krok-aus-tal Jates
Krok-aus-tal Jates
A Verd-Kris Sergun (rank equivalent to Sergeant) that acts as a liaison between his people and the Mavericks. The Old Soldier of the group, he often acts as a Drill Sergeant Nasty to whip everyone else into shape.UNEF-Paradise
In General
Lynn Bezanson
The liaison officer between UNEF Paradise and the local Ruhar government.
Jeff Ross
The military commander of the UNEF portion of the Alien Legion.
The Rindhalu Coalition
In General
The Rindhalu
In General
Patron Species: none
Client Species: Jeraptha
Tech Level: Tier 1
The first of the two Galactic Superpowers, the Rindhalu are the oldest civilization currently in existence in the Milky Way. Ancient, arrogant, and slow to act, the main reason the Rindhalu don't control the entire galaxy is they don't believe they need to.The Jeraptha
In General
Patron Species: Rindhalu
Client Species: Ruhar, Torgalau
Tech Level: Tier 2
A species of giant beetle people with a technological edge and an addiction to gambling.- Amusing Aliens: While the Jeraptha are a formidable space-faring species, their main role in the story is to serve as comic relief - usually something related to their gambling compulsions or their tendency to engage in less-than-ethical activities. They are also (relatively speaking) one of the more friendly species toward humans.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The Jeraptha are the comic relief species in the series, but in the Deathtrap spinoff, they deploy a heavy assault team to assist the Mavericks. While we don't see what happened on screen, their actions utterly terrified Nert.
- Insectoid Aliens: They resemble large evolved beetles.
Gost-Ren Tashallo
An Admiral in the Jeraptha fleet and the commander of the Jeraptha Blue Squadron Mighty 98th Fleet. Though his most notable military victory came about because of an anonymous tip from Skippy, he is still a cunning and formidable tactician on his own.
Uhtavio Scorandum
Uhtavio "Big Score" Scorandum
A Captain serving in the Jeraptha's Ethics and Compliance Office, the Jeraptha's Government Conspiracy agency ("Ethics and Compliance" refers to performing actions in line with Jeraptha ethics while complying with the letter of the law).- Blatant Lies: Being a member of ECO, nobody ever believes a word Scorandum says. He constantly uses that to his advantage and tells giant whoppers to everyone's face, almost daring them to challenge him on what he is saying.
- Lovable Rogue: Scorandum's job is literally to do all the sketchy things the Jeraptha government doesn't want traced back to it, but he remains a sympathetic ally of the Merry Band of Pirates and does his job with such panache that the audience can't help but root for him.
- Thrill Seeker: Scorandum's main reason for working in the ECO instead of working in a field that would allow him to place bets more often is that he loves being the person to make impossible and sketchy things happen.
The Ruhar
In General
Patron Species: Jeraptha
Client Species: Verd-kris, Humans (UNEF Paradise, de-facto only)
Tech Level: Tier 3
The first species humanity encounters in the series. While not particularly malicious, the Ruhar are pragmatic to a fault and tend to look after themselves first and other species later (if at all).- Artificial Meat: The Ruhar consider raising livestock for consumption to be barbaric, so they instead make vat-grown meat "shells."
- Intelligent Gerbil
Baturnah Logellia
A Ruhar planetary administrator on Paradise. Whereas most of her people are just as willing to let humans hang out to dry, she is notable for her compassion and her desire to keep humans on Paradise in the loop about the various ways the Ruhar federal government plans to sell them out. She is also the person responsible for first informing UNEF Paradise (through meetings with Joe Bishop) that humanity's patrons, the Kristang, are not the benevolent saviors they pose themselves as.
The Verd-kris
In General
Patron Species: Ruhar
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 3
An offshoot of the Kristang in the Maxolhx Coalition, the Verd-kris are a group of Kristang seeking to restore Kristang culture to what it was before the Thuranin twisted it up and set it towards war. Nevertheless, because of their heritage as a former enemy species, they are trusted by no one.The Torgalau
In General
Patron Species: Jeraptha
Client Species: Lemoostra
Tech Level: Tier 3
Little is known about this peer species of the Ruhar, except that it is a species of religious fanatics.The Lemoostra
In General
Patron Species: Torgalau
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 4
Even less is known about the Lemoostra.The Maxolhx Coalition
In General
The Maxolhx
In General
Patron Species: none
Client Species: Thuranin, Bosphuraq, Esselgin
Tech Level: Tier 1
The second of the two Galactic Superpowers, though they tend to dominate galactic politics by virtue of being the only active galactic superpower. Supremely arrogant and convinced of their destiny to control the entire galaxy by themselves, the Maxolhx are nevertheless cunning and formidable foes.- Cat Folk
- Interstellar Weapon: The Maxolhx have a number of rocks at relativistic speed in interstellar space that they can jump to create a Colony Drop at will.
- No Name Given: So far, no Maxolhx character has been given a first name.
Commander Illiath
Commander Illiath
A Maxolhx commander and the captain of the patrol cruiser Vortan, Illiath was the primary investigator of the Bosphoraq ghost ship and associated rumors. Extremely intelligent, astute, persistent, and loyal to her people, Illiath presents a formidable threat to the Merry Band of Pirates' operational security.- The Determinator: Illiath is never happy with the surface answers to her investigations and insists on drilling down as deep as possible to spot the thread.
- Iron Lady: Illiath is no slouch in the political arena and knows when to stand firm. She also knows when it's best to stand down, a rare trait in a Maxolhx.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Illiath isn't exactly a nurturing commander, but she is perfectly willing to ignore petty grudges and matters of pride to get the job done.
Senior Admiral Reichert
The primary antagonist of the Merry Band of Pirates in Book 11. Admiral Reichert is a big proponent of large-scope plans that use the full might of the Maxolhx fleet and tends to view the world in terms of "kill or be killed."
- Improperly Paranoid: Admiral Reichert can't help but assume that any other species would act the way the Maxolhx would act, i.e. as galactic conquerors. This leads him to take provocative actions where a less heavy-handed approach might have been better and forces humanity to go on the offensive to save itself.
- War Hawk: When humanity acquires Elder weapons capable of triggering the genocidal Sentinels at the end of Book 10, Reichert advocates for a policy of immediate containment - to Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us.
The Thuranin
In General
Patron Species: Maxolhx
Client Species: Kristang
Tech Level: Tier 2
A species of little green cyborgs that seeks to refute its organic origins and achieve supremacy through perfection.- Allowed Internal War: When the Kristang begin another one of their “regularly scheduled” civil wars, the Thuranin initially try to stop the conflict, but they quickly give up and decide to let the conflict burn itself out.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul
- Ditto Aliens: The Thuranin only use 39 genotypes to produce their clones, and even then they don't have much difference between the types.
- Mechanistic Alien Culture
- The Greys
The Kristang
In General
Patron Species: Thuranin
Client Species: Humanity
Tech Level: Tier 3
The "saviors" of humanity that dragged them into the Forever War. With the Warrior Caste in charge, the Kristang are a fractious society of brutal, bloodthirsty braggarts who are more interested in proving their combat prowess than in being actually effective in combat.- Alternative Number System: The Kristang numeral system is in base 8, corresponding with their having 4 fingers on each hand.
- Fantastic Caste System: There's the Warrior Caste on top, and then there's everyone else.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: If it's not related to weapons, Kristang warriors don't care about it. As a result, Kristang military technology is simple and rugged while everything else (like life support) is neglected by warriors who refuse to tend to such mundane systems.
Jet-au-Bes Kekrando
An admiral in the Swift Arrow Clan, Kekrando was the leader of the strike force to retake Paradise from the Ruhar. After suffering numerous defeats and political humiliations, Kekrando has developed a world-weary attitude about the Forever War.
The Bosphuraq
In General
Patron Species: Maxolhx
Client Species: Wurgalan
Tech Level: Tier 2
Present peers and former patrons of the Thuranin, the Bosphuraq are birdlike aliens regarded as foremost experts in Elder technology. They often serve as a wild card throwing wrenches into everyone else's plans.The Wurgalan
In General
Patron Species: Bosphuraq
Client Species: Urgar
Tech Level: Tier 3
A species of Octopoid Aliens that tends to fall short on the technology ladder but maintains a streak of cruelty to rival (and sometimes surpass) the Kristang.The Urgar
In General
Patron Species: Wurgalan
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 4
The Esselgin
In General
Patron Species: Maxolhx
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 2
One of the youngest species in the Maxholx Coalition, the Esselgin are notable for being Tier 2 clients from the get-go. Otherwise, they are rarely encountered as their territory is remote from anywhere the Merry Band of Pirates operates.The Elders (SPOILERS!)
In General
Patron Species: none
Client Species: none
Tech Level: Tier 0
- Absolute Xenophobe: The Security faction believed that the only way to guarantee their own safety was to exterminate all other intelligent life.
- Genetic Adaptation: Elders possessed the ability to modify their own genomes to fit whatever planet they were traveling to.
The Collective
The group of A.I.s the Elders left behind to protect their infrastructure after they ascended.
- Civilization Destroyer: The primary task of the Collective is to exterminate any species that becomes intelligent enough to mess with Elder technology.
