The crew has some trust issues.
"That might be your clue. Don't you guys have a saying if it's too good to be true, then it probably is?"
— Fae Kirin to Sonluth Eclipse
The Osmerian Conflict is a science fiction novel written by Llewellyn Burgess and originally published on 5 March 2014. It takes place in the wider universe around three hundred years after the start of the Space Exploration (SE) Era. The Terrans are currently allied with the Silicians in an armed conflict with the titular Osmerians. While the Terrans bear the brunt of the military burden, they develop technology to stem the tide of the war. This is where the story picks up to as newly graduated Sarah Collins is allowed to command her first mission in the form of a prototype battleship code named RAINE. It details the trials and tribulations of a crew fresh out of the academy on a new prototype spaceship as they go from naive inexperienced crew to understanding the truer and deeper meaning and context of interspacial conflict as well as the politics involved with such ordeals.
Can be purchased from Amazon here
There is now a sequel called The Fight for Home
Tropes present in this novel:
- Action Girl: Marina, Izumi, and Zee.
- Aliens Speaking English:
- Justified as Osmerians and Silicians both have had contact with Terrans and their culture, although due to the war Osmerian is less familiar to the Terran crew, and we only hear a very high commander use English before Translator Microbes are implemented.
- Further illustrated by Marina when Sonluth happens upon her in the corridors while she's looking at Navigation books. Since she is not expecting anyone to be in her general vicinity she is thinking aloud in her native tongue which Sonluth recognizes as not being of Terran Origin.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Marina Welch, being a Princess of a Proud Warrior Race, never backs down when presented with a fight. Including once she gets home accepting and beating one of her own to remind them why she's in charge.
- Batman Gambit: In order to activate her super weapon, Qui Fen needs to deliver some people to Silicia without drawing suspicion from the UTSF. She accomplishes this by placing Sarah in charge of a new battleship and requesting for its maiden voyage to be a goodwill patrol from Terran Space to Silician Space. The plan is largely reliant on a commanding officer not challenging the rules and regulations of the UTSF and acting according to the rules.
- Battle Couple: Zee and Saku.
- Blind Obedience: To a degree the whole crew, but particularly Sarah until the incident in Sector J.
- Lampshaded by Sonluth when he comments when referring to his previous time in the UTSF that he was "a programmed robot like the lot of them are"
- Bittersweet Ending: The Osmerians are beaten but the manner in which the survivors are then exterminated makes Sarah and her crew very uncomfortable about their "helpless" allies. It is also the one time Marina completely breaks down as she's helpless to save her people from extermination.
- Break the Cutie: Partially happens to Sarah after her dad betrays her ship and crew to the Silicians and she is forced into realizing her ideals of the UTSF are not as glittering as originally perceived.
- Also happens to Marina as she watches her planet be destroyed in a similar manner to her training academy.
- The Captain: Captain Sarah Collins evolves into the trope through the passage of the story.
- Challenging the Chief: General Saratine attempts this to establish himself as leader of the Osmerian People. He fails and is killed in the resulting duel against Marina.
- The Chessmaster: Qui Fen.
- Childhood Friend: According to a flash back, Saku and Zee have known each other since before transferring to the military academy.
- Classified Information: Pretty much the entire life story of most of the crew and main ship. The crew are even told at one point that they do not have clearance to even look at their own records.
- Colonel Badass: Sonluth Eclipse
- Conveniently an Orphan: Justified in that a major plot point is figuring out the background of a classified crew. With the exception of Saku (whose parents are stated to have been killed pre-story) and Sarah (who is training under her father), very little mention is made of parents.
- Cool Starship: The RAINE
- Culture Justifies Anything: Qui Fen does this when applying Silician reasoning, which normally means applying logic to create the best intellectual or numerical advantage, to decision making. Something that for the most part rubs Sarah the wrong way.
- Deflector Shields: All of the larger mechs have them as a means of defense in warding off small arms fire and dampening larger artillery fire.
- Ensign Newbie: Sarah Collins. She is fresh out of the academy when she is placed in charge of the RAINE. While no one actually calls her this, the chessmaster is relying on this trait to keep their plan in motion.
- Fighting from the Inside: Zee does this twice. Mildly in the first combat with the Nebulizers when her personality briefly resurfaces to ask for Saku's help and again when Izumi tracks her down during the raid on Osmeria and she is forced to abandon Saku.
- Foreshadowing: Marina's background can be deduced long before it is made official as she speaks a foreign language no one understands, she never directly works with Qui Fen, and her academy was rumoured to have non-Terrans running it. While it takes a bit of a genius bonus, it is also said that her body is denser than a Silicians while lacking any source of Silicon.
- Fun with Acronyms: The main ship RAINE stands for Radon Anti-Intel Nuclear Expeditor.
- Jace's GEneral Nuclear Operated Vehicular Attacker (GENOVA)
- Forte's Free Range And Motion Exoskeleton (FRAME)
- He's a Friend: How Izumi introduces the crew to the Iron Wing. Commander Gonsalves reaffirms this when he personally speaks to Sarah.
- Hero of Another Story: Leader of the Iron Wing, Commander Gonsalves.
- Missing Mom: Sarah's mother is absent and never really mentioned as her dad refuses to talk on the subject.
- Mood Whiplash:
- The story as a whole starts off pretty lighthearted as most seem to think of this as a sort of final exam to earn their military stripes. Maybe a few bad guys here and there, but nothing too major. Starting with Pluto the story continuously smacks the characters with reality, reducing them to tears.
- The scene were Zee and Saku have a touching moment with each other only to be driven apart a few pages later.
- Named After Their Planet: Osmerians from Osmeria, Silcians from Silicia, Generians from Generia. Inverted with Humans, as they are referred to as Humans or Terrans but the planet is referred to as Earth.
- Naming Conventions: Osmerians all have Finnish first names. Silicians all have Chinese names.
- Obsessively Organized: Fae Kirin, although as head mechanic its a given considering she likes everything in her care to be in perfect working condition, even if she has to do it herself.
- Orbital Bombardment: The Silicians in particular do this twice in the book to set a precedent and flex their military might.
- Pretext for War: The Terran populace does not want another galactic war, so the United Terran Forces fabricate an event to push the populous in supporting a war.The UTSF and Silicians help stage a series of fake Osmerian Raids in an attempt to have the Terran Populous believe that in the best interest of the planet they need to turn on their former allies and attack them.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Osmerians to the point they believe in might is right.
- Proud Scholar Race: The Silicians, although they are not shy about showing off their intellect and tactics in battle.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Marina Welch is an Osmerian Princess.
- The Smart Girl: Izumi Maehara. She is under surveillance due to past hacking incidences and she also knows her way around most of the electronics and security on board the RAINE.
- Spanner in the Works: Sonluth Eclipse. Although others have pieces that would give them reason to evoke this trope, Sonluth becomes the central figure who collects and puts all the pieces together. However he is only partially successful as Fen still manages to accomplish half of what she set out to do.
- Also due to a misstep in Fen's plan, Sarah's baptism by fire alerts her to an alternate possibility, thus destroying the person's action the plan was largely reliant on.
- Split Personality: Zee develops one after being taken by the Silicians. She is able to tap into her full genetic abilities however this also makes her fanatically loyal to them.
- The Only One I Can Trust: Zee and Izumi both at some point say this to Sonluth, primarily as he's the only one that seems to not be blindly loyal to the UTSF and both help him piece together that the UTSF is not all that it seems.
- Transforming Mecha: Zee's ATF can transform between a flight mode and a humanoid mode.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played with during the excursion to Generia when the locals tell punch Sarah. He comments that he wouldn't hit a woman. Sarah then throws a punch at Ned to force the issue to which he counters her with a punch to the face.
- Wrench Wench: Fae Kirin is the head mechanic on board the RAINE, and takes great offense if you insult her work.
