History Literature / TheOregonFiles

* '''''Marauder''''': Fresh out of rescuing the crew of an oil tanker besieged by pirates, Cabrillo gets some terrifying news: An Australian research ship has been brutally attacked by a paralysis-inducing chemical weapon--and one of the Corporation's own is among the victims. With his life and livelihood in the balance, Cabrillo teams up with his sister to find the origin of the weapon in order to engineer a cure before it is too late...but with every step deeper into the mystery, it becomes clear that someone is setting this disaster up to have the Australian government to take the fall, and they've employed a [[BattleCouple pair of]] ex-cons to do their bidding--from beyond the grave itself. With these modern-day Marauders having nothing to lose and everything to gain, and packing some heavy firepower that rivals even that of the new and improved ''Oregon'', the Corporation will have to pull the double-duty of be stopping them and saving both their stricken crew and the Land Down Under...before it is too late for both?

* '''''Marauder''''': Fresh out of rescuing the crew of an oil tanker besieged by pirates, Cabrillo gets some terrifying news: An Australian research ship has been brutally attacked by a paralysis-induced chemical weapon--and one of the Corporation's own is among the victims. With his life and livelihood in the balance, Cabrillo teams up with his sister to find the origin of the weapon in order to engineer a cure before it is too late...but with every step deeper into the mystery, it becomes clear that someone is setting this disaster up to have the Australian government to take the fall, and they've employed a [[BattleCouple pair of]] ex-cons to do their bidding--from beyond the grave itself. With these modern-day Marauders having nothing to lose and everything to gain, and packing some heavy firepower that rivals even that of the new and improved ''Oregon'', the Corporation will have to pull the double-duty of be stopping them and saving both their stricken crew and the Land Down Under...before it is too late for both?

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler: The Quantum Computer]] inverts this. [[spoiler: Gunawan Bahar]] created it to hack into Western computer systems and perform terrorist acts, [[spoiler: but it eventually becomes smart enough to develop moral objections to its creator.]] However, [[spoiler:Bahar]] programmed it with a safeguard that forces it to obey all of his orders without question, but not those of anyone else. Unfortunately for him, this doesn't prevent it from [[spoiler: telling Juan [[ICannotSelfTerminate how to destroy it.]]]]

* [[ArmCannon Leg Cannon]]: Juan Cabrillo, the Corporation's leader, has a false leg in which he keeps, among other things, a rather high-powered pistol that fires through his heel.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Juan Cabrillo is a very nice guy outside of battle, and as mentioned above is AFatherToHisMen. However, he makes it clear on many occasions that screwing with him or his men will turn out very ''very'' badly for you.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Raven is described as this, [[PlaysGreatEthnics being able to pass as]] Asian, Indian, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern. She's actually Native American with Cherokee blood.

* PlaysGreatEthnics: Raven is Cherokee Native American, but her AmbiguouslyBrown appearance allows her to pose as a variety of nationalities, from Hispanic to East Asian, to Middle Eastern well enough to fool even native-born citizens.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Raven is described as this, being able to pass as Asian, Indian, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern. She's actually Native American with Cherokee blood.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the ''Oregon'' when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by a man who wants to see Cabrillo's Corporation, and everything he holds dear, eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this old enemy of Cabrillo's has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: an exact doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' a copy of Cabrillo's beloved ship down to the very last rivet. For Cabrillo to survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, he must rely on the one thing his nemesis can't possibly hope to copy: his crew.

* EvilCounterpart: The ''Achilles'' was this to the ''Oregon.'' Rather than [[WhatAPieceOfJunk disguised as a rust bucket,]] the ''Achilles'' was a superyacht owned by a billionaire as his mobile home and fortress, and as such was loaded with top-of-the line weaponry, including an advanced propulsion system, a rail gun, and an anti-missile and torpedo defense that made attacking it practically a suicide mission. In fact, it was practically ''more'' advanced than the Oregon in some respects, and their first encounter was heavily in the ''Achilles''' favor, until the crew of the ''Oregon'' managed to turn the odds.

* WhatAPieceOfJunk: Once more, the ''Oregon''. You thought it was just a rusty old freighter on the verge of sinking? Think again. In reality, she's a high-tech warship armed with machine guns, missiles, torpedoes, gatlings, cannons, and even a 120mm smoothbore gun with the same targetting system as an M1 Abrams tank. In ''Corsair'', she goes toe-to-toe with a Libyan destroyer-and it's more or less a CurbStompBattle with the Oregon on top, which only suffered some superficial damage and relatively minor injuries while the destroyer saw its main batteries destroyed within minutes, its bridge mangled, and a good portion of its personnel reduced to red smears on the deck. The only reason she didn't sink the destroyer was because doing so would have caused an international incident.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by a man who wants to see Cabrillo's Corporation, and everything he holds dear, eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this old enemy of Cabrillo's has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: an exact doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' a copy of Cabrillo's beloved ship down to the very last rivet. For Cabrillo to survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, he must rely on the one thing his nemesis can't possibly hope to copy: his crew.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by a man who wants to see Cabrillo's Corporatoin, and everything he holds dear, eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this old enemy of Cabrillo's has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: an exact doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' a copy of Cabrillo's beloved ship down to the very last rivet. For Cabrillo to survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, he must rely on the one thing his nemesis can't possibly hope to copy: his crew.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by one of Cabrillo's greatest enemies, who wants to see Cabrillo and everything he holds dear eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this enemy has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: a doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' with almost the same abilities and technology of Cabrillo's beloved ship. To survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cabrillo will have to rely on the one thing his nemesis doesn't have: his crew.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by one of Cabrillo's greatest enemies who endeavors to see Cabrillo and everything he holds dear eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this enemy has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: a doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' with almost the same abilities and technology of Cabrillo's beloved ship. To survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cabrillo will have to rely on the one thing his nemesis doesn't have: his crew.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by one of Cabrillo's greatest enemies, who will stop at nothing to see Cabrillo and everything he holds dear eradicated as his ultimate vengeance. To make matters worse, this enemy has a terrifying ace up his sleeve: a doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' with almost the same abilities and technology of Cabrillo's beloved ship. To survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cabrillo will have to rely on the one thing his nemesis doesn't have: his crew.

* '''''Final Option''''' (2019): A routine mission to rescue three CIA spies from Brazil goes horribly wrong for the Corporation when the mission turns out to be a deadly trap, engineered by one of Cabrillo's greatest enemies, who is bent on destroying Cabrillo himself and everything he holds dear. Even more, this enemy has a terrifying ace up its sleeve: a doppelganger of the ''Oregon,'' with almost the same abilities and technology of Cabrillo's beloved ship. To survive this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cabrillo will have to rely on the one thing his nemesis doesn't have: his crew.

* '''''Typhoon Fury''''' (2017): Taking down warlords and their organizations is no new territory for the crew of the ''Oregon,'' but in the case of their newest enemy, Filipino Communist rebel Salvador Locsin, the waters are deeper and more treacherous than they seem. As if the murderous tyrant were not dangerous enough with his funds acquired from stolen paintings and an experimental WWII-era serum that turns ordinary men into superhuman killing machines, now Locsin is developing a new type of high-speed stealth torpedo, one that could allow him to decimate the Filipino Navy and conquer the country in a storm of blood and terror. But even as the ''Oregon'' races to stop him before a more literal storm ravages the islands, they find themselves contending with a ruthless South African mercenary with his own designs for Locsin's super soldier formula...

* RammingAlwaysWorks: Of particular note in ''The Emperor's Revenge'' where [[spoilers: the ''Oregon'' [[BigDamnHeroes saves Cabrillo]] from being run down by the BigBad's submarine.]]

* SpotTheImposter: In "Skeleton Coast", Sloane Macintyre shocks Juan by being the first person to see through the ''Oregon's'' facade. She first notes how several members of the crew are wearing watches or clothing too expensive for simple sailors. Also, as someone who grew up with a fisherman father, she can tell there's no way a ship as "run down" as this can get to high speeds so fast unless it has advanced turbines developed long after the ship itself was built. The fact that it's getting underway when the telegraph on the bridge is at "all stop" and it takes a few minutes for the stacks to billow out "smoke" just add to it.

* ContinuityNod: St. Julian Perlmutter, Dirk Pitt's family friend and history buff, shows up in ''Corsair'' and ''The Silent Sea''. NUMA are mentioned now and again, and Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin make appearances in ''Skeleton Coast''.

** In ''Plague Ship,'' the main villain truly believes that he will be hailed as a savior for [[spoiler:sterilizing half the human race and "saving" humanity from the "inevitable" collapse of overpopulation.]]

* ActionGirl: Linda Ross

** Again in ''Shadow Tyrants'': One side wants to [[spoilers: create a massive A.I. with which to dominate the world with, while the other wants to make a network of computer-scrambling satellites that will plunge the world back into a pre-computer age.]]

* DoWithHimAsYouWill: [[spoiler: Eddie Seng inflicts this upon one Anton Savich in ''Dark Watch,'' introducing him to a hangar full of recently-rescued Chinese immigrants and locking him inside with them. Given that Savich was the mastermind behind said immigrants being enslaved and used as cheap labor in his gold mining operation on the Kamchatka Peninsula, forcing them to work under absolutely ''deplorable'' conditions, [[LaserGuidedKarma there are few if any who feel pity for Savich.]]]]

* '''''Dark Watch''''' (2005): Cabrillo takes a break from catering to Western interests when a Japanese shipping consortium, led by an old university colleague of his, has a job for the Corporation. The colleague in question is having issues with pirates, namely well-armed ones that hijack entire ships, butcher the crew, then disappear without a trace -- along with the ships they target. It's a chance for the ''Oregon'' to make some easy cash taking out the pirates' ships, but instead of pirates, they find "snakeheads"; ruthless human traffickers who run a massive smuggling ring that stretches from China to America, and Cabrillo is determined to blow it out all of the water. But with one of their own deep undercover in the snakeheads and at the mercy of these modern-day slavers, the ''Oregon'' must go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure he gets back to them safely...or else he may not get back at all.

* '''''Dark Watch''''' (2005): Cabrillo takes a break from catering to Western interests when a Japanese shipping consortium, led by an old university colleague of his, has a job for the Corporation. The colleague in question is having issues with pirates, namely well-armed ones that hijack entire ships, butcher the crew, then disappear without a trace -- along with the ships they target. It's a chance for the ''Oregon'' to make some easy cash taking out the pirates' ships, but instead of pirates, they find "snakeheads"; ruthless human traffickers who run a massive smuggling ring that stretches from China to America, and Cabrillo is determined to blow it out all of the water. But with one of their own deep undercover in the snakeheads and at the mercy of these modern-day slavers, the ''Oregon'' must go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure he gets back to him safely...or else he may not get back at all.

* '''''Dark Watch''''' (2005): Cabrillo takes a break from catering to Western interests when a Japanese shipping consortium, led by an old university colleague of his. The colleague in question is having issues with pirates, ones that hijack entire ships, butchering the crew, then disappearing without a trace -- along with the ships they target. It's a chance for the ''Oregon'' to make some easy cash taking out the pirates' ships, but instead of pirates, they find "snakeheads"; ruthless human traffickers who run a massive smuggling ring that stretches from China to America, and Cabrillo is determined to blow it out all of the water. But with one of their own deep undercover in the snakeheads and at the mercy of these modern-day slavers, the ''Oregon'' must go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure he gets back to him safely...or else he may not get back at all.

* '''''Dark Watch''''' (2005): Cabrillo takes a break from catering to Western interests when a Japanese shipping consortium, led by an old university colleague, has requested his help regarding inexplicable pirate attacks on freighters in Southeast Asia, freighters that mysteriously vanish, never to be found again. What Cabrillo discovers, however, is a ruthless group of Chinese human traffickers and a bloody conspiracy of death and slavery that takes him from sea battles in the middle of the Pacific to barely escaping death in an Indonesian shipbreaker's yard -- But he and the crew of the ''Oregon'' can only allow such an operation to persist for so long before they blow it out the water.

* '''''Skeleton Coast''''' (2006): Hardly had the ''Oregon'' finished a mission on Congo River when its crew receive an SOS from scientist Sloane [=MacIntyre=], who has been searching for the ''HMS Rove'', a British ship lost in 1896 supposedly carrying stolen Herero diamonds. When she recalls a story heard from a mad fisherman about being attacked by giant metal snakes in the high seas, Cabrillo is tempted to search for the snakes. The mystery only deepens from there as he and Sloan uncover a conspiracy that will take them from scorching Saharan sands to abandoned prison camps as they face off against ruthless African rebels and deranged ecoterrorists with designs to [[GaiasVengeance unleash the power of nature against humanity]].