YMMV / Aeon 14

• Complete Monster: Rika's Marauders novel Rika Redeemed: Stavros is the dictator of a relatively small empire in the Praesepe Cluster called the Politica. He drove the Oranians off their homeworld onto another location deeper in the system, turning their home in exile into a Vichy Earth in direct imitation of the ancient Romans and Nazis, something he says he's done elsewhere. He has also technologically and psychologically enslaved almost his entire military, including many combat cyborgs known as "mechs". In the book proper, when Silva, the mother of his heir by a one-night stand who was later turned into a mech, attempted to retrieve her daughter Amy, whom he beats, he captured her and enslaved her as Amy's bodyguard/pet, using her compliance chip to force her never to reveal that she is Amy's mother while encouraging Amy to address her as "Meat", a Fantastic Slur for mechs. When Rika, Silva's former subordinate, goes undercover in The Politica as a defector from her mercenary company, Stavros insists on installing a compliance chip in her as well. Rika is immune, but in order to maintain her cover is forced to play along with Stavros using the chip to make her perform a sexual act on him. Leslie, one of Rika's teammates, is captured during the mission and chipped as well. When Rika finally initiates the plan to liberate the mechs and kill Stavros, he resorts to using his own daughter Amy as a Human Shield. While other villains in the franchise have significantly higher body counts, few approach Stavros for sheer personal vileness.
• Continuity Lockout: This has become a bit of a problem as the Shared Universe has expanded and the side series interconnect with the main Tanis Richards novels. Newcomers to the series are generally recommended to start with the Intrepid Saga trilogy, and then read the semi-standalone novel Destiny Lost that bridges the franchise's two primary time periods (the 5th and 9th Millennia) and introduces Sera Tomlinson and the crew of Sabrina.

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