Tour of the Merrimack

Tour of the Merrimack is a Military Science Fiction series by R. M. Meluch.

In the future, America is at war with Palatine, a rebellious interstellar colony that models itself after ancient Rome and in fact claims to be its successor. The new Roman Empire seeks to reclaim their ancestral home of Earth; the military forces of America seek to return Palatine to its status as a subserviant colony world. However, both sides are taken by surprise when they are attacked by the Hive: an alien lifeform of boundless hunger which consumes world after world.

John Farragut is the captain of the Merrimack, the first ship to ever survive an attack by the Hive. He and his crew are charged with hunting down the Hive's homeworld and finding a way to destroy the voracious alien horde. Reluctantly assisting them is Augustus, a Roman who has been cybernetically altered to possess computer-like information processing ability.

The Merrimack heads into the Deep, further from colonized space than anyone before it. The Hive is out there... and it's hungry.

The Tour of the Merrimack series currently consists of four books, with more planned:
 * The Myriad
 * Wolf Star
 * The Sagittarius Command
 * Strength and Honor
 * The Ninth Circle

This series provides examples of:


 * Ancient Conspiracy: The Romans
 * Antimatter: The fuel used by FTL spacecraft.
 * Attack Drone: Used heavily by Rome
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: One of the powers of Patterners
 * Badass Gay: Augustus
 * Batman Gambit: Augustus's Patterner abilities allow him to pull this off against
 * The Battlestar: The Merrimack
 * Bloody Murder: Hive blood is corrosive
 * Brainwashed and Crazy:
 * Brother-Sister Incest:
 * Bug War
 * The Captain: Captain Farragut
 * Captain Crash: Callista Carmel is nicknamed "Crash Carmel"
 * Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Farragut and Steele
 * CIA Evil, FBI Good: The CIA is portrayed as sinister.
 * Creative Sterility: The Hive can adapt in reaction to tactics used against it, but it cannot innovate on its own.
 * Cyborg: Augustus, though he expresses dislike for the term.
 * Deadly Prank: The Ninth Circle begins with Cinna dying in a hazing ritual gone wrong.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: One Marine motto is "Redundancy is good. Redundancy is good. Redundancy is good."
 * Designer Babies: Popular amongst the Romans; used to boost their population faster than it would grow naturally.
 * Enemy Mine: America and Rome vs the Hive
 * Extreme Omnivore: The Hive will eat pretty much anything organic
 * Eye Scream: The death of
 * Faking the Dead:.
 * Framing the Guilty Party: Category 2. After a military disaster, organizes a Kangaroo Court to find someone, anyone, other than himself responsible. His attempt to cover his own ass results in the scapegoating and execution of the person actually responsible for the fiasco, entirely by accident and on completely unrelated charges.
 * Girls With Moustaches: The otherwise very attractive Amadea sports a small beard.
 * Gladiator Games: Popular entertainment for the Romans
 * Got Me Doing It: Captain Farragut unconsciously imitates Mo Shah's idiosyncratic speech pattern at one point, then quickly corrects himself.
 * Guilt-Free Extermination War: Even Reluctant Warrior Jose Maria believes that the total extermination of the Hive is not only moral but necessary.
 * Hard Gay: Augustus
 * Hive Mind: The Hive
 * Horde of Alien Locusts: The Hive
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: A sport available to wealthy Romans; Constantine Siculus was reportedly fond of it
 * In Spite of a Nail:
 * Insistent Terminology: Augustus objects to being called a cyborg.
 * Ironic Echo: "Sic semper malefidelibus." in The Sagittarius Command
 * It Has Been an Honor: Said by Kit Kittering in The Myriad (she survives) and by in The Sagittarius Command (he doesn't).
 * Kill It With Fire: Fire is generally effective agaist the Hive, and is the only thing effective agaist Gluies. However, since space ships have limited oxygen supplies, it is very dangerous to the crews and only used as a weapon of last resort.
 * Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: The Hive has learned to interfere with most fancy electronics; the most effective weapon against them is actually a good old-fashioned sword.
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice: Vice President Sampson "The Chin" Reed
 * The Man Behind the Monsters:
 * May-December Romance: Kerry Blue and TR Steele
 * Mirror Chemistry: The crew aren't worried about picking up any diseases in the Myriad because life on those worlds uses opposite-handed proteins, which are are incompatible with human biology. It is also mentioned that the Hive is unique among all known species in that it is able to digest proteins of either chirality.
 * Moon Logic Puzzle: In-universe example. One of the VR training programs for swordplay pops up friendly and hostile targets in rapid sequence, testing the Marines' reaction times and ability to hit only the hostile targets. One of the targets is a cow, and none of the Marines can figure out whether its supposed to count as "friendly" or "hostile".
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning:
 * No One Gets Left Behind: Steele, particularly to Kerry Blue in the first book
 * Older Than They Look: Anyone who's had rejuv treatments, but the most plot-relevant are Gaius and Amadea.
 * Plant Aliens: The Sargassons. Also, the pet plant-lizard Kerry Blue acquires in the Myriad.
 * Playing Both Sides: . Worked for both Romulus and Constantine, trying to always be in the good graces of whoever looked to be in the most advantageous position at the time.
 * Put Off Their Food: In The Myriad, Captain Farragut describes over dinner how gorgons melt into caustic brown slime when they die, then tells his chef to skip the French onion soup.
 * Really Gets Around: Kerry Blue
 * Reluctant Warrior: Don Jose Maria Cordillera
 * Reset Button:
 * Retirony:
 * Self-Destruct Mechanism: Employed on unmanned Roman drones, to prevent them from being captured.
 * Self-Made Orphan:
 * Sergeant Rock: TR Steele
 * Set a Mook To Kill A Mook: The Romans try to pull this in Wolf Star, attempting to get Merrimack and the Marine Swifts to shoot each other by foxing their IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signals. Captain Farragut sees through it in time, though.
 * Someone Has to Die: Two instances: one where they have one less ship than people so someone has to be left behind; another time when someone has to decompress an airlock from the inside.
 * Space Pirates: The titular Ninth Circle of The Ninth Circle.
 * Space Romans
 * Standard Sci Fi Setting
 * Tele Frag: Occurs if you try to displace without following the proper procedures.
 * Teleport Interdiction: Jammers can be used to stop displacement.
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Displacement discs. Most are only large enough for individual people, but the Eisenhower-Roosevelt Shotgun is large enough to transport entire ships.
 * Title Drop: Occurs in every book except The Sagittarius Command.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Cowboy
 * Uncanny Valley Girl: Amadea
 * Vagina Dentata: Geneva Rhine is equipped with a device called a dragon, also known as a sausage peeler.
 * Video Will:.
 * We Can Rebuild Him: How Patterners are created
 * Worthy Opponent: For all his trash-talk, it's clear Augustus views Captain Farragut this way
 * Your Days Are Numbered: Augustus. Patterners don't live for very long, and his warranty has already expired.