Sten/Characters

Sten

The slave who became a soldier who became a spook who became the most important figure in the known universe.
 * The Ace - Pretty much everyone sees Sten as this... except Sten himself, who is on a good day willing to concede that he's maybe not a total incompetent. Of course, Sten's made an entire career out of killing more powerful men than him by taking advantage of their overconfidence so its understandable he's made a habit of always being his own worst critic. See also The Mario below.
 * Badass
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Conveniently an Orphan
 * Dark and Troubled Past
 * The Hero
 * The Mario - Sten is not the best marksman on his team (Cind is), nor the best close-quarters combatant (Alex is), nor the best tactician or strategist, nor the best intelligence analyst... in point of fact he's not the best at anything. Regardless of military or spook specialty, at least one member of his supporting cast edges him out on it. However, Sten is second-best at so many different things that it all adds up to him being super-adaptable and nigh-unstoppable in any conflict unless the enemy is capable of totally controlling the battlespace and forcing Sten to engage only on the enemy's terms. Even then he usually improvises a way out.
 * Hot Amazon: With one exception, All of Sten's love interests above the 'one-night stand' level are this. And that one exception (Princess Sofia) barely lasts long enough to avoid being called a fling, and his involvement with her was partly driven by political considerations in the first place.
 * In fact, Sten reflects that his hooking up with Lt. Haines (one of the aforementioned Amazons) was at least partly driven by the fact that he was desperate enough to ask out any woman he knew to avoid being partnered up with Sofia as her escort at a diplomatic reception (she was seeking to renew their old relationship, he strongly disagreed precisely because he'd so strongly gone off of princess types), and Haines was not only nearest to hand but also the toughest woman he then knew at the time.
 * Hurting Hero: But very stoically
 * Mighty Whitey: Not played straight, but invoked in one book. After Sten helped the Bhor in a bad situation, they mythologized him as "the greatest fighter, lover, and drinker in Bhor history." When he learns this, he comments, "In the whole time I was there, I only got laid twice, and I lost almost every battle except the last." Not to mention that no human can keep up with Bhor alcohol intake.
 * Kilgour can!
 * Kilgour isn't human either.
 * Only One Name: He's "Karl Sten," but only the last name made it the recruiting records, and he never seems to tell even his girlfriends his full name.

Alex Kilgour

Laird Kilgour of Kilgour, called Sten's "personal thug" by the Emperor. A Scottish aristocrat who joined the Emperor's service like his brothers. Unlike his brothers, he didn't die. He also joined Mercury Corps, became a Mantis operative, and Sten's right-hand man.
 * Cultured Badass - Although he prefere to affect the persona of a drunken Scottish bruiser, Laird Kilgour of Kilgour is from an aristocratic line dating back centuries, incredibly wealthy, a patron of fine arts, and in fact lives a higher and more cultured lifestyle than his boss does.
 * Curb Stomp Battle - This is the fate of pretty much everyone Alex Kilgour has ever gotten a solid grip on. He's essentially a superhuman in a world full of normals. Even Sten has given up trying to beat Alex in sparring sessions with anything short of electrocution.
 * The Lancer - Sten's loyal right hand to outright Holmes and Watson levels, Alex has gone from simply being one of the NCOs on Sten's tactical team to changing service branches several times simply to be assigned where his friend is, and following him through multiple revolutions and acts of high treason. During the final rebellion Poyndex considers a confirmed Alex Kilgour sighting to be proof positive that Sten must have survived his apparent death as well, because there's simply no way Alex would have abandoned his partner to die.
 * Heavyworlder - Alex's home planet of Edinburg is over 3 G's.
 * Implacable Man -- Alex Kilgour is one of the heavyweight champions from a planet full of extreme heavyworlders, and has never been defeated in hand-to-hand combat in the course of the series. The only scenes where he's been successfully captured involved either him surrendering due to external considerations or him being knocked out from a nearby spaceship bombardment. He's kept going even when shot, stabbed, and blasted through walls. An entire species of giant Space Viking wookiee expies considers him to be their physical equal. Short of blowing him to tiny pieces there's essentially no stopping him.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: He's a demolitions expert. Of the 'Could make an improvised nuke out of commonly available parts, or disarm one while under fire from multiple automatic weapons' variety.
 * Violent Glaswegian

Cind

A stone-cold gorgeous female soldier with a talent for the "long-arm." Descended from the defunct warrior caste of the Jannisars, she runs away from home to become one of the few humans in the Bhor-run military. Completely and totally in love with Sten.
 * Action Girl: Oh dear God yes. By her early 20s she was matching the performance level of Sten and Alex, who not only had decades more combat experience than her but Mantis Section training that she'd never gotten access to. She was operations chief of the Bhor military before she was 30. Elected by acclamation.
 * All Amazons Want Hercules: The main reason for Cind's initial interest in Sten was that he was the greatest warrior she'd ever seen or heard of.
 * Friendly Sniper
 * Boobs of Steel: "Hey, they float!"
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: To a level that makes the rest of the cast, the least skilled of whom would be considered a master sniper in real life, look positively sloppy. Cind does things like 'use her first shot to blow a small crack in a brick wall, then put several more bullets through the crack to pin down her target with suppressive fire, then shoot the target around a corner once its stationary' as routinely as other people hit paper targets at fifty feet. Even with the around-the-corner shot being made possible by an ultra-tech homing rifle, that's still sorta ridiculous.
 * Jail Bait Wait: Cind first shows up as a cameo in book 6, when Sten is at a diplomatic reception on the Bhor homeworld being held in his honor when she's just starting as a military cadet and is only about sixteen or seventeen. Lost in the throes of schoolgirl crush she all but serves herself up to the dashing visiting dignitary and war hero on a silver platter, and Sten politely turns her down and then flees for his life. One book and several years later she reappears as a solidly established young woman and veteran military officer, and this time Sten is more than happy to reciprocate her interest.
 * Last Girl Wins
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Interestingly, she more or less abandoned the culture of one Proud Warrior Race (the Jannisars, which Sten broke in half) to join up with another, the cheerful, hairy alien Bhor. (See Otho below).
 * She did that for one of the most traditional Proud Warrior Race reasons possible -- the Bhor (led by Sten) had soundly defeated the Jannisars in war, so of course they're a more worthy culture to learn from.
 * Real Women Never Wear Dresses: As preparation for her initial seduction attempt on Sten, Cind spent six months' salary on an expensive haute couture dress and had herself extensively made up and perfumed... and then ditched the dress and scrubbed it all off in the shower, because she simply couldn't take herself seriously in that getup. When she makes her pass at Sten she's in her cadet uniform and her only cosmetic preparation was washing her hair. Sten being Sten, this comes far closer to working than anything else she could have tried.
 * Then subverted during her second attempt on Sten, years later, where one of the things that catches his eye is that she's not only very comfortable wearing a cocktail dress but has deliberately spent time learning how to make that fashion work for her.
 * Doubly-subverted in that part of the 'learning' that impressed Sten was 'learning how to successfully hide a pistol, two knives, and a garotte in a dress that you wouldn't think could conceal a roll of quarters'.
 * Single-Target Sexuality: She set her sights on Sten and that was it.
 * Wife Husbandry: A rare example of the girl invoking this trope on herself. After Sten's initial rejection of her teenaged crush, Cind had the self-awareness to realize that one of the reasons he did it was because a relationship between a mature adult and an adolescent girl would not be emotionally healthy or lasting, and so she determined to spend the next several years forging herself into the sort of competent, badass, and mature woman that Sten could respect and be an equal partner with. (Fortunately, this dovetailed quite neatly with her already-existing plans to grow up to become a competent and badass young woman). After spending at least half a decade doing so, she deliberately seeks Sten out again to explore the possibility of forming a relationship with him on a completely different level than her first attempt, and succeeds.

Otho
 * The Big Guy
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: For a guy who's basically BRIAN BLESSED crossed with a polar bear and a Wookiee, Otho is far, far sharper than he lets on. To the point that very few people who meet him even begin to dream that this loud, drunken, alien bruiser was twice elected head of state of the Bhor and is perhaps their finest general.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy

Mahoney
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Colonel Badass
 * Four-Star Badass
 * General Badass

The Eternal Emperor

The Man. The Authority. The Eternal Emperor. Since humanity first reached out to the stars, he has been the supreme ruler of the known universe. No one really knows the secret to his immortality, and after a few thousand years, people have stopped asking. Besides, he's a pretty cool dude. Things are alright under the Emp. Not to mention, he can kick your ass in a bar fight, drink you under the table, and then fix you up with a mean Angelo Stew.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Combat Pragmatist: His preferred shipboard sidearm is a crowbar.
 * Emperor Scientist: A skillful engineer
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Pseudonyms aside, he is the Emperor. That's it.
 * In the last book we finally find out his birth name: Kea Richards. However, the last person who actually used it died millenia ago.
 * God-Emperor: His immortality has lead some groups, such as the Cult of the Emperor, to worship him as a god
 * Resurrective Immortality
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: He spends so much time personally overseeing his intelligence arm, it's a wonder he gets anything else done.
 * Supreme Chef
 * Supreme Chef

Bet

The first distaff half of Sten's Battle Couple. Born on the same hell-world as Sten, Bet's parents sold her to the Vulcan corporation to pay off their debt and escape the habitat. Utilizing the same ferocious intelligence that got her singled out in the first place, she escapes the lab (and the living death that faced her) and joins the Delinqs. Then one day a boy named Sten joins their group...
 * Action Girl
 * The Beast Master: By the second book, this is literally her job description; she has two trained tigers under her command.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend

The Gurkhas

The Emperor's personal bodyguard is made up of Gurkha mercenaries. They are listed together here because in the series their personalities are pretty much interchangeable.
 * Nepali With Nasty Knives
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Sten observes that the Gurkhas could be very naive, but sometimes that naivete would result in them getting exactly what they wanted.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy

Rykor

The galaxy-renowned psychologist and preeminent criminal profiler, Rykor is frequently called upon by Mercury Corps as a consultant. She is also very good at her own kind of "wet work." Conducting interrogations and brain scans are two of her specialties.
 * Genius Bruiser: When she slapped Kilgour on the shoulder she almost knocked him off his feet.
 * Intelligent Gerbil: She's a whale-sized alien walrus-thing.
 * The Profiler

Lisa Haines

A tough-as-nails Homicide detective from the Throne World capital city police, Lt. Haines first appears in book 3 as Sten's assigned partner into the investigation of a terrorist bombing with possible political inclinations. Although they form a strong bond both professionally and personally, ultimately she is unable to reconcile her law-abiding nature with Sten's profession as a black-ops specialist, and they separate. Years later she reappears as an old friend, happily married to someone else, and willing to work with Sten on the biggest homicide investigation of them all -- the (temporary) assassination of the Eternal Emperor at the end of book 5. In book 8, events force her to rejoin Sten's life, as well as his rebellion.
 * Action Girl: Not quite to Cind's extent, but still one of the toughest cops in a very tough city, and perfectly willing to do things like take point on SWAT team entries into buildings full of terrorists.
 * She also single-handedly wipes out an Imperial black ops team sent after her in book 8.
 * By-The-Book Cop: In comparision to Sten's Cowboy Cop, at least. Haines understands when (slightly) bending the rules is necessary to do her job, because no rulebook is perfect, but she will never break them. Her brief forays into intelligence and spook work (both with Sten, and when the police department is drafted into counter-intelligence work during the Tahn War) both leave her with a foul taste in her mouth, and she can't wait to get back to busting ordinary decent criminals.
 * Crazy Prepared: The aforementioned black ops team's demise is largely because Chief of Detectives Haines has enough enemies that she feels it necessary to rig her house with booby traps, sleep with an AM2 pistol under her pillow, and stock anti-grav parachutes in her broom cupboard just in case she needs to make an emergency exit from her (floating) house via HALO jump.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Haines hasn't spent her entire life working in the police department in the capital city of the Empire without long since realizing that the world is full of corruption, and that the powerful and respected are often more full of lies and crime than the street scum are. But she's still the most honest cop in town because, well, someone has to be.
 * Mama Bear: The thing that makes Haines join Sten's rebellion against the Eternal Emperor, violating the law and every oath she ever swore? It wasn't that the Eternal Emperor's black-ops team was sent to abduct or kill her because she was a useful hostage against her ex-boyfriend Sten (now Undesirable Number One of the Empire). Sure, that part sucks, and obviously requires her to become a fugitive and find someplace to hide for the rest of her life, but its no reason to actually rebel. But that the operatives would also have killed her husband, simply because he was there at the time and it was a no-witnesses type of deal? Her husband who is entirely innocent of anything, even by association? That has her determined to burn down the Empire.
 * Properly Paranoid: As per Crazy Prepared above, after making allowances for available budget, her personal security measures are actually a larger investment of her time, effort, and resources than Sten's are -- and remember that we're talking about the Eternal Emperor's personal assassin who potentially has half the known galaxy wanting to kill him at any one time. Haines considers it perfectly normal to spend your entire life living as if any random perp you busted 40 years ago is potentially going to come back and try and stab you to death in the shower.