The ColSec Trilogy

The ColSec Trilogy (Exiles of ColSec, The Caves of Klydor, and ColSec Rebellion) is a young-adult s-f series by Douglas Hill (of Last Legionary fame), first published in the 1980s.

After the End, an authoritarian regime has seized control of what's left of civilization. Criminals and dissenters are shipped offworld by the Colonization Section of the world government. If they can build a colony, the world is ripe for exploitation; if they don't live that long, they're no great loss.

One particular group of deportees crash-lands. The survivors decide that they're going to do things their own way, the world government be damned.

Oh, hell...it's Better Than It Sounds.

Provides examples of:
-->spoiler:Bren: "Nothing funnier than victory?" -->spoiler:Cord: "Nothing sweeter, anyway." -->Samella: "I think the current's speeding up." --> Jeko: "You throw your guns down and come out!"
 * ActionGirl: TheBigGuy Heleth, unequivocally. TheSmartGuy Samella TheLancer Connel also has her moments.
 * AerithAndBob: Names are either OnlyOneName singular and fantastical (Jeko, Heleth, Rontal), or consist of a slightly unusual or fairly ordinary given name paired with a fairly ordinary (if sometimes MyNaymeIs idiosyncratically spelled) surname (TheHero Cord MaKiy, Samella Connel, Bren Lathan). Being as it's AfterTheEnd, FridgeLogic it's possible that this is the result of language drift.
 * AfterTheEnd: Set a century and change after ApocalypseHow human die-back over much of Europe, Asia, and eastern North America. References to the "Virus Decades" imply that this was caused by some sort of plague.
 * AtArmsLength: At one point in Exiles, Jeko and Heleth get into a heated argument that threatens to turn into an actual fight. Cord breaks it up by straight-arming Jeko. (Although Cord isn't stated to be taller than Jeko—both boys are kind of shorties—he's stockier and a lot stronger.)
 * AuthorTract: Not obnoxiously so, but you can kind of tell that Hill's views were fairly anti-authoritarian. There's also a faint undercurrent of anti-corporatism and/or environmentalism—Cord's simple life in the idyll of the Highlands before his exile, the unspoiled new worlds of the Colonies being exploited by the grasping Organization.
 * BetterToDieThanBeKilled: spoiler:Bren tries to pull this several times. spoiler:He survives to the end of the series nonetheless. There's also spoiler:Samella's ploy in the asteroid mine.
 * BigDamnHeroes: spoiler:Heleth and Rontal play this role towards the end of Exiles by spoiler:intervening in the fight with the [[AdvancingBossOfDoom giant worm]]. And in Rebellion, spoiler:Jeko, Rontal, and Stele play this role when they spoiler:break Cord, Bren, and the girls out of the prison transport.
 * BlindedByTheLight: Heleth gets a face full of high-beams in Rebellion and actually faints from pain.
 * BraveScot: Cord is the descendant of back-to-the-land types who retreated to the Scottish Highlands so as to not be bothered by The Organization. He pretty much plays the trope straight.
 * CrapsackWorld: The Organization's Earth (aside from a few tiny pockets of territory that they don't deem worthwhile) makes the colony worlds—no matter how rough and dangerous—look GhibliHills positively idyllic by contrast.
 * CombatPragmatist: Samella is a ReluctantWarrior surprisingly dirty fighter. Sometimes AHandfulForAnEye literally, no less.
 * CurbStompBattle: Cord may be a CharlesAtlasSuperpower physical powerhouse, but he's no match for someone with extensive combat training. spoiler:Good thing Samella was able to find the spare batteries for the [[RayGun laserifle.]]
 * DeadpanSnarker: Seems to be one of Rontal's main personality traits.
 * : Cord, full-stop. spoiler:At the end of Caves, the government killer Warreck [[NotQuiteDead turns out to be one as well.]]
 * DumbBlonde: Samella inverts this by being TheSmartGuy of the group.
 * EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Heleth, who's also got FacialMarkings facial tattoos.
 * : Inverted at the end of Rebellion. spoiler: It's the rest of the kids—at Cord's suggestion—who want to name the newly-discovered world after Samella.
 * EliteMooks: The Organization's equivalent of a police force, the Civil Defenders, have an elite branch who're better armed and (supposedly) better trained. They're called Crushers, and are frequent antagonists in the second and third novels. Elite paramilitary police, outfought by street gang members. Money well invested.
 * TheEmpath: Samella, again, although this only factors into the plot at all in Exiles.
 * spoiler:EverybodyLaughsEnding: In spoiler:the next-to-last chapter of Rebellion, everyone just loses it at some tension-breaking silliness spoiler:after the asteroid battle.
 * EvilAlbino: Lamprey, the main antagonist spoiler:of Exiles, is deathly pale and prematurely white-haired. He's also a ChaoticEvil vicious, unpredictable trained killer.
 * FieryRedhead: Cord has anger issues, especially if BerserkButton Samella is endangered. They're somewhat mitigated, however, by his introversion and ChaoticGood relentless decency.
 * FiveManBand: More or less, although most of the central cast overlap archetypes. (Samella, for example, is mostly TheSmartGuy, but occasionally also plays the role of TheLancer—level-headed and extroverted where Cord is introverted and occasionally quick-tempered—and TheHeart.)
 * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Cord is Leukine with Choleric tendencies, Samella is Phlegmatic, Heleth is straight-up Choleric, Jeko is Sanguine, and Rontal is Melancholic.
 * : What got Samella exiled. Some other GotVolunteered indentured workers at the computer firm GreenEyedMonster got jealous of her skills and falsely accused her of theft.
 * TheGadfly: Jeko. Heleth is his preferred target, but he's also gone after Cord a couple of times.
 * GenkiBoy: Jeko again.
 * : Lamprey is rather blatantly described as one—EvilAlbino pallid, cadaverous-looking, and FangsAreEvil sharp-toothed.
 * GotVolunteered: Samella's family sold her into indenture out of desperation.
 * GroinAttack: In the third book, spoiler:Samella first AHandfulForAnEye flings dust in a thug's face, then kicks him in the nuts while he's distracted.
 * AHandfulForAnEye: See above. "CrowningMomentOfAwesome Now who needs looking after?"
 * HotBlooded: Cord (who verges on status), Heleth (who occasionally hauls off and belts people who needle her), Jeko (whom Rontal calls an "action junkie" at one point).
 * HumansAreWhite: Averted. Cord, a redheaded, freckle-faced Scot, is the only central character who seems to be explicitly white. Samella is a gray-eyed blonde with an Irish surname, but apparently DarkSkinnedBlonde still looks tanned after three years indentured to an electronics firm; Heleth, although pale from living underground for the first seventeen years of her life, is ambiguous. Jeko and Rontal are explicitly not white; Rontal is black, Jeko is Japanese-American.
 * IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Played straight more than once.
 * IfWeSurviveThis: Heleth threatens to make Jeko regret YouAreFat insinuating that she FormerlyFat used to be chubby in Rebellion.
 * ImHavingSoulPains: Samella gets migraines in Exiles. spoiler:It's because the [[WhenTreesAttack sapient trees are freaking out.]]
 * InnateNightVision: Heleth has this, with the PowerAtAPrice drawback of DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes light sensitivity. Exactly how she got that way is left ambiguous; however, Samella speculates in Caves that Heleth and the rest of the inhabitants of the tunnels under London may be some sort of mutants.
 * InevitableWaterfall: Caves begins with the five central characters rafting down a river. The first line of dialogue in the book?
 * KarmicDeath: spoiler:Lamprey meets a quite literal DeathOfAThousandCuts at the hands of Klydor-native humanoids towards the end of Exiles. In Rebellion, spoiler:Tuller meets a similar fate at the hands of his own gang after TheStoolPigeon selling everyone out.
 * KillHimAlready: Heleth pretty much outright yells this in Exiles when spoiler:Samella has Lamprey at gunpoint.
 * MeaningfulName: Lamprey boasts that he earned his NomDeGuerre for his tenacity. He could just have easily have earned it by virtue of being as mean as an eel, or by virtue of being an emotional parasite on the central cast.
 * MyNaymeIs: Cord's surname is an obvious phoneticization of "[=McKay=]."
 * : Cord was raised by his uncle.
 * NatureHero: Cord is a example. He grew up in an isolated corner of Scotland, has extensive wilderness survival skills, and is introverted and socially naïve; also, WildHair his hair is described as somehow unruly in every book.
 * NoBiochemicalBarriers: Not universal, but explicitly stated to be true of Klydor specifically: It's more-or-less safe to forage in the woods, but watch out for predators.
 * NotGoodWithPeople: Samella calls Cord out for being socially naïve in Exiles.
 * NoYou: When [=ColSec=] Commandant Mirvandel YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive demands the rebels' surrender spoiler:in the asteroid mine in Rebellion, Jeko's response is a catcall:
 * OneHandedZweihander: Cord's ImprovisedWeapon improvised CarryABigStick bludgeon in Exiles is stated to be heavy enough that "many people" would need both hands to wield it effectively. And Cord uses it one-handed, apparently just because he can.
 * OnlyOneName: Tends to be true of people living, shall we say, outside the law (Jeko, Heleth, and Rontal included).
 * PenalColony: Every habitable planet is treated as one. There AmbiguousSituation may or may not also be one in Antarctica.
 * PoliceState: The entire world has pretty much become one.
 * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The central cast. spoiler:Can also be applied, all things considered, to the rebel army as a whole.
 * RedHeadedHero: Cord, although his hair is specifically described as dark auburn.
 * ReluctantWarrior[=/=]TechnicalPacifist: Samella is the least physical of the central cast, and seems to have a moral opposition to killing. That said, CombatPragmatist in a pinch, she's not afraid to spoiler:threaten to [[KneeCapping put holes in someone's kneecaps, AHandfulForAnEye throw dust in faces, GroinAttack kick crotches, or TakingYouWithMe rig an asteroid mining operation to self-destruct and BetterToDieThanBeKilled kill everyone present at her next keystroke. (She admits, however, that she wouldn't have had the nerve to go through with actually pushing the button)]].
 * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: What got Cord exiled. His uncle[=/=]adoptive father was turned away from a hospital and left to die; Cord tried to trash the place. (And that was only the first of several.)
 * : Of sorts.
 * RunningGag: Samella calling Cord a "barbarian."
 * SandWorm: A recurring threat in Exiles. Justified in that they have tough exoskeletons and don't dig themselves in that deeply.
 * SelfDestructMechanism: spoiler:Samella rigs spoiler:the entire asteroid to detonate at her next keystroke spoiler:in the final battle in Rebellion. spoiler:Samella's and Bren's acts of VehicularSabotage, in Exiles and Caves respectively, may also count, although the former was only such by virtue of the freighter's lack of re-entry shielding.
 * ShipTease: A ImpliedLoveInterest clearly deliberate one for Cord and Samella; although it's never OfficialCouple outright stated, it's fairly clear that he's in love with her by Rebellion, and she seems to reciprocate. Jeko and Heleth have an AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther implied but much more subtle (for a certain BelligerentSexualTension value of "subtle," that is) one.
 * SixthRanger: spoiler:Bren, by the end of Caves.
 * TheStoolPigeon: spoiler: Tuller is a "Betrayer Barry" of the "just a " variety. spoiler:He gets his [[KarmicDeath comeuppance in the end.]]
 * StoutStrength: Cord plays with the trope. He's very strong (bordering on CharlesAtlasSuperpower territory) and looks pudgy when fully clothed (partly on account of being built like a fireplug, partly on account of being baby-faced). However, when he ClothingDamage loses his shirt during a fight in the first book, he's revealed to actually be quite trim.
 * SuperSenses: Along with her InnateNightVision, Heleth has incredibly keen hearing.
 * TeamDad: Although he does his best to treat the (much younger) five central characters like equals, spoiler: Bren seems to somewhat fall into this role after the end of the second book.
 * TokenAdult
 * TrueCompanions: The five main characters by the end of Exiles. spoiler:By the end of Caves, Bren has become a SixthRanger.
 * : Heleth is a type A. She's always bickering with Jeko (and, to a lesser degree, almost everyone else), but there's the occasional implication that she doesn't outright hate him.
 * UnskilledButStrong: Cord is not a trained martial artist, but anything he can actually land a punch on is usually out for the count.
 * UnusualEuphemism: Heleth uses "yeck" as both a euphemism for (probably) "shit" and as an expression of disgust.
 * VehicularSabotage: The series all but starts out with spoiler:[[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Samella sabotaging a spacecraft]], thus ItMakesSenseInContext allowing the central cast to survive in the first place. In Caves, spoiler:Bren does away with Warreck by [[SelfDestructMechanism rigging his escape ship's engine to overload]].
 * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Samella's ic ability never comes into play again after Exiles.
 * WhenSheSmiles: Samella plays it straight.
 * WoundedGazelleGambit: Cord sets out to spoiler:rescue Bren from the clutches of the Crusher team in Caves. His plan involves spoiler:feigning a broken leg until he can sucker-punch Warreck. Things don't go entirely according to plan...spoiler:but luckily, Bren wasn't actually unconscious, just playing possum.
 * WrenchWench: Samella, although computer hardware is more her forte.
 * YouAreFat: Cord is on the receiving end of quite a bit of this in Exiles (and it's lampshaded at the beginning of Caves). This is mostly due to Lamprey trying to stir the shit. And in Rebellion, Jeko inverts this at Heleth, stating that she "FormerlyFat doesn't look as fat as she used to." (Neither character is fat, although both are solidly built.)
 * YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: The Organization's prime flunkies seem fond of this. spoiler:It never works.