Empire From the Ashes: Difference between revisions

What other duties? ''Dahak'' was originally stationed to defend against an invasion by the "Achuultani". Those mysterious aliens make periodic genocidal rampages, eradicating all intelligent life they encounter, and were responsible for the destruction of three previous galaxy-spanning empires. By the time Colin first hears this explanation, ''Dahak'' has detected clear signs that the next invasion wave is on its way-- — and the Fourth Imperium is not responding...

* [[Absolute Xenophobe]] -: the Achuultani. Full Stop.

* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]] -: Dahak is smart and good; he became fully sentient thanks to tens of thousands of years of unsupervised operation. Battle Fleet computers are stupid and good, with obedience to Battle Fleet Central enforced (and sentience blocked) at the hardware level. The second book reveals that {{spoiler|the Achuultani are controlled by an ''evil'' AI that exploited emergency protocols arising from their near-extinction to seize absolute power and sends out the periodic genocidal waves to perpetuate the "crisis". And also that Dahak has advanced enough to disregard his core programming, which ''isn't'' hardwired. He's loyal because he ''chooses'' to be}}.

* [[Ancient Conspiracy]] -: The mutineers have been manipulating human civilization from the beginning, for fun and profit, with agents in all the major governments and militaries. {{spoiler|And the mutineer-mutineers have been waging a secret war against them.}}

* [[Apocalyptic Log]] -: Sean and Crew find a diary documenting the fall of Pardal, {{spoiler|as the general populous went mad from listening to the transmissions of the dying Fourth Empire and turned against technology}}.

* [[The Battlestar]] -: The various planetoid class ships, each at least the size of the Moon with extensive energy and missile batteries and a complement of parasite craft, which in turn consist of separate battleships (50,000 to 80,000 tons), cruisers, two-man fighters and other additional assorted small craft.

* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]] -: In particular, Hitler was one of the mutineers. That's why he was so ''evil''. And why [[Operation Valkyrie|that bomb]] didn't kill him.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]] -: In the second book, {{spoiler|Colin appears just as humanity is about to be obliterated by Achuultani scouts, with the resurrected ships of the Emperor's personal guard in tow. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb-stomping ensues]].}}

* [[Body Surf]] - : {{spoiler|The mutineers' inner council managed their constant manipulation of the human race without going into stasis by transplanting their brains as necessary into the bodies of lesser mutineers who had obediently gone into stasis. Less important mutineers had to make do with regular human bodies.}}

** Later, {{spoiler|''Dahak'' transplants himself into ''Dahak Two'' just as his original [[Cool Starship]] body gets blown up.}}

* [[Cargo Cult]] / [[God Guise]] -: In the third book, the people of Pardal worship an ancient defense computer, using the "Holy Tongue" (the language of the Fourth Empire) to speak with the voice of God. Sean and Crew get mistaken for demons by the population in general and angels (and their champions) by the rebels. Harriet and Sandy insist that they not be called angels, but the locals only humor them to their faces, and aside from the insistent terminology the crew largely goes along with it anyway.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Colin gets a moment of this in the first book when he [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s the [[Tractor Beam]] that is the first phase of being [[Press-Ganged]] by Dahak.

* [[Go On Without Me]] -: Dahak tries to get Colin and Jiltanith to head for Earth on one of the FTL capable ship. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|They flatly refuse]].

* [[Have You Told Anyone Else?]] -: God ''damn it'', {{spoiler|[[What an Idiot!|Gus]]}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]] -: ''Many'', starting with the original captain in the prologue.

* [[Humans Are Warriors]] -: The Achuultani refer to the human chunk of the galaxy as the "Demon Sector" for a good reason.

* [[Incendiary Exponent]] -: Stomald douses the "demon" Sandy (who had an invisible personal force field on) in holy oil. Sandy issues forth a booming laugh, uses a nearby torch to ''set herself on fire'', and then ''[[Infernal Retaliation|keeps going]]'' toward Stomald, laughing and ranting about Stomald's sinful nature. Stomald shits bricks. Great success!

* [[Insufficiently Advanced Alien]]: - One of the perplexing aspects of the genocidal Achuultani invaders is the odd patchwork their ships exhibit, mixing superior and inferior technologies in defiance of what the natural progression of technology should have resulted in. For instance, "they appear to possess only a very rudimentary appreciation of gravitonics and their ships do not employ gravitonic sublight drives, yet their sublight missiles employ a highly sophisticated gravitonic drive which is, in fact, superior to that of the Imperium." {{spoiler|It is later theorized that the ships were deliberately handicapped by their overlord AI, thus perpetuating the "crisis" that enables it to exercise emergency protocols to maintain control.}}

* [[Just One Little Mistake]]: - Delivered oh-so-smugly at the end of the series to "Mister X", who otherwise might have escaped detection completely thanks to elaborate contingency plans and preparations. The mistake? {{spoiler|Making absolutely no mention of orchestrating the heirs' assassination--what should have been a crowning achievement--in the supposed diary of the guy set up to take the fall}}.

* [[Late to the Party]]: - First book: "What happened to Dahak's crew?" Second book: "What happened to the Fourth Imperium?" Third book: "What happened to Pardal's techbase?"

* [[Uplifted Animal]] -: The royal hounds, after some genetic tinkering and the addition of military grade cyberware.

* [[We Can Rule Together]] -: At the end of the second book, {{spoiler|Battle Comp, the AI commander of the Achuultani invasion,}} enthusiastically makes this offer to {{spoiler|''Dahak'' after it realizes ''Dahak'' is a fellow AI. ''Dahak'' leads it on for a moment, then hacks Battle Comp's core programming into total shutdown}}.

* [[We Didn't Start the Fuhrer]] -: Hitler turning out to have been one of the mutineers in the first book.

{{quote|''No wonder the bomb plot had failed; a man with full enhancement would hardly even have noticed it. And if anyone had ever shown a maniacal glee in taking others down with them, it had been the Nazi elite.'' }}

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] -: The Achuultani, once their backstory is revealed. ''Really''.

* [[You Are in Command Now]] -: Colin gets instantly promoted to ''Dahak's'' captain because, as a descendant of the loyalist crew, he is the most senior loyalist crew member on board. Colin later promotes himself to governor of Earth on the same principles, and unwittingly {{spoiler|crowns himself ''Emperor'' by ordering the implementation of "Case Omega"}} in the second book.

* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] -: The [[Big Bad]] in the third book does this ''so much'' it's almost a [[Running Gag]] by the end. Sometimes, the "usefulness" was simply setting this situation up for ''other'' minions! {{spoiler|This comes back to bite him in the ass ''big time'', though it takes longer than one might expect.}}