Sten/Characters

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< Sten
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Sten

The slave who became a soldier who became a spook who became the most important figure in the known universe.

  • The Ace
  • Badass
  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Conveniently an Orphan
  • Dark and Troubled Past
  • The Hero
  • 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.

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.
  • Friendly Sniper
  • Boobs of Steel: "Hey, they float!"
  • 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).
  • 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

Mahoney

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.

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...

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.

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.

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