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{{work|wppage=The Sten Chronicles}}
The ''Sten'' series is a science fiction saga written by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. The eponymous protagonist is an orphan from a hellish industrial space station, who escapes prison and indentured servitude to join the Emperor's armed forces (well, he was sort of pressed into the service, but it beat the hell out of industrial slavery).
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** The first book has a short sequence during Sten's Boot Camp which shows off an entire series of [[Powered Armor]] which grow larger until they are [[Humongous Mecha]] near the middle, then become smaller and more compact near the end. It's explained that [[Humongous Mecha]] are awesome, capable of sustaining the pilot's life for weeks and laying waste to small cities, but have virtually no agility. The drill instructor relates a story of how a planet of ''spear-wielding natives'' once destroyed a battalion of the mecha by laying pitfall traps everywhere, hence why more modern mechs are much smaller and more maneuverable.
** It's telling that in the majority of the conflicts throughout the rest of the series, we don't see any of the power suits in action either, other than simple high-tech combat harnesses or space-suits. Most vehicles are more conventional tanks, though we do also get flying cars.
*** We do see power armor used by the operatives sent to arrest Alex Kilgour on his home planet at the start of book 6. Logical in that Alex is from a planet of Heavy Worlders and the soldiers would need the power armor just to ''move around'' there, let alone be able to fight on even terms with the inhabitants. Kilgour then invokes this trope by taking advantage of the fact that heavy power armor doesn't maneuver at all well on slick surfaces and deliberately leads them down a sharply-inclined street that happens to be completely frozen over. (It was midwinter). The operatives are faced with a choice of following him down the icy slope (and thus falling on their asses) or turning on their armor's jump jets and flying down (and thus being sitting ducks for any competent marksman). They try it both ways, fail it both ways, and die.
* [[Badass]]: Sten is, indeed.
* [[Badass Crew]]: The Mantis team.
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* [[Friendly Sniper]]: Cind is a very nice gal. Young, pretty, lethal within a five mile radius...
* [[Gargle Blaster]]: Stregg, an alien beverage quaffed by gigantic wookie-like Space Vikings. The beverage itself is named after the "streggan," a vicious monster that these Space Viking wookies once hunted as a rite of manhood; in other words, this is the manliest, toughest drink in the universe. Sten takes a liking to the stuff after the second book, and briefly gets the Emperor hooked on the stuff too.
** To give a measure of how powerful stregg is, at one point the Eternal Emperor hands Sten a glass of 180-proof home-brewed moonshine, expecting it to knock Sten straight on his ass. Sten tosses the entire glass back as if it's distilled water, then calmly asks for a refill. He explains to the incredulous Emperor that once you've built up enough alcohol tolerance to be able to handle stregg at all, you can [[Won't Work On Me]] pretty much anything else ever distilled.
* [[Ghost Ship]]: Sh'aarl't discovers one.
* [[Gold Fever]]: A variation of it occurs in the Emperor's backstory. He was a simple space engineer at the time on a ship that accidentally discovered the portal to an alternate universe filled with antimatter--a nearly limitless supply of energy that would completely transform society upon its discovery, and make anyone who had a monopoly on it insanely rich. This would be enough to make people think greedy thoughts on its own. The ship becomes badly damaged, however, and while it's limping back to Earth it becomes clear that the fewer survivors there are the more air and food there will be for the rest...
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* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: [[Anyone Can Die]], but those who make it out of one book alive have a good chance of turning up again in a later novel, even in passing.
* [[Martial Arts and Crafts]]: acrobats, knife jugglers, sharpshooters and other sideshow performers in one of the Emperor's games are actually Mantis operatives, showing off for the only one who knows who they really are: their Emperor.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The Emperor often goes incognito as "H.E. Raschid," based on the name of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid a wily monarch] who some stories claimed would go around his own peasants in disguise to learn how to curry favor from them.
* [[Mind Probe]]: One of the more unpleasant devices Rykor (and others liker her) can use is a machine that scans every memory you've ever had. It's unfortunately of limited use on those who have been driven insane, however, so when they use it on a guy who's gone catatonic from nearly being eaten by a [[Starfish Alien]], they mostly get jumbles with only a few clue threads.
* [[Nepali With Nasty Knives]]: the Gurkhas, real-life badasses who continue to be badass in space.
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** Sten makes a friend at Flight School: a giant [[Charlotte's Web|spider]] named Sh'aarl't. Also at Flight School is a [[The Jeeves|"servant"]] -- actually, a psychologist sizing the trainees up -- whose name is [[P. G. Wodehouse|W. Grenville Pelham]].
** Sten's friend Ida acted as a stockbroker for him, and her investments made him wealthy enough to own an uninhabited but Earthlike ''planet'', Smallbridge. ([[Horatio Hornblower]] became Baron Hornblower of Smallbridge.)
** Mercury Corps call the "appear unlike who you really are and like no one in particular" camouflage tactic a [[
* [[Smug Snake]]: Several, but probably the worst offender is Sr. Hakone,
* [[Space Navy]]: therefore...
* [[Space Marine]]
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* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: Kilgour's specialty
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: The [[Big Bad]] in the final book keeps internally justifying his actions to himself. He's ''not crazy,'' he just enjoys the screams coming from the interrogation room because it means progress is being made. He doesn't think they're all out to get him--they ''are'' all out to get him, he's not crazy!
* [[Tactical Withdrawal]]: In the third book, we're shown that Imperial Guards units at big Imperial celebrations often stage simulated military actions as a show for the crowd — and the one for the current year, rather unusually, is a fighting retreat. It's '''very''' well done and impressive ... including a special effect that leaves the Eternal Emperor wondering, as he picks himself up after reflexively diving for cover, how anybody managed to simulate '''that''' sound without actually blowing something up.
* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works]]: Even Sten didn't expect it to work. Apparently he's not [[Genre Savvy]].
* [[Tribal Face Paint]]: As part of her pre-mission preparation ritual, La Ciotat "paint[s] her face in the ancestral battle pattern of her house."
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[[Category:Military Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Military and Warfare Literature]]
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