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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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{{tropelist}}
* [[
▲* [[Zero-Percent Approval Rating]]: Many of the tyrants that Sten has to topple are ''close'' to this, and the point of his Mantis team's guerilla actions and psychological warfare is to push the people to brink.
* [[Ace Pilot]]: "drakh-hot" Hannelore La Ciotat.
* [[Acrofatic]]: Ida, one of Sten's only surviving buddies from his original Mantis team, is a battle-hardened commando and also quite overweight.
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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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* [[Battle Cry]]: "Ayo Gurkhali!" (Which is the [[Nepali With Nasty Knives|Gurkhas']] ''real'' battle cry.) In English, the full version of this [[Battle Cry]] means [[Badass Boast|"Blood for Kali, the Ghurkhas are coming!]]"
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: The below quote from Marr and Senn, the adorable Milchen cooks.
{{quote|
'''Senn''': [[Literal
'''Marr''': The one thing we know, dear, is kitchens. And if these brutes invade ''my'' kitchen, they are going to be very sorry.<ref>Then, using a program designed to steam-clean the kitchen and a broken oven, they basically cook a bunch of Praetorians alive.</ref> }}
* [[The Big Guy]]: Alex Kilgour
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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...
* [[Good Guy Bar]]: The Western Eating Parlor Number 2
* [[Good
* [[The Great Escape]]: The first part of ''Revenge of the Damned'' is one giant [[Shout-Out]] to [[The Great Escape]]. Then Sten has to ''break back in'' and it becomes a more serious version of ''Hogan's Heroes,'' if you can imagine that.
* [[Heavyworlder]]: Kilgour. So it justifies a lot of improbable moves like:
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** [[Invulnerable Knuckles]]
* [[Hideous Hangover Cure]]: Angelo stew. Actually sounds pretty tasty, but '''''spicy'''''.
{{quote|
* [[Improvised Weapon]]: Paraphrased from ''Empire's End'': "Given the chance, he would turn anything given to him into a weapon. A piece of paper would do just fine. A glass would be even better."
* [[Informed Attribute]]: Sten's aformentioned [[Combat Pragmatist|Combat Pragmatism]]. He's never shown committing violence toward any female, despite the universal gender-equity of his society. The vast majority of the fighting females happen to be on his side in most cases; if they aren't, (like an assassin, or Lady Atago) it's usually someone else who does the job for him.
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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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* [[Planet of Hats]]: Mostly averted, but consider: Kilgour comes from a planet called ''Edinburgh.'' In other words, somewhere in the galaxy is an entire world of [[Violent Glaswegian|people like him.]]
* [[Praetorian Guard]]: There is literally an Imperial Praetorian Guard unit; these guys are really more of the "shine your boots and look good" honor guard rather than the elite Gurkhas the Emperor employs to actually guard himself. Unsurprisingly, most of them turn out to be untrustworthy when a coup is attempted.
* [[Polyamory]]: Kilgour's solution to his love triangle? [[
* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]
** The People of the Lake
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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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* [[World of Badass]]: The whole series is about hardcore people outclassing other hardcore people, usually in combat, but sometimes in battles of wits as well.
* [[You Killed My Father]]: In a subversion, Baron Thoresen actually tells Sten this; Sten knew the Baron, but had no reason to believe the Baron knew ''him.''
{{quote|
'''Thoresen''': Yes. Intimately. I killed your family. }}
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[[Category:Military Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Military and Warfare Literature]]
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