History Literature / AliensStevePerryTrilogy

* AmbiguouslyBi: Billie's internal monologue notes that her first time with Mitch wasn't her ''first time''. In the mental hospital she'd been with a male patient once, once an orderly, and a couple of women, too. Whether through preference, experimentation, or it just being easier to get alone time with the same gender isn't explored.

* SubsoaceOrHyperspace: Called hyperspace and warpspace interchangeably. Because HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace, SleeperStarships are necessary.

* PsychicPowers: The novels postulate that the Aliens communicate telepathically, and that some humans are sufficiently sensitive to pick up on their "transmissions." Billie is, hence her extreme derangement when it comes to the Aliens. The Aliens can even deliberately communicate with humans, turning them into tools to advance the Aliens' own agenda (which is simply to expand as much as possible and kill anything that gets in their way). The Space Jockey is also apparently psychic, and communicates with Billie in a fashion that's basically MindRape.

** Wilks is Hicks, being the SoleSurvivor of a Marine platoon who investigated a colony that went dark because it got overrun by Aliens. He's even got acid scars similar to the wounds Hicks ends ''Aliens'' with. He also takes some elements of Ripley, since she was not present for Wilks' encounter with the Aliens, so Wilks is the one who rescued. . .

** Though in one case, plot from the comics is removed from the novels. The comics explain Ripley's absence from most of the story by having her be shanghaied into a return to LV-426, specifically it's derelict, immediately after the events of ''Aliens''. Things go predictably fubar, but it does give Ripley's her lead on the Mother Queen and some Marine allies. This is excised in the novel, necessitating an extended sequence of tracing the actual Alien homeworld and assembling a crew to go there.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: [[DownplayedTrope Billie and Charlene Adcox are a bit older than the trope usually indicates, and aren't physically romantic with each other, but otherwise very much give off this vibe.]] "Call me Char," Adcox says to Billie in their first meeting; given the prevalence of LastNameBasis in the 'Verse, this comes off as very personal. Char's death sends Billie into a HeroicBSOD, something Mitch never quite managed, though he came close a few times.

* TemptingFate: Colonel Stephens is less than happy about Wilks being assigned to the mission to the Alien homeworld, and complains to Orona about it. Orona basically tells him to shut up and deal with it, and notes that Wilks has been bumped to Sergeant and put in charge of loading supplies for the mission. "How much damage can he do there?" Orona asks. Cut to Stephens finding the [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill plasma rifles and chargers]] Wilks requisitioned. . .

** Wilks breaks Billie out of the mental hospital because he can't let them lobotomize her for her BadDreams, especially since he knows the reason for them. He also smuggles her aboard the ''Benedict'' for the trip to the Alien homeworld because she wants to go, could use the closure, and has nowhere else yo go, despite knowing Colonel Stephens will throw a fit when he finds out.

* BadDreams: Wilks and Billie both suffer these based on their encounter with the Aliens on Rim. Billie arguably has it worse, since she was subjected to a [[AmnesiaMissedASpot brainwipe that didn't entirely take]], so she's unaware the monsters in her dreams are real, or ''why'' she keeps dreaming about them.

* {{Narcissist}}: Spears, much like SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, insists on recording every combatsit he finds himself in, convinced the military historians of the future will find them priceless treasure troves of tactical wisdom. He believes the Aliens might actually think of him like a messiah, leading them a kingdom of power and glory. He considers himself the absolute commander of whatever is left of humanity's military, and thinks that once he's proven his "new soldiers" in the field, everyone will agree with him, and if they don't. . . sic 'em, boys.

* BiTheWay: Billie's internal monologue notes that her first time with Mitch wasn't her ''first time''. In the mental hospital she'd been with a male patient once, once an orderly, and a couple of women, too. Whether through preference, experimentation, or it just being easier to get alone time with the same gender isn't explored.

* HelloNurse: The psychologist who tells Wilks about Doc Holliday. He notes she's very pretty, and he would have tried to sleep with her under other circumstances. . . then, as she keeps [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness prattling on, debates trying to sleep with her just to shut her up.]]

* RobotSoldier: Come in two varieties in the first book. The Colonial Marines deploy a platoon of synthetic troops to the Alien homeworld, and they're fully ThreeLawsCompliant. Company PsychoForHire Massey is given his own combat synthetics to stop that mission, and they are '''not''' Compliant (as well as being designed to wear out in short order).

* ThreeLawsCompliant: Wilks cites that synthetics are programmed with "Asimov's Modified Laws." Exactly what the modifications are is unknown, the only one discussed replaces "harm" in the First Law with "kill," since a otherwise a synthetic surgeon would be unable harm a human with surgery, even to save them from greater harm or death. It's also noted that, while the synthetic Marines can put bullets into a target on the range anywhere they want, [[JustAFleshWound actually trying to shoot a human nonfatally]] [[AvertedTrope is far to risky.]]

* MechaMooks: Come in two varieties in the first book. The Colonial Marines deploy a platoon of synthetic troops to the Alien homeworld, and they're fully ThreeLawsCompliant. Company PsychoForHire Massey is given his own combat synthetics to stop that mission, and they are '''not''' Compliant (as well as being designed to wear out in short order).

* DeathSeeker: Wilks, after a fashion. Near the end of ''Nightmare Asylum'', he recalls a psychiatrist telling him about Doc Holliday, and how he survived against deadlier gunslingers despite subpar skills because, with his tuberculosis diagnosis, he honestly didn't care if he lived or died in any given moment. Wilks embraces "Doc Holliday Syndrome," believing he's been living on borrowed time ever since Rim. Nothing the Aliens can do to him frightens him, since it '''should''' have happened to him a decade ago, just like the rest of his platoon.

** In ''Earth Hive'', the fake Alien homeworld. Barely breathable atmosphere, swarmed by Aliens, and having at least one other lifeform the Aliens haven't yet eradicated completely. It's later implied to be just another world infested and overrun by the Aliens, but a nasty enough place ''before'' happened so that the local wildlife is able to compete with the Aliens and strike an ecological balance.

** In ''Earth Hive'", the fake Alien homeworld. Barely breathable atmosphere, swarmed by Aliens, and having at least one other lifeform the Aliens haven't yet eradicated completely. It's later implied to be just another world infested and overrun by the Aliens, but a nasty enough place ''before'' happened so that the local wildlife is able to compete with the Aliens and strike an ecological balance.