History Literature / Footfall

* PettingZooPeople: The Fithp have some particular resemblances, both physically and with their "herd" culture, to Earth's elephants. This is even lampshaded when the Fithp observe elephants in Africa and wonder why they haven't become Earth's dominant species.

* [[PettingZooPeople]]: The Fithp have some particular resemblances, both physically and with their "herd" culture, to Earth's elephants. This is even lampshaded when the Fithp observe elephants in Africa and wonder why they haven't become Earth's dominant species.

** HumanityIsSuperior: It comes as quite a shock when they realize that humans, with fingers more dextrous that fithp digits, lower boddy mass and food and air consumption and technology they actually ''understand'', are a threat to the aliens if left unchecked. [[spoiler: It's how the fithp dissidents loose their argument against the war on Earth]].

** The aliens and humans really don't quite understand each other's psychology, mainly because the aliens have much more of a herd dynamic. They instinctively surrender (by dropping their guns and going belly up) when outnumbered, surprised or separated from their herd. Likewise, being separated from a herd for a prolonged amount of time, or not [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean getting busy]] with the females during mating season can drive them to a very real form of insanity.

Written by LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, ''Footfall'' is an AlienInvasion novel ''[[ShownTheirWork done right]]''. Set in a ''very'' [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] universe, it treats the subject matter in the most realistic manner possible. The story is set in a slightly [[AlternateHistory alternate]] 90's period, by virtue of being written in '85.

The [[StarfishAliens Fithp]] are herd animals resembling baby elephants, with bifurcated trunks that end in 8 tentacles. Their GenerationShip, ''Thuktun Flishithy'' ("''Message Bearer''"), coming most likely from a planet around Alpha Centauri, runs on an advanced Bussard ramjet, and their intent is to conquer Earth and subjugate the human race... [[GenreBlind yeah]].

* BadAss: The Russians Cosmonauts, especially Nikolai, who manages to be the most adept at Zero-G movement despite ''lacking both legs''.

* {{Precursors}} / NeglectfulPrecursors: They were... well, kind of assholes. They trashed their home planet in one way or another, most likely through over-pollution, and either up and died off or bailed out, leaving behind granite blocks with inscriptions detailing their entire body of knowledge for whoever came after them.

* StanleySteamerSpaceship: The spaceship [[spoiler with an Orion-class nuclear engine that is indeed cooled by and powered by steam]]. At one point one of the characters has to work to repair battle damage in an area made uncomfortably hot by a burst steam line.
** It's a JustifiedTrope, however: the steam was reaction mass for their attitude thrusters.

* StupiEvil: The [[StateSec KGB]] would rather negotiate with the ([[InsaneTrollLogic herd-minded, so obviously communist]]) alien invaders than with the capitalist dogs of the US. Fortunately, the Premier is a bit smarter.

* AbusivePrecursors: They were... well, kind of assholes. They trashed their home planet in one way or another, most likely through over-pollution, and either died off or bailed out, leaving behind granite blocks with inscriptions detailing their entire body of knowledge for whoever came after them.

* PunchClockVillain: The fithp are {{Designated Villain}}s here, having come from across the stars to conquer Earth, but to their defense they're bound by mentality, circumstance and sheer herd inertia. Their home planet is still a mess after the Predecessor occupation, and the Traveller Fithp don't really have the option of returning home. There is a dissident faction among them that sees the War for Winterhome (Earth) as unnecessary, since they could just as well colonize the Solar System ahead of the humans, but even they realize that they need human help to do it in the end.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: In the final attack on the alien mothership, [[spoiler:the shuttle ''Atlantis'']] rams it, damaging [[spoiler: the alien's main drive, allowing ''Michael'' to catch them.]] This was also explicitly always the final attack option [[spoiler: for the Michael, as it was, literally, the last chance for humans to win the war]]]. The crew all signed on with the expectation that they would likely die this way and take the enemy mothership with them.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The military force at the end is American in nature, but since the USA was the worst-hit country by the invasion, they had to rely on significant outside help to [[spoiler: put together the ''Michael'']].

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The aliens and humans really don't quite understand each other's psychology, mainly because the aliens have much more of a herd dynamic. They instinctively surrender (by dropping their guns and going belly up) when outnumbered, surprised or separated from their herd. Likewise, being separated from a herd for a prolonged amount of time, or not [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean getting busy]] with the females during mating season can drive them to a very real form of insanity.

* ColonyDrop: [[MeaningfulName Footfall]] involves [[spoiler: slamming a large asteroid into a planet]]. It's [[DontExplainTheJoke Meaningful]] because fithp surrender by rolling over on their backs while the victor places their foot on the defeated enemy's chest.

-->'''Takpusseh-yamp:''' Herdmaster, [...] I guess my best guess that this device is expected to set a human foot on the Traveler Fithp.
* CreativeSterility: Fithp science is less based around exploration and research and more based around examining the ''Thuktun'', large granite blocks left by their [[{{Precursors}} Predecessors]], and covered in writing about anything from making fire and aluminum, to taxonomy and biology and higher mathematics. One of them describes how to build a ''Bussard Ramjet''.
** The fithp are not ''stupid'', however, and they're quite aware that humans have the advantage of better understanding the stuff they're using. Advisor Fathisteh-tulk [[spoiler: is killed by one of the human prisoners when he realizes just ''how much'' the fithp don't know about exploiting space, and that subjugating humanity is the only way to enlist their knowledge to the fithp cause]].

** They do allow humans the courtesy of a "''Don't-Bomb-Me''" symbol, to be painted on non-military targets, on the condition that if they find that a military object is marked with it, they'll blast every other marked site as well. Naturally, [[spoiler: the ''Michael'' construction site is marked as non-military, and the secret of the project is fiercely guarded]].

* FrickinLaserBeams: The humans have a few on the ground and in orbit, but the fithp ones are massively more powerful and efficient, and make human air travel essentially ''impossible'' during the war.

** Quite a few of them freak out at the mere notion of ''being on a planet'', having spent their whole lives in a spaceship. Harpanet, pictured above, on the cover, is the first fi' whose surrender is taken by a human.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The primary weapons of the fithp are described as "crowbars dropped from orbit". For that matter, the personal weapons used by them are just scaled up versions of ordinary machine guns.
** They still use powerful [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]] in their most logical application, as anti-missile and anti-aircraft weapons

* NukeEm: Kansas... [[XJustX Just Kansas]].

** Herdmaster Pastempeh-keph's argument for continuing the war in the face of such objections pretty much boils down to the herdlike "it's what we set out to do" mentality.
* {{Precursors}} / AbusivePrecursors: They were... well, kind of assholes. They trashed their home planet in one way or another, most likely through over-pollution, and either died off or bailed out, leaving behind granite blocks with inscriptions detailing their entire body of knowledge for whoever came after them.
** It's interesting to note that, while the fithp consider them "leaders" in that they have a sort of religion based around following in their footsteps to greatness, they're also acutely aware that the Predecessors were ''anything but'' wise, and a big point is made about trying to avoid making the same mistakes they did. The fithp "Priest" himself calls them "''Godlike Criminals''" for destroying their homeplanet.

** The fithp {{Space Plane}}s, the digit-ships, are lightcraft, meaning that they run on a pulsed fusion torch ignited by a ground powerful laser beam.

Written by LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, ''Footfall'' is an AlienInvasion novel ''[[ShownTheirWork done right]]''. Set in a ''very'' [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] universe, it treats the subject matter in the most realistic manner possible.

** Herdmaster Pastempeh-keph's argument for continuing the war in the face of such objections pretty much amount to the herdlike "it's what we set out to do" mentality.

* DeathFromAbove: First, the fithp use space-based lasers and the 'Rods From God', orbital [=KKVs=], to destroy Earth's military forces and insurgents, as well as dams and bridges (for some reason); later, after Kansas is nuked to defeat their first invasion they [[spoiler: land the eponymous 'Foot' (an asteroid) in the Indian Ocean to try to force Earth's surrender.]].
* DefeatMeansFriendship: For the fithp, Defeat ''Always'' Means Friendship. defeated herds are incorporated as slaves into the victor herds, their leaders become advisors to the victor's leaders, and the next generation born will hold equal standing in the herd. They expect that this behavior will hold true for humans.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The aliens and humans really don't quite understand each other's psychology, mainly because the aliens have much more of a herd dynamic. Most relevantly, the aliens don't understand how or why you would possibly initiate diplomacy before first fighting to see which party was dominant; for this reason they ''bomb the sh*t'' out of the US and USSR as soon as they arrive, ignoring all attempts to communicate.
** Likewise, they don't understand why a battered humanity responds with total war (pretty much an unknown notion to them), rather than taking a DefeatMeansFriendship-type submissive relationship.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: The guns from museum-ship Battleships are pulled out of mothballs to fight the fithp, both on the ''Archangel Michael'' itself and parasite ships built around each cannon.

* ColonyDrop: [[MeaningfulName Footfall]] involves slamming a large asteroid into a planet.
* CreativeSterility: The fithp don't research or develop new technology, they get it from Precursor artifacts.
* DeathFromAbove: First, the fithp use space-based lasers and the 'Rods From God', orbital [=KKVs=], to destroy Earth's military forces and insurgents; later, after [[spoiler: Kansas is nuked to defeat their first invasion they land the eponymous 'Foot' (an asteroid) in the Indian Ocean to try to force Earth's surrender (it doesn't work)]].
* DefeatMeansFriendship: The fithp figure humanity will either submit to their armies, or accept the submission of their armies, and either way it'll lead to good relations in the long term. They're wrong.

* GodzillaThreshold: The first time, they nuke the territory the aliens took over (which was still populated by humans). The second, and significantly less significant time, they build and use a nuke-fueled spaceship. They did get most of the nearby area into bomb shelters before they took off, though.

* {{Insufficiently Advanced Alien}}s: If the fithp hadn't had a Precursor artifact handy to tell them how to build stuff, they probably would still have been at the hunter-gatherer stage of civilization.
* ItsRainingMen: A mass paratroop drop by invading aliens who looked like two-trunked elephants flying hang gliders and wearing platform shoes (designed to absorb the landing impact).

** The full name of the Human-built Orion warship is The Archangel Michael, explicitly from the verse "The Archangel Michael cast Satan out of Heaven".

* NukeEm: The humans build an OrionDrive spaceship named ''Michael'' to combat the invading aliens. And since it runs on nuclear bombs, why not bring along nuclear-tipped missiles, nuclear cannon shells, and just for fun, nuclear-pumped x-ray lasers running off of the main drive's wasted energy.
* OrionDrive: Project Michael, [[spoiler:the last ditch effort to win the war, as the fithp hold the orbitals]]. Whenever the main engine was in operation in the ensuing space battle, the onomatopoeia "WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM" was used. One of the crew reflected that "God was knocking, and he wanted in ''bad''."

* {{Precursors}}: The aliens have them for a change. The left AncientArtifact around filled with scientific data.
* StanleySteamerSpaceship: The spaceship with an Orion-class nuclear engine that is indeed cooled by and powered by steam. At one point one of the characters has to work to repair battle damage in an area made uncomfortably hot by a burst steam line.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: In the final attack on the alien mothership, [[spoiler:the shuttle ''Atlantis'']] rams it, damaging [[spoiler: the alien's main drive, allowing ''Michael'' to catch them.]] This was also explicitly always the final attack option for the Michael, as it was, literally, the last chance for humans to win the war. The crew all signed on with the expectation that they would likely die this way and take the enemy mothership with them.

The [[StarfishAliens Fithp]] are herd animals resembling baby elephants, with bifurcated trunks that end in 8 tentacles. Their GenerationShip, ''Thuktun Flishithy'' ("''Message Bearer''"), coming most likely from a planet around Alpha Centauri, runs on an advanced Bussard ramjet, and their intent is to conquer Earth and subjugate the human race...
Their rather [[HowToInvadeAnAlienPlanet flawed plan]] is thoroughly [[Deconstruction deconstructed]] at various points throughout the novel, both by humans and by GenreSavvy dissident fithp.

[[quoteright:200: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Footfall(1stEd).jpg/200px-Footfall(1stEd).jpg]]

Written by LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, ''Footfall'' is a novel describing the arrival of alien space elephants from Alpha Centauri. Set in a very [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] universe, they have no choice but to try and take over Earth because they don't have any kind of FTL and spent all of their planet's resources getting here.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The military force at the end is American in nature.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The aliens and humans really don't quite understand each other's psychology, mainly because the aliens have much more of a herd dynamic. Most relevantly, the aliens don't understand how or why you would possibly initiate diplomacy before first fighting to see which party was dominant. Likewise, they don't understand why a battered humanity responds with total war (pretty much an unknown notion to them), rather than taking a DefeatMeansFriendship-type submissive relationship.

* MeaningfulName: Footfall.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: In the final attack on the alien mothership, [[spoiler:the shuttle ''Atlantis'']] rams it, damaging [[spoiler: the alien's main drive, allowing ''Michael'' to catch them.]]
** This was also explicitly always the final attack option for the Michael, as it was, literally, the last chance for humans to win the war. The crew all signed on with the expectation that they would likely die this way and take the enemy mothership with them.

Written by LarryNiven and JerryPournelle, ''Footfall'' is a novel describing the arrival of alien space elephants from Alpha Centauri. Set in a very [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] universe, they have no choice but to try and take over Earth because they don't have any kind of FTL and spent all of their planet's resources getting here.

* GodzillaThreshold: The first time, they nuke the territory the aliens took over (which was still populated by humans). The second, and significantly less significant time, they build and use a nuke-fueled spaceship. They did get most of the nearby area into bomb shelters before they took off, though.

* MostWritersAreWriters: Several sci-fi authors, including clear AuthorAvatar versions of both authors as well as one of RobertAHeinlein, brought together by the government to help think up ways to fight an alien invasion.

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* DeathFromAbove: First, the fithp use space-based lasers and the 'Rods From God', orbital KEW, to destroy Earth's military forces and insurgents; later, after [[spoiler: Kansas is nuked to defeat their first invasion they land the eponymous 'Foot' (an asteroid) in the Indian Ocean to try to force Earth's surrender (it doesn't work)]].

* AbusivePrecursors: The predecessors to the fithp left behind a completely destroyed ecology, forcing the fithp to try and move to a new planet.
** No, the fithp did that to themselves with bioweapons. Given that they are explicitly stated as having nukes but did NOT use them on Earth, it is unclear if they might have nuked themselves as well.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Museum-ship Battleships are also pulled out of mothballs to fight the fithp.
** Or, at least, their GUNS were, used either as the DEFENSIVE guns on the Michael (firing depleted uranium pellets like a huge shotgun) or as the core of a tiny ship and used to fire nuclear bombs on what amounts to a suicide run.

Written by LarryNiven and JerryPournelle, Footfall is a novel describing the arrival of alien space elephants from Alpha Centauri. Set in a very [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] universe, this means that they have no choice but to try and take over earth because they don't have any kind of FTL and spent all of their planet's resources getting here.