History Literature / LegacyOfTheAldenata

** In ''Yellow Eyes'', a US Navy cruiser, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Des_Moines_(CA-134) USS ''Des Moines'' (CA-134)]], is converted to serve as a weapon platform for combating the aliens (it's a SciFi novel, after all) and has a AID installed to control it. However the AI was left on while shipping to earth, and developed more sentience (and some mental instability, due to sensory deprivation) by thinking the human equivalent of 5000+ years (in real terms a month or so, because AI think fast). the AI then proceeds to buy a cloning device on Website/{{eBay}} (a RunningGag in the book is that you can find ''anything'' on Website/EBay) and the clothing of a famous actress for DNA, and creates a living avatar for the ship. This is more of a Ship Girl, though, because it is a wet navy ship.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Mike O'Neal, ''twice'' -- the first time when he mistakenly believes his father and daughter did not escape a nuclear blast he detonated to destroy attacking Posleen (they were rescued by Bane Sidhe, then went deep undercover), then [[spoiler:when he [[OedipusComplex unknowingly kills his own father]] during a raid on a Bane Sidhe base in ''Honor of the Clan'']].

Between the top-notch military action, dark humor, political intrigue and back-stabbing, this series is one of the best works of MilitaryScienceFiction out there.

* BladeOnAStick: The Swiss Guardsmen's halberds from ''The Tuloriad''.

* BadassNormal: The Ten Thousand, an [[PoweredArmor Armored Conbat Suit]] support unit composed entirely of non-armored humans using a mixture of Human, Galactic, and stolen Posleen weapons and tech.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Averted with the M-300 grav rifles carried by the [[PoweredArmor ACS]]. The just-barely-sublight pellets have no real maximum range. The only practical limits are those of the targeting system. In LaymansTerms, if you can target it, you can reach it.

** Set after the events of the "Calla's War" trilogy and long after the war on Earth is over; part one of a planned "Hedren War" trilogy. The Darhel and humans must put their differences aside in order to defend their worlds from a new threat, the Hedren, that have come from another galaxy.

** Set over a thousand years into the future, following a small team exploring one planet where a new enemy race are located, only to have one of the humans betray his teammates for a piece of Aldenata technology, leading their newest member - Tirdal of the Darhel - to become an unlikely hero as he tries to recover the item. Its events have been rendered [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]] by later books.

** ''A Hymn Before Battle'' is fairly accurate, but Elsworthy is the sniper, yet both solders are shown with the same oddly designed weapon. They are also wearing cut down [=BDUs=] - not good for camouflage.

** Museum ships like old battleships are reactivated and upgraded to fight the invading alien Posleen. A [=WW2=] cruiser, the USS ''Des Moines'', is brought back into service and upgraded with Galactic Federation tech to help secure the Panama Canal region in ''Yellow Eyes''

** Used again, though differently, in the climactic battle of ''Yellow Eyes''. The strategy involves luring the attacking Posleen to a narrow pocket of land between a mountain range and the ocean, then bombarding them with White Phosphorus at a certain time of day. The intense flames will consume all of the oxygen, which wouldn't be much of a problem, except due to the location and the timing, a temperature inversion will occur that will trap the hot, oxygen-deprived air for a couple of hours. [[BizarreAlienBiology Despite being immune to pretty much every biological and chemical agent in that universe]], [[RealityEnsues the Posleen still need oxygen to keep living]].

* AbusivePrecursors: The Aldenata, long since vanished, are known to have meddled with ''every'' race aside from humanity, generally never with results for the better. And the other races aren't so sure that the humans haven't been messed with, too. To be more explicit? The Aldenata are the reason why [[spoiler: the Darhel become comatose after killing something - ''anything'' - despite clearly having evolved to be ''very'' efficient predators; the adrenaline triggers the release of ''tal'' which seems to be an endorphin-equivalent - the problem is, the release triggered by killing is so severe the Darhel in question becomes functionally, permanently chemically lobotomized.]] Most of the other races are quite sure that the Aldenata used to use the Posleen as shock troops in a war of some sort. [[spoiler: This worries people, since they have ''no clue'' why the Aldenata vanished, or who they would have been using the Posleen against. But the heel face turn of the Posleen in the latest book seems to shed some light.]] In ''The Tuloriad'' Aldenata meddling [[spoiler:with the Posleen]] is further explained, as Tula'stenaloor seeks information about the [[spoiler:Posleen]] past.

* AlienInvasion: The Posleen are this trope personified.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The Posleen are barely sentient, come in hordes of millions, and don't think twice about even eating ''each other'' let alone anyone else that are all called "prey" or "prey that can fight." And you have to kill at least the vast majority of them; they have no concept of giving up,can rapidly rebuild numbers by breeding and stray Posleen still eat people.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The Posleen are barely sentient, come in hordes of millions, and don't think twice about even eating ''each other'' let alone anyone else that are all called "prey" or "prey that can fight." And you have to at least the vast majority of them; they have no concept of giving up,can rapidly rebuild numbers by breeding and stray Posleen still eat people.

*** For just one thing, artillery shells have existed since the early Cold War and short range ''ballistic'' (unpowered descent) missiles ''should'' have a chance of getting through the defenses.
** Some of the weapon choices e.g. the ACS, extreme velocity 1 and 3mm railguns, refitting M1 tanks with Metalstorm battieres instead of 120mm guns or conventional autocannons are specific RuleOfCool as seen by the author.

*** In particular nuclear artillery shells have existed since the early Cold War and short range ''ballistic'' (unpowered descent) missiles ''should'' have a chance of getting through the defenses.

* BadassFamily: Michael O'Neal, Sr is the [[BadassGrandpa patriarch]] of just one of many families that prove themselves a credit to their species.

* CosmeticCatastrophe: In ''Hell's Faire'', the thirteen year old Cally O'Neal attempts to make her self up like Music/BritneySpears does, but the end result winds up as "raccoon eyes", and [[BadassGrandpa Papa O'Neal]] afraid that if she's seen by others like that he'd be accused of child abuse. Fortunately for Cally some of the visitors to the farm where she and Papa live are much better at applying makeup, and fix the problem.

* TheVillainMakesThePlot: In the first two books the main commanders of the Posleen forces are of average or below average intelligence. In the next two books the ManipulativeBastard Tulo'Stenaloor becomes the new BigBad and nearly streamrolls the humans with his brilliant tactics. In addition to his individual brilliance, Tulo'Stenaloor explicitly tries to recruit as many intelligent Posleen as possible to increase the pool of ideas he can draw from.

** In ''Yellow Eyes'', a US Navy cruiser, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Des_Moines_(CA-134) USS ''Des Moines'' (CA-134)]], is converted to serve as a weapon platform for combating the aliens (it's a SciFi novel, after all) and has a AID installed to control it. However the AI was left on while shipping to earth, and developed more sentience (and some mental instability, due to sensory deprivation) by thinking the human equivalent of 5000+ years (in real terms a month or so, because AI think fast). the AI then proceeds to buy a cloning device on Website/{{eBay}} (a RunningGag in the book is that you can find ''anything'' on eBay) and the clothing of a famous actress for DNA, and creates a living avatar for the ship. This is more of a Ship Girl, though, because it is a wet navy ship.

** Set after the defeat of the Posleen on Earth, and follows their struggle to survive.

** Part one of the "Cally's War" trilogy, following a now 51-year-old Cally O'Neal.

** Part two of the "Cally's War" trilogy, reuniting Cally with her sister Michelle, who was among those sent off-world with the Indowy before the invasion began.

** Set after the war on Earth is over and introducing a new threat, the Hedren, from another galaxy.

** Set over a thousand years into the future. Its events have been rendered [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]] by later books.

!!Setting contains Examples of:

** ''A Hymn Before Battle'' is fairly accurate, but Elsworthy is the sniper, yet both solders are shown with the same oddly designed weapon. They are also wearing cut down BDUs - not good for camouflage.

** ''Hell's Faire''. Oh dear oh dear, Hell's Faire. The Posleen are shown as green and not yellow, with ''red blood'' despite the fact that the blood is described as yellow almost as much as the Literature/WorldWar series reminds us the Race have turreted eyes. You can see through the ACS faceplates, the suits look positively skinny despite ranging from 'muscular' to 'spherical' from books in the description, and the [=SheVa=] in the background looks nothing like the functional, non-aesthetic vehicle's 3D models provided at the end of the book. Still, the cover's [=SheVa=] does look a lot more [[RuleOfCool awesome]].

** The "Daisy Mae" is converted from a wet navy cruiser, the USS ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Des_Moines_(CA-134) Des Moines]]'', to space navy dreadnought complete with a direct reference to a series involving the similar treatment of the [[SpaceBattleshipYamato Battleship Yamato]].

* JoinOrDie: In ''Gust Front'', Mike O'Neal, Sr. is approached by an old acquaintance from his mercenary days, and offered a position in a shadowy KnightTemplar organization with access to Galactic technology. The acquaintance was about to kill O'Neal if he declined the offer for [[HeKnowsTooMuch knowing too much]] about the organization, until Mike was rescued [[spoiler:by his grand daughter Cally]], the acquaintance's brains being [[BoomHeadshot ballistically scattered]] around the room.

* MoreDakka: Tons of it, since that's the only practical way of fighting the Posleen to a standstill, let alone defeat them. In particular, massed fire from troops is the only way for snipers to avoid being targeted by the insanely accurate targeting computers of God King saucers, by confusing the sensors with too many targets to track.

* BookEnds: One of John Ringo's writing quirks, which is most prominent in this series, is to have paragraphs from different perspectives or viewpoints connected together by shared words or phrases. For example, one character might say something at the end of one paragraph, then the character of the next paragraph, in a different location, might think or say something similar.

* WorthyOpponent: The Posleen actually have a ''[[LanguageEqualsThought term'' for this; "threshkreen". However, it's not ''that'' much of a complement; their word for "every species except ours" is just "thresh"... which isn't actually synonymous for "food" -- they literally have no other word ''[[LanguageEqualsThought for]]'' "food." "Threshkreen" just means "food with a sting" AKA "food capable of putting up a fight."

* WorthyOpponent:
** Though they often whine about how humanity refuses to fight fairly, the Posleen do respect them as they are the only race they've encountered that has actually put up meaningful resistance against their advance.

** Museum ships like old battleships are reactivated and upgraded to fight the invading alien Posleen. A WW2 cruiser, the USS ''Des Moines'', is brought back into service and upgraded with Galactic Federation tech to help secure the Panama Canal region in ''Yellow Eyes''