History Literature / LegacyOfTheAldenata

* LongRunningBookSeries: The first gook was published in 2000.

* KangarooCourt: Pretty much how the entire Galactic Federation's judicial system is constructed, as shown in ''The Eye of the Storm''.

* LongRunningBookSeries

* Expy: The Posleen are semi-reptilian centauroids who were genetically manipulated into become a xenocidal race... just like the Achultanni from David Weber's "EmpireFromTheAshes" series. Of course, Ringo and Weber are good friends and it is possible that Ringo was essentially say "Cool Idea bro, but I can do it better."

* BrickJoke: Aelool makes the Posleen Tula'stenaloor "an offer you can't refuse" at the end of ''Hell's Faire''... but it takes until ''The Tuloriad'' half a dozen books later for the outcome of that offer to be shown.

* CanonDiscontinuity: As Co-Authors came in, the Author's original list of surviving nations as published is retconned out of existence. Notably except for scattered survivors the original Arc ended with only the US and Canada between the Rockies and Appalachians being functional. Later books add at least survivor states for Germany, Panama, Sweden, Japan, China and Nepal. One of the co-author books, the farther-future-setting ''Hero'', was declared by Ringo to no longer canon, due to the epilogue of ''Watch on the Rhine'' and ''Eye of the Storm''.

** YMMV as to how amusing it is; In ''Watch On The Rhine'', General Muelenkampf mentions offhandedly that the SS would have had a Jewish unit. Around halfway through the book, we are told that such a unit has now been formed.

* CantArgueWithElves: Subverted. Humanity in fact says ''"ScrewYouElves"'', and post-Posleen war our way of screwing people involves genocide to the tune of at least one ColonyDrop.
* TheCavalry: The end of ''Hell's Faire'', when [[spoiler: a Fleet/Fleet Strike task force, acting against Darhel orders,]] shows up just in time to not only save the 555th's ass, but to finish breaking the back of Posleen activity on Earth. Naturally, the Darhel react by [[spoiler: [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished killing or torpedoing the careers]] of every officer involved....]]

** 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 camoflage.
** Gust Front shows an ACS that you can see through the faceplate off. It is repeatedly mentioned that Armoured Combat Suits have blank faceplates. Also, the landers don't look like 'flying skyscrapers' so much as giant pentagonal pillboxes.
** When The Devil Dances shows spherical C-Decs. They are repeatedly stated to be dodecahedrons. Also, there is a nuclear blast in the background. Cally is never standing up brandishing weapons out in the open during nuclear blasts, not least because being out in the open like that is an invitation to Posleen to shoot at you. Also, ''nuclear detonation in plain view''. She'd be knocked over or at the very least blinded. Not only does the cover lie, but it makes little sense either.
** 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 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 Legacy of the Aldenata, sometimes known as the Posleen War Series, is a science fiction universe created by MilitaryScienceFiction author Creator/JohnRingo. The series started in the year 2000 with the publication of ''A Hymn Before Battle'', set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. As you can imagine, it is now AlternateHistory. The story starts with the [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]], a coalition of seemingly, note the operative word here, benevolent races make first contact (not really though for numerous reasons) with Earth. That's the good news.

* AuthorAppeal: Ringo likes S&M apparently.
** Other interests of contributing authors that make it into this series include devout Christianity (in ''The Tuloriad''), ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', favorite music (see AutobotsRockOut below), and attractive women with oversized endowments (Cally in her "Sinda Makepeace" body, Daisy Mae, Glennis [=LeBlanc=][[note]][[WriteWhoYouKnow based on a real person]][[/note]], etc.)

** Ringo is just one out of a long tradition of sci-fi authors who are real-life wunderkinds; Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Creator/EEDocSmith, Travis S. Taylor, etc. It perfectly justifies the trope when you realize that these people could probably do stuff like this if the situation ever presented itself. (Or like to think they could, anyway.)

* OldSchoolDogfighting: The sole SpaceFighter scene averts this trope. The fighters in question using guided missiles to engage the enemy, and there's even an evasive maneuver that takes advantage of being able to change the direction one's pointing without changing vector until thrust is applied. The few scenes with the larger ships also avert the trope, maneuvering as one would expect massive battlewagons to handle, and not more like really big airplanes.

** The supertank named "Bun-Bun" is a reference to ''SluggyFreelance'', a webcomic that Ringo really likes. There are even a small collection of comics by the same artist, some are references to the setting. One of those is a gut-wrenching combination of [[RuleOfFunny gut-wrenching hilarity]] and gut-wrenching horror: WhatIf the Posleen, instead of being centauroid lizards led by amoral ditzes with no idea [[HowDoIShotWeb how to Shot Web]], were {{killer rabbit}}s led by switchblade-flicking {{Magnificent Bastard}}s?

** Other interests of contributing authors that make it into this series include devout Christianity (in ''The Tuloriad''), SluggyFreelance, favorite music (see AutobotsRockOut below), and attractive women with oversized endowments (Cally in her "Sinda Makepeace" body, Daisy Mae, Glennis [=LeBlanc=][[note]][[WriteWhoYouKnow based on a real person]][[/note]], etc.)

* PuttingOnTheReich:
** A fairly controversial subversion of this trope (''i.e.'' the S.S. are actually "the good guys") is the entire plot premise of ''Watch on the Rhine,'' where the German Chancellor resurrects the Waffen-SS in order to save his country. There is also a great deal of discussion and infodumps on the history of the special forces units versus the special prison units (and Karmic deaths for those with the prison units), and the SS groups are deliberately kept out until the last possible second as a futile last hope and specifically sent on the worst missions to die. However their operational parameters make them more resistant to the sabotage occurring to rest of the army using the Aides.
** ''Yellow Eyes'' has a unique case of putting on the purple. Panama during the war eventually tosses out the corrupt elected leader in a military coup. Many terms such as master of the horse are Roman in origin.

* HordeOfAlienLocusts: the Posleen.
* HowDoIShotWeb: all technology the Posleen have they inherited from the [[NeglectfulPrecursors Aldenata]] and they have only a limited understanding how it works. This leads to some rather humorous scenes like when a fire control computer helpfully informs a Posleen commander of incoming artillery fire and he just stares at it like an idiot.
* HumansAreWarriors: We're the only sentient species besides the Polseen who can be reasonably expected to fight a war and have plenty of practice in doing so. All other species either have a legitimate biological reason and contribute to the war effort in other ways or have been engineered to effectively become invalids after an act of violence.
** The [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Hedren]] have shown up. [[ItGotWorse These guys look like fun]].

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: In ''Gust Front'', Tommy Sunday, Jr, and [[spoiler:his future girlfriend]] make a promise that if one is unable to kill themself, the other will do it for them, instead of leaving them alive for the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] to find and [[ImAHumanitarian invite for dinner]].

* BigBulkyBomb: In ''Gust Front'', the Fredericksburg Executive Building in Fredricksburg, Virginia is filled with propane for the purpose of turning it into a giant fuel-air explosive that, when detonated, completely levels the town, as part of a deception to keep the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] from locating the impromptu bomb shelter the townspeople are using to hide from the aliens.

* CoolShip: "Daisy Mae," even ''before'' her starship upgrade from a modernized Iowa class battleship. The AI itself is the icing on the cake.

* CosmeticCatastrophe: In ''Hell's Faire'', the thirteen year old Cally O'Neal attempts to make her self up like Britney Spears 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.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: In ''A Hymn Before Battle'' during the events of the defense of Diess, Lt. O'Neal had acquired a reputation for plans that sounded crazy but were thought to possibly work, due to the successes of his unconventional campaign against the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]].

* ExplosiveInstrumentation: During the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] assault on the Rabun Gap wall, in ''When the Devil Dances'', one of the consoles in [=SheVa=] 14, supporting the wall's defenders, explodes after a plasma gun hit penetrates into the command center.It's ''immediately'' {{lampshaded}} by the [=SheVa's=] commander. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that it killed another crew member, who had been surrounded by monitors in an almost 360-degree circle. When the power surge hit "there were thousands of volts all of a sudden going nowhere." The poor guy was "carbonized".]]

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: the super monitor class ship has a spinal mounted [[RailGun Mass Driver]] that fires a huge slug packed with a [[MadeOfExplodium gooey antimatter center]] for taking on the battle globes of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] as they enter. A single round is said to be able to destroy a significant percentage of the ships in the formation of hundreds.

* FramedForHeroism: The battleship USS ''Missouri'', in the second book, fires a full salvo from one of its main turrets at a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] warship in a desperate attempt at destroying the vessel. The craft is destroyed, but it wasn't the battleship's rounds that did it: a nearby Planetary Defense Center armed with a gun designed to defend against those kinds of ships actually made the killing shot. However, from the perspective of the battleship's crew, their rounds were the fatal shot, as the PDC was completely destroyed by orbital bombardment from another Posleen warship immediately after firing. The notion of the battleship's rounds making the kill was ultimately responsible for the creation of the [=SheVa=] mobile artillery pieces featured in the third and fourth books.

** In ''Yellow Eyes'', one of the named [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] tromping around in the Panamanian jungles has a Cayman bite on its genitalia, to which a Normal replies with its Boma blade, only missing due to the victim's thrashing around, and cutting off part of the God King's member instead.

* KillItWithFire: A tanker truck, a fire truck, and an intentionally damaged bridge that the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] have to cross provides much fun for the humans defending Fredricksburg, in ''Gust Front''.

* MonumentalDamage: Washington Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, in the third book. Subverted in the case of Arlington National Cemetery, thanks to [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] spiritual beliefs regarding the dead.[[note]]Specifically, by burying the dead instead of eating them, their souls are left wandering around. Given Arlington is a military cemetery, by Posleen beliefs this results in a lot of very hostile warrior ghosts haunting the area. The thought scares even the sapient God Kings, and if the non-sapient soldiers knew it would probably send them fleeing in panic.[[/note]]
* MoreDakka: Tons of it, since that's the only practical way of fighting the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] to a standstill, let alone defeat them.

** The Chinese used nukes to try to slow down the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]], but failed to slow them for more than a day, winding up not only destroyed as a fighting force, but poisoning the Yangtze River for thousands of years.
** In ''When The Devil Dances'' and ''Hell's Faire'', deployment and use of nukes is a significant issue, thanks to a president that's ''very'' against them. However, they do eventually get authorized for use, as area denial weapons to kill large numbers of [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]], after the Rabun Gap defenses are breached, including [[MacrossMissileMassacre flushing the nearly the entire US nuclear missile arsenal]] to nuke the Gap, just to get some warheads past the absurdly accurate anti-air fire from Posleen hardware.

* OneHitPolykill: Rounds fired from the rail guns used by the [[PoweredArmor ACS]], traveling not much slower than the speed of light, will rip through multiple [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] before running out of kinetic energy.

* SapientShip: The USS ''Des Moines'' in ''Yellow Eyes'', after [[spoiler:the insane AID]] is installed as part of her upgrades to fight the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]].

* CoolShip: "Daisy Mae," even ''before'' her starship upgrade. The AI itself is the icing on the cake.

* MilitaryMashupMachine: The Tiger [=IIIs=] from ''Watch on the Rhine'' are land battleships.

** I always thought the Tiger IIIs were just the P.1000 Ratte and the P.1500 Monster taken {{Up to Eleven}}.

* NeglectfulPrecursors: The Aldenata. You would think that they just might have realized their experiments on the Posleen and the Darhel might generate negative consequences. Afraid Not.
** It has also been hinted a few times that the Posleen killed and ate them, though some books have also hinted that they might still be around ([[spoiler:and ''Eye of the Storm'' outright revealed that they ''are'' still around and will respond to petitions by the lesser races]]).
*** The glossary in ''Yellow Eyes'' describes them as "Largely disappeared from the Galactic scene in sheer funk and shame [[WellIntentionedExtremist at the damage they had, despite all the best intentions, wrought.]]" They're off somewhere whining that they meant well. It's implied that Humanity will pwn them too should they ever show up.
* NuclearOption: The Chinese used nukes to try to slow down the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]], but failed to slow them for more than a day, winding up not only destroyed as a fighting force, but poisoning the Yangtze River for thousands of years.

* OldSchoolDogfighting: The sole SpaceFighter scene averts this trope. The fighters in question using guided missiles to engage the enemy, and there's even an evasive maneuver that takes advantage of being able to change the direction one's pointing without changing vector until thrust is applied.
** The few scenes with the larger ships also avert the trope, maneuvering as one would expect massive battlewagons to handle, and not more like really big airplanes.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Subverted. The Darhel are Space Elves and everyone is a CorruptCorporateExecutive to boot.
** Space Elves descended from a carnivore species and have extremely sharp teeth. The precursors modified them to digest plants and then put a mental block preventing them from ''directly'' harming any sort of animals or eating meat. If they do such an act they will go catatonic. As a result of this modification their survival became dependent on [[ManipulativeBastard getting others to do their fighting for them]]. They succeed, until they try to mess with Humanity, who just says "ScrewYouElves!", and proceed to show the Darhel why pissing off humans is generally a bad idea.

* PuttingOnTheReich: A fairly controversial subversion of this trope (''i.e.'' the S.S. are actually "the good guys") is the entire plot premise of ''Watch on the Rhine,'' where the German Chancellor resurrects the Waffen-SS in order to save his country.
** There is also a great deal of discussion and infodumps on the history of the special forces units versus the special prison units (and Karmic deaths for those with the prison units), and the SS groups are deliberately kept out until the last possible second as a futile last hope and specifically sent on the worst missions to die. However their operational parameters make them more resistant to the sabotage occurring to rest of the army using the Aides.

* ShoutOut: the supertank named "Bun-Bun" is a reference to ''SluggyFreelance'', a webcomic that Ringo really likes.
** There are even a small collection of comics by the same artist, some are references to the setting. One of those is a gut-wrenching combination of [[RuleOfFunny gut-wrenching hilarity]] and gut-wrenching horror: WhatIf the Posleen, instead of being centauroid lizards led by amoral ditzes with no idea [[HowDoIShotWeb how to Shot Web]], were {{killer rabbit}}s led by switchblade-flicking {{Magnificent Bastard}}s?

** This is one only people who have read Starship Troopers will get. At the beginning of Tuloriad, there is a light cruiser whose name is Ramon Magsaysay. If you've read the book, I think you'll get it. If not, read the last part of the chapter before the epilouge.

** Other interests of contributing authors that make it into this series include devout Christianity (in ''The Tuloriad''), SluggyFreelance, favorite music (see AutobotsRockOut below), and attractive women with oversized endowments (Cally in her "Sinda Makepeace" body, Daisy Mae, Glennis [=LeBlanc=][[hottip:*:[[WriteWhoYouKnow based on a real person]]]], etc.)

* DungeonBypass: The "Screaming Meemie" units accompanying the 7000 ton "Bun Bun", in ''When the Devil Dances'' and ''Hell's Faire'', tend to take full advantage of the passage of the [=SheVa=] smashing everything in its path flat. The resultant path is still impassable for wheeled vehicles, but for the tanks[[hottip:*:The [=MetalStorm=] turrets replace the regular turrets on otherwise normal [[YanksWithTanks M-1 Abrams tanks]] traveling through the impressions that each section of tread leaves isn't a problem.

* MonumentalDamage: Washington Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, in the third book. Subverted in the case of Arlington National Cemetery, thanks to [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] spiritual beliefs regarding the dead.[[hottip:*:Specifically, by burying the dead instead of eating them, their souls are left wandering around. Given Arlington is a military cemetery, by Posleen beliefs this results in a lot of very hostile warrior ghosts haunting the area. The thought scares even the sapient God Kings, and if the non-sapient soldiers knew it would probably send them fleeing in panic.]]

* RecycledINSPACE!: ''Watch on the Rhine'' could be described as Literature/TheIronDream IN SPACE! and IN UNIRONIC!

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: In ''A Hymn Before Battle'', an [[PoweredArmor ACS]] trooper[[hottip:*:identified in a later novel as [[Creator/BaenBooks Baen's]] DesignatedVictim, Joe Buckley]] comments, just before getting his hand blown off by a grenade he had planted as part of an effort to escape from a collapsed building, "this is gonna hurt".

* YouDontWantToDieAVirginDoYou: {{Lampshaded}}, then carried out a few chapters later, with [[spoiler:Tom Sunday Jr and Wendy Cummmings during the Fredericksburg engagement]] in ''Gust Front''.

** Ordinary (if heavily upgraded) tanks also play a big role, earlier in the series. At one point, Mike O'Neal, Jr credits the conventional forces, which included [[WeAreNotTheWehrmacht German]], [[GaulsWithGrenades French]], and [[YanksWithTanks American]] tank units, with holding against the Posleen swarm until he could pull out [[BigDamnHeroes the miracle that broke the Posleen army's back]]. And then there's the tank unit accompanying Bun-Bun in the final blitz of ''Hell's Faire''.

* WeHaveReserves: this goes a long way to describing the Posleen's mentality at waging war.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Aldenata, arguably. Their legacy is a sullenly-gleaming example of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The Posleen War Series, also known as The Legacy of the Aldenata, is a science fiction universe created by MilitaryScienceFiction author Creator/JohnRingo. The series started in the year 2000 with the publication of ''A Hymn Before Battle'', set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. As you can imagine, it is now AlternateHistory. The story starts with the [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]], a coalition of seemingly, note the operative word here, benevolent races make first contact (not really though for numerous reasons) with Earth. That's the good news.