History Literature / StarCarrier

** The same page that gives us the 1.15 [=TeV=] number describes the railgun cruiser ''Kinkaid's'' spinal mount as accelerating a slug at 500 gravities down a 1 kilometer barrel. This results in a muzzle velocity of about 3.1 kilometers per second, only about four times the muzzle velocity of the average assault rifle. At that speed it would take a very large, very heavy slug to do much damage, which sort of defeats the purpose of using a railgun that long ([[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/409497/electromagnetic-railgun-blasts-off/?nlid=857 real railguns have achieved 2.4 km/s with a much shorter barrel]]).
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The [[spoiler:Slan-led Sh'daar battle group]] at 70 Ophiuchi at the end of ''Deep Space''. [[spoiler:Based on prior conversations with Trevor Gray, and a BadassBoast invoking Slan culture delivered during the ''America'' battle group's final attack run, the Slan C.O. decides that the Sh'daar had deliberately lied to them when uplifting them and bringing them into the empire, a big no-no in Slan culture, and jump out to present this information to their government. The surviving Turusch ships, now badly outnumbered by the humans, run for their lives.]]

* ShoutOut: The planet orbiting 40 Eridani A is dubbed [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]]. 40 Eri A was the longtime deuterocanonical location of Vulcan and finally canonized in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' several years after ''Star Carrier'' first mentioned the planet. Also, the carrier Intrepid is frequently mentioned as being deployed to 40 Eridani and Vulcan; in TOS, the Intrepid was a Constellation Class starship that was crewed exclusively by Vulcans.

** In ''Stargods'', the new USNA president is adamant that the people stop expecting a singularity to arrive any day now. He claims that it has already happened 300 years ago, when the Internet was created. Most people think he's an idiot, although he does have a point in that many of those expecting the singularity have ceased to work or do anything, figuring that none of this matters. He also compared this expectation with the belief of some Christian denominations in the Rapture. [[spoiler:When the ''America'' manages to locate one of the Sh'daar habitation cylinders traveling at sublight from their own dwarf galaxy to the Milky Way hundreds of millions of years in the past, they learn that things were worse during their singularity than they originally let on. Instead of "winking out", those of their number who ascended collapsed on the spot, dead. Vehicles were falling out of the sky, cities were burning, infrastructure was collapsing, as [=AIs=] were also ascending. It took the "Refusers" a thousand years to recover. When they learn that humanity is nearing its own singularity, they state their sorrow at the coming devastation. There's some indication, in fact, that it's already beginning, as large groups of people are starting to drop dead on Earth without an explanation. Konstantin thinks they're being uploaded to the Godstream, an all-encompassing AI network that evolved from the Internet. By the end of the book, over a billion people have already transcended to the Godstream, either because they died while connected to it (like Koenig, Gregory, and Julia) or simply because they were ready. Koenig presents President Walker and the other world leaders a Declaration of Independence, prepared by Konstantin, establishing the creation of a new nation called the Singularity composed of the transcended humans and [=AIs=]. While a large chunk of the Godstream infrastructure is located on Earth, a not insignificant chunk of it is also located on ships, stations, and colonies both in Sol and in other systems. Most nations have accepted the new nation and are willing to sign treaties with the Singularity, although Koenig is certain that the USNA will form an alternative network that isn't connected to the Godstream. Then again, Walker resigns shortly after, and his successor seems to be willing to deal with the Singularity.]]

** The SG-92 Starhawks have variable hull geometry (nanotech is involved) that allows them to reconfigure themselves between several forms: a slim needle for launch and space combat, an airfoil for atmospheric flight, and a sperm-like teardrop for crossing distances at near-''c''. They're armed with kiloton- and megaton-yield nuclear missiles, the aforementioned Gatling railguns, and a particle beam. Turusch "Toads" are armed similarly but are more massive, less maneuverable, and lack the variable geometry which makes them crap for air combat. ''Singularity'' introduces the Starhawks' predecessor, the SG-55 War Eagle which also lacks variable geometry, as well as Pan-European and Chinese counterparts to the War Eagle and Starhawk.

* SpaceIsAnOcean: But one that relies on 20th- and 21st-century nautical metaphors rather than ones from the Age of Sail, somewhat like ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. For example, the ''America'' has a CIC rather than a flag bridge (the latter term is used in ''Literature/HonorHarrington''), and the commander of the fighter wing has the title "Commander, Air Group" (which gets lampshaded, and explained as the old name sticking despite efforts to update it), CAG for short. Even the [=SEALs=] are still around, except the acronym got updated to SEALS ("Space" added to the end), although an individual member is still called a "SEAL". And space itself is not an ocean. Also, the Marines still use Navy corpsmen rather than medics. (Worth noting, the author is a former Navy corpsman.)

** For someone who has [[ShownTheirWork done his research]], the author makes the typical mistake of assuming that water exposed to space will freeze in an instant instead of boiling.

** The author finally gets it right in ''Deep Time'', where a fighter pilot is downed and ends up trapped on a rogue planet, whose surface temperature is very near absolute zero. The fighter's systems start shutting down due to the extreme cold, and the pilot calculates that, attempting to exit the craft would give him no more than 2 seconds before he would flash-freeze. Later, he redoes the calculations and realizes that he's in vacuum, which provides the best insulation possible and increases the estimate to 8 seconds.

** Averted with the new aliens in ''Dark Matter'', the Grdoch. They only have ''one'' type of ship fulfilling all necessary roles (each ship is TheBattlestar). They may have different sizes, but the same type of armament, fighters, cargo/transport space, etc. They don't understand why humans bother to create different types of ships. Hell, they don't even have a distinction between military and civilian ships. ''All'' their ships are the same.

** For that matter, there are no HumanAliens, or even any race out there remotely resembling humans in appearance or thought. (There is at least one species of HumanoidAliens seen in ''Center of Gravity'', but they're much bigger than we are.) In the fourth novel, two characters spend a few minutes trying to figure out which of the alien races they know of even have eyes.

** Especially in the second trilogy the series runs into what Website/StarDestroyerDotNet has called the "AMERICA FUCK YEAH!" problem: Only the Americans get to save the day, and if you're not with the Americans you're either a coward or a bad guy. Oh, and acquiescing to the Sh'daar Masters' demands as the Conciliationists running the Confederation by ''Deep Space'' want is BAD BAD BAD, and to prove it the Conciliationists are willing to use nanite and antimatter weapons to get the heroic Americans to fall in line (then blame the attacks on the American government when they're caught at it on video). Much like the Jedi Order schism over the use of leftover Imperial superweapons in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, nobody on the anti-Conciliationist side seems to be able to come up with a rational reason for why agreeing would be so bad (especially since the Confederation only refused in the first place because some {{Mega Corp}}s didn't want to give up their lucrative trade deals with the Agletsch).
** This seems to be a thing for the author and is also present in his ''Literature/GalacticMarines'' books, where the European-dominated UN behaves like unabashed villains, and only the brave Americans are heroes.
* SuperPersistentMissile: Missiles are stated outright in the very first dogfight of ''Earth Strike'' to be nearly impossible to shake with passive systems such as ECM. They're flown by weak ArtificialIntelligence, use a huge variety of sensors to track targets, and can easily out-accelerate any fighter. The only viable countermeasure are active systems. Human and Turusch ships dump "sand" (granules of gravitically compressed lead) into space to serve as a physical barrier or shoot them down with energy weapons, and they're little threat to {{Beam Spam}}mers like the Sora, Slan, and [[spoiler:Sh'daar]].

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: A variation where the person being subbed for is still present (albeit having [[RankUp Ranked Up]]). ''Deep Space's'' Lt. Donald Gregory is one for now-Captain Trevor Gray. Both are looked down upon by squadronmates for their upbringing (Gray grew up on the Periphery, Gregory was born on an extrasolar colony), and both come up with outside-the-box ways to kill enemy capital ships (Gray's AMSO canisters, Gregory's hitting Slan ships with [[WeaponizedExhaust his drive singularity]]).
** For that matter, Gray is that for Koenig. Both have risen in ranks from fighter pilot duty to the command of the ''America'' to admiralty. Both are mavericks who don't have much patience for armchair admirals or fleet politics. In a message where Koenig bumps Gray's rank to full admiral (bypassing two pay grades in the process), he knows exactly how Gray is going to react (hint: a PrecisionFStrike), but tells him it's a provisional rank only meant to keep Gray in command of the joint task force, so Gray doesn't have to answer to any of the Russian, Chinese, North Indian, or Islamic admirals in command of their own fleets. After Gray's return to Earth, Koenig makes the rank stick, much to Gray's annoyance. The main difference between the two is that Koenig never had to deal with FantasticRacism that Gray still occasionally faces from those who believe that a "Prim" has no business being in command.

* TimeDilation: Taken into account with high velocities, but it's more of a wrinkle of a few extra minutes or hours rather than something life-altering. Ships keep track of both subjective and objective time, and ''Earth Strike'' has a scene of Trevor Grey, on a near-''c'' attack run, watching the minutes on the objective time clock blur past in a flash.

* TimeSkip: Twenty years pass between ''Singularity'' and ''Deep Space''. Then-Admiral Koenig has been elected first to the USNA Senate, then to the presidency, and then-Lieutenant Gray is now a captain and commanding officer of the ''America''.

* IllegalReligion: Downplayed. The Terran Confederation's "White Covenant" law means that, while religion isn't banned outright, many of its common practices are. In particular proselytizing, many missionary activities, and conversion by threat or force are considered violations of basic human rights. This came about after Islamic terrorists nuked several major cities and set off World War III, and understandably doesn't sit well with a lot of religious groups (the Muslims especially, since it bans a core tenet of the faith, to bring the word of Allah to the infidel).

* ShoutOut: The planet orbiting 40 Eridani A is dubbed [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]]. 40 Eri A was the longtime deuterocanonical location of Vulcan and finally canonized in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' several years after ''Star Carrier'' first mentioned the planet.

* AlienLunch: The fifth novel describes how the Grdoch feed. They keep room-sized genetically-engineered food animals aboard their ships, which they feed on by ripping them open, climbing inside, and eating the insides with their many mouths. Since the animals have an amazing HealingFactor and a distributed nervous system, they can probably survive for months despite the daily feedings before expiring. Attempts to put the poor creatures out of their misery fail due to the same distributed nervous system (i.e. no key vital organs to destroy).

The series is pretty crispy mil-SF, probably rating Mohs/OneBigLie on the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness. Spacetime manipulation is about the only really out-there technology and it informs much of the rest.

* FloodedFutureWorld: ClimateChange combined with a couple {{Colony Drop}}s has caused much of the low-lying east coast of North America to become flooded, to the point where it was necessary to move the capital of the [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica United States of North America]] to Columbus, Ohio.

** Due to unspecified reasons, only the USNA appears to field heavy carriers. All other nations only field light carriers as part of their battle groups. In ''Deep Space'', the Paneuropean fleet is actually based around a battleship (since that's where the admiral has his flag before moving it to the ''America''). This is likely a reference to the RealLife situation of the US being the only country to field a large number of supercarriers in its navy. At the same time, in a number of battles, [[spoiler:USNA fighters find themselves overwhelmed by a huge number of Paneuropean fighters]].

* ThirdEye: In ''Stargods'', Gray goes to the crater in the ruins of [[spoiler:Columbus]] and is approached by a young woman who had herself modded with an eye in the middle of her forehead. The eye is entirely cosmetic, as she didn't have the money to have it neurally wired into her brain, but she still thinks is cool. Although Gray notices some redness in the corner and tells her it might be infected. When she propositions him, he feels weird to stare into that eye so close to his face and refuses. [[spoier:The infection later spreads and leads to her death, but she transcends and awakens in the Godstream.]]

** A potentially galaxy-wide apocalypse in ''Bright Light'' [[spoiler:almost happens when the Sh'daar launch a blue giant at the rosette in their own time period in order for it to slam into the rosette in our time period, which would release beyond-supernova-levels of energy, all in the hopes of wiping out the Consciousness. The same explosion also sterilizes their home cluster of all life, so they flee en masse. The Consciousness manages to avert the apocalypse in our time period, but the explosion of the star triggers simultaneous explosions in the rosette, which is how the black holes of the modern rosette end up forming].

* PowerSource: All major human power generation is done using quantum power taps, although fusion reactors are used as well for smaller power requirements. Basically, a single quantum power tap is a pair of microsingularities ([[PoweredByABlackHole tiny black holes]]) that spin around a common center at a high percentage of the speed of light, extracting power from, basically, vacuum. The singularities are kept contained (and away from one another) by a Higgs field. If the field collapses, [[{{Understatement}} bad things happen]]. A single QPT can power a SpaceFighter, but is not nearly enough to power an entire starship, not to mention the Alcubierre drive. This requires the use of phased arrays of [=QPTs=].

* PowerSource: All major human power generation is done using quantum power taps, although fusion reactors are used as well for smaller power requirements. Basically, a single quantum power tap is a pair of microsingularities (tiny blast holes) that spin around a common center at a high percentage of the speed of light, extracting power from, basically, vacuum. The singularities are kept contained (and away from one another) by a Higgs field. If the field collapses, [[{{Understatement}} bad things happen]]. A single QPT can power a SpaceFighter, but is not nearly enough to power an entire starship, not to mention the Alcubierre drive. This requires the use of phased arrays of [=QPTs=].

* ShoutOut: The planet orbiting 40 Eridani A is dubbed [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]]. (For the uninitiated, while no canon ''Franchise/StarTrek'' work has ever flat-out stated that Vulcan orbits 40 Eridani A, that is WordOfGod from Creator/GeneRoddenberry and common in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'', and is supported by mentions of Vulcan's distance from Earth in two ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episodes.)

* HighSpeedMissileDodge: Missiles are [[SuperPersistentMissile pretty darn hard to shake]] (they're flown by {{AI}} and have a huge array of sensors to beat any ECM), so a dodge by itself doesn't work. In fact, it's actually counterproductive since chasing you out of the battlespace is almost as useful as an outright kill. Instead, you use the dodge to lead the missile to where you want it, then dump "sand"[[note]]granules of gravitically compressed lead[[/note]] and let the missile fly into it.

* SuperPersistentMissile: Missiles are stated outright in the very first dogfight of ''Earth Strike'' to be nearly impossible to shake with passive systems such as ECM. They're flown by weak {{AI}}, use a huge variety of sensors to track targets, and can easily out-accelerate any fighter. The only viable countermeasure are active systems. Human and Turusch ships dump "sand" (granules of gravitically compressed lead) into space to serve as a physical barrier or shoot them down with energy weapons, and they're little threat to {{Beam Spam}}mers like the Sora, Slan, and [[spoiler:Sh'daar]].