History Literature / TheIlluminaeFiles

The series chronicles the main characters' attempts to fight against [[MegaCorp =[BeiTech=]]], who attacked the main characters' homes of the [[SingleBiomePlanet ice world Kerenza]], and the [[OurWormholesAreDifferent jump station]] ''Heimdall''. Several parental units and supporting characters are killed, prompting the main characters’ need for [[YouKilledMyFather revenge]].

The series chronicles the main characters' attempts to fight against [[MegaCorp Beitech]], who attacked the main characters' homes of the [[SingleBiomePlanet ice world Kerenza]], and the [[OurWormholesAreDifferent jump station]] ''Heimdall''. Several parental units and supporting characters are killed, prompting the main characters’ need for [[YouKilledMyFather revenge]].

* ArmiesAreEvil: Although the story also focuses on showing their human side (Well, very few of them. Actually only one, Oshiro from Obsidio), the Beitech soldiers are guilty of numerous war crimes, resorting to the defense that they are JustFollowingOrders or making excuses that their crimes are ultimately justified, because the colony was illegal. If they bother to make excuses at all, as most literally revel in their crimes.

* BadassFamily: House of Knives are implied to be this, but we only really see Nik and Ella in action. [[spoiler: The rest suffer from TheWorfEffect, as they are no match for a Beitech hit squad that they were not expecting to find there.]]

** Instead of attempting planetary genocide, Beitech could have simply reported the illegal mining colony to UTA and watched as their competitors paid one fine after another. Kady lampshades this during her debriefing after the initial attack on Kerenza. Even [=BeiTech=] realizes this; the attack was considered a grave mistake and [=BeiTech=]'s director Taylor, who ordered it, was executed shortly after. However, Beitech still attempted to cover everything up by trying to kill everyone even remotely involved, including their own people.

* ChekhovsGunman: The House of Knives. One group of members is introduced at the beginning of ''Gemina'', but most of them suffer from TheWorfEffect when they're ambushed by a Beitech hit squad early in the book. [[spoiler:This comes back to bite Beitech after the events of ''Obsidio'', when the survivors tell the House who murdered their group aboard ''Hemidall.'' The House of Knives avenges their murdered members by name-dropping the Illuminae Group in the right circles to get them hired as a clean-up crew by Beitech. This enables the group's RevealingCoverUp, which sends Beitech down in flames.]]
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: In the first book, it's the ''Lincoln'' and the people who were infected by Phobos. In the second book, it's the lamina and the Beitech team, and in the last book, the main villains are the people on ''Churchill'' and ''Magellan.''

** In ''Obsidio'', Asha is a mere pharmaceutical tech turned nurse, who nonetheless becomes a resistance fighter. Rhys is a member of the Beitech occupation force, stuck in a role he never intended. The two of them were also slightly older than the other four, being at least legal adults at the start of the series.

** The series kicks off with Beitech's [[{{Pun}} hostile takeover]] of WUC's illegal hermium mine on Kerenza IV, including wholesale slaughter of the Kerenza population. [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse]] — during the attack they also released an experimental pathogen that causes even more mass death after the evacuation.
** In Gemina, they're at it again, taking over the Heimdall jump station to prevent the Kerenza survivors from making it back to civilisation to testify against Beitech. Murdering the station commander is only the beginning.

* EveryoneHasStandards: At one point in ''Gemina,'' Hanna strips to her underwear to [[ItMakesSenseInContext avoid being crushed by an elevator]]. The tech who transcribed the footage ([[spoiler:actually Nik]]) outright states that since said underwear was clearly for the benefit of her boyfriend, Jackson Merrick [[spoiler:(actually Sam Maginot, a.k.a. BeiTech agent Rapier)]], he will not describe it.

* HatePlague: The Phobos virus in ''Illuminae'' is a bioweapon Beitech developed and used on Kerenza IV in its genocide of the colony. Initially it was meant only to make its victims compliant, but mutated into turning them into mindless killers driven by fear and hate. And unfortunately, the refugees aboard the ''Copernicus'' were infected...

* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: In ''Illuminae'', Ezra undergoes a pysch eval as part of the UTA's conscription process. Not very impressed with the interviewer, he snarkily asks if the real psychologist died and he's talking to a medical intern or something. Given how many people Beitech just killed? Yeah.
* SearchingTheStalls: In ''Gemina,'' a Beitech soldier enters a bathroom, then spots Nik's jacket and starts looking for him. Nik shoots him in the head over the partition.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Rhys is able to kill 4 other BeiTech soldiers in full combat gear with just a pistol, due to being a technician and knowing the weak spots of their armor.

* ArmiesAreEvil: Although the story also focuses on showing their human side (Well, very few of them. Actually only one, Oshiro from Obsidio), the Beitech soldiers are guilty of numerous [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene war crimes]], resorting to the defense that they are JustFollowingOrders or making excuses that their crimes are ultimately justified, because the colony was illegal. If they bother to make excuses at all, as most literally revel in their crimes.

* Attackitsweakpoint: Rhys is able to kill 4 other BeiTech soldiers in full combat gear with just a pistol, due to being a technician and knowing the weak spots of their armor.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Towards the end of Obsidio, Issac Grant writes messages to the kids. His message to Nik is this, saying that he is proud of the decisions he has made in spite of a world telling him otherwise.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Hanna, Ella, and Kady (pinkhead?).

** Instead of attempting planetary genocide, Beitech could have simply reported the illegal mining colony to UTA and watched as their competitors paid one fine after another (as Kady points out during her debriefing with a UTA officer after the Kerenza attack). Partially subverted, as the attack was considered a grave mistake by [=BeiTech=] and director Taylor, who ordered it, was executed. However, Beitech still attempted to cover everything up by trying to kill everyone even remotely involved, including their own people.

* EveryoneHasStandards: At one point in ''Gemina,'' Hanna strips to her underwear to [[ItMakesSenseInContext avoid being crushed by an elevator]]. The tech who transcribed the footage ([[spoiler:actually Nik]]) outright states that since said underwear was clearly for the benefit of her boyfriend, Jackson Merrick[[spoiler: (actually Sam Maginot, a.k.a. BeiTech agent Rapier)]], he will not describe it.

** There is also a bit of this element with General Torrance and his increasingly totalitarian approach to running the fleet of escaping Kerenza refugees, resorting to conscripting literally anyone who has useful skills, [[spoiler: eventually doing so at gunpoint.]] Though he is at least somewhat more justified by his desperate circumstances, being pursued by a superior enemy warship after having suffered massive damage and lost much of his original crew.

** There is also a bit of this element with General Torrance and his increasingly totalitarian approach to running the fleet, resorting to conscripting literally anyone who has useful skills, eventually doing so at gunpoint. Though he is at least somewhat more justified by his desperate circumstances, being pursued by a superior enemy warship after having suffered massive damage and lost much of his original crew.