YMMV / Red Metal

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: There is in fact a GRU cyber espionage group nicknamed "Fancy Bear".
• Catharsis Factor: With how much carnage Russia wreaks in its attack on Europe, it can be satisfying to see their forces battered when they try to retreat to Belarus and the difficulties faced by the African contingent of Operation Red Metal.
• One-Scene Wonder: A number of characters have one singular task in the opening stages of Operation Red Metal. They vanish from the narrative as soon as these tasks are complete.
  • The Russian submarine crew's sole task is to sever the transatlantic cables linking the US European and African Commands with their superiors in Washington.
  • The hackers of "Fancy Bear" play no further part in the operation after their initial disruption of NATO's communication networks.
  • Colonel Zolotov is a combination of this and The Ghost. The only time he unequivocally makes an appearance is to destroy a communications satellite; however, "Shank" Vance and his fellow A-10 pilots repeatedly tangle with Su-57s, with the implication that one of them is piloted by Zolotov.
  • The Sea Dragons are a Two Scene Wonder, appearing at the very beginning of the novel to incite tensions between Taiwan and mainland China, and then disappearing until the epilogue, when they reappear as the vanguard of a Chinese invasion force.

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