The Armageddon Inheritance is a science fiction novel written by David Weber in two books containing a total of 27 chapters. It is the second book in his "Heirs of Empire" trilogy (after Mutineers' Moon, and before Heirs of Empire). Thematically, it forms a duology with Mutineers' Moon; the latter dealt with the suppression of Anu's mutiny as part of the groundwork for repelling the Achuultani assault, whilst Heirs of Empire is more of a stand-alone bildungsroman work concerning survival on a remote planet. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Honor Harrington from Honor Among Enemies cover, by David Mattingly. ... A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature or film, that are connected and can generally be seen as a single work as well as three individual ones. ... Mutineers Moon is a science fiction novel written by David Weber. ... Heirs of Empire is 1996 military science-fiction novel by David Weber. ... Duology also known as dilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature or film, that develop a single theme over two works. ... A bildungsroman (IPA: /, German: novel of education or novel of formation) is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity. ...

Plot summary

Book 1

After the events of Mutineers' Moon, the evil mutineer Anu has been defeated by the warship Dahak, aided by its new captain, Colin MacIntyre. As the highest ranking officer of the Imperium present, MacIntyre had elevated himself to the rank of "Governor of Earth" in order to absolve the loyalist mutineers of their crimes; he then unified the worlds' governments under his authority (backed up by his advanced Imperial armaments and Dahak) and set Horus the task of preparing defenses against the Achuultani scouts, which have been methodically advancing on the Sol system, to the heralds of self-destructing Imperial sensor arrays- giving the frantic defenders under Lieutenant Governor Horus and his assistant, Gerald Hatcher, barely two years to pacify the holdouts to the new world order (such as the Asian Alliance), to modernize the world economy, construct and power a planetary defense shield, as well as construct and train a space fleet and the fortresses on the ground which will support the fleet; and then of course to defeat both the scouts and the main Achuultani incursion. The primary holdout to the military government is the Asian Alliance, a close knit group of all Asian nations except Japan and the Philippines. It is effectively controlled by a Marshal Tsien Tao-ling. who is convinced to join by the obvious military imbalance (the moon having disappeared, and several Middle Eastern nations forcibly disarmed by Imperium technology-equipped troops) and by the promise of considerable local autonomy and control of four seats on the nine-person council advising Horus. Regardless, the military programs soon get underway. The Earth's defenses to withstand the Siege (as the coming attack on Earth is named) consists of front line spaceships, constructing by "orbital industrial units" left behind by Dahak (clanking replicators, in other words); a planetary shield powered by a core tap^[1]; an all backed up by numerous hypermissile launchers built into "Planetary Defense Center"s (topped-off and excavated mountains). Mutineer is an album by American singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, released in 1995. ... Dahak is the name of a planet-sized starship in the Mutineers Moon, the Armageddon Inheritance and Heirs of Empire (all collected in the omnibus volume, Empire from the Ashes) books by David Weber. ... This article needs to be updated. ... In science fiction and fantasy literature, a force field is a physical barrier made up of energy to protect a person or object from attacks or intrusions. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... A clanking replicator is an artificial self-replicating system that relies on conventional large-scale technology and automation. ...

In the meantime, Colin and his new wife, Jiltanith (daughter of Horus), take Dahak and depart for the nearest known Imperial system to seek military aid from the Imperium; little is expected to come of this quest, as Dahak had been attempting to contact the Imperium via his FTL "hypercom", but failing completely. ^[2] Faster-than-light (also superluminal or FTL) communications and travel are staples of the science fiction genre. ...

The first system they arrive at, the Sheskar system, is devoid of life, its inhabited planet shattered to pieces in what apparently was a civil war using gravity warping implosive "gravitonic warheads". Even worse, the system had not been reclaimed by the Imperium as it should have (due to its strategically vital location). Reluctantly, they proceed to Defram, where they find merely two barren orbs. Their next target the planet Keerah in the Kano system; they reason that Defram was simply a Fleet base, and so perhaps a civilian system would have more answers or life. A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. ...

In Keerah, they are attacked by an automated quarantine orbital system; after disabling it, Colin and his crew discover that the dead planet had fallen victim to a horrific biological warfare agent designed to be effective against all forms of life (by rapidly mutating until a successfully lethal form is obtained), which spread throughout the entire Empire (the form of government having changed in the ensuing thousands of years) too quickly to be contained, thanks to widespread use of a teleportation(or "Transmat" as it was known) device. Colin makes the fateful decision to go straight to the Bia system and the planet Birhat- the military and political centers of the Empire. This decision means that it would be impossible for them to return to Earth in time to help defeat the scouts. Quarantine, a medical term (from Italian: quaranta giorni, forty days) is the act of keeping people or animals separated for a period of time before, for instance, allowing them to enter another country. ... Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any pathogen (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation), Lives (disambiguation) or Living (disambiguation), Living Things (disambiguation) Look up life, living in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Teleportation is the (in most respects still fictional) process of moving objects from one place to another more or less instantaneously, without passing through the intervening space. ...

At Birhat, they discover an enormous number of installations in the system, such as a shield which protects not merely the planet of Birhat, but the entire inner system. After successfully picking his way through the perilous labyrinth of "Mother"'s (the master computer overseeing the Fleet and the Bia system) emergency programming, Colin resorts to ordering Mother to implement "Case Omega"- an order which unbeknownst to him, appoints the senior surviving Fleet official and civil servant as Emperor. This unexpected elevation has the happy side-effect of granting Colin control of the Imperial Guard flotilla, 78 planetoids, each vastly more powerful than Dahak(but also much dumber). The crew of Dahak immediately set to work reactivating and repairing the planetoids so they can return to Earth. A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a flota of small ships, and this from French flotte), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. ...

Book 2

Book 2 begins with a different point of view; the subject is now a minor Achuultani tactical officer named Brashieel, attached to the scout forces about to drop out of hyperspace and destroy Earth. However, the Achuultani warships are extremely slow in hyperspace, and the Earth defenders use their several hours of advance notice to prepare an ambush in the outer system. The ambush, while successful (because of the element of surprise and the generally superior Imperial technology), nevertheless sets the tone for the rest of the Siege by being extremely bloody on both sides. A point of view, viewpoint or POV, is the following: On a given topic, a point of view is a cognitive perspective. ...

During the months that Colin's crew in Birhat labor to get the Imperial Guard up and running, the scouts duel the Earth forces, hurling asteroid after asteroid at the shield while whittling down the fortresses and ships, all in preparation for their final blow: hurling the entire moon of Iapetus down the gravity well of Sol at high speed, and aimed directly at Earth. Seven months after the first battle, the "Hoof" (as the Achuultani term their immense kinetic weapon) is about to impact Earth, piercing through the weakened defenders "like a bullet through "butter". At the last moment, the Imperial Guard arrives and as they drop out of hyperspace, blasts the Achuultani escort and the moon into dust using gargantuan gravitonic warheads. 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... Iapetus (eye-ap-ə-təs, IPA , Greek Ιαπετός) is the third-largest moon of Saturn, discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1671. ... Standards Of Learning SOL stands for The Standards Of Learning. ...

Unfortunately, all is not well. Dahak recovers from some wreckage computer records about the main Achuultani force: some 3 million vessels more powerful than the scouting vessels, intended to back up the various scout forces. Somewhat fortunately, this invincible force has divided up into at least two fleets, and so Colin develops a plan to exploit the Enchanach Drive's moderate side-effect of accidentally causing stars to go nova (due to the gravitonic sheer stress of drive activation). With the Imperial Guard, they lay an ambush for the first fleet, having intercepted its courier, and lure it into an otherwise unremarkable star system. There they briefly engage the Achuultani (to ensure they are sucked far enough into the system, past the hyperlimit that they cannot escape, and to gather some more military information); the opposing fleet's having stepped into Colin's "mousetrap", the Enchanach Drives of 8 planetoids simultaneously activate, inducing a supernova which obliterates Sorkar's forces. Artists conception of a white dwarf star accreting hydrogen from a larger companion A nova (pl. ... Shear stress is a stress state where the stress is parallel to a face of the material, as opposed to normal stress when the stress is perpendicular to the face. ... Multiwavelength X-ray image of the remnant of Keplers Supernova, SN 1604. ...

The second trap does not go as well. Like in the first, the Guard ambushes the second force (this time laying a dense field of hypermines, which account for a quarter of the million Achuultani vessels), but some of Sorkar's couriers had escaped and warned Hothan's fleet of the nova trap, so that stratagem was unusable. Instead, Colin traps Hothan's forces in normal space (again, using the Enchanach Drive's side-effect to exploit the hyperdrive's limitation of being unable to work in a sufficiently deep gravity well). With a good deal of luck and a well-timed planetoid assault on the flank, the Achuultani command structure disintegrates and they are routed. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A gravity well is the scientific/science fictional term for the distortion in space-time caused by a massive body such as a planet. ...

Once again, Colin's forces are elated by their success and what they believe to be a crushing victory ending the Achuultani "Great Visit", and once again Dahak discovers ominous news in the wreckage of the Achuultani command ship: the final segment of 200,000 vessels much, more capable than the previous ones, had been held in reserve, and would shortly attack Earth (they having deduced its location from the timing of Colin's attacks) if the Guard did not stop them. The odds are against their depleted, battered ships lacking fresh supplies of hypermines, but they have little choice. The battle goes poorly, and they win thanks only to a suicide plunge by Dahak, in which Dahak hacks into and kills the computer truly in charge of the Great Visit; this is so effective because it had been previously discovered that the explanation for the various Achuultani anomalies (their lack of females, the oddly inconsistent state and stasis of their technology, the reason for the constant war making and hyper-xenophobia etc.) was that their civilization had been decimated millions of years ago, and they had an entrusted to a computer roughly the equal of Dahak the survival of their species; that computer turned out to have the personality flaw of ambition, and deliberately perpetuates the state of war it needs to justify to its programming its continued tyrannical control. With the death of Dahak and BattleComp, the Achuultani fleet panicks, flees, and is destroyed or captured. Look up xenophobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ambition could refer to one of the following: Motivation, especially to improve a situation. ...

As it turns out, Dahak had successfully copied himself to another planetoid, and that is not all: from Earth, a message arrives that Isis Tudor had succeeded in cloning a male Achuultani- the first free male for millions of years. Against this hopeful note and the prospect of a war of liberation to free the rest of the Achuultani from the control of the master computer, the novel ends. A War of Liberation is a conflict which is primarily intended to bring freedom or independence to a nation or group. ...

References

1. '^ "It was Dahaks core tap, a tremendous, immaterial funnel that reached deep into hyper space, connecting the ship to a dimension of vastly higher energy levels. It dragged that limitless power in, focused and refined it, and directed it into the megaton mass of his Enchanach Drive." Pages 42 to 43.
2. ^ "The Imperium proper lay far beyond that, yet despite the distances and the threat sweeping steadily towards his [Colin's] homeworld, they'd had no choice but to come, for only the Imperium might offer the aid they desperately needed to save that homeworld from those oncoming starships....But Dahak had been unable to communicate with the Imperium for over fifty thousand years. What if there no longer was an Imperium?" From page 14 of the Baen Books 1st paperback edition.

• The Armageddon Inheritance, David Weber; first published December 1993 by Baen Books. ISBN 0-671-72197-6