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Military Science Fiction is a subgenre of both Science Fiction and Military Fiction, commonly sliding into the Space Opera territory. At its most basic, Military Science Fiction is Science Fiction that focuses on the military, but the genre has more specific nuances than that.
The Protagonist in this genre is normally part of the chain of command (or becomes part of it in progress), while an ensemble cast is The Squad. The story is usually set against the backdrop of a large-scale (space) war but war is optional. Instead, the story may focus on a Space Cadet Academy or a beleaguered garrison on a Bleak Border Base.
The Science Fiction part mostly manifests in futuristic weaponry and vehicles (first of all, Cool Starships), while the organization structure is mostly based upon contemporary US or Commonwealth military. It should come as no surprise that a high percentage of MSF writers are military veterans. The important role of veterans in writing serious MSF explains why MSF differs from Space Opera, even those Space Operas that focus on huge intergalactic wars. Whereas MSF tends to have a more accurate depiction of military chains of command and strategic doctrine, in Space Opera, the depiction of battles tends to be more about visually exciting spectacle and Rule of Cool.
Often, writers cheat a little by having a Mildly Military organization instead of realistic military for the sake of good story. One particular subgenre of MSF in Video Games is A Space Marine Is You. Another that's especially particular (but by no means exclusive) to anime is the Real Robot Genre. Military Fantasy is a sister genre that focuses on armies and navies in fantasy settings.
The acronym MSF may also refer to Mundane Science Fiction, a generally unrelated genre of sci fi.
Tropes commonly used in MSF (in addition to most Military and Warfare Tropes):
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier
- Air Jousting
- Alien Invasion
- Anti-Orbital Gun
- Apocalypse How
- Arm Cannon
- Attack Drone (rapidly becoming Truth in Television)
- Bleak Border Base (if on another planet or moon)
- Boarding Party
- Boarding Pod
- Bug War
- Clone Army
- Death Ray
- Drop Pod
- Drop Ship
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom
- Escape Pod
- Explosive Bullets
- Exposed Starship Bridge
- Forgotten Superweapon
- Galactic Conqueror
- Humans Are Warriors
- Humongous Mecha
- The Hive
- Hyperspace Arsenal
- Killer Robot
- Kill Sat
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better
- Knights in Powered Armor
- Magnetic Weapons
- A Mech by Any Other Name
- Military Superhero
- Mini-Mecha
- Nuke 'Em
- Ye Olde Nuclear Silo
- Person of Mass Destruction
- Planet Baron
- Plasma Cannon
- Powered Armor
- Power Harness
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
- Psychic Operative
- Putting on the Reich
- Real Robot Genre
- Robot Soldier
- Robot War
- Rock Beats Laser
- Sapient Tank
- Scientist vs. Soldier
- Soviet Superscience
- Space Battle
- Space Cadet
- Space Cadet Academy
- Space Fighter
- Space Marine
- A Space Marine Is You
- Space Navy
- Spider Tank
- Standard Sci-Fi Army
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet
- Standard Starship Scuffle
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler
- Super Robot Genre
- Super-Soldier
- War from Another World
- The War of Earthly Aggression
Works with notable Military Science Fiction elements include:
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Anime and Manga
- Aldnoah.Zero
- AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline
- Argento Soma
- Argevollen
- Armored Trooper VOTOMS
- Arpeggio of Blue Steel
- Assault Lily: Bouquet
- Blue Submarine No. 6
- Flag
- Ghost in the Shell
- Grey
- Guilty Crown
- Gundam
- Gundam Evolve
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
- Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
- Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight AXIS
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00
- Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Rebellion
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
- Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel
- Mobile Suit Gundam F91
- Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
- Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
- ∀ Gundam
- Gundam Sentinel
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash
- Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
- Gunslinger Girl
- Hero Organization
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, which takes the franchise's Gundam influences to its logical conclusion as the title character grows up to become a captain in Mid-Childa's military.
- Martian Successor Nadesico
- Neon Genesis Evangelion, though less so when the Alien Invasion premise began to play second fiddle to the psychology and introspection.
- Red Eyes
- Robotech
- Robotech II: The Sentinels
- Scarlet Nexus
- Special Armored Battalion Dorvack
- Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry
Comic Books
Fan Works
- Advice and Trust
- Children Of Evangelion
- The Coming of the First Ones
- A Crown of Stars
- Evangelion 303
- Evangelion: A New Awakening
- EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry
- EVA Sessions: You Can (Never) Trust
- The Gospel Of Malachel
- From Harvest to the Ark
- HERZ
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide
- Redemption Song
- Rise of the Minisukas
- To the Stars
- To You, My Love, Forever Ago
- Hunters of Death
- Star Wars: Rico's Brigade
- The Price of Flight note
- Through a Temple
- Tiberium Wars
- United We Stand
- You Are (Not) At Fault
Film — Animated
Film — Live-Action
- Aliens
- Battleship (2012)
- Battle: Los Angeles
- The Creator (2023)
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Ghost in the Shell (2017)
- The Gladiators
- Independence Day
- Man of Steel
- Outside the Wire
- Robowar
- Sleep Dealer
- Soldier
- Spectral
- Starship Troopers, where the main character is a Marine recruit, and the SF parts are the Powered Armor and who the enemy is (and how they get to the battlefields, but that's a minor part)
- The Tomorrow War
- Transformers Film Series
- Universal Soldier
- War Dog
- War Machine (2026)
Literature
- 86 -EIGHTY SIX-
- The Adventures of Stefón Rudel
- Aeon 14 by M.D. Cooper
- Alexis Carew by J.A. Sutherland
- All You Need Is Kill
- Antares by Michael McCollum
- Area 51 by Bob Mayer
- Armor by John Steakley
- Ascent to Empire
- Ashes of Empire series, buy Eric Thomson.
- Ball Lightning
- Bolo series, originally by Keith Laumer
- Castle Federation by Glynn Stewart
- The Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson, notably Dorsai! and Tactics of Mistake.
- Cilva
- The CoDominium series is the best-known of Jerry Pournelle's works, but is hardly the only example of the exquisitely well-researched military SF he writes. His bibliography also includes the lesser-known but no-less loved Janissaries series, co-authored with Roland Green.
- The Cobra Trilogy
- Combatants Will Be Dispatched!
- Confederation of Valor by Tanya Huff.
- The Conquerors Trilogy.
- The Chronicles Of Old Guy features a society of intelligent super-tanks a la 'Bolo'' and the adventures of one amongst their number, "Old Guy".
- David Drake does quite a bit of MilSF. Like with Ringo, below, he's also written in the Honor Harrington series (Drake's Honorverse short story "A Grand Tour" influenced what became the RCN series, with the dashing Captain and his librarian from Hell friend/sidekick as the primary focus). Notable Drake series (an incomplete listing):
- Belisarius Series.
- The Citizen Series, with John Lambshead
- The General Series
- Hammer's Slammers
- Ranks of Bronze
- RCN
- Redliners
- Combat K Series
- Death's Head series by David Gunn
- Demon Four
- Dirigent Mercenary Corps by Rick Shelley
- The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook
- Dread Empire's Fall Trilogy, by Walter Jon Williams
- Embedded, by Dan Abnett
- The Ember War Saga by Richard Fox
- Encryption Straffe
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
- Expeditionary Force
- The Extinction Cycle by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
- First Colony
- The Flight Engineer
- The Forever War
- The Four Horsemen Universe
- Frontlines
- Full Metal Panic!
- Galactic Marines series
- The Galaxy on Fire series, by Joe Kassabian:
- The Genesis Fleet
- Genocidal Organ
- Heavy Object
- Hellburner by C. J. Cherryh focuses on a moderately realistic Space Fighter and its crew.
- The Helmsman Saga.
- Here Be Dragons by Craig Alan
- The History of the Galaxy series by Andrey Livadny. Most books deal with fights between human governments, factions, corporations as well as against aliens. Most protagonists tend to be members of the military (usually the Confederate fleet).
- I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter (the actual story, not the meme)
- Interstellar Gunrunner
- Interstellar Patrol
- Known Space: The Man-Kzin Wars series.
- Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd
- Tom Kratman's MilSF works, in addition to his work in Legacy of the Aldenata:
- The Lacuna series by David Adams is basically this.
- The Lensman series, by E. E. "Doc" Smith, is mostly about the adventures of individual Lensmen, but it also features major military actions involving enormous starship formations (usually laden with an overexuberant description of the scale of energies being hurled back-and-forth).
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- The Last Hunter by JN Chaney and Terry Mixon
- The Lost Fleet series
- Lucifer's Star by C.T. Phipps combines this with Space Opera — a story of The Empire's best pilot after his side loses.
- The Machineries of Empire
- The Mako Saga
- Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse
- The Nameless War trilogy by Edmond Barrett
- New Kashubia Series
- Christopher Nuttall:
- The Occupation Saga: A Porn with Plot Work Com starring a human from Vichy Earth who is conscripted into the occupying aliens' Space Marine corps.
- Old Man's War
- The Osmerian Conflict
- Poor Man's Fight
- Primitive War
- Rebuild World, featuring Private Military Contractors called "Hunters" in a Cyberpunk setting.
- Remember To Always Be Brave
- Resident Evil
- John Ringo's writing currently spans multiple genres, but he started his literary career writing Military Science Fiction. The MilSF works:
- Council Wars
- Into the Looking Glass
- Prince Roger series (aka Empire of Man, co-written with David Weber)
- Legacy of the Aldenata
- Troy Rising
- Schwarzesmarken
- Seafort Saga
- Shadow Ops
- Siobhan Dunmoore
- Sixth Column
- Space Academy by C.T. Phipps is an Affectionate Parody of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction with a Ragtag Band of Misfits In Space.
- Space Force (2018) by Jeremy Robinson is an Affectionate Parody of big budget America Saves the Day movies.
- Spots the Space Marine
- Star Carrier
- Starfist
- Starship Troopers
- Star Wars Legends: Several series in focus in particular detail on the regular militaries of the Republics and the Empire:
- The Black Fleet Crisis: The A-plot deals with a conflict between the New Republic and the Duskhan League, an alien polity on its coreward border, with the newly created NRDF Fifth Battle Group front-and-center.
- Republic Commando Series: Stars clone commandos of the Grand Army of the Republic during the clone wars, along with their Mandalorian and Jedi allies.
- The Thrawn Trilogy: Primarily the Empire, in the person of Grand Admiral Thrawn and his flag captain Gilad Pellaeon and their subordinates. The regular New Republic Defense Force is somewhat Out of Focus.
- X-Wing Series: Ten novels with New Republic starfighter pilots of two different special operations groups in the starring role.
- Starship Operators
- Solar Warden
- The Sten series, written by two men who are (respectively) ex-CIA and ex-military, craft a very cool saga about a Space Marine who eventually graduates into an Ambadassador.
- Stone King
- Takeshi Kovacs series, particularly Broken Angels.
- The Tau Ceti Agenda Series, by Travis S. Taylor
- Theirs Not to Reason Why by Creator/Jean Johnson is a rare example with a female protagonist and an abundance of women in the supporting cast.
- Tour of the Merrimack, a series by R. M. Meluch
- Uller Uprising: Humans ("Terrans") fight to put down an uprising of "natives" on the planet Uller.
- Valhalla by Ari Bach features a chapter in the military of 2230 and eleven more chapters in a pseudo-military more militaristic than the main military.
- VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens
- Vatta's War: Kylara Vatta is kicked out of her homeworld's Military Academy but is then forced to build a militia to fight Space Pirates who are attempting to take over the galaxy.
- Vatta's Peace: The After Show.
- Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War, by military theorist William S. Lind, is a near-future example, following an ex-Marine staff officer and military consultant through several wars between various of the Divided States of America in the 2030s.
- Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold, has many elements of this, though it varies from book to book.
- Warhammer 40,000: Very much so when the Imperial Guard or Imperial Navy are the lead characters, not so much the Space Marines (who behave more as religious knights).
- Worldwar
- The War Against the Chtorr novels by David Gerrold.
- David Weber's work is primarily in this genre, though he has written pure fantasy works. The MilSF works:
- Empire from the Ashes
- Hell's Gate
- Honor Harrington
- Manticore Ascendant, a Spin-Off prequel series of Honor Harrington co-written by Timothy Zahn.
- Out of the Dark
- Safehold
- The four Starfire novels with Steve White (Crusade, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection).
- Who Needs Men? sees a high-tech Lady Land fighting a Vietnam-like war against guerrillas from a more normal, but primitive society.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5 had its fair share of various nasty conflicts:
- Crusade (1999), spinoff series to Babylon 5, and whose Troubled Production is the stuff of legends.
- Battlestar Galactica
- "Men Against Fire", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.
- Kamen Rider Build
- SeaQuest DSV
- Star Trek is an unusual case in that, while it does include a great deal of MSF tropes, the main focus of the franchise is on peaceful exploration, diplomacy, and utopianism, with actual space warfare being more of an afterthought depending on the writer and series.
- Deep Space Nine has a major war between the Federation and the Dominion as one of its two Myth Arcs, with much of the first five seasons being a Space Cold War before the conflict turns hot for the remainder of the show's run.
- Enterprise's third season follows a mission to save Earth from the Xindi following an unprovoked attack on Florida and Venezuela. Notably, this season has a company of Space Marines join the crew, causing friction with the Mildly Military Starfleet personnel.
- Discovery's first season is set amid a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
- Space: Above and Beyond
Tabletop Games
- AT-43
- BattleTech
- And by extension, the BattleTech Expanded Universe.
- Beyond the Gates of Antares
- Konflikt 47
- Laserburn
- Mutant Chronicles
- Planet Mercenary
- Traveller RPG series. A large part of it has to do with the military aspects.
- Warhammer 40,000, and most of its spin-off literature, notably Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain.
Video Games
- Agent Armstrong
- Alien: Some works, especially those influenced by Aliens, which will have you inevitably taking the role of the iconic Colonial Marines.
- Arknights
- Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.
- Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
- Assault Retribution
- Azure Striker Gunvolt Series
- Battlezone (1998) and Battlezone II
- Battlefield 2142
- The BattleTech video game series:
- Biolab Wars
- Bloody Wolf
- C-12: Final Resistance
- Call of Duty: while the series is largely historical or modern, some installments feature futuristic elements like doomsday weapons (from Kill Sats to bio-engineered plagues), exosuits, fully automated robot armies, cyborgs, railguns, zombies, and even aliens
.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III: also an example of Cyberpunk.
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare: the best example of these, as it has all of the above plus space warfare with the plot concerning a war between human-colonized Mars and Earth.
- Cloud Cutter
- Command & Conquer:
- The Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series drifts in this direction, beginning 20 Minutes in the Future and ending with all manner of sci-fi trappings.
- The Command & Conquer: Red Alert Series is Denser and Wackier than Tiberian, focusing on a world altered by time traveling.
- The Contra series. At first it isn't assumed to have sci-fi elements, but the plot involves an alien invasion.
- COUNTER:SIDE
- Crysis
- Deep Freeze
- Defenders Of Ekron
- Demon Front
- Dolphin Blue
- DUST 514, a Gaiden Game of EVE Online whose backstory has capsuleer technology applied to Powered Armor instead of starships.
- Einhänder
- Empire Earth, in the later epochs.
- Fallout
- First Encounter Assault Recon
- Fracture
- Front Mission
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel
- The Gears of War games, books, and comics.
- Ghost in the Shell: First Assault Online
- Girl Café Gun
- Girls' Frontline
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE
- GunForce
- Half-Life
- Halo
- Hard Edge
- Heavy Weapon is a more humorous, cartoony take on the genre.
- Helldivers
- Helldivers II
- Honkai Impact 3rd
- Iji
- Instinct
- Intrusion 2
- Iron Meat
- Iron Marines
- Killzone
- Kreed
- Madspace To Hell And Beyond
- Marfusha: Sentinel Girls
- Mass Effect
- Mecha BREAK
- Mercs of Boom
- Metal Gear is a series of stealth-action games that revolve around military espionage and geopolitical conflicts in modern-day Earth, so there are no aliens or spaceships. But it does involve genetically-engineered clones and mutant/cyborg soldiers, rogue computers and weaponized robots, oh and of course the titular bipedal walking tanks of the same name.
- Metal Slug. While the series doesn't start off as sci-fi, it becomes this in later sequels, which involve alien invasions and future soldiers.
- Metal Slug: Awakening — 2021 3D-remake of the above
- Metroid, occasionally. Samus is established as having been in the Galactic Federation Army, and Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Metroid: Other M feature GF soldiers and marines as characters.
- Onslaught (2009)
- Operation: Matriarchy
- Out Zone
- Project Nimbus
- Quake
- Quantum Theory
- Resistance
- Scarlet Nexus
- Section 8 series
- Scorpion: Disfigured
- Shadow Complex
- Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, while still a JRPG like the rest of the series, ditches the Urban Fantasy and Coming of Age elements in favor of Space Marines from 20 Minutes into the Future exploring an alternate dimension infested with angels and demons.
- Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2
- Snowbreak: Containment Zone
- Space Beast Terror Fright
- Space Debris
- Space Rangers
- StarCraft
- Star Wars video games
- Star Wars: Battlefront (and sequels/reboots)
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Star Wars: Republic Commando
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars: X-Wing (and sequels)
- Starsiege, and its pre-/sequels.
- Starship Troopers: Terran Command
- Star Citizen, chiefly the "Squadron 42" storyline section.
- Steam Slug
- Steel Battalion
- Steel Harbinger
- Super Cyborg
- Templar Battleforce
- Terrawars: New York Invasion
- Time Crisis, especially the second game which involves trying to stop a Kill Sat.
- Titanfall
- Ubersoldier
- ''Universe at War'
- United Galaxy Space Force
- Vivisector: Beast Within
- War Front: Turning Point, Alternate History World War II with futuristic weapons
- WarGames Defcon 1
- The X-COM series, which has you commanding a multinational military force to combat alien invaders.
- Xenonauts
Web Animation
- The Furry Crusades
- Project Morningstar
- Red vs. Blue
- Space King
- Starship Regulars is an Affectionate Parody of the genre.
Webcomics
- Schlock Mercenary; while the main cast is a complement of Mercenaries, they tend to become more organized as the stories progress and move away from the Gag-A-Day format. Also, various governmental militaries have been featured, either as background/secondary characters, or as the people hiring the main characters.
- Star Fighter is an erotic romance between soldiers on a Space Navy, who are engaged in a war against the Insectoid Aliens the Colterons. In addition to the romance plot, the story also deals with the tide of war and political machinations within the miliatary hierarchy.
- Terra Incognita (2023): A member of the unified earth's Marines defects when recruited to La Résistance by a defector of the alien military locked in a Forever War with Earth.
- XRS A military sci fi webcomic about a deadly new super-weapon.
Web Video
Western Animation
- Beast Wars
- Exo Squad
- Evil Con Carne
- "War Is the H-Word" is an episode of Futurama that parodies various war movie tropes, with Fry and Bender joining Earth's military just to get a store discount on chewing gum, only to be deployed to another planet to fight a pointless war against a species of ball-shaped aliens.
- Any episode with General Zapp Brannigan will involve some sort of humorous militaristic misadventures in space. And the overall Futurama show really likes to parody both Star Trek and Star Wars.
- Invasion America
- Lightyear
- Some episodes of Love, Death & Robots, such as:
- Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
- Shadow Raiders
