Phule's Company (series)

Phule's Company is a series of comic military science fiction novels by Robert Asprin, beginning with Phule's Company and ending with Phule's Errand.

The series takes place centuries in the future, where humans and other species have come together to form the Interplanetary Alliance, a federation government of numerous planets. The Alliance's military includes not only the Space Legion, but also the Regular Army and Starfleet. The Space Legion is considered the lowest on the totem pole, and the laughingstock of the armed forces. Space Legion protocol has all persons using a pseudonym chosen upon enlistment, and commissions are purchased. It is a violation of Legion rules to release another Legion member's real name, but not to reveal one's own.

After being court-martialed for inadvertently ordering the strafing of a peace conference, Captain Jester is shipped off to command the Omega Company, a dumping ground for the Legion's foul-ups and misfits. Applying his well honed business sense to the running of the unit, he soon turns it around, winning the almost fanatical loyalty of his troops and turning the "Omega Mob", as it is affectionately nicknamed, into a crack unit. In each book, General Blitzkrieg contrives to send the unit on yet another 'impossible' assignment. They usually manage to come through unscathed.

The names of many in the series are based on puns.

Willard J. Phule is the super-rich heir apparent of Phule-Proof Munitions, currently serving in the Space Legion. His Legion name is Jester, and holds the rank of Captain, being addressed thus as Captain Jester, and occasionally and inappropriately as Captain Phule or Captain Clown. Originally having the Legion name was Lieutenant Scaramouche, Phule was brought up on charges and to be court-martialed for ordering the strafing of a peace conference, owing, as he put it, to a “communications error.”

However, since Phule-Proof is the Legion's arms and munitions supplier as well as the largest employer of their retirees, Headquarters see court-martialing the owner’s son as potentially disastrous. He is instead promoted to the rank of Captain and shipped off Haskin's Planet to command the Omega Company, a dumping ground for the Legion's foul-ups and misfits. It is envisioned that the posting to such an unruly, undesirable outfit may encourage him to resign his commission.

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