Author Feedback: Steve

[Steve]

I had forgotten I'd posted it here as a test, so I had the original version deleted and then re-posted it. The story is done now, the story will be updated daily with the chapters.

[frigidmagi]

... That was a rather brutal chapter. Still we can comfort ourselves somewhat with the knowledge that justice will likely be served out very shortly.

It seems to me that the Orions are underestimating the Alliance reaction to their operations on the one hand, while overestimating the protection the Federation and the Star Empire will give them on the other. I don't imagine the average ADN citizen will take the news all that well or calmly.

[Steve]

Tabri essentially feels that the Syndicate is not something the Alliance can simply use its military power against... and she's partially right. They could use it against Orion itself, however..... its just that Tabri discounts this possibility because the ADN's position in the Triangle seems weak enough that if they were to begin the kind of necessary buildup for such an attack, it might instead trigger the Romulans and/or the UFP to use force to eject the Alliance from the region.

[frigidmagi]

Caught on the civil war and finished the other story. I have to wonder how the various peoples living in the Alliance colonies (now member states) are viewing this. For that matter it seems settled that the average citizen of the Alliance doesn't care for the Federation central government.

There are other powers to consider as well. What are the Gorn, Bajorians, Breen and other minor powers (including the various single episode aliens, like the ones who had raised a human?) thinking and considering doing in this war? The Breen may be still licking their wounds from the domination war, but on the flip side, they may be looking to plant some kicks in the Feddies when they're down. For that matter, all sorts of secondary rebellions could be touched off here, although that is stemmed somewhat by the victories of the central government.

Last thought, wouldn't someone like Napoleon, who rightly or wrongly, overthrew decades and in some cases centuries of traditions and sought to reorder Europe be a figure of some dread to the Talorians? While I would point out that the majority of Napoleon's wars were declared on him by various English funded Coalitions (his invasion of Russian was however all his own idea, as was the intervention into Spain) and his arrangements were set up to create space between France and rather implacable enemies that were around it. England and to a lesser extent the Hapsburgs had made it damn clear they weren't going to stop trying to rip his head off after all.

[frigidmagi]

Huh, this is gonna be an issue later isn't it? The Admirals and the torps left by the magic space logistics fairy I mean.

I can't really blame the colonists for hiring a bunch of Puritans though, their backs are kinda up against the wall.

So when do the Rommies start mucking about? By the way what are the Gorn doing? I don't think they've shown up once in any of your writings.

[Steve]

The Gorn will be heard of eventually, when TGG starts to move parallel to the novel EU.

[frigidmagi]

But I don't like the EU! The Typhon Pact was just dumb.

[Steve]

Well, the Typhon Pact has a much stronger foundation in TGG. It's not about the Tholians organizing a hatefest against the UFP because they're petulant dicks, it's because of how the Fed Civil War ends up and the Alliance's relationship with the result.

That, and this time there was no destabilization of Romulus, so the Romulans are the main power of the Pact, not the Tholians.

[frigidmagi]

There's also the fact that the Typhon Pact doesn't make any sense beyond "We need to get a basass enemy for the Federation to fight!"

Why would the Romulans join an alliance with the Breen? Why do the Tholians suddenly give a shit after over a century of nothing? Why are the Gorn, who have a list of problems with the Tholians willing (for that matter they also have issues with the Romulans and fought against the Breen in the Dominion War!) to join up with them against a major power who has been nothing but helpful? Not to mention it should be the Romulans in the driver's seat!

Frankly the Trek writers fucked this up to hell and back. It should have been the Romulan Empire (the victorious power who suffered the least in the massive Dominion War) jockeying against the Federation, who finds itself having to rebuild entire sectors and keep an exhausted Klingon Empire from falling apart at the seams. A Romulan occupication of the Breen could have and should have been a major plot point!

Now I'll admit a Pact lead by the Romulans as an counter weight to the Alliance would be sensible. After all the ADN is the 800 pound ape in the cage of the Startrek universe at this point. Honestly the Romulans should be playing up to other mutli-versal powers (both monarchies, but drastically different from how the Romulans do business, as from what I can tell the Romulans do not have a noble caste as we would understand it?).

[frigidmagi]

Hey weird question, is Starship Troopers still part of the Great Game multiverse? If so is it the movie version or the book?

[Steve]

In the EU the Romulans weren't in any shape to dominate the Pact when it was formed; Donatra's breakaway Imperial Romulan State had severed key agricultural and industrial worlds from them. The Kinshaya were motivated by their hatred of the Klingons, the Breen by their fear of the powers that beat them and the Dominion, the Tsenkethi by their North Korea-level paranoia of the Federation, and the Gorn due to the loss of one of their major spawning grounds and damage against the Borg (and a change in government back to anti-UFP people IIRC), and the Tholians by the fact that they hated Nan Bacco's heavy-handed behavior during the Borg Cataclysm (like hiring away mercenaries they had intended to use to complement their forces and the way Bacco compelled their support). The Typhon Pact is in fact not very unified and each member has its own agenda and desires; the Tsenkethi even assassinate Tal"Aura and other Romulan figures to maneuver a less-aggressive Praetor into power (which keeps the reunified Romulan Empire from dominating the Pact, since Spock was handed the Idiot Ball and caused the collapse of Donatra's UFP-allied state).

And at this time we do not have Starship Troopers as a listed universe. Honestly I don't want it.

[frigidmagi]

Yeah, I hate the Romulan break up story line so you know there's that.

I could have sworn that Starship troopers was part of the line up long ago, what changed your mind?

[Steve]

It was in the first version of the continuity, but I'm honestly not sure what point they'd have in the setting.

[LadyTevar]

Duplicate post deleted

[frigidmagi]

So if I'm reading this right, you're crossing, Pandora, Wing Commander, Star Trek and the Black Lagoon into a single story? Man you like juggling hand grenades. Still it's interesting, I even understand why the officers assigned were assigned even if it's a questionable decision.

Who are the Erud and the Aligar?

[Steve]

The Erud were a vicious, sadistic alien race of VCG-34. They wiped out Humanity in their universe (or rather Humanity wiped itself out with a bioweapon meant to be a "Taking you BASTARDS with us!" blow) and generally act like Mongols, Nazis, and Evil Fuckers all rolled up into one package of absolute bastardry.

I say were because before the ADN could stomp them (it was a bit busy with the IU War) the Zohan fled from their home universe and one of the largest groups, with the youngest commanders, showed up in VCG-34 at the edge of Erud territory and the territory of another race called the Kalderi that they were conquering one piece at a time, and upon seeing the evil shit the Erud were doing the Zohan teamed up with Kalderi resistance fighters and began wrecking the Eruds' shit. And they were just as nasty, outright wiping out the population of the Erud homeworld and other Erud populations with the full intent of exterminating them as a race.

Enter the ADN: it invades the side of Erud space facing its colonies to secure the area and run into the Zohan/Kalderi, now calling themselves the Stronghold. The resulting conversation was essentially:

Stronghold: "GET OUT OF OUR WAY YOU FUCKERS!"
ADN: "Wow, dude, take a chill pill!"
Stronghold: "We're going to exterminate every one of those raping torturing Erud jerks!"
ADN: "Even the innocent civilians?"
Stronghold: "THERE ARE NO INNOCENT ERUD! ALL MUST DIE!"
ADN: "....uh, no, we can't let you commit genocide. We're not letting you into this area to kill them all."
Stronghold: "Well FUCK YOU THEN YOU CALLOUS DICKS! YOU'LL NOT LIFT A FINGER TO HELP THEIR VICTIMS BUT YOU'LL PROTECT THEM?! YOU FUCKING JERKS! YOU SUCK AND WE HATE HATE HATE YOU, COME ANYWHERE NEAR OUR SPACE AND WE'LL FUCK YOUR SHIT UP!"

So, yes, the Stronghold hates the ADN for the most part, considering them hypocrites who talk about freedom while not doing anything to help the Eruds' victims. Territorial disputes with them will get heated throughout the 2160s. But this story is before the Zohan showed up in the known Multiverse, so the Erud are still around.



As for the Aligar, they're just a reference from the Trek novel "Articles of the Federation". They had resources the UFP desperately needed in the Dominion War, so the UFP plugged their noses and signed a trade agreement even though 90% of the Aligarian population are held as slaves to the other 10%. In the novel newly-elected UFP President Nanietta Bacco addresses the Council when the deal is up for renewal, lecturing them on not renewing it. They don't, but the tone she had of lecturing them pisses of the Council and they put all of her appointments and initiatives into perpetual logjam to show their displeasure.

[frigidmagi]

Ah I see, are the Erud from anywhere or what?

Also, I am enjoying the story so far, although I think there's a bit to much angsting going on (look frankly it's a planet, they should be able to find despoits away from the Giant Smurfs). Also, look I think Dani is a neat character to, but this story is not about Dani. Can we please stop hearing about her every 20 minutes? I mean Christ almighty is every girl gonna be her ex and everyone keep pining for her and going on about how the sex was amazing? It's getting a little awkward Steve.

[Steve]

Part of Rana's character is that she never quite got over her (Dani, OTOH, found someone else and is hurt by that instead), and her personal story in this fic is in part moving on from that. Though from your tone it sounds like you think I'm making every female character linked to her? I mean, I established in 55 Days that Dani had gone out with a woman named Rana, and in the 5th Anniversary Edition of "Anatomy of a War" I introduced Rana in some of the extra material. I'm not sure where you think I'm linking everyone to her?

As for finding deposits away from the Na'vi, that's not so much the issue anymore, but rather that the Na'vi are, well, going to be hostile without some delicate negotiations given what happened in the movie. And there is a deeper issue here that will be explored, with links to.... other arcs of the Multiverse.

[frigidmagi]

The fact that whenever I read this setting Dani is either a main character or comes into discussion? I mean this is just my opinion man, you're the writer so accept or discard as you see fit. Now I actually like Dani, she's a good character but she doesn't need to be everywhere.

As for the Navi. Look they were pretty unreasonable in my view. Not the "Don't mine under our house asshole" part but the fact that they pretty much refused to discuss any mining, anywhere and declared that there wasn't shit Earth could offer them.

Then again I have a dislike of the Navi has they are presented to us as super moral always right blue space elves. So I may not be entirely objective.

[frigidmagi]

Big planet brain doesn't like Trill... Is the humanoid or the worm though that pisses the damn thing off?

[Steve]

The fact that whenever I read this setting Dani is either a main character or comes into discussion? I mean this is just my opinion man, you're the writer so accept or discard as you see fit. Now I actually like Dani, she's a good character but she doesn't need to be everywhere.

If I may, Frig, you may have missed quite a few fics then. Because I know she didn't figure into either of the Stargate-connected fics, nor has she been in Fed Civil War or "Where Trust Lies".

Maybe it's because I used her rather egregiously in the first aborted STGOD? I do admit I went overboard there.

As for the Navi. Look they were pretty unreasonable in my view. Not the "Don't mine under our house asshole" part but the fact that they pretty much refused to discuss any mining, anywhere and declared that there wasn't shit Earth could offer them.

Then again I have a dislike of the Navi has they are presented to us as super moral always right blue space elves. So I may not be entirely objective.

Funny thing is that in watching the movie I didn't see them as "always right", but I suspect that's because I wasn't in Cameron's place. He undoubtedly wanted them to be this pure noble savage race that lives in harmony with nature while we Humans trashed our own world. (Ancillary material depicts Earth as a polluted mess to the point that people can't even be outside with some breathing assistance because the atmosphere is toxic). I saw them as a smug, arrogant culture that were just as close-minded as Selfridge and Quaritch. They refused to recognize any kind of understanding of human culture and ways. The contempt they showed Grace (that whole "cup already full" commentary and such) when she was one of their most passionate advocates was irritating. "She's a scientist and has a rational mind, therefore we don't want to show her how we live!" I saw their entire relationship with Jake as essentially trying to convert him into a Na'vi. They took a crippled, emotionally compromised man and tried to make him one of them.

RDA's behavior was still atrocious, mind you, but the Na'vi were not angels and only hardcore ideologues think so (Or third-worlders that saw the movie as fantasy fulfillment).

Big planet brain doesn't like Trill... Is the humanoid or the worm though that pisses the damn thing off?

Heh heh heh heh heh.....

[frigidmagi]

A good chapter, but commander L is coming off as a bit thick headed. I understand his urgency, but if a Cpl of Marines can understand that shit don't get done in one day, why isn't a guy with a much fancier education grasping that? Besides don't Alliance Navy types operate out beyond the black edge to? Wouldn't he have some training in negotiations? I mean fuck my Company CO got some and he was in charge of a company of lunatic Marines who played with explosives for a living (I never understood that, I mean really what's he gonna do talk the fucking IED's down?).

[Steve]

More like Luwum suspects Picard can and will undermine their mission objective due to his own personal biases. He thought they had the opportunity to get the Na'vi aboard that would have prevented bloodshed, just for Picard to self-righteously ignore it.

[frigidmagi]

An early lockin is more likely to cause buyers remorse. Still, wouldn't be the first time an officer has made a waste of all the resources that went into his training.

[frigidmagi]

I like the conversation between Lee and Picard, that was really well done. Also this situation is getting complicated.

I can see what the company is thinking though, the Alliance and the Federation are unlikely to go looking for more dance partners with their cards so full up as it is. Still bloody risky as the Alliance at least has proven it can and will hold grudges.