@wombat140 - I enjoyed the piece. It feels very solid - 'good riddance' made me think possibly you're worried it's rushed but it did not feel that way to me.
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
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My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
I forgot that I hadn't already said this: thank you all very much for your lovely comments! I was worried - you know how it is, you can't tell whether something's any good without showing it to someone else, especially as I'd never shown anyone an ST one before. Glad to know I'm basically getting something right.
Well, both rushed and not rushed enough - I'd done what I always do, I'd completed what looked like nine-tenths of it, and then got completely stuck on dotting the final few i's and gone over and over it for days until I was sick of the sight of it and sure that I was just making it worse now, so I just wanted to get the darn thing out of the house at all costs! Seems I made the right call there.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Never would've guessed who would come swooping in to save the day, but they do have a proven track record all right! Good work.
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Never would've guessed who would come swooping in to save the day, but they do have a proven track record all right! Good work.
Well, I was trying to pull the old Star Trek writing trick where you've got two plots running in an episode and one plot ends up solving the other plot. Also, I really didn't like the official resolution to the Vaad plot in-game where Eldex turns on the Alliance offscreen after Gaul is taken out (stated in exposition in "Dust to Dust"). Like the Romulan Republic/Star Empire peace deal Worffan and I wrote, I preferred a world where saner heads prevailed and all we went through in-game actually paid off in the end with peace.
Basically, the idea is, if Eldex is smart enough to see that bluegill control of the Supremacy is not in their best interests, then he's smart enough to see that the Vaadwaur can't win unless they get somebody else to back them up. Just like the Borg, they've pissed off too many people: the Beta Quadrant, the Delta Alliance states, the Voth, and so on. And unlike the Borg, they're really short on population: I guesstimated 200,000 people back in part I (how many cryo vaults can they realistically have?), but anyway, while a Manasa-class escort is officially a 150-man ship, the Vaads are most likely running on a skeleton crew to have as many ships as they do, and invading the Kobali likely tied up a lot of their ground forces, who now can't even evacuate with the Alliance in control of space.
So he needs to make peace: it's not just about national sovereignty anymore, it's a matter of survival as a species. And what better way to show you're serious about making peace then to send a fleet to pull your enemy's TRIBBLE out of the fire?
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
That said, I can understand Eldex' thinking and why he would initially turn on the Alliance: their continued support of the Kobali might make him feel that he was just a convenient tool for them (or in the "Blood of Dragons" continuity, the idea that Berat deserved personal respect but not the Alliance since Berat was unable to command their foreign policy, only act on it as a high-ranking soldier). I like the idea of having him eventually come around (again), but I can see where his emotional reaction was coming from before that.
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That said, I can understand Eldex' thinking and why he would initially turn on the Alliance: their continued support of the Kobali might make him feel that he was just a convenient tool for them (or in the "Blood of Dragons" continuity, the idea that Berat deserved personal respect but not the Alliance since Berat was unable to command their foreign policy, only act on it as a high-ranking soldier). I like the idea of having him eventually come around (again), but I can see where his emotional reaction was coming from before that.
I actually initially just assumed he renewed his attack on Kobali Prime because the mess with the duplicate Harry Kim and Ens. Ballard made them think the Vaads in the cryo vault were waking up. One of the things that makes Gaul attractive as a villain up until you find out about the bluegills is his (seeming) loyalty to his troops, Evil Virtues and so forth. I was told about the "yeah, he turned on us offscreen after you left" bit after the fact and still haven't actually found the line, which, if it's that easily missable it just makes it come off as a cheap cop-out to create a recurring baddie (like Cryptic keeps doing with Her Royal Sociopathy).
Changing the subject, what do you guys think of my use of the Borg in this story? One of the things I was trying to do was try and bring back some of the menace they had before VOY wrecked them by having a medium cruiser swatting cubes left and right by itself.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
I think the actual line according to the Wiki states that Eldex "has not been cooperative" with the Alliance. That doesn't necessarily mean he's going out of his way to antagonize them completely or indicate an outright war like before--but I'd suspect that "uncooperative" means unwilling to settle for lesser terms regarding the Kobali than complete surrender of all captive Vaadwaur. And if the Alliance isn't allowing that...well...I can easily see why Eldex would be giving less than his full cooperation if that is what he feels he must do. For me, that was part of why I chose to portray Eldex as someone who--while it wouldn't necessarily be visible to someone besides another Vaadwaur, or a Cardassian--is rather conflicted. Torn between his personal reservations, and identification with Berat, and his sense of anger at what was done to his people...and yes, his totalitarian indoctrination. That's not something I saw settling out quickly.
(And for that particular continuity, in a position of wanting to help Admiral Berat personally but having little to no respect for anyone else affiliated with the Alliance. Which again goes back to why it was such a shame that the Cardassians made such poor choices before and during the Dominion War--had they been a free...and non-totalitarian...power, I think that they could have successfully negotiated with the Vaadwaur where no other AQ power could.)
And yeah, it's definitely left up in the air as to whether the Borg are going to get a massive upgrade if One takes over...
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Regarding what the Borg did to that planet, one wonders if the assimilation virus seen in some of the episodes and STF's was an attempt at something similar, and whether it could succeed...
I hope that Imberia isn't allowed on field ops again after that. While she is clearly brilliant, the captain's assessment about lacking foresight (not to mention any compassion or understanding of the impact her choices have on other people) is accurate. She's obviously a danger to herself and others. I can imagine my Cdr. Redmond pulling that line out, easily.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Regarding what the Borg did to that planet, one wonders if the assimilation virus seen in some of the episodes and STF's was an attempt at something similar, and whether it could succeed...
I hope that Imberia isn't allowed on field ops again after that. While she is clearly brilliant, the captain's assessment about lacking foresight (not to mention any compassion or understanding of the impact her choices have on other people) is accurate. She's obviously a danger to herself and others. I can imagine my Cdr. Redmond pulling that line out, easily.
Who knows! I still think the Borg are some of the most interesting antagonists in the Star Trek universe, especially when it comes to things like the assimiliation virus, their origin story (stories? since there's more than one) etc.
Yeah you're definitely right with that, I'm thinking the next time I'll include her in a piece it will have to involve some serious consequences. And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't get away with most of this stuff on other ships! But I think I'm done with Borg plots for a while now
jonnaroslyn: Well, you have a free plot idea then, Imberia getting into trouble about what happened on that mission.
Yeah, just imagine the friction if Captain Roslyn refused to support Imberia just because of family ties (which I've always thought was a sorry excuse for covering up for crimes anyway)...
Where do we post ideas for future prompts? I can't find the suggestions thread.
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And yes, after reading the incident itself, I think Captain Roslyn might well be appearing as witness for the prosecution - if indeed she didn't file the complaint herself!
@gulberat@wombat140 Ooh you're giving me ideas!! (it's Admiral Roslyn, by the way)
Sorry about the rank! Though if you want to be really technical, "captain" is a title all CO's have regardless of rank.
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@grylak - Although not a fan of temporal shenanigans, I'm enjoying the way you are handling this situation. This was a good post to show how those affected are handling it.
Thanks. I try to keep time travel simple and not over use it. And if a reset button is pushed, I try to have it so at least someone from the original timeline is carried through so those original stories still have relavance. Needless to say, this is a scar Talaina and Ttorkkinn will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
*******************************************
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
@starswordc - Nice 2-parter. It was easy to connect with the characters here and Tovan was wonderfully out-of-place. I've been stuck on this LC and the entries so far have been inspirational. Thank you
@hawku001x - Another fun read! Having a child at 4.5 years old, the last part when Samya was leaving was particularly entertaining. "Kid-powered-enthusiasm" indeed!
@hawku001x - Another fun read! Having a child at 4.5 years old, the last part when Samya was leaving was particularly entertaining. "Kid-powered-enthusiasm" indeed!
Haha. Thanks! After writing that, I sort of started imagining a spin-off series, in my head, of Yori and Diggs going off into space and having adventures together-- with Yori being the dominant one, and Diggs being a sort of guardian/escort for her. (I allude to it in the next LC)
@grylak, thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate your kind words. The song really helped to inspire it. It was the first music I thought of as soon as I went back in time to Iconia when playing "Midnight" the first time. A lot of pain and loss there to work with.
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@westmetals - Captain Summers' movie choice needs to be rethought! I mean, they're "okay" movies, but there are way Way WAY better. IMO.
@artan42 - La'ox concerns seemed all over the map to me. I think Morgrin could/should have focused her attention. In the end, for a Klingon, he was right.
@marcusdkane - Man, that was one hell of a way to dodge a bullet. Well done.
My only question on the piece (and it is nice, thoughtful and reflective) - is how long has it been since Kathryn had the chance for her ritual. Or maybe not so much question as worry for Kathryn, that's a big proportion of an Excelsior's crew.
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Comments
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Well, both rushed and not rushed enough - I'd done what I always do, I'd completed what looked like nine-tenths of it, and then got completely stuck on dotting the final few i's and gone over and over it for days until I was sick of the sight of it and sure that I was just making it worse now, so I just wanted to get the darn thing out of the house at all costs! Seems I made the right call there.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Well, I was trying to pull the old Star Trek writing trick where you've got two plots running in an episode and one plot ends up solving the other plot. Also, I really didn't like the official resolution to the Vaad plot in-game where Eldex turns on the Alliance offscreen after Gaul is taken out (stated in exposition in "Dust to Dust"). Like the Romulan Republic/Star Empire peace deal Worffan and I wrote, I preferred a world where saner heads prevailed and all we went through in-game actually paid off in the end with peace.
Basically, the idea is, if Eldex is smart enough to see that bluegill control of the Supremacy is not in their best interests, then he's smart enough to see that the Vaadwaur can't win unless they get somebody else to back them up. Just like the Borg, they've pissed off too many people: the Beta Quadrant, the Delta Alliance states, the Voth, and so on. And unlike the Borg, they're really short on population: I guesstimated 200,000 people back in part I (how many cryo vaults can they realistically have?), but anyway, while a Manasa-class escort is officially a 150-man ship, the Vaads are most likely running on a skeleton crew to have as many ships as they do, and invading the Kobali likely tied up a lot of their ground forces, who now can't even evacuate with the Alliance in control of space.
So he needs to make peace: it's not just about national sovereignty anymore, it's a matter of survival as a species. And what better way to show you're serious about making peace then to send a fleet to pull your enemy's TRIBBLE out of the fire?
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I actually initially just assumed he renewed his attack on Kobali Prime because the mess with the duplicate Harry Kim and Ens. Ballard made them think the Vaads in the cryo vault were waking up. One of the things that makes Gaul attractive as a villain up until you find out about the bluegills is his (seeming) loyalty to his troops, Evil Virtues and so forth. I was told about the "yeah, he turned on us offscreen after you left" bit after the fact and still haven't actually found the line, which, if it's that easily missable it just makes it come off as a cheap cop-out to create a recurring baddie (like Cryptic keeps doing with Her Royal Sociopathy).
Changing the subject, what do you guys think of my use of the Borg in this story? One of the things I was trying to do was try and bring back some of the menace they had before VOY wrecked them by having a medium cruiser swatting cubes left and right by itself.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
(And for that particular continuity, in a position of wanting to help Admiral Berat personally but having little to no respect for anyone else affiliated with the Alliance. Which again goes back to why it was such a shame that the Cardassians made such poor choices before and during the Dominion War--had they been a free...and non-totalitarian...power, I think that they could have successfully negotiated with the Vaadwaur where no other AQ power could.)
And yeah, it's definitely left up in the air as to whether the Borg are going to get a massive upgrade if One takes over...
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I finished! I can't believe it.
I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions on the ending, because damn that took forever to write...
Characters are here:
and here.
Enjoy!
Regarding what the Borg did to that planet, one wonders if the assimilation virus seen in some of the episodes and STF's was an attempt at something similar, and whether it could succeed...
I hope that Imberia isn't allowed on field ops again after that. While she is clearly brilliant, the captain's assessment about lacking foresight (not to mention any compassion or understanding of the impact her choices have on other people) is accurate. She's obviously a danger to herself and others. I can imagine my Cdr. Redmond pulling that line out, easily.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Nice finale - very dramatic! I enjoyed the piece.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Who knows! I still think the Borg are some of the most interesting antagonists in the Star Trek universe, especially when it comes to things like the assimiliation virus, their origin story (stories? since there's more than one) etc.
Yeah you're definitely right with that, I'm thinking the next time I'll include her in a piece it will have to involve some serious consequences. And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't get away with most of this stuff on other ships! But I think I'm done with Borg plots for a while now
Thank you! Glad to hear you liked it
Where do we post ideas for future prompts? I can't find the suggestions thread.
Yeah, just imagine the friction if Captain Roslyn refused to support Imberia just because of family ties (which I've always thought was a sorry excuse for covering up for crimes anyway)...
Here you go: http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1142437/player-lc-submission-ideas#latest
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And yes, after reading the incident itself, I think Captain Roslyn might well be appearing as witness for the prosecution - if indeed she didn't file the complaint herself!
@gulberat @wombat140 Ooh you're giving me ideas!!
Sorry about the rank! Though if you want to be really technical, "captain" is a title all CO's have regardless of rank.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Haha. Thanks! After writing that, I sort of started imagining a spin-off series, in my head, of Yori and Diggs going off into space and having adventures together-- with Yori being the dominant one, and Diggs being a sort of guardian/escort for her. (I allude to it in the next LC)
@gulberat - There are head-spinning ideas here. This is a beautiful piece. Thank you for the words.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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@artan42 - La'ox concerns seemed all over the map to me. I think Morgrin could/should have focused her attention. In the end, for a Klingon, he was right.
@marcusdkane - Man, that was one hell of a way to dodge a bullet. Well done.
Just catching up. I hope you enjoy.
Cast for crew:
Kathryn Beringer - Rachel Nichols
Staza Murai - Sarah Lind
My only question on the piece (and it is nice, thoughtful and reflective) - is how long has it been since Kathryn had the chance for her ritual. Or maybe not so much question as worry for Kathryn, that's a big proportion of an Excelsior's crew.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!