DarthOne
☦️
Alright, so I was wondering if I could get some help with a crossover story idea I've had kicking around my head for about a week now. I have a general idea of what happens in said story, but I am having some problems fleshing it out further. Mostly I need help on the SWs side of things.
Said story, called 'Encounter at Estal' after the world I made up that it takes place on, is set several month to a year after the battle of Endor in Legends continuity. This is a time period that isn’t really covered within the Legends canon in much detail, so I’ve got a fair bit of leeway. And I feel this is a better choice then trying to shoehorn my story into the Battle of Endor, which was my original idea.
While I don't expect it will really come up, I should probably mention that I exclude TCW from Legends canon, outside of it showing up via the so-called COMPOR theory.
The setting of battlezone is an alternative history where the Space Race that we all know was in fact a lie. After a meteor shower hits the Arctic circle in 1952, American and Soviet scientists simultaneously discover an amazing new metallic compound capable of being molded into vehicles and equipment at fantastic speeds and possessed of unique organic properties. Just as quickly, both sides begin to think about how this new material could further their efforts in the Cold War. The US forms the National Space Defense Force. The Soviet Union in turn forms the Cosmo Colonist Army. Both nations sneak their armies into space under the guise of the "Space Race".
Thus begins a new, hidden chapter of the Cold War, the one too brutal to televise. The player's character, American tank pilot and battlefield commander Grizzly One, attempts to lead his forces to victory against the Soviets whilst unraveling the mysteries of the bio-metal his superiors command him to kill in order to obtain.
From the Battlezone perspective, the story will be taking place an indeterminate, but short, time after the end of the NSDF and Black Dogs campaigns in Battlezone and Red Odyssey respectively. (according to the Battlezone and Red Odyssey manuals, these games take place in 1969, while according to the Battlezone manual, the NSDF was founded in 1958, though initial R and D began in 1956)
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs isn’t considered canon in this story; as while its a fun game, I feel the plot in it is somewhat ridiculous and convoluted and I’m frankly not a fan of it. Likewise, neither will Battlezone II: Combat Commander. Besides being set in the future, I’m not at all a fan of the various retcons and inconsistencies it introduced.
Regarding how close to the game I’ll be going, I intended to be pretty accurate to what we see, with the exception of blatant game-play mechanics. Such as, for example, the fact that you get five additional pilots to pop out of the ether whenever you build a barracks. Will probably tweak the Ratpack APC so that it holds a little more then five soldiers as well.
That said, things like how the Armory can supply units in the field with weapons, as well as how the repair and ammunition service pods work, will remain as we see in the game. Both because without them, the Armory doesn’t make any sense as a unit and as a way of highlighting the alienness/Semi-Bullshit Clarktech nature of biometal.
Likewise, I’ll be going with the idea that biometal constructs are tougher then dusasteel ones. As this allows the BZ forces to make more of an impact despite having limited forces to draw on, highlights the exotic nature of biometal and helps reinforce the idea that a fair bit of the Empire’s doctrine were meant to inspire fear first and be practical weapons of war second.
Because of this, the rifle carried by NSDF forces will be the equivalent of a heavy blaster, at least to help explain why they can inflict damage on BZ vehicles like they can in-game. On that subject, the ‘space suits’ the various BZ factions use will be treated as a form of power armor that might use some biometal in their construction- at least to give some explanation why they can take a tank shell to the face to kill the wearer and how the various characters can operate on places like Venus without being squashed flat.
I probably won’t be delving into whats going on with the Soviets, Chinese and Americans in regards to the wider Cold War, though it would play a part in the considerations the NSDF make throughout the story. This is mostly to keep the story streamlined and focused.
As for what sort of technology the NSDF would be interested in, beside medical and weapondry, I can seem them being quite interested in spacecraft tech. As while the NSDF do have spaceships, they don’t seem to be well armed, if at all based on what can be inferred from Battlezone, and lack FTL technology. So I can see the NSDF being interested in that sort of thing or any other tech that might help them gain a further lead on the Soviets.
According to Battlezone, we know that the Cthonians visited Earth on several occasions, influencing Greek mythology in the process. This would have probably been around c.2650–c.800 BC and given that the games take place in the 1960’s, we’re looking at a period of about 4,600 to 2,700 years before the battle of Yavin 4 in A New Hope, which took place 4 years prior to the Battle of Endor and the Destruction of the second Death Star. Which, in comparison, means that the Cthonians were around about 1,000 years after the Fall of the Old Sith Empire under Naga Sadow to somewhere after the time of the Sith Empire seen in the Knights of the Old Republic MMO, which was ruled by Darth Vitiate, vanished.
For sake of argument, I’m going to say that the Cthonians spread out into the Star Wars galaxy during the undocumented period which occurred after the Third Galactic War, which saw the Republic triumph over the Sith Empire...at the cost of such widespread destruction and desolation that the entire galaxy was plunged into a technological and societal dark age that it was still recovering from even after the creation of the New Republic. This would explain quite a few things regarding why the Cthonians and the inhabitants of the SW galaxy have no record of each other. As they either never ran into each other given the location in question and the massive decline of space travel and interstellar communication, or the information was lost long ago.
Regarding the location of Earth, it’s within the Unknown Regions, probably somewhere between Rakata Prime and Zaddja. While Elysium, from Red Odyssey, within the Wild Space area of the Unknown Regions on the Bakura side in the general vicinity of Endor. (I don’t think we’ll nail down percisely where Earth is in this story)
As for how the NSDF expands from Elysium into the SW galaxy, it turns out that the Pegasus Device- which is basically a large stargate- connects to several other worlds with their own Pegasus Devices, though these weren’t as settled as Elysium and thus have very little if any biometal or Cthonian structures anymore- with the idea being that most of this stuff was buried in the thousands of years that passed or the Cthonians took it with them when they packed up and left. This means that the NSDF will have to bring much of their biometal with them through the Pegasus Device. Which in turn gives them a bit of a handicap and makes them working alongside the Rebel Alliance that much more plausible.
Beyond the characters wondering about it in passing, I doubt I’ll go into detail about how the Terran's and SW humans are related to each other. Mostly because neither group are historians or whatever who’d know about such thing and they have more pressing matters on their minds. Although for sake of argument, Terran's have a below-average connection to the Force, explaining why we don’t have any obvious Force users running around.
I do have a bit more planned in detail, but i'll hold off posting for now so i don't swamp anyone whose interested in helping me out with information and to see if I can get any interest in the story going.
Said story, called 'Encounter at Estal' after the world I made up that it takes place on, is set several month to a year after the battle of Endor in Legends continuity. This is a time period that isn’t really covered within the Legends canon in much detail, so I’ve got a fair bit of leeway. And I feel this is a better choice then trying to shoehorn my story into the Battle of Endor, which was my original idea.
While I don't expect it will really come up, I should probably mention that I exclude TCW from Legends canon, outside of it showing up via the so-called COMPOR theory.
- Said theory basically goes like this; the show, in broad-strokes, is an in-universe series created for propaganda/obfuscation purposes by the Commission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR), an organization that had its beginnings during the Clone Wars. This actually would make a great deal of sense in regards the show’s presentation, which was very propagandist . Although this changed somewhat in later seasons, that could just be excused as the show getting more subtle with its propaganda. It also explains the often massive contradictions we get in characterization and the continuity errors it created within Legends canon. I say in broadstrokes, as it would reveal a lot of information about the Republic and Jedi at the time would have wanted to keep secret, not to mention Anakin and Padme’s secret relationship.
The setting of battlezone is an alternative history where the Space Race that we all know was in fact a lie. After a meteor shower hits the Arctic circle in 1952, American and Soviet scientists simultaneously discover an amazing new metallic compound capable of being molded into vehicles and equipment at fantastic speeds and possessed of unique organic properties. Just as quickly, both sides begin to think about how this new material could further their efforts in the Cold War. The US forms the National Space Defense Force. The Soviet Union in turn forms the Cosmo Colonist Army. Both nations sneak their armies into space under the guise of the "Space Race".
Thus begins a new, hidden chapter of the Cold War, the one too brutal to televise. The player's character, American tank pilot and battlefield commander Grizzly One, attempts to lead his forces to victory against the Soviets whilst unraveling the mysteries of the bio-metal his superiors command him to kill in order to obtain.
From the Battlezone perspective, the story will be taking place an indeterminate, but short, time after the end of the NSDF and Black Dogs campaigns in Battlezone and Red Odyssey respectively. (according to the Battlezone and Red Odyssey manuals, these games take place in 1969, while according to the Battlezone manual, the NSDF was founded in 1958, though initial R and D began in 1956)
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs isn’t considered canon in this story; as while its a fun game, I feel the plot in it is somewhat ridiculous and convoluted and I’m frankly not a fan of it. Likewise, neither will Battlezone II: Combat Commander. Besides being set in the future, I’m not at all a fan of the various retcons and inconsistencies it introduced.
Regarding how close to the game I’ll be going, I intended to be pretty accurate to what we see, with the exception of blatant game-play mechanics. Such as, for example, the fact that you get five additional pilots to pop out of the ether whenever you build a barracks. Will probably tweak the Ratpack APC so that it holds a little more then five soldiers as well.
That said, things like how the Armory can supply units in the field with weapons, as well as how the repair and ammunition service pods work, will remain as we see in the game. Both because without them, the Armory doesn’t make any sense as a unit and as a way of highlighting the alienness/Semi-Bullshit Clarktech nature of biometal.
- Will probably have NSDF units, like the Nightingale, Flak and Chaff Launcher, Striker and Striker launcher, that were meant to appear in the game but didn’t due to tech limitations, show up. At the very least as a way of challenging Imperial Airpower and protecting the ground troops beyond heavy use of cloaking.
Likewise, I’ll be going with the idea that biometal constructs are tougher then dusasteel ones. As this allows the BZ forces to make more of an impact despite having limited forces to draw on, highlights the exotic nature of biometal and helps reinforce the idea that a fair bit of the Empire’s doctrine were meant to inspire fear first and be practical weapons of war second.
Because of this, the rifle carried by NSDF forces will be the equivalent of a heavy blaster, at least to help explain why they can inflict damage on BZ vehicles like they can in-game. On that subject, the ‘space suits’ the various BZ factions use will be treated as a form of power armor that might use some biometal in their construction- at least to give some explanation why they can take a tank shell to the face to kill the wearer and how the various characters can operate on places like Venus without being squashed flat.
I probably won’t be delving into whats going on with the Soviets, Chinese and Americans in regards to the wider Cold War, though it would play a part in the considerations the NSDF make throughout the story. This is mostly to keep the story streamlined and focused.
As for what sort of technology the NSDF would be interested in, beside medical and weapondry, I can seem them being quite interested in spacecraft tech. As while the NSDF do have spaceships, they don’t seem to be well armed, if at all based on what can be inferred from Battlezone, and lack FTL technology. So I can see the NSDF being interested in that sort of thing or any other tech that might help them gain a further lead on the Soviets.
- Incidentally, the Terrans do have access to a form of shielding technology via the shield generator, which shows up in Red Odyssey.
According to Battlezone, we know that the Cthonians visited Earth on several occasions, influencing Greek mythology in the process. This would have probably been around c.2650–c.800 BC and given that the games take place in the 1960’s, we’re looking at a period of about 4,600 to 2,700 years before the battle of Yavin 4 in A New Hope, which took place 4 years prior to the Battle of Endor and the Destruction of the second Death Star. Which, in comparison, means that the Cthonians were around about 1,000 years after the Fall of the Old Sith Empire under Naga Sadow to somewhere after the time of the Sith Empire seen in the Knights of the Old Republic MMO, which was ruled by Darth Vitiate, vanished.
For sake of argument, I’m going to say that the Cthonians spread out into the Star Wars galaxy during the undocumented period which occurred after the Third Galactic War, which saw the Republic triumph over the Sith Empire...at the cost of such widespread destruction and desolation that the entire galaxy was plunged into a technological and societal dark age that it was still recovering from even after the creation of the New Republic. This would explain quite a few things regarding why the Cthonians and the inhabitants of the SW galaxy have no record of each other. As they either never ran into each other given the location in question and the massive decline of space travel and interstellar communication, or the information was lost long ago.
Regarding the location of Earth, it’s within the Unknown Regions, probably somewhere between Rakata Prime and Zaddja. While Elysium, from Red Odyssey, within the Wild Space area of the Unknown Regions on the Bakura side in the general vicinity of Endor. (I don’t think we’ll nail down percisely where Earth is in this story)
As for how the NSDF expands from Elysium into the SW galaxy, it turns out that the Pegasus Device- which is basically a large stargate- connects to several other worlds with their own Pegasus Devices, though these weren’t as settled as Elysium and thus have very little if any biometal or Cthonian structures anymore- with the idea being that most of this stuff was buried in the thousands of years that passed or the Cthonians took it with them when they packed up and left. This means that the NSDF will have to bring much of their biometal with them through the Pegasus Device. Which in turn gives them a bit of a handicap and makes them working alongside the Rebel Alliance that much more plausible.
Beyond the characters wondering about it in passing, I doubt I’ll go into detail about how the Terran's and SW humans are related to each other. Mostly because neither group are historians or whatever who’d know about such thing and they have more pressing matters on their minds. Although for sake of argument, Terran's have a below-average connection to the Force, explaining why we don’t have any obvious Force users running around.
I do have a bit more planned in detail, but i'll hold off posting for now so i don't swamp anyone whose interested in helping me out with information and to see if I can get any interest in the story going.
