Crossover (TGG) Anatomy of a War 5th Anniversary Edition

[Big Steve]

Okay, sorry, but starting now, I'm not going to add new spaces between paragraphs, it's too much work, and Google Docs killed my formatting when I tried to copy-paste it. If there are any issues with the text being too blocky I may reconsider, or I might just increase text size to ease reading.

 

[Big Steve]

First off, a warning: do not expect commentaries on each chapter. I may do them on some, many, all, or very few, depending on what time and interest allow.

So, you can see the kind of work this is. Much of this was done 15 years ago in what these days seems a very different world. And I was a far less experienced writer.

For the record, while I know the name sounds kinda mishmashy, Nicolas Mamatmas is meant to be a black man from South Africa. Despite the issue of accents I usually can't stop myself from imagining him as Morgan Freeman. Sir James Bronson is of course always Pierce Brosnan in my head, for obvious reasons.

Aside from a lot of their leaders being "Legates", and the senior officer rank of Gul and junior officer rank of Glin, we really don't see the Cardassian rank structure, not until the novel EU anyway. Since I wasn't reading that, I made up my own with the "X Rank Rate Name" system. I was also speculating on the makeup of the Central Command, since the only thing we really know is that the Detepa Council was a rubber stamp for them and the Obsidian Order.

The big thing is, of course, the Federation. Keep in mind that Articles of the Federation came out just that year, presenting a very different vision of how the Federation government operated (and a better one IMHO). I went with something more like the EU meets the Soviet Union, complete with the idea of the leader of the one major party always being made Federation President (much like the General Secretary of the Communist Party was usually made Premier of the USSR, or was it President? I forget). The Presidency is like a Prime Ministership in that the Council decides who is leader while said novel had it as a direct election.

I may eventually post The War That Wasn't to explain my entire operating background on this vision of the Federation, or at least link it. It was, as I said before, a cynical deconstruction based on the bits of TNG that seemed the most questionable. I do regret it for several reasons, including the fact that I didn't cynically deconstruct anything else from BattleTech or Babylon-5 or any of the other SF settings that showed up. It makes it look like I was picking on the UFP just for ideological purposes, or to make the Alliance look better. Which... actually, I'd have to plead guilty there.

These days I think a big flaw in my writing style of the time was that the sheer exposition dumps on some of the characters can be a bit tell-not-show. Such is on display in the introduction of the ARAL characters.

There's actually an interesting history behind the Asako character's concept, especially what she would have been like without Sophia in her life. She's one of Zoe's characters, lent to me for this story.

Sophia (and Larrisa), meanwhile, were from an ATL Star Trek fic I did, although in that other timeline (point of diversion: Praxis didn't explode, no Star Trek VI peace treaty) they were Starfleet officers. Although Larrisa, as an Edo, was kinda the same way (consider how the Edo are depicted: I was actually trying to give them a culture in the ATL Trek fic too, beyond mere "pleasure for the sake of pleasure when you're not being executed for stepping on the grass").

The most egregious scene here is the Dani/Rana scene. It was an addition in the 5th Anniversary Edition. Dani was a lead protagonist in the space opera romance epic "55 Days in Kalunda" that I co-wrote with Zoe back in 2005-2007, and Rana was name-dropped in that story before showing up in the last of the TGG fics (and one of the incomplete ones, I'll add), "The Burden of Command". Here we see them as they are at this time, romantic partners. They'll have a few appearances here and there, but I admit they're superfluous mostly and it was primarily me using the new edition to connect to other TGG story materials.

 

[Big Steve]

So, I'm not going to say much over this chapter. Well, aside from, yeah, showing the ADN's carriers operate at interstellar ranges, with some (but not all) of their combat spacecraft being warp capable. Since carriers are something of a question mark in Trek - some of the lore describes some ships like the Akira as being carrier-capable, but fighters don't come up often save DS9 - I went big with the ADN's carrier forces. Later the ADN would build even more massive "strategic carriers" with their own IU jump systems (unlike in nUF, IU jump point projectors generally require a lot of volume and power, so the majority of ships don't have them). But for now, enjoy the "Fighting I" living up to a remark the late and much missed SirNitram made around the time I initially wrote this: "Carriers dispense fighters, which dispense ass-beatings".

The original version of the story ended the last scene at Jane killing her foe: the extra bit of her rescuing Omi was added to the 5th Anniversary to again tie into the new stuff we were setting up, including the altered fate of Omi Kurita. As for Jane herself, she's another Timelines character I adapted into the series, just with a different surname. I admit, she comes off a bit... weebish, I suppose. The Timelines version was a semi-insert of Sakura Azhreia, an SB poster from that era who was big into anime.

The scene of Mamatmas being informed of the attack while reading to schoolkids was, yeah, directly inspired by Bush the Younger being at a school when 9/11 happened. Just that his biggest critic isn't the anti-war type, it's the aggressive pro-military Israeli guy who wants to start kicking Cardie ass already. "Bloody Elijah" became something of a pain to various characters, and a number of my readers grew to dislike him for his militancy.

So, said a bit more than I intended... anyway, one final note. I had to fix this because there were errors in the BB code. Y'see, back in the halcyon days before Google Docs and similar, one didn't easily convert formatted text into web forums. So for years I had the habit of writing stories in BB code so I didn't have to hunt and add formatting manually. But occasionally, well, fingers trip, and a proper tag has a slash in the wrong place or wrong-facing brackets, and boom, most of your 14,000 word story post is now in italics. Thankfully I don't have to deal with it anymore. If only I could get Google Docs to copy-paste properly into most XenForo posting fields...

 

[Big Steve]

Yeah, so, I kinda, sorta, avoided the question of the torture scene.

*sigh*

Okay, back then I thought I was being mature and "realistic" instead of edgelordy and perhaps a little pervy, what with the naked chick getting tortured by bad guys (including an allusion to being raped by her jailers, ugh, where's the head-banging-on-wall emoticon when I need it?!), and no, it won't be the last time we see this, and yes, I wish I hadn't. Having the Cardie interrogator go all "Melian Dialogue" on the poor Federation prisoner was meant to show how the fascistic, "might makes right, the state is always right" ideology works in Cardassia.

I think that if I had this to do over again, I'd take a damn chainsaw to this entire segment, indeed, the entire arc. Not all, though, since the "Madred Villages" actually come from a really good Star Trek novel, Diane Carey's "Ship of the Line". Albeit this one is more "North Korean fake Western town populated by abducted Japanese" than the "constant live fire training exercise" that Carey's book had.

 

[Big Steve]

Three chapters in, and the war has begun!

Briefly touching on it, the last of the Christine scenes before being sent to Madred Village 23 was conceived as a kind of way to show just how institutionalized torture is as a tool of the Cardassian state, and how, paradoxically, sadists are unwelcome because they abuse said tool.

The characters in Madred Village 23 are a grab bag of various original ideas and a couple of "imports". Kristina Ivanova is a port of an original MWSE character by way of Timelines. Edward Winfield is in a way - his wife was, IIRC, a character in TL as well, but I might not be remembering properly. As for Sharon Carter, she's a comic book-related homage... but not the obvious one. She was also in Timelines, but I'd forgotten about the Sharon Carter you're most likely thinking of - the SHIELD agent and occasional love interest of Steve Rogers - and she's actually a homage to the DCAU version of Hawkgirl.

The thing about the two being lesbian lovers was me indulging... not in that way dammit! As stated, they were ported from Timelines, where neither was outright shown to be homosexual or bi. Their relationship here was based on the idea that given the POW camp they endured, the abuses suffered, and everything else they've gone through, the two bonded and sought comfort together until they became intimate. I was indulging the idea of exploring whether preferences might shift due to such situations (or perhaps just latent bisexual nature coming out, I suppose).

The bomber commander is of course a reference to MKSheppard of SDN. He greatly enjoyed the insert for obvious reasons.

The soldiers were all original characters. I wanted to show the grunt viewpoint. The bit about their anti-aging gene treatments violating Federation Humanity's taboo against genetic alteration is one of the more valid criticisms of the Federation, and I'd likely keep it. Khan's shadow looms large over their society, as the DS9 episode "Dr. Bashir, I Presume" made painfully clear.

The bit about the Federation embedded reporter having that, uh, "intimate interview" with the Army Major was inspired by the movie "Three Kings" from 1999, the one with Clooney, Marky Mark, and Ice Cube. I'd just recently watched it as part of a week-long movie marathon with my dad and brother - he was on vacation and I took the week off too - and chuckled at the bit early on of Clooney's character having a similar interview with a female reporter.

Anyway, that's it for now. The next chapter?

 

[Big Steve]

So the war begins not with starship actions, but with the bombers and naval aviators getting all the fun (and dying, as poor Camille experienced).

The Pobeda's captain is an insert of SDN poster fgalkin, who was quite happy with the entire thing. The Sculpin was added for the 5th Anniversary Edition to expand on the "raider force" war a bit, and because the XO there was a planned character for a never-written fic about the ADN's Silent Service during the Interuniversal War (The Dominion War in Trek galaxy).

For those wondering about my violation of the "ships can't fire while cloaked" rule, previously only seen by Chang's BOP in ST VI, I've always taken it as a power issue. Cloaks are so power intensive that keeping weapons charged is impossible, and fire would disrupt the cloaking effect anyway. Chang's ship only fired torpedoes, too, so I followed the implication that launchers are less power-intensive than energy cannons or what have you. As a result, ADN stealth raiders can fire while cloaked, but with limited power capacity until they must either A) decloak and divert power for rapid firing or B) allow the bit of energy left after their propulsion and cloak suck up the rest to recharge capacitors for the torpedo launchers. It does allow for something more akin to the submersible/submarine vs. surface ships dynamic popular from the World Wars.

With the war officially on, we naturally get our first viewpoint character casualties, with the deaths of Lt. Camille Burelli of <Unnamed Squadron>, DNS Intrepid, and 1st Rank Glin Harak Torcet, XO of the CDS Yavar. One could almost play a drinking game with character deaths in this fic, except near the end an event would probably kill you all from alcohol poisoning, so I'd recommend against it.

For the curious, among the various TGG original universes, the League of East Africa comes from one of the more militant, nastier ones. It's why they're militant enough that the civilian governor is still exchanging salutes with military officers and they're really hardcore about their civil defense procedures.

And finally, yeah, the Cardassians are realizing they're not in for the short, victorious war they'd planned...

 

[Big Steve]

So we get out first big space battle, the Battle of Zygola. The 5th Anniversary edition is fairly different from the original. One obvious addition is Rana Shaheen's destroyer being in the fight, since she wasn't featured in the original story. The other is that I rewrote the battle slightly, in presentation anyway, to match the multiple POVs I used in the war's later fights instead of the dry descriptions of maneuvers I gave initially. The battle sets the stage for how the war proceeds: the Cardassians have numbers, the Allied Nations - still organizing and setting up its own central fleet force - have certain organizational and technological edges, and fight in ways and formations the Cardassians aren't used to facing.

There's also the nukings, of course. Justifiable given the Cardassians set this entire war off with an atomic bombing, and it's a nice indicator that if they want to play hardball and escalate, the Alliance will meet them. But all of very little comfort to the Cardassian civilians who just died in a flash. Shep, as I recall, approved of his insert's usage here, and of my "proper usage" of the "claw of death" in the missile strikes.

As a final note, "lyph" stands for "light year per hour".

Finally, yeah, the ADN is on to Asako, and she may not like where that leads. The 5th Anniversary edition naturally added the second part of that conversation regarding Omi.

 

[Big Steve]

With the initial phase of fighting out of the way, this chapter deals with the reactions to the opening battles. Namely, the Federation - in keeping with how I chose to depict them in this setting - sees its government being all holier-than-thou and self-assured a la Season 1 TNG, then their leaders shit their collective pants upon the confirmation coming in of what the Alliance's forces have pulled off. At the time, I remember a lot of posters being highly amused, but I can't help but see why some people might think I was indulging in faction-wide Marty Stu-ism.

On Cardassia Relim Torcet continues his struggle to save his people from a war he never supported, and with the massacre of that religious group we again see why, even if he's a good man by all appearances, Relim's people really don't deserve to win (nor deserve his efforts, really). Meanwhile we learn that one junior officer in the interrogators (that is, one of the torturers) is an asset for a local Alliance intel agent under cover. We'll be seeing more of him and his Bajoran sweetheart later.

That same scene introduces us to the TGG version of @LTR's character from the Timelines stories. I had this whole background in mind for her in this universe, but I never got a chance to use it. Suffice to say she is a very competent freelance operative and assassin.

She does get a slightly expanded role in the 5th Anniversary edition given what's to come. I also had plans to feature her in what would've been the third "CID" story, "Where Light Burns", but TGG kinda fell by the way side before I could do "Where Shadows Fall". Only "Where Trust Lies" was ever completed.

The chapter ends with the set-up for the direction of the campaign, and the next big battles, and finally... a reminder of the price paid by all sides in a war as the families of the slain grieve for their lost loved ones.

 

[Big Steve]

So, I just had a tooth extracted, I'm ornery today.

We get to see more of the Pobeda and fgalkin's insert, as they blow up a prestige project super-transport the Cardassians built, then deal with the escorts sent after them. The latter part was added in the 5th Anniversary edition to give the characters more relevance.

On the Cardassian side of things, we get Relim Torcet trying to come up with a viable strategy, but he's facing stringent opposition from superiors more worried about saving face politically, opposition that's ultimately forced him to adjust his plans for less force so they can "attack now!". Plus we get another Cardassian atrocity, and this one I thought was particularly terrible given I wrote an entire sequence from the POV of a toddler just before she's vaporized in a mass killing.

On other fronts, Hanse Davion and the FedCom are considering throwing their hat in the war, the Alliance continues its strategies, and we see their efforts to support the besieged cities on Bajor, so as to prevent the outcome of the Warsaw Uprising from being repeated. A lot of readers were touched by the actions of the Spirit of Bob Hope's crew, comparing them to the "Candy bomber" from the Berlin Airlift.

The fate of that crew, in turn, has prompted the Alliance to move a bit more aggressively, giving us the liberation of Darane, the aforementioned atrocity by the local labor camp commander killing his prisoners instead of allowing their liberation, and showing the Cardassians aren't unified in this bloodymindedness: he had to threaten to execute his own XO over it, and his secretary defies him to save the children of one family.

And, of course, we finally see the TNG crew's reactions. Riker... well, a lot of people seem to have different views of Picard's Number One. I've heard him referred to as a rebel by some, by others as a steadfast loyalist to the Starfleet and Federation ideal. I tended toward the latter given all the "smug Riker" performances that still irritate from TNG (especially early TNG). Picard, OTOH, while also quite smug at times, was leavened by the superb acting of Sir Patrick, so I'm more lenient toward Jean-Luc and I tried to portray him as I think fits his character: the man of intellect trying to understand even with his fundamental disagreements.

And of course, on the lower decks, Cardassian War veteran Miles O'Brien is cheering the Alliance on.

We end with the first attempt at armistice negotiations, which end pitifully: the Cardassians still figure they don't have to give things up and can fight on, the Alliance wants to cut the Gordian knot by removing them from Bajor. This intransigence will, in various ways, bite both sides...

 

[Big Steve]

Honestly, not much to say about this one. The FedCom openly inquires about joining the war, and the complications and possibilities are discussed. The 5th Anniversary Edition added the Sculpin bits of course. And we get the introduction of Russell and Valys Cornheiser; they won't be big players, but they have a role with the story's framing device, one might say.

And, finally, the First Battle of Darane sees the Cardassians actually hammer the Alliance hard, but Torcet being forced to attack without that extra fleet clearly had an effect, as his strike force against the carriers was too weak to do more than claim one. It's a success - arguably the battle's a tactical Cardassian victory, if a strategic draw - but we'll see how his bosses take him pulling the fleet back to avoid the carrier wings coming down on them.

 

[Big Steve]

So we see the consequences of Relim's pragmatism, namely, demotion. Meanwhile the Cardassians' naval code has been broken by New Israeli Mossad (an ADN member state, from the same universe as the League of East Africa); the 5AE added the scene of that Palestinian-descended guy being the cryptographer to accomplish it because who doesn't mind a little pie-in-the-sky thinking sometimes? This will likely not bode well for them.

The scene at the Sakata Estate is also exclusive to the 5AE.

Caporal Malenfant is from the "France Kicks Ass Again" universe, as I call it, where the French became a leading power again after some lucky breaks in space exploration, defeated a neo-Fascist Italy with it, and are one of the ADN's more military-ready nations. Plus I wanted to indulge in those old, WWII-era style propaganda posters.

But, of course, the real event is the expansion of the war. Hanse Davion tried to be tricky, and he got what he wanted... but at a steeper personal price, as he's now caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. Either way, the Federated Commonwealth is in, ready to engage in its first extraversal war, and St. Ives may be following. We'll be checking in on them again at some point.

Simultaneously, to really rub the Cardassians' noses in their mistake, the leader they wanted to kill so much they provoked the FedCom declaration of war wasn't there (since it was a trap by Hanse). Instead he's on Bajor, having just sparked a massive uprising around the Bajorans' holiest city (basically their Rome/the Vatican - and yes, I know the books gave the city a different name, I didn't know it). And he's got some help. If you want some mood music for this...



...let's just hope the "help that never came" line doesn't come true this time, eh?

Of course, the Alliance is actively supporting the other cities that rose up, as we see with Pilot Officer Cera McGinnty's scene. I thought it'd be interesting to show aerospace fighters operating in this fashion, and it gives a fun dogfight. And, heh, I did later find use for the basic character concept, as anyone who's read my "Breach of Faith" novels knows (the first one's free right now HINT HINT).

Anyway, next time, we get the biggest naval battle of the war, the initial FedCom arrival, and best of all... the return of Squadron Leader Ryan Sheppard and his B-202 Atomic Dolphin!

 

[Big Steve]

So here we go. More fighting at Dolan, with a bombing operation calculated to help evacuate the city's children to reduce strain on their food supplies, and coincidentally to inflict more loss on the Cardassian siege lines. It could also be called "Big Steve thinks of another way to introduce modern-style warfare to make Cardassians die hideous deaths".

The scene of the police detectives interviewing Asako and Sophia was added for the 5th Anniversary, to elaborate on the plot involving ARAL and to set up what became "Where Trust Lies". By this point I'd decided on Mayuko as the other protagonist of that story. In keeping with a playful habit of mine, she's physically a homage to the character Yuna from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantaxy X-2, with the complete heterochromia of her eyes and such. Fun fact: I'd initially considered her for a Dominion War story where she'd be one of the ship COs in a flotilla of ADN attack ships like the Sculpin and Pobeda. Said story was inspired by reading Clay Blair's works on the U-Boats and the US Pacific submarine campaign... and because I was conceiving of stories for the aborted "A War Like No Other" anthology based on Sabaton music. (Said anthology had only one entry, "The Thundering of Guns", about the start of the Interuniversal War that would've been the focus of the anthology).

But the crux of this chapter is the Second Battle of Darane, the biggest naval battle of the war. The Cardassians gave themselves an unintentional boost by deciding to throw Torcet's strategy to the wayside, thus underming the ADN's own trap given the ADN is reading their naval code. They were further aided by the overall commander of the carrier force being immensely cautious and conservative, refusing to commit his fighters until the time was right even though all indications were the enemy was not fighting according to expectation.

The 5th Anniversary Edition elaborated upon Stark's behavior by highlighting the internal politics of the ADN Stellar Navy, namely the infighting between "Carrier Admirals" and "Wall Admirals". The latter favor battle walls of dreadnoughts, believing that point-defense systems can blunt any attempted carrier strikes, while the former believe that carriers should be the point of the spear with even newer technology making them more formidable too. In fluff I would go even further on this and other inter-service rivalries, like the Stellar Navy building a carrier specifically to steal the operational role of the Aerospace Force's Bomber Command (@Tyanna of Pentos provided the quotable line of "A class solely designed for interservice warfare"). The next chapter will reflect on it as well.

Of course, in the end, the Fleet Admiral intervened, the carriers launched their sorties, and once again, carrier fighters dispensed an ass-beating. The Cardassian fleet's division further ruined it as it allowed Lewis to pursue one section and, with the aid of other carrier forces, further damage that partition of the Cardassian force at Telkur. The Second Battle of Darane thus goes down as a major victory, albeit a costly one, for the ADN. And now the road looms open for Operation: Crusader and the invasion of Bajor.

Well, presuming the Cardassian 3rd Fleet doesn't interrupt.

Next time, we get more bombing, more failed peace attempts, Federation peace activists acting like, well, like militant peace activists we're familiar with (and apparently I birthed an entire anti-UFP fic meme with this too), the introduction of another likeable Cardassian commander, and finally.... for your humor, a Feddie reporter meets the USMC.

 

[Big Steve]

So, a few different things here, with the Alliance giving the green light to the landings on Bajor coming early. We see the Cardassians are reeling from 2nd Darane but still refusing to give up entirely on holding Bajor, fearful that it will undermine their authority over other subject species. We're introduced to Gul Luvar, another sympathetic Cardassian senior commander in the vein of Torcet. I've seen people compare him to nBSG Adama, while I admit I was a little inspired by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk myself.

As for the Alliance, its Bajoran exile recruits are readying for action, and we meet a couple of them. Meanwhile a US Marine Sergeant whom I patterned after a certain actor who likes to play BAMFs joins his troops in screwing with the head of a Federation reporter looking for juicy, ideologically-supported stories to send back home. Instead, well, Marines gonna Marine.

As for the PAPAL posters, I'd initially intended to name the group ANSWER after the real life group, but one of my other chatniki proposed PAPAL - Progressive And Pacific Action League - from bemusement of the acronym if anything. Apparently my depiction of the Federation became memetic on SB and SDN corners, enough that over on SV I've been blamed for the "PAAP" (Peace At Any Price) negative portrayals of the Federation in various fics, in my case as a specific attack to prop up my "Clancy Competent" faction. The usual counter to what I've said is that the Federation swiftly fielded weapons to fight real threats like the Borg, hence they're clearly not nutso pacifists.

And that's true. They're not. But when you consider early TNG especially, it's clear there was a major sea change in how Starfleet thought of itself during that time. Riker openly dismisses tactical exercises to improve fighting capability as pointless and declares that combat is a "minor province" in the makeup of a starship captain. And there are other incidents I'm sure people will point out.

As I said before, I do regret some of my deconstruction of the Federation. I think I took it too far. But I didn't invent this out of whole cloth, I simply tried to explain how it came about (if poorly, perhaps), and TGG even included material for the Federation stepping away from the pacifism when the time came, just as in canon.

Anyway, with that said, that's all for this commentary. Next time, the fighting on Bajor escalates, and we meet some of the luminaries and volunteers helping Opel Nevis' uprising. I think BattleTech fans will enjoy it especially.

 

[Big Steve]

Also, found this

          Stellar Navy        Army            Aerospace Force            Marine Corps


O-15  Chief Admiral      General of the Army     Marshal of the       Commandant of the

                                                   Aerospace Force            Marine Corps

O-14  Fleet Admiral           Field Marshal        Air Chief Marshal    Fleet General

O-13  Admiral            Colonel General      

O-12  Vice Admiral        General            Air Marshal        General

O-11  Line Admiral        Lieutenant General    Air Vice-Marshal    Lieutenant General

O-10  Rear Admiral        Major General                    Major General

O-9                    Brigadier        Air Commodore        Brigadier General

O-8   Line Captain        Senior Colonel

O-7   Captain            Colonel            Group Captain        Colonel

O-6   Lieutenant Captain

O-5   Commander                Lieutenant Colonel    Wing Commander            Lieutenant Colonel

O-4   Lieutenant Commander    Major            Squadron Leader            Major

O-3   Lieutenant        Captain                Flight Lieutenant    Captain

O-2   Lieutenant J.G.        1st Lieutenant        Flying Officer        1st Lieutenant

O-1   Ensign            2nd Lieutenant        Pilot Officer        2nd Lieutenant

[/CODE]

 

[Big Steve]

So, after we get some set-up again for what became "Where Trust Lies", we delve into the ongoing fighting over Bajor, and the result: Bajor Rises, and the blood flows. Opaka declares for the rebellion and, coincidentally, gets a certain political cleric executed by Dukat's vicious successor. Unfortunately, Cardassian conscripts are the type to decide the RoE is "kill every Bajoran we come across as a potential threat", as we see.

The 5AE added Odo and Garak's scene because the originally actually had people wondering what happened to them, and I decided neither was the type to do nothing. Odo, obviously, would try to avoid such an injustice, and Garak did have something of a weak moral compass, but practicality also calls for him to endear himself to the Bajorans.

Meanwhile the fighting on Bajor gives us a nice plethora of guest-stars from the Multiverse. Opel's commanding general is none other than the Hammer himself, Frederick Steiner, now known as Anastasius Focht. Force Commander Montecuccoli is a reference to a friend's BattleTech works involving such a family in the FWL (he would later return a quarter century later, in fact, for "The Last Woman Standing" as an FWL delegate to the IUCEC). Among the commanders Focht brought with him is G'Kar's old aide Na'Toth, since the Narn would be far more likely to sympathize with the Bajorans, and Evantha Fetladral (with Taman Malthus along), who lead Clan Elementals into a battle two years after their own society was crushed and outlawed (as seen in "The Wrath of Paradise" and referenced again with Trajan Osis in the "55 Days in Kalunda" story).

Focht is doing everything he can, but Splendid Ikila's defenses are faltering, and massacre looms for its people even as blood spills across the planet. The Alliance is coming... but with its bomber strike smashed and the Cardassian Third Fleet still intact and heading to Bajor too, the fate of Bajor is clearly undecided...

In our next Chapter, we'll see how Gul Ivirak's ambition serves him...

 

[Big Steve]

We start with another Timelines port, or rather two: Marina Lenarova and Valentyna, although I didn't get to a TL story with Valentyna in it before I left that series alone. Their scene not only shows the kickoff of the landings on Bajor but allows me to reference a character who would later be important in "55 Days in Kalunda". There was an unfinished fic called "The Road to Hell" that introduced said character - Sara Proctor of the CON-5 universe - but I only posted it on SDN and, yeah, never finished it, although said fic served as back story for 55 Days.

We get a scene of the Marines rescuing Bajoran comfort girls from a base. For reference, the DS9 episode "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" established the Cardies picked up Bajorans for comfort women, but they were really kinda half-assed about it. I show they're no longer so half-assed.

The relief of Ikila succeeds, with the Cardassian spearheads blunting against the 2nd Armored Division's battle tanks. Now they're getting pocketed by the ADN III Armored Corps and a division of Marines.

And yeah, I re-designated the Patton tank partway through the story. War may be war, but bureaucrats are bureaucrats.

But the real action is the attack of the Cardie 3rd Fleet, and running into the problem of target mis-identification. Much like Kurita off Samar he confuses his targets, and in his attempt to kill them, he gets the fate of Nishimura at Surigao Strait.

IIRC my readers were starting to get a little fussy at this point at the war seeming one-sided. As a result I would change the final engagements of the war, going from a planned Leyte Gulf-like engagement called the Battle of the Four Stars (basically simultaneously fights in four different star systems) to, well, you'll see later in the story.

Anyway, next time, more fighting rages on Bajor, and the Cardassians face the harsh truth that they're not going to keep Bajor. They decide to blame, well, you can guess who gets blamed, and they also decide to cover up their other war crimes with more war crimes, not realizing the damage has kinda been done...

Also, we see more of Jorma Gedys, and I will be employing spoiler boxes to spare you gory details unless you really want to read them.

 

[Big Steve]

So we see more of the fighting on Bajor, and the Battle of Dakhur Plains results in a Cardassian mechanized force getting crunched by the flanking blow of an armored division after being checked and maneuvered into place. Including the (unnecessarily gory) death of a Cardassian officer who earlier ran over innocent Bajorans while shooting others.

But most of the action takes place on Cardassia. With another defeat suffered, and Cardassian control of their strongest bargaining chip failing every hour, the powers that be decide to scapegoat someone to save themselves, and naturally they pick Torcet. And he knew they'd do it, so he made arrangements to get his family to safety before taking his own life - the only way to guarantee the government will leave them alone.

Relim Torcet was always intended to be the Sympathetic Foe. He was part of a horrifying system of totalitarianism, and he didn't defy it, but he was still a decent person who loved his family, including Samia. Contrast how Yatar's son-in-law Celrim treated his Bajoran maid (and sex-slave) Gedys to Samia being essentially a member of the household.

It doesn't excuse what the Cardassians as a whole did to the Bajorans, of course. But individual behavior still counts.

And speaking of poor Gedys, she passes on vital intelligence that could save thousands of lives if it gets to the Alliance in time, but the price she'll pay is horrifying. As the bit in the spoiler box shows.

Honestly, if I were to ever re-edit/re-write this fic or all TGG, that scene would vanish. At the time I considered it "necessary" to show the evil of how the Cardassians behaved, and the steps of depravity. Each level reflects something from real-life - at the bottom, it's something out of a human rights violation report on the Third World, going up in sophistication and use of mind-games over torture, but never losing the latter and the overall soul-crushing aspect of a system where this behavior is seen as a legitimate tool of the State.

But looking back, it's not really necessary. I could easily have come in later, showing her recovering perhaps, but not actually showing the deed. Sometimes the unspoken is truly more powerful. And it'd be far more tasteful.

But I'm not out to re-edit this thing (I have a book to finish, you're lucky to be getting commentaries right now ), just to re-post. So if you want to disgust yourself, go ahead and click the spoiler box.

 

[Big Steve]

So, my book's done (first draft that is), and I'm back to posting.

The scenes with Jane and Omi and Admiral Dale on Strana Mechty are from the 5AE, working to both tie in other TGG materials and, with Omi, set up other things. The stuff between Dale and Natalie Ward reflects how things end for them as shown in The Wrath of Paradise.

The Cardassians have finally recognized the need to give up Bajor. Unfortunately, as the full scope of their atrocities comes to light and sickens the Alliance and the Multiverse, it's become politically impossible for the Alliance to make peace with the men and women responsible for those atrocities. As Londo Mollari once put it, "Now we want more" (Albeit under more understandable circumstances than that example).

Meanwhile the Torcet family has made it to safety, as has the intel that Jorma Gedys is now suffering so terribly to protect. We'll see what comes of this.

Lastly, Gul Luvar pursues a strategy to protect his troops from getting crunched and Gobens Drayo lives long enough to see Dolan relieved by Alliance troops.

 

[Big Steve]

Yeah, skipped yesterday, I was doing stuff and didn't have much to say about the update.

This time, however.... whoo boy.

The 5AE added that bit on Rymorta, giving @LTR's character another showing and adding @LordSunhawk's Timelines character to the cast as an other member of Jane's outfit. All things told, it was a fun addition.

Additionally, we get the set-up for the Siege of Madred Village 23, and the ticking clock: will the Black Widow and her troops arrive in time to save them?

Oh, right, and the torture.

The second Jorma scene was added in the 5AE to show that middle stage between the... gorefest of the last one and Madred's machinations in the next. It was rather pedestrian compared to something from the original, the "training" of the new interrogator to replace the last one, complete with the whole mechanical rape-torture device that I swear to God I would excise with a fucking chainsaw in any actual reboot/rewrite. I want to go back to my younger 22-23 year old self in 2005 and smack the shit out of him for writing this crap.

As for Gul Luvar, most of that bit was from the first edition, but in the 5AE I adapted some of the EU material with references to the "Never-Ending Sacrifice", reflecting how Cardassian culture itself apparently has a strong collectivist bent.

Anyway, we'll soon see how well the Alliance's raids did in saving the prisoners in the camps, as well as the AFFC engaging in its first extrauniversal military campaign.

 

[Big Steve]

So, we start with poor Gedys getting tricked by Gul Madred, who read her like a book. The Cardies know the ADN is on to their "kill the prisoners" game, and Gedys has endured all of that horrible suffering for nothing... or has she?

The Battle of Shervarak pits the AFFC's fledgling star navy against the battered remnants of the Cardassians' earlier defeats. The latter is telling, as the Cardassian fleet's morale breaks early and they withdraw, giving the AFFC a victory. We get to see their various land invasions, including confirmation that Nasty K made it in time to save Madred Village 23's population. Can the Black Widows hold out?

Kristina's interest in the Shadow Cat OmniMech was a fun reference to old MWSE. She was initially adapted from that setting (where she was, yes, a Susan Ivanova homage) and in it piloted, yes, a Shadow Cat.

Gul Ruvek is meant to show some of the internal tension in the Cardassian system. He's very much on the "Lawful" side of the alignment spectrum, so he's not a nice guy, but we see there's a sense of honor there, and further recognition that for all its claims of upholding law and order, the Cardassians are afflicted with corruption that their own people, even ranking officers, are aware of.

The fate of Senior Trooper Juvek and Glin Tirritza is meant to reflect stuff I read about how armies in WWII dealt with battle shock/combat fatigue. I don't recall where, but I read how the Germans tended to deal with it "in-house", so to speak, with senior NCOs calmly helping afflicted soldiers recover while still near the field, as opposed to the US evacuating them as casualties (so that Patton can slap them of course). Unfortunately Tirritza's a REMF forced into combat command and goes with the "STATE UBER ALLES, DIE COWARDS" approach, ultimately murdering his most experienced NCO in a moment of fear and ensuring that the other soldiers frag his ass to atoms. Then they do the smart thing and surrender, as the later scenes show with the Alliance finishing the evacuation of its forces and Bajoran civilians before they start leveling grid-squares with gunship and artillery fire.

And so, on Christmas Day, the Battle of "Bloody" Dalkyra draws to a close... too late for poor Kovys' widow and orphans, including the baby he'll never meet. It reminds me of something Forum Viking from SB once posted about the scene, that it's always the family men, and it makes it seem like Death's a sadistic bastard (of course, Discworld fans know he's a perfectly nice gentleman farmer with an affinity for kitty-kitties... ).

Oh, yeah, and we get Kai helping to claim a Cardassian subject race for the FedCom. I mean, let's face it, you don't expect Hanse Davion to just pack up and leave when this is over, do you?

Anyway, tomorrow, the Atomic Dolphin flies again, but this time, the Cardassians have an unwelcome surprise courtesy of Federation aid. Also, we get Dukat preparing his plans to deal with the eventual Alliance offensive, the situation at Madred Village 23, and perhaps most importantly... we get to meet Regina Vickers of the Federation's Earth, and hear just what she thinks of those nasty Alliance people.