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

[Big Steve]

So we see the bitter fruit that the Federation's humanitarian gesture has wrought: the loss of much of an Alliance Aerospace Force bomber operation and the Cardassians using the tech to gain further intelligence on fleet movements, even though the UFP only gave them that tech to defend against bomber attacks.

Speaking of the Federation... ah, Regina Vickers. I'm sure a number of people would today accuse me of creating a strawman of a Federation citizen to criticize the Alliance with, and they'd probably be right. Vickers is meant to represent that preachy, early TNG holier-than-though mentality, coupled with all the hateur and self-assuredness a committed believer can muster. You can find their like today: utterly intolerant of any political viewpoint that they don't hew to, and viciously judgemental of those who don't live up to her standards (unlike her daughter and brother).

I admit I had a rather unkind fate in store for her when I was going to do the "actual Communist takeover by Maria Sandoval" outcome to the Federation Civil War arc, as under the new regime Ms. Vickers would find herself on trial as a Millerist left-deviationist trying to disarm the proletariat. Her brother would luckily escape to the new Federated Worlds, and I was figuring her poor daughter had to denounce her to save her own skin.

Granted, you're not here for this. You're here for the war. Madred Village 23 is indeed saved with the arrival of FedCom and Alliance troops to Dervak. We also see Ranna's guilt over being a POW during the crushing of the Clans leads her to some questionable behavior, so her Grandmama has to set her straight with some tough love.

Meanwhile the Alliance is preparing a big stroke to keep the Cardassians off-balance while Hanse weighs a further advance against Pelikar. Unfortunately, the Cardassians have a new competent commander in charge: Gul Skrain Dukat. I was consciously trying to reflect Dukat as worthy of being Sisko's opposite from the series. As we can see, he's mentally flexible enough to recognize that the Cardassians' naval codes are probably compromised, and he's preparing to exploit that knowledge. We'll have to see where his plans take him tomorrow...

 

[Big Steve]

So, here we are. The Cardassians are pulling a late rally, with Gul Gavron's victory at Pelikar over the FCEF's ships, and the only thing that saved the entire force from destruction was the timely arrival of the Enterprise and her battle group (this is set in Star Trek, gotta have the Enterprise save the day at some point). Additionally Dukat's operation kicks off with success, aided by HUMINT and the Federation's press people being hopelessly naive.

Meanwhile, Glin Kercil shows some nasty stuff, and is open to being put on trial for his role as a military interrogator, but as an asset he's being shielded from prosecution for his role in the crimes against sapience. We'll see more of his fate later.

Tomorrow, we see how Dukat's attack unfolds....

 

[Big Steve]

So, as we see, under Dukat the Cardassians have recovered a little, delivering a black eye to the Alliance by exploiting a bit of Victory Disease. Our intrepid tanker survives, but Major Ogden and his entire division don't... which further drives his new girlfriend into rebellion against her own superiors.

Meanwhile the Alliance has decided to go for broke. The offensive is rescheduled and continues, albeit at a smaller scale, to catch the Cardassians by surprise in turn. We'll soon see the result on Cardassia Prime.

This turnaround was in part prompted by complaints about how the war seemed so one-sided early on, but I had another matter in mind. The Alliance, one must remember, is at the other end of a limited-capacity logistical tether - the IU gates over New Liberty - that restricts their supply flow. Their local systems are still building up native industry and can't produce everything their fleets and armies need to sustain combat. Furthermore, a time of peace at the founding of the Alliance means the fleets aren't as large as they otherwise might be, and furthermore, a number of Alliance members must maintain defense forces at home to deal with potential hostilities from neighbors. In short, the Alliance's rapid offensives have rapidly exhausted its local supply caches, and as I believe the characters note (or will note), they can't sustain this pace - they sprinted to win a quick race, not a long marathon. They will soon come to a point where no more offensives are possible due to supply restrictions and the need for more ships.

The question is, do the Cardassians realize this, and are they willing to take the risk on having the war run on when they've taken all of these losses? We'll soon see.

I admit, I still chuckle at the Alliance soldier who bought what he thought was alien power metal... and found out it was the Andorian equivalent of white power music.

Finally, Gul Luvar's strategy of delay and guerrilla warfare is no longer viable. He can choose surrender or defiance... and he has chosen defiance, and more importantly, rallied his soldiers to that choice though it means many of them will likely die. It's a conceit of many, I would imagine, that this makes him a villain of sorts, to choose bloodshed and killing when he can make no change to the war's outcome. Fighting for the sake of pride. But I think the justifications I had him voice ring true.

Tomorrow, we will find out the result of his choice...

 

[Big Steve]

And so we've come to the moment. In an act of defiant (and perhaps useless) heroism, Gul Luvar and the fighting men and women of the 13th Provisional Order launched everything they had in a single attack to break out of the caves the Alliance was prepared to bury them in. In a single night attack, they catch the 229th Infantry Battalion of the ADN Army by surprise, and are only checked by skirmishing with the 1st Battalion, Royal Black Watch under Major Reginald Trewen. The next morning they launch a determined attack that carries them into a gulley defended by Trewen's troops, and only after vicious and bloody close-quarters fighting does the 13th succumb, with Luvar and Trewen among the slain. The last armed Cardassians on Bajor surrender.

This scene is arguably one of the most iconic in the TGG mythos. Even 12+ years later the memory of it prompted my collaborators in the nUF setting to propose having the Royal Black Watch play an instrumental role in another battle we were preparing to do, and I agreed (although I think I renamed Trewen to "Donald" instead of "Reginald"), complete with the quick march of "All the Blue Bonnets are O'er the Border" to rally the soldiers.

As for why it's iconic? If I must hazard a guess, it's because the readers heavily sympathized with Luvar, while the Royal Black Watch is of course an honored and storied regiment in Britain and their Commonwealth. The battle is tragic and memorable, and it marks the end of the Cardassian Occupation that left the Bajoran people so horribly scarred.

Of course, even as Luvar and his men fight and die for the honor of a government that has none, the schemers on Cardassia Prime act. The Cardassian government is toppled, and with the leaders responsible for so many atrocities - indeed for the war itself - now captive, the new government concedes every term for an armistice. We're treated to some reactions to this news, including the timing of Archon Melissa Steiner's visit to Washington to meet Mamatmas, while in the Federation President Tobis contemplates his lost opportunities and the repercussions of Alliance military victory on the Federation's future.

The 5AE obviously added the Sculpin scene, which was probably a little unnecessary. But I was still considering Krause, at the very least, for "The Hunters" (IIRC the working title for the Dominion War stealth attack ship story I was considering).

Anyway, we now have a ceasefire. Tomorrow, the armistice, and a new dawn for the Bajoran people.

 

[Big Steve]

And so we come to our denouement, and the resolutions for so many of our characters. It goes without saying that the 5AE added a number of these bits, including the scenes of the Madred Village 23 survivors, Dani and Rana, and Omi. It also added Mayuko to the bit of Mr. Carrey approaching Asako, to further the set-up for what became Where Trust Lies.

I'm going to start this commentary with the final parts. The part "...by the arms of the Allied Nations, the Bajoran people became independent and free. " was inspired by a quoted translation from Plutarch, I think it was, on the epitaph engraved on the grave of the early 4th Century BC Theban philosopher-general Epaminondas. The translation I read was as follows:

By my hand was Sparta shorn of its glory
And holy Messenia at least received back her children
By the arms of Thebes was Megalopolis fortified
And all of Greece became independent and free.

I admit to this inspiration given the commonality of liberating a people from a cruel oppressor (and the Spartans were utter bastards, I don't care what hero worship they get for Thermopylae), and I think Epaminondas one of the more woefully under-recognized figures of classical Greek history.

Whatever else when into this war, it was ultimately about the fate of Bajor, and it ended as it did because of the efforts and sacrifices of all the characters we've read about, of Reginald Trewen and Cera McGinty and the crew of the Spirit of Bob Hope and all of the ADN personnel who risked their lives in the cause of liberating the Bajorans from the cruelty of their oppressors.

War is dirty. It is cruelty. It drains nations of blood and treasure, it often breeds hate and anger, and more often than not, the legacies of wars can leave the world no better off. It's rare to get a war as morally just as the one covered in this story. This story wasn't written to glorify conflict, merely to reflect on those occasions where war, for all its ugliness, can leave a better legacy. Liberating slaves, ending oppression, are all worthwhile, but we must have sober judgement to know when we're doing so truly or when our bloodletting is for baser means.

But I am coming dangerously close to repeating my actual ending paragraphs, so let's move on.

Jorma Gedys' scene was added in 5AE, to follow up on her brief appearance in the epilogues. She's ready to die, to end an existence marked by pain, misery, and degradation, just to find out her efforts were not in vain. She saved thousands of innocent lives by doing what she'd done, and now all of that has a clear purpose, it has meaning, and her faith is rekindled by that realization.

Puvek continues to try and consolidate power. We'll soon see where it leads him.

It's interesting to go back and read the scene with Weisbaum criticizing the armistice. At the time his attitude would be construed by readers as a "right-wing" kind of thing, push for complete victory no matter the cost, ramp up the military, etc etc. But reading his remarks about needing to push "the fight against fascism" today, I'm sure a modern reader might be more inclined to see in his behavior vestiges of modern left-wing thought. That principle is all that matters, and practical considerations must not be allowed to interfere.

The damn thing of it all is that, as Takahara points out, Weisbaum's not wrong about having to do this again. As I said above, wars can leave bitter legacies, and for a prideful people like the Cardassians, this end is a bitter legacy indeed. They will want a rematch, and as you might imagine, they'll get one. There's just no avoiding that, since the Alliance at this time doesn't have the strength to fulfill all of its other requirements while effectively occupying all of Cardassia. Continuing the war is folly, even if it means another war in the future. All they can do is hope they're better prepared to deal more permanently with Cardassia when that conflict comes. And given the scene I show of Dukat and his officers, it's clear some commanders in the Cardassian Union are already plotting that next round...

We see Kercil and Imina's fate, another 5AE addition, with the Alliance setting them up on a farming colony to live out their lives in quiet happiness. It is perhaps not what Kercil deserves given his role in the CArdassian torture system, but it is perhaps not for us but for higher powers to judge if his efforts against that system were sufficient to justify the lack of temporal punishment. We also briefly get to see Stefan Kingsley, who was created by @LordSunhawk for his first big TGG tie-in, "Triple Trouble", set after this story.

We see that Alliance Intelligence is moving in, as Mr. Carrey approaches Asako t'Prinn to hire her services, making clear "We know who you are", all while CID police agent Mayuko Burley observes nearby. The former bit with Carrey was from the original edition, Mayuko's was added in the 5AE as stated. I may re-post Where Trust Lies at some point to continue their story.

Omi's blooming romance with Karl von der Goltz continues, a setup for never-written stories set in the BTechverse that would ultimately show Omi's fate to lead the rump remnant of the Combine after Hanse's Multiverse-upgraded regiments conquer the Black Pearl itself.

Again, the Rana and Dani scenes were rather superfluous and indulgent, but it sets up what would become of them as well: Dani going on until her fateful leave to Gilead in 55 Days in Kalunda, Rana heading off to naval command and her role in the events of the unfinished The Burdens of Command.

Kellie Stevenson is rewarded for her integrity by an invitation to join another news service. We'll not see her again for some time, but she'll make an appearance in What Price Peace interviewing Priscilla Laurentii, Pretender Duchess of Pranton, "the Butcher of umm-Kashrash".

Poor Kerma Torcet receives word of the peace, which is only bitter for her in her family's exile.

We get heartwarming, and in a couple cases bittersweet, reunions for the Village 23 survivors. The one nurse/doctor character turns out to be the daughter of the widow we met earlier from Nova Savona, with much heart-swelling and tears at a reunion she'd barely hoped to pray for. Kristina is rejoined by her parents, but for her lover, there is the uncertainty of whether she can risk life in the Federation where her genetic augmentations mark her as dangerous. Christine Bennington's family has relocated over what was done to her, and they will build new lives in the Alliance, while Edward Winfield's widow is a widow no longer.

I had various thoughts for some of these characters. As 55 Days reveals, Kristina and Sharon briefly split up, and the latter ends up in a passionate relationship with Dani that only ends when Kristina comes back to her. I had some ideas for future use of the two, but they never went beyond a "crackfic" thing I did with @LordSunhawk that was never posted. Duchess Diane would re-appear in the opening of the Federation Civil War storyline, a government official of New Anglia supporting their secession at the outbreak of the war.

Of greater substance was a planned but never written TGG entry with Christine in a leading role. In keeping with my tendency to sometimes do things other than mil-SF or space opera stories in TGG, this would have been a legal drama. Namely, after dealing with Alliance bureaucrats about aid given to victims of the Cardassians and other displaced persons, she comes to the attention of a leading legal light in the ADN, Jack Waters (mentally modeled after Sam Waterston and his most noted character, Jack McCoy from the series "Law & Order"). Waters puts his career, and the prospect of an appointment to the Alliance government, on hold in order to represent her in a lawsuit, suing the Federation's governing party (and specifically the branch it sets up to promote Federation-style economics in the Alliance) for damages related to her being given over to the Cardassians without proper due process and the propaganda against her and other survivors by Federation press sources. I had in mind that the Federation party would be represented by a character based off James Woods' lead character from "Shark" (because god damn those two going at it would be awesome) and the case would last for some time, with numerous twists in the legal rulings and motions, the Alliance government trying to quietly quash the case to avoid complications with the Federation at sticky times, and Kercil possibly showing up to provide eyewitness testimony as to what the interrogations were about. But like many TGG ideas, this was never written.

Our final scene ties into what I said above: we see the fruits of Bajoran liberation, with families reunited, and how this is what made the war worth fighting.

Anyway, I may just post the epilogues now, or later tonight. We'll see.

 

[Big Steve]

So the epilogues.

The first one shows the results Tobis feared: the outcome of the war creates a crack in the Federation. A small one, and it would be another 12-13 years before the crack widened into a chasm, but big things often start small.

The second epilogue establishes for our readers that fears over Bajor's future have been met. The Bajoran Spring is in full bloom, and Bajor is rebuilding under the Alliance aegis. President Mamatmas' visit serves to reinforce this and to provide an opportunity to see to the fates of some of the other characters, as well as duly-deserved reward. Gedys, as we see, is among those granted a high medal, and she has joined the Bajoran Temple with her faith so strongly rekindled.

We also get to see that Kira has joined the Bajoran Marines, which take the place of the Militia from the actual show. Given she fought beside Alliance Marines, it's not too surprising, and this may take some of the edge off her view of aliens from early DS9.

The third epilogue establishes the short life of Puvek's civilian government, undermined by the armistice and an attack by the Tsen'kethi, not to mention Dukat's growing role in Cardassia.

Epilogue 4 shows that despite this, the restored Cardassian military government honored the armistice and continued the peace talks. Now the peace treaty is signed, and as a measure to keep the peace afterward, Bajor is to be the balance point of Alliance, Cardassian, and Federation interests in the region, with the Alliance's new orbital station handed over to short-term Federation control until Bajor's ready to assume command. That station is, of course, re-designated Deep Space Nine. We'd hear of it in later stories, specifically the Fed Civil War arc, before seeing it in action during The Thundering of Guns, the first and only fic about the Interuniversal War itself.

Epilogue 5 might have served as the kernel for another TGG story idea. In the spirit of the TNT mini-series on the First Nuremburg Trial, starring Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennesey, and Brian Cox as Hermann Goering, I considered a fic about the Khitomer Trials. Sir Gregory Lowell would be the lead character, of course. But this is the most I did for it, and as we see, justice did come to the men who caused so much pain and suffering.

Epilogue 6 provides the end of the short-term outcome of the war. Bajor forms its new republican government with much acclaim, and as we see, Focht will be staying there now as the new leader of Bajor's nascent armies. A happy ending for the former Frederick Steiner. Meanwhile Damar, mirroring his canon counterpart's longer and eventual course, is emerging as a leader of the Cardassian Republic in those Cardassian systems retained by the Alliance after the war. In the future this would serve as the kernel for the redemption of Cardassia after the Dominion War.

Finally we get the fluff note, from the original edition too, showing a long-term result of the conflict, albeit a small one. That orbital artillery soldier and the sweet Bajoran girl he met on Darane did indeed end up together, and their daughter grew up to be a scholar and historian who memorialized the conflict, the great modern crusade, that brought her parents together.

 

[Big Steve]

So, having skimmed this again while re-posting it, I'll say that it remains one of my better works, whatever one (or myself) thinks of the characterization of the Federation versus that of my own-created faction. Even if the war it covers was of short, if violent, duration, I lived up to the title by showing all of the things that went into the war's immediate cause, it's objectives, and the way it was fought by senior officials and field personnel alike. We see how it affected civilians and other states as well. I can see just why so many people, to this day, regard it as an influential work (though they don't always like that, given remarks I've seen over on another SB offshoot site).

I don't regret writing this story, that's for sure. Some regret for some of the ways I used the Federation, if anything, or for some of the more indulgent additions to the 5th Anniversary Edition that aren't as relevant to the war, but those are minor quibbles. (Less minor, perhaps, my writing style of the times this was done, my recent working with editors has been eye-opening).

Anyway, I hope those fans of old enjoyed revisiting the classic, and for any new readers, I hope you enjoyed it as well despite the flaws. Feel free to post comments and feelings about the work.