As this is a Recap page, expect spoilers.
"Bait and Switch, Part II"
is a Star Trek Online Foundry mission by StarSwordC, and the continuation of his debut mission "Bait and Switch".Synopsis:
Some weeks after the battle in the Badlands, Agent Grell contacts you via Starfleet Command to have you rejoin the investigation. After transwarping to Starbase 32 the player picks up Grell, then warps to the Clarus System to meet a contact, DaiMon Toorop of the Ferengi Alliance. Toorop, having backtraced the payment data recovered from the Orion base in the Badlands, demands the other half of the money before he'll send you the data. Upon receipt of the latinum, he reveals he's sold your position to the Tzenkethi Coalition, which took over the Clarus System last week. Tzenkethi warships warp in and attack, and Toorop tries to flee, but the player destroys the Tzenkethi and disables Toorop's ship, then boards to retrieve the data.After getting the data, the player and Grell report their findings to Admiral Kree. The Orions appear to be hiding in the Mintaka System (TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers?"), but because it's a no-fly zone Starfleet Command is only willing to send in the full battle group once Kree can confirm that there's something there worth risking another Prime Directive violation over. Kree is authorized to send one ship, and the player is up.
Tropes:
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: From Admiral Kree, directed at one of the sillier bits of level progression in STO.Kree: [Admiral Quinn's adjutant] wouldn't let me through until I made it a direct order. Something about Quinn needing to personally congratulate a lieutenant on her promotion.
- Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Grell mentioned in Part I that he sometimes has difficulty with the finer points of English, and in one conversation asks if "grain of salt" is the appropriate hew-mon idiom. A nonhuman player character can potentially say that they don't know, either.
- Call-Back: Your science officer gives a brief summary of the events of TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers?", minus the
Anvilicious anti-religion bits. Since the episode Starfleet declared the system a no-fly zone to prevent further cultural contamination, but despite their efforts the Mintakans have gone from the Bronze Age to developing basic calculus. Because Starfleet can't go there, the Orions have hidden a base there. - Continuity Nod:
- One of the Starfleet frigates patrolling near Starbase 32 is the USS Saratoga, a ship that was basically the Butt-Monkey of the franchise from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on.
- When queried by a player who doesn't think the Ferengi have warships, Grell points to the Battle of Maxia (TNG: "The Battle") and states that the Ferengi do have a military. But like the Federation, they don't like to talk about themselves as having one.
- DaiMon Toorop refers to Rom and Quark's mother Ishka (several Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes) as the best money-tracker in the quadrant.
- Double Entendre: The name of the Ferengi ship Rule 34 partially refers to the 34th Rule of Acquisition, "War is good for business." It also refers to, well, Rule 34, which was a large component of Quark's business in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Toorop calls the Orion practice of slavery "disgusting", although considering he just sold you out to the Tzenkethi it probably won't improve your impression of him.
- Forensic Accounting: Grell hired Toorop to do this for him. According to Grell, Toorop is the second-best money-tracker in the quadrant.Player: Who's the best?
Toorop: Old lady by the name of Ishka. She's the Grand Nagus's mother. Grell couldn't possibly afford her on that pathetic salary they pay him. - Hold Your Hippogriffs: Multiple Ferengi characters, but Grell in particular, use the expression "son of a grub". Grell also refers to Mera Theel's vacation time having gone grub-shaped .
- I Did What I Had to Do: Grell gives a rather long monologue regarding this about Section 31 if the player tells him they don't want Section 31 on their ship.Grell: You squids. All high-and-mighty, insisting Section 31 is an abomination counter to the Federation's noble purposes. I notice you don't seem to mind using us when you need dirty work done. Section 31 has been around since before the Federation was formed. Do you honestly think we would still be here if the folks upstairs didn't think we were needed? Not every problem can be solved by talking it to death or shooting a Type 10 phaser at it. Some require a scalpel instead of a sword.
- Justified Title: The Starbase 32/Clarus System stage is titled "The Sixteenth Rule". The 16th Rule of Acquisition is "A deal is a deal (is a deal)...until a better one comes along." Toorop sold you out to the Tzenkethi.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Bekbas, a Lethean who, far from being a killer, thief, or mercenary for the KDF, is chief engineer on a Ferengi ship. You can lampshade this, and he responds:"Well, not every Lethean is a merc. The Ferengi Alliance pays better than the KDF and I don't have to get shot at by half the quadrant."
- Narrative Profanity Filter:
- When Admiral Kree finds out that the Orions are hiding in the Mintaka System, which is under Prime Directive protection and thus mostly off-limits to Starfleet, she's described as having said "something blood-curdling in Klingon."
- When the Orions' presence in Mintaka is confirmed, your science officer says "something disparaging regarding the Orions' parentage."
- Noodle Incident: Grell and DaiMon Toorop's entire history is one long Noodle Incident, it seems. Toorop did something to Grell on Dreejal Vin that Toorop called a "perfectly legitimate business transaction," Grell pulled something on Toorop on Defera, and then there's something Toorop did that made the Cardassians put out warrants for his arrest.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: Tzenkethi capital ships are Remans reskinned with the saucer sections of Prometheus- and Odyssey-class vessels. Their fighters use Aeon timeship skins, while the corvette is a Captain's Yacht.
- Overly Long Gag: A dialog puzzle on the Rule 34 map (rebooting a malfunctioning damage control console) uses word-for-word recreations of a Windows Blue Screen of Death and the output from ScanDisk.
- Pardon My Klingon: Toorop calls Grell a "fraxing lunatic" for bringing Starfleet along to their meeting. Bekbas calls Toorop a "Sa'Hut", the Klingonese for "ass".
- Pass the Popcorn: Literally. When Grell and Toorop are arguing one of the dialog options is to order popcorn from the replicator.
- Pun-Based Title: The mission briefing scene is titled "Prime Invective", a play on "Prime Directive" and a synonym for profanity (in reference to Kree's use of the Narrative Profanity Filter, above).
- Put on a Bus: Mera Theel is hiding in a safehouse somewhere during part 2 because somebody from the other side recognized her on Risa and tried to assassinate her.
- Rank Up: Theel was promoted to Chief Petty Officer between parts 1 and 2.
- Shout-Out:
- A group of Starfleet frigates patrolling near Starbase 32 sometimes say, "Control, do you copy our star angle difference from parking angle?" Also, one of them is named USS Tegalus, in reference to the planet seen in the Stargate SG-1 episodes "Icon" and "Ethon". Another is christened USS Leran Manev, a city on Trill in the Star Trek Worlds Of The Federation novel Trill: Unjoined.
- Grell's description of the assassination attempt against CPO. Theel (see Put on a Bus, above), right down to her surviving the bombing by diving into her bathtub, is a reference to the attempt on Kate Beckett's life in the Castle two-parter "Tick, Tick, Tick..."/"BOOM!".
- The planet name "Dreejal Vin" is lifted from Galidor.
- The names of three of the Tzenkethi ships (Pouncer, Prowler, and Disdain) are borrowed from the Starfleet Adventures mod for EV Nova. However the Ripper is original.
- When you beam onto the Rule 34, the map transition dialog has your transporter chief say she'll beam you into the cargo bay and that there shouldn't be a soul in sight. Naturally, there is.
- There's a freighter called the S.S. Errant Venture, named for an Imperial-class star destroyer commanded by ex-smuggler Booster Terrik in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
- Space Compression: The trip from Starbase 32 to the Clarus System is stated to take about a week at warp 9, but by judicious use of triggers is compressed into one map.
- Stealth in Space: The Tzenkethi don't have cloaking devices, but they are very hard to detect while at warp. A Starfleet captain you can talk to says that Starfleet's current theory is that the Tzenkethi reshape the warp field to make it hard to detect.
- Tempting Fate: Your transporter chief saying there "shouldn't be a soul in sight" before beaming you to the Rule 34. Your tactical officer hangs a lampshade on it after the inevitable happens.
- The Triple: Your engineering boff pulls one in the mission briefing scene when s/he tells you how s/he got past the firewall on the Rule 34's computer core.Engineering Officer: ... So after I rewired the compensators, adapted a few computer viruses I wrote at the Academy, and hit the core with a hammer a few times...
- You Are in Command Now: Bekbas, the chief engineer of the Rule 34, ends up commanding the ship because when Toorop turned on you and tried to shoot his way past your ship, he got decapitated by shrapnel and his first mate took a head injury.
