History Main / BringNewsBack

* Alyx Vance in ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' Episode One and Two carries a data packet, in the form of a small electronic device on her belt, with plot-critical super-secret stolen data. Carrying it through a long sequence of hostile environments to where it can turn the tide of battle. Due to the bad quality of the radio communications, they can't simply transmit the data, despite sometimes establishing video communication (one can surmise it was analog).

* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''[[Literature/{{Warlock}} Ordeal In Otherwhere]]'', when Shann is captured by the Company men, Charis steals a copter to get news to Thorvald and the Wyverns. She feels quite guilty about it.

* The last chapter of Creator/LarryNiven's novel ''[[Literature/KnownSpace Protector]]'' reveals that the entire book has been one big case of Bringing News Back, telling of the human protector's war against the oncoming Pak warfleet, and giving advice on what to do should they (the human protectors) fail.

See also SpareAMessanger. Compare AlmostDeadGuy. Indeed, this can be AlmostDeadGuy, told from his point-of-view, but the survival rate is rather higher. PursuedProtagonist uses this as the opening, to get to TheHero, as a form of {{Herald}}. Compare HarbingerOfImpendingDoom. Contrast LateToTheTragedy, ApocalypticLog, CantStopTheSignal. An inverse of sorts is BringHelpBack, when the message is that the ones ''sending'' the message need help, not information that the ones ''receiving'' the message need to have.

Often leads to YouShallNotPass, which requires sacrificing NoOneGetsLeftBehind. In other cases, people preparing for a LastStand may dispatch a SoleSurvivor to carry back word of the battle. (Being sent to Bring News Back means that the people who didn't get sent are MoreHeroThanThou. This often [[DirtyBusiness tests]] the sternest sense of duty.) ''Can'' be combined with an EpicHail, if the newsbearers are trying to reach an outpost equipped for Epic Hailing.

Compare AlmostDeadGuy. Indeed, this can be AlmostDeadGuy, told from his point-of-view, but the survival rate is rather higher. PursuedProtagonist uses this as the opening, to get to TheHero, as a form of {{Herald}}. Compare HarbingerOfImpendingDoom. Contrast LateToTheTragedy, ApocalypticLog, CantStopTheSignal. An inverse of sorts is BringHelpBack, when the message is that the ones ''sending'' the message need help, not information that the ones ''receiving'' the message need to have.

** A later, inaccurate legend has Pheidippides run 26 miles from Marathon to Athens ''after'' the battle, to let them know that Athens had won and nobody should strike a deal with the Persians. Upon arrival in Athens, he shouted, "nenikékamen!" ("we are victorious!") and promptly dropped dead from exhaustion.[[note]]People run marathons non-stop routinely these days, and very few die, but then most of them hadn't just fought a battle.[[/note]]

* Creator/CSLewis' ''The Horse And His Boy'', part of ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. Near the end of the book Shasta must run a long distance to warn King Lune of the invading Calormen army.

-->-- ''Music/LedZeppelin'', "No Quarter"

->''They're wearing steel that's fine and true''
->''They carry news that must get through''
-->-- '''Music/LedZeppelin''', "No Quarter."

* ''{{Avernum}} 5'' has you periodically bring back news of the fugitive you're pursuing across the frontier. In a subversion, [[spoiler:the person you're reporting to turns out to be TheMole for that fugitive.]]

* In T. H. White's ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' KingArthur sends off Sir Creator/ThomasMalory before the final battle, so he can [[FamedInStory tell his story]].

* "Passage To Dilfar", a short story in ''Dilvish the Damned'' by RogerZelazny. The whole story is the attempt to bring the news back.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn", once Ivga has told Valerius which way Salome took Taramis, he sends her off to tell the news that the true queen has been found.

* In ''TalesOfTheQuestor'', [[http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00675.html they try to bring back news of the second dragon in time.]]

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn", once Ivga has told Valerius which way Salome took Taramis, he sends her off to tell the news that the true queen has been found.

* In the first book of Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series, Into The Storm, Benjamin Mallory, Bristar, and Ed Palmer quickly patch a deserteed PBY and flies away from the destroyer USS Mahan to deliver enws of what happened to Captain Reddy of USS Walker.
* In AndreNorton's ''[[Literature/{{Warlock}} Ordeal In Otherwhere]]'', when Shann is captured by the Company men, Charis steals a copter to get news to Thorvald and the Wyverns. She feels quite guilty about it.

* ''SoraNoWoto'' - Someone has to warn two armies the war is over before they start a new one. Even if it takes cutting a path through your GeneralRipper forces.

** In SandyMitchell's Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''For the Emperor'', when they discover the underground [[spoiler:genestealers]], Vail has them head back. Even after the [[spoiler:apparent loss of all their companions]], Cain[[note]]HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!![[/note]] and Vail plug on.

* ''RurouniKenshin'' - AntiHero Chou [[spoiler: lies to Kamatari]] that this is the latter's duty as to prevent any further suicide attempts.

* This is pretty much the main plot in the first book of ''[[TheRiftwarCycle The Serpentwar Saga]]''. Erik and Roo ended up in the death cell and sentenced to hang. [[spoiler:They were spared with a few others after a fake hanging to serve in Calis's band of desperate men.]]

* In ''The Shiva Option'', the 4th {{Starfire}} book by DavidWeber and Steve White, an Alliance survey fleet finds a "back way" (an unusual [[OurWormholesAreDifferent warp point]] detectable from only one side) into one of the Bug home systems. It's a vastly easier avenue of attack than the direct route- but the fleet is already deep in enemy territory and cut off from retreat. In the end, it takes the HeroicSacrifice of all the fleet's fighting vessels to get the survey ships home with the news.

** '''Snowden (message)''': I appreciate your concern for my safety, but I already know how this will end for me, and I accept the risks....I ask only that you ensure this information makes it home to the American public.

* In the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', the mutant known as "Broadcast", a member of the Xhosa tribe of South Africa, used his power to turn everything he saw or heard into radio waves to get the truth about the Apartheid government's slaughter of black metahumans out to the rest of the world. In the end, he was caught, tortured, and murdered by a band of government-sponsored white supremacist "superheroes"... but [[CantStopTheSignal even as he died he was broadcasting their treatment of him to the rest of the planet]]. The Apartheid government didn't survive much longer after that...

* In ''BobAndGeorge'', [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000622c Protoman tells Roll to go with the news of the Yellow Demon's attack.]]

* In FTL; Faster Than Light, the player's ship travels through seven star sectors whilst being chased by a huge rebel fleet, in order to warn the Federation of the huge Rebel fleet.

** In JamesSwallow's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} HorusHeresy novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', Garro learns of Horus's treachery, first on Tarvitz's [[IGaveMyWord word]], then by seeing the weapons being armed on his own ship, then when an order to attack their own men is intercepted. He demands all his men and the officers of the ship [[ThePromise swear an oath of moment]] to get the word back to Terra, and they set out to do so.

Getting back may not be the end of their problems. Being the BearerOfBadNews, they are often greeted with disbelief or even MaliciousSlander; the EvilChancellor or a DividedWeFall character may try to keep them from the ReasonableAuthorityFigure.