Line #37 Fanfic/BeatTheDrumsOfWar


1	''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11288250/1/Beat-the-Drums-of-War Beat the Drums of War]]'' is a ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fanfic by Tropers/StarSword and Worffan101, set in the ''Fanfic/BaitAndSwitchSTO'' universe. It is a {{novelization}} of the mission "[[http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_Blood_of_Ancients Blood of the Ancients]]".
2
3	The Alpha Quadrant Alliance mobilizes for war with the Iconians. While the Federation scrambles to add other regional powers to the coalition that is all that stands between the Heralds and trillions of lives, Captain Kanril Eleya of the USS ''Bajor'' is assigned to a joint task force led by Admiral D'trel of the RRW ''Vengeance''. But after Starbase 234 falls and the Iconians land on New Romulus, events take an unexpected turn.
4	----
5	!!Tropes:
6	* AdaptationExpansion: In addition to the canon battle scenes from "Blood of the Ancients", the Iconians also hit several other planets. {{Enforced}} because the authors were in the section of STO's playerbase that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot were profoundly disappointed with the limited canonical portrayal of the Iconian War]].
7	** They attack [=Qo'noS=] and are challenged by a fleet led by Chancellor J'mpok (stated to be inspired by the STF "Gateway to Gre'thor"). [[spoiler:The IKS ''[=Bortasqu'=]'' is knocked out in the first volley, J'mpok's flagship is trashed, the fleet is decimated due to J'mpok's [[AttackAttackAttack poor tactics]], and the day is only saved by Brokosh, Ja'rod, and Worf leading a ragtag fleet of vassal races, mercenaries, and dishonored warriors in a surprise attack on the Heralds' flanks.]]
8	** Tuvok gets the Undine to help out when the Heralds attack Vulcan, completing the HeelRaceTurn from ''Fanfic/RealityIsFluid'' and "[[http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_Mindscape Mindscape]]". [[TheCavalry The Undine bring over a thousand bioships]] and [[CurbStompBattle destroy the entire Iconian fleet in minutes with minimal casualties]].
9	** The Iconians land on Bajor and are met by the full force of the Bajoran Militia. [[spoiler:Turns out Herald Harbingers are no match for main battle tanks. [[FromBadToWorse Oh, and then Dominion forces led by Odo join in.]]]]
10	** A joint Romulan/Delta Quadrant force stays behind to defend New Romulus against a renewed Herald attack. [[spoiler:Then the Romulan Star Empire joins in as TheCavalry.]]
11	** The Iconians attempt to attack Earth, [[spoiler:but are redirected into a black hole]].
12	** Another battle is mentioned at Tellar, while the Cardassians withdrew to Cardassia Prime in expectation of an attack that never came.
13	* AllOfThem: During the battle over New Romulus, Obisek goes to evacuate Proconsul D'Tan. They're interrupted by the ambassador from the Romulan Star Empire.
14	-->'''Ambassador tr'Ethian:''' [[spoiler:Evacuate? In our moment of triumph?]]\
15	'''Reman Shadow Guard:''' [[spoiler:What are you saying, ''[[FantasticSlurs ehl'alha]]''?]]\
16	'''tr'Ethian:''' [[spoiler:The ''fvillhu''[[note]]referring to Praetor Velal tr'Hrienteh, the leader of the Romulan Star Empire[[/note]] has sent the ''Galae''![[note]]the Romulan Star Empire's SpaceNavy[[/note]]]]\
17	'''D'Tan:''' [[spoiler:How many ships, ''Llairhi'' tr'Ethian?]]\
18	'''tr'Ethian:''' [[spoiler:No, you, don't understand, ''[[FantasticHonorifics lhhei]]'', he sent the ''Galae'', the ''entire Galae''!]]\
19	[[spoiler:''(Followed by [[TheCavalry a fleet of Star Empire warbirds decloaking in orbit and laying a metric ton of whoop-ass on the Heralds' rears]].)'']]
20	* TheAlliance: The Federation sent envoys begging for help to pretty much every major power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. In addition to the canonical members (the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Republic), troops from the Delta Alliance help defend New Romulus [[spoiler:eventually assisted by the Romulan Star Empire]], while [[spoiler:the Dominion joins in the defense of Bajor]].
21	* AscendedGlitch: More like Ascended Typo. ''Star Trek Online'' has long had a mistake in the title of a doff assignment[[note]]A sort of minor mission that trading-card-like "duty officers" can be used to complete for small rewards[[/note]], "Investigate Rumors of Klingon Intelligence". This was meant as "Klingon Intelligence has infiltrated your ship" but led to jokes about Klingons being rumored to be intelligent. Including one made by Eleya on Lae'nas III in-story.
22	* BadBoss: Crossed with StupidEvil in the case of Venerated-Beyond-Measure. He vaporizes one of his henchmen not because YouHaveFailedMe, but for interrupting him to share mission-relevant information. [[spoiler:Gives him a KarmicDeath when a ''different'' henchman interrupts him for the same reason, only he doesn't have time to do anything about it because the IRW ''Lost Road'' thalarons all of them immediately afterward.]]
23	* BayonetYa: Eleya kills a Harbinger with a thrown rifle bayonet on Lae'nas III.
24	* BloodKnight: As in ''Fanfic/PeaceForgedInFire'', PlayedForLaughs with Koren, who flies her ship straight into an Iconian dreadnought's [[WaveMotionGun main gun]], with predictable results.
25	* ContinuityNod: Admiral Yarlin Dao comments that the rendezvous point for the evacuees from Starbase 234 is Narendra III because "the local Klingons owe us a favor." This seems to refer back to the loss of the ''Enterprise''-C defending the planet ("Yesterday's Enterprise").
26	* CrisisCrossover: Between Tropers/StarSword and Tropers/{{Worffan101}}'s characters. The fic trades off perspectives between Eleya and D'trel. Brokosh and Morgan t'Thavrau also make appearances.
27	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Min'tak'allan is killed instantly by shrapnel when the ''Vengeance'' is hit by the Heralds.]]
28	* DudeNotFunny: InUniverse example. Jak goes too far in being VitriolicBestBuds with Eleya when he makes a sarcastic remark about the Bajorans needing "a bleeding-heart Federation handout". [[spoiler:She gets him back by kicking his ass in the sparring ring after the battle.]]
29	* EvilIsHammy: Supreme High Lord Inevitably-Fated-for-Greatness is noteworthy for the sheer laughable arrogance of his introductory speech, but all Iconians fit this trope. Worffan101 has repeatedly stated his dislike of STO's portrayal of the Iconians, and reacted by taking the hammy SufficientlyAdvancedAliens of the game to their logical extreme.
30	* FantasticShipPrefix: A Benthan Guard ship is given the prefix BGV, likely meaning Benthan Guard Vessel.
31	* GeneralFailure: Due to being racist, lazy, astoundingly arrogant fools, all Iconians fit this trope to a T. [[BadBoss Supreme]] [[LargeHamTitle High Lord]] [[StupidEvil Venerated]]-[[EvilIsPetty Beyond]]-[[EpicFail Measure]] manages the most impressive case of this, due to ''executing one of his minions for interrupting him with warning of a flanking attack by Romulan reinforcements''.
32	* HeroicSacrifice:
33	** [[spoiler:Captain Jojo Appiah of Starbase 234 gives his life in a holding action against the Heralds to cover the fleet's retreat from battle, finally self-destructing his station to avoid capture.]]
34	** [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted with Rear Admiral Zandra Taitt. She planned to use {{technobabble}} to make the Heralds gate into a black hole and then bail out of the USS ''Caelian'' before it was destroyed as part of the plan, but the Heralds showed up too early so she didn't have time to get off.]]
35	** [[spoiler:The heavily damaged Benthan flagship sacrifices itself to shield the ''Bloodwing'' from a Herald ramming attack. At least some of the crew get out in the {{Escape Pod}}s, though.]]
36	* HumansAreWhite: Averted, as usual for these authors. Captain Jojo Appiah of Starbase 234 is black with a Ghanaian name.
37	* HypercompetentSidekick: Servitor 18754, to Inevitably-Fated-for-Greatness. He plays SHLIFFG's arrogance and ignorance like a harp in Chapter 2, convincing the Iconian to read "The Art of War", pulls SHLIFFG's ship out of the Lae'nas III battle after Kanril blows up the command chamber with a torpedo, and manages to make the Iconian understand military tactics. All this while technically being just a low-ranking engineer. [[spoiler:Inevitably-Fated-for-Greatness makes 18754 his GrandVizier in the epilogue]]
38	* IncomingHam: PlayedForLaughs. Multiple Iconians give hammy introductory speeches; even some of the Heralds get in on the action. Of special note is Supreme High Lord Inevitably-Fated-for-Greatness's opening rant, which is mostly a description of SHLIFFG's titles and parentage. At one point SHLIFFG starts to do this, only to have Eleya's communications officer mute the transmission.
39	* KarmicDeath[=/=]{{Revenge}}: [[spoiler:Admiral Satali t'Tyrava of the Romulan Star Empire views using thalaron weapons in a surprise attack on the Heralds as vengeance for the destruction of Romulus and the death of Spock.]]
40	-->'''t'Tyrava:''' [[spoiler:Today we avenge the Loss, and the Sacrifice. Today we avenge ch'Rihan.]]
41	* LampshadeHanging: D'trel wonders why nobody thought to [[spoiler:mine the Preserver Archive for information]] before the Iconians invaded, and later President Okeg says he'll launch a full investigation. (The complaint about that PlotHole in the canonical mission was originally raised on the STO forums.)
42	* LargeHam: All Iconians, but especially [[LargeHamTitle Supreme High Lord Inevitably-Fated-for-Greatness]]. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by multiple characters: in one case Eleya's communications officer just mutes him mid-speech and he keeps going in the background.
43	* LargeHamTitle: All Iconians, but taken up to eleven with SHLIFFG's father, Eternal Grand Supreme High Emperor Destined-for-Glorious-Deeds. And that's just the ''shortest'' version of his formal name: The full version is stated to have more titles attached than is practical for even the Iconians to use, and the bit that is shown is a nonstop train of pretentious honorifics.
44	* MeaningfulName:
45	** D'trel's flagship, the ''Vengeance''. This refers to D'trel's personal revenge on the people who cause her life to be a TraumaCongaLine, rather than to the concept as a whole; Romulans do not normally name starships after abstract concepts. [[spoiler:After ''Vengeance'' is damaged beyond repair, she gets a new ship, ''Sword of Hope'', signifying some CharacterDevelopment.]]
46	** A Preserver refers to Eleya as an "Insh'alhalan" rather than a Bajoran, explained as the name the Bajorans used for themselves in ancient times before the nation of Bajora began to expand across the planet Bajor. "Insh'alhalan" is close to the Arabic word "''inshallah''", "God willing", which fits the Bajorans' main [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] of being the only major overtly religious species in ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
47	* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: Actually {{subverted\|Trope}}. A Preserver refers to Eleya as an "Insh'alhalan" rather than a Bajoran, explained as the name the Bajorans used for themselves in ancient times before the nation of Bajora began to expand across the planet Bajor.
48	* OhCrap: High Lord Fated-for-a-Glorious-Life has one of these when the Undine arrive at Vulcan to kick his ass.
49	* PardonMyKlingon: Mostly from Eleya, [[SirSwearsALot as per usual]]. Turns out she can cuss in Nausicaan in addition to Bajoran, English, and Klingon:
50	-->'''Eleya:''' What was that?\
51	'''Jak:''' Sexual themes, sir. Sexual themes. Too delicate for your Federation sensibilities.\
52	'''Eleya:''' Try me, ''jok an chak shattuk noj''.
53	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: {{Deconstructed}} and {{Reconstruction}}. The Klingons take massive casualties in the initial Iconian attack on Qo'noS, as their "honor and glory" tactics of flying straight into Herald main guns are...[[EpicFail less than effective]]. It's [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Worf]], who considers honor to be fighting for the right cause rather than fighting in a particularly straightforward fashion, who launches a massive flanking attack against the Heralds' unprotected rear, eventually beating them back from Qo'noS.
54	* PyrrhicVictory: The Alliance fights off the Iconians, killing multiple Iconian commanders and overcoming vast numerical and technological disadvantages, but [[spoiler:the Klingon military is crippled, the Tellarite home fleet is obliterated, the Romulan Republic took heavy casualties, the Preserver Archive was destroyed with only four relatively unimportant Preservers surviving (meaning that the Alliance now has to spend a substantial amount of time decoding the Preserver data), and several senior Alliance commanders are dead]]. More personally, D'trel [[spoiler:loses her sensor officer, her ship, and almost half of her crew]].
55	-->'''Eleya:''' We hold the field, but this isn't a victory.
56	* RammingAlwaysWorks:
57	** Supreme High Lord Venerated-Beyond-Measure comments in an InternalMonologue that Romulan ships are surprisingly destructive in ramming attacks, seeing as how their power supply is a confined black hole.
58	** [[spoiler:A series of ramming attempts by the Heralds is what finally disables the ''Vengeance''.]]
59	* RedShirt: Admiral Yarlin Dao is introduced as Eleya's former superior (he was the Commandant of Bajoran Militia Space Arm, then transferred to Starfleet when his home service was shut down), only to [[GoingDownWithTheShip Go Down with the Ship]] a page later.
60	* RefusalOfTheCall: TheAlliance reaches out to the Vaadwaur in hopes of getting them to come into the war, but Overseer Eldex refuses because he plain can't risk the losses after the events of ''Delta Rising'' (though he does wish them the best of luck).
61	* ShoutOut:
62	** The Benthan flagship, which is destroyed over New Romulus, is the BGV ''[[Franchise/MassEffect Destiny Ascension]]''.
63	** SHLIFFG's flagship is the ''[[Literature/HaloFirstStrike Unyielding Hierophant]]''.
64	** The Iconian's arrogance, hamminess, and tendency to kill their soldiers seem to have been inspired by [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Visser Three]].
65	* ShownTheirWork[=/=]TargetSpotter: The scene on Bajor is told from the perspective of a Bajoran Militia artillery spotter, using accurate lingo. Both authors prefer to avoid HollywoodTactics as a rule, being avowed fans of Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine and its relatively realistic depiction of military action.
66	* SmashTheSymbol: D'trel's motivations have been gradually developing beyond RoaringRampageOfRevenge since ''Fanfic/PeaceForgedInFire''. [[spoiler:The culmination comes when her ship, ''Vengeance'', is damaged beyond repair over Lae'nas III. She takes a new ship in the epilogue, an ''Ar'Kif''-class carrier named ''Sword of Hope''.]]
67	* SoldierVsWarrior: The Klingons' tendency to charge in for glory and honor leads to bloody head-on attacks that do absolutely no good at [=Qo'noS=]. In contrast, the Andorians, a Proud ''Soldier'' Race, use HitAndRunTactics, SpaceMines, and ballistic missiles to overwhelm the Heralds in stages, the Bajorans fight fire with fire using heavy armor, airstrikes, and artillery from long range, while Starfleet uses {{technobabble}} and foils the attack on Earth altogether by [[spoiler:forcing the Heralds to gate into a black hole]]. (Tropers/StarSword is not a fan of post-TNG Klingons.)
68	* StupidEvil: Supreme High Lord Venerated-Beyond-Measure is especially pointlessly and self-sabotagingly cruel, but all Iconians are this to some extent. Star-of-Glorious-Majesty even ''kills his own bodyguards'' because he hit one by accident during a temper tantrum, with [[BoomHeadshot predictable]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill results]].
69	* TankGoodness: In one scene Bajoran Militia infantry are having to retreat from Herald ground forces, and the Harbinger leading the Heralds starts monologuing about how they cannot stand before the might of the Iconian Empire. He's KilledMidSentence by a shot from a Bajoran tank two kilometers away.
70	* {{Technobabble}}: {{Subverted}}. Zandra Taitt starts to explain her plan to stop the Heralds to Jorel Quinn, but he stops her because he didn't understand it the first time.
71	* TooDumbToLive: Star-of-Glorious-Majesty kills the Heralds that were using their bodies to shield him from enemy fire because he accidentally hits one during his temper tantrum. He is killed seconds later. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill By 5 people shooting him at once, and a grenade launcher]].
72	* WaveMotionGun: Iconian dreadnoughts have these as their main guns. Captain Kanril actually [[LampshadeHanging calls it]] a WaveMotionGun in chapter 3.

Context Fanfic / BeatTheDrumsOfWar