Stardust: The Dark Pokémon Wars
is a Pokémon Fanfic written by Chris Ganale. As this author is prone to do, Stardust takes the concept provided by Pokémon Master and revisits it while remaining largely true to the original plot. Only, where Pokémon MASTERS focuses on Ash and the Rebellion against the League, Stardust attempts to tell the untold story of the titular Dark Pokémon Wars that were in the backstory of Pokémon MASTERS.
The story begins In Medias Res, with a brief prologue outlining the state of affairs two years into the war: Team Rocket seized a large number of military assets worldwide and initiated a global war against the regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and the new kids on the block: the Republic of Seafoam. Rocket controls most of Kanto and Johto, the other factions control their territories, and the war is largely a stalemate.
Enter Commander Mars, freshly betrayed by Team Galactic, joining the Republic of Seafoam Air Force's elite fighter group Raven Squadron. Arriving just as operations are unfolding to alter the status quo, Mars leaves her past and Galactic name behind, attempting to find her place in a new faction, in a conflict where nothing is certain and no future is guaranteed.
Due to having joined the PokéFiends RP and reinvented Seafoam and its history there, this has become a Dead Fic, but a significant chunk of the plot and characters will be recycled in that plotline.
Stardust: The Dark Pokémon Wars provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ace Pilot: A full squadron of them. Raven Squadron is touted as the elite of the elite of the Allied forces
- Adaptational Badass: The Seafoam Islands, at best portrayed as a nifty resort location in the anime, has become an eight-island archipelago with a fully self-sustaining economy, large population, and the most powerful military force in the world in terms of manpower to killpower
- The Alliance: Teamed up against the Rocket Army are the nations of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and the Republic of Seafoam. They are collectively referred to as the Global Pokémon League, shortened to either the GPL or simply the Alliance
- A Mother To Her Men: Rebekah Tanner is most definitely this. She views her squad as family, and even after having only been in command of Mars for less than five minutes, she was ready to kill the Hoenn troops that had attacked her
- And This Is for...: The logic of the two Hoenn soldiers that assaulted Mars in the processing station, claiming that friends of theirs had been killed by Galactic and so were taking it out on her. It didn't end well for them
- Arch-Enemy: Jupiter is this to Mars
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Implied by Mars to be part of the reason for the fanatic loyalty of Galactic's commanders and Mooks to Cyrus
- Civil War: Seafoam was embroiled in a bitter one for almost the running-length of the war to date, due to the disproportionate amount of infiltrators that the Rocket forces sent there in order to keep the powerful military nation occupied. The war just ended with Seafoam victory a few months prior to the start of the story
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: During the beginning of the briefing in the second chapter, the various factions were arranged by the following color scheme. Turquoise for Seafoam, red for Hoenn, beige for Sinnoh, gray for Galactic, indigo for Kanto, light blue for Johto, and black for Rocket
- Cool Plane: It's less the actual planes themselves and more their custom paint schemes. Rebekah's Mirage-2000 sports an orange-with-white-trim pattern, Alex's Rafale is pink-with-white-trim. Played straight with Ganale's F-22A Raptor
- Crapsack World: The Middle East wars wound down only a few years ago, at which time Rocket decided it would be the perfect time to stage their grab for world domination by infiltrating every major world power. They control nearly all of the regions of the first two generations of games, their biggest threat just came out of a crippling Civil War, and according to Mars, Cyrus has yet to enact his whole "rewrite the world" gambit
- Disproportionate Retribution: Subverted. Captain Ganale hit the two Hoenn soldiers exactly as many times as they had hit Mars
- Does Not Like Guns: Erika, according to the half of the conversation between her and Ganale that is overheard by Mars
- Do Not Call Me Mars: Inverted. To distance herself from Team Galactic and denote that she has changed her life, Mars returns to her birth name, Alessa Zelle
- The Dreaded: Dialogue indicates this is how Paul Hinkson is (jokingly?) viewed by his squad
- Eagleland: The Republic of Seafoam is unquestionably a Type 1
- Forever War: Due to the stalemate in the war, this is what the Dark Pokémon Wars feel like to the participants. It isn't even called the Dark Pokémon Wars yet; it's simply "The War"
- Good Feels Good: Mars' emotional reaction to the very strong welcome sensation she gets at Seafoam
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Team Rocket isn't such a joke anymore
- Gory Discretion Shot: The flashback of the betrayal mission mentions a sniper attack that "had nearly taken her arm off" and goes into no further detail. She simply went from standing to on the ground hearing and seeing her squad die around her
- Government in Exile: The governments of Kanto and Johto, with their lands taken over by Team Rocket, run what's left of their military and nations from Hoenn
- Gray Rain of Depression: "It was raining the day that she came to Seafoam for the first time." It also rained during the mission in which she was betrayed and nearly killed prior to joining the Allied forces. The rain at Seafoam serves to underscore her abysmal mental state
- Heel–Face Turn: Mars was content with her role in Team Galactic until Jupiter arranged a fake operation and betrayed her presence to the enemy, intending to get her killed. It didn't, and Mars joined the Alliance with lots of wonderful intel.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Subverted. The captain specifically puts on a glove brace before he sets in on the Hoenn soldiers to protect his hand.
- Mildly Military: Played straight and subverted. Played straight in that unlike any other military fighter squadron, each pilot has a unique aircraft, with a custom paint scheme, and don't seem too worried about following military regulations or customs and courtesies. On the other hand, the author sneaks in a lot of various bits of military trivia one can only know about from experiencing it firsthand
- Military Mashup Machine: The Floating Military Facility in the middle of the lagoon is envisioned as having began its life as something similar to an oil rig, expanded to an absurd size that houses airfields, shipyards, barracks and training facilities for all branches, and enough weapon emplacements to defend itself from a determined attack
- Mission Briefing: The latter half of chapter two, given by Rebekah, which also includes a more in-depth look at the arrangement of factions over the various regions
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Alexander Akai plays the part of an idiot all too well
- Oh, Crap!: The reaction of the Seafoam soldiers who did nothing to stop the Hoenn soldiers from assaulting Mars, when one of the Ace Pilots of Seafoam showed up
- Real Men Fly Pink Planes: According to Alex. Given his personality, it's safe to judge he does it to piss off his allies and his enemies
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Averted. Seafoam gladly and openly takes defectors from any faction, including their allies. But their harsh and brutal methods of dealing with those who then reveal themselves to be Fake Defectors or The Mole has caused most to believe that this is Seafoam's standard operating procedure
- Seafoam Saves the Day: The opinions of the squad when informed of their mission to infiltrate enemy-held territory and assist in the construction of a new air base, with no support from allied nations, and forced to follow heavily-restrictive rules of engagement. Given that the tale focuses on the military of Seafoam, time will tell how straight this is played
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Mars is quiet, subdued, and seems to have completely lost her infatuation with Cyrus as portrayed in the games and anime. This is due to being betrayed by Jupiter in an effort to kill her off, witnessing her prized Purugly killed in battle right in front of her, and then being harassed continuously by fellow trainees and active Hoenn soldiers after defecting from Galactic to the allied forces. And even she realizes she probably needs professional help
- The Squad: Though some of the archetypes don't exactly match, you have Raven Squadron.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Not exactly to type, but it is notable that Mars' first positive interaction with military personnel of Seafoam were Captain Ganale and Sergeant Goldberg
- Majorly Awesome: Major Rebekah Tanner
- New Meat: Jeremiah Vance is regarded as this, and Mars is this
- The Quiet One: Paul Hinkson. Other than introducing himself to Mars and noting that his job in the squad was 'pain,' he hasn't said much else
- The Squadette: Mars, Rebekah, and the other currently-unnamed female pilot all fall into this category
- Techno Babble: The author sometimes goes into considerable detail about pieces of military hardware
- Token Evil Teammate: Given that the only mention of Hoenn forces so far have all been in a negative light (two soldiers in the first chapter beating Mars for no appropriate reason, other trainees and military training instructors harassing her over her past affiliations in basic training), Hoenn's forces are coming across this way
- Training from Hell: More emotional than physical on Mars' part, as during her basic military training, others recognized her as a Galactic commander and went out of their way to make her life miserable
- War Is Hell: The prologue specifically stated, and Mars' flashback of her betrayal demonstrated, that Pokémon are used in conjunction with modern weapons of warfare
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Jupiter took advantage of the war environment to enact this against Mars
