Fanfic / Earth: A Rendezvous with Destiny

aka: Earth A Forged Destiny

Don't judge a book by its cover. Apparently we are more advanced militarily than the factions of Star Wars even with weapon systems that were state-of-the-art back in the '60s.

Earth: A Rendezvous with Destiny (originally titled as Earth: A Forged Destiny) is a fanwork created by author We'retheDesperateMeasures-ODST and collaborated with other authors on FanFiction.Net, available here.

It is posted here on Archive of Our Own and here on AlternateHistory.com as well.

The story is set in an alternate 1960s Earth placed in the same universe (but not the same galaxy) as Star Wars: The Old Republic which by unsought circumstance was thrown into an intergalactic war against the Sith Empire.

But as of Halloween / October 31st, 2022, the story is on hold and undergoing a revision due to a change of background. This page will be updated and edited as applicable to correspond with the revised work.

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Earth: A Rendezvous with Destiny contains examples of:

• The '60s: The timeline takes place in the latter half of the decade, specifically 1967 when Earth accidentally encounters the Star Wars galaxy.
• Alternate History: The whole setup of the timeline. There were already numerous points of divergences from our timeline, both before and after the galaxy discovered Earth
  • Operation Valkyrie, the German conspiracy against Adolf Hitler, succeeds.
  • Thomas Dewey actually defeats Truman in the 1948 election only to die in a plane crash early in his second term to be succeeded by his Vice President, Dwight D. Eisenhower instead of Dewey's actual running mate Earl Warren.
  • Mao Zedong died from acute heart failure in 1961, a decade earlier than his OTL death. Because of his death, China was plunged into a full-blown civil war between Maoist loyalists and the pro-Soviet CCP communists, the internal conflict lasting from 1963 to 1967. It results in a victory for Shaoqi and the pro-Soviet Chinese communists.
  • America won The Vietnam War with a treaty being signed in early 1967, only for the fighting to rekindle between the North and South followed by ARVN troops raising the South Vietnamese banner over Hanoi.
  • George S. Patton and Erwin Rommel are still alive in addition to John F. Kennedy, who survived the assassination attempt in Dallas.
  • Unexpectedly, even T. E. Lawrence appeared alive and well with Lawrence being mentioned to have conducted guerrilla warfare in Singapore against the Japanese, which led him to become known as "The Lion of Singapore" in addition to being "Lawrence of Arabia" of the previous World War.
  • Oh and Al Capone as well as Bugs Moran are still in the picture with Capone becoming the head of The Commission.
  • Plus that's not to mention that Joseph McCarthy was vindicated due to finding actual Soviet spies and has been actively engaged in rooting out KGB Agents.
  • The counterculture is also portrayed as being more chaotic than it actually was historically with mainstream citizens having a harsher backlash against Hippies and other subversives. Then there's Barry Goldwater being the Republican candidate for U.S. President in 1968 instead of 1964 and ironically he won in a landslide over Lyndon Johnson.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • There is a serious crisis in Europe between the United States and the Soviet Union that threatens to escalate the Cold War into a nuclear conflict. It happens not in Berlin but in Warsaw.
  • Thomas Dewey wins the 1948 election against Harry S. Truman. In real life, it was the other way around.
  • Like in OTL, Barry Goldwater becomes the Republican nominee for President and runs against the incumbent Democrat president. Only this time, it happens in 1968 instead of 1964 and he would win the election by a landslide over Lyndon Johnson.
  • Once again, Jack Ruby is tied to Lee Harvey Oswald and John F. Kennedy. This time, Ruby reports to the Dallas Police Department that Oswald has a gun and he is later shot dead.
  • Real-life radical feminist Valerie Solanas is involved in the attempted assassination of a prominent figure, but it's not Andy Warhol instead it is conservative icon Phyllis Schafly.
  • The disgruntled activists who openly collaborated with elements of the Viet Cong in California fought as "The Weather Underground Organization" and were known as "Weathermen".
  • Chicago had a major mob war due to a Hutt deciding that the city would be perfect for a distribution center for Spice and resulted in an unlikely alliance between Al Capone, Bugs Moran, and J. Edgar Hoover to evict the outsider.
• Anti-Magic: Due to the fact that Earth is not located within the Star Wars Galaxy, anything and everything originating from the Milky Way Galaxy is unphased by the Force, the fact of which is handicapping the Sith from utilizing the Force directly on the outside threat.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: One of the main characters, Jake, is deeply religious yet dismisses the concept of the Force and is intransigent with this viewpoint, which is also dramatically ironic as he formed a relationship with Lana Beniko, a Sith. Even more ironic is that his best friend, Sam, is described as being agnostic toward the existence of the Force as philosophically declared. To be fair, in the story, the Milky Way is explained to be completely devoid of the Force and anything native to or from the Milky Way is impervious to it.
• Armor Is Useless: The durasteel armor of Imperial Troopers fails to prevent injury and even Mandalorian Bes'kar is being penetrated by large-caliber rifle rounds from Earth with ease.
• British Nazis: The Sith Empire. The Imperials and at times the Sith are frequently referred to as "Space Brits","Space Nazis","Goosesteppers", or some variation of derision. The miffed Tommy Atkins mostly call them "Imposters" due to obvious reasons with the feeling from the Imperials being reciprocal.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: George Lucas is collaborating with Gene Roddenberry to produce a film about Revan and the crew of the Ebon Hawk to be titled as Star Wars
• Brits with Battleships: The British Military and parts of the Commonwealth have a particular annoyance with the Sith Empire in addition to their planned scheme of annexing Earth, referring to them frequently as "Impostors".
• The Cameo: George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even co-writer of the story Jacob Sailer have all made an appearance in this work.
• Cannon Fodder: The Imperial Army, despite being technologically advanced, couldn't stand its ground against Earth's military forces due to utilization of tactics to regarded as obsolete by Earth, not to mention the unified forces being led by legends such as nonother than George S. Patton and Erwin Rommel.
• Canucks with Chinooks: One of the main characters in the story is Hanzo Nilsson who is assigned to the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry of the Canadian Army and it is hinted that the often derided historic "Unification of the Canadian Military" attempt was either not implemented or was never proposed.
• Civil War: The Reawakening War in China happens because of Mao Zedong's early death and the subsequent succession crisis over who would be his successor. The Maoist side seeks to continue his ideology while the pro-Soviet government led by Liu Shaoqi wants to increase ties with the Warsaw Pact. In the end, Shaoqi and his forces emerge victorious after they crush the Maoist rebels in Hunan by 1967.
• Deep Cover Agent: A Republic Corporal, Sara Kelrein, is actually revealed to be a spy for the Sith Empire planted inside the Republic's Special Forces Division.
• Defiant to the End: Rommel killed Rakton in a badass Western style duel after the Imperial General refused to surrender despite his army being on the run
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Invoked in the story with the failure of the 1960s Counterculture and a prohibition on female troops, even if they would be relegated to rear-line duties only, from being in the Galaxy.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Thomas Dewey dies in a plane crash during his second term. In real life, he lived out the rest of his life as a lawyer and senior partner in his law firm Dewey Ballentine until he died of a heart attack in 1971 while golfing in Miami.
  • Mao Zedong succumbs to acute heart failure and dies in 1961, a decade before his OTL death.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald dies during a shootout with the Dallas police after his weapon is discovered by Jack Ruby.
  • Jack Ruby is killed by Valerie Solanas after preventing her from killing Phyllis Schaffly as opposed to suffering from pulmonary embolism and dying.
  • Eleanor Roosevelt slips on a bar of soap after stepping out of the bathtub and dies afterward. In OTL, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia after being struck by a car and would eventually succumb to the illness.
  • Bella Abzug was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant in 1958 instead of dying from complications during open heart surgery in 1998.
• Down on the Farm: It is revealed to the readers that Jake is a farm boy from Franklin Township, Marion County, Indiana; an area that used to be predominantly rural until recently despite being less than twenty miles away from the state capitol of Indianapolis.
• Flyover Country: Both Jake and Sam are from the small town of Acton, Indiana[1][2]. Acton is an actual small community located in the southeast corner of Marion County, Indiana.
• Friendly Sniper: Jake and in addition to his experience through shooting recreationally and hunting, it is mentioned that he was trained by the legendary Carlos Hathcock himself for the trade though it was circumstantially inverted in one scene during the Rakata Prime operation when Agent Theron Shan of the SIS dismissed his suggestion of providing support from a concealed perch as impractical.
• Historical Domain Character: Some (in)famous and obscure individuals from history have been portrayed or are referenced in the story such as Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Senator Barry Goldwater, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Chicago mob boss Al Capone, Tank Ace Michael Wittmann, and even a living T. E. Lawrence to name a few examples.
• Historical Downgrade: Unique for a tale, the second term of John F. Kennedy was revealed to be full of turmoil before First Contact occurred and in one scene Kennedy was found lying next to empty bottles of liquor. In the subsequent scene it was also revealed that Jaqueline was reaching her breaking point herself and was considering divorcing her husband.
  • It is also hinted that the chaos of The '60s was not only condensed to 1965 - 1967 but was also exaggerated as well.
  • The fact that Viet Cong infiltrators were active in the State of California and were openly cooperating with American collaborators comprised of disgruntled counterculture activists did not help in the slightest in addition to the seemingly ceaseless rioting by the counterculture.
• Historical Fantasy: Essentially, the story takes place in an alternate Cold War mixing the hard sci-fi technology of the 50s and 60s with the explicitly Science Fantasy and Space Opera trappings of Star Wars, specifically that of the Old Republic era.
• Hollywood Tactics: The Earth Coalition cannot comprehend the tactics used by the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire with Patton himself comparing it to the early years of World War I despite these strategies being used in the galaxy for millennia. See Opposing Combat Philosophies on this page for more.
• Honor Before Reason: General Arkos Rakton, when he attempted to go against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel despite morale of the Imperial defenders being low and the fact that he fell for the Desert Fox's trap,
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The American military doctrine used before the widespread acceptance of the M16 and Assault Rifle concept in actual history, the "Cult of the Rifleman" where Infantrymen of the United States Army were once trained to shoot out to six hundred yards, not to mention the United States Marine Corps even to date of course, is being upheld. Justified as the fatigues of the Imperial military are gray and the armor black, making them easy to spot from a distance, never mind the obvious benefit of dispatching Sith before they could dismember limbs.
  • Before the adoption of the M1 Garand and according to the "Provisional Small Arms Firing Manual: For the United States Army and for the Organized Militia of the United States, 1909" adopted by Uncle Sam five years before World War I the United States Army even fired out to 1,000 Yards (914.4 Meters) and soldiers who passed the 1,000 Yard course of fire qualified as Sharpshooter, not Expert! You can read the table for the Sharpshooter Course in the link[3]
  • The United States Marine Corps also adopted the aforementioned manual in 1912 and it was the official course of fire for the Leathernecks until 1942 when it was dropped.[4]◊ [5]
  • See this summarized six page overview of the historical course-of-fire if reading either of the manuals is too lengthy to process. [6]
• Interservice Rivalry: There has been quite a few scenes portraying the traditional rivalry between the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps, including interfamilial banter between Jake and some of his relatives but there's also the neverending feud between George S. Patton and Bernard Law Montgomery and cracks between other forces as well, not to mention per the timeline the United States Air Force is irked by both the alternate Key West Agreement of 1948 with the U.S. Army permitted to retain Close Air Support aircraft and the Army's continuing usage of the CV-2B Caribou over their objections.
• Irishman and a Jew: The friendship between Jake and Sam through their maternal side of the family, though it is mentioned that Jake's paternal side is German-American and he also is partially of Scottish descent while Sam has an ancestor who arrived in America aboard the Mayflower.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: The author apparently did his research as the M14 is, while not perfect, capable of striking man-sized targets out to 1,000 Yards/914.4 Meters, more so than the FAL and that's not to mention that the M2 Browning can hit point targets at a much further distance while within Star Wars lore: blasters, even sniper blasters, are stated to be limited to under 500 meters maximum, resulting in a potential standoff advantage and add the fact that "slugthrowers" cannot be deflected by lightsabers, the Sith and their troops are receiving major casualties before they can even use their personnel weapons.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Sara inadvertently betrayed Jake's trust after her true loyalties were discovered by Senator Krasul and Master Therin, forcing an immediate extraction. Despite attempting to prevent the "kidnapping", Jake was devastated at the revelation after watching Sara's confession on a holorecording, feeling as if he was used.
• Magnificent Bastard: Invoked as a direct, blunt reference to the 1970 hit film Patton. Patton complimented Rommel on selecting Korriban as the planetary demonstration to showcase the fact that Earth meant business.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: While it is primarily and predominantly a work of alternate history (albeit of the Alien Space Bats variety), characters from the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games, the film Kelly's Heroes, even James Bond and Indiana Jones, have appeared as cameos and that's just only a few of the listed franchises included.
• More Dakka: Averted significantly within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as the M14 Battle Rifle has become standardized across the alliance, displacing even the FAL, and the "Cult of the Rifleman" doctrine advocated by "Gravel Bellies" and the "Camp Perry Long Range Target Mafia"/"Bisley School" has been vindicated. Even the Hitchman Report has been discredited in-universe as the lack of camouflage meant that the Sith Empire unwittingly made their forces easy targets for aimed rifle fire from a distance of even 1,000 Yards (914.4 Meters) with open sights.
• One True Threesome: Invoked in the relationship between Jake, Sara, and Lana Beniko.
• Opposing Combat Philosophies: The Earth Coalition and the Galactic Republic (and Jedi Order as well of course), which combined with George S. Patton personality and views on warfare made cooperation tense at times, to say the least. This trope also was upheld when Jake and Theron disagreed whether the Marine could've snuck past the Rakatans by using camouflage without getting caught, going so far as to almost resulting in blows between them.
• Our Presidents Are Different:
  • Thomas E. Dewey is President Personable, a beloved, well-respected leader who is mourned by the American people after he dies in a plane accident.
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower is President Action, a U.S. military commander who becomes president after Dewey dies.
  • John F. Kennedy is President Ace, a talented and charismatic politician that not only signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law but he successfully reunites Vietnam under a friendly regime.
  • Barry Goldwater is a mixture of President Personable and Iron. His comments to Kennedy show that he is dedicated to preserving the liberties of all human beings as well as his policies of building F-106 starfighters and imposing tariffs on extraterrestrial-made products.
• Outside-Context Problem: The entire Star Wars galaxy is this to Earth. Not only do they possess advanced technology but they came here out of nowhere, especially in the midst of the Cold War between the democratic and communist blocs.
• Perilous Old Fool: Jake's maternal grandfather Grandpa Douglas, a career soldier of the United States Army who started out fighting Apaches after lying about his age and served in uniform until forcibly retired in the 1920s only to attempt to enlist once more during World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam. He also attempted to ride rails and stowaway on a Republic transport only to be caught attempting to sneak aboard a train by the Railroad Police.
• Puny Earthlings: Subverted after the Raid on Korriban and the Second Battle of Kuat, though there are still mixed opinions over whether Earth is a backwater with a tinge of shortsightedness or an indomitable superpower in the making, and then there's Saresh viewing the Earthlings as expendable tools.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman:
  • It is mentioned that Jack Ruby was a Patrolman of the Dallas Police Department and he was off-duty on November 22nd of 1963 when Officer Ruby spotted a rifle being aimed out of the School Book Depository. Unfortunately, Ruby was later killed by Valerie Solanas when he intervened in another assassination attempt, but this time on Phyllis Schlafly.
  • Barry Goldwater became the President of the United States in 1968 after winning the election in a landslide over Lyndon B. Johnson.
  • Due to the success of Operation Valkyrie in this timeline, Ludwig Beck was appointed by the conspirators as Chancellor of Germany until Soviet forces captured Berlin.
  • Liu Shaoqi took over the position of Chairman of the Communist Party of China after Mao Zedong's death in 1961.
• Rock Beats Laser: Earth proves itself to be more advanced militarily than the intergalactic superpowers, astonishing observers from both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire alike.
• Running Gag: Quite a few such as the mixed reception of Star Trek: The Original Series within the Star Wars Galaxy, Grandmaster Satele Shan becoming a devout Trekkie, Brits and Imperials referring to eachother as "Imposters", the fact that Jake consistently denies the existence of the Force, and even direct as well as subtle references to the Star Wars films.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall also counts as a running joke.
• Salem Is Witch Country: It is revealed that Sam has relatives in Salem, Massachusetts and during Thanksgiving he joked about how four of Jake's eccentric maternal cousins might burn sorcerers, i.e. Jedi, at the stake, causing Jake and his paternal relative Cade to cringe at the thought.
• Santa's Existence Clause: Santa exists and it is emphatically stated that he doesn't use the Force. In fact, the Jedi Order are absolutely befuddled how Reindeer could possibly fly and previously considered flying deer to be hyperbole.
• Scotireland: Subverted somewhat as the author is attempting care to differentiate between Scotland and Ireland in regard to Jake's maternal ancestry.
• Semper Fi: One of the main characters, Jake, is a Leatherneck of the United States Marine Corps who formerly was serving as a 5811 Military Policeman in the branch until the Marine Raiders [7] were reconstituted after the nations of Earth joined the conflict as an ally of the Galactic Republic. His two uncles, Stephen and Jack, were in the Second Raider Battalion under Evans Carlson during the Second World War and were later recalled to duty for the intergalactic conflict, while one of Jake's cousins on his father side, Zach, is a 2112 Rifle Team Equipment Repairman and a maternal cousin, Sean, is a 0311 Rifleman.
• Show Within a Show: Star Wars in collaboration between George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, and even the co-writer of the story, Jacob Sailer.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Rebbeca Meyer, the mother of Jake, was revealed to be an adamant believer of staying in her place, and not only is she an upholder of the inveterate conventions, she is actively involved with Minute Women of the U.S.A. as well as its affiliated sister organization for Catholic women: the American Public Relations Forum, two organizations which once actually existed.
  • It is confirmed by the author of the fanfic that the character is even more of a reactionary compared to her son and Jake in comparison was already on the fringe as it is. In other words, Jake is merely Archconservative in his beliefs while his mother is even more to the right.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Some historical figures lived much longer than in our timeline such as Erwin Rommel, George S. Patton,and John F. Kennedy.
• The Vietnam Vet: One of the main characters, Jake, suffered from PTSD triggered by the truth regarding his love interest. Another main character for the story, Hanzo Nilsson, had a recurrence in the midst of battle. Most of the American servicemen initially engaging the Sith Empire were veterans of the Vietnam War with recalled personnel from the Second World War and Korea filling the void, not to mention fresh recruits and draftees.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: It has been referenced a few times that Jane Fonda was successfully convicted of treason by the Federal Government and was executed by electric chair due to her activities of giving aid and comfort to North Vietnamese forces in Vietnam.
• The Teutonic Knights: Jake had a dream about the Teutonic Order fighting Sith that aligned themselves with a Pagan tribe in the Baltics and the Crusaders mistakenly thought the stranded Purebloods were Demons. Less than 24 hours later, back on Earth, a Soviet research team determined that a derelict spaceship they excavated in Kaliningrad Oblast was in fact a Derriphan-class battleship from the Great Hyperspace War, possibly one which fled from the Sith Holocaust, only for the castaways seeking refuge with the Old Prussians to be confronted by a lance of the Teutonic Order and put to the sword by the German crusaders.
  • While ambiguous, it is revealed that a few of the Crusaders actually did endure a demonic incursion prior to this occurrence, hinting that there's another player yet to be revealed.
  • Regarding the dream, as of this time it remains to be determined due to the factors as mentioned above if it is the Force getting through or - assuming that it is using elements Indiana Jones as well as directly from The Bible - a revelation from elsewhere with the latter being more probable.
• War Is Hell: The Earth Coalition and the Galactic Republic jointly invaded Korriban and Earth utterly thrashed the defenders, even impressing the Pubs with their might. The Soviets also committed a campaign of mass murder against the survivors of the second phase in which Rakton was killed by Rommel.
• Was It All a Lie?: Sara and Jake during their unexpected reunion on Korriban. It was awkward to say the least...
• Wild Weasel: Legendary fighter ace Brigadier General Robin Olds of the United States Air Force led a Wild Weasel taskforce during the raid on Korriban to target the Imperial Anti-Air batteries before the main attack commenced.
• Yanks with Tanks: George S. Patton, Patton's second cousin legendary Marine Chesty Puller, Robin Olds, Admiral Raymond Spruance, and Colonel Hal Moore. The Empire unleashed Pandora's Box from not just Eagle Land of course but at the same time, these are some of the American contributions as Mad Jack Churchill can't fight the war by himself after all.

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