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Now that SW has beaten an ultra-organic foe...
Posted: 2003-11-25 12:24pm
by Kuja
How about making the next enemy ultra-technological?
I've been cooking up a little scenario when I've got nothing else to think about, and I think it would turn out pretty good. It's a continuation of what I posted in
this thread.
Anyway, four years have passed since the end of the Vong invasion, and the Republic and the League are in a type of Cold War. The Republic paints the League as a group of Imperialist militants, and the League responds by showing the Republic to be a bunch of slack-spined no-nothings. Thnigs are starting to heat up when reports of an attack in the outer rim describe a previously unknown race. Fearful of another invasion akin to the Vuuzhan Vong, both the Republic and the League dispatch a task force.
As they drop out of hyperspace, they are treated to a sight like no other. Eighteen massive ships, black as death and shaped like long daggers, hang in orbit around the planet Gendan, frying it with unknown beam weaponry. Just outside the system are hundreds more of the ships, ecorting several gigantic worldships. As the SW ships move to intercept the advance group, one of the worldships makes a transmission in clear Basic: REVEAL THE YUUZHAN VONG OR SUFFER THE SAME FATE.
The Republic Admiral begins a frantic dialogue with the unknowns as the ships turn from the now-dead world and move to attack the fleet. It turns out that this race calls themself the Zeen, and they have been pursuing the Vong across the universe. When the League shows proof that the Vong are dead and not in hiding, the Zeen quickly back off and apologize for their attack. They call for a conference and represntatives from both the major players arrive, each hoping to recruit this powerful new race.
The Zeen are a humanoid race and are physically nonthreatening, ranging from four and a half to five feet tall and lightly muscled. They have only three fingers on each hand, but have two thumbs on either side, making them extremely dextrous. As a rule, their hair is silvery, nearly white, and their eyes lack irises. Their voices are soft and musical, and combined with the above, some people find it difficult to grasp the concept that such a delicate race could be so vicious on the battlefield.
As the talks begin, Admiral Halkun candidly admits that he engineered the destruction of the Vong. The Zeen representative, a male named Sen'za, immediately begins an animated dialogue with him to the exclusion of the Republic's rep, Princess Leia. It quickly becomes clear the despite their soft appearence, the Zen are deadly warriors at heart: they are the ones who attacked the Vong homeworld and forced them to flee to another galaxy. Leia asks why they would do such a thing, and Sen'za coldly replies, "it needed to be done. Beyond that, you needn't concern yourself." When Leia asks how the Zeen learned basic, Sen'za simply smiles and changes the subject. He continues to casually infuriate Leia until she angrily excuses herself from the table.
I can type up more if you want, so let me know what you think.
Posted: 2003-11-25 01:59pm
by nightmare
Might make a good fanfic.
Posted: 2003-11-25 02:30pm
by Praxis
Good fanfic, but i'm not sure about a novel series. Going out of one huge galactic war with an intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy and that has just left the galaxy in ruins, against an even MORE powerful intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy which has just been left in ruins, is a tad bit too repetative.
Posted: 2003-11-25 02:34pm
by Kuja
Praxis wrote:Good fanfic, but i'm not sure about a novel series. Going out of one huge galactic war with an intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy and that has just left the galaxy in ruins, against an even MORE powerful intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy which has just been left in ruins, is a tad bit too repetative.
That isn't what would happen.
Posted: 2003-11-25 04:57pm
by Natorgator
Kuja wrote:
That isn't what would happen.
Then by all means, please continue...
Posted: 2003-11-26 05:36am
by SPOOFE
A cold war? A COLD war, you say? Not the Same Old Thing, as some warsies want? I've seen people suggesting stuff like "And let's have the Impreial Remnant take over the galaxy and clone Emperor Palpatine and that would be 1337 r0x0rzzzzz!!"
Those people, of course, are uncreative and should be culled.
You, on the other hand, show potential. Please, by all means, develop this cold war.
But do the universe a favor and give the League some kind of starship other than Yet Another TIE Variant. For the love of nipples.
Posted: 2003-11-26 07:15am
by Vympel
Why don't we give the post-OT EU a bit of a rest.
Posted: 2003-11-26 08:09am
by Darth Fanboy
The only problem with this scenario, I thought the Vong DEFEATED the technological race repressed that oppressed them and then ravaged their own galaxy and holdings to the point where it was no longer able to support their species.
Things Id like to see when the EU resumes in 2005:
-Fragmentation of the Galaxy into multiple nations as opposed to two or three major factions, with the Jedi dealing with their obligations to every nation and trying to eliminate an aura of favortism
-A new name for the Imperial Remnant
-Jedi serving within systems and territories not controlled by the Republic/GFFA. The potential for division within the order as nations engage in conflict with each other would be juicy.
-FETT'S NEW MANDALORIANS!
-eventually after depicting the fragmented Galaxy for awhile a series of wars known as the "Unification Wars" would be fought (Ironic Connection or sheer coincidence with regards to the unifying force? you decide!) Galactic Society under one government would be restored. By the time of these wars luke Skywalker would have long passed due to old age.
Re: Now that SW has beaten an ultra-organic foe...
Posted: 2003-11-26 11:43am
by Peregrin Toker
Kuja wrote:
The Zeen are a humanoid race and are physically nonthreatening, ranging from four and a half to five feet tall and lightly muscled. They have only three fingers on each hand, but have two thumbs on either side, making them extremely dextrous. As a rule, their hair is silvery, nearly white, and their eyes lack irises. Their voices are soft and musical, and combined with the above, some people find it difficult to grasp the concept that such a delicate race could be so vicious on the battlefield.
As the talks begin, Admiral Halkun candidly admits that he engineered the destruction of the Vong. The Zeen representative, a male named Sen'za, immediately begins an animated dialogue with him to the exclusion of the Republic's rep, Princess Leia. It quickly becomes clear the despite their soft appearence, the Zen are deadly warriors at heart: they are the ones who attacked the Vong homeworld and forced them to flee to another galaxy. Leia asks why they would do such a thing, and Sen'za coldly replies, "it needed to be done. Beyond that, you needn't concern yourself." When Leia asks how the Zeen learned basic, Sen'za simply smiles and changes the subject. He continues to casually infuriate Leia until she angrily excuses herself from the table..
The Zeen sound interesting - although I have the feeling that you might have based
very vaguely them upon the Xril from my original fic "The Wormhole War", they sound like a nice representation of the
other extreme of the Stereotypical Grey Alien archetype.... the "angelic people of light" end of the SGA archetype (as in Spielberg's CE3K) have already been represented by the Kaminoans, and the Zeen would then represent the sort of diabolical, malevolent Greys which we all know and love-to-hate from conspiracy theories and urban legends.
In fact, while you haven't even said whether the Zeen's skin actually is grey, they Zeen are probably more faithful to the SGA stereotype than the Kaminoans. (No, I'm not being sarcastic!)
Posted: 2003-11-26 11:58am
by Illuminatus Primus
Vympel wrote:Why don't we give the post-OT EU a bit of a rest.
Agreed.
And shouldn't this be in fanfics?
Posted: 2003-11-26 02:28pm
by Kuja
Illuminatus Primus wrote:And shouldn't this be in fanfics?
LOL, it probably does belong there. I posted it on sheer impulse and I thought PSW would be the right place to do it.
Re: Now that SW has beaten an ultra-organic foe...
Posted: 2003-11-26 02:30pm
by Kuja
Simon H.Johansen wrote:The Zeen sound interesting - although I have the feeling that you might have based very vaguely them upon the Xril from my original fic "The Wormhole War",
Since I haven't read TWW, that would be impossible.
Re: Now that SW has beaten an ultra-organic foe...
Posted: 2003-11-26 03:15pm
by Peregrin Toker
Kuja wrote:Simon H.Johansen wrote:The Zeen sound interesting - although I have the feeling that you might have based very vaguely them upon the Xril from my original fic "The Wormhole War",
Since I haven't read TWW, that would be impossible.
Oh, in case you haven't:
(SPOILERS BELOW - A lot of it is background info I haven't posted yet in the actual story):
The Xril are nocturnal humanoids inhabiting the planets orbiting the star Xholnra. They look like humans, but taller, thinner and paler. Oh, and they're bald and have pointy ears. The planet they call home is the overpopulated Xhatrr, which is smaller than Earth but bigger than Mars.
Currently - they're ruled by a dictator called Zxavor who came to power during a civil war called The Great Uprising. The Xril authorities rule with an iron fist, using a "telepathic network" (an internet-like system of cybernetic thingies which all Xril have, enabling them to communicate telepathically with each other, as well as artificial intelligences hooked up to this network) to brainwash the citizens into servitude, but on some of the more distant planets in the Xholnra system,
Matrix-style groups of hackers have broken free from the system and - due to the incompetence of some Xril officials - annoyed the heck out of Zxavor. That was a bit of a red herring - the main point of the story is that the Xril have invented a way to generate wormholes artificially (never explained how), and in order to solve the overpopulation problems, Zxavor has invaded another solar system in order to conquer it.
Thing is just - the solar system in question is already populated by the Jardra, a species I designed as the diametral opposite of the Xril. The Jardra are short, hairy and muscular where the Xril are tall, bald and lanky. (in fact, somebody once suggested that they should be called "Gimlitrons")
However, the Jardra's solar system, Vorou, isn't united under one government and this had made it rather easy for the Xril to get control of Avarnam, the first Jardra planet which they've come across. However, while the Xril are eagerly conquering Avarnam the other Jardra planets are uniting their troops in order to deal a killing blow to the Xril.
Oh - and the Xril and Jardra can't communicate with each other, save for one Jardra scientist who implanted the linguistic centre of a dying Xril's brain into his own. This had the unfortunate by-effect of making him schizophrenic.
I'm writing TWW at a notoriously slow pace, but the ending - it's supposed to be quite a surprise.
Posted: 2003-11-27 11:57pm
by JME2
Praxis wrote:Good fanfic, but i'm not sure about a novel series. Going out of one huge galactic war with an intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy and that has just left the galaxy in ruins, against an even MORE powerful intergalactic species bent on destroying the galaxy which has just been left in ruins, is a tad bit too repetative.
Yeah - it'd be like the Pre-NJO and we'd be back to Coruscant's crisis of the week, superweapons, etc.
Posted: 2003-11-28 06:02am
by Coalition
Darth Fanboy's idea about a fragmented galaxy is probably the most useful one. The jedi are trying to preserve peace, and now they have to deal with customs at different empires:
Jedi: You want what?
Customs Agent: I need to see your papers.
Jedi: You don't need to see my papers.
Customs Agent: Sorry sir, that's not going to work. Now you need to show me your papers, or I'll have to put you in holding.
And similar comments from others trying to help.
Posted: 2003-11-28 11:37am
by Peregrin Toker
Darth Fanboy wrote:
-FETT'S NEW MANDALORIANS!
I'm a bit of an ignorant on this - so I ask:
Are the Mandalorians a specific clan which has some fighting traditions (similar to medieval Ninjas) - or a "secret society" league of bounty hunters?
The idea of new Mandalorians, while cool, implies the latter and this would have to not be disproved by the rest of the EU.
Posted: 2003-11-28 01:21pm
by Illuminatus Primus
They were originally a society, a civilization of humanoids (I don't know if they were originally human).
Whether they later split off into some weird fighting clan tradition thingy, much like the Sith species-to-Order transition, well, I suppose that could be argued.
Posted: 2003-11-28 02:41pm
by Darth Wong
I would prefer that new novels delved into the Clone War era (guided by EP3 of course). It sounds like there's a gap between EP2 and EP3 during which a lot of stuff could happen. And if many planets were razed or devastated during the Clone Wars, you could have genuine suspense around any particular world as long as it's not one with an established name even though you know the Republic/Empire eventually wins.
Posted: 2003-11-28 02:44pm
by Illuminatus Primus
Darth Wong wrote:I would prefer that new novels delved into the Clone War era (guided by EP3 of course). It sounds like there's a gap between EP2 and EP3 during which a lot of stuff could happen. And if many planets were razed or devastated during the Clone Wars, you could have genuine suspense around any particular world as long as it's not one with an established name even though you know the Republic/Empire eventually wins.
There's been a lot of Clone Wars EU but it has trouble breaking out of the mindless repeat of Geonosis mold.
A group of Acclamators, ground battle, Obi Wan and Anakin. Same old.
Very little creativity floating around.
Posted: 2003-11-28 02:49pm
by Darth Wong
Illuminatus Primus wrote:There's been a lot of Clone Wars EU but it has trouble breaking out of the mindless repeat of Geonosis mold.
A group of Acclamators, ground battle, Obi Wan and Anakin. Same old.
Very little creativity floating around.
Unfortunate. But such uncreative authors would no doubt be uncreative in a post-NJO scenario as well, probably by stealing influences from Trek and B5 (as if this didn't already happen in the NJO).
I would like to see a Clone War story told from the perspective of a separatist world. Mix it up, make it interesting. And have a "no Anakin/Kenobi/Windu/Yoda" rule for it. With thousands of worlds in open revolt, it's not reasonable to have the same handful of characters present and crucial in every damned engagement.
Posted: 2003-11-28 02:53pm
by Illuminatus Primus
Darth Wong wrote:Unfortunate. But such uncreative authors would no doubt be uncreative in a post-NJO scenario as well, probably by stealing influences from Trek and B5 (as if this didn't already happen in the NJO).
Yes, but it would be nice for the EU authors to realize large-scale ground conflicts are the exception, rather than the rule (why a fire-brigade/spec-ops number of Clones is sufficient) and that the Republic should be throwing together some big starfleets and going at it.
Anakin is supposed to be the best pilot in the galaxy, let's see that, and let's see Mace Windu as an Admiral or something. Pre-Star Destroyers, the ancestors of the big Marvel ships, anyone?
Darth Wong wrote:I would like to see a Clone War story told from the perspective of a separatist world. Mix it up, make it interesting. And have a "no Anakin/Kenobi/Windu/Yoda" rule for it. With thousands of worlds in open revolt, it's not reasonable to have the same handful of characters present and crucial in every damned engagement.
Shatterpoint got a little into the local guy's feeling in the war, but had Mace (though Mace only).
Posted: 2003-11-28 02:53pm
by 2000AD
THing is i don't see why they have to advance further with the films charatcers. They've already gone 4000 years into the past with tales of the Sith/Jedi (and Knights of the Old Republic) that gives you more than 3500+ years to play around with between those and the movies ! Why not fill up some of this vast gaping space in history!
Posted: 2003-11-29 03:03am
by JME2
Illuminatus Primus wrote:Shatterpoint got a little into the local guy's feeling in the war, but had Mace (though Mace only).
Actually, this brings up something that I've been meaning to ask. According to my sources, there's NJO-tie-in with a vision of Mace's or something like that. Can anyone verify/expand?
Posted: 2003-11-29 03:13am
by Peregrin Toker
Darth Wong wrote:I would like to see a Clone War story told from the perspective of a separatist world. Mix it up, make it interesting. And have a "no Anakin/Kenobi/Windu/Yoda" rule for it. With thousands of worlds in open revolt, it's not reasonable to have the same handful of characters present and crucial in every damned engagement.
Or what about telling the Clone Wars from the perspective of a "third party"????
Posted: 2003-12-01 02:31am
by Kuja
Simon H.Johansen wrote:Or what about telling the Clone Wars from the perspective of a "third party"????
Like who? The Hutts?