I just read StarCrossed, what the hell?

[Omega-13]

Hi, i've been somewhat addicted to Starcrossed the last several days, I've read all the way to chapter 50 in the last several days, ya i know a lot of reading, it was great up to chapter 49, everything was rolling along well,

But then the final battle between the Empire and the Borg, I am actually quite mad now.

I don't know what happened, but 3800 standard borg cubes, 900 tactical cubes, 500 spheres and 4 strategic cubes all the weapon systems on the planet, all the weapon systems on the unimatrix, and they got SLAUGHTERED. Not one single writing of a stardestroyer destroyed, or a small cruiser, what happened to borg ramming tactics? No mention of atleast a bit of adapting, not 100% of course, they never assimilated anything,

i'm frusterated, 1200 federation starships gave them more trouble.


let me guess i'm the only one who feels this way

[Shinova]

Stravo probably used what's accepted nowdays: 200 gigatons and above turbolasers slaughter everything in their path.

[El Moose Monstero]

They gave Belladonna's ship a damn good go, as I recall, maybe if the battle had lasted longer there would have been more casualties, but Nemesis was driving in for a quick kill with the superlaser, what's the point in a drawn out battle when a rapid thrust will do the same job?

[Ghost Rider]

I also doubt Stravo is using 200GT firepower Shinova...or no battle would be worth talking about other then meaningless stats.

All in all Stravo is using a writer's perogative of telling a story and uses Star Wars as the superior tech.

[Omega-13]

maybe...maybe

i'm still reading it though, amazing story

thrawn is involved now,

I'm still a kirk fan and by god he's gonna make it!

[Stravo]

You know I let the other thread go because it dealt with an issue of how do you get into reading the story but this is a staright up critique and really belongs in the main thread. I'll let this one go for now because it would be unfair to Omega letting Aya's thread open and closing his but in the future any other Starcrossed commentary needs to be in the main thread or it will be locked.

As to Omega's critique. Yeah, kind of sucks but as Lumberjack said, the Empire wasn't slugging it out ship to ship with the assembled Borg fleet and Nemesis went right for the throat and destroyed the Collective on the Unimatrix.. In a slug fest the Imperium ships would have been hurt as an example Belladonna's ship was boarded and nearly overwhelmed by drones.

But the Borg subplot will take an interesting turn in the coming chapters.

[lukexcom]

What Lumberjack and Stravo said. Instead of going out for a drawn out battle and taking losses, it's a better decision to go straight for the heart of the Borg, to cut off the head of the serpent and save your losses.

A vaguely similar situation would be the 1st Persian Gulf War. Instead of the US going out into the battlefield, fighting it out with the Iraqis using the old, pre-Vietnam doctrines, and taking in somewhat larger losses than actually occured, we took the time to eliminate the C&C systems, then the main Air Defense centers, and then achieve air domination. Then we prepped the battlefield for our ground troops who rolled in and took care of the job. The tactics are different, but the idea is the same: use methods to get the job done and cut your losses and get the job done fairly quickly, especially if the enemy is unprepared for your method of fighting. In Nemesis' case, it was a "decaptitation strike".

[Sarevok]

The early battles between Nemesis and the Borg were better IMHO. In the early chapters it was a thrilling tale of a lone Imperial battlegroup trapped in a hostile Galaxy.

Nooffense to Stravo but Starcrossed got a bit boring once Nemesis conquered the Federation.

[Robert Walper]

Hi, i've been somewhat addicted to Starcrossed the last several days, I've read all the way to chapter 50 in the last several days, ya i know a lot of reading, it was great up to chapter 49, everything was rolling along well,

But then the final battle between the Empire and the Borg, I am actually quite mad now.

I don't know what happened, but 3800 standard borg cubes, 900 tactical cubes, 500 spheres and 4 strategic cubes all the weapon systems on the planet, all the weapon systems on the unimatrix, and they got SLAUGHTERED.

AHHH!!! Blasphemy!!

Not one single writing of a stardestroyer destroyed, or a small cruiser, what happened to borg ramming tactics? No mention of atleast a bit of adapting, not 100% of course, they never assimilated anything,

i'm frusterated, 1200 federation starships gave them more trouble.


let me guess i'm the only one who feels this way

Ha! I don't think so! Just wait until I...umm...whine more about.

Honestly though, given calculations going around for Imperial firepower and shielding, such a scenario is hardly going to be looked upon as inaccurate or illogical. In fact ,it could be argued as massive overkill on the Imperial's part. The consensus of the SD.net board is that the entire Borg Collective would be slaughtered by a single Imperial Star Destroyer, with the Borg Collective being extremely lucky if they managed to get the Imperial commander to spill his coffee. In fact, until running out of warheads, a X-Wing would supposededly slaughter every Borg craft thrown at it with incredible ease. It may even be possible to suggest that a large squadron of Storm Troopers, with appropiate weaponry(heavy blasters) and ammunition(lots of it) on hand, could also defeat the Collective's entire might without too much trouble, time factor not withstanding.

While this might be accurate from a logical analysis standpoint, it makes for a horribly boring and unentertaining story.

[Stravo]

While this might be accurate from a logical analysis standpoint, it makes for a horribly boring and unentertaining story.

As I understand it you haven't even read the story, I would reserve judgement on its entertainment value until reading it. In their very first encounter with the Borg they lose a light cruiser. The reason Nemesis went for the quick strike against the Collective was because he knew they were the greatest threat to his fleet and as such he wanted to take them out of the fight in one swift stroke.

[Robert Walper]

While this might be accurate from a logical analysis standpoint, it makes for a horribly boring and unentertaining story.

As I understand it you haven't even read the story, I would reserve judgement on its entertainment value until reading it. In their very first encounter with the Borg they lose a light cruiser. The reason Nemesis went for the quick strike against the Collective was because he knew they were the greatest threat to his fleet and as such he wanted to take them out of the fight in one swift stroke.

Stravo, I meant no offense towards you or your story. And I have read portions of it, particularily with the Borg engagements. But the fact of the matter is I cannot find a story entertaining where one side is so incredibly superior, that the lose of a "light cruiser" at the hands of hundreds/thousands of the enemy's best "high end" ships is considered a generous estimation(or huge improvement) of the enemy's capability. While I cannot presume to know your intent, the story strikes me as nothing more than nose rubbing Trekkies about how Star Wars is so superior in any and every conceivable fashion. That's just my general impression and taste...please don't take offense though.

[Singular Quartet]

What Lumberjack and Stravo said. Instead of going out for a drawn out battle and taking losses, it's a better decision to go straight for the heart of the Borg, to cut off the head of the serpent and save your losses.

A vaguely similar situation would be the 1st Persian Gulf War. Instead of the US going out into the battlefield, fighting it out with the Iraqis using the old, pre-Vietnam doctrines, and taking in somewhat larger losses than actually occured, we took the time to eliminate the C&C systems, then the main Air Defense centers, and then achieve air domination. Then we prepped the battlefield for our ground troops who rolled in and took care of the job. The tactics are different, but the idea is the same: use methods to get the job done and cut your losses and get the job done fairly quickly, especially if the enemy is unprepared for your method of fighting. In Nemesis' case, it was a "decaptitation strike".

Sun Tsu would be proud.

[Stravo]

Robert,

This story is not about who's better. I am not rubbing the noses of Trekkies into Wars superioroty. If that were the case, Kirk would be in chains as causing an insurecction against the Imperial authority. Instead he is fighting a war and is still very much alive and a growing threat to the Empire.

This story is not about the technology. If that were the case and I was following the strict versus numbers as they stand, this story would have been over by chapter 12.

This story is not about who is going to win. There is no winning in this story at least not in the versus sense.

I've said this before but i will reiterate this now, it's about characters. I am far more interested in writing about Thrawn and Kahn battling it out in a macth of wits. I want to see Luke Skywalker find himself after embracing his darkside and making the journey his father could not make. I want to see yoda proven wrong, that the dark side will not forever dominate your destiny because heroes are all about doing the impossible, breakikng the rules.

Kirk does his own rule breaking. By all means and measures he and the Federation should be crushed. Instead they are flourishing and the slogan THE FEDERATION LIVES is a rallying cry of hope. He also has a path to walk and he must choose to surrender to the darkness and wear the unifrom of his foes in order to save his Federation or fight to the bitter end and die in a dark dungeon in the bowels of the Executor.

This story is about hope in the darkness. Think of it as a Kobayashi Maru for the Federation and the galaxy in general. The universe is winding down and they are shaking their fists in defiance at the coming end.

That's what the story is about. Not whether 1000 Borg cubes can take down a stardestroyer. I have plainly stated many times that if you're looking for straight up versus numbers or results you've come to the wrong story, but if you wan to see the struggles and travials of heroes in a hopeless battle then pull up a chair.

[El Moose Monstero]

*cool summing up stuff*

Well, when that formatted pdf comes out, now we have an author's foreword to go with it...

[Robert Walper]

*snip*
This story is about hope in the darkness. Think of it as a Kobayashi Maru for the Federation and the galaxy in general. The universe is winding down and they are shaking their fists in defiance at the coming end.

That's what the story is about. Not whether 1000 Borg cubes can take down a stardestroyer. I have plainly stated many times that if you're looking for straight up versus numbers or results you've come to the wrong story, but if you wan to see the struggles and travials of heroes in a hopeless battle then pull up a chair.

*pulls up chair* I'll try giving it a more thorough read in the near future then.

[Dalton]

*cool summing up stuff*

Well, when that formatted pdf comes out, now we have an author's foreword to go with it...

Actually, since it's full of spoilers, I think a better foreword would be "This is a story about heroes."