Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 (Please, Bioware inexistant CMs, don't remove this message to community, were no one goes) TOR setting inspired me, and I'm continuing to work on a TOR ''fan novel'', Zero, with a very simple premise. The Zero in the title refers to the Sith assault on the Republic. This is thus a project occuring in the last months of peace in the Republic. Zero, like the excellent SW novel Shatterpoint, blatantly and openly rip off for the basic plot a well-known book, in this case The Count of Monte Cristo Among other things, Zero try to put together the various plotlines of TOR (explaining why Satele Shan was marooned on Korriban, Taris being presented as a sort of ''Nigerian Prince'' joke in the Republic, Elena used as a spy, the Imperial Intelligence in action...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathStepper Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 I see this one going straight to F2R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 As the whole concept of fan novel imply.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senden Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 (edited) I see this one going straight to F2R Wrong, first it'l be hyped up to be Lord of the Rings in space with lightsabers. Trolling aside though, good luck with the novel. It's nice to see a game setting can inspire someone to use their imagination and write a story based on a game they love. Edited August 1, 2012 by Senden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 Here is the first bit....the teaser. I'm completing the 20 first pages now.. Minus 300/High Orbit, Brentaal IV… The charting of the Hydian Way marks the dawn of a new era for the Republic… The new hyperlane have already boosted significantly trade and business… Traveling to the Tingel Arm will soon be as easy as booking a transport to Coruscant… The savage Trans-Hydian is the new frontier of the Republic…. The influence of the Republic will be a stabilizing factor much welcome in the wild- The last one actually made most of the occupants of the shuttle chuckle. The Human female that had been trying various lines for her opening pitch was rather annoyed, and threw a furious look to the half dozens of beings that made her team. «Her» being quite a point of contention, as no one except the female considered her as the leader. People that signed for journalism at the university were probably smart enough to not actually think the profession was like in the holos: discovering galaxy changing on a daily basis, being on a talking basis with the most powerful beings in existence, being listened on thousands of worlds. This said, the aspiring reporters were probably not aware that the job could be that dreary at times, especially when you were employed by a pretty ordinary news outfit on a rather plain Core World. Considering that the price of living on Coruscant made having a correspondant on the real decision center a tough proposition, the title of political reporter that the female had managed to secure did not meant much, since her task often boiled down to listening to press conferences about sewage management in some second rate city. This was why the female was desperate about not missing what could be the opportunity of her lifetime, as she could no longer stand making reports about the annual charity drive for planetwide neutering campaigns for stray cats. So, when she had heard that the boss was looking to send a team to cover up a naval deployment on the relatively nearby Brentaal system and follow the said naval deployment on the Hydian Way, she had called every favor she could think off to be sent there, ready to cater to whatever were the whims of the probable corporate sponsor that had paid for the transport and the brand new holocams. People that screamed about the ethics of journalism had probably not been sent to cover the school boards elections (and see their work shown on the local news networks at the end of the midnight bulletin). On the plus side, the said mysterious corporate sponsor had been remarkably discreet with his requests, at least for the time being. This mercy was probably because the subject the team had been sent to cover was, at least in theory, exciting, enthralling and dream-enticing, at least for the population of a world whose top export was machinery for the dairy industry. Hearing soundbites about how awesome was for the local community such and such manufacturer of milking devices would sort of kill this wanderlust mood. After all, news reports about unknown worlds, unknown species were always interesting, at least when compared to news reports about the latest resolution of the city council concerning garbage pickup (of course, the sponsor was probably interested with reports about species that used exotic and rare cattle beasts with variable number of legs, but that produced some kind of weirdly colored alien milk, milk that nevertheless required the incredible products of an industrial cheese processing machines mogul…) Sarcasm put aside, it was pretty normal for any sensible businessman, even ones in not really exciting fields, to try to seek out new markets. But normally, new markets were limited to a single system, after a revolution or a regime change. The opportunity to expand into several thousands systems was something that could make even the most prudent and conservative businessman willing to try something. And several thousand systems was a conservative estimate. It would have been exaggerated to claim that most of those new markets were actually new markets, as much of those markets had been Republic members for centuries. It was just that thanks to the actions of a couple of spacers, the price of shipping to them and from then had been divided by ten, despite the absolute lack of security. The opening of the Hydian Way was the largest macroeconomic change for the Galaxy since immemorial times. There were truly countless possibilities opening for the worlds of the Republic: new trade lanes, new sectors to chart and to claim, new systems to colonize, whole sectors that could be truly integrated to the Republic...This could be either the opening of a new era of prosperity, or another of those botched occasions that littered the history of the Republic. Conscious both of the challenge and the limits of the Republic, the High command had, perhaps wisely, decided to focus at first at actually clearing the Hydian Way itself from various threats: petty dictators bullying their neighbours, civil wars, pirate, more or less freelance merc gangs, slavers… Even for journalists non-specialized with military matters, this relatively modest objective seemed quite out of proportion with the means of the task force marshalled for it, totalling around twenty capital ships, the flagship being the only ship that was not older than most of its crew. On the rather eyebrow raising presentation given to the press by the PR department of the Navy, the task force was supposed to travel up to the frontier world of Bonadan (and the numerous mining worlds in the area), using local Republican strongholds on or next to the Hydian as bases of operations. There was a list of those strongholds included, and people taking the care of doing a 10 seconds database search could see plainly that a lot of those strongholds were old Pius Dea military colonies/depots, such as Ord Cestus and Ord Radaman. The value of those planets as operational base was likely to be rather abyssal, without considering the probable hostility of the locals to the Republic that had marooned them there. But of course, stating that such and such backwater planet «was the sentinel of the Republic for milleniums» sounded way better than «this is a planet that was used as a base centuries ago, and that we abandoned repeatedly». In a rather humorous move, Taris was also listed as a Republican bastion, without doubts in another attempt to attract funds for reconstructions schemes. Even on the rather bombastic presentation, the Navy was however forced to concede indirectly that the only real stronghold past the Inner Rim was the ever loyalist Telos system. The numerous mentions of the Telosian navy role in local peacekeeping was a pretty crystal clear sign that the Telosians had lobbied rather hard for keeping control of their defence assets. And this was why most of the informed public was quite sceptical about the task force. Hundreds of systems and corporations had launched their own trade or colonization efforts in the newly minted Trans-Hydian, and all the Republic could do was to send a paltry naval group up and down an hyperlane ? And this was not only some a mere show the flag operation, but a political show the flag operation. Thanks to the latest budget crisis of the Navy (whose naval strength certainly not matched the lavish sums poured into it), the admiralty was openly courting the political circles in Coruscant. The result was that the task force was loaded with a rather embarrassing set of orders, orders that were clearly existing only for the purpose of currying factions and special interest groups. Thus, to appeal to the Core demographic of the Senate (this pun never got old), someone had included a line about finally sending a military force to end the Kanz Disorders, as the whole matter was getting quite embarrassing to the Republic, to say the least, thanks to latest religious fantasies of the local ruler. (Of course, the Outer Rim SIGs and lobbyists were busily clamouring that the Core only cared about Lorrd because there were Human sacrifices there. And there was also the charming case of has-been politicians from the Rim spending their days writing that the whole Disorder affair was yet another ploy from the Humans of the Core to assault an innocent regime….) What a couple of old frigates were supposed to do against a whole sector was not made clear, especially considering that the sector was «close» to the Hydian way only in the most relative of manners. Of course, the objective of the Kanz addendum was not to actually save the Lorrdians from slavery, but to vilify opponents in the Senate. And the list of those addendums was long, several dozen articles longs, with only an handful of them vaguely realist. To get the support of Alderaan, there was an addendum about developing cultural links with the system of Tantive: apparently, both current royals were related in some way, and were desperate to remain the current royals and thus seeking prestige gains in foreign politics. To get the support of the Jedi Order, there was another addendum about boosting the defences of some sort of research station above a random forsaken desert planet. The matter was apparently for the Jedis, since they had deigned to send to the task force several masters and their padawans. As politicians on Coruscant were really worried about the Trans-Hydian being developed chaotically (read: without input from Corsucant, and especially not taxes) the presence of the Order was much desired on the task force, which lead to rather bitter arguments about this very presence. Cynics pointed out that the venerable age of the vessels and the rather aggressive nature of some of the instruction of the task force could lead to a truly explosive confrontation with locals, and that nothing motivated the Jedi to negotiate with local powers like dead members of their Order. Less jaded observers noted that the task force was truly what the Republic could spare with the recent increase in brushfire wars in every quadrant of the Galaxy, and that the Jedi could actually help with the negotiations. Partisans of free trade pointed out with rage that the Jedis, with their position on material wealth, understood nothing about economy, and would end up as usual as backing the positions of the bureaucrats of Coruscant. Their opponents said that only the Jedi could «put in their place» the corporations expanding in the Hydian. What was sure was that the High Command desired deeply the Jedis onboard, and was trying every trick on the book to reach this objective. Nothing expressed it better than the name chosen for the flagship, one of the new Valor-class cruisers, the destination of the shuttle: the occupants of the said shuttle were supposed to film yet another press conference/PR event/orgy of boring speeches and self praise. The task force had departed from Anaxes a few days ago, but the stop at Brentaal IV was likely to be one of the most crucial steps of the journey. The Brentaal system had been transformed, almost overnight, from an somewhat important Core system into a major trade hub, thanks for the incredible fortune of being at the crossroads of the Hydian and the Pern’. As a result, economic boom was not adequate to describe what was happening on Brentaal, economic big-bang would still have been an understatement. Over 10% of all superstructure building specialized resources of the Galaxy were currently in the Brentaal system, being used to set up new orbital docks, warehouses, and similar installations. If the Republic had sent the task force with the hidden goal of intimidating the various noble houses of Brentaal, it was pretty much of a failure as the said task force was completely dwarfed by the swarms of vessels in orbit. The pilot of the shuttle, after a final flurry of insults send over the com toward the pilot of a tug directly ahead of them (it was remarkable about how spacers could put in so few worlds allusions about corpulence, intelligence, competence, sexual orientation and faithfulness of significant others) was finally cleared for the approach of the warship. One of the passengers of the shuttle, a Human history major (who, not surprisingly, had ended up being one of the tech guys) was still puzzled by the choice of the name. «I know this is for getting the Jedis onboard, but why, of all the names in the Galaxy, they named this ship the Gav Daragon ? Wasn’t this guy a Sith ?» Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryyn Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 (Please, Bioware inexistant CMs, don't remove this message to community, were no one goes) Among other things, Zero try to put together the various plotlines of TOR (explaining why Satele Shan was marooned on Korriban, Taris being presented as a sort of ''Nigerian Prince'' joke in the Republic, Elena used as a spy, the Imperial Intelligence in action...) You probably should of wrapped this in the spoilers tag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 Spoilers ? This stuff was in trailers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 You see Satele on Korriban in the third trailer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirorx Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 (edited) Will this be a book on tape, I think that is how most get their reading done these days. Its a little weird to do a book about a fully voiced mmo that does not have voice, know what i mean? Edited August 1, 2012 by kirorx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaick Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Will this be a book on tape, I think that is how most get their reading done these days. Its a little weird to do a book about a fully voiced mmo that does not have voice, know what i mean? Get it published and then have a kindle read it for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angedechu Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 Ah ah ah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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