Rising Storm - taking the Trinity Uberplot further,
contributed by John TFS
Summary: A take on how the Trinity Uberplot could develop after AE:D
I didn't get as far as I'd wanted in my "next part of the plot" post. So, let
me give a general overview of how I think things are going to go after Alien
Encounter 2.
Once the various "higher-ups" fully examine the data from the Coalition spy
mission, they'll quickly reach the conclusion that Earth probably cannot be
defended with the current resources available. For one thing, the Ark itself
will outmass and outgun the whole of Earth's fleet put together. For another,
the samples of their hardtech indicate that it is very much in advance of what
is currently available even in Nippon. So, not only does the Ark effectively
"outnumber" Earth's forces, it has a technological edge approximately equivalent
to that held by an F-16 fighter jet over a WWII-era Japanese Zero (watch the
movie "The Final Counterdown" for a demo of the effects of such an edge). And,
of course, there are at least 30 or so very powerful Aberrants on board the
Ark. Conclusion: Earth needs help.
One of the first doors Earth will knock on will be that of the Qin. They're
our allies, after all. With all their biotech abilities, they'd certainly able
to compensate for the advantage the Coalition has. Unfortunately, the Qin are
less than helpful. From their point of view, the Coalitions and their Aberrant
allies are essentially a human problem which might not even affect the Qin.
Thus, the Qin have no wish to send out a goodly chunk of their people to fight
and die in a conflict that has little to do with them.
The humans counter with a proposal that the Qin at least "lend" them some of
their biotech factories so that they may quickly produce sufficient ships to
defeat the Coalition. The Qin again refuse. Giving the humans a few terraforming
items was one thing. Giving them large-scale factories which they could study
and duplicate is something else entirely. Having Qin-level biotech along with
their hardtech (and anything gained from the Coalition ark assuming it's destroyed)
along with their psionic capabilities would give humanity a considerable strategic
edge over the Qin. And relations between the two races might not be so cordial
somewhere down the line...
Ultimately, somebody makes a bizarre counterproposal: Suppose the Qin provided
the factories and advisors to a third party to use on the humans behalf? Suppose
further that this third party would be incapable of learning anything more about
the biotech except how to operate it within a few basic parameters? The third
party, of course, would be the Chromatics.
The Chromatics were able to learn to build and operate the biotech ships and
weapons they received from the Doyen, but learned little else. They didn't even
understand enough about the ships to repair them. That's why the ships were
so bulky and redundant, because nothing could be fixed if it broke. Thus, the
Qin could supply biotech ships, weapons and factories to the Chromatics. They
could also easily program in a "self-destruct" parameter that would eliminate
their biotech once the Coalition conflict ends.
This idea is, of course, awesomely risky. Humanity has only recently finished
a minor war with the Chromatics. Karroo station is still under attack, after
all. The Chromatics themselves are involved in a civil war with one side still
wishing to destroy every human in existence! There's no guarantee that the Chromatics
wouldn't decide to take their new (and far superior) ships and resume their
attack on Earth.
On the other hand, Earth does have a relationship with the Fireclaw and the
Chromatics who now distrust the Doyen as much as the Aberrants. In their somewhat
primitive way, the Chromatics are quite a bit savvier about the Coalition than
are the Qin. They would recognize the likelihood that the Coalition and their
Deceiver allies would come to wage "black war" on the whole of the Chromatic
race and doing so through sickening "rape-like" violations. The whole idea behind
the attacks on Karroo and Earth was to "get the deceivers before they come here
and get us" and attacking the Coalition. Plus which, the humans are the only
aliens from the black hell of space that HAVEN'T deceived the Chromatics and
visited wholesale slaughter on them (the Aberrants during the "Night of Lies"
and the Doyen by tricking them into black war with the humans). While the humans
certainly killed many Chromatics, at least they didn't lie, which is more than
anybody else has done. Furthermore, the humans even acted to destroy the Aberrants
on Chromo-Prime while preserving the lives of the Chromatics. They even revealed
the Doyen's deceptions.
Figure that would be one or two adventures in "Rising Storm." The PCs have to
go (or return to) Chromo-Prime and convince the Chromatics to ally with Earth
against the Coalition. One adventure might involve going to Karroo and convincing
(with the help of some of their Chromatic allies) the Chromatic force stationed
there that the "war" is over and then helping them to return home. The second
adventure will probably involve helping their allies win the civil war and unite
the Chromatics with Earth against the far deadlier threat of the Coalition.
I'd expect a dangerous commando raid to capture the leaders of the Black War
faction. I'd also expect a confrontation with the Doyen from the end of Alien
Encounter 1: Invasion (who probably bears humanity a grudge for screwing up
his manipulations).
By the way, on a semi-related topic: There was a post about a romantic relationship
between a psion and a nova. I figure that the Eden Novas will be heavily involved
in the "Rising Storm" saga and that the Legions will be given command over the
forces defending the planet. So, I figure that there's a high probability of
Proxy Larrson and Apollo Milikin spending a good deal of time together during
the conflict. Given their personalities and attitudes about defending humanity,
I could easily see those two becoming close. Any thoughts?
