Okay, time to finish up the Schism/Secession storyline. I gotta be honest, I plowed through this chapter so fast mainly because I've had it in my head so long, I desperately needed to get it out. I've also been so buried in my own work the past few months, trying my best to manage my stress levels and not lose my creative boost that I was feeling. Point is, I managed it and here we are. The next chapter marching us towards the inevitable finale. Let's talk about it.
What Did Not Make It In: If you want an idea on how much this chapter ended up changing, here's the most prominent element of what got junked from this chapter. I was supposed to kill Jiles and have him replaced with the actual Cerberus Cell Leader. The plan was for him to better explain what Cerberus-ONI hoped to accomplish, offer a deal, etc. And while it would've been a good way to dump some details and answer questions... I decided it was redundant and frankly a waste of time.
I had Persephone. I didn't need another Cerberus Agent to taunt my heroes over a screen. I was already spending a ton of time with Jiles interrupting things, it was simply going to drag things down further if I brought in yet another random character who was just going to die anyway. So I decided "Why am I trying to fit this character in when I know he's basically just going to die? He serves no purpose other than exposition and this chapter risks running long if I include him." Honestly, I probably should've realized the problem sooner, but I just really wanted to showcase more of Cerberus in this universe.
Most of what I had the character say got transferred over to Persephone instead. Which made her a bit more talkative and antagonistic, but at least I got some of it in there without wasting more time. Not everything though, I decided some things need to be left alone and left unanswered. Better to just leave it hanging for now and have this stuff come up later when it feels more appropriate.
This of course also means the ultimate fate of Jiles and the Asteroid Station is left in the air. We don't see them die, but we can pretty much assume they're dead. The Covenant don't take prisoners and they're even a worse position then they were in canon. I assume some people are annoyed they didn't get to see him die, because Jiles is a bit of a pill. But, it is what it is.
Master Chief Hallway Horror: Ok, fine, it's pretty obvious where the Jackals trying to prevent the Master Chief from getting aboard their ship came from. I'm a Star Wars fan, alright. And presented with the fairly obvious allusion to a particular scene in Rogue One, I didn't hesitate. I wanted to have some fun with it, alright?
So watching the Master Chief push his way through the Fallen Serpent pirates, without killing any of them, goes a long way to show how truly powerful he is in my mind. He could've easily annihilated the pirates, they didn't stand a chance and they knew it. Really, John was going easy on them. And yet, they still got pretty brutally kicked around, didn't they? I think this was the most amount of violence Chief can pull off without actually murdering someone. Although I think a few of those pirates are gonna need some time in the med bay. That's for sure.
Give them credit though, they tried. Oh they were scared out of their minds and knew they were screwed, but they still tried. That's some uncommon valor for Zek's pirates. But when given the choice to keep fighting or let the giant heavily armored human tank crush you beneath his boot, they chose the former.
Poor pirates, they really drew the short straw. The second Chief showed up they knew they were screwed. Watching them panic was a little funny to write. I still get a kick out of having the pirates shout such crook-isms like "The Jig is Up!" or "Scatter!" I don't know, maybe I just find a good chase sequence funny.
The Gettysburg's BFG: I should've refreshed my memory of exactly how this fight went down in the novel. I wouldn't have had to force my brain to some up with a crazy idea to resolve the problem of the Covies showing up to fight a ship that has no guns. But I did have an idea.
I originally planned for the Ascendant Justice to use the Asteroid Station as a shield of sorts. It would pop up at an angle, using its glassing cannon as a means to fight back in a very deadly game of peekaboo. I thought it would look cool. Instead, I discovered that wasn't necessary. There was another method with a similar result already in canon and Chief was the one who thought it up.
Well, I wasn't about to take away the Master Chief coming up with an effective plan, I just adjusted how he came up with it this time. Since Shepard had managed to get the Slipspace Drive to work with his ship, why not make the MAC work with a plasma gun?
It worked out pretty well, even gave me an excuse to both get rid of the rest of those mechs for sure and give Cortana a moment to shine by firing the cannon herself. I had this image of her copies wearing old timey artillery helmets and saluting Cortana as they prepared to fire the gun... I decided against depicting that. But I like to pretend that's what was happening for my own sake. I found the image funny. I just knew others wouldn't and would spoil my fun over it. Some gamers are way too serious. Oh well, I get to have the image in my head, no one can take that away from me.
Still, what a cool ass weapon, huh? A super-powered Plasma Beam that can decimate Covenant Ships. And with Kat and Kelly helping each other to improve the weapon, it was even deadlier. Sad the UNSC never really tried to adopt this hybridization themselves. But Plasma Coils are hard to come by. Hopefully we'll see it again soon since the Ascendant Justice's guns are still not functioning to full capacity.
Unggoy Uprising: I had been teasing the grunts turning on the pirate jackals for a while now. It was honestly the best means I had in throwing a wrench in Zek's plan. The grunts have gotten fed up with the pirates and have no intention of being stuck with them. Not when they can try for a better deal with the humans.
Given the grunts have done this sort of thing before, and the fact they've been away from the Covenant long enough for their more feral instincts to return, it made sense to me they'd be able to fight back against the jackals. While I didn't have them go all out and takeover the ship themselves, I knew they'd help the Marines and Drop Troopers pull it off. Their main contribution was just preventing the Fallen Serpent from jumping away. Which the jackals were upset by, but they figured Zek would still pull through and give them an exit anyway. They just had to hold out. Didn't turn out that way of course.
I think this is good news for the grunts at least. They just got in good with the UNSC. What lies ahead for them? We'll see eventually. They're not going back to the Fallen Serpent though, that's for sure.
Zek's Mistakes: Abandoning the Fallen Serpent was always the plan. Initially though, I set it up that the pirates were okay with it, expecting Zek to come back for them. However, that originally idea suddenly no longer felt true. After the arguments and growing concerns, as well as decreasing morale, the crew of the Fallen Serpent were questioning Zek. I made a point of having them admit that. I couldn't see them hearing their boss was about to abandon them and they'd just be okay with it. That made no sense.
So Zek actually told them that they'd all get away together. And he meant it at the time. He really thought that was how it would work out. Was he lying to himself? Probably. Truth is his plan was always a longshot and doomed to fail. There were just too many moving parts that had to go perfectly and he got lucky when Ceberus-ONI showed up. Things would've gone south way faster if they hadn't. In retrospect that's probably why I had Zek constantly play up how everything had gone so well. To better foreshadow that the jinx was in and he was going to fail in a big way.
Granted, yeah, he still got away... but he broke his personal code. Zek has always put his crew first for the most part. It's why he felt so hurt when their response in a previous chapter to all that was "We're not sure you know what you're doing anymore." I mean come on, after everything Zek had done for them, this is how they feel now? What is wrong with them?
Well their instincts proved accurate. Zek, when push came to shove, made a really big mistake and pulled something very out of character for him. Because the Cutlass was right there. He had already lost Retz seconds earlier. His closest friend was captured. So in his mind, nothing else mattered. If he didn't get the Cutlass, all of this would've been pointless. So, if one sacrifice was made for him, why not another one?
The Fallen Serpent wasn't escaping anyway. There was no way they were going to get away from the UNSC in time. It just made sense to leave. It was the right call if he wanted the Cutlass. But it was the wrong call for a shipmaster to make.
But don't call Zek a total loss yet. He did save Miranda after all. He did save those Marine hostages even before that. As much as he did screw up, Zek wasn't being malicious. He was just being selfish. Maybe losing Retz will make him realize how much he needed his advice. Because, really, if these are the sorts of decisions he makes without him, it's pretty obvious Zek needs someone to tell him when he's making these sorts of mistakes.
BBR's Sign Off: I'm very proud of how this ending turned out, at least in terms of Boz's sign off. Throughout the chapter I've been showing him grow increasingly broken down by the experience. Something that will be elaborated on in the BBR Chapter that will be coming out soon. I made it very clear though, Boz was not happy with this plan. He only went along with it because he was ordered to and he couldn't really say no. He's no snitch, he's loyal to his crew, even if he likes the humans.
So as he kept trying to justify, bargain with and apologize, Boz came to slowly realize that this was not going to go the way anyone hoped. And with Retz ordering them to stand down, he finally just gave in. And he played what he believed would be his final song.
I can't take credit for picking this one. Long ago, when this story was still new, someone, I believe it was Crow, it's hard to remember, suggested the song "Burning Bridges" to play during this very sequence. It was a hypothetic then in readers' minds. I kept a lid on my intentions, but I also kept the song in mind. I guess I sorta foreshadowed its choice by revealing Zek had seen Kelly's Heroes. But that was the most I went into revealing the plan until now.
I just felt "Burning Bridges" fit the moment perfectly. Zek really did completely ruin a lot of the good things going for him. Doing so in such a way that it's gonna take something huge to win back the favor of the people he just screwed over. But, there's still hope, mainly because as you saw, Zek was lying to himself again. He really does not like how this turned out and is questioning how worth all of this was.
It's sad to see the Alliance break up like this. I'm a bit perplexed though, as some people seem to think this is it for Zek and Retz and all the pirates. As if I'm not going to follow and resolve the whole Astral Cutlass plot. I mean, come on, guys! I set this whole thing up, do you honestly think, after all these chapters, I'm just not going to show Zek finding the stupid sword?
Okay, well, whatever, I guess you'll be pleasantly surprised to know that this isn't it for Zek. Just wait, you'll see him again soon. And you'll discover what the Astral Cutlass really is! But that's for next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment