Star Crossed

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Star Crossed is an epic Star Trek vs. Star Wars crossover/Star Wars Alternate Universe Fic written by Stravo, a member of the Stardestroyer.net forums. It currently^[when?] has 96 chapters and is still unfinished.

The main plot is basically as follows:

Shortly after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, an Imperial sector fleet under the command of a Sith Lord named Darth Nemesis is transported to the Star Trek galaxy of the late 24th century. It turns out that they arrived in the middle of Borg space, and that they are not only in a different galaxy, but far in the future.

Darth Nemesis is eventually revealed to be a fallen Luke Skywalker, who instead of jumping as in the canon timeline, joined Darth Vader at Bespin. The Imperial fleet sets out to find a way back to their galaxy, securing their position and gathering information by attacking the Romulans and the Federation: or at least, it starts that way; when they discover that they can't get home, they conquer for conquest's sake. Meanwhile, Captain James T. Kirk (largely The Hero) and his crew find themselves in the 24th century as well, and end up rallying the Federation and its allies against the Galactic Empire. In the background, the nigh-omnipotent Q plays a game of chess with a mysterious silver-eyed adversary, using pieces that represent the various forces involved. All of this takes place against the backdrop of an impending universal apocalypse, brought on by the Federation's abuse of time travel.

Not to be confused with the Web Comic Starcrossed, or the novel The Starcrossed by Ben Bova, a comedic fictionalized account of the trainwreck that was The Starlost.

Tropes used in Star Crossed include:

• Beauty Equals Goodness: For a certain value of "goodness". When the hulking, black-armoured cyborg Darth Vader appears, the Romulan admiral T'Vor thinks that Vader is just a thug, not a proper Sith Lord like the young, handsome Darth Nemesis. Given that Sith Lord means Evil Overlord and that Vader fits that trope much better than Nemesis does, T'Vor's assessment is unintentionally funny.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Emperor Palpatine and Gary Mitchell. Incredibly, given Palpatine's status as Evil Overlord of an entire galaxy, the latter is the more powerful of the two.
• Bigger Bad: Despite being the most powerful villains in the story, Palpatine and Gary Mitchell have virtually no direct impact on the plot (yet!). A more plausible candidate for Big Bad is Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• Black and White Morality: Subverted. The Empire has launched an unprovoked invasion of The Federation; I wonder who's the good guys? At first it's obvious, but later, well…
• Blood Knight: Captain Tarsi. When Darth Nemesis says that Kirk is a legend to the Federation and that legends "are notoriously hard to kill":

“I’ve never killed a legend before,” he stated with a hungry grin.

• The Chessmaster: Gary Mitchell, Khan Noonien Singh and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Poor Admiral Janeway is trapped in an endless, infinite time-loop where she betrays her crew to their deaths in order to save the universe from utter destruction, and then the Big Bad easily negates her efforts and tells her how useless her act is—again, and again, and again. All because the author doesn't like Star Trek: Voyager.
• Curb Stomp Battle: The Galactic Empire versus the Borg, who aren't used to a hyperdrive that can travel across a whole galaxy within days rather than decades, hypermatter reactors powerful enough to keep hyperdrive running, and the sort of weapon strength that you'd expect from such reactors. Assimilation doesn't go as planned.
  • On a smaller scale, Darth Nemesis versus the greatest hundred Klingon warriors. Also, Luke versus the cybernetically enhanced Dum and Dee, during the escape from Darkstar's palace.
  • The Battle of Romulus starts with an advantage to the Federation remnant, attacking the fairly weak forces defending Romulus. Then the whole story is completely changed by the arrival of a fresh, new Imperial sector fleet led by The Chessmaster Grand Admiral Thrawn, doubling the number of Imperial ships in the Star Trek galaxy. Then Nemesis's sector fleet arrives. The Federation remnant enters the battle with 600 ships, and leaves it with nineteen.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Descending into the Abyss.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Seems to be the ultimate plan of both Mitchell and Palpatine; to kill all the gods. Also, Darth Maul would have qualified if not for a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Defensive Feint Trap: Luring the enemy right into a Colony Drop—on an Imperial Star Destroyer. And it works.
• The Don: Hieronymus Darkstar, the crime lord of the Orion Syndicate.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Darth Vader, to Grand Admiral Thrawn—or vice versa. It's unclear which of them is Big Bad and which is The Dragon.
• The Empire: Obviously, the Galactic Empire from the Star Wars galaxy. Darth Nemesis at first founds a very similar organisation; later he renames it the New Empire, while being under the impression that he is forever out of touch with the original Galactic Empire. The New Empire, unsurprisingly, is fairly similar to the original Empire. When reinforcements from the Empire arrive in the Star Trek galaxy, Nemesis declares the New Empire to be his own Imperium, which is a decisive factor in…
• Enemy Civil War: The Imperium clashes with the reinforcements from the actual Galactic Empire, led by Grand Admiral Thrawn. It's kicked off in a pretty spectacular fashion, with a huge space-battle between a Star Destroyer of Nemesis's Imperium and an actual Imperial Star Destroyer, i.e. from The Empire. On the other hand, there's a serious case of Grey and Grey Morality between the Imperium and Kirk's Federation remnant.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Played with. It's still unclear whether Thrawn or Khan will be right about Kirk: if Thrawn is, this trope will be subverted.
• Evil Counterpart: There are two beings in the story who can be truly described as godlike: Q, who is largely benevolent, and Gary Mitchell, who wants to destroy the universe.
  • Similarly, Luke and Anakin Skywalker both became Sith Lords: the former was redeemed, the latter, so far, not.
• Evil Overlord: Loads. We've got Darth Nemesis, the Borg Queen, Darth Vader, Lord Hieronymus Darkstar, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Emperor Palpatine and, most of all, Gary Mitchell. By the Battle of Andor, almost all of them are still alive.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Empire, The Emperor, The Federation, Dark Lords, The Syndicate… yeah, there's a lot of this.
• Fascist but Inefficient: The Shadowfleet, a secret force devoted to protecting The Federation, is billed as this powerful hidden menace, but their brutal destruction of Remus only gets the Evil Overlord Darth Nemesis to destroy the Klingons (thus weakening the Federation remnant's greatest potential allies) and inspires the Romulans to view Nemesis as their protector and avenger.
• A Father to His Men: The Imperial Admiral Gideon Kittaine, at least to his officers. He thinks of them as his family, as they him.
• The Federation: The United Federation of Planets. When it faces off against Darth Nemesis's offensive, it's almost immediately overrun, but its remnants are still putting up a fight.
• Femme Fatale: Mara Jade. We're brutally reminded of this when she tries to murder Leia.
• Forgotten Superweapon: A mysterious doomsday machine, which is destroyed in the same Star Trek: The Original Series episode in which it showed up, is Ret Conned back into existence and then revealed to be a war machine from one of the ancient Sith Empires that fought The Republic in the Star Wars galaxy. It's so powerful that it can slice apart an Imperial Star Destroyer with a single blow. Without it, the Federation remnant would no longer exist. But it's also a bit of a subversion: despite saving the Federation fleet, the Battle of Romulus demonstrates that it isn't nearly as powerful as Kirk needs it to be.
• For Want of a Nail: It turns out that Darth Nemesis is a Luke Skywalker who gave in to Vader during the "Luke, I Am Your Father" moment on Bespin.
• Gambit Pileup: Here is a list of the sides.
• Glorious Leader: Captain Jellico seems to think that Kirk is this.
• A God Am I: Q believes this. So does Gary Mitchell.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The Borg would have been a force for good if not for the betrayal of Zarabeth, who makes herself the Borg Queen.
  • Also, the Shadowfleet's destruction of Remus. This could also be classified as Epic Fail.
• Good Is Impotent: Spectacularly averted by the redeemed Luke Skywalker. On the other hand, the pretty-much pure white United Federation of Planets plays this trope to a T, when its 150 planets are confronted by the technologically superior, million-planet-strong Galactic Empire.
• The Good King: Imperator Luke Skywalker is shaping up to be one of these. Darth Vader wants to be, but the whole Sith Lord thing keeps getting in the way.
• Grey and Grey Morality: Between the Federation remnant and the Imperium. There are very sympathetic characters on both sides: the crew of the USS Enterprise (Kirk, Spock et cetera), Princess Leia and Rogue Squadron on the side of the Federation remnant, and Captain Tarsi, Belladonna, Gideon Kittaine and Luke Skywalker on the side of the Imperium.
• Heel Face Turn: Most importantly, Luke Skywalker.
  • Also, after the death of the Borg Queen, the Borg pull off one of these.
• Heroic BSOD: Kirk after his defeat at Romulus.
• Idiot Ball: Kirk attacks Romulus (Nemesis's capital), engaging in open battle with Nemesis. Given that he only has 600 ships left and that Nemesis's fleet has used its overwhelming technological advantage to crush them easily whenever they engaged it, this seems to happen purely so that Kirk goes off on his own out of despair, which is needed for the plot.
• Heroic Sacrifice: This turns out to be the only way for Charles Evans to kill the resurrected Darth Maul.
• Improvised Weapon: A lot of Starfleet (all that remains) is fitted with additional weapons. Also, see Defensive Feint Trap, above.
• Insistent Terminology: The rightfully appointed Grand Admiral Thrawn (well, rightfully appointed by the Evil Overlord, but still) will not acknowledge Admiral Gideon Kittaine, whom the renegade Darth Nemesis promotes to Grand Admiral, by his new title. When he does, it's a sign to Kittaine that Thrawn will try to kill him. A nice Continuity Nod here, since in canon Thrawn never referred to the New Republic with its proper name, just "the Rebels", indicating (as with Kittaine) that he thought it illegitimate.
• Ironic Echo: The voice of the Borg Collective when it first encounters Nemesis's fleet, and Nemesis's response when his fleet destroys Unimatrix 001, the heart of the Collective.

“WE ARE THE BORG, YOUR TECHONOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.” “We are the Galactic Empire, lower your shields and prepare to be destroyed, your biological and technological distinctiveness is about to end. Resistance is futile.”

• The Kingdom: The Imperium, once Darth Nemesis becomes Luke Skywalker again.
• Laser Blade: Lightsabers, obviously.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Lord Darkstar, when all his plans seem to be going perfectly:

"If I didn't know any better I would say this was being written by someone as we speak."

• Loads and Loads of Characters: Naturally. It includes Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series, and most of the characters from the six Star Wars films. This is a really, really big fanfic.
• Love Redeems: Darth Nemesis's love for Mara Jade is a great part of his Heel Face Turn back into Luke Skywalker.
• Magic Countdown: The beginning of chapter 73.
• Magic Knight: All Jedi Knights and Sith Lords, just as in canon.
• Magnetic Hero: Captain Kirk and Darth Nemesis. The former is pretty much the only reason why the Federation keeps fighting, whereas the latter is charismatic enough to make the Romulans like him despite him having conquered them and destroyed a continent on Romulus with a superlaser, and later to persuade a formerly Imperial sector fleet to oppose the Galactic Empire itself.
• Meaningful Rename: The Emperor's Will, the superlaser-bearing flagship of Nemesis's fleet, is renamed the Imperator's Will to signify independence from The Empire and loyalty to the Imperator of the Imperium. More importantly, Nemesis's sector fleet transforming from just a part of the evil Galactic Empire to the independent (but still evil) "New Empire" and then to the genuinely benevolent "Imperium".
• Morality Kitchen Sink: The Galactic Empire, the Borg Queen and the Orion Syndicate are unambiguously evil, although even they are surpassed by Gary Mitchell. Then there's the very morally ambiguous Shadowfleet, a secret army which uses very questionable means to defend The Federation. There's also the Imperium, which is a steadily lightening shade of grey; at the beginning it's only distinct from the Empire in that its dictator is more charismatic and slightly less psychotic, but by the most recent chapters it is almost as light as the white end of the scale, the exiled Klingons and the Federation remnant.
• Mythology Gag: An interesting fanfic example. Gary Mitchell's house contains a copy of Conquest by Mike Wong.
• Oh Crap: Kirk, when a new, entire, fresh Imperial sector fleet arrives during the Battle of Romulus—and again during the same battle, when Nemesis reinforces them, cutting off the Federation remnant's escape.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Gary Mitchell, the chief villain.
• One Steve Limit: Averted. Rulek Parr seems to be a common Jem'Hadar name.
• Physical God: Gary Mitchell, the chief villain.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Darth Nemesis is this trope before his full-on Face Heel Turn.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Its new Imperator likes to think of the Imperium as this. Whether we agree with him is… debatable.
• Rousing Speech: Many, many, many—especially by James Kirk, Darth Nemesis and the redeemed Luke Skywalker.
• Rule of Cool: Pretty much the only reason for Darth Maul's resurrection.
• Scenery Gorn: A number of the battle scenes qualify, as does the Empire's Base Delta Zero—basically melting the surface of the planet—on Qo'noS.
• Smug Snake: Hieronymus Darkstar isn't nearly as tough as he thinks he is. Khan also has this characteristic when he confronts Darth Vader, the Trope Namer for "You Have Failed Me...", but Khan averts this at other times.
• The Stars Are Going Out: By the galaxy cluster. This is because the Federation misused time-travel, creating too many time paradoxes for the universe to deal with. This is a bit of a problem, given that Kirk, who has time-travelled into this era, is the Federation's only hope against The Empire.
• The Starscream: Khan Noonien Singh, to Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• State Sec: The Shadowfleet.
• Take That: The villain Darkstar, who gets a humiliating death at the hands of Darth Vader, is named after a member of the Star Wars versus Star Trek debate whom the author doesn't like.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Nemesis uses prolonged turbolaser bombardment to melt the crust of Qo'noS, the Klingon homeworld. This is particularly cruel, since the Klingons (unknown to Nemesis) didn't actually do what he was attacking them for: they were framed by the Federation's Shadowfleet.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Darth Vader and Darth Nemesis. To an extent, the Shadowfleet too, but they're much less effective.
• Vestigial Empire: Andor, the last Federation planet to suffer an Imperial attack. The outcome is still in doubt.
• Villain Ball: Darkstar's enslaving collars clearly aren't very well-designed.
• Villain Decay: The Borg, in comparison to The Empire. To be fair, they're no weaker than they were in Star Trek: Voyager, but that's a far cry from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where they were practically unstoppable.
• Villain Protagonist: The audience would almost certainly hate Darth Nemesis if he wasn't so awesome. Lord Darkstar tries to achieve the same effect, but fails.
• Villain Team-Up: What happens at first when reinforcements from the Galactic Empire, led by Thrawn and Darth Vader, arrive to back up Darth Nemesis. It soon dissolves into Enemy Civil War.
  • Grand Admiral Thrawn and Khan Noonien Singh are currently engaged in this. Khan is already plotting a takeover.
• The Worf Effect: The author loves this. To establish how powerful Nemesis's fleet is, it single-handedly destroys hundreds upon hundreds of Borg cubes—remember, the Borg, the nigh-unstoppable cyborg menace—as soon as it enters the Star Trek galaxy. Later, it takes over the Romulan Star Empire, almost exterminates the Klingons, annexes the Federation, and crushes the Dominion in the only battle between the two. Furthermore, Nemesis is scared by Emperor Palpatine. And then Palpatine himself is merely a tool of Gary Mitchell.
  • The Shadowfleet, in a way. A powerful fleet of cloaked warships ready to use the most underhanded methods… cannot confront the Empire directly and are wiped out as soon as discovered by them.