History Fanfic / TheLastStar

** In the space battle of Proxima, the kamikaze attack of the EAS ''Medusa'' is told in a way that makes the reader identify the ship as the one shown ramming a Minbari Warcruiser in ''[[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm01InTheBeginning In The Beginning]]''.

* TheButcher: Sheridan is considered as this by the Minbari, to the point that a convoy escort sighting his shipwill abandon the convoy to try and kill him.

* TheButcher: Sheridan is considered as this by the Minbari, to the point that a convoy escort sighting his ship [[WhatAnIdiot will abandon the convoy to try and kill him]] (see BunnyEarsLawyer entry for what happened then).

--->'''Jha'dur''': "Exploitation? A subject dear to my heart. Ever heard of the expression never hustle a hustler?\\

* ColdSniper: Specialist Lisa Cavendish, of the Eartforce special forces, acts like a psycho and can put an headshot at over eleven miles.
* ContinuityNod: Many, both from the series and the fanfic ''FanFic/TheDilgarWar'' (of the same author).

** [=EarthForce=] tactic of rigging freighters to make them seem warships on long range scans had already been successfully used by [[TheButcher Jha'dur]] herself in ''The Dilgar War''.

** Neroon complains that he had won his clan command of the ''Black Star'' for five years only for the Wind Swords losing the ship to Sheridan's nukes in the last days of their command.

* CrazyPrepared: The Earth Alliance discovered New Eden early during its expansion, but kept its existence secret so the world could serve as an hidden sanctuary just in case someone decided to exterminate mankind and Earthforce couldn't stop them.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: By orders of Branmer, Neroon [[spoiler: gave as little help as possible to Leklann so he'd be defeated by [=EarthForce=]]]. This was in order to reduce the Wind Swords influence and prevent them from being able to command the incoming Shadow War.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The armor of Minbari vehicles and starships is extremely effective against energy weapons, but mechanically fragile. In space combat this has little consequence due [=EarthForce=] inability to hit the Minbari ships, but on the ground Minbari fighting vehicles are vulnerable to the chemically-propelled rounds of heavy machine guns, autocannons and tank guns and to anti-tank missiles (both the cheap kinetic kill missiles and the more powerful Hammers), with the partial exception of the Wind Sword super-heavy tank (that can be destroyed only by air support or anti-tank [[MagneticWeapons railguns]]).

* MagneticWeapons: [=EarthForce=] makes use of railguns. While they have little effect in space due the sheer difficult of actually targeting the Minbari, the ground-based railguns of Proxima 3 took an heavy toll on the Minbari landers, and the new 90mm tank railgun can destroy any ground vehicle in the Minbari armor, even the almost invulnerable Wind Sword super-heavy tank.

* MoreDakka: Due Minbari IFVs being armored in a way that makes them highly resistant to heavy [=PPGs=], Earthforce brought back in action older weapons like the M2 Browning and similar heavy machine guns, whose bullets can actually pierce that armor and even damage the one of Minbari tanks.

* NukeEm: Apart John [[FanNickName Nuke'em]] Sheridan, [=EarthForce=] makes a rather liberal use of nukes every time they think they can hit the target.

--->'''Jha'dur''': ""Exploitation? A subject dear to my heart. Ever heard of the expression never hustle a hustler?"\\
'''Satai Coplann''': "No."\\
'''Jha'dur''': "Then please proceed Coplann, I am completely at your disposal."

* RammingAlwaysWorks: The EAS ''Medusa'', Earth's mightiest warship, was forced to fight even before being completed, and, after showing the Minbari the immense firepower she already had with only half of her guns operative, concluded her short career ramming a Minbari warcruiser. The Sharlin exploded first, destroying the ''Medusa'', and causing her pieces to cripple three other Sharlins.

* TheStrategist: The Minbari have three: Branmer, his aide Neroon and Jha'dur. Too bad that sometimes Branmer has to let the Wind Swords do as they wish (and get massacred) and Jha'dur sometimes gives advice she ''knows'' it's bad...
* TankGoodness: Both [=EarthForce=] and the Minbari have quite the assortment of tanks, culminating in lethality in the Wind Sword siege tank (a ''huge'' tank with enough armor to shrug off the fire of normal Earthforce tanks, operated exclusively by the clan it was named after) for the Minbari and the Thor Firefly (a Thor tank that replaces the 135mm tank gun with a 90mm railgun that can kill a Wind Sword tank) for Earthforce.

--->'''Jha'dur''': "“Exploitation? A subject dear to my heart. Ever heard of the expression never hustle a hustler?"\\

* MoreDakka: Due Minbari IFVs being armored in a way that makes them highly resistant to heavy PPGs, Earthforce brought back in action older weapons like the M2 Browning and similar heavy machine guns, whose bullets can actually pierce that armor and even damage the one of Minbari tanks.

** BadassBoast: Neroon's reply to a fellow warrior threatening him.

* [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]]: The Wind Swords clan is this, and its members live only to smite the enemies of Minbar (military or civilians, they don't care).

** DrivenToSuicide: Victor Chapel, director of the EIA, drives Jankowski to suicide and gives him a gun to shoot himself.

* {{Badass}}: A few on both sides, but Neroon, being the third best warrior of Minbar (and the two better than him being otherwise busy), takes the lion share.

* SummonBiggerFish: There's an hilarious example made by Branmer: while Minbari warriors discipline unruly subordinates with a good beating, Branmer, being originally from the Religious Caste, cannot personally do it, so he'll use his aide [[{{Badass}} Neroon]] as a threat, causing even the most unruly Wind Sword to have an OhCrap face and back down.

A ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'' fanfic written by [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/901958/Lord_of_Misrule Lord of Misrule]], ''The Last Star'' is set in the last months of the Earth-Minbari War and details the desperate efforts of Earthforce and the Earth Intelligence Agency to stop the Minbari on Proxima, or at least slow them down long enough to rebuild the fleet with ships that can at least fight back the Minbari.

* AttackAttackAttack: The Minbari Wind Swords clan use this as basic tactic and strategy. This bites them in the ass multiple times, but they ''still'' continue charging into obvious killing zones even when they could stop and wait for Earthforce to have to charge and ditch the prepared defense positions.

* [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]]: The Wind Swords clan is this, and its members live only to smithe the enemies of Minbar (military or civilians, they don't care).
* {{BFG}}: Earthforce snipers use rifles chambered for .50 BMG rounds. Specialist Lisa Cavendish's rifle fires a 25mm rocket-propelled grenade to over 11 miles.

** Earthforce tactic of rigging freighters to make them seem warships on long range scans had already been successfully used by [[TheButcher Jha'dur]] herself in ''The Dilgar War''.

* DeadpanSnarker: Branmer. Hearing a member of the Grey Council lamenting that humans don't fight fair, he asks if the fleet should fight Earthforce with stealth deactivated, weapons at half power and close the range before opening fire.

* DeathFromAbove: Earthforce has a ''lot'' of artillery (both guns and rockets), fighter-bomber airplanes (that in the atmosphere can actually outfly the Minbari fighters) and even gunship planes (rarely used due the need for air superiority, but absolutely lethal against the ground forces). The Minbari ground forces have less artillery, but it fires shells filled with ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill antimatter]]'', and can call upon devastating orbital bombardment strikes.
* DidntSeeThatComing: On Proxima the Minbari expected the stubborn and entrenched Earthforce army and thousands of small-scale ambushes they found, but they missed the [[spoiler: ''two bigger and better equipped armies'' hidden underground to attack their rear echelons]].
* DespairEventHorizon: Earth has reached and passed it. As a consequence, the Minbari invading Proxima found themselves dealing with incendiary weapons (for Earth they are a war crime when used against everyone but the Minbari), Earthforce has reformed the Panzer Lehr division (an armored division crewed by instructors, a move actually done by the Third Reich in WWII), and the evacuation of Earth for New Eden has already started.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Earthforce officers who compare the Minbari to the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Dilgar Imperium]] and conclude the Dilgar were the better people: the Dilgar went on a genocidal war to find a world where they could evacuate their people and escape extinction when their sun would go nova, the Minbari went on a genocidal war [[DisproportionateRetribution for the death of one man]].

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: By orders of Branmer, Neroon [[spoiler: gave as little help as possible to Leklann so he'd be defeated by Earthforce]]. This was in order to reduce the Wind Swords influence and prevent them from being able to command the incoming Shadow War.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: With her [[{{BFG}} 20mm rocket-propelled grenade launcher]], Lisa Cavendish can perform an headshot at 11 miles. At lesser distances she could theorically shoot down a fighter and mission-kill Minbari tanks with a few well-placed rounds, and has performed a double headshot on the pilot and the commander of a moving Minbari IFV.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The armor of Minbari vehicles and starships is extremely effective against energy weapons, but mechanically fragile. In space combat this has little consequence due Earthforce inability to hit the Minbari ships, but on the ground Minbari fighting vehicles are vulnerable to the chemically-propelled rounds of heavy machine guns, autocannons and tank guns and to anti-tank missiles (both the cheap kinetic kill missiles and the more powerful Hammers), with the partial exception of the Wind Sword super-heavy tank (that can be destroyed only by air support or anti-tank [[MagneticWeapons railguns]]).

* MagneticWeapons: Earthforce makes use of railguns. While they have little effect in space due the sheer difficult of actually targeting the Minbari, the ground-based railguns of Proxima 3 took an heavy toll on the Minbari landers, and the new 90mm tank railgun can destroy any ground vehicle in the Minbari armor, even the almost invulnerable Wind Sword super-heavy tank.

* NukeEm: Apart John [[FanNickName Nuke'em]] Sheridan, Earthforce makes a rather liberal use of nukes every time they think they can hit the target.

* PoisonousCaptive: Jha'dur is a 'guest' of the Wind Swords, who sometimes ask her advice for battle. In at least one occasion, her advice was a recipe for perfect disaster.
-->'''Jha'dur''': "“Exploitation? A subject dear to my heart. Ever heard of the expression never hustle a hustler?"
-->'''Satai Coplann''': "No."
-->'''Jha'dur''': "Then please proceed Coplann, I am completely at your disposal."

* RockBeatsLaser: On the ground and in an atmosphere, Minbari fighters are quite vulnerable to heat-seeking missiles, and their tank armor, while exceptionally resistant to energy weapons, is extremely vulnerable to projectiles, no matter if they are 90mm railgun slugs, more conventional chemically propelled 135mm shells or sabots from tank guns, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank rods or even .50 BMG rounds (tanks can resist the latters for a while, but anything lighter is easily destroyed).

* SuperWeaponSurprise: Earthforce aims to spring one, resisting the Minbari long enough to counterattack with ships that can fight them back.

* TankGoodness: Both Earthforce and the Minbari have quite the assortment of tanks, culminating in lethality in the Wind Sword siege tank (a ''huge'' tank with enough armor to shrug off the fire of normal Earthforce tanks, operated exclusively by the clan it was named after) for the Minbari and the Thor Firefly (a Thor tank that replaces the 135mm tank gun with a 90mm railgun that can kill a Wind Sword tank) for Earthforce.

* WeHaveReserves: According to G'Kar, what Earthforce has fought until now and brought to its limits is the Minbari ''peacetime force'', and they still have to fully mobilize, both militarily and economically. The truth is a little funnier: the Minbari [[spoiler: ''do'' have reserves, but, with the exception of the elite ground force of the Night Walkers clan (held in reserve for the expected Shadow War) and the all-around elite of the Rangers (who consider the war senseless and refused to take part in it citing the imminent Shadow War), they are either lazy warriors who had let their training slip and the barely trained forces of the Religious and Workers Castes, and in combat would have got slaughtered by the technologically inferior but more cunning and skilled human forces]]. In fact, part of the reason Branmer is advancing so slowly is to [[spoiler: have an excuse to give the lazy warriors and the military of the Religious and Worker Castes a much needed kick in the pants so they'll train and become as good as they're supposed to be]], and [[spoiler: the destruction of the Wind Swords army on Proxima has effectively crippled the clan's ground forces]]

* GodzillaThreshold: After the defeat of the Wind Swords on Proxima, Satai Coplann was willing to do ''anything''. Even consult [[CompleteMonster Jha'dur]].