A more than slightly fanwanked novelization of the events of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, Pinnacle Wraith
takes a much closer look at the events of the games and is written by the same author as The Battle of New Mombasa. Established characters do appear and the story tries to tie all of the various "Tom Clancy's" franchises with the original Ryanverse stories. Whether it works out or not is up to the reader.
Tropes contained within "Pinnacle Wraith" include:
- Author Appeal: The author really likes weaponry and the military.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Since the story is seen largely from the perspective of the Americans, there isn't much in favor of the insurgency. However, there have already been scenes including the execution of unarmed and wounded fighters.
- And now Cold-Blooded Torture.
- Blood Knight: Colonel Jimenez is shaping up nicely into one.
- Callsigns: A bit referential to other series, but some of them are cool (Buck, Chrome, Roughrider, etc.) while others are downright silly (Rolex, O.D. Bastard, etc.).
- Continuity Nod: For a Fix Fic, the story has several, least of which includes the way all of the various Tom Clancy's games are interrelated and come together in the Ryanverse. There are numerous references to the Ryan and Durling administrations, usually accompanied by copious tongue-bathing by the military personnel since they had been responsible for the massive budget increases that get them the really shiny toys.
- Epigraph
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Fan Wank: The author combines this with a fix-up of some of the elements of the game. - Fast-Roping: Crossed over with Rule of Cool when Romeo Team performs a boarding of a cargo ship from an overhanging bridge.
- Mood Whiplash: Dear Lord, the most recent update. While the story's fairly grim, when mutilation as a form of interrogation being used by the "heroes"...
- More Dakka: The M1A2 Abrams post TUSK upgrade.
- Semper Fi
- Shout-Out: Several.
- The prologue is, to a degree, similar to 'Crew Expendable' from Modern Warfare.
- In the second chapter, there is an Abrams named 'Amorrachius'
- A good number of the names in the second chapter are amalgamations of specific actors' roles.
- "Look, sir, foot-mobiles."
- The Ghosts as presented in the story are highly reminiscent of Unit operators.
- Shown Their Work: To the point of deliberately not doing the research considering some of the stuff covered. By the author's estimate, what he's written could have doubled as a manual on small-unit and insurgency tactics if he hadn't dumbed it down.
- Take That!: The fic was written as a corrective measure for what the author saw as glaring flaws in the Ghost Recon franchise. Several notable instances:
- In the prologue's "Introductory Brief", there is a specific mention that there are no female operators in the Ghosts.
- Some of the really unrealistically high-tech stuff that littered the games show up only briefly or are said to have fallen out of service.
- War Fic: Natch.
- War Is Hell: To a degree.
