Story:Star Trek: Of Logic and Honour

Due to my continuous troubles with writing a full-fledged story, this will be done as a plot summary. It features the War of the Eagle's Banner, the last great Vulcan war and the dawn of the Romulan Empire. It will be presented as a summary of a series of novels.

Setting the Stage
At the close of the first three Great Vulcan Wars, the Vulcan Star Empire is in turmoil but still stands powerful enough to threaten the Alpha Quadrant. The old Stellar Confederate Alliance, a precursor to the Federation, has been destroyed by a century of war with the empire and their capital of Sarthong V turned from a fertile Class-M world to a fiery wasteland. The Vulcans are finally unifying and have made pacts of honour to prevent more internal warfare. But the peace can not hold…

At this time, a Vulcan military commander, Lord Sav'lek, plots vengeance on an old nemesis, General Sarek, who was responsible for the pacts that hold together the empire and the originator of the ideas of logic that would one day see Vulcan transformed forever. Lord Sav'lek's daughter, T'Hoth, formed the House of T'Hoth and found a loophole in one of the pacts which allowed them to undermine Sarek's authority and undo several other pacts. By the time Sarek discovered what was going on, it was too late - the Great Vulcan Pact collapsed and the House of T'Hoth declared open war on the House of Sarek. The star empire collapsed and was conquered by the Andorian Republic, beginning the old grudge between the two races. Say'lek fought and killed Sarek, kickstartng the Fourth Great Vulcan War. The nuclear fallout turned the once lush, fertile world into a desert. But then, Surak, son of T'Hoth, revealed his teachings and brought peace to Vulcan at last. Yet the grandson of Surak, Sa'tem, rejected his teachings, and tension grew between the old houses. A time bomb began ticking the day that Sa'tem publicly destroyed one of the seven sacred Kir'Sharas, the first copies of the original made for the P'Jem Monastery. That time bomb would see the rise of a deadly new enemy…

The Rise of the Eagle
In the first novel, in the prologue, the followers of Surak undertake a quest into Vulcan's Forge to forge the first Kir'Shara. Soon after it is completed, Sa'tem, a member of the pilgrimage, publicly denounces Surak's authority and calls the Kir'Shara "the end of Vulcan as we know it." Surak has him cast out of the pilgrimage and he flees into the Forge. He is presumed dead.

Years later, the leader of the cult of Sa'tem, Syrok, captures one of the last surviving haw'kehth, giant predatory eagle-like animals, clutching two eggs it stole from another haw'kehth. This haw'kehth becomes a symbol of their movement. The eggs hatch into two birds that are named Khal and His'th. The haw'kehth is named Rihann. Soon, an army under the banner of the eagle, a symbol of Rihan clutching the eggs, begins marching towards the Vulcan capital of Shi'kahr. Meanwhile, Surak teaches monks at the P'Jem Monastery, including young T'Pal of L-tar'en, a teenage girl from P'Jem City sent to become a monk on her father's orders.

T'Pal soon uncovers a massive conspiracy involving the revenge of the Hoth Senate, a race that was almost destroyed by the Vulcan Empire in the wars. After she stops a Hoth spy from assassinating Surak and convinces the Senate to embrace logic, she receives a medal of honour and is invited to join the Inner Circle of Defense, formed by Surak to prevent the followers of Sa'tem from destroying the Vulcan Allied Senate and the Surak movement. Members of the circle are forced to give up on non-violence but still must purge all emotions. T'Pal struggles with the process. However, when the cult attacks Shi'kahr and kills her parents, T'Pal's emotions get in the way of her judgement and she lures Syrok into a trap by pretending to be a spy for the cult and taking Surak as a prisoner. When the cult reaches the designated meeting place on the planetoid XXW-144567, she reveals they are surrounded by cloaked Hoth warships, who beam her up and destroy the planetoid and Syrok. Realizing that some emotions are not evil, Surak releases T'Pal from her duty in the Inner Circle but gives her the honorary title of Lieutenant.

In the epilogue, several cult members flee into the Forge. One is nearly killed by a wild sehlat, but is saved by a mysterious man who turns out to be Sa'tem. They begin plotting their return in a shelter he built.

Ascending Shadows
After the events of The Rise of the Eagle, T'Pal has joined the Vulcan Command, in charge of the interstellar empire, and joins the crew of the USS Sarek (not to be confused with the Federation starship). She quickly rises through the ranks and after confronting Hoth rebels and defeating them in what would come to be known as the T'Pal Maneuver, she becomes captain of the P'Jem and joins a secret movement to expose a cultist spy in the Command.

Meanwhile, Sa'tem and followers recruit followers and mass an army in the small and worn-down city of Seth'tar, remaking it into their capital. Sa'tem soon finds Khal and His'th in Syrok's old aviary, but Rihann was killed in the Battle of XXW-144567. Rihann becomes a martyr along with his owner and the followers of Sa'tem declare themselves the Rihannsu, ready to swoop down on the unsuspecting Senate and destroy it. Khal becomes the Rihannsu word for honour and His'th the word for emotion. The flag declares the bird Rihann, ready to swoop down upon Vulcan and destroy the followers of Surak, and the founding principles of the Rihannsu movement, honour and emotion.

T'Pal is sent to Hoth to help stop the rebels. However, she soon discovers it was a diversion and she is attacked by a Rihannsu bird-of-prey. She manages to defeat it with heavy casualties and damage. She begins searching the highest levels of the Vulcan Command for the traitor. Eventually, with the help of her old friend from the P'Jem Monastery, Sartek, she manages to expose the leader of the High Command, General J'tal, as a Rihannsu sympathiser. When she reveals this, he attacks her and shoots Sartek with a phaser, mortally wounding him. Filled with grief and anger, she wrestles away his phaser and vaporizes his left leg, causing him to die of blood loss. She mind melds with Sartek just before he dies, and she travels to Mount Seleya to hide when the Rihannsu retaliate and attempt to kill her in revenge.

Meanwhile, several Rihannsu warships are equipped with nuclear weaponry and bomb several major Vulcan cities. The war finally begins.

T'Pal finds Surak hiding at Mt. Seleya too, revealing that the mountain has unusual powers that can allow a person to preserve his or her ka'tra after death. T'Pal tries to save Sartek's ka'tra but finds that only one pure of emotion can do so. Surak sacrifices his ka'tra to save Sartek and they transport to the P'Jem just as the mountain is struck by two nuclear bombs. T'Pal and Surak are presumed to have died of radiation poisoning.

In the epilogue, Surak's death has turned him into a martyr like Syrok and Rihann and Seth'tar is levelled by Vulcan nuclear bombs.

The Way of the Rihannsu
The war between the Vulcans and the Rihannsu movement sees massive destruction throughout the stellar empire, and soon the empire collapses. T'Pal and Sartek ally with the Vulcan colonies and the Hoth to bring an end to the war.

The Rihannsu begin separating themselves from the Vulcans, deliberately developing a new language and culture. After capturing the planet of P'Jem, the Rihannsu destroyed the six remaining copies of the Kir'Shara and began hunting the monastery for the original. Fortunately, the Inner Circle of Defense stole the Kir'Shara and took it to T'Pal and Sartek, who would quote it to rally up their army and begin the attack on Vulcan, which was by now occupied by the Rihannsu.

Sa'tem, who has changed his name to Rihann and forged himself a golden throne with perches for Khal and His'th, has the Rihannsu engage the alliance in battle. The P'Jem is destroyed in the resulting battle, but T'Pal, Sartek and the Kir'Shara are transported aboard the refitted Sarek and the Rihannsu fleet is defeated. In response, another fleet bombards Hoth, destroying the Senate and killing nine billion Hoths. T'Pal and her fleet gather up their strength, hiding in the Maxia system and plotting against the Rihannsu. They convince the Maxians to join their cause and begin expanding their fleet to prepare for the final battle. Unfortunately, the Rihannsu detect ionized particles from the primitive cloaking device on their shipyards and manage to use ionized tachyon bursts to disengage it, and begin attacking. The Sarek is deployed and just barely manages to evacuate the fleet before exploding, injuring T'Pal. The allied fleet flees to Deinonychus IV, where they engage the Rihannsu. They destroy the Rihannsu flagship, forcing the fleet into retreat.