Chapter Two
TSV Vesuvius
Four Days Later
Ambassador David Sheridan sat in thoughtful silence in the large VIP stateroom he'd been assigned aboard the Vesuvius as the mighty Rapier-class dreadnought and the squadron of frigates assigned to escort her sped towards the Minbari border at maximum FTL speed. A holographic screen floating a few inches in front of his face detailed all the information the Alliance had on the Minbari – which was basically all the Centauri and a handful of the older League species like the Yolu and Markab knew about the powerful but largely isolationist aliens. The information had been provided by shaken ambassadors in the aftermath of the incident with the Prometheus and the Minbari warships a few days ago, along with the fervent prayers of the ambassadors in question that he was successful in the mission the president had hurriedly assigned him. The mission to apologise for what had happened and make peace with the Minbari before the unthinkable happened and they went to war.
At the thought of war David shivered slightly. Thanks in no small part to the Dilgar he had seen enough of war in his life to know it was something truly awful that bred only pain and misery. And a war with the Minbari promised to be even more bloody than the Dilgar War had been as the Minbari were technologically and militarily far more powerful than the Dilgar had been at they're height. It was something he would do his best to prevent happening – especially as he had no desire to potentially loose his beloved son to the Minbari.
"But am I going to be in time to prevent war," he muttered to himself as he scanned the limited information on the Minbari once again. It was not encouraging as while the information indicated that the Minbari as a people weren't generally quick to anger but once angered they took a very long time to cool off and couldn't always be reasoned with until such time as they'd calmed down enough to think clearly. In that regard they sound somewhat like the Krogan, he thought, except the Krogan get pissed at even the slightest thing. And getting Krogan to be reasonable at the best of times is not that easy. I just hope its not the same with the Minbari, though they have every right to be angry over what happened the other day.
He was well aware of the fact that similar thoughts had occurred to many in Alliance Command. Indeed Fleet Admiral Hackett and General Lefcourt had persuaded the president to authorise increased alertness especially in the border areas raising the Alliances general alert level to Defcon 3. Which he was certain was going to raise eyebrows across the galaxy.
No doubt the Citadel Council will give Anita an earful about us suddenly raising our alert level, he thought feeling a twinge of sympathy for his long term colleague and friend Anita Goyle who had the –somewhat unenviable task – of being the Alliance representative on the Citadel. It wasn't the easiest of jobs – especially as the Turians were still sore over the Shanxi Incident or the 'Slaughter at Shanxi' as they called it especially as it had been the worst single defeat for the Turian Hierarchy in over a thousand years. The fact that the whole 'slaughter' had been the Turians fault in the first place – they had after all attacked Alliance vessels without warning or provocation and tried to conquer one of their worlds – was immaterial as far as the Hierarchy was concerned, they're pride had been stung by the loss of so many warships, including the Demarius one of their finest dreadnoughts, in just half hour of bloody starship combat over Shanxi.
The bleep of the door hailer caught his attention and he looked over. "Come in," he called out loud enough for the pickup by the door to hear him and trigger the door to open. The door opened and a painfully young marine came in. "Yes?"
"Sorry to disturb you ambassador but Captain Turner would like me to escort you to CIC," the marine answered. "She says its urgent."
David raised an eyebrow wondering why Captain Yvonne Turner wanted to see him right now in the CIC. By his reckoning they were still an hour from the region of space claimed by the Minbari Federation. "Did she give any idea why she wants me," he asked getting to his feet and moving closer to the marine. Up close to the younger man he couldn't help but feel somewhat like a dwarf as the marine towered over him by a good seven inches and had about a hundred pounds on him.
"She said it had something to do with the Minbari sir. Our long range sensors are apparently detected tachyon signals on the frequency bands we were told the Minbari use close to the edge of our territory. We've adjusted course to intercept the source of the signals…"
"And the captain wants me in the CIC when we drop out of FTL," David finished for him.
"Yes sir."
"Very well then lead on," David replied. The marine nodded and turned away before leading the way out of the quite spacious quarters. David followed a few paces behind all the while thinking about why the Minbari had come out of their territory as by all accounts it was not their normal practice.
The only answer he could think of for the change in their behaviour chilled him. The Minbari were scouting, finding safe routes into Alliance space and setting up beacons to enable them to navigate the other space that local species referred to as hyperspace. It would be necessary for the Minbari to take such action if they were planning to launch an attack as there were very few hyperspace beacons and jump gates inside Alliance space and those that there were, were located along the main shipping lanes between the Alliance, its neighbours and to hubs in Alliance space where local races traded with those from Citadel Space. All such areas were heavily patrolled by warships achieving surprise and amassing a large enough force to cause major damage anywhere near those areas without being detected would be virtually impossible.
Maybe I still have time to prevent this situation degenerating any further, he thought as he followed the marine into a transport tube that immediately began moving towards the ships central core where CIC and all vital areas were located surrounded by as much armour as possible, where they were safe from all but mortal blows. He hoped the Minbari didn't fire upon the Vesuvius and her escorts immediately and would at least listen when they tried to talk to them.
He supposed only time would tell.
Minbari War Frigate Dark Lance
That Same Time
Alyt Yaten sighed softly in boredom as she stepped back onto the bridge of her Tinashi-class war frigate after quickly a brief rest to have food. For two days now the Dark Lance and two companion frigates Shining Pulsar and Valen's Fire had been scouting out the borders of Terran space, laying the ground work for the Minbari's retribution for Dukhat's brutal murder to begin. Indeed she had been honoured when she'd been given the orders by the warrior caste elders but in the last two days that sense of honour had faded replaced with mind numbing boredom as they went about the laborious process of charting local hyperspace and deploying beacons to allow navigation.
Not for the first time Yaten wondered just how the Terrans actually got around their territory. Data from the Anla'shok had confirmed that there were very few hyperspace beacons or jump gates active inside the known borders of the Terran Systems Alliance. Certainly there were far fewer than there should have been for a spacefaring nation of the apparent size and technological level of the Terrans – yet there wasn't.
Which meant there were only two real possibilities – either Terran sensors and navigational systems were a lot more advanced than those of the Minbari and most other known species and which while unusual that would not be impossible. Alternatively though there was the possibility that the rumours flying around the warrior caste ranks were true. That the Terrans had somehow discovered away to do what her people had long thought impossible and that was travel at faster than light velocities in normal space without spatial relativity getting in the way.
Privately Yaten hoped it was the former and not the latter. If it were the latter then fighting the Terrans and bringing them to justice for firing on the Grey Council without warning or provocation and in the process killing Dukhat would be a lot more difficult and time consuming than anyone would like. At the thought of Dukhat's murder Yaten felt her blood boil with seething rage and unspeakable grief. Similar sentiments had swept across all of Minbar and for one of the few times in history all three castes had unanimously agreed on something. And that something was the Terrans would pay for their crime – with their lives.
Sudden crystalline sounding bleeps and trills from the sensor station to her right and behind brought her back to the present with a jolt. "What is it," she demanded to know rotating her command chair to look at the warrior assigned to monitor the sensors.
"Alyt sensors have picked up a large dark energy signature approaching our location," the warrior replied. "The concentration is travelling at extremely high speed, hundreds of times that of light and appears to be on a direct course towards us."
"Time to intercept," Yaten asked calmly.
"Two minutes, eighteen seconds," the officer answered.
"Interesting," Yaten said softly as she recalled one of the cruisers who'd answered the frantic distress calls of the Valen'tha and Ingata had detected dark energy spikes from the Terran ships before they'd vanished – fleeing Minbari retribution for their attack. If the rumours of the Terrans real space FTL capabilities were true then could dark energy have something to do with it? "Call all personnel to battle stations, open gun ports and energise all weapons and prepare the Niall's for launch. Advise the other two ships to do the same."
"Alyt?" her second in command questioned in surprise.
"Do it. If I'm right about this approaching dark energy mass then the Terrans are about to pay us a visit and I want to be ready if they do. We may get the chance to be the ones to strike the first blows of vengeance against the barbarians yet."
"Yes, Alyt," the second replied and in his voice Yaten heard an odd combination of doubt and glee as he turned and started operating his console. The trilling call to battle stations began to sound throughout the Dark Lance and all over the nine hundred metre long Tinashi-class war frigate crew members instantly reacted. Warriors raced to man weapons systems and fighters, religious caste members moved to sickbay ready to tend any wounded in the unlikely event that they took casualties, while workers manned damage control positions and brought both the main quantum gravitic reactor and the fusion reactors to full power to charge up the neutron cannons and fusion beams of the frigates main armament.
"Energy mass now thirty seconds out," sensors reported as additional personnel flooded onto the bridge to man auxiliary consoles. "Speed decreasing. Thirty four seconds to intercept. I have projected the point where the mass will appear."
"Show me," Yaten ordered looking at the front of the bridge just as the holographic field coalesced into existence showing a seemingly empty patch of normal space.
"Intercept in twelve seconds," sensors reported and Yaten metaphorically held her breath wondering if she'd been right. "Ten seconds… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one."
As the other warrior spoke Yaten kept her eyes focused on the holographic display just in time to see space momentarily shiver and then suddenly ships appeared, a faint purple-blue glow around their hulls for a moment before fading away. And at the sight of them Yaten felt a spike of both glee and concern – glee because the sleek elongated delta-shapes and greyish-white hulls revealed that there makers were indeed Terran. But concern when she realised she was outnumbered two to one – with one of the six Terran warships being almost as big length wise as a Sharlin-class war cruiser but broader at least twice as wide as the five smaller ships were long.
"Alyt we're being hailed by the lead Terran vessel," communications reported. "Message is in both Interlac and Centauri."
"What are they saying," Yaten asked though she couldn't really care what the Terrans were saying, she had her orders. Orders that were to attack any Terran warships on sight.
"That they want to talk to us about the events of four days ago. They profusely apologise for the unfortunate incident between their ships and ours and are willing to discuss terms for the situation to be diplomatically resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned."
Yaten growled slightly in both anger and outrage. An unfortunate incident is that all the Terrans thought their unprovoked attack on the Valen'tha was? Did they have no clue what they had done? The crime they had committed against their betters? Did they really think they could just say sorry for Dukhat's death and not pay a price in blood for what they'd done? Whatever the Terrans believed it didn't matter – there fate was already as good as sealed in the eyes of the Minbari people.
"Then we will answer them appropriately," she snarled. "Ignore the communication. Target the lead ship and open fire. Launch fighters."
"Yes Alyt."
Yaten watched the holographic display as with a faint thrum of power through the ship their three forward neutron beam cannons sent green javelins of energy at the Terran flagship intent on eviscerating it. What happened next shocked her speechless for as the beams reached the Terran vessel a glowing purplish-blue translucent energy field appeared and the beams seemed to break up somewhat – arcs of emerald light shooting off the field or crackling along it in lightning like forks.
Some of the beam did visibly penetrate the energy field – which could only be somekind of defensive force field – to hit the hull but to Yaten's mounting shock they seemingly did nothing beyond making the ship noticeably tremble. The beams certainly didn't immediately cut through it and come out the other side as Minbari weapons had always done to the other younger races ships in the past.
"In Valen's name," she breathed in disbelief as the beams shut off and the glowing energy barrier around the Terran ship faded, revealing only minor carbon scoring on its armour. How did they withstand our weapons like that, she thought, no younger race has ever been able to do that before.
"Another message from the Terrans Alyt," communications reported. "They're asking us to hold our fire that they are here on a mission of peace. They're also warning that if we fire on them again they will return fire and destroy us."
"Energy surges on the Terran ships Alyt," sensors added. "They're powering up their weapons systems and opening gun ports."
"A pointless gesture they couldn't see us to fire back, they're just bluffing," Yaten replied confident that the stealth systems would protect the Dark Lance from the admittedly powerful weapons the Terrans possessed. Like they protected the Valen'tha and the Ingata don't underestimate the Terrans and assume stealth is going to be effective against them, a part of her mind reminded her. She ignored that parts words of caution as she glared at the Terran warships hanging silent in space, practically daring the Minbari to fire upon them again.
"Fire again," she ordered.
"Yes Alyt."
The Dark Lance's neutron cannons lashed out at the Vesuvius again and as before impacted and were partially defocused by the dreadnoughts powerful kinetic barriers with sixty percent of the beams neutrons being refracted back out into space by the repulsive mass effect field. The remaining portion of the beam energy impacted the ships armour and began to slowly heat it up as they endeavoured to cut through to the hull metal beneath the thick plates of ablative metalloceramic alloy.
Immediately the dreadnought retaliated as the large plasma cannon and pulse laser turrets of its close range armaments swivelled around and fired a viscous barrage of blue and red bolts right at the offending Minbari frigate. Most of the bolts missed the Minbari vessel as the tracking systems were thrown off by the ships stealth systems – however several plasma bolts smashed into the frigates main body with searing white hot force. Polycrystalline armour glowed white hot at the points of impact as the intense heat and kinetic force of the plasma bolts partially shattered the matrix of the crystal while simultaneously subjecting it to temperatures found more normally in the heart of a star. The kinetic force of the impact rattled through the whole of the Tinashi-class frigate making the whole ship ring like a giant bell and knocking startled Minbari off their feet.
A second volley of plasma and laser bolts along with a full salvo of disruptor torpedoes erupted from the Vesuvius and streaked towards the Dark Lance. As with the first volley most of the barrage of fire missed however three blasts of plasma and two bolts of laser fire slammed into the hull. Already weakened sections of armour ruptured letting the superheated plasma and laser bolts drill into the more vulnerable metal underneath. A pair of disruptor torpedoes homing in on the thermal spikes created by molten polycrystalline material spewing into space slammed into the exposed metal hull and detonated, sending the blue glow of rapidly shifting high and low mass effect fields over the hull. Under attack from the molecular level the normally highly durable Minbari simple metal and the hull support struts beneath it simply tore apart, sending hypervelocity fragments through the thinner inner hull into the interior of the ship exposing dozens of compartments to space.
The force of venting atmosphere acted like a crude thruster and physically shoved the Dark Lance to port as atmosphere, bodies and loose debris spewed into space from the gash ripped in the hull. A third volley of plasma cannon fire smashed into the Dark Lance even as the frigates main power supply flickered. The barrage cut through the weakened remaining armour and the hull beneath to flood dozens of compartments on several decks with superheated material, triggering a barrage of secondary explosions throughout the Dark Lance and sending the Minbari vessel tumbling helplessly completely out of control trailing blazing atmosphere, glittering radiation and half molten debris as its main power supply died taking with it manoeuvring controls, weapons and stealth systems.
The two remaining Tinashi-class frigates came out of their stunned surprise at seeing a Minbari warship crippled so easily and began firing themselves with immense fury – the crews determined to avenge their dead and injured colleagues on the Dark Lance as well as wishing to strike a blow against those who'd taken Dukhat from them. Green neutron beams and yellow green fusion beams lanced out from their weapons arrays while a small number of the tri-winged Niall fighters launched from their hanger bays and began vectoring towards the Terran warships.
Combat Information Centre
TSV Vesuvius
"One enemy target disabled ma'am," one of the tactical officers reported to Captain Yvonne Turner where she stood with Ambassador Sheridan at the main situation table. "Remaining two enemy ships are launching fighters and engaging our frigates."
"Launch our own fighters to intercept the Minbari," Yvonne ordered with a glance at flight operations before turning her full attention back to the situation table – or rather the tactical hologram of the battle space floating above it just in time to see one of the rapidly manoeuvring frigates flash brilliant red and vanish from the display indicating it had been destroyed.
"We just lost the Reliant," another tactical officer reported. "Their barriers did nothing to stop the Minbari particle beams they're just too powerful for frigate scale barriers to affect to any meaningful degree."
"We will have to see if there is something we can do about that," Yvonne commented before looking at the hazy, distorted image of the two operational Minbari warships which from their size she would label as battlecruisers. The electronic stealth systems the Minbari were using were making it extremely difficult to land blows upon the vessels, the only way they could was aiming for the odd dark energy flux that Minbari capital ships seemed to put out and even that wasn't perfect as roughly only one in ten shots struck home.
"Maybe there is something we can do to improve that ratio," she muttered to herself a moment before the Vesuvius shuddered violently as a pair of neutron beams tore at her hull, aiming to overpower the thick metalloceramic ablative armour covering the plasteel/carbotanium alloy hull. "Damage report," she ordered.
"Forward armour is loosing integrity in the outermost layers in sections six and seven on decks twelve through fourteen," damage control reported "kinetic barriers down to seventy percent capacity and draining at a rate of five percent every time we're hit."
"Divert all non-essential power to kinetic barrier generators," Yvonne ordered even as one of the Minbari frigates flashed brilliantly and staggered in space a dark energy aura enveloping one of its long fin-like projections as it took direct disruptor torpedo strikes. A moment later the fin literally broke off the ship like a rotten tooth and the Minbari vessel began a helpless corkscrewing motion along its Z-axis. Are those fins part of the propulsion system, she wondered observing the display as the squadrons of Scorpion attack fighters launched from the Vesuvius hanger bay pounded on the damaged battlecruiser ripple volleying three full salvos of disruptor rockets into its hull at point blank range.
Waves of dark energy swept over the wire frame image and the image began to bend and distort mimicking the contortions the shifting mass effect fields would be putting the actual ship through. After a few seconds the wire frame burst asunder and disintegrated in a haze of radiation distortion indicated that its power core had catastrophically breached under the torpedoes onslaught. However Yvonne felt no jubilation at the destruction of another Minbari warship as even as it disintegrated two more of her frigates vanished from the display.
"Alright enough of this," she said determined to end the battle before she lost anymore of her ships. "Navigation put us on a course to run parallel to the last operational Minbari warship. All lateral mass accelerator cannons and plasma turrets stand by to fire."
"Course plotted ma'am," navigation acknowledged a hint of glee in the officers voice knowing what the captain intended to do, what she intended to unleash on the last operational Minbari ship at close to point blank range.
"Lateral weapons standing by," a tactical officer added immediately.
"Execute."
At the rear of the Vesuvius a small star seemed to flare into being as the dreadnoughts mighty proton/anti-proton main thrusters fired and the dreadnought began accelerating towards the last Minbari frigate. Noticing the move and fearing a possible ramming attack the remaining frigate Valen's Fire began firing everything it had at the approaching vessel.
Neutron and fusion beams tore at the dreadnought and flayed at the armoured hull with every increasing force. Small plumes of molten metalloceramic alloy spewed into space as the beams began burning away the outermost layers of the armour. Yet the Vesuvius paid it no mind as she advanced on the Minbari at ever increasing speed.
Minbari Niall fighters moved in to engage firing their neutron cannons only for the far lower power beams to defocus completely and fly apart upon impacting the dreadnoughts faltering barriers. Infuriated the pilots tried again only to begin frantically dodging as the ships CIWS and Interceptor systems opened up – unleashing a virtual torrent of plasma and laser fire upon them. Two Niall's were hit immediately and disintegrated into balls of hazy disassociated ions as the star core hot kiss of plasma literally tore them apart.
The rest pulled back as Minbari squadron commanders hurriedly began working out a new plan of attack. They didn't get long to think about it as fresh volleys of pulse laser and plasma fire tore into their formation as the remaining two Terran frigates and the fighters of the Vesuvius engaged them at point blank range – forcing the warrior pilots to take frantic evasive action to avoid being destroyed. Not that it did much good as frigates were designed as fighter killers and began knocking Niall after Niall out of the sky with either lasers or plasma fire – the lower power stealth capabilities of the Niall fighters being completely unable to defeat the frigates sensors at close range meaning that almost every pulse hit home.
The Vesuvius ignored the dogfight/massacre behind her and continued to close in upon the Minbari vessel and just before it settled onto an irreversible collision course the dreadnought changed its vector. The Tinashi frigate started to pass along the dreadnoughts starboard side the ships a scant few hundred kilometres apart…
…and the Vesuvius opened fire. Each of the dreadnoughts seventy five starboard frigate sized mass accelerator cannons fired as they came to bare flinging five kilogram ferrous tungsten slugs at the Valen's Fire at 0.75 percent of light speed. The barrage of glowing metal slugs crossed the distance almost instantly and impacted the Valen's Fire with the energy of small nukes. Polycrystalline armour shattered like brittle glass under the enormous kinetic impact and hull metal bowed inwards and in some places tore. The aft drive fin took two direct strikes and didn't so much as snap off the hull as literally disintegrate into fragments under the enormous force it had been suddenly struck with.
Plasma bolts followed – flying into the deep gashes and holes blown in the hull of the Valen's Fire and tearing right through bulkheads and impacting the quantum gravitic reactor at the core of the ship and obliterating its containment and control systems. Instantly under the pressure of normal space-time the artificial quantum singularity imploded, dumping all its potential energy into normal space at once in a single devastating blast of energy and radiation. For a few milliseconds the compromised hull of the frigate contained the massive energy wave before it burst outwards – tearing the once proud Minbari warship apart in a hurricane of energy that seemed to momentarily eclipse the light of the lifeless systems distant sun for luminosity. As the fireball faded all that remained of the Valen's Fire was a plume of dust, half molten debris and cooling plasma.
Combat Information Centre
TSV Vesuvius
"Enemy warship destroyed ma'am," tactical reported.
"Yes I see it," Yvonne replied with a sad look on her face. She had really hoped she wouldn't have to destroy any Minbari vessels during this mission, that the Minbari would be sensible and accept their apology and offer of diplomatic talks to resolve any tension. But it appeared that fate had had other ideas as if this group of ships actions were anything to go by then the Minbari weren't interested in talking.
"Navigation move us back towards the first warship," she ordered. "Sensors scan them I want to know their status."
"Aye, aye ma'am."
"What the status of the enemy fighters?"
"They've all been destroyed, looks like they tried to attack the frigates keeping them off us and got massacred by their close in weapons."
"More sad waste of life," David Sheridan said speaking for the first time since the battle had begun.
"Indeed and I fear ambassador that relations with the Minbari are going to get a lot worse before they get better," Yvonne replied.
"It is very possible," David agreed. "Especially if all the Minbari are as unwilling to talk with anything but their weapons as this group were."
"Captain scans of the remaining Minbari vessel are complete," sensors reported. "The vessel has lost propulsion and main power however much of the vessel appears to be intact. There forward most compartments on the port side are open to space with collateral damage all over the ship. Other than that the vessel is largely airtight. Reading multiple life signs on board, the crew is still alive."
"Then we may yet get a chance to talk to some Minbari," Yvonne said. "Prepare boarding parties – I want the survivors from that ship. Make sure to send some engineers along see if we can get anything out of their computers."
"Aye, aye ma'am."
Minbari War Frigate Dark Lance
A Few Moments Later
Alyt Yaten stared at the spluttering but still somehow functional holographic display at the front of her shattered, smouldering bridge in sheer disbelief. Both the Shining Pulsar and the Valen's Fire were destroyed the latter torn from the sky by an incredible barrage of firepower from the largest Terran ship. The frigate had stood no chance against the barrage the Terrans had unleashed from their broadside kinetic energy weapons as well as their plasma turrets indeed Yaten doubted that even a mighty Sharlin would have weathered that kind of massive close range barrage certainly if it had survived it would have been very badly damaged if not completely crippled.
Staring at the spinning plumes of debris from the destroyed ships Yaten felt for the first time in her life a sense of true fear. The Terrans were powerful, far more so than anyone in the warrior caste had believed. Fighting them was going to be a very long, very bloody affair that would cost her caste dearly. But it had to be done; justice for Dukhat had to be gained no matter how many warriors had to give their lives in the process.
"Alyt sensors are picking up multiple boarding craft leaving the Terran flagship, they're vectoring towards us," sensors reported.
"It is not surprising they want to know more about us as we are now enemies," Yaten replied feeling as sense of peace. She knew what her duty was now, knew she could not let the Dark Lance and all the secrets it contained fall into Terran hands. Calmly she tapped a code into the small controls on the arm of her chair before opening a comm. channel to the ship itself.
"Honour," she said giving the coded command to initiate the Dark Lance's self destruct countdown.
"Unable to execute command," the smooth voice of the ships A.I matrix responded. "Primary command sequencers are off line. Automatic self destruct unavailable, manual arming required."
Yaten swore softly under her breath. That was going to take awhile and would require her to go to engineering and manually arm the self destruct device. It was a journey that would normally be easy but conditions were far from normal considering the amount of damage the Dark Lance had sustained.
With a sigh she opened a ship wide comm. channel. "Attention all personnel this is Alyt Yaten. Enemy boarding craft are on approach and our automatic self destruct systems are inoperative," she announced her voice echoing through the hull, "I will be heading to engineering to attempt manual self destruct activation, in the meantime prepare to repel boarders. That is all."
Immediately after signing off she stood up. "Satenn the bridge is yours," she said to her first officer. "Make sure the crew hold off the Terran boarding parties as long as possible and send a message to Minbar for the attention of Shai Alyt Branmer, advise him of what's happened."
"I will do, Alyt," Satenn responded. "And may I say it has been an honour serving with you."
"The honour has been mine, Satenn," Yaten replied as she went to a small arms locker near the back of the bridge and retrieved a denn'bok and a fusion blaster, just in case she had to fight her way to engineering. "The honour has been mine," she repeated and with that she hurriedly left the bridge to make the journey to engineering.
Terran Boarding Craft Wisky-64
That Same Time
Lieutenant Darrel York felt the butterflies of nerves fluttering about in his stomach as the marine boarding craft crossed the relatively short distance between the Vesuvius and the disabled Minbari warship. Around him the rest of his squad looked to be equally nervous about the mission they had just been given – the mission to take the Minbari vessel.
Despite the fact that they were all clad head to toe in vacuum-rated combat hardsuits and each carrying a small arsenal on their backs Darrel knew they had good reason to be worried. None of them had ever engaged the Minbari in close quarters combat before and thus had no idea what to expect when they actually got aboard the Minbari vessel. The alien crew were bound to resist the invasion of their vessel as they wouldn't want any information or technology it contained to fall into his people's hands.
Who knows what surprises they have waiting for us on that ship, he thought knowing from experience to be ready for anything. Though if the Minbari planned surprises for him and his particular squad then he could spring some surprises of his own back – he was after all a vanguard and if the Minbari were anything like most of the local races they would have absolutely no knowledge of biotics or what they could do.
The sound of the warning buzzer brought him out of his thoughts and made him sit up straighter in his seat as the buzzer indicated they were about to lock onto the hull of the Minbari vessel and begin cutting an access route through the hull. It was designed to tell the marines on the boarding craft it was time to get themselves ready to storm aboard the enemy vessel and begin doing what marines did best – killing or capturing the bad guys. Like all the other marines on board Darrel reacted by leaning forward and taking his assault rifle from his back and hitting the button on the side that made it unfold from its transport state ready to fire.
As the weapon finished unfolding a dull clang sounded through the craft as they latched onto the Minbari hull – followed by a whirring whining sound as the laser docking collar sliced into the hull to a depth of one and a half centimetres. After a few moments the whirring stopped and Darrel knew from experience to brace himself for what came next as he knew the heavily reinforced docking collar would be forcing explosive foam into the grove lasered into the hull, explosives that when detonated would blast a circular hole in the hull wide enough for two marines to easily pass through side by side.
"Stand by," Staff Commander Jay Hawks – the N7 in charge of the boarding party said. "I want two flash bangs tossed through the hole the moment we breach. York make ready with the biotics we might need them."
"Ready sir," Darrel acknowledged concentrating slightly on his nervous system and making a few very subtle pre-biotic muscle movements, sending a charge or electricity through the tumour like eezo nodules melded to his nervous system. A faint blue fog appeared around his body as his biotic aura manifested itself ready to unleash his powers on the Minbari. Calmly he stood up and moved to the hatch bringing his rifle into ready position and taking a grenade from his pouch and flicking the switch that set it to flash bang mode as opposed to the default concussion mode.
"Hold onto your helmets marines," the voice of the boarding crafts pilot said, "breaching now."
A thunderous roar echoed through the boarding craft and the ship shook hard as the breaching charge detonated, the specifically shaped charge created by the docking ring directing all the energy of the blast into the Minbari vessel, slicing through remaining armour and hull and blowing a two and a half metre access point into the interior of the vessel. Due to the nature of the blast all the shrapnel and smoke of the detonation was also forced into the interior with chunks of pulverised metal and polycrystalline armour slicing through the air like razor blades – cutting into the handful of Minbari warriors who'd moved to try and contain the boarding party.
The hatch in front of Darrel opened revealing the short tunnel blown into the smoky interior of the Minbari warship. He and the corporal standing next to him immediately threw their flash bangs, Darrel giving them a slight biotic push at the same time so they would go further away as he was well aware that the concussion and shrapnel of the breaching would have cleared any defenders from the immediate area of the hole. Two brilliant flashes of light – visible even from the interior of the boarding craft – and bursts of high frequency sound erupted as the grenades detonated, providing a few crucial stunning seconds for the marines to act.
Darrel and his compatriots didn't waste any of that time. Holding his assault rifle at the ready Darrel charged through the breach and got his first look at the interior of the Minbari vessel, which kind of reminded him of some Asari ships he'd been on in his time with some overtones of Centauri vessel interiors thrown in for good measure.
Two Minbari lay dead in pools of very human looking red blood near the hole – there bodies deeply slashed by flying shrapnel. They were very familiar but at the same time different looking aliens, humanoid and with almost human features with the only noticeable differences being a total lack of facial hair, ears much lower down on their heads than human ears were and a crown of thick bone around the back of the skull. Both were dressed in uniform like black tunics that to Darrel and the other Alliance marines looked to be far more ceremonial than practical, certainly nothing like the combat hardsuits they themselves were wearing.
Darrel mentally filed the information on Minbari clothing – and its seeming lack of any real protection – away for future reference as he joined the other marines in jogging to the far end of the corridor, rifles swinging back and forth searching for threats. Three Minbari in identical black tunics to the other two lay on the floor rolling in pain and clutching their ears which seemed to be bleeding. Huh there is no way flash bangs should have caused injuries like that, he thought, unless there eardrums were already weakened by the concussion wave of the breaching charge. The flash bang detonation would just finish them off – especially if they're more vulnerable to high pitched sounds than most species and like idiots don't seem to have a clue about things like helmets.
"Truman, Stevens cuff them and if its safe administer medi-gel," Hawks instructed. "Then take them back to the boarding craft and secure them, looks like we have our first three prisoners. Then I want you to guard the pod."
"Yes sir," the two marines in question acknowledged and moved to aid and restrain the three wounded Minbari.
"The rest of you let's move," Hawks instructed. "Our objective is to secure the engine room so the Minbari can't scuttle the ship. Move out."
Darrel nodded and moved up beside Hawks as they started moving, following instructions beamed wirelessly to the Special Forces marines' hardsuit computer by sensor techs on the Vesuvius.
It wasn't long before they encountered more Minbari who'd set up a crude barricade across the corridor ahead of them in front of the stairwell they needed to access to get down to the engineering levels. The three black clothed Minbari popped up enough from their barricade to fire a fusillade of green bolts from their pistols at the invading Terrans. Darrel staggered momentarily as a bolt hit his suits kinetic barrier making it flash brilliant blue as it deflected and dissipated the bolt of plasma.
Immediately the marines flattened themselves against the wall and returned fire sending a barrage of sand grain sized hypersonic tungsten projectiles back at the Minbari – who ducked down behind their barricade so most of the shots missed – or elicited small sprays of sparks and chipped metal as they crashed into the wall.
With the Minbari distracted Darrel acted, shifting his rifle to his left hand he gathered dark energy in his right hand before dropping it down to the floor and making a throwing motion. The orb of dark energy flew from his hand and bounced along the floor crackling and emitting waves of energy as it did so in the biotic attack referred to as shockwave. The shockwave tore through the flimsy barricade sending the thin crates and tables, and the Minbari sheltering behind them flying.
"Ha ha take that you boneheads," one of other marines shouted as the three Minbari struggled back to their feet raising their pistols – only to be hit by another fusillade of mass accelerator slugs that picked them up and threw them back against the wall. All three were dead before they hit the floor.
"Sheesh are these Minbari idiots," the same marine who'd called the Minbari boneheads asked. "They had to know they had no chance without cover and without anything like body armour. So why try to attack us again?"
"Leave that to the xenopsychologists to work out, corporal," Hawks advised. "Thompson, Cutter, Dean stay up here and guard this stairwell. The rest of you lets go."
"Right with you sir," Darrel replied before noticing a Minbari appearing in the stairwell holding a pistol and seemingly looking to try and use the stairwell door as cover. "Oh no you don't," he said aloud and threw a hand out unleashing a pull field, he curved it around the rim of the door to strike the Minbari – who cried out in surprise and shock – as he was suddenly surrounded by a blue energy field and yanked into the air – where he floated helplessly towards them.
"Whoa good catch, LT," Corporal Thompson praised the pull field evaporated and the Minbari dropped to the floor landing with and audible whumph as the air was ripped from his lungs. Corporal Cutter ran forward before the Minbari could recover enough and held the alien down with a foot to the back, while he worked to place restraints on the dazed alien.
In moments the alien was restrained and yanked back to his feet by Cutter. The Minbari looked right at Darrel with an incredulous look on its face and said something in its own language. Darrel guessed that the alien was wondering what the hell he was. Guess that confirms these guys have no knowledge of biotics, he thought as he just smiled at the Minbari behind his helmet faceplate and allowed his biotic aura to flare again.
"Cutter take him back to the boarding craft then come back here," Hawks ordered ignoring Darrel's small biotic threat display with practiced ease. He'd worked with the young vanguard a few times in the last few years and was well aware of his little personality quirks and how he sometimes liked to rub his powers in enemies faces when they were captured. I really must speak to him again about that when we get back to the Vesuvius as it's not really necessary, he thought, maybe I can work it into another attempt to persuade him to go for N7 training we always need more biotics and telepaths.
"Come on let's move," he said focusing on their current mission. "We need to get to the engine room before the Minbari can sabotage the power core or the jump engines to try and scuttle the ship."
"Right with you sir," Darrel replied and followed Hawks into the stairwell and began the descent down the two levels that separated their insertion point from where scans had revealed the ships main engineering compartment to be located. The rest of the marines with the exception of Cutter and the other two assigned to guard the door followed all of them determined to secure engineering before time ran out.
Main Engineering
Minbari War Frigate Dark Lance
A Few Minutes Later
Alyt Yaten was somewhat out of breath when she finally arrived at main engineering. She'd had to detour several times around debris and fire fights between her crew and the invading alien soldiers so it had taken far longer than she'd thought to reach engineering. Thank Valen I've gotten here, she thought knowing from comm's with Satenn that the Terrans were steadily overpowering the Dark Lance's defenders and securing section after section of the ship, killing or disabling all who opposed them. She had no doubt that if she didn't act now then her battered ship and the knowledge it contained would soon fall into Terran hands.
Entering engineering Yaten immediately noticed that something was wrong. The worker caste engineering crew were nowhere in sight and near one of the consoles she noticed a small blood stain on the floor. Alarmed she raised her fusion blaster and carefully looked around before advancing towards the main console where she could manually arm and fire the ships self-destruct system.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she whirled to see a large Terran surrounded by an odd blue glow stand up from behind a console. Reflexively she brought her fusion blaster around and pulled the trigger sending long green pulses of plasma at him. The bolts never touched him for just as she fired he seemed to glow brighter and disappear…
…then suddenly she was hit by a tremendously powerful force and knocked flying backwards. The force was so sudden and violent that she dropped both her pistol and her folded up denn'bok as her feet left the floor and she flew back a good three metres before landing painfully on her backside. Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw the alien standing right where she had been the bluish aura around him fading and she realised that somehow crossed the space that had separated them in a literal blink of an eye without the plasma even touching him. How in Valen's name did he do that, she thought as more Terrans appeared from behind consoles and equipment where they'd taken cover.
One in dark grey armour and with some sort of symbol on the right side of his chest and a red stripe down his left arm approached her till the muzzle of his rifle was inches from her face. The alien said something she didn't understand but he made the meaning clear when he gestured with his rifle indicating for her to get up.
Glaring at the alien she ignored him and the alien spoke again gesturing with his rifle a second time. Once again she ignored him just glared in defiance. The alien huffed and looked over at the alien who'd rammed her and said something. Immediately the other male Terran glowed blue again and made a lifting gesture with one hand and to her shock a pulse of energy flew from the hand and struck her. The blue energy enveloped her and to her ever mounting shock she was yanked off her feet and began to float in the air but completely unable to move. But only for a few seconds before the field disappeared and she crashed back down to the deck landing with such force that pain exploded through her back drawing a cry from her lips even as the air was ripped from her lungs and stars exploded before her eyes.
One of the other aliens grabbed her in armoured gauntlets and flipped her dazed and unresisting form over onto her chest before grabbing her hands and pulling them behind her back, where she felt them be bound by some kind of metallic restraint before being quite aggressively pulled to her feet. For a few moments she struggled, trying to free herself but it was futile, she had no chance of breaking free and even if she did she didn't doubt that the Terrans would kill her before she could do anything. She wasn't the proud commander of a Minbari warship any longer; no she was now a prisoner.
They grey armoured Terran – who seemed to be the one in charge – said something to the one holding her and was answered in the same language. Looking at the aliens she noticed that the one who had glowed and moved so incredibly fast was leaning against a bulkhead drinking something from a small flask taken from his belt and though she was no expert at reading alien body language Yaten could see that he appeared to be tired. Maybe using those powers of his drains him like how deep scans drain telepaths, she thought.
She didn't have much time to think about it more as the Terran behind her pushed her forward while saying something in there language. Yaten guessed that it was an order to get moving and reluctantly went along with it while looking down at the floor as dismay and defeat fully sunk in on her. Along with yet another realisation that her people were going to have a major fight on their hands against the Terrans and that they would need to improve their counterinsurgency tactics to better prevent ships being captured in the future. Though for her and the surviving crew of the Dark Lance the war was over before it had even begun as now all the future held for them was captivity and dishonour.
She almost wished the Terrans had killed her.
Staff Commander Jay Hawks watched as the Minbari female was led out of the engine room by Corporal Matthews. He had noticed that her tunic seemed more formal than the others with some soft armour panelling on the chest and shoulder blades that gave it more of a samurai look than the normal black tunics most of the crew seemed to wear. Though the Minbari they'd captured here in the engine room had worm more practical brown clothing than the black tunics the soldiers seemed to all wear. He had to wonder if the woman's different uniform marked her as some kind of officer – possibly even this ships commanding officer as in warrior cultures the leaders always wore more ornate uniforms than the rank and file.
Something else for the intelligence boys and girls to sort out, he thought before glancing back at Lieutenant York noting that the younger man was leaning against the wall drinking an energy drink specifically formulated for biotics.
"You okay lieutenant," he asked.
"I'm fine sir," Darrel replied. "Just that last pull field onto of charge took it out of me. I'm afraid I won't be able to use my biotics again for a bit."
"Understood," Jay acknowledged not surprised that Darrel needed to rest his biotics for a bit. He was well aware of the fact that despite their incredible abilities biotics could only use their powers a handful of times in a row before having to stop for lack of energy. Organically creating and shaping mass effect fields in various ways was after all a very energy intensive process. "I'm surprised to see you use charge; I didn't think you could do that."
Darrel smirked. "I am a vanguard sir," he replied. "You don't get classed as one unless you can use charge just like you don't get classed as an adept unless you can throw singularities around. So what now sir?"
"Now we hold this part of the ship until the rest of the vessel is secure," Jay answered activating his omni-tool and requesting a status update from the other boarding parties. He was pleased to note they were making good progress and had already taken much of the ship with only the bridge and a handful of areas towards the bow still under Minbari control.
"Yes sir," Darrel acknowledged before taking another sip of his energy drink and continuing to lean back against the bulkhead to recover from having used his biotics quite a few times in the last fifteen minutes. The drink would do as a short term stop gap until he could return to the Vesuvius and have a nice hot biotic-friendly meal in the mess. After that he would hopefully be allowed to retire to his quarters and send a message home to his parents, little brother and long term girlfriend.
And that was really something to look forward to.
Combat Information Centre
TSV Vesuvius
Twenty Minutes Later
"Captain we've just received a message from the boarding parties on the Minbari vessel," communications reported across the CIC to where Captain Yvonne Turner now stood alone at the main situation table, Ambassador Sheridan having been allowed to retire to his VIP chambers.
"And?" Yvonne asked conveying a number of questions with that one word.
"All Minbari resistance has ceased we are now in full control of the vessel," the officer replied.
"Excellent. Bring all captured Minbari over to this ship we'll place them in our holding cells of ANI to interrogate later," Yvonne instructed "any response to our message to Alliance Command?"
"Yes man reinforcements and several tugs are on their way here," communications answered. "ETA on the first reinforcements is thirty-two minutes. The tugs will be here to tow away the Minbari vessel approximately thirteen minutes later."
"Very good," Yvonne acknowledged, "keep me informed of any more developments and let me know when our reinforcements arrive. I'll be in my quarters. Officer of the watch the CIC is yours."
"Aye aye ma'am," came the response from the two officers she'd addressed.
With that Yvonne turned away and left the CIC to head for her quarters but not to rest. There would be no rest for her for quite sometime to come today as she had another duty to perform, a duty that all commanding officers dreaded. She had to write the letters to the families of those crews killed on the three frigates that the Minbari had destroyed in the battle earlier along with the families of the two marines killed while taking the last Minbari vessel. Like all commanding officers it was a duty that she hated, but one she had to do and would probably have to do for a good long while as the situation with the Minbari did really look like war.
A prospect that depressed her far more than anything in her life had before. But it was a prospect she would not shrink from as if the Minbari wanted war then she would really give them war. The Minbari were the ones who were seemingly choosing the path of war as opposed to the path of peace and she and the rest of the Alliance Navy would be ready to fight them. Fight them until either they'd won, been defeated or the Minbari saw sense and sued for peace. Maybe our victory here today will show the Minbari that war with us is not something they should embark upon lightly, she thought though she doubted anything they did would make a difference to the Minbari.
And that thought depressed her more than anything else.
Authors Notes: Whew I can't believe how quickly I was able to write the second chapter of this story, it's really just flowing out. That being said I'm going to have a look at updating one of my other stories now that this chapter is completed as it's not fair to my readers to focus entirely on this one.
For those who are sure to say that the Terrans had things too easy in this chapter I have to say I disagree three Tinashi-class frigates had no real business going up against a dreadnought and its escorts. As it was the Terrans did still lose three of their warships in the battle so I would hardly call it a cakewalk. Basically though this battle is meant to be something of a wake up call for both sides – show them the kind of enemy they could be facing. Whether the Minbari will pull back from the path of war you will all have to see.
Also I hope everyone liked the characters of Captain Turner, Commander Hawks and Lieutenant York as you'll be seeing a lot more of them alongside more familiar B5 characters as the Minbari War arc of the story takes place.
