Title: The Next Great War
Author: Ash's Boomstick
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"
FR-15 For bad language
Summary: A single moment can change reality as we know it, but for better, for worse or for both. A Babylon 5 Fanfic

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-
"Babylon 5." its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by JMS, Babylonian Productions and Warner Bros.
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY "THE NEXT GREAT WAR" IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication: To the Unusual Suspects.

This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.

Graving Dock 19
Io Station
Jupiter Orbit
April 22nd 2245

The explosion rippled through the entire rear of the cruiser, a slight miscalculation in the engine start up caused the Hyperion to ignite its engines too close to the retracting umbilical. Slush based hydrogen and oxygen fuels met ten thousand degree heat exploding on contact throwing the warship sideways into the drydock crashing through the metalwork coming to a stop against the dock's main structure.

"What the hell was that?" Screamed the executive officer, the alert klaxons almost completely drowning him out, "Get me a damage report now."

"I'm trying Sir." One of the crewmen on duty replied, "The main computers are down, main power is completely offline."

"Well hurry it up." Haynes replied, "Dammit, comms get us a channel with Io Command."

"I can't Sir, I've been trying. Our main comms antenna is out and the distress beacon has been destroyed by whatever just happened."

"Sir, we've lost internal communications and primary life support." One watch crewman shouted above the noise, "I can't get anyone below this deck."

The officer swam across to the other side of the bridge, microgravity on the stations was a pain but zero gravity aboard the heavy cruisers was even worse. Grabbing onto the back of the other man's chair he looked over the board, several were dark due to damage while more were red and black pointing to damage or complete loss of contact with other parts of the ship.

"I've got the damage report." The first crewman said next to them, "We've lost the entire rear third of the ship, the engines, weapons, links to the main reactor. Hull breaches across the entire rear of the main hull including the communication array, main scanners, life support and secondary power. Airlocks are damaged beyond repair when we were thrown against the dockyard, the gantries, umbilical tubes, everything was ripped apart jamming them open."

"Casualties?" Haynes asked, the klaxons stopping as he did so. The silence in the room was incredible after the sounds of depressurisation alerts, hull breach warnings and every alarm that could have sounded. "How many?"

"More than half the ship is out of contact Sir, but the entire back half of the ship is all but scrap… most of the habitation decks are holed or destroyed." The crewman lurched to the side as another detonation set off the fuel tanks to the manoeuvring thrusters, "Lower hull compromised, we've lost the last of the station keeping systems, I'm going to have to vent the remaining fuel and oxygen tanks."

Haynes dove across to his chair and opened up the all decks comm. unit at his console, "All hands this is the XO, main fuel and life support tanks are venting. Find a mask and hold tight. Out." He settled into his chair and held on. "Mr Myers at your convenience."

"Venting in two… one… now."

The Hyperion rocked against the damaged dock as millions of tons of compressed hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon escaped from the crippled warship into space. Its crew held tight to their chairs or posts scrambling to put on oxygen masks or finish climbing into survival pods, it took a few moment for the ship's movement to subside before the stricken ship ceased it's shuddering movement.

"Venting complete." The crewman relayed as he fixed his mask. "We're settled."

"What the hell happened?" Haynes demanded

"I don't know, the fuel umbilicals were retracting as we began start up for the main engine test. The entire engine core exploded as soon as we got to full power, the detonation of the main engines threw us into the dock's structure caving it around us. That's all I've got so far Sir. The majority of the external cameras and scanners are down."

"Comms?"

"Totally gone even the backups."

"Get someone into a Fury and get me a channel to the yard."

"Yes Sir."

The Hyperion shuddered again as the structure slipped against the dock's framework, already crumpled and bent it wouldn't be long until it gave way completely against the mass of the still slowly moving warship. Whilst there was no weight behind the vessel while in space it was still massive enough to cause damage to the dockyard, from the outside it was obvious to anyone who could see them that the ship was in dire straits. Without oxygen there were no flames but both the vented tanks and the damaged umbilicals had spewed out millions of tons of compressed slush hydrogen, kept solid but the vacuum cold of space slivers of fuel peppered the damaged vessel and the dock.

Inside the ship's hanger a single starfighter was hurriedly being moved into its launch cradle, the hanger doors opening up to give the Starfury a line of sight with the dockyard command and control.

"This is Starfury Blue Five to Io command come in."

"This is Io command, Identify yourself."

"Flight Sergeant William Cole, Acting Flight Commander EAS Prometheus." The pilot explained, "Out main comms are down we're using a Starfury's main antenna to report in."

"Understood Flight Sergeant, what the hell just happened down there."

"We've had a hell of an explosion Sir." Cole explained keying in a data transmission, "I'm sending you the latest information we've been able to gather. The Prometheus is all but dead Sir, we've lost more than two thirds of the crew. The entire rear half of the ship has been blown off or scrapped, communications is out as is main life support. We are in need of immediate assistance, be aware all main airlocks are damaged beyond repair."

"Understood Blue Five, inform your commander that we are dispatching emergency launches for evacuation. Captain Jankowski will been informed as to the nature of the damage, keep this channel open for more information."

"Aye Sir." The pilot tied in the shipboard channel to the other, "Blue one to Bridge."

"Bridge."

"Sir, the emergency launches are enroute as we speak. The Captain is being informed right now."

"Alright, tell the station we're assembling the remaining crew in the forward batteries." Haynes ordered, "Tell them that we need help finding the rest, whoever might be left."

"Yes Sir." Blue Five returned to the other channel, "Did you get that Io Command?"

"We got it Blue Five."

Within minutes two dozen small shuttles and pods were streaming through the gaps between the drydocks, dodging through broken structural members, hundreds of thousands of tons of hydrogen, oxygen and assorted other gasses before finally making it to the wrecked cruiser. The sight before them was unlike anything seen since the end of the Dilgar war twenty years earlier, the dock had cocooned the Hyperion Class ship like a claw clamping over the main hull and still closing as the ship pushed against it slowly.

"Alright people we've got a bare few hundred in the forward pulse battery spaces, pods are to clamp on and burn through. Get as many people on board as you can, we might not have much longer before this place gets too hairy for us." The command shuttle ordered, "Pods One through Nine head for the port side, Ten through Fifteen the forward section."

Breaching pods much like those used by GroPos units latched onto the outer hull of the warship and began slowly cutting through the thick armour, minutes later a handful released from their places only to be replaced by others. The remaining crew safely seconded aboard each of the pods before they launched, seven hundred crew had assembled for launch that day. Barely two hundred survivors made it aboard the breaching pods as they released, a bare few life pods erupted from areas of the hull still clear of the debris surrounding them but far too few to indicate more than a small number of survivors.

"SAR Shuttle Three to Prometheus Bridge, the lower decks are clear. We've got everyone we can find, scans show noone else is left on board except for the Command Crew."

"We've read you SAR 3, we've got a couple life pods still intact up here. We're on our way out."

"We'll pick you up as soon as you're clear."

"We're leaving now." Haynes looked up, "Ok people get to the pods."

The six remaining personnel aboard the ship drifted across the bridge to the rear hatch through the tunnels into a pair of life pods to one side, already active it took mere seconds for the crew to evacuate and launch themselves out into space. Two SAR shuttles moved slowly into the same trajectory and launched their magnetic lines onto the hulls of the pods, unable to contain themselves the remaining bridge crew of the EAS Prometheus looked out of the pod's view ports towards their lost ship.

"Good God."

"That's nasty."

"Five hundred people we left behind…"

The heavy cruiser was mangled almost beyond recognition, the rear hull was all but done, half vaporised and half twisted and shorn from the rest of the ship. Debris from the connecting framework drifted around the burnt and broken rear of the main hull looking like teardrops around the warship, every deck from the dorsal to the ventral were ravaged by the explosion. Shrapnel dozens of meters long pierced the decks while melted and warped framework from heat tens of thousands of degrees strong twisted the hull, furrows from the collision were evident across the entire outer skin of the ship peeling away armour plating and penetrating deep into the vessel.

Fuel and life support had been spilt or pumped out of the vessel haloing the Prometheus in bright droplets reflecting the lights of the surrounding station around the entire framework of the graving dock. Buried deep into the side of the enclosed yard she looked like nothing more than a broken child's toy lying on the ground destroyed and unwanted, the crew could barely look away as the shuttle moved towards the command station and away from the detritus caused by the explosion.

"Boss, what now?" the Comms crewman asked

"I don't know Forrest, I really don't know."

While a hard and brutal night for the crew of the EAS Prometheus and the rescue flotilla that would last for days afterwards, this was a single moment that would change the very fabric of time itself and rewrite history for both the better and for the worse.

Proxima Proving grounds
Scylla Asteroid Belt
Proxima System
Earth Alliance
March 25th 2260

The prototype broke free from the twin tenders strapped to either side, the angular block of metal pulling away with a surety in its own power. Its huge bulk dwarfing the specially constructed vessels that had been responsible for its journey to the testing site, both ships retracted their gantries before falling back to the massive civilian ship that had been requisitioned as the project's command centre.

"Omega One is free and clear, ready to go active."

"Omega One this is Alpha Base we acknowledge." came the return signal, "You are authorised for full burn and weapons hot."

"Understood. Engines at fifty percent and climbing."

"Escort flight Gamma entering Formation around Omega One, tying defensive systems into Targeting MultiBank."

"We have systems aligned and active." Omega one responded "Beginning live fire testing."

Earthforce had spent decades and trillions of credits designing and building this the first of the next generation of warships, the decline of Earthforce's military after the Dilgar War had ceased completely with the introduction of a new government in power after the 2257 elections allowing for the slowly maturing military projects to speed up. Replacements for the forty and fifty year old main line cruisers had become a necessity as relations between the EA and several of the other powers had started to become frosty, more and more raiders both home-grown and in the employ of alien races had become a threat to the economy of the Alliance.

Hyperions leading Olympus Class flotillas, Nova Class Battlegroups and hundreds upon hundreds of Starfury squadrons had been able to keep the peace for almost four decades but now for the first time in a generation Earth built heavy ships were coming to the forefront of the galaxy's war making capability. Stretching over twenty two hundred meters the massive Omega Class warships would replace the Hyperions as the last word of Humanity's new and improved advanced fleet.

The Omega surged forward as its engines came alive sending the multi-million ton vessel away from its escorting fleet, a pair of Hyperions and their Olympus Squadron had been assigned the job in case any of the other races decided to get cute. Problems had arisen due to the new ship's construction with the League of Non Aligned and the Centauri when their intelligence services have caught wind of the prototype, already more than one of the races had decided that Earth was starting another arms race for no reason.

As a battleship the Omega had been over engineered and given the heaviest weapons and well as the most advanced defences that the EA could put together, today was the first time that the majority of those systems would be put to the test under live fire and combat conditions. Armour plating thicker than some ships' hulls was clad around the delicate innards, covering the slow rotating habitation sections from stem to stern while allowing for the turrets of the warship's heavy weapons to poke out through gaps almost flush with the armour of those same guns.

From all five warships heavy pulse cannons and plasma mortars opened fire on the same dead asteroid ahead of them, made of mostly nickel and iron the major weapons of the Omega and it's Hyperion escorts shattered more than a third of the rock sending shards ripping into the surrounding asteroids or into space.

"Tertiary weapons are confirmed operational, moving to secondary systems."

The Omega slowed it's advance on the asteroid field strobing it's sensitive scanners across the melange of useless materials looking for the most suitable subject for it's weapons tests. Several hundred meters from the first target a long thin and bulky asteroid appeared on the scans.

"Beginning phase two."

"Escort flight in position."

"Firing"

Like many of their kind the Hyperions had been upgraded over the years with any technology that Earthforce could build, acquire or reverse engineer, heavy weapons had become a necessity as the aging design fell behind the best warships that the other races could field. The vast majority of these refits now came under two types, the pulse heavy patrol vessels or those equipped with heavy lasers, railguns and upgraded interceptors as their main armament.

All four of Escort Flight Gamma were equipped with the same heavy lasers as the secondary batteries of the new battleship, where each of them were equipped with two lasers each crowbarred into the hull the Omega had been designed with several turrets both forward and rear firing up to forty degrees port and starboard. Eight separate weapons allowed for a concentrated barrage equal to several heavy cruisers worth or firepower.

As one every heavy laser aboard the five warships erupt into streams of energy focussing in on the tip of the asteroid and shuttering down the rock gouging through thousands of tons of rock, ice and metals penetrating through and out the other side. Several seconds pass until the weapons fire ceases, with their parts finished the escorts peel off from their flanking positions pulling into a higher orbit of the battleship.

"Multibank to launch systems, fire at will."

Several heavily armoured shutters levered open from all sides flowering open to reveal the launch systems inside, dozens of small, medium and large missiles sat snug in their bays awaiting orders to fire. In a rotating salvo every missile in the ship launched into space spinning through the void their engines blazing as they sped up, almost as one they changed trajectory coming back on themselves as their fuel ran out slowing their movement through space until they floated , drifting slowly and calmly awaiting pick up from the tenders and their retrieval craft.

"Missile launch systems active and confirmed, three launch tubes unable to deploy. Secondary weapons are confirmed operational, minor overheat in forward battery three. Activating primary weapons systems."

"Phase Three in Operation." Alpha base commentated, "You are clear for main weapons testing."

"Primary weapons are at one hundred percent charge." Omega One responded "Firing Pattern Alpha."

From the front of the ship four large bore barrels began to glow as massive amounts of energy began to pulse through their systems, rings of electromagnets and particle colliders concentrated and transformed the raw power into something much more lethal. One by one each barrel emitted a heavy beam thicker in scale than some escorts, penetrating into the asteroid field simply vaporising smaller rocks while shattering others that were simply in the way. Millions of tons of rock disappeared under the bombardment of the four cannons, a second then third pattern of shots came from the Omega concentrating the firepower in pairs then in a combined assault.

The concentration of power was incredible, where there had been several dozen smaller and mid sized asteroids now there was little more than dust and debris slowly drifting through space. All of the weapons systems aboard the Battleship dimmed and stilled as the weapons drills came to an end, the omega herself sitting quietly and regally surrounded by her escorts.

"Phase Three completed, weapons at nominal power. Weapons tests are complete." Omega One transmitted, "Offensive systems going offline, main reactors to standby, engines to stationkeeping."

"Confirmed Omega One." Alpha Base received, "Standby for defence systems power up and activation."

"Standing by."

"Activate levels one and two."

"One and Two Aye.

As the other ships watched on a thick almost weblike energy field began to form around the prototype, whilst invisible to the naked eye the sensitive scanners of the EA force recorded the E-Web defence grid emitters gaining power increasing the field by more than five times that of the older Hyperions. Only moments later the field and the actual signature of the ship dimmed slightly as the ship's main electronic warfare suite came online reducing the cross section of the ship and nullifying the target locks of the other ships.

"Activate level three."

From across the entire hull smaller turrets began to emerge locking into place and turning to face the rapidly incoming Hyperions, the Interceptors were an ancient technology found and improved by the Alliance over the last hundred years. Usually tied into the E-Web and main weapons controls the Interceptors were the primary defence of every Earth Warship.

As one the Hyperions closed and began to fire on the Omega, four paths of fire reaching towards the armoured hull only to find their effectiveness all but useless as the interceptor cannons neutralised the barrages, the incoming energy blasts already destabilised by the heavy E-Web systems simply dispersed by the cheap and easily built plasma launchers.

More barrages came on their heels with more and more pulses hurtling through the void in a vain attempt to overwhelm the battleship, in quick succession the Interceptors stopped the incoming fire and locked onto the Heavy Cruisers sending small bursts of their own before being accompanied by the large pulses from the Omega's secondary batteries. Each of the other vessels straining to intercept the incoming fire with their own weaker defences, most of the fire being dispersed while the remaining pulses simply overwhelmed and impacted on the armoured hulls leaving little by scorch marks.

"Defence Levels One, Two and Three are confirmed operational, Experimental Interceptor Grid at thirty percent."

"Escort Group has two disabled ships and one mission kill, returning to Station."

"Omega One returning to cradle, Stage one testing complete."

Aboard the civilian ship thousands of hours of testing data had been flowing through the dedicated links to all five of the Warships, every moment of every test would be analysed and checked by teams of scientists, engineers, designers and fleet personnel until every problem was solved. For the moment however only the very biggest problems would get priority over the

"I think that was a qualified success." Doctor Miller smirked, the middle aged man had been one of the ship's major designers and the actual construction of the ship had been his brainchild. Whilst he had preferred working in the private sector creating one of a kind vessels for the rich and powerful, the contract for Earth Force's newest warship had been too lucrative to give up and so alongside a few dozen other engineers and designers he had been responsible for the Omega Class Battleship.

"Indeed, your new vessels should be far more capable than the older cruisers that you are using." His companion replied with barely a smile, "With a few more years' research we should be able to contribute to improving the next generation."

"Well without the help of the Federation the Omega would be a flying brick with god know what attached, your people have made it a hell of a lot simpler to build our ships."

"While more than a few of my people disagreed with helping the Earth Alliance we also deemed to prudent to assist you, our treaty can only be strengthened by this project. The technology that you have hybridised with your own is several centuries less advanced than our own…"

"Yeah I know, but even without some of the more advanced techs the new Battleships will end up supplanting the Hyperions completely, hell we might even get away with refitting them with heavier weapons and adding them as escorts to the newer ships."

"It is odd that humanity wish to keep advancing their technology but will stubbornly keep hold of that which is decades old."

"You use ship designs hundreds of years old, hell your main weapons are based on thousand year old technology."

"However our technology has evolved almost to the point that we will be unable to modify them without access to technology much like that of the first ones." Ra'thann spoke, "The modifications to our ships and technology thanks to human thinking has helped us immeasurably with the next generation of Warships."

"Like for like my friend." Miller frowned as the readings came up. "The rotational sections are slightly out of sync, the focussed blasts from the main weapons caused a power shudder down the hyperconductors."

"May I?"

"Go ahead."

The Minbari worker looked over the reports from the command ships' sensors and telemetry to the Prototype, already he could see the problems that had arisen from the newly developed particle cannons. While useful on planetary defences such as weapons satellites and space stations they were woefully inadequate for use by anything but the largest ships, the quadruple fixed weapons on the Omega were too powerful and too lightly engineered to survive the multiple shots that the advanced reactors were allowing them. Even with the Minbari assisted construction of both weapons and power systems the bulky cannons while far smaller were still just too much for the multi-kilometer long ship.

Even at the peak of Earth Alliance shipbuilding technology the weapons were just too powerful to have so many in one place at the same time, nodding at the records Ra'thenn handed back the touchpad before calling up the specifications for the warship.

"Too many weapons, Earth Force Command has requested too much too soon for the materials science of your people to accept. There is no way to stop the power and mechanical shears that will cause the rotating sections to unseat themselves."

"Dammit, I thought we had sorted that with the variable buffers."

"Apparently not, however I do believe that the ship itself is more than capable of accepting two of the cannons instead of the four requested." The Minbari explained, the excess energy can be redirected to engines or other weapons."

"We already have excess energy for the engines, without the four cannons the reactor will be too heavy and too powerful for the Omega which means another redesign of the main power systems." Miller wiped his hands down his face, "Then a redesign of the forwards weapons platform itself because it'll leave a damn great hole in the middle of the main structure. SHIT."

"Why did this not come up in the simulations?"

"I don't know, it should have." The engineer sighed. "If we missed this what else have we overlooked."

"This is as you humans say, "A Crock?"

"Close enough my friend."

Beta Seven
Colony World
Centauri Republic

"This can not be allowed to continue." The drunkard shouted, "It is an outrage and a affront to the Republic, an upstart race such as they should not be as powerful nor as influential as they are."

"Indeed, why exactly do you believe that?"

"The Republic is many hundreds of years old, we were destroying entire worlds when the humans were still learning how to create steam engines. Races that flock to their banner were terrified as they watched our fleets wipe out any defence that could possibly have been raised, the stars themselves trembled at our might and now what are we a broken and fading light of the galaxy."

"Now, now it can't be all that bad?"

"Bad, it is terrible." The Centauri sniffed, "The great Lion of the Galaxy toothless and tired, just like it's people and it's legacy."

"Well if you don't mind may I ask you a question?"

"Go on."

"What do you want?"