First contact
As soon as they had agreed to a course of action they ordered their ships to head for Babylon 5, warp 7. As the Federation ships were under way to Babylon 5 they stayed in the Ready Room of the Odyssey to discuss how they would help the station defend itself and what their story would be. Captain Tuvol was in favor of hiding where they came from for the time being.
"It is unlikely they would believe us if we told them that we came from another universe, instead I propose that we simply claim to be from the other side of the galaxy. We can explain the presence of humans aboard by saying that you are the offspring of a group of humans that was abducted at sometime in the twentieth century. The fact that our organization is located on the other side of the galaxy would explain why we don't try to go back home but at the same time gives us some backing."
"Why abducted, why not claim to be from a lost colony ship?" asked Santowitz.
"Because they don't seem to have any of those, not to mention that we would be hard pressed to explain how you ended up so far away from earth or the genetic differences that may exist between you and the humans from this reality."
"It may be best to simply remain vague about were we come from," proposed Captain Walker, "until we get to know these people better so that we can better asses how they would react to the truth. We can't lie to them indefinitely, they could figure out that our story doesn't add up or one of our crewmembers could have a slip of the tongue."
After some consideration and further debate it was concluded that they would remain vague about their origins but they would keep the story proposed by Tuvol as an option.
Walker immediately moved on. "Then our next item of discussion is how will we handle the situation at Babylon 5 once we get there? Do we all decloak once we get there, only some of us or do we wait and see how the station handles itself first?"
"I say we all decloak in a show of force."
"I agree with captain Santowitz," added Tuvol. "It could intimidate them sufficiently that they will withdraw without firing a shot thereby saving lives. Of course this is based on the assumption that we will arrive in time to prevent the onset of hostilities and that their commander will not misjudge our capabilities."
"We could be too early or too late which would force us to either act immediately or wait a while. If we are too early we could take the opportunity to introduce us to Babylon 5 and begin building up some trust even before the fighting starts. But if the fighting has already started when we get there, then I say that we should go with your suggestion captain Santowitz. Besides being a show of force it would only sow distrust if we had one of our ships decloak after the initial conflict. They may wonder if we are hiding any more ships nearby."
"That suspicion could still arise, captain Walker. But this is the best course of action given the circumstances. I have reviewed the scans the Salvador took from the EAS Lexington and although their weapon systems are inferior in comparison to our own, they do have the advantage of numerical superiority and the ability to recover their losses. We cannot replace one of our ships should it be lost," said captain Tuvol.
Now captain Santowitz began his analysis of the forces they would face. "From the information we have been able to gather about Earth alliance ships I have concluded that their destroyers are more powerful then the Lexington and the orders that were sent clearly speak of 4 of those destroyers. The Lexington was a so-called Hyperion class heavy cruiser, which is smaller and has weaker weapons then their Omega class destroyers. We can expect two of these Hyperions to be at Babylon 5.
It seems that fighters are playing a vital role in combat here. Both the Hyperions and the Omega's carry them but they seem to have little protection and their weaponry would be ineffective against our shields."
"Not to mention the fact that they don't have artificial gravity except on their destroyers. And those generate it by rotating a section of their ship!" Captain Walker shook his head in disbelief. Artificial gravity was a very common technology in their universe but here the technology was a closely guarded secret by those who had it.
"I find it hard to belief too. Even Babylon 5 has to generate gravity by rotation and it is 8 kilometers long. Which brings me back to the topic at hand. I haven't been able to find much about the defenses of the station but it does have them and they are considered good enough to merit the deployment of that many ships. Although that could also be because of the two rebel Omega destroyers that are aiding the station. Their names are the Alexander and the Churchill."
"Then the final point of discussion," said Walker, "is if we will launch our own fighters too and do we use our armour generators, our shields or both? Personally I say we don't launch the fighters, their weaponry might take a while to go through the shields of one of our main ships but a fighter doesn't have as much protection. As to the armour or shields question, I vote for using the shields only. Their weaponry is designed to defeat armour not an energy shield and even though our armour is a lot tougher then what they are using, I don't want to take chances."
"I agree that we wont be needing the fighters and if we use the armour generator we would be using a technology they may not understand but a reliance on armour would be familiar to them. Relying on a shield would emphasis our power and it would give us something to fall back on." Santowitz always liked to intimidate his opponent as he considered it a good way to prevent a battle. "These people don't seem to be familiar with transporters either so we should keep the use of that restricted to emergencies only."
Captain Tuvol and Walker agreed and with that the captains returned to their respective bridges to prepare their ships for the unknown.
Lt. Corwin was nervous as he waited with the others for the forces of
President Clark. Even the captain looked worried. Then an alarm rang on
his console and he knew that it had started.
"Jumpgate activated. Here they come."
Out of the blue vortex a fleet of two Hyperions and two Omega's appeared escorted by several Thunderbolts and accompanied by a breaching pod.
"This is captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agrippa to Babylon 5 and renegade ships. You are ordered to surrender your command and prepare to be boarded. This is your only warning. If you do not surrender we will be forced to initiate deadly force."
The Alexander and Churchill didn't wait but were already launching their fighters while captain Sheridan now tried to dissuade Smith from following his orders.
But captain Smith ignored him and Sheridan ordered his Starfuries to move in but not to fire the first shot.
"Let them fire first. We won't start this fight but by God we will finish it."
Captain Smith was a loyal member of Earth force and believed in the policies of President Clark. These traitors had the audacity to claim that they were the ones that were doing the right thing even though they openly revolted against their democratically elected president!
"This is captain Smith to all ships. I expect you all to do your duty and fight for Earth. The fighters will protect the breaching pod while the capital ships will take care of the renegade destroyers."
Now the battle began as their fighters fired first which was answered by pulse cannon fire from the rebel fighters. Now the destroyers began to fire their heavy pulse cannons at the enemy destroyers but the interceptors of the Roanoke stopped them all and now the Agrippa fired its particle/laser at the Alexander.
The Hyperions both concentrated on the Churchill which gave as good as she got while all around fighters fought and exploded as they encountered their colleagues, the station or the ships. Babylon 5 too now joined in and destroyed enemy fighters left and right as they approached the station.
"Sir, the breaching pod made it."
Good, everything went as planned although he had to admit that they had given a better fight then he expected. The Hyperions were now retreating after sustaining heavy damage from the Churchill but that ship wasn't in great shape either. Flames were coming out of several large holes and its power was dropping rapidly.
"Sir, the Churchill is on a ramming course for the Roanoke, they can't evade!"
Major Ryan had noticed the state of the battered ship as well. "Hiroshi, get out of there, get to the lifepods!"
"Too late to get out." Her voice was a bit garbled as the damaged communications system struggled to do its job. "Our primary systems are down, we got fire on all decks. There is nothing we can do, except...."
He didn't like the resignation he heard in that final part of the message. "Hiroshi, Hirsoshi!"
The flaming ship was nearing the Roanoke now, it would hit the ship between the habitation ring and the head of the ship.
But it didn't and the reason for that took everybody by surprise. A white ship had appeared above the Churchill, its main body was saucer shaped and looked rather small in comparison with the Churchill, and it kept the ship in place by emitting a strange bluish light from its belly. Another ship had appeared in front of the Roanoke and this tiny ship was also grey-white but had a more boxy appearance and unlike the other ship it had no windows.
A third one that was bigger then the first appeared to the left of the Agrippa and this one too had an awful lot of windows and a very sleek design.
All of them however looked like nothing anybody had seen or heard from before and both ships were momentarily stunned as the saucer ship hovering above the massive destroyer now began to move the Churchill away from the Roanoke. Even many of the fighter pilots forgot to keep fighting or look were they were going.
Commander Ivanova collided with another Starfury and had to eject from heir spinning fighter seconds before it collided with the Agrippa. Perhaps it was this thud that snapped captain Smith mind back to his surroundings or perhaps it was simple coincidence.
But there were still a lot of questions running through his mind, the most important one was who were they closely followed by the question: what were they doing here?
"Sir, the ship on our left is hailing us."
"Put it on screen."
On screen appeared a bridge that was rather roomy for a ship that small. It was shocking to see that most of the crew was human but not all of them. The man on the right of what appeared to be the captains' seat was blue and had antennae that were moving around! And in the back he could see a person with his back to the screen monitoring a console. If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him he could have sworn that he could see the man's brain!
"This is captain Peter Walker of the Federation starship USS Odyssey. We hereby acknowledge Babylon 5's independence and promise to protect it. The forces loyal to President Clark will cease hostilities and leave the area or we will remove you by force."
He looked very serious but his ships were far too small and fragile to pose any real threat. Still, there was the fact that they had appeared out of thin air. "What can you tell me of their capabilities?"
"Most of my scans are being blocked by some kind of energy field and the rest is distorted. I can only find 7 of what I think are missile tubes, nothing else but the power readings I can get are at least ten times higher then us."
With reinforcements coming through the gate any moment now this threat was laughable. "Hail them."
"Channel open."
"This is captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agrippa, Babylon 5 and those rebel destroyers are Earth force property. You have no authority here, leave or be destroyed!"
There, they could do it with that and they would probably run now that he had called their bluff but it would be best to make sure. "Tell Red squadron to attack the ship on our right flank and let Blue take care of the one towing the Churchill. The Roanoke can blast that tiny ship out of the way as they close in on the Alexander. We will assist them but just to be certain, give Red squadron support fire with our pulse cannons."
Captain Sheridan too had received the message and was wondering why they had chosen to help and what kind of help they expected to be able to give? He too had scanned the ships and was equally unimpressed by what he got back although those power readings were rather high for a ship that size. Judging from the reply that Smith gave he had made the same assessment of their capabilities.
After the reply from Smith the Thunderchild released the Churchill and let it drift further away on its own momentum since its engines had died a few moments before. The Agrippa now moved to attack the Alexander as did the Roanoke. The first one fired its pulse cannons at the Odyssey but instead of hitting the ship an energy shield flared up absorbing the pulses.
"Shields are holding," his tactical officer reported.
"If they wont listen, then we will just have to convince them through our actions. Target their engines and weapons, but leave two of their engines working. Helm, one half impulse on a parallel trajectory with the Agrippa."
Smith was concentrating on the actions of the Alexander when his ship suddenly shuddered and the lighting flickered. While his ship shuddered again, he asked: "What is happening?"
"The Odyssey is firing some kind of energy beam at us. They have already taken out 2 of our engines and a pulse cannon." The ship shuddered again. "That was one of the aft particle/lasers, they are slicing through our armour as if its made out of wet paper."
"Did you hit them and what is the status of the Roanoke?"
"They are getting hammered by the two other ships, they won't last much longer. Our own weapons fire is being blocked by an energy shield and is having no effect."
The Roanoke was indeed in even bigger problems. It had moved forward and fired one of its particle/lasers at the Salvador but its shield had protected it too although the beam did cause a drop in shield strength. The Salvador had retaliated by firing an energy beam at the left particle/laser while accelerating to .16c in a matter of seconds. The Thunderchild too pitched in and began to use its energy beam to slice through the Roanoke's engines and then proceeded to take out its weapons.
All of them simply ignored the fighters and when Red squadron did try to attack the Odyssey, two of them came too close and were swatted like bugs on a windshield.
Captain Dexter Smith saw his victory slip through his hands like sand as his ship continued to shudder as his ship was dissected with surgical precision without the ability to do much about it. It was made even worse by the fact that the Alexander now too was firing on his ship, causing much damage. Then hope flared up when his first officer told him that the jumpgate was being activated.
"This is captain Drake to...."
Captain Drake had expected to see a rebel force loosing the battle but not this. The Alexander and a strange white ship were pounding the Agrippa while it tried in vain to defend itself. The Roanoke was in even worse shape. It had almost no functioning heavy weaponry left and a small ship the size of a gunboat was now firing an energy beam into the remaining two engines of the destroyer which then died and it began to drift with lifepods coming out of the tumbling ship.
"Captain Drake to all ships, fire on that white ship attacking the Agrippa."
The two Omega destroyers and one Hyperion opened fire with their particle/lasers on the ship that was now turning to face them. It did that move very gracefully even when the weapons hit her. Two of the beams hit and one missed but captain Drake was amazed as those two beams were stopped by an energy shield. The ship now advanced on them at a speed that was faster then any human ship could go. "Ready fusion missiles and fire on my command. Fire."
As the two missiles raced towards the little ship, his sensor operator came with more bad news.
"Four jumppoints are opening. There are ships coming out of them, they are Minbari!"
Delenn had worried that she may not reach the station in time, but the sight that greeted her when they came into normal space was certainly unexpected. They were just in time to see how 2 missiles impacted an alien ship causing a massive explosion that momentarily blinded everybody.
It was an even greater shock when the ship came out of the explosion unscathed although it did decelerate. Apparently she wasn't the only one to come to the defense of Babylon 5 but who were they? Never mind, it could wait until later.
"This is ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw or be destroyed."
Captain Smith was ready to retreat, he had seen how ineffective their weapons were against these federation ships and now they would have to face the Minbari as well! Unfortunately, captain Drake didn't see it that way perhaps because he still had an intact ship. "Negative, we have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ships."
As Drake gave his reply the Federation ships regrouped between the station and the Earth Alliance ships and were facing them.
"Why not?" asked Delenn. "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
This had gone far enough, thought Smith. President Clark certainly didn't want another Minbari war.
"This is captain Dexter Smith, we will withdraw."
The other ships obeyed and they formed a jumppoint but the Agrippa had to limp to the jumpgate, which would take at least fifteen minutes before he would be able to leave. Oh, how humiliating. He was grateful that he could blame this fiasco at least partially on overwhelming force but would it be enough to save his career?
Relief swept through Babylon CnC when they left although there was still some concern as to whom these new ships belonged to and why they had helped. That was one reason why Delenn contacted Sheridan, other then to see if he was alright. He looked fine although he did have a superficial head wound.
"John, where did those three ships come from?"
"Delenn, I have absolutely no idea."
TBC
Author's notes: The opinions about how powerful Babylon 5 ships are compared to those of Star Trek vary but I myself believe that Earth Alliance ships are far less powerful the Federation ships and this chapter reflects that. However, Earth Alliance ships are the least powerful ships in the Babylon 5 universe at this moment in time but other races have better ships. Not to mention the fact that Earth Force and President Clark will undoubtedly push for better ships and weapons after this loss.
I would like to thank everybody about posting such positive reviews. It is really flattering to see how the first story I have ever written is so well received. But constructive criticism would also be appreciated as well as suggestions. It has been years since I saw Babylon 5 so I have to rely on memory and Lurker's episode guide mostly to know how events would have gone. This means that I might make a few mistakes about the characters of the Babylon 5 universe and if you spot them let me know.
As soon as they had agreed to a course of action they ordered their ships to head for Babylon 5, warp 7. As the Federation ships were under way to Babylon 5 they stayed in the Ready Room of the Odyssey to discuss how they would help the station defend itself and what their story would be. Captain Tuvol was in favor of hiding where they came from for the time being.
"It is unlikely they would believe us if we told them that we came from another universe, instead I propose that we simply claim to be from the other side of the galaxy. We can explain the presence of humans aboard by saying that you are the offspring of a group of humans that was abducted at sometime in the twentieth century. The fact that our organization is located on the other side of the galaxy would explain why we don't try to go back home but at the same time gives us some backing."
"Why abducted, why not claim to be from a lost colony ship?" asked Santowitz.
"Because they don't seem to have any of those, not to mention that we would be hard pressed to explain how you ended up so far away from earth or the genetic differences that may exist between you and the humans from this reality."
"It may be best to simply remain vague about were we come from," proposed Captain Walker, "until we get to know these people better so that we can better asses how they would react to the truth. We can't lie to them indefinitely, they could figure out that our story doesn't add up or one of our crewmembers could have a slip of the tongue."
After some consideration and further debate it was concluded that they would remain vague about their origins but they would keep the story proposed by Tuvol as an option.
Walker immediately moved on. "Then our next item of discussion is how will we handle the situation at Babylon 5 once we get there? Do we all decloak once we get there, only some of us or do we wait and see how the station handles itself first?"
"I say we all decloak in a show of force."
"I agree with captain Santowitz," added Tuvol. "It could intimidate them sufficiently that they will withdraw without firing a shot thereby saving lives. Of course this is based on the assumption that we will arrive in time to prevent the onset of hostilities and that their commander will not misjudge our capabilities."
"We could be too early or too late which would force us to either act immediately or wait a while. If we are too early we could take the opportunity to introduce us to Babylon 5 and begin building up some trust even before the fighting starts. But if the fighting has already started when we get there, then I say that we should go with your suggestion captain Santowitz. Besides being a show of force it would only sow distrust if we had one of our ships decloak after the initial conflict. They may wonder if we are hiding any more ships nearby."
"That suspicion could still arise, captain Walker. But this is the best course of action given the circumstances. I have reviewed the scans the Salvador took from the EAS Lexington and although their weapon systems are inferior in comparison to our own, they do have the advantage of numerical superiority and the ability to recover their losses. We cannot replace one of our ships should it be lost," said captain Tuvol.
Now captain Santowitz began his analysis of the forces they would face. "From the information we have been able to gather about Earth alliance ships I have concluded that their destroyers are more powerful then the Lexington and the orders that were sent clearly speak of 4 of those destroyers. The Lexington was a so-called Hyperion class heavy cruiser, which is smaller and has weaker weapons then their Omega class destroyers. We can expect two of these Hyperions to be at Babylon 5.
It seems that fighters are playing a vital role in combat here. Both the Hyperions and the Omega's carry them but they seem to have little protection and their weaponry would be ineffective against our shields."
"Not to mention the fact that they don't have artificial gravity except on their destroyers. And those generate it by rotating a section of their ship!" Captain Walker shook his head in disbelief. Artificial gravity was a very common technology in their universe but here the technology was a closely guarded secret by those who had it.
"I find it hard to belief too. Even Babylon 5 has to generate gravity by rotation and it is 8 kilometers long. Which brings me back to the topic at hand. I haven't been able to find much about the defenses of the station but it does have them and they are considered good enough to merit the deployment of that many ships. Although that could also be because of the two rebel Omega destroyers that are aiding the station. Their names are the Alexander and the Churchill."
"Then the final point of discussion," said Walker, "is if we will launch our own fighters too and do we use our armour generators, our shields or both? Personally I say we don't launch the fighters, their weaponry might take a while to go through the shields of one of our main ships but a fighter doesn't have as much protection. As to the armour or shields question, I vote for using the shields only. Their weaponry is designed to defeat armour not an energy shield and even though our armour is a lot tougher then what they are using, I don't want to take chances."
"I agree that we wont be needing the fighters and if we use the armour generator we would be using a technology they may not understand but a reliance on armour would be familiar to them. Relying on a shield would emphasis our power and it would give us something to fall back on." Santowitz always liked to intimidate his opponent as he considered it a good way to prevent a battle. "These people don't seem to be familiar with transporters either so we should keep the use of that restricted to emergencies only."
Captain Tuvol and Walker agreed and with that the captains returned to their respective bridges to prepare their ships for the unknown.
"Jumpgate activated. Here they come."
Out of the blue vortex a fleet of two Hyperions and two Omega's appeared escorted by several Thunderbolts and accompanied by a breaching pod.
"This is captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agrippa to Babylon 5 and renegade ships. You are ordered to surrender your command and prepare to be boarded. This is your only warning. If you do not surrender we will be forced to initiate deadly force."
The Alexander and Churchill didn't wait but were already launching their fighters while captain Sheridan now tried to dissuade Smith from following his orders.
But captain Smith ignored him and Sheridan ordered his Starfuries to move in but not to fire the first shot.
"Let them fire first. We won't start this fight but by God we will finish it."
Captain Smith was a loyal member of Earth force and believed in the policies of President Clark. These traitors had the audacity to claim that they were the ones that were doing the right thing even though they openly revolted against their democratically elected president!
"This is captain Smith to all ships. I expect you all to do your duty and fight for Earth. The fighters will protect the breaching pod while the capital ships will take care of the renegade destroyers."
Now the battle began as their fighters fired first which was answered by pulse cannon fire from the rebel fighters. Now the destroyers began to fire their heavy pulse cannons at the enemy destroyers but the interceptors of the Roanoke stopped them all and now the Agrippa fired its particle/laser at the Alexander.
The Hyperions both concentrated on the Churchill which gave as good as she got while all around fighters fought and exploded as they encountered their colleagues, the station or the ships. Babylon 5 too now joined in and destroyed enemy fighters left and right as they approached the station.
"Sir, the breaching pod made it."
Good, everything went as planned although he had to admit that they had given a better fight then he expected. The Hyperions were now retreating after sustaining heavy damage from the Churchill but that ship wasn't in great shape either. Flames were coming out of several large holes and its power was dropping rapidly.
"Sir, the Churchill is on a ramming course for the Roanoke, they can't evade!"
Major Ryan had noticed the state of the battered ship as well. "Hiroshi, get out of there, get to the lifepods!"
"Too late to get out." Her voice was a bit garbled as the damaged communications system struggled to do its job. "Our primary systems are down, we got fire on all decks. There is nothing we can do, except...."
He didn't like the resignation he heard in that final part of the message. "Hiroshi, Hirsoshi!"
The flaming ship was nearing the Roanoke now, it would hit the ship between the habitation ring and the head of the ship.
But it didn't and the reason for that took everybody by surprise. A white ship had appeared above the Churchill, its main body was saucer shaped and looked rather small in comparison with the Churchill, and it kept the ship in place by emitting a strange bluish light from its belly. Another ship had appeared in front of the Roanoke and this tiny ship was also grey-white but had a more boxy appearance and unlike the other ship it had no windows.
A third one that was bigger then the first appeared to the left of the Agrippa and this one too had an awful lot of windows and a very sleek design.
All of them however looked like nothing anybody had seen or heard from before and both ships were momentarily stunned as the saucer ship hovering above the massive destroyer now began to move the Churchill away from the Roanoke. Even many of the fighter pilots forgot to keep fighting or look were they were going.
Commander Ivanova collided with another Starfury and had to eject from heir spinning fighter seconds before it collided with the Agrippa. Perhaps it was this thud that snapped captain Smith mind back to his surroundings or perhaps it was simple coincidence.
But there were still a lot of questions running through his mind, the most important one was who were they closely followed by the question: what were they doing here?
"Sir, the ship on our left is hailing us."
"Put it on screen."
On screen appeared a bridge that was rather roomy for a ship that small. It was shocking to see that most of the crew was human but not all of them. The man on the right of what appeared to be the captains' seat was blue and had antennae that were moving around! And in the back he could see a person with his back to the screen monitoring a console. If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him he could have sworn that he could see the man's brain!
"This is captain Peter Walker of the Federation starship USS Odyssey. We hereby acknowledge Babylon 5's independence and promise to protect it. The forces loyal to President Clark will cease hostilities and leave the area or we will remove you by force."
He looked very serious but his ships were far too small and fragile to pose any real threat. Still, there was the fact that they had appeared out of thin air. "What can you tell me of their capabilities?"
"Most of my scans are being blocked by some kind of energy field and the rest is distorted. I can only find 7 of what I think are missile tubes, nothing else but the power readings I can get are at least ten times higher then us."
With reinforcements coming through the gate any moment now this threat was laughable. "Hail them."
"Channel open."
"This is captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance destroyer Agrippa, Babylon 5 and those rebel destroyers are Earth force property. You have no authority here, leave or be destroyed!"
There, they could do it with that and they would probably run now that he had called their bluff but it would be best to make sure. "Tell Red squadron to attack the ship on our right flank and let Blue take care of the one towing the Churchill. The Roanoke can blast that tiny ship out of the way as they close in on the Alexander. We will assist them but just to be certain, give Red squadron support fire with our pulse cannons."
Captain Sheridan too had received the message and was wondering why they had chosen to help and what kind of help they expected to be able to give? He too had scanned the ships and was equally unimpressed by what he got back although those power readings were rather high for a ship that size. Judging from the reply that Smith gave he had made the same assessment of their capabilities.
After the reply from Smith the Thunderchild released the Churchill and let it drift further away on its own momentum since its engines had died a few moments before. The Agrippa now moved to attack the Alexander as did the Roanoke. The first one fired its pulse cannons at the Odyssey but instead of hitting the ship an energy shield flared up absorbing the pulses.
"Shields are holding," his tactical officer reported.
"If they wont listen, then we will just have to convince them through our actions. Target their engines and weapons, but leave two of their engines working. Helm, one half impulse on a parallel trajectory with the Agrippa."
Smith was concentrating on the actions of the Alexander when his ship suddenly shuddered and the lighting flickered. While his ship shuddered again, he asked: "What is happening?"
"The Odyssey is firing some kind of energy beam at us. They have already taken out 2 of our engines and a pulse cannon." The ship shuddered again. "That was one of the aft particle/lasers, they are slicing through our armour as if its made out of wet paper."
"Did you hit them and what is the status of the Roanoke?"
"They are getting hammered by the two other ships, they won't last much longer. Our own weapons fire is being blocked by an energy shield and is having no effect."
The Roanoke was indeed in even bigger problems. It had moved forward and fired one of its particle/lasers at the Salvador but its shield had protected it too although the beam did cause a drop in shield strength. The Salvador had retaliated by firing an energy beam at the left particle/laser while accelerating to .16c in a matter of seconds. The Thunderchild too pitched in and began to use its energy beam to slice through the Roanoke's engines and then proceeded to take out its weapons.
All of them simply ignored the fighters and when Red squadron did try to attack the Odyssey, two of them came too close and were swatted like bugs on a windshield.
Captain Dexter Smith saw his victory slip through his hands like sand as his ship continued to shudder as his ship was dissected with surgical precision without the ability to do much about it. It was made even worse by the fact that the Alexander now too was firing on his ship, causing much damage. Then hope flared up when his first officer told him that the jumpgate was being activated.
"This is captain Drake to...."
Captain Drake had expected to see a rebel force loosing the battle but not this. The Alexander and a strange white ship were pounding the Agrippa while it tried in vain to defend itself. The Roanoke was in even worse shape. It had almost no functioning heavy weaponry left and a small ship the size of a gunboat was now firing an energy beam into the remaining two engines of the destroyer which then died and it began to drift with lifepods coming out of the tumbling ship.
"Captain Drake to all ships, fire on that white ship attacking the Agrippa."
The two Omega destroyers and one Hyperion opened fire with their particle/lasers on the ship that was now turning to face them. It did that move very gracefully even when the weapons hit her. Two of the beams hit and one missed but captain Drake was amazed as those two beams were stopped by an energy shield. The ship now advanced on them at a speed that was faster then any human ship could go. "Ready fusion missiles and fire on my command. Fire."
As the two missiles raced towards the little ship, his sensor operator came with more bad news.
"Four jumppoints are opening. There are ships coming out of them, they are Minbari!"
Delenn had worried that she may not reach the station in time, but the sight that greeted her when they came into normal space was certainly unexpected. They were just in time to see how 2 missiles impacted an alien ship causing a massive explosion that momentarily blinded everybody.
It was an even greater shock when the ship came out of the explosion unscathed although it did decelerate. Apparently she wasn't the only one to come to the defense of Babylon 5 but who were they? Never mind, it could wait until later.
"This is ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw or be destroyed."
Captain Smith was ready to retreat, he had seen how ineffective their weapons were against these federation ships and now they would have to face the Minbari as well! Unfortunately, captain Drake didn't see it that way perhaps because he still had an intact ship. "Negative, we have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ships."
As Drake gave his reply the Federation ships regrouped between the station and the Earth Alliance ships and were facing them.
"Why not?" asked Delenn. "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
This had gone far enough, thought Smith. President Clark certainly didn't want another Minbari war.
"This is captain Dexter Smith, we will withdraw."
The other ships obeyed and they formed a jumppoint but the Agrippa had to limp to the jumpgate, which would take at least fifteen minutes before he would be able to leave. Oh, how humiliating. He was grateful that he could blame this fiasco at least partially on overwhelming force but would it be enough to save his career?
Relief swept through Babylon CnC when they left although there was still some concern as to whom these new ships belonged to and why they had helped. That was one reason why Delenn contacted Sheridan, other then to see if he was alright. He looked fine although he did have a superficial head wound.
"John, where did those three ships come from?"
"Delenn, I have absolutely no idea."
TBC
Author's notes: The opinions about how powerful Babylon 5 ships are compared to those of Star Trek vary but I myself believe that Earth Alliance ships are far less powerful the Federation ships and this chapter reflects that. However, Earth Alliance ships are the least powerful ships in the Babylon 5 universe at this moment in time but other races have better ships. Not to mention the fact that Earth Force and President Clark will undoubtedly push for better ships and weapons after this loss.
I would like to thank everybody about posting such positive reviews. It is really flattering to see how the first story I have ever written is so well received. But constructive criticism would also be appreciated as well as suggestions. It has been years since I saw Babylon 5 so I have to rely on memory and Lurker's episode guide mostly to know how events would have gone. This means that I might make a few mistakes about the characters of the Babylon 5 universe and if you spot them let me know.
