FIC: Babylon Faith (14/?)
The Great Machine, Eplison III
"No one listens to Zathras."
"Yes, yes," Draal shook his head as he struggled to hold onto his patience. "Selective deafness is a terrible illness." His nine now eight assistants were good-hearted, hard-working creatures but somewhat simple, and in tense moments like this, he really wished the universal force that had organised for him to caretake The Great Machine had also organised somewhat better assistance. "I promise I'll invest in a pair of hearing aids, but will it be ready in time?"
Yedor, Minbar
"Call not completed, Babylon 5 transceiver down."
"Damn it!" Sheridan's fist thundered into the desk as the computer reported his failure.
"Is it true?"
Sheridan didn't look up from the computer as he tapped furiously at it, he didn't have Garibaldi's knack for technology, "Shakiri had taken poison by the time the Rangers got to him, his last words were a taunt about an attack on Babylon 5. It's definitely not just a fault on the line, I can get through to the Earth Force Alliance Headquarters but not to Babylon 5." Finally he deigned to look at his wife. "At the very least the com links are down."
"I've ordered all White Stars in the area-."
"Belay that," Sheridan interrupted. "Half of them. If this is some sort of feint, we can't leave the rest of the sector unprotected." Yet even as he spoke, he knew it wasn't, this was the real deal, as real as it got.
Lochley strode into C&C, hiding her concern about the on-going situation behind a coolly professional expression. Her gaze swept over the bridge personnel, returning their nods with her own before locking eyes with her XO. "Status?"
Corwin glanced down at his station. "Civilians are being moved to designated shelters, engineering teams are readying for possible repairs, and security deploying in case of boarding. The defence grid is online and working at optimum efficiency. Communications is still unable to get through the interference, but we do have local, meaning I've contacted Captain Anderson on EAS Charon, I have apprised him of the situation, he is ready to give assistance."
"Good, that's good." Lochley peered at her own console, an anguished exhale escaping her as she realised just how grim the situation was. The static they were experiencing had compromised external long-range communications, and even radar was down, meaning the Hyperspace probes they had out as a matter of course were completely uselessly. Worse, the interference was somehow interfering with the Jumpgate, meaning many of the civilian ships in the vicinity couldn't escape the coming carnage.
"Captain!" Corwin let out an exclamation. "We have jump-points opening." The young man's eyes widened in horror. "Sir, there's hundreds of them!"
"Calm yourself," Lochley's heart thundered as she looked over to Comms. "Signal the Charon, tell them they're coming." Lochley glanced down at the console. "Close blast doors." Steel shutters slid down to cover the station's windows. "Activate defence grid." Dozens of laser batteries swivelled into position around the station's cigar shaped structure, power routing from the main reactor to the defence systems, ready to spew out fire to those who would dare to attack them. "Starfury squads, you have a go."
"My god," Anderson whispered as the first of the attackers swarmed out of the jump-points, a pre-natural horror filling and twisting his insides. Some of the ships he recognised, the Drakh and the Dilgar, but some of them he didn't, but it wasn't them that inspired the terror, but the enormous reptiles flapping alongside them.
Forcing away the terror, he looked towards the bridge personnel. "There's the enemy, pulse cannons and laser batteries ready, launch Starfuries."
The Omega-Class destroyer swept into action, launching itself forward to intercept the onrushing swarm.
"Enough gawking, back to work, people." Lochley's assertive tone sliced through the horror-filled bridge. "Mr. Corwin, order our Starfuries to engage the enemy ships, concentrate our cannon-fire on the dragons or whatever the hell they are!"
"Initialising the defence grid now."
Energy arced out of their cannons, the weapons slicing into the cawing beasts swarming around them, the dragons' flesh bubbling under the intense heat. Flames spewed from their dragons' fanged maws, searing space station's metal sides.
"XO! Order the starfury squads to clear a path to that monster at 28 degrees!" Anderson snapped, his heart pounding as his fingers pinched deep into his bridge chair. "Use the batteries on any that close, but save our front guns for that bastard up ahead."
"Yes sir!"
"Shields failing!"
Lochley fell to one knee as one of the Drakh ships crashed into the station's side, the attacking ship breaking up in a fireball even as the ship shook. Outside was carnage, the Starfuries taking hits from their grossly out-numbering adversaries, their pilots far more skilled but infinitely out-gunned and out-numbered. Simultaneously, the station's guns recoiled as they spat scorching energy at the fire-breathing monsters assailing them from every side. Wave after wave of their enemy crafts disintegrated before their station's determined defence.
Multi-coloured light beams criss-crossed as the two enemy forces fought ruthlessly to end their fight. Beams from Babylon 5 sliced a Drakh cruiser in two, a too close Streib cruiser caught in the erupting explosion, a Starfury barrel rolling out of the explosion's way even as it fired defiantly at another far larger Streib battle-cruiser.
In another part of hotly contested space, a trio of Starfuries were caught in a murderous cross-fire, unknown ships slicing through them from three directions, their returning fire vainly heroic.
"Keep going!" Lochley roared as she scrambled to her feet, then ducking as a nearby console exploded in sparks, the second lieutenant crouched over it falling away, her face igniting in fire. Lochley dropped to her knees by the screaming woman, yanked her own jacket off, and started putting the flames out. "I want them out of our sky!"
Cosmic flames engulfed the Charon as it flew through attack after attack, seared and scorched metal barely holding together as they flew nearer and nearer. The ship shuddered under the relentless barrage, its side guns spitting fire at the ships and dragons that dared to get too close, but its front guns remained silent.
Until now.
Anderson leaned forward in his seat, a makeshift bandage pressed to a bloody forehead wound caused by a falling floor tile. "PUNCH IT!" Fire burst out of the cannons on cue, scorching the monster's chest as it bent its head back and shot it forward, fire flying out of its gaping maw to blacken the front of their ship. Sparks flew as console after console exploded, but Anderson ignored it all. "Keep going," his free hand clenched and unclenched. "Keep going, full ramming speed."
They were dead, but by god, they were going to take one of these monsters with them.
"Oh this is bad, very bad." Vir tried to think of it ever being worst. But the usurpation of Cartagia, the war with the Narns, and even the Narn-Centauri war paled into insignificance next to -.
Suddenly the base tilted, flinging him and the other civilians packed into the shelter around. "Ooff," Vir saw stars as his head smashed into a wall, eyes widening as he heard an ominous screech, both hearts skipping as he realised the station was ripping apart, steel giving up the valiant fight.
"Ahhhh!" Vir screamed as white light engulfed him, seemingly trying to dislocate every bone and burn every ligament and tendon.
Seiko Matris peered down at the red scarred planet beneath, her wings flapping effortlessly as she cawed commands to those following her. It grieved her deeply to miss the attack but she had a mundane but far more important task of her own, to guide the first birth, and then guard the next generation of their proud warrior race to adulthood.
This would be the next generation, the next generation to be blooded, the next generation to strike terror into all those they faced.
She watched proudly as her fellow breeders swooped down into the dead planet's atmosphere, a dozen or so milky-grey shelled eggs around twenty feet long and ten feet wide dropping from each of the breeders' bellies. Dust billowed as the eggs landed deep in the dead planet's sand, the radiation in the air that would be so deadly to most other races acting as fertilisation for their eggs' growth and in each egg lay a whole host of further eggs all racing towards sentience.
Deserta, Centauri Prime
"Whoa," Faith gasped as she looked around what amounted to her first alien city.
What would have been towering spires had been stamped into the ground, walls meant to protect the city, crumpled and scorched, and the vast metropolis seemed eerily quiet.
"Centauri's war with the Orieni was relentless," even Galen's booming baritone was hushed in the creepily silent city. "The Centauri seemingly driven mad by the slaughter in this city, it could be argued that the loss of this city was what turned the tide and drove them to victory."
"What was the war between the Centauri and Orieni about anyway?" Xander hissed as he shot furtive looks left and right. "I've read the recent files on Centauri, but not their history."
"The Orieni were a race of avians led by a telepath caste they called the Blessed," Lennier explained. "It has been theorised by the Minbari that they were favoured of the Vorlons, such was their love of order. First contact between the Centauri and the Orieni occurred three centuries ago." Lennier glanced at Xander when he shook his head. "Am I in error?"
"What?" The one-eyed Watcher flushed and shook his head again. "No, sorry, I'm just struggling to imagine all these interstellar empires when we hadn't even invented the aeroplane."
"Ah," Lennier nodded before continuing his lecture. "The two races were the opposite sides of a coin. Orieni valued order and structure. The Centauri lived in Machiavellian chaos, with shifting powers, constant plotting and hidden schemes making for lives filled with intrigue. The Orieni were contemplative and chaste, the
Centauri debauched and decadent. Yet for all their differences, there were telling similarities. Both were Empires with subject planets and races held in thrall, both sought to expand still further, and both hated the other on sight. War was inevitable, and when the Centauri discovered the Orieni were clandestinely supplying Drazi raiders who preyed on Centauri shipping lanes, it erupted with force enough to burn the stars."
"Great," Faith muttered, even after decades the stench of ash still clung to the back of her throat, threatening to choke her, charred and cracked stone was underfoot, the wide streets skin-crawlingly empty.
Except, Faith's eyes narrowed as a shadow to her left seemed to almost shift. "I thought this city was supposed to be deserted?"
"It is," Galen replied. "The Centauri largely regard this place as a mausoleum to the war's dead. The only exceptions are unscrupulous smugglers who hide contraband here."
Faith glanced at the techno-mage. "I thought all Centauri were unscrupulous?" Faith snorted. "You'd think this city would have been the most crowded in the whole damn universe!"
"That is an unfortunate stereotype," Faith rolled her eyes at Lennier's lecturing tone. Damn Minbari wouldn't get a joke if it walked up and kicked him in the nuts. "While many Centauri have base, conniving natures, many such as Vir Cotto are capable of great nobility and courage. Even Londo Mollari would have moments of surprising gallantry."
"Yeah that's great," Faith muttered as she looked to the right this time. Okay, there was definitely something there.
Faith's eyes widened as a tall, green scaled creature dressed in full-length black robes shimmered out of the thick shadows. "Fuck!" Faith hit the ground and rolled out of the way of an energy blast that sizzled overhead, blackening a crumbling stone wall behind her. Her own gun came up, but her PPG blast shimmered uselessly off an invisible force field.
"FUCK!" Faith twisted out of the way of another blast, her gun firing repeated futile salvos into her enemy's shimmering shield, all too aware her companions were also coming out under fire from yet more Drakh.
"AHHHH!" Faith screamed as an energy blast hit her, searing pain tore through her. Teeth rattling and limbs shaking, Faith launched herself forward in a desperate lunge then screamed again as another blast shredded into her, black dots blurring her vision.