What if in one of the Colonial's Fleet jumps running from the Cylons ended in the middle of one of the worst first encounters ever? Enjoy the crossover of two of my favorites sci fi shows.
Disclaimer: I don't own Babylon 5 nor Battlestar Galactica.
EAS Prometheus
Earth Alliance Recon Force
Somewhere inside Minbari Federation territory, near Jericho colony sector.
-Sir, we are aproaching the Minbari ships. They are scanning us
-Sensors at full, I want to know everything about their ships...
Captain Jankowski wanted so much to earn some extra points in this mission he just don't care about what this Minbaris could think of. Just as his superior said to Ambassador Mollari of the Centauri, if the humans could deal with the Dilgar, the same would be with the Minbari.
Valen'tha
Sharlin class Grey Council ship
-I think they are the humans-said Satai Delenn.
-Our gun Ports are open-stated one of the War cast council members.
-On who's order?!-replied Dukhat. He could see the huge mistake of the Warrior Cast, cause there were no way of knowing if this strange alien ships knew their Salute or just would take It as a imminent threat. Suddenly, a huge light appear out of nowhere, right in the middle of both fleets. And immediately after, a huge ship.
One hour earlier
Battlestar Thessalia
Picon Shipyards
The Battlestar Thessalia was ready to leave the dry dock. After a full refurbish of the electrical and electronic systems, including the jump engines, it was time to test the ship. A few routine jumps just to check up everything would suffice. Commander Alexander Galatha was hearing all the last protocolar checks in the CIC, while in his mind was pondering if it won't be better to push a little more the ship and do some patrolling near the Armistice Line.
Finally the countdown to the first jump ended, and the order to jump to Caprica's orbit was given. And then, all went from bad to worst.
The consoles started to sound alarms as soon the jump ended. The lack of the usual hundreds of DRADIS contacts of the Colonial Capital put everyone nervous. Where the frak have they just jumped?!
-Report!
-We are not on Caprica or anywhere in that system.
-Mr. Hellene tell me something I don't know, for frak sake!
-Electrical failures in all the engines, i am trying to run a diagnostic.
-Condition Two! And please someone tell me where the frak are we!
-Astronomical is on it, sir!
-Make haste, if we are on the wrong side of the Red line we will have a war!
-Sir, looks like we are somewhere between systems Omicron and Ypsilon... 27 years from Caprica, to the opposite side of the Armistice Station...
-DRADIS contacts! No IFF! Five ships, huge! Twuelve clicks right in front of us!
-Cylons?
-Who else, the 13th tribe?
-Condition One! Action Stations! Launch vipers!
-Missiles! Multiple shots! Radiological alarm!
-Cancel viper launching! Shoot them down! Brace for impact!
-Impact in 7, 6, 5...
-Emergency jump! Now!
-3,2,1...
The 50 kiloton yield nuclear missile hit the portside of the Thessalia. The tough hull of the Battlestar survive the hit but with five capital ships launching it won't last. Anywhere but there was safer. But where were there? And where they would going?
Present
EAS Prometheus
-Sir, contact! Right in front of us! A single ship came out of the blue, about 2/3 of our lenght, but wide as a Nova, and bulkier!
-Bulkier than a Nova?!
-Sensors indicate the hull of that ship is ticker, and 4 times more dense than a Nova Dreadnought, sir!
-They have writings in it's port side. ... Battlestar Thessalia. And there are impacts and radiation coming from one of the sides. It's launching fighters, dozens of them.
-Delta? Starfuries?
-None sir.
-It can't be an armed freighter. Perhaps an Orion Alliance ship?
-Whatever they are they have been nuked, and they came out of nowhere, in the middle of Minbari border, and launch unregistered fighters when find an Earthforce Task Force!? Hail them.
-Yes sir
Battlestar Thessalia
Jump complete.
-Is everyone ok?
As everyone report their status, the helm and the navigator tryied to find out where they were now, and if they were alone. They weren't.
-Sir, múltiple DRADIS contacts! No colonial IFFs IDs, And no known configuration either!
-Condition One! Action stations, action stations! Launch all Vipers!- ordered, this time they wont be catched off guard.
-Report!
- Sir, look there are two main groups of ships, this one have three capital ships wk ith, several vipers and this other four; For Frak sake!
-Are the same cylon things that have just ambushed us? Yes or no Colonel!
-No
-Thanks to the Lords!
-But these are huge, the first looks like colonial civilian ships but twice or thrice the size of a Mercury class Battlestar, the other aré shorter but taller, and they look like fish sir. And they aré sthealted somehow, DRADIS barely can give their location but not a firing Solution.
-Sir, visual confirms the smaller groups have writings in Caprican in their hull.
-What?!
-The ships name's sir, Prometheus, and the others Amundsen and Schwar... Schwarkf... Schwarzkopf , Sir.
-Those obviously are not Colonial ships, with that size no one could build those monsters without being noticed. But Prometheus is a Kobolian name. There Is only one possibility...
-One of the Vipers report massive batteries in the ships, twice the size of a Viper.
-Sir, one of the... human? ships is hailing us
-Ship Thessalia, this is Captain Jankowski of the Earth Alliance Ship Prometheus, we have came here to contact the Minbari Federation in behalf of the Earth Alliance Goverment. This is their territory, identify your status and intentions, your ship looks damaged and i don't want to give a bad impression to the locals
-Did he just say Earth?
-Yes, he did sir.
Grey Council chamber
Valen'tha Sharlin class cruiser
-The ship that came out of hyperspace without any visible jump point has the same signs as the others, and it's hull shows signs of impacts and nuclear radiation
-Perhaps the first group wasn't here to find us, but them. Perhaps this other vessel was ambushed and asked for reinforcements...
-Perhaps. Alyt Sha'sen, please send the following message translated in all known alien languages. "This is Dukhat of the Minbari, we welcome you in peace and strength. one of your ships looks damaged, please let us know if you need assistance. please identify yourselves and respond" Send it, and please don't open the gun ports without my permission ever again!
EAS Prometheus
-Sir, the Minbaris are hailing us, the message is in many languages, we identify Markab, Brakiri, centauri... it's the same.
-And what it says, liutenant?-said Jankowski in frustation.
-It says "This is Dukhat of the Minbari, we welcome you in peace and strength. one of your ships looks damaged, please let us know if you need assistance. please identify yourselves and respond"
-Answer them the following in centauri, i wonder why none of you ever came up with the translation idea by yourselves, perhaps you believed every alien in the galaxy speaks english?!-stated Jankowski, ignoring the fact he couldn't think of that by himself either. The crew, already used to the hypocrisy of their captain, remain in silence.
-"This is captain Jankowski of the Earth Alliance ship Prometheus, we salute you in the name of the Earth Alliance Goverment and the human species. We have came to iniciate diplomatic contact with you, but i must clarify we don't know why another of our civilian ships has arrived too, we are asking them about it, and we apologize for it" Done? Order the fighters to stay in defensive patrol, and if this Thessalia ship don't respond in five minutes, shoot a warning shot.
Battlestar Thessalia
CIC
-Those must be Earth ships, if they were Cylons they would be firing upon us and finishing they work...
-I agree. Let's answer them. Put me on the line-aswered Galatha.
-Go ahead sir
-Cap. Jankowski of the Earth Ship Prometheus, this is Commander Galatha of the Battlestar Thessalia. We are glad for found you and we apologize for our arrival, our jump engines failed and we barely survived an ambush from the Cylons. We are still trying to bring them online. Please feel welcome to come aboard, we will send you video with the footage from the attack.
-Mr. Hellene, get it done.
-Are you sure about this, sir?
-We have just violated someone else's territory, and jeopardize our cousin's diplomatic mission. They all could attack us if they wanted to. So better let's play friendly.
EAS Prometheus
-Oh, Jesus! Send a translation of this message to the Minbari, and send it to Jericho Station with a message, write the following: "This is Prometheus. We have succed in reach the Minbari. We have a Code Épsilon Situation. Stand by for data about another threat from unknown origin". End message. Get me the Thessalia now.
-Online sir
- Commander Galatha, aknowledged, we will send an officer and a support team, and our Nova Escort the EAS Schwarzkopf will be approaching to tow you. And please give us more data about those Cylons, we have never hear of them. End message. Call captain Thomas.
-Online sir
-Captain we have contacted a Commander Galatha from this ship Thessalia, they have allowed us to came to their vessel so i will leave to you that, meanwhile we will handle the contact with the Minbari. Just two things: first find out who they are, really; and two, who are these cylons.
-You can trust me, Godspeed with the Minbari. We will inform you as soon we find out anything. Schwarzkopf out.
-Sir, the colonials have send the footage of the attack.
-On screen.
After the five minutes of the attack, the crew in the bridge of the Prometheus was shocked. The veterans from the Dilgar war were surprised of the zero warning of the missile strike. Whoever this cylons were they surely are a violent species, ruthless and merciless.
-Send this footage to the Minbari with the following message. "Dukhat from the Minbari, this is Captain Jankowski. We accept your invitation, and please as a friendly gesture we send you the footage of the attack this ship, the Thessalia, suffered, according to them, very near of here. We have send them our biggest ship to assist them, we will inform you when they are ready to depart". And add some info about Earth, perhaps the Gallactic Encyclopedia resume or something.
-Done sir.
Valen'tha
Grey Council chamber
-Satais, the humans are sending another message. They included files and images. They also have sended data with information about their Homeworld, their culture and history.
-They have images from their Worlds?
-Yes
-Show us-asked Dukhat, with great curiosity.
Suddenly a shorts video showing EarthDome and Geneva, then the great cities of the World regions. Moscow with the Red Square and the Kremlim, Beijing and the Forbidden City, London and The Parliament, Washington DC and the White House, México City and the Three Cultures Square, Minbaris were impresed about the Beauty and the variety of the buildings. More images showing the Niagara, the Iguazú Falls, the Kilimanjaro, and ancient ruins of Athens, Petra, Gizah, Ankgor Vath, etc
-The variety of their architecture it's outstanding. And the beauty of their planet too-said Delenn.
-You are right, my dear disciple. Now, what about this damaged human vessel?
-They send the images of the attacked ship.
-Show us.
While the images were displayed the Council observed how the strange star-like ships came out from hyperspace without a jump point, and started to shoot without any communication. This cylons were savages.
-No warning, or communication, and they attack five to one. No honour in such a victory.
-Slaughter, merciless slaughter.
-Those cylons, whoever they are, wanted to be sure there won't be any survivors. And the record shows they, i mean the humans, have just arrived there, and they don't do anything aggressive went this ships appear.
-I think we all agree this new race is a threat, to the humans and anyone. And they are wandering in our borders. Whatever you think about humans, so far they have just do good to others, we have nothing to say against them.
-Master, i suggest we should send ships to patrol this sector.
-I, on behalf of my cast and the Wind Swords clan, volunteer to find any of this cylons in this sector and beyond.
-Make it done, intercept any ship with this configuration, don't shoot first, but if you found any human or any other race's ship under attack, you must intervene. Also the An'la'shok will be deployed.
-It shall be done.
-I want Delenn, and two volunteers of the Warrior and Worker casts to welcome the Human captain. We will inform them about this. And send this data to all the Shai Alyts, they must be warned about this new threat.
Unknown system
Cylon task force Kappa
The One was really pissed. His clone of the Kappa 23 Squadron forgot to send the virus and disable the Thessalia before shooting. That stupid mistake could cost the entire operation just four days ahead. Now they must find that ship and pray to God the colonials don't jump back to their space and put everyone on alert. Until now the agents inside the Colonial military and government reported that only a rescue operation with raptors was on course, and the readiness of the fleet scale up to Condition Two. That enough made the models 4 and 5 to suggest pospone the whole thing until they end the search.
-We have the coordinates. They jumped to this system. 25 Light years from here.
-That's beyond our deepest recon in this area.
-This time there won't be mistakes. First the virus, then the nukes. The ten ships, all ready to jump. This frakking thing ends today!
Valen'tha
Grey Council chamber
Dukhat prepares himself to welcome the human delegation. He wasn't expecting find this race the Vorlons had adviced him to contact, at least not yet. And this strange other human ship, appeared out of nowhere and with signs of fighting? He already knew the human race wasn't aggressive, the only wars they fought since they started to walk among the stars were in self defense or to defend others. In any case any help he could provide would certaintly give to the humans a very good first impresion, and that would help a lot in the future coming of the Shadows. The Grey Council agreed in help them, and several ships were on their way to assist and, to guard the system in case those Cylons appeared.
The human shuttle arrived, three men with blue and brown suits step down, one of them carrying a square device, perhaps a translation device? One of them step forward, and stand tall like a tree, and rise his right hand to his forehead, full of short hair like the centauri, but without the typical semicircular shape.
Captain Jankowski, permission to come aboard!" asked the man, translated in Centauri with the small device. Dukhat siled and give him the minbari reverence, and answer him in minbari, with Delenn translating in Centauri.
Meanwhile Satai Coplann of the Warrior cast monitors the human ships. Suddenly, ten flashes of light appeared five kilometers to starboard, and them, ten huge star like ships. The same star-like ships the humans were attacked before came to the system.
-General quarters, deploy Nyals, and face those ships, gun ports open!
Cylon Task Force Kappa command Basestar
The One was shocked. What the frak were those blue ships? And that huge brick full of giant cannons right beside the Battlestar?! He knew there was no 13th tribe anymore, and Kobol was empty. He need to act fast.
-Firing solution on all those ships, nuke them at my command! Send the virus
-We don't even know who they are!
-We are being hailed
Cylon fleet, you have entered Minbari Federation space. The Thessalia is under the protection of the Minbari Federation. You have no business here, withdraw peacefully, or else!-That came from the tall blue ships to the right-informed a model 3.
Cylon ships, this is Captain Thomas of the Earth Alliance Ship Schwarzkopf . The Thessalia is a human ship, and another attack on them will be considered an hostile act against the Earth Alliance. Withdraw, that was your final warning
-That was the brick with the big guns. And it's moving them toward us. All ships are turning facing us, and their vipers are being deployed side by side with the Battlestar's.
-Frak!
-We should get out of...
-Fire!