EAS Prometheus

Earth Alliance Recon Force

Somewhere near Minbari Federation territory, near Jericho colony sector

-Sir, we are approaching 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 doesn'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 was no way of knowing if these strange alien ships knew their Salute or just would take It as an imminent threat. Suddenly, a huge light appears out of nowhere, right in the middle of both fleets. And immediately after, a huge ship materialized right between them and the humans.


One hour earlier

Battlestar Thessalia

Picon Shipyards

The Battlestar Thessalia was ready to leave the dry dock. After a full refurbishing 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 on everything would suffice. Commander Alexander Galatha was hearing all the last protocol 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 worse.
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 lightyears from Caprica, to the opposite side of the Armistice Station...DRADIS contacts! No IFF! Five ships, huge! Twelve 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 port side of the Thessalia. The tough hull of the Battlestar survives the hit but with five capital ships launching it won't last. Anywhere but there was safer. But where were there? And where would they go?


Present

EAS Prometheus

-Sir, contact! Right in front of us! A single ship came out of the blue, about 2/3 of our length, almost wide as a Nova, and bulkier!
-Bulkier than a Nova?! What do you mean by "bulkier"?
-Sensors indicate the hull of that ship is thicker, and 4 times denser than a Nova Dreadnought, sir!
-They have writings in its 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 a Belt Alliance ship?
-Whatever they are they have been nuked, and they came out of nowhere, in the Minbari border, and launched unregistered fighters when finding an Earthforce Task Force. Hail them.
-Yes sir.


Battlestar Thessalia

-Jump complete.
-Is everyone ok?
As everyone reports their status, the helm and the navigator tried to find out where they were now, and if they were alone. They weren't.
-Sir, múltiple DRADIS contacts! No colonial IFFs, and no known configuration either!
-Condition One! Action stations, action stations! Launch all Vipers!- ordered, this time they won't be caught off guard.
-Report!
- Sir, look there are two main groups of ships, this one has three capital ships, several viper-class vessels, and these other four; for frak sake!
-Are the same Cylon things that have just ambushed us? Yes or no Colonel!
-No, sir!
-Thanks to the Lords!
-But these are huge, the first looks like colonial civilian ships the size of a Mercury-class Battlestar, the other are shorter but taller, and they look like fish sir. And they... well DRADIS barely can give their location but not a firing Solution.
-Active ECM?
-Sir, we have visual confirmation, one of the groups has writings in Caprican on their hulls.
-What?!
"-The ships' names are 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 reports massive batteries in the ships, far bigger than anything Colonial Fleet has, sir!
-Sir, one of those ships is hailing us. Audio only.
-Ship Thessalia, this is Captain Jankowski of the Earth Alliance Ship Prometheus, we have come here to contact the Minbari Federation on behalf of the Earth Alliance Government. This is their territory, identify your status and intentions, your ship looks damaged and I don't want trouble with 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 its hull shows signs of impact 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 Interlac and 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 Minbari's are hailing us, the message is in many languages, we identify Markab, Brakiri, Centauri... it's the same.
-And what it says, lieutenant?-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"/em/p
-Answer them the following in Centauri: "This is captain Jankowski of the Earth Alliance ship Prometheus, we salute you in the name of the Earth Alliance Government and the human species. We have come to initiate 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 doesn't respond in five minutes, fire a warning shot.


Battlestar Thessalia

CIC

-Those must be Earth ships, if they were Cylons they would be firing upon us and finishing their work...
-I agree. Let's answer them. Put me on the line-answered Galatha.
-Go ahead sir
-Cap. Jankowski of the Earth Ship Prometheus, this is Commander Galatha of the Battlestar emThessalia/em. We are glad to find 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 a 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 possibly jeopardized 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 the following: "This is Prometheus. We have a Code Épsilon Situation. And our mission turned to a First Contact with the Minbari. Stand by for data about another threat of unknown origin". End message. Get me the Thessalia now.
-Online sir.
p-Commander Galatha, acknowledged, 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 heard of them. End message. Call Captain Thomas.
-Online sir
-Captain we have contacted Commander Galatha from this ship Thessalia, they have allowed us to come to their vessel so I will leave it to you, 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 sent the footage of the attack.

-On-screen.; "After five minutes of the attack, the crew on the bridge of the Prometheus was shocked. Whoever these Cylons were they surely are a violent species, 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 here. We have sent them our biggest ship to assist them, we will inform you when they are ready to depart". Do we have some First Contact package?

-No, sir, but I will improvise something, sir.

-I will recommend including a First Contact on every ship when we return.


Valen'tha

Grey Council chamber

-Satais, the humans are sending another message. They included files and images. They also have sent data with information about their Homeworld, their culture, and history.

-They have images from their Worlds?

-Yes

-Show us -asked Dukhat, with great a short video showing EarthDome and Geneva, then the great cities of the World regions. Moscow with the Red Square and the Kremlin, Beijing and the Forbidden City, London and The Parliament, Washington DC and the White House, México City and the Three Cultures Square, and Minbari were curious by the strange beauty and the variety of the buildings. More images show the Niagara, the Iguazú Falls, the Kilimanjaro, and ancient ruins of Athens, Petra, Gizah, Angkor 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 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. These Cylons were savages.
-No warning, or communication, and they attack five to one. No honor 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 these ships appear.
-I think we all agree this new race is a threat, to humans and anyone. And they are wandering within our borders. Whatever you think about humans, so far they have just done 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 these Cylons in this sector and beyond.
-Summon additional ships to this sector, and intercept any ship with this configuration. Also, the An'la'shok will be deployed. I know your opinion about them, but you would agree it's better to have them doing something useful.
-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 our movements in the area. This could have been a huge misunderstanding between both races, I don't think they were expecting to find us here in the first place. And send this data to all the Shai Alyts, they must be warned about this new threat.
-Why do you think they were here, master?
-By the number of ships, looks like a reconnaissance force. If this other ship wouldn't appear, they would probably abandon this system after seeing us.
-And what about Za'ha'dhum?
-After the humans left, we will go. We just can't let this opportunity to meet them go wasted.


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 models 4 and 5 suggest postponing 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. Ten ships are 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 to find this race the Vorlons had advised 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 certainly give to the humans a very good first impression, and that would help a lot in the future coming of the Shadows. The Grey Council agreed to help them, and several ships were on their way to assist and, 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 steps forward, stands tall like a tree, and raises 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 then, 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 needs 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!/em-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 a 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!


Thanks naotw for your review, your corrections and suggestions were really useful. But some of them won't be used.

About the emergency jump, calculating jumps takes time, and without it only a blind jump is possible. The same situation happen in the Scorpia Shipyards' bombing by the Cylons when admiral Cain ordered the Pegasus to execute a blind jump seconds before being destroyed.
I apologize for the inconsistencies in the size of the different ships, when I wrote this chapter I roughly knew about the B5 ship's sizes, and for some reason, I believe Battlestars were smaller. I was too lazy to correct that, even when I found out about the real size of ships of both series.
However, the thickness and density of the hulls of Colonial Battlestars have to be bigger than Earthforce's ships, because in the series the Battlestars are able to withstand easily nuclear weapons detonating in the hull. Vacuum space nullifies some of the effects of a nuclear blast, and in the real universe, there is no known material able to withstand the heat of a nuclear explosion. Earthforce ships, and any ship in the B5 universe, can't do that. And that even with the huge difference between nuclear ordinances used by both fleets.

In conclusion, why a ship with the name Prometheus has to be of the Thirteen Tribe, it's quite obvious. Cylons don't have name's for their ships, and they wouldn't use Kobolian pantheon names. Colonial black ops ships would have some IFF to avoid friendly fire, like black ops ships of the MCR Navy in The Expanse, most likely they wouldn't have their names in their hulls either. For any colonial, in the vastness of space, only three kinds of people could be found: Cylons, Colonials, and Thirteeners. Aliens? Maybe, but an alien ship wouldn't have a Kobolian religious character name, in Caprican letters. And it's Kobolian 'cause the religion and culture are from Kobol.
Interlac is used when there is no other language available, but it has its limitations. Once there is a real language they could use, Interlac is no longer used. The contact between Deleen White Star and the Drakh is an example of that. Where are the Soul Hunters? Originally they would be included, but I couldn't find a way of doing it properly, so I move on with the rest of the story. I put them in the second chapter.
Jankowski decided to identify as a "civilian" the Colonial Battlestar because:
They weren't Earthforce ships
He didn't want to be held accountable for the actions of an unknown human ship with no known allegiance to Earthforce or the Earth alliance

He couldn't say the Thessalia was an unknown ship because of the ship's hull inscriptions. The Minbari would never believe it if Jankowski denied any relation with an obviously human vessel. And the Battlestar weapons were smaller than Earthforce's, so even armed it could pass for an armed civilian ship.

The Nova has better and bigger engines to tow a Battlestar (Omegas are used to tow big ships in Crusade) than a Hyperion, and you don't sacrifice the mobility of a Hyperion doing so.
About Dukhat's actions, my idea was he would never ever let this opportunity to gain points with the humans pass away, bypassing the three casts' prejudices, and getting them to fight side by side with the Minbari. Jankowski's actions follow the premise he is exposed to both, the Minbari and the newcomers; and now he is responsible for a human ship under attack. He can't just leave, and if the dangerous and possibly hostile Minbari are acting so nice, he will play along. Both leaders are trying to use this unexpected situation to get the best of it. Jankowski wants his extra points in his curriculum, and Dukhat needs to get some kind of accord with the humans. Minbari warrior cast's point of view is full of nonsense and hypocrisy, just as B5 shows again and again.