Susan looked at him a little funny, but she left the center, and headed for her quarters. She normally went out and relaxed a little with Stephen and Michael, but this time the Captain had suggested that she return to her quarters and get some sleep. Making her way back to her quarters, she began getting changed into an exercise outfit so she could stay in shape. Muttering to herself, she was about to begin her warm-up exercises when-
"Voiceprint recognized. Delivering text message with attachments."
Susan jumped up at the computer's voice. She looked over at it, and began reading the message there.
Susan, that was no Earthforce ship. I attached the results from the comparison to this message, and you will find them very interesting. -John.
Looking at the attached data, she saw it was the results of her comparison. The comparison had been performed against several models of jump engines Earthforce ships had used, yet the only match had been against a theoretical study done years earlier. That study had been an attempt to create a jump point without using Quantium-40, but it had been a computer model only. It had shown that creating a jump point without Quantium-40 required power levels greater than Earth produced in an entire year to open a point for a single message drone, yet it matched the signature far better than any other model available.
Susan looked at the bottom of the message, where John had added the results from a small calculation, showing the estimated power used to open each of the jump points. She looked at the number, a second time, and then it registered. The power used was greater than Earth produced in a century, yet it had been expended casually by a single craft just for a jump point.
Thinking back to how Garibaldi said the White Star had been followed by those powerful fighters, and detecting this vessel so close afterwards, it could only mean one thing. These people knew where the White Star was based from, and had the capability to get to Babylon 5 whenever they wanted.
How much chance did Babylon 5 have to stop them? With the new defense grid in place, they were equal to a cruiser in firepower, so she could go with that as a rough guide.
"Computer, engage a combat simulation. Defender force is one Omega Destroyer with 60 Starfuries as fighter escort. Attacker force is six of the unknown fighters that the White Star encountered. Setting is empty space, neither force has any surprise. Run both sides until all forces on one side are destroyed. Assume that an unknown fighter is destroyed when the power level is reduced to zero."
"Simulation created. Caution, unknown fighter sensor capability not listed."
"Assume sensors are equal to Earthforce sensors."
"Sensors selected."
"Run simulation."
"Simulation running."
Waiting for a few seconds, the computer chimed. "Simulation concluded."
"Show results." Looking through the results, Ivanova gasped at them. The entire defender group with the Omega had been destroyed, in less than two minutes. The attacker group had not suffered any casualties, and only one fighter was below sixty percent in its energy level.
Turning from the screen, and slowly collapsing on the floor, she hugged her knees to her chest and trembled. Only six of the unknown fighters would be needed to destroy a top of the line Earth vessel, even with its full fighter escort. The worst part was, they wouldn't take any casualties.
But still, there was a chance. "Computer, set up same simulation as before, but replace Earth vessels with Minbari vessels of appropriate size. Assume that the Minbari stealth system is not engaged for this simulation."
"Substituting Sharlin war cruiser for Omega. Substituting Nial fighter for Starfury. Simulation created."
"Run simulation."
"Simulation running."
Ivanova began to breathe a little easier now. With the Minbari possessing the highest technology of anyone, with the exception of the Vorlons, defeating these new fighters should prove easy. She didn't want to think about what one of their warships might be capable of though.
"Simulation complete. Displaying results."
Ivanova slowly stood back up, and began reviewing the new data. She put her hand to her mouth in shock. Even a Minbari force was defeated, but they managed to take out a fighter before they were overwhelmed. Then she began to think in her head the reasons the Minbari were so dangerous. Their stealth systems made them almost impossible to track effectively, which meant that all Earth ships had enjoyed the thrill of closing to visual range against enemies that could shoot them from much farther away.
But she had deliberately handicapped these Minbari by assuming that the unknowns could see through their stealth. If the Minbari stealth was effective against them as well, then they had a fighting chance. She sent a message to John, including the results of her simulations, so he would have a good idea of what they were up against.
Beginning her warm up exercises, she got her blood flowing again, and managed to relax enough to call Stephen and Michael to tell them that she would be turning in early today, and not to wait for her. Besides, if she knew John, he had already told them in their 7R meeting, and they were going through the same level of shock as she was. She almost wished she could be there to see their faces when they saw the results from the simulations she had run.
After finishing the exercise, she cleaned herself up and got into bed, managing to relax enough to go to sleep. She never realized the one assumption she had made in the simulations, and that assumption had skewed the results.
***
Seeing the results from the Skipray, Governor Velholm sighed. Apparently this Babylon 5 was conducting some sort of joint operation with the Minbari. Judging from the rear of the white vessel, and observed patterns in Minbari vessels, they shared the same type of propulsion systems. The thruster systems were also similar to Minbari designs, so apparently the Minbari designed the engines and power plant, while the ship got help from the Babylon 5 station. There wasn't enough information yet to determine if it was official or unofficial, but the lack of mention about the craft in the news reports suggested a top secret craft.
The scanner emissions from it had been unusual though, in that they had been similar to those detected in what was known as 'Vorlon space'. The most likely possibility was that the vessel was a project between the Minbari and the Vorlons, while the station provided support. If that was so, then one possible option would be to split the alliance between the Minbari and Vorlons. To do that though, they could build their own vessels, similar on the outside to the white ships seen, and use them to attack Vorlon targets.
But most races already didn't like the Minbari to begin with, as they had the highest technology, but were willing to talk to other races. The Vorlons though, were regarded as mysterious and menacing. Explorers into their space simply vanished without a trace. If they could use their own weapons to destroy any vessels that came into a certain area, and that area was near the Vorlon border, then it would make it look like the Vorlons were expanding their territory. After all, if they created a similar disappearing zone elsewhere, then it would be a new mystery and races would go investigate. But if it was near an existing mystery, then they would get angry at the only possible target.
A third possibility existed though. The Markab race had apparently been wiped out by a plague last year, and their homeworld was effectively empty of people. If they set up shop there, and created their own black hole zone, then any ship disappearances might be explained as the ghosts of the Markab taking their revenge against those who lived. Smiling as he tried to imagine the reactions among the different races, Governor Velholm began organizing the ships that would be sent there. The Star Destroyer Violence would go there first, start setting up hyperspace sensor pods, and getting a feel for the local terrain. A World Devastator would be sent there as well, for consumption of the ships destroyed, and for siphoning up the Markab civilization.
Captain Beleron heard the orders and smiled. It was long past time since the Imperial forces had enjoyed a chance to engage hostile forces, and he had been concerned they might lose their edge. Calling up the system's information, he decided to hyper in, and close in from outside the orbit of the outermost planet. From there, he could launch fighters and gunboats, and use them as extended sensors as the whole group would drift in. This way, he could see if anyone was already there, and make plans for them.
***
The black shapes moved gently in orbit over the planet. The biological weapon had worked against the primary population, and every one of them was dead. There had been a delay in moving in due to the number of scavengers who had been grabbing souvenirs from the cities, but the vessels present had quickly annihilated them.
Now the base was being built up, with organic factories to grow the fighters that each ship needed, and mechanical factories to construct the few mechanical items they needed to link with the local ships. There were over a dozen of the giant warships in orbit, ready to attack anything that came near, along with smaller versions of them, growing to their full size slowly. Other vessels were scout designs, intended to seek out new prey for their larger brethren. They were patrolling the system, making sure it was secure. This base was as well defended as anything else they had.
Which meant it was a pathetic target practice to the Imperial ships bearing down on them.
***
The Violence erupted from hyperspace at the edge of the system. By using their version of hyperspace, instead of the jump type, their travel time had been a matter of minutes, and the massive ship began launching its smaller craft to spread out and destroy anything that got near. He also told four of the gunboats to form jump points and head towards the planet, in case any of the vessels were patrolling there, or tried to escape.
A sensor technician called out the first contact, and two TIE Defenders angled to meet it.
***
The ship was curious about the sudden return it had received on its sensors. There had been no indication of any sort of jump point opening up and a ship arriving; yet here was something. It detected four more jump points opening up, yet it detected four vessels leaving through them. How did they get there? Deciding that this would be unusual, it angled towards the contact, eager to learn more. A sudden movement nearby caught its attention, and it saw-
***
Turbolaser fire erupted from the Defenders, destroying the scout vessel.
***
Captain Beleron watched as his fighters destroyed the scout vessel. It hadn't even had time to send off a message, and he proceeded further in system, eager to get among the other ships there and begin damaging them, to prevent any of them from getting away. There was a possibility of other scouts in the system not being close enough to be targeted, and able to run away, so he ordered a small tachyon stream to be sent away from the homeworld, out into the rest of the system, where other ships could be and would detect it. He also ordered passive sensors to try to find other vessels in-system, so the Defenders could hyper over to them, destroy them, and return. If he could get rid of all their sensor craft, his ship could deal with the forces at the planet easily.
***
Two more scouts detected the stream, and wondered what was causing it. Sending a message to the scout that was in charge of that volume, they awaited a reply. Receiving none after a while, they altered course towards the source, wanting to know more. Their curiosity was suddenly changed, as small fighters suddenly appeared near them, and they also died in seconds.
***
The base intelligence was getting concerned. Three of its scout vessels had failed to respond to the normal querying pulse, and there had been no sign of any recent alerts from them. Since they were distributed all over the system before contact was lost, it was obvious that either this system was under attack by a multi-prong force, or they had found something unusual. Sending out a message for them to respond immediately, it awaited a reply. In case there were other forces moving in, it ordered the other scouts to head towards the planet, to take shelter under the weapons of the larger cruisers.
***
Captain Beleron smiled as the optical sensors reported star occlusion indicating several vessels heading towards the planet. The black vessels were very hard to detect, but when they passed in front of stars, they temporarily blocked them out, and that was enough for the computers to focus on those areas for further attention.
Waiting several minutes as the vessels gathered around the planet, he began setting up his attack. The remaining gunboats would attack the far side of the planet, in case anything was hiding there. His ship would attack the near side, destroying anything it came across. The fighters would split into 2 groups, one going with the gunboats, and one with him, taking care of any fighters that might be launched.
Counting down the seconds, he finally gave the order, "Attack."
***
The base intelligence had gotten more concerned as nothing had been heard from the survey vessels since its message several minutes ago. Its cruisers were gathered close to the planet, and the firepower they wielded meant that nothing that attacked would survive.
And then all hell broke loose.
***
Hypering to less than a thousand miles from the planet, the Violence lived up to its name. Anti-fighter turbolasers, medium and heavy mounts spewed a rain of death upon the living ships gathered near the planet. All but two were destroyed outright by the blasts, and the remaining ones survive only because they had been hit once each by anti-fighter weapons. The gunboats had sped around, and the few ships they found were savagely destroyed. A single ship launched a fighter ball, more out of reflex than of any attempt to attack, yet a medium turbolaser tracked the sphere and destroyed it before the fighters had separated. There was little more than ash left from the single hit.
Turning their attention to the ground base, Captain Beleron ordered a total bombardment of the base, to prevent any message from getting out. If any sort of warning was received from this location, then the other parasites might know that the vessels were destroyed by hostile action. But if nothing at all was received, then they would have to send a ship or two to investigate. Within a matter of seconds, the base had gone from a coordinated effort to get some fighters in the air to a molten ruin. Medium turbolasers, for anti-shipping combat, had yields of over one hundred megaton yields per shot, while the heavy guns were capable of well over fifteen gigatons per shot. Since each turret could fire once every two seconds, the base never had a chance.
The ground below and around the base was devastated by the strike as well. When the medium bolts struck, the ground was forced downwards then made to explode as pieces of a star were briefly slammed into the ground. The ground erupted for miles around, with the material reaching several miles up before finally arcing down again. But where the heavy turbolasers hit, the devastation was total. Each gun had recoil measuring in the gigatons, and that was before the energy from the plasma bolt itself was considered. Some of the fighters in space had to dodge quickly, as mile-wide chunks of rock arced over their heads during the bombardment. Cities around the dead planet trembled, and those within a few thousand miles of the blasts were knocked down by the earthquakes caused by a ravaged world.
Calling in the World Devastator, the debris in orbit and in-system was consumed and filtered, and then the ship began work on the planet below, removing the base first, and then beginning a slow spiral outwards, consuming the material below. The first order of business for the World Devastator was self-reproduction again, and the new one would start heading off to a neutron star. Imperial armor incorporated neutronium in its makeup, and a neutron star was the most reliable source found so far. The existing stores of neutronium were almost used up, and a few days of mining the neutronium would help take care of armor manufacturing needs for several weeks.
Another World Devastator stopped by while this was going on. It had been ordered to a black hole previously, in an attempt to get the hypermatter fuel that was required by all their vessels. A quick fuel-up of the ships brought fuel stocks up, and the vessel switched duties with the one going for planetary consumption. Staring at a black hole and its accretion disk for days on end is not psychologically helpful, so it was necessary to change out crews of the stations in the Empire where the mining operations were performed. Those few who could handle the difference, of total darkness in one point, and the magical splendor outside were few and far between, and usually wound up as poets, artists, philosophers, or guests in psychiatric hospitals.
***
With the expanding scope of Imperial operations here, the fuel runs were becoming more and more often. Filling up the Eclipse's tanks was a priority, as if they had to run, the Eclipse could go anywhere, and not worry about anything engaging it. Its weapons were still being rebuilt, but the ship would only need another five weeks of repair before it was once again fit for duty. The crew would be even made up of droids even more than before, as there simply weren't enough bodies to fill all available positions.
There had been some improvement in that area. Governor Velholm had known that a basic biological law of population growth was the number of women available. As a result, he had ordered the ship's doctors to administer a low level drug into the crew. The result was that the new population of children was over three-quarters female, and the nurseries were already filling up, from the number of people getting married and having children both on board his ships, and at the base. Most of the people that had already been married though, were still waiting, as they still had contact with the Empire (at 2 week intervals, but they still had contact), and were remaining faithful. Several of them though, had managed to come to terms with the fact that they wouldn't be seeing their families for a long while, and had started dating. Some were from planets where polygamous or open marriages were the norm, and had adapted within a matter of days. Others came from worlds where being apart for long times meant that options were open. The final few who were married before had received separation papers from their spouses, and were no longer married. They had wept for a few weeks, while others talked to them, and they finally started talking to others again.
Still, the fact was there that there would be an eighteen year gap in the ages of the next set of Imperial ship crew, until the local populations began to be self-supporting. If they could get a few refugees though, who were fleeing from the Earth government, then they could accelerate their program to establish the Empire here. In order to do that, they would have to increase the friction between parts of the Earth government, while protecting them at the same time.
The easiest way to do that would be heavy raids upon the empires near the Earth space borders, to keep them from getting any ideas. Even better, this could be combined with the earlier plan, of attacking the parasites and their allies. The news reports they were getting told of certain empires on the attack, and achieving astounding victories. Two of them were selected, and Velholm ordered the Eager Fire and 2 World Devastators to proceed to one of their main military depots.
Their orders were to annihilate all defenders, and consume the depot below. The nearest defenders were over a day away, so the World Devastators would have plenty of time to eat.
Seeing them on their way, Governor Velholm had an idea. If everything else started going down the drain, they needed something as a fallback position. He called up a list of the Engineers who had been in charge of the city construction, and began reviewing them. He needed someone who was well balanced in personality, yet was creative and loyal enough to be trusted with prototype construction far from supervision.
Commander Vonoya seemed to be the best candidate, and Governor Velholm began to read the report on her. She had received excellent training in both large-scale construction technologies, and was extremely able to adapt existing designs in her mind, while maintaining their original capabilities. Even better, both her and her crew were well-balanced people, and could handle isolation, strange environments, and unusual orders easily.
Calling her in, Governor Velholm told her of his plan. She would take her World Devastator to the Galactic Core, where neutronium and hypermatter sources would be available, and several systems easily reachable for raw materials. Showing her the plans, he asked how long it would take to build.
"Assuming nothing goes wrong, or delays me, fifteen months. Bear in mind that I will have to cannibalize most of the World Devastators in order to build it, so you won't have that many of them when it is finished. But fifteen months is a solid estimate. I can send monthly status reports if you wish."
Nodding his head, Velholm approved the operation.
***
The Abbai Admiral glanced over her forces. The base they were protecting had over three million tons of war material needed for the fight going on with their neighbors. With their new allies, they were making excellent inroads, but securing the planets conquered required their forces, and this base was critical to supporting them.
Which was why the defense fleet was so heavy. Three orbital bases, several hundred ground-based fighters, and eight cruisers in orbit guarded the base, making sure that nothing hostile got close enough to attack. Even if anything managed to get through the defending fleet, the base was set into a mountain, with over one hundred feet of granite between the supplies and the open air.
Turning to an aide, she was about to ask the progress of the current attack, when she saw a blur of motion outside. That was all she had time for before the ion bolt electrocuted almost everyone on board her ship. The rest of her formation broke up, as individual commanders tried to grapple with the shock of the sudden attack, and the new ship design seen. A few managed to bring their ships around and begin opening fire, but their fire seemed to have no effect on the unknown ship. The base itself tried to set up a communications channel, but a powerful jamming field was preventing all communications from being successful.
***
Captain Beleron watched with glee as the first few salvos blew into the alien ships, crippling them without shattering them into hundreds of pieces that would have to be hunted down. His orders were to destroy the base, but not to leave any remains behind that could be analyzed. As a result, he had ordered his gunners to only use ion turrets to attack the ships, intending to cripple them with each blast. As the shots rang out though, he noticed that it seemed to only take one hit per ship to cripple them.
But another symbol on the tactical view concerned him, and he began passing orders.
***
Wing Leader De'verstok was afraid. She had been expecting a nice and calm patrol route around the base, as any enemy forces were busy engaging their offensive strike groups, when that unusual ship had burst in and started firing. She had watched her display as over half the defending ships were classified as crippled within the first few seconds of the engagement, and knew that this ship would walk all over the base as well. She had ordered her wing to disengage and run, so that they could get through the jump gate and tell anyone what was going on!
They never saw the Defenders pop in right behind them, and destroy every fighter.
***
The rest of the battle was over with very quickly. The defending starships were neutralized in a matter of seconds, and the orbital forts were hit a couple of times as well with ion weapons. The ground base though was launching fighters, until a medium turbolaser blast in the middle of the runway put a stop to them. The fighters would have taken two or three minutes to get into space, but they never reached that altitude. A volley of shots destroyed all of them, and the Star Destroyer called the World Devastators in. It was time to eat.
The deep control centers of the planet were allocated to the World Devastators to unearth and consume, while other surface structures were to be vaporized by the Star Destroyer. Briefly Captain Beleron was tempted to order a Base Delta Zero attack, but he dismissed the idea because he didn't want to reveal too much at once. His mission here was to remove the base, not do planetary sterilization.
The tractor beams of the World Devastators reached out, and the one in space and one above the planet began to feast. Ships, fighters, bases, fortifications, buildings, and people disappeared into their maws without any complaint from them. A couple of ships blew up as they were being eaten, but the explosions barely scratched the paint of the Devastators, and merely broke the larger ships into smaller chunks for easier digestion.
***
The Abbai admiral watched the three ships in horror. The triangle shaped ship was busy bombarding the planet, while the box-shaped ships had separated, with one going to the planet, and the other working its way through her fleet, consuming each ship in turn. She guessed that the other was doing the same to the planet below, and most likely to the supply base. She started thinking about how the loss of the supplies would all but halt the attacks currently going on, and then she started thinking along other lines. Namely what were these strange ships doing here, what did they want, and most importantly, how could they stop them?
But those questions soon became moot, as the World Devastator moved over to her ship and began to feed. Her scream was lost in the tearing metal and escaping atmosphere as her ship was ripped to shreds and taken into the ever-hungry maw of a World Devastator.
***
After twenty hours, the World Devastators had consumed the ships, bases, ground fortifications, and supplies, and the small fleet turned and left. Their job had been done well, and the holds of the Devastators were full again. As they set a course for the Fetoro system, the fighter jocks traded stories, while the engineers on the World Devastators began building the next set of machines that were needed by the small colony.
***
At first, there was no concern by the Abbai military. It was common for communications failure at different times, so a small frigate was sent there to double check. Her captain came through the jump gate normally, and set a course for the planet. When repeated hails got no response, she began to get nervous. When a scanner technician gasped in shock, she asked what was wrong.
"Captain, the base is gone. There are no ships in orbit, no orbital forts, and the base itself seems to be missing."
"What do you mean missing? We had three forts, over half a dozen cruisers, more than a hundred fighters, not to mention the groundside defenses here for protection. The Llort would have required a massive striking force to even attack this place, let alone defeat it."
"Captain I don't know what happened, but I am not reading any sign of orbital material, intact or otherwise. The radar reports from the base don't seem to match up properly either."
"Let's head over there."
When the frigate arrived at the base, and the destruction became obvious, the Captain ordered, "Activate the transmitter. We need to report this in to Fleet Command." After giving the overview of what had been seen and sending it off, she ordered a ground search team to investigate the base, and see what was left. Their report came in a few minutes later. Where the base had been was now a gaping crater. The supplies stored beneath the mountain were gone, along with most of the mountain and the surrounding area. The defense installations at the base were gone as well, and according to some of the investigators, it looked as though they had been ripped out of the ground by force.
***
At the Abbai Fleet Command, there was a lot of concern. Their current military advances required the supplies at the base in order to keep going, but without those supplies they would stall out. But they could salvage something out of the situation, as the Llort forces had not been putting up any sort of defense recently. If they could arrange a peace treaty with the Llort now, accepting peace in exchange for a few of their worlds, they would be better able to find out who did this and take revenge. Sending their suggestion off to the Governmental Hall, they began to perform estimates of how much power was required to pull of an attack like that.
At the government hall, the diplomats argued for continuing the war in spite of the supplies missing, but cooler heads prevailed. If others heard about the base going missing before they released it, then other races might see a chance to attack them. As a result, they ordered a general cease-fire along their front, and offered peace terms to the Llort.
It took the Llort government a few days to deliberate the offer, but the choice from their point of view was clear; continue with the war and get annihilated, or lose two of their worlds and survive a little longer. They sent the reply a couple hours later, accepting the peace treaty.
At the Abbai homeworld, they had been trying to determine what could be done to cover up the massive blow their military had just taken. They finally settled on announcing that with the peace treaty with the Llort, they would be shutting down the base there, and moving the supplies elsewhere. The base would be dismantled, and a small observation base would be built there instead. Although the story was fairly thin, it would explain the far lower military presence there. Even better, the lack of debris would help them, as there would be no evidence of the attack.
One of the staffers though was a Drazi spy, and she had a copy of the original data in her possession. Transferring the data to her Drazi contact, she settled down to wait for the results. Having a leak of that high a level, it would undoubtedly point to a spy in the government, but the Drazi government could always find other ways to put this information to use.
"Voiceprint recognized. Delivering text message with attachments."
Susan jumped up at the computer's voice. She looked over at it, and began reading the message there.
Susan, that was no Earthforce ship. I attached the results from the comparison to this message, and you will find them very interesting. -John.
Looking at the attached data, she saw it was the results of her comparison. The comparison had been performed against several models of jump engines Earthforce ships had used, yet the only match had been against a theoretical study done years earlier. That study had been an attempt to create a jump point without using Quantium-40, but it had been a computer model only. It had shown that creating a jump point without Quantium-40 required power levels greater than Earth produced in an entire year to open a point for a single message drone, yet it matched the signature far better than any other model available.
Susan looked at the bottom of the message, where John had added the results from a small calculation, showing the estimated power used to open each of the jump points. She looked at the number, a second time, and then it registered. The power used was greater than Earth produced in a century, yet it had been expended casually by a single craft just for a jump point.
Thinking back to how Garibaldi said the White Star had been followed by those powerful fighters, and detecting this vessel so close afterwards, it could only mean one thing. These people knew where the White Star was based from, and had the capability to get to Babylon 5 whenever they wanted.
How much chance did Babylon 5 have to stop them? With the new defense grid in place, they were equal to a cruiser in firepower, so she could go with that as a rough guide.
"Computer, engage a combat simulation. Defender force is one Omega Destroyer with 60 Starfuries as fighter escort. Attacker force is six of the unknown fighters that the White Star encountered. Setting is empty space, neither force has any surprise. Run both sides until all forces on one side are destroyed. Assume that an unknown fighter is destroyed when the power level is reduced to zero."
"Simulation created. Caution, unknown fighter sensor capability not listed."
"Assume sensors are equal to Earthforce sensors."
"Sensors selected."
"Run simulation."
"Simulation running."
Waiting for a few seconds, the computer chimed. "Simulation concluded."
"Show results." Looking through the results, Ivanova gasped at them. The entire defender group with the Omega had been destroyed, in less than two minutes. The attacker group had not suffered any casualties, and only one fighter was below sixty percent in its energy level.
Turning from the screen, and slowly collapsing on the floor, she hugged her knees to her chest and trembled. Only six of the unknown fighters would be needed to destroy a top of the line Earth vessel, even with its full fighter escort. The worst part was, they wouldn't take any casualties.
But still, there was a chance. "Computer, set up same simulation as before, but replace Earth vessels with Minbari vessels of appropriate size. Assume that the Minbari stealth system is not engaged for this simulation."
"Substituting Sharlin war cruiser for Omega. Substituting Nial fighter for Starfury. Simulation created."
"Run simulation."
"Simulation running."
Ivanova began to breathe a little easier now. With the Minbari possessing the highest technology of anyone, with the exception of the Vorlons, defeating these new fighters should prove easy. She didn't want to think about what one of their warships might be capable of though.
"Simulation complete. Displaying results."
Ivanova slowly stood back up, and began reviewing the new data. She put her hand to her mouth in shock. Even a Minbari force was defeated, but they managed to take out a fighter before they were overwhelmed. Then she began to think in her head the reasons the Minbari were so dangerous. Their stealth systems made them almost impossible to track effectively, which meant that all Earth ships had enjoyed the thrill of closing to visual range against enemies that could shoot them from much farther away.
But she had deliberately handicapped these Minbari by assuming that the unknowns could see through their stealth. If the Minbari stealth was effective against them as well, then they had a fighting chance. She sent a message to John, including the results of her simulations, so he would have a good idea of what they were up against.
Beginning her warm up exercises, she got her blood flowing again, and managed to relax enough to call Stephen and Michael to tell them that she would be turning in early today, and not to wait for her. Besides, if she knew John, he had already told them in their 7R meeting, and they were going through the same level of shock as she was. She almost wished she could be there to see their faces when they saw the results from the simulations she had run.
After finishing the exercise, she cleaned herself up and got into bed, managing to relax enough to go to sleep. She never realized the one assumption she had made in the simulations, and that assumption had skewed the results.
***
Seeing the results from the Skipray, Governor Velholm sighed. Apparently this Babylon 5 was conducting some sort of joint operation with the Minbari. Judging from the rear of the white vessel, and observed patterns in Minbari vessels, they shared the same type of propulsion systems. The thruster systems were also similar to Minbari designs, so apparently the Minbari designed the engines and power plant, while the ship got help from the Babylon 5 station. There wasn't enough information yet to determine if it was official or unofficial, but the lack of mention about the craft in the news reports suggested a top secret craft.
The scanner emissions from it had been unusual though, in that they had been similar to those detected in what was known as 'Vorlon space'. The most likely possibility was that the vessel was a project between the Minbari and the Vorlons, while the station provided support. If that was so, then one possible option would be to split the alliance between the Minbari and Vorlons. To do that though, they could build their own vessels, similar on the outside to the white ships seen, and use them to attack Vorlon targets.
But most races already didn't like the Minbari to begin with, as they had the highest technology, but were willing to talk to other races. The Vorlons though, were regarded as mysterious and menacing. Explorers into their space simply vanished without a trace. If they could use their own weapons to destroy any vessels that came into a certain area, and that area was near the Vorlon border, then it would make it look like the Vorlons were expanding their territory. After all, if they created a similar disappearing zone elsewhere, then it would be a new mystery and races would go investigate. But if it was near an existing mystery, then they would get angry at the only possible target.
A third possibility existed though. The Markab race had apparently been wiped out by a plague last year, and their homeworld was effectively empty of people. If they set up shop there, and created their own black hole zone, then any ship disappearances might be explained as the ghosts of the Markab taking their revenge against those who lived. Smiling as he tried to imagine the reactions among the different races, Governor Velholm began organizing the ships that would be sent there. The Star Destroyer Violence would go there first, start setting up hyperspace sensor pods, and getting a feel for the local terrain. A World Devastator would be sent there as well, for consumption of the ships destroyed, and for siphoning up the Markab civilization.
Captain Beleron heard the orders and smiled. It was long past time since the Imperial forces had enjoyed a chance to engage hostile forces, and he had been concerned they might lose their edge. Calling up the system's information, he decided to hyper in, and close in from outside the orbit of the outermost planet. From there, he could launch fighters and gunboats, and use them as extended sensors as the whole group would drift in. This way, he could see if anyone was already there, and make plans for them.
***
The black shapes moved gently in orbit over the planet. The biological weapon had worked against the primary population, and every one of them was dead. There had been a delay in moving in due to the number of scavengers who had been grabbing souvenirs from the cities, but the vessels present had quickly annihilated them.
Now the base was being built up, with organic factories to grow the fighters that each ship needed, and mechanical factories to construct the few mechanical items they needed to link with the local ships. There were over a dozen of the giant warships in orbit, ready to attack anything that came near, along with smaller versions of them, growing to their full size slowly. Other vessels were scout designs, intended to seek out new prey for their larger brethren. They were patrolling the system, making sure it was secure. This base was as well defended as anything else they had.
Which meant it was a pathetic target practice to the Imperial ships bearing down on them.
***
The Violence erupted from hyperspace at the edge of the system. By using their version of hyperspace, instead of the jump type, their travel time had been a matter of minutes, and the massive ship began launching its smaller craft to spread out and destroy anything that got near. He also told four of the gunboats to form jump points and head towards the planet, in case any of the vessels were patrolling there, or tried to escape.
A sensor technician called out the first contact, and two TIE Defenders angled to meet it.
***
The ship was curious about the sudden return it had received on its sensors. There had been no indication of any sort of jump point opening up and a ship arriving; yet here was something. It detected four more jump points opening up, yet it detected four vessels leaving through them. How did they get there? Deciding that this would be unusual, it angled towards the contact, eager to learn more. A sudden movement nearby caught its attention, and it saw-
***
Turbolaser fire erupted from the Defenders, destroying the scout vessel.
***
Captain Beleron watched as his fighters destroyed the scout vessel. It hadn't even had time to send off a message, and he proceeded further in system, eager to get among the other ships there and begin damaging them, to prevent any of them from getting away. There was a possibility of other scouts in the system not being close enough to be targeted, and able to run away, so he ordered a small tachyon stream to be sent away from the homeworld, out into the rest of the system, where other ships could be and would detect it. He also ordered passive sensors to try to find other vessels in-system, so the Defenders could hyper over to them, destroy them, and return. If he could get rid of all their sensor craft, his ship could deal with the forces at the planet easily.
***
Two more scouts detected the stream, and wondered what was causing it. Sending a message to the scout that was in charge of that volume, they awaited a reply. Receiving none after a while, they altered course towards the source, wanting to know more. Their curiosity was suddenly changed, as small fighters suddenly appeared near them, and they also died in seconds.
***
The base intelligence was getting concerned. Three of its scout vessels had failed to respond to the normal querying pulse, and there had been no sign of any recent alerts from them. Since they were distributed all over the system before contact was lost, it was obvious that either this system was under attack by a multi-prong force, or they had found something unusual. Sending out a message for them to respond immediately, it awaited a reply. In case there were other forces moving in, it ordered the other scouts to head towards the planet, to take shelter under the weapons of the larger cruisers.
***
Captain Beleron smiled as the optical sensors reported star occlusion indicating several vessels heading towards the planet. The black vessels were very hard to detect, but when they passed in front of stars, they temporarily blocked them out, and that was enough for the computers to focus on those areas for further attention.
Waiting several minutes as the vessels gathered around the planet, he began setting up his attack. The remaining gunboats would attack the far side of the planet, in case anything was hiding there. His ship would attack the near side, destroying anything it came across. The fighters would split into 2 groups, one going with the gunboats, and one with him, taking care of any fighters that might be launched.
Counting down the seconds, he finally gave the order, "Attack."
***
The base intelligence had gotten more concerned as nothing had been heard from the survey vessels since its message several minutes ago. Its cruisers were gathered close to the planet, and the firepower they wielded meant that nothing that attacked would survive.
And then all hell broke loose.
***
Hypering to less than a thousand miles from the planet, the Violence lived up to its name. Anti-fighter turbolasers, medium and heavy mounts spewed a rain of death upon the living ships gathered near the planet. All but two were destroyed outright by the blasts, and the remaining ones survive only because they had been hit once each by anti-fighter weapons. The gunboats had sped around, and the few ships they found were savagely destroyed. A single ship launched a fighter ball, more out of reflex than of any attempt to attack, yet a medium turbolaser tracked the sphere and destroyed it before the fighters had separated. There was little more than ash left from the single hit.
Turning their attention to the ground base, Captain Beleron ordered a total bombardment of the base, to prevent any message from getting out. If any sort of warning was received from this location, then the other parasites might know that the vessels were destroyed by hostile action. But if nothing at all was received, then they would have to send a ship or two to investigate. Within a matter of seconds, the base had gone from a coordinated effort to get some fighters in the air to a molten ruin. Medium turbolasers, for anti-shipping combat, had yields of over one hundred megaton yields per shot, while the heavy guns were capable of well over fifteen gigatons per shot. Since each turret could fire once every two seconds, the base never had a chance.
The ground below and around the base was devastated by the strike as well. When the medium bolts struck, the ground was forced downwards then made to explode as pieces of a star were briefly slammed into the ground. The ground erupted for miles around, with the material reaching several miles up before finally arcing down again. But where the heavy turbolasers hit, the devastation was total. Each gun had recoil measuring in the gigatons, and that was before the energy from the plasma bolt itself was considered. Some of the fighters in space had to dodge quickly, as mile-wide chunks of rock arced over their heads during the bombardment. Cities around the dead planet trembled, and those within a few thousand miles of the blasts were knocked down by the earthquakes caused by a ravaged world.
Calling in the World Devastator, the debris in orbit and in-system was consumed and filtered, and then the ship began work on the planet below, removing the base first, and then beginning a slow spiral outwards, consuming the material below. The first order of business for the World Devastator was self-reproduction again, and the new one would start heading off to a neutron star. Imperial armor incorporated neutronium in its makeup, and a neutron star was the most reliable source found so far. The existing stores of neutronium were almost used up, and a few days of mining the neutronium would help take care of armor manufacturing needs for several weeks.
Another World Devastator stopped by while this was going on. It had been ordered to a black hole previously, in an attempt to get the hypermatter fuel that was required by all their vessels. A quick fuel-up of the ships brought fuel stocks up, and the vessel switched duties with the one going for planetary consumption. Staring at a black hole and its accretion disk for days on end is not psychologically helpful, so it was necessary to change out crews of the stations in the Empire where the mining operations were performed. Those few who could handle the difference, of total darkness in one point, and the magical splendor outside were few and far between, and usually wound up as poets, artists, philosophers, or guests in psychiatric hospitals.
***
With the expanding scope of Imperial operations here, the fuel runs were becoming more and more often. Filling up the Eclipse's tanks was a priority, as if they had to run, the Eclipse could go anywhere, and not worry about anything engaging it. Its weapons were still being rebuilt, but the ship would only need another five weeks of repair before it was once again fit for duty. The crew would be even made up of droids even more than before, as there simply weren't enough bodies to fill all available positions.
There had been some improvement in that area. Governor Velholm had known that a basic biological law of population growth was the number of women available. As a result, he had ordered the ship's doctors to administer a low level drug into the crew. The result was that the new population of children was over three-quarters female, and the nurseries were already filling up, from the number of people getting married and having children both on board his ships, and at the base. Most of the people that had already been married though, were still waiting, as they still had contact with the Empire (at 2 week intervals, but they still had contact), and were remaining faithful. Several of them though, had managed to come to terms with the fact that they wouldn't be seeing their families for a long while, and had started dating. Some were from planets where polygamous or open marriages were the norm, and had adapted within a matter of days. Others came from worlds where being apart for long times meant that options were open. The final few who were married before had received separation papers from their spouses, and were no longer married. They had wept for a few weeks, while others talked to them, and they finally started talking to others again.
Still, the fact was there that there would be an eighteen year gap in the ages of the next set of Imperial ship crew, until the local populations began to be self-supporting. If they could get a few refugees though, who were fleeing from the Earth government, then they could accelerate their program to establish the Empire here. In order to do that, they would have to increase the friction between parts of the Earth government, while protecting them at the same time.
The easiest way to do that would be heavy raids upon the empires near the Earth space borders, to keep them from getting any ideas. Even better, this could be combined with the earlier plan, of attacking the parasites and their allies. The news reports they were getting told of certain empires on the attack, and achieving astounding victories. Two of them were selected, and Velholm ordered the Eager Fire and 2 World Devastators to proceed to one of their main military depots.
Their orders were to annihilate all defenders, and consume the depot below. The nearest defenders were over a day away, so the World Devastators would have plenty of time to eat.
Seeing them on their way, Governor Velholm had an idea. If everything else started going down the drain, they needed something as a fallback position. He called up a list of the Engineers who had been in charge of the city construction, and began reviewing them. He needed someone who was well balanced in personality, yet was creative and loyal enough to be trusted with prototype construction far from supervision.
Commander Vonoya seemed to be the best candidate, and Governor Velholm began to read the report on her. She had received excellent training in both large-scale construction technologies, and was extremely able to adapt existing designs in her mind, while maintaining their original capabilities. Even better, both her and her crew were well-balanced people, and could handle isolation, strange environments, and unusual orders easily.
Calling her in, Governor Velholm told her of his plan. She would take her World Devastator to the Galactic Core, where neutronium and hypermatter sources would be available, and several systems easily reachable for raw materials. Showing her the plans, he asked how long it would take to build.
"Assuming nothing goes wrong, or delays me, fifteen months. Bear in mind that I will have to cannibalize most of the World Devastators in order to build it, so you won't have that many of them when it is finished. But fifteen months is a solid estimate. I can send monthly status reports if you wish."
Nodding his head, Velholm approved the operation.
***
The Abbai Admiral glanced over her forces. The base they were protecting had over three million tons of war material needed for the fight going on with their neighbors. With their new allies, they were making excellent inroads, but securing the planets conquered required their forces, and this base was critical to supporting them.
Which was why the defense fleet was so heavy. Three orbital bases, several hundred ground-based fighters, and eight cruisers in orbit guarded the base, making sure that nothing hostile got close enough to attack. Even if anything managed to get through the defending fleet, the base was set into a mountain, with over one hundred feet of granite between the supplies and the open air.
Turning to an aide, she was about to ask the progress of the current attack, when she saw a blur of motion outside. That was all she had time for before the ion bolt electrocuted almost everyone on board her ship. The rest of her formation broke up, as individual commanders tried to grapple with the shock of the sudden attack, and the new ship design seen. A few managed to bring their ships around and begin opening fire, but their fire seemed to have no effect on the unknown ship. The base itself tried to set up a communications channel, but a powerful jamming field was preventing all communications from being successful.
***
Captain Beleron watched with glee as the first few salvos blew into the alien ships, crippling them without shattering them into hundreds of pieces that would have to be hunted down. His orders were to destroy the base, but not to leave any remains behind that could be analyzed. As a result, he had ordered his gunners to only use ion turrets to attack the ships, intending to cripple them with each blast. As the shots rang out though, he noticed that it seemed to only take one hit per ship to cripple them.
But another symbol on the tactical view concerned him, and he began passing orders.
***
Wing Leader De'verstok was afraid. She had been expecting a nice and calm patrol route around the base, as any enemy forces were busy engaging their offensive strike groups, when that unusual ship had burst in and started firing. She had watched her display as over half the defending ships were classified as crippled within the first few seconds of the engagement, and knew that this ship would walk all over the base as well. She had ordered her wing to disengage and run, so that they could get through the jump gate and tell anyone what was going on!
They never saw the Defenders pop in right behind them, and destroy every fighter.
***
The rest of the battle was over with very quickly. The defending starships were neutralized in a matter of seconds, and the orbital forts were hit a couple of times as well with ion weapons. The ground base though was launching fighters, until a medium turbolaser blast in the middle of the runway put a stop to them. The fighters would have taken two or three minutes to get into space, but they never reached that altitude. A volley of shots destroyed all of them, and the Star Destroyer called the World Devastators in. It was time to eat.
The deep control centers of the planet were allocated to the World Devastators to unearth and consume, while other surface structures were to be vaporized by the Star Destroyer. Briefly Captain Beleron was tempted to order a Base Delta Zero attack, but he dismissed the idea because he didn't want to reveal too much at once. His mission here was to remove the base, not do planetary sterilization.
The tractor beams of the World Devastators reached out, and the one in space and one above the planet began to feast. Ships, fighters, bases, fortifications, buildings, and people disappeared into their maws without any complaint from them. A couple of ships blew up as they were being eaten, but the explosions barely scratched the paint of the Devastators, and merely broke the larger ships into smaller chunks for easier digestion.
***
The Abbai admiral watched the three ships in horror. The triangle shaped ship was busy bombarding the planet, while the box-shaped ships had separated, with one going to the planet, and the other working its way through her fleet, consuming each ship in turn. She guessed that the other was doing the same to the planet below, and most likely to the supply base. She started thinking about how the loss of the supplies would all but halt the attacks currently going on, and then she started thinking along other lines. Namely what were these strange ships doing here, what did they want, and most importantly, how could they stop them?
But those questions soon became moot, as the World Devastator moved over to her ship and began to feed. Her scream was lost in the tearing metal and escaping atmosphere as her ship was ripped to shreds and taken into the ever-hungry maw of a World Devastator.
***
After twenty hours, the World Devastators had consumed the ships, bases, ground fortifications, and supplies, and the small fleet turned and left. Their job had been done well, and the holds of the Devastators were full again. As they set a course for the Fetoro system, the fighter jocks traded stories, while the engineers on the World Devastators began building the next set of machines that were needed by the small colony.
***
At first, there was no concern by the Abbai military. It was common for communications failure at different times, so a small frigate was sent there to double check. Her captain came through the jump gate normally, and set a course for the planet. When repeated hails got no response, she began to get nervous. When a scanner technician gasped in shock, she asked what was wrong.
"Captain, the base is gone. There are no ships in orbit, no orbital forts, and the base itself seems to be missing."
"What do you mean missing? We had three forts, over half a dozen cruisers, more than a hundred fighters, not to mention the groundside defenses here for protection. The Llort would have required a massive striking force to even attack this place, let alone defeat it."
"Captain I don't know what happened, but I am not reading any sign of orbital material, intact or otherwise. The radar reports from the base don't seem to match up properly either."
"Let's head over there."
When the frigate arrived at the base, and the destruction became obvious, the Captain ordered, "Activate the transmitter. We need to report this in to Fleet Command." After giving the overview of what had been seen and sending it off, she ordered a ground search team to investigate the base, and see what was left. Their report came in a few minutes later. Where the base had been was now a gaping crater. The supplies stored beneath the mountain were gone, along with most of the mountain and the surrounding area. The defense installations at the base were gone as well, and according to some of the investigators, it looked as though they had been ripped out of the ground by force.
***
At the Abbai Fleet Command, there was a lot of concern. Their current military advances required the supplies at the base in order to keep going, but without those supplies they would stall out. But they could salvage something out of the situation, as the Llort forces had not been putting up any sort of defense recently. If they could arrange a peace treaty with the Llort now, accepting peace in exchange for a few of their worlds, they would be better able to find out who did this and take revenge. Sending their suggestion off to the Governmental Hall, they began to perform estimates of how much power was required to pull of an attack like that.
At the government hall, the diplomats argued for continuing the war in spite of the supplies missing, but cooler heads prevailed. If others heard about the base going missing before they released it, then other races might see a chance to attack them. As a result, they ordered a general cease-fire along their front, and offered peace terms to the Llort.
It took the Llort government a few days to deliberate the offer, but the choice from their point of view was clear; continue with the war and get annihilated, or lose two of their worlds and survive a little longer. They sent the reply a couple hours later, accepting the peace treaty.
At the Abbai homeworld, they had been trying to determine what could be done to cover up the massive blow their military had just taken. They finally settled on announcing that with the peace treaty with the Llort, they would be shutting down the base there, and moving the supplies elsewhere. The base would be dismantled, and a small observation base would be built there instead. Although the story was fairly thin, it would explain the far lower military presence there. Even better, the lack of debris would help them, as there would be no evidence of the attack.
One of the staffers though was a Drazi spy, and she had a copy of the original data in her possession. Transferring the data to her Drazi contact, she settled down to wait for the results. Having a leak of that high a level, it would undoubtedly point to a spy in the government, but the Drazi government could always find other ways to put this information to use.