The World Devastators arrived at Fetoro, and spent a few minutes unloading the material in orbit. When their storage centers were empty again, they and the Violence went into hyperdrive, towards their next target. The Brakiri had been enjoying several victories recently, and it was time to clean out another nest of parasite allies.
***
On the way there, they received an important transmission. Dropping out of hyperdrive, the vessels downloaded recent activity in Brakiri space, and Captain Beleron noticed something particularly elegant. A group of parasite warships would be striking a Mentab colony, intending to destroy its orbital assets. A Brakiri heavy strike group would then move in to seize control of the high orbitals, and to take out any possible vessels that might try to escape. After that, a troop convoy would arrive at the planet to conquer it.
The best part was that these vessels were traveling as three separate groups, and none knew the fate of the others until it arrived at the colony. Checking the schedules, Captain Beleron noticed that the parasite warships were currently slightly ahead and to port of his fleet, but in hyperspace. He began plotting a route, to use their hyperdrives to get ahead, open jump points to get ahead of the parasites, then attack and annihilate them.
After that, the heavy assault fleet would be annihilated in deep space as they traveled between two jump gates. To prevent any vessels from getting away, the Star Destroyer would hyper in, while the World Devastators would remain in redspace (his term for the local hyperspace). If the target vessels wanted to stay and fight, he would destroy them. If they tried to run away, the World Devastators would consume them. Either way, those vessels would die.
***
Fleet Captain Valah'to looked over his formation. There were fifteen heavy cruisers arrayed to attack the Mentab colony, but his orders had been a bit confusing. He was to only send in a frigate first, and when it reported all clear he would send the rest of the fleet in. He did not understand what those orders were about, but he was to wait here near the jump gate for the next half hour. After that he would follow his orders to send the frigate.
He watched the minutes pass by slowly, wondering what was going on that would need him to wait the few minutes extra.
***
The vessels poured through space, heading to their target. They did not know why they were to attack this site, or why they should only attack what was above it but not on it, but they did what they were told, and they did it well. There were six of them, and they could annihilate anything in their path. One or two might get injured, but they would destroy whatever tried to harm them.
Suddenly a new type of ship appeared in their path. It was a massive triangular design, with no resemblance to anything seen before by them. They only had time to wonder what it was before the turbolaser bolts crashed into them, destroying all six with a single volley.
***
Captain Beleron watched in satisfaction as the World Devastators formed up on his ship for their transit to the next target zone. His sensor crew had managed to get locks on all six of them, and he had accelerated towards them quickly and fired bolts from his heavy turbolasers. The blasts had vaporized the six ships almost instantly, and there was nothing left in the area to show that the parasites had even been here.
Arriving at the redspace coordinates for the next target zone, he had the Violence and one World Devastator open up a jump point far from their real space target. They would hyper in, and use the ion cannons as before, disabling vessels to prevent any escape. If any did try to escape, the other World Devastator would be waiting in redspace for them.
***
Fleet Captain Valah'to sighed as he gave the order for the frigate to go out. The little vessel sent the code to the jump gate, and moved through it. Its sensors were designed for long-range scanning, and the World Devastator was just close enough for the little vessel to detect its bulk moving in. Ordering a quick 180, the Captain of that vessel sent the codes that would trigger the jump gate to open again, trying to get through before it was spotted.
The World Devastator crew was expecting trouble though, and had begun firing even before the little craft had turned around. Unfortunately, most of the shots missed, and only a couple bolts set to detonate came anywhere close to the frigate. Even so, those bolts melted several hundred square feet of its skin, and the frigate was already leaking atmosphere as it came back through the jump gate, screaming for help.
Fleet Captain Valah'to saw the frigate burst back through, and gasped at the damage that had been delivered to it within the short time frame. It was obvious this rendezvous was a trap, and he began powering up the transmitters to send a message back home. An aide warned of another contact, and he looked at the screen, gasping when the two ships showed up.
***
Captain Beleron smiled at the ships in front of him. They had been alerted at the danger from the Frigate coming through the jump gate, but his Star Destroyer and the World Devastator had attacked from the opposite side. By this time the Devastator in redspace had already launched its drone fighters, ensuring that if any ship tried to escape into hyperspace it would be pounced upon and destroyed. His own fighter pilots had not been getting enough action recently; so he sent them in, with orders to cripple the engines, then enjoy target practice.
***
Valah'to watched as the fighters ripped through his formation, and his ships' codes began to change. Their weapons were still intact, but all of them had taken engine damage, and some had lost way completely. It was astounding, the way the fighters simply aimed at parts of his ships, yet the damage was enough to punch through his heavy armor and damage the engines below. He began barking out orders, getting his ships into a defensive huddle, trying to coordinate enough ships to get a hedgehog formation set up so these strange fighters wouldn't rip his ships apart. Slowly a sphere began to form out of the remnants, and the strange fighters began to settle for picking off the stragglers outside, but being a little more cautious about the sphere formation he had ordered.
The other Captains were pressing him to order a retreat, and some were insisting that if they could get away into hyperspace they could get away from these nightmare vessels, but he overruled them. The other ship seen in hyperspace was undoubtedly waiting for them there, and if they tried to transit, it would destroy each vessel in turn. The only chance they had was if his ship could fire up the transmitters, and send a message to homeworld, telling them to warn off the transports before they went on to their target.
***
Captain Beleron saw the report on the power build-up in one of the vessels, and compared it to the previous comm interceptions. This vessel seemed to be a command ship, and the person over there would be attempting to get a message off, warning his superiors about what was going on, or even providing a visual of what had happened. He couldn't allow that, and he ordered all fighters to destroy that vessel.
***
Valah'to was watching the transmitter reach the power needed when a gasp made him turn. He too paled, as all the fighters had turned around and were headed for his ship. "By Drushalla," he said, as they opened fire upon him. The other ships were taking advantage of the respite to open fire on their own, and a few fighters seemed to spiral off as they were hit, but the remaining fighters bored straight in, and his world vanished in a wave of searing flame, as his ship was vaporized around him.
The other captains saw what had happened, and they began fleeing, those that could opening up jump points to get out of there, while the others simply accelerated as fast as possible, trying to get as far from the killing region as possible. That was what the fighters had been waiting for, and only two ships managed to make it through their jump points, and the drone fighters that had been deployed in hyperspace earlier killed them.
The two World Devastators continued their orders, and slowly consumed the remains of the destroyed vessels, making sure nothing remained of the once-proud task force. They took half an hour to do this, as the time required scanning for the pieces and traveling to them was very annoying. But at the end, their job was complete, and all three vessels returned to the Fetoro system, waiting to get their next orders, and hopefully see the results of their interference.
***
The initial reports slowly started coming in to Babylon 5 as well, and the command staff began relaxing slightly, as two of the races that had been at war with each other offered peace. From a private perspective, those races that had been at war were Shadow backed, so this was probably causing a fit with the Shadows, as they seemed to want the races to fight each other.
A second source of reports began to come in though, from the Ranger agents within the Brakiri, Drazi, and Abbai governments. All of these reports contained additional data, and the 7R groups began to read these with growing horror. Fleets vanishing, defenses vanishing, and millions of tons of supplies vanishing were not something that could be easily explained away.
It was at one of these meetings that Draal made an appearance.
"I know what the reports say Delenn, but it still doesn't seem possible. Over three million tons of supplies simply vanished into thin air in less than two days? The Llort don't have that kind of transport capability, even if they used every ship in their fleet. The Shadows wouldn't have done this, as they and the Abbai are allies."
"True Susan, but the fact remains that the fleets are gone, along with defending forces, the supplies, and most of a mountain as well. It staggers the mind to even try to conceive of what would be required to dig out the material. It would have been easier to simply launch shuttles from the ship and transfer the supplies that way. It would have required less energy, and in case they were interrupted the shuttles could easily launch with the supplies and scatter through the jump gate to avoid capture. But this wasn't a mere raid; it was designed for terror as much as resource gathering."
"That most certainly is true, and what did it frightens me as well," came from a booming voice.
Everyone in the room looked up as a yellow glow formed in the room, and Draal appeared.
"I was watching the base during a calm period, and I was able to watch the entire engagement as it happened. I will show it to you now, so you may know exactly what happened."
With that, Draal disappeared, and a hologram of the Abbai base appeared in his place. They heard his voice explaining what was going on.
"The base is sitting here, complacent, knowing that there is nothing that can strike them without any warning. Unfortunately, they are wrong." Two ships suddenly burst in, a large triangular ship, and a rectangular ship. Their weapons begin firing at the various Abbai ships, and over half of them are crippled in the first salvo. Several gasps are heard throughout the room as readings indicate the power level and characteristics of each bolt.
"The fighters try to engage, except for one group that is either scared or smart. That group decides to run away." Fighters are seen swarming over the two vessels, firing their weapons desperately in an attempt to damage them. No effect is seen, and they are steadily removed from existence. The group that tried to run away is annihilated while this is going on by a group of fighters.
"Hold a moment," says Garibaldi. "Focus in on the fighters." The view pauses for a moment, then shows a close-up of the fighters. The triangular wing system was recognizable easily to everyone there, as they had seen it before.
"In Valen's name, what are those ships?"
"Delenn, I think we all would like to know what those ships are, and who they serve."
"Unfortunately Sheridan, as you will see later, these people don't seem to serve anyone but themselves. But you've seen their ships' firepower. Also, look at the weapons firing. The only weapons firing seem to be ion weapons, not the other weapons that fire plasma packets. Besides, these ships aren't what frightens me. Watch what happens after the defenders are defeated."
The people there watched as the rectangular ship begins to move towards the crippled ships, and another forms a jump point and popped in as well. A gasp was heard as Susan realized the second ship was there to make sure that if a ship entered hyperspace, that vessel would have been attacked. Normally, if you could retreat into hyperspace, you could return to a base for repairs. These beings seemed to have an attitude of when you fight, you fight to the end. But their horror increased as they watched the World Devastator go into action. They knew how much each of those vessels massed, and watching them slowly disappear into the maw of the ship caused their blood to freeze in their veins.
The view shifted to the ground, and the ground defenses were observed firing at the rectangular ship, but slowly silenced by the ion bolts, then vacuumed up by the ship. After consuming all the ground defenses, the fighters, their hangers, and the base, the ship moved over the supply base, and it began to consume the mountain above. The second ship came down a few minutes later, and they began to circle the mountain, consuming the granite above the mountain to get to the supplies below. After a few minutes, the supply base was within view, and the vessels were consuming the fuel canisters, munitions, food, and other items of war as they continued their dance.
When the show finished, everyone in the room was quiet. They had just watched the death of a hundred thousand Abbai troops whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even worse was the way it had been done, with an overwhelming strike to remove any possible communications attempts, then a casual consumption of everything that was remotely useful. A multi-billion-credit base had been consumed the way a person would sit down to a meal, and there was nothing left of it anywhere.
"The other thing I wanted to show you is this." With that, Draal shifted view to show six Shadow cruisers heading towards a Mentab colony. They watched as the triangular ship and one triangular ship suddenly popped in and vaporized all six vessels. Gasps of shock were heard throughout the room as that happened. "As you can see, the main weapons on those warships are quite impressive, both in accuracy, and in sheer firepower. What happens next is quite interesting, to say the least."
The view changed again, showing a massive Brakiri fleet readying for attack. "What the Brakiri military intended was to have the Shadows clear out the dangerous stuff, their assault fleet would come in to deal with the ground defenses, and their troop transports to come in afterwards. As you can see, they already have a problem with the first part. The second part will be having trouble as well.
Even as he said that, the team watched a single frigate pop through the jumpgate, and get fired upon by the World Devastator. It barely managed to get back through the gate again, and most of its hull was showing serious damage. The reaction from the rest of the Brakiri fleet was immediate. The ships began to turn around, pointing their weapons in different directions, trying to shoot before they were shot.
But their preparations were in vain, as the two large ships popped in again, and began launching fighters. The fighters' triangular signatures were familiar to all, and they watched in horror as the fighters massacred the ships, which were firing their weapons desperately in order to try and survive a little longer. Suddenly, all the fighters concentrated on a single ship, and vaporized it with their weapons. The remaining ships suddenly scattered, trying to get to safety before they were destroyed. But it all ended uselessly, as each ship was hunted down and destroyed. The rectangular ships performed their dance again, consuming the pieces of the ships that were left.
When it was finished, Draal appeared again, and spoke. "There is one thing that is even worse than what you saw. The distance between the sites is two hundred light years, yet they were attacked within two days of each other. Even assuming if the ships headed straight between the two sites, that is still traveling at around one hundred light years per day, or over 35,000 times the speed of light. We know that Epsilon is a little over ten light years from Earth, and that a normal freighter takes two weeks to arrive. These ships traveled around ten times as far, in less than a tenth the time. I am sure you can imagine what that sort of speed gives them in the way of strategic capability. Not only that, but also those weapons are powerful enough that I am not certain I could stop them, if they decided to attack. Babylon 5 wouldn't be more than a mosquito to them if they decided to attack.
"The only good news out of this is that both the Abbai and the Brakiri were allied with the Shadows, while the Llort and the Mentab weren't. Not only that, but the destruction of six Shadow vessels will lessen the odds when you have to fight them eventually. Of course, if these newcomers get too dangerous or overwhelming, we may need everyone's help, including the Shadows to even have a chance at fighting them. I am not saying we will win, but we might be able to knock out one or more of their ships."
Marcus piped up at this comment. "One thing we haven't considered yet. How about if we try to ally with these beings?" Waiting for the shouting to go down, and ignoring various comments about where his head was probably located, Marcus continued. "We've seen these vessels in two key modes; defending their territory at Mandelin 4, and attacking Shadow vessels, or vessels of those allied to the Shadows. These beings seem to despise the Shadows as much as we do, but are far more capable of stopping them. Also, think about the speed of those ships; they covered two hundred light years in two days, assuming they took a direct path between the two battle sites. Imagine what that could do for transportation purposes! If every government had a single shuttle capable of those speeds, then they could easily send messages and people quickly from one empire to another.
Garibaldi piped up for a moment, "A few days ago there was a hacking attempt on the computers here. It turned out that a Raider group had managed to acquire a jump-capable ship, and was raiding freighters. However, on its third mission, it didn't return. There was no debris found either, so I assumed that either nothing had happened there, or the story took place somewhere else. But from what it looks like here, the story could have happened, with one of those giant vacuum cleaners simply sucking up all the pieces. I think we better pay close attention to any more stories we get about disappearing ships, as these characters are probably involved. In fact, given the way the Centauri are probably allied with the Shadows, they might be next."
***
He did not know how right he was.
***
For the Imperial fleet had heard about the Narn-Centauri war, and had decided to start whittling down Centauri forces nearby. They would cut off the supplies going to Narn, along with any fresh warships. Any vessels leaving would be allowed, but any vessels heading towards Narn would disappear. Captain Beleron was ordered to return to the base, as his crews had gotten the most action recently, and Captains Morgren and Vestor would be taking over the duties of the interception. Captain Vestor was the replacement for Captain Velholm on the Agatrix, so Captain Morgren was the senior of the two. Two of the World Devastators were also detached to consume any vessels that were attacked.
They decided the first order of business would be to reduce the number of defending warships around Narn space, and they divided up the area. They also selected a number of different tactics to use, to make it look like a large number of attackers were operating, instead of only two ships. Finally, they began to deploy probe droids near certain jump gates, with orders to send a pulse when ships came through the jump gates. They were not to transmit when ships came from deep space, to prevent themselves from being spotted, and because the ships coming in that way would be leaving Narn space, and were not the proper targets.
It took them several hours to get the probe droids to the proper locations, and they began to wait in their web, waiting to see what vessels first appeared in their trap. A few freighters came by, but they were waiting for big game, and they wanted warships.
They finally got their desire. Two attack cruisers were patrolling a region, apparently hunting for any renegade Narn warships. They were in the Agatrix's territory, and Captain Vestor jumped to near them, to see what else might be nearby to prevent being spotted. Seeing nothing that might concern him, he launched fighters, with orders to destroy both vessels.
***
Captain Felas reclined as he sipped the brevari with his meal. The wine went down well, and he enjoyed the flavor almost as much as he enjoyed his command. The attack cruiser was one of the fastest and most versatile vessels in the Centauri Navy, both highly maneuverable, and heavily armed. Others might want an Octurian battlecruiser for sheer firepower, but he preferred the grace and agility of the cruiser, using it as a fencing master would use the blade to maneuver around his opponent to weaken them before delivering the killing blow. His latest assignment was not quite enough to dampen his mood, but hunting Narn renegades would be an excellent way to get his crew into proper shape before heading out against the other races that they were at war with. Idly he glanced out the window to the rear of the ship, and watched the stars recede. Idly he looked at the colors, naming them by their types; red dwarfs, blue supergiants, white stars, green-
Wait, he didn't know any stars that were green. Not only that, but these stars appeared to be getting closer-
***
The turbolaser bolts slammed into the rears of the two ships, crippling their engines, and causing the blades along the rear to actually separate from the ships. Damage control alarms screamed, and crewmembers throughout the ships scrambled to their stations, reacting as they had been trained despite the shudders running through the ship.
***
The fighters came back around for another pass, and the crewmembers barely had time to scream as they were fired upon and destroyed by the vessels. They never knew who had done it, but the only group that they could think of at that moment was Narns.
***
Captain Vestor smiled as the fighters returned safely to the hangar. With the level of superiority they enjoyed over local forces, it was getting to almost be a game against the local ships. Several Senior Flight Leaders were actually giving demerits if the pilots came back with less than 100% accuracy records, as measured by their gun cameras. Of course, the excuse of the target already being destroyed was getting more and more common, but the point was being made. Since they didn't have any opponents of their own caliber to fight against, they had to maintain higher standards against opponents that did exist.
Vestor began to make proposals for when he returned, with more training flights between the fighter squadrons to keep his people sharp. If they could practice against fellow imperial pilots, that would work far better to keep their skills sharp and accuracy high than mere target practice against the local vessels and fighters.
Over the next few days, the two Star Destroyers racked up an impressive list of kills, with several parasites detected and destroyed, along with eight battlecruisers, and twenty attack cruisers destroyed. The number of fighters destroyed was well over two hundred, as the count wasn't exact due to some of the ships having less than full fighter loads when they were destroyed.
After the first three days, it was obvious that their presence had caused a reaction, because the two of them had worked together to devastate a small fleet of six battlecruisers, and twelve attack cruisers, which had over fifty fighters flying patrols around it. They had managed the task by catching the force between two jump gates, and hypering into the middle of the formation. They had commenced heavy jamming and opened fire in every direction, destroying over half the vessels in the opening salvo. As the sensors began to track the remaining vessels, the guns were salvoed, and the last ships were destroyed. There had been a few fighters who had pleaded for surrender, but the policy of 'no witnesses, no evidence' required that they too be consumed by the World Devastator.
Listening ships began to report greater numbers of riots breaking out on Narn, and the Centauri garrison was calling for more supplies to put the Narn back in their place. Various replies were received, but the general message being sent was that their supply ships were having trouble getting through due to Narn rebels destroying the ships. The Imperials knew exactly why the supplies weren't getting through, and they chuckled at the amount of turnover the Centauri Royal Court must be going through right now. Not to mention the amount of stress the Centauri troops on Narn must be going through, with the lack of supplies starting to take effect, as food, replacement parts, and other items getting into short supply.
It was obvious that something very selective was going on in the region surrounding Narn, as the Imperial forces had let ships out of the selected space, and even transport ships that were only one quarter full were being allowed in as well. But any warships, or transport ships more than a quarter full, were simply disappearing in space. There had even been an attempt by a few parasites to get through, but they had been annihilated as well.
***
Lord Refa paced in his quarters. He had been demanding regular reports from the Minister of War about the situation around Narn, and the recent reports were getting far worse. Two weeks ago, the occupation and cleansing of Narn was going on schedule, when suddenly ships began disappearing. He had figured it had been renegade Narn warships, and had dispatched several battlecruisers to deal with them. When the battlecruisers had disappeared as well, he had ordered the formation of a large fleet to hunt down the renegades. It had stripped several ships from the borders of the other races they were at war with, causing them to slow down their campaign until the fleet's return.
A knock at the door caught his attention. Telling the person to enter, he received the message. Reading quickly, his eyes grew wider, as the paper listed the loss of contact with the large fleet, and the pattern observed so far in the disappearances. Thinking quickly, he realized they would have to quadruple the number of freighters heading to Narn in order to keep the garrison supplied, and that was assuming that the ships with 1/4 full holds didn't start disappearing.
Moving over to an aide, he began organizing a few transports to carry critical supplies to the garrison on Narn. He knew that ships with full loads would not get through, based on the pattern, so he was allocating the supplies among five transports, and each was only twenty percent full. Hopefully, those ships would get through. They needed to.
Thinking further, he added another set of orders. Narns that were deemed too dangerous to stay on their homeworld would be shipped off-planet. This would ease two problems. First, the garrison on-planet would have an easier time, and second, it would move cheap labor to worlds that needed it in Centauri space.
***
At the next Imperial update, Governor Velholm received the latest campaign from Emperor Solo. With the news about their fleet being stuck on the other side of a wormhole, the Senate chamber had gone in an uproar. There had been some who had proclaimed that adventurism shouldn't be attempted any more, others who wanted to demand further investigations into military activities, but Emperor Solo had silenced them.
He had simply asked them, "Are you willing to leave them out there? We have learned so much in our history, how to travel across the galaxy in less than a week, how to open and stabilize wormholes, among many things. Why can't we use our knowledge to bring our warriors home?"
The other delegates had been quiet at the questions, but others had seized upon the idea. Some of them had an interest in the research budgets that would get enhanced by the project, but others had respected the simple idea of bringing their lost warriors home, to their families and loved ones.
As a result, the Senate had managed to come together not because of fear, but because of desire. The planets and systems in the galaxy were slowly dropping their barriers, each cooperating with the others to avoid duplicating research in an attempt to get the wormhole open. The systems that had strongly preferred their own individuality were starting to be frowned upon, and others that had been crying for greater communications between planets were being hailed as visionaries.
Captain Velholm would have applauded the effort because it stemmed from loyalty to comrades in arms, but Governor Velholm saw another side to it. Emperor Solo had managed to get an idea into the senators' heads that they could accept in order to create a centralized government. He was using the separation of the forces in order to unify the galaxy, and this method was working far better than fear ever had, because the different races were wanting to help, instead of being told to cooperate.
Teleso had also received a message, including a large chunk of data, and she had retired to her quarters to review the data. She was sure this data was based on her request for extra knowledge from the new Force archives. Since most of the old holocrons had been destroyed during the civil war, the new Force warriors were busy experimenting, and learning as much as they could. The original Jedi class, with Luke Skywalker and the other senior Jedis were teaching at the Academy. At first they had been horrified at the thought of teaching Sith techniques to the pupils, but Anakin had told Luke that if he wanted to make sure the pupils used the Force properly, then the best way would be to become a teacher as well.
Other Imperial personnel received letters from home and family, and they related what they were doing in the new galaxy. Of course, due to their location and activities, Imperial censor programs advised them how to edit their transmissions, but the letters stayed mostly intact.
***
On the way there, they received an important transmission. Dropping out of hyperdrive, the vessels downloaded recent activity in Brakiri space, and Captain Beleron noticed something particularly elegant. A group of parasite warships would be striking a Mentab colony, intending to destroy its orbital assets. A Brakiri heavy strike group would then move in to seize control of the high orbitals, and to take out any possible vessels that might try to escape. After that, a troop convoy would arrive at the planet to conquer it.
The best part was that these vessels were traveling as three separate groups, and none knew the fate of the others until it arrived at the colony. Checking the schedules, Captain Beleron noticed that the parasite warships were currently slightly ahead and to port of his fleet, but in hyperspace. He began plotting a route, to use their hyperdrives to get ahead, open jump points to get ahead of the parasites, then attack and annihilate them.
After that, the heavy assault fleet would be annihilated in deep space as they traveled between two jump gates. To prevent any vessels from getting away, the Star Destroyer would hyper in, while the World Devastators would remain in redspace (his term for the local hyperspace). If the target vessels wanted to stay and fight, he would destroy them. If they tried to run away, the World Devastators would consume them. Either way, those vessels would die.
***
Fleet Captain Valah'to looked over his formation. There were fifteen heavy cruisers arrayed to attack the Mentab colony, but his orders had been a bit confusing. He was to only send in a frigate first, and when it reported all clear he would send the rest of the fleet in. He did not understand what those orders were about, but he was to wait here near the jump gate for the next half hour. After that he would follow his orders to send the frigate.
He watched the minutes pass by slowly, wondering what was going on that would need him to wait the few minutes extra.
***
The vessels poured through space, heading to their target. They did not know why they were to attack this site, or why they should only attack what was above it but not on it, but they did what they were told, and they did it well. There were six of them, and they could annihilate anything in their path. One or two might get injured, but they would destroy whatever tried to harm them.
Suddenly a new type of ship appeared in their path. It was a massive triangular design, with no resemblance to anything seen before by them. They only had time to wonder what it was before the turbolaser bolts crashed into them, destroying all six with a single volley.
***
Captain Beleron watched in satisfaction as the World Devastators formed up on his ship for their transit to the next target zone. His sensor crew had managed to get locks on all six of them, and he had accelerated towards them quickly and fired bolts from his heavy turbolasers. The blasts had vaporized the six ships almost instantly, and there was nothing left in the area to show that the parasites had even been here.
Arriving at the redspace coordinates for the next target zone, he had the Violence and one World Devastator open up a jump point far from their real space target. They would hyper in, and use the ion cannons as before, disabling vessels to prevent any escape. If any did try to escape, the other World Devastator would be waiting in redspace for them.
***
Fleet Captain Valah'to sighed as he gave the order for the frigate to go out. The little vessel sent the code to the jump gate, and moved through it. Its sensors were designed for long-range scanning, and the World Devastator was just close enough for the little vessel to detect its bulk moving in. Ordering a quick 180, the Captain of that vessel sent the codes that would trigger the jump gate to open again, trying to get through before it was spotted.
The World Devastator crew was expecting trouble though, and had begun firing even before the little craft had turned around. Unfortunately, most of the shots missed, and only a couple bolts set to detonate came anywhere close to the frigate. Even so, those bolts melted several hundred square feet of its skin, and the frigate was already leaking atmosphere as it came back through the jump gate, screaming for help.
Fleet Captain Valah'to saw the frigate burst back through, and gasped at the damage that had been delivered to it within the short time frame. It was obvious this rendezvous was a trap, and he began powering up the transmitters to send a message back home. An aide warned of another contact, and he looked at the screen, gasping when the two ships showed up.
***
Captain Beleron smiled at the ships in front of him. They had been alerted at the danger from the Frigate coming through the jump gate, but his Star Destroyer and the World Devastator had attacked from the opposite side. By this time the Devastator in redspace had already launched its drone fighters, ensuring that if any ship tried to escape into hyperspace it would be pounced upon and destroyed. His own fighter pilots had not been getting enough action recently; so he sent them in, with orders to cripple the engines, then enjoy target practice.
***
Valah'to watched as the fighters ripped through his formation, and his ships' codes began to change. Their weapons were still intact, but all of them had taken engine damage, and some had lost way completely. It was astounding, the way the fighters simply aimed at parts of his ships, yet the damage was enough to punch through his heavy armor and damage the engines below. He began barking out orders, getting his ships into a defensive huddle, trying to coordinate enough ships to get a hedgehog formation set up so these strange fighters wouldn't rip his ships apart. Slowly a sphere began to form out of the remnants, and the strange fighters began to settle for picking off the stragglers outside, but being a little more cautious about the sphere formation he had ordered.
The other Captains were pressing him to order a retreat, and some were insisting that if they could get away into hyperspace they could get away from these nightmare vessels, but he overruled them. The other ship seen in hyperspace was undoubtedly waiting for them there, and if they tried to transit, it would destroy each vessel in turn. The only chance they had was if his ship could fire up the transmitters, and send a message to homeworld, telling them to warn off the transports before they went on to their target.
***
Captain Beleron saw the report on the power build-up in one of the vessels, and compared it to the previous comm interceptions. This vessel seemed to be a command ship, and the person over there would be attempting to get a message off, warning his superiors about what was going on, or even providing a visual of what had happened. He couldn't allow that, and he ordered all fighters to destroy that vessel.
***
Valah'to was watching the transmitter reach the power needed when a gasp made him turn. He too paled, as all the fighters had turned around and were headed for his ship. "By Drushalla," he said, as they opened fire upon him. The other ships were taking advantage of the respite to open fire on their own, and a few fighters seemed to spiral off as they were hit, but the remaining fighters bored straight in, and his world vanished in a wave of searing flame, as his ship was vaporized around him.
The other captains saw what had happened, and they began fleeing, those that could opening up jump points to get out of there, while the others simply accelerated as fast as possible, trying to get as far from the killing region as possible. That was what the fighters had been waiting for, and only two ships managed to make it through their jump points, and the drone fighters that had been deployed in hyperspace earlier killed them.
The two World Devastators continued their orders, and slowly consumed the remains of the destroyed vessels, making sure nothing remained of the once-proud task force. They took half an hour to do this, as the time required scanning for the pieces and traveling to them was very annoying. But at the end, their job was complete, and all three vessels returned to the Fetoro system, waiting to get their next orders, and hopefully see the results of their interference.
***
The initial reports slowly started coming in to Babylon 5 as well, and the command staff began relaxing slightly, as two of the races that had been at war with each other offered peace. From a private perspective, those races that had been at war were Shadow backed, so this was probably causing a fit with the Shadows, as they seemed to want the races to fight each other.
A second source of reports began to come in though, from the Ranger agents within the Brakiri, Drazi, and Abbai governments. All of these reports contained additional data, and the 7R groups began to read these with growing horror. Fleets vanishing, defenses vanishing, and millions of tons of supplies vanishing were not something that could be easily explained away.
It was at one of these meetings that Draal made an appearance.
"I know what the reports say Delenn, but it still doesn't seem possible. Over three million tons of supplies simply vanished into thin air in less than two days? The Llort don't have that kind of transport capability, even if they used every ship in their fleet. The Shadows wouldn't have done this, as they and the Abbai are allies."
"True Susan, but the fact remains that the fleets are gone, along with defending forces, the supplies, and most of a mountain as well. It staggers the mind to even try to conceive of what would be required to dig out the material. It would have been easier to simply launch shuttles from the ship and transfer the supplies that way. It would have required less energy, and in case they were interrupted the shuttles could easily launch with the supplies and scatter through the jump gate to avoid capture. But this wasn't a mere raid; it was designed for terror as much as resource gathering."
"That most certainly is true, and what did it frightens me as well," came from a booming voice.
Everyone in the room looked up as a yellow glow formed in the room, and Draal appeared.
"I was watching the base during a calm period, and I was able to watch the entire engagement as it happened. I will show it to you now, so you may know exactly what happened."
With that, Draal disappeared, and a hologram of the Abbai base appeared in his place. They heard his voice explaining what was going on.
"The base is sitting here, complacent, knowing that there is nothing that can strike them without any warning. Unfortunately, they are wrong." Two ships suddenly burst in, a large triangular ship, and a rectangular ship. Their weapons begin firing at the various Abbai ships, and over half of them are crippled in the first salvo. Several gasps are heard throughout the room as readings indicate the power level and characteristics of each bolt.
"The fighters try to engage, except for one group that is either scared or smart. That group decides to run away." Fighters are seen swarming over the two vessels, firing their weapons desperately in an attempt to damage them. No effect is seen, and they are steadily removed from existence. The group that tried to run away is annihilated while this is going on by a group of fighters.
"Hold a moment," says Garibaldi. "Focus in on the fighters." The view pauses for a moment, then shows a close-up of the fighters. The triangular wing system was recognizable easily to everyone there, as they had seen it before.
"In Valen's name, what are those ships?"
"Delenn, I think we all would like to know what those ships are, and who they serve."
"Unfortunately Sheridan, as you will see later, these people don't seem to serve anyone but themselves. But you've seen their ships' firepower. Also, look at the weapons firing. The only weapons firing seem to be ion weapons, not the other weapons that fire plasma packets. Besides, these ships aren't what frightens me. Watch what happens after the defenders are defeated."
The people there watched as the rectangular ship begins to move towards the crippled ships, and another forms a jump point and popped in as well. A gasp was heard as Susan realized the second ship was there to make sure that if a ship entered hyperspace, that vessel would have been attacked. Normally, if you could retreat into hyperspace, you could return to a base for repairs. These beings seemed to have an attitude of when you fight, you fight to the end. But their horror increased as they watched the World Devastator go into action. They knew how much each of those vessels massed, and watching them slowly disappear into the maw of the ship caused their blood to freeze in their veins.
The view shifted to the ground, and the ground defenses were observed firing at the rectangular ship, but slowly silenced by the ion bolts, then vacuumed up by the ship. After consuming all the ground defenses, the fighters, their hangers, and the base, the ship moved over the supply base, and it began to consume the mountain above. The second ship came down a few minutes later, and they began to circle the mountain, consuming the granite above the mountain to get to the supplies below. After a few minutes, the supply base was within view, and the vessels were consuming the fuel canisters, munitions, food, and other items of war as they continued their dance.
When the show finished, everyone in the room was quiet. They had just watched the death of a hundred thousand Abbai troops whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even worse was the way it had been done, with an overwhelming strike to remove any possible communications attempts, then a casual consumption of everything that was remotely useful. A multi-billion-credit base had been consumed the way a person would sit down to a meal, and there was nothing left of it anywhere.
"The other thing I wanted to show you is this." With that, Draal shifted view to show six Shadow cruisers heading towards a Mentab colony. They watched as the triangular ship and one triangular ship suddenly popped in and vaporized all six vessels. Gasps of shock were heard throughout the room as that happened. "As you can see, the main weapons on those warships are quite impressive, both in accuracy, and in sheer firepower. What happens next is quite interesting, to say the least."
The view changed again, showing a massive Brakiri fleet readying for attack. "What the Brakiri military intended was to have the Shadows clear out the dangerous stuff, their assault fleet would come in to deal with the ground defenses, and their troop transports to come in afterwards. As you can see, they already have a problem with the first part. The second part will be having trouble as well.
Even as he said that, the team watched a single frigate pop through the jumpgate, and get fired upon by the World Devastator. It barely managed to get back through the gate again, and most of its hull was showing serious damage. The reaction from the rest of the Brakiri fleet was immediate. The ships began to turn around, pointing their weapons in different directions, trying to shoot before they were shot.
But their preparations were in vain, as the two large ships popped in again, and began launching fighters. The fighters' triangular signatures were familiar to all, and they watched in horror as the fighters massacred the ships, which were firing their weapons desperately in order to try and survive a little longer. Suddenly, all the fighters concentrated on a single ship, and vaporized it with their weapons. The remaining ships suddenly scattered, trying to get to safety before they were destroyed. But it all ended uselessly, as each ship was hunted down and destroyed. The rectangular ships performed their dance again, consuming the pieces of the ships that were left.
When it was finished, Draal appeared again, and spoke. "There is one thing that is even worse than what you saw. The distance between the sites is two hundred light years, yet they were attacked within two days of each other. Even assuming if the ships headed straight between the two sites, that is still traveling at around one hundred light years per day, or over 35,000 times the speed of light. We know that Epsilon is a little over ten light years from Earth, and that a normal freighter takes two weeks to arrive. These ships traveled around ten times as far, in less than a tenth the time. I am sure you can imagine what that sort of speed gives them in the way of strategic capability. Not only that, but also those weapons are powerful enough that I am not certain I could stop them, if they decided to attack. Babylon 5 wouldn't be more than a mosquito to them if they decided to attack.
"The only good news out of this is that both the Abbai and the Brakiri were allied with the Shadows, while the Llort and the Mentab weren't. Not only that, but the destruction of six Shadow vessels will lessen the odds when you have to fight them eventually. Of course, if these newcomers get too dangerous or overwhelming, we may need everyone's help, including the Shadows to even have a chance at fighting them. I am not saying we will win, but we might be able to knock out one or more of their ships."
Marcus piped up at this comment. "One thing we haven't considered yet. How about if we try to ally with these beings?" Waiting for the shouting to go down, and ignoring various comments about where his head was probably located, Marcus continued. "We've seen these vessels in two key modes; defending their territory at Mandelin 4, and attacking Shadow vessels, or vessels of those allied to the Shadows. These beings seem to despise the Shadows as much as we do, but are far more capable of stopping them. Also, think about the speed of those ships; they covered two hundred light years in two days, assuming they took a direct path between the two battle sites. Imagine what that could do for transportation purposes! If every government had a single shuttle capable of those speeds, then they could easily send messages and people quickly from one empire to another.
Garibaldi piped up for a moment, "A few days ago there was a hacking attempt on the computers here. It turned out that a Raider group had managed to acquire a jump-capable ship, and was raiding freighters. However, on its third mission, it didn't return. There was no debris found either, so I assumed that either nothing had happened there, or the story took place somewhere else. But from what it looks like here, the story could have happened, with one of those giant vacuum cleaners simply sucking up all the pieces. I think we better pay close attention to any more stories we get about disappearing ships, as these characters are probably involved. In fact, given the way the Centauri are probably allied with the Shadows, they might be next."
***
He did not know how right he was.
***
For the Imperial fleet had heard about the Narn-Centauri war, and had decided to start whittling down Centauri forces nearby. They would cut off the supplies going to Narn, along with any fresh warships. Any vessels leaving would be allowed, but any vessels heading towards Narn would disappear. Captain Beleron was ordered to return to the base, as his crews had gotten the most action recently, and Captains Morgren and Vestor would be taking over the duties of the interception. Captain Vestor was the replacement for Captain Velholm on the Agatrix, so Captain Morgren was the senior of the two. Two of the World Devastators were also detached to consume any vessels that were attacked.
They decided the first order of business would be to reduce the number of defending warships around Narn space, and they divided up the area. They also selected a number of different tactics to use, to make it look like a large number of attackers were operating, instead of only two ships. Finally, they began to deploy probe droids near certain jump gates, with orders to send a pulse when ships came through the jump gates. They were not to transmit when ships came from deep space, to prevent themselves from being spotted, and because the ships coming in that way would be leaving Narn space, and were not the proper targets.
It took them several hours to get the probe droids to the proper locations, and they began to wait in their web, waiting to see what vessels first appeared in their trap. A few freighters came by, but they were waiting for big game, and they wanted warships.
They finally got their desire. Two attack cruisers were patrolling a region, apparently hunting for any renegade Narn warships. They were in the Agatrix's territory, and Captain Vestor jumped to near them, to see what else might be nearby to prevent being spotted. Seeing nothing that might concern him, he launched fighters, with orders to destroy both vessels.
***
Captain Felas reclined as he sipped the brevari with his meal. The wine went down well, and he enjoyed the flavor almost as much as he enjoyed his command. The attack cruiser was one of the fastest and most versatile vessels in the Centauri Navy, both highly maneuverable, and heavily armed. Others might want an Octurian battlecruiser for sheer firepower, but he preferred the grace and agility of the cruiser, using it as a fencing master would use the blade to maneuver around his opponent to weaken them before delivering the killing blow. His latest assignment was not quite enough to dampen his mood, but hunting Narn renegades would be an excellent way to get his crew into proper shape before heading out against the other races that they were at war with. Idly he glanced out the window to the rear of the ship, and watched the stars recede. Idly he looked at the colors, naming them by their types; red dwarfs, blue supergiants, white stars, green-
Wait, he didn't know any stars that were green. Not only that, but these stars appeared to be getting closer-
***
The turbolaser bolts slammed into the rears of the two ships, crippling their engines, and causing the blades along the rear to actually separate from the ships. Damage control alarms screamed, and crewmembers throughout the ships scrambled to their stations, reacting as they had been trained despite the shudders running through the ship.
***
The fighters came back around for another pass, and the crewmembers barely had time to scream as they were fired upon and destroyed by the vessels. They never knew who had done it, but the only group that they could think of at that moment was Narns.
***
Captain Vestor smiled as the fighters returned safely to the hangar. With the level of superiority they enjoyed over local forces, it was getting to almost be a game against the local ships. Several Senior Flight Leaders were actually giving demerits if the pilots came back with less than 100% accuracy records, as measured by their gun cameras. Of course, the excuse of the target already being destroyed was getting more and more common, but the point was being made. Since they didn't have any opponents of their own caliber to fight against, they had to maintain higher standards against opponents that did exist.
Vestor began to make proposals for when he returned, with more training flights between the fighter squadrons to keep his people sharp. If they could practice against fellow imperial pilots, that would work far better to keep their skills sharp and accuracy high than mere target practice against the local vessels and fighters.
Over the next few days, the two Star Destroyers racked up an impressive list of kills, with several parasites detected and destroyed, along with eight battlecruisers, and twenty attack cruisers destroyed. The number of fighters destroyed was well over two hundred, as the count wasn't exact due to some of the ships having less than full fighter loads when they were destroyed.
After the first three days, it was obvious that their presence had caused a reaction, because the two of them had worked together to devastate a small fleet of six battlecruisers, and twelve attack cruisers, which had over fifty fighters flying patrols around it. They had managed the task by catching the force between two jump gates, and hypering into the middle of the formation. They had commenced heavy jamming and opened fire in every direction, destroying over half the vessels in the opening salvo. As the sensors began to track the remaining vessels, the guns were salvoed, and the last ships were destroyed. There had been a few fighters who had pleaded for surrender, but the policy of 'no witnesses, no evidence' required that they too be consumed by the World Devastator.
Listening ships began to report greater numbers of riots breaking out on Narn, and the Centauri garrison was calling for more supplies to put the Narn back in their place. Various replies were received, but the general message being sent was that their supply ships were having trouble getting through due to Narn rebels destroying the ships. The Imperials knew exactly why the supplies weren't getting through, and they chuckled at the amount of turnover the Centauri Royal Court must be going through right now. Not to mention the amount of stress the Centauri troops on Narn must be going through, with the lack of supplies starting to take effect, as food, replacement parts, and other items getting into short supply.
It was obvious that something very selective was going on in the region surrounding Narn, as the Imperial forces had let ships out of the selected space, and even transport ships that were only one quarter full were being allowed in as well. But any warships, or transport ships more than a quarter full, were simply disappearing in space. There had even been an attempt by a few parasites to get through, but they had been annihilated as well.
***
Lord Refa paced in his quarters. He had been demanding regular reports from the Minister of War about the situation around Narn, and the recent reports were getting far worse. Two weeks ago, the occupation and cleansing of Narn was going on schedule, when suddenly ships began disappearing. He had figured it had been renegade Narn warships, and had dispatched several battlecruisers to deal with them. When the battlecruisers had disappeared as well, he had ordered the formation of a large fleet to hunt down the renegades. It had stripped several ships from the borders of the other races they were at war with, causing them to slow down their campaign until the fleet's return.
A knock at the door caught his attention. Telling the person to enter, he received the message. Reading quickly, his eyes grew wider, as the paper listed the loss of contact with the large fleet, and the pattern observed so far in the disappearances. Thinking quickly, he realized they would have to quadruple the number of freighters heading to Narn in order to keep the garrison supplied, and that was assuming that the ships with 1/4 full holds didn't start disappearing.
Moving over to an aide, he began organizing a few transports to carry critical supplies to the garrison on Narn. He knew that ships with full loads would not get through, based on the pattern, so he was allocating the supplies among five transports, and each was only twenty percent full. Hopefully, those ships would get through. They needed to.
Thinking further, he added another set of orders. Narns that were deemed too dangerous to stay on their homeworld would be shipped off-planet. This would ease two problems. First, the garrison on-planet would have an easier time, and second, it would move cheap labor to worlds that needed it in Centauri space.
***
At the next Imperial update, Governor Velholm received the latest campaign from Emperor Solo. With the news about their fleet being stuck on the other side of a wormhole, the Senate chamber had gone in an uproar. There had been some who had proclaimed that adventurism shouldn't be attempted any more, others who wanted to demand further investigations into military activities, but Emperor Solo had silenced them.
He had simply asked them, "Are you willing to leave them out there? We have learned so much in our history, how to travel across the galaxy in less than a week, how to open and stabilize wormholes, among many things. Why can't we use our knowledge to bring our warriors home?"
The other delegates had been quiet at the questions, but others had seized upon the idea. Some of them had an interest in the research budgets that would get enhanced by the project, but others had respected the simple idea of bringing their lost warriors home, to their families and loved ones.
As a result, the Senate had managed to come together not because of fear, but because of desire. The planets and systems in the galaxy were slowly dropping their barriers, each cooperating with the others to avoid duplicating research in an attempt to get the wormhole open. The systems that had strongly preferred their own individuality were starting to be frowned upon, and others that had been crying for greater communications between planets were being hailed as visionaries.
Captain Velholm would have applauded the effort because it stemmed from loyalty to comrades in arms, but Governor Velholm saw another side to it. Emperor Solo had managed to get an idea into the senators' heads that they could accept in order to create a centralized government. He was using the separation of the forces in order to unify the galaxy, and this method was working far better than fear ever had, because the different races were wanting to help, instead of being told to cooperate.
Teleso had also received a message, including a large chunk of data, and she had retired to her quarters to review the data. She was sure this data was based on her request for extra knowledge from the new Force archives. Since most of the old holocrons had been destroyed during the civil war, the new Force warriors were busy experimenting, and learning as much as they could. The original Jedi class, with Luke Skywalker and the other senior Jedis were teaching at the Academy. At first they had been horrified at the thought of teaching Sith techniques to the pupils, but Anakin had told Luke that if he wanted to make sure the pupils used the Force properly, then the best way would be to become a teacher as well.
Other Imperial personnel received letters from home and family, and they related what they were doing in the new galaxy. Of course, due to their location and activities, Imperial censor programs advised them how to edit their transmissions, but the letters stayed mostly intact.