Chapter Eighteen
"And So It Begins"
Centauri Primus-class Command ship Emperor's Delight:
Captain Tanito Konto, Fleet Commander of the famed Centauri Imperial fleet, stepped to the front of the magnificent view-plate of the Emperor's Delight and smiled for what seemed the first time in days. In front of him were stars again and he reveled in the sight, since he and his fleet had been laying-in-wait in hyperspace for days on end waiting for this exact moment to strike. His was one of several fleets positioned in various sectors to begin what the Emperor called 'the Great Adventure'. The Centauri presence was about spread, significantly, the days of long past and of half-remembered glory would now sweep back once more. His target was small, almost insignificant, but still vital to Centauri interest. The idea of actually teleporting from one point to another was indeed intriguing but it was a shame that he was going to have to run over Babylon Five in order to get the technology. If the aliens should have simply shared, this distasteful affair would not have to take place.
Personally he had no animosity towards the Human-built space station and in fact he actually liked Humans as a whole. True, they were relatively uncouth and had a tendency to border towards arrogance at any given moment, but they did learn from their mistakes. Also they weren't Narns, the blood enemy of his people. For that species he had no love for whatsoever, and had taken great delight in bombing them back into the Stone Age as the Humans so quaintly put it. Even the name Narn disgusted him. As commander of the assault fleet that attacked the defenseless Narn home world, he had personally ordered the slaughter of millions of them and had felt nothing in return. His opinion of them was simple. They were little better than animals that had stolen their technology to get into space.
The Narn heavy cruisers were a joke and hundreds of their ships went down into vacuum almost as easily as their home world had. Now that war was over, the Narn subdued, but the Emperor's blood lust, his desire for conquest was not yet satisfied. There were several small conflicts going on with the non-aligned worlds, not a sufficient challenge for Konto's taste, but here, it promised to be different.
Babylon-Five would be a nice test for his fleet. It had survived several conflicts of its own and had come thru quite nicely. But, it was still Human-based technology and therefore inferior to the Centauri's who had been in space for almost a thousand years. By defeating the station, he would gain valuable data on the capabilities of Earth weaponry and tactics because sooner or later he knew that EarthGov would oppose them and when that happened he planned to threat that new enemy like the Narn-unless they surrendered first.
He didn't expect that to happen.
But his orders were also clear. Do not fire on B5 unless they initiate hostilities first and in that eventuality he was to destroy the station utterly. It would be a waste but he had his orders from Cartagia himself. On the other hand, these Klingons and their vessel were to be escorted to he home world, to be stripped, dissected, analyzed and its technology to be incorporated into the Empire. If one day their friends decided to come looking for them… Well, the Centauri would be ready for them. They were getting stronger everyday.
True, they may have been a power to reckon with in their area of space, but here, they were one lonely vessel. With his overwhelming force, that shouldn't be a problem unless B5 and the Federation ships interfered which was exactly what they seemed prepared to do. Why they would sacrifice themselves for one ship was bizarre and foolish. But then Earth people seemed very foolish in that aspect.
Why Earth colonists had designed those ships that way was a mystery to him. And that was another point that perplexed him. The Earth Federation ships seemed a bizarre combination of pieces stuck together by some obviously drunken designer. There were far too many windows, suggesting in some way that these vessels had been retrofitted. Foolish in the extreme was the general opinion that echoed across the bridge. In fact the bridge crew seemed to be having trouble finding the weapons ports on those ships and-
-And what? Shuttles? Were they that desperate? He resisted an urge to laugh. Where were their fighters or were they so poor that they didn't have any? Certainly the size of their so-called capital ships would indicate that assumption. Overall barely a third the size of his command ship, the two ships seemed to be more along the lines of luxury liners rather than warships.
But then there was the Klingon ship. Now there was an image of a warship! Designed to mimic some type of flying hunter, it looked dangerous. A fact, he appreciated because his fighters also mimicked those fearsome birds of prey. Even the Vorchans were reminiscent of those fearsome creatures. But again, why build them so small? No matter.
"It doesn't look like too much trouble," he muttered to himself, still looking at the alien spacecrafts intently. "These were the ships that laid waste to the Earth battleships?" he asked his first officer.
"Yes, sir," First Officer Caddo answered with a distinct air of distain. "Our reports indicated that the Earth ships couldn't get past their shields to damage them."
"But where are they? Surely by now they should have implemented them, foolish of them not to, given the gravity of their situation."
"Maybe it takes time and a lot of energy to activate the shutters," he suggested. It is possible that they are automatically activated when attacked." Caddo stared at the aliens as hard as his Captain, who moved his head grimly.
"Well, when this begins, for their sakes I hope those shields activate quickly. So many windows-it's insane. They should have their designer and the people who authorized its building executed." He noted his first officer's silent agreement.
"Can we analyze their jump capacity?"
"No, sir. Our scans are somehow being reflected back," his First in Command, said. "But our spies report that they don't have that capability."
"But they have FTL capability independent of jump physics."
"Yes, sir," he said again. "It is believed that they push their engines-whatever type they are-to get to light speed before some other technique takes over."
The Commander looked disgusted. "Such a waste of energy. I'm amazed they even made it into space like that. What about their weapons? Our spies were vague on that also." Actually they had been vague on a lot of things he realized.
"From what I have studied about the Federation ships, the Earth Forces lasers and particle beams apparently didn't have as much effect they hoped."
His Captain disagreed. "Look at the bigger of the two ships, the one surrounded by the small shuttles-how embarrassing- it must have been damaged. I believe that Earth Force may have done more harm than they suspected."
"That would explain why the bald Captain protested so much."
Caddo smiled. "That would certainly explain why he looked so grim."
"When he experiences the power of our weaponry, he'll look positively morbid. I hope I get a chance to see his face then." A few seconds later when both man finished laughing, the Captain turned serious again.
One thing did concern him and concern him greatly, the four Minbari ships-of-the-line also guarding the station. No matter what was said or done, he would not attack them. In fact he was ordered not to. To do so meant suicide and the start of a war his people were not prepared for and couldn't handle. The famous Minbari stealth technology would be too much even for his fleet. His crew understood this also.
"How long shall we wait, sir?"
"Until we get the signal."
That signal wasn't long in coming. As of one accord, all four Minbari war cruisers turned, created jump points and disappeared leaving a shocked Babylon Five alone to face this new threat.
Captain Konto clasped his hands behind his back and turned to his crew. "That," he snorted, pointing to the collapsing jump points. "That is the signal."
The Minbari Territories
The last word that came thru to the Minbar communications net were, "…unidentified ships attacking…" before they lost contact with their second largest colony world. Over ninety million lived on the 'Jewel of Minbar' had been killed or injured, the majority being of the workers and religious castes. The ships came out of nowhere attacking military and civilian crafts and targets of opportunity. Orbital satellites were destroyed and cities razed. Several ships-of-the-line were obliterated by masses of attackers. Even as a shocked Minbar prepared to respond, emergency calls from twelve more of their protectorates began flooding the comm nets.
Everywhere it was the same. Large fleets of unidentified arrow-shaped ships exiting hyperspace without warning, attacking and destroying everything, then just as quickly they re-entered jump space and escaped before military forces could respond. The last war was with the Humans, and now there were some preparations being made as the Shadows operated more openly. But now, the entire Federation was in an uproar, now reeling from the blows by an unknown, vicious and determined enemy.
The most brutal attacks were at the edge of their territories, the area closest to neutral and unclaimed space and Babylon Five. The closest warships available to assist the beleaguered colony were at Babylon Five. There was no choice.
One of the targets, a specific target, was the ship building space dock for the White Star fleet. Close to forty ships exited hyperspace and began firing at the unfinished and unprepared White Stars, cracking and destroying many in the first salvos. Then the enemy vessels struck the space dock and thousands of the religious and worker caste died screaming. The enemy was thorough and swift and when they left, there was nothing left but ruins. All of the forty first-generation White Stars built or under various stages of construction, were reduced to rubble. The enemy knew exactly where they were and now there were now exactly eleven left in the universe.
To the Minbari this day would be known as First Blood. It was day one of the Drakh wars.
We're going to die today Lieutenant Commander Gerald Higgins thought as he and his elite squad of the new, improved Thunderbolt Star Furies formed up as the first line of defense against an enemy three times their number. There were ten of Grey Squadron and forty more of the standard fighters. The ten had gravity and polarized plating, and an updated Federation styled micro-fusion power plant, giving them a seventy percent increase in overall power. And that enabled them to move faster and withstand multiple hits. The gravity compensators allowed for acrobatics that was impossible in a normal Star Fury without blacking out or being squashed into paste. And the re-enforced blast shields had been replaced with–wonder of wonders- transparent aluminum. In addition his fighter squadron now had twin phased-energy weapons, nothing like the stuff the Fed people had due to compatibility issues, but years ahead of anything Earth Force currently had.
He didn't want to fight. In fact he didn't even want to be on Babylon Five in the first place. It was Captain Hiroshi's fault and her moralistic platitudes that got him separated from his family on Earth in the first place. When the fighting started, he didn't have a choice. It was do or die, but he didn't have to like it. Now he was fighting and perhaps dying again for a cause he didn't believe in.
Frankly these Federation people scared him with their science and even their attitudes. From what little he had seen, he could perfectly understand why Clarke was frightened of them. But there were other points also. The universe was falling into the toilet. The Shadows, and Vorlons were at war and now the Centauri were starting up in a big way. It was a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Enough of this he thought chiding himself for his lapse in concentration. Concentrate on what you're doing or die.
"Okay Grey squad," he started, all other thoughts shoved aside. "When the word is given, we will attack first the rest will follow us. Remember our job is to protect Babylon Five. Concentrate on the fighters and leave the big boys to deal with the Capital ships."
Suddenly, several jump points opened almost on top of them and a stunned Babylon Five, along with its defense force watched as the Minbari disappeared into hyperspace. A minute later, the Centauri began moving forward towards the Klingon warship and its Federation wing mate.
"This stinks to high heaven! I knew we couldn't trust the Minbari!"
"Tell me about it," Higgins said over the comms. He didn't have time to worry about why they left. It was time to recalculate the odds, odds that had just gotten worse.
Captain Koral and Worf maintained absolute silence as the Federation Starship Ambassador took up station next to K'mpec's Honor. Koral in the Captain's seat was torn between shock and awe. Irony had been his friend lately, but he still had to get used to its company. Less than two months ago, he was doing his best to destroy Humans like them and now he was coordinating a mutual assault against another enemy intent on destroying them all. And it felt right!
Worf on the other hand took it all in stride. Knowledge was the great equalizer and he was content to fight a true enemy instead of someone's dupe. Even after all this time, his anger boiled when he thought of the war.
"One of the Primus class and two Vorchans are accelerating towards us," Valcris hissed in battle language. She was the sensors officer and she excelled at her duty. She often saw openings that others missed and that made her a very valuable member of the crew. Young, yes, short, yes, but she was also extremely loud which was a true gift when she needed to be heard over the din of battle. "They're signaling."
"Surrender or die!"
Koral ordered visuals activated. He appeared on screen with Worf behind him looking as hostile as possible, startling Captain Konto who took a step away from the screen. Worf, looking as vicious as Koral, stepped towards the front.
"Today is a good day to die," he snarled.
An intimidated Konto closed the transmission.
"Animals!" The Captain of the Emperor's Delight had hoped to coerce these vermin into surrendering by having three of his cruisers move closer, but now from what he just saw, he now believed that this was impossible. If evil could be given a face, then evil was what he saw a few moments ago. "Today is a good day to die? Yes, it is-for them." He turned to his second in command. "Order the fleet to fire on B5 and the others as soon as the advance force receives fire from the Klingon ship."
"Yes, sir."
"They should have deployed their shields. Too late now. And they would soon discover that the Centauri had shielding too. "All ships fire!"
Konto watched with anticipation as eight Centauri heavy ion and four laser cannons fired from the Primus attack cruiser hit and bounced off of the shields of the Klingon battle cruiser, while both Vorchans struck the Ambassador with multiple particle arrays and twin ion canons. Surprisingly, the two alien vessels survived the initial onslaught. In fact, the weapon's fire never even touched either ship. The Captain didn't like that at all. He assumed that those shields were metallic in nature not some type of invisible bubble. That extended away from their ships. Unbelievable! Why hadn't Command told him about those force fields? His information had been sorely lacking and he would have to deal with that as soon as he got home. Now, he watched in increasing dread as the Klingons returned fire.
Klingon disruptors tore into the Primus like a sharp knife thru naked flesh. The first greenish, twin pulse went completely through the bridge section of the doomed ship and out the other side. The next set of three pulses obliterated the ship and its armor and shielding did nothing to stop it. When the vapor cloud dissipated, there was nothing left larger than a meter in size floating in place where his ships had been. The other tiny ship had fired its weapons also, causing both Vorchans to explode spectacularly.
Momentarily frozen by the violence of the destruction, Konto cursed his superiors. They hadn't given him any information about these ships. Those ships had what suspiciously looked like advanced gravimetric shields, not plating! He had never seen anything quite like it. The beams seemed to splash around the edges of those ships and he could see the invisible 'bubble' surrounding both ships.
This simple exercise had turned into a far more interesting fight. He reveled in the prospects of a hard won victory. The next moment, he was screaming for countermeasures, evasives and for his ship to fire everything it had, at anything not Centauri but especially those small ships, one which was tearing his way towards him even as he spoke. He'd bring them back in pieces, if necessary.
Higgins and his wingman lieutenant Gandhi pulled a high-G portside turn so tight they still had trouble believing that maneuver it was even possible. They didn't fall into unconscious, indeed barely felt it as they locked onto two Sentri interceptors.
The Sentries had impressive maneuverability and great acceleration, much better than Star Furies-of old. But he was in a whole different animal here. Advanced targeting centered their targets and quad phased pulses blew both out the Centauri fighters out of space.
"Nice shot!"
Higgins grimaced. It was a nice shot. They had actually outturned the Centauri, got behind their six and splashed them both without sweat. Already they had taken out four fighters and were about to line up two more. He was feeling a little giddy and had to clear him mind to concentrate on the ongoing fight. Together, Grey squadron had now scored so many kills that the Centauri had taken noticed and were concentrating on them intently now. That was a mistake as the Thunderbolts and regular Star Furies were ignored, allowing them easier kills than would normally be possible. Higgins targeted another fighter, eliminated and turned again to cover B5 when his threat alert computer alarms went off.
"Ship has been locked," the computer said. "Ion particle beams. Impact in three seconds…two…one…"
Higgins screamed as his life flashed before his eyes. Everything outside went bluish-red. He felt his ship knocked ninety degrees off his trajectory.
"Nuclear power-plant hit…no damage…polarized plating…not damaged…life support systems…no damage…weapons system damaged ten percent …communications system…no damage…left upper thruster damaged four percent…systems operational at eighty-four percent efficiency."
There it was-the difference between theory and reality. The plating had held as promised. His ship was rated for four hits and they hadn't lied. "Outstanding," he whispered after catching his breath.
"Lieutenant Commander, are you okay?" his wingman yelled, absolutely sure that Higgins was dead.
"Yes," he answered coolly. "Let's do it," he said determined to pay back the enemy ship that had made him wet his spacesuit. They were lucky today, so far. The enemy had no idea what they were running into, but they did now and it would never be this easy again.
In Babylon Five's command center, Captain Hiroshi had ordered all defensive batteries to open fire on the three Vorchan warships and their escorts fighting their way towards the station. Despite the massive countering firing she was putting up, one of their eight fusion missiles fired towards the station had gotten through. Nuclear fire raged across the front of the station but much to everyone's surprise they had received a reprieve. The destructiveness of the weapon hadn't penetrated the newly installed polarized plating now covering over forty percent of the station.
Offensive fire however, had been relatively ineffective due to the incredible agility of the Vorchans light cruisers. Two of the Vorchans fired their forward ion cannons and scored on unshielded metal opening a portion of the Babylon Five to vacuum. Protective doors slammed shut to minimize the damage but scores of people had died and were injured from the explosive decompression.
The vibrations shook the entire station and Hiroshi yelled for details as damage reports flooded in. She sighed in relief as Garibaldi took off to help deal with the damage. Unlike her previous ship, a space station had so much more responsibility. The civilians in particular were at headache during times like these and of course the station was stationary. It couldn't move out of the way. Meanwhile, offensive counter fire found one of the Vorchans and damaged it severely. It limped off the field of battle to effect repairs.
"Captain. The Enterprise is on the horn."
"Patch them through and lay in covering fire for the fighters in sector H," she answered as over twenty smaller Centauri fighters tried to break thru the gap they'd opened up a few moments earlier.
Picard came onscreen looking as cold as she had ever seen him. "We are aware of your situation and are sending six of our Runabouts to support your fighters."
"Bless you," she responded. She meant it, the more mobility she had to defend her station, the better. "Do what you need to do."
The Enterprise was the major reason why only the starboard side was being targeted. Two of the Vorchans were sliced in half at an impossible distance even as they approached. At the present point in time, that area was conspicuously devoid of any Centauri. And now those boxy shuttles moved forward fearlessly attacking one of the sixteen hundred meter long Primus battle cruisers. They weren't nearly as agile as fighters but they were as fast or faster than anything in the EAS fleet. And their weapons range would come as a nasty surprise also.
They came bearing down on the lone Centauri warship that dared to get into B5 range and instantly that Commander understood his situation. Those ugly shuttles were from those Earthian ships and that was hint enough for him. If they had shielding anywhere close to the strength of their big mother ships then small battle lasers and the light pulse laser canons weren't going to cut it before they were all on top of his ship.
He ordered a full barrage of the heavy ion cannon aimed right at the incoming vessels, set on wide spread. It was unheard of tactic to use such heavy weaponry on a shuttle so close-which why it worked. The eight beams hit the shields of two the incoming shuttles. The tremendous energy washed over them, a second later some of those shields failed and two exploded an instant later as ion beam met antimatter containment.
Two more of the shuttles were shaken off course by the force of the explosion. The last two returned fire, phasers cutting into gravimetric shielding and then, almost into four meters of armored hull leading directly into the engine room. Half the ship blew apart as the engines dissolved into their molecular components. Then, one of the shuttles fired a photon torpedo directly at the remaining portion…
Sandra watched in silence as forces meant to kill capital warships struck the two Runabouts. The Federation shuttles-no, she had to correct herself. They weren't shuttles, they were small starships that looked like shuttles-were too close to one another she reconized, not used to fighting in smaller ship-to-ship confrontations. Experience was a bitter teacher.
Now the remaining four of them had re-established their formation and went after the two Vorchans that had escaped B5's wrath a few moments earlier. B5's pulse cannons had tagged one of those ships, damaging an engine. Now that ship turned for one last strafing run at the station before retreating to the safety of it fellow ships. In the process it fired a vicious volley of its missile pulse cannons at a group of civilian ships still trying distance themselves from the firefight. Two of six vessels were small Narn ships, a silent reminder of the Narns once great star fleet. None of those ships had jump engines and to the Centauri the target had been irresistible, especially the Narns. None of the vessels had a chance as the directed energy ripped them apart.
Captain Hiroshi nearly fainted from the rage that threatened to consume her. There was no reason for that! They were unarmed and now they were dead. They weren't even in the way. And she wasn't the only one who had witnessed the murder.
The four Fed ships had now split their formation and proceed to run both Vorchans down, something very few ships of any species even had the capacity to do. The damaged Centauri ship, quickly deciding that retreat was the better part of valor, created a jump point and escaped with no less than six of the Runabouts smaller yield photon torpedoes following it into the now collapsed hyper-point. Whether they hit or not, no one knew.
The other Vorchan wasn't as lucky. Dodging as though the pilot was insane, nevertheless, it ran right into a phaser shot, effectively guillotining the ship. Now both parts tumbled aimlessly towards the dead planet Babylon five orbited.
Despite the sporadic attacks on Babylon Five it was crystal clear to Captain Picard and the crew that the primary target was K'mpec's Honor. Picard gave a silent acknowledgement of respect at the way the Klingon cruiser weaved and dodged the almost unbelievable firepower directed against it. He hated to admit it but there was a dark beauty to its dance with the older Federation starship that bore the name Enterprise as well. They were leading the enemy away from them and their shields had been nearly depleted, but both ships continued their maneuvers, setting the enemy up for the final strike. The Runabouts and Star Furies were herding the fighters towards B5 and the killing zone they had set up there.
"Commander Riker."
"Yes, sir," came the immediate response. "We're prepared. They're in position now."
Behind him, Tasha waited patiently, eyes cold with the knowledge of what she was about to do.
Picard's coldness somehow, cracked and a touch of pity issued forth. The Centauri forces rushed into a fight against a force they didn't fully understand, he believed. They had no conception that the instant their forces had jumped into Babylon Five space, they were already in his ship's range weapons range. Someone had willingly led them to the slaughter. Pity their superiors.
"Order our ships to scatter now!" Both the Klingon and Federation ship accelerated violently going to warp one.
"… And Mr. Yar, fire!"
A dozen full yield photon torpedoes erupted from the Enterprise's launch tubes achieving close to seventy-five percent of light speed. It took six seconds for the Enterprise to launch twelve, independently targeted torpedoes. At the same instant, both the Klingons and Ambassador fired their own torpedoes into the mass of Centauri warships unknowingly led to their massacre. The Ambassador's type one launch tubes fired three cluster sets of the projectiles at a rate of approximately four every three seconds. K'mpec's Honor matched the Enterprise-D's rate of fire with its own version of the photon torpedoes.
Centauri countermeasures barely had time to detect, much less respond to the oncoming deluge. Even as the first of the breaking thrusters activated, the ships were savaged from three sides. The saturation strike devastated the entire region.
The CnC onboard Babylon Five shielded their eyes from the combined blasts that washed over the area, where the majority of the Centauri fleet used to be. Sandra Hiroshi stood mute, her eyes seeing but her mind not fully comprehending the enormity of the blasts that had just occurred. Even with anti-glare screens, the entire vicinity disappeared in white flash that gave the appearance of a star going nova.
"My God!" It took her a few seconds for her eyes to recover from the blast. Witnessing the explosions first hand, she understood that over ninety percent of the light had been filtered out. She was a Captain, or rather a former Captain now of Earth Force, had seen her share of multiple nuclear detonations, but this, this, was several factors above anything she'd ever witnessed. And most of the force had been expressed as invisible gamma rays, she thought shaking her head.
Lieutenant Corwin scanning the area simply shook his head. "I was tracking ten of their ships in pursuit. Now… There's nothing there. The energy readout from the blasts was equal to approximately one thousand and six hundred and fifty megatons."
Sandra took it all in. Those ships didn't have a chance and again she was forced to ask herself where were these people from to have and need such power? She actually admired how they had jumped to warp and at the same time blanketed the area with those photon missiles of theirs. That left five functional capital ships left out of a fleet of twenty-four, two of which were abandoning their heavily damaged comrades. They made it into jump space before they could be stopped.
The other remaining three were about to do follow suit when there was a flash of distortion appearing in front of the rear ship. The Klingon cruiser's disruptor canons began demolishing all weapons ports and engineering sections. Then something surprising occurred. The subspace distortion wave interacting with the jump point event horizon caused an unexpected reaction. Both the jump point and subspace bubble collapsed. The first Primus veered off desperate to generate another hyperspace gateway in time to get away. Now, it was being chased by a group of the Modified Star Furies and the Centauri Captain's only thought was to get away. The small fighters weren't too much of a threat but there was no thought of confronting them. It created a second jump point and streaked to safety, just as the Ambassador came into visual contact. Unfortunately two of the Star Furies were caught up by the backwash and pulled into jump space along with the escaping Vorchan.
The Ambassador pulled into relatively close range-within striking distance of the two damaged Centauri vessels, ordering them to surrender. With no hope of escape, one of the ships began powering down. The other ship, defiant to the end, fired a weapons burst at the starship, which promptly returned fire, cutting the ship in half with its phasers. Massive explosions ripped what remained into small fragments.
K'mpec's Honor seemed to watch the helpless Centauri Primus for a moment as if studying some type of insect. The fortunes of war had turned once more. The prey had turned out to be a most dangerous predator.