Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5 or its characters, that is property of Warner Brothers. I do not own Robotech or its characters, that belongs to Harmony Gold.

Earth vs Minbari – Robotech To the Rescue

April 2246

Geneva, Switzerland

Earth

The President's Office

The office of the President of Earth Alliance Elizabeth Levy was sitting in her office desk.. She was dreading this meeting that was about to start. Seated around in various chairs were Vice President Luis Santiago, General Lefcourt, General Fontaine, her Secretary of State David Sheridan, a couple other senior cabinet members, and her Secretary of Defense Millia Sterling.

The President pushed a button which secured the room against all surveillance and monitoring. Then she took a deep breath, let it out slowly then said, "Alright, we've all made it look like this meeting is not really happening, so let's get started. General Lefcourt, you called for this meeting, go ahead."

The middle aged man with short cropped brown hair cleared his throat and began, "Madam President, I wish we had better news for you and for EarthGov but I don't. The Minbari are killing us, our ships can't hit what they can't see. I'm confident that if we could see them, our ships would give a better accounting of themselves. Their stealth is too advanced, and our scientists have not found a way to get around it. Our one victory in space was the destruction of the Black Star, albeit it was a bit unorthodox." Looking at General Fontaine, he gestured to his colleague. "We've had better luck on the ground in making them pay in blood, and we did fight them off on one of our colonies but recently, they've stopped their invasions of our colonies. They're simply bombarding them from space, glassing our worlds. Madam President, unless something changes, by this time next year...or maybe a month or two before or after, we could be all but extinct."

President Levy looked saddened. "What are our options, General?"

The man looked around the room, locking eyes with the Secretary of Defense, Millia Sterling who nodded to him. The man nodded back then looked at his President then resumed speaking. "Madam President, we have two options."

President Levy gestured for her general to continue.

Standing up, the man began to pace the room. "Option one, we begin evacuating. We go through our records, pull everyone that we can bank the future of humanity from the colonies, withdraw our forces defending those colonies, and begin the same evacuation here on Earth. Once we've assembled the people, the resources, the ships, we send them on their way Far away to try and start over. But that's not a guarantee, madam President. They might still be tracked, found, and wiped out, either by the Minbari or by another alien race. But it is an option."

Everyone murmured and muttered quietly. President Levy called for quiet. "Alright, alright, quiet everyone. As General Lefcourt has said, he has two options. Go ahead General, what is the second option?"

The General had stopped pacing the room and stood against the far wall which also acted as a vidscreen. "Madam President, our second option is we invoke the special clause of the Sentinels Treaty and reactivate our old ships and weapons of history."

There was silence for a several seconds. Then the room exploded into outbursts.

"Are you mad?"

"This is the only way! We must reactivate our old weapons!"

"Madam President, you can't possibly-"

"We have no choice! It's either this or we will be exterminated!"

"We cannot break the treaty! We gave our word!"

President Levy slammed her hands on her desk. "Enough! Quiet, all of you!"

When the room had quieted down and people had calmed themselves down the President looked around the room with a stern expression. "Everyone, calm down. There is no such need for this kind of behavior in my office. Now, General Lefcourt, I am interested in hearing your reasoning for this option. Please explain."

General Lefcourt walked over to the door of the office and opened it. He gave a gesture to someone outside the room to enter, opening the door wider so this person could enter. A middle aged man with dirty blonde hair and a trimmed goatee on his chin wearing a rumpled suit entered the room giving the general a thank you. General Lefcourt closed the door and gestured for the man to take a seat which he did.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Doctor Robert Wilkes, but that's not his full name. I'm sure some of you are aware of his work at the Smithsonian. However his full name is Robert Wilkes Lang."

All the people in the room recognized that last name and everyone stared at the man. The man pulled out a pair of wire rimmed glasses with round lenses and put them on, nodding his head. "Yes, I'm related to him, he was my great, great grandfather."

General Lefcourt resumed talking. "Doctor Lang is one of the few, if not the only person that has any knowledge of the technology that we locked up and sealed away more than a hundred years ago. Madam President, you asked me to come up with any option that may give us a chance at victory. None of our sensors can see through Minbari stealth. Out of desperation, I went down to the Smithsonian and visited the good doctor here. I asked him to come with me to the Achilles and he was kind enough to join me and a few personnel to board the Achilles and run some tests."

Doctor Lang held up his hand and said, "I'm not the only one...there's a few others that know about our old technology, although I do admit that I do know substantially more than they do."

Vice President Luis Santiago looked at Doctor Lang then General Lefcourt and asked, "The Achilles? Why?"

General Lefcourt replied, "She's an old Ikazuchi class heavy cruiser, from the last Robotech War against the Haydonites. The ship is not in the Smithsonian, she's in the old mothball yard between Earth and Venus. Doctor Lang here knows about the systems, the ship we have sitting in the Smithsonian is dead; we couldn't use it, but the Achilles still has Protoculture aboard so we went to the Achilles and powered up her systems. Using the data from the Black Star engagement, we used the Achilles's systems to see if she could see through the Minbari stealth, and it worked. The Achilles was able to see through the Minbari stealth that was protecting the Black Star. If it had been a real battle, she could have locked her weapons onto it, fired, and hit the damn thing."

Everyone was surprised.

Before anyone could speak the general continued, "We ran another series of tests using data from other battles, and in each instance the Achilles was able to see through the Minbari stealth. It is not a fluke, the old technology can do what our current technology cannot."

The President asked, "Then why don't we rip out the sensor package from the Achilles and get that into production? There's no need to break our treaty."

Doctor Lang spoke, "I'm sorry Madam President, but it won't work. The Achilles systems are powered through Protoculture. The sensor technology alone is completely different from what we currently use and finally, the system needs Protoculture, when we tried to use it without it, it didn't work. We couldn't break through the stealth of the Minbari ships. If we are to see through their stealth, we will need Robotech ships and mecha. We will need Protoculture."

General Lefcourt nodded, "Exactly. I've ordered the yard dogs to give the Achilles an examination with Doctor Lang's assistance. The ship has enough Protoculture to make the fold jump to the Pegasus galaxy and reach the system where we've placed the old factory and the fleet. What I'm proposing is this, we get the Achilles out of the yard, and we send her on the trip to the Pegasus galaxy, but we don't send her alone. We'll arrange for three Hyperion class cruisers to travel with the Achilles via way of hitching a ride by using the fold bubble so that when the Achilles folds, the three Hyperions will travel with her. We'll stuff the four ships with as many people that they can carry. Once they make the journey, they disembark, get the factory up and running, see if it can fold back here. If it can, we bring the factory to the far side of the moon along with as many ships from the shipyard as we can. If the factory can't fold, then we get as many ships as we can, and fold them back here and we make sure we bring the Protoculture Matrix with the fleet.."

Luis Santiago looked over to the Secretary of Defense, Millia Sterling. "This was your idea, wasn't it?"

The purple haired woman gave a snort. "We're losing this war Mister Vice President. The President gave me a directive, to find something., anything, that we could use against the Minbari. I simply gave General Lefcourt a hint, he's the one that took it and ran with it." She looked around the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, we stand at the precipice of extinction, our extinction. We've faced extinction before from the Zentraedi, the Robotech Masters, the Invid, and the Haydonites. The Minbari have not replied to our requests for peace talks, they've not even replied to our surrender offer, let alone our offer of giving them Mister Jankowski to face their justice. We are being wiped out, colony by colony, warship by warship, soldier, pilot, crewman, civilian."

The Defense secretary gestured to General Lefcourt and General Fontaine. Our fine generals have done what they can, but it's time to realize that our current ships and weapons are not cutting it, the weapons we've received from the Narn regime are not cutting it, and yes, we are reaching for a hail Mary here. To use weapons we swore we would never use again. Madam President," she looked at the President now and resumed, "you told General Lefcourt to find a way for us to fight back, he came to me and I gave him the hint to seek out the Achilles and Doctor Lang."

Millia swept the room in her gaze and raised her right hand and clenched her fist. "Yes, we swore never to use Robotech weapons and ships ever again. The war with the Invid at Earth was the Third Robotech War while fighting the Invid Regent in Tirolian space could be argued as the Fourth, and then the Haydonites betrayal of the Sentinels Alliance was the start of the Fifth Robotech War and the destruction that war brought was the reason we agreed to try and lock the genie back in the bottle. But now, now we are faced with our extermination. The Minbari have struck many of our colony worlds and performed multiple Rains of Death upon them. Let there be no doubt that what befalls our colonies is what awaits for our homeworld should we do nothing." She tapped the table she was sitting at as she said the following words. "The treaty we signed gives us the right to do what General Lefcourt is proposing. We have the right to go back to the Pegasus galaxy and reclaim and reactivate our former weapons and technology. Based on those findings from Doctor Lang and General Lefcourt, it would be irresponsible of us to not do so."

Luis Santiago looked disgusted. "Madam President, you can't possibly be seriously considering this. I can't be the only one opposed to this plan of action." He looked around the room trying to find supporters but the speech from Defense Secretary Sterling seemed to change people's minds. Secretary Sheridan, the Secretary of State seemed to be on his side initially but now he was silent.

General Fontaine pointed his finger at the Vice President. "What's your idea Mister Vice President? We're fighting and dying out in space without getting a chance to hit them. My boys and girls in the GroPos have made the Minbari bleed on the ground, made them bleed for every inch of ground but still the Minbari have won except on Beta Colony where we kicked their ass." The General looked down in sadness, "Then they glassed it, killing everyone there. Since then, they've started bombarding the colonies then sending in ground troops to do a sweep and clear. So, do you have a better idea?" He looked around the room. "Does anyone in this room have a better idea?"

General Lefcourt looked at the President "I know what I want to do, I want to fight, let us go to Pegasus and take back what was ours. Then we can take the fight to the Minbari and force them to the negotiation table from a better position."

One of the cabinet members spoke, "Are we sure those Robotech weapons would damage the Minbari?"

Doctor Lang pushed his glasses back up his nose and replied, "Robotech weapons are more than capable of damaging as well as destroying Minbari ships. Not only that, we'll be able to hit them from ranges that the Minbari ships won't be able to hit us from for once. It is doubtful that a Minbari warship could stand against the firepower of a Synchro or Reflex cannon, let alone the particle cannons of Robotech ships. Besides, our current weapons can damage the Minbari the problem is their stealth is too effective unless we are in point blank range and by then they've sliced us to ribbons. They are not invincible, they can be killed. We must reclaim our old Robotech ships and mecha and take the fight to them."

General Lefcourt said, "Once we have our old ships and weapons, once we have the capability to see them...then the odds will be even and we will give them a fight that they haven't had for more than a thousand years. We will show them war the likes of which they've never had to face. Right now, they're shooting us like ducks in a shooting gallery. But, once we have our old ships and weapons, I promise you Madam President, I promise everyone in this room that the war will change in our favor and the Minbari will regret not ending this war when they had the chance. But, Madam President, we need your approval. Give us the go ahead. Please."

The Vice President stood up. "So that's it then?"

President Levy looked at her Vice President. "Do you have a better idea?"

Looking determined the man said, "We should evacuate, try and build a new home far from here, far from the Minbari."

Millia countered, "There's no guarantee that the Minbari won't find the new world that we establish as a new homeworld or what if another race discovers our new homeworld before we are ready? They could destroy us or simply report that they found a world full of humans to the Minbari." She snapped her fingers. "Then just like that, humanity is no more. To truly escape, we would need to leave our galaxy and go to another one such as Pegasus but we only have one ship capable of making such a journey on its own, and she can only bring a few ships with her by using her fold bubble for them to hitch hike. Mister Vice President, Secretary Sheridan, our only move is to go to Pegasus and bring back our old Robotech ships and weapons."

Luis replied, "And what if someone over there has claimed the factory and our ships for themselves? Or, what if one of our former allies objects to us coming over and breaking our word?"

Millia poured some water into a glass from the carafe on the table then took a drink. "The answer to your first question is that if anyone tried to take command of the factory or any of our ships, we would have received an alert. No such alert has reached Earthdome since we set up the storage facility and put the factory into lockdown. Second, we have the treaty stipulation giving us the right. They can cry and be outraged all the want they want, but that clause gives us the right."

Millia took another drink of water. "However, I don't see any reason for our Foreign Office to not send a diplomatic team with the mission to help smooth over any hurt feelings. Madam President, this is the direction we must go. Ask yourself this, did our ancestors run when Dolza's Grand Fleet came? Did they run when the Robotech Masters came? Did they run when the Invid came? When the Haydonites revealed themselves to be what they truly were, did we run?" We don't run. We fight and if this is to be our last, we shall give them a fight they will remember and speak of for thousands of years."

Everyone was quiet. President Levy steepled her hands together, as she looked around the room. She could see that there were more people in favor of going to Pegasus than running away. With a sigh she stood up and looked at the vidscreen that was pretending to be a window showing the outside of Geneva.

President Levy turned around to face everyone then commanded, "It's not easy to make this decision, I wish I had more time to think this over but time is not a commodity we have." She took a breath and let it out slowly. With a look of determination she said, "Permission granted to go to Pegasus and retrieve our old ships and weapons."

The Vice President stood up, looked at his President and stated, "Madam President, I think this is the wrong decision but you have my support." He extended his hand in a handshake which President Levy took and the two shook hands.

"Thank you Luis.", she said.

Everyone stood up. President Levy looked at David Sheridan who was quiet except for his objection immediately after General Lefcourt had made his proposal.

She requested, "David, we'll need a top notch diplomatic team to go with the Pegasus expedition to smooth over any ruffled feathers."

David nodded his head slightly and said, "I'll go, Madam President."

Elizabeth and everyone else looked surprised. She gave a gesture of waving her hand back and forth rapidly. "No, no, you don't have to go David."

Looking determined he countered, "I'm afraid I have to go. I couldn't trust this mission to anyone else. I'm not needed here right now Madam President. My people can handle any talks with the Narn, Centauri or any of the League but right now we're alone. No one is willing or able to help us against the Minbari. Maybe I can ask our Sentinel allies to journey back with us and help us against the Minbari. The treaty does state that if one of us is attacked, the others shall come to that one's aid. Hopefully I can bring us some friends from beyond our galaxy to help us."

There were murmurs from everyone. President Levy gave an acknowledging nod of her head. "That's a good idea David. Very well, you have my permission to go. Secretary Sterling, General Lefcourt, how soon can we get this mission to Pegasus underway?"

Millia Sterling went to the wall vidscreen that was blank and touched it. It activated to show a display of the inner solar system, focusing on Earth, its moon, Venus, and Mars. She zeroed in on the mothball yards at Venus. "Madam President, everyone...we are already under way to begin the operation. As General Lefcourt mentioned, the yard workers at the moth ball yards have given the Achilles a thorough inspection. She's been quietly moved over to the shipyard between Luna and Earth where she is undergoing another inspection and testing of her systems that Doctor Lang is supervising."

Doctor Lang raised his hand, and everyone looked at him. He stammered, "I, uh, um, I really need to get back there."

President Levy smiled, "Of course, Doctor Lang. Thank you for coming, thank you for your time, and thank you for coming forward with your knowledge. We will be relying on much of it in the future." She extended her hand and the Doctor and President shook hands. Once done the man said a few words to General Lefcourt and Secretary Sterling and left the room.

Millia didn't waste any time as she resumed talking "In addition to the good Doctor, we have several people that do have knowledge of Robotechnology mainly from an academic and historic level. They have been helpful in restoring some old Robotech simulators. With them, we can start getting pilots trained up on flying old Alpha and Beta Veritechs. We will be keeping a couple of Alpha and Beta veritechs from the Achilles that have the most Protoculture in their fuel cells so we can give these pilots actual flight time as well. Additionally we are working up converting at least three of our Hyperion simulators to be an Ikuzuchi simulator to start getting our people trained up on Robotech systems."

"Now, we will get the Achilles as ready as we can During that time, Generals Lefcourt and Fontaine will select the crew for the Achilles as well as the three Hyperions that will hitch hike with the Achilles to the Pegasus Galaxy. I believe that process is under way, am I correct?" Millia looked over to the two Generals.

General Fontaine nodded his head. "Yes ma'am. We are gathering personnel for the mission already. We expect to finish selection by tomorrow and begin getting the people transferred over to their new ships within a day or two afterwards."

General Lefcourt spoke next. "We'll take a few days to get the people on the Achilles ready and from there the small group of ships will transit well out of range of our gravity well and commence the fold jump to our Robotech Factory and our fleet. Optimistically, we should be sending the Achilles and the Hyperions to Pegasus in about four to five days."

President Levy took in the information then stated, "Very well. Moving quickly I see."

"We can't waste any time, Madam President, the clock is ticking. We'll need to make a decision on some of the outer colonies and force mandatory evacuations so that we can focus our fleet forces on trying to hold and delay the Minbari as much as possible."

President Levy walked over to look at the vid screen which was showing animations of the fold jump to Pegasus, docking with the Factory, and jumping back to Sol. "How long do you think it will take to get to Pegasus and return?"

General Lefcourt replied, "The Achilles is equipped with a Nichols drive, so the journey would be instantaneous. For the return trip, we believe that all the ships and the factory we've left over there are similarly equipped with the same technology. So they would have to check on the systems, do thorough diagnostics, I expect it would be a week minimum but most likely two weeks or three weeks at the worst before they could fold back to Sol."

"A couple of weeks could cost us a lot of lives.", said Luis.

With a slight glare General Lefcourt stated, "We will switch our strategy to be more of hit and run, instead of massing our forces for defense until the Pegasus mission returns successfully. We'll start using some of our old tactics, like massed missile fire. At least a couple will hit. One thing we've discovered is that we've found a stockpile of RMS-2 and RMS-3 missiles. Technicians are going over them carefully. We'll be sending a few of these the Minbari's way soon enough."

Luis looked incredulous. "A stockpile of Reflex missiles has just magically appeared? Those were all supposed to have been destroyed or placed in the Pegasus storage site when the treaty was signed!"

Millia gave a placating gesture with her hands. "Mister Vice President I assure you that the discovery was a genuine surprise. The storage bunker had been mislabeled. An inventory of capital ship missiles was being conducted at a storage site that had not been inventoried in a very long time as we were looking for missiles that the Achilles could use."

The Vice President didn't like it but he had calmed down. Secretary Millia resumed, "We will keep more than half of the stockpile and give the rest to the Achilles along with some of our older stock that the Achilles missile tubes are capable of firing. Once we have the factory online and operational, making more will not be a problem."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, thinking things through. Then Secretary Millia said, "As much hope we have here, I would be derelict in my duties if I did not bring up the contingency plan."

Everyone looked at the Secretary of Defense with alarm.

Millia raised a hand in a placating gesture. "As it has been said, this is a big gamble, the biggest. But, should this plan fail, we must use the factory and all the ships that return with it to act as evacuation arks and fold out of this galaxy. That is the only way we could escape from the Minbari for not even they can travel to another galaxy to chase us down. Hopefully we won't have to execute such a plan but it will be better for us if we are prepared."

General Fontaine cleared his throat and commented, "With your permission, I'll start up the plans. Investigate and begin vetting those that would be the most qualified and necessary people for such a purpose."

President Levy asked, "How many people could we evacuate?"

Pursing her lips, and taking a moment to think the Secretary of Defense finally said, "Optimistically, between 10 to 15 million with just the factory and the returning ships. If we have enough time, we may be able to increase that by building colony ships from the factory. That would depend on a number of factors."

"I see.", commented the President. She steepled her hands together in thought, tilting her head. Then she asked another question. "If this works out and we bring the factory here and it has enough Protoculture to begin building warships that we can use against the Minbari, how many ships could it build and how long would it take?"

Secretary Millia didn't hesitate in replying. Walking up to stand in front of the President she replied, "Ma'am, the factory is fully capable of building one million warships, along with the ammunition, and mecha for the entire fleet in a month."

Everyone paused at that. Eyes were wide open in shock, even the two Generals were surprised. The President cleared her throat and stated, "Damn, that's impressive. I sure hope that they bring it back fully operational."

General Lefcourt nodded his head, "They will madam President. They will."

President Levy asked, "Have you decided on who will be commanding the Achilles and lead the expedition?"

General Lefcourt had poured a drink of water and took a drink. He answered, "We're going to give it to Captain Sheridan. He will lead the military mission while Secretary Sheridan will handle the diplomatic affairs."

The President said, "I wasn't aware that Commander Sheridan had been promoted."

Clearing her throat the Secretary of Defense stepped in. "It's a recent development ma'am. Not even Captain Sheridan is aware of his impending promotion."

With a smile President Levy offered her congratulations to Secretary Sheridan about his son's promotion. David smiled and thanked her.

"Well everyone," President Levy started. "I do believe a lot of work needs to be done before we can send the Achilles and the other cruisers on their way. Let's get to work."

Those few people that were sitting at the table stood up and gathered their things while those standing went to their seats and grabbed their belongings and after saying their goodbyes left to begin the work of getting the mission to Pegasus underway.

Author Note: So, this is one story I started working on. I had a litrle bit more written but decided to stop at this point to see if there was any interest out there in seeing this continue. Please let me know if you want more.