10: Dawning Alliance
by Chaoseternus
When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...
EightAcross the gulf of space, two fleets charged, neither one knowing of the other but both with the same destination in mind.
The Hyper Barrier.
Fleet One was Tau'ri, a hastily assembled reinforcement group for the Del Shakka Mel and consisted of the Prometheus , General Hammond , Stingray , and the Ha'taks Valour's Vengeance and Valour's Sword.
The Second Fleet was led by Anubis himself, Four Ha'taks, one Cheops and five Loyalist Basestars, all that could be spared of his once mighty, powerful fleet.
They weren't the only Fleets at large that day, across the other side of the Hyper Barrier, the Minbari gathered forces. With confirmation of the threat posed by the Shadows', the Dark Ascendants Anubis and Iblis, the Warrior Caste sent Task Force after Task Force to scour space looking for the lost fleet whilst at home the Worker Caste gasped with awe and a little glee as their shipyards were swamped under orders for new warships, even entire new fleets.
It wasn't long before others noticed; indeed in a surprise move the wily Narn took quick advantage of the situation, offering the services of many of their ships and several of their shipyards in exchange for technology and a mutual defence pact.
The Minbari, no longer feeling secure behind the barrier of technological superiority which had been shown lacking by the Tau'ri quickly agreed, giving several designs for systems older than those they currently used aboard their ships but still much in advance of what the Narn had to cement the deal.
The Narn were gleeful and celebrated, sending mass orders to their captured Centauri shipyards. The Centauri themselves were not impressed but unwilling to object, not at any race that managed to get anything other than a Peace' Treaty with the enigmatic Minbari.
But the Centauri were fearful, their Empire may not cover the same volume of space as it did during its heyday but it was still pretty large and much of it bordered Minbari territory
And the Minbari had just gone to full military alert without warning or even the slightest indication of why, mobilizing almost their entire population to fight or produce Military goods.
And they had entered into an Alliance with a race that had every reason to hate the Centauri.
Fearing the alliance was for some reason aimed at them, or that the Narn would take advantage of their Alliance with the Minbari to destroy their old enemy, the Centauri brought their Military forces to Alert status and began placing their own mass orders with their shipyards.
It was a cascade reaction, that filtered down at last to the Shattered Remnants of the League Of Non-Aligned Worlds, very aware of their own weakness since the war against the Dilgar in which nine tenths of their Military forces were destroyed before they were able to deliver a crippling blow to the Dilgar, forcing them back to their home system momentarily to rebuild during which time the gate in the Dilgar system had an accident'.
Their own efforts to rebuild their shattered fleets were quickly redoubled; they knew all too well that if anyone had expansionist ideas, they were for the moment, the easiest target.
Of the rumoured Dark races that served the Shadows, there was no sign.
The Powder Keg began slowly smouldering.
