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...

Nineteen

Weir pushed aside another report of a Centauri defeat, with the combined forces of the Narn and Minbari leading the assault against them, aided by the few League Vessels and her Tau'ri warships there defeat was pretty much inevitable, even with the distraction caused by the Drakh and Anubis. For the Centauri, it was merely a matter of time now, already they had been pushed out of League space almost entirely and most of the worlds on the borders had fallen to the alliance forces.

The Alliance had taken few losses there, that's all that mattered.

Against the Drakh however...

Weir sighed, the PDA in her hand proclaiming of a number Minbari ‘Victory', one with large losses on the Minbari side. The Drakh hadn't been able to advance; they were too easily outmanoeuvred for that, but they were destroying warships, killing trained personnel and damaging infrastructure. Even worse, they were finding the taskforces sent to search for the Ancient fleet with uncanny accuracy, making the search practically impossible.

Uncanny accuracy… she reached across, grabbing another memory card to slide into her PDA. Dropping the old into her ‘In' pile, she glanced quickly through the statistics some anal-retentive aboard the General Hammond had arranged and smirked.

They found the search groups too often and too accurately, they might as well just paste ‘ambush me!' on there foreheads, even she could see that.

She tapped the comm. button on her desk, “"Shepard? Can you ask the Minbari and Narn liaisons to see me please?”"

Now, if they could just figure out the source of the Drakh's intelligence and turn it, or at least neutralise it; or them for that matter, it would make things a lot easier.

xxx

Lenneir hated this.

He was many things, aide and assistant to Delenn of the Grey, loyal and trustworthy and many more besides. He had never expected to add Mission Commander and ‘Bait' to that list.

He didn't like it.

Okay, he admitted to himself wryly, he absolutely hated being bait. The feeling of knowing that the enemy is coming for you, knowing you have to appear unprepared, knowing you have to take the knocks, even if it means your death until the jaws swung shut.

Yes, he hated it.

But, he would do it for the Minbari, for his people.

He carefully ignored the voice which reminded him that he had turned the ‘opportunity' down, until Delenn herself had asked.

“"Sensor Ping... reading buried data code... 4498920, its Stingray, bang on time for twelve hour check-in”"

"“Understood”"

Lennier relaxed a little; at least their main ‘party favour' was still nearby, fully stealthed and just waiting for somebody to look at him and his ships funny.

“"Scan of second planet complete, no signs of advanced technology”"

“"Take us to the third world and begin scans"” he ordered, automatically.

He shuddered suddenly, glancing around. He was being watched, yet nobody was looking his way…

“"They're here”"

He hadn't realised he had spoken that out aloud till he saw the looks the Bridge crew were sending him, followed rapidly by calls on the intercom for the crew to come to readiness.

Whether he knew it or not, his crew trusted Lennier and they knew all to well that their race was psychic and that such premonitions were not to be taken lightly.

Lennier ordered the scans of the third planet continued, not that he expected to find anything, this was a dead system after all and he didn't want to give anything away, it would spoil the trap if the Drakh were really out there.

xxx

“"They're here”" unconsciously echoing Lenniers words, Dodge whispered his thought out loud.

The result was the same; humans might not be a psychic race generally but those crew who had been with Dodge for a while, and in a few cases that meant since the Belao class Diesel Submarine Stingray, knew to trust Dodges perception.

Quietly, the crew brought the stealthed warship to near full readiness, as close as they could get without compromising their ships stealth.

Not noticed by the wary, waiting Alliance vessels, the stars eclipsed momentarily as a dark, predatory shape passed across them, moving swiftly, decisively towards the small, visible Minbari fleet.