Chapter 89
Babylon Falling
Babylon 5 Space Station
Orbiting Episilon Eridani 3
August 5, 2271
Sergeant Major Webb Knox was having a very bad day. His platoon had taken huge numbers of casualties as the Jem'Hadar had taken level by level. They'd made them pay for it, but the Jem'Hadar had been reinforcing their troops from where they had breached Babylon 5's hull. They had managed to get some Narn reinforcements, as well as Klingon and Minbari reinforcements, as the forces of light had been able to hold off the enemy long enough to allow troops transports to dock.
On his level, in Green sector, none of the new alien troops had made his way down to where he was yet, but he did pick up his gal's remaining platoon. Sgt. Major Jean Laurence's troops had also taken heavy losses, and they combined their forces to try and stem the tide against the Jem'Hadar.
"Knox! They're getting into the mosque! Should we go topside to help out," said his communications tech, Corporal Marvin Reeves.
"Negative! Let the newbies handle it! We've got to keep these guys off of them! Jenkins, how long until they burn though the next pressure doors,"
"Five minutes, Sarge. Maybe less. They've gotten wise to the tactic and they've stopped using their phaser rifles to cut through. Bolivar just came in with a bunch of thermal grenades that Lochley sent down!"
"Sweet! I have an idea, Knox. C'mon," said Laurence, and Knox followed her to find out what she had in mind.
About fifteen minutes later, they had set up a trap for the Jem'Hadar. They had managed to channel them down a series of open pressure doors into a sealed corridor, where they had hidden the grenades, spread out and tied into a central detonator. The enemy filled the corridor and began to work on the pressure door. They didn't even notice the door behind them slide shut as Laurence's trap was set.
"Fire in the hole," she yelled, and the troops sprang for shelter as she pressed the trigger. A huge explosion followed and a massive ball of flame rolled just inches over her head.
"Whoo-hoo! Damn that was fun! C'mon you bastards! Let's see if we killed all them animals," cried Knox. His troop carefully went over to check the corridor, and they were relieved to find that all the Jem'Hadar had been wiped out.
"Not bad. And we still have enough grenades to do this about four or five more times. C'mon, let's go find us some craggy heads," Laurence said, and the Marines were off.
In the Observation Dome, the battle was turning bad again. Voyager had been hit, and her captain had to take her out of the fight and get repaired. She barely managed to prevent a warp core breach, but the loss of the ship seemed to turn the battle against them.
"Captain, we've lost three more Whitestars, and the Dominion is reporting fire on most of her decks. We've got Klingon and Romulan ships coming in to aid us, but we've also picked up more enemy ships as well.," called out Tamara Bass, one of her techs. Then Bass was killed when her console blew up in front of her, and Lochley was scratched on the cheek by a flying piece of it.
"Dammit! Check her for vital signs. If she'd dead, clear her out and see if we can get that console fixed," Lochley called out. She hated to sound as cold as that, but this was war and the enemy wasn't going to pause to let her attend to the wounded.
The battle raged on outside the station, and from what she could tell, their side was starting to lose the battle. The enemy was flanking them from both sides, and their forces were being made to cover all angles of attack, never being able to corner the enemy and force them to fight face to face.
"Captain, we've got more breaching pods heading towards the station! They're headed towards Blue Sector!"
Lochley closed her eyes, and began to realize that she was closing in on her own death. She took a moment to calm herself, then she ordered, "Break out the heavy weapons! If they want this station, they'll have to take it over our..."
"Sir! We're picking up...I don't believe it! Vorlon and Shadow ships!"
"Lemme see," said Lochley, and the tech punched up a schematic onto her screen. They looked at first to be heading to her own forces, but, to her complete bafflement, the Vorlons and the Shadows began to attack the Ragendora and the Jem'Hadar!
"My God, sir! The Vorlons and Shadows are joining forces! We've just picked up more Ragendoran forces and they're moving to intercept!"
Lochley could tell the battle was not yet over, but hope had been rekindled, in the most bizarre way possible!