Part
Six
"Where's the kaboom…"
USAF Achilles:
"Sir, a small group has broken off from the main force- we have inbound."
"Composition."
"One escort, slight sensor echo distortion, signal consistent with Earthforce records of Minbari Tinashi Class Escort, plus approximately twenty four smaller signals, possibly Nial Class fighters."
"Red alert! Have the fighters come in from behind. Keep us between them and the Minbari. All weapons to full; railguns to computer targeting,"
"All weapons ready, Sir. The fighters have the same type of sensor sheath device as the other ships however we can get a lock on them. The bigger ships are more difficult to see. Scans of the escort are at eighty percent, the big bastards at sixty percent. We can target them but not much more."
"That's more than enough."
The Air Force warship watched and waited as the blue crystalline vessels pulled closer and closer to them and to the earth fleet.
"Time to weapons range."
"Twenty seconds."
"Open Comms… I repeat we wish you no harm please respond to this communication."
"No response on any band Sir, Neutrino or Radio."
"You sure they can hear us." That was not question.
"Oh I'm sure, Sir. I just don't think they care."
"Weapons, when in range take those ships out."
"Aye, Sir."
"Incoming."
Across the entire ship both heavy railguns and missile launchers locked onto the incoming targets, the crystal/silicon chip targeting systems calculating and recalculating shooting solutions against every ship in range, fighter and capital ship alike. Within seconds the first squadron had passed into weapons range of the small warship, their first strafing run all but useless as their scanners could not lock onto the Air force Battle cruiser. The ship's shields withstood the first attack without a problem the energy blasts from the fighters dissipating against the transparent energy field enveloping the Human warship. Within seconds the next squadron came into range fast and hard making an attempt to eyeball the attack.
They never knew what hit them.
From almost two dozen points across the ship's hull, small projectiles raked the squadrons from all angles, the massively accelerated titanium rounds ripped through the fighters as if their armour wasn't even there. The remaining dozen and a half fighter pilots all but froze as they saw a full half a dozen of their brethren wiped out by the solid rounds. Those few seconds would be their undoing.
In groups and pairs the survivors were ripped from the stars leaving no survivors. After less than a minute six fighters made up what was left of the two fighter squadrons. Those survivors were then pounced by the Eight 302s that had been hiding behind the sensor shadow generated by the ship's shielding.
"Alpha 1 to all Alphas, hit 'em and hit 'em hard."
"Alpha 2 acknowledges."
"Alpha 3, got it."
All seven of the other squadron members were well trained and knew their vessels inside and out. The fast and agile starfighters came in guns blazing. From six of the 302s enhanced Sidewinders left their rails heading into the group of fighters. The Missiles detonated on contact with the skins of the fighters immolating many of the fighters and leaving little debris behind, the survivors were then picked off by the guns of the twin 302s that had swung around and hit from the rear destroying both.
The crew of the Minbari escort were enraged at the almost casual destruction of their escorting fighter squadrons. Driving their engines to full, the nine hundred metre warship came in all weapons blazing heading straight at the Achilles. Neutron blasts and Fusion cannon fire constantly raked the shield perimeter with enough force to rip apart any known ship several times over. The shields seemed to take the fire with barely a waver, the energy weapons not touching the thick armour of the ship it protected.
The sight left both a Minbari and Earth fleets in a state of shock.
"Hit them again, give them everything we've got." The commander of the Minbari escort Hal'avann screamed at his men as the ship came under attack from multiple vectors as a half dozen Naquada missiles and fire from the highly accurate rail guns impacted from all sides. The 302's pulled away and out of range as anti-fighter fire erupted from the much larger warship the fire, missing all of the highly agile fighters. Fusion cannon fired again and again as they tried to hit the earth ship as only three or four salvos managed to hit ( or touch ) the fast manoeuvring USAF warship. More fire impacted from the fighters crippling the ship further.
EA Nautilus
"That's impossible," a voice piped up in the silent bridge of the Nova Class Dreadnaught.
"Commander, did I just see that right?" The newly promoted Captain Smith looked to his Executive officer in shock, who returned the stare.
"That… that ship took a dozen hits that would have carved us up like a roast?"
"Uhh, yeah and the rest."
"Sir, If I could figure out what we just saw I'd win the Nobel Prize."
"How the hell did they do that?"
The scanners of the Earthforce ship had recorded what could only be described as a massacre and for the first time since the war's beginning it was not the Earth fleet being wiped out. The power behind the Achilles must be 9 (or had to be) enormous, more than their limited knowledge of the ship's systems implied. The small ship was just coasting through space allowing the enemy to come to them and wiping them out and from what they had been told this wasn't even close to the Achilles' Alpha strike capability.
"Sir we've got scanner locks on the Tinashi," exclaimed the Sensor officer
"What?"
But apparently the shocks kept on coming.
"The rest of the Minbari Capital ships are inbound, their coming right in at us."
"Ahh hell. All ships pull back we'll see what the Achilles does."
"We've hit them; direct hit on all forward sections, their sensor sheath is down," came news from the Sensor officer.
"Sir they're trying to get off a distress call."
"Let them."
"Aye, Sir."
"Watch for the other Minbari ships and concentrate fire on enemy weapons and engines, disable do not destroy," came the order
"Aye sir, railguns firings, Hi-Ex missiles being loaded."
"Fire when ready."
"Five seconds to missile lock." The weapons officer said
Blood of Dukhat.
The two Sharlin Class Warcruisers glided into their weapons range and started firing at the Human warfleet. While the four ships of the fleet were outnumbered almost eight to one, that number meant little as they knew that the Earther ships couldn't hit or even see them properly. Grim satisfaction was on the Commander's face as his ship eviscerated another Earthforce dreadnaught as the ship tried to close its range. Its sister ship crippling two Hyperion Cruisers while the escorts and fighters cleared the stars of the pesky Earther Starfuries.
"Alyt, we are receiving a distress call from the force sent against the anomaly. Confrmed it's a vessel and the Hal'avann is requesting help immediately."
"Confirm."
"Confirmed. Fighter squadrons have been decimated, the Hal'avann is crippled, and their drives are down."
"Impossible! No ship of the known races has that power."
"Agreed, but this ship is an unknown. We are receiving an updated distress call from the Hal'avann. All fighters have been destroyed and the unknown ship is moving on an intercept course with the rest of our ships."
"Sent both remaining escorts to assist the Hal'avann, do what they have to to destroy that ship. Both warcruisers are to stay stationary until their return but kill anything in range."
"Looks like the call's been answered, the two remaining escorts are coming in full speed, four more fighter squadrons are also inbound, looks like all their fighters, Sir."
"Bring us to an attack bearing, disable that damaged ship and ready all ship to ship weapons. Take them down. Railguns to independent controls, and take out those fighters."
"Aye, Sir."
The last of the non enhanced missiles left the rear launchers of the Achilles and impacted on the Minbari ship's rear half disabling its power plant completely, the Minbari ship's energy profile evaporated and its weapons ceased firing. The frigate now sat dead and drifting in space. The Achilles turned to face the incoming Minbari warships, her eight fighters staying closer to the Achilles to assist with anti-fighter work and to take advantage of the bigger ship's defensive fire and ECM fields.
"Enemy ship closing full intercept course… looks like they've decided not to take us alive."
"Target both ships and densest concentrations of fighters, Naquada missiles to proximity detonation maximum yield."
"Targets acquired twenty seconds to firing range."
"Railguns, weapons dispersal omega, kill any surviving fighters and if possible target and cripple enemy weapons systems."
"Aye, Sir."
"Ten seconds."
"Ready all tubes."
"Tubes ready, one through four are armed."
"Targets in range."
"Fire tubes one and two."
"Missiles away."
The two heavy Naquada enhanced missiles left the tubes and headed towards the incoming fleet, each at a separate tangent, and both were aimed straight at the highest concentration of Minbari signals. The two heavy missiles heading towards the inside of the formation were intercepted by the fighters well ahead of the escorts.
"Fighter Intercept in three...two... one..." The Achilles Tac officer called out."
"Detonate."
The two powerful enhanced tactical nukes detonated in the midst of the Minbari fighters and the tiny reaction was multiplied by one hundred times by the raw naquada ore causing the explosion to propagate outwards with impressive force. The first waves of fighters attempting to destroy the missiles were caught by the nuclear explosion wiping them out, other fighters close on their heels were hit by the blast wave and the powerful and deadly radiation killing their pilots and ripping the hulls apart. The third and forth waves were able to escape the explosive effects with minimal losses, pulling back they returned to the Tinashi frigates.
For the first time the Minbari were getting their butts handed to them by a single small, unknown but immensely powerful ship. The pilots and crew of the Minbari task force were rightly scared by the fact that this new arrival had cut the Minbari force by over a third in just minutes of contact.
Tinashi Frigate Zen'Falli:
"Contact the Task force Commander, notify him that we are pulling away from the engagement to regroup."
"Yes Alyt."
"Damage report."
"EM damage to all external systems, two fusion cannons are down and EMPs are out of action."
"What was that they used against our vessels."
"It was a primitive atomic weapon as used by the lesser races of the galaxy."
"That was no atomic explosion like any I have ever seen."
"There was a secondary radiation signature of some form from the explosion, an unknown mineral or compound may have been responsible for the increase in explosive yield."
"Try to identify it or failing that try to find out anything from the scans taken, if the Humans get hold of quantities of this material they may become more of a threat."
"At once Alyt."
The Alyt of the Minbari escort ship looked back up at the holographic systems that comprised his ship's control room; the view was not heartening as he watched the hole in the scans the unknown ship currently occupied. Whatever that ship had in the way of defences it was holding back the scans of their warships and while their sensor shroud seemed to keep some of the unknown vessel's scans away from them it was obvious that they had some targeting ability, and that was what frightened him the most.
The rest of the diorama was little more than a crippled frigate and the little remaining debris of four completely destroyed fighter squadrons, the loss of life had been tremendous. All the Minbari ships had come to a total standstill hopefully outside of firing range of the new ship.
"Alyt we are receiving a transmission from the unknown ship."
Again the Humans wished to talk, he might allow this as the time gained would give the Minbari forces a chance to regroup and come up with a better strategy, so for the first time in this war a Minbari Captain would talk with a captain of an enemy ship.
"Put it through." The Alyt ordered, looking up he looked at the holographic representation of the Human's communication.
"This Is Major Paul Davis of the United States Air Force vessel Achilles."
"I am Alyt Dev'ann of the Minbari Warship Zen'Falli."
"Finally, I am glad someone decided to talk face to face with us."
"We were not sure of who or what you and your ship were, are you Human?"
"Does that really matter, Alyt?"
"We are at war with the race known as Humanity; we have been given orders not to stop until the cosmos is rid of those who murdered the greatest of us."
"We understand that it was a mistake on the part of one Captain of one ship."
"As do we, however we see that Humans are barbaric and must not be allowed to expand any further, therefore we are to wipe them from the face of history."
"So you're willing to wipe out billions of innocents for the loss of one man, what kind of people are you?"
"We are the Minbari we have strode the stars for a thousand years."
"And that makes you immediately correct in all things?"
"The Humans attacked..."
"The Humans made a mistake they thought your people were going to fire on them."
"Nonetheless, they killed out leader."
"For that they face extinction?"
"Yes, barbarians have no place in the stars."
"And the fact you're killing all these innocents that had nothing to do with the first battle doesn't make you as bad?"
"What makes you think..."
"What gives YOU the right?"
"You Humans are all alike; not willing to take blame for your actions. You are to be removed at all costs."
"Then try it and you'll see what we can really do."
"Hundreds of Human ships have tried to stop us and died. You will fair no better."
"We've heard worse from races much older than you Minbari and we've defeated them time and again. Your arrogance will lead to your race's downfall." The Achilles XO looked directly into the eyes of the Minbari Captain, "We are not from this area of space but we will protect your brothers and sisters out here in the stars with all we have. End transmission."
"Foolish Humans, ready all weapons."
"Alyt the rest of the taskforce is coming through to back us up, Human ships are stationary."
"When the rest of the force arrives, we'll attack the Human Ship from all flanks transmit updated tactical information and a copy of that transmission to the flagship."
"Yes, Alyt"
"The Humans will know their place."
"Agreed, no ship could take all of our ships and survive the encounter."
"No known ship can survive an encounter with one of our heaviest ships yet this 'human' warship seems to just ignore our counterfire. It is unsettling at best"
"Alyt this ship may just be an anomaly I doubt it even belongs to the humans."
"And If it does?"
"Then we destroy it and move on, if they had more we would have seen them by now."
"Agreed and with their destruction the Humans will be more cowed than before, even the most powerful ship they have will fall before us."
USAF Achilles:
"I think you pissed 'em off, Sir."
"I'm not surprised. Ship's status?"
"Weapons are at full, railguns ammo at ninety seven percent, naq missiles are loaded with secondary salvo of non enhanced nukes ready. Main gun ready for firing."
"Shields?"
"Minbari fire had dropped them to seventy four percent, regeneration is continuing, engineering reports some damage to the repaired systems. Shields will top out at seventy six percent until we can get a full dock."
"It'll have to do-engines?"
"Sublight at maximum, Hyperspace Generator ready for immediate use."
"Sir," the sensor officer spoke up, "Scans show those big fish have broken off their advance on the Earthforce ships and are coming in fast."
"Then lets meet them halfway, weapons fire tubes one through four. Kill those escorts and as many fighters as you can."
"Shooting solution ready. Firing missiles."
This time four missiles were fired in the vicinity of the Minbari backed up by a massive and constant stream of railgun fire to keep their heads down, last of all the Achilles and fighter escort came barrelling down at the Minbari from behind the massed weapons fire. Already stricken and scared by the loss of so many fighters the surviving squadrons broke and ran from the incoming fire, giving the Earth-built fighters a good view of their tails as they cracked the ranks with accurate missile and cannon fire. More fighters were caught by the blast wave of a prematurely detonated missile that crippled one Minbari ship's port weapons. Two more missiles were shot down by accurate anti-missile fire from the Tinashi's smaller weapons.
The forth and last missile was dead on target as it slammed into the gravitational defence field around the already crippled Minbari ship, detonating as it did so- the explosive force was immense and all but annihilated the forward two thirds of the Minbari escort in the energy of a small sun. The EMP of the explosion shorted out the rest of the damaged ship's systems sending it out of control just missing its patrol partner and the Achilles' fighters. Railgun fire poured out of the small ship's ports raking the second ship with hundreds of titanium rounds across it's flank.
This close however the Tinashi could unload every weapon in it's disposal at point blank range, visual targeting was acquired and fusion cannons raked across the Earth Warship's starboard flank only to be absorbed or refracted by the shields, The neutron weapons hit microseconds after the fusion cannons had, the energy once again being drained away as the less powerful fusion weapons fire had. Accurate railgun fire turned the weapons point to so much scrap metal destroying the Minbari vessel's combat ability.
"Alyt, systems are going down all over the ship. Weapons are failing."
"Enemy missiles are launching."
He had no choice. "Fire the antimatter cannon hit those missiles."
"Yes, Alyt.."