Chapter Thirteen
"Ying Tong Diddle Eye Poe"

EarthDome
Geneva
That day.

The command centre of Earth force command was as busy as ever with the tactical data being sent every hour from the command bases in every system the EA occupied, the fleets and stations as they were an hour ago were all plotted. The loss of three entire battlefleets with the last week had put a strain on the forward bases; the loss of the DSR posts had been painful with their attendant ships and refugee units from destroyed task forces all gutted by the Minbari advance.

Now news of an attack on the Midrange base at Beta Durani had come though, the best guess had been the Minbri were at least a year from attacking the most hevily fortified systems the Alliance possessed, it was apparent that Durani was attacked for some reason or another.

"General."

"Senator Clark."

"I've heard a rumour about Beta Durani being under attack."

"Yes Sir, it is the Minbari have sent an assault fleet to destroy the Base and shipyards."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"They wouldn't have attacked the base for no reason, somehow they knew that ship was there, or found out about the prototypes."

"Its possible Sir, that they attacked purely because they could."

"Unlikely General, let me know the second we have any information about the battles."

"Aye Sir." Leftcourt said to the retreating back of the Senator, the senator was out of the doors within seconds.

"Wanker." A soft voice said quietly from one of the crewmen as a small ripple of laughter came from the others around him, the general didn't say anything. How could he it was the same thing going through his own mind.

"Anything from Bernard's or Durani Base."

"No Sir both are still out of contact, the last transmission from Durani said they were under attack from thirty plus warships and fighter cover, all ships had been dispatched to hold the line. The minefields didn't even come close to stopping the Minbari."

"We didn't expect them to, the losses they took at Bernard's star would have taught them that. Anything Else?"

"No Sir. The reinforcement fleet sent to Bernard's is still out of contact, we won't know until they jump insystem."

"Thank you, Captain."

The General sat down in his chair, the stress and fatigue he was feeling, mingled with hopelessness and anger that he couldn't do anything for the crews out their fighting and dying for the Alliance.

He could only hope help would somehow come around.

Unclaimed System
Close to Centauri Space
One day ago.

The Patrols around the borders of Centauri space had intensified since the start of the Earth/Minbari war, the Centauri were well known for being allies and friends to an extent with the humans and so the Centaurium had voted to increase patrols amongst their remaining system holdings.

The Primus Class vessel and it's six Vorchan escorts jumped into an unclaimed system not far from the Centauri Border and close to what was considered by most to be Earth Alliance claimed space. The task force was dedicated to defending the area they were posted to from all comers be they League, Raider and Gods forbid the Minbari.

"All units have succeeded transition from Hyperspace, Sir."

"Good, contact the nearest long range sensor post, let them know we're on station."

"Aye, Sir."

"Sir, long range scanners are picking up something strange."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure what it is Sir, it's not on any records we have."

"How long for us to get there at real space speeds?"

"About eight hours at cruising speed, Sir."

"Very well take us they, order the rest of the Squadron to continue the patrol, we'll meet up with them when we can."

"Yes, Sir."

The six smaller cruisers broke away from the Battlecruiser and continued on leaving the larger ship to investigate the unusual phenomenon.

Durani Station
Omega Dockyards.

"Fire."

The long barrel of the Asgard based weapons system pulsed with energy and released a single pulse of energy at the Minbari ship in front of the Achilles, within the blink of an eye the pulse impacted the hull of the Sharlin.

The pulse entered the ship melting through the armour like it was tin foil and blowing out the other side of the ship destroying everything and anything in its way. The damage taken by the warcruiser was horrendous. An entire section, fully a third of the entire ship exploded outwards from the impact point, slabs of hull and armour melted or vaporised while more was sent spinning into the void ripped off of the hull by the immense energies released by the meeting of crystalline armour and Asgard based weapons.

The damage triggered off secondary explosions across the entire hull. Weapons systems exploded causing more damage to the still pristine lower hull sections, the internals superheated turning the crew into ash and causing more ruptures across the hull. The atmosphere still inside the ship was scorched away causing even more internal explosions, bulkheads and walls shattered under the heat of the boiling atmosphere the thick armour holding the heat inside the ship's hull.

The entire action took less than three seconds, the energy of the pulse started to dissipate as the ship started to drift in front of the surprised crews of both the Achilles and the Olympus corvettes. The ship was a sorry sight as now the energy from the pulse and the primary explosions had settled down, a few secondary explosions caused some damage to the pitted hull armour while plasma fires from the ship's compromised power systems cast their light over the powerless ship.

The hull of the Minbari vessel was gone, from the forward tip of the main cannons to the rear fin the hull had been shattered and blown apart by the bolt. The fins and some small sections of the lower hull were reasonably intact with breaks and ruptures seen across both sides.

On the bridge of the USAF Achilles the crew of the battle cruiser sat and watched the massive cruiser all but fall apart from the blast fired by their Asgard based weapon. Silence and shock were the main emotions running through the heads of every crewman that saw the carnage they had wrought on the Minbari ship.

"Sensors," Taylor whispered.

"Nothing Sir," the dumbstruck officer replied. "The entire ship's dead, no life signs, no EM radiation nothing. "Even the reactors are gone."

"Comms, contact Durani station tell them the Minbari ships are down, three crippled ships to be removed."

"Aye, Sir."

"Sir," Davis said. "The Minbari are still withdrawing, we could go after them."

"No, not yet Major, the main weapon works but we're still weeks from battleworthy. The Minbari have taken severe losses today, they won't be back for a while."

"Aye."

"Sir, message from the Nimitz, system is secure. The Minbari have jumped. They thank us for our assistance with the Minbari. The remaining ships crews all want to buy every crewmember a drink." He laughed.

"Signal confirmation and we'll take them up on the offer once the Achilles is combat ready."

"Aye, Sir."

The Achilles pulled away from the carnage, the three pitted, burnt and crippled wrecks spun in place where they were destroyed by the four warships. The Olympus corvettes held position flanking the Achilles as it retreated back to its pressurised slipway before leaving to return the remaining crew of the Nova to Durani station for medical treatment.

At the other end of the base the surviving members of the defence fleet were harrying the remaining Minbari ships in the system, the numbers had been cut to less than a sixth their number with forty ships still remaining on the side of the Earth forces.

The humans had been lucky and the overconfidence of the Minbari ships had sealed their fate, the massacre of almost half the ships with in minutes had allowed the humans free reign over the engagement leading to the loss of the battle for the Minbari warrior. The massive fire from so many heavy weapons had made their loss a forgone conclusion leaving now only five ships left to try and escape.

Three of the heavily damaged ships were burnt down by the continuing fire from the ships they were trying to evade, one Sharlin taking a missile strike destined for the Drala Fi. The last two ships, a heavily damaged Tinashi and the almost crippled Shargotti left the system through a jump point and fled.

The First Battle for Beta Durani was over.

Durani Station.
Post Battle + 1hr

The station was overwhelmed with request for medical and repair assistance from the surviving ships of the defence fleet. The ground based hospitals and station based infirmaries were all packed to the rafters with the wounded and ill. However even that wasn't enough, the few ships that had intact and ready sickbays both commissioned and under construction were all under use by the medical corps.

The fact that the Minbari ships left few survivors once they had attacked a ship was one of the few things that kept the medical teams from being totally overwhelmed by casualties from the battle, as it was even the damaged ships had immense casualties and every ship was damaged in some way.

A sixty-ship force had been stripped to forty ships by a force half their size. Fighter and fixed defensive weapons had taken the brunt and had taken many more casualties than the capital ships. Now only a few ships were even still in combat order with fewer crews to take them out.

But for the first time since the start of the war the Earth forces had struck a stunning blow to the naval forces of the Minbari. While they couldn't have done it alone the fact that they even had a chance now sent the humans in the system into an almost frenzied fervour.

The war was going badly that much was certain but the Minbari's losses on all fronts within the last week should hold them back for at least a while. Information from the Barnard's star station was encouraging; they had held back the Minbari time and again for over a month.

The losses at Barnard station were critical but the fifty ships the Minbari had lost combined with forty from the actions of the Achilles and the Earth forces at DSR4 and Durani Station would make the Minbari pause for a few days- enough for at least some of their nearly completed warships to be commissioned and updated with the new sensor systems from the Achilles.

"General."

"What is it Commander?"

"Sir the Achilles and Nova X crews have returned to the Omega Bays, all are accounted for with only a few minor casualties."

"Good, what about the Omega X?"

"The Corvettes are towing her back in Sir. She's badly damaged but salvageable."

"Hell of a day, Commander."

"Aye Sir, but we stopped the bastards before they could destroy us."

"Possibly, and it's possible they will come with even more ships next time and we won't stop them."

"Aye, Sir."

"What about the crippled wrecks at the Omega bays and at the Engagement point?"

"The wrecks at the engagement point won't be of much use, Sir. Most are damaged beyond any use and those that weren't exploded, some sort of self destruct. However the three at the Omega bays are another thing."

"How?"

"The three were heavily damaged by the Nova and the Achilles with some help from the corvettes and fighters but each is in some way useful." He brought up the information on the General's wall screen.

The three ships came up on the screen the blackened ends of two of the ships gave testament to the damage they had taken while a third in what seemed to be pristine condition rotated in place showing its badly scarred side.

"The Tinashi was hit early on but only a third of the hull was destroyed, anything centreline down is salvageable, weapons and armour and some other systems. The two Sharlins are different, the heavily damaged one has almost intact engine systems and the twin rear neutron weapons are damaged but salvageable. The last one you'll like, Sir."

The third Sharlin came up on the screen still turning in space.

"As far as we can tell the life support blew, everyone aboard was killed in seconds when the corvettes stuck the ship. With the exception of the areas hit by our ships, she's intact."

"Meaning…"

"Meaning Sir, we have everything, weapons, defences, engines, fighters, shuttles, the ship's database. And Sir we have a fully functional reactor to study as well."

"Who knows of this?"

"The salvage squad myself and you, Sir."

"No one else is to learn about any of this Commander, get me a coded transmission to Earthdome immediately."

"Aye, Sir."

If this was all true then the Intel grasped from the Minbari ship could be of immense value to the Alliance, as much as the technology offered to them by the Achilles was worth. With both the Minbari wouldn't stand a chance.

EarthDome
General Lefcourt's office.
Six hours post battle

General Leftcourt was pacing his office; there had been no response from with the reinforcements fleet or the shipyards at Beta Durani in almost twenty-four hours and the waiting was making him more that a little nervous. The base at Beta Durani was as heavily armed as any in the outer systems, but with the pure amount of firepower that had been arrayed against each destroyed base within the last week not even that may be enough.

With luck, the assistance from the Achilles crew might allow Earthforce some latitude when it came to later engagements. It was fortunate that their equipment could be replicated using standard EA technologies. The few systems they had full access too had been a windfall for the Alliance, with them the battlefield would be all but equal.

Except for the problems certain senators seemed to have with their new allies.

"General we have an incoming communication from Durani Base."

"Put it through." He turned to the monitor, "Dammit William what happened we've been trying to contact you for almost a day."

"General, a Minbari assault fleet numbering thirty six vessels attacked the station and the dockyards."

"My god, what's the damage?"

"Sir, we lost twenty ships and several small defensive Installations. Other ships were damaged in the attack."

"Dammit, we'll get more ships out to you soon, use anything you need to from the shipyards to bolster you defences."

"Aye, Sir…" The General seemed to be having problems getting something out. Lefcourt noticed this and asked what was the matter, had something else gone wrong?

"No, Sir, we had assistance from the Achilles and we drove off the Minbari. Sir, the Minbari retreated from the battle with only two heavily damaged ships left."

"What? Could you please say that again General"

"With the assistance given us from the Achilles we were able to see them. Sir, we got almost all of them. The two that got away are damaged and have no fighter cover."

"This is impossible."

"Sir, we've got the records to prove it, we're sending everything via hyperspace courier. This isn't something we can transmit."

"Agreed, send us the reports as soon as possible. Well done, General."

"Thank you Sir. One last thing an attack by the Nova and corvettes assisting the Achilles crippled two of the Minbari ships a Frigate and a War Cruiser, the Achilles destroyed one other Cruiser."

"How much can we get out of them?"

"Sir, you don't seem to understand, The warcruiser is almost intact."

"Intact, we have an intact Minbari warship."

"The Sharlin is almost intact Sir," he repeated. "Every system aboard is in working order as far as we can tell, her database is intact a well. It's an intel goldmine."

"Stay on the line, General. I'm ordering a reinforcement force to assist. We need that ship sent to Io station immediately. "

"Aye, Sir. "

"The Achilles?"

"They are intact Sir and alive, but they're still not ready for long range travel."

"Orders stand. General, give them all the help you can."

"Understood, Sir."

"Earthdome out."

Leftcourt sat back in his chair, he couldn't wait to see the records and reports on this battle. It wasn't everyday that you receive such a treasure trove of information. Twice in one week may seem excessive or what people used to call Deus Ex Machina but maybe just maybe someone out there was looking out for them.

Gods knows they needed the help.

"Communications get me the head of R&D."

"Aye, Sir."