Changed Circle
by Warringer
Chapter Seventeen
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From the surface of Earth it looked like a big firework. Short living suns were lighting up before fizzling out. Not many people knew that each of the short lived suns was a space ship with hundreds of lives perishing.
Some said that Earth was the best protected planet in Known Space and the Battle of Earth just showed that they were right.
Half of Earth's Planetary Defense Platforms were in range of the battle and able to get their shots in, as where three of five Planetary Siege Fortresses. And they did their best to fill the vacuum of space between Earth and Moon with death in form of laser beams, plasma bolts, gauss and MAC rounds.
Thousands of fighters also filled their roles, attacking the smaller Nials, while the Platforms and Fortresses where dealing with the larger Tinashis and Sharlins. It was the largest dogfight in Earth history. Anti-fighter missiles homed in on Nials like an alcoholic on the next drink, gauss rounds found their marks, shattering crystalline armor or ripped through unfortunate Minbari warriors.
But even than, the Terran fighters where taking an huge toll, for each Nial taken out by a fighter, one fighter ceased to exist. And for each large ship, one or two Platforms blew up, dotting the night sky below with the light of their detonation.
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President Ryan closed his eyes for a moment and than looked back at the holographic projection in front of him. It was a massacre. And even if the Minbari took huge losses, they continued to push towards Earth.
Some minor holograms showed detail shot of the fight, especially around the huge Siege Fortresses. The Fortresses were under attack of a large number of Minbari fighters, who took out minor weapons emplacements, but didn't manage to do anything against the large weapons, as some of those where as large as a frigate.
"Send a general call to the Minbari and ask them to surrender," Ryan said finally," This blood shed doesn't have to happen."
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Neroon was furious and afraid, even if he didn't even admit it to himself. First the Battle of Zendamor was lost by the Warriors Caste, than Minbar was attacked by sev eral small Terran vessels and now the Warriors couldn't even destroy the defenses of a single planet.
"Aylt," one of his subordinates called out," A human transmission."
Neroon glared at the subordinate and had to hold to a nearby console as his ship was shook by another hit from one of those blasted Platforms.
"Play it," he demanded and the voice of a human filled the bridge.
Neroon's head became red as he listened to the human voice and its demand for the surrender of the fleet. It didn't matter that it was essentially true that the Minbari couldn't win this, not with half of their fleet already destroyed by the Platforms and Fortresses.
He pressed his eyes shut for a moment. This whole battle couldn't be won. And even if all ships continued to fight, the fleet would be completely wiped out by the humans.
His next decision mirrored the decision during the Battle of Zendamor.
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Space above Earth was busy as the Phalanx Drones started to enter the dogfights over the Siege Fortresses. Too many fighters had fallen pray to the faster and more nimble Nials, not to mention the flak positions.
And where the Phalanx Drones went, Nials were destroyed.
Each Phalanx Drone was a rather new development and not many had been produced. About ten meters in diameter they had the shape of a pentagon dodecaeder, a twelve sided object with pentagon shaped sides.
Propelled by twelve independent small gravimetric drives they had an unmatched maneuverability and could make turns only a computer controlled system could. Lacking the systems needed for life support of a pilot, it had a huge weapon load out, each side pointing a single rapid fire pulse plasma weapon into one of twelve directions. Combined with an autonomous computer system and its maneuverability, a Phalanx Drone was more than a match to the Nials.
The Drones zipped through the clouds of Nials, rotating around any axis, their rapid fire weapons raining death onto the Minbari fighters, wiping out entire wings in a short time.
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Not even half an hour after the beginning of the battle of Earth the Minbari had taken huge losses. About two thirds of their ships had fallen pray to the Defense Platforms, the cybernetic control systems, just a step below a real AI, taking out a higher percentage of Sharlins than Tanashis.
It was also not even ten minutes since the only about fifty Phalanx Drones had entered the fight. Losing only five of their number, they had managed to take down about one thousand Nials, reducing the total number down to about four and a half thousand from originally about ten thousand Nials.
The Earth Planetary Defense Network would have taken out more than that, but the Minbari did the only thing they could do, they bailed out. Jump Points opened and the remains of the Attack Fleet vanished into Jump Space.
Only a few Nials and some damaged Tanashis remained behind, but they were dealt with rather fast.
The Battle of Earth was over, half of the Earth Home Fleet and six hundred Defense Platforms destroyed. But Earth remained unscratched.
And the Pentagon already planned the next Operation against the Minbari.
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G'Kar looked at the old Angla'shok in front of him. He wouldn't have thought that the Minbari would so something like that. But considering the Terran success in this war, it was understandable. It was also understandable that it happened to be the Religious Caste who wanted peace. The Warriors wouldn't even dream of making peace on their own and the Workers were furious, according to the Angla'shok.
"I will see what I can do," he said and nodded," I'm about to go to Earth in a few days anyway. I will meet with President Ryan and tell him about our conversation."