-Chapter II-
'The Battle of Diemos would later be considered a textbook example by many. To the humans it would become the battle by which all future engagements would be judged on. For the Minbari tthough, it would become their first acquaintance in nearly 1000years with that delightful demon known to humans as Murphy.'
- Historical Military Engagements And Tactics: 2200-2300 by Kahri G'kar (an excerpt of required text from the Narn Military Academy, 2328)
No one was quite sure when the Deimos station was nicknamed 'Donna's Restaurant' by the Jupiter fleet crews, or even where the reference came from. To most it was the first sign of civilization they had seen for months since crossing the vast empty area separating the outer planets from the inner ones. Buried partially inside the asteroid were the only two vivarium cylinders in the entire inner solar system. Both were rotating in opposite directions, canceling the torque they individually created, at just the right speed for a 1g environment to be contained within them. Though far smaller then the O'neils orbiting the distant Earth, they held nearly three quarters of a million people in total. Most of the colonies around Earth scoffed at the station, wondering how anyone could live in such cramped spaces, while those at Deimos wondered why anyone sane would want to live around a planet who's government would gas them all in a heartbeat if even a minor riot broke out. Greener pastures and a pleasant view were nice, but not having to worry about getting stuck in the middle of a war, and being a billion miles and more from anything important enough to shoot at, made looking at reddish rock all day long seem not so bad after all. And that's exactly what thirty three 6th graders, their parents, and one hassled teacher were doing outside in one of the station's many civilian shuttles.
Every year the colony school district held a mandatory 'field trip' for a week, where the students learned to use full-fledged spacesuits for the first time. Prior to taking the class, none of them had clearance to even open an airlock, let alone exit the hull, except in a colonywide emergency. Even when they were allowed outside it had to be with an adult accompanying them with a lifeline attached at all times. In many ways this class was like how the pre-UC age teenager felt when finally being given a driver's permit, and then their license, a rite of passage so to speak. And like almost all of the classes before, the students were clustered together and chatting about the first stunt or maneuver they'd pull once outside and on their own.
The first student out of the airlock, Janet Montrow, was having so much fun in the suit looking at all the cool controls that she never spotted the grab-bar encircling the lock in front of her foot and went flipping end over end because of it. The rest of the class watched as she sailed away until bouncing back as the 100 meter long bungee lifeline attached to her mother and father went taut and then pulled her back in. When she came back in close enough to see through the faceshield, it was clear she was fuming even as her friends laughed at the expression. And when she bounced off the hull after trying to reach for it instead of using her thrusters to slow her it only made her fume even more.
Her teacher didn't help matters when he mentioned how important it was to keep an eye on everything in open space like this. At least he was able to hide his grin behind his teaching mask, as he knew that bar was only present for each class' first time out. It never failed to catch at least one of the students to send them off into a tumble, and always gave the teacher in charge a chance to mention safety concerns. He couldn't keep the scowl up for long, as Janet was looked cute as a button when she scrunched up her face like that, and she was very quick to pick up on details like this. "Alright Janet, get back with the rest. And stop it with that scowling. Be glad we don't take off the lifelines for another three days or you'd still be out there spinning like a top."
Suitably subdued by that, she nodded, and like the quick study she was, used her own body inside the suit to begin to turn her, saving on the reaction mass it stored. "Mr. Montrow, I do believe she's going to be a natural, at least as soon as she stops bouncing around." the teacher mentioned on a side channel dedicated only for the parents. It kept the children from hearing anything too embarrassing, as they were nearing that age where they'd rebel if they felt they were being imposed on. With the lethality of open vacuum, every little edge helped. If it looked like a parent had tugged on a lifeline by accident, or had floated by at just the right moment by sheer coincidence, then no egos could be bruised, and therefore the less likely chance of someone doing something stupid just from getting peeved off.
Several minutes into the class everyone had spread out over roughly half a kilometer, suit lights twinkling like Christmas ornaments in the darkness. It was hard work, but most of the kids had managed to steady themselves down and perform the more basic maneuvers, completely forgetting about their earlier boasting. Everyone was so caught up with it, and knowing nothing was in the area – it had all be 'plowed' clear a day earlier using a homegrown 'beam-bulldozer' to eliminate anything that could puncture a suit – that no one noticed the four small blue craft headed in their direction. Even the teacher hadn't really noticed them, but he had kept a comline open to the pilot of the shuttle. He couldn't hear what was being transmitted to the pilot from elsewhere, but he certainly heard the woman asking who was incoming in the area that was supposed to be off-limits at the moment. Checking with the pilot, he lightly touched the thrusters and angled himself in their direction. Being that he was in a modified SAR suit just to be on the safe side if the worse-case scenario happened with a student, his helmet had a small magnifying scope and HUD built in, and spotted the formation only a few dozen kilometers away. How'd they get that close was beyond him, but probably because he couldn't see a thrust trail and they'd been coming in cold.
"This is Erik Volksroy to unknowns. You are entering an underage civilian EVA training zone. Wave off. I repeat, wave off." Not receiving a response, he turned his attention to the shuttle. "Marie, did you catch my call or are we getting minovsky build-ups?" There wasn't a reason in the world for him to think about the minovsky effect, with nothing out here of value, and the EVA zones were places that were almost never violated, but instinct drove him to mention it anyways.
"Sorry teach, I'm not picking up a single minovsky outside of our reactor. Maybe they got nailed in the radiation belt or something and their transmitters are out?"
Sighing with relief, Erik let himself relax. Several times recently some damn fool thrillseeker pilots had tried aero-brake 'skipping' across Mar's atmosphere. The last one had fried all his externals, and had to pop the hatch to manually pilot his way back. The one before that wasn't so lucky, being charred to a crisp and spread out over half a million kilometers after his craft had vaporized. "Well, at least these ones made it back. I'll get the kids and parents back inside and we'll clear out of their way."
"Sure thing. Just signal if you need the grasper arm to catch one of those ki…"
Erik never saw what happened. But a bright yellowish light streaking past him, and when he turned the shuttle had come apart, split down the middle as if someone had filleted it open. A split second later another beam came in and finished the job, breaking what was left into pieces. Turning back to face the incoming craft he was caught speechless for a second in total shock and disbelief.
"Unknowns, this is a civilian group! For god's sake there are children out here!" He was practically screaming over the line, completely forgetting that he'd left the channel open to the parents, and they heard every word. All of them spun as one just in time to see the after-image of his body turn to ash in yet a third beam. Had they known what was being said aboard the incoming craft, they would have all scrambled for safety instead of staying clustered in shock. Not that it would have done the least amount of good, except delaying the inevitable.
-----
The first Nial pilot sighed in relaxation after the irritating voice was put down. "Ah, thank you Kiral. That suit was beginning to annoy me with its chatter."
"Not a problem sir. Although, what should we do about the remaining suits in the area?" replied his first wingmate. He had a point after all. It just wasn't proper to leave a well done strafing job unfinished. Even if they target had been all but standing still, and had fallen apart after only a single hit. Even the drones back home around Minbar could withstand up to five hits. Then it hit him for an idea.
"Well, we have some free time until we hit that station. Those small ones are moving so erratically right now that we might as well be on the range. Go to maximum maneuvering, and try to see if you can hit one with each shot. We might as well get in some target practice before we move in."
All three of the warrior caste chuckled quietly about that. A fun and easy practice run was a good way to warm up, and went at it with gusto. Even with the frantic maneuvering, stunts, and every trick that those in the suits knew, they were all picked off singly one by one. The last one remaining had shown a remarkable skill for dodging through it all, and had even avoiding no less then three beams!
Janet couldn't even comprehend what was happening. Flashes of light appeared from every direction, and each time another voice when off the channels. No screams of pain, or shrieks, or even static. Just silence. After a minute she realized that no one was left to respond to her. "Daddy? Momma? Anyone, is anyone there?" She had paused to make the transmission and never saw or felt the neutron beam that came from behind her and severed her at mid-chest, flash-frying her in the remains of the suit, where it would slowly float away and burn up as yet another piece of debris as it plunged down into Mars' gravity.
"Damn, I only clipped it. Stupid trash." Muttered the second of the three, to the jeers of his wingmates.
"Hah, who are you calling stupid? You let trash like that dodge your fire three times and when you finally hit it you only wing it? You need to go back to flight school."
"Oh be quiet the both of you. Just be happy you got the extra practice. As for you Kiral, check your targeting array when we get back. Its probably misaligned, and that's what caused it." The wingleader didn't even consider the misses as anything but a fluke, and treated it as such. Fun over, they returned to their primary mission and bored in on the Deimos moon just as its defenders were getting over their shock at the massacre and begun to respond accordingly.
--
Maintaining a colony cylinder, much less two of them embedded side-by-side in a moon, was a neverending experience. Even when the Buch Concern had outright purchased the entire colony for itself, beginning with a massive overhaul, it still required checking day in and day out. While the overhaul was mostly completed, it had caused a large number of headaches and bickering from the population. To sooth them a little, the CEO of the Concern made it policy that anyone in the upper management had to perform EVA maintenance duties at least one day out of every week right alongside their employees. Even the CEO wasn't immune to this, nor his son. Both men were regulars on the duty roster, even taking extra shifts to show an example for their workers. And even then they didn't limit themselves to a 'safe' job, tending the mirrors, or checking for cracks in the transparent OrbGlass. Instead they took to checking the rotational thrusters and the rotational blocks themselves – a single mistake there could crush a four hundred meter long battleship under nearly a billion tons of colony like a child crushed tissue paper in their ands.
That was their job today in fact. Both Scharnhorst Buch and his son Meitzer were out clearing out possible blockages in the Alpha cylinder's dock end rotational array. Scharnhorst as usual preferred his Ball for practicality, and was welding away at some plating that had gotten nicked by a micro-metoroid sometime between the shifts. Off to the side hovered a far larger suit, a Dra-C, painted in brilliant crimson and white – Meitzer's personal 'toy'. How he'd managed to get his hands on it when the Axis fleet had returned with the survivors of the Delaz fleet back in 0083 was a mystery. Still fully outfitted it made for an intimidating sight at first, or at least until quick acting by its pilot had saved an entire work crew from becoming a pinkish-gray smear when a mining charge had misfired. It took nearly a week to fix the arm shield, but Meitzer hadn't complained a bit, just saying it was his duty to protect those under him and a small price to pay. As of this minute it was wedged into an area where a slice of the natural rock formation had come loose and was perilously close to carving up a hull section. A work team was already shoring it up, and the mobile suit's sheer strength via manhandling the entire slab had cut the time required by a good seven hours.
When a ping against his armor rang softly, he dropped the mono-eye down to the left to see his company foreman reeling himself closer to the gigantic figure. "Hey boss, since we're going to get this done ages earlier then usual, do you mind if I let the guys get off shift early? They need to stretch their legs out a bit after being so long in the suits. Oh and there was a mention of picking up birthday present for a certain soon to be six year old 'Noble Ronah' girl. I haven't the foggiest who they're referring to though."
Meitzer could only groan as his reply. Thankfully they were using skin-touch communication otherwise the entire work party might have heard what was being said literally behind their backs. "Dammit I knew I was forgetting something today. For hauling my butt out of the fire before I'm on the end of a crying fit, you all can get the day off as soon as this is finished." Pausing for a second, he let the Dra-C's free arm swing down next to his foreman and give off a scolding shake only meters from the man's head. "And for the record, I'm still getting used to this Ronah name, so until I say so, don't refer to myself or Nadia that way. Why my father came up with the idea is beyond me, but if he wants to be called that, that's his choice."
"Whatever you say, Sir Ronah." Meitzer could see the ear to ear grin of the man through the bubble helmet and only sighed. Some people were unrepentant no matter how hard you tried. Discussion over, he leaned the suit over and gave the man a push-off back towards the crew with the tip of one of the fingers.
'Really what is Father thinking? A noble class in this era is beyond me. The idea has merit of course, but I really can't see introducing it at the moment. You'd need something to rally behind first. Well, there are those arrogant fools back on terra firma blaming us for everything while hording all the resources, but its not like we can do anything to stop them right now.'
Lost in thought for a few moments, and with his comm system closed to give him a moments piece, he didn't notice the repair crew stiffen as one. Nor did he notice that the other work groups had stopped their labors, a few clamping a hand over their helmets in a way that would remind anyone of someone trying to hear more clearly through a headset. It wasn't until the group started turning in groups of two back towards the airlocks at maximum thrust that his wandering mind snapped back into focus. Switching his communications back on he was about to give them a polite earful about being a bit too ready to get a gift for his daughter, when the lines practically screamed back at him.
"...are you sure?"
"What do you mean we're under attack! There isn't even a minovsky field up?"
"Meitzer, get your ass outside now. We have problems!"
"My god that EVA class. They just slaughtered that last surviving girl!"
"Haffman, get turrets one through three warmed up immediately. Whoever they are, they're not stopping with just that bus, and they're headed directly for us."
Completely shocked by virtually the entire colony management communication lines jammed to the hilt, he only really understood the message addressed to him, and that someone had just eliminated what could only be an entire shuttlebus of kids. Mind still whirling, he didn't think but had activated the beam saber under the shield and sliced away the offending rock slab from the area. It was a gross breech of safety regulations activating that so close to the cylinder, and with work parties out, but there wasn't time for niceties now. If he hadn't sliced it, he would have been jammed in and unable to help anyway. That done, he spun the suit like a top and pushed the thrust as high as he could within the enclosed space. Before the slab had even cooled from its white-hot melted state to a reddish hue the mobile suit was only a speck in the distance. "This is Meitzer, what the hell is going on, and stop clogging the channels immediately!"
While there wasn't a formal military unit aboard either cylinder, there was the colonial M-SWAT, and they answered directly to the Buch family, considering that the second hat his father wore was that of police chief. Needless to say the commline snarl simmered to only a few necessary orders instead of what had been a near panic.
"Mr. Ronah, we have a flight of three incoming unknown craft, mobile armors what it looks like. They just eliminated the junior EVA bus and the entire class. Right now they're on a direct course for Alpha and accelerating."
"What do you mean unknowns, I need specifics. And how did they get so close without being challenged?" Meitzer couldn't believe that anyone could have appeared so close to the colony like this without a minovsky jamming field to hide their approach. It just wasn't possible anymore with the sensors available. Even out at Mars in the so-called 'boonies' of the solar system, after the One Year War they'd upgraded virtually all their systems across the board. When Axis started its burn in, they picked up any and all the mil-tech that was left, and then upgraded again. And yet here were three ships that were nearly within two hundred klicks of the colony moon, and one entire class of kids and their parents were already funeral pyres, and he couldn't figure it out.
"Nothing we have can identify them at all, right now we're classifying them as a new mobile armor. We're tagging the hostiles as Scorpions Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. As for how they got past the sensor nets we don't have a clue. We had a spike in the thermal radiation fields for about two point seven seconds three minutes ago but that's it. They appeared immediately afterwards about 400 kilometers out. We're starting minovsky scattering in five seconds. We'll be switching to tactical…isker…aser based…comm…ations as…now. Mark."
With radio virtually useless in the minovsky era, every military and civilian craft built since 0079 had automatic protocols that immediately switched over from radio to laser or flash-Morse without the pilot having to touch a button. It still monitored all bands even in the unlucky chance that something slipped through, and would relay it to the pilot or communications crews just in case it was vitally important. Unfortunately now it was line of sight only, and combat maneuvering made keeping a signal lock a job in and of itself. Thankfully Mars orbit was virtually virgin territory without a hint of clutter, unlike the Earth's lagrange points, still littered with 'Sargasso debris fields' from all the destroyed fleets and colonies. Outside of being on the other side of the incoming mobile armors from the colony everything that was launching would have perfect comm. signal locks.
Meitzer tapped back lightly on both control sticks, letting the retros pull him back to a standstill roughly a kilometer clear from the dock launch bays off of Alpha. He wasn't stupid and going to rush to meet whoever this was, and watched and waited for his team to launch. Even with no true military units, the single M-SWAT team available of two Hi-Zacks and a Zeku-Eins were armed to the teeth. Each one launched in perfect order and then holding back until its partners caught up, and then moved out in a staggered diamond formation as they reached Meitzer's Dra-C. Normally they wouldn't be having any problems, but virtually all of the suits had glanced over at the first Hi-Zack. Sergeant Shinn Asuka's whole family, including his younger sister, had been aboard the shuttlebus for her first EVA class. One look with the mono-eyes was all it took to for everyone to know the fate of that class, and it was the dead silence from his cockpit that worried his teammates.
Everyone knew that Maya Asuka was forever pulling practical jokes on her older brother, even when he was on duty as many remembered from a infamous water balloon and whoopie cushion incident. Even though he made it very clear to his friends and co-workers that he ignored and loathed her very presence, it was obvious that he doted on her. Everyone on the M-SWAT team knew her, and after what those bastards had done, no one would have said a word if all that was brought back by the group were body bags or less.
If anyone had looked closer they would have seen the Hi-Zack's eye moving ever so fractionally over the wreck. It was surrounded by miniature gas clouds already dissipating along the trajectories of whichever beam had changed the person into a carbon stain. If it wasn't for the AMBAC that was consistently moving the limbs bit by bit to maintain a constant heading, the whole formation would have seen the arms shaking, due to the pilot trembling with rage.
Oblivious to the problem, Meitzer ran through a briefing for the team. "Alright, we've got one unit over their numbers but they seem to have one god awful speed advantage as well so stay sharp. Linda, concentrate on Scorpion Alpha. Shinn you're her cover." He paused for a brief second, but Shinn's image on his screen only showed him looking evenly right back at his commander. For all he could tell, his wingman had himself under control at the moment, and so continued on. "Coran keep your distance in the Zeku, I want you to watch for any missile launches, but also keep Beta busy. You're slower with your gear, so I've notified fire control to give you support at your discretion. I'm taking Charlie."
Everyone nodded silently on his displays, and they each began to angle themselves towards their target. "Okay, break as soon as the Minvosky field hits combat strength. Don't wait for my signal, as they'll break the moment it peaks. Good hunting, and get rea..."
Meitzer, and many other people that had access to a view of outside were shocked into speechless as a huge blue and white cone of energy burst into existence sixteen kilometers behind the colony. No one had a clue what the hell it was or what was causing it until the leviathan emerged from inside it. There was no other word to describe the ship other then a leviathan, considering the sheer scale of it. The main hull alone was larger then any mobile ship anyone had ever seen before, at least two times the mass and size of even a Dolos super-carrier. One minute there was nothing, and the next a three and a half kilometer tall ship was there, blazing thankfully into nothingness with its entire forward weapons arsenal. How it had gotten so close and yet was blessedly facing the wrong direction wasn't a concern. What was a concern, was that the energy readings on the firepower it was pouring on nearly fried every sensor that was looking its way.
"Oh my god." Meitzer didn't know who whispered it like a prayer, but it described the moment perfectly, never realizing that it was his own whisper he'd heard.