Chapter Five: Retribution
Ambassador Delen was in her quarters when the communiqué arrived from Minbar. It was accompanied by a short footage of the battle. The wanton destruction of Minbari ships horrified her. She was even more shocked when she saw the names of the ships boldly emblazoned across its dorsal and ventral surfaces. Although the designs were clearly alien, there was not doubt those were Earth Force ships. The bigger one looked almost fragile in comparison to a Sharlin but its looks were deceiving. In less than a minute, the two ships had decimated three Sharlins without even batting an eyelid. There was some kind of energy shield protecting both ships and not even the powerful weapons of the vaunted Sharlins were able defeat it. Had it not been for the arrival of the second fleet, Captain Selan would have lost all his ships. Not surprisingly, she was ordered to report back to Minbar immediately. This was a major catastrophe and the gray council needed her council. Hurriedly, she made her way to the command deck to meet John Sheridan.
Sheridan was busy as always wrapped up with the running of the station but when he saw Delen approaching, he dropped everything and stood up to greet her. To him she was much more than just the Minbari ambassador, so she deserved his attention. Many people frowned on such practices but he didn't give a hoot. He gave her a big smile that failed to light her up as usual. Immediately, he knew something was out of kilter. When she told him what had transpired in the Sh'lekk'tha star system, it was his turn to get floored. If Earth Force had developed ships that were more powerful than Minbari warships, it spelled big trouble for Babylon 5. There was no way for his O'Neil class space station to face ships that had utterly defeated a fleet of Sharlins. As she left, Delen promised him she would do everything in her power to help protect Babylon 5. They both knew that might not be enough.
Captain Domak wasn't sure what had just transpired. To him, it seemed like the humans of this reality were out to kill Klingons. That did not sit well with him. Angrily, he stormed onto the bridge and ordered his science officer to get him some answers. Seeing the captain so irate, the science officer quickly got down to business. He first tried scanning all communication channels but that wasn't of much help. He then had the bright idea of boarding one of the ships in orbit and tapping into their computer system. Normally he would have gotten permission from the captain before taking such a bold step, but he decided to avoid the irate captain. He summoned the communications officer who also happened to be a computer genius and transported over to the closest ship.
The two Klingon officers materialized in a dimly lit corridor of the closest ship. They quickly scanned the area and were able to verify that they were alone. After all, they had no intention of running into any of the crew and starting another incident. The captain surely would have skinned them for it. Walking down one of the long corridors, they came upon a control panel and quickly got down to business. It took quite some time before they were able to interface with the alien system. After a long and exhaustive search, they found what they were looking for.
Captain Domak slammed down the data pad. He had read the report twice and still could not come to terms with it. The fate of the Klingons of this reality totally disgusted him. Over a thousand years ago, the humanoid aliens called the Centauri had come to Qo'noS and subjugated the native Klingons who had just come into the computer age. They had resisted bravely but the overwhelming might of the Centauri Empire had crushed them in the end and they had been turned into slaves. More than a century later, under the leadership of Kahless, his people had revolted and had regained their freedom but it was a bittersweet victory. Having been humiliated by a bunch of savages, the Centauri Republic had literarily bombed Qo'noS back into the Stone Age. They did not stop at that. After the orbital bombing, they systematically slaughtered all Klingons they could find. A population of over a billion was reduced to only a few thousand. Their civilization having been so utterly decimated, the surviving Klingons were forced back into the wild. A couple of century later when the planet recovered, the Centauri returned and re-colonized it. To this date, they were the lords of Qo'noS and the Klingons were nothing more than game, hunted for pleasure.
Domak got up from his desk and strode onto the bridge. He walked in front of the view screen and ordered his comm. officer to hail the ToDuj. Captain TekSha appeared on the screen. He looked just as irate as Domak himself. No self respecting Klingon could accept such a humiliation of their brethren without being shamed himself. Something had to be done. "Captain TekSha, prepare your ship for battle. We will show the Centauri that nobody messes with Klingons." "We are ready," the reply came immediately as Domak had expected. "Qapla'," he replied. The two Vorchas then dropped cloak, raised shields and attacked the ships in orbit.
To the Centauri officer manning sensors on board the Vorchan cruiser Penan, the strange ships seemed to appear out of nowhere. He immediately raised the alarm but it was too late. Disrupter beams slammed into the thick armor of his ship with such force that not only did it tear gaping holes in the superstructure but knocked the ship completely out of orbit. As power failed throughout the ship, her crew desperately tried to revive the engines to no avail. Caught in the vice-like grip of gravity, the ship started it slow spiral into the clutches of the world below. Realizing their fate, the crew of the cruiser Penan did not wait for orders to abandon ship. They scrambled to the escape pods and left the doomed ships like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Captain TekSha did not even stop to savor his handiwork. They had already knocked out the two warships protecting the planet so he diverted his attention planet side. Any structure that could be identified as having any military importance was taken out immediately. Within half an hour, their work was done. Great patches of fire could be seen consuming large sectors of the planet. Already the atmosphere was getting darker with the dust and debris from massive explosions filling up the sky. He felt a twinge of sadness at seeing his own planet burning but he reminded himself that it was in the hands of the Centauri. If a little fire was called for to remove the vermin, then so be it. With that thought lingering in his mind, he raised cloak and slipped away into the night.
Strike force Bravo had its hands full. With over thirty thousand critically wounded filling up the nine ships, there was no time for anyone to even breathe. All the emergency medical holograms had been brought on line to aid with the medical procedures. Even then, the medical staffs were utterly overwhelmed. Anyone with an iota of medical experience was called to help them. The rest were busy ferrying the injured to and fro from the different parts of the ship where triage areas that had been setup. Only the most critically wounded could be assigned to the sick bays. Things were rapidly getting out of hand when someone came up with the bright idea of using the holodecks as a medical facility complete with holographic medical staff. They jumped on it immediately. It took the engineering team hours of frantic work to program the holodecks to Starfleet medical standards but it proved to be a godsend. It effectively doubled the medical capacity of the whole fleet. Even so, there were many that did not make it. They just did not get the medical attention in time.
When Delen got to Minbar, the Gray Council was already in the middle of a session. Tempers were running hot at having lost not only half of Captain Selan's fleet but also the base at Sh'lekk'tha system. It had only been a small military base and only several thousand lives had been lost along with the Sharlins guarding it but that was besides the point. Someone had dared to destroy it. Some believed it to be the work of the humans but others doubted it. After all, they had received messages from the base saying they were under attack by the Shadows. Others pointed out that it did not mean the humans were not working with the shadows. Even though their new ships didn't seem to have shadow technologies, they had no doubt that the shadows or one of their lackeys had helped develop it. There was simply no way the humans could have come up with something that radical.
When the time came to decide on their actions, it mainly broke down along the caste lines. The warriors were their usual hawkish self, the religious caste urged caution and the workers mainly fell in line with the warriors. Delen was one of the most vocal opponents who wanted to take time and think it through. She reminded them of the first Earth-Minbari war that had started from a misunderstanding but that only worked against her. There were many who hadn't forgotten the way it had ended and were more than happy at having gotten a second chance to finish it off. A compromise was finally reached. They would destroy one of Earths colony. Eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth.
EAS Aristaeus along with her sister ship the Efreisone and the Clymene had been on patrol around the starbase at Jericho III. Ensign Palmer was the first one to detect the jump vortex as it started to form. He immediately informed Lt. Edwards the officer on duty who hurried over to the station just in time to see a flight of three Minbari Sharlins streaming out of the vortex. They had been on patrol to keep pirates and raiders at bay and were not expecting to see Minbari warships so deep inside EA space. It was a clear violation of their sovereignty. He quickly ordered yellow alert as he dispatched the on-call fighters ahead to screen their ships. His anticipation turned to trepidation as the Minbaris followed suite. He counted them as they streamed out of the belly of the beast. "My god," he thought as he realized that the Minbaris were deploying their whole fighter contingent. He quickly ordered the rest of their fighters to launch ASAP, but he knew it was too late for that. It would take at least another ten minutes before he could get all their fighters space borne. There simply wasn't enough time. He raised the ship to red alert as he summoned the captain. He also put Starbase Jericho III on alert.
Captain McNight had been sound asleep when the red alert sounded. He quickly threw on his clothes and bolted for the bridge. Thankfully it was just down the hall. By the time he arrived on the bridge, things were getting dicey. The two sides had closed to almost weapon range. Silently he counted the forces allayed against him and calculated the odds. His force of three Omegas and accompanying fighters were facing three Minbari Sharlins and their fighter screen. He did not like the odds at all. True, Earth Force had vastly improved their warships since the last Earth-Minbari war but the gains had only been incremental. He desperately hoped the Minbari were not here to wage war. Deep down he doubted that. The only other time the Minbari had ventured this far into Earth Space was during the last war. What else could be the reason for this incursion?
The first wave of his fighters was finally within weapons range but he ordered them to hold fire unless fired upon. He didn't want a repeat of the first Earth-Minbari war. Too bad, the Minbaris had other ideas. The moment they were within range, they opened up. McNight watched in horror as the superior Nials picked out his fighters easily. Those that survived the first round of attacks made a valiant effort and succeeded in destroying a few Nials. It was too little too late. The remaining Nials made short work of finishing them off. His second flight of fighters were now getting in range but McNight made the wise decision of pulling them back where they could get fire support from the Omegas. As the Starfuries retreated, the Nials made a firing run for the Omegas. Closing to weapons range, they let loose a volley of torpedoes which streaked towards the three ships. Taking this opportunity, his fighters pounced on the Nials as their attention was momentarily diverted. This time they had better results. They brought down at least six aggressors while the fire from the Omegas brought down five more. But now that their loads had been expended, the Nials turned to face the Starfuries.
Meanwhile, the two Omegas were busy defending themselves. Facing an onslaught of torpedoes, physical and electronic counter measures flooded the space trying to decoy them away from their intended target. Next, close in weapons system opened up with a continuous barrage as they tried to bring down the missiles. Working in tandem, the countermeasures, the CIWS managed to intercept a majority of them but a few survived the gauntlet and slammed into the ships. The tough hides of the Omegas were no match for the high yield torpedoes. The first torpedo exploded just aft of the rotating section disintegrating the thick armor that protected it and reduced the compartments in the area into the devil's scrap yard. The massive energy of the blast was magnified by the confines of the area where it smashed its way deep into the heart of the ship. The second torpedo smashed into the rotating section that housed the command center, which immediately brought it to a grinding halt. However, the inertia of the massive section caused the whole ship to rotate instead. All propulsion had already been lost with the loss of the engineering section to the first torpedo and there was no way to bring the ship back on even keel; not that it would have helped much.
Meanwhile, the Efreisone and the Clymene were facing a similar firestorm. Torpedoes slammed left. Torpedoes slammed right. Torpedoes slammed everywhere. Chaos reigned supreme as the two ship withered under fire.
Taking advantage of the commotion, the Sharlins had advanced almost unnoticed. They were within weapons range and opened up with their heavy weaponry. It was too much for the wounded Omegas to bear. One by one, they detonated spectacularly taking the lives of thousand that served onboard them. Now unchallenged, the Sharlins made their way towards the human Starbase that was Jericho III.
Captain Ryan Tornillo was the Commanding Officer of Starbase Jericho III. Having worked hard all his life he was proud of his achievements. But at the moment, he wished he were somewhere else. They had just lost contact with the Aristaeus battle group and that could only mean one thing. The Minbari had broken through the line and were headed their way. Being a pragmatist, he knew there wasn't much he could do even though Jericho III was a well-defended station. Truth be told, none but the Vorlons or the Shadows could hope to stand in the way of the Minbari war machine. They had learned this the hard way. However, he was also a proud officer serving Earth Force. He wasn't going to roll over and play dead. Not for the Minbari, not for anyone else. He turned to his Executive Officer and ordered all fighters launched.
One by one, the twenty-four Starfuries defending Starbase Jericho III streamed out of their hangers and took up defensive positions. To the few veterans of the previous Earth-Minbari war, it seemed strangely reminiscent of the battle of the line. They seemed calm and composed and their faces betrayed nothing. To the rest, it was just nerve wrecking. Outwardly, they tried to project the calm like their colleagues; deep within they were racked with fear and anticipation. Fortunately, they did not have to wait long. Guns opened up as the two sides entered weapon range filling up the space with flashes like lightning that rips up a darkened monsoon sky. Pulse cannons and neutron guns targeted each other for destruction. Unfortunately for Earth Force, their aim was wildly off the mark courtesy of the Minbari stealth technology. It wasn't the same for the other side. One by one the Nials batted the EF Starfuries out of the sky.
Next in line to receive this brutal treatment was the starbase itself. It valiantly fought back the nimble fighters with dogged determination but when the Sharlins arrived, its luck had finally run out. The two-meter thick armored hull was simply no match against the fusion beams and neutron cannons of the monsters it was facing. Thousands of lives were snuffed out in an instant. Having done their jobs, the Minbari war machines silently turned around and jumped into the depths of hyperspace leaving behind a grisly scene of death and destruction.