Chapter Seventeen: I Will Survive!
The Leningrad was the first of the new perimeter defense stations created after the Earth-Minbari war. It wasn't particularly large but was heavily armed and fortified. At places, it sported up to six-meter thick, extremely dense armor and bristled with weapons of all types. All in all, it was one mean nut to crack. Supporting it was a complement of three Omega class destroyers, four Nova class dreadnoughts and half a dozen Hyperion class heavy cruisers. It was a formidable force indeed. To the Minbari fleet facing it, all of this was a moot point. To date, no one had been able to defeat their vaunted stealth system and that made all the difference. They couldn't be killed if they couldn't be hit. Without even a bit of trepidation, they proceeded with their attack.
Captain Samantha Tyr knew she and her ship was in for a fight of its life. She had served onboard the Bellerophon during the Earth-Minbari war and knew exactly what those five Sharlins were capable of. "Keep us in formation, Lieutenant," she reminded the helmsman. They had to close rank and coordinate fire if they were to have any chance of surviving. Seconds passed until they were finally in range. The lead ship opened with a volley and that was the signal for the rest of the fleet to follow. "Fire!" she ordered. A low rumble emanated throughout the ship as all weapons let loose a tremendous volley. To her dismay, none of the shots hit their mark. They tried again and again but it was all the same. At this time, the Minbari opened up with their counter barrage and did not have any problems targeting the Earth Force ships. Neutron cannons and fusion beams slammed into the tough sides of the Earth Force ships. Despite their impressive size and density, the armor could not withstand the barrage for long and succumbed to it catastrophically. Hundreds of lives were lost, as the ships were turned into twisted, melting wrecks.
With the fleet out of the way, the avenging Minbari proceeded to the station. It put up a brave fight, but it too fell quickly like the ships that were supporting it. Thus ended the first battle of the second Earth-Minbari war; a resounding defeat for the humans.
The Vostok was a Leningrad-class perimeter defense station that was located six light-years from the original Leningrad station. It was located in orbit of the fourth planet of the local star. Although her primary mission was as a perimeter defense for Earth, it was also protecting the mining operations on the planet below.
Admiral Yoshio Takanawa had just received news about the Minbari attack on the Leningrad and its ultimate destruction. He knew it was only a matter of time before he too would face the dreaded boneheads. They had waited for months for this push and it had finally begun. "Commander Sylver, have the men load the new missiles on all ships immediately." He was talking about the new IRIS missiles. These weapons had specially been designed with the Minbari in mind. It used a very old technology that had been adapted for modern use. Since the Minbari stealth precluded any use of modern active sensors, Earth Force scientists had resorted to a technology long shelved as obsolete. It involved an Infra Red Imaging Sensor coupled with a TV guidance system that would steer the missiles to their target. It was crude and short-ranged but remarkably effective. It was the best chance Earth Force had of striking back at the Minbari.
Captain Ling Yue was more than happy to see his ship loaded with the new IRIS missiles. Although it was short ranged, it was their last best chance. If it did not work as advertised, it would spell the doom of Earth Force and maybe humanity itself. But Yue was confident. He was an avid history buff and had studied many encounters where smaller, weaker forces had destroyed their opponents. He was determined to add another chapter to these haloed pages. "Commander Jackson, open a channel to all the captains. I want to go over the plans once again."
"Aye sir," he responded as he arranged the meeting.
Alyt Canakya and his fleet of five Sharlins dropped out of hyperspace just outside the orbit of the fifth planet well in view of the Human station. He did this deliberately because he wanted to give the humans to time to mount their defenses. He wanted to prove to them just how pathetic their military was. As he slowly approached the station, he glad to see them assemble a defense. Good, he would have fun tearing them to bits.
Captain Yue was glad the Minbari had decided to jump so far out in the system. It gave his fleet ample time to form up. He arranged his fourteen ships in a wedge formation with his ship at the tip flanked by the rest of his fleet. At the trailing edge was his fighter complement. Three hundred and ten fighters including the forty assigned to the station. He hoped it was enough. As the Minbari fleet finally got within range, he ordered all ships to open fire. The fourteen ships let loose a torrent of fire at the advancing Minbari fleet without much success. They did not let that stop them. They continued pouring everything they had.
Alyt Canakya looked amused as he watched the Earth Force ships let loose with everything they had. As expected, none of them found their mark even as they got closer and closer. Then, unexpectedly the enemy ships started back peddling breaking the wedge formation. "Damned humans, can't even face death with dignity," he thought to himself. "All ships, full speed ahead. Lets get this over with," he ordered his ships.
Captain could see that the Minbari had taken his bait. As he pulled his ship back breaking the wedge formation, the Minbari charged headlong running right into his trap. As planned, his lead ships continued falling back as the sides held ground, turning the original wedge into an inverted one. Before the Minbari realized, they were surrounded. Even as they tried to escape the fast closing trap, the ships on the sides closed in and the fighters raced around to cut off their escape. It was only then Yue gave his final order, "Fire the IRIS missiles." At that, all his ships fired the new missiles that they had been holding back. Each of the capital ships fired over fifty missiles apiece even as the fighters volleyed a pair each. That was well over a thousand missiles.
Alyt Canakya was cursing himself for having walked blindly into the human trap but he wasn't too worried yet. He still held all the aces as his stealth system was still functioning properly. Then, each of the Earth ship fired of a large number of missiles. To his surprise, a swarm of missiles headed straight for his ships. The unthinkable was happening. Desperately, he ordered suppressive fire but it was far too late. The missiles homed onto the five ships and exploded against the crystalline armor. It stopped the first few but the number of missiles slamming into it was too just many, just too fast. It failed spectacularly spelling an end of the Sharlins.
Captain Yue was happy with his handiwork. Even Hannibal would have been proud of it. Better yet, for the first time in human history, they had stopped a determined Minbari attack. And he hadn't lost a single capital ship! There would be much celebration tonight.
G'Tesh looked out the window at the growing fleet with the pride of a new dad. Scattered around the asteroid turned station lay a growing number of ships, both Narn and Centauri in design. It was an impressive collection but what was so special about this new fleet was what lay under the skin of these old warhorses. For several months now, their Klingon allies had been quietly transforming these ships into truly terrifying monsters. Shield generators, cloaking devices, disrupters, gravity generators, inertial dampners, structural integrity fields. The list went on and on. He knew these new upgrades weren't as powerful or up to date as the Klingon ones but that was because of the shortcoming of the ships themselves. They had not been built with the Klingon design in mind and could not accept all the changes that they wanted to make. For example, the ships lacked the powerful warp cores and so could not generate as much power as the Klingon ships could. This meant that they had to rely on much weaker disrupters and shields. Neither could they move with their speed and grace. Even then, it was a quantum leap over the old designs. To their credit, these old tubs could take a lot more punishment once the shields failed.
However, G'Tesh was a pragmatist and would not let this get into his head. He knew that beating back the massive Centauri fleet would take a lot of blood, sweat and tears. They would have to work hard to gain their liberty and freedom once again. However, not everyone in his fleet was as patient as him. Already, a group of captains wanted to test out their new ships. He had been holding off on any actions preferring to get as many ships ready and its crew trained as possible. These new systems may be wonderful but without the operators to work them, it might as well be dead. However, the time had come. Tonight, he was leading a fleet of twenty ships on a raid deep inside the Centauri space. "All ships, prepare for departure," he ordered. As each ship responded their readiness, he continued. "Raise cloak. Helm, take us out! Order the fleet to follow us."
The trip to the chosen target was uneventful. They had jumped into the system far enough to be out of Centauri sensor range, and then made a beeline towards their target under cloak. The target of choice was a massive military space station that supported this sector of space and was home to the 3rd Royal Centauri Fleet. It consisted of twenty Primus class battle cruisers and thirty Vorchan class attack cruiser. It would be a true test of the new systems.
"All ships, go to battle station. Drop cloak on my mark and commence attack!" he ordered. 'Now!"
Twenty Narn ships de-cloaked around the station. Disrupter fire poured into it quickly followed by photon torpedoes. The result was devastating. The meter-thick hull of the station did little to shield it from the combined assault as it quickly buckled under pressure. Not even a single defensive battery got to fire off a shot before the whole station was engulfed in a massive fireball.
Having completely destroyed the station, the twenty Narn ships turned to face the defending ships.
Kreta Tor was on duty on the Primus battle Cruiser Righteous Vengeance when twenty ships materialized out of thin air; or in this case cold vacuum. At first, he just noticed the Vorchans and believed it to be part of the newly upgraded fleet. He had heard rumors that all ships were soon to be upgraded in a similar fashion but believed it to be rumors only. It was only then he noticed the Narn G'Quan class heavy cruisers amongst the Vorchan and Primus'. Something was seriously wrong here. But before he could utter a word, the ships opened fire. First with some unidentified beam weapon followed by what could only be torpedoes. He quickly raised the alarm but it was too late for the station. Unable to bear the brunt of the attack, it exploded into a massive fireball taking out several ships that were parked around it.
Centauri ships were now beginning to stir but Kreta Tor knew it was already too late. It would take his ships several minutes to get to full alert and that was a minute too late. Suddenly the floor underneath him shook as his ship was hit by one of the beam weapons. Alarms began to go off as several compartments lost hull integrity. As the ship took more hits, he silently cursed, "Where the hell is the damn captain?" Suddenly, he was violently thrown out of his seat as a photon torpedo took out the aft half of his ship. Battered and bruised, he pulled himself back up to his seat only to notice that they had lost artificial gravity. He checked the instruments in front of him and realized his ship was doomed. There was no sign of the captain so as the senior-most officer on deck; he ordered all hands to abandon ship. No one ever made it to the escape pods. A second torpedo blasted the remains of the ship to kingdom come.
It took the Narn fleet only ten minutes to completely wipe out the Centauri 3rd fleet. Out of fifty ships assigned to the 3rd fleet, only thirteen survived because they were out on patrol. The rest died along with the station where they were based. It was a bad day for the Royal Centauri Navy.
Having completed their task, the victorious Narn fleet disappeared back into the night just as suddenly as they had appeared.