Captain Patterson and the senior staff were in the war room, still waiting around for the mission briefing to start.
They had given the inteligence information to the nearest Earth Alliance squadron, and it was rushed up the chain of command. But, not fast enough, they were taking a long time to act on it, instructing the Gandalf to monitor the situation, and patrol the area.
Then they had ordered Patterson to proceed at full speed in order to rendezvous with the fleet. Then nothing.
So they were sitting there in the middle of deep space, waiting for the fleet, or a message. Where every second, knowing the Vorlon technology, they could be building thousands of warships.
Finally: "Captain we are receiving a hail from the Earth Alliance Command."
"Put it through here." Patterson ordered to the wall com.
"James" The image said as it resolved.
"General Baker, sir." James Patterson said saluting to the senior officer in front of him.
"We are going to attack. And we agree with your assessment, it seems to be a Vorlon factory, and with the Centauri building this massive force, we need to attack. The exact units that are going to be involved with this thing is the issue. We are going to be hitting them with nearly sixty ships."
"Will we be involved?" Norman asked.
"Of course Colonel." General Baker said annoyed. "Commodore Foley is going to be leading the mission. When he and the rest of the fleet arrive in a couple of hours he will give you a more proper briefing. He is still trying to come up with an assault plan."
"Understood" Patterson said turning the screen off.
"So what do we know about this Commodore Foley?" Stacia asked to the assembled room.
"Not much." Patterson said ruffling his hair, running his fingers through it, annoyed at the further delay. The promise of action called to him for the first time in a long while. Probably before he took command of the Gandalf.
Michael Keegan and Stacia Clarke were marching down one of the corridors on the EAS Gandalf. They were going to the briefing that was going to be given by Commodore Foley. They were running just a bit late, but that was not much of the situation since the EA Squadron had just arrived moments ago. Oddly the Commodore was giving his briefing on board the Gandalf.
They arrived into the room with officers and men rushing hither and thither throughout the corridor, they had to bump their way through the mess and found their way to the main briefing table, where Foley was giving his briefing, pointing things out to Captain Patterson and Colonel Norman.
"Ah Lt. Keegan, glad you could make it." Foley said.
"Actually you arrived just in time, I am about to explain the roles of the Marines and the Fighters in this particular assault. Ensign." He said indicating an officer, who clicked a button and the picture changed.
"These are the defense platforms that the Centauri have placed in a ring around the main ship yard. They are basically big on anti ship, our vessels cannot even get close to them. That will be the job of the fighters and the shuttles, to get in close and to destroy the defense platforms, as the main force draws off the war ships and engages them in combat. As this is happening shuttles will thread the needle and board the shuttle, placing a nuke at the center of the matrix to weaken the enemy organic armor, then the rest of the fleet will destroy it."
"Sounds risky" Norman said.
"Yes, your Captain of Marines will lead the assault, they will break out into three teams and fight their way to the center. And then blow up the yards."
"Interesting, losses?" Patterson asked.
"Hopefully minimal, this will be our first major engagement where we will have numbers and fire power decidedly on our side. The fighter force might take heavier losses."
"Typical" Keegan said under his breath.
"What is that Lt.?"
"Nothing sir. I will go let my people know, and then we will be ready to engage."
"Very well, we have twenty minutes before I would like us to engage the enemy base."
They were dismissed and Keegan immediately assembled his Squadron commanders.
"Well, as usual it is us who is going to bare the brunt of the capital ship engagement, we are going into the battle again, going after the defensive perimeter around the base." He explained rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
His squadron commanders just smiled back at him wolfishly and knowingly.
"Well get to it, you have your assignments."
"Yes sir." They left the room in unison saluting as they went, before rushing out, knowing they had a lot of tasks they had to do in a brief time.
The stations were manned, and the tone on the bridge was set for battle stations. The pilots were in their planes and were ready for a reversion to real space, within seconds of being transferred into it. More then One hundred thousand kilometers out, right in the outer ring of patrol ships.
Commodore Foley's voice was counting down on the intercom "Stand by to revert to real space….5.…4.…3.…2.…1."
The ships transferred. Fighters deployed and jetted to their targets. Defensive systems on all sides aligned and opened fire, as main offensive weapons opened fire criss-crossing in mid space with a ring of death.
"Sir two ships are within our combat radius, they look like light cruisers, dreadnaughts are moving to intercept us." They said.
"Good, get offensive weapons on the two cruisers, but hold our main cannons in reserve for the moment. Sensors keep a constant eye on our fighters." Patterson ordered, getting nods in response.
Fighters from both sides just charged at each other, and fired, at close range, blowing up, explosions rippling across the back drop of space on both sides of the lines.
"OK, flights, Alpha's One through five take on the fighters directly in front of us, the rest of you cover the right and hold them there. Beta Squadron you are on the left, punch a hole in their lines. Charlie cover Delta as they go for the instillations, follow beta in the lines."
He got clicks in response as Keegan went back and maneuvered, firing at will, at all that was in front of him. He bagged two fighters that were in front of him. Another was bagged by an anti fighter missile from a passing Thunderbolt.
Then he maneuvered out of the way, spinning over on his retros letting his target pass, then he put in a pair of anti ship blasts into its back positively ripping apart.
They then flew through the remains of the enemy fighter, and descended upon the defense platforms that were already being engaged by the Earth Alliance fighter force.
The assault shuttles were passing by the first row of defense platforms, they passed unheeded as the defense platforms could not lock on, being on automated defense. And the biggest threat to them was the fighter force that they could not quite lock on to.
They proceeded to engage in evasive maneuvers as they approached the ship yard. breaking off and away as the stations finally picked up on them and fired, destroying one of the shuttles.
The rest proceeded to make hard lock on the ship yard, and attached, beginning the process of cutting through the tough outer skin. More apt usage of that term then normal.
Captain Patterson watched as the two angry red flames of war reached out and scoured the Battle Cruiser that was in the process of dueling with them. High energy pulses from a Nike ripped into an escort ship off its bow, as the two explosions combined and intermingled.
The deck beneath Patterson's feet shook as a near miss ran into the Gandalf at full power.
The Gandalf responded with a full broadside of four of its ion guns, the explosion just reaching across the bridge.
"Well here we are fully engaged." He muttered to himself. "Helm, we are going off of our position slightly, adjust our course by ten degrees and plug up the hole. Let no ship past our ring. Light batteries continue to concentrate on fighter defense."
Another hit rocked the ship slightly, he sighed, he was getting so tired of this.
Captain of the Marines was the first off the assault shuttle that had made hard lock with the Vorlon factory. His PPG rifle was out in front of him, he turned on the flash light component alighting the area in front of him. He paused for effect.
"Alright, we need to hook up with the other two shuttles in our section, this way." He said maneuvering down the hall with his weapon pointing out in front of him, and scanning it, hoping to meet up with one of the teams, the bomb trailing in his wake.
His team followed him down the corridor weapons drawn, with two rear guards looking back to make sure that they were not being followed.
Towards the other end of the facility another one of the teams from another ship was traveling towards the center of the station, quickly, bomb trailing in their wake as well, as they surrounded it, and were moving at a rapid pace, hoping no defenses saw them.
Suddenly one of them in the back, a female, screamed, they spun around hoping to deal with the threat, but were shocked at what they saw.
Their screams echoed throughout the corridor.
Michael Keegan led a charge with the charge of him and two Raptors on his wing. The defense station was sitting right there in front of them, as they were trying to lock it up, they all knew what they had to do in order to successfully pull off the destruction of the fifth station conducted by the Gandalf air wing.
He launched two of his missiles into the bottom power part of it, and then spun off, the rest of the Raptors went on to the top and the middle of the station ripping it to shreds.
"Good job Alpha Squadron, I am running out of ammo and weapons on my ship and my fuel is running low, must have taken damage, I am returning to the barn, Charlie One you have the group until I get back."
"Copy Gandalf lead." He got in response.
He turned off and dove back for the base ship at full speed. Towards the centerline of the battle, he went fully on dark and on full stealth mode, just being guided back to the Gandalf in the dead of space.
Explosions arched across his face plate. He paused to look at it, it was a truly beautiful sight, watching them in the distance. The colors clashing with one another, as ships did battle with ships, as thousands of men worked on defeating their opponents.
He was approaching the ship rapidly, hoping to get back into the fight soon and hopefully defeat the threat that was posed from the Centauri.
Captain Patterson was watching the same view from the perspective of his command chair, more isolated sitting back in the end of the fleet. Watching the pretty flashes of light just flash into existence for a moment and then flashing out the next. Only to be repeated again seconds later.
"Sir, it looks as though something is approaching the fleet from the Centauri formation, I cannot get an exact read on it and where it is coming from, but it is approaching fast."
"Could it be one of our fighters?" Patterson asked.
"No impossible, approaching on the wrong vector, and there are many of them coming in. Three of them are bearing right for us."
"Get the defense grid on it."
"Unable to comply Captain, we cannot get a lock on."
"Why not?" Colonel Norman growled at the young officer manning the sensor station.
"I cannot get a key lock on it." The sensor technician said.
"Sir some of our fighters are coming back from their missions."
"Let them in Lt." Patterson said nodding and then going over to the helm to see if he could determine what was going on.
Captain kurylenko was marching down the hall way, cautiously. He was about to turn a corner, and hugged the wall, weapon up against his shoulder and him glaring down the gun sights as he rounded the corner.
What he saw shocked him, so much that he put his weapon barrel down, and looked up, then looked up with the flashlight on his weapon trying to determine what he saw in front of him as his men and women filled in behind him.
One of them gasped, appropriately.
The view in front of them was one of abject horror. Before him was one of the Marines, obvious by her gear, and she was stripped down to her skivvies. Funny yellow, green, and tan growths were breaking out over her skin, sort of like the organic armor on the encounter suites. Mainly around her neck and chest.
The other was male, and was almost fully encased in that stuff. Both of them had feral looks on their faces, as they were studying each other. They were increasingly feral, and aggressive.
Then one of them made an inhuman noise and charged, the woman on the left. Jose hip fired his PPG rifle dropping her with three bursts, two to the stomach and one to the chest.
The other one charged on the left and picked up his squad mate on the left, and then broke her neck.
Jose fired on him at full auto, the pulses of plasma making techno colored shadows on the wall as it pounded into the target, ineffectually, spreading out over the entire body, without much harm being done.
"Fall back fall back!" Jose said, panicking for the first time in his career.
His target charged at him, the personal manning the controls to the nuke sled jammed it in full reverse, tripping over one retreating marine, who got up in a hurry, and leveled fire on the incoming enemy.
And growths were breaking out on the female marine who had fallen.
Michael Keegan exited his fighter and was approaching Anders to see what the problem was.
He was about to open his mouth to speak, when a roar brought his attention around to another Raptor that was coming in for a landing, he was curious about this. But only for a second or so, he probably needed resupply too.
But something caught his eye and he turned to face it.
A rapidly moving green blur was speeding directly at the hangar deck. Keegan wondered what it was as it slammed into the decking and slid for about five or six meters, trailing a wake of sparks as it tore into the plating on the ship.
It resolved itself into a bipedal form, with spiked hair. A Centauri. It moved up his right arm and pointed it around, it sounded like it was charging up with a whir, and the distinct smell of burning atmosphere. Keegan was stunned at the events that was taking place before his eyes.
He was shoved out of the way as a bolt of yellow energy exploded from its right hand, ripping into the outer wall, the smell of burnt flesh greeted his nose, he turned and saw Anders grimace, but they both drew their PPGs and opened fire on the target.
The other people in the room also drew their weapons, including rifles and then opened fire on the target as well.
After about a minute of intense fire the thing was burned to the ground, in a charcoaled mess of flesh and organic mass.
"What was that?" One of the Marines asked.
"I do not know Sergeant, lets help secure the rest of the ship and move on to the next target, we have to get going." Keegan said and then pointed as the rest moved out.
The ship rocked nearly knocking anyone who was standing off their feet and onto the deck.
"Were we hit?" Norman said sounding a bit unnerved.
"No, it does not appear to be so." One of the damage control officers said. "But I am getting reports of severe decompression and hull breaches on multiple areas of the ship."
"Sir it looks as those things have collided with us." the sensor officer said from his station typing on his console quickly.
"Sir this is Lt. Mitchell, it seems as though we have been boarded, we are going to round up the intruders before they can do anything, but we are having a hard time repelling them."
"How many of them are there?" Norman asked into the intercom.
"We have just seen about the three of them so far, could be more."
"You are having trouble with three?" Norman asked skeptically.
"They seem to be encased in Vorlon technology sir." The Lt said.
"Repel them at all costs, Ensign" he pointed at a random crew member, "seal off the bridge, we must continue the action."
"Aye sir."
"Sir, we are receiving a hail from the command ship. Its Commodore Foley."
"Put him on." Patterson said sitting in his chair.
"Status report Patterson." Foley said grimly.
"We have been boarded, threat unknown."
"We have gotten similar reports from the rest of the fleet, three ships so far."
"I see." Patterson said.
"How is your combat capability? Has that been compromised?"
"Negative."
"Good stick with it, Foley out." The screen shut off.
A Centauri cruiser was caught in a three way cross fire with three Earth Alliance ships including the Gandalf, as tons of ionic energy slammed into the bow of the Centuri vessel, ripping its armor to shreds, and then gutting it from the inside out.
Jose kurylenko fired his weapon at yet another one of the drones, as he was charging forward, he fired fourteen bursts, and then hit him over the head with the butt end of his rifle, dropping him dazed. He recovered but only to be whacked by a much heavier rifle round.
"We do not have much time, we need to get to the center of the station, this way!" He said leading the mad rush, figuring that time was working against him.
Another Centauri ship was gutted, another ship destroyed, and several fighters down. The fleet battle was on the tipping point, and turning rapidly in the favor of the Earth forces, but they were compromised and the result might have been both fleets just being mutually destroyed.
On the Gandalf repelling teams went about the ship trying to get the 'drones' off of the ship by any means necessary. They seemed determined to get to firing control and then to engineering in order to take the ship and prevent it from firing. The Marine teams were busy trying to prevent them from doing so.
To Patterson this was a nerve racking experience. His ship was in danger from within by highly advanced forces and there was nothing that he could do about it at the present time.
He wanted to pace, wanted to scream, wanted to run around in circles, but he concentrated on something that he could resonate. The battle, he could control the battle at hand. So he forged all the nervous energy that he could and used it to focus his concentration on the space battle at hand, hyper attuning everything onto that one goal.
And the entire fleet paid for it in full, as the Centauri broke themselves on the Earth lines, the entire formation was falling apart, the defense platforms shattered, as the EA ships began to tighten the noose.
Lt. Mitchell ducked around a bulkhead as a bolt of energy nearly cleaved him in two. He slammed the emergency release home sealing the last three of the drones off from the rest of the ship, then he linked the bridge.
"Sir Lt. Mitchell for you."
"Put him on." Patterson said moving over, calmly, to the station.
"Sir, I have sealed the Vorlon suites behind one of the bulkheads, they are trapped but I do not know for how much longer the bulkheads will hold against their firepower."
Patterson had to switch gears in a hurry. "Vent it to space, fire our interceptors at the target and prepare to come about and make for the station."
He got a chorus of acknowledgments back.
It worked as planned too, they went out just far enough, then the high energy ions ripped them to shreds and took them completely out, ripping them up. Then the Gandalf turned at full speed at the enemy and launched streams of energy in bolts ripping through defenses followed by precise and unnerving Missile strikes.
On the station Captain Jose kurylenko and the Marine assault team was almost right on top of the matrix that they were supposed to eliminate with the bomb, they had just passed through an area that looked as though it was making spare parts, and looked down through the top of the translucent ceiling to see one of the warships under 'construction' at the facility here.
They cut through a corridor, and took two of the drones by complete surprise.
They were within meters of launching their final attack, and not a drone insight from what they could determine from the area. He led the way, cautiously again, so close to their objective, that one slip up could have stopped the whole operation in its tracks.
They got to the center and kurylenko did one more check around with the rifle before ordering the nuke into position.
"Set it for seven minutes"
"That is not nearly going to be enough time for us to get out of here." The female NCO complained bitterly.
"We will have to try. We cannot afford this to wait for the drones to come here and disarm this thing, we will need to hustle."
"What about the other squads?" The sergeant of the squad asked.
"We are just going to have to assume that they did not make it. We must complete our mission."
"OK its set."
"Move out then, move move move," he said pumping his fists wildly as the whole squad moved at as a single group.
Through the winding twisting corridors at a blinding pace, as they sprinted, just barely missing a shot being fired from one of the drones as they ducked around one of the corners and sped towards their exfil, before the drone even had a chance to react.
And so they ran, head long, just as the nuke exploded, nearly knocking the team off their feet, as they nearly lost their balance and crashed into the wall of organic mess. kurylenko was right, the armor was able to absorb part of the initial explosion, but he was well aware of what was coming.
"Come on!" he urged his team on, sweat breaking out on his bow in streams and pools as he ran with his team, knowing that if they did not hurry they were about to be incinerated.
Commodore Foley came up on the screen in auto play. "To the fleet, the nuke has been detonated, destroyers brace for combat and keep the wagons safe, Dreadnaughts and Assault Vectors, move in close and destroy the enemy facility."
"What the?" Patterson said as he signaled to the com officer who established a channel. "Sir, our Marines are not out yet."
"I know Captain but we do not have a lot of time, sensors indicate that reinforcements are coming, and due to the pounding we have taken we cannot take much more, we have to destroy this and pull out."
"Understood" He said harrumphed.
The battle wagons got into position, surrounding and ringing in the station as they began to fire. Quantum beams ripped into the organic skin, ions slammed, and large sheathes of flesh from the exterior, and venting the lose atoms into space.
The only shuttle blasted off, as they just barely made it off as the station exploded in shards of organic matter, the shuttle blasted off for its ship, returning the Marines, and then the Gandalf blasted off to space.