Chapter 14
It was a magnificent summer day in the City of San Francisco; in fact, everything in that day seemed so marvelous, that undoubtedly many people considered it the perfect example of a perfect day; But suddenly, all that perfection came to a crashing end when from the Starfleet Command Center complex; Klaxons began howling an unmistakable sound.
"What's happening lieutenant?" Captain N'bura Ashanti, currently the senior officer on duty in the command center inquired.
"It's the automated planetary warning system, Captain, something just trigger it." A Starfleet Lieutenant responded.
"I know what it is! What I want to know is what caused it! Ashanti spurted, annoyed with the answer.
"Checking now, Captain…, oh my God…, this cannot be right!" The perplexed Federation officer exclaimed.
"What is it?" Ashanti asked.
"Sensors just picked up many thousands of unidentified contacts at less than seventy two million kilometers from us." The Lieutenant gushed in distress.
"Let me see that." Ashanti said and quickly headed towards the Lieutenant's console to check for herself.
"You see? There they are! The Lieutenant confirmed his earlier report by pointing to the myriad of little white dots that crowded the entire screen.
"This doesn't make any sense…; thousands of ships cannot appear from thin air. Captain Ashanti stated,
"They must have come cloaked…, it's the only explanation." The Lieutenant voiced.
Ashanti that now had returned to her position was trying to get more information on the new arrivals, but apparently the information the sensors were conveying were not being as clarifying as she hoped.
"I'm having difficulty scanning them. What's wrong with the sensors, every blip seems to have an echo?" The Starfleet Captain asked.
"All sensors are functioning within normal parameters, Captain, but it can be some type of jamming. I'm going to try to compensate the drift of the signal by using a wider theta band frequency." The Lieutenant said.
"Captain, the USS Thunderchild is transmitting a code-one distress signal." Another Starfleet officer informed.
"On main screen!" Ashanti ordered.
Immediately the captain of the USS Thunderchild appeared on the main viewscreen, her concerned look immediately clearing any doubts anyone could have about of how serious the current situation was.
"This is Captain Evelyn Hoffman of the USS Thunderchild, an immense unknown fleet just appeared from nowhere. We have been trying to establish contact with them, but so far, all our attempts have been unsuccessful.
That fleet consists of hundreds of capital warships and thousands of small fighters. Given the composition, size and their sudden appearance it's my belief that whoever they are, they are definitely hostile."
"Don't you think it's too earlier to draw such a conclusion, Captain? This situation may have a reasonable explanation." A still nervous Ashanti countered.
"Are you serious? Without the slightest warning, thousands of heavily armed vessels just appeared in the heart of the Federation territory and you still want to give them the benefit of the doubt? Wake up, Captain; even throughout their heavy jamming, the Thunderchild's sensors are picking up so much heavy armament and all of them active, that anything else but a full-scale evasion is as unlikely as I being a lady bug. I have been in enough encounters to be able to recognize a threat when I see it, and this certainly qualifies as that." Hoffman replied.
"A decision of that importance cannot be made that frivolously and solely based on your past encounters, Captain. Let us not act foolishly and adopt any posture that could be interpreted as hostile, the last thing that we need right now is another war. Please wait for further instructions, Captain. Ashanti out."
-oOOo-
USS Thunderchild
After the connecting was terminated, the Thunderchild's Captain truly vented what was in her mind. "Me treating this situation furiously? Is she insane? How the hell can anyone not consider that fleet over there as an imminent threat?" Hoffman gesture to her ship's main viewscreen, now displaying so many blue vessels in it that the darkness of space behind them was almost blotted out.
"If she thinks that I'm going to sit here and waiting for all hell to break loose before she comes to her senses, then she's got another thing coming…, helm, bring us to an intercept course, and continue hailing them."
-oOOo-
Starfleet Command Center.
"Contact the Admiralty immediately!" Ashanti shouted to a nearby officer.
"Yes Captain, right away!"
Seconds later Admiral Owen Paris appeared in the main viewscreen. "What's happening? Why is the bloody alarm going on?"
"A massive unknown fleet was just detected and is now at less than 72 million kilometers from Earth, Admiral. The only explanation for them to have managed to get this close without being detected is some sort of cloak to have been used."
The USS Thunderchild is currently the closest ship to them; Captain Evelyn Hoffmanhas reported to already have tried to establish contact, but so far had not any success.
She believes that this fleet may present a serious threat, but I believe it's too early to reach that conclusion."
"I would call a massive fleet appearing suddenly on our doorstep, unannounced and unnoticed until mere instances ago reason enough to warrant an immediate red alert condition, Captain. At maximum impulse that force can easily reach us in less than five minutes."
But if their intentions were to completely surprise us before attacking, shouldn't they have remained cloaked until the last moment instead of giving us some warning." Ashanti tried to explain her point of view.
"Maybe their cloaks or whatever they used to get this far undetected has a limitation…, regardless of the reason, better be ready than sorry. Now go to Red alert immediately and activate all the planetary defenses, Paris out." The Admiral harshly beamed.
"You heard the order, go to red alert, activate all planetary defenses, and broadcast a wide-band code-one priority alert." Ashanti ordered.
All around the Solar system as the alert was received, all kinds of ships, runabouts and shuttles, immediately discarded whatever task were doing and began converging towards Earth. In Earth orbit, the immense Space-dock, after launching all combat worthy vessels, initiated an emergency lockdown, and for the first time since the Breen attack, activated its shields, and energized all its phasers arrays and torpedo launchers.
In other places, mostly around Earth and Mars orbit, many ships in many degrees of readiness began exiting dry-docks, to help if necessary. Some ships had gaps in their hull plating, while others had only partially operational weapons or shields. One ship, the USS Monarch, a Nebula Class cruiser only had only one operational nacelle as the other one had its warp coils disassembled for repairs, but yet now was running at full impulse towards an apparently unavoidable battle.
Its captain, William Kirk, descendant of Samuel Kirk, brother of the legendary James T. Kirk, had been adamant in that his ship was going to participate in Earth's defense no matter what. And upon the refusal of the dry-dock officer on duty to allow his ship to leave by claiming that it wasn't minimally ready to fight, Kirk threatened to shoot his way out of the dry-dock, therefore leaving the dry-dock officer no other choice but release the mooring clamps that were holding the starship.
On orbit of both Earth and the Moon, with the exception of the myriad of ships that were responding to the alert, all activity had ceased and all non-combatant vessels had docked, landed or were heading away from Earth attempting to reach safety.
Also unfortunately for Earth, the Moon presently was on the opposite side of the approaching unknown fleet. So unless the Moon also was attacked, its defense system wasn't going to be of much use.
Aboard the vessel that was going to be Flag Ship of the Federation defense forces, the USS Galaxy, Admiral Owen Paris sat in its captain's chair and immediately began issuing orders.
"Attention all vessels, this is Admiral Paris aboard the USS Galaxy; an unknown fleet his coming towards Earth. So far they have ignored all our hails, therefore until orders of the contrary they are to be considered hostile. Starfleet Command is relaying the coordinates of where the defense fleet is to gather, Godspeed to all."
"How many ships have reported so far? And what's the status of the planetary defenses?" Paris questioned the tactical officer.
"So far have reported as ready and taking defense positions, thirty-nine starships, five-hundred and forty three runabouts and sixty two hundred shuttles, but all around Sol many more vessel are reporting and en route. All planetary defenses are ready Admiral!" The tactical officer informed.
Meanwhile in the Minbari command ship, Durhan was very confused. "What is going on? These readings do not make any sense, where are the humans' ships, and what vessels were those being detected?"
"They resemble Vree vessels Shai Alyt, could it be that the Vree are going to side with the humans and fight against us?" The First officer asked.
"If they are, then they will face the same fate as the humans." An angered Durhan spouted.
"Shai Alyt, our fighters have almost reached their most forward ship." Another Minbari said.
"Tell them that when ready, they can fire at will!" Durhan ordered.
"Yes Shai Alyt." The Minbari said submissively.
In the chambers of the Grey Council, eight hooded figures were observing everything through a holographic display; they were equally confused with what they were seeing, but for now, all remained calm and certain of the outcome of the battle.
-oOOo-
On board the USS Thunderchild.
"It's of no use Captain, they are not responding to any of our hails, and I've tried all the frequencies, I don't even detect any subspace receivers on them so I also tried radio frequencies but nothing." The operations officer said.
"Their fighters are closing in Captain, five hundred kilometers, four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, they are firing!" the Tactical Officer exclaimed.
Next, dozens and dozens of energy beams simultaneously began hitting the Federation starship shields and making its flare intensely.
"I guess this clears all our doubts about their intentions. Let's see if they also like our greetings. All phasers, fire at will." Hoffman ordered.
Immediately and in an amazingly rapid succession, beams of energy emanating from arrays covering the Federation starship's hull began shooting down the many of fighters zipping around.
"Damage report!" Captain Hoffman ordered.
"So far none of consequence, Captain. They are firing some sort of coherent neutron beams. Presently there are twenty-two vessels engaging us, the shields are holding firmly but their numbers continue to rise fast." The tactical officer informed.
The attacking Minbari pilots were utterly shocked with what had happened, instead of a quick death, not only the alien vessel had survived an attack that would have destroyed even the most powerful Minbari warship, but also it seemed to have stayed completely unscathed. Obviously, those aliens that had chosen to help the humans were a serious threat, but Minbari do not fear a good battle, so all-irrelevant thoughts were put aside and with a redoubled willingness, they simply increased the ferocity of their attack.
The Thunderchild on its turn continued to shoot down the annoying fighters surrounding it, but inexorably its defenses began to wear down.
"Our shields are beginning to fail, captain. What their weapons lack in power they compensate with numbers. Now there are fifty-two fighters firing at us, several even rammed us, and I am not certain it were accidental rams. Their numbers still continue to increase." The Tactical Officer said as enemy fire was heard hitting the hull and making the starship rock.
"What's the distance to their first capital ships?" Hoffman asked.
"Twenty thousand kilometers!" The Tactical Officer exclaimed.
"Fire all forward torpedo bays!" Hoffman commanded as sparks and smoke began filling the bridge.
"I need a few more seconds Captain; their capital ships are generating a lot of interferences." The tactical officer said as a console not far from him exploded making a crewmember fly through the air and fell heavily to the ground, just a few meters ahead.
"Now would be a good time Mr. Berik." Hoffman said to the Andorian Tactical Officer.
"Almost done Captain …one more second, I got it, firing now." Berik said.
Immediately, four fast bright orbs of light exit from the torpedo launchers in the rollbar and three more from the underside of the saucer section.
"Began evasive maneuver Epsilon-sigma, and get us to full impulse, NOW!" Hoffman commanded.
A second later, the Thunderchild began to roll to port and accelerating at a speed that the Minbari fighters could not cope with, soon getting out of harm's way.
Now seven bright orbs of light were heading towards several of the approaching large Minbari war-ships, that sensing danger, tried to intercept them with the full might of all their powerful weapons, unfortunately it was too late and the projectiles began hitting its targets with impressive results. A powerful Sharlin was hit by two torpedoes and was almost torn in half; a Tinashi frigate was lucky and only lost a lower fin. On other places, depending on where the Minbari ships were hit, the damaged vary, but all had one thing in common, very large pieces of their crystalline armor plating were seen been flying away.
-oOOo-
Minbari command ship.
"Our ships are being hit and are reporting heavy damages; our stealth doesn't seem to be effecting the enemy targeting." A shocked First Officer informed his Alyt.
Durhan was almost speechless, and only with some difficulty was able to articulate is next order. "All ships are to widen their formation and as soon they are in weapons range fire everything, do not hold back."
-oOOo-
Federation command ship.
"Admiral, they began firing on the Thunderchild!" The USS Galaxy Tactical Officer informed Admiral Paris.
"It's official then, we have another war in our hands, but who the hell are they?" Admiral Paris inquired, half to himself half to anyone that could hear him.
"Their design isn't even remotely similar with anything that we have in our databanks, Sir." The Ops officer informed.
"Open wide fleet communications." Paris ordered.
"Communications open, Sir." The Ops officer said.
"This is Admiral Paris; one of our ships was just fired upon. We are now officially at war. Everyone is clear to fire at will, initiate attack pattern omega one three seven."
Immediately after the order, all Federation vessels began getting into position and firing.
-oOOo-
Minbari command ship.
"Shai Alyt… all the saucer ships and their fighters have begun firing on us, but their beam weapons and glowing missiles are nothing like the Vree's ever shown to have and all over the fleet, reports of heavy damages are being announced." A Minbari said.
"I don't care what their weapons look like, fire back…, destroy them, and kill them all!" An enraged Durhan demanded.
"We can't, Alyt, we are still out of weapons range for the next twenty seconds!" The First Officer informed.
"Order the fleet to go to maximum speed and fire all weapons as soon as possible, I want them all reduced to dust! Durhan spouted.
Immediately, all Minbari ships began increasing their speeds, and seconds later; both fleets were locked in a deadly battle and firing on each other.
The fire from both fleets was so thick that almost was possible to walk on it. Minbari Nial fighters, Federation Runabouts, and shuttles had been the first ones to engage in battle. The Nials greatly outnumbered the Federation small vessels, but what they lacked in numbers, it surpassed in resistance, speed, and firepower.
Each Nial that was hit immediately was destroyed, and although that did not happened with the Federation's Runabouts and Shuttles, they were been hit by so many beams simultaneously and in such short intervals, that their shields were also not able to resist for long.
"Shai Alyt, although our fighters outnumber the enemy's ones immensely, we are losing them at a startling rate." Durhan's first officer said.
"It shouldn't take long to eradicate their main vessels; they and those damned glowing missiles are the main threat, after we eliminate them, we will come back and help eradicate their fighters." Durhan said.
Now also the numerous classes of Federation starships and Minbari vessels were fighting at close quarters and as had happened before with the smaller vessels, the Federation capital ships greatly outperformed in maneuverability, durability and firepower its Minbari counterparts, but the numerical difference was still immense.
-oOOo-
Federation command ship.
"Admiral, at this present rate, we are not going to be able to hold them for long. We are outnumbered by a factor of fifty-to-one. We already lost nine starships and hundreds of runabouts and shuttles…, we need reinforcements and fast." Captain Ridick, presently serving as First Officer said to Admiral Paris.
"I fully agree Captain; if we want to survive until more reinforcements arrive a new strategy is in order. This is Admiral Paris to the fleet; beta group Initiate a beta six attack pattern, alpha group follow me, we will flank them on the right."
"Sir, that way we are going to create a clear path for the enemy to reach Earth." An appalled captain Ridick said.
"As you have said Captain, with our current forces we will not be able to hold this defense line for long. We need to add Earth's defense forces to ours and even the numbers a bit more."
"But Admiral, if they manage to bypass Earth's defenses, nothing else will stood between them and Earth, millions may die! Ridick exclaimed.
"If we try to maintain our current positions, the fleet certainly will be destroyed, we need to keep moving and use our vessels superior maneuverability, endurance, and firepower to our advantage. Having both Earth's defenses and the fleet fighting simultaneously is our best chance." Paris stated.
-oOOo-
Minbari command ship.
"Shai Alyt, we passed their defenses, we have now a clear route to the Humans Homeworld." A pleased Minbari point it out.
"Good, let's proceed and eliminate for good the scourge that the human race is. Have our rear forces to deal with the enemy ships." Durhan said with conviction.
Shai Alyt, shouldn't be better to assure first the total destruction of the enemy fleet, and only then attack their Homeworld?" The first officer asked.
"They are beaten; I will not waste more time with leftovers." Durhan replied.
"Alyt, we are having unaccepted loses, we are losing an absurd amount of vessels for every one of their ships we destroy, having fewer ship fighting their remaining forces will only serve to accentuate our loses." The first officer said.
"Enough, I have decided, this battle with the humans already lasted too long, I will not drag it for more time just to spare a few ships. This is going to end now. Is that clear or do I have to remove you from the bridge?" A pissed Durhan asked.
"No Shai Alyt that will not be necessary." The First Officer replied in submission.
Meantime the fierce battle was continuing and growing in intensity in each second that passed.
A Miranda vessel, the USS Onyx was in a particular dire situation as it was surrounded by five Minbari war-cruisers that continuously were firing on it and its already terribly scorched hull clearly was an indication that its deflector shields were no longer offering much protection. Yet the troubled vessel lined its bow with one Minbari cruiser and fired a volley of two torpedoes that completely obliterated its target. However, that was its last action. A powerful neutron beam finally passed through the Onyx's shields and cut its starboard nacelle in half, sending it in an uncontrolled spin. The remaining four war-cruisers immediately closed in for the kill.
However, before that could happen, another Federation ship that had come all the way from Mars, dropped out of warp and fired a single Quantum torpedo that completely destroyed the closest Minbari war-cruiser. The remaining three Minbari vessels immediately began focusing their attentions on the new threat with confidence that their numerical superiority would allow them a swift victory. Then to their utter surprise, the new vessel divided itself in three parts and with a deadly rain of fire from each part quickly eliminated all three war-cruisers.
With which new second, more Federation ships arrived at the battle scene and added more destruction to the Minbari forces, but the Federation continued to have so much losses, that their situation became grimmer by the second.
By now, almost half of the Minbari fighters had been destroyed, but the Federation also had paid a terrible price, mainly in Runabouts and Shuttles.
In the middle of the immense battle, another Federation starship had been destroyed, barely having managed to launch a few escape pods. The Minbari war-cruiser that had caused the Federation's vessel destruction now had begun shooting down the defenseless pods, one after the other. To the survivors of the last remaining pod, the brief relief that they had felt after successfully having escaped their ship's destruction, was now replaced with pure terror. But before theirs deaths could occur, a one hundred years old Federation Starship, the USS Bozeman intervened and tractored the pod to safety while firing its two phaser cannons repeatedly and completely destroying attacking vessel.
-oOOo-
Minbari command ship.
Shai Aly, our main force almost reached the Humans' Homeworld." The first officer informed.
"Begin the attack as soon as possible!" Durhan ordered.
Now a force of eight Sharlins and two Tinashis were closing on the massive Space-dock station and every Minbari captain was eager to be the first one to open fire on the massive structure and be the one to claim the honor of having it destroyed, but unfortunately for them, that honor never came.
From the said station, a deadly rain of orange energy beams fell upon them and before any Minbari could express a single thought; their existence ended. Simultaneously to that attack, sixty torpedoes and almost a hundred phaser beams had also been launched against the Minbari main force, causing dead by the dozens in each second.
After seeing that, Durhan's jaw widen in disbelieve. Now he realized why his ships had passed so easily through the forces that were helping the humans. Nevertheless he learned his lesson and wasn't going to be deceived again. Immediately and by Durhan's order, a force of fifty war-ships headed towards the cursed station while the rest of the main fleet proceeded towards the Humans' planet to accomplish their sacred mission.
TBC