Earth Alliance Space – Vega Cluster
Vega Cluster Beacon 37
October 17, 2245
During the past few weeks, Earth Force had been preparing for what was certainly to be the first Fleet to Fleet engagement with the Minbari. They knew that apart from the Nova IIIs, Earth Alliance vessels had very little chance against them unless they forced them to fight on unfavorable odds. They needed to prepare a battlefield that played to the strengths of Earth Force vessels, and to the weaknesses of the Minbari units. It was easier said than done, as the requirements to make an equal battle with such an advanced foe were daunting. They needed to force the Minbari into a close range fight and against superior number of units to compensate for the lack of firepower and range of the older Earth Alliance ships.
The information gathered by the exploration missions of the stars that made up the Vega cluster was studied with a lot of detail, and a system was found suitable to implement the strategy. It was located less than 10 light years from the Vega colony, but on an upward vector in relation to Vega and Minbari space. The Vega cluster was a sphere of almost 20 light years in diameter encompassing a total of 165 star systems that had already been explored, and each marked by a beacon. Before the Battle of VCB-165 all beacons had been active, and had given the Minbari a decent knowledge of the relative positions of the stars that had to be explored to locate Earth Alliance colonies in that cluster.
During the last month, Minbari units had been arriving in force, and if one were to imagine the beacons of the Vega cluster like a sphere of green dots for those systems that hadn't been visited by the Minbari, and red for those who had, then one could see a smaller oblong half sphere of red dots that had already penetrated close to 5 light years into the bigger green sphere. The sensor systems installed in the beacons, and initial exploration satellites deployed in those systems, had already confirmed hyperspace openings in nearly 30 systems. That meant that the Minbari had already determined the status of those systems in particular. The Vega Cluster Beacon 37 had just one star in the way of the border of that expanding oblong red sphere.
There wasn't much time until the Minbari reached VCB-37, and the Earth Alliance Navy was making fast preparations for a special welcoming ceremony.
The star system had a massive gas giant in orbit, with its mass nearing that of a brown dwarf star. One of its moons was a smaller gas giant that was still bigger than Jupiter. The mass of the planet and its big gaseous moon wreaked havoc on the other local moons. Many had extreme volcanic activity due to the gravitational forces exerted by the two monsters, and the gases expelled from those moons formed a densely but spread out field of particles all around them. Other moons had been literally torn apart creating an extremely packed asteroid field orbiting the planet and its biggest moon. Only one moon located at the L4 Lagrange point between the two Goliaths could be considered stable, but orbital mechanics had deposited a great deal of the asteroids and particles in that area too. As a matter of fact, that moon was considered to be formed by gravitational aggregates from those same asteroids and particles.
The moon currently named VCB-37-IIIG, because it was located at the third planet from the sun, and it was the seventh moon from that planet, was the selected site for the pre-arranged meeting with the Minbari. Its position in the L4 Lagrange point meant that it always had the two gas giants flanking it, and the stability of said position also meant that a great deal of asteroids and particulate matter had densely gathered around it, and all along its orbit.
The strong gravity of both gas giants has also forced the moon into a gravity lock with them. It had no rotation, and that played in favor of the Earth Force strategy, as the side facing the area beyond the triangle created by the two gas giants and the moon, had been used to install several communication emitters to mimic the constant communication chatter of a colony. That same face represented the only clear approach vector from hyperspace, as every other area with the relative exception of both polar regions, had either the gas giants or densely packed orbital asteroids fields covering them.
Earth Force also installed a jump gate beyond the asteroid field of that face hoping that the Minbari would try to approach through that area to block the gate, and to avoid exposure to the asteroid fields. Between the jump gate and the planet was a dense but relatively thin asteroid field, at least when compared to the other sides as it was still more than 30,000 km thick. Between the moon and the asteroid field was also a relatively clear area in orbit where the majority of the Earth Alliance ships had gathered.
Every ship from the 9th, 10th and 11th Fleets had positioned itself in orbit, with the exception of the Avenger class carriers and their escorts. The vessels in orbit included a total 157 Sagittarius class missile cruisers, 89 Oracle class cruisers, 560 Artemis class frigates, and 147 Olympus class corvettes. The 58 Avengers, 2 Sagittarius, and 173 Olympus remaining had been positioned outside the systems Heliosphere as part of the overall strategy.
Supporting the ships in orbit, but deployed inside the asteroid field that was between the moon and the jump gate, were a total of 19 Mark I GODS, and 3 Mark II GODS, all hastily transferred from those in orbit of Earth, and the last ones had only been authorized for deployment to test their capabilities in a real combat situation.
Every vessel had been deployed in detachments composed of 2 jump capable per 5 some 6 non-jump capable vessels on average.
In orbit of the moon, the last few Cotton class fleet-tenders still performing sensor upgrades for the ships of the fleet, had already finished their work or were about to. Some of them were already en-route to the jump gate to return to the Vega colony, and from there to the Signet beacon cluster. Transports and tankers were also coming and going to supplement the fleet-tenders in refueling and rearming ships, as the last ones were concentrating mostly on finishing the upgrades. Transports also ferried replacement crews as many veterans were being assigned to newly built ships, and one of them was towing a Mark I GOD satellite into position in the asteroid field.
VCB-37 – Outside Heliosphere boundary
EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier
Flag ship 9th Fleet
That same time …
The Akagi was the Flag ship of the 9th Fleet, and because of that had been equipped with especial command and control features. Admiral Otto von Koester, was several meters behind the Captain's command chair. He was seated securely latched in the 0 G environment of the ship close to the 3D main display in front of him. The big old man had his piercing blue eyes fixed on the projection. His squared rugged German features made him look like a deadly special forces operative than one of the oldest Admirals in whole of the Earth Alliance Fleets. This alone made him a very respected officer, as very few could hold a stare from him, and even though he didn't have the same battle simulation results as the Admirals assigned to the lower numbered Fleets, he had still gained this position through merit, and as one of only eleven admirals commanding a Fleet meant that his tactical and strategic brilliance was on top of very many officers.
Seated beside him was Lieutenant Commander Agnar Kofoed. He was born on Earth in the small city of Akureyri on Iceland. He was the tactical officer assigned by EFNI (Earth Force Naval Intelligence). He was also a P3 rated telepath, one of many ex-Psi Corps members that transferred their commission into Earth Force. He had been given his current rank as a measure of making a swift transition in a just way. The telepaths had been forced into Psi Corps, and it was considered unjust for them to start at the bottom when it wasn't their fault first of being forced into the Corps, and second to be forced to start a new life when the Corps was disbanded. He had to pass the qualification requirements into Earth Force, but he had been given his rank not only based on previous experience but also for merit on his exemplary performance. His tactical brilliance and keen intellect soon earned him a position in EFNI.
"Is something troubling you, Admiral?" asked Kofoed.
The Admiral didn't take his eyes from the 3D representation of the Vega Cluster, but answered with a distinctive German accent. "The wait, Agnar. The wait." He paused, and sighed. "The uncertainty of what's to come."
"We have prepared for this the best we can, Admiral." stated Kofoed.
"Have we? When our best ships are defending the core worlds or being upgraded? No, Lieutenant Commander." he said shaking his head. "We haven't prepared for this the best we can, but the best with what we currently have."
"We have run thousands of automated simulations to prepare for this, and we have made live operational simulations with this scenario. The Minbari are very advanced, and we may suffer terrible losses, but we can defeat them here." replied Kofoed.
The Admiral turned to see Agnar. "The number of jump vortexes detected by our beacon sensors and recon satellites run in the hundreds. We could be engaging from 100 to 500 ships. If it's the latter, I'm afraid that not even if this operation goes flawless, we'll be able to beat them. Yes, we have run thousands of simulations, and if it was the Dilgar, I would say: They are in trouble, even with the ships we have. But this is not the Dilgar War. We are not going to position our fleets in front of the Minbari as we did back then. We are not going to move forward and engage the enemy for minutes or hours, maneuvering and counter maneuvering. The Minbari weapons ranges, rates of fire, and precision will make battles that normally took possibly hours, to be decided in seconds or just a few minutes."
"You saw what happened in VCB-165, we outnumbered them nearly 15 to 1, and they were still able to destroy more than 7 ships for every one they lost. You are a smart man, Agnar. If they engage us with 500 ships, we'll be outnumbering them a little more than 2 to 1. We'll have no chance of victory against that."
"Then, Admiral, it'll be a hit and run tactic; the same as in simulations. If we can't beat them, we hit them as hard as we can, and we run away. We only need to buy time for our shipyards to finish the upgrades, and any Minbari ship destroyed is a ship they have to replace, and every ship damaged is a ship they have to repair. It may not be enough but we have to draw a line for the Minbari, and we'll be the first to do it, even if our ships are not up to the task. We just need to saturate their defensive systems. It will be hard, but we control this battlefield. We should be able to through enough variability to keep them guessing, and our tactics are working to our advantages and against theirs."
The Admiral sighed. "Lets hope your people got the simulated Minbari units right, otherwise all those simulations are useless, and this will be a short and bloody battle."
"We believe we have their destroyer's specs on target. Their dreadnoughts are something that we'll have to find out. We have made the best extrapolation we can make with the data at hand, so we should be fine, but we'll still have to find out." replied Kofoed.
The Admiral didn't answer because at that time the closest star to them in the 3D projection turned red. That meant that an incoming hyperspace vortex had just opened in that system. There were no more star systems between them and the forward deployed Minbari units. He started working with his console and said. "Admiral Boyarskaya of the 10th Fleet acknowledges that phase I is a go."
At VCB-37-IIIG, the communication emitters went active. Normal short range radio waves were starting to fill the solar system, but some tachyon-based emitters were also on, and as soon as the Minbari unit that had just entered the adjacent start system, returned to hyperspace, it would be able to pick it up, or if there were any other enemy units close enough to that star, they would also be able to do so. The messages were in standard civilian frequencies without encryption, carrying a constant request to increase the number of transports sent to the colony to speed up evacuations with the excuse that they had detected Minbari units close by. They also sent a message that they had no other choice but to activate the beacon to allow all transport to reach the system faster, as there was no more time. A few seconds later, the beacon at the gate activated, and illuminated VCB-37 in hyperspace like a lighthouse.
Phase I was now on, and the tension in the fleet was noticeable. Admiral von Koester turned to Lieutenant Commander Kofoed, and asked. "Do we have some estimates on how much time they need to get here from that star?"
"Our ships would make it in under 28 hours on 1 G acceleration without stopping or slowing for transition. We have detected Minbari outgoing jump vortexes, and then incoming ones in adjacent star systems with almost the same distance with as low as 40 minutes difference. So anything in between is a good guess." answered Kofoed.
"Nothing more precise?" asked the Admiral again.
"Their acceleration during the battle of VCB-165 was even higher than that of our missiles. We were only able to hit them because our missiles had already accumulated a great deal of speed. We saw acceleration in some of their units of 830 Gs. If they can keep that kind of acceleration up, they could get here in minutes. It will only be a guess, Admiral. I just can't tell." replied Kofoed. He paused for a moment, and then looked intently at the Admiral without risking a scan. "We are woefully outmatched, Admiral. That much we know, but we have to stay positive. They are not invincible."
The Admiral sighed, "I am positive, Lieutenant Commander. I am, but I'm also realistic, and I'm responsible for the lives of every one in this Fleet. The units we are assigned to are not up to the task. We were supposed to be using them as exploration vessels, and now, even though the fast response Fleets had been upgraded, we are still being given their responsibilities."
Kofoed couldn't stop thinking that even if the simulations were a great tool for modeling tactical and strategic scenarios, the amount of defeats suffered against the Minbari during them had affected the Admiral's confidence, but he was also right about Earth Force assigning these Fleets to the task that was better suited for those equipped with better units. "I understand your concern, Admiral. But we need those ships upgraded if we hope for any chance of victory against the Minbari, and I know that the 8th and 7th Fleets had been upgraded, but the 8th is covering one of our Fleets positions in the Signet and Deneb cluster bordering the Koulani while it is being upgraded, and the 7th is deployed in place of another to be upgraded Fleet in the Dakota cluster covering any Minbari possible approach from the New London, Canton, Myoto, and Berlin Clusters. Clusters that just have a few scouts from the 7th Fleet for any kind of defense. We have 3 Fleets on this cluster, or let's say two and a half as the 11th is not at full strength, but we still control a huge amount of missile and fighter firepower. We won't be engaging them head on, Admiral. We'll hit them point blank. We have a very good chance of defeating them, even with the ships at hand."
"Yeah, only if we are able to lure them where we want." replied the Admiral. He straightened up, and added in a serious tone. "We'll do our part in this operation. Let's hope we can keep our sanity after it..., if we survive."
A couple of hours passed, and the Minbari unit in the adjacent star system hadn't entered hyperspace again, but one of the hyperspace probes deployed in direct line of approach to that system ceased to transmit. That meant that it either malfunctioned or another Minbari unit had picked up the signals, and was already approaching the beacon and had eliminated the probe.
Admiral von Koester zoomed in on the projection of VCB-37 hyperspace representation. The sphere of stars disappeared, and in its place a total of 14 hyperspace probes were seen deployed around the star system forming a sphere. One of them ceased to transmit sensor data. He inputted some information in his console, and the 3D display was split in two. In one side it kept the local hyperspace representation, and on the other the area around the Planet where Admiral Boyarskaya had the main fleet elements. He could see the position of the Global Orbital Defense satellites, the gate, and nearly 300,000 km all around that area. All of what he was seeing was also probably in the eyes of Admiral Boyarskaya.
The probable breach of the hyperspace perimeter by Minbari units signaled the start of phase II, which meant that the 9th Fleet elements outside the heliosphere were to go into total communications black out. They were only kept updated by the incoming sensor data from the hyperspace probes, and the units in orbit of VCB-37-IIIG.
On board the Sagittarius class EAS Philyra, Admiral Elizaveta Boyarskaya was looking at the same split 3D image. When on the one representing real space, she could see a hyperspace opening more than a hundred thousand kilometers from the gate, and in direct line to her ships.
"Sensors. Give me a zoom on that ship. Display it on the main screen." ordered the Admiral.
The sensor officer worked fast, and on the main flat screen in front of her, and beyond the captain's chair, the distinctive silhouette of a Minbari Tinashi class frigate was seen. A unit currently known by Earth Force as a Minbari destroyer.
The Admiral sighed. She straightened in her command chair and then ordered her EFNI tactical officer seated beside her. "Let it scan us. Let it send its intelligence, then jam it and take it out of my sight."
"Yes, Admiral." replied the Fleet Command tactical officer.
The Minbari unit powered up its powerful sensors, and started to systematically scan the entire area around the orbit of the moon, including the gate. It was able to detect different types of emissions not only from the planet, but also from its orbit. The emissions were consistent with what they knew were human ships, but it was unable to determine the quantity and type of units involved since they had conveniently shielded themselves behind many large asteroids.
The Tinashi started relaying its findings to the Trigati, the Minbari current local fleet flagship. It was a momentary assignment as a Shay Alyt in command of the Drala'Fi was already en-route to the Vega cluster. But all that the Minbari frigate was seeing was being relayed towards it. Barely a minute of high powered tachyon-based transmissions had passed when a massive burst of multi-wave jamming emissions emanating from the ships in orbit of the moon struck the Minbari vessel. It lost communications capabilities, as the drones in hyperspace were also blanketing the area with wide-area jammers.
The sensors of the Minbari ship were barely readjusting when behind three asteroids beyond the ships in orbit, three Mark II Global Orbital Defense Satellites activated their thrusters and moved away from cover. The more than 600 meters long satellites triangulated the Minbari ship position via their EMS/STL system, and one of the units fired the first particle canon in a combat situation. The satellites capacitors drained their energy into the large particle accelerator synchrotrons or accumulation rings, which in turn use the energy to accelerate heavy particles and then feed them to a collector and into the weapons barrel. The entire weapons length of nearly 400 meters then acted as a linear accelerator driving the particles to relativistic speeds and into the target.
The muzzle of the GOD satellite lightened up, and the first combat discharge of a particle cannon erupted from its barrel. The bright orange beam, a color gained by the properties of the heavy cesium particles used, covered the distance to the Minbari unit in less than a second. The beam struck the Minbari vessel from the frontal starboard side. Its crystal armor was no match for the 384 Peta Joules total discharge of the beam. The accelerated particles not only pierced its armor but went through its internals and out of the port side of its gravitic drive. The beam's shock-wave tore through the Tinashi's internals breaking the structural integrity of the main quantum gravimetric reactor. The matter compressed in the small singularity was released into the vessel with catastrophic effects. The Minbari frigate's fate was first witnessed when the internal inferno burst out of the pierced sections of the ship, which was then followed a fraction of a second later by an impressive explosion that reduced the ship into component parts.
While a particle cannon acted like a relativistic rail gun of particles, and the damage imparted was done mostly by the kinetic energy carried on those particles, their speed was so great that even if no extreme heat plasma explosion was vented in its interiors like the case of plasma or ion weapons, the shock-waves generated could literally tear a ship apart, and in this occasion that was precisely the case.
The combat test of the particle cannon and EMS/STL system was a success, and was very well monitored by the forces in orbit. Admiral Boyarskaya ordered the immediate relay of the combat data so that Earth Force could at least have that information in case the operation met with failure. Both Admirals in their individual ships couldn't hide a smile, and gave them and their crews a huge morale boost, and to the officers at least the knowledge that there was some hope in battling the Minbari.
Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance Vega beacon 37.
Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser – Flag ship 1st Attack Fleet.
Holographic sensor projection room.
Two hours later ...
Sineval was standing besides Kalain inside the holographic representation of hyperspace.
"Do we have any contact with the reconnaissance vessel?" asked Sineval.
"No. Alyt. The jamming prevents any communications with it. It may still be performing scans of the system, or... it could have been destroyed." answered Kalain.
Sineval turned to look at Kalain, and said. "The humans don't have weapons that could have hit our ship at those ranges, and even if they had, their primitive sensors could not have locked into our unit at those distances. They are a primitive race, Kalain. There must be another reason." He then ordered. "Send fighters ahead to clear those jammers, and a detachment to jump ahead."
Kalain bowed, and linked to the bridge to relay Sineval's orders.
In the holographic image Sineval could see the fleet's deployment from which a Sharlin and its 8 Tinashi escorts accelerated towards VCB-37 followed by a total of 45 Nial class fighters. 15 from the detachment itself, and 30 more from two other Sharlins to take out the probes.
It didn't take too much time for the Nials to wipe out the Earth Alliance probes, but even if the jamming from hyperspace was over, they still had no contact with the recon unit, so a few second later the nine ships of the detachment made the transition to normal space. A total of 9 jump vortex opened releasing the detachment ships a few hundred kilometers apart from each other, but still more than 200,000 km from the gate. A few seconds later they started scanning the area, and found trace materials consistent with the hull of a Tinashi. They searched the area for mines or other possible weapons, and only found the jamming emissions from the orbit of the moon.
On the Trigati, Sineval ordered the Fleet to position itself above the detachment deployed in normal space, and ordered a burst communications signal to contact their units. Being in the same position as the other units but only separated by the normal space and hyperspace barrier the signals were able to beat the human jammers with no problem.
"Report." ordered Sineval to the detachment commanding officer.
"Alyt, we have thoroughly scanned the area, and have detected traces of our Tinashi, but no reason as to its destruction. We have detected human emissions from the moon and its orbit, and believe the humans are hiding their vessels behind asteroids." replied the officer.
"Cowards! If they intend us to enter the asteroid field to ambush us, they are in for a big surprise. They are more stupid than I thought." Sineval broke away from his spoken thoughts, and ordered the detachment commander to move ahead and cover the gate, and he then turned to Kalain. "Have the Fleet jump ahead of the gate in a wall formation. We'll start making some target practice of those asteroids, and see what the humans do when they lose their cover." he said with a laugh. "Let's see if they can cross the entire width of the field before we wipe them out." he added with a sneer.
The detachment reached the gate, and seconds later hundreds of jump vortexes opened releasing the majority of the Minbari ships deployed at the Vega cluster. A total of 51 Sharlin class War Cruisers and 408 Tinashi class Frigates were now deployed in a standard Minbari wall formation between the border of the asteroid field and the gate.
EAS Akagi – That same time …
The huge wall of ships appeared in the holographic projector's real space side, and Admiral von Koester knew it was the moment they had been waiting for. The Minbari ship numbers were more than he had expected, and that shook his resolve, but their positioning couldn't have been better, and that at least gave him some hope. The Minbari numbers and disposition determined the battle scenario to be followed, so he immediately gave the order. "Release the Sagittarius, and signal the Fleet ready to jump."
A few seconds later the two Sagittarius currently assigned to the 9th Fleet entered hyperspace through a single vortex. As soon as the missile cruisers reached hyperspace they immediately rippled fired all their missiles, and the Sagittarius with the charged jump engines opened another vortex into normal space outside the Heliosphere, but several thousand kilometers away from the 9th Fleet. The two ships returned avoiding the massive shock-waves that would wreak havoc in local hyperspace.
The missiles accelerated at maximum trust into different directions. Some cut their engines as they reached their position before the others, but as soon as a multi-layered sphere of 112 missiles was formed, they all detonated their powerful warheads starting from the outside to the inside. The first explosions magnified those of the second layer, and the second ones did so with the third at the core of the sphere. The shock-waves concentrated so much energy from the hyperspace currents in the center that the resulting energy waves would affect a very large area of the hyperspace region close to VCB-37.
Earth Force could not risk an interception in hyperspace, so they had probably wasted 112 missiles if there were no Minbari units there, but it was a guarantee for the operation to proceed with the least amount of risk as it was possible.
EAS Philyra …
The Minbari had started firing against the asteroids, but the 30,000 km width of the field, and the jamming made it very difficult for them to actually hit one of those they were using as cover, but the huge number of units firing would make that irrelevant in just a few minutes.
"This is 10th Fleet Actual to all missile units. Commence operation. Fire at will." ordered Admiral Boyarskaya.
The 157 Sagittarius assigned to Boyarskaya started ripple firing half of their missiles, and in a few seconds a total of 4,396 missiles had been launched and were heading towards the Minbari positions at cruise speed, but skimming in cover of every asteroid in between.
The Earth Alliance still had older missiles in stock, and half of the Sagittarius magazines consisted of them, but the other half were comprised of the newer variant of missiles designed for the new Nova batches. They had the same warheads, and engines, but their sensors included the EMS/STL system. The new navigational computers included a limited artificial intelligence which made them capable of evasive maneuvers to avoid point defenses hitting them. A lesson learned during the Dilgar War where thousands of missiles were lost to interceptions.
EAS Akagi …
Admiral von Koester was watching the holographic projector. The data link to Boyarskaya's units was being received through a constantly modulated frequency that was perfectly linked to the Fleet jammers. It was a signal surfing the frequencies being buffeted by the jammers, and that allowed his units to receive the data stream without problems. He could see the missiles cruising towards the Minbari units, and was waiting for them to reach a predetermine distance that would allow his unit to synchronize the attack.
It didn't take much time for that to happen. The crew of every ship was ready, and the Admiral gave the order. "Lieutenant Commander, give the signal. All units execute jump."
The ships linked their navigational computers to perform a simultaneous jump. Jumping into hyperspace without specifically adjusting the vortex directions could make some units make the transition on the same position and be destroyed. Jumps from hyperspace could be made manually as the difference in size of space made it highly unlikely that ships will open a vortex in the same position, but it was also not risked. But jumping into hyperspace where the space was much smaller meant that ships vortexes could easily get tangled in between, so Fleet jumps were normally linked to avoid such occurrences, even in emergencies.
The Avenger class carrier had a relatively stronger reactor strength, at least compared to the Sagittarius and Oracles, but what made it special was the jump capacitors which were bigger and with a stronger charge capacity. This meant that even though it had stronger reactors than the other two older units, it still took more time to charge the jump engines to capacity as their capacitors were far bigger, but it also meant that if they were not discharged completely, they could still be used to jump again if necessary, or wait for smaller periods of time to make a partial charge for jump. For this reason, a total of 58 jump vortexes opened towards hyperspace to move the carriers with their escorts individually, and without requiring two jump capable units to take turns in opening them.
The 9th Fleet made the transition, and the ships immediately felt turbulence in hyperspace, it was the remnant of the cleansing volley, but it wasn't as bad as an atmospheric shuttle cruising through a storm. The vessels kept formation cruising from outside the heliosphere boundary and into their designated jump positions at the third orbit, while at the same time, the missiles in normal space cruised the 30,000 kilometers towards the border of the local asteroid field.
While cruising toward their positions, the Carriers charged their capacitors for another combat deployment. From each side of the Avengers a total of twelve double doors opened to show a total of 48 hangars; two tightly packed starfuries in each one. This new configuration had strained the operational capabilities of the ship, as it was only designed to carry one in each, but due to the fact the it had been originally designed to carry one exo-endo atmospheric fighter which were far wider due to their wings, the engineers had been able to rearrange the locking clamps to add another set. It was a very cramped configuration, but allowed for each carrier to deploy a total of 96 starfuries each.
Slowly the fighters started taking off in perfect order. Each fighter was the newer variant of Nova class starfuries equipped with the atmospheric flight module in the back, and a total of twelve weapons slots each. Eight were certified to carry small anti-fighter missiles, while the four inner slots were capable of holding the bigger anti-ship missiles, and each fighter was packed with them. The atmospheric module was kept for this operation, as it would allow the fighter a greater acceleration in the hit a run tactic being sought, even though it somewhat hampered flight performance and was not normally carried by the space-borne units.
It took just a couple of minutes from jump to full deployment, but the 5,568 fighters were now in perfect formation around their carriers, and the Earth Force units readied themselves for the first Fleet to Fleet engagement with the Minbari.
Admiral Von Koester watched his holographic display and saw the missiles still cruising towards the asteroid field border heavily engaged by Minbari weapons fire. A couple hundred had already been destroyed, even with the heavy evasive flying of the new missile variant. He activated his Fleet wide com, but no encouraging message was to be sent, as they were still guarding electronic silence. Only a single green blip was shown for every other carrier. Every one knew the drill, and would rely on their battle management systems to get the necessary data for the operation, and with this knowledge the Carriers set to open their vortexes.
EAS Philyra …
"Do we have a fix on their Flagship?" asked Admiral Boyarskaya to the EFNI operative besides her.
"I think so, Admiral. They are no longer transmitting. It seems that their orders had been sent, and they are just concentrating on our missiles. But when they arrived, there were five units with stronger emissions, but one above the rest. If I were to target one, it would be this one." answered the EFNI Lieutenant Commander locking a bracketed dot in the holographic projector.
"Good. At least this part of the operation has gone well. Our missiles have pinned them down as we hoped. You know the drill Lieutenant Commander. As soon as the 9th Fleet makes the transition take out their head."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Prepare the Fleet for jump. Once the 9th Fleet is here, wait 20 seconds for the carriers to clear the way, then we jump."
Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser …
Sineval stood besides Kalain. They were both watching the missile volley approach. The holographic space around them was alight with green weapons fire. Neutron and fusion beams were lashing out towards the asteroid field trying to bring down the skimming missiles, but the density of the field meant that they had little line of sight against them, and the majority of weapons fire was striking the asteroids themselves. The explosions and debris sometimes crippled a missile, but the majority brought down had been due to the extremely fast and accurate Minbari weapons.
"Should we order the Fleet to move backwards?" asked Kalain.
"No. Those missiles are not enough to threaten us." answered Sineval.
"There are a lot of them Alyt."
"And a lot of us too. We have more guns than missiles approaching. Once they clear the cover of the asteroids it will be over in a few seconds. Then we'll concentrate on their Fleet's cover, and see if the humans have the guts to die defending their colony."
"Should we at least send our fighters forward? Just in case." asked Kalain again.
"No, Kalain. If we do so, we'll be compromising our fire arcs, we'll have to worry about hitting our fighters." Answered Sineval. "We'll stand here, and show them that no matter what they do, it is over."
"Yes, Alyt." replied Kalain bowing slightly.
"Did you know, Kalain, that this race was responsible for defeating the Dilgar? A race that was said to be unbeatable. A race that wiped out the entire League's Fleets, and that these humans rolled them over in just a few months?"
"Yes, Alyt, I've heard."
"Well, I'm not impressed, and if this is all the humans have to offer, then I guess the Dilgar were also a pathetic bunch."
"They did destroy the Hazash'Ti and its escorts." replied Kalain.
Sineval snorted a laugh. "You saw the feed from the communications relay. They were heavily outnumbered, and the humans paid dearly for their deaths. Let's see what they are able to do to one of our fleets." he laughed again. "We'll teach them how warriors make war..."
An alarm sounded in one of the holographic room control stations. The Warrior manning it raised his head from the display and said. "Jump points forming..."
"Where?" shouted Sineval, but at that moment the back of his head was illuminated by blue light. He turned his back to the asteroid field where the approaching missiles were about to emerge, and saw several jump vortexes forming behind his ships. They were spaced to cover almost his entire formation. "Come about! Port to missiles! Starboard to jump points! Target the vortex, and bring down any ship that comes through!" ordered Sineval. But where he expected ships, there came nearly a hundred X shaped fighters from every vortex. The human starfuries started blossoming from them using their lateral thrusters to expand their area of approach, and the last of them hadn't even cleared the vortex when the first arrivals started releasing their missiles.
The timing was perfect, as the missiles launched by the 10th Fleet had reached the border of the asteroid field, and their blue plasma engines went white when the missiles accelerated at full power. The first came out of the field with their lateral thrusters working in short burst forcing the missile into a deliberated erratic approach to target, and complicating matters for the Minbari tracking systems.
The warrior manning the communications console in the Trigati, hadn't even started to send the orders, when a trio of ship killers emerged from the asteroid field. The three Mark II GOD satellites activated their thrusters inside the cover of the asteroids, and let inertia position them. With the use of their passive EMS/STL system, they locked in their designated targets without sending any active lock warning. They adjusted the strength of their muzzle's magnetic field to correct the beams trajectory, and fired. Three long orange lances pierced the dark vacuum of space, and struck their unaware targets with so much strength that there was nothing to contain the damage.
One struck a Sharlin amid ship piercing the frontal armor and completely bypassing its internals to reach the huge gravimetric reactor, where its uncontained singularity decompressed in a massive explosion. It shared the same fate as the previous Tinashi. The second Sharlin was struck at the ventral area below the central weapon, destroying the root of the main neutron beam cannon, and continuing towards the dorsal fin where it ended its path of destruction on the main feed of the antimatter cannon. The third beam struck the Minbari Flagship while the ship was making its turn to starboard, and impacted at the bow but coming from the aft on its port side. The beam went right through from port to starboard just when the main neutron beam capacitor was charging. The explosion burst the Sharlin open at the bow, and wreaked havoc in all frontal systems.
The holographic projection was off line. Sineval was on the floor. Kalain rushed to help him. "Report! What hit us?" he said while standing up.
"The entire bow systems are in the red! We have lost primary sensors! Activating secondaries!" replied a warrior from one of the consoles.
The holographic projection reactivated giving Sineval a view of the battlefield. The majority of the Fleet was still facing the missiles, but some units were already breaking formation to engage the new arrivals. Some fighters were keeping formation in wait for orders, while others were already heading for the human Starfuries. The human fighters were already swarming space with missiles, while from the vortex started pouring out 173 Olympus class corvettes.
The small non jump capable human corvettes were equipped with racks of missiles which they started firing against the Minbari units. Some had simple high explosive warheads, but several were equipped with fusion ones. While the missiles carried by the corvettes were far smaller than those carried by the Sagittarius, Hyperions, and Novas, they were still bigger than those carried by the fighters, and in consequence carried a stronger punch, with the obvious exception of those equipped with high explosives. The small Earth Force vessels also started firing their plasma cannons and rail guns, and space started filling with hundreds of blue pulses making their way into the Minbari formation.
Some Minbari units were firing off vector of the approaching missiles and into three bigger asteroids. "What are they shooting at?" asked Sineval. "and in Valeria's name, order our ships to make to starboard and fire back. Release our fighters!"
"We were struck by weapons fire from around those asteroids, Alyt, but we are detecting nothing."
"Have some units keep an eye on that area, but have them engage the human ships and fighters, but give priority to incoming missiles."
On the three asteroids the Mark II GOD satellites, had already returned to the cover of the asteroids via their thrusters, and had angled themselves to release their missile volleys while they waited for the 30 seconds necessary to recharge their capacitors. One after another, the 20 missiles tubes on each satellite started releasing the 200 missiles contained in its magazines. The three satellites released 600 hundred of them that went to maximum trust the moment they left their tubes, and the big cigar shaped weapons started racing to join their previously released brothers into causing mayhem in the Minbari ranks.
EAS Akagi ...
The jump points had just closed, and the Avengers stood still in hyperspace after launching their attack. The ships had no offensive weapons, only interceptors so they were not risked in the engagement, but they were occupying a piece of hyperspace that was soon to become cluttered.
"Come about! All ships move away from the beacon! Flank speed!" ordered Admiral von Koester.
The ships engines came to life, and the Avenger class carriers started accelerating away. Human vessels were slow, but it wasn't because of lack of propulsion technology but from physiological concerns. The Earth Alliance ships normally worked with an acceleration of 1 G to mimic Earth gravity as human bodies were accustomed to it, and even though the technology and different engine designs allowed for much higher accelerations, the top speed of the majority of Earth Force vessels even in emergencies didn't exceed 4 Gs as the bodies couldn't handle prolonged exposure to such forces. The Novas had the biggest and most advanced engine block and allowed for even greater speeds, but the excess power was used to keep those 4 Gs in gravity wells so that ships were less hampered in those conditions. But this was no emergency, it was way beyond that, and even though the Avengers were old ships their engines were still up to the job.
Nearly 11 Gs crushed the crew into their seats. The forces were so high that the risk of people blacking out was real. The computers had been configured to manage the repositioning on their own in case the helm officers lost consciousness, but none of them did, and in just ten seconds they were already moving at more than one kilometer per second and accelerating. The ships had launched their attack on the border of the main fleet deployment zone, and were already moving safely away.
EAS Philyra …
Admiral Boyarskaya was counting seconds to order the jump, but beyond the asteroid field thousands of fighters with close to two hundred Olympus class corvettes had filled space with more than 36,000 missiles. They were very close to the Minbari units as they had jumped just a little more than 300 kilometers away. Very few Minbari ships were firing into the newly launched missiles, because they had literally been caught with their pants down, but that wasn't to last. It took some precious seconds for the bluish units to react, but they finally turned to starboard, and the real disparity in technology was felt.
Thousands of fusion beam cannons adjusted their aim, and fired. The range being so short, the beams so fast, and their sensors so precise that the hit ratios reached almost 100 percent. Swarms of missiles were being destroyed every second, and while a few moments ago it seemed that the Minbari were done, now the missiles were being stopped in their track, and the 300 km that separated them from their targets seemed infinite.
The corvettes, after firing their missiles, were now facing their targets in groups to concentrate their fire. They were still alive, only because the Minbari were concentrating on the real treat: the missiles.
"Ma'am, we won't have any missiles and ships when we join the battle if we linger too much. They are being brought down even faster than we expected." said the EFNI operative.
Admiral Boyarskaya knew that too, and wasted no time. "All ships! Jump! Now!"
The order was sent. All none jump capable ships were already grouped and formed with two jump capable ones. One of them for each group opened a vortex, and the Earth Force ships made the transition to hyperspace barely missing the fleeing Avengers.
"Admiral, we need to jump point blank. If we deploy at the same range of our other units, we'll be unable to hit them, and they'll wipe out the entire fleet." said the EFNI operative while the ships were moving through the vortex.
"I know, Lieutenant Commander. I know. This is going to get rough. Once in hyperspace turn the fleet around, deploy mines, and make the transition, as soon as we jump to normal space head at maximum speed towards the asteroid field. We'll just deploy and run, and we'll fire normal weapons until we reach the cover of the field." ordered the Admiral.
"Yes, Admiral."
"As soon as we jump, we fire everything we've got. Don't wait for targeting solutions. We'll feed targeting data to the missiles once they are on their way."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Coordinate the jump on the same side of the main attack, that way we won't be facing idle weapons. But bring the ships above and below the main missile and Starfury approach."
"Done, Admiral. Orders away."
The 10th Fleet with the added units of the 9th and 11th Fleets arrived into hyperspace. The ships turned to face the asteroid field location in normal space, they deployed mines, and the charged jump-capable units opened a vortex again. It was the fastest normal space to hyperspace to normal space fleet transition in recorded human history. Less than 30 seconds had passed since the first units arrived to normal space, than a second set of vortexes opened almost on top of the Minbari Fleet.
The first ships out were the 560 Artemis class frigates. The Minbari had already started redeploying their guns to the closest target, and were giving a breathing space for the first and second missile volleys to gain on speed. The first Artemis that came out of the vortex were pierced by fusion and neutron beam cannons before they even got a chance to fire back. But while the first ones to transition paid the price, they gave the units coming behind the chance to open and fire their alpha strikes.
A Sharlin was struck by the combined weapons fire of half a dozen human frigates. One after the other, the high speed rail gun penetrators pierced the Minbari unit head on, with plasma bolts making their way inside the ship, and adding to the onslaught that destroyed the vessel. The human ships on the other side paid the price by losing the entire formation by precise attacks from the Tinashi escorts.
Behind the Artemis class Frigates, the Olympus class corvettes of the second wave were clearing the vortex, and were already ripple firing their smaller anti capital ship missiles, but many of the units still were unable to launch as they were destroyed by neutron or fusion beams. The slashing attacks cutting through a corvette with ease. A unit broke in half while its missiles kept launching from the broken halves oblivious to the fate their mothership had suffered.
Then came the Oracles followed closely by the Sagittarius. These last vessels carried the greatest punch, and that was precisely the reason they came in last. The other units gave them a breathing chance to fire their ship killers.
The human missile cruisers carried 56 missiles in four racks of 14 missiles each: two on each side. The contrails already were seen as four missiles at a time were leaving their launch tubes in a very fast release.
Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser …
"Alyt!" barked Kalain
"I see them!" snapped Sineval. "Fire all weapons."
"We are not holding back. All weapons are committed. We must disengage, or we'll lose the entire fleet."
"Ahhhhh!" screamed Sineval in fury. The lower and top ships of the fleet formation were already being overwhelmed by the massive human release. While the explosions were still more numerous on the human side, many ships had already been lost, and human missiles were approaching on all sides and very fast. "Accelerate! All ships to maximum speed, now! Head for the the area with the least amount of missiles!"
"We should jump away and return when the missiles pass." countered Kalain, but neither order was to be sent.
The humans had coordinated their two attacks with the recharge rate of the Mark II GODS, but due to the fact that Admiral Boyarskaya had been forced to jump earlier, the capacitor charge for the satellites were just reaching capacity, and their thrusters were already moving the weapons out of the cover of their huge asteroids but from a different vector to confuse the Minbari gunners.
The already damaged Trigati was rocked hard. The bright orange beam struck the already damaged front but didn't pierce the ship as the momentum of the vessel made the beam to travel all the way aft, but while it didn't pierce from side to side, it did with one side wreaking havoc to the ship's internals.
Sineval, Kalain and the entire crew just saw bright light before everything was over.
Another two Sharlins were destroyed this way, but from the port side of the Minbari fleet several weapons that were not committed in engaging the missiles emanating from the asteroid field fired in quick succession destroying the three human ship killer satellites, but the damage was done. The Minbari fleet had been beheaded, and the loss of coordination meant that most vessels would have to face the human missile onslaught.
Individual Minbari units re-tasked their priorities. One Tinashi concentrated fire on the big missiles, but was overwhelmed by several dozen smaller missiles from the second Olympus' volley. The ship was completely destroyed. A Sharlin seeing the huge number of missiles approaching, and determining that they'll be unable to intercept them before they were hit, decided to go for the human ships to at least find some retribution. Its heavy beams struck two Olympus and an Oracle before being immolated by several fusion missile impact.
This was being repeated all along the top and bottom formations of the Minbari fleet.
The second and closer fleet deployment from Admiral Boyarskaya was receiving heavy damage, but was also overwhelming Minbari ships in numbers. But the first fleet deployment with its corresponding missile volleys and Starfuries were closing in fast, and the Earth Force fighters were reaching the far smaller Nial formations sent to intercept them at a very fast speed.
From the Minbari side, the Nials had passed through the approaching anti-ship missiles, bringing many of them down, but had already set their eyes on the extremely numerous human fighter approach. The first human Starfuries were disintegrated by the long range weapons fire of the Nials. The humans responded a few seconds later by a full anti-fighter time on target missile release when the Minbari fighters entered range. The massive number of missiles launched by the thousands of starfuries momentarily slowed the Nial's computer system while they prioritized threats.
The 765 Minbari fighters were being engaged by more than 7 to 1 odds in relation to the human starfuries, but with eight missiles being launched in waves by the human fighters, the odds were close to 58 to 1 against the missiles. It was such a massive deployment from the human formation that even with their extreme acceleration, they would be unable to escape. They had missiles approaching very fast from every side but aft, and were also carrying the momentum of its fighters. Their own acceleration was also playing against them, as they had accumulated a lot of momentum towards the human fighters, and that made it impossible to outrun the approaching mass of missiles.
The humans knew the stakes, and they also knew that they probably weren't going to get another chance to use their weapons, so they released their anti-fighter missiles in waves with the intention of saturating the Minbari defenses. While the missiles were in some cases old, their seeker heads have been upgraded with the interferometric passive sensors from the EMS/STL system. Just a few would have been necessary against a similar number of, let's say, Dilgar Thoruns, but with the Minbari, no risk was taken. It was better to lose all missiles than lose all missiles and their fighters.
The Minbari wing commander gave the order, and they kept heading for the human fighters while performing heavy evasive action. But against such odds, not even their huge technological disparity could make a difference, and space was momentarily lit by hundreds of explosions. The Minbari fighter morale reached rock bottom. They had been able to destroy several hundred Starfuries from long range, but they had underestimated their opponent and were paying the consequences. Their formation was broken, and while they kept firing against the human starfuries, the amount of human fighters that had entered range made quick work of the few hundred Nials that remained with very precise and numerous plasma pulse weapon hits, and the fast human approach was already making their way into the Minbari Fleet's heart.
EAS Philyra …
Admiral Boyarskaya was looking at the holographic display flattened by strong G forces into her seat. All the ships had their engines running at unhealthy levels for their crews, but it was a necessity. They had already launched their missiles, and their remaining weapons were not up to the task in engaging the Minbari units, so the plan was to make a release and head for cover of the asteroid field. But while they were moving fast, they were like standing still for the speed and precision of the Minbari weapons, and while the Minbari units were mostly focusing in bringing down the fast approaching missiles, they were still assigning some weapons to engage ships, and were causing terrible loses on her fleet.
The Sagittarius were making a full run for the asteroids, while the Oracles, Olympus and Artemis made the same behind the missile cruisers but kept firing their weapons, and were still able to cause some damage to the hundreds of Minbari units heavily engaged by missiles.
The formation of bluish ships was alight by nuclear explosions. Blue pulse plasma weapons and the faint contrails of rail gun rounds made their way into the Minbari formations from the top, center and bottom to sum up to the onslaught. But from that grinding, thousands of green beams were lashing out with fury into the human missiles and some into their warships. One of those beams was the main antimatter cannon of a Minbari Sharlin. The thick green line pierced the distance to the retreating human ships and struck a Sagittarius with a slashing attack. The entire aft section of the ship exploded away with the loss of containment of its reactors, and a fraction of a second later, several neutron beams including the primary from the same war cruiser struck what remained of the ship leaving nothing recognizable.
The EAS Philyra suffered the same fate as many ships before her. Admiral Boyarskaya and her crew were lost in a blink of an eye before registering what fate awaited them. A few seconds later that same Sharlin war cruiser was destroyed when several fighters launched anti-capital-ship missiles struck the vessel all along it hull. The ship cracked open by the first detonations and was completely destroyed seconds later by more arriving missiles.
The first missiles from the first fleet jump were arriving into the main Minbari formations, and the damage being done was out of proportions. The defensive fire was huge, but the approaching missiles were more than it could handle.
EAS Akagi …
The Akagi and the rest of the carriers were already outside the system's heliosphere but still in hyperspace. They were waiting for their jump engines to recharge before returning, and were receiving telemetry via their tactical links. The amount of ships lost on both sides had considerably reduced the amount of jamming, but communications at those distances were getting difficult.
Admiral von Koester sighed. "That was Elizaveta's ship?" he turned to Kofoed in question already knowing the answer.
"Yes, Admiral. That was the 10th Fleet Flagship. We lost the Philyra." answered Kofoed.
"Signal the Fleet. I'm assuming command. Keep all vessels on retreat into the asteroid field." the Admiral received a nod from Kofoed, and added. "Do you think the Olympus we deployed first will make it?" he said referring to the Olympus deployed by the carriers that were on a direct course towards the Minbari center force just behind the missiles and fighters.
"It all depends on our missiles and fighters, but we should have made the jump closer." answered Kofoed.
"Nothing to do now. We'll just have to wait." finished the Admiral.
Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …
After the loss of the Trigati, the Vindira had assumed command of the Minbari fleet, and was already directing combat from its holographic Command and Control center.
Ships exploded on the Minbari fleet's top and bottom flanks. But some units from the central formation were already being lost by the arriving fighter, and Olympus launched missiles. The situation for the Minbari was getting desperate.
"This is a disaster." said Alyt Vrasnall, the commanding officer of the Vindira. "How did we allow them to ambush us this way?" he added mostly to himself, but his second in command heard, but only stared at him with a slightly opened mouth.
"We need to salvage the situation however we can." He turned to his second in command and ordered with a strong voice. "Order all ships to enter hyperspace, we'll wait for their missiles to fizzle out, then we'll return to take them down at long range."
"Yes, Alyt." the second in command replied while filtering the order fleet wide.
Ship after ship continued to explode in fiery explosions, but soon one after the other the more than two hundred Minbari vessels remaining started entering hyperspace. A Tinashi was the first to leave, several missiles passing right where it was a few seconds before. The transition was swift, but upon arrival the crew of the frigate came upon another human surprise. They had jumped inside a field of fusion mines.
The small human objects had been launched by Boyarskaya's ships, and they had quickly deployed into a very big cube of thousands of the automated weapons. The small thrusters of the mines were constantly working to keep stationary and in link with the beacon. They were designed mostly to be dropped to cover escapes or for protection of fixed sites, but not to be deployed in a fixed position in hyperspace. They had to keep their attitude thrusters at maximum, and would most likely not last more than a couple of hours. For Earth it was just a way of covering every avenue of approach and retreat for the Minbari, so they just needed them to last for this battle, and only a couple of minutes had passed when they became the center of attention.
On the Vindira, Alyt Vrasnall was watching how the ships closer to the approaching missiles were escaping into hyperspace, while the rest remained firing their weapons to bring more missiles down before retreating with their brothers.
"Alyt!" said an anxious warrior operating the communications station. "The hyperspace units are calling for an abort! They have come upon a mine field!"
"What? Destroy them!" A knot formed in the belly of Vrasnall. He knew the consequences of thermonuclear explosions in hyperspace, and the consequences of the same in normal space. He was facing both. He balanced the two and made a decision. "Abort! All ships abort transition! NOW! Give the order NOW!" he barked in an emotional breakdown. He was no longer calculating. He was just trying to save his ships. "Maximum speed! Get us out of here! Order all ships to open a path through the weakest part of the approaching missiles! Forget about the rest just fire into a single spot, and order all ships to escape through the breach."
There had been warriors mocking the human chances of fighting them with such a great disparity in technology, but after this, everything was different. He was afraid. For the first time since he finished his training, he was really afraid. Not of death, but of loss. They had been taught they were the best, the strongest, the most advanced, and here he stood. Out-thought by an inferior race, out-fought by inferior machines, out-maneuvered by slower vessels. All his sense of invincibility disappeared in an instant.
But what he was mostly afraid of, was that no matter what strategy they sought, what tactic they employed, the humans had thought of it before them, and had been ready.
EAS Akagi …
"Wait …, wait …, wait just a little longer." said von Koester.
The mines were being fired upon and destroyed by the incoming Minbari ships.
"We are losing them fast, Admiral." stated Kofoed.
The Admiral sighed. "Just let the missiles close a little more so that they can't enter hyperspace after we detonate the mines. Just a little a longer."
"We won't have mines to detonate if we tarry, Admiral."
"Damn! It'll have to do. Activate them. Now!" ordered von Koester.
The signal was sent, and again the mines detonated in a similar fashion as the missiles before them. From the outside to the inside concentrating the blast at the center. Ships were literally torn apart and washed away by the force of the explosions. The few vortexes that remained open were completely destabilized, and the few unlucky ships that were still inside were destroyed when their vortexes collapsed upon themselves.
Nearly 70 Minbari ships were lost in an instant. No survivors. Only wreckage floating away.
Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …
The Minbari ships were in disarray. They were no longer in a wall formation. All ships were accelerating towards a single spot in the incoming missile barrage. They couldn't escape towards the asteroid field, or they would have been forced to slow down to maneuver, and that would have likely made them slower than the missiles with the obvious result. The only option was moving into open space beyond the jump gate, and that meant going through the missiles. That's exactly what they did, and exactly what the humans wanted.
Every ship fired forward into a single spot, but the speed that the human missiles had accumulated had already positioned them inside their formations from almost every side but aft, and casualties were mounting at an alarming rate.
After the loss of their ships in hyperspace, only a little more than 160 vessels remained. The Vindira was among them in the center of the formation.
"Another Sharlin has been destroyed. One more!..., two more Tinashis! Alyt! We are losing ships very fast." said a warrior from the sensor station.
"Keep the fleet moving forward and firing! We are almost through." replied Vrasnall, but that was nothing more than an understatement. More than a thousand missiles remained in front of them, and the Minbari fleet was dwindling down very fast by the overwhelming number of missiles hitting them on their sides.
Retreating into hyperspace was no longer an option. They would have to wait at least a few seconds for the shock-waves produced by the mines to recede, and by that time it would be over, so they kept on course. More ships were lost, and even a few stragglers were unable to move fast enough to avoid the swarms of fighters approaching. The human Starfuries were no longer in pursuit, but moving towards the asteroids to find cover as their weapons were not powerful enough against capital ships, but three Tinashis were overwhelmed by thousands upon thousands of small plasma bolts as the human X shaped furies made their pass close by.
But finally, and with the sheer volume of fire that the Minbari were able to throw in their frontal vectors, the last missile in front of them was destroyed, and their acceleration started pushing them away from the pursuing missiles. Those coming from the asteroid field had gathered a lot of speed and were close to their tails, while the rest of the missiles had already turned towards them, but their momentum kept them heading towards the asteroid field. Their missile engines struggled to move them the opposite way, and by the time they would gained enough speed the Minbari would already be out of range.
In the end, only 15 Minbari ships had made it through the swarm of missiles and into open space. They had turned around shutting down their gravitic drives allowing their momentum to move them farther away, while their weapons started to slowly destroy, the still thousands of missiles that were making their approach. It took a couple of minutes, but the last human missile was destroyed from very long range.
EAS Akagi …
"OK. We are in trouble. Make the transition behind the moon to retrieve our fighter, but do it fast, I don't want the Minbari to decide to enter hyperspace at this precise moment." ordered the Admiral.
"Yes, Admiral. Orders sent." replied Kofoed.
The carriers activated their engines, and started their approach at high speed. It took some time, but thankfully the Minbari remained in normal space making a slow and careful approach toward the moon and its asteroid field. That allowed the human carriers to open a vortex behind VCB-37-IIIG, and rejoin the vessels and fighters already assembling there.
"Order all fighters back. Don't waste time refueling them, just arm them as quickly as possible. They are our only capable weapons now. Let's not get caught with our pants down." order the Admiral to Kofoed who started to work immediately sending the orders.
A few seconds later... "It's done, Admiral. All remaining fighters have acknowledged, and are returning to their corresponding carriers."
"Remaining fighters? That sounded bad. Give me a full Fleet status report. All three fleets."
"Yes, Admiral." Kofoed started working and then reciting the information as he received it. "We lost 632 ships. The Artemis got hit hard. 433 of them had been destroyed. 164 remain. We lost 174 Olympus, with 146 remaining. 33 Sagittarius including the 10th Fleet Flag ship lost. 126 remaining. 29 Oracles lost with 60 remaining. We have a total of 554 ships operational including the 58 Avengers. Sagittarius and Olympus had emptied their magazines, which makes the Sagittarius combat ineffective. We have the Artemis, Olympus and Oracles combat capable with plasma weapons and sufficient ammunition for the Artemis and Olympus Rail Guns. We lost 2,239 starfuries, leaving 3,329 operational. We have sufficient anti-ship missiles to rearm them with four missiles each at least twice." Kofoed looked up to the Admiral after finishing, waiting for a reply.
"And the Minbari?" asked the Admiral.
This took more time, as that information had to be taken from sensor contact analysis. But after a couple of minutes he said. "Sensors detected a total of 51 Dreadnoughts, 408 Destroyers, and 765 fighters. The sensors deployed at the asteroid field are now detecting the slow approach of 1 Dreadnought, and 14 Destroyers. We can infer prior to battle footage confirmation that we destroyed a total of 444 ships and all fighters."
The Admiral was deep in thought, but finally sighed. "Prepare all ships including the Sagittarius for immediate combat jump. I want all vessels in formation ready to make a double transition."
"Their remaining ships are very well spaced out, Admiral. We'll require many precise jumps on different locations to overwhelm them using only ships. Shouldn't we wait for our fighters?" asked a concerned Kofoed.
"We'll only fight them with our Starfuries, but they still have to rearm. I want our ships ready for battle if the Minbari decide to make a move before we are able to. In any case, keep the fleet behind the moon. That will force them to go through the asteroid field first. Let's hope the beating they took has shaken their resolve. Let's hope they keep their slow approach, because those few vessels can wipe us out from long range, and there'll be nothing we'll be able to do about it other than escape."
"And let's hope they don't decide to make a combat jump just where we are, or through the polar regions. They could jump us from all over, and at long ranges." added Kofoed.
"Yes, and if they do so, we jump away and deploy mines in hyperspace while we retreat. Let's hope they don't. I want all of their remaining vessels destroyed. We have orders to retrieve Minbari wreckage, especially from their dreadnoughts, and I also want some time to check through our wreckage to see if there are some survivors."
"Yes, Admiral."
Minutes passed, and the Minbari were already close to the gate with their remaining ships spread out thousands of kilometers from each other.
Kofoed was attentive to the rearming status of the carriers' Starfury wings, when he spoke. "All fighters are in the green, Admiral, and all jump capacitors are fully charged. We are ready to attack."
"Send the signal. We attack now. Only Carriers. The rest will remain here with their jump capacitors at full. If we are unable to destroy them with fighters, we'll launch an attack on what remains of the Minbari fleet with our ships."
"Orders sent, Admiral."
The Avenger class carriers were already in formation. With perfect coordination, they made the transition into hyperspace without the Minbari being aware of it, as the moon covered their jump emissions. Side doors opened. Fusion missile equipped Starfuries launched. Avenger class carriers reformed in groups to spread their fighters evenly on every Minbari ships, and they then opened their vortex.
Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …
The holographic Command and Control Center projected space all around it. No Minbari ship was in visual range as Vrasnall had deployed them far and wide to avoid another concentrated attack. The range also gave the Minbari cover from every other unit, as their weapons and sensors were more than able to engage any human deployment.
In Vrasnall's mind there was only a tingling sensation that he should get his forces out of there and return to the relative safety of their new supply depot, as they had hyperspace probes to detect any human approach. But as a Wind Sword, he just had revenge in his guts. Nearly a quarter of his clan had just perished to the humans, and that made him underestimate an opponent that had just showed him that technology and firepower wasn't everything in war.
But he didn't need too much time to learn from his mistake, as 58 jump vortex opened around his ships. Almost 4 per one of his vessels, and from each one came nearly 60 Starfuries. Some vortexes opened wide, but the majority opened very close as the humans not only wanted to destroy them, but also wanted to do so before they were able to escape to hyperspace, or their carriers would be completely overwhelmed. Again the humans made a perfect tactical choice, and in the end each one of Vrasnall's ships received a volley of nearly a thousand anti-ship missiles.
The humans had made their combat jumps from different vectors, so there was no where to escape, and the fighters were so close that escaping to hyperspace was also not an option. Soon, one after the other his ships were struck by waves and waves of fusion-tipped missiles. Some ships stopped firing their fusion beams and tried to use their gravitic fields to protect them against the attack, but against such number of fusion tipped missiles it was useless. The human missile swarms that had become legend during the Dilgar war, and that had crippled the Dilgar war machine, were revisiting the Minbari with even far greater numbers, and the last Minbari ships, or what remained of them, kept glowing and glowing with the massive thermal exchange from more than 12,000 missiles.
EAS Akagi …
"That was..." Kofoed paused to find the correct word. "excessive to say the least."
"I'm not taking any chances with them, and we have missiles to spare, but not ships. We have used not even 5 percent of the ship-based missiles, and even slightly less in fighter-based ones, and we just took out more than 450 Minbari ships." replied von Koester.
"Still a lot, Sir. Still a lot."
"Economics, Agnar. Economics. All the missiles we launched in this engagement would cost the equivalent of more less 30 Nova dreadnoughts. It's a lot, but how many Nova dreadnoughts worth of resources did our missiles just charge the Minbari? How many times of what we expended on them did the Minbari lose? Ten? Fifteen times?"
"I understand, Admiral. But it's still excessive. That shows the huge disparity between our forces." replied Agnar, and then smiled with pride. "But we were victorious."
"Pyrrhic," said the Admiral sighing. "but yes, we had victory." the Admiral didn't even smile, as Earth Force losses had still been very high, so he just continued with his orders. "Order our fighters to head for the debris field. Tell them to grapple every piece of ship there is. We'll have our recovery teams decide which pieces to give priority. They'll surely try to make at least a full ship from all the wreckage."
"Yes, Admiral."
"And have every Earth Alliance ship scanned for life signs."
"I'll make that a priority, Admiral."
"Yes, do that, and make them work fast. There are still Minbari ships in the Vega cluster, and a single one can wreak havoc if they find our fleet out of cover. Assign a Group in fast response duty. If sensors pick a single Minbari ship jumping in, they are ordered to make a fast dual transition to take it out."
"Yes, Admiral."
During the next couple of hours, the Earth Alliance units worked frantically in recovering crew, and cataloging and prioritizing Minbari wreckage for salvage. Few crew members of the ships struck by Minbari weapons survived, as almost every attack proved obliterating, and if one were to try and find the good side out of this, then it was that there were very few ships damaged, and almost all the remaining human vessels were fully operational.
Minbari ships, on the other hand, were heavily damaged and totally out of battle, but still some remained sufficiently sound to have crew men on board. Those ships had been moved inside the asteroid field under cover of the remaining Mark I GODS. But as no Minbari ships approached the system, it gave enough time for the Earth Alliance to try and rescue them. Breaching pods opened a way for marines to move inside in areas were no presence was detected, but as soon as the two sides got in contact, the lack of translators made it impossible for the Earth Alliance to suggest a rescue. Not that the Minbari warriors would have accepted otherwise.
In the end, it mostly ended in heavy boarding action with few surrenders, and none from the warrior caste.
The human ships started entering hyperspace towing wreckage, accompanied by many fighters doing the same, as there weren't many ships to do the entire job. The retreating human vessels were not heading for any colony as they couldn't risk that the towed wreckage had some type of beacon system undetectable by EA sensors, but they still released a constant trail of fusion mines to cover their retreat.
Approaching the retreating human fleets was the EAS Victory, an Avenger class carrier which was head of a detachment of ships that had been replaced on the 8th Fleet by newer vessels and had been en-route to reinforce the 9th Fleet before the battle started. It was the only other Avenger class carrier left, and the only of its class that didn't participate in the battle. The detachment was completed by 7 Hyperion class cruisers.
While the remaining ships went to leave their wreckage on a secret location, and then to rearm and refuel to continue the battle. The EAS Victory detachment was the first of many to be assembled that were heading to continued the fight in the halfway-invaded Vega cluster.
The first major fleet to fleet engagement of the war was over, and while it would be very difficult to ambush the Minbari in a similar way in the future, they had at least bought more time for the human war industry to flex its muscles. They had also shown the Minbari that while they were not the Shadows they so terribly feared, they were a new fear that was becoming a shadow in their minds.
Author's notes:
Special thanks to Susan Hilton and Durabys for making this story readable, and to Durabys for helping in plot elements and technology.