Author's Note: This chapter was hell to write as I fought with the muse. It was too big so I had to break it up. Expect part 2 very soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5 or its characters, those belong to Warner Brothers. I do not own Robotech or its characters, those belong to Harmony Gold. I do not own Macross or its characters, those belong to Big West and Studio Nue.
Chapter 16 Part 1
Minbari Federation Space
The Sh'Lekk'Tha System
The Sh'Lekk'Tha system was a very old Minbari colony that largely did not have a large population even though the jump gate that was in the system led to Earth Alliance space as well as Centauri Republic space, not to mention it also led to the Minbari system of Tr'Ess'Na as well. The colony was one of the Wind Swords Clan worlds that the Wind Swords had and was part of the their home sector.
The colony's population was a little over three million Minbari and even though it was a border world it was lightly defended as the Minbari had grown arrogant and complacent that anyone would dare attack them. Still, there was a small defense force of ten Tinashi War Frigates and two Sharlin War Cruisers and the ships were very old in terms of longevity of service as well.
This colony did not possess a powerful satellite defense network, instead it relied on FTL communications to call for nearby Minbari warships to come to their rescue but they did have a very good sensor network in the system.
Well away from the planet that the Minbari had colonized and above the elliptic the sensor network began reporting graviton distortions and gravitational disturbances that were not normal. The readings went from strange and abnormal to alarming as whatever was happening out there, the strength of the readings increased extremely rapidly until just as suddenly the abnormal and strange readings leveled out and returned to normal.
The young Warrior, one of many young warriors of lower rank with the rank of Galrin assigned to monitoring the sensor network took notice of the strange readings that the sensors were reporting and with a confused look he contacted his superior, an older Warrior that was mentoring him.
"What is it?", the older Warrior, ranked as a Hiai'sa, a Warrior that was basically responsible for the colony's defenses asked as he entered the control room. He was making the usual rounds of his daily check in on the station before returning back down to the planet itself.
"I'm not sure Hiai'sa Maran. The sensors detected strange graviton readings and gravitational disturbances that increased in intensity more than two million kilometers above the elliptic."
The older warrior ordered, "Send two Tinashis to investigate. Contact Alyt Serral and make him aware of this."
The young Warrior bowed and said, "At once Hiai'sa." The young warrior contacted two Tinashi War Frigates and told them to head to the area where the sensor readings had been detected. Soon the two smaller warships began moving that way. A moment later, the Alyt was contacted as he was out conducting an inspection. It would take him several minutes to return to the nearest installation to take command of the situation.
Zentraedi Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Command Battleship
Sentinels Alliance Flagship Victory
Grand Admiral Kazianna Hesh was pleased with her fleet's arrival in the Minbari border system and took note of what their own sensors were reporting. The system was bare minimal, a single world that was habitable which clearly was inhabited by the Minbari. They took note of the system's jump gate which apparently according to reports led into Earth Alliance space, specifically to a colony that no longer existed anymore thanks to the Minbari's genocidal rampage. The hyperspace route also led to the Centauri Republic and another route led deeper into Minbari space directly to another Minbari system.
Her crew reported that they saw twelve Minbari warships and a very small amount of civilian traffic in orbit of the Minbari world as well as a medium sized space station. There were a number of satellites in orbit and a couple smaller space stations as well. Kazianna ordered the entire fleet to battle stations and began moving towards the Minbari colony. Kazianna and her Flag Captain Selene were standing in the Command Blister directly above the Bridge. Her Captain, the Karbarran named Almar was walking through the different stations
A report came in from one of the officers manning the sensor station. "Grand Admiral we are detecting two of their smaller warships approaching. It would seem the sensor network we detected has detected our arrival in the system but they do not know what Folding is otherwise they would have sent more ships."
Kazianna looked puzzled asking, "Only twelve warships in this border system? Ten of their smaller ones and two of their larger ones?" She ruminated on this for a moment then she commented, "This is either arrogance or complacency on their part to have such few defenses here. Have they detected us yet?", asked Kazianna as she saw the sensor data of the small warships approaching.
Her Flag Captain Selene, the beautiful blonde Praxian woman said, "No sign of them detecting us as of yet but it does appear that for a border world the Minbari do not guard their border very well."
Kazianna rubbed her chin with her thumb and index finger then said, "That will cost them." She swept her arm across and pointed at the approaching ships, "All ahead flank! ECM to full, Shadow tech activated!"
The viewscreens showed the approaching small warships and everyone could see the other data with regards to the system. A couple of minutes passed as the fleet of warships which was comprised a mix of her single Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Battleship, fifty Eisenhower Class Battleships, fifty Ikazuchi Class Cruisers, forty Thurverl Salan Heavy Cruisers, twenty five Rineunadou Lojmeuean Gun Destroyers, twenty five Garfish Light Cruisers were moving towards the two approaching Minbari warships.
Her entire fleet of warships were state of the art and had been upgraded within the Factory over the past few weeks and even had a device that on the ships that would prevent the Minbari from performing their jump in the middle or on top of their formation maneuver. Even the Zentraedi warships had this device as well as full barrier and pin point barrier defensive systems.
These modified Zentraedi warships were not the warships of the First Robotech War. They were built in the final Robotech war against the Haydonites and these warships had the latest technologies that Doctor Emil Lang and others of the Robotech Technology Group had put together before Robotechnology had been locked away more than one hundred years ago.
One of the Bridge officers, a Garudan Lieutenant manning the sensors announced, "They are using their sensors to do a sweep of the area, our ECM must be playing havoc with them."
The Captain, a Karbarran with dark brown fur giving a bear like appearance named Almar took the lead. "Can they see us visually?"
The warships were painted a very dark blue and gun metal gray striping making it hard to see them visually at longer ranges.
"Doubtful sir, maybe in about five minutes.", came the reply.
"What will the range be in five minutes?", asked the Karbarran.
The Lieutenant replied, "Less than one million kilometers...about eight hundred fifty thousand."
After a moment the Lieutenant replied, "Sir, they've slowed down and I'm detecting that one of their larger ships and three more of the smaller ships are now en route to link up with the two smaller warships that were approaching us."
Grand Admiral Hesh ordered, "Keep course and speed."
Captain Almar repeated his superior officer's order and followed it up with, "Keep an eye on those other warships and start looking to see if any one new shows up."
"Yes sir.", the Garudan Lieutenant replied.
The two Minbari warships apparently waited for the other four Minbari ships to catch up and rendezvous with them.
Kazianna scoffed and remarked to Selene, "Seems the Minbari are concerned about something."
Her fleet did not stop though and advanced towards the Minbari warships at a fast pace and soon her sensor officer announced, "I'm willing to say that they will see us visually soon but hard to say at how detailed it will be."
Kazianna said, "That is fine, keep our ECM at full power."
As the ships approached each other now, the sensor officer brought up the main viewscreen on display and zoomed in on the approaching ships then he said, "Looks like they have opened their gunports."
Communications called out, "They are trying to hail us Captain."
Having discussed this earlier with Grand Admiral Hesh, Captain Almar said, "Let them eat static for now."
The Garudan sensor officer said, "Range, seven hundred fifty thousand kilometers and closing. The other ships in the system are moving now, looking to support the other ships."
Kazianna ordered, "Grand Admiral Hesh to all ships, all stop."
The fleet came to a stop and the Minbari ships kept coming towards them and the sensor officer called the range.
"Six hundred thousand kilometers!"
"Five hundred and fifty thousand!"
"Five hundred thousand!"
Kazianna snapped her fingers and nodded her head, "Do it.", she ordered.
Captain Almar ordered, "Open a channel."
A whooping siren sounded and a viewscreen appeared showing a Minbari. The Minbari, upon seeing the bear like being looked confused initially but he could see the other crew members behind and to the sides, a Garudan, Praxian, and Zentraedi crew members. The Minbari looked confused and spoke in a harsh tone.
The Interlac translator translated the language and a computerized voice said, "Who are you and what are you doing in our space?"
The Karbarran Captain replied, "I am Captain Almar of the Sentinels Alliance we are here to deliver a message from the Prime Minister of our government to the leaders of your government. Will you accept this message and send it onward to them?"
There was a pause as the Minbari's own Interlac translator processed the Karbarran's words even though the Karbarran was speaking English. Then the Minbari gave an answer in response and the Interlac translator spoke the Minbari's words. "I can do this, what is the context of this message?"
Almar replied, "I shall give you over to my superior officer, Grand Admiral Kazianna Hesh, she shall explain things further."
He closed the viewscreen and sent it up to the command blister where Kazianna was waiting and it magically opened go display the Minbari that had been talking to the Karbarran Captain of the warship. The Minbari, upon seeing Kazianna said a word but Kazianna pointed her finger at the screen and said, "Disconnect without sending the message to your leaders and you fail in your duty!"
The Minbari snarled and gave a response that the translator repeated, "You are a Human, we have nothing to say or to listen to you. No pleas for mercy shall be heard."
Kazianna's eyes narrowed as she said, "I am Zentraedi, not Human. I am not here to ask for mercy, I am here to do two things, deliver my Prime Minister's message then carry out my mission. Will you accept the message of the Prime Minster of the Sentinels Alliance from the Pegasus Galaxy?"
The Minbari was silent as he listened to her translated words then he said some more words and the Interlac translator gave its translation. "What trickery is this? Sentinels Alliance? You claim to be from the Pegasus Galaxy? Impossible!"
Kazianna said, "My government, the Sentinels Alliance once allied itself with the people and government of Earth more than a century ago. Together we defeated the Robotech Masters, the Invid, and the Haydonites in the Andromeda Galaxy. Due to the destruction, our people moved to the Pegasus Galaxy where we settled with Humanity's assistance. We are here to pay back Humanity the debt we owe. In short, Minbari the message from my Prime Minister to your government is a declaration of war. Stand by to receive our official declaration."
Kazianna looked to her communication officer and said, "Send it."
"Aye ma'am."
The Minbari waited for her words to be translated then as he heard the last words a furious look came upon his face. Then he snarled and spoke in a harsh tone.
"You claim to be from the Pegasus Galaxy?! Only the Vorlons and the Great Enemy can travel between galaxies. You are lying and now you declare war on the Minbari. So be it, you and your people have chosen death. Our leaders will receive this message after we have destroyed you and your people will suffer the same fate as the Humans."
Kazianna shook her head. "I must insist you send that message onward to your leadership now. Because after we finish talking, I will destroy your ships and those that are with you, then I will destroy those other six ships that are coming. From there I will destroy your world's orbital infrastructure, such as it is before finally selectively bombarding the planet to destroy military and industrial targets. Unlike you, we will not be bombarding your entire world and killing everyone. Besides, in case your sensors cannot see, I am here with two hundred warships and you only have twelve total. You are no match for my forces."
The Minbari's furious expression never wavered but there was this look of arrogance and superiority. He waited for the translation to come through then responded, "No matter how many ships you have, you are no match for our weapons. Two hundred? We have fought against such numbers before, you are no match for the Minbari. More ships are on their way and will be here soon who will destroy you."
Kazianna sighed, this was getting tedious. "Have you sent my Prime Minister's message to your government?"
The reply came back, "It will be done after we destroy you. I see no need to disturb our leaders with your pointless words."
Kazianna sighed, "So be it, I'll do it myself." Kazianna gestured with her hand in a cutting gesture and the transmission was closed and the viewscreen folded and vanished in mid air.
With calm expression and resolve she asked, "Range?"
"Two hundred fifty thousand ma'am."
Kazianna then projected her best Darth Sideous impression as she said, "Wipe them out, all of them."
There were some chuckles as Captain Almar ordered, "Lock on to them and fire."
Fifty warships along with the flagship which was a mix of Eisenhower, Ikazuchi, and Thurverl Salan ships locked on to the six Minbari warships, the one larger warship and the five smaller ones and began hammering them using their heavy particle beam cannons. The initial barrage of firepower was overwhelming even though many of the shots missed due to the extreme range. However, with the frequency of firing the shots started hitting and hitting very hard. Very quickly, it was all over as the Minbari warships were destroyed by the massive barrage of heavy particle beam fire from the fifty warships. The debris field was sizable but it was evident that there were no survivors.
"Ma'am," Captain Almar said, "Your love of Star Wars is frightening."
"I'm sure you'll love my Grand Moff Tarkin impression.", Kazianna remarked with a chortle. Then with seriousness Kazianna ordered, "All ahead flank, proceed to target."
The fleet began moving towards the Minbari colony world again, descending downward from the elliptic and it was quickly noted that the remaining six warships that had been moving to intercept them came to a complete stop. Then they moved again, clearly moving to get in front of Kazianna's rapidly approaching fleet but they had reduced their speed as if they were stalling for time.
Captain Almar ordered, "Keep your eyes on the scopes, Communications start jamming all communications, it's probably too late but we don't want them calling for more help."
The communication officer, a male appearing Spherisian said, "Already on it sir."
"Good."
The fleet of warships streaked at flank speed towards the colony and the few Minbari warships were moving together now on an intercept course. The range was closing and soon the Minbari warships would be in the fleet's firing range.
Then the Sensor officer called out, "Status change! Incoming wormhole at the jump gate!"
A few seconds later the Garudan Lieutenant announced, "Twenty warships detected, fifteen of the small ones, five of the big ones!"
Kazianna ordered, "Split the fleet,", she highlighted one hundred warships on the holo tank, including the Flagship. "We will intercept the new arrivals, these fifty will deal with the six others while the remaining fifty will proceed towards the colony. My group and the other group will link with the group approaching the colony once we finish taking out the trash."
The orders were passed on and the fleet split into three groups, continuing to move at flank speed. The first group of fifty warships would intercept the six Minbari warships first. Kazianna's group would intercept the twenty Minbari warships a few minutes later.
A few minutes later, Kazianna watched with satisfaction as the six Minbari warships, the last of the original system defenders was destroyed very easily. The fifty ships were now moving to link up with the fifty warships heading for the Minbari colony. Selene smirked and remarked," Should I have the ship's mess bring some popcorn ma'am?"
Smiling Kazianna replied, "Later."
"They're trying to call for more help ma'am but our jamming seems to be working.", the communications officer said.
"Range?", asked Captain Almar.
"Four hundred fifty thousand kilometers, sir."
"Any attempt to contact us?", Kazianna asked
"Negative ma'am."
"They've already determined we're hostile, no need for more talks." Almar remarked.
Kazianna looked down at Almar from the Command blister she was standing at and chuckled, "Good, probably would have been a boring conversation anyway."
"Status change! Enemy fleet is launching fighters! Detecting multiple fighter launches from the bigger ships. Stand by." After a moment the Garudan sensor officer said, "Confirmed, ma'am, seventy five fighters approaching fast."
Almar asked, "Shall we launch ours ma'am?"
Kazianna shook her head. "No. We're going to show them how outclassed they are. Prepare Reflex and Synchro Cannons for firing."
"Yes ma'am."
As the range closed to maximum firing range of three hundred thousand kilometers the mighty Zentraedi flagship began to split in half, the top and bottom halves of the warship exposing it's most powerful weapon, the Reflex Cannon. At the same time, the ten Rineunadou Lojmeuean Gun Destroyers with Kazianna's group also opened up in the same manner to expose their own Reflex Cannons. The thirty Eisenhower class battleships powered up their own heavy Synchro cannon for firing.
The twenty Minbari ships and the streaking fighters began to slow down, the ECM playing havoc with their sensor readings but Kazianna wasn't slowing down, her task group was moving at flank speed, bearing down from above while the Minbari warships were climbing up to intercept them even though this group of twenty Minbari warships had to know that the smaller group of Minbari ships had been destroyed by this point.
Kazianna ordered, "Soon as we are in range, fire with our heavy particle beam turrets. We'll fire with the Reflex and Synchro Cannons after our gunners get some target practice."
The Minbari ships advanced at reduced speed but the range closed irregardless and just after the ranged crossed below three hundred thousand kilometers the fleet of one hundred warships opened fire, every ship started firing at the slow moving Minbari warships that upon starting to take fire, started to maneuver in an effort to evade. Some ships diving or climbing in their efforts to escape the incoming fire. However, the initial barrage of heavy particle beams firing from such an extreme range resulted in many shots being missed, but a lot of those misses were passing the Minbari warships extremely close, causing the Minbari warships to shake and rattle from the closeness of the beams.
Kazianna saw this and she commented and ordered, "Looks like our gunners are out of practice with moving targets, gunners adjust your fire! Use the damn targeting computer, that's what it's there for!"
The fleet continued to fire at the maneuvering Minbari ships, hitting the incoming fighters and blowing those out of the stars with one or twos shot as the heavy particle beams were so powerful, the Minbari fighters even with their armor could not repel such heavy firepower.
Soon, Kazianna's fleet started hitting the Minbari ships with more frequency due to the large amount of heavy particle beams being fired at them. On the viewscreens, Kazianna saw that the initial hits would strike the Minbari warship's armor and the armor would resist the initial first few hits but there were so many beams incoming towards the Minbari warships that the misses while many, the frequency of hits was starting to increase as the gunners were able to bracket and keep the maneuvering Minbari warships under fire. This caused the Minbari ships incredible damage as the beams finally started breaking through the armor of the Minbari warships, piercing the hull and exposing the decks to the vacuum of space, spilling bodies out into the black. The big ships had their large fins on the top, the bottom, or both top and bottom fins blown off.
The smaller warships were slightly harder to hit but with the heavy volleys of incoming fire, their evasive maneuvering was for naught as they too began taking hits from the powerful beams of the Sentinels Alliance fleet.
With the Minbari warships turning to port or starboard in an effort to move out of the line of fire, others due to the hard hitting particle beams causing the crews to lose maneuver controls and this presented Kazianna's fleet better targeting. Other Minbari ships started to climb or to dive downward to try and get out of the line of fire. Having seen enough Kazianna gave the order to fire the Reflex and Synchro Cannons.
On the flagship and the ten Zentraedi Gun Destroyers there was a brief powering up sequence as energy crackled between the firing apertures of the powerful weapons. Then suddenly, firepower and energies not seen in the Milky Way galaxy in more than one hundred years erupted from forty one of Kazianna's warships including her flagship striking the Minbari warships, smashing through their defenses as if they were non existent. Nothing in the Minbari fleet could have withstand such power. The advanced Minbari armor having been designed to resist the advanced weapons of the Shadows were no match for the combined total firepower of such magnitude from one warship let alone the forty one warships that unleashed that firepower. The twenty warships, engulfed by the powerful beams practically melted away to nothing in an instant leaving very little debris and wreckage.
In the blink of an eye, twenty Minbari warships and most of the fighters were gone in an instant, wiped away by multiple beams of powerful energies that no one had seen before and it was as if an angry God made them vanish. Only three fighters remained but they were declared combat ineffective by the sensor readings, having been too close to the powerful beams, their armor melted off and exposed the cockpit to vacuum and killed the pilots within.
Kazianna looked at Selene, her Praxian Flag Captain and asked, "Perhaps a bit too much?"
The beautiful blonde Praxian brought her right arm up and waggled her right hand left and right quickly. "Maybe just a little?"
Captain Almar chimed in, "I think our friends and allies would disagree."
"Perhaps you're right.", Kazianna said. Then she looked at her people and said, "Good job, but it is not done yet. Close up the Reflex Cannon, bring us back on course to the target."
Officers replied with "Aye, ma'am.", and carried out their orders.
Kazianna added, "Selene and Almar," she paused as her two senior officers looked at her. "I am quite unhappy at our accuracy from long range. We'll need to work on that."
The Karbarran and Praxian officers nodded and said, "Yes ma'am."
Captain Almar cleared his throat and Kazianna looked down and asked, "Something to add Captain?"
With a respectful nod of his head the Karbarran said, "Just wanted to point out ma'am even though we can see 'em, their ECM is quite good."
Kazianna rubbed her chin in thought and nodded. "So noted, but still I'm not pleased. There's always room for improvement."
The bear like officer gave a grin. "Yes ma'am."
The mighty Zentraedi flagship and the Gun Destroyers closed up their hulls to keep their Reflex Cannons protected once more as they and the rest of her one hundred ship task group made the turn to head for the Minbari colony where they would link up with the smaller groups to carry out the next phase of the mission.
Minbari Federation Space
The Eshar System
At the same time…
Just as the fleet of Sentinels Alliance warships arrived at their target system, the warships of Admiral Miriya Sterling's fleet were Defolding into the Minbari system known as Eshar. Three hundred warships, one hundred ten Eisenhower class Battleships, ten Macross Class Battle Fortresses, one hundred twenty Ikazuchi Cruisers, and sixty Garfish Light Cruisers. Just as the Sentinels fleet had arrived in their target system, the EarthForce fleet arrived above the elliptic well away from the inhabited planet.
Aboard her flagship the SDF-3 Pioneer Miriya Sterling was watching everything like a hawk on her Flag Bridge They had arrived between the middle and above of the four planets in the system, three planets were uninhabitable leaving the last one, Eshar IV the planet that the Minbari had settled and colonized. One of the planets had signs of being mined for resources with minimal life signs on the world. The habitable planet, the colony itself was an older colony had far more population on it compared to the border world of Sh'Lekk'Tha. It also seemed to be more invested as reports came in of what was in the system.
There was one large space station structure with what looked like several smaller ship docked with it. Additionally there were many satellites orbiting the planet
Miriya ordered, "Dispatch three dozen ships to the jump gate, any civilian ships attempting to use it are to be detained until we leave and any warships are to be destroyed once confirmed to be the enemy. The rest of the fleet is to proceed to the target world at flank speed. Bring our ECM up to full power, Shadow tech as well."
"Aye ma'am."
Miriya ordered, "Put me through on all channels and all frequencies then jam their transmissions after my broadcast."
"Aye ma'am."
A moment later Miriya began speaking, "I am Admiral Miriya Sterling of EarthForce. In fifteen minutes your orbital infrastructure will be within the range of my guns. You have that much time to evacuate your orbital stations and facilities. Fifteen minutes after that, I will be bombarding all your military, industrial, and infrastructure targets on your planet. All civilians are encouraged to evacuate and take shelter. While there will be civilian deaths which is regrettable, I will do my best to minimize them. To ensure those civilian losses are indeed minimal, heed my warning and evacuate to shelters. Admiral Sterling, out."
She gave a cutting gesture and the communication was disconnected then it was reported that all communications were being jammed.
Azariah, one of her fellow Zentraedi that she had brought in to train pilots to fly Veritechs was now here as her new Flag Captain. She was looking at the holo tank showing the surrounding space as the fleet proceeded towards their targets. "Ma'am, we have incoming. Thirty five Minbari warships, twenty five small, ten of the big ones. Range one point five million kilometers."
"Bring us on an intercept, have our jump gate task group keep on course.", Miriya ordered.
"Aye, ma'am."
It was noticed that the Minbari didn't break any ships off to intercept the warships heading for the jump gate. A couple of ships that were docked with the Minbari space station disengaged and began heading for the jump gate at top speed. Miriya was studying the plot on the holo tank and she turned to the communications officer and ordered, "Warn our task group of possible reinforcements incoming. It's either that or they think they can take us then sweep up our smaller force afterwards. But, better safe than sorry."
"Aye ma'am."
Eshar System
Minbari Space Station
The alarms sounded when the sensor network detected strange graviton readings along with gravitational disturbances more than two million kilometers away from the Minbari colony world of Eshar IV. The strange readings increased in intensity rapidly then just as quickly disappeared and soon the sensor network was reporting that there were three hundred ships out there, moving towards the colony.
There were questions, these ships did not jump out of hyperspace, no jump signatures were detected. Who where they? What was their intent? Some of those questions were answered seconds later when on all channels and all frequencies a message was broadcast that the Interlac translator translated.
"I am Admiral Miriya Sterling of EarthForce in fifteen minutes your orbital infrastructure will be within the range of my guns. You have that much time to evacuate your orbital stations and facilities. Fifteen minutes after that, I will be bombarding select military, industrial, and infrastructure targets on your planet. All civilians are encouraged to evacuate and take shelter. While there will be civilian deaths which is regrettable, I will do my best to minimize them. To ensure those civilian losses are indeed minimal, heed my warning, take action and evacuate to shelters. Admiral Sterling, out."
Instantly rage swept through the Warriors that were of the Fire Wings clan. How dare the Humans think they could invade their space! The impudence! Outrageous! Wait, that voice...it was the voice of the Red Death! She was here!
"Dispatch our defense fleet to deal with these upstarts and be done with it. After a moment's pause the Warrior added on, "Instruct them to take some prisoners, it's has been too long since I have been entertained and my knives have not yet tasted Human blood. However, whoever brings in the body of the Red Death will be honored among our Clan, especially if they bring her to me alive."
As the lower ranked Warrior began to issue the orders as directed, he stopped then turned and said, "Hiai'sa Salnaan, the Humans are jamming all transmissions on all frequencies."
Looking at the young Warrior as if he'd grown a second head the senior Warrior snarled, "Impossible! They cannot jam our transmissions! Check the equipment!"
A hurried check of the equipment is done, diagnostics gone over and the young Warrior repeated, "Equipment checks as normal, we cannot transmit through this jamming. The Humans are jamming all transmissions across all frequencies."
Then they looked at the sensor readout showing the Human ships that suddenly turned into electronic noise. "Hiai'sa, the Humans have some form of countermeasures that are prohibiting us from seeing them on our sensors. All we see is...electronic noise and sensor ghosts that we cannot determine if they're real or fake."
Another voice said, "This is not possible, check the sensor station! In Valen's name how is this possible and what is going on?"
Aboard the Sharlin War Cruiser Wings of Fire
Everyone in the control center saw and heard the Human's insolent and insulting words, the Alyt in command named Vanoon said, "Bring our fleet to readiness and move out, we have Humans to kill in Dukhat's name. The Red Death is here, this is our opportunity to kill her and claim the bounty."
Quickly, Warriors rushed to their tasks then it was reported that the Humans were somehow jamming their communications and sensor systems making it impossible for them to communicate. Quickly the Warriors turned to the old ways and soon the fleet of twenty five Tinashis and ten Sharlins moved to intercept the approaching human fleet.
The sensors were being jammed by the Human fleet which was impossible in the past. By the time the range had closed to approximately eight hundred thousand kilometers, with a great deal of effort and a lot of power put to their sensor suites they managed to partially burn through the jamming and could sort of see the approaching warships and what they saw was very disturbing. Their solution wasn't perfect, the sensor images would disappear then reappear.
None of the ships that they were able to see matched anything that EarthForce had fielded before. Then there was the problem that the Humans had approximately three hundred warships and their intermittent readings showed that the incoming ships possessed an incredible amount of power as far as their energy readings were able to detect. There were so many questions about this unknown Human fleet.
It was decided that even though the Humans outnumbered them greatly this was not something that bothered them, the Humans had outnumbered them in the past and they had slaughtered the Humans easily. But they had heard the reports that the Humans had defeated their stealth and now apparently they had new warships. Warships no Minbari had seen before. Still, they were Warriors of the Fire Wings and they were Minbari! The Humans would be killed easily and they would take these warships of the Humans and make them their own. The Red Death's body would be displayed as a message and warning to those that would oppose the Minbari Federation.
The enemy ships were getting closer, soon enough the Humans would be in their firing range and they would die. The sensor jamming that the Humans were employing was becoming problematic again. Adjustments were made and again they were able to intermittently see the Human warships approaching on sensors. Weapon locks would be difficult to keep on the Human ships but it was believed that as the range grew closer their weapon lock sensors would be better.
Alyt Vanoon ordered, "We must have samples of these ships for the Workers to study. Once we have destroyed most of them, we will send our shuttles to board a few and take their new ships away from them. For now, focus on destroying many of them very quickly. Once they have less than ten ships we will focus on capturing the ships that are damaged the least. That ship, the large one in the middle of the formation must be the Red Death's ship. We will save her for last."
The other Warriors bowed and moved to contact their other ships.
Vanoon asked, "What is the range? I understand the jamming makes it difficult, give me the best estimate."
A Warrior answered, "Five hundred thousand kilometers."
"Launch our fighters, the others will follow suit.", Vanoon ordered.
Soon, the fifteen Nials aboard the war cruiser Wings of Fire were being deployed and seconds later the other nine Sharlins followed suit, launching their own fighters. One hundred and fifty Nials were now moving towards the approaching Human warships, and they too were having problems with their own sensors.
SDF-3 Pioneer
Admiral Miriya Sterling's fleet was steadily approaching the smaller fleet of thirty five warships. She kept her eyes on the holo tank that was showing everything and she took notice when fighters started being deployed from the ten bigger Minbari warships.
"Looks like one hundred fifty total fighters ma'am, shall I give the order to launch Veritechs to intercept?", Azariah asked.
Miriya shook her head. Her feelings about the Minbari were known to those that were close as well as the leadership. She'd looked at each of the Minbari warships and did not find the one Minbari warship that she was looking for. Scowling in thought she knew she would find the Minbari warship she was looking for eventually. At any rate, with the advantages she now possessed, Miriya was looking extremely forward to giving the Minbari a taste of their own medicine a hundredfold. She going to be ruthless when it came to dealing with the Minbari. She knew what her heavy particle cannons could do, now it was time to see what her really big guns could do.
Miriya gave a feral smirk. "No, have all ships that have Synchro cannons prepare then for firing, have our Macross class warships charge their Reflex cannons but hold fire just in case more Minbari ships show up. We're going to do to them what they've done to us for so long. Hit them from ranges that they cannot hit us and blow them out of the stars just as fast as they would destroy our old ships."
"Yes ma'am.", her Zentraedi Flag Captain acknowledged.
Captain John Sheridan was following his Admiral's orders, he ordered the powering up of both Heavy Synchro Cannons that the legendary warship was equipped with. They had test fired all weapon systems of the SDF-3 multiple times during the shakedown cruises and the Factory had gone over the ship one last time. All systems were functioning perfectly.
John's weapons officer, Lieutenant Connor MacDonald reported that the powerful weapons were charging. The range was closing and anticipation was building. Miriya was watching the data on the holo tank and the fleet was preparing to fire.
Miriya watched as the range closed under three hundred thousand kilometers and said, "Hold fire." She watched as the range continued to close as the two fleets moved towards each other. At two hundred and fifty thousand yards Miriya announced, "Steady, stand by to fire on my command."
The tension was building, the anticipation was building as the two fleets continued to close. As the range passed two hundred thousand kilometers Miriya gave the order and one hundred twenty Eisenhower Battleships and the SDF-3 Pioneer opened fire with their Synchro Cannons. Nothing else was used, just the most powerful energy weapon that these warships possessed.
The EarthForce warships double teamed or triple teamed the Minbari warships by targeting the same warship so each Minbari warship was hit by at least two and many of the Minbari warships were hit with three Synchro cannon beams when it really only took one Synchro Cannon beam to do the job. The destructive power was overwhelming against the Minbari fleet. Each ship was hit with such powerful beam that The Minbari warships were annihilated in an instant, not even the fighters were able to maneuver out of the way and escape. All the Minbari warships and their fighters were destroyed.
Miriya grunted in satisfaction then said, "A little overkill perhaps but I think but I think it sends the right message. Bring us back on course to target and get me an open channel to the Minbari on that station and the planet."
"You're on ma'am.", came the response from Lisa.
Miriya began, "Clearly you did not heed my warning. I am going to give you ten minutes to evacuate your orbital facilities before I open fire and destroy them all. Any civilians that have not evacuated to a shelter on the planet surface have fifteen minutes from my mark." There was a pause then, "Mark. Admiral Sterling, out."
Space Station Orbiting Eshar
The Minbari that were assembled in the control center were stunned into silence. Expressions of disbelief and shock were the most prominent being displayed. This could not be possible. Their defense fleet had been wiped out in an instant at a range that was impossible to believe by warships that EarthForce possessed that they had never seen before. The sensor readings they were able to capture of the powerful beams of energy that destroyed their defensive fleet were off the scale. They could tell that the jump gate was under control of a smaller group of EarthForce ships. The Worker ship that had disengaged and made a run for the jump gate were caught in the middle as the enemy ships had taken position near the jump gate to keep any ships from leaving.
Sensors and communications were jammed still making it impossible for the data on the Human warships to be analyzed and interpreted correctly as well as use their FTL communications to call for help as well as using their local communications to contact local Worker ships to escape and make contact with any nearby Minbari fleet that could come to their aid. The only thing that they could tell with the intermittent sensor data was that the Human warships were getting closer.
Suddenly all the communication channels were clear but immediately the Human Admiral was speaking and the Interlac translated, "Clearly you did not heed my warning. I am going to give you ten minutes to evacuate your orbital facilities before I open fire and destroy them all. Any civilians that have not evacuated to a shelter on the planet surface have fifteen minutes from my mark." There was a pause then, "Mark. Admiral Sterling, out."
Before they could make an attempt to call for reinforcements or make any kind of communication, the communications jamming resumed.
Hiai'sa Salnaan snarled, "Range?"
"We can't tell definitively, approximately more than a million kilometers. Definitely too far for our weapons to engage and we cannot lock on to them, their jamming is difficult. We believe that we are not in their firing range based on when they opened fire on our defensive fleet."
"Increase power to communications, we have to make a call for help.", ordered Salnaan.
The Warrior worked the controls for a moment then said, "I cannot burn through the jamming. We cannot call for aid."
Everyone in the room was silent but they looked at each other in disbelief. The Warrior in command, the Hiai'sa named Salnaan ordered, "We cannot attack them from this station as they will no doubt fire well out of range of our weapons, our defense fleet has been destroyed, to send our few remaining Warriors in the Nial fighters would be pointless. They shall have their chance at vengeance at another time." There was silence, Minbari looking at him with shocked expressions. Then he ordered, "All Minbari are to evacuate the station at once. Send the ships that are docked with the station to disengage and make an effort to evade the Human warships. They are to stay away from the jump gate to avoid capture."
Then he pushed a button that had never ever been pressed except for a training exercise and an alarm klaxon sounded. Then the senior Warrior announced, "All Minbari are to evacuate the station immediately. This is not a practice exercise. All Minbari are to evacuate immediately. This is not a practice exercise. Report to the hangar bay and board the transports. Once the transports are full anyone remaining are to use the station's escape pods."
Looking at everyone in the room who had not moved the Hiai'sa ordered, "Did you not hear me? Evacuate now!"
A younger warrior with the rank of Galrin said, "We must do our duty! Allow us to attack!"
The Hiai'sa moved in front of the young warrior and snarled, "Listen to me, Minbar does not need her Warriors to throw their lives away needlessly. We are witness to the Human's new ships and their weapons. The Grey Council and our Clan Elders must know what we have seen. How are they going to know what they must know by asking Workers and Religious caste? They need to ask us, the Warriors of what happened here. Now, everyone report to the hangar bay. Nial pilots man your Nials and make for the planet. Land them away from our bases on the ground and take shelter. Everyone else, board the transports. Anyone not able to board a transport is to take an escape pod."
Again no one moved.
Then the Hiai'sa hissed, "Did you not hear me? I said evacuate now!"
As Minbari were moving, the Hiai'sa held the Warrior working the sensors back and said, "Copy all the data we have, the Grey Council must have what we've seen."
As the Warrior fulfilled this task the Hiai'sa said, "I cannot believe I have to do this." Then he pushed a button that had not been used except as a training drill over the centuries.
A warning siren on the colony's surface began to sound. This would alert the Workers and Religious Castes to report to shelters while the Warriors would report to their Warrior encampments and installations to prepare to use their planetary cannons to counter attack. The Warriors on the ground would know that the orbital station was evacuating and no good in assisting for the defense of the colony.
The Alyt responsible for the overall defense of the colony was on the planet and inside the primary command center. The Alyt raged at the jammed communications and the jammed sensor data that was preventing him from communicating with the planet's defenses and seeing what was happening in space. The lack of information from the station they had in orbit was doubly concerning.
Communications were still being jammed by the Humans preventing any coordination between the planet and remaining orbital assets even though those assets were evacuating and making for the planet or attempting to escape into open space away from the jump gate until the attacking fleet departed in order to evade capture.
Throughout the space station, everyone else left their posts and began making their way to the shuttle bay, those that had not seen the battle transpire were confused, many of the Workers were confused while the Warriors were angry and upset as they entered one of the hangar bays and everyone started boarding the transport shuttles that were aboard. It quickly became clear that there were not enough craft to take everyone and the Warrior in command of the station stopped those that were trying to board the shuttles.
Warriors brought out their pikes and opened them as the Hiai'sa arrived with the Warrior he had held back. Looking around at the sight Salnaan said, "There is not enough room on the transports for everyone, I'm sorry but you will have to use the escape pods. Move to them now, hurry...time is of the essence."
The Workers and few Religious Caste members that were not able to get aboard a transport quickly moved to the escape pods and boarded them and ejected from the station. Soon the transports were moving out of the station and heading down to the planet's surface. The few Nial fighters aboard the station launched and headed down to the planet's surface.
Earth
EarthForce HQ
War Room
President Elizabeth Levy was down in the War Room, at the deepest level of EarthForce High Command listening to reports coming in from both Admiral Miriya Sterling's fleet and Grand Admiral Hesh's fleet that were attacking the Minbari's own worlds.
She was in amazement at the fact that with Robotechnology, they were in contact with Admiral Sterling and Grand Admiral Hesh in real time. The Fold Comm FTL communications were actually superior to their current communications equipment. Technology people were excited and she'd heard some encouraging news that the Fold Comm communications would revolutionize their FTL communications not just for the military but for civilian use as well.
The mood in the room was considerably lighter as they had received reports from both Admiral Sterling and Grand Admiral Hesh that both defensive fleets had been destroyed easily, even when the Sentinels Alliance fleet had to deal with a fleet of Minbari reinforcements, they reported no problems.
General Robert Lefcourt was busy working with his fellow senior officers and keeping informed as to what was happening so far away and if it was important, he would inform the civilian leadership that were sitting and watching and quietly talking among themselves.
General Sam Carter had reported that everything was fine with no sign of the Minbari yet. His forces were conducting more training exercises to prepare for the Minbari's arrival.
Now it was a matter of waiting for the news that the attacks on the Minbari planets was complete and that the messages had been uploaded to the Minbari's communication network so that every Minbari would see and hear the President of Earth Alliance and the Sentinels Alliance Prime Minister's messages to the Minbari that now was perhaps a good time to end this war and begin peace talks.
Elizabeth looked at Luis Santiago her Vice President and Foreign Minister Roy Hunter of the Sentinels Alliance and said, "It will be alright Luis, Roy. I'm hopeful that the Minbari will come to the table after this."
"I hope so too Elizabeth.", Luis said.
Roy echoed Luis's comment. "I hope the Minbari come to the bargaining table as well."
The two leaders of EarthGov and the Foreign Minister of their ally watched and listened quietly, doing their best to stay out of the way as they waited for the final report that the operation was a success.
Sentinels Alliance Flagship Victory
Sh'Lekk'Tha System
Grand Admiral Kazianna Hesh was making sure that her fleet of warships were moving into their planned positions for their attack on the orbital infrastructure of the Minbari colony. As they approached Kazianna called for communication channels to be opened so she could issue the first warning of her declaration of attack.
"Attention Minbari military forces and all civilians that can hear my voice. I am Grand Admiral Kazianna Hesh of the Sentinels Alliance. My government has allied with that of the Earth Alliance and I am here to carry out my duty which is to destroy your orbital infrastructure and once that is done, I will bombard military and industrial targets of this world. I urge and advise all civilians on the planet surface to evacuate and take shelter and for anyone aboard the orbital facilities to evacuate immediately. I will be commencing my mission in fifteen minutes from my mark." There was a pause then Kazianna announced, "Mark, time starts now. Grand Admiral Hesh, clear."
There was a clock counting down from fifteen minutes on one of the screens in the Bridge and she watched as her fleet had slowed down considerably so as to time their arrival into firing range when the clock reaches zero. Kazianna was dealing with fleet business while the timer was counting down. After a few minutes she looked at the timer to see that there were less than ten minutes left. She looked at her sensor officer and asked, "Any movement?"
"Negative ma'am.", her Garudan sensor officer replied.
With a brief "hmm", she ordered, "Open the channels up again, looks like they need motivation."
"You're on ma'am."
Kazianna spoke, "Attention Minbari aboard the orbital stations, you now have less than ten minutes to reach minimum safe distance before the stations and other orbital targets are destroyed by my forces. I give you my word, I will not open fire on transport ships or escape pods provided they move away from the station and the planet. I urge and advise the civilians on the planet surface evacuate to shelters immediately. Grand Admiral Hesh, clear."
Once the communication channels were closed and the jamming restarted she ordered, "Keep an eye out, and when we reach the five minute warning I want you Captain Almar to give them another warning to evacuate."
"Yes ma'am.", the Karbarran acknowledged.
The time counted down and once the timer reached five minutes, the Karbarran Captain reopened communication channels and reissued the warning, "Attention all Minbari, you now have five minutes to evacuate all orbital facilities and reach minimum safe distance. All Minbari civilians on the planet are urged to take shelter. This is Captain Almar of the Sentinels Alliance, clear."
The fleet was moving slowly and steadily into firing position around the planet's orbital infrastructure which wasn't much. There was the medium sized space station and three smaller orbital space stations placed in different positions around the world in addition to multiple satellites of various types. Sensors had identified what looked like several satellites that appeared to be defensive in nature based on scans and energy readouts.
Selene pointed out, "We seem to be well out of their firing range ma'am. We'll be in firing range on schedule ma'am."
Kazianna nodded in satisfaction then said, "Excellent, let me have a moment to speak to the fleet. Get me fleet wide."
"You're on ma'am."
"Attention all personnel, we are minutes away from conducting an offensive planetary bombardment against a sentient race. For many Zentraedi that are part of this crew, many of you were there when Dolza's Grand Fleet brought about the Rain of Death on our friends and ally's homeworld. For some, this may be difficult. But I know you will all do your duty. We are not here to wipe out the Minbari, we are here to hopefully bring the Minbari to the negotiation table. Do your jobs and we will hopefully bring this war to a quick conclusion and we can go home."
Someone announced, "We are T minus two minutes to firing range."
Kazianna said, "I want precision firing people, no debris larger than a small car to hit the planet."
"Yes ma'am."
Suddenly beams started firing from the Minbari space stations and from the defensive satellites but it was pointless, the beams were falling extremely short by tens of thousands of kilometers. It was pointless and hopeless but the Minbari on the stations did it anyway. There was no sign of any evacuation activity.
"Firing range in sixty seconds."
Time was counting down. The Minbari's weapons continued to fire from the defensive satellites and stations but it was pointless, the energy beams fell far, far, short of even getting close to Kazianna's Robotech fleet.
"Firing range in thirty seconds."
The seconds continued to count down and the defensive fire was not stopping.
"Firing range in ten seconds."
The weapons of the mighty Zentraedi warship, the Victory emerged from their recessed housings and began to power up. This was all her heavy and standard particle beam cannons.
"5...4...3...2...1"
Kazianna ordered, "Lock on targets and commence firing."
It was over very quickly as heavy particle beams and standard particle beams fired from the fleet of Robotech warships under Kazianna's command as well as her flagship. The space stations were pounded, their armor withstanding the multiple hits from the Robotech warships initially but within seconds the armor was punched through, breaches in the station's hull were exposed and bodies were spilling out into the vacuum of space.
The stations and satellites were destroyed somewhat easily having nowhere near the armor protection against the Shadow's advanced beams that their warships possessed. The Minbari didn't believe that anyone would dare to attack them since they had last taught the lesson to the Streib centuries ago and with their military might they did not make their stations other than those closer to Minbar more sturdy and defensive.
A couple of minutes later, it was all over.
Kazianna ordered, "Let me speak to them on the planet."
"Channel open ma'am."
"Attention Minbari, your warships have been defeated, your orbital infrastructure has been destroyed and I am saddened that no one took advantage of my warning to evacuate from those orbital structures. I am giving you final notice that in less than five minutes we will begin selectively bombarding your world. I urge all civilians evacuate from military and industrial targets immediately. Grand Admiral Hesh, clear."
Then she turned to Selene and ordered, "Bring the fleet into firing position. We'll fire from high orbital positions. Have Pin Point Barriers online in case their planet based weapons can reach us."
"Yes ma'am."
Kazianna said, "Sensors, find me those military and industrial targets and get them to Intelligence for vetting. Cyber warfare specialists, get to work on hacking their FTL communications so we can upload our messages to the Minbari people."
The personnel had already been busy working to identify the military and industrial targets on the planet since they had bee moving towards the planet. They were constantly refining and updating their data, conferring with Intelligence officers to plot their upcoming fire mission. Targets were being designated and assigned to the various warships in the fleet. The plan was to hit the northern hemisphere first then reposition and hit those targets on the southern hemisphere next.
As the ships were slotting into their firing positions in the high orbit of the world, fusion beam and particle beams began to erupt from the planetary surface, striking a few of the warships.
"Pin point barriers are holding ma'am.", was the weapons officer's response.
"Time to firing?", Kazianna asked.
"Two minutes."
Looking a little concerned Kazianna asked, "How are the barriers holding?"
"Holding steady currently ma'am, if they concentrate their fire it could become problematic."
Just then, several planetary defense cannons got lucky and did just that, multiple fusion beams hitting an Ikazuchi class cruiser, striking the pin point barrier directly and doing enough damage to blast through, hitting the hull and causing a hull breach. Multiple barriers moved into position to cover the hull breach immediately and the cruiser pulled out of formation and backed out of position.
Kazianna ordered, "Hit those defensive cannons now. Have our ships double up their barriers on the front."
The Victory's gunners were given the go ahead and they fired at the planet, hitting the planetary cannons which destroyed them and the surrounding area. This was repeated again when more of the defensive cannons opened fire, striking the Robotech warships but the double barriers were holding firm.
It was clear that the hits were lucky, and when a hit was scored the Minbari opened fire with multiple fusion cannon batteries to the same position so as to hopefully destroy the target. The Minbari were applying as much power to their sensors as possible to counter the electronic countermeasures that the Humans were using.
"The Allegiance is reporting moderate damage, no fatalities but one dozen wounded.", came the report.
"Dammit, I took them too lightly.", Kazianna said. Then she looked at the clock saw that it had reached zero and said, "Begin the bombardment and give a heads up to Admiral Sterling to have her warships to at least double up on their forward pin point barriers placement."
"Yes ma'am.", said Selene and then she contacted the SDF-3. "Captain Sheridan, be advised the planetary defenses can hit us even in high orbit and can damage our ships. Grand Admiral Hesh advises to double up or triple up on forward barriers to minimize any damage."
Captain Sheridan nodded his head and said, "Thank you for the heads up. We're about to hit their orbital infrastructure in a moment or two, I'll pass on the warning."
"You're welcome, Sentinels Alliance Flagship Victory, clear.", Selene said.
On the planet's surface, the many Minbari Workers and those of the Religious Caste that were going about their business and duties had no idea anything was wrong until their communications systems started acting up without any indication that anything was wrong.
Then throughout the planet, those civilian Minbari that were inside buildings that could receive transmissions were suddenly jolted as suddenly they heard a translation from the Interlac translator system. "Attention Minbari, your warships have been defeated, your orbital infrastructure has been destroyed and I am saddened that no one took advantage of my warning to evacuate from those orbital structures. I am giving you final notice that in less than five minutes we will begin selectively bombarding your world. I urge all civilians evacuate from military and industrial targets immediately. Grand Admiral Hesh, clear."
The Minbari were stunned. This wasn't possible was it? Workers looked at each other in confusion, Religious Caste looked shocked while the Warriors who were already trying to come to terms with what had transpired out in the system and in orbit. Their planetary scanners into space were being jammed but as they applied more power to the scanners they were able to get intermittent images of what was in orbit and it shocked them to the core.
The highest ranking Warrior, on the planet's northern hemisphere gave an order, "Sound the alarm, have our people take shelter. Have our guns begin firing. Maybe we will get a lucky strike. If a hit is confirmed, have additional batteries fire at the same spot."
The warriors began rushing to their tasks and an alarm began to sound planet wide. Another Minbari Warrior announced to the entire planet, "We are under attack, the enemy is about to bombard the planet. All Workers and Religious Caste are to seek shelter at once. Hurry."
Stunned Workers and Religious Caste members watched in shock and amazement as planetary defense cannons opened fire. Disturbed and frightened, the Minbari Workers and Religious Caste that were outside or had a view from inside their buildings looked up at the sky as the fusion and particle beam cannons started firing upwards at something no one could see.
This motivated those that were not moving to start moving and hurrying to the nearest emergency shelter but the warning given to the people was too late as too many civilians were caught out in the open when the orbital bombardment started.
From orbit once the timer had reached zero Grand Admiral Kazianna Hesh gave the order to begin the bombardment of Sh'Lekk'Tha. This was not a fleet wide bombardment that the Zentraedi used to do or what the Minbari were doing to Humanity. In this case targets were assigned to specific ships through the fleet and once they were assigned, the assigned ships locked on to their assigned targets and waited for the order. Once Kazianna had given the order the individual ships that were assigned targets fired single, double, or triple shots from their heavy particle beam turrets at their assigned targets as soon as they were in range. The ships would do a quick damage assessment, fire another volley if necessary then move to the next target.
The rain of particle beam fire from the warships in orbit was brief and it was quickly over. It was a combination of while there were a lot of targets on the planet, there really wasn't that many overall. Kazianna gave the order to reposition the fleet so that the southern hemisphere targets could be hit.
"As any of their defensive cannons come into range, open fire on those immediately.", Kazianna ordered.
The orders acknowledged, the warships in the fleet assigned to planetary bombardment began firing on those defensive positions as soon as they came into range. At the same time, the Minbari defensive cannons would attempt to fire on the ships in orbit, managing to hit with one or two shots but with the pin point barriers double or triple placed on top of the warship's hull there was no damage this time around. By revealing their positions by firing on Kazianna's ships, more of the planet's defensive weaponry was destroyed.
As with the northern hemisphere, the bombardment of the southern hemisphere was extremely brief and was over within two minutes as there were less structures that were worth targeting on the southern half of the world compared to the more populated northern hemisphere.
When the bombardment finally stopped, there were a few Warrior caste structures and installations that escaped the destruction, less than a dozen planet wide and now that the attack had stopped a siren began to sound planet wide. This was the siren that alerted the populace that the planet was under attack. The shelters went into lockdown with those that were inside, they would only open once the all clear had been sounded.
Areas which were hit by the bombardment suffered heavy seismic activity that was felt practically planet wide as the beams would hit different parts of the northern and southern hemispheres from the powerful beams and there were atmospheric shockwaves from the powerful particle beams. Cloud cover across a large portion of the planet was just gone. Among the satellites in orbit that were destroyed were the weather control satellites. This loss along with the atmospheric disturbances caused by the orbital bombardment would cause weather problems for the world of Sh'Lekk'Tha for a long time until new weather control satellites could be put in place.
When the all clear had been sounded after thirty minutes had gone by. Minbari Workers and Religious Caste members began to emerge from various buildings that escaped destruction and also came out from those few emergency shelters that few Minbari had been able to reach. What they saw once they had came out stunned them.
Those areas that had been hit were scenes from an apocalypse. The skies were a patchwork of colors that were a mix of fiery orange and red, very dark blue, and purple depending on the location of the planet that was left over from the incoming particle beams. There were no clouds as the incoming fire had caused the overhead cloud cover to completely vanish.
Targeted structures were completely gone, rubble was everywhere as the structures had been blown apart from the impact. A targeted structure's destruction also included the surrounding area and that area was as wide as multiple city blocks. There were fires raging everywhere and quickly spreading to areas that had not been directly struck. It was clear that many Workers that had not been warned in time would be dead, with no hope of recovering the bodies.
A similar fate for the Warrior installations that had been targeted was evident as those structures were destroyed with maybe a side wall or a pillar remaining standing out of some miracle. The rest of the buildings were gone with rubble strewn and thrown dozens of city blocks away.
Warriors emerged from those installations that had been miraculously spared and began issuing orders for search and rescue. As much as the civilian Minbari wanted to know what just happened, there were Minbari to save that may have been trapped in the rubble of those structures that had been attacked or had suffered from close proximity impacts and those people needed help.
Attempts at contacting Mibari and any surrounding Minbari world for help were met with jammed signals still so the Warriors knew that the communications network was still mostly working. Planetary communications were working in parts of the planet so communications within the world of Sh'Lekk'Tha were functional but the damage was widespread and areas of the planet had their communications cut off.
The Religious Caste started to take the lead with the search and rescue efforts, directing the available Warriors and Workers on what they had to do to help and save their people.
Just as the people on the planet were dealing with the shock, anger, grief, disbelief, so many emotions running through themselves as they tried to search and rescue for survivors and take stock of what had just happened, the Minbari saw all communications taken over and those that had video communications could see the alien being that was on all the still functional video communication displays on the planet.
Eshar System
SDF-3 Pioneer
Everyone was continuing to do their duties while Miriya watched the data on the holo tank. Soon, her officers and herself were seeing what looked like medium sized craft leaving the large sized space station.
"Looks like they're evacuating ma'am." Captain Sheridan reported from the Bridge.
Miriya grunted then commented and ordered, "So I see, looks like their fighters are leaving too. If they start approaching us, shoot them down."
"Aye ma'am."
About one minute before firing upon the orbital station and the rest of the infrastructure in orbit Miriya received the warning from Captain Sheridan.
John said, "Ma'am, we've received a warning courtesy of Grand Admiral Hesh that we should double up or triple up the pin point barriers that are forward facing as we move into firing position over the planet. Their planetary weapons will be able to hit us even at high orbit and if they concentrate their fire they can do enough damage to bypass the barrier if it is only a single one. I've taken the precaution and had our barrier's doubled up."
Miriya nodded and gave a 'hmm' sound. "Very good Captain, so noted, Azariah see to it our fleet is warned."
"Aye ma'am.", responded Azariah.
"The countdown is now at thirty seconds."
The many ships of Miriya's fleet prepared to fire and once the countdown reached zero they began firing at the Minbari space station and the other orbital structures, their plan was to leave only a couple of the communication satellites intact.
It was over in a matter of seconds. The orbital structures were easily destroyed, and thanks to advance planning no large debris fell onto the planet surface. Smaller pieces, about the size of basketballs and large screen flat panel displays did fall and hit the surface however.
Miriya ordered, "Start getting into their FTL comm systems so we can upload our messages to the Minbari. Begin refining our targeting data for our strikes on the planet surface. Last thing I want to do is to hit a hospital."
Azariah replied, "Yes ma'am, I've taken the liberty to have our cyber warfare people get started already. I'll get on the spooks to make sure we don't hit any hospitals or schools."
Miriya smiled at her blue skinned red haired Zentraedi Flag Captain. "Good job."
Azariah smiled back and replied, "Thank you ma'am, just anticipating your orders. Fleet is already moving into firing positions over the planet and we've taken precautions to have our pin point barriers at least double stacked in the bow and ventral sections."
Miriya said, "Good." Looking over to communications she asked for a channel down to the planet. "Attention Minbari, you now have ten minutes before I commence my planetary bombardment mission. You have ten minutes to evacuate to a shelter."
Slowly the Robotech fleet moved into firing position, taking their time so as to be in position just before the countdown reached zero while the time counted down. Captain Sheridan gave the five minute warning to the planet below then the jamming of their communications was resumed.
Miriya said, "Get me fleet wide."
"You're on ma'am.", Lisa said.
Miriya took a breath, she knew some of her fellow Zentraedi personnel were present for the Rain of Death and this moment might be troublesome for some of them. "Attention all personnel, we are about to commence our first planetary bombardment of the enemy. While there are those who wish that we would return upon the Minbari that which they have done to us, we have our orders. We are not them, we are not the monsters that they are. By showing the Minbari that we can strike at them and show them a level of mercy we show the galaxy as well as the Minbari that we are stronger than them but we are still a merciful race. I trust you all to do your duty and make me proud. This is your Admiral signing off."
As the warships were moving into their firing positions and preparing to commence fire, the planetary defenses on the planet surface began firing. Some of the shots missed as they couldn't lock on to them right away but soon a few scattered shots began to hit different warships' barrier systems which blocked the shots thanks to the barriers being reinforced.
Having been warned, the pin point barriers were doubled up and in some cases tripled up to provide the best protection to each warship's hull. With this, the barriers held from the focused firepower from the planet below.
Looking at the clock it was almost to zero. Once the clock reached zero Miriya gave the order, "Commence fire mission."
Captain John Sheridan said, "Aye ma'am. Guns, you may fire on the designated targets, planetary defenses have first priority."
The SDF-3 and those warships that had been assigned targets opened fire with their heavy particle beam and standard beam cannons. The individual ships assigned a planetary target engaged their target only using one, two or three shots from their turret against the assigned target. A quick damage assessment would be done and if it was necessary, the warship would fire another shot or two and perform another damage assessment. Only in a very small amount of planetary targets were more than two volleys needed to destroy the target on the ground.
Miriya had divided her fleet into two halves of one hundred fifty warship groups each with each half taking a hemisphere to bombard. Her half focused on the northern hemisphere while the other one hundred fifty warships hit the southern hemisphere. Planet wide, the heavy particle beams struck hundreds of targets on the ground. Planetary defensive cannons, military installations, space ports, airports, a few power plants, manufacturing and industrial complexes. In just over five minutes it was all over.
Miriya watched it all unfold and a part of her internally was jumping and screaming for joy while she projected calm professionalism. A few people around her cheered and celebrated with high fives, or fist bumps and hugs. With a nod of her head Captain Sheridan had taken notice and quickly brought the crew to order.
Miriya would celebrate in her quarters after the operation was complete. "Alright, let's proceed to phase two.", she said. Looking to her Flag Captain she asked, "Status of Grand Admiral Hesh's fleet?", Miriya asked.
"Grand Admiral Hesh reports she is ready for phase two."
"Contact EarthForce HQ, let's inform them we're about to start phase two."
A moment later and the image of General Lefcourt sitting at a large table with other members of the Joint Chiefs along with President Levy and Vice President Santiago, and Foreign Minister Roy Hunter of the Sentinels Alliance. The screen was split showing Grand Admiral Hesh as well.
Miriya said, "Greetings Madam President, Mister Vice President, Foreign Minister Hunter and General Lefcourt and the Joint Chiefs. Grand Admiral Hesh and I have completed phase one and we're about to start phase two."
General Lefcourt and everyone else was smiling. "That's wonderful news Admiral. Well done to both your fleets Admiral Sterling and Grand Admiral Hesh. Thank you for the status report, we'll let you get back to it. Contact us again when it is all over.
Foreign Minister Hunter chimed in and added, "Well done Grand Admiral. I look forward to talking to you after the mission is complete."
Miriya said, "Thank you sir, we'll talk again soon."
Kazianna said, "Thank you General and Minister Hunter."
The communication was closed.
Miriya looked at Kazianna who was still connected to the SDF-3. Miriya nodded in satisfaction and approval to her fellow Zentraedi then she gave the command. "Execute."
The cyber warfare specialists with VI assistance on the two different fleets had hacked in to the communication satellites around each of the two worlds that they had attacked and using their skills and technology uploaded a virus that would take over the Minbari's FTL communication network which would allow them to send two very special messages to the Minbari people, including they hoped the Minbari leadership.
The cyber warfare specialist on the SDF-3 looked up from his console and announced, "Virus is uploaded, waiting for it to spread before uploading the package."
Sentinels Flagship Victory
Grand Admiral Hesh watched her crew performing their duties and she saw her Karbarran cyber warfare specialist announce, "We're in Admiral and we're almost ready to upload the package."
Kazianna smiled then said, "Admiral Sterling we're in. Virus is spreading through their FTL communications now."
SDF-3 Pioneer
Admiral Sterling watched and listened to Grand Admiral Hesh and the two women waited for the reports to come in from their cyber warfare specialists that everything was set and when Miriya got the word that they were set on her end Miriya smiled at Kazianna and asked, "Are you ready?"
Kazianna replied, "We are."
She looked around the Flag Bridge then at Kazianna and said, "Very good, go ahead and upload the package and let's watch your Prime Minister's and our President's message to the Minbari."
Miriya watched and waited. The message had uploaded to the Minbari communication satellite and was now being sent through the entire Minbari Federation's communication network. From the two different systems that this was happening, the spread of the message was very fast and after about thirty minutes the uploaded message had been sent to every single Minbari Federation world, space station, and even every Minbari warship that was able to receive an FTL communication from a nearby satellite.
Now that the message had been uploaded and had spread across the Minbari Federation the next phase of the virus took over and seized control of the broadcast centers and began to play the message simultaneously across the entire Minbari Federation.
On screens across the entire Minbari Federation, on every planet, on every orbital station, on every ship both civilian and military the logos of the Sentinels Alliance and Earth Alliance next to each other was displayed and a countdown clock of two minutes began to countdown to zero.
Aboard the EarthForce Robotech ships both fleets had completed their mission and it was time to head back into Earth Alliance space per their orders. The two separate fleets turned away from the Minbari worlds, breaking orbit and heading away from the planet's gravity wells. Once clear both fleets executed their Fold jumps back to the Sol system.
The war had changed, now the entire galaxy was about to learn how much it had.
Author's Note: Well here it is, the first half of chapter 16. Second half is almost done and will be uploaded in a day or two with luck. I've been tweaking and making changes to both halves of this chapter and still not happy with it. Giving a shout out of thanks to ajw for his feedback, thanks.