Into The Fire
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement - sadly all Robotech and Babylon Five characters remain the property of Harmony Gold, Babylon Productions Inc and Warner Brothers respectively - I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs - also known as lawyers - firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Twenty
EAS Bellerophon
One Month Later
Captain Taylor Smyth hummed softly to himself as he air-swam out of his quarters and began making his way towards the bridge of his newly refitted and returned to service Hyperion-class heavy cruiser. The refit that the Bellerophon had been quite extensive and had seen the twelve-year-old vessel transformed into a modern lean, mean fighting machine. Not only had their weapons systems been heavily overhauled and upgraded – their original particle beam cannon being replaced with Narn designed heavy beam lasers, which had been shown a few times now to be capable of burning through Minbari crystalline armour with much greater ease than the old cannons, and the plasma cannons had been replaced with newer faster firing, longer ranged and harder hitting fusion pulse cannons that rumour had it incorporated some aspects of Minbari weapons tech reverse engineered from vessels disabled at the Battle of Altair as well as some information on plasma accelerators given to them by Centauri military engineers – but there sensors had been upgraded to include the Macrossian system that let them track, lock and fire upon Minbari warships at normal weapons ranges.
That wasn't the only thing that they had gotten off their Macrossian cousins. Their original fusion reactors had been removed and replaced with copies of those that were apparently used as a secondary, supplemental power source aboard the SDF-1. While the new reactors were smaller than their original reactors, they pumped out almost a hundred times the power since they used artificially generated gravitational fields to recreate stellar fusion instead of the old hybrid fission-fusion system that they had used. It provided more than enough power to run all their systems, including the newly upgraded weapons systems, and then some. In addition, the hull had been covered with some new kind of ablative nano polymer alloy – that had been applied in thin paint-like layers – of Macrossian design that, according to all simulations and tests, would greatly increase the hulls resistance to Minbari neutron and fusion beam cannon fire. If it worked as well as the scientists said it would then it would mean that they would survive hits that would have otherwise gutted them.
The only thing they hadn't been able to do was add gravity plating. Though that was more a factor of the Hyperion design than lack of power to run the plating. Like all current generation EarthForce warships the Hyperion was designed entirely for zero-gee operation all the corridors, rooms and access conduits had been designed to be used in zero gravity. Adding the Macrossian gravity plating would have required them to make far too many changes to the design to make it work even part of the way. Which was a shame but there was nothing that anyone could really do about it, though Taylor had heard that the shipwrights were already working on new warship designs that incorporated all the technology that had been shared with them or what they'd reverse engineered from the wrecks of defeated Minbari warships.
Unfortunately, none of the preposed designs would be ready for even prototyping for a year or two yet. With luck the war would be over by then, either by defeating the Minbari and their plans for genocide or at least battering the boneheads so badly that they came to the table to end the conflict with words and not energy beams.
As he floated/swum along Taylor found himself musing that until very recently the very idea of defeating the Minbari would have seemed impossible. The Minbari's technology was simply too advanced beyond their own, their ships simply too advanced compared to their own, especially because of that thrice damned stealth technology that had made locking onto them impossible except at suicidally close range – which few ships ever got into before the Minbari guns sliced then to ribbons. All that had changed three short months ago and now Earth had a real chance at defeating the Minbari warrior caste and ending the bonehead's mad quest of vengeance and genocide for one man's death.
Like everyone else in EarthForce – well anyone who thought with brains more than muscles, he wasn't a GROPO after all – he still found it hard to believe that one ship, displaced across universes, could have made so much difference to their fortunes. Yet it had and from what he had heard developing their relationship with their universe-displaced Macrossian cousins – he had heard that some scientists had discovered enough genetic differences between them and the people on the SDF-1 to conclude that they were actually separate, but very closely related, species which really wasn't surprising when you considered that the Macrossians came from a completely different universe – offered so many more possibilities for new technologies in the future. Including a new form of faster than light propulsion, something called space folding which he guessed to be some form of warp drive like what had been shown on pre-contact science fiction shows, which promised to really revolutionize space exploration and colonisation.
It would be a great time to be alive.
But first we need to survive this war, he thought as he reached the bridge and manoeuvred his way towards the command chair. As soon as he was in it strategically placed Velcro strips locked him in place long enough for him to strap himself down.
"Status report," he ordered once he was comfortable.
"Sir we're coming up on the hyperspace beacon that marks the beginning of the Vree path," navigation reported, "we'll be able to jump into normal space in another few moments."
"Excellent. As soon as we reach the beacon instruct all ships to jump into normal space don't wait for my order."
"Aye sir."
As the navigator and helmsman both prepared to carry out his orders Taylor found his thoughts turning to the mission assigned to him. The Bellerophon and two other cruisers Ceryx and Menelaus had been dispatched to a system on the end of an ancient hyperspace route that the Vree had once taken to get to Earth for both research and pranking purposes. A route that the Vree had stopped using when they'd gotten into space themselves and acquired jump gate and jump engine technology from the Centauri.
A route that had fallen into the hands of the Minbari and which they had used to bypass all their defences and get a small fleet all the way to Sol itself. The fleet appearing over the sixth planet Saturn, though thanks to a little revenge prank from the Vree – as the Minbari commander an Alyt Traka had forced them to hand information on the route over at the point of his war cruisers neutron cannons – in the form of a little computer virus the Minbari navigational systems would have read it as the fifth planet as it swapped certain key navigational codes.
While they had quickly destroyed the intruding Minbari warships, destroying or disabling most of them with only three surviving to retreat to hyperspace and begin to make their way home, EarthForce Command was now convinced that the Minbari would use the route again. And that this time they would come with not just a raiding party but as many warships as they could muster up, with the goal of annihilating Earth and the colonies on Mars and Io, and with them most of humanity and the bulk of EarthForce's naval might.
As a result, they'd been sent to act as sentries to watch for the appearance of the Minbari. Though if the Minbari fleet did show up their orders were not to engage them. Instead, they were to retreat to a certain system on the route, a system that everyone had to cross at sublight due to an extremely dangerous hyperspace anomaly that would rip apart any ship that attempted to cross it, where defences were being mustered to stop the Minbari.
The thrum of the jump engines engaging running through the ship brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up at the screens which showed the electronic representation of a jump point form in front of the ship. A second later a soft but still very noticeable shudder ran through the hull as the Bellerophon passed through the vortex between normal and hyperspace, her two companion cruisers following her a second later with the jump point closing behind them.
"Normal space transition complete," navigation reported, "commencing jump engine recharge. Four minutes to recharge."
"Four minutes that quick?" his first officer, Commander Steve Alderman, exclaimed in shock. It was understandable as the jump engines normally took at least twenty minutes to recharge between jumps, even if additional power was diverted to them.
"Yes, sir it's the new reactors," navigation replied, "they're recharging the jump engines at a much faster rate than anything I have ever seen and its not affecting available power at all."
"Incredible," Alderman commented with a shake of his head even as he mused that alongside everything else their cousins had given them the new reactor design was one hell of a game changer. Sufficient power generation had always been a problem for Earth warships, now it appeared that that was no longer the case.
"I'll say," Taylor agreed before turning his attention to the reason why they were here. "Flight operations launch our CSP. Sensors begin scanning search for any sign of the Minbari."
"Aye sir."
For a few more moments nothing else happened beyond some additional contacts appearing on the sensor screens as each of the three Hyperions launched two fighters. The six Starfuries immediately forming a combat space patrol around the cruisers as they glided deeper into the system. The quiet was not to last however as the long-range scans came alive with a warning.
"Sir we're picking up a Minbari ship silhouette on the edge of our new scanners range," sensors reported. "War book identifies it as a Tinashi-class frigate. We are now picking up six smaller objects nearby, confirming Niall-class fighters."
"Just one ship and it's fighters," Commander Alderman questioned.
"Confirmed sir. There's just one ship. They're heading in our direction but slowly I don't think they've seen us yet."
"They would be charging at us like an enraged bull if they had," Taylor commented knowing the warrior caste wouldn't hesitate to come at them intent of spilling more human blood if they knew the three Hyperions were here. He looked at the displays and an idea came to him. "Navigation adjust our course, head for the asteroid orbiting the gas giant on a bearing of zero, zero, nine by zero, one, six. Communications tell out other ships to do the same."
"Aye sir."
"What are you thinking sir," Alderman asked turning to look at his commanding officer.
"That Minbari is here for a similar reason to us," Taylor replied, "he's a scout for a much larger fleet of ships. Thus, they're focusing all their scans on their immediate surroundings, searching for any threat to their forces before they jump in, otherwise they would have seen us by now. We will hide in the shadow of the asteroid – it should shield us from their scanners – until the Minbari passes us by."
"And then?"
"Then we bounce and destroy them," Taylor answered knowing that now that the Minbari had lost the protection of their stealth technology a Tinashi-class frigate was no match for three Hyperion-class heavy cruisers. It could take on one of them but not three they had it completely outgunned. "Hopefully their scout failing to report in will tell the Minbari that we are watching this system now and they will not be able to use their 'secret' route to attack Sol again without a fight."
"Understood sir. Do you think it will deter them?"
"Probably not," Taylor admitted knowing from all the xeno-psychologist reports on the Minbari that he had read that the setback wouldn't deter the warrior caste in the slightest. If anything, it would anger the warriors and make them all the more determined to attack to avenge the stain on their honour as well as complete their 'holy' quest to avenge their leader Dukhat. "This hyperspace route is far too direct a route to our homeworld for them not to use it. But it should delay them a bit and any delay to their inevitable offensive will buy us more time to build up our defences both along this route and back at home."
"Understood sir."
For another few minutes nothing more happened beyond the three Hyperions and their CSP manoeuvring carefully to hide themselves in the sensor shadow of the massive four hundred kilometre long vaguely peanut shaped lump of solid metallic ore that had been captured by the gravity of the nearby gas giant becoming another of its hundreds of small moons and moonlets.
"Sir we're in position," the helmsman reported.
"Very good. Now we just sit here and wait."
Twenty Minutes Later
"Sir the Minbari frigate is passing the asteroid."
Commander Alderman's report echoed across the bridge of the Bellerophon bringing with it a fair few sighs of relief from the crew. For the last twenty minutes the tension on the bridge had been getting thicker and thicker, becoming so thick that you could practically cut it with a knife, as their seemingly oblivious Minbari prey drew ever closer. Now the tension was released somewhat, the Minbari were falling right into their impromptu trap.
"Still no sign that they've seen us," Taylor asked.
"Negative sir the ore in the asteroid is blocking their sensors."
"Very good. Power up all weapons systems and stand by to lock and fire as soon as we come out of the sensor shadow. Put the Minbari's course on the tactical display."
"Aye sir."
One of the monitors lit up with a tactical display with a red threat triangle and six smaller red dots marking the position of the Minbari frigate and its fighters. A dotted line noted its path and projected course while off to the side, hiding in the sensor shadow of the asteroid moon, three blue triangles and six blue dots marked the position of his small fleet. Taylor watched the Minbari as it continued, completely oblivious to their presence.
Finally, though it was time.
"Alright they're in position. All ships move out and attack. As soon as we're within range lock on and open fire. I want that Minbari out of my sky."
"Aye sir."
Like a trio of lions who had carefully stalked a lone wildebeest across the plains of Africa the Bellerophon, Ceryx and Menelaus came charging out of the deep sensor shadow cast by the asteroid moon heading straight for the Minbari warship. It was only now that the crew of the Tinashi became aware of their presence as sensors and threat analysis systems suddenly began screaming urgent warnings. Immediately the warrior caste crew started to bring their ship around to confront their enemy and defeat this treacherous ambush.
But it was too little and too late.
Targeting sensors from the three Hyperion's – augmented by the feed from the Macrossian sensor arrays they'd been fitted with – locked onto the Tinashi and fed the information to the gunnery sergeants operating the gunnery control stations on all three cruisers. With the smiles of warriors elated to have the chance at striking back at the foe who had tormented them and their brothers and sisters in arms for so long they flicked they unlocked the safeties on the weapons systems and pressed the firing switches.
All three EarthForce ships fired as one.
Six dense whitish-red heavy beam lasers streaked forth from their lateral weapons arrays and converged on the aft of the starting to turn Tinashi. All six beams slammed into the massive, but extremely lightly armoured – as to armour it too much would have seriously impaired the effectiveness of the propulsion system – and important primary gravitic drive fin. Against such an onslaught the fin had absolutely no chance, it immediately broke apart and snapped off the ship melting and disintegrating as it did so.
The Tinashi lurched forward before starting to spin slightly, knocked out of control by the brutal hit to what was the Achilles Heel of any Minbari warship in existence. But worst was to come as the cruisers upgraded pulse cannons opened up sending bright yellow-green bolts of fusion density plasma into the exposed flank of the frigate. Polycrystalline armour shattered, melted and vaporised under the force of the plasma strikes violently shaking the vessel to its core, knocking Minbari crew members struggling to recover from their surprise off their feet.
The three Earth warships fired again unleashing a devastating combined barrage of laser and plasma fire. Travelling at light speed the whitish-red beams of the lasers arrived first and raked along the hull, penetrating already weakened armour to rip open the side of the frigate, gutting it like it was a fish on a slab. The following barrage of plasma flew straight into the hull demolishing section after section on dozens of decks and starting numerous fires in surrounding compartments as the intense heat of the bolts pushed the atmosphere past the point of ignition. Secondary explosions tore through the interior of the Tinashi steadily ripping it apart from the inside out. It was inevitable that something vital within the burning vessel would give.
Deep within the compromised core of the vessel the containment field around the artificial quantum singularity within the core of the main gravitic reactor flickered and died as generators were torn apart by plasma fire. Suddenly subjected to the tremendous subspace pressure of normal space-time the singularity immediately imploded dumping all its potential energy into normal space in a single massive blast of hard radiation and charged particles including antimatter. The result was predictable as the frigate exploded with appalling savagery, the force of the blast seeming to momentarily rip the very fabric of the space-time continuum apart.
The EarthForce ships didn't get everything their own way, however. Even as their mothership succumbed to her enemy's fury the six Niall came around and charged towards the closest cruiser – the Ceryx – triple neutron cannons blazing, pilots determined to enact some form of payback before they too were annihilated. Small but powerful neutron blasts peppered the hull of the cruiser, but it was here that the Niall got another unpleasant surprise as instead of immediately damaging the hull the beams broke apart and dissipated in a rainbow blaze of diffusion and refraction upon impact with the hull. When the blasts faded there was no visible damage to the hull beyond a few small, blackened smudges on the hull. Which themselves faded as the nano polymer alloy coating – a product of robotechnology – repaired itself.
Not to be deterred the Niall pilots fired again and again, pelting the same areas of the hull and were eventually rewarded with a brilliant flash and a jet of ignited atmosphere venting from a breached compartment. It was a small victory, essentially giving their hated foes the murderers of Dukhat and numerous other Minbari from all three castes the equivalent of a nosebleed. Then the Niall ran out of time as all three cruisers interceptor batteries, and the deployed Starfuries, opened fire creating a well-coordinated web of plasmatic energy that washed over the Niall in a maelstrom of destruction that simply erased them from existence.
Seconds later the Earth ships stopped firing for the simple reason that they had no more Minbari to kill.
Bridge
EAS Bellerophon
"Sir the last of the Minbari vessels have been destroyed."
"So, I see lieutenant," Taylor responded to the tactical officer from his position in the command chair. Damn that felt good, he thought as he had really enjoyed seeing the Minbari on the losing end of an engagement for once. He had lost too many friends to the bonehead's jihad to feel anything but satisfaction at the deaths of so many of those murderers. "All ships stand down from battle stations. Communications contact the Ceryx. I want a damage report from Captain Carter at the first opportunity."
"Aye sir."
As the crew began to attend to there normal post-battle duties Taylor leaned back in his command chair and thoughtfully considered what had just happened. While he was beyond satisfied with their performance in the battle, and it had been very nice to see Minbari die for once, he had to admit that it had hardly been a fair fight. Without the protection of their stealth technology that solo Tinashi and its small fighter escort had had no chance against the combined firepower of three Hyperion-class ships, newly upgraded Hyperion-class ships at that. He had to remind himself that it wouldn't be so easy to take a Minbari down the next time.
"Sir damage report from the Ceryx," communications reported. "Captain Carter reports minor damage to deck seven, section twelve. There was a hull breach, but it has been sealed by that nano polymer that they covered our hulls with, all vital systems on the Ceryx read as functional with only a minor loss of power from damaged conduits."
"Unbelievable," Taylor commented resisting, just, the impulse to shake his head in amazement at what that Macrossian nano polymer was doing. Clearly it was far more than just the ablative coating that EarthForce Command had told him it was. It made him wonder what else about the Macrossians, the SDF-1 and their robotechnology they didn't know or hadn't been told. "What about casualties?"
"Two dead, they were in the breached compartment. Six other minor injuries. Captain Carter reports that the ship is operational."
"Understood," Taylor acknowledged with a nod a moment before the sensors began to scream with urgent warnings. Now what, he thought. "What is it? Report."
"Sir we're picking up jump points opening at the edge of our scanner range. A lot of jump points," sensors reported.
"How many is a lot, lieutenant?"
"Sir we're reading more than a hundred and twenty jump points forming and its still increasing. Ships emerging… oh shit… sir they're Minbari. Tally two hundred individual contacts – a mix of Tinashi, Sharlin and Shagotti class ships – and rising."
Shocked and terrified silence filled the bridge. Everyone present knew, without needing to be told, that this was the Minbari fleet that they had feared might be coming. The fleet that was intended to glass Earth and every other world they had and drive their entire race into extinction. The fleet that they had been sent out here – to a system in the rear end of nowhere – to watch out for but had all hoped, had prayed, not to find.
Taylor shook off his shock, even as the screens showed the number of Minbari warships now topped three hundred and twenty ships. Was the entire warrior caste showing up or something? It didn't matter he knew what he had to do now.
"Activate jump engines," he ordered, "all ships are to return to base immediately."
"Aye sir."
As the crew snapped out of their shock and horror and began to execute his orders Taylor kept his eyes focused on the long-range sensor screens. Which showed that the numbers of Minbari warships was still increasing though the numbers of jump points were starting to tail off a bit. Eventually they stopped altogether leaving a grand total of twelve hundred warships of every class available to the Minbari floating there in space. The power and might it represented was more than enough to glass a world like Earth in moments with conventional weapons let alone the advanced assault weapons the Minbari had like their infamous and dreaded by everyone who knew of it, antimatter converter. Jesus how the hell are we going to stop that, he thought before a familiar thrum of power from the jump engines ran through the ship.
A few moments later there was the familiar jolt as the ship, and her companions, transited the jump point back into the relative safety of hyperspace. The jump points closing behind them cutting off their view of the newly arrived Minbari war fleet. Taylor allowed himself to relax for a moment before turning to look at the communications officer to give the order that would really set the cat among the pigeons with EarthForce Command. As what they had dreaded for over a month now, ever since the Battle of Saturn, was finally happening…
…the Minbari were coming.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. And so we come to it at last, the great battle that will not only determine the outcome of the Earth-Minbari War but shake the galaxy to its foundations. What will happen next? What role with the SDF-1 and her crew play in the events that will soon take place? You will have to wait and see. Until next time.
