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.
Authors Note: I am honestly surprised at how quickly this particular chapter came together. It was one of those that practically wrote itself. So without further ado let's crack on shall we.
Chapter Sixteen
EAS Minerva
Two Days Later
General Bradshaw would, if asked, admit to being somewhat nervous as he and his flag captain observed the helmsman guiding the ship in a position that would allow the SDF-1 to space fold all of them to the Minbari staging and supply area. He was not the only helmsman having to do it, the helmsman of seven other EarthForce ships – another Nova dreadnought, two Hyperions, all of which had their lasers and plasma cannons replaced with heavy railguns, and all four of his Sagittarius-class missile cruisers – were doing the exact same thing as they carefully manoeuvred the massive warships to be within a fifty-kilometre sphere of the battlefortress.
On the surface of a planet fifty kilometres was an impressive distance. That was not the case out here in space, in fact out here it was dangerously close. As a result, Bradshaw believed he had very good reason to be nervous – not that he let it show on his face as it wouldn't do for any of the crew to see his nerves – as even the slightest error or miscalculation at these ranges would certainly lead to a collision. Unfortunately, they had little choice but to risk getting so close as apparently the SDF-1 could only extend the range of her fold sphere – whatever that was – so far without risking an instability in the field during transit that could rip them all into a quadrillion fragments scattered all along the planned vector of the space fold. And the SDF-1's FTL drives were the best way to get to the system where the Minbari staging and supply station was without running the risk of a Minbari hyperspace probe, or a security patrol, spotting their fleet – something that would almost certainly have happened if they had to travel to the system via conventional hyperspace – and having a day or so to prepare for their appearance.
With the SDF-1's drive however they would have little to no warning beyond a gravitational distortion in the moments before the fold sphere erupted back into normal space and evaporated leaving them ready to attack. It was the main reason why he had pushed for EarthForce Command to accept the plan put forward by the SDF-1's first officer a woman called Lisa Hayes. Plus he had to admit that he was also kind of curious about what was actually involved in folding space and wondered how it differed and how it compared to travelling through hyperspace. EarthForce Command had agreed with him that the plan was workable and had agreed to go along with it, though he was aware that they were also curious about how space folding would work and had already ordered that he have all sensors record as much on the phenomenon as possible while inside it.
"General we're in position," the helmsman reported after a few more moments a hint of both relief and glee in his voice. While it had been hard work, the younger officer had clearly enjoyed the challenge of manoeuvring the massive Nova-class dreadnought to such a fine degree.
"Acknowledged. Communications check on the position of our other ships," Bradshaw ordered.
"Aye sir," the senior communications officer acknowledged from his part of the flag bridge before setting about the task. "Sir all ships report that they are in position. Shall I inform the SDF-1 sir?"
"Yes, inform Captain Gloval that we are ready to proceed at his discretion."
"Aye sir."
"I wonder what this is going to feel like," Captain Harrison said softly from where he was belted into his own station.
"We'll know soon enough," Bradshaw replied, "have all ships go their data recorders ready?"
"Yes, sir they have. We're ready to start recording from the moment the fold begins."
"General Captain Gloval has acknowledged that we're ready. They're making their final fold computations now and will be ready to begin in approximately three minutes."
"Acknowledged."
For another minute or so nothing happened then their sensors chirped. "Sir we're picking up a change in the SDF-1's power emissions," sensors reported. "There FTL drives are powering up."
"Here we go people make sure all recorders are recording from now," Bradshaw ordered even as he glanced at a side screen, to see the power emissions from the SDF-1 were now incredibly high and she was beginning to generate a large number of highly unusual particles including gravitons and some form of tachyons though he got the distinct impression that the Minerva's sensors were only detecting a fraction of the particles that was being generated in the SDF-1's FTL drive core, particles that he guessed when they reached cascade point would enable the extra-universal warship to bend and fold the fabric of the space-time continuum itself.
The cascade came quicker than he expected as abruptly a massive pulse of gravitational and particulate energy appeared from the SDF-1 and spread out enveloping the entire fleet in some kind of bubble or sphere. A glance at an external video feed showed that the whole fleet was surrounded by what appeared to be a ball of golden frosted glass. Abruptly there was a strange feeling, a tingling sensation almost like pins and needles and Bradshaw could have sworn his vision momentarily blurred, then it happened again as everything seemed to blur and then unblur, then blur again each blurring accompanied by a flicker of strange, alien colours. Ugh what the hell is this, he thought even as slight groans of discomfort let him know that he wasn't alone in experiencing the discomfort. A soft jolt, like they were in a ground car that had just run over a speed bump, ran through the ship and suddenly the disorientating blurring faded away. A glance at the external video feed showed that they were now travelling through some kind of blue-shifted tunnel through whose rippling edges he could faintly see stars – reduced to blurred lines - whizzing past.
"Sir the SDF-1 informs us that we will reach our destination coordinates in five minutes."
"Fifteen light years in just five minutes," Harrison exclaimed shocked knowing that with conventional hyperspace such a flight would have taken nearly a day and a half if the hyperspace conditions were good, "how is that possible?"
"I don't know. Space folding technology is completely new to our science," Bradshaw replied. Though he hoped that once this war was over there Macrossian cousins would share this FTL technology with the Earth Alliance. Being able to fold space and transport ships dozens of light years in minutes instead of days and even weeks, depending on the local hyperspace conditions as hyperspace was treacherous and could be far more like a very tempestuous ocean than anyone was comfortable with, would be an enormous tactical advantage. Not to mention all the new possibilities it opened for space exploration and expansion of the Alliance as right now their prospects for new colonies were somewhat limited given that there were a lot of other spacefaring races – each with their own territories and empires – ally vying for space in this part of the galaxy.
He put those thoughts aside for now, there would be time to think about the possibilities offered by space folding technology later. "Right, we've got five minutes let's not waste it. All hands man battle stations, weapons make sure that all our nuclear missile launch tubes are loaded and ready to fire. I want to be ready to open up on the boneheads as soon as we're back in normal space and have targeting locks. The Minbari are going to be surprised to see us and I want to take full advantage of that fact."
"Aye sir."
Bridge
SDF-1
That Same Time
"Sir engineering reports space fold system is functioning normally. Fold conduit integrity at one hundred percent and holding," Lieutenant Claudia Grant reported from her station. "It appears that the program we were provided with by the AI is working exactly as he said it would."
"Very good," Captain Gloval replied from his command chair, a pleased smile on his weathered old seadog face. When he had spoken to the artificial intelligence in the previously hidden section he had mentioned Lisa's plan and the AI had given him a knowing look before pointing out that the program that they currently had in the computer to manage a space fold was faulty being based on some flawed assumptions and guesses and that when activated wouldn't compensate properly for the interphasic shift between normal space and the hyperspatial realm used during space folding and that as a result, while the conduit would be transitable, it would be very bumpy and very unstable. To counter this the AI had given them a replacement program that resolved the issue, and he had allowed it to be put into the navigational and engineering computers.
Thus, he was beyond pleased to see that the new program worked exactly as advertised. It gave him hope that the other programs that the AI had given them - both of which were related to the SDF-1's defensive systems with one actually bringing back into full service a defensive force field system that they had never been able to get to work as while the field emitters were fine there had been something wrong with the system that created, sustained and managed the force field, something that until now they'd not been able to repair - would also work as the cybernetic copy of Rick Hunter indicated that they would.
"How long until we reach our destination coordinates," he asked, glancing at the window showing the blue-shifted tunnel and streaking stars of the space fold conduit.
"Four minutes sir," Claudia reported.
"Then let's not waste them," Gloval said before unknowingly echoing Bradshaw on the Minerva. "All personnel to battle stations, make sure all of our weapon systems are online and ready to fire as soon as we defold. Bring all our defensive systems online as well."
"Even the shield system sir," Lisa asked, a little uneasy about using the system as she hadn't quite gotten the measure of the artificial intelligence yet as she hadn't had much cause to interact with him so far. And honestly, she wasn't looking forward to when she had to as she liked to put people in specific mental boxes and feared that any major interaction with the AI could lead to her having to reclassify one Rick Hunter in her mental filing system. Something she never really enjoyed doing.
"Even the shield system Lisa," Gloval said firmly, he knew what was bothering Lisa about the system and frankly he had no real time for it and looked forward to when Lisa had to finally set aside her pride and instant judgement – which he had to admit wasn't a fair one since she had ordered a civilian into a battle without checking if he was even qualified to be in the plane he'd been in in the first place, thus it was no surprise that after everything he'd been through after that young Rick had snapped at her in the way that he had, indeed the shocked look on her face when he had called her an old sourpuss had been incredibly amusing - and admit her mistakes. Something that interacting with the AI would make her do, not that it would be easy as she was a Hayes through and through and from his interactions with her father, he knew that they could be extremely stubborn.
"Understood sir," Lisa acknowledged before she and Claudia set to work overseeing the final preparations for the battle ahead of them. They split the duties between them with Claudia overseeing the gunnery control crews as they prepared the battlefortress weapons systems – specifically the particle cannons, lasers, heavy rail cannons and offensive missile systems – for combat. Lisa for her part oversaw both the preparations to scramble their fighters – though she did not with approval that Roy had already gotten the veritechs ready – and bringing all the defensive systems from their ECM suites to active defences like the defensive missiles, pulse laser/railgun arrays and of course the shield system ready for the battle ahead. She hoped that they wouldn't need them, that the surprise of their appearance would let them get in and destroy the target quickly, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
All in all, preparations didn't take that long.
"Sir all weapons and defensive systems are ready for combat," Lisa reported after a few minutes of work.
"Very good. How long till we reach our destination?"
"One minute and thirty seconds sir," Claudia reported.
"Very well prepare to engage. Vanessa as soon as we drop back into normal space I want a full scan of the area, let's make sure that the data provided to us by the Narn is accurate. Lisa as soon as we drop back into normal space scramble the veritechs."
"Aye sir," both Vanessa and Lisa acknowledged. As they went to work Gloval glanced at his tactical screens as the timer to the end of the space fold crossed the one minute mark and he made his own final mental preparations for the battle. He hoped that this would be the last time he had to face the Minbari in combat, that the loss of the supply and staging post for their expeditionary forces in Earth Alliance territory would force them to come to the table to end the tragedy of this war – a war that thanks to the Rick AI he now knew to have been engineered by minions of the Shadows to eliminate two major threats to their masters plans – diplomatically. Mentally he sighed, they would have to see as right now he would in another few seconds have a battle to fight.
"Sir we have reached our target coordinates," Claudia reported, "commencing defold operation now."
Here we go, Gloval thought as a shiver ran through the deck. Through the viewports at the front of the bridge he saw the blue shifted tunnel and star lines of the fold transform back into the sphere of frosted glass effect of the hyperspace fold bubble. A moment later it flashed with gyroscopic light and vanished, revealing a completely different solar system to the one they had been in.
"Defold operations complete," Claudia reported, "engineering reports that the fold system has successfully powered down."
"Commencing scans," Vanessa added.
"Sir fighter launches commencing," Lisa reported, "the EarthForce dreadnoughts and cruisers are doing the same."
Gloval nodded a moment before the sensors chirped. "Scans completed sir," Vanessa reported, "we read twelve Minbari warships composed of three Sharlin-class war cruisers and nine Tinashi-class war frigates on an intercept course with us. They're launching Niall fighter craft. Behind them we read several dozen structures including one large base and a lot of mobile docks, all of whom have warships, cargo ships and transports docked with them. We're also picking up sixteen cargo ships heading towards the systems second planet from the jump gate, long range scans indicate a series of large supply warehouses have been constructed on the surface."
"Seems like our intel was right," Gloval commented, "how far out are the Minbari warships and what's the distance to the main base?"
"Sir the Minbari warships are three hundred and fifty thousand kilometres out, the base is ten thousand kilometres directly behind them."
"I see begin advancing to intercept the Minbari. Prepare to fire the main cannon," Gloval ordered, "target the lead Minbari vessel. We will open fire as soon as the Minbari and the base are in range. Dispatch Wolf and Sabre squadrons to go after the incoming cargo ships."
"Aye sir," Lisa acknowledged.
"Aye sir preparing to initiate main gun firing sequence," Claudia added.
"Sammie advise General Bradshaw that we'll take care of the approaching enemy warships and the enemies main base," Gloval added.
"Aye sir," Sammie acknowledged, "Sir General Bradshaw has acknowledged our intentions and wishes us good hunting. He says he'll start going after the supply and refit docks."
"Understood."
"Sir enemy warships are now within our firing range," Claudia reported, "the base will be in range in another sixty seconds."
"Fire the main gun as soon as it is in range."
"Aye sir."
For another few moments relative calm remained in the unnamed system with both sides moving steadily to engage the other. Then as it crossed a specific point in space the SDF-1's profile began to change as the bow of the battlefortress split in two, the two halves of the reflex cannons firing booms moving apart before rotating forty-five degrees and locking into position. For a second more nothing happened then the inner surfaces began to glow a second before arcs of rippling yellow-white energy began travelling along the booms before snapping together in the intervening space.
For another forty seconds the build-up of power continued, the number of arcs of energy growing both more numerous and brighter as the immense energies of an ongoing reflex reaction were gathered in between the firing booms held there by powerful gravitational and electromagnetic fields, until it appeared as though the battlefortress was holding a star captive between the booms. Then with a silent roar of unfathomable power the reflex cannon discharged unleashing a coruscating lance of pure destruction over three hundred meters in diameter upon the Minbari.
For the Minbari warships, charging towards the SDF-1 like a herd of enraged bulls, there was no chance to evade the incoming beam. The lead Sharlin was hit almost immediately and instantly flashed to vapour as the energy of the beam consumed it. For its flanking vessels there was no escape either as rippling waves of gravitational distortions and a veritable blizzard of antimatter particles spilling from the edges of the beam enveloped them. Both cruisers shattered as though made of brittle glass and not one of the strongest materials that the Minbari worker caste knew how to manufacture before erupting into massive fireballs as the antimatter onslaught enveloped them.
The surrounding Tinashi frigates were slightly more fortunate as by the time the gravitational sheering waves and antimatter particle wash reached them they had lost some of their potency. Though that was not to say the waves were in any way harmless as the frigates were violently shaken by the gravitational disturbance, knocking crew members off their feet or away from their workstations as the vessels groaned and shook as though gripped by earthquakes, then the particle wave arrived and explosions erupted all along the hulls as the simple but devastating reaction of matter and antimatter meeting took place ripping open hulls and opening the compartments below to space. The frigates immediately lost power and began to tumble out of control and burning. Small hatches opened on their badly compromised hulls and escape pods began pulling away from the mortally wounded vessels.
Uncaring of the fate of its first victims the beam of quantum energies from the SDF-1's reflex cannon continued to streak across space as a scintillating lance of death until it slammed into its final target, the enormous space station that the Minbari had carefully towed to the system to serve as their frontline staging post. Polycrystalline armour thicker and denser than anything that could be mounted upon a warship resisted for half a second the raging forces of the energy stream then it fused, melted and vaporised allowing the beam to slice into and through the station annihilating anything and everything in its path before exploding out the other side amidst a massive eruption of burning, dissolving debris. For a moment out of time the station remained there bisected by the energy beam, then the reflex cannon beam disappeared followed half a second later by an enormous explosion as the Minbari starbase was completely annihilated.
EAS Minerva
Despite having seen the weapon used before General Bradshaw still found himself staring in dumbfounded astonishment at the sheer, devastating power of the SDF-1's primary weapon. A quantum reflex energy wave cannon or reflex cannon for short as Captain Gloval had called it when he'd asked him about it. That weapon was simply destruction made manifest, he doubted that there was any ship or station in the entire damned galaxy that would be able to withstand an encounter with that thing, and its range was beyond comprehension.
"I may have seen that thing before but nothing prepares you for seeing what that weapon can do," Captain Harrison said after a moment, breaking the shocked silence that had fallen upon the flag bridge as they saw the SDF-1's main cannon fire, "and the range. I'm not sure that I want to know what kind of enemies they have in their own reality that they need a weapon of such devastating power."
"Trust me you don't," Bradshaw replied, recalling some of the things they'd discovered from the dead alien fighter craft that they had found drifting near the SDF-1. The mere sight of one of those dead giant human-like aliens had been enough to send a shiver of fear through his entire body. He had discussed them in private with Gloval and learned a little bit more about the aliens, especially the fact that they had absolutely vast fleets of warships. Warships whose firepower made a Minbari war cruiser look puny.
"You know something sir?" Harrison asked.
"I do and trust me captain you do not want to know," Bradshaw answered before deciding to change the topic back to what had actually brought them here. "How long until the first of the repair and supply docks are within our weapons range?"
Harrison checked his screens. "Sir the first of the stations will be within missile range in two minutes," he reported, "we are picking up increasing power emissions from the Minbari warships docked with the stations. I think they're trying to power up their vessels so they can disengage and confront us."
"Any chance they will be able to do so," Bradshaw asked.
"I don't believe so," Harrison replied, "we'll certainly be able to launch our missiles long before any of them can break away properly."
"Still instruct all of our ships to target the first volleys on the docked warships," Bradshaw ordered after a moment of thinking about it. He knew that the missiles would destroy the docked vessels and even if any did manage to disengage, they would still be annihilated as would the docks themselves. "What's the status of the Minbari cargo ships approaching from the jump gate?"
"Sir the Minbari cargo ships have turned around and are running back towards the jump gate," sensors reported sounding almost gleeful at the thought that the Minbari were running from them, "they're not going to make it our 'furies are almost on them as are the fighters from the SDF-1. They'll be in position to shoot them down long before they can reach the gate."
"Understood," Bradshaw replied, pleased that the Minbari would have no chance to escape with the military supplies that they were carrying. While he didn't like blowing up transports and cargo ships as a general rule – he was after all a soldier not a damned pirate – but considering what the contents of those ships would likely have been used for and this was a time of war there was little choice in the matter. "Time to missile range?"
"Forty-five seconds sir."
"Very well open fire as soon as we're within range and you have a solid targeting lock. What's the SDF-1 doing?"
"They're heading towards the planet sir. My guess is they're going to go after the ground base," sensors reported.
"I hope they'll be alright," Harrison said knowing that the ground base certainly had surface-to-space cannons. Especially as they're our ride out of here, he thought. While they could if the need arose use conventional hyperspace to leave the system it would mean they'd run the risk of being tracked and attacked by the Minbari who were certainly going to be even more after them than they already were after this attack.
"Something tells me that they'll be fine," Bradshaw answered a moment before a faint whooshing sound and a shiver of recoil ran through the hull as their one-shot missile launchers fired, sending seventy-two tactical nuclear missiles flying into space.
"All missiles fired sir," tactical reported after a moment. "Missiles are on course for the nearest docks. Impact in one minute and fifteen seconds."
"Have the other ships launched their missiles?"
"Yes, sir all ships have fired. Our missile cruisers are reloading their tubes as we speak, ready to launch another salvo at any docks or Minbari ships that escape the first barrage."
"Understood. Keep all sensors focused on the refit and resupply docks I want to know the effects of the missile assault as soon as the last nuke has detonated."
"Aye sir."
Beyond the armoured hull of the Minerva a grand total of six hundred and sixty-six high yield tactical nuclear missiles streaked towards the Minbari resupply and refit docks in a seemingly – to the horrified Minbari warriors and workers alike aboard the mobile docks and the ships docked with them – endless wall of death. Despite knowing that it was certain to be futile against such an overwhelming onslaught of nuclear-tipped powered projectiles the few light fusion pulse weapons the docks were equipped with – weapons more designed to knock down meteorites and other space debris that might pose a threat to the dock – opened up on the incoming projectiles.
Immediately missiles began dying, dissolving into clouds of vapourised metal as fusion bolts contacted and instantly immolated them. But compared to the size of the missile salvo from the EarthForce ships the losses were mere pinpricks and unable to do anything to really delay the inevitable. More missiles flashed to vapour but the barrage of defensive fire was simply far too little and far too late.
With a brilliant flash of light, the first ten megaton fusion missile impacted against the side of a docked Sharlin-class war cruiser and detonated instantly erasing the Minbari warship from existence. The force of the blast spreading along the umbilical lines connecting the cruiser to the dock and enveloping and immolating the dock as well – sending burning fragments flying in all directions. Another missile impacted another dock and ship and another and another as over a period of several minutes every single missile launched from the EarthForce fleet struck and immolated their targets wiping them away in a blaze of blazing light and hard radiation.
When the glare of the nuclear explosions faded the Minbari mobile docks – and all the warships, cargo and personnel transfer ships docked with them – were gone. Only spreading clouds of dust, debris and cooling heavily irradiated plasma marking where the docks – such a vital lynchpin of the Minbari's logistical support networks, letting them quickly establish supply bases when on the offensive – had once been.
Bridge
SDF-1
"Sir all scans confirm that the Minbari supply docks have been destroyed."
Sitting in his command chair Captain Gloval smiled at Vanessa's report. So far the attack on this staging and supply area had gone even better than he would ever have expected, the shot from the SDF-1's main cannon having taken out both the mobile and heavy fixed defences in the first few minutes of the attack. After that it had become something of a turkey shoot with the immobile docks – and the ships docked up with them – being easy prey for a massive salvo of fusion missiles. The few mobile supply ships that had been around had easily been hunted down and destroyed, there was now only one thing left to do. One target left to destroy then this mission would be over, the fleet could then reassemble, and they'd fold them all back to Altair.
"Claudia how long until the surface base is in our weapons range," he asked.
"They're coming into range now sir," Claudia replied, "sir what weapons system would you like to use on the base? Shall we launch a reflex missile?"
Gloval considered for a moment before deciding that a reflex missile would be overkill. "No target the base with the rail cannons," he ordered.
"Aye sir," Claudia acknowledged before relaying the instructions to the gunnery control rooms. A moment later a response appeared on her screens. "Rail cannons loaded and locked on target sir."
"Fire."
"Firing."
No sooner than Claudia spoke that a faint shiver of recoil ran through the deck as the SDF-1's four massive rail cannons fired, each sending a two hundred- and twenty-five-kilogram fin-stabilized tungsten darts towards the planet at hypersonic velocities.
"Projectiles on course sir," Claudia reported. "Impact in fifteen seconds."
"Understood. Begin plotting a course back to our fold in point as well as begin computations for a fold back to Altair," Gloval ordered. "Lisa recall all veritechs. Sammie contact, General Bradshaw and tell him that we will be done here momentarily and will begin preparations to return to Altair at his earliest convenience."
"Aye sir."
Even as the mighty battlefortress began to come around onto a new vector that would take her away from the planet and back towards her initial fold in point the four rail cannon rounds reached the surface of the planet. Each projectile struck the surface at one of the compass points around the base and instantly detonated transmuting all their accumulated kinetic force into a single massive pulse of destruction each equal to a hundred megaton nuclear bomb.
The energy waves from the detonations enveloped and instantly annihilated the Minbari base. Ripping it to pieces and sending debris and the bodies of dead workers and a handful of warriors high into the air to be consumed by the blast waves that abruptly enveloped what was left of the site in searing flames.
EAS Minerva
Ten Minutes Later
General Kyle Bradshaw had a smile on his face as the Minerva and the other ships that had taken part in this attack manoeuvred back into the periphery of the SDF-1's fold sphere ready for the journey back home to Altair. The attack on this Minbari staging and supply area had been an unqualified success thanks in no small part to both the surprise made possible through the use of the SDF-1's unusual FTL propulsion technology and the overwhelming power of the battlefortresses weaponry. He had no doubt that the amount of material that had been destroyed here today would be an absolutely devastating blow to the Minbari and their plans for genocide.
Hopefully after this they'll be more willing to talk, he thought, as it will now be obvious to them that their days of killing us wholesale, while being almost totally immune to our counterfire are over and that we can now hurt them and hurt them badly. He hoped that the Minbari would get the message as like many members of EarthForce he just wanted this damned war to end, he was tired to having to write letters of condolence to the families of those officers and enlisted personnel who had been killed by the Minbari. Get the message and come to the table to end this before more people on both sides died is this terrible, tragic and utterly pointless war. But if they didn't, well he consoled himself with the knowledge that the loss of this supply and staging area would certainly push the arrogant creatures onto the defensive for a while – giving them enough time to fully upgrade their fleets with the sensors from the SDF-1.
Then maybe, and if they had no other choice, they would be able to take this war to the Minbari.
"Sir all ships report we are now within the perimeter of the SDF-1's fold sphere," communications reported.
"Very well inform Captain Gloval that we're ready and he can fold us home at his discretion."
"Aye sir," communications acknowledged, "Sir Captain Gloval acknowledges and says we will be folding out momentarily."
"Good."
"Sir should we record the fold process again," Captain Harrison asked.
"It wouldn't hurt. See to it would you captain."
"Aye sir," Harrison acknowledged a moment before there sensors once again detected a massive power surge aboard the battlefortress. A second later the same tingling/phasing effect occurred again as the fold sphere burst into existence and expanded to surround the fleet. A moment later the external cameras showed that they were once more travelling down a blue-shifted tunnel lined with streaking star lines. Bradshaw smiled and leaned back in his chair…
…after a job well done, they were going home.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and the Minbari are going to be feeling this one for quite some time, will it make any difference to their plans or will the destruction of the staging area and its supplies just make them angrier and more determined to wipe humanity from existence. You will just have to wait and see. Until next time.