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-One

EAS Thermopylae

Three Days Later

General Robert Lefcourt would, if asked, admit that he had a profound feeling of apprehension as he gazed around the combat information centre of the newly completed Nova-class dreadnought. The Thermopylae had literally only pulled out of her construction slip over Earth ten days ago, and had been rushed through a wartime shakedown cruise, before being rushed to this system with as many additional warships as could be spared. The reason being that this system – located just nine light years from Sol – was the place where they would make their stand against the Minbari war fleet slowly making its way along the Vree hyperspace route towards their home system. Here they were gathering as much of their naval strength as possible – something that was honestly being helped by the SDF-1 space folding entire squadrons of warships here from all over the Alliance – in the hopes that they would be able to stop the Minbari either by destroying their attack fleet or by damaging it enough that they would pull back to their own territory.

The system they were in was one that the Minbari would have to cross in normal space due to a large and extremely dangerous hyperspace anomaly that was in this region – which was why Earth had never expanded in this direction before now, though now that they knew of the path if they survived this war they would – that was impossible for ships to cross. It was essentially like a giant sinkhole in hyperspace, a massive deep fissure in the gravitational incline, which had pulled in numerous hyperspace storms creating a gravitational maelstrom of biblical proportions that would rip apart any solid matter that strayed too close to its boundaries.

As the result of the anomaly this was the best place to confront and, hopefully, stop the Minbari.

What was helpful for them as defenders was the fact that the system was also very cluttered. There were four sizeable asteroid fields, two of which the outer most and the third one out from the star showed signs of having once been very large possibly even super-terrestrial planets that had been shattered by some force of unfathomable power, that the Minbari would have to negotiate through or travel over in order to cross the system and move out of range of the anomaly that they were already calling the Maelstrom. He had ordered all of them mined with a mixture of nuclear mines and some unmanned Global Orbital Defence platforms as a result, work that had been ongoing for eighteen hours now.

Hopefully the mines and unmanned platforms will slow the Minbari down a bit, he thought glancing at one of the screens showing the progress of the mining operation. He was pleased to note that the mining of the outermost asteroid field was completed and that the others were getting there, the crews of their mine laying ships working flat out to complete their task, with the current estimate to completion being another six to seven hours.

Of course, the mines and hidden weapons platforms – which had all been upgraded with Macrossian sensors – were only part of the plan he and the others among the Joint Chiefs had drawn up for this battle. Progressively larger fleets of ships were being stationed after every asteroid field, all ready to pounce on the Minbari with long range gun and missile fire as they tried to escape the mines. The fleets labelled Alpha, Beta and Charlie all led back here to his final Delta fleet. The fleets were still moving into their positions, with more ships arriving – either through jump points or the SDF-1 folding them in – every couple of minutes. By the time they were done in another hour or so half of the entire EarthForce Navy would be in this system, ready for what would hopefully be the final do or die battle of this thrice damned war.

"General the SDF-1 just folded in with the last of the ships that can be spared," one of the communications ratings reported. "Captain Gloval is asking which fleet we wish them to join?"

Hmm that's a difficult choice, Lefcourt thought knowing that with her firepower – especially that fearsome main gun, whose power he could still barely believe even after seeing recordings of it in action – the SDF-1 would be a huge boost to whichever of the fleets she joined. Possibly enough to make the Minbari think twice before progressing further given what the extra-universal warship could do, the utter effortless destruction she could unleash upon those who had roused her ire. Ideally, he would like her stationed with every single fleet so she could rip the heart out of Minbari with her weapons, weapons which had a much longer range than anything in their own arsenal. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that. Unless…

"Ask Captain Gloval how fast his ship can space fold," he said to the rating, "and is there any minimum range limit on their folds."

"Aye sir."

"Sir we're receiving an alert from our hyperspace probes," another rating in the CIC reported from another comm station. "The Minbari fleet has been sighted. They're on a direct course to this system."

Damn I was hoping we would have longer, Lefcourt thought at that knowing that if the probes were detecting the Minbari fleet then they were only a few hours out at the most. Due to their proximity to the Maelstrom, and its graviton particle interference, they hadn't been able to deploy the probes as quite far out into hyperspace as they normally would giving them me only hours warning instead of the normal day or so's warning.

"How long till they arrive lieutenant?"

"At their current rate of speed six hours sir."

"Damn. Alright advise the minelayers that they have four and a half hours to complete setting up the last of the minefields. Then I want them out of here before the Minbari arrive. All other ships are to increase their alert level to yellow. We will go to battle stations half an hour before the Minbari arrive."

"Aye sir."

"Sir Captain Gloval reports that with sufficient pre-set calculations the SDF-1 can execute a space fold within sixty seconds. He also reports that there is no minimal range limitation," the first rating reported after receiving a response to their query from the SDF-1.

"Alright. Give them permission to join alpha fleet," Lefcourt ordered, "they're to stay there as long as possible but once the Minbari start to overwhelm them or they take damage they're to fold back to beta fleet. Also advise Captain Gloval that our probes have detected the Minbari, give him their estimated arrival time and when we plan to go to battle stations."

"Aye sir," the rating replied before relaying the instructions and requested information. "Captain Gloval has acknowledged sir. The SDF-1 will fold immediately to the location of alpha fleet."

"Understood. Alright people we know that the enemy are coming and roughly when they're going to show their arrogant selves. I want all weapons ready to fire and all sections locked down tighter than a drum ready for them."

"Aye sir."

As the CIC turned into a scene of frenetic activity as all the tactical specialists and communications ratings set about preparing the fleets for battle Lefcourt leaned back in his chair and began mentally preparing himself for what was to come. Soon what was certain to be the largest battle of the war to date, and hopefully one that would finally convince the Minbari to come to the negotiating table and end this slaughter, would begin.

He just hoped they survived it.

Pilots Briefing Room

EAS Leonidas, Alpha Fleet

Sometime Later

Lieutenant Commander Jeffery Sinclair, leader of alpha flight of the three hundred and sixty first tactical fighter squadron the "Death Hands", was nervous as he belted himself into his chair in the briefing room of the Nova dreadnought Leonidas. He believed that he had a very good reason to be nervous as within an hour at most he would soon be once again engaged in a dance of life and death with the Minbari. Having faced Minbari Niall in combat a few times since this war had begun just over a year ago, he knew that the Minbari were damned good pilots who knew the strengths and weaknesses of their machines well. To the point that while they had now lost the protection of their stealth technology, they would still be tough opponents to beat.

Plus, he always felt strange whenever he killed a Minbari pilot – which he had numerous times – like he had killed some close relative. Why he always felt like that he had no idea, he certainly didn't feel like it with any other opponents he shot out of the sky even other humans as he had killed his fair share of raiders over the years, not that he had said anything about it to anyone. The very idea of feeling guilty for killing Minbari – who had until recently been so casually butchering humanity – would have gotten him a few appointments with the psychologists for sure. Not for the first time he wondered why he always felt like that when he killed Minbari, try as he might he could never find any answers.

The sight and sound of the rest of his wing coming into the briefing room and settling down brought him out of his thoughts. He exchanged a smile with Bill Mitchell as his long-term wingman made himself comfortable in the seat next to him, belting himself in so as not to drift away in the zero gravity of the ship.

"What do you think this surprise briefing is all about Jeff," Bill asked him.

"Beats me," Jeff admitted, "we're only an hour at the most from the biggest battle of our lives so whatever it is it has to be something very important."

"Yeah, I can't wait to get a grip with the boneheads," Bill commented, "see how they like taking us on in a fair fight for a change. Especially given the changes that have been made to our 'furies."

Jeff nodded knowing that almost all the Starfuries in the fleets assembled here had, much like the capital ships, undergone an impressive overhaul. In the case of the Starfuries the upgrades had included a new power plant – something called a fusion turbine – allowing them to fire their plasma guns more rapidly and with increased power per shot. There electronics had been upgraded allowing the capital ships to feed them targeting data from the Macrossian sensors on the capital ships and the hulls had been reinforced with a thinner coating of the same nano polymer material that the capital ships had been giving them better and longer protection against Minbari guns.

"I know what you mean," he agreed a moment before the flight operations officer came in. After the usual round of attention, well as much as you could go to attention when in zero gravity and fastened down, the officer moved to the lectern at the front of the room and anchored himself to a Velcro pad there.

"Alright everyone settle down I have a bit to brief you on and as you know we don't have a lot of time before the Minbari arrive and we're in a fight for our lives," the officer, a Commander Jamie Stevens said, "I am sure you men are all curious as to why your flight has been summoned to this meeting."

"The thought had crossed our minds sir," Sinclair replied.

"Well, you need not wait any longer. Your flight is the most experienced and decorated flight in the three hundred and sixty first tactical fighter squadron, as such you have all been selected to have your fighters equipped with special weapons provided to us by our Macrossian cousins."

A startled, excited hubbub erupted from the assembled pilots at that revelation. They had all heard the tales of Macrossian weapons, there wasn't a soldier in the whole of EarthForce who hadn't, how they could make entire squadrons of Minbari warships just go away and do so from ranges previously thought to be utterly impossible. And now they were going to get a chance to play with some of them! Though the question then became just what kind of weapons they were being allowed to play with and why they were being allowed in the first place as the scuttlebutt was the Macrossians had always avoided talking about their weapons before now. Let alone letting EarthForce personnel anywhere near them.

Commander Stevens let them talk for a moment before bringing the meeting back to order. "Okay people I know you are all surprised and excited by this news. I know I was but let us get back to the briefing on the weapons that you will be using," he said before manipulating a small remote causing a hologram to blink into existence in front of them.

A hologram of some kind of missile.

Jeff leaned forward and studied the missile closely. He wasn't the only one as all the other pilots were doing the same. It was a pretty generic looking missile with a nose cone on one end and an engine on the other in other words outwardly nothing special to look at. Yet there was something about it, something that said that this thing was deadlier than any missile in the EarthForce arsenal.

"This ladies and gentlemen is what our cousins refer to as an Angel of Death," Stevens said sending a chill down all their spines. If their cousins called this thing something so ominous then it had to be something beyond powerful as they understood it. "And believe me that name is very appropriate. "

"What kind of weapon is it," Jeff asked not sure that he really wanted to know but knowing that he had to. "Some type of super nuke?"

"No, it's warhead is a form of quantum energy weapon it is essentially a missile-based version of the SDF-1 main cannon. Now while this is a fighter launched weapon, and thus is a great deal less powerful than even its bigger capital ship launched brethren to say nothing of the SDF-1 main cannon it still matches the firepower of a heavy tactical nuke."

"Holy shit," Mitchell breathed expertly summing up the thoughts of every pilot in the room. The most powerful tactical nuclear weapons in use by EarthForce were fifty megaton weapons mounted on heavy capital ship missiles. And this fighter launched weapon matched that! It really brought home the utterly insane power of robotech weaponry.

"We're really being issued with these things?" Jeff asked feeling more than a little shaken. In fact, he was downright intimidated by the apparent firepower of these missiles. They were literally a weapon of mass destruction surpassing any fighter-launched weapon to ever exist in humanities storied history. Hell, even the nuclear weapons launched during the Third World War paled into insignificance compared to the power of those things whose name Angel of Death was apparently well earned.

"Yes. Each of your Starfuries will be equipped with four of these weapons for direct strikes against Minbari capital ships," Stevens answered, "all the elite squadrons in the entire fleet in this system are being equipped with them. As we speak the targeting systems on your 'furies are getting new software patches so you can use them effectively. However, I must stress we do not have any reloads available so don't waste them. Any questions?"

"Do we have to be issued with these things?" one of the other pilots, Jeff recognised him as Daryl Walker a recently converted and now devout follower of the Foundationist Church which was firmly against the use of WMD's at any time, asked.

"Yes," Commander Stevens said firmly glaring slightly at the Foundationist. He had little patience for Foundationists, in his mind they were little different to that Scientology crap that had been around before the Third World War, so it was nice to be able to put one in his place with the cold hard reality of what they were facing. "EarthGov and EarthForce Command doesn't care about anyone's personal moral or religious convictions against WMD's, not this time. As make no mistake the battle to come will decide whether our entire race lives or dies either we destroy or at least drive off the Minbari fleet or they destroy us and shortly thereafter Earth, and Mars, and Io and every other world we have.

"So, this time we will not be pulling any punches, and our cousins won't be either," he continued, "we will hit the Minbari with every single weapons system we have or have been kindly given access to. If anyone feels that their religious or personal beliefs prevent them doing what is necessary to save our species from the Minbari jihad, then they are free to leave now. But know that if you do you will never wear an EarthForce uniform again. Do you understand Lieutenant Walker?"

"Yes," Walker answered, somewhat reluctantly.

"Do you wish to leave the room?"

"No… no sir," Walker admitted looking like he had bitten into a particularly sour lemon as he spoke. Jeff felt for him he really did as the other man was being forced by circumstances to choose between his faith and his duty as a soldier. "I… I… I'll do what I must."

"Good. Now are there any more objections?" Stevens asked as he looked at the assembled pilots. While some looked unhappy, clearly feeling sorry for their colleague and the painful choice he was having to make, however none dared to speak. "Very well then I will now fill you in on everything that you need to know about how and when to use these weapons so listen closely as there is a lot to go through and we don't have a lot of time for repeats."

Forty Minutes Later

Jeff grunted slightly as one of the electromagnetic catapults in the launch/retrieval bay of the Leonidas hurled his Aurora-class Starfury into space. Behind him, like bullets being fired from a machine gun, came the rest of alpha wing. As soon as he reached manoeuvring clearance, he grabbed his control joysticks and powered on his engines before guiding his craft into its assigned position. All around Starfuries were pouring out of the assembled dreadnoughts and cruisers and moving to their own positions in the line around the hundred and thirty ship strong Alpha Fleet.

Once in position he brought his craft to a halt and looked around seeing other Starfuries moving into position along with Macrossian Valkyrie veritech – whatever that meant as it was obviously an abbreviation for something – fighters that were being launched in droves from the nearby SDF-1. She was also launching other fighters that if his sensors weren't lying were unmanned being some kind of robot. After a moment his fighters computer identified them as QF-3000 drone fighters, and there were certainly a lot of them moving out and forming up ready for the Minbari to come.

Turning his eyes away from the forming up squadrons he looked towards where space seemed to be dominated by a massive wall of rocks and dust that was tens of thousands of kilometres tall and which was spread out along an orbital path that was far too regular for them to be anything other than the remains of a very, very large planet. Somewhere beyond that wall of slowly drifting rock the Minbari would soon return to normal space after cruising through hyperspace unopposed towards this system for a few days.

Unfortunately, nobody knew quite when the Minbari would decide to show themselves. They all knew from the hyperspace probes that they were coming and that they would have to return to normal space on the far side of the asteroid field to begin the long sublight cruise through this system to get passed the gravitational chaos of the Maelstrom. And from there get into range of the next ancient hyperspace beacon, planted centuries ago by the Vree Conglomerate that marked the next step on the road to Sol and Earth.

With a sigh Jeff settled in for what was always the most difficult part of any battle. The part that everyone in their profession dreaded because it seemed to stretch on forever, stretching into the infinite realm of time. The waiting.

They would not have to wait long.

Minbari War Cruiser Valen'tha

In Hyperspace

That Same Time

A profound sense of foreboding filled Delenn as she and her fellow Satai stood in the great meeting chamber of the Grey Council. All around them the holographic curtain was active showing the assembled martial might of the warrior caste preparing to jump into normal space. They would not jump in themselves until the system was secured, the Valen'tha and a small detachment of ships to protect them would remain here in hyperspace, they would however watch the proceedings in real time from the safety of this hallowed place.

For the last three days things had been progressing very smoothly for the great armada – which represented eighty percent of the entire fleet of the warrior caste – gathered to finally purge the universe of humanity. Far too smoothly in her opinion as aside from the first day, when their scouting frigate had been ambushed and destroyed by three Human cruisers, there had been no sight or sound of EarthForce warships – just probes - anywhere on this old Vree hyperspace route.

Something that had all the Nine on edge.

From the presence of the probes, it was obvious that the Humans were tracking them. Yet so far there had been no attempts to intercept or slow down the fleet at all, something that the warrior caste had expected them to do. It was after all what they would have done in their place. But the Humans had not done so, which to Delenn's mind meant one of two things. One being that the Humans were focusing their efforts on evacuating their home planet and the colonies in their own system, evacuating the people to who knew where. The second, and honestly far more likely, scenario was that they had gathered as much of their remaining naval strength as they could and were lying in wait for them somewhere along the route somewhere where they knew the Minbari would have to spend a very long time in normal space.

Somewhere like this system, which due to dangerous hyperspace anomaly, they would have to cross in normal space. This fact, combined with the fact that the system was highly cluttered with four large and dense asteroid fields being present as well as numerous planetary bodies made the system the perfect place for an ambush. Delenn had the horrible feeling that that was exactly what the Humans were intending to do here, to ambush them and force them into an all or nothing battle or sequence of battles across the length of the system in the hopes of destroying or at least driving back their fleet.

She knew she wasn't the only one to be concerned by that possibility. She knew that the warrior caste Satai were as well, they would have been fools not to be.

Delenn was brought out of her thoughts by the sight of jump points forming in front of their fleet. Within seconds the portals to normal space finished forming and stabilizing and their attack fleet began transiting to normal space. The process took the better part of two and a half minutes to complete, due in no small part to the sheer number of warships involved. But eventually the last of the fleet transited to normal space leaving the Valen'tha and the half a dozen ships assigned to her protection in hyperspace.

The holographic curtain around them shimmered and changed. The fleet reappeared now in normal space and forming up into their ranks. Then the first group of ships began a slow but steady acceleration towards the first of the asteroid fields that blocked their path. May Valen's fortune shine upon you, she thought as the first group of ships and fighters began the tricky process of navigating their way through the rocks.

Combat Information Centre

EAS Thermopylae

That Same Time

"Sir the first wave of the Minbari fleet has entered the outer asteroid field."

The report from one of the operations ratings, watching the probes they'd scattered throughout the system, echoed loudly in the combat information centre. From his position Lefcourt nodded, he could see it himself one the master tactical display which at a command on the arm of his chair zoomed in on the outer asteroid field. The red chevrons and dots of the Minbari cruisers and fighters were slowly, carefully threading their way through the rocks. While all around them were the yellow dots and projected blast circles of their first group of high-yield fusion mines.

"Any sign that the Minbari have detected the mines," Lefcourt asked as he watched more Minbari vessels enter the field and slowly, carefully make their way through the drifting rocks towards the other side where Alpha Fleet and the SDF-1 were waiting for them.

"Negative sir the new stealth coating on the mines seems to be working," the rating reported prompting a slight predatory smile to appear on Lefcourt's face. The new stealth coating on the mines was yet another application of the nano polymer alloy that the Macrossians had shown them how to manufacture. It had so many different applications, many of which promised to revolutionize the ship building industry after the war, even though it was a very basic form of robotechnology beyond just being used in ship armour. One of which was the stealth coating which could be programmed to block certain scan frequencies if you knew what they were – and thanks to the half-wrecked ships recovered from the Battle of Altair they now knew the Minbari scan frequencies.

"Excellent stand by to arm the alpha field mines on my order," he ordered watching the feed, wanting as many Minbari to be within range of the deadly blasts to come as possible.

"Aye sir."

For another minute or two he watched the number of Minbari among the rocks grow until there were over a hundred capital ships and nine hundred fighters among the rocks with the leading wave of fighters now only a few thousand kilometres from exiting the field. It was time.

"Arm the alpha mine field."

"Aye sir," an operations rating replied giving the command which was instantly beamed via tachyon relay to the currently inert mines. A moment later the yellow inactive mine dots turned green to show they were armed. "Mines armed sir."

"Detonate."

Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed this build up chapter. And now the great battle begins, I am already hard at work writing the next chapter, so you won't have long to wait to see how it goes. Until next time.