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-Two

"Detonate."

Within seconds of General Lefcourt's barked command new stars burst into existence in the first of the unnamed systems asteroid belts as twelve EarthForce mark three heavy tactical fusion mines detonated simultaneously. Each mine exploding with the force of a six hundred megaton bomb and creating spheres of plasma hotter than a blue giant star each a few dozen kilometres in diameter, the waves of plasma and hard radiation seemingly merging into a single band of manmade star fire.

For the Minbari fighters and capital ships caught in the blast zone the gates of hell might as well have opened right in front of and around them. Dozens of Tinashi, Sharlin and Shagotti-class warships and over two hundred Niall and Tishat-class fighters flashed to vapour immediately as the waves of superheated plasma and hard radiation swept them away like flotsam in a hurricane. They were by far the most fortunate ones.

As the glare of nuclear hellfire faded it revealed nearly thirty more warships listing or corkscrewing helplessly out of control with huge sections of their hulls simply blown away by the forces unleashed upon them. Melted polycrystalline armour glowed and flowed like molten lava across the ships some flying off into space and instantly freezing into odd globular shapes in the zero-gravity environment of space. But the rest, like the lava – heavily irradiated lava at that – that it currently so closely resembled burned its way through the very hulls it was designed to protect to ignite devastating fires and trigger devastating explosions aboard the unfortunate vessels. More than one warship exploded seconds later as gravitic reactors or back-up antimatter fuel cells were burned through by the transmuted crystal.

But worst was to come as spreading out from the detonation points came a deluge of molten and semi-molten chunks of former asteroids, accelerated to extremely high velocities by the force of the nuclear explosions giving them a phenomenal amount of pure kinetic force. They smashed into disabled or disorientated due to overloaded sensors warships like gigantic cannon shells shattering entire vessels as if they were glass sculptures thrown hard against a wall and not normally mighty engines of death and destruction. Causing yet more chaos and destruction as bits of broken warship crashed into and caused damage to following vessels and forcing others to take frantic evasive action to avoid being hit by the storm of debris.

In desperation some of the Minbari began firing at the incoming storm of both rock and warship wreckage. Each neutron or fusion beam cannon strike vaporising an approaching projectile until after several minutes of firing no more debris threatened them to allow Minbari fleet commanders to begin reestablishing formation and to count the cost of the first devastating strike of what looked like it was going to be one very nasty and costly battle.


Grey Council Chamber

Minbari War Cruiser Valen'tha

In Hyperspace

"In Valen's name."

Delenn's shocked and horrified exclamation hung pregnant in the atmosphere of the Grey Council chamber, perfectly encapsulating what every one of The Nine were feeling at that exact moment in time. They had been watching their fleet slowly, carefully, making its way through the outer band of asteroids as the field was simply too large to fly over when without warning some of the largest nuclear explosions that any of them had ever seen had erupted amidst the fleet.

The result had been nothing short of utter carnage.

Most of the capital ships and all the fighters that had been within the boundaries of the asteroid field had been destroyed by the blasts. The few that had survived were severely damaged and burning, trailing bodies and debris from the numerous breaches in their hulls. Breaches that were only growing as their own armour had been melted by the sheer force of the blasts and was now burning its way through the ships it had, for millennia, always protected.

"What just happened," Satai Karenn asked her voice shaking a bit and her heart aching at once again seeing Minbari warships broken and burning. As a member of the worker caste, especially from a clan that worked heavily in the starship construction industry, she was fully aware of the utter hell that would have been unleashed aboard those ships, the fight for their lives the crews on the surviving ships would now be in as they tried to bring the fires under control and cool the melted crystal armour before it burned all the way through the ship while also battling with a devastating radiation surge.

"Fusion mines," Satai Morann said anger clear to hear in his voice and on his face. "The Humans must have mined the asteroids and waited for the most devastating moment to detonate. Those damned Shadow-spawned cowards. Even now they still won't fight us with honour ship-to-ship, warrior-to-warrior."

Coplann rolled his eyes even as he pulled back his hood to join the discussion. "It is not cowardice Morann," he replied wondering, not for the first time since this war had begun, when the Wind Swords had allowed themselves to become blinded to the true realities of war preferring to believe in an over romanticised version of interstellar warfare. It was a problem he had noticed that far too many in his caste had these days, especially among the younger generations. They all seemed to think war to be an easy, honourable thing and not the brutal battle for survival, where even the slightest mistake could cost you everything, that it truly was. "Instead, it is a sound and logical move that any defending force would make if they had sufficient time to assemble a defence. Have you forgotten that we ourselves use mines for defensive and area denial purposes?"

"Mines are a coward's weapon."

"Only in the opinion of the wind swords," Coplann answered giving the other warrior a look of mild rebuke, "what interests me is why didn't we detect and destroy the mines before they could be detonated. Even with all the rocks clouding the screens our sensors should have been capable of doing that, especially as we know the signatures of Earther nuclear weapons by now."

"We should have," Morann admitted with a frown. "The fact that we didn't detect the weapons is very concerning. Have the Earthers discovered some means of defeating our sensors? That should be impossible."

"Not if they have access to a number of our sensor arrays," Karenn replied. "Which we know they do have given they towed away several disabled, abandoned war cruisers after the Battle of Altair. They'll have had plenty of time by now to look at the sensors and determine our scanning frequencies. From there, if they have the technology and we must assume that they probably do as our analysis of debris from previous battles has shown that Earther materials science is nothing to sneer at, it probably wouldn't be that difficult to design a stealth sheathing that would be impervious to our scanners."

All three warrior satai growled slightly at the mention of the disabled, abandoned vessels that the Earthers had towed away to a location that they had still not been able to find. None of them were so arrogant as to believe that with a little bit of time and effort that the Earthers wouldn't be able to begin prying loose Minbari scientific and technological secrets from those ships. Cowards and murderers, they maybe but stupid they were not.

Of course, that just increased the need to wipe them out as those secrets, that knowledge was for Minbari eyes only. It certainly did not belong in the hands of such a young and condemned to death, for their crime against the very heart and soul of Minbar, race.

"We can discuss this later," Jenimer said bringing an end to the discussion. "The fleet has finished forming back up. Let us continue to watch and hope for no more unpleasant surprises."

The other members of the council all nodded in agreement and acceptance and returned their full attention to the holographic curtain. Which clearly showed their fleet had formed back up and was now beginning to make their way once again through the asteroids, travelling along the very path through the rocks that had been blown open by the human mines. They all hoped that those mines were the last of the unpleasant surprises the Earthers had in store for their fleet.

They would be wrong.


Bridge

SDF-1

"Captain the Minbari fleet has finished regrouping and are beginning to advance through the hole in the asteroid field blown by the mines."

Lieutenant Vanessa Leeds calm, professional voice echoed across the bridge prompting Captain Gloval to nod as he could see it himself on his own screens. The fusion mines planted by EarthForce had been far more effective than he would have expected mines in space to be, the UEDF had never really considered the merits of such a weapons system before if they ever got back, he would be sure to inform the top brass about it and how it could be useful in certain circumstances.

"Sir we're picking up a large number of Niall and Tishat-class Minbari fighters moving ahead of the capital ships," Claudia added looking at her own screens and seeing a virtual blizzard of Minbari fighters approaching, the way they were moving screaming their pilot's anger and desire for payback for the brutal hit their forces had just taken from the mines. "EarthForce fighters moving to intercept."

"Lisa, instruct some of our veritech and ghost squadrons to do the same though make sure Skull and Wolf stay back ready for anti-ship strikes," Gloval ordered.

"Aye sir," Lisa acknowledged and relayed the order.

"Claudia are the Minbari fighters in interceptor missile range?"

"Not yet sir however their position passing through the gap blown in the asteroid field means they would be vulnerable to a buckshot strike from our rail cannons."

"Do it. What about the Minbari capital ships are they in range yet?"

"Not yet sir they'll be in missile range in another sixty-seconds and heavy energy weapon range twenty seconds later. Should I prime the reflex cannon to fire?

Gloval considered that for a few moments. "No, we will hold off using the reflex cannon for now," he said knowing that they could only use the reflex cannon so many times before their protoculture reaction mass reserve got too low. Thus, he would hold it back for a time when it could make the biggest difference in the battle.

"No, we will save it for now. However, when the Minbari are in range open fire with the heavy particle cannons."

"Aye sir," Claudia acknowledged before relaying the orders to the gunnery control rooms buried deeper within the ship. A moment later a momentary shudder of recoil ran though the ship as all four heavy rail cannons fired, sending four two hundred- and forty-five-kilogram projectiles shooting across space towards the largest of the approaching swarms of Minbari fighter craft.

In moments the projectiles reached the approaching fighters and detonated sending forth a spray of hypervelocity tungsten-hypercarbon projectiles in an identical fashion to a shotgun shell. The effect was devastating as the spherical projectiles tore into the Minbari formation, punching through polycrystal covered hulls as if they were made of paper to rip through equipment and flesh with equal abandon. Over a dozen fighters erupted into fireballs as antimatter fuel cells were torn apart with the predictably violent response as matter and antimatter met and annihilated one another. Several additional fighters went ballistic due to damaged engines or killed pilots.

They exploded a few seconds later as the first of the intercepting Starfuries flew in. Bolts of white-hot plasma streaming from their guns to rip into first the defenceless fighters and then their shaken squadron mates sending a dozen more to their doom in momentary bursts of flame. Incensed, and eager to get to grips with their enemy the much-hated killers of Dukhat, most of the Minbari fighters moved to engage the 'furies while the rest remained on course for both the Earth Alliance warships and the SDF-1.

"Enemy fighters approaching sir," Lisa reported, "they are within interceptor missile range."

"Give them a volley," Gloval ordered, "all defensive batteries to stand by to engage any survivors. How long until the first of the Minbari warships is in our heavy cannon range?"

"Twelve seconds sir."

"Fire as soon as they're within range. Destroy the first target then move on to the next in the line."

"Aye sir," Claudia acknowledged and relayed the order even as the familiar whoosh of missiles being launched filled the bridge.


For the first time since she had arrived in this universe the SDF-1's defensive missile batteries roared in anger. Across the hull pop-up defensive missile batteries shot up – or the case of the lower hull dropped down – and unleashed a storm of missiles towards the incoming Niall and Tishat. For a moment the Minbari paused, the pilots taken by surprise by the sheer size of the missile salvo, then they reacted to defend themselves. Neutron and fusion beams lancing out in rapid succession.

Immediately missiles began dying, punched into hazy balls of disassociated ions by the powerful Minbari weapons. But against such a large salvo the losses were barely noticeable as the missiles ate up the distance at a frightening rate. Even as more missiles died the remainder began striking home and for the Minbari fighters – which were far more fragile than the Zentraedi fighters and battlepods the Foxfire's had been designed to counter – it was a massacre. Hundreds of the fighters vanished, obliterated in a riot of brilliant yellow plasma explosions, leaving behind only a few dozen shaken and terrified survivors. Not about to be put off, and now more determined than ever to get some payback against the warship that had caused so much to change for the Minbari recently, the remainder pressed on…

…only to run into a virtual wall of light railgun and pulsed laser fire as some of the battlefortresses numerous defensive weapon emplacements opened fire on them. It was not a barrage they could survive and fighter after fighter simply vanished in momentary fireballs as they were hit and obliterated. Some Minbari pilots attempted to take evasive action while continuing to close with this most hated of ships, which by itself had turned the tide of the war against them and led to numerous warriors needlessly dying, not that it did a bit of good for the simple reason that the SDF-1 came from a reality where swarm warfare with fighters, missiles and battle mecha were the norm. With defences designed and optimised accordingly. Against such a defence the Minbari pilots had no chance and the last fighter, a Tishat medium fighter, exploded long before it could get into weapons range.

Even as its defensive emplacements tore the fighters that had been heading for her from the sky, swatting them as if they were toys and not some of the most fearsome fighter craft in the known galaxy, the SDF-1's forward heavy particle cannons locked onto the first Minbari warship to enter their range and fired. Compressed javelins of hypercharged protoculture generated particles streaking towards the Sharlin-class war cruiser at relativistic speed and slammed into it with searing force.

The result was unexpected. Instead of immediately burning through it the Minbari polycrystal armour – designed as it was to withstand exactly these kinds of supercharged particle beams as they were favoured weapons of their traditional enemies, the Shadows and their various thralls – resisted the attack refracting the energy of the beams back into space in a rainbow blaze of diffusion. Though it could do nothing for the sheer kinetic force of the strike that made the cruiser ring like a giant bell, knocking crew members off their feet as their ship groaned and shook.

The beams vanished revealing the Minbari armour to be scorched but intact. A second volley of beam followed and this time the Minbari armour, its molecular matrix already weakened, cracked, fused and finally melted allowing the beams to begin cutting into the metal hull beneath even as they vanished. The following third volley instantly punched through the hull to slice through the entire ship eviscerating section after section with frightening, contemptuous ease before exploding out of the back of the war cruiser in an eruption of flames and debris. The beams vanished but the damage was already done as the cruiser, it's spaceframe compromised beyond any hope of recovery, began to collapse in upon itself. It exploded violently a few seconds later as its jump engines and gravitic reactor core let go.

Even as their first target embraced oblivion the operators in the SDF-1's gunnery control rooms fired upon their next target. Having learned their lesson from the first ship, and with the Minbari rapidly closing to their own weapons range, they fired with every turret that they could bring to bear even the secondary beam turrets in the hopes of overwhelming the refraction and dispersion capability of the Minbari armour.

It worked.

With the full power of the SDF's beam arsenal arrayed against it the armour of the unfortunate Sharlin stood no chance. It failed instantly allowing dozens of high intensity beams to tear into and through the ship sending it, and the hundreds of warriors aboard, to their doom. Four more warships, two Tinashi, a Sharlin and a Shagotti joined them in oblivion before the Minbari entered weapons range themselves and sending a storm of green neutron beams and yellow-green fusion beams towards the battlefortress intent on ending her existence.

The beams never touched her.

Meters from the hull the Minbari beams seemed to stop and spread out as though encountering a solid wall that they couldn't breach. The beams evaporated revealing the softly glowing, with the blue light of Cherenkov radiation, hexagonal tiles of a defence barrier. As Minbari gunners gaped in dumbfounded shock, the presence of the shield having taken them by total surprise, the SDF-1 retaliated for the attack with all of her conventional weapon's beams sending another Sharlin to its doom while heavy rail cannon fire shattering two Shagotti like they were made of brittle glass.

Shaking off their shock at this latest surprise sprung on them the Minbari fired again making the SDF-1's defensive barrier glow and shimmer under heavy fire even as the battlefortress kept firing back her mighty weapons destroying ship after ship. Enraged the Minbari kept firing on the SDF-1, more war cruisers and frigates concentrating all fire upon her putting the barrier protecting the ship under strain.

So focused on destroying the SDF-1 were the Minbari that they forgot about the rest of alpha fleet.

Such tunnel vision came back to bite them when a massive wall of laser, pulse, railgun and missile fire slammed into their one flank as the EarthForce ships came to the aid of their alley. Two Sharlin's and a Tinashi crumpled into oblivion under the sudden deluge of fire. Rudely reminded of their enemy's presence some of the Minbari ships turned to engage even as more of their number dissolved into oblivion under their enemy's fire. Neutron and fusion beams answered, and battle was joined.


Alpha Leader

361st Tactical Fighter Squadron

A grim warriors smile graced Jeffrey Sinclair's as a Minbari fighter, blocking his way to one of the largest Minbari capital ships he had ever seen, disintegrated under a salvo of bolts from his guns. With it came a slight stab of the familiar feeling of guilt at killing one of the boneheaded aliens, though he ignored it. Instead with the fighter out of his 'furies way he locked one of the reflex missiles attached to his underwing hardpoints onto the cruiser and gave the command to fire.

A soft shudder ran through his 'fury as the missile detached from the nacelle and began streaking towards the Minbari ship. It impacted a moment later and he was momentarily blinded by a brilliant flash of light that was both similar and very, very different in a way that he couldn't describe to that of a nuclear explosion. A moment later a violent shockwave, however impossible such a thing should have been in space, slammed into his fighter making it shake violently.

"Warning gravitational disturbance detected," said the emotionless voice of the computer, "warning gravitational disturbance detected."

"Source?" he demanded.

"The explosion directly ahead," the computer answered, "gravitational disturbance dissipating."

"Any damage computer?"

"Negative."

How could a missile detonation create a gravitational disturbance, he wondered as the explosion ahead dissipated. What it revealed was stunning as not only had the ship he'd targeted been destroyed but two other nearby Minbari ships were spinning out of control, entire sections gone or reduced to shattered wreckage. All that from one missile, he thought amazed and terrified by the power of that one little missile. The power it represented was beyond frightening whatever universe the SDF-1 came from it certainly wasn't one he would want to visit.

A large explosion nearby caught his attention, and he glanced over to see a spreading plume of burning plasma where a Sharlin had been. The vessel annihilated by a salvo of the insanely powerful energy beams being fired from the SDF-1, which seemed to be in some difficulty if the slowly brightening glow of Cherenkov radiation around the perimeter of its defence shield was anything to go by. Not that it seemed to be slowing her down at all as with each sweep of her mighty guns another Minbari warship would die.

He took a moment to look around to see that a massive free for all had developed with the whole of alpha fleet now engaged with the numerically still far superior Minbari fleet. Weapons fire so thick that you could practically walk on it was everywhere slamming into metal or crystalline hulls with searing force as both sides fought for their lives. Though it was clear as well that neither side of this conflict had any intentions of backing down from this fight, knowing instinctively that this battle's outcome would determine the outcome of the war.

A warning bleep from his threat board brought his attention back to the here and now. Three Minbari fighters were vectoring in upon him. They appeared to be of the lighter, older Tishat-class medium fighters compared to the more prevalent Niall-class heavy fighter. He immediately began taking action to defend himself, dodging a pair of fusion beams that would have otherwise skewered him before firing back. His first volley of return fire tagging the lead Tishat sending it and its pilot to their mutual doom in a fireball.

The two survivors began firing rapidly at him, fury at their flight leaders death clear in their frantic fire. Beads of sweat appeared on his brow as he took frantic evasive action. He had to admit that these Minbari pilots were good, bracketing him so regularly that he had no chance to return fire. However, that focus on him became their undoing as a small missile struck one of the fighters destroying it in the brilliant yellow flash that signified its Macrossian origin. The remaining Tishat seemed to turn in surprise as a red and white fighter plane – that looked like something that had flown in Earth's skies a century ago but different is some way – swooped in and loosed another missile. The Minbari pilot managed to shoot down the missile but in so doing left himself wide open for Sinclair who sent a salvo of plasma blasts into the Minbari blowing him to bits.

"Whoever that is thanks," a male voice said in his ear.

"You're welcome," Sinclair replied as he began directing his 'fury towards where a Shagotti and two Sharlin were engaged against a Nova and a Hyperion. As he approached, aiming to launch another reflex missile at the Shagotti he saw the Hyperion explode while the Nova was brutally hit several times. Listing and burning the Nova fired her engines aiming for the Shagotti, her intention to ram obvious to both him and the Minbari.

Realizing what the Nova's captain intended all three ships fired on it again cutting deep burning wounds in its flanks. But the resilience that even before the latest upgrades had earned the Nova grudging respect from the Minbari showed itself once again as the burning dreadnought simply refused to die. A moment later it slammed into the forward hull of the Shagotti polycrystal armour and the hull metal beneath buckling instantly as millions of tons of fast moving, superdense metal ploughed into it crumpling and shredding the superstructure of both vessels. Finally, something within the dreadnought gave and both vessels exploded.

Growling in anger he changed his focus to the nearest Sharlin. Which seemed to spot him heading towards it and sent a lazily arcing green beam his way. He started to turn to evade but he wasn't quite quick enough as the beam sliced into his lower right wing a third of the way along its length and tore it completely off the ship and sending him spinning away out of control.

"Warning engines at critical," the computer reported, "destruction imminent. Advise pilot ejection."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Sinclair replied before pressing the button that would activate his distress beacon before reaching up and pulling down the levers that triggered the ejection sequence. Immediately explosive bolts fired separating the cockpit module before small emergency thrusters pushed him clear. A few moments later the engines went critical and the rest of the Starfury went nova, the force of the blast striking him a few moments later knocking him violently against the back of the cockpit module, there was a momentary blast of pain as his helmet hit the wall…

…then everything went dark.


Combat Information Centre

EAS Thermopylae

General Lefcourt scowled as he observed the absolute furball that had erupted between alpha fleet, the SDF-1 and the Minbari. To say the battle was intense would have been an understatement as in this whole damned war to date he had never seen such an intense battle. The SDF-1 alone, even just using her conventional weapons, was pumping out more firepower than any one ship should ever be able to and the Minbari were taking a pounding because of it.

Especially once alpha joined the fight. Though the Minbari were giving as good as they got and even with the reinforcement of the nano polymer alloy their guns were inflicting very heavy casualties to their forces. Especially as their ships didn't have the energy shield that the SDF-1 did – which he was so going to have words with Captain Gloval about later as the man should have told them that the SDF-1 had the ability to generate such a defence shield – and it only took the Minbari a few additional hits to breach the new defences.

"Sir alpha fleet's commander reports that our forces there are down to twenty percent," one of the communications ratings reported. "Also, the SDF-1 reports that their defence barrier is down to twelve percent and will fail within the next two or three minutes."

"Signal to all remaining ships in alpha fleet to converge on the SDF-1," Lefcourt ordered, "tell Captain Gloval to fold them all back to delta if they can."

"Aye sir," the rating acknowledged and relayed the command, "sir our ships and Captain Gloval have acknowledged. The SDF-1 reports that they will be able to fold any survivors along with themselves to our location as soon as the survivors are within range of their fold sphere."

"Understood. What's the status of the Minbari fleet?"

"Sir between the mines, the SDF-1 and alpha fleets guns we estimate that two hundred and fifty Minbari capital ships have been destroyed, with eighty pulling back with severe damage. There fighter losses are catastrophic we estimate that over a thousand have been destroyed. "

"Unbelievable," Lefcourt muttered, though he couldn't help but feel a little bit sick at the thought of the utter carnage going on out there. Unfortunately, unless a miracle happened, like the Minbari suddenly deciding to pull back from the brink of Armageddon and end this by diplomacy it was only going to get worse as the next two fleets beta and Charlie were even larger with heavier ships, with his own final delta fleet being composed entirely of Nova dreadnoughts. If the Minbari made it through the rest of the defensive gauntlet they had set up it would be their job to finish off what was left of them.

He turned his attention back to the master tactical feed showing the continuing firefight out by the first of the systems asteroid belts. Every second he watched another Earth ship would die as the massive numbers of Minbari ships concentrated their fire upon them. Oh, they were giving as good as they got and every few seconds a Minbari ship would either be destroyed or disabled but it was obvious that the survivors of alpha fleet were not going to reach the SDF-1 and be folded back here unless something happened to make the Minbari back off a bit.

Thankfully he wasn't the only one who noticed the problem.

"Sir we're receiving a message from the SDF-1 they are preparing to fire their main gun," a communications rating reported.

Lefcourt nodded and watched the feed anxiously. After nearly a minute an insanely powerful energy stream erupted from the icon representing the SDF-1 and began to sweep across the Minbari fleet with a special focus on those ships currently engaging their forces. The reflex cannon was as deadly as it always was, wiping out entire squadrons of Minbari warships as it swept across their ranks and causing the rest to take frantic evasive action to avoid getting hit by either the beam or the massive gravitational sheering wave and antiparticle backwash it created.

After a moment the representation of the beam disappeared leaving behind yet more carnage as there was nothing left of the impacted Minbari ships not even dust, they had simply been completely disintegrated by the phenomenal energy of that weapon. A weapon that he frankly hoped nobody was ever able to copy, even Earth, as the reflex cannon was simply too powerful, too devastating a thing for anyone from their universe to wield.

The attack seemed to work as the remaining capital ships and fighters of alpha fleet all moved to be within a fifty-kilometre sphere of the battlefortress. A moment later a fold bubble appeared around them – visible to their sensors as an intense bubble of distorted gravity giving off phenomenal amounts of both alpha and beta phase tachyons as well as gravitons – contracted and vanished. Only to reappear instantly near the representation of his own fleet.

"Sir the bridge reports they are dispatching medical ships to the remains of alpha fleet, many of the survivors have severe damage and are reporting heavy casualties."

"How many ships made it back?"

"Twelve sir all Nova's."

"Shit," Lefcourt said to himself before muttering a prayer for the souls of those soldiers who had perished in combat with the Minbari menace. Once that was done, he looked back at the Minbari fleet which was slowly reassembling as the last of their fleet came through the hole blown in the first of the systems asteroid belts. The Minbari had taken savage losses in that first fight he had to wonder just what they were going to do now.

Only time would tell.


Grey Council Chamber

Minbari War Cruiser Valen'tha

In Hyperspace, That Same Time

Grim silence reigned in the meeting hall of the Grey Council as the Nine gazed upon their battered fleet. While it was still a mighty force, they had taken some utterly savage losses in the battle and all of them knew that this was just the beginning. There were three other very large and dense asteroid fields that they would have to cross to get passed the gravitational influence of the anomaly and enter range of the next beacon on the path to Sol.

And the Humans had certainly mined or otherwise booby trapped and stationed a fleet at every single one of them.

One of the many functionaries who served them came into the room, looking grim.

"How many ships did we lose," Jenimer asked him immediately, looking at the somewhat shellshocked young warrior.

"Satai, we have confirmed that three hundred and six of our vessels have been destroyed," the warrior said sounding and looking like he wanted to alternatively scream in rage and wail in grief at the loss of so many of his brothers and sisters in arms. "Eighty-three are reporting damage severe enough that they will have to retire from battle. One hundred and three more are reporting minor to moderate damage but indicate that they will be able to continue.

"We have located a large number of our escape pods amid the debris we are beginning recovery operations now," the warrior continued before pausing as he listened to a report from the bridge on a small device in one ear. "Satai, we have detected an intact escape pod from an Earther fighter. We are preparing to destroy it."

"No," Delenn said removing her hood not sure what was prompting her to speak now but knowing that it was imperative that she must, "have it captured, and the pilot brought here."

"What are you thinking, Delenn," Coplann asked removing his own hood and looking at her with interest as he knew Delenn had a very solid grasp of tactics that was impressive for someone of the religious caste.

"We have just taken severe losses Coplann," Delenn explained, "and this is just the first asteroid field. I am concerned that if we attempt to tackle the next three fields without intelligence as to what awaits us, we will lose potentially the entire fleet before we clear the system. Or at least suffer so many losses that any Human ships defending their homeworld would be able to defeat us. This pilot could have information that will be useful to prevent that."

"Logical," Coplann agreed getting concurring nods from his fellow warriors. They were all angry and distressed by the losses already suffered that they would take any chance they could to minimize their losses going forward, especially as Delenn had just voiced their deepest fear for this battle.

"Then we are agreed," Jenimer said getting nods from all around. He then turned to the warrior, "have the escape pod tractored and brought here to the Valen'tha."

"As you wish Satai," the warrior acknowledged and relayed the order while Jenimer turned to look at Coplann.

"Coplann you will oversee the pilot's interrogation."

"As you wish."


Dukhat's Sanctum

That Same Time

Both Vorlons felt a profound sense of satisfaction as they observed, through methods that were too advanced for anyone but another First One to detect, the Grey Council make the fateful decision to capture the Closed Circle. They had been carefully monitoring him throughout the battle, interfering telepathically now and again to preserve him, waiting for the right moment to arrange his capture.

Now that moment had come and a few slight telepathic nudges to Delenn and the rest of the Council had been all that was required to set things on the right path. Soon they would find out the truth of the man that their agents had spent years preparing for his great and unique destiny. The destiny to become Valen and complete the time loop, setting the stage that would enable them to finally defeat the Shadows and prove the superiority of their ideology when the next great war began.

It was only a matter of time now.


Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Hopefully the battle was epic enough for all of you, will there be an encore. Well, that depends on how quickly the Minbari learn the truth about Sinclair and the whole Minbari souls in human bodies thing and what the Grey Council decides to do with the knowledge. You will find out soon enough. Until next time.