Title: Ship of The Line: Between the Steel and the Stars
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Starship Troopers, Space: Above and Beyond or Babylon 5... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: When Eathan's Halloween spell hit a powerful and unexpected entity, the result changes the entire world and Humanity's path to the stars. (Buffy/Starship Troopers/SAAB/Babylon 5) Ship of the Line response.
A/N: I have had some reviews complaining about Xander being 'shafted' as he is only a Lieutenant while most of the others like Buffy, Willow and Cordy are higher ranked Officers. Naval Aviators and the specialisations Willow and Cordy have in the Navy start out as Officers while every MI starts as a Private. It is established that the only actual requirements for MI to go to OCS is a recommendation from an Officer and to have been in combat, but most OCS Candidates are generally experienced Corporals or Sergeants, so Xander is not being 'Shafted' for promotions.
Jenny sat strapped into her Command Chair on the bridge of the Penrith as the Cherenkov Drive powered down and the Penrith, along with the rest of the small Fleet, and for the first time in Human History, they looked out onto a foreign star system.
"Welcome to the Proxima Centauri system people. We are officially the first Humans to enter a foreign Star System." Jenny said with a slight grin. "XO, launch the CAP. Sensors, begin a full sweep."
"Aye Aye, Captain." Came the response from both the XO and the Sensors station.
In under thirty seconds she saw two flights of the 1st Space Cavalry Squadron emerge from the flanks of the Carrier and begin their loose patrol around the Fleet while they waited for the powerful sensors of the Penrith and the Monash to scan the system. Jenny knew that Buffy would be leading the CAP and that the Pilots had been sitting in their cockpits ready for deployment as the ship came out of Cherenkov Drive. The slight delay was the movement of the detachable cockpits, which also doubled as emergency lifeboats, from the fully pressurised cockpit bays down to dock with the aircraft themselves which were in the airlock launch/docking bays.
"Monash, take lead position, Supply Ship Northampton, tuck in behind the Penrith. Destroyers and Cruisers, take up your assigned defensive positions." Giles' voice came through the open frequency from his position in the Flag Bridge, located behind the Main Bridge of the Penrith.
Jenny settled in to wait. The system was large, she could see at least two Gass Giant planets with the naked eye, though they looked quite small at this distance, and it would take hours for the sensors to pick up smaller planets or moons, let alone asteroids or ships, unless the ships were pumping out active emissions.
Buffy and her Flight of Six, the original six from Sunnydale, were scanning their LIDAR displays carefully with one eye and trying to survey the entire sky with their other. They were far out in front of the Fleet, eight hours in the cockpit and on the far side of the System to where the Fleet had emerged, scouting out a reading that the Monash had picked up on their sensors that did not make sense. Their place in the CAP had been taken by the third Flight of 1st Squadron when they had left, but the CAP had probably rotated by now, and the fleet were going in to have a closer look at the third planet in the system which was a rocky planet that had checked off a couple of the long list of items that the Colony and Terraforming Companies had provided well before the Fleet had reached orbit. Well, both lists to be honest. One list was a candidate for terraforming and the other list was for setting up domed colonies without terraforming. There was a third list provided by Government Biologists that had indicated a world which could be colonialised without serious terraforming or protective domes.
"Three and Four, sweep left. Five and Six, sweep right. Two, with me." Buffy ordered over her Flight's private channel as they approached the general area of the sensor reading. "Let's get LIDAR on this from as many angles as we can. Call out if you get visuals on this thing."
Buffy reached out with her tongue and hooked the feed tube integrated into her helmet and drew from the high protein and calorie rich gel that was kept in pouches of their flight suits in case of long flights. There was a water tube on the other side of the helmet.
There were flickers on the LIDAR for the next twenty minutes before one of the Flight spoke.
"Got a visual, at my one." Four said. "Barely. Looks like some kind of construct. Possibly with a vessel nearby."
Buffy's eyes scanned the area Four had indicated and finally located the construct and possible ship that Four had mentioned. The construct was a long and loose series of struts that was clearly unfinished and part of a much larger structure. The ship was unlike anything Buffy had ever seen, even in her Halloween Memories. Buffy switched to a broad frequency for her transmission.
"This is Captain Summers of the Earth Space Calvery to unidentified vessel near the construct. Please respond." Buffty transmitted, and listened on all frequencies her equipment could pick up.
Ten minutes of transmitting every thirty seconds, and constantly approaching, there was still no response, but the ship finally seemed to notice them by detaching from the construct and moving away. For a moment it looked like they were going to turn towards the flight of Hammerheads, but it turned away and once it was clear of the construct by a decent distance something seemed to shoot from the front of the ship and opened a massive swirling portal in space and then accelerated into the vortex.
"What the Fuck?" Two said, and Buffy agreed with the sentiment.
"Form up and return to the Penrith." Buffy ordered. "We'll let the Admiral deal with investigating this."
The six Hammerhead Fighters formed up and started the long flight back towards the Fleet.
Xander and Lieutenant Shepard stood in front of their troops in the mustering area abord the Monash. As was tradition amongst the MI the Platoons were named after their Commanding Officer, so they were known amongst themselves as Harris' Hunters and Shepards' Spectres. All of the MI were in their Powered Armour and Willow, with one of her assistants, were off to the side of the mustering area.
"This is going to be a simple recon mission." Xander said. "Fleet Scans indicate that the planet is borderline habitable, but as far as they can tell uninhabited by intelligent life. It won't kill an un-Armoured Human but it would take some work to become a thriving habitable world. There are two possible sites to set up a military outpost, with the view to turning it into a colony. The Hunters will take one, the Spectres will take the other."
"Four Mile separation sweeps." Shepard added, her voice firm and clear. "Our job is to scare up any obvious dangers and confirm it is uninhabited. Keep moving and cover as much ground as possible before retrieval. We wouldn't want those pussy Marines to be inconvenienced if they set up an outpost."
All of the MI laughed softly at that, even the two who had been Marine Force Recon before MI Training. No one was as tough as the MI, even their own former units.
"Right, everyone to your Caps." Xander ordered.
Xander and Faith began strapping the Troopers of the Hunters into their Drop Capsules, while Shepard and her Platoon Sergeant did the same for the Spectres. Once the Troopers were strapped in Willow moved to strap in Xander and Faith while Willow's assistant moved to do the same for Shepard and the Spectre Platoon Sergeant.
"We will be in position to launch shortly." Captain Joyce Summers' voice came over the radio to all the MI Troopers. "Good luck, and in the meantime here's a little music."
Xander made sure his own helmet mic was cold before he broke out laughing. Of course, Mrs S would play the Scooby Doo Theme music just to mess with him. He was still chuckling when the clunk moved his capsule into the firing chamber and the wham of the firing sequence shot his capsule out of the Monash and hurting down towards the planet below.
TBC….