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.
Giles, Jenny and Joyce sat in the Flag Bridge of the Penrith, with a display of the Proxima Centauri System on the main console.
"Status of the planet?" Giles asked.
"We have the Third Squadron and half of Lieutenant Miller's Platoon down on the planet in a temporary outpost, codenamed Alpha Site." Jenny said. "The makeshift airstrip is almost complete."
"Most of the supplies from the Northampton are down on the planet, the rest have been distributed between the other ships." Joyce added. "The Northampton is on the way back to Sol System with your orders to report and get what reinforcements and military supplies possible. Ground troops are a priority to set up a permanent base here."
"There will be an outcry from the civilian colony company." Jenny concluded.
"Until we determine what level of threat these Aliens pose, we can't risk civilians." Giles said. "How is the translation on those transmissions going?"
"Slowly." Joyce replied. "We even turned the data over to some of the MI Troopers."
"The Troopers? Why?" Jenny asked.
"Former Special Forces." Joyce replied. "A lot of them are polyglots, with several speaking more than five languages. One or two words have been tentatively translated. Jump, Power and Gate are the likely translations."
"I want a defensive patrol set up. Let's assume that, if they return, they will arrive near where they were assembling the construct, so let's focus scans on that area." Giles ordered. "We are not going to make the first move, but we will be ready if they do."
Hans Reinhart, a proud German, kept his eyes on the LIDAR Scanner of his Hammerhead, his wingman a few hundred meters off to his left. In the eight days since First Squadron had discovered the Construct, the Second Squadron had been rotating in pairs to maintain a watch on the Construct and the location the Alien Ship had departed. They were several hundred kilometres from the construct and were ordered not to fall back to the Penrith if anything should occur onboard the construct, even though it did not appear to have any habitable sections, or if any ships appeared. Their orders were to keep their distance and not engage unless they were fired upon, but if they needed to fall back there was a preplanned route that would end back at Alpha Site but not directly, giving the Fleet an opportunity to flank attack hostiles that were chasing the Hammerheads.
"LIDAR contact at seven o'clock." Mira St Clair, Hans' wingman, reported with her slight French accent. "Hammerheads. Our relief."
The two new Hammerhead were approaching from behind when Hans' LIDAR went wild, and a massive swirling vortex opened near the Construct. Mira moved off further to Hans' left while the two new Hammerheads moved off to Hans' right.
Four ships, larger than the Destroyers and Cruisers but smaller than the Monash or Penrith emerged, accompanied by two smaller ships and a half dozen fighters. They bore a resemblance to the original ship that had fled from First Flight, First Squadron. After they emerged, the four larger ships formed up in a line, the two smaller ships tucked in behind and the fighters formed up as a shield in front of the larger ships, but after a few seconds the fighters broke formation and began to approach the four Hammerheads, outpacing the larger ships.
"Follow the fall back plan." Hans ordered. "Take out any you can with the Dorsal Cannons."
The four Hammerheads began their indirect route back towards the base, having sent an encrypted omni-directional message to the fleet to let them know about the new arrivals.
Joyce watched the display as the four Hammerheads were pursued at a distance by five enemy fighters, who were not leading the larger ships by as much as previously. The fighters had learnt not to get too close to the Hammerheads in the five hours of the pursuit. Three of the enemy fighters had been destroyed by the Hammerheads' dorsal cannons, and another two fighters had been launched after the losses which proved that the larger ships were not dedicated Carriers.
The fleet were hidden in the shadow of one of the Gas Giants, with information being relayed by extremely tight beam leaser comms to a Hammerhead on the twilight terminus of the Gas Giant. Joyce watched with an invisible line on the map in her mind, the point where she would prefer to move out and attack.
"All Ships, move and attack." Admiral Giles ordered over the fleet link as the enemy fleet reached the same invisible line Joyce had drawn.
"Condition One." Joyce Ordered. "Engines to full, ready weapons."
Joyce smiled and Cordelia gave a quick tug to tighten her restraint harness at the Condition One call before getting to work moving the ship into combat position. Joyce looked at the display again and saw the remainder of Second Squadron moving around one edge of the Gas Giant to join their four Squadron mates in front of the enemy fleet, along with two of the Destroyers to act as a blocking force, while the Penrith; the Monash; First Squadron; the two Cruisers and the other two Destroyers went the other way around the Gas Giant to hit the side and rear of the enemy fleet.
The first shots of the engagement were fired by blocking force, an opening salvo of fire from Second Squadron which took out the five fighters and the central line Rail Cannons of the Destroyers hit two of the large enemy ships causing some damage but not anything critical.
The Monash shuddered as its weapons open fire along with the two Cruisers and two Destroyers into the flank of the enemy fleet, completely destroying one of their large ships.
"Captain, we may have an issue." Cordelia said.
"What is it, Lieutenant Commander?" Joyce asked.
"I can't see their smaller ships." Cordy responded.
"Sensors, give me a full active LIDAR Ping!" Joyce snapped, staring at the sensor readout. "Damn it."
The readout showed that the two smaller ships were half way to Alpha Site, being escorted by two Fighters.
"Admiral…." Joyce began.
"I see it." Giles cut in. "Go. We'll take care of the fleet. I'll inform Alpha Site."
Joyce gave her orders to the crew to disengage and head for Alpha Site before hitting the internal intercom.
"Lieutenants Harris and Shepard, ready your Troopers for a drop. The enemy is headed for Alpha Site." Joyce ordered, getting acknowledgements from the two MI Officers.
The Northampton had returned to the system with a Company of Marines, who were not trained or equipped with the new off-world equipment the Space Cavalry or Lieutenant Miller's Platoon had. Miller and half of his Platoon were still on Alpha Site, with the rest running Damage Control on the Penrith. No additional Ships had been available, so the Northampton had returned alone, and was currently hiding behind a small planet well away from the Construct, Alpha Site or the fall back route the Hammerheads had used, being protected by half of Third Squadron.
Lieutenant Graham Miller was glad for the supplemental oxygen that his Hostile Environment Armour provided and the newly comfortable feel of the M590 in his hands. He felt sorry for the Captain and his men that had come to supplement the forces at Alpha Site. Their helmets were not enclosed, and they still had the standard M16, so were often out of breath in the thinner atmosphere at Alpha Site. The Captain had been smart though. Miller's half platoon were spread out amongst the Company and every watch post and defensive point had oxygen bottles and masks for the Marines to use when they had a chance.
Miller and three of his Platoon were currently a hundred meters outside the perimeter of Alpha Site compound, searching through the dead aliens, and a few dead Marines from the intense fighting over the last five hours, though only the face and the uniforms could differentiate between the Aliens and Humans.
"Lieutenant." One of his Marine said. "Looks like a radioman."
One of the Alien soldiers had a predominant radio backpack and antenna on the back of their armour. Miller nodded and signed for two of the Marines to grab the body and the other to take up a guard position. As they turned the body over, Miller could see the distinctive features of the aliens. More predominant forehead, cat like eyes and ears, no eyebrows over the eyes themselves but almost winglike from the outside top corner of the eyes up to their hair, which was more like fur than hair.
The patrol just made it back to the compound before the next attack began. Weapons were firing so often that many of the Marines were running out of ammunition and the heavier weapons were beginning to overheat. One of the Hammerheads did a strafing run, before breaking off and dropping Flairs and chaff as four Anti-Air missiles rose up from Aliens. One Missile hit the Flairs and exploded. Two were distracted by the Chaff and ended up hitting each other. The last missile was still on the Hammerhead's tail as it passed out of sight. Miller had seen one Hammerhead hit and crashed during the fighting and a smoke cloud in the distance indicated a second may have also been hit.
A whistling sound made Graham look up, half expecting incoming Mortar rounds, but instead he saw streaks of fire in the atmosphere which were fading out leaving lots of falling objects like metallic peppercorns falling from a peppermill.
"Did a ship blow up in Orbit?" The Company First Sergeant asked from nearby.
"Nope." Graham replied. "That's reinforcements. The MI are dropping in."
A cheer went up from the members of Miller's platoon, before the other Marines caught on to what that meant and began to cheer as well.
Xander was disappointed as he and Faith bounced into the perimeter of Alpha Site, their Power Armour covered in Alien Blood. He was not disappointed by the performance of his MI, but more the performance of the enemy. They had collapsed in confusion when the Hunters had dropped in amongst them and began mowing them down with guns and flames. The Aliens had broken and run for their landing craft, only to be caught between the Hunters and the Spectres, who had dropped at Landing Craft. The Aliens had begun slaughtering each other in their panic to escape.
"Who's in command here?" Xander asked.
He had seen Lieutenant Miller, but knew there was a Company here as well and Miller was not in charge.
"I am. Captain Halliday." One Marine said, his uniform as dirty and covered in blood as the rest of his men.
"I am Lieutenant Harris. First Platoon, Mobile Infantry." Xander replied.
"How can we assist, Sir?" The Captain asked.
The briefing had been very clear to every Marine in the Company. If the Mobile Infantry were involved, they were in charge. An MI Lieutenant, or even a Sergeant if the Officer was otherwise occupied, could issue orders to a General of any other Service and the General would have to accept it as an order from a Superior Officer.
"We broke their attack but some of the Aliens scattered." Xander said. "I want regular patrols within five clicks of the base. The MI will do some long range patrols but out to about fifteen clicks I want mixed MI and Marine patrols."
The Captain saluted and left with his First Sergeant to organise the patrols.
"Lieutenant." Miller asked. "How did the space battle go?"
"Three of their big ships destroyed, the fourth crippled." Xander replied. "Third Squadron got one of their Troop Transports but the other one bugged out with a Flight of Hammerheads on its tail. We lost one Destroyer, with another Destroyer and a Cruiser badly damaged. The Penrith sustained only superficial damage."
"Thank you, Sir." Graham said nodding, relieved that his men on the Penrith were safe. "We did recover one of the Aliens with what looks like a radio set. Maybe we can get something off it."
"Good work, Lieutenant." Xander said, before turning and bouncing away with Faith to begin his own patrols.
TBC….