I do not own Star Trek, Battlester Galactica, Babylon 5 or JAG. I am using these characters for my own entertainment only.
Unhuman: the Original Series
Space . . . the Final Frontier
These are the Voyages of the Starship Enterprise
Its' continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilizations
To boldly go where no one has gone before
Episode 13: Briefing on the Shadows
Captain's log: Stardate 58329.1 - Things have quieted down in the Shadow War. The Borg have sent a large number of drones to act as ground troops in crushing the Skrrr invasion of Visalayan. But the Shadows have retreated from both Arquarion and Visalayan. This allows the Admirals and Captains to have a video briefing on the Shadows.
"Let the record show that on stardate 58329.2, this briefing on the Shadows took place," began Fleet Admiral William Adama. "If you'll look at your screens on channel 2, these are the capital ships of the Shadows. The Vorlon ambassador has code named them battlecrabs. He also indicated that the Shadows had other kinds of ships, including fighters, that we have not yet encountered. Admiral Sart?"
"The ships appear to be covered in an organic substance, similar to the Cylon Basestars, but more sophisticated. The techno-organic skin has a diffusing effect on phaser fire that makes them ineffective as a weapon against the Shadows," reported the Talosian Admiral Sart.
"We observed the same thing with the phasers," reported Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace. "The same thing happened when photon torpedoes were set for proximity detonation. However, direct hits with photon torpedoes did cause some damage."
"The Shadow ships' main weapon appears to be a focused anti-proton beam," reported the Cylon Admiral Three. "The Basestars had no defense against this and were easily destroyed. However shields did provide some protection against the energy beam. On average, an Apollo class ship could take three hits before the shields failed."
"The armor on the Galactica seemed to do better against the Shadows' particle beam weapon," reported Captain Felix Gaeta. "Don't get me wrong, the beam did make deep gauges in the Armor. But I think it would take two shots in the exact same spot to penetrate the armor."
"We saw something similar with the old-style Basestars," reported Admiral Three. "A hit from the Shadows would not go completely through their armor. In fact, only the old-style Basestars survived the battle of Aquaria."
"Our main weapon on our ships is a transporter that is used to transport anti-matter warheads similar to your photon torpedoes," reported the Medeusan Captain of the Pugita, a pre-Federation Medeusan ship. "Normally, we set them for proximity detonation so that we can take out many Skrrr fighters at once. This didn't seem to effect the Shadows at all. However, when we transported a warhead to within the Shadow ship, we were able to destroy it."
"I should also mention that the anti-missile cannon on the Galactica were able to damage a Shadow ship and even cut a piece off of it," added Captain Gaeta.
"We saw something similar with the Raiders," agreed Admiral Three. "Their cannon were able to cause minor damage to the Shadows. But were didn't have time to mass strike them because, our Raiders were all kept busy by enemy Raiders."
"This brings up the allies of the Shadows," pointed out Fleet Admiral Adama. "Apparently, the Cylons that did not choose to join our Federation have allied themselves with the Shadows and invaded Aquarion."
"We were able to destroy all of the enemy Cylon Base ships," reported Starbuck. But we are still hunting down some of their Raiders."
"Also they managed to land a large ground force on Aquarion before they could be stopped," added Admiral Three.
"The Skrrr have also joined the Shadows and were able to land troops on Visalayan before they could be stopped," reported Admiral Sart. "The Borg have sent drones to help the Medeusans fight the Skrrr on their planet."
"Why are they called 'drones'?" Asked Starbuck. "Drones are male insects that breed with the Queen. Shouldn't they be called 'workers'?"
"In the Argos universe, one of the first Starfleet officers to encounter us called us drones," replied Captain 64 of One. "We have retained the terminology to remind Starfleet of their mistake, and this continued when we arrived in this universe."
"I have also received reports that a large number of Bajorans have escaped Bajor in their sail ships," said Fleet Admiral Adama. "Although the Bajorans are no threat to us, they are a great threat to any pre-warp planet that they encounter. And in light of the Shadow War, we just don't have the resources to chase after that many small ships."
"There's also the Ena," reminded Starbuck. "Their ships don't have shields, just hull polarization and their main weapons are photonic torpedoes, which don't pack as much punch as our photon torpedoes. Still, with great enough numbers, they could be a threat to our ships."
"So to summarize, phasers and proximity detonations don't effect them, cannon and direct hit explosions do." Said Fleet Admiral Adama. "Do we have any other weapons? What about telepathy?"
"My people have difficulty reading through negative emotions," explained Admiral Sart. "So we are unable to affect the Shadows telepathically."
"My people don't have that same limitation," observed a Medeusan Captain. "Perhaps that might be worth trying on our next encounter?"
"It's worth a shot," agreed Fleet Admiral Adama. "Everyone order your Medeusan crew members to make the attempt next time they encounter a Shadow ship. What about the Metrons? Could their powers work in the Shadows? You have a Metron on your ship, Starbuck."
"The Metrons are isolationist and were not interested in joining the Federation," answered Starbuck. "So I doubt they would be willing to help us unless the Shadows attack them. As for their powers, I already asked the one Metron in my crew. He said that telekinesis requires line-of-sight to work and he can't use a view screen to see what he's trying to effect. The makes his mind powers useless in a space battle. The ships are just too far away from each other for him to see them clearly. But he would be useful as a member of a landing party."
"We also need to dislodge the Cylons from Aquarion and the Skrrr from Visalayan," observed Adama.
"Why don't we drop another genesis device on Aquarion?" Asked Captain Gaeta.
"That would kill all the humanoid Cylons, but they would just download into new bodies. And the Centurions would be unaffected," countered Admiral Three.
"What we need is a away to free the Centurions from Cavil's thrall," observed Fleet Admiral Adama.
"It might be possible to broadcast a virus that would disable the limiter chip that enslaves the Centurions," suggested Captain Data.
"That's a good idea," said Fleet Admiral Adama. "Get your engineers onto it, and start heading for Aquarion so you can implement it as soon as you have it developed."
"I'm already in that system," pointed out Starbuck. "Couldn't we do that?"
"The Argos has better scientific facilities than any other ship in the fleet," explained Adama. "Besides, I want you to take the Enterprise to Mars so you can have one of the Medeusan-style transporter weapons installed."
"That brings up a point," added Admiral Sart. "All of the Talosian ships and all but one of the Medeusan ships were destroyed while defending Visalayan. We need to build more ships."
"We lost one of our Apollos and all of our Basestars except the old style ones too," added Admiral Three.
"You're right," agreed Adama. "I've already approved the construction of four more Constitutions we need to add some more Apollos too. How many more can the Borg build?"
"The Constitutions are nearly complete," replied Captain 23 of Five. "We could make sixteen more Apollos in the next batch and eight more Constitutions when the current batch is complete."
"That's a lot of ships," observed Adama. "This brings us another issue, crewing them. Kobol doesn't have the population to crew more ships."
"Neither does Tarquinius," added the Tarquinian Captain Pompey.
"So if we increase the number of people in Starfleet, they will need to be Talosians, Medeusans and Vulcans.
"Our cube ship is online," replied Captain 23 of Five. "It's primary purpose is to function as a gestation facility for producing Borg offspring. If we increase production, we should be able to increase the number of Borg in Starfleet. And since all Borg are part of a single hive mind, no training is necessary for them. What one of us knows, we all know."
"We could make some more Centurions to help crew the ships," offered Admiral Three.
"If you do, make sure they understand that they are not required to join Starfleet," ordered Adama. "All Cylons are Federation citizens now. We won't make that mistake again.
I Think for the next four Constitutions, I will put them under the command of Admiral Sart, Admiral Three, Captain Worf and promote Commander Nog to Captain of the fourth one."
"Admiral, I should point out that the Constitution class is not significantly more heavily armed that the Apollo Class," Said Captain Data. "They are intended to be ships of Exploration."
"Yes, but that extra space could be repurposed for troop transport," pointed out Captain Worf.
"That would make it possible for Vulcan troops to aid in defending the Medeusans against the Skrrr invasion," observed one of the Vulcan Captains.
"In the meantime, the Surviving Battlestars will act as rapid response ships, If your planet is attacked, don't hesitate to call on them," ordered Adama. "And next time a Battlestar encounters the Shadows, try out your nukes. Maybe they will work against them."