StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Consequences of Actions


Chapter 1
We’re not in Kansas Anymore

For the last six months the USS Achilles The second of the United States Air force starships- the Prometheus class had been involved in the creation of a Naquada/Trinium mining operation on a habitable planet close to the Star system known simply as Wolf 359 it had taken that long for the newly created Naquadah mining facility to unearth and refine enough of the rare and valuable element to fill her cargo bays.

The expansion of SGC facilities to the other allied counties had put a strain on the resources available to the SGC and her off world bases- the acceleration of the Atlantis Project had depleted those few resources even more. The current stocks were enough to keep the Achilles and the Prometheus active for another year barring crippling combat damage like that the Prometheus took against the forces of Anubis, the fighter squadrons currently active or under construction would take the rest of the earthbound supplies. This had made the search and retrieval of any material assets a priority to the SGC and any allied assets, within the year it was hoped the allied teams would have the stockpiles rebuilt and construction of planetary defence forces would be able to go ahead across the board including the construction of a Prometheus class vessel by each of the Countries included in secrecy surrounding Stargate Command.

The Achilles had been launched only weeks ago and was still under shakedown, the only reason it had been diverted to the new mining facility was due to the temporary shutdown of the Stargate due to necessary maintenance of the systems, it had been decided by the Brass that it would be an easy milk run for the newly commissioned Battlecruiser- one that be beneficial to all parties involved unfortunately it did seem that the fates had a sense of humour when it came to the humans of the Ta’uri.

“Colonel we have completed the loading of the Naquada supplies the airlocks are cycling closed and we’ll be ready for take-off in three minutes.”

“Good raise the Mining command centre.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Achilles to Wolfhound come in.”

“This is Wolf hound colonel we’re reading you.”

“We’ve completed the loading schedule and are ready to depart anything else you need for us to do?”

“Negative Achilles all the requesting info from the colony are in the data packet already downloaded to your Comm. Officer.”

“Affirmative Wolfhound keep the Naquada flowing we’ll be back.”

“Got it Achilles and remember the shopping list.” The voice at the other end chuckled.

The commander of the Achilles allowed a slight grin at the joke, the colonists at the facility had put together a ‘shopping list’ of requests from the SGC, US and UK governments mainly foodstuffs and entertainment but some stuff like basic supplies and equipment for the colony’s mining production. The next group of miners and excavators would be able to take them through the gate or if necessary the Starships could take it themselves.

“Will Do Taylor out.”

“Ship ready for Departure Sir.”

“Good Luck Achilles Wolfhound out.”

“Lift off Lt.”

“Aye Sir.”

The second of the Earth Built starships slowly moved up into the air by way of it’s main Anti-gravity VTOL engines slowly it knifed through the earth-like atmosphere of Wolf 359’s sole habitable planet and into the dark vacuum of space. The Ship’s commander Colonel Joanna Taylor sat back in her command seat held down by the safety straps attached to the chair and watched the main screens as the ship powered it’s way from the planet’s gravitational pull and out into the inky blackness of the void.

“Orbital Insertion Achieved Sir.”

“Good Work Lt, Set course for Earth Space.”

“Aye Sir. Course engaged Hyperspace window active in three two one.”

The warship disappeared into a hyperspace window accelerating to several time the speed of light for a short jump to it’s next drop point, like the other ship in her class the Achilles needed periodic recharge due to the ship’s core being fuelled by Naquada and not the Naquadria derivative. Meanwhile the ship’s crew were still learning the full capabilities of their vessel with computer based Wargames and on-board maintenance schedules allowing both officers and enlisted to know their ship intimately while many had trained on the Prometheus like all ships the Achilles had her own temperament and technology changes that needed tweaking. Fortunately even with the vessel’s distinction of first mass produced variant there had been little wrong with the ship only a few problems with the integrated Asgard technology had been corrected by USAF technicians with the assistance of Stargate Command personnel headed by Colonel Samantha Carter.

The ship dropped out of Hyperspace with a flash of light close to the Alpha Centauri System- close to earth’s solar system the system however had little in the way of necessary materials and had been left alone until such time as a Stargate could be transplanted to the local planets. The Achilles main engine’s power systems started the full one hour recharge cycle necessary for them to jump the rest of the way back to Earth.

“We’re getting a hyperspace window reading?”
“Source?”

“One million Kilometers It’s coming through.”

With a brief flah the window closed behind the incoming shape of a Pyramid.

“Goa’uld Capital ship, Ha’tak class she’s arming weapons.”

“Shields now.”

The Asgard based deflector shields snapped on seconds ahead of the first hits from the Goa’uld weapons system, the shield shrugged off the few hits that their evasive course didn’t stop. The ship’s scanners detected flights of Udajeet Death Gliders as they poured out of the ship’s monstrous hanger bays, in defence the Earth Warship’s antifighter defence guns and missile launchers opened up wiping out entire flights in seconds before the Gliders could pull out. The massed fire was able to cover the launch of the Achilles’ eight F-302 fighters from their internal hanger bay, the fighters opened up from range with a spread of Naquada enhanced Sidewinders hitting and destroying most of the fighters that they targeted, then the range had closed and the fighters were at knife range pulses from the Udajeet Mixed it up with projectiles from the sealed air filled magazines of the 302’s Vulcan cannons. The speed and agility of the 302s taking the Udajeet by surprise considering their size and bulk- this did not last long as entire ranks of death gliders turned and followed the defenceless tails of the Earth built starfighters firing pulses of energy into the armour of the 302s, the Sheets of human developed Reactive armour ablating the blows and shearing off taking the heat and kinetic energy with them.

Breaking into their turning radius one far smaller than the Jaffa’s ships the eight fighters pulled back into the protective radius of the Achilles’ CIWS systems and with a sharp one-eighty letting their own missiles join in with the mauling of the remnants of three squadrons of Udjeet. By this point the heavy firepower of the Ha’tak was being brought to bare on the forward shields of the Prometheus Class Battlecruiser, dozens of bolts started their impacts on the forward sections dropping the power output down- in retaliation a dozen heavy Naquada enhanced Missiles impacted on the shields of the Mothership the pyramid shaped vessel crippling the heavy energy barriers with the nuclear explosives incorporated into the missiles.

“Enemy ship’s shields are at thirty percent, they are sending out a distress call.”

“Try to jam them, Weapons ready another Missile salvo and prepare the main cannon.”

The Achilles like her sister ship contained a heavy pulse weapon a gift from the Asgard fleet for the Tau’ri’s assistance with the war against their foes- the Replicators, the weapon would only be used by the USAF space based warships and SGC attached personnel much to the displeasure of Former Vice President Kinsey. The weapon was also powered by a secondary Naquadah reactor since the loss of the Naquadriah core and much of the Native Naquadriah on the planet Kolanna, the weapon was still capable of being used but at a much slower rate of fire than the same weapons on the O’Neill and Beliskner Class starships.

A second salvo of Naquadah enhanced missiles impacted on the shields of the Ha’tak, the damaged shields of the ship having turned away for repair meant the impact hit the newer fully powered shields of the hull closest to them. The Smaller warship manouvered away from the massive pyramid ship and emptied it’s rear firing Missile launchers at the damaged shield sections of the pyramid also bringing her own undamaged shields to bare against the massive force of the Goa’uld ship’s main weapons. The last of the missile crippled the enemy shield generators and impacted the surface of the Ha’tak vessel blowing apart entire sections of the hull.

Without warning a second Pyramid ship appeared out of nowhere using it’s crippled sister ship as a shield to block it’s intrusion into the system- it’s main weapons already armed and hammering into the forward shields of the Achilles.

“Weapons.”

“Sir?”

“Full bombardment all tubes on both these ships I want them dead and ready main cannon for firing.”

“All missile batteries fired sir.”

“Impact in all sides sir the Primary target is gone, secondary forward target knocked several missile out before impact their shields are holding.”

“SIR! The interception of that last missile launch damaged our forward shields, They are losing power.”

A continuous bombardment from the Ha’tak and the remaining fighters from the now destroyed vessel finally redlined the ventral fore shields of the Achilles and they collapsed blowing out the generators. With the ship now defenceless the impacts of the few weapons the Goa’uld could bring to bare started to damage the hull plating.

“Cannon Status?”

“Ready to Fire.”

“FIRE!”

The Asgard developed energy cannon impacted the same shields that the Missiles had struck the multiple pulses burning straight through and into the hull of the Ha’tak Vessel before it was forced to shut down.

“Helm get us the hell out of here.”

An impact to the hull lurched the ship straight around by almost ninety degrees burning through the hull and into the inner sections killing those few personnel in them, sensors across the board went crazy as the crew tried to get the ship under control.

“Goa’uld fire in now concentrated on aft shields power is holding. We’re accelerating away enemy ships are following enemy fire is dropping off- looks like they are feeding the energy into their engines their coming after us. All Fighters are redocked, one’s had it sir she’s totalled.”

“uh-oh.” A voice spoke up from the back of the bridge.”

“I Didn’t want to hear that Sgt.”

“Sir that last hull impact hit one of the lower bays, the bay is sealed but the energy blast has set off the Naquada in that side of the hull the entire load is becoming unstable.”

“What does that mean.” Asked one of the other technicians

“It means we have to dump it before it reached critical mass and explodes taking us along with it.”

“Dammit Clear that Bay and the immediate area have all personnel brought in from the outer sections and ready Bay Three and sections Two and three, beta, delta, and omicron for decompression we’ll blow it out.” Ordered Taylor.

“Aye sir.”

Across the decks of the ship crewmen ran from section that were locked off with Trinium hardened vacuum doors, all outer sections were locked down and sealed, the exceptions being the six section which were ready for decompression.

“All surviving personnel accounted for, we lost seven in the battle Sir.”

“Dammit. Ready bay doors.”

“Critical mass in one minute ten seconds.”

“Open em up decompress the sections.”

The Two massive cargo bay doors opened up blowing the entire atmosphere of six ship sections out into the void of space, the heavy partially processed naquada resisted the pull for a few seconds and then acquiesced to the pull of the Atmospheric compression and was hurtled into space directly towards the oncoming ships.

“Hyperspace Generator?”

“Forty minutes from charge.”

“Just get us out of here we’ll fully charge later.”

“Activating Generator.”

“DETONATION.”

The five tons of naquada detonated sending a massive energy shockwave in all directions the edge hit the destabilising Hyperspace window seconds after the Achilles had already departed the energy imbalance sent a ripple through the Conduit and threw the Achilles out of hyperspace and tumbling through realspace.

The crew of the starship not strapped down were thrown across hallways and decks, store rooms and weapons bays as the ship swung end over end, the ship’s thrusters attempting to realign them to an even keel. Slowly the ship stopped it’s spinning and settled into coasting motion.

“Damage report.

“Weapons system a-ok. Forward shields are dead Aft shields are recharging”

“Hull Integrity at ninety percent.”

“Sublight Engines damaged by working, thrusters a-ok, Hyperspace generator is down.”

“Crew Casualties, twelve dead, Six MIA, Forty Injured.”

“Long range Sensors Offline, Short range at Sixty percent.”

“Communications offline.”

“Life support at seventy percent, If we lock down unnecessary quarters or deck sections we should be ok.”

“Alright people find out where the hell we are.”

“Sensors are offline sir.”

“Dammit use stargazing if you have to I want to know where we are. How long until the Hyperspace Generator’s online.”

“I don’t know Sir I’ll have to take it apart to see what the damage is.”

“Sir Short Range sensors are showing Energy reading- some kind of fights going on out there.”

“On screens.”

Across the topside of the bridge several TV monitor screens started up showing a battle between two huge ships, one was heavily damaged and seemed to be trying to escape from the other ship and failing, the heavy looking blocky ship fired an impressive amount of weapons fire at the chasing ship few if any shots hitting the much bigger ship. From the larger ship- a bright line seemed to appear emitting from the forward protrusion of the ship’s forward and sliced into the hull of the other ship tearing it’s engines from it’s hull both section exploding from the accumulated damage.

“Sensors?”

“The other ship’s coming about sir, I’m reading All kinds of things I’ve never seen before.”

“Weapons defences?”

“No energy Shields sir but thick armour and some kind of fusion weapons I’ll try to clear up the picture. Damn she’s close to a mile long, she’s scanning us.”

The ship’s viewers gradually pixellated into a much more defined vessel, a massive warship bigger by far than the Ha’tak vessels they had fought beforehand moving almost majestically the ship moved closer and closer

“Activate ECM.”

“ECM up sir It’s deflecting some of the scans but not all.”

“Red Alert arm all weapons Bays.”

“Comms?”

“We have short range limited visual/audio only.”

“This Is Colonel Joanna Taylor of the United States Air Force Achilles to unknown ship please respond.”

“No Response Sir.”

“I repeat this is Colonel Joanna Taylor of the USAF Achilles to unknown ship please respond.”

“Signal coming through.”

“Foolish Humans You are too late to save your other ships and know you shall be next, for the Blood your people have spilt of my people. The Shal’avi of the Wind swords clan will be the last thing you shall set eyes upon. For the Honour of the Minbari.”

The crew looked at each other in confusion.

“Was it something we said?” the Xo asked.

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Reposted under express permision By Mr BoomStick himself...

Chapter 2

“Shit Helm turn us around get our aft shields between us and them. Weapons lock on and fire.”

“Aye Sir.”

“They have some kind of Jamming field trying to block our scans- attempting to adjust our scans to target them, SHIT, we’ve got an Energy Spike, they’re firing.”

Twin cutting beams emitted from the front of the massive ship impacting directly on the edge of the Prometheus class ship’s hull skimming off the intact rear shields and ablating the ship’s armour, cutting deep into the hull blowing through the empty cargo bay and out the other side. The glancing impact threw the ship sideways, the crew were strapped in this time and there were few injuries, within seconds the Achilles had managed to manoeuvre one hundred and eighty degrees round to bring its intact and powered rear shields completely between them and the Minbari ship.

From two separate weapons ports beams of pure energy hammered into the aft shielding of the Achilles, the beams however were not enough to break the already weakened energy barrier separating the two ships. As a response a spread of Missiles were launched at the unknown ship impacting on the thick armoured hull- two of the half dozen missiles were knocked out of space but this close it was inevitable some would get through, the effect was instantaneous the ship was crippled by the massive explosive force of the four Naquada enhanced missiles that were able to hit the ship directly.

“We got them sir, read four good detonations. Enemy ship damaged, weapons seem to be disabled.”

“Send another Hail to the hostile, order them to surrender.”

“Aye sir sending.”

“Get on to all sections I want a damage report as soon as possible!”

“Aye sir.”

“Get the ventilation fixed and clear this smoke.”

“On it sir.”

“No response from the Minbari Sir.”

“Sir reports coming in from all over the ship, We’ve got damage to the fore sections of the ship we’ve lost contact with several rear deck sections and the empty cargo bay has completely depressurized the entire section’s been sliced clean through sir.”

“Ok does someone want to explain what happened there.”

“Looks like the Goa’uld aren’t the only people we’ve pissed off.” The Xo remarked.

“Communications?”

“No response sir.”

“Sir I’m reading another energy spike, enemy weapons are now back online, they’re firing again.”

“Weapons can you get a lock on them.”

“Barely sir, We’ll be fly by wire.”

“Fire.”

The crippled Angelfish shaped starship fired their main weapons for the second time finally crippling the remaining shields of the Earth built starship, the beam continued on smashing against the ship’s skin and piercing though into the ship’s inner hull. The Trinium/Naquada skin unable to hold back the immense power of the Minbari weapons still held the ship in one piece unlike the ships they had seen crippled or destroyed all around the system, the energy burst almost totally hid the second missile launch from the Achilles as they headed straight at the hostile ship, this time the minbari were ready and shot almost all of the missiles down.

However most is not all and two missile impacted on the Minbari ship this time immolating much of the engine fin and the forward weapons system, their weapons destabilised and engines critical the Minbari ship exploded.

“Target destroyed Sir.”

“Dammit. Anything more on damage and casualty reports.”

“That last blast knocked out most of the onboard communications we’ll have to do a section by section, infirmary reports six dead and over a dozen injured and that doesn’t count anyone killed in the depressurisation in either of the attacks.”

“Keep me informed.”

“Aye Sir.”

“Engineering, bridge, time to hyperdrive repair.”

“Bridge we’re looking now but it doesn’t look good, we’ll need a good three days of repair to get it functioning, same amount of time to shore up the ship’s damage.”

“Get on it and send a work detail to repair the long range Comm. Systems.”

“Aye sir.”

“Bridge out.”

The Human starship sat alone in the star system the debris of three armed starships floating in the darkness with what seemed to be the debris of a half dozen civilian freighters obviously this ‘Minbari’ ship had decided to destroy not only the military ships but anything that they found. The fact that this was worse than the Goa’uld had done to some races at least they took some survivors as prisoners or slaves this new race were barbaric to the extreme- much more than the enemies of the Tau’ri.

The only good news was they knew where they were and had much of their primary systems back online after only twenty four hours; the other bad news was that the shields and Hyperdrive would need a drydock for full repairs although the Hyperspace generator would be able to get them back to Earth within a few jumps. The hyperjump had sent them spinning almost fifteen light years away from their course towards Earth with the shockwave accelerating them blowing them out of the conduit, it was imperative they return to Earth with this new information.

“Colonel I’m not receiving any kind of signal from the SGC beacons, or from the Prometheus.”

“Are you sure.”

“Confirmed Sir, the comm. Systems are in working order but I’m getting nothing on SGC, USAF or Tok’ra frequencies. There’s nothing out there.”

“Could this new race have got to Earth?”

“Unknown sir but considering that we destroyed that ship relatively quickly, the Prometheus, the Daedalus and the 302’s would have put up a hell of a fight I don’t know though, we would at least be getting a signal from an offworld base but there’s nothing except some kind of increased tachyon emissions from the Sol System and a few smaller system in the area the same as the transmissions we got from that Minbari ship.”

“Try contacting Wolfhound station.”

“I’ve tried them sir, Wolfhound, SGC, Norad, Beta Site, hell I tried every Mining site and even the Blasted NID I’ve received nothing sir.”

“Engineering Bridge we need that Hyperdrive as soon as possible.”

“We’re trying captain if we cut some of the corners we can get it fixed in twenty eight to thirty hours.”

“Do It, Bridge out. Helm go to maximum Sublight get us closer to the Sol System. All hands this is the captain, all off duty personnel are to assist with repairs, weapons stations take inventory and reload all tubes and CIWS systems. Bridge out.”

“Course to Earth Laid in sir.”

“Engage.”

The Massive Sublight engines of the Achilles powered up and took the small starship to her top speed within minutes before shutting down and allowing the ship to coast at her maximum supported speed, to keep the engines on would increase the ship’s speed incrementally leading to time dilation and damage to the ships supporting members. It was a long way to Earth with the damage they had and without help they could be in for a rough ordeal.

The Days crawled past for the crew of the heavily damaged Achilles, the armament of the starship was fully reloaded and many of the hull sections damaged were sealed up with sheets removed from storage or from internal wall sections, the damage to the ship was minor but needed a full drydock stay to refit. The ship’s armour had held well against the Goa’uld ship’s weapons and the shields had been a shock to all sides of the two conflicts the Achilles had been involved in, taking damage that would have crippled most known ships and shrugged them off- only the close by Nuclear explosions had been responsible for the crippling of the fore ventral shields the rest of the ship’s defences were at optimal effect with all but the damaged shield generators and the slight armour damage on the port side. The damaged and depleted shields had almost burnt out with the attacks from the Minbari weapons when already damaged from excessive weapons fire and close proximity explosions. The depletion of the shield’s energy and subsequent shit off was the only thing that had saved them from the completed electrical disruption that had destroyed the forward shields, even with the damage to several sections of the ship and the shields the ship was as ready as it could be for combat the overlapping shields of the Fore dorsal and aft shields coving most oft he hole left by the loss of the fore shields but parts were still exposed to enemy fire, some internal bracing had been reinforced around the damaged sections but nothing could be done until they hit earth orbit.

By the end of the second day the engines had pushed them out into the space between systems but only an infinitesimal distance when compared to the distance they needed to cover to warn Earth about a new threat if it wasn’t already too late. The Alpha shift Bridge crew were uncharacteristically quiet during they shift- the knowledge that this new and very hostile race could have already been to earth and destroyed their people was weighing heavily on the minds of all personnel on board. However the mood was soon to dissipate as a hum started to vibrate throughout the ship rising in frequency before levelling off and dropping below human hearing.

“Bridge This Is engineering Hyperspace generator is Online she’s ready for a test jump.”

“Well done Lt.. Helm lock in course for earth maximum velocity.”

“Aye Sir.”

For the first time in days hope sprang up in the minds of the Crew of the Earth ship if they could help to save their world then they would if they had to go down they would go down fighting, the damn Goa’uld hadn’t made them Bow and they would be damned if some Boneheaded asshole of a race would make them. With a flash of light the Hyperspace window activated and the Achilles moved into light speed closing the window as she did.

Seconds later a wormhole-like vortex opened up just outside the boundaries of the system and three ships identical to the destroyed alien vessel appeared from the end and flew directly into the system itself searching for their sister ship, their scans found the wreckage of the destroyed Warcruiser as well as that of the human ships destroyed in combat- the scans were clear that a massive nuclear explosion had crippled then destroyed their sister ship- and the only race to use them at all in this area of space were the earthlings.

The three Blue Angelfish shaped starships departed soon after retrieving the debris that remained of their brethren- the humans would not go unpunished for this travesty- the ship that did this would pay heavily for their impudence against the warrior caste of the Minbari.

DSR 4
Later that day.

The six Deep Space Rendezvous points had been created by the Earth Alliance military command at Earthdome very early into the Minbari war, it was known by that point that although the Minbari didn’t know much about the Earth humans and their space that could change dramatically- for this the beacons for six DSR points were put together for remnants of damaged or destroyed task forces to regroup if necessary. Today the beacon at DSR 4 was home to a group of both crippled and damaged ships- not one of the ships was intact.

The EAS Hyperion led a tattered group of survivors from three task forces to the rendezvous point where a few other ships stood guarding and waiting, three Nova Dreadnaughts, Six Hyperion and Midwinter refit cruisers, four Olympus Corvettes and a single Artemis class Carrier trundled at the pace of their slowest ship- they were met by Task force Galapagos of Five Dreadnaughts and twelve attendant ships including a pair of Cotton class Tenders brought in for this exact reason.

The Small base in the area was nothing more than a large sphere with minimal weapons systems- allowing the base to go unnoticed in most scans, as the ships came in the Cotton class’ mobile space dock, extended the massive construction frames from their hulls bringing the ship’s length to near 1,600 meters, big enough for the repair and maintenance of even the largest ships of the incoming fleet. Two Hyperion cruisers and the Artemis took up positions inside the Pseudo Dry-dock facility of one docking side by side, the second of the tenders took a Nova and a Hyperion into their Construction arms again side by side allowing a third of all the ships to be refitted enough to make it back to one of the massive fleet docks in the Earth Alliance.

DSR 4 was one of the few safe ports that existed for Earth Alliance ships in the section of the galaxy- hundreds of ships had been wiped out in the first year of the war and slowly but surely the Minbari were pushing their way into Earth space- not even the massive and experience forth fleet- captained by crewed by veterans of the Dilgar conflict and the best of the Earth forces could stand in the way of the Minbari War machine. The news that not one of the Forth Fleets ships had escaped the attack on one of the border system had devastated fleet morale leading to the loss of even more fleet warships. Few outside of the ship’s Commanding officers knew the locations of the DSR stations and were rightfully worried as a single starship dropped out of in the middle of the system barely one hundred thousand kilometres from the assembled fleet.

Bridge of the EAS Nautilus
Nova Class Dreadnaught

The Nova class dreadnaught was the De facto flagship of the fragmented fleet at DSR 4 by default of the ship being the only reasonably intact and crewed starship in the fleet, the other dreadnaughts and cruisers had shifted crew to the damaged ship to make up the shortfall in lost crewmen from the latest battles, like all EA starships the Nautilus did not have gravity force to keep it’s crew in their seats and like the older Hyperion Class ships the crew were strapped down to hold them in their seats.

“Sir we’re getting some kind of energy reading.”

“Identify.”

“Unknown sir it’s not in any of our records, it’s powerful whatever it is.”

“Minbari?”

“I don’t know sir, It’s possible.”

“Sir something’s appeared 247 mark 34, the energy build up’s gone she must have been responsible.”

“Red alert, all hands General Quarters. Mackenzie to all ships Battle stations.”

With the call to arms the available ships out of the thirty in orbit of DSR 4 went on full alert readying weapons and defences on all of their ships, the starfuries on the base and from the launch bays of the defence ships launched in packs to head off any attacks from enemy fighters- for all the good they would do. With over a year of battle and the loss of many good ships and crews the crews of the Earth Alliance warships were under no misconceptions that any of them would come away from this alive especially against one of those damn massive Warships.

The squadrons of starfuries opened up their formations as not to allow any possible attackers to hit too many of them at once, their agility and speed may be impressive but was of little use against the Nial class fighters of the Minbari federation however as the both the fighters and the capital ships moved closer to the new arrival it was obvious that the new ship wasn’t Minbari, hell it looked almost like one of theirs.

“Captain scans cannot penetrate new ship’s ECM fields.”
“Have we got anything?”

“Yes Sir one of the Star Fury pilots has got visual on the ship’s outer hull… What the fuck??”

“Dammit out with it man.”

“Sir it’s ID is in English Says BC 303, USAF , USS Achilles.”

“That’s impossible.”

“That’s what it says Sir, a Battlecruiser United States Air force.”

“The US Air force had nothing like this before they were incorporated into Earthforce.”

“No sir, She’s also too small to be a Battlecruiser she’s barely the Size of an Orestes Patrol Ship.”

“Can you give me anything?.”

“A basic size and power output that’s it sir.”

“Hail them.” He turned to his Comms officer. “All languages, Interlac, Hell send in morse code but I want to talk to them.”

“Aye sir.”

The lumbering ships of the Earth alliance fleet slowed as they approached the damaged warship that had intruded upon the system- an order to two of the Cruisers and a flight of ‘furies had had them make a approach either side, weapons hot and if possible using a visual lock. Even as the ships got closer there seemed to be no hostile response from the strange ship no scans, no weapons fire nothing.


Bridge of the Achilles

“Colonel the warships are approaching, we’re reading almost thirty ships in the approaching fleet- some are launching fighters, we’re receiving a hail.”

“Anything on scans.”

”Several of the ships are of the same configuration as the ship we saw destroyed by the Minbari cruiser she’s heavily armed with some kind of Plasma weapon, a group of smaller ships maybe some kind of escort are also approaching, the fighters are one man ships not much against our defences sir. I’m reading Human life signs on all the ships in-system.”

“I guessed that by the design- only humans could build something that butt-ugly and get away with it, this must be the group the Minbari mistook us for. Play the hail.”

“This is the Earth Alliance Starship Nautilus to unidentified warship; you are trespassing on Earth Alliance Claimed Territory, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded.”

The collective shock of the Bridge crew of the Achilles was palpable, the fact that there were advanced humans out here was not unprecedented after all they had met other races that were much more advanced than the Tau’ri forces, no the shock was the fact they had Identified themselves as being allied to earth to begin with- unless some race had come to earth and taken them under their wing protecting them not everything was as it seemed.

“Earth Alliance?” Asked the Helmsman

“That’s what they said Lt.” replied the XO.

“Comms open hailing frequencies.”

“Aye Sir.”

“This is the United States Air Force Achilles, Colonel Joanna Taylor Commanding, to Earth Alliance Vessel Nautilus- we seem to be at a bit of an impasse here.”

“Achilles this is Nautilus, explain your presence in Alliance space.”

“We’re going home Nautilus.”

“Identify your Home Port.”

“That is classified information Captain.”

“Well My Pulse cannons say you can tell me.”

“And my shields say I don’t.”

The Earth alliance ships listening stopped their movements and many crew started listening in closely- the ship is not only small and capable of blocking their scans and possibly doing more than that- now they claim to be shielded and by the looks of those energy reading have a form of jump drive as well. Who were these people and where did they get this technology from?

“No Earth Ship has Shield technology the Abbai refused to sell or trade for it- your lying, heave to and prepare for boarding.”

“Captain You try to take this ship by force and I will open fire on your ships- make no mistake I can will use deadly force if I have to, now I’m asking you Captain to Captain please leave us be and let us return to Earth- the SGC will explain who we are when
we get back.”

“I don’t take kindly to threats Colonel.”

“Neither do I Captain that’s why I don’t make them.”

“Mackenzie to all ships, Lock all weapons.”

“Captain.” His xo piped up, “The ship has made no overt hostile Actions against our ships, we don’t really know who they are.”

“XO they come into our space and proceed to flaunt their technology while attempting to circumvent us to get to earth- that makes them enemies in my book.”

“Sir You threatened them, they are human, they speak English hell if it’s true then they are American and American soldiers at that. Don’t do this captain.”

“XO Either stand with me or get off My bridge.”

“Captain…”

“Security get this traitor off my Bridge, Weapons fire at will.”

The Achilles was already moving by the time the order had been sent out by the Commander of the fleet, however no fire came from any of the ships around her- a few stray shots came from the Starfuries spooked by the Achilles’ rapid pace of acceleration- much faster than any other Capital Ship, League, Earth, Minbari or otherwise. The USAF Warship ground to a halt several hundred thousand Kilometres from the Assembled fleet- while many scans were still being thrown at them from the ships surrounding the area not one of them were attempting to paint a target.

“Uhhh Nautilus to Achilles Come in.”

“This is Achilles, receiving- what happened here?”

“Captain Mackenzie Overstepped his Bounds Ma’am he attempted to fire on your ship against articles of war and established first contact situations. Weapons across the fleet are powering down- we apologize for what happened. The captain and Xo have been taken to sickbay for injuries.”

“Thank you…”

“Garibaldi Ma’am Sgt Michael Garibaldi, Commander of the Marine Detachment of the Nautilus.

Chapter 3

DSR4 Command Base
Same Day

The ships of the EA intercept fleet returned to the Command station in the DSR4 System- the Achilles was escorted by the Smaller Olympus class Corvettes as to not be too overwhelmed by the larger Cruisers and dreadnaught. However, even these smaller capital combat ships almost dwarfed the tiny unknown spacecraft. The new ship was an unknown factor to Earthforce and the crews refused to let their first glace at the Achilles colour their perspectives.


‘That’s what had gotten the Alliance in the shit with the Minbari in the first place’, thought Commander Alexander Smith, the Xo of the Nautilus.


“Delta Sierra Four this is Nautilus, we are incoming with new contact. Please note contact is non hostile and we are bringing the ship in for damage repair over.”

“Nautilus this is Delta Sierra four, what the hell is it? The long range scans didn’t show any kind of jump point?”

“That’s a little harder to explain Sierra Four, they are coming in under a flag of truce and with weapons offline. Oh and the Captain has taken a nasty spill he’s a little well… Indisposed.”

The Xo held his side where the PPG blast had made a near miss. He was only burned but it still hurt like a bastard. As soon as that shot had been fired, the security force on the bridge, as always strapped into their chairs just off the side of the bridge, had powered their rifles and floated into the command section forcing the captain to drop his weapon. The Captain had fired on this Exec as the junior officer attempted to stop the Earthforce ships from opening fire against all tenets of first contact, more so as this was a ship that hadn’t made any overtly hostile moves.


The captain hadn’t surrendered and three low powered blasts, emitted from each of the guards weapons followed by another one from the XO, slammed into the captain as he tried to blow the Xo’s head off. The impact forced the man into his seat and out of consciousness. The XO then ordered all ships to stand down and promptly passed out from the pain of his wound. It may have been glancing but it had affected his body and now had pain shooting down his entire left side. The Senior NCO of the bridge guards had contacted the ship that was coming about to attack and talked them down.

He would have to put Garibaldi in for a medal soon for his adherence to the rules of combat, that man was a good soldier. He followed orders, and not blindly either, but that he knew to be sane and reasonable unlike that which Mackenzie had ordered.

Now the entire force were returning to the DSR point. Spread well out in an encompassing globe, none of them could stop the ship even if they wanted. But it did make the crews feel safer and it also stopped anyone else seeing precisely what was going on until such time as they needed to know. The crew of the new ‘Earth’ ship was not too concerned knowing that they wanted to know what was going on as much as any of the Alliance ships did. All ships on both sides had weapons offline and on the Achilles’ side shields down. However both lots of ships had ECM active in order to stop either side scanning anything they shouldn’t

“Understood Nautilus, Admiral Ryan requests the commanders of the task force congregate immediately once all ships are in orbit.”

“Sierra Four plans may have to change once we enter orbit, information on the anomaly is not to be sent under normal channels, shuttles from the Nautilus, the Nemesis and another ship will be incoming. Please clear a docking area for use.”

“Nautilus this is Ryan, What is going on?”

“As I said sir, it’s best not to talk on an open channel.”

“We’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by other Earthforce vessels and a heavily armed space station.”

“Be that as it is sir, I made the call and am sticking with it. I hope you understand sir but I cannot explain further.”

“This better be good Smith. DSR4 out.”

“That went well.” Smith turned in his chair to the ships tactical officer Hammond Burns. “You’ve disabled your command and told an Admiral to mind his business. What’s your encore going to be, shooting the president?”

“Burns, you ever had to go out and manually realign every forward weapons turret?”

“No.”

“Then shut up.”

“Why? Oh I see…”

“There we go.”

Alexander Smith turned back around in his chair and went about his business in looking after the ship, he technically should have done this from the Captain’s chair but the blasts from three low power PPGs had frayed the restraints so he no longer trusted them in case of attack and they were yet to be replaced by the technicians, once they had docked he may be able to do something about it but for now it would have to wait.

He watched as the twelve ships of the task force took places docking to the station or in orbit of the station and the cotton class tenders. Two of the ships that had been attached to the intercept fleet had not been ready for action and were now being towed into place close to the tenders to be docked once space for them was cleared. His own ship was more or less intact since it had been repaired a few days before it was added to the defence fleet. As the last ship coming in he could see the entirety of this station’s command and the fleet surrounding it. If the war had been going any other way the sight of over thirty combat ships in a single area would have put the fear of the beyond into whatever race they were fighting, but not the Minbari. The thirty ships and the station would be little more than target practice for the massive alien warships.

“Commander, we’re in parking orbit. Hanger deck says that the shuttle is ready for departure.”

“Thank you Lt., I leave the ship in your capable hands.”

“Aye sir.”

The journey to the hanger bay was difficult for anyone travelling from one part of the ship to another in Zero gravity and with an injury it was twice as difficult, even so his departure from the ship was more or less on schedule. He made his flight to the slowly rotating Space station ready to meet the captain of this new ship face to face as it were

The Implications were Immense, whoever these newcomers were their technology was much more in advance than anything seen so far; undetectable jumppoints, energy shields and advanced ECM on a par or more likely above anything that Earthforce has) with anything so far seen by Earthforce.. What’s more the ship was covered in markings that were close to two hundred years out of date compared to Earthforce ships.

‘How is this Possible?’ the Commander though to himself. ‘A two hundred year old ship? Some race that picked up our transmissions like the League did, Hell maybe they can tell us who Shot JR..’

“This is Nautilus Shuttle one to DSR control, we are on final approach.”

“We read You Shuttle one be advised Nemesis Shuttle One is already aboard and we have newcomer shuttlecraft on approach.”

“Understood request docking instructions.”

“Proceed to docking bay twelve and wait inside the shuttle until newcomer shuttle has landed.”

“Landed?”

“That’s what we’ve been told Nautilus One.”

“Understood DSR control; Shuttle one on approach.”

The docking procedure was a smooth and boring as any other, however Smith’s mind was still whirling at the possibilities of this new ship and it’s tech, if they truly were human and willing to help the war could change practically overnight. Staring out the window he was very much lost in his thoughts that was, until a small spark of light outside the viewport caught his attention. Rapidly the unknown vessel approached the shuttle bays coming in close to the two parked shuttles from the EA ships that had already approached and docked, to their eyes it looked much like a one hundred and fifty year old fighter design, the types used by the ‘Western Allies’ of Earth. Like the larger ship there was little doubt that it was built by someone approaching starship design the same ways humans did, effective, bulky and heavily armed.

The fighter swung round bringing itself into a shallow landing. Unlike the Starfuries of the Earth alliance this fighter must have been more than capable of atmospheric landings and short take off and landings from deck landing bays, the fighter dropped to the deck smoothly being brought down by the station’s half gee artificial gravity. With all the assorted craft landed the bay’s massive pressure doors slammed shut allowing the small bay to be completely pressurised. With the entire bay finally habitable, the crews of all three shuttles disembarked, the crews of the EA shuttles ran around their bulky vessels to look at the sleek and agile fighter and were only slightly surprised to see the two dozen armed GroPos pointing their PPG rifles at the fighter, with several of them pointing their weapons directly at the two beings that had removed themselves from the cockpit of the fighter.

If no one believed that these people were human or at least something close to a humanoid appearance then they were very wrong, the two of them were dressed in what could only be described at 20th century fighter pilot uniforms, green/grey jumpsuits, oxygen masks and cranial enclosing crash helmets. The EA officers were not so far advanced that they couldn’t recognise copies of uniforms less than two hundred years old.

“Uhh, we come in peace.” Said the taller heavily built man. “Take me to your leader.”

A slight snicker came from the other officers, taking off her helmet she approached the person who seemed to be the highest ranking officer, that man being Commander Smith. Her movement was slow and easy knowing full well that she was currently under the barrels of a dozen nasty looking energy weapons.

Knowing the way they would be received they had left their standard issue Beretta sidearms in the 302. When they came across those weapons the EA scientists would be surprised, even more so when they find out much of the fighter was based on very early 21st century technology,

“Hello?” Smith said.

The midsized woman proceeded to pull her helmet and mask off and shook her hair loose, her long red hair was platted up but allowed to swing loose in it’s braids once they had landed.

“Good Afternoon. As my pilot here said, we do come in peace. I’m Colonel Joanna Taylor, United States Air Force, Commanding officer of the USAF Achilles.”

“Commander Alexander Smith, Temporary Commanding officer Earth Alliance Starship Nautilus. To say we’re surprised to see you is an understatement.”

“It’s the same for us Commander, When we left there was no Earth Alliance an we sure as hell didn’t have nearly as many ships as we evidently have here.”

“I cannot divulge much Colonel so please follow me we need to take you to the Station’s infirmary and then we’ll talk.”

“Ok we’ll go with that Commander, I have a lot of questions especially why we were attacked by some huge Angelfish.”

Smith started at that and swung round to face the Air Force Colonel, his eyes wide and mouth opening closing.

“Angelfish?”

Taylor looked at the rapidly paling Exec, “Yes some kind of Kilometre long starship shaped like a fish of all things attacked my ship.”

“And you survived?”

“Yes took some damage but if we hadn’t have already lost our shields in an earlier battle they wouldn’t have done much to us, the Minbari I think they called themselves attacked us and we responded with force. We tried to get them to surrender but we had to destroy their ship in the end. Damned Fools.”

“You.. You blew their ship out of the sky?”

“Yes we were lucky, any more than two and we would have had trouble.” The Earthforce Commander looked as if he could do with a stiff drink and a sit down and no necessarily in that order.

“Colonel Taylor it looks like we have a lot to talk about, lets put it this way Colonel your crew may be the only people capable of helping the Earth and it’s people before they are blown out of space.”
***