The Last Star

[Lightning_Count]

This is a sort of continuation of the Dilgar war, and will continue on with many of the same characters in the same style.

It is set during the final six months of the Minbari War...


And here as always, kclcmdr's very useful index
http://forum.spacebattles.com/showpo...postcount=1%20[b



The Last Star



1

7th June, 2247
Earth


“Halt!” The green clad man snarled with acidic vehemence, teeth bared in a grim snarl. “Get into a line!” He glared menacingly. “No you maggots, a straight line!”
Before him twenty young men and women formed two lines one behind the other, clumsily checking their spacing and shuffling their feet into a unified rank. Like the angry man they wore green uniforms, basic military fatigues that served as the day to day clothing of Earth Force when not in action. In previous years these young people would have had three or four different uniforms for different roles and occasions, but recently the EA had just given them two changes of the same simplistic gear.
“I have never, never, seen a more shabby bunch of gutter trash then you lot! I am appalled that you can’t even march in time!” The man growled, his arm decorated with three downward facing gold chevrons surmounted by three more arches above them. On his head sat a stiff khaki Stetson colloquially known as a lemon squeezer thanks to its pointy shape. He was every inch a drill instructor, in deed as well as appearance.
“You can teach monkeys to march better than you!”
He strolled up and down the line slowly, focusing on each person in turn, testing their resolve. Most looked down as he fixed his eyes on them, and that was not what he needed to see.
“You have been here one week, a whole week, and you still fail to understand the basics.” He snapped off. “I know you do not want to be here, I know this is not your choice, but you are here now! You are my responsibility! You will watch, you will learn, you will copy and you will succeed or else you will die!”
He made his way back to the front of the group, his voice clear enough to easily carry over them.
“Let me make this clear people, in five weeks you will leave this facility. In the past if you were not ready you would be pushed back to join a new batch of recruits. That is no longer policy. Policy is that every able bodied man and woman is expected to serve on the front line after six weeks training, whether you learn anything or not!”
They looked terrified, not of him but of the truth in his words.
“So you have a choice, and it is your choice.” The Sergeant Major informed. “Either you make the effort, you decide right now to pay attention, to work hard and to learn what I teach and leave this facility wit the knowledge and skill to fight and survive, or you don’t. You leave with the same skills you came in with, you walk out of here a civilian in uniform, then you go into battle and you die. Because believe me, you will all be going into battle, ready or not.”

He kept his face straight, he didn’t want to intimidate these people or scare them, but sometimes fear was a damn good motivator of men.
“The Minbari are already securing Beta Durani. Our people there fought well but it wasn’t enough, the war goes on and we are still fighting, we still need new troops to deploy into the next battle. This is a war of survival people, we don’t lose this war and start again later. If we lose, we die. Our families, our friends, our children, our future. It’s all gone.”
They were all looking his way, wide eyed.
“I know you don’t want to be here, you didn’t choose this war but neither did Earth! But here it is, and here we are! I know you still see yourselves as civilians, as shop assistants, office workers, bank tellers, traders and all the rest, and that you just happen to be in the army. This stops now! You are one thing now and one thing only! Soldiers! And you will remain a soldier until your dying day!”
He paused.
“My job is to make sure your dying day isn’t anytime soon. But I cannot do this unless you are ready to learn!”
He stepped back.
“Now I know exactly what you are thinking. You want to know what marching in time matters? Why does lining up neatly seem so important in modern war? Easy, it makes you work as a team! It turns you from individuals into a unit! The best thing you have out there is the man or woman in the fox hole next to you! You life is in their hands, and theirs in yours! You must work as one, move as one, fight as one and think as one! If you go into battle alone, you die alone.”
He inhaled before continuing.
“You are not soldiers, but you will be. A draftee is no different from a volunteer, both of you have a motivation to succeed. When you are out there it doesn’t matter where you came from or why, a bullet or mortar round doesn’t care if you joined up willingly or not! You will both have the same goal, to live long enough to come home!”
He examined his platoon, making sure his words were sinking in.
“The Minbari are a dangerous enemy, they are advanced, their ships are lethal, but on the ground they die as easily as anyone else! On the ground we are all equal, bullets and plasma bolts mangle them the same as anyone else. If you face a Minbari, when you face one, you have a good chance of walking away if you listen to me!”
He pointed to the stripes on his shoulder.
“I have seen this before! I have fought in battles nobody expected us to win! I have faced soldiers that would turn the Minbari to mince meat and I have beaten them! Once or twice armed with just a crowbar!”
Some recruits grinned, others looked at him with mild awe.
“I am living proof people, when you screw with Earth Force you better be ready for the Rain of Pain! Now, left face! By the left, march!”

He drilled them for two hours straight, pushing them through the same routine until finally they got it, finally they had their timing down to the point where they didn’t need to look over their shoulders, they just knew instinctively where the rest of their unit was. They passed lesson one, and while he’d prefer to drill them more he just did not have time. The condensed training schedule was designed to get trained people on the front as fast as possible, quantity over quality, and so the Sergeant lined them up, gave them some short acknowledgement of success, then sent them to the showers before handing off to the weapons instructors.
He watched them fall out, laughing among themselves and clearly pleased to have passed his basic instruction on drill, something most soldiers would have don in the first couple of days. They didn’t understand the gulf between them and the old volunteer army, and they didn’t know what horrors waited them on the battlefield. The Sergeant guessed Earth Force preferred it that way, keeping them in the dark until it was impossible for them to run or escape. He thought it an underhanded way to treat people who were expected to fight and die for their world, but he had no place to question it. Like them he was just a GROPO, and a lame one at that.
Sergeant Major Alfredo Garibaldi made his way to the NCO’s lounge, a pleasant couple of rooms in one of the ubiquitous wooden huts holding a small bar and a collection of comfortable chairs for the various Drill Instructors to retire to when off duty. He stepped up and entered through the front door, his leg twinging after being stood on for four hours straight. He didn’t show his discomfort of course, but it was a constant reminder of why his life had taken such a turn.
Almost fifteen years earlier he had been wounded in action, shot in the back of the knee by a Dilgar soldier during the battle of Balos. While not fatal in itself the wound had severed tendons and damaged cartilage, mangling the back of his leg beyond the ability to adequately repair it. Certainly the doctors had done a great job, in the past he would have been unable to walk without sticks or even may have faced amputation, instead he had almost full mobility. Unfortunately he couldn’t put weight on it for long periods at a time and had trouble sprinting, and of course could never achieve a glider landing like his Airborne unit required.
Inevitably Garibaldi had been retired, accepting a honourable discharge eon medical grounds with a full pension despite his relatively short service. At first he’d harboured mixed feelings on the matter, pleased to be at home with his wife Sophia and child Michael, but sad to see the back of his unit, men and women he’d fought with in some of the hardest fighting in human history. They were also his family after a fashion, and while he kept in touch it was hard to see them deploy to the frontier worlds while he remained behind.
Ultimately he moved on with his life, setting up a private Security company and hiring his services as a Private Investigator. Using his military training on one hand, and the knowledge shared by his mother as a Detective in the Boston Police Department on the other he’d proven rather successful. He had contacts in high places, access to information through friends in EarthGov that let him crack cases even the Police found tough and on one occasion had actually helped thwart a plot by the Narn Government to split ties between humans and the Centauri. He had even taken on his son and shown him the ropes when he was old enough.
Then the war had come.

At first the Minbari were just a name, an enemy to be beaten. Ships were sent, soldiers deployed, public support was strong as Earth flexed its muscles. No one had challenged Earth Force in over a decade, not since the Dilgar and for all that time the fleet had been resting happily on its laurels and with some justification. The warships that took on the Minbari were even stronger than those that had flattened the Dilgar, and yet it had made difference whatsoever
Unthinkably Earth Force was defeated, more than defeated it had been a slaughter. The Minbari threw aside the best Earth had with contemptible ease creating undisguised panic in the military which really had not gone down well with the civilian population. Reservist were at once called up and plans to initiate a planetary draft set up in the Dilgar war but never used were put into effect. Alfredo naturally volunteered, but his injury meant he was at first refused. It wasn’t until later he was accepted into the military again but even then it had been as a second line role. Specifically a Drill Instructor.
He didn’t think he was suited for the job and still believed firmly his place was on the front defending his nation in person, however he realised he was at least playing his part in the machine of war, so was content to show these wet behind the ears civies a little real soldiering.
As the months dragged on the age and suitability of the recruits dropped steadily, highlighting the increasingly dire straights Earth was in. Time and again Garibaldi petitioned for a transfer to the front, citing his exemplary combat record and experience as the most important factors, but he was always refused. Then his own son had been drafted, given the most basic of training, and then sent to Proxima. Already Alfredo had been desperate to get to the front, that mission now became critical and yet still he was refused.
He did have one moment of hope, Michael had been assigned to the regular infantry but when he mentioned his father’s name had been transferred to Airborne and the 99th no less. While Alfredo was relieved to have his son serving with his old unit and his old friends the 99th wasn’t the same as it had been. Like most other units it had been swelled by raw recruits and had many platoons within it that had the minimum of training despite the Regiments apparent elite status. He trusted his old friends to look out for Michael, but there was only so much they could do especially in the face of a probable Minbari invasion.
Proxima was the obvious target for the next stage of the Minbari advance, and somehow Alfredo was going to be there. He had to be there.

“Hey Crowbar, got a drink lined up.” The bar keeper smiled, a buxom middle aged woman who ran the place with the efficiency of a machine. “Ice cold.”
He dropped on a bar stool and accepted the glass. “Thanks Dusty.”
“On the house, as always.”
He grinned, the first drink was always free, the blue ribbons on his chest showing he’d already paid for them by serving on Balos. As well as the solemnly respected Balosian Campaign medal Garibaldi had managed to acquire a pair of Silver stars, several Bronze stars and a host of campaign awards and distinctions, including six stripes of rank on his arm. He wasn’t the longest serving soldier on the base or the most senior, but his decorations were unmatched.
He glanced around the room as he took a long refreshing draft of the beer, nodding to the three other instructors taking a few off duty moments in the comfortable surroundings.
“Hey Cliff, how’s Blue Platoon coming on?”
“Just great.” The other man answered. “This morning they managed to tie their own shoe laces with no help from me at all.”
“Amazing, they’ll turn the war single handed.” He joked grimly. “How about your elite Barb? Still holding their hands to the bathroom?”
“Half of them haven’t even found the bathroom yet.” The female instructor joked. “Once they do they’ll be lethal.”
“I saw you got your guys marching in step.” Cliff observed. “Makes a change.”
“Yeah, for what it’s worth.” Garibaldi shrugged and drunk some more. “Poor buggers don’t have a clue.”
“They’ll learn fast in the field.” Barb said. “Not a whole lot of choice.”
“Just kids.” Cliff shook his head. “The Minbari are going to tear them apart in minutes.” He froze. “Hey, sorry Freddy, I forgot you got a boy out there. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”
“Yeah, course he does!” Barb grinned supportively. “He’s the son of the Crowbar! The Minbari are probably avoiding the whole damn planet because of him!”

Garibaldi smiled widely, wanting to believe it was true but somehow not quite banishing the sick feeling in his gut whenever he thought about his son in battle. “He’ll be good, my old buddies will be watching out for him.”
“Definitely, the fighting 99th.” Cliff beamed. “Death from above man, the Rain of Pain.”
“Yeah that’s them.” Garibaldi acknowledged. “Good guys, each one of ‘em.”
“Plus the Minbari don’t even know about Proxima.” Barb added. “With the beacons down they might never find it.”
“Or us.” Cliff agreed. “Hyperspace out here is pretty damn rough, kept us out of the way for centuries of galactic war.”
“We said that about Beta Durani, and Signet, and Deneb, and Ross, and Cooke, and all the other worlds we’ve lost. Even without the beacons they find them eventually. They’ll find Proxima too, and then us.”
He was right of course, it was just easier not to confront such a painful truth.
“We’ll be ready for them.” Cliff said. “They’ll have the fight of their lives.”
“Yeah, we’ll fight alright.” Garibaldi nodded in agreement. “But will we win?”
No one could answer, hope and reality cancelling each other out and leaving an empty silence.
“We still have a major fleet, I saw it heading back from Mars.” Barb offered. “Hell of a lot of ships.”
“Plenty, but not as many as we sent into Balos.” Garibaldi recalled. “And even then it was a close thing.”
“We’re still turning out ships almost daily, production has never been higher.”
“But is it keeping up with losses?” Garibaldi pointed out. “Maybe if we avoid another big battle for a few months.”
“All the reports say we still outnumber them.” Cliff spoke. “And if it came to an all out battle we’d win just by swamping their fleet.”
“You believe that?” Garibaldi wondered.
“You don’t?”
“Not really.” He answered. “I think its going to take more than numbers to win this one, I just don’t know what.”
“Let’s hope the brass do.” Barb said simply. “Or else we’re dead.”
“Lot of that going around I hear.” Garibaldi drunk up. “If we live through this I swear I’m going to give up drinking.”
“Damn Crowbar, what would be the point?” Cliff laughed. “Here’s to living fast, because you never know when it will stop.”
“Life.” Garibaldi drained his glass. “And keeping it.”

[Lightning_Count]

Beta Durani Colony
Earth Alliance Space
Minbari Occupied.


Local space was dominated by debris, twisted and tortured metal rent from the hulls of Earth Force ships. Blackened grey material floated in a wide thin cloud slowly dispersing across the system and eventually into the depths of interstellar space, eternal monuments to the fallen of this battle and this war. Some of the ships and fighters maintained formation, momentum taking the bulk of their forms forward at the same speed with which they died, cut down before they could even break or evade, so swift was the fury of a Minbari fleet.
It was rare for Earth to commit large numbers of ships to battle anymore, usually only when the need was great or when there was no other choice. At Beta Durani the fleet had been surprised, caught unawares close to the planet where they were refitting and taking on fresh supplies before splitting up into raiding groups. In ideal circumstances an Earth Fleet was of little concern to the Minbari, but caught like this it was even more of a shooting gallery.
Beta Durani was away from the main Minbari thrust, no one expected it to be attacked and picquet ships had not been properly posted. It was on oversight Earth Force should not have made, but this was no longer the extremely professional force that had faced the Dilgar. Experienced officers were increasingly rare as losses mounted, the veterans of past wars had been some of the first to fall as the pre war fleet was sent into the first disastrous battles without any understanding of the gulf in power they faced. Those that were left were frequently under trained, ill equipped mentally for the rigours of space combat and prone to slips and errors, especially after long deployments.
The Minbari exploited it ruthlessly, wiping out a full fleet of ships including the Commander of Earth Naval Forces, Admiral Donald Ferguson on the bridge of his flagship, the Dreadnought Charlemagne. The loss of the highest rated Naval officer in the Force had been a crushing blow to moral, almost as great as the loss of the colony itself. No defence had been prepared and only the barest contingencies laid. Instead of a brutal war of attrition as had happened elsewhere Durani had been taken almost overnight with the army as unprepared as the fleet.
On Minbar the victory was lauded and had cemented Shai Alyt Branmer as the greatest of warriors, finally crushing any disparaging comments from the more obtuse members of the Warrior class sneering at his Religious heritage. On Earth it was the bitterest blow of the war so far, a loss that could not be replaced.
The Minbari fleet had long gone from Durani, leaving a small garrison of warships and a few supply bases in the area to mark their presence. Any human assault would be spotted far away and reinforcements could be deployed if required, but Branmer was confident Earth Force would not be making any moves on Durani. He was partially right, for while no offensive could be made Earth was not content to simply let the Minbari live a simple life in the system.

Among the debris, floating serenely alongside a blitzed Dreadnought between the colony and its primary moon was an Artemis Frigate, a common enough light ship in EA fleets. Armed with rail guns they had fallen out of favour with Earth Force as their limited stock of ammunition required an extensive supply train to maintain, while the newer pure energy weapon armed ships could operate far more independently. Despite this the Artemis class could pack a surprising punch, and its solid slugs had proven devastating to Minbari crystalline armour on the rare occasions they hit, making them a very useful vessel among the EA, and a prime target for the Minbari who tended to engage them first. An Artemis posting was usually a guaranteed death sentence.
This particular ship was a mess, its armour shredded, its guns silent and inert, its hull missing about a third of its mass. It hung cold and silent in escort formation with the equally ruined dreadnought, bent metal and internal supports clearly visible through the damaged sections, decks and bulkheads bent out like a stack of burnt cards. The ship had literally been torn apart at enemy hands, but unknown to anyone in the system that enemy had not been the Minbari, but the Dilgar.
The EAS Danube was a veteran ship that had fought its last battle fifteen years ago over Omelos, there it had met a Dilgar Tratharti gunship of the Home Fleet and come off second best. The ship was smashed but the internal bulkheads did their job and most of the crew survived to be rescued afterwards, the ship towed home to be repaired. Ultimately budget cuts meant she was not reactivated and simply dumped in a scrap yard and left, her career seemingly over.
The Minbari war changed Earth Forces priorities, and the old stockpiles and mothball yards were raided for ships, and when they ran out Earth turned to the scrapyards. The Danube had been extensively damaged forward, but her aft section including her engines and reactors were still in reasonable condition, good enough to be reactivated without much trouble. The weapons and sensors required more effort with the entire forward half of the ship requiring replacement, though with the ship yards now at full tilt the work was expected to be done rapidly. At that point however fate intervened in the shape of the EIA.

The EIA had been faced with the problem of reconnaissance in occupied space., normal missions involving flybys had been quickly outlawed as far too dangerous and messages from resistance fighter son the ground were often short and could not reveal the disposition of Minbari warships high above in space. They needed an alternate method when one of their number, Heather O’Leary, had suggested using a little Trojan Horse.
One thing that was common in systems taken by the Minbari were wrecked human ships, common enough to be part of the back ground and ignored. They had no need to study them and could not salvage them for resources, so simply left them to drift. Heather proposed they quietly refit a handful of scrapped ships with sensors and drop them into occupied systems to coast through and gather data from right under the enemies nose. It was of course incredibly dangerous, the ships chosen were barely space worthy, would have no support and most had no weapons and glaring gaps in their armour. It was however also the only plan on the table, and so received the green light.
The Danube had been deployed over a month earlier deep in the system by a cruiser, the jump point hidden behind one of the outer planets. It had proceeded on a pre-plotted course to reach the colony at a specific time on a specific day, soaking up data on the way. Conditions on a fully operational Artemis were cramped and uncomfortable, but on these flying wrecks they were a nightmare, especially as the ship’s energy signature had to be kept to an absolute minimum to avoid raising suspicion. Service on these ships were for volunteers only, even in the hard fighting of the Minbari war there were some jobs Earth Force would not force on its crews.
The Danube had held its cover for the duration of its harsh mission, logged, registered and then ignored by the Minbari. If they had been paying attention they may have noticed the ship slowing infinitesimally over the weeks of its journey, altering its velocity so it did not rocket past the colony but instead passed at a reasonable speed. The small group of people within the ship, living in a fraction of the normal space due to power concerns and the massive internal damage had been incredibly patient, and now at last the end of their mission was in sight.

“Crossing Durani orbit in ten minutes.” Lieutenant Elizabeth Lockley informed, the intense young woman focused entirely on her display. Like the rest of the bridge crew she was in a full space suit and had been for the past eight hours, the life support having been shut down as they crossed the Minbari at their closest point, doing all they could to remain unnoticed.
“Just one more piece of junk, nothing to see here.” Muttered the Commanding officer, praying in those words that the Minbari would be too busy chanting or something to notice the small vessel. Captain Edward MacDougan didn’t put a lot of faith in pure prayer but every little helped, especially at this crucial juncture.
“Passive sensors at full.” Lockley reported. “No indication we’ve been spotted yet.”
“Stand by on active sensors.” MacDougan informed. “But not until the last second, we don’t want to give the game away after sitting in this can for a month.”
MacDougan had implicit trust in his twenty person crew, and no one more so than Lockley. He wasn’t fully aware of her back ground, he knew from her record her father had served on Balos and had turned into a drunk afterwards, finding himself booted out of the Corps to die in a gutter somewhere. He also knew she had been a true wild child, constantly in trouble with the Police with her best friend, a girl Lockley said virtually nothing about even in the close quarters of the ship. Whatever had happened it had changed her, she joined the Force a couple of years before the war and had served with distinction, always volunteering for the hardest jobs. This mission certainly counted, and would likely see her make Commander if they lived long enough.
MacDougan himself had an adventurous spirit, but the war had quickly knocked that out of him. In the past he would have taken a mission like this just to see if he could do it, but now he was here because he wanted closure. Somewhere out there among the wrecks was his former command, the Hyperion class Cruiser Diomedes. Like the rest of the fleet he had been surprised here, but had the presence of mind to roll his ship before it was hit, turning a killing blow into merely a crippling one and allowing him to evacuate. He hadn’t seen the ship yet, but he knew it and one hundred fourteen souls of her crew were still out there.

MacDougan left the Dilgar war as a full Commander with an enviable reputation under his belt. His conduct as a Corvette Commander had become a text book example of how best to operate behind enemy lines raiding convoys and ambushing hostile supply lines. He had been given command of a Hyperion cruiser, a rare privilege given the navy was down sizing and command of a capital ship was a prize most officers fought tooth and nail over. During his time commanding the ship he had learned even more about deep space operations and was recognised as an expert on First Contact protocol.
Ironically that knowledge had ended his time as a ship captain, seeing him transferred to the Earth Force Officer Academy while another man took his ship and crew. The promotion to Captain was not much of a compensation. While there he taught First Contact protocols to future officers and gave them a series of ethical and moral dilemmas to solve, ingraining in them that simply following orders like a robot did not make a good officer.
When the war came he applied for a front line post and was accepted, First contact scenarios no longer being an effective use of such an officer. Before he was transferred out General Lefcourt had personally handed him his orders of command, and remarked bitterly that he should have sent Jankowski to one or two of his lessons. The EAS Diomedes had been waiting for him, a fresh ship and fresh crew that he had quickly whipped into shape.
The Hyperion class were fine ships, the back bone of the navy with a commendable combat record. They had borne the brunt of the Dilgar war proving themselves clearly superior to their equivalents in enemy service, indeed they had been known to stand up to dreadnoughts and survive long enough to withdraw or wait for help. Their thick armour and sturdy construction had been matched by potent firepower, heavy cannons that had been made even more formidable after the war, upgrading to Pulse weapons back engineered from captured Dilgar technology combined with human principles.
The ship’s combat record ended up being its undoing. So effective had they been against the Dilgar that Earth had greatly reduced the budget for new designs, convinced the older ships would be more than adequate for the foreseeable future. They had received only one upgrade in their lifetimes and their replacements had only just entered the design phase when the Minbari war broke out. The Minbari quickly demonstrated that their armour and weapons counted for precisely nothing when compared to Sharlin warcruisers and their escorts.

Command of a Hyperion had been a pre-war dream for most officers, the usual mission of patrolling borders and showing the flag appealing more than command of a Dreadnought consigned to lumbering around the core systems scaring aliens and reassuring civilians. That dream had quickly become a nightmare, and the stately cruisers proved just as vulnerable as any other human vessel. The conquerors of the Dilgar falling themselves one after another.
After the first couple of battles the Minbari had clearly gathered extensive information on human vessels including full technical readouts. Initially they had simply cut the ships to pieces with long raking volleys from their Neutron cannons, but later they became far more efficient and pinpointed weak spots. A good Minbari crew could knock out a Hyperion in less than three seconds with just three shots, one hit on the reactor in its central block, one hit on the fuel tanks on the engine section, and one hit on the bridge at the front where the tower met the main hull. Even if one of those hits didn’t trigger a catastrophic explosion, it would at the least cripple the ship and leave it helpless to be destroyed later. The famous EAS Lexington had narrowly avoided such a fate after suffering similar crippling hits, most ships didn’t.
The Diomedes had been luckier than most, MacDougans twist serving to throw off the Minbari aim enough so that his ship did not immediately explode and so that the strike aimed for the bridge missed. It was a measure of the clinical precision of the Minbari that they always tried to hit the bridge first, decapitating the warship and killing the command crew. It was said no Captain survived battle with the Minbari fleet, though the crew was often more fortunate.
The concentration of damage usually left large portions of the crippled ship intact with many of the crew surviving, helped by the extensive compartmentalisation and emphasis on crew survivability built into EA ships. The Minbari had no problem killing crews trapped on ships or wiping out escape pods, but usually there was a small window for crew to abandon ship and try to escape while the enemy was busy engaging other Earth assets. MacDougan had seized one such opportunity, evacuating his vessel as swiftly as he could and just running for the gate. His crew and many others had been scooped up by fleeing civilian ships, and while at one point it looked like the Minbari might have engaged the unarmed vessels they ultimately did not. While they killed human soldiers no matter what, they treated civilians with complete indifference.

Their scans had indeed confirmed that the civilian population centres on Beta Durani were untouched, left to their own devices while military facilities had been glassed from orbit. Small scale Guerrilla activities had commenced, but no real armed resistance was possible despite much effort. The Minbari kept to their bases well away from human settlements unwilling to interact with their future victims. That distance was a mistake and one soon to be exploited.
“Coming up on zero hour.” Lockley reported.
“Standby to cold start reactors.” MacDougan ordered. “What do we have out there?”
“At least one Sharlin.” Lockley reported. “Three or four escorts too.”
“How about the planet, got any data?”
“We’ll know more when we go active, but looks like three concentrations down there.”
“Away from the cities?”
“Yes sir, just like the EIA predicted.”
“Good, we can go ahead with the operation.”
Strictly speaking the operation would go ahead no matter what, he had orders to facilitate an attack on the Minbari surface installations regardless of the risk to civilians, the war was just too desperate to pass up an opportunity like this.
“One minute, all system checks show green, enemy ships right where we expected them to be.”
MacDougan huffed. “Thank heaven for unimaginative Minbari.”
He watched the mission counter approach zero, a clock that had been slowly counting down for a month only now, finally, approaching the end. The anticipation was palpable, the culmination of so much patience and the sudden arrival of so much danger. A lot was riding on this, a lot of coordination had been invested and MacDougan was just one piece in the puzzle. If the other pieces weren’t in place, or were running even a minute late, he was dead.
The clock reached zero.
“Go active.”

[Lightning_Count]

The Danube powered up, her sensors first followed by communications and finally engines. The surge of energy was at once spotted by the Minbari who began to respond, the power curves of their own vessels increasing as they slowly alerted themselves to the human presence.
“Confirm one Sharlin and three Tinashis.” Lockley barked. Finding the Minbari ships was no problem, Earth sensors could tell something was there and retrieve a rough profile to make an identification. Hitting it at anything beyond point blank range was an entirely different prospect.
“Focus on the planet, get me co-ordinates!” MacDougan ordered quickly.
“Scanning.” She reported, the arrays hidden amid the wrecked hull working quickly. “Got it, one military base and two supply dumps!”
“Download now, then push engines to full!” MacDougan proceeded to part two of the operation. “And better hope Bill gets his jump coordinates right.”
The Danube began to move, the engines pushing hard against the cold. Far to her side the Minbari ships spotted her and changed course, powering their weapon arrays and sensing blood. The Danube had an excessive ECM package, one powerful enough to affect even Minbari senses at long ranges forcing them to close in before they could also achieve a precise lock. Fooling a Minbari weapons lock had been something Earth Force took a tremendous measure e of pride in, even though the system was nowhere near as effective as the enemy Jammers.
“We’ve got incoming, thirty seconds to contact!”
“Come on old girl, don’t fail me now.” MacDougan tapped the chair arm. “You got your crew home once before, you can do it again.”
“I’m reading fighters.” Lockley warned. “Wait, jump point activating, here they come!”

The mission was a masterpiece of timing, coordinating a ship launched a month ago with other ones sent just a week earlier. Two vessels had been deployed from Proxima travelling circuitously on minimal power around the edges of the beacon grids hoping to pass undetected through enemy lines. Like most missions against the Minbari it was risky, but while a hundred ships were easy to spot in hyperspace two vessels alone moving slowly and quietly were far harder to pick up, even for the Minbari. Their route was planned so that they would arrive over Beta Durani the exact same minute that the Danube went active, and that they would receive from that ship jump coordinates for a precise insertion just above the Colony along with exact location of the Minbari facilities on the surface, data that was fed into targeting computers before the ships even made their jump.
The blue vortex opened behind the Danube and from it raced two Hyperions at full burn, one of them holding open the entry point while the second one immediately opened an exit jump point a few thousand miles away. Again it was a risk, hyperspace physics were still a new study and opening two jump points quite so close to each other was not smart, the chances of them mingling destructively was a very real and deadly possibility.
“Jump point confirmed!” Lockley cheered.
“Get us out of here!” Yelled MacDougan, salvation close enough to touch. “Give it all she’s got!”
The Danube had a head start but the two cruisers were moving much faster, still accelerating from hyperspace. If they left the jump point would close, stranding the Danube or destroying it if it was still in transit when the point collapsed. Lockley drove the old ship for all it was worth, the two bigger ships closing astern and beyond them the Minbari.
“Nearly there!” The Lieutenant willed them on. “Almost!”
MacDougan was virtually out of his chair, leaning forward unconsciously as he shared Lockley’s wish. “Come on girl! Few more miles!”
The ship made it, clearing normal space with a few seconds to spare, much to the huge relief of Captain MacDougan.
“We’re through!” Lockley laughed as she released the tension. “Locking onto temporary beacon.”
“Amen to that.” MacDougan pushed himself back down into his chair. “Better cross off one of our nine lives Lieutenant, that one was by the skin of our teeth.”

Behind them the two Hyperions headed for the jump point, their own missions only half way complete. Recovering the Danube and its vital information was one thing, but after sneaking two ships this far into occupied space Earth Force wasn’t going to leave without a little calling card.
“Enemy Frigates approaching range, energy spikes!”
Captain William Hague grimaced, the idea of running from Frigate class vessels still despicable in his mind. Yet these were Minbari frigates, and those three ships were quite capable of taking apart his cruiser with ease. Even if they didn’t the Sharlin hot on their heels surely would.
“Are the coordinates locked in?” He asked.
“Yes sir.” Replied his First Officer, an able young woman named Sandra Hiroshi. “Batteries locked on surface targets.”
Hague hated doing this, he was firing on Earth territory, on human soil, but that ground was no longer theirs and had become a sanctuary to the enemy. His job, like the fighters below was to show the Minbari no ground was safe for them.
“Open fire, drop mines and launch tactical nuclear weapons.”
Hague’s ship, the EAS Endymion, fired first, his companion cruiser close behind. He had to fire first, as mission commander he would take responsibility for lacing destruction on this colony world. Pulse cannons spattered orange fire downwards, the second ship engaging soon after. The gunfire was focused on the military base, suppressing ground based anti ship and anti fighter defences while the hanger bays unloaded a series of megaton yield hyper velocity missiles. They were small enough not to affect the ecosphere, but big enough to utterly annihilate the two Minbari supply bases.

The two human ships arced through orbit at the top of their barrage, nuclear missiles streaking to the ground in balls of fire and friction ignited gas, streams of vapour in their wake. The pulse cannons tore up the ground, smashing troops formations, vehicle parks and any defences that could intercept the surprise missile attack.
“Minbari cruisers inbound!” Hiroshi said. “They should be walking right into our surprise party.”
At the same time as the Danube had begun her voyage, so too had Earth Force launched a few other devices on ballistic trajectories. Fusion mines. They were unguided as any propulsion systems would have been spotted and as such were imprecise, but in another example of exquisite timing they arrived exactly in time to screen the retreating EA warships.
“Nuke ‘em.” Hague ordered with cold relish.
The mines detonated, none of them sadly close enough to repeat the glorious demise of the Black Star, though one did manage to burn away most of the Sharlin cruiser’s drive fin, a very commendable achievement in itself. The remainder forced the Tinashis to break off their pursuit, and that was all Hague needed.
The planet focused missiles hit their targets after a five second flight, easily outrunning the Minbari fighters hastily sent to stop them. The multiple nuclear explosions bracketed the bases, highlighting why it was a poor idea for the Minbari to put their installations so close to each other. The explosions would be visible from the nearest human city as lights on the horizon forming into mushroom clouds, a hated sight but now a small beacon of hope, a signal they had not been forgotten and that in some small way Earth Force was still fighting. It might not be a liberation, but it was a gesture that the war was still raging on and that humanity wasn’t about to quit any time soon.
“Confirm detonations, primary targets all destroyed!” Hiroshi reported with glee.
“Take us out.” Hague said pointedly, keeping them focused on the needs at hand. “Straight through the jump point.”
The Endymion roared through in triumph, the second cruiser on her tail closing the vortex after them and sealing their escape. As a final assurance they dropped a small brace of mines behind them, mines that would be lost in hyperspace within the hour but would catch any pursuer before then. After an hour the EA ships would be long gone and the temporary beacon they were following would shut down.

“We’re clear.” Hiroshi smiled, turning in her seat to face the Captain. “We did it, no sign of pursuit.”
“Well done Commander, well done everyone.” Hague congratulated sincerely. “Pass the word throughout the ship, we nuked the enemy bases and we’re heading home.”
The bridge crew engaged in a few cheers and a round of applause, it was a hell of an achievement and would go down well back home. Hague let them celebrate, any success was rare in this war and while what they had done was an insignificant embarrassment for the Minbari, for Earth it was something to be lauded.
“Comms, get me ship to ship.” Hague said after the initial joy.
“Aye sir, going through.” The beaming officer said.
“Endymion to Lexington, still with me John?”
From the other ship an equally proud voice replied.
“Yes sir, we gave those boneheads something to cry about!”
“Sure did, it’ll be hard for them to pick up the pieces after that one. Any damage?”
“No sir.” Commander John Sheridan replied. “Lady Lex is still in one piece, and those new weapons worked as well as we expected.”
Following her near death experience the Lexington had been extensively rebuilt and brought up to the latest Hyperion specifications, including the addition of enhanced laser and Pulse cannons based on Centauri principles acquired from the Narn. While still far from a match for Minbari weapons in terms of pure ability, they had given Earth Force ships a significant boost to their range and firepower, something which had made abject massacres more like fighting massacres instead. It wasn’t much, but it at least counted for something.
“Very good Commander, we’ll jump on the temporary beacon and then wait for the scheduled activation of the Proxima grid.”
“Understood sir.” Sheridan replied.
“We’ll stop off at Proxima, make our reports, then head back to Earth. I think we’ve earned a week’s leave while our ships refuel.”
“Looking forward to it sir.”
“Good work out there John, I always knew you weren’t a one hit wonder. Hague out.”

John Sheridan couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “One hit wonder? If he means the Black Star that was one hell of a hit!”
“Certainly was sir.” Lieutenant Commander Justin Carroll answered in a quiet English voice. “Not an experience I’d be happy to repeat.”
“You and me both.” Sheridan agreed readily. “But we showed those boneheads a little lesson there. Try to kill a defenceless ship, get fried in a thermonuclear microwave hell.”
“That we did sir.”
Carroll had been the Communications officer on the Lexington at the time and like the rest of the crew hadn’t been expecting an ambush so close to Earth. When the Black Star jumped into the middle of them it was a swift and brutal display of the sheer level of technology and destructive power the Minbari could command, four warships were wiped out in less than a minute, the Lexington surviving by pure luck. It was a measure of fortune which had not extended to Captain Sterns.
The veteran officer, a survivor of some of the worst battles of the Dilgar war, a man who had exchanged fire with Deathwalker was killed instantly when a bulkhead imploded, driving debris through the ship like a battering ram. It had put Sheridan in command whether he liked it or not, and Carroll had become his de facto first officer.
The destruction of the Black Star had been half the victory, the stately ship drawn into a ring of nuclear weapons that blasted the ship, triggering a critical failure deep in its hull that immolated the flagship from the inside out. However the small squadron of vessels that answered the Lexington’s distress call picked up several more Minbari ships waiting in hyperspace, detecting their transmissions as they tried to raise their fallen comrade. Sheridan guessed that when they didn’t get an answer they would eventually jump in at the same co-ordinates to look for the Black Star, and when they did they were going to be in for a big surprise.
Using the missiles on the rescue ships Sheridan repeated the trick, deploying dozens of nuclear weapons of various sizes in and around the Black Stars initial jump point, seeding the asteroids, the wrecks, even pieces of the Black Star itself. Sure enough after a day of waiting the Minbari warships jumped in exactly where predicted, arriving right into a pre planned kill zone with no warning or preparation. It was a massacre, coming out of hyperspace the Sharlin’s were sensor blind and their jump engines were operating at full power, a volatile combination that was easily destabilised by the wave of nuclear blasts. One of the ships made it out, venting air and plasma as it turned and ran, the human ships not quick enough to hunt it down.
It was a clear victory, the one time the Minbari had lost more tonnage in a battle than Earth Force, even though the EA had still bled for it. Sheridan became a hero, his name and deed broadcast galaxy wide and of course picked up by the Minbari. They regarded him with a level of hatred surpassed only by the Shadows themselves, and it became a stated war aim of the Warrior Caste to bring him death. Sheridan was flattered.

After a couple of extremely covert missions Sheridan found himself back on the Lexington, his quick witted thinking and resourcefulness had given him a role in General Lefcourt’s Long Range Raiding Group. When it became obvious stand up fights were a terrible idea Earth Force had begun adopting Guerrilla tactics on a starship scale, deploying small groups of raiders behind enemy lines to raid supplies, hit convoys, basically do whatever they could to slow the advance and buy Earth some time to create a viable defensive strategy. The ships chosen for the mission were the best, the most independently minded and creative who could operate far from home without orders for months at a time, in the case of Captain Jack Maynard that deployment was 18 months and counting with no sign he’d be back anytime soon.
The men and women chosen for these missions would have been commanding Explorer ships in peacetime and during the course of the war had discovered many new worlds that would never make it onto the official star maps. Some were turned into bases to support the raiders, others were mined for valuable materials, and one deep beyond human space was being prepared as Eden, the final hidden refuge of humanity if the war should reach Earth and destroy the cradle of man kind.
Sheridan had been a wise choice and had constantly out foxed the Minbari, further enhancing the utter hatred felt by most of the Warrior Caste. They viewed these raids as without honour and had a hard time adapting to match them, the concept of Guerrilla war utterly alien to their sensibilities. If they considered him a nuisance before that estimation increased vastly when Sheridan teamed up with Captain William Hague, the other hero of the Long Range Raiders.
Together the two officers had formulated new strategies, enacted a massively complex deception campaign designed to keep the Minbari constantly looking over their shoulders, and on several occasions had actually penetrated Minbari space itself and knocked out a handful of bases within their borders. The sheer level of rage those missions had caused was hard to fully estimate, but it amused Sheridan and his crew no end. He figured the Minbari hated his guts anyway, so anything else he did to annoy them was just a bonus and he went out of his way to let the Minbari know exactly who it was that ran rings around them. He had even gone so far as to leave a calling card, a beacon painted with a Tiger chewing up an image of the Black Star. It had the desired effect.
The Raiders, or as they were better known among themselves ‘Bill’s Marauders’ were fighting their own war with the Minbari largely separate from the formal command structure. The dozen ships of the group had their own bond of comradeship, their own customs and traditions, their own awards, even their own slang and jargon. They were utterly loyal to one another and devoted to defending and embodying the greater qualities of Earth. They had taken enormous risks on a nearly daily basis and knew they were the closest thing to a success Earth Force had. In terms of pure materiel contributions their operations had only a slight affect on the course of the war, but in terms of morale, both human and Minbari, their contribution had a significant effect one way or another.

“All told sir,” Commander Carroll remarked conversationally. “I’d rather have our job than the Danube’s.”
Sheridan smiled. “Yeah, poor old Mackie, I bet he’s freezing his ass off on that tin can.”
“A whole month squeezed into just a dozen rooms. Must have been like the early Mars missions.”
“Must have been.” The Commanding officer agreed. “And just as daring.”
“I assume sir you noticed the crew roster on the Danube?” Carroll broached the subject carefully.
“If you’re referring to Lieutenant Lockley, then yeah, I noticed.” Sheridan answered plainly. “That was a few years ago now Justin.”
“Yes sir, no implication.” The officer replied quickly. “Just good to see we brought that ship home in one piece.”
Sheridan nodded. “Yeah, yeah that is a damn good bit of news.”
His relationship with Elizabeth Lockley had not been the smartest move of his life, but like pretty much everything else he had done it had seemed like a good idea at the time. He could still recall the look of utter horror on his parents faces when he informed them he had been married. In Vegas. By Elvis. While just a little bit completely drunk.
He had affection for Lockley, and he sure as hell respected her as a forthright officer with absolutely no sense of fear. She’d tasted the worst life had to offer and after that there was nothing left that would scare her. It made her a brave soldier and fearless leader, but it also made her almost impossible to live with, especially when Sheridan’s personality tended to clash with hers in a series of blazing rows that could have melted lead.
While both of them were in the same fleet he hadn’t met her, indeed he’d gone well out of his way to avoid crossing paths with his old flame, the end of their brief marriage still quite an open wound to them both. Sheridan had moved on, meeting a bright young biologist on Mars during his first operational deployment on the Moon-Mars run. Lockley, as far as he could tell, had not and was just as much of a spitfire as before.
But she was also alive, and that made Sheridan a happy man, even if he didn’t strictly speaking want to have a reunion, one that would almost certainly cost him parts of his anatomy that could not be replaced.
“Well one thing is for sure.” Sheridan beamed. “There are going to be some very angry boneheads out there tonight.”

[Lightning_Count]

The main focus here is going to be on Proxima, the eponymous last star before Earth and the Campaign to hold it. It was one of the rare occasions where Earth came close to turning the tide, to stalling the Minbari advance enough to give the peace advocates a reason to halt the war and allow cooller heads to prevail.

Nearly anyway.

This story will be much shorter than Dilgar war, with only a couple of big events and more a focus on characters. Still, I will include the Battle of the Line and go into detail on some of the behind the scenes activities Earth went into to try and win. Some strategies decidedly unsavoury

I still aim for a Minbari war AU, but as that probably won't have the same ending I'll put that here instead

[hrogge]

Interesting...

[kclcmdr]

Originally Posted by hrogge

Interesting...

Yes... Very Interesting....

Wonders what the Minbari response is toward their bleeding losses caused by the stubborn humans...

[Lightning_Count]

I expect raids like these are the only meaningful thing Earth can do in the war, a nuisance to the Minbari but better than just sitting around

The Minbari fleet is proud and Arrogant, but the regular troops on the ground are nowhere near so lucky...as we'll see in more detail later

[Gosu]

Will you go in the beginning of the EM War? Politics, rationalizations, the mistakes and Jha'durs reaction to hearing that the humans were at war with her captors?
Ever?
Please?

[wellis]

Well this is cool! Will we get to see the outcome of this from the Minbari's point of view? Also when are you going to write your Minbari War AU story?

[MikieBEE]

ALsome, please post more soon! We finally have another story form the Great LC to rave about!

[BG45]

Nuisance nuking can be fun. Nice calling card, one I'm sure amuses at least one Minbari while the rest are enraged.

[Lightning_Count]

The next chapter will in fact start with a Flashback to the beginning of the war detaling the roles one or two characters played in those events
About half done at this point, had some lucky timing
The AU is for the future... sometime. Eventually

I would expect a little bit of Jha'dur mockery at some point, but mostly we'll be following the Minbari themselves including some familiar characters...

[MKL]

Finally, keep on LC. Waiting for the story to be unveiled.

[jpdt19]

Up to your usual superb standard LC, very very nice thanks

[Lightning_Count]

2

18 Months earlier
January 2246
Geneva, Earth


“This isn’t going to happen, no way, I won’t allow it!” Senator Henry Brogan snarled, his face red with anger and frustration. “Exactly who the hell do they think they are?”
He paced up and down the room, the simple living quarters with increase rage, the annoyance and outrage boiling within him like a pressure cooker.
“This isn’t justice!” He said firmly. “It’s a damn circus! A media show to deflect blame, that’s the bottom line!”
Sat on the couch in the same room, hunched over and paying only scant attention to the rant was Michael Jankowski, at one time a Captain in Earth Force and now stripped of rank, bereft of decorations and regarded by almost all of humanity as the most vilified and hated creature on the planet.
“They aren’t getting away with this.” Brogan grunted again. “No way, they do not know who they are dealing with!”
Jankowski was under house arrest, locked in his quarters with two guards on the door at all times. Not only was he confined to his apartment, but the entire block had been emptied, the fifty other officers who would have also lived there given other rooms in a different building ostensibly for their own safety. Security was expecting vigilante attacks on Jankowski constantly and didn’t want any innocent and valuable personnel killed or injured as collateral damage. It had not reassured Jankowski of his own safety, but by now he couldn’t care less.
It had been two months since the Prometheus incident, two months since he had been drawn in by the Minbari ships and forced to fight his way out. Two months since the war started. It hadn’t been his fault, the Minbari had tricked him, lured him in and tried too seize his ship and crew for heaven knew what. He had defended himself and had done so effectively, killing one of the nefarious Minbari leaders.
It was all a set up, clearly the Minbari wanted a war and engineered this situation. He was just a scapegoat, why didn’t anyone else see that? It wasn’t his fault.
Jankowski had repeated that defence time and again, and each time he said it the more hollow it became, the cheaper it sounded. In the end even he didn’t believe it anymore. He fumbled, he took an unnecessary risk because he wanted fame and glory and promotion. The whole mission had been one big opportunity to make a name for himself, to create a reputation.
It gave him a reputation alright, one that hung about his neck like a chained weight.

“You did what anyone in your position would do!” Brogan stated confidently. “They can’t blame you for that!”
“I shouldn’t have been there.” Jankowski managed to croak quietly. “I made this happen.”
Brogan stormed over and grabbed him firmly by the shoulders, violently forcing him to look up.
“You never, never say that! Hear me? Never!”
He let him go and went back to pacing.
“They aren’t even bothering with the law anymore! To hell with that! We’ll get you a fair trial, and a fair trail will never convict, not with the lawyers I can afford!”
“I’m ready for whatever they decide.”
Brogan sneered at the broken officer. “You drop the defeatist attitude right now Mike. This isn’t just you on trial, if you go down you take a lot of other people with you. Me included.”
Jankowski shook his head. “So that’s the bottom line? You are helping me to save yourself?”
“You’re my son in law.” Brogan said. “And yes, I’ve invested a lot of effort into you. I made your career, I set you on the path towards becoming a General, and I am not throwing that away.” He glared at the man. “And neither are you.”
Brogan sighed loudly. His fortunes had been waning lately and the political power he had accumulated over decades was decreasing rapidly. He had been Secretary of State under the Hauser Administration and was a viable candidate to succeed him as President. That dream had failed to materialise, his support drying up at the last minute and allowing Elizabeth Levy, the former Vice President to move into the top job. To make matters even worse his old rival Karl Durban, the former EIA chief had taken the role of Vice President from under Brogans nose.
He had been fuming, but worse was to come when Levy shuffled her cabinet and retired Brogan from his role as Secretary of State, replacing him with some jumped up diplomat called David Sheridan. He was furious, and had immediately called in his backers, and not the ones he knew from the Senate.

Henry Brogan was a man of many contacts, he had friends in all aspects of government life from the navy to the EIA to the Senate, but of all his contacts by far the most valuable was a young French girl called Clare. On the surface she looked utterly inoffensive, a low level telepathic clerk in the PsiCorps. It was all a façade, she was in fact a full P12 PsiCop but more than that she took her orders not from the Corps but from an organisation buried so deep and dark it had taken Brogan eight years just to find a name. Bureau 13.
He knew virtually nothing about them, the only thing he knew for certain was that the Bureau had the power to make or break anyone, even someone as highly ranked as Brogan himself. They had promised to help him achieve power in exchange for certain favours he had been able to perform in the Senate. Brogan had done his part, but the Bureau seemed to be reneging on theirs. Brogan began pulling strings of his own, calling on his own resources to rebuild his influence in government. One such scheme had involved elevating his son in law through the ranks of Earth Force to give Brogan a louder voice in military matters. That plan had back fired spectacularly.
This was not the first time Michael Jankowski had been in trouble. At the start of the Dilgar war he had triggered a shooting conflict before Earth Force was properly placed to intervene, forcing Admiral Hamato to commit to battle with his local forces or completely lose all pretence of surprise. Jankowski was removed from duty and court martialled, though ultimately Earth’s success in the war saved the officer from a dishonourable discharge. Brogan hired an incredible legal team that managed to get all charges dropped, and not by honest means, and allowed Jankowski to remain in the Force albeit commanding a desk in the payroll office.
Over the years Brogan positioned Jankowski so that he would eventually be placed back in command of a ship, hailing him the hero of Markab whose prompt actions saved millions of lives by making the EA intervene just in time to prevent Jha’dur bombing the planet. It eventually worked and Jankowski took the Prometheus, a veteran Heavy Cruiser assigned to the Exploration division. After that it was childs play to ensure the next big exploration mission went to the Prometheus, and that Jankowski would have credit for being the first human to investigate Minbari space.
Brogan did not even pause to ask himself if his son in law actually had what it took to run the mission, he only cared about the reflected prestige he would gain.

For the second time he had been forced to deploy damage control, concocting a story that the Minbari were to blame and that Jankowski was just doing his job in difficult circumstances. Like the Dilgar war he expected early successes to shift the focus away from how the war started and simply let the controversy be buried under news of Earth Force victories. But there were no victories, only defeat after defeat. It took a while for the full extent of the defeats to filter through, but when news broke that the entire Third Fleet had been wiped out to the last ship, the best combat force in the entire Alliance was gone with barely a single enemy kill, then the public had begun to look for someone to blame.
Jankowski was clearly doomed, Earth Force released the transcript of the First Contact to the media and the Captain’s faults became immediately known. He was doomed, and Brogan had no hesitation in cutting his ties and throwing his son in law to the wolves. Unfortunately someone had discovered and then leaked details of Brogans involvement as the driving force behind Jankowski’s assignment which had tarred the Senator with the same brush. If Jankowski went down Brogan was going with him, so to save himself he had to save the Captain. It was looking like an impossible task, and Brogan could see his dreams of power slipping away by the second. He was not best pleased.
“We are going to fight this all the way!” He snarled harshly. “Every single step!”
Anything further he was going to say was cut off by the sound of latches retracting from the front door, the recently reinforced portal designed to keep enraged people out as much as to keep Jankowski in. it swung open to reveal two men, neither of them were welcome in the house.
“What the hell do you want?” Brogan demanded. “Come to gloat?”
Victor Chapel did not answer, the dark suited Director of the EIA simply entered the living room and took in the scene, noting the location of the surveillance cameras around the room. While he was now middle aged Chapel maintained a strong physique, a reminder of his violent history as a field agent. The other man was even more grim looking, hard faced and scarred he also wore a business suit but would have been better suited to a military uniform.
“Who’s your friend?” Brogan huffed. “Too scared to come alone? Had to bring yourself a guard dog?”

Chapel remained impassive as he placed himself in an armchair near the door, his associate standing at his side without so much as changing expression at Brogan’s jibes. From within his pocket Chapel took out a small device, an electronic jammer, and activated it with a whine.
“No surveillance.” Chapel spoke at last in his gravely voice. “Just us four in this room.”
“What do you want?” Brogan asked, hiding curiosity.
“I’m here to hand you a deal.” Chapel said.
“A deal?” Brogan smiled. “Scared about going to trial?”
“This isn’t going to make it to trial.” Chapel said flatly. “Not an issue.”
“It will go to trial, I’ll make sure of it.” Brogan said. “A public trial where we can air all our little secrets. Longer it goes, the worse it will be.”
Chapel regarded him coldly. “All that will do is harm Earth.”
“I don’t really care. Clear him fast or it’s going to be a nightmare for the EIA. You’d be surprised how much I know about your operations.”
“That might have worked before, but not anymore.” Chapel shook his head. “We’re getting our asses kicked, Jankowski is to blame. Ten billion people want to see justice done and I’m going to deliver.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“It doesn’t matter, he’s finished.” Chapel glared at the officer. “I’m not here for him.”
Brogan paused. “That a fact?”
“My deal is for you Harry.” Chapel said. “Like it or not I’m the only thing standing between you and a fate worse than death.”
The Senator laughed. “Very good, real theatrical. Try again.”
“You’re about ten minutes away from a one way trip to Teep town.” Chapel continued. “Seems someone in PsiCorps is pissed with you, and I mean really pissed.”

Brogan huffed in derision, but inside was beginning to feel really, really nervous.
“What can they do? I’m a Senator.”
“It isn’t going to make any difference.” Chapel shook his head. “I have it from a trusted source they are coming for you, and they will make you disappear.”
“I’m too high profile.”
“After what’s happening out there, no, that won’t save you.”
Inside Brogan believed it, but he had his own resources, he wasn’t about to accept help from the EIA of all people.
“Well appreciate the warning Director, selfless as it was.” He mocked. “I guess I better be going then.”
Chapel’s associate moved to block the door.
“No Senator, I don’t think so.” Chapel said. “You see I have a little bone to pick with you. Several really, and on top of that you haven’t heard my deal.”
“Alright Vic, what is your deal?”
“Easy, you come clean. You tell us what you know, all the dirty deals you have, all the little cliques and secret societies you are in cahoots with, and in return we take you somewhere safe.”
“To live in hiding until I die?”
Chapel shrugged. “Better than the alternative.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I’ll hand you over to Psi Corps myself.”

Brogan grinned. “Now I know you’re bluffing. You hate Psi Corps Vic! You’d never work with them! Never give them what they want!”
Chapel kept a straight face. “Wrong. You see I also want you gone, and this way it happens with no blood on my hands. Now you’re right, I hate the Psi Corps, I think they’re jumped up fascists who think they run the planet. But to beat them I need one thing, you have to take the deal.”
“Rough choice, hide out with you or die. You know it’s hard to decide which is worse.”
“Think fast Harry, clock’s ticking.”
Brogan smiled thinly, his mind working through the possibilities.
“Know what I think Vic? I think you’re bluffing.”
“You think wrong.” Chapel replied deadpan.
“I think you need what I know, and you’ll pull any trick to get it.” Brogan shook his head. “I’m in no danger, you just want me out of the way so I can’t run any trial.”
“You just aren’t getting it are you?” Chapel sighed. “You stepped on too many toes, blew too many plans with this war. You’re finished.”
“I’m too valuable to these people Vic, they need me.”
“So I guess that’s why everyone has rallied to support you.” Chapel grinned. “Oh, wait, let me push through this ground of friends you’ve got surrounding you.”
“Yeah, funny Vic.”
“Your so called friends have hung you out to dry. They do what rats do best, they jumped off the sinking ship.”
“Some of them, but not my real friends.”
“No, you’re right, they haven’t left you. In fact they’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know the sort of circles you’ve been running in.” Chapel replied. “And I know people like that don’t leave loose ends hanging around untied.”

“Trying to scare me?”
“You’re already scared.” Chapel pointed out simply. “Because you know I’m right. Why don’t you examine your options, what are you going to do?”
“You think I don’t have plans Vic?”
“What can you do? Run? Hide?” Chapel asked. “We both know you won’t get far.”
“If that’s true what makes you think you can help?” Brogan wondered. “These people, they know everything you’re doing.”
“Not everything.”
“The EIA are a bunch of idiot amateurs compared to them, and we both know it.”
“I wouldn’t write us off so quick.” Chapel said. “Come with me.”
Beside him the other agent touched his ear, receiving a transmission. He merely nodded.
“Looks like your friends are here.” Chapel remarked. “Last chance.”
“No Vic, nice try, but no.”
The Senator folded his arms.
“You see they owe me some favours, and I think now’s the time to get some of tem delivered.”
“Doesn’t work that way, they aren’t here to rescue you.”
“Yes they are Vic, and you want to prevent it. One last desperate gamble for information. I’m not buying it Vic.” He snorted. “Karl was better at this than you are.”
“Your funeral.” Chapel shrugged. “If you’re lucky.”
“Game over Vic, talk to your friends, get them to make this trial go away, blame the Minbari.”
“Come out of the fantasy Harry, look around you.” Chapel said still calm as ever. “No one is walking away from this.”
The door unlocked again.
“Actually Vic, I’m about to do just that.”

Once again the door opened, this time revealing a diminutive man dressed entirely in black, the only colour coming from the silver and gold badge pinned to his chest, the emblem of the Psi Corps.
“Senator Brogan, we knew you’d be here.” The man smiled sickly sweet. “My Name is Alfred Bester, I’m here to escort you to a safe location. There have been a number of threats made regarding your life. Considering the good work you have done in the past for us it would be wrong of us just to leave you unprotected.”
Brogan bowed his head. “Thank you Mr Bester, your regard for my health is much appreciated.”
Bester glanced over the room with a smile. “Director Chapel, so good to meet you again.”
“Morning Al, how’s the head? Nasty fall down those stairs you had.”
“Just fine, thank you for your concern.” Bester answered. “I will find the man who pushed me.”
Chapel hid a smile. “I’ve narrowed the list of suspects to sixteen billion, I’ll forward it to you.”
“I’ll remember how helpful you’ve been.” The Psi Cop said with insincerity. “Mr Senator, a car is waiting.”
“What about Mike?” Brogan looked down at Jankowski, still on the verge of catatonia.
“I’m afraid we only have room for one.” Bester said. “We can take him instead?”
“No.” Brogan answered a little quickly. “That won’t be necessary.”
“We should go then.”
Brogan pulled his jacket down over his shoulders, gave a parting glance to his son in law, then left him behind without a though.
“Good by Vic, see you later.” He grinned as he walked to the door.
“No Harry, you never will.” Chapel gave a simple wave. “Better take a cold drink, I hear it’s pretty damn hot where you’re going.”

Two more Psi Cops were waiting outside the door, they fell in beside Brogan and walked him down the corridor to the stairs and then out of sight, leaving Chapel and Bester staring after him.
“Off the record.” Chapel said. “What will you do to him?”
“Out of my hands.” Bester replied smugly. “He’s got enemies way beyond you or me.”
“Now I know you have more information than that.”
Bester nodded. “I’m just a Psi Cop Director Chapel, what could I know of such things?”
“Theoretically.” Chapel said.
“Theoretically? I’d say he’s going to be driven to a very quiet room where some very scary people are going to take a trip in his mind.” Bester stated with no emotion. “I suspect they’ll then implant a few living nightmare sin his consciousness and see how long it take shim to die from just screaming. Quite remarkable, I hear you scream so hard it shreds your throat and you drown in blood. Should be interesting to see if its true. In theory.”
“In theory.” Chapel nodded.
“If it was true, would you try to stop it?”
Chapel stepped back into the doorway, expression blank. “Let him rot.”
He slammed the door shut, leaving a grinning Bester to trot along after his friends. He left the building and found two black cars waiting outside, one for Brogan and one for the rest of the team.
“This is yours Mr Senator.” Bester walked up and opened the door for him. “You won’t have to worry anymore, you are in our hands now.”
“I like the sound of that.” Brogan grinned and ducked in, finding another person already waiting for him. He recognised her at once as Clare, the blond haired agent sat comfortably in the care.
“Welcome.” She said as the door closed and the vehicle set off.
“I knew you’d come through.” Brogan said happily. “You have a safe house for me?”
“Very safe.” She nodded. “No one will find you there.”
“Great, now about my family.”
“We will deal with them, depending on what you have told them.”
Brogan frowned. “I don’t understand?”
“If you have informed them about us Senator, we will have to take steps to make sure such information remains discrete.” Clare remarked smoothly. “I pray for their sakes you have kept quiet.”
He swallowed hard. “You didn’t come to protect me did you?”
“We protect ourselves and Earth, you have jeopardised both mon cherie.” She commented calmly.
“Leave my family alone, please.” Brogan said with increasing despair. “Your secret dies with me.”
“Yes it does Senator.” Clare said. “That you can be sure of.”

[Lightning_Count]

Chapel saw the cars driving away, slightly annoyed to have lost such a source of information, but not in the least bit sorry for the man himself. As the main architect of the fiasco Brogan got all he deserved, but while justice was catching up Harry Brogan there was still the matter of Jankowski.
He turned away from the window and grabbed a chair, dragging it in front of Jankowski on the other side of a coffee table. The officer barely noticed him, his uniform jacket hanging open and his badges of rank slanted at an unkempt angle. He looked like hell, and damn well deserved it.
“Just us now Mike, don’t mind if I call you Mike?” Chapel began. “I thought you might want a little update. Fifty thousand.”
Jankowski’s haggard eyes moved up. “What?” he managed weakly.
“Fifty Thousand. That’s how many people are dead because of you.” Chapel delivered simply. “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Peace negotiations have broken down, the Minbari are expanding their offensive and we haven’t got jack that can stand up to them. We tried to negotiate, we tried to plead, we even offered to Surrender. They don’t care, they want us dead. Thanks Jankowski, really, thanks.”
The Captain barely responded, he had no emotion left.
“You know they even offered to give you away, to pin all the blame on this for you.” Chapel said. “Which you know, is right because it is your fault. They were going to let the Minbari try you and execute you, probably slowly. The law book just went right out the window, that’s how desperate we are Mike thanks to you.”
“It… it wasn’t just me…” Jankowski defended weakly.
“I’m sorry Mike, I missed that, speak up a little.” Chapel said. “Because it sounded like you were going to weasel out of responsibility.”
“I know I have to carry some of the blame.” The officer said.
“Some of it?”
“I might have over reacted…”

His words were cut off in that moment by a sharp blow to the side of the head, Chapel leaning forward and crunching a fist into his temple with shuddering force.
“No Mike, stop listening to Brogan!” Chapel snarled. “What happened out there?”
“I…I…” Jankowski stuttered.
“Tell me Captain!” Chapel demanded. “You’re in that uniform, for once why don’t you act like it!”
“You know what happened!” Jankowski yelled in fear and anger.
“I want to hear it from you! I want you to tell the truth and accept it!” Chapel pushed. “Tell me!”
Jankowski bit down on his lower lip, then looked up. “I had orders to investigate the Minbari.”
“Wrong answer!” Chapel shouted. “You had orders to check out Minbari space, see where it was. Did you have orders to initiate first contact?”
“No.”
“What?”
“I said no!” Jankowski grunted.
“You know why? Because Lefcourt knew you weren’t up for this! He knew you were a snivelling political apron rider and he wanted you to stay the hell away from them! He wanted contact to be initiated by someone whose last first contact didn’t trigger a major damn war!”
“They drew us in!”
“You ordered your ships in closer, despite standing orders to avoid contact!” Chapel jabbed his finger. “You broke orders, you played your own little game because you thought you were smarter than the General Staff and because daddy Brogan would smooth things over! You screwed up bad you stupid bastard, and we’re all dying because of it!”

Chapel sat back down, his anger subsiding. “You aren’t fit to draw breath.”
Jankowski looked up, but couldn’t meet his gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t even dare.” Chapel said coldly. “You do not get to say that and make it all right.”
“I’m sorry.” Jankowski said louder. “I made a mistake, but what am I supposed to do now?”
“There isn’t going to be a trial.” The EIA Director said. “Morale is already rock bottom, dwelling on what started this won’t help.”
“So I’m going to disappear? Get in a car and vanish?”
“No, not you. Sad fact is you’re too high profile.”
“Then I’ve got a proposal.” Jankowski said. “Give me my ship back.”
“Are you insane?”
“You’re going to need officers, hell even if I don’t have command I have skills! Demote me, put me on a flying junk pile, doesn’t matter! I’ll do my part.”
“No one will serve on the same ship as you.”
“So I’ll take a fighter, a…a shuttle!”
“No you won’t.”
“I deserve a chance at redemption!”
“You had it after the Dilgar war. You screwed up at the Omega Incident, then you screwed up again even worse. No way are we letting you try again. You’re a walking apocalypse.”
“If you just let me try… let me back on the Prometheus, just as a rating, anything!”
“I can’t do that.”
“Please!”
“I can’t because the Prometheus was destroyed two days ago over Cyrus colony.” Chapel informed. “Thirty one people managed to survive.”

Jankowski fell back with a gasp, the air literally knocked from his lungs. “My ship…”
“And many more besides, all your fault.”
“I’m ready to fight!” Jankowski affirmed. “I’m ready to die.”
“Good, then you’re in luck.”
Chapel reached into his pocket and took out a lumpy black cloth bag that he upended on the coffee table. From within a hand gun fell out with a loud clank, its gleaming silver body laying perfectly still n the suddenly perfectly still room.
“Wha…what is this?” Jankowski asked in trepidation.
“It’s a PPG.” Chapel said. “Actually it’s yours, signed registered and documented.”
“I don’t own one.”
“You do now.” Said the former Agent. “Pick it up.”
Jankowski shook his head. “No.”
“Pick it up or I’ll give you to the Psi Corps.”
The former Captain slowly reached down with a shaking hand and picked up the small gun, gripping it tightly in his white knuckles.
“Now this is the easy part.” Chapel continued. “You put it to your temple and pull the trigger.”
Jankowski’s eyes shot up to the EIA Director in utter shock. His mouth moved but no words came out.
“Yeah, you heard.” Chapel went on, ignoring his reaction. “Suicide Mike, quickest cleanest option for all of us.”
“You’re insane!” Jankowski screamed. “What the hell is going on!”

Chapel remained emotionless in the face of the outburst. “No trial Mike, no firing squad, no alien extradition, no chance of a glorious death in battle. You have one choice, you pull that trigger or you don’t and we do it for you.”
He looked down at the gun in his hand, and then at the man sat opposite, slowly almost subconsciously turning the muzzle to point at Chapel.
“You’re problem here Mike is that you don’t plan ahead, which we all kinda guessed already.” Chapel said. “If you shoot me my friend here will finish you. You don’t know him, he’s called Ivan, say hello Ivan.”
The scarred EIA Agent grinned, revealing teeth artificially filed to sharp points like an animal. Jankowski nearly wet himself.
“You see Ivan is an expert at what he does. He’s a killer.” Chapel said. “Hell, he’s killed more people than World War Three, but lets say you get lucky and shoot him first. Then you shoot the two Commandoes on the door, and the eight outside, and fight your way out of EarthDome. Then what? Where do you go? Your face is known everywhere Mike. Think you can outrun the EIA? What about the whole planet? Ten billion people baying for your blood. What do you think they’ll do to you Mike? Think it’ll be quicker than that gun and your head?”
Jankowski looked back down at his gun, gradually turning it inward.
“I didn’t want any of this.”
“No.” Chapel stood. “Nor did the Fifty Thousand families who lost kids or parents to the Minbari. Do something honourable for once.”
Chapel nodded to Ivan who opened the door, leading the way out. The Director paused to put on the rooms video displays, each screen showing images of the hopeless battles and the annihilation of Earth fleets as a reminder of Jankowski’s responsibility.
“And Mike.” Chapel said. “Straighten your damn uniform and go like a man.”
They stepped out into the hallway and closed the door, waiting there for a minute in total silence until finally there was the hissing report of a single PPG gunshot. Chapel and Ivan shared a look, then the Director cranked open the door, looked in, then shut it behind him with a click.
“We should have done this after the first time.” Chapel said darkly. “Wait a hour, then call the police.”
He nodded to the guards, both prospective EIA field agents and entirely loyal to Chapel.
“My people will fix the surveillance tapes, simple suicide, his conscience finally got the better of him.”
The Director paused for a moment to look at the door, reflecting on the scene within with a grim sense of satisfaction. This was by no means the first suicide he’d fixed, though it was probably the easiest, Jankowski hadn’t needed much pushing to fall off the edge. Somewhere deep down maybe he really did feel sorry. Chapel couldn’t care less.
“I’ve got a meeting.” He set off, turning his back finally on the room and its history. “And you Ivan have a team to pick out, see what sort of pain those boneheads can stand.
He took the stairs three at a time, bursting through the doors to the apartment invigorated with purpose. He had been close to retiring as Director, but couldn’t leave now, not with this war raging around him. The EIA had its job to do, and so too did Victor Chapel. It was going to be a lot messier than today’s little bit of work.

[Lightning_Count]

The Present Day
June 8th 2247


“You with me Vic?”
Chapel looked up, pushing the memory of that day out of his mind. Jankowski was long gone, but the legacy he had created still burned across Earth space inching ever closer to the homeworld itself.
“Just reminiscing.” He stood from the wooden chair in the richly appointed waiting room deep inside EarthDOme, the surroundings designed to enhance calm but failing utterly in the current circumstances..
“Good memory?” the other man, his good friend Karl Durban asked.
Chapel smiled a little. “Actually, yeah, yeah it was.”
“Well we’re on, the President is ready to see us.” The bright eyed Australian stated, still energetic and optimistic even after all that had happened.
“Finally.” The new Director of the EIA said to his predecessor. “When we say important you’d think by now she’d understand that meant right away.”
“She’s got a lot to deal with.” Durban allowed on her behalf. “Not everyday you preside over Armageddon.”
“Which is why she should be happy to see us.” Chapel picked up his briefcase and started walking, treading through the carpeted halls of EarthDome. Usually the corridors were busy, bustling with clerks and attaches but lately that level of activity had reduced a lot. Some people remained, but only enough to keep the building ticking over. Most of the workers had been drafted when the manpower shortages really began to bite.
Durban knew the way like the back of his hand, he’d been a regular guest at Presidential meetings for twenty years now, since before the Dilgar war in one form or another. Today he was attending as Vice President with responsibility for gathering and sifting through whatever information he considered relevant for the President to know. It wasn’t strictly speaking part of his job as Vice President, but his old skills as an EIA agent had proven a benefit, releasing a whole team of government analysts to join other intelligence departments while Durban did their work himself.
It kept him constantly busy, but Durban liked that. The way things were going nobody should be idle, there was always something that needed to happen and Durban was a big believer in leading by example. There would be time to rest when the war was over, one way or another.
The two men paused at the doorway and knocked gently, their signal answered by a muffled voice inviting them in. The office itself had changed little, only the assorted ornaments and trinkets were different reflecting President Levy’s particular tastes. The Great Seal still dominated the room behind her desk while tall windows looked out over the still well kept grounds of the Earth Dome facility stretching along the shores of Lake Geneva and beyond.

“Good Morning Madam President.” Durban started proceedings. “How are those sleeping tablets?”
Elizabeth Levy was slouched in her chair, a woman who looked like she’d run two Marathons over broken glass only to get punched repeatedly in the stomach at the end. When she appeared on the news she was always alert and bright, she had to in order to keep up public perceptions that EarthGov was still directing the war. In truth her energy was supplied in a small bottle by the President’s personal physician.
“No so good Karl.” She answered tiredly. “Gets harder and harder to sleep nowadays.”
“I understand Madam President.” Durban stood before her desk, waiting for an invitation to sit down. When it seemed clear she wasn’t catching on he coughed politely.
“Oh, sit down gentlemen.” She said quickly, pulling herself forward and forcing some energy into her eyes. For all her difficulties Levy still had an incredibly strong personality, it was probably her greatest asset and a quality that even now engendered respect across the whole demographic of humanity. Durban had seen her at her best and worse, through incredibly deep bouts of depression and through some of the most stirring speeches the galaxy could recall. He had never found himself thinking she was not the right person for the job, and was always impressed at how swiftly she rose to the occasion.
“So what do you have for me?”
“Good news.” Durban smiled. “Captain Hague managed to attack a Minbari supply base on Beta Durani.”
Levy clearly brightened. “Excellent, how did he do?”
“Razed it to the ground.” Durban reported happily, glad to have even one piece of good news to share. “He also winged a Sharlin cruiser, put it out of action for a few months at least.”
Levy chuckled genuinely, the weariness lifting away like a morning mist. “Did we lose anyone?”
“Not a soul.”
“That’s just brilliant Karl, brilliant. We’re giving this to all the networks?”
“After we delete some classified references, yes Ma’am.” Durban confirmed.
“This is exactly what we need to pick up morale.” She spoke gleefully. “Captain Hague again, he’s getting quite a reputation.”
“Yes Ma’am, there’s a lot of talk in the senate about promoting him to full General.”
Levy mulled over the idea. “Be a nice PR move, think he can handle it?”
“I think he has what it takes.” Durban confirmed. “He just never stays still long enough for us to bring him down for a ceremony!”

Levy smiled. “A good officer, dedicated to his people. They all are.”
“Yes Ma’am, they are.”
“And all we can give them are orders to fight in a battle they have no chance of surviving.” The President said, the returning depression creeping back into her mind.
“We are saving more people Madam President, with better evacuation procedures and the use of jump equipped civilian ships to open a vortex for escape pods our overall fatalities are far less than the beginning of the war.”
“But the end result is still the same.” She sighed. “Director, what about the spy ship from Durani, did you get it back?”
Chapel confirmed. “Yes Ma’am, my people are going over the recorders now in detail, but I have a summary right here.”
“How are our people?” she asked with genuine concern, the thought of such a large colony under occupation truly painful to her.
“They seem as well as expected.” Chapel confirmed, delivering some measure of relief. “There’s no evidence of orbital strikes on population centres and no Minbari troops in the area. It looks like they’re following their standard procedure of ignoring the civilians and simply blockading the planet from orbit and concentrating ground troops around their own bases.”
“Their layout is designed to make guerrilla attacks very difficult.” Durban took over. “They set up in remote areas, build their bases close to each other so they can be easily monitored and patrolled, set up a large central command point surrounded by supply yards and barracks, very formulaic.”
“It works well for what it’s designed for.” Chapel agreed. “But it’s the worst possible arrangement for surviving a nuclear strike. Which kind of happened.”
“Can we expect retribution against the civilians for this?”
“Impossible to say.” Durban was forced to admit. “Some Minbari factions would do it in an instant, but from what we know the current dominant Minbari group has strictly forbidden attacks on unarmed people.”
“Regrettably not an act of mercy Madam President.” Chapel added. “Simply their belief that killing unarmed people stains their honour as true warriors. Bad news is plenty of Warriors disagree with that and eventually once our defences are gone they will turn on our civilians.”
“And that will end the human race.” Levy spoke heavily. “Unless we find a way to stop them?”
“Unless we find a way.” Durban agreed.

Levy poured herself a drink of spring water drawn from the nearby Alps, offering the cool liquid to her two experts. Deeply she drank the clear water, wishing it would wash away the dark foreboding in her soul but knowing somewhere that such a thing was impossible. She did not know what to do, every day seemed to bring them closer to defeat and she could not steer them clear, she couldn’t fulfil her sacred job as President and guide humanity to safety and salvation. No matter what she did things just got worse.
“Twenty months, twenty months of fighting.” She said. “Twenty months of death and destruction and loss. What have we got left? What can we try?” She shook her head sadly. “What chance do we have?”
“Our research division is working around the clock Madam President.” Durban said. “Even now we’re bringing new technology into play, new sensors, new safe guards, new ships.”
“Alright then, what do we have that can take on a Minbari vessel?”
“There are some designs, a couple are reaching prototype stage…”
“Prototypes.” Levy sighed. “We needed these ships a year ago.”
Durban refrained from saying that if the budgets hadn’t been slashed after the Dilgar war they probably already would have.
“We have almost completed the Cyclops prototype.” Durban continued calmly. “A Nova refitted with our version of the Hyach Spinal laser. It still needs some ironing out however the weapon itself works and is capable of blasting clean through a Sharlin cruiser in one clean hit.”
“So all you need to do is get a hit?” Levy said dismally. “What about the other one, what was it?”
“Medusa Ma’am.” Durban said. “Designed to carry twice the firepower of a Nova and defeat enemies by sheer weight of fire and armour. It’s about sixty percent complete.”
“Will it work?”
“Yes Ma’am, the design is sound. How effective it will be… well no one can answer that until after it sees action.”

Levy rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. “What about the new technology, the stuff we bought from the Narn?”
“We’re reproducing it at full capacity, most of our remaining ships are already refitted with uprated weapons. We’ve managed to greatly increase our firepower with only a negligible increase in mass.”
“Has it helped?”
“It has made a difference.” Durban confirmed. “In terms of raw firepower our ships can actually match the Minbari weapons, our ships are equally destructive, or in the case of a Nova massively more powerful. Unfortunately we are still no closer to cracking Minbari Jammers, and if we can’t hit them all the firepower in the world won’t make a difference.”
“We have new ships and fighters in advanced development.” Chapel added in. “New Starfuries, a super Destroyer we’re codenaming ‘Warlock’ and massively improved satellite defences based on Particle cannons. The bad news is we need time, even at full capacity it’s going to take at least a year, for the super ships a lot longer.”
“What about the battlecruisers, the Nova-X type?”
“They should be ready sooner, the technicians have been busy fitting them with the Centauri weapons, a full rebuild.” Durban said. “Enough to reclassify them as a new ship, the Omega class.”
“Can they take a Sharlin?” Levy asked.
“They have heavily upgraded weapons, excellent range, and the latest armour means they can withstand several direct hits.”
“Karl, can they win?”
He exhaled. “Without a clean lock? We estimate a three to one loss ration.”
She closed her eyes and held in her emotions.
“Which is better than the five to one loss ration for Novas, and eight to one for Hyperions.” Chapel pointed out. “But we estimate eighteen months until production is advanced enough to field Omega’s in large numbers, and that’s assuming the yards at Io, Mars and Proxima are operating at full capacity.”
Levy looked up at the two men, each in turn.
“We don’t have eighteen months do we?”

Karl Durban returned her gaze confidently. “We don’t know. Things are bad, but if you remember at the start of the war most people gave us three months tops, and we’re still fighting nearly two years later.”
“I see the maps gentlemen, we’ve lost every colony between Earth and the Minbari border, there’s only one left. Proxima.”
“That is true Madam President.” Durban had to agree.
“If Proxima falls, Earth is next.” Levy said.
“Earth Force is working with the EIA to try and delay that possibility Ma’am.” Durban said. “We’re lucky in the fact that Earth is in a difficult position with regards to Hyperspace, there is only one reliable jump route through and that is from Proxima. We’ve been keeping the hyperspace beacons turned off and that has given us some time, but even if the Minbari do find us they can only approach from one direction.”
“We also know the Minbari are methodical.” Chapel added. “They won’t move on Earth until they are positive Proxima is secure. What we need to do is to keep Proxima contested, even if we have no real chance of taking it back we have to make the Minbari think we can.”
“Basically Madam President we’re shifting the battle for Earth to Proxima, keeping the fighting there instead of here.” The Vice President explained. “Our one and only goal is to keep the Sol system free of Minbari until we can implement our new weapons.”
“But for eighteen months?” Levy asked. “Most battles don’t last eighteen minutes.”
“We do have a plan for that Ma’am.” Chapel mentioned. “Base don our early reports of Minbari ships shutting down our jump drives.”
“We solved the problem didn’t we?” Levy asked.
“We did Ma;am, through extensive shielding we managed to prevent the Minbari sensors disrupting our hyperspace systems.” Chapel affirmed. “However we have been trying to duplicate the effect to prevent enemy ships from jumping in.”
“We trialled a test model with the Marauders.” Durban took over. “Since then the Minbari haven’t been able to jump on top of our ships like the Black Star enjoyed trying. Ultimately though our goal is more far reaching.”
“We’re going to prevent them jumping out anywhere in the Sol system.” Chapel said.

Levy looked at them with obvious scepticism.
“How on earth can you do that? The power requirements must be enormous?”
“That’s right ma’am, our team believes the only way to do it is to alter the sun to emit a particular type of radiation that will…”
“Alter the sun?” Levy said with incredulity. “Gentlemen, is this something we should be playing with?”
Durban inclined his head slightly. “We’re out of options Ma’am, we don’t even know if it will work. But if it does it will keep the Minbari out of our space and buy us the time we need to counter them.”
“Even if this does work, we are still outgunned.” Levy pointed out.
“Yes Ma’am, any prospect of a total victory is frankly untenable.” Durban agreed. “But we can try and force them to a settlement, drag the war out beyond their ability to sustain it. The Minbari have a much harder time replacing losses than we do, even a moderately damaged ship can be out of the war for months at a time and their entire way of war is extremely time consuming, especially with our constant raids. Every day drains their resources more, especially when we have people like Hague taking out supply bases.”
“There is going to come a point where the Minbari won’t be able to keep their fleet deployed.” Chapel stated confidently. “They don’t have the flexibility to adapt to our way of war, they’re set up for a straight fight, fleet to fleet, a type of war they excel at.”
“They put all their resources into a massive fleet blitz, a huge hammer blow designed to flatten us in a few months.” Durban informed in turn. “They just can’t afford to maintain that intensity of warfare for much longer, and they can’t reduce their commitments because they know we can damage ships, put them out of the war and erode their strength slowly but surely until they have to withdraw. They fought themselves into a corner and they only have one way out, maintaining their rolling offensive.”
“What we have to do is stall it, drag it out, it’s a war of attrition.” The EIA man continued. “Not ship for ship, but economy for economy. We can force them to postpone their attacks until they rebuild their supplies, and before they do that we can have our new ships in service and make the war even more costly for them.”
Durban nodded in agreement. “A General once said wars aren’t won by the side with the best equipment or the bravest men, they are won by the side that can stay on its feet for five seconds longer than the other guy. That’s all we have to do Ma’am, just stay standing for the next eighteen months. And we do that by holding Proxima.”

“I’d like to believe this will work.” President Levy tapped her hands on the desk. “But we’ve tried before to force the Minbari into a battle like this, to make them fight for every inch of space between Earth and the border. They’ve always just rolled over us.”
“The problem has always been the Minbari fleet.” Durban said. “They cut through our ships then bombard our army formations, reducing us to low level resistance. Make no mistake, our soldiers fight like hell but without heavy equipment and with no supplies there isn’t much they can do.”
“There have been times when some of our units have managed to preserve some gear.” Chapel took up the story. “A platoon of tanks, battery of guns, few gunships, and on those times they’ve done a lot of damage. In space the Minbari have all the advantages, on the ground its much closer.”
“If we can separate the Minbari fleet from the ground forces, Earth Force Command is confident it can repel any assault on Proxima.” The Vice President said simply. “We’re already moving our best troops out there, hiding them beneath mountain ranges or in disused mines widened by engineers.”
“How many?” Levy asked.
“A full army, the First.” Chapel answered. “Three hundred thousand soldiers, about five thousand tanks and twenty thousand other vehicles. Lot of space to make.”
“We’re confident we’ll be ready.” Durban said. “And we’re already setting up a deception plan to keep the Minbari fleet positioned deep in system far from Proxima III.”
“And if they don’t buy it?”
“Then we lose Proxima, which is going to happen anyway if we don’t try.” Durban said. “We still outnumber the Minbari three to one in terms of ships, they don’t have more than a thousand vessels in the field at any given time. This is a gamble, and it might not work, but we have to try.”
Levy had to agree. “I can’t see any other alternatives. You have my authorisation to proceed.”
“Thank you Madam President.”
“The eyes of humanity will all be resting on Proxima again, the first colony we took beyond the stars, now the last one before our enemies reach Earth.”
She considered the duality of the location, the importance it held.
“The First Star, and now the Last Star.” She said. “And our last chance to survive this war.”

[wellis]

Very cool update! It's funny, despite despising Jankowski for partly starting the Minbari War, I was hoping that it was B-13 that killed him instead of the EIA. I'd never have expected the EIA to have been the one that helped Jankowski die.

[kclcmdr]

Good update...

“And you Ivan have a team to pick out, see what sort of pain those boneheads can stand.

Hmmmm... it sounds that the EIA got some Minbari POWs...
Wonders if the PSI & Bester's b*stards can do better...

TOC :

AUTHOR_______CHAPTER________TITLE____________Description_________________

Lightning_Count. CH_01a .Earth 2247 -_You Maggots, Stetson, Our Future, Rain of Pain, Drill, Crowbar, Cliff
Lightning_Count. CH_01b .Beta Durani -_EF Disrupted, Minbari, Ferguson KIA'd, EAS Danube, Lockley, MacDougan,
Lightning_Count. CH_01c .EAS Danube -_Lockley, Minbari TF, Capt. Hague, Hiroshi, Sheridan, LRRG, Carroll
Lightning_Count. CH_02a .18 Mo Earlier -_Brogan&Jankowski, Prometheus Incident, Defeatist Attitude, Chapel, Bester
Lightning_Count. CH_02b .Brogan Gone -_Chapel & Mike, Minbari ATKing EA, TELL ME!, Playing Games, Death w Suicide
Lightning_Count. CH_02c .2247 -_Durban & Chapel, President Levy, Capt. Hague, Cyclops Project, Proxima,
Lightning_Count. CH_03a .2247 -_Minbari, Jenny&Tachi, EF SF, Jors&Manny, Shuttle Drop, Rescue & Recovery
Lightning_Count. CH_03b .Occupied -_Jenny&Isuro, KIA EF & Minbari, Thur Walls, Amis ShellShocked, CreepyCreature
Lightning_Count. CH_03c .Interstellar -_Minbari, Branmer&Jenimer, Coplann&Delenn, Rathenn, Morann, Human Bravery
Lightning_Count. CH_03d .Grey Council -_Branmer, Vorlons, Delenn&Branmer, Genocide, Windswords, To Hope, Heroes
Lightning_Count. CH_04a .Sol Sector -_Costa, Jenny, DemonMonster, Amis Rooke, Data, OrionBase, Minbari Tactics
Lightning_Count. CH_04b .Sol Sector -_Jenny, Alfredo Francis Calendar, Toby, Jors;Proxima, Smits&Vinetti, Belter
Lightning_Count. CH_04c .Proxima -_Smit&Alexi, Denisov&Johan, Proxima Siege Bunkers, Minbari Honour
Lightning_Count. CH_05a .Mars -_Alfredo & Sophia, Torg's Syndrome, Jha'dur's Poisons, Good Dinner Meal
Lightning_Count. CH_05b .Mars -_Jenny & Garibaldi, Sophia, Francis, Mission 2 Proxima, For Their Son
Lightning_Count. CH_05c .Poem -_Sir Richard's Poem, Jeffrey Sinclair, Catherine Sakai, Scramble!
Lightning_Count. CH_05d .Proxima -_Denisov & Smits, Minbaris, Sinclair, Auroras, The Greens, Gina
Lightning_Count. CH_06a .Proxima III -_Hannigan, 99th Airborne, Dom, Crockett, Garibaldi, Personal Jammers, Fox
Lightning_Count. CH_06b .Proxima III -_Tucker & Fox, Splinters, StarRiders&Windswords, Minbari, 4th Panzer
Lightning_Count. CH_06c .Proxima Prime -_Catherine & Jeffrey, Romance, Fate Intertwined, To Destiny, Furys
Lightning_Count. CH_06d .Proxima Prime -_Denisov & Volka, Dan, To The Death, No Allies, No Mercy, Lousy Odds
Lightning_Count. CH_07a .Minbari Starfire -_Star Riders, Neroon, Sineval, Kalain, Branmer, Windsword Vanity
Lightning_Count. CH_07b .Proxima Sys1 -_Denisov & McGee, Refugees, Amundsen, Sakai & Helen, EA Readies, Minbari
Lightning_Count. CH_07c .Proxima Sys2 -_Battle Royale, Orbitals, EAS Medusa, Branmer, FTRs Away, Mines, Missiles
Lightning_Count. CH_07d .Proxima Sys3 -_Amundsen & Belay, Neroon, Windswords KIA'd, Minbari Flanked, Jors, Jenny, Freddy
Lightning_Count. CH_07e .Proxima Sys4 -_Orion Stations, Branmer & Neroon, Denisov, Medusa, Weinstein, RAMMING Speed!
Lightning_Count. CH_08a .Proxima Sys1 -_Jenny & Isuro, General Smits, Nials & Furies, CrazyCrazy, Nutty Manuevers
Lightning_Count. CH_08b .Proxima Sys2 -_Branmer & Neroon, Leklann, Gazala, Catherine Sakai, EA Perseus, Sineval
Lightning_Count. CH_08c .Proxima Sys3 -_Smits, EA Firepower, Cole, Bogeys, Leklann, Losses, Kathenn, Windsword Attrited
Lightning_Count. CH_09a .Proxima Sys1 -_Jenny&Isuro, Starling, SF Ghouls, Freddy, NewJob, StealthSuits, Cavendish
Lightning_Count. CH_09b .Proxima Sys2 -_Magain&Tennai, TrafficJam, Minbari Ambushed, Human AntiTank Rockets
Lightning_Count. CH_09c .Proxima Sys3 -_Neroon, DurhanTheRanger, Sineval, Kathenn, Leklann, Minor Difficulties
Lightning_Count. CH_09d .Proxima Sys4 -_Smits&Cole, Minbari Tanks, Star Riders, Flanking, Gen.Maude, ViceTrap
Lightning_Count. CH_10a .Deep Space1 -_Buffy Bluff, Francis & Bait, Delphi, Maynard, Big Fib, EIA v Rangers
Lightning_Count. CH_10b .Deep Space2 -_Francis & Heather, Blue Berets, Twins, Juliette, Planet Eden, Contingencies
Lightning_Count. CH_10c .Proxima1 -_Seaton, Neroon & Branmer, Plakat, Red Dragons, Lin, Bunkers, Weapons Ready
Lightning_Count. CH_10d .Proxima2 -_Armour Divs, Minbari Forces, Lin, Red Dragons, Neroon, May, No Mercy
Lightning_Count. CH_10e .Proxima3 -_Maelstrom, Lin&Shan, Minbari Artillery&Tank, Han, ToTheDeath, Neroon, Much Longer
Lightning_Count. CH_11a .Proxima1 -_Jenny&Lisa, EIA Forces, No Minbari Analog, Garibaldi&Isuro, BlueOnBlueOnBlue, LifeABitch
Lightning_Count. CH_11b .Proxima2 -_John Sheridan, Justin, Black Star Incident, Maracek&Bulweyo, Caroll, Ambush, Minbari Convoy
Lightning_Count. CH_11c .Proxima3 -_EAS Lexington, Sheridan & Carroll, Tennant, Minbari FFs, Convoy is Toasted
Lightning_Count. CH_12a .Deep Space -_Branmer, Dukhat's Memory, Grey Council, Morann&Jenimer, Delenn&Coplann, Human Trickery
Lightning_Count. CH_12b .Proxima -_Minbari WIA, Neroon&Leklann, Human Resistance, Sineval, Human Deceit, Branmer, Lured Trap
Lightning_Count. CH_12c .Geneva -_Biek&Chapel, Levy, Deception Begins, Proxima III; Garibaldi&Gideon, Hannigan, Tucker
Lightning_Count. CH_12d .Proxima -_Capt Fox, Tucker, EIA, VTOLs, Don Diego, 99th Airborne, Flamenco Dancer Emblem
Lightning_Count. CH_12e .Proxima -_Garibaldi, Gideon, Dom, Banshees VTOLs, Hannigan, Battle Begins
Lightning_Count. CH_13a .Proxima -_D-Day; Selan&Arlenn, EA Strikes, Maj. Montego, Banshee v Nials, Minbari FTR Sweeped
Lightning_Count. CH_13b .Proxima -_Red Platoon, Dom & Tucker; Matt & Gideon, VTOLs, Garibaldi, Minbari Base, Terriers
Lightning_Count. CH_13c .Proxima -_Garibaldi&Dom, Tucker, Minbari CounterFire, EA ECM, Toledo SQ., EA Controls The Skies
Lightning_Count. CH_14a .EA 1st Army -_Konig & Vanden, Giuseppe & Max, Pz Lehr Div, Blitz The Minbari
Lightning_Count. CH_14b .Red Platoon -_Garibaldi & Gideon, Dom, Rescue, Close Combat, Squad vs Squad, Hunting
Lightning_Count. CH_14c .EA Army -_General Julia Abrams, Maj. Rashid, Fortress Kirya, Selan & Nethir, Earthlings
Lightning_Count. CH_14d .EA Army -_EA IFV & MBT, Arleen & Nethir, INCOMING!, Max, EA TANKS!
Lightning_Count. CH_14e .EA Army -_Minbari ScoutTank, Selan, Max, Sepp, Serlann, Nethir, Panzerlied
Lightning_Count. CH_15a .Pz Lehr -_Vanden&Aletto, Sepp, Tanks, Minbari, Max, Thor Tanks, Boney BloodyNoses
Lightning_Count. CH_15b .To West -_ArtilleryFire, Yenir&Treen; Cavendish, Jenny&Alfredo, Isuro, Rations, Billotte
Lightning_Count. CH_15c .Red Platoon -_Michael&Dom, Minbari, Gideon&Tucker, Pz Lehr, Hasuka, Minbari Encircled
Lightning_Count. CH_16a .Sol Sys. -_Carroll&Hague, Lexington, Sheridan, Io&Earth, OldBarn, EA CombinedFleet, Henderson
Lightning_Count. CH_16b .Minbari. -_Leklann&Neroon, 5DIVs, WindSwords, StarRiders, DeathWalker's Advice, Orders&Miracles
Lightning_Count. CH_16c .Proxima. -_Abrams&Smits, Cole&Starlings, SpecialForces, Artillery, 1stArmy, Ivan&Cole, Magain
Lightning_Count. CH_17a .EA1stArmy. -_Jenny&Billlotte, Giroud, Chasseurs, MealBars, Minbari Windsword Tanks, vive Le Monde
Lightning_Count. CH_17b .ArmyGrpSouth. -_GeneralAbrams, SensorProbes, Minbari, JossCarter, Sultan, Tanks&Cannons
Lightning_Count. CH_17c .Windsword Clan. -_WarHost, Sineval, Leklann, Neroon, Airbursts, Billotte&Abrams, RumbleBegins
Lightning_Count. CH_17d .Battle1. -_Leklann, Jenny&Isuro, Alfredo&Billotte, Firefight, Diego, Airstrikes, WelcomeWagon
Lightning_Count. CH_17e .Battle2. -_Alfredo, Diego, Banshees, FurBalls, Montego, Nials, Dogfight, Miranda, Minbari Bombers
Lightning_Count. CH_17f .Battle3. -_IFVs, EF, jenny&Garibaldi, MinbariTanks, Windswords, SiegeTank, Valkyrie, Forward!
Lightning_Count. CH_17g .Battle4. -_Garibaldi, MinbariGrindsThru, Jenny, Hand2Hand, Crowbar&Izzy, Abrams, Billotte
Lightning_Count. CH_17h .Battle5. -_Giraud&Billotte, Sepp&Max, Garibaldi&Jenny, Railguns, Minbari, Meatgrinder, Leklann
Lightning_Count. CH_18a .Proxima1. -_Jenny&Alfredo, RearOps, ThePast, Izzy&Cav, Recon, Smokey, Gunships, Windsword
Lightning_Count. CH_18b .Geneva1. -_Beau, ISN, G'Kar, DavidSheridan, Negotiations, IPX, MinbariFleet
Lightning_Count. CH_18c .Proxima2. -_Neroon&Leklann, Windsword&StarRider, Argument, Starling, Damell, Leklann KIA'd
Lightning_Count. CH_19a .Minbar1. -_Coplann&Jha'Dur, Talks, WindSword KIA'd, WarriorCaste, LazyFools, Proxima, Humans
Lightning_Count. CH_19b .Proxima1. -_Billotte, Chasseurs, Crowbar&Izzy, Jenny, OpsVishnu, Garibaldi
Lightning_Count. CH_19c .Minbar2. -_GreyCouncil, Branmer&Jenimer, Rathenn&Coplann, Logistics, Delenn, Morann&Althain
Lightning_Count. CH_20a .Proxima1. -_Neroon&Branmer, LeklannSitRep, NewTactics, Neshaten, Armies, Althain, NightWalkers
Lightning_Count. CH_20b .Proxima2. -_Abrams&Ivan, MineWars, Watchtower, Smits&Montego, Minbari, Banshee, Lidar, CleverBoney
Lightning_Count. CH_20c .Proxima3. -_Neroon, Minbari Transports, Althain, Nightwalker, Honor&Battle, NightBattle
Lightning_Count. CH_21a .Proxima3. -_Garibaldi&Gideon, Hanigan&Hayes, Mikey, Dom; Neroon&Althain, Scars
Lightning_Count. CH_21b .Proxima3. -_Hayes&Garibaldi, Gideon; Nightwalkers, Althain&Branmer, Pellow&Tucker, Claymores
Lightning_Count. CH_21c .Proxima3. -_Fox&Malone, KIAs, Mikey&Garibaldi, Dom, Pursuits
Lightning_Count. CH_22a .Proxima1. -_Thoren, Shilkas, FTRs, Cole&Smits, Abrams&Selewayo, RailGun, Airstrike
Lightning_Count. CH_22b .IoPrime. -_FreePort, Lexington, Anna, David&John, Tennant, Sheridans, Hague, ToProxima
Lightning_Count. CH_22c .Proxima2. -_Alfredo&Jenny, Crowbar, Isuro&Billotte, Bugs, Bulldog, Mikey, Dad&Son






xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[johnlao2004]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was going to give up reading spacebattles after Dilgar War. Now i have a reason to continue. Most of the great fics in here (that i like) are either hibernating for months.

THanks you again. I know you updated faster that i can say thank you.

[Lightning_Count]

Originally Posted by wellis

Very cool update! It's funny, despite despising Jankowski for partly starting the Minbari War, I was hoping that it was B-13 that killed him instead of the EIA. I'd never have expected the EIA to have been the one that helped Jankowski die.

That's Chapel for you, much meaner than his predecessor...

Officially he was removing a source of poor morale that could harm Earth Force, unofficially he was taking out the rubbish.
He couldn't get away with removing a Senator like Brogan, which is why he had to let B13 do it. One of the very rare occasions where the two group were on the same side.

[Lightning_Count]

Originally Posted by johnlao2004

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was going to give up reading spacebattles after Dilgar War. Now i have a reason to continue. Most of the great fics in here (that i like) are either hibernating for months.

THanks you again. I know you updated faster that i can say thank you.

Appreciated, and for the record about a third through the next chapter too.

Jenny will be Back in Black

[jpdt19]

Thanks so much

[Gyre]

Nice LC. I can assume there are other plans in work, a last *bleep* you to the Minbari if things go wrong.

[wellis]

Originally Posted by Lightning_Count

That's Chapel for you, much meaner than his predecessor...

Officially he was removing a source of poor morale that could harm Earth Force, unofficially he was taking out the rubbish.
He couldn't get away with removing a Senator like Brogan, which is why he had to let B13 do it. One of the very rare occasions where the two group were on the same side.

He should've done something like put Jankowski on some sort of suicide mission. Even then his death could somehow help Earthforce.