Babylon 5: The Thin Grey Line (Crossover)

[Cyclone]

Scraped from here.

Another annoying plot bunny that wouldn't let go. So I wrote it. Originally conceived in conjunction with Beyond the Pale, but this element really didn't fit it.

* * *

Breaking the Oath

Prologue

* * *

Cmdr. John David Sheridan, EarthForce Navy, waited.

He'd been to Earthdome before, but the secrecy behind this meeting was unnerving, especially considering how badly the attempted peace negotiations had gone.

"The president will see you now, Commander."

That, too, was another reason he was anxious. It wasn't every day a commander met with the president of the Earth Alliance, even one who had scored a major victory... not that killing the Black Star had had any actual impact on the war.

He nodded to the aide, "Thank you."

He walked into the office and saluted, but before he could speak, President Elizabeth Levy of the Earth Alliance spoke, "Ah, Captain Sheridan, welcome."

"Commander Sheridan, ma'am," he corrected.

"Not anymore," she said, picking up a small velvet-covered box from her desk and handing it to him. "Congratulations, Captain. Go ahead; put it on."

He accepted the box and opened it, revealing the captain's insignia on it. With a mental shrug, he complied and pinned the insignia on his collar.

He waited again as she wandered over to the window and stared outside. There had to be more to this than that. A mere promotion would hardly be reason enough to require the president's presence... and even if it did, it wouldn't have been so informal.

"For a fifth time, Captain, the human race faces extinction," she said quietly. "The history of our planet is the widest-known and best-kept secret in the galaxy."

"Yes, Madam President," he nodded solemnly. The secret she spoke of was known -- in one form or another -- by practically every human being in the galaxy... but if any non-human had heard it, they weren't saying. After the last time, humanity had risen from the ashes, lessened in some ways, but strengthened in that this time, they did it on their own.

And now all of it was about to be destroyed again.

"What you don't know, Captain, what very few even on Earth know, is that we didn't destroy all our old ships," she said. That struck Sheridan as a surprise. Even with the lead-in... that they would risk breaking the treaty...

"Now, Captain," she said, turning to face him, "I'm asking you -- asking, not ordering -- to break the vow our species made over two hundred years ago."

"But, ma'am," he protested, "if we do that..."

"We have to survive the Minbari before we can start worrying about them, Captain," she pointed out. "We've already got a task force assembled, one hundred thousand of our best and brightest. We have a fleet of the old ships and fighters, hidden in the Pegasus Galaxy. We have a ship, one of the old line; she's been in storage on the moon until she was needed, and she's ready to fly. All we need now is a mission commander. Do you accept, Captain?"

Sheridan thought about it. Considering what would happen if the Children of Shadow were still out there...

...was exactly what was happening now, they really didn't have a choice.

He stood at attention, "Yes, Madam President. I accept."

* * *

Captain Sheridan resisted the urge to drum his fingers on the arm rest, tap his feet, do something to pass the time and bleed off nervous energy while he waited for the report from Engineering. It was amazing what a difference two hundred years made. The ship was huge, almost as large as an Explorer-class, and the design was amazingly spacious.

Her drives were already up and running by the time Sheridan had arrived, but even so, she still felt deserted and gave off a tomb-like feel whenever he walked her corridors, despite the task force of 100,000 people aboard. She had been the first of her line, originally built as a colony ship, minimally armed but able to defend herself. She had been pressed into service in the last war of that era, though, and had undergone extensive refits before being mothballed as a last-ditch resort.

Now she would truly live up to her name.

If they succeeded and returned in time, she would be an Angel, saving humanity from the brink of extinction.

And if they failed or were too late, she would become an Ark for the task force aboard her... who would be the last of the human race.

"Captain, Engineering," the comm unit built into his arm rest burbled. "Final systems check is complete. We're as ready to launch as we'll ever be."

That was Cmdr. Karen Leeds, his Engineering officer. Her record spoke for itself, but Sheridan had never actually met her before coming aboard. Earthdome had begun recruiting the task force as far back as the disastrous attack on Sh'Lekk'Tha; in twelve seconds, forty EarthForce ships had been annihilated by a mere dozen Minbari war cruisers. While he understood the need, Sheridan had felt a little leery about working with a crew he hadn't gotten a feel for yet, but they were trying.

"Thank you, Engineering," he replied. "Take us out, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Captain," acknowledged Lt. Steven Hunter, helmsman and navigations officer, as he eased the Ark Angel out of the lunar bunker for the first time in over two hundred years.

"Comm, give me ship-wide."

"You have ship-wide," said Specialist Erin Lynn.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Sheridan spoke into the comm in his arm rest, "all of you know why we're here and what's on the line. Each of us was chosen for a reason, even if none of us on this ship know what that reason is. Earthdome has placed its trust in us, so someone there thinks we're damn good at our jobs. We all know what we hope to find on the other end of this trip, but two hundred years is a long time. Whatever we find, whatever happens, I have my faith in you."

"We're in position, Captain."

"Engineering, Bridge," Sheridan said. "Is the fold system ready?"

"Yes, sir. Fold system is operational."

"Commence fold."

* * *

On a planet circling a distant star, the Awareness stirred.

 

[Cyclone]

Breaking the Oath


Chapter One

* * *


It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind, during the height of the Earth-Minbari War.


The Pegasus mission was born out of desperation. A gigantic ship sent to break a vow made over two hundred years ago. But two hundred years is a long time. It was our last, best hope... for survival.


One hundred thousand people, all alone in the night.


The year is 2246. The name of the ship is Ark Angel.


* * *


For such a young race, the Earth Alliance had made many allies, particularly after they assisted the League of Non-Aligned Worlds in the Dilgar War. When the Earth-Minbari War began, the Earth Alliance rapidly understood just how much those alliances were worth.


Even this latest gamble was tinged by doubt.


Humanity had made allies before, under similar circumstances, and it was in their care that they had left this last ace in the hole.


It was something Sheridan tried very hard not to think about.


"Defold in T-minus one minute."


Sheridan's gaze snapped up to the main monitor. Folding was very different from traveling through hyperspace. There was no sense of motion, just an odd vibration. No beacons, no maneuvering, just setting a destination and riding it out.


It was extremely unsettling.


All that wasn't even including the nauseating optical effect, as everything seemed to color shift and fade in and out of focus wherever he looked. That was why he had spent the entire trip staring into his lap.


He watched as the main monitor counted down. When it hit zero, they would be in normal space again, and it switch to an external camera feed.


* * *


Captain K'Don of the SAS Hayes was bored. He understood his duty, but that did not make it any easier to bear. It had been many long years since the Earthers had placed this secret cache in the Sentinels' care, but Karbarra would not forget their debt or their promise... and neither would any of the other races.


The Hayes was a good ship, a Karbarran gun cruiser, four hundred meters long and armed with plasma weapons for close-in defense, heavy railguns and missile tubes for ship to ship combat, and a pair of superheavy mass drivers.


"Gravitational distortion detected!" called out his sensor operator, Inze. Depending on who you asked, Inze was either a Tirolian or a Praxian. Since the end of the last war, the Tirolians and Praxians -- who were genetically compatible and technically the same species -- had been making periodic attempts to integrate their societies together, but none of them really worked out. Inze was one of the many mixed breeds that resulted.


K'Don bolted to his feet. A gravitational distortion meant...


A fold!


"Bring all weapons online, plot an intercept course, and make best speed!"


* * *


Sheridan studied the ship in the main monitor. It was an ugly design, even by human standards. A misshapen purple cigar four hundred meters long with weapons bulging from it at regular intervals. Two large, spinal-mounted weapons could be seen protruding from the bow... which was pointed straight at them. It had obviously detected their defold operation and moved to intercept. There were no planets on the monitor, however, only an asteroid field.


"Captain, we have an incoming transmission," Lynn said. She looked up, "It's in English, sir."


"I see," Sheridan nodded. "Main speakers."


"This is Captain K'Don of the Sentinel Alliance Starship Hayes to Ark Angel," the heavily accented voice was a low, gutteral growl. "Identify yourself and transmit authentication codes immediately. You have five minutes to comply."


"Lynn?"


"Transmitting now, Captain."


"This is Captain John Sheridan of EarthForce," he introduced himself. "Our history says that, before the Great Oath, we left ships and weapons in your care should we ever need it. Currently, we are at war with a genocidal and technologically superior race called the Minbari. We need those ships and weapons now."


There was a long pause, and K'Don replied, "Your authentication matches, Captain Sheridan. Welcome to Old Praxis. And while I cannot speak for the Advisory Council, I am confident that Karbarra, at least, will aid you in your time of need. We remember our debts, Captain."


* * *


The Sentinel Alliance Advisory Council was holding an emergency meeting.


"I believe we must help them," T'Lon said calmly, his gentle. He was the Karbarran representative to the Advisory Council and its current president. "That is, after all, why the Alliance still exists today, is it not?"


"Do we truly want to unleash protoculture on the universe again?" the Tirolian representative, Tyreen, asked.


The Praxian representative, Zora, pinned Tyreen with a glare, "My people will not stand by and allow the humans to suffer as we have, regardless of the Council's decision."


Tyreen held up a hand, "Peace, Zora. My blood calls out to help them as well -- it thirsts for battle -- but it is a question that must be asked."


"The Oath has already been broken," Baldan pointed out. "They will come. What happens when they do depends on what we do now." Baldan represented the longest-lived of the Sentinel species. He was a Spherian, and in fact, he had personally known many of the humans from before the Oath.


"Agreed," Kanai, the Garudan representative, nodded. "We have been expecting this. The Hin warned us."


T'Lon looked over at the last representative, "And Terak? How do you vote?"


The mysterious Perytonian merely inclined his head and said, "I believe I shall abstain."


T'Lon had expected that response. The Perytonians had become an insular people, and while they supported the Sentinel Alliance, they did not integrate themselves into mixed crews like the other races; rather, they simply stationed their own ships in the Old Praxis asteroid belt, small things that had proven to be astonishingly capable whenever space pirates tried to raid the cache.


The space pirates seemed to possess an uncanny ability to run afoul of the Perytonians.


* * *


"We don't have enough people."


Sheridan looked up, "What do you mean, we don't have enough people? We've got a hundred thousand people to crew those ships with."


"The cache includes four carrier groups and the Pioneer," Cmdr. Elizabeth Lochley -- his ex-wife and XO -- explained. "That's four Tokugawa-class carriers, eight Valivarre-class battleships, eight Ikazuchi-class super cruisers, thirty-two Shimakaze-class battlecruisers, and ninety-six Garfish-class light cruisers. Factor in the fighters, and we'd need another fourteen to fifteen thousand at an absolute minimum, with no spare personnel at all and no ground forces. We can crew them all if we start carving out our air groups or cut ourselves down to two shifts on enough ships, but that'll be hell on those crews."


Sheridan stared. "We have that much? How? That's more than our records show us ever having, at least of the larger classes."


"Apparently," she said, "a converted factory satellite was operating on automatic at minimal power using conventional fission power for a few decades after the Oath. There's still a dozen more half-finished hulls inside the thing."


"Converted factory satellite..." he mused. "Commander, can you find out if the satellite's fold drive is still functional? I mean, yes, it might need a new power source, but can it fold? If so, we use the fold effect to carry all the ships to Earth and get the rest of our crews there."


"I'll look into it," she said, "but that's not the only problem, sir. These ships are old. A lot of the systems are failing. It's going to take us a while just to get the completed ships operational again, and with Ark Angel's fold drive down..."


The Ark Angel was an old ship as well, and its fold drive had burned out soon after they arrived in the Old Praxis system.


"Understood," he nodded. "Focus on whichever ship we can get fold operational first, then we'll focus on the Pioneer and the other big ships. We're going to need all the firepower we can get."


* * *


"The Sentinel Alliance pledges its assistance," Councillor T'Lon said. "Not just the Alliance ships, but ships from our own navies as well. We do not, however, have fold drives, as they require protoculture, so our ships will have to be carried by yours."


"We appreciate it, Councillor," Sheridan said, "but I don't think we can, in good conscience, ask you to risk angering the Minbari."


"You are not asking," T'Lon replied firmly. "We are doing."


"Your ancestors came to us and freed us when they had no need to do so," Kanai said, "when we, in good conscience, could not ask them to risk the wrath of the Invid. They did, and now we do."


"Besides," Zora interjected, "this very asteroid belt, in which your weapons were stored, it is... was... my people's home planet, Captain John Sheridan. Just as you cannot, in good conscience, ask us to intervene, we cannot, in good conscience, stand by and do nothing."


Sheridan swallowed hard and bowed his head, "Thank you, all of you. That means a great deal to us. More than you know."


* * *


Cmdr. Elizabeth Lochley and Capt. John Sheridan were watching as the the Garfish-class light cruiser was loaded. They had already landed a full load of veritech fighters and filled its on-board computers with technical data. Now, they were jamming every spare nook and cranny with protoculture cells. The matrix had been destroyed, but the cache contained a supply worth several years. Some of the technology wouldn't be immediately useful, but quite a few would be.


It had taken them two months -- two months! -- just to get one of them ready for the return to Earth space. The factory satellite's fold drive was almost a write-off; Commander Leeds estimated five years before they could get it online again.


"She's a good ship," Lochley murmured. "Fast too."


"That she is," Sheridan nodded. He smirked, "A fast ship for a fast woman."


"Well, I doubt the EA needs another minuteman right now," she shot back good-naturedly. "What are you going to call her?"


"Hermes," he replied. "As you said, she's fast. You'll leave as soon as she's ready."


* * *


"Godspeed, Commander," Sheridan's voice echoed through the light cruiser's bridge.


"Thank you, Captain," Lochley replied. "Hermes out."


Lt. Cmdr. Sinclair was her XO for this trip. The man was a gifted pilot, one of the best, and had headed the research into how to use the veritech fighters. The fighters alone -- with their shadow cloaking and nuclear payloads -- could make a huge difference in the war.


"Fold system is up and operational, Commander."


"Commence fold."


* * *


The Awareness stirred again.


It felt the stink of the Light-touched... the promise to the First One, the Oldest, most respected by the Progenitors... was broken. The Infant Oath Breakers had returned to using the forbidden fruit. They had broken their word. The Progenitors must know. The Eye must open.


They must have vengeance.


But first, more must be learned. But how? Who?


The answer came.


The Eye called for a human. They seemed to embody the traits the Progenitors preferred, even if they were Light-touched.


So be it.


* * *


Baldan watched the newly-christened EAS Hermes initiate a fold. He knew what had happened before; he knew why the Oath had been made. He knew they would come back. Two centuries of peace was a gift from the universe, but as time passes, signs and portents show the promise of things to come. Once again, the tremor of war was about to shake the Sentinel worlds.


"Again... it begins."

 

[Chatokay]

I wonder what will be the boneheads reaction when they realise their stealth is useless against reflex canon.


Hell, I mean, the beam is so large, you don't have to aim straight at the target.

 

[Entilza]

Very interesting. I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of the Minbari. Keep up the good work.

 

[Cyclone]

Inquisitor, I have a few suggestions: Ignore the novels. Ignore the non-Wildstorm comics. Ignore the RPG. This is based on Shadow Chronicles continuity.

To hit the common major points as well as the ones you brought up: Thinking caps do not exist. The Nichols drive does not exist. The Shapings do not exist. The RDF mecha were fueled by protoculture cells found aboard the SDF-1. The REF ships seeking out the Robotech Masters (and the ASC) were fueled by the remains of that stockpile as well as protoculture scavenged from the ~6,000,000 Zentraedi ships after the Rain of Death.

Spoiler

Like almost everyone else in the series, Exedore is dead; he was killed in the Neutron S missile test firing.

There's a lot you don't know, but it will be revealed in time. A good place to start would be to understand that if it isn't animated or in the Wildstorm comics, I don't consider it canon for this 'fic. Or any of my 'fics, really. And this is the only one that even considers all of Shadow Chronicles and the Wildstorm comics as canon.

 

[cast2007]

Robotech ships versus Sharlins. Ouch.

 

[Cyclone]

What about the SDF's?


In one of the timelines SDF1 and 2 crassed into the ground, which later became an inner sea.

So what should we espect in that regarde?

Click to shrink...

I have no idea what you're talking about. Could you clarify, please?


As far as I'm concerned, the SDF-1 is gone, its remains buried, then shattered by the Tirolian mothership that Zor shot down over it. The SDF-2 was probably scrapped after Khyron's attack.

Say Cyclone, I just thought of something.


Could the Vree have recovered ASS-2?

It would explain some of their tech.

Click to shrink...

If you mean the mysterious ship the RDF found on their way to capture Reno's factory satellite... *shrug* Hadn't thought of it at all, really.

 

[Cyclone]

Okay, so what does that have to do with crashing and making a new inner sea?

 

[Cyclone]

Somehow, I suspected you would, Captain Gloval.


I'm kinda surprised Raneko hasn't dropped by yet, actually.

 

[Cyclone]

Lake Gloval was the name of the lake that the SDF-1 was parked in after Force of Arms. It was, I believe, a crater from the bombardment, and after Khyron's attack, it was filled in with the wreckage and became the site of the three mounds at Point SX-83.

 

[Gong]

Hmm. The Factory Satellite is partially operational eh? Any chance they have schematics or the infrastructure to eventually build a new matrix? If they can't, then I don't see anyone having a chance in hell versus "The Children of the Shadow."


I'm also curious about what happened to Ariel, and whether or not the Regis will take an interest in what's going on in this sector of space. I can't imagine all the crazy stuff she's turned Invid into in the two centuries since her departure from Earth.


Your Awareness bits give me the impression that you're tying the whole protoculture thing into the long war between Shadows and Vorlons. Interesting.


Looking forward to moar!

 

[Disruptor]

Sounds more like The Hand than anything.


If Ariel stuck around, she married Scott and their descendants would be around. Same goes for Sera and Lancer.


I almost feel sorry for the Minbari. Gerudans, Perytonians, Kabbarrans, Praxians, Tiriseians, Zentradei and of course the crossbreeds.(Invid/Human, Tirisiean/Human, Zentradei/Human, Praxian/Human)


As to the Protoculture Matrix, it's probably onboard the SDF-3 along with all of Rem and Cabell's notes.

 

[Cyclone]

Hmm. The Factory Satellite is partially operational eh? Any chance they have schematics or the infrastructure to eventually build a new matrix? If they can't, then I don't see anyone having a chance in hell versus "The Children of the Shadow."

Click to shrink...

The factory satellite is not partially operational. It was partially operational.

As to the Protoculture Matrix, it's probably onboard the SDF-3 along with all of Rem and Cabell's notes.

Click to shrink...

Nope. To quote Galvatron: "The matrix has been destroyed." I've already mentioned that in the second part (which is actually chapter one, the first part being the prologue).

 

[Cyclone]

In case anyone would like to go back and check it out, I just thought I'd make a new post to let you know that I altered the scene with the departure of EAS Hermes.

 

[Cyclone]

OK Cyclone, If you don't need Protoculture for the Thinking Caps, and the EA has fusion reactors... why has the EA NOT been making Veritechs? Alphas maybe too small to mount a fusion reactor, but a VF-1... more room than you can shake a stick at!

Click to shrink...

Not really, no. I have a Jetfire model, which is just a repaint of the VF-1S. With the way its splits apart to transform, there isn't room for fusion reactors. Sure, the VF-1S is big, but only about a quarter of its size remains intact through the transformation. They could put a starfury's fusion batteries in a VF-1 and get by with a shorter flight time... but frankly, it's not the veritechs that they need.


Besides, the Earth lost the technology for a lot of the non-protoculture-dependent systems as well, due to conflict (note that it isn't the United Earth Government anymore but the Earth Alliance) and the lack of a sufficient power source until they developed fusion reactors.

 

[Cyclone]

That's assuming the boneheads get close enough to Earth for the EA to fire it.

Not even in canon did they get that close.

 

[Cyclone]

The fusion reactors would be in the legs as they are in Macross. Also with FAST packs, the sheer weight of missiles (the Minbari jammer doesn't work at point blank ranges) that a Super Veritech can carry is insane. That leaves the wing hard points for Nukes. =^.^=

Click to shrink...

That's assuming the Babylon 5-verse fusion reactors are in any way equivalent to Macross-verse fusion reactors. They aren't. The Nova-class dreadnought, for example, is a capital about a mile long. It has four fusion reactors.


Do the math.


Fusion tech in the Babylon 5 universe is not sufficiently compact enough to mount on fighters. Period.

 

[Cyclone]

Or the reactors on the Nova are that large and that numerous to power the Jump Engine? Consider that a Jump Gate is pretty darn large and the reactors are just to power the jump point generator.

Click to shrink...

I'd buy that argument if there existed a single example at all, anywhere in the entire Babylon 5 universe, of the Earth-Minbari War-era Earth Alliance having fusion reactors compact enough to mount in a fighter.


Now, B5tech.com says the Thunderbolt starfury is supposed to have a micro-fusion reactor, but... hold on. They won't be developed for another twelve years, and it's the only known example. And it only lasts six hours anyway.

 

[Cyclone]

Hey, I work with what I've got. Besides, as I said, I was only bringing it up as it's the only source I ever saw that even suggests an EA fighter could have fusion reactors.

 

[Cyclone]

KCKitsune, assuming EFNI is reliable (which it probably isn't), then yeah, they could build Valkyries. But why? Valkyries won't change the direction of the war one bit.

Why put nukes on fighters when you can just put nukes in the cap-ship's missile bays?

What, in your eyes, makes the Valkyrie at all better than a starfury? The starfury's a robust design, with powerful weapons and superior maneuverability in vacuum do to its advantageous thruster placement. That's the part that's annoying me the most. I see no advantage of a Valkyrie.

Trust me, it's not about the mecha. It's not about the ships themselves. To my surprise even, it's not even about the weapons.

As you'll see in the next chapter, it's all about something else entirely.

 

[Cyclone]

*sigh* ecs05norway, I wasn't using B5tech.com as my "gospel" for the technology. I was using that as the only example I was aware of to suggest that starfuries were powered by fusion reactors, and it was the only place I could find that even suggested any specifics on a Nova-class dreadnought's powerplant (which E.F.N.I. agrees on in terms of how many fusion reactors it has). That is all. No more, no less.

 

[Cyclone]

one thing very much worth asking:


Would a VF1 or an Alpha be able to ' see' a Minbari ship anyway?

Click to shrink...

If you mean with their various sensors like radar and such, then no, of course not.


If you mean with their visual cameras, I don't see why not, since anything that would make the Minbari invisible to visual cameras would make them invisible to the naked eye... which they obviously are not.

 

[Cyclone]

Let me try and put this to rest as I reiterate as clearly as possible:

Even ignoring the power issue, one major reason the EA does not build fusion-powered Valkyries is because Valkyries are an inferior design to starfuries for space combat. Valkyries are more versatile, but the EA needs effectiveness right now, not versatility.

 

[Cyclone]

*sigh*

Robotech =/= Macross

Raneko, Robotech did not use fusion reactors. That's Macross. Robotech Valkyries used protoculture power.

KCKitsune, overtechnology does not exist in Robotech. Overtechnology is from Macross.

Even if overtechnology existed in this timeline -- which it doesn't; it's robotechnology -- what makes you think the armor and sensors of a Valkyrie could not be used in starfuries?

 

[Cyclone]

There is absolutely no value in the mechanical design of the Valkyrie in space combat when compared to a starfury. You will not see veritech starfuries. You will almost certainly see starfuries with robotechnology at some point, but the robotechnology influence will have no visual effect. It will still look like a plain ol' starfury.

Surprisingly, it's all about the capital ships at this point. And I usually don't like capital ships.