Babylon 5: The Thin Grey Line (Crossover)
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Breaking the Oath
Chapter Three
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind, during the height of the Earth-Minbari War.
The hidden cache had been built for fear of the future, and for two hundred years, it lay dormant, defended by Earth's distant allies. It was our last, best hope... for survival.
One hundred and forty-nine ships, all alone in the night.
The year is 2247. The name of the place is Old Praxis.
* * *
Sheridan was a soldier, not a diplomat. That was his opinion of the matter, at least, which actually seemed to put him in good stead with several of the Sentinel Alliance's member races.
The Karbarrans were a huge mammalian species that bore a strong ursine appearance, though they moved with a grace and dignity that belied their size. He had learned they were a race of builders and explorers who channelled their aggression into ritualized sparring matches and maintained a strong element of personal honor in their culture. They saw war as a necessary evil but took great pride in that their tools of war were efficient and well-designed. After taking a tour of the SAS Hayes, Sheridan had to agree.
Hayes's corriders were a little spacious by human standards, but it was slightly cramped for the Karbarrans. There wasn't a cubic foot of wasted space, and the ship was built in sections and layered like an onion, with the most critical systems in the interior. Each section and each layer could be sealed off in case of a hull breach.
The Tirolian Federation, on the other hand, was actually populated by the descendents of three different peoples: the human colonists who had chosen to resettle on Tirol when the Great Oath was sworn, the surviving native Tirolians themselves, and micronized remnants of the Zentraedi. The Zentraedi's warrior culture had melded with the strong military influence of those early colonies from Earth to form a major Tirolian subculture that still thrived to this day. The Tirolian ship he had toured, a four-kilometer-long dreadnought called TFS Breetai, had been a disconcerting experience for him for a number of reasons, including the bizarrely familiar-yet-not interior architecture.
Breetai was absolutely gigantic for a warship, and the huge array of mass reactors -- which used dark matter decay to power the ship -- provided enough power to not only open a jump point large enough for a small fleet to go through... but enough to power a truly mind-boggling array of energy weapons. Breetai outgunned a Nova-class five to one! From what he had been told during the tour, Breetai was actually a converted Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class Zentraedi flagship, which explained the ship's enormous dimensions. Much of the interior space that had been devoted to crew had given way to the mass reactors; in order to compensate for the lower power output of the mass reactors in comparison to reflex furnaces, they had simply added more reactors. A lot more.
And then there was the Praxian Republic. They were certainly difficult for Sheridan to deal with. Not that they had anything against him.
On the contrary, they liked him very much. Which was the problem.
Once a peaceful, agricultural society, the Robotech Masters and Invid had changed the Praxians forever into something reminiscent of the Amazon legends of Ancient Greece. Their entire approach to warfare could be summed up in two words: Ever vigilant. They were always perparing to defend their people, training in all forms of combat, and valued martial prowess and valor very highly. Which meant that scoring the only victory against a technologically superior foe had earned Sheridan considerable credit in their eyes. That wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the facts that they were all female, all drop-dead gorgeous, and had some... interesting ideas on social interactions.
The Praxians' previous reliance on the "Place of Life" to reproduce had resulted in an embarrassingly (for others) sexually open society. Although the Praxians were genetically human (as were the Zentraedi and Tirolians), they did appear to have a homeobox gene that coded for a protein that permanently turned off the male determinant genes on the Y chromosome early in development. This was one of the things that made full integration with the Tirolian Federation difficult. Fully half the offspring would be XY females, with lower fertility and only a one-third chance of producing male offspring... and another one-third chance of producing more XY females. Such an uneven reproduction ratio could have a potentially disastrous impact, from a biological standpoint at least, on the gender ratios.
Where the anti-male gene came from was a mystery, but an archaeological investigation of their "Place of Life" before it (along with the planet) was destroyed proved it to be a Tirolian cloning facility, complete with resizing chambers. That suggested that the Praxians were likely descended from a group of female Zentraedi who had gotten temporally displaced and stranded on Praxis, then resized themselves to reduce their food needs. It was a theory which some suggested might apply to the Tirolians' origins, since fossil records indicated that they had certainly not evolved there.
The Spherians were an old race. Not old in the sense of having been around a long time as a species, but old in the sense of having individuals with memories that date back to the beginning of the species. Their biology -- if that was even the right word -- was difficult to comprehend, as they were an amorphous crystalline species that could shape their bodies at will, and their minds seemed to be a form of energy that simply resided in their physical bodies. According to Baldan, humans had not changed very much in the last two hundred years, and Sheridan was willing to bet that the crystalline ambassador knew what he was talking about.
The Perytonians... well, the less said about the mysterious, demonic-looking race, the better. Like most sentient species, they were humanoid. They were tall and slender, hairless, with tall heads, long horns, and eyes that seemed to glow in low light. The cloaks and staves added further to the eerie impression. Terak had only said, "We will be there." When Sheridan had pressed and asked when, Terak had simply smiled and replied, "When you need us."
The Garudans were just as disturbing as the Perytonians in their own way. They were a lithe, catlike or foxlike humanoid species with a coat of long hair all over their bodies, and the atmosphere they breathed was slightly different from the nitrogen-oxygen mix most species were comfortable with. What bothered Sheridan, however, was that their entire species was telepathic. Like most mundanes in the Earth Alliance, Sheridan never was entirely comfortable with telepaths. However, he had gotten to know the telepath assigned to this mission, Richard Belmont, which had eased his feelings and made dealing with the Garudans much easier. It helped that their mysticism couched their telepathic powers in more comfortable trappings.
Right now, though, he was puzzling over one of the other things found in the cache. It was a bank of computers that had been salvaged from the wreckage of the SDF-1. According to the inventory list -- thank God their ancestors thought to include one! -- these were computers that the old Robotech Research Group had never been able to crack. There were a few they had never even been able to activate.
Sheridan looked at one in particular. From what the RRG had been able to decipher, it was locked by genetic access. With a shrug, Sheridan stuck his finger in the scanner. It couldn't hurt.
The computer suddenly hummed to life, and the monitor lit up, startling him as a video recording began to play.
"Hello, old friend."
* * *
Rhakishi was a pirate. He was not a Tirolian like most pirates in this sector were. The Spherians had little need for material goods, the Karbarrans were too easygoing for the most part, the Praxians had their honor code, the Garudans' telepathic abilities made them a very communal people, and the Perytonians... well, no one knew what the story was with the Perytonians.
Rhakishi himself was a Garudan. He had known he was different from his people from an early age. Had a biopsy been done, it would have revealed a chemical imbalance in his brain that altered his mental perceptions.
They were using a converted relic of the past, the hulk of an old Zentraedi scout ship, one of dozens that still roamed the space lanes. Due to the size of the original crew and pilots, Zentraedi vessels and mecha were the easiest to convert to less efficient power systems, as they had plenty of room to spare. The fighters aboard were a mix of converted Gnerl fighter pods and a hodgepodge of modern fighters. They had only a handful of precious mecha, which they kept out of the fighting and used to pick the wreckage of any victims they had been forced to blow apart.
Rhakishi himself flew a Karbarran Kathari fighter. The Kathari was nimble and fast in a way that its intended pilots weren't. It was a lightly armed transatmospheric fighter, with a pair of plasma bolters mounted at the ends of its wings.
Their captain, Jak Carlson, had heard of new activity at Old Praxis. Many ships were coming and going, and Jak had convinced most of the crew that the prize was worth the risk, something about having an inside man. Rhakishi had his doubts, but he would go along. At the very least, it would allow him a chance to taste the sweet flavor of fear again.
* * *
Sheridan had found the message to be both enlightening and a little troubling. Right now, he was in his quarters aboard Ark Angel.
"Captain Sheridan!" came a shout, accompanied by a pounding on his door.
Sheridan rose and opened the door. It was the mission telepath, Richard Belmont, a slender man with reddish-brown eyes and unruly greenish-blond hair. "What is it, Rick?"
"We've got incoming," the telepath said breathlessly. "Raiders."
Sheridan nodded, and just as he reached for his uniform shirt, his personal comm terminal flared to life.
"Captain, we have a jump point forming."
Sheridan glanced at Belmont, then activated the comm terminal and said, "On my way." He shot Belmont an arched eyebrow, "Just how strong a telepath are you, Belmont?"
"Officially?" Belmont shrugged. "P8."
"And... unofficially?" Sheridan asked as he buttoned up his uniform shirt.
"Don't really know, and I'm not about to let Psi Corps find out," Belmont replied, then grinned. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be unofficial anymore, would it?"
"Fair enough."
* * *
"Jump point forming! Emerging... Zentraedi scout ship, Tou Redir-class."
"What?" Cmdr. Zeraan James, Tirolian Spacy, captain of the SAS Taylor, rose to his feet. "Challenge them."
"No response."
"They're approaching at attack speed, Captain."
"Pirates," he scowled. "Power up weapons and move to intercept. Have all mecha ready to launch."
"Aye, Captain," chorused his navigation, flight control, and tactical officers.
He glanced at the tactical display and noted where the other ships of the picket flotilla were; none of them were in position to intercept before Taylor, not even the Perytonian ship, which was on the far side of the patrol zone. There was nothing particularly unusual about the Perytonian's positioning... except that this was the first time in the two hundred years since the Oath that pirates had arrived from any vector that did not put the Perytonian picket ship directly in their path.
At three hundred meters, Taylor was a Tirolian Sian Diel-class heavy frigate, designed specifically for anti-piracy operations. The problem was that the Sian Diel-class was really designed for escorting civilian convoys, not defending fixed positions, which meant it lacked combat endurance, relying on its heavy missile batteries to deter pirates while the convoy fled for safety. On top of that, even heavily armed pirates typically still used modern civilian ships converted for combat, not warships from the protoculture days converted to use modern technology... and a Zentraedi scout ship was big enough to count as a destroyer or even a light cruiser by current ship standards, albeit one lacking heavy enough weapons to threaten larger warships. Which Taylor was not.
Zeraan knew his ship and crew would not be able to stop the pirates. They could hurt them. Badly. But they could not stop them.
That didn't mean they weren't going to try.
* * *
Citar was a Perytonian. It was his ship that was assigned to the picket line. He had detected the pirates coming, but he had a more pressing concern to deal with.
It was a probe, one with a limited degree of intelligence.
"They have broken the Oath!" it "shrieked." It wasn't using any spoken or even telepathic form of communication. Nonetheless, Citar "heard" it and replied in the same manner.
"They shall be dealt with," he "said" soothingly. "It is an isolated incident. The Oath shall be upheld. We will see to it."
"You are certain?"
"Yes," he "said" firmly.
A wave of uncertainty rippled across the probe.
"We are still loyal," he assured it.
After a long, tense moment, it responded.
"The Awareness shall be informed."
Citar slumped in his chair in relief as he felt it fade away.
* * *
Sheridan watched the tactical display as SAS Taylor engaged the raiders. The heavy frigate was putting up a good fight, but they weren't going to survive long enough for the rest of the picket fleet to arrive.
"Multiple jump points forming!"
"More raiders?" Sheridan sputtered in surprise.
"The new ships are broadcasting..." Specialist Lynn said, then looked up in surprise. "It's the Karbarran Navy, sir. They're demanding the pirates surrender."
Sheridan relaxed, "Well, that was interesting. I take it that's the strike force Councillor T'Lon promised us?"
"Yes, sir, it is."
"Great," Sheridan leaned back. "Now if we can just get these fold drives working, we'll be in business."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
As you can see, I am reimagining the Sentinel races somewhat. I apologize if all the science in the Praxian description was excessive, but that was a genetic peculiarity I just had to address.
Chapter Three
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind, during the height of the Earth-Minbari War.
The hidden cache had been built for fear of the future, and for two hundred years, it lay dormant, defended by Earth's distant allies. It was our last, best hope... for survival.
One hundred and forty-nine ships, all alone in the night.
The year is 2247. The name of the place is Old Praxis.
* * *
Sheridan was a soldier, not a diplomat. That was his opinion of the matter, at least, which actually seemed to put him in good stead with several of the Sentinel Alliance's member races.
The Karbarrans were a huge mammalian species that bore a strong ursine appearance, though they moved with a grace and dignity that belied their size. He had learned they were a race of builders and explorers who channelled their aggression into ritualized sparring matches and maintained a strong element of personal honor in their culture. They saw war as a necessary evil but took great pride in that their tools of war were efficient and well-designed. After taking a tour of the SAS Hayes, Sheridan had to agree.
Hayes's corriders were a little spacious by human standards, but it was slightly cramped for the Karbarrans. There wasn't a cubic foot of wasted space, and the ship was built in sections and layered like an onion, with the most critical systems in the interior. Each section and each layer could be sealed off in case of a hull breach.
The Tirolian Federation, on the other hand, was actually populated by the descendents of three different peoples: the human colonists who had chosen to resettle on Tirol when the Great Oath was sworn, the surviving native Tirolians themselves, and micronized remnants of the Zentraedi. The Zentraedi's warrior culture had melded with the strong military influence of those early colonies from Earth to form a major Tirolian subculture that still thrived to this day. The Tirolian ship he had toured, a four-kilometer-long dreadnought called TFS Breetai, had been a disconcerting experience for him for a number of reasons, including the bizarrely familiar-yet-not interior architecture.
Breetai was absolutely gigantic for a warship, and the huge array of mass reactors -- which used dark matter decay to power the ship -- provided enough power to not only open a jump point large enough for a small fleet to go through... but enough to power a truly mind-boggling array of energy weapons. Breetai outgunned a Nova-class five to one! From what he had been told during the tour, Breetai was actually a converted Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class Zentraedi flagship, which explained the ship's enormous dimensions. Much of the interior space that had been devoted to crew had given way to the mass reactors; in order to compensate for the lower power output of the mass reactors in comparison to reflex furnaces, they had simply added more reactors. A lot more.
And then there was the Praxian Republic. They were certainly difficult for Sheridan to deal with. Not that they had anything against him.
On the contrary, they liked him very much. Which was the problem.
Once a peaceful, agricultural society, the Robotech Masters and Invid had changed the Praxians forever into something reminiscent of the Amazon legends of Ancient Greece. Their entire approach to warfare could be summed up in two words: Ever vigilant. They were always perparing to defend their people, training in all forms of combat, and valued martial prowess and valor very highly. Which meant that scoring the only victory against a technologically superior foe had earned Sheridan considerable credit in their eyes. That wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the facts that they were all female, all drop-dead gorgeous, and had some... interesting ideas on social interactions.
The Praxians' previous reliance on the "Place of Life" to reproduce had resulted in an embarrassingly (for others) sexually open society. Although the Praxians were genetically human (as were the Zentraedi and Tirolians), they did appear to have a homeobox gene that coded for a protein that permanently turned off the male determinant genes on the Y chromosome early in development. This was one of the things that made full integration with the Tirolian Federation difficult. Fully half the offspring would be XY females, with lower fertility and only a one-third chance of producing male offspring... and another one-third chance of producing more XY females. Such an uneven reproduction ratio could have a potentially disastrous impact, from a biological standpoint at least, on the gender ratios.
Where the anti-male gene came from was a mystery, but an archaeological investigation of their "Place of Life" before it (along with the planet) was destroyed proved it to be a Tirolian cloning facility, complete with resizing chambers. That suggested that the Praxians were likely descended from a group of female Zentraedi who had gotten temporally displaced and stranded on Praxis, then resized themselves to reduce their food needs. It was a theory which some suggested might apply to the Tirolians' origins, since fossil records indicated that they had certainly not evolved there.
The Spherians were an old race. Not old in the sense of having been around a long time as a species, but old in the sense of having individuals with memories that date back to the beginning of the species. Their biology -- if that was even the right word -- was difficult to comprehend, as they were an amorphous crystalline species that could shape their bodies at will, and their minds seemed to be a form of energy that simply resided in their physical bodies. According to Baldan, humans had not changed very much in the last two hundred years, and Sheridan was willing to bet that the crystalline ambassador knew what he was talking about.
The Perytonians... well, the less said about the mysterious, demonic-looking race, the better. Like most sentient species, they were humanoid. They were tall and slender, hairless, with tall heads, long horns, and eyes that seemed to glow in low light. The cloaks and staves added further to the eerie impression. Terak had only said, "We will be there." When Sheridan had pressed and asked when, Terak had simply smiled and replied, "When you need us."
The Garudans were just as disturbing as the Perytonians in their own way. They were a lithe, catlike or foxlike humanoid species with a coat of long hair all over their bodies, and the atmosphere they breathed was slightly different from the nitrogen-oxygen mix most species were comfortable with. What bothered Sheridan, however, was that their entire species was telepathic. Like most mundanes in the Earth Alliance, Sheridan never was entirely comfortable with telepaths. However, he had gotten to know the telepath assigned to this mission, Richard Belmont, which had eased his feelings and made dealing with the Garudans much easier. It helped that their mysticism couched their telepathic powers in more comfortable trappings.
Right now, though, he was puzzling over one of the other things found in the cache. It was a bank of computers that had been salvaged from the wreckage of the SDF-1. According to the inventory list -- thank God their ancestors thought to include one! -- these were computers that the old Robotech Research Group had never been able to crack. There were a few they had never even been able to activate.
Sheridan looked at one in particular. From what the RRG had been able to decipher, it was locked by genetic access. With a shrug, Sheridan stuck his finger in the scanner. It couldn't hurt.
The computer suddenly hummed to life, and the monitor lit up, startling him as a video recording began to play.
"Hello, old friend."
* * *
Rhakishi was a pirate. He was not a Tirolian like most pirates in this sector were. The Spherians had little need for material goods, the Karbarrans were too easygoing for the most part, the Praxians had their honor code, the Garudans' telepathic abilities made them a very communal people, and the Perytonians... well, no one knew what the story was with the Perytonians.
Rhakishi himself was a Garudan. He had known he was different from his people from an early age. Had a biopsy been done, it would have revealed a chemical imbalance in his brain that altered his mental perceptions.
They were using a converted relic of the past, the hulk of an old Zentraedi scout ship, one of dozens that still roamed the space lanes. Due to the size of the original crew and pilots, Zentraedi vessels and mecha were the easiest to convert to less efficient power systems, as they had plenty of room to spare. The fighters aboard were a mix of converted Gnerl fighter pods and a hodgepodge of modern fighters. They had only a handful of precious mecha, which they kept out of the fighting and used to pick the wreckage of any victims they had been forced to blow apart.
Rhakishi himself flew a Karbarran Kathari fighter. The Kathari was nimble and fast in a way that its intended pilots weren't. It was a lightly armed transatmospheric fighter, with a pair of plasma bolters mounted at the ends of its wings.
Their captain, Jak Carlson, had heard of new activity at Old Praxis. Many ships were coming and going, and Jak had convinced most of the crew that the prize was worth the risk, something about having an inside man. Rhakishi had his doubts, but he would go along. At the very least, it would allow him a chance to taste the sweet flavor of fear again.
* * *
Sheridan had found the message to be both enlightening and a little troubling. Right now, he was in his quarters aboard Ark Angel.
"Captain Sheridan!" came a shout, accompanied by a pounding on his door.
Sheridan rose and opened the door. It was the mission telepath, Richard Belmont, a slender man with reddish-brown eyes and unruly greenish-blond hair. "What is it, Rick?"
"We've got incoming," the telepath said breathlessly. "Raiders."
Sheridan nodded, and just as he reached for his uniform shirt, his personal comm terminal flared to life.
"Captain, we have a jump point forming."
Sheridan glanced at Belmont, then activated the comm terminal and said, "On my way." He shot Belmont an arched eyebrow, "Just how strong a telepath are you, Belmont?"
"Officially?" Belmont shrugged. "P8."
"And... unofficially?" Sheridan asked as he buttoned up his uniform shirt.
"Don't really know, and I'm not about to let Psi Corps find out," Belmont replied, then grinned. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be unofficial anymore, would it?"
"Fair enough."
* * *
"Jump point forming! Emerging... Zentraedi scout ship, Tou Redir-class."
"What?" Cmdr. Zeraan James, Tirolian Spacy, captain of the SAS Taylor, rose to his feet. "Challenge them."
"No response."
"They're approaching at attack speed, Captain."
"Pirates," he scowled. "Power up weapons and move to intercept. Have all mecha ready to launch."
"Aye, Captain," chorused his navigation, flight control, and tactical officers.
He glanced at the tactical display and noted where the other ships of the picket flotilla were; none of them were in position to intercept before Taylor, not even the Perytonian ship, which was on the far side of the patrol zone. There was nothing particularly unusual about the Perytonian's positioning... except that this was the first time in the two hundred years since the Oath that pirates had arrived from any vector that did not put the Perytonian picket ship directly in their path.
At three hundred meters, Taylor was a Tirolian Sian Diel-class heavy frigate, designed specifically for anti-piracy operations. The problem was that the Sian Diel-class was really designed for escorting civilian convoys, not defending fixed positions, which meant it lacked combat endurance, relying on its heavy missile batteries to deter pirates while the convoy fled for safety. On top of that, even heavily armed pirates typically still used modern civilian ships converted for combat, not warships from the protoculture days converted to use modern technology... and a Zentraedi scout ship was big enough to count as a destroyer or even a light cruiser by current ship standards, albeit one lacking heavy enough weapons to threaten larger warships. Which Taylor was not.
Zeraan knew his ship and crew would not be able to stop the pirates. They could hurt them. Badly. But they could not stop them.
That didn't mean they weren't going to try.
* * *
Citar was a Perytonian. It was his ship that was assigned to the picket line. He had detected the pirates coming, but he had a more pressing concern to deal with.
It was a probe, one with a limited degree of intelligence.
"They have broken the Oath!" it "shrieked." It wasn't using any spoken or even telepathic form of communication. Nonetheless, Citar "heard" it and replied in the same manner.
"They shall be dealt with," he "said" soothingly. "It is an isolated incident. The Oath shall be upheld. We will see to it."
"You are certain?"
"Yes," he "said" firmly.
A wave of uncertainty rippled across the probe.
"We are still loyal," he assured it.
After a long, tense moment, it responded.
"The Awareness shall be informed."
Citar slumped in his chair in relief as he felt it fade away.
* * *
Sheridan watched the tactical display as SAS Taylor engaged the raiders. The heavy frigate was putting up a good fight, but they weren't going to survive long enough for the rest of the picket fleet to arrive.
"Multiple jump points forming!"
"More raiders?" Sheridan sputtered in surprise.
"The new ships are broadcasting..." Specialist Lynn said, then looked up in surprise. "It's the Karbarran Navy, sir. They're demanding the pirates surrender."
Sheridan relaxed, "Well, that was interesting. I take it that's the strike force Councillor T'Lon promised us?"
"Yes, sir, it is."
"Great," Sheridan leaned back. "Now if we can just get these fold drives working, we'll be in business."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
As you can see, I am reimagining the Sentinel races somewhat. I apologize if all the science in the Praxian description was excessive, but that was a genetic peculiarity I just had to address.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Yes, they exist in the Robotech universe. No, they never appeared in animation. No, they bear little resemblance to their descriptions in the RPG. Their physical appearance can be seen in a few pages of the recent Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comic.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Did Citar really appear angry to you?
The Perytonians have their ways. Right now, this is all setup; I'm laying the groundwork. Once I'm finished with Breaking the Oath, I'll be jumping forward to 2258 or so.
Think of this part of the story as equivalent to In the Beginning, except without the Londo bookends.
The Perytonians have their ways. Right now, this is all setup; I'm laying the groundwork. Once I'm finished with Breaking the Oath, I'll be jumping forward to 2258 or so.
Think of this part of the story as equivalent to In the Beginning, except without the Londo bookends.
Interceptors were first developed as part of the Aegis program of 2168, a year before either the Ch'Lonas or the Koulani decided to try and force the EA to stay away. The basics of the tech were found on an IPX dig somewhere. Either a long-dead race had the tech, or a race not so far gone. Im half-tempted to say the Garmak had the tech themselves, as they seem to be 'close' to us in terms of the B5W maps of 2000 and 2258.Cyclone said:
If you have any more questions regarding the EA, ask me or some other Fiver around here. If I remember to check for it, you should have the answer the next day...
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Well, here's the deal. According to Shadow Chronicles, the SDF-3 has a matrix on board. Over with The Long March, I went with the idea that it's the same matrix (no one said the matrix was destroyed, only that Zor Prime tried to destroy it). The alternative theory is that the REF figured out how to make one, but for some reason are unable to make another. For this story, I haven't decided which way to go with it.
As for the Oath thing, it's my invention. You're supposed to be wondering WTF it is all about.
However, I will mention that the enemy in Shadow Chronicles was out to annihilate anyone who used protoculture.
As for the Oath thing, it's my invention. You're supposed to be wondering WTF it is all about.
However, I will mention that the enemy in Shadow Chronicles was out to annihilate anyone who used protoculture.
In the McKinney novels Rem and Cabell cobbled together a new Matrix for the REF. A silver matrix to the original gold.Cyclone said:
In End of the Circle, Exedore and Cabell made a third matrix that was pitch black and was pretty much an anti-matter matrix(anti-protoculture) and they were going to bring the silver and black matrices in contact with each other to blow someone away. It didn't work; the silver matrix was protected from the VERY dangerous black matrix. The black matrix dissipated harmlessly.
Judging by Shadow Chronicles, all the Robotech wars were instigated to get riid of protoculture and the Invid.
I have no idea why the Awareness is not trying to hunt down and exterminate the Invid. The Invid still use the Flower of Life and Protoculture.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Not entirely ignoring, KCKitsune, just not automatically assuming the rest is true; I may take ideas from them. I'm working from the standpoint of using the current official canon, which is the animation, Shadow Chronicles, and the Wildstorm comics. The rest has been officially declared non-canon by Harmony Gold.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Inquisitor, even though I said I'm not necessarily ignoring the other sources, I did also say that those other sources are non-canon. Note how the Karbarran ships used jump points like a Babylon 5 ship.
For this story, while thinking caps don't exist, protoculture is a key component of several systems, including reflex weaponry, pinpoint and omni-directional barrier systems, and fold drives.
And I'll repeat what I said earlier in this thread: It's not all about the power source (though protoculture is superior to fusion reactors at least for this story). The EA lost a lot of the technology too. They've had a technological dark age due to the loss of their only efficient power source (which basically collapsed their more advanced infrastructure), then another world war to deal with.
For this story, while thinking caps don't exist, protoculture is a key component of several systems, including reflex weaponry, pinpoint and omni-directional barrier systems, and fold drives.
And I'll repeat what I said earlier in this thread: It's not all about the power source (though protoculture is superior to fusion reactors at least for this story). The EA lost a lot of the technology too. They've had a technological dark age due to the loss of their only efficient power source (which basically collapsed their more advanced infrastructure), then another world war to deal with.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
I'm actually a little surprised that no one felt the message waiting for Sheridan was worth talking about. I was expecting at least some speculation. Oh, well. More characters yoinked from other sources ahead.
* * *
Breaking the Oath
Chapter Four
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind. It was a year of fateful choices, the year the Great Alliance came before us all.
The humans had managed to blunt the Minbari's once seemingly unstoppable advance, around a single world that came to symbolize the entire war. The galaxy held its collective breath... and waited.
One otherwise insignificant planet, all alone in the night.
It is the Earth year 2247. The name of the place is Cyrus III.
* * *
"Hello, old friend," Captain Honor Harrington said, extending a hand. "Welcome to Cyrus III, Captain Sisko. The admiral sends his regards."
"Thank you, Honor," Captain Benjamin Sisko replied.
"It's good to see Nimitz back here," Honor said, turning her gaze out the viewport to where the refitted dreadnought hung in space.
"Came straight from the yard dogs as soon as the repairs were finished," he said. He followed her gaze and nodded. "She's a good ship," he murmured.
"That she is," Honor agreed. "Take care of her, Ben. She holds a lot of memories, for me and the admiral both."
"I know," he nodded. "I'll do my best."
* * *
"I must say again that I do not believe it is the work of the Shadows," Shai Alyt Branmer said calmly. "The technology is nothing like what the legends speak of, and surely, the Vorlons would have warned us if another Shadow War was upon us."
He had been making this argument for many months. It was futile, he knew, but he had to at least try.
"And I believe that you are mistaken, Shai Alyt," Alyt Sineval said. He didn't -- quite -- sneer.
"Alyt Sineval speaks truly," Satai Rienn of the Warrior Caste interjected before Branmer could react. "We have not had contact with the Vorlons in many years. We would do better to assume it is and prepare falsely than to assume it is not and be caught unawares. You yourself have said that the humans are receiving aid, and who else but the Shadows could provide technology to rival that of the Vorlons' chosen? We must send the full weight of our warriors against the humans and crush them now! Before their masters reveal themselves!"
Alyt Neroon frowned. He was the Shai Alyt's second in command, and he understood Branmer's skepticism. He himself had reviewed the data, and none of it suggested that the Shadows had had a hand in the humans' upgrades. All the new technology the humans were using... the aesthetics of it were just as distinctly utilitarian, ugly, and human as what they had started the war with.
In fact, Neroon doubted Sineval or Rienn genuinely believed the humans were aided by the Shadows either. There were few, if any, of the Warrior Caste who believed the Shadows would ever truly return. Sineval wanted revenge; he had been humiliated at Cyrus III, the first Minbari Alyt to ever retreat from the humans without even destroying a single human ship. Satai Rienn, on the other hand, almost seemed to revel in the bloodshed. Neroon knew not why, but there was no denying the delight she had taken in their crushing advance in the early part of the war.
Branmer knew this too. Moreover, he was almost certain he knew exactly what Sineval would suggest. The humans had built up a mighty fleet at Cyrus III, increasing their military presence and fortifications there after each of the four previous attacks: Sineval's first two disastrous attacks, another attack led by Alyt Shakiri who had hoped to reap the glory, and a reconnaissance in force that Branmer had sent Neroon on. Sineval would almost certainly recommend smashing the concentration of forces with an equally mighty fleet, crippling the humans with a single stroke and incidentally redeeming Sineval -- who, of course, would lead the attack due to his previous experience with and intimate knowledge of the defenses there -- of the perceived shame of being defeated there twice.
Such a folly stemmed more from courage, pride, and wishful thinking than from practical sense, and perhaps Branmer's origins in the Religious Caste allowed him to see things his fellows of the Warrior Caste were blind to.
It had become quite obvious to him that their victories before Cyrus III had stemmed not from a greater will or superior tactics and strategies. The humans had proven that they at least matched the Minbari's will, fighting like a cornered beast, doomed... but determined to make the Minbari bleed for their victory. The humans had also proven their cunning, first when they destroyed Drala Fi, then at Cyrus III. No, it had become obvious to Branmer that the Minbari's advantages over the humans had been pure hardware -- their until-now impenetrable stealth and the superior range and destructive power of their weapons -- both of which the humans had now learned to counter or match.
From a strategic standpoint, it would be better to bypass Cyrus III entirely and strike at Sinzar and go from there through Proxima to Earth itself. The fleet at Cyrus III would have to then choose between leaving the settlements there unprotected, splitting and weakening their forces, or simply standing by and allowing the Minbari to take the fight to their very homeworld.
Branmer knew this, but he would not say it. It would do no good, for the rest of the Warrior Caste would simply dismiss it as cowardice, declare him unfit to lead the Minbari in war, and promote someone else -- someone thick-headed enough to actually think that attacking that fleet was a good idea -- to Shai Alyt.
"I say," Sineval declared, "we should take the bulk of our forces and smash the human fleet at Cyrus III! They have concentrated their forces there, and with a single stroke, we can win this war and then wipe the humans out at our leisure!"
Almost word for word. Branmer suppressed a resigned sigh. He was hardly infallible, but he wished his read on Sineval had been less accurate.
"I agree," Satai Rienn said. "It is time we remind these humans just who they are dealing with."
* * *
"No other race has ever been able to stand up to the Minbari!" G'Kar declared. "Not even the Centauri! This is our chance! If we aid the humans now, then we can secure their help and finally avenge ourselves on the Centauri! Why can't you see that?"
"We have too few ships," Councillor Kha'Mak of the Second Circle of the Kha'Ri argued. "If we attack the Minbari, their counterattack will surely destroy us, and even if they do not attack us, the Centauri no doubt will."
"If we help them now, they will help us later," G'Kar insisted. "We are the only ones who-"
"If we help them now, we may not have a later!" Kha'Mak retorted.
"The Minbari will not attack us, not yet," G'Kar shook his head. "It is a holy war for them. They will not stop until either every human is dead or every Minbari is."
"So you would have us engage in genocide?"
"That is not what I meant!"
"Even if the humans can defeat the Minbari, even if the Minbari would choose not attack us, and even if we could convince the rest of the Kha'Ri to go along with this, just where do you propose we get the ships, G'Kar?" Kha'Mak demanded. "Our borders are barely secure. The Centauri would pounce on us in our moment of weakness, and within a generation, freedom would be nothing more than a memory for Narn!"
"I see," G'Kar bowed his head. "You are right. Very well. I shall speak no more of it."
* * *
Emperor Turhan of the Centauri Republic placed the report on the desk before him and leaned back in his seat, considering its contents. It was not the grand throne he used to receive visitors or for formal occasions; that ostentatious piece of furniture remained in the opulent, cold, and drafty throne room. Rather, it was an old, well-worn chair that was far more comfortable than the throne.
The humans were doomed. Anyone who had seen the opening massacres of the Earth-Minbari War could see that and know it in their hearts. They refused to give up, though, fighting valiantly with even greater strength, holding out for months where any other race would have given in to despair and folded within weeks. He knew that, even among his cynical people, there were those who wept for the humans. There were even a few impetuous young nobles -- armored with the ever-present youthful sense of invulnerability -- who had petitioned their houses to aid the humans in their hopeless gesture of defiance. But the humans were still doomed.
Then the news of Drala Fi's destruction came. The Minbari flagship had outrun the rest of its fleet to perform lightning raids on the humans' very home system, only to suddenly be destroyed. For a long moment, the galaxy held its breath. Details had not been forthcoming, but it had looked like it might be a turning point in the war... but no, the Minbari continued their slaughter of the humans unchecked and with even greater fury.
Until they went to Cyrus III. The humans had driven off the Minbari. The galaxy had written it off as another fluke, an accident of Minbari overconfidence, human underhandedness, and sheer luck, much like the destruction of Drala Fi.
Then the humans did it again.
Coincidence, of course. The Minbari must have gotten predictable and walked into another trap.
And again.
That was when the Centauri began to take notice. The report Emperor Turhan had been reading had been of the Minbari's fourth failed attack on the planet, though it had not appeared to be a serious attempt... and he began to wonder.
If the humans could defeat the Minbari, then they could be a valuable ally. Their actions in the Dilgar War showed that their expansionistic goals were limited to uninhabited planets. If the Centauri Republic threw themselves in with the humans, and the humans were victorious...
He dismissed the idea. No. It would be better to risk missing an opportunity by standing on the sidelines than to gamble everything by taking sides. He set the report aside.
"Turhan?"
Only one person would have both the right and the nerve to call the Emperor of the Centauri Republic by name, and he smiled to greet her, "Morella. How are you, dear?"
"I am well, husband."
It was, like most (if not all) Centauri weddings, a political marriage, but they had learned to develop some affection for each other. Of course, entirely aside from her family's connections, Turhan had married her for her gifts.
Her gifts.
"Tell me, Morella," he said. "What do you see of the humans?"
She closed her eyes.
"I see... paths to the future. Where once there were two, there are now three. Light and dark and grey. The two are old, well-worn paths... but the humans... they will blaze the third... and all the galaxy shall follow."
* * *
It was with a heavy heart that Shai Alyt Branmer surveyed the fleet assembled before him. It was truly a mighty fleet, with over five hundred Sharlin war cruisers and nearly twice as many Tinashi war frigates. More than that were the twelve Shargoti heavy battlecruisers. The Shargoti was a new design, with superior armor and a greater weapons loadout than the Sharlin; with the technology the humans had displayed at Cyrus III, they had been rushed into production. It was the largest single fleet assembled by the Minbari since the Great War. True, the Minbari Federation still had more warships, but most of the other ships were required right where they were. Some were guarding the systems claimed by the Minbari or under Minbari protection, stripped of their support fleets of Tinashis, while others were held by the Anla'shok, who claimed to have none to spare.
The only other ships that could be spared had another mission, and Branmer silently prayed for Neroon. It was a mission he refused to trust to any other, and it had taken a great deal of finesse to convince the leaders of the Warrior Caste to support it.
Alyt Sineval's Trigati was, of course, part of the fleet's lead element. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to take command of the entire operation, but Branmer had brooked no argument. A fleet this size demanded a Shai Alyt's personal attention, and he had no intention of delegating command to someone so blinded by personal outrage.
But then, he supposed, the very fact that they were fighting this war spoke loudly of how much the Minbari people as a whole could be blinded by outrage.
"It is time," Branmer said. He glanced at his communications officer and said, "Tell Alyt Sineval that he is to begin leading the first element out."
* * *
The bar was called the Jump Point. Since the military build-up here at Cyrus III began, it had become the most popular bar among EarthForce personnel, particularly the gropos. The lighting and music was just right for a soldier to unwind after a day of absolutely boring and pointless drills and patrols on a planet that would probably get hit by orbital bombardment if the Minbari ever broke through the fleet anyway.
"I still think it's a dumb move," declared PFC Allen Tetsumoto. "Not saying I don't like it, but... we've got a third of the fleet over our heads. This place is better defended than Earth."
PFC Michael Garibaldi shrugged, "Way I hear it, intel's got them figured out: They're a bunch of fanatical whackos on a crusade."
"So?"
"So," Garibaldi said, "what's a fanatical nutjob on a mission from God gonna do when someone thwarts him?"
"Try again," Tetsumoto nodded slowly as understanding took hold. "They're going to keep coming until they either take this place or can't fight anymore."
"Exactly," Garibaldi said, resisting the urge to take a long pull from his beer. "So we draw a line, right here. This far, no further."
Tetsumoto chuckled and held up his drink, "At least until we kick their bonehead asses all the way back to Minbar!"
"Hear hear," Garibaldi said, clinking his drink against Tetsumoto's.
"Hear hear!" the rest of the bar's patrons echoed him, lifting their drinks in kind.
As long as we can hold it, Garibaldi silently corrected Tetsumoto, and as long as the boys upstairs can keep the boneheads at bay. God, I know you watch after fools and madmen. Well, just take a look at us, risking everything for everyone. Don't get much more foolish or crazier than that.
* * *
Captain John Harriman of the Hyperion-class heavy cruiser EAS Enterprise sat in his ship's command chair. Enterprise had gone back to Earth for a major refit after the second wave of reinforcements arrived after the Second Battle of Cyrus III. They had missed Third Cyrus during the refit, but after they returned, they had acquitted themselves well in Fourth Cyrus. Enterprise underwent the standard Hyperion-class refit established after Hermes's return, which added a magnetic lens and a particle beam option to the forward heavy lasers and did away with the rest of the wide variety of energy weapons in favor of an all particle beam armament (excepting the new combination cannon) which incorporated the superior refinements brought back by Hermes. In addition, she had also had had her fusion reactors replaced by a reflex furnace, which allowed for a pinpoint barrier system.
The reflex furnaces were one of the simpler pieces of technology to duplicate, but the limited supply of protoculture cells -- only what Hermes had brought back in her holds in the few runs she'd made between Earth Alliance space and the Pegasus galaxy -- meant that EarthForce wasn't going to be converting all their ships to reflex furnaces any time soon.
Enterprise was currently running picket duty, halfway between Cyrus III and the likely jump zone. The last Minbari attack had been more like a measured probe to test their defenses than a reckless assault like the previous three, so although Hermes had those wonderful gravitic sensors, Vice Admiral Sarnow wasn't about to rely solely on them with an organized and well-planned Minbari attack on the horizon.
"Multiple jump points forming, sir, scattered all over the jump zone. No IFF."
"The Minbari. So they're finally here," Harriman noted. "How many?"
His sensor operator stared at her monitor and didn't respond.
"How many, Lieutenant?"
She looked up at him, "All of them, sir."
"What?"
"There's hundreds of jump points, sir. Our sensors can't track them all."
"My God."
The Fifth Battle of Cyrus III was about to begin.
* * *
Breaking the Oath
Chapter Four
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind. It was a year of fateful choices, the year the Great Alliance came before us all.
The humans had managed to blunt the Minbari's once seemingly unstoppable advance, around a single world that came to symbolize the entire war. The galaxy held its collective breath... and waited.
One otherwise insignificant planet, all alone in the night.
It is the Earth year 2247. The name of the place is Cyrus III.
* * *
"Hello, old friend," Captain Honor Harrington said, extending a hand. "Welcome to Cyrus III, Captain Sisko. The admiral sends his regards."
"Thank you, Honor," Captain Benjamin Sisko replied.
"It's good to see Nimitz back here," Honor said, turning her gaze out the viewport to where the refitted dreadnought hung in space.
"Came straight from the yard dogs as soon as the repairs were finished," he said. He followed her gaze and nodded. "She's a good ship," he murmured.
"That she is," Honor agreed. "Take care of her, Ben. She holds a lot of memories, for me and the admiral both."
"I know," he nodded. "I'll do my best."
* * *
"I must say again that I do not believe it is the work of the Shadows," Shai Alyt Branmer said calmly. "The technology is nothing like what the legends speak of, and surely, the Vorlons would have warned us if another Shadow War was upon us."
He had been making this argument for many months. It was futile, he knew, but he had to at least try.
"And I believe that you are mistaken, Shai Alyt," Alyt Sineval said. He didn't -- quite -- sneer.
"Alyt Sineval speaks truly," Satai Rienn of the Warrior Caste interjected before Branmer could react. "We have not had contact with the Vorlons in many years. We would do better to assume it is and prepare falsely than to assume it is not and be caught unawares. You yourself have said that the humans are receiving aid, and who else but the Shadows could provide technology to rival that of the Vorlons' chosen? We must send the full weight of our warriors against the humans and crush them now! Before their masters reveal themselves!"
Alyt Neroon frowned. He was the Shai Alyt's second in command, and he understood Branmer's skepticism. He himself had reviewed the data, and none of it suggested that the Shadows had had a hand in the humans' upgrades. All the new technology the humans were using... the aesthetics of it were just as distinctly utilitarian, ugly, and human as what they had started the war with.
In fact, Neroon doubted Sineval or Rienn genuinely believed the humans were aided by the Shadows either. There were few, if any, of the Warrior Caste who believed the Shadows would ever truly return. Sineval wanted revenge; he had been humiliated at Cyrus III, the first Minbari Alyt to ever retreat from the humans without even destroying a single human ship. Satai Rienn, on the other hand, almost seemed to revel in the bloodshed. Neroon knew not why, but there was no denying the delight she had taken in their crushing advance in the early part of the war.
Branmer knew this too. Moreover, he was almost certain he knew exactly what Sineval would suggest. The humans had built up a mighty fleet at Cyrus III, increasing their military presence and fortifications there after each of the four previous attacks: Sineval's first two disastrous attacks, another attack led by Alyt Shakiri who had hoped to reap the glory, and a reconnaissance in force that Branmer had sent Neroon on. Sineval would almost certainly recommend smashing the concentration of forces with an equally mighty fleet, crippling the humans with a single stroke and incidentally redeeming Sineval -- who, of course, would lead the attack due to his previous experience with and intimate knowledge of the defenses there -- of the perceived shame of being defeated there twice.
Such a folly stemmed more from courage, pride, and wishful thinking than from practical sense, and perhaps Branmer's origins in the Religious Caste allowed him to see things his fellows of the Warrior Caste were blind to.
It had become quite obvious to him that their victories before Cyrus III had stemmed not from a greater will or superior tactics and strategies. The humans had proven that they at least matched the Minbari's will, fighting like a cornered beast, doomed... but determined to make the Minbari bleed for their victory. The humans had also proven their cunning, first when they destroyed Drala Fi, then at Cyrus III. No, it had become obvious to Branmer that the Minbari's advantages over the humans had been pure hardware -- their until-now impenetrable stealth and the superior range and destructive power of their weapons -- both of which the humans had now learned to counter or match.
From a strategic standpoint, it would be better to bypass Cyrus III entirely and strike at Sinzar and go from there through Proxima to Earth itself. The fleet at Cyrus III would have to then choose between leaving the settlements there unprotected, splitting and weakening their forces, or simply standing by and allowing the Minbari to take the fight to their very homeworld.
Branmer knew this, but he would not say it. It would do no good, for the rest of the Warrior Caste would simply dismiss it as cowardice, declare him unfit to lead the Minbari in war, and promote someone else -- someone thick-headed enough to actually think that attacking that fleet was a good idea -- to Shai Alyt.
"I say," Sineval declared, "we should take the bulk of our forces and smash the human fleet at Cyrus III! They have concentrated their forces there, and with a single stroke, we can win this war and then wipe the humans out at our leisure!"
Almost word for word. Branmer suppressed a resigned sigh. He was hardly infallible, but he wished his read on Sineval had been less accurate.
"I agree," Satai Rienn said. "It is time we remind these humans just who they are dealing with."
* * *
"No other race has ever been able to stand up to the Minbari!" G'Kar declared. "Not even the Centauri! This is our chance! If we aid the humans now, then we can secure their help and finally avenge ourselves on the Centauri! Why can't you see that?"
"We have too few ships," Councillor Kha'Mak of the Second Circle of the Kha'Ri argued. "If we attack the Minbari, their counterattack will surely destroy us, and even if they do not attack us, the Centauri no doubt will."
"If we help them now, they will help us later," G'Kar insisted. "We are the only ones who-"
"If we help them now, we may not have a later!" Kha'Mak retorted.
"The Minbari will not attack us, not yet," G'Kar shook his head. "It is a holy war for them. They will not stop until either every human is dead or every Minbari is."
"So you would have us engage in genocide?"
"That is not what I meant!"
"Even if the humans can defeat the Minbari, even if the Minbari would choose not attack us, and even if we could convince the rest of the Kha'Ri to go along with this, just where do you propose we get the ships, G'Kar?" Kha'Mak demanded. "Our borders are barely secure. The Centauri would pounce on us in our moment of weakness, and within a generation, freedom would be nothing more than a memory for Narn!"
"I see," G'Kar bowed his head. "You are right. Very well. I shall speak no more of it."
* * *
Emperor Turhan of the Centauri Republic placed the report on the desk before him and leaned back in his seat, considering its contents. It was not the grand throne he used to receive visitors or for formal occasions; that ostentatious piece of furniture remained in the opulent, cold, and drafty throne room. Rather, it was an old, well-worn chair that was far more comfortable than the throne.
The humans were doomed. Anyone who had seen the opening massacres of the Earth-Minbari War could see that and know it in their hearts. They refused to give up, though, fighting valiantly with even greater strength, holding out for months where any other race would have given in to despair and folded within weeks. He knew that, even among his cynical people, there were those who wept for the humans. There were even a few impetuous young nobles -- armored with the ever-present youthful sense of invulnerability -- who had petitioned their houses to aid the humans in their hopeless gesture of defiance. But the humans were still doomed.
Then the news of Drala Fi's destruction came. The Minbari flagship had outrun the rest of its fleet to perform lightning raids on the humans' very home system, only to suddenly be destroyed. For a long moment, the galaxy held its breath. Details had not been forthcoming, but it had looked like it might be a turning point in the war... but no, the Minbari continued their slaughter of the humans unchecked and with even greater fury.
Until they went to Cyrus III. The humans had driven off the Minbari. The galaxy had written it off as another fluke, an accident of Minbari overconfidence, human underhandedness, and sheer luck, much like the destruction of Drala Fi.
Then the humans did it again.
Coincidence, of course. The Minbari must have gotten predictable and walked into another trap.
And again.
That was when the Centauri began to take notice. The report Emperor Turhan had been reading had been of the Minbari's fourth failed attack on the planet, though it had not appeared to be a serious attempt... and he began to wonder.
If the humans could defeat the Minbari, then they could be a valuable ally. Their actions in the Dilgar War showed that their expansionistic goals were limited to uninhabited planets. If the Centauri Republic threw themselves in with the humans, and the humans were victorious...
He dismissed the idea. No. It would be better to risk missing an opportunity by standing on the sidelines than to gamble everything by taking sides. He set the report aside.
"Turhan?"
Only one person would have both the right and the nerve to call the Emperor of the Centauri Republic by name, and he smiled to greet her, "Morella. How are you, dear?"
"I am well, husband."
It was, like most (if not all) Centauri weddings, a political marriage, but they had learned to develop some affection for each other. Of course, entirely aside from her family's connections, Turhan had married her for her gifts.
Her gifts.
"Tell me, Morella," he said. "What do you see of the humans?"
She closed her eyes.
"I see... paths to the future. Where once there were two, there are now three. Light and dark and grey. The two are old, well-worn paths... but the humans... they will blaze the third... and all the galaxy shall follow."
* * *
It was with a heavy heart that Shai Alyt Branmer surveyed the fleet assembled before him. It was truly a mighty fleet, with over five hundred Sharlin war cruisers and nearly twice as many Tinashi war frigates. More than that were the twelve Shargoti heavy battlecruisers. The Shargoti was a new design, with superior armor and a greater weapons loadout than the Sharlin; with the technology the humans had displayed at Cyrus III, they had been rushed into production. It was the largest single fleet assembled by the Minbari since the Great War. True, the Minbari Federation still had more warships, but most of the other ships were required right where they were. Some were guarding the systems claimed by the Minbari or under Minbari protection, stripped of their support fleets of Tinashis, while others were held by the Anla'shok, who claimed to have none to spare.
The only other ships that could be spared had another mission, and Branmer silently prayed for Neroon. It was a mission he refused to trust to any other, and it had taken a great deal of finesse to convince the leaders of the Warrior Caste to support it.
Alyt Sineval's Trigati was, of course, part of the fleet's lead element. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to take command of the entire operation, but Branmer had brooked no argument. A fleet this size demanded a Shai Alyt's personal attention, and he had no intention of delegating command to someone so blinded by personal outrage.
But then, he supposed, the very fact that they were fighting this war spoke loudly of how much the Minbari people as a whole could be blinded by outrage.
"It is time," Branmer said. He glanced at his communications officer and said, "Tell Alyt Sineval that he is to begin leading the first element out."
* * *
The bar was called the Jump Point. Since the military build-up here at Cyrus III began, it had become the most popular bar among EarthForce personnel, particularly the gropos. The lighting and music was just right for a soldier to unwind after a day of absolutely boring and pointless drills and patrols on a planet that would probably get hit by orbital bombardment if the Minbari ever broke through the fleet anyway.
"I still think it's a dumb move," declared PFC Allen Tetsumoto. "Not saying I don't like it, but... we've got a third of the fleet over our heads. This place is better defended than Earth."
PFC Michael Garibaldi shrugged, "Way I hear it, intel's got them figured out: They're a bunch of fanatical whackos on a crusade."
"So?"
"So," Garibaldi said, "what's a fanatical nutjob on a mission from God gonna do when someone thwarts him?"
"Try again," Tetsumoto nodded slowly as understanding took hold. "They're going to keep coming until they either take this place or can't fight anymore."
"Exactly," Garibaldi said, resisting the urge to take a long pull from his beer. "So we draw a line, right here. This far, no further."
Tetsumoto chuckled and held up his drink, "At least until we kick their bonehead asses all the way back to Minbar!"
"Hear hear," Garibaldi said, clinking his drink against Tetsumoto's.
"Hear hear!" the rest of the bar's patrons echoed him, lifting their drinks in kind.
As long as we can hold it, Garibaldi silently corrected Tetsumoto, and as long as the boys upstairs can keep the boneheads at bay. God, I know you watch after fools and madmen. Well, just take a look at us, risking everything for everyone. Don't get much more foolish or crazier than that.
* * *
Captain John Harriman of the Hyperion-class heavy cruiser EAS Enterprise sat in his ship's command chair. Enterprise had gone back to Earth for a major refit after the second wave of reinforcements arrived after the Second Battle of Cyrus III. They had missed Third Cyrus during the refit, but after they returned, they had acquitted themselves well in Fourth Cyrus. Enterprise underwent the standard Hyperion-class refit established after Hermes's return, which added a magnetic lens and a particle beam option to the forward heavy lasers and did away with the rest of the wide variety of energy weapons in favor of an all particle beam armament (excepting the new combination cannon) which incorporated the superior refinements brought back by Hermes. In addition, she had also had had her fusion reactors replaced by a reflex furnace, which allowed for a pinpoint barrier system.
The reflex furnaces were one of the simpler pieces of technology to duplicate, but the limited supply of protoculture cells -- only what Hermes had brought back in her holds in the few runs she'd made between Earth Alliance space and the Pegasus galaxy -- meant that EarthForce wasn't going to be converting all their ships to reflex furnaces any time soon.
Enterprise was currently running picket duty, halfway between Cyrus III and the likely jump zone. The last Minbari attack had been more like a measured probe to test their defenses than a reckless assault like the previous three, so although Hermes had those wonderful gravitic sensors, Vice Admiral Sarnow wasn't about to rely solely on them with an organized and well-planned Minbari attack on the horizon.
"Multiple jump points forming, sir, scattered all over the jump zone. No IFF."
"The Minbari. So they're finally here," Harriman noted. "How many?"
His sensor operator stared at her monitor and didn't respond.
"How many, Lieutenant?"
She looked up at him, "All of them, sir."
"What?"
"There's hundreds of jump points, sir. Our sensors can't track them all."
"My God."
The Fifth Battle of Cyrus III was about to begin.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Breaking the Oath
Chapter Five
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind, at the end of the Earth-Minbari War, when we faced the largest fleet assembled in centuries.
The analysts say they attacked where they did out of pride. We may never know for sure. For a fifth time, they tried to take the planet that had come to symbolize the war.
One single planet, all alone in the night.
It is the year 2247. The name of the place is Cyrus III.
* * *
"So, how's the fold drive look, Doctor Nichols?"
Dr. Carmen Nichols was a civilian technician by trade -- and a very good one, judging from her personnel jacket -- but what had guaranteed her a spot on the Pegasus mission was actually her hobby, as she was an avid follower of archaeology and xenoarchaeology. She normally worked for Interplanetary Expeditions, better known as IPX, and had a talent for reverse-engineering unfamiliar technologies. She had since become the Pegasus mission's unofficial senior fold technician.
"It's operational..." she replied, "...mostly."
"'Mostly'?" Sheridan blinked. "Define 'mostly.'"
"It'll work," she assured him, "but we had to take a few shortcuts. It'll need to cool down, so to speak. About a day, give or take a couple of hours, between folds. Any faster, and... well, the fold should still work, but we'll fry it in the process."
"All right," Sheridan nodded. "Good work. How many ships can we bring?"
"Not nearly as many as showed up," she snorted. "I'm projecting a fold bubble only about two miles across. Like I said, we had to take shortcuts."
"Good enough," he nodded.
He turned and walked away. He had another appointment to make.
Most of the raiders that had tried to attack a couple of months ago had surrendered, and that had granted them a certain amount of leniency, exempting them from capital punishment. One of them, however, had not surrendered, howling incoherently as he continued to strafe Taylor. A stray hit had disabled the stolen Karbarran fighter and left the pilot, a psychotic Garudan named Rhakishi, alive.
The Sentinel Alliance Advisory Council -- on which Sheridan unexpectedly found himself holding a temporary seat, representing the Earth Alliance -- had voted against turning him over to the Garuden Hegemony for trial. It had been a secret vote, but Sheridan had voted for turning him over; the last thing he wanted was to have a trial delaying his return to Earth space.
The trial, it turned out, had been pretty much open and shut. The raider captain's testimony indicated that the target was the cache, officially Earth Alliance property, which gave EA laws precedence for sentencing, which meant Death of Personality.
Sheridan, however, was legally required to officially witness the execution, which is where he was heading right now. He approached the chamber where it would occur. Rhakishi would be mind-wiped by a Tirolian mind probe; it was a more advanced version of the clone-tutors once used in Zentraedi cloning tanks. The equivalent device the EA used for mindwipes had been developed independently, but the Tirolian mind probe's superior versatility had staggering implications, some good... but mostly not.
* * *
The other members of the Council nodded in greeting as Sheridan arrived, and T'Lon gestured for him to stand near the front of the viewing room.
"Do you have any last requests?" Kanai asked.
Rhakishi ignored him, his gaze turning and locking onto Sheridan, despite the one-way mirror. "They are coming for you, human," he laughed. "They are coming for you!"
"Sedate him," Kanai ordered the nurse.
Rhakishi settled under the sedative, his breathing slowing to an even pace as the biotechnician flipped the switch, wiping Rhakishi's mind.
* * *
"You're staying?" Sheridan frowned. "Why?"
"Because..." Belmont replied hesitantly, "...I think I've got a line on a way to get the rest of the fleet to Earth space instead of just ferrying them back in Pioneer's fold bubble over several trips." He held up a hand, "Don't... ask, okay, John? It's complicated, and you're launching in just a couple of hours."
"All right, Rick," Sheridan nodded. "I guess I'll be seeing you Earth side."
* * *
The battle had started off well, with synchronized, time on target alpha strikes punching gaping holes in the Minbari lines at ranges greater than that which the Minbari could effectively respond. Vice Admiral Sarnow had held the fleet's missiles in reserve until the Minbari closed the range; it was a risky gambit, but against Minbari stealth and point defense, it had proven far more effective than the traditional long-range missile duels they had been built for. Although EarthForce had found a hole in Minbari stealth, they could not tie the missiles into that network, rendering their guidance systems ineffective, even if the Minbari's EM output didn't burn out their electronics. Sarnow's decision to use them at close range in a single massive volley had overwhelmed the Minbari's point defenses and ripped the Minbari's remaining vanguard to shreds. The close range had reduced the effectiveness of both Minbari stealth and point defenses. It also forced the Minbari to quickly switch their weapons to point defense tasks, giving the fleet some breathing room right when they needed it, since the Minbari, like most civilizations and definitely unlike the EA, did not have dedicated point defense guns.
However, the Minbari outnumbered the Cyrus III Task Force three to one, and the battle was beginning to grow desperate. Earth Alliance fighters -- mostly starfuries retrofitted with shadow cloaks, though there were a few shadow veritechs and a rapidly dwindling number of standard starfuries in the mix too -- dueled with Minbari fighters, both sides forced to rely on visual targeting.
With Hermes's gravitic sensors tied into the fleet tactical net and a select few capital ships that been retrofitted with the large-scale shadow cloaks, the Earth Alliance had a technological edge, but they had all their eggs in one basket, and many of their ships hadn't been refitted at all.
Benjamin Sisko gripped his armrest as another fusion blast struck Nimitz. He glanced at his status display. Nimitz was hurt, badly. They'd lost the starboard half of their forward batteries, along with primary fire control on their port broadside, and a quarter of the ship was depressurized. And that last blast had just taken out their port broadside's secondary fire control.
"That's it!" he snarled as the ship shuddered again. "Raise barrier system! Helm, full speed ahead! We're going to ram them with the barrier."
* * *
"Nimitz is breaking formation."
Vice Admiral Mark Sarnow bolted to his feet. He was aboard the SuperNova-class dreadnought EAS Nike. While the SuperNova may have been built on the same frame as the Nova-class, it incorporated something that even the Nova refits couldn't include, due to the sheer amount of integration required: artificial gravity. That, incidentally, included inertial compensators, which allowed the ship designers to include more powerful oversized propulsion systems, which paradoxically made the SuperNova not only the biggest and meanest ship class in EarthForce, but also the fastest and most agile, short of a fighter.
"What? Ben? What's he doing?" Sarnow demanded.
"He's... ramming them, sir. Barrier up."
Sarnow remembered the briefings on the barrier technology. He had seen the old footage from the first two times the barrier had been used in combat by Earth forces, aboard the SDF-1 -- they never _did_ get around to naming that ship; the Zentraedi attack had interrupted the christening ceremony, and by the time they had a chance to name her, she was officially decommissioned -- and both of those times, the barrier had overloaded. That same tendency had been used by the UEEF on a few rare occasions to their advantage, both in the Sentinels War and the Haydonite War, but they weren't as well-documented as what had happened in the Ontario Quadrant or the Zentraedi mobile command fortress.
"Order all ships and fighters to pull away from Nimitz," he said. "They are to restrict themselves to long-range support for Nimitz only."
* * *
Shai Alyt Branmer of the Star Riders clan watched as the human ship charged the thickest of their formation. For a moment, he wondered what the humans aboard that ship hoped to do, for they had already crippled its weapons, and it had become evident early in the battle that the humans' shield technology prevented them from firing.
His question was answered when the human ship rammed the Alati. The energy shield shattered the Sharlin, which vanished in a fiery explosion as its quantum singularity core was breached... and the human ship kept on coming.
"Rakari group, concentrate fire on that ship," he ordered. The Rakari was one of the new Shargoti heavy battlecruisers. He had to hope the shield could be overloaded, or else it would ram its way through the fleet.
He had no idea just how bad an idea that was.
* * *
"Mister Paris," Sisko addressed his helmsman, "find me another target, and keep us moving deeper into the enemy formation. I want as many of them as possible between us and our lines."
"You got it, sir," Lt. Thomas Paris nodded as he vectored Nimitz toward a tight cluster of war cruisers led by one of the new big ships.
* * *
Alyt Sineval was infuriated. These humans simply refused to lie down and die, and now, they mocked him with such insulting defenses. The ship he was facing was, in fact, EAS Kratos, a SuperNova-class dreadnought. The omni-directional barrier system's limited flexibility had been amply demonstrated at First Cyrus, when EAS Nimitz had been unable to do more than serve as a decoy after raising her barrier. Later refits and all SuperNovas included the pinpoint barrier system in order to correct this oversight, and Kratos was equipped with the latest version of the control software, which tied the pinpoint barrier control into her interceptor grid and granted the computer selective activation of the E-Web. This gave the pinpoint barrier a much lower error rate than the manual control once used in pre-Oath ships and maximized efficiency.
Which meant, essentially, that the Minbari's shots had to overcome four interlocking layers of defense: First, they had to run the gauntlet of the interceptor grid, which could literally shoot them out of space; second, they had to avoid the roving energy discs of the pinpoint barrier system, which were always moving synergistically to stop what the interceptor grid could not; third, if the interceptor control computer calculated that the attack would bypass the interceptor bolts and pinpoint barriers, it flash-activated the E-Web in the target area, dispersing the attack over a wide area; and fourth, they had to penetrate Kratos's thick armor... which, in turn, consisted of several layers of varying materials, including a thick external layer of an ablative coating once used on pre-Oath mecha and ships.
This coating, applied like a clear paint in thousands of microthin layers over the ship's hull, was not designed to resist damage. Instead, it easily flaked off and vaporized in layers... and took a great deal of the attack's energy with them, leaving the underlying multi-layered matrix of hard armor virtually untouched by fusion blasts and lessening the effect of the first few seconds of even the powerful neutron beams. It degraded quickly and took a great deal of time and effort to apply, but it increased the ship's combat survivability dramatically.
Needless to say, effective shots were few and far between, which led to Sineval's current emotional state as he pondered how to destroy the human ship that opposed him.
* * *
"Admiral, transmission from Hermes."
Sarnow nodded and accepted the transmission, "Commander Lochley, what is it?"
"We're losing, Admiral," she said bluntly. "We're putting up a good fight, but they're going to be able to overrun us with numbers alone. Request permission to take Hermes out and engage with the synchro cannon."
"Permission denied," Sarnow said, shaking his head. "Ben's out there with a barrier about to overload, and I don't want to risk losing the grav sensors. Hermes stays right where she is, Commander."
"Understood, sir."
* * *
"Captain, Engineering," Cmdr. Brian Cowen's Irish-accented voice came across Nimitz's intraship comm.
"How's the barrier system holding up, Commander?" Sisko asked.
"Not good, Captain," Cowen replied "I figure, another ten minutes of this, and she'll overload. I'm evacuating the immediate area."
"Understood, Commander."
Sisko turned his attention back to the battle as they approached the big battlecruiser. The Minbari ship poured energy into Nimitz's barrier, and just before they rammed the ship... the barrier overloaded.
* * *
Branmer watched in fascinated horror as the human ship appeared to explode, engulfing the Rakari, three Sharlins, and several Tinashis in an expanding sphere of fiery destruction. Stunned amazement and a small dose of fear was added when the gigantic ball of energy faded... and revealed the Earth ship, apparently unharmed.
Movement from the corner of his eye in the virtual display caught his attention, and he turned his gaze to another ship. It was a unique design, with a spinal-mounted laser that had been stabbing through the fleet with lethal accuracy throughout the battle, but they had been unable to attack it effectively, as its screening elements had proven quite stubborn, and it had those strange, small, mobile energy shields protecting it.
It was now charging for its sister ship, with its energy shields focused on its bow. What was it doing?
* * *
"Sisko to Engineering, damage report."
"Sir," Cowen replied, "you really don't want to know."
"Can we get the barrier back?"
"Got some duct tape?" Cowen quipped. "Let me just say this, sir: The compartment the shield generator was in has expanded to about ten percent over its original size, with lots of paint burning on the outside of the compartment. I have it vented to space to try to choke the fires, but until we get into drydock, we're not getting the barrier online. If the jump drive still works, I'd be quite surprised."
A slightly maniacal look crept into Sisko's eyes as an idea gelled in his mind.
* * *
Vice Admiral Sarnow and Capt. Sisko were not the only ones to study the old pre-Oath records. Capt. Marylin Grant of the EAS Cyclops had been studying them as well.
Cyclops was built on a Nova-class frame. It was equipped with an extremely powerful spinal-mounted laser cannon that had been salvaged during the Dilgar War. No one was sure exactly where it came from, and few were willing to ask, though the Hyach markings found on it made some conclusions inevitable.
Before Hermes had returned, Cyclops had been pretty much a failure, as there were severe problems with the cooling system, but the data brought back by the Garfish had corrected that, along with providing a few other upgrades. During the battle, Cyclops had been sniping at the Minbari to lethal effect from behind her screen, but with Nimitz now trapped and probably helpless in the center of the formation, Grant decided to pull another maneuver out of the history books.
Right now, she was working on her own variation of the Daedalus Maneuver used in the First Robotech War. By focusing the pinpoint barriers to the bow of the ship, she made a nearly impenetrable and indestructable ram. By leaving an opening in the barrier, she was able to fire the spinal-mount laser into her targets, spearing them, weakening them, and crashing through anything that got between her ship and Nimitz.
* * *
"No good, Captain," Cowen shook his head. "Jump drive's live, but we don't have enough power yet to open a jump point."
"Damn," Sisko frowned. "What's Cyclops's ETA?"
"Ten minutes, Captain."
Sisko slumped his shoulders, "Let's hope we live that long."
* * *
Lochley's gaze bore down on the fold technician.
"Are you sure you've got the calculations, right?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the technician stammered nervously.
"All right, then," she said. "Helm, take us out. Engineering, prepare for fold."
* * *
Sarnow frowned at the tactical display. Now Hermes was breaking formation.
"Get me Hermes," he ordered.
"Hermes here."
"Lochley, what are you up to?" he glowered.
"Watch and see, Admiral," she replied. Her next words were muffled, as though she were speaking to someone else, but Sarnow heard them clearly enough. "Commence fold."
"No!" Sarnow half-rose and slammed his fist into his armrest as the transmission died.
* * *
A fold drive was nothing like a jump drive. Jump drives functioned by opening a gateway into hyperspace, which allowed a ship to travel from normal space to hyperspace and back, using hyperspace as a shortcut to wherever they were going. A fold drive, on the other hand, literally folded space until the departure point and the destination were one and the same, exchanging one sphere of matter for another... something that Cmdr. Elizabeth Lochley was taking advantage of.
Hermes's fold drives engaged, folding the ship to Nimitz's exact position, whisking the crippled dreadnought to the dubious safety of Cyrus III's orbit, behind EarthForce's fleet.
"Open fire, all weapons," Lochley ordered. "Target that big ship and ready the synchro cannon!"
Hermes was a Garfish-class light cruiser, synchro refit, and she was armed with her forward ventral triple particle beam turret and an array of smaller point defense turrets. Although her real firepower came from the synchro cannon mounted within her hull, the triple turret was still quite an effective anti-ship weapon.
* * *
Branmer did not know what the second sphere of light was, but it was apparent what the results were. The crippled human ship had somehow been replaced by a smaller, fresh ship of unknown design that began firing a triple cannon turret moments after the sphere faded. When the ship's maw opened and unleashed a fearsome beam of energy that speared another Shargoti, that was when he understood the threat it posed.
"All available ships, target that ship!"
* * *
"Cyclops to Hermes, what's your status?" Capt. Grant asked as her ship came upon the other ship. Both EA ships had been badly damaged, Hermes from being caught in the middle of the Minbari formation and Cyclops from the strafing shots to her sides, belly, and back as they blasted and rammed their way toward Hermes.
That the gravitic sensor feed had died not long ago did not bode well.
"Sensors are out," Lochley replied. "Synchro cannon's out. We're all out of tricks here."
"Cyclops, Hermes, this is Admiral Sarnow," broke in a third voice. "Get the hell out of here, you two!"
"Don't have to tell me twice," Grant muttered. She glanced over, "As soon as we're with Hermes, open up a jump point. And see if you can open it up right in the boneheads' formation, while you're at it."
"Aye, Captain."
* * *
As the jump point opened, it shredded and destroyed two Sharlins and three Tinashis.
The humans' tenacity impressed Branmer. He was a good tactician and strategist -- it was why he had been raised to the rank of Shai Alyt and given command of the war -- but that was not his true calling. His skill stemmed not from any great insight into strategy or military operations, but rather, it was because he understood how people's minds worked on a level that tended to escape those raised in the Warrior Caste. The humans had, time and again, proven themselves a daring, resourceful, and tenacious people, and this last stunning string of maneuvers -- maneuvers no sane warrior would attempt -- was simply another example of that.
It was almost a pity the humans had to be exterminated. This was a holy war, but he suspected they would have been a fascinating species to study.
He turned his attention back to the battle and noted with some puzzlement that the humans seemed to be having difficult engaging them again. Their accuracy had degraded sharply.
He wondered what that meant... and prayed Neroon's assault on the home planet would go well.
* * *
Author's Postscript:
REALLY long chapter this time, but wow, what a ride, huh?
Some terminology, just in case it's needed, either now or in the future.
UEEF: United Earth Expeditionary Force. Shadow Chronicles has officially retconned this name for what was until recently known as the Robotech Expeditionary Force.
UEG: United Earth Government. This is the overarching political body that ruled Earth and the human colonies during much of the Robotech era.
Chapter Five
* * *
It was the eve of the Third Age of mankind, at the end of the Earth-Minbari War, when we faced the largest fleet assembled in centuries.
The analysts say they attacked where they did out of pride. We may never know for sure. For a fifth time, they tried to take the planet that had come to symbolize the war.
One single planet, all alone in the night.
It is the year 2247. The name of the place is Cyrus III.
* * *
"So, how's the fold drive look, Doctor Nichols?"
Dr. Carmen Nichols was a civilian technician by trade -- and a very good one, judging from her personnel jacket -- but what had guaranteed her a spot on the Pegasus mission was actually her hobby, as she was an avid follower of archaeology and xenoarchaeology. She normally worked for Interplanetary Expeditions, better known as IPX, and had a talent for reverse-engineering unfamiliar technologies. She had since become the Pegasus mission's unofficial senior fold technician.
"It's operational..." she replied, "...mostly."
"'Mostly'?" Sheridan blinked. "Define 'mostly.'"
"It'll work," she assured him, "but we had to take a few shortcuts. It'll need to cool down, so to speak. About a day, give or take a couple of hours, between folds. Any faster, and... well, the fold should still work, but we'll fry it in the process."
"All right," Sheridan nodded. "Good work. How many ships can we bring?"
"Not nearly as many as showed up," she snorted. "I'm projecting a fold bubble only about two miles across. Like I said, we had to take shortcuts."
"Good enough," he nodded.
He turned and walked away. He had another appointment to make.
Most of the raiders that had tried to attack a couple of months ago had surrendered, and that had granted them a certain amount of leniency, exempting them from capital punishment. One of them, however, had not surrendered, howling incoherently as he continued to strafe Taylor. A stray hit had disabled the stolen Karbarran fighter and left the pilot, a psychotic Garudan named Rhakishi, alive.
The Sentinel Alliance Advisory Council -- on which Sheridan unexpectedly found himself holding a temporary seat, representing the Earth Alliance -- had voted against turning him over to the Garuden Hegemony for trial. It had been a secret vote, but Sheridan had voted for turning him over; the last thing he wanted was to have a trial delaying his return to Earth space.
The trial, it turned out, had been pretty much open and shut. The raider captain's testimony indicated that the target was the cache, officially Earth Alliance property, which gave EA laws precedence for sentencing, which meant Death of Personality.
Sheridan, however, was legally required to officially witness the execution, which is where he was heading right now. He approached the chamber where it would occur. Rhakishi would be mind-wiped by a Tirolian mind probe; it was a more advanced version of the clone-tutors once used in Zentraedi cloning tanks. The equivalent device the EA used for mindwipes had been developed independently, but the Tirolian mind probe's superior versatility had staggering implications, some good... but mostly not.
* * *
The other members of the Council nodded in greeting as Sheridan arrived, and T'Lon gestured for him to stand near the front of the viewing room.
"Do you have any last requests?" Kanai asked.
Rhakishi ignored him, his gaze turning and locking onto Sheridan, despite the one-way mirror. "They are coming for you, human," he laughed. "They are coming for you!"
"Sedate him," Kanai ordered the nurse.
Rhakishi settled under the sedative, his breathing slowing to an even pace as the biotechnician flipped the switch, wiping Rhakishi's mind.
* * *
"You're staying?" Sheridan frowned. "Why?"
"Because..." Belmont replied hesitantly, "...I think I've got a line on a way to get the rest of the fleet to Earth space instead of just ferrying them back in Pioneer's fold bubble over several trips." He held up a hand, "Don't... ask, okay, John? It's complicated, and you're launching in just a couple of hours."
"All right, Rick," Sheridan nodded. "I guess I'll be seeing you Earth side."
* * *
The battle had started off well, with synchronized, time on target alpha strikes punching gaping holes in the Minbari lines at ranges greater than that which the Minbari could effectively respond. Vice Admiral Sarnow had held the fleet's missiles in reserve until the Minbari closed the range; it was a risky gambit, but against Minbari stealth and point defense, it had proven far more effective than the traditional long-range missile duels they had been built for. Although EarthForce had found a hole in Minbari stealth, they could not tie the missiles into that network, rendering their guidance systems ineffective, even if the Minbari's EM output didn't burn out their electronics. Sarnow's decision to use them at close range in a single massive volley had overwhelmed the Minbari's point defenses and ripped the Minbari's remaining vanguard to shreds. The close range had reduced the effectiveness of both Minbari stealth and point defenses. It also forced the Minbari to quickly switch their weapons to point defense tasks, giving the fleet some breathing room right when they needed it, since the Minbari, like most civilizations and definitely unlike the EA, did not have dedicated point defense guns.
However, the Minbari outnumbered the Cyrus III Task Force three to one, and the battle was beginning to grow desperate. Earth Alliance fighters -- mostly starfuries retrofitted with shadow cloaks, though there were a few shadow veritechs and a rapidly dwindling number of standard starfuries in the mix too -- dueled with Minbari fighters, both sides forced to rely on visual targeting.
With Hermes's gravitic sensors tied into the fleet tactical net and a select few capital ships that been retrofitted with the large-scale shadow cloaks, the Earth Alliance had a technological edge, but they had all their eggs in one basket, and many of their ships hadn't been refitted at all.
Benjamin Sisko gripped his armrest as another fusion blast struck Nimitz. He glanced at his status display. Nimitz was hurt, badly. They'd lost the starboard half of their forward batteries, along with primary fire control on their port broadside, and a quarter of the ship was depressurized. And that last blast had just taken out their port broadside's secondary fire control.
"That's it!" he snarled as the ship shuddered again. "Raise barrier system! Helm, full speed ahead! We're going to ram them with the barrier."
* * *
"Nimitz is breaking formation."
Vice Admiral Mark Sarnow bolted to his feet. He was aboard the SuperNova-class dreadnought EAS Nike. While the SuperNova may have been built on the same frame as the Nova-class, it incorporated something that even the Nova refits couldn't include, due to the sheer amount of integration required: artificial gravity. That, incidentally, included inertial compensators, which allowed the ship designers to include more powerful oversized propulsion systems, which paradoxically made the SuperNova not only the biggest and meanest ship class in EarthForce, but also the fastest and most agile, short of a fighter.
"What? Ben? What's he doing?" Sarnow demanded.
"He's... ramming them, sir. Barrier up."
Sarnow remembered the briefings on the barrier technology. He had seen the old footage from the first two times the barrier had been used in combat by Earth forces, aboard the SDF-1 -- they never _did_ get around to naming that ship; the Zentraedi attack had interrupted the christening ceremony, and by the time they had a chance to name her, she was officially decommissioned -- and both of those times, the barrier had overloaded. That same tendency had been used by the UEEF on a few rare occasions to their advantage, both in the Sentinels War and the Haydonite War, but they weren't as well-documented as what had happened in the Ontario Quadrant or the Zentraedi mobile command fortress.
"Order all ships and fighters to pull away from Nimitz," he said. "They are to restrict themselves to long-range support for Nimitz only."
* * *
Shai Alyt Branmer of the Star Riders clan watched as the human ship charged the thickest of their formation. For a moment, he wondered what the humans aboard that ship hoped to do, for they had already crippled its weapons, and it had become evident early in the battle that the humans' shield technology prevented them from firing.
His question was answered when the human ship rammed the Alati. The energy shield shattered the Sharlin, which vanished in a fiery explosion as its quantum singularity core was breached... and the human ship kept on coming.
"Rakari group, concentrate fire on that ship," he ordered. The Rakari was one of the new Shargoti heavy battlecruisers. He had to hope the shield could be overloaded, or else it would ram its way through the fleet.
He had no idea just how bad an idea that was.
* * *
"Mister Paris," Sisko addressed his helmsman, "find me another target, and keep us moving deeper into the enemy formation. I want as many of them as possible between us and our lines."
"You got it, sir," Lt. Thomas Paris nodded as he vectored Nimitz toward a tight cluster of war cruisers led by one of the new big ships.
* * *
Alyt Sineval was infuriated. These humans simply refused to lie down and die, and now, they mocked him with such insulting defenses. The ship he was facing was, in fact, EAS Kratos, a SuperNova-class dreadnought. The omni-directional barrier system's limited flexibility had been amply demonstrated at First Cyrus, when EAS Nimitz had been unable to do more than serve as a decoy after raising her barrier. Later refits and all SuperNovas included the pinpoint barrier system in order to correct this oversight, and Kratos was equipped with the latest version of the control software, which tied the pinpoint barrier control into her interceptor grid and granted the computer selective activation of the E-Web. This gave the pinpoint barrier a much lower error rate than the manual control once used in pre-Oath ships and maximized efficiency.
Which meant, essentially, that the Minbari's shots had to overcome four interlocking layers of defense: First, they had to run the gauntlet of the interceptor grid, which could literally shoot them out of space; second, they had to avoid the roving energy discs of the pinpoint barrier system, which were always moving synergistically to stop what the interceptor grid could not; third, if the interceptor control computer calculated that the attack would bypass the interceptor bolts and pinpoint barriers, it flash-activated the E-Web in the target area, dispersing the attack over a wide area; and fourth, they had to penetrate Kratos's thick armor... which, in turn, consisted of several layers of varying materials, including a thick external layer of an ablative coating once used on pre-Oath mecha and ships.
This coating, applied like a clear paint in thousands of microthin layers over the ship's hull, was not designed to resist damage. Instead, it easily flaked off and vaporized in layers... and took a great deal of the attack's energy with them, leaving the underlying multi-layered matrix of hard armor virtually untouched by fusion blasts and lessening the effect of the first few seconds of even the powerful neutron beams. It degraded quickly and took a great deal of time and effort to apply, but it increased the ship's combat survivability dramatically.
Needless to say, effective shots were few and far between, which led to Sineval's current emotional state as he pondered how to destroy the human ship that opposed him.
* * *
"Admiral, transmission from Hermes."
Sarnow nodded and accepted the transmission, "Commander Lochley, what is it?"
"We're losing, Admiral," she said bluntly. "We're putting up a good fight, but they're going to be able to overrun us with numbers alone. Request permission to take Hermes out and engage with the synchro cannon."
"Permission denied," Sarnow said, shaking his head. "Ben's out there with a barrier about to overload, and I don't want to risk losing the grav sensors. Hermes stays right where she is, Commander."
"Understood, sir."
* * *
"Captain, Engineering," Cmdr. Brian Cowen's Irish-accented voice came across Nimitz's intraship comm.
"How's the barrier system holding up, Commander?" Sisko asked.
"Not good, Captain," Cowen replied "I figure, another ten minutes of this, and she'll overload. I'm evacuating the immediate area."
"Understood, Commander."
Sisko turned his attention back to the battle as they approached the big battlecruiser. The Minbari ship poured energy into Nimitz's barrier, and just before they rammed the ship... the barrier overloaded.
* * *
Branmer watched in fascinated horror as the human ship appeared to explode, engulfing the Rakari, three Sharlins, and several Tinashis in an expanding sphere of fiery destruction. Stunned amazement and a small dose of fear was added when the gigantic ball of energy faded... and revealed the Earth ship, apparently unharmed.
Movement from the corner of his eye in the virtual display caught his attention, and he turned his gaze to another ship. It was a unique design, with a spinal-mounted laser that had been stabbing through the fleet with lethal accuracy throughout the battle, but they had been unable to attack it effectively, as its screening elements had proven quite stubborn, and it had those strange, small, mobile energy shields protecting it.
It was now charging for its sister ship, with its energy shields focused on its bow. What was it doing?
* * *
"Sisko to Engineering, damage report."
"Sir," Cowen replied, "you really don't want to know."
"Can we get the barrier back?"
"Got some duct tape?" Cowen quipped. "Let me just say this, sir: The compartment the shield generator was in has expanded to about ten percent over its original size, with lots of paint burning on the outside of the compartment. I have it vented to space to try to choke the fires, but until we get into drydock, we're not getting the barrier online. If the jump drive still works, I'd be quite surprised."
A slightly maniacal look crept into Sisko's eyes as an idea gelled in his mind.
* * *
Vice Admiral Sarnow and Capt. Sisko were not the only ones to study the old pre-Oath records. Capt. Marylin Grant of the EAS Cyclops had been studying them as well.
Cyclops was built on a Nova-class frame. It was equipped with an extremely powerful spinal-mounted laser cannon that had been salvaged during the Dilgar War. No one was sure exactly where it came from, and few were willing to ask, though the Hyach markings found on it made some conclusions inevitable.
Before Hermes had returned, Cyclops had been pretty much a failure, as there were severe problems with the cooling system, but the data brought back by the Garfish had corrected that, along with providing a few other upgrades. During the battle, Cyclops had been sniping at the Minbari to lethal effect from behind her screen, but with Nimitz now trapped and probably helpless in the center of the formation, Grant decided to pull another maneuver out of the history books.
Right now, she was working on her own variation of the Daedalus Maneuver used in the First Robotech War. By focusing the pinpoint barriers to the bow of the ship, she made a nearly impenetrable and indestructable ram. By leaving an opening in the barrier, she was able to fire the spinal-mount laser into her targets, spearing them, weakening them, and crashing through anything that got between her ship and Nimitz.
* * *
"No good, Captain," Cowen shook his head. "Jump drive's live, but we don't have enough power yet to open a jump point."
"Damn," Sisko frowned. "What's Cyclops's ETA?"
"Ten minutes, Captain."
Sisko slumped his shoulders, "Let's hope we live that long."
* * *
Lochley's gaze bore down on the fold technician.
"Are you sure you've got the calculations, right?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the technician stammered nervously.
"All right, then," she said. "Helm, take us out. Engineering, prepare for fold."
* * *
Sarnow frowned at the tactical display. Now Hermes was breaking formation.
"Get me Hermes," he ordered.
"Hermes here."
"Lochley, what are you up to?" he glowered.
"Watch and see, Admiral," she replied. Her next words were muffled, as though she were speaking to someone else, but Sarnow heard them clearly enough. "Commence fold."
"No!" Sarnow half-rose and slammed his fist into his armrest as the transmission died.
* * *
A fold drive was nothing like a jump drive. Jump drives functioned by opening a gateway into hyperspace, which allowed a ship to travel from normal space to hyperspace and back, using hyperspace as a shortcut to wherever they were going. A fold drive, on the other hand, literally folded space until the departure point and the destination were one and the same, exchanging one sphere of matter for another... something that Cmdr. Elizabeth Lochley was taking advantage of.
Hermes's fold drives engaged, folding the ship to Nimitz's exact position, whisking the crippled dreadnought to the dubious safety of Cyrus III's orbit, behind EarthForce's fleet.
"Open fire, all weapons," Lochley ordered. "Target that big ship and ready the synchro cannon!"
Hermes was a Garfish-class light cruiser, synchro refit, and she was armed with her forward ventral triple particle beam turret and an array of smaller point defense turrets. Although her real firepower came from the synchro cannon mounted within her hull, the triple turret was still quite an effective anti-ship weapon.
* * *
Branmer did not know what the second sphere of light was, but it was apparent what the results were. The crippled human ship had somehow been replaced by a smaller, fresh ship of unknown design that began firing a triple cannon turret moments after the sphere faded. When the ship's maw opened and unleashed a fearsome beam of energy that speared another Shargoti, that was when he understood the threat it posed.
"All available ships, target that ship!"
* * *
"Cyclops to Hermes, what's your status?" Capt. Grant asked as her ship came upon the other ship. Both EA ships had been badly damaged, Hermes from being caught in the middle of the Minbari formation and Cyclops from the strafing shots to her sides, belly, and back as they blasted and rammed their way toward Hermes.
That the gravitic sensor feed had died not long ago did not bode well.
"Sensors are out," Lochley replied. "Synchro cannon's out. We're all out of tricks here."
"Cyclops, Hermes, this is Admiral Sarnow," broke in a third voice. "Get the hell out of here, you two!"
"Don't have to tell me twice," Grant muttered. She glanced over, "As soon as we're with Hermes, open up a jump point. And see if you can open it up right in the boneheads' formation, while you're at it."
"Aye, Captain."
* * *
As the jump point opened, it shredded and destroyed two Sharlins and three Tinashis.
The humans' tenacity impressed Branmer. He was a good tactician and strategist -- it was why he had been raised to the rank of Shai Alyt and given command of the war -- but that was not his true calling. His skill stemmed not from any great insight into strategy or military operations, but rather, it was because he understood how people's minds worked on a level that tended to escape those raised in the Warrior Caste. The humans had, time and again, proven themselves a daring, resourceful, and tenacious people, and this last stunning string of maneuvers -- maneuvers no sane warrior would attempt -- was simply another example of that.
It was almost a pity the humans had to be exterminated. This was a holy war, but he suspected they would have been a fascinating species to study.
He turned his attention back to the battle and noted with some puzzlement that the humans seemed to be having difficult engaging them again. Their accuracy had degraded sharply.
He wondered what that meant... and prayed Neroon's assault on the home planet would go well.
* * *
Author's Postscript:
REALLY long chapter this time, but wow, what a ride, huh?
Some terminology, just in case it's needed, either now or in the future.
UEEF: United Earth Expeditionary Force. Shadow Chronicles has officially retconned this name for what was until recently known as the Robotech Expeditionary Force.
UEG: United Earth Government. This is the overarching political body that ruled Earth and the human colonies during much of the Robotech era.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Well, Nikas, since you asked...
Supernova-class Dreadnought
The SuperNova-class dreadnought was rushed into production in lthe latter half of the Earth-Minbari War and proved itself a formidable warship. As its name implies, the SuperNova is built on a Nova-class hull, but it incorporates a reflex furnace and artificial gravity. The SuperNova boasts impressive firepower with 18 turreted twin particle beam cannons. These cannons are mounted in the same mounts used for twin plasma cannons in the original Nova-class design. The hangar system has also been designed to accept either starfuries or veritech fighters.
The First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limitations of the omni-directional barrier system, as the EAS Nimitz was unable to return fire once her barrier system was up, so the SuperNova was equipped with both an omni-directional barrier system and a pinpoint barrier system. The pinpoint barrier system, however, had considerable teething problems. EarthForce R&D deemed the manual control used by pre-Oath ships to be inefficient and chose to automate it. The initial version proved ineffective, as the pinpoint barrier would prioritize without consulting the interceptor grid and attempt to block attacks that had already been neutralized by the interceptors. Later versions tied the pinpoint barrier system's control in with the existing interceptor control computer. The early version of the program, while effective, proved inefficient, as the E-Web dispersed incoming fire before it reached pinpoint barrier, sometimes scattering the energy over an area wider than the pinpoint barrier disc. Later software and hardware upgrades corrected this flaw -- and saved energy -- by having the control computer selectively activate the E-Web in response if it calculated that neither the interceptors nor pinpoint barriers could stop an attack, but the processing power required for this required a hardware upgrade to the interceptor control computer as well.
Supernova-class Dreadnought
The SuperNova-class dreadnought was rushed into production in lthe latter half of the Earth-Minbari War and proved itself a formidable warship. As its name implies, the SuperNova is built on a Nova-class hull, but it incorporates a reflex furnace and artificial gravity. The SuperNova boasts impressive firepower with 18 turreted twin particle beam cannons. These cannons are mounted in the same mounts used for twin plasma cannons in the original Nova-class design. The hangar system has also been designed to accept either starfuries or veritech fighters.
The First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limitations of the omni-directional barrier system, as the EAS Nimitz was unable to return fire once her barrier system was up, so the SuperNova was equipped with both an omni-directional barrier system and a pinpoint barrier system. The pinpoint barrier system, however, had considerable teething problems. EarthForce R&D deemed the manual control used by pre-Oath ships to be inefficient and chose to automate it. The initial version proved ineffective, as the pinpoint barrier would prioritize without consulting the interceptor grid and attempt to block attacks that had already been neutralized by the interceptors. Later versions tied the pinpoint barrier system's control in with the existing interceptor control computer. The early version of the program, while effective, proved inefficient, as the E-Web dispersed incoming fire before it reached pinpoint barrier, sometimes scattering the energy over an area wider than the pinpoint barrier disc. Later software and hardware upgrades corrected this flaw -- and saved energy -- by having the control computer selectively activate the E-Web in response if it calculated that neither the interceptors nor pinpoint barriers could stop an attack, but the processing power required for this required a hardware upgrade to the interceptor control computer as well.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Well, while I did away with thinking caps, certain key systems are reliant on protoculture. This includes the barrier systems. The Robotech Masters specifically state at one point that inverting the omni-directional barrier would require them to know as much about robotechnology as they do, and since robotechnology is technology that uses protoculture, that means that omni-directional barrier system (and the related pinpoint barrier) require protoculture to operate.
The same with fold drives. Reflex furnaces run on protoculture. By implication, other reflex systems (reflex missiles and reflex cannons) also require protoculture.
Anything else is a case of lost technology and/or insufficient power generation.
The same with fold drives. Reflex furnaces run on protoculture. By implication, other reflex systems (reflex missiles and reflex cannons) also require protoculture.
Anything else is a case of lost technology and/or insufficient power generation.
Just to clarify an odd point, didn't the pinpoint barrier and the omni-directional barrier on the SDF-1 originate (or maybe powered by/created) by the odd spatial distortion left behind by the SDF-1's fold drives when they disappeared during its first fold operation (since being rebuilt)?Cyclone said:
Though I admit that I don't remember as much of the Southern Cross saga I though the barrier system the Robotech Masters employed was of a different sort of technology given how different it looked, though I'm thinking of those energy (hexagon...octogon shaped?) webs they deployed during some of the space battles.
Oh, and Cyclone, if you don't mind me asking. What happened to Dr. Lang? Did he return with the expedition after the Oath or did he remain behind to perhaps carry on his research in different directions?
Yes, they were. They also allowed for weapons to be fired though the shields, but still block enemy weapons. Of course this was a 'highly' refined version of the same basic prinple that the SDF-1 used. The Masters' version was simply more complex, and by the beginning of the series the Masters simply didn't have the energy to project the shield (some of the material I've read states that it was a power hog).Mantech1 said:
One reason maybe because the SDF-1 had a already existing distortion to draw on and thus lower there energy costs. Not to mention having a much less complex, and likely lower power demands, projector.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
It was based on an unusual energy field left behind where the fold drives were.Mantech1 said:
Yes, they were different. However, in one episode, when the Masters were unable to confirm to destruction of Dolza's fleet (one of the times when scenes from one saga was inserted into a different one; this was during the Macross segment), one suggested that the Zentraedi could have been destroyed if the SDF-1's barrier system were inverted.Mantech1 said:
That indicates that the SDF-1's barrier system is actually an inherent part of the SDF-1's alien systems. Discussion on the omni-directional barrier when it was first brought up indicates it was based off the pinpoint.
My guess is that the pinpoint barrier and the energy it was based on was actually a leak from the existing omni-directional barrier that the humans hadn't figured out yet.
Haven't thought about it, since he's long dead.Mantech1 said:
The information is from the Unofficial Robotech Reference Guide, which basis their information on this mostly from the TV series (and includes the shield configuration, not the power demands of the system). They say that it was never fully deployed during the Masters' campaign due to energy demands. Which is fairly likely given what we know of the energy crisis the Masters were constantly operating under.Mantech1 said:
The SDF-1's barrier may have been already part of the ship, but that is questionable as the distortion occurred exactly were the Fold generator used to be. And given that the Fold generator manipulated space/time... Although, a argument could be made the other way as there was no report of the distortion moving from its original spot, during the SDF-1's transformation or journey to Earth; both items which could have possibly moved the distortion.
Thanks.Rodon said:
If the SDF-1 had a barrier system to begin with then it may have been severely damaged either during ths ships automated journey to Earth, or when it crashed into Macross Island. When the investigation/research/reconstruction began the machines for that system and doubtless others were removed for study and attempted reverse-engineering, then when the island was taken with the SDF-1 during that misjump those parts were taken out of the islands labs and brought back aboard.Rodon said:
Although now I'm beginning to wonder about the reconstruction of the SDF-1 after it crashed, I mean how much of it was reconstructed according to the blueprints (if they found any in the central computer) with the necessary resizing for a human crew and how much of it was accidentally rearranged by the people rebuilding the ship. They were working with a technology that only the lead researchers better understood, even cutting corners by using the crashed ship instead of starting from scratch with what they fully understood.
This may have played a role in the Fold Drive disappearing, not a great role but perhaps a contributing factor (such as too much/too little power, delayed or incompatible computer commands, being too close to some other equipment that may have caused further problems, etc).
And I don't mean to be insulting when saying cutting corners but I remember one of the first episodes of the Macross saga (or was it the comic?) showing Rick Hunter and Lyn Minmei finding what looked like a broom closet sized for a Zentradi (or a Veritech in Battloid form) when they were trapped in a section of the ship (which makes me wonder if that was the only Zentradi sized area of the ship). Or when those anti-gravity drives went right through the hull of the ship during that first attempted launch during the Zentradi attack.
But if I'm remembering one of the comics right, even after the crash the internal mechanisms of the ship were still rearranging themselves (though I don't think that was ever explained in more detail). I wonder how much of a role those still working/moving machines played in the final form of the resonstructed ship.