The Earth-Minbari War should have been a predetermined event, its battles and outcome fixed by a stable and recursive temporal loop. But whether by a quirk of fate, random chance, or even natural selection, the loop is broken in one particular iteration of time and space. Just as Terran ignorance sparked a war between Earth and Minbar, so too did Minbari arrogance spark another war at the same time. A war that would come to be known as the War of Revelation.
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War of Revelation (Babylon 5 AU)
- Thread starter Jaenera Targaryen
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Prologue
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Jaenera Targaryen
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Disclaimer: I do not own the Babylon 5 franchise it belongs to J. Michael Straczynsky and Babylonian Productions
An Elysian warship cruised through space, sleek with sharp contours and angles broken only by a gun turret along the forward dorsal hull as well as the command tower to the rear. Plasma blazed from the ship's engines driving it towards its destination, while aboard the ship's crew both organic and synthetic stood at action stations, ready and waiting for the possibility of combat.
"Reporting," the sensor officer spoke up from one of the bridge crew pits, buried safe and deep within the command tower. "Long-range scans have a fix on Listening Post S7G. The station appears intact, but in a low-power state. Shields are down, and weapons are unpowered. No life signs detected."
"There should be over two dozen people on that station." Commander Marcus Thiel remarked from where he stood next to the command throne.
"Is it possible they're simply too deep in the station to be detected?" Captain Anton Canies asked.
"Possible," the sensor officer replied. "But extremely unlikely. With shields down, there shouldn't be anywhere inside the station that our sensors couldn't penetrate."
Anton pressed his hand against his lips, pursed in thought. "Continue scanning as we approach, just in case." he finally said.
"Yes, sir."
"Communications?" the captain asked.
"No response to any of our hails, sir." the communications officer replied. "Attempts to remote-access the station using fleet command overrides have also failed, although it doesn't appear to be the result of active countermeasures. Instead, from the look of things, either communications are down, or the main computer is offline or cut-off."
"Just what the hell happened here?" Marcus muttered.
"S7G is on the edges of the hinterland." Anton sighed. "It's entirely possible one of the coreward polities attacked after discovering its existence, and treated it as a hostile intrusion in their space. But if so, then Intel's assessment of the local astrography would be outdated, as to our knowledge this region of space is unclaimed and indeed, well-off the known hyperspace routes."
"...could be pirates." Marcus said after a moment.
"Possible," Anton said with a nod. "But there is at least one known coreward polity with an established capability to go off the beacon network."
"...they are supposed to be touchy, aren't they?" Marcus mused. "But if so, why leave the station intact and not simply destroy it after going through it with a fine comb?"
There was a long moment of silence, and then CO and XO alike turned to look at each other with a knowing glance and shared a nod. "Shields are up and weapons are charged." the latter reassured the former as they turned back to the tactical display.
"Good." Anton darkly said. "It's really looking like this is going to go bad sooner or later."
Even at cruising speed, it still took the light cruiser half an hour to enter striking range of the seemingly-desolate listening post. As it did so, armored doors on the ship's prow slid open, before boarding torpedoes blasted out at high speed. Not of their own power, at least not until they were clear of the ship, at which point the torpedoes' own plasma thrusters came to life, sustaining their motion and accelerating even further.
In just over a minute, the torpedoes slammed into the station, a combination of sheer momentum, the torpedoes' specially-shaped prows, as well as matter disruption fields along said prows, cutting through the armored outer hull and then into the thinner pressurized inner hull. Once the torpedoes came to a halt, armored doors slid open, allowing Pacifier robot infantry to disembark.
"Reporting," the ship's arms master began, standing on the command deck before the command throne with a datapad in one hand. "Pacifier platoons report no signs of life. The command deck is clear, as are all action stations. Pacifier platoons are still securing the living areas, and from there will proceed to the engineering spaces."
"Aside from the complete absence of our men," Anton said. "Have they found anything else out of place?"
"Minimal signs of combat," the arms master said, causing everyone to stiffen. "Plasma burns and blood splatter. From the look of things, the crew got taken by surprise and were overrun in short order. Unfortunately, we have yet to find evidence as to who the assailants were, nor what they did to our men's bodies."
"I already have suspicions as to who those assailants were." Anton shortly said before narrowing his eyes. "Unfortunately, it's all conjecture based on circumstantial evidence. What of the station's databases?"
"The Pacifiers report they've been locked down." the arms master replied. "It seems our men on the command deck managed to hold out long enough to secure the main computer. Whoever these assailants were, they didn't get anything out of the station databases."
"It's intact, then?" Anton asked with a sense of foreboding.
"By all accounts, yes."
"Those bastards stocked the bait well." Marcus hissed, and Anton nodded in agreement.
"Transmit the fleet command overrides." he ordered. "Download everything on those databases as well as the station logs before initiating the self-destruct sequence. Expedite it, arms master. This has all the makings of a trap."
"Understood, sir." the arms master said while relaying the captain's orders.
As for the captain himself, Anton just sat back into the command throne, a finger tapping nervously at an armrest. As it was, it didn't even take a few minutes for things to quickly go south.
"Sir," the arms master said with a note of alarm. "The Pacifiers are reporting ambushes in the living areas and towards the engineering spaces. They are engaging but…the assailants, they're Minbari!"
"As expected…" Anton snarled. "...damn aliens…order the Pacifiers to initiate a tactical withdrawal. Consolidate their positions and hold the command deck until the data has been transferred. Once we have the data, we will withdraw from this region of space immediately."
"Sir!"
Anton nodded as the arms master relayed his new orders, but then blinked as alarms began to sound. "Energy spike!" the warning came from the sensor section. "Incoming neutron beams!"
Eyes turned toward holographic displays just as blazing white particle beams slammed into the ship's portside screens. The ship didn't so much as tremble, but alerts and updates flashed on the displays as the ship's shields fended off a precise volley of neutron fire.
"Prepare to return fire!" Marcus shouted. "Enemy locations?"
"No readings on any EM bands." a crewman replied.
"The Minbari have advanced ECM." the sensor officer snapped. "Compensate!"
"Compensating…" the crewman replied, working her station before nodding after a few moments. "...we have them, sir. Bringing up on the tactical display, reading three capital ships and at least eighteen escorts."
"Damn, that's too much for us to handle." Marcus cursed. "Your orders, sir?"
"Hold fire, let's keep the enemy guessing what our ships are capable of aside from quantum shielding." Anton replied. "Divert power to shields. Status of download?"
"Forty-seven per cent complete, sir!"
"Expedite! Navigation, plot a course for Port Magna Nubae. Helm, standby for emergency slipspace jump. Once we have the data, get us out of here."
"Sir!"
For the next couple of minutes, the ship weathered the Minbari bombardment as they steadily closed, and then the download was complete. "Adjusting heading." the helm officer reported. "Standby for emergency slipspace jump once we're clear of the station's gravitational influence."
"Pacifiers are holding position in the station." the arms master reported as the ship sped away from the station. "Self-destruct is armed and set for detonation once we're clear of the blast radius. Standby…standby…standby…final transmission received - Glory to Mankind."
Anton blinked and then fixed his eyes on the image from the ship's aft scopes, watching as the station erupted in a flare of white-hot plasma, before exploding in a blinding flash. Reflexively, he brought his right arm up, and swung his open hand palm down over his chest in a ninety-degree angle.
"Glory to Mankind." he softly echoed, and he wasn't the only one.
"Minbari ships are picking up speed…hyperspace portals opening to port and starboard!"
Anton narrowed his eyes, as Minbari escorts micro-jumped to port and starboard. Plasma blazed as the Minbari vessels delivered powerful broadsides with fusion lasers, the Elysian shields buckling and barely holding at such close range, the ship finally trembling at the impacts.
Then to the Minbari's shock, a ring opened in space right before the Elysian ship's prow. Its interior was no different at first glance from the darkness of space, yet when the Elysian ship passed through the ring, it did not emerge from the other side, but seemingly disappeared, diving into the darkness before the ring flickered and went out.
"Slipspace transition successful!" the helm officer reported. "ETA at Port Magna Nubae is fourteen hours and twenty-two minutes."
"Very good." Anton said, finally relaxing into the command throne. "Have the crew stand down to alert level two. Comms, contact Fleet Command: inform them we have secured S7G's data and destroyed the facility. Also, we have identified and engaged the enemy - the Minbari."
"Yes, sir." the comms officer said with a nod before turning back to his subordinates.
"Looks like we caught the enemy by surprise back there." Marcus remarked. "Then again, to our knowledge no one aside from ourselves has ever used an alternative form of FTL aside from hyperspace."
"True enough." Anton said with a nod. "As for surprising the Minbari, well, I'd say the debt is partly paid then."
"The remainder to be repaid in future battles, sir?" Marcus said.
"Is there any other way to repay it?" Anton grimly asked.
"No, I suppose not, sir." Marcus admitted.
"And there you have it." Anton said with another nod before narrowing his eyes. "Looks like it's going to be a war. What a shame."
"As you say, sir."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N
I will admit, I originally envisioned this as taking place in Star Trek, but decided to put it in Babylon 5 instead. The Earth Alliance could surely use some help, even if there's going to be fun times trying to figure out how and where an advanced interstellar Human civilization that isn't them popped up. Or not, depending on how first contact between Earth and Elysium goes.
As for the Minbari…yeah, let's see how they like fighting a war where they can't cheat.
War of Revelation
Prologue
Prologue
An Elysian warship cruised through space, sleek with sharp contours and angles broken only by a gun turret along the forward dorsal hull as well as the command tower to the rear. Plasma blazed from the ship's engines driving it towards its destination, while aboard the ship's crew both organic and synthetic stood at action stations, ready and waiting for the possibility of combat.
"Reporting," the sensor officer spoke up from one of the bridge crew pits, buried safe and deep within the command tower. "Long-range scans have a fix on Listening Post S7G. The station appears intact, but in a low-power state. Shields are down, and weapons are unpowered. No life signs detected."
"There should be over two dozen people on that station." Commander Marcus Thiel remarked from where he stood next to the command throne.
"Is it possible they're simply too deep in the station to be detected?" Captain Anton Canies asked.
"Possible," the sensor officer replied. "But extremely unlikely. With shields down, there shouldn't be anywhere inside the station that our sensors couldn't penetrate."
Anton pressed his hand against his lips, pursed in thought. "Continue scanning as we approach, just in case." he finally said.
"Yes, sir."
"Communications?" the captain asked.
"No response to any of our hails, sir." the communications officer replied. "Attempts to remote-access the station using fleet command overrides have also failed, although it doesn't appear to be the result of active countermeasures. Instead, from the look of things, either communications are down, or the main computer is offline or cut-off."
"Just what the hell happened here?" Marcus muttered.
"S7G is on the edges of the hinterland." Anton sighed. "It's entirely possible one of the coreward polities attacked after discovering its existence, and treated it as a hostile intrusion in their space. But if so, then Intel's assessment of the local astrography would be outdated, as to our knowledge this region of space is unclaimed and indeed, well-off the known hyperspace routes."
"...could be pirates." Marcus said after a moment.
"Possible," Anton said with a nod. "But there is at least one known coreward polity with an established capability to go off the beacon network."
"...they are supposed to be touchy, aren't they?" Marcus mused. "But if so, why leave the station intact and not simply destroy it after going through it with a fine comb?"
There was a long moment of silence, and then CO and XO alike turned to look at each other with a knowing glance and shared a nod. "Shields are up and weapons are charged." the latter reassured the former as they turned back to the tactical display.
"Good." Anton darkly said. "It's really looking like this is going to go bad sooner or later."
Even at cruising speed, it still took the light cruiser half an hour to enter striking range of the seemingly-desolate listening post. As it did so, armored doors on the ship's prow slid open, before boarding torpedoes blasted out at high speed. Not of their own power, at least not until they were clear of the ship, at which point the torpedoes' own plasma thrusters came to life, sustaining their motion and accelerating even further.
In just over a minute, the torpedoes slammed into the station, a combination of sheer momentum, the torpedoes' specially-shaped prows, as well as matter disruption fields along said prows, cutting through the armored outer hull and then into the thinner pressurized inner hull. Once the torpedoes came to a halt, armored doors slid open, allowing Pacifier robot infantry to disembark.
"Reporting," the ship's arms master began, standing on the command deck before the command throne with a datapad in one hand. "Pacifier platoons report no signs of life. The command deck is clear, as are all action stations. Pacifier platoons are still securing the living areas, and from there will proceed to the engineering spaces."
"Aside from the complete absence of our men," Anton said. "Have they found anything else out of place?"
"Minimal signs of combat," the arms master said, causing everyone to stiffen. "Plasma burns and blood splatter. From the look of things, the crew got taken by surprise and were overrun in short order. Unfortunately, we have yet to find evidence as to who the assailants were, nor what they did to our men's bodies."
"I already have suspicions as to who those assailants were." Anton shortly said before narrowing his eyes. "Unfortunately, it's all conjecture based on circumstantial evidence. What of the station's databases?"
"The Pacifiers report they've been locked down." the arms master replied. "It seems our men on the command deck managed to hold out long enough to secure the main computer. Whoever these assailants were, they didn't get anything out of the station databases."
"It's intact, then?" Anton asked with a sense of foreboding.
"By all accounts, yes."
"Those bastards stocked the bait well." Marcus hissed, and Anton nodded in agreement.
"Transmit the fleet command overrides." he ordered. "Download everything on those databases as well as the station logs before initiating the self-destruct sequence. Expedite it, arms master. This has all the makings of a trap."
"Understood, sir." the arms master said while relaying the captain's orders.
As for the captain himself, Anton just sat back into the command throne, a finger tapping nervously at an armrest. As it was, it didn't even take a few minutes for things to quickly go south.
"Sir," the arms master said with a note of alarm. "The Pacifiers are reporting ambushes in the living areas and towards the engineering spaces. They are engaging but…the assailants, they're Minbari!"
"As expected…" Anton snarled. "...damn aliens…order the Pacifiers to initiate a tactical withdrawal. Consolidate their positions and hold the command deck until the data has been transferred. Once we have the data, we will withdraw from this region of space immediately."
"Sir!"
Anton nodded as the arms master relayed his new orders, but then blinked as alarms began to sound. "Energy spike!" the warning came from the sensor section. "Incoming neutron beams!"
Eyes turned toward holographic displays just as blazing white particle beams slammed into the ship's portside screens. The ship didn't so much as tremble, but alerts and updates flashed on the displays as the ship's shields fended off a precise volley of neutron fire.
"Prepare to return fire!" Marcus shouted. "Enemy locations?"
"No readings on any EM bands." a crewman replied.
"The Minbari have advanced ECM." the sensor officer snapped. "Compensate!"
"Compensating…" the crewman replied, working her station before nodding after a few moments. "...we have them, sir. Bringing up on the tactical display, reading three capital ships and at least eighteen escorts."
"Damn, that's too much for us to handle." Marcus cursed. "Your orders, sir?"
"Hold fire, let's keep the enemy guessing what our ships are capable of aside from quantum shielding." Anton replied. "Divert power to shields. Status of download?"
"Forty-seven per cent complete, sir!"
"Expedite! Navigation, plot a course for Port Magna Nubae. Helm, standby for emergency slipspace jump. Once we have the data, get us out of here."
"Sir!"
For the next couple of minutes, the ship weathered the Minbari bombardment as they steadily closed, and then the download was complete. "Adjusting heading." the helm officer reported. "Standby for emergency slipspace jump once we're clear of the station's gravitational influence."
"Pacifiers are holding position in the station." the arms master reported as the ship sped away from the station. "Self-destruct is armed and set for detonation once we're clear of the blast radius. Standby…standby…standby…final transmission received - Glory to Mankind."
Anton blinked and then fixed his eyes on the image from the ship's aft scopes, watching as the station erupted in a flare of white-hot plasma, before exploding in a blinding flash. Reflexively, he brought his right arm up, and swung his open hand palm down over his chest in a ninety-degree angle.
"Glory to Mankind." he softly echoed, and he wasn't the only one.
"Minbari ships are picking up speed…hyperspace portals opening to port and starboard!"
Anton narrowed his eyes, as Minbari escorts micro-jumped to port and starboard. Plasma blazed as the Minbari vessels delivered powerful broadsides with fusion lasers, the Elysian shields buckling and barely holding at such close range, the ship finally trembling at the impacts.
Then to the Minbari's shock, a ring opened in space right before the Elysian ship's prow. Its interior was no different at first glance from the darkness of space, yet when the Elysian ship passed through the ring, it did not emerge from the other side, but seemingly disappeared, diving into the darkness before the ring flickered and went out.
"Slipspace transition successful!" the helm officer reported. "ETA at Port Magna Nubae is fourteen hours and twenty-two minutes."
"Very good." Anton said, finally relaxing into the command throne. "Have the crew stand down to alert level two. Comms, contact Fleet Command: inform them we have secured S7G's data and destroyed the facility. Also, we have identified and engaged the enemy - the Minbari."
"Yes, sir." the comms officer said with a nod before turning back to his subordinates.
"Looks like we caught the enemy by surprise back there." Marcus remarked. "Then again, to our knowledge no one aside from ourselves has ever used an alternative form of FTL aside from hyperspace."
"True enough." Anton said with a nod. "As for surprising the Minbari, well, I'd say the debt is partly paid then."
"The remainder to be repaid in future battles, sir?" Marcus said.
"Is there any other way to repay it?" Anton grimly asked.
"No, I suppose not, sir." Marcus admitted.
"And there you have it." Anton said with another nod before narrowing his eyes. "Looks like it's going to be a war. What a shame."
"As you say, sir."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N
I will admit, I originally envisioned this as taking place in Star Trek, but decided to put it in Babylon 5 instead. The Earth Alliance could surely use some help, even if there's going to be fun times trying to figure out how and where an advanced interstellar Human civilization that isn't them popped up. Or not, depending on how first contact between Earth and Elysium goes.
As for the Minbari…yeah, let's see how they like fighting a war where they can't cheat.