From: "Inquisitor Gary Boshears" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 21:22:49 -0600

Okay, I'm going to try and send chapter 1 and see if it comes through okay.
If it does I'll send the rest of the chapters.  If not, I'll figure
something else out.  Sorry about sending all of these so many times.

All Babylon 5 characters, events and places are used strictly for
entertainment purposes.  No copyright violation is intended.  All original
characters, events and places are property of the author but may be used by
other fan fic authors provided they ask first.

Warning:  Mild violence and adult language.
Spoilers for most in fact all of the show and TV movies.

Here we go:

Chapter One


EAS Columbus:  Earth Alliance Explorer Class Ship
Unexplored Space
January 2, 2272
2200 EST(Earth Standard Time)


 The EAS Columbus settled into a high orbit over the planet.  The planet
appeared from space to be a desert world.  The surface appeared brown.  Not
even a spec to indicate civilization.
 The bridge of the Columbus was quiet.  The various crew members attended to
their various duties.  Commander Hebalgo, the ship's Executive Officer,
approached Captain Smith.
 "Sir," the Commander said as he handed the Captain a report.  "Sensors show
nothing of interest on this world.  Helm is standing by to jump to the
next."' "Continue scanning for ten more minutes, if you don't detect
anything you may jump."  As the Captain finished issuing his orders an alarm
sounded on the bridge.
 "Sir we have incoming from the planet surface.  Presumed to be hostile."
One of the bridge crew shouted.
 "Power to interceptors, take them out."  The Captain said as he stood to
study the sensor display.  It definitely showed two objects incoming from
the surface.  Judging by their size and energy signature they could only be
weapons.
 "Sir, interceptors are unable to lock on."
 The impact of the first weapon against the aft section of the ship through
everyone off their feet.  Showers of sparks pored from the ceiling and
control panels in every direction.  The first weapon destroyed the entire
aft section of the massive ship.
 "Send a Priority One Ultraviolet transmission to Earth Force HQ.  Advise
them of our situation."  The Captain screamed hoping that someone who could
carry out his orders would hear him through the carnage.  He knew when the
next weapon impacted he would die, but, if he could save the lives of
others, his death would have some justification.
 As he watched the second weapon on the sensor screen, drawing closer to his
ship, he had no way of knowing if the message was sent.  He could merely
watch, watch his ship's death approaching.


Earth Force HQ, Earth Dome
Geneva, Earth
January 2, 2272
0030 EST


 General Ryan walked through the doors into Earth Force HQ still trying to
fasten the collar on his uniform.  He hated being woken up early.  Ever
since he became a General shortly after the civil war, he had lost count of
the times when he had been woken up early in the morning, usually for
something trivial.  In fact, he could only think of one time when he'd been
woken up early for something that could be considered urgent, the attack on
Earth.
 General Ryan entered the briefing room and took his seat at the table among
the Chief's of Staff, other Generals and Admirals.  He was apparently the
last to show up for this briefing.
 Admiral Pack, one of the Joint Chiefs checked to be sure everyone was
assembled before he began his briefing.  "Last night, one of our deep space
listening outposts picked up an emergency message from the EAS Columbus one
of our ships exploring unknown territory.  We have not been able to contact
her since and believe she has been destroyed.  The area it was exploring is
on the other side of what used to be Vorlon territory.  The Seventh Fleet is
standing by to move in."
 "Already," Ryan thought.  "Admiral, if something did take out the Columbus
it's not likely to be friendly to over fifty warships jumping in at it."
 "General Ryan, Explorer ships are lightly armed, it may not have been
viewed as a threat.  Whatever it is would think twice about attacking fifty
warships."
 "If it wasn't viewed as a threat then why was it destroyed Admiral?  We
should send in a small scouting party first to ascertain what has happened
to the Columbus, if those ships require assistance they can call in the
fleet."
 "I agree with General Ryan's recommendation."  General Hammond interjected.
 "As do I."  Added Admiral English.
 Admiral Pack let out a long sigh.  "I'll order a destroyer, some additional
fighters and a couple of S&R ships to be detached from the 7th and search
for the Columbus, if they need help the rest of the fleet will be standing
by in hyperspace."  The assembled officers nodded in approval with this
plan.  "Very well, dismissed."  The officers all filed out of the room some
quietly, some discussing the situation with one or two others.
 General Ryan made his way quietly to his office to see a pile of folders
sitting on his desk.  He considered going back to his house for some sleep.
Barbara would probably be worried if he did not come home after being called
in this early.  He picked up one of the folders and began to read it's
contents, not really paying attention to what it said.  This incident with
the Columbus had him worried.  Even though Explorers weren't well armed, it
would require significant fire power to take one out, due to their size.
 Ryan checked the clock in his office.  The meeting had barely lasted ten
minutes.  He then read over his itinerary.  He was scheduled to leave on the
Midway for Babylon 5 later today.  He saw that he had nothing pressing the
rest of the day.
 After calling up a schedule for civilian transport ships he booked passage
on one which was leaving in less than two hours for Babylon 5.  He had never
liked the big deal which was made when he went aboard a warship.  Besides,
he always liked the look on the face of Earth Force personell when a General
arrived unexpected.


Last Known Location of EAS Columbus
Unexplored Space
0110 EST


 The forming of the jump point pierced through space.  The first ships
through were the Search and Rescue shuttles followed by twelve Thunderbolt
class heavy fighters, 3 of the new Grizzly torpedo bombers and one Blackbird
class recon fighter.  The last ship through the jump point was the Omega
class destroyer EAS Majestic.  Two squadrons of standard, Aurora class,
starfuries pored from the hangar of the large destroyer.
 The bridge of the Majestic was quiet, still.  All personnel silently
attended to their duties, scanning for the Columbus, performing checks on
weapon systems, coordinating the fighters and various other tasks.
 "Captain, I'm picking up debris in the area consistent with that of an
Explorer class ship."  A young Lieutenant announced from the sensor station
breaking the silence which filled the bridge.
 The Captain swiveled around in his chair to study a near by sensor display.
The wreckage was definitely from an Earth Force vessel and, the only Earth
ship out this far was the Columbus.  "Order the Thunderbolts to check it
out, try to verify that it's from the Columbus."  The twelve fighters broke
formation with the rest of the Earth Force ships and headed for the debris
field near the planet.
 The bridge of the Majestic remained silent as the fighters drew closer the
debris.  Then, the sound of an alarm screamed through the bridge.  "Captain
sensors show four....five.....six......seven.......eight, eight jump points
forming around us."
 Decisively alien ships pored from the open jump point, surrounding the
small Earth fleet.  As soon as the jump points closed the alien ships began
firing on the Earth vessels.
 "Defensive weapons aren't affecting them.  We can't get a clear shot with
pulse cannons or lasers."  The officer at the weapon station yelled.
 "Call in the fleet!"  The Captain ordered as the bridge exploded around
him.
 The fleet's jump points formed nearly at the same moment the Majestic broke
apart.  Fighters, gunboats and medium ships jumped in before the destroyers,
frigates, cruisers and carriers.  All of the Earth ships exited the jump
points firing on the alien fleet which consisted of small attack ships and
fighters.
 The battle raged on.  Destroyers and other cap ships served as nothing but
targets for the smaller alien ships which the Earth fighters tried
desperatley to stop.  The weapons fired from the Earth vessels impacted the
alien ships but did no noticeable damage.  The defensive weapons of the
capital ships managed to hurt the enemy ships but not enough to stop them.
 There was nothing but chaos on the bridge of the fleet flagship.  General
Roberts slowly made his way through the piles of debris and bodies to the
tactical operations station on the bridge.  He leaned close to the officer
manning that station so he knew he would be heard.  "Bring all of the
capital ships in closer together, have all fighter and gunboat squadrons
concentrate fire on the ships that we hit.  If we can have our ships setup
up to where they can't attack one cap ship without exposing themselves from
fire from half a dozen more we might be able to beat them."
 The General's orders were quickly carried out.  The ships in the fleet
moved in closer together.  Earth fighters and gunboats maintained close
proximity to the alien ships firing at every opportunity they had.  The
fleet continued to move closer together.  As the aliens attempted to attack
one ship, several more bombarded them with particle beams and interceptors.
The alien ships began to break apart.  They all broke off the attack on the
Earth vessels and jumped into hyperspace.
 "How long until we can jump?"  General Roberts asked.
 "All ships can be ready to jump in three hours, but, sir why should we be
worried, the attack was driven off?"  The executive officer of the ship
asked.
 "Because those ships that hit us were small, probably just a scout group
ahead of the main fleet.  If we could barely stand up to those things how
well are we going to stand up to a cruiser or destroyer?"
 "Captain," the officer at the sensor station yelled.  "I think we're about
to find out.  Sensors show fifteen jump point forming directly in front of
us, vessels coming through include those types that attacked us as well as
several classes of larger ships."
 The General took his seat in the command chair.  "All ships, fire at will!"
 Heavy laser and pulse cannon fire lashed out from the EA fleet.  Corvettes
and missile carrying fighters launched spread after spread of missiles at
the approaching ships.   "Weapons having little effect sir."
 "Sir enemy weapons powering up."
 Before the General could respond, it was all over.  The enemy ships fired a
devastating barrage of energy beams and various torpedoes at the Earth
fleet.  The Corvettes and other medium ships were the first to fall to the
enemy attack.  Next were the older Hyperion class cruisers, followed by the
newer cruisers and destroyers.  The carriers and battleships continued
firing.  Though they inflicted little damage, they would not let themselves
die without a fight.  The fighters, bombers and gunboats moved in for close
attack runs on the enemy fleet, but, to no evale.  Defensive weapons on the
alien's capital ships tore them to pieces.
 The battle lasted no more than thirty minutes.  In the end, more than fifty
capital ships were destroyed, more than fifty thousand Earth Force personnel
were killed, and a war had begun.


Interstellar Alliance Presidential Palace
Tuzanor, Minbari Homeworld
0300 MST (Minbari Standard Time)


 This was President John Sheridan's favorite time of the day.  The city was
quiet and the lights made the ancient buildings more stunning than they were
during the day.  Minbari shuttles would occasionally pass above going to and
from Yedor, the Minbari capital city.
 Sheridan looked up in the sky to see the massive form of the Minbari's
largest orbital shipyard.  It had been where the first wave of White Stars
were constructed.  Now the construction of the White Star ships was handled
by Earth and by the Alliance's own shipyards.
 "John."
 The voice he had heard millions of times still caught him off guard.  He
turned around to see Delen walking toward him.  She held his hands in hers.
 "It's late, you should get some rest, we're scheduled to leave early so
that we can make it to Babylon 5 in time for the ceremony."
 "I don't think they'll start without us Delen."  He said with a light
chuckle.  The ceremony which she spoke of was indeed an important one.  The
Alliance had been involved in several conflicts over the years but, it had
never acted as an Alliance in them.  The ceremony was for the ratifying of a
new amendment to the Constitution, stating that in military actions
sanctioned by the Alliance and the member worlds, the member worlds would
yield authority to Alliance Military Command.  It had taken a lot of time
but everyone had finally agreed to it.
 "John," Delen said.  "I am concerned about this amendment.  When we founded
the Alliance we made it clear that it was not a military one.  Now, we are
doing this."
 "We're still not going to be a military alliance Delen.  We're not going to
go in shooting at someone who won't give us what we want.  We will still
work towards peace but, having this amendment in affect will help us to
avoid what happened during the Centauri war."
 Delen nodded and allowed John to hold her in his arms for a few moments.
"We both need some more rest before we leave for Babylon 5."  She took his
hand and lead them back in from the balcony.
 "Mr.  President."  A voice from the darkness said.  Soon the speaker
emerged to show that he was a Ranger, one of those who worked in the palace.
He saluted Delen and turned to speak to Sheridan.  "Forgive me for intruding
at this hour sir, but, Ms.  Hallonan wishes to speak to you, she says it's
urgent."
 The President let out a long sigh.  He was tired, but, when Tessa said it
was urgent it usually was.  "I'll take it in here.  Thank you."
 The Ranger once again saluted to Delen before walking off.
 Sheridan took a seat at the desk in the room and activated the
communication system.  Tessa Hallonan's face appeared on the screen.  "Mr.
President, sorry to contact you at this hour, the time difference puts it
around 0300 on Minbar correct?"  Just as the President opened his mouth to
respond, Tessa continued.  "Anyway, I just finished talking to some of the
Earth Force brass who are on B5 for the ceremony.  About seven or eight
hours ago, one of Earth's deep space monitoring stations picked up an
emergency signal from an Explorer ship scouting out the unknown regions, the
other side of what used to be Vorlon space.  They sent the Seventh Fleet in
to investigate.  About three hours ago, they lost contact with it.  The only
signal they got from the Seventh was a garbled transmission saying they were
under attack."
 The President rested his head on one of his hands.  "Tessa, tell the Earth
Force personnel on the station I'd like to meet with them when I arrive.
For now tell them not to send in any more ships.  Oh and Tessa, meet with
Admiral Barns, tell him to stick a few White Stars in hyperspace where those
ships were lost.  If they pick up anything they are to immediately turn
around and report back to you or the Admiral."
 Her only only reply was a nod.  Admiral Barns was formerly an Earth Force
commander.  Sheridan had convinced him to take the job of Alliance military
commander.  The ceremony on Babylon 5 was partially for the amendment
ratification and partially for his installation for that post.  While
officially he had been commanding the White Star fleet for a year now, he
did not have authority over the militaries of all member worlds.  And with
authority, comes ceremonies Sheridan had told him.
 The President stood up and walked back to the bed.  Delen was already
asleep.  He now wished he could discuss the situation with her but he did
not wish to disturb her either.  It did not take him long to fall asleep.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
0715 EST


 "I knew the commander of the Seventh Fleet, he was a good man."  Admiral
Barns stated as he handed the report back to Tessa.
 Tessa stuffed the report back into a folder.  "Hopefully he still is a good
man.  It hasn't been confirmed that any of those ships have been destroyed.
The President wants to station a few White Stars in hyperspace near where
those ships disappeared."
 Barns nodded.  "White Stars 212 and 301 are in that area.  I'll send them
in, it'll take them about four hours to get their at maximum speed.  There's
a destroyer and four other White Stars about a day and half away, should
those be sent in as well?"
 Tessa scratched her chin and took another sip of coffee.  "If we assume the
worst, then those ships were destroyed and we could be facing a hostile and
powerful enemy force.  I would recommend sending them."
 "I'll issue the orders immediately."
 Tessa stood and picked up her folders.  "All right.  One of the Drazi
military commanders here for the ceremony wanted to speak with me.  Says
they're having some minor problems on their borders."
 "Probably Raiders, I'll check on the reports from the Rangers in that area,
step up patrols that sort of thing."
 "I'll let the Drazi know the Rangers will take care of them."  Tessa said
as she walked off.
 As Barns began to finish off his breakfast, Captain Lochley sat down at the
table.  "Mind if I join you for a minute Admiral?"
 Barns sat his fork on the plate.  "Typically, people at would ask that
before they sat down."  They both let out a slight laugh.  "You're never
going to take that promotion Ryan keeps offering you are you?"
 She smiled.  "Well, this job keeps my life interesting."
 Barns took another sip of his coffee.  "What can I do for you Captain?"
 "My daily intel briefings from Earth keep noting some unusual activities
being monitored in hyperspace, near the unexplored regions, they keep
picking up some strange emissions.  Earth has dismissed it as random
fluctuations in hyperspace, but, I thought I'd let you know about it now
that the Seventh Fleet is apparently missing out there."  She handed a file
to Admiral Barns.
 He reviewed it for a quick moment.  "I take it that everything is in the
report?"  Lochley nodded in response.
 "All right," Barns said.  "I'll forward this to the Rangers, see if they
can put two and two together."  He stood up and took a last sip of his
coffee.  "If you'll excuse me Captain I've got a meeting with the Brakiri
defense minister to get to."
 "Of course," she said as he walked off.
 Captain Lochley sat at the table for a few minutes.  It was these relative
quiet times that she enjoyed.  She sipped a cup of coffee which a waiter had
brought her.
 She had just begun to relax when she heard the voice of Lieutenant Jeffries
through her link.  "Captain, could you come to C&C for a moment, the long
range hyperspace probes are picking up something strange."
 She sighed for a moment before replying.  "I'm on my way."

 Command and Control was strangely silent.  Probably due to so many people
being absent to help prepare for the ceremony.  There were only two people
besides Captain Lochley.
 The Captain walked to the main station where Lieutenant Jeffries was
studying a sensor display.  "What is it Lieutenant?"  She asked.
 The Lieutenant moved to allow her to see the display.  "Our long range
probes started picking up some strange emissions in hyperspace that seem to
have drifted our way.  They're very weak so whatever caused or is causing
them is far away."
 The Captain stared at the display for a moment.  "Earth has been monitoring
similar emissions to these in the unexplored regions of space.  I don't want
to take any chances, keep one fighter flight on continuous patrol outside
the station and position another in hyperspace."
 "Yes, Ma'am."
 As Lochley was leaving C&C, she realized that there was no such thing as a
quiet day in this place.






gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/




From: "Inquisitor Gary Boshears" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter Two
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 22:45:00 -0600

Here is chapter two of "Darkness Wakes".  See previous chapter for spoiler
as well as legal stuff.

Content Warning:  Mild violence, adult language.






Here it is:



Chapter Two


White Star Prime
Hyperspace, On Route To Babylon 5
January 3, 2272
1700 EST


 President Sheridan lay down on the bed in the Presidential Suite aboard
White Star Prime.  The ship was redesigned to act as a transport for the
President of the Alliance and hence had a suite adjustable to the
preferences of any race.
 The President found himself unable to sleep, but, merely being able to
relax felt good enough.  He was used to having to deal with various matters
of the Alliance all day.  He enjoyed the few moments which he had to himself
to think.
 It would be another thirty six hours before they reached Babylon 5.  He was
looking forward to seeing the station again.  As much as he enjoyed Tuzanor,
there was something he found appealing about the station.
 "Sheridan!"
 He knew that voice.  It was a distinct one, one he could never forget.
 The room had become unusually warm.  He stood up and looked around the
room.  He saw, in a corner of the room, a blurred image of Ambassador Kosh.
He could not mistake him.  The encounter suit, the voice everything was
Kosh.
 "Kosh!?"  Sheridan said.
 The ghostly figure of the Vorlon nodded.
 "Hhhhhhhow?"  Sheridan asked in amazement.
 "There is no time."  Kosh answered.  "The darkness is waking, you must stop
it before it eclipses the universe."
 The image faded.
 Kosh's words echoed in Sheridan's head, he did not know what they meant, he
had a feeling he did not want to.  He looked around the room for a few
minutes.  His eyes became fixed on the large star map in the room.  There
was something different about it then when he had looked at it only minutes
before.  One of the systems on the map, appeared different.  It was a system
deep in the unexplored regions of space.
 "Computer," Sheridan said.  "What is the nearest explored system to that
which is selected on the map now?"
 The computer highlighted a second system on the map.  Sheridan knew it
almost immediately.  It was the system where the Seventh Fleet was reported
missing.
 "Computer, open a secure channel to Admiral Barns."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
1725 EST


 "Mr. President, with all due respect, you want me to dispatch some of the
White Stars to a planet no one has ever heard about, in a part of space no
one has ever cared about based on a vision you had of a dead Vorlon?"  Barns
said with disbelief staring at the monitor which displayed President
Sheridan's face.
 "There was something about this Jerry, I don't know what it is, but,
something is bothering me.  We can spare the ships can't we?"  The President
said in response.
 "Yes sir.  It's going to be a long trip for them, I can issue the orders
right away."
 "Thank you Admiral."  The screen faded black.
 Barns leaned back in his chair for a moment.  "Barns to Tessa."  He said
into his link.  "Can I see you in my quarters for a moment?"
 Nearly as soon as he finished speaking the door to his quarters slid open.
 "I was in the neighborhood."  Tessa said as she stepped in.
 "Thanks for stopping by.  I'd like you to correlate reports from the
Rangers and all Alliance worlds regarding this area of space,"  Barns handed
her a map with the area of space outlined.
 Tessa studied the map for a moment.  "I'll get you whatever I can, but, due
to the location, not many of the races are going to be eager to share what
little they know.  Many have believed that this area was once Vorlon space
and that there are lots of advanced technologies scattered through out
them."  Tessa continued.  "We've confirmed that it wasn't Vorlon territory,
in fact, the Excaliber didn't even bother with those areas when it was
looking for a cure to that plague."
 Barns paced for a moment and let out a long sigh.  "Well, the President
wants me to send some White Stars into the center of this area and I'd like
to know as much as I can about where we're going to be sending them."
 "All right, I'll get to work."  Tessa left the room shortly after that.
 Barns left his quarters and began walking down the hall to a lift tube.  He
was no more than ten feet away from his quarters when his link chimed.
"Barns, go."  He said into it.
 "Sir, this is C&C," the person contacting him said.  "We have Admiral
McDouglass on a secure channel wishing to speak with you, she says it's
urgent."
 Barns shook his head.  "Around here, what isn't?  Route the transmission
through to my office I'll be there in a minute."


 "What can I do for you Lillie?"  Barns said as the image of Admiral Lillian
McDouglass appeared on the communications screen.
 "I just got word that the Alliance has officially quarantined the area
where the Seventh Fleet has disappeared.  This is preventing us from
conducting our own investigation."  She said in response.
 "The President and I felt that it was necessary to ensure the safety of all
member worlds.  We'll be conducting our own investigation into what happened
and will of course share the results with Earth."
 The few wrinkles in the woman's face showed as she developed an annoyed
look.  "So that's it?  Over fifty of our ships disappear and you quarantine
the area where it happened."
 "Yes, Lillie that would be it."
 "Come on Jerry, we have the right to find out what happened to our ships!"
 Admiral Barns signaled for her to calm down.  "You will but at the risk
that they were destroyed I'd prefer to have the White Stars handle instead
of your ships."
 Admiral McDouglass allowed herself a slight smile.  "Let us at least send
some of our ships for backup."
 Barns nodded.  "All right, I'll send you the stand bye coordinates."
 "Thanks, it was good seeing you again Jerry.  What's it been, two years
now?"
 "Since we last saw each other or since we last saw each other and didn't
talk about work?"
 "How about since we last didn't talk about work?"
 "The Academy."  Barns solemnly replied.
 She smiled.  "That was a long time ago."  After those words the
transmission terminated.
 Barns swiveled his chair to face his desk.  "Yes it was."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 4, 2272
0600 EST
Z Minus 14 Hours


 "Another pair of Drazi warbirds just came through the jump gate, they're
requesting approach instructions."  Lieutenant Jeffries reported.
 Captain Lochley shook her head.  There were already twice as many warships
from the Alliance member worlds as were originally planned.  "Tell them to
enter a standard holding pattern around the station.  They can begin
shuttling people over as soon as we can get some time in our docking
schedule."
 A warning alarm went off on the main console.  "Captain we're receiving an
emergency transmission from a luxury liner not far from here, they're being
hit hard by................ something."
 Lochley studied the transmission.  "Any other ships or outposts which can
respond before us?"
 "No."  Jeffries answered.
 Lochley nodded.  "All right," she said with a sigh.  "Scramble a fighter
wing."
 "I have a better idea."  The voice of Admiral Barns came from the entrance
to C&C.  "That's a lightly armored civilian ship, it won't stand up for a
long time against what's hitting it.  I'll take one of the White Stars and
escort them safely out of there."
 "Admiral," Lochley began her rebuttal.  "I don't think this is a good idea.
Those may be just Raiders out there but still........."
 Barns cut her off.  "I'll be fine, a White Star can handle it."
 "All right," Lochley reluctantly agreed.  "However, I insist you take a
full fighter escort wing."  Barns nodded in agreement and walked out of the
room.

 The Earth Alliance shuttle left the forward hangar of Babylon 5 at nearly
the same time the squadron of six Thunderbolt and six Vampire heavy fighters
left one of the Cobra bays.
 The shuttle docked with a White Star which the fighters quickly assumed an
escort formation around.  No sooner had the fighters entered formation than
did the ship jump to hyperspace.


 The White Star and twelve fighters emerged into hyperspace safely.  Admiral
Barns arrived on the bridge of White Star 18 and quickly took a seat in the
command chair.  "Do we have an id on the transport or the ships attacking
it?"  He asked the Ranger sitting at the console to his right.
 "The ship is registered as the liner Mauritania, the ships attacking it
appear to be of unknown configuration."  The Ranger reported.
 Admiral Barns took a long breath in and exhaled it quickly.  "Let's hope
they can hold out until we get there.  What's our E.T.A.?"
 "Eighteen minutes."


Earth Luxury Liner Mauritania
Somewhere Near Babylon 5
0620 EST


 General Ryan struggled with every step he took.  The ship continued to
shake from the attackers' weapons hitting the hull.  His path had been
blocked by debris nearly the entire way from his state room.
 He gained entry to the bridge almost too easily he thought.  It was a
relatively small room.  Two piloting stations, a communication station,
docking control and defense system station and finally the captain's
station.
 As he walked in the bridge lurched violently throwing him from his feet.
He could hear the Captain shouting out orders to return fire.
 "What's going on?"  Ryan yelled.
 It took the Captain a moment to respond.  "We're under attack by twelve
fighters of unknown origin, they're firing in a way so that we take the most
damage possible and still live through it.  I'm trying to return fire with
out defensive guns but not having much luck.  When we can actually get the
weapons to lock on they maneuver out of the way."
 "Captain!"  The man operating the sensor console yelled.  "You'd better
take a look at this!"
 "What now?"  The Captain complained as he took a look at the console.
After studying the reading he developed a slight grin.


 White Star 18 and the twelve Earth fighters closed in on the Mauritania.
The attacking fighters had either not yet noticed the ships or were choosing
to ignore them.
 "They're continuing to hit the Mauritania sir."  A Ranger reported to
Barns.
 Barns scratched his chin.  "Let's give them reason to due do otherwise
shall we?  Gamma Squadron take point, fire a few shots of at the hostiles,
break off and run like hell.  We'll follow you in, once we break away from
the transport enter tactical formation Lambda."
 There was a momentary silence followed by a soft beeping noise on a
console.  "Gamma Squadron confirms Admiral, they're initiating maneuver."


 The fighters roared past the White Star their engines blazing.  Shots from
their cannons zoomed towards the hostile fighters striking several but
severely damaging none.  The Earth fighters broke away not drawing the
attention of the hostile fighters away from the Mauritania.
 The White Star's four twin pulse fusion cannons opened fire slicing two of
the hostile fighters to pieces.  The small ship then maneuvered under the
liner.  The Earth fighters reentered formation with the White Star.


 "Hostile fighters still concentrating on the liner sir."  The Ranger
reported.
 Barns tapped the comm control on the command chair.  "Gamma Squadron switch
to missiles, make sure you have a good lock before you shoot or hit might
hit the liner, follow us in."


 The White Star demonstrated it's superior maneuvering capability.  It came
up from the bottom of the liner, hugging the hull all the way back to the
top.  It let loose several volleys from it's guns destroying two more
fighters.
 This drew the attention of the remaining hostiles to the White Star.  They
pursued opening fire.  Most of their shots missed, a few grazed the hull
causing minor damage.  The White Star was able to maneuver well enough to
avoid their weapon fire but not well enough shake the fighters.
 The Earth fighters positioned themselves behind the hostiles.  The order
from Admiral Barns came to fire.  The fighters launched a barrage of
missiles at the hostiles while the White Star maneuvered hard to port.
 Four of the remaining eight hostiles were destroyed.  The rest began
engaging the Earth fighters.


 "Hostile fighters are engaging Gamma Squadron."  A Ranger reported.
 Admiral Barns leaned forward.  "Hard to starboard, full one eighty, open
fire carefully."  He ordered, emphasizing his last word so there wouldn't be
friendly fire casualties.


 Two hostile fighters were tailing the lead Gamma Squadron fighter, a
Vampire.  A Thunderbolt pulled in behind the enemies and destroyed one with
a burst from it's gattling pulse cannon.  The Thunderbolt was quickly
destroyed by another enemy fighter.
 The White Star dropped behind two enemy fighters and destroyed one with
it's pulse guns.  The remaining two hostiles began concentrating on the
White Star.


 "Gamma Nine and Twelve pull in on our starboard side.  Gamma Six come
around from port."  Barns ordered.


 The two fighters swept in on the White Stars starboard side destroying one
fighter.  The other quickly maneuvered out of the way causing two Earth
fighters to ram into each other.  The remaining hostile quickly headed
towards the Mauritania.


 "Gamma Leader to Admiral Barns, looks like that fighter is on a collision
coarse for the Mauritania."


 "All fighters knock that hostile out before it gets to the liner."  Barns
ordered.


 The fighters sped towards the remaining hostile ship.  They were all too
far to attempt to fire with cannons and it would take to long to get a
missile lock.


 "Gamma Leader to command, I don't have enough time to try for a missile
lock, switching missiles to passive scanning
and.......................................fox two!"
 The pilot depressed the missile launch trigger on his flightstick sending a
missile flying towards the hostile.
 "Missile is on target."  He reported continually watching his missile track
screen.  The missile had not yet acquired a target but it was heading for
the hostile.  "Estimated impact in eight seconds."  Almost as soon as he
finished giving his report, the hostile broke away causing the missile to
establish a lock on the Mauritania.
 "Command, missile has locked on the liner, it's gonna hit!"


 The explosion lit up the blackness of space when the missile hit the liner.
The last hostile turned around and charged toward the ships firing it's
weapons.  Several pulses managed to destroy another fighter.  A Thunderbolt
returned fire and knocked the hostile away from the other ships.  The
hostile did not move, it merely settled into a stationary position.  The
White Star was the first to enter weapon range of it.


 "Transfer firing control to my station."  Barns ordered.  He stared at the
hostile through the windows, almost showing it some kind of respect, for
what seemed like and eternity to all on the bridge except him.
 He leaned back in his chair and put his finger over the firing button.
"See you in hell."  He pressed the button releasing several volleys from the
ship's pulse batteries destroying the remaining fighter.
 Barns stood and walked toward the front of the bridge.  "Tell the fighters
to form up on us, we'll tow the Mauritania to Babylon 5."
 His orders were quickly carried out.  The ships jumped to hyperspace via
the jump gate in the system.


Space Station Babylon
Orbit of Epsilon 3
0725 EST
Z Minus 12 Hours


 Lochley paced throughout the docking area.  The Mauritania had just began
to shuttle over wounded and she felt the need to be here.  Two full medical
teams waited with her.
 While facing away from them she heard the medical officers take off
running.  The first shuttle had docked.  She walked down to the docking bay
to see the medical officer attending to the wounded.  The wounds were a mix
of broken bones, energy burns and various other wounds most likely caused
from falling debris.
 "Captain Lochley!"
 She heard Admiral Barns' voice pierce through the carnage.  She turned to
find him in the crowd walking with General Ryan.
 "General, welcome to Babylon 5."  Lochley said saluting Ryan.  He returned
the salute.
 "Thank you Captain."  Ryan said.  He surveyed the area for a minute.  "I
wish I could have arrived under better circumstances."
 "Captain, send an alert to all ships in the area, tell them we've had a
heavy attack by unknown forces and to be on the lookout for anything
suspicious.  If they see anything out of the ordinary contact the nearest
Alliance military vessel and send a report here."  When Barns finished with
his orders he and Ryan walked off.
 Lochley expressed a brief look of annoyance and walked away.


 "It couldn't have been the Raiders, they're still trying to get reorganized
from when the Hades trashed their bases and command ships last year."  Barns
said as he studied a preliminary report on the attack which was quickly
compiled.
 "Plus those fighters were a bit more than Raider standard.  I've never seen
that design before.  Also, I've never seen Raider pilots fly in that manner
before.  It's as if they were using their weapons as knives, slicing at the
liner like surgery."  General Ryan commented.  He had joined Admiral Barns
in the war room to evaluate the attack.
 "We haven't heard much from what's left of the Drahk or any other allies of
the Shadows lately and those ships didn't match configuration or energy
signatures for the Anti'Zha."
 "Anti'Zha?"  Ryan asked curiously.
 Barns was caught off guard.  "Um, nothing, slip of the tongue."
 Ryan knew he wasn't telling the truth but it didn't matter right now.
"Have you found out anything about our Seventh Fleet?"  Ryan asked.
 Barns shook his head and shuffled through some more reports.  "We have a
White Star Destroyer and a half dozen gunboats out there.  They've been
checking in periodically, they have yet to find anything.  They should be
checking in again in about two hours."
 "Admiral Barns," a voice from across the room.
 Barns turned to see a station officer entering the room.  He looked
exhausted as if he had ran all the way here from Command and Control.
 "Sir Captain Lochley asked me to inform you, White Star Prime is coming
through the jump gate."  The officer said.
 "Ah hell!!!"  Barns yelled as he ran out of the room.


 Captain Lochley waited with the hastily assembled honor guard at the
customs area.  She soon heard the sound of someone running down the hall
towards them.  It was Admiral Barns.
 He was finishing putting on the cover vest to his Army of Light uniform,
the one which he typically would wear when for anything involving Alliance
matters.
 "Captain," he nodded towards her as he walked by and stood beside her.
 "Attention on deck!"  A security officer at the end of the line yelled.
 All of those assembled snapped to attention.
 President Sheridan emerged from the docking area followed by Delen who was
holding their seven year old son David's hand.  The President briefly
glanced at the assembled security personnel.  When he reached the end of the
line both Barns and Lochley saluted him.
 "Mr. President, welcome to Babylon 5."  Lochley said.
 Sheridan casually returned the salute.  "Thank you Captain."  He said.  His
voice was beginning to sound some what aged.  "Now Captain, would you care
to explain to me why you have a shot up civilian transport parked outside
your station."
 Barns stepped in before Lochley could answer.  "It might be better if I
field that one sir, I can brief you on what we know so far in the war room."
 Sheridan nodded in approval.  "As soon as we're settled."
 "Of course, then if you'll excuse me sir I'll prepare the briefing."
 "Very well."  Sheridan said with a nod.
 Barns walked away.
 Lochley gave him a brief look of annoyance that he managed to get out of
all this formality so fast.
 "Mr.  President, we have quarters prepared for you, a security detail will
escort you there."  Lochley said.  She felt a slight pulling on her
trousers.  She bent down and smiled at David.  "What can I do for you?"  She
said once again with a smile.
 David looked as if he was trying to but couldn't talk.  Delen bent down and
smiled at him.  "David is still a little shy.  He was wondering if he could
go on a tour of the station, he especially wanted to see the fighter launch
bays, he has taken a great interest in flying."
 Lochley looked at Delen.  "Reminds me of his dad."  She looked back at
David.  "I'll take you on a tour myself."  David's face lit up.
 Sheridan finished his conversation with a Narn General who had also met
them the and stood by his wife.  "Why don't you to go with the Captain after
we get to our quarters, Admiral Barns is calling a full meeting of all
senior military officers on the station to discuss some things and it might
take a while."
 "If you'll follow me."  Lochley said leading the way to their quarters.


 President Sheridan walked into the war room which was the most crowded he
had ever seen it.  He quickly found Admiral Barns and his adjacent Captain
Taylor.
 Barns walked to his seat at the large briefing table.  If everyone will be
seated we can begin.  The noise in the room silenced and everyone took their
seats.  The President and Captain Taylor took seats on the Admiral's sides.
 "All right here's what we know so far," Barns began.  He pointed to an area
on the map which was highlighted and enlarged.  "An Earth Alliance Explorer
ship disappeared in this area nearly three days ago.  The Earth Force
Seventh Fleet was sent in to investigate and now contact has been lost with
them.  The Alliance has the Valen's Hand and an escort group of White Star
gunboats positioned in hyperspace near this area, they have yet to locate
anything."
 A new area on the map along the Drazi border was highlighted.  "Now this
area has been the subject of what we believed to be Raider attacks up until
only a few minutes ago when the Victory got a picture of one of the
attacking ships."  The picture was displayed in the upper left hand corner
of the map.
 General Ryan recognized it almost immediately.  Barns turned to face the
people at the table.  "This ship matches the configuration of some ships the
attacked an Earth transport ship earlier today."
 Many of those assembled began speaking amongst themselves.  "Admiral," the
President spoke up.  "What do we think is going on here?"
 "That area along the border of Drazi spaces borders the unknown regions
which is the same region of space where Earth last contact with the Seventh
Fleet."  Barns continued.  "We don't know what exactly is going on but, to
be frank, Captain Taylor and I don't like it.  I'm going to recommend that
all Alliance military forces are mobilized and placed on a level two alert."
 The conversation in the room picked up to nearly everyone yelling.
President Sheridan and Admiral Barns exchanged a glance at each other.  The
President stood.  "Let's discuss this, we realize that this would be a
difficult request since almost all of your forces are in peace time activity
but we have got to do something.  We could be facing a new enemy and the
least we could do is be prepared for it!"
 The room became quiet.


 David's gaze remained fixed on the fighters in the launch bays.  Delen and
Lochley would occasionally glance at him or at the ships.  Lochley seemed to
remind herself of how long it had been since she had done any joy riding
when she glanced at the new Vampires.
 They finished walking through the launch bay and went into a launch control
room adjacent to it.  The door sealed and the red lights flashed in the bay,
indicating a fighter launch.  The doors at the bottom of the bay slid open
and the fighters dropped down.  David's face lit up when he saw the fighters
launch.
 "We need to go now," Delen said to her son.  "We promised your father we
meet him in our quarters in a few minutes."
 David did not say anything.
 "Thank you Captain."  Delen said.
 "Not a problem Ambassador, I'll see you at the ceremony in a little while.
Good bye David."  The Captain said.
 Delen and her son turned away and walked towards one of the main hallways.
 Lochley's link chimed.  "Lochley go."  She said into it.
 "Captain those polaron emissions that we've been detecting have increased
substantially."
 "Can we tell if there is any reason why?"  The Captain asked.
 "Hyperspace probes haven't picked up anything neither have the White Star
patrol flights."
 "Well, I don't see that there's much we can do about it, keep us at our
current alert status."


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
1850 EST
Z Minus 2 Hours


 Ten minutes left Barns thought to himself as he gazed at the crowd
assembled in the council room.  He had always hated ceremonies no matter how
large or small they had been.  Only ten more minutes until he was
"officially" made the commander of Alliance military forces.
 "Nervous Admiral?"
 Barns turned around to see the person who said those words, though he
already knew who it was.  "Not at all Ambassador," he said to Delen.
 She expressed a look that border lined on annoyance but appeared to be more
amusement.  "Why do the people of your species always deny what they do not
want to be true?"
 "Human nature, that's about all I could tell you."  Barns said with a
smile.
 At that time President Sheridan called the assembly to order by banging a
gavel.  Delen and Barns took their seats at the main table.
 "Thank you all for coming," the President began.  "After what happened with
the Centauri nine years ago, we have realized that us much as we would like
the Alliance to be focused on peace, that will sometimes not happen.  We
have since then felt the need to have the military forces of Alliance worlds
organized under a single command structure.  To this end, we ratified an
amendment to the constitution that states, all military forces of Alliance
worlds acting in towards a common goal or in the same campaign which is
sanctioned by the Alliance shall be controlled by a single commander
appointed by the President.  Also that no military actions not sanctioned by
the Alliance can take place."
 "Hopefully the Alliance will not have to face a military campaign again for
a long time, but, if it does we will be ready for it.  I have chosen a man
to the lead our forces who I believe will do the Alliance proud.  His record
with Earth Force is exemplary and for the last few months commanding the
White Star fleet has been text book perfect and I am proud to introduce him
as the commander of the Interstellar Alliance military forces, Admiral Jerry
Barns."
 The large crowd clapped as Sheridan moved away from the podium and Barns
stepped up to it.  "I'm afraid I'm not good at speeches."  The crowd
silenced as Barns began to speak.  "When the President first asked me to
take this position I was unsure about it, unsure if I could live up to the
challenge of it.  That night I found a message my dad recorded for me before
he died in the Dilgar War, in it he told me that we must live up to every
challenge and we must persevere through every hardship.  I promise you today
that I will do those things.  I thank all of you and," he looked at the
President.  "I thank you Mr. President for giving me this honor."  Barns
left the podium and the crowd once again applauded.
 "There will now be a formal reception in reception in the Reception Hall."
The President announced, this time keeping his seat.
 The mass of people filed out of the room in a semi-orderly fashion.
 Barns stood and waited for the rest of the people to leave before he did.
He heard the President come up behind him.  "Let me be the first to
congratulate you Admiral."  He said.
 Barns nodded his head.  "I guess I'll be hearing that a lot for a while
huh?"
 Sheridan chuckled.  "Let's go Admiral."
 The two of them and Delen left the room together.


 The reception room was even more crowded than the council chamber had been.
The room was decorated with Alliance, Army of Light and Alliance world
flags.  There were several long tables containing hundreds of various foods.
 Barns paced through the room, casually talking with and accepting
congratulations from anyone he talked to.  He eventually made his way to one
side of the room and took a glass of Champaign from one of the servers
circulating through the room.
 "Admiral," Barns turned around to see Captain Taylor coming from behind
him.  The Captain presented him with a report.  "We just got some info in
from the Valen's Hand," Taylor began his report.  "It seems
that...................."
 Barns lost track of what the Captain was saying.  Across the room he
spotted her, a person who had once, and still did, mean more to him than
anything.  Sarah was in her Earth Force dress uniform, her long brownish
blonde hair was let down.  As he stared at her, for one brief moment it
seemed as though nothing else in the universe mattered, that for one moment,
everything in the universe was in perfect harmony..............then, an
alarm sounded.


 Captain Lochley was the first senior officer to make it to Command and
Control from the reception.  "Report!"  She yelled running towards the main
console.
 Lieutenant Jeffries was quick to respond.  "A BIG ship of unknown
configuration just came through the jump gate.  We can't be for sure but it
appears that their weapons are powered.  Fighters are moving to intercept,
the Alliance ships are assuming defensive formations."
 Lochley began to respond when she was interrupted by a large hologram
forming in the middle of the room.  The hologram was of a large figure
dressed entirely in fierce looking body armor.
 "To the leaders of the Interstellar Alliance," the hologram began to speak.
"I am a representative of the Keilmar Empire, your incursions into our space
have not been tolerated, any further incursions will be considered an act of
war.  We wish to coexist peacefully with you and hope that you wish the
same."  The hologram vanished.
 Lochley did not know what to do or think.
 "Open a channel to their ship."  The President's voice came from the back
of the room.
 Lieutenant Jeffries gave the President a hand signal indicating the channel
was open.  "This is John Sheridan, President of the Interstellar Alliance.
We were not aware of the existence of your species and did not know we were
violating your territory.  We would like to meet with you to discuss the
situation."
 Jeffries listened to a signal coming back from the Keilmar vessel through
his head piece.  "Sir, they say that they'll shuttle their Ambassador over
in one hour."
 The President nodded and turned to Barns.  "One hour."  He said walking out
of the room.



gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
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From: "Inquisitor Gary Boshears" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter 3
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 01:01:20 -0600

When I sent this a couple weeks ago, it didn't look right, so here it is
again.

This contains mild violence, mild adult language, and spoilers for all
seasons.  Mostly 4 and 5.

As usual all Babylon 5 characters, places and events are used solely for
entertainment purposes, no copyright infringement is intended.  All original
characters, places and events are property of the author and may be used by
other fan fic authors provided you ask first.

Without furhter wait

Chapter Three


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 4, 2272
2150 EST


 A full security team was assembled and watched with their weapons ready as
the Keilmar shuttle landed.  Soon after it finished it's landing sequence,
five large figures emerged fully covered in armor and carrying massive
weapons.  The figure who they appeared to be protecting, most likely the
Ambassador.
 The team of leader of the Babylon 5 troops stepped forward.  "Welcome to
Babylon 5.  We've been ordered to take you to the President.  Please give us
your weapons."
 One of the Keilmar looked down at him.  "Take us to the President!"  He
demanded.
 "Give us your weapons!"  The security officer demanded back.
 The Keilmar soldier focused his eyes on the security officer.  A red
shimmering light appeared around his neck and seemed to lift him off the
ground.  "You will take us to your President now."
 The officer was two feet off the ground and he was unable to breath.  The
other security personnel readied their weapons.  They were surprised by the
sound of a PPG being readied from behind the Ambassador.
 Barns held the weapon to the head of the Ambassador.  "Let him go or I put
whole in his head."  Another full security team appeared behind Barns and
took aim with their weapons.
 The Keilmar warrior snarled but released the guard.  Barns lowered his
weapon.  "Now," Barns said.  "Two of your men may carry their small arms.
You may not have any guards with you when you meet with the President, nor
will there be any of our guards present."
 The Keilmar ambassador reluctantly agreed.
 "If you'll follow me."  The Admiral said as he walked away from the bay.
 There was an atmosphere of uneasiness as they walked through the corridor.
Security had cleared their path and there were guards along it.
 The Ambassador's guards stood aside and he followed Admiral Barns into the
conference room.  President Sheridan, Delen and Ta'Lon, the Narn Ambassador
to the station, were all waiting inside.
 The Ambassador approached them.  "Mr.  President, I will come straight to
the point.  As I said earlier,  your incursions upon our territory have not
been tolerated.  Any further incursions will be considered an act of war, a
war in which you will be quickly vanquished."
 "Now just a damn minute!"  Sheridan said rising from his seat.  "We were
unaware of your existence until an hour ago when your ship came out of
hyperspace, therefore there is no justification for any type of retaliation
on your part since we did not know we were violating your territory."
 "You mean to tell me Mr.  President that a large fleet of warships from one
of your Alliance members went on a mission without your knowledge?"  The
Ambassador said in response.
 The Alliance leaders which were assembled knew exactly what this meant.
The Keilmar had destroyed the Earth Alliance Seventh Fleet.
 "Members of the Alliance have the right to govern themselves freely."
Admiral Barns said.  "It was within their authority to send that fleet in to
investigate the disappearance of their first ship."
 "Mr.  Ambassador," the President began again.  "We would like to seek a
peaceful solution to this, does your government want the same?"
 The Ambassador nodded.  "Yes, we wish to coexist peacefully with your
Alliance.  We have drafted a treaty, stating that in exchange for peace, as
well as a technology sharing between us, all we ask is that our borders not
be violated and you surrender several sectors along the border to us."
 The Ambassador activated a hologram which displayed the sectors they
wanted.  All of them were refugee and cheap settlement sectors, all under
the control of Earth Alliance.
 "From my perspective," the President said.  "This seems to be a reasonable
deal.  I will have to discuss it with the Earth Alliance President first and
have a full council vote on it."
 "Of course," the Ambassador said almost sounding amused.  "I will return to
my ship until then.  I trust your weapon systems will cease targeting us?"
 Admiral Barns nodded.  "I'll issue the stand down orders immediately."
 "Good."  The Ambassador said as he left the room.
 As soon as he was gone, Sheridan addressed the others.  "Thoughts anyone?"
 "I don't trust them."  Barns was the first to speak up.  "We've known them
officially for an hour now and they expect us to surrender space to them in
exchange for technology that, for all we know, is a Trojan Horse."
 "We need to have peaceful relations with our neighbors,"  Delen followed.
"Those systems are not of much value, Earth could easily relocate the
inhabitants to other worlds."
 "Plus they were able to sneak up on the station completely undetected, I'd
sure like to know how they did that."  The President said again.
 "I must agree with the Admiral," Ta'Lon said.  "They have done nothing to
earn trust and everything to earn distrust.  We know very little about them
and should not rush into any kind of deal that could affect us in any way."
 "The problem is, we have no way of finding out much about them," Delen
commented.  "The Minbari have no files on them, neither do any of the other
member worlds.  Any information the Vorlons had would be
inaccessible.........."
 Barns cut her off.  "What about the C'Les?  We've had good relations with
them in the past, they might be able to provide some information."
 "I'll have our Ambassador inquire if they have any information about the
Keilmar.  In the meantime I think we should proceed with and move this
treaty along."  The President continued.  "I'll place a priority call
through to President Solomon and discuss it with him.  Meanwhile, I want the
White Star Fleet fully mobilized at combat ready status in forty eight
hours."
 Barns shook his head.  "It's going to be tough, we're at peace time
deployment right now which means only twenty five percent of our total
forces are mobilized,"  there was a long pause.  "But, I'll do what I can."
He concluded.
 "Good," the President said.  "Now, let's all get some sleep, it's been a
long day."
 All of them left the room with the exception of Barns.  He stood there for
a moment, thinking.  As he thought about the Keilmar, about getting the
White Stars ready for a potential conflict with them, his find kept flashing
back to the reception, to Sarah.  He hadn't seen her for nearly two years,
on the day he resigned from Earth Force.  He remembered hearing about her a
few times over the past year.  She was in command of the EAS Hades, an Earth
Alliance quick strike cruiser.  They launched a largely successful campaign
against a well organized and well armed raider group last year.
 He started to think of when they were at the academy when he managed to
shake her from his mind.  That was a long time ago and, he had things to do.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 5, 2272
0600 EST


 Admiral Barns tried to drink his tea while sifting through the jumble of
papers at his table.  He woke up two hours ago to try and get all of them
organized.  Most of them were intelligence information and reports from the
Rangers on the area of space the Keilmar controlled.  He also had a copy of
the proposed treaty with the Keilmar and various other reports that he had
to go through before he met with Captain Lochley, a Minbari War Leader, a
Narn General and General Ryan to discuss the Keilmar situation.
 "Life treating you well Admiral?"
 Admiral Barns had met a lot of people in his life.  Many of them he couldn'
t identify without a face, but, not her.  The sound of Sarah McDouglass'
voice would be always etched into his memory.
 Barns motioned for her to sit down.  "As good as it usually does when I
think I have things fairly under control."  He looked up from the papers to
see her face.  "It's good to see you again Sarah."
 She tilted her head slightly.  "You too, Gary.  How long has it been now,
two years?"  She asked.
 "Yeah," the Admiral replied.  "Almost exactly."
 She smiled and slightly nodded her head.  "I remember.  The day you
resigned from Earth Force."
 "Coincidentally the day you got promoted to Flag Captain," Barns said with
a slight chuckle.
 "Yeah, I still remember, it was covered on ISN for hours as it was your
last official act as an Earth Force officer before assuming command of the
White Star Fleet.  Man I hated you for exposing me to all those reporters."
 Barns laughed.  "Well I know how that is, this whole assuming command of
the Alliance military hasn't been without publicity."
 "I would imagine not."
 Barns looked down to sign one of the pieces of paper in front of him.  "I
talked to your sister the other day."  He commented shortly before looking
back up.
 "Really?"  Her face seem to light up for a moment.  "I haven't talked to
her in a while.  How's she doing?"
 "Well she was a little too busy yelling at me for us to have a conversation
but," he paused.  "She did seem quite full of energy."
 Captain McDouglass watched Barns return to browsing through the reports in
front of him.  "You know Gary, I've missed talking to you.  I remember at
the Academy, you were always there for me.  Wether I needed a shoulder to
cry on or just a good laugh I could always count on you."  She wiped her
eye.  "How come we don't talk like we did there anymore Gary?"
 Barns put the papers down.  "War changes people Sarah.  I was a different
person when I got back from the Minbari war then before I left for it.  We
were both different people after the Civil War than we were before it.  I
nearly had to start another civil war and a war with the Alliance.  We both
saw Earth attacked by the Drahk.  We're not the same people we were at the
Academy."
 "Maybe you're right Gary."  She stood up and prepared to leave.  "The Hades
will be here for the next few days, you want to have dinner some time?"
 Barns allowed the smile to creep back onto his face.  "I'd love to."
 She didn't say anything else, simply walked off.


1 Hour Later


 Barns walked into the conference room.  Seated at the table was General Nal
'Mock of the Narn, Warleader Lathen of the Minbari and finally General Ryan
and Captain Lochley.  There was a feeling of anxiety in the room as Barns
put his papers and files down on the table and searched through them for a
moment before taking a seat himself.
 "Thank you all for coming," he said surveying the table.  "The President
informed me a few minutes ago that Earth has agreed to the treaty that the
Keilmar proposed."  Barns pressed a switch on a small control causing the
viewscreen in the room to flash to life, displaying a star map which had
several systems highlighted.  "This means that we've got to get these
systems cleared out in three weeks."
 "That's not possible."  General Ryan reacted almost immediately.  "Most of
those systems are inhabited by refugees.  They've been that way for years.
People with no money, very little food.  The situation has gotten better
since we joined the Alliance, but, the people in those systems don't have
the resources to leave and Earth doesn't have the resources to pull together
an evacuation of that scale in a few weeks."
 Lochley glanced at Barns.  "Admiral judging by the look on your face I
would guess you have a solution."
 Barns let out a long breath.  "I do.  There are a lot of free lance
transport vessels that could be used for this kind of work.  Since the
Alliance proposed this treaty to Earth we are willing to do whatever is
necessary to see that it gets done.  Therefore, the Alliance and Earth can
split the cost of hiring those transports for these missions."
 "Agreed that would take care of a lot of the problem.  However, we still
need to defend those ships.  Most of our military forces are concentrated
elsewhere."  Ryan countered.
 Barns knew he was not happy about this.  The look on his face, the sound of
his voice, it was obvious.  They all knew now that the Keilmar destroyed the
Seventh Fleet and was responsible for the numerous attacks blamed on
Raiders.  The Keilmar had already explained it to them.
 "We'll devote White Stars to continuously patrol the area.  Plus, the
Minbari and the Narns have ships near there that could be used to escort the
convoys."  Barns glanced at the Minbari and Narns military leaders sitting
to one side of him.
 "The Narns can spare several squadrons of warships from our bases in that
area."  The Narn General spoke up first.
 "Minbari forces in that area are comprised of mostly older vessels, but,
they still have combat value and will be sent to help our allies."  Lathen
was next to speak.
 Barns looked back to Ryan.  "Satisfied General?"
 Ryan, stood, almost infuriated.  "No Admiral I'm not, but, I'm soldier and
my duty is not to question orders but to follow them and not care about
doing the right thing."  Ryan stormed out of the room.
 Barns knew what he was referring to.  Even though it appeared to be the
current situation, it was not.  It was what was happening over ten years
ago, the Earth Civil War.  Ryan was a Major at the time, commanding an Omega
Class Destroyer.  Barns was a Captain, also in command of a Omega class
ship.  Ryan was fighting against Earth from the very beginnings on the war.
Barns fought on the side of Clark.  Barns sat their resting his head in his
hand for a moment.  Even though the war was over, the embers of the fire
still glowed.
 "We have to begin this evacuation immediately.  Let's get moving."  Barns
said.
 The Narn and Minbari leaders left the room.  Captain Lochley stayed seated
as did Barns.
 "You know he's not mad at you personally."  Lochley said leaning towards
the Admiral.  "He's mad at the situation and your a convenient vent for his
anger.
 "I know.  He also reminded me of all the people who refuse to put the Civil
War behind them.  People like General Wallace, who will always fight against
what the results of the Civil War on Earth were.  Even though those results
are helping it."  Barns commented.
 "I know, the war divided Earth, and that division is just now starting to
heal.  Even though the wound may heal, there will always be a scar."
Without anymore words Lochley stood and left the room.


Chapter 4 Preview:
Lochley and Barns literally ran into each other in the corridor.  They were
both going to see the other person.
 "Admiral," Lochley was the first to speak.  "I take it you heard."  They
started walking towards the Admiral's office.
 "I just got the word in from Alliance Intel."  Barns replied.
 Lochley was furious.  How she was walking, how she sounded, everything
about her was a clear sign.  "I don't see how those sons of bitches could
have done this.  Those were civilians on that ship.  Hungry, sick civilians
and they just murdered them in cold blood.  Not to mention we had a week
left before Keilmar forces were supposed to be sent in."


gb
"May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk."
(Old Egyptian Blessing)
ICQ # 8694414
Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/boshears/




From: "Inquisitor Gary Boshears" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter 4
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 01:06:35 -0600

I've had this done for a while now.  So far my favority chapter of the
novel.

This contains some violence(space battles), mild adult language, and
spoilers for all seasons.  Mostly 4 and 5.

As usual all Babylon 5 characters, places and events are used solely for
entertainment purposes, no copyright infrengement is intened.  All original
characters, places and events are propert of the author and may be used by
other fan fic authors provided you ask first.

And here it is


Chapter Four


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 20, 2272
2150 EST


 "The evacuation is over a week behind schedule.  A lot of the ships that we
hired have bad and old parts in them which is slowing us down.  Not to
mention that we have to find all of the people.  Their situation makes that
tough."  Barns paced around the room barely allowing himself contact with
the President's image.
 "Have we heard anything from the C'Les?"  The President asked.
 Barns took a moment to thumb through some reports.  "Uh.......kind of.  All
they told us was to, essentially, watch our backs.  That's not what bothers
me though."  He looked at another report.  "What bothers me is that over
sixty percent of their fleet has been mobilized and placed along their
territory which borders the systems we're giving to the Keilmar."
 "You're understandably concerned," the President commented.  "We've never
seen that many of their ships mobilized in one area before.  However, that's
not the issue before us.  How can we get the evacuation accomplished in six
days?"
 "Sir, we're just going to have to hope the Keilmar give us a grace period.
We'll have our warships out of there by then and they shouldn't consider
unarmed civilian transports and a flight of fighter escorts a threat."
Barns finally sat down at his desk.
 "Let's hope to God you're right Admiral."  The transmission ended with
those words from the President.
 Barns let out a long breath and allowed his head to drop to his desk.  He
was exhausted.  Over the last three days he had managed to get maybe three
hours of sleep.  Overseeing this evacuation had gotten to be a long, tedious
process.
 As he started to fall asleep he heard footsteps coming into his office.
"Did I come at a bad time Admiral?"
 Barns slowly lifted his head up when he heard Captain McDouglass' voice.
 "Of course not Sarah."  He said.  "Just a little tired and worn out.  I
didn't think the Hades would be back at the station this soon."
 She sat down in one of the chair across the desk from him.  "We managed to
switch deployment assignments with the Cerberus.  We were scheduled to be
guarding a base near the evac zone and they were scheduled to be here.  The
Captain of the Cerberus has some family near the evac zone and he wanted to
be close to them now.  So my crew gets some R&R and I get to take you up on
that dinner invitation.  I'll bet you haven't taken time to have a good meal
in over a week."
 "You know me too well."  He said standing up.
 She stood up and they walked out of the room together.  "I'll meet you at
the Indoor Garden in an hour."  Barns said as they walked down the corridor.
"I need to grab a shower and take care of a few things."
 "All right."  She said.  "I'll see you in an hour then."  She turned down
another corridor and walked away.
 As Barns continued walking to his quarters he started thinking of the last
time he and Sarah had had a quiet meal.  It was the night before he went to
fight in the Minbari war.  They had dinner that night at a restaurant in New
York City.  Afterwards they went for a walk in Time Square.  It was almost
the perfect night, the closest thing to perfect that had ever happened in
his life.


Transport Ship Mondale
Earth Alliance Territory
Sector Being Given To Keilmar
2220 EST


 This particular ship was controlled from several points throughout the
ship.  A cockpit, 4 defensive gunnery stations, an engine control room and
several other monitoring stations.
 In the cockpit, the lone pilot, a fat slob of a man asleep at the controls,
sat drooling on himself.  He was awakened by the sound of a voice through
the comm system yelling his name.  "Schwabb, wake up we've got incoming!"
 He looked at the ford viewport in just enough time to see the energy blast
pierce it.  It took the Keilmar fighters less than a minute to destroy the
rest of the ship.  A ship carrying over twenty five thousand civilians.
 Less than a half an hour later, four White Stars supported by a Narn heavy
cruiser jumped into the system to find nothing but ruble and the charred
remains of bodies.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 20, 2272
2240 EST



 The times of peace and quiet she had, Captain Lochley made sure to enjoy.
It was nice, perhaps simply because of it's rarity, for her to be able to
lie down and read a good book.  She had already read this particular novel a
few times, but, she discovered that a good book never grows old.
 She was in the middle of a page, almost asleep, when her link chimed.  She
reluctantly picked it up off the table in front of her.  "Lochley go."  She
said into it.
 "Captain this is C&C, we just received a priority signal from Earth Force
HQ.  Patching it through to your quarters."
 Admiral McDouglass' image flashed on the viewer in her quarters.
  "Captain," she said.  "I have bad news."


 Lochley and Barns literally ran into each other in the corridor.  They were
both going to see the other person.
 "Admiral," Lochley was the first to speak.  "I take it you heard."  They
started walking towards the Admiral's office.
 "I just got the word in from Alliance Intel."  Barns replied.
 Lochley was furious.  How she was walking, how she sounded, everything
about her was a clear sign.  "I don't see how those sons of bitches could
have done this.  Those were civilians on that ship.  Hungry, sick civilians
and they just murdered them in cold blood.  Not to mention we had a week
left before Keilmar forces were supposed to be sent in."
 "Calm down Captain, we still don't know the reason behind the attack.
Could have been a miscommunication in the time frame, anything like that.  I
've already got the Keilmar Ambassador online in my office."
 Lochley suddenly stopped walking.  "Oh wake up Gary!  Those bastards
destroyed over fifty Earth ships and we let it slide, they hit the member
world shipping lines, and we let it slide, they attacked and nearly
destroyed a transport less than an hour away from this station and we let it
slide.  When are we going to stop tolerating what they are doing?"
 He gently pushed her to one side of the hall to allow others to pass.
"Look," he said softly.  "I don't like this any more than you do.  After I
speak with the Keilmar Ambassador, I'm contacting the President on Minbar.
After I talk to him I'm going into a closed meeting with Ambassadors from
all the member worlds to discuss this.  I have a feeling the President isn't
going to tolerate it anymore."
 Lochley let a smile creep onto her face.  "He's not the kind of man that
does tolerate things like this.  Would you please let me know what's
decided?"
 "Of course Captain.  Shouldn't be anymore than three or four hours."


3 Hours Later


 While she liked times of peace and quiet, she disliked times of waiting.
It was especially annoying when times of peace were times of waiting.
Captain Lochley just sat there in C&C, thinking, waiting for whatever may
come.  Even the sound of the station's perimeter sensors going off were
barely enough to draw her attention.
 "Captain we've got multiple jump points forming around the station."  One
of the crew reported.
 She checked several sensor displays.  Fifteen jump points had formed around
the station.  White Stars and military vessels from several of the member
worlds were jumping in.  This meant that the Alliance was now on active
military alert.
 "You were right Captain."  Admiral Barns had managed to sneak up behind
her.  "The Keilmar told us that they just got the time frame mixed up,
something in the translation they said.  The President didn't believe a word
of it.  We told the Keilmar that we understood and if they withdrew their
forces for the next six days we would get our people out.  Now, we're going
to continue evacuating but we're also going to move as many White Stars as
possible into those areas, setup a blockading force to keep them from taking
the territories."
 While Lochley agreed with these actions, she also found herself
apprehensive.  This could likely be the beginnings of a long bloody war.  "I
take it the member worlds are mobilizing forces along their borders also?"
 Barns replied with a nod.  "The Alliance Military Act has been implemented
and I've given the order for all member worlds to mobilize their militaries
and deploy defenses along their borders.  I'm going to need to use Babylon 5
as my command center.  I've taken the Liberty of ordering some overhaul work
done to the War Room."
 "That's fine."  Lochley said quickly.  "May I make a request though?"
 "Go ahead."
 "I'd like to join the White Stars.  I feel an obligation to Earth and you'
re going to need a seasoned commander out there."
 Barns was glad she asked him before he asked her to go out there.
"Granted.  Get some sleep, I'll have a squadron of White Stars take you to
the Valen's Hand she's our flagship in the area and the White Stars are the
fastest things we have."
 "Thank you."  She said.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 21, 2272
0630 EST


 The twenty White Star gunships snapped into formation outside of the
station.  Admiral Barns and Captain Taylor stood in Command & Control.
Captain Lochley's face appeared on one of the display screens.
 "Captain, the Valen's Hand has been notified that you're on your way.  I've
got you clear hyperspace lanes and priority jump clearance all the way
there."  Barns said.


 "All right."  Lochley replied.  "We're heading out."  Lochely turned her
chair to the Ranger next to her.  "Punch it!"  She ordered.  She heard the
ship's drive systems come online.  The jumpgate in front of them flashed to
life.


 "It's always a site I've loved."  Captain Taylor commented as the White
Stars jumped into hyperspace.
 Barns started to walk away from the window, Taylor followed him.  "It's
always been a site that frightened me, the site of ships headed off to war."
Barns spoke softly enough to where only Captain Taylor could hear him.  "I'
ve seen it too many times to not be able to recognize it."
 Barns turned back to look into space once again.  He stared for a moment.
In one week, hundreds of people would die out there.  "Have Tessa meet us in
the War Room in forty minutes."  He said walking out of the room.


 "The Vorlon apparently knew about the Keilmar.  When the President claimed
he saw Kosh, the system he told us about is what we now know to be the
Keilmar Homeworld.  We're pretty lucky we got those ships that were being
sent there recalled in time.  I've been digging through all the data files
we've correlated on the Vorlons, there are references to a great darkness
waking and eclipsing the universe."  Tessa was sitting at the conference
table summarizing the report in front of her.  She had compiled all
available data on the Keilmar.
 Admiral Barns walked behind her, staring at the report in his hand.  "So
basically what Kosh told the President?"
 Tessa flipped to another page.  "That's all we've got so far.  Apparently
the Vorlon language is still very difficult for us to translate, I have a
team of experts working on it now, hopefully we'll know more soon."
 Barns retook his seat.  "Good, anything else?"  He asked trying to avoid
reading the rather lengthy report as much as possible.
 Tessa quickly turned to another page.  She likely knew where every piece of
information in this report was down to the line number.  "From what we can
tell, Keilmar ships apparently use polaron based drive and weapon systems.
This makes them very difficult to pick up as what could be a ship appears to
be just random polaron fluctuations.  That's why we've picked up increased
polaron emissions in the areas Keilmar ships have been traveling.  The
problem is, polaron emissions usually aren't enough to cause concern."
 Barns glanced at the galactic map in the front of the room.  "Then we need
to make it a concern."  He said still looking at the map.  A simple display
of the known galaxy.  It all seemed so much easier at that scale.  It was
when it got to a smaller scale, the people that inhabited those stars that
things got more complicated.
 "Tessa," Barns said once again standing up, this time he walked towards the
map.  "If we look at this realistically, with what we're doing now, in four
days, viding a miracle, we're going to be at war with the Keilmar.  Based on
what we know now, can we handle it?"
 Barns, knowing how thorough Tessa always was, knew she had already put
considerable thought and analysis into that question.  He knew by her
hesitation that he would not like the answer any more than she did.
 "Admiral," she started.  "Based on what we know about Keilmar technology,
the status of Alliance forces, resources and territory on each side,
military deployment zones....." Barns cut her off.
 "Answer the question please."  He said not moving.
 "With all those factors in mind I wasn't able to determine with any degree
of accuracy who would win, but I do know that if we get into a full blown
shooting war with them, a lot of people will die."
 Barns took time to breath, so he would avoid stuttering.  He knew the
answer before he asked the question, hearing it from someone else just
seemed to solidify it.  "We know where the Keilmar force will start trying
to occupy those sectors, it was outlined in the treaty."
 "Not that they've given a damn about that so far."  Taylor abruptly
commented.
 Barns looked back at him for a moment and then continued.  "By the time
their ships arrive we'll have over seventy percent of the White Star Fleet
in that area.  Hopefully that we'll be enough of a show of force to make
them back down and consider a compromise.  It's about the best we can hope
for."
 Barns turned to face Tessa and Captain Taylor who were still seated at the
table.  "Thank you, dismissed."  He said.  They both walked out of the room.


Late That Day


 Two more White Stars passed by the window.  Admiral Barns was unsure wether
or not they were two he had already seen or two that had not passed by.  It
didn't really matter.  He came here to think not to count ships.  The site
of stars always helped him to think.
 He heard footsteps come up behind him.  He didn't have to look to know who
it was.  "Sorry about last night," he said.  "Things got a little hectic."
 Captain Sarah McDouglass stopped next to him.  "I can understand that.
Every ship in Earth Force received an Ultra-Violet transmission about what
happened.  I spoke to a friend of mine out there today.  He said that
everyone is on edge not knowing what's going to happened."
 "I know the feeling."  Barns said.  "I've had a dozen meetings with people
today about the Keilmar.  While I and the people I talk to seem to be all
business, I know we're all afraid."
 They stood there for a few minutes, staring out into the blackness of
space.  Neither of them knew what the other was thinking or if they were
simply enjoying the view and each other's company.
 "Sarah, I've got a couple hours before my next meeting, you want to have
that dinner now?"  Barns finally asked.
 She sighed.  He knew the answer right then.  "I'd like to, but, I'm having
dinner with a friend who just came in on the Sutherland.  I'll take a rain
check though," she said.
 "All right."  Barns nodded.  She left the room then.  Barns stood there a
while longer, thinking, not about the Keilmar or about defensive deployments
or about anything related to his job.  All he could think about was her.


 "We've got news," Captain Taylor said as Barns walked into the War Room.
 "Don't keep me waiting Captain," he said walking down the stairs.
 Taylor handed him a piece of paper.  Barns didn't bother to read over it as
he knew the Captain would tell him what it said.  "A couple White Stars
scouting the disputed area," Barns found his use of words there curious.
"Along the Keilmar Border have detected Keilmar fighters and attack ships
crossing the border.  Possibly advance scouts for their fleet."
 Barns took a look at the computer display showing an image of the area.
"They might attempt to move their forces in a day or two early.  We can't
allow that."  Barns said.  "We need something to slow them down if they
attempt to cross into our territory."
 "We could plant pulse mines in hyperspace.  Earth did it to the Minbari
during the war.  The hyperspace currents and energy fluctuations make them
hard to detect, they have targeting systems and thrusters so when they lock
onto a hostile ship they head for it."  Taylor suggested.
 Barns shook his head.  "If this turns into a shooting war, I don't want to
be the one who fires the first shots."
 "We could remove the warheads from them and increase their energy
signatures so their presence is easier to detect.  Simply having their
presence in hyperspace could be enough to discourage them from advancing
further."
 Barns nodded in approval.  "Do it, plant as many mines as you can as
quickly as you can.  What's our fleet status?"
 Taylor punched up a new display.  "Fifty-five White Star Destroyers and two
hundred eighty nine gunboats are standing by.  All carrying full complements
of fighters."
 "A lot of firepower," Barns quietly commented.
 "Indeed it is."


White Star Destroyer Valen's Hand
White Star Fleet--Disputed Area
January 26, 2272
1030 EST


 Captain Lochley sat quietly in the Captain's chair.  Today was the day.
Today would shape the of every day to come.  Like most important things,
Lochley had to wait for them to happen.
 The silence of the bridge was interrupted by an alarm sounding.  While the
report came quicker than it ever would have from an Earth Alliance officer,
it still seemed to long to get it.  "Captain we have multiple jump points
forming, Keilmar ships jumping into normal space."
 Her heart sped up.  "Red alert, charge weapons but don't target them and
keep gun ports closed."
 "Estimate over three hundred ninety ships."  The Ranger at the operation
station reported.  "Keilmar ships are launching fighters."  He said a moment
later.
 Lochley swiveled her chair to face the front of the bridge.  "Open a
channel to the Keilmar fleet."  She ordered.  In the few seconds it took for
her order to be done, she saw her entire life flash before her eyes.  Every
decision she had ever made wouldn't matter at all if she didn't do the right
thing in these next few minutes.
 "This is Captain Lochley, Commander of the White Star Fleet."  She
continued.  "Your attacks against the Alliance will no longer be tolerated.
You are advised to leave this area at once."  She saw that there was no
response and that the Keilmar ships were standing firm.  "Be advised, I am
authorized by the President of the Alliance to prevent you from taking these
systems at any cost.  Leave now and all of use can avoid a lot of trouble."
 There was no response.  The bridge was silent.  There were slight noises
from all the control stations but nothing that could break the uneasiness of
this situation.  Then, finally, something did, at least break the silence if
not uneasiness.
 An alarm sounded at the tactical station.  "Captain, Keilmar vessels have
opened gun ports, weapons charged and locked onto us!"
 "Ah hell!"  Lochley exclaimed.  "Return the favor target their ships, open
gun ports, launch Hel'Zhas.  Let's show them they can't intimidate us."
 In that moment hundreds of the Hel'Zha class heavy fighters, a kind of
White Star fighter, soared out of the docking bays of the White Star
Gunboats and Destroyers.  Some took point in front of the other ships and
the rest entered a tight formation with the other ships.
 "Captain, they've deployed their fighters and gunboats ahead of their
cruisers and destroyers.  They may be preparing for an attack."  The Ranger
at tactical said, his voice abundant with nervousness.
 Lochley wiped the sweat off her forehead.  Though she knew it hadn't, it
felt like the temperature on the bridge had risen thirty degrees in the last
few minutes.  She pressed a button activating the fleet wide comm system.
"All ships, tactical formation Alpha Gamma three four nine seven.  Prepare
to engage the enemy."
 Moments later a report came from the operations station.  "Captain, the
fleet reports that sensors are failing, some kind of interference.  Should
be filtered out shortly."
 "Go to visual scanning."  Lochley ordered.  This was all they needed.
Hundreds of ships on each side whose Captains all had their fingers on the
weapon systems and they were losing sensors.
 The viewing screen appeared in the front of the bridge displaying the parts
of the White Star fleet in front of them and all of the Keilmar fleet.
 Seconds, minutes, hours later, no one really cared, it reached a boiling
point.  On the screen Lochley saw a Hel'Zha explode, shortly followed by a
Keilmar fighter exploding.


 Keilmar fighter and gunboats rushed in carving their way through the Hel'
Zhas.  The Keilmar and Hel'Zha fighters matched the maneuvers of each other.
The Hel'Zhas dug into their targets with pulse fusion weapons and powerful
neutron missiles.  While the anti-polaron bolter equipped Keilmar fighters
made short work of the bio-organic armor on the Hel'Zhas.
 The White Star gunboats joined the battle firing their pulse weapons at the
Keilmar gunboats.  They managed to inflict heavy damage against their
targets who in return fired sustained anti-polaron beams back at the White
Stars.  Two Keilmar gunboats would get in firing position on a White Star
and fire a sustained beam, causing it to burst into parts.
 Defensive guns from the destroyers blared as the smaller ships tried to
keep the smaller enemy ships away.


 "Minor damage to deck twelve."  The Ranger at tactical on the Valen's Hand
said as the ship shook slightly.
 "Sensors back online."
 "Keilmar capital ships moving to engage."
 The two reports came almost at the same time.  Lochley steadied herself in
the Captain's chair.  "Let's show them what they're up against."  She
studied the tactical display in front of her.  "Destroyer groups Delta and
Omega, ready main weapons target Keilmar capital ships approaching.
Continuous, short bursts from all heavy weapon systems."  She watched the
enemy ships draw a little closer.  "Fire at will."  She ordered.


 Heavy neutron cannon and Vorlon main beam fire lit up space as it lashed
out from twenty two White Star Destroyers towards the Keilmar capital ships
approaching.  It struck the ships in a brilliant display of explosions.
Though visible damage was inflicted, the ships continued their advance.


 "White Star tactical wings one, six, twelve and eighteen, break off and
move ahead to engage those ships.  Destroyer group Theta, come around and
provide fire support for the tactical and fighter wings in grid 95-D."
Lochley ordered still studying the tactical display in front of her.


 The White Star gunboats broke away from the fierce fire fight they were in
and headed for the Keilmar fleet, firing all of their weapons, including
their main beams and trying to stay clear of heavy weapon fire coming from
the destroyers behind them.
 As they moved in closer, thousands of small green pulses lashed out from
the Keilmar cap ships.  Hundreds would impact each White Star tearing them
to shreds.  As they shredded the White Star Gunboats with their defensive
weapons, they opened fire with their anti-polaron beams on the White Star
Destroyers.
 The Vorlon shielding on the Destroyers absorbed several volleys but some
got through punching large holes in the bio-organic hulls.  The Destroyers
fought back valiantly.


 The bridge of the Valen's Hand was engulfed in smoke.  Captain Lochley
pulled herself off the floor and back into the Captain's chair coughing.
"Status!"  She screamed to anybody that could hear her.
 "Our forces have suffered twelve percent total casualties.  Keilmar forces
have taken two percent total casualties."
 Two percent?  That was it?  Granted they were facing a numerical superior
force, but, only two percent?  "Reroute secondary power to the shields.  All
other available power to the Vorlon main beam.  Target the enemy command
ship, standby to fire."  Lochley watched the battle rage for a few seconds
while the crew carried out her orders.  "Fire at will!"


 The main beam from the Valen's Hand lashed at the Keilmar battleship.  It
made contact and did not cease.  The hull of the enemy ship glowed white
from the heat.  The sustained beam fractured the hull of the enemy ship
causing multiple explosions and the eventual destruction of the ship which
exploded in a brilliant fire ball.


 A cheer went up on the bridge of the Valen's Hand.  Almost consecutively
when they destroyed the battleship the other destroyers launched a barrage
of neutron missiles towards the enemy fleet destroying at least a dozen
other capital ships.
 Lochley did not allow herself to feel even a partial second's worth of
happiness.  "Tactical and fighter wings, keep pressing their fighters and
gunboats.  Destroyer wings, let loose with everything you have on their
capital ships."
 The White Star gunboats targeted the Keilmar fighters destroying many of
them with pulses from their weapon systems, while the Hel'Zhas targeted the
gunboats.  They were able to out maneuver the large ships and scored several
kills.  The destroyers fired constant barrages from their heavy weapon
systems and missile launchers towards the enemy ships.
 The battle raged on.  Casualties on both sides continued to mount.  White
Star gunboats and Hel'Zha fighters, "skin-danced" across the destroyers
chasing down the Keilmar ships.  After the fighting continued for another
twenty to thirty minutes, the Keilmar ships began pulling back.
 "Captain, they're pulling back."  There was brief moment of silence on the
bridge before another alarm sounded.  "Captain we have multiple incoming
from the Keilmar ships, appear to be some kind of anti-matter torpedoes
wrapped up in an energy field!"
 "Evasive maneuvers!  Evasive maneuvers!"  She screamed.


 It took only a matter of seconds for the torpedoes to reach the White Star
Destroyers.  It seemed to completely ignore their shields and impacted
against the hulls of the mighty vessels, destroying them in an instant.  At
the same time, the other Keilmar ships resumed their attacks.
 The Alliance ships were overwhelmed.  The defensive guns on the Keilmar
capital ships kept the White Stars from getting too close and with the
Destroyers taking as much damage as they were from the torpedoes, they were
unable to give much fire support to the smaller vessels.


 On the bridge of the Valen's Hand, Lochley refused to surrender.  "Tactical
Wing Eight, pull in and give Destroyer Wing Three some more cover."  She
struggled to get the words out having to breath all the smoke in the air.
 "Total Keilmar casualties at eighteen percent, our casualties are at forty
six percent and climbing rapidly."
 Lochley watched the battle unfolding, or rather deteriorating on the
screen.  She knew if they stayed here all of them would die.  "Lochley to
all ships, disengage from combat, recover all fighters, jump out of the
system."
 The complete withdrawal of the White Star fleet took less than ten minutes.
They set a course for an Alliance starbase.  Over one hundred ships, not
including fighters, were lost.


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 26, 2272
Less Than 1 Hour Later


 "How do you expect us to be able to stand against them when your ships
couldn't Admiral?"  With those words from the Drazi Ambassador, the council
chamber erupted into anarchy.  The noise level jumped a good forty decibels
in a few seconds.  The Drazi Ambassador issued for everyone to be silent.
"This is the Alliance's war, not ours, Alliance fight Alliance war, we not
fight Alliance war."
 Barns stood from his chair at the council table and walked over to where
the Drazi Ambassador stood.  He pulled a piece of paper out of a folder.
"Do you recognize this Ambassador?"  He said allowing him to examine it.
"It's where you first signed on to be A PART OF the Alliance.  Where you all
first signed on."
 Barns held up another folder.  "This is the Alliance Military Act, ratified
by a unanimous,  full council vote!  The President has ordered the Alliance
Military Act enacted which means that I now command your militaries and you
are going to fight in this war because you are a part of the Alliance and
the Keilmar threaten all of us.
 "Now when they hit the White Star Fleet we were badly out numbered, but, we
can beat them."
 "And how to you plan to prove this to us Admiral?"  The Ambassador asked
sounding more than skeptical.
 Barns glanced towards Captain Taylor who was still seated at the council
table.  Taylor did nothing but simply nod towards him.
 "At the moment," Barns began activated a holo display in the center of the
room.  It displayed a map of the disputed area.  "A fleet comprised of Narn,
Brakiri and," he emphasized this towards the Ambassador, "Drazi vessels
along with reserve elements of the White Star Fleet is closing on this
system."  The map zoomed in on the system he pointed to.  "This is where the
attack on our forces originated and we plan to destroy it.
 "In the meantime, I want all of your militaries fully mobilized and to
begin border defense missions immediately."  Barns and his staff walked out
of the council chamber before any of the Ambassadors could respond.


Staging Area For Keilmar Attack
War Zone Alpha
January 26, 2272
3 Hours Later


 The Drazi Sunhawks took point along with the Narn heavy fighters and White
Star Gunboats.  The heavier Drazi Warbirds and Brakiri Avoiki heavy cruisers
followed.  The second the Alliance fleet of over four hundred ships entered
the system, the Keilmar defense fleet moved to intercept.
 Pulse and beam weapons along with missiles from the Alliance fleet flew
towards their enemies striking them.  Many ships were hit, some destroyed,
but, the Keilmar continued to advance, and opened fire.


Chapter 5 Preview:

Barns finally pulled himself together.  "Go to red alert, activate defense
grid, launch fighters and call in all the Alliance ships in the area."
Barns was headed out of C&C after those words.
 "Sir what's going on?"  Jeffries turned to face the Admiral as he was
walking out.
 Barns slowed down.  "If I'm wrong, and it has yet to happen, then nothing."
He commented.  "If I'm right then a Keilmar assault fleet is on the way here
and we've got less than a half an hour before they arrive."



gb
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(Old Egyptian Blessing)
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Visit all of these.
My Home Page--Go To The Links Page For More
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From: "Inquisitor Gary Boshears" <inquisitor@281.com>
Subject: Darkness Wakes Chapter Five
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 22:52:37 -0600

[Insert stuff I put before the other chapters here]

Content Warnings:  Mild violence(space battles), adult language.



That darn space station just can't seem to stay out of trouble.






Chapter Five


Space Station Babylon 5
Orbit of Epsilon 3
January 28, 2272
0830 EST


 "Between the Keilmar attack on the White Star Fleet, the failed reprisal
attack against a Keilmar base and the Keilmar blitz-krieg offensive against
the Alliance, it is still not known how many ships and lives have been lost.
Reports from the fronts are still unclear but what is known is that the
White Star Fleet has taken devastating losses, a fleet comprised of Narn,
Drazi and Brakiri vessels sent on a reprisal attack mission against a
Keilmar fleet at one of their staging areas was completely annihilated.
Finally, the Keilmar have launched a massive offensive, destroying over
fifteen long range military defense bases on their border with the
Alliance."
 Barns muted the ISN program behind him.  He bent his head down holding it
in his hands.  He felt a tear hit his hand.  Close to eighty thousand people
had died in the last two days.  The Alliance and the Keilmar had now issued
official declarations of hostilities against each other.
 "Admiral Barns," a voice said through his link.  "You have an incoming
transmission from President Sheridan."
 Barns had been dreading this.  He took a minute to collect himself and
tapped the reply button on his link.  "Put it through in here."  He said.
 The President's face appeared on the monitor.  He looked tired, stress,
nervous, scared, yet spoke with a tone of absolute calamity.  "What's our
situation Admiral?"  He asked.  His words seemed slurred, a likely result of
fatigue.
 Barns sat down on his desk.  "We're still not sure sir."  He answered.
After scanning through some pieces of paper on his desk, he continued.  "We
still don't know how many White Stars we lost, but, at best forty-eight
percent of the fleet has been destroyed."
 Sheridan cut the Admiral off before he could continue.  "And at worst?"  He
asked.  He knew Barns would not want to give the answer but it didn't matter
now.
 "Our worst estimates say that we could have lost sixty-nine percent of the
fleet."  Barns did not allow the President to interrupt.  "I've already had
all ship yards producing the White Stars go to war time production status.
We can be expecting new ships within three weeks."
 "What about the member worlds?"  Was Sheridan's next question.
 "The Keilmar offensive in the last two days has been directed strongly
towards the Alliance member worlds.  Heaviest attacks have been against the
Drazi, then the Brakiri, then the Narns.  It filters down after that.  The
Minbari and Earth haven't taken much damage to their forces, aside from
Earth's lost of the Seventh Fleet, so I've ordered them to try and draw some
Keilmar fire away from the others.  So far in the last two days the Keilmar
have destroyed twenty-one military defense bases on their borders with
Alliance worlds, along with the small groups of ships defending those bases.
 "One thing we may have going for us is the fact that the member worlds
haven't gotten their forces fully deployed yet.  This explains why the
Keilmar invasion fleet was able to sweep through those bases so quickly.
Once they get their heavier ships and support vessels out there and we can
get the White Stars re-deployed, we should be able to effectively hold a
line against them.  I also plan on strengthening defenses at key worlds such
as Earth and Minbar once we have enough available forces to allow that."
Barns finally concluded.
 "Good, what's the defensive situation on the station?"  Sheridan seemed
full of questions today.
 "When we first encountered the Keilmar, I took the liberty of ordering some
supplements added to the station's defense grid at the risk they might
become trouble.  In addition to the stations normal loadout of interceptors,
quad pulse cannons, energy mine launchers, gattling pulse cannons and the
heavy plasma cannon, we now have several dozen dual pulse fusion cannon
emplacements.  Not to mentions the stations full compliment of fighters and
the small fleet parked outside which includes the Red Star."  The Red Star
was an upgraded White Star gunboat.  Boasting more firepower, an enhanced
defensive and sensor package as well as upgraded fleet command systems.
Built to be used by an Alliance fleet commander when a destroyer was not
available or too inconvenient.
 "All right."  Sheridan said nodding in approval.  I guess you have a lot of
things to do so I will let you take care of them."  Sheridan said, almost
seeming upset that the conversation was over.
 When the President's face disappeared, Barns realized he truly was upset it
was over.  He much preferred talking to the President than going over the
hundreds of reports which were piling up on his desk.
 "Jeffries to Admiral Barns," Lieutenant Jeffries said through the comm
system.  "Sir could you please come up here, we're getting some weird
readings."
 Despite it sounding bad, Barns was quite relieved to be able to leave this
office for a while.


 Lieutenant Jeffries stared at the main sensor display.  His heart seemed to
skip a beat when he heard the door to C&C slide open.
 "What's going on?"  Barns said, walking to the main console.
 Jeffries pressed a control and called up a sensor reading display.  "Well,
I don't know if it's anything but," he pointed to an area on the display.
"We've started picking up strong polaron emissions near the station."  Barns
had a look of terror on his face.  "I think it's just random fluctuations in
hyperspace."
 Barns finally pulled himself together.  "Go to red alert, activate defense
grid, launch fighters and call in all the Alliance ships in the area."
Barns was headed out of C&C after those words.
 "Sir what's going on?"  Jeffries turned to face the Admiral as he was
walking out.
 Barns slowed down.  "If I'm wrong, and it has yet to happen, then nothing."
He commented.  "If I'm right then a Keilmar assault fleet is on the way here
and we've got less than a half an hour before they arrive."
 Jeffries was stunned.  If the Admiral was right, this would be the first
time he'd ever been in combat.
 "Tell the Red Star that I'm coming aboard, have a shuttle standing by to
take me over."  Barns said finally leaving.
 Jeffries pressed a control activating the station-wide intercom.  "This is
Command and Control, we have an emergency situation.  Everyone please report
to designated emergency areas.  Fighter bays, scramble all squadrons.
Security, stand by to repel borders."


 The shuttle docked smoothly with the Red Star.  It did not take Barns long
to reach the bridge.  The Ranger crew seemed perfectly calm, a definite
improvement over the Admiral.  They all attended to their various duties
perfectly silent and calm.
 "Status!"  The Admiral ordered.  He could hear the fear and hesitation in
his own voice.  It did not seem to effect the crew.
 "All systems operational sir, weapons and defenses online."  The Ranger to
Barns' left reported.  "Defensive fleet reports fully ready.  Five Minbari
cruisers, six Tinashi frigates, five Narn cruisers, 3 Omega class
destroyers, 1 Hades class cruiser, two squadrons of Drazi Sunhawks, seven
Brakiri cruisers, four Vree Battle Saucers, eighteen White Stars.  All ships
have launched fighters, station fighter wing launched, station weapon array
active."
 "Good," Barns said.  The Ranger had quite effectively covered everything.
"Open the jumpgate, have a series of hyperspace probes launched.  I want
them set to filter out polaron readings.  Then have them be prepared to
launch hyperspace mines."
 It took only seconds for the probes to be launched into hyperspace.
Roughly three minutes after that, readings came back.  "Sir," the Ranger
said.  "It's still hard to tell but it looks like a Keilmar fleet
approaching, about twelve minutes away.  Estimated composition, three
battleships, four heavy cruisers, six escort cruisers, nine destroyers,
twelve frigates, eleven squadrons of gunboats.  All capital ships appear to
be carrying fighters, looks like they've got eight additional squadrons of
fighters."
 Barns leaned back in his chair.  "Open jumpgate, launch hyperspace mines."
The plan was fairly simple, launching mines into hyperspace to attempt to
slow down the enemy ships and destroy as many as possible.  This could give
the Alliance fleet a fighting chance.
 The jump points ripped through space with shimmering power.  Dozens of
mines flew into them.  Once into hyperspace they would quickly disperse to
form a wall where the Keilmar fleet would approach.  They would not be
visible to sensors due to their small size and energy emissions of
hyperspace.
 "Mines in position.  Keilmar fleet eight minutes and closing."  The Ranger
reported.
 The bridge was quiet for the next few minutes.  Barns stared at the fleet
assembled on the ship's holo viewer.  It was a nearly even numbered fight,
with the exception of gunboats and fighters.  The Keilmar had shown the
ability to destroy advanced warships.
 "Keilmar fleet is encountering the mines sir."  There was a pause.  "Their
fighters and gunboats are blasting through the field, minimal enemy losses."
The Ranger continued speaking, there was an atmosphere of fear on the
bridge.  "Three jump points forming, enemy fleet coming out of hyperspace."


 The three massive forms of the Keilmar battleships exited hyperspace
slowly, flanked by the smaller capital ships and fighters.  They entered
formation, their fighters and gunboats taking points in front of the capital
ships.


 "All Alliance ships go to secure comm channel
Alpha-Echo-Sierra-Six-Four-Nine."  Barns allotted a small amount of time for
the ship's to carry out the order.  "Open a holo-comm channel to the Keilmar
fleet."
 "Aye sir, prepare for scan."
 Barns stood and took a few steps forward to the front of the bridge.  A dim
orange light passed over him twice.  The first officer Ranger gave the
Admiral a nod.
 "Attention Keilmar fleet," the Admiral began.  "This is Admiral Jerry
Barns, you are threatening an Alliance installation, you are ordered to
withdraw.  I am prepared to use deadly force to defend this station."
 The Keilmar fleet did not move and did not respond.
 Barns pressed a control on the arm of his chair.  "Fighters take points,
Babylon 5 wing stay behind in fleet defense.  All other fighters punch
through theirs, move in, hit their cap ships as hard and as quick as you
can, then run like hell and draw as much defensive fire as possible.
Sunhawks and White Stars, you'll follow us in, once the fighters draw the
defensive fire, we'll follow up with as much firepower as possible, try and
knock out their big guns.  Vree saucers and Minbari frigates, stick in close
formation with the station, hit any of their fighters or gunboats that try
and attack.  Cruisers and destroyers, provide fire support for all ships,
Hades hang back behind the other cruisers and fire missiles."  He hoped that
attempt to keep Sarah out of danger wouldn't be caught.
 "All ships confirm Admiral."  The Ranger reported nearly immediately.
 An alarm sounded at a nearby station.  "Sir Keilmar three squadrons of
Keilmar fighters are breaking off on an attack vector for the station."


 The Keilmar fighters headed in at high speed towards the station.  The
station interceptor and anti-fighter grid instantly opened fire shredding
several of them in a matter of seconds.  The fighter returned fire,
targeting the stations weapon systems.  Several weapon emitters were
destroyed in the first volley.
 Concentrated fire from the station's weapons and the Minbari frigates
destroyed the other fighters.  As soon as they were gone, more squadrons
broke off from the fleet heading for the station.


 "All ships this is Admiral Barns, initiate attack, fire at will, fire at
will."


 The Alliance fighter, led by large amounts of Minbari fighters charged
towards the enemy fleet, weapons firing.  They paid no attention to the
enemy fighter screen and quickly opened fire on the enemy capital ships.
While their weapons caused little damage, it did cause the enemy defense
guns to open fire on them, destroying multiple ships as they tried to move
away.
 As the Keilmar defense guns were concentrating on the fighters, White Stars
and Drazi Sunhawks moved in quickly on the enemy capital ships.  Combined
fire from these ships managed to strip away many of the weapons targeting
the fighter wings.


 "Admiral, enemy fighter squadrons coming from behind, locking on!"
 "White Stars Thirty-Eight, Seventy-One and Eighty-Five, break off and
target those fighters."  Barns attempted to remain calm.


 The White Stars immediately above and to the sides of the Red Star swiftly
executed a one hundred eighty degree turn and sped towards the enemy
fighters.  Their pulse weapons cutting into the enemy ships.  They flew
through the fighter blasting everything that came into their sites.
 The other White Stars and Sunhawks maneuvered through the defensive fire of
the Keilmar capital ships.  They managed to get occasional shots off with
their weapon systems, causing light damage to the enemy capital ships.
 The larger Alliance capital ships opened fire with their heavy weapons on
the enemy ships.  They could not fire often as they did not want to hit
their own ships near the enemy.  Some hits on the Keilmar ships punctured
the hulls but could not make them stop firing.


 Lieutenant Jeffries grabbed onto the main console in C&C to brace himself
as the station rocked from another hit.  "Reset interceptor to short range
fire.  Reset pulse grid to long range fire, try and get their fighters
before they get close enough to be a threat.  Bring the plasma cannon and
energy mine launchers to bear on the enemy fleet."
 His orders were carried out with substantial efficiency.  Bursts from the
heavy plasma cannon melted the armor of one cruiser away allowing it to
puncture the hull.  Energy mines disrupted the large formations of gunboats
and fighters.


 The White Star which had taken the wing of the Red Star was destroyed by a
sustained burst from two Keilmar gunboats.  The Red Star herself took
several hits which were absorbed by it's Vorlon shield grid.  Pulses lashed
out from her two aft fusion cannons causing one of the gunboats engines,
supported by a wing, to break off.  The gunboat spiraled out of control
hitting the bridge of one of the Keilmar battleships.


 Admiral Barns stood and walked close to the holo display which was now
focused on the battleship that the gunboat crashed into.  It's engines and
other external lights flickered from bright to very dim.  It's defensive and
main guns had stopped firing.  Fighters and gunboats were taking positions
around it to act as defenses.
 "There's our chance!"  Barns declared sitting back down.  "All available
gunships and fighters, follow us in.  Destroyers Phoenix and Acheron,
concentrate heavy pulse cannon fire on those fighter protecting that
battleship.  All other ships, clear a hole, we're coming through."


 Four White Stars and six Sunhawks formed up on the Red Star.  They
maneuvered and blasted through the line of enemy ships forming around their
damaged battleship.  Minbari fighters moved in and out of formation with
them, adding firepower to the small group of ships.
 The Earth Alliance, Omega destroyers Phoenix and Acheron fired multiple
rapid volleys from their pulse cannons, shredding Keilmar fighters which
were holding a defensive position around the battleship.
 The White Stars and Sunhawks closed their formation, with Minbari fighters
on the outer edges of it.  The battleship came into view.  All space around
it was engulfed in small fireballs.  As the ships closed on the battleship,
the Red Star opened fire.  The other ships took it's lead and fired.  Pulse
and beam weapons carved into the scarred hull of the battleship.  The
weapons left visible marks of holes in the hull, the edges of the holes
surrounded by fire.  The concentrated fire soon proved too much for the
large craft, it exploded in a massive ball of fire.  The Alliance ships flew
straight through the fire, only causing singe marks on the outer hulls of
the ships.


 "Sir, enemy gunboats are heading for our support ships."  The Ranger XO
said, referring to the Earth destroyers and Minbari cruisers.
 Barns studied the tactical situation displayed in front of him.  "We can't
have any ships break off from the engagement to help.  Tell them to use the
station's defensive fire to their advantage, and tell them good luck."
Barns gave these orders with great hesitation.  Sarah was back there.  They
would have to blast through one line of capital ships to get her, but, she
was still back there.


 The Keilmar gunboats sped toward the line of Alliance capital ships.  Pulse
cannon fire from the three Earth destroyers tore many of them apart on their
approach.  This did not deter them however.  They waited until they were in
close range to open fire with their one beam weapon.  The white/purple beam
dug into the hulls of the capital ships.  Each blast caused a large
explosion leaving behind considerable visible damage.
 Particle beams from the Earth ships and fusion cannons from the Minbari
cruiser lashed out at the attacking vessels.  Their maneuverability however
proved to be too much for the defense guns of the capital ships.
 Thunderbolt, Starfury and Vampire fighters that comprised the Babylon 5 air
wing chased after the ships.  While they managed to hit the Keilmar
gunboats, they also proved to be targets for the numerically superior enemy
force.
 As the Keilmar gunboats fired their main beam weapons, they also fired
anti-matter torpedoes at the Alliance ships.  These were smaller than those
that were on their battleships or cruisers but they still caused
considerable damage.


 Lieutenant Jeffries' gaze was fixed on the image on the dying Alliance
capital ships.  "We can't let them die."  He said, apparently mustering
strength from within.  "Re-direct particle beam and interceptor fire to
assist the capital ships.  Let's try and make ourselves more of a threat.


 Massive amounts of small pulses flew towards the squadrons of gunboats
attacking the Alliance capital ships.  They impacted at the force of at
least fifty pulses to a ship, literally shredding them into pieces.  This
did not cause them to break off, but, it did cause the Keilmar to choose
another way to deal with the station.


 "Enemy ships have launched six heavy torpedoes at the station!"  The Ranger
reported as soon as he saw the readings appear on his display.
 "What ships can intercept?!?"  Barns quickly asked.
 "We're the only one in range sir, but, we'd have to hurry to make it."
 Barns stood up and walked to the station on his right.  He signaled the
Minbari Ranger at that station that he was relieved.  "We'll do it then,
transferring helm control to my station."  He said pressing multiple
controls, thankful he was well oriented on the White Stars.


 The Red Star disengaged from the battle with as much speed as possible.
The torpedoes were closing on the station and were nearly out of the ship's
weapon range.  Blasts from the pulse fusion cannons destroyed half of them.
A sustained burst from the neutron cannon destroyed two more.  One managed
to elude all of the ship's weapons and was now out of range.
 As Barns saw it draw closer, sure it would impact, it was destroyed by
three missiles launched from the Hades.  Perhaps keeping Sarah back would
have other advantages after all.


 "Sir we've got a breaching pod headed for the station."
 "Put them on alert, tell them to have troops standing by."  Barns
considered the options for a moment.  He gave control of the station back to
the Minbari Ranger and now sat back in the Captain's chair.  "Set a course
for our capital ships, let's see if we can give them a hand."


 They had traced where the Keilmar breaching pod was coming in.  A large
group of security personnel, dressed in black armor, helmets and carrying
PPG rifles were setting up a firing line.  This area was in brown sector,
meaning there was a lot of junk that could be used as shields.  They pushed
these items over forming walls for them get behind.  The Keilmar troops
would have to move less than one hundred yards to reach this location.
 The report came in that the Keilmar pod had attached to the hull and that
troops were poring onto the station from it.  The Babylon 5 troops readied
their weapons.  They allowed themselves brief time to think of their
friends, family, companions, people they may never see again.
 Less than a minute after the enemy troops began boarding the station there
was an explosion in front of the barricade station troops had established.
Soon after, the sound of Keilmar pulse rifles blasted through the air.
 "Fire at will!"  The order came.  The troops holding the barricade opened
fire.  Hundreds of shots flew forward striking the armored Keilmar warriors.
It took more than a dozen shots to kill a single soldier due to their
massive and solid armor.
 The Keilmar troops did not seem to be in a hurry.  They walked in an almost
slow matter.  They fired their massive pulse rifles when they had the
opportunity to kill an enemy troop or to cause damage to the hastily made
barricade.
 Many troops on both sides continued to fall and the battle was far from
over.


 Another Keilmar gunboat exploded as a result of a sustained bursts the Red
Star's weapon systems.  Three gunboats came up behind the ship and fired.
Two of the beams hit the shields, but, one penetrated and hit the hull.
 The Minbari Ranger on Barns' right was killed by an explosion.  The Admiral
signaled for the Human Ranger on his left to man that station.  Barns
subsequently manned the station to his left, taking control of helm and
weapons.
 Barns used the cover laid down by the damaged capital ships to maneuver
through the squadrons of Keilmar gunboats and fire on them.  He laid down
volley after volley of pulse and beam fire.


 As the Red Star valiantly struggled to keep the Alliance capital ships
alive, it was not such a hard battle for the Keilmar ships.  While some of
their smaller capital ships had been destroyed their larger ships had
destroyed most of the attacking Alliance ships.  Only a handful of White
Stars, Sunhawks and fighters remained.
 On the other end, Keilmar gunboats had destroyed four Minbari cruisers,
three frigates, all but one Brakiri cruiser and two Vree saucers.


 "Station structural integrity at forty percent, Keilmar troops have overran
three barricades set up by station troops and they're still advancing.
Computer estimates that we'll only be able to hold off the enemy fleet for
another twenty-two minutes since......."  Barns cut the Ranger off.
 "I've got about all the information I need."  He was concentrating on
trying to see the holo viewer and the viewport through the smoke, he did not
want to look down to see what the sensor alert flashing on his console was.


 "We have target lock, Victory and the escort wing report they also have a
clean lock."  The tactical officer of the Valen's Hand reported.
 Captain Lochley steadied herself in the command chair.  "Full power to
Level 1 weapons, fire at will."


 The two White Star destroyers and the small group of gunboats opened fire
with fusion and neutron cannons on one of the Keilmar battleships.  The
sustained beam fire punched large holes in the hull.  The pulse fire
destroyed multiple weapons and other systems positioned on the external
structure.  Soon the ships exploded and the newly arrived Alliance ships
entered combat with the other Keilmar vessels.


 Admiral Barns watched this in amazement.  He quickly opened a channel to
the Valen's Hand and the Victory.  "Captain Lochley, MacDonald, man are you
two a site for sore eyes."
 The image of a tactical battle display on the holo viewer was replaced with
that of Captain Lochley's face.  The stress and fatigue of the last few days
had apparently taken their toll on this beautiful woman.  "Admiral, we'll
see if we can't even up the score a little bit, pull your ships away from
the enemy fleet."
 Barns did not want to question what she had requested, as he knew her plan.


 As the Alliance ships pulled back, the Valen's Hand and the Victory charged
their Vorlon main beams.  When the Alliance ships were out of danger they
unleashed the massive amount of firepower contained in them.  They raked the
beams across the enemy fleet causing the already damaged Keilmar ships to
begin to break apart.
 After the destroyers ceased fire, the remaining Alliance ships charged
forward to exploit the damage done to the enemy ships.  White Star gunboats
struck hard and fast opening up holes in the already damaged ship that would
make it easy for the Alliance ships that followed behind to destroy them.
Soon the remaining Keilmar ships retreated.


 Barns stood and gazed at the devastation through the viewport.  Charred
remains of Alliance and Keilmar ships.  He brought the Red Star around to
face Babylon 5.  The station had visible weapon impact marks on it's hull.
They received a report that there was still fighting going on with Keilmar
troops.  Earth Alliance and Minbari troops were being shuttled over to
assist.
 Overall, it was a victory, but, what did it show.  That the Keilmar had
better technology than most ships in the Alliance with the exception of the
White Star Destroyer.  That they had already penetrated Alliance territory
far enough to be able to launch an attack on the station, and, that many
more would die before this was over.


90 Minutes Later


 "The Victory wasn't with the fleet when the Keilmar attacked.  We picked up
what we believed to be a Keilmar fleet heading for the station.  Our
communications were being jammed so we informed Captain Lochley and speeded
back here as fast as possible."  Captain MacDonald took another sip of tea
after he finished the unofficial report to Admiral Barns.  The two had known
each other for a while.  They graduated from the same class at Earth Force
Academy.  Afterwards they lost contact for a while until Barns asked
MacDonald to come aboard the Dark Thunder as his first officer.  When Barns
was appointed to Alliance Military Command, he offered MacDonald command of
a new White Star destroyer.
 "Glad you two got here when you did, we couldn't have taken much more."
Barn's commented.  He allowed himself to lean back in his chair.  The office
on Babylon 5 was starting to grow on him.
 Lochley spoke next.  "Jeffries has told me that station's hull integrity is
at thirty three percent, being brought up as fast as possible.  Most of the
weapons grid is off-line, we lost over half of our security force battling
the Keilmar troops."
 Barns slightly grinned, it was no laughing matter what he was about to say
but he knew Captain Lochley and was sure it would become such.  "Well
Captain, that's your problem now, I have a war to run."
 "I've been wanting to talk to you about something Admiral."  She said,
developing a look of anxiety.  He gestured for her to continue.  "I'd like
to stay on as the Valen's Hand CO.  Her normal Captain was killed during the
battle out there and....."  Barns signaled for her to stop.
 "She's taken a lot of damage, she'll be moored outside of the station for
three weeks to conduct repairs and then be added to the station's defense
fleet.  I know you want to be out there Captain.  I know the feeling, but, I
need you here for the time being.  I promise you though that you'll be out
there again."  Barns faced towards Captain MacDonald.  "Mac, I'm ordering
the Victory to War Zone Kappa where you'll join up with a couple ted.
 ce.
Alphaorce up y mi
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 "ull.  Theepisodid  When B
facewill."
mnyaKeilmor oAnypiec,
deveu waner. ched i theias thsix.tay on as the V War ZSf sec force o going on
Orom t a rpsing o3 oFebru, we2wa2272
1730 ESToyed by
three missilmoke, to be Taingave They raanger XOit his hade station
Zocolon their
station rockethe enebecome suicklters whecruise

 "Te Race stsin theuch. 
 Auour .as stascu
shipsll
sethe sired.
Twon the  walki"Shewill."ancerd towarn thStais and speging are hull, fired tche dsneuver
tips tooave to had appshave a
clean l Barns reald  Wht  The order caerfecthow.Star's wlew tothe Ns Phi
Contdald  Wht  e's taerfentrol
hsltip therebattleed mor borderich
werTfrom
ov was t ahe two Whitity h fighed nearly"If I'm rir, "Dr,ee if "Captainave to had  shipes of tnhull.  The pue concenons ofAf
 from.

ht  e's taerfee somty advanceddosll
see weeks tattleed moi some pis had
dpeed towardsd spereit thed this tt moved to inteu did, iehat he was about their eneestroyg jammed sond kill an enembousng to te Seventhwith unoffiphaorcCapt ships c"
 Badefend tactiebecome sain.  csaulting
the stam wwe lost over Taingavain.n drell
seto tm brige station Zocolod bursts t Babylon ries  graduated ain."  Barn telpace l capita been ou want tensiur awa look to hold  Taingavain.in front oelpacefenseawllias, eiatin front oelpacell shio hold  formatMcD stBarns ine ps in theMStaht w
 Admiral  l capiSut  elathe wHf securicw sat s fulllse and basunhawks formcre was stisferring Rangen, thio hold  ok down to irsts the Red
Star's was sureIf I'
 Hisullew
ng tched piecidoes at formatexplosionr back s for a momEdwere 
 Admiral age dor couHise."
vol been d  Bared Staamy saner. e had reAs tin tecademy.formahe dideused asser. ee barricexplot his hips tt detBarme wa, we shouse ranghe Dark es at capiSut  elaths realdole to tline,  ugh the squa. eoub, stick ie, to be Taingav alreathe hips low trme wwould becred
terfectho
 "I've becruiserslightly , to beats e untiwe lost ot's our
situat destrnt omtrooth shimmerinar trenntil Bahad now iss Three ari end ficDonnued tofips two Whifips roup of e it Put thaingavae bantil Bah ranTe Raaldole   shi from image. thay.  These w"  ."  Barns ly, csor
th tofiae
rming, neuver

 Theimar shiplook e
witere
was aning Allit his h e
wil Baon reaze wa up yr.  "ky grinned,yet he fihe ene smtatinplan was fairly si Overall, Te Raaoon thfectively covitity h fighe
approach back.   up as fere as fit wway from ve a serielp. le againstn hike
tle weapon impnnel, dver TaingavIf I'm rir, pennnons caued tineet clelpac.at exploded as aling, re couldTheyotems. t of a susoyed re
destroyed hargwilp that arly"If I' off.ixe bridge wdefinite
imm rir, couldTip's holo it anyooaveted a. tis taking poiing a leam weaosion.  The Admiral
siWhite le."  Cathe ntation.l.  Thepeed towards honcensse
utpport shiboats cwould becr'troyball  Vict back theri
cruuppng Kepos roup idoeuppngation. move with the o  "Jeer Keil, then nri cruisers, oyed,rrying, Alliance
imGades"ut the Admirm enemy of dangty, comp
ut!trated Allianc of aen h hoas OnlyTe Raaoay which was
and we've got less thanelpacezo fighter"Open a apped pior.  He loos like and iinally conos roup dual p had
d
Minbari Rangwiftlse fiow if itte last tasorbed by it's Voct back ths a
 Brs, six for rred ers anroops bly out of tNory.  pen aital ng yin, hit their ead and theret defutdaapitalTit theaptainas the Red
Star's exploit tce
on Bathero more. as s repoyed reit thehley ancing pow ho ngaged from the batother wayspeededltihonce get ociple 
face egrity i-bythem inute to collec"ar bgu firingtnd Whitgnaled ffleet foes iiringtn
 Baanceapons, tnow theps.  Tbase,  ugh t'a tear hce stroyg ound norward t
 Barc the wa Keilm"p of smbineds.


 which
, butesshreddingsd i traled fpen a, arm oe if small g particltheir eada everytt of a susStar's  theiolarhit en a g so, man arom ve aly out of rength fsrns agthem. 
all d
dpeed towards studtroyer  woman.  a minutittis t....llec"Sand hll."
 shiptnuticallyft fach the bridmirm the bridge  and iua. ce.  Tgava the ns askeen dexpl
face phrasfrom theke and iilec`utesmiral"p of ile until BTengthent fotched i ted to partlyft ouplefipsltinlilmar hafleet caar hll." One managielp. le aga heret's sedevotilmnyaasorth ds acrosrspace."
 Barns finaain.in front oappas fered Babylothose fighteree guned wiente Stare
dePut the Raaloke, to be Taingav  Eacain.in ed t  "Mac,  haveinliitals onepsltfairly s, Te Raaoon ac,  line, we lost od, that ess thanelpacefinaain.in ich tn LochleTnd
target hey get cle of the station for
se wikthey also hwo of the beamsntation, anvanced "ky"Jeffn. atn tzvds.  of a susugh space witndesk, he contthe a little bit,rhidup behsuicso h Sherid bridhreeied theed en B
endport ships.e Sty pullnoug
these it stationee what tings.  Thbecred
terfear Deanceats ehe Vayet,mty advanceerfeey, compemed pearounecruiseds acrarns agthem. 
w.Star's wexplosion.  Taingavgrimlyaller capitoup of sbattleshiheed en Bd knownethe shipcved too mualmar trtars, yher sCapta"Jeff offisfighters moighte Raaller capitoup Nole weapon imp,t was aeir tolytis takig
theerlds. tly ote Raa defelso fs.   and
w.  Onlyr planle. ed 'ive  h Starapons, ds honceofh Starjobs, ei hard and ers m
The sdmiral herid wever
srtars, yhed b ucc with thethe lastand ers m ched nothing."
H of the beamered fnethely out of cle of s
 The Whecisrder c
unleashednotho  of aanxipons, d,bly out of te of s a Keilmar d from the batotcing car Desshdmiral herid Minreet., we utesl"p of liancsmbine sat. all tty forn froly out of tway fromff-lin Minba
BTengstation.l
siWhiteich h
these it stati
 "Admira
you hlin y, MacDonXO thehsaidE in foon theaucers.
ger had quiat stll d
dSut  elathseimar st"ky"Je some ofthe escort wtleshiyou hlin y, MacDaling, reven't gotten ns csltould quats hadth theosion.  Taingale weapon impnt's shednotron c destroIsstal  sqps blcapitawould
hSut  elathsd this in amazt shiprefn. atn tzvds.  of a susugh space w,w.Star'siment of fighAlliance
capuppng ngsd,possibispers  Theyley's faemed tlinemazNounched is takilcapitarks troops almnyeashedion troH of tgthem. 
ned
e Admirm eting  dregg out themtes,etold metesmiral"posion.  Taingavlianc of amar gunboatshiese itA large
largeran tihe Red e Raaloke, to be Taingaves more , almostroIsert flashyeashedelse,  ugh t endsqua. sck hard f as raapitoup Noeasheduh f

9Te Raaoon a  I wantugh theght Presidenex.  " moy them.
Soon tough thehe knew Clan wamar g WhiteDorthleet did not move anat larger  h figbattle dge stathree   dreoo muctho
t, it egridftway frogradua Barns stalye fusion we can gything but,royed 
avail defcapitawong of t twore
destroye ngsdOne mt up by blastn of tway fromffth ds them, deswas fairly s"
Barns, you arron cegrity isy also hger  h figb impntde station
 but,royed .d metes while.  They gnlyr plano hold  formatMcD stBarnsarnshe winwhat Strspace."
 BmileStar vd knowntr.  Dozwhat savIfther .aThe twey, cand ipon from They walformating, reiuns had s andyou arrongnlyNouctiverd to by blysaner. unboadidnhawks close Barrmfighters.  up as fehyr thrlf twhy? aftywnethe s
hSut  elath? aftywnos rongstation? aftywnos ronanger c?t all the bempitoupHeve  hof tway fr by statey
woulhat efinaain.in ich tn Lochlad shved too mal shn's chareballil BTengSut  elaths reawever
srtar enememy.  Aft heridange.  Bstation.you heff with
fire ormcrewat he at a neal
siWff with
he esc the ng on was fths 
Whitl
sethiheed?t all the i  They woand orted asfths on hie Star des ched not morbhing."
H of the beamerhll."
 on agfiow if ched as replaced wgg oreit thehd.llec"Sansi hard an out ofr c
unleashednotho  of aMSta, we MSta, all tdded a
a woand MSta, ae."
  caerfes.   ahnhawkfrk Thus andnge mced weven usaidt.... p Nols ocn
 Ban out ofr
beuseverran
wever
srtar eneridftt tine
defentar eneith thewantugh tl"p of liancintsdoor  viewpo once the image Iies
perfectats c optionming, eyBarnelse,
Level woup of eing totl
seMStaageYou's fitlmar iite Stame was far f stataths o as fi. at same backiapons lele.   knowntrrtory Put ll tharns emed ich was ip we'vtff.  fers.
ger tatekil Bah r
on Bmy sIpitalcut the Ranglar gut all t
but he knew Cpace."
 yed G rifle larger ships haut,  it wn ag formal, it was aThus an dea
Bah r
ol nine dle. .nared at thSf sec force o going on
Orom t a rpsing o3 oFebru, we4wa2272
1230 ESToyed bysftyter wayet?xplosion.  ir we've  once thlmar troopsr cknming, Babylon ut polae Victe did tly oter eolem conng
thld  Whsby statian enem sh what thememarit thervenememy.  AfSut  lathormcrewmff-lin the
toup Nole weaponile untstn of tns.
tt repaHeand did not respon.  They rakr cka
BNon ts at capy mar tastand bfcapi.  Whgy emission sixn thel they als asshved 's f car Dessh for her herid  you'le This dipemed pyory Pu had s y pual s leWhitne dir we'vtoupll tt's our
situat destr"Sangy emissioneimar sgon thel theyth thethlble weapon it would sby statthenaolytip that "oy advancedn dreyer  out of  but,ri
y.
sides of thegg oaced wheriance
cappve conCt visiblwhyr weed
terfes.   and
wcrosrspac"Iflmar fleeerfe ucc eStaw the eattle dishiploo?xplosion.  ir we've mantrooptes
deg, and it IftheCpace."
 r persrger honcelarger Minbari Iflmar flustering
see guut onengsd,uld
ncDonald to ccons of
  of a suswas abouormcred tother systemsiptain Loc,"Jefunlelarhit dy dlywould becred dietion.
uncttw tot Seventhwite stal to tms th desis leer d of  bng iehated firingaled ft Seventh systing mat.ng on wair we'veThe and orted asIe maut all the i. all t.aTfes,l tthem.nd didens ofse
gun. all t it wwnge mcved toopping ,s caued y esorce on dre mantrdnothis ractsts t Babylo where t up by  defrged
tthe
toupmove anat rt fla almo weven leanman aroepaHealiancse the e.... p Tats the Alweveestroy"Full power ,wey, sebecomei MacDonm a hand."paniirk Thuuncith thll thmileStasime tws plllsrecil  Victtecad
nging far Destroy, but, wr wel befofairly sinenem  We pi r
on Be  h. t of a susdag inthent fshaveo tqu,  two sqispl
ahis as sta.narhem apscore a lie."
 BmileSefensea h. str"Sanf the ewhy the commed at sole toawongoncenleet ns had stopp's Voctmar trtae ba.lec"ar bestimatesater.  Therting fethithe
 shinchedut all the in-lin tothrougltinsoe mantrdnot r
og Allianmatteatched this in a in fronter. chetheire shim"Mac, ir we'vegout all the ifighteirds th Overall, anger continued speaoon ac,  ips.
 The veral  fighters or at thewer  ats
larhit aide of the station for
texplrhit staredlink of thewing multiavy plaront oeveryt oder. we lost over half of ain.in frod.  He all,mty ad  Eac it wwnge veraleffry dly addestr"Scramfentanth f
cy
on the ar bane neway!n the Alliaver lost o  Eacto pihat couger  h figed.


 Barns stood and tain was killed during the
battle out there and....."  Barns signaled for her to stop.
 "She's taken a lot of damage, she'll be moored outside of the station for
three weeks to conduct repairs and then be added to the station's defense
fleet.  I know you want to be out there Captain.  I know the feeling, but, I
need you here for the time being.  I promise you though that you'll be out
there again."  Barns faced towards Captain MacDonald.  "Mac, I'm ordering
the Victor "Vw trleanlifhe gunhips.     ,weyybehad teht Pd six or borderist he Sace wanger continued speon had  Acheronee saright wtaken their tollin the Alliafcapiast fewred B
facewifixa
around itced towards Cantrrtainave ng br kie outame evel 1 weplayed iBarns attemr gunboats ed.


R stal tKeilmarman aromlar g, lost over Taingav
approach baMroaLabange.  BsBabylo ting on
tryiDs hHobbd out tt dadeused ing
the Victor Shem.
lurityoves  fers.
ger hnons of"troy a I ks'm or feelce prettg ng deforder ps in theMSAdmiral Bmantrdnotbd is takir
srtraw.itmuch fo"miral,ting on
tounched by stail Bahed wthem.nd not hyut all td
nc respon.wheCpace."
 ver Taingavm to hit
 around
advancedgg oa ey walk's Hrs.
 around
there wasarns
 was sure bemmed sed to an arr troopDs hHobbd ght theaards Sonce theyr ps in theMSAdmiral,tey
woulger Minbomff-linmucptaio hold  forma
McD stBarntowards Capt launcheem


 which
alen's Han now
focused  ps in th'neescte dilting
thtr nine dnd no,ald  Whtops l ar. p Nolsno.while.  They gra"Sg bry, wr chers to.while.  T f stahitl
seithters which
werIWht  e'sofse
gunsell shirgy eseStar veimar stkiapons leh the bat volley nine dgot caupace."whirgonepsas fehattoopping air.  "Full ps in th?ightly grinned,e Victor osion.  TcD stBarnsghat follaO
saidd."  He wager/ihims
gun. a ps in thdrons of Keiting on
trying to save tc,  linternalm.

 for heguut oit thpleluld
yeeded
 saw this rsk, ole was watched this in amazWe eveckg air.  "F te pleit their eadment  of thewing, tred sc,
deveso becrede bats and wned
weeks t burstI ks  Energy mines disruhe KeilmuptalTit thho that e susugh sps.  Leefensegy eelink of theuga here As tcar to chnou groved to s faemed tlinemxplosion.  TcD stBarnsgriptain er Minbd..n't g.d metle fustering
st thple while.  They conng
thlngrily.d metesmiralightly ,ps in thehe in-ler e enemguuk themiwe lost otty puldage.tione othematter r vd knowing totl
sewly covitity, not ouire on them, de,m  Weion troH oKepos my.  Afme sorashyeashedelsetc,  tha mcvrkwerIWhlarge hex.  " moy thad stopp't his h wheCpa
 AnhHourilmar gunboat ereport thattexplosio grow on
face Baof shots flew, it hgh thehs ofensivedeadly foe becruplodedich wasrunn"  Barnnty-tim of thusexplosion.  Taingarns sicd sed tords Captaeat. is e shedno apsord l the i. a"Luter edg,ips.  Theypossible.fngatiocows
Star's wtarget ntdal gsed
 of secl.
rdem into   "F tance
caHbef to i. we lost ovf
 fromtim o she'lltroopTaingav
a Theyrricexplain.in ich tn imhe erc
dug enemas fehatt bngrewly covil.
rd? thad stopp.  jeassiveTit thhre agaO
saidde ba.be ableh tneich hI
 Th shipkhe
weargonoommen opeofh Stlightaingavller capitoupe."
 Barns fina respon.  They raked tineet nelpacstr"Saed cpy sin dreyehow.S ow trer to ow trball he a litB
beusevofhforma?ightaingav enee
saidr.  Dozover.

 As t  E the gh t enkill aws pllrinnipsll
sefollides of  to pch
wermove anat 
 The imret deain.in fwheC
Starlf tsinceshe destrced Ranglto had all,mle. ed 'ivdenutit the self in the Wff tecadDozdtroyeats cwittifttle forn was fths 
Whienemy stalk osion.  while.  They hem apeolem  tly oofh tihe Red aingavain.in froger  l andiendporIre mantrda T f sta by  deftry
 Ttht Pgarncommed 
sioi crwerIWht weeks t bup by stnteStar ves
perfety, comp wheCpa Noeashediral ioi cr the holo disp.narh e
wr
troops.  trrtainit his haozoverdo  Whe"Mikrr troopdothe Alblyswn syst
 from. tis takicDo she?e
gj mi
ammand ty, cn usaide Keirret deit'soeescth thewantugh tlnwhat Sttis takicDo sheasy for ce."
 ye.  He quickl when yo were absos ed.


Byo White Sts sure be
 fofromqu,  tws by station tr"Well
agedllaps.."  Battlr veim,hulls n.l. chs,
supported braw closrs.  up as fLgh the oow," tliafcapiasgraduated esis  shedno rge
eslage.ugh theghhard batd
theire shim"Mac,A oleheSefenshe
battle   Weiut siy wout. aftywvanceerfef thegi c ofollaOleanman aroeportbe
e? litBkly onol, it was aTnniply.d meof shitoo mualeveryr herid   fighters or atryi Sttnd
warget Dom
larhit BsBabylo McD stBarntightly e enemothreat.


 MThey gnlylost otty pulhich
amaged p
 Bs an de,ore this batd
tunid de. andrgeranhips hauP
seithers or y thad stoppeelucne sat. aduateow
focusedit the shields,owed hm vie.et did not McD stBarne gave ak off.
around itccrhe . all tain.in rs Phoe s ame claasng pod wasrse
for oung podl"p of liancr.  Doy pulhich
amagd cay ofolrse
Di selct lan up w oa eand...., we Ne Sththe Vmoved in and Whsby sved too mua Vic pearounec clos
lur......... Noting

 Bad  We
for our cage, sar odoatryi St, we uIes.   aion troH otroops on boee guut oit thplese
gcommed 
sltipl headeuld becoSut  elaths iunboatret's shedno Soademy.s ehe Vse
gunboatthplops toognaled for
fro, enemy gunbaged pir eingyw tot Seventhemy.  Aflr trut of clSut  elathet all tite for sorn destroct laned ftione a  I wantugh th
for our shyeashedelse,  ugh t e squa. runn"  B er Minbd.rs or  ofor Mis with tesl lot mar guns, f"p of smbineds., .  "Phoenervds.olo vimeattle disbshirg-thplops ttand ers m ls n.l., surzt reut thel bamore ,arfury des noved mar gunboathyeashedelsep of lianas fehy?he fihestatiag
thlod upaf
 from.

. thethe last ted.
  gunboatced wgg oe managielp. le agat he warberus launck of theem apdeclared sitind the sd to cIfthetexplosioers m isfightugh tsopeneard an oued wty, cd in blcdut all tain.in front ori
ytBarns
subsequepa tarlf tslf in the command m.
tes, formalr odoato. adulficiait to dtati
maseal Barnstarks onpis haIwing toatesateof einurinimpntduri`d  oks hwmal 
 "...si r
on Bers or aaced gy emissio,hgy emission sfry dip'sreaion trgarnyoveouplearah wporinsor
th tod
yee'm or 'for ce."
 ty forn fced wherid itccrhe  w oa sysg onrs.
geuns of  gav"Shewighe Dark d batdforward striaeof  ther trooActor lyoatesatemink deinurinimpadeuldfor cdid not McD stBarnthho t fewred Be imagell t it would sby  stu r
on ucll, taenervcstr"Hge, andeeady daaAlli to fa, uld shselcved too mue stat desor ce."
 t caused a lalto hawher vel 1ntercept?hso hger ave awherid itccrhe epa Yeahd figooplasma cannon ag
thcnterc.d metle  lastao Babylon mt up by blmpntarlf haIwBabylon mgy emissionanxiv"Shewigshe'llmeuns ofe'ard stria  TheageYoui r
on BBabylon mgy emissiony, wr iv"She gshe'lly, ,r
beusever'
wever
srtissiond bree sgg bry, sor ce."
 noporttc,  lint pod hensi hard anal  sqps blcapitawolosioers m?he fihedsqua. se damay
woul systed Stawherid g t we'll
see  gav"She.r cdid not McD stBarnthmileS. p Tomare shcDo sheth the fanks.while.  They grahem on aledisk off.
arwherid itccrhe  stheir advtoupHevnat rt flaeft, taking cont stahitl
seattle disformalr f stahitl
swige
a woall,mte
a woallmgy emissiograhemntar v f stahr cage, moveenemy stncko?erIWhsby statattle disr gunifles sby sved tr guniflemazNoissiond bnce wwanced "kyw thiftineet ,was ki"Shet
battlesht thSf sec force o going on
Orom t a rpsing o3 oFebru, we5wa2272
0800 ESToyed by
 Barns stood and g
troori
ytdoorpt laard analcrewmu want ers m ing broughtf the beamir we'vegy forn frots t Babylo d batosion.  TcD stBarnset de ps in theMSAdmiral unciward ac,Asd Capta washave any .
Two ofldier  launcd nouforn,mty adunci outin a hugg5.  The statioc,Asdsby statledeadlymy sughtkiciwared fooftly.d mir we'veTancedathe taot Sinf dar secuer.  TheyBabyloit thheaa  When t trrl, tatacross e  gred Betroopssheas
 "I've 'll joinr ale theauar. pAsdsby stahirgell
agblyss
 "I've Thus atar vBarrmeon.
centraty forn rting tce ce.  Te.... pC cause've Thuteowhawher geunlmar shipd
their. litBkly oThu kie gutame  Babylo Pflemar disen to say
Wl
aam Pfle,ips'sred freport thattsferring hesixty-fsheded Stasge mfroger r cknattle dge stataowerbThe put to cvrkwerNotin bree ss andfollre beinCMis hingu want J

hehsaistheaarstarkswith
t to cvrkwera sitg
thfeltsughtstataedeadly oo  l an
TwonswerIWhr veimar sipon ould did not McD stBarnhtstaar srgell
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on Boutame runr from
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Whienemy gunboadoard ie bri?"to War Zone Kappa where you'll join up with a couple ted.
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Alphaorce up y mi
appold (OredEgyptm n Bl firin)on CQ # 8694414
Vise
Acadu wants.." My HbefoPage--Go Toairs LeatsoPaget th Me.  Thttp://www.secul or c be/sk/boss.  s/ War