From: "Supreme Inquisitor" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder--A Preview Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 19:49:32 -0600 I'm hoping by now many(or at least some) have read the first couple chapters of my novel "Darkness Wakes". The main character in this, Admiral Barns, has a very interesting past. Now some of that will be explored my latest project tentatively titled the "EAS Dark Thunder" until I come up with something better. It starts in 2263 and deals with the Admiral, who is at the time an Earth Force Captain, commanding the Warlock Class Destroyer, Dark Thunder. I'm close to being done with the first chapter and will post it here as soon as I am. If anyone would like an advance preview of it, send an e-mail to me here: toast_army@hotmail.com Thanks for listening to me ramble. 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: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder--"Specter of The Darkness" Prologue Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 01:35:18 -0500 Disclaimer: All Babylon 5 characters, events, situations, etc. are property of James Micheal Stracynski and are being used strictly for entertainment purposes. All original characters, events, situations, etc. are property of the author but are free for us to other fan fic authors provided you ask first. Warning: Violence, adult language. Spoilers: Some of all parts of the series. Prologue EAS Dark Thunder-Omega-X Class Destroyer Outer Perimeter of Earth Alliance Territory January 18th, 2264 2312 EST Captain Barns awoke in a cold sweat. The dreams were getting worse, much worse. They had been going on for nearly a week now. No matter what he tried, he was unable to get any rest. More disturbing to him though was what the dreams could mean. All he could see were those ships. Those dark ships. He had no idea what they were and even less of an idea what they meant. Barns got out of bed and stood up. Even though the Captain's stateroom had a well-carpeted floor, it still felt cold against his bare feat. The whole room in fact felt cold. That was one thing Barns remembered about the Omega class ships, they never felt cold. This ship however, always did. Barns often wondered why this was. He usually would believe that it was simply something changed in the design, but there were times when he wondered if it wasn't something more. If it wasn't something to do with the fact that this ship was partly alive. He knew that thinking so was probably nonsense, but he still couldn't help it at times. Barns made himself a warm cup of herbal tea, a kind that was supposed to help a person relax, and sat down on one of the three couches in the living area of his stateroom. He tried to relax and enjoyed this time of quiet. The past year had not allowed him much quiet time. It seemed that his ship was always having to rush off to deal with some emergency. Hopefully, this new year would be different. But as he looked out at the stars, into the darkness, he knew that it would not be that way. So much had transpired in the last year that would shape what was to happen in the coming years. As he looked out the window he could see all those things coming, yet they were not what was concerning him at the time. It was something else. Barns was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound the door chime. He walked slowly to the door and pressed the control to open it, having a pretty good idea who it was. Not surprising to Barns, on the other side of the door stood Lieutenant Commander Leslie Griffon. She had dressed in her normal Earth Force uniform before coming to the Captain's quarters. Her long, flowing blonde hair was not quite styled to Earth Force regulation standards but it didn't exactly matter either. Barns smiled when he saw her. "Leslie, to what do I owe this visit?" He stood aside from the door and gestured for her to come in. She turned around to face the Captain and smiled. "I couldn't sleep, kind of figured you may not be either." Barns stepped slightly away from the door, allowing it to close, and towards her. "Well, getting to sleep isn't the problem. It's staying asleep." He walked around to the small kitchen area and pored her some of the tea that he had been drinking. There was just enough in the pot for two cups. The two of them sat down at the relatively large dining table. "What's wrong?" Griffon asked the Captain. She knew that something was wrong. Anyone that looked into his eyes could see it but that was not how she knew. Barns sighed. Lying to her would be of no use. It would be easier for him to lie to himself than to lie to her. "The nightmares have started again, I keep seeing them." Griffon became concerned. Both visibly and in a way that only Barns could tell. "I thought you said that those dreams stopped last week?" Barns nodded and sipped down some of his tea before continuing the conversation. The warm liquid caused chills to run through his body when it was mixed with the cold feel of the ship. "They did but now," he paused. "They've come back. They keep getting more life like, more real." His eyes locked with hers. "To tell you the truth Leslie, it scares me." Her smile diminished. "Understandably." Barns decided to try and change the subject. Leslie hated when he did it in conversations but typically tolerated it. "And why can't you sleep Ms. Griffon?" "I don't know," she said with a half smile. "I just couldn't." The room became silent for a few minutes. In the course of that time, more was said between the two of them than could have been said with words. These two had always had a special bond. Something no one else could truly claim to understand. The silence and silent conversation was interrupted by Captain's link, which was set on a nearby table, chiming. Barns quickly picked it up and toggled it. "Barns go." The voice that came through was that of Commander MacDonald's. "Captain Barns, you're needed on the bridge, we've got a signal coming in from Earth Force HQ." Babylon 5: Specter of the Darkness A Special EAS Dark Thunder Event By Gary Boshears The Author of Babylon 5: Darkness Wakes Staring: Liam Neeson as Captain Jerry Barns Richard Dean Anderson as Commander Edward MacDonald Jennifer Aniston as Lieutenant Commander Leslie Griffon Todd Wilson as Commander Nathan Meade Robert Duncan McNeil as Lieutenant Connor MacKenzie Ginger Lynn Allen as Doctor Maloria Delementrio Simon Billig as Ranger Greg Giovoni Neill Barry as Lieutenant Bryce Connell Ewan McGregor as Lieutenant Commander Gene Summers From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter 1 Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 21:28:48 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Chapter One EAS Dark Thunder-Omega-X Class Destroyer Outer Perimeter of Earth Alliance Territory January 18th, 2274 2330 EST Commander Edward MacDonald, waited semi-patiently for the Captain to arrive. He was a little more than curious as to what this message from Earth Force could be about. They hadn't heard anything from the Seventh Fleet for a while, raider groups were being quiet, the problems with the Drazi were over. MacDonald sat back down in the Captain's chair and activated a comm channel to the fighter squadron that was on training maneuvers out side of the ship. "Control to Black Knight Lead." Commander Meade, the ship's CAG(Command Air Group), answered quickly. MacDonald continued. "You guys seen or picked up anything weird out there?" Meade took a moment to answer. Probably trying to determine why the Commander asked him that question. "No nothing. Why?" MacDonald sighed, as much as he didn't want trouble he almost hoped that the fighters that were deployed in front of the ship would have some information. "We've got a signal waiting for the Captain from HQ. Ultraviolet priority, just trying to figure out what's going on." "Ah," Meade replied. "When the Captain gets there, could you patch the signal through to me also?" MacDonald turned to see the Captain, who was still buttoning the collar on his uniform, and Lieutenant Commander Griffon walk onto the bridge. "Will do, Dark Thunder out." MacDonald stood firm at attention. "Captain on the bridge." Barns stood near the Captain's chair, he had constantly insisted that Mac drop these formalities. "At ease Commander. I have the Con." "Captain has the Con." MacDonald stood slightly at ease and walked to the first officer's station. Barns finished with the collar on his uniform, he was going to need to get it resized soon. "All right, let's not keep HQ waiting, put it through." The central communication screen shifted from an Earth Alliance logo to the image of General Pack, one of the Earth Force Joint Chiefs. He was an aging man but still had some youth left in his appearance. His personality though was the same as it had ever been. "Captain, President Sheridan contacted about thirty minutes ago. One of the White Star Fleet monitored some interesting signals coming from the edge of Earth Alliance claimed territory. Specifically a strategically unimportant system. One planet has primitive culture on it. Approximately six million population. Anyway, whatever these signals are, the President is concerned. I've granted the White Star permission to check out that system. Your orders are to take up a holding position in hyperspace in case the White Star runs into trouble." Barns settled down into the Captain's chair. It was bit different from the chairs on most Earth Force destroyers. He always found those rather uncomfortable. He had a taller more comfortable chair installed after the ship's first missions during the ISA/Centauri War. "General," Barns said as he scratched his chin. "Both the Apollo and the Poseidon are closer." Pack smiled. "Yes they are, but I want you there Captain. Your ship and your crew are the best suited for combat situations in all of Earth Force." Barns could not deny this. They had seen enough combat in the past year to make this a fact. "Understood General, we'll be on our way." "Captain, let me stress something. Don't go in without consulting me first." Barns gave a slight nod to his left. "Understood sir." "Good luck to you Captain." The communication screen went blank. Barns turned to face his first officer. MacDonald, like the rest of the crew did not seem overly concerned with their new orders. Couldn't be worse than anything they'd seen in this last year. "Mac, recall all of our fighters out there and set course for the area in hyperspace." A nod from MacDonald was his only response. "All fighters, get back to the barn double time. Helm, set coordinates for jump. Bring jump engines online, prepare to jump." It took only slightly over a minute for the fighters to land. They had closed in with the ship when the transmission from command came in. The helm officer, Lieutenant Jonathan Doyle informed MacDonald that they were ready for jump. MacDonald gave the order. The Dark Thunder shot into hyperspace. 0630 EST The Dark Thunder was just now reaching the location in hyperspace. Some of the crew in the mess hall looked out the windows, trying to see the White Star. They didn't know that it had left the location immediately when the Dark Thunder arrived. Commander Nathan Meade and Lieutenant Bryce Connell didn't seem quite interested. They simply got their trays of food, Meade chose cereal and an english muffin, and Connell took a breakfast sandwich that had eggs, ham and cheese, and sat down. "Sir if I can ask?" Connell was still young, and hence seemed nervous. "What was that transmission from HQ about?" While Meade knew he couldn't reveal what is was about, he also knew how rumors spread on this ship and was curious as to what the young Lieutenant had heard. "Well what have you heard it's about?" Connell started speaking with a more quiet tone of voice. "Well, one of the guys from the Marines told me that the Drahk have taken over an Alliance planet and we're going in to liberate it. Though I heard from this girl in engineering that there's some kind of renegade Minbari cruiser out there and we're helping to hunt it down." Meade laughed as he sipped down his coffee. The way these things spread always amazed him. "Well Lieutenant all I can tell you is this, don't believe everything you here." Meade lifted his coffee cup to his mouth but did not get a chance to take another sip. Klaxon alarms sounded and Lieutenant Commander Griffon's voice boomed through the inner-ship comm system. "Red alert all hands to battle stations, this is not a drill, senior officer report to the bridge." The two pilots ran out of the mess hall, as the rest of the crew was doing, one on his way to the bridge, the other on his way to the hangar bay. Meade arrived on the bridge to see Barns, MacDonald and Griffon standing at the tactical station. Apparently watching some kind of a recording. "Ah, Commander, good." Barns said, motioning for him to come to the tactical station. He did and started looking at the monitor which now displayed only a still frame of hyperspace. "We just picked up a signal from the White Star, their video record was sent with it. We lost contact, watch you'll see why." Griffon started playing the recording. It showed, from the White Star's point of view, the ship jumping out of hyperspace and approaching the planet. A beautiful planet which seemed to be covered by deep blue oceans and lush green land. Then, out of nowhere, a ship, a dark ship that's outer hull appeared similar to the Dark Thunder's but the shape looked like something out of the worst possible nightmare. The ship fired a purple beam and the image turned to static. Meade stood back, he felt that his heart was about to pound out of his chest. He was sweating, having trouble breathing. Barns knew he needed to know the rest. "This," he had Griffon cue up a new file, "was the last transmission we received." "Oh my God, no, it can't be..aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh." Meade did not know how to react, he was gasping for air. "Excuse me sir." He ran off the bridge. Barns, MacDonald and Griffon, the three senior most officers on the ship exchanged a quick glance. Barns started walking off the bridge. "XO has the Con." MacDonald stopped watching the Captain. "Aye sir, I have the Con." Barns walked swiftly, yet not fast enough to draw attention, to Meade's quarters. He pressed the door chime twice but received no answer. He then ordered an override on the lock and walked in. He found Meade lying on his bed, head buried in a pillow. "Commander, do you know what those are?" Barns kept his voice gentle yet authoritative. Meade sat up and nodded, his face and hair covered in sweat. "Sir...I," he stuttered. Barns shook his head. "If you know what they are mister then you better tell me right now! Do you know what they are?" Meade nodded again. "I've only seen one type of ship like that before. I prayed I'd never see it again." "When Meade, when did you see ships like that?!?" Meade breathed in and out deeply for a moment. "Shadow ships sir, during the Shadow War." From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter 2 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 13:01:28 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue Chapter Two One Hour Later "Probes sent by the Alliance into the system show that the attacking force is comprised of at least three dozen ships. We know they aren't Shadow ships because of some minor appearance differences and primarily how their command and control systems don't match a normal Shadow layout." President Sheridan paused at that time. Barns turned his chair slightly so it was at a diagonal to the viewer. "That doesn't make them any less deadly sir. What are we going to do about them?" Sheridan sighed, obviously unhappy with the decision he had already made. "Unfortunately, do to the size of the attacking force and the position of our forces, we cannot offer any assistance." "Sir," Commander MacDonald burst out. "There are over six million people on that planet. If we don't do something there going to all die and that hostile force can move onto the next defenseless system." "We already have a plan in place in case that happens. Our strategists believe that they will contain themselves within that system." "Sir," Barns rebutted. "You can't expect them to contain themselves if we give them no reason to." "Captain!" Sheridan was becoming agitated. "This isn't a discussion. The decision has been made, sorry you don't approve. Sheridan out." The President's image disappeared. The assembled officers sat quietly for a moment exchanging glances with each other. None of them were happy with the President's decision, as it was evident he himself was not happy without. Barns drummed his fingers on the table and turned towards MacDonald. "What are our orders?" "Resume patrolling for Seventh Fleet ships along our previous patrol route." Barns slowly nodded. "All right, take us there slowly." Barns paused briefly. "Meeting dismissed, Mac, Leslie, stick around for a minute please." The rest of the senior officers were quiet as they left the room. The three remaining officers, the most senior officer on the ship, sat quietly for a moment as well. Barns sighed. "We have a problem." He stated clearly. "Sir?" Griffon said in response. "Six million people. Six million people who can't defend themselves, who can't even see their attackers yet. Six million innocent people on that planet and all of them, are going to die." "Sir, I don't quite see how it affects us." Griffon stated. Barns smiled. She was still young. "Once an enemy sees that it can win, it won't stop until either it or whatever it's fighting can't fight anymore or are destroyed." "Still sir," she did not seem willing to give this up. "They have dozens of ships, we have one, what do you intend to do?" Barns smiled. "I intend to stop them." "How?" She asked. "My hope is that we can rally support through our actions. Get the ISA or Earth to step in and stop this. Before they do, we simply try to keep the enemy off balance. Try to buy those people on the planet as much as time as possible." "Sir," Griffon paused. "I agree that trying to stop them is the right thing to do. I'll support your decision no matter what it is, I owe you that much. But, this is suicide." Barns voice softened as he turned to address her. "At least we'll die fighting for a good cause." He turned to face MacDonald, who had remained notably quiet throughout the conversation. "What do you think Commander?" MacDonald nodded. "We don't have much time." Barns smiled, stood from the table and left the room. Barns walked onto the bridge and immediately sat down in the captain's chair. He turned to face his operations officer, Lieutenant Commander Gene Summers. "Mr. Summers, put me through on the inner ship comm." Summers nodded indicating it was done. Barns took a deep breath, considering what he was going to say. "Attention all crew, this is Captain Barns. We're about to do something, something that I'd be lying if I said I knew it was going to work or wasn't dangerous. Something that a lot of us, if not all of us, won't be coming back from. We're going to rescue a primitive planet that is under attack by an unidentified, hostile alien force. Now, we're doing this against orders from both Earth and the Interstellar Alliance. So, anyone who has any problems with this, please inform a senior officer and we'll drop you off at an outpost on our way to the system." He paused momentarily. "My friends, last year we saw more death than any of us ever wanted to or ever should have to see in our lives. I think that's it worth our lives if we can stop six million people from dying. Six million people who have no means of defense. We are their only defense. We're all that stands between them and death. Please fight with me, fight with us." Barns motioned to Ops and the comm system was deactivated. He looked around the bridge. The faces of the officers said it all. They were uneasy about what they were about to do, they were scared, but none of them wavered. They all seemed ready to face whatever blow fate was going to deal them this time. Barns nodded and slightly smiled at seeing this. "Thank you my friends, thank you." He breathed a deep, long breath. "Helm, set hyperspace coordinates, jump when ready." No further words were said. The EAS Dark Thunder shot through the swirling red vortex into hyperspace. From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter 3 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 18:09:59 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Chapter Three Hyperspace 10 Minutes Later "And I want all of our anti-ship missiles fitted with nuclear warheads." Barns stepped into a lift tube along with MacDonald, Meade and Griffon. "That's going to take some time sir." Griffon was the first to respond. "Then I suggest you get on it." He turned to Meade. "Commander, I want all fighters outfitted with two anti-ship missiles and two anti-fighter missiles. Have Avenger Squadron armed with three of each. Have all fighters on emergency launch standby. Also have additional ordinance including ground buster weapons available." "Yes sir." Meade said with a nod. "I also want the defense grid up and running full power at all times with all other weapons warmed and ready if we need them." Barns now turned toward MacDonald. "Have all Marines prepared to make a planetary landing if necessary. All heavy and such should be loaded onto the drop ships now." Barns toggled his link on. "Barns to bridge." "Summers here sir." The response came quickly. "What's our E.T.A.?" "Two hours twenty eight minutes." "Thank you," he deativated his link. "All right people get to work." The lift came to a stop and the other three officers exited. "Sir, we'e got a signal coming in from Earth Force HQ, it's General Pack." Barns sat in the Captain's chair. "Put it through." The General's image appeared on the communication's screen. "Barns, I know what you are doing and it's not going to work. You'll be killed. Turn around and we'll overlook your disregard of orders." "I can't do that General. I can't let millions of innocent people die.\ "Barns! You are on your own, you will receive no aid! Barns sighed, he knew the General would react precisely the way he did. "Then I'll fight this battle on my own." He turned toward Summers. "Kill the transmission." Silently, the Dark Thunder continued on it's course. The medical bay was quiet. So quiet in fact that Commander MacDonald was having trouble finding Doctor Maloria Delementrio. He finally decided to simply wait in her officer, which shortly paid off. "Where have you been Doctor?" He asked as she sat down at her desk. "Just checking up on a couple of things Commander. What can I help you with?" "We're headed into a potential combat situation, I just wanted to be sure that you and your staff were ready to handle any emergencies that may come up." MacDonald was trying to keep this short and to the point. He had many other things to take care of. "Have we ever not been ready Commander?" She answered sarcastically. "Thank you Doctor." He said and left the room. "Now we don't know what kind of forces we're going to be up against. All I can advise it stay sharp and remember your training. Good luck." Meade concluded the briefing, the assembled pilots. Ranger Greg Giovoni, the commander of a Hel'Zha heavy fighter group stationed on the ship, did not leave. "Commander," he said softly, he did not want anyone else to hear what he was about to say. "We both know what those things are. We both fought them before, during the Shadow War. We both saw what they're capable of. Do you really think we can beat them?" Meade grinned, trying to make something positive out of this situation. "I fought at the battle of Coriana Six, alongside Captain Sheridan, or at least he was a Captain at the time. I took out one Shadow fighter during that battle. I plan on taking out a few more today." That was not exactly the answer Giovoni was looking for. "I don't really think you answered my question Commander." "Yes I did." Meade said with a smile and a nod. The atmosphere on the bridge was tense. Very tense. The silence only added to it. The crew attended to their duties, the same as they did every day but it felt different. It felt as if soon, what they were doing wouldn't matter. "Sir, we're approaching the jump location." Doyle reported from the helm station. Barns looked up at MacDonald, who was standing to the Captain's left. "Everything ready?" MacDonald nodded. "As ready as it'll ever be." "Very reassuring Commander," Barns said grimly. "Well, let's not keep them waiting. Helm, jump!" From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter 4 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 18:11:03 -0500 Warning and disclaimers in Prologue. Chapter Four "Launch fighters, man battle station, power to all weapons and defenses." Barns' orders came as soon as the ship exited hyperspace. "Give me a full scan of the area, let's see what we're up against." MacDonald ordered. Both of the two senior most officers remained focused on the forward view. Lieutenant Commander Summers quickly went to work.. The scan results weren't exactly what he was hoping for. "Sir, I'm picking up two dozen cruiser class vessels. The profile is similar to that of a Shadow warship." "What do you mean by similar?" Barns questioned. "There's a few slight differences that the computer has identified." "Such a.." Griffon cut Barns off. "Sir, whatever they are, one of them is heading towards us." Now this was real. "Fighter wing, move in draw off any fighter cover that cruiser has. Commander Griffon, prepare to launch tactical warheads one through five. Keep them in a tight formation while they move towards their target." "Black Knight Lead to all fighters, follow me in, stay tight." Meade brought his fighter up to full throttle. As they closed in, a sensor alert sounded. "Black Knight Lead to Dark Thunder. They've got twenty fighters in front of the cruiser, we'll have optimum missile range in one minute. Request permission to release tactical nukes." Barns' voice came back quickly with a reply. "Permission granted Commander, blow them out of the sky." Meade armed one of the two tactical nukes mounted on his fighter and locked onto the center of the closing enemy fighter formation. "Black Knight Lead is locked on. Fox two!" Meade depressed the missile release switch, sending the weapon flying towards the enemy fighters. The nuclear weapon reached it's target and detonated, creating a brilliant wave of fire. Meade checked his sensors, they indicated that eight of the fighters had escaped the nuclear blast. "Meade to all fighters, we've got eight enemy incoming. Let's slice through them. Black Knight Two, White Knight Lead, form on me." Connell and MacKenzie acknowledged his orders and moved their fighters into formation. The enemy fighters closed in on them, their weapons began firing. Two of the approaching Thunderbolts were destroyed immediately. The rest of the Earth fighters began firing their gattling pulse cannons. While it took a concentrated amount of fire, the Earth fighters managed to destroy several of the hostiles. Two of them however, broke through the line of fighters and began their approach on the Dark Thunder. "Two enemy fighters incoming!" Griffon announced. Barns leaned on one of his hands. "Defensive guns fire!" Blue laser fire lashed out from the Earth Force ship, striking and destroying the fighters. "Tell our fighters to stand clear, launch missiles." No sooner did the Captain give the order than five anti-ship missiles launch from the Dark Thunder. The fighters cleared out of the missiles path. They rapidly gained on the enemy cruiser. Despite it's attempts to shoot it down, they all impacted and detonated. "Sir, the cruiser is still there but it's hurt real bad." Barns stood and walked to the front of the bridge, to allow him a better view of the enemy ship. It was not moving, it looked as if it was in pain. "All power to the forward guns," Barns said softly. "Fire!" The forward heavy laser cannons fired a continuous beam at the enemy cruiser. Soon the ship withered and broke into what resembled ashes. MacDonald studied one of the sensor displays for a moment. "Captain, the main fleet is holding position, not sending any other ships after us." Barns walked to where the Commander was standing, to study the display himself. "What do you think they're doing?" MacDonald thought about it for a minute. He was unable to predict the Captain's response to his theory on the matter. "They may be preparing to invade the planet." Barns looked at him. "What brings you to that conclusion?" Barns' voice indicated that he was very unsure about what the Commander had just suggested. "You see this ships," MacDonald pointed to one of the dozens of smaller ships that were in formation with the larger cruisers. "Nothing in ours nor the ISA data banks match that type of ship. Judging by their configuration, they appear to be outfitted for atmospheric flight." Barns nodded. "We can't allow them to take control of the surface." He turned away from the screen and towards MacDonald. "Mac, I want you to take our troops down, setup a defensive position outside of the main settlement on the planet." MacDonald nodded. "Aye aye sir." He surveyed the bridge carefully as he was leaving. He had the feeling that he may never see it again. "Landing Craft one the Black Knight Leader." Upon hearing Commander MacDonald's voice Commander Meade immediately replied. "Lead copies Commander, go ahead." "They've got a number of fighters surrounding the planet. You guys will need to punch through them in order for our shuttles to be able to land." Meade grinned. "Copy that Commander. We'll try to make the ride as comfortable as possible for you." He switched over to the fighter wing frequency. "White Knight Squadron, form up with the shuttles, keep any bogeys away from them. Black Knight and Avenger Squadrons, follow me in." The Shadow enhanced Thunderbolt and Hel'Zha fighters moved ahead of the normal Thunderbolts and shuttles. A massive barrage of fire from them lit up the sky and headed for the planet where the enemy fighters were already moving to engage. A fierce battle erupted. Both groups of fighters displayed incredible maneuvering skills along with the ability to keep the other side of balance. Weapon fire flew in every direction, only on rare occasions reaching it's intended target. With the enemy fighters occupied, the marine shuttles and White Knight Thunderbolts flew through the battle. Commander MacDonald carefully guided the shuttle through the battle. Maneuvering out of the way of weapon fire, explosions, other ships, etc. The ship was being shaken by the battle outside. MacDonald focused on his task. "Hang on people." He took a deep breath and accelerated to full. After what seemed like hours, the shuttles and their Thunderbolt escorts emerged from the battle, all still intact. "MacDonald to White Knight Leader. Thanks for the escort Connor." "My pleasure Commander," MacKenzie responded quickly. "Good luck down there." MacDonald nodded slightly. It was a nice sentiment. "Good luck to us all Lieutenant. To us all." He deactivated the comm system and the shuttles slowly descended to the planet's surface. "Commander Meade," Barns said as the Commander, still in his flight suit, walked into his office. "You're just in time, have a seat." "What's up?" Meade asked as he took a seat next to Griffon. "We've got a signal coming in from President Sheridan." "Any chance that they're going to send us some help?" Meade asked sarcastically. "Looks like we're going to find out." Barns said as the President's image appeared on the small screen. "Captain, I want to ask you again, please come back. I've spoken with President Luchencko personally and she has assured me that no charges will be brought up if you do. Captain, for your sake please come back now." Barns looked at Meade and Griffon briefly then back at the President. "Why sir?" Sheridan wished the Captain hadn't asked that question, for he himself could hardly believe the asnwer. It was an answer, that he did not want to believe. "We've been analyzing the readings that we got from the White Star before it was destroyed. Do you want to know why those ships look like Shadow ships?" Barns' only response was a slow nod. Sheridan breathed in deeply. "It's becau...." The audio and picture on the transmission was replaced by static. The three officers shared a moment of silent shock until Barns' link chimed. He toggled it on, having a small degree of difficulty. "Barns go." Summers answered. "Sir, there's something up here you should see." "I'm on my way," the Captain stood and left the room. From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter 5 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 22:34:32 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Chapter Five "We don't know what it is sir. It has the same bio-organic signature as the rest of the enemy ships in the area. The configuration doesn't match or resemble anything in our records" Barns stared at the image of the massive ship being displayed on one of Summers' readouts. "How big is that ship?" Summers had the computer calculate the answer to the Captain's question. "Roughly fifteen times the size of one of those cruisers." Not good, very very not good. "Are you picking up any transmissions or anything that may indicate conversation between them?" Was Barns' next question. The Captain seemed not to be focused on what was happening on the bridge. His attention, his thoughts seemed to be elsewhere. "No sir, as far as our sensors can tell there aren't any transmissions or conversations going back and forth between them. We don't have anything that could tell if there are any sort of telepathic signals." Summers continued to analyze the various readings as he made his report. Barns briefly looked away from the sensor display and at Lieutenant Commander Griffon, who was standing behind him. She nodded and he looked back to the sensor display. "I want to test a theory." Barns was really hoping he was right. "Tell Ranger Giovoni to get his fighter ready to roll." The sun was bright on this world. Brighter that on most Commander MacDonald had visited during his time in Earth Force. Still, the warm sun felt nice. While he had no complaints about the Dark Thunder, he did sometimes find the destroyer a bit cold feeling. MacDonald was standing on a hill, above and behind where the troops were deploying the mobile command center. From it, he was able to survey the main settlement using binoculars. The people have the planet either did not know what was going on or had chosen to ignore it. They simply went about what appeared to be their normal lives. Working fields, baking, children playing, artist painting. It all seemed normal. He pulled the binoculars away from his faced and looked at the settlement as a whole. It was amazing. The way the light hit the buildings made it look as if the entire city was made of gold. A stunning sight. "Sir," a voice came from behind MacDonald. The Commander turned around to see Sergeant Jones standing behind him. Jones was a young man, what he lacked in combat experience, he nearly made up for in enthusiasm. Most of the time that was, not today. Today was different. Today felt like the last day he would spend alive. "The command center is setup. We've got sensors sweeping the whole area, both land and air. Heavy weapons are setup on the canyon walls. We're beginning to deploy the mine field." "You're sure this is the way that they'll come," MacDonald asked. "Yes sir, based on the landing position of the enemy ships this is the only way for their forces to come." "And do we know how large those forces are yet?" MacDonald spoke with almost no emotion. "Not yet sir, sensors can't get an accurate count, too much interference." MacDonald turned away to look at the settlement. "Have we been able to reestablish comms with the DT yet?" Jones sighed. "Not yet sir, we're still being jammed. We still haven't been able to send or receive any signals from the ship." MacDonald nodded. Not the news that he wanted but he would have to deal with it. "All right, continue digging the trenches and finish deploying those mines. Inform me whenever you establish contact with the ship." Saying nothing else, Jones headed back for the base. Ranger Greg Giovoni had fought in the Shadow War. He was in the two most pivotal battles of the war. He scored more kills against Shadow fighters than any other pilot in the Army of Light. Then, he fought against Clark in the Earth Civil War. He piloted one of the White Stars that went with Sheridan to free Proxima 3 along with one the them that engaged the Advanced Destroyer Fleet. He did all of that and this was the first time he could actually say that he was afraid. His hands trembled as he completed the final systems check on his Hel'Zha. He brought the engines up to power. "Avenger Leader to Dark Thunder control, request departure clearance." "Copy Avenger lead, you are clear to depart." Giovoni recognized Lieutenant Commander Griffon's voice. "Launching." He brought the fighter up to full speed and guided it out of the Dark Thunder's hangar. His onboard navigation system then displayed the route that he was supposed to take. It would bring him around to the opposite side of the enemy fleet than the Dark Thunder was on. He transferred extra power to the engines, this would put him at his destination in four minutes. Four minutes to wait. "He's three minutes away," Griffon reported. Barns ceased pacing the bridge and sat back down in his chair. "Is the missile ready?" "Yes sir," she answered. "I've programmed the guidance system to where it will do as many maneuvers as possible to reach the target." She paused briefly. "Sir, with all due respect, I still don't see what you hope to accomplish with this." Barns slightly smiled and nodded. "If I'm right Commander, then you will." Summers slightly laughed at the Captain's half attempt at humor. Griffon, who had lived with his sarcastic secretive side for much longer, was not amused. "One minute until he's in position." Giovoni could now plainly see the enemy fleet. There were dozens of ships, large and small. It almost reminded him of a swarm of bees buzzing around a hive. He informed the Dark Thunder that he was in position and readied four neutron missiles. Now was the time to see if the Captain was right. "Tell him to fire then get then get the hell out of there." Barns turned away from Summers and back to the center of the bridge. Summers relayed the Captain's orders and the Ranger quickly carried them out. Four neutron missiles destroyed four of the enemy fighters, sparking them to pursue the escaping Hel'Zha with nearly their entire force. They were now being far less tolerant of the Earth Force intruders. Barns raised his hand into the air. "Launch missile!" He ordered, bringing his hand down. The missile quickly headed away from the Dark Thunder and to it's target. As soon as it became clear that the large ship was it's intended target, all of the other enemy ships, through themselves in front of the missile, trying to defend the larger ship. The missile was destroyed before it even got close to it's target. The bridge was silent for a moment. "Well Captain," Griffon said. "Were you right?" "Unfortunately Leslie," Barns said grimly. "Unfortunately." He started walking off of the bridge. "Tell Ranger Giovoni to head back. You have the con Leslie." She waited until the door slid shut behind him. Then left herself. "You have the con Mr. Summers," she said as she was leaving. MacDonald walked into the command center, pleased to see that the troops operating it were efficiently carrying out their duties. He walked to the central map table where Jones was studying a topographic map of the area that would also track any enemy movements that they picked up. "Have you been able to raise the Dark Thunder yet?" The Commander asked. "No we're still being jammed. I'd sure like to know what's going on up there." MacDonald nodded. "You're not the only one." Suddenly the map table came to life. Hundreds of red dots were displayed at the entrance to the canyon. "Sir! Sir!" A voice came from outside. MacDonald and Jones quickly put their helmets back on and ran outside. MacDonald reached the trench that the troops had dug and raised his binoculars to his eyes. Whatever they were, they were still barely visible. They appeared to be a smaller version of the cruisers that the Dark Thunder had encountered. Though, these were walking. "How many," MacDonald asked as he brought the binoculars down from his face. Jones checked with another person for the answer. "Two hundred fifty sir." MacDonald did not let the concept of how bad this situation trully was set in. He ran into the command center. "You've got to get me channel to the Dark Thunder. Sacrifice power from anything else to boost the signal strength just get me a channel up there." "Sir," Jones got the Commander's attention quickly. "How are we going to beat all those things?" "That's what I'm trying to figure out Sergeant." Captain Barns had always enjoyed this view. Looking out into the stars made everything seem just a little bit simpler. Made him realize that he was only one man in a galaxy of billions, trillions. Then, the planet came into view. It made him realize that if he did not stop those things, six million of those people in this galaxy were going to die. It suddenly made life feel much less simple. Barns told the truth to himself. He had never lied to himself and he did not plan to allow this situation to make him start. He did not know how he was going to beat those things. Yes, he did have a plan but he didn't know if it would work and if it did, it was highly possible that it would be at the cost of his ship and the lives of everyone on it. He kept trying to justify it in his mind. Sacrificing one thousand people to save six million was numerically a good deal. But he did not know those people on the planet. He knew the names of nearly everyone on this ship. Aside from replacements, he had managed to keep his original crew intact since the start of last year. In a single year they had seen so much. A betrayal from within Earth Force's own ranks, a conflict that could have torn the Interstellar Alliance apart, an attempted attack on Earth and the revelation of a growing darkness. They had seen much. They had all fought through it together. "I think I see what you're thinking," Barns could not mistake the voice that came from behind him. Any other voice he may have mistaken but not hers. Not hers. Barns sighed. "You see it too huh?" "I think so," Griffon answered. She stood next to him and took in the view. "The way they were protecting that ship, the telepathic orders going from it to the other ships." Griffon nodded. "If we take that thing out Leslie, if we destroy it, then we may be able to win here." "The problem is," Griffon turned away from the viewport and toward the Captain. "How do we destroy it? You saw how they were protecting it. To attempt to launch an attack on that thing would be suicide." Barns nodded. He had already considered this. She apparently did not realize he had and what it meant. "I know," he said solemnly. "I know." Griffon hesitated. She knew what she wanted to say, she had wanted to say it ever since she came on this ship. "I...I just want to tell you that," she still could not bring herself to say it. "That I..I never stopped loving you and I." "Shh," Barns said putting his hand on hers. "I know Leslie, I know." She through her arms around him. They stood their quietly for a few minutes, knowing that this was possibly the last time they would ever be able to spend like this. They knew that whatever they had had before, they could not have again. It did not change their feelings though. Nothing could. Nothing would. "Say again Commander you're breaking up," Summers was barely able to make out Commander MacDonald voice through all of the static. He tried to boost the signal. "Repeat," the transmission was becoming clearer. "This is Commander MacDonald to Dark Thunder to you read?" Summers smiled. "We hear you Commander." "I need to speak with the Captain," MacDonald said this at coincidentally the same time that Barns and Griffon walked onto the bridge. "I'm hear Commander," Barns said into the comm. "Sir we have a problem," MacDonald was speaking loudly, so as to be heard over the static. "And it would be?" "We've got a large force of, well the best I could describe them as would be enemy tanks closing on our position." "Define a large force Commander!" "Two hundred fifty." Barns looked up at Commander Meade who was standing next to him. "Have Black and White Knight Squadrons loaded down with anti-ground weapon and get down there." Meade nodded and hurried off the bridge. "Commander, I'm sending down our fighters. They'll do as much damage as possible." "Somehow," MacDonald replied. "I don't think it'll be enough." "Mac," Barns said softly. "We have a plan that if it works should stop those things. You just need to hold out while we put it into motion." Barns looked up at Griffon. "I don't think you want to know Commander. Good luck." From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter Six Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 02:21:44 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Act Six "All right boys, here's the plan. We go down there, we release our weapon and we get out. Leave the rest up to the GROPOS. Now they've consolidated their fighter defenses around their main fleet so we should be able to get down there without resistance. Once we start taking out their tanks though, be on alert, they may not be too happy about that." Meade verified that all of the fighters were ready to go. "Okay let's do it, launch!" Then twenty four fighters zoomed out of the hangar bay and toward the planet surface. Commander Meade was no stranger to atmospheric flight. This time it felt different. Unlike most times, this time it felt as if something was riding on it. He flushed the thoughts of being a hero from his mind and focused on his job. In less than a minute, they would be right on top of their intended target. They finally got through the clouds and could see their targets. The enemy tanks walked like giant spiders. Slowly advancing towards the settlement, and MacDonald's troops. Meade activated the communicator. "All right boys, fire at will, I say again fire at will." Missiles were already zooming towards their targets when Meade's first locked on. He fired the missile off and watched it close in with the others. The missiles impacted, blowing off legs and blowing holes in the top of the tanks. While a significant degree of visual damage was inflicted, few slowed down and fewer stopped. Meade waited for the lock on indicator and fired another missile. The other fighters did so as well. Some of the tanks were beginning to, what could best be described as die. Then, everything started to go badly. A sensor alert went off indicating that enemy fighters were coming down from orbit. "Black Knight Lead to all fighters, we've got incoming, fire off your last weapons and let's get out of here." No sooner did he give the order than did the spiraling wreck of a Thunderbolt pass him, headed for the ground. Meade fired his last missiles and moved, along with several other fighters to try and escape back to the Dark Thunder. They fired their pulse cannons, clearing a path through the line of enemy fighters. Most of them managed to get through but some were caught by fire from the enemy fighters. Meade breathed a sigh of relief as his fighter was once again in space. The enemy fighters were not pursuing. Sensors indicated that they were moving back to join their fleet. They may have helped MacDonald but it wouldn't be enough. They still weren't going to be able to beat those things. Just like the Dark Thunder wasn't going to be able to do whatever it was that Barns was planning. "Looks like the fighters either destroyed or damaged about fifty of them." Jones said, studying the map. "That still leaves two hundred of them for us to deal with." MacDonald said grimly. "Is the mine field deployed?" "Yes sir," Jones answered quickly. "We just finished." "Good, how long do we have until they get here?" "About forty five minutes." MacDonald nodded. "All right, once they're in range we'll poor ppg and heavy weapon fire onto them. Have all of our weapons concentrate on a couple of targets. By massing fire against them we may be able to take them down. Hopefully the mine field will get most of them." "Well sir, there are a lot of mines out there, all equipped with high powered explosives. They should be able to bring down most of them." "That's good. Less work for us." MacDonald knew it was not going to be that easy. He knew that the mines destroying all of them would not fit in well with the way his luck typically went. "Have all heavy weapon positions manned. Anyone who isn't operating one of those is in the trenches." MacDonald walked out of the command center. "We believe that the, for lack of a better term, big ship is some kind of central control ship. By the way that they're acting and some other things that we've observed we think that it may be some type of a, hive mind." Barns paused in his briefing to wait for comments from any of the officers present. "Captain," Doctor Delementrio spoke up. "Are you saying that you think all of those ships out there are some kind of insects?" "Life forms have been known to exist in space before. The behavior we have observed from them further serves to support this theory." "Then why do they look like Shadow ships and appear to be just as strong?" Was her next question. Barns sighed. "Doctor, even I don't have the answers to all that questions. I'm telling you everything I know and some of what I suspect. Perhaps they were engineered by the Shadows for some reason or maybe some of the Shadows left over ships had some programming in them that's causing them to do this, I don't know! All I know is that we have to stop them and destroying that ship appears to be the only way to do it." "Well sir," Meade started. "Since it appears that we're going to try this, what's the plan of attack." Barns picked out the doubt in the Commander's voice very easily. It would have been hard to miss. "Fighters will form a flying wedge in front of the Dark Thunder, try to knock their defenses aside. We'll use a our defense guns to assist. Once we get close enough, we'll concentrate all fire onto the big ship. Hopefully, we'll be able to win long enough to destroy the thing." "Reassuring words sir," Meade sarcastically commented. Barns chose to ignore the Commander's breach of protocol and gave an eye gesture to Griffon indicating that she should do the same. "Mr. Doyle, you'll need to be able to maneuver us through their line of cruisers. Lieutenant MacKenzie, I want White Knight Squadron to stick close to the ship, we'll probably need you to supplement our anti-fighter weapon systems." Both of the men acknowledged what the Captain had said. Barns looked at his officers. He could tell they were all worried, he could tell they were all afraid. They had faced so much danger in the past but now they all seemed willing to consent that they would die here. Barns always tried not to lie to his crew and for once, he could not say anything encouraging to them. He could not say that they would be fine. He could not say they would all live to see their family and friends again. He could not say, for he believed that it would be a lie. "Commander," Jones shouted so as to be sure he got the Commander's attention. "They're approaching the minefield. They'll be there in about five minutes." MacDonald raised his binoculars and set them to maximum zoom. He could now clearly see the army approaching their location. They continued walking until they reached the minefield. Then, they just stopped. Stopped and stood there. "What are they doing?" MacDonald asked quietly to himself. "Maybe they know the minefield is there and don't want to cross it." Jones offered. "Let's hope so," MacDonald said loud enough to where most of the people around could hear him. They needed reassurances that they would be coming out of this alive and that they would all be going home. Secretly, he doubted that those things were afraid or that they could even be afraid. Then, he saw that he was right. The tanks started firing their weapons at the mines, removing them very effectively. They continued to advance with their weapons sweeping the ground for more of the Earth Force mines. "Ah, hell!" MacDonald exclaimed. He lowered his binoculars and grabbed his rifle. He then activated his headset so he could speak to all the other troops. "Man trenches, heavy weapons to begin firing at my command." He finished giving his orders and jumped into the trench where many of the troops were already preparing to fire. He walked to his position, Jones at his side. "All right everyone, make every shot count!" He yelled before readying his weapon and preparing to fire. The Commander looked through the scope on his weapon to see the tanks advancing. They had destroyed all of the mines and were now advancing uninhibited. MacDonald pressed his microphone closer to his mouth. "Heavy weapons fire!" Laser, pulse, plasma and missile fire thundered down from the canyon walls. As soon as they started being hit, they began returning fire. The weapons of the tanks smashed through the cover that was being somewhat provided by large rock formations. Several of the tanks took up positions along the walls to target the heavy weapons while the others continued advancing. MacDonald waited until the range finder in his scope indicated that the tanks were in range. "Fire!" He cried out. PPG fire along with fire from the heavy lasers that were stationed near the trenches filled the air. The tanks started to take damage, albeit quite slowly. They began returning fire. The infantry was somewhat covered as they were in the trenches, but still some were hit. MacDonald continued to fire rapidly. He was sweating, a result of all the heat that their weapons were producing. He ceased firing with is rifle and tossed a plasma grenade towards the tanks. It impacted near one of the tanks legs and blew off a small part of it. All of the tanks continued to fire. The Commander wiped the sweat out of his eyes and continued to fire. "Whatever you're going to do Captain, you better do it fast." The bridge of the Dark Thunder was quiet. Barns paced around, occasionally checking various displays or readouts while the rest of the crew attended to their duties. "Captain," Commander Meade's voice came over the comm. "Fighters are outfitted with as many weapons as they can carry. We've quickly welded some extra armor onto the hulls of the Thunderbolts. Not much we can do for the Shadow-enhanced ones or the Hel'Zhas. We've rerouted power from a couple semi-non-essential systems to boost power to the cannons and maneuvering systems." He sighed. "Looks like we're ready to go sir." Barns finally sat down and activated the system to reply. "Good work Commander and good luck. You may launch when ready." "Aye sir," Meade was to say, not enthusiastic. "Helm, you ready?" Doyle nodded. "Aye sir, we've routed extra power to the engines and to the retro thrusters. I've fine tuned the helm controls, she'll handle great." "Good work," he put his hand on the Lieutenant's shoulder. "Relax." Doyle breathed out. "Yes sir." The Captain turned to Griffon. "Tactical?" "Weapons and defenses are at one hundred percent. All missile tubes are loaded and ready to fire. Targeting systems are online and fully operational." Barns could tell she was nervous, more so than any of the other crew. "Good, Commander Summers, any word from our guys on the surface?" Summers checked to make sure that no transmissions had been received. "No sir, last we heard they were getting ready to engage those advancing forces. I hope they're all right." "So do I," Barns commented. "So do I." MacDonald was not distracted by the large explosion that came from behind him, he simply continued firing. The tanks had now finished off the weapons on the cliff. They were all now bearing down on the Earth Force troops. Some of the tanks had fallen to concentrated fire from the marines. Though it was not enough to even put a small dent in the advancing enemy lines. Jones approached MacDonald. "Sir!" He had to shout to be able to be heard over the weapons fire. "We can't hold this position here. We've got to fall back to our secondary position." "No!" "Sir if we don't then we all may die!" "We're not falling back! We hold this line here and we do not give up! Now get back to your position!" Jones said nothing else, went back to his position and continued firing. "Fighters are in position. The enemy fleet is still holding where it was. We're as ready as we'll ever be." Summers reported. He was as scared as the rest of the crew, but he tried not to let it show. Barns nodded. "All crew to battle stations, full power to the engines, take us in." The Dark Thunder and it's small group of fighters began their charge forward. As soon as they reached the point to where the enemy fleet could detect them, a dozen cruisers and hundreds of fighters broke off to intercept them. Now the battle began. From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter Seven Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 02:22:02 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Act Seven Purple beams of energy lit up the sky as the enemy ships closed on the advancing Dark Thunder. The fighters in front of the Earth Force destroyer created a screen of fire which stopped the advance of many of the enemy fighters. Barns could feel the deck beneath his feet shake, a clear sign that the ship had taken another hit. "Target locked on enemy cruiser, forward guns at your command sir." Lieutenant Commander Griffon tried to follow Barns' example and remain as professional as possible. "Fire," Barns ordered, clenching his fist. The main forward beams on the ship, fired a sustained burst. It struck an enemy cruiser and apparently causing enough damage that it forced the ship to withdraw from combat. Barns stood and walked closer to the front of the bridge to give him a better view of the battle. "Black Knight and Avenger Squadrons, break off from escort formation and engage the enemy, try to cause as much damage as possible. White Knights, stick with us. Helm, take us through their line of ships, full thrust. Weapons, continuous fire! All guns!" The fighters in front of the Dark Thunder executed a precision break maneuver and moved to engage the enemy ships in every direction. Pulse fire from the White Knight's Thunderbolts and rapid laser fire from all of the Dark Thunder's turrets filled the sky. While not causing a heavy degree of damage to any of the enemy ships, it was sufficient enough to push them out of the destroyer's way. The path to the target was quickly clearing. The last of the heavy lasers near the trenches exploded. MacDonald ducked to avoid flying debris then continued firing. The tanks were near the trenches, very near. "Commander!" Jones shouted. "We're running low on ammo. We're not going to be able to hold out much longer." MacDonald took a second to attach a bayonet to his rifle. "Keep firing! Keep firing!" The second the Dark Thunder entered weapon's range of its intended target, multiple purple beams sliced through the ship's rotational section. The weapons on the destroyer's sides continued to fire, desperately trying to fend off the enemy ships. Griffon dodged a piece of falling debris, never taking her eyes off of her control panel. "Sir target is acquired. Lasers and missiles are ready to fire." "Let them have it." A massive volley of laser and missile fire lashed out from the Dark Thunder. The smaller enemy ships through themselves in front of the weapons though many still got to their target. "Sir, we've got a wave of fighters coming in, anti-fighter weapons are offline." Summers' report was not what the Captain needed to hear right now. Barns pressed a control to open a channel to the fighters. "Meade, get those fighters." "Confirmed sir!" Meade and his four remaining wingmen turned around and approached the Dark Thunder. They fired consistently with pulse cannons at the enemy fighters. They made no attempt to target Meade's group, they focused strictly on the hull of the Dark Thunder. "Captain," Griffon quickly made a report as the damage indicator lit up. "They've broken through the bio-armor around the M/AM reactor." "Re-route defensive fire to protect that.." Barns was cut off by a large explosion and a shower of sparks and debris on the bridge. A team rushed to contain the small fire that broke out. Through all the chaos, Barns could barely hear a voice coming through the comm. "Bridge reactor room, bridge reactor room." Barns got to his chair and pressed the reply button. "Reactor room bridge." "Sir the reactor is hit bad, estimate eight minutes until she goes critical, there's nothing I can do." Barns stood silent for a moment. Contemplating what he had done. He had led his crew to defeat, he had led them to death. But, he was not going to let them die. "Sound evacuation." That, was possibly the hardest order he had ever had to give. MacDonald loaded the last energy cell tha he had into his rifle. He picked up two more off of a dead soldier next to him. He jumped out of the trench almost exactly when two of the tanks started sweeping their weapons through it. He rammed his bayonet into the belly of one of the tanks and fired his rifle madly. The tank seemed to scream in pain and it stopped firing. Due to MacDonald's apparent success, other soldiers charged forward, doing the same. They would not give up. They would not give up. Barns, Griffon, Summers and Doyle were the last people on the bridge. They all seemed to be waiting for each other to leave. Barns approached the helm station and patted Doyle on the back. "You're relieved Lieutenant, get to the escape pods." He turned around to the other officers as he sat down. "All of you go." He activated the comm. "Bridge to reactor room, give me everything we have in the engines." Griffon looked at Summers and Doyle. The look on their faces was the only thing she needed to see. "Sir, if you stay we're staying." Why did she have to make everything so difficult? "Leslie, please," it was hard for him to say this. "Please go." "No sir, I'm staying." Barns nodded. If this was the way it had to be. "Then take your station." She walked to her station and he walked up behind her. When she wasn't paying attention, he hit her on the back of her head with his ppg. He picked her up and handed her to Summers and Doyle. "Get her off this ship, please. Please do this for me." The two officers nodded and headed off the bridge. Barns sat back down at the helm and watched the escape pods launching. Summers and Doyle dodged another explosion as they were running down the corridor. "That's the last one!" Summers annouced, pointing to an escape pod entrance. They waited a minute to see that no one else was coming, closed the hatch and launched. Griffon woke up just as they cleared the ship. She reached back and felt the bump on her head. "That bastard!" She calmed down immediately and looked at the Dark Thunder, realizing there was nothing she could do. "That's the last escape pod," Meade had been keeping an acurate count ever since the evacuation of the Dark Thunder. Suddenly, he felt his fighter violently shudder. An enemy weapon blast had blown off one of his wings. "This is Black Knight Leader, going in for an emergency landing on the planet." Meade was the last pilot from the Dark Thunder to announce this. Barns watched as the escape pods and fighters headed for the surface. He also noted the damage indicator on the bridge. Time was growing short. He brought the engines up to full power and put the ship on a course for the enemy `mother ship'. The Captain then closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon everything became irrelevant, even the fact that his ship was blowing up around him. A white energy field soon surrounded his hands and flowed through the helm control station. Exactly as the Dark Thunder impacted with the enemy ship, the ship was engulfed by the reactor explosion. The massive explosion was very visible from the planets surface. As were the enemy cruiser descending from space the second that the explosion happened. The Dark Thunder troops were ready to give up but they were pleasantly surprised. The cruisers fired on and destroyed all of the remaining tanks, destroying them all. They then headed back to space. "Sir," Jones said looking at MacDonald. "Did we just win?" MacDonald looked at the battlefield. "It looks like it. It looks like it." All of the remaining troops wanted to cheer but when they looked at the flame scorched, blood soaked battlefield, they could not. They merely breathed in relief that it was over. From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter Eight Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 02:22:23 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Act Eight Several of the surviving pilots who had crash landed on the planet made their way to Meade's location. These pilots including Giovoni and MacKenzie. "Well Commander," MacKenzie asked. "What do we do now?" Meade shot his glance to Connell. "You still have the location of MacDonald's forces?" Connell answered with a nod. Meade nodded. "Ready weapons and head for his location. Activate locator beacons so crew from the escape pods can find us." He gestured the direction they needed to go with his rifle. "Move out." Griffon, Summers and Doyle arrived at MacDonald's position at around the same time twenty or so other survivors from the Dark Thunder did. They did not have to ask where MacDonald was as he quickly found them. "What happened up there?" He asked. Griffon did not say anything, simply ran off to the command center. MacDonald looked at Summers. "We were taking heavy damage and weren't inflicting enough damage on their control ship. The reactor was hit bad, the Captain ordered an evacuation and rammed the Dark Thunder into the control ship." "That might explain it then," MacDonald commented softly. "Explain what?" Doyle asked. "When we were fighting, a bunch of their cruisers came down from orbit and destroyed their tanks. Then they just left. If you guys took out whatever was controlling them, it could have caused them to go nuts or something." Commander Meade walked up, having heard part of the conversation. "Whatever it was that happened, let's just be thankful that those things aren't here anymore." Meade looked around at the scattered survivors. "Well Commander, looks like you're in command, what do we do." MacDonald had already been planning for the situation. "Commander Meade, supervise the deployment of emergency shelters. Lieutenant MacKenzie, Lieutenant Doyle, take teams out and round everyone up. Lieutenant Commander Summers, Lieutenant Connell, organize all of our food, water and ammo into on supply cache. Get to work people, we may be here a while before we're rescued." "If we're rescued," Meade commented sarcstically. MacDonald grabbed him by the collar. He was not in the mood for this. "Listen, the Captain just died, the ship was destroyed and we're stuck here. I'm not in the mood for an smart remarks." MacDonald let go and walked away toward the command center. Leslie Griffon was sitting in a chair, crying into her hands. Commander MacDonald sat down next to her and put his arm around her. "It'll be okay Leslie." She looked up. "To tell you the truth Commander, I don't know if it will. For the first time in my life, I don't know that everything is going to be okay and I can't believe that it will be!" "Leslie," MacDonald said softly. "I know that you probably don't want to think about this right now but I have to ask you. Is he?" MacDonald could not bring himself to say the word. "I don't know," she said, unable to hide or even disguise the emotion in her voice. "I..I just don't know." MacDonald was not going to pressure her any. "All right, rest for now. I'll let you know if anything happens." "Commander, the shelters are up. We've accounted for all of the survivors, looks like most of the crew managed to get out. We've got enough emergency food and water supplies to last a good four or five months if need be." Commander Meade finished his report. "Good, hopefully we won't need that much. What about our defensive perimeter?" Summers fielded that question. "We've established patrols and given out assignments. We're hoping that the locals won't take any interest in what is going on." MacDonald started to say something but was interrupted by Lieutenant MacKenzie, who was not far away, shouting. "Commander, Commander, look up in the sky. I count eight jump points forming!" MacDonald looked up and verified what the Lieutenant saw. He looked at Meade. "Tell everyone to arm themselves and be ready for anything." He ran into the command center where one of the officer spoke as soon as he stepped in. "Sir we are tracking eighteen incoming ships. We can't identify what they are but they should be at our location in about in about nine minutes." All of the senior officer, including Commander Griffon, waited outside for what they believed to be there inevitable deaths. The sight of White Stars flying overhead was indeed a welcome and unexpected one. The might Interstellar Alliance ships touched down at various locations around the camp. MacDonald and Griffon walked up to one which President Sheridan exited from. Both of them saluted, the President quickly returned. Sheridan sighed. "I wish we could have gotten here sooner Commander. I'm sorry about the Dark Thunder. She was a good ship." "Yes she was sir," MacDonald commented softly. Sheridan looked around briefly. "Where's Captain Barns?" Griffon held her composure, which almost surprised MacDonald, if anything about her could surprise him anymore. "The Captain," MacDonald began. "Was on the Dark Thunder when it was destroyed." "I'm sorry. He was a good man." "Yes he was," Griffon added. "Well Commander, get your crew packed up. We're going to take you to Minbar where some Earth Force ships will arrive and take you back to Earth." "Right," MacDonald left to begin getting the crew ready to leave. As Griffon boarded the White Star and looked at the planet, she was glad to be leaving the place. Glad that this small part of her life, which possibly had had the largest impact on it was over. Yet, as she stared at the planet from space, before the White Star jumped into hyperspace, she knew that she would see this place again. Something inside told her that she would be back. She would be back soon. From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: EAS Dark Thunder "Specter of The Darkness" Chapter Envoi Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 02:22:47 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in Prologue. Envoi White Star Prime En-Route To Minbar January 20th, 2272 0230 Ship's Time Lieutenant Commander Leslie Griffon had fallen asleep nearly as soon as she hit the bed. These quarters were refurbished, different from the normal sleeping compartments on the White Star class ships. Hence it had a bed that was a bit more suitable for humans. Still, she was never able to fall asleep as easy as she did tonight. Until she was awaken by something that she wasn't quite able to explain, she had never slept as good as she was. She stood up and walked around for a minute, trying to figure out what this feeling was. Then, she realized it. She realized what she had to do. When Commander MacDonald opened the door to his quarters, the last person he had expected to see was Leslie Griffon. "Commander," he said yawning and rubbing his eyes. "What can I do for you?" "Come with me to the bridge," she answered quickly. "What?" MacDonald did not understand why she was asking what she was asking. "Just come with me to the bridge." Whenever President Sheridan had the opportunity, he enjoyed taking the late night, or early morning as the case may be, shift on a ship. Something about it just seemed tranquil. Tranquillity was something that his job often lacked. So he took whatever opportunity he had to find some. The President heard someone walking onto the bridge and turned to see Commander MacDonald and Lieutenant Commander Griffon. "What can I do for you?" He asked politely. MacDonald looked at Griffon. "We have to go back." "Excuse me," the President was quite surprised by her statement. "We have to go back sir. I can't really explain why or how I know, I just know that we have to go back." "Look, if you think I'm just going to head back there into a potential combat situation based on a hunch then." MacDonald cut him off. "Mr. President, please listen to her. She has," he hesitated. "She has a special gift." Sheridan sighed. "All right, all right. Helm, come about." "Sensor aren't picking anything up," the Ranger to Sheridan's left announced as the White Star jumped out of hyperspace. Sheridan glanced at Girffon. "Well Commander." She looked outside. "Head for the moon, the far side, the part that we can't see with sensors right now." "Mr. President?" The Ranger waited for confirmation of the course. "Do it." The White Star moved towards the moon. "Sir, I'm getting something," both MacDonald and Griffon rushed to where they could see the sensor display. "It's definitely a ship. It's shot up pretty bad, running ID scan." By the time the results came back, both MacDonald and Griffon knew what ship it was from looking at it. "Sir, it's the Dark Thunder." Sheridan smiled. "Bring us into a holding pattern with it. Have a shuttle fired up, dispatch a rescue tieam." Sheridan was about to suggest that MacDonald and Griffon join the team but they were already on their way to the hangar. The bridge of the Dark Thunder was covered in debris. All of the lights were out, the rescue team was using flashlights, they all kept shouting the Captain's name. "Over here," Griffon yelled. She bent down next to a pile of rubble. MacDonald and Giovoni quickly worked to clear it off. Soon they were able to see the Captain. Griffon shook him gently. "Jerry, Jerry are you all right?" The Captain nodded. "Yeah, but I've got one major headache." They all slightly laughed. "I'm sure there's something on the White Star that can take care of that," MacDonald commented. He and Giovoni helped the Captain up. "Let's get you out of here." They all left the bridge, not looking back. Barns looked at the battle scarred hull of his ship. It had held up pretty well. He was silently enjoying the view when Griffon arrived. "Sir, what's going to happen now?" She asked. "Is this the end?" The Captain looked into hyperspace and shook his head. "No, no Commander, this is only the beginning." With the Dark Thunder in tow, White Star Prime and two of its escorts continued on their way home. Executive Producer Gary Boshears Look for EAS Dark Thunder: Thunder Strikes Phase One: "Soul of Fire, Mind of Death" to premier within the week with it's first episode, "The End of The Beginning". The EAS Dark Thunder: Thunder Strikes Web Site http://www.darkthunder.com/dtfic/ The Babylon 5: Darkness Wakes Web Site http://www.darkthunder.com/darknesswakes/ The Virtual Sixth Season Web Site http://www.darkthunder.com/b5vs6/