From: Jason Krish Subject: The Measure of a Soul Act 3 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:19:34 -0600 The Measure of a Soul Act 3 0230 EST The Coventry "Delta Squadron, return to the barn." Corin was back at his seat now, looking around, taking in everything. There had been a confirmed sighting of the enemy. Now it was their job to return to Alpha's location and…well, with a little luck pick up Alpha and live to see another day. He didn't want to dwell on the flip side of the coin. "Navigation," he barked, "how long till we reach Alpha Point?" "Eight hours sir, six and a half if we push the engines." "Do it then," he barked, "pray to whatever Gods you believe in that they are still alive…" ********** Deran watched the flyer take off and leave. He also considered sending up several more to act as their eyes and ears until the damage could be repaired, although he knew that wouldn't be anytime soon. "No," he thought, "not soon enough." He motioned to the flight controller and nodded. With that he agreed to send up the flyers to watch over them. Deran just felt so damn hopeless standing there. Everything down here was in control, well, organized chaos anyway, that left him to mope. "Well," he thought, "let's join the recon flight." Flying always was able to calm Deran, no matter how pressing the problem, and calming down is exactly what he needed to do. "Yes," he thought, "let's join the flight." ********** "Rondo, how long till we reach the jumpgate?" G'Son asked, again. "Obviously, long enough for you to still complain." Now, to anyone who didn't know them, they by all rights should be at each other's throats with intent to kill, not just a verbal assault. However, to anyone who did know them, they were the best of friends. Rondo Mollari, of House Mollari, was very low on the political totem pole. He also did not have any political aspirations that had the strange effect of extending his life. His lack of political ambition was known to all that cared and they, therefore, did not bother with him. All this suited him just fine. He was content to leave the politicking to his relations, especially whatshisname…Londo or something like that anyway. He had been a friend of G'son for as long as he could remember, having spent the better part of his childhood on Narn with his family during the occupation. However, unlike most of his kin, he treated the Narns well, which only brought him ridicule and scorn. It did not bother him, as he felt that what he was doing was right. This did not necessarily endear him to the Narns as most still looked upon him with suspicion and distrust. His actions did allow him to befriend G'Son's family and earn their trust and respect. It was because of this that he survived the Narn's retaking of their planet. Rondo was at a small, private spaceport when it happened. G'Son had been with him, helping to load his small freighter. They had just finished loading when they heard explosions off in the distance. At first, they dismissed it to an accident, but an urgent communiqué from G'Son's father changed all that. He let them know what was going on and said for Rondo to leave while it was still possible. G'Lan had also asked if his son was there and instructed him to leave with Rondo to ensure his survival. G'Son had vehemently argued against it, but his father won him over by telling him in the months and years ahead the Narn people would need all the contacts offworld as they could get. He had also reasoned that they would need food, medical supplies, weapons, tools, and anything else they could get their hands on to survive. All this with the intention of one day being able to strike back at the hated Centauri. This was told in front of Rondo, but he wasn't bothered by it. he knew that one day, somehow, his people would pay the price for their actions on Narn and the countless other worlds that they had subjugated. "Oh well," he thought, "that was another time, another place," as he snapped back to reality. "Only ten minutes since you last asked," Rondo replied again, exasperated, "about one half hour till jump." ********** The jumpgate loomed before the flyer. Suddenly, the lights of the gate lit up, signaling the gate was to open. The pilot set the flyer in motion and proceeded to enter the jumpgate. Now, to contact the Centauri freighter and hope they are on time, if not early. ********** "How long till the jump point?" enquired G'Son, yet again. Rondo just hung his head, shaking it slowly. He checked the chronometer, "about…" Before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off by the com system chirping away. "Yes, yes," he said out loud to no one in particular, "let us see who it is and what they want." It was an encoded signal meant for him, from the Minbari no less. This worried him as he knew they wouldn't risk contacting him this close to their base unless it was really important. He entered the counter code and waited for the system to accept it and decode the message. It scrolled across the screen before him and they both read it. "Oh my." "By G'Quan." ********** -- Jason Krish Ranger(Edmonton) Zeta Squadron #Z1223 It was the Year of Passing Shadows..... The adventures of Captain Cross and crew of the Battlestar In Valen's Name lost in unknown space.... From: Jason Krish Subject: The Measure of a Soul Act 4 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:20:25 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The Measure of a Soul Act 4 It was chaos. Alpha's 3, 5, and 9 were already down. Walker wasn't sure where they were, them or the Minbari. All he knew was that they had surprised the Minbari and proceeded to blow their only chance. Alpha 5 sighted them first and fired upon the unsuspecting vessels, but since they were only snap shots they missed. After that, well, it was the beginning of the end. Since they couldn't track the Minbari, he had no idea how many there were. He only knew that he was safe for the moment and stopped to take it all in and collect his thoughts and try and figure out what to do next. There were signs of a firefight all around him, hopeless one-sided now mind you. The com system chatter was filled with frantic pleas for help, some of which were abruptly cut off. Not only did Alpha Squad, or at least what was left of it, have to contend with the Minbari, there was also the asteroid field to consider. One mistake either way and they were all dead. Walker just shook his head, "this whole damn war doesn't make sense." ********** At that same moment Deran was also just sitting there taking it all in. He didn't want to fight the Humans, but they had fired first and there was now no turning back. There was nothing to be done. Sure, he issued orders to the effect that they should only fire back with the intent to disable the Earth vessels, but this was war; sometimes even the missed shots hit. There was little doubt as to what the outcome would be. The Humans would lose, but they would put up a valiant effort and for that they were to be commended. The reports he had received so far indicated the same thing, they always put up a valiant effort, but the end result…. Deran was shaken from his reverie when his ship was pounded from behind. "Careless!" He powered up and turned around to face his attacker, all the while still taking shots. "Computer, damage report." "Main drive at 46%, life support at 73%, communications…" He gritted his teeth as his vessel took several more hits before seeing the Earth vessel veer off and disappear from his view and screens. He wouldn't be so careless again… ********** Walker couldn't believe his luck. There was a Minbari vessel just sitting there. "No sense," he thought in tipping his hand so he just opened up with all guns on the unsuspecting vessel, knowing deep down that this was likely the only chance he would get. Several hits were scored on the rear of the vessel. Now THAT seemed to wake up the pilot. He squeezed off a few more shots at the vessel as it powered up and turned about to face him. "The nest is shaken," he said to himself as he peeled off, away from the hornet, hurt and likely very pissed. ********** Deran watched the Earther break off his attack before engaging the drive to pursue. "How could I be so careless," he thought. His carelessness had almost cost him his life. His reactor was near to critical and life support was failing fast. He toggled his com system, at least that still worked. "All vessels, report in." He only half paid attention to the chatter as he was preoccupied with finding that damnable Earth vessel. It had disappeared and wasn't on his scopes which likely meant he was hiding. No sooner had he come to that realization than his ship was hit by several more blasts. "Careless!" ********** Walker couldn't believe his luck. After firing a few more shots at the vessel he broke away, fleeing again. ********** "Life support failure imminent, weapons down, reactor at critical…" "Time for this dance to end." He gave chase to the Earth vessel, determined not to lose it this time, and found that they had unexpectedly joined the rest of the fray, or at least the tail end of it. He watched as one flyer disabled another Earth vessel and heard the pilot mention that that all but the leader were either disabled or destroyed. The rest of the flyers were converging on this position so he had to act fast if he wanted the Earther to survive. He was about to order the Earth vessel to power down when it did something unexpected. ********** Walker did his best to try to shake his pursuer, but he knew that now that he was in his sights, he wasn't going to lose him again, so now it was only a matter of time. So intent on shaking his pursuer was he that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going. One moment he was in the field with just his tail, the next moment the killing zone. He watched helplessly as the last starfighter under his command was disabled. Walker veered his ship to just in front of the disabled fighter. He turned his fighter around to face his pursuers and….surrendered. He knew that himself, along with all the rest, were dead if he continued the fight. Their only chance was to surrender and pray to whatever Gods they believed in that their surrender was accepted. Considering all other attempts at surrender had failed… ********** "This is Lt. Walker to Minbari vessels. We surrender, I repeat, we surrender. I am powering down my craft." ********** "Life support critical, weapons down, reactor at critical…" Deran sat in silence before toggling his com system. "Deran to base. Send up shuttles to pick up the survivors." ********** The sound of silence was deafening to Walker. If they didn't accept… ********** "This is Anla'Shok Val'na Deran to Lt. Walker. We accept your surrender. Support craft are being dispatched to retrieve your pilots. You will power up your vessel and accompany me back. This is your only warning, do not power up your weapon systems." "Roger that, Anla'Shok Val'na Deran. I accept your terms. Powering up." "Anla'Shok? Val'na?" That was new he thought. Walker was in no position to argue or dictate terms. Besides, the longer he was alive, the more information he could gather. ********** -- Jason Krish Ranger(Edmonton) Zeta Squadron #Z1223 It was the Year of Passing Shadows..... The adventures of Captain Cross and crew of the Battlestar In Valen's Name lost in unknown space....