Categories > TV > Babylon 5 > Macross: The Rise of Babylon
Chapter 1: ...Out the Other Side
Unknown.
UNS Essex.
Unknown Location.
Captain Maya Konorond staggered and nearly fell as her ship did... something. She thanked her half Zentradi constitution as she forced herself to stand. The red glow of the emergency lights and blaring noise of damage klaxons filled the CIC. Several displays were flickering and a few were cracked; that didn't last long as the smart cables reestablished their connections and even the broken ones managed a picture.
Her crew seemed mostly fine. Auto restraints had snapped out and saved the ones sitting from injuries. Those that had been standing were a little worse for wear and she saw a couple of winces as they stood and a few oddly angle wrists and maybe a bone or two. Admiral Miller was still standing and apparently unfazed, but then nothing seemed to be able to shake him.
"What just happened? And turn that off!" she half shouted over klaxon.
The alarm cut out and the sensor tech, Lieutenant Terry Wu, shrugged helplessly as he fiddled with his controls. "I don't know, sir. Space sorta... twitched when we mis-folded. Made everything fritzy; half the board's out and I've got ghosts all over the other half. I could probably tell you more if we were on an Einstein but-" he cut off as the ship shook from a light hit.
"Evasive now! Full ECM!" Maya screamed and scrambled to the tactical display. "Where did that come from?"
"I don't know, sir. Sensors are still twitchy! Maybe three four ships to port fifteen thousand," Terry said as he scrambled to get something more concrete.
"Pri-Fly says it came from port. Clipped us starboard, just the edge of the deck," Jack said with a slight frown and turned to Lieutenant Paige. "Where's the rest of the fleet?"
"We're spread over a hundred light-years from what the time codes are saying," she said. "Several ships haven't reconnected to FleetNet yet. But, the Kandahar is the closest and that's still at least half an hour out, sir. There's heavy jamming on short range communications."
"This was planned then," Jack murmured and looked at Maya and offered her a bit of a smile. "Looks like it's your show now."
"Right," she nodded decisively and looked at the tactical display, "do we have fighters out yet?"
"They're on the elevators now, sir. Two squadrons are ready now and three more will be in the next ten minutes. That's... That's all we've got. The rest are too damaged or were destroyed," the Tactical Action Officer, Callie Harris, said worriedly. The Essex usually carried three hundred fighters into combat.
"It'll have to do. After they're launched get the techs to drag an AWACs pack topside and mount it so we have something to see with. What about the ASM launchers, Cameron?" Maya asked as she glanced at the fire control station and Lieutenant Commander Cameron June but he shrugged and shook his head.
"We emptied de magazines with dat last barrage 'fore we folded. My guys are reloading 'em but its goin' take at least another ten mints to prep de missiles."
"Don't worry," Jack said. Maya looked at him and saw him nod at the tactical display and the window he was looking at. It was a view from the island, zoomed in on the Essex's upper flight deck, and she could the Thunderbolts getting locked down for launch. "We've got some of the best pilots in the UN, I've made sure of that. We'll get out of this just fine."
...o...o...o...
Unknown.
UNS Essex.
Unknown Location.
Commander Cory Roberts ran around his fighter doing the quickest preflight he had ever done. The engines were clear and hot having flown not ten minutes ago and the grapes had refilled his tanks. A fresh FAST pack, new shield, and weapons had just been mounted; four RMS-5Cs and six AIM-18AIs were tucked under the wings he noted in a part of his mind. There were at least a dozen holes in the wings and the left canard and bits of the fuselage had been chewed off by a burst from a Renegade. Nothing critical, but he wouldn't be doing any atmospheric missions for a while.
He skidded to a stop under the cockpit and with a quick jump caught a handhold and clambered up. As he slid into the seat, the plane was already moving toward the elevator that would take him up to one of the flight decks. Quickly he secured himself, pulling his harness tight and plugging in his life support. After that was done his fingers began a quick dance across the controls and ended on the engine start and with that the powerful thrum of the fusion engines coursed through the fighter as it ascended to the upper deck.
"Call in Diamonds," He said as he checked his instruments. Mostly Greens and a few yellow stress indicators left side behind the cockpit.
"Everyone's good to go, Commander," the 2IC, Hans Fritz, said in his clipped German tones.
"Ya. What took ya' boss? We've been waitin' forever for ya," his wingman, Will Ruther, drawled.
"Wise ass," Cory smirked and switched over to the squadron's command channel. "Whatcha got for me beautiful?" he asked as the elevator stopped and the Thunderbolt rolled out onto the deck. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two greens slip under his plane and the yellow suited CAGO signal him to the number five catapult.
His right MFD winked out and was replaced with the harried face Callie Harris. "Not much, sir. Possibly four ships, maybe more. Shipboard sensors are screwy from what happened with the fold, but the General thinks this was setup. Be careful, you're going solo for a while, Sunliner is going to do CAP, so shoot first and hit hard."
"Solo, huh? I like it," Cory said as he gave the CAGO a thumbs up, grabbed his armrests, and ran a critical eye over his instruments one more time. The yellow spacesuited figure nodded and held stop for a moment before giving thumbs up back.
"Good luck, sir." She offered him a bit of a smile before disappearing just as the CAGO dropped to one knee and pointed down the catapult. It was just an instant before the Thunderbolt leapt forward and Cory was slammed back into his seat, the EM catapult shooting the fighter forward like a bullet.
He was fifty meters off the deck before he grabbed his controls and began to pull left. "Form up Diamondbacks, loose and easy. Intel's spotty: four caps, least, and we're solo so hit 'em where it hurts."
...o...o...o...
14:38 Zulu, December 19, 2246.
Evacuation Convoy, EAS Dauntless.
Altair System, Enroute to JumpGate.
The three remaining evacuation ships made their best speed to the jump gate, but it wasn't enough, the Minbari Sharlin was still bearing down on them.
'And there's not a damn thing I can do,' Captain Amelia Jackson sighed. She shook her head and looked away from the view port. It was all so damn depressing, this impending doom stuff. She sighed again and with a bit of a push she floated over to the sensor station across the bridge.
"Anything on that new ship?" she asked quietly.
The young crewman, Greg Crayson she remembered, shook his head. "Nothing after that potshot that missed us. It drilled them straight on and they started putting out Minbari levels of ECM. I can't track them at all." He hesitated a bit before continuing, "Do you think that they... um..."
"That they might help us? Maybe. We can hope, but that doesn't seem to be the way the universe works." She watched him droop a bit before continuing. "But hey, they might. The Minbari fired first this time."
He chuckled a bit, "Hehe heh, yeah. Hmm," he looked more closely at his console and blinked. "Captain, I think I see some fighters coming from that ship," he said excitedly.
"Really? Alright!" She looked over to the com station, "Can we get a message out to them?"
The com tech shrugged but didn't look up, "Maybe, just short range though. We can't punch through this jamming much further than that." Now he looked at her, skeptically, "But will it do any good? They won't speak English."
She quirked and eyebrow and smirked. "I'm feeling lucky. Send this out: This is the EAS Dauntless. We need assistance, please. The Minbari have already destroyed most of this convoy. Loop that."
...o...o...o...
Unknown.
Diamondback One.
Unknown Location (Altair System).
Cory frowned as his computer kicked up a message for him. "Thi- fzSH the shz Dauntless. We need assistanc- Fszz -ease. The zshShSh -i have shszsh destroyed most of this convoy. This is fazZZz Dauntless. We need-"
Somewhat puzzled, he flicked his com to the squadron's frequency, "Anyone else pick that up?"
"Ya boss. Looks like we gotta' save some people."
"I agree, sir. My gun cams are showing that any forward fire is coming from the rear ship. It seems to be a very different design than the three lead ones."
"Yeah, it looks Zentradi and the others look like some sort of civilian cargo ships," Cory said. He thought carefully for a moment. "This could still be a trap for the Ess. But none of the other shots have come close to her. So, we go in cautious. Break by pairs and don't get hit."
The other pilots acknowledged and Cory flicked back to the channel that the message came over. "Roger that Dauntless. We will intercept."
"Thank you," it was the same woman and relief seemed to pour off the comment.
'I hope I'm not wrong about this,' Cory thought and tried to jamb the throttle farther forward. The Thunderbolts were quickly closing on the bogies when the Zentradi bandit let loose a massive barrage aimed at the third ship. There were no explosions; it just fell apart, the pieces trailing molten globules of hull, wisps of gasses, and flailing bodies. Lots of bodies.
"Ah shit." Cory whispered. "Cut your limiters! Burn out your engines if you have to! We gotta' save these people!" he shouted. Not waiting for a response he slid open the small panel under the throttle armrest and pressed the button it hid.
"Warning, Warning, Reactor Limiters Have Been Removed," the computer said harshly.
"I know," Cory said and pushed the throttle even farther forward. He felt the engines's scream as dangerous amounts of fuel poured into the reaction chambers and the fighter streaked forward on twin trails of plasma. They quickly passed the two civilian ships and finally got a clear shot at the Zentradi ship. It had launched two squadrons of odd three fin fighters that were heading for the Diamondbacks.
"Boss, I ain't getting anything 'cept laser ranging on those bandits," Will said worriedly.
Cory rolled around a beam. "Blow through! The cruiser is the primary target!"
He juked and slipped left just barely dodging the fire from one of the bandits. Going into a long sliding roll that took him past the bandit, giving him a straight shot at the odd Zentradi ship.
"Diamond One, two Magnum," he said and let his RMSs fly.
"Diamond Two, two Magnum," Will said a moment later.
The rest of the squadron got their missiles off as well and they all went straight for the ship. Ignoring the lack of sensor returns, the AI guided missiles homed using just visual data. They slammed into the ship, detonating and throwing it sideways and snapping several of the fins off.
Cory didn't see that, the tri-fin bandits had turned and caught up with his squadron and seemed to be mad about what had just happened to their ship. They swarmed the Diamondbacks and it quickly turned into a massive dogfight.
He rolled into a sharp dive, a tri-fin right behind him. Fire from its cannons just missed his canopy and he juked left evading the second burst. His plane shuddered as the third clipped the right wing. A quick burst from his pulse laser forced it to miss the next shot as it dodged.
Pulling up he switched to gerwalk and went feet first, trying to get above the bandit and shed as much speed as he could. The tri-fin shot under him and he let loose a burst from his gun pod. The shells raked the fighter and shook it but it seemed to not be damaged. It went into a sharp turn and he went fighter trying to follow letting another gun burst rake the fighter and fired four micro missiles. The shells tore into the tail and it was slowing as the micro-missiles struck the fighter and finally destroyed it.
"I can't shake him!" Will said flashing past. He was dodging and juking all over but the bandit on him wasn't giving up.
"Gotcha, Willy," Cory jerked left and rolled down steeply, neutron fire flashing through where he had just been. Another snap roll gave him a clear shot and he let a Super Sidewinder go at the bandit behind Will. The AI missile shot true and slammed into the tri-fin destroying it in a fireball.
And then it was over; the three remaining tri-fins broke back for the cruiser which had managed to turn around. It opened some sort of vortex that the fighters and it vanished into it.
"Huh. Don't see that very often," Will said somewhat stunned.
"Nooo... Any idea what it was?" Cory asked as he turned and lined up on an escape pod.
They had gotten off pretty lightly in the short fight. Despite being out numbered they had lost only two fighters. They had all taken hits, come critical, but they gave a good accounting of themselves.
Cory glided up to the escape pod, shifted to gerwalk, and gently grabbed it.
"You okay, Janna?" he asked softly.
"Little shaken, sir. Nothing's damaged except my fighter and my pride," she said with a laugh.
"Good," he said and shifted the engines back and headed for the two civilian ships.
"Essex, the hostile ship has been chased off. We're bringing two friendlies in," he said tiredly, the hours of fighting, here and in the last system, finally catching up with him.
"Roger, Diamondback One," Callie said. "We were the only ship under attack, Cory, you made the right call. The General complimented you even," she said conspiratorially. "The rest of the fleet is on route here now. We're mounting rescue operations for that one ship now."
"Good, talk to you later," he said and switched back to the channel that the Dauntless had been using. "Dauntless, we will escort you to the Essex now."
"The Essex? Oh, um... Thank you," the woman said sounding somewhat shocked.
"Just doing our job ma'am," he said.
Cory pulled in close to the second ship, close enough to look into a view port. There was a young woman standing with a little girl. He waved at the girl and saw her eyes widen, then little girl waived back excitedly with a huge smile. The woman knelt down and hugged the little girl tightly and he could see the sparkle of teardrops in he eyes. But she was smiling.
Unknown.
UNS Essex.
Unknown Location.
Captain Maya Konorond staggered and nearly fell as her ship did... something. She thanked her half Zentradi constitution as she forced herself to stand. The red glow of the emergency lights and blaring noise of damage klaxons filled the CIC. Several displays were flickering and a few were cracked; that didn't last long as the smart cables reestablished their connections and even the broken ones managed a picture.
Her crew seemed mostly fine. Auto restraints had snapped out and saved the ones sitting from injuries. Those that had been standing were a little worse for wear and she saw a couple of winces as they stood and a few oddly angle wrists and maybe a bone or two. Admiral Miller was still standing and apparently unfazed, but then nothing seemed to be able to shake him.
"What just happened? And turn that off!" she half shouted over klaxon.
The alarm cut out and the sensor tech, Lieutenant Terry Wu, shrugged helplessly as he fiddled with his controls. "I don't know, sir. Space sorta... twitched when we mis-folded. Made everything fritzy; half the board's out and I've got ghosts all over the other half. I could probably tell you more if we were on an Einstein but-" he cut off as the ship shook from a light hit.
"Evasive now! Full ECM!" Maya screamed and scrambled to the tactical display. "Where did that come from?"
"I don't know, sir. Sensors are still twitchy! Maybe three four ships to port fifteen thousand," Terry said as he scrambled to get something more concrete.
"Pri-Fly says it came from port. Clipped us starboard, just the edge of the deck," Jack said with a slight frown and turned to Lieutenant Paige. "Where's the rest of the fleet?"
"We're spread over a hundred light-years from what the time codes are saying," she said. "Several ships haven't reconnected to FleetNet yet. But, the Kandahar is the closest and that's still at least half an hour out, sir. There's heavy jamming on short range communications."
"This was planned then," Jack murmured and looked at Maya and offered her a bit of a smile. "Looks like it's your show now."
"Right," she nodded decisively and looked at the tactical display, "do we have fighters out yet?"
"They're on the elevators now, sir. Two squadrons are ready now and three more will be in the next ten minutes. That's... That's all we've got. The rest are too damaged or were destroyed," the Tactical Action Officer, Callie Harris, said worriedly. The Essex usually carried three hundred fighters into combat.
"It'll have to do. After they're launched get the techs to drag an AWACs pack topside and mount it so we have something to see with. What about the ASM launchers, Cameron?" Maya asked as she glanced at the fire control station and Lieutenant Commander Cameron June but he shrugged and shook his head.
"We emptied de magazines with dat last barrage 'fore we folded. My guys are reloading 'em but its goin' take at least another ten mints to prep de missiles."
"Don't worry," Jack said. Maya looked at him and saw him nod at the tactical display and the window he was looking at. It was a view from the island, zoomed in on the Essex's upper flight deck, and she could the Thunderbolts getting locked down for launch. "We've got some of the best pilots in the UN, I've made sure of that. We'll get out of this just fine."
...o...o...o...
Unknown.
UNS Essex.
Unknown Location.
Commander Cory Roberts ran around his fighter doing the quickest preflight he had ever done. The engines were clear and hot having flown not ten minutes ago and the grapes had refilled his tanks. A fresh FAST pack, new shield, and weapons had just been mounted; four RMS-5Cs and six AIM-18AIs were tucked under the wings he noted in a part of his mind. There were at least a dozen holes in the wings and the left canard and bits of the fuselage had been chewed off by a burst from a Renegade. Nothing critical, but he wouldn't be doing any atmospheric missions for a while.
He skidded to a stop under the cockpit and with a quick jump caught a handhold and clambered up. As he slid into the seat, the plane was already moving toward the elevator that would take him up to one of the flight decks. Quickly he secured himself, pulling his harness tight and plugging in his life support. After that was done his fingers began a quick dance across the controls and ended on the engine start and with that the powerful thrum of the fusion engines coursed through the fighter as it ascended to the upper deck.
"Call in Diamonds," He said as he checked his instruments. Mostly Greens and a few yellow stress indicators left side behind the cockpit.
"Everyone's good to go, Commander," the 2IC, Hans Fritz, said in his clipped German tones.
"Ya. What took ya' boss? We've been waitin' forever for ya," his wingman, Will Ruther, drawled.
"Wise ass," Cory smirked and switched over to the squadron's command channel. "Whatcha got for me beautiful?" he asked as the elevator stopped and the Thunderbolt rolled out onto the deck. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two greens slip under his plane and the yellow suited CAGO signal him to the number five catapult.
His right MFD winked out and was replaced with the harried face Callie Harris. "Not much, sir. Possibly four ships, maybe more. Shipboard sensors are screwy from what happened with the fold, but the General thinks this was setup. Be careful, you're going solo for a while, Sunliner is going to do CAP, so shoot first and hit hard."
"Solo, huh? I like it," Cory said as he gave the CAGO a thumbs up, grabbed his armrests, and ran a critical eye over his instruments one more time. The yellow spacesuited figure nodded and held stop for a moment before giving thumbs up back.
"Good luck, sir." She offered him a bit of a smile before disappearing just as the CAGO dropped to one knee and pointed down the catapult. It was just an instant before the Thunderbolt leapt forward and Cory was slammed back into his seat, the EM catapult shooting the fighter forward like a bullet.
He was fifty meters off the deck before he grabbed his controls and began to pull left. "Form up Diamondbacks, loose and easy. Intel's spotty: four caps, least, and we're solo so hit 'em where it hurts."
...o...o...o...
14:38 Zulu, December 19, 2246.
Evacuation Convoy, EAS Dauntless.
Altair System, Enroute to JumpGate.
The three remaining evacuation ships made their best speed to the jump gate, but it wasn't enough, the Minbari Sharlin was still bearing down on them.
'And there's not a damn thing I can do,' Captain Amelia Jackson sighed. She shook her head and looked away from the view port. It was all so damn depressing, this impending doom stuff. She sighed again and with a bit of a push she floated over to the sensor station across the bridge.
"Anything on that new ship?" she asked quietly.
The young crewman, Greg Crayson she remembered, shook his head. "Nothing after that potshot that missed us. It drilled them straight on and they started putting out Minbari levels of ECM. I can't track them at all." He hesitated a bit before continuing, "Do you think that they... um..."
"That they might help us? Maybe. We can hope, but that doesn't seem to be the way the universe works." She watched him droop a bit before continuing. "But hey, they might. The Minbari fired first this time."
He chuckled a bit, "Hehe heh, yeah. Hmm," he looked more closely at his console and blinked. "Captain, I think I see some fighters coming from that ship," he said excitedly.
"Really? Alright!" She looked over to the com station, "Can we get a message out to them?"
The com tech shrugged but didn't look up, "Maybe, just short range though. We can't punch through this jamming much further than that." Now he looked at her, skeptically, "But will it do any good? They won't speak English."
She quirked and eyebrow and smirked. "I'm feeling lucky. Send this out: This is the EAS Dauntless. We need assistance, please. The Minbari have already destroyed most of this convoy. Loop that."
...o...o...o...
Unknown.
Diamondback One.
Unknown Location (Altair System).
Cory frowned as his computer kicked up a message for him. "Thi- fzSH the shz Dauntless. We need assistanc- Fszz -ease. The zshShSh -i have shszsh destroyed most of this convoy. This is fazZZz Dauntless. We need-"
Somewhat puzzled, he flicked his com to the squadron's frequency, "Anyone else pick that up?"
"Ya boss. Looks like we gotta' save some people."
"I agree, sir. My gun cams are showing that any forward fire is coming from the rear ship. It seems to be a very different design than the three lead ones."
"Yeah, it looks Zentradi and the others look like some sort of civilian cargo ships," Cory said. He thought carefully for a moment. "This could still be a trap for the Ess. But none of the other shots have come close to her. So, we go in cautious. Break by pairs and don't get hit."
The other pilots acknowledged and Cory flicked back to the channel that the message came over. "Roger that Dauntless. We will intercept."
"Thank you," it was the same woman and relief seemed to pour off the comment.
'I hope I'm not wrong about this,' Cory thought and tried to jamb the throttle farther forward. The Thunderbolts were quickly closing on the bogies when the Zentradi bandit let loose a massive barrage aimed at the third ship. There were no explosions; it just fell apart, the pieces trailing molten globules of hull, wisps of gasses, and flailing bodies. Lots of bodies.
"Ah shit." Cory whispered. "Cut your limiters! Burn out your engines if you have to! We gotta' save these people!" he shouted. Not waiting for a response he slid open the small panel under the throttle armrest and pressed the button it hid.
"Warning, Warning, Reactor Limiters Have Been Removed," the computer said harshly.
"I know," Cory said and pushed the throttle even farther forward. He felt the engines's scream as dangerous amounts of fuel poured into the reaction chambers and the fighter streaked forward on twin trails of plasma. They quickly passed the two civilian ships and finally got a clear shot at the Zentradi ship. It had launched two squadrons of odd three fin fighters that were heading for the Diamondbacks.
"Boss, I ain't getting anything 'cept laser ranging on those bandits," Will said worriedly.
Cory rolled around a beam. "Blow through! The cruiser is the primary target!"
He juked and slipped left just barely dodging the fire from one of the bandits. Going into a long sliding roll that took him past the bandit, giving him a straight shot at the odd Zentradi ship.
"Diamond One, two Magnum," he said and let his RMSs fly.
"Diamond Two, two Magnum," Will said a moment later.
The rest of the squadron got their missiles off as well and they all went straight for the ship. Ignoring the lack of sensor returns, the AI guided missiles homed using just visual data. They slammed into the ship, detonating and throwing it sideways and snapping several of the fins off.
Cory didn't see that, the tri-fin bandits had turned and caught up with his squadron and seemed to be mad about what had just happened to their ship. They swarmed the Diamondbacks and it quickly turned into a massive dogfight.
He rolled into a sharp dive, a tri-fin right behind him. Fire from its cannons just missed his canopy and he juked left evading the second burst. His plane shuddered as the third clipped the right wing. A quick burst from his pulse laser forced it to miss the next shot as it dodged.
Pulling up he switched to gerwalk and went feet first, trying to get above the bandit and shed as much speed as he could. The tri-fin shot under him and he let loose a burst from his gun pod. The shells raked the fighter and shook it but it seemed to not be damaged. It went into a sharp turn and he went fighter trying to follow letting another gun burst rake the fighter and fired four micro missiles. The shells tore into the tail and it was slowing as the micro-missiles struck the fighter and finally destroyed it.
"I can't shake him!" Will said flashing past. He was dodging and juking all over but the bandit on him wasn't giving up.
"Gotcha, Willy," Cory jerked left and rolled down steeply, neutron fire flashing through where he had just been. Another snap roll gave him a clear shot and he let a Super Sidewinder go at the bandit behind Will. The AI missile shot true and slammed into the tri-fin destroying it in a fireball.
And then it was over; the three remaining tri-fins broke back for the cruiser which had managed to turn around. It opened some sort of vortex that the fighters and it vanished into it.
"Huh. Don't see that very often," Will said somewhat stunned.
"Nooo... Any idea what it was?" Cory asked as he turned and lined up on an escape pod.
They had gotten off pretty lightly in the short fight. Despite being out numbered they had lost only two fighters. They had all taken hits, come critical, but they gave a good accounting of themselves.
Cory glided up to the escape pod, shifted to gerwalk, and gently grabbed it.
"You okay, Janna?" he asked softly.
"Little shaken, sir. Nothing's damaged except my fighter and my pride," she said with a laugh.
"Good," he said and shifted the engines back and headed for the two civilian ships.
"Essex, the hostile ship has been chased off. We're bringing two friendlies in," he said tiredly, the hours of fighting, here and in the last system, finally catching up with him.
"Roger, Diamondback One," Callie said. "We were the only ship under attack, Cory, you made the right call. The General complimented you even," she said conspiratorially. "The rest of the fleet is on route here now. We're mounting rescue operations for that one ship now."
"Good, talk to you later," he said and switched back to the channel that the Dauntless had been using. "Dauntless, we will escort you to the Essex now."
"The Essex? Oh, um... Thank you," the woman said sounding somewhat shocked.
"Just doing our job ma'am," he said.
Cory pulled in close to the second ship, close enough to look into a view port. There was a young woman standing with a little girl. He waved at the girl and saw her eyes widen, then little girl waived back excitedly with a huge smile. The woman knelt down and hugged the little girl tightly and he could see the sparkle of teardrops in he eyes. But she was smiling.
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