From: "Gary Boshears" Subject: "Darkness Wakes" Part V Chapter 17 Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 01:12:57 -0500 Warnings and disclaimers in previous chapters. Chapter Seventeen Space Station Babylon 5 Orbit of Epsilon 3 April 12th, 2272 0645 EST Lochley was starting to consider whether going over reports in her officer was worse than waiting here for Captain Horack. As she had been waiting for close to an hour, her opinion was beginning to change rapidly. Finally, Captain Katherine Horack came walking out of the docking area. Accompianied by a man in an Earth Force uniform who Lochley did not recognize. Lochley walked up to the other Captain and shook her hand. "Welcome to Babylon 5 Captain." Captain Horack was young, especially considering she was the commanding officer of a Warlock class destroyer. "Thank you Captain." She turned to the man at her side. "My first officer, Commander Richard Guthrie." He immediately saluted Lochley, who returned his salute with almost the same speed. "Well Captain," Lochley said as they began walking down the corridor. "What brings you to Babylon 5?" Captain Horack became nervous when Lochley asked that question. It was especially evident in her voice. "I'm not really sure, the orders were sent directly from one of the Joint Chiefs. All they stated was to come here. I'm sure we'll get some other orders soon." She stopped walking and turned to face the Captain. "I trust you wouldn't mind in the mean time my crew taking a little R&R on your station? We've been on the front lines for some time." Lochley smiled. "No problem." With those words and a brief thanks from Horack, the two officers parted ways. Interstellar Alliance Shipyard Gamma One Three Eight Nine Earth Alliance Territory 2 Hours Later The construction supervisor smiled as he looked out into space. The massive shipyard housed sixty Victory Class Destroyers, all in various stages of completion. Twenty were nearly ready to go as soon as the bio-armor had finished melding itself to the hull. Funny how that stuff worked. A small amount would be placed on the hull of a ship and it would, within a relatively small amount of time, grow and cover the entire ship. He contemplated if they would ever be able to fully understand how it worked. For now though, how it worked didn't matter. All that mattered was that it did work. The supervisor continued walking through the corridor, finishing up his cup of coffee on the way to the control center. He was to receive a status update and then conduct inspection tours of several ships which were scheduled to be fully operational soon. Little did he know that he would never make it to the control center. As he walked peacefully, casually through the corridor as he did every day, multiple jump points were forming outside of the shipyard. The three squadrons of Keilmar attack ships opened fire with every weapon they had at their disposal. Slicing into the facility itself and into the ships berthed there. The multitude of defensive turrets on the facility were the first to be targeted. This raid was over quickly as White Star and Hel'Zha patrol flights quickly engaged the attacking ships. They were driven off but the damage was done. Both the construction yard and the ships docked there sustained varying degrees of damage. Worst yet, the Keilmar now knew the defenses of the facility. Space Station Babylon 5 Orbit of Epsilon 3 Twenty Minutes Later "They hit one of our shipyards!" Tessa loudly announced as she entered Taylor's office. Taylor gathered a few things from his desk and started quickly heading for the War Room. "How bad?" "We're not sure. They haven't been able to fully assess the damage yet. Nothing was destroyed but both the facility and the destroyers took some damage." Tessa handed Taylor a preliminary on the attack. It was sketchy at best, containing only very rough information. "They sent three squadrons of gunboats. Caught us off guard." "How?" Taylor sounded decisively confused. Tessa stopped walking and shook her head. "It's like," she stopped suddenly as someone walked by them. Her voice became softer, "it's like they knew our patrol routes. They caught the White Stars and Hel'Zhas on the other side of the system." Taylor started walking again. "There's no way they knew our patrol routes, so let's rule out that possibility." Taylor commented, also keeping his voice quiet. Upon reaching the War Room he turned to face her. "Get me a full report on the damage as soon as possible. I also want a report on what kind of forces that we can commit to a counteroffensive within the next few days." "I'll get on it right away." Tessa said, walking off. Taylor looked at the door in front of him. Another day was beginning. Interstellar Alliance Shipyard Gamma One Three Eight Nine Earth Alliance Territory Forty Minutes Later White Star 67 was the first Alliance ship to arrive on the scene. A scene which was chaotic. Repair bots hurriedly tried to patch the damage which the Keilmar ships had done to the facility. The docking struts which the destroyers were being held in were tangled and broken in multiple places. Ranger Greg Giovoni carefully observed the scene, which was displayed on the holo-viewer. He took a moment to examine the scene with more detail. The Keilmar shouldn't have been able to catch the security patrols out of position by this much. Something wasn't right. He turned to face the Ranger on his right. "Notify control that we're assuming defensive position." Space Station Babylon 5 Orbit of Epsilon 3 Later That Day "We can only pull enough ships away from defensive duties to form a small task force. Earth Force and the Minbari are closest to the area that we'd want to hit. Unfortunately, as their shipyards still aren't running at war time status they can't afford to launch even a hit and run attack." Tessa, for the time, concluded her briefing. Taylor rubbed his head. The headaches had been getting worse lately. "And how come their shipyards aren't at war time status yet?" "All they're saying is that it's proving difficult to spare the necessary personnel and equipment." Taylor stood. The frustration and apparent lack of sleep were obviously getting to him. "They've had months!" He took a moment to calm down. "Have additional ships sent to protect that shipyard. Tell White Star Fleet commanders to continue the hit and run raids against the Keilmar. We're just going to have to hope that those will be enough to keep them off balance." Tessa nodded. "Sir, we need some kind of a major victory. We need to somehow hurt their ability to make war." Taylor became more frustrated. "I know! I know! You've said yourself though that all of their shipyards and manufacturing facilities are too deep in their territory for us to hit without losing an incredible number of ships and personnel. Frankly we can't afford to take many losses at this point." "There has to be something we can do!" Tessa commented. Taylor shook his head. "There isn't. The reality is, right now that we can't hurt them the way we need to." Taylor and Tessa became quiet and went back to staring at the tactical map of the war zone. Interstellar Alliance Shipyard Gamma One Three Eight Nine Earth Alliance Territory Late That Day "Hyperspace probe confirms it sir." The Ranger to Giovoni's right reported. Giovoni tensed and sat completely straight in the command chair of the White Star. He pressed a button on the arm of his chair activating the communication system. "White Star 67 to shipyard control. Our hyperspace probe just picked up a large Keilmar assault fleet on the way here. Over one hundred ships. Estimate that they'll be in here in less than one hour." He deactivated the comm and turned slightly toward the Ranger on his right. "Red alert, man battle stations, full power to all defensive systems, ready weapons." Slowly, in space outside of the shipyard, the defensive ships entered forma tion.