The Space Between the Dark and the Light
EAS Lexington, Battle of the Line.
It happened so quickly, Alpha 7 had discovered a Minbari scouting party.
He was taken out moments later as the scouts targeted his squadron starting with Alpha leader.
“Alpha lead you've got a Minbari on your tail, I'm on him, Targeting fighter” “No stay in formation it could be a- Dear god!”
Right at that moment the entire Minbari fleet jumped in and the slaughter began.
“It's a trap, Michel” “I can take em! I can take em!” “MITCHEL!” “AHHHHHH-”
I vainly tried to get a target lock on the nearest Cruiser but I knew I couldn't with the Minbari's stealth technology, so I let my gunners do the firing while I did my best to keep myself together.
I hear the death cry of my one of my Sisters, the Delgato as she is struck from the side by a Minbari Cruiser, hitting her reactor, all around me the same scene is playing out to across the battl- no, it wasn't a battlefield, that would mean we had a chance at winning... this was a massacre, one we all had volunteered for.
I knew the moment that they took me out of drydock with my repairs unfinished and most of my weapons and engines missing that I was going to my death, but god as my witness I was going to die fighting until I can fight no more and even then I'll still fight.
At that moment I really couldn't do anything, my engines we practically gone and my weapons were being manually controlled by my gunners, so I listened in on the fleet coms, hoping that there was some small bit of good news like one of my fellow ships had destroyed an enemy ship or even destroyed one, but all I heard was the sounds of a losing battle.
“Weapons are out, cores going critical, heading at nearest ship at ramming speed”
“Echo 6 watch your six” “I can't shake him! I can't sha-”
“MY GOD WE'RE DIEING OUT HERE!!”
“How many ships have we lost”
“Are we even hitting anything”
No... we were not hitting anything, we got close but our weapons weren't hitting anything.
But the Minbari were, and I knew that they would soon hit me... I didn't have to wait long as a beam hit me midship tearing through my hull and rupturing my core.
I died just as one of my shots hit a enemy cruiser dead centre, breaking off it's main gun.
As I was reduced to a hunk of molten slag, I felt myself smile.
_______________________
Whitestar 1. Za'ha,dum
Za'Ha'dum, the cursed place where the darkness that plagues the galaxy resides, the homeworld of the Shadows.
And I was just sitting above it with 2 thermonuclear warheads waiting for the Signal for Captain Sheridan that would send me screaming through the atmosphere and into the Capital city of the Shadows... to my death.
I knew the moment that I first came online that I would one day be destroyed in battle, I'm the first ships of my class so it was almost a certainty... but I never though I'd be doing this, striking the Shadows right where it hurt, their homeworld, it was allot to process and more then I'd ever though I'd ever do.
I understood the Captain's plan perfectly, he knew that the person who came to Babylon 5 wasn't his wife anymore but he felt that this was the perfect chance to strike at the Shadows, she knew he wasn't coming back so he made it look like he was accepting their offer, when he was in their city he was going to call me and I'd be a delivery system for a thermonuclear surprise for the Shadows.
Ah, speak of the devil, signal received, starting up countdown, setting course, full burn.
I breached the atmosphere with the scream of tortured hull as my superstructure struggled to hold together, I could detect Shadow vessels rising up to stop me but I knew they couldn't, I was going to fast now, not even I could stop my decent now, I could see the dome of the Shadow City fast approaching, with little else to do but keep up my structural integrity I began to recite the Anla'Shok Credo.
I am a Ranger.
We Walk in the dark places no others will enter.
All around me beams from the city's defence emplacements shot at me, lances of blue light lit up the sky, I avoided every one of them as I continued me rapid decent to the city.
We stand on the bridge, and no one my pass.
We live for the one, we die for the one
My flaming body crashed through the dome of the city with a mighty crash, below on a balcony I saw Captain Sheridan jump into the deep dark abyss below as the thing that was once his wife looked up at me.
Entil'Zha veni!
In Valen's name!
Anna Sheridan and every single Shadows in the city screamed as my count down reached zero.
Burn in Hell you bitch!
_____________________________
Whitestar 2, Battle of sector 300
Beside me I see 56 get blown apart as she tired to make a run on one of the many Advanced Omega Destroyers, her wing-mates finish the job and score direct hits to the offending ship's central hull forcing to to overload and explode, one down, five to go.
Ivanova gave the order for me and my sisters to gather and get into formation, with my sisters on the edges of the formation rotating around the central one and destroying any fighters that got in our path, at first I wondered what the commander was doing, having us fly straight into the oncoming fire and through the Destroyers, then I realised what she was doing and I smiled inside, I knew what she was planing and I liked her style.
I hear and see another two of my sisters go down, 25 and 43, I added them to the already long list of sisters that I had lost and pressed on, many of my sisters had yet to see the strategy and were nervously asking each other what they were doing.
“2, what's the Commander doing” Whitestar 14 to my left asked nervously, even without turning my sensors to her I knew she was shaking erratic as she tended to do when she was nervous “If we keep going this way those destroyers will pick us off”
I sigh at the younger Whitestar's statement, 14 was the replacement for the original 14 who sacrificed herself along with her crew to trick the Shadows into attacking Coriana VII, she'd managed to take out more then 6 Shadow ships before she was destroyed herself making her a legend among us Whitestars along with 1, that gave the poor 14(II) with a lot to live up to.
“Keep in formation kid” I told her “The Commander knows what she's doing and she's never let us down before”
“But what about-” 14 was interrupted as Ivanova give us our orders.
“Brake on my mark........ Brake!”
Moving with the speed and agility that other ships of my type would die to achieve me and my sisters broke formation and spread into different directions leaving the fighters that were pursuing us to crash into each other as they tried to stop and turn after us.
Spinning on the spot we all turned towards the Destroyers and fired our main guns, multiple green beams hit all five of the destroyers, crippling two in the first shot, we all moved at full burn at them firing our neutron and fusion cannons at them, 14 and 11 flanked me as a attacked the lead destroyer our blasts raked across the shadow-hybrid ship's hull igniting plasma fires and explosions all over her. 14 managed to pull away with a hard left but poor 11 got caught in the exploding ship detonation as she tried to skeet over her, she was throw away and exploded just as I flew right past the dying destroyer.
I saw my sisters having the same luck as destroyer after destroyer broke apart, but not without a cost as many of my sisters were destroyed in the attempt, I detect one of the Remaining destroyers trying to escape, destroying 3, my closest sister and fiend, even as Ivanova orders me to finish it off I've ploting a fireing solution.
“You aren't getting away you monster!”
My guns hit the thing hard, creating holes in the black nightmarish armour until it exploded into a shower of sparks and hull fragments.
I cheer just as a piece of hull scrapes pass me sending warning signals throughout my system, I was a minor hit and my repair systems would repair it in no time.
“2 Watchout!” I hear 14 cry.
While I was distracted by the damage to my sensors and engines I fail to see the larger hull fragment until it was too late.
It hits me tearing my left and foreword sections clean off and destroying everything else.
“d-damit.... Destroyed by a piece of debris... how embarrassing” I think as my core shuts down permanently, I bearly hear 14 call my name as everything dissipaters into oblivion.
__________
ISA Victory, Battle of Earth.
I destroy a Drahk Crusier with my foreword guns and and another with my turreted cannon adding two to my tally putting me in the lead over my younger Twin Excalibur.
“That's 13 now Cali” I tease just as I blow away a carrier “Sorry. 14 now, your losing lil sis”
“H-hey, no fair Vicky” Excalibur wined “That was mine!”
“All fair in love and war Little sister” I poked “One sec, Titus you've got a Cruiser coming up on your left” I warned the Warlock to my left as a Whitestar flew over my neck chasing a fighter.
The Warlock sent a hail of PPG and railgun shots at the ugly cruiser ripping it apart.
In that time Excalibur managed to get a triple kill but hitting three ships at once and causing a cain of explosions “HA! 16 to me Vicky, beat that!”
“Oh It. Is. ON!”
“Will you two take this seriously!” the Little Hyperion near me, the Athena, chided “We're in the middle of a battle and you two are acting like a pair of human school children”
“We know that Athena” I defended “We're just keeping score” I say with the hint of a grin.
Athena gives a exasperated sigh “And your meant to be the next generation of Whitestars”
I ignore the grumpy Hyperion as I am given orders to fire on the Massive Death Cloud ahead of me, beside me I see that Cali has just been given the same orders, which was odd as at this range the our shots would just dissipate harmlessly in that big black mass, but It was up to my weapons officer how and on what my weapons were used, so I fired. As expected my beams dissipated harmlessly on the cloud and the skeleton inside, though some of the beams went right through in a gap that looked big enough for both me and Cali to get through with space to spare.
“You see that Vicky” Excalibur asked “It looks like our commanders want us to go in that thing”
“Looks that way, I'm following you in Cali, don't worry, Little sis, I'll watch your back” I assured my younger twin as we sped ahead the fleet and into the swirling blackness that was the Shadow Planet killer, all around us fire and Drakh ships whizzed past us avoiding our arcs of fire, Three Omegas (Apollo, Rio Grande and Nebacnezza) and a Warlock (Delean) had followed us in and were keeping a a wedged formation around us, protecting us from the more heavier enemy fire, Cali was doing her best to return the favour and knock out any ships that got too close to our escort, succeeding most of the time though every so often an enemy ship would get past her barrages and score hits on the hulls of one of the Omegas, the Nebacnezza was already aflame with many of her PPG Turrets nothing but smoking wrecks.
I listened in on the President and the thief lady as they discussed what we needed to hit to kill this monster, Sheridan was at first thinking of targeting the centre node of the Death cloud but the Thief lady was disagreeing saying that the Drakh though like thieves too and if your a thief you know that the valuable stuff isn't hidden in the safe but rather in a box or behind a book next to the safe, which meant that the heavily guarded joint next to the note was the true control centre. Personally I disagreed, I mean If I had any valuable possessions or high military assets I'd put it in the most protected place I could, I shared my views with Calli.
“I don't know...” She said unsure “If I could I would, but I can see the logic if what she means” Cali said as she began to explain, pausing as Nebacnezza's damage finally became too much and the ship went up in a bright flash of light that momentarily disrupting my communications and sensors, effectively muting, blinding and deafening me at the same time, when they came back the Nebacanezza was gone, with only dust and wreckage remained of the proud warship, in response her two sisters increased their rate of fire, not saying anything, to them I guess there was nothing to say, they were use to this... me and Excalibur on the other hand, not so much.
But I reminded myself and Excalibur that we need to focus and we would have time to mourn later, I hear Sheriden and Anderson agree on the target the Thief lady chose and ordered us to advance and fire everything we had at it, I have no problem with this as I unlease every weapon I had at the joint, as does Excalibur.
Aggravatingly nothing gets through with the about of defensive emplacements and ships guarding it.
“Vicky we're not even scratching it” Excalibur reported, her voice thick with concern “There's just too many”
“Don't let up Cali!” I try to encourage her “Just keep shooting, we're bound tAAAAAARGHH!!” I cried out in pain as I take a direct hit to my rear guns causing Cali to call out in worry.
“Vicky are you alright? Speak to me sis are you alright please be alright!”
Trying to put Cali's frantic calls to the back of my mine I try to assess the damage, to my dismay I find that my Rear guns are now just scrap and unsuable “Yes, I'm alright” I lied, not wanting to worry her “Just a scratch, keep firing”
I know that she didn't buy it but didn't press the issue as we listened in on our captains as Anderson put out his plan, Cali would fire her main gun and clear the way for me to fire my main gun, Sheriden seemed scepticle but Anderson convinced him to go along with it, I knew Anderson was lying, that last blast had also knocked out my main gun... which meant we could do only one thing... god help me I'm sorry Cali.
“Vicky? I'm not sure about this, I don't think I can take all of them out In one shot” Excalibur confessed, I put on a brave face and told her that she'd be fine and trust that I would protect her from the monsters, she gives me a somewhat reassured smile and prepared to fire up her gun.
God Cali please don't hate me for this
Excalibur's three engins start to glow as energy gatherd at their tips, the light grew until three lightning like beams for energy errupted from them and hit her nose and was sent forward in a massive beam of energy, most of the Drakh ships and defences were destroyed in and instant while others were heavily damaged, as the beam dissipated Cali began to power down as she started her recharge, putting my sister in a dormant state, quickly as I could I spun up my engines to full burn. Ramming speed.
On my bridge my crew looked ahead with a look of grim determination which I shared, never flinching as I sped through the torrents of fire and flames, we were not bothered by the fire that began to tear into me, I hurt like hell but that didn't matter anymore, I just poured it on, the closer we got to our target the more damage I took, my turreted gun was blown off while my nose and neck section tore itself off due to my speed, my three wings and engines were in tatters and burning and along my path I left parts of me in my wake.
Excalibur was finally waking up and instantly saw to her horror, me battered, broken and aflame hurtling toward my doom, she desperately begged me to stop, to turn around and save myself, but by then it was too late, helm control was gone, I had fire on all decks and my core was already building up for a melt down.
I was already dead... now I was just waiting for it all to end.
“VICTORYYYYYYYYYY!”
The last thing I heard was my sisters frantic cry as I hit the joint and was enveloped in white, and all my pain went away.
____________________
EAS Agamemnon, Black Beast Incident.
We were beaten.
The Whitestars were nothing but floating wrecks now, with very few still active, my sisters Apollo and Alexander were adrift having taken hit's to their weapons, engines and rotation sections.
Excalibur was offline having used her main gun and missed, that thing had hit her several times to keep her disabled then finished off the alliance fleet that had been gathered against it, in it's wake it left hulks of Minbari Sharlins, Vree battle disks, brakiri Battlecruisers and others all littered the still forming bone yard, and at the end of it... was her.
I checked my inventory, my main weapons were down along with my broadside missile silos and my turrets, all my fighters had already been blown out for the sky or retreated to cover my crew as they left in lifepods, I was completely crewless.
I checked over what systems I still had.
Weapons = Offline
Gravity = Offline
Jump Engines = Online
Main engines = Online
Life support = Offline
Automated Repair drones = Offline
So all I've got left are my Engines and Jump Engines? So all I can do is run? To where? The closest place I could get repairs was in the path of that monster... but wait.... do I still have...
Thermonuclear Missile manual detonation = Online
Well the maker that I still had that, I start to formulate a plan in my core, it was a stupid and desperate plan that I was defiantly not going to survive... but if could take this bitch down with me then it would have been worth it.
I wait for the last of my life pods and escape craft to launch before I put my plan into action.
Unlike every ship here I can do something they can't without explicit orders... I can control myself.
I shut down anything that wasn't Engines, Jump Engines and Firing control to reduce my energy profile to the point that it matched that of the derelicts around me, hopefully she thinks I'm one of them long enough for me to get close to her.
I get calls from my Captain James demanding who was still on me and what they though they was doing, but I he scanned me he would discover that there were no life signs, and that I was moving on my own.
I send him a text based message.
“This the the EAS Agamemnon, there is no one on board, what I do I do of my own accord Captain“ I send, trying to keep my signature as low as possible “I will not allow all our effort and sacrifice go in vain”
James sputters in disbelieve while every ships that was still barley functional begin to ask weather I was insane and to angrily telling me to stop before I put every ship in danger, but my next words silence them.
“I will not die without saying goodbye, I have lost too many friends who never got the chance” I say “If they do learn of our nature then so be it, I am tired having to hide who I am, let my actions be what changes things for the better”
My comrade of Earth Force and almost all the active Whitestars showed their approval of my actions, as too did the remaining Minbari, Narn and Centari ships while the others still quietly muttered their disapproval but said nothing else, their respect for me saw to that, that dealt with I listened to James as he finally got over the shock of his ship talking to him, he clears his through “Ahem, sorry I must have been seeing things, did you just say your the Agamemnon” he asks me to which I reply with a simple “Yes” “So your an A.I?” “No” “Simulated intelligence?” “No” “A Spirit that possessed my ship?” “You know my view of you is rapidly diminishing James” I joke “Here I am about to sacrifice myself and your doubting me hrumph! You treat all the girls like this?”
James is rather taken aback by my playful attitude until he clocks on what I just said “Waid did you just say sacrifice yourself?” when I don't answer him he takes that as a yes “You know that ramming that things not going to work, and you're defenceless” he points out “Pull back and we can figure out a plan”
“I have a plan” I say “I still have control over my Jump engines and firing control, I am going to open a jump point right in her path and detonate my nukes, and If I'm right then the resulting detonation should destroy me and her, or at least blow me and her off into hyperspace and off the beacon”
“That's a stupid plan Agamemnon” James tells me clearly not in favour of this plan “Come back, we can work this out, I she sees you you wont stand a chance”
“James, you know I can take anything she can dish out” I say as I approach my target “I'm nearing her now, I just want to say... it's been an honor being your ship Captain, tell John I said the same for him” I hang up before he can say anything, no point making this any harder then it already was, I could see my nemesis dead ahead, the shape of a destroyer as black as night, even with my sensors fully trained on her I still felt like they were about to slip off and lose her just by looking at her, her hull was lined evenly with black spider leg like spikes that gave her look even more menacing then she already was, beams of blue streaked out of her turrets and main guns as she tore a trio of Minbari Cruisers in half like they were dam paper.
The cruisers had given me an opening, while she was busy tearing up their corpses I could sneak up on her until I was close enough to enact my plan.
Making sure I had enough momentum I shut down my main engines and let myself float forward silently, my battered and broken hull helping me to give the image that I was just another derelict ship like I wanted her to think.
That's it... just a little closer...closer....Gottcha
“HEY BITCH, YOU MAKER CALLED!” I blared over the coms to the beast who realised me way too late as I powered up my Jump Engines and armed my nukes, kicking my main engines into full I careered into her side “HE SAID SEE YOU IN HELL!”
“BOOOOOOOOOM”
_____________________________
On a Small planet, way past the vail, sits a large continent, on this continent there is a kingdom made up of creature that younger race's science says shouldn't exist, and in this kingdom there is a small town, and in this small town there is a Apple Farm, and on this Apple Farm lays a small yellow filly with a red mane, locked in the twilight of a nightmare.
Only when the nightmare finally releases it's clutches on the young filly does she wake, and when she does, she screams for her sister.
“APPLEJACK!”
The frantic calls of the young filly eventually brings the pony in question, Applejack, one time barer of the element of Honesty and co-owner of Sweet Apple Acers, comes rushing in, her blond mane bedridden and wild, she rushes over to comfort her younger sibling.
“Shhhhhh, Shhhhh, It's alright now, calm on down there Applebloom”
Applebloom buried her face into her sisters fur and cried for 15 minutes non-stop before she calmed down enough for Applejack to talk to “It happen again didn't it?” she asked softly.
“sniff! Y-yea” Applebloom answered lifting her face up to look at her sister “But there was ah new one”
Applejack holds the young filly close “What was her name?” she asked before quickly adding “If ya ready ta talk a'bout it”
Applebloom nodded slowly “It's a-alright, S-she was hurin badly an her friends an sis's c-couldn't fight, s-so she went on after the thing that did it alone and blew herself up t-ta killit” she explained with a slight stutter “H-her name was-”
__________________________________________
In a small clearing surrounded by massive trees undisturbed by the hooves of pony kind, something begins to stier.
Agamemnon begins to wake.
