Prelude to the Line

I originally sent this to Wolf 359's writing competition and won second place. Not bad for a first attempt. This was Blackpool 97 and I hadn't seen any 4th season or ItB.
I would appreciate it if no one rips this off without giving me credit.Prelude to the Line

One part of this story is taken from an episode, namely ‘And the sky full of star’. This is not intended to duplicate the story, merely to provide a link to an event.

"This is set just prior to the Battle of the Line"

The massive metallic bulk of the Earthforce Heavy Cruiser 'Ajax' sat in a stable orbit around Earth. Surrounding it was a myriad of vessels, mainly smaller ships, recalled from auxiliary and training positions, while the sleek forms of Starfury fighters ran patrol around the area. This was most of what was left of the Earthforce fleet, the rest having been destroyed in the Earth-Minbari war.

Within the 'Ajax’s' hull preparations were being made. Preparations that could decide the future of the human race. Preparations, that, unknown then, would ultimately result in the fate of the galaxy. In a large airy room hastily converted to a makeshift briefing room, a tired, weary looking General Philip Jefferson addressed the many pilots and crew assembled there for this, the most vital of battles.
"Men", he started, "We have reached a critical point here. Just three days ago, our tracking stations picked up a heavy concentration of Minbari War vessels, their destination is obvious, as they haven’t even bothered to attack any outposts. All we can assume, is this is their final push on Earth. We have a last chance to fend them off and since our R&D boys haven’t come up with anything new that will win the war for us, it’s down to us. Any questions?"
"Sir, how much of the Minbari fleet are we going to meet?" said a young crewman.
There was a grim smile, with absolutely no humour, "Well son, by our best estimates, and taking into account current intelligence, all of them."
"Has Earth Central decided if they will surrender, if we don’t stop them?", a lieutenant asked.
"According to Earth Central, surrender is not on the agenda, besides we don’t know if the Minbari will accept a surrender."
"Any other question? No, good. Time for your assignment. Captain Williams, you’ll take the cruisers 'Fearless' and 'Revenge' out to our defense perimeter. We’ve retrofitted your ships with some armaments that were acquired from the Narn. It should help a little. Try to nail as many of those Minbari as possible before they reach our last defence line. If you feel the need to retreat do so, but do not take the decision lightly. Nothing must breach our final defense line under any condition.”
"Yes sir."
"Captain Enriquez, take the destroyers 'Montgomery', 'Gettysburg', 'Stalingrad', 'Midway', 'Jutland', and 'Trafalgar', and sit some distance back from the cruisers, deploy in a formation that will give you the best field of fire. You will also have some of the lighter Narn weapons fitted to your ships. Same orders apply."
"Sinclair, you will take Alpha squadron, engage their fighters as some of them will try to hit some of the capital ships, but try to hit their cruisers if possible, especially their command ship. Got that?"
"Yes sir." The order shook Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair out of his train of thought. Sinclair had been thinking that despite stinging defeats on all fronts, the people at Earth Central still seemed confident that they could win. Or perhaps that was what they wanted everyone to think. This last battles was ultimately a suicide mission but not to do it would be unthinkable. There was always the possibility, however slim, of success.

The briefing was starting to wind down and the ship and squadron commanders were all leaving to give their men the orders of the day. Sinclair strode out fo the briefing room towards a storage room that now served a new but temporary purpose. It was the ready room for Alpha squadron’s pilots. When Sinclair entered he saw the looks on their faces, "It’s official boys, we meet them tomorrow. So do any last things you have to do. Pray or whatever, some of you might think in spending some time on the simulator as well."
There were groans, "Look, you all knew this was coming. We just have to get on with it. By the way, Mitchell, I know you’re a good pilot, but I don’t want any of your fancy flying out there tomorrow, you’ve been lucky so far, but if I give an order out there, obey it."
"Who wants to live forever, sir?"
"Very true", Sinclair said, "But who wants to die needlessly? I’ll be frank with all of you. There’s a good chance we might not survive tomorrow. I don’t know why, but we can’t target those Minbari fighters properly and as for the cruisers, well, it’s going to be hard getting close enough to one of them to find out. Our priority is to protect our capital ships from attack. Our secondary objective, when, not if, we meet the main Minbari fleet is to destroy or at least cripple their command ship, but what ship that will be I don’t know. The Minbari are hardly going to be obliging enough to mark it for us. We will have some capital ship support in our area, namely the frigate 'Titan', but don’t rely on that too much as our best ships have already been lost. All we can hope for is that we are better pilots. Give them hell boys."
Despite, or perhaps because of his words, Sinclair was not confident. Minbari craft were formidable opponents. The Nial fighters were fast, deadly and heavier armed than Earthforces Starfuries. The Starfuries did have excellent maneuverability on their side, if a pilot was good enough to use it to its full potential. As for the cruiser, Sinclair had only ever heard of one cruiser being destroyed. That was the famed 'Black Star', the pride of the Minbari fleet. It had been destroyed by Captain John Sheridan who had employed an elaborate trick, but there would be no time or resources for such things in the time ahead.

At that same time, the Minbari fleet was in hyperspace en-route to Earth’s solar system. Inside one of the massive strangely organic looking vessels, the mysterious Grey Council were in session. One of the younger members, Delenn, was thinking to herslef, that this conflict seemed somehow, strangely wrong. It was a feeling she had been mulling over for some time and was puzzled by. One of the council members broke her train of thought, "We will be in range of Earth in a short time. We have been monitoring their transmissions and they have assembled what is left of their forces to face us."
"Why?", one said, "It is futile, they will be no more succesful now than they have been bfore. They are finished."
"Perhaps", Delenn replied quietly, "It is because this is their last hope. A species can find enormous strength when they are almost certainly doomed. It is in their nature, they are an impulsive and stubborn people. They have consistently lost, and yet there is no sign that they would surrender. It would not be wise to underestimate the humans. They are now fighting for the ultimate prize, their survival."
"You sound as if you admire them Delenn", said the leader of the council, marked by his ornate staff.
"In a way I do. It is a pity we could not have met under better circumstances."
"You make it sound as if we are at fault, Delenn", said the leader sternly.
"No, I did not mean that. I know the humans fired on us, but maybe it was a mistake."
"The mistake was theirs, and they will pay for it."

Sinclair ran his hands over the fuselage of his sleek Starfury fighter. Although he trusted the mechanics and technicians he like to give his ship a personal check over. He climbed into the familiar cockpit and started the systems.
"Life support systems operational, defence grid operational, defence grid operational, guidance systems operational, Navigational systems operational, weapons systems operational, propulsion and power systems operational", intoned the emotionless voice of the on-board computer.
Satisfied, Sinlair shut the systems back down and exited his fighter. Earlier on in the day Sinclair had set what affairs he could in order. Sending messages to family and friends. If the truth was told Sinclair was scared, damn scared, but he tried not to dwell on the coming battle. He had been practicing in the simulator for a few hours, trying to get reacquainted with deflection shooting. He had not been the only one. This was the only jope they had against the fast. Heavily armed Minbari fighters.
In a matter of hours his squadron would be launching from the 'Ajax' to face the Minbari fleet. Sinclair wondered if the Minbari would obliterate mankind or just force a surrender on them. An announcement came over the ships intercom.
"All pilots to launch bays. Prepare to scramble."
Damn, they were early. The cavernous launch bay became chaotic as pilot rushed to their fighters, Sinclair was one of them. He strapped himself in, powered up his systems, did a quick pre-flight check them communicated with the 'Ajax'.
"Alpha squadron, ready for launch."
"Cleared to launch, Alpha squadron", replied the flight controller.
Sinclair hit a button and the launch bay doors opened and the Starfury was moved into launch position. Sinclair activated his engines, the rest of Alpha squadron followed suit.
"Alpha squadron, rendezvous with the frigate 'Titan' and engage any enemy contacts."
"Roger, control. Alpha squadron out."
The squadron of Starfuries flew in a loose formation, ideal for evasive manuvers in combat. Ahead of them loomed the frigate 'Titan' an old model warship that had until recently, been refitted as a training ship and had seen better days and now formed part of Earth’s last ditch defence.
"Titan, this is Alpha leader, have you any contacts for us?" Sinclair asked.
"Affirmative, Alpha leader, three contacts, closing fast, 'V' formation. Suspect they are fighters."
"Confirmed. Alpha leader to Alpha squadron let’s get them boys!"
The Starfuries closed distance with the cobalt blue Minbari fighters. The lead Minbari opened fire with its heavy concentration of cannons. A Starfury exploded in a bright but brief fireball.
"Alpha leader, we lost Alpha three."
"Confirmed, break and attack."
Sinclair kicked in his maneuvering thrusters and spun his fighter as the Minbari ships flew past. He increased throttle and pursued the leader. Pressing down the firing stud, the Minbari fighter rolled at the last moment, and evaded his fire. The leader was starting an attack run on the 'Titan', but every time Sinclair fired on the fighter it evaded his shots, until two missiles streamed at high speed from the Minari fighter towards the frigate. The Minbari fighter swept up, presenting a clear target to Sinclair. One burst melted the fighters engines, while the other ruptured his fuselage. Relieved that he had finally got his first kill, Sinclair tersely, "Alpha Four, Alpha Six, take the remaining fighters. I’ll try to target those missiles."
The enemy missile were not a fast target, but Sinclair found that his targetting computer would not acquire a lock. Even so he tried to hit the missiles, and succeeded in destroying one, but by this time the other was too far away.
The missile hit the 'Titan' square on its’ engines causing a large explosion, and ripping a huge chunk out of its’ hull. The 'Titan' heeled to port and began to tumble, entering what surely must have been its death throes.
"Mayday, Mayday, this it the 'Titan', extensive damage, no power, need help, all hands abandon ship, repeat...........", there was a burst of static and at that the frigate erupted in a large blast as the main reactor achieved critical mass.
"Control, we’ve lost the 'Titan', we need reinforcements" , Sinclair said desperately, they were totally without capital ship cover now and the bulk of the Minbari fleet could not be far off now.
"Ah, negative, Alpha leader, no reinforcements available", said control.
"Why the hell not? We need cover here, we won’t last five minutes if those cruisers turn up", shouted Sinclair.
"All ships are at their respective positions, no reserves available", replied the controller, "Sorry", he added.
"Me too. OK Alpha squadron, report in."
Sinclair analysed the damage reports from his wingmen, they had lost one fighter and others had light damage which wasn’t bad, but the worst was yet to come.

Delenn looked at the holographic battle chart in the dimness of the council chamber. Only herself and another Minbari were present. The council would reassemble when the end was near. She still had an instinct that something wasn’t quite right. This bothered her since Minbari generally led ordered lives and paid no heed to instincts.
"How does the battle go?", she asked the othe council member, the one called Neklann.
"The Earthmen have lost many fighter craft and several larger ships. Their battle communications indicate that they have no reserves. We are winning Delenn.."
"That was obvious a long time ago, Neklann. They have not transmitted a surrender?"
"No, and they are not likely to. It is as you said. They are a tenacious people", Neklann mused that Delenn seemed to have an almost unhealthy interest in these Earthmen. "Take heart, this war will soon be over, that is something we can be glad about."
"After seeing all the blood spilled over the last two years, I don’t think war will ever make me glad, Neklann."
Neklann magnified a section of the map, showing clearly a number of Starfury fighters, "It is curious however, three of our fighter craft engaged this squadron of enemy fighters, here, and we took out their picket ships. The Earth fighter squadron present destroyed out fighter with only one loss to themselves. That shows skilled leadership and piloting. Maybe you are right, they wil not be so easy to beat as we thought?." Neklanns tone showed grudging respect.
"Maybe the Earthmen have finally developed a way to target our ships?" asked Delenn.
"I don’t think so", replied Neklann, "Even if they have, it is too little, too late. The end is after all, the end."
"I think we should keep track of this squadron, there is something interesting about them", said Delenn.
Neklann looked at her, curious, "You will have the chance to find out soon enough, they will meet us very soon. Then we will see how good they are."
At that moment the rest of the council filed into the chamber. "It will soon be time", Neklann said in anticipation.

"Contact report. Six enemy craft closing, echelon formation."
"Confirmed, Alpha eight. Break formation, choose your targets. Watch for reinforcements."
The Minbari fighters sped toward the Earth craft and Sinclair pressed the firing stud on his joystick and twin cannon fire destroyed one of the leading Minari fighters. Sinclair then threw his fighter into a tight dive and avoided the weapon fire of the Minbari fighter that tried to avenge their dead comrade.
"Alpha leader, do you need help.?"
"Would appreciate it, Mitchell, try to get this bandit off my tail would you."
"A-OK."
Sinclair then tried a turn then rolled hard to the left to avoid any enemy fire. Just as he was sre that the enemy ship would destroy him, Mitchell banked in behind the Minbari and destroyed him.
"Thanks Mitchell."
"Anytime."
Alpha squadron finished off the last of the Minbari fighters, but suffered two more casualties.
"Multiple contacts, dead ahead" said Sinlair.
Look out Alpha seven."
One of the outer fighters in the formation was hit by an enemy fighter.
"Alpha seven, Alpha leader, I’m hit."
"Pull out, pull out."
There was a bright explosion as the fighter disintegrated.
"Alpha seven."
"He’s gone, picking up enemy transmissions" said Mitchell.
"Stay in formation, hold the line, no one gets through, no matter what."
"Understood", Mitchell responded.
"Alpha leader, you have a Minbari on your tail."
The same Minbari fighter that had destroyed Alpha seven streaked in behind Sinclairs’ Starfury and opened fire with its front cannons.
"I’m on him, targetting fighter.", Mitchell sad as he broke formation.
"No, Mitchell. Stay in formation, it might be a-, oh my god."

[i]Sinclair looked up and saw a sky full of star, the Minbari fleet was ahead in all its’ terrible glory. Minbari cruisers blotted out the sun.[/i]



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Pilot Officer Anla'Shok D. Nicol
Wingman
1st Squadron RSF
the NEW BRITISH EMPIRE
Second to None.
"If you value your lives, be somewhere else" - Delenn