Sorceress meets Andromeda

First Strike

It is the year 2270, the Drakh plague has been defeated and Earth Force is on the offensive. The EFNI had found many of the Drakh's main bases of operation earlier at the end of June and now the main fleet was ready for the biggest counter offensive of its time. Many fleets of ships were split up into Battle Groups; one of these was the Sorceress Battle Group. Centred upon a third generation, and currently only one of her kind in active service, of Warlock class destroyers, the EAS Sorceress.

Redesigned to be more independent than the last two generations, she carries a number of new technologies like a Ram Scoop mounted just forward and below the main engineering hull to collect deuterium from gas giants for her fusion reactors, a new AI system which is made possible due to recent advances in programming and getting access to some Minbari AI tech, called Morgana Le Faye or just Morgana as she's called by her crew. The AI is mostly responsible for navigation and weapons management, including missile guidance.

The Sorceress Battle Group, consisting of the Sorceress itself, two Nova dreadnoughts, four Omega class destroyers and ten Olympus class corvettes, are now moving through Hyperspace towards its target, staying just off the beacon to avoid detection thanks to the advanced scanners of the White Star squadron accompanying the Battle Group. The Captain, Alexei Denisov, a very large man of Russian descent with a full beard, came onto the bridge and asked for a status report from his xo.

"We're just off the beacon sir, according to our White Star escort we're only ten minutes from the target," reported Commander David Corwin. After serving on Babylon 5 for nearly ten years as executive officer he transferred back into the fleet, mainly because he'd had enough of B5 and the endless stress of dealing with bickering diplomats until he finally became almost as cranky as a certain Russian who used to be xo.

"Very good. Tactical, did you get the latest intel from the Rangers yet?"

"Yes sir," answered the Tactical officer, Lieutenant Cmdr Sarah Maxwell. "We should be facing a Single Drakh Mothership and a garrison force of approximately fifteen cruisers and two carriers, both with full complements of gun ships."

"Helm continue on course, stay with the White Star squadron, and remember the plan," the captain ordered in his rough Russian voice.

Space was quiet in orbit of the former Centauri colony, long abandoned due to over mining, the Drakh set up shop here because it was relatively close to Earth space. The Drakh Mothership was currently in orbit around the planet functioning as a fleet base with a large number of its ships that normally would be carried inside it were outside in dry dock being repaired or stripped for spare parts.

The peace was disturbed by the opening of twenty jump points, a squadron of White Stars coming out guns blazing, striking at the Drakh Carriers and their Gunships. The attack had thrown the Drakh into complete chaos which was only increased when the Earth Force fleet jumped in.

Captain Denisov looked at the chaos created by the White Stars and commenced his part of the plan.

"Remove all safeties from the nukes and prepare for full bombardment on those shipyards, make sure we get everyone of those bastards," he said with the fury of a Russian bear. The crew moved quickly to comply. Everyone was looking forward to the fireworks; they would finally be able to get some real payback for what they had tried to do to Earth.

The Sorceress' missile batteries spewed out a full barrage of nuclear tipped missiles, a small number of Blue Phoenix missiles with multiple terminal attack vehicles and large numbers Shillelagh single-shot antiship missiles. The nukes moved swiftly and unmolested, guided by Morgana, the Drakh kept busy by the White Stars, their hatred for anything Vorlon clouding their mind to the danger until it was too late. Only a few Drakh gunships managed to shoot at the missiles and only two were shot down, detonating prematurely causing only minimal damage. The rest flew straight and true, impacting the shipyards and vaporizing them in a blaze of nuclear fire.

This was when Murphy's Law came into play.

"Captain, the Drakh Mothership was not destroyed by the bombardment, she's still intact," reported Maxwell from tactical, annoyed that the new AI guidance system didn't work properly.

"Damn, get me a targeting solution for that ship, we have to take it out," said the captain, rightfully fearing that the Drakh Mothership probably had plenty of ships left inside ready for combat, and today his fears were to be proven right.

Ships came pouring out of the Mothership, Gunships and Cruisers coming out screaming for blood, human blood, fifteen Cruisers and thirty-five Gunships came out, more than a match for the combined ISA\Earth Force Battle Group. The Omega class Destroyers were still heavily engaged with the Drakh garrison forces and more kept coming, slamming into a firestorm of plasma and laser fire, the Novas Bismarck and Hood, working in tandem with their Olympus escorts, were gutting Cruisers left, right and centre and destroying Gunships so fast that the crews barely had time to blink. Starfuries were flying all over the place, engaging Drakh Gunships and Cruisers, taking the pressure of the beleaguered Battle Group.

On the bridge of the Sorceress, the Captain was not having a good day, he had lost three of his Corvettes and two White Stars had to withdraw for repairs, making his job that little bit harder. His ships were getting pounded from almost every angle.

"Sir, we may have to retreat, we have achieved the primary mission objective, its not worth sacrificing our people, just to get another few ship who no longer have a shipyard to go to," said Commander Corwin, worrying about the ships crew.

The Captain looked long and hard into his xo's eyes, searching for any hint of cowardice; he found none, only a sense of duty.

"Very well," the captain said with great distaste. He never like running from a fight. "We still need to take out that Mothership or they will just continue to build more ships and attack us again and again, and I think I have an idea."

"Time to take a page out of the Minbari's own book," he thought.

"Morgana, can you open a Jump Point inside or at least very close to the Drakh Mothership?"

"It's possible, but we'd need to get closer for the Jump Point to form where we want it," said the AI in a cold and clinical voice.

"Send these orders by micro burst to the Bismarck and Hood, let's see if we can scrounge ourselves some extra firepower."

The orders were sent and the Dreadnoughts Bismarck and Hood with their escorts joined up with the Sorceress and her escorts for their final push to destroy the Drakh Mothership. They formed up into a triangular formation with the Sorceress at the head, the Novas taking the flanks, with the Corvettes spread in between to stop incoming gunships.

"Drakh cruiser closing dead ahead," reported Maxwell, powering up the G. for firing.

"Main guns, FIRE,"

Two blood red beams fired from the Sorceress's G.O.D.'s, slicing through the Drakh ships armour and hitting its reactors, blowing it into its component atoms, opening up a hole in the Drakh line. The Novas, Bismarck taking the port flank while Hood took starboard, concentrated on taking out the cruisers on the flanks with heavy plasma cannon fire, turning several of them into burning wrecks. Bismarck made a slight turn, still maintaining its course, but in the process opened up it's A-arcs, meaning turning the ship so that the ships plasma cannons had a clear shot between turrets, so that the two Drakh Cruisers Bismarck had targeted were hit with multiple turrets each. Hood meanwhile fired all of its forward mounted heavy weapons, including its plasma mortars and heavy q-spoiling laser, concentrating fire on one target at a time, with her other side mounted heavy plasma cannons exchanging broadsides with any ship that came up on her starboard side.

"Maintain course,"

"Incomings heavy, sir," reported Commander Corwin. "We won't last long if this keeps up."

The Drakh redoubled their defensive fire, destroying another corvette, while Sorceress opened up with her hybrid pulse/beam turrets and Rail guns. Particle beams slicing deep into Drakh hull and tightly packed plasma bolts from the pulse cannons widened the rents made in the armour and causing horrific internal damage. Three Drakh cruisers formed up and fired their main guns, overcharging them to, almost, the point of meltdown, hitting the Bismarck and raking across her port side destroying almost all of her port guns and piercing the heavy armour, only emergency bulkheads and internal armour saved her from complete destruction.

"Bismarck's been hit," reported Cmdr Corwin.

"How bad?" asked the captain.

"Heavy damage along her port side, she's lost most of her port batteries, but still able to fight."

Bismarck initiated a slow roll, bringing her starboard batteries to bear on her tormentors, and in that second of waiting for death, the Drakh captains thought, "Oh Shit."

Bismarck fired her remaining arsenal of plasma batteries, overcharging the guns slightly, blue white pulses of plasma slamming straight into the bows of the Drakh cruisers, pounding them into scrap with the fury of a Titan.

After that overwhelming display of firepower and showing the Drakh why it's a stupid idea to piss off a Nova, the Omega group finally manage to link up again with the Sorceress, the Destroyers Juno, Galahad and Artemis. All three had received battle scars, but showed them proudly. The Juno joined up with the Bismarck to lend a hand and provide some extra protection against further attacks. Galahad formed up with the Sorceress and Artemis joined up with the Hood, and lent their considerable firepower to the offensive, stabbing out with angry red beams followed by a series of plasma bursts from their guns, alternatively slashing and pounding the Drakh,

"We're now in range captain, I can open a Jump point right in the centre of the Drakh ship if you want me too?" said Morgana.

"Open a channel to the fleet," the captain ordered. "All ships, standby to activate your jump engines, Hood and Bismarck will follow us into our jump point. White Star squadron and Omegas activate your jump engines as soon as our jump point has formed, we're about to attempt the bonehead manoeuvre so push your sub-light engines to maximum burn and get into hyperspace, and brace for debris." He closed the channel.

"Now, Morgana, send those bastards to hell."

"Activating Jump engines," she said. The Jump Engines activated, opening up a Jump Point right in the centre of the Drakh Mothership, tearing it from the inside out, vaporizing the ships reactors before they could go critical, spreading out debris all over the area impacting several Drakh Cruisers, some destroyed, others damaged and many more gunships got caught by fast flying debris, instantly destroying them like a swatted bug.

Two Drakh Cruisers came out of the debris field, like two stalking cats waiting for its prey, from the recently destroyed shipyard. This shipyard wasn't only a repair and maintenance facility, it was also a research centre for testing out Shadow Tech, and one of the Drakh Cruisers was equipped with a very special weapon. As the Jump Point destroys the Mothership the Cruiser fires, a powerful energy pulse straight into the Sorceress's Jump Point, destabilizing it so that it would destroy any ship that went through would be destroyed.

"Captain, a Drakh Cruiser fired something into the Jump Point, its collapsing it," reported Maxwell.

"Pull back, full reverse thrust now…"

"It's too late we're caught in the vortex, wait Morgana's attempting to stabilize the Jump Point."

Morgana just managed to stabilize the Jump Point for a safe Jump, allowing all three ships to enter without destroying themselves. The ships crossed the boundary between normal space and what they thought was Hyperspace. Inside the ships the crew began to feel the effects. It began to shake and the g-forces increased slightly, like it normally does when you jump. The shaking and g-forces increased exponentially, way beyond any normal jump, even on zero-g ships, the people that were not strapped down were thrown all over the place, like balls in a pinball machine, the stresses on the ships increasing more and more. If the crew could see outside they wouldn't find the usual chaotic red and stormy Hyperspace, they would see a long swirling tunnel with no end in sight. The ships that entered followed the tunnel, making sharp twists and turns, straining the ships structural integrity to maximum, almost to breaking point.

Morgana watched as her crew, suffered under the g-forces, knowing that several crewmembers were dead or dying she thought of the only thing she could do. Following one of her main directives, one of them was to safeguard the crew at all costs. It used all of the ships remaining power and opened another Jump point, hoping, if an AI was capable of hoping, that they would be spat out of this insane rollercoaster ride and end up back in either Hyperspace or Normal space. Unfortunately since the Jump engines had no time to cool down they overheated, causing various power-surges throughout the ship, one of them overloaded the computer core and destroyed it, destroying Morgana in the process. The three ships dropped out of the tunnel and into normal space, all tumbling end over end. Automatic stabilisers kicked in, slowing their crazy tumble.

Not far away a ship observed the Jump Point and witnessed the ships tumbling out of it. It set a course, the crew not knowing what they would find…