Babylon 5 and its characters with the exception of Epsilon Squad were
created by J. Michael Straczynski and copyrights are held by Warner
Bros and TNT. The characters of Epsilon Squad, as well as the
characters of Rei Ayanami-Miranami and Danielle Asuka Langley are my
own creation. Please ask for my permission to use them in your own
fics.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was created by Project Eva and copyrights are
held by Gainax in Japan and A.D. Vision in the U.S. Please let me know
if there are any other copyright holders for either series I may have
missed, as I'm not out to make any sort of material gain; I'm merely
expressing my interest in both these series. In other words, please
don't sue me.
Author's Notes:
This story takes place during Season 5 of Babylon 5, after #99
"Phoenix Rising" and before #103 "Darkness Ascending."
To make this story work, I took the events in Evangelion and
plopped them into the Babylon 5 universe at the same time as they
actually occurred (2000-2015). The following events occurred in the B5
universe at the same time as in Eva: Episodes 1-24, followed by the
events of the Rebirth and End of Evangelion movies. This story takes
place in 2262. For purposes of this story, episodes 25 and 26 never
happened.
Previously on Babylon 5:
After the Angels are rediscovered on the Rim, The EAS Perry, an
Earthforce Special Operations frigate commanded by Rei Ayanami-Miranami
arrived at Babylon 5 to seek the Interstellar Alliance's help in
dealing with the Angels. She also provided Babylon 5 with all the data
Nerv has on the Angels. Meanwhile Danielle Asuka Langley escaped from
medlab and tracks Rei down, revealing everything in Rei's past was
orchestrated by Nerv. As if this weren't bad enough, the 15th Angel
emerges from the jumpgate and the 11th Angel infects Babylon 5's
computers, sending the station on a buildup to destruction. Danielle
recognizes the 15th Angel and sets out with Eva-02 to deal with it.
Just as an fyi, Part 6 gets rather dark. You have been warned.
Well, enough of the preliminaries, let's get on with it!
Babylon 5: Angels
A Babylon 5 / Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover
by Mark Craig
Part 6 - Angel Attack
Jesa led Epsilon Squad out of the cobra bays and towards the
jumpgate and whatever the hell that was out there. He also noted the
Griffin and Missouri were also launching fighters as his squad joined
up with Zeta and Delta Wings. Jesa got a look at the unexpected and
most unwelcome visitor. I don't know what the hell that thing is, but I
sure as hell don't like it.
"Okay, boys and girls," he said over the comm channel to his
pilots, "stay close until we figure out what the hell we're dealing
with."
"Jesa," Rico called out in Epsilon 7, "there's someone coming out
of the docking bay."
Jesa glanced around. Sure enough a transport was emerging from the
station's main docking bay. Looks like an Earth transport, but I've
never seen one this big before. Still, it's a civilian ship, who the
hell gave it clearance to leave in a combat zone.
"Babylon Control, this is Epsilon Leader. Why is there a civilian
transport leaving in a combat situation?"
No response. The link to Command and Control carried nothing but
silence back to Jesa's Starfury. BabCom must be down, but how could it
be when we're on alert? Something's wrong here. He was about to turn
and approach the transport directly when Lt. Shanna Adams in Epsilon 3
came on the link.
"Commander, this is Epsilon 3. I'm picking up some kind of energy
field around the target."
Jesa turned his attention to the problem at hand. If the civilian
pilot wanted to get himself killed, he might not be too far ahead of
everyone else if they weren't able to stop whatever this thing was.
"What type of energy are we talking about, Shanna?"
"The energy signature matches that of an AT Field," Shanna replied
with forced calm.
An AT Field? Wait a minute, that would only mean... "Shanna,
double-check that. I need to be certain."
"I've checked it three times, Epsilon Leader. I'm reading that
thing is being protected by an AT Field."
"Oh, bloody hell. Epsilon Leader to all Starfury and Thunderbolt
squads, we're reading the target is projecting an AT Field. Please
confirm."
"We're getting the same, Epsilon Leader," replied Lt. Commander
Mitch Skerritt, leader of Zeta Squad.
"So are we," replied Lt. Commander Tom Mosvani, Delta Squad
leader.
"Then this means only one thing: We've got an Angel out here,
people. And that just changed all the rules."
"So this is why that Nerv ship's here," said Lt. Del Tarrant in
Epsilon 5.
"Looks that way, but they're just sitting there. Why aren't they
doing anything?"
"Maybe it's got something to do with the fact we can't contact
Babylon Control," Mosvani said.
"That may be," Jesa said. So Danielle Asuka Langley wasn't
demented or crazy, after all. Maybe this is what she meant when she
said, "Always with Angels will our struggles begin." If so, then we're
in a hell of a lot of trouble. "How far is it from the station?"
"20,000 kilometers and closing," Shanna replied.
"Will our weapons even affect that thing?" Laura asked from
Epsilon 4.
Jesa shook his head. "I don't know, Laura. I just don't know."
Danielle put the ship on automatic when she cleared Babylon 5's
docking bay. She knew something was wrong when communication with
Babylon Control suddenly went out on her, but she didn't have time for
that right now. All that mattered was sending the 15th Angel straight
to hell. She put on the Interface Control Headset, then stripped and
donned the her red plug suit. When she adjusted it for fit, she took
one more look out of the forward view ports. She could see several
squadrons of Starfuries and Thunderbolts start to move in on the Angel,
but she knew it would have its AT Field up. They can't harm it. I don't
think our weapons have advanced enough to damage that particular Angel
with its AT Field up. With a grim expression on her face she went into
the cargo hold and floated up to the white capsule-shaped entry plug
sticking out of the back of the Evangelion's neck. She popped the upper
hatch with a specially designed link and clambered inside the entry
plug. She pulled out an old picture of her ancestor Asuka. "This one's
for you, Asuka. May G'Qeth always be with you." She put the picture
away and closed the hatch. The entry plug thrust itself into position
inside the Eva. She heard a click as the armor portions separated by
the entry plug came back together.
Okay, then, let's get on with it. "Commence activation sequence,"
she said softly. "Establish connection to A-10 nerve. S2 pack on-line
and functioning normally. Initiate LCL injection."
The entry plug filled with the yellow Link Connect Liquid within
moments. She was used to it by now, but it took her quite some time
before she was able to adapt her body to withstand the richly
oxygenated fluid, and even longer before she could stomach its smell of
blood.
"Monitors on-line." She tapped another button on her link and
heard a rush of escaping air as the cargo hold depressurized. Twin
doors overhead slowly opened.
"LCL injection complete. A-10 nerve connection established. Neural
connections checklist clear to 2550, approaching borderline. Neural
connection checklist clear to 2580. Borderline reached. Unit 02 activation complete."
"Confirmed," the ship's on-board computer responded. "Evangelion
Unit 02 activation complete. Synchronization rate: 63.7%"
Danielle guessed as much. Without the computers monitoring the
activation, she would've had no idea what her synch rate was. Still, it
would be more than enough for the task at hand. "Raise Unit 02 to
launch position."
"Confirmed."
The Eva slowly rose in its restraint locks to a vertical position
towering over the transport ship. Danielle could see the Angel in the
forward monitors, an intimidating-looking lightning bolt which not even
the most violent of thunderstorms could ever produce. The Starfuries
and Thunderbolts proceeded on towards it, but doubtless some had seen
her. But that didn't matter any more, either.
"It's fiesta time, Angel," she sneered at the thing. "And you're
the pi�ata."
"Jesa," Rico said suddenly, "I think you should see this."
Jesa glanced back at the transport and his jaw dropped in his
helmet. Standing in the transport's cargo hold was a red and orange
humanoid machine towering some fifteen meters above the ship. An
Evangelion. Well I'll be damned. Who would've believed one of those
would still be around? Especially after they were supposed to have all
been destroyed in Third Impact. But who the hell's piloting it?
"Is that what I think it is?" Laura asked.
"Damn straight," Jesa replied. "It's Eva Unit 02. Out of the
history books and into our laps."
"Oh, hell," Shanna said suddenly, her voice a mix of awe and fear;
the most emotional statement she'd ever made since joining the squad.
And her sentiments perfectly echoed Jesa's own.
Weapons fired lanced out at the Angel from the Missouri's forward
guns. The energy struck the AT Field and bounced harmlessly away.
Missiles from three of the Missouri's Thunderbolts flew at the Angel,
only to harmlessly explode on the AT Field. Soon afterward, the Griffin
opened fire with her forward guns with much the same effect. The rest
of the fighters closed to attack range and they broke formation and
attacked with everything they had, swarming around the Angel like
hornets.
Jesa could tell this was going to be pointless. The AT Field was
just too strong. The answer had to lie in the Eva unit, now several
thousand kliks away between Babylon 5 and the Angel. Jesa also noted
the Angel started moving more towards the Eva unit when it appeared.
Jesa opened the link to Epsilon 2. "Phil, take over here.
Coordinate with the other fighter groups to keep this thing distracted.
Epsilon 3, 4, and 7, with me."
Jesa led Shanna, Laura, and Rico back to the transport and its
cargo, while Lt. Castro in Epsilon 2 took over as head of the squad.
"Release first and second lock bolts," Danielle said. She felt a
slight nudge as both bolts retracted. "Disengage safety locks one
through fifteen."
She tapped another button on the link. Another compartment to her
left in the cargo hold opened, revealing a two-pronged spear which rose
up to the level of the Eva's waist. Danielle gave an evil grin in
expectation.
"Let's see how you like having the longinus spear rammed down your
throat again, Angel!" she said with venom as she grabbed the spear in
the Eva's left hand and thrust herself up and away from the transport.
As she moved away from her transport she noticed four Starfuries
approaching her, including the red Starfury she faced at Proxima-3. She
tensed up but immediately realized he wasn't as important a target as
the Angel.
"Evangelion Unit 02, this is Lt. Commander Jesa Marason of Babylon
5."
That voice! Danielle's mind screamed in recognition. That's the
pilot I met earlier! So he's the pilot of that red Starfury at Proxima-
3. Well, he can be next after I deal with the Angel!
"Something I can do for you, Commander?" Danielle asked acidly
over the open channel.
If Marason was taken aback by her tone, he didn't show it. "We're
just here to provide you with support to attack that Angel out there."
"I don't need help from you, Commander," Danielle gritted. "You
guys will need help from me if we're going to have a chance of beating
this thing. Your weapons cannot penetrate that thing's AT Field."
"So we've noticed," Marason agreed. "But are you aware the Angel
is moving towards you?"
"I'd be disappointed if it didn't," Danielle said. "Look, I don't
need anyone's help to kill this thing, especially from you, Commander.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a job to do. Get in my way, and I'll
shove this longinus spear up where nothing shines."
She angrily closed the channel and kicked on the thrusters. The
Eva shot past the four Starfuries, longinus spear in both hands. She
was ready to go to war with the Angel, oblivious to the attacking
fighters around and in front of her. Now you may deal directly with me,
Angel!
Damn her, Jesa swore to himself, doesn't she know the civil war's
over now? We're supposed to be helping each other out here. To hell
with this. She's going to get our help whether she wants it or not. I'm
not having a civilian go into combat without some fire support, not on
my watch. "Okay, guys, we're still going with the same plan. Epsilon 3,
4, and 7, take flanking positions around the Eva. I'll take point
position."
"Roger that," all three pilots said, and they took off after the
Eva with Jesa leading. They caught up to the unit in seconds. Jesa took
up a spot on the Eva's right, Shanna opposite him, and Rico and Laura
on the rear flanks.
"Lock all weapons on the Angel. Concentrate all fire on one small
spot. If we concentrate enough firepower on that spot, we may be able
to break or at least weaken the AT Field."
"I've got a good lock, Jesa," Rico said. "Right down that thing's
throat."
"So do I," Shanna added.
"Good lock, ready to take the shot," Laura said.
Jesa locked his weapons on the center of the target. He was about
to give the order to open fire when Danielle suddenly came on the link.
"Commander Marason, just what the hell do you think you're doing,"
she demanded over the link.
"Helping you out like I said I would, Danielle," Jesa responded
tartly. "The civil war is over, and we're no longer enemies. I know
what happened at Proxima-3, and I'll apologize for whatever I may have
done when this is all over. This is not the time to be reopening old
wounds like this, my dear. I think we can do some good, but we need to
work together. If we can concentrate all our fire on one spot, we just
may be able to crack that thing's eggshell. At the very least we can
weaken that spot of the AT Field to enable you to finish the job with
the longinus spear."
After a long pause, Danielle finally agreed. "All right, Commander
Marason. Do what you must, but I want to deliver the death blow to the
Angel. I owe my ancestor that much."
Jesa nodded. "Fair enough. We'll just soften it up. You can finish
it off."
"Agreed."
"Epsilon Leader to all fighters, fall back and return to
formations. Concentrate all your fire on one spot. We think it may be
what we need to weaken the AT Field on this thing."
"Will do, Epsilon Leader," said Mosvani in Delta 1.
"You've got it," Skerritt replied in Zeta 1.
"No problem," Castro said in Epsilon 2.
After getting affirmative responses from the rest of the fighter
groups, Jesa saw they were returning to their respective formations.
"All right everyone, hold position about 400 kliks away from the Angel,
target one spot and fire when ready."
"Roger," all the squad leaders said.
"Epsilon 3, 4, and 7, fire at will. I repeat, fire!"
The four Starfuries around Eva-02 opened fire with everything they
had at the very center of the Angel. The other fighter groups began
firing afterwards, concentrating at one spot each. Jesa's group of four
and Eva-02 continued closing on the Angel, firing all the while. Jesa
thought for a moment his four plasma cannons would melt before doing
any damage. 300 kliks to the AT Field, 250, 200, 150. Jesa could feel
the field starting to give. If only his guns would hold out just a
little longer. 100 kliks. The multiple hits were starting to affect the
AT Field. Warning lights began flashing in Jesa's cockpit, indicating
the plasma cannons were overheating. Oh, damn, just a little more. Just
as the cannons gave out from the heat of being fired way too many
times, the AT Field gave, and Jesa's sensors registered a fifteen-inch
gap in the AT Field. Not much, but it's a start. That should be enough
for Eva-02 to thrust the longinus spear into this damn thing and put an
end to this nightmare.
But just as the AT Field gave, Jesa felt something in his mind.
Every instinct told him to get the hell out of there; he'd gotten way
too close. Yet he stayed where he was, facing the Angel and oblivious
to anyone around him. The white light from the Angel bathed him and his
Starfury. Eva-02 had to be close to this thing by now, but the light
was such that Jesa couldn't see it. Fifty kliks. Then the Angel's
counterstroke hit him with a jolt. He knew it couldn't be anything
else. He felt a sharp ping in his head and he slightly winced. He felt
another, and another, as if someone was hitting the inside of his
head with a pick-axe. The Angel, it's got to be the Angel! Jesa thought
before the light overwhelmed him.
"Captain," Lt. Corwin reported with some urgency, "fusion reactor
buildup is accelerating. Pressure now at 65% of maximum tolerance. Core
temperature at 6500 degrees and rising." He checked something else on
his console. "The Angel is trying to take up every last byte of free space in our system."
"It's growing," Rei said. "That's what it did the last time, it
spread through the Magi like wildfire, fully infecting Melchior and
Balthasar before Nerv knew what was happening."
"Okay, Commander," Lochley demanded, "how do you suggest we get
rid of this thing?"
"There's only one way I know of. I only hope there's enough time."
Rei tapped her link. "Ayanami to Perry."
"On-line," Akagi replied. "We're ready to move in and engage the
15th Angel at any time."
"That's a negative, Perry. We've got a bigger problem on-station.
Iruel's infected the core systems on Babylon 5. Contact Nerv
headquarters, use the Gold Channel if you have to, and access Melchior.
I need an immediate tachyon download of the program used to destroy the
11th Angel."
"But Commander, what about the 15th Angel floating outside the
station?"
"Don't worry about that, Lt. Commander. Eva-02 and I will deal
with it."
"Commander-"
"This is not the time to be discussing protocol, Lt. Commander,"
Rei reminded her tersely. "Now contact Nerv headquarters and get that
program. I need it five minutes ago. Once it's downloaded, transfer it
immediately to Captain Lochley's console by direct link. The 11th
Angel's interfering with BabCom and StellarCom is down."
"Understood, Commander," Akagi said finally. "We're on it."
Rei closed the link. "Now all we can hope for is for Nerv to come
through, Captain. I'm going to go out with the other fighters and take
on the Angel outside the station. There's nothing more to do here
except wait, and hope. Once the Perry gets that program, they'll
transfer it directly to your command console here in C and C. Just run
the program and let it do the rest."
"What sort of good can one more fighter do out there?" Lochley
asked.
"With Thunderbolt Omega, plenty. I've got a few extra tricks on it
which should help us."
Lochley nodded. "Good luck, Commander. To all of us."
Rei responded in kind and hurriedly left C&C for the docking bays
and her waiting Thunderbolt.
"Captain," Corwin said again. "Main power is down in Blue-5 and
Brown-7. I've got President Sheridan on the link"
"Understood," Lochley replied, turning back to her console. "Mr.
President, I urge you and Ambassador Delenn to leave Babylon 5 at once.
We've got an Angel hell-bent on killing 250,000 people by overloading
the fusion reactor."
"Our place is here, Captain," Sheridan said in protest. "I'm not
leaving. Neither is Delenn."
"With all due respect, this is not the time for political bravado,
Mr. President. This Angel doesn't particularly care about the
enlightened self-interests of politics. It means to destroy us all."
"Get all the ambassadors off the station first," Sheridan said
after a moment, "then as many of the civilians as possible. I'll keep in contact with our personal shuttle. We will be the last ones to leave."
Lochley sighed in resignation. "Understood. We've already
Commenced evacuations."
As quickly as the light came, it vanished. Jesa saw he was not
where he was before the Angel did whatever it did to him. He was still
in his Starfury, he at least knew that much, floating above a sea of
yellow liquid. A figure hung above the liquid in the distance, a figure
which towered more than twice the width of the Starfury. Jesa felt the
fighter being pulled towards it and tried to turn away from whatever
that was, but to no avail. The controls were apparently frozen.
What the hell is this? Where am I? This has got to be something
the Angel's doing, but what?
He floated on towards the white hanging figure. Time itself seemed
to become meaningless, and as if to prove the point, the Starfury's
chronometer was also frozen, just like all the other controls, in
whatever this nether region was.
"Jesa," said a small voice from what seemed like far away.
He looked around him quickly. "Who's out there? Would someone talk
to me? Who's out there?" He didn't like hearing voices like this he
couldn't identify, especially the ones that seemed to know his name.
A woman floated down in front of the Starfury's canopy, with a
white aura around her. She wore a blue Earthforce uniform with a blue
stat bar indicating she was a pilot like him. She sported long brown
hair wrapped in a ponytail. She smiled upon seeing him. "Do you know
who I am?"
The glow faded enough for Jesa to see her remaining features.
"Jenelle? Jenelle Andrews?" he said uncertainly. "But how?"
She nodded and the Starfury seemed to melt away all around him.
"What the hell's this?" Jesa managed to get out as the fighter somehow
liquefied itself and flowed into the pool of yellow liquid below. Jesa
himself still floated above the pool, drawing closer to both this
person who looked like Jenelle and the hanging figure. Jesa's flight
suit also melted away in much the same fashion as the Starfury did
moments before. Leaving him with only his blue-and-gray pilot's
uniform. He could also smell the stench of fresh blood in the air
around him and he wondered where that was coming from.
"What the hell's going on?" he demanded.
"That will be revealed in time, you of the Lillin."
"Lillin? Who or what are the Lillin?"
"We are all of the Lillin, Jesa," Jenelle replied. "The Lillin is
the very essence of what we are."
"What do you mean 'we?' Who do you speak for, Jenelle?"
"I refer to humanity, of course," she said matter-of-factly. "And
I also refer to the six by three, those you call Angels. I speak for
both because I am both."
This didn't make any sense to Jesa. "What do you want with me?"
"To make you see."
"See what? I don't understand."
"I know, Jesa," she said gently. "I know you don't understand. But
understanding is not necessary. All you must do is see."
They floated on in silence for several moments. Jesa was becoming
more and more unnerved. He knew Jenelle was here, yet he also knew she
wasn't supposed to be anywhere. He himself had seen to that two years
ago. So was he dead, and this was some sort of afterlife? No, that
can't possibly be it, there's no such thing as an afterlife, really.
Not in my view there's not. There's something else going on here, and
that damn Angel's at the center of it.
They got to within a few meters of the hanging figure, and Jesa
could see it had a humanoid torso, its hands nailed to something
putting it in a cruciform pattern. It's seven-eyed black face gave him
a lifeless look he simply couldn't bear to return.
For her part, Jenelle perched herself above the humanoid figure's
head. "Do you recognize this, Jesa?"
It took Jesa a moment to realize what he was seeing, but he slowly
nodded. "Lillith."
"Yes, it is Lillith. The second of the six by three, the one that
merged with the Rei III clone to initiate Third Impact. The one who was
the Keeper of the Lillin, the spirits of the Lillin. The souls of
humanity, if you will. Lillith is known by many names, one for each
nationality and faith on Earth.
"You see, Jesa, I, too, am also known by another name," Jenelle
continued. "You may know it as Ariel."
She's the Angel! Jesa's mind screamed. She's not Jenelle at all!
She just took that form from my own memories! What the hell am I
thinking?!
"Yes, I am the Angel you faced. Now you will see."
Jesa found himself back in his Starfury in the midst of a pitched
battle against ships from President Clark's elite forces. The battle
where Babylon 5 broke away from Earth. No, not this again! He
remembered he had just given the order to his squad to break and
attack. He spotted one fighter in particular charging at him, a
Thunderbolt with a pair of crossed swords on its upper wings. Jenelle? No, why did it have to be her? The Thunderbolt opened fire on him
before he could say anything, and he had to bank away or be destroyed
before this fight really got started. He would recognize Jenelle's
Thunderbolt anywhere, she was posted to the Roanoke the same year he
went to the Churchill. They were so happy for each other. Jenelle was
the only woman Jesa could honestly say he loved. And now it's all come
down to this.
"Jenelle, what the hell are you doing?" he demanded over the link.
"Can't you see Clark's orders are illegal?"
"I am following orders, Jesa," she replied coldly. "Our orders are
to take Babylon 5 and you renegades and that's exactly what we are
going to do. And neither you nor the rest of your traitor friends can
stop us."
The Thunderbolt spun around for another pass at Jesa's Starfury.
Jesa angled away from her and below the Roanoke, leading her on a not-
so-merry chase. Jesa had to quickly veer away to avoid the impact of a
dying Starfury crashing against the Roanoke's central section.
Jenelle's Thunderbolt sent a couple of missiles his way. He
pulled a Horizontal Skid to destroy the projectiles before they could
hit him. Jenelle countered by power-diving right at him, forward cannon
blazing. Jesa pulled a diagonal spin and thrust away again.
"Damn you, Marason, fight me!" Jenelle yelled.
"Jesa," called out Laura D'Amico from Epsilon 4. "I just got two
of them and I'm on my way to you now."
"That's a negative, Laura, this one's going to be on my head. Go
with Epsilon 7 and 9 and provide backup for the Desperadoes."
"Will do, Jesa. Good luck"
He saw two more Thunderbolts from the Roanoke bearing down on him.
He did a Vertical Spiral maneuver and took both of them out. A shot
from Jenelle's Thunderbolt grazed his upper left wing. Jesa felt the
fighter give a slight lurch from the hit.
"Come on, Jenelle, even you've got to see you're carrying out
illegal orders."
"My orders come from the President of the Earth Alliance," Jenelle
responded. "And if Earthforce brands you a traitor and a renegade,
Jesa, then that's what you are in my book. Traitors can't win, Marason.
Don't force me to kill you to prove the point, because I will if I have
to."
The chase led them to directly in front of the Agrippa's launch
bay. Jesa deftly avoided colliding with an emerging Thunderbolt, then
spun away to avoid incoming weapons fire from the destroyer.
"Oh, no you don't. You're not getting away from me, Marason,"
Jenelle snarled, going after him yet again.
"Jenelle, don't be a fool," Jesa cried. "Doesn't what we had mean
anything any more? Don't throw it all away like this."
"What we had?" Jenelle said in contempt. "What we had was only in
your own mind, Jesa."
Jesa whipped the Starfury around again to face two incoming
Starfuries from the Charlotte. He dispatched those with laughable ease
when Jenelle managed to score another grazing hit in the upper right
wing of his Starfury. Two fighters from Babylon 5's Delta Squad
destroyed three Thunderbolts in front of him. Jesa spiraled up to avoid
the exploding fighters, Jenelle right with him. She fired again and
this time hit Jesa in the upper right main thruster. The fighter
shuddered from this latest hit and alarms started going off. Jesa could
see on the fighter's status display the thruster was damaged. Oh,
dammit. He veered left and downward, leading her back towards Babylon 5
itself.
Then he saw a most horrifying sight: The Churchill, in flames from
who knew how many hits, rammed the Roanoke just behind the forward
section. No, oh, NO! The explosion from the collision became the
funeral pyre for hundreds of the crews of both ships. Several of Jesa's
friends were on the Churchill. He winced at the horrifying aftermath
and turned the Starfury away. I've failed you guys, he thought
fleetingly.
"Got you now, Marason!" Jenelle yelled out, cannon blazing again.
Jesa veered off once again, chiding himself for being caught
unawares. This is complete madness! Madness! "Jenelle, don't you see
what's happened?" he demanded.
"I don't care any more, Marason," she replied. "My friends on the
Roanoke are dead, and their blood is on your hands." She started firing
again. "Their vengeance will be mine!"
Jesa took two more hits on the lower wings as he tried to spin
away. I don't think my 'Fury can take much more of this. The Starfury
took another hit from Jenelle's Thunderbolt near the cockpit. Sparks
flew in the cockpit and part of Jesa's helmet visor over his right eye
broke off. He could feel a thin trail of blood start to run down his
cheek. His sensors came back on-line, and Jenelle was on him again. He
turned away, the Starfury losing some of its earlier dexterity. This is
not good, not good at all.
"And so ends the great Jesa Marason," Jenelle said with more than
a hint of arrogance in her voice, diving back down at him. She was
going for the kill this time, and Jesa knew it. "I always knew you
didn't have the courage to fight me. And now you will die for it."
"NO!" Jesa yelled and he turned the Starfury on Jenelle, targeted
the Thunderbolt with all four guns, and opened fire, scoring direct
hits on the Thunderbolt's double cockpit. He could swear he heard her
say, "Thank you, Jesa," in his mind before the Thunderbolt went up in a
billowing explosion.
"Jenelle, NOOOO!" Jesa screamed, tears mixing in with the lightly trickling blood down his face. Then a jumppoint formed nearby. Another
group led by the Charleston cruised in, issuing the orders to surrender
from President Clark. Damn you to hell, Clark, you and all your
puppets. I've lost too much in this fight already, and we're only
getting started. This is for the Churchill, and for Jenelle.
He spun the Starfury around and charged at the Charleston, issuing
a primal scream like he had never done before. He picked off fighters
as they were leaving the launch bays. He fired his last two missiles
into the launch bay itself and scored four additional hits, all bridge
hits. He then moved behind the forward section, blowing off chunks of
the ship as he went by. Fire from it and the other two ships couldn't
stop this one-man assault. Jesa attacked like a man possessed, taking
out weapons batteries, additional fighters, and blowing away additional
chunks from the engine compartments. He just got out of there before
the ship exploded with a light equal to a small sun after a direct hit
near the reactor core. Then in the distance, four Minbari warships
appeared around Babylon 5. After a terse warning from Ambassador
Delenn, the remaining Earthforce ships turned and left.
Jesa suddenly awoke with a start, sitting up and panting heavily,
cold sweat pouring over his body. He looked quickly all around him and
realized he was back in his quarters on Babylon 5. What the hell? Was
all that a dream? Was that Angel a dream? But if it were, how the hell
could it be so real?
He rolled out of bed clad in only boxer shorts and walked slowly
into the living room. "Lights."
His eyes widened in horror when he saw the very friends he lost
from the Churchill standing and sitting in his living room. Jenelle
stood at the head of the group, along with the wild man Mike Reece, the
sharp-tongued Shayna Jaxson, the loud Mitchell Roberts, and the quiet
bookworm-type Bill Miller, all support people for Epsilon Squad lost
when the Churchill rammed the Roanoke. Behind them stood Karl Hampton,
Rachelle Ryalle, and Mitch Karstow, three Starfury pilots who went down
during the Raider campaign in 2257. He led them through an asteroid
field looking for a Raider base in the area when fifteen Raider ships
jumped them. Hampton, Ryalle, and Karstow were all blown away before
they could react, and Jesa only survived by pulling the daredevil Death
Blossom maneuver of spinning his Starfury as rapidly as possible while
blasting away at the enemy.
"You see, Jesa," Jenelle said, "every one of us has but two things
in common: we were all killed in battle, and it was all by your hands.
It's all your fault."
"How could it be?" Jesa demanded. "You think it was my fault the
Churchill rammed the Roanoke? You think it's my fault we got ambushed
by Raiders in that asteroid field in Sector 20? You think the whole
damn civil war with Earth's my fault?"
"You failed us, Jesa," Reece said, his voice sounding as if it was
from beyond the grave. "You failed all of us."
"You were supposed to ensure our survival," Ryalle added. "That's
your job, isn't it? To fly out, fight, and maybe die so the rest of us
can survive?"
"We trusted you," Hampton said, "We trusted you and look where it
got us."
"A punched ticket to oblivion," Karstow added. "Nice going, Jesa."
"Why did you do it?" Miller asked softly. "Why did you betray us?"
"I did not betray anyone," Jesa shot back. "I would never do that
to my friends. You all knew the risks going in. You knew the kinds of
chances we were taking when we decided to oppose Clark. You all agreed
to join Babylon 5 in its secession."
"A little late to be saying that now, isn't it?" Reece said.
"Right, Jesa?"
Jesa turned on Jenelle. "This isn't going to work, Jenelle or
Ariel or whatever you call yourself. I'm not going to fall for your
Angel mind trap, you hear me?"
Jenelle gave a small laugh. "You already have," she said. "I
merely have to close the trap. Come in, Captain."
The door slid open and a balding older man stepped in, he was
about six-foot-two and had a slightly heavyset build. He stood in the
uniform of an Earthforce captain. His voice, too, sounded like it was
from beyond the grave, which for all Jesa knew, it may very well have.
"I don't know you," the man said, "and I'm sure you don't know who
I was. I was Captain William Mancuso of the Earth Alliance cruiser
Charleston, the ship you destroyed when Babylon 5 seceded from Earth.
We came to assist you, and what do we get for it." His voice became
pained. 'We get blown to hell by one Starfury. One Starfury! Yours! You
killed us, Commander! You killed my crew, 400 men and women as loyal to
Earth as you were! Or so we thought."
"You didn't come to help us," Jesa said. "I remember what you said
when you came out of the jumppoint in front of me ordering us to
surrender by order of President Clark. None of this would've happened
if that tyrant weren't in office."
"President Clark is not the issue here, Commander Marason,"
Jenelle broke in harshly. "You are. Captain Mancuso and his crew are
dead. So is Captain Carter's crew on the Roanoke, Captain Hiroshi's
crew on the Churchill, Captain Smith's crew on the Agrippa. All your
fault."
"NO!!" Jesa screamed. "You're not putting this on my head, Angel!
I won't permit it!"
"It's too late for you, Jesa," she said, a touch of pity in her
voice. "Everyone who died on both sides in the civil war with Earth,
their blood is on your hands."
"I'm not hearing this any more, Angel! Get out! All of you, get
the hell out!"
Nobody left him alone; they merely started chanting, "All your
fault, why did you do it?" over and over again.
"Stop this!" Jesa yelled over the chants. But they didn't stop;
they only chanted louder and faster. Jesa put his hands to his ears to
block it out, but it did no good. He could still hear, "All your fault,
why did you do it?" directly in his mind over and over.
"Stop it!" he gritted. Still the chanting droned on drilling into
his skull until finally Jesa could take no more. With a blood-curdling
scream he ran out of his quarters into the corridor.
What he saw outside disconcerted him beyond measure. The hallway
was lined with people, hundreds of them, from both sides of the civil
war. Pilots, command staff, techs, bridge officers, doctors, nurses,
enlisted men. They also took up the same chant that the others spoke.
Jesa realized in his now-tortured mind these were all the people
he himself killed directly or indirectly since Babylon 5's secession
from the Earth Alliance. Quite a sizable group, actually.
Jesa ran down the corridor full speed, screaming all the way,
running down stairs to the Blue Sector central corridor. Still more
people gathered all around him, chanting the same thing over and over.
To make matters worse, all those he left behind followed him, Jenelle
leading the way. Jesa could run no further; the central corridor
was just too crowded. Soon he was completely surrounded by all those
killed in the civil war; they were still incessantly chanting.
Jesa broke into tears at that point and knelt down, clutching his
ears. "Stop it stop it make it stop," he whimpered while his body
racked with pent-up sobs. His eyes flooded with free-flowing tears, he
spotted a lone PPG lying on the deck. Tentatively he reached for the
weapon, feeling some relief in its solidity.
When he took hold of it, the chanting changed to, "Let him go in
peace, let him go in peace," repeating over and over.
He stared at the PPG for a long moment, tears continuing to flow
down his face. Maybe this can put an end to this nightmare, his
tortured mind thought. He started trembling when he powered up the PPG.
The chant once again became louder and faster. He saw the PPG as the
only way out of this. I'm sorry, everyone. If only there was some other
way. He put the PPG to his own head and was about to pull the trigger
when his whole world suddenly turned a blinding white once again.
End Part 6
Comments can be directed via private e-mail to mcanime@swbell.net.
Constructive comments are welcome and will be read. Non-constructive
Flames will be used for PPG target practice.
