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BABYLON 5 WAR COLLECTIONS
BABYLON 5 WAR COLLECTIONS
Babylon 5 War Collections: Earth Minbari War: The Battle of the Line The war was provoked by an Earth Alliance task force led by Captain Michael Jankowski aboard the warship EAS (Earth Alliance Ship) Prometheus, engaged on a mission to investigate the Minbari, an alien race known to Earth only through stories from other races. Unfortunately, being fresh from their victory over the Dilgar, EarthForce Command arrogantly ignored Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari's advice to take a cautious approach; Londo recommended that Earth send only one ship into Minbari space so as not to appear hostile. Instead, EarthForce arranged for an expedition fleet of several large warships, including the Prometheus. During the expedition, the Prometheus and her escorts encountered three Minbari cruisers, one of which was carrying the Grey Council, the highest echelon of Minbari society. The Grey Council was en route to investigate reports of sightings of their ancient enemy, the Shadows. Although Jankowski had been given strict orders to not do anything which might be perceived as hostile, Jankowski disobeyed the orders and refused to jump to hyperspace when the Minbari spotted his fleet. He thought that by waiting to the last possible moment to jump he could gain valuable sensor information about the Minbari cruisers, and this would lead to a promotion and medals from a grateful EarthForce Command. When he finally did decide to flee, it was too late. Upon seeing the Earth vessels, the Minbari cruisers opened their gunports as a sign of respect and strength - an old Minbari custom that the Humans were unaware of. Dukhat, leader of the Grey Council, realized the error and ordered the gunports closed - but too late. Captain Jankowski misinterpreted the gesture as a sign of hostility, an impression compounded by the fact that the powerful sensors of the Minbari cruisers accidentally disabled the Prometheus' jump engines, thus preventing the ship from jumping to hyperspace and escaping. The captain had been told by his first officer that his vessel's jump engines had malfunctioned and that the weapons on the Minbari cruisers were "hot" (active), although this was not the case - although the gun ports were indeed open, the weapons systems were not online, and EarthForce's relatively primitive technology did not allow them to scan the Minbari vessels' internal systems to realise this. Still, believing the Earth fleet was in danger of imminent attack, Jankowski panicked and opened fire on the Minbari ships, scoring a critical direct hit on the cruiser carrying the Council. Dukhat was killed and his protege Delenn, in a fit of rage, cast the deciding vote on the Council to wage a war of vengeance against Earth. However, the war of vengeance quickly turned into a holy crusade by the Minbari to exterminate humanity. The Earth Alliance made frantic efforts to present official apologies to the Minbari through all possible diplomatic channels, and tried to obtain help (military or diplomatic) from neutral alien races such as the Centauri. However, no alien race wanted to incur the wrath of the awesome Minbari military, and so Earth was left to fight alone. Although races like the Narns were willing to do business secretly, the supplies available were insufficient for Earth military needs. Author: rantamaki Keywords: B5 earth minbari war battle of the line in beginning gray council commander sheridan satai delen prometheus sinclair Added: April 10, 2008
YouTube | April 10, 2008
