Awesome / A Fighting Chance

• The Battle of Jericho has Earthforce defeating and routing a Minbari fleet in a straight battle.
• We know that Sheridan's Moment of Awesome during the Earth-Minbari War had been destroying the Minbari flagship and its escort, and In the Beginning actually shows him destroying the Black Star, but there was no escort. Here we have him shown right after destroying the Black Star, and see he prepared the trap again because he knew that Minbari ship had to have some support that would have come checking. And now we know how he destroyed that escort...
  • Then Jha'dur makes it more awesome by pointing out he just used the same trap the Minbari had used on his squadron, only they used a top of the line warship and excessive planning while he did it with a crippled ship and repurposed missile warheads. Twice. And the Minbari actually hate him for being better than them at their own tricks.
  • And then Joe Tennant and the Nemesis manage to recreate the Minbari's initial ambush even better. His report then stated that they "Had introduced Minbari Society to the concept of 'Irony'."
• Sinclair shooting down a Minbari fighter using an inferior starfury and no sensor, and living to tell the tale.
• The Second Battle of Jericho has Ferguson inflicting a Curb-Stomp Battle on the last pre-war fleet of the Warrior Caste led by Shakiri, showing that, when the unstoppable Minbari warcruisers meet EarthForce's immovable wall of dreadnoughts, the unstoppable Minbari stop.
  It started with EarthForce bombing the Minbari fleet with humongous railguns to force them to charge into the killing zone prepared by Ferguson's fleet.
  Shakiri obliged, and, through the sheer weight of his fleet and firepower, was on the verge of breaking through... At which point the missile ships opened fire, wasting the majority of the surviving ships.
  • One for the Minbari: they nearly broke through. They has suffered early warcruiser losses from the ships equipped with giant railguns, they were being hit from the front by almost two hundred Nova-class dreadnoughts - and a quarter of that force had once shattered a Dilgar Strike Fleet. And the ones that faced the Dilgar were Alpha models, while the ones faced by Shakiri were of the upgraded and more powerful Beta model - and from the sides by hundreds of cruisers and frigates of the latest EarthForce model, and yet, through the sheer sturdiness of their ships, the defense provided by their fusion cannons, the enormous firepower of their neutron cannons, and the discipline of the crews, they resisted as a unified force long enough that the Novas were about to have to stop firing or have their guns overheat and melt. The missiles were fired not because Ferguson wanted to, but because he had to.
• Branmer calling the Grey Council out on their crappy strategic decision making and the Warrior Caste on their tactics (made more painful by pointing out that the Humans were fighting like Valen and beating the Minbari who had forgot how), and forcing them to give him the authority he needs to earn a favourable position for the peace talks.
  • Also, he openly tells of the peace talks in the face of a Grey Council member, and the fact he doesn't correct him is one for Earthforce: nobody since the Shadows had ever given them such a terrible beating that the Minbari should even consider peace talks, never mind being forced to those.
• The Battle of Beta Durani between Branmer's collection of partially trained newbies that knew how to be versatile in battle and EarthForce's reserve fleet led by Hamato is one for both commanders and fleets, ending with Hamato winning on the tactical side by killing more Minbari ships and Branmer scraping a strategic victory by taking down most of the supply dumps. Also, the fact he managed to reach Beta Durani without Earthforce noticing him until too late.
  • Then The Reveal of Branmer's complete strategic victory: in the battle Hamato's fleet exhausted its fuel reserves, and they need them to thwart Branmer's combined fleet (he had a second fleet coming) attacking Earth itself.
    • Made even more complete by the fact EarthForce command cannot concentrate all the ships in the area in Earth orbit: Proxima's shipyards and Mars' industries are possible targets as well, and while it would take only minutes to redeploy the rest of the ships in the Sol system once Branmer has committed himself against either Mars or Earth, Proxima's ships would arrive at Earth after one hour, and Earth's reinforcements to Proxima would take the same time.
• From chapter 14:
  • G'Kar has organized a peace talk between Earth's allies and the Rangers, with a whole Narn elite fleet (complemented by a number of the then brand new G'Quan-class heavy cruisers, capable of giving a Centauri battlecruiser a run for her money) led by G'Kar's own father figure to deter attacks. But what about assassins? Well, Turval, the new leader of the Rangers, brought a bodyguard named Durhan. As soon as Durhan's name is revealed, everybody realized that no assassin would have half a chance of succeeding;
  • Stro'kath and Dar'Sen in the same room, agreeing on what they're gonna do in spite of the memory of the Dilgar War;
  • During the talks, warleader Stro'kath and warmaster Dar'Sen reveal that both Drazi and Dilgar have sent battlegroups to help Earthforce in battle. G'Kar's reaction? He pledges the elite fleet guarding them to the war effort, without permission from the Kha'ri, because it was both the practical and the right thing to do;
  • Joe Tennant admits he's scared of the enemy fleet coming to Earth... And then swears he'll feed Branmer to his ship's guns;
  • Stro'kath and Dar'Sen have admitted that no Drazi or Dilgar ship will reach Earth in time for the Battle of the Line. Jha'dur disagrees, and she's coming to Earth with her flagship as part of Hamato's fleet;
  • This AU's version of the Battle of the Line Speech, with the accompanying scenes:
    • Branmer asking his officers to follow him "into fire, into darkness, into death", and them answering "Yes". This pulls double duty for both the Minbari officers (mostly from the Worker and Religious Castes) and Earthforce: on one side, those words were originally said by Valen as he asked the Grey Council to follow him against the Shadows, so Branmer is openly comparing fighting Earthforce to fighting the worst nightmare of the Minbari; on the other, the officers know well that fighting Earthforce is potentially as lethal as fighting the Shadows, and yet they still follow;
    • Earth's defenders drawing a line in space, not just Earthforce ships and the paramilitary Belt Alliance vessels, but also armed merchantmen and anything that can fly on which their crew managed to strap a gun in time;
    • The core of Hamato's fleet speeding toward Earth in hyperspace alongside Jha'dur's flagship;
    • Sinclair and Catherine Sakai's squadrons taking off in the face of death;
    • The sight of the EAS Nemesis, her scars memories of battles from which she walked out triumphant and the enemy failed to survive;
    • Joe Tennant chanting the Haka in Branmer's face;
    • The ground-based defences of Earth coming on line: wings of aerospace fighters taking off, missile silos opening, gigantic Earth-to-space railguns (who need a single hit to mission-kill a Minbari warship) emerging from their hiding places, ballistic submarines placing themselves into position, and ancient ocean-going warships readying their missile batteries to destroy any debris from orbit and fighters that manage to slip through the Line;
    • And as all this happens and the air raid sirens inform them of the incoming attack, many people on Earth do not seek refuge into shelters or the countryside but look at the sky to see the battle.
• The Battle of the Line. All of it. Including Branmer successfully outmanouvering Earth's defenders (that include Jha'dur and Hamato) but still being halted a moment before his ships could start the Orbital Bombardment by Joe Tennat's Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Second Battle of Cyrus, in which Shakiri, taking advantage of the local force being recalled to Earth for the Battle of the Line, attacks the border worlds again only to meet the Dilgar, Drazi and Narn reinforcements. And for the first time in memory, a Minbari fleet surrenders.
• So far the Centauri, supposedly the master manipulators of the galaxy, have been caught flat-footed by the developments. And yet, Londo manages to obtain from Earth the new advanced sensors and neutrality in a Centauri-Narn war by offering their Artificial Gravity technology and something nobody else can offer: a complete map of Minbari space. All the jump routes, the key worlds, shipyards, logistical hubs, everything.
• The full scope of Jha'dur's manipulation: she took her revenge on the one Drakh that had been trying to manipulate her and the Windswords for trying to kidnap her by setting the Drakh and Sineval (who had executed the kidnapping attempt) to die in the same room at Jha'dur's old home on Omelos in such a way it appeared a genuine incident and then planted data crystals to make it look like the Windswords and the Drakh were collaborating for causing and continuing the war, tipping off the Minbari pacifist faction about it so they would have what they need to end the war while destroying the Windswords for her. And she took care of planting Workers Caste crystals so that Delenn and Branmer would know the truth... And still go through it, sacrificing their honor to her by knowingly lie about the Windswords, who they need out of the way for Minbar's good.
• In the wake of the Battle of the Line, Shakiri tries to take out Earth border colonies... and walks right into a Curb-Stomp Battle with the Dilgar, Drazi, and Narn, who have decided to help the Earth out in their war. Not only is it a curb stomp against Shakiri, his fleet gets taken apart piece by piece, and he actually surrenders his fleet.
  • This allows each of the three governments to take fully intact Minbari ships and share them with Earth.
  • Things have now gotten so bad for the Minbari that they have next to no ships left and are calling up their Protectorate races to fill the line.
• The Dilgar-EarthForce raid on Minbari, led by Jha'dur, has a few:
  • They arrive just as Branmer and the first Protectorate fleet have organized themselves. And the Protectorate crews, never having any stealth, don't need to learn to fight without it. For the first time in the war, "Minbari" forces match Dilgar and humans in sheer skill and fighting spirit.
  • The Minbari are outnumbered, but have the most powerful defense grid in known space, composed of countless satellites and the battlestation Lokka'fi, "Guardian Star". Jha'dur's solution? Mass drivers to the satellites, forcing them to engage the asteroids rather than the warships and Branmer to concentrate his attacks on the Dilgar rather than the small EarthForce squadron (three Explorers, six Omegas, and the Gandiva).
  • EarthForce had had for years the Hyach spinal laser technology, but had been unable to make it work due being unable to copy their advanced cooling technology. The solution: fitting four of them to an Explorer hull, the Gandiva, large enough to house all of them and the required coolant tanks without problems. And that is what they sick on the Guardian Star.
  • The Guardian Star being hit... And obliterating the offending bombardment vessel with an immense fusion cannon. Turns out, the station had been designed to defend Minbar against the Shadows...
    • Still, the Gandiva did damage. Precisely, it vaporized or cut away about a third of the Guardian Star.
  • Sinclair and Ari'shan getting through the Guardian Star's defenses and nuking the fusion cannon right as it was about to fire, crippling the station and allowing the remaining five destroyers to finish it off.
  • Jha'dur's final present to Minbar: her old flagship Vendetta from the Dilgar War, carrying a Shadow Planet Killer missile acquired from the Drakh. And given Minbar's peculiar geology, impact would cause the death of about a third of the planet's population and wreck most of the continent. And making sure that Neroon's attempt at ramming it failed.
  • The Grey Council ramming it with the Valen'tha, at once redeeming their past failures with their very lives and leaving Delenn (who happened to be on Branmer's flagship) as the last survivor.
    • At the start of the battle they had put themselves under Branmer's command, as they had a Warcruiser and the defense of Minbar could well use it. They had learned their humility from the course of the war.
• And the best part about ALL of this is that it's based around something that JMS, creator of the show, once said: Had the Earth Alliance ever broken the Minbari Stealth technology, they would have won the war simply by outproducing them. That's canon.
  • And it shows. The story points out several times that the human's delivering curb stomp battles against incompetent commanders drained the Minbari of much of their ships, meaning that even though the war is barely started, after only a few battles the Warrior Caste only has about a hundred ships left. Meanwhile, Earth Alliance ships still number in the thousands.
  • The story also points out that EA tech is primitive, especially compared to Minbari tech, but it is effective.
  • It's also rather nice to see the EA winning against the Minbari without resorting to crossovers or space magic, just more advanced sensor technology.