Surrender of Narn.

To be honest, he had never really held out much hope for the Narns winning against the Centauri in the first place; at first, he thought they might've had some hope, but it was only a passing thought Sheridan knew enough about Centauri technology to know the peacock-haired aliens were much more powerful than the Narns expected.

War had always been on the cards between the Narns and the Centauri; the Narns had longed to make the Centauri pay for the one-hundred years of occupation wrought on them, an occupation which had seen their world, once a rich, lush planet virtually a desert. The Centauri had stripped away so much of Narn, wiping out so much native flora and fauna because they believed the planet was their's by right. They had massacred hundreds of Narns over the century they had been there, and it made sense many Narns had come to hate the Centauri, even those born in later generations who had never experienced the final years of oppression only Sheridan had little idea if it was peer pressure or the stories of what the Centauri had left the Narn survivors which had made them so angry in the first place.

Yeah, the war had always been on the cards.

And the Narn had lost. They had gone out of their way to fight the Centauri, but the problem was while their fleet might have looked impressive, and they might have won little victories over the years-long before the war was even declared, but Sheridan and every single person in Earthforce, the Minbari Federation, and every other major power who kept notice knew the Narns had only won those little victories because the Centauri colonies and outposts were poorly defended. Deep down the Narn had known there was a small chance they could win.

The Centauri fleet was larger than the Narns, and they had a greater technological advantage - Sheridan knew enough about Narn history to know while the Narns had found a shipyard in the Narn home system, even the Centauri at their most decadent would not have left any of their more advanced technology laying around. The Narns, like Earth, did not have access to artificial gravity of the kind employed by the Abbai, the Vree, or the Minbari.

The destruction of the Quadrant 37 and the loss of their colony in Quadrant 14 hadn't helped, and the loss of so many Narns during both events had left the Regime's resources stretched, and for a moment Sheridan wondered what would have happened had the Regime had access to some of those soldiers and ships.

Would they have been able to go on the defensive?

If the Narns had looked at the loss of Quadrant 37, should they have gone a different way, and colonised systems light years away from that part of the galaxy? If they had, would they have found greater resources and spread themselves out, and would they have had a chance now?

Sheridan would never know the answer. All he knew was the Narns had been so shaken by the aftermath of those two attacks, especially the attack on Quadrant 37; he had been on the Agamemnon at the time, but Sheridan had wondered who could have done it.

Earth would never have done it; the system was not only too far away but truthfully the system was in contested space and the last thing anyone with any common sense on Earth wanted was to plunge their society into another war. The Centauri would never have surrendered as the Minbari had under the circumstances, and the Narns would have found themselves against an evenly matched opponent.

The Minbari wouldn't have launched such a devastating attack; oh, Sheridan knew they had the power to do it, but they had no reason to. The Narns hadn't bothered the Minbari, and as a result, the Federation hadn't gone for the Narn Regime. None of the other worlds was powerful enough to launch such a devastating attack which, Sheridan knew thanks to intelligence briefings, had resulted in the destruction of the base, and the orbital bombardment which destroyed whatever installations were on the planet.

But he knew now who was responsible.

But right now there were those in the galaxy who'd paid attention to ISN's broadcasts about how the Narn fleet had been routed and destroyed at Gorash. And many were asking how the Centauri had managed to destroy an entire Narn fleet? The Centauri were advanced, but surely some ships could have survived and returned to Narn itself to defend the planet. Sheridan remembered the Earth-Minbari war, remembered that despite how Earthforce had made the Minbari fight for every inch of space, not many had survived the battles, but there had been survivors. And the Narns were not stupid. They could be impulsive and brash, many of them had promised that one day they would wipe the Centauri out, but some of them should have survived under different circumstances.

But no. The entire fleet had been destroyed. What made it worse was he and Delenn knew about it. Ever since he had learnt about the Shadows and the threat they posed, it didn't take long for him to work out the Shadows had assisted the Centauri for the final victory. He didn't doubt for an instant the Centauri hadn't bothered asking the Shadows for help before; they hadn't needed it. The Centauri navy might've been on the decline for the last forty years or so, but their fleet, their technology, and their military tactics were much greater than those of the Narn. It didn't help matters that the Narn occupied a small but sizeable amount of territory, but the Centauri Republic was even bigger.

No, the Centauri had fought the war largely on their own, and despite whatever meagre aid given to the Regime by Earth or the Minbari, nobody had really helped the Narns. The Narns had caused a lot of trouble over the last few decades, with their threats, how in their constant aggression towards other races, not many were sympathetic.

It was over now. Sheridan was glad the war was over, especially since the Narns and the Centauri had brought their fighting to Babylon 5; he had done his best to keep out of the fighting, especially that whole unholy mess where the Narn and Centauri cruisers had attacked each other in Babylon 5 space after Sheridan had warned Mollari all Centauri ships coming here would be searched for weapons; the Centauri cruiser had arrived in answer to that promise, and they had trained their weapons on the station. Sheridan had known from the moment the threat was made it was a bluff; the Centauri had good relations with Earth, and they would not want to risk that. On top of that were diplomats, civilians, from dozens of other races. The Centauri were good, but they would not and could not take on all of those aliens at once, although with the Shadows' aid, anything was possible. At the same time, Sheridan knew a lot of blame would be placed on his own shoulders.

But now it was over.

The Narn had been beaten back, but what made it worse was how the Centauri had done it.

Mass drivers…. If Sheridan needed any kind of proof at all at how little the Centauri valued interstellar agreements, he had it in spades. They'd bombarded Narn from orbit, flinging asteroids towards the already ruined planet the Centauri occupation had stripped earlier years ago, smashing the planet's infrastructure to pieces, killing thousands upon thousands of people before the Narn government surrendered, not that they had much choice; the Centauri would've bashed the planet to pieces until the Narn came to their senses, and in any case, they wouldn't have had any choice.

The terms of the surrender were worse than anyone could have imagined; it made sense the Centauri would have ensured the Kha'Ri members would've answered for their 'crimes' against the Centauri, but Sheridan wondered if Londo had refused to allow observers from Earth to visit those hearings to determine if they were fair or kangaroo courts because of spite, or because his government did not want any interference.

The bloodthirsty way Mollari had ranted that penalty about 500 Narns, including the perpetrator's own family, would be executed for the 'murder' of any Centauri had worried and chilled him to the bone, and he remembered how he had once wondered if the Minbari, sick of the war, would push for something similar, but fortunately, they hadn't.

But one of the things Sheridan had found the most sickening was the way Londo had seemed to gloat when he had announced G'Kar would be ousted from his post as ambassador. Londo and G'Kar had never been friends, but Sheridan hated the way it had gone.

He had no idea what was going to happen now, or just what the Shadows would do, but Sheridan would keep vigilant. With the way the Centauri had just won, who was to say they would not go on how they'd regained their fire?

He only hoped Londo considered it a good price to pay for the wanton destruction of so many lives.


Please let me know what you think.