Babylon 5 crossover recs and ideas.

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
I had an idea that has the Earth Alliance -via intergalactic wormhole shenanigans- help the Exiles during the Homeworld War and helped out during the Beast War, leading to the Earth Alliance not only getting Homeworld's ludicrous manufacturing capability but also the ability to make mega-ships (the Taiidan Carrier found in Deserts of Kharak is calc'd to be around 6km long, which fits in the line of the 26.7km long Mothership) thanks to humanity buying and stealing whatever they get their hands on.

While it doesn't entirely help against the Minbari, it gives humanity something else: allies. In this case in the form of the Hiigarans and the Taiidan Republic, both of whom send what forces they could spare to help humanity...

... another Homeworld idea was that the Bentusi find themselves in the Milky Way during the Earth-Minbari War, and once apprised to what was happening decide to help intervene, in the form of a transport service that can't be intercepted (because Homeworld Hyperdrives are kind of ludicrous like that) and their immense technology. Leading to a scene where the LONAW joins humanity and the Bentusi sits between the Minbari and everyone else, stating that this war will end...
 

Jaenera Targaryen

Well-known member
Legend of the Galactic Heroes; a universe where your typical battlefleet numbers in the tens of thousands of ships, casualty figures comparable to WWII are the norm, where MANLY marines chop each other to bits with battle axes, men and women debate philosophy while walking down long corridors, and ultimately just perpetuate the cycle of empires spinning since the days of Sumer.

More seriously, the Babylon 5 races encountering either or both the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance would shock and awe not one or two races, but all of them. Both nations have economies so huge they could collapse the rest of the galactic market into captivity within a year, and both have fleets and technology that would turn the Minbari from the galactic hegemon to a backwater tin-pot militia the moment first contact happens.

As for the First Ones...LoGH Humanity would automatically vindicate the Shadows. LoGH Humanity did not achieve such stunning heights, easily earning them Third Age status, because of peaceful coexistence or slow and patient tutelage under an elder race, but because of the constantly swinging pendulum of war and the cycle of empires that first started on Earth and which Humanity brought into space with them. The Thirteen Day War, the Earth-Sirius War, the Long War...even the 200-year-long Golden Age of the pre-Imperial Galactic Federation saw the Federation maintain a large and combat-ready battlefleet simply to deter piracy.

The Shadows would claim vindication that the newest Third Age Race and rising hegemon is a kindred spirit to their kind.
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
Legend of the Galactic Heroes; a universe where your typical battlefleet numbers in the tens of thousands of ships, casualty figures comparable to WWII are the norm, where MANLY marines chop each other to bits with battle axes, men and women debate philosophy while walking down long corridors, and ultimately just perpetuate the cycle of empires spinning since the days of Sumer.

More seriously, the Babylon 5 races encountering either or both the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance would shock and awe not one or two races, but all of them. Both nations have economies so huge they could collapse the rest of the galactic market into captivity within a year, and both have fleets and technology that would turn the Minbari from the galactic hegemon to a backwater tin-pot militia the moment first contact happens.

As for the First Ones...LoGH Humanity would automatically vindicate the Shadows. LoGH Humanity did not achieve such stunning heights, easily earning them Third Age status, because of peaceful coexistence or slow and patient tutelage under an elder race, but because of the constantly swinging pendulum of war and the cycle of empires that first started on Earth and which Humanity brought into space with them. The Thirteen Day War, the Earth-Sirius War, the Long War...even the 200-year-long Golden Age of the pre-Imperial Galactic Federation saw the Federation maintain a large and combat-ready battlefleet simply to deter piracy.

The Shadows would claim vindication that the newest Third Age Race and rising hegemon is a kindred spirit to their kind.
I've seen this fic, oddly enough... I'll have to dig it from Fanfic.net or SB...
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
A Babylon 5/Dead Space fanfic might be interesting.
Actually, the Markers would be the very thing that both the Vorlons and Shadows go like this:

Vorlons: Truce? [holds out tentacle]
Shadows: Truce. [shakes tentacle]
Vorlons: Let's get everyone else still in the galaxy here too, just to be sure.
Shadows: Agreed.
[cue MvM style joining forces montage]


The Brethren Moons? The exact thing they were specifically still in the Milky Way for in the first place. That means they go 'lets dust off the big guns' and go all murder mode. Do you think what was shown in the show was their best? No, those were basically drones and watered-down export models for the Vorlons and Shadows respectively.
 

Agent23

Ни шагу назад!
Actually, the Markers would be the very thing that both the Vorlons and Shadows go like this:

Vorlons: Truce? [holds out tentacle]
Shadows: Truce. [shakes tentacle]
Vorlons: Let's get everyone else still in the galaxy here too, just to be sure.
Shadows: Agreed.
[cue MvM style joining forces montage]


The Brethren Moons? The exact thing they were specifically still in the Milky Way for in the first place. That means they go 'lets dust off the big guns' and go all murder mode. Do you think what was shown in the show was their best? No, those were basically drones and watered-down export models for the Vorlons and Shadows respectively.

Yeah, I am familiar with that theory.
And it will be fun to watch. :D
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
Yeah, I am familiar with that theory.
And it will be fun to watch. :D
Here's the thing, it's canon that both sides didn't pull out all full power of each side. For one it's a philosophical debate, and they both agreed on rules after they basically wiped out the younger races a few times in a few cycles.

In addition, it would be the Third Space Aliens all over again... but with less shielded ships of doom and more 'turning everyone into thrawls'.
___________________
Another idea, so in Traveller (and thus my 'Transhuman Traveller' setting) there is this ancient being called Grandfather... and he's basically the setting's Lovecraftian god mixed with super intelligence.

Oh, and the technology he and his children created scare the shit out of everyone (to give you an idea, Grandfather's tech can do shit like make the Death Star look like a pop gun) who has more than short-term goals in mind.

In this idea, Grandfather did visit the B5 universe... and the war that happened when the locals started looking into his experiments was... brutal... even for First One standards (which, to be frank, is stupidly high, given the entire Kirishiac* war). The other First Ones tried to find a way to destroy the equivalent of a Super Gate but found out that, well, Grandfather's tech is designed to last. So, the First Ones decided to make the area where this Super Gate is in a constant hyperspace storm so no local race can reach it outside of the First Ones (and the Shadows and Vorlons kept some observation posts in the system just in case it activates again).

Upon closer inspection, it was found out that these newcomers look suspiciously similar to humanity...

... basically, it's something akin to an old Sword of the Stars/B5 fic, but with my Transhuman Traveller setting instead of SotS.
___
* I'll give you a yarn about this race, which was First One (making them the youngest of such) level despite the fact that they didn't have FTL. Being a long-lived species with an enslaving attitude, they managed to set up an STL interstellar empire before they encountered the rest of the First Ones. The resulting war basically got everyone involved, made the Shadows and Vorlons agree to a truce, and caused immense destruction. This war is the reason why Jump Gates were seeded across the galaxy, to prevent this from repeating ever again. We do see a Kirishiac ship in the show.
 

Midnighter13

Well-known member
One idea I had for a B5 crossover was that the Centuari found the 12 Colonies of Kobol instead of Earth. As a result, the first cylon war kicks off as the Centuari are getting involved politically with the colonies. Thus, the first war ends not with a ceasefire, but with the cylons grabbing whatever ships they can and running for deep space where the Centuari can't follow, and the colonials don't have the resources to pursue.

Then, when the Dilgar war kicks off decades later, you have a human polity that has weaker ships with a different type of FTL instead of interceptors as their precursor tech. Most of their B5 tech would be Centauri knockoffs, so energy weapons yes, artificail gravity no. So the humans would take a lot more damage in the Dilgar war, and would probably end more in an armistice than a victory.

When the colonials finally get around to doing deep space exploration, turns out the cylons are still out there, now as a Minbari protectorate, and the colonial attack on the cylons is what kicks off the Colonial/Minbari or second Cylon war, depending on your perspective. Needless to say, it goes poorly for the humans, but the Minbari once more stop before the 12 colonies are fully destroyed.
 

Jormungandr

The Midgard Wyrm
Founder
I had an idea that has the Earth Alliance -via intergalactic wormhole shenanigans- help the Exiles during the Homeworld War and helped out during the Beast War, leading to the Earth Alliance not only getting Homeworld's ludicrous manufacturing capability but also the ability to make mega-ships (the Taiidan Carrier found in Deserts of Kharak is calc'd to be around 6km long, which fits in the line of the 26.7km long Mothership) thanks to humanity buying and stealing whatever they get their hands on.

While it doesn't entirely help against the Minbari, it gives humanity something else: allies. In this case in the form of the Hiigarans and the Taiidan Republic, both of whom send what forces they could spare to help humanity...

... another Homeworld idea was that the Bentusi find themselves in the Milky Way during the Earth-Minbari War, and once apprised to what was happening decide to help intervene, in the form of a transport service that can't be intercepted (because Homeworld Hyperdrives are kind of ludicrous like that) and their immense technology. Leading to a scene where the LONAW joins humanity and the Bentusi sits between the Minbari and everyone else, stating that this war will end...
Homeworld technology, especially its sensors, is, frankly, ridiculously bullshit.

Railgun kinetic weapons may sound crude in comparison to the pew-pew DEW's of Babylon 5, but these railguns were capable of piercing armour plating and the decking of ships (even fighter craft!) that could survive fusion missiles to the face and an "uncontrolled, dynamic atmospheric entry" (crashing) onto a planet.

Those minbari fighters? They'd get slaughtered en-masse by Multigun Corvettes. Hell, I think the basic Scout would do it, let alone the Interceptors.

Assault Frigates would be a nightmare to minbari cruisers -- the latter are so delicate that if one of their gravimetric drive fins are damaged, the ship is basically crippled.
 

AmosTrask

Well-known member
Assault Frigates would be a nightmare to minbari cruisers -- the latter are so delicate that if one of their gravitic drive fins are damaged, the ship is basically crippled.
I believe the reason within the setting is that Minbari ships are completely optimized to counter the energy weapons of the Shadows and their thrals. They can at the very least survive one full power shot from a spider ship unless it hits the reactors. Unfortunately their armor is very susceptible to kinetic impactors.
 

Agent23

Ни шагу назад!
No I didn't, i did book one then some of book two and got bogged down with it (I didn't plan it out properly) and ended up working on Reunions are a Bitch instead.

From time to time, nothing I'm planning on posting, its more just what I like to write and ideas that people might not like but I just want to see what I can do.


Sad, personally I can't really get into a single BSG2003 fanfic on account of the series's retarded ending, so I kinda skipped that one.
 

Ash's Boomstick

Well-known member
Sad, personally I can't really get into a single BSG2003 fanfic on account of the series's retarded ending, so I kinda skipped that one.

Don't worry about it, I didn't finish that one either. Things got complicated and when dozens of copycat (and one or two outright thefts of ideas and characters) versions as well as an extremely shitty 'AU' done on SB which ended up with me quitting writing altogether for quite some time all came around.

I started writing it probably about the middle of 2006 so there wasn't much of the background of the universe at the time, most of RaaB is in fact completely my own work, worldbuilding is not easy and is sometimes contradictory. I quit writing it in 2013 and on occasion have looked at it again, but just don't care enough about it to restart it.

You are quite right about the end of the series, I like to think that seasons 3 and 4 are Roslin's dying fever dream while on New Caprica, it makes it easier to stomach.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top