Space Above and Beyond/BSG Crossover
Two Tales, One Earth
The door intercom activated before the door to Commander Lee Adama's quarters opened. The Commander himself was sitting on a black leather sofa at the coffee table in the middle of the room cradling his baby son. "Major, how can I help?" He asked looking up at his XO who seemed surprised to see the ship's commander in a domestic setting despite visiting his quarters several times before.
"Commander, sorry for disturbing you" she started before continuing more formally "but I wondered if you had a plan of action? We have sat here for eighteen hours and no Cylons they appear to have given up."
"They do indeed Major" Lee admitted the Pegasus had completed sixty-two jumps away from Galactica and the fleet before Lee had ordered the ship to cease jumping until it made contact with a Cylon Basestar. So far not a single Cylon ship had appeared in the area of Pegasus.
"I also hear you suspended further Viper production?" She asked Pegasus had the ability to manufacture Viper Mk VI and VII fighters, mostly slowly by hand, but it gave the ship the ability to recoup its losses in combat.
"I did our air group is a 90% Vipers we don't have the trained pilots to fill the ships we have let alone need more. What we lack are Raptors." He said because of the plan to scan multiple systems half of the Pegasus Raptor Crews and virtually all their experienced crews were gone.
"I've already begun cross training of Viper pilots on our remaining Raptors we should be able to field all our remaining Raptors within a month." She pointed out
"I noticed" Lee said "but Raptors take up twice the crew of a Viper and those pilots will be very green aboard Raptors if they treat them like Vipers we will take higher and higher losses."
"So what else do we do? We can't keep jumping blind." She said a ship like Pegasus usually jumped after a series of Raptors which scouted the space ahead of the ship.
"No we can't, but there is an alternative" he said leaning forwards holding his son close flicking open a paper folder on the desk "this possibly is." He said leaning back Elena leaned forwards and picked up the folder.
"You can't be serious!" She said after a few minutes "the Blackbird was hand built from scrap it's nearly useless in combat."
"The Blackbird is a proven scout vessel. We can refine the design with equipment aboard Pegasus. We already have a Viper production capability it could easily be set up to work for Blackbird production. The Blackbird takes up less resources than a Raptor, requires less pilots and should be quicker for Viper pilots to adapt to." Lee pointed out seeing he was getting through to Elena. "We keep going with your plan" Lee said "each of our Viper pilots needs to be cross-trained with the Raptors to make them more effective and it will teach them how to handle jumps in such a small ship." Lee said "the production team should be able to build one or two Blackbirds a month. A few months production and our scouting capabilities will be able to match a ship that has a full complement of Raptors and pilots." He said confidently
"If the Blackbirds work" Elena pointed out
"Have confidence Major, and also have the Helm begin to plot a course to the Lion's head Nebula."
"Lion's head Nebula?"
"A clue from Kobol Major we are going to track down the Galactica and her fleet." Lee said glancing down at his son then back at his XO "the Pegasus only just joined our family it's time to see it restored."
"Yes, sir" she said nodding before leaving Lee to care for his son.
Using data taken from the Pegasus Raptors the Galactica and her accompanying fleet had jumped fourteen times searching for the missing Battlestar and found little trace. They had found some Cylon fighter remnants but virtually no sign of the Pegasus. On the fifteenth jump they had found three destroyed Colonial Vipers and a fragment of the Pegasus armour belt it was nowhere near a sign the ship had been destroyed but already there was trouble in the fleet with several claiming there was no need to follow the ship which was more than likely already destroyed.
On three ships the passengers had come into conflict with the crews who had requested assistance from Marcus Bryant's civilian security forces. It was the first time these civilian security forces had been deployed into an active situation. Aboard two of the vessels the troubles had passed without incident but aboard the passenger ship Gideon things had gotten out of hand. The armed civilians security officers had quickly secured the vessel taking several prisoners while providing a nice example of civilian control over the fleet.
Admiral Adama had been impressed the inexperienced civilian security had been able to stop troubles unassisted however he also now had further problems with the President aboard his Battlestar "Admiral, how long will we follow the trail of the Pegasus?"
"Until we find the ship or until we have definitive proof the Battlestar has been lost" Adama said he was surprised they were having this discussion so quickly the Galactica's change in course had almost completely eliminated the Cylon threat with the Battlstar not encountering a single raider since it started following the Pegasus projected course.
"Admiral, we are jumping further and further away from the Lion's head Nebula, people cannot help but question why?"
"We are searching for people of our Colonies. This is a military mission we will reach the Lion's head Nebula when we reach it." He pointed out it wasn't as though the astronomical body was going anywhere.
"And until then we'll just arrest the entire population?" She asked he already knew she was in the process of pardoning all those arrested on the Gideon citing the stress of living in space and on the run from the Cylons but he knew she had a point.
"It won't get that far. Lee will turn the Pegasus around before we run into that kind of trouble. And with the additional Raptors from Pegasus we have a far better chance of finding it. And then we will bring this planet to the Lion's head Nebula and to Earth." He said confidently
"You believe that Admiral?"
"Of course" he replied
The mood on Pegasus was slightly brighter with the news that Pegasus was turning towards the fleet's intended destination. That did not mean that through each jump the Pegasus alert Vipers were not in their launch tubes ready trouble. "Emerging from jump" Lt Hoshi announced after several moments he called out "DRADIS Contact, unknown configurations there's at least eight of them!" He called out immediately Lee and Elena looked up at the monitors.
"Does it match any known Chig or human silhouette?" Lee demanded seeing two groups of four craft in the immediate vicinity.
"Negative they are completely unknown. We are detecting what appears to be DRADIS signals being exchanged between the two groups... and us" Hoshi confirmed.
"They are targeting each other?" Lee asked
"Sir, our alert Vipers?" Elena prompted
"One second" Lee said holding up a hand to Elena "Hoshi can you confirm they were targeting each other?"
"It did appear that way" he said glancing up catching Major Elena Rand's eye "but we can't confirm that they were slightly different signals to what our own DRADIS transmit."
"Launch the alert fights" Lee ordered looking over at his XO "have them hold within our defence perimeter. Mr Hoshi, have all weapons stations manned and ready no active sensors on either group until we know what is going on." He said watching as the two groups began to move slowly away from each other.
Outside Starbuck could just about make our the groups of ships they were totally alien to her. They had a small forward section which was probably twice the size of a Raptor which was connected to a rear engine section which was far bigger. Each of the ships were about eight to ten times the size of a Raptor. "Pegasus this is Starbuck" she broadcast in "these things seem to be confused by our arrival and have broken up but I swear to you I can see battle damage on at least two of the ships."
"Starbuck this is Sheba, I confirm that one of the ships on this side is damaged too." She reported from the other side of the Battlestar.
"Pegasus to all Vipers this is the XO stay in defensive positions. Actual is communicating." Elena informed the Viper pilots Starbuck hoped Lee could talk his way out of this one since fighting an unknown craft was not high on her priority list.
In the CIC Lee Adama raised the table phone "This is Commander Adama of the Battlestar Pegasus to the formations off our forward bow." He said pausing before continuing "we represent the Colonial Defence Fleet of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. We do not mean any hostile intent."
This is Captain Eli Wilkinson of the Third Defence Squadron. We welcome you to the Terra system" one of the groups broadcast.
"Commander Adama, we must ask you remove your Battleship from this system it is currently disputed" a female voice said in the message from the second group. Lee and Elena looked at each other confused a Battleship was an ancient form of wet navy vessel that had been phased out of use decades before the Cylon wars they were nothing like the Battlestar that Pegasus was.
"BE SILENT" Eli Wilkinson snapped "Wolf Pack you have no authority to speak for Terra, withdraw immediately."
"We will defend the people of Terra from any threat foreign or domestic" the Wolf Pack's leader responded.
"We are not a threat to the people of Terra" Lee Adama stressed until ten minutes before he'd never even heard of a Terra colony. "We are part of a fleet that is heading for a world named Earth. If you could assist us we would happily open up trade relations."
"EARTH IS A MYTH! Even its mention is a crime against our very being we are the true people of Terra" the Wolf Pack leader screamed in anger. Lee watched as all four of the Wolf Pack's ships moved from their formations diving down on the Pegasus.
The Vipers suddenly witnessed the Terran ship's strengths from both sets of ships volleys of missiles flew from under the craft's wings. The Wolf's Pack missiles were targeted on Pegasus while the ships of the Defence Fleet were targeted on the Wolf Pack. "Pegasus we have incoming from one of the groups of ships, we have lots of frakking incoming!" Starbuck shouted a warning "all Vipers break by squadron then we form up behind the Pegasus we take these frakkers out." She said diving her Mk VII Viper away from the Battlestar.
Even as the Colonial fighters dived out of the way of the missiles the Pegasus own defences activated throwing up a massive wall of flak. Many of the missiles were destroyed by this defence fire but several made it through tearing into Pegasus' forward armour. Fortunately none of the enemy missiles were nuclear armed. As the Wolf Pack's missiles struck the Pegasus the defence fleet's missiles struck the rear areas of two of the Wolf Pack craft, causing heavy damage, both vessels almost immediately turned away from Pegasus leaving their comrades.
Behind the Pegasus the Viper squadrons had all organized by Starbucks order of Pegasus ten squadrons only eight were operational combat squadrons one was a training squadron while the last was made up of all the fighters under repairs or under construction. Even so eight squadrons of Vipers could make a lot of mess Starbuck had kept it simple two squadrons on each side of the Battlestar two above and two below. Her own and the Silver Spur squadrons would engage the destroyers while the rest were in place as support. With two Wolf Pack craft out of commission already that meant an entire squadron would focus on each enemy craft. Unfortunately the Terran ship seemed to be designed to engage multiple targets at once even as the Vipers approached in the shadow of the Pegasus further missiles these ones smaller than before flew from the Wolf Pack's wings. In space clear of their launching craft these missiles expoded into dozens of smaller missiles each that had the ability to hunt down enemy fighters. Some of these smaller missiles exploded in mid-air or caught Pegasus hull signature and slammed into the hull while others struck the Vipers. Only a very lucky shot would kill a pilot but even a minor missile hit could ruin a Viper's day causing unrepairable damage.