Charybdis Lost

Disclaimer: I do not own the universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly both Robotech and Battlestar Galactica remain the properties of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs, also known as lawyers, firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anybody.

Authors Notes: This is a short three or four-chapter story designed to set up a much bigger crossover/fusion story between Robotech and the newer version of Battlestar Galactica. There are of course a few tweaks to the timeline as I am taking out that whole final five, real Earth/Cylon Earth mess though the Cylons really won't come into play with this story as on the Colonial side it is set several years before the outbreak of the Second Cylon War and the destruction of the colonies in that conflict.

Also, this story will focus almost entirely on the Colonial characters – though a villain from Robotech is going to play a major role in the events to unfold though who it is you will just have to wait and see – that make up the crew of the battlestar for which the story is named. Other Robotech characters really will not be appearing until the very end of the story.

Prologue

Colonial Fleet Headquarters

Picon

Commander Nathaniel Shaw had a puzzled frown on his face as he passed through the security checkpoint outside the grand building that housed the main offices of the Colonial Fleet. He had no idea why he had been summoned here as just thirty minutes ago he'd been sitting in his quarters aboard the Charybdis going through the seemingly endless paperwork that came with commanding any battlestar, let alone one as big as the Mercury-class Charybdis. Until that was he'd been paged by CIC who'd informed him that one of the big wigs down here in Picon Fleet Command wanted to speak with him ASAP and that a Raptor had already been prepped for him in the central hanger of the port flight pod.

Naturally he'd immediately made his way to the flight bay and made the journey down here.

Now to find out just what was so urgent, he thought as he ascended the steps his broad strides allowing him to take two steps at a time without any difficulty. In seconds he was walking through the doors into the lobby and making his way to the desk. The young lieutenant there looking up at his approach.

"Can I help you commander," the young woman, whose accent was classic Libran, asked.

"I am hoping that you can lieutenant. I was just called down here to speak with the brass on a matter of grave urgency," Nate replied.

"I see sir please put your hand on the scanner," the lieutenant replied pointing to a combination hand/DNA scanner on the surface of the desk. Familiar with the security protocol Nate put his right hand on the scanner. After a moment he felt a slight prick on his thumb as a tiny needle pierced his skin and extracted a sample of his DNA.

"Name, rank and current assignment please sir," the lieutenant prompted.

"Nathaniel Shaw, commander, currently commanding officer of the battlestar Charybdis," Nate replied.

"Thank you, sir stand by, while your identity and orders are verified."

Nate nodded and waited as the desk terminal connected to one of the massive supercomputers in one of the numerous subbasements of the fleet headquarters. Whereupon it retrieved his hand print and DNA information and compared it to the scan and sample taken by the scanner, determining if really was who he said he was. Then comparing his details against the list of appointments for today.

"Identity confirmed sir," the lieutenant confirmed after a moment. "You are to report to meeting room three on level six. Please take this and wear it at all times while you are here." As she spoke she handed him a security pass card which he gratefully took and clipped to his uniform.

"I will thank you lieutenant," Nate replied before moving past the desk towards the lifts.

Five minutes later Nate walked into the meeting room where he had been told to report to. He was surprised to find that he wasn't the only one invited to this meeting. Six more commanders were present in the room, all of them having puzzled looks on their faces clearly as in the dark as to why they'd been suddenly called here as he was, six commanders who he was very familiar with as he worked with them every day when on deployment. The six were the commanders of the warships that formed the escort group for his own command.

Contrary to what was often portrayed in the media – especially the film industry – the battlestar was not the be all and end all of the Colonial Fleet. After all there were just some jobs that a ship as big as a battlestar – even a light battlestar like the Valkyrie-class was nearly a kilometre long – just couldn't do or were not ideally suited for. Enter smaller warships like cruisers and destroyers, they were what truly formed the backbone of the fleet being able to carry out duties from anti-piracy patrol – piracy was always a problem since two of the four systems that housed the colonies had dense asteroid belts that were perfect hiding places for pirates – to commerce monitoring and other law enforcement duties. Indeed, it was a well-known – at least in the fleet – that for every one of the hundred and twenty battlestars they had there were at least two cruisers and four destroyers. A fact that was reflected in the actual makeup of the Charybdis battle group with two heavy cruisers and four destroyers being arrayed in mutual support/escort positions around her whenever they were deployed.

"Hey Nate, you're here as well," Commander Julian Markson of the cruiser Vigilance said spotting him coming in. "Guess that's all of us then. Any idea what this is about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Julian," Nate replied as he took a seat. "All I know is I was in the middle of doing my paperwork when I get paged to come down here asap."

"Somethings obviously spooked the brass for them to call us all down here like this," Commander Erica Myers commented earning nods from all of them. "Maybe a band of pirates has gotten a bit too big for their boots and we're being sent to deal with them."

"That would be fun," Julian answered making everyone, Nate included, snicker as it was always fun to bring the might of a Colonial Fleet battlegroup to bear on a band of pirates. It could be quite amusing to listen to the panicked radio chatter of the normally cocky and arrogant pirates as their Vipers and heavy guns pounded them to pieces.

"I know, and it would give my increasing stir-crazy pilots something to do," Nate added. "Even Hercules is starting to climb the walls for something to do."

"And you can bet the female deck crew are enjoying the display," Julian replied prompting another round of giggles as everyone pictured the scene in their minds of young female deckhands watching the Charybdis CAG Major Richard 'Hercules' Anderson – who'd earned his callsign from the fact that he was built like the legendary heroic demigod – climbing the walls of one of the mighty battlestars flight pods just for something to do. As he could only work out so much and drill his pilots so much.

The levity came to an end however when the rooms other door opened and Fleet Admiral Anastasia Nagala, accompanied by two of her top aides, came into the room. Prompting everyone to leap to their feet and stand to attention in the presence of the most senior officer in the entire Colonial Fleet.

"Please be seated," the admiral said prompting everyone to settle back down in their seats though they all assumed and maintained a posture of alertness. "I am sorry to call you all here so suddenly, but a situation has developed outside Helios Delta and your battlegroup is really the only one I currently have available that I can trust to deal with it without immediately escalating things."

"What's the situation," Nate asked taking the lead amongst his fellow commanders. Being the CO of the Charybdis, the overall control of the battlegroup fell to him just as much as the command of his own ship did. Nagala mentioned to one of her aides who began passing out plane folders that had some form of documentation inside of them. Once everyone had been given a file the admiral began the briefing.

"Twenty-four hours ago, a convoy of freighters left orbit of Aerilon on route to Caprica and Gemenon," the admiral began. "It never arrived, instead just six hours after leaving orbit of Aerilon we received a garbled distress call… listen."

Nagala touched a control on the desk terminal in front of her and with a faint crackling the rooms speakers came to life. Immediately the air was filled with the sound of alarms wailing, people screaming and shouting in a combination of fear, pain and mortal terror, the harsh electrical crack of sparks and the crackling of fires.

A voice spoke frantically. "repeat to any nearby Colonial warships this is supply convoy two three seven delta we are under attack," the male voice said. "Oh, my gods they've just taken out two of our ships… spatial coordinates 32…" the transmission broke up amid the sound of another explosion, "gods we're the last ship left…send assistance… arrgghh." With the final scream of the transports pilot the signal went dead.

Silence reigned in the briefing room for a few moments as the replay of the transmission stopped, everyone knowing that they had just heard every one of their fellow spacers on those transports die. Nate, like many of his fellows, balled his fists up in anger under the table top. Those transports were unarmoured and unarmed, they would have had no chance against whoever had attacked them and cold bloodedly taken every one of their lives.

"We traced the transmission to a set of coordinates just outside the Helios Delta system," Nagala said breaking the angry silence. "Since the transmission was received two other convoys that were due to pass through the area have vanished or ceased responding to any transmissions beamed towards there last known locations. A corvette sent to investigate has also stopped responding to hails. Something is out there at the edge of that system and obviously cares little or nothing for human life or the fact that they're currently disrupting trade across a quarter of our space."

"Pirates perhaps," Julian suggested.

"That was our first thought," Nagala replied. "I have since spoken to intelligence and they've confirmed that none of any of the current pirate bands are large enough or organised enough to pull off something like this."

"Cylons," Nate suggested voicing everyone's biggest fear. The return of humanities former servants turned mortal enemies after three decades of silence was a strong possibility as the Cylons certainly would have the capability – and honestly the motivation as the peace with them was more of an armistice than a true peace settlement however much the Quorum of Twelve and the President liked, and honestly desperately wanted, to believe otherwise – to do something like this.

Though it did beg the question if it was the Cylons then why hadn't the pilots of the transports been able to identify them? The walking chrome toasters ships were quite distinctive in appearance after all? Though he supposed it was possible that – like themselves – the Cylons had come up with some new ship designs over the last thirty-three years. Though as with a battlestar a basestar would certainly still look like a basestar.

"That is the most likely possibility," Admiral Nagala admitted. "And it's certainly one myself, the rest of Fleet Command, Military Intelligence and the President are taking very seriously."

"But if it is the Cylons why would they be doing this," Julian questioned. "Surely they wouldn't want to risk the armistice? The war hurt them just as badly as it hurt us, its therefore not logical for them to do anything that could restart the fighting."

"If it is the Cylons then the current theory is that they're testing us," Nagala replied. "Maybe they want to see just how far we've advanced since our last contact with them. That or they are testing our resolve, wanting to see how we would respond to any provocative actions on their part. We just do not know.

"That is why both myself and President Walker have decided that a strong but measured response is warranted," the admiral continued. "To that end the Charybdis battlegroup will be dispatched to the area outside Helios Delta where the attacks appear to have taken place. There you will do whatever is necessary to determine the nature and agenda of those who attacked the transports."

"And if the attackers are Cylons?" Nate asked.

"Then your orders are to convince them to leave Colonial space immediately by discussion if possible but by force if necessary. However, you are not to fire upon the Cylons unless they fire upon you first. If this incident is going to be a prelude to another war with the machines the President wants to make it clear that the Cylons are the aggressors in this conflict and that we ourselves did everything we could to keep the peace between us."

"That's why you're sending us instead of the Pegasus and her battlegroup," Nata said in realization knowing that unlike the somewhat hot-headed Rear Admiral Helena Cain he and his fellow commanders could, in general, be trusted to keep their heads cool and itchy hands away from triggers during a confrontation with the Cylons. Cain if she was sent would not hesitate to open fire immediately and thus start a war, the Tauronese admiral had a notorious hatred for the Cylons.

"Indeed," Nagala confirmed. Unlike what some of the more peacenik critics of hers in the media liked to believe she was far from a warmonger and thus was sending those she knew who'd be willing to give peace a chance before opening fire. Unlike Helena and honestly half the commanders of her generation, most of whom had lost parents or siblings to the machines in the last war. "Are there any more questions?"

Nate glanced around at his fellows and saw that there were none. "No ma'am," he replied for them all.

"Then return to your ships and depart immediately. And may the Gods watch over you."

Battlestar Charybdis

A Short Time Later

The combat information centre was a scene of organised chaos as the mighty battlestars crew prepared for their sudden, but very welcome after weeks of sitting at Picon Anchorage with nothing to do as they waited for upgrades to the navigational computers and DRADIS systems of the block one Mercury to begin, deployment to the outskirts of Helios Delta.

Standing like an island of calm in a stormy sea in the centre of the room Nate observed the organised chaos around him. Before periodically glancing up at the DRADIS screens above the main situation table. The Charybdis had pulled out of the dock several minutes ago and as he watched the screens saw that they had successfully manoeuvred through the bustling shipping lanes in orbit of Picon to link up with the rest of the battlegroup. The other ships moving into a standard formation with them with the cruisers taking up positions above and below them while the frigates moved to just ahead of and just behind them.

"Sir all stations and ships report ready to jump," Colonel James Tyler reported as he came up beside him. Nate resisted the impulse to tell his new XO, for the umpteenth time, to call him Nate or at very least Nathaniel as he wasn't one for formality outside of combat. He had been trying for the last eight months, ever since Leanne got promoted to commander and given the Argonaut but so far, he'd been unsuccessful.

"Very good James," Nate replied before turning to his navigator Lieutenant Timothy Parkerson. "Timothy start the jump clock and sync with the other ships."

"Yes sir," the younger man replied as he entered commands into his station. After a moment a panel opened on his console and he carefully extracted the jump control key and slid it into the correct slot before turning the key forty degrees to the right. "Key is in, clock is running. Ten seconds to jump… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… jump."

As the last syllable left the mouth of Lieutenant Parkerson a pale white, almost ghostly, glow encompassed the seven ships of the Charybdis battlegroup as the fold field formed. But only for a moment as with a brilliant gold flash running stern to bow the entire battlegroup vanished from the orbit of Picon being nearly instantaneously teleported across a sizeable chunk of Colonial space to the outer edge of one of the four-star systems that housed the twelve colonies of man…

…and into a situation that was about to rock their crew's worlds forever.

Authors Notes: Well that's the first part of this little story done, I will hopefully have the next chapter done in a week or two – depending on the muse of course – as I indicated that this story is not going to be a very long one. Now I feel that I must say that before everyone starts reminding me in reviews that Richard Adar was president of the colonies at the time of their destruction remember that these events take place several years before those events. As a result, the current president is a Daniel Walker though he's facing a strong challenge in his upcoming re-election campaign from Adar.

Finally, as to who the Zentraedi they're going to run into is I'll leave that to your speculation for now though all will be revealed in the next update.