Chapter 1: Battlestar Andromeda

This story takes place some were in our Galaxy a long long time ago. There are three madger powers. The republic of Athens. The kingdom of Olympus and the kingdom of Atlantis.

Athens: Even though the group of system´s is called a Republic and is mostly independent and has it´s own senate it is a colony of Olympus and it is a loyal one. Athens is the academical and scientific center of the Galaxy. They build beautiful cities ( Sadly they have jet to reach what the Atlantans of old were able to build long before humanity came along.) and high-tech, state of the art computers. They have a large fleet in numbers and only few capital ships. Mostly they rely on a large number of fast and maneuverable destroyers and light cruisers. By using more and more advanced weaponry and trickery to make up for the lack of sheer firepower that the Atlantean fleet has to offer. (human world)

Atlantis: Atlantis is an old and powerful kingdom but had to submit to Olympian rule after the war against another empire ruled by a warlord called Kronos. They had taken the full force of the War mostly by their own with only limited help coming from Athens and had stolen Victory from the claws of defeat in one massive and bloody battle in wich the Atlantian fleet had lost thirty-five of forty-two battle stars and over six hundred smaller ships of all classes. There had been millions of dead in those months. In the end their fleet was largely destroyed and the economy crushed. Olympus with it´s fleet still fully intact fleet had taken the chance to grab the power and Athens sided with the now madger power. For ten years Atlantis struggled at the brick of economical and political colaps and finally things started getting better. The economy stabilised itself and they started rebuilding their fleet. Athens is watching the return of Atlantis's power with great concern for the Atlantian´s are extremely talented fighters in space. Zeus, the king of Olympus refuses the accept that Atlantis is recovering from the war. Now Atlantis has just finished a project that has the potential of tipping the balance of power. After thirty years no one has forgotten that Olympus abandoned them when their help was needed most. (Population Atlantian. Are very similar to humans. The madger difference is that their lungs have developed the ability to function under water over billions of years of evolution. They are supposedly immortal or grow very old and it is said that they sometimes can also grant others immortality. What every one knows is that they have superior physical strength and senses and it is fabled that they are telepathic and telekinetic. But a large portion or the population is human)

Olympus: Is at the moment the madger power. Their king is known for underestimating his enemies at every turn. Olympus has the most powerful fleet in numbers even if their ships aren´t as strong and sophisticated as their Atlantean or Athenian counterparts. The military high command is overly confident and divided in itself by political camps. The government sadly refuses to see that they need to do something or they will lose their position as madger military power to Atlantis very soon . A great portion of the government is blinded by itself and everyone but themselves know that if anything should happen Olympus would fall first.(human)

Annabeth pov.

"Thalia. Increase the output of both thrusters to 23%." My copilot fulfilled my orders and pushed the two throddels forward. The 120ft long refitted civilian transport ship picked up speed. "So Annabeth. Can you now tell me what this top secret recon mission is about." I sighed. "Okay. There rumors that the Atlantians are working a new type of Battlestar."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "I understand that this is not good for us but they always do that. If there is one thing the Atlantians can do it is build space ships."

"I fear this is a whole new bread of ships. This Battleship is supposed to be a giant. "So what. All Battle star size ships are. You forget that the average one is over two miles long and covered in rail-guns and armor plaiting and stuffed with fighter squadrons and has a over twelve thousand strong crew."

"Well this one is believed to be about ten miles long and be able to hold a battle star in each of it´s four hanger bays and repair them. Thalia whistles impressed. "With that kind of ship they could put away our ships with their eyes closed."

"And it is supposed to be commanded by Admiral Percy Jackson. The son of old king Poseidon." Thalia eyes widened.

We had ones faced Perseus in a close quarter fight. He was traveling inside a destroyer and we had engaged him and tried to catch him with a light cruiser and in the end he had forced us to jump out of system with a ship half our size. He had used tactics that had caught me of guard. I was a quite talented commander. Even by Atlantian standards I was a good ship commander but that guy was crazy. If he commanded a ship that size then I was not very eager in confronting Atlantis in a possible war.

I knew that ship could win every single battle for Atlantis. But we could still win a war. Sadly having that ship against us would making winning the war a lot harder. "So our job is to approach the ship. Make a few pics in one of the most heavenly guarded testing areas in existence and then get the hell back out of the place."

I grimace. "Negative. She is conducting her trials and is fully armed and equiped. This is the last chance to gather some Intel about what it´s capabilities could be. The only thing I know for sure is that it is huge and it´s name is Andromeda." Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"Okay..Nice name." She mumbles "Well then. You are breathed. Spin up the FTL (Faster than Light) drive. Starting the checklist."

Thalia activated the computer that was needed to calculate the jump. "Roget that. Destination is the Lancer System."

"Now. A full system diagnose." I order. Thalia tips the command into the screen and the computer starts a diagnose. After a few seconds she sighs. " FTL, Radar, Optical sensors, Weapon systems, thrusters, auxiliary systems and just about everything else except the vending machines is checking out and the damaged vending machines go on my account because I had sand in my pockets yesterday."

I ignored her. "Okay checklist complete. Set condition one through out the ship."

Thalia rolled her eyes again. "We have no crew. It is only us on board. Who the hell is supposed to report to battle stations?"

"Procedure Thalia. There are rules and we apply to them. We are on a vessel of the Athens space command and not on some civilian ship, the rule book is there for a reason."

The girl shrugged. Thalia was maybe on of the most brilliant engineers around but she gave a crap about procedure.

"Okay Grace. Give me an ETA on the FTL."

"Don´t call me Grace captain. ETA 15 minutes. Clock starting now.."

"Okay. Jump as soon as ready." She nodded and flipped up the panel covering the switch that armed the FTL."

15 minutes later.

I look at the clock counting down.

Thalia closes her eyes. Don´t tell anyone but I think she is afraid of FTL jumps so I just count down for her. "7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Jump. The girl flips up the switch and I had a strange tingling sensation and then all Navigational systems went haywire until the Navigation System rebooted and retook bearings. Thalia scanned the data. "Okay. We are in the out skirts of the Lancer System. I advise on a short long-range sensor sweep and then the deactivation of all non essential systems."

"Go ahead specialist." I grin at Thalia. "Okay. Launching a 300 heart burst in three...two...one...mark." Thalia punched the bottom. "Okay. Now we wait." I switched of all lights since they were no use anyway and pushed the chair back. Then I laid my feet up on the dash board and close my eyes and dozed of.

One hour later.

Beep Beep Beep. I jerked awake. "Radar contact bearing 012.3 to -1.9 range 23, 931,566 miles. Calculating intercept course and velocity." Thalia barked. I snapped on my head phones. A heartbeat later the computer had finished it´s work and I launched the program that would execute the course adjustment.

I engaged the system and then I could hear the maneuvering thrusters being fired and then I heard the main thrusters firing for a few seconds until we had changed our trajectory far enough. "Okay. We will be reaching the Atlantian's shooting range in about five hours. I suggest we turn of all main systems so we don´t get detected ten million miles out. " "Now let us push the thrusters. Both engines to 91% thrust." Thalia put the program into the computer and checked on the power plant.

"Data from the fusion reactor is in the norms."

"Engage."

The two large main thrusters fired up with the energy output of a small nuclear bomb. If the ship didn´t have enershail dampeners we would have been crushed into our seats. Finally we reached our intended speed, throttled the thrusters down to idle and drifted toward our destination.

Percy pov.

I sat in the chair of my ships command center and gazed at the holographic image of our surroundings projected over my plotting table.. The ship really was a beauty and a giant. Suddenly Ensign Loe Ellen spoke up. The sensor specialist gazed intently at her console. "Admiral. We have a subspace burst at long range. A ship just jumped into the system."

I turn to my communications officer. "Underwood. Are we receiving IFF codes." "Negative sir. What ever it is it isn´t one of ours. Should we hail them?"

"No. They don´t know we know that they are here."

I press on my headset and contact to the ships intercom. "This is the Admiral. Action stations! Actions stations! Set conditions one throughout the ship."

And with that the all lights in the command center went dark and the only sources of light were the screens and alarms started ringing. While Loe Ellen was working on locating the ship that jumped in I closed my eyes. Finally my XO Nico Di Angelo and my tactical actions officer Clarisse La Ru stormed in. They were breathed on the situation and then everyone turned to me. "Stay on current course. Keep the Radar on scanning mode and point all optical sensors in the direction that the other ship would approach if she was on a intercept course."

They did as told. Then I turned to Nico and pulled of my big pleading eyes thing. "If it turns out to be a raider then can I please fly a Viper?" I fake whined.

My XO sighed. "Okay Admiral but this is the last time. Your place is on this ship."

Suddenly one of Loe´s officers got excited.

"I got a visual contact on a Della class ( looks like Colonial one in Battlestar Galactica) Civilian transport. Bearing 035 to -25%. The contacts heading is 320 of our current course and it´s velocity is about mark 1.3."

Clarisse growled. "That is never a civilian transport. They know better than to come here and they are sending no IFF codes. They are also much to slow. I say it is a recon mission. Their energy levels are also much to low. They are hoping that we think they are just some piece of debree." I raised an eyebrow. "They could have had an accident." I point out.

"Yes but that would explain why they are so slow. Civilian transports usually fly about mark 25 when in sub light and they have an FTL drive. They would never jump in so close. We know that that is the contact that jumped in. Before I could answer one of the sensor operators called in. "She could be right. That thing has a lot of external sensors and two missile tubes that definitely are not in the usual ships schismatics."

Nico sighed. "I guess we should board them if possible."

Then I got an Idea. "Guy´s I am going to get into my body armor and heading down to the star board flight deck.

Thalia pov.

I stared open mouthed at the screen. The ship was larger than anything I had ever seen before. I was purely built to win battles. I knew that Atlantis didn´t like being ruled by Olympus and their fleet was almost as large by now. I knew they had more sophisticated ships and better crews then we Olympians did. I looked over at my friend Annabeth. The Athenian was staring at the data she was getting from the optical scanners with narrow eyes. Suddenly alarms started blaring. I looked at my ops screen and felt panic rising in me. "Annabeth. The have a Radar lock on to us and they are hailing us."

Annabeth´s eyes widened. "Put it through."

"This is the Atlantain Battlestar Andromeda. You have entered a restricted sector. We are receiving no IFF codes. Prepair to be boarded." Annabeth and I stared at each other for a few seconds. "Bring all systems back online. Spin up the FTL drive. We are getting the hell out of here.

I started flipping switches and then another alarm went of. This was really bad. "Radiological alarm. They have a nuke locked on us." I announce. Annabeth cursed. "A nuke? For what. A ship this side could be taken out by one of their small guns. We are unarmored! Retract sensor arrays. All engines ahead flank. Polarize the windows, we need to fly visual." When the widows became transparent I gulped. That huge battleship was bearing down on us with fully opened gun ports.

Annabeth grabbed the control sick and banked away left. Her other hand went to the manual thruster controls and forced them forward. The engines started rumbling behind us. Suddenly the sound of projectiles penetrating the ships hull rang through the ship and the vessel shuddered. I looked at my control screen. "They hit life support."

"Doesn´t madder. We still have enough air for day´s. We need to stay free until we can jump out. How long until we can jump."

" Thirteen minutes and twenty-three seconds."

Suddenly a fighter shot past us. I recognized it as a very new type of Viper. So that hit us... Once that thing passed us it banked away sharply and disappeared from my view.

"Shit, shit, shit." Annabeth cried out. Suddenly an alert rang out. "They have a missile lock on us. It looks like a heat seeking missile. They are going for our engines" I yell. "Vent plasma from the fusion chamber. We have to beat the missiles guidens system."

I did and opened the reactor controls and opened an emergency vent. Annabeth banked away hard to the other side and the missile went after the cloud of plasma and got vaporized in it.

Annabeth pulled out of the turn and after a second I sighed in relief untill I heard projectiles tearing through the engine room. The section got sealed of eminently and we lost main power.

The blond woman next to me cursed. "We were trapped and helpless."

Then I noticed something on the environmental controls. "Annabeth. We are venting atmosphere fast."

We stared at each other for a heartbeat. "We unbuckled from our seats and ran to the back of the cockpit and climbed down a ladder to the lower levels. Then we ran to the escape pods . I pull a lever and the hatch in the floor opened and we climbed down into the can shaped escape vehicle. I sealed the hatch over me and sat down in the seat next to Annabeth. The Athenean intelligence officer activated the launching system and we were shot into space. Then I remembered why I hated these escape pods so much. They had no artificial gravity.

Percy pov.

My brand new viper was being pushed into one of the launch catapults while I was finishing the checklists. "Okay boss. They are not responding to our hails and it looks like they are making a run for it. We are opening missile silo three."

I grinned. We had noticed that the Della class ship´s external sensor arrays wern´t shielded from a nuclear wash and I knew that they would have to be retracted. That way they were blind and couldn´t target me with possible defensive systems. Using a much smaller missile would have been enough for a ship that size but I had no intentions of killing them. Finally I finished my checklists and the airlock closed behind me. I looked over to the control cabin and gave the operator a salute and then laid back. The viper had no motion dampeners wich mean I would pull Gs. Even if my body armor protected me mostly I was still vulnerable. (Imagine the body armor to look like the Spartan armor in HALO)

I was pressed into my seat as the catapult shot my Viper through the 150ft long tube. Finally I cleared the ship and pushed the throddel in afterburner position and then rolled in towards the fleeing Della class ship. "Fire bird to Andromeda. Requesting permission to disable tango."

Nico called back. "Permission granted."

I fell silent and concentrated on the task ahead. I pushed my stick forward and dived under the ship. When I sank about a mile under it I pulled the stick back and attacked it from under them. I aimed for the engine room. My visor controls kept giving me date concerning my attack run on the target. "Okay. Let´s crippel them. I´m going for the FTL and sublight engines." Then I pushed the red botton on my control stick and the guns lit up. My bullets shredded through the ship and I banked away from it.

I shot past it and flew a looping. My vision started fading because I was pulling way to many Gs. To my delight found myself about four miles behind the vessel when I pulled out of the tight turn. There were two, hot and large engines glaring at me. " I guess that I missed last time. Wish me luck." La Ru answered. "Stop blabbing and get your hands dirty." The engines were perfect target for a heat seeking missile and I would only take the engines apart. I chose a SRHS (Sort range heat seeking)missile and locked onto my target. Then I fired. The missile shot toward the flying ship and it banked away. To my annoyance they started venting plasma and the missile went after it instead od the ship and I also had to turn away sharply to not get caught in the cloud.

This was getting depressing. I pulled around and shadowed them until they pulled out of the evasive actions and positioned myself 900ft behind them. Grinning I pulled the trigger and my guns started blazing again. The projectiles hit the ship in the engines and I knew that they also tore the engine room to shreds.

The ship lost all power ones and the aft was in flames. "Okay Andromeda. I disabled them. Send someone to pick them up."

I turned away and headed back for the ship.

Annabeth pov.

I bit my lip nervously. We were in very big trouble. About twenty minutes ago I heard something grabbing hold of our capsule. I knew we were being pulled away.

Finally gravity started existing again. Sadly the wrong way around. So we were on a star ship now... The downside was that the capsule had obviously been put down the wrong way around and my blood was rushing to my head. I grimaced at Thalia. "Well then. Living or dying."

Then I unbuckled my harnish and fell through the capsule and landed hard on my arm making me cry out in pain. Thalia also dropped down next to me but managed to land more efficient. She helped me to my feet. I sighed and pressed the release bottom for the escape hatch at the side of the craft.

It was blown out and I found myself staring at the inside of the huge hangar bay of a battle star. And then I saw the two dozen marines in high tech body armor (Halo armor) pointing assault rifles at me.

–-line breaker-

Thalia and I were sitting in an interrogation room. I knew that any laws about how to treat POW´s (Prisoner of war) did´t count on us because neither Olympus nor Athens had declared war on Atlantis. From a legal point of view we were spies and I knew how spies could be treated. Especial because we had entered restricted space and had been hailed and warned. They had followed rules of engagement. They had played after the rules the whole time and now there were none anymore for them to play after.

There was a good chance that we would be interrogated and then killed or locked away for ever until someone negotiated our release in an exchange.

It maybe unethical but it was legitimate. Everyone did it.

Thalia looked as scared as I felt. We both knew how illegal or incursion was.

Well that was in the unlikely case that Olympus and Athens admitted to ordering our operation. But they would most likely deny it and claim that we were going rough and dis vow us. Then we would be trialed by the highest ranking officers on board as common criminals for illegal entry into restricted military space wich could mean that we would be air locked or would go to prison. The other possibility was that we would be taken as prizes of war.

The international laws started that if a ship didn´t play after the rules and got captured and no one claimed responsibility for the vessel the ship and everything on board got divided to the crew of the victorious ship. Yes, sadly by Olympian law slavery was legal. So no madder how it went we were screwed.

Finally the door opened and a pail guy, with black hair and ebony eyes and a depressed aura around him entered the room. He was about twenty five years old. He glared at us and sat down opposite of us.

"I am commander Nico Di Angelo. The XO of the Battle star Andromeda. Admiral Jackson will be joining us shortly. You are?"

"I am Annabeth Chase. I am a citizen of Athena and I am a officer in the space command."

Thalia sighed. "I am Thalia Grace. I am a Olympian citizen. I am a officer in the Olympian defense force."

He sighed. "So. What was your business in restricted military space. This is officially a testing ground for advanced technology. You know how this looks like?"

Only when I started stuttering did I notice how scared I was. "We were sent on a recon mission by the Athenian and Olympian joint headquarters." He nodded. "We recovered your orders of deployment and your uniforms support your claims. Now we have already sent a message back to your emissaries in Atlantis to ask for confirmation." There was a short silence. We all knew that they would deny any involvement and that we were telling the truth. Nico sighed.

"You know. If you had powered down and allowed yourself to be border when we hailed you could have just said that your calculations for the FTL jump were off or something...running away could quite possible get you air locked and there is nothing I can really do about it... this is really serious. Because of your uniforms and your documents serving as evidence that this was in fact a sanctioned operation a lawyer will come aboard and he will conduct your trial.

I could feel my mouth go dry. If this had been solved internally by the Atlantian fleet we could get a relative easy pass because people from all sides got caught in these operations and their was always the hope that if you let the operatives of the other side get of easy and treated them well that your own people would receive similar treatment. And Admiral Jackson had the reputation of an easy going, even childish person so there was a good chance that the sentence wouldn´t be to hard no madder how this went.

"So how will this go?" I ask nervously. Normally I was a confident person but Thalia and my lives were on the line here.

"Well. The Admiral and I will interrogate you. Then he, I, you two, and a prosecutor will have a nice long chat to make sure everyone knows were we are standing and then you will be brought before a judge who will decide your fate."

And then the door opens and a much to familiar man with black hair and Sea green eyes enters the room.

Well I hope you had lot´s of fun. Tell me what you think. This won´t be a childs story and there will be a hand full of lemons in this story but that will be much later. This story has huge numbers of casualties programmed into it so don´t be surprised. Tell me what you think. Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please Review.