Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

A long low tone sounded over the speakers in the room, then static. A voice came next. "Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. This is not a drill."

I stayed sitting at my station inside the Network Administration Office, or NAO. Everyone around me hesitated for a minute until the realization of what was said over the intercom honed in. It was then that their training kicked in. People ran out the forward hatch as it automatically closed and everyone took their stations. There were just four of us in this tiny room at the heart of this ship.

We did a multitude of things in the NAO. Primarily we maintained the on board computer network for our ship, the Craton. This was the most advanced Battle Cruiser in the Colonial Fleet. All her systems were networked. She even had individual sensors embedded throughout her hull and bulkheads that acted just like a central nervous system. All her systems could be automated. The Craton was the first ship in the newly designed Mars class Battle Cruiser.

All systems were commanded by the Combat Information Center, but all the networked automation raised problems. Thats where my team and I come in. We were not officially assigned to the Craton. We were testers. We were here to make sure the Craton's shake down cruise went swiftly and to fix any bugs. Most Battle Cruisers had NAO's, but they were usually managed by one person, who had other duties in the CIC. Primarily this room would be sealed and locked.

But today of all days! Each of us had a multiple monitors in front of us with a multitude of information scrolling over them. We were seeing everything the CIC was seeing. Further more, we had a real time data link with our Battlestar, the Atlantia. So we also saw everything they were seeing in their CIC. We were nothing more than office nerds. We worked behind desks on Space Stations or Ground Bases. Every so often we would get a Temporary Duty Assignment. At the time, I was happy to get the Craton as a TDY. BSG 41 was going to take over for BSG 107 and patrol the Armistice Line. We weren't even out of orbit of Virgon.

The low tone sounded again over the speakers. We knew what was coming because we already read it on our screens. "All ships in the Group, this is Admiral Nagala. Moments ago I was contacted by Fleet Admiral Grissom at Picon Fleet Headquarters. The Cylons have launched a surprise, all-out attack of the Colonies. Grissom is sure of Picon's destruction. I have no doubt that Virgon will be next. In the quick conversation, Grissom placed me in Command of the Colonial Fleet. We are going to engage the Cylons and destroy them."

I put a DRADIS screen on a few side monitors. The information coming in through our screens was disheartening. Caprica, Picon, and Tauron were confirmed destroyed. Battlestar after Battlestar were being destroyed. The smaller escorts, like us, were being obliterated left and right. Our Group only had six ships, a Battlestar, three Battle Cruisers, a Frigate, and us. Our other ships were undergoing overhauls, or were out patrolling. More importantly our two other Battlestars were hours away. I saw on my screen Admiral Nagala ordered BSG 107 to join us. They were over eight hours away. That would mean all our support would have to make a FTL jump inside the system to get here in a reasonable amount of time!

The low tone sounded again over the speakers. Then the static. "This is Commander Sheraton. We all heard the Admiral. For those of you who had families and loved ones on Caprica, Picon, and Tauron, I am sorry. It is up to you to make this fight in their name. For all the rest, know this: we fight for them all. This is the most advanced ship in the fleet. We will prevail!"

Our room was quiet because of all the insulation around us. This was the one point in the ship where all the systems were connected to the Central Command Computer, or See Three. It was from the C³ that connected the CIC, one deck directly above us, to the rest of the ship. Because of the importance of this room, it was well protected from just about everything. The only way to get to the ladder that connected this deck to the rest of the ship, was through a hatch on the far side of the CIC.

In the room was me. My name is Ryan Cody. I joined up as a crewman to work on Vipers when I was 17. In my first year, I joined the Step Up program. The Fleet sent me to college full time in return I would give ten years to them as an officer when I was done. I got my commission and went to Pilot Training School on Caprica to fly Vipers. It was there I discovered how much I did not like flying. I graduated, got my Viper Wings, then immediately opted for a slot teaching at the school. The assignment was three years and I got it. When it was done, I had impressed enough people to cross train into something I liked a little less, Computer Networking.

I transferred to Colonial Logistic Command and got to live in Caprica City for a few years working in the Colonial Defense Mainframe. After that assignment for two years, I transferred to Colonial Research and Design Command and moved to Virgon Fleet Construction Yards. I have been here ever since helping to design networked systems for the Fleet. For my hard work I have been stepped promoted to Captain above my peers.

Next to me was David Slaton. He was a good kid. He was only twenty nine and already a Chief Petty Officer. I think he was from Virgon. Then there was Michelle Conrad. The down to my up. She was one of the officers I got stepped up on. She was a little bitter towards me because of it. I tried to explain it was because of the wings on my uniform, but she thought it was because I kiss ass. Finally, there was Shelly Godfrey. A beautiful blond civilian. I didn't know much about her. My fourth had went AWOL and she was assigned by the Command to fill in.

That was us. Now here we were, testers, about to go into battle. I admitted to myself, I just didn't feel the scope at which this was happening.

Fifteen minutes went by, and we got our first DRADIS contact just off our port. The ship went into an up roar. Commands scrolled across my screen showing the Main Batteries and Point Defense Cannons locking onto the two blips that just appeared. On another screen I saw the commands of the maneuvering thrusters turning the ship, pointing our bow at the intruder. Then back to the center screen, the main missile doors opening at the upper bow of the Craton. The red blips on the DRADIS flickered blue as the Battlestar Night Flight's transponder broad casted along with the Battlestar Valkyrie. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But that breath was short.

A blip appeared right behind the two Battlestars. Viper patrols immediately reported in, it was a Cylon Basestar. Then another one appeared, and another. Simultaneously, a squadron of Cylon Raiders appeared right in the middle of our Group. Then, I thought the Atlantia had been destroyed because we stopped receiving their data link, but that didn't make any since because then the Battle Cruisers stopped their data links. Thats when I saw it. The Command Navigation Program was issuing commands to the rest of the systems.

"What the frak! Michelle, pull the NAVCOM link!" As she got up to yank the huge cable from the C³, Shelly stood, reached out, and snapped her neck. Then, just as quickly, she punched David right in the temple knocking him out. I didn't know what to do as she stared at me at what felt like an eternity but must have been less than a second. As the Craton's systems shut off, a jolt rocked the ship violently. It pushed me from my chair and flung my body across the room, landing on the battery supply cable, knocking it loose from the C³. I was hurt, I was sure my arm was broken. I turned to see Shelly getting up, she wasn't injured. She lunged for me. I did the only thing I knew how. I grabbed the battery power cable, and jabbed Shelly with it, shocking her with a deadly dose of electricity.

The batteries behind the bulk head shorted out and a fire started. The emergency lights came on. All power was off line. The only thing operational was the NAVCOM. It didn't take a genius to know what happened. I pulled the NAVCOM from the C³, tied the battery cable into the computer, reset the breakers and rebooted. Another jolt blasted the ship. This one was too violent. Something was destroyed, and no doubt we had hull breaches. I hit my head, bad. I knew I couldn't reboot all the systems in time. We needed to defend our selfs, but we also needed life support to live. Frak, it hit me. We needed to get out of there.

I brought on line the FTL Computer and prayed it still had a charge. If it didn't have a charge, we were fraked because I couldn't go all the way to the engine room to re-initialize the core. The one screen in front of me scrolled information as I hacked work around's to the system to allow me to subvert the CIC, power, and half a dozen other safety protocols. I checked my watch. Since the appearance of the Basestar to now was only three minutes. I looked back at the monitor. The FTL had a residual charge, but it was fading fast. The jump would not take us far. But where to go? I typed in a bunch of random numbers and hit execute.