Dreadstar Defiance, a novel of the Second and last Cylon War
Preface
"One of the numerous shortcomings of the Colonial Fleet that had become apparant during the Cylon War was the need for a dedicated, heavily armed and armored gun-carrier, something that could engage one, perhaps two Cylon Basestars simultaneously.
Two years after the end of the war, the first of this new class of warship, the "Charybdis" was built, and became the namesake of the class. She was followed by sister ships "Nemesis", "Kali" and "Defiance"
The "charybdis" class was a departure from the traditional Battlestar design. While still having many of the lines of traditional warships, these units were fitted with a single landing bay in the bow, rather than two retractable tunnel like landing bays. In practice this proved to be a dangerous liability in combat, as illustrated by the Kali accident four years after her construction, where a single, fully armed Raptor's failed landing resulted in a series of catastrophic explosions that left "Kali" crippled, and cost nearly four hundred lives. Redundant "hands-off" landing systems were retrofitted as a result. Construction ceased after the final unit "Defiance" was constructed.
Despite the design flaw, one unit of this class, "Nemesis" performed well under combat during the Sagittaron Rising incident (covered in Kestrel book Campaign 9 "Sagittaron Rising"), paving the way for Marine assault landings. The class performed so well in fact, that they were dubbed "Dreadstars".
A "Dreadstar" typically carries one squadron of twelve Raptors, two to four squadrons of Vipers, though generally only two squadrons, two heavy gun batteries in the bow, sixty four twin gun turrets mounted dorsal, ventral and broadside, over twelve hundred Artemis CIWS, twelve missile tubes, with six "dial-up" two to fifty kiloton Nuclear warheads stored onboard...
I
Timon Gallieni was a small man, though not a little person, he was rather slight of build, and that slightness was accentuated by a uniform that always seemed a little large on him. The same uniform he wore for thirty years.
Thirty years in the Colonial fleet.
In all that time he had served on two support ships, one ship yard and five Battlestars, and during that time he had developed a reputation as one of the finest computer programmers and analysts in the entire fleet. Yet, during that time, he had never risen beyond the rank of lieutenant. While this would rankle the egos of just about anyone else in the fleet, he could easily have found a lucrative position in any corporation, it was something that he was blissfully unaware of.
Until now. On the eve of his retirement.
And so one morning, he had been called into the wardroom of the commander of his last ship, the Defiance.
He stood for a moment before the metal door to the Commander's cabin, fidgiting with his uniform, rubbing down the combover that miserably failed to cover his baldness, adjusted the heavy rimmed glasses that left a permanent dent in the bridge of his nose, before finally, he knocked on the door.
"Enter" said the voice from within. He opened the door and stepped inside.
From behind a heavy wooden desk, a pair of round eyes peered at him from over a pair of red rimmed reading glasses and from under an unruly mass of blonde curls.
"T-the Commander wishes to speak to me?" he asked as he snapped to attention.
"Oh, Lieutenant Gallieni" the Commander answered, "please have a seat"
Gallieni seated himself obediently.
For a moment he sat in silence as the Commander shuffled some papers, peering intently at some, tossing them aside, tossing others with barely a glance. He glanced about the room, at the desk, the name plate bearing the name and rank of the commander.
"Commander Valeria I. Noraska"
He looked up at her, studying her intently, as she searched for something in particular. She was heavy set, one could call her plump, with tousled, blond curls over large, round, blue eyes, a large nose, and round, red lips. He couldn't help but smile at the way she battled with the stacks of papers arrayed before her. As though she noticed his stare, she spoke up.
"Papers, papers and more papers... it takes more paperwork to retire a warship than to send one into a battle..." she glanced up and their eyes briefly met. She shot him a thin smile, and grabbed another sheet of paper.
"sir?" he replied.
"Oh, you didn't know." she said looking up at him. Taking off her reading glasses, she set them down on the desk, then went on.
"This is going to be our last cruise. Defiance is going to be retired, along with most of the fleet." she said, looking down. "It seems President Adar's decided he doesn't need us anymore."
"yes, sir"
She handed Gallieni the papers she had found. At once he began to read them.
"Essentially, before we leave, Command wants the old backups of our command navigation software back. We've been using the new package Baltar Industries produced, and command feels we don't need the old backups. I know you're retiring today, but I need you to run an inventory on all the systems where the new package is installed, make sure they're all fully compliant... only the gods know why... they won't need that at the breakers... run an inventory of the old backups and deliver them to the tech liaison officer at the shipyard. Ok?"
"Yes sir."
"Very good... dismissed" and with that she put her glasses back on and went back to work after taking another draft of her favorite caffiene drink, a sickly sweet green concoction called "Green Tyger"
Gallieni rose to his feet, started to salute, thought better of it, as he guessed she wouldn't notice, and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
"Have they tested the new system first?"
"Not that I'm aware." Gallieni answered, staring into his coffee.
"What if it doesn't work?" answered the other.
The other was lieutenant Marcelo Gage, a young officer on his first cruise. He had graduated from the Fleet Academy, twenty third in his class, specializing in shipboard information systems. He stared sideways at Gallieni, puzzled.
"what if...?"
Gage finally shrugged, "well, you don't have anything to worry about, right? Only two more days with the Fleet, and you can enjoy the rest of your life." he said, smiling. "Excited?"
Gallieni said nothing, still staring into his now cold coffee, as though trying to read a portent.
"Hey..." Gage gave him a nudge.
"W-what? Oh, I'm ok..." he paused, looked up and glanced around the room. "Just thinking"
"About what, the new system?" Gage asked "relax, buddy, I'll handle it if you want..."
"It's not that..." Gallieni looked intently at Gage, leaned closer and lowered his voice "what if it doesn't work? I've never seen a project like this pushed through without being tested and retested. Especially after the Cylon war. Will it work? Will it work properly? Is it SECURE?"
"It's got to be" Gage replied soothingly, "they had to have tested it, even if only in simulations."
It was Gallieni's turn to shrug. "You're probably right."
"You know I'm right... I think you've got the jitters."
Gallieni chuckled, humorlessly. Then got up to leave. "back to work..."
"You sure you don't want me to take this one for you?"
"No" Gallieni shook his head "You can have her after I'm gone."
"Okay."
Later, as Gallieni worked on installing the system, the nagging feeling kept... nagging. What if?
"Hey" he heard a feminine voice behind him. Startled, he turned about and looked up, and saw an attractive woman in a light grey uniform. She smiled warmly at him.
"Hope I didn't startle you." she said apologetically.
"Not at all, but I don't think we've ever met." Gallieni said, getting up out of his seat.
"No, I'm Lira Vivand, I'm a civilian contractor assigned to Defiance to assist with the system upgrade." she said, looking intently into Gallieni's eyes. He met her gaze.
"I, uh, wasn't aware..."
"Commander Novaska personally assigned me to assist you with this project" Vivand replied smoothly "in any capacity you require..." she added, rocking back and forth slowly, he hands clasped behind her, drawing attention to her bust.
"I, uh... hmmm..." was all Gallieni could say.
The trip from Defiance to hanger bay four at Virgon Navy Yard took only a few minutes, from there, however, to the supply office took longer.
Commander Noraska squinted as she entered the room, it was dimly lit to be sure, but one of only two fluorescent lights in the room flickered irritatingly. She tried to ignore it as she walked up to the counter. The clerk, in green fatigues, did not notice her, busy as he was with a magazine he was reading. Her annoyance deepened as she waited, and saw he did not look up. Finally she had had enough.
"OFFICER ON DECK!" she bellowed into the clerk's ear.
At once he seemed to leap into the air, his mouth flew open, he wanted to shout back, but noticed the uniform and badge of rank she wore, then looked terrified as his eyes met hers briefly before he stiffened to attention, staring straight ahead.
"Enjoying your magazine, soldier?" Noraska snapped at the clerk.
"Yes, I mean, No, sir!" he answered.
"Corporal! Find something else to do, make yourself useful... we'll talk about this later!" another voice boomed from somewhere behind the counter, in the bowels of the office. Then a tall man, also dressed in green fatigues strode out. The clerk saluted quickly, the officer, a Colonel, saluted back and the clerk fled.
Noraska's look of annoyance turned into one of surprise and pleasure as she recognized the familiar face.
"Jojo!" she said, with a big smile.
"Val, I mean, commander!" the officer at the counter replied just as warmly.
"Awww..." she waved her hand dismissively how are you?"
"Doing okay, doing okay..."
"What, not remarried yet?" Noraska laughed.
Jojo held out his hands in a helpless gesture.
Noraska looked down, paused, then laid a stack of pink and yellow forms on the counter. "I'm looking for groceries today. How soon can we get these?"
Jojo took out his own reading glasses, holding the papers closer, then further away trying to read them. Even with his glasses he was having trouble. "Tylium, Food, munitions...lots of munitions? You're loading up all your magazines, going to cross the red line and hunt for Cylons?" "No... but it's better to have it and not need it..." she started
"than need it and not have it, I know I know..."
"that's why you're my favorite ex-husband!" Noraska said grinning.
Jojo paused, as though to say something, but thought better of it. She noticed and nodded slightly, looking down again.
"I've got the stuff you wanted." he spoke up after a pause.
"Oh?"
"Forty eight cases of, oh yes... Green Tyger." he said, chuckling "Is that all you drink?"
Noraska shrugged. "It's got everything a growing girl needs"
Jojo shook his head. "I got you something else..." he said, then left the counter and disappeared among the packed shelving units. He reappeared a moment later with a small parcel.
"They just arrived from the printer yesterday." he said smiling. Noraska's eyes lit up.
"Latest from Kestrel Press... Armies and Enemies of the Tauron War, and Campaign number forty six, Operation Raptor Talon..."
Noraska's entire face lit up like a child on her birthday. She quickly took a small stack of credits and laid them on the counter, then greedily took the parcel.
"That's not all, Val..."
"Oh?"
"I wanted to give this to you..." Jojo said as he took out a somewhat larger parcel from under the counter.
She looked at the package, then at him, then the package again. Her smile disappeared, and she looked serious.
"I missed your birthday..."
She swallowed hard, her eyes started to turn red and moist.
"Thank you Jack..." she said, "thank you..." and she picked the package up.
"Don't open it now..." he said, he asked, laying his big, beefy hand gently on top of hers. "wait until you get back to your ship, ok?"
She nodded, remembering that touch, she fought back the tears.
"you remembered..."
"I never forgot..." he said "sometimes I'm useful after all."
"it was never you... you know that, right?"
"It was..."
A pause.
Finally Jojo spoke up.
"I'll get these expedited for you, Commander." the familiar look that was in his eyes shut off abruptly.
"Thank you Colonel". She said slowly, exchanged salutes, and left.
Gallieni composed himself and squeezed past Vivand, stepping over to a workstation. She followed him with her gaze as he sat down and quickly typed in a command. She tried to get a glance at what he had typed in, but he managed to block her view so she saw nothing.
"This is Baby, otherwise known as the central computer core... Baby is MY Baby, and I'm very protective of her." Gallieni said, looking up at Vivand, who was suddenly standing over his shoulder. "Excuse me, but you're crowding me." he said testily. "I don't like to be crowded".
"I'm sorry" she said, pouting, and she moved back, but only a little.
He got up, and moved briskly to another workstation, and as she tried again to see what it was he was typing, he punched in a line of code, and slid a disk into the small console.
"If you're serious about helping, Miss..."
"Vivand, but you can call me Li-..." she started to reply cheerfully.
"Miss Vivand... you can watch the bar, and when it finishes changing from white to blue, you can let me know, ok?"
She looked downcast "I have a masters in computer science..." she protested. "if you grant me access, with both of working we could be done in half the time..."
"I'm sure you do... I'm sure I won't, and I'm in no hurry" Gallieni replied testily, without looking up. He typed in a command, slid another disk into the next workstation. When he got up, he found she was standing over his shoulder again.
"What did I ask you?" he snapped.
"What?" she asked.
"has the download bar turned blue yet?"
She blinked, shook her head.
He let out a frustrated sigh. This was going to be a long watch...
"The only downside to the Charybdis class, seriously, is the landing bay arrangement." said Captain Aram "Bags" Bagrateen to the small knot of replacement pilots. "It is in the bow. You don't have the luxury of landing in a long, comfy tube, like you would on a Battlestar. That means when you make your approach, you have to be on the ball or..." he tapped hard on the bulkhead, "you'll find yourself all over the wall". He gave it another smack, jolting the "nuggets" to attention. "The only thing past this bulkhead, is the rest of the ship, understand me?"
"And ask any of hangar crew, they'll tell you they're mightily tired of scraping nugget mash off the wall!" he noticed the Chief in the distance and called out to him "int that right, chief?"
The Chief shouted back "If you say so, sir!"
Bagrateen chuckled grimly "last nugget was mashed up so badly, we had to use a shovel to scoop what was left of him into The Bag".
He shot a glare at the four rookie pilots, their eyes were wide, one of them shuddered. Another one of them spoke up.
"But there is an auto-approach system..."
"there's an auto-approach system..." he repeated mockingly. "but what if we're in combat and that system got taken out by a Cylon or terrorist rocket? Huh? Then what?"
Silence.
"got news for you kids, once we get underway, you'll be doing manual approaches, landings, combat landings, and nothing but until you get them right, on the first try, without even trying. And..." he added "we'll have lots of exercises... the CO likes live fire exercises."
"Oh, and don't worry about the CO, I'm the one you really should be afraid of!" he flashed them a grin that looked like a wolf baring it's teeth under a bushy moustache. "You do your jobs, do them right, don't frack up, and we'll be the best of friends, but if you frack up, you better hope you don't walk away, because after that I'll be all over you like white on rice for the rest of your life!"
His tone softened a little "we'll start by pairing you off with experienced pilots, see how well you do, how well you listen. When you're out there, you stick with your leaders, no matter what." He walked closer to a line of Vipers. Mark VII's in grey.
"These are the new Mark VII Vipers." he pointed out to the "nuggets" who eyed them admiringly, each of them mentally putting himself or herself into the cockpit of one. "you won't be flying these. You see the names painted on them? Call signs? You've got to earn that."
He turned to the rookies "You'll be flying Mark II's. Have a look at them. No names, no call signs painted on them. Just plain-janes... like you."
Gallieni sat exhausted in the cafeteria. His watch ended, he went to his quarters, went to bed. He wanted to sleep, tried to make himself sleep, tossed and turned until he kinda-sorta slept Woke up again with a start. Finally got up, took a shower, and went to the recreation room.
Gage was already there. His watch would start in a couple of hours, so Gallieni walked over to his table, and after greeting nods, sat down.
"I hear you've got an assistant now!" Gage said admiringly "and a real vixen too!"
Gallieni rolled his eyes "If you want her..."
"What do you mean? Oh right... I forgot. You don't..."
"It's not that."
"Then what is it?"
"Everything"
Gage flashed an exaggeratedly puzzled look, throwing up his hands.
"She's nosy, pushy and whenever I'm logging in, she's right there, over my shoulder! Really gives me the creeps!"
"I'd have asked her to sit in my lap!" Gage chuckled wickedly "yeah baby, I'll show you my access codes if you show me yours..."
"I'm serious."
"Okay..." Gage stopped laughing. "Why not talk to the CO?"
"Oh yeah... that civilian you assigned to me makes me uncomfortable, make her go away...!"
Gage thought about it for a moment.
"I'll tell you what... you take my watch, I'll take yours, then she'll be my problem. Consider it my retirement gift to you."
Gallieni's eyes lit up. "Yeah? You will?"
"Yeah."
"All right... thanks!" Gallieni looked relieved, a little. "I'll be able to get this project done."
A long pause followed.
"I'm going to miss the fleet, especially this ship." Gallieni said wistfully.
"Yeah." Gage replied, though he saw no reason why he would miss "Defiance" in particular.
"Commander says this will be the last cruise, she's being retired, probably going to the breakers after stripping anything that could be used as spares."
"Really? She's not that old either, read Defiance was built just after the Cylon War." Gage said, surprised.
"Laid down near the end, not completed until after." Gallieni replied. "She's not even listed as a Battlestar, but as a "Dreadstar"
"Dreadstar? Who thought of that?"
"Really, she's a light Battlestar. No hangar pods, only one landing bay in the bow. But the idea was to make up for less fighters with more guns and missiles. In the end, no more guns or missiles than a Battlestar."
"Interesting..." Gage said, though he really didn't think it was.
Another long pause followed.
"Suppose they'll take out the computer core, and all the bits, put it all in storage."
"Unless she gets used as a target ship."
"True enough" Gage said. "Might almost be worth taking a little souvenir home then, since by next year there might not be a Defiance left... except maybe a little bit of her in your razor blades."
Gallieni froze.
"Hey, I was just saying... we both know it's illegal, punishable under law"
Gallieni flashed Gage a glance, put a finger up to his lips in deep thought.
"Okay... forget I said anything." Gage shot apprehensively at him.
"No, nothing, was just thinking, that's all."
"Yeah..."
"Really, don't worry about it."
"Okay... so you're still taking my watch?
"Sure... there's a lot to get done before we leave port, and I'm going to be busy, really busy."
"Well, I'm sure what's her name..."
"Lira" Gallieni reminded.
"Lira will keep me busy too." Gage said smiling.
"Be careful with her..." Gallieni warned. "Seriously."
"Hey..." Gage laughed "I can handle women"