Battlestar Ajax in orbit over Picon, 3 days before Fall of Twelve Colonies

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story and make no money off it

Commander Gregory King walked through the corridors of his ship towards the CIC.

At the door were the two marines who always stood guard at the doors of the most important room in the ship. Without saying a word they moved apart to opposite sides of the doorway and saluted.

As he waved them off them door opened. Inside he saw the two-story CIC. His bridge crew was working diligently at their stations as always.

Colonel Andrew Siler announced, "Commander on Deck!"

"At ease everyone," Commander King replied. "Colonel Siler, what have I missed? The ship still running?" he asked with a smile.

Colonel Siler was one of the youngest Executive Officers in the Fleet. At only 34 he had only served on four ships before the Ajax but all of those had been warships.

In fact, the Colonel had graduated flight school at only 20 and was qualified to fly everything from old atmospheric shuttles to Mark VII Vipers and the latest Raptor versions.

Col Siler nodded. "Yes sir. The CAP rotation went off without a hitch, Picon Fleet HQ sent out another memo about illegal trafficking between Tauron and Caprica, and we had to dispatch two Raptors to escort a civilian ship back to Picon after their EM suite got fried."

"Just another day in space, huh?" he said.

It was then that Lieutenant James Riden, King's Senior Officer of the Watch and Tactical Officer, walked up to him and handed him a communique.

"Commander, this just arrived from Fleet Headquarters. It's addressed directly to you."

Taking the note, King read out loud.

"From the desk of Rear Admiral Marcus Reed.

The Battlestar Ajax, under the command of Commander Gregory King, is to proceed to Armistice Line for one week patrol duty. Escort ships Athena and Delphi will accompany as part of Battlestar Group 81.

Ship to relieve of duty: Battlestar Kobol. Proceed immediately upon rendezvous with escorts."

Nodding, Commander King wadded the paper up and threw it away. "Lieutenant Riden, upload the navigational data and spin up the FTL drives. Plot a sublight coarse to the Athena and Delphi and confirm their receipt of same message."

The young Lieutenant nodded and began scurrying around the bridge performing and directing the various tasks required for space rendezvous and FTL jumps.

On the newer Mercury-class Battlestars the CIC was a small, efficient, networked room that allow the Tactical Officer to perform his duties without leaving his station.

However, the Ajax was a member of the Olympia class Battlestars. The Olympias were the series of 37 Battlestars constructed between the end of the Cylon War and the Colonial Rearmament twenty years afterward. The Ajax CIC was extremely similar to Columbia Battlestars.

The Olympias were essentially advanced versions of the Columbia class Battlestars that had led the Colonies through the Cylon War.

Their armament consisted of 36 Anti-ship gun turrets, 50% more than the Colombias. But more spread out with twelve guns on the central lateral surface, six more on the underside of the bow, and 12 on the dorsal surface in the same places as on Columbias, and three on the sides of both Flight Pods.

There were also the same number of Point Defense Turrets as the Columbia class to simplify and speed up the design process.

The hulking behemoth began accelerating towards the smaller escort vessels. The escorts were much more lightly armed than the mighty Battlestars.

Barely measuring 650 meters the escorts looked almost comedic compared to the massive metal monsters. The escorts were crewed by only five hundred seventy crew and marines and were commanded by Escort Captains.

The ships also carried eight, scaled down Anti-ship guns on their dorsal surface. They also carried a mere seventy Point Defense Turrets.

To offset their relatively weak artillery armament, the ships had six conventional missile tubes, much like the Valkyrie class Battlestars only much fewer in number.

In minutes the three ships were in formation and, thanks to the expertise of their navigators, moved in unison as they broke orbit.

"Commander, the Captains of both escorts are reporting FTL status green. They're prepared to jump."

Nodding, King responded. "Jump the ships."

Colonel Siler began the countdown. "Jump in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

"Jump." With that, all three ships disappeared in brilliant flashes of light, and at almost the exact same moment they reappeared at the Armistice Line and began broadcasting their Colonial IFFs to prevent the Kobol from blasting them out of the sky.

"Commander, Kobol Actual is on the line."

Picking up the phone, King said, "This is Ajax Actual, go ahead."

The voice on the other side of the phone was feminine but full of authority.

"Ajax Actual, this is Kobol Actual, welcome to nowhere. My ships are in desperate need of water. I'm afraid we had a major explosion in both our tanks due to an asteroid storm so I'm afraid I'll have to skip ceremonies and jump immediately."

"Confirm, Kobol, enjoy the Civilization," he said in a joking manner. He heard a chuckle on the other end before, "And enjoy Armistice. So long."

With that the Battlestar and its escorts winked off the DRADIS screen. And then they were alone.

"Well Colonel, launch the CAP, prep our standby Raptors, and set Condition Three throughout all ships."

Authors Note: Well, tell me what you guys think. This is a crossover but its going to take a while for the other series to come in. Review and let me know if this story is worth persuing