Note: This story takes place at the same time as "The Goliath Chronicles Book Three - The bitter ends", by Kevin Hallesy, and includes some excerpts from that story
PROLOGUE
The Cylon humanoid known by the designation 'Number One' was monitoring the arrival of the latest reinforcements to support the occupation forces on the former Twelve Worlds of Humanity. The recent battle involving multiple human warships and the subsequent council-of-war had resulted in lessening their search forces in the Promar Sector for the Battlestar GALACTICA and the other ships carrying the survivors from the colonies. The remaining forces in the Promar Sector would still be more than enough to overpower what the GALACTICA could put into the field against them, once they were cornered, that is. But still, the recent battle had still proved that even though humanity had been almost annihilated, the remnants of the Colonial Fleet were proving that they could still inflict severe damage upon them - even here.
"The two task forces that had arrived earlier are now being redeployed as per your order", Number Eleven had reported. Number Eleven was not happy at this turn of events, as he had felt that this new disposition of forces took away a lot of necessary eyes in the hunt for the GALACTICA, but the recent surprise attack that had resulted in the destruction of a base star and a sentinel post, plus having two other base stars severely damaged - one of those being the command base star, along with a sizeable number of raiders, had changed Number One's mind, despite their destroying the Battlestar ITHACA and acquiring intelligence from the wreck stating that Valhalla Station was lost to the humans.
"When will the two damaged base stars be repaired?", she asked him neutrally, but with menace in her voice. Evidently, she was still blaming him for enabling the humans to be able to mount such a successful strike. Number Eleven was well aware of her displeasure.
"It will not be for several weeks, but we now have twenty base stars in this system. One each will be covering all twelve occupied worlds, and the others are commencing their system patrols with the support of their full raider complements", he replied, "So any future human incursion will definitely be dealt with - in force rather than piecemeal".
"That's what you said to me when we sent the vast majority of our base stars to Promar", Number One icily reminded him, "and you'd better be thankful for Cylon technology, otherwise you would be terminated for your error of judgement. Keep me informed on the new disposition of our forces and the amended search protocol for the GALACTICA" , she ordered.
"By Your Command", Number Eleven replied. Yes, he was thankful that his consciousness would not die: termination of this body meant waking up in a new body, thanks to the 'resurrection ship', but the message was clear: Number One did not want any more mistakes from him...
Chapter One: Initiating First Contact
After the refining of the tylium ore and other needed metals extracted from an earlier-encountered asteroid (here in the remote and uncharted Promar Sector) had been completed, the Battlestar PEGASUS had gotten under way, resuming it's mission of locating the Battlestar GALACTICA and the civilian refugee convoy that it was protecting. Since the PEGASUS had returned from a rescue mission back in the home Cyrannus System, they had been 'idling' for a little under a week during the ore refining process - the refining equipment on board was somewhat limited, making the original two-day schedule a little unrealistic - and during this extended down-time, proper repairs had been made to both the PEGASUS and it's complement of fighter and reconnaissance craft, after their recent hit-and-run strike near Sagittaria. One of those craft was a newcomer to the battlestar's complement.
Down in Hangar Nine (Port Landing Bay) - which was the only bay able to fully accommodate the newcomer, Commander Garris Cain was taking the time to inspect the latest addition to the striking power of the Battlestar PEGASUS. Flanking him was the flight crew who had brought it on board - Lieutenant jg Walter 'Hondo' Hunter and Ensign Calvin 'Coffin' Sims, formerly of Militech Corporation's Peregrine Assessment Team, now on TDY to the PEGASUS with the impressive designation of 'PEGASUS Advanced Reconnaissance and Strike Section'. It was a rather grandiose title, given the fact that there was only one ship in the section, but that ship was quite an exceptional one.
Their ship, a Militech Peregrine Gunship - Official designation 'Production Prototype Number Five' - was sitting there in front of them, fully repaired and gleaming in it's new paint scheme. When Hunter looked upon it for the first time after it had been repaired and reconfigured from it's range endurance test mode to a fully operational weapons-capable attack platform, he was totally speechless.
Chief Krag's deck crew had worked wonders with getting the Peregrine repaired and reconfigured. After Hunter and Sims had checked the interior - which was as pristine and operational as the exterior - they asked Krag how he had managed it in so short a time.
"Nothing spectacular, Lieutenant", Krag replied to Hunter, "We had plenty of spare parts from Molecay Anchorage and the Peregrine's components are fully compatible with those and what we carry in stores. The designers of this gunship really knew what they were doing in making something designed to be maintained in the field", he replied.
Hunter knew that Krag was being modest - he saw the damage inflicted upon the Peregrine for the first time when he had stepped out onto the hangar bay deck after coming on board. Still, modest or not, the Peregrine was ready to do the job that it was designed for: to make their enemies very miserable indeed.
"Militech Corporation made a fine machine", Commander Cain said after he had finished the exterior and interior inspection. Hunter and Sims showed Cain the capabilities of the gunship - both in firepower and lifting ability of troops and materiel, plus it's full FTL capability - and answered Cain's questions concisely.
"The person in the pilot seat controls the helm, and the nose gun. In that position, he can and does mainly control the jump initiator and missiles", Hunter had explained. Sims added, "The person in the rear seat monitors the engine's sublight and FTL drives, monitors the comm, and controls the wing guns. It can switch scarab and intercept control to that station, but that takes control away from the pilot". Thanks to Hunter and Sims, Cain learned that the Peregrine Systems Officer (PSO) station did not control the guns or the 'fire and forget' missiles - unlike the Raptor (though for wire-guided ordinance, this station would guide those missile types into their intended target) - but usually the chaff and drones and electronic counter measures, including the 'ghost' or echo emulator (this device reads incoming scanner frequencies and sends back a signal on the same freq of 'empty space' where the Peregrine should be and can bend the signal to make them appear meters away, sort of like hot air over a road making a mirage of water). The PSO station also served as the primary comm station, for intercepting and decoding of transmissions, etc. Like the Raptor it can act as a station for directing other ships - like vipers - to targets that their longer range scanners can pick up that vipers may not, as well as discriminating real targets from sensor ghosts, drones etc.
Cain nodded with approval at the informal name painted upon the nose of the gunship in stern block lettering: 'FLEET AVENGER'. He knew that with the capabilities of the Peregrine, it would indeed start wreaking revenge for the destruction of the majority of the Colonial Fleet.
Another person who had taken advantage of the down-time was Captain Glen 'Comms' Sanders. He had reprogrammed and dispatched remote sensor drones back to the Cyrannus System in order to gather more intelligence. Their recent victory in which they had severely damaged a base star while rescuing Peregrine Five was even sweeter when additional information about other attacks being made upon the Cylon occupation forces came in. It was for further information on the latter, plus seeing what the Cylons would be doing in the aftermath of the battle, that motivated this latest intelligence drive. The latest deciphered intercepts were providing valuable information.
"Commander, Colonel", Sanders said to both Cain and Geoff Tolen after getting the first probes back, "The Cylons have indeed been hit hard. The probe dispatched to Cancer has confirmed the destruction of both a base star, and a listening post. High EM readings indicate that large-yield nukes were employed by the attackers".
"Any sign so far of who had done the attack, Comms?", Colonel Tolen asked. Sanders shook his head.
"Sorry, XO", Sanders replied, "We only have information on the results, not who caused it, but these attacks definitely diverted Cylon assets which would otherwise have been deployed against us during the rescue mission".
Cain nodded, then asked, "What else do you have, Comms?".
"What we believe to be the Command Base Star - the one orbiting Caprica - was indeed heavily damaged by a rail gun and is currently under repair. The probe dispatched there shows that another base star has taken up station in it's place. Other probes show that a total of twenty base stars are now in the Cyrannus System: one for each occupied world, and the remaining eight formed into four task forces of two each that are patrolling the system", Sanders replied.
"Looks like the tin-heads definitely got their fingers burnt, if they're now deploying that amount of firepower", Cain said. The others nodded in agreement with his assessment.
"Unfortunately, we have lost two of our probes already from the increased patrol activity", Sanders furnished, confirming the fact that information extraction would be more difficult from here on out. Since the probes were designed to auto-destruct, there would be no way for the Cylons to determine their point of origin, but it was still an annoyance.
"Anything else interesting on the latest batch of intercepts?", Cain asked next.
"The Cylons are conducting an operation called 'Live Bait'", Sanders replied, "From what we can ascertain from the decodes, it looks like an operation to use bogus distress calls in order to attract human rescuers. Most likely from these other colonial forces".
Cain thought about that. If the Cylons managed to set up decoy ships with humanoid Cylons, it would spell disaster for the rescuers.
"How about these other forces?" Cain asked next, "Have you thought about trying to make contact with them?". Cain knew that this information on these Cylon decoys would be something that the others would definitely want.
"The problem with that is to come up with a communications message format that the Cylons won't be able to intercept and decode, but that these other forces would", Sanders explained, "The TAC-channel protocols used by the Peregrines would give us the best chance, since these others have at least one of that type of ship, but keeping identification and location details secret from interception by Cylon listening posts is going to be tricky".
"He's right about that, Commander", Tolen concurred, "The Cylons are not stupid. But we have to be able to come up with something that their mechanical minds can't decode. One-time pad ciphers are the best bet, but both sides will have to have the same pad cipher lists, and those lists would have to be handed to them personally - not transmitted".
"Making the cipher lists would be the easy bit", Sanders added, "but the XO is right: before we can make any communications on a regular basis, they have to get a cipher list, and they would also need a new, more frequently changing rotation frequency protocol so that the Cylons won't be able to lock down and listen to any one TAC-channel. We have to assume that the existing TAC channels' rotation settings have been compromised, despite the security steps in place to prevent their discovery".
Sanders was referring to the precise sequence of channel switching that the TAC-channels employ. A casual listener would only hear a very brief fragment of a message on one channel. So whoever wanted to listen to a conversation using these TAC-channels would have to have the precise channel switching sequence: otherwise known as the rotation setting. Each TAC-channel had it's own unique rotation setting.
"Never mind that. The bottom line still is that we have to initiate contact somehow. That is going to be the first big step", Cain stated, "but this has to be very carefully planned, so that we can make contact without tipping the Cylons off as to where and when".
Tolen added, "There is also something else along those lines that we have to consider when we do make contact with them. Dr. Ashley's progress on that Cylon corpse has given us some leads on how to screen us from them, but they are still going to be damn hard to detect, so we have to assume that there could be Cylon humanoids amongst that contingent as well, so even if we do make contact without the Cylons knowing, the possibility of other agents means we should not give out any compromising information at this stage".
"I'm aware of that, XO. But let's first try and make contact first. We can worry about that after the initial contact is made", Cain decided.
"And I think I have a way that we can initiate contact with a high enough degree of security", another voice said. Cain turned to see Captain Eugene 'Bojay' Syke - the CAG of Silver Spar Wing - walk into the meeting. He was holding a manual that Lt. Hunter had given to him earlier.
"I asked Captain Syke to join us, Commander", Sanders said. Cain nodded, gesturing to Syke to explain what he meant.
"I strongly believe that the Peregrine that is being used by those other combatants is commanded by a person who I know well", Syke began, "I've already talked with Ensign Dutch, and our two newcomers Hunter and Sims, and they are all in agreement with me on this".
"Who is it, Captain?", Cain asked.
"His name is Captain Logan Masters. Better known by his call-sign of 'Dragon'. When I was detached from the Battlestar AUSTRALIS for TDY as an instructor at Viper Transition Training back on Picon, he was the senior instructor there", Syke explained, "and when our tours were completed, I headed back to the AUSTRALIS while he went on to attend ATT - co-incidentally enough with Lieutenant Higgins, by the way. Around the time when I made Captain and was given orders to report here as the new CAG for Silver Spar, he graduated from ATT and was sent back to Militech Corporation to run the flight assessment teams for the Peregrine Gunship program", he concluded.
"At that time, the Peregrine program was classified secret. How did you work out that your friend was there?", Tolen asked.
"Well, XO, that last bunch of dated mail had a letter to me from him telling me that he was involved in a program he couldn't talk about. I asked Dutch if Captain Masters was a name known to him from his brief two-week assignment to support the Peregrine assessment teams. He confirmed my suspicions, and as Masters' craft was already configured for combat testing, it makes him the prime 'suspect' as the Command Pilot for the Peregrine out there", he answered.
"So how should we get in touch with this friend of yours, without having Cylon gatecrashers putting a damper on the reunion?", Cain asked. It was Sanders who answered.
"It is logical that they will have intercepted Cylon transmissions as well, and found out about our recent battle when we picked up Hunter's Peregrine", he said, "and that will give us our key".
"Okay, Comms, You have my attention", Cain replied, "How does the recent battle help us?".
"The last batch of intercepts we got had clearly stated the co-ordinates of the Cylons' battle with the 'unknown battlestar'. If the others had intercepted and decoded that message - and I'm betting my last cubit that they did - then they will have the information that we have got a Peregrine as well", Sanders said first. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure everyone fully understood, he went on.
"The Peregrines were assigned the ship-to-ship TAC-channel rotation setting protocols one thru three for communication. What we do is to send out probes that will transmit portions of a message on those frequencies. The complete message will read this" - handing Cain and Tolen a slip of paper.
Tolen and Cain read, 'BOJAY TO DRAGON, MEET AT BORALLIS RENDEZVOUS POINT SIX-FIVE-EIGHT MARK EIGHT-FOUR-FIVE'. Glancing at a chart of the Borallis System that Sanders had placed on the table in front of them, those co-ordinates were for an asteroid field near the perimeter of the system.
"The probes will send out the first word first, the next two words second, the next three words third, and so on, so that the message parts will be assembled in it's proper order", Sanders finished.
"Would you care to explain this message to me, Captain?", Tolen asked, "Because if this message is intercepted, the Cylons will know where to go to, and they won't be there to chat". This time Captain Syke replied.
"Captain Masters will know that it's from me by my call-sign", he explained, "and we both had an avid interest in playing word games at Viper Transition when we were off duty. One of the games that we enjoyed was based on using page numbers from various operations manuals, he concluded, holding up the PEREGRINE FLIGHT OPERATIONS MANUAL.
"So how could you make this message so that Captain Masters will understand, but the Cylons won't?", Tolen asked.
"The Cylons would not have a copy of this manual, given the fact that the Peregrine was still in the testing phase. He has one, and now thanks to Hondo here, we have one too", Syke clarified.
"Captain Syke said that the message would start PFOM, indicating that the Peregrine Flight Operations Manual will be the reference for the code. The other words are made up from the page number and word number on the particular page", Sanders added.
"I know that the Peregrine we have can easily make it to those rendezvous co-ordinates, Comms", Cain said, "but I don't want to risk it, or the PEGASUS just yet. Given the fact that the raptors don't have the range, how can we issue our invitation?".
"That's been taken care of, Commander. We'll send an FTL-capable probe programmed to receive any message from a colonial craft making the Borallis rendezvous. They will send us their message and that should lead to a more secure rendezvous for a face-to-face meeting", Sanders replied, "the probe will be programmed to self-destruct if the IFF does not recognize the craft making the rendezvous as friendly".
Sanders was referring to the Identification - Friend of Foe device on board the probe which determined whether an incoming ship was friendly or hostile. The IFF on the probes was connected directly to a detonation charge of sufficient intensity to throughly destroy the probe if it determined any incoming ship to be hostile.
"Just as a matter of interest, is the word 'Borallis' in the manual at all, Captain?", Tolen asked. Syke opened the book at page 99 - which showed a listing of local star systems - and pointed to the seventh word, which was 'Borallis'.
Tolen thought about it, then turned to face Cain.
"It's worth a shot, Commander", Tolen ventured, "and it does not compromise our position".
Cain slowly nodded. It was important that they knew more about this other group so that informational interchanges could be established. If such a contact could be maintained, that could provide additional ammunition to persuade Adama to return to the offensive - if and when they caught up to the GALACTICA, that is...
"Very well, Comms", Cain approved, "Initiate the program and let's see if we get a reply".
"Yes, Commander", Sanders said. Cain stood. The others stood and at Cain's nod, left the briefing room. It was time to get things rolling.
