I want to thank shermpotter for reviewing this chapter and suggesting a few changes and corrections.
Operation Redline: Cylon Strike Part Two
The four Valkyrie Class Battlestars of BSGS1erupted out of FTL in four bright flashes of white light, where a moment before there had been nothing but empty space, there were now four powerful ships of war. As soon as the Battlestar's systems stabilized from the jump, the waiting raptors immediately began entering the landing bays.
"Casualty report!" Admiral Reed snapped knowing that they had lost a number of vipers as well as some raptors in the attack. A cold chill ran across Reed's neck. He knew that before this was over many more good men and women would probably die from his orders. That was part of the burden of command, and one he could not share with anyone else.
Commander Stramm spent several moments talking over his com to the CAGs of the different ships before he responded. "We lost twenty two vipers and six raptors sir. Our SAR teams did manage to pick up twelve pilots. We also lost eighteen crewmen on the Battlestars due to battle damage."
"How serious is our damage?" Admiral Reed asked his forehead creasing into a frown. He had hoped to get through this first attack with little or no damage to the ships under his command. The Cylon response, when they realized what was happening had been quicker then he had imagined possible. They had launched so many fraking raiders! He knew that the raiders would be a growing problem in the rest of the attacks they were under orders to undertake.
"We took the nuke hit to our port side, but damage control teams should have the damage repaired in three more hours," Commander Stramm replied as he scanned the damage reports that were coming in from the other Battlestars. "The Dark Search also took a nuke but the damage is minimal and they should have repairs completed within the hour. The other two Battlestars report very minor damage."
"We have to hit Target Two quickly David," Admiral Reed replied relieved that the damage was so light. His task group was still intact. "The Cylons will realize shortly what we have done and will send reinforcements to the other bases. Our window of opportunity will fade very quickly."
"I know sir," Stramm replied looking up at the Admiral knowing they needed to launch the next attack as soon as possible. However, his pilots also needed a few hours rest before they were committed back to combat, or their combat efficiency would go way down, which meant more casualties. "Give us two hours to repair the damage and for our raptor and viper pilots to rest."
Admiral Reed agreed and passed the orders for a two-hour wait to the other ships. He worried that already word that four Battlestars had survived the Cylon's attack on the colonies would be spreading through Cylon space.
Captain Simms was using her special sensors to monitor the space around the Battle Group. Her sensors would give a quicker warning then the Dradis would. Looking over at Lieutenant Billings, she saw that the young Lieutenant had a very worried and almost frightened look on her face. Sighing deeply Angela pressed several buttons on her console and stood up. She then walked over to Lieutenant Billings who was monitoring the communications between the four ships. The two had become good friends over the months they had been assigned to the Victory. Angela had set her console to warn her via her mini com if her special sensors picked up anything suspicious.
"How are you doing Amanda?" Angela asked looking down at her young friend who was tapping her index finger nervously on her console. The attack on the shipyards had been the first experience either had with actual combat. She could imagine the thoughts racing through Amanda's mind.
"Good as can be expected I guess," Amanda replied with a worried look in her eyes and then trying to smile unsuccessfully. "This entire mission has me frightened. The colonies are gone, Shadow Base is destroyed, and we are here in Cylon space. What is going to happen to us?"
"We have to trust the Admiral," Angela replied putting her hand on Amanda's shoulder reassuringly. "There has to be a good reason for this mission. We are still alive and we have four Battlestars!"
"But after the mission, assuming we survive, where do we go then?" Amanda asked with concern growing in her light brown eyes. "Everything's gone!"
"I don't know," Angela replied in a soft voice. She had been wondering about that herself. She knew that Shadow Base and the civilians there had been evacuated. Rumor had it that Admiral Stone had taken them somewhere safe. She wondered if Admiral Reed knew where that was and if they might not be following later, once this mission was completed. She wished there was some way she could reassure Amanda, but she just didn't know what to say.
The two continued to talk for a few more minutes before Angela returned to her console. She knew that Admiral Reed had met several times with Admiral Kronus before their escape from Shadow One. She hoped they had discussed what to do if any of them survived this mission. She turned her attention back to her sensors, her mind still dwelling on her conservation with Amanda.
On board the Battlestars, repair crews hurriedly welded repair plates over the few holes in the armor and repressurized the compartments that had been in vacuum. In a relatively short time, all the battle damage had been repaired or at least repaired as well as could be. The pilots took some time to rest, a few ate a light meal, others were playing cards, and some were lying in their bunks trying to relax.
"We're ready," Commander Stramm reported to Admiral Reed as he received the final confirmations from all the Battlestars that the battle damage had been repaired.
Commander Stramm knew that this next attack would be extremely dangerous. They dared not take the time to attempt to move into the targeted system using stealth. Besides, the stealth coating on all four Battlestars had been damaged in the previous attack. Small chips and entire sections had been blasted off the hulls from Cylon KEW rounds and missiles. While it would still make them hard to detect, Cylon Dradis would be able to find them easier then before.
"Very well, contact the CAG and have him get our vipers and raptors ready for launch," Admiral Reed ordered as he tapped a command on a computer console next to the operation's table. Instantly the operation's table changed to show a tactical view of the next target. Reed also passed on the same orders to the other three Battlestar Commanders. "We will jump to the rendezvous coordinates and if everything is in order, we will attack Target Two immediately!"
A few minutes later, all four Battlestars disappeared in white flashes of light as their FTL drives punched a hole in space allowing them to reappear almost instantaneously three light years away where the rest of the ships of BSGS1 waited. The Electronics ship, the two Defender Class Gunstars, a Tylium tanker, and a fleet supply ship suddenly appeared on Dradis.
Admiral Reed spoke briefly with Commander Marcus Sounderland of the Silent Seeker. The Electronics ship had been continuously monitoring the system that contained the Cylon shipyard they were about to attack. The Commander assured him that the energy readings in the system had stayed the same for the last six hours with no spike. Admiral Reed felt encouraged by that. No increase in energy readings meant that no reinforcements had arrived in this Cylon system. Reed knew that might not last much longer. There was bound to be a response from his previous attack. At the very least, the system had probably been alerted and warned.
"Commander Stramm the mission is a go," Admiral Reed said turning to the Commander who was standing on the other side of the operation's table. He wished he could give his crews another few hours rest particularly the pilots. But that was not an option. "We will go with attack plan delta-two as we discussed earlier."
Commander Stramm quickly passed on the necessary orders to the different departments. He ordered tactical to load Devastator 2 missiles in the two bow missile tubes. Viper squadrons and raptors were placed on alert for immediate launch after the jump. Defense systems, the main KEW batteries, and all KEW turrets were loaded and made ready to fire.
Admiral Reed was busy passing on the orders to the other three Battlestars and waiting for them to report back. He didn't have to wait long as all three Commanders quickly confirmed they were ready to attack.
Moments later at a nod from the Admiral, Commander Stramm gave the order to the navigation officer who turned the FTL key activating the ship's twin FTL drives. Instantly the Victory and the other three Battlestars vanished.
The four Battlestars reentered normal space in four flashes of white light. Admiral Reed waited patiently as the Victory's systems stabilized, and information began to appear on the Dradis and the view screens cleared of static.
"Launch vipers and raptors," Commander Stramm ordered over his mini com as the planet that was their target appeared on the main view screen.
"Dradis is picking up two Basestars in orbit of the planet," Captain Grisold reported. "There are also at least four raider squadrons on station around the shipyard."
"Long range scans are not picking up any other ships," Captain Simms added as she watched the data coming across her screens. "There are also at least two raider squadrons at each of the moons."
"Cylon subspace communications activated!" Lieutenant Billings reported as she tried to jam the outgoing Cylon signal. Then after a moment, she spoke back up worriedly. "They got a partial message off before I was able to jam their signal Admiral."
"They were ready for us," Commander Stramm commented glancing at the Admiral worriedly. "This is going to get sticky real quick!"
"Cylon shipyard and both Basestars are launching additional raiders," Captain Grisold warned as multiple red threat icons began appearing rapidly on his Dradis screen. The Cylons must have been holding their raiders for immediate launch. Space was rapidly filling with the deadly raiders.
"All ships implement plan delta-two," Admiral Reed ordered over the fleet mini com. "Dark Search and Shadow Star engage the Cylon Basestars. The Victory and Independence will take out the shipyard."
The four Battlestars moved out to engage their targets. Raptors armed with interceptor missiles and protected by vipers moved off to engage the incoming Cylon raiders.
"Independence we will need to engage the shipyard with our main KEW batteries," Admiral Reed ordered as he studied the updated information on the operation's table. "There are too many Cylon raiders that can take out our missiles. Reed looked at the Dradis screen, which showed over one hundred Cylon raiders between them and the shipyard and still more launching. They might have to use their vipers to blast a hole through the Cylon formation.
"We have several hundred more Cylon raiders coming up from the surface Admiral," Captain Grisold reported watching the new red threat icons that were rising up from the planet.
"Can we take them out with nukes?" Admiral Reed asked looking up at the Dradis to see how closely spaced the raiders were. That tactic had worked surprisingly well during the last attack.
"The frakers are staying spread apart to so we can't nuke them," Commander Stramm commented noticing how spread apart the Cylon raiders were staying as he watched the red icons rising from the surface. They had learned from the previous attack what would happen if they stayed too close.
"Cylon raiders in range!" Captain Grisold warned as a warning tone sounded on his Dradis terminal.
"Activate flak field and defensive missile batteries," Commander Stramm ordered his hands tightening on the operation's table.
Instantly space became filled with exploding ordinance as flak rounds began detonating between the Victory and the incoming Cylon raiders. A few raiders were caught in the first volley and then even more died in fiery explosions as multiple interceptor missiles fired by the Victory began taking the raiders out. Battlestars were not something raiders wanted to tangle with, at least not if they wanted to survive.
"Shipyard in range," the tactical officer reported as the ship's heavy KEW batteries locked onto the target.
"Fire," Commander Stramm ordered then turning to navigation. "Lower our bow eight degrees to allow our KEW batteries on the upper hull to engage. I want as much ordinance as possible hitting that shipyard!"
Massive KEW rounds accelerated by powerful magnetic fields were fired from the four bow KEW batteries. The rounds struck the Cylon shipyard tearing huge gaping holes in the weak armor and penetrating deep inside. Then the smaller KEW batteries opened up. While their rounds were considerably smaller, they were more numerous. Explosions began to crawl across the Cylon shipyard as the rounds struck and penetrated.
The raiders and vipers were engaged in a brutal dogfight. Twenty-millimeter rounds from the viper's twin cannons tore through the fragile armor of the Cylon raiders blowing raider after raider out of space. The raiders in turn tried to trap the vipers using three of their number to pin a viper between them. More then one Colonial viper was destroyed using this technique. The raptors were hanging back firing interceptor missiles at raiders whenever a target of opportunity presented itself.
Numerous raiders began making suicide runs on the two attacking Battlestars. As they closed, they fired tactical nukes of the five to ten kiloton range trying to penetrate the dense flak field the two Battlestars were maintaining. The raiders knew that if they were destroyed they would be downloaded and reborn again in a new raider body. Even so, they believed suicide to be a sin, so they did everything they could to survive as they attacked the Colonial Battlestar.
Admiral Reed watched the Dradis and view screens intently as numerous Cylon missiles were intercepted and destroyed in the flak field. So far, nothing had penetrated other then a few cannon rounds from the attacking raiders.
A sudden bright explosion lit up the screen as the Independence managed to fire one of her Devastator 2 missiles armed with a Solium warhead into the shipyard. She had managed to fire the missile through a small gap in the raider screen. The massive explosion set off a series of secondary explosions that ran along one entire side of the massive installation.
"This shipyard was definitely designed for constructing Basestars," Captain Simms stated her light blue eyes scanning more data coming over her sensor screens. "Our scans show two nearly completed Basestars still in the docks!"
The Victory shook slightly and Admiral Reed looked questionably over at Commander Stramm.
"KEW rounds from the station Admiral," Stramm commented as he studied the damage control board. "Nothing that is penetrating but it sure is fraking up our armor."
The Victory and Independence were now in the midst of the massive dogfight between the raiders and the vipers, the raptors had pulled back slightly so as not to be caught up in the crossfire. The few interceptors the raptors had left were now being used more for defensive fire then offensive.
Over the mini com, Admiral Reed heard a report from Commander Taggert on the Dark Search. He reported that they were meeting heavy resistance from the two Basestars. So far, both Battlestars had taken several nukes to their armor and their vipers were heavily engaged with raiders. One of the Basestars was reportedly heavily damaged from multiple KEW strikes, and they were trying to finish it off before turning their full attention to the other.
"Devastator 2 missiles now!" Commander Stramm ordered seeing a hole open up in the Cylon raider defenses as the vipers managed to take out nearly a squadron of raiders in one small section. Between the Victory's flak screen and the vipers, the raiders were suffering a lot of casualties.
The tactical officer pressed two glowing green buttons on his console.
From the two bow missile tubes Devastator 2 missiles roared out on pillars of red flame, as they exited the tubes they began to pick up speed and then rapidly accelerated toward the Cylon shipyard.
The Cylon raiders seeing the missiles, tried to close the hole in their formation. They began firing their cannons at the missiles trying to shoot down the deadly Colonial missiles before they could reach their target. One raider rammed one of the missiles destroying it in a pillar of fire. The other burst through the Cylon formation continuing to accelerate toward its target. The remaining point defense turrets on the shipyard locked on the second missile and were just about to destroy it, when Commander Stramm pressed the warhead activation switch on the tactical console. This caused the warhead to detonate just fifty meters short of the Cylon shipyard's already damaged hull.
"Load two more Devastator Two missiles and fire them immediately," he ordered. By detonating the previous missile just short of the shipyard, he hoped they had put more of the point defensive weapons out of commission.
Admiral Reed watched as the Victory launched two more missiles. This time both missiles made it through the Cylon defensive wall. The Cylons had lost too many raiders to be able to stop the missiles. Both missiles struck the Cylon shipyard in massive explosions that lit up space as huge pieces of the structure were torn away. Secondary explosions raced across the entire shipyard and then a series of more massive fiery explosions began to go off as Tylium fuel storage bunkers began detonating. Each fuel bunker explosion was like a ten-kiloton nuke exploding. The explosions were literally tearing the shipyard apart. Moments later the entire shipyard was just a field of glowing debris and burning gases, it had been destroyed!
"Surface raiders are about to reach us," Commander Stramm warned, as he looked at the Dradis which showed the rapidly approaching wall of Cylon raiders.
Admiral Reed ordered the Independence to move closer so they could cover each other with their flak fields and interceptor missile batteries. "Order our vipers to stay away from our flak fields," Reed said looking at Commander Stramm; he didn't want any of their brave pilots to die foolishly. "Move us toward the two Cylon Basestars; we need to finish them off quickly."
As the Victory and Independence moved toward the Cylon Basestars, Admiral Reed winced as he saw several nuclear detonations on the main view screen. He knew from the position of the detonations that a Battlestar had been struck. Moments later over the com, he heard Commander Taggert report that the Dark Search's port landing bay had been heavily damaged and was no longer operational.
Around the two Battlestars, the Cylon raiders from the surface as well as the survivors from the shipyard were firing every weapon they had. They were trying to destroy the two offending Battlestars before they could reach the other combatants. Missile after missile exploded in the flak fields. So many missiles were being launched that a few began to get through. First the Independence and then the Victory rocked as ten kiloton nukes detonated against their hulls. Numerous raiders were dying in the two Battlestar's flak fields and from strikes from interceptor missiles. Still others were being taken out rapidly by the vipers, many of which were now starting to run dangerously low on ammunition.
The Victory and Independence rapidly closed on the undamaged Basestar. Admiral Reed watched as the Cylon Basestar grew on the main view screen. Even as he watched, he saw numerous missiles being launched toward the Dark Search and the Shadow Star. Frak these Basestars have a lot of missile launchers he thought worriedly to himself.
"KEW batteries locked on target," tactical reported.
"Fire!" Commander Stramm ordered tersely as he gazed at the screen showing the Basestar.
The Dark Search and the Shadow Star were both firing heavy KEW rounds into the other Basestar. Heavy explosions were rolling across the Cylon ship even as it continued to launch more nuclear missiles at the Battlestars. Two Arms on the Y sections suddenly exploded and broke apart as multiple KEW rounds struck.
Admiral Reed's eyes widened worriedly as another nuke penetrated the Dark Search's flak screen and struck and detonated just beneath the bow of the Battlestar. For a moment, the brilliant explosion hid the bow of the ship and Admiral Reed feared for the valiant ship's safety. Then the blast faded and the Battlestar still looked relatively intact.
Over the fleet mini com, Admiral Reed heard Commander Taggert report that one of the bow KEW batteries had been destroyed and fires were raging out of control in several of the forward section's of the ship. Admiral Reed knew from the size of the explosion that the nuke had been in the neighborhood of fifty kilotons.
The Basestar being attacked by the Dark Search and the Shadow Star suddenly exploded as a nuke strike from the Shadow Star reached the Tylium storage bunkers inside one of the launching bays. The combined explosion blew the Basestar into a thousand flaming pieces.
The second Basestar soon followed as the firepower of the four Battlestars quickly overwhelmed it. The Basestar was unable to escapes as their FTL drive had been damaged by a KEW round from the Victory.
The remaining Cylon raiders, seeing their last Basestar destroyed, jumped away reappearing around one of the planet's moons. The moon contained a refueling station as well as the means to rearm the Cylon raiders.
"Order our raptors to land and prep for a nuclear strike against the moons," Admiral Reed ordered noticing where the raiders had fled. He wondered how much more time they had before Cylon reinforcements arrived. "Commander Taggert, I need an assessment of your ship's combat capability as soon as possible."
"Yes sir," Taggert replied over the com.
"As soon as all raptors have landed get the vipers back in. We need them refueled and rearmed," Admiral Reed ordered. "Commander Turner you are to proceed to the planet and take out the surface installations with your planetary bombardment nukes."
Admiral Reed watched on the view screen ten minutes later, as the nukes fired from the Independence marched across the planet's surface. Brilliant flashes of nuclear carnage smashed the surface destroying everything below as massive mushroom clouds rose into the sky. The Cylon surface installations were very quickly turned into molten metal and burning ashes.
Commander Taggert reported that the Dark Search was still combat capable. She had lost one of the heavy KEW batteries on the bow, both of her twin KEW turrets on the port landing bay, and twenty-six point defense batteries. The port landing bay would need a minimum of seventy hours to get it operational again. They still had several fires raging in the bow but they were being brought slowly under control and should be out shortly. He also went on to add that they had suffered numerous casualties in the port landing bay as well as in the bow section of the ship.
Once the Independence had rejoined the formation, Admiral Reed turned the fleet and proceeded to the orbiting moons. The fleet divided with two Battlestars going to one moon and the Independence and the Victory going to another. Admiral Reed's target would be the moon where the Cylon raiders had fled. It had the largest surface installations as well as a small orbiting space station. It was this station, which the remaining Cylon raiders were using to refuel and rearm. He also didn't want the Dark Search to be put in a position where it would be in danger. The moon the Dark Search and Shadow Star were attacking only had two raider squadrons for defense and the two Battlestars still had six fully operational viper squadrons.
They had just reached the moon and were about to begin their attack, when a sudden warning tone sounded on the Dradis.
"I am picking up four large contacts back above the planet," Captain Grisold reported tensely as he tried to identify the new arrivals.
"They're Basestars," Captain Simms added as she used her advanced sensors to scan the four new contacts. "They should detect us shortly!"
"Frak, we can't fight four more Basestars!" Commander Stramm spoke scowling in anger at the Dradis screen. Another twenty minutes and they would have been through with this attack.
Admiral Reed thought for a moment as he studied the operation's table. It would take the Cylons a few minutes to get their exact location, and then they would have to spin up their FTL drives for a short jump. Unfortunately at this range, the Basestars would probably jump right in on top of them.
"Order our raptors to jump above the Cylon surface installations on the moons and nuke them," Admiral Reed ordered with a face grim looking over at Commander Stramm.
"We might lose a lot of them," Commander Stramm replied the blood draining from his face as he realized what Admiral Reed was asking. The raptors would have to jump in beneath the raider patrols, putting them very close to the surface. The raptors could be destroyed in their own nuclear blasts, by surface defense systems, and the raiders coming in from above."
"I know David," Reed replied with grim determination in his voice. "But we must take out these surface installations or they will use them to rebuild the shipyard!"
Admiral Reed passed on the order to the other three Battlestars. Raptors that had been on standby and armed with nukes jumped to the designated targets. Shortly after that, nuclear explosions began going off on all three of the moons. Raptors had been diverted to the third moon to strike its installations as well.
"Basestars jumping in!" Captain Grisold shouted suddenly as warning alarms began going off.
"All raptors are to jump to the rendezvous coordinates as soon as their attack runs are completed," Admiral Reed ordered quickly over the mini com, which connected him to the other three ship Commanders. "All vipers are authorized for combat landings, once all vipers are on board all Battlestars are to jump to the rendezvous point!"
"Basestars are launching raiders and missiles," Captain Grisold warned as the Dradis screen began filling up with red threat icons all around the two Battlestars.
"Frak their close," Commander Stramm muttered looking at the Dradis screen. The nearest Basestar must be less then forty kilometers away!
"Lock on to the nearest Basestar with our KEWs and fire," Admiral Reed ordered as his eyes swept across the CIC. He knew it would take a few minutes to land all the vipers.
"Initiate flak field," Commander Stramm ordered the tactical officer. "Load two more Devastator 2 missiles into the tubes and fire them at the nearest Basestar!"
Over the next four minutes, two nukes penetrated the Victory's flak screen detonating against the hull. The ship shook violently each time. The Victory's own KEW rounds were impacting the Cylon Basestar tearing huge gaping holes in the armor. The Cylon Basestar answered by firing multiple nuclear missiles back.
"How much longer on the vipers!" Admiral Reed breathed out watching the inbound missiles.
"Thirty more seconds!" Commander Stramm replied gritting his teeth as another nuke rocked the Victory. Their flak screen just couldn't stop everything the Cylon Basestar was firing at them. The Cylons were firing both conventional and nuclear missiles. They were currently tracking over forty inbound missiles plus raiders.
An auxiliary console next to Lieutenant Billings suddenly exploded in a shower of hot sparks. The young communication's Lieutenant screamed, jumping back away from her console in fright. A small fire started burning in the console and the CIC begin to fill up with smoke.
Commander Stramm gestured to a couple of damage control people who were standing by, but they were already on their way to the damaged console.
Angela wanted to go check on her young friend but couldn't leave her station while they were in a combat situation. She didn't think Amanda had been too seriously hurt, probably just a few small burns from the sparks. She was more frightened then anything else.
"Last viper is in," Commander Stramm heard the CAG report over his mini com.
"Jump us!" Commander Stramm yelled to the navigation officer seeing several Cylon missiles penetrate the frak field.
The Victory vanished just as three nukes exploded in the location she had occupied.
The Victory exited its FTL jump and as its systems stabilized the Dradis and the view screens came back on line. It showed their support ships but nothing else! The exhaust fans were quickly clearing the smoke from the CIC.
"We're at the rendezvous coordinates," Lieutenant Kasey reported with relief in his voice as he turned the jump key back to its hold position.
"The other ships?" Admiral Reed barked looking at the Dradis hoping the other Battlestars had made it out. Fraken Cylons had jumped right in on top of them just as he had feared.
Even as he asked the question, the Independence and then the Shadow Star appeared in quick flashes of white light on their starboard side, just ahead and above them. Then some of the raptors began showing up. Over the next few minutes, eighteen more raptors jumped in but not the Dark Search. Just as he was about to give up hope another ship jumped in and from its Dradis signature, Admiral Reed knew it was the missing Battlestar.
"Sir I have Colonel Benson on short range communications," Lieutenant Billings reported her eyes widening. "He says Commander Taggert is dead and that the Dark Search is heavily damaged! They are fighting a number of fires and have taken heavy casualties! I lost him sir. They are having trouble with communications."
"Frak," Commander Stramm swore as he ordered the main view screen to show a close up of the Dark Search. "I knew they were in trouble!"
The battered Battlestar grew on the screen until they could see the battle damage. The port landing bay had a massive hole in its side. The entire bay was covered in scaring and terrible black burn marks. The crew of the CIC was quiet as they stared in stunned disbelief at the damage to the Battlestar.
"Tylium bunker blew," Stramm stated seeing the location of the damage. "A fraking nuke must have hit dead center on the bunker to have caused that much damage. That bay's not repairable sir, at least not with what we have!"
As they continued to examine the Battlestar, it was obvious that she had suffered multiple nuke hits. She was covered in burn marks and her armor had massive tears and jagged holes in a number of areas. It would take a massive amount of work to get her combat ready again.
It took a few moments but Admiral Reed was finally able to talk to Colonel Benson on his mini com. He learned that just as the Dark Search was about to jump, a nuke strike had knocked her FTL off line. By the time it was repaired, the ship had taken three more nukes and Commander Taggert had been killed when a large structural beam had collapsed in the CIC pinning him beneath. They had managed to repair the FTL system and jump before the Cylons could destroy the Battlestar.
Looking over at Commander Stramm, "We will remain here for four hours to allow the Dark Search to repair as much of her damage as possible," Admiral Reed ordered knowing how close they had come to losing the Battlestar and her entire crew.
Admiral Reed then contacted the Independence and the Shadow Star and ordered them to send any spare damage control teams they could to the Dark Search to assist in fighting the fires and with repairs. He also ordered medical personnel to the stricken Battlestar to help with the injured. He knew from what Colonel Benson had reported that the Battlestar had suffered numerous casualties. Those too seriously injured to be treated on the Dark Search were to be transferred to the other three Battlestars.
"I want to plot a jump to the asteroid field we stayed in during our last visit to Cylon space," Admiral Reed continued trying to keep his voice calm. He was still feeling the pain of knowing that a lot of people had just died. He knew he would be wondering for many long hours if he could have done anything differently. "All of our ships need repair. I think we should stay quiet for awhile and perhaps our Cylon friends will think this last attack was our last."
"Believe that we have gone off somewhere to lick our wounds," Stramm replied nodding his head in agreement his eyes still on the screen, which showed the Dark Search.
Four hours later the four Battlestars and their support ships vanished in flashes of white light as they jumped toward the system with the large protective asteroid field. It would take three jumps to arrive at their destination. Once there, Admiral Reed had a hard decision to make. Cancel the rest of the mission and see if he could find a safe haven for his people, or risk loosing everyone in completing his orders. It was not going to be an easy decision to make!
Question from the author. Does anyone know how large the main KEW batteries are on the front of a Mercury Class Battlestar? How large are the rounds? Same thing for the Twin KEW turrets such as are on top of the Galactica's hull. Everything I have found is somewhat vague on this. If no one has a good idea, I will just make something up that sounds reasonable.
This is what I have come up with so far for a Mercury Class Battlestar.
Mercury Class Battlestar
Length 1,790 meters
Width 600 meters
Height 350 meters
Crew 2,000
Marines 200
420 twin point defense weapons
Six heavy KEW batteries on the bow
34 medium heavy twin KEW turrets primarily on the port and starboard sides of the ship.
200 vipers. 10 squadrons of 20 each
50 raptors