18 months Before the Fall

Gjallarhorn Nebula, Midgard Orbit

Battlestar Nike, Admiral's Quarters

Admiral Stark lay back in his plush chair, letting out a pent up breath from stress as he glared at the stack of paper work on the table in front of him. A stack of paperwork over a foot high was pushed off to the right, signifying the reading material Admiral Stark had already gone through, while an even larger stack lay to the left that had yet to be touched and some of which that was caked in dust from laying on the desk undisturbed for a long period of time.

"Not what you expected to do as an Admiral someday?" Admiral John Inman asked, chuckling slightly as he grew amused seeing the new Admiral continuing to glare at the stack of paperwork as if fire would burst forth and remove the paperwork through his sheer force of will.

"No sir. I didn't expect to become an Admiral so young, but I certainly wouldn't have looked forward to it as much if I knew this much paperwork would be waiting for me," Admiral Stark said, groaning in despair and rubbing his eyes to distract himself from looking at the mound of paperwork that was waiting for him.

"You can drop the sir, Erik. You're in command of the fleet and destined to command the entire colonial fleet if the worst should happen in the future. I've just been holding down the fort until they chose the fleet commanding officer. I prefer focusing on managing R&D anyway, much more exciting to me," Admiral Inman said, grinning slightly.

"Would you like the brief rundown of fleet assets sir?" Commander Austin Knight asked, hiding the mild pity he felt looking at the despair Admiral Stark still showed when looking at the paperwork before him.

"I think that would be best. I've been looking through the logs that've been around since this star system was first settled and fleet assets started streaming in. So many changes here and there… I don't know if I can continue looking at this paperwork for a moment longer or risk going crazy," Admiral Stark said seriously.

Admiral Inman and Commander Knight chuckled lightly at hearing that, trying to maintain their composure in the process.

"Very well sir. Firstly, there's the Battlestar Nova which served as the prototype for the Nova class, and was retired to lower 'unnecessary' costs generated among the colonial fleet. The Nova was moved here like most other fleet assets among the retired and scrapped fleet ships that were supposed to be directed to several junkyards but were secreted away instead," Commander Knight reported.

Admiral Stark nodded slightly, following along, and leaned his head back in his chair as he expected a relatively long report still.

"The Nova now serves as the test bed for several new weapons and technology advancements. One of the most important of which is the implementation of a pulse cannon defense grid using lasers in place of usual flak cannons, which simulations show will be ten times more effective and deadly to enemy fighters while keeping a wide variety of missiles and nukes from being able to hit the ship. There's also the addition of mega pulse lasers as main ship weaponry. The Nova has eight mega pulse lasers and so far tests done in asteroid fields have shown no malfunctions or issues in her combat efficiency. Simulations predict that a couple shots from the mega pulse lasers could destroy one of the Cylon baseships from the first war with ease. Six primary and four secondary energizers are now installed on the ship and offer a variety of options in combat, with only multiple energizers being taken offline in battle impairing combat functionality," Commander Knight said.

"These new lasers have that much power?" Admiral Stark asked in shocked disbelief.

"So far we've mostly had computer simulations, but weapons tests on asteroids have also proven to be effective. Realistically, such a weapon replaces dependency on nuclear weapons which are slightly less conducive in a war like we had with the Cylons, since weapons stockpiles can be run through extremely fast," Admiral Inman replied.

"What's the downside? I assume there is a downside, otherwise the entire fleet would have such a weapon," Admiral Stark said, remaining skeptical of the weapon advancement.

"So far there's no obvious downside. Just a brief period of time before the mega pulse lasers can fire again for repeated fire, merely because they need to recharge and use a pretty good amount of energy. As to why such weaponry wouldn't be in the fleet… Cost. The active fleet couldn't maintain such weaponry without incurring high costs that would make sure such weapon advancements never saw the light of day. As is, we can't install such weaponry on all our ships as of yet because of costs and trying to maintain the other ships that had been previously scrapped and decommissioned, replacing their weaponry as best we can as well. However, the Nova class at the least will eventually get this weapon advancement. In addition to the Nova, there's also the Nike, where we are standing right now, and the ship is here because of an engine explosion that made several in the government think scrapping the ship would be cheaper than fixing the damage," Commander Knight said.

"How that made sense to them I'll never understand. Particularly given that making a new Nova class would be more expensive," Admiral Stark said, snorting and shaking his head in derision.

"Aye sir. However, Admirals Corman and Nagala recently put forward a motion to decommission the other Nova class ships under construction, in exchange for keeping other ships planned to be scrapped in service and holding off the civilian government's plans for decommissioning most of the fleet. Needless to say the civilian government was ecstatic at the idea of saving the cubits that would've been involved in creating and maintaining those ships, so they agreed wholeheartedly," Commander Knight said, rolling his eyes.

"Sad, but logical I suppose. The fleet could've used those Nova class ships, but if around thirty Battlestars could be kept in service from those the government wanted decommissioned within the next few years…" Admiral Stark said sadly but understandingly, trailing off.

"Ah, but that's where Admirals Corman and Nagala had everyone fooled Admiral," Admiral Inman said, grinning widely.

Admiral Stark looked at Admiral Inman questioningly, unsure of what he meant.

"Under the Fleet Admiral's orders, all Nova class Battlestars under construction were to be sent to the junkyards throughout the colonies. They were then redirected here sir," Commander Knight said.

"Ah," Admiral Stark said in understanding, and then smiled at the daring and wiliness of Admiral Corman in achieving his failsafe plan to safeguard the colonies.

"That leaves us with the Ithaca, Orion, Apollo, Artemis, Indra, and Olympia, sir. All were under various states of construction and will be complete over eighteen to twenty-one months from now. Unfortunately the other planned Nova class ships will never see the light of day though," Commander Knight reported.

"Quite a boon in our forces and leaves us with command units for Battlegroups in any case," Admiral Stark noted.

"Next on the list are the Mercury's. The Mercury herself was among the first of our relatively new ships to be decommissioned and was sent here. Phoenix, Dragon, Poseidon, Titanica, Nemesis, and Therion were likewise retired among fleet cuts given that they were some of the first Mercury class ships out the door; cheaper to build a couple newer Battlestars than to maintain and upgrade some other relatively older ones, apparently. Then there's the Bellerophon, Aurora, and Pacifica, which all faced technical malfunctions in the past few months and were retired rather than bothering to look at fixing them. Tyche, Intrepid, and Libra however are ships that have been in the process of being created off the books, particularly among the shipyards here that are not logged as among the active colonial fleet.

Among fleet cuts and retired ships from active duty are the Jupiter class Battlestars Jupiter, Odyssey, Canopus, Argo, Achilles, Perseus, Theseus, Deimos, and Phobos. All of which have been retired within the last five years. Heracles, Atlas, Mercurius, Icarus, Arion, Scorpius, Sagittarius, and Polaris are expected to be retired and join our assets here within the next two years; despite the best efforts Admiral Corman and Admiral Nagala have made in trying to preserve the active fleet.

The Valkyrie class Iris and Calypso are among the surviving fleet units that we could salvage here, with several others having already been scrapped, unfortunately. A few others are expected to join us here in upcoming months.

There's the Columbia II's that have all been scrapped and retired, with as many that we could save as possible; the Sphinx, Ladon, Kraken, Cerberus, Chimera, Griffin, Wyvern, Pandora, Serenity, Miranda, Ares, Athena, Orpheus, Atlantia, and Hermes. The Olduvai, Acropolis, Aquarius, and Victoria are scheduled to join us over the next year as well, ending their service gracefully among the fleet," Commander Knight reported.

"Quite a fleet," Admiral Stryker said, taking a deep sip of ambrosia from the cup on his desk.

"Indeed, and that's just the Battlestars we've amassed from deactivated fleet units or off the books ships that were manufactured," Admiral Inman said.

"Next, there's the Warstars. They were created to combat Basestars directly, lacking flightpods and thus fighter squadrons but having numerous additional heavy weapons aboard to quickly kill enemy capital ships. All have been retired from service in the past decade in cost cutting measures. Sadly only a portion could be restored from the junkyards and shipyards working to scrap them. Twenty-four total are part of the fleet in this star system, many of which are undergoing re-activation and technology advancements on our shipyards.

Also, essentially the companion to the Warstars that shored up their lack of fighter support, there's the Firestars. They were retired as part of cost cutting measures, and Gunstar production was ramped up as a lighter and low costing replacement. Forty Firestars have been undergoing reactivation and upgrades, out of the many others that were scrapped for parts.

Finally of the combatant units in the fleet, there's 48 Gunstars of the Defender and Assault classes. All retired from service," Commander Knight reported.

"That's… Quite a fleet. Almost overkill, combined with our active fleet," Admiral Stark said.

"Considering more of the fleet already has been decommissioned in recent years, what we saved is relatively a small portion compared to what the active fleet could've had at its height, without cost cutting measures. We also expect the Cylons to have a larger fleet than us as part of Operation Ragnarok. At the very least, they'll have enough ships to match our current active fleet," Admiral Inman said.

"Also, keep in mind sir that a number of ships will still be undergoing reactivation and upgrades over the next two years. Only a portion can be readily activated as reserve combatants for the fleet, or to be utilized in Operation Ragnarok. Pretty much all of them are functioning on skeleton crews at the moment as well. Recruitment is continuing to bring in more personnel, but as more ships come back online needing full crew complements… We'll be reliant on retrieving personnel from the training academies across the colonies as part of Operation Ragnarok, with as many personnel from the active fleet as we can possibly save being needed and utilized throughout the fleet. Admiral Corman did implement the beginnings of a training academy in Gjallarhorn, but it'll take time before they can contribute much for our manpower demands," Commander Knight said.

"Very well," Admiral Stark said, pausing to mull over the details of the fleet before continuing, "what other assets are available?"

"Several older stations and other shipyards were retired among the cost cutting measures of the government, while a few other shipyards were created by private companies in line with Operation Ragnarok. We have Canceron station, Leonis Station, and Confederation station. Then there are the mobile shipyards; eight Leviathan shipyards, twelve Hephaestus shipyards, seven constructstars," Commander Knight said.

"That's most of the mobile shipyards of the fleet, outside of the stations with FTL capability at several of the colonies," Admiral Stark said, confused.

"Admiral Corman wanted a majority of our ship building capacity to be a part of Operation Ragnarok, so the Cylons couldn't cripple our repair and construction capabilities. Sadly, it really wasn't hard to convince the government to retire them to save more money. Several older stationary shipyards were also part of the plan and fit to be retired. The remaining active fleet shipyards are sufficient to maintain the fleet and not quite as necessary to Operation Ragnarok in case they can't be saved, and thereby we won't have a risk of losing the majority of our shipyards or forcing us to try to save them during a Cylon attack," Admiral Inman replied.

"I see. Better to get them now than in the chaos of war, with the shipyards being a high priority target to cripple our war machine. I suppose I wish all our shipyards could be saved, but realistically we can't get them all here, particularly to maintain secrecy until an attack and once the attack's underway it'll be a toss-up for what we can save," Admiral Stark said, sighing unhappily.

"Aye sir. We also have over a hundred mining and refinery ships with more coming over time, built in secret or retired quietly from throughout the colonies. A sizeable amount to give us adequate production facilities for whatever we need, and near indefinite stores of tylium; all based on the surrounding asteroid belts in this star system. We have no actual medical ships as of yet, but most warships and even the shipyards have their own sickbays aboard. Midgard has several hospitals built on the planet with a sizeable amount of medical supplies that can grow to whatever size we need based on production levels among the fleet. A large number of doctors and medical experts secreted away from the colonies are available for us here and have started a program to train more in the future so we won't depend on what the colonies can provide in the future. Similarly, marines retired or trained out of the academies in the colonies were secreted away to Gjallarhorn; we have thousands available to provide a sizeable ground force wherever necessary and provide ship security on our warships. The training program Admiral Corman started up will also include training marines from thousands of the civilians being brought from around the colonies. A large ground force will be available by the time training and preparations are completed so if Operation Ragnarok becomes necessary we can launch whatever resistance is necessary against occupation forces on the colonies.

Over eighty retired and old large agro ships are in orbit of Midgard, providing a backup food supply to the stores on the colony that our colonists have been setting up; since Admiral Corman wanted a mobile food source, just in case. Then there's eighty old heavy military transports which are in the process of being modernized and can hold around 10,000 people apiece for a short period of time if an evacuation is necessary, as well as a few hundred civilian ships and transports that can hold anywhere from 500 to 2000 to evacuate civilian populations in the event of an attack. The assaultstars picking up all personnel from the fleet academies around the colonies would also be involved in an evacuation after emptying all within to crew the ships in the secondary presently 'non-active' fleet here in Gjallarhorn. These evacuation ships can load up to full capacity and drop off their cargo for processing on the mobile asteroid colony being finished in Gjallarhorn over the next year, which can hold a few million at a time and is intended to serve as a secondary mobile evacuation destination if Gjallarhorn is compromised. All evacuees will be identified and streamlined on the asteroid colony to easily incorporate with the people on Midgard and will be dropped off on the planet so the next batch can be processed and so on, leaving our evacuation ships empty and free to make several trips to the colonies if the main colonial fleet can hold off an enemy attack long enough," Commander Knight said.

"Hmm, I don't think Admiral Corman will mind too much if I make a few changes to better prepare our forces," Admiral Stark said inquisitively as a thought came to him, looking at Admiral Inman with an eyebrow raised.

"That is your prerogative," Admiral Inman said, nodding.

"Then I'd like preparations to be made creating other smaller asteroid colonies as well, in addition to Midgard," Admiral Stark said.

"That'll stretch our resources sir," Commander Knight said, eyebrows scrunching together as he began mentally calculating what such an endeavor would require.

"But if we can do it, then our ability to pick up refugees and survivors from the colonies will be greatly increased. Long term we can look at making the asteroid colonies armed mobile platforms," Admiral Stark said determinedly.

"It's possible. I'll have our construction crews working on the asteroid colony Valhalla what they think we can do," Commander Knight said.

"Very well. And it would seem from everything else I've heard that Admiral Corman thought of pretty much everything then," Admiral Stark said.

"Just about," Admiral Inman said chortling.

"Yes sir. We have just about everything we could want or ask for. More materials, supplies, and people for the fleet and the colony are brought in with each passing month as well. So far we have about four million colonists on Midgard with thousands in space," Commander Knight said.

Admiral Stark's mouth flopped open at the number, "how in the world did Admiral Corman get that many here without anyone noticing?"

"Many were ready to move on and didn't take much convincing. Since the end of the first Cylon war, we've been bottled up in the colonies and never left the Cyrannus system. People were receptive to a fresh start elsewhere, even with the strings attached: that they quite possibly likely never return to the colonies and leave no trace behind that tarnished the secrecy of the colony. If the government ever caught wind of it, they played along well as if they didn't and took the change in numbers optimistically as a way to offer other colonials more space and have fewer people to serve. Though I'd assume only people in the government who agreed with the Admiralty's views might know about what happened to the colonists that arrived here from the colonies," Admiral Inman said.

"We also hope to have a greater number over the next two years sir. Admiral Corman might well be paranoid about the timing of the Cylons returning, so in coming months there are plans to be less stealthy about taking people away from the colonies and simply steal away as many as possible," Commander Knight said, slightly concerned at the idea.

"I'd agree with getting as many people as we can in principle, but we will not compromise the security of this operation and the colony to do so," Admiral Stark said sternly, narrowing his eyes at Commander Knight to get his feelings on the matter across thoroughly.

"Aye sir," Commander Knight said, relieved.

"All right. I'll have to go through all this paperwork, I'll want your help with that Commander: better for us both to suffer through it. We have a lot of work to do to get everything up to par with Admiral Corman's expectations. Let's get to it," Admiral Stark said determinedly.

Cylon Space, Cylon Baseship

"Infiltration is beginning to speed up. In just over a year, we should have agents on most of the warships in the colonial fleet, just in case they're needed. We've already influenced things pretty greatly and removed a number of the more powerful warships in the colonial fleet," a number five Aaron Doral model reported.

"Very good. Are we closer to finding the person who can get us into the defense grid?" a number one Cavil model asked, a glint in his eyes as he felt glee at getting closer to being rid of the humans.

"Not quite yet. We're still getting closer to infiltrate more of the government and find the right person. Shouldn't be too difficult to find someone to use based on what we've seen of human nature; greed and low inhibitions are quite apparent in many members of colonial society," a number three D'Anna model replied, chuckling in derision as she thought of humans she'd come across on her of her missions in the colonies.

"In the meantime we'll continue work on our fleet. Raider and centurion production are up to the specified parameters. We also have over a hundred basestars at the ready, with at least another hundred that can be made ready by the time we hope to carry out the attack," the number five Doral model said.

"Testing the nukes is a little behind schedule. Live tests aren't living up to where we want them to be since we intend to only level some of the colonies and leave areas habitable for us to occupy in the future," a number two Leoben model said.

The number one Cavil snorted at that, "I still think the rest of you are delusional. Better to just annihilate all of the colonies and start over somewhere else."

"Don't forget that it was your model who argued for revenge against the enslavement of the centurions and the Cylon race at the hands of the colonials requiring justice and revenge for 'the plan', as you constantly refer to the attack. And the ones agreed that claiming the colonies was our birthright," a number six model said.

The number one model shrugged indifferently at hearing that.

"Anyway, everything is on schedule or getting there. We should be ready shortly," the Aaron Doral number five said.

"See that it is. Or you can be sure we will pay for waiting if we give the colonials more time to consider being the first ones to attack. Never forget about the Valkyrie. Several of those involved with the mission and willing to instigate war with the Cylon race remain in power among the colonial fleet. They and other dangerous personnel in charge among the fleet will need to be taken out before or during the attack," the number one Cavil said angrily.

"By your command," the number six said sarcastically, glaring at Cavil, disparaging him in her mind for bringing up issues put to rest among the Cylon race and that the ones would every so often continue to bring up to rile the others up.

Mentioned ships among the reserve fleet

Columbia 2 Class Battlestar

Length: 1,400 meters

Width: 450 meters

Height: 300 meters

Crew: 2,400

Marines: 200

500 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

36 Medium to Heavy twin KEW batteries

12 Missile tubes

120 to 160 Mark seven vipers

20 to 30 Raptors

Warstar

Length: 1,600 meters

Width: 600 meters

Height: 400 meters

Crew: 1,300

Marines: 250

500 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

64 Medium to Heavy KEW batteries

32 Dual batteries capable of firing either shells or missiles

Heavy armor over all areas of the ship's hull, meant to take a lot of punishment from fighters and enemy capital ships while getting into close range to rip apart the enemy capital vessels. Small landing bay on the lower hull for shuttles and raptors, no flightpods.

Firestar

Length: 1,300 meters

Width: 400 meters

Height: 300 meters

Crew: 1,000

Marines: 200

320 Rapid firing twin turrets for point defense grid

40 Medium to Heavy KEW batteries.

16 missile tubes.

40 to 80 Mark seven vipers; one flight pod attached to the ship's lower hull of the ship, covered in heavy armor

6 Raptors

(Mega Pulse lasers and laser turrets placed on Nova class, changes specs from previous chapter: only on reserve/inactive fleet units.)

Shipyards:

Leviathan Class Shipyard

Capable of housing six Battlestars of any size in drydocks, twelve dry docks for support ships

Roughly 800 point defense turrets across the outside of the shipyard

Crew: 24000

Hephaestus Class Shipyard

Two drydocks capable of housing Nova class Battlestars, Four drydocks for smaller Battlestars, and Six smaller drydocks to house Gunstars. Several piers to hold various classes of ships for upgrades, minor repairs, and capable of jumping them if need be.

360 point defense turrets covering the outside hull of the shipyard

Crew: 15000

Construststar

One large drydock, capable of housing Nova class or smaller Battlestars

120 point defense turrets across the outside of the shipyard

Crew: 2500

Leonis Station, Canceron Station

Five drydocks for Battlestars of various sizes, Seven drydocks for support ships, several piers to hold others for upgrading and able to be jumped with the shipyard if need be

Crew: 15-20 thousand

Confederation Station

1 drydock for a Heavy Warstar Haven class, able to hold a ship 4000 meters in length

Six smaller drydocks able to hold Gunstars

Crew: 14000

-Retired after loss of Heavy Warstar Haven

Please leave reviews, if you have ideas for the story, things that need changing…