Misfits: Chapter Three
Battlestar Arcadia, Port Hangar Deck 2
The pilots stood in a semi-circle around him as he held out the stim pills to them. He'd gotten no rest during their two hour break, and he doubted many of them did either. He'd left Ellie in a rush, his flightsuit half zipped and her dress still in a crumpled pile on the floor. Not the most glorious good bye, but it was an amazing two hours. Certainly something he wouldn't forget.
"I want you pills in your hands right now. Palms up, show them to me." They all placed their pills on their hands and held them out as he told them to do. "Alright down them, ladies and gentlemen. This will give you the boost you need to get through the next couple of hours." The pilots all placed the pills into their mouths and washed them down with water. It was dangerous to run off of stims, but it was better than nothing right now. "Good, we're due to rendezvous with the Assault Ships in ten minutes. Get in your birds we'll be airborne soon. Remember, stick to your wing when you're out there and no showboating."
"Yes, sir!" The group responded, and he felt weird to be the one giving all the commands. The ten pilots all dropped down into their MK VI trainers and were loaded into the tubes.
"Hey, Lieutenant, these MK VIs are kind of retro aren't they?" Ensign Jake Masev said over the wireless.
"Older than most of us, Rook, but they do the job well enough."
"Yeah we'll see, Ell-Tee."
It was impossible for the Vipers to be launched from the Arcadia while being attached to the Assault Ships, therefore, they needed to be launched first and then later land upon the ships to be jumped to the target area. "Alright everyone." Hawley called out to his Wing. "Form up and begin attaching yourself to the Assault ships. Baby, you're first."
It was a notoriously tedious and complicated task to attach a Viper to one of the Venom Assault Ships, so the process of attaching the ten Vipers took longer than a half hour, which was why they wouldn't be taking the Assault Ships out of the combat zone. The Venoms were good for a quick insertion, but getting out in a hurry was out of the question. So you needed either an alternate extract, or you'd just have to stick around and fight it out.
"You're right on the ball, Lucky, bring it on down." The deck crew of the Venom said as he guided down his Viper. The crewman, once the Viper was close enough, could essentially grab the Viper and bring it down once it was close enough to lock it into place, and a few moments after touching down, they were finally ready to go. "Gold Wing is situated and ready for a piggyback." The Venom's pilot said over the wireless.
Another ten minutes ticked by as the remaining Wings attached their last few Vipers. Finally, once the assault force had been attached, the jump clock began. "Jump clock is set for two minutes. Make your checks and be ready to engage straight out of the gate." Hawley ordered to his pilots. It was different, commanding pilots rather than being the one taking commands, and it did bother him a little bit. It's just for this mission. He told himself. And then things can go back to how they were.
The ten minutes came and went without incident, and with a bright flash of light, the four Venom-Class Assault Ships jumped to the Osiris Fleet Station. When they rematerialized the Vipers quickly disengaged their magnetic clamps and fired their maneuvering thrusters so that they shot away from the ships like a star bursting apart. "Gold Wing form on me. Silver stay on our six for as long as you can."
"Wilco, Lucky, we'll be on your ass." Jackal called out. The pilots of Gold Wing quickly formed into a giant diamond shaped formation, keeping their distance from one another so that a single missile wouldn't take out more than one of them at a time.
He watched as Wacko's Vipers peeled away and headed into the small nebula to fetch the 33rd and provide cover for her just as Villain's Vipers formed into a defensive wedge around the four Assault Ships to being their attack run on the Baseship.
From their launch point, he could see the enemy ships sitting just along the exit of the nebula and just inside the minimum jump range. Smart buggers. The enemy formation was a typical one as it had their Baseship nestled behind their two Gorgon-Class frigates. Raiders were beginning to launch from the Baseship in large numbers. Lucky cursed softly to himself. Twenty Vipers were supposed to break up a single Baseship's full complement between the two of them and survive. "Listen up, Gold, we're looking a terrible odds to start it off. We're pulling these Raiders out and we're staying out. Do not stray into the firing solution of those Gorgons. We'll take them one-to-one. Just stick to your wing and keep moving. Understood?"
There was a symphony of acknowledgements from his pilots. Most sounded nervous, which was understandable for their current situation. Hell, I'm one shot away from pissing myself. He thought to himself, but tried to shelve his fears for the time being for the sake of his Wing. "Hey Baby."
"Sir?" The junior pilot's response came over the wireless.
"Looks like today's the day that you're going to be getting that payback you were talking about."
"Looking forward to it."
"Let's make them bleed, Gold."
He took his Wing in a wide arc around the Cylon formation and forced the Raiders to pick either his group of Vipers or Villain's. Villain was taking his Wing straight in for a run on the Gorgon's rather than the Baseship itself. It wasn't part of the plan, but it would help mopping up what was left of the Raiders once they finished the Baseship. I'd do the same thing. He told himself. Kill the escorts so that the Baseship was left to fend for itself.
Just as he thought, the Raiders broke into two separate groups. The larger one, probably consisting of two thirds of the enemy's fighter complment was heading for them with the rest heading for Villain and the Assault ships. "Look alive, Gold Wing, estimate time to contact two minutes. Silver, this is probably about where we should say goodbye."
"Roger that, Gold. Good luck and we'll be back to help you once we finish off this Toaster Jammer."
"We'll be waiting for you, Silver." Lucky and his Vipers veered sharply inwards towards the enemy formation to meet the Raiders head on. None of the enemy ships changed course or even hinted that they were going to make a move on the Jackal's Wing. Probably think they can still shut our Vipers down. They're about to be in for one hell of a surprise. "All Vipers you are weapons free! Time to give these metal bastards some payback!"
The Cylon ships opened up with their red eye and tried to shut down the aging Vipers. Instead of a squadron of dead fighters, all the Cylons received for their efforts was a hail of bullet. The usupecting Raiders took the Viper's gunfire straight on and Lee watched as his Wing annihilated the first rank of enemy fighters. However, their disadvantage was fleeting as the Raiders quickly adjusted to the threats and opened fire with a hail of cannons of their own.
Lucky jerked his Viper to port and avoided a Raider's gunfire, spinning him into the sights of a second Raider. He squeezed the trigger and fired away at it before it could send him to an early grave. The enemy ship exploded into a ball of fire. He continued to fly through the formation, as the rest of his pilots did, until he had passed through the other side. He wipped back around and pushed his Viper forward once again. The Raiders made their tight one hundred and eighty degree turns like it was nothing and reengaged his Vipers.
The whole battle degenerated from there. It was no longer a squadron-to-squadron battle, but a brutal ugly one-on-one engagements. Lee moved from Raider to Raider without even thinking of where he was going. The enemy fighters were swarming him, and they had to know it. Each time he punched through a group of Raiders, the survivors would allow him a second pass back into their ranks to try and surround and crush him. Each time however, he would push his way out of the fray and into another one.
He pitched his Viper upwards to fall onto the tail of a pair of Raiders. One of his pilots called out to him, but the wireless was cut short as his Viper exploded from the CYlon fire. Lee locked onto the Raiders and fired away. The rounds tore into the rear Raider and its right wing sepeated from the main body sending it spiraling away from the combat zone. The lead Raider spun around quickly drifting backwards firing its cannons. He pulled his Viper into a tight combat roll to narrowly miss the Raiders rounds. He fired his guns blindly as he went, hoping that it would catch one of the Raiders. There's enough of the bastards that I have to hit one.
Checking his DRADIS, he saw Reds keeping right on his six, mopping up what he didn't take out on the first pass. "Reds, keep tight to my six, looks like Pusher and Sky eye could use some cover."
"Tally, Lucky, I'm right here with you."
Good pilot. He made a mental note to keep her on if they all made it through this one. The pair of Vipers blasted through the open space, as the fighting had widened out as the pilots continued you engage to give themselves a little breathing room. Pusher and Sky Eye had hit their full thrusters and were tearing through space trying to stay one step ahead of the Cylons. "This is Pusher, we've got five of these bastards right on our ass! Can I get a little support-" His wireless was cut dead as a missle smashed into his canopy.
"Sky Eye! Keep moving we're coming up on you now, we'll have your back cover soon. Try and loop them back around to us."
"Got it, Lucky, I'll have them lined up, just don't miss." Junior Lieutenant Jennifer "Sky Eye" Pedersen called out over her wireless frantically.
"Reds! Roll to starboard and get above them. When she brings them back around drop down on top of them and give them hell."
"My pleasure." Her Viper darted up and away out of his view while he continued on to take the Raiders head on. Not his best idea, but it's all that he could do at the moment.
Sky Eye pulled her tails around and brought them back on a straight course for him. She'd be bringing them right across his nose, and at these speeds he wouldn't have much time to pick a target before they were past him. It was his hope that with three Vipers from all different angles that the Raiders would break up and they could pick them all off individually.
Sky Eye pulled her Viper onto a direct course with him. She pulled sharply up before when they were close to two hundred meters away. At the same time, Reds dove down on top of the Raiders, tearing a pair of them to pieces. Lucky pulled the trigger and caught a third Raider on its fuselage and sawed it in half. The last two Raiders spun about to engage the new threats, but Sky Eye had already turned about and was engaging the enemy fighters. The three Vipers were able to quickly put away the last two Raiders.
With a few moments to spare, he surveyed the battle around him. His wing was down to five pilots from what he could see on his DRADIS. Silver Wing had already engaged and destroyed the Jammer, but was tied up in their own engagement with a splinter group of Raiders that must have peeled off from his force. Villain's Wing, from what he could tell, had accomplished their mission, as one of the Gorgon's was pulling back out of the fight with a gaping hole in its side, but his Wing was down to only four pilots.
Just at that moment, the 33rd emerged from the edge of the nebula. At its point was the Battlestar Majestic, which looked like nothing more than an enlarged Valkyrie-Class with an oversized engine block. The Battlestar came out firing too. Her forward missile batteries were pouring out missiles as quick as the auto-loading rack systems would allow them too. The missiles streaked across the open space and caught a dozen of the Raiders as they fell back away from the new threats.
"All Vipers, this is the 33rd Reconnaissance Group. Fall back and provide close air support for us." The Battlestar Majestic's missiles were auto-targeting the Raiders and destroying them quickly and efficiently. The Raiders began to fall back to their capital ships so that they could survive the harrowing salvos from the Majestic.
"Take what you can get Gold Wing, but don't stray too far in. Those Gorgons will tear you to shreds!" The remnants of Gold Wing chased down and destroyed as many of the fleeing Raiders as they could, further thinning their ranks.
The Baseship began sending missiles of her own flying towards the Majestic and her escorts, whom had just emerged after her. The Hellfire and Spitfire took up positions to the Majestic's flanks and began opening fire with their point defense weapons to try and swat down the missiles coming in.
The remaining Vipers limped back to the small battlegroup to regroup themselves and cover their carriers. The DRADIS read that twenty-one Vipers were still operational, ten of which were Blue wing who hadn't been a part of the fighting. Only eleven survived out of the thirty who had engaged. "Gold Wing on me. Let's get a tight CAP around the 33rd in case the Raiders come back."
With both air wings virtually decimated, it was left to the capital ships to slug it out. The Majestic was the first to shift her fire as she sent a hail of missiles after the Gorgon that was still defending the Baseship. The enemy frigate threw up an impressive flak field, wiping away the majority of the missiles. However, the Hellfire and Spitfire opened up with their rail guns and began hammering the Gorgon. The ship shuttered and returned fire, but failed to do as much damage as the combined strength of the Gunstar and Strikestar. With the enemies batteries failing, the Majestic powered ahead, her massive engines propelling her far around the enemies flak. The Gorgon was left with one of two options. Shift its AAA fire to the Majestic to stop her barrage of missiles, or continue to slug it out with the two support ships. The Gorgon took its chances and left her broadside open to the Majestic and continued to focus its fire on the Spitfire, who took some moderate damage, but it wasn't enough. The Majestic's opening salvo unleashed over one hundred missiles, all of which scored hits across the Cylon ship. The escort bucked and spun as the missiles struck her across the broadside, and finally exploded under the combined fire of the ships.
The Baseship continued her barrage of the support ships, but had moved its attention from the Hellfire and Spitfire to the two severely damaged ships that were just leaving the nebula. The two crippled Gunstars' weapons weren't up to defend themselves from a full salvo from a Baseship. The AAA stop a few of the missiles, but the vast majority slipped through and crushed the Hellhound who had come out first. The Gunstar split in half and exploded violently, peppering the Colonial ships near it with debris.
All of the Colonial ships now focused their fire on the Baseship, and after a few minutes of an intense shootout, the Baseship succumbed to the fire. Its arms folded in on itself as the entire ship began blowing up in a massive chain reaction. "Majestic! We've got Raiders inbound! Looks like whatever was left is making an attack run us!" The Spitfire and Hellfire opened up with their AAA batteries as the Raiders began flowing in.
Lee didn't wait for orders to come in from the Majestic or anywhere else. "All Vipers engage and destroy those Raiders don't let them reach the Harbinger!" He pushed his Viper forward to engage the oncoming wave of fighters. When in range, he squeezed the trigger and destroyed a pair of Raiders in quick succession, but they blew straight past him without stopping. He'd expected to lose several of the Vipers on the first pass by, but not a single had been hit. The Raiders kept their formation and pressed onwards towards the ships. "Run them down!" Lee cried over the wireless. "Shoot them down before they reach the battlegroup!"
The Raider pressed on and increased their attack speed when they reached the flak walls that the trio of support ships were putting up. Lee and the other pilots moved frantically to shoot down the Raiders, but there were too many. The Raiders unleashed their payloads onto the ships so close that the AAA fields didn't even have a chance to shoot down the missiles. The Spitfire and Hellfire shook violently from each of the hits across their bodies. The surviving Raiders, about twenty of them, pressed on after they had made their run against the two operational ships. Lee and the others were hot on the tails of the Raiders, taking any of them as they came into range, but the Raiders were too quick for them. Lee watched as the remaining Raiders made a suicide run against the crippled Harbinger, slamming into her critically damaged sections. The Harbinger blew up in a massive white ball of flames, ending almost as quickly as it had started.
Lee surveyed his DRADIS and confirmed that the Raiders had been destroyed. He keyed his wireless to the Majestic. "Majestic, Lucky. All Cylon contacts confirmed destroyed, but we've lost the Harbinger."
"Copy Lucky. Bring your pilots in. You're cleared for port side landings, hands on approach."
"Wilco, Majestic. Hands on approach."
Battlestar Majestic, Combat Information Center
In ten minutes, they had landed and were out of their Vipers. They'd won the battle, but at a horrible cost. By the end of the fighting, they'd lost twenty Vipers and two Gunstars, something that they were in desperate need of. The recent reports were coming in that the Fleet's mainline strikecraft, the Viper MK VII was still out of commission. Whatever virus that had shut down the Vipers was much more resilient than the ones that had taken down the Battlestars. And without the Vipers, the Battlestars were at a terrible disadvantage to whatever they came up against. To compensate for their temporary loss of Vipers, the commanders of the fleet were trying desperately to get a hold of Gunstars and other support craft to fill the roll of a screen for the larger ships. While they couldn't screen off the fighters as well as a Viper could, they'd do the job better than nothing. With losing two of the Gunstars and twenty of the operational Vipers left in the battle-group, it left the Arcadia and her fleet at a severe disadvantage. They all knew it, but the war was going poorly for them at this point.
Lee walked through the sliding doors of the CIC to the Majestic and stood a little struck by its inside. His entire career, he'd been in few CICs, but all of them had been old. The Majestic, however, was one of the newest ships in the fleet. Instead of the hardwired phones that filled the Arcadia and the older style computers, there was shining new holographic displays that served as the command table. The DRADIS console, instead of four smaller screens that hung over the command table, was a single 3D projected image in the center of the CIC. Each member of the CIC had a small ear piece as well for quick communications from department to department.
"Lieutenant Hawley!" Commander Derek Harper called out to him. His ebony skin was shining with sweat from the previous battle. He beckoned the Lieutenant to enter, and he did. Hawley marched to the Commander and gave him a crisp salute. The Commander returned it, offering out his hand. "We all owe you one, Lieutenant. I don't know if we could have made it out of this one without you and your Vipers' support."
"They're not mine actually, sir, I'm just the one that the others sent up here." He looked around the CIC and back to the Commander. "And it seemed like you handled yourselves quite well against the Raiders out there, sir."
The Commander smiled and took the Lieutenant by the shoulder. "Well if they sent you up here then it means they're yours for now. But the Majestic's not built to take on large swarms of enemy fighters. We just got lucky when they were already committed. They made for easy targets you know? But if they'd been rushing us, our computers would have had one hell of a time getting a solid lock on all of them." The Commander's good spirits changed after a moment. "We took a beating out there, Hawley."
"Yes, sir we did. We lost twenty of our Vipers, another two of them are too damaged to fly as well. That leaves us with eighteen operational Vipers."
"That won't do, Lieutenant." The Commander shook his head as he looked at the command table. The table was lit up with various symbols and numbers. After a few moments of staring, he figured out that it was a tactical layout of the entire sector. He could see where each ship in the Colonial fleet was fighting from here, so long as they were in range, but the layout didn't look good. "They've almost got us cornered, Lieutenant, and without Viper support we're beyond frakked."
You could say that again. "Yes, sir, but they should be getting our Vipers online soon shouldn't they?"
"That's what they've been saying since this damn thing started, but I don't know how long it will take them. The problem is that our fighters were all out during the initial battles. Those that weren't destroyed were shut down, so we have very few working Vipers to even try and patch up." Harper looked down at the command table and sighed as he watched a blue Colonial icon flicker and go out, signaling the loss of another Colonial ship. "We've got to change that."
"How's that, sir?"
"I've got an idea that might buy us a little more time." He placed two of his fingers on the table and swiped hard to the left, making the table disappear and a new one reappear in its place. This one showed a tactical layout of all the resupply points in the outer edges of the Colonies. He pointed to one. "This is Medra. Small little frakked up place with bugs the size of a small dog and an inhospitable jungle that covers the whole damn moon. Cylons tried to use it as a staging ground in the Cylon War, but the marines kicked their asses up one side of the jungle and back down the other."
Lee nodded, not understanding the connection between their situation and the moon. "Yes, sir."
The Commander pursed his lips for a moment as he studied the layout. "There's still marines there." He said after a long while. "The marines don't use MK VIIs in their fighter wings. They use a variant of the MK VI and their own Aegis Fighters. If we could get a hold of them, then we could even the odds for a little bit. Just long enough for us to get the remainder of our Viper Corps back online." Harper touched the screen again and dozens of icons flicked on to represent enemy movements. Seven Baseships were in the area, none of the were at Medra yet, but they could all be there within a single jump. "We've got to go now. Lieutenant, have your pilots ready to fly as soon as possible."
"Aye, sir, we'll be ready. How long do we have?"
"Lieutenant Monroe? How long until the jump drives are spooled?"
"Sixteen minutes, Commander."
"You've got twenty, Lieutenant."
"We'll be ready."
"Good, because I need you flying escort to the Raptors that are going ground side. I have a feeling once we jump into the system that they Cylons are going to be all over us like stink on shit. Get in, get out. That's all we've got to do." The Commander seemed to be talking more to himself than to Lee. "Just get in, and then get out." He repeated again to himself. "Lieutenant, get your birds ready."
Battlestar Arcadia, Strategic Information Center
"Sir, we've got an incoming burst transmission from the Majestic."
"Put it through here." Tapping his headset, the Admiral said. "This is Arcadia Actual, go ahead."
"Admiral, this is Majestic Actual. We've broken the blockade outside Osiris and have recovered your pilots. The Hellhound and Harbinger have been lost with all hands though, sir."
Tyros grimaced at the news. Two more Gunstars lost before they can be brought to bear on the Cylons. "Good work on breaking they Cylons regardless, Commander. We'll see you at the rendezvous point."
"Negative,sir. I've got a priority objective on Medra. We're moving to secure the Marine Air Wing there to supplement our own fighter forces."
The Admiral was about to object, but hesitated. The Fleet was still trying to work around whatever it was that the Cylons did to their Vipers and they were in desperate need of a working fighter screen, even if that may be only a few dozen Vipers. "Understood, Commander. I'm sending the Battlestar Krios to support you."
"Understood, sir. We might need their support if the Cylons come knocking."
"If they do, Commander, then I want you to bug out and get back here."
"Yes, sir."
"Good luck, Majestic." The Admiral tapped off his headset and walked to his communications officer. "Ensign, get a message over to the Krios to jump to Medra to support the Majestic in her operation." The Ensign snapped to his work while the Admiral returned to his.
Three hours the message for surrender had been broadcasting, but there'd been to reply from the Cylons, not even a momentary cease fire to consider it. Tyros sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. They were fighting a losing war with no exit plan. He cursed himself for the position they were in. Again, he tapped his headset, but this time it was to his own quarters. "Mister President, they still have yet to respond."
"Could they have not heard it?"
"That would be impossible. We're broadcasting it on every signal and off of every satellite we can find."
There was a very long "So what does this mean?"
The Admiral sighed deeply into his headset. "It means we're in this one for the long haul, Mister President."
"Gods help us then." The President muttered.
Battlestar Majestic, Port Side Hangar Deck
"Ok everyone. We're heading back out." The pilots were formed into a small semi-circle around him. There wasn't many of them left. From Gold Wing alone, there was only four of them. Sky Eye, Reds, and Rook were the only others that had made it. Those that were left were kneeling or sitting along the crates around them with the others standing around them. They all had deep circles under their eyes, and their demeanor showed that of fatigue and defeat. They'd been through a lot since the war had begun not a day ago, but they weren't done yet. "We've got intel that the Marines on Medra have go a few squadrons of Vipers planet side and we're going to go grab them so that we can even the odds a little bit. We're heading down with the Raptors to provide cover until the Marines can get off the planet and link up with us."
From behind him, the Commander came running with a dozen of the Majestic's pilots, who ran straight to the Raptors and began boarding them. "Lieutenant, we've just received word from the Marines on Medra that a Cylon Baseship engaged the Assualtstar Razgriz. We're jumping now, but we don't need your Vipers out in front. Instead, you're to head planet side with your pilots and grab the Vipers and bring them back up."
"What are the Marine pilots doing?" Junior Lieutenant Jake Masev, the fourth survivor from Gold Wing asked. "Shouldn't they just bring them up to us?"
"The Marines have got more birds than pilots, about six squadrons worth of Vipers, but only two squadrons that can be filled by pilots. We need those Vipers, Lieutenant, so select five of your pilots to fly escort and the rest are going down to bring the fighters back up to us."
"Yes, sir. Rook, Sky Eye, Reds, Dozer, and Villain. You're on escort duty. The rest of you load up, we're going down to Medra." The pilots all nodded slowly, but were quick to move to their designated Raptors. "Villain, you're in command up there again. Just cover us in, and we'll up to support you in no time."
"Got it, Lucky, we'll keep you covered."
"One last thing, pilots. The Razgriz was crippled and had to disengage from the fighting, but not before breaking the Baseship's back. The two ships are too wounded to keep fighting, but the Cylons sent down a contingent of Centurions to deal with the Marines that are on the ground now. I don't know what the base commander will have for you, but expect to run at least one ground support mission before you get back up here."
Wacko spoke up. "What about the Marines, sir?"
Harper nodded to him as if he was expecting the question. "They're coming with us. We're abandoning Medra and taking what we can get from there and then bugging out."
The pilots began shuffling onto the Raptors slowly, ten per Raptor until they were all full. "Another frakking planetwide evacuation." Lucky said as he strapped in next to Jackal.
"Yeah but this time we shouldn't leave anyone behind." Many of the pilots were still bitter about how they left Aerilon without some people. They all knew it was implausible to do, but they still felt like they were abandoning the people on the surface.
"We're also running against the clock." Lee replied as the Raptor lurched on the elevator that took them to the Raptor pads on the side of the flight pods.
"How so?"
"There's six more Baseships in jump range of this place."
Jackal tried to spin in his seat, but the restraints caught him. "You're frakking with me."
Lee, shaking his head, said. "Wouldn't dream of it." He placed his head back against the bulkhead of the Raptor to await the Majestic's final jump.
"So it'll be a photo finish then?"
He nodded to Jackal. "Seems like it."
"So much for thinking that this would be an easy one."
"We'd never get that lucky."
"You're name should be Unlucky."
The two men laughed together for a moment. "It probably should." The ship jumped to Medra just then, reappearing only a few moments after the jump. Lee's stomach churned for a moment from the jump, but settled soon after. From where he was sitting, he could see the Majestic and her escorts engage the damaged Baseship. It didn't last long, as the ship was already crippled and after only a single salvo from the Majestic, Hellfire, and Spitfire.
"If only the whole war could go that way!" One of the Majestic's pilots called out as he highfived the man across from him.
Outside the window, Lee could see twenty Raptors all flying in a tight formation escorted by the five Vipers that he'd ordered out. Their convoy dropped fast down through the atmosphere, making their hulls shin with the heat of reentry. Soon, they were skimming just fifty meters over the tops of the jungle canopy. "Gods, this is the moments that make me realize that I made the right decision not being a marine." He said while looking down on the jungle. The whole place looked nothing but hostile and unforgiving.
The Raptor suddenly veered upwards into a tight vertical lift. From the window, Lee could see the flares deploying from the front just as the missile lock alarm began blaring throughout the ship. The Raptor lurched back downwards into a steep dive, but the lock still sounded all the way up until the missile slammed into the side of the ship. The Raptor spun into a uncontrolled decent so fast that Lee's vision darkened and finally went black.
Even through the darkness and the screeching of the alarms, Lee could hear pilots yelling over the wireless. "Krypter! Krypter! Krypter! We're going down! Cylons are in the jungles! I repeat Cylons are in the jungles!"
Lee gripped his restraints and pressed his head back against the bulkhead of the Raptor. Gods please save us now. The thought hit his mind just as the Raptor crashed through the top of the canopy and slammed into the jungle floor. The Raptor skidded across the muddy ground for more than a dozen meters until it, and everything within it, stopped moving.
Battlestar Arcadia, Strategic Information Center
The hold that had been put on civilian traffic had frozen thousands of people in space, and he'd taken it upon himself to gather up as many of the ships as he could. As of the present, there was one-hundred and thirty two ships at the rendezvous point. Most were passenger liners or cargo ships, but some were specialized ships that he'd conscripted into the Fleet to extend their range of operations.
The tylium ships had been commandeered from their owners, some not without a little bit of a fight, and pressed into service refueling the Battlestars of the Fleet. Many of the smaller yachts and other civilian vessels were being pressed into service as search and rescue ships to supplement their Raptor force. It was all odd to him, using civilians like this, but at the present time, they had no other choice. They'd still yet to find the President's family, and he feared the worst. Adar would go mad if they were lost, as if he wasn't going mad already. It normally wouldn't be his concern, but there was still a lot of frightened civilians out there that needed a face that they could rally behind and if that face had to be President Richard Adar, then he'd do everything he could to make sure that that face was good for the public eye. "Lieutenant Owens, send out a message to our scouts to keep an eye out for the Ocean's Stars. It's a luxury liner."
The Lieutenant made the necessary calls to get the orders out to the scouts. The thought of the President's family brought another to his mind. Many of the Colonies were being attacked at that moment and civilian casualties were high. How many? He thought. How many won't see their families again?This wasn't just a war like the last one they had seen. This is genocide. Reports from surviving ships were that the Cylons were systematically wiping out the Colonies via orbital bombardment. The initial hacks on their defense mainframe had left them in a weakened state, but their ships were recovering. Without their Vipers, however, they were still at a disadvantage. Even if they did get their Vipers back online how many of them would be left?
The Admiral took up the last list of surviving ships in the Colonial Fleet. Here, in this fall back point, there was thirty-two Battlestars and forty-seven escort ships of various classes. Fleet Admiral Nagala was known to be regrouping with another fleet at a separate point with a force roughly the same size as his own.Would it be enough? Would this fraction of the Colonial Fleet be enough to save them from genocide?
"Sir, reports coming in from the Majestic." Lieutenant Owens reported, breaking the Admiral from his thoughts.
"Go ahead, Lieutenant."
"Initial reports are that they've neutralized the Baseship above the moon, but the Cylons were able to deploy a sizeable Centurion contingent to the surface. Marines are fully engaged across the base perimeter. They're being pushed, but they'll hold, sir."
"Good. Anything else?"
"Yes, sir." The Lieutenant seemed hesitant to speak, but did so anyway. "They presently have two Raptors down and haven't been able to reestablish wirless contact with them. They're assuming that they've gone down with all hands. Twenty pilots a piece, sir. Also, the Majestic is reporting that they'll have to root out the Cylon anti-air batteries before they can get the Vipers back to orbit."
"They don't have that frakking long. Tell them to bombard the entire area from orbit."
"Sir, the downed Raptors would be caught in the area."
"I know, but we need those Vipers now. Send the order." He didn't like it, but they'd have to sacrifice some good pilots to get those Vipers off the ground. In the long run, you're saving more lives than your losing.
"Aye, sir. Sending the order now, the bombardment should begin within the hour."
"Understood, Lieutenant." He uttered a silent prayer for the souls that might have survived down there. For if they were still alive, then they'd need divine intervention, or a good spot of luck, to survive what was coming after them. "Lords help them if they are down there."
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