Important Note:
First thank you for all the reviews, I have had a few people ask me why I have bold part in the story; it is a rather simple reason. In some of my other stories, people have said they had trouble whenever I had a scene change so I put in the bold part so that people could tell. Another thing was people asking me for me to get a beta however; I had too many bad experiences with Betas to trust them. In addition, I use fanfiction to help with my grammar and the like since the school missed a reading disability until I was in the 3rd grade and then did nothing to help. Now enough about that and enjoy the story.
Chapter 4 Contact and Fire
Commander Adama moved down the corridors of the Galactica having only just returned from his meeting with Vice Admiral Cain and the rest of the leaders of the task force. Over the course of half an hour, they had planned the attack on the Cylon ships and the position each ship would be in the formation. It had taken some time to organize the fighter squadron locations since if they Cylons followed their traditional battle doctrine they would try to over whelm them with fighters. Admiral Cain had ordered no nukes use without the permission of either herself or the next person in command if she is unable to keep command. Since there was only two ships the massive guns of the Battlestars and support ships would be enough.
Adama walked into the CIC to see that his XO had gotten out of his cups long enough to put on a clean uniform and report to duty.
"Colonel Tigh." said Adama to his old friend
"Commander Adama, I heard we have some busyness," stated Saul Tigh as he looked toward his old war buddy. The tall balding man was dressed in an almost matching uniform of Adama only with the rank of Colonel instead of Commander.
"Yes we do," confirmed Adama as he lied out the combat plan when he finished Saul nodded his head in understanding. The plan was for the four Battlestars to make a sort of diamond shape with the support ships protecting the flanks. As the oldest ship, the Galactica would be near the center of the fleet and would be the ship that any damaged vipers or raptors would use as a landing site.
"We can do this." confirmed Saul "I'll get the guns loaded and the pilots ready."
"Good." confirmed Adama he knew that while Saul enjoyed his drinks more than a little too much once he was given a task he would carry it out.
"Alright listen up!" yelled Saul as he began moving around the room "I want condition one set across the ship, load all guns with anti-ship rounds and get all the Vipers and Raptors ready for combat launch."
"Yes, sir." confirmed Lieutenant Felix Gaeta as the third in command went to carry out his orders.
For a moment, Adama just stood there and watched as the CIC crew went to work carrying out their jobs just as they had been trained to do. All over the ship, his crew was running to their stations, the heavy shells where moving up from the armory toward the guns while the crew was loading the vipers and raptors with weapons. The pilots where rushing toward their ready rooms not totally knowing what was happened but waiting for the orders.
"Sir, condition one is set across the ships." reported Lieutenant Gaeta "Shall I inform the fleet that we are ready."
"We are still getting the pilots their orders," countered Saul "We need another ten minutes at least."
"Telling Cain to wait is like telling a charging bull to stop and expect it to happen. We will have to give the birds their orders on the fly." countered Adama as he picked up his ships broadcast systems. "Now hear this, this ship and along with the other ships under Admiral Cain's command are heading into a combat situation against at least two ships we believe are Cylon Vessels who are setting up a station of some kind on our boarder."
Adama's voice boomed all over the ship as everyone stopped and listened to the voice of their Commander.
"Now, we do not know what we will face but we are the shield and sword of our home and we will defend them to the last bullet and if needed our very lives." stated Adama "You all know your job, just do it and believe on everyone else to do their jobs. We will jump into the combat zone and then launch all our Vipers and Raptors, our air wings have been assigned to defend fleet while the air wings from the other Battlestars take care of the enemy. Now let's go hunting."
"Nicely done Bill." stated Saul as the two friends stood across from each other with the small map table between them.
"Spin up FTL, prepare to jump." ordered Adama as he prayed to the Lords of Kobol for protection and strength. Like all colonial warships the Galactica had two FTL drives, which allowed it to jump two times before the 33 minute cool down required, by law civilian ships could, only had a single FTL drive. "And inform the fleet that we are ready to jump."
"FTL ready the fleet is jumping in five…four…three...two…one." reported Gaeta
"Jump." ordered Adama as the old warship's FTL drive jumped along with all the ships in the fleet, they reappeared in a different part of space which was a lot like the one they just left only there was two strange ships and a half finished space station of some kind.
"Jump complete all ships are accounted for, two unknown ships and a station of some kind are 1,000 kilometers to our front and we have what appears to be a fighter patrol of four fighters 500 kilometers our starboard." reported Gaeta as the Dradus radar system picked up the ships in the system.
"Send Starbucks and her flight after those fighters, inform Admiral Cain that we are going to take care of those birds." ordered Adama.
Down in the hanger bay a colonial front line space/aerial fighter was being loaded into the special launching tubes built into the sides of the ship. The Viper mark VII was the latest addition of the Cylon War era Mark II Viper, a squadron of which was sitting on Caprica, which would someday be sitting in Galactica when she was turned into a museum. The diamond shaped fighter was armed mostly with heavy cannons and a few missiles.
"Let's get this show on the road!" yelled the most hotshot load mouth Viper on Galactica and likely the entire colonial fleet, Kira Thrace better known as Starbuck. She slipped on her helmet as she jumped into her cockpit sliding the hatch close. She checked the seals to make sure she had air both within her cockpit and her suit, within seconds she got the confirmation of the seals. Almost right after she finished the airlock behind her sealed, she looked up at the red light built into the tub.
"Athena, protect me and give me strength for this hunt." prayed Kira as the light turned green and her viper went shooting down the tube before ejecting out into space. She spun her viper around as she rocked in her seat to get in a spot she liked.
"Galactica Actual to Starbuck." came Adama's voice over her wireless.
"Starbucks here, Galactica." confirmed Starbucks
"Take Gold wing and hunt down possible Cylon raiders to our starboard but do not fire until weapon free orders are given." ordered Adama
"Understood Galactica." confirmed Starbucks as she banked her viper toward the targets "Alright Gold flight follow me."
Within moments the flight of Vipers followed her while the rest took up their own combat position and moved toward the unknown ships which sat in space. However there was something else in space, it looked like a some kind of cylinder shaped space station.
The normally boring babysitting had suddenly changed as alarms filled the air as the men and women of the HMS Ark Royal rushed to combat stations. Power had been automatically be transferred to the shield generators and the Asgard beam weapons, the first rounds on the rail guns were also chambered as they prepared to deal with any small aircraft and the missile tubes where opened and waiting for the captain to decide what type would be loaded.
"Report!" yelled Captain Taylor as he walked onto the bridge, he didn't have to wait for an answer he could see four ships all as large as one of their new Battleships approaching fast, flanking them on either side was seven smaller ships. The ships where in a V shape with the four larger ships making up a diamond shape lead and the others forming around it.
"Eleven unknown contacts four of them are as large as a Battleship others are smaller but all are larger than us. The four large ships are launching aircraft, the others are launching them as well not as many." reported the radar operator as he got more information "A lot of fighters in fact."
"How many?" inquired the Captain Taylor, he needed hard information.
"Sir, I have over 960 aircraft in the air just form the larger ships and about another 275 from the smaller ships." Reported the operator as the Captain Taylor nodded his head, 960 was a ton of aircraft but given the size of the ships and the number it was not surprising. That would be around 240 aircraft per ship and that would break down even more into around 10 squadrons of around 24 each.
"Tell the Da Vinci to finish up and run, move us into position between the unknowns and the station." ordered the Captain, the station was only about half finished and had no way to defend itself. Luckily it was an unmanned station which meant he could destroy it without any cost to human life. "Put F-302 on hot pad for launch and load missile tubes with those shotgun missiles as the Americans call it, prepare beam weapon for lock on the lead ship."
"Sir the unknown fighters are forming into attack wings." reported another officer
"Give me a total tactical scan of those ships." Ordered Captain Ian as he prepared to make first contact and hopefully prevent it from going forward.
On the lead ship Admiral Cain stood on her station on the Battlestar Pegasus, the ships under her command had launched all the vipers and the raptors where preparing to launch. To launch vipers on mass meant they had to open their flight pods which took some time and couldn't be avoided. Once they were in place they would show these Cylons the force of the Colonial Navy.
"Sir the smaller of the unknown ship is moving to a position in-between us and the larger ship." Reported the XO as the CIC became a hive of active. "There also seems to be a station of some kind which wasn't there before."
"Are they on our side of the boarder?" asked Admiral Cain
"The smaller ship just crossed the border when it moved into a defensive position." Reported the XO "However they haven't launched any Raiders, the only aircraft they have out are the four which were already out when we arrived. Galactica is sending a flight to take care of them."
"Good we need to have our forces ready to deal with the ship launched Raiders." reported Admiral Cain
"It is sort of strange that they haven't launched any raiders to deal with our vipers." Stated her XO
"The ship is small, likely they don't have many." Stated Cain "This was likely a black operation and they hopped we wouldn't notice."
"Admiral I have something on the wireless from the Cylon Ship." reported the wireless operator from her station.
"Cylons who want to talk?" asked the XO as he raised an eyebrow as a male voice came over the wireless.
"Unknown vessels this is Captain Ian Taylor of the Tau'ri defense vessel HMS Ark Royal please Identify yourself." said the male voice
"What the frak are Tau'ri?" asked the XO as Admiral Cain eyes narrowed as she grabbed her own wireless broadcaster.
"Tau'ri vessel Ark Royal this is Vice Admiral Cain of the Battlestar Pegasus of the 12 colonies of Kobol and commander of this battlegroup and your little trick isn't going to fool us Cylons so drop the Fraken Act." said Admiral Cain as her voice reached everyone who was listening on the wireless. "You have no right to be on our side and treaty states that besides the meeting station neither side can build a station within one jump of the boarder. You have violated that and we will make you pay."
"Vice Admiral we do not know of your people or these Cylons we are setting up a monitoring station for a planet we have colonized, nothing more we mean your people no harm. If we have entered your territory we apologize and if you would send a map of the area of space you claim we will avoid it in the future." Reported Captain Ian Taylor as looked at the tactical display, these "colonials" had launched even more aircraft, these seamed to be larger and likely served the same roles in combat as his own Owl shuttles. The combat scanners showed that each ship had a lot of firepower in the form of cannons but there was no sign of energy spikes which normally happened when shields where powered up. The four f-302 which had been on combat patrol when these ships appeared in flashes of light where now heading back to the ship taking a long route to avoid the capital ships but a squadron of fighters where in chasing them down. Given the current location, the two groups would likely meet.
"I will not hand anything over to Cylons." snapped Cain "Now either your ships leave now and we will destroy that station, it is a violation to have it so close to the boarder."
"Vice Admiral I cannot allow you to destroy the station we will take it down but we will not allow you access to our technology." stated Captain Taylor knowing that he would rather destroy it himself then hand it over. With a nod he told the radio operator to stop broadcasting "Get the construction ship out of here we can call him back if needed."
"You have no choice in that matter we will destroy it and if you get in our way we will destroy you Cylon." snapped Cain as the Battlestars moved ever closer to the Cylon ships, the plan was for them to turn so that they could be position to bring the most guns to bare on the ships.
"Admiral the larger of the ship is heading away from us, deeper into Cylon space." reported the DRADUS operator.
"We will have to let that one go." reported the XO of the Pegasus they both knew the treaty would allow them to destroy the station on the Cylon side of the boarder since it was a violation of the treaty but not the ship. Suddenly the larger ship disappeared from DRADUS and the CIC crew thought it had to have jumped but they soon got reports that made them even more confused.
"What the Frak was that?" asked the hot shoot viper pilot from Galactica, Starbucks as she lead the flight of vipers toward the four fast moving Cylon raiders which were trying to head back to their ship. Everything had seemed like a normal mission then the larger of the two ship headed away from the smaller ship before suddenly a sort of vortex of blue light appeared in front of the ship and then it accelerated into the vortex and disappeared. She did not have time to say anything else as her internal DRADUS system told her she was nearing her target. She could see that while those new raiders where a lot faster than her Viper her squadron had the correct angle for an attack.
Little did she know she was heading straight toward Bulldog flight of F-302 Eagle fighter. The flight was of four was in the standard combat version of the fighter, it had been updated slightly over the years increasing the missiles count from four to six and the missiles themselves where improved in range and accuracy.
"Bulldog lead I have 14 unknown fighters heading our way request advise." inquired Bulldog leader back to the Ark Royal. Since the captain was busy trying to talk down this Admiral Cain the commands for the flight came from the second in command.
"Bulldog head to fall back position by hyper space and we will pick you up." ordered the XO
"Alright Bulldogs activate Hyperspace drive." ordered the flight leader as he flipped a switch on his cockpit controls. The miniature FTL drive was a drain on power so it was normally turned off the problem was that sometimes it did not spin up properly. He waited the ten seconds for the hyperspace drive to active; when the light turned green, he knew his bird was ready. "Bulldog one is green."
"Bulldog two is green."
"Bulldog four is green."
"Bulldog three is red." said the third F-302 in his flight as all the pilots cursed, one of the hyperspace drives had malfunctioned meaning there was no way for that bird to escape into hyperspace.
"Bulldog lead to Ark Royal we are a no go we are heading back to the ship." explained the leader
"Bulldog lead, turn and burn head straight back to the ship and do not fire unless fired upon." ordered the second officer as Bulldog flight kicked it into high gear using the rocket engine which was designed to get them into space for an extra boost. With that, they began to pull away from the colonial fighters much to surprise of the Starbucks and other pilots.
"Admiral all ships are in positions and the guns are loaded." Reported the Pegasus XO as Admiral Cain smiled, before speaking into the wireless again.
"Since you haven't agreed to the terms in the treaty it is time for you to pay Cylons, I hope you enjoy wherever you end up." snapped Cain "All ships weapons free open fire!"
With that, the massive guns of all four Battlestars plus the smaller guns of the support ships opened up in flashes of light. These flashes of light was clear as day to the bridge crew of the Ark Royal and right behind the incoming weapons where flights of fighters ready to destroy the Cylons.
"All rail guns open up; get a message off to Earth we are under attack." Ordered Captain Taylor not realizing that the radio operator had not switched the radio broadcast from external to internal so his message was actually heard by the colonials. Among those who eyes widened was Commander William Adama, he had listened to the whole exchange between Admiral Cain and this Captain Ian, like Admiral Cain he thought this Tau'ri thing was a scam by the Cylons to buy time but if what he heard was correct it wasn't a Cylon trick.
"Earth did he just say Earth?" asked Saul as he turned toward his old war friend Commander Adama who looked as if one of the Lords of Kobol had appeared before him.
"Yes, we just fired on a ship from Earth." confirmed Adama still stunned as one word crossed Saul's lips that was crossing alot of lips in the fleet.
"Frak."
Well sorry for the shorter chapter but seamed to be the best place to end the chapter. I hope you liked this chapter, now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.