Battlestar Argo
By
AJ Marks
Ambushed Squared
Bri made her way down the corridor to where the computer room was. It was there that the crew could read about what was going on with the colonies. The last thing that she had heard was the Delphians were going to war against the Cylons. That would help out the colonies as it might split off some of the Cylon forces and allow the Colonies to rebuild the fleet a bit. She had heard of a rumor that the Battlestar Pegasus was going to be the center of a new battle fleet. That would be exciting, especially if they were led by Commander Cain.
Entering the room she noticed that Troy was there reading something on his screen. She took a seat next to him hoping that he would notice her. When he did not she wondered what had his attention.
Brining up the main screen she tried to act like she was looking at her own screen without anyone knowing that she was really trying to figure out what Troy was reading. After navigating several screen she thought she finally had what he was reading. It was an article about ancient Kobal and the thirteenth tribe, or at least that is what she thought she was reading.
Bri scanned down the article until she came to the part where it described what type of system the tribe had settled in. There were eight or nine planets; it depended on what one considered a planet. Earth was the third planet from the local sun. It also had four gas giants with the furthest planet which was a small planet. That was the one that seemed to be in doubt. Bri wondered how small the planet really was.
"Hey Bri, I didn't notice you come in," she heard Troy's voice say. She looked up to see Troy was now looking at her.
Now that she had his attention she was not sure what to say. She had been a bit disappointed when he did not notice at first but now she felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Yeah, you looked like you were pretty engrossed in your reading," Bri said as she quickly changed her screen to another article.
"Yeah, when I get involved in articles about Earth I seem to forget where I am sometimes," Troy replied not sure if he should comment about the article that Bri had up on her screen or not.
"Yeah, well that can happen. Happens to me all the time," Bri replied with a smile.
"Really, even that one," Troy said with a nod of his head to her screen.
"Huh," Bri replied then looked at her screen. In her haste to change the article she had not seen where she was going. Now she wanted to somehow disappear from the room, either that or start over. "That, well I ah, well it's like this I wanted some information, well," Bri mumbled as she looked at the screen. There in front of her was an article with Troy's picture at the top. "I was curious all right," she finally said.
"You could have just asked me," Troy said as wondered about why Bri was at that article. It was one that he had written about a yehren ago about the lost thirteenth tribe for one of his old professors at school.
"Well yeah, but you seemed to be into your reading and I didn't want to disturb you," Bri replied.
"It's no problem, disturb me anytime," Troy said with a smile. Then exiting out of the article he was reading he got up. "Well, it about time for the briefing."
Bri glanced at the clock and realized it was about time for their patrol. "Right," she said also exiting her article then quickly walked out of the room. Troy watched her actions with a bit of interest. Perhaps she did like him after all.
Colonel Pratt waited again in the briefing room. This one was only a simple patrol to a system that had only two planets. The Argo's scanners had not detected any movement from the inside of the system of ships or anything like that. Commander Ares wanted to make sure that the scanners were not wrong about anything.
He watched as the patrol came into the room. This one would be manned by Captain Troy and Lieutenant Bri. So far he had watched them closely. They had been getting along quite well lately. He had a feeling that they liked each other. That also meant that he would have to keep an eye on them as well for any signs of trouble.
The one thing that Pratt did not want was a lover's quarrel. That would disrupt the workings of the ship too much and it was his duty to make sure that everything worked.
"All right we'll get down to business," Pratt said. "We have just approached the second system on our journey. It should be a short patrol as the scanners have not picked up anything in the area. We do not expect you to find anything here either."
"Is there anything else colonel," Troy asked hoping that the mission sounded as straightforward as it sounded.
"Nope, just be careful as always otherwise good luck," Pratt said with a nod of his head. Bri and Troy got up and walked out heading to the alpha launch bay.
Troy made his way to the launch bay only to be intercepted by Nall and Martin. The two of them were standing in the launch bay.
"Hey, we heard that we weren't going to be there to watch your backs, so be careful," Nall said to the two of them.
"Didn't know you cared," Bri said with a teasing smile on her face.
"Always my dear," Nall replied then turned serious. "If you run into any trouble do hesitate to call."
"We won't Nall," Troy replied.
"Then I'll see you later at dinner time," Martin said giving Troy a clap on the back.
"Right," Troy said slowly. He shook his head to clear what he had just seen. It was the second time that he had seen that vision.
"You all right," Bri asked seeing the look on Troy's face.
"Yeah, we should get going," Troy replied saying another good-bye to the two men. He walked over to his viper and climbed on board.
He gave Bri a thumbs up as he listened to Renee transfer the coordinates to the viper. He was feeling quite uneasy right now about this mission. There was an underlying current that he could feel about this mission. It was almost as if something was waiting for him out there.
He finally acknowledged the transfer and that he had control of the launch. He pushed the turbo button and within a few seconds was out in open space. Bri joined him a moment later beside him.
"Well, let's get this one over with," he said. He wanted it to be over that was for sure.
The trip to the system was quite uneventful and they began to scan the planets. They went to the furthest planet first. It was a giant gas planet. One of the largest they had ever seen. The three moons were all good size but did not have anything that contained life. The atmosphere was very deadly to any known living organisms.
The two of them then approached the second planet. Troy noticed his nervousness was creeping up again as they approached the planet. He was always one to take heed of his gut feelings and he had the feeling like something was wrong.
"Bri, stay back at the gas giant," Troy said to her. "There's something wrong here."
"Then perhaps we should both go," Bri replied.
"No, let's minimize the risk," Troy replied. "And be prepared to head out as soon as possible."
Bri was not sure what to make of Troy's request. Her scanners showed nothing in the area that would be a cause of concern. She decided that they would talk about it later and turned around for the larger gas planet. It was from here that she watched as Troy made his way carefully towards the other planet.
Troy was real nervous about approaching the planet. There was something about it that made him weary. He kept on eye on his scanner and the other on the planet. It was just before he approached the planet that he saw what it was he was looking for. Just coming up from the planet was something that he did not want to see.
"Get out of here, hit your turbos now," Troy said as he quickly turned around. "We have Cylons."
Bri heard that last part and quickly accelerated away from the system and towards the Argo. She was not sure that she liked the idea of Cylons in the area. Checking her scanner for any sign of pursuit she was glad when she did not see anything behind her or Troy.
"Commander to the bridge," Ares heard the call. He got up from his bed and quickly walked over to the intercom.
"What's going on colonel," Ares asked hoping that it was not anything important. He knew that a mission to the system was underway but that it would not be Earth. According to the legends there were too few planets in the system.
"The patrol picked up something and are coming in hot," Pratt replied over the intercom.
That had Ares wondering what would have had two experienced pilots running back to the battlestar under full turbos. Whatever it was it just did not sound good to him.
"I'll be right there," Ares said quickly pulling on his uniform and headed to the bridge.
There were several things that he could think about as he walked to the bridge. The one thing that he thought of was they had found some intelligent life forms on one of the planets. Entering the bridge he was astonished by the amount of activity that was going on. People were bustling around quickly doing their jobs.
"Pratt, what's going on," Ares asked quickly walking up to where Pratt was standing near the command center of the bridge.
"Our patrol ran into Cylons," Pratt replied.
"Cylons, here," Ares said not liking what he had just heard. "All right, keep the long range scans on the system. I want to know about everything that comes into and out of that system. I also want to meet with the patrol and see what happened."
"Yes sir," Pratt replied. "So far there has been no movement from the system to indicate that they had been seen."
"Good, that means either they didn't see the patrol or they are massing for an attack," Ares said. "Put the ship on yellow alert. I want red squad ready to launch on a microns notice."
People went about their jobs making sure that everything was ready just in case. People were nervous about an impending attack by the Cylons that everyone hoped would not happen.
"Sir, Captain Troy and Lieutenant Bri are waiting for you in the briefing room," Pratt said watching as Ares nodded and walked off the bridge for the room.
Ares quickly walked down to the elevator to take him to the mission briefing room. His mind swirled around with the implementations of having Cylons in the area. It was a bit disturbing to him as well. They really needed to figure out what they were doing our here so far away. The other thing that he was aware of was the fact that they had to avoid capture. If the Cylons found out about this mission then everything might be in danger.
Troy and Bri were waiting in the room for him. Usually there would be nothing much to talk about. He would inform fleet command about what had happened and they would make the decision of what to do. This time he was in charge and had to figure out what they had to do.
"I hope that you have some more news for me then you found a group of Cylons," Ares asked the two.
"The Cylons are orbiting the first planet in the system. From what I saw there was at least one Cylon basestar along with some sort of platform," Troy said recalling what his scanners had picked up. "I don't think that we were detected leaving the system."
"I don't think so. If they had then we would have seen a patrol or an attack wave already," Ares replied calmly. "Now the question is what do we do about it?"
"We could warn the fleet," Troy replied seriously. "They would be able to send in a couple of ships and wipe it out."
"Yes, but we are ordered to maintain radio silence," Ares replied. "That and we do not know exactly what we are up against just yet either."
Ares rubbed his chin in thought as he pondered a few options that they had. The easiest course of action was to warn fleet command. That however brought up the problem that the signal could be intercepted by a Cylon listening station. That would mean questions on the Cylon side as to why a ship was so far out here.
A second thought was that he still needed more information about what was here. Even if he decided to warn fleet command he would have to have information about strength of the Cylon position. That still led him to the question as to why it was here. What were the Cylons doing?
"Was there any indication of what the station was for," Ares asked Troy and Bri. He was looking for more information.
"I didn't get a good scan on it," Troy replied. "That and I left Bri at the other planet."
"Yeah, I just wish you had mentioned something about Cylons though," Bri said with a look at Troy.
"Hey, at the time I didn't know," Troy replied honestly. "I just had a feeling that something was wrong."
"I know the feeling," Ares said. He had been in combat before when he had a strange gut feeling. He had learned to listen to such feelings when he got them. "Did you see anything on your scanners?"
"Nope, I was hidden behind the other planet," Bri replied. "The only thing I saw was Troy getting out of there like a daggit on a hot roof."
"All right, assemble the squads for a briefing," Ares said then left the room to head back to the bridge. He wanted to make sure that nothing else had happened. This was definitely going to be a sticky situation.
Troy watched the commander leave the room and wondered what was going though his mind. He had a small feeling that he knew what was going to happen. He walked out of the room on his way to the pilot's quarters to find red squad leader with Bri right behind him.
"What do you think is going to happen," Bri asked as she drew even with Troy.
"I'm not really sure just yet. Probably wants our opinion about what to do," Troy replied. "I think that he'll ask for a new patrol for more information. Right now all we know is that there is at least one basestar orbiting the planet, perhaps more. That and what type of station is nearby as well, is it a combat station, or other type."
"Well, that clears things up a bit more. The only question is how will they be able to get close enough to scan the Cylons without getting caught," Bri asked.
"That I don't know," Troy replied honestly as they entered the pilot's room. He glanced around and finally saw Gunther the leader of red squad.
"Hey, Gunther," Troy said walking up to the man.
"Troy, tell me you know what is going on. We're hearing all types of rumors from Earth to Cylons," Gunther said as he approached Troy.
"It's Cylons," Troy replied. "I ran into a basestar and some sort of station while on patrol of the system."
"The Cylons, what are they doing out here. Seems a bit strange if you ask me," Gunther said musing this over as well.
"Yeah, Commander Ares is asking for a meeting of all available pilots," Troy said.
"When," Gunther asked.
"As soon as we can all get together," Troy replied to him.
"Then we'll be right there," Gunther said turning to his squadron. "Listen up," he said gaining everyone's attention. "Everyone in the briefing room now. We have a situation going on."
Troy walked out of the room to head to his own squads barracks. They would also have to be in the meeting as he did not know what Ares had in mind. There were several ideas and the most probable was a patrol back to the planet.
Walking into the room he noticed that most of the squad was sitting around waiting for whatever to happen. Nall and Martin noticed him walk in and got right up.
"What's the commander say," Nall asked. He had already heard about the Cylons and had already informed the rest of the squad. Now they were just waiting around to see what the next step was.
"He wants a briefing with all pilots. I'm not really sure what he'll say to do, probably another patrol," Troy replied.
"Perhaps we should get back and find out," Martin replied.
Green squad got up and walked out towards the briefing room to see what the commander had decided. There was no panic in their steps just a determined mind set of whatever needed to be done they could do.
Ares stepped back on the bridge to gain the latest information about the system. He walked over to where Pratt was sitting listening to the reports as they came in to the bridge.
"Anything changed," Ares asked watching as Pratt replied that there was not. "I'm sending in another patrol. We need to know what type of Cylons forces are there."
"Understood commander," Pratt replied. It was something that he had already figured would happen. It was the next part that had him worried. There were a lot of different scenarios that went though his head. It all depended on what type of forces the Cylons had orbiting the planet.
"Keep us at a distance for right now. I don't really want them knowing that we are there just yet," Ares said. "And keep an eye out for any other movement from the nearby systems."
"Yes sir," Pratt said as Ares again left the bridge to his command.
Ares went back down to the mission room where he found almost both squadrons there. There were a few people missing but that was probably due to the fact that they were on combat patrol right now. The extra pilots were also in the room waiting to see what was going on.
"Our last patrol encountered a Cylon base of sorts. We're not sure what it is just yet, but it doesn't look good. The fact that it's all the way out here means that it's probably going to be used to attack the Colonies," Ares said having given it much thought.
"But that would mean the defenses would be looking the wrong way," one person replied.
"Right, and by the time the fleet could arrive to help out it would be too late," Ares said. "The more I think about it the more I'm sure that this base is designed to attack the Colonies."
"And the fleet probably would not be able to help due to a Cylon frontal assault," Nall said as he thought about it.
"Right, this is why I believe that we need to destroy it as soon as possible. But first we need to know what type of forces we are going to be up against," Ares told them. "For that I need a couple of volunteers to take a patrol into the system. Using the gas giant they will approach the planet when the Cylons are on the other side of the target planet. They will then land on the planet and observe the Cylons as they pass overhead. Then they will have to carefully return back to the Argo safely with the information. Any volunteers?"
The group of pilots digested the information that Ares had just given them. It was a daunting task that had been put before them yet was very much needed. A couple of red squad pilots stepped forward to take the mission. So far red squad had not had much action yet but that was about to change.
Troy wanted to volunteer but knew that Ares would want him to rest a bit longer. The commander did not like to send people out on patrols right after they had just been on one. Ares believed in giving his crew rest time to keep them at the top of their job and to avoid burnout and mistakes.
"Very well, report to you vipers when you are ready. Everyone else is dismissed unless you're on ready combat alert," Ares said then walked out of the room.
The two pilots were wished good luck by everyone on the mission and to return safely. The one thing that was on everyone's mind was what would they find and what would be the next course of action.
Ares watched on the bridge as Renee gave the permission for the scouting team to launch. So far there had been no movement from the system which meant that they had not been discovered yet. That had him worried as well. Why had the Cylons not seen the first patrol when they left the system? What was going on there?
On the monitors of the bridge Ares saw as the two vipers made their launch. The scanners indicating that they were moving towards the target system. They would learn soon enough what forces the Cylons had there.
Ares was already thinking of different tactics to use against the Cylons. It was a dangerous situation that they had found themselves in. He really thought that it was a slow buildup by the Cylons for an attack against the Colonies. It would be easy to do. The Cylon fleet provides a distraction then this group attacks. Then a different idea came to him. What if this group was the distraction? It would draw a major part of the battle fleet's attention away from the Cylon boarder that it might allow an attack to surprise the fleet thereby destroying it.
"Anything wrong commander," Pratt asked seeing Ares rub his eyes.
"Yeah, I think it doesn't matter what we find there anymore," Ares replied not really answering Pratt's question.
"What do you mean," Pratt probed wanting to know what was going on.
"It will be up to us to destroy them here and now," Ares replied. "It is an ambush squadron. I'm also thinking that it's more of the diversion then a major attack force."
"Diversion," Pratt repeated not sure that he followed what Ares was thinking.
"Yes, this Cylon force here is part of a group that will probably attack the Colonies, diverting and drawing the battle fleet attention away from a real threat," Ares said.
"By the lords of Kobal," Pratt replied gaining the true measure of what could happen. "They would be caught in an ambush. If they were destroyed then the defenses of the Colonies would not be able to defend themselves against the entire might of the Cylon Empire."
"No, which is why we must destroy them here and now," Ares replied. "There might not be time to warn fleet command either."
"Then what about our mission," Pratt asked.
"If we survive, we'll continue on our way," Ares replied logically. "It depends on the damage."
Pratt nodded his head in agreement. This was a situation that he had not envisioned when he signed on. He had visions of encountering strange new alien civilizations and perhaps finding Earth on day.
Now the only thing left to do was wait until the report came back from the scouting team. That would tell them what they would be up against when they finally attacked.
Continued in Goodbye Friend