So the fourth chapter already!
Thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta.
Have fun and R&R!
TFS Ticonderoga
Pilot briefing room
0800 hours
February 8, 2016
The pilots briefing room was loaded with viper and raptor pilots. The room was even more crowded with some of the senior staff being present. The CAG, Captain Brendan 'HotDog' Costanza was currently briefing the pilots on the reason why the senior staff was also present, a recon mission of the Aschen territory. Among the senior staff present were Colonels Grant and Thrace as well as Lieutenant Hailey.
"The first raptor will be flown by me and Racetrack while the second raptor will be flown by Ruins and Skulls. This will be a simple recon mission, we will not engage the enemy and if we are detected we will jump the frak out. Our target is an Aschen colony on the outer reaches of the Aschen system. We will determine defenses and ship numbers as well as possible advantages we could take. We estimate that the enemy will need about thirty minutes to reach the colony with conventional engines. The recon will start at 1000 hours, the selected pilots will gather in the ready room 30 minutes prior to the start of the mission, take off will be at T minus five. Give your raptors an extensive check and I also want the viper pilots to give their birds a thorough check just in case. Dismissed."
Several hours later the two raptors were ready to depart from the still grounded Ticonderoga. Although a lot of systems were just beyond reparation a lot of the hull was already repaired. A small camp had formed around the Ticonderoga, with a lot of its engineers and scientists in space at the Aurora's several Cau personnel was permitted aboard to help with basic repairs to the ship. On occasion a news crew was allowed on the Ticonderoga for a tour of the ship and to interview some of the crew.
"Ticonderoga ATC, this is raptor four-one-niner, we are ready to depart." Hotdog said.
"Raptor four-one-niner, this is Ticonderoga ATC, you are cleared to depart, god speed Hotdog." The Air Traffic Controller said. The raptor took off while the second raptor performed the same drills as raptor four-one-niner before taking off as well and following the first raptor.
Within four minutes they reached the upper atmosphere and a small fleet was already coming in sight. The four gigantic Aurora's quickly filled the view screen of the raptors as they made a fly-by. On the other side of the aurora's, the captured Aschen destroyer floated in space, a lot of the weapons were still off-line but most other systems that weren't destroyed were already back on-line. After the raptors had left the aurora's and captured destroyer behind them they spooled up their FTL drive and jumped out.
Orbit of Aschen Confederacy outpost
Two flashes announced the arrival of the recon raptors. They jumped in orbit of the asteroid belt that circled the planet. The Aschen didn't detect them as they didn't even know about jump drives let alone were on the alert for a scouting mission.
Once both raptors had made sure that there was nothing in their way, they started their scans. For eight long hours the entire colony and its surrounding space was mapped and catalogued for later review. The small fleet in orbit was scanned and determined to be not much of a threat for the Ticonderoga or an Aurora at full strength. The problem was that half the Ticonderoga's systems were gone; among them the Asgard beam weapons and the Aurora's also weren't in pristine shape. The Aschen fleet was about as big as the one that attacked Cau, two cruisers, ten destroyers but also about a dozen ships that seemed to be some sort of frigate or corvette. There seemed to be a regular freight ship coming in every hour from the main planet although human traffic was relatively low. The planet itself counted about ninety million inhabitants which were mostly spread out for agricultural reason while some worked in mines mining rare materials which were soon indentified as naquadah.
When the time expired both raptors spooled up their jump drives and jumped out to the Cau system. Once they arrived in the Cau system they descended through the atmosphere and eventually landed in the Ticonderoga's hanger bay.
TFS Ticonderoga
Pilot briefing room
1900 hours
The crew of the two raptors had just finished their debriefings and now was the moment to start planning their first offensive action.
"Okay, so we know that reinforcements will be there in less than half an hour, which leaves us a very small window to strike that planet. I suggest we go in under active stealth systems and also leave that way. Because we still have no hyperdrive we'll need to get there at sub light speed. Because of this the trip will take two days to get there and two days to get back. This also means we can't take every ship we have. I suggest we'll take the Ticonderoga and one of the Aurora's. The stealth systems of the Aurora's are much more advanced than ours so they won't be spotted at all if we play it right." Grant said. "Comments?"
"I must remind you that the Ticonderoga's systems are still quite damaged and there is no hope to get our advanced weaponry working. You'll be stuck with your own primitive ballistic weaponry." Hermiond said.
"I know that your super duper energy weapons which didn't do squat against the super hives are off-line but as we've already found out these ships aren't exactly such a tough nut to crack." Thrace said.
"Your disappointment in our systems will be noted Colonel Thrace." Hermiond said as he nodded his head slightly and blinked his eyes.
"What about boarding actions? It's about time my marines get some action, it's been too long." Shaw asked.
"No, we don't have enough time to get you over there and get you back." Grant said.
"I assume the vipers will get some action, last time went well and we didn't suffer any losses." Hotdog said.
"You assume correctly. Vipers will have a defensive role so that we can re-task several railguns for offensive salvos. We've got to be careful with our missiles, especially the nuclear ones. We've activated the munitions factory but it is slow going." Grant said.
"You mentioned an Aurora, which one did you have in mind?" Janus asked.
"The Athos, it is best off and repairs are coming along nicely." Grant said.
"Alright, I'll transfer to that ship as soon as I can." Janus said.
"I kind a hoped you could stay behind. We need someone who can really operate the systems of more than one ship at a time in case someone attacks Cau. Cadet Frasier has already made herself familiar with the Athos and its capabilities." Grant said.
Janus thought about it for a moment before he agreed. "Very well Colonel, I have seen Cadet Frasier 'in action' as you're people like to call it and she's…well suited for the job. Good luck."
"How many people do you want aboard the Athos?" Shaw asked.
"The Cau have offered to provide several units of elite special forces, several of which you have already worked with. I'd like to fly them up to the Athos, say about fifty of them plus about ten to twenty of our own people." Grant said.
"We'll take two raptors, the other two stay here in addition to the jumpers." Grant said. "Is there anything else we need to discuss for this operation?"
"Who will be in command?" Shaw asked. "Most of the senior staff will be aboard the Ticonderoga."
"Almost forgot that didn't we? Although Janus does not have an official rank he will be in command as he has a lot of knowledge of the capabilities of the Aurora's. When it comes down to the official chain of command, Lieutenant Hailey will stay behind on the Sateda to supervise the reparations of the Aurora's and to liaise with the Cau." Grant said.
"We'll depart tomorrow morning at 0700 hours, crew transfers are to be completed by 2200 hours tonight." Grant concluded.
TFS Ticonderoga
Bridge
1400 hours
February 10
"Sir, I don't think we can get anything closer or we'll risk detection." Thrace said. It had been two long days and a boring journey. The Athos, one of the Aurora's was already in position, having used its out of phase technology to fly right past the enemy ships while getting some good readings.
"Alright, signal to the Athos, commence operation in one minute. Go weapons hot. And tell the vipers to prepare to launch." Grant ordered. Most of the crew was already at their positions but as per protocol the alarms blared three times signaling everyone combat was imminent. The AI also appeared and declared the ship combat ready.
"Ten seconds." Thrace said.
"Launch Vipers." Grant ordered. It would take a few second for the Vipers to get airborne and another few seconds to get noticed by the enemy, by that time missiles and railgun rounds would already be on their way.
"Five…Four…Three…Two…One." Thrace counted down.
"Open fire, all weapons. Tell the vipers they have weapons free and are to engage the enemy fighters." Grant ordered.
As the last viper exited the hanger bay -the pilots had practiced launching a lot of vipers in a few seconds- missiles and streams of railgun rounds were fired at the enemy fleet.
The enemy was totally unprepared for any kind of attack, they didn't even know about the fleet that was sent to Cau let alone its fate. Before any fighter could be launched the hanger bays on the two cruisers were hit by railgun rounds, a tactic the Tau'ri had developed during the early fights against the Wraith. Before the fighters even had a chance to make it out of the killing zone they were destroyed, inflicting damage on their own ships as well.
That the enemy fighters were disabled didn't mean the vipers had nothing to do. Within half a minute one hundred missiles were launched and although the Ticonderoga could take the hits or just let the railguns handle it, it was decided that if the vipers had nothing to do they would fly anti missile duty leaving more railguns for offensive tasks.
As more and more missiles struck home one destroyer exploded in a giant fireball. Two more destroyers tried to get away as their armor was being removed by railgun rounds.
One cruiser exploded under the artificial suns of two naquadah enhanced warheads which liquidated the hull and destroyed the ship. What remained of the fleet turned around to get away. The Athos phased in unleashing a small cloud of Drones and a mass of energy weaponry. Three destroyers were destroyed by the energy weapons while the only remaining cruiser was shredded by the drones before exploding in a billion pieces.
Just when it seemed the battle was over several squadrons of al'kesh like craft came up from the surface escorted by a dozen fighter squadrons. The single squadron of vipers engaged the al'kesh like bombers which tried to make attack runs on the two ships. Railguns and drones attacked the fighters.
The Aschen pilots were all conscripts, why the Aschen kept a large military as it were was a mystery on itself but needless to say they sucked. The Vipers were having a great time as targets were plentiful. Unfortunately several rooky pilots got lucky and managed to destroy several vipers. By the time the remaining ships and fighters were wiped out, four vipers had been lost, two by enemy fighters, one by a kamikaze fighter and another one by the destruction of one of the last destroyers.
After the military forces in orbit were destroyed the Ticonderoga turned its sensors towards the planet. They hadn't received any fire from ground weapons so they assumed there were none. After a few minutes scanning several priority targets were selected and railguns and energy weapons unleashed hell upon the military facilities on the planet wiping them out in a few minutes.
When the task was done and nearly no military forces were left a message was left behind telling the Aschen that they had declared war on the Tau'ri and the Alliance, surrender would be a wise decision. A list of violations, mostly what had occurred on Cau was left behind before the Athos phased out and the Ticonderoga left as well.
Half an hour later the reinforcements arrived, needless to say they were angry and the entire Aschen military was placed on full alert. Several old ships were pulled out of the mothballs and reserves were called upon.
Cau Republic senate chambers
1400 hours
February 14
Two days after the return of the Ticonderoga and Athos, the entire senate was assembled to receive a report on the battle of Colony four as the Aschen colony was called. A large white screen was erected in front of all the senators so that a sort of PowerPoint presentation could be made. General Meiron, although not personally involved introduced the subject before Grant took over for the actual report.
"The Operation was a success in every way imaginable; we've destroyed an outpost and a part of the Aschen military while losses were light. We've lost three viper pilots and we rescued one pilot, their vipers are gone. The Ticonderoga and Athos have only suffered light damage, mostly because of the surprise effect. The bombardment of military facilities on the planet itself ensured that the planet was neutralized as a threat. Civilian casualties are low, we estimate we killed about four hundred civilians but we've also killed over two hundred thousand soldiers. The Beacon we've left behind signaled up an hour later reporting it was being brought in so we can assume it was read. On our way back we've deployed several sensor drones, both normal space and hyperspace, we'll know when the enemy sends a fleet to Cau." Grant said.
A roar of questions started, only to be quickly quieted by General Meiron. When the senators were quiet he pointed to one of them that had raised his hand. "What have you learned about the enemy forces?" The senator asked.
"As we already suspected, the Aschen use conscription to maintain their military. This leaves them with several weaknesses, including badly trained soldiers and pilots as we've noticed. Their military is large, over 14 million soldiers, although those troops are mostly used for internal peace. The fact that their ships don't have any kind of shields leaves them vulnerable as we can just fire out railguns into their hanger bays, which when they are launching fighters are most vulnerable. Since their arrival in this system, the Aschen haven't fought a single war, therefore they have lost touch for military tactics, strategy and logistics. Earth has fought numerous wars since we started recording history, this has taught us a lot of things about war and weapons." Grant explained.
Another Senator raised his hand and was allowed to speak by General Meiron. "How is it that the Aschen haven't attacked us much earlier?"
"That was something we were wondering ourselves. If the same thing would have happened to us we'd have explored the local space. After we did some digging in our database we discovered that the Aschen aren't the adventurer type, they stay close to home. We also discovered that there was a reflection by your sun that prevented the discovery of the Cau system from the Aschen system."
"What are your further plans?"
"Tomorrow Janus will take a look at a Colonial Jump Drive to determine if it could be safely used to jump beyond the barriers. If the Jump can be made a raptor will be sent with an advanced communications package and it will send out a distress call to the Twelve Colonies. The reason why we've chosen the Twelve Colonies over Earth is because it's closer. The chance of detection by a potential enemy isn't as big as when we'd send it to earth. Because of the distance we need to send it in clear language so anyone can read into it. Between here and Earth lie some less then friendly space faring civilizations and we don't want to risk tipping them off."
"What will you do if the Aschen attack us again?"
"We will defend Cau to the best of our abilities, failure is not an option. After that we'll see if we can execute a counter attack, perhaps against their home world."
The senate had loads more questions and most of them were answered during the rest of the hearing.
Hanger bay
TFS Ticonderoga
0900 hours
February 15
The Activities in the hanger bay had returned to its usual busyness. Vipers were being maintained and equipment was being cleaned. Repair operations were still ongoing and would take quite some time to repair every bit of damage. With four vipers less, some more room was available and several tables were positioned around one secluded raptor. The paneling around the engines was gone and several Colonial engineers had taken the jump drive out of the ship and placed the various components on the tables. Several cables provided an interface with the core of the ship while several tablets were lying near the parts. Janus was inspecting the designs of the jump drive.
"Very ingenious, I'm surprised we never thought of it, it would be a great addition to our hyper drives and possibly a good addition to our puddle jumpers." Janus complemented one of the engineers.
"Do you think it would be possible to rig the jump drive of a raptor into the Ticonderoga's systems and jump the entire ship sir?" one of the engineers asked.
"For so far as I understand it, this drive was built for a ship the size of a raptor. To make the Ticonderoga jump capable we'd need to construct a new drive built for the Ticonderoga." Janus said. "I do think that it'll be possible to jump with one of these drives although you've got to be careful from where you jump and to where you jump, it still requires a large amount of power and will definitely be a target for the ion strikes."
"So can I tell the commander the good news?" Thrace asked. She had silently sneaked up to him and stood right behind him.
"Colonel Thrace, Do you always approach people while making so much noise?" Janus asked. Thrace looked at him in unbelief. "We Lanteans have better hearing then normal humans. And yes, you can tell him the good news. I would recommend using a certain piece of space, it has a sort of entrance, and the ion storms do not reach it for some reason although the hyperspace barrier does cover it."
"You know, you could have told us about that opening earlier." Thrace said.
"You never asked."
"True, I think the commander will want to have a report on both that entrance and your conclusion of the jump drives capability in regards to your hyperspace barrier."
"In that case, I hope you don't mind if I come along, I never felt much for paperwork." Janus said.
"You and me both." Thrace chuckled as she walked away. Janus quickly followed her.
Bridge
1234 hours
"Ticonderoga, this is Hotdog, we're ready for the jump, just say the word." The voice of Lieutenant Constanza came in over the loudspeakers.
"Hotdog, Racetrack, good luck and let them know we're still here. See you in a few hours." Grant replied.
"Copy that Ticonderoga, see you in a few. Out."
A flash announced the departure of the raptor. The sensor officer confirmed it.
Picon fleet Headquarters
Picon orbit
1455 hours
The heavily fortified and heavily armored Picon Fleet HQ was home to the commanders of the colonial fleet. Since the second Cylon war it had been upgraded with shields, energy weapons and several other features for communications, as well as several military attaché offices. About a dozen battlestars were being built at the shipyards. All over the Colonies ships were being built, the Colonial fleet was still recovering from the exhausting fights, first against the Cylons and later against the Wraith. On one of the piers was the gate room, one of three gates in the Colonial system was located there and used only for the military and government. The communications array held many transmitters and receivers, most of them were flashing white from all the activity. The array wasn't a purely military one, but also routed civilian contact. Only a few transmitters and receivers were inactive, those were the special ones, only to be used in the direst of situations. One of them started receiving.
The communications room was as busy as ever, lines of monitors were all manned by soldiers. Only a few monitors were left unoccupied, a Colonel stood close but none was logged in. one of the screens suddenly showed a incoming signal. The signal was weak and if it wasn't for the advanced Tau'ri/Asgard equipment it wouldn't have been picked up at all.
The nearby Colonel quickly noticed the signal and alerted someone with phone. He then proceeded to the terminal and entered his personal code. The computer went to work on decoding the message while an Admiral walked in and stopped behind the Colonel.
"What've we got?" the Admiral asked.
"Admiral Nagala, we just received a message from deep space, according to our navigational charts there is nothing in that direction."
The computer finished decoding the message and the first page showed a warning that only personnel with the rank of rear admiral or higher were allowed to see it. The Colonel stood up and walked away while Nagala got seated. He typed in his personal code and the message was shown to him. The message disturbed him. He quickly called someone and ordered the Colonial Joint Chiefs of staff to be assembled as well as the President. He then relayed the message to Atlantis as per request.
Unknown Location
2253 hours
One man stood before a window overlooking an ugly landscape, this planet was in constant turmoil as it was experiencing heavy tectonic activities. In the distance one volcano was spewing up ash which blocked the sun out. Someone wearing military fatigues walked in and stopped behind the man.
"Sir, we've decoded the message. It's about a group of Tau'ri that got stranded; we've got their location, status and other details. It also appears that they have encountered a sub group of Aschen, the lost transport." The new arrival said.
The man turns around and it is Mollem, of the Aschen negotiation back in 2001. "Finally, after the loss of that agricultural planet they sent me here as punishment. It is all due to those Tau'ri, they gave me false coordinates. Now it is time to get back at them and reclaim my position. After I've brought these lost Aschen back into the fold they won't be able to ignore me. Ready a battle fleet. We leave in two hours."
So let me know what you think.
On a side note, I've started another project, it's a BSG story, for now it's called: Rescue Over New Caprica, I haven't uploaded anything but it might be up soon. I don't know if it'll be a real series or if it will be one chapter long, all depends on the reception.