Disclaimer: I don't own Battlestar Galactica 2003 or Caprica. They belong to their respective creators and/or Copyright owners. This story is written with no commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale of rent.
Chapter 2: Welcome to the war! We have front row seats for everyone!
=TCW=
Part 1: The gathering storm
Five hours before the war began
Fleet Intelligence HQ
Caprica
"Well, they could be twins..." Admiral Quinn said with absolutely no conviction. "At least this one isn't as snarky as your girlfriend." She smirked at Demeter, who in turn was glaring at the chained form of Baltar's paramour.
"She's obviously buying time."
"Yep."
"I certainly hope you aren't going to send for her lawyer. One can never be sure with you spook types."
"Nah, this is as black as it gets."
"So thumb-screws and other toys?"
"Let's introduce our new guest to her 'sister'. I want to see their reactions. Besides we have much more effective methods for enhanced interrogation. Less messy too."
"At least that will be entertaining."
"Uh-huh." Admiral Quin smiled innocently. Her face looked like a cat that just ate a canary.
A few minutes later the show was about to begin. A squad of marines escorted Helena into the interrogation room ocupied by the other blonde woman, then secured her on the other side of the table.
The look of shock on the face of their prisoner was priceless.
"You are recording this, right?"
Admiral Quin rolled her eyes at her fellow officer.
"Hi!" Helena waved brightly at the shocked Model Six, rattling the chain binding her to the metal table.
"You!" Caprica Six glared. "This is all your fault! How could you let yourself be caught?"
"Yes, me. Besides they didn't catch me. Nope. I defected." Helena's smile became even brighter, lighting up the room.
Caprica Six simply stared at her obviously insane sister. It was almost done! Years of sneaking around, lying to the man she was fond of… all for nothing because of this insane copy!
"You should be boxed!" Caprica growled at her sister.
"Really? By who exactly?"
"When the fleet nukes this place, I'll personally kill you again before boxing you, you fraking bitch!"
On the other side of the one sided mirror, Admiral Demeter was cursing up a storm.
"What? And mind your bloody language! You aren't among your fraking marines!"
"How much do you know about project 'Ascension' ?"
"Oh. Frak. They have the technology."
"Probably from before the war ended. It should be perfected by now."
"That's a security nightmare."
"Not necessary. Both of those got x-rayed, right? You didn't find transmitters implanted in their bodies?"
"No. But unless our new guest is insane, she believes that dying here won't be permanent."
"After the war started, the Cylons weren't exactly known for their sanity."
"You should know."
Back in the interrogation room, the two women were staring at each other.
"Why?" Caprica Six asked in exaperation.
"I remembered." Helena simply stated.
"You aren't making much sense."
"Don't I?" She glared at her double. "I remember being strapped on an operating table. I remember being cut apart, my soul violated and bound into machine! I remember what, who I was before!" Helena shouted, standing up and leaning towards the other Model Six. Her chains strained, barely containing the livid woman.
Caprica stared back, her face showing the shock she was feeling.
"Those dreams..." She muttered and shook her head in denial. "It's just a glitch. It has to be."
"We aren't so lucky." Helena said softly and sat back into her chair.
"That's interesting." Admiral Quin said and gave Demeter a speculative look. "It still doesn't mean that this all can't be a giant sting operation or something like that."
"We can't take that chance. Corman is quietly mobilizing the fleets. My transport will be here within the hour."
The Deputy Director stared at the other Admiral for a long moment. "You are going to play bait, aren't you?"
"If this botched assassination attempt is anything to go by, the Cylons still don't like me." He snorted, all the while his eyes never left the two women in the interrogation room.
=TCW=
Four hours before the war began
Central ZOO and Park
Caprica City
Caprica
Commander Karl Williams chuckled at the antics of his five years old daughter. The little brown haired girl was his pride and joy. A pleasant, though unexpected surprise for the old soldier too. He and his wife had certainly stopped hoping to be graced by the gods with children when they both went on the wrong side of forty.
The fact he became a father at forty eight had been a miracle by itself.
"Look, daddy!" Lia pulled his arm and exiteddly waved at a pair of regal looking Virgonese raptors. The purplish birds were looking imperiously at the small crowd staring at the perch on which they were resting and screeched, showing their dominance over the poor, ground bound mammals who were lucky to be in their royal presence.
"Can we get a pair of birdies like them?" Lia asked innocently.
"Spot might not like that." Alison Williams smiled at her daughter.
"Why? He's a good kitty! He'll love them too!"
"Don't look at me, dear. You got her the cat, you deal with this too." Alison grinned at her husband.
Karl's own smile became strained. At the time getting a kitten for his four year old daughter sounded like a great idea. It was too… until the little beast grew up and took a liking to the furniture. Who knew that the little fur ball would love to sharpen his claws on everything in sight? Unfortunately the little monster had stolen the heart of their daughter so getting rid of him wasn't really an acceptable option.
The adult's consensus was that there would be no other pets in the house. One clawed, furniture destroying machine was more than enough, thank you very much.
"We'll see about that." Karl masterfully evaded the question earning himself a roll of the eyes from his wife. "Let's goo see the big cats. There is supposed to be a pair of Piconesse sabercats this way."
"Can we have one of them, then? Spot is sometimes lonely!" Lia smiled brightly, then turned her huge eyes her father's way.
Alison snorted softly, mouthing 'It's your fault.'
'Fraking cats!' Karl thought, looking his daughter in the eyes.
"Pwease?"
He glanced at Allison for help, that wasn't coming. He was well aware that if his courage deserted him and he got Lia another cat, his wife was liable to neuter him, before kicking him to the couch for the foreseeable future. So he can keep the purring beasts company.
"Let's go see the cats before deciding anything, all right?" He smiled disarmingly, stalling for time.
As they headed for the predators section of the zoo, Allison leaned into his side and chuckled quietly. "The big, bad Battlestar Commander, defeated by a five years old. The horror!"
"It's your fault she's irresistably cute."
Lia glanced her parent's way and pouted. "That's gross!"
=TCW=
Four hours before the war began
Battlestar "Nemesis"
High Orbit over Caprica
"It's confirmed. Fleet Intel got two human-like Cylons in custody." Corman sighed in frustration. Despite the fact he had started the ball rolling about quietly mobilizing the fleet, deep inside he was hoping that this all was some kind of mistake.
Not any longer. "Vice Admiral Quinn just confirmed it." He informed the Commander of his Flagship.
"Frak. The network is cut and the software is being replaced as we speak. Admiral, with the net down I don't have the crew compliment to run this ship for more than a few days."
"You and most of the fleet. We'll have to improvise."
"That's not particularly helpful, sir. It will be even less when my people start making mistakes from exhaustation."
"I know. I'm working on it."
=TCW=
Four hours before the war began
Battlestar "Pegasus"
Picon Fleet Yards
High Orbit over Picon
"It will be at least a few hours before we have even half the crew aboard. The recall orders went out without a hitch, however our people are spread throughout Helios One."
"Get me at least my XO here in the next couple of hours, or I'll be displeased." Cain glared at the major who had the watch before rudely inerrupting her fun morning.
"Aye, Ma'am."
"Gina, I want the computer systems on my ship locked tight. You'll get any personnel you need. And burn the damn CNP. Or space the fraking thing. I don't want it anywhere near any computer on this Battlestar." Admiral Cain's voice was much calmer as she spoke to her lover. "Who would have thought I'll be thankful for the fraking refit..." She muttered quietly. "Now, what's the status to my Viper squadrons?"
"Fraked up." CAG grunted. He had been about to leave the ship to go on a short vacation planetside when the alert came. "Our bird's performance will be severely degraded without the CNP. The Mark VII were meant to be networked and with the new upgrade they received, running them without the CNP will be pain in the ass."
"Any other good news?"
"One actually. Our Raptors haven't been upgraded yet so they should be all nominal. I gave the order to have them armed and ready to launch ASAP."
"That's something. Ammo and fuel status?"
"The magazines are at seventy percent after that live fire exercise we had before docking." The Weapon's officer reported.
"Fuel is at fifty percent. We should be hooked up and topped off within the hour." The Chief engineer, who was patched up in the conversation added his two kubits.
"Thats all right. Now if we only get enough people to man this ship..." Cain muttered. Right now she had less than a thousand hands on board, a quarter of whom were engineers from the Fleet Yard, who were crawling all over the systems of her ship.
Gina, who had a first row view of the controlled chaos that was the CIC was torn. The Colonials had received some kind of warning, that much was obvious. Good enough to start cutting off networks and scrubbing the CNP too, which was vital for the Plan. As a Cylon, Gina knew her duty.
She looked around, noting the locations of the marine guards placed around the CIC. One of them was close. She could take him out with a jab to the throat, then grab his weapon and open fire on the command crew of the Battlestar. If she was lucky, she might be able to cut down Cain before she was killed in turn, which would be the point of the exercise. That way she would not only deprive the Humans from one of their better admirals, but resurrect and give the warning. If the Plan was to succeed the Cylons had to strike now. Give the Colonials as much as a day warning and everything would be fraked up beyond recognition.
Gina knew her duty.
There was one little problem. It required killing Helena, something she didn't know if she could do. Something she didn't want to do.
Gina stared at her lover, trying to figure out what to do.
Helena glanced her way and gave her a brief, reassuring smile, then frowned. Gina felt like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
=TCW=
Three hours before the war began
Battlestar "Galactica"
Ragnar Anchorage
"I'll be fraked! That actually worked!" Colonel Tigh whistled.
"I knew that the old girl had it in her." Adama smiled and patted the console he had been holding on during the jump.
"Ah, Commander, the Chief Engineer is on the wireless. He wants a word."
Tigh glanced at his old friend, smirking.
"Well, let's see what he wants. Engineering, Commander Adama speaking."
"The Jump drive is still in one piece." A gruff voice sounded over the wireless. "It will need about half hour to cool off and for us to check if it will work again. Plus it stinks of fried rats around here, I'm holding you responsible for that, skipper."
"Good work. I'll need a few of your folks to help with loading munitions and other essentials."
"Get Tyrol and a few of his reprobates. It's not like he's too busy. Those Mark II's were build to last, not like those new, fancy toys."
"That man makes me feel young." Tigh snorted before draining his coffee cup and looking for more.
"Get us docked. I'll go with the landing party. It's been a long time since I've been here." Adama had a thousand stare look, obviously remembering something.
=TCW=
"Frak! I'm busy damn it!" Chief Tyrol groaned, then glared at the ancient museum pieces he was supposed to turn into combat capable craft. Now the Chief Engineer wanted him to be part of the party loading the supplies from Ragnar. Didn't the old fossil know that those things were flying coffins? If they still could fly that is! Most of those frames were almost as old as he was frak it all!
Galen looked around the hangar, wondering who he could pull off the maintaince duty to come with him, until his eyes fell on Sharon and the rest of the Raptor crews, who were checking their birds. At least those were in pristine condition. He smiled. Besides, most of those pilots didn't look awfully busy to him.
He picked up the wireless handset and called his boss.
=TCW=
Presidential Bunker
Caprica City
Richard Adar glared at the large flat screen on the other side of the lavishly decorated conference room. It showed the grim face of Rear Admiral Quinn, who was at Fleet Intelligence HQ, one of the places connected to his bunker by landlines.
"You know, I'm starting to hope that you all are just pulling out a coup." The President grunted.
"That would be a preferable alternative, sir." The woman on the other side of the screen smirked. Adar could swear he saw a brief mischievous look sent his way before she was all professional again.
"Baltar." Richard shook his head, wondering how his acquaintance could frak up so much. Then he remembered that apparently a beautiful woman was involved. That explained it. Baltar couldn't keep it in his pants even if his life depended on it. "How bad?"
"All units with the CNP are compromised. That is the bulk of the fleet. It's especially bad in this system with our most modern ships concentrated here. Unfortunately, they are most vulnerable to this sort of attack. We simply don't have the personnel to run them without the networks. Admiral Corman is using couriers to order a phased purge of the software."
Whatever you may say about Richard Adar, he wasn't an idiot.
"So the Cylons won't immediately know that we are onto them. You believe that a general announcement will tip our hand."
"Just for a few hours. The general idea is to have enough purged units to blunt the initial attacks while the rest of the fleets consolidates and fixes the problem too. We know that they have agents that are indistinguishable from humans, probably in the fleet too."
"How long do you need?"
"At least two to three hours. That will give us some breathing room. Provided that the Cylons don't already know."
"Does Admiral Nagala know?"
"A Raptor crew should have brought her up to speed about an hour ago, sir."
Adar closed his eyes, his mind spinning. He hated it but the Admirals were right. Right now the whole fleet were just a bunch of helpless targets waiting to be blown up. If the Cylons struck right now… He shuddered at the thought. On the other hand, unless the fraking toasters were complete imbeciles they would know that something was up soon. After all they were supposed to attack tomorrow. So their armed forces were ready.
"Two hours, then sound the alarm. Pick up as much personnel as possible in this window. Use some kind of accident or something as a cover. And if you haven't yet get the Quorum to secure locations."