Explosions are heard coming from the downtown as Master Chief Charles "Sparkles" Langdon ducks to shield himself from falling wreckage due to a collapsing building. He dusts himself off soon as the immediate danger before looking up at the sky
"Frak, we really need to get the hell of this planet!"
A young corporal is heard swearing a few feet away
"That sounds great sir but how are we going get off Caprica? The Cylons have surrounded the planet it sounds like and it looks like they have been able to shoot down most of the ships trying to leave"
A police officer raises his hand
"I...I think I know where we can find a ship"
All eyes in the group turns towards the officer closely listening for a means of escape and a chance to regroup with anything left of colonial fleet.
"About two hours from here, there is a small shipyard. Its only big enough to make a couple ships at a time but last I heard, a Asgard class Battlestar was nearly completion.
Langdon grabs the officer's shoulders and looks at him square in the eyes
"Where!? How old is this information?"
The officer, clearly scared out of his mind and by the looks of it, was new to the force swallowed and spoke again
"Two...Two days ago. I got a couple friends that help deliver new military ships that are built on the surface then fly them to orbital shipyards where they are then fully manned and then loaded with ammo and the sort..."
Langdon lets go of the young officer and rests his hands on his hips as he paces for a moment then looks at his mixed group of civilians and colonial military survivors
"Okay, who here knows how to operate systems on military vessels?"
Out of the group of 46, only eight raise their hands and he quietly swears under his breath
"Frak...Its not a number that gives me great confidence..."
He sighs and looks at the eight who raised their hands
"Do any of you know how to fly a ship the size of this Battlestar that we now know about?"
A middle age man raises his hand
"Sir, I may not be military but I've been a pilot all my life. I've flown cargo ships the size of those Battlestars. Far as I know, the basic controls should be similar"
Langdon, now filled with hope once again walks over the the man
"Are you sure you can get us out of here? Can you get us past the Cylons?"
The man nods
"Yes sir, the name is Eugene. If you can find a way to help defend the ship as we leave. I'm sure we will be able to escape"
"But can you also plot jumps?"
Eugene scoffs
"Jump? Hell I can do those in my sleep! Just tell me where to go and I can get us there!"
Charles walks back over to the officer
"Do they have any kind of ammo at this shipyard? Food? Supplies?"
The officer, stunned by the question just blinks before replying a few seconds later
"Well...Yeah. Its not stocked like the shipyards in orbit but there is enough at the base to arm
the ship"
"And for supplies?"
The officer nods
"Of course, there are enough supplies at the base to last three years for 500 people"
Langdon starts scanning the crowd "Does anyone have a working phone!?"
A nervous businessman steps up
"I...I got this satellite phone, it should work if there is anything left of the network"
"Fork it over"
He is instantly given the phone and tosses the phone to the officer
"Call your friends and tell them to get the ship ready"
The officer is able to make a call and tries to pass the message to get the ship ready but swears a moment later
"I lost the call...I think the network is gone now"
"But did you give them the message?"
The officer sighs "They did ask if i said to get the ship ready to departure...But I don't know if they were confirming what I said or what"
A loud hum is heard nearby as a Basestar is seen flying over the city and Charles's eyes widen
"Oh frak! Move move move! Get to the vans!"
Seconds later, deafening booms are heard as three Defender class gunstars are seen opening fire on the Cylon ship with the muzzle of the KEW platforms on the ship followed by missiles on the sides of the ships. A couple of the wings get blown off by the surprise attack and starts tilting to the side and the people start cheering. But the silence is broken by a massive missile barrage, destroying the engines on one of the ships, sending it into the Cylon ship and damaging the second but the engines flared up and took off to escape the planet. The third just stayed for a moment in the air before it engines started flickering and starts to make a course for a crash landing in the street Langdon and his group where
"Oh frak frak frak! Get the hell out of the street! That ship is coming in hot!"
Moments later, the gunstar makes a crash landing in the street and slides for several hundred meters before coming to a stop. At the same time, what was left of the Cylon Basestar smashes and explodes in the downtown area. Langdon's mouth has dropped in shock upon seeing the destruction of two Colonial ships along with a basestar before issuing an order
"Get to the ship! See if there anyone alive!"
Before anyone can make a move, the emergency hatches on the ship are seen being blown off and coughing crew members are seen climbing out with smoke pouring out of the ship. Those inside the KEW platforms are seen shooting out the windows of the turrets and climbing out of them before sliding off the ship. Langdon bolts over to help what seem like the commanding officer of the ship
"Sir! Are you okay?"
The man coughed for a solid moment before finally being able to breath again
"If anyone is in command...Its you sir. The officers are dead"
Langdon swears as he hits the side of the crashed ship "Frak!"
The young petty officer, holding a wound on his side looks around
"What the hell do we do now sir? We have no ship and now we can't escape"
Members of the gun platforms finish sliding off the ship and Langdon goes to speak with them
"You know what guys? Screw rank for now. We need to get out of here. I need a yes or no answer, can you operate the gun systems on a Asgard class Battlestar?"
They all look at each other before one of them speaks up
"Yes sir, basically all platforms are the same. They just come in different sizes thats all"
Charles breathes a sigh of relief
"Finally, a good piece of news"
The gunner walks past him and pats his shoulder
"Less talking, if you know where this ship is. We're getting out of here. At least in a Battlestar we have a decent chance of surviving"
Charles is shocked about how blunt the gunner crews were with him but minutes later, out of the gunstar crew of 117 crew, only 41 survived. After a quick search for more transport, several police vans are found and within moments, the exodus from Caprica takes its first steps.
The trip to the shipyard takes twice as long due to driving on back roads in order to avoid the main highway. As soon they reach the shipyard, men and women and even some children are seen loading up whatever that will be of use to them into the still docked Battlestar. The officer jumps out of the van and is waved over by his friend and strangely enough, they high fived each other before getting serious
"Nick, what is the status of loading this ship up to flee the planet?"
His friends sighs and looks down as he rubs his head
"We're almost done loading Sam...We are finishing loading up stuff like food and water now. But we have no idea how to load the weapon systems or how to fly this thing. James know how to fly this kind of ship but..." He sighs "He was in the city getting the gas for the grills for the shipyard cookout"
The KEW crew from the crashed gunstar stop hopping out of the van followed by the man who said he knew how to fly and one of the gunners pats Nick's shoulders "Don't worry kid, we'll take care of that for you"
Langdon steps up to Sam and clears his throat
"Just so you know, I'm the highest ranking military official. Our goal is to leave Caprica and...To join the Galactica. All I know is that Commander Adama knows what he's doing and has fought the Cylons before" He sighs "We're no longer fighting a war to win, we're fighting for our survival. Did you disconnect all linked computers and got the IFF working?"
Sam nods "We finished the IFF system today and its working. But we still haven't picked out a name for her and the computers haven't been linked yet"
A woman announces over the PA system that all supplies have been loaded and for everyone to start boarding. One by one, the people who came in on the vans join the rest of the survivors on the Battlestar as Charles is lead to the CIC. A programmer is making sure everything is working and looks at Charles from his console
"You must be the acting commander. We're going to need a name sir, its considered bad luck to launch a ship without a name"
Charles sighs and thinks for a moment before answering
"Urania" He smiles weakly "This is now the Battlestar Urania"
The programmer smiles and she nods
"A perfect name for this ship"
Charles does a slow 360 view of the room before speaking to the people in the room
"People, we are some of the last surviving members of our species. As of right now, every man and woman who are aiding to the operation of this ship who aren't military, are now colonial fleet. Now, lets find the Galactica and rejoin with what's left of the fleet"
Moments later, the ships starts shaking as the engines come to life for the first time and information starts getting passed along through the stations making sure the ship is fully operational. But things quickly changed as the alarms started blaring throughout the ship as the DRADIS operator shouted out
"Contact! Two Cylon Basestars are approaching us! One from the east and the other from the south west!"
Charles quickly starts scanning the consoles as new information pours into the system and he starts sweating over what to do next, he knows how to manage the crew and boost morale. Not make command decisions that could mean life or death for a ship full of men, women, and children. Before he could order his gun crews to open fire on the nearest Cylon ship, a crew member shouted out
"Sir! One of the Basestars is opening fire on the other!"
He runs over to the phone in order to get a visual from gun crews and picks up the phone
"All batteries, we're getting reports that the Basestars are firing upon each other. Can you confirm?"
a stunned crew member replied right away
"Ye...Yes sir. I don't know what's going on. What are your orders? Should we open fire on both of them or should we hold our fire?"
At that moment, the speakers in the CIC come to life as the rebel Basestar contacted the Battlestar and the voice of a seven is heard
"Colonial Battlestar, this is the Rebel Basestar Salvation, we are not your enemies here and we will try to keep the loyalist ship busy. Please, don't worry about us. Save as many people as you can. This is a battle we cannot win at the moment"
Charles looks towards the helm station
"Get us out of here!"
Sweat is pouring down the crew member's face as they input controls "I have already started sir!"
Within a minute, the Battlestar has lifted off the ground and has accelerated to max speed to escape the planet. As the ship, cries for help are heard throughout the speakers of the CIC from military and civilian ships as one by one, they are wiped out by a second Cylon fleet that has entered around orbit moments before. The operator at the DRADIS console dropped and tried to find works
"Si...Sir? I'm reading 17 Cylon Basestars with a large number of Cylon Raiders..."
Charles looks at the console in the center of the room and sighs
"XO, order all batteries to open fire and to distract the Cylons for long as we can so any remaining civilians can escape"
"Sir! We got nine more contacts! Friendly Battlestars are inbound!"
The sight of the seven Mercury and two Thor class Battlestars from the view of the KEW gun crews were absolutely stunning. All at once, all of their forward batteries and missile batteries opened fire all at once, lighting up the void of space with KEW rounds hurtling towards the Cylon fleet, their rounds ripping through five of the Basestars like a hot knife through butter. A call comes through Charles and he quickly picks it up but before he could answer, he is instantly given an order
"Acting captain of the Battlestar Urania, this is Vice Admiral Rein. Your order is to get the civilian fleet beyond the red line. I am sending you the coordinates for the location of the fleet"
Charles looks over towards helm and he is given the thumbs up before directing his attention back to the phone.
"I am also ordering all surviving Raptors and Vipers to dock with your ship. The Battlestars Thor and Loki will escort you and the civilians back to the fleet. I am also giving you a battlefield promotion to Commander. Good luck and may the gods..."
The call is cut out and from the gun platforms, the Battlestar Chronos explodes from the sheer volume of missiles which is in the high hundreds if not thousands, sending one of the flight pods flying into the Battlestar next to it, causing a series of explosions which rips the ship apart from the inside out. Meanwhile, one by one, dozens of Raptors and Vipers start landing in the flight pod and deck crews move fast as they can to clear the landing area in order to make more room for other flights. The gun crews of the Urania watch in horror as the Battlestars that were suppose to save the day, are being quickly overwhelmed by the ruthless attacks of the Basestars. On the port and starboard sides, the Loki and Thor are at full flank speed keeping up with the growing civilian ships that are behind the three Battlestars. Some of the civilian ships were armed but only with missiles or a small KEW turret or two. Those that were armed opened fired as well in order to improve the chances of just a little that they would hopefully survive. In the CIC, a desperate call comes in from the Loki
"This is the Loki! We're taking heavy fire from Cylon Missile Batteries! We need cove..."
The commander is interrupted by a nearby explosion in the CIC and is heard for all hands to abandon ship and to make their way to the escape Raptors but the call is cut short. From the batteries, explosions from inside of the ship start becoming visible and the engines of the Battlestar go out for the last time and starts spinning out of control as it still continues at full combat speed. From the flight pods, raptors and vipers are still seen launching and head towards the Thor and Urania. The last view of the Loki is the ship smashing into two Cylon Basestars who were able to get out of the way in time.
As soon they made it through the Cylon line, Charles shouted at the top of his lungs as he turned towards the helm
"Get us the frak out of here! Jump!"
One by one, the ships start jumping away with the last two surviving Battlestars to leave Caprica along with the remaining civilian ships. Meanwhile, on the Galactica. William still couldn't believe what Vice Admiral Rein did before he left to go back to Caprica to find any more survivors. A moment later he mustered up the words he was looking for to Tigh
"Admiral of the fleet"
He sighs and Tigh patted his back
"Bill, we didn't ask for any of this"
William looks up at the ceiling and spoke the last words of his day before he got some rack time
"I guess its time to find Earth my friend..."
