AN: Sorry for the wait but I had a sudden loss of muse to keep churning out chapters as I had been doing, though fear not I have not been just lazing around, I have been throwing Ideas about to my friends and acquired their feedback for further chapters... so please enjoy!
Three weeks Later
Battlestar Pegasus
CIC
Helena Cain was somewhat shaken by the results of the debris field, the conflict between the Colonial evacuation fleet, and their Cylon pursuers, the massive radiation spike that had set off the radiological alarm was residue left on the few remaining scattered remains of the Cylon Basestar's and only one weapon of mass destruction that could match the yields being confirmed by several of her best and brightest officers, was left over radiation from a MOON-BREAKER class nuke. A doomsday weapon she only knew about due to her position in the Admiralty and her cousin's position at her posting aboard one of two supposedly decommissioned Dreadnaughts; each of the Dreadnaughts had six VLS tubes containing a missile each, and if a dreadnaught was cornered enough to force it to launch one of these missiles, the Pegasus would have little chance of surviving if they were located by Cylon forces.
And so she stood in the Centre of the CIC; Colonel Fisk standing across from her directing Raptors and vipers for various retrieval missions currently ongoing around the Mercury block II Battlestar but at least the Pegasus was closing in on its target, because once her crew and her ship made it to friendly space both she and her crew could rest easy for once throughout this whole trip.
Within hours all of the Pegasus's Raptors and Viper Mk VII's had returned to the barn and the Pegasus had completed another jump towards their target.
Six weeks after Cylon fleet Engagement
Raven Nebula
Battlestar Galactica
William Adama, had the fleet rest up for the last week, the crushing losses sustained by the Cylons had given the fleet the breather it needed so badly, regular maintenance could now be preformed to all of the civilian vessels and the DRT's now had a chance to fully get their teeth into cutting away at the 'dead' sections of the FARCRY, to say that the 'wounds' looked severe they were pretty much cosmetic compared to what the Dreadnaughts were designed to take during conflicts, in fact the design was so successful that even if the ship had lost eighty percent of its armour and sixty percent of its structural integrity that it could probably hold off a Basestar and several Cylon support vessels until reinforcements arrived to extract the crewmen and scuttle the ship.
Not many ships could hold a candle to the Dreadnaughts, beside the incomplete Warstar series of Colonial vessels that the Admiralty had planned to put into service before the masses of cutbacks, which had struck the Navy during the Adar administration.
But right now Adama had some plans to put into action if a viable planet could be used for colonisation, more specifically developing a new orbital defence platform using the design properties of the two Dreadnaughts within the Colonial Fleet, all of the military command was in agreement, the whole ODP would have to be analogue, using the systems that were implemented in previous generations of Colonial warships, and with all of their input into the design a true orbital defence platform was born, using the reactor design of the FARCRY and FALLEN alongside the honeycombing they were renowned for using, they had a massive 'space gun' capable of launching a 400 tonne slug at thirty thousand kilometres a second, which had a viable double heavy point defence alongside the anti fighter batteries that would be scattered throughout the stations hull, it had multiple berths' capable of docking anything from frigates to Battlestar's without issue while dreadnaughts would have to use a specialised berth due to its sheer size.
It would take years to complete yet the turn off would be exponential if the Cylons were to ever discover the Colonials new home, if they were to ever settle on a world.
Adama planned on taking the designs to be refined by their resident genius Gaius Baltar but had soon come to a realisation that the good doctor may have been compromised by a Cylon agent, so he decided to take the plans to Laura Roslin to see if the president would approve the development of their orbital defence before having the plans further refined by crewmen scattered throughout the fleet qualified enough and trustworthy enough to do so.
Suddenly the Dradis alarm blared throughout the CIC; a single contact had made itself visible to the Dradis and was approaching at what the Colonials had once called the wartime friendly approach vector as if trying to identify themselves' as a non hostile.
Saul Tigh had already began barking orders to the CAP to intercept and Identify with the intent to destroy if proven hostile, four vessels had decided to intercept two of the Galactica's Viper Mk II's and one of their Raptors alongside one of the FALLEN's Rhino gunships' Adama just watched the Dradis with a keen eye, waiting for any sudden hostile intent.
"Sir the emergency co-ordinates are programmed into all civilian navigational computers and are ready to jump when given the word, the FALLEN is already moving to shield duty, and all Alert Vipers are in their tubes!" Reported Gaeta from his post, Adama acknowledged the report with a nod. "Stand easy, we don't want to cause a panic, what's the status of the FARCRY?"
"Commander Stryker reports all EVA DRT's are inside and that their flack if ready to frak." Saul grunted at the statement as if it was amusing to the balding officer. "Only Stryker." Were his words before he too watched the Dradis screen; suddenly there was a burst of Static over the CIC public announcement system as the Raptor's ECO reported in. "Galactica Actual this is Athena Actual, unknown contact is a Colonial Raptor, bearing the BSG 62 insignia!"
"Say again Athena Actual?" Came, Adama's voice through the wireless he held to the side of his face. "Galactica Actual I say again unknown contact is a Colonial Raptor bearing the BSG 62 insignia."
"Actual copies proceed with escort duties and have the Rhino on over watch duty, treat as hostile till she's deck side." Adama only caught the Athena confirming his orders over the PA still being broadcast throughout the CIC. "Saul only one officer in Battlestar Group Sixty two is stubborn enough to survive an assault on the colonies like this."
"Prepare to accommodate a Flag officer very soon; which means dress blues for all command staff, inform the commanders, we have Colonials incoming." Saul sighed somewhat dejectedly knowing full well who to expect, if he had to look the part then so be it.
Minutes later the portside flight pod had retracted into the main hull of the Columbia class Battlestar, the BSG 62 Raptor was planted in the centre of the bay, several lifts had rose from their hidden locations with various equipment and personal aboard, Adama strode towards the hatch, alongside twelve marines surrounding him, courtesy of Saul as he dealt with ship wide matters in his absence.
The pilot female climbed atop of the wing giving Adama a crisp salute in response to seeing his insignia's. "Admiral Sir, Flight lieutenant Amelia Hemsworth and my ECO Jake Keegan, am I glad we've finally found you sir, we've been hunting you down since your departure from the Colonial Home System, using Ragnar's black box data to follow your general trail here. Once we saw the debris field we feared the worst; permission to come aboard?"
"Granted... what's the current status of BSG sixty two?"
"Just the Pegasus sir, we did have a civilian fleet of our own, but we had to abandon them due to them only being sub-light capable, it's been rough, but no doubt you've had it worse..." Adama nodded at that comment. "It seems the Cylons have put the Cyberstar's to use and developed what our captured Basestar has logged as a Deathstar, it's the Cylons equivalent to our Warstar's that the Admiralty had planned to produce."
"By the god's, you have to be shitting me?" exclaimed the Raptors ECO, from his position behind the pilot. "No I'm not, so how is Admiral Cain?"
"Well sir, torn up about the colonies, but she's got her head on straight sir."
"Good because I'm ordering you to retrieve the Pegasus, alongside two of my own Raptor's... Chief I want this Raptor re-fuelled, and two more ready in five mikes!" Barked Adama; towards Chief Tyrol. "Aye Admiral!" was the Chief's response to his orders, setting six men on to their new duties, the crewmen scarpering towards one of the lifts to get their job done. "In the meantime, take five mikes in the Rec-Room and unwind for a bit you deserve it."
"Thank you sir." Both pilot and ECO responded saluting before dismissing themselves to the Rec-Room. 'No doubt Liam and Laura are going to be happy, at this news, and maybe with the backing of a second Admiral I may be able to effectively make both Commander Liam Stryker and Tom Lasky into Commodores' like they both deserve.'
Before he knew it with his body running on auto pilot he'd reached the CIC, and had taken his post beside the very familiar war table. "Saul I want you to run interference about the Pegasus's Raptor, more specifically I want you to run inference on the FARCRY, I want to see both Commander Stryker's and Major Cain's faces when Helena arrives, also send out a call to all command staff from Lieutenant Commander upwards to report to the Galactica's War Room."
Saul nodded seeing what his old friend was up to, while running interference against the Commander and Major, Bill had planned on Helena giving them a heart attack by suddenly walking in to the War Room.
Cylon Fleet
Damaged Deathstar
Cavil had never seen it coming, the remaining models had started an insurrection against all model ones, due to his irrational actions and extremist methods only the centurions aboard his Deathstar had remained loyal, due to being programmed to do so.
And right at this moment his programme was being boxed, too bad for the Insurrectionists that Cavil had something akin to a backup plan if he was to ever be boxed, a resurrection tank tied directly into the Cylon Colony's systems, one tank that only resurrected his model in the event of a betrayal such as the one he was now experiencing.
And the one thing no one but himself knew was the Colony's IFF override that would proceed to activate a kill order on all of the other models aboard the Colony aside from his own, which would be done by the Colony's private Centurion force, which each and every one had been programmed to be loyal to him.
Soon the echoes of gunfire were upon the CIC's entrance and Cavils select guards had taken position with portable chain gun's at the flanks of the door, when a massive explosion broke the blast doors free of their housing all hell broke loose.
To be Continued...
