ADMIRAL CLEMENTS

FIRST REANDEVOUZ POINT

Admiral Clements swayed slightly as the Battlestar Caprica materialized in a flash of white light in the midst of the fleet. In moments, the Dradis screen cleared and seemed to be covered with a myriad of contacts. Numerous civilian Captains were filling the communication channels with frantic questions. Where were they and where were they going? Everyone wanted to talk and ask questions at the same time.

"All ships present sir," Captain Beck the Dradis operator reported as the Dradis computer rapidly identified all the contacts.

Admiral Clements ordered all ships to go to communications silence so the Cylons could not locate them from all the useless chatter. He told the Captains briefly that they were being taken somewhere safe and he could not and would not elaborate any further. If anyone couldn't handle that, they would be left behind. The communications channels instantly became quiet.

"Major Adams have all the ships prepare for a second jump, we will be sending them the next set of jump coordinates shortly," Clements ordered as he turned his attention to Lieutenant Ash who was sitting at communications.

"Get me Admiral Stockwell on Fleet Com Line Alpha," Admiral Clements spoke watching the view screens located at the front of the CIC as they came on one by one showing numerous ships. They had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. At any moment, the Cylons could show up and put this fleet in jeopardy. He had a special mission planned for Admiral Stockwell and it had to be carried out quickly.

"Admiral Clements," Admiral Stockwell's calm voice came over Fleet Com Line Alpha. "We seem to have escaped the Cylons for the moment, what are your orders sir?"

"I have a special mission for you Admiral," Clements began, recalling what had occurred over the past six hours. "We know that there were at least two major fleet battles back in the Colonies. Over Virgon, and near Scorpia. I want you to take the Picon back to the Colonies along with two fleet personnel carriers and the Marine Transport Vengeance."

"Back to the Colonies!" Admiral Stockwell interrupted with surprise in his voice.

"Yes Admiral, there are some valuable assets I want you to try to recover," Clements continued knowing that what he was about to ask would be very difficult and dangerous. "All three of those ships have FTL shuttles capable of rescuing stranded fleet personnel as well as your own shuttles and raptors aboard the Picon."

"Then this is a rescue mission," Stockwell replied with relief. He knew that a lot of people had been left stranded in the Colonies. But he also knew that the ships Clements was assigning him would not hold that many people, just a few thousand.

"I want you to coordinate the rescue of as many fleet personnel as possible," Clements said carefully so the Admiral would not misunderstand. "There will be a lot of pilots in damaged vipers with rescue beacons on. They only have twelve hours of life support. Many of them will have much less then that by now. Check the damaged fleet units at the battle scenes for trapped survivors, there are bound to be some crew members trapped in the damaged ships."

"What if we encounter the Cylons?" Stockwell asked concerned. "They are bound to be doing the same thing we will be, only they will be killing the survivors instead of attempting rescues!"

"Possibly not," Clements replied. "They may just ignore any stranded survivors, figuring that when their life support runs out that problem will take care of itself. You are not to engage the Cylons with your Battlestar or vipers. You may arm your raptors that are on rescue missions with interceptor missiles. They are to engage Cylon raiders only as a last resort; we must maintain the secret that your Battlestar Group escaped."

"I understand sir," Admiral Stockwell replied sounding disappointed wishing he could hit the Cylons with his Battlestar Group, but he knew that Admiral Clements was correct. If the Cylons knew his force had survived they would be out searching for it in mass.

"The Cylons probably believe they have wiped out all of our major fleet units and it is to our benefit to continue to let them think so," Clements continued. "I will give you twenty-four hours in the Colonies to complete your mission. The Cylons will be occupied with the Colonies and outposts in the home systems so stay away from them with your ships. You have a narrow window to try this rescue. If you detect a heavy Cylon presence, you are to withdraw immediately. You are not to endanger your task group!"

"Yes sir," Admiral Stockwell replied still wishing there was some way he could strike back at the Cylons. "I would love to hit those Cylon scum with my Battle Group but I also understand the need for secrecy for the moment. I realize that protecting these civilians and rescuing as many fleet personnel as possible has to be our first priority. Hitting the Cylons will come later I assume."

"Good," Admiral Clements replied, he knew that Admiral Stockwell was considered to be a top Admiral; he also had a reputation for following orders. "I want you to meet us at the Boneyards in two days. Yes, we will eventually hit the Cylons. We will make them pay for what they did to the Colonies, but we have a lot of work and preparation to do before that."

"The Boneyards," Admiral Stockwell replied surprised. "Why there? The only thing at that place is a lot of old decommissioned ships. There is no way we will be given the time needed to place any of those ships in operating condition before the Cylons hit it, if they haven't already. It's only a matter of time, and probably a very short time before they hit all the outlying outposts!"

"You may be surprised Admiral," Clements replied with an inward smile from knowledge he possessed that Stockwell did not. "The ships at the Boneyards may not be quite as decommissioned as everyone has been led to believe."

"You mean we might be able to salvage some more warships!" Stockwell spoke back in surprise with a hint of excitement growing in his voice. "Even a few old cruisers would go a long ways."

"We will need all the fleet personnel you can find," Clements replied not elaborating on what might be waiting at the Boneyards. "The Boneyards are enclosed by a heavy radiation cloud that is deadly to the Cylons, I doubt they have hit it yet. They probably believe that it's not a threat to them since it supposedly contains only older decommissioned ships. They will probably wait until the Colonies and the outlying outposts have been destroyed before they check on the Boneyards. So hopefully we will have some time."

"Very well Admiral," Stockwell replied slightly confused about the Boneyards wondering just what Clements had up his sleeve. He had never been out that far. The Boneyards were located near the outside edge of the star cluster. "I will inform the rest of the fleet units under my command that they have been transferred to the Caprica."

Clements hesitated a moment before continuing. "Admiral I don't know quite how to say this but my son was the CAG on Commander Cain's Pegasus. Admiral Nagala told me the Pegasus was destroyed with Admiral Davidson's fleet at Scorpia. If you see the Pegasus…"

"I understand Admiral," Stockwell replied solemnly. "You wouldn't be a father if you didn't want to know the fate of your son. If we see the remains of the Pegasus we will check."

"I don't want anyone put in extra danger because of this," Clements continued. "I know that everyone has lost someone today. As soon as you jump back send a raptor to Ragnar Anchorage and see if you can contact the Galactica. If she is still there bring Adama and whatever ships he has back with you."

Forty minutes later the Picon and the three fleet ships assigned vanished as they activated their FTL drives and headed back to the Colonies. Clements watched from the Caprica hoping they would be successful in their mission and return safely. The Picon was his only Mercury Class Battlestar and he could ill afford to lose her at this point. However if they returned with the Galactica it would well be worth the risk.

He knew that time was very short for all that needed to be accomplished. It all depended on just how occupied the Cylons were with the Colonies. If their main fleet was still hitting the home worlds, then Admiral Stockwell might have the time he needed. The Cylons would have a lot of targets in the home systems. There were the Twelve Colonies, several inhabited moons, numerous military bases, small mining colonies, and scientific outposts on many of the smaller asteroids. Raptors and shuttles just might be able to slip in and commence some rescues of stranded Colonial fleet personnel.

The Cylons would have a lot of work to do in order to eliminate the Twelve Colonies, Clements hated to think of all the lives that were being lost back home. Fifty billion people and the Cylons were using 50-megaton nukes to wipe them out! While the nukes couldn't take out everyone, the radiation and the Cylon Centurions would make short work of the survivors. In just a few days, most of the people in the Colonies would be dead or dying. Clements felt guilty for having left so many behind, but he had his orders and the survival of the human race might very well rest on his shoulders.

Two hours later Admiral Clements had divided the fleet up. All the civilian ships, most of the fleet vessels, under escort of the Battlestar Cimitar and the five fleet Gunstars vanished in an FTL jump. They had a set of coordinates and a destination to be at in one week's time. Hopefully they would arrive safely. They were jumping away from the Colonies and away from where heavy Cylon traffic could be expected. The sixth Gunstar was ordered to jump to the coordinates of the civilian ships that Admiral Nagala had supposedly sent away to safety. They also had orders to be at the rendezvous coordinates in one week.

Admiral Clements then sent six Escortstars out on a separate mission. Each ship had been given a group of star systems near the Colonies to search for fleeing civilian ships. They also had a series of small research and mining facilities in outlying star systems to evacuate if the Cylons had not already hit them. Admiral Clements knew that most civilian ships possessed FTL drives and there was no doubt in his mind that as soon as their Captains realized that fleeing was their only option, there would be a massive exodus of civilian ships from the Twelve Colonies.

One of the Escortstars had orders to jump to the Caspian system and check on survivors there. Clements knew that Admiral Nagala's daughter Andrea was in charge of the huge mining operation in that system. She would have a lot of ships available to her for evacuating her people. Clements knew there were over two hundred thousand people in that system. He also knew that it would probably have been a high priority target for the Cylons.

Two other Escortstars, one fleet personnel carrier, and two empty fleet supply vessels were sent to check on the other fleet supply stations. If any survived they were to evacuate them and off load as many supplies as possible. All ships had the rendezvous coordinates for one week hence.

Admiral Clements had the Battlestar Caprica, the two Columbia Two Class training Battlestars the Altair and Spica, and two fleet personnel carriers containing the fleet personnel that were in transit on the Caprican shipyards when the Cylon attack occurred. He also took an additional two fleet personnel carriers that contained key shipyard personnel; many of these would be useful at the Boneyards since most of them had fleet experience to some degree from serving stints on various fleet ships.

"Are we ready to jump," Admiral Clements asked turning his attention to Commander Talon.

"Yes sir, all the other ships have made their jumps," Commander Talon responded. "We have the coordinates for the Boneyards set. It will take us four jumps to get there. With standard FTL prep we can be there in a little over eight hours."

"Very well, Commander. Initiate the first jump," Clements ordered as his gaze returned to the now nearly empty Dradis screen.

A few moments later the Battlestar Caprica and her group of ships vanished.

Eight hours later the Caprica and her group of ships were floating in the clear space around the Boneyards. The Boneyards were hidden in a gaseous nebula, which was permeated with the deadly radiation that Cylons could not take. A globe of small satellites surrounding the Boneyards emitted a weak energy field that held the gas and radiation back and created a clear space nearly 15 million kilometers across.

In this empty space floated the Boneyards. A massive shipyard sat in the center of the clear area surrounded by hundreds of decommissioned fleet units. The decommissioning shipyard was twelve kilometers across, built around a central hub 2,000 meters in diameter. 7,500 fleet personnel and 400 marines comprised the station's crew. The station was armed with numerous point defense batteries as well as a large number of medium sized twin KEW turrets. In addition, there were four squadrons of mark seven vipers in two launching bays located beneath the shipyard. There were also eight 200 meter defensive satellites in close protective orbit.

Admiral Clements, Commander Talon, Major Adams, and Major Davidson who was responsible for the fifth year cadets aboard the two training Battlestars, were in the CIC of the Boneyards. They were meeting with Admiral Brad Anders who was in charge of the massive shipyard and its extensive facilities. Admiral Anders had been in charge of the shipyard for nearly ten years and was a dedicated commander. He had attended the service academy with Admiral Corman when he had been a cadet. He had hoped to continue in this position until he was ready to retire. Being a close and trusted friend of Admiral Corman had gotten him this assignment.

"I can't believe that the Cylons have succeeded. I know that Admiral Corman and Admiral Nagala had warned the government about this for years. Especially after all the warships that have been decommissioned, and the delayed Battlestar construction programs of the last several Colonial Administrations," Admiral Anders said quietly his face ashen looking at the men surrounding him.

"We all hoped it would never happen," Admiral Clements replied knowing that their news of the fall of the Colonies had been a shock to the older Admiral.

"My family was taking a vacation on Caprica at the time of the attack," Anders spoke slowly with a pained look in his eyes. "My wife, along with my two daughters, and all four of my grandchildren were there. From what you have told me, there is no way of knowing what may have happened to them! A lot of my shipyard crew are going to have the same questions. Is there anything we can do? Can we mount any type of rescue operation to check on our families? It sounds like the Colonies are finished!"

"We are protecting a lot of civilians and there were some plans made for just this type of disaster. We have all lost family members. My own wife was in Caprica City and we know that it was hit with two fifty-Megaton nukes," Admiral Clements replied trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. He would like nothing more then to send a rescue mission to Caprica to search for his family and others, but he knew that it couldn't be done. They all had a lot of grieving to do, but for now, it would have to wait. The survival of the human race had to take top priority. There would be a time for grieving later.

"I know that Admiral Corman asked you to keep some fleet units ready for quick activation and that they were not to be decommissioned," Admiral Clements spoke seeing the surprised look on the faces of the rest of the group at this revelation. "I need to know what you have that is capable of being put back into operation in the next forty-eight hours. That's the maximum amount of time I believe we have before the Cylons show up. They can't leave this shipyard alone for long."

Admiral Anders smiled. "At least that part of my orders I followed to the letter. While I never believed the Cylons could actually succeed in attacking the Colonies, I always thought we were taking too many ships out of service."

Walking over to a bank of view screens Admiral Anders pressed several buttons. On the screen several large ships appeared. "This is a Firestar Class Battle Cruiser. The last of these were taken out of service only six years ago. We have 61 of these at the Boneyards. Adar and the previous administration wanted them decommissioned because they felt they were too expensive to operate. They wanted to construct more of the smaller Gunstars and Escortstars to fill in for their absence. "

"They did have more Gunstars built and quite a few Escortstars, but they don't measure up to the firepower the Firestars represented." Commander Talon commented as he gazed wistfully at the ships on the screen. "My first posting was aboard a Firestar. They were a good ship!"

"The Firestar is almost as large as the old Columbia Class Battlestars," Admiral Anders continued. "They have more firepower and the Class Two Firestars have a flight pod beneath the ship that can hold a full squadron of vipers plus support craft. Then there are the Warstars," he pointed to the other screen. "They don't have a flight pod but are equipped with more missile launching tubes and heavy KEW batteries instead. The administration before Adar's retired all 28 of those."

"How many are still operational?" Admiral Clements asked hoping that more then a few were. He knew some of the orders that Corman had issued but he didn't know how much had actually been accomplished. It had been several years since he had made a tour of the shipyard. He had also issued Admiral Anders some special orders of his own.

"We don't have the facilities to keep all the ships operational," Admiral Anders replied shaking his head sadly. "As a matter of fact we have stripped a lot of the older Firestars and Warstars of most of their parts and weapons. We currently have 14 of the Class Two Firestars and 10 Warstars that can be activated almost immediately. They have been updated as much as possible and we have even installed heavier armor and additional point defense per Admiral Corman's orders.

"We have had access to some very good military engineering and defense design teams to help with the update," Admiral Anders added with a slight all knowing smile. "Have you ever heard of Professor Ravashol? He is one of the most brilliant minds of our generation in the area of physics and applied laser technology. Matter of fact Admiral Corman assigned a top-notch military tech team to the Boneyards to help update some of the ships. Professor Ravashol is heading that team. As a result, the ships are much more powerful now then when they were originally constructed. All 24 of the ships currently have small maintenance crews on board with the secondary energizers on line operating under minimum power. We have been keeping minimum power on primarily to maintain life support and to run routine system checks."

"Twenty four operational warships," Major Davidson commented in surprise feeling amazed at what he was hearing. "How was this kept a secret? Adar's administration would have gone ballistic if they had known about this!"

"The crew of this shipyard serves very long stints of four to six years for a very high pay rate," Admiral Clements began to explain. "They have been very carefully chosen and all have signed high security agreements where they don't discuss what happens here. Also inspections have been very limited and Admiral Corman pretty well controlled who handled those."

Admiral Anders continued. "Because of our distance from the Colonies politicians don't make an appearance usually. The few that have were specially picked by Admiral Corman and shared our views on the fleet."

"I am confused as to why these decommissioning yards were placed so far from the Colonies in the first place," Major Davidson broke in with a frown on his face. "Why weren't they put closer to the Colonies or even around one of the uninhabited moons?"

"For security reasons," Admiral Clements responded. "The government didn't want a lot of military hardware lying around where a rogue planetary government or even a dissident group could get hold of it. With the fleets urging they agreed to set up the main decommissioning yards out here on the edge of the cluster. Far enough away so the ships would never be a threat to the Colonies and under secure control of the fleet."

"What about additional Battlestars?" Commander Talon asked after listening to Admiral Clements explanation. "I like the Firestars and especially the Warstars but more Battlestars would be nice. Being able to hit the Cylons with heavy viper strikes will be a necessity if we ever expect to be able to carry this war back to them. Particularly after what we heard of their tactics back in the Colonies. Their Basestars reportedly can put nearly 300 raiders each into combat and this new Support Ship of theirs supposedly even more!"

Admiral Anders looked at Admiral Clements questioningly. Clements knew about some of what had been done here, since he was responsible for all shipyards and bases but not everything. He had known work was being done on some of the Firestars and Warstars but not to this extent. He had been very surprised to see how many were operational. "Show them the Columbia Two Battlestars Admiral," Clements ordered with a nod, these were something that Admiral Clements himself had specifically ordered Admiral Anders to do.

Admiral Anders pressed another button on his console and the main screen switched to a huge heavily armed Battlestar floating on the screen. "This is a Columbia Two Class Battlestar. As you know, they were used toward the end of the first Cylon war. After the war, the Colonies built fourteen more of these ships. All of them except six were retired about eighteen to twenty years ago. I noticed that you brought two of them with you today Admiral. As you know they are larger then the old Columbia Class and can carry six squadrons of vipers."

We have used a lot of the parts and equipment off of the stripped down Firestars and Warstars to reequip and modernize six of these Battlestars," Admiral Anders explained as he manipulated one of the view screens giving them a close up of one of the Columbia Two Battlestars.

"Six of them!" Commander Talon exclaimed with an excited look spreading across his face.

"Yes, six of them," Admiral Anders nodded. "Their biggest weakness was a lack of point defense and heavy offensive weapons. We installed an additional secondary energizer on the ships and increased their point defensive weapons by 32 percent and their heavy offensive weapons by 22 percent. We didn't have any of the new Mark seven vipers to fill their bays but we did have a lot of the old Mark two's. All six currently have small crews on board with one of the secondary energizers fully powered. The crews only consist of about 50 personnel but that is sufficient to run system checks and to keep the ships ready to be put back into operation at a very short notice."

"Excellent," Clements said smiling pleased that the Columbia Two Battlestars were completely ready. "Major Davidson, I want you to transfer enough of your cadets to those six Battlestars to bring them back on line. I estimate it will take about a 1,000 cadets each. We will send some senior officers and additional experienced fleet personnel along to insure that the cadets receive proper guidance and supervision. Can your cadets handle that?"

"Yes sir," Major Davidson replied thrilled that they would have a use for his cadets. They were well trained and very familiar with the systems of a Columbia Two Class Battlestar. This would work out ideally for them. "The cadets are very familiar with the systems on the two training Battlestars as well as the other units of the fleet they have been training on. We can do it sir. But what about the rest of the cadets? Do you want them assigned to the Firestars and Warstars?"

Admiral Clements smiled. "No what we are about to show you is the fleet's biggest secret. The one thing that if it had ever been discovered could have blown this entire plan of Admiral Corman, Admiral Nagala, and myself out of the water. We would all probably have ended up being court marshaled and then airlocked. Admiral Anders, show them the AURORA!"

Admiral Anders adjusted the view screen and three very large Battlestars appeared on the screen. Two were obviously Jupiter Class Battlestars but the third was a monster. It was much larger then a Mercury Class Battlestar and literally bristled with weapons.

"The Aurora!" Major Adams said stunned his eyes widening, everyone else stood quietly literally in shock and awe at what was on the screen. "She was the prototype of the new Nova Class Battlestars. She was completed four years ago, but there were so many cost overruns that she ended up costing twice as much as originally proposed. Then on her shakedown cruise, the Aurora suffered numerous system malfunctions. On the final leg of her trials as she was returning to the Scorpion shipyards, there was an explosion in her secondary energizer causing severe damage to the ship. Nearly two hundred crewmembers were killed. The Colonial Government launched an investigation and they decided she was just too big, overly complicated, and to expensive to repair. She was ordered decommissioned and a smaller Nova Class slightly larger then a Mercury was ordered to be constructed instead."

"That's correct Major Adams," Admiral Clements said looking at the screen with interest as he examined the Aurora. "Admiral Corman had the Aurora brought here and for the last four years Admiral Anders and his people have been working to repair the ship and correct all the malfunctions in her systems."

"She was supposed to be the Fleet Command Ship," Commander Talon spoke softly as he gazed appreciatively at the massive ship on the view screen.

"That's right Commander," Clements responded nodding. "The Aurora had been originally envisioned to be the flagship for the entire Colonial fleet. From her CIC the movement and operation of the entire fleet would be monitored and directed. That is what the Atlantia has been doing for several years, but the systems on the Aurora were designed to be far more efficient. Her CIC is nearly four times the size of the Atlantia's."

"We have been working around the clock for nearly all of those four years on her," Admiral Anders said thinking about all the long hours his people had put in getting the ship ready. "It was necessary to remove some of her systems completely. They were just too complicated and continuously malfunctioned or shut down, it was almost as if they were designed to be so overly complicated that they would fail."

"But why design a system so complicated?" Major Davidson asked looking around at the group.

"After this Cylon attack, I just wonder if the Cylons somehow didn't manage to create some of the problems with the Aurora's systems," Admiral Anders commented. "When we rebuilt her secondary energizer, we replaced it with another primary energizer and shifted the secondary energizer to another section of the ship. The Aurora currently has four primary Tylium fusion energizers and two secondary."

Admiral Anders paused for a moment hesitating not sure how what he was about to say would be received. "There was something else that we discovered when we were rebuilding the part of the ship where the secondary energizer exploded. It looks like the Aurora was sabotaged! We found traces of explosive derivatives at key points around the location of the secondary energizer. One of them ignited the Tylium bunker next to the energizer causing the explosion!"

"Sabotage!" Commander Talon exclaimed surprised his eyes growing wide. "How come we never heard anything about that?"

"Admiral Corman thought it wise we didn't say anything," Admiral Anders responded his eyes moving across the group coming to rest on Admiral Clements. "He didn't want to tip off the saboteurs that we were aware of their actions. He has been searching for them for years but was never able to find them. We also couldn't understand why the government's investigation team never reported any of this. It all hinted at a possible government cover up."

"Now we know," Admiral Clements said with a knowing nod, Admiral Corman had briefed him on some of this. "It was obviously Cylon agents. They didn't want the Aurora to be in a position to command the fleet. This attack explains the system failures as well as the explosion. I don't know if we will ever know how the Cylons managed to plant agents in the ministry of defense and the government."

"I just find it hard to believe that any human would work for the Cylons," Major Adams said his forehead creased with a frown.

"Cubits!" Major Davison remarked scowling at the implications. "Some people will do anything for money."

"Why does she need so much power?" Commander Talon asked trying to take in all the revelations of the last few minutes. "I thought originally she had only three primary Energizers and one secondary."

"That's correct," Admiral Anders replied shifting his gaze back to the Aurora. "But we have had the good fortune of the aid of a number of very highly trained military research people and technical personnel assigned to the shipyard, thanks to Admiral Corman. Don't forget that team is headed up by Professor Ravashol the foremost expert in the Colonies on lasers, so we have added these to the Aurora."

The view of the screen changed and the Aurora seemed to leap up at them until she filled the entire screen. On the screen, several heavily armored tubes could be seen running along nearly the entire length on the underside of the vessel.

"Holy frak," Commander Talon murmured his eyes widening. "Are those Mega Pulse Lasers? We did away with those at the start of the first Cylon war. They used so much power they often left ships nearly defenseless after being fired. From what we have heard, the Cylons are no longer using them either. Why would you install them on the Aurora?"

"As I said, we had the use of a number of military research and design people under Professor Ravashol," Anders replied. "He and his research team have made a major breakthrough in pulse laser technology. These Mega Pulse Lasers in no way resemble the old ones."

"What about other weapons?" Commander Talon persisted. He didn't know if he approved of the Mega Pulse Lasers, they had been a big bust in the first Cylon war and a lot of ships had been lost due to their massive power use.

"The Aurora is equipped with numerous heavy kinetic energy rail guns and the normal point defensive weapons you would expect from a ship of her size," Admiral Anders continued knowing he hadn't convinced Commander Talon on the Mega Pulse Lasers. "She is equipped with four heavy Mega Pulse Lasers. They can hit anything within a fifteen-degree cone in front of the Aurora. The reason why is simple. They have twice the range of a heavy rail gun and ten times the destructive firepower.

"They can cause that much damage?" Commander Talon spoke trying to accept what Admiral Anders was telling them, but still feeling nervous about the Mega Pulse Lasers.

"As I said these Mega Pulse Lasers have no resemblance to the older ones," Admiral Anders replied patiently. "Their beams are more tightly focused and use slightly less power. They will be quiet deadly to anything they strike. As for power, the extra primary Tylium energizer we installed operates the lasers. We also installed four quad heavy laser batteries at the front of the ship. They have a range of fire of almost sixty degrees. The two secondary energizers power them. At close range, they will be deadly to any Cylon Basestar. Those two secondary energizers can also be used as a backup power source for the Mega Pulse Lasers if need be."

"What about those two Jupiter Class Battlestars we saw?" Major Adams asked. "Where did they come from?"

"The Battlestars Magellan and Odyssey," Admiral Anders replied. "They were both heavily damaged in a collision when their navigational programs failed during fleet maneuvers two years ago. Admiral Corman had them transferred here for repairs."

"I remember now," Major Adams said as he recalled the incident. "They were so heavily damaged that it was decided it would be cheaper to replace them with a new Mercury Class Battlestar."

"Major Davidson I want 1,000 of your cadets aboard the Magellan and the Odyssey and the remaining 2,000 aboard the Aurora," Admiral Clements ordered. "Admiral what type of air wings do you have currently aboard those three ships?"

"None sir," Admiral Anders replied shaking his head. "We put all the Mark two's we had aboard the Columbia Two Class Battlestars.

"Very well," Admiral Clements replied, then looking over at Major Adams. "Major Adams we have an extra squadron from the Caprica shipyards on board the Caprica. "Have it transferred immediately to one of the two Jupiter Class Battlestars. We have three other squadrons from the shipyards on board the Columbia Two Training Battlestars. Have them transferred also. Admiral Anders transfer all four of your viper squadrons to the Magellan and Odyssey. That will give both Battlestars four full squadrons. Look at the fleet crews we brought along for enough qualified personnel to fully man those two Jupiter's. If we have to get into a firefight with the Cylons before we get to our final destination, two more completely manned and armed Jupiter Class Battlestars could be very useful!"

"Admiral Anders, your people are very familiar with most of the systems aboard the Aurora, the Firestars and the Warstars. Start dispersing your crews to those ships, only keep essential personnel on the shipyard for now."

"Yes sir," Admiral Anders replied.

"All right," Clements said looking around the group. "We don't have a lot of time so let's get busy; the Cylons could show up at any time."

Time passed quickly as numerous shuttles began going back and forth between the ships. Crews were quickly transferred and ships were slowly being brought back on line. Admiral Clements was in the shipyard's CIC with Admiral Anders monitoring the entire process. He just hoped the Cylons gave them the time they needed. If the Cylons believed that the shipyard didn't represent a major threat, they might just have the time they needed to pull this off.

"Your shipyard is equipped with an FTL drive if I remember correctly," Clements said looking thoughtfully at Admiral Anders. He had been toying with an idea in his head now for several hours.

"Yes it is," Admiral Anders replied with a confused look on his face. "It was used to put the central hub of the station into position. Matter of fact there are two drives. But we have expanded and added so much onto the shipyard that it would be impossible to use them. We don't have the time to disconnect the rest of the station from the central module. Over the years, we have just interconnected everything too much! We have storage facilities and docking bays all over the outer framework."

"We have eight Columbia Two Class Battlestars at our disposal," Clements said thinking hard. He really wanted to take this shipyard with them. There was so much equipment and salvaged parts on board that it could potentially save them years of hard work. "What if we docked them to the station at an equal distance and tied all the FTL drives together under control of your main computer system. Would it be possible then to generate an FTL field big enough to jump the entire station?" Clements asked. If he remembered correctly, the Columbia Two's were equipped with overly large FTL drives for extremely long jumps.

Admiral Anders looked shocked and surprised at the suggestion. "I don't know," he said thinking furiously. "I never considered doing something like that. The calculations to synchronize all the FTL drives may be impossible to do. The Columbia Twos are equipped with very powerful FTL drives; even if we can make it work I don't think the jumps would be very long."

"That doesn't matter," Clements responded. "If we can safely jump the shipyard without seriously endangering it or the Columbia Twos then we need to seriously consider it."

"I will get my crew doing some calculations to see if it is a possibility, at the moment I just don't know if it can be done," Admiral Anders replied still feeling doubtful about this suggestion of Admiral Clements working. "I don't know of anyone trying something like this before. Perhaps if I talk to Professor Ravashol he might be able to shed some insight on how it might be done. But I'm afraid that even if we can jump the shipyard, it will generate a lot of stress on the station's outer structure. We might have to initiate a lot of repairs after each jump."

"But just think of the benefits if we can take this shipyard with us," Clements said. "A shipyard this size at our disposal would give us a lot of options. We could repair damaged ships and maybe even build new fleet units eventually."

"I will see if it's feasible," Admiral Anders replied wondering if Admiral Clements realized the enormity of the task that was being asked of him. "We have a pretty good computer center so it should not take to long to do the computations. This shipyard could be used to build new ships. We have all the capabilities of a major construction yard plus we have a tremendous amount of spare equipment and parts from all the ships that have been decommissioned."

A few hours later, they had their answer. Professor Ravashol had come over from his research ship and helped with the calculations as well as made some recommendations. They could indeed jump the shipyard but the jumps would only be about one forth what was considered to be a normal jump. Anything longer would put dangerous stress levels on the shipyard's structure. The computations also showed where major stress would be placed on the structure so crews were dispatched to strengthen the areas in question. It was also necessary to install additional FTL field emitters around the shipyard to help create a stable FTL field when all the drives were synchronized and activated. They had a lot of work to do and a short time to try to get it all done.

Admiral Clements had also come up with another idea, which Professor Ravashol, after running some calculations said would work. He had the Firestars dock with other ships in the Boneyards. By extending their FTL fields due to the shorter jumps they would be making, they could include the ships that they were docked to and take then along in their FTL jump. They were taking an additional eight Firestars, two more Warstars, and four Marine Assaultstars with them. These ships could be repaired later and brought back into service. While they would take a lot of work, it would well be worth it as long as they had the shipyard to help facilitate their reactivation.

Work progressed swiftly and the Aurora was moved next to the Battlestar Caprica. She seemed massive floating in space by the smaller Valkyrie Class Battlestar. The two Jupiter Class Battlestars also moved into a supporting position around the Aurora and the Caprica.

"I will be moving my Flag to the Aurora Commander Talon,' Admiral Clements said. "I will need her CIC to coordinate everything."

"I understand sir," Commander Talon replied with a nod. "The Aurora is a beautiful ship."

A few hours latter Admiral Clements was aboard the Aurora looking around its amazing CIC. It was massive. Huge HD view screens were placed strategically on the walls, which currently showed views of the ships and the shipyard. A crew of nearly 100 personnel was before its myriad of consoles and screens. Many of these were shipyard personnel from the Caprican shipyard who were rapidly familiarizing themselves with the CIC.

A number of Admiral Ander's shipyard personnel were present explaining some of the changes that had been made in the CIC to some of the personnel. A number of these shipyard people would stay aboard to assist in case any problems developed.

Admiral Clements had appointed Commander Ted Cain as the Commander of the Aurora. Commander Cain had been in transit from his own Battlestar for some downtime on Caprica when the Cylons had struck. His Mercury Class Battlestar had been one of the first to be destroyed in the conflict. Commander Cain was a distant relative of Admiral Helena Cain and was a very well qualified Battlestar Commander.

"Sir we have the Battlestar Picon arriving," the Dradis officer reported as he identified the new contacts that had appeared suddenly on the Dradis screen.

"I have Admiral Stockwell on com," Captain Reed reported from her new communication's console that she was quickly familiarizing herself with.

"You were not joking about ships being here I see," Admiral Stockwell commented over the mini com Admiral Clements was wearing in his right ear. "I assume you must be aboard the Aurora, my Dradis officer has already identified her. It looks like there was a lot going on that I didn't know about. That a lot of people didn't know about. I would be extremely interested on how the Aurora seems to be fully operational. Last I heard she was to be scrapped!"

"Sorry you had to be kept in the dark Admiral, but we couldn't reveal what we were doing," Clements replied. "It could have brought the entire Admiralty down if word had ever gotten out. How did your mission go?"

"We only found a little over eighteen hundred survivors," Admiral Stockwell replied sadly. "Nearly three hundred of them were stranded viper pilots. The Cylons really did a job on the fleet. We didn't see a single ship that might be salvageable. The Cylons really go for nuclear weapons for use against ships in a big way. We did come across four more civilian ships that we brought along, but civilian com traffic is completely gone. From what we could gather, the Cylons have been combing the space around the Colonies with their raiders nuking any civilian ship they come across. We lost four raptors to the Cylons, but our ships were never detected. From the Cylon intercepts, a few which were in the clear, they are currently landing Centurions on the Colonies. They mean to wipe out everyone on the surface of the home planets!" Admiral Stockwell paused for a moment before continuing. "Sir we looked around Scorpia but there was no sign of the Pegasus, a lot of the remains of the fleet ships had already burned up in the planet's atmosphere, I'm sorry sir. We also checked Ragnar but the Galactica was not there."

"Thanks for looking Admiral," Clements replied knowing now that Martin was dead and so was Adama. "Send me a list of the fleet personnel that you picked up that are fit for duty. We are preparing to leave and we can use everyone we can to man these ships."

Four hours later the fleet was ready to move out. From the CIC in the Aurora, all the ships were tied in to her powerful jump computer including the shipyard. On board the shipyard Admiral Anders, Professor Ravashol, and 200 specially selected crewmen manned the essential systems. The stations four viper squadrons had been sent to the Magellan and Odyssey. All eight of the Columbia Two Class Battlestars were docked to the shipyard and their FTL drives tied into the shipyard's computer and jump drive system under the watchful eye of Professor Ravashol. The rest of the ships were waiting for the Aurora to initiate the jump.

Admiral Clements looked around the CIC; in front of him slightly above the large operation's table were four massive view screens, which showed the fleet and the shipyards. There was also a huge Dradis screen in the center, which showed the current fleet disposition.

"Begin the jump," Admiral Clements ordered his eyes focused on the shipyard.

Commander Cain looked over at the navigation officer and gave the command.

At the FTL station, the Captain in charge pressed home and turned the FTL jump key. Immediately on the screen, the shipyard jumped followed rapidly by the rest of the fleet.

As soon as the last ship was gone, the outer satellites that kept the gas and radiation cloud at bay shut down. In less then twelve hours the cloud and radiation would cover the former location of the shipyard making it impossible to jump into. Hopefully the Cylons would never know what was missing from the Boneyards.

Admiral Clements watched as all the ships flashed back into normal space outside of the gas cloud. Admiral Anders reported only minor stress levels showing from the first jump but it would take nearly an hour for the FTL drives to build up the energy necessary for the next jump. Professor Ravashol also wanted to fine tune the jump calculations to try to reduce stress on the structure of the shipyard.

Admiral Clements placed Admiral Stockwell in charge of the fleet's operational Battlestars and ordered him to set up a defensive perimeter around the fleet until the next jump. They would maintain this posture until they arrived at their destination. Since they were so far away from the Colonies, he hoped they could stay one step ahead of the Cylons. Clements watched as vipers launched from the Battlestars and took up and formed a defensive CAP around the fleet. Now it was a waiting game. Could they stay one jump ahead of the Cylons or would the Cylons find them before they reached safety?

Author's not. I know that I got a lot of ships from the boneyards but it was necessary for this story to work out as I have it planned. As large as the Colonial fleet was and the amount of time that had passed since the first Cylon war it made sense to me that a lot of ships would have been replaced with newer models and the older ones decommissioned. Admiral Corman, Admiral Nagala, and Admiral Clements had a two fold plan. If the Cylons attacked and the fleet suffered major losses but were still managing to hold the Colonies then the fleet at the boneyards would have been used to reinforce the Colonial fleet in the Colonies to buy them time to get new construction on line. If it was an attack the Colonial fleet and the Colonies could not recover from, then Case Omega would be implemented and the boneyard fleet would fall under command of Admiral Clements.

NOVA CLASS COMMAND BATTLESTAR (BATTLESTAR AURORA)

Length: 2,300 Meters

Width: 800 Meters

Height: 500 Meters

Crew: 4,500

Marines: 600

680 Twin point defense weapons

8 Heavy KEW batteries on the bow

4 Heavy Mega Pulse Lasers mounted below the bow with a fifteen-degree cone of fire.

4 quad pulse laser batteries mounted on the bow with a sixty-degree range of fire.

6 Bow missile tubes for heavy missiles

36 Missile tubes. Eighteen each on the starboard and port side of the ship for heavy missiles

60 Medium heavy twin KEW turrets primarily on the port and starboard sides of the ship. 30 per side

40 heavy missile batteries capable of hitting capital ships or to take out attacking fighters. Each missile battery can fire six missiles every thirty seconds.

Hunter Class missiles. Small missiles used to target fighter craft.

Shrike Class missile. Standard missile with shaped heavy explosive charge.

Devastator Class missile. Large missile with tactical nuclear warhead for use against capital ships.

Conqueror Class missile. Ten-megaton nuclear warhead for use against capital ships. Missiles are very large and only used as a last resort.

240 Mark seven vipers

60 Raptors

4 Nomad Assault Shuttles

Columbia 2 Class Battlestar (Upgrade of the old Columbia Class Battlestar)

Length: 1,450 meters

Width: 450 meters

Height: 325 meters

Crew: 2,400

Marines: 200

520 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

2 Heavy bow KEW batteries

8 Medium twin KEW batteries on the upper hull

4 Medium twin KEW batteries on the lower hull

16 Dual batteries capable of firing shells or missiles

12 Missile tubes. 6 each on the starboard and port sides of the ship

120 Mark seven vipers

20 Raptors

Warstar

Length: 1,100 meters

Width: 300 meters

Height: 250 meters

Crew: 1,000

Marines: 150

Reinforced armor in all areas of the ship's hull particularly the bow

220 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

4 Heavy bow KEW batteries

20 Medium heavy single KEW batteries. Ten on each side of the ships hull

20 Dual batteries capable of firing either shells or missiles. 10 on each side of the ships hull

6 Bow missile tubes

Small landing bay on lower hull for shuttles and raptors

Firestar

Length: 1,100 meters

Width: 300 meters

Height: 275 meters

Crew: 1,150

Marines: 150

240 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

2 Heavy bow KEW batteries

20 Medium heavy single KEW batteries. Ten on each side of the ships hull

20 Dual batteries capable of firing either shells or missiles. 10 on each side of the ships hull

2 Bow missile tubes

40 Mark seven vipers (single flight pod attached to the lower hull of the ship, flight pod's outer hull is heavily armored)

6 Raptors