First Contact 10:
Sword of the Stars

Six looked at the images relayed from one of the raiders shadowing the Colonial fleet and shuddered. Some how, deep in space, they had come across an unknown starship that dwarfed even a Battlestar like the Galactica by several orders of magnitude. It was crude in design, relying on a large rotating section to provide centrifugal gravity. Observations and low-level scans had shown that the unknown was slow and under armed, but was capable of operating for several years without the support assets most Colonial or Cylon ships would need.

Next came smaller, faster, more streamlined ships whose hulls refused to yield to passive sensors. Even when one of the Raiders had been ordered to go active to get a better look, it had been unable to penetrate the ECM field put out by the newcomers. The unfortunate raider had been quickly dealt with, and several more had been hunted down and destroyed before the others went completely dark, shutting down all but their most basic systems in order to hide.

The Cylon high command was understandably worried, and had ordered a massed fleet of over a dozen Basestars to attack as soon as possible. As one of their most experienced field commanders, Six had been given the honour of leading the assault, and if they uncovered any information about the Thirtieth Tribe of mankind, to track them down and eliminate them as well.

More recon Raiders had been sent in, and had detected the arrival by some unknown form of FTL drive a new warship that was twice the length of the Galactica, and was coverd in the same sensor blocking materieal as the smaller ships. Its long, thin, almost phalic prow gave way to a triangular superstructure that ended in three long pilons. Each pilon was tiped with some kind of drive pod, if the engery reading they gave out was any clue. Still, visual scans showed very few apparent weapon emplacements, and the order was given to attack.

The Cylons were not surprised when the larger, less well armed starship left shortly after the arival of the newcomer, having already transferd a considerable about of cargo to the Colonial Remnant.

When the Basestars jumped into the system that contained the Remnant and the unknowns, they were surprised to see two more sleek looking warships, this time covered in very visible and very large gun emplacements. Each was only slightly larger than the Galactica, but they had taken up a definate defenseive position on either side of the Remnant, and dozens of fighters and shuttles swarmed around the mix of liners and bulk transports.

Six was still trying to evaluate the changed situation when the larger of the unknown warships begin transmitting in clear Caprican.

"This is Captain Matthew Gideon of the Earth Alliance Starship Excalibur to Cylon vessels. The Galactica and the ships she is escorting are now under the protection of Earth Force. Any action against them will be seen as an act of war against both the Earth Alliance and the Interstellar Alliance. Stand down immediately or we will fire."

Six paused for a moment, ill at ease: although they had anticipated a battle, even amassing the single biggest fleet of Basestars since the destruction of the twelve colonies, this 'Interstellar Alliance' sounded, troublesome. The strange appearance of some of the ships hinted at non-human origins, something the Prophets had warned about: the Cylon God was a jealous god, and given them strict instructions as to what fate awaited those who would challenge the order he brought, the obedience's he demanded.

Even thought it had been almost ten years since the Prophet had disappeared, leaving behind only the holy text, the word of God remained: order and obedience.

Six studied the alien ships carefully: something about them was nagging at the back of her brain. She scanned them as intently as she could, and was shocked to see some of the same technology that was found in ships belonging to the Prophets. This was almost sacrilegious, and only enhanced the Cylons desire to burn the strangers out of the stars: how dare they use sacred knowledge to defy God?

With only a moment's hesitation, Six ordered the attack.

Hundreds of fully armed raiders flung themselves at the smaller ships, trying to get close enough to ram. But the ships were too fast, too manoeuvrable, and their systems were resilient to the Cylon computer viruses: try as they might, the AI's were unable to corrupt their opponents systems.

The two boxier warships fire at extreme range, twin particle beams emanating from their prows. Each ship targeted a single Basestar, ripping through their heavy armour with alarming ease. Two of the Cylon fleet's most powerful and battle tested Basestars exploded before they even got in range to fire their missile loads. Six could feel the shock and anger flowing through the Cylon hive-mind, and she channelled it towards vengeance.

"I assume that you are the commander of the Cylon fleet?" A strange voice came from behind Six.

"Who are you?" The startled Cylon span round to face a cloaked human, the room around her change to a touch lit cave, "How did you get here? How did I get here?"

"Well, to answer the first question, my name is Galen. As to how I got here; well, I'm not really here. This is an Electron Incantation, a rather difficult thing to perform with someone who is not a fellow Technomage."

"That word is known to us: the Prophets spoke of you as agents of chaos and destruction..."

"Chaos does not necessarily mean destruction, as my old friend Deadlock used to say. I am, in fact, standing on the bridge of the Excalibur next to her Captain, who is rather bemused as to why I have suddenly started talking to myself in the middle of a battle. You are likewise still stood aboard your flagship. I must say that your Basestars look very pretty when they explode."

"What do you want?"

"A very dangerous question: one that can lead to all sorts of trouble, so I normally avoid answering it. But today I will make an exception: what I want is for you to go away and never come back. I have seen more than one race removed from existence in my lifetime, and I would rather not see another added to the list. So go away and I will keep the humans from following you."

"You're not human?"

"Not really: joining my order requires certain, changes. I am now more than most humans. My offer still stands, but hurry: you are fast running out of ships..."

Six managed to reconnect to the periphery of the hive mind and was shocked to see that what Galen had said was true: only her own Battlestar and a handful of Raiders remained. The enemy ships had taken damage, but were all still apparently operational.

"Last chance..." Galen spoke calmly.

"Gods will be done." Six turned to face him as her ship finally entered effective weapons range, "Burn in hell!"

The Basestar opened up with nearly its entire compliment of missiles, nuclear and conventional. Most followed a straight trajectory towards the ship now identified as the Excalibur, while others veered off to the sides before diving in, attempting to overwhelm the point-defences.

But it proved a futile plan: the Excalibur's defence grid, backed up by the secondary armament, swatted the missiles from space. Not a single one reached its target. The, with a speed and agility almost unimaginable for a ship its size, the Excalibur turned to face the one remaining Basestar nose-on. Its running lights dimmed to the point where Six thought that maybe the constant stream of computer viruses the Cylons had been transmitting may have finally taken hold.

Then the pods at the end of the ships pylons started to glow with accumulated energy. The power reading went off the chart; reaching levels beyond anything the Cylons were capable of generating. The only people Six knew who could wield such power were there Prophets, and the Cylon agents suddenly felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She had just enough time to utter a curse before the Excalibur's main gun fired, vaporising her command in an instant.

The End
(Battlestar Galactica/Crusade)

As I know that someone's going to ask, I'll give a basic comparison chart for the ships involved:
Explorer class ship, 6,103 meters long.
Warlock class Heavy Destroyer, 1,992.4 meters long
Victory class Destroyer, 2,990.31 meters long.
Whitestar class Monitor, 475.6 meters long.
Galactica type battlestar,1,414 meters long.
Sorry, but I can't find the stats for a Cylon Basestar.