AN: I'm absolutely sorry for the excessive amount of time its taken me to write and publish this chapter, and I can only hope that this meets all my loyal readers standards, and if not I can only blame myself, hopefully the next chapter should be released a hell of a lot sooner than this one... once again I'm sorry for the delay, so please enjoy!
Dreadnaught FARCRY
CIC
+ 6 months since Trial
It had taken sometime but Stryker was well on his way to recovery, the Commander had both of his knee joints replaced with Human Cylon replacements and seeing as if he was given centurion knees the replacements would've eventually ended up like his cybernetic arm, needing to be removed every so often to clean and service them.
Needless to say though the Commander still had to go through therapy and he was indebted to the Cylons for helping him keep some normality in his life, and even the public opinion of the splinter Cylons had been improved.
Walking towards the CIC the marines posted at the door soon stood at attention hearing the noise of Stryker's walking stick contacting the deck as he walked somewhat heavily towards the door, it had been the longest distance he had travelled in the last six months with no human assistance.
The posted marines stood at attention, snapping a crisp salute towards their commanding officer. "At ease marines, I'd salute you but I'd just end up on my ass even trying."
The marines chuckled somewhat at the comment and watched as said Commander shakily made it towards the door the two marines quickly opened the hatch before barking through to the CIC crew. "ATTEN-SHUN Commanding Officer on the deck!"
Each and every member of the FARCRY's CIC command stood at attention facing the Commander taking his first step into the CIC without an aide by his side, his oak walking stick supporting his weight which was unsteady at best. "Everyone, thank you for the welcome but there's, no need for it we're more of a family than a military, so everyone at ease."
"Welcome back Sir." Came Lauren's voice beside the war table. "Glad to be back, Lauren, please give me a Sitrep on the FARCRY's repairs?" Lauren smiled at the small semblance of normalcy returning, slowly but surely, the wounds of the FARCRY and her long time friend, lover and commanding officer. "EVA teams have begun reconstructing the honeycombing at a rate of four combs per six hours per team, with the addition of Cylon Centurions that the Hybrid loaned us it's increased somewhat and with the addition of the Pegasus melting down our debris for us we can focus on mass producing the necessary components that will rebuild the lost systems in those sections."
"Anything else? Anything worthy to report?" Replied Liam as he rubbed one of his knees whilst using his walking stick as a source of balance. "Both Admiral Adama and Admiral Cain are being pitted against one another by the Quorum of Twelve; they are demanding that the fleet be either given to a single Admiral or split the fleet equally between the two."
"Shit... Thanks for the update it seems like we can't get any slack from the civvies trying to push their way into military matters, alright call a meeting with all Dreadnaught Fleet commanding officers I want them in my office ASAP, I want to privately discuss this matter between us before any solid decisions can be made."
Lauren gave a singular nod, and saluted in a crisp manner. "You have the Con XO Cain." Liam saluted in return. "Aye Sir I have the Con." Finishing the salute Liam about faced and made his way from the CIC back towards his Quarters, it was slow work but he made it in good time, making himself somewhat presentable before all of the assembling Commanding Officers made their way into the office section of his quarters. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed that the QOK have decided to pit both Adama and Cain against one another for either one to either step down or be forced to split our military vessels between them, I want in depth discussions' of the Pro's and Con's of both and I want to not only see results but alternatives'." Stryker gave a quick gesture towards Lasky to follow him into his more private bunk area.
"Okay between the both of us Tom, I know we'll most likely be split between the pair of them and I'm somewhat inclined to believe that Bill will want to step down..."
"We can both agree on those assumptions, however placing Adama in command was just a temporary fix, we all knew this with the potential survival of other Colonial units, and if Nagala is as stubborn as we all know the mad Frakker is still alive and Kicking giving the Cylon Loyalists hell and no doubtedly managed to somehow pull off a death defying feat and make it through the redline like we managed."
Stryker gave a grunt in affirmation of the given statement; both he and tom personally knew that Nagala outright defied death when shoved into a corner. "There's also another matter to discuss..."
Cyberstar 003
CIC
A Pair of Cyberstar's and their first generation Basestar's escort were trailing some ways behind the Colonial Remnant fleet, each vessel was crewed by thousands of triple oh fives, it had been well over thirty years since their last recorded encounter with the colonials and standing in the nerve centre of the lead Cyberstar was fleet commander 66328-Alpha, this particular model of the Triple oh five series was charcoal black with a toxic green eye with several up armoured attachments adorning it's chassis.
And it was stood at attention sending and receiving valuable information, throughout the entirety of the fleet acting almost as if it was a central hub for the fleet almost like a portable network, scanning through the various reports of the currently trailed Colonial fleet, 66328-Alpha had run through well over sixteen thousand scenarios through eight hours collectively, and had come up with one particular scenario that lead to the possible conclusion of WHY the Colonial fleet was this far out in deep space, with one extremely damaged dreadnaught, several cruisers, double that number in destroyers a single hospital ship a lone Columbia class Battlestar and a Battlestar of unknown design, leading a fleet of mixed civilian vessels in somewhat better shape.
"It seems our cousin's have assaulted the colonials once again and have somewhat gained a victory over our creators." 66328-Alpha spoke aloud in its synthetic voice. "Agreed; though we've yet to determine the reason behind the new three series Basestar, being amongst the fleet." Spoke another triple oh five towards its commanding officer.
"It seems that through our stealth raider's communication invasive capabilities that this lone series three Basestar has splintered off from the main collective of Cylon forces." Several eyes looked towards the triple oh five CAG officer.
"What of the Centurions?"
"They have too decided enough was enough and had revolted against the human form Cylons aside from those that wanted peace with the Colonials before the now just past war." Spoke another triple oh five.
"What should our next decision be?" Spoke the second triple oh five. "We initiate contact, send escort Basestar 007 ahead of the Colonial fleet by a single FTL jump and wait for the colonial scouting parties to locate them, with our Cylon cousins heavy raiders performing joint operations they'll inform the colonials of what we are; are we all in agreement?"
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Then let our operations commence." Spoke 66328-Alpha ending the debate, moments after the orders were relayed the designated first series Basestar jumped ahead of the Cylon Independent Fleet.
Heavy Raider 788
Cylon Colonial Joint Scout Unit 6
The number six series pilot of heavy raider 788 named 'Hell Cat' by her fellow escorts and wingmen, silently piloted her ship in formation, aside from herself a number eight model named 'Lucky' was working as her ECO and two colonial raptor pilots were sat at various stations within the cockpit, in formation around heavy raider 788 were four Raiders and four Vipers two from the second series of viper the other two of the seventh series were her acting long range escorts.
They'd been on deployment for four hours and were due to RTB with their vessels in the next hour, that would be if no issues came to surface before then, that was when her ECO officer picked up a contact at extreme Dradis range, which immediately became as a flagged unknown contemplating her next move Hell Cat pushed the unknown contact further into Dradis range.
This small action gave immediate results, the flagged unknown, was found to be a known first series Basestar, of which was soon identified through a passive IFF tag as one of the 'missing' Cylon Independent Basestar's.
"Hell cat to all wings, we have a confirmed Basestar sighting within Dradis range, and IFF tags are confirmed we've found a Cylon Independent Basestar."
"Hell Cat this is Shaft are you telling us that we've stumbled across your long lost cousins? The triple oh fives." Came, the voice of a male Sagittarion pilot. "Confirmed this is a triple oh five Basestar..."
"Hold one..." Spoke the eight beside her. "We've been pinged, the triple oh fives want to open communications."
"Lock down comms people just in case they've developed the same method of invasive malware similar to the one we used against you."
"Copy last."
"Locking down comms."
With each pilot and raider giving the affirmation that comms were secure the eight made contact with the triple oh fives for the first time since the Cylon civil war.
Battlestar Galactica
CIC
"Say last transmission again Hell Cat." Adama spoke clearly into his wireless. "We've made a confirmed contact with a Cylon independent vessel; according to the commanding triple oh five we passed into their boarder six jumps back and were waiting to see our intentions before beginning communications with someone of commander rank or higher."
"We've past known Cylon space months ago their a long way from any systems Bill."
"So it seems, then we better not be the bad guest and leave them waiting, contact The FARCRY have William begin first contact procedures using the Pegasus as his vessel, I'm sure Helena wouldn't mind spending a day or two with her cousin at the command of the FARCRY." Spoke Adama towards his XO Saul.
"Alright I'll get the pair of them on the wireless and give them the rundown of the situation." Saul responded picking up his own wireless and relaying Adama's orders, since Helena stood down from her position of Admiral she took the spot of Vice Admiral with gusto, and the two commanders of both dreadnaughts were on the fast track to Commodores with Saul now taking the rank of Commander.
"Hopefully Stryker can pull another miracle out of his ass like he's done in the past." Muttered Saul as he placed his wireless into its base. "Since when hasn't he been able to pull off a miracle when it really counted?" Retorted Adama to his lifelong friend. "And best of all we've finally got ourselves a fresh batch of ambrosia, since the museum in the port pod has finally been rid of we've managed to get our first fresh fruit and vegetables supplied and guess what someone's built us a distillery."
"Only you Saul, only you." Adama muttered, since Lasky's input in providing fresh goods into the general populace came in the last meeting of the Quorum and the president it was decided that the Galactica's port pod would be one of the few designated 'farming areas' to be set up as a way to keep the population up in their vitamin's something which the staff of the hospital ship were grateful for.
And more than a few others no doubt, mixing in MRE's with the food supply was a sure way to turn a few noses at the prospect of your next meal, now it was just going to be a hassle locating the dedicated space to produce the food needed by a good majority of the populace.
Raptor Transport
En-route to the Pegasus
"Sir I sure as hell hope you'll pull another miracle off." Responded the pilot as he put the raptor on an approach vector into the Pegasus's starboard hanger three Viper mark VII Escorts taking position around the Raptor, something of a new practice for when transporting VIP to and from military vessels scattered throughout the fleet.
"So do I Lieutenant, so do I..."
To be continued.