Ten – New Finds

Massena fleet

Survivor Count: 4,319

Lieutenant Isabelle Rhodes skimmed over the top of the Massena II in her Viper Mk VII remarking how much like her previous posting, the Galactica, it was the same dark grey colour and covered in point defence turrets and anti-ship turrets. As her fighter approached the rear of the ship, she activated her wireless system "Cassiopeia to Massena LSO, permission to land."

"Permission granted Cassiopeia; you have the ball"

"Received" she said glancing at the other fighter which was passing over the Massena "Sheppard, you follow me in."

"Affirmative" her wingman in the other fighter responded. Cassiopeia nodded and as she approached the rear of the warship, she rotated her Viper in space and brought it down behind the Massena II slowly bringing the vessel forwards into the ship's compact hanger bay. Around the Massena the other ships were arranged around the warship she knew conditions on board those craft were currently not great each ship was overcrowded packed full with survivors. Even now her Commander, Matthew Boyle, was meeting with the other commanders of the fleet.

"…understand me the reason the Massena is currently not carrying civilians is because we are the fleet's primary defence." Boyle said looking around the other Captain's. "Other ships have weapons but when battles come to this fleet we will be at the forefront for the fighting. You elected me to be commander of this fleet now I must make decisions for us all."

"And what decision have you made about our course?" Janus Joon the commander of the Colonial Heavy Transport. "We cannot continue to jump between systems of the colonies in hope that we pick up more survivors, the Cylons will never stop hunting us."

"No, they will not" Boyle admitted "with the Sun Bak and Rhonda Hurst joining the fleet" he said naming the two Tyllium ships that had been named for marines who died on Minos. "We will be able to support ourselves with fuel but we still need facilities to grow additional food, none of our ships have the space required to grow crops."

"And how do you expect to find ships that could have the space for such food production?"

"There is only one place in the system likely to still have ships of this capability. The Ouranus Graveyard inside the asteroid belt. The Cylons will know that old Colonial ships have been sent there for storage they'll have defences ready for us but if we can hold them off long enough, we may be able to salvage the ships we need." Boyle said

"How will you get there and not be detected with the fleet?"

"We won't, we'll be taking a freighter and Raptors to the Graveyard. Massena will remain here with the fleet."

"You cannot hope to survive with a freighter."

"The Cylons didn't leave us with options."

Lucky 9

Survivor Count: 1,150

Elsewhere in the Twelve Colonies the Lucky 9 and the two freighters from Norda charged through Helios Gamma pursued by Cylon raiders at every turn. The support craft Justin Wilkes and his people had assembled was impressive and gave them many options. Amy Brand didn't have a clue what they were going to do with Cylons at every turn but they would do all they could to survive.

"Captain Brand to the bridge!" Came the intercom message Amy Brand ran from her quarters towards the bridge. She ran into the vessel's command deck finding Justin Wilkes standing nearby the centre of the room.

"What have we got?"

"Wreckage" Levison Wood said drawing her attention to the DRADIS screens "it appears to be a group of civilian ships, all destroyed."

"Any sign of the Cylons?" She said scanning the screens.

"Negative" Wood said

"Launch the Sweepers, I want each of the ships scanned for any sign of lifesigns" Brand commanded.

"And scan them for any supplies we can get." Wilkes commanded Brand looked at him "I know it's morbid but those ships could have supplies that we could use and the people on board them don't need the supplies anymore." He suggested Brand thought about it for a moment and nodded her agreement.

For several hours the two Sweepers moved from ship to ship scanning for survivors finding none in the six wrecked vessels. The Lucky 9's crew were able to identify several of the ships by name including the Scylla, the Beth Sell and the Tropos Gardener the other three ships were too badly damaged by Cylon attacks to be identified. From the ships they were able to salvage some cargo, food, water and fuel but most systems were too badly damaged to be of any use including all of the ships FTL systems which appeared to have been completely removed from the ships. As the Lucky 9 and the other two ships slipped away Amy Brand broadcast a message to all three ships.

"In this time of great hardship these souls of the Twelve Colonies are committed to the Gods and Eternal Peace. We each pray to the Gods that they embrace these people and give them life eternal far from where harm can be caused. So say we all." She said cutting the message off "prepare for an FTL jump as soon as we are clear of the wreckage field."

"Where are we going?" Wilkes asked

"We need to find somewhere to hide from the Cylons."

"Norda would have done nicely" Wilkes pointed out "if we could have fit everyone down there." He admitted unfortunately as soon as someone discovered the Lucky 9 the Cylons would also discover those on Norda they needed to find somewhere they'd all fit in.

The Dagmar jumped into the area near the Colonial's ship graveyard deep inside the asteroid belt and immediately the Hunter and four Raptors detached. Onboard the Hunter Commander Matthew Boyle sat in the ship's compact command deck which resembled the forward section of a Raptor. Behind there was a connecting corridor that led to the weapons sections to port starboard and the rear in between there was a shared recreation area where they could rest if the Hunter was on a long deployment though Boyle didn't plan on this one lasting long.

"Boyle to Raptors hold back we're going in first. Dagmar, remain in high orbit." He commanded bringing the Hunter down towards the asteroid below while the freighter and four Raptors remained in position. As the Hunter approached the ground, they could see several of the ships below were damaged or in the process of being broken down. "Someone has been selling parts of these ships right under the Colonial Military's noses." Suddenly weapons fire erupted from the ground impacting on the ship's hull several slammed against the bulbous cockpit of the ship. Boyle threw the controls to the right moving the ship out of the way of the defence fire he didn't need to make the command to fire immediately both side gunnery positions opened fire. "What do we have?"

"Looks like Centurions the Cylons have left behind to guard this place." One of the gunners responded "one down."

"Make that two" the other side gunner said from the rear of the ship the third gunner opened fire taking out another of the Centurions. In front of the Hunter Boyle saw four more Centurions setting up on one of the wrecked Colonial ships flicking a couple of switches in the cockpit released two missiles from the underside of the Hunter. As soon as the missiles were clear of the ship their engines ignited and flew straight to target taking out the four Centurions.

"That'll do nicely" Boyle said seeing a target that would fit their purpose "Raptor One and Two target is Grid 42." He said seeing the military freighter sitting the ship looked like it had some of its armour removed but was still intact. "Exercise extreme caution we're still mopping up the Centurions." He commanded continuing to move the Hunter over the graveyard searching for another ship. One either side of the ship and to the rear the gunners continued to fire down on the on the Cylon guards.

"They must have communication with the other Cylons." His co-pilot said

"Agreed" Boyle said seeing the communication circuit from the Dagmar was active.

"Dagmar, go ahead."

"Commander, we have a situation up here" the Captain of the Dagmar said "another Colonial ship has jumped in it appears to be a Botanical Cruiser."

"You're frakking kidding me!" He snapped a Botanical Cruiser was exactly what they needed somewhere with bio domes capable of growing the crops that the fleet would need. "Challenge and gain the ID!" He said launching another pair of missiles at ground targets.

"They identify as the Thaumaturge with four hundred and thirty-one souls on board." Dagmar responded "sir, they say they are willing to follow our commands."

"Fantastic, have them fall into formation with you." Boyle said hugging the co-pilot beside him, luck appeared to be with them but it wasn't a time for mistakes. "Do not broadcast the fleets location to them until the Cylons show up or we return allow them to move into formation and render any assistance you need to."

"Affirmative, Commander, Dagmar out." He said as Boyle shifted the position of the Hunter over the asteroid continuing to search for another ship.

"Switch in priority we can put food on that ship and the freighter, I want to find something with guns big damned guns." He said bringing the ship over the asteroid continuing their search for now the Cylon Centurions appeared to have been eliminated.

"Freighter Carnot to Boyle we're ready to go." The crew from the newly acquired military freighter said as the ship slowly began to rise from the ground.

"We'll cover you" Boyle said as he spied another target "there! I want that one!" He snapped spying a ship surrounded by wrecks "Raptors Three and Four move from escort to location Grid Six-Two and take Minotaur-class Gunship. The Cylons are keeping a low head move fast and smart."

"Understood Commander, we're moving in" the lead Raptor pilot said as the two remaining small craft left the Dagmar and moved into the atmosphere heading for the small ship. The Carnot rose away from the asteroid heading for the Dagmar as further contacts jumped in to the space nearby the Hunter's sensors identified them immediately.

"Hunter to Dagmar, we have four Cylon Raiders that just jumped into local space as soon as the Carnot and Thaumaturge are in position I want you to jump to the fleet the code of the day is Fallout. Stonagel will know what that means. Raptors Three and Four abandon Minotaur salvage, turn and take up our wings we're going after those Raiders."

As the freighter approached the Dagmar and Thaumaturge the three ships began charging their FTL Drives while the Hunter and two Raptors approached the Cylon raiders. As they did missiles from the Raiders flew out towards the Hunter only for the weapons mounted onboard the Hunter to shoot them down. The Cylons quickly adapted increasing their closing speed to engage with guns but both Raptors and the Hunter retaliated firing six missiles between them downing three of the four Raptors, the fourth continued to close as the three civilian ships behind the Hunter escaped.

"Raptors Three and Four jump clear of the system" Boyle ordered knowing that it would leave the Hunter behind to take on the last Cylon raider alone and knowing it would leave the Hunter stranded here without an FTL drive. Neither of the Raptor pilots questioned the order and jumped clear from the system. Quickly the distance between the Hunter and the Raider diminished until they were engaged in close quarters the Raider attempted to attack the Hunter from the side where only one of the turrets could engage but Boyle was ready for the Raider's move and expertly turned the ship in space allowing the gunners to bring their guns on target destroying the incoming Raider. Wreckage from the ship bounced off the Hunter but they were no threat to the Hunter.

"DRADIS contact!" His co-pilot called out "it's the Agosta he said naming the Adamant-class Frigate which would be large enough to carry the Hunter on one of its external docking ports it would be a slow process but they'd get the job done. "Further DRADIS contact three Capital Ship sized craft!"

"Contact the Agosta, order them to jump away."

"Message over all standard communication frequencies."

"This is Amy Brand commander of the Colonial Postal Transport ship Lucky 9 to unidentified Adamant-class Frigate and Hunter craft, identify yourselves immediately." The female voice said Matthew Boyle's face broke from one of tension to one of joy as he and his co-pilot exchanged a look of recognition of the voice.

"Amelia Brand you daughter of a frakker what are you doing here?" Boyle transmitted knowing he'd get a reaction from her which came close to the joy he felt at this moment.

"Nice to see your alive wee man" another voice, this one male, said over the frequency it took Boyle a moment to recognise it but when he did he sat up straight his hand reaching for the weapons controls before he stopped himself. "I think we need to talk, Captain."