Battlestar Galactica:New Beginnings

by Phoenix4416

Now an original book on amazon called Ashes of Humanity: Phoenix. The Graystones survived in secrecy preparing for the Cylons possible return, then one day 40 years after armistice was signed, the Cylons launched their assault on the Colonies. Would their preparations be enough to turn the tide of war? would the colonies be forced to run and if they did would more survive?

11. Chapter 11 Honour, Blood and death

Sorry it's taken a while to get this chapter together, it's actually two chapters combined just couldn't work out where to have a break and was watching Olympics and paralympics. The Battle also didn't seem to want to come together and I was just going to cut it altogether. I'm also introducing one new and one established character. HAVE JUST UPDATED WITH THE BATTLE THAT I WANTED, SORRY IF YOU ARE HAVING TO READ IT AGAIN BUT THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT IN THE LONG RUN, ONE IN PARTICULAR.

Blood, Honour and Death

Ragnar Anchorage

Battlestar Galactica

Drifting at the edge of the green clouds that were the border of a slowly rotating hurricane that had trawled it's way across the Gas Giant of Ragnar for centuries, Lieutenant Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace sat watching and waiting for any sign of the Cylons or Colonials jumping in. Nearby, equally well hidden were two Assault Raptors and a wing of Mk-II Vipers. It wasn't the fact that the Colonies were again at war with the Cylons that had Kara confused. No, instead it was the fact that since the death of Galactica's CAG she had been given the job ahead of the handful of Captains that still survived. The Old Man had said that it was because he needed someone he could count on that was not just willing but able to lead from the front and know which Pilots needed help or where she or they needed to be. Most of all, the Old Man needed a CAG that could inspire the other Pilots. All of these aspects have to be instinctual; they just can't be learnt anywhere near as well. It was just hard for Kara not to experience a strong, sickening feeling of guilt knowing that she didn't deserve this after what happened with Zac.

Suddenly bright flashes started to flare before her. Double checking that she was operating in silent running and that she could be at full power at the flip of a single switch, Kara waited until her Dradis announced these new contacts as the warships of Battlestar Group Sixteen plus one unknown contact (New Basestars are known by the war book). Using her manoeuvring thrusters to turn her Viper around, she flash-coded who the contacts could be and for Racetrack to set off back to the Galactica in order to warn them. Turning her Viper back around and using her targeting scope's magnification, she made out multiple squadrons worth of Vipers, mainly Mk-II's, launching not from a single Battlestar, but from every Battlestar. These Vipers then started to form up into individual formations just off the Battlestar Group. However, three Vipers set off towards the eye of the slowly rotating hurricane that Kara was orbiting in her hidden position. Coming to rest 2km away from her and making Kara feel uneasy in their approach, she saw the lead Viper start flashing a message to her. Deciphering it as;

"[Battle]star group sixteen and Nemea to Galactica. Priority one message [for] Galactica Actual. Galactica['s] assistance required at Leonis. Major counter-attack underway. Request verbal communications. [Signed] AGS Captain David Cain Battlestar Defiant. Pilot Code Epsilon Bet Omicron 4 2 5.".

Seeing the signatory and having memorised his code from the amount of times she'd read it in the Academy where she trained Cain (normally have to re-transmit pilot code back to Galactica for verification), Kara felt a hint of surprise and a smile creep across her face. Having been authorised to make verbal contact with any verified Colonial contacts, but wanting to be cautious in case this was all part of some elaborate Cylon trap (although, Admiral Adama had told her that there was a chance that if BSG16 turned up then they would possibly be flying Mk-II's), Starbuck flipped her Viper over and flashed her intentions to the hidden Vipers and Raptors, then fully powered her Viper up and flew towards the three BSG16 Vipers.

"Phoenix, Starbuck. Code is verified and Galactica Actual is being informed of your arrival. Expect a reply within a minute. You are not to use long range communications, use short range only and until I receive orders from Galactica Actual then you are not to approach closer than 1km from the eye. It's good to see you Phoenix".

"Starbuck, Phoenix. Understood and it's good to see you too".

Galactica CIC

"We need to use what time we can get to our advantage in case things don't go to our advantage. That's why I'm sending Nemea to Virgon in order to oversee the evacuation. Hopefully this won't be necessary but I have my orders. Commander Stiles, you won't have long to perform an evacuation, so make your priority food, medical supplies, Tylium and children. If I know Nagala, then he would have had the defensive satellites placed on manual control, so if he has then you are to position yourself within their protection, and at the first sign of a Cylon attack you are to jump as soon as possible. I also need you to leave all of your tugs behind, you shouldn't have much need of them and Virgon has Tugs of it's own", Admiral Adama ordered over the short range wireless while he waited for BSG16's Vipers to finish being loaded into their respective Battlestars and for the scout Raptors he had dispatched to Leonis to return.

Continuing to read the numerous reports, most of them little more than a paragraph collated from throughout the fleet, Adama pieced together new orders as he went, his many years in the service now proving their worth in his new position as an Admiral, "I understand there are still ships that can be brought back into service at the Boneyards, so I'm dispatching the Yarbrough and the tugs there. We need any ship that can be brought back into service with the least amount of effort. Battlestars, destroyers, marinestars, mining ships, civilian transports, anything that can be brought back into service with the minimal effort. We're going to lose a lot of ships at Leonis and the ability to have a fresh fleet ready after the battle is necessary. Once you have the ships then you are to jump to the following co-ordinates…" Dee transmitted the co-ordinates, "…and await word from the rest of the fleet".

Caprica Orbit

Medstar Panacea fleet

Medstar Panacea under Command of Commander Acheron (reactivated Commission) and 'guided' by civilian Tamalyn Adams (Tamara Adama)

Above the boiling, dust choked skies of Caprica, almost like a stark testament to the ferocious battle which had claimed so many lives, were the fractured hulls of many defeated Colonial ships. Distress calls still carried across the distance from Pilots clinging to hope in either dead Vipers and Raptors or in their ejection seats, this was one of the most feared ways to die for a pilot, alone, where every breath is using up their limited supply of oxygen and their heating systems are degrading. It seemed that all they had left was the torture of waiting for death to finally take them. Then came hope as more than a hundred ships jumped in centred around the Medstar Panacea. The formation was sloppy, evidence that the crews were out of practice, this was further supported by the fact that it took almost a minute before the first Vipers and Raptors started to launch. But in the end, to those trapped, dying in space, none of this mattered, what did matter was that help was here. As Raptors rushed to the pilots transponder beacons another group of Raptors broke off and headed down towards Caprica, these Raptors were followed a couple of minutes later by more than half of the Medstar's fleet of primarily civilian and private security ships (Leonis estates sparkling wines and Enterprise Solutions). These ships headed in on trajectories that took them towards what were once some of the most heavily populated cities on Caprica, now they were little more than empty shells, skyscrapers and the majority of the infrastructure still stood in many of these cities, but where once there was a thriving population considered to be the driving force of the twelve colonies there was now barely a handful of survivors. That is except in a handful of locations.

"Ma'am we have Amanda on the line" Ensign Ballard called out from his new position at the comm board.

Tamara, not much changed in her Tauron appearance despite the extra five genetic years on her new body, picked up the handset and activated channel 1. "The time came that the eagles left the nest…" Tamara spoke the code phrase into the microphone.

"…Whispers singing off their wings", Amanda replied finishing the recognition code.

Glad to know that Amanda didn't need to be resurrected but with time running out Tamara continued, "What's the status of our people?"

Her voice crackling on the wireless, a result of the intense EM fields and radiation waves dominating Caprica's atmosphere, Amanda replied "We've lost a lot of people, too many…Gods, only a quarter survived, most of the others died before the nukes hit. The Cylons have some sort of biological machine acting as the Basestars MCP…I'll tell you more later, right now we need to get the survivors out. You should have the locations of all the bunkers…" (As a safety precaution, it was decided long before the Cylons returned that locations of bunkers, assets and safe havens wouldn't be transmitted over the wireless in case the Cylons were listening in. As such they memorised every location).

"The first SAR birds are en route to all locations, eta 1 minute. Any word on Cyrus?"

"Not yet, he was at the CORA labs when the bombardment began. If he hasn't resurrected by now then he should be in one of the labs bunkers".

Battlestar Galactica

Gripping the side of the plot table as dozens of intense hammer-like explosions rocked his ship; Admiral Adama searched the dradis monitors and his tactical feeds for anything that could aid them in this battle, whether it be a sign of weakness in the Cylon ships or correcting a flaw in Colonial manoeuvres. Two things were clear, as surprised as the Cylons had been when he jumped them, they were quickly starting to adapt and the Cylon Basestars were far more agile than a Battlestar, agile to an unprecedented degree for a ship of it's size.

Having just ordered his ships to turn towards the Cylon Fleet rather than continue it's broadside run on them, Adama saw the opening he needed as a Basestar that had been covering two others exploded as the Galactica's bow batteries slammed their heavy anti-ship rounds into it's already heavily damaged central section. "Helm, maximum speed on course 107 carom 251. Have Hunter cover Hades' upper starboard quarter and drop Talon and Defiant back two kilometres with a 4 kilometre separation. Calypso, Useb and Arrow take up covering positions between Galactica and Defiant and have the rest of the support ships stay with their assigned ships…" seeing the seconds ticking away before the dive into death and needing to have his small fleet prepared, Adama continued, "…this is going to be a fast attack people, have the pilots informed they need to be aware of their positions relative to the fleet, we can't turn back".

Even while the Cylons were trying to manoeuvre their Basestars into position to block the hole in their formation, the changing Colonial formation fired everything it had from it's bow and side batteries as it slipped into the weakened spot. Gout's of flame and deadly metal covered the dwindling area between the two fleets. Basestars at the leading edge of the armada franticly tried to reorient themselves so that their relatively undamaged aspects were presented to the Colonial fleet, but in the chaos of the maelstrom of shots heading their way, explosions pocketed the damaged Cylon warships, the rotations only serving to exacerbate the damage until, by the time Galactica had passed beyond the threshold the Basestars started to explode, showering space with their debris. The damage wasn't one sided, of the thousands of missiles constantly being fired at the Colonial warships, dozens were making their way through the barriers of flak and Vipers to collide against the well armoured warships. Armoured hull plating started to corrupt at its seams, weakening the underlying colonial superstructures. Internal pipes carrying the lifeblood of the warships in the form of Tylium, coolant and oxygen were being shook hard in their mountings threatening to break free as DC teams struggled to contain them and fix a dozen other problems at the same time. Things would have been a lot worse if not for the Gunstar Loki providing covering fire for the Galactica.

Even though the Basestars around this new entry point were starting to fall in ever increasing numbers as damage accrued across their surfaces, there was still more than enough to strike fear into the rest of Battlestar Group Sixteen. Following close behind Galactica and her newly acquired escort, the heavily damaged Battlestar Hades with the Battlestar Hunter covering her starboard side started trading blows with the Cylons. Seeing the weakness in Hades starboard side, the Cylons did everything they could to exploit it, concentrating most of their fire towards these 'tears' in the battlestar's skin. Walls of flak were redirected from both Hades and Hunter's point defences in order to take down this overwhelming volume of missiles, and it was working, to a point. But then the numbers started to work in the Cylons favour as missile after missile started slamming into the hull around the damaged sections. Plumes of air and geysers of fire erupted from these cracks in Hades armour, fragments of cracked hull plating and debris rocketed away from Hades as the damage exponentially increased. But most of this was thankfully superficial to a certain extent, prior to the start of the battle these sections had been evacuated and locked down, thanks to these measures the damage to the Battlestar was significant and it was getting worse but it was in fact worse than it looked. The same could not be said for the Basestars which were taking a severe pounding from Hades, Hunter and their escorts and then came a momentry reprieve before the Battlestars Talon and Defiant passed through this chaotic entry point. Struggling to keep up with the fleet were the hundreds of Vipers and Raptors launched by the Battlestar Group, each one rapidly running out of ammunition, fuel and more importantly their lives as they passed through radiation rich space or were gunned down by Heavy Raiders, friendly fire or dozens of different methods.

Accelerating as hard as he could in order to keep up with the Battlestar Group, Phoenix passed into the deadly fields of fire caused by the thousands of missiles fired at BSG16, the shifting shots of the Colonial warships and the explosions of missiles that were exploding prematurely. Keeping his distance from the Battlestars so as to keep himself from being killed by the missiles impacting them, he chased after the fleet. Flashes littered space as Vipers exploded from stray shots and deadly shrapnel hit them, clouds of bright gas burst forth from a nearby Basestar engulfing the dozens of heavy raiders near it and choking them in deadly fire and debris. This debris combined with the debris of at least a half dozen other Basestars that were being chewed up in this deadly entry by the Colonial ships, was travelling at hypersonic velocities, some of it headed into the paths of the Colonial ships, in effect it was much harder to travel through this area and not get hit than it was to travel through a dense asteroid belt. Jinking his viper up as he caught sight of the Viper in front of him exploding as it was speared by a missile, Phoenix felt his Viper judder as shrapnel impacted his underside when either that missile exploded or a hundred other possible occurences, he just didn't have time to think. Suddenly a Viper to his left, crumpled at the nose and was catapulted backwards as a damaged Heavy Raider collided with it head on. Phoenix wanted to reassure his pilots in Mohican Squadron's Green wing, but he didn't have the time, nor the nerve to distract them. For the umpteenth time his viewport dimmed as another nuclear missile exploded ahead of him, taking out gods knows how many viper and raptor pilots before dying down. Phoenix knew that enough hulls would remain that he was forced to activate his wireless and hope any nearby Pilots heard him, "All pilots, Phoenix. Slip in behind Galactica's engines, I repeat slip in behind Galactica's engines". Forcing a huge burst of gas from his manoeuvring jets while double checking his dradis, Phoenix pulled across the battlefield, narrowly avoiding the corrupted hull of a possible Raptor which crashed against Galactica before he entered the calm that was being dragged by Galactica. Debris and missiles still came from the sides but it was far safer than ploughing into the debris of past ships, something that dozens of other pilots must have firmly believed as they started flocking behind Galactica while keeping clear of the deadly energies spewing out of her powerful engines. Smashing through the hull of his cockpit, a jagged shiny and bloody piece of metal narrowly avoided ripping Cain's arm off as it was halted by his hull making Cain thank the Gods for small miracles. The amount of debris sweeping through suddenly died down, meaning only one thing to Phoenix, "All Vipers/Phoenix, get a wingman and take up guard positions".

Pulling out of the relative safety of Galactica's rear and into the deadly battles that plagued many Viper pilots and heavy raiders, Phoenix heard over the crackle of his wireless, "Phoenix/Defiant, Contact [has] been [lo]st with Morpheus and [Ro]cker. You are now in command of Mohican Squadron"

Even while Defiant was contacting Phoenix, Basestars started to close on the rapidly moving Colonial ships, risking damage and quite possibly destruction from the colonials if they could just do the same in return, and due to the Cylons having completely surrounded the Colonials, the fleet ships were no longer able to concentrate their point defences into tight corridors of firepower meaning more missiles were hitting their marks.

CAPRICA

OUTSKIRTS OF DELPHI

CORA LABS (CLONED ORGAN RESEARCH AND ADVANCEMENT)

The deafening screech of metal on concrete echoed throughout the dark, dust choked corridors of this long disused bunker as a heavy blast door was shifted. A beam of light was scattered by the billions of dust motes flooding the atmosphere and then the familiar cock of a gun's hammer being drawn back was heard. A crouched figure, the bearer of said gun and torch, shifted his focus back behind him, "It seems clear for now, I need you all to stay behind me. Those with torches spread yourselves along the line, and I want guns to the front and centre. Everyone take 2 emergency bags. And whatever you do, do not touch the walls or doors and do not make a noise; chances are this whole place could collapse any moment. All right, follow me".

The elderly, darkened skinned male moved forward and into the gloomy corridor closely followed by more than 200 humans, all of them civilians and many dressed in white lab coats. An uneasy crunch echoed throughout the complex as shoes crushed small divots of concrete underfoot. Torch beams were waived about, taking in everything around them until at last the group had walked a hundred and fifty metres in an upwards slope and had reached a heavy set of blast doors. To the right of the doors were two dials, and an old telephone, one of these dials was a simple clock whilst the other had three coloured sections (green, amber and red). Approaching the coloured dial, the elderly man took a close look at the radiation gauge before saying, "The radiation levels are at a thousand rems, it's survivable but you need to keep yourselves topped up with anti-rad injections every 8 hours. All right lets…" At that very moment 4 bangs echoed from the heavy blast doors, there was a pause and then 2 more, another pause and 3 more.

The elderly man recognised the sequence immediately and moved to pick up the phone while most of the people behind him shrank further back down the corridor, fearful of what may be on the other side of the door. Those with guns on the other hand, felt a small measure of security and copying what they had learnt from hundreds of movies, took up positions around the door, positions that if there were Cylons on the other side, would mean almost instant death to the defenders. Picking up the phone, the elderly man listened to the voice on the other end before he pulled a lever next to the door which started pulling the door into a recess. At the same time he said, "Relax, they're friendlies" putting the defenders at ease.

A toxic yellow beam of sunlight blasted into the corridor from the opening door, both the beam and the door enlarging every instant. Silhouetted in the centre were three large figures with more at the very periphery of the doors and in the distance could be heard the unmistakeable hum of a collection of Raptors. Stepping forward, the central silhouette stepped into the light of the defenders torches revealing that he was at least six foot, strongly built and dressed in Enterprise Solutions security gear, cradled in both his arms was an AR-72 assault rifle (a gun favoured in the first Cylon war and still sought after today). Stepping forward and shaking the elderly man's outstretched hand, the security guard said with a deep timbre to his voice "I'm glad to see you survived Cyrus, we thought something had gone wrong with your resurrection". As he made to reply the security guard stopped him short, "We don't have the time sir; right now we need to get you all out of here. The Medstar Panacea is in orbit and I have some techies moving to the mainframe right now. Here's a secure line to Tamara", he handed an advanced military Satellite phone to Cyrus before turning to the survivors.

Speaking into the phone, Cyrus, one of Daniel Graystone's oldest friends, the man who put his own life on the line when he protected them from a corrupt GDD agent on the eve of a planned terrorist bombing listened in as Tamara revealed just how badly the colonies had been hit and how the Battle of Leonis was taking shape.

Battlestar Group 16

Accelerating down the Galactica's launch tubes, fresh on ammunition and fuel Cain was thrust right back into the deadly cat and mouse that was taking place between Vipers and Heavy Raiders. Tearing after him as soon as both he and his newly acquired wingman left their tubes, his wingmate's Viper was chewed up by the Heavy's Chain Guns before it turned it's fire on Phoenix. Twisting his stick right and then feeding, then rapidly rotating it as he fed gas to his manoeuvring jets, Cain's Viper spun around a horizontal axis narrowly avoiding the deadly rounds that were being churned out by the Heavy before Phoenix spun his Viper in a tight 180 degree arc with the added momentum from his spin. Pulling his trigger near the end of his rapid 180 degree turn, Phoenix shattered the red tinted line of glass that seemed to serve as the Heavy's eye when his line of shots ran across the Heavy's bow. Phoenix grinned at the resulting explosion before throwing himself onto the wing of a passing Viper without knowing who it was. Debris from a hundred different explosions danced off of Cain's Viper as he automatically locked onto the strongest wireless signal (usually the closest ships or the largest) and identified the Pilot as Captain Talia "Aquila" Reynolds. A thick pall of black smoke billowed from her rear port engine and her entire portside wing had been torn off, it was testament to both the Mark 2 and the pilot that she was still flying. Cain caught her fire at a passing Heavy Raider, scoring a direct hit on it's flank but not damaging it.

Depressing his "talk" button, "Aquila, Phoenix. I'm on your starboard wing, you ha…" without any warning a ribbon of small explosions started to bleed towards Aquila's upper engine, "…Aquila, eject, eject, eject". Throwing his Viper away from Aquila's Viper, Phoenix saw the upper engine belch a blue flame at the same time the canopy was blown off it's hinges and the pilot was shot out, suddenly the entire ship exploded in a deadly cloud of flame as the main fuel tanks exploded. Pulling around the fireball, Cain saw a new beacon appear on his dradis alerting any nearby recovery Raptor that Aquila was alive. Cain new the Raptors had less than 30 seconds to pick up the Pilot before they would be out of protective range of the fleet.

Noting a Viper without an escort racing after a Heavy Raider carrying nukes, Phoenix sped towards them as fast as he could, making out the Viper's shots connecting and destroying the Heavy Raider but not before the nuclear payload was launched. Turning in a short arc towards the viper as it fired off a couple of salvo's destroying two of the three nukes, Phoenix had to twist his stick sharply to the right in order to avoid a collision with a passing Viper travelling in reverse as it fired everything it had into the bow of an attacking heavy raider. Twisting round himself, Cain followed the Viper pilot in a similar attack on the Raider, seeing how the heavy raider was retaliating in kind with a continuous salvo from it's chain guns peppering the other pilot. Then the heavy started opening it's missile bay as it closed on Galactica at the same time as Cain heard Starbuck transmit, "Shit! Galactica - you've got an inbound nuke! All Vipers - BREAK BREAK BREAK!"

Knowing he couldn't risk the Heavy Raider launching it's missiles at Galactica, Cain sped forward, jinking away from the chain gun's fire while delivering as much pain as he could with his own guns. Expelling a burst of gas from his rear dorsal and forward ventral manoeuvring jets, Phoenix was thrown into an incredibly fast arc allowing him to get an angle on the heavy raider's ventral section and in particular it's open missile bay. Firing everything he had into this small section, Phoenix managed to destroy not only the missiles but the heavy raider itself before he tore after Starbuck.

Galactica CIC

Hearing the warning of yet another inbound nuke, Adama started calling out orders to his crewmembers, "Right bow, left stern…emergency full. All ships continue on course…Brace for impact", Adama was by now wondering when their luck would end, would this, the third nuclear missile be the killer blow.

Even as the Galactica twisted and turned away from the nuke, it impacted and a star was born…

Thrown to his knees, the lights in the CIC flickering, Adama made out a gut wrenching sound and multiple explosions in some distant part of his ship. Dragging himself to his feet before most of his crew could he called out "Damage report", he knew it was bad this time.

"Galactica/Starbuck, if you're reading me, the forward section of the port flight pod has sustained heavy damage, I'm seeing multiple fires and explosive decompressions".

Listening in and knowing that comms would be patchy at best due to the radiation, Phoenix called out, "Starbuck/Phoenix, move your Vipers into a covering position around Galactica, I'll do the same. I've got your wing".

"Roger that, Phoenix. Vigilantes, fall in. Galactica's a bit patchy on her port side so let's lend a helping hand. Shoot down anything that approaches".

At the same time, Phoenix activated his own wireless, "Defiant/Phoenix, we need a new landing resupply point for Vigilante Squadron out of Galactica. Galactica's port flight pod has taken extensive damage".

Turning with Starbuck as both she and the rest of the Vigilantes filled space around Galactica, he kept pace as Defiant's comms operator replied, "Phoenix/Defiant, Starbuck/Defiant, Vigilante's are free to resupply at Battlestar Hunter. Mohican Squadron is also to assist Galactica. Out…Longshot/Defiant, you are…"

"Understood. Mohican Squadron/Phoenix, redeploy around Galactica. If you need to, then resupply now, Hunter is free". As fast as Vigilante squadron had filled in the space around the wounded Galactica and Mohican squadron started pulling out of their own battles, linking up with the rest of their squadron and accelerating towards Galactica, the massing ranks hitting the flanks of a great many Heavy Raiders that sought to exploit Galactica's weakened state.

"Vigilantes/Starbuck, lets stop Mohican stealing all our kills". Turning with Starbuck, Phoenix sped ahead of her, and within seconds opened fire on a passing Heavy scoring a series of hits along it's rear starboard quarter before he turned with it only to see Starbuck's own shots finish the job. Glancing a target on his dradis, Phoenix accelerated into his turn bringing both himself and Starbuck onto the upper rear of a damaged Heavy spewing black smoke, opening up with both guns on this damaged section, successfully igniting the Heavy Raider's Tylium. Almost instantly the Heavy Raider seemed to split in two as the rear section burst into flame and the forward section was rocketed away to explode a few seconds later. Starbuck tore past Phoenix and pulled 'up' as she caught sight of a Heavy chasing after a Viper that had lost it's wingman. Firing a short burst at the rapidly moving ship and scoring only a glancing hit, Starbuck cut her speed in order to steady her aim while she fired a second and third burst of deadly fire which strafed and then cracked the Heavy's door, hitting the internal compartment and destroying the brain as the cold vacuum of space froze it.

Catching up with Starbuck, Phoenix heard, "Speedster/Starbuck, get on my tail and follow us until you find another wingman".

Caprica Far orbit

Civilian Fleet

Colonial One

Minute by minute civilian ships were brought into range of the Colonial Civilian Fleet that had been started by newly sworn in President Roslin. It seemed that from the windows of Colonial One and as far as the eye could see there were ships seemingly blocking out the stars. It was an impressive sight, one not seen in the entire history of Colonial Society, but looking at it all, Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama knew that it was something much more than an impressive sight, it was a target, one of the biggest targets ever seen and that was despite the military ships now taking up positions throughout the formation. These weren't Battlestars and heavy cruisers, instead they were little more than ten picket ships. Near the centre of the formation lay the two largest ships, neither of them true warships, but both of them heavily armoured and armed and just smaller than a Valkyrie class Battlestar, these ships were Marinestars, designed for tactical insertions in the heat of battle, however in ship to ship combat they were little better than a heavy cruiser. They did however have three advantages, they had two flightpods each that primarily carried Raptors, the Marinestars could forcibly dock with conceivably any ship or installation and most importantly the Marinestars were designed for atmospheric entry.

Flying throughout the fleet like a swarm of gnats and docking with every civilian ship were Raptors filled to overflowing with Marines. At each ship three Marines were let off along with their gear and anybody deemed of vital importance was taken aboard before the Raptors moved on. These Marines would act as military liaison officers on board these ships.

"We'll be jumping in a few minutes, Captain", a strong male voice carried from the hatch. Apollo knew who it was straight away, for he now knew that he was no longer the senior military officer around here, he wasn't even close. Turning to face not a marine but a well-respected Colonial army General that had, until less than an hour ago, been retired from active duty and working a desk job. General Antonius was however, a veteran of the first war when he was a Colonel, and due to his experiences and the tactical mind-set he employed in both ground and fleet warfare added to the fact that in his old age (62 although due to his genes and the way he lived his life he could still pass for 50) he wouldn't be best spent on the Colonies, Nagala had ordered him and two battalions here.

"Any word on Leonis, sir?" Apollo asked knowing that the war would be won or lost at Leonis and that there wasn't anything he could do about it. He felt so inadequate at not being able to fight when other Colonials were dying on the other side of the Colonies; there was nothing worse for a pilot or any military officer for that matter than having to sit out a vital battle.

Shaking his head at the whole situation, General Antonius handed the Captain a tactical laptop displaying the battle summary and replied, "Courtesy of the Cicero Royal Barge which just jumped in, it appears that we're winning. Up until a few minutes before they jumped, Nagala was being hard pressed by the Cylons but somehow was slowly turning the battle to his advantage by flanking the Cylons on the left and right flanks and using the picket ships to cover his ass. Then your father jumped in along with Battlestar Group Sixteen, hitting the Cylons rear and forcing them towards Nagala when we want. That's when the results really start to look promising; especially with the Cylons now losing ships faster than us. To be honest son, we aren't likely to get a better chance of defeating the Cylons than what your father just gave us, but I don't want to take the chances that victory is assured, because it isn't. We've been here far too long to be safe; the only reason I stayed longer was so I could get my people on every ship out there and evacuate the rest".

"I understand, sir".

Seeing the look of loss that was creasing the Captain's face, Antonius said, "You should be proud of your father, he's taken the pride of the Colonies into the heart of the battle. Just hope that you don't get your chance, son. Because if you do, it means we have probably already lost", with that said the General turned and walked back through the hatch and towards the cockpit leaving Lee to mull over his words and really think about just what his father had sacrificed for both him and Zak, as well as what he was continuing to sacrifice for not just Lee but the Colonies. For once, Lee wished that they had parted on better terms.

Watching him from the rear hatch of the cabin, President Roslin saw the boy that Lee still was and remembered the coldness she saw that seemed to exist between the Adamas on the Galactica. She then watched him as he moved towards the stairs leading to the hanger bay and had to force herself to turn away from him and back towards her own duties, namely keeping the Praetorian Guard out of her hair while she struggled to figure out just what her people needed and who had survived.

Below in the small Hangar Bay of Colonial One, the recently arrived Raptor piloted by Boomer, emptied itself of the tightly packed refugees it had brought from Caprica. Boomer upon seeing Captain Adama approach, went over to talk to him, taking Doctor Baltar with her. However, the young mother seemed to shrink away into the recesses of the Hangar, glad to be caught up in the flow of Refugees and Praetorian Guard.

Galactica CIC

Captain Kelly and Chief Tyrol stood by the main DC console trying to work their way through the mass of damage reports that were feeding their way to them but with one main objective in mind which was to contain a deadly fire in the port landing bay. As Colonel Tigh made his way over to them he caught the tail end of Kelly saying "…tell him to secure the oxygen lines on the starboard relay!" Tyrol relayed the orders to the crews on the ground, barely acknowledging Tigh as he entered.

Tigh, moving towards a diagram of the Galactica pointed at a number of flashing dots in the port bay, "There's structural buckling all along this line! We've gotta get those fires out!"

Kelly, well aware of the situation responded, "I know-I know! But fire suppressant's down. Water mains are down. We're trying to fight it with handheld gear, but…" Kelly was unable to finish as Tyrol looking up from a report he'd been listening to, interrupted "Got another decompression in the launch bay!"

Kelly, glad to have a senior officer with him, even if it was Tigh, asked "What are your orders, sir?" Tigh didn't respond, worrying Kelly "Sir?" Tigh continued to hesitate, risking the lives of not just the DC teams but everyone on board the ship. Kelly and Tyrol seeing that the Colonel had frozen and was more of a deadly hindrance than a help, exchanged a look. As the senior officer out of the two of them Kelly took over issuing orders to Tyrol. Tigh glanced back at Adama, wishing that his old friend had never asked him to become his XO, wishing that he was helping Tigh make the hard choices. This was wrong, he thought, a silent argument tearing through his mind as well ingrained instincts fought with his urge to slip into a deep bottle and drink himself into a stupor. Drifting from Kelly, Tigh caught "…Bring your DC teams in from the landing bay, get'em hand gear and send them into the fire zone".

Hearing Kelly issue the wrong orders and knowing Galactica was in too much risk snapped Tigh out of his reverie, "No. No... We're going to seal off everything forward of frame 30 and start an emergency vent of all compartments".

Tyrol, calculating the effects of these orders combined with previous orders given, said "Wait - I've got at least a hundred people trapped up there behind frame 34! I need a minute to get'em out!"

Tigh, forcing power into his voice responded, "No time - seal it off! Now!"

Kelly, hesitating in the face of such a command, and needing to know that Tigh knew what he was ordering, asked "Sir?" Tyrol on the other hand, with a pleading tone interrupted "They'll only need a minute!"

Tigh snapped, they couldn't afford to question his orders, they were fleet officers Gods damn it. "We don't have a minute! If the fire reaches the hangar deck, it'll ignite the fuel lines and we'll lose the ship! DO IT!"

Kelly hesitated, then realising his superior officer had just given him a direct command, approached the wall console covered in Emergency Breakers and switches, lifting the covers on two switches and throwing them. Watching the indicators go from red to green, Kelly murmured "Sealed"

Stepping forward with death in his stride, Tigh began the emergency venting.

After a few moments, the indicators started to change colour, Kelly spoke out "Venting complete…fire's out".

Looking at the pained expressions on Tyrol and Kelly's faces, Tigh knew what they were thinking, and without much else to say, said "If they remembered their training... they had their suits on... and they were braced for a possible vent action".

Unable to stop the anger from overtaking his voice, Tyrol replied "A lot of rooks in there".

Turning to him, Tigh replied, "None of us are rooks anymore", before turning away.

BSG16

Pulling up, Battlestar group sixteen headed for the 'roof' of the Cylon formation, firing their own nuclear weapons in retaliation against the ones the Cylons were firing at them. But the damage had already been done, both against the Cylons and the Colonial warships. In the space of twenty seconds, the Destroyer Arrow and the light cruisers Strobe and Honour collapsed against the might of the Cylon Missiles. Then the missilestar Myrmidon was struck by a trio of nuclear missiles on her starboard flank, miraculously she still survived, although she had lost power, it was the fact that she had lost power that was the problem as she crashed into the ventral hull of the Hunter, ploughing deep into the armoured hull and ripping open the Battlestar's hull in chaotic fiery scenes. The Hunter continued on eventually leaving the battered Myrmidon in it's wake. Within less than 5 more seconds the Myrmidon exploded as leaking Tylium caught fire. The Hunter's Commander ordered a constant rotation so as to prevent the Cylons from getting an accurate lock onto the damaged section even as more explosive decompressions tortured the ship. Suddenly, without any warning a bright light split the Hunter as a nuclear missile that had went unobserved by the dradis operator struck the damaged section below the reserve Tylium Reservoirs. The explosion was immense as the cloud of debris was blasted at phenomenal speeds in all directions before dyeing down to a quiet whisper.

Unable to mourn Hunters death, BSG16 continued on. Breaking out of the Cylon Armada while the surviving nuclear missiles they had fired against the Basestars detonated, BSG 16 levelled out and rolled to present their heaviest guns to the Basestars below them. It was only in this position that it became clear that this little incursion of BSG16 had left plenty of damaged and destroyed Basestars behind. But by now the Cylon formations were already starting to change as the gathered themselves for the killing blow. After only a few minutes all hell broke loose as the Colony jumped on top of Nagala's fleet.

Galactica CIC

"…jump to Omicron, I repeat jump to Omicron. Admiral Adama you are hereby ordered to take charge of fleet and resources and carry out standing orders. All other ships are to evacuate any personnel you can and cover those ships that can jump. Open up all weapons on …the new Cylon Vessel, all nukes…everything…" rang throughout the CIC as Admiral Nagala on board the Atlantia came under attack from the Colony.

Shouting out orders, Admiral Adama stood at the centre of a hive of frantic activity feeling as if he had just been kicked in his guts now that the Cylons had revealed their trap, "All Pilots tight combat landings. Gaeta, get me a jump as close to Nagala's fleet as possible…"

Looking aghast at the order, Gaeta set to work knowing not to second guess Adama. Dee called out, "Sir, Phoenix is suggesting opening up the Starboard flightpod with missiles…"

A stone faced Colonel Tigh took over, "Do it, redirect some assault raptors there".

"Racetrack, Furball, Junkie you are ordered to destroy the win…"

"Sir…Jump is set. We'll come out near Tigress…", Gaeta called out.

"Transmit coordinates and jump once our pilots have landed! Talon is to jump to Ragnar" Adama ordered. Suddenly the entire ship momentarily trembled as the immense glass windows which had miraculously survived the battle were destroyed by dozens of missiles fired by 3 Assault Raptors causing a massive explosive decompression as the air inside the flightpod escaped. By now almost all the surviving pilots had already landed meaning that this newly reopened runway lay empty.

"Fleet is ready, jumping in 3…2…1"

Ragnar Anchorage

Colonial Fleet Remnants under command Rear Admiral Adama

Reappearing over the giant gas planet of Ragnar, the battle hardened Battlestar Galactica re-joined the battered and abused Colonial Fleet. Many ships were struggling to hold together after all the damage they had taken at the hands of the Cylons, and most importantly the Cylon Colony which the Colonials had classed it as a Kraken class Battlestation, no other name seemed to describe it as well as the Kraken.

The fleet was in that bad a condition that it would take thousands of man hours and metric tonnes of supplies to get them back to battle condition, nowhere near enough time, Adama thought to himself as he realised that it could just be minutes or hours before the Cylons jumped in to finish them off. Looking up at his crew, what scared Bill the most was just how shaken his ever present friend, Saul Tigh looked. He knew from experience that very little ever really got to Saul, in fact the only thing that did could be summed up in one word, Ellen. But this, this was so much more. Adama knew that during the course of battle, Saul had to make a decision and that many had died as a result, and it always sat heavily on you when those you killed were friends and allies. But if they were to survive the next hour alone, then he would need his XO to be by his side and not second guessing his decisions, but most of all, not falling back on the bottle.

"Dee, get me a secure line to all Colonial Fleet ships. Saul, I need status reports on how badly damaged we are and I need you to get a raptor to the civilian fleet and Virgon and have Tyrol and his deck crew start rearming and refuelling our birds. Priority on Argos Squadron, stick them in any functioning Viper that we've got. Gaeta set up a random jump to the middle of nowhere and transmit coordinates to the fleet, keep our engines spooled. I also need to know who we've got. And get a full Condition 1 CAP in the air right now!".

Pulling himself together and just resisting the urge to take a swig from his bottle to try and calm his nerves, Saul got to work.

"Admiral, Fleet is on Line 1. The Light Cruiser Scorpion's wireless arrays are currently down. Messages are being relayed via LTC (laser targeted communications)", Dee announced. Adama couldn't have been more proud of her than he was during the heat of battle, not only had she followed all her duties, she had anticipated time after time just what he would need.

Picking up the handset and turning it upside down so that he held it like a microphone, Adama spoke "…Each and everyone of you has just survived the deadliest battle in the history of the 12 colonies. I am saddened to say that it's not over. Prior to the start of the battle I received orders from Admiral Nagala that should we fail to stop the Cylon advance and defeat them then I was to gather what survivors I could and…retreat from the Colonies. His orders were clear…Humanity must survive. Like most of you, I want to fight. I want to turn this Battlestar around and ram it down the Cylons throats along with every nuke I can muster. But look at the Cylons and look at us, most of our ships are barely holding together, it'll be weeks before some are ready for a fight. We now have a choice, it's a decision that I cannot make alone. Do we continue to fight the Cylons here in the Colonies and quite possibly become an extinct species or do we follow Admiral Nagala's final orders and escape with what survivors we can and eventually, once we have regained our strength and have a superior tactical advantage, return to kick the Cylons the frak out of our homes?"

"MULTIPLE DRADIS CONTACTS!"

Caprica

San Marino Hills, 118 Km north-north west of Caprica City, 482 km south-south east of Kelsin City

Smoke and blood filled the man's lungs, and the smell of burnt flesh was thick in the air almost as if it was a warning to anybody daring to approach to turn back, only death lay here. Attempting to shift his weight as he struggled to remember how he got to this point he felt a piercingly sharp jagged piece of metal embed itself further into his back just below his shoulder. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he again shifted his weight, dragging his body off the metal chunk, feeling as if his nerves were on fire and then as fast as the agonising pain tore through his body, it had receded into a numbing throb, that was until he moved his arm at which point shooting pains would erupt from the wound. Opening his eyes as he stood up and surveying the wrecked Raptor that entombed him and the two obviously deceased fleet officers in the front, this man remembered.

He'd been at a memorial in Kelsin City celebrating the 40th anniversary of the end of the first Colonial-Cylon war and remembering the fallen. There had been close to a million Colonials at that memorial, it seemed that Kelsin City was the only place in the Colonies that showed the proper respect deserved of those who gave their lives in that deadly war. Then his satphone (satellite phone, Colonials version of a mobile/cell phone) had rang and straight away he knew it was bad news since he had set it for only the most important calls. Answering it he discovered the truth, Contact had been lost with Armistice Station and the Pavilion Satellite Grid, not just one satellite but them all. He knew then that there was a good chance the Colonies were under attack by the Cylons.

Then, making his way back to Caprica City and the Phoenix Lair, how he discovered Picon, Tauron and Scorpia had been lost and how the Cylons were now attacking Caprica. That's when the Raptor lost power as an immense nuclear explosion extremely close to Caprica knocked out the Raptor's electronics. Electronics whose military hardening did it little good as it started to plummet out of the sky. He remembered the frantic effort of the Pilot and Co-Pilot struggling to restart the dead Raptor as it crashed towards the 200 foot tall trees below, he just didn't have the heart to tell them that it was useless. Strong atmospheric winds combined with Caprica's gravitational pull and the continuing momentum and angular shape of the Raptor meant that the small bug shaped ship went into an insane somersault throwing immense G-forces at it's passengers. The seat belts cut into the man's skin as they struggled to keep him stable. Struggling to keep his eyes open he saw the green of the trees then the blue of the sky, then green and blue, all spinning faster than he could process. An immense screech rang out as the Raptor's welds threatened to come undone.

Shouting at the top of his voice, he commanded "Jettison the Tylium and drop the drones!" Amazingly the Co-Pilot heard him and struggling to move his arm, pulled a pin out of a lever at his side then pulled on the lever and started the jettison of the tylium (manual process, no electronics involved). Out of the side of the Raptor, aided by the rapid spin, Tylium spurted outward and away from the Raptor. Flung from one side of the Raptor to the other, a red first aid box struck the side of the man's head knocking him unconscious.

He never saw as the Raptor hit the very tops of the highest trees twisting it into a corkscrew, then ploughed it's way between the lightest branches at the top of the trees, sending splinters of wood and leaves cascading in it's wake before continuing into the much thicker branches of the neighbouring trees, under such a barrage the cockpit canopy stood little chance of survival and shattered in the faces of the pilot and co-pilot, burying them under hundreds of spears of wood and biological detritus, killing them instantly. Thankfully for the unconscious passenger the shattered canopy combined with impacting the side of a thick tree trunk sent the Raptor into a tail spin balancing out under a further impact so that the Raptor was now crashing rear first into the forested hills. Onwards it continued, the already dead engines clogging up with crushed branches and leaves, some of it burning on the still hot engines. Then bursting through the trees, the Raptor crashed into a clearing, digging itself into the mud and soil and creating a twenty foot furrow due to the decreased speed. It was all over with escaping gases, creaking and gouged metal and the remaining trails of Tylium igniting as the foliage trapped in the engines burnt and caught the fumes of the Tylium trails. However due to the lack of Tylium left in the tanks, it took less than three minutes for the flames to die down. Were it not for the solid design of the Raptor, a design not surpassed in 48 years, then things could have been a lot worse.

Pulling as hard as he could on the hatch's handle which refused to give, the lone survivor set off the explosive bolts located around the edges of the hatch, blowing it a good five foot away from the Raptor before it met part of the furrow dug by the Raptor. Stepping out on uneasy legs he looked all around him seeing the devastated sky of Caprica and the toxic clouds still hanging over Caprica City and Delphi.

Admiral Hillard, Fleet Advisor to the late President Adar, looked on in horror and wept for all that must have been lost.