To Hell and Back: Ultimate Rewrite Edition
Chapter 12: Capped Hub/Blind Jump
"Cylon intel indicates that the Hub is equipped-"
The Colonel pointed at a tower-like structure on top of the station.
"With a single FTL drive. A few missiles will disable it, but I would rather make sure it could never jump again."
"Meaning?"
The CCE head looked at Murrue.
"Oh, HELL no."
"One burst from the Gottfrieds will destroy the FTL drive. Unlike Galactica or the Baseships, it has no armor to punch through."
The five highest ranking military commanders in the Fleet (those being Adama, Cain, Pinkerton, Ramius and Gladys) were studying the blueprints for the Resurrection Hub.
"Still going to be a royal bitch to take out with the Lohengrin."
Adama shook his head.
"I'm loading four of our Vipers with nukes. The Cylons know about the positron cannons, and I'm not risking them getting destroyed."
The captain of the Archangel sighed.
"Which ship is taking out the Hub's FTL?"
"One of Boomer's Baseships will jump in, hanger doors open. Inside it will be the Archangel: the Minerva's too long and it won't fit." (AN: The central axis of a Baseship is big enough to fit the Archangel: believe me, I checked)
Murrue sighed. "And they won't open fire?"
"Unlike us, the Cylons have never had a civil war. Both sides still use the same IFF. They won't realize until you've blown up the FTL drive."
Talia summed up the plan.
"Take out the FTL, jump in Galactica and Pegasus, kill everything in our way, then nuke the Hub and jump the hell out."
Cain smiled.
"I like it."
The Colonel scoffed.
"Cain, you like anything involving sating your urge for revenge. You do realize that we are not taking the fight to the Cylons. This will be the last battle in both wars."
Adama looked at both.
"That's oversimplifying it, Colonel, but you're right. After this, we're leaving for Earth."
Cain wanted to argue, but Adama outranked her by miles.
"Alright. Is that order absolute?"
Adama nodded.
"Take out the Hub, return to the Fleet. Colonel, the jump calculations?"
"Captain Gaeta is handling them."
All four looked at him.
"He came up with something I overlooked, so I promoted him. Is that a problem?"
Adama shook his head. "No. How long until they're complete?"
"2 hours: we've had the FTL computers running nonstop."
Cain scoffed.
"I thought it wouldn't take this long."
"Up yours, Cain. Remember, we're jumping across the fraking galaxy. Those 25 numbers are the only thing keeping us from jumping into a planet or star."
"Then we attack in 4 hours. Enough time to transfer the coordinates to the rest of the Fleet, and to dock the Archangel with one of the Baseships."
Cain chuckled.
"Bastards are gonna feel this."
"Dismissed."
The five commanders left the War Room, their plan of attack ready for action.
Battlestar Galactica: CIC, two hours and 30 minutes later
Gaeta watched thousands of numbers streaming downwards on the screen.
At the moment, they had 24 of the 25 numbers needed for the FTL jump to Earth.
Ok, not Earth.
It would actually put them in very high orbit over the fifth planet, Jupiter.
Jumping the Fleet to Earth while there was a war going on could get everyone killed.
Besides, who the hell could get them at Jupiter?
The Cylons were going to be at the other end of the galaxy and Earth didn't have FTL technology.
Still, they would be keeping most of the military fleet with the civilians in order to safeguard them.
As he Colonel said three months before, nothing can get past the firepower of a Zeus-Class BSD.
And that had 10 of the fraking things.
"Mr. Gaeta!" Gaeta tore away from the screen and looked at the Colonel, who walked over to his station. "How are the calculations doing?" As if on cue, the 25th number was calculated. "Done." The Colonel smirked.
"11236 / 53653 / 21598 / 49846 / 31547. That's it. That's the FTL coordinates for the Sol System."
Gaeta didn't like the Colonel's insane smirk.
"Copy those numbers down. Couriers can get them to the rest of the Fleet."
Gaeta looked at his superior with a questioning gaze.
"Not over the comm channels?"
"No. Those can be intercepted by the Baseships, and while I'm happy to see how my grandchildren are doing, one of them is crazier then I am and is trying to kill us all."
Gaeta nodded, then copied down the coordinates onto a piece of paper.
"Sir, most of the civilian ships won't be able to make the jump."
"We're docking them with the Mobile Shipyards. They can handle the new program."
LCAM-X01A Archangel: Zero Hour
The massive assault carrier entered the Baseship's central axis very slowly.
While the central strut was at least five times wider then either of Galactica's flight pods, there was still a chance of ramming something.
"God, please hear my prayers and make sure I don't ram into anything."
"Neumann, you're doing fine."
A few dozen thruster firings later, and the Archangel was inside the Baseship.
"Is that damned Hub still in position?"
"Baseship Hybrid says so, but-"
Murrue nodded, having met the damned thing and needing a stiff drink afterwards.
"Give them the all-clear. We're ready to jump."
Resurrection Hub
While the Hub was under Cavil's control, he still wanted as many Baseships covering it as he could get. So when another Baseship jumped in, he wasn't worried. When four green beams launched at the Hub, THEN he got antsy.
Three missed completely, but the starboard-most Gottfried shot hit its' mark: the Hub's FTL drive.
The structure was completely destroyed: hacked off the Hub before exploding.
On the Archangel, Murrue chuckled.
"Whoops."
For some reason, she took perverse pleasure in seeing that thing explode.
Maybe the fact that Cavil's forces killed 20 people on Galactica before the Centurions were taken out was the reason why.
"Archangel Actual, Psycho: I'm away!"
The Colonel's Mk III launched from the ship's 'seat' and jumped.
"Take us out, flank speed!"
The Archangel launched, rocketing out of the Baseship, firing her Gottfrieds and Valiants at the Baseships protecting the Hub.
The Colonel was right as always, as the Raiders proved when they swarmed the Archangel's defenses, a large number getting cut down by the CIWS cannons but even more getting through and pounding the battleship with missiles.
"We REALLY need more AA guns. This is NOT going to cut it!"
At that moment, the Minerva jumped up, making half the Raiders (6000, if you want to count them all) break off their attack on the Archangel and gun for the Minerva.
Her Picus turrets opened fire, cutting dozens of Raiders out of the sky, but more still got their chances to hit one of the ships that was such a pain in the Cylon's collective asses for the past 3 months and pelt it with missiles.
Of course, that was when the Eternal jumped in and opened fire on the Raider formation with her beam cannons, missiles and CIWS.
If Cavil was scared shitless now, then he was about to be scared stupid.
Two Battlestars, not one, jumped in.
They were the Mercury-Class Pegasus and the first ship of her own class, Galactica.
And both were launching Vipers.
Another Viper, a Mk III fit with an FTL drive pod, two 40mm cannon pods and what looked like a modified 30mm cannon pod under the nose jumped in and joined Galactica's Vipers, leading them alongside Apollo, Starbuck and Luna.
"WOOOOO-WHOOOOO!"
"Psycho, Apollo: tone down the crazy, will you?"
"Apollo, Psycho: up yours!"
The Mk III barrel-rolled and opened fire on the Raiders with the modified 30mm cannon.
With the normal ones, the shots would've missed. But these were magnetically accelerated KEW rounds.
The Raiders didn't stand a chance in hell as they exploded, their debris hitting their fellows.
"I've got over 3000 rounds with 'To whom it May concern' written on them, assholes!"
Luna joined her insane superior and pressed the attack on one of the Baseships.
Cavil had learned his lesson, though, and installed AA missile batteries all over his Baseships.
He had not learned, however, that his grandfather was a better ECO then he was.
Ron's Mk III had equipment taken from a Raptor, so the missiles, which were DRADIS guided, were redirected.
Back at their launchers.
Sweet irony.
"Should've used infrared, asshole! HAHAHAHAHA!"
The 30mm shells ripped through the hull, eventually hitting the conventional weapons bays and making them explode.
And as anyone knows, conventional ordinance and a confined space equals BIG BOOM!
The Baseship exploded from within, and both Vipers barely got clear in time.
"HELL YEAH! Haven't done that since Raptor Talon!"
He checked his ammo count.
The 'special' 30mm read as 1387 rounds left and he still had a full load of conventional 30mm and 40mms.
He then checked on the two Battlestars.
Galactica and Pegasus were doing what Battlestars did best: killing Baseships in tandem.
Well, Galactica was also pounding another one with her Tristans, the plasma burning the organic warship apart.
"Care to kill another Baseship?"
"Take your pick, Colonel, but it's suicide any way you choose."
There were eight other Baseships nearby, and Luna was right: it was suicide to fight them. Then the DRADIS blared out a warning.
"Multiple contacts! Shit, we're outgunned again!"
The Colonel smirked.
"No. I know those ships."
Before Luna could question him, they heard a message over the wireless.
"Psycho, Asylum: do you copy?"
The Colonel laughed.
"Copy that, Old Bastard! Contact Galactica: Admiral Adama's in charge here!"
Luna looked at her wingman.
"Sir?"
"He's my boss: the REAL head of the Corps of Engineers and he's also regular Fleet."
He looked at the massive fleet of civilian and military vessels, led by the six-podded Battlestar Dreadnought Legacy.
The Zeus-Class was a development of the Legacy: more gun batteries, removing four of the flight pods and enlarging the remaining two, lengthening and upgunning her (the Legacy had 900cm guns while the Zeus had 1500cm guns) and adding more CIWS turrets. Even so, she had more firepower then the flagship did at the moment.
"Galactica, Legacy Actual: this is Vice-Admiral Zeus Avalonia. Major Pinkerton's informed me that you are in command here."
Adama quickly responded.
"I promoted him to Colonel, but he was right: I am in command."
"Where do you need us?"
"Legacy, Psycho: target the station and blow it to hell! I'll land and give you FTL coordinates for our Fleet while you're beating the shit out of them!"
The Mk III turned for the massive BSD while Luna rejoined the furball. While all this was going on, the Raiders scored a victory by ramming into the Minerva's heat sink, which disabled the FTL drive. "Galactica, Minerva Actual: we need to dock! Cylons took out our FTL drive!"
"Confirmed. Begin approach."
At that moment, the Legacy's Big Ass Guns TM tore the Resurrection Hub to pieces, and just as Galactica's Vipers were recalled and the Minerva docked with the Battlestar, Cavil's last remaining Baseship launched every nuke it had at Galactica.
Ron, who was on landing approach to the Legacy, knew that there was no way that Gaeta could calculate a jump before the nukes hit, nor was there a way they could survive 200 nukes hitting them, especially if they were 150 megaton warheads.
"Oh, frak. Galactica,Psycho: jump now! Jump, godsdamn it! You've got two hundred nukes inbound!"
The last Viper, Luna's, landed on the deck just seconds before Galactica retracted the pods.
The nukes were damn close to touching Galactica when she jumped, avoiding the nukes altogether. Ron's Viper touched down on the flight deck as Pegasus jumped back to the Fleet.
"Actual, we have a problem."
Now where could Galactica have jumped off to?
Oh, why do I even bother asking? I already know the answer, and you guys have probably made a few guesses.
Next Time on the next special chapter of THAB Ultimate Rewrite Edition: We find out what happened to Galactica!
Ja Ne!