Part 3:

2 years before the fall:

Ravin pushed past the reporters clustered around the airlock. "Excuse me, I have to be going." Most of them represented Gemonese and Leonan agencies, though Kelsey and several other inter-colony reporters were present. Ravin hadn't expected this much fanfare. There was even the occasional flash of cameras. He wondered if any of the other Golden Sword commanders-both on his side and against it-were watching the feeds.

A soldier opened the airlock and Ravin stepped through into the tunnel connecting ship and station. He gave the press one final wave before the portal closed behind him, and about faced. He was faced by a sharply uniformed man in his thirties, his black hair combed neatly and Colonel's bars on his shoulders. His face betrayed a slightly arrogant air and his nose was upturned. The XO saluted. Ravin returned it. "Colonel Harding, its good to see you."

Colonel Harding replied "At your service sir, welcome aboard." He had a faint accent. Everyone on the ship would. Apart from Radin, the entire crew was drawn from the Gemonese crusader fleet. Radin studied his expression. He looked just a little bit uncomfortable with being in his presence. Harding had been in line to command Gehenna when the order had come through to draft her back into the fleet and put Ravin in charge. He would understandably hold a small grudge. Ravin only smiled.

"Thank you, Colonel. I trust my bag has come aboard?"

"Yes sir, its on your bed in your quarters, if that's where you wish to head."

Ravin shook his head. "I intend to head to the hangar deck, then work my way up from there."

"Yes sir." Harding turned around and started. "This way please."

Ravin laughed. "Colonel, you don't have to show me around this ship, I know where everything is, unless her last refit rearranged her."

"No sir, you'll find the bathrooms are still aft of the CIC and to port." Harding didn't smile.

"Good to hear." They passed through the interior airlock, into the ship. Ravin stopped for a moment at the entrance. He looked down the long, silver corridor, and at the various crewmen walking up and down. Then he placed his hand on the wall and felt its cool touch. "Well, I'm back" he whispered, and then followed after Harding. They took the elevator to the hangar deck without being noticed.

Ravin stepped onto the hangar deck floor and looked around. A quintuple-wide column of Mark VI vipers stretched across the deck, while ten raptors were crowded in near the back. Each spacecraft was attended by its pilot and at least one deck crewman. Harding stepped forward to announce the Commander's presence, but Ravin stopped him. "Not yet, let them work." He admired the rows of vipers. They were spotless and as far as he could tell, ready for action. Each one had purple noses and several blue lights where the Golden Sword sensors had been mounted to keep track of them in battle. Ravin's eyes went from the vipers to the hangar deck's wall, which was a mass of red markings. "I see you kept the memorial wall."

Harding nodded, himself transfixed by the names. "Aye we did. During the last refit it had to be touched up and finished, but that's all the shipwrights did." Ravin walked down the list, watching the years go by.

"This brings back memories. It's been a long time."

Harding sighed. "I suppose so."

One of the pilots approached. "Colonel, sir?" Ravin and Harding looked at him. His eyes went to Ravin, then the crossed broadswords on his epaulettes and purple sash at his waist. His eyes went wide. "COMMANDER ON DECK!" he yelled. The crewmen whirled around in confusion, then hurriedly snapped to attention. Ravin returned the salute.

"At ease, ladies and gentlemen" he said. He walked up and down the line of vipers, visually inspecting each man and woman as he went. "As you know, my name is Tarleton Ravin, and I am your commanding officer. I am looking for the CAG, where is Captain Luke Anderson?"

A small man with dark skin and his flight suit covered in engine grease stepped forward. "Present, Sir!"

"What is the operational status of your vipers?"

"All are fully prepared and combat-ready. Their missiles and bullets have been locked into the Golden Sword programming. They are only Mark Sixes though; the Mark Sevens on the battlefield have a higher acceleration and better electronics."

Ravin didn't let his confident grin falter. "I am confident in your abilities to make up the difference, and we've got seven weeks to prepare anyhow. How about the raptors?"

"Raptors are ready to go, though again, they are from the previous generation. What kind of armament are we going to be using?"

Ravin had been planning this out on a tablet for weeks in advance. "Tell the jammers to load them with Skybolts and Sledgehammer armor buster rockets. We need every punch we can get if we want to take down Mister Vanderbilt." Anderson smiled briefly and several pilots snorted. "Is there anything else not present?"

"Four cargo config'd shuttles are in the flight pod unloading the last of the Skybolts and we've got a few dozen of the old Apollo drones, that's about it." The Gehenna's armory would be packed tight supporting that force.

"Very good. Dismissed." He turned away. Ravin addressed all the assembled crewmen. "Are you ready?"

They quietly said, "hail sir." Their half-hearted tone hurt his ears.

His grin transformed into a smoldering glare. "You do not sound ready. Do I hear uncertainty? Or gods have mercy, is that fear I am hearing? When this ship was laucned the war was at its lowest point. The cylons had the ships and the technology and the momentum and they were tearing through the colonies. When Gehenna cast off into the burning skies of Gemenon she was crewed by boys and girls fresh out of high school, still with their boot camp bobs and buzz cuts. That didn't stop them from facing down the toasters with the fire in their eyes that separates men from soldiers." He swept his arm back to point at the wall. "Those children went to their martyrdom with no comfort but the knowledge that their deaths would buy the colonies just a little more time to stop the cylons, and they never hesitated, never slowed in their march. Their souls watch over us from Elysium." He pointed back at the crew. "Now you stand here, the best Gemenon has to offer ready to face down a fleet that has scorned us and spat in our name, in mock warfare. Each of us had to be chosen to be here, and our home colonies are watching us with bated breath. Can you make them proud?" He pointed back to the wall. "Can you make them proud?"

"Hail sir!"

"Louder! Words have a long way to travel to reach the underworld."

"HAIL SIR!" The deck seemed to shake and the vipers jarred on their mooring chains.

"So say we all" Ravin bellowed. "Fall out, we have a war game to prepare for."

Ravin:

Present Day:

The elderly colonial heavy cruiser Gehenna sat directly on top of the smaller mining ships, shielding them from the predatory battlestar orbiting, invisible and silent in the depths of space. Sixty-odd purple-nosed mark VI vipers and twenty raptors orbited it, pilots searching vainly for the stealthstars patrolling about. The CIC of the Gehenna was silent and tense, the only sound being the faint humming of the main computer as it processed the Pride's continuously updating firing solution.

"So what's the plan?" Hardin asked.

"Easy, we talk them down" Ravin replied. He took the radio. "So, Admiral, any chance of you standing down before this gets ugly?"

"I think you are out of your league, Tarleton. Treason is a pretty harsh crime, if you'd recall."

Ravin shrugged. "I fought my fair share of Andarean rebels during the civil war, I was in command of the Mercury then, you know. Supreme Commander Huxton has fought far more than either of us."

"Commander Huxton is outranked."

Ravin sighed. "We're going in circles with this argument. Here's an ultimatum. If you don't stand down in one hour, I open fire with the intent to destroy." There was no reply. Ravin turned to Harding. "All sectors still reporting in?"

"All here, we haven't been boarded yet."

"How about the convoy and vipers?"

"Vipers are good, though they lost track of one of the Ravens. The civilians are another matter, they're begging us to depart."

"Inform them of Mr. Strauss' threats and tell them that they are to detach from the asteroid and await further orders."

"Hail sir."

Ravin didn't want to destroy the Xezbeth. He'd killed enough of his fellow humans during both the civil war and the last of the pre-unification conflicts before the first cylon war. The Xezbeth and her crew would be an invaluable addition to the fleet, and they needed every ship they could find. Finally, Strauss didn't seem like a genuinely bad guy. Ravin got the feeling that he was way out of his league: inexperienced and scared. "Major Klepas, run the good Rear Admiral through our records, see what you can come up with." He needed to keep Strauss talking, to either convince him to stand down or keep him from realizing how much of a tactical advantage he had over the ancient heavy cruiser.

"Hail sir." A minute passed. "Name: Socrolis Strauss. Age: forty-four. Year promoted: nineteen ninety-nine. Father: Picon Quorum delegate Vilius Strauss. Mother: Assistant Director of the Ministry of Intelligence Ava Strauss." Klepas whistled. "We're dealing with royalty here." He returned to the sheet. "Was on base assignment in Caprica's Tornon continent during the civil war, saw brief action calling targets for a Delphi-D orbital defense platform during a light cruiser raid and the Skies of Caprica. Had no experience in a command role until he received the Xezbeth." Now he cackled. "We're dealing with a pwiddly widdle baby pwinceling! Poor baby, did mommy and daddy get you a shiny stealth battlestar for your birthday and now you don't know what to do with it?" Laughter rolled through the CIC.

Ravin raised his hand for silence. "Do not underestimate the young and inexperienced. There has been many times when I've seen them display incredible feats of ingenuity that would put all of us to shame." The room went silent again. "I'm going to keep him talking, keep your attention on your stations. We have no idea of the Xezbeth's full capabilities, so be on guard for everything."

"Hail sir" the officers said.

Ravin returned to the radio. "So, Admiral, you seem to have taken command relatively recently."

"You looked me up?"

"Yes, I did. Did you look me up in the meantime?"

"Everyone in the fleet knows who you are."

"I'm flattered" Ravin said. "You do understand who you're trying to hold up then?"

"A traitor to the Colonial Fleet."

Ravin sighed, and made sure it was audible on the radio. "Son, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have. In fact, I've been doing this since before you were born and I'll probably be doing this for longer than you are alive. I've been doing this since before it was the Colonial Navy and it was the Leonan House Guard. I know every rule in the book, every trick, every possible strategy you can think of and I've known it for the past twenty years and you're still going to play this game?"

"I'll play it as long as I have to. One of my pilots is dead and-"

"And one of my pilots is also dead. She was aiding the investigation of a structure on the asteroid's surface when your stealthstar intercepted her. If this was brought before a military tribunal I'm pretty sure you'd be found guilty of negligence of command, attempted insurrection, and deliberate aggression of friendly units."

"That's a long order, my parents-"

"I know of your family connections. They don't matter because this ain't the twelve colonies. If you keep this misbehavior up the military tribunal won't be held in the halls of Ares with a jury of officers. It'll be held in the brig of the Vindication, with Huxton and myself as your judge and jury, and an airlock as your exit. Your choice, son."

Klepas tapped him on the shoulder. "Commander, apparently this guy had a sister in the MOI. Kellsey Strauss, age thirty-five. Ejected from the MOI in 1996 for conduct unbecoming of an intelligence operative and attempting to bribe the investigating Colonel."

"What's the alternative?"

"Son, are you having trouble with your radio or your brain? My offer to join us still stands. Maybe you'll get bumped down a rank, maybe Huxton will find someone with more experience to replace you, but you'll be alive, still have a fleet position, and your ship will have logistical support. It's a good deal. Especially the logistical support; I don't know what canned food and spare parts you've got over there but they won't be lasting forever."

"Huxton was under investigation for war crimes before the fall, why would he not just shoot me and take the ship?"

"We need trained officers. Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot Admiral. You're inexperienced, so I'll take it for granted that you were probably a little scared when we jumped in, no?"

"We were surprised, there had been no evidence that any other ships survived."

"What were you here for?"

"We were investigating the radiation signature on the asteroid, had no idea the tylium was there, it seems you were too." Strauss sounded a little calmer.

"Yes, we were. We came for the tylium though, we didn't know that was there until the prowler picked it up" Ravin said.

"My XO thinks it's an abandoned missile silo, some secret project from one of the colonies. We can't know for sure until we get a science team down there to take samples."

"That was our plan" Ravin said. "Do you think there are any missiles down there? Or other things we could use." He made sure to use we when addressing them.

"That was the idea. However, the surface radiation is messing with our spectrometers."

"Do you have any other ships with you?"

"No, it's just us."

"I'm sorry, but I never asked, how did you end up out here?"

"We were dispatched to look for a rebel light cruiser, left over from the civil war. We found them about three months ago, jumped them and put a nuke onto their hull. We got back just in time to see the fleet get wiped out over Virgon."

"And you ran out here?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

"We were on parade for the Caprica fleet week shipyards. Cylons hit, people died, I jumped us back to Gemenon and found that I was in overall command of the Holy guard and resident Colonial fleet forces. I saved what I could and jumped us to deep space, where the Vindication found us."

"So technically you are the high priest, and chief executor of the Apollonians?"

Ravin laughed. "I'm a Leonan, remember? That would be my XO." He elbowed Harding, who grinned. "So, do you want to stand down and talk face to face on neutral ground? Like I said, we got off on the wrong foot, this whole business could be solved better with some intelligent discussion and a few glasses of ambrosia. We don't have to start another war and no one has to die. What say you?"

There was a pause. "So if this works, should I get the Geney 1754'?" Harding asked.

"Sounds about right." DRADIS cleared of static, revealing the lone stealth battlestar sitting 800 km above them and forty-odd stealth craft orbiting within 100 km. "Harden our electronics, in case he changes his mind."

"Actually, that was our countermeasures cutting through. He's still jamming us."

"Well frak, does he know that?"

"He shouldn't be able to until we start sniping his stealthstars."

Ravin glared at the orange icon that was the Xezbeth. "Strauss, you are still jamming us, what's going on?" There was no reply for a minute. "Hold the Geney. Tell the freighters to get ready to jump the moment the shooting starts."

Nine new DRADIS contacts appeared. "Unidentified ships jumping in, no transponders" Klepas said. The mood in the CIC sank as the numerical odds shifted against them. Most of the new ships were older model cruisers and faststars, though Ravin was surprised to see an unarmed tylium refinery ship amongst the ad-hoc warships. They were after the tylium, he realized.

"So, Commander" Harding said. "What do we do now?"

Ravin shrugged. "Profanity and thrown stones, son."

"And that is supposed to?"

Ravin shrugged. "I don't know, it's kept me alive on a couple of occasions though." He watched the look on Harding's face drop. "I'm joking, tell the Pride to do a scan for sarcasm."

"Is now a good time for that?"

"Son, I'll give you a lesson on casual danger dialogue later. Right now…" he pointed at the DRADIS display.

Strauss' voice crackled over the radio. "I am going to have to reject your offer. You see, while we were hiding out past the rim, we encountered the Cyrano Cartel, you know them?" Now, since I don't want to restart the civil war and I think you and your heavy cruise would make a nice edition to the fleet, despite your temper and your cruiser's obsolescence. Stand down, and no harm will come to you, you will be allowed to maintain command and given your pick of resources."

Ravin rolled his eyes and addressed his CIC. "Alright, first off he fails to grasp that as a good colonial officer it's my crew I care about, not myself. Second off, he calls the Sword of Gemenon obsolete?" He rolled his eyes again and resumed drumming his fingers on his console.

"Well, what's the plan then?" Harding said. "I'm not surrendering to a princeling admiral and a bunch of pirates. I would rather die in battle than live with the dishonor."

"How long have we been away from the fleet?" Ravin asked.

Klepas answered "eight hours and thirty-two minutes."

"We have to check in every twelve hours, remember? If we don't, cue the Huxton." Ravin tried to imagine the pirate's comms when the Serpentia jumped in.

"We aren't winning, we're just holding on until they lose" Harding said.

"Exactly."

Strauss:

Strauss was fidgeting in his command chair when Ravin's reply came. The elderly Commander's raspy, but wizened and incredibly powerful voice drowned out the normal background chatter of the CIC. "Son, I am immensely disappointed in you. You know that moment when your daddy catches you breaking into his liquor cabinet? Consider my disappointment the equivalent."

What?

Lord Cyrano's richly accented voice crackled over the radio. "You mock a man who-"

"I am expressing my disappointment in a younger officer's command choices, this is none of your business."

"I am Cyrano Gavreau, lead of outer colonies tylium cartel and richest man in Carthagia. I defeated ships like your many-"

"You have not faced a ship like mine, or you would be a space-boiled corpse, Mr. Cyrano. I am aware of your illustrious organization's existence and function. You are making your last mistake threatening me." Strauss eyed the bright green icon that was the Gehenna with fear, as if it could reach him through the DRADIS display. He wished he hadn't called for Cyrano as backup when Ravin had proved impossible to break. He'd wanted to accept his terms, but the pirates had jumped in earlier than he'd expected and locked weapons.

"You can't even shoot back, I finish you now."

The Indrick's Pride target locked Cyrano's flagship, the ancient pocket battlestar Maginot, effortlessly cutting through the Xezbeth jamming. "That ping you're hearing right about now is my spotter ship painting a nice bullseye on your hull. Tell me, can your pretty tin can take five salvoes of kiloton level railguns?" Strauss' breath caught in his throat as the heavily modified battlestar and its cruiser escorts rolled to bring their primary turrets to bear.

Cyrano held fire. However, his two faststars circled around to try and get a shot at the freighters sheltering beneath the Gehenna. "We're getting a transmission from the Maginot" Captain Keith Payle said.

"Put it on speaker" Strauss ordered.

"Strauss, are you going to help me shoot him or not? I would rather not die and you would rather not irritate my people by letting me die."

"I w-" Strauss froze. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to force the words out. He simply couldn't kill two thousand five hundred of his brothers and sisters. Not ever, not especially for a glorified pirate.

"Strauss, are you going to follow the terms of our contract, or are you going to break it. I am waiting."

Ravin latched on to his hesitation. "Admiral, if you're not going to shoot me, then why don't you point your guns at Mr. Cyrano and tell him to frak off."

Strauss couldn't do that either. Not after Cyrano had let his crew use his station. Colonel Wolfe said "sir, awaiting orders." Strauss began biting his nails. "Sir?"

"Hold position," he finally said. Then he grabbed the radio. "Mr. Cyrano, even if I opened fire the Gehenna will still have more than enough time to get five salvos off before she was destroyed. I think we should hold back."

"And do what?" The two faststars crept closer to the convoy.

"Admiral, sir?" Wolfe asked. Strauss watched the look on his face go from 'what are we doing?' to 'oh shit oh shit the CO's snapped.'

"Just hold on, I'm thinking!" he cried, and desperately looked for a solution.

Shelley:

Shelley found Michael sitting in the basestar's command room, both hands dipped into the hybrid's tank and eyes squeezed shut. Out of curiosity, she dipped her hands into the warm water and closed her eyes. The room vanished, replaced with a tortured icy landscape composed of jagged ice shelves and knifelike mountains that dwarfed her. A blizzard whipped snow through the air, giving the bare rock a dark, eery quality. A broken moon hung against the white sky, shreds of rock hanging off of it. Shelley looked around in confusion. This looked like none of the planets she or any of her brothers had visited.

"Well it's a pleasant surprise to see you" Michael said from behind her. She spun around to see him facing away from her, looking at a giant insectoid creature frozen into an icy pit. "What do you think?"

She stood beside him and examined it. It vaguely resembled a massive, horrifying worm, with a thick, segmented and gaping mouth. Unlike normal worms however, it was protected by rows of jagged armor plating and had several glowing yellow eyes around its head. "This looks unpleasant."

"Not the kobollian deathworm, the planet!"

"It is, none of us have seen it. It's in the hybrid's memories though."

"Could it be a render?"

Michael laughed. "How long do you think it would take to render an entire planet in this detail? Me and a few of my brothers have spent months examining it, this is a real planet with as much intricacy as Caprica or Kobol."

Shelley sighed and shrugged. "Well then, can we locate it?"

"I'm running a program to locate it via its star view, no luck yet. Until then, we're just going to have to explore it and hope someone left a record." Shelley was intrigued.

"Do you think he lives here?" Her eyes focused on a twisting blood red rock formation sticking out of the walls of the pit.

"Who?"

Shelley gave him a laser glare. "Him? The one true god."

Michael burst into laughter. "The one god? You still believe in that silly superstition?"

Shelley bristled. "It's not wise to question his wisdom, he is watching."

Michael threw up his hands. "Well then he can come strike me down if he's so almighty." He laughed at Shelley's hurt expression. "Well then, you came to visit me for…"

Shelley crossed her arms. "I found the Remnant," she said. "My fleet is sitting just outside its effective DRADIS range.

"Splendid, why are you not attacking?"

"I contacted the cylon models onboard. Apparently one of your own brothers was placed as the Vindication's chaplain, and ordered to monitor and record human behavior."

Michael shrugged. "So?"

"Do you realize that we probably wouldn't be having any of this trouble if he'd been assigned to kill the battlestar?"

Michael rolled his eyes. "So, order him to do it right now!"

"It isn't that easy. Apparently they know we're human and have ridiculously heavy security measures."

"He's a priest, isn't he? Can't he just spout some religious mumbo jumbo to get by the guards?"

Shelley sighed. "Their chief NCO is an atheist and Huxton is a mistheist apparently. Between them the crew has been drilled pretty heavily."

Michael sighed and threw up his arms in defeat. "Alright, what do we do?"

"I've asked him to hack into the navigation computers and provide us with all their fallback jump coordinates so we can keep wearing them down, use our numbers to our advantage. He can, but he refuses to without an overlord's authorization."

"So you want me to go with you and give it. Alright." He looked around at the horrific landscape. "Shame, I was enjoying myself here."

Shelley ignored that last remark and closed her eyes, grateful to get back to the nice calm, non-menacing interior of the basestar. When she opened them, she was back in the command room.

"So, where are we going?" Michael said.

"I've got a gunship docked in hangar bay two."

Simon:

"Hey, toaster" Dr. Parris said. Simon sat up in bed, sending his sketchpad and marker sliding onto the heavily decorated floor tiles. Parris and another doctor were standing at the cell doors, glaring at him.

Simon rubbed his eyes and scratched his ragged beard. "Hello."

Parris didn't even reply. Instead he grabbed the bars with both hands. "Toaster, what did you do to the cylon detector?"

Simon had last seen the detector that afternoon when he'd been Doctor Veris and a couple of the Crete scientists test the damn thing. It still didn't work, but they were without a doubt inching closer to uncovering the cylons. "I helped Doctor Veris fire alpha particles through a sample of my blood. Why?"

"Do you think that's funny?" Parris spat. "The colonel is too soft on you, she thinks she can make you into a pet or something. We know better."

Simon's eyes widened. A sense of dread crept into him as two marines stepped up to the bars. "I didn't do anything, can you tell me what's going on?"

"You snapped all the carbon tubes. It's going to take us three weeks to manufacture new ones."

"No I didn't." Parris spat through the bars at him. He glared up at Simon through his round glasses. "I'm telling you, I didn't; the Aquaria docs are the only people who ever touched the carbon tubes." Parris nodded to one of the marines, who slowly drew a wicked looking knife. Simon backed away from the bars. A cluster of runes flashed before his eyes. "I'm telling you, I didn't touch them."

Parris stepped aside. The marine opened the door and casually flipped the knife up and down in his hand. Simon's back hit the cold metal wall. "We're going to figure out a way to crack your head open, then we won't need you anymore" Parris said mockingly. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Amelie said…"

"Colonel Nessella isn't the highest power on this ship." The marine dipped his free hand into his equipment webbing and pulled out a Taser. It wasn't one of the petite civilian models Simon could shrug off. This was a heavy-duty blocky military version, with an extra capacitor bolted on to make 'non-lethal' merely optional on an ordinary human. It was a specially designed cylon knockdown weapon. He pulled the trigger and a single dart stabbed into Simon's shirtfront. Twenty million volts coursed up the wire and through him.

He collapsed and screamed as pain wracked his body. His nervous system was overwhelmed by the electrical assault and he thrashed uncontrollably. His face connected with the wall and blood ran from his sinuses down the back of his throat. Parris waited until the convulsions stopped, then stepped over him. Simon raised his head up far enough to see him, and coughed up blood onto his white shirtfront. The marine shoved the doctor out of the way and took his place. "Hey!" he wailed.

"Only Command officers and marines get this close to it, Commander's orders" the marine growled.

"Frak me" Parris groaned. He leaned around the burly, heavily armored man. "Next time, I'll bring two of them. According to my calculations, that should be enough to get you to void yourself." Then he was gone. The marine backed out the door and locked it. Only then did he turn his back. Simon groaned and let his head drop back onto the floor. He rolled onto his side and curled up, then closed his eyes. The symbols flashed bright in the darkness.

Ravin:

"So, are we getting anywhere?" Ravin asked.

"Anywhere? You still not replying to my terms" Cyrano shot back. The Piconian pirate had replaced Strauss as the head negotiator. The latter had grown silent since his arrival, all but confirming Ravin's worst fears about their relationship and his command abilities.

"I did. I stated that as a member of the Colonial Fleet, the Gemonese Holy Navy, and the Leonan House Guard, I will not give my ship and crew over to a pirate fleet. Now, I am awaiting a reply to my demand."

"What is that again?"

"I want you to stand down and let me call Huxton. Once he has arrived and understood that we have made contact with surviving human ships, he will gladly provide a shuttle to act as neutral ground while we negotiate."

"You expect me to believe that Supreme Commander Huxton, one of Adar's butchers, will simply let me sit down and talk?"

There were times when Huxton's reputation for mercilessly defeating his enemies was a hindrance. "Yes, I do. You are fellow human beings and there are so few of us left. Huxton will swear on his oath as a colonial officer and sit down to negotiate with you."

"His oath? That man obliterated cities."

"And as the leader of one of the largest prewar NGO powers in settled space, I would assume you were informed enough to know the circumstances around that incident."

"I do not trust Huxton, and since you are under his command I do not trust you."

"Don't," Strauss said desperately. There was a pause.

Then Cyrano continued. "You refuse my offer, fine." His fleet broke orbit and aimed at the Gehenna. There were six dedicated warships left in the main formation. Three light cruisers spread out to form a triangle around the heavier ships, their triangular gun-laden bows pointed inwards like the teeth of some alien predator. The two medium cruisers rolled onto their bellies and brought their dorsal batteries to bear then launched fighters. The Maginot spewed fighters from her demi-flight pods and rolled so her own heavy dorsal turrets were aimed down at the lone heavy cruiser. The Xezbeth launched her own standard viper complement and pulled back behind the fleet. Ravin guessed she would range her missiles around the pirates.

"Sir, I'm detecting over a hundred and eighty conventional fighters in space," Harding warned.

"Models?"

"Sixty Mark Seven vipers from the Xezbeth, and a collection of Typhoons, Valkyries, and Viper Mark Triples from the Cartel.

Ravin thought for a moment. He couldn't jump out. Even if Gehenna somehow managed to complete the full FTL spinup before her drives were disabled, she would be leaving the freighters behind. Fighting the pirates would only end in her destruction. A wild throw of the dice came to mind. "Colonel, I am authorizing a nuclear fire mission in tubes one and two, target the tylium field."

"Tubes one and two, yes sir" Harding said. He took out his silver key. Ravin did likewise. Together they inserted them into the slots on their respective consoles. A klaxon blared. The missile gunners loaded the ship's only two nuclear missiles into their tubes. Harding took the intercom. "Nuclear launch has been authorized," he announced. Across the ship, every crewman and woman took a moment to realize how much deep shit they were in.

Ravin picked up the radio. "If you aren't looking at your EWAR, allow me to inform you that I have two twenty-megaton nuclear missile pointed at that tylium reserve. Now, I hazard a guess that you want that tylium. Maybe the cylons found your stashes and hidden belts, or maybe you just relied on tankers to get you your supply. I don't care, back off or say goodbye to your gas." Ravin exhaled the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He looked over at Harding. Sweat ran down the younger man's glistening forehead and his hands were visibly shaking. "Time?"

"Nine hours and thirty-two minutes."