New Dawn
30 Minutes After Jump From Avalon
Location: Unknown System, Unknown Distance From Avalon
Battlestar Atlantis, Fore – Breach Point InsideDreadstar
A large jagged hole was torn through on a portion of the front of Atlantis, with a hole made inside leading to the dreadstar manually made.
Hundreds of marines dressed in combat gear stood at positions inside their ship, automatic firearms blasting away at oncoming centurions trying to breach the ship.
Dead bodies with blood dripping across the floor had been pushed to the side or left as the marines had been pushed back inch by inch. On the other side, strewn on the ground the remains of crushed centurion bodies, dozens in visual range...
A centurion fell to the side, bullets fired by a marine crushing its faceplate with its roving eye going dark as its MCP processor was destroyed. A centurion next to it roughly pushed it out of its way as the body was in its way, the centurion raised its arm with a cannon protruding firing at the marines. The kickback of the weapon had no effect on the centurion as it fired again and again.
A grenade thrown by another centurion landed near the barricades at the center of the makeshift formation of marines. The barricade painstakingly put up before the centurions started boarding Atlantis blew up, several large heavy crates smashing nearby marines as they failed to prevent the explosive from detonating in their midst.
Over a dozen centurions ran forward, rushing to fill the breach in the marines' lines, headlong into bullets fired from marines' assault rifles. One centurion spasmed as it fell lifeless to the ground in a heap, others got in the way of centurions moving forward and were roughly pushed aside.
A centurion made it through, a blade on its left arm drawn slashing at a marine behind the shambles of crates, the centurion's right arm still with a gun extended fired on a marine several fight away as he yelled in alarm. Blood spurt in the air, drops fell to the ground from the centurion's blade as it drew back and kept moving forward to another marine a foot away.
A heavyset marine blocked the blade from hitting a wide eyed young marine looking about to piss his pants, his machine gune used a shield. He grunted with effort, pushing back with both arms. The centurion's roving eye locked onto him menacingly as it pushed its arm forward determinedly, its other arm firing to the side as other marines moved to come to their allies' aid.
With a yell, the marine pushed the centurion's blade to the left, pushing the centurion to fall forward at an angle. Bringing up his gun, the marine yelled, 'frak you!' as he clicked the trigger again and again. Bullets riddled the centurion's metal frame, the centurion spasmed, making a loud grinding noise as it tried moving. After a moment it stopped, growing silent as its power core in its chest piece was pierced.
Rallying, several marines in groups of four pushed ahead, firing on the oncoming centurions. Several centurions were downed, leaving a clear vision of dozens of centurions rushing forward from the breach point. Near a dozen grenades lobbed in the other side's direction gave centurions pause, several moving quickly in the opposite direction. Explosions rippled in the confined space, blinding both sides with its intensity, consuming centurions and a few unlucky marines in the line of fire. Fire consumed indiscriminately, burning across the metal plates of the ship leaving large gashes of dented in, blackened metal.
The lead marine yelled at his men, reforming their line as the centurions started rushing forward again after the brief pause in fighting...
Unknown Space
Outside Atlantis/Dreadstar
Looking like buzzing flies to the massive form of the Dreadstar, two dozen Peregrine fightercraft maneuvered around, evading cannon fire.
Firing nukes off toward the massive Dreadstar at various points. Several fell short, defensive fire detonating them on contact meters from their target.
Several impacted on the surface of the Dreadstar, exploding with large concussive force as fire spread. Gun emplacements were incinerated, much hull plating was torn asunder. At best surface damage along the Dreadstar as cannons bristling across the vast surface unaffected fired at the buzzing, weaving this and way that, fighters.
Two fighters exploded in large fireballs as large cannon rounds, capital ship weaponry, pierced their comparatively tiny hull crunching inward and leaving an expanding debris field.
Three Peregrines moved at several Gs acceleration, closing in for a strafing run across the Dreadstar's surface, chain guns rippling with intense rapid fire. Hull plating came apart and over a dozen gun emplacements were ripped apart before the Peregrines pulled away to safety as they were locked onto.
Anti-ship missiles fired from a peregrine destroyed a grouping of missiles launchers on the dreadstar, along with nearby hull plating an empty Raptor stationary on the surface was ripped apart in the explosion.
Atlantis CIC
Several structural beams strewn about the CIC, one piercing a computer console.
Crewmen were lain across the floor, blood from wounds as they lay silent in the otherwise loud CIC. Shouting from the comms overhead depicting the marine's battle could be heard. Several crewmen in the control center were arguing...
Sparks flew from a ripped optic cable that had fallen to CIC's plot table.
Admiral Stryker moved his hand away from sparks landing near him, blood dripping down his forehead as he up righted himself.
"Where the Frak'sMajor Glass' marine assault teams? Taking a frakking nap?!" Admiral Stryker said loudly, a vein pulsing on his forehead.
"We've lost contact with the marine teams aboard the Dreadstar sir. Not all the raptors made it to their coordinates, and some teams that made it aboard at equidistant points across the Dreadstar might've been compromised.
Last report was Major Glass had attained four of the necessary eight positions on the Dreadstar, each location with one of the nukes set to go off when all eight are prepared at the same time…" Commander Haller said.
"Admiral, Major Hendricks for you, sir," the communications officer interrupted.
Picking up a comms headset as the communications officer directed him, Stryker engaged in a short conversation before putting the headset down with a loud slam.
"We don't have anymore time, Richard. Major Hendricks sent word that his marines were overrun at the breach point. They've fallen back, and centurions are boarding the ship as we speak… There are hundreds of not thousands from that monstrosity out there. We can't hold them off." Admiral Stryker said, frustrated.
"And if we disembark, untangle ourselves and move away from the Dreadstar, we won't last more than few minutes Admiral," Commander Haller said sadly.
"We need to have those bombs set to detonate before that, and we need it right frakking now!" Admiral Stryker said desperately.
Deep Within Dreadstar
Major Glass and his marines continued to advance deeper into the dreadstar. More and more centurions had shown up, combat growing more vicious as they carried on with their mission.
A human Cylon model, one of the Fives, had shown up shooting one of the marines in the head, killing him instantly, only to be cut down by Major Glass' deadly accurate fire.
"How are we supposed to destroy this Frakkin' thing?" one of the marines asked desperately, eyes wide as he looked around each corner looking for new enemies while the team continued moving forward.
"We've setup one of the bombs near the ammo storage, and six others at equidistant points across the ship. One more near the tylium reactors will ensure our success, which is where we're heading… Impossible for a single nuke to take out a construct this massive no matter where we put it, but if we detonate multiple nukes at key areas across the ship at the same time, each blast leads into the next, it'll create a chain reaction large enough to take this eyesore down," Major Glass said.
"Sounds good to me sir," a redheaded marine said, grinning.
"Don't get excited just yet. We lost contact with groups Beta, Delta and Echo. We can still do this, but chances are it's a one way trip. Not enough time to get to our raptor, which may not be intact now, let alone all the way back to the ship…" Major Glass said sadly.
"Long as we take the bastards with us, right sir?" a brunette heavy muscled marine grunted, a determined look on his face.
The other five marines nodded, with similar comments of assent and 'so say we all'.
"That's my frakkin' idiot marines… Always looking for new special ways to get yourselves killed," Major Glass said, grinning. He ducked as a centurion around the corner the group turned into fired in their direction just barely missing him – its shots fired hitting bulkheads behind where his head was seconds ago. Major Glass fired his assault rifle ahead, hitting the centurions center. It shuddered from the hits and fell forward, ceasing movement.
Grabbing an ammo pack from his belt, Glass reloaded and kept moving, his marines following behind.
Coming upon a split hallway, two directions to go down the path they needed to the tylium tanks, they were uncertain how to proceed. Glass had them split in two groups, Team B led by young lieutenant Cordy Thurron.
Dreadstar Command room
"Jack, there's reports of intruders. Three groups of eight colonial marines were killed at frames twenty-four, four-niner, and two-seventeen… Several centurions went cold near frames two-twenty, one however managed to report on their location," one of the human Cylons, a number five reported shakily, not wanting to bring bad news to Jack as he looked maniacal, shifty… Ready to fire on any of them at a moments notice.
"So Stryker sent teams ahead to either destroy the ship or take it as a prize. Send all centurion units nearby there, kill them all. When Atlantis' boarding part is eliminated have them sent to attack Atlantis as well. Our teams punched a hole in Atlantis, so we'll be clearing a path to get inside soon enough. I want to walk in and pull the trigger on Stryker myself," Jack replied, grinning widely.
"But shouldn't we attack Atlantis?" one of the Ones nearby asked, frowning.
"If we fire our weapons we will make more damage to Dreadstar. It's already damaged, especially after that jump ripped apart sections of the hull. We lost outer sections of ship. We can't exactly maneuver with this thing, thanks to the design flaws Gary never saw fit to fix. So we'll either take the ship with the centurions by force, or make Atlantis dislodge themselves and nuke them into oblivion once they're free. Either way works for us, we've already won. It's just a matter of time," Jack said.
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
Stryker paced, watching the monitors. They'd regained contact with Major Glass and boarding parties on the Dreadstar. Several marines had small cameras on their helmets so he and others could watch their progress. There was more and more resistance but well-armed and trained marines dealt with them quickly and deadly efficient. However even with all trainings at least two with Major Glass had been killed so far, several others injured.
"Shall we send reinforcements?" Commander Haller asked.
"No," came the short answer from Admiral Stryker.
"But sir, our sensors are tracking more and more cylons heading their way they may not survive," Haller said, eyebrows scrunched in worry.
"Commander, there's always sacrifices. I didn't send them to die for nothing. Their mission will end this war between the Cylons and humans once the Dreadstars destroyed… No matter how many of our people die in the process, priority stays the same. It's the only way.
We can't send anyone past the Centurion's lines now they've taken control of the breach point, and our marines are dying over here having enough trouble holding them back…
We have to have faith they can do this with what they've got. Or we're all frakked.
I want preparations to vent the sections of the ship forward where the Cylons have taken position aboard and up to the breach point which won't be atmospherically tight sealed once we break away from the dreadstar," Admiral Stryker said coldly.
"Aye, sir," Commander Haller said dutifully, giving Stryker a cold look as he turned away.
Deep Within Dreadstar
Marines continued their push and B group managed to get to the nearest ammo storage without too many losses, once they rigged one of what seems to be nuke Major Glass ordered B team to retreat to Atlantis, despite Lieutenant's Thurron objections.
Major and his remaining marines reachedthe main reactors, but Cylons pinned them down and Glass himself was injured. He shrugged off his marines' reaching to support him, continuing to walk on his own willpower.
"Major, this is Lieutenant Thurron, we are getting back to Atlantis as ordered, I transferred the detonator controls to your own detonator, and you will be able to blow each of the bombs across the ship with simple push of the button,"Thurron said over radio comms, heard by Glass and his three accompanying marines.
"Good work lieutenant, now go back as fast as possible, do not stop till you reach Atlantis," Major Glass said, grinning, satisfied someone might get to see home again.
"What about you sir?"Thurron asked worriedly.
"Don't mind me, go!" Major Glass said loudly, anger in his voice.
"Yes sir!"Thurron said.
By the time the rigging of engine was done, only the engineer, major and two other marines remained, one of which was second in command Captain Ranez. They had heavy losses but they had made it. Nobody of the other marines in the Majors teams survived.
"Sir I am done, your control detonator should trigger the explosion, we can go back now," Engineer Chirrow said, standing after he put the final wire in place on the bomb positioned right on the tylium tanks.
"Good, Captain Ranez, you and Bellamy, Kelly and engineer Chirrow go back, I'll take care of this monstrosity," Major Glass said.
"But sir?" Captain Ranez said, unwilling to leave his commanding officer, a personal longtime friend behind.
Major Glass looked down, he was already bleeding well, he received at least two hits. The Cylon weapons did probably lot of damage already and any more movement will increase the bleeding even more. He couldn't make it back before he bled out. If they tried carrying him it wouldn't matter and they'd slow themselves down, go down with him…
"Captain, I won't make it back to the Atlantis," he said, pointing to his wounds. "But you and the others can, go now before more Cylons show up. That is a direct order."
Sharing a long look, Captain Ranez nodded, not wanting to leave the major but not having other choice.
"Let's move people, we don't have all day," he yelled to remaining members of the group.
Major Glass sat down near the base of the pillar that was connected to the engine, pain was extreme and despite constant and heavy pain he had he said nothing about it.
Just turning around the corner at the end of the hallway, Ranez and the two marines were seen firing their weapons at oncoming centurions. Loud yells echoed throughout the room along with gunfire.
Atlantis CIC
"Get the frak out of here sir," Major Glass' raspy voice called out over the wireless, demanding the Atlantis disembark before the bombs detonated.
Several crew members in CIC protested, not wanting to leave more people behind.
"Major Thrace, take the helm. Get us out of here, prep for immediate FTL jump within two minutes," Admiral stryker ordered.
The communications officer was heard scrambling to get the Peregrine fighters back aboard the ship amidst the heavy fighting outside. Several more had been lost, though they'd punched a hole in the row of KEWs lining the Dreadstar near the Atlantis' impact on the Dreadstar so the ship could get out without being fired on immediately.
"We don't have the familiar stellar markings to calculate a jump back home sir, the blind jump tossed us out middle of nowhere and the computers still haven't calculated a solution…" Major Thrace replied, now standing over the helm as she pulled down the lever to thrust Atlantis backwards at full speed.
"It doesn't matter where we jump right now, just frakkin' get us out of here!" Admiral Stryker yelled.
"The jump could tear the ship apart sir, the frame was damaged badly enough in the battle and tug-jumping the mass of the Dreadstar incredible distance. Even with the antimatter reactor online…" Commander Haller said worriedly.
"It's worth a shot. At this point, there's nothing more we can do," Admiral Stryker said, sharing a look with Haller.
Atlantis now fully dislodged from the Dreadstar with a loud grinding noise, exiting to pull backwards away from the massive enemy ship.
Pulling meters away, the Dreadstar started launching missiles toward the Atlantis now that it was no longer attached, turning very slowly to bring its KEWs to bear as well.
At the torn open fore of Atlantis, atmosphere leaked out, wind breezing by loudly as the air was sucked into space, the temperature similarly dropping as regular space lacking any heat quickly drained that present.
This bothered the centurions little as they moved further into the Atlantis, an unlucky few thrown into space as the ship's sudden emergence from the dreadstar pulled them outside, falling out of control as they flipped end over end.
Suddenly the vents lining the ship came online working in high gear – designed to put out fires across the ship by decompressing affected areas within moments, the pressure now forced centurions inside the ship to lose control. They were pulled backwards as openings leading out into space formed, pulling with enough force to rip them away from activity in attacking colonial marines.
Several marines without pressure suits joined the mass of hundreds centurions drawn out into space, flash-frozen their screams were silenced forever. The machines vrooming red eyes kept moving as they tried to hold onto something anything, flipping end over end toward the dreadstar or into the vast emptiness of space…
Battle between Atlantis and Dreadstar continued, although it could be called a running battle as Atlantis tried to escape. Nukes impacted on the starboard flightpod, starting fires aboard. Crewmen across the ship were thrown by the impact reverberating throughout the ship.
"Nuclear signature, big one 250 kt," the tactical officer reported.
"Frak it, all defense batteries concentrate on that missile group," Haller ordered.
Stryker watch the screen as the defense batteries fire on incoming missiles. Few manage to break trough. Including the big one. We should consider further upgrade of defensive grid he thought to himself. He took the comms headset, setting it to ship wide communicator and ordered evacuation of outer sections as well telling the crew to brace for impact.
"I hate those missiles," he said out loud just before the 250kt nuclear missile struck the ship's topside armor. It impact with such force that it threw the entire ship to the starboard. Due imminent failure of shield system, which operates on less than 20%, it was only heavy armor that protected the crew fully and despite designed to withstand massive hits like this, it was nevertheless a powerful hit. Armor managed to concentrate all the explosion on area of impact, emergency bulkheads were shut in place immediately but nuclear missile did a lot of damage, tearing chunk of armor melting or simply vaporizing everything in the area of impact.
Admiral and many other in CIC were injured due the force of hit. At least one member of CIC crew was killed after landing and break his neck.
"Report," Stryker ordered, barely standing on his feet. Commander Haller had a head injury but got up, acting like it was nothing serious as he tried to continue his work.
"Reports are coming in. Heavy damage to the port, frames forward of forty through forty-five. There was not many people inthose sections as it was evacuated, however at least fifty are being reported missing or dead, and it may be more. There's radiation on entire upper section of the port flightpod, it's been contained by anti-radiation systems. Weapons are active, standard engines are down, but the antimatter reactors are online still," Commander Haller said.
Stryker was still dizzy from hit, he saw Major Thrace standing near the outer section helping an injured crewmember.
"Major Thrace," he called.
"Yes sir!" she responded quickly.
"Get us ready to jump, now!" Admiral Stryker ordered.
"Y, yes sir," She quickly moved to the helm station, before the FTL computer.
"Weapons, stand by for full nuclear barrage on that monster," Stryker said, taking his nuclear key and giving it to Heller, as he was unable to walk too much due to old injury and this new one with blood dripping down from his knee.
Dreadstar CIC
"Direct hit, heavy damage to the upper port flight deck," one of the number ones reported.
"Good, prepare every nuke we have I want that ship destroyed," Jack said savagely, "You won't escape this time Stryker."
...
DreadstarTylium Tanks
Major Glass sat with his back leaning on the wall, he was heavily injured, but he'd managed to keep the Cylons at bay. There was no more time…
In the distance the bodies of his marines and Captain Renez could be seen where they'd been put down by centurions trying to get back to Atlantis. Several inert centurion bodies leading to feet away from Glass lay across the floor.
Major Glass closed his eyes, thinking of his daughters and wife that were killed back on colonies. His brother which survived the war was stationed on board of the Battlestar Athena, and died when the ship was destroyed by the Cylons. He lost everyone, his parents, his brother, his wife and two children. To him, he can at least do one last thing before dies, taking the last Cylon ship with him.
A pair of centurions made loud clangs, their hard metal legs braced against the metal ground, the whirring noises growing louder as they walked toward Major glass, aiming their guns at him, their red eyes vrhooming back and forth staring down at the Major.
"I will be with you in a moment my dears," Glass said with a small smile and he pushed the button.
A massive explosion ripped through the corridors of Dreadstar. Igniting everything in its way. Other bombs at seven other equidistant points across the Dreadstar detonated in sync, unleashing a chasm of fire that eagerly lapped up centurions and metal constructs of the ship along the path of destruction weaved. Each explosion met, fire in contact with an already large concussive blast from another explosion which fed into the next and the next, growing in volume and power consuming the ship. The massive construct of the Dreadstar started coming apart in multiple loud detonations, fire consuming all.
In the dreadstar CIC everyone was shocked by sudden explosion shaking the room, throwing them around like ragdolls. The shockwave engulfed the dreadstar.
"What the frak is going on?" Jack asked, as the shaking continued, growing stronger and more violent. A centurion was thrown into the hard wall to his left, another number five model became a splattered mess of blood and guts across from it.
"The prime energizer went offline, one of the engines exploded… Frak the tylium tanks and ammo storage centers..." one of the human cylons responded, understanding dawning on his face as horror overtook surprise and disbelief.
Jack realized that this is what the Colonials did to the colony ship, they sent small team, sabotage and blast important parts of the ship, causing chain reaction which in the end destroyed the Cylon colony.
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
"Sir massive explosions inside the dreadstar," Haller said, ecstatic.
"Well let's help send that monster to hell, commander Heller, full nuclear barrage, fire every missile we got."
"With pleasure sir," Commander Heller said, and big smile shows on his face.
Twenty four nuclear missiles were launched from Atlantis.
Jack watched in horror incoming missiles, and explosions that are still rocking the ship are becoming closer and bigger. He was doomed, but he will at least take Stryker with him.
"Fire every nuke at Atlantis!"
Several 250kt nukes and dozens of standard ones were fired in direction of Atlantis, still backing away now hundreds of kilometers distant.
...
"Incoming nukes, several are big ones!" the tactical officer exclaimed.
"Damn it, lieutenant Thrace get us out of here now," Admiral Stryker said, teeth gritted.
"Where sir?" Major Kara Thrace asked, setting the FTL up, ready to input a set of coordinates but without any idea where they might end up would have to simply put in random numbers and hope for the best.
"I don't care where, just jump us away!" Admiral Stryker said.
A blind jump. Kara nodded and prepped the Jump control, she was unfamiliar with the Antimatter system, but it was similar like standard FTL control system. Then she remembered a song, song which she heard for long time, at least since exodus from the colonies. She managed to translate the song as a set of coordinates shortly before the battle of Avalon. No idea where it led, it was now time to find out.
She added the numbers in, and turned the FTL key, pushing on the jump handle to initiate activation.
Atlantis disappeared as Cylon nukes reach its former position, passing through empty space and continuing on through the emptiness of space.
Jack watched in terror as Atlantis disappear and colonial nukes hits the massive ship joining in already chain reaction that was tearing the dreadstar apart.
"Frak you Stry..." was last thing he said before being vaporized in massive explosion which finally destroys the dreaded dreadstar.
TO BE CONCLUDED...