The Way Home – Going Home rework
by Warringer
Chapter 36
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Politics was murder.
Over the last few month since the Battle of Zaitaku, Harry Potter had found out that this was doubly true for Shin'bi politics. Or as Enesby had put it...
The only difference between the Shin'bi way of warfare and the Shin'bi way of politics was that politics involved more talk.
During the time he had toured Zaitaku he had survived no less than ten assassination attempts of those that didn't like to find out that the prophesied Shogun was taking away their power.
Not that Harry really wanted that power. He was more or less forced into it. On the other hand he now wielded nearly absolutist power over about half of Zaitaku. Even the rest of the planet was going to do what he said, even through they would want to talk him out of it.
It was a sore point for him. Especially since he feared that the power would corrupt him. Like it had done to Voldemort. Or Joseph Stalin. Or Adolf Hitler.
"With great power come great responsibility," Jack had said once, quoting some 'Uncle Ben'.
He preferred to have the people already in charge to continue doing their job. They knew what they were doing.
He eyed his recently acquired bodyguards. A pair of Shin'bi Space Marines, massive 'were-dragons', in equally massive powered armor coming straight from the industrial sector of Babylon 4, build by Jack and equipped with the latest technology from Babyon 4's databases, the Colonials, Shin'bi, Ferrons and Dilgar. They were at least twice the size of Harry and even more massive than Aleksandr.
Being Shin'bi, they recognized him as Shogun and their place of birth from one of the nations that had given Harry full power over their government.
Now being Space Marines they also recognized him as the Emperor. Of what, Harry still didn't know. To call them merely loyal would be a huge underestimation. Those two would be doing just about everything for him.
Which brought him back into the present.
"I don't know if that is a good idea, Admiral Adama," President Baltar noted, looking a little nervous and glancing over towards Enesby, Jack, GLaDOS and Artemis." Of course we have better technology now, but we got less than ten warships. Attacking the Cylons with those is not going to end well."
Harry eyed Baltar for a moment and than eyed Enesby, who grinned wide looking at Baltar.
"You have Allies, Mr. President," Enesby noted and his grin became wider." I am pretty sure that at least the Shin'bi are willing to send a few ships along."
Enesby winked at Harry for a moment, while Baltar began to sweat. By now Harry's feeling that Enesby had some very bad dirt on Baltar only reinforced itself.
"I wouldn't want to impose our problems on any of our allied," Baltar said.
"You would not impose yourself on us," Artemis noted." I have just gotten the results of a public poll from the Ferrons population. Ninety percent are willing to send a force help liberate the Twelve Colonies."
For a moment Harry noted the rather special way of the Ferrons doing things. All of them had a personal computer with them all the time and for Artemis it was easy to open a poll, send it to all those computers and get a result in less than two minutes.
"I am also willing to send a few ships," Hak'Ey, the leader of the Dilgar said and pulled up straight." We know how it is to lose the homeworld and everything one holds dear. We are willing to help, just as you were willing to help us settle down here at Liberty. Even if we can't return home, at least others should."
By now Baltar looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast moving train. It was a far cry from someone who was leading his people. Through from what Harry had heard in the press, the Quorum was doing much more to lead the Colonial remnants.
"What about the Shin'bi, Shogun Harry?" Enesby noted and flashed him one of his trademark grins.
Harry groaned at the title as he felt the two Shin'bi Space Marines stiffening up behind him.
Than he drew in a deep breath. His thought moved towards the Cylons for a moment.
They had been created as cheap labor and warfare robots and slowly gained sentience. That they developed enough free will to fight for their freedom wasn't really surprising to him. In a way it had been slavery and in the end the Cylons had gained their freedom.
But did that give them the right to try and commit genocide against their creators? No.
In a way Harry was reminded of what he knew about Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, and what he had read about him in a certain series of novels. A wizard born fro a wizard and a normal, grew up in a only slightly better than Harry himself, discovered that he was a wizard and as such better than a normal or anything below a 'pure-blood'.
The Cylons were doing the same. They thought they were better.
Harry breathed in deep. The Colonials were human and even if the colonies had been nuked, he knew that there were still survivors. Samuel Anders and a few others of his group were the proof.
Jack had once noted that there should be two to three billion survivors spread out over the colonies.
Three billion people in a situation that was maybe worse than what currently happened on Earth.
With the Shin'bi behind him Harry had the power to do something. To change something.
"The Shin'bi are going to commit a force," he said after a few more moments." And I'll be leading them from Enterprise."
He looked at Admiral Takano.
"How fast can we get a force ready?"
Takano looked a little surprised but recovered fast.
"Three hours."
Harry nodded and looked back at Baltar.
"We're all giving our support, Mr. President," he said before Enesby could say something.
Baltar swallowed and it was very clear that he was extremely uncomfortable at the moment.
"Good, good," he said weakly." In that case... Admiral..."
Adama answered before Baltar could say anything more.
"Galactica, Defender, Alexander and Iphicrates are ready to be deployed in two hours."
"Ahm... good. See to it than..."
Harry nodded to himself and Baltar made sure to get out fast. He had to ask Enesby what he had on Baltar that the man folded in just like that from just a glance...
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Simon stared at the display, just like Cavil and Doral.
The frigate, and with it the Defender, had just survived the impact of ten nuclear warheads. The red sphere, now very obviously a force shield of some kind, had held against the destructive force of ten five megaton capital ship destroyers.
And both continued to fight back.
Simon had the bad feeling that the force shield would continue to hold, even if the Basestars threw more nukes at it.
The frigate began to turn about to face the Basestars, its weapons already firing again. The number of Raiders was seen on a small numeric display and the number was decreasing.
"Fire more missiles!" Doral ordered and glared towards the Hybrid.
Simon stared at him.
"They survived ten capital ship killers," he said, his voice carrying the shock he still felt." They may be able to survive more than ten."
Cavil on the other hand was strangely silent, staring at the display, while Doral stared at Simon.
"They won't," he said and grit his teeth, looking back at the Hybrid." Fire all nuclear missiles."
"We cannot win this," Simon said." Think you idiot. We have a frigate from an unknown Colonial group. If this frigate can survive ten capital ship killers, what do you think one of their battlestars can do?"
"If they have battlestars," Doral said and he nearly sounded as if he growled." If we destory that frigate..."
"They will come here with a larger force," Cavil said, his voice strangely calm." We..."
He was interrupted as the frigate fired what looked missiles at first. But they moved too fast. They needed just about five seconds to get from the frigate towards the Basestars, moving in a straight line directly towards the meeting point between the upper and lower pylons. Just as the first Basestar fired its remaining missiles, the first of the frigates missiles impacted into the first Cylon missile.
The resulting detonation had the force of a small nuclear warhead but only before the nuclear fuel was ignited by the detonation of kinetic energy. The resulting fireball bloomed in space, too close to the Basestar. The Basestars armor began to buckle under the strain of the detonation, heat and hard radiation killing the biological components just before the metal armor began to vaporize.
The fireball vanished only to leave several pylons behind, each slowly detonating from the inside as Thylium fuel lines burst and were ignited by the fires raging through them.
"Wha..."
The next Basestar fared a similar fate, only that the Colonial fast missile hit one of the Raiders close to the Basestar, the fireball of the detonation less powerful, but still enough to induce a lethal chain reaction that destroyed the Basestar.
Only one Basestar didn't share the fate of its brothers. Just as the fast missile impacted into its hull, it jumped away.
Again the three biological Cylons stared at the display.
This time it was Cavil who first came out of his stupor.
"We need to cut our losses," he said." We just lost three Basestars. We cannot afford to loose more."
He turned towards the Hybrid.
"Recall all Raiders to the next base," he ordered and than turned back to his colleagues." And we will evacuate this mine. Than we will destroy this asteroid with the warheads already in place. They are here for the Thylium. They are not going to get it."
"He will come," the Hybrid noted, but was ignored by the three humanoid Cylons." Rerouting energy to grid three. The Omnissiah appears. End of Line."
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"Looks like one of them became wiser than the others," Kijoshi noted slightly amused as he looked at the plot where one of the torpedoes had just crossed the space that used to be occupied by a Cylon Basestar.
Helo eyed him for a moment.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," he said and rolled his eyes.
Helo had to say that Kijoshi had been a good catch as XO. They were getting along nicely and shared the same kind of humor.
"And that leaves a few hundred Raiders," Kijoshi continued without missing a beat." I don't think you know how we can get them out of our space fast?"
Helo shook his head slightly and looked over towards Astral.
"Astral, switch turrets to point defense fire."
The Ferron woman nodded and her fingers flew over her keyboard like always.
"Sir, we got Thunderchild on the phone," Communication noted.
"Fast aren't they?" Kijoshi wondered and caused Helo to shake his head again.
"We just saved their sorry asses, of course they are."
He paused for a moment and looked towards Communication.
"Put them through."
"Leonidas, this is Thunderchild," a voice called out over the speakers of the Command Information Center." Please respond."
"This is Leonidas, Captain Karl Agathon speaking," Helo answered out loud and fell back to old habits," We hear you five to five."
"This is Commander Franklin Grant," the voice said again." Thanks for the save, Captain."
Helo chuckled.
"Not a problem, Commander. We were in the area and thought that you could need a little help."
The line was silent for a few moments.
"Do you mind to tell us what the Hades just happened? Where did you get a fracking force shield and energy weapons?"
Helo looked at Kijoshi.
"Longer story, sir," Helo said." Lets just say that Galactica managed to make a few new friends and leave the rest for later."
"I hope you got a very detailed answer for me, Captain."
"I guess parts of my crew will be explanation enough. Especially my XO. But I think you want to take a closer look at the Thylium Asteroid before we have a long explanation session."
Again the line was silent.
"You know of the asteroid?"
Helo chuckled a little, clearly audible over the line.
"Galactica already mined about half of the Thylium on the way through..."