Chapter 37 A Noble Sacrifice
Smoke filled the room for a few minutes before the ship's air vents began to pull the smoke out and pump fresh air into the room. It was a system which was designed to clear the air when the ship was in combat or a fire onboard.
"What happened?" asked Kim as she stood up, however the entire room was tilted slightly to the right.
"We crashed." answered Ben as the information was coming in from all over the ship.
"Can we fly?" asked Captain Reed as the holographic image of the ship appeared red lines ran up and down its side. The largest red line ran covered five entire compartments and ran almost the entire height of the ship.
"Those are openings in the haul." stated Ben "Does that answer your question."
"This is not good." stated Captain Reed as some blood ran down her face from a blow she had gotten from the crash.
"And I am detecting enemy aircraft landing nearby." said Ben as the holographic map of the surrounding area appeared "We are about to be boarded."
"They are not landing on the north slope here by the A1 airlock on the deck one." stated Captain Reed "Get the people out there and head into the mountains maybe they can get picked up by colonial raptors."
"Can't we get them to the nightingale?" asked Lisa Rancord
"The nightingale is probably in the middle of a battle, we can't load them up in the middle of a battle." stated Captain Reed as she hit a button and got the ship wide speaker system. "All hands we have Cylons boarding the ship, lead the civilians to deck one airlock one, lead them into the mountains."
Up in space Captain Malhorta was looking at the map, nothing was going right. The Gates of Valhalla had crash and now lied on its side with huge gashes in its haul. It would take a dry dock ship at least seven months to get that ship off the ground. The situation on the ground was now desperate, not that their situation up here wasn't much better. They had used their NOVA class nuke along with five out of their fifteen Shiva class nukes where gone and to top it off one of the MAC rounds where jammed inside the barrel taking out their primary weapon. To make matters worse there was still twenty one enemy ships in striking range and thousands of enemy fighters pushing back their forces.
"Get me Galactica." ordered Captain Malhorta
Thousands of yards away from the Nightingale the old war ship of the Colonial Navy was showing its age. Two of its main guns were taken out by missile attacks and a quarter of the fighter wing was gone or hand to land because of damage. Standing in the middle of the CIC was Admiral Adama.
"Sir the Nightingale's commander is on the wireless." stated the wireless operator as the admiral picked up the wireless set located in the center map table. "This is Admiral Adama."
"Admiral." said the voice that Adama recognized as belonging to the Captain of the Nightingale, Captain Malhorta "The Gates of Valhalla was shot down."
Adama's heart sank as he looked around room at the faces of the man and women under his command.
"We need you to send every Raptor you have to pick up as many civilians as possible." stated Captain Malhorta "Then you need to get out of here. We will hold the line and let you escape."
"We are not leaving." said Admiral Adama "They are our people down there."
"Admiral you don't understand the situation, our primary weapon is out of commission we are down to only ten nukes and every moment our fighter force is falling apart and that isn't counting the situation on the ground." Stated Captain Malhorta
"Are you going to leave?" asked Admiral Adama
"No." stated Captain Malhorta
"Then this is a fight to the finish." stated Admiral Adama
"Good luck Admiral." said Captain Malhorta
"Same to you." said Adama as he put down the wireless before looking toward his XO Karl Agathon. He didn't say anything as he reached under his uniform and pulled a small key and placed it inside a small key hole in the center table.
"Captain Agathon your key please." stated Adama as Karl took out his own key and placed it into the XO's key hole.
"Three….two…one." stated Adama as the nukes located in four rows of five located along the top half of the ship, two rows in the front and two rows in the back. Normally a Battlestar could be capable of firing twenty nuclear missiles at once but Galactica was down to only ten nukes with five located in the bow starboard tubes and the other five located in the stern port launchers.
Onboard the lone Base ship that had stayed behind over New Caprica City Galan Tyrol pressed his hands down into a bioelectrical jell which allowed his Cylon brain. He could actually sense what was going on outside the ship though the DRADUS system. He could see hundreds of Cylon raiders being destroyed by the much more advanced UNSC star fighters however numbers where a great equalizer and now waves of Cylon raiders where now heading toward Galactic and the UNSC ship. His eyes widened as he realized that Galactica was arming their nuclear warheads.
"You can calm down Galan we are safe here." Said Boomer as she walked up and placed her hand in the gel right beside him. "We will destroy the two ships and then we will bring peace to New Caprica."
"Where is my son?" asked Galan
"We don't know he was taken by the UNSC." said Boomer "He may be on that ship that crashed on New Caprica. Where ever he is we will find him and bring him to you the attack force
Inside one of the Gates of Valhalla a group of Marines used whatever cover they could as they tried to hold the corridor against the flood of centurions who were coming in through one of the multiple holes in the haul.
"Reloading." yelled a marine as he dropped an enemy assault rifle case and loaded another one into the bull pup magazine. There were only three marines holding this corridor with another two civilians who had picked up some spare weapons.
"Coming out." yelled a marine as a marine stepped out from a small room firing as a group of six people ran out of the room and headed behind the marines and into the ship.
"They are clear." yelled a marine "Pull back."
With that the marines began to fall back shutting the massive blackhead door behind them. Cutting the Cylons off from entering deeper into the ship.
"How long will that hold?" asked a colonial woman as a bright red line appeared at the top of the door and began to work its way down.
"They are cutting though?" asked a UNSC civilian
"We need to move." ordered the marine as they moved deeper into the ship in the hopes of escape.
Meanwhile out on the battlefield things were going from bad to worse as even Spartans began to fall to the enemy. The artillery bases of the UNSC had been destroyed by enemy fire or kamikaze attacks. Their air force was now on its last leg as wave after wave of Cylon heavy raiders flew overhead and toward the downed Gates of Valhalla.
"Get down." yelled Noble Six as he pushed Mai down as the body of a Spartan IV came flying overhead landing in the snow beside them. The Spartan's armor was ripped apart as his guts lied outside his body. His helmet had landed beside him as blood ran out of his face.
"We have to pull back." yelled Mai "We are getting slaughtered."
"If we fall back then everyone on the ship is dead." answered Robert as he looked behind him at the advancing Cylon force. The human lines where breaking as centurions cut down humans either with gunfire, artillery or simply by using their claw like hands to cut apart humans.
"If we stay here we are dead.' stated Mai
"But we buy them more time." stated Jun as he tossed his empty sniper rifle aside and pulled out his SMG and pistol "To escape."
"So it is a fight to the death….well I have had worst missions." stated Mai as she stabbed a Centurion in the neck with a knife.
"Sounds like typical Noble mission." stated Robert as he threw a grenade like a baseball down the barrel of a Cylon tank. Even as another Spartan went flying from a tank shell hitting her in the chest, not even a Spartan's armor could stand up to that much force.
Deeper inside the Cylon forces the elites and the grunts where in even deeper trouble but there was no place the elites would rather be. A situation where all around them where enemies and they didn't have to worry about hitting a friendly, the perfect situation for Elites but it scared the grunts like no other. The plasma pistols carried by the grunts could go through a centurion in a single shot the pistol only had enough charge to fire a hundred time and that was a problem. They were now running out of energy. Whenever the grunts ran out of energy for their pistols they resorted to arming two sticky grenade and charging straight into the centurions.
Even the elites where beginning to fall as their shields fell due to the number of enemy rounds hitting their shields. Even with their shields down the elites fought, their owner system demanded that they will fight entitle either their enemy was dead or they were. To retreat was impossible and even if it was they wouldn't, retreat was almost as un honorable as getting wounded in combat without taking revenge. Tul was the only elite who hadn't had his shield drop since his armor was more advanced and the fact that he was wielding an energy sword in one hand while he shot with a plasma repeater. He said nothing some elites have a war cry as they go into battle, Tul said nothing. Suddenly a load boom filled the air as Tul and the other elites looked up to see the phantom which was among the last friendly air power explode in a giant fireball. Tul was the first Elite to look back to the battle as he stabbed another centurion with his energy sword before tossing it aside.
Up in space the battle wasn't going good as missiles now freely impacted the Nightingale and Galactica. The fighter screen had fallen apart and only less than a tenth of the combined fighter force remained. The Cylon raiders where still falling like flies but for everyone that was shot down two more took its place. Due to the massive number of enemy fighters the two human ships had to close distance with the enemy in order to raise their chances of hitting their enemies with the last of their power weapons, their nuclear weapons. Between the two of them they had twenty nukes with twenty two targets and it was unlikely that a single nuke from Galactica could destroy a base ship. Like Galactica itself it had armor that could stand up to the force of a nuke and keep the ship together.
The Nightingale was taking the damage better then Galactica the UNSC armor was ten times stronger than Galactica's amour but the ship was the primary target of the Cylon fire.
Onboard Galactica's smoke filled the CIC as the firefighter crew fought back the fire that had appeared in the corner.
"Sir we have lost FTL." said an operator
"Not that we were going to us it." said Admiral Adama as Galactica rocked as another of the main guns were knocked out by an attacking Cylon raider. Suddenly another larger boom sent everyone flying. Adama slammed his head into the center table opening a huge gash on his forehead which poured blood. A few people where sent flying into the flames scaring them. Unknown to anyone in the CIC knew that a Longsword fighter bomber which had been sent spinning out of control had smashed into the twin port engines destroying them. Now Galactica could only send power to its starboard engines so they would be moving in a circle if at all.
"Situation?" asked Adama as he got back onto his feet holding his hand up to his bleeding face.
"Admiral we lost engines 1 and 3 we can't get any closer than this." stated an operator as he looked at his screen.
'Then it will have to do." said Adama "Fire."
The ten nuclear missiles fired off the wounded Battlestar. Adama along with everyone else watched the DRADUS screen praying that the missiles would find their targets and maybe save them.
Onboard the nightingale they where handling the fire a little bit better but still the lower four decks had to be evacuated do to openings in the haul.
"Sir Galactica has launched their nuclear missiles." stated the radar operator
"Do we know where they are targeted?" asked Captain Mahlorta as the powerful computers on the Nightingale predicted the flight paths of Galactica's missiles.
"Yes, sir." stated the operator
"Then target the other Cylon Base ships and fire." ordered Mahlorta as the ten Shiva class missiles fired out of their launchers. The onboard computers of the Shiva's missiles began to guide the nuclear warhead down range dodging enemy fire as best it could. Still of the ten launched six got shot down before they could reach their target, the other four exploded on contact with the Base ship's haul. The haul which was designed to stand up to two direct nuclear warhead strikes denigrated under the power of the Shiva warhead. The raiders around the ship where thrown around like rag dolls from the shock wave caused by the warheads.
Hundreds of miles away from the warheads from Galactica where having more problems than the UNSC warheads getting though the Cylon defense screen. Only one got though the Cylon fighter screen and exploded crippling the enemy Basestar.
"Sir we still have seventeen enemy….." started an operator as suddenly the Nightingale was struck along its port side with four nuclear missiles. The flash blinded and fired all the long range instruments on the UNSC ship as the port side was ripped apart and opened to space. Fires began to fill the cambers within the ship. Three quarters of the Nightengale's AA system and ship to ship strike weapons were gone. The UNSC ship was on the ropes and her captain knew it.
"All hands abandon ship." yelled Captain Malhorta as smoke and fire filled the bridge as the crew of the nightingale headed toward the escape pods located throughout the ship. The captain didn't leave his post as he typed a code into the computer as the engines of the Nightingale began to burn at max power as the UNSC Stealth ship shot forward faster than any ship the Cylons had ever seen. The escape pods shot off the ship streaking away as they hoped to make it to the planet. Onboard Captain Malhorta sat calmly in his chair the fire was all around him as the last escape pod left his ship.
"May Allah and his angles take me to see his prophet, Muhammad." whispered Captain Malhorta as he prayed to God while thinking of his family, his sister's and her two sons on Reach and his brother who had died during the battle of Earth twenty years ago, he would see him soon. The Nightingale's computers did no praying it knew no fear as the collation alarm went off as the Nightingale closed within 1,000 yards of the lead Cylon base star.
Captain Malhorta looked though the now breaking reinforced glass at the Cylon ship which had no place to go. It couldn't dodge the charge of the Nightingale. Suddenly the Base ship exploded as a beam of red light shot straight down from the above, the beam shot though the Basestar like a knife through butter sending letting the Nightingale pass though the huge gap cleanly that had been cut open.
"What?" asked Captain Malhorta as the Nightingale's engines faltered and quite leaving the ship dead in the water. The working computer screens on the Nightingale came alive as Captain Malhorta smiled.
"What the frak was that?" asked Starbuck's as she looked up to see the largest ship she had ever seen. Flanking the ship where four smaller ships but each seemed to be three to four times the size of the Galactica and they where at least five times smaller than the giant ship that moved toward them at unheard of speed.
"You came." said Captain Malhorta as he looked at the computer screen as a huge ship came closer along with four smaller ships flanking it.
"UNSC Missouri…..Dreadnought class ….flagship of the 75th fleet." Read Captain Malhorta with a smile, he lowered his head as the bridge was consumed in flames.
Outside the Nightingale Starbuck looked up dozens of giant blue portals appeared over the planet as ships of all different sizes appeared as thousands of star fighters shot off from the ships heading into battle against the remaining Basestars.
"It's a fleet….by the Gods it is a fleet." said Starbucks with a huge smile on her face.
Well I hope you liked this chapter even though it took place mostly in space, I wanted to update sooner but for some reason Fanfiction wouldn't let me log in. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep on reading. Thanks Wilkins75