O'Neill: Huh? A mid-week update? Carter, care to explain?

Carter: Well.. (eyes widen)... holy hanna!

Shadow: What?

Carter: DR's finished the story, and he's begun to rapid post!

DR: (enters the room grining) That's right Carter. Now, hang on!


Chapter 49: And The Sky Full of Stars

Bit felt his jaw drop as space ahead was filled with wave after wave of red laser bolts. Every gun on every ship was firing at once, sweeping their fire back and forth. Even the heaviest weapons, designed for use against the Base Ships, were active, their massive bolts streaking out. Out on the wings the Vipers too were firing, creating a deadly crossfire that the Cylons ran right into. Even on the planet below people could see the mass of bolts.

Explosions ran throughout the Cylon Raider force, as craft were struck from several directions at once. They began to evade, but often a craft would fly out of the path of one set of bolts and into another set. And all the jinking in the world was not enough to evade the heavy bolts that lanced out. They swallowed raiders whole before carrying on, undiminished.

And yet, despite the horrific punishment they were taking, the Cylons pressed onwards, diving deeper into the oncoming fire, plunging right for the ships in the fleet. All too quickly they escaped the danger zone and began to return fire.

"Cease barrage! Return to normal anti-fighter operations." Adama belted out as the first sets of blue-white bolts struck the Galactica's shields. Almost as one the hail of bolts cut off. Then after a few seconds the many anti-fighter weapons on the ships started firing again, but carefully, tentatively. They had to be careful when they shot; otherwise they might hit each other.

As the multitude of Vipers and Scorpions broke ranks and dived into the Cylons formations, Adama turned to look towards Omega. "How many did we get?"

"Checking Sir… Just over a third of them sir."

Adama sighed as he turned back to regard the screens. A third, just over seven hundred Raiders at the last count. Better than they had expected, but less then they had hoped. But there were no more tricks to play against the Raiders now. From now on it was down to the Vipers and the anti-fighter gunners.

Bit watched as all around the larger ships ahead the tiny forms of Raiders rolled and dived, their laser bolts needle thin at this distance. The new shields of the battlestars glowed blue wherever a brace of bolts struck, and the multitude of glowing points attested to the fury of the Cylon attack.

Liger growled, and Bit focused closer, onto the wall of Cylons that had pushed on past the larger ships and were heading right for them. "Heads up, here they come!" He called into the comm, priming the Ligers weapons. All around him panels flipped open as every missile pod on the Liger primed.

A hail of red bolts started up from his right, and a quick glance showed that Leena was already firing, her main guns spitting death. The red back light from the fire painted her zoid in harsh tones. Slightly after her Miranda also opened up from her perch on the back of the Fury.

The console before him toned, indicating a full array of target locks. "Here we go buddy!" He grinned before pulling the trigger. "BURNING BIG BANG!"

It had taken almost every missile the Colonials had spare to reload the various launchers on the Blitz Team's zoids. Their regular missiles were almost useless in space, as without vectored thrust they might as well have been dumbfire rockets. Over half of those missiles had been used to load up the Liger Zero Panzer, and now in a roar that only the two of them could hear each and every one of them fired. Riding their own blue plume of ion fire the missiles leapt from the launchers, eagerly racing for their targets. From each side of the Liger both the Iguanosaur and the Fury unleashed a missile salvo as well.

For the lead Cylon fighters it was like a wall of warheads had come racing at them. Identifying the incoming weapons, the Raiders began to spread out, trying to avoid the terrible losses that had occurred the first time the Colonials had fielded this particular model of space missile.

Missiles, as a weapon, were outdated and cumbersome for space battles, particularly when high energy lasers and plasma dischargers were available. Their time-to-target, destructive potential and battle sustainability were all poor, but they had two redeeming qualities.

One, they were a compact and simplistic weapon allowing small craft, such as Vipers, to carry the firepower to seriously hurt the larger types of warships.

And second, and of primary concern for the Blitz at that time, was that they were still very effective at dealing damage over a large area. The solonite missiles developed by the Colonials had been designed to achieve the maximum possible blast radius, for these very situations.

As each missile reached its target they detonated, the densely packed solonite explosive warheads setting off tiny novas. A chain of fireballs expanded within the Cylons' ranks, ripping apart several Raiders at a time with the blast of super heated plasma and an incredible shockwave. A good explosive needs blasting power. Solonite, with its compressed mixture of chemical and plastic explosives, has that and then some.

Leena grinned as she watched one Raider simply shatter as it was overtaken by the one blast. "Think you can simply wipe us out eh? Have some of that!"

But even with the loss of dozens of Raiders, the Cylons continued to press their attack. A volley of laser blasts made the shields that protected the Matriarch glow. It became a faint blue haze before the Blitz as the shields held back the ceaseless barrage of fire. The ship and the Blitz were giving back as good as they got though. All along the massive ship red bolts stabbed back at the small craft pounding her.

As everything around them descended into a furball, Pierce could only shake her head. "This looks worse than that siege!"

"Maybe, but at least we're not alone this time…" Jamie answered her over their private link as he sidled up besides. "You lead. I'll cover you."

Nodding out of reflex, Pierce rolled the scorpion fighter and dove towards the mass of Cylons that were firing on the Matriarch, and thus her friends. After the ferocious initial barrage from the Blitz the Raiders were attacking from all angles, weaving about to throw off the aims of the gunners on the various ships around that were trying to take them down. All around her she could see the other pilots swooping in to engage.

She watched as trio of Raiders flew across the larger ships bow, raking her with their guns. Red darts leapt up back at them, and one craft vanished in a ball of fire as a pair found their mark. Skimming over the ship's bridge, the Raiders began to turn and bank to go again.

'Not if I have anything to say about it…' She thought as she tightened her craft's turn to close. As she did so Pierce missed the feedback feeling she would have gotten from the Storm Sworder. But she knew that the dependable zoid could not have functioned out here in space.

Seeing how she was on the Cylons' tail, she looked down at the screen before her. It was small and almost in her lap, and it was the one thing she disliked about the Scorpion the most. She was used to having a HUD, but the Scorpion didn't have one. So she had to use the small screen before her to aim correctly. The reasoning for this set up had been explained when they had all been briefed on the ground, but she still thought it was a case of bad design.

The simple outline of the Raider drifted towards the centre of the screen, and she felt a sense of relief that Jamie was out there watching her back and keeping her safe. Trusting him to warn her if danger threatened, she focused on making the Cylon reach the middle. When it did the image began to blink, and a predatory smile formed on her lips as her thumb pressed down on the firing stud.

It vanished in time with the widening of her eyes as thin red bolts were spat out from each side of her, the discharge of the twin lasers resounding in the cockpit. Each blast was almost instantly followed by the next, making it almost impossible to pick out the sound of each discharge.

The hail of bolts stippled all across the rear of the Raider, the hull blackening up each hit. Chunks of metal were blown away as she could almost see the craft wobble before the Raider blew apart. She gasped as she flew through the rapidly dissipating fireball, but she emerged from the other side without any collisions. Nearly all of the craft had been disintegrated.

"You okay?" Jamie's voice had a very real thread of fear in it.

"Yea… I'm okay." Pierce half whispered before she pulled herself together. "Now… let's get the other one."

X-X-X-X-X-X

It was chaos.

It was bedlam.

It was a place where death could strike without warning, and he would never see his killers.

It was where Major Apollo excelled.

He wove the Freedom from one end of the fight to another, the fireballs of dieing Raiders marking his wake. Sharply pulling back on the controls, he cut up besides the Galactica's massive engines. Another sharp dive and he settled onto the tails of a pair of Raiders that had just strafed his father's ship. Within microns both were transformed into balls of fire.

Banking round he took a moment to gaze upon the battle. Around each battlestar the shields glowed blue as they were struck again and again by fire. But there were also points on the hull were small fires burned, surrounded by charred and buckled plating. The shields held back directed energy high kinetic weapons, but relatively slow moving objects, like the Cylon Raiders, could pass through the shields without harm. It was the only flaw with the shields. There were various theories and ideas as to how to stop that using the shields from zoids, but there had not been time to put any into practice. Christian Masters had commented that Earth based scientists had tried to resolve the problem, but they had discovered that to block slow moving objects the shields would have had to have been almost solid, to the point that weapons fired from within would not have gotten out. In fact, the near solid shields would have blocked light too, rendering anyone within blind.

The space around all the ships were filled with laser bolts flashing back and forth, as well as the darting shapes of Vipers, Scorpions and Raiders. Mixed in here and there were the Cylons' own Gunships, using their own impressive array of weapons to prey on the defending fighters. Much like what he was doing to the Raiders.

As he watched, the leading group of Cylon Frigates approached, their main guns lashing out at the Pegasus. A brace of megalaser bolts slammed into the battlestars nose, barely held back by the shields. Apollo could see how all of them were racing forwards, trying to get into the midst of the Colonial force.

In reply to the challenge, the Pegasus unleashed one of her mighty bow mounted heavy laser weapons. The massive beam reached out and crashed into one of the frigates, the smaller ship staggering back under the brutal assault. For only a couple of seconds the shields held, then the beam burned through and consumed the small ship, the thin hull armour nothing when compared to the power of the battlestars weapon. The two small wing-like sections drifted apart, all that was left of the frigate.

As the others advanced Apollo dived back into the fray, his own lasers stabbing out as fast as he could target them. Then a call came across the comm that wretched at his heart. "I need some help here!"

Sheba threw her Viper about as hard as she could, but nothing seemed to throw the Gunship that was determined to vaporise her off her tail. It had already taken out three other Vipers and a stray Scorpion, and now it was set on adding her to its list of kills.

She was jolted forwards again as the Gunship tagged her once more with one of its turrets. The aft shield shell collapsed, and Sheba tasted very real fear in her throat. Throwing her Viper into a snap roll, she evaded a second set of linked bolts while shunting power from the front shields to shore up her weakened aft. However she was running out of shield power…

Behind her Apollo dove in, his weapons slamming into the though shields of the Gunship. "Sheba, hang on!" He yelled, hoping that his attack would distract the Gunship enough to allow her to break away. But despite her sudden turn the Gunship hung on, firing away with its main guns while the two turrets turned to pelt Apollo.

A trickle of sweat ran down Sheba's forehead as one blue bolt brushed past, sapping shield power before racing ahead to slam into the shields protecting the Galactica. Then an unknown voice emerged from the comm. "Captain Sheba, on my mark break hard left. Three… two… one… break!"

She didn't stop to question the order. She hauled the Viper about in the most gut wrenching turn it could take, her manoeuvre overloading the force shields that protected her from the gee-forces for a few microns. Behind her the Gunship made the turn…

And then a dual blue blast slammed into its belly, crashing through the shields like they weren't there and incinerating the hull. The gunship vanished instantly.

"What…" Apollo began, but then he noticed that they were flying along the length of the Thunderchild. "Thanks for the assist Thunderchild."

It was Achilles himself who answered his hail. "Think of it as an engagement present Apollo." Apollo could tell, just by the sound of his voice, that Achilles had a broad smile on his face.

"How the Hades…" he began, but then thought better of it when a volley of Megalaser bolts impacted all over the battlecruiser. 'I can ask him later, when we both have the time…'

X-X-X-X-X-X

Brad felt his gut be left behind as the Shadow Fox dropped to its belly. The brace of blue-white bolts that would have obliterated the zoid's torso shot past above it to crash into the Matriarch's hull. Grimacing, Brad swung the laser Vulcan around and returned fire. The hail of dense laser pulses sliced the belly of the Raider open like a scalpel as it flew overhead. A half second more of fire and it blew apart as its fuel went critical.

All around him the rest of the Blitz were dancing about as much as they could, their guns blazing at the darting shapes that swooped about overhead. When they saw the number of Raiders that were gunning for them, Brad had joked that they must have offended the Cylons with their opening missile barrage. Boy was he rueing that now!

As ever, Leena and the Iguanosaur were a fire spitting mountain, all weapons blazing. The main turret spun around rapidly, loosing off a half dozen bolts at a time as Leena tried to tag the fast moving Raiders. Every few seconds a bright spear of yellow energy leapt from the side turrets. So far Naomi had achieved a higher kill ratio then Leon, but even she was struggling to hit these Cylons.

Bit had, after the initial volley, almost gone silent. His hybrid cannons fired too slowly to be effective against the Raiders. Besides, even with the loss of power they suffered from being fired in space, each one was far more powerful than needed. It was against the gunships that he was using them, and after the third one had been broken apart, the rest had appeared to learn to keep a wide berth.

Brad noted with some small amusement that Cassandra and Stroller were standing almost back to back, Covering each others six. The two of them were blazing away at their attackers, and Brad suspected they didn't even realise that they had moved to stand together. Or that Stroller had used his shield to protect her more than once. The attraction between them was there, even if both of them didn't realise it themselves. Everyone else on the team had seen it.

The Fury was snarling at every Raider that flew overhead, particularly those that escaped. The rear turret on his back twisted and turned like crazy, trying to keep up with the Raiders. The sight was quite odd when the Fury moved about itself. Brad hoped that this experience would help Miranda improve her gunnery skills.

However no one expected the Fury to try and catch one of the Raiders. But he did, straining up as much as he could, jaws snapping short of the fighters. So it came as a shock when he finally snagged one. The Raider's momentum almost wrenched the zoid off the Matriarch's hull, but the Fury clung on and dragged the fighter down, his teeth sunk into a wing. Slamming the craft into the hull beneath him, the Fury raised a foot up before stomping down on it. The jaws opened before swiftly plunging down and ripping open the region where the cockpit used to be. Once past the tough armour the masses of computer gear and circuits were torn free with ease.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Pierce cursed as she saw another Scorpion disintegrate under hostile fire, just as Jamie savaged another Raider. The pair of them had been handing off to each other, taking turns at leading and covering each other. So far it had kept them both alive, unlike several others.

"Damn it, those gunships are cutting us down!" She snarled as the culprit continued its turn and began to lace the ZBC Destroyer with fire. Swinging about she roared after it. Jamie settled in on her six with practiced ease.

As they flew towards the besieged destroyer, a dozen other Scorpions formed up around them, a mixture of all four squadrons. Many had burn marks spotted on their skins from where some of the Cylons lasers had burned through the thin shields that had been shoehorned into the craft.

"Hey, you thinking of teaching that overgrown horse shoe some manners?" One Helic pilot called.

"Yes I am." Pierce answered, her eyes fixed on the Cylon craft ahead. "Who's with me?"

The comm resounded with the chorus of several pilots. Together in a flying wedge they swooped down on the Gunship.

Sadly they were not quite in time to save the Destroyer. Pierce watched as the larger ship's shields failed, then gasped as a pair of Megalaser bolts stabbed into the white craft near a wing root. The engine assembly there disintegrated, the wing on that side breaking free and spinning away while the rest of the ship began to cartwheel off, out of control and the battle.

The Gunship began to pursue, but then Pierce entered weapons range and cut loose. All around her the others fired as well, and the rear of the Gunship vanished under a deluge of bolts. Yet despite the pounding the Cylon returned fire, twin bolts lancing back. One fighter from the Ancient City squadron took a pair right on the nose, and in an instant the sleek black with gold trim fighter was atomised. Another blast carved the wing off a Helic craft, taking out a good chunk of engine while at it. The poor pilot went off spinning like a Frisbee.

Despite their losses, the Zi pilots pressed their attack, chipping away at the larger crafts shields. Pierce saw the first of her bolts crash into the Cylons armour when by instinct she yanked hard right. The action saved her life, as a brace of blue-white bolts smashed her shield down and cut through the spot where she had just been.

"Pierce! You all right?" Jamie's worried voice filled her ears as she pulled away from the attack.

"Yea… just about." Pierce answered, wincing as she glanced out of her left side and saw that almost a full meter of wing was gone.

Rolling, she looked down to see most of the pilots breaking off the attack due to a number of Raiders that were closing in. From this angle she could see how the dorsal surface of the Gunship was in ruins, the engines damaged. However, one damaged Scorpion continued to peck away at it with only one laser, ignoring the blasts that got closer.

"This is for my family, you murdering sons of…" The last words from the Guylos red fighter were lost as his craft, trailing smoke and flame from an earlier hit, ploughed into the Gunship. Both craft were consumed by the fire.

X-X-X-X-X-X

At the centre of the Galactica's bridge Adama watched carefully the progress of the Cylon Base Ships. They were following the standard Cylon tactic of sending the smaller stuff, like the Raiders, Gunships and Frigates, while holding back the larger vessels. The single disked Destroyers were beginning to edge ahead of the larger craft, ready to dive into the fray. Adama knew that they could not let them get in their midst, as that was precisely what the Destroyers had been designed for. With an array of ten pulsars around the rim, they were at their best when surrounded by targets.

"Range to Command ship?"

"Twenty four Microns sir. The Destroyers are passing between the moons."

Adama nodded. It was time to spring the second phase of their trap. "Signal Colonel Achilles to initiate phase two." He barked.

The tight beam signal arrived on the bridge of Thunderchild almost instantly, and Achilles nodded as he read the message. Faintly he could hear the impacts of those Cylon shots that struck the hull.

"Dax, send the signal to our other ships. Fire control, arm the weapons."

Two more tight beam signals were sent out from the battlecruiser, one each flank. The message they carried could have been sent on a normal frequency, but then there was a risk that the Cylons would detect it and realise what was planned. Instead, both beams were aimed at two of the Judge Satellites.

But the satellites were not the intended recipients of the message. When they struck the hulls of the satellites, the beams were reflected off, to the far side of Zi's two moons… and to the waiting Colonial ships there.

On board the darkened bridge of the Reaper a voice rang out. "Sir, we're receiving the attack signal."

Major Teran stood up almost instantly, a feral grin spreading across his harsh features. "Well then, let's cut loose and give those gulmoging Cylons hell!" He barked.

All ten destroyers had been positioned several centars before the initial clash, each ship holding station just above the surface of the moons. They were able to do this due to the miniature gravity field the small moons generated, allowing them all to power down as much as they could. Using passive sensors they had been watching, waiting for the attack signal.

Now almost as once they came to full power and pushed forwards, staying as close to the surface of the moons as they began to arc around. For this to work, surprise was everything.

Both battlestars began to move forwards, the Guardians close to them tucking in. However Thunderchild hung motionless, waiting. For this to work, the timing was crucial. On his bridge Achilles watched the display, his eyes narrowed to slits. The signals that represented the Base Ships moved closer…

"Now!" He yelled, and the fire control officer hit the button.

Shortly after the last remains of the Backdraft had fallen, ZBC teams had made a startling discovery. Working from the records recovered from the main computer by Samantha Masters, the ZBC had found and impounded dozens of previously hidden and secret Backdraft sites.

One such site had a secondary chamber that had not been on the plans. When the team saw what was within, Christian Masters had been called for urgently.

For within, resting in menacing silence, had been a dozen three meter long cylindrical devices, each one with a keypad surmounted by a nuclear warning symbol.

During the planning session on the Galactica, Christian had remembered the existence of those weapons, and had come up with a final addition to the plan Cain had devised. At worst, he reasoned, it would confuse and disorientate the Base Ships for a few seconds. At best, it would strip them of their shields at the crucial moment.

And so the nuclear weapons had been scattered between the two moons by Serenity, each set on a remote trigger.

With a blinding flash twelve twenty megaton nuclear weapons detonated, throwing out massive blasts of EMP and flame, along with thunderous shockwaves. All of which came crashing down on the Cylon Base Ships.

The EMP arrived first, and just like the Cybrids of old, the shields that protected each ship was sapped of power until they collapsed, leaving the hulls beneath vulnerable to the heat wave that followed, scoring the ships and nibbling away at the hull armour. The shockwaves arrived last, and while pitifully weak if compared to the same shockwave in an atmosphere, the impact was enough to cause further harm to the ships hulls and weapons.

Within the ships the EMP waves had no effect, but the incredible discharges of light and gamma radiation blinded the Base Ships. They were still sorting themselves out when the flanking destroyer forces crested the moons horizons, and with the Tigers leading dived into the Cylons formation.

Having hung back a bit, the Cybrid assault ships had not been as badly affected as their larger Cylon consorts. However the shields that protected them had been weakened, and their sensors were scrambled to the point that the small Viper-B's of Flare Squadron, which had been hiding within the shattered ruins of the long gone third moon, were undetected on their approach.

Undetected that is, until the first warhead slammed into its target. The weakened shields failed after the first three hits, and the remaining warheads smashed into the hull. Designed to punch through the tough armour of the Cylons warships, the solonite torpedoes punched through the Cybrids hulls like it was cardboard. The first craft was torn apart from within with fire.

On his bridge Achilles smiled as he watched the flanking destroyers carving into the much larger Cylons vessels. They were focusing their fire, the Tigers picking out a target and the four Guardians that followed them adding their fire. Already two ships had a disk in flames apiece.

"Okay people, prepare to engage enemy warships. Helm ahead…"

"Colonel!" The crewman's yell cut him off before he could continue. "Sensors picking up three Base Ships, bearing 312 mark 9. Their heading for the planet!"

"WHAT!?!" Achilles roared as he strode to the sensor screen. Clear as a day there were the signals of three Base Ships coming in on a different vector from the other Cylon assaults. From that angle they would bypass all the defending ships and have a clear shot at the planet. Achilles didn't know what they planned to do, but it really didn't matter. They had to be stopped, for despite the preparations those ships carried enough ground forces to overrun a good section of the planet. Assuming they didn't just use their Mega Pulsars and crack the planet apart. Sighing he made his decision.

"Helm, Bring us about. Navigation, plot us an intercept course… for those three ships. Prepare to engage!"

With a thunderous roar from her ion drives Thunderchild swung about and dove at full speed towards the oncoming Base Ships…


DR: Well that's it for now. Lets see who can place where I got that last line from... Keep those reviews coming!