Chapter 52 Echoes of the Boom

The trees where burning in the distance as casting grim light over the land as Colonial Marines moved through the remains of Heim, the normally ice cold wind which blew off the bay was now burning hot. The marines moved in full combat space suits, this was to help protect them from radiation which was near the top of scale. Almost no building in the city was standing a nd the only thing which could be ID as what it once was the Temple which sat on the island in the middle of the bay. Colonial Raptors flew overhead as civilians where taken off world, they also hovered overhead to provide light to the workers trying to find life. The one thing that they had going in their favor for finding people was that the city was mostly underground and the people had some warning about a Tau'ri ship heading their way. There was city bunkers dating back to the Cylon war and that is where the search started.

"I got someone!" yelled a marine as he saw a hand sticking out from the rubble, he climbed up the rubble of a Viper production center and grabbed the hand. "Don't worry I got you."

The hand did not close and it was cold and lifeless against the marine's own hand, he pulled and it came up and nothing else.

"Gods!" cursed the marine as he held onto the lifeless stump of a woman's hand before letting it drop down onto the rubble. He paused for a moment and took in the scene of destruction all around. "Damn those Tau'ri damn them all."

Kara Thrace sat in the flight ready room of some battlestar who's name excepted her at the moment her mind was racing with the images of what she had saw. A blinding flash of light, one brighter than any star she had ever seen brighter than a camera flash right in front of her eyes brighter then what she thought possible. After the flash came, a wave of fire and destruction, which engulfed an entire planet, true it was the smallest planet in the 12 colonies but it still engulfed the entire world. She could not wrap her mind around something like that, what sort of power did their cousins have at their command. What effect would something like that happen on any other world, how many millions if not billions would die if they decided to destroy another planet. Canceron had 6.7 billion souls, Caprica had 4.9 billion, Tauron had 2.5 billion all of them could die within an instant by whatever that bomber dropped on Aquaria killing Gods know how many of the 25,000 people who called the ice world home. In her mind's eye, she saw her home world of Caprica burning with dead bodies lying in the streets with skyscrapers melted like candles. She placed her head in her hands as she fought back a tears as her body shook with rage and fear.

"Lt. Thrace." said a voice as Kara looked up to see an older man dressed in perfectly clean and pressed uniform, he had the bars of an Admiral on his shoulders. Kara jumped up and snapped to attention.

"At ease Lt." said the Admiral "I am Admiral Ghazal commander of the 2nd fleet."

"Sir, Lt. Kara Thrace of the Battlestar Galactica." Reported Kara

"I know that, I also know that the Viper in my hanger is a new prototype that is going into production." explained Admiral Ghazal in a business like voice, that sounded like it belonged to a career officer who had never seen real combat. She decided right then that, this man who had to be old enough to fight in the Cylon war had to be a behind the line officer, a desk jockey jumped up to the rank of Admiral. "Now tell me what happened on Aquaria you spotted a Tau'ri bomber?"

"Yes, sir well I believe it was a bomber sir." explained Kara, she knew what it had to be but wasn't totally sure. "My gun camera should have got an image of it after whatever it was their fighters where escorting it and then it took off at some gods know what speed. Next time I saw it the blast had happened."

"I see." Said the Admiral "And you didn't shot down this bomber?"

"Kind of hard sir, it was already pass us and then it shot forward too fast for me or anyone else to shot down." defended Kara

"Alright I didn't mean to sound like this was your fault but we have a world burning world and Gods know how many people dead. We need to find out what happened." stated Admiral Ghazal

"I will tell you what happened, the Tau'ri came and beat us down." Snapped Kara "Tell me how many ships did we lose? How many did the Tau'ri loss?"

"We lost a lot but we forced them back and we took down one of their ships." Stated Admiral Ghazal as he glared at this pilot who stood up to him. "Now, I am ordering you to take your prototype Viper to the nearest production center so that we can start turning out them as fast as possible."

"Yes, sir." Confirmed Kara as she snapped to attention and stormed out of the room.

Lt. Ryan sat in the flight ready room of the Ark Royal as it journeyed through hyperspace toward Nysa. She had finished giving her report about the bombing and had sat down in the ready room to get some alone time. While the Union Jack hung on the wall, it was in sense a copy of all the other Daedalus class cruisers. She had closed her eyes and was about to fall asleep in the padded seat when a knock on the door frame caused her to snap awake. Standing in the doorway was Captain Taylor, he waved at her to remain sitting as he entered the room.

"I just wanted you to know I sent your report to Valhalla along with our sensor readings from the blast. They will look into what happened and why the blast was larger than we believed." stated Captain Taylor "Would you like to know what we unofficially believe?"

"Yes, sir." confirmed Rose Ryan "The blast was larger than even what I thought and that was already unbelievable big."

"Our best guess is that there was an unknown vein of Naquadah near the surface and that caused the increase in the blast yield." explained Taylor. "We don't know for sure but that is the best answer we have at the moment. They tell me that they are going to send a recon bird in to study the effects of the operation but from all reports it appears to be a success."

"Good, did we lose anyone?" inquired Lt. Ryan as the Captain lowered his head.

"Yes, one ship an Austrian destroyer the Melbourne was loss we lost just over half the crew 81 men and women." explained Captain Taylor

"How was it loss? The shields should have stopped almost anything the Colonial's have and if it was failing the ship would have pulled out of action." Stated Lt. Ryan

"From what we have managed to gather it was a damn accident blown power relays brought down a part of their shield." explained Captain Taylor before shaking his head. "We like to think that we have mastered this new technology but we haven't and mistakes happen and it costed lives."

"On both sides." Stated Lt. Ryan "Sir what now?"

"We hope that the Colonials grow some common sense and give up the fight." explained the British Captain "But that doesn't really matter that much to us, we have been ordered back to Earth."

"To be put in front of a commission and integrated." Stated Lt. Ryan "Like it was my fault that I dropped it on the target they picked."

"No, apparently the US navy posted a photo of you and that Taita fighter bomber of yours on facebook and it has gone viral." explained Captain Taylor "They want you for some PR stunts they have planned and to raise war bonds. You have somehow become a sort of hero, the woman who hit back at the Colonials for what they did. Your face and your aircraft is all over the news and social media, that is why we are going back to Earth instead of just sending you through the gate. They want your aircraft and that doesn't fit through the gate unless you break it down."

"Great I have become a damn PR person. I will be fighting this war by waving to a camera instead of what I was trained to do." cursed Lt. Ryan before shaking her head. "It will be nice to see Earth again, visit my boyfriend and my parents."

"Yes, I want to see my wife and daughter too but first we have to stop at Nysa to help refuel the Eagle fighters." stated Captain Taylor "that shouldn't take long and the rest of the fleet is gathering there but I want you ready to fly in case something happens."

"No problem." Confirmed Lt. Ryan as she snapped to attention as the Captain returned the salute and left the room.

Colonel Jager stood in the copula of his Leopard III tank, he looked out over the area he was preparing for a very special arrival. He had 15 Leopard tanks plus armored vehicles and infantry soldiers armed with heavy machine guns and anti panzers rockets. He spread his tanks and other vehicles out over the area of action but he put his tank along with seven other tanks belly side down on a small rise over the landing area. This move which dated back to the earliest day of WW2 maybe even before that allowed the bulk of the tank to remain protective by a small hill with only the top turret with its main gun above the rise.

The infantry he deployed forward, they dug foxholes to protect themselves and used natural covering to hide the bulk of their positions. He was not perfectly hidden and that was the point he had three of the new decoy tanks, which was basically holographic projectors which showed a picture perfect image of whatever the officer wanted, in this case three Leopard tanks about a 50 meters away from his position on the other side of the rise.

"I wish we had a shield generator." Companied his driver "We wouldn't have to hid we would be able to stand in open ground and destroy everything we see."

"It would make us sloppy." Said Jager "But yes I would like a shield as well but from my understand not even the ancients figured out how to make a personal shield that could work in combat."

"I saw a report about how some member of Atlantis team found a personal shield." countered the gunner "It said something along the line of it was as small as a match box and could protect the entire body."

"I saw the same report." admitted Jager "But did you not read past first paragraph? The shield is skintight and stops everything aside from air coming in and out. So if we had one on our Leopard here and tried to fire a shell we would get the blow back and we would kill ourselves without own weapon. Same is true with the infantry."

"But there is other shields right, Asgard and the Gua'uld?" inquired the gunner "The Cerberus has shields and they can fire."

"Which is based off the Tok'ra and some faction from of Asgard based in the Pegasus galaxy shield design. They can't have it one while moving, the shield isn't even that strong a good shot from our gun here or a rocket will break the shield." explained Jager "Good against small arms fire and grenades but that is about it."

"Better than nothing." stated the loader "But question how come our ships can do both and have strong shields?"

"I am not totally sure," admitted Jager "Likely it has something to do with the size of the generator system and the power requirements which allow both. We can't put a hyper drive on our Leopard and expect it to travel the stars."

"Well this baby can use the Stargate." countered the gunner "I'll take that."

"True." laughed Jager as a buzzing sound filled the air, he turned his gaze toward the source there coming over the horizon were four Osprey ground attack aircraft. The spacecraft had so far not been involved in the war against the Colonials, it was modeled after the A-10 Warthog and lacked the range to reach Colonial Space and it wouldn't be able to carry out it's designed mission to provide close in air support. The four Ospreys flew over his head before splitting off into two pairs and began to patrol. Then he saw something he had only seen in classified reports.

It looked like one of those Comanche attack helicopters that was almost adopted by the US army before it was canceled. It appeared as if they had taken the basic frame added two engines to the side which proved the ability to fly and hover like any normal helicopter and removed the blades. This allowed it to travel through the gate.

"Sir what is that?" asked the driver who also had his head sticking out of the front of the tank. "I haven't seen that before."

"I believe it is called an Adder like the snake." Explained Jager as the side of the replacement helicopter opened up rising short wings into position, under each wing was a mix of missiles and missile pods. "One of those experimental aircraft that has been rumored. An Owl and or an Eagle can't follow us through the gate and Jumpers are kind of rare so they had to find an aircraft that could come with us through the gate."

"Kind of makes sense, they have habit of naming stuff after animals all our vehicles are named after cats and the aircraft is named after birds." added the driver as a different sounding roar filled the air. They looked up to see a strange spacecraft which was coming in for a landing. It had colonial army markings as large landing gears came out and with a heavy thud the surface of Valhalla.

"Armor piercing." ordered Jager as his loader who like all of the tank crew had a thinner version of power armor lifted an anti-armor round from the rack and placed it into the breach before slamming it close. Jager himself pulled back on the heavy 50 caliber machine gun which rested on a rotating turret beside him, he raised it into position and waited to see if he had to use it. The side of the ship opened up to show a long ramp and in that ramp he noticed multiple colonial soldiers in full uniforms standing around behind them was their tanks.

"This doesn't look like Tauron." stated one of the soldiers as he stood their with a gun slung behind his back. The other soldiers were not paying attention they just wanted off the Atlas transport and hadn't noticed that the grass was too tall for the Winter on Tauron. In fact there was not supposed to be any grass they were planning to land on a base so it would have been paved.

"What the frak?" inquired another as she noticed strange tanks had their guns on them and a strange aircraft hovered nearby weapons ready. Their commander and the others just stood there stunned until they looked up to see the deck crew standing over them on the raised catwalk which ran around the top of the Atlas. All of them where armed and had weapons pointed right at them.

"Welcome to Vahalla, we would like to thank you for flying Delta Force Airlines." laughed one of them, it was clearly an inside joke of some kind.

"Surrender!" ordered another as one by one the soldiers raised their hands. Seeing this more Tau'ri soldiers appeared from the fields of Valhalla and moved forward, tanks appeared on the rise and as the Colonial soldiers where marched away as POW teams of Tau'ri moved onboard to start the process of unloading and studying the equipment. The Tau'ri had just captured intact colonial ground forces including tanks and small arms.

The images where horrifying to anyone from the 12 colonies of Kobol or the 13 tribes of Kobol as some of the more hard lined people had started calling themselves, those who did that counted Earth as the 13th tribe. People stood in the streets in public squares on every world watching screens which normally showed adds. They were seeing images of a burned and blackened world, of the remains of a city, of green fire raging across farm land and lastly they saw the remains of multiple battlestars floating dead in space. It was horrifying images but one image was being put forward above all others, a sign of hope.

Sitting out in the bay outside of Heim sat the Temple of the god Aquaria, Hermes the messenger god. His temple had somehow made it through the horrible event in good condition; the white marble walls which surrounded the temple had been burned black but still stood. Four of the main towers of the central temple had fallen down but the one that came out of the dome in the center remained standing. The single part of the dome that had fallen in showed the golden cover statue of the god his arm raised holding a herald's wand.

"The Tau'ri means to rock our faith but the Lords of Kobol are stronger than anything, Hermes remains standing and he is a sign that in time we will send a message to the Tau'ri that we are the right and true way." Said the Sagittarian news anchor as Lee Adama flipped off the TV.

"Frak." cursed Lee as he and a few others sat behind a bar on Caprica.

"That about covers it," confirmed Karl

"What I find kind of funny is that they keep saying how Hermes is a sign of our victories in the future because it wasn't destroyed but he is standing in total destruction so couldn't it be said that he is a sign of what awaits us if we keep fighting." said Sharon with a shake of her head. "The power the Tau'ri have is something that not even I didn't think possible."

"That is for sure." Said Karl as suddenly the sound of yelling voices outside caused all three of them to look out of the front window of the bar. A massive crowd was marching past yelling for revenge against the Tau'ri. A man dressed in the flown robes of a Priest and with a golden chain around his neck which marked him as belonging to the order of Zeus stepped into the bar.

"Attention brothers and sisters of the Lords of Kobol!" he proclaimed the Priest as he raised the holy scrolls over his head. "Our evil twisted cousins have to be brought to heel and the only way to do that is joining to bring them down, with the power of our faith and the strength of our weapons we will be victorious! Join us and sign up to fight to reclaim Kobol and reunite the 13 tribes of man."

"Have you seen that! They turned us into the 11 tribes of Kobol," yelled a man on the other side of the bar as he pointed toward the TV screens, which lined the bar. "Have you seen what they can do, I say you're a fraked in the head if you think you can win against that. We took down one ship one!"

"Your faith has been shaken all ours have, but remember that the Lords of Kobol are with us and with them behind us we will win," stated the Priest before pointed toward the three colonial officers, none of them where in uniform at the time. "You three and everyone else come with us to join the armed forces to fight."

"Already ahead of you." Said Karl as he held up his military ID "But you have to be a fool not to see that peace talks is the only way, the Tau'ri don't want this war and we don't want it either."

"But we do!" yelled another voice from the bar, a woman's. Slowly she stood up "I will fight for the 13 tribes of Kobol, I will die if I have to and if I do I will stand before the Lords of Kobol in honor."

"You shall!" yelled the Priest "Who else will come with me, who else will fight, fight to for vengeance, to reunite the tribes of man under the Lords of Kobol and who will fight to have their souls cleared of all sins. The head of the Order of Zeus speaker for the Zeus among his people have declared like all the other high priests and priestess that those who fight and die in this battle will have all their sins removed. Now who will come with me!"

To the three colonial officer's amazement, almost half of the bar left and followed the priest out the door.

"Damn if this is what it is like on Caprica what is Sagittaron of Gememon like?" inquired Karl

The same images that were being shown on colonial news was being hijacked and used by the multiple Tau'ri news media. Images of the destruction were seen not as a strictly horrible view but in a more positive light. Some of the more horrifying images of badly injured children being pulled from the remains of Heim was shown but the pundits always related it back to the attack on Celin by the colonials. Since Heim was a mostly underground city it was a strong possibility that a large percentage of the population was likely alive and Heim hit had been a glancing blow by the likely accident of a deposit of Naquadah going off with the bomb. The images of the destroyed battlestars and dragon fire burning through fields growing with every minute was welcomed across Earth and Valhalla.

One of those places where it was welcomed was a small town located to the South of Celin on Valhalla, Paiania. The mostly Greek and Italian town was celebrating the great victory as a refugee from the 12 colonies of Kobol, who's father was now the vice president of their enemies Aegueus Spiros moved down the cobblestone streets toward the small building off the town square where his followers who had been saved by the Tau'ri had been given. It was not much of a building only a single floor with a parking lot to one side and a median sized yard. The downy oak tree growing from it was one not native to any of the worlds of the 12 tribes not even Valhalla, it had been brought from Earth. Overall the building was simple but the simple fact that they could hang a sign up saying it was a church to a single God not the Lords of Kobol was enough for them.

"How are things going?" inquired Aegueus to an old time follower and friend.

"Well the painting is done and we working on setting up the benches." He reported as the church bells began to ring down the road from them. "I must admit Aegueus I am worried."

"So am I, we may have turned our backs on the 12 colonies but we all have friends and family back there." admitted Aegueus as the man shook his head.

"No, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how long we can even remain a religious organization." Stated the man "Maybe you haven't heard but the Demos family has left to join that Eastern Orthodox church across town and another family the Papadakis are talking about joining the Roman Catholic church down over there. If this keeps up we will be eaten alive by the other faiths of the Tau'ri."

"This is true." admitted Aegueus "However I must admit I am not that upset about it, here at least we have a choice about what faith we belong to and no one is going to come after us for our beliefs."

"This is true, what do you think will happen in the colonies because of this bomb?" inquired the man

"It will scare most people beyond belief but there will be a load group yelling for vengeance and that will bring the larger group along a dangerous path." stated Aegueus

All the humanoid Cylon models had gathered together and like everyone in the 12 colonies of Kobol they were looking at the level of destruction done by the Tau'ri.

"They are capable of doing this?" inquired a six as she looked at the news broadcasts coming in from the 12 Colonies of Kobol.

"This is the worse level of destruction that has ever happened in the entire history of the 13 tribes of Kobol." reported the woman on the News.

"You know we could send them a message calling them the 11 tribes of Kobol." Said a three with a slight grin, all the other Cylons shared a small laugh at the little joke. "However that doesn't help us at the moment, the question is what will the next move in the war between the Tau'ri and the Colonials and what do we do to make sure we stay on top."

"I don't think we are on top." Said the One "We can't stand against the things that the Tau'ri are capable of but we are on their side. We are doing great by helping the Tau'ri from the shadows, I see no reason why we should change that."

"Neither do I, let the Tau'ri destroy the colonials." stated the eight before shaking her head. "Too many Colonials are blinded by their faith and will die instead of giving in and while it may not be as nice not to defeat them ourselves. Seeing the Colonials fall to the force of their cousins are something I will gladly see."

"Maybe we should send them a message saying we are willing to host a peace conference at the neutral space station they set up after the war." advised the Six as the others looked at her. "It will get us even more on the good side of the Tau'ri and what are the odds that they will allow us to host a peace conference."

"If we do that, then we should call them the 11 tribes of Kobol just to stick it to them," stated the One as all the humanoid Cylons laughed.

The Quorum of the 13 tribes of Kobol as they had come to call themselves had to meet in the a conference center which sat across from the Atlas Pyramid stadium. The Quorum had been in session in what was normally used as a large lecture hall where companies came to show off their newest items to investors when word came down of the attack. Instantly the place erupted in anger as the members from each colony rushed to be the first to damn the Tau'ri for their attack. In the end, it was the members form Aquaria who were given the chance to condemn the Tau'ri first. They had a thousand members in the quorum even though worlds with multiple times the population had the same number, while not every one of them did speak the senior members did.

"This ungodsless attack on our world must be answered as swiftly as possible." Said the senior member from Aquaria "The attack on the world with a nuclear weapons is un acceptable, the people of Earth should be ashamed of themselves and what they did. They have unleashed nuclear horror on a world gifted to humanity by the Lords of Kobol; they have turned it into a wasteland. They will pay for what they have done and we the people of Kobol will never give in to them. We will push forward to ultimate victory at any cost!"

With that the crowd of Quorum members cheered and clapped only a few of their numbers didn't take part. Slowly a member of the Quorum from Libran took the podium and gave a speech unlike any of her counterparts.

"This attack from the Tau'ri is indeed a defendable attack on us, but we all have to ask ourselves is the price we are paying for this war worth the cost." Started the woman "The Tau'ri have destroyed our vipers and raptors, engaged in terrorist attacks across the colonies and smashed everything we have sent at them. We must face the truth we are losing this war and for what? A planet that may or may not be Kobol? We are fighting as if we are sure their world Valhalla is Kobol we do not and even so is it worth all the lives that has been loss. I say no, we must accept the fact that our cousins are far more powerful than we are and the Cylons. We need to make peace."

"Peace!" yelled a Gemenon member as she pointed straight at her counterpart from Libran. "You talk of peace when the men and women in uniform are lying down their lives for our freedom. They know that it a noble sacrifice and that the Lords of Kobol will look after them in the next world and it is their duty to fight in this one. They fight for what it right and it is talk like that would make their sacrifice pointless it is up to us to make sure that we carry on to win this war. For the 13 tribes of Kobol we must have to coward to carry on until we win even at the cost of our lives."

The quorum exploded in cheers as someone put forward a motion to carry on the fight until final victory and pay for a doubling of the colonial fleet with 12 more Hercules class battlestars ordered.

President Richard Adar leaned back in his chair with a stiff drink in his hand, gathered around him members of his cabinet and the highest military officials he could gather on short notice. No one had said anything for a long time.

"The question is…" started the President "Is that can we stand a chance of winning this war?"

"Sir, we lost 72 ships 42 of them where battlestars. The media doesn't know that yet but in time they will." reported Admiral Nagata "In return we took down a single Tau'ri ship and a small one at that. We believe the that the Tau'ri have a small fleet when it comes to number, if it came down to a massive straight up battle with our entire fleet against theirs then computer simulations show that we would "win" 6 out of 10 battles."

"I am surprised I expected that we would break even at best." Admitted Admiral Adama

"The computer simulations put a tie as a victory on our side because we are on the defense." explained Admiral Nagata "And in those ties we force the Tau'ri back at the loss of 75% of our fleet and even in our victories we take almost 8 times the causalities of the Tau'ri. The only chance we could possibly have is if we refit our entire fleet and get our entire mothball ships into the fight, even then it is a long shot."

"And that is in a straight up fight, our cousins do not fight that way they fight underhanded and without honor." said a Marine General "We have reports of multiple terrorist attacks going on and even the reports of a monster eating people."

"A monster." laughed the President before going deep into his own fears. "I once thought I would go down in history as the President who brought the tribes of man together instead I will go down as maybe the worse president in the history of the colonies. The only two which could possibly be worse was the one who tried to become a dictator and was removed by the military and the fool who approved the production of the Cylons and their integration into the military."

"Sir, maybe we should consider starting peace talks with the Tau'ri." offered Admiral Adama as every member of the cabinet gathered their look at him. All of them had the same idea but didn't want to be the first to put that idea on the table. "The Tau'ri have no interested in taking us over, maybe we can come to terms."

"They destroyed a world," said Spiros then to the surprise of everyone he shook his head. "Maybe you are right, but we need Kobol back we have to have Kobol back. If we get it back I think I can sell the idea of letting the Tau'ri go on their own way but without Kobol it is not going to be possible to get the Quorum to agree to anything."

"There is no way they will give us one of their worlds. True if they do control 20% of the Galaxy then they can spare Kobol, it means nothing to them but why give it up for no reason?" countered Cain "We would need a victory to even get them to think of the idea."

"A victory that would be a miracle." stated Adar before taking a breath. "Maybe we can talk to them and get an understanding of the rules of war, so that we are all at least playing back the same rules."

"At worse we could come up with rules of war and come to an understanding about how this war should play out." advised Secretary of Education Laura Roslin.

"Maybe even get a prisoner exchange, we have one of their own in our custody." stated another member of the cabinet.

"The thing is under our law this Tau'ri is a terrorist not a solider, he tried to kill the President of the Colonies which under our laws Earth is." said the Secretary of Justice "He is a terrorist and the only way he can be released is if the Quorum signs off on a Presidential order. I wouldn't want the Quorum to find out about him because they could push for a public hearing and then sentence him and then there is nothing that can be done."

"If we get our people back and if it is part of a greater peace deal I am sure it can be arranged." stated President Adar as he took a breath and looked at the military and political advisors. "So we are agreed we will send a message to the Tau'ri that we want to talk about this event and possibly settle some of the issues that separate us."

"It will depend on how we sell this to the Quorum and the people but it can be done." Stated Spiros as they all nodded their heads as they settled on what they would do.

The space around the captured colonial micro planet of Nysa was full of Eagle fighters; they had stopped here because unlike the Condor bombers they did not have the fuel to fly to the 12 colonies and back. They had to stop here because they were low on fuel; they sat in space floating in formation waiting for space to land on either the captured base of Nysa, the Yorktown or the four Daedalus class cruisers. With so many Eagles waiting it would take some time. The rest of the fleet should arrive shortly and then the process would only take a few minutes because most of the Eagles would simply land and stay onboard.

"They need to come up with a drop pod for fuel." complained one of the pilots waiting for his turn.

"Why don't they?" inquired another

"Something to do with the naquadah fuel rods we use as fuel. The rods go right into the engines making an external fuel pod hard, but they are working on it I heard." explained a third pilot as some Eagles took off from the Yorktown and made a turn away from the gathering. His radio came alive as he got clearance to come in for a landing. He powered his Eagle in for a landing, he was lining up for approach on the second hanger when suddenly a flash of light to this right caught his eye. His head snapped toward the source only to see a giant colonial battlestar coming straight on at him. A second flash to the other side caused him to turn that way; another battlestar was coming straight at him from the other direction. He pulled his eagle out of landing approached just as two more flashes appeared one behind him and another in front of him. The Yorktown was now in the middle of four charging Battlestars.

Alarms where blaring onboard the Yorktown as the computers turned the shield power to max and the rail guns where brought into firing position and the Asgard beam weapons charged up. The battlestars had appeared less than 20 miles away from the starboard side of the Yorktown. In space 20 miles is nothing and the battlestars powerful engines began to push it forward at a full speed.

"Sir, they just appeared and I have only 9 life signs on each ship." Stated an officer as the Yorktown engines came alive and it began to move.

"They are heading straight toward us!" yelled another

"They are damn kamikazes!" yelled the highest ranking officer on the bridge as the rail guns opened up and the beam weapons prepared to fire but they never got a chance to open up as the massive almost 6,000 ft long battlestars slammed full speed into the side of the ship. They hit the ship at all sides almost at once two hit the side while another two hit directly in front and directly behind.

All four ships began to break apart as they slammed into the shield, even so the Yorktown rocked under the force as the crew rushed to battle stations. The shields where strained but held as the 6,000 ft long suicidal battlestars broke under them, then as one each battlestar exploded in massive nuclear fireballs as the stockpiles of nuclear weapons went off as one.

The force of the blasts sent the Yorktown spinning as the outer bubble like shields, which had held up to so much force broke and the strain from the blast tasked the inner skintight shield. That too began to break and the computer shifted power to protect key parts of the ship at the cost of others. The sides of the only carrier that the Tau'ri had ripped apart bring death to some of the crew within.

When the flash died the Yorktown was still there, it was badly damaged with massive holes in its side, part of one it's hangers had been blown off and the front part of the ship had been crumpled in. It appeared to be tilting in space when compared to the planet but it was still there.

More flashes of light appeared just outside where the Eagles had been waiting for land, multiple battlestars and other colonial ships had suddenly appeared in the space over Nysa. This force was the remains of the force, which had pulled back when the Tau'ri had taken the base; they had been joined by three more tasks groups and had carried out a daring attack on the Tau'ri.

The battlestars began to fire their anti-aircraft guns into where the Eagles where moments ago, most of the Eagles had powered away when the attack first began but somewhere caught in the massive fields of fire launched by the battlestars. Onboard the flagship of the attacking force, the battlestar Erebus the colonial commander was all smiles as he watched his operation go just as he planned. The Tau'ri main ship was down, he was surprised it was not broken in half or dusk but it was out of action and that left four smaller Tau'ri ships for him to deal with.

"Launch vipers, let's take back Nysa." ordered the Commander

Outside the Eagle fighters were doing what they could to reform and carry out attacks but most had no weapons aside from their rail guns and most where low on fuel. The Colonials had caught them flatfooted and they were making them pay. The Daedalus cruisers moved to engage the Colonials, firing Asgard beam weapons that cut through the colonial ships like hot knives through butter. Here again the colonials began to fire nuclear tipped shells which began to strike the shields of the Daedalus class ships at very high rate and there were a lot more Colonial ships then Tau'ri. For the first time in the war the Colonials had the upper hand and the they were forcing the Tau'ri back they were losing more than the Tau'ri but they were hurting them.

The space ripped open behind the colonials ships as Tau'ri ships began to spill out upon the sudden battle. For a moment, the newly arrived Tau'ri ships did not know what was happening then they began to open up on the Colonials. Seeing how they were now outnumbered they did the only thing they could, they ran. The remaining Colonial fleet started to recover their vipers but the Tau'ri ships where faster than them and soon the commanders on those ships decided the best move was to sacrifice a handful of pilots to save everyone else on the ship, when the last colonial ship jumped away there was still dozens of vipers in the air. The vipers tried to run but they did not get far.

"God damn it. Give me a life sign count," cursed Admiral Barker as the Britannia moved to alongside the crippled Yorktown. It took only a few moment but when the results came it was discovered that over three quarters of the crew 1,623 life signs on the ship where no longer there. "Can the Yorktown be saved?"

"Sir, we will have to see but I am not sure it is heavily damaged." Reported the officer as Admiral Barker eyes narrowed the Colonials had just knocked out if not destroyed the only carrier in the Tau'ri had. It had cost them four battlestars to do so and then it had cost them another eight. In total in the past few hours the Tau'ri had taken down 84 colonial warships and destroyed an entire world and it had cost them one ship and possibly one of the six capital ships that the Tau'ri had. The Colonials had thousands of battlestars to throw into the fire and the Tau'ri only had five large ships now with more being made. "Damn those religious nutcases Colonials."

Well I hope you liked this chapter, I am leaving in a few hours for vacation and I will NOT update while I am gone so this will have to hold you over for a while. The Colonials finally get some damage done by slamming a couple of battlestars into a ship and blowing them and nuclear warheads off. So until next time please keep reading, Thanks Wilkins75.