Battlestar Galactica:New Beginnings

by Phoenix4416

The Graystones survived in secrecy preparing for the Cylons possible return, then one day 40 years after armistice was signed, the Cylons launched their assault on the Colonies. Would their preparations be enough to turn the tide of war? Would the Colonials be forced to run and if they did would more survive? Chapters 1-15 updated 08/01/2020. The rest to be updated ASAP

18. Chapter 18: Shadow Fleet Part One

Chapter 18: Shadow Fleet Part 1: Before the Fall

Colonial Fleet

Battlestar Galactica

Portside Hangar – Fleet Admiral Adama

08:05

"Straighten up them lines, come on, move it!" Colonel Tigh called out as he brought to attention the group of arriving crewmembers. Returning back to the front with Admiral Adama, President Roslin and the recently arrived Admiral Scott and Marine General Marcus Antonius.

Lights flashed momentarily as the hangar airlock doors opened revealing two Raptors which were hooked up to a tractor each and rolled in. Around them marines double checked their equipment and the crew quieted down. In the front, Adama took in a breath as he waited for the ships to come to a standstill. Admiral Scott it seemed could understand his nervousness as he muttered "It's hard to believe so many ships survived, I thought we were it."

In front of them the two Raptors stopped and the hatches opened. From the first Raptor came two heavily armoured marines that checked the area before stepping down and revealing a large, dark haired and blue eyed Rear-Admiral. This man's strength was obvious, he out-massed the marines with him and it was obvious from his expression that he was sure of himself. Saluting Adama, this Rear-Admiral asked "Permission to come aboard Admiral."

Returning the salute, Adama replied "Granted, I was expecting Admiral Whitehall."

"She's on the other Raptor, sir. However I do have a passenger thats been dying to get back on the Old Girl," the Admiral whom Adama vaguely recognised answered as he stepped aside.

Before Adama could ask, he spotted a young woman step onto the wing of the Raptor, in one hand she carried an oxygen bottle which was on a carriage, and the other held to the arm of an elderly officer. He stood there on that wing and he looked around at the ship first rather than the crew, and as he stood there unshed tears came to his tired eyes as he remembered the many years he had commanded this Battlestar, the many battles, the pains and the joys and everything in between. Now, after all this time, when she should have been into her retirement just as he was, the Galactica was once again fighting to protect the people within and without her.

The young female officer escorting him leaned forward and asked "Admiral?"

Looking back at her, the 92 year old former Fleet Admiral smiled a pained smile, before nodding. Gently she helped him down onto the deck with a marine taking his other arm. Before him, Adama raised a salute which was joined by the rest of the crew around him. Stepping in front of Adama, Former Fleet Admiral Nash returned the salute saying "You don't know how good it is to see you, Husker. It's me that gives you a salute Fleet Admiral. I'm not taking command..." looking over to the other Raptor where the aging whitehaired Former Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall stood, Nash continued "...and neither is Admiral Whitehall."

Admiral Whitehall stepped onto the deck and towards them, firing off a salute before Adama or his crew could do so. Having overheard the conversation, Whitehall spoke up, "Our job was to get the Shadow Fleet out of the Colonies. They're yours now. With me are my second in command, Admiral Nash, whom you already know. My third in command Rear-Admiral Edward Teach. His commission has been reactivated as has both mine and Nash's, and he has been promoted by Admiral Nagala."

"And Nagala's daughter Doctor Esri Nagala," Nash announced indicating the young woman next to him.

Moving forward to shake Hermiones hand, then Nash's, Teach's and Esri's, Adama replied "It seems we have a lot to talk about, my orders were restricted and didn't reveal anything outside my area of concern. With me are my second in command Admiral Scott, my XO Colonel Tigh, Marine General Antonius, Fleet Air Marshal Colonel Cain, and of course President Laura Roslin."

The three newly arrived Admirals moved forward to shake each officers hands, Nash pausing to speak a few words with General Antonius whom he was friends with while Hermione moved to shake Laura's hand, and spoke, "It's a pleasure to meet you Madam President, I've loosely followed your career and from what I know you are the right person for the job. Hopefully you will be better than your predecessor was."

Smiling demurely, Laura replied "Thank you, Admiral. I must say though that your reputation and history far outshines my own."

Seeing that Nash was struggling for a moment, she saw him lift an oxygen mask to his face and take a few deep breaths before he turned to Colonel Cain. "Colonel, you're Helena's son aren't you?"

Nodding, Cain replied "Yes sir."

Taking this in, Nash replied "That's some healthy pedigree in your family Colonel. I can at least offer you some comfort, we know your mother survived. We know she made a blind jump from Scorpia Fleet Anchorage and have confirmed reports that she returned to Leonis after the fall with the Battlestar Arion. While there they recovered the Battlestar Therion but unfortunately they had to retreat before we could jump a ship to them. We've searched the Colonies as best we could but she could be anywhere now. Know it will take a lot more than the Cylons have to get rid of her."

"Thank you Admiral. You don't know how much that news means to me."

"Might I suggest we adjourn to the meeting room?" Adama suggested to the group at large.

Battlestar Galactica

Conference Room 1: Fleet Admiral Adama

08:27

As refreshments were handed out by a couple of enlisted personnel, several marines took guard at the entrance, and several Commanders from throughout the two fleets arrived followed shortly by the Graystones, Doctor Cottle in his role as Surgeon General and Doctor Baltar. The only main Commanding officer from the Exodus Fleet not present was Rear-Admiral Stone since she was taking temporary command of the Fleet.

Over several minutes of happy words and greetings between everyone, the room finally seemed to calm down as each person took a seat, Doctor Nagala worrying over her grandfather joined by Dr Cottle as he made sure Admiral Nash's medical needs were addressed. Leaning forward, President Roslin asked, "Admiral's, might I ask how you survived? We had assumed that our ships were all that was left of the Fleet."

Checking Nash, Whitehall replied "It was your plan."

Giving a weary nod and waiving off the attention of Cottle and his daughter, Nash replied, "For that you will have to understand that the Colonial Fleet Admiralty had prepared for the Cylons returning for many years now. We prepared to the point where we actively broke the law and would have even been convicted of treason had we been discovered. Frak, Hermione was forced into retirement by Adar and he didn't even know a fraction of a percent of what we did."

Even more curious now, Roslin questioned "You broke the law?"

Letting out a guilty sigh, Whitehall answered, "We did. Before we go on, Admiral Adama, am I right in assuming that this is a reatively safe location?"

"Safer than other locations we've been. We lost the Cylons several days ago, right now we need the water stored on one of the nearby moons. The EM field of the gas giant we are orbiting should hide us unless the Cylons jump right on top of us."

"Very well, then may I suggest you all get comfortable because it's best if we start at the very start."

10 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

PERKINSTON

COLONIAL FLEET HEADQUARTERS

Three of the most powerful people in the twelve colonies as well as a retired man who had once held the same amount of power sat watching the latest speeches being made by the upcoming presidential candidates. Sat within the richly appointed study of Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall while drinking from glasses of brandy and nervously puffing away on cigarettes, Admirals Corman and Nagala, Retired Fleet Admiral Silas Nash, as well as Rear-Admiral Ione Gaeta, head of the R&D division, tutted, shook their heads and let out their frustration over each of the presidential candidates. The problem was that while they still had another 2 years before the election itself and the campaigns began in earnest they saw what the results of those elections would be. With twelve worlds the initial campaigns began a full year earlier than the used to.

Flicking the wall screen off, Fleet Admiral Whitehall turned to the others in the study, "Well Gentleman, I would say that unless Ridley suddenly becomes the finest speaker in the Colonies, then we're fracked." Sanders Ridley was the only one of the three main candidates that stood for the Fleet in a big enough way, a former Commander himself, he was looking to keep the military budget the same.

Stubbing out his cigarette, Admiral Corman the second highest officer in the Fleet darkly muttered, "I would suggest we do something but if I did then you would have to arrest me on charges of treason."

The others understanding, each began to chuckle, and Admiral Gaeta replied "There is that. Seriously though, what can we do short of treason?"

Shaking his head while thinking, former Fleet Admiral Nash answered "That isn't a road we want to be pondering or we risk becoming another Tauron during the troubles. We've known this was coming for a long time, we couldn't continue on with the budget we have. It wouldn't be so bad if we had either a peace agreement with the Cylons, if they actually turned up at that wasted station as they agreed or if had actually defeated them."

Nodding, Corman agreed saying "The government shouldn't have been allowed to sign the armistice agreement. The way things were going the war would have been over within five months and then we wouldn't have had need for such a large fleet. Every year that goes by without contact with the Cylons, the greater danger we are in. They could be churning out hundreds of basestars a year for all we know." It was something each of them knew well, the Cylons didn't need rest, had no need of an economy, they could be single-minded in a way not possible to humanity and all they would need was time to build up an overwhelming military force."

Looking up from his glass, Nagala asked "Question is, what do we now?"

Looking out the window at the bay of Ianthe before her, Fleet Admiral Whitehall announced "Either Adar or Varus have won, so we are facing a budget reduction and likely less battlestars being built, perhaps even a downsizing. We will not commit treason or interfere in any way with the election." Thinking, Whitehall said "We need to get the Fleet as strong as possible before we are hit by the new budget."

"They'll shut us down before we can build enough ships that matter" Corman replied.

"Then we don't build anymore ships than is normal, instead we upgrade our oldest ships to the best possible standard. It should take the pencil pushers a bit of time to notice since at the end of the day the Fleet size will stay almost the same."

Thinking, Rear-Admiral Gaeta added "It could work, I know that the couple of Jupiters we have left as well as a third of the Fleet are in need of overhaul."

Pondering it all, Nash finally spoke up, "if we are facing a downsizing then we need to prepare better than just overhauling the Fleet."

"What do you suggest?" Whitehall asked.

"The Shadow Plan" Nash announced knowing that Whitehall, Corman and Nagala were familiar with it. "It needs revision and updating since myself and Cain came up with it towards the end of the war. But if the Cylons do return and we have a smaller and, if what I hear the pencil pushers are telling you is true, a more networked and therefore vulnerable Fleet, then we need something along the lines of the Shadow Plan."

Thinking, Corman answered "It could help us a lot. The question is how do we get the ships and personnel hidden away like the plan requires, what's in the Boneyards need a lot of work."

"If a downsizing comes then chances are the government will sell them on either for scrap, to the colony fleets or to some companies. Anything left will be stuck in the Boneyards. It would help if we had a source of money to buy them." Whitehall considered this before a realisation hit her, "Nash, I need you to be free for the next few months to work on the plan, I know you aren't Fleet anymore but you have more experience than any of us. See if you can get Cain's help too."

9 YEARS 5 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

PICON FLEET COMMAND HQ GROUNDSIDE

INTERVIEW ROOM 82, LEWISHAM BUILDING

"Is your name Edward Teach?"

Sat in a metal chair in a brightly lit room with wires and sensors strapped to his fingers and chest, while across from him an interviewer sat behind a metal table with a list of questions in front of him. Next to the interviewer an officer in the Colonial Fleet Intelligence division sat in front of a computer as it was taking readings from the man in the chair. His blue eyes were captured by 4 small cameras placed about the room, more cameras focused on his breathing, his sweating, any movement he might make however small. He wore the pressed uniform of a Colonial Fleet Commander, none of which hung on his well-built frame which showed no signs of weakening despite his 42 years of age. There was a hint of black stubble to his face despite shaving that morning, and his black hair was cut short.

Looking ahead, the man replied clearly and distinctly, "Yes."

The interviewer noted his response and moved onto the next question, "Are you an officer in the Colonial Fleet?"

Having been told to expect these control questions, Teach replied, "Yes."

Again the response was noted. Commander Teach had no idea why he was here, he had been an officer in the Colonial Fleet for the last 22 years since graduating from the academy right after he finished school. While in his younger years in the Fleet he had got in some trouble as all officers are like to do, he had powered ahead and rose up the ranks as first a Viper Pilot before moving into the CIC of the Valkyrie Class Battlestar Repulse as its tactical officer. Proving his worth to his Commanding officer, he was then nominated for the XO position on the Hyades Class Battlestar Panther. For six years he had served well in the role, and during several simulated battles when his Commanding officer had stepped back, he had taken charge and not only impressed his Commander as well as several senior members of the Admiralty but had scared them too in the deadliness of the officer they had.

Soon after he was given command the Hyades Class Battlestar Pacifica in BSG 42 and therefore under the direct command of Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall. Whitehall, once Commander of Daedalus Anchorage and protégé of Fleet Admiral Lucinda Cain before coming under the command of Fleet Admiral Silas Nash, was of the mindset of being a mobile leader. She had seen the effects of what happens where almost an entire Admiralty is killed off, and so she was often found aboard the Furious Class Battlestar Furious as much as she could be. A year later with Commander Ameslan's retirement, Teach was placed in Command of the Furious itself and was steadily tutored by Whitehall. With the first of the Zeus Class Warstars coming out of the specially built dock at Scorpia, Whitehall had transferred her flag to the first one. In the process she had given Teach a choice, continue on as Furious' commander, or go for an interview and see what happens. He never expected the interview to come with a polygraph test.

"Are you a Cylon?"

The question threw Teach but he replied clearly "No."

Watching from the next room were Fleet Admiral Whitehall, Admiral Corman and Admiral Nagala. Corman stated, "Strange question to ask?"

Next to him, Nagala replied, "One of my old officers, well friends now, during Operation Raptor Talon he ejected and landed in a Cylon facility. If what he saw there is even half accurate, then we need to keep that question in. Gaeta uses the same polygraph technique for anyone wanting access to the Forge."

In the next room Teach was asked 4 more questions before being asked "Do you believe the Colonies are in danger of the Cylons returning?"

Teach's immediate answer was "yes."

"If you were asked to be part of a group trying to ensure the survival of our people, but it meant potentially betraying your oath to the Colonial government, would you?"

Teach seemed to analyse the words, not hesitating but being careful as he considered before replying "Yes."

The interviewer looked at the readings before looking up at a camera and nodding. Seeing the nod, Whitehall smiled saying "Well, shall we offer Teach a job?"

9 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

THE EXPANSE

THE FORGE R&D ANCHORAGE

REAR-ADMIRAL IONE GAETA

Looking down upon the report in front of her outlining the Experimental Andromeda Class of Battlestar, Ione snorted asking "Can you believe this shit?" Across from her Fleet Admiral Whitehall and Commander Hudson looked up from reading their own copies of the report to hear her continue "It's just as strong, stronger even than the Mercury Class, can dish out just as much punishment, requires minimal networks plus it's faster and all because it needs 200 more people and carries 20 less vipers they refusing to build anymore of her?"

Smiling, Commander Hudson said "You haven't read the last part have you?"

Hearing this, Ione looked down upon the last section reading;

Battlestar Andromeda Service classification:

Main Fleet: Denied

Colonial Fleet Reserves: Denied

Colonial Fleet Inactive Reserves: Approved

Board Recommendation: Inactive Reserve Duty

"Fracking idiots!"

"The way they see it the Mercury's are the way forward along with the Nova" Nagala informed her. "They require less people and carry more planes and to be honest, they're cheaper. What's more it's been 30 years since the Cylons were last seen, the bureaucrats now invading the Controllers office just don't have the wisdom, or the fear we do."

"Still, they're idiots. We aren't even designing the Mark-VIII!"

Nodding as he put the report back on the desk, Nagala looked over to Commander Hudson and asked, "Commander, would you do me a favour of gathering the updated plans for the Sobek Class?" As Noah went off to retrieve them, Nagala waited until he was gone while drinking his tea before turning to Ione saying "Now that he's gone, I wanted to be the one to tell you that when it comes to the shadow plan, we are siphoning the funds we need from the budget. It won't be a lot, enough to outright buy a Saturn but then again nobody wants a Saturn," the Saturn Class Battlestar was a kitbash built at short notice during the height of the Cylon war in a mad scramble. They were smaller than a Jupiter, less well armed or armoured, they were slow and carried only 100 vipers at most. But at the end of the day they were quick to build and were able to provide more firepower than most support ships as well as field vipers meaning they could support the Jupiters, Minervas and Artemis' in forcing the Cylons out of the Cyrannus System long enough for Fleet Admiral Lucinda Cain to get the Colonial Fleet built up.

"You have a plan though?"

"Not me…" Nagala replied while standing up and moving to the observation window looking down upon one of the docks. "…Admiral Whitehall realised that if we have proxies, people we trust then we can spread the funds out over them and all we do is leak to them who the Fleet contracts will go to. They will then…"

"Invest the funds into the stock-market vastly increasing them. Smart." Admiral Gaeta said while joining him at the window. "As for people we trust, there's those in the Fleet like ourselves that see what is likely coming. If we can look after them, I think they will look after us."

Nodding, while he considered their actions, Nagala thought for a moment before saying "It might be for the best the Andromeda won't be entering the service, she will at least avoid being networked."

"I should have known they wouldn't pass her, her lineage is still too tied up in the Jupiter's despite the differences. Jupiter, Jupiter II, Pleiades, Hesperides, Hyades and Andromeda. It's a shame, they're specifically designed for the type of war when the shit hits the fan" Ione announced.

Patting her shoulder, Nagala replied "The Hyades Class is going to be rotated out of the Fleet over the next 10 or 15 years. They'll be replaced by the Mercury Class." Rubbing his chin as he thought, Nagala spoke "I'm going to recommend to Corman that we don't stick the Andromeda into the reserves, I'm thinking of sending her to the Boneyards until she can be scrapped."

Turning to him, Ione questioned "What? Just like that you're going to scrap her. I thought you would at least fight for getting the Andromeda a place on the line. Maybe take the Athena's or Galactica's place considering their age."

Looking out on the dock below them with the podless Battlestar Andromeda resting within it, Nagala made out the smooth lines and curves, the gun batteries running down her spine, the missile silos in her head and the thick armour plating her. She had no flightpods like any other Battlestar had, instead her flightpods were built into the main section of the ship rather than being held on by vulnerable arms. She was every bit a warship and Battlestar. "No, she will wait in the Boneyards and then be sold on for scrap, but she won't ever reach the scrap merchants."

8 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

LIBRAN ORBIT

MOBILE SHIPYARD AQUILA

"I honestly can't believe Adar has been in office a month and is already considering selling on Aquila" former Commander Edward Teach announced to his former superior officer as he walked down the many main corridors of the same station.

Looking over to him, Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall agreed saying, "We knew it was coming, we just didn't expect him to start scrapping facilities so soon, although I suppose he sees the Aquila as a huge drain on resources considering most shipbuilding is done either at Scorpia or Picon."

"It's a mobile shipyard," Teach emphasised "Emphasis on the mobile part, he can just jump it to wherever. Even integrate it into a larger anchorage."

Smiling, Whitehall replied "There's more to it than that, my people tell me he's under increasing pressure from Sagittaron and Gemenon to start downsizing the Fleet. Just for size and guns alone, Aquila will go a long way to holding them at bay." Turning a corner in the corridor and arriving at an observation deck overlooking dock two, Whitehall smiled saying "Anyway, he won't be allowed to sell her on if we have our way with things."

Looking at the silver haired Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall while scratching his newly grown beard, Teach asked "How do you mean?"

Looking up at him with her faded blue eyes, Hermione replied "I've made sure that it's our people doing the inspection of the station next month. Now the inspection is merely for appearances, the truth is I already have a report. This report which will find its way to the bureaucrats will be as useless as the people reading it, but it will present to them only one possibility for Aquila; to be sold for scrap. You see, throughout this report are pictures of a fatigued frame, corners cut in her construction and many more problems as to scare off any would-be-buyer, except of course, Berring-Mao" referring to a midsized shipbreaking company which did regular work for the Fleet.

Smiling and chuckling at this, Teach announced, "it's going to take us time to buy up all the shares in Berring-Mao Breakers, as is we have managed 37%, our focus has been on acquiring control over the mining and refinery companies."

Looking out the window and down upon her, Whitehall saw the Battlestar Valkyrie as it went through a massive overhaul and upgrade which was seeing the entire bottom of the flightpods being redesigned with the six forward facing Viper launch tubes being ripped out, as well as the hangars themselves being completely changed. These hangars were to be upgraded to have fifteen side facing launch tubes per pod as opposed to just the three forward facing tubes per pod. This was only possible by having the Vipers be lowered down into the Viper launch tubes from their service bays, that way the Vipers would at least be able to pick up some speed on the specially upgraded viper launch systems. While a Viper could just lift off from a flight deck and fly off, it takes a lot of time to push them onto the lifts and then wait for the airlock to cycle, lift to go up and then Viper to take off, hence why the launch systems were used. The other reason they were used was that it got a viper up to combat speed in just a couple of seconds.

With the Valkyrie I class as well as the sister classes like the Juno Class (mostly the same as a Type I Valkyrie but with a dual flightpod and more powerful thrusters due to the increased mass), the problem was their flightpods weren't wide enough to allow a full launch system when they were constructed. This was rectified by having just three forward facing tubes per pod with the Valkyrie for a total of six tubes, and six per dual pod for a total of twelve for the Juno class. The problem was that they were slow to launch fighter support due to the cycling times of the airlocks and the maintenance costs in combat were too high. Having come up with the solution of using a two tiered viper hotstack in the service bay along with an airlock leading directly onto a roughly 34 metre long launch tube directly below the viper service bay, they close to maxed out the speed of a specially designed linear accelerator launcher without hurting the pilot achieving a launch speed of 82mph. While this was just over a third of the speed of a Jupiters Viper launch speeds, it was enough to be passed by R&D. What's more, after improvements made to the Battlestar Valkyrie hotstack and Viper airlock system by then Chief of Deck David Cain just two years later, the next fifteen Vipers per Valkyrie pod could be launched within 34 seconds as opposed to 51 seconds which was what this current installation was doing.

In the other dock the same upgrades were being performed on the Battlestar Praetoria just as within a few months they would be performed on the 10 remaining Valkyrie I's. Many more ships were also being steadily upgraded with parts going into storage at the many anchorages or being sold for scrap creating a mess of accounting and better hiding the trace of funds which were being secreted away from the government. Already over two years more than 34 Billion Cubits worth of money and equipment had been lost in the chaos and secreted and it was only set to increase even more.

Returning to the conversation Fleet Admiral Whitehall replied, "I know, as it is we can tie up the Aquila in decommissioning for at least a year or two to give you time to raise the funds and buy out the board. Towards that end, you will need this…" Whitehall said while handing out a set of data disks she took from a pocket.

Looking them over as he took them from her, Teach asked "The survey data?"

Nodding, Whitehall replied "There's several rich sites in the Expanse that our ships have come across while supposedly on patrol. There's even an incredibly large deposit of Polemium you might want to get a claim on" she said referring to Element 125 which was a rare earth element required in the construction of the power storage buffers otherwise known as coils for the jump drive."

7 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

THE WASTES

TANALAY STAR SYSTEM

ORBIT OF ACERRAE

Appearing in a flash of bright light in the Tanalay system, the Pleiades Class Battlestar Theia flown by only a skeleton crew six weeks after its supposed official last flight to the breakers, coasted through the red planetary nebula and towards the Trojan asteroids held in place by the large gas giant of Acerrae. The Theia had no armament and little in the way of armour, but thankfully the Admiralty had made it seem in the reports she had been completely stripped internally. Truthfully she was still a warship inside her hull, in ammunition storage bunkers she held a full loadout normally seen on a ship at war, her tylium tanks were topped off, she carried two full reservoirs of water, and her cargo holds and compartments were full of her armour plating which had been removed from her for appearances sake, as well as rotated out ration packs reaching the end of their shelf life although still with a good few years on them, and were still partly edible years after expiry. In addition she carried uniforms, medical supplies, small arms, spare parts and 180 Mk-III Vipers as well as 40 Mk-II Raptors, older ships which had been pulled from the boneyards.

The Theia was an old ship built off the frame of the Jupiter II class, and especially without her armour belt looking very much like a Jupiter Class Battlestar. But she was far improved than the original Jupiters, being 1612m long, longer than a Jupiter by 167m, carrying more weapons emplacements, more powerful thrusters, every system it seemed having been upgraded and the main difference which set it apart from the Jupiter and Jupiter II being the dual flightpod. This warship had seen combat long before during the Cylon War, and had fought for 5 years, one of only 3 ships of her class and now the last surviving one.

Moving forward, the ship was brought to stable orbit and power was cut to the thrusters. Over several hours, power was cut to the rest of the ship, and the small crew departed on board the fleet transport in order to get back across the Ribbon Early Warning Satellite network before the people whose job it was to watch the network's – their people – went off shift.

Theia would remain here mostly dormant for years, only being powered up again for brief checks whenever a new or rather old ship was brought here. In time she would be joined by other ships which had evolved from hers and the Jupiter Class's lines, these would include the Jupiter Class Battlestar Athena, Hesperides Class Battlestar Hesperides, and the Andromeda Class Battlestar Andromeda as well as more ships besides.

7 YEARS BEFORE FALL

CAPRICA

CAPITOL BUILDING

Looking up from the report Admiral Whitehall and Rear-Admiral Gaeta had presented to him, Secretary of Defence Tahmoh Keikeya looked up at Corman saying "You can't be serious, those parts are in eighteen ships. How is it we didn't notice the flaws sooner?"

Answering, Rear-Admiral Gaeta said, "Unfortunately during the war, some corners were cut in order to get more ships on the line. The flaws themselves, the metal fatigue for definite, shouldn't be seen for another twenty years. We would have spotted them sooner but the ships which are showing signs of bad parts have been on lengthy deployments around the Colonies." It was all bullshit really, as her old XO, Former Fleet Admiral Lucinda Cain would say, she was blowing smoke up Keikeya's arse and saying a dragon caused it.

Taking off his glasses and squeezing the bridge of his nose, Keikeya asked "And you're certain we have to pull every ship with those same parts off the line for repairs?"

"Yes sir" Fleet Admiral Whitehall replied, "We informed your predecessor when it was just the Valkyrie and Hyades classes, and had thought we had nipped it in the bud with just them. Unfortunately, the issue was deeper since the Hyades Class shares a close lineage with three other classes currently in service having the same parts, and the Valkyrie has a similar lineage with five other classes. On closer inspection we are having to pull them. We aren't however pulling them all at once, we are currently rotating them off the line and into the shipyards at Scorpia and Picon as well as a couple of other places, and in their place we are rotating in some of the reserve fleet."

Shaking his head, Keikeya admitted, "When my staff informed me of the amount of work going on at the shipyards, I had thought you were building more ships, but this…if it rectifies a problem before it gets any worse then fine. Just so long as you aren't building anymore ships except for the already ordered Mercury's, Valkyrie III's, the Nova and the Warstar Shield. Speaking of which, how far along is she?"

Ione Gaeta replied "She's currently only a month from completion, then she'll be taken out for her dry run and assume Fleet Command in Helios Gamma."

Leaning back, Keikeya announced "I've had some questions from the President regarding those Warstars, he sees them as a waste of resources considering they tie up enough personnel to crew two Mercury's. He wants them more networked than what they are, something to bring the crew numbers down to around three thousand."

Nodding, Ione replied, "I understand sir, however the previous administration greenlit the plans we provided which has meant the Warstars were specifically designed without networks. To install such a network as the President desires would set back the administration enough to pay for half a Valkyrie each at least. And we both know costs on paper never reflect the final costs."

"I can't see him going for that, he's currently on tour trying to drum up support and funds for his new colony modernisation programs."

Whitehall spoke up, "Can we just say what they are sir, gentrification. Living standards will increase but so too will rent costs and commodity prices in the modernised areas. Few Petty Officers will be able to afford rent on an apartment in downtown Delphi, let alone here in the Capital."

Holding up his hands, Keikeya replied, "You're preaching to the choir. Anyway, I'm sure you two need to get back to your posts, be sure to keep me informed about the repairs" Keikeya announced while reaching to shake their hands.

4 MONTHS LATER

6 YEARS 9 MONTHS BEFORE FALL

SCORPIA FLEET SHIPYARDS

ACCOUNTING OFFICE

Within a dingy, badly lit office well in need of modernisation and sat at a desk strewn with files, notes, a half-eaten pastry and cold stale coffee, Daniel Costanza sat hunched over his computer with frustration steaming off him. For weeks now the treasury had noticed irregularities in their finances and had managed to trace it to the Colonial Fleet, but here the accounts became a mess. Costanza had become head of a taskforce of fifty-three people trying to make sense of where the losses were happening as well as how much is lost, but due to how messy the Fleet accounts were, it seemed they hadn't made much progress.

Scrunching his nose as he finally managed to make some headway, Costanza's face blanched as the scale of the Fleet spending became clear to him. If his sums were correct then somewhere around seven to eight trillion cubits had been spent on from what he could see were upgrades, enough to build 20 Mercurys. In fact only half that money went to fleet upgrades, the rest was siphoned out into shadow fleet.

6 YEARS 8 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

CAPRICA

COLONIAL HOUSE (PRESIDENTIAL HOUSE)

PRESIDENTS OFFICE

Admiral Whitehall knew the game was up the moment she had been recalled to Caprica for a meeting with President Adar, you could call it a sixth sense but she knew that he knew. For the past 15 minutes she had stood in his office as he vented his fury at how the Fleet had lost somewhere in the order of 7.8 trillion cubits by the last accounting while performing what he had since found out were massive upgrades on the Colonial Fleet. The state of the accounts was so bad that his treasury officers were telling him that it looked like it would take ten to twenty years to unravel.

"Just what the frak were you thinking?" Adar shouted at Fleet Admiral Hermione Whitehall as he finally ran out of things to say.

Looking over at the black tied Praetorian Guard at the side of the room, Whitehall considered what she would do, and the answer became that she would be honest, "Before you ever came to power, I knew that the Fleet would be downsized. Then you had been in power no more than a week and the first of the inspectors started arriving on the Colonial Fleet ships. I knew back then as I do now that the Main Fleet is likely to go down from 250 to 180 Battlestars and that of the combined reserve fleets we are likely to lose half of our ships. If we are to lose 70 Battlestars from the main fleet, then the remaining 180 will have to pick up the slack if we are to remain as effective as possible. The only way to do that was to upgrade the most capable and reliable ships." The aging Fleet Admiral looked down at her President as he digested what she had said and then seemed to choke on the indignity of it. Mentally she prepared herself.

Sure enough, Adar didn't see things the way she did as he angrily retorted "You are acting like we are still at war…"

But he could go no further as Hermione coolly replied, "Show me the peace accord" and then continued, "every warship is needed until a peace accord is signed not some armistice agreement."

Unable to comprehend the gall of the woman who refused to admit she was wrong, Adar asked "Is that how you are going to argue the fleet getting 5% of the gdp and yet having less than 0.5% of the population benefiting from it? The combined marines, air forces, and armies need only 0.5% of the entire 12 colonies GDP and that is fracking with Leonis having national service."

Whitehall seemed to take in the information, analyse it and then calmly replied "You have gotten one of those figures wrong, the last I checked 100% of the colonies benefited from the fleet's budget."

At this a clearly frustrated and angry Adar did his best to calm himself back down before saying "While I will agree the colonies benefited from the Fleet, it was more for the Fleet buying time for the government to force the Cylons to the table. The Colonies benefited more from the negotiators than it did the fleet."

Looking aghast at what she heard, Hermione couldn't work out if Adar was an idiot or just plain trying to win the argument. Deciding he needed a history lesson, Hermione pointed out, "The government gave up an area of mining far richer than anywhere else we have found in Colonial Space including the Expanse. What's more the negotiators gave up eight habitable planets on the other side of the armistice line, one of which had all the right conditions that it could have become a true colony. We wouldn't be having this discussion if the government had backed off and actually let the fleet do its job like Nash and Cain asked them to. We were months from winning the war..."

Adar replies "Really? If I remember correctly, the Cylons broke through our lines and landed on Tauron during the last days of the war, so where is the victory there?"

The last days of the war were well known to Whitehall, "The Cylons lost 54 Bastestars and around the same in support ships punching through the Colonial deep space lines, whereas the fleet lost 24 Battlestars and 62 support ships defending against them. The only reason they managed to land troops was because Nash realised the Cylons had used almost half of their fleet in the operation and that we had a chance to do even worse damage to the Cylons by launching an assault with our withdrawn forces on a series of major Cylon positions which were now lightly defended." Operation Raptor Talon as it became known, involved pulling all available ships into a single fleet including the Galactica and Columbia which had been in for an overhaul and so lacked their armour belt and half their guns. This fleet composed of 26 Battlestars and 58 support ships had launched an offensive beyond enemy lines hitting three major shipyards which were now lightly defended destroying 39 Basestars and 71 support ships that were under construction and a further 42 Basestars and 97 support ships which were guarding them. The operation culminated in the attack over the ice world of Khione where the Columbia was lost in action. 13 Battlestars and 31 support ships had been lost in the action. While Raptor Talon was going on two Battlestar Groups were engaging the Cylon forces over and on Tauron and two more were pulling back to the Colonies to assist.

Looking down on Adar, Whitehall summed up what many in the military thought, "That last mad dash the Cylons made into the Colonies was likely to put the fear of the Gods into the negotiators to get a better deal. Guess what, it worked. For 8 months prior to that attack, the Cylons not once got a Basestar into orbit of one of the 12 Colonies and we were constantly pushing them back. If the government didn't give up back then, then the Fleet could have completely destroyed the Cylons with 6 months since we had taken out almost every one of their shipyards and were ready to push hard and fast into their territory on all fronts. In that one operation we had collapsed their lines in a way we never had done in the entirety of any war. If you all didn't have shit for brains and had let us do our jobs then we wouldn't have need of keeping such a large fleet."

Shaking his head Adar was quiet for several long moment while he considered the options left to him. It was clear that Whitehall wasn't backing down. Looking up at the aging silver haired woman, he stated, "So in all this you are saying you did nothing wrong as you see it."

Agreeing, Hermione said "Did I pull the wool over your eyes? Yes. Did I bend at least 50 rules in the pursuit of making the fleet as strong as possible? Yes, frak I outright broke some. Did I do anything wrong? Well I'll sleep soundly knowing that no matter what you do, because of what I did the colonial people will stand a chance when the Cylons return. So no, I didn't do anything wrong."

Shaking his head and pulling a bottle of expensive brandy from his drawer, Adar poured himself a healthy dose which he downed before saying "The Cylons are gone, all our intel shows the other side of the border is clear. I'm offering you a choice then, either you retire and you can say goodbye to any benefits and your retirement pay which in your position will be substantial. Or both you and the rest of the board of the admiralty will face a court martial and believe me when I say that I will ensure you are somehow found guilty of treason and crimes against the state."

Looking at him, Whitehall asked, "That's it? Just my retirement and bye-bye benefits?"

Looking down at a report Adar replied "That and seeing as her signature is on a hell of a lot of these forms approving the upgrades, Rear-Admiral Gaeta is to be removed from the R&D fleet. She may remain in the Colonial Fleet but not in a position she can do any harm."

Looking at him Whitehall said "I want that in writing signed and observed by..."

Before she could say more, Adar pressed a button bringing in his aide "Is Judge Grisham still there?" Adar asked.

"Yes sir, shall I send her in?" his librarian-like female secretary asked.

Nodding, Adar replied "And bring yourself and a laptop."

Over the next ten minutes Adar had the aide and the Chief Justice write out an agreement which was then printed off in triplicate. When it came to signing it, Whitehall said "we do this the old way sir." Looking over to the Praetorian Guard on watch, Whitehall signed the papers then produced a knife and cut her thumb, she then left a bloody thumbprint next to her name on all three. Shaking his head, Adar was the next to sign and he used part of a letter opener to cut his thumb which he pressed to the sheets. The judge was the last to sign and while taking out a ceremonial knife and cutting his own thumb he muttered "Fracking Taurons."

With all three signed, Whitehall took her copy and then removed her epaulettes which she dropped on Adar's desk saying, "I stand relieved, good day Mr President, and good luck with stopping the Cylons from defeating us with words alone." Turning and walking away Whitehall muttered "Gods know they will probably nuke you just to shut you up."

6 YEARS 8 MONTHS BEFORE FALL

PICON

Oia – a small fishing village 18 miles from the City of Santorini

HERMIONE WHITEHALL'S CABIN

"Well that's it, cut the purse strings to the shadow groups. By now they have enough to continue the buyouts, inflate on the stock market and buy up some of the ships Adar will scrap. Maybe even help crop up the R&D side if things get bad enough." Each of them grumbled sourly at the news Whitehall brought, but were relieved that the fallout was less than expected. Looking at Rear-Admiral Gaeta, Whitehall said "For what its worth Ione, I am sorry."

Smiling and patting Whitehall's hand, Gaeta replied "So I'll be put into the main fleet sooner than expected, I still have my job and pension, and Noah is ready to take over. You lost a lot more."

Corman coming to terms of now being the Fleet Admiral when he had not expected it for a good few years thought out loud "It makes you think, Adar had so much on us abusing our positions and the treasury. He could have dragged us all through the courts if he wanted. We humiliated him so why isn't he?"

Nash answered, "It's because he's Caprican, and because of how great the humiliation is. He couldn't risk the media or the public finding out otherwise the damage to his reputation would have shattered any confidence the Quorum or the people have in him. No, we'll either all face accidents or his cuts will be deep enough to make back some of the lost budget."

Looking at them, Whitehall spoke up "I suggest you all surround yourself with guards you trust for the forseeable future."

Thinking, Nagala asked "Do you think we did the right thing? We could have made the cuts worse by what we have done."

Pondering over her glass, Whitehall replied "we did the only thing we could to ensure that at least some have a chance of surviving if the Cylons return, maybe even enough to turn the tide in our favour if it's as bad as we expect. You've all seen the projections, even now with the fleet as big as it is and the reserves most scenarios have us facing off against a more numerous enemy and the colonies being completely annihiliated 15% of the time. 65% have us losing such a large percentage of the Fleet and Colonies that the outcome is either a pyrrhic victory for us or the Cylons. I don't like having a 20% chance of winning. With 180 battlestars and the reserves as they currently are that loss goes up to the odds get even worse."

Nash looked over at Nagala and said "She's more right than you know. I think we were conservative in our estimates of what Adar was considering doing."

Corman looked at him saying "You've heard something?"

Nodding, Nash replied "I have some contacts in the government in the accounts wing. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure but they came across a couple of reports they shouldn't have seen. One of which was a five year projection for fleet payroll. If what they saw is true then we risk losing around 400,000 personnel from our ships alone over the next five years saving around 22 billion cubits. That isn't even taking into account station and groundside personnel which I have been assured is around double that figure."

The implications hit Whitehall, 400,000 was enough to crew more than a hundred non networked battlestars.

6 YEARS 6 MONTHS BEFORE FALL

CAPRICA

ATHENA SECURITY HEADQUARTERS

"I would like to thank you all for your votes of confidence in me, and I swear to you all that I will put just as much effort into leading this company to new more financially and physically secure futures as I did the Colonial Fleet." Whitehall announced to the board of directors of Aegis Security, the majority of whom were shadow fleet. As it stood the shadow fleet now owned 72% Athena Security and were just months away from acquiring the rest of the shares, all of which would be kept split among the Shadow Fleet members standing as the board of directors.

Ever since her forced resignation, Adar had Whitehall blacklisted anywhere he could, the problem was that here her people made sure she had a place and by using their combined vote had her made into the CEO of Aegis Security.

6 YEARS 5 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

PICON FLEET HQ

FLEET ADMIRAL CORMANS OFFICE

"Frak!" Admiral Corman raged before tossing the tablet PC on the desk knocking over a cup in the process. Across from him Nagala looked down on his own tablet seeing what had made Corman so angry. "120 battlestars? They're seriously only going to leave the main fleet with 120 battlestars? That's a reduction of more than fifty percent. How the frak are we supposed to defend with only 10 Battlestars per Colony not counting the reserves."

Looking at his friend, Corman waited until Nagala saw what he had seen and said "Frak! They're cutting the active reserves to 44 Battlestars and rotating out the non-networked ships! There's no way he can sell this to the public and come out on top."

Cormans reply was to "Scroll down, he'll feed it to them and they will eat it up. He's opening bids on contracts to construct a hundred fast attack ships and destroyers to both, hang on how does he word it?"

"'Meet the ever changing tactical landscape which has meant that piracy has become rampant as our larger warships are unable to maintain pace with them. These fast attack ships will be able to meet this new and ruthless enemy while also being able to police Colonial space and work in tandem with other units to take on any potential threat. Oh that idiot. Well that's that I suppose. Which ship are we taking off the line first, or better yet, how are we taking them off the line?"

Picking his tablet back up and then scrolling to a page only he had, Corman replied "Adar wants this done over a period of six years and seeing as his opinion polls are through the roof it looks like he'll be staying for a second term to see it through. He specifically stated he wants the last ship off the line to be the Galactica which he plans on...well that's something at least. He's turning her into a museum ship on the 40th anniversary of the armistice. Since Galactica will be the last off the line, it seems right that we make Athena as the only other surviving Jupiter the first off the line. He wants at least 50 taken off the line within 18 months and the rest steadily rotated out over the next 4 years." Looking further through the list Corman continued "There's a note that the ships are 'to be kept to a clean and high standard as inspection will be carried out' so we can probably expect visits from any number of the Colony Defence Fleets looking for a cheap Battlestar, probably also some representing a corporate buyer."

"I'll let Whitehall know to get booked in on one of the cubit tours, you never know she might buy her old command, the Warstar Zeus back."

"Only if Adar was selling her, he might be throwing us a bone or just be doing this to piss me off, but we can keep the Zeus class Warstars only they will be placed in the inactive reserves."

Chuckling, Nagala replied "What the frak, we only just finished building the Shield. Fat lot of good they will do in the inactive reserves."

Grumbling, Corman replied "True, there aren't many docks that are able to hold them so we'll have to stick one in the fleet anchorage above us, one in Caprica Hub, one in Scorpia Fleet Shipyards and the last one we stick in the Expanse just in case the shit hits the fan and one of the anchorages is hit. Pavilion Gateway and Titan Point should be able to handle it."

"Stick it in Titan Point. It will mean us taking her out of dock every few days as the largest mining ships come in so at least we know she won't be rotting away. That, and Pavilion Gateway is too out of the way. We can sell it that the risk of theft at Pavillion Gateway is too high."

"As for the Battlestars being taken out, I want the Athena to find her way into the shadow fleet and join the Theia and Hesperides as soon as possible. If we can get an Orion I will be even happier."

"What about legitimately purchased battlestars?" Nagala asked.

"The good news is that we have enough put aside to buy just over a dozen. The problem is that buying so many will be too easily noticed and bring too much attention to our people. We can probably get away with buying seven or eight for now. With the amount of Jupiter IIs and Selenes on the list we can probably get a couple of them and overhaul them for mining purposes while still retaining some firepower. Of course they won't let us keep the heavy artillery or the armour belt but we can install lower calibre weapons. The security forces will need to make do with a Valkyrie or similar."

"Good luck with that, the CDF will be all over them like shit on a shovel." Nagala replied.

Looking up, Corman thought before saying "I don't think so, most colonies want to make a statement, nothing makes a statement more than a big Battlestar. I swear, it's going to turn into a dick waving contest between them. The smaller ships will be overlooked at first. At best I can see most colonies buying a Battlestar or two before realising how much they've sunk into them. Out of all the colonies I only foresee Leonis and maybe Scorpia thinking long and hard when making their purchase. The only difference being Leonis can afford whatever they want with ease."

Looking up from the notes he was keeping, Nagala asked "You figure out what they're doing yet?"

Breathing in, Corman replied "As best as I can tell, they're doing the same thing we are and are preparing for the Cylons to return. I'm meeting Field Marshal Montgomery next week where I'm hoping he will give me a clue as to what Leonis is doing and possibly find a way to work together." For weeks now both Leonis and the fleet had been sniffing around each other as they suspected the other wasn't acting legitimately. Leonis Intelligence Service's suspicions had been raise after a number of companies they had privately owned shares of in order to help fund the ARC project, had a lot more former Colonial Fleet personnel and their associates buying shares in those same companies. After a lot of digging they discovered several companies had since went into private ownership.

The Shadow Fleet's suspicions were raised when during a rare lull in orbital traffic around Leonis, a series of bursts of jump radiation had been detected emanating from under Leonis surface but they were unable to work out where. A few days later DRADIS sensors detected a contact outside of the projected orbital paths of previously mapped asteroids. Suspecting a small pirate vessel, the Colonial Fleet had dispatched a Raptor to investigate, the Raptor finding only thousands of tonnes of loose limestone. After analysis, this Limestone was traced back to the area around Luminaire on Leonis but there was no normal reason to dump it in space. The report would have been overlooked had it not been seen by a member of Fleet Intelligence working for the Shadow Fleet.

5 YEARS 9 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

SCORPIA

SCORPIA FLEET ANCHORAGE

Battlestar Juno

Walking the halls of the decommissioning Juno Class Battlestar Juno, Former Fleet Admiral and now Athena Security CEO, Hermione Whitehall finally felt at home in a way she hadn't felt since being forced from the Fleet. For 43 years Whitehall had been a Colonial Fleet Officer serving under people such as Fleet Admiral Cain and Fleet Admiral Nash before rising to the very top of the admiralty. Even despite taking over as CEO of Athena Security and having her own fleet of 17 warships, she could barely even call them that considering she had once commanded ships one and two thousand metres in length and bigger, and yet these ships she now found herself in command of mostly measured a tenth of that and were crewed by around anywhere between 5 and 200 people. The only ships of note Athena security possessed were two old Kira Class frigates and a Berserk Class Carrier.

With these ships they were hired to protect mining sites and transport ships mostly travelling in the Expanse and the Twins mining regions. Throughout those areas dozens of pirate, terrorist and criminal organisations flourished preying off lonely mining ships and transports armed with either patched together transports sporting whatever weapons they could find and attach, or with recovered and stolen warships and wrecks from the Cylon War Era and the prior Inter-colony wars. Estimates had these groups and individuals having hundreds of ships but it was rare to see more than a dozen anywhere at once.

Stepping into the CIC while followed by her staff of advisors and aides from Athena Security, Hermione let the government rep give her the spiel about the Juno Class he had no doubt spent hours reciting. He needn't bother as Hermione looked around the room which was lit up showing powered down consoles, and even areas where military equipment had been removed. She knew the main weapons had been pulled and replaced by smaller calibre weapons, her armour belt was in the process of being removed and it would be replaced by a thinner armour belt over the ribbing. In terms of ammunition, specific laws governed corporate police and mercenary forces which limited the maximum amount of ammunition to 5% of standard capacity. The missiles and especially the nukes had been removed, a much weaker missile and easily hackable (to the Fleet) missiles would be available for purchase in their place. The Mk-7 Vipers were being removed and Mk-1 to Mk-6 Vipers would be available for purchase in their place. The same was true with the Raptors and the Transports. All this and more was being done to remove any potential threat the sold off ships could pose to the government. Of the 27 Battlestars that would be purchased by all the different civilian corporations, the majority would be stripped by their new owners and converted into transport, mining and refinery ships, four of these eventually going on to be sold for scrap as their owners went bust. Some would become security ships, two were becoming colony ships serving the mining colonies and another two were bought up by a group of universities and research laboratories looking to create research ships.

The various individual Colonies meanwhile would eventually go on to have 40 Battlestars including the battlestars they already had between them and several would go on to regret this action later as many would be forced to undercrew these ships.

Taking in the CIC, Hermione smiled before looking at the government rep saying "We'll take her."

5 YEARS 2 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

THE VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

OUROBOROS SYSTEM – 83LY FROM HELIOS

Orbit of Castalia

Zurik Station – Berring Mao Breakers Inc.

Taking off from the half century old former anchorage, a small civilian transport flew past hundreds of torn apart wrecks, as it proceeded deeper into the shipbreaking facility. The planet of Castalia which they orbited was a milky blue gas giant surrounded by an A ring of a rocky and metallic belt and a B ring of glittering glass like ice. Zurik Station and Berring-Mao shipbreaking yard orbited at the inner edge of the A ring with the wrecks often mistaken for rocks. While Berring-Mao was not a large shipbreaking company, it did have three facilities across colonial space, and what was more it had a contract with the Colonial Fleet to break down old ships into their usable parts and metals. What really set Berring-Mao apart was that over the past 3 years different Shadow Fleet investors composed of retired veterans, former Colonial Fleet members and trusted associates had bought up almost all the shares in the company before taking it private a few months ago. The last shareholder Julianna Mao was the hardest to buy out and instead became a part of the Shadow Fleet after it was deemed she could be trusted.

Flying deeper into the rocky A ring, Julianna Mao looked at the large object revealed before her as the ships lights finally started to hit the structure. "Pretty amazing isn't it?" Edward Teach asked as he stood by her side.

Julianna could only nod as the pilot moved the shuttle towards the vast structure that was the Mobile Shipyard Aquila. On paper the vast mobile station had been moved to Berring-Mao's facility here nine months prior in order to be stripped and broken down into constituent parts. Since the contract required the return of 75% of the materials to the Colonial Fleet or rather the government, that would have proven a problem were it not for Edward Teach's Black Rock Mining company providing the materials to Berring-Mao for transfer. While inspections were required at all facilities such as this to ensure war ships and materials weren't being restored, Fleet Admiral Corman ensured that only those that were in the know were sent on these inspection tours.

Landing in one of Aquila's vast flightpods, the 100 man detail spread to their assigned positions throughout the station as Teach and Mao moved to the CIC. Over time the jump drives powered up and the Aquila made her first jump across the Vitruvius Expanse. For thirty minutes they then waited until a Raptor appeared and they got the green light to proceed. Their people in the fleet were now on duty watching the part of the Ribbon Early Warning Satellites they would be jumping past. Over the course of an hour they made their journey to the Tanalay System where the Battlestars Theia, Hesperides and the recently added Athena lay. Around this group of Battlestars were 9 support ships pulled from the Boneyards over the past few years, their records having been falsified showing them as having been scrapped.

4 YEARS 11 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

HELIOS GAMMA

ORBIT OF SCORPIA

SCORPIA FLEET SHIPYARD – CIVILIAN PLATFORM 3 – DOCK 2

FORMER BATTLESTAR EUROPA – NOW BRS EUROPA

Ever since the sale of the Battlestars as well as some of the oldest support ships which required more crew to the various corporations and governments, shipyards like Scorpia Fleet Shipyards had been raking in the cubits through modification and upgrades the new owners of these former warships had requested. Most purchased the Battlestars for their sheer size which meant that once some internal modifications were done, would allow for plenty of cargo space. However the man watching over the overhaul of the Battlestar Europa wasn't so much interested in cargo as he was refining and mining as well as ship repair. His company, or rather the company he was in charge of since in truth it was a Shadow Fleet company, had purchased the 42 year old Selene Class Heavy Support Battlestar Europa.

This class which only produced nine such ships, was designed as a Heavy Support Battlestar, largely built on the same scale length-wise as the Jupiter Class and using the same main thrusters and forward head section. However the Selene Class was taller with the lower forward section of the class being more bulky and expanded. Extra thrusters had also been added to the engine section to help shift the vast Battlestar at slightly slower speeds than a Jupiter. The body of the Battlestar had also been redesigned and heavily reinforced to take on the stresses of the specially redesigned extendable flightpods. These flightpods were unlike any other on a Battlestar, since the overall flightpod was far wider, and instead of one there were two side by side flight decks. Only one of these flight decks was designed for Vipers and Raptors, this one being on the outer edge and carrying many of the same features as a Jupiter's from which it had largely been copied with the curved outer hull, the triangular openings and even the landing pad placement.

What was different however was the second flight deck built right next to it. This flightdeck was twice as wide as the regular flight deck and just as long at 617m, with wide tall square entrances which left only flat edges within the flightpod. Within were specially designed gantries, docking collars and repair facilities. This vast flightpod was specifically designed to allow support ships to dock and be repaired since during the later years of the first war, the Colonials had been able to push the Cylons back out of the Cyrannus Star Systems and establish a front several jumps from the Colonies. This was not without cost. The front threatened to collapse with damaged support ships often having to make long return trips back to the colonies with a greater risk of ambush unless they had support which meant weakening the front. While one solution was to create anchorages closer to the front, of the times they had tried, they were bogged down defending these anchorages and opening up holes in the front. When they left the stations alone, the Cylons attacked.

The solution were mobile support ships and mobile docks like Daedalus. While they had at first used the Daedalus class mobile Anchorage's of which three were created over the course of the war, these cost a great amount of resources to construct, and after the loss of Prometheus Anchorage after the Battlegroup it was in was ambushed before it could jump, it was decided to pull Daedalus and the Forge back to midway points far behind the lines. So for a time the flattops and various smaller repair ships were moved closer to the front, but these were not designed for the dangers they would face or the repairs they would need to conduct, as such many were lost. A new support class was needed. The Selene Class Heavy Support Battlestar became that class. Carrying almost twice the armament as the Jupiter Class, as well as thicker armour plating the Selene Class was designed to take a pounding and return even more in order to limit the damage done if ambushed. With the side by side flightdecks they were both able to repair a medium sized support ship per flightpod as well as either launch and land vipers in the next flightdeck or repair a smaller support ship of a similar size to Colonial One.

And of course with the height increase of the Battlestar came the addition of vast cargo bays, more specialised machine shops and several larger life stations. With these ships which would later go on to inspire the construction of the Nemean Class mobile shipyards, the Colonial Fleet was able to hold the line and provide valuable aid to their support ships. Of the nine such ships built, four were destroyed in battle, two had to be scrapped after the war due to damage inflicted and the last three found their ways to the active and inactive reserve fleets. These were ships of another time and another war, the latter years of the first war was a time of mobility; mobile shipyards, mobile docks, mobile hospitals and everything else besides. They were almost perfectly designed for the war the shadow group prayed would never come.

Right now Edward Teach stood watch as the Europa's Starboard heavy flightdeck was fitted out with the refinery parts and the starboard light flight deck was being fitted with mining docking ports and cargo loaders. The Portside Flightpod would still allow the operation of 100 vipers and 25 Raptors as well as allow for ship repair in both flight decks.

As for the armament, the heavy guns had already been replaced and in their stead, after extensive background checks on the new owners, a medium calibre of weaponry was being added. The majority of the armour belt had also been removed so that the ribbing and inner armour was showing. In a months time the Europa would launch and join the Jupiter II class Black Rock Mining Support Ship Ajax out at the frontier in the Vitruvius Expanse.

4 YEARS 11 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

COLONIAL FLEET COMMAND HQ

BUREAU OF SHIPS

For five hours now Rear-Admiral Hudson had sat before the board going over every minute detail of all the projects the Forge was working on. It wouldn't have been so bad if they listened to what he said but ever since Whitehall had pulled the wool over Adar's eyes the bureau of ships had seen more bureaucrats and desk admirals that were in Adar's pocket added to it and less people that were both knowledgeable of the fleets needs and of a combat ships needs. The latest act of idiocy that Hudson saw was of course the Mk-8 Viper. Looking down at his papers as the bureaucrats talked among themselves, Hudson looked over the specs of the Mk-8 and was not pleased. Unlike in the past where Fleet R&D designed a viper from the ground up alongside Icarus Engineering, R&D had little input and the design for the Mk-8 had been outsourced to Plutarch-Mitchel Engineering after they showcased the smallest jumpdrive ever constructed which they planned to integrate into the Mk-8 design. Combined with more advanced networking throughout the ship and a next generation thruster system, the Tempest VR-81X they provided a lot of incentive to the bureau of ships. What was more was they were undercutting Icarus by offering the design at a lower cost than what the Mk-7 had been sold for. Looking at his notes, Hudson knew it was the money that had enticed the pencil pushers, that and the fact that Canceron had threatened to vote against Adar's policies if Plutarch-Mitchel, a company heavily invested in by Canceron after it almost failed in a recession hitting that colony didn't get the contract.

Taking a drink of the cold glass of water in front of him, Hudson looked across the board members as they patted themselves on the back for the benefits of the Mk-8. Having had enough, Hudson spoke up for what felt like the hundredth time, "The Mk-8 does not meet R&D Fleet's approval."

Having barked that out with more force than he intended, they turned to him as if noticing him for the first time. The head of the board Josef Madsley smiled an insincere smile saying "Admiral, we've seen the combat trials performed by your own people and the Mk-8 performed beautifully. Combined with the short-range jump drive which will open up new strategic options for the Fleet and the more powerful engines, we fail to see what problems you have with it. Right now it looks like professional jealousy." Half hidden smiles went among the board at that comment.

Pissed at the smarmyness of the men and women in front of him, Noah retorted "My department has sent you hundreds of reports detailing the problems over the past six months since we received the Mk-8s. Just so we are clear, first off the Viper is at serious risk of overheating. Now after we noticed this my own people employed every solution we could and the only options we could come up with was to use less powerful thrusters, or remove the jump drive which if we do that we might as well scrap the design since it throws off the mass of the Viper especially with its current options. Then there's the overuse of networks..."

"Ah yes, the 'N' word" Under-Secretary of defence Lydia Stackholm muttered.

Hearing her, Hudson repeated "The overuse of networks which is building up too much excess heat the fins can't shift. My people have tried limiting these networks but it has become quite clear that the reason for the overuse is that without them as they currently are this Viper flies worse than a Mk-7 flown by a cadet. Not only is there the overheating issue, there's a maintenance issue too. It takes on average two hours longer to perform routine maintenance safely due to the complicated parts around the thrust assembly and the jump drive assembly. My people are the very best, if they can't perform routine maintenance in a suitable timeframe, what chance do you think the average deck crew has?" As the board members started muttering among each other and checking their phones, Hudson spoke louder "The last major problem is the jumpdrive itself. While it has been shown to work well, it uses too much power when a jump is performed meaning more heat, more tylium being burned off from a tank which is smaller than a Mk-7s and on several occasions interference to the DRADIS. While the jumpdrive is remarkable, we need to go back to wait at least another generation. In essence, the Mk-8 needs to be brought back to the drawing board and my people involved in its redesign in order to forestall any incidents. If this viper does go into production then it will be without my approval." By the time he had finished he noticed that nobody was really paying attention within this stuffy room.

Leaning forward, Josef spoke into the microphone which was recording the session, "Thank you for your comments Admiral. I am sure we and Plutarch-Mitchel will take them into consideration. I have however spoken to Samira Vernard at Plutarch-Mitchel and she assures me that they are aware of the issues you forwarded to them and that they have since remedied the majority. The treasury will not however be investing funds into what quite frankly we and Plutarch-Mitchel see as an unnecessary redesigns when combat trials have proven the design."

Looking around at the board, Josef announced "Now I would like to put it to a vote for putting the Mk-8 into production. All those in favour?" A chorus of "yays" met his ears from the board members. Turning to Noah with a smile lighting his face, Josef asked "All those against?"

Only Rear-Admiral Hudson spoke. Within days contracts would be bid upon to produce the parts and in weeks the Mk-8 would go into production.

4 YEARS 7 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

CAPRICA

BATTLESTAR GROUP 51

MERCURY CLASS BATTLESTAR ARGUS

ARGOS AIR GROUP – ALPHA AIR WING – PRIMUS SQUADRON

All it takes is a distraction, after hours of work, a fumbled screw, a ceramic coolant barrier to slip and go unnoticed, and an already exhausted mechanic kept almost half as long as he normally would have been working on this new generation of Viper, for the first of many flaws to start to reveal itself. Just half an hour later, Lieutenant Phoebe "BoneDust" Weiss, tore down the Argus' viper launch tube and out into space and into a vast formation of Vipers set to fly over Caprica City in a massive parade before performing a simulated dogfight for a crowd of spectators and then making a final jump to the orbit of Picon.

Tearing down into the skies of Caprica, plasma heating up along the fuselage creating glowing red orange and yellow streamers around and behind the Viper. Of the 4 squadrons personally attached to the Argus', two squadrons broke off and made their way further around the orbit of Caprica, while the remaining two settled and waited until the operation began. Within minutes the go ahead was given and the forty pilots of the two squadrons blazed across the skies of Caprica, thrusters burning away as they accelerated past 24,800 mph aided by the atmospheric entry. As they blazed through the skies, the heavily networked computer and flight control systems worked overtime in order to correct the fighters hitting pockets of turbulence.

Through the bright blue skies they tore, sonic booms marking their arrival and into the cleared airspace of Caprica City to the awe of the press corps, public and President that had gathered outside the phoenix residence. Streamers of red, blue, silver and gold smoke were released in the vipers wakes as capsules of the metallic coloured filaments were sprayed from the thrusters. Ahead of them an opposing air group of black painted Mk-VIII Vipers tore towards them having performed their own dive into the atmosphere. As they tore towards each other in seemingly head-on collisions, the heat continued to build up within the Vipers. These were elite pilots, in fact the Pilots of Argos Air Group's, Alpha Air Wing were the very best of pilots. Argos Air Group had a total of 304 pilots spread the length and breadth of the colonies. Each one being given a choice of posting in whatever squadron they preferred in an attempt to ensure if the Nexus protocol had to be activated, then Argos Air Group's pilots would already be in place to take command of enough Battlestar Air Groups in order to better coordinate their forces. The Alpha Air Wing however were a normally permanent air group assigned to the Battlestar Argus. Alpha Air Wing were made up of 4 squadrons; Primus, Sword, Reaper and Spartan. These permanent squadrons were officially known as Aggressor squadrons but unofficially had become known by the public as display squadrons. Each of these squadrons were famous having been the very best throughout the first war.

Flying towards each other, the two opposing wings seemed to be heading for certain collisions in the air, but at the very last second each viper twisted on its wing to blaze by each other with centimetres to spare. The heat and backwash of the powerful sets of thrusters blazing so closely together for that fraction of a fraction of a second combined with the release of a burst of metallic filaments, created a cascading starburst effect as the two sets of vipers carried on before seeming to defy inertia and gravity as they performed insane twists in the air in a perfectly coordinated pirouette. This was a display they had practiced thousands of times in the Mk-VI and later Mk-VII Vipers, and dozens of times since they received the Mk-VIII Viper a month prior.

If these pilots were being honest, the Mk-VIII was not the Viper they wanted to be flying, there were few Argonauts that flew with a network, these elite pilots felt like networks took away the feel of the flight and combat from a pilot and as such, dulled the reactions and awareness of the pilot. Yet with the Mk-VIII, one thing they had learned was the networked systems were a necessity. There was just no way to turn them off and still fly, especially in an atmosphere.

As the Vipers came together in a second pass, they finally started engaging in the simulated dogfight to the joy of the spectators as none lethal coloured lasers were fired from their barrels with a combined shell of coloured metallic filaments and the Vipers twisted and turned on each other in a carefully coordinated and choreographed ballet. Looking at it though, you would never suspect that this was choreographed, as each pilot broke out of target locks, twisted onto the tails of other Vipers and thrusted through the sky with guns blazing and bursts of coloured dust simulating explosions, it honestly looked to the civilians like a real dogfight. But it was having an effect.

The Vipers were already overheated from the devastatingly fast entry into the atmosphere, they heated even more as the particles of coloured dust were choking the thrusters in ways that would never have happened with any other Viper. The computers and other systems were adding even more to that heat as they worked overtime to keep up with the manoeuvres of these elite pilots and stop the Vipers falling from the sky. It was made worse by a bright sunlight blazing down upon them this hottest of days.

As the dance became even more chaotic two squadrons tore through the centre of the deadly dogfight within inches of each other. Each one bursting out in a star pattern of forty vipers leaving just the last two squadrons duelling. The squadrons which tore away pulled higher into the sky and then turned inwards barrelling down towards the duelling squadrons. As they tore down, with just metres between their wings, the jumpdrives started spooling up, but for six of the overtaxed and overheated Vipers, this was just too much. Systems began to lag, and the heat built up by the jumpdrives only added to the excess heat within the engine compartments, finally melting through wires and weakening the structure of the Vipers themselves. Before the first alarm went off warning the pilots of what was happening, the already overtaxed networked systems reacted. The only problem was that in two Vipers, the systems reacted to non-existent problems as they received false sensor readings and instead increased the fuel input to the thrusters forcing the Vipers to increase speed. Two Vipers were so overworked their systems crashed entirely shutting down all systems including thrusters, while in one the thrusters shutdown locking their tylium valves open and turning the viper into an ill-shaped dumbfire missile. Finally in one last Viper in this group which had a loose ceramic coolant panel in its engine bay, the maneouvres proved too much as the panel finally tore free, ripping apart a tylium line and several wires as it did so, the sparks from said wires igniting the fumes of an already blazing hot fuel.

For the people below, it seemed like part of the show, but in seconds everything changed as the Viper of Lieutenant Phoebe Weiss rocked from an explosion in the engine compartment as the Tylium expanded in a fiery explosive mass. All at once the entire rear half of the viper was no more and the rest was a tumbling wreck heading for the duelling vipers below. As the rest of the viper started coming apart around her, and the strain the G-Forces from the tumbling wreck and the explosion itself pulled at Phoebe, she saw out of her cracked and shattered canopy as two Vipers tore ahead of the pack and towards the duelling vipers below faster than they should be, they only had seconds at most from contact. As the Vipers were ahead of her she saw that in one the thrusters were off while in another only one thruster was on which was pushing it off course and into a tumble. Fighting against the forces pulling her back into the seat as the hull plating and then cracked canopy ripped free from her ship and the still blazing fire in whatever was left of the engine compartment finally reached the reserve tank, she managed to pull the emergency eject lever blasting whatever explosive bolts were left and firing her out of the second explosion of her Viper.

Around her one Viper's jumpdrive activated early destroying the viper next to it but by then the rest of the vipers had broken as they saw what was happening. The duelling group below broke free in what were extremely difficult manoeuvres but some of the Vipers weren't reacting as quickly to the pilots input as they should and instead collided with other Vipers. In another two Vipers, pilots ejected while below them the spectators ran and screamed for cover. From the diving mass of Vipers, only 28 of the original 40 managed to break away from each other and jump. But the two vipers whose systems had crashed carried on forward and into the much thinner furball of Vipers below. As one crashed into another's rear, there was a dry fireless explosion of debris before both Vipers now free fumes burst into flame in the backwash of another's thrusters.

Fire seemed to bathe the sky along with multiple explosions while the debris would continue to rain down on the banks of the River Cocytus below and the people running from the stands nearby.

Seemingly suspended in the air as her parachute carried her down to the ground below, Phoebe watched as the debris rained down on the families below. Around her were the drifting parachutes of 5 ejected pilots and in the distance the forms of the rest of Argos Air Group's Alpha Air Group trying to get clear.

4 YEARS 4 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

LIBRAN

THEMIS

SUPREME HALL OF JUSTICE

"Thank you Evan," the female reporter said to the camera, "You're joining me today in the fifth week of deliberations over the disaster that was the founders day celebration of Caprica City. In what has become known as one of the worst non-combat aviation disasters the Colonial Fleet has ever faced, a disaster which has caused the deaths of 41 people including 9 pilots and injuries sustained to 97 civilians, the question has been asked of what went wrong and who is to blame? Over the past 5 weeks following an extensive investigation by both the Caprica Civil Aviation Authority and the Colonial Fleet, there have been many accusations that Argos Air Group was to blame. However in the course of the investigations it has been revealed that the problems seem to lie with the Mk-VIII Viper as reports have detailed extensive maintenance being regularly needed as well as hundreds of reports of mechanical issues being filed. Indeed there has been a 87% increase of mechanical issues being reported compared to the Mk-VII Viper when it was first released, as well as 93 occasions where the pilot has been forced to shut down the Viper or risk injury. Fleet Admiral Peter Corman came forward the day after the Founder's Day Disaster and stated that he has overruled the controllers office and grounded all 12,800 Mk-VIII Vipers during the course of the investigation, and will instead be falling back on the reliability of the Mk-VII. This has of course halted the production of 137,000 vipers which were set for the Colonial Fleet ships, stations and air bases.

"Special Investigator Mara Lang, an expert in Civil Aviation disasters whom was brought in by the Quorums Council - the highest panel of Judges - to find out what went wrong, has shown that her investigation revealed the development of the first hyperjump capable Viper was marred by issues of overheating made worse by an overworked flight computer and overpowered FTL drive and thrusters. Mrs Lang described the Mk-VIII as a disaster waiting to happen and that it was only through the abilities of the elite pilots of Argos Air Group that the death toll on Founders Day wasn't higher.

"Mrs Lang has further discovered that Colonial Fleet R&D was only brought in to the development of the Mk-VIII two months before it was cleared by the Colonial Fleet Bureau of Ships. This was despite the head of Colonial Fleet Research and Development, Rear-Admiral Noah Hudson's refusal to sign off on the Mk-VIII until it met the standards of the Fleet. Fleet Admiral Corman also went on record requesting the Bureau of Ships to allow for the Mk-VIII to be further developed until it met Rear-Admiral Hudson's approval. The Bureau of Ships however refused. A question was raised by this refusal and upon further investigation by Mrs Lang, evidence of corruption was found with financial transactions made between the designers of the Mk-VIII, Plutarch-Mitchel Engineering and several key board members including the head of the bureau Josef Maudsley, each of whom have since been relieved of their positions, arrested and are awaiting trial.

"This of course only worsens the fate of Plutarch-Mitchel Engineering as their share price which has continued to fall since the disaster, has since hit an all-time low. It is expected that Plutarch-Mitchel will go into administration by the end of next week with the immediate loss of forty thousand jobs and the potential loss of even more of it's 400,000 strong workforce. As one of the largest companies on Canceron, this is hitting the colony hard, a colony currently suffering with its worst recession since the war and which invested heavily in Plutarch-Mitchel two years ago following the start of the recession.

"In just moments Rear-Admiral Hudson will be called to the stand in order to explain what went wrong and his refusal to approve..."

"Noah..." Rear-Admiral Ione Gaeta said to her friend and former subordinate pulling his attention from the news report. "They're ready for you."

Nodding and smartening himself up, Noah breathed in and looked at her saying "Thank you for being here."

Shaking her head, Ione replied "This disaster is partly my fault, if I hadn't have signed off on upgrading so many ships then they might not have kept you so far out of the loop in the development of the Mk-VIII. Go on, just tell the truth and you'll be fine."

Nodding, Noah turned and entered the court room.

For almost an hour the investigative team lead by Mara Lang questioned Noah on first, his own experience in research and development which was immense having spent most of his career at the Forge, and then about the Mk-VIII itself.

Noah explained everything as clearly and thoroughly as he could, explaining that in the past the teams at the Forge and before them Scorpia Shipyards, had worked closely from the very start with Icarus Aerospace on development of the previous Viper models. He then explained how Icarus had a considerable experience with the Viper series, having 92 years ago rediscovered the original prop-driven viper designs created 194 years previously by a since collapsed company called VPR after its three founders Emil Vergis, Reginald Pruitt and Alice Roslin.

Noah explained that over the years, Icarus had first worked with further improving the prop-driven Viper before moving onto making a series of atmospheric jet versions which were sold to the Caprican Air Force, and then a suborbital scramjet Viper which was again sold to the Air Force. Noah further explained that despite there having been space fighters for almost a hundred years, when it came to aerial combat, the suborbital Scramjet Vipers were normally far superior to their space worthy competitors. He then explained that around 60 years ago they produced their first space capable Viper which became the Mk-I. This was at first quickly bought up by the Caprican military but with the development of the Cylon Centurions they were largely dropped in favour of a contract with KBL Engineering for a 3 man fighter they had developed called the Raider which was specially designed to compliment the Basestars Caprica had developed with KBL after flare-ups between Tauron, Sagittaron and Scorpia especially after Tauron stole the designs to the Cylons and developed the Spartoi. Even so the Caprican military still kept a contract with Icarus for the Viper only it was not as much.

With the Cylon uprising that all changed. At first the Cylons pulled out of the Cyrannus system but the Caprican and Tauron military pursued them while being wary of their bitter rivals fleets but were each outnumbered and outgunned. Pulling back they realised they needed to work together if they were to survive, and together formed the Colonial Fleet. The Fleet was soon joined by other Colonies such as Scorpia that were at risk from the Cylons as attacks increased and networks were hacked. Although some colonies were slower to sign the articles of colonisation and provide ships to the combined colonial fleet rather than just having their smaller individual fleets. Of course they needed a fighter to go toe to toe with the Raider and come out on top and so they turned to Icarus and its Viper. Seeing the flaws in it but well aware the advantages, the Colonial Fleet took some of its very best experts in aviation, space combat, ship building, engineering and a hundred other disciplines and formed the R&D wing at Scorpia shipyards.

Early on when Icarus and Fleet R&D worked together in the design phase it was realised just how important Vipers would be to the Fleet but it was also realised that they needed a faster way to launch their fighters since they had to either have a weak point in a massive door which opened to space, or had to be loaded individually into airlocks. They also needed a more powerful front line warship able to carry vipers into battle and go toe to toe with the cylons. Essentially they needed the ability to launch large scale attacks outside of the colonies and so push the cylons back. The Fleet saw the weaknesses of the Berserk and Atlas, two of the mainstay carriers, but with the Adamant which Sinon Quade had developed several years prior to the war for Scorpia, they saw the shape of things to come, but it could be improved.

Seeing the direction they needed, R&D enlisted Sinon Quade and developed plans for 12 large warships taking the abilities of a carrier and marrying them to the abilities of a Battleship. This ship was designed specifically to compliment and be complimented by its fighter force which it was decided would be the Viper, and so they integrated into the design the ability to rapidly launch up to 180 Vipers as well as the Tauron designed Raptors. This project was the Jupiter Project and the first Jupiter Class Battlestars out of the R&D facility, Daedalus Station located at Scorpia Shipyards, proved their worth. The Jupiter Project would never have been what it became had it not been for the catalyst; the Viper.

Shortly after the Admiralty was ambushed and killed throughout the Colonies, Noah explained. Within weeks of the attack, Fleet R&D located at the time on Daedalus station successfully developed what has been argued by many as the greatest fighter; the Mk-II Viper. Able to take punishment more technologically capable and updated craft struggle with, and designed specifically without networks, in the hands of a good pilot this fighter was brilliant, and in the hands of an exceptional pilot this fighter was almost unstoppable. He explained that thanks to the ability of Icarus and the R&D teams they had a fighter that was part of a perfect team with the Battlestars that carried it, a team which was able to drive the Cylons out of the Cyrannus system and into the frontier. As the war developed Icarus and R&D again developed another updated design of Viper, the Mk-III. While this did have problems in its development, the two groups after working together from the start knew what was desired and needed, as such the problems were overcome.

Later on in the war, he explained, with bigger and harder battles further from the Colonies, and manufacturing stalling after a particularly bad attack crippled Scorpia Shipyards, the Mk-II was rotated back into frontline use with many pilots using it for the remaining 3 years of war. Towards the last months of the war the Mk-IV was developed and while it was even better than the Mk-III, it didn't get many engagements under its belt due to the speed of production and the signing of the armistice accords 2 months later.

Nevertheless, Noah informed the panel of Judges and Mara, "The Mk-IV served well for the next 8 years during which time we developed the Mk-V which served for 10 years, and the Mk-VI where carefully air gapped networks were allowed into some parts of the Viper. The Mk-VII was the next big leap we made together, faster, more powerful, carefully balanced, exceptionally agile, easy to be maintained by a well-trained crew and able to be modified to suit the needs of the pilot.

"With the Mk-VII, Fleet R&D worked with Icarus from the very start and with us we brought some members of Argos Air Group as well as other exceptional pilots that knew what they needed and didn't need. We had several problems throughout, especially with the network the Mk-VII has, however we had designed the Mk-VII like all previous Vipers to be able to be flown almost as well without the network. As such we were able to work the problem knowing that it was the network that was the problem not the Viper itself and as such we deactivated the network and shipped the MK-VII to the fleet before having the maintenance crews integrate the improved network and operating system at a later date. What was key here is that until we had that essential problem sorted, our pilots were still happy and safe flying the MK-VII."

Taking a drink of water, Noah continued "The Mk-VIII doesn't have that ability. From what we can tell it was designed with a network from the ground up, or at least designed in such a way where you need a network in order to not fall from the sky. Even then it doesn't fly as a Viper should, this may sound poetic, I don't know, but all Vipers are designed to be an extension of the pilot. A brilliant pilot can pull of moves that should be impossible with merely a flick of the wrist in a Viper. But not the Mk-VIII. By the time we were brought on board, the damage had already been done and we could only point out the problems and patch them as best we could. Some of the improvements they came out with in the final delivered product did help mitigate things, but the Viper series are space superiority fighters. They are going to take damage, fuel lines will be cut, and with the heat of the engine bay the tylium will give off enough fumes that one tiny spark, just one bullet passing through the armour, and the whole ship goes up. And if it doesn't, then there's the length of time it takes to do routine maintenance on the fighter which is significantly longer than on any other model of Viper.

"Of the 92 Battlestars which have currently received at least a squadron of Mk-VIII, every single deck chiefs has sent complaints up the chain of command to the Bureau of Ships and the Forge. So too has almost every Commander and CAG. The fact is half of those Commanders are flying whatever Mk-VIIs they have left instead of what should be the next generation fighter of choice. In my mind and the minds of everyone of my group at the Forge, this entire project has been a failure and because of that, because the people that know what is needed in a Viper weren't properly worked with, not just consulted, but worked with, and because our professional opinions with years of experience behind them weren't listened to, 32 civilians and 9 pilots were killed along with almost a hundred injuries in a demonstration Argos Air Group can perform PERFECTLY in every class of Viper."

Hearing him, Mara brought up, "So would you say that Argos Air Group weren't at fault?"

Affronted to hear this accusation again although sure Mara wasn't accusing them but getting this for the record and the Judges benefits, Noah calmed himself and then replied, "I have a squadron of Argonauts permanently posted to the forge, and the Battlestar Argus regularly rotates into the R&D Fleet with it's Argos Air Groups, the very same pilots that took part in the Founders Day disaster. I can tell you without doubt that they are not at fault. They train longer and harder than any other squadron in order to do what they do, and that air performance they took part in was after years of practice not only in every other Viper class but in the Mk-VIII too.

"I've seen the reports that for days before the show they trained in the Mk-VIII over Caprica, I've seen the maintenance logs, and have also seen how the pilots reported several problems with overheating in their Vipers and requested to perform in the Mk-VII but were refused since the Bureau wanted to showcase the abilities of the Mk-VIII." Letting out a breath, he thought that it was more likely the government wanted to show off the Viper to show people the President cared about the military.

Noah finished "You ask me if Argos Air Group is at fault. Watch the gun camera footage from anyone of them fighters and you will see the truth, the very second things started to go wrong, they noticed and they reacted by trying to turn towards the river and away from the nearby crowd. Or watch Major Seelix Potter's footage, look at her last recorded actions in the black box, and listen to her last transmission, and you will see that she gave up her own life when she rammed a Mk-VIII which was out of control but under thrust while activating her jump drive which pulled the two now destroyed ships into Caprica orbit. Had the Viper hit the ground at the speed it was going, then it would have taken out two of the grandstands and killed and injured possibly upto a hundred more. No, the blame does not lie with Argos Air Group. They did their jobs and were willing to give up their lives in order to save others. The blame lies entirely with those who approved the Mk-VIII."

In front of him each of the 12 judges on the intercolonial-panel nodded at this, they too had been shown the same footage over the previous sessions and had made the same decision.

"Admiral Hudson..." Mara began after allowing a calm to settle again, "What would it take to get the Mk-VIII up to fleet standards in order for something like this to never happen again?"

Considering, Noah thought of everything wrong with it and every improvement his people had thought of and his answer came easily, "Scrap it. It will take too much time and effort to fix the Mk-VIII, and even if we did manage to, no pilot worthy of his rank would trust it. Instead my professional opinion is that we should bury the Mk-VIII before it buries anyone else, and instead start from scratch with the experts at the Forge and Icarus designing and building the Mk-IX. We already had initial plans in mind for the Mk-VIII until the project was taken off our hands, there's been some years and technological improvements but we can come up with something better and safer within the next four years than we will do trying to fix the Mk-VIII. Until it is ready my people and Icarus can make a couple of small upgrades to the Mk-VII to extend its lifespan a bit more; minor DRADIS upgrades, a more improved navigational program to account for longer ranges and projected orbital paths, tweaks to the engines. It won't be much but it will be better than the Mk-VIII. As for the Mk-VIII, the only thing worth salvaging from the project is the jumpdrive. Given a couple of years we could get it working as it should but I would recommend against putting it into a regular Viper because at the end of the day the Vipers have been specifically designed to work in tandem with Battlestar support."

The lead judge looked at those around him as Mara closed her folder and reported she had no more questions. Judge Talbott then turned to Noah and announced "Thankyou Admiral, I think you have answered everything. Given what you have told us in addition to both yours and Fleet Admiral Corman's recommendations for the Bureau not to approve the Mk-VIII, as well as given the history and experience both the Fleet and Icarus Aerospace have with the Viper series, I will be recommending that both bodies work together on a new Viper design as soon as possible. I will also be strongly recommending that R&D has greater oversight within reason over the approval of ships along with a veto power over any ships which they feel are unsafe. Too many people have died by allowing those with little knowledge or respect of the needs of the Colonial Fleet to decide the state of the ships your people rely on. I pray that this is never repeated again. Thankyou again Admiral."

4 YEARS 2 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

THE WASTES – ABANDONED COLONIAL TERRITORY

SECTOR 12

136 LIGHTYEARS FROM CYRANNUS SYSTEM, 38 LIGHTYEARS OUTSIDE COLONIAL SPACE

CHEIMON SYSTEM

CYGNUS MK-II CLASS WALRUS

The spark of the ship as it appeared in low orbit of the shimmering blue gas giant Cheimon 4, passed without notice, lost in the bands of EM radiation cast out by the gas giant and her many moons.

The Cygnus MK-II was one of many unusual designs the Colonial Fleet had trialled. Taking the bulk of the venerable Cygnus Class Destroyer which had proven itself capable of leading small packs of escorts against Cylon convoys and even lone Baseships during the first war, as well as in supporting the Battlestars which was its main purpose. R&D had need of allowing it to more fully defend itself against Raider attacks. The solution was to give it Vipers. However the landing deck was not capable of safely landing Vipers in a sufficient time while the ship was maneouvring and so they sought another solution. Taking the Valkyrie Class flightpods they removed the missile launchers from the Cygnus since missiles were proving less effective against Cylon hacking and Raiders, and redesigned the aft sections so that the flightpods were built into the hull of the ship itself. Part of the side walls of the integrated flightpods were also removed to allow the existing flightdeck running across the width of the ship to remain since they allowed the transportation of multiple transports.

Due to the desire to increase the firepower of the Cygnus Class, three more medium gun emplacements were built into the sides of the integrated flightpods, this did however mean that between the two hangars the overall Viper count decreased to 22 Vipers in addition to the 24 Raptors which were stored within the original central hangar of the Cygnus.

Following the Cygnus MK-II's entry into the war with the first of the class, the Ice Dragon, the effectiveness of the wolfpacks they were part of increased massively which freed up the Battlestars and larger carriers like the Adamant and Atlas class to engage the Cylons elsewhere. The Cygnus Mk-II essentially became the hunter of smaller Cylon ships like the Revenant and Phobos, and due to its fighter complement's ability to intercept missiles and Raiders, it was more effective against the Arachne and Talon class.

With the end of hostilities, and the focus on producing ships of the Valkyrie Class, of the 52 Cygnus-IIs in service, 20 of the oldest were placed into the inactive reserves and then slipped away into the boneyards and the rest either remained with the Fleet or were sold to the Colony Defence Fleets. Most of those in the Boneyards were eventually scrapped or sold into civilian use as the Mk-III Cygnus entered service minus the Mk-IIs modifications. But of the four that remained, three had since found their way into the Shadow Fleet's growing reserves after information regarding their status had been falsified showing them having been scrapped. Each one fully armoured and armed unlike most ships in the Shadow Fleet Reserves. This ship, the Walrus was crewed by 159 colonists of which 112 were former Colonial Fleet currently meaning it was undermanned by military standards.

As the ship emerged from the jump and sensors swept the area around them seeking anything out of the norm, the Walrus's tactical officer called out, "DRADIS is clear Commander, all I have got is the wreck of Prometheus Anchorage and the wreck of the Battlestar Fenrir locked to it. There should be another 17 wrecks but chances are they drifted."

"Thank you Billy. Mr Gates, have three Raptors deployed and heading to Prometheus Anchorage and another two to the Fenrir. With marines too. Have them check for traps and to jump if anything appears. If they run into Centurions then they are not to engage. We're on our side of the border so we should be fine."

Nodding, the retired Colonial Fleet Colonel and acting XO of the Walrus had the orders sent down to the flight deck before turning to his CO, Commander James Flint, "Should I send a Raptor back for the Abadol and Northmark?"

Thinking, Flint replied, "Send one but they aren't to jump in yet, I want to be sure no Cylon traps have been left behind."

For half an hour they waited as their space suited marines checked the wrecks of Prometheus Anchorage and the Battlestar Fenrir, and then an hour until the all clear came back.

"Mr Gates, have a Raptor jump back to the Abadol and Northmark, tell them it's safe to proceed. Mr De Groot, set course to bring us up on Prometheus Anchorage and see if you can find us a safe docking point," Commander Flint ordered. Minutes later a Raptor jumped away only to return a minute later with two ancient Celestra repair and logistics transports.

As the ships cruised closer to the wrecks, video images came in revealing a vast shattered Anchorage made of three broken rings surrounding a central hub with whatever was left of four fractured and mostly destroyed construction docks below the bottom-most ring. Entire sections of station were missing, torn apart and melted down. Loose parts had long since floated free, yet still some hung on by melted cables or trapped girders. Still, somehow held on in one of the ruined docks was the remnants of a broken Jupiter Class Battlestar melted to the docking gantries themselves.

Looking at the station and the Battlestar you could see the evidence of the hundreds of missiles the two had taken when a Cylon Battlegroup had launched a vast assault on the Anchorage and its battlegroup. Knocking out the FTL of the anchorage they trapped it here, forcing the Colonial Fleet Battlegroup to engage the Cylons for as long as they could. Five Battlestars were lost along with thirteen support ships while hundreds of missiles slammed into the anchorage and the docked Fenrir. With these missiles, came a swarm of nuclear missiles until finally, one by one, eight nuclear missiles struck the Anchorage. Knowing the Anchorage was lost after the first two hits, evacuations started, but by the time the last missile detonated, only 1,071 of the 7520 crew managed to get away. The Anchorage had fallen as had most of the group. Unable to withstand the Cylons for much longer, and not having a reason to stay, just eight ships managed to withdraw. For years the anchorage and its attached wreck of a Battlestar remained as the remaining wrecks drifted away. Barely a few times a year ever since, a Battlestar Group would jump in on a quick patrol to ensure pirates weren't salvaging any weapons, yet it remained here a wreck and alone.

But looking at her, James Flint didn't see her as she is, but as she was, a mobile anchorage almost the same in every way to her two sisters, Daedalus Anchorage which was now unofficially known as Ragnar Anchorage, and the other sister being Vulcan Anchorage, which was unofficially known as The Forge. Seeing her lines and the destruction she had taken, he knew that if the worst came to the worst, then she might just be their best chance.

2 YEARS 11 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON ORBIT

PICON FLEET COMMAND HQ ANCHORAGE

FLEET ADMIRAL CORMAN'S OFFICE

"We should have expected this…" Fleet Admiral Corman spoke to the three people alone with him in his office. In front of him were the orders he had received, his eyes only, but after seeing them, he had to be sure of what he was seeing. "Those Godsdamn fracking idiots!"

Reading the orders, Nagala questioned "Do they realise how much this can blow up in our faces? The Fleet is nowhere near the numbers we should be, we aren't even half the strength we were just five years after the first war. If we violate the treaty and the Cylons find out then who knows what they will do?"

Taking the orders and looking over them himself, Former Fleet Admiral Silas Nash asked, "Are you sure these orders are genuine?"

Looking deeply into his glass of brandy, Corman nodded saying "They came directly from defence secretary Keikeya and the President himself. I just can't explain why they would order something as illegal as this, if it got out…"

"I know why…" Former Fleet Admiral Whitehall replied, "…I think it's because of what I said to Adar when he fired me." Before the others could ask, she answered "I told him the negotiating teams gave up a wealth of habitable worlds and resources to the Cylons including what could have become an almost perfect colony. I just can't believe he would be such an idiot."

The others could do nothing but agree. Silas reasoned "The Cylons didn't show up yet again last month. We haven't heard a peep from them in 37 years, and we have went as far as we can out into the expanse and the twins and have barely any planets capable of supporting life from it. In all our space, we have 12 perfectly habitable worlds, and 8 that are just habitable without kobolforming. We only have two directions we can expand in, out past the wastes and into the Prolmar Sector where our surveys have mostly shown barren worlds, or into Cylon territory…" thinking a moment, Silas stated "It's too risky."

Everyone silently agreed before Nagala asked, "Then does Corman refuse the order? Do we go public?"

Considering, Corman answered "Whatever it is I do it's a slippery slope we all walk on. This is a black op mission, complete deniability, if I go public and he denies it, then what do I have? A sheet of paper I could have easily wrote? If I refuse the order, he has me arrested or bumped off and likely you as well…"

"Or worse, he goes around you and has one of the Commanders or Admirals that support him do it, Cain maybe, she's went up the ranks faster than I would have thought" Whitehall added.

Corman shook his head, "No, Cain's loyalty is to the Fleet first and foremost. She is where she is because I promoted her. She is ruthless when she needs to be, a brilliant tactical commander like her Aunt and is able to see the whole picture before many others. No she is loyal to me. But you are right, I can think of eight Battlestar Commanders off the top of my head that would do this without question."

Nagala spoke what they all realised, "So we can't go public without either being bumped off before anyone finds out or just being called treasonous liars since those orders prove nothing. You can't refuse the order without us being bumped off, arrested or Adar going around us. So we are left with two options; we carry out the orders, or we assume control of the government until a new government can be elected, and we place both Adar and the secretary of defence under arrest."

There was silence in the room as Nagala had just suggested they order martial law which would be seen by many as treasonous. The ramifications would be profound and could lead them down a dark path from which there would be no return. There could be civil war, the entire colonial government could collapse along with the Fleet. The Colonial Fleet would turn on itself as those loyal to the government fought to stop Corman and Nagala. The Fleet would see hundreds of battles within the day and no matter who the victor was, the ramifications would be felt for years. What was even scarier was that by the end of it, with the survivors left battered and bruised, the Cylons could come in and sweep them aside far more easily. All of this was if Adar didn't have people waiting to kill Corman the moment he tried to send the order.

Corman, Whitehall, Nash and Nagala saw it all before them, and they knew that was one path they couldn't take.

"No, we have only one option, we need to carry out this operation and pray our actions aren't noticed," Corman stated.

Whitehall asked "Who do you send? It can't be you or Robert, you're too visible…"

"Send Commander Adama," Nash suggested. "He's smart, trustworthy, a hell of a tactician and dedicated to both the Fleet and the Colonies. He will understand what's at stake and stop any incident before it happens."

The other Admirals and former Admiral Whitehall saw the wisdom in the decision. Adama was already on their list to have promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral for all the reasons Nash had suggested. If an incident was to happen, they needed someone there that would understand the gravity of the whole situation in order to make the right decision. Adama would fall on his sword grumbling along the way in order to keep the Fleet and his home safe.

Corman downed his glass and stated "I'll make the call."

2 YEARS 10 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

PICON FLEET COMMAND HQ GROUNDSIDE

FLEET ADMIRAL CORMAN'S MAIN OFFICE

Slamming the phone down, Corman stood there considering everything he had just heard. Seeing the reaction and the anger pouring off his superior, Nagala asked, "How bad?"

Looking down on his friend, Corman answered "They're shitting on him. Pretty much completely hanging him out to dry since the gravity of what they ordered has finally hit them now that it might have blown up in our faces. I've managed to use whatever capital I had left and stopped them from throwing Adama from the Fleet which wasn't easy but he will never rise higher than he already is and they will never let him get a decent command. As it is, he isn't getting Valkyrie back…" letting out a breath as the weight of it all settled on him Corman stated "I honestly don't know if there is a career for him with the Fleet anymore."

Nagala steepled his fingers as he considered this, the solution became clear, "Then we make him third in command of the Shadow Fleet. We need someone to lead it if Whitehall and myself can't make it. Nash's health is continuing to decline, he can't lead from the CIC anymore. If he tries it will kill him. And while Teach is a good leader, he admitted that isn't the role for him, he's a warrior first and foremost, not a leader like we know Adama could be."

Thinking, Corman replied "You realise how hard he fought to get his feet back on a Battlestar…"

"I do, but it's better this than him getting relegated to an Adamant at best."

"I talked the bureaucrats into letting him command the Galactica if he so chooses. The Grand Old Lady. As far as they are concerned he can grow old gracefully on her and retire at the same time." Corman stood there processing it all before nodding and saying, "I'll have Hermione send him an invitation to an interview" the interview being a polygraph test all members of the Shadow Fleet had to undergo before being included. They would then be required to undergo one a month to be sure they didn't divulge any of their plans.

Standing up, Nagala was put his teacup back on the tray in the corner of the room and turned to Corman, "You know, this does leave us with another problem." Raising his eyebrow about to ask what, Nagala continued "Admiral Harlan's spot is still open. I know he's wanting to get back home and be a proper grandfather, so who do we nominate for promotion to Rear-Admiral and give command of Pegasus and Battlestar Group 62 now that our first choice has went out the window?"

Corman considered it, remembering all the dossiers he had looked over, evaluations he had seen, combat and simulated attack records he'd analysed, and replied "Commander Cain, she was always our second choice, plus her name will have some weight with the board."

2 YEAR 1 MONTH BEFORE THE FALL

PICON

PICON FLEET HQ GROUNDSIDE

FLEET ADMIRAL CORMAN'S OFFICE

"...With this upgrade, the Viper Mk-VII will be better able to calculate not only planetary orbits but smaller asteroids, meteors and wreckage. In addition, intercept courses will be more easily calculated in order to minimize fuel costs, ammunition costs and increase pilots survivability. With it the DRADIS resolution will also see an upgrade. All this does mean a fully networked Viper, however the dangers are minimal due to not only the fact this is in a coding language only developed after the war, but the strength of the firewalls has been thoroughly tested and vetted by multiple experts including Colonial Fleet R&D. What's more, the overheating and overworking of the networked computer systems which was found to be so problematic and dare I say, completely insane with the Mk-VIII Viper is not seen with this finely tuned system. In fact heat levels have only seen a 3% increase under normal conditions and 8% under extremely tenuous tests set by not only Colonial Fleet R&D but the elite pilots of Argos Air Group. Furthermore as a safety precaution the system is designed to shut down some systems if it detects abnormal readings unlike the Mk-VIII. Of course the pilots will receive an immediate notification before the shutdowns occur in order to override them if need be. What all this means is that the drain on the pilot will be negated massively and pilot performance will improve.

"In the creation of this version of CNP I realised that I could further develop it to assist in the modernisation of all Colonial Fleet ships from the smallest Viper and Raptor to the largest Battlestar and even the four Warstars which sit gathering dust due to the difficulties in operating them..."

Baltars interview on CTN [Colonial talk news] was interrupted by Corman calling out "Difficulties in operating them my arse, the only difficulty is running the Fleet on a third of the budget we need..."

Next to him, Admiral Ione Gaeta back on Picon having finally been promoted to fifth in line of the Colonial Fleet over the alleged protestations of President Adar, shushed him.

"...Of course at such an early stage of development and with the sensitive nature of the project, I can't reveal too much. However I have been given leave to explain that with the CNP the Colonial Fleet and of course, eventually the private and public sector ships, will have the ability to plot FTL jumps far more quickly than before and to a far higher degree of accuracy. What's more ranges will be doubled at the very least."

Sat opposite a well dressed smiling Doctor Gaius Baltar in a well lit and furnished studio with a backdrop of Caprica City, the female interviewer, Isolde Rand questioned, "But surely such a system requires networks that could leave the Colonial Fleet vulnerable to Cylon hacking."

Still smiling and shaking his head, Baltar replied, "Isolde, may I call you Isolde..."

"Oh, get a room" Ione Gaeta muttered.

Baltar didn't hear this due to the recording being hours old, and if he could he was already in a room with Isolde very much doing what Gaeta expected. Instead he continued, "For years now we have been so afraid of the Cylons, whom I might add haven't been seen or heard from in decades, that we have allowed our technology and culture to stagnate, and with it allowed a recession to cripple Canceron so large that hundreds of millions have lost their jobs. This recession alone is already hitting the rest of the Colonies. No, ever since the war, scientists and programmers like myself have dedicated all our work to creating an entirely new coding language with firewalls we could only dream of when the Cylons were a threat. The Cylons have gone and as the annual visits by Colonel Wakefield to Armistice Station have shown, they're likely gone for good. It's time we move on too. And as the finished CNP will show, we will be supported by a far better coordinated and stronger Fleet if the Cylons ever did return. The only true danger we face is people slowing down what is inevitable..."

All at once, Baltar's reassuring smile disappeared as Corman turned off the wall screen. "It took the Cylons a minute to respond to the stealthstar the Valkyrie launched over the border. ONE MINUTE! They aren't gone, they're there waiting and watching us piss our pants. How the frak didn't we see this coming this fast? Can he do it, Ione?"

Thinking and nursing the cup of hot chocolate in her hands, Ione replied "His work so far has been brilliant in many respects, and in others just on the good side of sloppy. Oh, it covers all the bases mind, and its always three levels secure, and it does everything he says and more besides. Noah gave me a look at the Mk-VIIs version of the CNP, and it is surprisingly good at its job, but..."

"But..." Corman repeated almost like a question but not quite.

About to drink, Ione continued "Sorting out a CNP for around 15 different classes of Battlestar not to mention between 25 and 50 classes of support ship is a huge task. Possibly beyond Baltar's abilities. It could be done mind, but...if this CNP has a flaw then every ship will be vulnerable. There's a reason we have so many classes of Battlestar and different sets of software between the classes except for a few necessary sets. If the Cylons were ever to find a weakness like they did with the Selene Class then only a small part of the Fleet would be vulnerable." Thinking, Ione took a drink of the Hot Chocolate before wiping her lips saying "The ability to double our jump range will certainly increase our options though, or even if we just have more accurate jumps, but the cost if it's flawed... He will be able to create something like what he says but you need to test it on every class of ship for vulnerabilities before giving it to the whole Fleet."

Nodding at this, Corman asked "How long do you expect it to take him?"

Thinking, Ione replied "He's got the bare bones of it with the Viper, scaling up and fleshing out with help from the Forge...expect it to be ready in a year then a couple of months of tests."

Considering, Corman muttered "So all in a year and a half to two and a half years before more layoffs."

"Think of it this way, every thirtieth person laid off is another potential recruit to the shadow fleet in some capacity."

Corman could only help but reply "This is getting too big, if just one person said something..." But he knew the people that knew everything were just 6 people since Lucinda Cain's death.

There were now 12 other corporate cell leaders that only knew their part of the plan as well as their board members. Then under them on average 100-150 who were aware they were part of the Shadow Plan. In total only 548 had even seen the Shadow Fleet reserves they may one day be called on to crew and that was only due to the expertise they provided being necessary given the sheer scale of one particular part of the Fleet being prepared for something that might never happen. After them, between all the different corporate cells from mining to security there were close to 15,000 former fleet personnel that had taken up the well publicised jobs the corporate cells heavily advertised. It was most likely due to the former military benefits offered, the increased pay levels which came after the buyup of the companies and the better working conditions the Shadow groups had worked hard at improving. After them were close to 70,000 regular people that kept their jobs or were hired on.

It was getting to be incredibly stressful for all those involved at the top. After all a secret only one person knows is difficult to keep and a secret between two people is impossible to keep. The question was how would they hire on so many more after Baltars work was done and still keep the secret.

3 MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

VIRGON

PORT ROYAL

PORT ROYAL VETERANS HOSPITAL

"What happened? Find out where all the pretty nurses worked?" Hermione Whitehall asked as she stepped into the private recovery room seeing a young female fleet officer still in her uniform with her brown hair tied back and red rimmed eyes. Next to her sitting up in bed and looking like he had been drained of all life with tubes running from his elderly arms and nose, lay former Fleet Admiral Silas Nash.

Smiling as he sat up a bit more, Silas replied, "Oh they just wanted to get me into bed, at least that's what I think they were saying, it could have been 'we'll get you a bed'."

Hermione smiled at the joke as she moved next to him while carrying a bunch of flowers and a small bag of magazines, books and food. Bending down she kissed him on his cheek before placing the items on the cabinet next to him, sitting down and asking, "What happened, they didn't give me much over the phone?"

Struggling a bit to breathe, Silas readjusted the nose piece and then replied "Lung cancer. I'd been feeling a bit bad the past month, figured it was Sagittaron flu which I had and couldn't seem to shake at the time. Next thing I know, I'm struggling to breathe and collapsing in the kitchen. If my granddaughter hadn't have been there visiting while on planet...well let's just say I wouldn't be annoying every nurse that comes in."

Reaching to hold Silas's hand, Hermione looked at Emily and asked "When are you due to ship out? I can put in a word and get you some leave."

Smiling as well as she could given the circumstances, Emily replied, "It was meant to be an hour ago, I only had time for a quick visit while waiting on a passenger. I informed Commander Regis of what happened and he's given me as much leave as I need given who my grandad is to both me and the Fleet."

Nodding, Whitehall asked, "Regis is a good man, solid, dependable. I take it that means you are on the Erasmus?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry I didn't catch your name. Are you and grandpa close?"

Patting her hand, Silas chuckled as best he could before he replied, "We're close but not in the way you think Em. I used to be Hermione's boss before I retired and she took over. You're looking at former Fleet Admiral Whitehall."

A brief look of alarm spread on Emily's face before she replied, "I'm sorry sir, I didn't know. The stories about you are..."

"Mostly exaggerated, it keeps the politicians afraid of you that way. And please, you don't need to use the sirs or ma'ams with me. Just consider me a distant relative." Turning to Silas, Hermione squeezed his hand asking, "So how bad is the cancer? There might be something CORA can do."

Shaking his head, Silas replied "CORA's cancer treatments are still too early in the testing stage, at least for what I have, and I'm getting on a bit. The doctors are going to be running some more tests to see if they can operate since the cancer seems to be only located in my right lung. But given my age it's risky the procedure they are thinking. But they have given me a preliminary prognoses. At best I'm looking at a year, more likely six months."

"Frak...hopefully they can do the operation and get you back on your feet again."

Nodding, Silas replied "Either way I have lived a long life and gotten a beautiful and smart granddaughter out of it and I should have a bit of time if they can't."

Squeezing his hand, Hermione looked up as she heard someone cough at the door. Looking over she saw an elderly man with curly hair standing there holding a bag. Seeing him, Silas replied "Coker you old dog, how are you?"

Stepping into the room with a pronounced limp, Coker Fasjovic replied, "A lot better than you it would seem. I'm glad you're still with us sir and so's Bill. He asked me to tell you he will be by tomorrow, he's currently stuck on the Old Girl going over the decommissioning plans with the museum people. However, he did send a nugget on a milk run to me so I could give you this and tell you that it can only be consumed once you're back to ordering us on those runs," Coker announced while handing over a 63 year old bottle of Locasse Whisky.

Taking it, Nash replied "Frak, I haven't seen a bottle like this since I worked for the GDD. He must have sold the Old Girl to afford this."

Chuckling as he pulled a chair over and sat down, Coker replied, "What makes you think he bought it? I seem to recall you once sent us on a scouting run to Agora, well let's just say we might have turned it into a recovery mission while hiding in the Angry Rabbit on what was left of that wrecked freighter..." The Angry Rabbit being the replacement Raptor for the Wild Weasel.

"Damn Husker", Silas chuckled while thinking of how in the old days his days were never made boring by the personalities of both Coker and Bill Adama.

22 HOURS BEFORE THE FALL

PICON ORBIT

PICON FLEET COMMAND HQ ANCHORAGE

COLONIAL FLEET COMMAND WAR ROOM

Every day for as long as he had been Fleet Admiral it seemed, Fleet Admiral Corman had spent his morning and evenings looking over status updates on the Colonial Fleet and the Colonies in general. Deciding which ships should be rotated back to the Colonies, which of the active reserves should replace it on the line, ensuring the Ribbon Early Warning Satellite network was doing its job.

Right now his eyes were following over the names of every Battlestar and Battlestar Group as well as the smaller Patrol Support Groups. Right now he had 104 Battlestars from the Main Fleet on the line with fourteen in dock and one currently assigned to the R&D Fleet, plus the Galactica being decommissioned. Added to that were 16 Battlestars from the Active Reserves which had moved onto the line. In addition he had 735 support ships of various classifications on patrol throughout the entirety of Colonial Space.

What wasn't shown on the main list was the R&D Battlegroup of 4 Battlestars (5 counting the Battlestar Enterprise currently on loan to them) plus the new experimental Battlestar Arion which was currently on a shakedown cruise only he, the senior admiralty and the R&D fleet had detailed travel knowledge of. Another thing which wasn't shown was the Training Fleet of 6 various Training Battlestars and 5 Training support ships spread about the Colonies over Caprica, Tauron, Scorpia, Picon and Virgon, two of them being over Caprica. While these two groups were shown on the main Fleet Board, they were divided from it in their own section called the Protected Reserves.

On a separate board to the right of the main board were the active reserves which currently had 16 Battlestars highlighted showing they were moved to the other board as they were on the line. They currently had another 44 Active Reserves which weren't highlighted but instead had the docking location next to them where they could be found. 10 were to be found docked at Picon Fleet HQ, 8 at Scorpia Fleet shipyards, another 17 at anchorages throughout the Cyrannus home systems, and the remaining 9 docked at anchorages outside of the Cyrannus home systems mainly in the Vitruvian Expanse. It was more than Adar wanted the Fleet to have in his first budget, but over the years as newer ships came out, the older ones found their way into the reserves before being sold on.

On the next screen was a listing of various Colony Defence Fleets and their ship locations. While he didn't have control over these ships except in a time of war, he needed the information if war ever came and he could assume command. Right now of the combined 40 mostly smaller older Battlestars, 4 Marinestars (belonging to Leonis) and 243 support ships in the various defence fleets, 28 Battlestars and 112 Support Ships were on patrol across the Mining colonies in the Expanse and Atticus Reach as well as across The Bay - an area of space between the Helios System and the Armistice Line which held several mining sites, a prison colony and various small colonies just eking out a living as well as various military hubs, resorts and research sites. The remaining Battlestars and support ships were either patrolling over their own colonies, throughout the Helios Sytems or were docked and inactive such as the case for the Marinestars which were landed on Leonis.

Looking over the next list, Corman saw the known statuses of the various security forces and mining groups which showed 33 Battlestars or mostly former Battlestars since most of them had been stripped and converted for other uses to the point only 14 even ranked as a potential threat, as well as 519 support ships. However most of these support ships were small gunboats no bigger than a hundred metres, lacking any decent firepower and just being for customs inspections. Only 124 were properly classed as military-type ships by the Colonial Fleet being over 200 metres long with firepower and armour, however even this was strictly limited. The majority of these ships operated outside the well patrolled Helios Systems with most being contracted out to the various sites around the Expanse, Atticus Reach and the Bay.

What wasn't shown clearly was the Shadow Fleet. Eight of the 33 Battlestars shown belonged to the public side of the Shadow Fleet all of which could put up some measure of a fight but only 3 were able to do close to what they used to be able to. Along with them were 61 of the support ships with only 27 being former military ships over 200m. What the public saw was only part of the picture. Hidden away were four Battlestars ready for war, 15 support ships truly considered warships and ready for war, one mobile shipyard of the Nemean Class and one wreck of a mobile Anchorage, the Battlestar Fenrir wreckage long since been moved to the Aquila where it was slowly being rebuilt as a pet project of the crew there.

As he thought of the considerable fleet put together, Corman prayed none of the six shadow plans had to be put into effect. Looking towards a vast electronic map of colonial space on the far wall, Corman saw the plotted location for the small courier ship carrying Colonel Wakefield for his 39th visit to Armistice Station since its construction. Year after year he went, sat for a day and then left. And year after year, did all that alone without a member of the Cylon delegation arriving. For some unknown reason he couldn't put his finger on, Corman prayed that the Cylons would do their usual and not show up.

Turning, he hoped for just another quiet day, well as quiet as Picon Fleet HQ Anchorage can get on Armistice Day. "Maybe I should have booked that vacation to on Cloud 9," he thought as he walked away.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Well I hoped you liked the chapter. Yep this one didn't have much in the way of action but I wanted to more fully flesh out the BSG world within this fiction and show how the shadow plan was pieced together. The next chapter which should be up either later today or boxing day will cover the first part of the fall from the shadow fleets perspective.

As you saw I have introduced some of the characters from Black Sails this chapter, although I am changing a bit about them. I also know I have likely changed the lore surrounding the bulldog/armistice line incident, however we are never shown what happened from the admiralty's perspective and I thought it would be interesting to show what happened in a different light. In addition I wanted to address what the polygraph Adama took could have been for. Finally I know Nash didn't work for the GDD and that was Agent Durham, however it was the same actor and I do address that next chapter.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed and the next chapter will be up soon.