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

21. Shadow Fleet Pt 4: Battle of Titan Point

Shadow Fleet Part 4: The Battle of Titan Point

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

OURANOS SYSTEM

TITAN POINT FLEET ANCHORAGE – ADMIRAL HERMIONE WHITEHALL

16:42

While outside Titan Point Fleet Anchorage a massive battle was taking place as the Cylons with ten Basestars and thousands of Raiders assaulted the seven assorted Battlestars and nine support ships belonging to both the Colonial Fleet Reserves, Leonis Defence Fleet and the Shadow Fleet (Athena Security), another different battle was taking place inside the anchorage itself. Cylon Centurions had managed to board in large numbers assisted by their humanoid models whom had already taken out the command staff in the HQ. Hundreds of marines and civilian security forces had been rushed to the docks and access points to the Headquarters in order to meet these invaders with as much firepower as they could bare, but the Cylons were even more deadly.

With every minute that passed the defenders were being pushed back in vicious firefights, often having to leave wounded behind. Detonations rang out across the vast complex as small explosives were overshadowed by the destruction of both warships and civilian ships at dock, including the docks themselves as Tylium storage units went up. Thankfully several veterans that had long worked on Titan Point managed to get the dockworkers to channel much of the tylium into the deep reserves in the heart of the anchorage under many kilometres of rock. Things were slightly quieter where the civilian areas were primarily located on the other side of Titan Point away from battle, but even so, the Cylons had sent Raiders armed with nukes to these areas in order to take out the surface installations including the various domes, landing pads and buildings. Several Shadow Fleet transports were docked to many of these domes taking on livestock, seedlings and supplies. With their meagre defences - defences designed for taking out a stray meteor at best - several of these ships were taken out by the Raiders, but thankfully the few point defences guarding other domes held the Raiders back long enough for other transports to complete their missions.

Titan Point was also built like a bunker, rather than build up the architects and engineers that had built the vast complex had instead built down deep within the planetoid. It would take more than even the largest imaginable surface nukes to destroy her. Many civilians believing that they would be safer in the deepest levels of the planetoid had rushed there with anything they could carry. What they failed to realise in their fear was that if the defending fleet failed, then there would be no hope for them in the long term. Their only real hope were the dozens of civilian and military ships the fleet was fighting to defend.

Near those docks which were better protected by the massed fleets, Admiral Whitehall's Raptor protected by four Vipers closed on the immense Warstar Sword which was docked in one of the largest best defended docking slips in Colonial Space. Even now in the midst of a battle she was having to largely sit out due to being brought back to full power and staffed, the immense Warstar, one of only four ever created, still inspired a sense of awe in Hermione.

The largest warship ever created by the Colonials at a length of 2863 metres with a width of 1320 metres and a height of 440 metres, one of only four created, she was a combination of almost all of the greatest Battlestar designs the Fleet had produced. Her head bore the outward appearance of a Hyades class which seamlessly merged into a Nova Class inspired body. The engine section carried eight heavily modified main thrusters designed for the Mercury Class, but these were separated into two sections surrounding an immense five section sub-thruster assembly specially built for the Warstar but taking inspiration from both the Jupiter and Hyades Classes. 30 smaller recessed maneuvering thrusters covered the rest of the Battlestar, each one no bigger than an airlock except for six on the bow that were twice the size of an airlock. Around her body were four immense flightpods that were obviously inspired by the Mercury class, the main difference being due to their length they had included an extra section for Raptor unrep. What was strange was that despite all these inspirations inherent in her design, they seemed to work together giving the Warstar an altogether unique foreboding style.

In terms of weapons, she carried more than double the armament of the Mercury Class at 92 primary kinetic energy weapons (38 twin turrets, 8 fixed twin mounts) along with point defense guns providing full coverage, as well as double the amount of nuclear and missile armament. Running along the entire length of the main body and powered by an immense generator each, the Warstar carried two railguns capable of firing out 20lb tungsten slugs, granted this was with a large powerup time between shots. Rarely employed by the Colonial Fleet except on orbital platforms due to the immense power requirements and costs especially for the room temperature superconductor which required a costly refinement and was mainly reserved for jump coils, these weapons were seen as the next generation of forward batteries if only they could downsize them and eliminate the flaws. The main flaw being that they were difficult to maintain during battle compared to more conventional weaponry. It's a lot easier to repair something largely mechanical in nature than it is electrical.

Within her hull, Whitehall whom had been instrumental in the construction, had ensured her designers had fallen back on the philosophies of the first war and kept as much of the equipment as reliable and secure as possible. Networks were limited, there were multiple redundancies on everything, every corridor was designed to hold back an invading force with a minimal defending force. Even the flightpods held twelve .50 and six .90 caliber turrets within each landing deck in addition to the turrets at the fore and aft of the flightpods. As to her airwing, she carried 30 squadrons or 420 Vipers and 150 Raptors.

The range of the ship had been considered just as important as her defences and so she was able to jump just as far as a Mercury almost as fast, this was however one of the reasons why she was so large since they needed to vastly increase the number of jump coils and the size of the generators powering them in the same way as the Nemean Class mobile shipyards had been. This ship and the three other Warstars of her class had been designed to be the centre of the main fleets defending the central Helios systems - one to each system - and originally the plan had been for another two more Warstars to head the main fleets defending the border.

As her Raptor finally set down in flightpod 2's upper deck (starboard upper flightpod upper deck), Hermione could only consider what a fortress she had created. It had taken almost 20 years to design and another 3 years to build her. She needed the Sword in the fight. The Sword had been designed for just this sort of conflict where the Colonial Fleet was vastly outnumbered and outgunned and right now, with the loss of Picon, Scorpia and Caprica, the Sword was the very last of her kind,her sister ships having been destroyed within their docks. Shaking her head, Hermione was disgusted at Adar's policies which had forced those ships into the reserves. If each one had managed to survive then she had no doubt that it would have tipped the balance in their favour since each one wasn't networked, could put out the firepower and airpower of an entire Battlestar group and were much better armoured and built. Her livefire trials horrified Hermoine in the amount of destruction she was able to bring to bare on the repaired programmed derelict Battlestars used. She couldn't afford to lose this last one.

With the Raptor Ultra having finally descended to the main hangar deck, Hermione quickly stepped off it surrounded by the senior crew she had brought with her, all of them veterans of the first war. Around her the deck was chaos pure and simple. There was no chain of command onboard this mighty warship yet and it showed as it was clear those on board weren't focused on any particular combined task. The nearest there was to a chain of command rested in the docks and the defending Battlestars, but that was to change.

Forcing her way past the dozens of landed Raptors strewn about the deck - several being newly arrived Shadow Fleet - and the new arrivals of crew taken from across the Twelve Colonies military bases, academies and transfer stations, Hermione had Chief Jarvis break off and take control as senior deck chief just as numerous other personnel joined her from other shadow fleet Raptors that had landed at the same time as hers. Moving on, Hermione ventured deeper into the Warstar towards the CIC. Along the way Chief Engineer Lisa Stark broke off, as did fourteen gunnery chiefs and a half dozen other senior personnel. Arriving in a CIC twice the size of a Jupiter's, Hermione took in the DC crews working on isolating the systems even more than they already were as well as officers powering up the various systems. A hint of a smile graced Hermione's aged features, the Sword's minimal networks were highly unlikely to be successfully hacked and even if they were then no known hack could get very far, but still, right now the forces at Titan Point didn't know how the Cylons were hacking them so it didn't hurt to be extra cautious.

Moving to the central information management table beneath the DRADIS monitors, Hermione picked up a headset before patching into the ship's intercom. "This is Admiral Whitehall, I am assuming command. Senior crew should now be in all areas of the ship, you are to immediately report to them for assignment. Right now I don't care if you are senior in rank to the senior staff I have placed in charge, you will report to them and you will follow their orders, once we have survived what's to come we will deal with those issues. I also know that many of you haven't graduated, but there is no time for that, the Fleet needs you now as you are." Seeing the status updates starting to come in from her senior officers, Hermione briefly considered them and continued, "In just a few minutes, Gods willing, we will be cutting the umbilicals to the dock and entering into battle. All dock personnel currently on board are to assist in manning the ship unless ordered otherwise. Marines are to be stationed in all priority one areas with a focus on the flightpod airlocks. Civilians are to be kept under marine guard. All planes are to be stripped of their networks, all pilots are to assist in this. Any civilians on board are to present yourself to a marine for assignment. All hatches are to be secured and areas locked down. I intend to give the Cylons hell with your help. So say we all."

With that, Hermione deactivated the intercom and turned to Colonel Adriene Keller, "As soon as we are ready have the flag transferred to us. And have the jump drive readied, with coordinates to the rendezvous point input." Turning to the DRADIS, Whitehall took in the full extent of the battle being waged outside as a further seven Basestars had jumped in, these ships pressing in on the flanks pummeling her support ships, taking out the Manticore Sun Rider along with the Cygnus Cadmus and the Impala Divine Consort. All three ships having been the weaker Athena security ships, their armour being designed with pirates in mind not Cylons. The lines were collapsing under the onslaught of the Cylon Basestars and Raiders, and due to the loss of the Cadmus an opening had been made in the centre of their lines. In return, the Colonials had managed to take out two more Basestars on the right flank where the majority of the Colonial firepower was. But it wasn't without cost as the Jupiter II Class Battlestar Basilisk was having to abandon ship due to the amount of damage taken and a massive loss of power.

In order to cover the gap in the line which such a loss was bringing, Nash was moving the Valkyrie Class Battlestar Loki forward. However being an Athena Security ship, she lacked the heavy armament and armour she should have had, combined with the fact that she was a fast attack ship and not a line warship, she was gaining far more damage than she should have been. In an ideal world she would have been speeding down the enemies flanks while hitting hard before dashing off and back for another run. This battle was not that ideal world.

The DRADIS broke up in a flash of green static for several seconds as an immense nuke went off. There were that many nukes flying across the battlefield though that it could have been any one of them. It wasn't until the DRADIS cleared that Hermione saw Admiral Kearns Battlestar Renown shattered in space, her engine section completely unrecognisable and her flightpods sheared off as secondary explosions further cracked her. Into this mess Raptors were already moving, each one trying to avoid the various secondary explosions and debris as they attempted to close on the sections containing disaster pods or the various crew whom had been prepared for a possible vent action. Each crewmember that had been prepared and survived the explosion had just five minutes to live with their emergency air supply.

Nash was trying his best to hold off on fully engaging his ships. He was mainly trying to delay the Cylons as long as he could for the true heavy hitting warships with their full armour belt and heavy weapons complements to be launched. But it was clear that he was now done with taking his punishment as the Jupiter II Battlestar Damocles finally launched. Breaking the line formation into three sections, he grouped the Damocles with the Battlestar Warspite and the Berserk Mystic on the left flank focused on hitting two Basestars that had been moving to flank the fleet. Another group was made in the centre consisting of the Battlestar Juno, Battlestar Leda, Battlestar Freyr, Adamant Skye, Kira Hammer and Minotaur Caesar. This group was immediately tasked with taking out four Basestars that had pressed deep into their lines. A third group was made on the right flank consisting of the Battlestar Loki, Berserk Vorenus and Manticore Hypatia Defender whom were focused on immediately taking out one Basestar which was pressing in on them, as well as a further one which was nearing weapons range. In reserve defending the docks from the swarming Raiders, Nash kept the Defender Class Jackdaw and the four remaining Tachi class light escorts Rocinante, Ferryman, Pirates Ruin and Caprica Rocket.

The Cylons seven remaining Basestars were kept just outside of the Colonials effective weapons range, but with the changes in the battlefield they were starting to press forward despite how worried the Cylons were at the size of the non-networked force arrayed against them. Not knowing what was happening in the Colonial home systems, these Cylons were imagining that they were now part of the largest battle that would take place in their liberation of the colonies, and that no other Cylon force would face off against such a large Colonial fleet. Despite this, Raiders were being sent out to their entire force across the Expanse and further for more reinforcements. The Cylons were already losing too many of their own and there was a limit to how many consciousnesses could be saved at once by the lone resurrection ship covering their part of the Expanse. What was becoming obvious though was that the Colonial pilots were being slaughtered as the most experienced officers were being taken out which was reducing squadron cohesion.

Watching it all with the deck shaking under her as another nuke destroyed another distant docked ship, Whitehall knew that they would have to decide just when to leave and soon. They couldn't hope to defend the people of Titan Point, instead the ships and the crews were all that mattered.

As final checks were called, the Battlestar Warspite started to abandon ship as uncontrolled fires were burning through their engineering section. Even with venting the entire section, there was just too much damage throughout the ship to continue fighting. However there were few Raptors and transports left on her to carry out the evacuation as she set a ramming course on the closest Basestar.

As if in revenge for the upcoming loss, the central group under the Battlestar Juno pressed hard against the four basestars closest to them, broadsides firing out hundreds of rounds at spitting distance and nukes finally launching as they had finally been resupplied by Raptors and transports. Two Basestars were focused on in particular and became surrounded on three sides as the Colonial ships pressed in. Missiles were constantly being launched from the Basestars even as their armour was coming apart under the pummeling assault. The three Battlestars in return repositioned their flak barriers taking out most but not all, dozens of missiles hammered at their hulls, a half dozen nuclear missiles being shredded by the walls of flak before they could do any damage. The smaller support ships lacked flak coverage of this extent even though ships designed since the late war now incorporated at least partial point defences, and so they took the brunt of the attack. In rapid succession, first one Basestar was torn apart by secondary explosions before the Battlestar Warspite detonated against another Basestar's hull destroying them both. Thirty seconds behind these two explosions , the third Basestar was destroyed by a nuke, the wreckage firing away that fast that it careened into the Minotaur Class Caesar and opened up an immense hole in her bow setting off several explosions throughout her structure before she started drifting without power.

"Admiral, all sections report in. We are go for launch" Colonel Keller reported while handing her a nuclear launch key she had retrieved from the safe.

Hermione gripped the information management table as she inserted the key before inputting a code Fleet Admiral Corman had given her two months ago. "Cut umbilicals and release docking clamps. Helm, take us to one third reverse thrust and turn us about facing the enemy. Weapons, target towards Basestar Beta and open fire, we may be outside of effective weapons range but Juno needs the relief." Ideally she wanted to unleash the two immense railguns which were designed for the longest ranges, however it would be at least five more minutes before they were ready. With a level of shuddering throughout the ship as the mighty docking clamps released and the umbilicals which fed the ship tylium, power, oxygen and water were let go, the deck jerked under Hermione's feet as the reverse thrusters kicked in propelling the immense warship away from the dock.

As the warship began its turn, the DRADIS once again broke into static which lasted twice as long as it would normally. When it finally cleared, Colonel Keller announced from the comms section, "The Raiders have broken through the defences over the Alpha docks. They've managed to take out the docked Battlestars Hadrian and Resurgent along with three more escorts. They were close to fully crewed. We also lost the Pirates Ruin in the attack. Captain Holden reports that both the Rocinante and Ferryman have had to pull right back to the docks around the Battlestar Skinfaxi, but they can't hold out for long as the Pirates Ruin has significant damage to her generator and is running on battery backup."

Taking al this in, Whitehall was quick to order, "Mark us as the flagship and have whatever Vipers we can get diverted to cover them. Helm set course to join the Battlestar Juno."

Patching into the fleet wireless, Hermione pulled up Admiral Nash, "Silas, it's about time you got out of here, as soon as we are..."

"Admiral..." Colonel Keller spoke up, but Hermione had already seen it.

"HARD TO PORT! WEAPONS FIRE AT WILL AND FLAK TO FULL!" Ahead of them the Cylons had jumped three of their reinforcing Basestars directly in their path with barely 55km between them, spitting distance. Further afield, by the Alpha docks another heavily damaged Basestar had been jumped in.

Almost as soon as they had jumped in, the Basestars unleashed dozens of nuclear missiles and hundreds of conventional ones towards both the rear of the battlegroups and towards the Warstar Sword and the docks. Around them, Raptors broke clear with several heading directly for the safety of the Warstar's hangars. Behind these Raptors, hundreds of Raiders dropped from their alcoves like bats as they raced after these Raptors. Shots flew from the Raiders, some scoring hits on some of the Raptors while others were purposefully close or just close misses.

Around the Warstar Sword the heavens lit up under an unbroken wall of golden flak as she turned hard to port, small thrusters along her flanks between the flightpods and bow aiding in this, while thrusters on her rear portside joined them. As the first missiles started crashing into her flak, the Warstar's guns had focused in on their targets and opened up in thunderous blasts. The heavy rounds tore past the numerous missiles before raking chunks out of the Basestars as the ship continued to turn. A nuclear missile damaged by the flak detonated early temporarily blinding the DRADIS meaning that the guns shot blind. Within seconds of their appearance, the immense ship was rocked by dozens of heavy impacts as conventional missiles slipped through the flak fields. Then as if shaken by a mad Titan, the Warstar rocked and screamed as first one nuclear missile struck her bow, and then another hit the starboard upper flightpod and then another struck the starboard lower flightpod towards its rear. All three hits taking place over just three seconds.

Due to the numerous missiles and nukes already launched, and the three immense hits which the Warstar had taken, the Cylons seemed to hesitate, perhaps believing that no ship could take so many hits in rapid succession, especially when the walls of flak broke amidst the flashes. As the last blinding light diminished though, they were proven wrong as Whitehall maintained an ironclad grip on the information management table with one hand, and a key inserted into a receptacle on the table with the other. From amidst the nuclear fire as the Warstar was propelled away from the Basestars by the upper layers of the struck ablative armour having burnt off, and hidden from DRADIS by the immense EM radiation, nine nuclear missiles flew hard and fast against the Cylon Basestars. As soon as they had cleared a certain point the various sectors of point defences that had been purposefully shut down to allow the missiles safe passage, picked up again blocking the continuing rain of Cylon missiles even as the heavy weapons emplacements continued their assault on the Cylons. The Battlestar lit up again as another nuke struck against her bow, and yet as the light faded she still remained.

For several precious seconds the Basestars were blind to the coming assault as the nuclear missiles raced past the Raiders. Another flash of light lit up space as another Cylon nuke detonated, this time just 4km from the Warstar as a Raptor veered into it in order to save the Warstar. A handful of Raiders did however see the threat from the Colonial nuclear missiles, but the majority of the missiles were already past them before they could react. As it was, only three missiles were taken out, the rest flew on with two hitting the Basestar to the left of the formation, with one of these missiles through a fluke of luck having flown into the hangar, one hitting the central Basestar and the final three hitting the Basestar to the right of the formation. Titanic energies bled into space as these deadly nuclear missiles detonated against the Basestar hulls. The rightmost Basestar completely disappeared in a wave of light, while the leftmost Basestar suffered blinding white hits. The central Basestar took its only hit to one of its upper spires. After the light faded, all that remained of the rightmost Basestar was a blossoming cloud of wreckage, while the leftmost one was breaking up with secondary explosions sending the still intact dorsal star flying away from the majority of the lower irradiated wreckage. The central Basestar however survived much better as only a single spire was broken off.

"WEAPONS! FINISH THAT FRACKER OFF, BOW BATTERIES FOCUS ON THE WRECKAGE OF THE LEFT BASESTAR! XO, DAMAGE REPORT!" Whitehall called over the numerous alarms going off in the CIC.

Outside, the batteries shifted their focus and completely finished of the leftmost Basestar within a handful of shots. The central Basestar however, understanding the futility of its situation attempted to power forward towards the Warstar. This was the furthest of the three Basestars from the Warstar, having been behind the other two Basestars by 30 kilometres. There were 62km separating them, 62km where every step of the way they would be under the awe inspiring might of the equivalent of more than two Mercury's worth of focused gun batteries. It was a valiant effort, if futile with the Colonials exploiting its damage as was proven when it reached just 18km from the Warstar and broke into numerous pieces under the withering fire and secondary explosions of its Tylium tanks. While the debris continued to fly towards the Warstar, she was already moving out of the way and only a handful of the smaller faster chunks struck her aft.

"No significant damage," the XO called out, "We are permanently down just six batteries with another four are expected to be back up within minutes. The armour took a beating and there;s minor damage to frames 14, 27 through 29 and 40 through 43 as well as several small fires and hull breaches but there's nothing overwhelming. I would suggest however that you keep our starboard side to the toasters, we aren't sure just how much armour was burnt off and we're bound to have taken more damage than we have found."

Breathing a sigh of relief and patting the table as she thanked whatever patron God the designers of the Warstar had, Whitehall could hardly believe that within seconds of the Sword's first engagement that she had taken out three Basestars with minimal damage. She had been sure they would be dead the moment she saw the three Basestars jump in.

"Helm, bring us back on course..." Whitehall called out as the DRADIS fully cleared and she saw the changes to the battlefield around her. The wireless was still static filled though. Five more Basestars had jumped in, with four of them being behind the Colonial line, three of these having been focused on the docks themselves with the still docking and departing civilian ships and the two remaining docked Battlestars as well as six support ships. The other Basestar was ahead of the Sword and was focused on hitting the two Hyades class training Battlestars from the rear. Finally the last Basestar was on the Cylon side of the line with its focus being on battlegroup one on the left flank.

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

VULCAN SYSTEM

BRS BATTLESTAR RANGER

CIC

16:54

As the impending jump of The Forge neared, her first in almost a decade and the largest she had ever made, nerves among the crews of both The Forge and the protecting ships were fraying. Every second that passed was another second closer to discovery.

Standing at the information management table as he watched on the DRADIS as his Raptor crews were searching the nearby wrecks for survivors, Teach saw an icon appear on the DRADIS at the same time Colonel Vane called out "DRADIS CONTACT! Reading one Raptor at 218 karom 162 Range 810 km and closing."

As the crew became more alert, he wireless operator announced "Incoming transmission in the clear…" and then they looked up at Teach, saying "Broken Arrow. The Battlestar Enterprise has been boarded by Centurions, they are requesting immediate assistance and are at significant risk of falling. Hundreds have already died. They're reporting that they have taken out the Cylon ships which attacked them, but the Enterprise is damaged and drifting without power."

Looking up at the mission clock and seeing it tick down to one minute, Teach ordered "Patch me through to the fleet commanders…" Nodding, the wireless operator let him know he was on, "Attention, word has just reached me that the Battlestar Enterprise has been boarded. As a tier two asset we cannot let her fall. Once the Forge has made its jump, the Battlestar Xena, Vesta and Atia are to immediately jump to the Enterprise's position and launch a marine insertion. Your marines should expect heavy resistance. Xena and Vesta are to then join us at Titan Point while the Atia is to maintain overwatch over the Enterprise until relieved by SAR Group 4. The rest of the fleet meanwhile are to jump for Titan Point except for the Oribi which will stay behind and ensure this mission is complete." Turning to Colonel Vane, Teach ordered "Have a Raptor dispatched to group 4, they are ordered to make all haste for the Enterprise and to take three of the Aquila's tugs."

With the orders being carried out, and crews and marines being readied for the deadly battles to come, Teach looked up at the mission clock as his tactical officer began counting down the seconds. As the countdown finished, outside the formidable civilian Battlestar, the vast bulk of The Forge made its first jump in almost a decade, this one the largest it had ever made. Soon after the Valkyrie Class Battlestar Xena, Adamant Class Vesta and Cygnus Class Atia made their jump to the Enterprise.

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

OURANOS SYSTEM

TITAN POINT FLEET ANCHORAGE

16:56

Mere seconds after the attack on the Warstar Sword and the arrival of the Cylon reinforcements, the battlefield changed once again as more reinforcements arrived, these being friendly. Rear-Admiral Teach had jumped in his ships from the Forge to support her. Supporting the first battlegroup on the left flank was the Battlestar Ajax, Adamant Wolf, Minotaur Circassian and Tachi Gabriella Jewel. In Battlegroup two in the centre was just the Impala Cobalt and the Tachi Lady Anne whereas on the right flank in Battlegroup three, the Battlestar Nova was assisting in hitting the Cylons there. By the docks was the Battlestar Argus, Minotaur Asgard and the Tachi Oribi. Each one of these ships was showing some damage, with the Shadow Fleet bearing the most due to being underpowered former fleet ships. As such several had started dispatching their crew to the docked ships. However their deadliness showed as did their effectiveness as the Battlestar Argus launched her elite Argos Air Group Vipers to help protect the docks. Argos Air Group's first Viper Squadron, Primus squadron were further split into their flights and diverted to the broken battle line in order to bring a sense of order to it.

What else was clear was that the Cylons earlier nuclear launch hadn't just been focused on the Warstar Sword but had in fact been launched at everything the Cylons could hit. Several docked ships as well as the docks themselves had been struck and bathed in nuclear fire as had the portside flightpod of the Hyades Class Battlestar Freyr which was currently being exploited by the newly arrived Basestar. Two ships however were only visible as wrecks, these being the Kira class destroyer Hammer which had been in group two, and more worryingly, the Valkyrie class Battlestar Loki which had taken just one single nuke to its engines. It was a perfect hit that started a chain reaction which engulfed the Athena Security Valkyrie Class Battlestar. Another Basestar had however been destroyed on the left flank.

Once again the battle had entered a new phase as the Warstar Sword moved towards the centre and the heavily hit Athena Security Battlestar Juno jumped out.

THE WASTES

TANALAY STAR SYSTEM

ORBIT OF ACERRAE

SHADOW POINT ALPHA

PROMETHEUS ANCHORAGE

16:57

Shadow Point Alpha, the previous location of the Shadow Fleet reserves was now largely deserted. Those ships which weren't engaged in operations across Colonial Space had since moved onto a fall back position. All that was left behind was the heavily damaged Prometheus Anchorage, two newly arrived Raptors from different locations, and SAR Group 4 consisting of the Adamant Class Victoria and Berserk Class Roma which was maintaining overwatch.

Within the CIC of the Victoria, Commander Sarno was listening into the report from the newly arrived Raptor dispatched by Rear-Admiral Teach. Looking up at the mission clock, Sarno called out "Status of the anchorage?"

Looking up from a console over by the wireless, his XO replied "FTL is well into the red, we've got more than a dozen warnings. Jump point is calculated and locked, all personnel are clear of her and FTL drive is at 318% regular capacity. She's ready, sir."

Apprehensive at what they were about to do, and even wondering if they had to do it considering what they were losing across Colonial space, Sarno took a breath before ordering "Jump in 10, 9, 8, 7…"

As he counted down, across the small stretch of space, within the fractured and patched shell of Prometheus Anchorage, FTL coils and drives were running through a performance they had never been designed to perform. Steam and sparks were rising from hundreds of locations throughout the vast structure, computer banks were melting and the entire superstructure was screaming in pain. Prometheus had already died one death only to be brought back to the very edge of life by her creators. Over the years they had stripped the jump drives from dozens of wrecked ships as well as their computer banks. Everything had been sent here, everything going to upgrading the FTL drives of the Prometheus so that she could perform one job; save the Forge.

With the countdown reaching zero, and fires breaking out throughout the vast station, she jumped.

Reappearing 97 lightyears away, the furthest any Colonial or Cylon construct had jumped in one single jump, Prometheus Anchorage underwent a chain reaction tearing itself apart as the overloaded systems finally gave way. In dozens of locations throughout the vast structure, FTL coils and drives shattered as the immense strain they had been under suddenly stopped. Fires broke out throughout the station, eating away at fuel lines and vital air hoses causing titanic explosions. Unable to withstand them, the patched hull plating gave way and the anchorage fractured into 4 major parts and dozens of smaller parts. As each part started to drift, on a series of devices throughout the structure, blinking red numbers which had been counting down, finally hit zero.

Across the drifting wreck eight nuclear warheads in the 100kt range and tow in the 500kt range detonated. Both the night sky and the nebula became lost in a bright white haze as bands of radiation swept outwards. Within this blinding white light, the Anchorage was torn apart, the deadly explosives destroying as much evidence of the deception as was possible and breaking her down into her corrupted constituent parts. As the light dissipated and smaller secondary explosions were choked in the vacuum of space, the various chunks of the station, both large and small, drifted apart.

The crew of the fast attack corvette Oribi stood with shocked expressions blanching their faces. None dared to speak as they saw one of the largest structures ever built be torn apart.

After the passage of several long seconds, a Lieutenant spoke up "Mission…complete. Frak me… We will need to do a closer visual inspection but I am pretty sure it worked, the Cylons should think we nuked the Forge rather than let it fall to them." As per the shadow plan, the Forge, the only Tier 1 asset which both rested in Colonial Space and wasn't already destroyed or struck from the list, should now be secure and without the Cylons focusing their efforts on chasing her down. By doing this, not only had they freed up a vast portion of their fleet for the rest of the plan while the Forge was upgraded and her tech was shared with the Aquila, but they had also secured a facility capable of building 4 battlestars at the same time in addition to the Vipers and Raptors needed for them. What's more they had secured thousands of the best personnel, foremost scientists and renowned engineers in the colonies, as well as the majority of the Colonials most advanced research. Just one such facility – Daedalus Anchorage, or as it became known later on after heavy damage and the removal of its FTL drives, Ragnar Anchorage – had turned the tide of the first war. To the Colonial Fleet leadership, the Forge was worth the effort and the sacrifice of every single one of Rear-Admiral Teach's battlegroup.

SHADOW DIRECTIVE 2-ALPHA

All efforts are to be made to secure all Tier 1 Assets.

Tier 1 Assets are to include:

Vulcan Anchorage (The Forge) [Current Location: Shadow Point 3. Status: SECURED]

Aquila Mobile Shipyard [Current Location: Shadow Point 2. Status: SECURED]

Orca Mobile Shipyard [Current location: Picon Fleet HQ Anchorage. Status: DESTROYED]

Nemea Mobile Shipyard [Current location: Boneyards. Status: ENGAGED IN RECOVERY EFFORTS. STRUCK FROM LIST PENDING FURTHER NOTICE]

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

SURTUR SYSTEM

BSG 33 Patrol 1

MERCURY CLASS BATTLESTAR ENTERPRISE

16:57

Exiting the jump in a bright burst, the Adamant Class Vesta moved towards the drifting Battlestar Enterprise. Her jump was followed closely behind by the arrival of the Valkyrie Class Battlestar Xena and the Cygnus Class Atia. Each were careful to maintain their distance from the drifting Battlestar, constantly on alert for her guns becoming active. From each ship a CAP of older model Vipers started deploying.

From the CIC of the Battlestar Xena, Commander Castor had the wireless operator open a channel and then announced "Enterprise, this is Xena Actual standing by to render assistance. How copy?"

Seconds passed in silence, while deep within the ship marines loaded onto the Raptors and Transports which were then moved to the flight deck. From the speakers came "Xena Actual, am I glad to see you. We have Cylon boarders, around 80 at last count, are down almost a third of our crew and are operating on battery backups. The Cylons have control of both flightpods and are closing in on aft damage control. I've got teams breaking up the system before we destroy that location should it look like we are about to lose it. We still have control of auxiliary fire control, but have a group of Centurions pushing hard for the CIC. As is, apart from isolated pockets we have lost the midship and are close to losing the engineering section…"

Turning to his XO, Castor ordered "XO, our marines have a go. Have them land in both the port and starboard pods and push hard for aft damage control, the CIC, Engineering and auxiliary fire control. Commander Cena, help is on the way. I need you to hold out just a little longer."

From the other end of the wireless, Castor could hear Cena's frustration as he asked "I'm grateful you are here but where's the Colonial Fleet?"

"Engaging the Cylons. They've hit us hard. We've lost Picon, Caprica, Tauron and Scorpia along with at least a third of the fleet if not more by now. It doesn't look good. As of twenty minutes ago, Nagala is in command back home while Admiral Whitehall has taken command of all assets in the Expanse. Those ships which aren't engaging the Cylons are falling back and removing their networks."

The silence that met Castor's words was deafening.

From the flightdecks of all the reinforcing ships, older model Raptors and Transports filled with Marines and those trained in the use of firearms whether they be regular crewmen or private security, departed for the short hop to the Battlestar Enterprise. Just before the Xena and Vesta prepared to depart, the reinforcing SAR Group 4 which included the Adamant Victoria and Berserk Roma showed up and started launching their own Raptors.

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

INTERSTELLAR SPACE

17 LIGHTYEARS FROM TITAN POINT

SHADOW POINT 81

BATTLESTAR JUNO - ADMIRAL SILAS NASH

16:57

Emerging from the jump from the battle at Titan Point Fleet Anchorage, Admiral Silas Nash felt such shame and fury deep within him that if he was a lesser man, he would have ended it permanently. He hated leaving others to fight and die while he pulled back to safety. Most of all though, he hated leaving his granddaughter flying her Viper back at one of the deadliest battles he had ever seen. But he knew the plan, he knew that it needed at least one member of the main leadership to survive. Looking up, he knew that now wasn't the time to focus on what he couldn't do. The shadow plan needed him here and now.

"Commander Miller, ready us for the next jump. I also need damage reports. Flight get a CAP up and dispatch scouts to the surrounding systems, our Raptors are not to engage if they come across any threats but are to report back immediately. Tactical be ready for any incoming attack" Taking a breath from his oxygen mask to steady himself he waited for the others to arrive as the reports were coming in. There were three main rendezvous points for the ships at Titan Point, so there was a one in three chance that any ships that pulled out would arrive here. The minutes passed and a sombre tone surrounded the ship as they was the hardest part of any war.

It wasn't long before a contact appeared on the DRADIS with the tactical officer calling out, "DRADIS CONTACT! It's one of our Raptors, codes are verified."

The wireless operator then spoke up, "Sir, I have Lieutenant Lewisham on the line. She reports that she came across an unknown Cylon contact unlike any Basestar in the system she was dispatched to. She doesn't believe she was discovered. I'm getting gun cam footage…"

Putting it on one of the monitors as another DRADIS contact was called due to the arrival of the Battlestar Freyr, Nash looked at the low quality footage Lewisham had managed to capture. From what he could tell, the contact was definitely not Colonial. Instead it more some similarities to the old Cylon data hubs of the first war with its long diamond shaped body covered in a sharp girder-like frame. As the images scrolled, something peculiar stuck out to him and that was the glass walls covering the entire length of the body beneath the metal protrusions. That and the lack of armaments, in fact the only defences with her was a squadron of Raiders. He had no way to know that the Basestars that would have guarded this ship had been withcalled to Titan Point. On the monitor next to the one with the guncam footage were a number of graphs showing data such as power readings and the various EM bands. What he was seeing was a mass of interference in a rarely used or even understood band.

Whatever that ship was, it meant something to the Cylons. That alone made it a tempting target.

"Commander ready the ship for a jump as close as you can get me to that target, have weapons on standby and whatever planes we have left in the tubes. Comms, transmit to Freyr Actual that we are going to take care of whatever that Cylon contact is. They are not to follow us but are instead to guard this rendezvous point, we should be receiving reinforcements from whatever academies are left soon in addition to whatever ships make it out of Titan Point."

As the crew rushed to carry out the orders, Commander Josephus Miller quietly asked, "Are you sure about this sir? The toasters could have reinforcements waiting for just this kind of attack. It might be an idea to check the doors and corners before going in."

Studying the guncam footage along with the DRADIS readings, Nash replied "As sure as I can be. What I am seeing is a ship that has had its protection pulled from it to reinforce somewhere else...probably Titan Point. They've left only Raiders behind close to the ship so I am willing to bet that ship has a fast spooling time. We need to get as close as we can, be right on top of those Raiders if we are to take out whatever ship that is. I'm sure. We jump in 60 seconds."

Miller wasn't totally persuaded but he knew Nash's record and was willing to trust him on this. With the crew as prepared as they could be, Nash double checked the jump coordinates and ordered "As soon as we emerge from the jump I want a full wall of flak raking all around us and our Vipers to be immediately launched. Once they are out of the tubes, readjust the point defences. I also want our main batteries firing straight away and missiles in the air directly ahead of us. Helm, you will need to immediately pull hard to starboard and accelerate to full once we emerge from the jump."

With those orders being carried out, Nash watched as the seconds ticked down to 0 and the ship jumped. Time stood still in the jump, breath caught between breath until the ship was born into existence again just 5 kilometres from the starboard side of the target; a Cylon Resurrection Ship.

All around the Battlestar Juno golden explosions of light littered space as the flak cannons opened up. Many shots missed but several exploded in the faces of a handful of Raiders. Coinciding with this were more than a dozen missiles firing ahead of the bow on their small thrusters, joined too by the bow batteries of the small Battlestar. With just 5km between them, the Cylons on board the Resurrection Ship had little time to even see the coming attack, let alone jump away before the munitions struck deep into the rear and flanks of the Resurrection Ship. Even before these munitions struck and the very first Vipers were emerging from their tubes, the Juno was accelerating hard to starboard in order to put as much distance between herself and the Resurrection Ship as she could while also bringing the portside batteries to bare on the altogether alien craft.

As the Raiders reacted to their presence, the Resurrection ship was bathed in fire as the missiles and munitions tore chunks from the engines and jump drives. Sheets of reinforced glass shattered in a billion shards under the withering fire of the small warship and thousands of naked Cylon bodies were either flash frozen or chewed through by the deadly munitions. Vipers having emerged from their tubes were immediately pounced upon by the surrounding Raiders resulting in dozens of deadly dogfights even as missiles slipped through the walls of flak and struck the Juno. A blinding light lit up space as a nuclear missile detonated against the lower portside flightpod. The small Battlestar shaking in wounded fury as the armour gave way as did the underlying hull before the hangar deck itself was vented. Upon detection of a pressure drop, the vast hangar doors around that struck section slammed shut preventing a total venting of the deck. Still ten died within the hangar as did three pilots that had been too close to the nuke.

In return though, the pilots were swarming the overwhelmed Raiders while the flak barriers kept other areas clear of Raiders. At the same time a full broadside was tearing into the Resurrection Ship until five more conventional missiles struck deep within the remains of the Cylon ship and detonated the hydrogen stored there, causing a massive explosion.

Within just fifty-one seconds Nash had completely taken down the Resurrection network in the Expanse. The Cylons had only dispatched one Resurrection Ship to cover it and the rest of the Resurrection Ships and Hubs were too far away to help.

VIRGON ORBIT

BSG 57

BATTLESTAR ATLANTIA

CIC

17:01

With each minute that passed, the world Fleet Admiral Nagala knew was crumbling around him. The hit and run attacks weren't anywhere near as effective as he would have liked, and the difficulties in clearing the networks from his ships were starting to seriously worry him. What was most concerning though was just how few Battlestars had made it back from the border. When he considered what the Cylons had brought to the table, he knew that the Fleet was fighting a losing battle. Even if he brought in the Shadow Fleet to support his own, he seriously doubted it would be enough to buy him more than a pyrrhic victory. All his hopes and the hopes of his people it seemed, rested with Shadow Run. But the Shadow Fleet needed time to gather together everything they needed to complete the plan.

Looking up as his XO approached him, Colonel Finch announced "A Raptor just jumped in from the Forge. She's secured."

Letting out a breath he didn't know he had been keeping in, Nagala muttered "Thank Frak, I thought the Cylons would have moved to hit them."

Moving closer and lowering his voice, Finch continued "They did, they took out almost all the entire R&D Fleet. Thankfully the Battlestar Argus managed to pull out to the Nova's location once they saw the Cylon hacking at work, they took with them as many vipers as they could including Argos Air Group. Meanwhile the Forge instituted a full shutdown and made it look like they were hacked. It seems the Cylons wanted it intact since they were moving to board her. Teach got to her just in time. He lost some ships including the Icarus, but managed to take out most of the Cylon forces with the Argus and Nova taking care of the rest. The Cylon wolfpacks have also taken out three Raptors with what was valuable intel sent by Teach, turns out The Forge discovered the CNP had the backdoor before the Graystones found it. By now Prometheus should have been jumped in."

"Thank the Gods we planned for this. I want a Raptor dispatched with orders for Argus and Nova. They are now part of the Shadow Fleet and as such under Admiral Whitehall's command. They are also to follow the directions of Shadow Run."

Looking surprised at this, Finch moved even closer and closely guarded the tone of his voice as he asked "You don't want them here? They would be invaluable to us."

Keeping his voice equally quiet so that the others couldn't hear him, Nagala replied "It's becoming clear to me that we are going to lose this, and even if we don't we would only be able to buy a pyrrhic victory. Look outside and show me the Cylons first war fleet. Not only are we outnumbered by the current Cylon fleet but by the fleets we don't see. No, we've lost this round, our focus needs to be on ensuring our civilization survives, and right now the Shadow Plan is the best chance we have of achieving that aim. We need to buy them time to get away, and while I would like those two ships here, they can do so much more for the Shadow Fleet."

Taking all this in, Finch asked "What if you are wrong? What if we can beat the Cylons but only with the ships in the Shadow Fleet?"

Considering, Nagala replied "They will be watching. If it becomes clear we can win the war with their help then Whitehall will come to our assistance. But remember, the majority of the Shadow Fleet is underarmed and underarmoured."

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

SURTUR SYSTEM

BSG 33 Patrol 1

MERCURY CLASS BATTLESTAR ENTERPRISE

17:01

As soon as the first Raptors started touching down on the Enterprise's flight decks, their hatches opened and their pressure suited occupants quickly deployed and headed straight for the hatches to the boarded Battlestar. Here on the decks, so far behind enemy lines, there was just peace and quiet. Deep within the ship though was a different matter as Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper hugged close to the hatch coaming as dozens of shots drilled into the bulkheads.

Reloading her assault rifle as if she was on automatic, she spared a quick glance back into the hall she had just come from and saw a bloodbath. Painted across the decks, walls and even ceiling was a sight of utter carnage, from dripping crimson blood, to scorch marks, melted bulkheads, cracked lighting, sparking wires and a thick pall of acrid black smoke. Across the deck lay at least a dozen dead and dying crew members and marines as well as hundreds of shell casings. Further down were the Cylon Centurions they had fought to the death against. Big, lumbering and yet at the same time insanely agile, they had cut a swath through the ship and her defenders. Testament to the strength of their design were the few Centurions which lay destroyed at their feet compared to those still standing. But this strength wasn't a uniform strength seen throughout all the Centurions, instead the ones that remained were largely the strengthened Centurions built specifically for boarding actions where just one Heavy Raider might be able to land. Each one heavier than the average Centurion by more than half due to the thicker armour despite being barely any bigger. Against them the Marines that had at one time outnumbered them, were losing badly and were now just down to less than a dozen members. It was only due to the regular crewmembers that they were still in the fight.

Pulling herself back into cover as the Centurions focused their fire on her position while moving forward, Bobbie saw the defenders around her doing their best despite the circumstances. The majority of the defenders pressed into what cover they could find were just normal crew members, many of whom hadn't picked up a gun since basic. But with so few marines and pilots remaining, it was all they had.

Taking a breath, Bobbie pulled a grenade from her belt before pulling the pin. Counting down while cooking it off, she quickly tossed it round the corner while calling out "Grenade out!" and hugging the cover of the hatch. A second later as the booming sounds of the Cylons showed that they were moving to clear the grenade, it exploded sending a deep boom through the deck. No sooner had it exploded, Bobbie was back aiming around the corner and laying down a deadly wall of bullets, many of which did little damage against the Centurions. It was only with concentrated fire that they started to fall, and yet, as the rest of the defenders started firing and taking down the Centurions, they were subjected to a returning wall of firepower. Golden shots, and flaring muzzle flashes lit up the corridor as bullets passed each other in mid-air and collided against their targets. Those that hit the Cylons either deflected or finally did enough to damage and destroy its circuitry, while those that met human flesh went right through it tearing apart everything in their path.

A stream of shots passed right by Bobbie's head, so close she could almost brush the burning hot metal with her cheek, and each one just as deafening. Then it happened, a shot made it through her defence and hit against her body plate tearing through it.

Thrown back by the force of the shot, Roberta started to crumple to the ground before pulling herself further into cover. Not yet feeling the pain, so caught up by adrenaline was she that it took her looking down and seeing the blood to notice. Touching the wound near her right kidney, she gently lifted her finger away and made out the blood on her fingertips. Thick like syrup and a reddish brown, it glistened in the mixed light and took her out of the moment. As she started to collapse, one of the few crewmen still surviving moved towards her and started to drag her away from the hatch and the approaching Cylons. Under covering fire from the handful of other survivors, he pulled the Amazonian woman around a corner and towards safety, or at least what little safety was left.

Throughout the rest of the ship, as each minute passed, the newly arrived marines and security personnel were rushing to hit the Cylons hard from the rear. Yet with every corridor they passed through, and every room they checked, all they were finding was death and the carnage of a massacre. There were many among them that started to doubt that there were even survivors on this Battlestar despite the echoing sounds of gunfire. Yet onwards they rushed with the first contact being near to aft damage control. So close were they, that the explosion of an IED within aft damage control itself almost knocked them off their feet, the explosion evidence of the survivors destroying it now that all functions had been isolated and diverted.

Turning a corner, the collection of hard pressed marines and security personnel made out almost a dozen Centurions crowding the corridor as they fired towards the few defenders that remained. Calling out for the survivors to get to cover, the newly arrived marines started unleashing a deadly overwhelming amount of rounds at the Cylon boarders, every fourth shot being an armour piercing round. Try as they might, few Centurions could turn fast enough to meet this new threat, although some did to deadly results as several marines went down to their firepower. Still they kept on firing until the last Centurion crumpled to the ground.

Further towards the bow, past the corridor Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper had been pulled from, and even past the safety she had initially been dragged into which was already under heavy defence by the last of the marines, a mixed bag of defenders took cover behind their last, hastily erected barricade. Behind them a corridor with several doors of glass on one side leading to the CIC.

Taking a sidearm from next to the information management table, Commander Cena moved out into the corridor to join those last defenders of the CIC, many of whom worked alongside him within that same room. Moving to crouch next to the wounded Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper, blood starting to pool against the gauze wrapped against her wound, Cena looked at those around him, each of them willing to fight to the death here at the end of it all. Searching for the words they needed as each looked at him, knowing that right at that moment all they could hear was the last frantic cries and shots of the wounded and last of the marines that had stayed behind at the last barricade to hold the Cylons just a little longer, Cena considered. Taking a breath, Cena spoke "They aren't getting this ship, too many have died for it. We just need to hold a little longer…"

Next to him an ensign with a wireless set frantically spoke up, "The last line is down…"

Patting the fearful ensign on the shoulder, Cena continued "There is nobody I would rather live and fight alongside than all of you. Give them hell!" With that last word he stood and unleashed all his sidearm's firepower on the Centurions which had turned the corner. Next to him, his firepower was picked up by his fellow crewmembers.

Feeling pain lance through her body with every shot, Roberta let loose all she had on the wounded Centurions. Each Centurion had been shot multiple times by the time they reached the CIC, they had fought through a kilometre of corridors, taking a maelstrom of firepower every step of the way until this final pivotal battle.

With the sound of heavy gunfire ahead of them, the newly arrived marines and security forces ran even harder past seemingly hundreds of bodies whether they be human or machine. Each heavy footfall bringing them closer to a fierce firefight which was steadily quieting down as one by one, the guns were going silent. Shocked by how far the Cylons had made it, they turned a last corridor as the last gun went silent.

Everywhere they looked there were bodies glinting in their torch light, Centurion bodies, and further ahead a fractured, broken barricade with a pall of black smoke rising from it. Nothing it seemed remained of the survivors whether Colonial or Cylon as Sergeant Pierce called out "Colonial Marines! Are there any survivors?"

Through the thick bands of smoke, a voice seemingly devoid of its strength called out "HERE! I NEED A MEDIC, THE COMMANDERS BEEN HIT!"

Even as several corpsmen and medics forced their way towards Roberta's voice, and the handful of remaining survivors made themselves known, Roberta was fighting to save Commander Cena. As he looked up, his body going cold as his blood pooled around him, Cena knew the end had reached him as he spoke one last set of words "Carry on the fight, Gunny." With those words spoken, he seemed to lose the will to fight as his eyelids grew heavy and his soul moved on.

Mere minutes later the last of the Cylon boarders would be taken down. In their wake they would leave just 368 survivors of an original 2582. Included in the list of casualties would be Commander Cena, the XO Colonel Sandrine Lucas, CAG Major Paulo Sematimba, Chiefs of Deck Juliet Anastas and Philip Buros, Doctors Ursula Turnbull and Lee Remis, and all but six pilots and one marine; Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper.

VITRUVIAN EXPANSE

OURANOS SYSTEM

TITAN POINT FLEET ANCHORAGE

WARSTAR SWORD – ADMIRAL HERMIONE WHITEHALL

17:03

When Teach showed up with his reinforcements, many a colonial would have thought that they would have some respite in this insane battle. In truth though it only got a lot worse. The main glimmer of excellence in this dark battle was the arrival of Argos Air Group aboard the Colonial Fleet Mercury Class Battlestar Argus. Within moments of their arrival, despite the nexus protocol having not been engaged, they had acted as if it had been and spread their four elite squadrons across the battlefield taking charge of the remaining mixed groups, wings and squadrons along the way. Together they had managed to forge a secondary Viper battleline much closer to the docks which prevented the Basestars and Raiders that had jumped past their warships from creating too much havoc.

Argos Air Group's, first squadron - Primus Sqaudron - had further moved to the original battleline which wasn't just on the verge of collapse, it HAD collapsed as Raiders had pushed through on the flanks and dove into the rear of these vipers. In this mad chaos, 73 pilots had been cut off from their ships and relief. While Teach had deployed his own squadrons to create another line across the centre and had jumped the Tachi Lady Anne and Impala Cobalt to the original line to assist those trapped pilots, it wasn't enough.

Tearing past the fallback line Teach had created, Primus Squadron carved a path through the outmatched Raiders blocking their path. These Colonial pilots were vastly outnumbered, but these were the top .1% of pilots, and they completely outmatched every Raider before them. Pushing their Vipers to the limit, they had moved to tightly hug the hull of one Basestar blocking their path with Raiders hot on their tail. The Vipers autocannons and underslung missiles tore into the Basestar's docking cradles setting off mostly minor Tylium explosions as fuel lines and ammo stores were burst apart blocking the Raider's vision of the Vipers and in several cases taking out the pursuing Raiders. Finally roaring past the Basestar they reached the remaining 52 trapped pilots engaged in a massive onslaught as they were being sliced apart by the numerous Raiders surrounding them, these pilots were doing their best to protect the two light corvettes whom were also their previous best chance of survival.

Diving straight into the insane dogfights, Primus Squadron's autocannons ripped apart the surprised Raiders catching them off guard just as their missiles were doing, while at the same time ordering the trapped pilots and two heavily damaged supporting light corvettes to fall back as hard and fast as they could ignoring everything along the way. As those fighters were finally able to break off from their dogfights, they turned and took off back to the safety of their larger units while encountering the Raiders that had been pursuing Primus Squadron along the way. Listening to the orders of Primus lead, they made a hard pass, just opening up with their guns while red lining their engines. They could not afford to be bogged down, and neither could Primus as they pulled hard left and right managing to break out of the dogfight.

Breaking into their flights, the Vipers of Primus Squadron covered each other flight and pilot in a tight unpredictable ballet as they followed the previously trapped pilots. No single flight was at the front for very long as the various flights rotated position. Raiders were struck by deadly rounds in this finely tuned dance as thrust became counterthrust and then thrust again. These Argonauts would absolutely not allow the Raiders to stay on their tail for long, they had long ago perfected this deadly dance with each flight being wingman to the next flight. As the previously trapped pilots finally started to reach the fallback line that Teach had created, the Tachi Class Lady Anne was struck by two conventional missiles across her midsection. Her weakened armour being unable to withstand the two hits, the hull collapsed under the force of the explosion sending the light corvette spinning on her axis as her crew died.

With the pilots of Primus Squadron breaking around her mass, they noticed the Impala Class Cobalt venting air and Tylium from numerous hull breaches along her flank. Fragments of armour plating being carried along in her wake. Spitting out PDC round and heavy KEW fire one after the other, the light corvette's crew knew they were on their last legs as they accelerated hard for an already weakened Basestar just 40km from them. Using as much thrust as they dared in many chaotic bursts in order to avoid the many missiles and Raiders littering space, the afterburners kicked in just 20km from the rapidly manoeuvring Basestar, ploughing her into one of the lower arms. Under such a heavy thrust, a path was carved towards the central axis as docking alcoves splintered into a million tiny shards and tylium leaked into space in flaming ice sheened globules. Hitting hard against the central axis, the thruster spluttered for a moment before the ship breathed its last and finally detonated taking the Basestar with it.

Accelerating past the explosion, debris flying in between them, the pilots of Primus Squadron used the distraction to break through the Raider line and get into position at the new primary battleline.

At the same time, deep behind the line at the Alpha docks, through the combined effort of the Battlestar Argus and the Minotaur Asgard, the damaged Basestar that had jumped there in order to finish off the docked ships was overwhelmed in a series of secondary explosions. The docked Battlestar Farragut and the Defender Class Destroyer Ionian Blade managed to take out the majority of the missiles aimed at them including over a dozen nukes, however they were unable to get firing solutions from their position on the missiles aimed at the docked civilian ships next to them. Fighting as hard as they could, the Tachi Rocinante commanded by Captain Holden, pulled itself away from the Raiders closing on its tail, pulled up in a high G turn between the hull of the Ionian Blade and the docking gantry on its starboard side with mere metres to spare, and accelerated hard to position itself high above the dock with a firing solution on the majority of the missiles.

Like the sound of a chainsaw, the PDCs unleashed their deadly slugs across the battlefield towards these unleashed missiles taking out many but not all before the Rocinante had to reposition in order to target the five Raiders which had followed it. While the Raiders were taken out, it came at the cost of the large civilian transport ship Isabella Moon which became bathed in nuclear fire. The resulting explosion biting deep into the alpha docks cutting the two docked warships off from the rest off the docks. Seconds later the safeties on the Tylium lines failed, the precious fuel ignited and the flames shot along the lines. Soon after the entire thruster assembly of the civilian cargo ship Heimdal which had already been weakened by Raider fire detonated sending the ship careening away from the docks. Further safeties cut in preventing the complete loss of the ship but it was too late, hundreds were dead and hundreds more were trapped aboard the rest of the wreck with no way off.

With battlegroup one, a Basestar that had been completely surrounded thanks to the arrival of Teach's ships, was taking a brutal pummeling from the guns of two Battlestars and two support ships. With the FTL offline the Basestar had no option but to take its punishment. Unwilling to truly go down without a fight though, hundreds of missiles many of them nuclear were being launched at the defending forces. Many missiles broke through the weaker defences of the civilian Jupiter II Battlestar Ajax, but the Battlestar Damocles was another matter entirely. A Colonial Fleet Jupiter II Battlestar, the Damocles was fighting at more than twice the strength as her sister ship, the Ajax. Her guns were stronger and armour was much thicker. Her main downside though was that her crew were uncoordinated having not long ago arrived from dozens of academies, transfer stations and bases. That and the broken networks which were still being secured meaning that some systems were still down. Still her flak fields held strong taking out the vast majority of the missiles even while she paid back the Basestar with interest.

By the time the Basestar was taken out mere seconds later under the sustained fire of all four ships, the Battlestar Ajax was down to just 300 crew due to having been constantly evacuating them to the Battlestar Damocles and the distant docked warships. The Ajax, suffering from her previous battle was ultimately not worth potentially sacrificing her crew, even had she sat out this fight it would be close to two months before she could be rebuilt to the level the Damocles was at. It was the same with most of the Shadow Fleet warships, their main purpose was to buy time through numbers. As such the loss of even two civilian Jupiter IIs to save just one Colonial Fleet Jupiter II was seen as worth it so long as crew losses were minimised. A single Colonial Fleet Battlestar could change a war, it had happened before with the Battlestar Galactica during the first war, no doubt it would happen again.

As this Basestar was being taken out,the Warstar Sword had diverted right and then left before it pushed forward towards the two Hyades Class training Battlestars. By moving right and then left, Whitehall was keeping the starboard side out of the firing arc of the Basestar assaulting the two Hyades from the rear, while also putting the Basestar firmly in the crosshairs of her portside batteries. An unending wall of broadside fire struck this Basestar along its central axis, all the while the flak barriers were stopping the majority of the missiles and Raiders from getting too close. Over on the Starboard side, the batteries were engaged in long range fire at another Basestar at 245km distant that had previously jumped past their lines. At such a range barely 20% of the shots hit with the targeting computers currently being down, and the gunnery crews having to manually calculate ranges and speeds. Even so this firepower was combined with the firepower of the heavily damaged Minotaur Asgard and the Battlestar Argus which were unable to transmit targeting solutions due to partially effective Cylon jamming of their comms.

There was another flare of bright light as the Hyades Class training Battlestar Freyr took a nuke to its starboard side. Lights went down across the ship, and flaming oxygen burst through large hull breaches in the head of the ship, carrying with it the irradiated bodies of dozens of crew and wreckage. Seconds passed as the starboard batteries died out before several sections came back online, yet there were large gaps in the coverage where power wasn't getting to the defences. Beneath the billowing black smoke which was dissipating in the vacuum of space, the damage was extensive.

Holding on as the Sword vibrated under her feet and the lights flickered for a moment, Admiral Whitehall ordered Commander Willis of the Battlestar Freyr, "You've done all you can, Commander. Leave your Vipers and pull out to the evac point, we can't afford to lose you."

Over a hail of static, the broken voice of Commander James Willis replied, "Understood Admiral. Good hunting. XO, begin jump prep and transfer our air group to the Sword."

It would take over thirty seconds of punishment for the wounded Freyr as the surrounding Basestars took advantage of their wounded prey, but through immense effort on the part of the Engineers and cadets, the former line warship managed to jump away to join Admiral Nash. This did however leave her sister ship, the training Battlestar Leda to become the focus of three Basestars with two on her port and one on her starboard. But through the combined efforts of her starboard guns and those of the Warstar's portside guns, the lone Basestar was broken up in an expanding cloud of wreckage. Accelerating hard with her bow batteries pointing towards one of the two immediate threats to the Battlestar Leda, the mighty Warstar unleashed a punishing eruption of fire on the Basestar's hull.

"The Battlestar Farragut and the Defender Ionian Blade are launching. An estimated three minutes for the Defender Yukon, five minutes for the Destroyer Islington, eight minutes until the Battlestar Ranger is ready and twelve minutes for the Cygnus III High Heart. Most of the civis are away. There's twelve left taking on cargo, fuel and passengers, two are being patched up, three are docking right now and another nine are dead at dock with dock crew working to at least get their jump drives back up, it doesn't look good though. Another five are docked on the other side of the anchorage" the XO called out.

Looking up, Whitehall replied "We don't have twelve minutes, every second our ships are being torn apart. They have ten minutes, no more, and if we have to leave before then, then we leave them behind, tell them to skip checks if need be, just focus on getting their FTLs working. Have the Farragut and Ionian Blade cover the remaining ships at dock with a focus on the Ranger. The Cylons are bound to try to jump behind us again."

"Understood."

The wireless operator spoke up above the sound of the gun batteries and other officers, "Admiral, a Raptor just reported in with a single codeword; Ilium."

Hearing that single word, Hermione understood it to mean that the switch of the Forge with her sister anchorage was successful and so she breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what happened here, that one anchorage could change the war in their favour just as Daedalus did in the first war. If only things weren't happening as fast then they would have repaired Daedalus and jumped her away. But that would have required months, her last engagement had been almost as bad as the early days of the first war when she had been thought crippled. The effort to repair her then had been costly but worth it. But now she didn't even have her jump drives since they had been transferred to the Forge years ago.

Over by tactical, the elderly colonel, a veteran of the first war called out "The big guns are ready for a salvo, sir."

"Give me a firing solution on the central axis of Basestar Gamma and fire both barrels with a point two five second interval." In tests, the two immense railguns had been impressive, the question was how they would perform in battle.

As the tactical officer input the firing sequence and pressed the key to fire them, an immense whine burned through the ship for a brief second before a burst of electric blue shot forth from the the port barrel located deep within the head of the mighty Warstar. A quarter of a second later an equally impressive blue streak shot from the starboard barrel. Accelerated to 64 miles per second, the two 20lb tungsten slugs tore across the battlefield, one just missing a Raider. In just over two seconds they slammed into and through the armour surrounding the central axis of the Basestar. Losing precious velocity and mass they burrowed through the hull, through the hangar and finally slammed against the far wall. Fractions of a second after their passage an immense section of already weakened hull 120 metres across rippled and cracked away into numerous shards that burst forth from the Basestar revealing a deep bleeding and flaming crater. Due to the .25 second delay in hits the damage became worse as the second hit served to amplify the ongoing damage of the first, cracking the underlying skeletal-like frame and sending an immense shockwave along the organic muscles through the ship. So powerful was the blast that the Basestar was knocked backwards and power died out as lines were cut. The Warstar Sword was also slowed down slightly by their passage and she too would have suffered some minor damage to her frame if her designers hadn't have designed the Warstar around the two guns. It took precious seconds for power to be restored but in all that time, both the Warstar Sword and the Battlestar Leda were directly targeting the weakened crater. Even when power came back and the Basestar started firing out missiles, it was done for as secondary explosions burst forth from the hangar where ruptured Tylium lines released their pent up rage. The explosions tore across the Basestar until eventually it split apart in a titanic explosion.

Whitehall could only look on in shock as the tactical officer announced "Frak me, we needed these in the first war...five minutes until the accelerators are cool enough for another salvo and the power has buffered, Admiral. No signs of damage." In tests on old Saturn and Jupiter II Class Battlestars it usually took between 4 and 6 shots to render the Battlestars inoperable and that was only by targeting around vital areas, the armour belt otherwise was tough to get through. Yet the fact that with just two shots and a barrage from the main battery, the new Basestar had been taken out revealed a great deal to Whitehall about these enemy warships even if it was already weakened.

Turning to him, Whitehall ordered, "Shift fire to the next Basestar and bring us alongside the Leda." Looking over the DRADIS, Whitehall took in every ship and silently calculated their dispositions with all the intelligence she was getting over the wireless. Right now she knew that the Shadow Fleet civilian modified warships were suffering heavily, orders of evacuation had been called on several of them and Raptors were fighting through a shitstorm of deadly fire and the occasional Raiders to dock on them. Once docked, crews began immediate transfer before the Raptors broke off and either headed for the docks to unload their passengers on the docked warships, to another warship currently fighting, or left the entire theatre and joined Nash at the fallback point. The only thing was he was no longer there.

The Minotaur Circassian was the first to be fully evacuated. With her FTL crippled, multiple hull breaches and half her guns down as fires had overtaken her generators there was no way she could be recovered. So badly damaged was she that she couldn't even be set to ram the nearest Basestar, not that it mattered as the Adamant Wolf - also largely evacuated and on her last legs - had moved to within three kilometres of it and was pummeling the Basestar's weakened sections with all her remaining weaponry. It was a last long range broadside from the Battlestar Damocles which finally killed the Basestar though. The resulting blast overtook the Wolf, destroying a departing Raptor and causing another to jump. As the fires rained over the Wolf, burning molten wreckage struck deep into her hull completely bypassing the armour and setting the very air alight.

With the fires smothered by the vacuum of space, the remains of the Wolf were seen. Fires burned across her as Tylium burst free, shards as big as cars, bigger even, stuck out of her portside and dorsal flanks, but her starboard thruster was still firing pushing the little wreck onwards. Her two remaining guns were still firing, the rest being blackened craters as she pushed onwards with debris falling away from her like confetti. Out of the ruined hangar, three Raptors emerged and disappeared in bright sparks of light as they jumped. But still the little wreck continued on towards the next Basestar. Every step of the way her last thruster spluttered and choked, and fires continued to sap all her tylium until finally, just 5km away from the Basestar, she couldn't hold herself together any longer and detonated as the self destruct finished counting down. Once again the heavens lit up and fires expanded in immense explosions propelling the wreckage in all directions at once. Several significant parts of the head continued onwards that last 5km before they caught one of the Basestars lower arms in dozens of small and large collisions. Within just a handful of seconds a few hundred metres of the arm was completely carved off the Basestar but safeties kicked in preventing secondary explosions.

"Frak, Admiral I have a problem..." Rear-Admiral Teach announced over the open Fleet wireless. "The toasters managed to land what look to be three modern heavy raiders in our portside hangar, we've got boarders..."

Taking this in, Whtehall asked "How many crew are left on board?"

It was a static filled moment as the wireless was momentarily broken by a distant nuke, "Under a hundred, she's running on a skeleton crew...magnesium charge now...just fracking burn it..."

"Abandon ship, Edward."

Teach laughed as he replied, "Oh I intend to, I've got what few marines I have left securing the route to the starboard hangar, I just need to finish destroying the last of the computers first. If I make it off I will be transferring to either the Ranger or the Farragut. Good hunting Admiral. Charles, activate the charges..." In the next second the line broke into static as small magnesium charges installed just an hour ago into every computer in the CIC detonated destroying any possible intelligence that could be gained from them.

"Colonel, have flight keep an eye on any Raptors or transports launched by the Ajax, divert some if need be. I want to know as soon as Teach reaches safety. Make him a priority for flight," Hermione ordered. She would never admit it but she saw Edward as the son she could never have, she would hate to lose him.

As Lisa had the orders passed, another voice broke over the wireless as the ship shook from a large hit to the bow, "Admiral, this is Captain Brand aboard the Yukon, we're cutting umbilicals and launching. I'm not rated for a Defender and don't have much of a crew here though..."

"Captain, keep your Defender back covering the docks. Do not allow any Raiders to get close to the Ranger. The Battlestar Ranger is the highest priority out of the docked ships, not the civilians. Am I understood?"

There was a hesitation before Brand replied, "Yes ma'am."

Continuing, Whitehall said, "However, if your ship's safety is at immediate significant threat then you are to jump to the rendezvous point you should already have..." Thinking, Whitehall muted the mic and ordered her XO "Get someone with command level experience over on that ship right now."

Another sector of radiation overtook the DRADIS and blanketed the wireless as a nuke broke through the defences over the docks and struck the Cygnus III High Heart. As the radiation cleared she still largely remained until a secondary explosion of the dock's Tylium tanks tore into the bow destroying almost a fifth of the ship before it could be contained. But as cries for help went over the wireless, it was clear that she could not be recovered without significant help, and then as if by some miracle she jumped for the rendezvous point. The energies of the jump tearing apart what was left of her dock and cracking off much of her own broken wreckage in howling gravitational eddies. The damage to her was crippling though and she would never fly or fight again, but if somehow she survived the jump, then maybe her remaining crew could be saved.

Looking over the battlefield, Whitehall saw a disaster waiting to happen with her ships spread too thin as the Cylons were managing to push their remaining Basestars forward. Her forward left flank was almost completely collapsed, the only strong area was the right flank in order to better protect the Beta docks. Between the front and them was hundreds of kilometres of open space. More than big enough for the Cylons to jump into. Calling out orders she collapsed the front pulling her remaining ships to just 150km from the docks in a tighter line formation.

During the tightening of their lines, the Shadow Fleet Battlestar Xena along with the Adamant Vesta jumped in to reinforce them while informing them that recovery operations on the Battlestar Enterprise were under way. Then the Colonial Fleet Berserk Mystic which had been fighting since the very start was forced to jump due to the amount of damage she had sustained. The Leonosian Defender Jackdaw was also forced to jump mere seconds later. For almost the entire battle her engineers had been fighting to restore her FTL after it was knocked out by a nuke early on in the Cylon offensive. She had since been forced to stay near the docks as both protection for them and for herself, but that hadn't kept her out of the action. Yet somehow she had survived two Basestars that had long since jumped near her position and had since been taken out by the defenders.

The Shadow Fleet civilian Berserk Vorenus was however taken out during the withdrawal. Having been running on a skeleton crew since sending most of her crew to the docked warships, only 53 died aboard her. As the line continued to fallback, Whitehall knew that battle fatigue had now well kicked in, especially for the pilots whom had lost between 70 and 80% of their number since the start of the battle. It was no surprise really, the majority had been cadets, with the first half that had managed to launch having to hold the Cylons off while the Mk-VIIs of the rest of their number were cleared of their networks. What was surprising if anyone had realised, was that 17 of the still surviving pilots had been amongst the ones struck by the Virus at the start of the battle and missed by the Raiders follow-up missiles. These 17 pilots had either managed to power their Ml-VIIs back up and get to a friendly ship, or had been recovered by Raptors.

There was some minor relief however when news reached Hermoine that Teach had landed on the Battlestar Ranger and would be launching within minutes as final checks were run on their systems.

During the final collapse of the line as Battlestars, Warstar, support ships and Titan Point itself were better able to combine their fire, and the pilots weren't as spread over as wide a front, Basestars started to fall faster. In a matter of minutes three Basestars were torn to shreds. Almost as soon as the new line had been created though, five more Basestars appeared behind where their old lines were but now in front of the new one. Hermoine slammed her fist into the information management table while wishing for a break as these new arrivals started to launch hundreds of Raiders. She had no way to know that this was it, the very last of the Cylon forces in the Expanse had been committed. But as they jumped in they faced a full barrage from the defenders as they were joined on the line by the Battlestar Ranger and seconds later by the Destroyer Islington.

Hundreds of missiles flew towards them, no not towards them, towards the Warstar Sword. She was the single most valuable ship left to the Colonial Fleet, the Cylons could not allow her to survive. They had been trying to kill her all battle but it had taken a combined effort to pull the resources together to combat her, and some Cylons still doubted if it would be enough. But something was wrong, their Hybrids had lost contact with a vital ship, only this wasn't yet realised by the rest of the Cylons as they were completely focused on the defending Fleet, anything they felt as an indication of what had been lost was hidden in the rush of battle. A massive flak barrage was all that stood between the Cylon missiles and the already hurting Warstar. Hermoine however was having doubts about whether it would be enough, especially with the hundreds of Raiders following right behind them. These Raiders were completely avoiding her own Vipers and were instead heading straight into the flak barrage killing hundreds of them. It was enough to terrify even the bravest Colonial.

"Ready for immediate jump on my order..." Seeing the Battlestar Ranger and the Destroyer Islington leaving their docks at the same time as more than a hundred Raiders jumped just above the docks behind the battle line, Whitehall ordered "Withcall all Vipers, land where they can. Tell the civis they jump now or not at all..."

"Raiders are launching nukes," the tactical officer called out.

Seeing a docked civilian liner which was behind them starting to break free of the dock, Hermione could only wish that they would hurry up, if she jumped now then those missiles and nukes would plow straight into the civilian ship killing at least 2,500 civilians.

"50 seconds until all planes are in" flight called out as the ship was thrown by a nuke detonating against her bow.

"Divert them away from us, find them decks elsewhere!" Whitehall called out.

A second later two iridescent blue beams burst from the bow, flickering across space in the blink of an eye they struck one of the new Basestars and cut an explosive path right through her but not killing her.

Radiological alarms were blaring with eighteen nuclear missiles closing fast on the Warstar, five already past the defensive perimeter when Hermione finally saw the civilian ship jump. Almost at the same moment she herself called out "JUMP!"

The XO whom had been waiting with her hand wrapped around the crystal key, jumped the ship leaving an immense distortion in space behind them. Pilots broke clear heading for the remaining ships decks while under hot pursuit by the Raiders, and the opening left by the departing Warstar allowed the numerous nuclear and conventional missiles to slip through as well as at least 50 Raiders that had survived the flak barrage. While the Raiders broke onto different paths, the missiles carried on until they struck the docks and erupted in immense flashes of light and melting shrapnel. So powerful and long lasting were the numerous detonations in the same spot that the rock deep beneath the hits superheated and exploded outwards like a volcanic eruption sending several million tons of superheated rock towards all the various ships.

With the last of the civilian ships either jumping or being wiped out by either the superheated eruption or the massing Raiders which finally had free reign, in the last few seconds the remaining Colonial warships struck hard against the twelve remaining Basestars and destroyed two of their number before finally crippling a third. These colonial warships started to jump too now that their pilots had landed, and with the superheated wave of rock fast on their heels. But not all could make it. The Minotaur Asgard, was struck by missiles several times in her rear knocking out her FTL. With the superheated wall of plasma-like rock closing on her, there wasn't even time to evacuate a single Raptor before she was torn apart as if in deadly rock-filled fire.

Sensors partially blind to the oncoming threat, and due to having pressed in as close as they could to the previous positions of the defending fleet, the Cylon Fleet had little chance against the oncoming threat. One by one within seconds of each other, each Basestar and Raider was overtaken and pummelled by the superheated wave of millions of tons of rock they had accidentally unleashed. Each Basestar stuck deep hundreds and thousands of times by thousands of small and large white hot meteors. No Cylon ship was able to make it out in time. They were architects of their own destruction. Their own death.

The truth of what happened here would be lost to the Cylons for a time. All they would know was that there had been unexpected resistance from a mixed fleet of non-networked warships which had required the entirety of their fleet in the Expanse to combat. They would have no idea who was in charge of the defenders, that information had just been lost.

The only ones still alive here who knew the truth were those survivors deep within Titan Point still clinging to life as the vast asteroid groaned around them. 350,000 still survived of the original 1.5 million inhabitants. They had become like Leonis would become, survivors fighting on in a bunker for as long as it takes.

So say we all.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Well that was the Battle of Titan Point, I hope it was as good as I tried to make it. The Shadow Fleet arc has definitely been the most complicated arc I have written to date. It has also been the most enjoyable arc to write.

With the Warstar Sword I wanted to give it a weapon which set it apart from a Battlestar but was also something the Colonials should have developed. It made sense to incorporate the railguns as seen in the Expanse, especially since we already have destroyers equipped with early versions of them and the fact I gave the Cylon Colony plasma weaponry since it looked like the shots it fired at Galactica were plasma. I also didn't want to overpower the Warstar hence the five minute wait between firing and the lack of smaller railguns due to the high maintenance costs.

The Battlestar Juno and her class the Juno Class, are based off a fan drawing I saw for a Valkyrie with four flightpods. As addressed in the first shadow fleet chapter I have changed the design of the flightpods slightly to have side facing launch tubes rather than forward facing ones which I thought was a bad design. Also when it comes to Jupiter II or Valkyrie II etc, this basically means in this fic that the ships while based off the original Jupiter or Valkyrie Class, are inherently different such as in length etc. A Valkyrie II for instance while being a smaller Battlestar is still longer than a Valkyrie I. They mainly look the same from a distance. Within a class though there are different refit versions, so in this story in the Cyllene chapter I have Galactica on its 5th or so refit I think, with one of the refits being the lowering of the landing deck to accomodate ships like Colonial One (really it was since in blood and chrome the hotstacks wouldnt have fit). It's still a Jupiter I (unlike in deadlock where it became a Jupiter II), just a refit Jupiter I.

Also if you haven't realised it then Titan Point itself is based off Ceres from the Expanse just a little smaller. With Titan Point I loved the idea of an Anchorage on the far side of Colonial Space from the border as a fallback point should war ever come and the Cyrannus star systems be subject to attack which would disrupt their shipbuilding capacity.

Anyway, the next chapter will be up by the end of the month, what I have needs a little work to get right.