The Cronus Expeditionary Fleet
I own nothing except the plot and my original characters. I have read Fanfiction for many years; I believe that many fanfiction writers are among the best storytellers in the world. I hope to join them and play in their playground a little. This is my first story, and I hope you enjoy it. This story will use both canon sources and AU features. I will use some ships and stats from the BSG game Deadlock and Cannon. There will likely be some blurring of the timeline because I wanted to use the Mercury Class Block IIs in the story. I could have done this without them, but it was just too much fun to use them. They are a giant hammer that the Colonials could have used much more effectively. Don't even get me started on what Apollo did with the Pegasus.
The premise of this story is that before President Adar took office, the previous administrations and the Quorum of twelve had significantly overfunded the Colonial Fleet, always fearful that the Cylons would return. They wanted a strong defense should the Cylons ever return. However, with the election of President Adar, funding priorities changed. The fleet managed to get some upgrades, but little in the way of new funding as a strong defense was not the highest priority of the new administration. The updates came in the form of the latest computer programs developed by Dr. Gaius Baltar and the model 6 Cylon, which lead to the complete and total destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobal. However, in the years before President Adar came to power, the Colonial Fleet had more resources and continued to develop and plan for what the Admiralty believed the inevitable new war with the Cylons.
The Cronus Expeditionary Fleet was formed to give humanity a fallback position should the Twelve Colonies position become impossible. Admiral Thomas Adama was charged with assembling a fleet around three Mercury Class Battlestars. These three Battlestars have been refit for extended mission duty; they are the only three block II Battlestars known. The Cronus, Admiral Adama's flagship, and its sister ships, the Oceanus and the Hyperion each carry three-hundred Vipers, fifty Raptors as well as twenty-five Scimitars. The Fleet also includes six refitted Jupiter Class Battlestars. Twelve Minerva Class Battlestars, eight refitted Ranger Class missile cruisers, eight refitted Manticore class high-speed scouts, and finally, twenty refitted Gunstar escort ships. The non-military vessels include three Tylium refining vessels, six cargo ships with food and ammunition stores, and a single mobile shipyard for building new anchorages similar to Ragnar Anchorage.
This story begins just after Commander Adama sends his fleet-wide message, "Am taking control of the fleet. All units are ordered to Ragnar Anchorage to regroup. Acknowledge by same encryption Adama." Quoted from Battlestar Galactica: Miniseries)
AN: There was an anonymous review that offered several good questions and I realized they pointed out a couple of things I had not made clear in my overview. You are correct the fleet is wildly overpowered. Honestly, this fleet would have been better used to defend the Colonies, however, with the funding shifts required by the change in leadership of the Colonies, it was not possible. The Admiralty, however, always believed the Cylons would return. The thoughts, I believe, where to plan to prevent the loss of humanity (duh!). This would require a unique, powerful, and deadly fleet. I know it is overpowered, but I like it! This fleet was developed and paid for by the black portion that exists in every military budget in history. No one ever actually paid $25 dollar for a hammer… $200 dollars for a toilet seat. ?
Next, why Admiral Adama would immediately accept President Roslin. This has to do with the make up of this fleet's personnel. This fleet was made up of all first Cylon war veterans. Yes, this makes them older. I know this; however, this does make them incredibly resilient and loyal to the Colonies. Therefore, they would agree to such a long duration mission to protect humanity. Additionally, my premise is that this loyalty extended to the rightfully elected leaders of the Colonies. I know, I know Laura was not elected. However, I don't for a moment believe the Colonials never lost leaders in the first war. They must have at least once. So, these very loyal soldiers, would not be surprised by the loss of elected leaders, they would be used to the line of succession. Admiral Adama was chosen for this mission not just because of his forward thinking and strategic mind (likely oracle gift) but also his sense of loyalty to the Colonies and its leaders.
Thanks for reading!
Previously:
"33 minutes plus 5 Admiral." Commander Jenson reported.
"Maintain jump readiness for an additional 10 minutes, then stand down the Fleet for maintenance and resupply. Cap status?" the Admiral asked?
"Sir, Oceanus has the cap currently, all Vipers and Raptors report no Dradis contacts." Lt. Halson reported.
"Very well. Carry out my orders."
The Admiral and Commander Jenson began looking at jump possibilities that would take the Fleet in a roundabout way to the first Anchorage while masking their actual destination.
Part 2:
Knock, knock! The Admiral heard from inside his ready room.
"Come!" Admiral Adama says.
"Admiral, may I speak with you for a moment?" the 2IC asks.
"Come in, Commander. What can I do for you?" Adama says.
It had been three days since the Cylons were able to follow the Fleet every 33 minutes. The tracking problem seemed, as least for now, to have been address. Finding the white disk on the ceiling of Galactica's CIC had been the clue the Marines needed to sweep all of the ships in the Fleet. They found similar disks on many ships. Each of the transmitters had been in the command centers of each ship. Also, while sweeping the vessel, they found a couple of other interesting people. The Marines had been given pictures of the Cylon found at Ragnar Anchorage. They found four more of him throughout the Fleet. After interrogation, they learned he was model number two and that other than the first five, there were six models of humanoid Cylons. One of the number twos refused to be taken alive and was killed by the Marines.
The death of number two brought the Cylons jumping nearly on top of the Fleet for the first time in days.
"Dradis contact! Dradis contact!" Called the communication officer on board the Hyperion, which had the cap currently.
"Set condition 1 through out the ship! Launch the alert Vipers." Then Commander Lewis picked up his had set and called the Cronus.
"Hyperion actual to Cronus, Dradis contact, assumed hostile! Alert Vipers launching and manning battle stations," Commander Lewis Reported.
"Hyperion actual, Cronus actual, report Commander," Adama answered.
"Sir, we have unknown Dradis contacts at the edge of the Dradis envelope. Ninety seconds to visual contact. No IFF contact. My recommendation is to jump the Jupiters and civilian Fleet." Lewis answered.
Turning to Lt. Halson, Adama orders the Jupiters and civilian ships to jump the preprogrammed destination. In a flash of light, the ships are gone.
"Give me fleet-wide." Adama orders. "Adama to Fleet. All ships man battle stations! Set conditions one throughout the Fleet. Launch all Vipers, Hyperion, Oceanus, and Cronus will assume point. Gunstars and Minervas assume flanking positions. Rangers prepare for long-range strikes on all Basestar ships.
Back with the Hyperion:
"Commander! Raptor 359 reports six Basestars, and they are launching Raiders."
"Hyperion actual to Cronus actual, six, I repeat, six Basestars launching Raiders." Commander Lewis reported.
"Thank you, Commander," Adama responds.
Back with the Cronus:
"All ships report battle stations manned and Vipers launching" Reported Lt. Halson.
"Cronus actual to all ships, six Basestars incoming with their corresponding Raiders. Mercuries and Gunstars will form the defensive cordon around the Fleet.
The Cylons moved forward to assumed a staggered formation four Basestars ahead with two remaining behind to support them. The Raiders dashed forward in the hopes of hitting the Colonials before they could fully man their defenses. The Vipers and Raiders clashed very quickly, and ships were exploding in every direction.
"Cronus actual to squadron commanders. Break, break, break!" Admiral Adama ordered."
The Vipers broke contact with the Cylons, retreating at 90-degree angles to clear the fleets firing arcs.
"Vipers clear!" reported Lt. Halson.
"All Gunstars open fire!" Adama orders.
Massed fire from twenty Gunstars slammed into the Cylon Raiders, and many of them just ceased to exist.
"Rangers prepare saturation assault, conventional and nuclear missiles. Minervas open fire on all Cylon Raiders." Adama orders.
More and more Raiders are falling to the combined Colonial fire, and they begin to break off and scatter to reform for another attack.
With the Raiders clearing the field, the way is open to begin a direct assault on the Basestars.
"Rangers, open fire!" Adama orders.
The Cronus, Oceanus, and Hyperion bring their primary batteries to bear on the first Cylon Basestars awaiting orders to fire.
"Admiral, we are in position with the Oceanus and Hyperion. All primary batteries are armed and ready." Lt. Halson reported.
"Signal the Hyperion and the Oceanus to open fire! All batteries fire!" Adama ordered.
The missiles from the Rangers were exploding, both from impacting the Basestars and from the Cylon defensive fire. Large tears are forming around the first four Basestars. They are venting atmosphere and fuel. When the massed fire of the Mercuries arrived, two of the first four Basestars were destroyed.
During all of this, the Raiders were not idle, they reformed and began to press their attack. Launching all their missiles at maximum range, the Raiders pressed the attack. However, they were set upon by the Vipers again. Raiders were falling faster and faster.
"Missiles inbound! Radiological Alarm!" the Dradis officer shouts.
Having waited on this moment. The Mercuries turn broadside to the inbound missiles. It had looked like the Colonials had skipped their protective envelope, but no, this was a trap set by Adama to get the Raiders in close enough to fire their missiles and deal with them together.
Across the squadron channels, the squadron commanders again called, "Break, break, break! Clear the Mercuries firing solution!
"All Mercuries, assume defensive fire, targeting missiles and Raiders!" Adama ordered.
A wall of flak was launched from the three Mercuries. Slamming into the incoming missiles and the Cylon Raiders. Most of the Raiders were either destroyed or damaged to continue to fight. The few weapons did make it through the flak barrage and impacted the Fleet were of limited effect because none of them were nuclear. As the Rangers continued to pour fire into the Cylon Basestars, the third and fourth Basestars erupt in flame and light. The final two Basestars begin to disengage from the fight. Leaving the wounded Raiders, they pick up as many of the functional Raiders they can before jumping away.
"Dispatch all Raptor for SAR. Have the Vipers cover the SAR and then return to base to rearm and refuel." Adama ordered.
"Have all ships report Viper loses, and damage report please Commander Jenson." Ordered Adama.
A few minutes later. Commander Jensen reported thirty vipers destroyed, but 27 pilots rescued by the Raptors.
"Sir, all ships report combat-ready, little to no damage to the Fleet. The trap worked perfectly, and the defensive batteries intercepted the vast majority of the incoming fire." Summing up the latest battle with the Cylons.
"All Vipers and Raptors are back on board. All ships report jump ready. We can rejoin the Fleet at your command Admiral." Lt. Halson reports.
"All ships jump by the numbers. Minerva's first, Gunstars second, and finally the Mercuries and other ships will jump." Adama ordered.
With the Fleet reunited, the Fleet began refueling and resupplying all ships. These first two battles had taken a toll on the Viper Squadrons. Spare Vipers were delivered to all ships who needed replacements. Also, thanks to the simulators located on the Mercuries, new pilots would be available as they were required for all the Battlestars. However, if these battles continued, at some point, new pilots would need to be recruited. Humanity needed to be more secure before the fleet command began to think about this topic.
However, this death of the Model two Cylon and jump combination drew the attention of the command staff, the Doctors on board the Cronus, and the Colonial Leadership. After a careful examination of the Cylon body, a very sophisticated biological transceiver was found in the brain of the dead Cylon. Once this transceiver was located, a thorough analysis of the communication logs from the three Mercury Class ships, showed a burst transmission of an incredible amount of data. This lead to a preliminary conclusion that Cylons had a way of uploading their memories and reporting back to the Cylons central command.
Over the next few days, some decision was made by Admiral Adama and President Roslin. Both knew they had to locate the other models of Cylons still in the Fleet. They also knew they had to do their best not to kill them, or it was likely that they would rejoin the Cylon fleet and bring them down on the Fleet again.
The plan was simple but very effective. The Marines, from the Fleet, would go from ship to ship, they would photograph each person, issuing IDs for all people in the Fleet. Additionally, medical personnel would be on hand to take biological samples from every person. These samples would serve as a DNA database for civilian and military personnel. The medical tests and IDs issuing would happen under the guise of a fleet-wide census. The census would confirm the population of the Fleet and hopefully allow them to identify the embedded Cylons.
The tests and IDs would likely be problematic for the more conservative members of Colonial society. The Sagittarons AND Virgons would probably be problematic, but the majority of those populations where contained on particular ships and could be saved till last.
The very first ship, Colonial One, went without incident. While the census was happening, all non-military inter-ship transportation had been suspended. This kept the populations of each ship contained without causing panic. By the time the Marines had finished the third ship, it was becoming clear just how far the Cylons had infiltrated the Fleet. Multiple copies of several Cylons had been identified. The Colonials did not know the Model numbers yet, but they had identified the Cavil Model, the D'Anna Biers Model, Simon Model, Aaron Doral Model, and the Samuel Anders Model. The Colonials did not know it yet, but they had not found the Sharon Model yet.
Moving quickly, the Marines swept the first three ships again. This time using non-lethal methods developed because of the study of the Model Two, the Marines were able to subdue the Cylons from the first three ships. Over the next month, each ship was searched, the Cylons captured and removed from the Fleet. All of the Cylons were moved to the prison ship that had previously carried the Sagittaron terrorist. Over the past month, the prison ship had been upgraded. The cells were constructed of Battlestar grade armor. This should, in theory, prevent the Cylons from escaping.
Additionally, the ship was always escorted by Vipers. Should the Cylons escape, the Vipers had standing orders to destroy the ship, and the Fleet would preform an emergency jump. The goal was not to kill the Cylons despite the apparent anger all the Colonials had for them. These Cylons were a gold mine of information if the leaders of humanity had the foresight to use them properly. Adama understood this; the question was, would anyone else.
Aboard Colonial One:
The President of the Twelve Colonies was set to address all of humanity they knew to exist currently. There were rumors of humans surviving and continuing to fight the Cylons in the Colonies, but there was no proof. The few Raptors Galactica had sent back to check had immediately been swarmed by Cylons. The discussions with how to proceed were ongoing. But everyone in the Colonial leadership knew it was past time to announce to the Fleet what had been happening the last month.
"Good evening! I am President Laura Roslin. I am the President of the Twelve Colonies of Humanity. I want to share with you all of what has been going on since the fall of the Colonies. It has been a profound journey, filled with deep heartache, the awful realities of life on the run, and some truly terrible decisions that we were required to make for the Fleet to survive." Roslin began.
"As many of you know, this Fleet came together almost by accident. We gathered as many survivors as we could and when the Cylons arrived we jumped to Ragnar Anchorage to join the Galactica. We left many ships and people behind. The ships they were on did not have FTL capabilities, and when the Cylons jumped into the Fleet, I decided on the best advice available to jump the ships to the only Colonial Battlestar we thought survived. This was without doubt the hardest decision I have ever made. It haunts me to this day, but it was the right decision, or the rest of the Fleet would have died at that moment, and humanity would now be just a memory."
"As we rendezvoused with Galactica, we got a signal that still fills me with hope, joy, and gratitude. Commander Adama received the message aboard the Galactica. Message begins, Commander, gather all the survivors you can at Ragnar, stand-by to receive reinforcements. Cronus Fleet will rendezvous at Ragnar in four days."
"The first question I asked Commander Adama was, who is Cronus Fleet, and where have they been while the Colonies fell?"
"Commander Adama's answer stunned me almost into inaction." He said, "I don't know."
"Over the next four days, we received updates from Cronus Fleet. The first was the name of the Commanding officer and many mission updates. Cronus Fleet was commanded by Admiral Thomas Adama, the younger cousin of Commander Adama of the Galactica. Admiral Adama had distinguished himself during the first Cylon war. He was awarded the Star Cluster after his Viper was shot down over Virgon and single-handedly defended a small farming community from a Cylon attack. Admiral Adama lead those farmers to safety and defended them until the Colonial Fleet could rescue them. Admiral Adama went on to command a Viper Squadron, then served as the Executive Officer on a Battlestar and then served as the Commanding Officer of a Jupiter Class Battlestar. After leading several successful engagements against Cylon forces, then Commander Thomas Adama was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral, and shortly after, the war was promoted to the rank of full Admiral."
"With the post-war funding of the Colonial Fleet beginning to see changes. The Admiralty began to study what needed to happen to secure humanity's future in the event of another Cylon war. This study went on for several years, with many different plans and possibilities. The choice the Admiralty finally settled on was Cronus Fleet. A fleet of made of mostly older ships scheduled to be retired. Those ships would be refit and prepared for active duty again. This was a multi-year project. The with shifting funding priorities, the development of the Mercury Class was given priority, and as you know, several were built. The last three were given to Cronus Fleet. The Cronus, Oceanus, and Hyperion would be the centerpiece of the Fleet with their massive construction, support, and combat abilities. The Fleet would also include refitted Jupiter Class Battlestars, Minerva Class Battlestars, Ranger Class missile cruisers, Manticore class high-speed scouts, and finally, a whole group of Gunstar escort ships. The non-military vessels include three Tylium refining vessels, six cargo ships with food and ammunition stores, and a single mobile shipyard for building new anchorages like Ragnar Anchorage."
"For six years, Cronus Fleet did what it was task with doing. They jumped out of the Colonial space and began building and securing a path forward for humanity should the worst happen. They build Anchorages. They built and deployed communication satellites. And finally, two years ago they found Kobol. You heard me correctly, Cronus Fleet found Kobol. They reported this find directly to Admiral Nagala of Colonial Fleet Command, but it was decided to keep the location classified. Cronus Fleet was tasked with building again. Building orbital and system defenses, Dradis systems, and finally a space station to refit and rearm a Colonial Fleet who was on the run from the Cylons. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, our brave Colonial Fleet found a way for humanity to survive in the event the worst happened."
"However, even with Cronus Fleet and all of the defenses, they have built around Kobol. It is unlikely that we will be able to settle on the planet that gave birth to the race of man. The Cylons are still pursuing us even now."
"As you will remember, a month ago, this now much larger Fleet had to jump every thirty-three minutes because the Cylons continued to hound us. Admiral Adama rightly concluded that the Fleet was actively being tracked by the Cylons. With the help of tech crews and Marines from Cronus Fleet, all the civilian ships and the Galactica herself were searched. We found the beacons the Cylons had secreted aboard our ships. While this search was happening, a problem was found. The Cylons had developed humanoid bodies. Commander Adama found our first example of this new style of Cylon at Ragnar Anchorage. During the searching of our ships, we found four more copies of what we now know to be Cylon Model 2."
Roslin takes a drink of water and pauses to take a breath.
"It had become clear to Admiral Adama and I that we had Cylons in the Fleet. They looked and acted human, but they are not human. The medical staff of the Cronus was able to study one of the Cylon Model 2s that resisted the Marines who tried to place him under arrest. Eventually, that Cylon died or at least appeared to, within moments of this Model 2 "dying," a Cylon Fleet jumped near our Fleet."
"This Fleet was met with all due force by Cronus Fleet and defeated. However, it was even more clear we had Cylons in our midst. A plan was put together by myself, my staff, Admiral Adama and his command staff. The plan was to conduct a census of all our people. This census would allow us to hopefully find the Cylons within the Fleet and give us an exact count of the remaining humanity in the Fleet."
"We believe, at this point, we have identified all but one model of the humanoid Cylons. While we have yet to identify this final model, we have found and arrested, we believe, all the other Cylons within the Fleet. Leaving one model, we are still searching for today. What we have learned from interrogating each of the Cylon Models is that many of them do not even know they are Cylons. However, when you stand six and seven people side by side, and they are identical, it is hard to argue that something strange is going on. On your screen now are pictures of the models we have identified. If you see someone matching one of these pictures, do not approach them yourself! Please, contact the Colonial Marines stationed on your ship, they will deal with the Cylon."
"Today, we stand at a crossroads. We have a way forward, but we have an enemy behind us. Only a fool would lead an enemy to our new stronghold. While I can not tell you today where we are heading, please know that your leaders have a plan and the will to see it through. I will address you again in the coming days as we have more to share. In the meantime, please rest and recuperate, we have food, water, medicine, and fuel. We have hope, and no one will take it away."
Apologies all. No idea what went wrong with the first upload!
Nox