I would like to thank Sable Cold for taking on the impressive job of being the Beta Reader for this book. As always reviews are welcome. If you find this is easier to read and follow. Thank Sable Cold and all of his hard work
I do not own Battlestar Galactica or have any connection with them, other than I have seen the shows. And it was a long time ago. I also do not own or have input into the game of Rifts. I don't even play the game. But I do own copies of some of the books, and I have used them for this story.
Chapter 41: Escalation is in my vocabulary
While things were wrapping up on the sea surface, the force from behind the moon was on the last leg of its still uncompleted attack mission. Part two of the mission after taking out the orbital assets was to make sure that the leadership of China did not try to launch a long-ranged missile attack against the Colonial Trading Post or anyone else for that matter. Mainly the Colonials wanted to remove China's ability to launch a nuclear strike against the island. It was expected that the added defenses and assets would be enough to stop the attack but that did not mean that a second part of the overall mission could not be done.
First on the list of ground targets for the space fighters were the silo covered and protected DF-5 and DF-41 ICBM's that had been found before the Colonials had even bought the first plot of land on this planet. There had been a steady effort by the Admiral's staff to keep a close eye on any long-range weapon that might be an issue to the trading post or even ships in orbit around the planet. China's actions had only moved their weapons sites higher on the overall watch list.
The Viper Mark VIII's coming down from space were all carrying a full load of missiles because they did not have to worry about atmospheric drag, threat aircraft, or protected storage for the devices under their wings and fuselage. These weapons were not Colonial, but Earth Rifter built, and they were outfitted with armor piercing warheads to go after what the locals called hardened sites or high value targets. Most of the time being high value to someone does not mean that it is a high payoff target for an enemy to hit. In this case, it was going to be worth the effort put out by the Colonials to remove these targets from the surface of the planet.
The standard VHE warheads would have to blast through many meters of the hardest construction China could build to date. What was not known was if the standard VHE that made up the warheads the Colonial weapons carried would be able to do the job alone. It took a few meetings, but it was eventually decided that they would pull the AP warheads from the limited supply of those very deadly weapons for this mission. Where the Colonial and Rifter VHE might not do the job, the armor piercing warheads would not have an issue taking out the targets on the hit list that had been put together and approved by the Admiral and his staff. Now if these weapons did not do the job, well, the Colonials had a few more weapons that would have no problem cracking any target on this planet like an egg under a sledgehammer. They were just not as clean as the old Rifter made and supplied AP warheads, but the job would be done.
The little Vipers were now diving through the thin air after removing the last low orbiting craft on their list from the space around the planet. They ripple fired the sixty independently targeted missiles that they were carrying between them. Some of the Vipers still were not 'flying clean', meaning they still had external weapons mounted, after the missiles started on their way towards the planet below. Those few craft pulled up and would now act as top cover in very low orbit over the planet, just in case. They were on a full wartime operating procedures and they were almost a hundred percent on passive sensors. It would have been very hard for Cylons to know that they were still up there in orbit, let alone Earth based systems.
Every silo filed with a weapon system called ICBM by the locals was hit. One after the other fire from heaven fell onto those weapons of mass destruction. About twenty silos were believed to be empty or just dummy silos expected to draw off or dilute any enemy fire. Kathy's group was confident they were able to find and sort them from the real threats. No one had been able to find out how good these dummy silos might be. Could they be made ready to receive a weapon that could be fired at some later date? Or were they just a covering of concrete and a few other odds and ends to make them look like real threats? If all else failed, the Colonels would target them later. If there was a next time. Until then, they targeted silos and the dummies would be kept squarely under the gaze of the Colonials.
The Rifter built or designed missiles broke their restraining clips from under the Vipers wings and fuselage and completed the last sixty-four kilometers of their trip on their own to the ground. They were dropping and sliding to the sides to line up on the bit of dirt that matched what had been pre-loaded into the targeting systems. The Vipers and their missiles were not being tracked by any ground systems in the area. They would have been very hard to spot anyway, even if all it would take was just the right kind of craft looking down and searching for a certain type of heat source to be able to see what was about to happen. That would change in the near future, but not until long after this attack was done. Until then, the Vipers and their weapons were about as stealthy as they could be without being designed that way from the start.
Most of the falling missiles still had a good bit of fuel in their main bodies when the nose cones touched the tops of the hard and thick silo covers. That was not by design but more of luck. The armor piercing rounds each had a very hard nosecone to help it push its way through anything that it might strike. It also had two warheads stacked one behind the other in the carrying case that was the main body of the weapon. Those warheads started right behind the forward guidance package of the weapon.
The first of the two tandem warheads exploded a few meters deep into the hard steel and reinforced concrete lids of the silo's tops. This explosion cleared the way for the primary warheads to enter the over thirty meter deep concrete and steel lined hole in the ground. The Colonial fired missile fell for about another twelve meters, bouncing off the sides of the silo and the massive missile before its job was complete.
The ten-story deep hole was a small target only four meters wide, and the warheads mounted on the top of the intercontinental ballistic missiles were even smaller. That was not even taking into account that these had been targeted from almost low Earth orbit. So, the Colonials had not bothered trying to hit the smaller target on the top of the massive flying fuel can. They went for damaging the lifting body, or what everyone else would have called the missile itself. They were so much easier to damage and make nonoperational than the hardened weapon designed to reenter the atmosphere at almost 25 times the speed of sound.
The DF-5 was an older missile design in the ICBM class of weapons in use on this world. It took almost an hour to fuel the beast before it could be let loose on the world. That was because it could not hold the fuel in its tanks for very long. At least not before it started to cause problems with the large weapon that would quickly render it unusable. That did not mean that it would not cause major damage if it was unleashed on the surface or even subsurface of the planet.
The smaller mega-damage class weapon that had fallen from the sky would have made an adult dragon take note. So when it went off in the confined area of the underground missile silo, the massive body of the lightly built missile just came apart under the hammer blow of the second and smaller warhead as it went into very unfriendly mode. The hammer blast caused the thin skinned vessel to come apart along with everything in a radius of about nine meters from the center of the blast zone caused by the Colonial delivered weapon.
The warheads mounted on the ICBM's nose fell into the maelstrom made by the Colonial warhead. Each of the DF-5's targeted had been fitted with three warheads called reentry vehicles, or in a few cases today a single warhead. They were more technically challenging to make than maneuverable reentry vehicles. In the shorthand terms of the warfighters, they were all just called RV's. The RV's were designed to survive the harsh conditions of reentering the atmosphere at very high speed. They were among the hardest parts of the weapon to make, and a very sought-after technology for those who do not have it. The surface temperature on the RV's during reentry would rival the surface of the sun for a handful of minutes. That is before the RV eats itself as the payload it was protecting detonated. Then the little bits left of the outer hard shell would add to the radioactive fallout of the warhead.
The Chinese RV's survived the fire, fall, and massive shock of the attacking Colonial weapons. And they did it without turning into nuclear fireballs under the abuse they had just been subjected to. RV's tended to be tough customers. An American Titan 2 missile had an issue in the 1980's when the six story building sized weapon went boom in its own silo. The nine megaton warhead was blasted upwards, along with the multi-ton lid of the silo. One went over hundred feet up and away from the hole in the ground it had lived in for many years. The weapon did not detonate or even leak any radiation from the insides of the city killing weapon. As noted, they were a feat of engineering all by themselves as long as one could get over the whole WMD city-killing part of the project.
The Colonial Vipers had taken the heart of out the long-ranged strike capability of the Chinese government with the loss of all of the DF-5s' and silo-based DF-41s. The DF-41's were slowly replacing the older missiles but had not completed the job by the time of the attack. The newer missile did not fare any better than the older weapons had. It was only that their loaded fuel tanks added more fire, concussion, and general fireworks with each popped heavy concrete silo lid.
The last twenty missiles carried by high flying Vipers went after the second leg of the locals' ICBM fleet. That leg was made up of the very deadly DF-31's and newer DF-41's. These massive weapons were carried on equally massive eight axie, 16 large wheeled all terrain transporter erector launchers. Those types of weapons were harder to keep track of compared to a hole in the ground. They also were a lot more fragile and easier to damage than a silo that was meant to stand up to a megaton or three of explosive force going off very close to them.
The last missiles launched from the attacking Viper only had six of the hard-hitting armor piercing warheads. The rest of the weapons were going to be just the standard plasma warheads. The six armor piercing missiles were backups in case there were any problems and a silo had to be revisited by the overflying Vipers. The last fourteen missiles were set up to give the most blast and heat possible to a given target's footprint or area on the ground.
Road mobile launchers can take a bit of shaking and still work but they were still very sensitive to damage and are so large that they are not that easy to fix out in the field. That is not even considering the difficulty of finding parts for those massive trucks. It is not like one can just go down to the nearest auto parts store and order a new set of shocks or something like that. The Colonials, with their more advanced systems, had very little problem finding what they were looking for on the Chinese mainland. They were able to identify the locations where the Chinese were hiding most of their fleet of huge multi wheeled weapons carrying this class of weapon. It did not take long for the well above supersonic Colonial launched weapons to make it to the locations of those targets.
The pilots on the Vipers would have said that they were flying low when the last weapon cleared the pylons on the craft in that one massive wave of firepower. They were still over twenty-one kilometers above the planet, flying at twice the speed of sound. That only helped to make them harder to see from the ground. They would have been hard to attack, even if they were not the stealthiest craft flying around the planet. The few covering Vipers were covering at almost forty kilometers, just in case the old god Murphy stepped in to say hi.
The rocket boosted and falling missiles were moving at over ten times the speed of sound and they were also very hard to track, but there were no systems looking towards the sky. All of those systems in the threat area were looking at threats that might be coming in at ground level. After all those, types of weapons were in the middle of one of the largest countries in the world. This idea also led to how the mobile devices were protected. The massive eight axie transports were only under light weight sheds, covered by large tree limbs from special selected trees.
Only about half were even loaded with missiles or even training air frames. The rest of the missiles were spread out around the area in reinforced bunkers for the protection and/or maintenance of those twenty-three meter long weapons. No one, not even the base commanders of the unit, knew which bunker held real missiles and which ones were empty or filled with training air frames. It is very hard to leak information if you do not know anything in the first place. If the weapons were needed, the commander would be told which bunker to go to by his immediate superior. This would also dictate what type of warhead or other capabilities to use. Did they want one massive warhead, a lot of smaller ones, or did they need a few smaller ones but with some decoys fitted to the front of the weapons? It was a complicated system, but it worked for them.
So, the Colonials were going after the massive, both in length and weight, transport and launcher combination vehicles. They would have to reload the whole flight of attacking Vipers if they had wanted to hit both the mobile-erector-launchers or MEL's and all of the supporting bunkers in the general area. And with the spread-out nature of these types of targets, the missiles did not hit the MEL's at anything like close timewise compared to the rest of the attack. It was more of a ripple of explosions as the Colonials weapons impacted on or very near the dark painted wheeled monsters, one after the other marching across the large country.
As the heat and blast shook the area that had been targeted, the light steel and aluminum covers were effortlessly blasted into the air like dried leaves in a tornado. The heavy steel that made up the transports folded and melted like butter due to the heat, and then they too flew through the air because of the blast wave of the heavy weapons.
In about twenty minutes after the fireball of the impacting weapons had dissipated, the space based Vipers were heading over the deep Pacific and almost to the Colonial controlled island. The fires of twenty-six of the Chinese's most massive transporter-erector-launchers or TEL's had turned them into so much scrap burning behind the Vipers. The Colonials craft did not take out the more numerous IRBM, MRBM, and SRBM mobile TEL's. The idea for the Colonial attack was that the attack would only take out weapons that could reach the Colonial islands. Those other types of weapons had too short legs to reach them from their bases in mainland China.
It would take weeks to get the wildfires under control, and even longer for the true scale of the damage to be assessed at the classified level the weapons storage sites were at. The fires were so hot that the American and Russian launch detection satellites picked them up. This was followed some of the environmental scanning satellites starting to pick up the larger and hotter fires that might have been made by multiple close strikes of the Colonial weapons. There never would be a public release of the attack to the people of China.
At first the very sensitive military systems thought it to be a massive launch when the silos started burning like giant blowtorches aimed towards the sky. This was when the President of the United States was awakened from her couple hour catnap. The threat of a possible nuclear strike caused a whole different type of person to seek entry into the Oval Office. The man with the football was in through the door before anyone could ask a question or try to stop him. Then a whole new set of fireworks went off.
It was a heated ten or fifteen minutes for the two other nuclear superpowers. After the yelling had stopped in one office, the fireworks would start up again. That was when she was brought up to speed on what had been happening while she slept on a couch in the Oval Office. Soon she was breaking plates mad again. The only interruption to this impromptu briefing was the Red Phone ringing on her Oval Office desk.
Only a few people had that number, so the briefing stopped dead in its tracks while she talked to the Russians about the heat blooms coming out of central and western China. That was when the second attack started burning areas near the suspected locations of the Chinese road mobile ICBM units. While her and Vlad were talking, another military person came running into her office. She blasted her news out to the whole room, loud enough for it to carry even over the red phone.
"We are not picking up any out bound tracks! And we are getting small tremors in the area. It seems like the weapons are self-destructing or someone's blowing them in place all over China!"
The young female captain was out of breath from the short but quick sprint from the military office all the way to the Oval Office. She was not a slow runner and only the most fit of the press corps was a whole forty-five seconds behind the panting military officer. Unlike the President, they had been watching the breaking news shaking the world. The open door just gave them a way to access the leader without needing to deal with the normal gate guards.
There were just enough press personnel to be able to get around the normal gate keeper, but they stopped when the secret service pulled their weapons out of well hidden holsters. The four very fit personnel were made up of two woman and two men. They did not point their weapons at anyone, but even pointing them at the floor was enough to get the veteran press pool reporters to slam on their breaks.
Henna shot the four secret service a sharp look that did not even faze her armed guards. She was madder at the reporters, and the look soon lost its power. "Damn that 'most open white house in history' BS I sold them on when I got this job."
She held up her hand and with a creepy off the cuff smile handed the red phone to her chief of staff. She quickly covered the dozen feet between the front side of her desk to the main door of the Oval Office. "Okay, this is a National Security matter. We will put a statement together as soon as we can."
It was by her hand that the door closed, blocking the press from her office. Only when the door was closed and she had turned around, did she see her close escort put their weapons away. She was both mad and not at the same time seeing this. She might advocate about the stupidity of privately owned weapons, but she had no problem with her people having them.
She now turned her gaze to the rest of the people in the room. "Okay now, what the hell just happened! And start from the top." In the background her chief of staff was talking in a low voice to the President of Russia.
Henna demanded a review of every order that the US military had been given during the 'event'. Most were too late for her to countermand, but others were not. One was the 'capture' of Chinese ships. She wanted then sent back to their country, and without an escort from US or any other country's armed forces, but after a long chat with a few ambassadors, she agreed that it would be better if they did go to Pearl Harbor after all.
Henna was now back behind the desk. The President of Russia was off the red phone and had joined in on a conference call on more normal line with over a dozen other world leaders. At first it had one of the senior leaders of the People's Republic of China, but after the fourth of fifth shouting match with either the representative of Australia, Japan, or even India. He had been disconnected from the meeting by his own hand. Though not after saying that China was going to embargo and put in major trade tariffs on anyone who did not support them. Henna was about to cave one more time to the Chinese when, seemingly out of the blue, the other ambassadors had not backed down. When she looked over to her chief of staff, he gave a slight shake of the head to keep her from saying anything.
When the main high-level meetings were done and a press release approved by her own hand, she looked over as the SecDef was about to retake his seat. Before anyone could say anything, she wanted to get something done and in the open. This time she did not care who might hear what she was about to say.
"I want that incompetent bastard fired!" There was so much heat coming off of her that it stunned everyone. She had been so calm and agreeable just a few heartbeats ago.
The Secretary of Defense plopped down the last pair of inches into the thickly padded chair, and he had a slightly bewildered look on his face. She was looking at him, so it must be someone under his authority but right now, he was drawing a blank.
"Excuse me, Madam President?" He surprised himself with how level and even his voice sounded.
It now seemed like flames were coming out of those dull blue eyes behind the old wooden desk. "Don't you dare play coy with me! I want that Admiral canned!"
She was not into full bellow mode as she vented out some of the frustration that she had felt building up since she had been scared out of a deep sleep. "I am the Commander-in-Chief, to question my orders or disobey my orders is treason. Come to think about it, have him arrested and put in prison before the day is out!"
The SecDef know knew who she was taking about, and he was not going to let that happen. If he had to, he would. He was a politician after all. But he would only give those orders out after he had defended the people under his leadership. "I don't think that would be a good idea. You are the Commander-in-Chief, and military Flag Officers of that rank serve at your convenience, but I don't think he broke any laws. The two Carrier Battle Groups did not shift position and those were the ones you had explicitly ordered out of that part of the world. He had a legal request made by a treaty member on an unencrypted line. He did not order or threaten any one in that part of the world, as you directed. A plan had been drawn up, where we 'shared' command of our military assets with other world powers. The overall commander in that area was not an American. They followed the orders of the fleet commander, who is Aussie. They did not follow any orders given by any senior US commander after they were told to uphold the treaty."
Henna almost levitated out of her chair and her hands slammed down on the old wooden desk. "Do not give me that shit! I told you, and I told those brainless twits in the Joint Chiefs! I did not want to get drawn into something like this. Now we have tens of thousands of Chinese citizens being held at gun point and soon to be on our shores. I want his head on a platter, and I what him in chains right damn now!"
The SecDef let out a little breath. "I will have orders cut to remove him from command, and I will check with JAG to see if there is any legal action we can look at taking." He could see that Henna was not going to listen to reason, not today. He was 99 percent sure that there were no legal actions that could be taken against Admiral Patch. He was just saying the words that he knew his boss wanted to hear.
Henna sat back down in her very expensive chair and she was not letting up on the heat she was projecting. "That is not good enough, but it is a good start." She turned and looked at a slightly smirking Secretary of State on the other side of the room.
The Secretary of State did not like the Secretary of Defense or anyone connected even slightly with the military. She could not help but smile as the current SecDef was put back into his place. And she was already trying to work out how to use it to her advantage. She was so lost in thought that she did not notice that she was being looked at by the boss.
Henna gave the younger woman a level look. "Don't think you're off the hook either. You had better have someone that knows what they are doing already on a plane, right damn now! We need someone that knows how to bring those crazy militaristic nutjobs under control. Before they start a nuclear war with someone." She knew it had to be those crazy Colonials that started this mess, and it was going to be up to her to make sure that it was cleaned up properly.
The SecState quickly looked down at her small computer. She looked like she was checking on what she had been told. The truth was, that she had no clue who to send to talk to the Colonials. It was not like they were taking any of her phone calls, e-mails, or old-fashioned paper letters. She had told Henna this a few times, but she seemed to have lost track of that information.
That was not the end of the meeting and the berating did not stop for a solid three hours. Henna delayed the interview she had wanted the nap for and called for a full staff meeting including her not publicly listed advisers. Once again, the world moved, and the United States did nothing but act like a traffic cop on Valium.
The BBC crews were packing up some items from around what had been their living and working areas for some time now. They were lucky, and not many items that had been blasted or burned up that were not replaceable. They might have lost a few pictures, or a favorite outfit of some kind, but that was it. All of the lost equipment would cost money and time to replace, but besides some blood, cuts, and bruises, none of the crew and staff of the news station were permanently hurt.
One of the staff had found the super golf cart or, more to the point, what was left of it not long after coming out of the bunker. They might have been able to make a barbecue pit out of what was left, but that was about all it would be good for. They did not take long to report that the emergency unit and sat phones would be the only ways to get any live transmissions out from the islands. Ruth was told to just do what they could to the get the stories out, but not to risk her people. The senior leaders of BBC were still coming to grips with what had happened and what was happening around the rest of the world.
After everyone had had a chance to look for anything personal in the wreckage, or just look around at what had been directed at them, Ruth decided that they were going to send teams on foot around the island. She wanted to get images and try to find out what was going on. It had been almost an hour since the last explosions had been heard in the distance by the team of news reporters. They were newshounds and every nerve, in all of their bodies, were telling them that something was going on. It was on the level of an addiction for most of them.
It was so ingrained into them that they had to find out what was going on around them no matter what the risk might be. Having someone drop a few four-hundred-pound sets of explosive warheads around them like a game of lawn darts? That would only delay them so long, and that time was almost up. Mell was working with Ruth to try to get her own way about leaving the bunker area. Ruth was not going to send her teams out. Not without a plan and at least an idea of where they might be at any given time.
Mell wanted to go straight to the island's command center, and not stop at every little hub of damage along the way there. Ruth wanted safety and as many shots as she could get without having to worry about subsequent attacking missiles. The screeching of tires that could be heard on the other side of the bunker stopped the discussion midword and both women looked toward the sound of abused rubber on hard concrete. After all, they knew that the sound could not have come from anything that belonged to the BBC.
Charles was in his 'spot' for the show as it played out in the skies and in space around the islands. That place was in the center seat of the command center. It was too bad that he had to fight to keep his mind in the game that was taking place around him. So far, everything was going about as well as he had expected it to go. He did not have to have all of his head in the game every second, and he did not notice the end of the Viper vs fighter fight some miles away. He had no doubt that his people would take them all out. They had trained for this type of fight, and within seconds he knew that the enemy air breathers had not detected his craft even after they fired off their first missiles. He knew that part of the battle was over except for the dying.
While the wave of missiles was being thinned out, he could tell that they were not going to get that many of the weapons before they started to fall on to his command. When the ECO's on the Raptors found the security hole in the enemy missile systems, he let out some of the breath he had been holding as the steady march of death was displayed heading towards him. They just did not have enough time, not even with the second grounded spaceship throwing out pulse laser blasts and KEWs into the attacking cruise missiles. His heart stopped when plotting said that six of missiles had made a high-speed turn and were heading towards the BBC compound at supersonic speed. He had not even noticed when the attacking missiles dropped their cruise mode boosters and went supersonic. Compared to Cylon systems, they were still as slow as cold molasses.
He knew that he had done everything that he could to protect them and the one person he really wanted to keep safe on this whole bloody island, but no one knew if it was going to be enough when the last missile fell from the skies. About the only thing they knew was that none of these weapons had nuclear warheads fixed to the missile bodies. Was that going to be enough? They would find out but only when the blasts had stopped rocking the islands.
As the battle moved and damage reports started coming in from Charles' people spread out around the island, he started to worry more and more. When he got the report from the observation point nearest the BBC hut, it felt like his heart was going to stop. They had reported that they could see the whole area burning. They had also reported that they had seen debris of some kind flying through the air after the first pair of missiles hit close together, but that they could not see people moving in the now thinner and shorter treeline. They had other areas to watch that were more relevant to the Colonials and Charles would not ask them to waste time on a personal issue in a time like this. Still, he found his eyes going back to the map of the island and the area highlighted as the BBC station.
There was nothing he could do but wait until this mess was over. While he waited, and the blasts were felt through the soles of his boots, he had a flashback to when the Cylons attacked. It left him shaken in a way that was visible to the rest of the Command Center but not a word was said. More than a few of the people in this room had their own flashbacks to that hellish day.
When the main Chinese fleet was decimated and the main landing force was no longer threat, he started looking for a reason to see if one specific person on this green island was okay. It was not until the space based Vipers were on their way to refuel and rearm, and his force of Raptors and Vipers were rearmed and ready to launch again that he felt it was okay to look after something that was of a more personal nature.
They were just starting to launch the newly refueled Colonial craft so they could start providing top cover to the islands when Charles looked around and one part of his mind thought that it looked like he might be able to pop out for a few minutes. He had been impressed with how quickly and totally some of the locals' warships had come to the aid of the island without being asked. They had seen the attack and had a very good idea why it had been launched in the first place. They were not going to stand around and do nothing while someone was being bullied. Members of Charles' staff made sure to note who had helped. It did not take them long to see one country that had been a bit bipolar in its response to the attack on the islands.
Charles had just finished talking to an Earthborn on one of the phone lines about what he wanted to do with the ships within the landing force and the nearest disabled or damaged Chinese warship that was still afloat. He quickly told the facts of life as the Colonials saw them. He wanted them off the water as soon as possible or he was going to put them under the water. All they had to do was get out of the line of fire and his forces would take care of the rest. Part of it was a bluff, but only a small part. He was just as happy to sink those ships as look at them. That part was no bluff.
Things looked like they were settling down, so he used his second in command to get one of the fully armored and armed Mountaineer-class ATV's parked outside the command center. He was going to check out the reported damage to the island from a closer perspective. The staff just nodded their heads as he went about his alibi. His 'girlfriend' was one of the worst kept secrets on the whole island.
Charles hit the main road and took a right. He picked up speed as he went. He was not even looking that closely at the damage done by the Chinese missiles as he went flying by on the island's reinforced roadways. It was not that bad and everyone was still in their assigned safe points in case the command center missed something or someone else decided to launch an attack on them.
Charles passed the loading and offloading pier and kept heading south on the main road. He did not notice the smoke rising over the trees in the general location off to his right where the pier and marinas were. His eyes were focused on the massive dark cloud of smoke coming up from where the BBC headquarters should have been. Besides, he had already seen a few reports about the damage done to those particular areas. According to the reports, there was nothing damaged that could not be fixed. That is, if they had enough time and heavy equipment to do the work.
Charles took the last corner a little too fast and two wheels threatened to come off the blacktop as physics took temporary control of his transportation. This did prompt him to slow down to the speed limit the his people had posted on this road. Charles had just gotten the beast back under full control when he saw who he was looking for. That caused another brief distraction.
She was standing in the field, backlit by the still burning and heavily smoking BBC house. Charles stomped on the brake pedal hard enough to almost bend the floor plate. The massive tires on the ATV grabbed the blacktop and a loud screech came from the machine as it converted speed into heat and stopping ability. Charles was out of the ATV before the back end of the vehicle could fully settle back down on its super heavy-duty shocks.
Mell's head jerked to the sound of the tires aggressively gripping the road. To her amazed eyes, she saw the armed four wheeled ATV that she knew was supposed to be for the QRF's use. She saw the Colonial commander come out of the one side door even before the ATV had stopped rocking from the sudden stop it had just been commanded to do.
Her group was only a hundred steps or so from the Colonial ATV. She was always amazed how quiet the Colonial machines could be when they wanted to be or when it suited their purpose. Ruth and the rest were all watching the Colonial officer fast walking towards them. In their collective experience, when a senior leader walked towards a group of reporters that fast, it was not going to be good news for the reporters. Really, any time a leader was walking towards a group of reporters of his or her own free will instead of running away, it was a safe bet that the other boot was about to fall on someone. And the odds would favor that it was going to fall on the reporter's heads.
Then they all were hit in the head with a brick. A pin drop could have been heard but all there was were the birds upset about all the noise as Charles walked up to Mell. He grabbed her and pulled her close and planted one right on her lips. Like something from those trashy romance novels.
What surprised the BBC crew was that she was kissing him back just as passionately. Their secret was now out to the whole island. It would seem that this bit of news had slipped through the cracks and blindsided all of the reporters. Ruth was put in a bad spot watching her head reporter and the local big shot publicly express their passion.
She needed Mell but Ruth was an old school reporter. She thought that a reporter should not have any distractions that might affect their objectivity in any news stories they might be pursuing. Ruth let her mind work on that for a while, and a slight smile broke on her stern face. Then again, having the local commander as a boyfriend, now that would open up some closed doors they had run into over the last few days of looking for certain types of information. Ruth shook her head to leave that line of thought. That was one of the reasons having a private life as a reporter could be so tough. Ruth still did not interrupt the contact and just let it work itself out. Most of the news team went about their jobs with only the occasional sidelong looks in the couple's general direction. More than a few of those looks were a little on the jealous side.
After his and Mell's public display of affection, Charles would have to leave and get back to his tasks without giving much up about what was going on around this area of the world to the reporters. He now could do his job and the next phase of operation now that he knew that the first woman in his life since his wife had died in the Cylon attack and that he was coming to love was safe and unhurt. At least the first one that lasted for more than just a night or two.
Charles let go of Mell and let her feet touch the ground and turned to look at the head of the news crew. He had a flashback of his last meeting with Laura Roslin. He could tell that she was weighing the issues of his relationship with her head reporter. Charles made his face go still and put his 'I have to work' look into his body language.
"Ruth, I have room for two additional people in my ride. It is open if you would like to send some people along while I check out the damage to the rest of island. That is, if you want it?"
Ruth was quick on her feet and went for the offer with both feet. She did not care if it was a token to gloss over the Mell and Charles issues or not. And she did not care if she was going to use the offer to get another worldwide scoop. Besides it was what her boss had wanted, images and the real story about what they had just been put under by the Chinese attack.
"Josh, Lee! Go grab your gear, quick. You're riding with the Colonel."
She had not taken her eyes of the Colonial. She was in producer mode and she wanted to get as much information as she could, while she could. Besides, it might be hours before her team could get back and then send the video out on their emergency device. The worst he could do was say no. He might just say yes and if he said no to her, he might say yes to Mell.
"Colonel, do you think you can give us an interview to send to the rest of the world in the short term? The sooner the better on getting that out. You will want to get ahead of anyone else that might be saying something that you might have the facts to counter before it gets any traction. You know that it would be harder to counter a lie after it gets enough traction in people's minds"
Charles now realized that he was still holding Mell's hand. She had warned him about what Ruth's attitude might be about their relationship if it became open knowledge. Charles had picked up that Ruth had not picked her to go with him. That told him that he could not take her or even ask to take her on the ride around the island. At least not without jeopardizing Mell's job. It might have risked his job already, but at least he knew that she was alive. He was betting that Bill Adama would understand. For now he had to get back into doing the job he was being paid to do. If he did not do his job, then Bill would can his frakking ass so fast it would snap his neck.
"Sure, Ruth but will the take be worth it?" He pointed to the still burning and blasted remains of the barely identifiable uplink truck.
"We might be able to do something with our equipment? But it would take some time, and we have some other issues we are dealing with. It will be maybe as long as a day or two, before you can transmit off the island." Charles continued.
Ruth and Mell looked at him like he had a snake growing out of his forehead and spoke in stereo, but the rest was Ruth's show. "YES! You need to let the world know that you're alive and the attack failed. It did fail right? It does not matter how bad the transmission quality is going to be, as long as you let people know you're alive. You know we still can transmit live on our own, right?"
Charles gave a smile that made Mell's blood run cold, and even Ruth almost took a step backwards. The tone was dripping anger and his normally calm eyes flashed like he was firing heat pumped lasers. In all of the excitement, he had completely forgotten about the emergency camera that had been smuggled on to the island.
"Yes, they failed. And they got the frak kicked out of them while they did it. I don't think the Chinese will be coming around again anytime soon. I bet their chain of command still does not know how bad they had their butts kicked yet. Last I heard, we have not lost anything that could not be replaced in a couple of supply runs. Where do you want me?"
Ruth waved and one of her other crewmembers came running over with the brick sat phone. She let her people on the other side of the world know that they were getting ready for an important live interview. She was in a rush to set this up, and she glossed over most things about what she had found out. She focused on telling them who she was going to be interviewing.
The Director-General of the BBC and almost all of the staff in London was waiting near the main control room ever since the first word of the attack broken to the world. It was both because of the scale of the event, and because their people were in harm's way. The head of broadcasting shot a look over to the head of the company and gave him a little knowing smile. The gifts just kept on coming for their company.
Ruth set up the shot for the upcoming snap interview for live transmission to the rest of the world. Her first instincts were that she wanted to pull Mell away from this interview, but she could not come up with a good enough reason to. There was a reason that Mell was on this island in the first place. She was one of the best in the world at her job. So there she was in center frame as Ruth set up for what might be one of the top one hundred interviews of the century.
Ruth waved to her and started to count down from three, and then pointed at the younger woman. "This is Mell Kelly and we're now able to talk to the senior member of the Colonial local government on this planet, Colonel Charles Bellamy. Colonel, can you tell us what happened over the last couple of hours? All we know is that someone fired a lot of weapons at us, and that the Chinese had threatened to invade these islands. They seem to have been very indiscriminate with their aiming, whoever it was that attacked before the announced deadline."
The satellite phone's augmented camera did not move or it would lose a lot of image quality. So, Charles had to step into frame for his part in this little production. He had read Ruth like a book, and he had to fight to keep the smile from coming to his face. Now was so not the time to be seen with a cocky smile on his face to the rest of the world. Maybe later, but not right now. He needed to play his part very carefully.
"Thank you, Miss Kelly. And I also want to think the BBC for going above and beyond in the news business of your world. We are working on a formal press release at this time, but your offer of this interview will get the basic information out to the wider audience faster. Even if it will be a lot less polished than what my staff is working on." Charles went from looking at Mell to looking at the small fisheye camera lens
"As you know, the Chinese leadership demanded that we surrender all of our technology and personnel to them a few hours ago. My government has strong feelings about slavery of any kind and theft in any form. We think their core reason for this action was the results of our barring them from access to any Colonial tech. That was because of their actions in cyber attacking us many times before we physically acted against them." Charles was getting into the swing, even though he had not practiced this little speech.
"Me, I find it kind of funny that they do not recognize copyrights from any other country but if you try to stop them, they start making all kinds of threats. We, the Colonials from Kobol, have one set of rules and laws. And we expect all parties to obey them. No matter who they are, or how powerful they may think they are. There are one set of rules that everyone is held accountable to." Charles waved to the smoking ruins behind them.
"That was the buildup for this attack, and it was not something they launched with what just happened to be around here. We had been keeping an eye on a buildup of Chinese combat firepower in the local area for some time now. Just for your information, it had been building for months before they made demands in front of the UN and the press. It was my government's opinion that the demand was just a cover for an attack that was already coming, an attempt to seize what they wanted. It would not matter what was agreed to. So, we told them in your terms to go pound some sand. This was not a surprise attack, as you would call it. But it was only just short of that legal term."
Charles stopped talking and took a sip of water from a canteen of water on a stand near him. "It would seem, that the Chinese did not like the reply we gave them. They launched a massive attack on our islands soon after our statement was given, and well before the announced deadline. I am also sorry to say, that we were not surprised by their response to our statement. I will say that I am glad that the bunker we were able to build for you worked. We are not a dumb people even though this is our first, first contact with another major culture."
Charles let a small smile come to his face now. "After some research, we found that the Chinese do not have a problem attacking any bystanders and the press were occasionally included in this category. Those facts were on your information network, and they helped us make some plans. We had noticed that they seem to like it, when they are the only ones that can get their version of the story out. And even later, the only story to come out would be from their point of view alone. So, when they launched an attack with over four dozen carrier-based aircraft and over a thousand land attack missiles in one massive wave of destruction, we activated our own counter plans that we had been working on for some time now."
Mell, Ruth and the entire news crew within hearing distance gave a gasp, which was picked up on the transmission and relayed across the world. No one had understood the scale of the attack that they had just seemingly weathered. Something like what Charles had described was around the number of weapons that the US and a coalition of allies used to invade a fair-sized country. And that country had been a major military power, not some little island with less than 5,000 people calling it home. It was a massive hammer to use on such a small area of the world.
Charles hoped that their reaction was picked up and transmitted out, but he could not be sure at that time. So, he took the time to reinforce what he had just said. "Yes, that's a lot of weapons to be used in a single day. And this fact alone showed us that the Chinese government wanted to wage total war against us. So, we gave it to them. We are still getting the numbers together, but we have not lost a single craft in our counterattack against the Chinese naval and other forces that were aligned against us. We don't know about our ground forces on the island but we are working on that as we speak. We stopped the attack, but you can't stop that number of missiles launched from so close to our borders." Charles was working on what he could say and what he should withhold on the fly. It was a fine line to have to walk while on camera.
"We do know that only about a dozen or fewer Chinese fighters survived to retreat towards their two home carriers. We had to split our defense forces to work counter missile, counter ship, and counter fighter operations. I'm sure some of your more military minded people will understand how hard that is to do with any chance of success. It might seem easy in the movies you have seen or entertainment games you have played but those are for entertainment with very little connections to the real world."
Charles turned from the camera lens and looked at the interviewer with a sad look in his eyes, which was easy to read on his face. "Mell, you know that we are refugees. We don't have much, after losing over twelve billion people to the Cylons in a surprise attack, we just don't have that many resources. That is one of the main reasons we set this trading post up in the first place. We will not stop at half measures when it comes to protecting ourselves. Escalation is in our vocabulary, and we will use it. We cannot afford not to do that."
Mell and Ruth could hear the heartbreak in his voice, and they hoped that it was carried over to the rest of the world. Charles quickly re-centered himself and started back up on his briefing. "We attacked both carrier battle groups and the missile attack group with small craft stationed around my command. So far, from the reports from our people, and one of your local Admirals agree, only three of the escorting warships were left afloat in our local area out of the fourteen ships in each of those two main Chinese battlegroups."
"The missile attack force was also attacked, and we know all sixteen ships were hit. As far as I know, only one of those warships is still afloat at the time I left the Command Center but it's dead in the water at the last report. I am taking it under advisement to let one of your local governments figure out what to do with that one."
Charles was not going to say anything about how he had already contacted Tahiti and suggested that they might want to see some of their ships out to that area of the ocean and help get one of the damaged ships into a friendly port. He definitely was not going to say anything about how he had offered technical help in getting the ship back into operation, if it was feasible.
"I and my pilots want to blow them all out of the water and be done with it once and for all. We know that China also sent a landing force so that they could take control of our land by force of arms and boots on the ground. They thought that around 30,000 ground troops and their attached heavy weapons would be enough to bend us to their will, but only after their fighters and missiles had softened us up first. That is, if they could make landfall. They will not be able to do so." Charles gave a sneer to the camera that had a lot of teeth and was dripping with contempt.
Mell turned ghostly white off camera. If what Charles had said was true and they had just taken out all of those warships, then those troopships would be nothing more than blood and meat filled targets for the Colonial made weapons. She had been on US troopships while on assignment, and she had noticed that the ship had very few long-ranged weapons. That is, unless they intended to defend themselves using the troops in their hulls.
Charles had a hard look on his face now, and he did not say anything more for long seconds. Both Ruth and Mell were afraid of what the other man was about to say. They thought they knew him, but it would seem that the Chinese had changed the rules. Only time would tell if Charles or the other Colonials had been pushed over the edge, all in the cause of protecting their people.
"We could have blown those ground forces out of the water without risking a single one of my people. We were going to do just that but we had been asked by the senior naval officer from a third party nation operating in the area to let them be interred in a neutral port. That is, instead of sending them to the bottom of the ocean. We want those ships. Any other assets that were to be used against us, they also belong to us and will use them as we see fit. You might call it the spoils of war and look down your noses at us. We call it justice. The way we look at it, we cannot allow those assets to be used it against us again. Right now, we are willing to let your planet bound governments act as intermediaries between us and the Chinese government. I want to put this out to all of the governments of this world. If you frak with us, all you are going to get are the horns. Just ask the Chinese fleet commanders."
Charles took a second sip of water from his canteen. He had not been using his outside voice but this had been a long day already and the smoke from the surrounding area was not helping. That did not even count the dust and ash floating in the air. He took another swig of water just as the wind changed and the group was surrounded by the thick black smoke of the burning BBC's operations building.
"As I said, we were not surprised by the Chinese's actions today. My government has had what you would call a light or escort carrier stationed behind your moon for some time now. When the Chinese launched a large missile at our overwatch Raptor in orbit to kick off this attack, they showed that they would use space assets and assets on their mainland to support the assault on us."
Charles now had a thin-lipped smile on his face as he described what that light carrier had done to the list of targets. "We used these space-based Vipers to take out every satellite that was owned or used by the Chinese government. When I say every satellite, I mean every one of them. Now China will not be allowed to operate space based assets including launching platforms for any other country that they might try to sell services to. We cannot and will not allow them the ability to use that avenue to launch an attack on us again, ever! I have just proven to the world that we have the weapons, skill, and training to make this a truth and not a threat."
Charles stopped talking and looked deep into the small camera for a few seconds. This was his big hammer, and he did not want to waste it. "We also attacked all of China's silos containing long ranged nuclear armed missiles. We attacked most of the sites where they store the larger trucks used to carry and launch their very long ranged nuclear weapons and counter satellite weapons. I think you call them ICBM's or something like that. We know that we did not get all of them but we wanted to put a dent into any weapons systems that could reach our island from their mainland. Again, we will defend ourselves. And if they try anything else, we will hammer them flatter than Hermes's sandals." Charles could feel something like steam coming out of his shirt, and he tried to calm himself.
Charles stopped talking again and looked over at Mell standing just out of the camera's field of view. He did not smile or show any other emotions while addressing the reporter. "Thank you for your time. Please excuse me, I have to finish checking on my people after this attack on our homes. I am sorry that your home and workplace was targeted because you just happened to be on the island with us. Please pass along to my staff a list of anything you might need to get back on your feet. We will help as much as we can but we have to take care of our wounded and the dead before we can start helping the living."
Charles stepped out of camera sight, just as he had been told to do. This was so that Mell could step back into the shot, now that the Colonel was finished with his part of the show. "Colonel, thank you for time."
Mell turned to look at the fish eyed lens, and her face was as grim as the blasted scene behind her. "As soon as we see what is left of our equipment and supplies, we will be sending our video teams out around the island. We hope to get a better idea of the damage done by the Chinese's massive surprise missile attack on these once peaceful islands."
The cameraman supervising both the small sat phone device and the larger HD camera recording the interview gave each of the devices a quick final look. He then signed with a hand slashing across his throat to indicate that they were not transmitting or recording anymore. He started packing down the equipment in their protective cases as soon as the power lights went off and the computer controls had stopped spinning. He was the one that was responsible for making sure all of this expensive gear was in good working order. With the loss of the uplink van, it was now imperative if they still wanted to work.
The high-tech gear did not like salt or water and both of those things were in abundance on this island at any time, day or night. Even if no one noticed it happening until the things were powered up the next day. That did not take into account the sand or the soot and ash now drifting in the air. Now, it was even more important to protect the items since they were the only means they had left to transmit a live or important show. They had no backups if this camera became nonfunctional.
Ruth was on the satellite phone as soon as the transmission had ended. It would seem that the BBC's website and other news shows were being bombarded. So far, they were the only news services that was getting anything close to facts out to the rest of the world. The head of the BBC, who was listening in on the conference call, had to tamp down on the demands that were being fired at her by his staff. He wanted to let her know that she was to protect her people first and foremost. He also told her that they were going to start working on getting a replacement support package out to them. Now that a big boss was on the line, Ruth was able to get back to work less than ten minutes later. She was very relieved to be told that "All of the right people know where you are at." In Ruth's mind that could only mean the Special Air Service or as better known to friend and foe alike, the SAS
Mell and Charles shared another kiss and hug before he hopped into the side door of the waiting ATV. The other two news personnel were already in the beast, waiting to leave with him. It was just luck and good camera skills that the armed vehicle was not included in the last second transmission to the outside world. The windows were tinted, so Mell could not tell if he was waving to her or not as he pulled away from the side of the bunker. When she turned around Ruth was standing there with both of her fists on her hips. While she had been talking to their bosses on the other side of the world, Mell thought that they might need to walk a bit away from everyone. She fully expected that this talk was building into something that might get ugly.
Charles did not need to head farther south, so he went back north towards the pier and the space field. His Ops center had said that nothing seemed to have been targeted very much past the BBC compound. It would seem that the attack was focused on the north end of the main island. His first stop was the main pier where all the cargo from off island had been handled to date. Charles was watching the two news people in the back seat. He was trying not to throw the two people around too much as he drove down the black top. At least now that he knew Mell was okay, he was driving at a more reasonable pace. He was not a Viper pilot by training, so he understood that there was a thing as having too much speed.
Charles stopped the ATV at the end of the stone covered support building that marked the land to pier transition and was also a hidden bunker. He stepped out of the door of the ATV to stand on the many times repaired off ramp and looked around the area for the first time. He made sure to pull out a set of binoculars and started to scan the area from left to right. He wanted to get as much detail as he could. They were not the only ones in the area. The news crew had gotten out of the ATV not that much slower than Charles had.
Charles waved at a few people who were walking around. He knew that they were checking out the structure of the pier to make sure it was safe for use after the pounding the local area had just received. The rest of the people assigned to this area were in the up armored building near the ATV that also served as the port or harbor master's house. The news crew was recording everything right along as Charles surveyed the damage. The pair of news people did not talk as they filmed. That was not their part of the job. They were just there to get images and data, and it would be up to someone else to put those facts out by voice.
The large pier had two large holes blown in the concrete top deck and into the rubble filled structure of the pier. In those two areas, the missiles had successes in blowing out the solid sides of the critical piece of infrastructure. Charles could see reflected in the water below the pier that the first hole was midway down the length of the long pier. The other hole was only about ten feet from the important deep-water end of the pier. He had already approved plans to recover the pier with the now Colonial standard concrete in the near future. It would seem that the attack was going to push that task a lot closer to the top of the Priority list.
He took the field glasses and looked around the area. This was the hardest hit area that had reported into the Command Center before he had left to go check on Mell. A lot of the Chinese missiles had been very low flying so the two modified cargo ships on the old airfield could not stop all of them as they got closer to the island. They could only hit the ones they could see and it looked like a few times, some trees might have gotten in the way of the Colonial fired pulse laser or 30mm KEW's. The safety interlocks had kept the weapons from hitting targets that might have been visible through a building.
When Charles turned his gaze to his right, he did not need his field glasses to take in the damage. The marina across from the stone pier was a disaster area, to put it simply. It looked like two or more missiles had hit the lightly made floating piers and thinner made rubble jetties. Charles pulled out a digital pad and sent a note to see if they could find out how many strikes had fallen into this area. This was bad, but only in the sense that it was going to take a lot of hours to repair the area. And this area was not listed as important. The marina was not going to be fixed except by people working on their own time to do it. It was going to be a very visible eyesore for some time to come.
Two medium sized piers looked to have broken lose and might be sinking near the mouth of the small cove Charles looked around in and he could see trees toppled all over the place. Very little smoke was rising despite all of the damage done to this area, though. For example, the area near the BBC site was throat hurting filled with smoke from the strikes. Charles chalked this fact up to his people coming out of their hideouts to put some of the fires out before they could do more damage than had already been done during the bombardment. This area looked bad, but it was repairable to his engineer trained eyes. It would only take time, manpower, and the right stuff to put the key parts of this area into operation again. The rest would just be 'make pretty' work.
Charles went back to the ATV and waved for the news crew to get back in. This they did in a practiced rush. They did not want to be left behind. Charles did not talk to the news crew, and they did not want to risk alienating the Colonial and losing both their ride and their access. The short drive to The Restaurant was... well short. Here more damage could be seen all around them. Some of it had been caused by the missiles falling from the sky due to damage done to them by the nearby spaceships. Other damage had been caused by missiles falling because some targeting team had selected that area for the attention of Chinese made explosives.
Now he and the news crew could see homes, some emptied and some under new management. A lot of them had been blasted apart by the massive warheads that the Chinese had sent. Huge craters were blasted into the sand, dirt, and rock of the lower lands near the water. A few smaller craters could be seen on the right side of the road going higher into the island. It did not take that much of a stretch to think that the enemy had focused his fire closer to the sea. All those years of combat told Charles what damage had been caused by the Chinese and what had been done by Colonial made weapons.
The hub of the social life on the island was The Restaurant, and the news crew was making sure to zoom in on the smoking and blasted building. When Charles stooped the ATV to look around the area, he was soon swarmed by people coming out of the building like a wave of arms and legs. Not one was over the age of sixteen and the human wave almost bowled the Colonial officer off his feet. All of this and the tears coming down his face were picked up on the high definition cameras.
The video crew was waiting to see if anyone was hurt, but none seemed to have a scratch. That seemed impossible with the visible damage done to the outside of the building they were coming out of. The news crew focused in on a pair of kids that had to be both between five and six years old. They were clutching toys in one hand and part of the deck railing in the other. They were not crying, or even looked shell shocked. They just looked mad. It was a look many of parents had seen before, no matter where home was. It was like getting punched in the guts by a heavy weight boxer.
Charles got his feet back under him, and the wave of bodies subsided. He glad-handed and hugged a few of the kids before three adults came out and shook hands with the island's commander. All three had armbands with a red cross and caduceus on them. Charles went inside as the small news crew took images between the kids now playing outside and the battle-damaged building the commander entered. The pair also took the time to get a bit closer to the damaged building and record it. They also took down written notes from the people who were willing to talk to them. It was confirmed that the kids were mad. They told how the building had shaken from the explosions.
Charles was not gone long. Maybe it was only ten or fifteen minutes before he came out of the building again. He did not so much walk out of the door and off the deck as storm out of the damaged building. When he came out and into the light of day. He merely pointed to the ATV while he was coming down the steps of the building like a god of war. He stopped to talk for a second after re-entering the ATV before he let them in. He let them know what had happened at this location.
Charles was pissed and the crew could tell but they had no real idea what had happened and they were almost scared to find out. Charles pointed to the youngest of the pair, the one with the camera. He made a circling motion in the air. The surprised cameraman threw the camera back onto to his shoulder so fast he banged it on the back of the passenger compartment. When he was ready, he gave the Colonial officer a thumbs up.
"This building is listed as a food service, school, and back up hospital for our people. We even made sure to file all of the required paperwork with your UN not long after our first barbecue. Just so that it would be safe for some of our noncombatants to shelter in. We should not have had to armor the place, in case of an attack. Now I have to decide if the reason it was hit was that China does not have any precision guided weapons that are ship launched or that they targeted this building for a specific reason. We should not have to had armor this place as if it was an above ground bunker. It looks like maybe four weapons hit it or close enough."
Charles had the man point the camera back out the small side window to get one more image of the building. "Oh, by the way? This was the project I pulled the equipment off of to build the bunker you all were hiding in. Now I'm glad they were able to finish this before those frakkers started firing at us. What do you think? Do they have guided weapons? Or did they target this place because they knew it would be filled with my people?"
The news crew had no idea what to say. The smart move was not to say anything and just record what the Colonial commander had said. Oh, and try to be as small as possible. Charles did not say anything else for a few seconds and just gave a slight nod to the camera. This was taken by the cameraman to mean that this part was done.
Charles nodded again when the camera came off the shoulder and turned back around in his driver's seat. Charles drove slowly the rest of the way. He stopped at the airfield but did not check in with the command center. He drove onto the tarmac and then to the main part of the recovered runway. When he was close enough, he pulled the ATV onto the dirt off to one side of the old runway. If important items should come up the command center would contact him on the Mountaineer ATV's radio, so he did not feel the need to check in just yet.
Everything he had said in the ATV to the news team was true. Of course most clinics do not have half a dozen hidden arms vaults. The manpower to build the bunker the BBC used did come from this project, but the heavy equipment had been taken from other areas. They had started modifying The Restaurant not long after it became clear that it was going to be the center of off duty activities.
The modifications had been done in such a way that they could not be seen from the outside. First, key load-bearing members had been reinforced with Colonial made alloys. Then, thin sheets of armor plate had been attached so that within the walls of the larger building were a few good-sized safe rooms. It was an ongoing project that still was not fully complete. They had only just started to dig out a basement to increase the covered space.
That was not technically allowed by the UN. Then again, both the Rifters and the Colonials had seen too many times where someone else did not follow any rules that they did not want to. It is very hard for the dead to object about how they had died. The massive armor piercing warheads had blasted through the non-upgraded parts of the building with ease. The damage was extensive but everyone had been in the safe rooms during the attack. Had the building been at maximum capacity, there was a good chance that the loss of life would have been very heavy, even after the upgrades that had been done to it.
Charles next went to the newest ship on the airfield and talked to its crew. The news camera crew could see the weapons mounts on the sides and top of the spaceship very clearly. Smoke was still coming off a pair of the twin weapons on its flat top. The news crew had never seen weapons on these types of ships before, but they had not filmed every ship that had landed. While they were filming, a group of three people stopped by one of the top mounted weapons and seemed to start working on it or something that was near the four foot long twin barreled turret. That was when a secret of the Colonials came out and was recorded by the news crew. Only it was not a secret. It was just that no one had ever asked what every tube-like projections were on all of the ships. Everyone had just been told that they were civilian cargo, converted passenger liners, or passenger liners that had survived the Cylon attack.
The 'civilian' cargo ships coming to the island were not as benign as most people had first thought for something called civilian. The camera crew on the ground was thinking that maybe the weapons turrets had malfunctioned during the attack. It was only after some TLC from the crew that it popped back into its hiding place behind a sliding piece of the spaceship's skin invisible from the ground. They were able to get images of both weapons going back into their hiding places while Charles talked to someone in the crew of the space liner.
What they did not see was that Charles was actually talking to the ship's captain rather than the average everyday crewmember. The other 'grounded' ship was not so much as looked at. If the camera crew had looked, they would have seen the same show being put on for anyone who might be watching. What they could not see were the burn marks from the counter missile launchers and pulse laser weapons turrets. They would have been very surprised to know that those twin turrets had come off one of the military ships of the fleet.
The ship's master was very pleased with his ship and her crew. The ship had served as the main low-level interception platform during the massive strike against them. It had been able to tie into the defense grid of the newly arrived second ship seamlessly. His ship had worked perfectly, even better than had been hoped for considering that all of its components were off the shelf and/or more or less handmade. It was a feat of design and skills developed in training.
In fact, the two twin 30mm KEW turrets had been left exposed just so that the news crews could get some images of them. The ship only had a dozen of the old-style KEW turrets fitted to her hull. The rest of her weapons were the new pulse lasers and still hidden away. That bit of information was not for the news crew to know about. The Admiral and the President only wanted any future enemies to have evidence of the older and less powerful Colonial designed weapons. At least for now. Their 'friends' might wind up knowing more but the Colonials were not going out of their way to show anyone all of their cards.
The needing to be fixed had been the idea of the grounded space liner that now was the core of the island's air defense system. It was hoped that it would explain why they were just now being exposed to the world after a major attack had been launched against them. It looked to have worked, but Charles would have to wait and see what questions would come out of this little slip-up later. He had high hopes that it would work.
The reason for the stop besides letting the news crew get a good look at the old-style counter missile weapons was that Charles wanted to make sure that any ammunition left on board the newer ship would be transferred over to this one. He wanted all of the spent rounds replaced with what the other ship had not shot off. The second ship would be leaving soon, and it could have its ammo bunkers replenished once it was back on New Kobol. Allowing the lasers to be seen or recorded in action would only happen if things went from bad to 'Oh Frak!'
Offloading the KEW ammunition and spent shells from the grounded liner would also open up more storage space on the converted ship for items coming off of this planet. She could then carry more cargo to take back to the rest of the Colonials, and that was a very good thing. Every bit of those needed items was something they did not have to make them themselves instead of other important and harder to make items. The now open room and lift off mass would have better uses once all that ammunition was gone.
The longer ranged game plan was to hope that the older KEW weapons might find a buyer on this planet. And those that had newly bought these old weapons, well they would need stuff to fire out of them to make them effective as weapons and not showpieces good for only parades. It was not like the Colonials had much use for all of those older weapons now that they had more pulse lasers to do the same job. If the Chinese wanted to cause trouble, then the Colonials were going to take any advantage this trouble might cause.
After talking with the commander of the old ship, Charles walked to the outcropping at the center of the runway and checked on that defensive location. This was one area where he did not allow the news crew to follow him. It also just happened to keep the news people near the spaceship with the exposed weapons. Charles was happy to find out that no one was hurt and no damage was visible to the news crew.
From this vantage point, Charles could see across the small straight of blue water to the island that was north of the airfield. He could see fires burning in several different areas from his new line of sight. Only a few people had even been to that island yet. As far as Charles knew, none of the few locals that had stayed on the islands were on the smaller northern island. The Colonials still had too much to do here on the main island to start on the other smaller island.
Right now, the whole island was just an area where people who wanted to have some quiet time and see what it might be like to be totally alone for a short bit of time went. It also meant that nothing on that island had been upgraded since the Colonials had taken over ownership. Charles had a deep frown on his face because he knew that they were going to have to let the fires burn out on their own. He and everyone else had not thought about having to fight forest fires in a rainforest. It was just not something they had thought of, even when planning for a possible attack by some of the local military power players. Sometimes it was the little things that caused you to kick yourself and second-guess your great war plans.
He let the news crew get some more tape before he packed them back up into his ATV. When he was ready, he took the two cameramen the long way around the island. He made sure to not exceed more than forty kilometers an hour, so that they could get good images as he drove around what most people called the backside of the island.
The east side of the island had not been hit by any incoming missiles and by the time they made the bend and started back up the west side of the island, the two BBC crew were getting a little bored with the trip. It was clear that the islands had been hit with a lot of missiles, but it seemed to be mostly concentrated within one area of the island. The crew even had a few good shots of the aft rocket sections. A few of the missiles had not been destroyed after being hit by interception fire. They had a lot of good images of blasted buildings, craters, blasted and burning palm trees but they could not find one bloody person to put on tape.
After Charles got back to the still burning BBC site, he let the two men out of the small back seats of the ATV. Charles got to spend some more time with Mell before heading back to the command center.
Later that night, Drake sent word via a runner to Ruth in the BBC bunker. He wanted to report to the outside world that all of the scientists where alive and accounted for. They had been hiding in small dug out pits above the old town of Uturoa and had just gotten back to their own hut. He had been leading the new arrivals in a field training exercise for the past few days out in the wilds of the island. Drake had noticed what was going on and had used his army training to look after his people in the only way that he knew how.
Charles and the rest of his staff had forgotten about them all day. About the only thing that had been done was check to see if the building had any visible damage and the status reported to the command center. The living and working hut was okay and had come through the assault with nothing damaged. That is, besides a few broken windows and the blown over wind turbines. The second message was an offer to the BBC team.
It would be a little crowded, but what he was offering was a roof over everyone's head, not to mention showers and other bathroom support to the now homeless news crew. As the sun set over the island, the BBC team started to handcarry their much reduced hardware to what was known as the Academic Hut. They would only need two trips to get their few items carried over. No one was going to be sleeping outside, not for a while.
