Neptune's Revenge: Sailing the Dark Sea

by cliff.west

INTRO: You need to read Neptune's Revenge before starting this book. The Colonials after joining forces with a group from Rifts Earth had thrown the Cylons off of New Caprica. Now they must repair, rebuild, recover, and then prepare for the future. The Cylons are gone, for now. The now mixed group must work together to find the planet that the Colonial are looking for along with th

50. Chapter 50 Chapter 1: Mice Will Play

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.

BOOK 3 Nothing is Static

Chapter 1: Mice Will Play

5 years after landing and the founding of the Colonial Trading Outpost

China was now in a full-blown civil war that was increasingly looking like it was not going to end any time soon or by the end of the decade. The loss of the Central Committee to the Colonial attack had pushed it over the edge like a boat going over a waterfall at full throttle. Local groups were now taking and fighting over everything within the borders of that once huge and mostly politically united country.

By the second year after the loss of the head members of the communist party, the main power brokers in that area were the Warlords. These had been the political and military commanders of the different districts and power blocks that had made up mainland China. After that first year of war they all were called Warlords by the world's press and governments in and outside of mainland China. That title had a negative connotation around the world but not in China. It was an ancient title that had a lot of respect, at least outside a few of the major population centers. Even in those metropolitan areas the title was not looked down on by most of the residents. No one was dropping or detonating nuclear weapons in the area of the civil war which was anything but civil, but anything else was fair game to the Warlords.

While China was breaking up and pouring blood onto the ground, some of their neighbors were not so friendly to China's plight and took advantage of the distraction. China had spent billions of dollars making artificial islands or expanding smaller ones off the coast of mainland China before the Colonials had come to the planet. She then put weapons and troops on these islands to show that her people were not going away. Until now, no one could do much about it but complain and beat their heads against a wall. Only when a pair of those island commanders had threatened civilian passenger jets flying within weapons range did someone act. That was when Colonial craft made a flyby and dropped weapons of their own on those surface to air missile sites. After that, everyone went back to banging their heads on tables trying to work out what to do about them.

That all changed with the complete breakdown of central authority. Once things looked like they were a good ways downhill and not showing any signs of getting back to normal, others struck to fix the problem. Vietnam was the first government to act after the Colonials reduced the two most powerful and long ranged SAM sites. It was a quick two pronged hit against their old foe to the north. First, they launched an air assault on a list of islands that both they and China had claimed ownership of. It was not a bloodless attack when those ground forces took over a dozen islands on the coast. The Government of Vietnam would have liked to take more of those small bases but they just did not have the assets to both take and hold them from any potential threats. Their major ground forces were needed elsewhere. Taking those dozen islands was a political move for the most part.

What they needed those other ground forces for was protection and security more than filling any political gamesmanship columns. While the air and water assault was going into some of the disputed islands, the main ground army of Vietnam moved north across the now undefended Chinese border. The local Warlords had pulled the troops, tanks, and fighter jets out of almost all of the border bases to what were thought of as more important areas threatened by other Warlords. No one had thought that there was that high of a risk of border conflict after so many years of China having the heaviest bat in the area. Only the Vietnamese remembered the Chinese invasion of their country back in 1979.

Without any transport helicopters to support the attacking Vietnamese ground force, they were only able to advance some thirty kilometers past the old Chinese border in the first push. The Vietnamese Army stopped when they started meeting organized resistance on the ground and started to receive the occasional air attacks that punched through their limited fighter cover. When the defenders got better organized from the surprise attack, the battle line was pulled back to the nearest but best defensive areas and the Vietnamese army units dug in for the long haul. The pre-printed document sent to the UN and the world's press by the leadership of Vietnam all said that they were only putting up a buffer zone between the two countries. It was only to protect themselves and the locals from the Warlords and the fighting they were involved in.

The next day, more islands were taken by units from the Philippine military and Malaysian navy and coast guard units. By local noon of the day after Vietnam's first move, the Republic of China, or Taiwan as a lot of people called the island nation, along with Japan had let their own troops out of the gates. Those two countries, by far, took more of the islands off the coast of mainland China than any of the other regional powers. Still, it was rare when one of those islands fell without bloodshed among the defenders and attackers.

Taking these islands was not easy because the attackers had not planned this operation together with any of the other regional powers. This made it so that there were conflicts between groups of attackers, which also lead to more bloodshed being spilled on all sides. It took about a week for the new land owners to work out a deal that their new neighbors could all agree to. What turned out to have been the driver into getting the parties to agree were counter attacks launched by the Chinese Military on three of the larger islands that had been taken from them the week before. The counter attacks failed on all counts, mainly due to lack of planning on the part of the Chinese military. Only about a thousand people died in total in those two weeks after the consolidation of territory to the east and south of mainland China.

This motivated the four local players to have a formal sit-down outside of the UN. They were able to do some good old fashioned horse trading about some long-standing issues in those waters. They were able to work things out with a treaty that would freeze any more troop development to or around those islands for five years. That treaty could be considered broken if any one of them was attacked by one of the other regional powers or one of the Warlords of mainland China. The treaty was a monumental achievement for the local area and later was cited as proof that sometimes shooting will make affairs of state work out very quickly.

It also forged a united front against the Chinese of the mainland territories. For the most part, anyway. The keystone item that came out of those meetings was an agreement to share defense of all of the islands after those first 5 years. This was done with the mediation of the South Korean government. It was this landmark treaty that would cement the advancement of the next major Asian Alliance. All without China being able to cause any political problems or drama during the meetings of those smaller countries. That was a first time event in over three decades.

North Korea had tried to reach in and take control of the other side of the of the Yalu and Tumen rivers from its larger neighbor. The North Korean army had launched their attack, but this group of attackers ran into Chinese units who were not happy to see them. Where units way down south of the country had been moved to be better used somewhere else at the Warlords' whims, the local warlord had not moved the two divisions that had been in this part of the country for decades. For the most part those two divisions of troops didn't think that highly of the North Korean military.

The North Korean commander had expected to just roll forward and take the valuable land on that side of the river. More importantly, he had expected to take the massive storage warehouses that the Chinese had built there over the decades. He had not led off the ground attack with artillery or air attacks to avoid alerting the Chinese of his approach. He had not even sent out special forces units to do any recon of that area before the barriers went down and tanks went forward into land owned by China for centuries. That would prove to be a major mistake on the part of the North Korean General.

The North Korean attacking units had rolled right into a wall of ATGM and preset artillery fire kill boxes all along the whole front of their attack. After the attack waves of Koreans had been stopped by these defenses, the reserve Chinese units waiting behind the front lines surged forward into the face of the now bewildered Korean forces. They quickly took the high ground on the North Korean side of the border.

The loss of life on both the North Korean and Chinese sides of the battle was a lot more compared to that on the islands and the southern border region of China. The net losers by a long shot were the Chinese Warlords. They had lost land, people, factories, and above all they now looked weak to the rest of the world. The equipment lost in those battles also was a drain on the Warlords but for the most part what equipment had been lost would be made up in a few months to a year after the battlefields were checked and cleared. The Warlord controlling the Liaoning area was able to recover many North Koran tanks, artillery pieces and trucks. He repaired enough of them to increase the firepower of some of his second line units. Most of the time, items like long ranged SAMs and their supporting radars were just moved from less important areas to cover any new holes. This did push the Warlords with territory on the coast into spending time, effort, money and personnel to rebuild some of the losses the Colonials had inflicted on them. It had been the long term plan, but the now hostile attacks by local powers pushed this priority to very near the top of the list.

The dust was still settling and the blood still being spilled within China when a request was sent to the Colonial leadership for a quiet high level political meeting. The meeting place was decided to be off planet, but still in the Sol system. After some major work done on the political side of the house, both for the Colonials and the locals, the still undergoing refit Battlestar Galactica returned to the Sol System. It had been one whole year after the Colonials had retaliated for the attempted nuclear attack on their territory. By now, the whole planet understood the level of firepower that the name battlestar came with. It was not considered a good thing to have a ship that could kill tens to hundreds of millions in the system that often.

This would prove to be a twofold mission for the Colonials. One was for political reasons, and to help with the handover of power and authority from Laura to Lee. It was to show to the people of Earth that Lee Adama had been elected to fill the role as President, though only because Kelly Sweeny was on the same ticket.

'Captain' Kelly was the head of the most powerful group within the Colonials, the Rifters. The Rifters were not all rifters anymore. They had taken in the Colonials that felt like they could not fit in with the other Colonials. They had also taken in all of the Cylon POWs that were not serving a life sentences. By now, there were almost as many non 'true' rifters as there were survivors from that sea battle so long ago. All of the immigration laws the Colonials used had been learned from missteps between the Colonials and the Rifters.

Rifters had set up an almost independent city. Other colonial groups wanted to follow suit, and they might try eventually. Right now, the central government of the Colonials was the strongest it had ever been. Only the Rifters were not Colonials and while almost all laws were in effect in the Rifter City, the older Colonial laws were not. They even had their own schools and what they called cultural centers. Captain Kelly was taking all steps to insure that they would not be absorbed into the larger Colonial or New Earth cultures.

This was made easier because almost all of the heaviest ground based weapons still belonged to his group. The Rifters had taken over the largest island on the planet, comparable in size to Iceland on Earth. They were close to the capital on New Kobol, and a bridge between the two islands was in the drawing boards. The Neptune would make runs between the two islands until then. She would pick up supplies or anything too large to fit in a Raptor and too small to use one of the colonial ships. Plus, it was always good to show the flag. It was a fine line to walk between being independent and antagonistic.

The other part of the mission was that a battlestar could lift a frakton of cargo in one trip. The Colonials were not above trying to do as many things at the same time as they could. While the political meetings were going on aboard the great old warship, cargo shuttles went up and down across the blue planet. The Colonials were planning to take a massive amount of cargo out of this system in one lift.

Charles had many months to get a massive amount of cargo ready to go. He had so many ready that he had to spread them out all around the island and in key places around the planet. A remark had been made not long before the battlestar arrived in system that the two islands looked like they would sink under the weight of the gathered cargo. Every road and open area had cargo containers stacked three high on them. The only reason that they were not stacked higher was that the islands did not have the equipment to stack the containers any higher.

The political meetings were very quiet and the press did not know about it or what was discussed for months after the Colonial flagship had left the system again. All of the coverage was about the warship being back over the planet and the new Colonial civilian leader. All of those extra shuttle flights had covered the movement of any personnel between the planet and the warship. That subterfuge had been covered in all of the planning for the mission.

A month later, in a meeting that was called to review any petitions for a country to be recognized by the UN, there was one name on the list that gathered a lot of attention. This was not new. Every year the Colonies of Kobol's name was put on that same list. And every year, someone from the Colonies would send a message to the UN headquarter saying, 'thanks but no thanks,' in the correct political speak that career politicians preferred to use. So, the name being on the list was not a major newsworthy event given the expected reply when it was called last. Only there was a new wrinkle in today's meeting. This time there was a person from that political body in the building today.

Instead of the speaker of the UN only calling the last name on the list there was now a man standing alone in front of the gathered body. The Australian ambassador appeared by his side and they were soon joined at the head of the auditorium by the representative of Taiwan who had been off to one side of the stage out of sight. They were the twin sponsors for the Colonies of Kobol to be recognized as an independent country and be a member in the UN. It was fitting that the two nations who had the closest ties with the Colonies would be their sponsors today. It did make sense because one country had been founded by exiles, and the other founded by refugees fleeing a war.

With the Colonies being not only one of the smallest countries population wise but also so new, they should not have had that much soft power in the worldwide body. Then again, they were the only ones with space going warships for now. They would choose to not be power players among the other UN types. They caused some ripples when they put out that they would not always have a representative at the United Nations. In fact they would rarely have a member present on the continent. If required, they would email their vote or just not vote on a given topic. They also would not sign anything that they felt would infringe on their rights or limit their actions in any way. That part did not make a lot of people within the normal power blocs of the UN very happy but the press statement was simple. "We live in three different star systems and we have better things to do than play games with you."

The appearance of the humans called Colonials and their higher technology had become a driving force for the rest of the planet to find a way to compete with them. First world nations were having flashbacks of the silicon tech boom and early internet days, or the 1950's. Soon, more and more average persons would be visiting the Colonial planets and more Colonials were visiting more places on Earth than ever before. Very few of those human aliens were staying on the planet, even on the two islands they controlled.

There were a number of different reasons the Colonials and the Rifters did not want to stay on the planet. Mostly it was because this Earth was not what they had been expecting to find. This rocked both sets of newcomers to the core beliefs that they felt comfortable with. It was expected that this would change as the next generation of travelers came of adult age. They and the next generation after that would not have as many emotional baggage to carry when it came to thinking about 'Earth'.

What most people on the planet did not know was that this new technology drive that Earth was undergoing had been paid for by weapons, rockets, body armor, armor plates, and other odds and ends the Colonials had sold on the open market. How they were using this developed technology would drive even more innovations mostly for Earth but also for the Colonials.

The Trading Post was stable, with a population that had settled down to 7,000 people. Almost 60 percent were Colonial, Rifter, or locals who had not left the islands or had returned. The rest of the population was made up of contractors and they all were living on the two islands. It was still the central hub of trading and shipping for the Colonials going off planet and air breathing traffic was limited still. Most people were still landing at the larger Tahiti airport and making the 170 mile trip by boat or small jet, if they could afford it, to the Colonial islands. From there they would board a Colonial cargo/passenger liner for the ride out the solar system.

One change was that instead of an Earth based company having to go to the island to pay for a cargo then ride out with it back to their home, Raptors or larger shuttles could now drop off their load of Colonial materials at the buyer's address. Most of the time they would electronically transfer payment to the Colonials' bank account. Then the money would be used to buy whatever needed to be delivered to the Colonial island. It was a small change but it made things a lot easier for both parties. Things where moving along at a steady rate for all of the groups that lived on the planet.

Jerrell 'Fuzzy' Kief was flying another escort mission today. Except on this mission, he was not only carrying armored troopers. He also had 6 forty-five kilogram bricks strapped to the deck of his craft's main cargo area. They were of one each of Rhodium, Ruthenium, Indium, Osmium, Gold and Bismuth. He also still had his ECO and four troopers to carry around. The shuttle he was covering was carrying a ton of Germanium. That was 1/50th of the total normally mined on this planet in a whole year. It was also carrying a load of Purple fire, Aphrodite's tears, 'space diamonds,' along with shipments of Molybdenum, Neodymium, Ytterbium, Yttrium and fifty sheets of armor plate. The total value of today's shipment was close to two hundred million US Dollars. That was why this mission was assigned a Raptor as an escort.

Fuzzy was flying high cover for the cargo shuttle as they overflew the Metro Manila area. The Raptor's system directed the pilot towards the southern part of the Batasan River. The sun was high in the sky, and after only a few minutes of looking around to make sure it was clear, he could see the red roofed warehouses that he was to land beside. It was another boring day in a long list of boring days going on since last year. Fuzzy followed in closer on his Raptor as the cargo shuttle made a slight change of course and flew down part of the deep brown water of the Tanza River. He kept an eye on the craft and when it settled down next to the long red topped building, he made his own final approach to the appointed landing area.

Everything changed as soon as the Raptor had settled its full mass onto the assigned landing area. Fuzzy was rocked in his seat as the world came down around this ears. The Raptor was lifted back into the air a dozen meters as a massive IED was detonated right under the craft, and then it came crashing down on the blasted one time road. That explosion was the sign to the rest of the attackers to begin their assault. A cloud of missiles erupted from the nearby warehouse. It was a gray wave of smoke launched from twenty RPG's and ATGM's of various types and manufactures. Most were aimed at the known military craft but a fair number also went towards the cargo shuttle just for good measure. By now, everyone knew how tough Colonial made metals could be.

Jerrell pulled himself out of his seat and punched the emergency hatch release. He fell out without noticing he was sitting on the metal escape hatch. He started looking around, but the whole world was somehow sideways or skewed. Then he realized that it was him and his Raptor that was more or less upside down. He was just starting to hear again when the second wave of missiles came out of the nearby building. When he ducked behind the craft, he saw flashes winking off the side of the craft he was still standing on.

The flashes near his head made Fuzzy turn to look at the water on the other side of his wrecked craft. He saw about a half a dozen flat nosed craft speeding down the Tanza River from the metro area. Each one of the craft had some kind of larger crew served automatic weapon mounted on the squared off nose. Those weapons were causing the flashes as their bullets hit the top of his craft. Now he knew what was going on, and he was not a happy camper.

"Oh frak this! Base, this is Raptor 459! We have been attacked! Looks like they are wanting our cargo. My craft is damaged and on the ground. Shuttle 4 is taking fire and might be breached on a side I can't see from my current location. My ground team is still not out of my craft. Their status is unknown."

Fuzzy released his transmit button and pulled his sidearm out, an evil grin coming to his face. He dropped to his belly and took aim at the nearest threat. His weapon was not an old Colonial made pistol. It was a Rifts Earth special. Fuzzy sighted down the barrel and pulled the trigger to the stop. He was going after the boats coming down the river at him. One part of his mind said that they were currently the biggest threat to him. The weapon fired but it did not recoil or leave any outwardly visible evidence that it had worked. The invisible pulse laser beams went out and landed short of his chosen target coming ever closer to him. The result of that miss was like a god had dropped a very larger rock into the brown water river.

By the time he had pulled the trigger the third time, he had blown apart one of the attacking flat bottomed boats. As soon as the boat had started falling from the sky where the explosion sent it, he was hit in the head with a thumb sized cone of copper, steel, and lead. His silver gray colored helmet was not even marked by the impact but his head and neck were a different matter. Even then, he was still alive after the hard hit to the head, seeing stars but alive. Before he could get a good sight picture on his next target through the stars he was still seeing, he was joined on the ground by another body. Fuzzy looked out of the corner of one eye and knew who it was.

"Well it's about frakking time you showed up, Lee. I thought you were still sleeping or something."

Lee Trager was not a Colonial, he was from Earth. More to the point, he was from this Earth. His parents had emigrated to New Kobol when he was sixteen. He had become a Colonial Citizen and was doing his required four year enlistment in the military. He had been doing very well in his vocation and had just made the rank of sergeant last week.

Lee sighted down his own weapon. It was not a weapon made on Rifts Earth or even the Twelve Colonies. It was the latest generation of pulse rifle coming out of a way too small of a factory on New Kobol. "I had to get the others out of the mess you made of your Raptor. Who taught you how to land, Starbuck or Athena?"

Jerrell made a sour face. "We had already landed! Why didn't you tell me that it was going to be a hot LZ? And where is the rest of your team?"

Lee pulled the trigger and a second boat was blasted into a wash of water, steam, small bits of boat and human bodies. "I have them turning that warehouse into firewood."

Fuzzy took the time to look over a shoulder and saw that the red roofed warehouse now had larger holes punched into and through it in multiple locations. He could also see on his helmet display weapons fire coming out of the main hatch on the grounded cargo shuttle. By the time he returned his gaze to the water, there was only one boat left, and it was now more concerned with escaping than firing at the flipped over Raptor. It was madly zig-zagging its way up river. It might have escaped, but the last zag had put it in the center of Fuzzy's aiming picture. The energy from the pulse laser did the rest.

With the one axis of threat neutralized for now, Lee and Jerrell relocated to help take the larger building under their own fire. Their firepower might not have been needed, but their addition to the firing line allowed for the other shooters to replace spent E-Clips. All without reducing the fire going into a target that was still throwing out weapons fire and the odd missile or anti-tank rocket at the two damaged and grounded Colonial craft.

Fuzzy had just replaced his E-Clip with a fresh one when some movement caught his eye. Two four door sedans were spinning dark gray clouds of smoke off their tires as they left from the back side of a slowly collapsing building. Jerrell fired without thinking about what he was doing. His did hit the target that he was aiming at but most of the energy from his low shot was absorbed by the road.

The rest of the energy went into the back cargo area of the sedan. As the sedan flew through the smoke filled air, Fuzzy noticed that it was painted or looked like a law enforcement transport of some kind. He had no idea what the second sedan might have looked like. Someone from the security team or the crew firing out of the shuttle had put an explosive round center mass on that one. That had only left a shower of fire and very small metal fragments where a few thousand kilograms of car had been.

The shooting of the police cars caused some issues when the local police finally showed up to the scene of the attack and attempted robbery. They had arrived not long after the two other like painted sedans had been... reduced. The locals were just lucky that the Colonials were taking the time to reload from the fight. After a few minutes of an armed standoff between the two groups, cooler heads were able to defuse the situation before another pitched battle could start. Granted, it was first in the form of four armed Vipers and then a pair of Assault Raptors making high speed and very low passes over the local area.

In a more or less joint investigation, it was found out that the whole trade deal was a ruse. They had intended to hijack the Colonial cargo from the time of first contact for the trade. It was tracked to a cabal of narco-politicians with support from the Triad. The attempted heist made worldwide news and the images were playing over and over again. The statement from the Colonial government was that no one frakking tries to steal from the Colonials. That was the last time but it was not the closest that anyone had gotten to stealing a cargo from the Colonials. It was also the last time that anyone would try to hijack a Colonial craft according to public record.

Loads being transported around the blue planet was not the only moving going on. Caterpillar had been the center of major news for months. They had announced that they were opening a major service center and small factory off planet. It was going to support the growing cities and towns on the two Colonial planets. They were the first company to have a major office off planet, but they would not be the last one to make the jump. The latest rumor to rock the business world concerned a tourist company working with groups on the Colonial planet. They were hoping to start up a trans-solar system tourist agency, and it would open for business in the next year to eighteen months. There had not been any official word from the Colonials one way or the other on this matter, but that had not stopped the buzz on the project from spreading.

Also with the help of the Colonials, man was walking on the moon again, and within another year there would be a permanent base open for habitation on that orbiting body. Plans for space stations worth the name were coming out every few months. Some help was coming from the locally based Raptors but most were going to be supported by radically improved rocket launchers coming up from the planet below. Slowly, man was spreading out from the blue planet going deep and deeper into the solar system. Mostly on his own two legs.

NASA would even be launching a manned Mars mission that would only be supplied by Colonial Raptors after it landed. They also would be available in case of an emergency, but it was going to be a six month mission to study the red planet from the ground. That did not count the ninety eight other active scientific probes that the Colonials had already helped with. They had even helped clean up some of the junk in orbit, like what was left of the Mir 3. They still were not helping with anything that might be connected to military uses, though.