Chapter 4
Leonis Rally Point Troy
Flagship Artemis
+26hrs attack
The massed fleet flashed into the Troy system to be greeted by not only the massed Leonis Navy, over a hundred freighters and other ships loaded with civilians. They were also greeted by half a dozen colonial movers not even bothering with hiding the wide variety of weapons and modified cargo pods turned enclosed hangers with Captain Blyth's Gemini Falcon leading them "Welcome back Colonel, looks like we found plenty of friends."
The movers were later found to be all quite different Aquarius Rising and Son of Cancer looked to be dedicated carriers with little or none ship to ship weapons. Ares Wrath however was a straight up warship with no fighter capability mounting extra cannons instead. Poseidon's Trident and Flight of Hermes were near copies of the Falcon. All of them bristling with weapons vipers and raptors.
Others had found their way here as well Virgon apparently had the same idea but were not as lucky a small group of forty freighters, liners and pair of Agriculture ships escorted by eighteen warships was all that had been able to escape the flagship Dreadnought Virgon's Dream let the way. King Regulus III later told the story of twenty basestars thousands of raiders the colonial warships of BSG-49 Atlantia battlegroup with dozens of other ships leading the charge to defend Virgon before being nuked out of existence.
Virgon
+2hrs attack
The Royal Virgon Navy was lucky that the king and the royal family was preforming a commendations ceremony for the valiant rescue of the passenger liner Moon over Aphrodite and all five thousand people on board were saved after their engines malfunction and catastrophically overload stranding them in deep space. Virgon's Dream's commanding officer Major Roger Shoemaker wasted no time coming to their rescue ensuring their survival. They had just finished the award ceremony when an officer came running up to the Major with a urgent communication from Picon. After reading it Major Shoemaker ran to the stage he had just left activating the microphone. "Attention please" he called out to the crowded mess hall "I have just received word of massive cylon attack is under way against Caprica Picon and Sagittarius intel has possible Virgon incursion any minute….almost two dozen double Y shaped capital ships appeared almost immediately the Battlestars battle groups of Columbia and Titan moved to engage.
Both Battlestars and basestars launched fighters as the two forces moved to engage each other a nearby Virgon taskforce of five ships began moving forward to back the colonial forces. However as the task force watched in horror the two Battlestars and a few of their escorting Hydra class destroyers and every one of their fighters just shut down drifting. Older escorts mostly the Odin Class Fleet Carrier and Gorgon Class Destroyers unable to do anything they kept moving forward hoping to buy time to save their other ships. They formed a line and opened fire slaughtering raiders in groups as the basestars neared firing missiles as they came dozens then hundreds alarms went off all over the system nukes dozens of them. The carrier and active destroyers activated their point defense guns shifting fire from the raiders to target the missiles forcing to go back and forth both were slowly getting closer. Within a minute there were hundreds of fighters and thousands of fighters they would never get them all. A dozen missiles slammed into the Odin as a new sun bloomed as the thirteenth, a nuke destroyed the carrier.
The remaining destroyers fell one by one dying hoping for back up that wouldn't arrive in time. Seeing they wouldn't make it in time the Virgon task force jumped back to their planets orbit joining the mounting Virgon fleet defense and evacuation under the command of His Majesty King Regulus IV who had ordered the evacuation the moment he saw the Battlestars shut down moments before combat. His wife, Queen Lyndra had put out the call for the hundreds of freighters and cruise liners that had huddled in low orbit behind the fleet and orbital defense guns to pick up as many people as they could. The smaller atmosphere capable ships started landing in stadiums, parking lots and anywhere else they could. Not just to pick up people but also food stocks and livestock to feed them. Their children aboard also dispatched freighters to various schools evacuating staff and students.
The Dreadnought Virgon's Dream led the fleet holding position between the cylons and the evacuation ships. Looking at the endless sea of red held back by the thin line of Virgon's ships in blue and the mass of civilian green they needed to slow them down buy time to continue the evacuation. Fighting the duty to his people and the honor of Virgon gritting his teeth "I wish to make a fleet wide announcement Warrant Officer set it up for me?" he asked a young woman with a headset on her head at the communications station.
At his voice the woman started to jump up coming to attention before being stopped by his hand on her shoulder. "There is no need for such formality there is too much to do." Nodding with a mumbling "Of course your Majesty, my apology's." After a few keystrokes she nodded "your on sir." Taking a deep breath "Attention my people of Virgon this is your king as you know we have come under massive cylon attack colonial fleet has proven to be ineffective in their shiny new Battlestars were disabled somehow. However our older ships seem to be unaffected. There is a massive evacuation under way please report to your local schools, Stadiums and farms freighters are landing everywhere they can set down. However the enemy is moving forward hoping to destroy us all. Because of that frakking moron Adar we are not strong enough to stop them. However I call upon every fighter pilot to defend your world and her people buy the evacuation ships time to load our people and flee to safety we,…no I ask you to buy us the time we need to get as many people out as we can."
His words struck every viper pilot in the fleet as hundreds of vipers launched from the gathered twenty six ships that carried fighters thousands more launched from dozens of air bases across the planet. Raptors launched from three of the River Class destroyers and a pair of Royal class Frigates. Unloading their crews leaving just enough to fly and shoot. The five ships moved forward just behind the fighters. At the sight of the reinforcements the fighters in the area allowed the ships to move to the front. The ships stopped turning broadside a hundred klicks beyond the fleet. They died taking two basestars and almost four hundred fighters with them. However their sacrifice gave the civilian fleet enough time to fill to the brim even time enough to fill the military ships hangers now empty were filled with thousands more.
With the majority of the Royal Virgonese Navy as their bodyguards. The entire fleet of Virgon jumped The Virgon's Dream, Atlas class heavy carrier Queen Helena II. Two Monarch class heavy cruisers the Westminster and the Lancaster. Four River Class destroyers; Witham, Avon, Tamar and the last Westminster was heavily damaged. Two Royal class Frigates Prince Dalyn and princess Victoria. Almost as valuable as all that was the last Virgon ship was more so. The Palace-class repair cradle Buckingham a ship that could swallow and begin repairs on an Orion class Battlestar in a matter of hours. A mere second later the Dream and Buckingham reappeared almost in front of the Titan launching tugs they pulled the hangerless and engineless Battlestar into the dock. Before jumping again leaving Virgon and the weakened cylon force behind.