I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any related media.
What if a smaller Colonial ship survived the Fall of the Colonies? Follow the Centaur Class Chiron
Chapter 7
Darkspace in the Bacrita Sector
Lt. Scott Dernal (Matchbox) was trying to stay focused. Him and Wombat had been flying for 12 of the last 14 hours and they were getting tired. Also even though Wombat was probably the best ECO that he had ever met she acted like she had to pay a credit per word unless it involved flight information. Not that "do you think our families are dead" is the type of conversation he wanted to have anyway. This was their second system today to drop off sensor pods and this time they were the Raptor watching over while Scooter dropped of her pods. Two more to go and then they could head back to the barn and get some rack time.
"Matchbox I just picked up a flash" said Lt. Tami Dinar. "Appears to be small craft sized and about half a light second away. Wait it appears to be a Raptor."
Dernal briefly wondered if it was Juno or Pancake with new orders when they got message from the Raptor.
"Colonial Raptors this Lieutenant Casar from the Battlestar Kestrel. We are requesting immediate aid."
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14 Hours previously
Battlestar Kestral on standard patrol in the Bacrita Sector
Battlestar Kestrel Starboard Launch Pod
Petty Officer Alex Glover had a headache. The issue with the #3 launch tube still had not been fixed. At least the Chief was dealing with the CAG and XO but still Captain Limaki was pissed.
"Gods Damn it Chief. I can only launch 2 Vipers at a time and our CAP is in 35 minutes. And my pilots want that frakking thing fixed right. Stringer almost died when that launch tube misfired. Just get it fixed" said Captain Limaki.
Also those damn paste eaters were doing something stupid with their shuttle. Scuttlebutt was they had been caught with contraband and their Sergeant was making them clean the shuttle with their toothbrushes. If only they would shut the frak up.
"Yes Sir, we will be done before then" replied Glover.
Captain Limaki decided that this poor crew chief had been yelled at enough. Today was going to be long and there was only 5 minutes before daily briefing. Also his nuggets were supposed to get some flight time which means he would have twice the pilots fly today. Not sure what the Marines were up to but they must have frakked up judging by the pleasant tones coming from their Sergeant. Time to head to the briefing room and give everyone their orders for the day.
ALL HANDS BATTLESTATIONS BRACE FOR IMPACT said the PA.
What the frak thought Limaki as he started to turn towards the Starboard pilots ready room. Then the Kestrel shook with several large impacts and he fell over. There was a lot of damage and injured crew. Limaki stood up and then felt the ship jump. What the frak is going on he thought.
"Everyone let's get our shit together" Limaki yelled seeing that no one had taken control of the situation yet. "Move any wounded over here by the shuttles and let's prepare for damage control." He also motioned Glover over.
"Sir, I can't reach anything outside the flight pod and the blast doors have slammed down cutting us off from the ship" said Glover. "Whatever happened is serious. I am trying to get information but the system seems to be corrupted. I am trying a reboot."
Limaki grabbed the PA and hit the all ships button. "Attention all crew. Report to Starboard launch pod. If any information contact immediately. Make sure to check for wounded."
"Suggestions Chief," asked Limaki.
"Sir we could launch a Raptor. The Viper tubes are down but the launch bay is working. We could check damage outside the ship and see where we are. Hopefully we can find someone to help us."
Limaki looked over the people nearby. "Slider you and Timbers get out there and see what's going on."
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Lt. Debbie Brown "Slider" and her ECO had been prepping their Raptor for their upcoming CAP when the alarms went off. The multiple explosions and emergency jump were scary enough. But looking at the Kestrel was terrifying. "Sir the Port Flight Pod has been completely blown off and the head of the ship has several holes in it. There also appears to be a fire heading towards the central fuel storage. I think the rest of the ship is out of power sir".
"Sir from what I can tell she is right" said Petty Officer Glover looking at his readings. "The fire suppression system is not working and there are muliple fires on the main ship. We have maybe 5 minutes before the ship blows up."
Limaki knew that without the fire suppression systems there was no way they could stop the fire before it reached the fuel depot in the middle of the ship and that when 100,000 liters of tyleum blew up the Kestrel was doomed. He hit the PA again "All hands abandon ship. Repeat all hands abandon ship." He then turned towards the people near by. "All pilots get to anything that will fly. Priority is Raptors, shuttles, and Vipers. Everyone else head towards nearest shuttle or Raptor. We have 4 minutes people!"
There was a scramble to see what Raptors and shuttles were available. 2 shuttles were ready and 4 Raptors. "Viper pilots launch when you can." Limaki headed towards the closest Raptor. When the shuttles and first two Raptors were filled he sent them out. No one had shown up in over a minute. "Silk get out of here I will be next" he said hoping that more people could be rescued. The readings were showing that the tyleum fuel storage was reaching critical. "Marbles it's time to go" he said. They launched and then 30 seconds later the Kestrel exploded.
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1 hour later
Limaki looked over what he had. There were 5 Raptors, 2 shuttles, and 9 Vipers. They reported 78 people total on board. There were also a few disaster pods beeping that they were working on getting that reported another 15. 93 people out of a crew of 1600. And they were probably all going to die out here anyway.
"Sir it looks like when we jumped that we jumped about .07 LYs" reported LT. Taylor Joseph "Marbles". Great a light month from an empty worthless system. The shuttles and Vipers couldn't make it anywhere and the one of the Raptor's jump drive was down. Even assuming they found a place to go moving people around would take too long. Also what had happened? The only thing that makes sense was the Cylons but that's a guess.
"Here is what we are going to do. Drain the fuel from the Vipers and make sure that Silk and Slider's Raptors have full fuel. Get the Viper pilots to the shuttles. And keep Jackal picking up any rescue pods. I want both Silk and Slider to jump to New Hadrian and any waypoints on their way back. Tell them to keep an eye out for Cylons." Limaki knew that he could send this Raptor but he was the senior officer and he needed to stay here.
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Dark Space Bacrita Sector
Colonial Viper 13 hours later
Lt. Geri Casar "Silk" was giving up hope. When him and Slider had jumped to New Hadrian there was a frakking Cylon Basestar there and the planet had been nuked out. They were able to jump out before the Cylons noticed them. They had decided to split up since they could only make 8 more jumps before they had to return back to where their crewmates were waiting. Hopefully Slider had some luck when checking out the old abandoned prewar mine in this Sector but there was a lot of nothing out here. Maybe this new waypoint there might be a ship.
"Sir I am picking up two Colonial Raptors" said his ECO Ensign Laura Wysohi (Turtle) .
Thank the gods he thought. "Colonial Raptors this Lieutenant Casar from the Battlestar Kestrel. We are requesting immediate aid."
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5 Minutes later Chiron CIC
"Major prepare the Chiron for jump to the coordinates" said Cmdr. Jasper.
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Author's Notes
The Kestrel is a Valkyrie class Battlestar on patrol. I believe the official canon is that a Valkyrie has 3 launch tubes per launch bay. This seems low to me but whatever I stuck with it. One of the tubes fired early and a little "off center" and the pilot aboard got wounded. This is what they were working on at the beginning.
Paste eaters is the Colonial equivalent of "crayon eaters". I figure that even in a fictional universe the Navy will insult the Marines.
For the Kestrel's Raptors that survived one was a "hanger queen" that's jump drive didn't work. The other 2 that didn't get sent out worked but Limaki didn't want to send himself and the other had a Viper pilot that was fairly new and Limaki didn't want to send him out. Also fuel.
I know that this is a bit "lucky" for everyone but in the show anyone who didn't die in The Fall was lucky. Also Jasper leaving the civilian ships behind for a short time was deemed necessary if not universally loved.
There is maybe one or two more chapters before Part 1 is done. Then I will post a timeline and list of crew and ships.
Once again thank everyone for reading and please make any comments or ask questions if you would like.