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What if a smaller Colonial ship survived the Fall of the Colonies? Follow the Centaur Class Chiron

Chapter 15

Cyrannus System

Basestar Alpha Bridge

The Number Twos including Brother Agios and Brother Dyo was closely listening to the Hybrid talking.
"Subsector 13-H is down 2% from optimal efficiency. The Sword of God will return for revenge. Time leads to time leads to time. Ships 43 and 52 are ready to depart. The dying leader will lead the people to the promise land before passing."
'Why do they insist on listening to the babbling of that thing' thought Brother Mark Cavil who had never understood why the Number Twos were so interested in the insane ramblings of a piece of wetware that was used to keep the lights running.
"Brother Dyo you said that the humans asked for volunteers to rescue some ships while you were in this system. But you have no further information? Did it occur to you to possibly volunteer to see what they were up to? That all you know is that they found one or more ships at Ragnar Anchorage and that you rather decided to sit on your ass for a week? Oh and the super useful information that your group of humans lucked across a ship carrying a bunch of toothpaste and socks before you decided to kill some girl because you were too stupid to come up with a lie" asked Cavil.
Dyo was a bit frustrated. He been instructed by John Cavil himself to maintain a low profile but if spotted do what damage he could before downloading. "I have nothing more to add at this time" he said.
Mark Cavil did not like the Twos very much. They were more competent than the Five line but always seemed to have their own agenda that just happened to be similar to the Cylon's agenda. And their fascination with "god" was worrisome. "And you Brother Agios. At least you have some news. So a pissant Faststar showed up a week early. Also that a Kestrel was destroyed. And that the ships you were sent to keep an eye on are somewhere in deepspace under this "Chiron". Do you have any information regarding the ship they happened to find" he asked caustically.
"No. The Chiron was tight lipped with everyone. I only know the name Kestrel because the inspection crew was mixed and someone mentioned how their new PO wasn't an old perv like the one on the Kestrel" said Brother Agios.
"I see" said Mark Cavil. "Brother Doral would you care to explain what the Chiron and Kestrel are?" The Fives aren't so much good at military intelligence as they are methodical unlike many of the other models.
"Yes. The Kestrel is one of the missing Battlestars." said Doral. "The Chiron is a Faststar of the Centaur design. It was not scheduled to leave the Colonies until after the Return . The last of the intelligence we acquired (with a head tilt towards the Number Sixes) it should not have any Vipers as they were delayed. The short battle that happened in the Ofis A system showed they only used the amount of Raptors we would expect and their unwillingness to fight implies they lacked nuclear weapons to fight the Basestar. That is conjecture though."
Frak. The part with the Chiron is less bad than he thought and at least one of the missing 7 Battlestars was accounted for. Still tracking down this group will stretch their Basestars even further. "Here is what we will do. I want confirmation on every single Colonial ship blown up over Picon, Virgon, and any other of the battles. We need to figure out what ships were destroyed and which might bite is in the ass later. Also I want all Colonial equipment destroyed. I don't want the Pegasus to return and scoop up some floating Vipers. Check everything from the main bases to a prewar scrapyard holding any "Twin Wars" ships. If we destroy everything here any humans outside the Cyrannus system will start to run out of supplies."
"There are a lot of damaged Basestars" said Six. "We can repair them here but if we send a few at a time to the Colony they can be fixed faster."
Cavil thought it over. They had available around 70 Basestars but they had to patrol the Cyrannus system which was a pain. Still Six had a point. "Send the Basestars that are badly damaged back to the Colony . We will keep the ones that we can repair here. Also we will complete the destruction of all Colonial planets except for Caprica. Brother Simon you are to proceed with your Farm Plan." This will also let his brother proceed with his plan to observe their "father".
"And after all the other planets are destroyed" asked a Three. "Other than running around and blowing up everything do you have a plan?"
Mark Cavil also disliked the Threes. They were just general smartasses who seemed to undercut the consensus of the group (totally missing the irony of that coming from him). "Yes my dear. We will send the other Basestars this frees up to look at any other Colonial systems outside Cyrannus. I want those destroyed as well. The humans can either die or come back here and live on Caprica if they choose to."
"Shall we vote on it" and with a vote of 7 to 0 this new plan was decided upon.
"Brother Agios I would like you to go back to the Basestar and look for the Chiron. I want them destroyed" said Cavil.

Faststar Chiron Officer Briefing Room

The staff briefing room was past capacity. Some of the Maxon Mining officials and all senior officers with the exception of LT Drakos who was currently on duty in the CIC.
"I have called you all to discuss what we are doing. Whether crewman Agios was lying or not we could not risk staying in the Bacrita Sector and we have jumped to a new sector. First I would like to officially announce our policy on Article 4. Any former Colonial Military or SDF personnel are now officially to return to reserve status duty. We will on a case by case basis assign them rolls. If they have no immediate use they will be able to return back to civilian duties with the stipulation that they can be activated by Military discretion" said Commander Jasper. "Also I am keeping the Epsiki and Libran Dreams as auxiliary ships. We will asking for some volunteers from the civilians. In regards to supplies, rationing, and future fleet needs please read over the package we have provided for you." The group of papers that all officers and civilians had in front of them had a short outline of related issues.
"Commander I have to ask. What is the government of this fleet" asked Jessi Maxon. "Is there any civilian control?"
Ahh there is the 64 cubit question (or at least one them) that Jasper had been waiting for. "I would like the civilians to come up with an advisory board to deal with civilian issues. I do not have the personnel or time to run all the ships. If the critical supplies like food and tyleum are being supplied we can work with this group. And that brings me to my next announcement. The civilian ships are going to have to tighten up their jump discipline and pilot skills. Check part 2 of your package but in brief we are going to put some of the reservists in charge of this." Some of the reservists were a bit old to be active duty but perfectly able to train pilots how to jump faster.
"Sir I was wondering if you would be able to tell us some of our longer term goals" asked Captain Anders. The Major had told her to ask this question when the time was right.
"Yes Captain. We are going to look for the Galactica. This will let us meet up with the official government and military command. We are also going to explore some of the other systems towards the Cadmus sector. There is an old fleet supply base in that area and is hopefully where the Galactica might be heading" said Jasper. "If there is no further discussion I would suggest everyone read over their briefing and present any revisions in the next 2 days. Dismissed."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo
Maxon Respite CEO Office

Jessi Maxon was in her office after returning back from the briefing. Reading it over it seemed to be fairly workable. Counting the people off all the civilian ships (including hers) there were 15 former or current law enforcement officers. This would give the civilians control over themselves without having to rely on the Chiron. The second part of the plan regarding putting reservists as a sort of "space guard" was necessary.
"So Tom what do you think about losing Captain Kristis" asked Carl Maxon. "I understand it he was a Blue Boy for 20 years and the logical choice but this leaves us with a hole to fill."
"True but in a way I think this is good. I hate to admit it but our pilots and navigators were fine to move from one asteroid to another every week but now that it's our lives on the line I don't want them being our friend to interfere with reality" said Decat. "The bigger concern is the amount of refined tyleum we need. Raw tyleum we have plenty. Processed we have some. Refined though is a bitch."
"Before we get in the weeds of tyleum and how much iridium we have I want us back to the subject of civilian government. I will contact the other 3 ships but Maxon Mining makes up almost 75% of the people of this fleet. What we agree to is probably going to be the plan" said Jessi Marton. "Food should be enough though it's going to be very bland soon" (making a note to switch the hydroponics over to the most productive crops) and the new people will eventually need to be given a job and moved around as needed. Let's get our homework done for our lovely Commander."

Fastar Chiron Officer Briefing Room
One hour before briefing.

"Let's make this brief people. Before we bring the Civies and other officers in I want us to discuss a few things you might be wondering so you can explain as needed to your junior officers" said Major Marton.
Captain Anders, Captain Limaki, and LT. Swanson looked at both their XO and Commander. Maybe now whatever the senior officers had been plotting was going to finally be announced.
"Captain Anders you are hereby given official command of the Libran Dreams. Your brevet promotion to Captain is hereby made permanent" said Jasper. "We are going to keep using the Libran Dreams as an advanced scout. Come up with a list of what systems you think we can upgrade on her" The Libran Dreams was fine as civilian ship but had shown some issues in the previous mission.
"We are turning the Epsiki into an ammunition production ship. It's got the space we need and with the civies and cargo have been moved off there already so we might as well keep it. And on the subject LT. Swanson you are now promoted to Captain and put in command of that project along with the fleet maintenance. I would like your input into your replacement and go over the petty officers that we will need to move around" said Commander Jasper.
"Thank you sir" said Captain Lewis knowing this promotion was going to suck but willing to tackle it.
"Major Marton you now have command of the Aglaea. You also are hereby promoted to LT. Colonel. Your other duty is to manage all fleet supplies both civilian and military" said Jasper. "And finally Captain Milaki. You also promoted to the rank of Major and are the XO of the Chiron. You are to delegate an acting CAG but you are still to remain in command of the Kestrels."
Milaki knew this would essentially ground him as a Viper pilot but with more pilots than Vipers it did help to resolve that issue some.
"I know we are going to be stretched thin especially with command officers but I have faith in you. Now for the final bit of news I want to discuss where we are going" said Jasper. "We are heading towards the Cadmus Sector."
"Sir if I may ask why the Cadmus Sector? That direction is closer to the Cylon area than we currently are" asked Captain Anders. Not that anything like "borders" mattered now.
"This is the part we need to keep under wraps. We believe another Battlestar was on patrol in that area. Now the Cylons might not know this but maybe the Galactica will try to stop by there to check. Also that is on the way to the Prolmar Sector" said Jasper.
"Sir again if I may ask why the Prolmar Sector" asked Anders.
"That is where we hope to find Kobol" said Jasper.

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Author's Notes

Fleet makeup. Just listing the general classes of ships will make this easier.
1. The Chiron. Faststar Centaur class.
2. Aglaea. Missile Collier ship.
3. Libran Dreams. An "express" passenger or cargo liner.
4. Maxon's Respite. This ship is big but slow. It was formerly a colonization ship that the Maxons purchased and then fixed up to be livable (long term) due to the issues they were having. This is where most of the people live and what R&R there is happens.
5. The Ovgigo. This is a midsized passenger liner. It's the same design as the Pyxis from BSG (one of the ships destroyed in the Ionian Nebula).
6. 7 mining ships. There are difference but mining ships.
7. 2 ore ships. These turn big rocks into smaller rocks.
8. Tyleum refining ship. Tyleum is "rocks, processed, and refined." Processed is what the ships run off of. Refined is what the Vipers, Raptors, and shuttles use. The Vipers and Raptors use a lot more than the Maxon Mining ships used but it's a manageable issue with some changes.
9. Tyleum refueling ship. Not popular as it's basically made out of "explodium".
10. A flat top repair ship. Much like the ones you saw on BSG.
11. A food ship. I think Silent Running was a good movie and the ship on BSG looked cool but "ehh" I am going to pull a "practicality card" here. I will just say "they are expensive and somewhat rare. The Galactica was lucky to have gotten one". The Chiron's fleet have a ship with them that can supply this fleet with food (hydroponics) as long as they switch to the most productive crops they can make. (I will add to this further down).
12. 2 bulk carriers. Big and slow. Used to move bulk ore back to the Colonies.
13. 3 smaller cargo carriers. The CeeMart ship has very valuable cargo (the Galactica would be ecstatic to be restocked on toothpaste and other goods). Of the other 2 there is the Erniki that was "stolen" because it has very little cargo and as a bit of a "know your place" to Jessi Maxon and another that has some essentially useless cargo.
These 23 ships are what they have. Their "industrial" capacity is probably half of what Galactica had. Their total population is 3627. Slightly different than what the Fugitive Fleet on BSG had. Here their actually is work to do. Possibly too much. Not as many people sitting around getting drunk and randomly killing each other (well maybe).

This is my 'here is what people are doing to keep the lights on" post. Some of the issues will be addressed later but anything I don't mention (or forget) just assume that Marton is pissed off and yelling at people to take care of it.

Thank you all for reading. Any questions of comments are greatly appreciated.