Chapter 2: Hiding in the Hole
(H+ 30 minutes)
The disturbing feeling in their stomachs eased away. Their senses went from blurred to focused. After a few seconds, they realized that it was over. Fortunately, the jump was short one. Otherwise, the sickening feeling would have been more intense and would have lasted a bit longer.
Peete Brak was the first one to come around. He had been doing this for years. Jumping had become some sort of second nature to him. "Status report," he ordered to his bridge crew.
"Checking coordinates," said Janna while shaking her head to refocus her thoughts. "Right where we are supposed to be."
"Sensors indicate no Cylon presence in the area," Brad reported.
"Nothing on the EM side," added Matt.
A beep sounded on the internal communication system. "Lorne here, all sections reporting green status." He was calling from the engineering section below deck. "Everything looks good for the CERBERUS, at least through the view port," he concluded.
"Roger that," said Peete. "Take care of our guests." Lorne acknowledged and terminated the communication.
"Sir, Rapier 138 reports green status and would like to know what to do next," said Brad.
Peete took the laser wireless ship-to-ship communication unit.
"Rapier 138, this is MARAUDER. We need to reposition ourselves to bring the CERBERUS to our destination. After that, you just follow us. Keep your EM radiation level to minimum until we call you back," Peete requested.
"Roger that, Rapier 138 out."
"Janna, dock with the CERBERUS then set course for the Hole at best possible speed," ordered Peete. "Once cruise speed is achieved, cut all power. We will coast it as long as possible."
As Janna started to reposition the MARAUDER for docking maneuvers, the door to the bridge opened. Lorne walked in with a tall man in his late forties in tow. He was obviously a Marshal as indicated by his uniform. In fact, he was the officer that Lorne had run into earlier while on the CERBERUS during its evacuation.
"Sir, all injured are being taken care of," reported Lorne then he introduced his companion to Peete. "This is Chief Technician Kurt Hadley of the CERBERUS; he would like to speak with you."
"Welcome aboard," said Peete walking toward the Chief for a handshake. "How is your staff?" Although the handshake was quick and strong, visibly there was still distrust between the two regardless of the rescue.
"I have 6 dead including our commander, 40 injured or unconscious, the rest are providing first-aid," said promptly Chief Hadley. "All our remaining officers are among the unconscious, therefore I am in charge for now. What about the Rapiers?"
"Rapier 138 is coasting outside, following us." Peete continued, "The other Rapier was severely hit with no survivors. It had to be left behind."
A saddened look crossed the Chief's face. Peete knew that a member of the Colonial Marshal Service would not be used to losing that many of his crewmates at once. He must have had many friends aboard that Rapier. However, he had to help the Chief regain his focus. He had to think of the survivors now.
"Well, thanks for saving our butts," said the Chief. The Chief looked outside the view port. Peete knew what he saw -- thousands of asteroids floating dangerously close to the ships. "Where are we going?" asked the Chief with a touch of worry in his voice.
"We are entering the Oort cloud of Cyrannus. We are heading to a small asteroid we call the Hole. It is a staging base for our operations. Once there, we will make repairs to the ships and figure out what to do next" said Peete.
"Very well. I am going back to check on my crew," concluded the Chief and then left the bridge. Lorne closed the door and turned toward Peete.
"You're seriously considering bringing them to the Hole?" said Lorne with suspicion and disdain.
"What do you want me to do? Put them back aboard the CERBERUS and leave them to die?" replied Peete. "From what I can tell, this assault by the Cylons is massive. The Colonies will have a hard time turning the tide of the battle if it is not already too late. The OLYMPIA Task Force and Picon Fleet HQ have been already destroyed and Virgon is being nuked. The same is probably happening all over the system. Therefore, we go to the Hole and reassess the situation from there."
Peete's words were to the point and left little to argue. Lorne hated the Marshals, but he follows Peete's orders. He owed him too much to turn against him.
"Ok, but I still don't like having them around," said Lorne. "I am going down to evaluate the repairs that need to be done." He left the bridge still angry. Peete had to smile at Lorne's reaction. He knew that Lorne would not be entirely satisfied. Nevertheless, Lorne was a reasonable man. He knew when to back down for a greater cause.
A slight shudder shook the ship as Janna completed the maneuvers to dock with the CERBERUS. Then she put the engine settings to full throttle. The MARAUDER would not be able to go at full speed with the CERBERUS. However, because it was bigger than the Marshal gunship, its speed would not be significantly reduced. A few moments later, Janna turned off the power to most systems to reduce EM radiation. "Course set for the Hole, ETA 30 minutes," she reported.
'It's going to take longer than I expected,' thought Peete. "Brad, keep an eye on the passive sensors." Then he turned to Matt who was still listening to wireless communications:
"What's new on the war front?"
Matt took a deep breath before reporting the latest news. "Things are not good. Most of the Colonial Fleet's vessels at Virgon lost power when the Cylons showed up. Just like the CERBERUS. Six battlestars were destroyed along with all their fighters. There are a few reports that are just coming in saying that all the Colonies are being nuked. One thing that I do not understand is that OpPlan Five has been called. What is that?"
"That explains why the CERBERUS turned around while chasing us. It is the call for all available Colonial armed vessels to link up with Colonial Fleet ships to fight off the enemy. It means that things are desperate," answered Peete grimly.
The KOBOL MARAUDER with the CERBERUS in tow escorted by Rapier 138 quickly approached the Oort cloud of Cyrannus. Millions of asteroids and chunks of ice were getting bigger by the minute in the view ports. Janna adjusted the ship's course to avoid the boulders. Her forehead glistened with sweat. She was used to navigate the MARAUDER through the field but not with another ship docked to it.
The Hole was deep in the cloud. The large number of metallic asteroids in the area made sensor sweeps of the field difficult. This made a perfect hideout for those who did not want to be found.
"The Hole is in sight," announced Janna.
The hideout was built in a cavernous asteroid, which gave it its name. Peete discovered it 30 years ago while fleeing from Colonial Marshal Service ships. Then a privateer, he had been shipping drugs between Caprica and Sagitarra in an interplanetary shuttle he had bought with his military savings. He had been about to be inspected by Colonial Customs when he decided to run for it and had been pursued by two Colonial Marshal ships. He had jumped next to the Oort cloud and entered it. The Marshals had abandoned the chase after losing track of him in the cloud.
Peete had immediately seen a big potential for the 100 km wide asteroid. Its huge caverns could easily hold a battlestar-sized ship. Its ferrous composition made it ideal for hiding installations and also allowed for refining raw materials. He had stolen an ore refining ship, with mining equipment from the Aries Space Mining Corporation and had started to build his own little space dock. In order to pay and provide for extra materials, he had created a front mining company, the PB Mining Services, with the ore refining ship renamed GOLD DIGGER. It had turned out to be quite successful. That had helped him forge his own little smuggling empire, the Brak Ring. Not as big as those in the Chespek Sector, but the Brak Ring grew to include nearly a thousand members and several ships. The Hole had taken 5 years to achieve the initial stage. It included a small docking and ship repair facility, living quarters and a small warehouse. As the Brak Ring grew, the Hole complex was expanded to accommodate more ships, a bigger warehouse and more living quarters. It was the perfect hideout. In 30 years, Marshal and Colonial Fleet patrols had never been able to find it, even if they had come within a few thousand kilometres on certain occasions. The Cylons should not be able to find them either this time.
Peete smiled to himself, the Marshals will finally learn the secret of his success. In other circumstances, this would have been a disaster. Now, there was little other choice.
He turned to Matt and asked him to signal the Hole's command center that they were coming in with guests and to order the ship technicians to prepare for repairs.
The ships headed for a large hole on one side of the asteroid. Nothing was apparent to indicate the hidden facility. As wide as 3 kilometres, the tunnel went deep inside to an even larger cave. The ships exited the entrance tunnel, into a port facility that would have made Colonial Fleet jealous. On the floor was a landing pad with magnetic seals and elevators leading to a pressurized hangar bay below. On the ceiling was a single crane on rails to handle cargo. There were two zero-G docking ports attached to the walls, one on each side, with connections to facilities embedded in the rock. On one other wall of the cave was a large windowed compartment housing the command center.
Peete ordered Janna to dock the CERBERUS at docking port 1. The KOBOL MARAUDER would put down on the large landing pad, port 3, along with the Rapier.
Peete asked Matt to transmit a message: "Tell the Rapier to land on pad 3 and wait to be lowered to the hangar." After the CERBERUS was attached to docking port 1, the MARAUDER set down on the landing pad and was lowered to the hangar bay. The bay was as wide as the cave and was able to fit two or three ships as big as the MARAUDER. In the bay lay several crates; a few servicing shuttles and the interplanetary shuttle Peete had started his business with. The servicing crew ran around to begin their work on the new arrivals as soon as they had been secured.
Lorne walked onto the bridge to get instructions. "Have the crew secure the MARAUDER and unload the FTL equipment in the warehouse. Bring the injured to the refinery, have Chief Hadley meet me in the conference room along with the Rapier pilot. Tell the ground crew to start repairs on the MARAUDER and the Rapier. Nobody touches the CERBERUS until I say so," Peete told him. Lorne acknowledged and went to work.
"Matt, upload all the information you gathered so far to the conference room and join us there," ordered Peete. "I am going to the command center," he added.
The fact that there had been no other ships at docking port 2 and in the hangar worried him. He had to go to the command center to get a status update on the Brak Ring.
The command center was large room with several computers and charts. It controlled all docking operations, the facilities and the group's smuggling activities as well. It was crewed by a dozen people led by a long time friend of Peete's, Rob Simms who was also the facility chief.
They had served together in the Colonial Fleet shortly after the war. Rob had been a technician in the CIC of the ATLANTIA. They had become friends very quickly and had frequently discussed their future after the service. They had wanted to go into business together and had planned to save a lot of their pay until they had reached 20 years of service. With their pension and their savings, they could have bought a cargo ship and transported goods for profit. However, the general demobilization had reduced the Fleet from a thousand ships to a few hundred. They both had been demobilized with only enough money to buy a single interplanetary shuttle. They had been very disappointed that they had not been able to continue their service. Like many others that had been demobilized, they had tried to survive as best as they could. They had chosen to ferry people between the Colonies. However, they could not compete with the big charter ships so they had resorted to smuggling drugs at the beginning and later, weapons. Business had not been good for them until they had discovered the Hole.
As Peete walked into the command center, he was greeted by the familiar and always loud voice of Rob. "What the hell are you doing?" yelled Rob visibly angry. "You show up late with two Marshal ships on top of that!" Everybody in the room stopped working and discreetly watched the scene.
It struck Peete that they did not understand what was going on. "You mean you don't know?"
"Know what?" replied Rob.
Peete realized that it had only been a little more than an hour since the attack had begun. Signals from the nearest Colonial communications relay satellite would have taken at least an hour and a half to reach the Hole. 'The first reports should get here in a matter of minutes' he thought. 'There is no way for them to know what has been going on.'
Peete walked to the facility's public address system and picked up the microphone. He announced the grim news to the station's entire personnel. Peete could tell that the announcement strongly surprised Rob and the rest of the personnel in the room. Shock and despair started to show on their faces.
"... In the face of the events, I decided to rescue the Marshals from their plight and offered them shelter here. Because of the Cylons, we are no longer criminals. We are at war. We might hate the authorities but the Colonies of Kobol are our home. We are humans fighting machines. Therefore, let us welcome our fellow humans as friends not as enemies and let us see what we can do to fight the Cylons. So say we all!" finished Peete putting down the microphone and as he said a silent prayer to himself.
Everyone in the command center was silent. Sobs could be heard from a woman in one corner of the room. Rob was standing dumbfounded, mouth wide open. "What are we going to do now, boss?" Rob managed to say after a few seconds.
"I need a full inventory of our supplies. We might be hiding here for a while. I want a full report on all our ships with their last know location. Finally, I want the immediate area and all message traffic monitored around the clock, "ordered Peete. "Once, you have passed on these tasks to the staff come meet with me in the conference room."
Rob turned to his command staff to relay the orders while Peete left to meet his guests.
The conference room was at the end of the corridor leading to the command center. Peete opened the door on a large room. It had a long table in the middle with several chairs, on the walls, there was several works of art stolen from the various ships they had hijacked over the years, and on the farthest wall was an elaborate multi-media electronic board similar to those used in most university lecture rooms.
Peete was the first to get there. He sat down at the end of the table and leaned back to relax a bit. 'The overall situation is not good so far,' he thought. 'I just hope the Fleet managed to reorganize itself, otherwise the war is already over.' The door to the room opened and Lorne, Chief Hadley and a second Marshal walked in. 'The Rapier pilot surely,' remarked Peete to himself. He motioned everybody to sit down as Matt and Rob entered the room. Lorne presented everybody to each other. The Rapier pilot was named Lt Zev Davis. He stood 5'10" tall, well built with brown hair and eyes. The pilot was the first to talk.
"Thanks for saving our butts out there, Mr. Brak. That was frakkin great flying!" Lt Davis was a young man, so possibly he was a pilot that had recently graduated from the Colonial Marshal Academy. If so, this could have been his first combat experience and that would explain why he was easily impressed with the flying skills of others.
"I just give the orders. For the piloting skills, talk to Janna," said Peete. Changing subjects, he turns toward Chief Hadley for an update on the CMS injuries.
"Most of those that were unconscious are awake now. They passed out because of the smoke and failing life support systems. My team of technicians and I were wearing pressure suits to deal with damage. Most of the injured were from the bridge and battle stations. Marshal Officers manned those. This includes Captain Yates, the second in command of the CERBERUS. He is severely burned on his hands and face. He is in the infirmary. Do you have doctors by any chance?" the Chief asked.
"I am afraid not," answered Peete. "But we have the medical equipment to treat burns. For the other injuries, I'll see what we can do." He looked around the table and saw that everybody was looking at him expecting more direction. Apparently, even the Marshals respected him. 'What do they know about me?' thought Peete.
"Okay, the last information we have of the battle is from before the jump. The same signals will be received here in only a few minutes. So, Rob, when we are done here go get an update and report everything to me," said Peete. "Lorne, how are the repairs going on the MARAUDER?"
"All damaged gun turrets are beyond repair. I'll have to scrap them for parts if there any that are still useful. Engine 1 will be easily repaired within the day. The wiring connecting it to the energizer got fused by the missile impact. As for the hull damage, it will take a week to fix. But it is still flyable," reported Lorne.
"The Rapier's attitude thrusters can be repaired easily," said Chief Hadley.
"One of your bullets damaged a junction box close to the flight computer in the fight between us," added Lt Davis. "What about the CERBERUS? What should we do?"
"I saw something similar happen in the Cylon War," said Peete. "At the beginning of the war, Cylons were constantly tapping into the computer networks of the Colonial Fleet. It caused severe losses. Eventually some commanders decided to disconnect all networks on their ships. They achieved success immediately. The word was passed on to the rest of the Fleet. That allowed us to force the Cylons to negotiate an Armistice. What happened today to the Fleet must have been the same kind of tactics."
"That could explain it, the CERBERUS was fully networked along with the Rapiers," added Chief Hadley.
"Why didn't the MARAUDER and my Rapier get powered down as well?" asked Lt Davis.
"The damage inflicted to your ship may have prevented whatever the Cylon did," said Matt. "As for the MARAUDER, there is no network. The ship was from the Cylon War and did not have any when we got it." Everybody was nodding at that piece of information. Matt continued: "Just before the CERBERUS and Rapier 137 powered down, I detected an energy spike coming from the Cylon Fighters. It might be a signal disabling the ships. I'll check the sensors logs with the recorders to see if it was an encrypted code. If so, I might be able to find out how to reactivate your ship," said Matt looking at Chief Hadley.
"Good. However, I won't be able to do any repairs on the CERBERUS until that problem is fixed," said Chief Hadley. "Once that is done, would it be possible to bring the CERBERUS in the hangar to do repairs? It has landing gears."
"Sure, no problem," said Rob. "On the supply side, we have enough food for 6 months, Tylium fuel for a month. We have enough ammo for 5 full magazine loads for the MARAUDER. All anti-fighter ammo is Viper grade so it should fit in the CERBERUS and Rapier magazines." Chief Hadley added that their magazines were almost full.
Rob continued his report by saying that they had not received news from the other Brak Ring ships but that they were supposed to be operating close to the Colonies today. Only the GOLD DIGGER was in the area mining some iron ore. It was scheduled to come back to the Hole in two hours. Peete ordered it home immediately.
At this point they had pretty much covered all aspects of the situation. "Well, Chief. As soon as your crew and your ships are repaired, you'll be able to rejoin your friends and the fight. That's all for now. Go do your jobs," concluded Peete.
Everybody got up and left the room. Peete and Rob walked together back to the command center. "The situation is really bad, isn't it?" asked Rob with concern. "Just like 40 years ago?"
"From what I have heard so far, yes," answered Peete. "I think the entire fleet was caught with its guard down."
As they entered the command center, the female technician in charge of the communication systems walked to them with a paper in her hands. "The GOLD DIGGER has reported in. It will be docking shortly," she said. "And this."
Rob took the message and read it. His reaction showed it was not good news. Then he read it loud: "ATLANTIA and all other battlestars in task force destroyed. Admiral Nagala killed. Next senior officer is to assume command."
"Looks like the Fleet is still having problems," said Peete.
"How many of them do you think there are left out there?" asked Rob.
Just as Peete was about to answer that question, the comms technician brought another message.
FROM BSG-75 GALACTICA: Am taking command of the Fleet. All Colonial Units are directed to proceed to Ragnar Anchorage for regrouping and counter- attack. Acknowledge receipt via same encryption protocol. Adama.
"The GALACTICA?" said Rob. "Wasn't it supposed to be decommissioned today?"
"Yes, it was supposed to," answered Peete.
"Adama? That name rings a bell," said Rob.
"That's Commander Adama. He is the Viper ace of the Cylon War along with Commander Cain. Together they destroyed more Cylon Raiders than 3 entire Viper wings," said Peete.
"I remember now. So he made it to Commander," said Rob.
"Yeah. I heard the other day on Colonial News Network that he was supposed to retire with his ship," added Peete.
"So he is taking command now. That means that all admirals have been killed," said Rob. "The Fleet must be almost entirely destroyed by now."
Walking to a map depicting the Cyrannus system, Peete was evaluating the situation. "Ragnar Anchorage, that's on the other side of the system at this time of year. Even if the CERBERUS is repaired quickly, the odds are that Adama will have moved what remains of the fleet to another location before the Marshals can join them."
The female comm. technician brought another piece of news: "Boss, I heard reports that all the Colonies are being nuked and assaulted by Cylon invasion forces. The Fleet appears to be almost completely destroyed. The President of the Colonies and most senior members of the cabinet have been killed in the initial attack. Apparently, the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, has been sworn in as President." As she finished, the female returned to her post.
"A teacher as President! Are things that desperate?" exclaimed Rob.
"It appears to be the case," said grimly Peete. "Facing a situation like this, it is very likely that she will assemble survivors and go into hiding. Just like we are doing right now."
"How is she going to assemble survivors on ships without attracting the attention of the Cylons?" asked Rob. "She needs a safe haven to do that."
"You are right," Peete said. "A safe haven where they could hide and organize before moving out to rebuild our military forces."
Rob and Peete looked at each other, both considering the options, their assets. Without exchanging a word, they formed a plan. After nearly 40 years of working together, they had learned to think as a team. It was one of the reasons why they had been so successful. Resolution written clearly in their faces, they nodded at each other knowing exactly what they would do next.
Rob went to talk to the technicians in charge of base logistics while Peete called for Lorne, Chief Hadley and Lt Davis to join him in the conference room.
A few minutes later, they were all back planning the next step.
"How soon can the MARAUDER and the Rapier fly back to the Colonies?" quickly asked Peete.
"I should be able to bring engine 1 back online within the hour," said Lorne. "But the damaged weapons and the hull won't be repaired."
"Never mind that. We are going to do some Search and Rescue," said Rob.
"The Rapier can fly but the damage isn't repaired yet," said Chief Hadley.
"That's all right. Lt. Davis, Lorne and I are just going to look for survivors and bring them here," said Peete.
The plan was to jump to the other side of the Batwah Debris Field. It was an asteroid field that separated the outer planets from the inner planets of the system, where all 12 Colonies were located. The ships were to jump there, silently monitor for human ships fleeing the inner system, and meet and bring them to safety. A meeting point was setup a little inside the Oort cloud, where Rob would meet them with the interplanetary shuttle to guide them to the Hole.
"At the first sign of the Cylons, jump out of the area and far away from the Hole. After making sure you are not followed, jump back here," recommended Peete. "If the ships that you meet are not FTL-capable, send me an encrypted message with the coordinates. I'll see if I can FTL-tug them to safety with the MARAUDER." Everybody nodded their approval of the plan.
"Very well. Everybody go to your ships and prepare for departure in 1 hour," concluded Peete. All the people present got up and left the room, except for Rob who seemed to have some concerns.
"What's on your mind, Rob?"
"How many people do you expect to rescue? How many ships? We have good facilities and supplies but it was all designed for our group only. What are we going to do if there are too many of them?" asked Rob.
Peete paused to think a little about that issue. The question was valid. Their supplies and space were limited. They have room for a few ships and their crews. How many survivors would be on them?
"I guess we will have to wait and see how many we find," answered Peete. "If we can't handle the numbers, we will have to move everybody to a safer place or expand the Hole. We'll see when we come back."
On that note, Peete and Rob left for the hangar to get ready for their new mission.
End of Chapter 2
(H+ 30 minutes)
The disturbing feeling in their stomachs eased away. Their senses went from blurred to focused. After a few seconds, they realized that it was over. Fortunately, the jump was short one. Otherwise, the sickening feeling would have been more intense and would have lasted a bit longer.
Peete Brak was the first one to come around. He had been doing this for years. Jumping had become some sort of second nature to him. "Status report," he ordered to his bridge crew.
"Checking coordinates," said Janna while shaking her head to refocus her thoughts. "Right where we are supposed to be."
"Sensors indicate no Cylon presence in the area," Brad reported.
"Nothing on the EM side," added Matt.
A beep sounded on the internal communication system. "Lorne here, all sections reporting green status." He was calling from the engineering section below deck. "Everything looks good for the CERBERUS, at least through the view port," he concluded.
"Roger that," said Peete. "Take care of our guests." Lorne acknowledged and terminated the communication.
"Sir, Rapier 138 reports green status and would like to know what to do next," said Brad.
Peete took the laser wireless ship-to-ship communication unit.
"Rapier 138, this is MARAUDER. We need to reposition ourselves to bring the CERBERUS to our destination. After that, you just follow us. Keep your EM radiation level to minimum until we call you back," Peete requested.
"Roger that, Rapier 138 out."
"Janna, dock with the CERBERUS then set course for the Hole at best possible speed," ordered Peete. "Once cruise speed is achieved, cut all power. We will coast it as long as possible."
As Janna started to reposition the MARAUDER for docking maneuvers, the door to the bridge opened. Lorne walked in with a tall man in his late forties in tow. He was obviously a Marshal as indicated by his uniform. In fact, he was the officer that Lorne had run into earlier while on the CERBERUS during its evacuation.
"Sir, all injured are being taken care of," reported Lorne then he introduced his companion to Peete. "This is Chief Technician Kurt Hadley of the CERBERUS; he would like to speak with you."
"Welcome aboard," said Peete walking toward the Chief for a handshake. "How is your staff?" Although the handshake was quick and strong, visibly there was still distrust between the two regardless of the rescue.
"I have 6 dead including our commander, 40 injured or unconscious, the rest are providing first-aid," said promptly Chief Hadley. "All our remaining officers are among the unconscious, therefore I am in charge for now. What about the Rapiers?"
"Rapier 138 is coasting outside, following us." Peete continued, "The other Rapier was severely hit with no survivors. It had to be left behind."
A saddened look crossed the Chief's face. Peete knew that a member of the Colonial Marshal Service would not be used to losing that many of his crewmates at once. He must have had many friends aboard that Rapier. However, he had to help the Chief regain his focus. He had to think of the survivors now.
"Well, thanks for saving our butts," said the Chief. The Chief looked outside the view port. Peete knew what he saw -- thousands of asteroids floating dangerously close to the ships. "Where are we going?" asked the Chief with a touch of worry in his voice.
"We are entering the Oort cloud of Cyrannus. We are heading to a small asteroid we call the Hole. It is a staging base for our operations. Once there, we will make repairs to the ships and figure out what to do next" said Peete.
"Very well. I am going back to check on my crew," concluded the Chief and then left the bridge. Lorne closed the door and turned toward Peete.
"You're seriously considering bringing them to the Hole?" said Lorne with suspicion and disdain.
"What do you want me to do? Put them back aboard the CERBERUS and leave them to die?" replied Peete. "From what I can tell, this assault by the Cylons is massive. The Colonies will have a hard time turning the tide of the battle if it is not already too late. The OLYMPIA Task Force and Picon Fleet HQ have been already destroyed and Virgon is being nuked. The same is probably happening all over the system. Therefore, we go to the Hole and reassess the situation from there."
Peete's words were to the point and left little to argue. Lorne hated the Marshals, but he follows Peete's orders. He owed him too much to turn against him.
"Ok, but I still don't like having them around," said Lorne. "I am going down to evaluate the repairs that need to be done." He left the bridge still angry. Peete had to smile at Lorne's reaction. He knew that Lorne would not be entirely satisfied. Nevertheless, Lorne was a reasonable man. He knew when to back down for a greater cause.
A slight shudder shook the ship as Janna completed the maneuvers to dock with the CERBERUS. Then she put the engine settings to full throttle. The MARAUDER would not be able to go at full speed with the CERBERUS. However, because it was bigger than the Marshal gunship, its speed would not be significantly reduced. A few moments later, Janna turned off the power to most systems to reduce EM radiation. "Course set for the Hole, ETA 30 minutes," she reported.
'It's going to take longer than I expected,' thought Peete. "Brad, keep an eye on the passive sensors." Then he turned to Matt who was still listening to wireless communications:
"What's new on the war front?"
Matt took a deep breath before reporting the latest news. "Things are not good. Most of the Colonial Fleet's vessels at Virgon lost power when the Cylons showed up. Just like the CERBERUS. Six battlestars were destroyed along with all their fighters. There are a few reports that are just coming in saying that all the Colonies are being nuked. One thing that I do not understand is that OpPlan Five has been called. What is that?"
"That explains why the CERBERUS turned around while chasing us. It is the call for all available Colonial armed vessels to link up with Colonial Fleet ships to fight off the enemy. It means that things are desperate," answered Peete grimly.
The KOBOL MARAUDER with the CERBERUS in tow escorted by Rapier 138 quickly approached the Oort cloud of Cyrannus. Millions of asteroids and chunks of ice were getting bigger by the minute in the view ports. Janna adjusted the ship's course to avoid the boulders. Her forehead glistened with sweat. She was used to navigate the MARAUDER through the field but not with another ship docked to it.
The Hole was deep in the cloud. The large number of metallic asteroids in the area made sensor sweeps of the field difficult. This made a perfect hideout for those who did not want to be found.
"The Hole is in sight," announced Janna.
The hideout was built in a cavernous asteroid, which gave it its name. Peete discovered it 30 years ago while fleeing from Colonial Marshal Service ships. Then a privateer, he had been shipping drugs between Caprica and Sagitarra in an interplanetary shuttle he had bought with his military savings. He had been about to be inspected by Colonial Customs when he decided to run for it and had been pursued by two Colonial Marshal ships. He had jumped next to the Oort cloud and entered it. The Marshals had abandoned the chase after losing track of him in the cloud.
Peete had immediately seen a big potential for the 100 km wide asteroid. Its huge caverns could easily hold a battlestar-sized ship. Its ferrous composition made it ideal for hiding installations and also allowed for refining raw materials. He had stolen an ore refining ship, with mining equipment from the Aries Space Mining Corporation and had started to build his own little space dock. In order to pay and provide for extra materials, he had created a front mining company, the PB Mining Services, with the ore refining ship renamed GOLD DIGGER. It had turned out to be quite successful. That had helped him forge his own little smuggling empire, the Brak Ring. Not as big as those in the Chespek Sector, but the Brak Ring grew to include nearly a thousand members and several ships. The Hole had taken 5 years to achieve the initial stage. It included a small docking and ship repair facility, living quarters and a small warehouse. As the Brak Ring grew, the Hole complex was expanded to accommodate more ships, a bigger warehouse and more living quarters. It was the perfect hideout. In 30 years, Marshal and Colonial Fleet patrols had never been able to find it, even if they had come within a few thousand kilometres on certain occasions. The Cylons should not be able to find them either this time.
Peete smiled to himself, the Marshals will finally learn the secret of his success. In other circumstances, this would have been a disaster. Now, there was little other choice.
He turned to Matt and asked him to signal the Hole's command center that they were coming in with guests and to order the ship technicians to prepare for repairs.
The ships headed for a large hole on one side of the asteroid. Nothing was apparent to indicate the hidden facility. As wide as 3 kilometres, the tunnel went deep inside to an even larger cave. The ships exited the entrance tunnel, into a port facility that would have made Colonial Fleet jealous. On the floor was a landing pad with magnetic seals and elevators leading to a pressurized hangar bay below. On the ceiling was a single crane on rails to handle cargo. There were two zero-G docking ports attached to the walls, one on each side, with connections to facilities embedded in the rock. On one other wall of the cave was a large windowed compartment housing the command center.
Peete ordered Janna to dock the CERBERUS at docking port 1. The KOBOL MARAUDER would put down on the large landing pad, port 3, along with the Rapier.
Peete asked Matt to transmit a message: "Tell the Rapier to land on pad 3 and wait to be lowered to the hangar." After the CERBERUS was attached to docking port 1, the MARAUDER set down on the landing pad and was lowered to the hangar bay. The bay was as wide as the cave and was able to fit two or three ships as big as the MARAUDER. In the bay lay several crates; a few servicing shuttles and the interplanetary shuttle Peete had started his business with. The servicing crew ran around to begin their work on the new arrivals as soon as they had been secured.
Lorne walked onto the bridge to get instructions. "Have the crew secure the MARAUDER and unload the FTL equipment in the warehouse. Bring the injured to the refinery, have Chief Hadley meet me in the conference room along with the Rapier pilot. Tell the ground crew to start repairs on the MARAUDER and the Rapier. Nobody touches the CERBERUS until I say so," Peete told him. Lorne acknowledged and went to work.
"Matt, upload all the information you gathered so far to the conference room and join us there," ordered Peete. "I am going to the command center," he added.
The fact that there had been no other ships at docking port 2 and in the hangar worried him. He had to go to the command center to get a status update on the Brak Ring.
The command center was large room with several computers and charts. It controlled all docking operations, the facilities and the group's smuggling activities as well. It was crewed by a dozen people led by a long time friend of Peete's, Rob Simms who was also the facility chief.
They had served together in the Colonial Fleet shortly after the war. Rob had been a technician in the CIC of the ATLANTIA. They had become friends very quickly and had frequently discussed their future after the service. They had wanted to go into business together and had planned to save a lot of their pay until they had reached 20 years of service. With their pension and their savings, they could have bought a cargo ship and transported goods for profit. However, the general demobilization had reduced the Fleet from a thousand ships to a few hundred. They both had been demobilized with only enough money to buy a single interplanetary shuttle. They had been very disappointed that they had not been able to continue their service. Like many others that had been demobilized, they had tried to survive as best as they could. They had chosen to ferry people between the Colonies. However, they could not compete with the big charter ships so they had resorted to smuggling drugs at the beginning and later, weapons. Business had not been good for them until they had discovered the Hole.
As Peete walked into the command center, he was greeted by the familiar and always loud voice of Rob. "What the hell are you doing?" yelled Rob visibly angry. "You show up late with two Marshal ships on top of that!" Everybody in the room stopped working and discreetly watched the scene.
It struck Peete that they did not understand what was going on. "You mean you don't know?"
"Know what?" replied Rob.
Peete realized that it had only been a little more than an hour since the attack had begun. Signals from the nearest Colonial communications relay satellite would have taken at least an hour and a half to reach the Hole. 'The first reports should get here in a matter of minutes' he thought. 'There is no way for them to know what has been going on.'
Peete walked to the facility's public address system and picked up the microphone. He announced the grim news to the station's entire personnel. Peete could tell that the announcement strongly surprised Rob and the rest of the personnel in the room. Shock and despair started to show on their faces.
"... In the face of the events, I decided to rescue the Marshals from their plight and offered them shelter here. Because of the Cylons, we are no longer criminals. We are at war. We might hate the authorities but the Colonies of Kobol are our home. We are humans fighting machines. Therefore, let us welcome our fellow humans as friends not as enemies and let us see what we can do to fight the Cylons. So say we all!" finished Peete putting down the microphone and as he said a silent prayer to himself.
Everyone in the command center was silent. Sobs could be heard from a woman in one corner of the room. Rob was standing dumbfounded, mouth wide open. "What are we going to do now, boss?" Rob managed to say after a few seconds.
"I need a full inventory of our supplies. We might be hiding here for a while. I want a full report on all our ships with their last know location. Finally, I want the immediate area and all message traffic monitored around the clock, "ordered Peete. "Once, you have passed on these tasks to the staff come meet with me in the conference room."
Rob turned to his command staff to relay the orders while Peete left to meet his guests.
The conference room was at the end of the corridor leading to the command center. Peete opened the door on a large room. It had a long table in the middle with several chairs, on the walls, there was several works of art stolen from the various ships they had hijacked over the years, and on the farthest wall was an elaborate multi-media electronic board similar to those used in most university lecture rooms.
Peete was the first to get there. He sat down at the end of the table and leaned back to relax a bit. 'The overall situation is not good so far,' he thought. 'I just hope the Fleet managed to reorganize itself, otherwise the war is already over.' The door to the room opened and Lorne, Chief Hadley and a second Marshal walked in. 'The Rapier pilot surely,' remarked Peete to himself. He motioned everybody to sit down as Matt and Rob entered the room. Lorne presented everybody to each other. The Rapier pilot was named Lt Zev Davis. He stood 5'10" tall, well built with brown hair and eyes. The pilot was the first to talk.
"Thanks for saving our butts out there, Mr. Brak. That was frakkin great flying!" Lt Davis was a young man, so possibly he was a pilot that had recently graduated from the Colonial Marshal Academy. If so, this could have been his first combat experience and that would explain why he was easily impressed with the flying skills of others.
"I just give the orders. For the piloting skills, talk to Janna," said Peete. Changing subjects, he turns toward Chief Hadley for an update on the CMS injuries.
"Most of those that were unconscious are awake now. They passed out because of the smoke and failing life support systems. My team of technicians and I were wearing pressure suits to deal with damage. Most of the injured were from the bridge and battle stations. Marshal Officers manned those. This includes Captain Yates, the second in command of the CERBERUS. He is severely burned on his hands and face. He is in the infirmary. Do you have doctors by any chance?" the Chief asked.
"I am afraid not," answered Peete. "But we have the medical equipment to treat burns. For the other injuries, I'll see what we can do." He looked around the table and saw that everybody was looking at him expecting more direction. Apparently, even the Marshals respected him. 'What do they know about me?' thought Peete.
"Okay, the last information we have of the battle is from before the jump. The same signals will be received here in only a few minutes. So, Rob, when we are done here go get an update and report everything to me," said Peete. "Lorne, how are the repairs going on the MARAUDER?"
"All damaged gun turrets are beyond repair. I'll have to scrap them for parts if there any that are still useful. Engine 1 will be easily repaired within the day. The wiring connecting it to the energizer got fused by the missile impact. As for the hull damage, it will take a week to fix. But it is still flyable," reported Lorne.
"The Rapier's attitude thrusters can be repaired easily," said Chief Hadley.
"One of your bullets damaged a junction box close to the flight computer in the fight between us," added Lt Davis. "What about the CERBERUS? What should we do?"
"I saw something similar happen in the Cylon War," said Peete. "At the beginning of the war, Cylons were constantly tapping into the computer networks of the Colonial Fleet. It caused severe losses. Eventually some commanders decided to disconnect all networks on their ships. They achieved success immediately. The word was passed on to the rest of the Fleet. That allowed us to force the Cylons to negotiate an Armistice. What happened today to the Fleet must have been the same kind of tactics."
"That could explain it, the CERBERUS was fully networked along with the Rapiers," added Chief Hadley.
"Why didn't the MARAUDER and my Rapier get powered down as well?" asked Lt Davis.
"The damage inflicted to your ship may have prevented whatever the Cylon did," said Matt. "As for the MARAUDER, there is no network. The ship was from the Cylon War and did not have any when we got it." Everybody was nodding at that piece of information. Matt continued: "Just before the CERBERUS and Rapier 137 powered down, I detected an energy spike coming from the Cylon Fighters. It might be a signal disabling the ships. I'll check the sensors logs with the recorders to see if it was an encrypted code. If so, I might be able to find out how to reactivate your ship," said Matt looking at Chief Hadley.
"Good. However, I won't be able to do any repairs on the CERBERUS until that problem is fixed," said Chief Hadley. "Once that is done, would it be possible to bring the CERBERUS in the hangar to do repairs? It has landing gears."
"Sure, no problem," said Rob. "On the supply side, we have enough food for 6 months, Tylium fuel for a month. We have enough ammo for 5 full magazine loads for the MARAUDER. All anti-fighter ammo is Viper grade so it should fit in the CERBERUS and Rapier magazines." Chief Hadley added that their magazines were almost full.
Rob continued his report by saying that they had not received news from the other Brak Ring ships but that they were supposed to be operating close to the Colonies today. Only the GOLD DIGGER was in the area mining some iron ore. It was scheduled to come back to the Hole in two hours. Peete ordered it home immediately.
At this point they had pretty much covered all aspects of the situation. "Well, Chief. As soon as your crew and your ships are repaired, you'll be able to rejoin your friends and the fight. That's all for now. Go do your jobs," concluded Peete.
Everybody got up and left the room. Peete and Rob walked together back to the command center. "The situation is really bad, isn't it?" asked Rob with concern. "Just like 40 years ago?"
"From what I have heard so far, yes," answered Peete. "I think the entire fleet was caught with its guard down."
As they entered the command center, the female technician in charge of the communication systems walked to them with a paper in her hands. "The GOLD DIGGER has reported in. It will be docking shortly," she said. "And this."
Rob took the message and read it. His reaction showed it was not good news. Then he read it loud: "ATLANTIA and all other battlestars in task force destroyed. Admiral Nagala killed. Next senior officer is to assume command."
"Looks like the Fleet is still having problems," said Peete.
"How many of them do you think there are left out there?" asked Rob.
Just as Peete was about to answer that question, the comms technician brought another message.
FROM BSG-75 GALACTICA: Am taking command of the Fleet. All Colonial Units are directed to proceed to Ragnar Anchorage for regrouping and counter- attack. Acknowledge receipt via same encryption protocol. Adama.
"The GALACTICA?" said Rob. "Wasn't it supposed to be decommissioned today?"
"Yes, it was supposed to," answered Peete.
"Adama? That name rings a bell," said Rob.
"That's Commander Adama. He is the Viper ace of the Cylon War along with Commander Cain. Together they destroyed more Cylon Raiders than 3 entire Viper wings," said Peete.
"I remember now. So he made it to Commander," said Rob.
"Yeah. I heard the other day on Colonial News Network that he was supposed to retire with his ship," added Peete.
"So he is taking command now. That means that all admirals have been killed," said Rob. "The Fleet must be almost entirely destroyed by now."
Walking to a map depicting the Cyrannus system, Peete was evaluating the situation. "Ragnar Anchorage, that's on the other side of the system at this time of year. Even if the CERBERUS is repaired quickly, the odds are that Adama will have moved what remains of the fleet to another location before the Marshals can join them."
The female comm. technician brought another piece of news: "Boss, I heard reports that all the Colonies are being nuked and assaulted by Cylon invasion forces. The Fleet appears to be almost completely destroyed. The President of the Colonies and most senior members of the cabinet have been killed in the initial attack. Apparently, the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, has been sworn in as President." As she finished, the female returned to her post.
"A teacher as President! Are things that desperate?" exclaimed Rob.
"It appears to be the case," said grimly Peete. "Facing a situation like this, it is very likely that she will assemble survivors and go into hiding. Just like we are doing right now."
"How is she going to assemble survivors on ships without attracting the attention of the Cylons?" asked Rob. "She needs a safe haven to do that."
"You are right," Peete said. "A safe haven where they could hide and organize before moving out to rebuild our military forces."
Rob and Peete looked at each other, both considering the options, their assets. Without exchanging a word, they formed a plan. After nearly 40 years of working together, they had learned to think as a team. It was one of the reasons why they had been so successful. Resolution written clearly in their faces, they nodded at each other knowing exactly what they would do next.
Rob went to talk to the technicians in charge of base logistics while Peete called for Lorne, Chief Hadley and Lt Davis to join him in the conference room.
A few minutes later, they were all back planning the next step.
"How soon can the MARAUDER and the Rapier fly back to the Colonies?" quickly asked Peete.
"I should be able to bring engine 1 back online within the hour," said Lorne. "But the damaged weapons and the hull won't be repaired."
"Never mind that. We are going to do some Search and Rescue," said Rob.
"The Rapier can fly but the damage isn't repaired yet," said Chief Hadley.
"That's all right. Lt. Davis, Lorne and I are just going to look for survivors and bring them here," said Peete.
The plan was to jump to the other side of the Batwah Debris Field. It was an asteroid field that separated the outer planets from the inner planets of the system, where all 12 Colonies were located. The ships were to jump there, silently monitor for human ships fleeing the inner system, and meet and bring them to safety. A meeting point was setup a little inside the Oort cloud, where Rob would meet them with the interplanetary shuttle to guide them to the Hole.
"At the first sign of the Cylons, jump out of the area and far away from the Hole. After making sure you are not followed, jump back here," recommended Peete. "If the ships that you meet are not FTL-capable, send me an encrypted message with the coordinates. I'll see if I can FTL-tug them to safety with the MARAUDER." Everybody nodded their approval of the plan.
"Very well. Everybody go to your ships and prepare for departure in 1 hour," concluded Peete. All the people present got up and left the room, except for Rob who seemed to have some concerns.
"What's on your mind, Rob?"
"How many people do you expect to rescue? How many ships? We have good facilities and supplies but it was all designed for our group only. What are we going to do if there are too many of them?" asked Rob.
Peete paused to think a little about that issue. The question was valid. Their supplies and space were limited. They have room for a few ships and their crews. How many survivors would be on them?
"I guess we will have to wait and see how many we find," answered Peete. "If we can't handle the numbers, we will have to move everybody to a safer place or expand the Hole. We'll see when we come back."
On that note, Peete and Rob left for the hangar to get ready for their new mission.
End of Chapter 2