Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus
Chapter 20: Joyful Chaos
Adama smiled as another group of Colonial warriors passed him, the tags on their equipment bags marking them as from Atlantis.
Atlantis, the head of a refugee convoy from a hidden Red Line station, one even he had not known existed. Adama hadn't even known the Colonials used Red Line nowadays, the last time it had been used the colonies hadn't even formed a central government and at that time warfare between certain governments was expected at any time, what the Tau'ri would call a Cold War and so old warships regardless of class or condition were never scrapped, instead they were stored, a reserve fleet of vessels that could be activated and added to the fleet in a hurry protected by a thick layer of red preservative paint.
That was where the term Red Line had come from, lines of ships painted red floating in space. The Tau'ri still used a similar idea for their planetary fleets on Earth, only they tended to call it the Red Lead Row, an allusion to the fact that the paint the Tau'ri often used whilst still being red, was often lead based.
It meant that a lot of the ships that had joined the Fleet at Freedom were not top of the range or even up to date but they were additional working warships so he would not complain. They would be brought up to date and utilised in time. Frak, only one was a Battlestar, the rest were Battlecruisers and the like, classes the Colonial Military had stopped using so long ago when the Battlestars had proven so effective and capable.
They couldn't afford to pick and chose like that now, not with their very survival at stake. The Cylons, the Goa'uld, the Aschen, the Replicators… it seemed the universe was full of races that either wanted humanity gone or under its thumb.
At least they had more hulls now just waiting to be added to the fleet, more trained colonial warriors awaiting refresher training in the new technologies, ready to rejoin the action.
And all needing quarters, food, water, sanitation…
Adama really didn't envy Roslin at the moment, as Civilian Leader of the provisional Government she had the task of finding the resources to support all the extra bodies, civilian and Military. Normally Military would have been his to deal with but for the moment there was very little for the military to do, after all most of their equipment was either out of date or had broken down and frankly until they had up to date ships and weapons available most of the military personnel had been sent out to the fields and mines. Their task was to help start Civilisation going again, reporting to the lone Colonial Military base once a week to keep their hand in with the help of a few personnel who had been reserved for Military Duties only.
He just had top get their military going again; keep the Colonials from becoming just a part of the Tau'ri Military. That was the worst fear of the Colonial Leaders, both Military and Civilian, that they would just become a part of the Tau'ri, not maintaining their own identity, their own way of life.
But still, they couldn't afford to push the Tau'ri away either, like it or not, they needed the Tau'ri to help them rebuild, keep them protected until they could stand on their own two feet again.
Though they hadn't received anywhere near as much help with this second group, the bulk of the Tau'ri support craft which would have been used to deliver Refugee supplies were currently shuttling back and forth between Edonia, they were pretty much limited to the supplies available on Ravenbright station, Freedom and Alpha Prime, the bulk of the supplies being moved by Colonial ships that had been under maintained and overused for far too many months now. Indeed, Colonial One, always a priority target for the Cylons had broken down on take off yesterday, her engines failing sending her crashing straight back onto the surface of Alpha Prime, the Tau'ri controlled world in this system.
The Tau'ri had lost a lot of people and a lot of supplies in that fireball, which thanks to the inadequate fire fighting equipment available, was still raging out of control.
The Tau'ri fully expected to lose that launch site.
Adama sighed, another debt they owed the Tau'ri, one amongst many.
Now for the fun part, now he had to negotiate for the Tau'ri to refit the Colonials newly arrived ships to Tau'ri standards and arrange for supplies and support for the Colonials to build their own Construction Yard without giving away too much… Correction, without anything to negotiate with, except their own warships.
Adama just hoped by the time he finished, the Colonials would still have enough ships available to them to have their own fleet.
As it was, he knew he was about to lose one of their two Battlestars to the Tau'ri, hopefully not the Galactica, which even before the fall, was the more up to date of the two ships.
Glancing up, he saw the door to the Generals Office ahead and grimacing, he banished his dark thoughts to the back of his mind. He would need no distractions for the task ahead.