Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus Chapter 26: Scouts, Training and Vipers
Adama watched tightly as the Devonshire left on what, according to his sources, was just her second mission. This one should be their mission, the Colonials mission, not that of a battered scout just days out of a massive refit and rebuild.
The Cylons were their problem after all, even if they had brought it down on the Tau'ri's head. They should be the ones to scout out and assess the threat. They should be the ones to gather intelligence. But it seemed that role would be denied them a little longer, the Tau'ri couldn't wait until the Colonials were ready, they needed proper intelligence now.
And so they were sending the Type II Dauntless to reconnoitre, to assess the number of ships each group of cylons had, to find out which group, if it was just one group, was probing their defences and to discover the extent of the damage to the twelve worlds.
Adama sighed; he wasn't looking forward to seeing that report at all.
"Commander" Gaeta voice made Adama turn away from the screen, his face a careful mask, "the Viper II's have launched from the surface and should rendezvous in fifteen minutes. Also, R&D signals the prototype Mk VIII will be ready for trials within the week"
Adama's eyebrows rose, slightly shocked, "A week? Last estimate said three months bare minimum"
"They're taking advantage of all the Mk II's that arrived with the Red Line fleet," Gaeta glanced at the printout in his hand before continuing, "they are rebuilding the existing Mk II's instead of building a new design from scratch, the new design got pushed back to Mk IX. They also ask us not to dent too many of our Mk II's during the refresher training, they want them back to rebuild them"
Adama smiled tightly, "No guarantees, when flying fighters their never is really"
Gaeta half smiled, "yes commander"
"So Gaeta" Adama eyes glinted, "you have a… source in R&D, what's the latest word on these Mk VIII's then?"
Gaeta blushed slightly, how Adama had found out about that he didn't no, but…
"If I were a betting man, I would say Type 17 Pulse lasers to replace the rail guns, that weird drive technology the Tau'ri acquired from across the Intergate… Internally Metered Pulse drives to replace the existing drives…" Gaeta frowned, "that will reduce manoeuvrability a bit but greatly reduce fuel usage, increase speed and the drives themselves will provide far more power than the VIII is ever likely to need. Also they are Deuterium powered, which can be synthesised from pure hydrogen so finding fuel will be less of an issue too"
Adama nodded, internally cataloguing the assessment.
"…plus the addition of permanent missile racks capable of taking enhanced versions of our nukes, RSS Sparrows and SGC Sidewinders "
Adama frowned, "what about the decoys?"
Gaeta shrugged, "Fighters have less use for them so they are sidelining those, they will probably start work on an update to include that capability once we have at least three full squadrons operational, two for Galactica and one for planetary defence"
"Noted" Adama responded, "And good luck with your… source"
"Thank you sir"
Adama sighed, his eyes looking at the plotting table in front of him, but his mind was far away, back in the days of the first Cylon war when the Mk II's finally arrived, and they realized they could at last outmanoeuvre the cylons. Adama smiled faintly, losses in their squadron had halved in the week following their conversion to Mk II's and the same tale was repeated all across the Colonial fleet, or at least those parts of it that had Mk II's.
Kills were up; losses were down… those squadrons that didn't have II's were practically selling themselves into slavery in order to be the next to get the newer Vipers. They were after all human, and they wanted to live and kill cylons at the same time. The II was clearly the weapon of choice for that being faster, more manoeuvrable and structurally stronger than the old, flawed mark I with its near infinite number of in-service updates, patches and quick-fixes.
But the big edge was always the manoeuvrability.
Adama frowned, turning away from the plotting table, "Gaeta, send a signal to R&D from Galactica Actual, Any efforts to minimise the reduction in manoeuvrability on the Mark VIII would be greatly appreciated"
"Yes Sir"