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Chapter 15
Day 26
Prolmar Sector Solham System
Baseship Delta 6 Command Bridge
Leonard Dyo had no idea where the Centaur and the ships from Maxon Mining might be. Searching in Prolmar and Bacrita Sectors seemed to be the best start. The Raiders had not picked up anything except for the Solham System. This system wasn't really all that useful but did have some scientific interest as it's gas giant was just starting to turn another of it's moons into another ring. This process will take hundreds of years but the Colonials had sent science ships to observe it so it was a named system rather than a numbered system.
One of the Raiders had picked up a trace of a ship though. The same rings that made it difficult for the Raider to get a good reading though made it harder for the unknown ship to pick them up. There shouldn't be any Cylons out here so any ships would have to be Colonial and hopefully the Centaur and it's ships. Jumping in as close to the gas giant as they could they were able to launch the Raiders before the Colonial ships could jump away. Unfortunately they did not appear to be the Centaur or it's ships as there were two Barracuda class ships and two cargo ships. One of the Barracudas was too slow to surrender so was destroyed but the other three ships decided that a bad chance is better than no chance. Taking prisoners (if just to question them) had been debated among the four Biocylons but with no leads it was eventually agreed upon.
The ships admitted to being pirates under the Wilson sisters and did not have any other ships or much of a lead to other pirates as they did not really trust each other. There were some spots where trading or illicit refueling would happen and be worth checking out. However one important piece of information did show up.
Several people on the Anastasia reported that on the day of Retribution that they saw three Colonial Raptors. The log books wrote that one was piloted by a LT Brown call sign Slider that waited there for several hours until the other two Raptors showed up. The second Raptor was piloted by LT Casar call sign Silk. The third did not talk. LT Casar reported that "they did find Colonial Forces within jump range".
"Sister Armani could you please check if we have any information on LT Casar and LT Brown under those call signs" asked Leonard Dyo. Bringing a Number Six with them to help with computer issues (their specialty) and getting rid of a Number One was a huge gain.
"They are confirmed to be from the Kestrel" said Sister Giadi Armani.
That is unfortunate. Also while what it means could be debated "forces" seems to imply military more than civilian. And as far as he knew there is only one other Colonial military force in this area.
"Thank you Sister. We will space the Pirates and then destroy all their ships" said Brother Dyo. No point leaving material for any Colonials to scrounge for later.
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Day 39
Omega Sector "Darkspace"
Chiron CAG Office
Captain Hamlin (Warlock) was thinking that things are improving on the pilot front. The former Raptor pilot from the Badger LT Reggie Donaldson (Oatmeal) had quickly recertified. Promoting Chief Glover to LT and making him the new LSO now that LT Gavin "Melon" was healed means that Melon could also return back to flight duty. Even LT Tymes reports that some of the Raptor trainees are ready to go on missions for on hand training and should be able to be able to fly a Raptor in an emergency and pass basic ECO check soon. Then Kye and Kilo could be moved to Raptor piloting duties. Also the two damaged Vipers were fixed with the parts that the Vega was able to make and the last Raptor should be working in a week.
The five "Danger" class shuttles had been turned into flight trainers. They had the same controls as a Raptor and showing you could hit a rock in space was sort of combat training. The extra ammunition brought back along with the Vega saying they should be able to start production on Viper ammo and Raptor missiles in the next few weeks means that they don't have to be stringent during training.
There is one important duty to take care of today though.
"LT Brown report to CAGs office for debriefing" was heard over the PA system. 'What now we've been looking at every single pre first war mining location or whatever random spot in space and nothing' thought LT. Debbie Brown (Slider). Walking to the CAGs office she noticed the other pilots and the deck crew with a banner that said "1000" and an empty wagon. 'Wait is this really my thousandth and I didn't notice?'
The other pilots picked up Slider and started chanting "Raptor Pilots Flying High" over to the wagon to take her over to the DCAG who had a helmet with 1000 painted on it.
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Omega Sector
Baseship Epsilon 5 Command Bridge
Deonna Breanne had downloaded and then removed most of the computer information from the late Captain Gorman's fleet of pirate ships. Their "base" was a cargo ship that the logistics of a pirate "fleet" would deal with. They had not yet moved according to the Raiders and now all six of the ships were in one spot. Setting up the timing for the Raiders to envelope the pirates while the Epsilon 5 jumped in was a fairly simple task. Would not work against a Navy ship since that would invite defeat in detail but against such a weak opponent it will not matter.
Sending the message for all Raiders to proceed the Epsilon 5 also jumped in close to the pirates. Even by the low standards she expected from such drunken scum their response time was bad. All ships surrendered and said they will comply with the boarding parties. The orders given the Centurions was to separate out all males and females with any children sent along with the females. This was quickly accomplished.
Looking over them over Deonna saw no evidence of any unwilling males. "I am looking for any members of the Halstarr. If you tell me who they are I will be merciful. If you do not you will all suffer the same punishment" she said. That there was a human speaking for the Cylons did seem to confuse the pirates but they quickly understood her message and 14 pirates were forced to the front. Their screams they were not from that ship meant little. However she did recognize the voice of the Captain of the Halstarr among them meant they were the people she was looking for. "Centurions take those things to the cell I will deal with them later. Space the rest." She would make sure they would take a long time to die with the Captain taking the longest.
The female captives were more complicated. Some clearly had been used for "comfort" and by their clothes, bruises, and demeanor were not willing participants. Those were quickly separated. The women who had had holsters or pirate tattoos were spaced. There were some that she was uncertain of. Bringing them to the women she knew had been slaves and letting them decide their fates seemed simple enough. If they were also slaves or kind enough they would live. The children were thankfully small in number and mainly under five. There was an older child but after the former slaves explained how she was one of the worst she was also spaced.
That left eleven women and six children. Time to put the second part of why this needed to be done quickly. "I am going to let you go. I am giving you a ship with food. I strongly recommend you stay in place as where you will be is one of the known pirate locations that the Colonials have not yet checked. Also let the Commander of the Centaur know that the Cylons are aware that survivors from the Kestrel were picked up. There is now a Baseship looking for them. I will not give them any information but can not help you out any further."
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Day 41
Omega Sector System 15289
Capt. Shayla Tonis (Juno) ECO Ensign Albert Walter (Big Top) Trainee Jody Cohen (Lefty)
"Juno I am picking up a ship that matches one of the pirate ships" said Ensign Walker (Big Top). The search for the pirates or Ricon's three ships had been ongoing for the last 5 days. "Lefty" was a pretty good pilot but her ECO training was pretty poor. Putting her with Big Top who had patience to teach rather than Wombat who certainly did not seemed to be improving her skills remarkably.
"Colonial Raptor this is the Chalice. We have escaped the pirates with the help of a human form Cylon and were instructed to give a message to the Centaur" said a female voice.
'Well crap that secrets out of the bag' thought Captain Tonis. "Chalice wait here while I report in. I will be back soon."
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Maxon's Respite Council Chambers
All of the women and children on the Chalice passed the Cylon test and the message that there was a Baseship looking for them and that the Cylons knew they had picked up people and supplies from the Kestrel was worrisome. Nine Vipers aren't much but if the enemy doesn't know you have them they might make a difference. The Chalice was destroyed as both being too small to be of much use other than parts and that the risk of a hidden Cylon tracker or bomb could not be discounted.
"We did not want to start a panic and that is why I did not tell you about Cylons that look like humans" said Governor Maxon. "We are calling them skinjobs." Carl had mentioned that there was an old Caprican holodrama about hidden aliens that looked like humans that were called "skinjobs" for the way they took a humans skin and wore it over their bodies. Certainly shorter than Cylons that look like humans.
Most of the Councilors seemed to understand but there was some grumbling. They more seemed to have wanted to be in on the secret than that a secret was kept.
"We need to be clear that the Cylon test works and that we have descriptions of the 7 types of Cylons" said Governor Maxon. At least Miss Breanne had kept that there were the five hidden Cylons that did not know they were Cylons.
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Thank you all for reading. Any questions and comments are appreciated.