Disclosure
by Chaoseternus

The Truth Is Out At Last, Are You Ready For It?

Fourty-Eight

"Our shields can withstand a few nukes; let them come," Adama spoke abruptly, "shift all batteries, concentrate fire on any missile that looks likely to slip past us"

"That's a little… risky" Colonel Tigh commented slowly.

"Perhaps," the commander bit out in response, "but I have to have faith in Galactica's shields and her armour, at least, unlike during our escape, we have our full armoured plate in place, not removed as unnecessary to a mere museum ship"

The ship rocked, and Adama grimaced as the lights flickered just for a moment, but it was gentle, muted, a shield strike instead of an armour strike. His ship was fine.

The ship rocked again, harder, and he found himself forced to grab onto the tactical console just to have a hope of standing on his feet.

"Multiple shield strikes…." Agapi commented, anticipating Adama's request as a good officer should, "shields at 87 and failing. No leakers at this time"

"Where are the Vipers? " Tigh asked, his voice oddly distorted.

Worried, Adama glanced up to see Tigh carefully get to his feet, blood running from his mouth, a bruise already forming across his face, the red splattered DC Console a mute testament to his injury.

"Hot-dog has them deployed to a lower orbit, looks like they're after leakers"

"Good," he commented, a slight smile crossing his face as he contemplated for just a moment the young volunteer and exactly how far he had come since his nearly being washed out by Starbuck with the rest of the first class aboard Galactica, "re-set weapons priorities, equal to leakers and ship-threats"

"Aye Commander," Agapi said, and Adama turned away as she quickly tapped the change into the touch screens of her console.

"Commander," the shout came loudly from the single helm console that had replaced the four thrusters controls and single FTL-drive control of old, a change he didn't exactly approve of, but was forced to accept that it was mandated not just by the technology but by the need to reduce personnel requirements on every warship, "the blasts from the nukes are pushing us into a lower orbit. I'm having a little difficulty compensating"

He grimaced as the crewman's words were underscored as the ship shook again, the lights dimming as power was automatically diverted to reinforce the shields.

"Shields critical, 37 integrity" Agapi commented calmly, though Adama knew that if he could spare the time for a quick glance, the dark-skinned officer would be ramrod straight and tense, her emotions betrayed by her body, not by her voice. For Agapi, it was almost always that way.

"Rotate the ship across the y-axis, bring our starboard batteries to bear and mask the weakened port shields" he ordered swiftly, it was an obvious order, but it would, for a short-time at least, increase the chances of leakers past the CIWS batteries as their minimal controlling computers would have to compensate not just for the movement of the enemy ships, but for a major movement by Galactica too. This was somewhat compensated for by the fact that, for a brief few seconds, both sets of batteries would be able to partially bear but there was still an increased risk.

"Aye sir" the helmsman of the watch replied even as Agapi spoke once more.

"Shields breeched, port primaries failed"

"Rotate the ship now" he barked, his expression tensed as he grabbed tight onto the tactical console and waited. The universe didn't disappoint him, and he felt the console rise up to meet his face even as the icon for Galactica on the displays shifted. The concussive shock through the deckplates Adama knew too well, he had felt it far too many times before, the direct impact of a nuclear device on the hull itself.


"Free Jaffa Ha'taks report they have engaged a Tel'tac attempting to leave the atmosphere, vessel is not responding to hails and is attempting to evade contact"

Hendricks grimaced, "that will be Iblis escaping the net"

"Does he have the supersoldiers with him?" Vladin asked calmly.

"No real way of knowing unless they show up… and we can't risk any supersoldiers heading for the mouth. That place has been consecrated with far too much blood already" Hendricks replied swiftly, glancing knowingly at Gel'tec.

"Agreed, as much as I would dearly love to see another false god potentially destroyed…" Gel'tec turned towards Penhall with a frown, "order the Ha'taks to break off and begin a sweep of the surface for the supersoldiers"

"If they find them," Hendricks added, "they are fully authorised to engage with their main batteries"

"That'll do it," Vladin muttered in his native Russian, "might even disprove rule 37"

"Priority one signal from Thundersdawn sir," Penhall grimaced, "the last wave of reinforcements got hit bad"

"How bad?" General Hendricks asked sharply.

"Very," the Major shook his head, "according to Peters… we may be looking at a total loss"

"Dear God," Hendricks groaned, dismayed, "that's 54 Paladins, 10 soldiers to a Paladin… that's 540 dead plus the crews!"

"Sadly…" Vladin shook his head mournfully, "that truly is just a drop in the ocean"

"I know," Hendricks frowned, "but I don't have to like it"

"How goes the final assault?" Gel'tec asked, bringing the minds of the group firmly back to the business of the hour.

"We hold the Goa'uld base now and have the hellmouth itself surrounded. Unfortunately, there is a shield preventing the mages from being killed. The coven is moving swiftly into position now, but time will be an issue"

"Time will always be an issue," an unknown voice said, and the four looked across startled as an unknown stepped into the room, "Frank Parker, NSA. I have the book the Coven will need"