Seeker
Part Three of
the Mailman Saga
by Chaoseternus
Cain led us to Earth, his knowledge of the route clear as he led us direct to habitable worlds, worlds with water, worlds with food or resources directly as and when needed, there was no searching only recon for the rapidly advancing cylons.
Along the way we were discovered several times but the Cylons ability to jump far more rapidly then we could often meant the patrols escaped to take word of our position long before we could target them properly and blow them out of our sky.
It was a pity, it meant the Cylons got a far stronger picture of where we were headed, therefore where Earth was likely to be, but time was never going to be on our side anyway.
Given Seeker's depleted and slowly eroding condition, it is perhaps fortunate that we met no serious opposition along the way, my crew, whilst determined and loyal, failing under the weight of their tasks, their numbers too few to maintain the ship properly. Crew loaned by the Pegasus helped, but Cain could not spare too many for his ship was our primary defensive and offensive element should it be needed and he could ill afford to compromise his ships readiness. In hindsight, that was not needed, but hindsight is nearly always perfect anyway.
Given that we did not need to search for resources, our journey to Earth was the fastest I could remember, taking just a month and a half, but we were dogged by Cylons a full third of the way. They were getting dangerously close, and we could see the signs all along the way, a new ship class tentatively labelled a construction ship entered our warbooks and then bred, forty-three being logged before we left the Cylons behind. It was clear that the Cylons had no intention of giving us time to rebuild if they could avoid it, making our mission, to return and to strike, to weaken their advance all the more important.
Our welcome at Earth was at best distracted, and we were quick to learn that the Earth was in chaos, its inhabitants not truly ready for the news they had been presented with.
I could understand that, but I wished they would get their arses into gear, this we certainly did not have time for. We did at least have the support of several of Earths governments, as well as several of the religious hierarchies, the actions of the Cylons having been labelled as an abomination by many. Still, there were idiots, they always are and that was what was causing the problem on Earth.
Together, Cain and I presented our plan to 'High Command', the group of Colonial and Earth-Allied officers that had been placed in command of military operations by our forces the day after we arrived in the system. It was approved soundly; the only issue being raised was my right to command the Seeker.
I know I am young, but shouldn't my experience speak for me? I commanded Seeker for months, I did my duty through mutiny, boarding actions and more, they should have seen that I had proven myself.
The issue of law was unfortunately not something I could wield here, there were E&E appointed commanders here, they could force a change upon an officer who had been promoted by fatality. Worse, there was an Exploration and Evaluation Admiral, formerly commanding the mission set up in the area to study the Earthers in preparation for contact.
The only saving grace I had was the support of Cain who had watched and learned during our long journey back to Earth, Adama who had seemingly taken one look in my eyes and seen all he needed to know and Roslin, who admitted sympathy and understanding for somebody who had been dropped into a job they weren't ready for and had proven themselves capable.
Unfortunately, some form of compromise was inevitable and I did find an experienced officer forced upon me as Executive Officer but frankly, given the extremely depleted nature of my crew, such changes were inevitable anyway. Many of the replacement crew were sourced from the various survivor vessels but I also found myself with a large contingent of Earth humans, the largest of the fleet, to train into crew.
These Earthers had received some basic training, but the bulk would have to be done on-mission, not the best way to get the job done. Perhaps fortunately, the majority were assigned to the marine contingent and were already well versed in combat techniques; they only needed to be taught ship-board specifics. We did however also receive Earther medical personnel as well as a scattering of weapons crew and flight deck crew.
I did lose the bulk of the surviving science contingent, such highly trained personnel were more precious then diamonds and I had to agree that they should not be risked on what was blatantly a high-risk combat mission.
All these changes occurred during the month long period it took to bring the ship back to full operational readiness, the large volumes of refit experienced crew available making Seekers turnaround the fastest since the fall or so I was told. By this time, the bulk of the fleet had already been brought back to operational readiness and the personnel scraped off ships personnel for the duty would soon be reassigned to shipyard construction.
Then, fully crewed Seeker left earth space without fanfare, accompanied by the E&E Wayfinder, the Battlestars Pegasus and Trident and finally, the Blockade Runner Hermes.
Our mission was simple; we were to disrupt the Cylon advance by any means necessary without further compromising the location of Earth and the Survivors. The name for the mission, determined by the Earthers amongst High Command, was 'Crow'. Apparently, that meant something to them as far as vengeance was concerned, to me, it was just a name.
