2
New Caprica, Caprica City
Cylon Occupational Center
Holding Cell 117
Sergeant Johnson woke up in a brightly lit cell. He was groggy and hurting real bad between his legs. Giving his body a cursory inspection he found no serious injuries, but he had been stripped of his body armor and boots, and only had on his camouflage fatigues. Goosebumps rose on his back from the freezing floor. An older man with a black shirt, black pants, and black suspenders sat next to him on a dull steel chair. The older man also sported a pair of sunglasses and was puffing away with a cigar. Johnson knew it was his and consequently started thinking of how to get it back.
"Well, I was wondering when you were going to wake up," the man stated, smirking. "I must, say this cigar of yours is really good."
"I'm glad ya approve. May I ask what the hell is goin' on?" Johnson asked.
"What is going on? Yes of course," the man answered, laughing a little. Cavil enjoyed these interrogation secessions. The terror in the captives' eyes gave him some sadistic pleasure he could never get anywhere else. Well, except when Colonel Tigh's wife came in; that was a whole other type of pleasure he loved.
"And?!" Johnson demanded, beginning to wonder if this was some sick ONI joke.
"Come, come, come, stop playing coy. I'm the evil Cylon interrogator," the man stated eccentrically, waving his hands about as if to paint an invisible picture. Johnson wondered if he was smoking more than just a cigar.
"What the hell is a Cylon?" Johnson asked, confused. He was getting tired of these games.
"I am the interrogator, I ask the… oh frack it." The man paused for a second. "Tell me when and where the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus were going to link up with you."
"Listen here! I don't what you're talkin' about! My name is Johnson, Avery J., Sergeant Major, United Earth Space Core, Service number: 48789-2094-AJ. And that's all I'm telling ya'," Johnson replied back irritably.
The man sat back in his chair. United Earth Space Core? If this man was claiming to be from Earth, why was he speaking Caprican standard. It had to be some ploy Adama had cooked up, yet the weapons that were recovered from the man's body were different from those used by the Colonials. Cavil dismissed it. "Earth is a fracking myth," the man countered as he rose up from his chair and started toward the door. He was just leaving the room when an explosion rocked the complex. The lights flickered off and on twice before finally giving out.
Johnson took his opportunity and jumped up toward the man, spearing him to the floor. He quickly straddled the guy's chest and began landing haymaker after haymaker across the guy's wrinkled old face, knocking the obnoxious guy out cold. He picked up the small smoldering cigar and bit off the end were the man's lips had been. "If ya didn't want your ass kicked ya' shouldn't have stuck it out so far!" Johnson cleverly remarked.
Johnson grabbed the keys off the man's belt and his pistol. The gun was lighter than the ones Johnson is used to. He filed that fact away for later. Next he stealthily made his way down the dark hallway. The low, muffled moans of the other captives filled the hallway and creeped Johnson out. He reached the other end of the corridor, now lit only by red emergency lights and made his way down a stairwell. As he slowly entered the new level he could hear voices from up ahead.
"Damn insurgents! They think we don't have back up generators?" The lights came on surprising Johnson.
"How desperate are these colonials?"
"Earth; fight for her? Ha, what a laugh!"
"I don't know; these weapons are different. I don't think the colonials could have manufactured these."
Johnson pulled out his pistol and entered the room, firing at anything that moved. Three men fell to the ground dead. Each of them looked identical to one another. "Triplets?" Johnson asked himself. He set the unusual circumstances aside and looked over the items present on the table. Battle Rifles, SMGs, Plasma pistols, Plasma grenades, and a burnt poster featuring a view of Earth form the Moon with the text, Earth; fight for her! written on it. The 'Cylons' had even recovered a gift the Arbiter had given Johnson, an engraved energy sword. Whoever these Cylons were, they were going to regret messing with Humanity, but Johnson was going to need some support…
Outskirts of Mataru Nebula
13th Autonomous Taskforce
00:54 Hour, October 6th, 2557
UNSC Chieftain
Rear Admiral Reed, the rough and grizzled commander of the Thirteenth Autonomous Taskforce, entered the spacious interior of the Chieftain's bridge. Captain Takako Sango, a woman of Japanese decent, was looking over the comm. operator's shoulder.
"Admiral on deck!" A crewman called out.
Captain Sango turned crisply and saluted the Admiral. Her long black hair waved around for a moment at the motion. "Sir, you should see this. Spyglass one just sent us this disturbing distress call from Terra Nova," she said, pointing to the screen behind her. On the monitor was a distorted image of a peculiar ship. It had two arrowhead shaped ventral and dorsal hulls facing opposite directions and was connected by a central trunk.
"It looks ominous captain." The Admiral observed. "You think it's some new Loyalist design?"
Sango gently shook her head. "No, I don't think so sir. This transmission was recovered shortly before contact was lost," she replied.
The transmission came on, heavy with static. "This…Terra…We've got cont...lots of them...but they're not Covenant...they're fighters…just tearing through us...what the!...ooooohhh...nooooo!!" The transmission ended in a large whine.
The ship's AI, Vidar, shimmered into being on the holotank next to comm. console and interjected, "Besides the transmission, there appears to be no visible engine ports, thus indicating that this is a foreign vessel."
Klaxons blared alive, interrupting the speculation. "Slipspace ruptures! Nine hundred thousand clicks away off our starboard bow!" The tactical officer called out.
"Loyalists!" Sango yelled, fearing the worse.
"No, it's two ships. They're both the same type we were just talking about," Vidar replied calmly. "I'm getting a signal from them… wait… the bastards are trying to hack into our computer systems. What the… they just tried to upload a virus; a very primitive virus at that."
Captain Sango and Admiral Reed looked at each, stunned. Who were these bogeys and why were they trying to subvert their computer systems?
"Sir, I have a large volume of objects launching from the bogeys. They are on an approach vector!" The sensor operator reported.
"Sir, if those are what I think they are then this is clearly an act of war," Sango observed. Admiral Reed nodded in agreement. "Just give the word Admiral," she added.
"The word is given," the Admiral replied back somberly. He knew it couldn't be helped, but it didn't seem right to the admiral none the less. He had signed up to fight loyalist forces, not the unknown.
"Combat Alert Alpha! Warm up the MAC cannons and the Archer missile pods!" Sango ordered immediately.
"They've stopped launching what appear to be fighters. They're over a thousand of them and in 2 minutes they will be all over us," Vidar reported.
Admiral Reed and Captain Sango walked over to the front of the bridge and stared at the three Nav. screens in front of them. Enemy blips, highlighted in orange, blotted out the entire left edge of the screen. "Communications, get me fleet wide," the admiral ordered.
The communications operator tapped a few buttons and hailed the other Marathon, the Cherry Blossom, and the frigate Wings of Daedalus. "You're on admiral."
"This is Admiral Reed. Two unidentified ships are attempting to hack our systems. This is an open act of war and must be dealt with accordingly. All ships execute attack pattern Patton One." The Patton One formation called for the two Marathon battlecruisers; Admiral Reed's flagship the Chieftain, and the Cherry Blossom to form up one on top of the other to maximize each others point defense capabilities while the Wings of Daedalus and the fighters attempt to keep the enemy's fighter screen busy.
Already the UNSC Cherry Blossom was positioning itself below the Chieftain and the two fighter squadrons, Sepia and Auburn, began forming up behind the Daedalus.
"Twenty fighters versus one thousand, now that is unfair. We should even the odds a little," Sango stated menacingly. "Tactical, fire a spread of Archer missiles along with a Shiva."
Over three hundred missiles emerged from their pods and zoomed off toward the oncoming fighter screen. The scimitar shaped fighters swooped down on the missile volley, firing their azure colored KEW rounds in an attempt to shoot down the overwhelming missile volley. Finally stray rounds struck the Shiva. The resulting detonation incinerated the entire enemy fighter screen. The enemy capital ships slowed their approach, likely reconsidering their attack plans after seeing the fate of their fighter wave. But Captain Sango wasn't going to allow them a chance to recover.
"Do we have firing solutions on those enemy capital ships?" Sango asked her tactical officer. By now the Wings of Daedalus, accompanied by two Longsword fighter squadrons, had began their push against the enemy capital ships.
"Ready to go loud ma'am!" the Tactical officer replied back.
"Fire!" She ordered hastily. Three MAC rounds discharged from their barrels at one third the speed of light toward the ill fated chrome ships. The first round cleaved its way through the central axis of the lead capital ship, the other two punching clean though upper hull segments. The ship began listing heavily to its port side and exploded in a blaze of fire.
"First ship destroyed! The other is pulling away!" Vidar reported in excitement. Everyone on the bridge was surprised at their seeming victory. The battle shouldn't have been that easy if they were in fact facing loyalist forces.
"Remaining enemy ship is launching additional fighters!" The sensor operator reported.
Outskirts of Mataru Nebula
13th Autonomous Taskforce
0054 Hour, October 6th, 2557
UNSC Wings of Daedalus
Commander Agiad looked out of the bridge's view port, stunned. The battle had been going on for no longer than a couple of minutes and already the enemy were falling back in seeming disarray.
"Get me Admiral Reed on the line," Agiad ordered.
"Aye sir. Admiral Reed is on the line," the comm. operator replied.
"Yes Commander, what do you want?" Reed replied.
"Sir, the enemy is bugging out. Request permission to engage and finish this fight," Agiad asked.
Reed took off his hat, and smoothed his hair. "Negative, Commander. I'll vector our fighters to intercept-" Reed began to say.
The Nav. officer in front of Agiad turned around interrupting the conversation by reporting, "Sir, Slipspace rupture is forming off the target's bow. It's going to jump!"
Admiral Reed heard the Nav officer over the radio and quickly replied, "Green light! Green light to engage!"
"Punch it! Get us close! Prepare to enter their Slipspace wake," Agiad ordered. The Daedalus throttled up and increased speed toward the enemy ship.
"Sir, without a destination solution?" The Nav officer replied, sounding worried. Rightly so too, because if they jumped out of Slipspace into an interstellar body like an asteroid or planet it be would game over for everyone.
"Don't worry Nav. We are NOT losing that ship!" Agiad replied hastily. The chrome capital ship disappeared into Slipspace in a brilliant flash of light, along with the Daedalus.