Chapter 4:
Admiral's Office, Battlestar Hyperion, Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
1 Hour After First Cylon Attack.
For an hour now, John had been struggling to find the right way of putting it. Telling what was left of the fleet what had happened wasn't going to be easy. The Hyperion had already relayed the automatic destruction messages sent on each of the ship's destruction, but those could easily have been fabricated by the Cylons; so this would have to be the definitive proof.
John was sitting at his old-fashioned dark-wood desk, tapping away at his keyboard, which he had disconnected from his networked computer directly into the standard-issue military FAX machine. Apart from the tapping of the keys and the hum of Hyperion's engines, the room – which was much larger than almost all other rooms on the ship – was completely silent.
Finally, after three or four attempts, John completed the dispatch he was going to send out to the Fleet - or rather - what was left of the fleet. Hopefully he could gather what survivors there were left and get them to help get the civilians – who were supposed to be bound for Kobol in a few months time – off of the Colonies and away from the Cylon fleet.
Most of the Hyperion's crew had family and friends on those ships, not that they knew yet, of course. The secrecy of the mission meant that the passengers weren't even going to be told until they were being boarded onto the ships. Now, however, John decided to seriously consider breaking confidentiality to tell his thoroughly disheartened crew.
For now though, John printed his final version of the dispatch and read it over to himself. It read:
-Attention all Colonial vessels, Cylon forces have destroyed the Colonies along with a large amount of Colonial forces. As the highest ranked officer currently known to be alive, I am taking command of all remaining Fleet assets indefinitely. It is suspected that the Cylons have infiltrated the Command Network Program, also known as CNP, to infiltrate civilian and military systems. The Unified Military Control Protocol (UMCP) has so far not shown any signs of Cylon infiltration. I hereby order all ships to disconnect all network systems and revert to the UMCP as soon as possible avoid Cylon infiltration and to initiate Protocol Beta. Until then I bid you farewell and hope the Gods are merciful on all of us.-
Finally satisfied with the message he would send to – hopefully – the rest of the Fleet, John turned on his heel and headed towards his bulkhead door at the side of his office. He took the wheel in the centre of the door and spun it around to unlock it and swung it open. John stepped through it and swung it behind him before meeting one of his pilots, Captain Harriet 'Hera' Gemini, who was standing just a few feet behind him, causing him to jump in surprise.
"Admiral," Captain Gemini said, snapping into a salute. John unenthusiastically returned the salute and started walking with Harriet tagging along behind.
"What's the matter, Captain?" John asked her.
"Lieutenant Jartell sent me to check on you sir... and to tell you our situation," The Captain explained. John started to slow down and looked inquisitively over his shoulder at Captain Gemini.
"Our situation?" John asked.
"Yes sir," Harriet quickly replied. "We made our jump and are hiding in an asteroid belt,"
"An asteroid belt? Which asteroid belt?"
"Ouranos, I believe," The Captain confirmed, although slightly unsure.
"Well then," John said sarcastically. "We'll be perfectly safe," Captain Gemini slowed down and looked slightly deflated. Suddenly remembering her problem with sarcasm, John quickly added: "Thank you for telling me Captain, is there anything else?"
"Emily asked me to find out how you were getting on with your 'message'," Harriet told him, illustrating apostrophes at the word message. In response, John lifted up the paper in his hand and showed it to the Captain before whipping it down to his side a second later. "Is that it?" She asked.
"It is," John replied. "I've got to get it sent out right away, who knows how many of us there are left," The pair fell into silence as they continued towards the CIC. After a few minutes of sombre silence, John decided to speak up to give a smidgeon of comfort to Harriet. "They're not gone by the way. At least I don't think so,"
Captain Gemini gave him a confused look. "Who?"
"You families of course. And you friends outside of the Fleet as well," John told her. As he said it he looked over at the squadron leader and saw a glint of hope in her eyes.
"They're... they're alive?" Harriet said, an energy like she had before the attack filling her voice once more.
"Probably," John cursed himself for having to be so vague, but he couldn't stand to see one of his favourite pilots in such hopelessness. "I'll explain over the intercom once I get to CIC. Don't tell anyone until then; am I clear?" John said commandingly.
"Yes sir!" Captain Gemini said, snapping into a salute before she turned on her heel and strode down the diverging corridor.
CIC, Battlestar Hyperion, Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
A Few Minutes Later, During the Fall of the Colonies.
The revolving glass doors of the Hyperion's CIC swung open and John stepped through them and faced his utterly disheartened crew. John walked over to the communications desk and stood to face Hermes. The ever-so-slightly plump Communications Officer took the paper in John's outstretched hand and quickly copied it into the computer.
Once Hermes had finished copying the paper into the computer, he handed it back to John who took it over to the command table and placed the paper down while picking up one of the cord-phones in his other hand. He held the phone upside down to his face and opened the intercom.
"This is the Admiral, may I have your attention please?" John said. He gave a quick pause before continuing. "We are just sending out a communication to the rest of the Fleet to inform them of what has gone on. But, you may be wondering, what if there is no one else out there? What if this Battlestar Group is the only one still alive?
"Well, I'll tell you, we are almost certainly not the last people in the universe. Our species is so resilient that when we lost our old home of Kobol, we simply picked up our bags and moved on. We didn't give up, we didn't surrender, we pushed on... like we always have. As of this moment, I am authorising all of our Raptors to begin recon and SAR operations across the four systems to find where the frak everyone is.
"For now though, I can tell one thing. Your families and your friends were all chosen months ago to undergo a journey back to Kobol to start a Colony and help the overpopulation crisis we are... were faced with here in the coming years. If the operatives leading that mission survived the initial attack, they will have got the passengers and freight required together and ready to go in order for us to pick them up. So that is exactly what we are going to do."
John finished his second speech of the day and placed the cord-phone back on its berth. He picked up the message and handed it to Emily to read, who was now standing just behind him. "What now sir?" Emily asked quietly over the Admiral's shoulder.
"Get the ship ready for combat. We need to leave this asteroid belt and keep moving. I also need you to take down the UMCP on all of my ships until we can build up sufficient firewalls so the toasters don't shut us down in two seconds flat," John told Emily.
"I'll get right on it sir," She replied quickly. John gave her a smile and she took the message back to her desk. Looking around the room, John suddenly noticed something, or rather, nothing.
"Emily? Hermes? Where the frak has XO gone?" He asked. Both of them gave a quick shrug without looking up from their computers. John rolled his eyes and stepped out into the corridor to look for the Colonel. When he realised he couldn't see him, he turned back to Emily and Hermes. "I'll be right back," He said, then spun around and walked out of the CIC.
XO's Quarters, Battlestar Hyperion, Near the Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
During the Fall of the Colonies.
With tap on the steel bulkhead before him, John spun around the dial, unlocked the door, and stepped into his XO's room. John quickly closed it and walked around the corner to see his life-long friend sitting on his bed, automatic transmissions littered across the floor.
"Matt? What are you doing?" John asked cautiously. This was not a mood he had seen his friend in before, not that he could remember at least. He had always been the worried type, but never... whatever this was. John walked over to him and sat in the stock grey plastic chair at the side of the room.
"I'm checking the auto-distress signals," The Colonel, who was sitting with his uniform unbuttoned down to his belt.
"Okay... why?" John asked him again.
"We had 200 ships on standby John. The 200 transports. The lead ships would've sent out distress transmissions if some or all of the ships were destroyed," Matt explained.
"They were all grounded, Matt. There was no point of having them do nothing in space so I grounded them," John told his friend. Matt shook his head, although his sight did not break from the papers on the floor.
"I told them to leave the transmitters on," Matt said quickly.
"Why?" John asked.
"In case," Matt replied.
"In case of what?"
"In case of anything. Cylons, Sagittarians, rebellions, pirates. Whatever," Matt explained, trailing off at the end. He looked up at John suddenly and opened his mouth to say something but John quickly cut him off.
"We bugged their houses with speakers as well as microphones. They'll have been pointed in the right direction," John reassured Matt. There was a slightly awkward silence for a few moments while Matt finished scanning his eyes over each of the transmissions that wasn't broken until John stood up. "Right Matt," He said as he stood up. "Let's go back to CIC," John turned towards the door, expecting Matt to follow him; but when he didn't, John turned back around, straightened his uniform and shouted: "On your feet Virgon! Get that uniform together and get to CIC!"
After years of Colonial service, Matt instinctively stood to attention and started buttoning up his uniform. "Yes sir, sorry sir!" Matt shouted in reply. John let out a little chuckle and Matt stood back at ease. "You shouldn't do that John. I thought we were back on Admiral Winter's ship for a moment there," Matt joked.
"Yeah I know. Sometimes I think that-" John was about to regale one of their many adventures aboard the Battlestar Themis during the First War, but he was interrupted by Emily sounding the ship-wide intercom.
"Admiral Jenkins and Colonel Virgon to CIC immediately! We have a situation that requires your immediate attention!" John gave Matt a slightly surprised look before nodding and running to the door. Together, they unlocked the bulkhead and started running through the ship's tight corridors as the crew dived out of their way.
CIC, Battlestar Hyperion, Near the Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
During the Fall of the Colonies.
Through the glass of the revolving CIC doors, John could see a field of unidentified contacts on the DRADIS screens, whose backgrounds were flashing red. As he and Matt entered the room, they could hear the screen bleeping and the sounds of the crew talking to their compatriots across the ship and on the Themis, Eos and Theia as well as the rest of the Battlestar Group.
"Sirs," Emily said as they entered the bustling room. "We've got three, no, four capital sized ships on DRADIS. They jumped in a minute ago," John and Matt rushed to the centre table and stared at the flashing screens above them.
"Have they identified themselves yet?" John asked.
"Negative sir," Hermes said, joining in. "But they haven't launched anything as of yet,"
"Well that doesn't necessarily mean anything," Matt contributed.
"Emily can you get the feed on from outside?" John asked Emily. Emily searched on her computer for a moment before replying.
"No sir; looks like it was damaged in the jump," Emily reported.
"Gods damn it," John said, lightly punching the table. "Launch alert Vipers and set Condition One Lieutenant. And I want two Recon Raptors out there too," John ordered his crew. He turned his attention back to Colonel Virgon to get his reaction and asked him: "Ready?"
With a shrug, the Colonel replied. "Almost. Are our Networks down?"
"Good call," John said, remembering his thoughts from earlier. "Hermes, have the rest of the Battlestar Group taken down their UMCP Networks yet?"
"No sir, they'll take them down now," Hermes replied as he prepared to send the other ships a message. As John looked around the room, he met eyes with Emily while she continued to set things up on her screen in an anticipation of a possible attack.
Considering that the Colonies were currently being ravaged by the Cylons, and more might be about to destroy them, the whole seemed remarkably calm. Maybe it was shock, anger or maybe it was just the quiet will to survive that helped them keep their heads down and work like ants in a nest.
Only a few moments after he had given the order, Emily sounded the Condition One klaxon alarms and Colonel Virgon gave the orders for the rest of the crew stationed across the vast ship. "Alert Vipers are launching now sir," Emily called out; breaking John's train of thought.
"Right... yes... good," John stuttered, bringing his focus back into the room. "Get that feed up from our Raptors and man the guns," The crew instantly responded and got to their stations in anticipation.
The CIC sat in a tense silence for a couple of minutes, albeit for the sounding of the deep klaxons. "Vipers are formed up sir," Emily told John as they still awaited the launch of the Raptors. "Raptors are just taking off now. Putting them on screen," John and Matt looked up at the screens mounted from the ceiling and watched as a live feed from the front of the Raptor scout craft – which currently showed the dark interior of the Hyperion's flight pod – as it slowly lifted off from the deck.
The ship carefully drifted out of the flight pod and the camera showed footage of the Battlestar Themis, which was currently sporting a slightly greater amount of armour plates than her sister ship Galactica.
The camera panned around as the Raptor's co-pilot tried to give John and the CIC the best view of what was going on. Suddenly though, the camera stopped turning and the Raptor came on the radio. "Hyperion, Crow," The pilot, Captain Karl 'Crow' Stone – a friend of Sidney's – said over the wireless. "We have a situation," John turned all his attention from the feed to the radio communication immediately, especially as the pilot's tone sounded almost... excited.
"Crow, Hyperion: Go ahead," Hermes replied from John's side.
"We have a visual on the contacts and... I think it would be better if you saw for yourself," Crow trailed off and the camera swung around to reveal the rather battered hulls of four Colonial Battlestars, two Mercury-class like the Hyperion, one smaller Odin-class and a final – similarly sized to the Odin – Sobek-class.
"What?!" John exclaimed in surprise. "How? How didn't we pick them up on DRADIS?" John shot Emily a confused look.
"I don't know Admiral. Their IFF signal transmitters must be down," Emily tried to explain. She tapped at her computer for a minute before adding: "Their Networks aren't sir,"
"Which Network?" John asked quickly.
"CNP Admiral, but we should be alright for now," Emily told him. John gave a short nod in response.
"Get ours back on again then Miss Jartell. Hermes, I need you to try and contact them,"
"Yes sir," Hermes and Emily chorused.
"And Matt," John said, raising Colonel Virgon's attention. "Get us back to Condition One. There's no point keeping everyone in suspense, is there?" Matt shook his head in reply and picked up his nearest Cord-phone to tell the crew to stand-down.
"I would be so quick if I were you John," A familiar voice said over the loud speakers. John looked over at Hermes who silently apologised for leaving the line on the speakers.
"That's alright Hermes, leave it," John said reassuringly. John went to speak to the familiar voice, but suddenly realised he wasn't actually sure who it was speaking. Luckily, a quick glance at the DRADIS screen showed him that the lead ship was the Battlestar Mercury, first ship of the original Block of the Mercury-class Battlestar. That meant that the person he must be speaking to was the ship's relatively arrogant and overconfident Admiral Benjamin Berk, one of the youngest Admiral's in the Admiralty. "Admiral Berk," John said confidently. "I take it you got my message,"
"Indeed I did. Sounds pretty bad on your front, but now we're together I'm sure we can lead the fleet somewhere safe," Admiral Berk said, attempting to match the confidence in John's voice.
"We?" John enquired, not sure if he had made himself clear on the message about his taking complete control until the immediate safety of at least some of the human race had been assured.
"Well of course we. Just because we're in a war doesn't mean you can jump on a perch and seize all of the power; it really isn't that democratic John. Although I'm sure you've been waiting for this ever since Rob started making headways towards being Fleet Admiral," Admiral Berk said in an accusing tone.
"And just what are you insinuating, Ben?" John spat, almost as if he was dealing with a disobedient child.
"Maybe you're not the person to be leading the Fleet if all you want is personal gain," Berk accused.
"What?!" John said, aghast at what he was hearing. The war must already be getting to him, he thought. "I don't know who you take me for, Admiral Berk, but I can assure you that my 30 years of additional experience gives me a good chance of securing the safety of our race. Once this has all calmed down you can have your say but until then you will follow my orders and you can start that by taking down your Network systems and make preparations for any Cylon contact," In anger, John slammed his cord-phone back in its berth, unbelieving of the fact that his 'ally', instead of wanting to secure the Fleet, clearly wanted the control of it himself.
"Admiral?" Emily asked quietly after a few tense moments. John looked around at his crew, who all stood silently, not sure what to do.
"Get back to work. Secure the current Fleet and make sure we are ready to jump at a moment's notice," John ordered, to stop his crew from standing around uselessly. Truthfully, he could understand why. John seemed to slowly be getting more and more stressed as the seconds unfolded. He wondered if he would be fully capable to run the Fleet by the time they were somewhere safe at this rate. Luckily though, he had his crew and they would make sure he was fit for duty; all he had to do was to live up to his promise and deliver them their loved ones safe and sound once all this was done.