Chapter 11:
Battlestar Hyperion, Draconis Star Cluster
Day 6, 04:20 PFT
Emily lay back, her head against her small pillow and her arm up, wrapped around a child; the same child she and Sergeant Doyle had found days earlier on the Naxos. Jessica Santoro – as she told Emily later – had been with her mother before the attack. According to the child she was on one of the pick-up Raptors from Tauron after the bombs dropped and her desperate mother had put her only daughter onto a ship full of strangers in the hope that she might have a chance to survive.
This hadn't been uncommon in the reports from the SAR Raptor pilots – all of whom originated from different ships and bases across the Colonies – so there had been an orphanage set up on the Naxos when the Raptors and other ships began to arrive with the Naxos. However, when Emily and Sergeant Doyle had found her she was on her third escape from the orphanage and when they brought her back the people in charge offered her to Emily as she seemed to be the only person in the fleet Jessica hadn't immediately run away from. So, for the five days since the attack, Emily had looked after the child in her quarters and hid her from the Admiral and anyone that came knocking.
In fact, the only people who knew about Jessica at all were Lewis Doyle and her bunkmates, one of which was now Hermes and the other was one of her closest friends, a Jr Lieutenant in Navigation, Anastasia Bell. Anastasia was the only one in the CIC officer's quarters with Emily and Jessica while they had slept.
Apart from the constant rumble of Hyperion's engines, the room had been completely silent. Until the piercing bleeps from Emily's alarm started going off in her ear. "Do we have to get up?" Anastasia grumbled from the top bunk. "Why can't we be back on that beach on Canceron…"
"We're a long way from home Ana," Emily said sadly. "Besides, I've got to make sure the Admiral's up and ready as well. Can you look after Jess until the others get back?"
"Of course, we love our games, don't we Jessie?" Anastasia said, jumping down from her bunk. Jessica lifted her head and blinked at Anastasia, who lent over Emily and picked up the child, covering Emily's face in her long blonde hair in the process.
"Do you have to?" Emily asked as Anastasia stepped back from the bunk with Jessica in her arms. Anastasia gave Emily an eye-roll and turned away. "There's no way your hair should be that long. Aren't there regulations against it?"
Anastasia shrugged. "Not if you ask nicely," She said with a wink. "You'd be surprised what the odd smile to Warrant Officer Karter can get you!" This time it was Emily who rolled her eyes. Anastasia was fun to be around, but she did make a habit of getting her own way. As Emily stood up and fixed her uniform in the mirror, the ship's intercom speakers sounded a short tone followed by Commander Virgon's voice.
"Admiral Jenkins and Lieutenant Colonel Jartell to CIC and all hands prepare for jump in ten minutes. I repeat, all hands prepare for jump in ten minutes," The XO, who was in charge of the ship while the Admiral was in his quarters, ordered before the tone sounded again and the speakers switched off.
"Sounds like it's for you," Anastasia said sarcastically. Emily chuckled and rushed to the door before quickly doubling back and giving Jessica a kiss on the forehead.
"Stay with her a bit longer, I can cover for you," Emily told Anastasia quickly, poking her on the arm and heading for the door.
"Thanks, see you in a bit," Anastasia called after her as Emily pushed open the bulkhead and slid out of the room.
The gloomy black and silver hallways on Hyperion were often a maze to some, but after serving on the ship for 4 years, Emily was confident of her way around. While the overall layout of the ship was fairly procedural, the long gaps between junctions in some places led to finding an individual person a hell of a lot harder than any location.
Emily, who had originally been planning to go straight to the Admiral's quarters and brief him on their walk to CIC, was frantically trying to catch him on his walk to CIC so she could make sure he was all caught up on the business around the fleet before arriving. After spending far too many minutes running through Hyperion's halls, she eventually caught him about 50 metres from the CIC doors.
"Sir, there you are!" Emily gasped as she began walking alongside him. John, who was striding forward as quickly as ever, stopped his march to let Emily have a quick breather.
"Is something the matter Emily?" He asked, peering at the clipboard she had under her arm.
"Sir I wanted to catch you up on this," Emily told him, handing him the clipboard. The Admiral stared at it blankly for a few seconds before giving a Emily a slightly confused look.
"What is it?" The Admiral asked as he began to walk on again.
"A FOI, sir," Emily replied. Quickly adding, "A 'Freedom of Information' request, sir," John snorted and gave Emily a look of amusement.
"I know an FOI is… but why?" He handed Emily back the clipboard, which she held up and pointed to a line.
"It's from a group of civilians. They want to know what we're doing out here; and frankly sir, the crew do too"
"Surviving. That is what we are doing Lieutenant Colonel," John sharply explained, his smile fading in an instant. "I understand people wish to know more but due to our enemy's pretty much undetectable infiltration capabilities, I hope you all understand,"
Emily was silent for a few moments as they walked before plucking up the courage to push further. "We do have a plan, don't we sir?" John gave her another glance and Emily started going red in the face. "Only sir, some of the crew… they say we're stuck… that you don't know what you're doing," Beside her, John shook his head slightly. "The civilians too, sir. They don't have any say, especially since you declared martial law,"
"If were ever a time to declare it, I'd think it was now," John replied firmly.
"Of course, I was… and still am in agreement with you but I think we need to give them some sort of say, especially as its been days since we've been under any direct attack," Emily explained as carefully and respectfully as she could. The Admiral had been acting differently the last few days and she had herself begun to believe a few of the pilot's rumours about him.
John took a few seconds to process Emily's argument, nodding a little as he thought. "Thank you, Miss Jartell. I shall take that under advisement," He said finally as the CIC doors spun open for them.
"And the FOI sir?" Emily asked. The Admiral stepped through the glass doors without responding and Emily quickly walked over to her desk. Across the room, Hermes looked up at her and she shook her head as she placed the clipboard down beside her.
The screen in the centre of CIC was counting down until the jump and around them the sound of the FTL drives spinning up filled the ship as they walked and now filled CIC as the Admiral spoke quietly to his XO, the two glancing over at Emily a couple of times as they spoke.
After a few moments, the clocked ticked down to one minute and the crew stopped what they were down to wait for the jump. "All hands jump in 50 seconds. Repeat, jump in 50 second," Commander Virgon called into a cord-phone that relayed his voice to the intercom and the ship around them.
As the seconds boiled down, everyone in CIC had their eyes fixed on the countdown as it ticked away. With a few seconds left, the Commander got on the intercom again to count it down. "5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"
"Jump!" The Admiral ordered as the screen began to flash red. Next to Emily, the helmsman activated the FTL drives that thundered to a climax that signalled the jump.
Viper 191, Attached to Battlestar Themis, Pallas Orbit
45 Years, 66 Days Before the Fall
(7 Years into the First Cylon War)
John squeezed his joystick for dear life as he sped through Themis' flak fire once again. Flames and bullets filled the air around him and the open comm channel was filled with chatter. Major Jenkins had been flying almost the whole way through the war and was placed back on the first ship he had served on, the mighty Battlestar Themis – one of the original 12 Jupiter-class Battlestars alongside Galactica, Columbia and Atlantia. John had been awaiting transfer to the Battlestar Columbia to begin his training as the Commander of the Air Group (CAG) for the ship that represented John's home colony of Virgon. It was a massive honour for him and his dream for years, however the promotion to Major and the assignment had been given to him a few months earlier as the Themis – which he was only supposed to be serving on again for a matter of weeks – got sent into battle after a new Cylon Fleet arrived in the Helios Beta system.
The Cylon fleet they were engaged with had torn a hole in Colonial defences and somehow had managed to stay undetected until they began striking at the barren world of Pallas and the Themis along with Battlestar Group 53 had been the first to respond. After jumping in, John and Themis' CAG, Major 'Kilo' Moore had led the first fighter waves until John's squadron was able to launch. Admiral Winter had ordered a full frontal assault and the two fleets were within spitting distance of each other.
Cylon fighters flew metres over John's head as he charged, guns blazing, into the Cylon line. "Blue Squad, Busman: Enemy squadron at carom 339," John called as they got far enough clear of the waves of fireballs so that they could see the individual waves of Raiders spewing forth from their saucer shaped basestars.
"Busman, Virg: Committing," Captain Matt 'Virg' Virgon called out over the radio. The two pilots had been close since they joined the Fleet and since John's return to the Themis they had flown together once again.
"Tally Virg, with you," John replied as push his joystick away from him and his ship dived down towards the small cloud of grey Cylon fighters below them. The two Vipers flew side-by-side as Cylon and Colonial missiles skimmed past them, eventually levelling out behind the Raider squadron headed for the Themis. The Raiders didn't seem too interested in protected themselves and stayed on course despite being hit from behind by Busman and Virg as they tried to cut down each and every one of the fighters.
These easy only lasted for a few moments though and soon five of the likely fifty Raiders broke off and swung behind them. "Virg, Busman: Break course in five…" John called out as he watched the Raiders cut their engines and dive over the top of their Vipers and start lining themselves up for shots on Virg and Busman.
"Busman, Kilo: Hold course. Wait for my signal," Came a different, much gruffer voice from the one John was expecting. As John navigated a burning Colonial gunstar, he noticed a lone Viper break from its defence of the heavily armoured Themis and fly directly for them. John let off one of his Viper's anti-fighter missiles and cut his engines in preparation for Kilo's attack.
Ignoring the wave of Raiders now flying head first into Themis' flak barrier, Kilo opened up his guns on the Raiders behind them and John blasted his engines, sending his fighter shooting off to the right of the Raider squadron and Virg mirrored him on the left. Cutting power again, John spun his nose back around to see Kilo's rounds cut through the Raiders that had been chasing them and destroyed two as John fired a wave of his own rounds into the others and took out one of his own. The final two broke away from the main thrust and dived down below Themis and towards the Gunstar Limpet and the civilian ships she was protecting that had been under Cylon attack when BSG-53 arrived.
As debris from Themis' flak began to rock John's Viper, he kicked his engines back on and dived after the two Raiders getting away, safe in the knowledge that the rest of the squadrons would be able to deal with the Raiders that were still heading for the Themis. As John dove, he dodged past the chaotic cloud of fighters, frigates and support craft that filled the space around him, all firing wave after wave of missiles, heavy cannon rounds and flak fire.
"Busman, Virg: They're all yours mate, go clear house!" John heard Matt tell him as his friend flew back towards the Themis.
With all the steel and fire filling John's vision, it made it hard for John to make out the light of the Raider's engines as they broke free from the battle. John began to feel uneasy about flying so far from his home ship, but his mind was quickly changed when a second MkII Viper whipped past over his head.
"Busman, Kilo: With me, we need to stop them before they reach those civvies. Themis, I'm going to need more birds over here," Kilo said from inside the fighter above John as they pair dived below a slow moving Colonial Gunstar.
"Kilo, this is Themis Actual: Do not divert course from the defence of the Themis, they're not interested in the civilians they are just trying to lure you away," Admiral Winter told them, her voice stern but calm.
"Well sir I don't know what to tell you, but those toasters are headed straight for them. There could be hundreds of people in those ships!" Kilo pleaded. Their mission parameters had not given much word of the civilians and the Admiral had heard that the ships had been en route to a mining colony when the Cylons arrived and therefore were only carrying a few personnel. Kilo had believed differently.
"Kilo you are to divert your course now. We are taking serious hits and won't be around much longer if anyone else flies off on adventures like this," The Admiral said, starting to lose her cool as impacts to the ship could be heard in the background of the radio.
"No can-do sir, those are our people!" Kilo replied as he sped up his fighter once again.
"Major Moore, this operation was clearly a trap, its probably all a Cylon trick." The Admiral was now shouting but due to the silence that followed, it was clear that Kilo was not paying any attention and continued on his course after the two Raiders.
Checking back over his shoulder, John too followed Kilo on and within moments more squadrons of Raiders appeared from the maw of ships and gunfire to chase after Kilo and attack the civilian ships. Diverting his course, John pulled up and took out a pair of Raiders who had lined up on Themis' CAG and watched as a nearby horse-shoe shaped Cylon Nemesis corvette (similar in shape to the modern Raiders John would see after the fall of the colonies) separated from the main group and began to head for them.
Taking the decision that these were civilians that were about to be obliterated the by the Cylon Fleet, John locked onto the first in the nearest squadron of Raiders and manoeuvred his fighter behind them for a clean shot. Only two of the Raiders reacted to John pulling onto their tails and changed their course to throw John off. Noticing they had broken their attack run, John ignored them and began to fire as many rounds as he could towards the advancing fighters.
John managed to take out about half the squadron before they came into range of the civilian ships and Kilo came back on the comms. "Busman, Kilo: They're launching missiles. Help me take them out!"
"Wilco Kilo." John replied quickly, accelerating past the Raiders he was following as they each unloaded a flurry of missiles at the civilian ships, which were now quite a way away from the main battle. With help from Kilo ahead, John managed to take out enough missiles that only 2 made it through to the civilian ships.
"Good job Jenkins, we got more coming in bearing 319 carom 110," Kilo flew right over John's cockpit as he spoke and John flipped over his Viper to follow on behind. This time however, the missiles had just been fired from the Nemesis and John and Kilo had to travel much further to reach them than they did before.
Seeing that Kilo was much further ahead than him, John quickly got on the wireless. "Kilo, Busman: Bogeys inbound are much closer to you than me. Wait for me and we can take 'em out together!"
"No can do Busman, we need them..." Kilo trailed off as he replied, noticing a blip on DRADIS just as John did. "Scratch that Jenkins, take those suckers out, I got this,"
"Copy Kilo, wilco," John said, pulling his bird to the left and using his existing momentum to propel him towards the Raiders that just entered the zone and were locking onto the civilian ships. As he broke off he glanced back over his shoulder at Kilo as his Viper charged back to the maw of battle and directly towards a wave of Cylon missiles.
John continued to watch Kilo even as he approached his own target and saw that even as his friend got closer to the oncoming missiles, he did not fire any of his ordanance at them. "Kilo you're not firing, what's wrong?" John swung behind the Raiders as he spoke and began trying to dispatch while he waited for a response.
There was no response for a few moments and John had already scored three hits before the comms lit up again. "Oh frak me! I've got nothing. I've got nothing John..." Finally came Kilo's response and in a much softer tone than John had ever heard him use before.
"What do you mean nothing Major?"John asked, concern creeping into his voice.
"I mean my guns won't fire and my missiles are all gone."
Both John and Kilo fell silent as John broke from the Raiders and moved to intercept their missiles. As he flew on, John glanced over left shoulder and looked back up at where Kilo and the last missiles were and saw his fellow pilot flying just behind the missiles, unable to stop. Time seemed to tick on for an eternity as John watched on helplessly, the missiles only seconds away from their target.
"Frak it!" Kilo roared suddenly. "I'm sorry John." John looked up again when Kilo spoke and watched in horror as his compatriot blasted his Viper in front of the missiles and sped back into them seconds before they hit the civilian ships. With another whole wave of missiles to deal with, John gripped his tear-filled eyes back onto the last few missiles as he pulled the trigger with all his might and peppered them with rounds until they were all gone, as the fireball that was Kilo and the six Cylon missiles dispersed above him.
"Themis, Busman: Kilo's down. I repeat, Kilo is down." His voice cracked as he reported the news in and the words spun round in his head over and over as he turned back towards the Themis and rejoined his comrades in the rest of the battle, the image of Kilo's fighter going up in flames inprinted in his mind for weeks afterwards.
Battlestar Hyperion, Draconis Star Cluster
Day 6, 04:33 PFT
"Jump complete Admiral." The screen above the central console flicked back to DRADIS as soon as the helm announced that the jump was complete. The crew were all still silent, awaiting orders from the Admiral and Commander Virgon, whose eyes were both locked onto the DRADIS screens above them.
Emily and Hermes shared a glance as Hyperion's CO and XO continued to stand in silence. After a few moments, a small cluster of six red dots appeared and sparked automatic alarms as they appeared. "Sir DRADIS contacts," Emily shouted, causing the CIC to erupt into noise once again.
"How many?" John asked, much calmer than every other crew member in the now bustling CIC.
"Six sir. Two large, probably Basestars and four smaller support craft," Emily reported, nowhere near as calmly as John seemed.
"Launch the alert Vipers and ready weapons," John ordered, giving the crew a well rehearsed post-jump alert command. Emily and Hermes beavered away for a few seconds and looked back up to the Commander and the Admiral, who were sharing a glance. After another few moments, Emily and Hermes looked back to Admiral Jenkins and Commander Virgon for their next instructions.
"Sir?"Emily asked after waiting silently for a few moments amongst the hubbub of the rest of CIC. "Sir?" She tried again, but both the Admiral and the Commander had their eyes fixed on the DRADIS screen above them, DRADIS screens that had been rendered mostly useless by the radiation and gravitiational changes the ship was experiencing due to its location at the barycenter of two binary stars.
"Vipers in the air sir and weapons requesting orders," Hermes reported, hoping to succeed where Emily failed and get a response out of one of their commanding officers. The two continued their silence but a slight smile crossed John's lips as a quick bleep arose from the terminal below Emily.
"Sir I can't quite make it out... but those ships are giving off Colonial transponders!" Emily's voice cracked with surprise as she tried to get a clear signal for longer than a couple of seconds, as the DRADIS kept losing the signals completely before picking them up again, not to mention flicking between them registering as hostile and friendly.
Across the CIC, Hermes was listening in closely to the Viper feeds and piped up after a few moments. "Admiral, report from Spinner. He wants to speak to you,"
"Put him on speaker," John said, finally saying something. Hermes quickly nodded his reply and brought up the Viper feed onto the loud speakers in the CIC.
"Hyperion, Spinner: It's really bright out here but we think we can make something out."
"'We' Spinner? I can see frak all out here!" A younger voice chimed in.
"Yeah, thanks Squirt. Hyperion from what I can see, whatever we've got is certainly huge. Almost the size of a... gods..." Spinner trailed off as back in the CIC, the signals on DRADIS had settled on friendly.
"Hyperion, Squirt: I think we've got friendlies out here!"
Emily looked up from her console as John looked over for confirmation. "Looks like it sir, I register two battlestars."
"Yes!" John and Commander Virgon said in sync, shaking each others hands and looking back up at the DRADIS screen which now showed four green friendly IFF tags, the largest of which read 'Battlestar Draconis'. "Lieutenant Yo, send ID challenge and ask for their Commanding Officer. Put up their reply on speakers."
Hermes, who - along with Emily was slightly frozen in shock - broke his shared gaze of confusion with Emily and complied with the Admiral's order. The chatter in CIC in quickly began to die down as people gathered around the central console of the CIC. "ID authentication codes confirmed sir. I've put you through," Hermes told John, again glancing around the room.
John reached down the the cord-phone below him and held it up upside down to his lips. "This is Admiral John Jenkins of the Battlestar Hyperion to the ship claiming to be the Draconis. If Admiral Moore is there, please put him on the line."
The CIC was left hung in a tense silence while the order was relayed to the other ship. Moments later a new voice was heard speaking to them. "Admiral, sir. This is Admiral Moore,"
John, now with a relieved look on his face covered the mouthpiece with his hand and looked to Emily. "Step down to Condition Two." John then took his hand off the mouthpiece and looked back up at DRADIS again. "Jeffrey, thank the gods we found you! We've been looking for you lot!"
"John, how long has it been since it happened?" Admiral Moore asked in what appeared to be a mournful tone through the radio interferance.
"The Cylon attack was six days ago. I'm sorry you had to find out this way," John told the other Admiral, his own tone reflecting the shock felt by everyone that still hadn't been processed.
There wasn't an immediate reply, but moments later Admiral Moore responded. "We've got a lot to catch up on it seems sir."
"Indeed. I shall get my Fleet to jump to a nearby system and you can meet us there and we can talk properly on your ship." John explained, as much to his own crew as to the newcomers to the Fleet.
"Of course sir, that would be great. Draconis Actual out." Admiral Moore said as he cut out the feed and John put the phone back into the central console.
"Prepare the Fleet to jump and transmit coordinates to the Draconis. Lieutenant Colonel, when you're done meet me in the hangar, you're coming along with me. Matt, have you got the floor?"
"Always sir," The Commander replied to John as the Admiral turned to leave. With one last look, John gave the Commander a sly smile and disappeared through the revolving doors towards the hangar. Behind him back in CIC, Emily scrambled to complete the Admiral's orders and follow him out of the doors, giving Hermes an uncertain smile as she too left the CIC for their new allies on the Battlestar Draconis.