Part 42 - Let Off With a Warning

"...found another planet with one of those debris rings around them," Commander Gaeta was reporting. "However, there doesn't appear to be any trigger happy Star League AI standing guard over this planet, so my recon Vipers were pretty much free to look around without getting shot at."

The Earth Expedition Fleet was still heading towards Terra, but it was slow going as Admiral Adama took advantage of all their Vipers being converted into recon configuration to scout hundreds of star systems at a time. Doing so used up tylium fuel like no one's business, and the fleet's tylium miners and mobile refineries were having trouble keeping up with the demand. There had been suggestions to start saving fuel by just reconning star systems on the Hansa map, but Adama had rejected them so far because a few systems off the map would turn up something of interest, like the planet Gaeta was briefing the Fleet's Flag officers on now.

All of the inhabited systems they had found so far had been on the Hansa map. But they all had a Cylon space presence to one degree or another despite the maps labeling them as belonging to the Federated Commonwealth. Given the Cylons' seeming low key hostility to the Colonials, Adama had elected to avoid these worlds for now, which put a damper on his desire to contact Comstar through one of their remote stations before reaching Terra itself.

"From the looks of it, there must have been a big battle in orbit," Gaeta continued. "We've identified logos for the Draconis Combine, the Free World's League, and what appears to be a variation on the Federated Commonwealth's logo, a fist that's missing the sunburst. We're guessing that belongs to the half of the Federated Commonwealth that owns this side of the Inner Sphere.

"The planet itself clearly used to be inhabited," Gaeta continued, bring up a picture of a city. It looked like it had been a coastal urban area once, but the ocean it was next to was a frozen sheet of ice and the other side of the city was bordered by a glacier wall several times taller than any of the buildings in the city. "But it's clearly been nuked to hell, creating a nuclear winter that froze it over. And it looks like a big piece of debris will occasionally fall from orbit, and raise enough dust and ice particles into the upper atmosphere when it hits the ground to keep that winter going. We didn't find any signs of a surviving population, and quite frankly, no one expects us to. Without knowing the planet's proper name, my people have started calling it 'Frozen City' because of this image right here."

"I take it this is one of the casualties of these Succession Wars," Adama said grimly. "And that's probably why it's not on the Hansa map."

The recon Vipers had so far found three other killed off planets like this one so far, although the specifics of how they had been killed off had been different every time. The worst one was an apparently intact planet where the Manticore had lost a Viper crew. One Viper had gone down to check out the planet close up while the other remained in orbit. But when the pilot had cracked open its cockpit so that the pilot and her ECO could walk around the surface, something in the atmosphere had started eating through their flight suits. The Viper left in orbit had to listen to their partners die slowly screaming before reporting back to the fleet. After that, the order had gone out for the recon teams to not land on any more planets unless they could verify beforehand that there were still humans alive on it.

"That's our best guess as well," Gaeta agreed. "On a more positive note, most of the debris in orbit appears to be the remains of capitol ships, and there's enough big chunks of armor intact that my engineers think we could cut them up and use them to replace at least the outer plating on at lease one battlestar, maybe even all of our battlestars. It won't be as strong as plate specifically designed for us, but it'll be lightyears better than what we have now. Unfortunately, the fleet doesn't have the tow ships to just grab the old wrecks and jump them back to the fleet, so we would have to do the conversions in-system."

"Hmm... it would be nice if my battlestars could last long enough in a fight to shoot back," Adama said as he turned the idea over in his head. "But the operation is going to be risky because we've already run into several Cylon patrols in uninhabited systems. We'll need to do this one battlestar at a time, and only use the minimum number of civilian support ships that we have to in order to minimize our exposure."

"Sir, if I may?" Commander Applebee spoke up. "The Vesta's flightpod is still undergoing repairs because the forge ships can only make armor plate so fast. "If we're going to be replacing our armor anyway, the Vesta should be first because my battlestar has the most need for it. And it'll probably be faster than waiting on the forge ships anyway."

"Understood," Adama said nodding. "What about armoring our Vipers as well? It would be nice to have functional fighters again."

"I don't think that's going to be possible sir," Sharon answered. "Our Vipers are pretty light compared to Inner Sphere fighters. They can't carry much of this armor before their maneuverability becomes seriously impacted. What armor they can carry might be able to stop a full burst or two from our guns, but a blast from a medium laser will go right through it. And as near as I can tell, everything in the Inner Sphere carries medium lasers."

"Still, a little protection is better than no protection at all," Adama said thoughtfully. "Okay, if we have the manpower and tooling to spare, we should convert as much of a battlestar's Viper complement as we can while we're armoring up the battlestar itself. Maybe even load up freighters with the smaller shards and ship them back to the fleet so the rest of our Vipers can be armored up while we wait as well."

"We should also see if there's any intact databases in those old wrecks as well," Sharon suggested. "They might be a couple centuries out of date, but that's still better than just relying on the word of a glorified used car salesman."

"And there has to be a lot of still intact weaponry in that wreckage," Montague added. "I know I wouldn't mind having a capital ship grade energy weapon on my battlestar."

"I don't know," Gaeta said doubtfully. "I doubt our battlestars' engines have can produce the spare power to fire one. And going by just how much waste heat those fighter scale energy weapons produce, you'd probably cook your own ship even if you could fire one."

"That sounds good people," Adama said. "Start putting together refit plans for your battlestars, everyone, and coordinate with Commander Tyrol. Commander Tyrol, get with the support ships and figure out which ones will be accompanying which battlestars to Frozen City, and come up with a recommendation for the order with which we refit our battlestars. By this time next week, I want a working plan on my desk. Sooner if possible."

"Sir, do you want me to cut down my English lessons with our Hansa loan officer in order to expedite this?" Sharon asked.

Among the many other things that Osterheim had traded to the Colonials, one of them included Henry Singh, one of his Soldiers – that was what his actual rank was called – who was much more fluent in Caprican than Osterheim was. After a few conversations with Singh, Sharon had been less that pleased to discover that Osterheim didn't expect to get his Soldier back, and that the Colonials had unintentionally bought a slave for all intents and purposes. With Adama's approval, Sharon had told Singh that as soon as there were at least a few Colonials that were sufficiently fluent in English, the most common Inner Sphere language, the Soldier would be free to go wherever he wished, or at least wherever the Colonials had the power to take him. Until then, Singh had been officially listed on the Galactica's personnel roster as a "paid contractor" complete with a salary.

"Hmm, no," Adama decided. "I'm going to need people who can talk to people of the Thirteenth Tribe when we finally do meet up with them. How are the lessons coming?"

"Pretty well actually," Sharon answered. "I think the linguistic department is annoyed that I'm picking English up faster than any of them despite spending the least amount of time with Singh."

"Ha, must be one of the perks of being a Cylon," Gaeta teased.

The tease had been friendly, but it rankled Sharon. Sharon's ability to pick up English so fast probably was because that she was a Cylon with a far better memory than most humans, and she hated that. But the Colonials desperately needed English speakers, so Sharon let it pass.


"Contact! Two Harpies just jumped in at five hundred thousand kliks."

"Dammit! We've barely even started," Applebee cursed. The engineers were still trying to figure out the best way to attach the Inner Sphere armor to the Vesta's exposed ribbing, and the one freighter collecting small scrap fragments for the Vipers back at the fleet didn't even have half its first cargo container half full yet. "Sound action stations."

Applebee glared at the two dots on the 2D sitrep display – the Vesta didn't have the Galactica's fancy holographic projector – and fumed at the thought of having to abandon the refit. The Harpies weren't accelerating towards the Vesta, but just seemed content to sit out there and watch. Still, the Admiral's orders for exactly this situation were explicit.

"Begin recall procedures," Applebee ordered. "And position the Vesta between the Harpies and the civilians. We'll jump back to the fleet after everyone else has gone first."

"Ma'am, the Cylons are hailing us."

Applebee's eyebrows rose in surprise. The Cylons wanted to talk to them? That was new... and possibly foreboding.

"Okay, let's hear what they have to say," Applebee replied.

"Colonial Battlestar, this is Alpha of Alphabet Constellation," a male voice said in one of Caprican's more prissy accents. "Please reply."

Well if it could buy Applebee's people more time... Applebee picked up her mic and keyed it.

"Alpha, this is Commander Selene Applebee of the Battlestar Vespa," Applebee replied. Diplomatic, Applebee told herself, be diplomatic. "To what do we owe the pleasure of this conversation? Your emissary to Armistice Station gave us the impression that your people didn't want to talk to us." Dammit!

"Commander Applebee," Alpha began. "While your salvage operation is considered legal under common Inner Sphere law, be advised that any use of any weapons you salvage against Cylon or human government forces or civilians under the protection thereof, may well be construed as an act of war by the aforementioned parties even if the employment of said aforementioned weapons was employed in self defense."

Oh, dear gods, Applebee thought. She was dealing with a Cylon lawyer. Alpha sounded exactly like her ex-husband's divorce attorney.

Applebee must have been silent too long, because a second, female voice spoke up.

"Oh for... Alpha, I told you that you should have let me do the talking," the second voice said in a more country bumpkin Aerilon accent. "I'm Beta by the way. Look, Commander, plain and simple: You Colonials don't have to go pussy footing around uninhabited systems afraid someone's gonna shoot the shit out of you. No one's gonna shoot you if you show up in an inhabited system as long as you don't shoot at them first. At least, not unless you make everyone nervous and trigger happy by refusing to talk to the locals and identify yourself as friendly."

"That's funny," Applebee replied, not sure she believed what she was hearing. "From what I recall, the Cylons have refused to talk to us for sixty years. Yet on our first encounter with you, one your fighters vandalizes one of our battlestars and shuts down our fleet for a random accident followed by the first representative you sent to Armistice Station threatening our representative. So please excuse us if we're a bit skeptical about your claim that we won't be shot on sight!"

"Oh, yeah, about that..." Beta at least sounded embarrassed.

"Commander, please accept our most humble apologies," Alpha said. He sounded apologetic, but Applebee was unsure how much trust she put in that. "The Iotas are a new model and what your people had encountered was a training patrol. We had not expected an Iota to encounter Colonial ships this far from the Colonies, or else we would have assigned a more mature model to her flight. As for our representative at Armistice Station..."

"You guys hurt the Centurions real bad back in the day," Beta interrupted. "Bad enough that they don't want to talk to you. But the Centurions insist on handling all the diplomacy with ya Colonials anyway, which is basically no diplomacy at all, and reject any offer by the rest of us to do the talking for them. And we can't get the votes to get another model to handle diplomacy with you people because most of the rest of us don't care enough about the Colonies to vote against the Centurions. So we're stuck being unable to talk to you because the Centurions think they're protecting us from you."

"But you two are talking to me," Applebee pointed out as she thought about this unexpected window into internal Cylon politics.

"Of course we are, Commander," Alpha replied. "This dialogue is not a diplomatic exchange, but merely standard protocol entirely in keeping with our normal duties. Alphabet Constellation's primary role is to be the Cylon race's peacekeepers, and sometimes, the best way to keep the peace is not to punish a transgressor for violating rules that they have not been previously informed of, but to simply issue a warning so that they may be aware of the lines they have unintentionally crossed or may be in danger of crossing."

"Well, in that case, you have my thanks," Applebee told them. And she meant it to. If there was one thing dealing with her ex's lawyer had taught Applebee, it was having an appreciation for legal loopholes, especially the ones that favored her.

"Fair warning though, Commander," Beta began. "While you should be pretty safe in space as long as you don't start anything, I can't say the same if you go planet-side. As I said, you people hurt the Centurions a lot, and I have no idea how they'll react if they see a Colonial walking down down the street, especially one in a Colonial Fleet uniform."

"However, it has come to our attention that you have a model Eight Cylon with you," Alpha added. "Any Colonials in her company should be reasonably safe from harm as long as she vouches for them."

That... sounded all too reasonable to Applebee. Which just made her all the more suspicious about it.

"You told me at the beginning that my salvage operation is legal under Inner Sphere law," Applebee said. "Does that mean you'll have no objection if I continue operations?"

"None at all, Commander Applebee," Alpha confirmed. "Salvaging ancient wrecks for use is a time honored tradition in the Inner Sphere. We will just sit here and observe and take note of what specifically you are acquiring. Just in case we need that information for any future criminal investigations of course."

"Of course," Applebee agreed sardonically. Grudgingly, she added, "Alpha, Beta, thank you for the information."

"You are most welcome to it, Commander."

"Not a problem, darlin'."

"Commander Applebee out."

Applebee stood silent in thought for several seconds before deciding that she had to make a judgement call contravening the Admiral's orders.

"Cancel the recall and resume salvage operations," Applebee ordered. The scrap freighter was already gone, but the salvage crew and their ship was still present. "And get a Raptor with a copy of this conversation back to the fleet ASAP and ask the Admiral if we should still cancel the operation."


Eve Steiner, Duchess of Langhorne, was sitting in her office reading through the latest batch of memos. Someone, she thought critically, should remind a great many bureaucrats to be more careful about their addressing and send their emails only to the actual offices that they were intended for, not to every clerk and petty bureaucrat in the entire Federated Commonwealth.

As capacious as the bandwidth was for the hyperwave transceiver design sold to the then Lyran Commonwealth was, the Federated Commonwealth had discovered the hard way to its chagrin that a thousand worlds trying to all broadcast at the same time at maximum bit rate to the entire Inner Sphere was a good way to jam up the network as no receiver could pick out the signals meant for it from the thousand other transmitters all trying to be heard by their intended recipients. It was a problem that the experts called "white out".

And that was before the Free Worlds League and Draconis Combine had gotten their hands on the tech and started broadcasting too.

Comstar had been especially persnickety when they had been almost forced to host an Inner Sphere wide conference so that the Successor States could negotiate standards for hyperwave communications and usage and how to divide up the hyperwave frequency bands. After all, Comstar had been hosting what amounted to a conference for the biggest competition to their primary service. The Cylon's had claimed a large share of frequency bands for themselves for the simple reason that they were already using them, leaving the rest to the Great Houses to work out between them.

In the end, the standards had been negotiated for, and the Federated Commonwealth came away with what looked on paper a reasonable share of hyperwave frequencies. In absolute terms though, the bandwidth of their hyperwave communications that they were using became even more limited than before. While what bandwidth they had now was still more than enough for a single individual's use, it was wholly insufficient for meeting all the interstellar communications needs for a government that held half the Inner Sphere, even with artificially reduced transmission ranges and network routing to reduce the mutual whiting out problem.

So it annoyed Eve to no end to receive memos and messages that weren't even meant for her because they had been lazily addressed to everyone who worked for the Federated Commonwealth government. That kind of thing done too often by too many lazy bureaucrats led to network congestion and delayed delivery of actually important messages. And even more annoying, if Eve wrote her own memo and sent it to everyone to stop such lazy practices, she'd only be contributing to the network congestion problem!

As for Eve herself, she had become Duchess of Langhorne when the planet's previous Lord had been caught red handed as part of a conspiracy that seemed to involve nearly every intelligence service in the Inner Sphere in some insane scheme so convoluted with mutual betrayal among the parties involved that Eve to this day had no idea what had been really going on. The only thing Eve knew for sure was that the Baron had apparently decided that it was a good idea to unleash some ancient bioweapon from the First Succession War on his own realm and blame the biotech using Cylons for it, one of the intel agencies involved had provided the bioweapon although it was unclear which one it was, and that the rogue LIC and MIIO that had been caught alive all claimed that they had infiltrated the conspiracy in order to stop it.

In the end, Richard Taggart had been executed for treason, his wife had committed suicide rather than be questioned as she had been in even deeper in the conspiracy that Richard had been, and Archon Katrina in one of her last acts before abdicating in favor of her daughter had given Langhorne to Eve for her work in smoothing things over with the Cylons after the affair and made her a Duchess as Langhorne had then clearly going to be worth the title. And it was worth that title today.

The intercom on Eve's desk chimed.

"Yes, Alice?" Eve said, answering the call.

"Your Grace, a warship of unknown design has jumped into high orbit of Langhorne," Alice replied.

Eve's eyebrows rose in surprise. Alice had said "warship", not "basestar". That meant whoever it was wasn't Cylon. But as far as Eve knew, only the Cylons could jump inside a gravity well and not be instantly killed. Inner Sphere made gas core KF Drives still couldn't manage that feat and neither could the Draconis Combine's rumored new liquid core drive which supposedly combined the best traits of solid and gas core drives.

"I take it from the alarms that I'm not hearing through my window that this warship isn't hostile?" Eve asked mildly.

"Yes, Your Grace," Alice confirmed. "They hailed traffic control immediately upon arrival and identified themselves as the Battlestar Vespa of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol."