Nine - Lucky 9

Survivor Count: 950

The Janus class Postal Cruiser had been on the run since the beginning and end of the Second Cylon War after being sent to rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica to deliver more supplies for the museum that the ship would be central to following the vessel's decommissioning. Originally built before the First Cylon War the ship had been modified into a Special Delivery Transport intended to serve the Colonial Government's Delivery Service under the designation Postal Cruiser 9 it was now known to the crew as the Lucky 9. Far from it's sleek pointed hull had been modified with four large cargo bays placed between the forward hull and the large aft engine section providing the vessel with a large capacity cargo hold. Over its many years of service various commanders had refurbished the ships weapons turrets giving the ship some defensive firepower capable of dealing with pirates or opportunists.

The Galactica was not at the rendezvous point instead they found destroyed Viper Mk II craft and destroyed Cylon fighters without any idea where the Galactica had gone. While there the ship had been attacked by a pair of Cylon Raiders that the Lucky 9 assumed was looking for the Galactica after surviving some strafing attacks and missile strikes the crew chose to run. The Lucky 9 fled through Helios Alpha system and was now near one of the planetoids that resided between Helios Alpha and Gamma the ship was waiting for its FTL to charge hoping to remain hidden from the Cylons.

On the vessel's command deck Captain Amelie Brand looked at the jump clock praying to the Gods it would go faster. "Captain, that's the missiles, torpedoes and drones loaded into launchers One through Three it won't be enough to hold off a concentrated Cylon attack but it'll give us something. Bad news is that the long-range communications suite is completely destroyed." Lieutenant Levison Wood her executive officer reported as he approached the main command deck standing in the rear beside Brand the Janus command area was similar to that of the smaller Manticore compact and more like an enlarged transport aircraft's cockpit than a military command deck.

"Understood Lieutenant, how far can we communicate?"

"Inter system and local area only."

"Great now we just need a little luck and for the jump clock to tick faster." She said glancing at it again the clock red sixteen minutes and counting.

"The Cylons can't be everywhere." Wood suggested their first attacks had been overwhelming for the Colonies taking them by surprise with numbers and a first strike now with Colonial elements fighting back they had to be feeling the strain of the occupation Colonial fleet was a massive force.

"We only need them to be here." She said after a few moments "are the Sweepers prepared?"

"Prepared and crewed by some of the bravest men and women we have." He confirmed as part of their cargo the Lucky 9 had been carrying four Mark V Sweeper small craft which were going into the Galactica's museum. Late war models of the craft they were armed with air-to-air missiles, chaff and aft kinetic energy weapons they would had been rearmed and fuelled from the Lucky 9's cargo bay and would be able to give the ship some sort of screen.

"Hopefully we won't need them" Brand said the ship also had almost two Vipers onboard but they had no way to launch them and no pilots if they did.

"DRAIDIS contact!" One of the crewmen called out "three… five… nine signatures" the young woman said looking over at Amelie Brand "eight Cylon Raiders and one bigger one designating Heavy Raider."

"Understood" the Captain said "launch Sweepers bring our nose around to face them and slightly up I want out ventral turrets to all be able to fire at once on target." She said the majority of the Lucky 9's firepower was in five ventral turrets slung under the hull with two above even in the ship's prime the majority of its firepower was below the hull. "Hold fire, until I give the word."

The Janus turned in space facing the incoming Cylon threat its nose pulling up slightly further as the four Sweepers launched from the shuttle bay amidships. The Janus was not designed to carry small craft instead relying on its speed and launched weapons as firepower.

"Shame they weren't putting nukes into that museum this would be a short fight. Should we use missiles?" Wood asked

"Negative, we're keeping those for a tougher fight." Brand said watching the Cylons close on her ship and watching the clock tick down. "Open fire!" She barked the command the ship's weapons firing nearly as one sending a concentrated burst of fire into the Cylon formation. The weapons fire cut down four of the Raiders and crippled the Heavy Raider sending it into a death spiral which was taking it towards the Lucky 9. As it approached the ship two Sweepers arced around the Cruiser's hull and a pair of air-to-air missiles finished off the ship behind the two craft two of the remaining Cylon Raiders dived after them their rear weapons engaging.

Brand watched the fight unfold from the command deck as rapidly the remaining four Raiders were cut down by the Lucky 9's gunners and the Sweepers. "Well done people, recover small craft" she said looking at the screens "helm, once the Sweepers are onboard jump us to Nodra if there's no Cylon presence I want you to find us a hole we can hide in." Brand caught Wood's glance "we need somewhere to catch our bearings Nodra's out of the way enough that I'm hoping it won't be high on the Cylon's hit list."

"You think Wilkes is still down there?" Wood asked naming a smuggler that was known to the crew and known personally by the Captain.

"We're not that lucky." She said as the Lucky 9 recovered its last Sweeper and jumped out of the system.

In the Helios Gamma system, they had emerged close to the moon of Nodra near Ophion. Nodra was less than 10km wide at its largest point. "Bring us down into that crater and prepare to go to our low power level." Brand ordered the Lucky 9 dropped quickly towards the tiny moon which still dwarfed the Postal Cruiser. "Lieutenant, I want a damage control assessment of the ship and a full report from the cargo bays on their status." She said turning to her XO "things might have moved about in our manoeuvring I want them stowed away we don't need to cause ourselves more damage if we have to move at speed again." Levison Wood nodded and quickly left the CIC.

"Weapons, I want you to prepare a drone and put it into orbit." She said turning to another crewmen "once it's there I want you to try and contact Justin Wilkes he should still be residing somewhere on Nodra." She said looking at the DRADIS screen as the Lucky 9 lowered into one of the largest craters on Nodra.

"Firing grapples" one of the crewmen called out as the ship got closer to the surface grapples on the lower part of the hull fired burrowing into the surface, they were designed to bring the ship into close docking with large Colonial stations but the grapples worked just as well on rocky surface. Before the ship got too close to the surface a drone fired from the underside of the ship and rocketed into orbit around the rock.

"Good orbit on drone"

"Thanks Brooke" Amelia Brand responded looking at the crewmen at weapons she has short dark hair and still wore her Colonial Postal Service Navy Overalls like many other crewmen, they'd all need to figure out who they were with their former lives gone. Now that the ship was attached to Nodra she'd have to watch her crew's reactions to the aftermath of the attack. "Give me wireless contact with the drone."

"You're on, Captain, it might be a bit choppy because of our damaged transceiver."

"Wilkes, you old frakker, you still hiding on this rock." Brand said immediately bringing shocked looks from the other crewmen around the command deck Brand smiled.

"Amy Brand is that you?" Came a response shortly afterwards.

"Can the drone track him down?" Brand asked her crew before replying she received a nod from the crew before she continued to speak. "Afternoon, you old pirate."

"I'm a smuggler, not a pirate, you know that. How did you escape the Toasters?"

"Luck and a bit of skill" Brand said glancing around the CIC seeing a crewmen with an answer "Chaim, you got something?"

"He's about eight kilometres away from us and several hundred feet below us." Allan Chaim answered from his station.

"I assume your little bunker kept you safe?" She asked letting him know they'd tracked him down.

"The Cylons have given us a wide berth so far." Wilkes replied "and I've a few surprises waiting for them if they do decide to show up."

"Surprises come in many forms; I think we should meet in person Wilkes."

"Agreed, I'll send you landing coordinates, that Cruiser won't fit though." He said letting her know that he knew what she had.

"I'll take something smaller seen you soon, Justin." She said ending the communications. Allan pipe his coordinates down to the launch bay I'll take one of the Sweepers over to see them and see what they have." She said turning to the exit door as Allan Chaim rose from his station catching her attention.

"Do you think you can trust these people Boss?"

"Not much choice unfortunately" Brand relied "but if it makes you feel any better, I know that old frakker better than I know some of my own family." She said for a moment forgetting what the Cylons had done before remembering she quickly suppressed her emotions and gave Chaim and the others a weak smile "we can trust him, he's a crook but he's an honest one. When Lieutenant Wood returns inform him of my whereabouts" she said "until then you're in charge Chaim, try not to leave without me." She asked him before leaving the command deck.

Soon afterwards one of the Sweepers rose from the crater that the Lucky 9 had landed in keeping low to the surface of the moon the Sweeper flew around the craters and boulders that littered Nodra's surface. Unlike the squat Raptors modern military vessels used the Sweepers were longer more like an atmosphere-based aircraft in the cabin Amelie Brand and the two-armed postal workers who had accompanied her as an escort sat comfortably while the four crewmen of the Sweeper did their work. The ship had been designed almost like a system monitor vessel capable of operating for days on end without support. While the ships assigned to the Lucky 9 didn't have the supplies for such a duty it was nice to know they had that capability should she need them to do it. The Sweeper skimmed the surface until reaching a deep crevasse turning its nose to face the opposite direction the crew expertly cut the ship's speed before slowly beginning to lower the craft into the cavern. Rising from her chair Amelie Brand was more than a little shocked to see two small freighters parked inside the moon and what appeared to be an old mining station which looked like it had been built directly into the surface of the moon.

A large mouth like opening began to open in front of them allowing the Sweeper to enter as it did the small ship flew over eight pristine looking Viper Mk VII, 2 Assault Raptors, several regular Raptors, several non-FTL shuttles and a larger craft three times the size of a Colonial Raptor it had a thin main fuselage with two bulbous turrets either side of the forward hull and another at the rear between the twin engine nacelles. "Quite a fleet" Amelia Brand noted looking down at the ships seeing a landing zone as behind them the doors closed and the bay began to re-pressurize. From an airlock a small detachment entered the airlock Amelia Brand turned away from the cockpit and stepped towards the hatch to exit the Sweeper opening the door which opened towards the roof allowing her to leave.

Stepping out of the craft she stepped down onto the landing pad with the armed guards following her. "Wilkes good to see you" she said walking up to the older man "quite a fleet you've built for yourself." She said embracing him in a hug.

"It's been a while; how did you end up in charge of a Post ship? And how did you avoid the Cylons?" He asked as she pulled away.

"I had to find a normal life" she said shrugging slightly seeing Wilkes face "you know one that was more legal." She said raising her eyebrows to emphasize her point "we've fought the Cylons a couple of times."

"How did they not infect your systems?" Wilkes asked he saw Brand's confusion "when the Cylons attacked they didn't just attack with overwhelming force they also invaded the Colonial Fleet's computer systems shutting down the majority of the modern Colonial fleet destroying them." He said seeing her shock "the only ships that have not been destroyed this way are those that are really old."

"The Lucky is old, probably one of the oldest commissioned ships" Brand admitted "what has the Colonial Government's response been?" She asked Wilkes laughed "what's funny about this?"

"The Government's gone. Galactica's commander took command of the fleet and broadcast on all channels the Battlestar and the civilians with them escaped a Cylon trap at Ragnar. We don't know where they are." Wilkes explained Brand rocked on her heels the Lucky 9 had missed so much while their communication's suite had been destroyed in the initial Cylon encounter.

"What's the response been… what are we doing about it?"

"No-one's doing anything there is no coordinated response or government and no fleet, we're all doing all we can to survive. I've got two hundred people crammed into this rock, normally there's ninety people here but we couldn't leave people down there on those nuked colonies."

"Justin Wilkes humanitarian who'd have thought?" Amelia Brand said staring into space.

"Amy Brand Post-Girl who'd have thought?" Wilkes pushed back snapping Amelia out of her trance for a moment.

"I see you've still got the Hunter?" She said indicating to the heavily armed small craft nearby distracting herself for a moment looking at the ship thinking about their present situation.

"That thing?" He said looking at it smirking "the product of our previous life Amy... there cannot be many of them still flying." He said wistfully remembering their past "The bane of Colonial fleet." He said "we made them pay didn't we…"

"Yes, we did… not as much as some." Brand replied coming back into reality "It's all in the past a nice memento" she said turning back towards him "assuming you don't plan to turn us away, what do we do next?"

"We be the bane of the Cylon Fleet and we make them pay for what they've done." Wilkes replied looking over at Brand "it's time we got our revenge."