Chapter 13 - Revelations
In space the Hunter hovered in space between the Agosta and Lucky 9 Matthew Boyle stunned at the voices he'd heard over the wireless. He'd known that Justin Wilkes and Amelia Brand were both still around before the Cylon attacks that Amy had gone straight and joined the Colonial Post Service while Wilkes ran a collection point for smugglers but had stopped the raids against Colonial military units but he hadn't heard they were together nor that they'd survived the Holocaust had struck the Colonial people.
He reached for the weapons control but before he could do anything two civilian freighters arrived taking up flanking positions to the Postal Cruiser one of them was clearly armed with anti-ship missiles together with the postal ship Boyle was sure they'd outgun the Lucky 9. "Boyle, surrender we've got you outgunned come on board we need to speak face-to-face."
"Negative, I haven't got time for your games Wilkes" he snapped back "Listen to me, I've taken responsibility for survivors over four thousand of them I won't waste time while their defence is here."
On board the Lucky 9 Brand glanced angrily at Wilkes "you don't run this ship, I let you onboard with the agreement that this was my ship."
"And now my ships have arrived too" he pointed out, "my guns could take them out as well."
"Boyle claims to have other ships out there" Brand said looking over at the DRADIS screen readings "DRADIS seems to indicate other ships jumped out. We are looking to save our species Wilkes maybe we should listen to him."
"You trust him?" Wilkes asked "after all these years a lot has changed."
"I trusted him when we decided to betray you and make our own paths" she said honestly looking at him "Boyle was the one who wanted to minimise casualties and end what we were doing."
"He kept the Hunter and by the looks of it stole a museum piece." Wilkes said noting the Hunter, a craft he had helped design and that Brand and Boyle had stolen was still armed and that the Adamant was also armed.
"And I restored the guns on the Lucky 9 far from Colonial Fleet assets it was hardly the peaceful paradise the Quorum claimed it was." Brand reminded him as the wireless activated again.
"You know the Cylons know we're here, they'll probably send more units to check on the ones we took out, we need to get out of here and get back to defend our people. I'm docking the Hunter on the Agosta shoot if you want, but we're getting the frak out of here while we can." He said Brand and Wilkes watched the screen as the Hunter's signal began to move until it merged with the larger craft.
"Make a decision" Brand said to Wilkes.
"It's your ship" Wilkes said continuing to watch the DRADIS.
"Make ready for a jump, pass to both freighters they are coming with us." Brand said "give me direct contact with Boyle." She ordered "Lucky 9 Actual to Boyle transmit your jump coordinates we're willing to accompany you for the good of our race."
"Understood, transmitting jump coordinates, be warned there are multiple civilian vessels at this location do not open fire unless we confirm Cylon targets are present." Boyle ordered
"We will be careful" Brand replied over the wireless, "all weapons to safe mode, confirm Adironack's missiles are also in safe mode" she commanded Wilkes who nodded raising his own wireless to speak to the armed freighter he nodded to Brand that they were ready. "Standing by" Brand said contacting Boyle.
"Jump in three, two, one" Boyle counted down and then the Adamant and attached Hunter jumped clear, a moment later the Lucky 9, Adironack and the other freighter all jumped to the survivor fleet.
Survivor Fleet
Survivor Count: 5,900
As they emerged from the jump the DRADIS onboard Lucky 9 suddenly detected ten additional capital sized contacts over the Lucky 9, her two freighters and the Adamant and multiple small craft. The largest among them was a Heracles-class Gunship which had its weapons aimed at the Lucky 9. "Massena Actual to Lucky 9, if you know what's good for you, you'll stand-down now." Boyle said as the Hunter detached from the Adamant and began to head towards the Heracles-class vessel Brand and Wilkes looked at each other their mouths slightly apart in surprise. "Amelia, Justin I want to see you both onboard the Massena II as soon as possible."
Soon afterwards Brand and Wilkes arrived onboard the Heracles to be met by several armed marines. From there they were taken to an interrogation suite where they were asked to sit and wait until Boyle arrived. "Welcome to the fleet" he said looking at them sat at the single metal table in the room.
"Thank you, Commander?" Brand said looking up at Boyle he was older a little grey showing in his jet-black hair unlike the rank he currently wore he wore a standard dark green jumpsuit which you'd see on a civilian ship.
"A long story" he admitted with a smirk "to say the least the Massena's crew have found plenty of other survivors and their ships."
"This is the Massena?" Wilkes asked astonished "not the freighter I'd heard you were running around in."
"This is the Massena II" Boyle explained "my original ship was lost in battle with the Cylons. Now to you two how did we get here?"
"We're trying to survive, strength in numbers" Brand explained "we've been on the run…" she began to explain. Outside the Massena II's CIC was directing the Lucky 9 and her accompanying freighters to their positions within the fleet. As the three ships began to move into the fleet Centurions activated from the hulls of the ships and began burning towards the ships of the fleet.
In the CIC Massena XO Will Stonagal jumped to action on detecting the Centurions "Set Battle Stations, have the Vipers that are out there target the Centurions that are in flight and launch alert fiighters!" He commanded rapidly issuing orders grabbing one of the microphones attached to the CIC's central table keying "CIC to Boyle, Contact CIC immediately!" He snapped as the Centurions continued on their paths to the civilian ships and towards the Massena II.
In interrogation Boyle heard the call from Stonagal and grabbed the phone on the wall listening to his XO's explanation to what was going on. "Have the Vipers and our point defence guns target the Cylons even at the expense of ourselves, pass to the crew break out arms we'll need to defend ourselves." He said listening to Stonagal a bit further "no, I want to talk to their CO's first." He placed the phone back on the wall and turned towards the two Captains "what the hell have you two done!?" He shouted angrily slamming his hands down on the table seeing their faces change to shock "there are Cylon Centurions on their way towards my ships, they came from your ships towards mine start giving me answers NOW!" He snapped
"We know nothing of them" Brand said immediately but Boyle didn't stop instead he grabbed Wilkes by the collars and pulled him up onto his feet Amelia Brand raised to her feet beside them "Matt, please we know nothing about this we've both been on the run since the fall of the colonies."
"He was safe on his little rock" Boyle snapped seeing Wilkes surprise. "Yes, I knew where you were just like you kept tabs on us, I kept tab on you." He said admitting to it "now answers!"
"I know nothing about these Centurions" Wilkes answered panicked as alarms sounded indicating an intruder was onboard the Massena II.
"We travelled through a colonial ship graveyard" Brand said "we were searching for survivors, perhaps they boarded us during our flight through the remains of the ships." Amelia suggested Matt continued to hold Wilkes as he looked at her "we know nothing about them."
"Well you're going to" Boyle said releasing Wilkes' clothing "follow me" he said stepping out of the room with the two of them behind him he opened a cabinet and drew out three sidearms one was his own the other two for Wilkes and Boyle. "Help me defend this damned ship."
