New Realities
Survivor count: 5,697
The announcement of Doral Aditya as a hero of the fleet was supposed to be a morale boosting announcement instead his announcement of being a Cylon had instead caused mass hysteria across the population, there was no hiding that Cylons looked like them now. Even when the marines had rescued Patrick Sinclair, he'd been able to keep things restricted to rumour. Now everything was out in the open.
Even now as the fleet's engineers attempted to make repairs to the ships of the fleet deep inside the crater they had turned into a makeshift harbour. Commander Boyle now stood looking through the brig jail bars at the man who still wore the medal he'd given him around his neck Boyle's sense of betrayal couldn't get higher. "You're a Cylon" he said "what is your mission here?"
"My survival and my family's survival" he said "Commander, may I ask are my family safe?" He asked his wife and daughter he seemed to have a real fear for them.
"Yes, they are, they have been moved to protective custody, did they know you were a Cylon?"
"Yes, I told them once I decided to betray the Cylon species." He admitted "Commander, I was a spy for the Cylons before the attacks that caused the destruction of the Twelve Colonies." He explained "I was assigned to Viper production on Aerlion and was tasked by the Colonial Military with correcting a design flaw in the Viper VII before mass production."
"What design flaw?" Boyle asked out loud more out of curiosity than anything they had sever Mk VII Vipers in the fleet.
"Initial production variants of the fighter lacked an operational dorsal Kinetic Energy Weapon due to colonial technology not being able to adequately compensate for the forces involved during manoeuvring of a Viper." He explained "we spent weeks attempting to fix the issue using conventional means but failed so I used some out of the box thinking and applied Cylon design architecture to the problem." He saw Boyle's surprise and raised his hands "Commander, it uses Colonial technology exclusively but is designed differently from the other weapons."
"So you're an engineer" Boyle said "and what was your Cylon mission?"
"To infiltrate high end Viper production, witness new Viper model development and tag Vipers going to various special operations units across the Twelve Colonies." He explained "the Cylons believed they would take out the majority of Vipers using their CNP program but knew that some Vipers would slip through the cracks and be a threat with surviving units."
"So, you helped get pilots killed?" Boyle asked his anger rising he'd seen enough people killed in this conflict already to come face to face with one of the people responsible.
"No" he said "by the point I became involved in that part of the operation I had met my wife and her daughter and decided that the Cylon path was the wrong one."
"Just like that you turned on your own people?"
"We can feel love, anger, joy, pain, heartbreak. The thought of losing my family drove me to the point of heartbreak. I decided that the Cylons were so driven by rage and the need for revenge that they had lost their way. I wished only for my family to survive."
"So, you didn't tag the Vipers?"
"Oh no I most definitely did, one of them is part of this fleet…" he began to explain Boyle immediately drew his sidearm and pointed it at him "Commander, the device does nothing to the Viper the device was only designed to highlight the Viper to the Cylons." Boyle's pistol did not waver from Doral's head "but I didn't switch them on, the signals were never sent to the Cylons."
"But they can track you?"
"We're not linked into a network" Doral answered "I'm an individual, the only time I will be linked to the Cylons is if this model is killed and I am in range of a download facility. If that happens, I will be reborn in a new identical body and what I know they will know."
"So if we space you then we need to make sure we do so before we travel again." Boyle commented holstering his sidearm again. "How many models are there Mr Doral?"
"Thirteen models in total. 8 of our main group and five who are hidden to us."
"Hidden from you?" Boyle asked confused "they are your people."
"They were the original human form Cylons their location remains a mystery only that they took a ship and left Cylon space after showing us how to create more human form Cylons and providing us with Resurrection technology."
"I want you to show us where the trackers are placed on the Vipers you worked on. I'll provide you with plans." He said Doral nodded "and I want to know if you can identify other Cylon models within the fleet?" Boyle asked
"Only those who are not of the hidden five." He admitted "I will be willing to help you if you guarantee my safety and my family's safety."
"Provide us with valuable data and you have a deal." Doral again nodded his agreement as he did an announcement came over the speakers of the ship.
"Commander Boyle to contact CIC, Commander Boyle contact CIC!" It said he crossed the room and picked a phone off the wall.
"This is Boyle" he said listening to the message from command "understood, I'm on my way, set condition two all ships." He said and without another word he walked out of the brig.
Orion-class Battlestar Seraph
Crew: 150
Elsewhere near the planet a single small snub-nosed WarShip with a control tower on the upper hull behind several forward mounted turrets. Behind the tower were several capital missile launchers covers and more defence turrets while under the hull were two large sensor rays and more defence turrets as well as eight dome like structures.
Behind the ship four star-like Cylon Baseships jumped into the area behind the ship and immediately they began to launch Cylon raiders. The Battlestar continued to burn away from them spraying the area with flak fire while a small number of Vipers and Raptors launched from the underside of the ship.
"Looks like we've stirred up the hornets' nest" Commander Daniel Atler said in the cramped CIC of the vessel. He was in his thirties; he had dark hair and a well-trimmed beard and wore a standard Colonial fleet uniform "have the Vipers maintain a defence formation target as many missiles as they can and stay clear of Seraph's guns." He said as a missile impacted on the upper hull of the ship.
"Commander, we've got a fifth Basestar in the zone." His XO responded he was dark skinned had close cropped black hair and a close-cut beard.
"They really don't like us" Atler said smiling "they must not have liked our firework show over Canceron." He said the Seraph had raided Cylon forces over Canceron using nuclear weapons to destroy three Baseships and a triangular vessel. The Seraph rocked heavily under another missile strike to the upper mall. "Enough of this come to port, all guns to anti-missile fire."
"We can't hold off that many Basestars" his XO Alex Dykes reminded him.
"No hopefully we don't have to for long." Atler said "contact SAR bird and order it to jump into communication range, call in the cavalry." He ordered from outside the ship one of the Raptors jumped clear of the system. As it did two more missiles impacted on the ship's hull behind the ship one of the Basestar's flashed out of existence reappearing on the Seraph's starboard side. "Not too surprising a move, volley fire conventional missiles target that Basestar!" Atler snapped from the rear third of the ship six missile tubes opened and ejected missiles into space the weapons re-orientated themselves and then accelerated rapidly towards the Basestar. Raider's picked off two of the missiles but the other four slammed into the Basestar consuming it in fire.
The Seraph continued on its course firing its weapons against the Basestars that were still pursuing it as a new wave of Cylon Raiders dived towards the Battlestar.
"We're going to get overwhelmed there are too many incoming!" Dykes shouted a warning a three missiles slammed into the side of the vessel's central tower section throwing the crew of the small vessel around. Dykes slammed his head onto a jutting out piece of pipe in the cramped CIC and fell to the deck.
"Medical team to CIC! Call out damage!" Atler shouted as two more missiles slammed into the ship's hull at the rear of the ship the two engine pods faltered briefly threatening to die but they continued going for now. "Com'on where in the name of the Gods are you guys!"
