All I'm glad you enjoyed the update; I have always meant to finish this one I enjoyed writing it the first time around.
Tus3 – I'll do my best to answer it in this one
Bill – the Freja is the class name for the Valkyrie-type Battlestar you see in the reimaged series. Like the Galactica is the Jupiter-class, the Valkyrie is an example of the Freja-class. This is not a canon name for the class just something I made up.
The Rycon
Seraph, Orion-class Scout Battlestar
Before they left the CIC Atler had ordered his XO to begin a search of the ships present near Seraph for anymore internal Cylon threats until the ships were cleared the Massena and her fighters would protect the area. Now working their way through the Seraph Matthew Boyle kept pace with Commander Daniel Atler, the Seraph was not a large vessel but it gave them several minutes to speak. "With the situation on Rycon, any idea how this area is still a safe zone?"
"The only reason I can think is we're in the Vilnius Cluster." Atler explained as they were walking Boyle stopped dead in his tracks.
"You're frakking kidding me?" He exclaimed in surprise the Vilnius Cluster was a no-go area for merchants from the colonies for several very good reasons. "I took the old Massena into the Cluster before when running… an important cargo…" He said stumbling over almost admitting he'd run contraband under the Colonial Navy's nose.
"We all had an old life, Commander"
"Anyway, it was nearly my last choice." He said "we jumped into one of the systems and things went from bad to worse random pieces of rock battering the hull, changing gravity forces. I took more damage than I would have running from the interceptor fighters." He explained
"I'm sure, and if you'd been disabled no-one would have been able to come and get you as communications out of the system do not work here." Atler explained as they continued to walk again "we're limited to the space that we are in. I have to assume the reason we're still alive here is that any Cylon agent hasn't been able to communicate our presence here."
"Luck" Boyle said shaking his head "you've gotten lucky no agent has been onboard one of your ships when they've jumped back to the colonies?"
"The Colonies are due some luck" Atler suggested. "The Recon Group spent six years before the Seraph joined them charting this cluster and they lost a lot of good people doing it. Because no-one is supposed to come to Vilnius their families came with them once the ground work was laid. Any shore leave taken was taken here." He explained suggesting there was a lot more to the Recon Group's operations here than he was letting on. "We've also had very limited operations out of the cluster, unlike your operations we haven't been cruising around the colonies looking for survivors spending a lot of time in space where the Cylons could track us, we've been running strike operations against the Cylons. Any agent on our ships doesn't have time to send messages to the Cylons or there aren't any left to take the message home."
"Decent strategy but they must know your ships are operating? There's no way that you're not leaving salvage for the Cylons to recover and download." Boyle pointed out
"They must know we're operating given the force that was sent after the Seraph" Atler noted "but they don't know where our base is and we do our best to leave minimal clues for them to follow. There are also more than a dozen potential bases in Vilnius, its possible they just haven't found us yet."
"And if they do, four Battlestars and support are not an insignificant force to deal with them." Boyle said as they headed to the four Raptors which were waiting for them. Each would carry a squad of marines nothing nearly enough to take on the complement of the Rycon but then they didn't need to take on all the marines. As they approached the marines gathered round front and centre was Major Patrick Sinclair and a squad of marines from the Massena II.
"Ok people we've been given clearance to go over to the Rycon to make our report. Our primary mission is to neutralize the ship's XO Colonel D'Anna Sousa, I'll be honest I'd rather not put a bullet in the toaster's head but if it comes to it, we will and we'll deal with the consequences." He said seeing multiple nods from the group that they understood their orders. "Commander Boyle" he said turning to Matthew.
"As Commander Atler said our primary mission is we are to neutralize D'Anna Sousa, but we're also going to begin screening the Rycon's crew for any more skinjobs that are onboard." Boyle said he saw a couple of smirks at the term he'd used for the humanoid Cylons. "You've all seen the mugshots we've got of the known humanoid Cylons if we encounter any others do not move against them straight away. Call in to Major Sinclair and await orders." He said nodding to the ground force Major "all actions against these skinjobs has to be coordinated so we can take them out together."
"It's a big frakking ship, sir, she's got a crew three times that we've got on the Massena." One of the marines pointed out.
"I know, we can't cover everyone at the same time, we don't expect you to cover everything." Boyle said looking around each of the marines arrayed around the area. "I want you all to remember the majority of the crew over there are as loyal to your beliefs as you are." He said "most of them are going to be a shocked as you with any agents we find, there are going to be at the most a couple of people who could cause us issues so we're going to target specific areas with our initial sweep. Major, please." Matthew said the Major stepped forwards joining the two commanders he now wore the same marine uniform as the other marines.
"Cylon strategy when trying to target a Battlestar are to take out the Secondary Damage Control Suite, if they gained control over it then they'd be able to take over control of the ship regardless of what the CIC did." Sinclair explained a Battlestar was generally capable of taking out multiple Cylon vessels before being destroyed but a Cylon boarding party could end the Battlestar's war just as easily as an external threat. "With that in mind we're going to spilt into five teams who will have different areas of responsibility, each team will have an explosive ordinance officer just in case. Teams one and two will converge on Secondary Damage control, Team One which I will lead, will gain access to the damage control suite while Team Two form a perimeter. Once we are inside no-one else is getting inside until I say so, non-lethal force is preferred but we'll do what we need to do. We are going to do nothing once we are there only make sure that there are no active Cylon threats inside and that the CIC can't use the ship against others in the local area should the command team fail in their mission. Team Three will support Commanders Atler and Boyle at the CIC with luck they deal with the skinjob and convince the command crew that we're not the threat other potential agents are. Team Four will proceed to main engineering and secure the area, if the Cylons want to damage the ship then that's a vulnerable sport. Similarly, Team five will proceed to the armoury. Your mission there is simple you make sure the crew there are doing their jobs properly and no-one is threatening the ship."
"Sirs, how do we gain access to these areas without tipping off the onboard marines? Each of those areas are going to be defended by multiple marines. There's little chance that one of them will not get to a weapon."
"I'm providing each team with a Commander's level inspection warrant. That will tip the marines off that there is an issue but if they are doing their jobs properly, they will check with CIC before attempting action." Atler explained a Commander's Warrant as it was known was an old Colonial inspection that was brought onto a ship when the Colonial Command believed there was something wrong on the ship. If the marines were handed one then they should know exactly what was going on the majority of ship's marines were charged with being loyal to the Colonies before their ships which made them a force that could be trusted on any ship by officials. "We will be at the CIC before you are all at your designated positions, we will convince the ship's CO that your actions are just. Any marine that tries to stop your teams from completing their mission are to be taken down with non-lethal force." He said he saw a few nervous glances between the marines "but if necessary, to complete your mission I will authorise lethal force as a last resort. And may the Gods have mercy on me if we need to use it."
Rycon, Minerva-class Battlestar
The Minerva-class Battlestar had originally been designed during the First Cylon War it was designed to provide the Colonies with heavy weapons fire which could be brought against multiple enemy targets. The larger modern Mercury-class had been developed from the Minerva-class and both were designed similarly with a large armoured sloped primary hull with multiple weapons emplacements and a large engine section at the rear. Along the sides of the primary hull were two large angular flight pods. While smaller than the Mercury or Jupiter-class vessels the Minerva was still one of the largest vessels that had served the Twelve Colonies, and now following the holocaust the Rycon was likely the largest active Colonial military vessel.
The four Raptors landed in the port side landing pod and were lowered to the fight deck and the marines left their ships. As with every flight pod in the Colonial fleet the flight deck was a hive of activity with engineers and mechanics working on the various fighters and raptors that were present in the bay. Both Atler and Boyle were approached by a duty officer wearing lieutenants' insignia who saluted them Atler returned the salute "we've got a report for the Admiral." Atler said indicating to himself and Boyle.
"Very good sir, if you'll follow me" Boyle glanced at Sinclair who nodded his understanding. The Lieutenant led them away from the flight bay and four marines followed slowly behind them maintaining a respectful distance but ready to assist if needed.
Despite the size of the Battlestar it didn't take them long to get to the CIC which was deep inside the primary hull. Entering the CIC Matthew Boyle saw that the facility was similar to that which was seen onboard a Jupiter-class Battlestar with the CIC built up over multiple levels around the centre map and DRADIS screens. At the centre table on one side was Admiral Miyka Sarkis, the son of Jubel Sarkis who served as the Supreme Commander of the Colonial Fleet during the first Cylon War, Boyle had thought he'd died six years before in a jump accident. Looking at him for a moment Boyle noted that Sarkis hair was almost entirely which a great contrast to his darker skin tone and his face weathered by action and age. On the other side of the table was Colonel D'Anna Sousa their target Atler and Boyle were led down through the CIC and presented to Admiral Sarkis. "Gentlemen, welcome onboard, Commander Atler congratulations on the success of your mission the Seraph has some new scars" he greeted them noting the new damage on Atler's vessel before turning towards Boyle.
"Thank you, Admiral, allow me to introduce Commander Boyle the commander of the vessel Massena, a Heracles-class Gunship, and a commander of a fleet of civilian vessels." He said introducing Matthew the fact that he commanded a vessel like the Massena got Sarkis attention as did more civilians surviving.
"More survivors" Sarkis said smiling his old face brightening at the thought "that's grand Commander Boyle, you are to be congratulated on your actions. How is it you ended up out of uniform?" He said looking at Matthew's civilian garb.
"Sir, I'm not a commissioned Commander within the fleet." He explained "I was charged with commanding the Massena before the fall of the Colonies and charged with searching for survivors by Commander William Adama of the Battlestar Galactica."
"Galactica survives!" Sarkis said smiling Boyle kept an eye on Colonel Sousa who's face was impassive at the new news. "Where is that old dog Adama?" By the way Sarkis spoke Boyle assumed the two knew each other.
"Adama and the Galactica lead a fleet of civilian ships which have left the colonies intent on ensuring the survival of humanity as a species."
"He's running" Sousa commented "running while we continue to fight." She said Sarkis looked at her and nodded his agreement before turning back to Boyle, Matthew didn't like what he was seeing Sarkis was well past his prime and Sousa appeared to have him wrapped around her little finger.
"She's right we do, and it appears Commander Boyle that you have to."
"Sir, Galactica defends at least fifty civilian ships carrying fifty thousand civilians. Commander Adama had little to no choice but to retreat." Boyle explained defending Adama's actions "sir, we have a more pressing concern instead of Adama's actions." Boyle said trying to steer the discussion in the way he wanted he glanced at Atler and nodded.
"Marines now!" Atler snapped the four marines they'd brought with them acted quickly with two dropping down on either side of Colonel Sousa flattening her to the floor quickly the other two stepped in their rifles ready. All around the CIC marines from the Rycon stepped in ready to bring down Atler's marines. "Rycon marines stand down! Admiral, order your men to stand down now" he said drawing his sidearm but not raising it. Boyle stood next to him his weapon drawn but not raised.
"Explain this, now damnit!" Sarkis ordered stunned by what had happened
"Sir, she's a frakking toaster!" Boyle said dropping the pictures of the various Cylon models onto the desk with D'Anna's model on the top. "We couldn't communicate it to you any other way." He explained as the marines dragged Colonel Sousa back to her feet, her likeness to the Cylon model picture was undeniable.
"Frak me" Sarkis whispered "how could you?" He asked the woman he'd trusted with his life.
"Admiral, this is a fabrication, they are trying to subvert your command!" She shouted angrily trying to wrestle away from the two marines that held her. Boyle had seen the humanoid models display greater strength and knew she was playing along.
"Commander, I hope you have mo…" Sarkis began only to be interrupted by an explosion deeper in the vessel. Boyle reacted quicker than the stunned admiral activating controls on the command table which activated the microphone and speakers.
"CIC, Sinclair, this is Boyle report now!" He snapped as weapons continued to be pointed by the various marines.
"Commander, this is Sinclair, Team Four encountered a skinjob in the engineering sector she reached for a weapon they had no choice but to use lethal force." He explained by the sound of it he was on the move "when they shot her there was an explosion, I have to assume it was a deadman's switch." He said explaining the explosion as one tied to the life of the Cylon agent. "I'm investigating but all teams should use non-lethal force.
"Understood" Boyle said cutting the channel "you frakkers thought you could take down our ships with suicide charges?" He said stepping up to Sousa "well no joy, we're going to throw you in a cell and you can die of old age before anymore go off." The Colonel resisted again this time snapping the bonds that held her unfortunately for her one of the marines was ready for such a move and clubbed her over the back of the head knocking her down unconscious.
While this went on Sarkis stood and watched shocked. Beside him Atler prodded the old Admiral to action "Sir, I need you to stand down your marines ship wide until my people have finished their work. I then request you lock down your launch bays on both the Rycon, the Asteria and any other ship until we've established there are no further agents onboard our ships and that ground bases are locked down until further notice." Boyle shot him a glance he'd been unaware of a ground base "sorry, things have been moving fast, I'll explain later." He said Boyle nodded a response. "Admiral, we need the Rycon to stand down now."
"Agreed" Sarkis said stepping forwards activating the internal announcement system "crew of the Rycon, this is Admiral Sarkis. I'm turning operational control of the Rycon over to Commander Daniel Atler of the Seraph. Follow his commands. Marines of Rycon, Major Sinclair is in operational command of your forces follow his commands." Sarkis said looking over at Atler who acted quickly.
"Communications, copy to the Asteria, all civilian ships and settlements nothing raises off the ground without my say so. Anything that attempts to launch will be targeted and destroyed if they are in the air without authorisation. Make that crystal clear. Send a message to the Seraph, I want her Vipers flying CAP until further notice everything deployed by the Rycon or Asteria is to be recalled until their crews and machines can be checked." He said making rapid fire orders before turning to the fallen Cylon "marines, take her to the brig, make sure there is nothing that can harm her there." He ordered finally the marines then picked her up.
"Boyle to Sinclair, you should have full cooperation now from Rycon's marines. Anything further to report?"
"They were trying to destroy the jump drive, sir, three crewmen dead." Sinclair reported "I've got our teams searching critical areas so far that's the only one we've found."
"It's over." Atler said finally
"For now" Boyle responded, they were far from out of the woods.
