I was really excited about this one and wanted to get it done.
Also I've decided to start changing a few names for the Colonials, I was rereading and wasn't pleased with what I'd named some of them. So for now here's the new names. I'll come up with more suiting names for more Colonial characters as we along.
Dr. Dylan Cruzii – Tech Expert
Dr. Betty Wimmera – Tech Assistant
Dr. Carl Deckero – Medical Expert
As a final note, the weapon to visualize for the Colonial PDW the civilians have is based on the Magpul PDW. Seemed like a good match for the Colonials' weapon styles.
Chapter 19
Location: Kobol, RSEC Home Base
Date: February 17, 2025
Time: 0830
The unit came out of the ring into the cold of the familiar environment of Kobol. What wasn't familiar was the large concrete cover that was built over the ring with hesco barriers and sandbag barriers. They hadn't been here since they'd left and their first impression was one of things not being in good shape. Colonel Black led the way in at the head of two other Recon Teams and saw that the building that was built within the twenty meter by ten meter concrete box was different, it was more permanent and was now covered with sandbags.
It was also where a group of wounded Colonial troops on stretchers or leaning against the walls with red bandages on every part of their bodies. They were a sad sight, and was pretty humbling for the part of the civilian team that had been ordered to come with them. Colonel Black had selected his two tech specialists, Dr. Cruzii and his assistant Dr. Wimmera, and his two medical specialists as well, Dr. Deckero and Dr. Hall. And of course Agent Fraser had tagged along, not wanting his team to go without him, and another good gun was going to be needed.
They hadn't returned without weapons, Colonel Black had rushed them to the armory instantly upon returning to Choros and instructed them on a compact bullpup PDW. So they were now armed, if somewhat bregrudgingly. They'd refitted with the all-black of the RSEC's recon teams and went through with the military escorts of Recon Teams Six and Twelve.
"Let's get out of the way," Black yelled, waving his team to get out of the way of the impending medical evacuation that was ready to go.
The forty-five Colonial personnel rushed out, running out and through the camouflage nets draped over the exits of the ring's protective bunker and another layer hanging from metal posts to double up the concealment. Here they could see the muddy mess that was the base of operations with troops and support personnel moving back and forth. A battery of howitzers was being towed passed them as they crossed the muddy mess on their way to where some MP's were gesturing them come over.
"Colonel," one of the MP's greeted him, saluting quickly, "The Admiral's over at the headquarters building waiting for you sir."
"If the ring starts activating call me, we might be expecting some help," Black replied as the others rushed past to clear the road.
"Roger that sir," the MP nodded and Black walked past him, and opened the door of the large headquarters building that was nearby with a box of hesco barriers and camouflage nets covering the the two-story building with a few antennae poking through the nets.
"Colonel! Agent Fraser!" the voice of Admiral Queen greeted him immediately, and Black walked over, snapping a quick salute, "Glad you showed up, any word on if Earth will show?"
"Hard to tell sir," Black replied, leaning against a wall that had the largest map of the area with friendly positions and enemy positions marked in varying symbols, many meaning 'destroyed', "What's the situation?"
"We've got elements of three divisions remaining intact and scraps and stragglers from smaller independent units pushing out of their bases. So far the enemy's ground forces aren't even up to the fight we're bringing to bear," Queen informed him, "We've got the area secured around the Tomb and Olympus. Hostile air cover has been forced to stay clear thanks to our anti-aircraft curtains, but…we've still got those ships hovering over our heads and at least a thousand of people still unaccounted for."
"Any prisoners or intel been gathered on what we're facing?" Fraser asked.
"That's one thing we're starting to piece together," Queen nodded, "We've taken a few prisoners and have taken some weapons and equipment. It matches exactly what those Commandoes found on those pirates a while ago when a few civilian ships went missing."
"A retaliatory strike then sir?" Black tried surmising.
"Not sure, their methods and motivations haven't matched our predictions from what we ascertained from Fleet Intelligence's interrogation. They should have just attacked, taken what they wanted, and lit out. This is not the action of a pirate band."
"Well," Black smiled, "Let's make them sorry they stayed."
"That's what I wanted to hear Colonel," Queen stated, "You and your team will be flown to Olympus on the few Raptors we've managed to get through the ring and active. Once there-," he started before the comm on his chest crackled.
"Sir the ring's activating!"
"Scheduled?" Fraser asked.
"Is it Choros?" Queen asked.
"Negative Admiral."
"Please let that be Earth," Fraser hopefully whispered to himself, "Permission to greet them sir?"
"Not without me Agent," the Admiral responded, shuffling out of the door with Colonel Black right beside him, "Make a hole!"
The three rushed into the ring building and saw that the seventh chevron was just lighting up and locking into place. The medical evacuation had to be stopped, and a squad of troops in full gear rushed in with rifles aimed at the ring. Some medics were trying to get the wounded on stretchers out of the way just as the ring activated and the splash whooshed out and lit up the room in the wavy white light.
"Hold fire!" Queen snapped at them all, knowing that an Earth team might be walking through at any moment.
The troops shifted uneasily as they waited and Colonel Black clicked his carbine's safety to off just in case. But their worries were alleviated as a little wheeled rover came through, and the symbol of Earth on the nose of the vehicle let everyone know that their visitors were not hostile, or so they hoped. A pair of troops carefully inched towards the vehicle with assault rifles ready to open fire.
"Stand down, back away!" Queen yelled out to the two men, who looked back and forth between each other, unwillingly stepping back and lowering their weapons to a forty-five degree angle.
The camera on the MALP swiveled back and forth, and the Colonials uneasily watched, and some of them hoped that the next thing to come through would be Earth's soldiers. A few moments passed before something happened, and those who had been hoping that it would be Earth found themselves sighing and relief.
The first thing to come through was a uniformed and armored Earth soldier with an assault rifle in hand and a helmet on his head with a HUD over his eyes. The standard lower portion of the helmet that contained a filter was absent allowing them to see the man's face. Colonel Black recognized him immediately as he walked down the stone steps of ring's base as more Earth troops followed him through, similarly uniformed and equipped with a green, black, and brownish digital pattern.
The Colonial troops murmured and looked back and forth among themselves, unsure of what to think of this. They hadn't known Earth was going to be on their way to assist them.
"Colonel O'Neill," Black stated firmly, stepping forward as the Earth unit walked in and spread out, their weapons at the same readiness as the Colonial troops in the building with them.
"Colonel Black," O'Neill greeted the man, looking around at the concrete cover with his hands clasped over the stock of his rifle, "Like what you've done with the place."
"It does the job," Black smirked, holding out a hand that Colonel O'Neill looked at and shook, shaking the hand firmly, "Admiral, may I introduce Colonel O'Neill, commanding officer of Earth's SG-1."
Admiral Queen stepped forward, noting how ragged and worn he looked at the moment but paid it no mind.
"Admiral," O'Neill said and offered a salute, "Heard you guys had a problem."
"That we do," Queen nodded, returning the salute.
Stepping forward was another individual that was a surprise.
"Miss Jackson," Fraser greeted, "I'm surprised you came."
"I'm not going to let my civilian team members go anywhere without me," the young blonde stated firmly, "Admiral, Brenda Jackson."
"Jackson, related to either of the Jacksons we met when our people first met?"
"My father is Senator Jackson," she said, "I joined as a civilian team leader after he was injured."
"I'm sorry for your father," Admiral Queen responded, "The head diplomat we've determined was at fault has been stripped of his title and has been trashed by most all of our media outlets and government agencies."
"Thank you Admiral, but we're here for another reason, improving relations will…"she said, looking at O'Neill.
"Have to wait once the current threat is dealt with."
"Very well," Queen stated, "Since you're here to help what have you come to do exactly?"
"Protect Olympus, it's important to us just as it is to you," Brenda stated, "It's in Earth's best interest that that technology does not fall into hostile hands."
"We can get you there with Raptors," Black nodded, "We've got the immediate airspace secured so we can stay low and get to the city quickly. Our ground routes are still unsecure, terrain that way is too dense and rough for a road we can go quickly on."
"Best get you and your team moving then Colonel, we've got twelve Raptors standing by, should be enough to get you and our own teams to the city quickly and reasonably safely," Admiral Queen agreed, showing them the way with an arm movement.
"Sounds good Admiral," O'Neill nodded, "We've brought our own equipment for what we plan on doing to help bolster Olympus' defenses so we'll just need to hop on over."
"That's simple enough, alright. Colonel Black, Agent Fraser, you'll be the go-between for the Earth team, you seem to have some familiarity with one another, in the meantime, protect Olympus at all costs. Looks like we're in the same frakked up boat," Admiral Queen ordered, noting the irony in the back of his mind.
A few years ago we were about to go to war, now we're standing side-by-side on the very ground we spilled one another's blood, he thought to himself, amazed at the difference some time and a common enemy makes.
Raptor-2-7
"This'll be different," Kelsey Adama sighed as she checked her Raptor's systems one last time as her ECO and the four Marines in the back of her Raptor readied themselves.
"We've got this," Helo laughed, "I've done these kinds jumps before. So far so good."
"According to the simulators!" Kelsey replied, "And none under fire."
"And none under fire," Helo agreed reluctantly, "We'll be fine Lightbulb. Just keep this tub from going down in flames."
"I've done this once, shouldn't be too hard at all to do this again."
"Alright not instilling confidence back here eltee!" one of the Marines called out.
"Knock it off, she's done this before, I trust her," the Marine officer in charge of the group snapped.
Kelsey frowned back at the four Marines waiting for the possibility of having to swing into action if their bird went down. Commanding them was a familiar face for Kelsey, Lieutenant David Krytos, the same Lieutenant who she'd taken to the planet Frencalis and helped retrieved the crystal her brother had somehow knew was there. For some time she'd gotten hints that he may or may not have been interested until the Galactica's crew had been broken up when they'd returned.
Unfortunately they hadn't really gotten any further than the more familiar relationship that such a mission gave them. The occasional smile and nod from one another had gotten them nowhere serious, but Kelsey was hopeful this cruise would be the one. Being the 'Admiral's Daughter' tended to do the opposite however. But it got her the fun jobs, like this one.
"Raptor-Two-Seven," the comms lit up, "You are cleared for jump."
"Here we go!" Kelsey said, and set the FTL, "Roger that Galactica. We're on the way."
"FTL ready to go! Coordinates in place," Helo called out, and locked into the co-pilot seat, "We're ready."
"Ready back here!" Lieutenant Krytos said as he signaled with a thumbs-up.
"Let's go," Kelsey grinned, hitting the FTL command.
Immediately she snapped her hands back to her controls, ready to pull back hard to regain control. It was exactly what was needed because the FTL activated, a flash of white light and then the Raptor began shaking and an orange flame began licking at the cockpit canopy. The Raptor had done its job, jumping right into the atmosphere of Kobol as planned.
"We're in the atmosphere! Altitude forty-thousand feet and dropping!" Helo called out.
"I got it!" she said pulling back on the controls hard and hitting the Raptor's thrusters to max to regain control.
The Raptor bucked and rattled as she wrestled with the controls, trying hard to keep her Raptor from cratering. G-Forces pinned everyone into their seats, and the Marines just prayed that they'd be alright. The two pilots pulled on their sticks, knowing the danger that they were both in if they didn't get their bird under control. Finally, after a few moments the orange flames ceased and the ride smoothed out.
"Radio in, I don't want those guys blasting us out of the sky Helo," Kelsey yelled.
"Any station this net, any station this net, this is Raptor-Two-Seven Galactica how copy over?" Helo said into the radio, "Hope there's someone still around to hear us."
"Raptor-Two-Seven Galactica Break! You've got bandits swinging in on your tail!" the radio snapped back at them immediately.
"Helo?!" Kelsey asked.
"Frak! We've got three bogeys diving on us!"
"Raptor you are over hostile territory steer to one-four-zero and we can cover you with groundfire!" the same person on the radio instructed them.
"Roger that," Kelsey said in response, yanking the controls back, and steered towards the mountains, diving down to the deck.
As she did that orange and light blue dots came upwards at her. They missed badly, their users far too inaccurate to hit the Raptor, but that was not a chance that they wanted to take.
"Hostile groundfire!" Helo declared, "Pull up, stay out of range."
"Don't tell the obvious!" Kelsey snapped, "Where's those hostiles?"
Two orange globs of plasma zipped in front and to the side of the cockpit and answered her question.
"Want me to tell you now?"
"Frak you Helo!"
Kelsey yanked hard on the stick and pedaled her right foot and took the Raptor into a climbing barrel roll, trying to get the enemy fighters to overshoot. The ploy worked, and Helo paused a moment as he examined the fling wing fighters that had just shot out from under them as Kelsey realigned and dove on them, her Viper pilot's instincts kicking in.
"Firing missiles!" Helo roared, knowing that at this range they couldn't possibly miss.
Two Archers flew from the wings and zipped right at the Death Gliders. But both zeroed in one fighter, blowing it apart in the middle and sent two flaming wings twirling into the forest below.
"Guns!" Kelsey commanded, "Quick!"
"Firing!" Helo snapped.
But before he did something else happened, a stream of tracers and clouds of black ack-ack erupted in front of them. The bursts were precisely aimed at the enemy fighters which got shredded almost immediately. Kelsey pulled up, avoiding any shrapnel or debris as streams of black smoke trailed the wreckage to the ground and disappeared into the thick wet canopy. She could now see the boxy camouflaged positions where she knew the ground fire had to have come from.
Large steel turrets around DRADIS guided CIWS guns, the same as those used on the Battlestars, were stationed on the hilltops before her. The DRADIS dishes and fire control stations also accompanies the weapons placements as SAM batteries also showed up on her HUD now, their upright pillars awaiting an excuse to launch. The Raptor flew over these into friendly territory, where she saw the base she'd been told to head towards.
The expanse was quite large, built on terraces dug into the sides of the mountain with hesco barriers and concrete retaining walls holding back the wet ground and was surrounded by a textbook ditch, barbed-wire fence, and eighteen foot tall concrete wall. Armed metal guard towers were spaced around it and divided up the base's individual parts along with plenty of the always useful hesco barriers and the buildings were protected by thousands of sandbags. She could see that as plain as could be from her altitude as she zoomed overhead as a flight of twelve Raptors took off from below her.
"Looks like we're still here," she noted to Helo, watching the busy base bustling below her.
"Sure are," he nodded, "Sorry guys, no fun today."
"Dammit," one of the Marines laughed.
"Good flying eltee," Kelsey heard Lieutenant Krytos call out from the back, flashing a grin to her that she really took notice of.
"All in a day's work Kyrtos," she said as the Raptor banked slightly, "Alright, landing now."
She waited for the clearance that the ground tower called out to her to land. The pads were concrete, and once the twelve Raptors there took off she came aligned her bird to come down on top of one that a soldier on the ground was waving her to one of them. The Raptor gently landed, and she sighed in relief, one part of this mission, the tough part, was done, now to inform the ground commander about what was coming and get back to the Galactica.
"Let's go Lightbulb," David called out, waving her over, holding a small case with cuffs on it.
She walked over to him, and she held her right arm up. As ordered, he cuffed one side of the metal cuffs to her wrist, and then put the other on the case. In this case was the Galactica's attack plan and time table. It wasn't a big document, in fact it was fantastically simple, fitting on one page. But this was regulations, messengers had to carry such messages in these cases, and have them attached to themselves and had to be escorted by Marines.
"Stay in our perimeter, we'll be fine," Krytos instructed her, "Mind the bird sir," he then instructed Helo.
"Yeah, I'll mind the bird," Helo grumbled as he opened the hatch and two Marines stepped out.
"Let's go."
Kelsey walked out after taking off her helmet, knowing that it would get in the way. The other two Marines came right back out behind her, and without pause they shepherd the pilot towards cover. Waiting there was a Colonial Army officer, eager to figure out what they were doing there.
"Lieutenant," the Captain greeted them, "Good to see you."
"Likewise sir, we weren't sure if there were any Colonial forces still at large," Kelsey saluted.
"Well we're here and not going anywhere," the man smiled, and then pointed at the case, "Got something important?"
"Yes sir, needs to go straight to the commanding officer," Krytos responded.
"You two, get them to HQ," the Captain yelled out to two soldiers who nodded and the Marines began moving forward.
Kelsey followed, keeping an eye on the skies. She knew that intelligence said that orbital supremacy was in the hands of the enemy. So there was no way that they could feel safe. Orbital bombardment could wipe them out at any moment, but that was the risk they took, and hopefully they'd be able to get their message to the commander here, and get out before anything else happened.
They got through the base quickly enough, and to the headquarters building and were ushered in. Inside they saw the classic military orderly chaos that came with a headquarters building. The Marine officer with her grabbed the first man he saw and asked where the commanding officer was.
"You, where's the commander here?" the Marine asked.
"He's here," an older voice stated calmly from next to them and each of them snapped to attention.
"Admiral sir," Kelsey greeted him.
"Lieutenant Kelsey Adama, full-grade," Admiral Queen greeted her, "Thought you'd be a Captain by now."
"I was close before this mission, sir," Kelsey shrugged.
"This little stunt will probably get you your promotion," Queen noted with a nod, and then pointed at the case, "You have a message."
"Oh yes sir, with Admiral Adama's compliments," she said, takin the offered key from Lieutenant Krytos and unlocked the cuffs. She then took the key to the case and unlocked that and handed him the lone piece of paper.
"Admiral Adama…" Queen trailed off as he read the message and then furrowed his brow, "Gods…if this works everyone on that ship is going to be getting a promotion. Tell your CO to bump up his timetable, we're already pushing forward."
"Aye sir," she responded, nodding in a surprised tone.
"Now this fight is going to be a rough one, but with this…damn is just might work out."
"Yes sir…I can honestly say we really want to be there for that."
"I'd bet, not many Viper pilots can claim what your guys will."
"No sir," Kelsey grinned, "With your permission sir."
"Yes…best back to your ship," he responded, giving her a salute to dismiss her.
"Let's go guys."
Kelsey quickly led the way out and the Marines were outside waiting on her, talking with some of the other troops guarding the base. They'd found themselves in on some rather juicy information that they immediately shared with her.
"Lieutenant," Krytos said waving her to come close, "You know what's happened here?"
"What's happened?"
"Earth sent troops to help us," he replied, "Maybe some of the Earthers you knew are here."
"Maybe, but where are they?"
"I heard they'd taken off in those Raptors, scuttlebutt says somewhere in the high mountains," he shrugged, "The guys I talked to didn't say much else."
"Well that doesn't help," Kelsey shook her head, "Either we've gotta get back to the ship Marines. Let's go."
The group returned at a jog to see Helo sitting in a concrete shelter, waiting on them. Without a word they got back in their Raptor, and were lifting off. The ground crew had topped off their tanks but hadn't given them any new ordinance, perhaps as a motivator to get them into FTL and back to the fleet. The promise of a real battle to come was enough for them, and once in air they rose to a thousand feet and jumped.
In Orbit, Ha'tak Flagship
"Is it confirmed?" the leader of the pirate group asked, "Is the agent dead?"
"Yes, a bullet severed his spine, he was dead when our warriors found him," the lieutenant confirming this stated.
He shook his head, shifting in his medieval style armor, a flawless metal cuirass with gold edging and a symbol in the middle of his chest, denoting his new allegiance. It was one wide crescent opening downwards with another crescent, a somewhat smaller one, overlaid onto it with a point coming down from the middle. His cape was golden, attached to the belt loops on shoulder guards which were over complex and expensive chain mail. His legs and arms also had armor plates over chain mail, with other golden décor added on.
The older man was once a king, a kin newly empowered with the wealth of a Gou'ald system lord whose armies he'd defeated in a triumphant battle and taken their weapons and used them to keep absolute power. This power now had a religious aspect to it, a new arrival, prophesizing a new coming of 'God's People', and that those who joined would rule over all nonbelievers. It was a fantastic way to embellish his power, but over time he'd come to believe it.
So he'd zealously led his armies through the gate, taking over other worlds, including formally Ori-turned worlds, taking over other Gou'ald and Jaffa weapons and ships from a Lucian Alliance that seemed to be fracturing. His rise had gone unnoticed, thanks to the Taur'i seemingly disappearing now that there was no great foe plaguing the galaxy.
"We must avenge him, God's word demands it," the leader growled, "Call in our reinforcements, we're entering the atmosphere and finishing these worthless disbelievers."
"But milord," the lieutenant pleaded, "The interference, our sensors and weapons can't see anything."
"Then aim manually you worthless cowards!"
"Our landing craft sir, they won't even get close enough to-," he tried to elaborate.
"They won't have to, we'll be too close to their precious city. Once that is taken, they will crumble," the caped man grinned, "Summon all ships, this ends now."
With a rapid call the order was given, and joining the six poorly built Ha'tak class Motherships were twenty-three more. Joining them were several dozen Alkeshes, Tel'taks, and Troop Transports. Aboard several thousand more of their ragtag warriors waited their chance to fight. Most of the troops now waiting were not the ragtag formations of former Ori and conscripts. These were drawn from the core of his army, armored with steel and chain mail, and wielding Staff Weapons with good training thanks to the assistance of the now-fallen 'Agent'.
"All ships are here milord," the lieutenant declared.
"Send our best," the commander grinned, knowing the force he had chosen was good, and that using them by extension made him clever and he could just see the results unfolding now.
Around the fleet fifteen Tel'taks cloaked, their twenty-five passengers, in each, readied for battle. Their destination was picked for them, Olympus, and there was no way the Colonials would know that they were coming.
"Take us down once they have occupied the defenders."
The fleet turned downwards, and started descending, their crews rushed to their stations, taking manual control of their weapons, ready to rain fire down upon Kobol and its defenders.
City Ship Olympus
The twelve Raptors had landed on a well-improvised landing pad built on top of one of the piers, dropped off their passengers, the combined Colonial and Earth teams. With that done they'd taken off, returning to base, lifting off above the oddly thick fog around the cold water Olympus sat on.
"Let's move, you all know where you're supposed to go so let's get on it!" Colonel Black ordered the other Colonial teams, "Colonel, I'm assuming you know where you're going?"
"I do," O'Neill nodded as the Colonial troops began rushing off to their positions.
"Like he knows," Dr. Underwood rolled his eyes whispering to Dr. Ellis.
"If you're gonna whisper do it better," Major Rosario hissed from behind the two, leaning in grabbing his shoulder with her right hand, shoving him forward along with the others.
The walked across the pier to a door with a single helmeted guard standing his watch behind a small sandbag wall. He nodded to them as they came up, and then got a good look at the Earth unit, and had to do a double-take at the presence of the two Earth teams. He obviously hadn't been informed of this, and as a security personnel for the RSEC he wasn't surprised.
As the team walked in and the door shut behind him a noise caught his attention, a slight warbling sound that was just faintly there. It was tough for him to pick out, but he was just about sure it was in fact there. The guard looked back and forth and into the air, hoping the fog would give him some clue. He saw the shadowy figure of his partner and a few other personnel on the landing pad, moving about amongst the crates, small fuel tank, and concrete dividers normally used on highways He stepped out of his sandbag enclosure and called over to them.
"You guys hear that?" he hollered over.
"Hear what?" one of the Colonials asked.
"That noise," he elaborated, looking up as it started to fade.
"I don't hear anything thanks to those damned Raptors just now," his partner shrugged as he walked out of the concrete box put there to stop an out-of-control Raptor.
"That's true," the guard responded, noting the two mechanics lifting a crate over to the other side of the small fuel tank and out of sight.
But before the other woman could respond there was a crash and clanging as tools hit the ground from behind the fuel tank. The female Colonial guard sighed irritably and started walking over to the mechanics to berate them for such clumsiness.
"What the frak guys? Are you kidding?" she groaned as she came around the corner to see a spattering of tools and the crate on its side and a table jostled out of position. But no mechanics, "Seriously? Not the time to try and think I'm cleaning this up!"
But she and her partner didn't hear anything or see anything. Looking back at him she shrugged and then walked to the other stack of crates. As she did that she saw something that made her spine go cold and brought her carbine to her shoulder, one of the men's boots, toe down. She shuffled over and saw the two bodies, blood pooling around their heads. Before she got a word off a knife sliced through the air and into her trachea, cutting through her collarbone and hitting her voicebox.
Choking on death the young guard's legs began giving out as her mouth hung open, trying to gain any breath in a quivering manner. Her eyes went wide when a pair of arms gently guided her down, so as not to let there be a sound. Looking up as she was put on her back her hands tried grabbing at the knife that had killed her, and her wide eyes saw the black clothed figure that had just killed her. As her vision faded and life left her body, the man slid the slim dagger out, nonchalantly brushing the blade clean on her arm.
He got up and saw one of his comrades finish dispatching the other guard when he came around the corner, sliding a knife from the guard's spine. He now saw a crowd of his troops, clothed fully in black cloaks over leather armor with steel greaves and shin-guards. Each had a hood over their head and a black cloth wrapped around their face. Their weapons were simple, Plasma Repeaters attached to the top of their dominant arms and knives.
There were seventy-five of his men here, three of the Tel'taks had dropped them off, with the others scattering them on other buildings or piers, and were now infiltrating, working as far into the city as they could to cause as much chaos as possible. With a signal from his hand the unit opened the door, doing as they'd seen done by the Colonials earlier, and gained entry. From there they split up, taking different corridors up and down, working their way forward, careful and silent.
Within the corridors the Colonials and Earthers were none-the-wiser. They were just trying to get to know one another, having to work together after such a short pause between nearly killing each other.
"So," Captain Hailey noted from next to the man she'd recognized as what she'd surmised as the Colonial team's tech man, Dr. Cruzii, "You figured out how to turn on the lights."
"There wasn't a simple solution to that one, we had to jury rig our own power so the city would accept it," Cruzii nonchalantly responded.
"Surprised you could do it," she replied, arrogance leaking into her tone.
"Complex, not hard," Cruzii corrected her, "And I already figured out that crystal."
"Oh look who's so smart," Hailey laughed, "You're where we were a decade ago."
"Don't worry about her bruh," Dr. Underwood said, interrupting, "She's like this all the time, hurtful."
"Kinda have to, mistakes are not something I like to slow me down," she responded.
"Girl I told you I'd written it down as a four but read it as a nine, not my fault I was on a roll!" Underwood snapped back in his own defense.
"Maybe you oughta practice then," Hailey quipped.
"Like I said, hurtful."
"She's not the humblest of individuals is she?" Colonial Lieutenant Bragg whispered to Major Rosario who was next to her.
"We're lucky, caught her on one of her good days," Rosario laughed.
Up ahead in the line Lieutenant Holden, SG-1's sniper was in the rear, awkwardly walking alongside one of the Colonials she'd encountered and gotten caught by. She noticed and he noticed, but the Colonial, Corporal Emerick, a SAW gunner, didn't want to leave things at that, after all, he noticed that she ranked easily as a nine or ten.
"Sorry about the…y'know prisoner thing," he started, catching her by surprise for a second.
"It's alright, shit happens," Holden shrugged off looking straight ahead, "Just lucky I didn't decide to fight."
"Yeah, would've had to aim my beauty at you," he laughed, patting his SAW.
"Not as pretty as mine," Holden challenged him, holding up her M501 in its DMR configuration, "A product of pure surgical precision."
"Product of death in numbers," Emerick responded, not liking the challenge and not liking snipers in general.
"I thought that MG's were what the military gave the guys who can't shoot with normal guns?"
"Let some hostiles come around and we'll see about that."
In the lead Colonel O'Neill and Colonel Black were listening to that, and O'Neill turned around.
"Hey, don't make me stop pull over," he threatened with a sarcastic joke.
"Oh they're soldiers, it's what they do," Black responded.
"Not all of them," Brenda piped up from behind O'Neill.
"Oh yeah, right," Black shrugged.
"Y'know, for just having been clobbered by my walking sasquatch here," O'Neill started, pointing out Major Blanton, "You're pretty okay with that."
"I was going easy on him," Black hardly hesitated, maintaining his forward stare.
"Famous words spoken in context," O'Neill smirked, getting a slight smirk in return from Black.
"Is it just me or is this whole conversation just one big dick-waving competition?" Brenda asked Agent Fraser.
"They're soldiers, what do you expect?"
Battlestar Galactica
On the CIC of Galactica activity was the rule of the day, everyone was doing their most to prepare for battle. Extra first-aid kits were being handed out, fire extinguishers positioned, and tool boxes readied. Every man and woman in the ship was double and triple checking their stations, knowing that there was something that could be done better.
The Viper pilots waited in their briefing rooms, ready for the signal to man their fighters. Joining them was Kelsey Adama, just having arrived back aboard. She saw the digital clock on the wall, reading a countdown timer that was at forty-five minutes and twenty-one seconds.
"Oh so you didn't start without me," she chirped as she walked in and Starbuck perked up from her seat.
"Hey we don't have to come rescue you, what a change of pace," the cocky blonde responded.
"Oh I know what a bummer that must be for you," Kelsey snapped back at her, taking her seat in the row behind Starbuck.
Lee was standing, speaking with one of the squadron commanders when his sister had walked in. He was of course relieved, but now his curiosity needed answers. She'd been to their future combat zone, so he needed her to spill on what she'd seen down there.
"Lieutenant, you're back, mind telling us what you saw down there?" he asked, all business in his tone.
"Well Colonial forces are still dug in like ticks, the main base in the highlands and mountains seems to be untouched and hostile aircraft are being held at bay around their airspace."
"And their fighters? If they have fighters?"
"Not impressive in the least, but they do have orbit and thus altitude and energy weapons on top of that. We were jumped almost immediately after leveling off," Kelsey informed him, but leaned back cockily, "But yours truly has drawn first blood for the Galactica, two kills!"
"With a Raptor…fantastic," Starbuck pouted.
"It's okay Captain, I'll leave enough for the rest of you," Kelsey bragged.
The other pilots gave boos and cheers intermixed among each other. It was classic Viper jock behavior, kills and glory seemed to be the primary goal of these pilots, and they tended to either do that or die.
"Ahem, anything else you can remember for us?" Lee interrupted, bringing order back to his ready room.
"Uh…there was ground fire, inaccurate and easy to dodge. Stay above a thousand feet and we'll be fine."
"Excellent, you all know your duties, but let's go over them once more, gotta make this count."
As Lee gave his briefing once again Admiral Adama stood at the bridge, waiting. This was hard to do, but he had to give his ground-side allies time to organize, but now he'd bumped up the time table, he had been waiting another forty-five minutes, but now he'd bumped up his time table to ten minutes and change. His forces were ready, he knew that they were.
"Colonel," Bill called out, "All ships go to action stations and confirm time to their jump."
"Aye sir," Tigh responded, and gave the order.
"Action stations! Action stations! Set Condition One throughout the ship," the loudpspeakers blared out.
"All ships answer ready for jump sir," Dee called out, "Timetable is all green on all ships."
"Engine room ready?" Adama called out.
"Yes sir, you just give the word," his chief engineer said with pride.
"Good," Adama said.
"All batteries answer ready sir!"
"Vipers going in the tubes now!"
"Colonel, time to ready our nukes," Adama commanded, taking out his necklace with the nuclear arming key.
"Aye sir," Tigh responded, pulling out his own key, and lifted up his console, typing in his arming code as Adama did the same.
"Turn your key, now."
Both men turned their keys and unlocked their most dangerous weapons. Galactica was ready. As the timer hit five minutes all stations were double checked and the ship was ready. When the countdown timer hit two minutes Adama turned to Gaeta.
"Mr. Gaeta, prepare for FTL jump," he said calmly and then picked up his ship-wide phone.
"FTL is green sir," Gaeta confirmed with a nod.
"All hands, brace for turbulence."
You know what's going to happen next don't you? I've been waiting a long, long time for an excuse to do this and I can tell you one thing guys, I am going to do my damndest to do this right!
Next Chapter Preview: Dropping like a rock.