The PEGASUS, under it's new operational status, was heading towards a nearby system on sublight drive. It had been two days since their initial appearance in the Promar Sector. Two raptors had been deployed from the PEGASUS to start an initial reconnaissance. The probe was led by Lt. Derek Connor (callsign 'Dookie') from Black Knight Wing, with newly promoted Ensign Gorde piloting the other raptor. Raptors were now to be deployed in pairs and all were to be armed, Commander Cain had decreed.
"Eyeball One to Eyeball Two", Connor communicated to Gorde, "My navi-comp is all set for the jump. How about you, Ensign Newguy?", he asked.
"We're good to go, Dookie", Gorde replied with a smile. He was still getting used to the new rank insignia (the non-chevroned gold diamond). He had been called up to CIC - thinking that either the X.O. or Comms wanted to get more information from him about the last recon. Instead, he found himself facing Commander Cain himself. He pulled himself to attention as Cain walked up to him.
"Mr. Gorde", Cain had said, "you're out of uniform!".
Gorde gulped. He knew that Cain was a stickler for the uniform regulations and he prided himself on his dress, so what did he miss?
"You are going to put these on, Mr. Gorde. Then you will be in proper uniform", Cain said, handing him his Ensign's diamonds. The CIC crew applauded as Gorde realized that Cain had just field-commissioned him.
"Congratulations, Ensign", Cain said, shaking his hand. Tolen and Sanders followed suit. And when later, he got back to the ready room, Captain Syke and Lieutenant Cain were there to congratulate him as well. It was a pity that they didn't have time then to celebrate due to the launch schedule, but still, it was a great way to mark the day...
"Eyeball-Two", Connor called, "Coming up on time. All set for the jump?".
"All set to go, Dookie", Gorde replied. He rolled his eyes a bit at the new call-sign for the raptors, but the new standing orders meant nothing to be said that could indicate the existence of the PEGASUS. At least the call-signs used by the pilots was an in-house thing and thus not part of the FleetOps database, so if the Cylons did manage to get intelligence after occupying Picon, at least the pilot call-signs won't be there for them to take advantage of...
"Okay, Newguy, Connor acknowledged, Acommence jump in 5...4...3...2...1...execute!"
With the familiar gut-wrenching feeling, the raptors made their jump to the periphery of the target star system. Both raptors immediately went to silent mode with engines shut down and the sensor platform on passive sensors only. Their wireless communications were switched over to the secure direct-line laser commlink.
"Looks like a system with some planets", Petty Officer Jason Dundee reported, "spectral analysis shows them to have atmospheres with one possibly able to support life".
"Sounds good, Snoopy", Gorde replied, "Did you get that, Dookie?", he asked.
"Yeah", Connor acknowledged, "Good work, Snoopy", he added.
"Thanks, Dookie", Dundee replied. He liked the fact that rank meant nothing out here. These probes were definitely not the place for formalities.
"That planet that Snoopy locked in on", Connor said to his new RSO, Petty Officer Hank 'Eye-Spy' Parker - another recent trainee of Gorde's, "Can you make anything further out from your platform?".
"With just the passive sensors, Dookie", Parker replied, Anot much extra. There is a sizeable moon orbiting the planet - just peeked up over the terminator in fact, but unless you want to start up active sensors, we can't really see much more at this range".
"You're not detecting any EM emissions, Eye-Spy?", Connor asked next. Parker shook his head.
"At this range, only natural EM from the system's sun", he replied. Connor thought about it, then spoke to Gorde.
"I think we can risk getting closer in", he said, "so get your navi-comps powered up and punch in a jump to the moon of that planet".
"Both of us together?", Gorde asked.
"We've got our missiles, but as we're not exactly vipers, we will have to rely on each other. We stay together", Connor decided. Gorde nodded. That was all right with him. He wished that the Peregrine that Razor had spoken about was here though... Ensign Tyree 'Razor' Dutch had spent some time after the last mission filling Commander Cain and Colonel Tolen on the attributes of the Peregrine. Dutch had been quite pleased to hear that at last one of the prototypes had survived and was giving the tin-heads a hard time back in the Colonies. He would have loved to have known who was piloting the ship as he knew most of the test pilots attached to the project.
After getting the new FTL co-ordinates from the navi-comp, Gorde had Dundee punch in the new figures while Parker did likewise over on Eyeball One.
"Eyeball Two reports we're set to go", Gorde communicated.
"Same here, so let's commence countdown. Remember - silent routine when we reach the far side of the moon".
"Understood, Eyeball One", Gorde replied. Gorde wasn't annoyed by Connor restating the obvious. Out here, one could not take any chances, so reminders were the rule.
"Jumping in 5...4...3...2...1...execute!", Connor said.
The FTL trip, though shorter than the one from the PEGASUS, was no less uncomfortable, But they were quickly out of it as the raptors made their emergence on the far side of the moon from the planet. Immediately, they went into silent mode. They were now in an orbit that would shortly take them around the terminator and into view of the planet, so the more silent they were, the better.
"No EM emissions from the moon, Thank the Lords", Parker reported to Connor. Connor nodded. It seemed that so far, they were undetected.
"I'm not surprised", Connor responded, "It's just a pitted, airless piece of rock. Still, keep your eyes on your passive sensors", he reminded him.
On Eyeball Two, Gorde had gotten similar information from Dundee. Now, with the raptors a couple of hundred yards apart, they were moving on their orbit and would soon come into sight of the planet.
Back on the PEGASUS, Sanders was still thinking about ways to expose the agent. So far, he and Doctor Ashley were approaching the problem from a medical standpoint and had gotten nowhere. Traditional detective work seemed to be the only way, but that would take a lot of time. Setting a trap was the best bet, but some subtlety was going to be needed so that their quarry wouldn't recognize it for what it is. Their presence in the Promar Sector was still unreported to the civilians, but given the old maxim that there were no secrets aboard ship, how much longer before the agent finds out? With the high probability of the GALACTICA being somewhere in this sector, that meant the high probability of more Cylons, which meant that this agent's presence would become a lot more dangerous.
'Dangerous' was what Matt Higgins down in Bay Five had all twelve midshipmen write down on the palms of their hands, as part of a means to impress upon all of them the risks involved as viper pilots. A new directive from Core Command had required him to accelerate the training program, which forced him to make some training compromises. As the likelihood of more pilots being needed for strike missions had been increased with the heightened state of alert, he had kept the midshipmen in the simulators almost without a break, and it was starting to tell on them..
"Lieutenant", one of the midshipmen asked over the simulator commlink, "do you expect pilots to have to stay in their cockpits for this length of time?". They had been in the viper sims today for over six hours.
"On Condition Three status, you'l have to man your viper in the landing bay for four hour stretches, and on recon patrols, it could be for quite a lot longer", Higgins replied, "but the main reason you're stuck in these sims is not to familiarize yourselves with Condition Three or recon endurance. It's because your formation flying sucks, and being directionally unstable under those circumstances can be fatal to you and your wingman", he stated. Close proximity to other fighters meant keeping good formation.
"The automatic systems are supposed to handle items like that, aren't they?", another midshipman - one of the females - asked.
"Normally yes", Higgins replied, "but in order to earn your wings, you have to master all elements of flying on a manual basis. Very soon, you'll be strapped into a real Mark VII and then you'll be flung out the launch tube into space. What your wingman won't appreciate is for you to drift into him immediately after launch because you can't fly in formation. You don't master this sim, then you don't fly real-time, and you don't get those shiny wings and ensign's insignia. Got it?".
"Yes, Sir", the midshipmen replied in unison.
"In fighters, you forget the 'sir's'", Higgins admonished, "you still call me Lieutenant, like I said at the start of the first lesson, but otherwise, stay relaxed and focused".
Despite their dislike of him, the midshipmen understood what their instructor was trying to do. This program was rushed and the prospect for serious injury or death was high, but Higgins was trying to minimize this risk, and in doing so, was seeing if anyone would crack under the pressure. So far, all twelve were doing well, as would be expected from academy cadets, but Higgins knew that anyone - in the right circumstances - could succumb. Flying vipers was not for the weak-hearted.
The midshipmen were pretty proud of what they were achieving so far. They had been issued their flight suits - the initial sight of the VIPER patch took away most of their breaths, and not a few times the cadets had run their hands over the patch, and the patch on the other arm that stated BATTLESTAR PEGASUS - BSG89. It was in one of the patches on these newly issued uniforms, which had just been embroidered in the Quartermaster's Department, that the latest effort of the Cylon agent to alert her compatriots had been planted.
She had almost smiled at the subtlety of this plan. Even though her job was supposed to be non-ship-critical, and thus hard to throw a spanner in the works, it did allow for something to be done. Inside one of the patches on those newly issued flight suits was a small disc - less than a half-inch in diameter and paper-thin, which she had secreted aboard her person when she had been picked up on Caprica. She had hidden it inside her quarters just after the escape from Molecay and before Doctor Ashley had made his medical examination.
The disc itself was purely a 'passive' device. It was coated with a compound which would react if any Cylon sensor sweep touched on it. Any craft lying inert would easily be mistaken as debris from a distance, but if this disc sensed a sensor sweep of Cylon origin, it would reflect back a highly concentrated 'blip', thus clearly showing up on sensors. She wanted to originally plant it on the surface of the PEGASUS, but thanks to the new security situation, EVA's were out of the question. So, she thought, how about someone taking it outside for her? With these new flight suits, that meant a pilot would be able to fly out - and if discovered by Cylon sensors - and lead her compatriots back to the PEGASUS. Because she knew about the new standing order regarding insignia meant that the velcro-backed PEGASUS patch would be removed before flight - after all, she was responsible for maintaining the uniforms, she had placed the disc inside one of the VIPER patches, noticing that unlike the PEGASUS patch, it was permanently sewn on.
Now that the vipers had their tail numbers and ship identification markings obliterated, that left the PEGASUS patches. As the removal order was strictly followed and that the patches would be collected and counted by the crew chiefs before the pilots could man their fighters, this was thought to be ample as not to tell any Cylons about their origin if captured or killed, but no one had thought about the VIPER patch...this omission had given the agent a means to alert her compatriots and to engage the PEGASUS.
All that was needed now was for an unsuspecting pilot to wear the flight suit with the patch and soon, the PEGASUS would be history, and if it was detected at the same time that the PEGASUS found the GALACTICA, so much the better, she thought...
The raptors meanwhile were approaching the terminator of the moon. The raptors were still in silent mode as they crossed over to the near side of the moon, and thus getting their first clear look at this planet. The passive sensors were already recording their data.
As Eyeball Two had crossed the terminator ahead of Eyeball One, Dundee could start the initial data collection. What he saw was both gladdening and disappointing.
"Initial results shows that this planet has an atmosphere of eighteen percent oxygen content. Barely breathable", Dundee reported, Athough that's better than a lot of other rocks we've encountered".
"Could it be a seeded planet?", Gorde asked, referring to the long-defunct operation SEEDER.
"I'm inclined to doubt it", Dundee replied, "There's no vegetation there and very little water. No indications of surface minerals...wait a minute", Dundee said suddenly, "There's a detection of EM emissions coming from beyond the horizon of the planet. Indications are of a ship of some kind. Running the signal through the decryption routine now.
"Okay", Gorde said, relaying the information to Connor, whose raptor had just crossed the terminator. Dundee transmitted what he found to Parker. As both raptors were still coasting in orbit, and only had their passive sensors operating, they were still stealthy, but it made pin-pointing ships more difficult. It was a pity that the raptor's LIDAR could not be used under these conditions, Gorde thought.
LIDAR was an acronym for Laser Infrared Detection and Ranging. It was the main detection method used in space. In short, it was a laser radar coupled with infrared detection, which unfortunately can also be easily detectable by its emissions.
"Frakk", Dundee suddenly said. His decryption screen showed the words CYLON TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS - CONFIRMATION, "Weve got tin-heads!".
"I read that too, Snoopy", Parker replied.
"Get an ID on the source of the transmission", Gorde ordered Dundee. Dundee activated his optical sensors, and homed them in of the co-ordinates of the source. It definitely came from a ship of some kind that was in orbit.
Suddenly, his warbook, which was tied into the optical sensors and enhancement routines, came up with a match: CYLON BASE STAR - CONFIRMATION, it read.