DISCLAIMER: The writer of this story does not own either "V" or "Battlestar Galactica." He only owns his own ideas and story line.
Chapter Two
The True Enemy In War…Is War Itself
The war has been going on now for four years since the message was sent into deep space. The visitor's leader along with Elizabeth was assassinated by Diana when she had a bomb placed on the Leader's ship. Kyle Bates just up and disappeared on that date, never to be seen or heard from again. Eli died trying to rescue Robin Maxwell. Martin, the leader of the 5th column died. His twin brother Phillip soon joined the resistance and became an effective leader, but he too was killed. Julie sat in her bungalow thinking about all those who had died when Mike came in "What's wrong?" he asked. Julie couldn't speak for a moment, and then she said "Have you ever wondered about this war? It seems like that it just feeds itself." Mike softly spoke as he pulled her towards him "Julie, listen, we have to continue to fight in order to stay out of Diana's hands. I know that this is hard, but it has to be done. I know it seems that this war is feeding itself, and maybe it is, but we have to continue. Otherwise all those who have died will have died in vain." Julie looked up at Mike, with tears in her eyes, and said "You always seem to know what to say." Mike grinned and said "I had a good mentor."
The only real boost that they had was that the military was back up to speed. The Navy was able to get its ships back out, especially its carriers. But the battles were long and brutal. The USS Coral Sea CVA 43 was sunk in the battle off of San Diego. The battleship Missouri was brought back into service but was heavily damaged in that battle. The USS America CVA-66 was terribly damaged in battle with the V in the Atlantic Ocean, but she was steaming under her own power on the way in to her home port Washington, DC. Harriers from the USS Tarawa LHA-1 flew cap over her until she reached safety, and the USS John Hancock DD-981 trailed along behind her while the USS Dallas SSN-700 took the lead. The trip took a week to get home, but America steamed into port to a waving group of wives, girlfriends, children and parents. When everyone saw the damage to the ship the waving stopped and people started to cry. America was torn up by the visitors, but when she was tied up her sailors coming off of the ship livened things up again.
Ronald Reagan sat behind his desk in the oval office trying to figure out how they were going to overcome the enemy. He had been told of the defeat of the America, one of their newest and strongest warships. "Man if they can do that to the America what chance do our older ships have?" he thought. The Coral Sea was sitting on the bottom of the Pacific, the Kitty Hawk was badly damaged and that only left the Enterprise and Nimitz on the West Coast. He could bring the Eisenhower from the Gulf, but that would leave them shorthanded. All there is there is Eisenhower, Saratoga, and Lexington. The JFK is still out in the Atlantic with the Independence and the Midway. The Ranger is in dry dock and the Constellation is still in the yards in Alameda. She will soon be able to join the Nimitz and Enterprise, but they are still going to have to hold the fort until I can either get another carrier out there for them, or the Constellation leaves port." He put his head in his hands with his elbows on his desk and just slowly shook his head.
President Reagan further mourned "No one wants to get involved, except for England. Everyone else just wants to pretend that nothing is going on. They seem to think that the visitors will just leave them alone if they don't fight back. Yeah…we saw that when they arrived here didn't we?" he thought. The door to his office opened up and his chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein, walked in "Sorry Mr. President, but there is something I thought you would want to know." Reagan smiled and said "Certainly Ken, what is it?" Duberstein said "We just got word that one of the mother ships has strayed out over the Pacific Ocean, and it is close to the Alabama sir. We could send a message to the Alabama to send up an ICBM and bring it down, and that might turn this war around, if…" Reagan broke in "What is the chance of fallout reaching civilization?" "Sir it's nearing the middle, so the fallout would reach the jet-stream and there is no way to tell what it will do, but if we do nothing we lose our chance." Reagan stood there looking out of the window, Duberstein said "Sir?" Reagan turned around and said "Send the message, put my signature on it." "Yes sir!" Duberstein replied and left the room. Reagan thought " "I only have a one more year and this will be someone else's headache.." He shook his head and headed towards the war-room.
The radioman sat listening and looking at his console when suddenly the EAM light lighted up and he heard the computer accepting it, it sounded like an old dot-matrix printer. "Com, bridge we have an emergency action message, the message is from the NMCC sir" the radioman said. Within a minute the XO and the Master at Arms showed up and pulled the paper from the machine, looked at it and looked at each other and left.
When they approached the bridge they opened the locker and pulled out a plastic card, the XO broke the card in half and pulled a piece of paper out. He read "Alpha-Tango-Charlie-Victor-1-7-Ocean-Delta." The Master at Arms looked at the message and read "Alpha-Tango-Charlie-Victor-1-7-Ocean-Delta. It is a valid message." "I concur sir" the XO said. The captain took both and looked at them and said "I concur." He then picked up the receiver for the ship's 1MC and pushed the button for ship-wide and said "This the Captain, the President has ordered us to hunt down a visitor Mother ship that has strayed out over the Pacific. It apparently is not too far from us. Our job is to locate it and to strike it with one of our ICBM's and bring it down. All hands go to your general quarter's stations. That is all." He looked at the XO and said ring the alarm Commander. The Commander pushed the button for the general alarm and all hands started for their battle stations.
"Bring us to periscope depth" the Captain ordered. "Periscope depth aye sir" replied the driver as he maneuvered the controls to raise the sub. When the sub was at the proper depth the Captain began to look, and it wasn't very long before he found the mother ship. The XO went and got the keys out of the Captain's locker and brought them to him. He took them, and removed three and said "Take these to the missile room and give them to the missile operator, and tell him to remove the safeties. I want them armed the moment they leave." The XO obeyed and the Captain placed the proper key into his console. He set the target into the ship's computer and then turned the key to the on position. He picked up the receiver and said "Bridge to Control." "Control, go ahead Bridge" came the reply. "Are you ready?" the captain asked? "Yes sir, I have my finger on the button waiting your order" came the reply. "The order is given; launch one!" the captain said. At that moment the sub began to shake as the missile left its tube and then it climbed to the water's surface where the rocket fuel kicked in and the missile headed towards its target. The Captain looked through the periscope and said "It looks like they have been taken completely by surprise."
"Commander!" the technician cried out in a loud voice. "What is it?" the commander angrily said after being interrupted from eating his snack, a white mouse. "We're being targeted, a missile is coming at us" the technician cried out. The commander said "Oh is that all, it won't get through our shields. We will simply redirect it. You recruits really need to learn…." About that time the bridge exploded and all the commander could see was his ship being devastated around him. The last thing that went through his mind was "they used a nuke and took off the arming safety."
The cheering on the Alabama was deafening but the Captain didn't even try to calm it. This was going to be good for morale for months to come. He sat back in his seat and just watched his crew as they hugged each other and high-fived each other. This was the first real victory since the red dust, and it felt good to win one.
Diana was devastated; she gave the immediate order to move all ships back behind the moon until she could figure out how to overcome the human's power to use nuclear weapons.
When Julie heard the news Mike found her smiling again. He said "Now that's the smile I like to see." She said "I guess there are some good things happening." "Absolutely," Mike said "and Diana has moved all ships behind the moon for now, so we are able to breathe."