==========Combat Air Patrol (+234 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==========

"Galactica-Kat, we have nothing new to report. No new DRADIS contacts," Lt. Katraine reported. She brought her Mark VII Viper around on a lazy one-eighty turn and headed back towards Galactica. Her wingman, Junior Lt. Aaron "Pinger" Wills from the Pegasus air wing turned a few second after her, then accelerated to take up his position a hundred meters from her wing.

The attack on the Guardian baseship had expended a significant amount of tyllium reserves from Pegasus, which had already distributed a large amount of fuel to the rest of the fleet. While Pegasus still had over ten months of fuel on hand, Admiral Cain had ordered the tyllium refinery to 'top off' the tanks, restoring the Mercury-class battlestar to a standard twenty month supply.

"Another boring CAP," Pinger said to her over the combat wireless. "It's been pretty boring since the Res ship was blasted," he sighed. He blew into the wireless while his thumb was still jammed on the transmit button, eliciting a curse from Kat.

After a minute of Silence Kat came back on the wireless.

"Yeah well, I'm glad they aren't attacking us," Kat responded, bringing her Viper parallel to Pinger, glancing into his cockpit from across the empty void that separated them.

He was a good pilot, but too much like the stereotypical 'gung-ho' pilots who had died early on with reckless attacks and an attitude they could kill Cylons with impunity.

Kat was different. She hadn't been taught at the Academy or in flight school on Caprica or Picon or Tauron. She'd been recruited from the fleet survivors. Kat knew there was nothing inherently glorious about being a fighter pilot. Yeah, she admitted, it was fun. But it let her do something to protect the fleet. It wasn't flashy or sexy like the movie and television industry made it out to be back in the Colonies.

This was very, very real. And very, very deadly.

Colonial pilots could take three, four, sometimes five to one odds and still win. But Cylons never suffered fatigue, never had to watch their backs. They just resurrected.

With a lot of nothing happening around her Kat was able to consider such philosophical predicaments. And she considered the whole notion of resurrection of Cylons and the fact no matter how many the Colonials killed they just kept coming back as a big 'frak you!' from the Gods.

She was blasted out of her thought when DRADIS began beeping erratically. There were enemy contacts. Red dots indicating enemy fighter formations. The Cylons had found them.

==========BS-75 Galactica==========

"Action stations, action stations, this is not a drill, set Condition 1 throughout the ship! Cylon ships incoming," Lt. Felix Gaeta calmly and coolly informed the crewed.

Within minutes Commander Adama had made it from the bedside of a sick and dying President Roslin. Lt. Felix Gaeta immediately turned on hearing 'commander on deck' from a Marine guard, ready to give his CO a situation report.

"Sit-rep," Adama barked, immediately taking his command position at the center of CIC, eyes already scanning the DRADIS read outs.

"Sir, it looks like… sir, those are Guardian Raiders! I'm counting three baseships and over three hundred Raiders, sir," the Tactical Officer reported. He felt almost queasy at having to report so many ships incoming.

"Gods damn, the Cylon lied to us. She said there was only one baseship!" Colonel Tigh hissed, pounding his fist on the central command console. He tensed, looking at Adama.

"Three Guardian baseships? Impossible. And how did they track the fleet?" Adama muttered under huis breath, craning his neck to study the overhead DRADIS displays. The fleet was still there. He shot over to Mr. Gaeta. "Order the civilian ships to jump to emergency jump coordinates. Launch alert Vipers. Scramble the air wings. I want defensive batteries and missiles locked on those ships," he ordered.

"Alert Vipers have launched," Tigh informed him. Twelve Vipers went to join the CAP from Galactica. Another thirty birds were in the tubes preparing to launch. "Pegasus has launched alert Vipers and is preparing to launch its main interception force," he reported. "Sir, Admiral Cain-" he handed the wireless to Commander Adama.

"Bill, how the hell did they track us?" Cain asked over the wireless. Her voice crackled as the Cylon Guardian forces began their jamming attempts.

"I don't know Admiral."

"The machines here have denied knowing anything about this," she responded, her voice crackling more over the wireless as the Raiders and baseships began to jam communications. As the battlestars cycled their frequencies to counter the jamming the clarity of the wireless transmission decreased. "Bill, bring your ship around and attack from Kerram 245.1, Direction 37.3.2. That'll bring you right under them and open up with all you've got. I'll take Pegasus and circle her around the ships. We're faster and can outmaneuver them. Use the ship you're attacking to block the others' lines of fire," she ordered.

"Affirmative, Admiral," he handed the wireless set back to Tigh. An attack plan came over the text wireless repeating her orders.

They fed the new attack plan into the combat computers, and a new plot with vectors and firing solutions began appearing.

Looking up at DRADIS Adama saw the Cylon Raiders moving in quickly, main fighter contact would be in two minutes. Chief Laid on Pegasus had already briefed them these had faster engines and were more maneuverable than the same models from forty years ago. The capabilities of the baseships were unknown, though Adama assumed they were similar to the baseships of the First Cylon War.

Pegasus would be a match for them. With Galactica it was overkill.

==========Viper Interception Force==========

Lt. Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace took command of the five squadrons, one hundred Vipers and fifteen Raptors, armed with gunship missile pods and coil guns, which had launched to intercept the two-hundred and fifty attacking Cylon Raiders. Fifty of their number were standing back as a reserve.

"Okay, squad leaders, bring your birds up, attack plan Delta 3," she ordered.

The Vipers slowed as the Raptors accelerated. They fired their chain guns on the wings. At extreme range the combined barrage hit only six Raiders. Then the missile pods activated on the gunship variants and they launched well over one hundred missiles at the incoming Raiders before the Raiders could close to missile and gun range.

Dozens of missiles were shot down by the Raiders and their precise robotic aim. But the sheer number of missiles overwhelmed even the robotic reaction times, dozens of Raiders were reduced to nothing but scrap and burning hulks of debris before the Vipers and Raiders engaged.

Electronic warfare and jamming at this range made missiles all but useless, forcing the Vipers to engage their enemy with their coil guns. Thousands of high explosive, armor piercing rounds from the approaching wall of Colonial Vipers met the oncoming Raiders, who responded with their own wall of ordnance.

"Raptor Team 1 and 2, regroup and proceed to coordinates 24.5.2 Kerrim 3 niner 7," Helo's voice came over the wireless as he directed the Raptor forces. Within seconds of giving the order the fifteen Raptors disappeared in a magnificent blue-white flash, only to reappear at the proper location. They fired their remaining missiles form 'behind' the Raiders, taking the force by surprise, and destroying another two dozen.

"Shit! Red Squad, watch your six, Raiders are forming up behind," one of the combat support Raptors warned. Red Squad, from Pegasus had gone straight in for the center, following Starbuck and her Blue Squadron in. They'd decimated the center Cylon lines but reserve forces had swung in from the flank and cut the two squads off from each other.

A squadron of reserve Vipers launched from Pegasus as well as half a squadron from Galactica to aide their comrades.

==========BS-62 Pegasus==========

The ship shook as multiple Raiders impacted the side of the ship. Again utilizing suicide tactics, the Raiders had caused hull breeches along the ventral portion of the starboard flight pod. Flak guns, missiles, and chain guns continued to shoot down missile after missiles and Raider after Raider, but there were more Raiders launching from the Guardian vessels than the Vipers were destroying.

"Bring guns in, close fire, fully auto fire," Major Adama ordered. Captain Shaw relayed his commands to the gun batteries.

The three Terminators had been able to increase the network security features and Cain had had the fire control computers re-networked. Efficiency was increased and ammunition use severely decreased as computers moved more quickly than a human and Mark I eyeball ever could.

The jamming and electronic chafe produced to fool the targeting computers still meant that many Raiders and many missiles got through. That was a primary reason why battlestars still relied on Vipers and Raptors, even with such heavy computerization. They shot down what the computers couldn't.

No matter how much technology pressed forward and how accurate computer targeting had become in recent decades, it was still subject to jamming. But it was impossible to jam a human eyeball.

"Major, launch the second reserve squadron and tell Raptor Teams 1 and 2 to stand by," she ordered.

Major Adama acknowledged the order and Pegasus launched Black Squadron. Pegasus had one more reserve squadron while Galactica had a little under half a squadron left.

"Sir," Major Adama said as he held the wireless up to his ear, "Viper leads are reporting that they've spotted some sort of boarding ships making their way for us."

Cain cursed to herself. The last time the ship had been boarded, with the aid of that Cylon thing she had been tricked into loving, 800 of her crew had been murdered. "Get our three friends some guns and ready the ship to repel Centurions," she ordered.

Boarding alarms sounded throughout the ship. Hundreds of personnel, from deck hands to cooks to computer techs made for the nearest weapons lockers. Armored vests, helmets, optical visors, grenades, and rifles were passed out to the crew.

Pegasus continued to move closer to the Guardian Baseships before firing her missiles and kinetic canons at near point blank range.

==========Viper Interception Force==========

Starbuck pulled a high gee roll in her Viper before pulling a tight half second one hundred and eighty degree flip. Blessed that the Gods provided her with such a beautiful flying machine she clenched her teeth and hit the red fire button. Her dual chain guns firing dozens of explosive rounds into the two Raiders which had been attempting to kill her. "Take that you fraking bastards!" She cursed at them.

She checked her DRADIS. Kat's squadron was taking a heavy hit. She'd lost three Vipers in her squad alone and was outnumbered over two to one. She look out the side of her cockpit, barely seeing the small specks of Raiders and Vipers kilometers away, fighting for their lives.

Her squadron had cleared the middle, but dozens of Raiders had barreled through moving straight towards Pegasus. The boarding craft were closing in quickly with the battlestar. Chain gun fire from PD batteries were successfully destroying many of the craft, Starbuck could see half a dozen had already made hard contact and were burning into the hull.

"Alright squad, form up on me. Follow me in as we go get Kat's squad out of trouble," she said.

==========BS-75 Galactica===========

"Report, Mr. Gaeta!" Adama yelled as he was knocked into the center tactical display. Another hit sparks from overloading circuits showered down onto him from the overhead DRADIS displays.

"We're venting atmosphere from Frame 20 to 22, port side, damage control is sealing it off. Missile strikes on the port flight pods, slight damage. Missile batteries and canons are reporting direct hits on the enemy baseships, sir!" He reported.

"We can't take much more of this, Bill. Where the hell is Pegasus? She should be able to take these ships!" Colonel Tigh shouted.

"Sirs, we're receiving a wireless transmission from Admiral Cain. Her ship has been boarded but confirms they will continue to fire on the enemy ships," Mr. Gaeta reported in. Alarm was evident in his voice. If Pegasus were captured she could turn her guns on Galactica and find the civilian fleet and decimate it.

Galactica could take one of Guardians, maybe two of their baseships. But not three if something happened to Pegasus.

"Gods… Those damned machine things are over there, they'd better-" Tigh commented as he braced himself after another explosion. He wiped away blood from mouth after a blast had caused him to bite into his lip. The ship shook again violently as missiles point detonated across the hull.

Outside Galactica three dozen Raiders and a dozen Vipers were battling for control of the ship's airspace. The Raiders were attempting to target and neutralize the large gun batteries on Galactica's ventral surface, but Commander Adama kept rotating the ship, making targeting of the batteries difficult for the old model Centurions. Galactica kept her fire on the baseship designated Charlie, while Pegasus kept cycling her fire as she circled the enemy formation.

These Guardian baseships were taking a lot more damage than they should have. Someone had upgraded their armor and weaponry. Their ship-to-ship missiles were more resistant to the Raptor jamming than what missiles three generations out of date should have been.

Pegasus, despite fighting off multiple boarding parties continued to fire her own kinetic canons and missiles, tearing into each of the three baseships as it quickly circled them, her maneuverability far in excess of the three vessels.

"Mr. Gaeta, signal for Raptor Teams 1 and 2 to begin their next attacks!" Commander Adama ordered.

The fifteen Raptors had moved over fifty kilometers 'under' Galactica, spooled up their FTL engines and jumped. DRADIS detections of spatial distortions showed they had successfully jumped fifteen kilometers 'above' the enemy baseships. Raptor Team 1 and 2 fired their remaining missiles from their pods, followed by small anti-ship missiles from the hard points on their wings.

Guardian Raiders quickly diverted from the battles around the baseships and reserve forces patrolling the baseships' air space, launching themselves at high speed to take down the Colonial missiles. Baseship defenses and Raider canons destroyed many of the missiles, but too many were able to penetrate, destroying the ventral portions of the Guardian baseship designated Charlie.

Secondary explosions began to erupt from the center of the vessel. The ventral arms were engulfed in explosions as ordnance and fuel began to explode. Within seconds the entire baseship had been destroyed.

Within seconds the two remaining Guardian baseships jumped away, their Raiders quickly following.

DRADIS could not locate Pegasus.