Colonial Battlestar Galactica – 11 days post Caprica rescue.
"I don't know what is stranger, Colonel Tigh here, being dead sober or the two basestars covering the fleet's flank," commented the ever sarcastic captain Kara Thrace.
"Frak you!" spits colonel Tigh right back.
"Please we are here to discuss the assimilation of the Cylons into our military," reminded Commander Lee Adama.
"Honestly, I don't see any problems," remarked Admiral William Adama. "Lieutenant Sharon 'Athena'Agathon is a part of my crew. She proved herself with many acts of bravery and patriotism. They will simply have to do the same."
"Thank you," came a voice from Caprica Six, who was taking part of the discussion along with Sharon 'Boomer' Valarie.
"Yes, she is part of my Viper wing," added Kara.
"I wish I had passed the tests," commented Boomer wistfully.
"Yeah, you can't land worth shit," commented Kara back in a sniping tone.
"We are talking fraking Cylons joining our ranks! While Athena, has proven herself, trustworthy, for now. I don't see the same situation with the others." outraged tight.
"These cylons have saved over two thousand of our people. they also brought a good amount of supplies. I say we give them a chance." Pointed out Admiral Adama.
"They are the ones who put them in that situation!" Lee pointed.
"We need to learn to put past mistakes behind us. It's not as if we don't have things we regret doing." put in starbuck. The situation being awkwardly close to how she had caused the death of Zack Adama, her former lover. It was a sour spot for her, and the two Adamas present.
"I guess we have to put the first foot forward. We have news from the scouts. Something major happened in the colonial tristar system," Caprica Six reported.
"What do you mean, miss?" inquired the Admiral Adama in consternation.
"Carly, you can call me Carly Caprica."
"Caprica? Why do you name yourself after one of our worlds?" Tigh spat.
"I was called Caprica Six, for what they believed to be my heroic act. I now wear it in Honor of the world that bore us, as a race. Out of respect." the emotions welding up on her as the Baltar in her head was not being very comforting.
"What a bunch of crock," Baltar mocked "Honor the world which you helped eradicate most of the life on"
"Please continue, Carly" Admiral Adama giving Saul a warning glare.
Carly put her breifcase on the table and clicked it open as she started.
"The Cylon forces found a battlestar fleet hiding in the Oort of the colonial tristar system. The majority of the Cylon forces were promptly destroyed and then the colonial fleet jumped out." She took out a few photos out of her briefcase, placing them on the table.
"My gods! More surviving battle stars? A group?" Adama wondered while picking up one of the photos. "It's the Babylonia." He recognized the ship.
"Didn't they go on an deep space exploration mission roughly five years ago?" remembered Colonel Tigh thoughtfully.
"Yes, what is this small ship?" It not only looked tiny compared to the mammoth battlestar, but it stuck out like a sour thumb. The design being completely foreign to both colonials and cylons alike. "I see a bunch of civilian ships as well"
"We don't know. They where helping the group defend the fleet. Their combined firepower managed to blow up the two attacking baseships within five minutes," Carly said.
"Frak me!" echoed across the board, though everyone's attention became focused on Kara who was suddenly the loudest voice left.
"Look at this," she had a magnifying glass and was looking at one of the photos.
"Can we get this digitally enhanced?" asked Adama.
"We already did" Carly said while placing new photos on the table.
A picture of a robot with what looked like a shield and a heavy rifle was seen shooting at a raider with some sort of blue-white beam. There was another red robot behind it, it had a rather familiar mono eye. There appeared to be a quiet a few of the red ones.
"They look like giant Cylons! Except for the white and blue model, which looks more like a human." noticed starbuck.
"But it can't be a Cylon" Tigh reasoned "You'd have used it by now if you had it."
"No, they are not of cylon design. The mono eye was originally a human design to the original Centurion. The new generation of centurions are an evolution of that."
Carly answered.
"That is true, though using giant robots in battle is hardly conventional for either of our forces." admitted Admiral Adama.
"That is not all. The projectile you see the anything but conventional," added Boomer.
"What the frak?" puzzled Kara.
"We will get to that. The Cylon forces ended up retreating, what was left of them. The Colonial forces jumped out of the system soon afterwards. Whoever was helping them, whatever they are, scared the fraking daylights out of the occupational forces." Putting up other photos, Carly continued, "As you can see from the debris of the Base Ships, they where hit from two hundred clicks."
"Frack, that is a lot of range" the open eyed Tight commented. What he wouldn't give to have a weapon like that on the galactica.
"We where lucky to get footage about this," Carly Fumbling in her briefcase, she pulled out a data disk and placed it on the table. "If someone can help me play this?"
"Sure," replied Admiral Adama as he took the disk and put it into a drive hidden under the conference table. "You can control the playback here," he said, indicating the control buttons on the table.
"Thanks," replied Carly as she pushed the play button. The video started playing on several monitors situated across the table. They had put up a clear printout of the local space on the table.
"As you can see, the base ships jump in here," she placed two base star models on the table.
"They are two hundred clicks out from the colonial fleet," Lee placed the fleet's models on the tactical table. Substituting a raptor for the unknown ship. "The first base ship started getting hit within a minute of the attack." Carly paused the video. "As you can see, the shape and the glow of the projectiles are not consistent with rail gun technology we both currently posses, neither are the results." She briefly resumed the video. "The beams punctured holes into the baseship, it was as if the armor evaporated upon contact."
"Nuclear?" asked Tigh.
"No, none of the usual radiation markers, they behave like a hybrid of energy weapons and kinetic weapons" analyzed Carly aloud.
"We don't have particle weapons. They are theoretical at best, we had plans for laser weaponry but they where deemed too costly. Especially at that range," admitted the admiral.
"Neither do the Cylons. The good news is whoever they are, they are on our side," commented Boomer
"Do we know who the frak they are?" asked Colonel Tigh.
"Not at this time" Carly resumed playing the video. "As you can see, within two minutes, the baseship blows apart under the bombardment of the unknown ship. It wasn't really that wise to send just two base ships in."
"It seems that you have inherited our overconfidence, as well" stated Admiral Adama.
"Now, that is what I call, kicking cylon ass," commented Tigh, getting a stern look from the admiral to be quiet.
"This was due to a shot hitting the primary tylium reactor and the FTL drive section. They did not seem to be familiar with the layouts our ships, with the weapon's penetration power, they could have taken it out sooner." She again resumed the video. "As you can see the Colonial fleet is also formidable, they were providing active cover fire and firing missiles at the second base star." She paused the video again. "That raider was ripped in half then vaporized by the robot's gun, it appears to be based on the same principles as the small vessels weapons." She resumed the video, this time from another angle. "You can see they learned from the first base star. This time they managed to score hits closer to the vital areas, though the colonial forces where also firing nukes at it, hence you get the bigger explosion."
"Taking out two base stars at that distance? That is a lot of fire power and range," commented Lee.
"Do we know where they are?" asked Admiral Adama.
"No, and as far as I know, there are no Cylons on that fleet. If there had been an infiltrator they would have known about it sooner."
"How did they find them?" thigh wanted to know.
Answering the question Carly continued "Wireless signals. A cylon raiders caught the signal, while on patrol. They did send multiple raiders to the possible FTL destinations. No trace of the fleet was found."
"They jumped beyond the red line? That's crazy!" Tigh critiqued.
William Adama privately agreed. That was a quick way to get lost in space.
"Or the new allies have better computers, and can calculate better FTL jump points. We are roughly 10 jumps from Caprica, so they are roughly in the same area."
"Finding them will be a bitch but it would be worth it," Tigh determined.
"Agreed," added Adama. "We need to get Raptors out scouting."
"We have a good amount of raiders and could contribute," Carly said intently.
"That could spell trouble, as they would leave the system they were hiding in if they see a raider."observed Admiral Adama.
Carly grimaced, but nodded. "Perhaps we could offer to upgrade your Raptors FTL computers?"
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama: Lounge - 11 Days After Initial Contact
"We are going back!" Racetrack yelled out as she floated past a crewmen towards the bridges observation lounge. She looked like a child that Christmas had come early.
"There is a shuttle docking from the Irish soon, they brought over a Viper squadron and a Raptor as an informal exchange program from the Babylonia. I hear they will transfer to the Argama," the lead mobile suit pilot, Quattro, said with a small smile.
"Who?" she asked.
"A lieutenant Jeffery 'Lucifer' Sinclair, the commander of the viper squadron and an ensign Michael 'Sparky', the Raptor pilot. Though he's cross-trained as a Marine as well." Quattro informed continuing.
"They are from the colony of Aerelon. Their battle star, the Babylonia and her group managed to round up a lot of STL ships trapped inside your tristar system and rescue their crews. The fleet should be on their way to our rendezvous point, per the plans." he finished.
"They will be war heroes," added Marge.
"Of course. Though this new war is helping unite earth sphere, I am afraid of what complications our political situation can bring to it." Quattro said tensely.
"What do you mean?" she asked curiously.
"Earth is not without its political tensions. Once the war with the Cylons is over, assuming we win, there is a good chance that the current quarrels which has been put on hold will flare back up."
"You people are that divided?" Racetrack asked. She knew Earth was as divided as the Colonies…but the Colonies stayed together after the Cylon war.
"Unfortunately, though I am hoping for peace. Humans are far from a peaceful race," Quattro's head suddenly turned as if sensing a presence.
"Are you okay?" Marge asked, worried that he would need medical help.
"The pressure," he replied softly, almost to himself only.
"Pressure?" the Colonial pilot asked inanely. Had he gone nuts?
The comm system beeped. A voice came on the line, which seemed to be Lieutenant Amuro Ray. "Char, did you sense them too?"
"Yes, I did" replied Quattro even as he watched the ships headed their way intently.
"They just docked, I sensed two of them." Amuro said.
"It seems the colonials have New Types as well. This is going to be interesting," commented Quatrro.
Marge could only gape at that. Tentatively, she tried to see if there was anything she could sense out there. She was never sure if she felt something or if she just wanted to feel something. But she did have an odd feeling.
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama: Mobile Suit Bay – sameday
"But, I am supposed to pilot it," whined Fa Yuri down in the mobile suit bay.
"Sorry, Miss Fa, but this Methus is being assigned to a Lt. Margaret 'Racetrack' Edmondson," Lt Appolly told her, a bit of vexation starting to creep into the officer's voice.
"What about the other one? The new one that we just got" Fa whined.
"A Miss Four Murasame is getting it. Besides, you suck as a pilot." Appoly said with a hint of amusement.
"Asshole!" Fa spat.
Fa was pissed, Kamille not paid any attention to her once Miss SLUT, better known as Four, showed up with the Titan forces. She fumed as she passed a few people bumping into a tall man in strange uniform, followed by another man, also in a strange uniform.
"Excuse me, miss? Which way to the bridge," the taller, senior officer asked.
"Follow the passageway to your right, there will be a sign on the bulkhead," she snapped out.
"Thanks," the more portly fellow replied with a wince. Both nodded to her as they passed by.
"Are those the Aliens?" she asked Lt. Appolly as they continued on.
"Their human, Miss Fa. Now go do something productive. I heard the AEUG representative,Blex Forer, brought his kids and needs a babysitter."
"I hate you," she snapped out as she walked towards the crew quarters.
"Jeez no wonder Kamille wants to be with Four instead of her" Appolly muttered.
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama: Lounge - Same Day
"Char?? You are him..." She paused in thought. "The Red Comet of legend?"
Quattro winced. Damn Amuro. "I was him. I made Char to get revenge. I thought revenge would be enough. It wasn't. So I buried him in the past," Char said.
"Your one of the greatest ace pilots in Earth's history! I can't frakking believe it! So is Char your real name?" Marge asked.
"No, neither is Quattro." Quattro really didn't want to continue this, but really could not see a way to stop the conversation.
"So what is your real name?" she asked intently. She got the feeling he didn't want to talk about this, but in all reality needed to get this out.
"I was born Casval Rem Deikun. The son Zeon Zum Deikun. Zabi killed most of my family with his silent coup of the zeon. The only survivors being me and my sister who where hidden in exile. Those Zabi bastards took my fathers ideology of a better humanity and turned it into a movement which mirrored the Nazi movement. It is ironically what the Titans have also turned themselves into."
Tears came to his eyes as Margaret came closer and held him tight, hoping that she would not get rejected. She was trying to comfort the man who had earlier done the same for her. He tensed up, but did not push her away.
"Thank you for confiding in me, I will keep this private, Casval," she said softly.
"You are a good person, Margaret. Never change that," Quattro finally said.
"Though that does explain why Amuro once said you liked soup cans," Racetrack said thoughtfully.
"Wear a metal helmet to disguise your identity and everyone calls it a tin can or soup can behind your back," Char muttered.
-
Colonial Battlestar Babylonia – Commander Hunt's office - 11 days post caprica rescue – 2 days post Babylonia contact
"The technicians report that the Radish's drives will be operational again within the hour" reported the C.I.C personal.
"Understood, remain at emcon level 4 until we jump out," ordered Commander Kevin 'Hercules' Hunt as he put the phone down.
Lieutenant Emma 'Dazzler' Sheen entered his office.
"Lt Sheen reporting as ordered, sir," she saluted.
If there was something which impressed him about Earth military, at least the AEUG, was their clear adherence to military protocol.
"I heard the crew on the Babylonia gave you a call sign." Hercules said with a hint of amusement.
"Yes sir, Dazzler. I am not used to it as we no longer use them on earth." she said.
"But you used to?"'
"Yes sir, particularly among aviators in the 'united states'. The united states was a world power at the time. One of it's many governments. This was a roughly two hundred years ago, sir."
"We can dispense with formalities. I want to know a little more about your political situation earth side before we make formal contact with your governments."
"As you wish, Commander Hunt."
"Call me Kevin, Commander Hunt reminds me too much of my father," Kevin said.
"Understood, sir." She quickly amended that with, "I mean, Kevin."
"You used to be part of a faction called the TITANS? I like what I have seen of your faction, the AEUG, why did you join them and what made you defect?" Hercules asked intently.
"I joined the TITANS to serve and protect humanity from possible terrorist actions against it by ex-Zeon forces."
"Terrorist actions?" Hunt asked. He wondered what actions those terrorists would make.
"Yes, they had attempted to make a colony drop on the moon roughly four years ago, which showed the need for a tighter police system," Sheen explained.
"A colony drop? I assume you mean the monstrosities your people live in. Someone actually wanted to use that as a ballistic weapon? That is insane," Hunt exclaimed in a shocked tone. That would be even worse then dropping a battlestar on a planet.
"We had one drop during the one week war which ended with the Antarctic treating banning them. The explosion, resulting from the impact was the equivalent sixty thousand megatons; it left a crater fifty kilometers in diameter. The scar was so big, they couldn't just brush it off a as a price they had to pay for war," Sheen said tersely.
"Frak, that is insane," Hunt commented. That figure was above and beyond the nuclear capacities of both the colonials and the cylons.
Hunt changed the subject. "So why did you quit?"
"When I found out the real agenda of the TITANS, it was not only to put down any terrorists, but also to gain power through any means. They gassed an entire colony, killing millions, to scare off anti-TITAN protesters. That is why I left," Sheen explained with a taut tone to her voice.
"My gods, they definitely need to end up like their namesakes." Shaking his head in disgust, he continued, "What about the Zeon?"
"The leadership of the old Zeon appears to be dead and buried. I don't know much about the current leadership on Axis. They started as noble like the TITANS, ended up in the gutter," Sheen spat bitterly.
Hunt changed the subject again. "Say, would you mind letting me ride in one of your suits? I used to be a pilot myself."
"Sure, I flew one of your viper MK V's. It has a nice acceleration kick, you can really feel the g's in that sucker. Very maneuverable, though the controls seem a bit sluggish."
"Sluggish..." he thought, as he had seen the recent friendly match between her and his CAG Major C. J. "Hoff" Brinkley, both in MK V's. He had never seen such maneuvers pulled by a colonial pilot, in his lifetime. It seemed as if she knew where major Brinkly would strike and would conveniently get out of the way. The ballad had ended rather abruptly with her fainting when she pulled a quick 180 trying to catch the major in a strafe. She was not prepared for the g's you would pull in a viper as they had G compensator technology on their mobile suits. She had taken this for granted and it had cost her the win. Fortunately, the only thing she hurt was her pride when she vomited in her helmet.
"I saw that one, you were very lucky; C.J is one of our best," Commander Hunt commented.
"Yeah, I didn't think that the g's would be that harsh. Major Brinkley wants a rematch, this time in a Mobile suit." She was blushing slightly due to her loss.
"I'd like to see that one, too," Hunt said enthusiastically. "Perhaps we should televise the event."
"I heard they had made bets on who would win," Sheen said, curiosity seeping through.
The phone rang, as he picked it up "Hunt here" he paused for a bit "Good, proceed with jump when ready. Hunt out." He placed the phone back in place as he continued
"Yeah, I head that too." He was grimacing at the bet he had lost. Bruce was never going to let him forget it either. He should have had Card Shark as his call-sign instead of Ash.
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama: Bridge – same day
Amuro Ray was on the bridge talking to Captain Bright as he saw the two newcomers.
The colonial officers saluted. "Lieutenant Jeffery 'Lucifer' Sinclair and Engine Michael 'Sparky' Garibaldi reporting as ordered, sir!"
"Interesting choice of call-sign lieutenant," commented Captain Bright.
"I had similar reactions with other crew from earth sir; in our culture we do not have your religions. Our gods are what in your history would be the Greek/Roman and Egyptian gods. As for why I got my call sign it has to do with the meaning, sir."
"Lucifer means the bringer of light, the morning star, bringer of hope," Bright explaining thoughtfully.
"Yes, sir, it does not have the link with the fallen angel which shares the same name. How I got it is by luck, I saved a few stranded, powerless civilians and they insisted I have the call sign. I bore the call sign out of their respect," Sinclair responded.
"Lt. Sinclair if I may ask, did you two sense anything unusual when you got into proximity of the ship," asked Amuro Ray.
"Now that you mention it, I felt what can best be described as gut feeling, a feeling when you know someone is there. Why?"
"Have you had this feeling before? Any other strange symptoms," Amuro asked.
"No, not really. Is this some kind of disease?" a worried tone form the Lieutenant.
"No," assured Captain Bright quickly.
"You have been complaining about your viper being slow and sluggish lately, though maintenance swears its running optimally," piped up Garibaldi.
"Same as me," said Amuro thoughtfully. "I wonder who awoke them."
"Yeah, ever since meeting Lt Emma Sheen," Sinclair said. "I hope she's not feeling ill."
"She was hot," commented Garibaldi realizing his place. "Excuse me, sirs."
"It's okay, ensign. We are human and it's not as if we are in the middle of battle. As far as Lt. Sheen's appearance, I have no comment," Bright said.
"Married?" whispered Jeff to Amuro getting a nod "That explains it. Don't want your wife to find out you're married but not dead."
Amuro smiled brightly. "Or her killing you in the process."
"Sir, we are receiving okay signals from the fleet. The Axis ships are ready for jump. We have the coordinates for our first FTL jump destination. Another ship is joining the fleet, as it appears they managed to put FTL drives on the La vie en Rose."
"Good, we will have dry-docks in case the FTL fails or we need repairs."
"A mobile dry-dock?" Sinclair asked.
"Yes, we had hoped they would FTL it in time. Apparently they did. We plan on not only using it to repair our ships but help repair and upgrade your ships. No offense, your rail guns are very powerful and could probably kill anything we have out of the sky with one shot, but with a mega particle canon like what we have on the Argama. You could put a hole right through your battlestars, widthwise and still have enough kill power to take out a target on the other side," Bright explained.
"Damn," echoed the voices of the two colonial officers.
Going back to business, Bright ordered, "Helm, prepare to jump on my mark. Comms, signal the fleet to prepare to jump in ten." He continuing ordering, "Fleet orders, jump to FTL on my mark, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Jump!"
And with that order the small fleet of AEUG, TITAN, and Axis ships FTL jumped out of the system.