I still do not own anything.
Not much in the way of spoilers here, but they will start coming soon.
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Chapter 3- A Battle With the Cylons
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
Daala watched the unknown ships as hundreds of crescent shaped objects seemed to fall off of the bottom surfaces of the star shaped ship. Without taking her eyes off the holo she spoke. "Are they launching fighters?"
Her sensor officer nodded. "Yes. 792 fighters are coming of the star ship. No fighters from the other. They are very slow. They couldn't even keep up with a TIE Bomber. No shields or energy weapons."
Daala called up the fighter inventory on her personal datapad. The Gorgon had started its life with six squadrons of TIEs, or seventy-two craft. They had consisted of three TIE Starfighter squadrons, two TIE Bomber squadrons, and one squadron of elite TIE Interceptors, along with gunboats and armed shuttles. They had been lucky and had only lost a few fighters in combat, and had used onboard fabrication facilities to replace what they had lost. Pilots were no problem, as the ship carried almost 10,000 Stormtroopers, and they had been proven very adaptable for flight training.
Daala had also taken the liberty of using some of the engineers at the Maw facility, the top secret think tank she had been guarding, to upgrade her TIEs with modifications like miniaturized hyperdrives, shield generators, extra laser and ion cannon mounts, and even two TIEs had cloaking generators. Right now she was down only two TIE Starfighters, the ones that she had left behind as she jumped. As per protocol, they would have self destructed before being captured by the rebels.
Normally 792 fighters would be too much for her force to handle, but their speed, coupled by their lack of energy weapons and shields, would make them much easer to kill. "Launch all fighters." she said. "Interceptors in front and Bombers in back. Have the Bombers stay out of laser range and launch missiles." On her command, the shield generator that kept air in the hanger bay was turned off. Row after row of TIEs fell of the racks, plunging out of the bottom of the ship. Daala continued to give orders. "Weapons, what did we loose?"
Her weapons officer was new. Her previous one had broken his neck during the jump. Nervous at being directly addressed by the Admiral, he stammered, "Ahh-we still have-"
Daala cut him off. "I asked what we lost, not what we had!"
The officer cringed and looked back at his console. "Sorry sir. Umm, we lost four anti-fighter lasers, seven turbolasers, two heavy turbolasers, and three ion cannons. Our main batteries are still intact. Unfortunately, the MCPS is offline.
Daala let out a small sigh. The Meta-Crystal Phase Shifter was a weapon that she had taken from the Maw facility before it was destroyed. It turned portions of a ship's hull into powder. It was not so dramatic that the whole ship simply powderized, it just weakened the structural integrity so much that the ship would break apart. It could penetrate shields, although with these new ships that was not an issue. At least her main batteries were working. They consisted of eight dual turrets flanking the bridge of her ship. Six of them had the heaviest turbolasers in existence mounted on them. The remaining two had heavy ion cannons on them.
"Bring the ship around." Daala said. "Prepare to fire."
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Cylon Raider 18503
Raider 18503 cruised through space, leading another ten Raiders behind it. It was not completely self-aware, but it did know what it was and its mission. It preformed a scan of its weapons. Both of its Kinetic Energy Weapons were online with a full load of 3,000 rounds, and its two Nuclear Missiles were optimal. It scanned the unknown hostile craft approaching. Several had energy anomalies around them. No radiological weapons were detected. The targets were very fast. It designated contact 34 and 37 as prime targets, as they were slower than some of the rest, and had no energy anomalies around them. It also detected that all contacts were networked and within transmission range. Its red eye pulsed once.
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
On board the Gorgon a program detected an intruder. In the bridge, the computer blared out a warning. "Virus detected."
One of Daala's tech specialists turned to her. "Admiral, the unknown targets are tempting to infect our systems with a virus. It is very primitive, and there's no way that it can even hack into one of our fighters."
Daala gave that some thought. Obviously the enemy had thought that they were susceptible to a virus. That could have been deadly if it weren't for the firewalls built into all Imperial electronics. Then she had an idea that could help level the playing field for her fighters. "Can someone crack open that virus and tell me what it does?"
Her tech specialist typed in a few commands and a list appeared on Daala's datapad. "The code is designed to knock out engines and weapons, leaving target ships drifting in space."
Daala smiled. "Tell all fighters except for the two cloaked interceptors to switch off their engine and weapon systems, and keep them off until my command."
"And what about us?" Kretas asked.
Daala shook her head. "It takes too long for our destroyer to turn itself on and off. We just have to hope that the fighters fool them."
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Gorgon's fighter group
Daala's fighters were a mismatched group. For example, A TIE Starfighter squadron might have a couple of craft with shields, a couple with hyperdrives, extra lasers, or any combination of those. The TIE Interceptor squadron, Drake squadron, had shields and hyperdrives, and each had two retro-fitted ion cannons. But the most important part of their squadron was Drake Eleven and Twelve each with a prototype cloaking system. Unfortunately, the cloaking system taxed all the energy needed to fire any weapons, and they could not see out of the cloaking field, so they had to rely on sensors. Upon receiving Daala's command, all the ships but the two cloaked interceptors powered down their weapons and engines, and started gently drifting towards the Cylon Raiders.
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Resurrection Ship 001
Cavil sneered at Caprica Six. "See? They already lost their fighters to the virus."
"Shut up." Caprica snarled. Something didn't feel right to her.
A Two noticed that the Star Destroyer was still functioning."Why is that thing still running?" he asked.
Doral closed his eyes as he reached his arm deeper into the system. Then his eyes opened. "The ship thinks that their capital ship might be harder to crack into. It doesn't matter though. Raiders are in range of their fighters and we have weapon locks on their ship. Arming and firing missiles."
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Battlezone
The Cylon Raiders never got to fire the first shot. The TIEs were within striking distance before the Raiders were. Their Twin Ion Engines, which they were named after, filled the quiet of space with shrieks as they powered up again. The unsuspecting Raiders were pummeled as the Interceptors and Starfighters let loose lasers. The lasers not only had a longer range than the Cylon weapons but also caused more damage. Raider after Raider died as laser bolts penetrated the brain sections of the Raiders, and some shots impacted on the wings, vaporizing them and sending the Raiders into uncontrollable spins. The Bombers let loose streams of concussion missiles that were capable of disintegrating a Raider. Hundreds of them died before they came in range. When the Cylon ships finally came in range, they discovered a problem. The bullets that the Raiders fired did not penetrate the shields that had been fitted to the majority of the fighters. As hundreds of bullets converged on a single shielded TIE the shields would turn red with stress, indicating that they were near the breaking point. But it only took a second for the more maneuverable Imperial fighters to dodge around the bullet paths.
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Omega 7, TIE Fighter
Talon Devruin yanked his steering yoke hard to the left and stomped hard on the left etheric rudder, pulling his TIE out of a Raider's firing path and sliding him onto the tail of another Raider. His dual-linked laser fire punched right through the "cockpit" of the Raider, frying the brain and sending the fighter into a uncontrolled spin. But his maneuver had placed him right in front of two Raiders, 18732 and 18503.
He felt his ship rock and the bullets hammered at his newly installed shield generator, threatening to overload it. Instead of breaking away and trying to out run them, he chopped back on his throttle and watched the two Raiders shoot pass him. He set his lasers to cycle fire and opened up on them. Four shots hit Raider 18732 in the engines and fuel tanks, blowing it to bits. One laser grazed 18503's face, leaving a long gash. 18503 preformed a spectacular spin-roll to the side and managed to escape from Talon. Talon just shifted to a new target and continued fighting.
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Battlezone
The Bombers were still out of striking distance, so they were not bothered by the Raiders. But the Raiders did have some successes. When eighty Raiders attacked a group of five unshielded Starfighters, the outcome was not good. The weapons punched small holes through the wing of one, forcing it to break off. Some bullets hit the engines on another fighter, causing the fighter to explode dramatically. The other three TIEs died in a head to head pass, where the bullets penetrated the weak view port armor, killing the pilots. The Raiders noticed this, and soon began attacking only from the front.
While the fighters clashed, the Star Destroyer engaged the Basestar and the Resurrection Ship. The Resurrection ship was weaponless, so it stayed away from the fighting as best as it could. The Basestar launched multiple missiles, both conventional and nuclear. The Gorgon's lasers easily destroyed the missiles before they came anywhere near the Destroyer.
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
On the bridge, Daala watched as the Resurrection ship tried to hide. "Weapons." She said. "Disable the ship that is trying to flee. Main batteries target the center of the attacking ship. All other energy weapons, fire at will." Daala purposefully did not order any proton torpedo launchers, as they had limited ammunition for them, and the fabricator could only produce so much.
On the hull of the Gorgon, weapon emplacements swiveled in their turrets. The four main ion cannons fired, the bolts hitting the Resurrection Ship in the middle. Blue-white lighting bolts flared across the ship, blowing out systems and rendering it useless. Normally it would take longer disable a ship that was almost a big as the Destroyer, but the ship was not protected at all against power surges.
The attack on the Basestar was not as gentle. All of the heavy turbolasers fired, sending shudders though the ship with their recoil. Waves of green energy poured from the Star Destroyer to the Basestar, eating away at the large cylinder that connected the top and bottom of the ship. As the beams continued to hit, they superheated metal and cut through bulkheads. In only a few seconds, what had been a large silver section was now a red molten piece of metal that cooled when it hit the coldness of space. Both halves of the Basestar fell away, one hitting the other and snapping it in half. The once formidable attack ship was now no more that space debris.
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The battle between the fighters was almost over. The Raiders had suffered horribly at the hands of the TIEs, and only a dozen were left. The Imperials had also suffered, with the loss of ten unshielded fighters. Raider 18503 was one of the last surviving Cylon ships. It had registered the loss of the Basestar and the disabling of the Resurrection Ship. Now, unable to download and without a ship to carry it around, it was resigned to fight to the death. As another Raider caught a laser beam right next to it, killing it, 18503 found an open path to the Star Destroyer. Banking hard to the left, narrowly avoiding a hail of fire, it set a course for the Gorgon. Just as it registered the only other Raider die, it opened its missile bay doors and armed its nuclear warheads. But just as it got a targeting lock on the massive ship, a cloaked Interceptor sneaked up behind it and pumped two ion bolts into it. 18503 felt itself loosing control of all its systems. As its consciousness faded, it tried to activate the self destruct, but it did not have the energy to do so. And then it lost all power.
Daala walked up to the view port and surveyed the battle scene. The enemy ships were either destroyed or disabled, and they had only lost ten fighters. It could have ended much worse. Still gazing out the view port, she heard Kretas issuing orders for recovery and inspection shuttles to be launched. This had been a good battle. She also was very interested to learn what was controlling those ships. Suddenly the pain from her broken rib hit her and she doubled over. Kretas was right by her side, looping an arm around her shoulder and helping her stand back up. "Are you all right Admiral?" he asked. She nodded, and then noticed that he was still holding her. Raising an eyebrow, she said, "Kretas, you can let go now." A hint of a smile appeared on his face, and he let her go and walked way, leaving her musing on the day's events.
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Yep. The Star Destroyer kicked the Cylon's butts. They could have just won using brute force, but I like to think that Daala is smarter than that. Next chapter will have a bit of Cylon information and hopefully a little Colonial.