Part 8: Ambiguous Victories
"Carter!" Sam turned around to see Colonel Jack O'Neill walk into engineering. She and the Enterprise's chief engineer, Geordi LaForge, had just spent the last few hours creating and improving weapons for the assault on New Caprica. "Have you seen the holo-thingies they have?" Jack asked as he walked up to Carter. "I could have some fun with one of those." Sam had heard about the holodecks. She had to admit that she could think of a few good programs to try, but she suspected that the Colonel had a different idea of fun than she did.
Jack looked at the console in front of Carter and LaForge, who was running a few scans of the item sitting on it. It appeared to be a standard-issue P-90. "So what have you guys got for us?" The Colonel asked.
LaForge fielded the question by lifting the P-90 and handing it to O'Neill. "For the most part it's the same as the weapons you're used to, same weight, etc."
Jack lifted the weapon and turned it over in his hands. It was normal as far as he could tell, but he was sure that there was something else coming. "But," He prompted.
"But," LaForge picked up, "we've installed a micro-replicator in the rear of the magazine, here." Geordi pointed to the spot. Jack didn't notice anything different, but he decided he'd take the engineer's word for it, and he just nodded. "It should be able to synthesize new projectiles at the same rate that the weapon can expend them."
Jack looked at the gun for a moment and then back at LaForge. "And that means?"
Geordi was a little taken aback, and he looked to Carter for assistance. She jumped in. "Infinite ammo, sir."
Jack looked at the gun again, now with admiration. "Sweet." The Colonel had spent the last several hours with Teal'c training the people from the Battlestars and the Enterprise on the use of the P-90s and getting training in the use of the phasers that everyone was being issued as a side-arm. The others had become very proficient with the P-90s very quickly. Jack had been surprised at how easily they took to it. The Enterprise security officers, especially, seemed like nice sophisticated future people, but underneath it they were well-trained soldiers, many of them battle-hardened, from the stories they told. He felt confident going into battle accompanied by the people he'd just trained with. As confident as he could feel, anyway, considering the strange array of enemies they were up against.
They'd also all been assigned communicator pins of the same style that the Enterprise crew all wore. He had his stuck just below his radio. The crew had assured him that the radios SG-1 used wouldn't be necessary with the communicators, but it just didn't feel right without it.
Jack put the gun back down. "How are the nukes coming?"
"Geordi was able to synthesize enough naquedah to enhance all of the warheads that they had aboard the Battlestars."
Jack noticed that she and LaForge were now on a first name basis, but he decided not to say anything. "All of them?"
"We don't know how many Borg ships they might run into." Geordi said. He'd already had this discussion with his captain. Admiral Adama, of course, had had no objection to the procedure. "We usually don't see more than one cube at a time, but we know that there are at least two waiting at New Caprica. Better safe than sorry."
"Right." Jack said, in the tone that he used when someone told him something that should probably have been obvious.
"Captain, the engineering crews aboard Galactica and Pegasus report that the transporter installation is complete." Data reported.
"Excellent, thank you, Mr. Data." Picard then turned to Worf at tactical. "Hail Galactica, Commander."
"Captain Picard." Admiral Adama's gruff voice came over the ships comm. system.
"Admiral," Picard replied, "are your people prepared?"
The turbolift doors opened at that moment revealing Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, and Will Riker. Riker took his customary seat while Jack and Teal'c stood at the back of the bridge, taking it all in.
"We are." Adama's voice confirmed. "Is Colonel O'Neill present?"
"I'm here." Jack responded, a little bit surprised at the question.
"Dr. Jackson has expressed a desire to remain aboard Galactica. I am inclined to let him. It will be helpful to have someone on board who is familiar with the Replicators." The Admiral didn't mention the positive effect that the presence of an actual human from Earth seemed to be having on the crew.
Jack didn't have any particular objection to the proposal. He was sure Daniel was having the time of his life with a new culture to immerse himself in. "If Daniel wants to ride it out over there, I don't have a problem with it."
"Thank you, Colonel." Adama said. "Now, Captain Picard, is everything ready on your end?"
"We're set, Admiral."
"Then we'll follow your lead."
"Understood, Admiral. Good luck."
"To you as well, Captain."
Adama placed the receiver back on the console and looked around the CIC. The crew was determined, but a pallor seemed to hang over the entire ship. They wanted to rescue their friends and family on New Caprica, but they were going into battle with an untested strategy against not only the Cylons but two alien races that seemed unbelievably more powerful. The crews of the Battlestars were used to going up against seemingly insurmountable odds and coming out ahead, but they'd never faced anything quite this ┘ alien before. The Admiral understood their feelings. He felt it himself, but he could not, would not show it.Adama saw the Enterprise disappear from DRADIS. "The Enterprise is away, Admiral."
"Spool up the FTL drive, and begin the countdown." He commanded.
The plan was pretty straight-forward. The Enterprise couldn't make the trip to New Caprica instantaneously like the Battlestars could. So the Federation ship set off first. After a few minutes the Battlestars would activate their FTLs and jump into orbit around the besieged planet. They timed it so that Picard's ship would arrive moments later, but it would hold position outside the nebula until it received a narrow-band transmission from the Admiral, either confirming the destruction of the Borg cubes or alerting them that something had gone wrong. A Raptor that had been sent in to perform reconnaissance had already confirmed that the only ships still in orbit of the planet were the two cubes.
If the destruction of the cubes went as planned the Enterprise was to come in, and a large, well-armed strike force would begin beaming from the three ships to the planet's surface. As soon as they were down the two Battlestars and the Sovereign-class ship would begin beaming the thousands of residents off of the planet. The ships on the surface that were still space worthy (a dubious prospect considering that the surface was also home to Cylons, Borg, and Replicators, any one of whom might easily cannibalize any of the ships for their own purposes) would be marshaled and packed with as many people as they would hold. The remaining civilian ships, in hiding up to this point, had been alerted and were ready to jump in and take on passengers if the situation would allow. Once the colony had been completely evacuated (no easy feat, considering that there were between 30 and 40 thousand colonists on the planet), and the strike force beamed back to one of the ships, the Enterprise would bombard New Caprica City from orbit, hopefully wiping out any remaining threat from the three enemy powers that had installed themselves on the surface.
That was how the plan was supposed to go. However, everyone involved was painfully aware that plans like this rarely went the way they were supposed to. In fact, Jack O'Neill had felt it prudent to remind both the Captain and the Admiral of that on more than one occasion during the final planning session.
Grant Apolinar, "Archer," was once again strapped into the cockpit of his Viper, waiting to find out whether or not he was going to launch. If everything went as planned, there would be no need for the Battlestars to launch their Vipers, but in the event that there was some fighting that needed to be done, the colonial Vipers were in the tubes and ready to launch as soon as the order came.
Archer hoped it wouldn't be necessary. The last battle had not gone well for Pegasus' Red Squadron. They'd lost their two best pilots, and now Archer was on the top of the totem pole. He'd been lucky in every engagement he'd been in. He was sure of it. The CAG had told Grant that he was a good pilot, that he just needed to believe in himself. Archer didn't believe him for a second. He knew it wasn't skill or talent or any of that other stuff that had kept him alive through so many close calls. It was dumb luck. And what was more, he knew that dumb luck didn't last. No matter what the CAG said to him, he went into every battle convinced that this was the time that he wouldn't come back.
These were the kind of thoughts that Archer always had while sitting on the deck or in the tube. The thoughts that came with waiting. Once his plane was in space not dying kept him too busy to worry about things like that. This time, if he was lucky, he'd be allowed to sit and wallow in his own self-doubt and fear all day long. As much as he hated the waiting he much preferred it to launching against an alien mystery fleet.
Anastasia Dualla Adama, "Dee," watched as the engineers from the Enterprise got the first nuke into position on the trasporter pad. She stood against the wall, just observing, arms crossed tightly, shifting her weight from one leg to the other every few moments, never seeming quite comfortable with herself or the situation that she found herself in. Dee was the Pegasus' XO, as well as the wife of its commander, Lee Adama. And she was watching the Federation engineers with a degree of skepticism.
Dee wasn't skeptical of the effectiveness of the Enterprise's technology or her crew. She'd seen those work impressively both in and out of battle. She wasn't even especially skeptical of their intentions. She'd had some doubts initially. Even now they nibbled at the back of her mind, telling her that these complete strangers were gaining access and influence with the colonial leaders far too quickly. However, she'd seen the Enterprise crew keep their end of the agreement, and she'd seen that they were powerful enough not to need the crew of the Battlestars for anything, anything except this. The fact that their usefulness in this battle stemmed from them not being powerful enough to pose a threat was somewhat disconcerting, but she'd accepted it. What she really felt unsure about was whether or not they were going to be effective.
The whole plan, the survival of what remained of the 12 colonies, hinged on the Battlestars managing to destroy any Borg ships. If the Borg were so powerful that even the crew of the Federation ship was afraid to take them on, what chance did the Battlestars have? What chance did the human race have?,
Those were the thoughts running through Dualla's mind as she watched the men in the gold uniforms prepare the first nuke for deployment and recheck the settings on large circular transporter pad. She turned and left the room. She had to find Lee and talk to him about her concerns. They couldn't hang the survival of the human race on a thread this thin. There had to be another way
A buzzer sounded in the CIC. It was time. "Jump." Adama said firmly, and both of the Colonial ships disappeared in a flash of light.
Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, and about two dozen people were standing in one of the Enterprise's cargo bays. The combined strike force was separated into several smaller groups, each gathered in a different part of the ship and each with a designated beam-in site on the planet below. When the time came the large cargo transporters would initiate a site-to-site transport of all the people in the cargo to their beam-in sites. Then they would engage the enemy on the ground, giving the ships in orbit time to get the civilians off the planet. It was a bold plan. Which also meant that it was an incredibly dangerous one, just the sort of thing that Jack was used to. He reflected momentarily on what exactly it said about his life that "beaming" down to an alien planet to fight an army or robots, bugs, and Swedish robo-zombies was the kind of thing he was used to, but he decided it was best not to dwell.
"Whadya think, T?"
Teal'c gave Jack one of his stoic looks. The stoic look being differentiated from the amused, irritated, confident, and hungry looks by only the slightest of muscular contractions. Differences that Jack was completely oblivious to. "The proposed strategy is ┘ ambitious."
"Ambitious. Right. I feel much better now."
Jack was about to push his inquiries a bit further when two familiar faces appeared coming out of the crowd. "Colonel O'Neill!" Worker's Union President Galen Tyrol and Captain Kara Thrace approached the two members of SG-1.
Jack was a bit taken aback by the cordiality with which the colonials greeted them. It was something he wasn't quite used to from them. He extended his hand when he saw that Tyrol's was already out. "Chief Tyrol, Captain Thrace, you're looking well┘" he noticed the P-90s they both had and the phasers strapped to their hips, "armed."
"You're not the only ones that get to lead a team down there to frak up some toasters." Starbuck said, hefting her weapon appreciatively. "We'll get to the hold point in a few minutes, but we thought we'd come down and wish you luck."
"Well," Jack said, the confusion clear in his voice, "that's ┘ mighty neighborly of you."
"And┘" Starbuck prompted, looking at the Chief.
"And," Tyrol continued, "I want to apologize for the whole wanting to kill you thing when we were down on the planet." Tyrol's eyes were downcast. Jack looked even more confused at the sudden apology and looked over to Starbuck who shrugged her shoulders as if to say that she didn't understand it either but that he should just go with it. "It's just I've been under a lot of stress lately. I didn't even realize how much, but that doesn't make what I did right."
"Well┘" Jack said again, "look, don't worry about it. It happens all the time┘" He looked to Teal'c who nodded his affirmation, "depressingly enough." He clapped Tyrol on the shoulder and began walking him back toward the entrance to the cargo bay. "I've met a lot of great people who started off by pointing a gun at me. Met some rather unpleasant people that way too, you understand. Oh, I could tell you stories."
"We've reached the hold point, Captain." Ensign Peters declared from the conn.
"All stop, Ensign." Picard stood up, looking at the clouds filling most of the viewscreen. Then he addressed Data. "Can we get any reading from within the nebula?"
"Nothing conclusive, Captain."
"It's up to the Admiral's people now." Riker declared from his seat near the Captain's chair.
"It would appear so, Number One." Picard replied, falling back into his seat. "Let's hope they don't run into any surprises."
When the Battlestars arrived in orbit around New Caprica at the end of their FTL jump the engineers from the Enterprise had orders to immediately engage the transporter cycle. The tricky part had been patching in the DRADIS system to use for to feed coordinates to the transporters. In the end they'd been forced to install small targeting sensors on the outside of the Battlestars so that the people operating the trasporters could get a quick lock on the Borg ships. It was hoped that even if the additional sensors were noticed by the Borg, it wouldn't be in time to do anything about it.
"Nukes away!" a voice announced from somewhere in the CIC. William Adama watched the DRADIS screen, two huge indicators marked the location of the Borg ships. A moment passed, no one in the CIC even daring to breath. Then the enemy ships on the DRADIS blinked out of existence and a cheer went up.
"Signal the Enterprise," Adama ordered. "And begin transporting our teams to the planet." They'd won a victory, but the he knew the harder battle was still to come.
Not far from the Battlestars the remains of two Borg cubes floated silently through space, many of them falling prey to gravity and moving inexorably toward the atmosphere of New Caprica. Drones who had somehow managed to survive the catastrophic destruction of their ships now faced the friction of re-entry into the atmosphere and were destroyed by the merciless laws of physics.
A few moments later Picard's ship arrived in orbit of New Caprica and the liberation, or more precisely, the evacuation of the planet was begun in earnest.
Colonel Jack O'Neill and his team materialized on the planet somewhere on the outskirts of New Caprica City. The citadel loomed before them, intimidating in the center of the city. On this occasion O'Neill's team was a bit different than what he was used to. Along with Teal'c there were ten security officers from the Enterprise, already setting up into a defensive perimeter. There were also several colonials from Pegasus. No Galactica people had been assigned to his team. Daniel was still with the Admiral on his Battlestar, and Carter had stayed behind in engineering with LaForge, working on something that she seemed to think would be incredibly useful.
The general principle of their mission was simple enough. Teams had been set down all around the outskirts of the city. They were to slowly move toward the citadel in the center. Any colonists were to be sent outside of the city or loaded onto any landed ship that could still fly. At the same time the enemy was supposed to be pushed inward toward the citadel, gathering them all in one spot and making an easy job for the Enterprise when the time came to waste the bad guys from orbit. Jack had the feeling that it was going to be a little more difficult than it sounded.
Jack took it as a good sign that there weren't any bugs or robots or zombies immediately visible upon their arrival, and he signaled his team to begin moving. Most of the structures were tents or small shanties that appeared to be built from scrap metal. None of which would provide a whole lot of cover when a firefight broke out. The only bright side, and it was a rather dim one at that, was that lack of cover was an impairment that affected both sides.
They rounded the first tent with military efficiency. Two of the colonial officers checked the inside while the rest kept watch, weapons at the ready. The tent was empty. Jack noticed that the entire city seemed to be filled with an other-worldly quiet, appropriate considering it was another world. Suddenly somewhere in the distance he heard the familiar sound of automatic weapons fire. Now it had really started.
Worf was in command of his own team on the surface. A team stocked with top security officers from the Enterprise. He didn't know a lot of them. It had been quite some time since he'd been the ship's chief of security. He did, however, have full confidence in them. All of them had seen ground combat in the Dominion War and had come out of it with honor.
Worf's team had very quickly made contact with the enemy. A group of seven Borg drones appeared to be rounding up colonists to take to the citadel. For some reason that Worf couldn't immediately comprehend they did not appear to have begun the assimilation process yet, which, to Worf, simply meant that they would have to be a little more cautious during their engagement. Civilian casualties were not acceptable.
The Borg hadn't spotted his team. Worf took the initiative and was the first person to open fire. The P-90 still felt strange to him, but a moment later over a dozen bullets had imbedded themselves inside the nearest drone. It fell to the grounds immobile, never having even heard the shot that killed it. The other drones quickly turned to confront the aggressors.
Meanwhile the colonists, already petrified by the ordeal they'd been undergoing, used the moment of distraction to begin running in all directions. The Borg weren't particularly inviting, but the large Klingon blasting away in their general direction wasn't a whole lot better. This had the effect of forcing the Enterprise personnel to stop firing until the civilians were out of the way. The remaining drones took the opportunity to close the distance between themselves and their attackers.
Worf quickly switched the setting on the weapon, as he'd been shown to do, from automatic fire to three-round burst fire. The rest of his team followed suit, and the remaining Borg were quickly dispatched with precision bursts to the head or the center mass. By the time they were all on the ground, the colonists had disappeared. Worf set his P-90 back on automatic fire. He was starting to like these primitive weapons. There was a certain visceral pleasure that a phaser didn't provide. It was more like using a bladed weapon. Then Worf heard a sound, quickly spinning around he saw a drone standing just feet from him. He brought up his weapon and began firing. The drone was cut practically in half by the stream of bullets. Worf was definitely beginning to like these projectile weapons. Now they had to begin looking for colonists. He was worried that after what they'd just witnessed many of them would be wary of his team.
Most of the ships that had landed were in the center of the city. However one or two were further out. It was one of these that Starbuck and Tyrol came to with their team. It was a relatively small ship. Before the attack on the colonies it had probably been some rich family's personal toy, the FTL drive that saved it and the people inside an expensive status symbol, something for them to brag about to other rich people who hadn't splurged on such a seemingly useless and incredibly pricey accessory. But it looked intact, and if it could get off the ground it could easily carry dozens of people to safety.
The team positioned themselves around the hatch, prepared to fire if an enemy appeared in the opening. Tyrol reached up and swung the hatch open. Everyone immediately tensed up, on the knife's edge between danger and safety. Nothing. Two people darted in quickly, weapons aimed down the corridor in opposite directions.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
Most of the team followed them in while Tyrol directed one of the Enterprise security officers and one of his own men to stand guard outside the hatch. The men took up their positions, and Tyrol followed the rest of the team into the ship. The began walking down the corridor toward the front of the ship, the place that the command deck would presumably be located, with Starbuck in the lead. They walked for a couple of minutes down the long barren corridor. No doors, no panels, just smooth bulkhead. Suddenly she held up her fist, signaling everyone to stop.
Starbuck cocked her head, apparently listening for something. "Does anybody else hear that?"
Now everyone listened. There was a vague noise, coming from somewhere within the ship. "Someone on board?" One of the guys asked.
"I don't think so," Starbuck said. "That's a metallic sound."
"Is the ship being brought online?" Someone else asked. "Maybe one of the other teams got here before we did."
"That's not the ship." Tyrol said, decidedly. They all listened again for a moment. "It's getting closer."
"Metallic and moving closer." Starbuck said out loud. She thought for a moment, and then cast a worried glance at everyone else, wondering if they'd come to the same conclusion.
The chief nodded, same look on his face. "Centurions."
"Frak us." Starbuck swore. "Ok, take up positions." They were completely exposed and trapped in the middle of an empty corridor, sitting ducks, but they couldn't risk running for either end. There was no telling where and when the Cylons would come around the corner. At least they were going to have the element of surprise. If there weren't too many toasters they might even make it.
Starbuck tensed up, crouched on the ground and in a position to turn the corridor ahead of her into a hailstorm of bullets. The hatchway they'd come in through was just visible far down the passage. They didn't even risk making a run for that. Being caught unawares and vulnerable if the Cylons suddenly appeared in front of or behind them would mean the deaths of everyone on the team.
The sound was growing closer and more distinct every second. They were just on the other side of the wall now. Everyone fingered the triggers of their weapons. It would be starting any moment, but there was still no way to tell which direction it would come from.
Something hit Galen Tyrol in the head. "What the┘" It looked like a rock. He looked up. It was a piece of the wall. He could see a hole where it had fallen out, and then he realized that the hole was getting bigger. He jumped away from the hole and swung his gun around. "They're coming through the wall!"
Everyone swung around to look. Then they all moved away from the ever-widening hole. "It's like something is eating through." Someone said. Then something came through the hole and dropped onto the floor. It looked for all the world like a huge metal spider.
"Replicators!" Starbuck declared. She raised her rifle.
Tyrol reached out and pushed the muzzle of her gun back down. "We can't use the P-90s in here!" He called out to everyone. "Bullets would bounce around everywhere, and we'd end up shooting at each other."
"Phasers!" a voice called out. It was a security officer from the Enterprise, Lieutenant Drew. He pulled his phaser and everyone else followed suit. He let off a blast on the highest setting. About half a dozen replicator blocks were ionized where the beam hit. However, it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the mechanical bug which just kept moving. Then several beams lanced out at once, hitting the replicator across its whole body. After the burst was over a few remaining blocks dropped to the deck, seemingly impotent.
It was another good-news, bad-news situation. A combination of several simultaneous phaser blasts could destroy a replicator. But the hole had continued to widen and several more bugs had dropped to the deck. They saw the remaining pieces from the first enemy combine with the new arrivals. They didn't have enough phasers or enough time to take them all out.
"Keep firing!" The security officer called out. Beams flew at the bugs from both sides, hurting them, but not holding off their advance. Lieutenant Drew took a moment to make an adjustment to his weapon. Then he fired again. He'd widened the beam, spread the energy impact out over a larger area. The beam connected with several replicators. It knocked them backwards for a moment, but they were otherwise undamaged.
The replicators were swarming the corridor, moving in both directions, moving the two halves of their opposition further and further from each other. Everyone knew that things were hopeless unless something changed. Starbuck, Tyrol, and one other man stood on the side of the swarm that led back to the hatch they'd come in through. Drew and several others were on the side that led to the command deck. "We have to use the P-90s!" Drew called out, becoming less audible over the ever-increasing number of replicators. "The three of you get outside! Then we can fire without hitting you!"
Kara and Galen looked at each other, the third man already starting to move back toward the exit. They didn't like the idea of leaving, but there wasn't any other way, and everyone knew it. So they turned and ran back to the hatch as quickly as they could. Then with the help of the two men still standing outside they shut and sealed it. The sound of weapons fire was audible from within the ship for a few moments, then what Tyrol could swear was muffled screaming, then nothing.
They waited a few more moments. "Frak!" Starbuck swore and pounded on the side of the hull once with her fist. Then she looked at the others, "Ok, ship's not goin anywhere." She said matter-of-factly. "We have to move on." And they did.
Jack's team had found a couple of people. They'd sent them out of town, just like they'd been told to. Some of them had needed some convincing that waiting outside of town would help them get off the planet, but they didn't have to understand. They just had to do it. However, the team had yet to meet any opposition.
Jack had heard more weapons fire. Someone out there was in the thick of it. He risked thinking for just a moment that maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe the enemy would be so distracted fighting all over town that his team would somehow make it through almost unnoticed. He knew, of course, that it was too much to wish for, but it would certainly be a nice change of pace.
Teal'c had just come out of another tent. "There was no one." He told Jack.
So far the vast majority of the structures they examined were empty. They could only hope that it meant people had already run for the hills, instead of the alternative. The few people that they had found had mentioned people taking off, hoping to find safety in the woods or in caves, one even reported that her neighbors had mentioned something about a boat. They'd also reported people being taken by the dozens, abducted by what they assumed were Cylons, although most of them had never gotten a clear look. Hiding had been more important.
"Ok," Jack said. "Let's keep going." The Easter egg hunt from one house to the next was beginning to get tiresome. Then he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
Jack signaled everyone to stop and be quiet. He could hear something coming. "Cylons." One of the men from Pegasus hissed. Jack nodded that he understood. He listened for a moment longer, trying to judge which direction it was coming from. It was definitely getting closer. He signaled his people to take up positions around the area, directing them toward the best cover he could find. He found a spot with a direct line of site on where he thought the Cylons would be coming from and then signaled everyone to get ready and to follow his lead.
A moment later a lone Cylon came around the corner, right where Jack expected it. O'Neill let a blast fly from his P-90. Several bullets connected, but the Cylon was only stunned. None of the shots had been fatal. Jack was preparing for a second volley when a red beam lanced from somewhere to his right. The phaser blast connected with the Centurion, and it disappeared in a burst of phased energy.
Jack glanced over at the Enterprise, officer who'd fired the shot. "Nice." He said, respectfully. Then he turned to Teal'c, "Was it alone?"
As if to answer his question more metallic noises became audible, in multiple directions. Teal'c answered anyway. "I do not believe so."
"Well, this is just peachy." Jack replied sourly, and he hunkered down for the next assault.
Picard walked onto the bridge from his ready room, "Report, Mr. Data."
Data didn't look up from the console. "Evacuation is on schedule, Captain. Ground teams report sporadic fighting throughout the city."
"How long until-"
"Captain!" Picard's question was interrupted. "I'm reading a disturbance in the nebula." The young lieutenant at tactical announced. "I think it's a ship." Lieutenant Briggs was one of the few security officers not to have been deployed on New Caprica. He hadn't fought in the Dominion War and had almost no combat experience, certainly not on the ground. He was much more comfortable in the safety of the starship, although that safety suddenly seemed in doubt.
"On screen."
The screen switched from a view of the planet to a view of the nebula. Everyone watched for a few seconds. Then it appeared, the demented pinwheel shape that they'd become familiar with since their arrival.
Helo spoke from the seat he'd become accustomed to occupying on the bridge of the Federation ship, "Cylons. They're moving in for an attack."
"They never learn." Riker opined. "Tactical, open fire on the Cylon vessel."
"Aye, sir." The lieutenant's fingers moved over the console, and a moment later huge ruby beams of light could be seen reaching out for the Basestar. They stopped just short, a green energy field apparently dispersing the beams.
"The Cylon ship appears to have been augmented with Borg shield technology." Data announced. Everyone had seen it, but it wasn't what anyone wanted to hear.
"I'd say things just became a good deal more interesting." Picard said grimly.
Written by Data laughing
Tech advising: oberon227 and Drums888
Some editting done by Drums888 and oberon227
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