Chapter Three: Receipt of Message.
The message would have been received, if anyone were left to receive it. In only a matter of hours, the Cylons destroyed the entire Colonial Fleet through use of the CNP program and network hacking.
Vash stopped repeating the message after five minutes, and they waited in silence for a response. Suddenly the ships com was flooded with garbled wireless chatter. The message printers were spewing out reports like a water facet.
"Turn that garbage off Major… I can't understand anything." Ordered Cain.
"Aye sir…" She switched off the speakers.
"What the hell is going on?" Asked Ken.
"This must be the traffic circulating through the frequencies sir, it seems to be just repeating itself over and over by the looks of these reports…" Answered Vash.
"Major, sort through them and submit priority messages and tactical information." Said Cain.
Nodding Vash gathered up the pages and began flipping through the textbook size stack. After a few minutes she approached the Commander.
"The Cylons have attacked the Colonies sir… Caprica, Picon, Gemenon… Virgon…" Her hand began trembling as she said it quietly to her.
Ken's eyes widened in surmounting shock, the mention of his home made him lose his composure, but he quickly pulled himself together.
"All indication here… points to a massive nuclear strike against every Colony. And the fleet is gone… here sir… this report from the civil defense, they say they have had no contact with the Military since they massed at Virgon."
Rebecca held her left hand over her mouth, she was just as shocked, how could this be possible?
"Admiral Nagala is dead and the Battlestar Atlantia is destroyed… they were forming an offensive over Virgon where the main fighting was taking place." She said, flipping through the pages.
"Anything on Admiral Cain?" Rebecca blurted out.
"Uh… nothing sir… it's assumed the Admiralty are either all dead or missing…" She said squinting at the papers.
The light in Rebecca's eyes seemed to fade, but she remained calm and stoic.
"There was also a lot of confusion sir… a lot of malfunctions were reported. It seems entire battle groups lost power before engaging the enemy."
"Loss of power? We lost power as soon as we jumped, something tells me this is more then coincidence." Replied Ken.
"Well this is different sir, the nuclear blasts damaged our engines causing the power drain… but here its saying they never took any kind of damage before full system malfunctions, this is likely some form of Cylon virus. In the past they have been known to use such sabotage."
"If a virus could do this we better make sure we haven't received any, I want you to do a full system check after this… I don't want to be caught in an ambush and have our ship suffer the same fate."
"Very well sir, now there was something else… a Colonial Military priority message transmitted nearly an hour ago."
"Let's hear it then Lieutenant." Said Ken, now staring at the charts on the table, crewmen were still handing him reports, he placed each one on a rising pile.
"Yes sir, message begins: To all Colonial units I am taking command of fleet, all units ordered to rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter attack. Acknowledge by same encryption protocol: Adama."
Rebecca and Ken looked at each other.
"Is the Galactica within transmission range?" Asked Ken.
"Possibly sir but… there is a lot of noise in Colonial space at the moment, it may take half an hour or so to get a response through."
"And our position Major?" Asked Cain.
"Aye sir… I had specialist Travic find our position…" She walked over to her station and picked up a chart, then came back over to the operations console and laid it flat on its surface.
"We're over ninety SU away from the nearest Colony, it's Canceron." Vash replied.
"We have no choice, we have to make for Ragnar Anchorage. Let's focus on repairing whatever we can but I want us ready for action within the hour. We'll fix the rest when we get to Ragnar, I'll inform the crew before we jump back."
They acknowledged the order and went to work.
Rebecca couldn't move, her entire world has been wiped away in a day and she could barely cope with the enormity of the situation. But in spite of it all, she knew her men and women were counting on her. She rose to the occasion. She picked up the phone connected on the console and placed it to her ear, she switched on the ship wide speakers and three tones echoed through the ship.
Rebecca's voice carried strong, every crewmember became silent as they listened, and the officers in the CIC all turned their attention to her.
"Attention, this is the Commander, as you all are well aware, we have encountered the Cylons. And we are not the first. Reports indicate a massive assault against our home worlds is underway. As of now, we are in a state of War. We'll make all the repairs we need to return to the Colonies. Know that hope is not lost, we will join with the remaining Colonial units at Ragnar Anchorage and prepare for our counterattack. Trust your fellow shipmates, remember your training, and we will make it through this. Thank you for your attention."
Rebecca set the phone back into its receiver, then closed her eyes as she placed the palms of her hands onto the console, leaning into it. The CIC was quiet as a graveyard except for the bleeps and noises of computer consoles along with the Dradis sweeps. The crew repaired all they could with the allotted time and prepared to return to the Colonies.
