thanks to Rudy Pena and just-a-crazy-men for the beta.
so chapter 13 has arrived. have fun and tell me if you like it
From the biography of General Patraeus: 'Part three; the Twelve Colonies.'
As commander of all Tau'ri forces in the Cyrannus system I was also in command of the space forces. Every day, the pool of available ships was diminishing. Earth wasn't going to send in anymore ships than those that were already present. At the time of the second mother ship attack I had to push every ship into combat, it cost us. Within a few weeks the third mother ship attacked, this one was even more devastating. Our fleet had still not recovered from the previous attack and we lost almost half the fleet. There were more ships at Ragnar undergoing critical repairs than there were ships fighting against the Dominion.
Meanwhile, two Dominion ground waves made it through all the chaos in orbit. Though both attacks were eliminated it did do a number on the Colonial mobile units. We also got a chance to test our forward defenses, they worked admirably and while on the defensive we suffered few losses. For the time being our air force was more than capable in dealing with Dominion ground forces.
We knew that we were doing our job well. The Dominion offensives across the galaxy were ground to a hold. The only advance they made was because we let them advance. Every planet in their path we evacuated, we destroyed its infrastructure and anything else the Dominion could use, naquadah sources were booby-trapped so that they were useless to the Dominion.
At any moment, the Dominion had 3 to 5 mother ships in the Cyrannus system. A whole fleet containing numerous battle groups accompanied them. For some reason these units never participated in the attacks, they just made up the siege fleet.
The Tau'ri military had three armies at the twelve Colonies, the first, eight and eleventh armies. The first and eight armies were on Caprica, the first at the city of Nos, which surroundings held over a tenth of the entire Colonial pre-war military industry, and the eight at Caprica city. The eleventh army was posted at Tauron to help the, in comparison, lightly defended planet. Taurons had been considered the lowest of the colonies for decades and therefore no large amount of effort was put in defending the planet. Fortunately the Taurons mostly lived in a cluster of cities so their defense was manageable. The eleventh army was tasked with defending the colony. Fortunately Taurons had been oppressed for centuries and therefore had numerous hiding places and underground tunnels in position, the rebels were also willing to aid the Tau'ri forces as guides in return for immunity which they were granted immediately.
Across the four planets there were millions of colonial soldiers ready to defend their cities in long before prepared defenses. Some of the defensive lines, such as those near the city of Nos were in existence for hundreds of years. On the eastern approach to the city, swamps were plentiful and these were covered by old fortifications and the only two highways through the area were already readied for destruction. The only downside was that there were only two defensive lines before the eastern part of the city would be reached. And if indeed that city would be taken, and the defenders pushed back onto the industrialized peninsula that lay behind the city, the entire western and southern defense force would be cut off.
By the time the fleet was at breaking point the senior military staff practically lived in the presidential bunker. All non-essential personnel was evacuated from Picon fleet HQ station. Only the defense forces were on the station to man the defenses.
Colonial presidential bunker
Government plaza, Caprica City, Caprica
November 28
General Patraeus was on watch duty in the presidential bunker. The senior admirals and generals rotated watch duty every six hours. With the amount of senior admirals and generals present one only had to stand watch every two to three days. There were very few Tau'ri personnel working in the bunker, only the generals and some techies to supervise the advanced equipment.
"General Patraeus?" a Colonial lieutenant said. Patraeus walked over to the lieutenants station. "Sir, we are detecting hyperspace activity."
"That's probably the new attack groups incoming." Patraeus said.
"That's what I thought at first too sir. But at around the same time we picked them up, the Dominion siege fleet started rearranging their positions, they may be preparing for an assault."
"Transfer the information to the holographic table."
The lieutenant transferred the information to the table and it focused on the Dominion fleet.
Patraeus looked at it for a few minutes. "Can you make an overlay of all the previous mother ship attacks? Their starting positions and their trajectories."
Quickly the lieutenant went to work and soon the requested information was incorporated, it matched perfectly.
Patraeus turned to a Colonel in the corner. "Wake up the chiefs and warn the president. Get the commander of Ragnar on the line, the Dominion are gonna storm the system."
The colonel immediately went to work on waking the chiefs of staff and the president while a captain got in contact with Ragnar. "Sir, I've got Ragnar on the line."
Patraeus picked up one of the old wired phones. There were headsets available but Patraeus didn't like them. "Admiral, Patraeus here, I need you to get as much as possible ships ready for immediate combat, the Dominion are going to send in mother ships again, we need 305's out here ASAP."
"What is the timeframe sir?"
"They just arrived and are forming up now. I need those ships in 30 minutes at most." Patraeus put the phone down when the Admiral finished. It was just in time to see the chiefs come in shortly followed by the president.
"General Patraeus, what is going on?" President Roslin asked as she walked in.
"Madam President. A short while ago we picked up on new Dominion fleets coming in. At the same time the siege units started rearranging. Once their trajectories were compared with the previous mother ship attacks it turned out they matched. They may very well try to rush our defenses and overwhelm us with superior numbers. As it is, they have five mother ships in orbit and most likely a sixth inbound. As you can see on the holo table the previous attacks all took a slightly different route, and it is possible for three mother ships to take these same routes and not be in each other's way."
"We can't win this, can we?" Roslin asked.
"No. considering the status of our defense platforms we can most likely take out the first three mother ships before they can do too much damage. If we redirect the rest of the mines we can damage at least two more mother ships giving us the chance to destroy those too, the last one however will take damage but will most likely not be destroyed, we simply don't have the firepower available." Admiral Nagala said.
"Such a tactic will also open up the way for the Dominion to attack our MBDP's in the asteroid belt. All our mines would be redirected to combat the mother ships. It is a last stand defense. Even if we would somehow be successful, they would swarm us with their regular battle groups and destroy our battered and scattered ships." Patraeus said.
"So if I understand correctly, we're lost one way or the other. We will lose orbital supremacy and be open for ground attacks." Roslin said. Both Nagala and Patraeus nodded. "Then I suggest you do your best to take down as many mother ships as possible, every mother ship we destroy will give our allies a larger chance to beat them back and eventually liberate the colonies. If by the time we cannot do any more meaningful damage to the Dominion you are allowed to pull all ships back to Ragnar and from there to allied space. Is there also a way to evacuate those MBDP's once they come under fire?"
"The crews can be evacuated and the stations set to auto mode." Patraeus said.
"I actually meant the station itself."
"I'll have to check with General Carter about that one, it may be possible to bring a couple aboard the launch bay, but it would require a couple of undisturbed minutes." Patraeus said.
Ragnar Anchorage
Two admirals, a Vice Admiral, and a Rear Admiral (Lower Half) made their way down one of the many corridors of the Ragnar anchorage.
"How are you doing son?" Adama asked.
"Good, considering all that's happening." The younger Adama had lost three of the four battlestars under his command, only the Pegasus was still left.
"And Gianna and the kids?"
"They've been evacuated to the evacuation planet Alpha. You know, in terms of Gianna and me, the second Cylon war was the best thing that ever happened to me."
"How's that?"
"Well, when I left her, I was scared, I was scared of having my own child, that I couldn't be there for him. But when I saw you in command I remembered that though we missed you, we were always proud of you and you did your very best to be home. Once all operations were finished, after the victory parade in Cap city, I went back to see if she was still alive. See, the war also showed me how fragile life is, and I wanted to be with her. So, I apologized and admitted my fears. I think you know the rest." Apollo said.
"Yes… how old are they now?" Adama asked. Both hadn't seen the kids for a while, they had been on deployment before the siege started, and since then, they hadn't had a day off.
"Joe is nearly thirteen now, Tamara and Shannon turned nine a month ago and Zak, Zak is a smart ass at the age of five." Lee said.
Yeah, I remember the two of you when you were young, shortly after I was reconstituted in the Colonial fleet. You remember that picture that was taken, you and Zak standing beside me at the side of my Viper?"
"Sure do, the deck gang gave it to you for the retirement right?"
"Yeah, as well as that very same Viper, I still look at it every day."
"Now hear this, now hear this, all personnel is ordered back to their ships, multiple Dominion mother ships inbound, it's all hand on deck for this one."
"I guess we'll have to finish our conversation later on." Adama said.
"Yeah, see you afterwards."
They both went their own way as Galactica and Pegasus weren't docked at the same pier.
Helios Alpha system
Already several Colonial and Tau'ri ships had reported in from Ragnar, they were now taking up position with the already present fleet. In the distance the Dominion fleet moved into position to attack and in between the two forces the minefields condensed, ready to punish the Dominion ships that dared go through them. This would be the Colonies' last stand in space. The battle might also very well determine the fate of the rest of the galaxy, if enough of the mother ships would be destroyed the Tau'ri fleet had even more time to build up their advanced fleet with the newest warship designs such as the carriers and drone ships. Already their efforts were paying off, most of the Dominion advance had halted, or had at least been slowed to a crawl. The Dominion now also had to rely on much weaker allies to do even the simplest of jobs at their own flanks.
In the distance, the massive hulls of the Dominion war fleet were already visible, slowly approaching the mine fields. In response most of the mines were condensing in their path, this would be a last stand, their last chance to destroy as many as possible Dominion warships.
As the remains of the fourth fleet jumped into the system Admiral Adama was given command of the fleet. All Tau'ri Generals and senior Fleet Admirals were killed already leaving Adama as one of the few flag officers, and as highest in the chain of command. Of course, Admiral Nagala and part of the Admiralty were on Caprica advising the president but they didn't have operational command of the fleet. General Emerson had been recalled and was now assigned to the prestigious Enterprise Carrier Battle Group while General Chekov was reassigned after having made some wrong comments after one to many shot of ambrosia.
As the last of the allied ships jumped into orbit, the first three mother ships started their advance through the minefield.
This time no speeches were made, no stations were made battle ready as they already were. Adama made only one call.
"Admiral Nagala? I'm gonna need some drones up here."
"We're already working on it Adama, we're breaking out all the stores we've got, it might just be enough."
"Thanks." Adama turned to someone in the flag bridge. "What do we've got?"
"The Aurora's are the most battle ready unit we've got, no casualties and their stores are at 85 percent. We've got six 305 class warships, eleven 304 class warships and 19 Battlestars. All ships are suffering from moderate to heavy damage. Air groups are at full strength though with a lot of green faces."
"That'll change pretty quickly." Adama said. "Alright, this is what we are going to do…"
The Aurora group would target the first wave of mother ships, they would target shield generators and power relays so to let the 305's do their magic on them. The ground launched drones would do the same for the second wave of mother ships. The MBDP's would take care of the battle groups and when possible target the second wave of mother ships.
Already large streaks of drones were moving into space heading for the Dominion mother ships. The numerous air groups were forming up waiting for the moment to launch their missiles before engaging the Dominion fighters or re-arming for another run.
The entire fleet readied itself for the onslaught. Everyone knew that there was a big chance they wouldn't make it out alive.
At three quarter of the way down through the minefield the mother ships started taking fire from the drones and from the Tau'ri battleships.
At first they almost seemed hesitant to engage, as though they had expected the defenders to pack up and leave at the sight of the Dominion fleet. A strange thing considering the tenacity the defenders had shown in combat with the Dominion since day one of their time in this galaxy. But after the first few seconds they returned fire at will. Their first salvo was more or less wasted as they tried to hit the drones and fighter formations, needless to say they didn't hit very much. After a while they changed targets and got better results, shields started to drop in strength. Fortunately, Dominion shields started to drop in strength as well, and at a much larger rate.
The drones did the most damage. Already, the first Dominion mother ship was losing shields and power to weapons. In seconds, the 305s made good use of these holes in their defenses and started chewing at the outer edges of the mother ship.
At this time one flight of fighters using the experimental Viper mk.9 made their own attack. Under cover of a pair of ECM raptors they made their approach to the mother ship. When they reached the part where there was no shield they got close to the hull and followed it all the way to some still unidentified shafts, that led all the way down into the ship. Both fighters carried two mk.8 nuclear warheads and the plan was to shoot all four down those shafts into the ship and detonate them once they were there. This would hopefully damage the mother ship enough to take it down.
"This is one, approaching waypoint Delta."
"One this is two, we've reached waypoint Echo, ready to commence strike."
"Two this is one, commence strike in five…four…three…two…one, now, now, now!"
At the first 'now' the pilot would bring the viper up so that it had a clear line of fire to the shaft and the RIO activated the weapons targeting system and activated the nuke itself.
At the second 'now' the pilot leveled the viper with the target and the RIO got a positive lock on the shaft, the data was relayed to the two nukes and locked in their very precise navigational software.
At the third 'now' the first nuke was launched of the rails and half a second later the second nuke left the rails.
Once the two missiles were clear and away the vipers turned around and kicked in the 'burns. They headed for the nearest hole in the shields and went through it back towards one of Caprica City's main fleet bases where they would rearm and wait for the next opportunity. The chance that they would get to destroy another mother ship was slim, the rest of the squadron was up and waiting for a chance to strike as well.
The, in total, four missiles quickly reached the two shafts they activated revers thrusters to slow down. Once they had slowed down enough they ejected the nuclear warhead into the shafts where they would fall until they reached a set location deep within the ship.
Just when the two vipers had gotten away from the ship the four nukes detonated simultaneously. Though all four combined not as strong as even one mark 9 nuke they were spread out at two locations and the subsequent damage was massive.
"Wow, that was some sight to see." Jeff, one of the two reporters from the CFNS (Colonial Fleet News Service) said. Both had been enlisted in the Colonial marines so they could stay aboard Picon fleet anchorage station since all civilian and non-essential personnel was evacuated.
"Yeah, I wonder how they managed to get a nuke at that location. The Tau'ri couldn't have beamed it in, the Dominion can easily jam it, jump drives can't jump through their shields and as far as we know no drone has the ability to carry a nuke or produce a detonation as large as a nuclear detonation of that size." The other reporter commented.
"Well, I hope that whoever did this can reproduce it and take out those other five mother ships as well."
"Amen to that." Jeff said. "Now look at the way those drones are cutting into that second mother ship. Man, at this rate the fleet might just survive."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that Jeff, the Pegasus seems to be struggling to keep the Dominion away. And look over at the Aurora fleet, they are really getting targeted by the Dominion this time, that looks like over a dozen battle cruisers while the Aurora's are still busy with launching their drones at the mother ships."
"They should have emptied their stores in a couple of minutes, i guess they'll take care of those ships then."
Flag quarters, TFS Enterprise
Forward fleet support base, Alpha Centauri
General Emerson was going over some intelligence reports in his quarters aboard the TFS Enterprise, the first true Tau'ri built space aircraft carrier. The Enterprise carrier battle group was supported by 2 DC-308 Drone Carriers, the TFS Freedom and TFS Independence, as escorts it counted five 304 class battle cruisers and three 306 class ships. The bulk of the carrier air wing (CWV-1) was located aboard the Enterprise, but five of its squadrons were based on the 304's.
"General Emerson, I have a call from the Chief of staff for the Space forces."
"Thank you, patch it through to my quarters." Emerson stood up and waited for the hologram of General O'Neill to spawn.
"General Emerson, it's good to see you."
"General O'Neill. Good to see you too."
"How's the big E treating you?"
"Very good sir. These are the biggest personal quarters I've ever seen on a warship." Emerson said. "With respect sir, I doubt my new command is the reason why you called, so what's up?"
"Yes, that's true. As you may have heard the Dominion have commenced an attack with six mother ships on the Twelve Colonies."
"I hadn't heard, but please continue sir."
"Well, General Patraeus reports that the fleet might be able to defeat these six mother ships but will be forced to retreat afterwards. They will evacuate as much as possible space based assets to Ragnar before moving to a secured location. I need the Enterprise to be ready to support any such moves when the time comes."
"How about the tour through the Gamma sector?"
"Delayed until further notice."
"And what's happening with the Freedom and Independence? I still haven't heard about them."
"Oh, sorry 'bout that, they are currently busy loading up additional stores of drones, they should be at Alpha Centauri within 24 hours."
"At which point would I be able to expect marching orders?"
"It'll be at least another 96 hours before the remnants of the fleet would have performed sufficient repairs to jump to safety, but more likely at least a week, perhaps two."
"Yes sir, we'll be ready as always."
"I know, good luck and stay sharp. O'Neill out."
Once the hologram was gone Emerson immediately turned on the radio which was already tuned into the CFNS galactic channel. Even for the military not in the Cyrannus system it was the best source of intelligence on the battle raging. For the troops in the Colonial hold out the news was instant, but for anything beyond those four planets and the immediate space there was a delay of about five minutes, both for transmission delays and censorship reasons.
"That takes care of number five! Did you see that, the exact same way as the previous four."
"Yeah, and finally the Admiralty has seen it fit to share some information on the way they have been able to take these five mother ships down. So here it is; a squadron made up of the best Tau'ri and Colonial pilots has been trained on customized Viper mk.9's to fly special operations close to the hull of the Dominion mother ships and deliver specialized nuclear devices at a secret location where their detonation will do massive, catastrophically damage to the mother ship."
"Well, I hope that squadron can take out the sixth mother ship as well, the fleet is in really bad shape. What do you say Jeff, how long would they last in this?"
"The battlestars are already taking damage to their hull and some of the Tau'ri ships are also showing signs of shield failure. I'd say that without the defense platforms the fleet would last only about fifteen minutes, even after that mother ship is taken down." Jeff paused. "Yeah… this fleet will be done soon."
"Oh, shit, by the gods. The Admiralty seems to be really generous today. For all those of you who are watching the video channel of the CFNS you will momentarily see the HUD camera for one of the pilots that will execute the attack on the last mother ship. This is something that has never been done before, the broadcast I mean."
Emerson quickly turned on a screen that was mounted on the wall and tuned into the CFNS channel. Even for a seasoned combat fighter it was a sight to see the approach to the mother ship. The broadcast even included radio traffic between the pilot, the co-pilot, the second plane and the controllers.
The picture he got was of the fighter on its approach to the mother ship. To the trained eye it was clear that the ship was staying to the side of the main firing arches to decrease the chance of being hit by friendly fire.
"Red one, Red two here, we've got some additional weapons fire coming in from our seven o'clock low."
"Copy, rise by angels two on the vertical plane, stick to my six red two."
The two vipers rose by two kilometers, it seemed nothing compared to the mass of the mother ship in front of them, but it was enough to keep them away from the deadly friendly fire.
"Red flight, window will be open in ten, for about five, copy."
"Red one copies, commencing entry."
By the time the two vipers reached the holes in the shield the fire had stopped. They quickly got in and stuck close to the hull as the weapons fire continued behind them. All the while the commentators didn't say a thing. Once the two fighters split up the screen was split in two, each side showing the HUD camera of one of the vipers.
As the vipers got closer to their targets people all across the known galaxies got closer to whatever type of screen they were watching.
"Red one in position."
"Red two in position."
"For all the boys and girls whom are watching this very educative broadcast of the colonial fleet I would like to explain what's going to happen next. I will commence a countdown starting at five and ending with three 'now's'. at the first 'now' I will bring my viper up to get a clear line of fire on our target and my RIO will activate the weapons targeting system and the nuclear warheads and their missiles. At the second 'now' I wil level my viper with the target and my RIO will get a positive lock on the target, the data of this will be relayed to the navigational software of the missiles. At the third 'now' the first missile will be launched of the rails and half a second later the second missile will leave the rails."
"Cut the chatter red one, start the countdown." Someone who was in command ordered irritated.
"Copy. Red two, commencing countdown. Five… four… three… two… one, now, now, now!"
The viewers barely had enough time to see the exhaust flame of the missiles before the vipers violently turned around and raced for safety. They made it out of the death zone in time but were nowhere safe as the detonation threw chunks of debris into every direction.
"They did it!, the fleet did it! By the Gods, they defeated the mother ships."
"Yeah and the rest of the fleet seems to be disengaging. We've won this round!"
"Hell yeah, good job Adama." Emerson said. He got up, turned off the equipment and put on his jacket. He then went on for the short walk to the bridge.
CIC, Galactica
Adama was forced to take command from the CIC, the flag bridge was in shambles and the CIC wasn't doing much better, but was still usable. Despite the loss and devastation all around them the crew was ecstatic for doing what no one had thought they could do.
"Admiral Adama, we're getting messages of congratulation from numerous sources."
"Such as?"
"The admiralty, the president, the Tau'ri president and joint chiefs of staff, the alliance leadership, the Free Jaffa, the Asgard, numerous generals and admirals in the colonial and Tau'ri military among which general Patraeus and Emerson…"
"Emerson? What did he say?" Adama asked. Emerson and Adama had become quite good friend the last few months.
"The normal; congratz, we'll be there when you need us."
"Good."
"Sir, the transports are arriving from Ragnar."
"How much platforms do we need to evacuate?"
Approximately eighty can be reused, the rest is to damaged and will self-destruct once we give the order."
"Do we have enough room on the transports?"
"Ehm, I'm not sure sir. We may not have enough transports to evacuate all platforms."
"Then prepare to take some aboard. The hanger bays should each be able to handle two, it might get cramped and we won't have much room for landing operations but it should work until we can get to Ragnar."
"Sir, the ministry of intelligence estimates we have about two hours before the Dominion will attack again."
"Well, I want everyone out of here within the hour, the ministry of intelligence has been known to be wrong in the past."
"Yes sir. The wounded have already been offloaded and both the Pegasus and Atlantia have evacuated to Ragnar for emergency repairs."
Tau'ri war cabinet meeting
Situation room, Atlantis
December 12
It had been two weeks since the final battle of the twelve colonies and things had started to settle down. The fleet was still at Ragnar but was almost ready to leave. The Helios Alpha system was now firmly under Dominion control, the space anyways. Since day two of the siege the Colonial and Tau'ri ground forces were in combat with Dominion forces. No real losses had been sustained, nearly all Dominion attacks had been halted at the first defensive lines. The Enterprise group had been moved close to the system to aid in the evacuation of the fleet from Ragnar.
Right now, the chairman and vice chairman were at Dakarra outlining the Tau'ri's involvement in the overall strategy and the adaptation of tactics that had been discovered since the Dominion had entered the galaxy. Things such as the weakness of Dominion shields against drones and the up close manner in how a couple of vipers could destroy a Dominion mother ship. The Free Jaffa leadership, as well as the Alliance leadership, was impressed by the broadcast of the CFNS and was subsequently much more willing to listen to the experienced Tau'ri and even Colonial commanders. Because of this, Admiral Robby Jackson, formerly a USN pilot, was made senior military attaché to the Alliance council, in theory a step down from his former position of chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, but in reality he now had the ability to influence, perhaps even make alliance military policy, which was quite a big step up. His replacement was the vice chairman, General Cartwright, and his position was filled by Admiral Sir Stanhope, formerly chief of staff for the now disbanded navy. The few remaining jobs of the navy were mostly transferred to the space forces.
As per tradition, the president was the last to enter the room. Once he did all personnel stood up and were quickly waved back in their seats, this president didn't mind a more relaxed working relation as long as it remained respectful and efficient.
"So how far are the Colonials with their evac?"
"Admiral Adama thinks he will be ready in two days. The Enterprise is standing by ready to jump in at a moment's notice."
"What is left, I heard one battlestar had to be abandoned last night?"
"Yes sir, the Eurilades was suffering a catastrophic fire in the engineering section. Last night the ammunition stores were about to catch fire and it was decided that the ship had to be abandoned and pushed away. A couple of hours later it was destroyed by the pressure of the gas cloud."
"What remains are the five Aurora's, two 305 class warships, three 304 class warships and surprisingly nine battlestars, though most of them heavily damaged."
"Jezus, nineteen out of what? A hundred and fifty?" Ryan asked.
"Yes sir, a hundred and fifty-four to be exact."
"But we did take down nine mother ships, that's five more than we had ever dreamed of." O'Neill reminded the president. "We also took down hundreds, if not thousands of Dominion ships of all sorts and halted their entire advance. We have reinforced our position within the alliance and have given Teal'c and Bra'tac and the progressive party an enormous boost in power, just by defending the Colonials so fanatic. It has also shown the worth of the MBDP's and silenced the opposition against them. I dare say that they were responsible for the 100+ to one kill rate we managed to achieve."
"General, I completely agree with you and the 100+ to one kill rate sounds wonderful on television, but if the Dominion can throw a thousand times our numbers against us, we'll be short 900 kills per loss." The secretary of defense said.
"I completely agree sir, but right now, the Dominion can't field that many ships. And, we are constantly increasing the power of our ships, just ten years ago we were still constructing the first 305 class warship, hell, a little bit over 20 years ago we launched our first space ship, the Prometheus and it wouldn't have survived a second against a 305 class. While the Dominion haven't shown a single sing of innovation and adaptation of their tactics, their strategy or their ships."
"Let's move on to other things people." Ryan said. "I heard General Sheppard had good news on the colonization effort."
"Yes sir." The secretary of state said. Colonization was a tricky jurisdiction, several departments were involved and constantly struggled to get as much attention as possible. "General Sheppard has collected a list of about twenty planets both worth colonizing and not claimed or inhabited by any other race. He has also categorized them by…" the secretary was cut off as numerous secret service and military personnel rushed in with drawn weapons.
"Agent Price, what's going on?" Ryan asked the head of his detail. Alarms started blaring informing everyone on Atlantis to stay put due to an 'internal security problem'.
"Sir, just a few minutes ago there were numerous attacks across the galaxy, all targeted senior civilian leaders, so far we've heard that half the Free Jaffa council has been killed, the alliance council chambers were stormed as well and we haven't heard anything about losses there but they are bound to be high."
"How dangerous are they, is Atlantis safe?"
"Sir, they managed to infiltrate the Colonial presidential bunker. They were stopped fifteen feet short of the president's private chambers. Compared to that bunker, Atlantis is an open playground."
"What do we do now?" Ryan asked.
"We're preparing a secured site on Atlantis, right now we can't evacuate you because all the jamming that's going it. We're thinking about moving you to one of the ships in the shipyard." Price said.
"Miss Price, during the attack on the Free Jaffa Council, what happened to the chairman and vice chairman?" General Conway said.
"We're not sure, all the report said was that they were seriously injured and could not yet return home. We've already sent a medical team to check them out but we haven't heard back yet." Price said. She listened to her earpiece as new information was fed to her. "Sir, Admiral sir Stanhope just passed away and General Cartwright is in a coma, Admiral Jackson at Heliopolis has been wounded lightly. Early estimates are over 50+ KIA at Heliopolis and another 2-3 hundred wounded, they attacked the entire assembly at once. The TFS Centurion is ready for takeoff, we need to move."
The entire group moved out at once, a group of marines cleared the way ahead while the secret service did the protection for the president himself and other marines secured the war cabinet, just a few feet behind the president.
Agent Price had her gun in one hand, aiming it up. In her other hand she had the right arm of the president dragging him along, or if necessary, push him to the ground. The secret service had trained for it countless times, 'how to protect the principal', every agent knew what to do when a threat was sighted or heard, from every direction imaginable. Some would push the principal to the ground, or in the car, others would get between the principal and the threat on purpose, others would secure a perimeter and engage the threat. In the end all was done to protect the principal, his or her life was priority number one.
The group went through one corridor after the other, they couldn't use Atlantis' own transporters because they couldn't fit enough people, and the Asgard transportation system was disabled because of the threat. At every side corridor a couple of marines covered the group as they passed.
"Where… are Cathy… and the kids? Ryan asked out of breath.
"Secure." Was all Price said.
"Where! The White House?"
"No, Marine Barracks, 8th & I street."
"Why?"
"Not now, keep moving sir." Price grumbled.
They reached the actual shipyards that surrounded Atlantis. The shipyards were not just the largest in the Tau'ri Federation, they were actually the largest in the entire galaxy. Now with the CVZ and DC yards and several more being built, the moon indeed was where the fate of the galaxy was being built. There were only about a dozen other shipyards spread through the galaxy that had the ability to build 305 class warships, let alone either of the two carrier types.
They were getting closer to the TFS Centurion, a 305 class battleship, it was almost done and it already had an entire crew onboard working on getting her ready. After the recent losses at the colonies half the 305 fleet was gone and the leadership wanted every ship it had out on the line. The alliance had a list of targets that were wide open for attack, but only with a limited time frame, after the time expired the Dominion would once again have enough ships to cover all important planets.
The corridors that ran underneath the shipyards were almost always straight, there was an entire grid of such corridors that connected the many shipyards, laboratories, work areas, living areas and also a number of foundries.
Finally the first marines reached the Centurion. They were greeted by the marines stationed aboard the Centurion. Non-essential personnel aboard the Centurion was already locked down to quarters and a combat watch was set. All marines were up in arms securing the flag bridge and any adjacent areas as well as vital areas such as the bridge, engineering and the ZPM room.
A minute or so later the president and his secret service detail reached the ship as well, they were greeted by the commander of the marines.
"Major, I'm special agent Price, is the ship secured?"
"Yes Ma'am, we've secured the flag bridge, the regular bridge, Engineering and the ZPM room and we are also making additional sweeps throughout the ship, all non-essential personnel has been confined to quarters for the time being, combat watch is set."
"Good, once we're all aboard you can tell the commander to take off immediately."
As the president and his detail entered the ship, the chiefs of staff and the rest of the war cabinet arrived as well. The Major walked on to greet them as well, especially the chief of staff for the marine corps. He walked up and raised his arm to salute. Before his hand could reach his head, his body fell down, leaving a red mist where his head was less than a second ago. Before the body hit the ground a gunshot rang out through the corridors, sending everyone diving for cover. The president, not knowing his life was just saved by the young major was dragged around the nearest corner and rushed to the flag bridge.
Just outside the ship, the marines had had a few seconds to scan for targets and returned fire. They kept firing to cover the VIP's which were now brought into the ship.
Once all important people and secret service escorts were inside, a sergeant swiped his keycard and the hatch closed after which the armor covered it. He then called the bridge and reported that the ship could lift off.
Almost immediately the ship started trembling as it powered up its engines. Usually, powering main engines within the shield was a career killer. It might not immediately damage Atlantis but in the long haul it would be disastrous.
As the ship reached a stable orbit it was accompanied by a squadron of 304's and numerous squadrons of fighters. Everything that approached the ship was targeted and told to leave, before getting a shot across the bow. By that time the president and the war cabinet were secured in the flag bridge.
"Andrea, what's going on?" Ryan asked his head of security once he was seated in the flag seat. The rest of the war cabinet was standing around the flag bridge or had taken a seat at some of the consoles.
"Sir, the way it is, it seems that there has been a galaxy wide assassination attempt on government leadership. The justices of the supreme court have been attacked, but their details were able to fight off the attack. The Senate and House have also been attacked, fortunately, both chambers were not in session so casualties are light. The Vice president's space hawk crashed for no apparent reason just seconds after takeoff, it crashed into the white house, which is why your wife and children were brought to the marine barracks."
"Who's behind this? The Dominion?" Ryan asked.
"We're not sure, not directly anyways. So far reports say that all attackers were humanoids. It may very well be possible that they were mercenaries, perhaps hired by the Dominion, or one of their puppets." Price said. "Sir, we've got a paper trail on nine of the attackers on the Jaffa council, Nox security picked them up without papers on their home world, they didn't have anything suspicious on them so they were deported."
"Okay, so what do we do now?"
"Sir, the TFBI and Secret Service will start an investigation. I assume we will eventually be invited to take part in an alliance investigation. I assume the Secret Service is already doing forensic research into the attackers that have been killed. I've already got a special investigator in mind to lead the investigation, assuming the Secret Service agrees of course." Director Murray said.
"Am I right if I guessed that Patrick O'Day will be the lead investigator?" Ryan asked. Ryan had heard many things about Pat O'Day, he was a troubleshooter for the Director of the TFBI, handling the most serious of cases for the government. Pat O'Day also happened to be the husband of secret agent Andrea Price, the head of his security detail.
"Yes sir. He's the best investigator we've got for a case this size."
"In that case I don't think the secret service will have any trouble with Pat taking the lead on the investigation. We've worked with him previously, with good results, especially that whole Kealty mess." Price said.
"Okay, make sure Pat has all the clearance and help he needs, nothing can stand in the way of finding out who is behind all this."
"Yes sir." Murray promised.
"So what do we do now? Do we just continue with the agenda?" Ryan asked.
"I think it's safe to say the agenda can be changed by you." The president's chief of staff said.
"I know that Arnie, but I don't have anything else right now." Ryan replied.
"Mister president, the TFS Sol is on approach with your family aboard, they'll be here in about ten minutes." Price whispered in the president's ear.
Sir," the Secretary of Defense started, "You'll need to appoint a new vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and considering General Cartwright is in a coma you might also want to appoint a replacement for him, for the time being."
"Okay, how does that go? Seniority, weight of all medals and decorations combined?" Ryan joked.
"No sir, you point out someone, usually a chief, and congress has to approve, though in this situation, congressional approval isn't necessary on the short run." The SecDef said.
"Okay, in that case I want General O'Neill as Vice chairman, though because the chairman is gone, he will fill that position and General Conway as acting vice chairman. If General Cartwright either passes away or remains incapable of resuming his post I want General O'Neill moved up to permanent chairman and General Conway as vice chairman."
Everyone nodded in approval. A lieutenant that manned a communications console handed a small piece of paper to General O'Neill.
"Sir, it seems that the Colonial fleet is ready to evacuate."
"Okay, is Emerson ready?"
"Yes sir, the Enterprise just departed."
Flag bridge TFS Enterprise
En route to Ragnar Gas cloud
"General, we've received the last of the telemetry we need."
"What does it say?"
"Twelve battle cruisers, about a hundred other ships and approximately forty squadrons of fighters acting as a blocking force at Ragnar. There are two mother ships at the Alpha Helios system and a third might be inbound. if luck is against us we will face off against at least one mother ship and perhaps two more."
"Time is the key here anyways, we can hold the Dominion off for what? Five to ten minutes? After that the Independence and Freedom will have expanded their drone stores and we should get around to leaving as well. This ship is still relatively untested in battle. Are the squadrons ready for combat? We're gonna throw them into the heart of the fight."
"All squadrons are ready sir, they are among the best, some have even fought at the colonies."
"I know Colonel." Emerson said. "What's the ETA?"
"Three minutes, twenty five seconds."
"All commanders know what they have to do?"
"Sir, you briefed them yourself, you have trained them yourself, stop worrying and take a seat. Relax for a couple of minutes and once the battle starts you can start worrying."
An alarm sounded calling everyone to their posts. All pilots were already in their fighters, ready for takeoff. The air wing of the Enterprise CBG counted a massive 17 combat squadrons. Five of these squadrons, still equipped with F-302 squadrons, were stationed on the five escorting battle cruisers. The Enterprise carried the remaining squadrons, 2 F-302 fighter squadrons, 2 F-302B bomber squadrons, 2 Viper Mk.9 squadrons and 6 DF-310 drone squadrons. It made for a total of 320 fighters ready for deployment.
"Exiting hyperspace in twenty seconds." A lieutenant announced. Emerson got up immediately and walked over to the holo table.
Everybody tensed up, it would be the first time the Enterprise would be in real combat. As the countdown, (there always is a countdown), reached zero the Enterprise and its escorts exited hyperspace. At once all squadrons started launching. The vipers were launched the traditional way, with launch tubes, the 302's were launched with a catapult assist and the drone fighters simply detached from the hull of the ship. Before combat or once maintenance was needed there was a special mechanism to retrieve the drones or to place them in a ready position.
The drone carriers also started launching the many thousands of Tau'ri built drones they held in their cargo holds. Though a lot less powerful than the ancient drones they were based on, they were much easily produced. Eventually the argument was made that, in this case, quantity compensated for a lack of quality.
As the Enterprise approached the gas cloud the first of the ships exited the cloud. The first two were 305 class battleships, these two were still in well enough shape to fight. The rest of the ships would do their best to jump as fast as possible. The problem was the interference of the gas cloud. For the Tau'ri ships this interference wasn't much of a problem and their computers would quickly establish a hyperspace trajectory to the rally point. The Colonial ships however, needed to clear the interference of the cloud first before they could calculate a jump. The damage done to many of the battlestars made the calculations much harder since a lot of their networks were down. It would take a minute or two before they could jump away and there wasn't enough space in the shadow of the Enterprise to cover all battlestars.
"Sir, the battlestar Tjolver has jumped. The Andara is taking a pounding."
"How long till they jump?"
"Twenty, thirty seconds. Otherwise they'll be dead."
"Good." Emerson said. He looked over at a screen, it showed the positions of their fighter squadrons. "How are the Drone Fighters holding up?"
"Pretty good sir." A colonel said. He was in charge of the drone fighter project. "They are holding up about as good as the manned fighters. The nice thing about this system is that even if we lose a fighter, we don't lose its pilot nor his experience."
"Yeah, someday they'll put all us pilots out of business." Emerson said. He had been a pilot long ago, years before the stargate was first used by SG-1. "But in the end you're gonna need a person, someone who can make the hard decisions, not some heartless machine."
"I'm sorry to interrupt sir, but telemetry shows that the mother ship that was inbound for Caprica has now changed course and will arrive in less than a minute."
Galactica CIC
"Admiral! Shields are failing."
"How long until the jump is ready?"
"A minute, one computer was disabled."
"That's too damn long. We've got a mother ship incoming." Adama said. "How about a blind jump?"
"Sir, we might end up in the middle of a sun."
"I know the risks involved, how long until it is possible?"
"Believe it or not, the computer we just lost is required to override security protocols preventing a blind jump, we can't make one."
"Gods Damnit! Who the frack thought that up."
"Sir, Pegasus actual want to speak with you."
Adama picked up a nearby wired phone. "Galactica Actual."
"Dad, what the frack are you still doing here? You should have jumped out of here already, your shields are failing!" Rear admiral Lee Adama said.
"We've got some computer trouble, we'll be out of here in a minute, whatever happens, don't wait for me, jump the second you have a fix."
"Like hell I will." Jr said. The connection was cut and soon after someone reported Pegasus moving to cover Galactica's weaker side.
"Get him back on the line!" Adama ordered.
"Admiral, General Emerson wants to know what the holdup is."
"Tell him we'll be out of here in a minute or so."
"But sir, the mother ship is arriving as we speak. Enterprise is already recalling its fighters and breaking position to clear the interference."
"Admiral, I've got the Rear Admiral on the line again."
Adama, who had held the phone against his shoulder put it up against his ear again. "Son you need to get out of here now."
"Not without you dad, you first." Junior replied. In the background noise could be heard of multiple weapon impacts.
"No time for that, the way it sounds you're suffering damage already and…" Adama paused a second because someone announced the arrival of the mother ship. "Lee, the mother ship is here, you need to get out now you still can."
Adama waited for the reply but it didn't come for a full ten seconds. "Sorry 'bout that dad, emh, we've got a little problem here. We just lost shields and FTL."
"What" Adama said wide eyed, his mouth hanging open. "Lee, Lee, you need to get out of there, have your people fix the FTL, or, or, evacuate, the Tau'ri can beam you out, or you can take a raptor." Adama said in desperation, if he had thought about it he would have known neither of the options were viable in such a short time span.
"No dad, no chance for any of that. Could you, could you just tell Gianna, Gianna and the kids that I love'em?"
"Lee? No lee, no, get out of there now!" Adama almost screamed into the phone.
"Pegasus is taking damage to their hull."
"Lee, Get out of there, that's an order!"
"No dad, you get out of here, we'll try to buy you some time. Dad…" Lee suddenly stopped and the connection deteriorated, sounds of devastation could be heard over the connection, glass shattering, consoles exploding, ceilings collapsing and people dying.
"Pegasus is charging the Dominion formation, she's launching some raptors and vipers and her nukes are being primed. Admiral, it's a suicide run."
"LEE!" Adama cried out, he continued as no one dared to stop the Admiral. Even after the connection shut down and Dradis showed massive carnage being inflicted upon the Dominion battle cruisers.
"Colonel Tigh! The FTL drive is almost ready, what do you want us to do?" someone asked.
Tigh first looked over to his old friend, now just sitting on the floor, crying while still holding the wired phone in his hands.
"Colonel! You're in command right now, the FTL drive is ready, our shields are down and we are taking damage to the hull, what do we do!"
"Jump, input the coordinates for the rally point and engage the FTL drive."
Seconds later, Galactica was rocked by an immense explosion which made the lights flicker for just a moment, then the jump drive activated, bringing the ship away from the Dominion mother ship, which had just punched a hole straight through the ship.
Flag bridge, TFS Enterprise
"All ships have jumped away, all fighters have been recovered and we're ready for hyperdrive." Someone announced.
"What just happened to Galactica!" Emersone demanded to know.
"Sensors say that Galactica took a massive hit but was able to jump away."
"Okay, we'll get the hell out of here, once we get back to the rally point we'll determine what exactly happened."
that's it fir now, if you can, leave a Review