"Gods dammed frakking mountain" mumbled forty-year Colonel Helena Santos as she read the report that one of her men from the 1st company of her battalion had fallen off a ten-foot cliff and broken his ribs in the process, her Marine battalion was on mountain training on the Derides mountain range on Caprica, the mountains were known for their ski resorts, which brought thousands of tourists all over from the colonies during winter, during spring and summer it was the ideal vacation place and it also housed a military reserved zone of over 100km2 that few people knew about which was used for mountain and harsh weather training, compared to other Marine and Army training grounds, this was like a paradise, snow and big valleys were much better than the special forces jungle training on Scorpia, or the Hemera mountain range on Saggitarion, which was the closest thing to hell you could find on the twelve colonies.
Santos suddenly realized it was starting to snow slowly outside the makeshift battalion command tent, which had been set mere hours earlier, when she was a kid she had always came with her parents to ski on the nearby ski resort, she loved snow and she watched as the beautiful forest of pine trees slowly filled with white. Being over two thousand meters above sea level, snow was common and the dark clouds in the Caprican sky were a sign of an incoming early-winter snow storm, which were known for their extreme winds, some of them even buried a town on a fifteen-foot snow cap.
"Joe, I want all units on training to be recalled back here ASAP, looks like bad weather is moving in" she said to her battalion XO, thirty five year-old Major Joe Ford.
"Roger, I'll tell the men to set up the tents" Ford responded "Attention Alpha, Bravo and Charlie companies, you are being recalled back to Battalion HQ, reports indicate bad weather moving in, over" the major said over the radio.
"Roger that HQ…Confirmed…Acknowledged" the responses came shortly afterwards over the radio.
"We already have one frakking wounded in our first day here, I have no idea how we are going to manage for a month of survival training" she muttered.
"Colonel, we're getting a encrypted message from Division HQ" her communications officer, Staff Sergeant Williams said and took off his headset.
"Okay, what does it say?" she asked anxiously, in the Colonial Forces, encrypted messages were only used by general or flag officers to communicate the most secret orders, if one was being sent to her it meant something was very bad.
" Devil One to Athena, code black, this is not a drill" Williams read the message, Santos' heart suddenly skipped a beat, code black was a top-secret military code only known by battalion level officers and upwards in the marine chain of command, it meant that a Cylon attack was under way, and that they were losing, it ordered all units to disperse and start guerrilla tactics against the enemy, suddenly Santos noticed that a bright flash lit up the sky, she looked to see where the light had came from and she saw a big, red mushroom cloud on the city of Qualai, which was over a hundred and fifty miles away located on the coast near Caprica City.
"Holy frak" she muttered as she saw a tactical nuke detonate, this time on a nearby town twenty miles away resort, taking over two thousand lives with it.
"This has to be a nightmare" her XO said while terrified.
"You wish it were" she responded.
She then heard the typical sonic boom which indicated that ships had entered the atmosphere, if the cylons wanted to take Caprica, they would have to go through her first.
"Sir there is something wrong with these new Basestars, it seems they don't have any point defense or CIWS systems, they are dependent on the Raiders for point defense" one of the CIC crew reported the commander.
"We just took a hit to the port heat exchanger, DC teams are responding" Lt Gaeta reported as the ship rocked slightly though to cylon missiles.
"Sir, we lost the Hemera" Dee reported, outside the veteran battlestar, hundreds of vipers from the combined fleet were battling over three thousand Raiders, of the fifty five Basestars which started the fight, thirty eight were left, the fleet however was reduced to two Warstars, eight Battlestars, fifteen Gunstars, six Destroyers, eight Frigates and a couple of Patrolstars.
"Get us ready for full broadside, full HE to Basestar delta one" the commander ordered and the massive battlestar separated from the spearhead formation to engage a basestar which had just jumped into the fight, when the ship was aligned, the 50 year-old battlestar launched thirty tungsten shells with a high explosive shell that were nearly half the size of a Viper, suddenly, one of the rounds impacted a munitions depot on the port arm of the cylon ship, making it explode taking out four decks with it, venting dozens of humanoid cylons and centurions to the cold, dark space to meet their deaths.
"Sir, hits successful, we took out their port wing secondary ammo depot" the lieutenant reported as a video feed on one of the tactical screens near the DRADIS screen showed one of the basestar's arms start to break apart.
Suddenly another dot disappeared from the DRADIS as a dying escort rammed itself into the basestar and detonated her nuclear arsenal just before contact, destroying a basestar and crippling a second one, both sides were taking crippling damage as cylon and colonial ships alike were destroyed, everyone onboard the colonial and cylon ships knew this would be the last fight, and the fleet knew that if the cylons were let to nuke Virgon, humanity would be no more.
"All ships, all ships, this is flagship, use of nuclear ordnance is authorized" the voice of Adm. Nagala said over the wireless.
"Mr. Gaeta, ready silos one and two with Shipbusters, it's time to give the toasters a little present" Adama said already grinning.
"Yes sir" the young lieutenant said.
"Saul, what is the air wing status?" Adama asked anxiously.
"Eight vipers and two raptors lost, we recovered six that ejected" the colonel reported.
"Nukes are hot sir" the young lieutenant reported and Galactica rocked against another impact.
"Set target Delta One"
"Target set, weapons cycle set to auto, launch tube open, nukes are ready to fire" the officer reported.
"Fire" Adama said though clenched teeth.
The ship rocked slightly as two 'Shipbuster' missiles left their silos and began accelerating, one of the just-launched Cylon Raiders broke off and tried to ram one of the missiles on a desperate attempt to protect its mother ship, however it failed, both missiles continued, the first impacted and penetrated three decks deep inside the hull of the Basestar, taking advantage of its' weakened armor at the center axis, suddenly just after the second missile impacted both of them detonated, an instant later a bright flash lit it up and the Cylon ship was engulfed in nuclear fire and subsequently destroyed.
"Target destroyed sir" the XO reported.
"Sir, three of the Basestars are disengaging the Mercury and are moving to encircle us" the DRADIS officer reported alarmingly.
"Take us in, karom six one nine, speed one quarter and rotate us forty five degrees on the X Axis" Commander Adama ordered after making a quick series of mental calculations.
"Order the LSO to launch all of the Reapers, I want them loaded with anti-ship missiles, once they launched tell em' to assume standard formation and to engage the nearest Basestar when in range" Tigh ordered.
"Right away sir" Dee said and relayed the order.
For the first time in his life, Major Jackson 'Stinger' Spencer was scared shitless, as he saw another Viper beside him explode in a fireball of fire, they were being outnumbered and they knew it, if a single Raider with nukes got though, it would mean hundreds of lifes lost and that could not happen.
"Stinger, Deamon, running short on ammo" one of the pilots said over the wireless.
"Roger that, head back to the barn to rearm" he ordered after making his twentieth kill as a short, controlled burst of 20mm shells left his Vipers and took out an unknowing Cylon Raider which entered the Viper's kill shot.
"Take that you frak" he said though clenched teeth as he took out another Raider.
All around him, hundreds of Raiders and Vipers were beating the crap out of each other, though heavily outnumbered almost four to one, the colonials managed to keep the Raiders at bay, letting the Battlestars engage the Basestars undisturbed.
However, some of the raiders were getting though, firing conventional missiles and an occasional nuke at the colonial ships, they coundn't lose this battle, if they did, humanity would be no more.
Suddenly, DRADIS lit up like a christmas tree as thirty more Basestars jumped into the fight, suddenly all of the activity on the CIC of the battlestar was replaced with a tomb-like silence.
"Sir, thirty Baseships just jumped in behind our formation, they are launching Raiders!" Dee reported panicked.
"We can't hold off all of them" Adama simply said as he looked as the red icons on the DRADIS monitor, which meant their imminent doom.
Suddenly the Dradis screen filled with thousands of red dots, as the Basestars launched their Raiders at the surrounded Battlestars, before opening up their nuclear silos and pointing their entire nuclear arsenal of over a hundred nukes each at the lush-green world of Virgon.
"Sir, radiation levels just went haywire, the new arrivals are pointing their nukes at the planet" Lt. Gaeta while panic overtook his voice "Sir, we just lost the Orion and the Atlantia took a nuke to her engines and has no control, they are in a ten-o-clock fifty degree lateral spin"
"Bill, we gotta' stop them" Tigh said solemnly.