Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

"SITREP?" I asked Stevens.

He swiveled in his chair, shifting between computer monitors. "We are in a fixed position on the other side of Ragnar's ninth moon, well outside of DRADIS and visual range."

"Well done Ensign. Stand down, and maintain Condition Two." I looked back down at the lighted table. Colonel Marks had already laid out a new map of the region we were occupying. I spoke to Marks in a low tone. "Colonel, I need a Raptor team to sneak in, to this point, under minimal power as to not attract attention." I pointed at a spot on the map. It was a specific position on the planet Ragnar.

"Why that position?" asked Marks.

"The Ragnar Anchorage is located in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. To get to the station, you have to enter the eye of the massive storm encompassing the planet. It's all in the data disk." I walked over to the lighted blue glass map standing next to Steven's station. Marks followed me, and Stevens stood to our presence. "If Galactica is still here, she is inside the gas giant docked at the station. I want a Raptor to cruise in while powered down to this point." I pointed at the map. "When they get there, they are to do a visual recon, no DRADIS sweeps. If the eye of the storm is clear, they are to power up and jump back. At that time, we will jump in and enter the gas giant and hopefully meet up with the Galactica."

"Why not just jump to the station?" asked Stevens.

"I was wondering that too," responded Marks.

"That was my first thought, but the information on Ragnar shows an EM field strong enough to throw off any DRADIS, weapon targeting, and navigation systems. So an FTL lock is out of the question." I circled the planet on the glass map with my finger to emphasize the EM field. "Now, if the Raptor team cruises in and finds the Cylon's camped out in front of the eye, they are to power up and jump back."

Marks walked off to order the recon team to launch. We waited as the Raptor launched, cruised in, and jumped back. ETA for the Raptor to cruise to the planet would be thirty minutes. We had thirty minutes to wait. Through all that time, I had only one scenario playing out in my head: The Cylon's were camped out waiting for Galactica and we had to jump in and save them. I did not want to be in command.

I waited. Daniel was supposed to be there to pick me up. He always picked me up after school. He went to the High School just down the street, so I knew it wasn't hard to get here. He got out of school at 2:30pm, and I was done at 3pm, so I knew time wasn't an issue. My brain racked and stacked what the problem could be. In the end, I could only conclude he forgot, again. I had to wait for my dad. I looked at my watch that was too big for my wrist. The time was 3:25pm. My dad got home at 4. He would find out then I wasn't home. He would ask Daniel. If Daniel was there, he would be on his way immediately. Time to transit from my house to here, 15 minutes. So I was looking at a waiting time of 50 minutes.

But, if Daniel wasn't there? I had to recalculate how long it would take my dad to find out my brother didn't pick me up. For all my dad knew, I was with Daniel and we went to the arcade. If that were the case, my wait time increased! I decided to walk home myself.

I got home okay, but arrived to my dad yelling at Daniel about leaving me. Luckily I intercepted my father as he was rushing out of the house to his car to pick me up. At the time I didn't know why my dad was angry at Daniel, because in the end I was okay. I just remember hearing them yell back and forth that night. "You left your brother!"

"He's not even my real brother, I'm adopted remember?"

"Daniel, right now is the wrong time to leave your brother alone in public. I have had death threats against us. Did you know that?"

"The kid made it home. He doesn't need me to hold his hand."

"When your mother and I found you in that escape pod, we stayed with you. No one has abandoned you. So why are you abandoning your brother?" I ended up falling asleep while they fought across the hallway. I awoke the next morning to my dad sitting on my bed. "Hey kiddo. I'm gonna take you to school this morning."

I finished all possible scenarios in my head. At the time, I could say I was ready for anything, but what I wanted was my dad to come in and take over. "DRADIS contact! It's the Raptor." Reported Stevens.

I responded, "put them on speakers."

"Craton, this is Flash. The Cylon's are right where the Commander thought they would be. Two Basestars are sitting in geosynchronous orbit above the eye of the storm, along with 70 plus Raiders."

I sighed. "Stevens and Dyson, join me in the War Room. Marks, get the Squad Commander and join us also. We don't have a lot of time."

The War Room was just down the corridor from the CIC. I needed a quiet place to lay out my plan. Dyson, Stevens, and I stood around the large back lit table. It didn't take long for Marks to join us with, "Lindsey Cramer!" I smiled and walked up to her. She did the same, and we both shook hands.

"You two know one another?" asked Marks.

"Commander Cody was my instructor in Pilot Training School," she said in her beautiful North Caprican accent.

We all stood around the lighted table. Stevens had taken the liberty of setting down a large grid map of Ragnar and the surrounding space. "Okay everyone. We have to do this fast. If I were a betting man, Galactica will have rearmed at the Anchorage by now and will be executing her escape plan soon. We are going to help her. First, Dyson you are now a Junior Lieutenant. Stevens, you are a Full Lieutenant. Cramer, you're a Captain." I spoke fast. I could see my promotions didn't register with everyone right away.

"Second. Let me apprise you of the special features of the Mars class Battle Cruiser. As net admins, we know more about this ship than you." I walked to the wall adjacent the double sliding glass doors. On it was an interactive wall display of the Craton. I kept speaking fast. "The Mars class was designed to work independently of her Battlestar Group. While the Venus class Battle Cruiser is designed to work in support of a Battlestar, using her Viper Wing as a layer of necessary protection while they engage the Basestars, the Mars class doesn't need the Vipers for Raider protection. Furthermore, the Mars class, in theory, is able to take out at least two Basestars per engagement. You follow?" I looked at everyone trying to assimilate the information I was throwing at them. They knew time was a luxury we didn't have.

I pressed some touch buttons on the wall display. Various points showed up all over the ship. Green dots were for Point Defense Guns that ran along both sides of the Craton, with groups of four on both the dorsal and ventral hulls. Purple dots were for the Main Batteries. Twelve were on the dorsal hull, with another twelve on the ventral hull. Then there were blue dots in the front of ship, located just below the recess made by the joining of the upper and lower hull. These blue dots were the Main Forward Batteries; the Cratons primary offensive weapon. Finally there were red dots located in both sides of the ship, above each of the four Raptor Bay doors. The bay doors were set in the recess created by the upper and lower hulls. Overall, the Mars class Battle Cruiser looked like a miniature Battlestar without the flight pods.

"Alright, we all know what the green, purple, and blue dots are. The red dots are a new system that has been built into the ship and designed to work with DRADIS. It is a Direction Range and Distance Countermeasure System, or just CMS. It jams any DRADIS system, aside from the Craton's." I walked back over to the lighted table and placed the model of the Craton on it, with two model Raptors behind it. "We will jump from this point to here," I moved the ships. "Two flights consisting of nine Raptors each will follow behind us. Each Raptor will be outfitted with both Alpha and Bravo missile packages. Once we jump in, the C³ will take direct navigational control of all the ships, including the Craton." I saw everyone sigh with a look a shock. "Remember, this is what she (the Craton) is designed to do. Once we arrive in formation, the Cylons will get a lock on us, to which the CMS will start doing it's job. With the C³ controlling all navigational variable calculations, it will immediately jump us again around each of our targets." I moved the Raptors around one Basestar, and the Craton around the other.

I saw surprise in Mark's face, and I saw Stevens relieved he wouldn't have to calculate the jumps by hand. "The dependent variable on the jump times are the Raptors. Their FTL's take at least thirty seconds to spool enough to jump again. But I am hoping the C³ will cut the spool time down to the minimal charge necessary to get the Raptors where they need to go. The Craton has four FTL drives instead of the usual two. Furthermore, she has two sets of spiners per FTL, allowing for multiple jumps with less than a second or the time needed for the C³ to calculate a new set of coordinates."

"Once the C³ deploys us to our targets, Raptor team one, or Deacon, and Raptor team two, Sierra, will lock on and launch missile package Alpha. Simultaneously, we (the Craton) will engage weapon's program eleven. Program eleven was designed for a one on one battle with a Basestar (1 on 1=11). Once the C³ detects everyone has fired, it will wait for the Basestar to point all weapons on our ships and for the Raiders to reacquire us. Then it will jump us all to another position it deems is the best position for weapons package Bravo. With the Cylon's heads turned, we will knock them the frak out from the other side." I looked at Cramer, "tell your pilots to remember missile package Bravo are mid-ranged tactical nukes." She nodded. "Once package Bravo is deployed, the C³ will jump the Raptors out to the rendezvous coordinates. The Craton will remain and take out the first Basestar, clean up the second Basestar, if need be, and then finish off the Raiders."

I looked at Dyson. "Lt. Dyson. Tell the Gun Captains that all Main Batteries and Point Defenses will be under computer control. I know it will be uneasy for them to sit at their stations without Viper support, but if all the weapon systems work like they are supposed to, the Point Defense Guns will take out any Raider or missile heading for them." Dyson nodded. "The computer racks and stacks it priorities. It will protect our lives first, then the FTL, the Main Forward Batteries third, and finally its own weapons fourth."

I took in a deep breath. Right then it occurred to me that I hadn't breathed that whole time. I was amazed how fast I spoke. "Okay, now the bad news." Everyone leaned in to listen. "The Cylon's managed to infiltrate our systems through a back door in some new programing. With that being said, and coming from a computer programing background, I am worried that they will try to exploit the C³ while it is connected to Deacon and Sierra. I already have multiple firewalls in place. During the battle, if they begin trying to hack in, we will pull the wireless connection to Deacon and Sierra. If that happens, the Raptor teams are to fire both packages and jump the frak out."

Stevens spoke, "With the wireless connection down, only the Raptors computers are safe. They can still hack into the C³."

I nodded. "That's right Lieutenant. We will stay and use the network as long as we can until the Cylons reach the last firewall. Once that happens, I will shutdown the C³ and we will have to engage the Cylon's using local controls."

"Kicking it old school," said Cramer.

I smiled. "That's right."

I sat in the room. I was 22 and had just finished Officer Training School, and now I was finally at Pilot Training School. The room was full of other 'nuggets.' We just got our introductory course finished and now the class leader was splitting us into partners. I looked around the room anxious. I was a very thorough person, and hoped my partner would be too. Though, I always wished I could think outside the box like my father. He always taught me to think through every possible choice and decide the right one. Later on in life, he tried to teach me that the obvious choice isn't always the best one. I understood he was trying to train my brain to consider options no one else has, but I just didn't know how. "James and Perkins," said the class leader. He kept picking names out of a hat two at a time.

My brother Daniel was great at thinking outside the box. But that line of thinking is what lead to the explosion on the colonial mining settlement Troy. I always wondered if my father knew what Daniel was thinking. "Homer and Winston." I snapped back to the situation at hand. I fumbled through my papers that laid on my lap looking for a class roster. As I flipped, I came across a letter from my father. I had read it hundreds of times and always kept it with me. On the front of the envelope was his hand script that was almost as elegant as it was magical; To My Son the Colonial Officer. "Marcy and Miranda." I looked up as I heard two girls high five.

I found the roster and looked at the names. Only two more couples were left. I knew none of the remaining nuggets. I hated meeting people for the first time. It always involved so much mental dynamics that I considered it a waste of time. "Davis and Fuller. So that leaves," I saw her head turn and look at me from the front row. "Cody and Thrace." I sighed. Class was dismissed and I gathered all my papers and books and stacked them in my arms. I wanted to get out of there and go study, but I was held up by my social misgivings. I turned and bumped right into her, causing my papers to go everywhere. I sighed, and she rolled her eyes. I knelt down to pick up everything she made me drop.

As I did, she knelt also and talked to me as she handed me some papers. "So I guess us nuggets are stuck with one another. You a bookworm Cody?" I just nodded. I was too occupied looking for my fathers letter. She grabbed it before I could. When she saw that I wanted the letter, she stood. I could tell she was going to hold it for ransom. "Tell you what buddy, I'm not too good at studying so why don't we help each other out. Tonight, you and me at Tommy's Bar down the street. I'll kick your ass in a game of Triad as we watch Pyramid on the big screens and drink a cold one."

I reached for the letter but she pulled it closer to herself. "I'm not one for bars."

"You better be, because I'm not one for studying." She said in a cocky tone as she held the letter up. "Just a beer then." I could see she knew social dynamics better than I did. I gave in and she returned the letter. Then she put on her aviator glasses and walked out the room. "See you there Cody," she yelled back. "We are gonna be kicking it old school."

"We will stay until we physically can't stay any longer. In either case, once the Basestar's are history, we will take the Craton into Ragnar and take it from there. Any questions?" I saw everyone understood.

It took little over thirty minutes to carry out all the mission preparations. "SITREP?" I asked out loud.

Stevens answered. "Battle plan has been programed into the C³."

"Deacon and Sierra are reporting ready," informed James.

Stevens responded again, "C³ has wireless connection with Raptors."

Dyson reported in, "Weapons Program 11 is ready."

"James, give me the ship." He nodded at his station and I picked up the corded phone on the table. "All hands, this is Commander Cody. We are going into battle. We are going to kick some Cylon ass! Action Stations, set Condition One." The digital alert sounded and the doors to the CIC slid shut. The ship was ready. I set the phone down. "Colonel?"

He took my question as a command and walked over to the C³ interface computer. "On my mark, three, two, one, mark." He pressed execute on the panel. Instead of using the FTL computer, he engaged the C³ to jump for us. The pit of my stomach dropped. We jumped.