Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack
Chapter 6: Operation Warhammer Part 3 - Aftermath
Mobile Shipyard Orca
22ly from Pollonus
Void between systems
08:43:07
With the Orca now long since stabilised and damage control crews on the few available raptors cutting away the worst of the irradiated debris from the starboard side, a larger than normal CAP was buzzing space around the large battered station.
Within the CIC, Commander Sallis' eyes hadn't left the DRADIS monitors in the longest of times while around her, the crew carried on with their duties in getting the rest of the station back up and running. They were still running on their auxiliary DRADIS, the same with most of the systems but one by one most were returning. It would however be hours or days before the rest of the primaries were brought back up, especially the ones which had been located on the starboard side. The mission clock was ticking down still with 7 minutes remaining before she planned to send a Recon Raptor to Pollonus. All the mission estimates given to her by Ghost Squadron had indicated if they met the resistance they expected then the mission should be complete within 45 minutes of its start. One by one contacts started to appear on the DRADIS more than 100km away.
Even as the DRADIS operator called out their arrival, the wireless operator called out, "IFFs confirmed, they're ours. Incoming communication from the Orion…"
Sallis pressed a button on her Information Management Table activating the speakers throughout the station as the civilian Captain of the Orion, Arvin Tylerinformed them "…Orca I repeat, mission successful. Our ships are full of Colonials and we have more incoming…"
The entire CIC as well as the rest of the station erupted into cheers and cries of joy as the tension they didn't know they had been keeping in finally gave way to relief. Arvin wasn't done yet though as he listened to the screams through the wireless, "Orca, that's not all…The Scorpion Defence Fleet Battlestar Sirocco found and assisted our departure. They were under fire but managed to withdraw and are on their…" His following words were drowned out by even louder cheers from the crew of this once mighty station. Sallis was finding herself overcome by the same level of emotion too, hugging her XO and shaking the hands of several crewmembers.
As more ships started to arrive and approach them including the last of the Raptors and Stealth Vipers, Sallis pulled herself together as best she could by ordering "XO, open the barn doors and bring them home. Flight, get all our Vipers in the tubes and out flying patrols. This isn't a time to get sloppy, the Cylons could follow them here." Inside though she took pleasure in this victory.
Mobile Shipyard Orca
22ly from Pollonus
Void between systems
Raptor 107/Sirocco
Corporal Seth Hudson
09:02:19
Leaning against the cold hatch as he cradled his side, Seth looked at the marines huddled with him in this tiny Raptor. Each one carried a gaunt look to their face as if not having yet come to terms with surviving the battle on Pollonus. The smell of sweat and blood filled the small cabin, the scrubbers on this ancient ship which was two generations old doing little against so many, and each person no doubt carrying an injury or many. Looking at them he couldn't help but remember the last time he had engaged the Cylons and then gotten on a Raptor, back before Atlantia fell.
Were it not for Captain Chen, he knew he would have committed suicide as so many had done in that drifting disabled Raptor. But right now, with the adrenaline rush over, he just wanted to sleep. He hadn't yet come to terms with the battle he had just engaged in, it would take days, weeks and most likely years to fully realise what he had went through, but as he turned to look out of the tiny window built into the hatch, he knew, he knew that he had survived.
And as the Transports started to dock in the station at the many docking points within Drydock 1 and the length of the portside, the first of many Raptors landed. Then, many minutes after the Taskforce's arrival, multiple sparks lit up space as Battlestar Sirocco and her fleet arrived. The pilot turned their ship to see the arriving fleet, and it seemed like the marines finally took notice as they started crowding the entrance to the cockpit watching the newly arriving ships. As Seth looked upon them all, he knew he had to speak to his family. It was time.
Outside the small craft as it started its approach to the Orca's port flightpod, the newly arrived Artemis II Class Light Battlestar Sirocco along with the Manticore I and II corvettes Pax and Concordia, and a severely damaged Minerva Class Light Battlestar Romulus carried under tow by the Concordia moved with their civilian fleet towards the station. These military ships belonging to both the Scorpion Defence Fleet, the Tauron Defence Fleet and the Colonial Fleet. With them was a fleet of 44 ships consisting of 8 civilian passenger ships and 14 independent transport ships, 4 of which were armed with small defensive batteries used to ward off pirate attacks. Dominating the fleet was the Tyche a vast mining and refinery colony ship twice the size of a Warstar, along with 3 smaller mining ships around the size of a Mercury and 2 refinery ships around the size of a Valkyrie. 4 Tylium tanker ships flew with protection from a CAP, 8 container ships and 1 larger Laurien Class transport, itself a former fleet supply ship that had long since served as a mobile warehouse to the miners and workers of the Twins. Mixed within the fleet and afforded strong protection from the Romulus and Concordia were 2 botanical cruisers, one of which had four of its seven domes cracked and open to space, and one aging bio-domed luxury liner, the Elysian. More ships than the Cylons believed they had, and hundreds of lightyears away from where the Cylons thought they were.
As the last Raptor landed and jump coordinates were distributed, the fleet began the first of 4 jumps to take them out of Cylon territory and to their rendezvous point with the rest of the fleet.
Mobile Shipyard Orca
58ly from Pollonus
Void between systems
Colonel Lucy Hudson
09:07:53
Forcing her way from the damaged Stealth Viper as it was lowered into the hangar, Lucy threw her helmet and collar into the seat and climbed out and down onto the metal deck. Pushing her way through the crowd of marines, newly freed Colonials and deck hands as the new arrivals stepped off their Raptors and Raptor Ultras, Sassy was checking every face she passed just looking, searching. Slipping through where she could and forcing her way when she couldn't, my Gods there was so many, she eventually climbed onto the wing of a Viper and started to search around looking for their faces in this tide of faces. And then it happened, the tide rose.
It started small and then it built as the newly freed Fleet personnel and Civilians joined in, and yet it was more than one tide, it was two overlapping and mingling until finally some Fleet officer or deck hand told one of the recently freed who was responsible for their freedom. Murmurs of "Colonial Fleet! Colonial Marines! Colonial Fleet! Colonial Marines!" started to build before calls of "Cain! Cain! Cain! Cain!" joined it. Louder it built as overlapping waves of emotion propelled it and Admiral Hudson's own name and then the names of Burkett, Sallis and Coker joined it. It was coming from everyone everywhere, from here and the Portside dock to the civilians within the main body of the station that had long ago arrived. It was a chorus which carried everything from every one of them, many of whom had long ago lost hope, and from those newly arrived prisoners that lost their hope when the Fleet fell.
Marines and pilots, even the common deckhands were lifted into the air by these survivors and carried aloft as the emotion filled them. Even though she didn't realise it, tears were flowing down her face as the wave of raw emotion hit her, and then she saw the first face; Vienna. Next to Vienna, her brother Victor was being pulled into a hug from her. Knowing that two were safe, Lucy continued to search the multitude of faces and then she saw him, lifted high into the air by the crowd surrounding his Raptor; Seth. It had to be Seth, she was sure of it even beneath the sweat and the grime, the blood and the grease it was Seth. There was such a look of shock and confusion on his face as he was swept off his feet and carried on the shoulders of those around him.
Looking over at Vienna, Sassy shouted for her niece "VIENNA! VIENNA!" and the crowd picked up that name in their chant, adding it to the names of Cain, Hudson and every other Commander. Vienna looked around in confusion before finally seeing Sassy waving for her attention and then the smile lit up her face. Shouting again, Sassy called out "SETH!" while pointing towards the distant brother to Vienna. Just making out the name, Vienna shouted into Victor's ear before looking towards where Sassy was pointing. Unable to see through the crowd she climbed onto the wing of her Viper and saw him carried high. Jumping down, Vienna grabbed hold of her twins hand and forced her way through the chanting crowd. Watching them from her perch, Sassy saw them finally reach Seth whom slipped down and onto the floor. Lost in the crowd, Sassy just made out the three siblings hugging tight to one another setting a firm smile across her face and causing her to mutter "told you I would keep them safe and get them back together, big brother."
About to get down from the wing, Sassy saw Chen looking at her from his own Stealth Viper before he nodded and shouted across the crowd "You're not bad! Woulda made a mean Ghost!"
Cocking her head to the side, Sassy laughed and shouted back "Never!" before being lifted off the ground and carried the length of the deck.
Taskforce Phobos
83 lightyears outside Cylon space
Void between stars, 0.92 lightyears from nearest star
Battlestars Pegasus and Praetoria
10:38:43
For 2 hours and 17 minutes now the Battlestars of Taskforce Phobos had been rotated so that they were flying rear first with their thrusters firing out 20% of full thrust in order to slow them down from their .31c velocity. Striding into the CIC from her patrol of the ship, Cain received the report from Colonel Belsen and looked up at the mission clock, in a little over 40 seconds they would have returned to their original speed before the operation began. A lot of Tylium was being burnt off, but as she considered the victories her Taskforce alone had delivered, she felt the costs were worth it if only to slow down the Cylon's recovery time. Somewhere lightyears from here she hoped that Taskforce Deimos had survived as well as she had, better even. She would find out soon enough.
"Standard military cruise velocity reached, Admiral. Cutting thrust and reorienting ship" the Helm operator announced.
"Thank you Ensign" flicking her knife with her thumb, Cain looked over at Colonel Belsen as they both considered what came next. With the next jump they could arrive at a bloodbath, or they could arrive to find nobody there and nobody to ever arrive. If they were lucky, then they would all be there. It was too much to hope. Looking Belsen in the eye, Cain nodded and ordered "Colonel, make ready to jump to rendezvous coordinates in 20 seconds."
Pulling himself to his duties, Belsen replied "Colonel Fisk, jump in 20 seconds to rendezvous coordinates…" as Fisk got to work and Lieutenant Hoshi transmitted the same orders to Praetoria, Belsen activated the intercom "All hands set Condition Two and prepare for jump, alert Vipers remain ready in your tubes…" for a moment it seemed like he might say something more before he finished with "…that will be all."
The seconds ticked by in silence, every person seemingly holding their breath as they awaited whatever fate may bring. At the tactical console, Lieutenant Shaw was ready to activated fire control should the Cylons be waiting. Cain merely stood and waited, blood from her thumb running down the edge of her knife and dripping onto the underlit information management table.
The Battlestars Pegasus and Praetoria jumped.
Space within the CIC momentarily warped before it suddenly snapped back to normal. As always it took precious seconds for the DRADIS to refresh, and when it did Lieutenant Shaw called out "DRADIS contacts! Reading the Orca and two Battlestars and several civilian and military vessels. Admiral, those Battlestars aren't Taskforce Deimos…" Shaw announced with surprise and a little fear in her voice.
"Set condition one…" Cain ordered just in case "…and get me Commander Sallis."
Mobile Shipyard Orca
108ly outside Cylon Space
Void between systems
Rendezvous Point Alpha
10:39:18
"You've had the blood tests run?" Commander Sallis asked as she read the report in front of her.
The Marine Intelligence officer nodded "Twice now sir, it took the Doctors a bit of convincing to do it due to how swamped they are, but it came back as a match. It's her, no doubt about it."
As the information hit her, Sallis was relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with this headache. "Thank you, I'll inform Command when they arrive. I want her placed in an isolated room off one of the wards with an armed guard at all times."
"Yes sir", the Marine saluted before leaving.
Entering the CIC, Sallis arrived just in time to hear a break in discipline from the crew as they cheered the arrival of Taskforce Phobos. Seeing this, Sallis muttered "Speak of the Devil…" before turning to the wireless operator to connect her to Pegasus.
Picking up the headset as the line was connected, Sallis made out Cain order "Orca Actual/Pegasus Actual. Report?" Sallis could only imagine how confused Cain would be at seeing the military ships outside. No doubt her finger would be on the trigger just in case.
"Admiral, Taskforce Liberty was a success. We also picked up some friendlies. They've been verified by our Marines, and their own marines are going through their crews and ships looking for Cylons. We've also been able to confirm they had no Cylon devices although their crews are running another search just in case. They are the Scorpion Defence Fleet's Battlestar Sirocco and Corvette Concordia, the Tauron Defence Fleet's Corvette Pax, and the Colonial Fleet Battlestar Romulus and their civilian fleet. The short version is they were running dark while cutting through Cylon space when they picked up numerous jump points and nuclear explosions at Taskforce Liberty's target planet. After…"
"DRADIS contacts" the tactical officer interrupted before continuing "IFF confirmed, it's the Arion and Therion."
A smaller cheer went out from both Orca's CIC and the Pegasus' CIC. Cain spoke from the other end of the comm, "As long as they are friendly and have been identified in person. We'll be jumping in 1 minute, inform Captain Chen and his marines and pilots that I send my congratulations."
"Aye sir. And sir…when you get the chance I have something you might want to see. I don't know how to explain it right now."
"Very well, I'll be over in a couple of hours once we've got some distance from Cylon space. Cain out."
Mobile Shipyard Orca
242ly outside Cylon Space
13:28
"Commander, you wanted to see me" Fleet Admiral Cain announced to Commander Sallis as she stepped onto the deck of the Mobile Shipyard Orca. Around them dozens of Raptors which should have been undergoing immediate repairs were instead being left in their alcoves with only a handful of deckhands visible in the hangar. Normally it wouldn't be like this but with the current state of the Orca all able bodied personnel were required to repair this almighty construct.
Saluting as Cain approached her, Sallis replied "Yes sir, I'm afraid it couldn't wait, it's bound to get out sooner or later. If you would follow me", Sallis didn't wait for an answer as she turned and led Cain out of the hangar and into the main body of the shipyard.
Struggling to keep up with the younger woman as they squeezed past dozens of marines and crewmembers, Cain asked "What's this about Commander?"
Answering over her shoulder, Commander Sallis said "During the operation to free the prisoners, the marines came across a certain prisoner and were able to recover them as well as records on them. We've since cross referenced those records with our own mainframe and run a preliminary blood test and…well, see for yourself Admiral." Turning a corner and into one of the life stations which was the size of a full ward in any Colonial hospital and currently crowded with wounded marines, crew, and refugees, Sallis led Cain to a separate room which was guarded by a marine. Opening the door, Sallis showed Helena through and handed her a clipboard as Cain set eyes upon the woman sat on the bed being tended to by a medic. As she looked down on the woman, Cain realised she recognised that face despite how different she looked. With shock etching its way into her own features, Cain looked down on the clipboard seeing the name written there and the results of the blood test before quickly looking back up at this woman. Throughout all of this, Helena had lost the ability to speak.
Looking at her, the woman sat on the bed – a woman so much like Cain – spoke two words "Hello Helena…"
"Lucy?" Cain's mouth spoke long before she even registered it, the shock had hit her so hard, the woman sat here was the spitting double of her mother. "It's really you?"
Nodding, the woman answered "In the flesh as Dad used to say" while holding her arms out at her sides. Commander Sallis backed out of the room leaving the family together.
Cain felt the floor give way under her feet as she took one and then two steps backward before collapsing into a chair. Her fight left her in that moment, for so long she had fought her way up the ranks, had fought the Cylons believing Lucy to be dead. Only in her wildest dreams did she ever think of meeting Lucy again, but all those unspoken conversations just left her in this moment. Her sister was alive. Lucy was alive and here due to the mission she herself had put into play, the words left Cain.
After precious moments she finally managed to get out "I'm sorry, I thought you were gone…we all did. If I knew…" Looking up into the pitying eyes of Lucy, Helena urged "I went back, I went back armed with a blunt knife but you were gone, I was too late…" Helena didn't even realise the knife was back in her hand, her thumb nervously running its length.
Sitting forward on the bed, Lucy softly asked "Do you see me accusing you? Am I shouting and bawling at you? Screaming at you for leaving me behind?" Looking at Helena, Lucy shook her head "You were a kid, 9 years old and afraid. I'm not angry at you anymore, I figure the guilt you've probably been carrying around all this time is more than enough punishment." Reaching forward and holding Helena's hands between her own to stop her cutting any further into her thumb, Lucy asked "What happened to our parents?"
Looking up, Helena took a breath and answered "They died the day you were taken, killed by the Centurions before they left. I went back afterwards, I thought you might have ran back home to them, it was…only three survived from our entire building. I was in a home for about a month afterwards before our Aunt Lucinda took me in when she was transferred back to Scorpia. Lucinda passed away from lung cancer 3 years ago. She was a tough old bitch, but she looked out for me and managed to use her connections to fast track me onto the Command list."
Tears welling in her eyes as she heard of their parents demise, Lucy asked "And children? You must have some kids?"
Letting out a tearful smile, Helena extracted her hands from Lucy's and reached into her collar for her chain before taking it off. Opening the small locket, Helena handed it over with shaking hands saying "You have a nephew, David. He's an elite pilot in the Colonial Fleet and my proudest achievement…"
Looking up, Lucy asked "Is he…" she didn't need to say more.
"Alive as far as I know. We picked up wireless chatter showing he escaped the Colonies on the Galactica, but that was more than a week ago and we only have a general direction for them." Flipping a piece of the locket, Helena continued, "You also have a niece, David's twin Kathryn."
"After mum. Is she?"
Shaking her head, Helena replied "I don't know. Her father took her when she was 4 months old. Just picked her up and walked out of our lives without a word of warning one afternoon. I searched for months and years, but I could never find them. I hope that she's alive but I don't even know what she looks like. I haven't even told David he has a sister, I can never quite find the words." It was incredibly rare for Helena to even admit to anybody that she had a daughter, of those still alive she had only told Jurgen Belsen, but it was there in her personnel file if people chose to look, few did.
Looking up at Lucy as silence descended on the room and the occasional cry of pain broke through from the general ward, Helena asked "What happened?"
Pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them, Lucy answered "Where do I begin? I've been a prisoner for 40 years now, not always on Pollonus but mostly."
"Pollonus? The planet we found you on?"
"The very same. For about a month, no, two months we were held prisoner on a Hades Basestar we think. One of the Colonial Officers with us said she recognised the internal design of our section and could tell by the noise the ship made around us, but she went half-crazy so I wouldn't believe everything she said. At some point early on there was a massive shakeup in authority and I mean big. Overnight it seemed our conditions changed and we were placed in a holding camp on a marginally temperate world with plenty of food and supplies. We still had to put up with cold days though, and even colder nights. We were prisoners alright, but the Cylons fed us, then showed us how to grow our own food, clothed us, gave us access to basic humanitarian resources. A few tried to escape but nothing ever came of it. Back then the Cylons didn't shoot you if you tried to escape, knock us out yeah, stick us in solitary even but they didn't kill us.
"A few years down the line the first of the human models arrived, they said they were Model Seven's. It's funny, there was only ever one type of model in the camp with us at any one time"
"It's likely it was to prevent you knowing all their faces if there was a successful escape or the Fleet found you. If the fleet had found the camp we attacked a few years ago then we would have only known about the one model" Cain reasoned before asking "What did the Seven's want?"
"I don't think they wanted anything except maybe to understand humanity and perhaps find some common ground with us. They watched us, studied us and worked with us to better our camp. It's weird to say but I actually miss him, he was unlike the others, kind. Many of us still think that he was trying to find some way to forge a lasting peace with the Colonies. Of course some among the camp took to killing a couple of Sevens but the result was the same, he came back and had those responsible placed in isolation, he talked to them to understand why before releasing them again…"
"That doesn't sound like a Cylon" Helena interrupted.
Nodding, Lucy replied "That model was different. During this time I was adopted by a Colonial Marine…former Colonial Marine, and raised as her daughter. Six years after we arrived things changed, in just one day the Sevens with us in the camp started muttering to themselves, they started mentally regressing almost to a childlike state, and fits of violence overtook them as if they were in the most agonising pain, and then, one by one within just minutes of each other, they died. We were terrified of retribution even though none of us were responsible. And this…thing, this mass death, we since worked out that it happened at every camp at the same time. We were made to clean up the bodies and bury them, and for two days only the Centurions watched over us.
"The entire camp was on edge by the time the Fives arrived. It was then we realised just how good to us the Sevens had been. But the Fives…they're vicious frackers. As our rights and privileges were stripped from us resistance increased and so did the punishments. We were forced to work for them and mine for them. If we refused then someone we cared for was shot.
"About ten years later they moved us to a new planet, it was an iceball. Some of the prisoners thought it was Djerba, some resort planet or something."
Shaking her head, Cain replied "It won't have been Djerba. Djerba is part of the Wastes on our side of the border, that entire area including Djerba was largely abandoned early on in the war. The Cylons left so many traps behind there along with ruining what we had that it would have cost us far more than we could afford to clean up the place and still protect the Colonies that it was fully abandoned. Patrols still go…still went through there right up until they attacked but it was outside the Ribbon."
Taking this in, Lucy replied "Either way, we froze and we worked. It went on and on until we were moved again, this time to the farms or at least the prototype of the farms. The finished version was in Camp Asphodel." Pausing as the memories returned, Lucy continued "I've been through the farms 9 times now, they would've probably sent me through again if I was still as fertile as I once was."
Helena looked at her aghast, "Still fertile? They were breeding with you?"
Nodding as she held back the tears, Lucy replied "Yeah, maybe not in the way you're thinking, but essentially yes. The Cylon humanoid models while supposedly not infertile, can't procreate. They see it as God's will that they breed but since they were unable to do it successfully with each other, they tried with us. From the other prisoners I know there were several types of farms, in some the Cylons actually lay with the men or women, in others like the ones I was in, machines mess about in our wombs trying to pump us with the correct nutrients to successfully allow a hybrid pregnancy to come to term . It's never worked, instead we go through weeks of agony and torture, many eventually die, and some of us, well our bodies are built differently and are far more resilient."
Letting out a breath, Helena asked "So no children then?"
"No Cylon children, I on the other hand have a 100% human 12 year old son, Marcus. I had him just before the farms. The marines told me he's currently getting a check-up." Seeing the look on Helena's face, Lucy continued "Anyway. 10 years ago now was when I was moved to Camp Asphodel, and then over the next 5 or so years, more and more POW camps were shut down and the prisoners relocated there. It's been years now since the last transfer. The Council…mostly former senior Fleet Officers…thought the Cylons were scaling up their military elsewhere and wanted everyone in one place where we could do little damage and learn little about the Cylons plans. Well, looks like they were right. Over the last week they started bringing in fresh prisoners and we learnt of the Cylon attack on the Colonies.
"Cromwell, the Four that ran the camp actually grinned when he informed us the Colonial Fleet had been put down and the Colonies sterilised. The camp was so incredibly close to rioting that day but the Council held us back, they refused to fully believe even as the first prisoners started arriving. Then we found out from some new arrivals that Leonis survived and the Colonial Fleet had managed to retreat under someone called Adama…"
Nodding, Helena said "Rear-Admiral Adama, he commands the Battlestar Galactica, the same one from the first war. We know he's got the surviving warships that fought at the Battle of Leonis with him and that he was ordered to retreat by Admiral Nagala."
Listening to this, Lucy continued "Anyway, three days ago now, things changed during morning inspection, Cromwell called for me by name."
Helena realised what this meant when she stated "They realised you were related to me, took them long enough to get their act together. They no doubt planned to use you as a bargaining chip."
"Probably. I came to the same conclusion hours later when I thought over how the newly arrived Colonial Fleet Officers murmured amongst themselves and then started to fight against the Cylons since they probably suspected you were alive and I was related to you. Days passed and then I heard the explosions as your marines arrived and then here I am."
Helena leaned back in the chair rubbing her brow, "My Gods, you and the other former prisoners could tell us so much. Lucy, I'm sorry you went through all that, believe me. Once the Doctors here given you the okay, I'll have you and Marcus transferred to officers quarters on the Pegusus." Standing and rubbing her face free of tears, Helena intoned "I honestly never thought this was possible" before shaking her head. Turning slightly towards the door, Helena said "I'll be back when I can, there are some things I need to deal with, burdens of command. I'll have the Marines informed to get you and Marcus whatever you need."
As Helena started to leave, Lucy called out "Helena, thank you for coming back. Thank you for giving Marcus a chance outside of that camp."
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Battlestar Pegasus
Fleet Admiral Cain's Quarters
15:08
Standing over her desk while finishing off the third watered down glass of Ambrosia she'd drank since returning to her ship, Cain listened to the wireless as Admiral Hudson was reporting on the damage to his ship.
"…I've sent marines and search parties through every deck but there's been no sign of the Cylon apart from a blood trail in one of the service tubes, that blood trail quickly stopped. As it is, 142 civilians and 17 crew died as a result of the flooding before we got it under control, on top of that we've got 93 in total with injuries resulting from the flooding. In terms of repairs, we can get the tank fixed in 12 hours, but the rest of the damage…hang on…ah here it is, the rest of the damage will take us the better part of two weeks to get squared away. Right now we've got the temperature up in all affected sections and the life support is pulling the excess moisture out of the air, in the morning we will lock it all down and vent the section to remove whatever we can't get rid of easily which is the water that fell into the superstructure." The frustration was evident in Hudson's voice and Cain was thankful she wasn't in his position. Nobody had ever considered how vulnerable their water tanks were, save for the Cylons. No doubt, she thought, just one Cylon knew it wasn't strong enough to hit the well-guarded areas like the engines, FTL, fire control and damage control, even the auxiliary areas. But an attack on what was considered a tertiary system, Cain was impressed even if she didn't admit it.
"Are you combat effective, Admiral?" Before he had a chance to answer there was a knock at the hatch to which Cain called out, "Enter. Go ahead Admiral."
Commodore Scipio entered, his grey hair standing out against his dark weathered skin, and his eyes flowing around the room. Looking over at Cain and seeing her hold up a finger to wait, Robert moved over to admire the collection of weaponry on display as well as the pictures of Colonial ships and few family pictures. One photo in particular caught his attention, picking up the onyx frame from the magnetic rest, Robert looked at the photo of a younger Helena dressed in the dress uniform of a Colonial Fleet Commander, a boy no more than 16 next to her and, holding onto Cain's shoulder, former Admiral and at one time Fleet Admiral before the quorum ousted her, Lucinda Cain. Looking over at Cain, Robert thought like mother like daughter little realising that they were Aunt and Niece.
"…backs against the wall then we can fight. Give us two days to get the water pumped back into Alpha and the Hangar deck squared away, the rest of the systems we can either bypass until repaired or immediately fix in that time. We'll fix the rest over with a priority on tier one and two systems first."
"Very well, in terms of the Cylon, depressurise any area not in use. Have at least one guard inside every ammunition locker in addition to three on guard, double the guard in all tier 1 and 2 areas and have a guard placed on tier 3 areas. I want patrols in every corridor, surveilance to be monitored at all times and a full sweep of every area including the superstructure, bow to stern…" thinking Cain then added "…and triple the guard on food storage areas relocating all food on board to 4 or 5 areas. The Cylon has to eat. I'll have contingents of marines sent over from the rest of the Fleet to supplement your own."
"Understood sir."
"If it isn't dealt with in a reasonable timeframe then we do this the hard way and take your entire crew off ship except a skeleton crew in pressure suits and then open every airlock before running another complete sweep section by section, room by room including the superstructure. And we will continue doing that sweep until it's found. Now I don't want to do that due to how vulnerable it will make us…"
"But to not do it will be worse, I understand sir."
"That will be all, I'll see you at the meeting in an hour. Cain out." Deactivating the comm, Cain walked over to her minibar asking out loud "Sorry about that, we've got a rat in our pipes on the Arrion and it likes to chew holes in our ships. Drink, Commodore?"
Walking over towards her desk while looking towards the bottles locked behind a safety bar in the corner, Commodore Scipio answered "Sherry if you have it, tonic water if you don't…" before he grumbled slightly to himself and Cain "…my stomach can't take any hard liquor anymore. Joys of being old I suppose."
Filling a glass with a six year old Cream Sherry and her own with one last finger of ambrosia which she watered down with a couple of ice cubes unwilling to get drunk just yet but wanting to take the bite off her day, Cain returned to her desk and handed over the glass. Moving to the other side, Cain stood there nursing her drink, letting the silence fill the room before finally asking "How did you survive? No, how did you find us?"
Letting out a laugh, Robert answered "We weren't looking for you if that's what you're wondering. Frak, we didn't even know you survived, we thought that we were it, the last of the Fleet, any fleet. To answer the second question, I will need to answer the first."
Taking a drink of the Sherry, Robert was about to continue when Cain saw his discomfort standing there. "Arthritis?"
"Some, but it's mainly back problems." Robert answered.
"One moment…" tapping her comm to the two marines outside her door, one of them entered, "Private, can you bring in a chair for the Commodore."
Nodding the marine went off to the meeting room next door.
Looking at Cain and smiling in thanks, Robert said "Thanks, I would never have passed the Colonial Fleet physical these last couple of years. SDF had laxer standards and a slightly better retirement package which was why I left the Fleet for them and took the promotion to Commodore." Cain remembered the advertisements SDF ran in Dispatches, a newspaper and media ran by and for the military. The marine re-entered and placed a chair down at the desk for Robert before leaving again.
Sitting down, Robert continued "Scorpia Defence Fleet had us on patrol around 160 lightyears or so from Helios out by the Twins in the Seneca system. Mining patrol, you probably know how it is. There'd been several pirate hits on a few of Scorpia's and Tauron's mining interests in recent months. Nothing too big hence why it wasn't really on the Colonial Fleet's DRADIS, but it was enough to hurt our two colonies financially as well as several independent mining companies." Cain knew the area well, there was a wealth of hard to get resources in the system as well as its twin Pliny. While the Twins was the richest part of the Atticus Reach the entire barren area of 83 systems still had several areas of interest. So long as no ships ventured towards the Armistice line the Fleet mostly steered clear since the Ribbon of early warning satellites would warn them of the fact. As it was, the big mining conglomerates had little interest in the area and chose the far richer Vitruvius Expanse's systems on the other side of Colonial space out near the Prolmar Sector. As such it was mainly independent ventures that ran out of the Twins and the surrounding Atticus Reach, each one hoping to make it big, each one living on the backend. Along with that in a dozen systems with regular mining operations there were 23 small colonies and 4 space stations, with between 1000 and 90,000 people each, Thasos being the largest at around 90,000, and most having less than 5000 people. In truth these 'colonies' were little more than waystations and mining towns. Within the entire Atticus Reach there was no more than a million people at any one time, nobody but the outcasts and the mad wanted to live there.
While there were 10 other systems near the Twins where miners worked from, the Twins were the most developed. Atticus Reach was always a hotspot for piracy, but the Colonial Fleet's big guns were normally ordered to patrol the Helios systems, the border and the Vitruvius Expanse where the larger companies were. From her knowledge Cain remembered only two smaller Battlestar Group being out that far, it was mainly independent contractors like Enterprise Solutions, and Colonial Defence Fleets that patrolled those systems with the emphasis being on the contractors.
"When the call finally reached us from a runner that the Cylons were attacking, 30 minutes must have passed, we were an afterthought it seemed but the Cylons had managed to intercept at least one runner that we found destroyed. At the time we were lucky enough to be with Battlestar Group 47 trading intelligence and fresh produce we'd picked up from an Agro-Ship." Seeing Cain jot this down, Robert added "With them were the Battlestar Theseus, Heavy Cruiser Parmenion, Light Corvettes Attalus and Ilium. The Destroyer Atia and the Light Corvette Concordia were out on patrol. When the runner from Virgon Fleet Headquarters arrived Commander Chandler immediately sent word to Rear-Admiral Collins at BSG 22 whom was on patrol in Aristo about 25 lightyears from our position.
"BSG-22 had the Battlestar Leonatus and Light Battlestar Domitus, the Light Cruiser Foust, Light Corvette Aretes and the Destroyers Langarus and Ptolemy. There were also 3 Pocket Battlestars and 19 support ships belonging to the Scopia, Picon, Leonis and Tauron Defence Fleets, and 26 smaller patrol ships belonging to half a dozen security forces spread over the Reach but largely concentrated over the mining colonies in the Twins.
"At about the same time we'd sent a runner to them we received a runner back from BSG-22 that they were under attack so, we went to assist. Leonatus was a wreck when we arrived and the Domitus was mostly drifting, wireless down, half her guns down, nukes inbound and detonating against her. There were 3 Basestars and hundreds of Raiders tearing into them. The Ptolemy and Langarus were venting their crew and their guns and missiles were tearing into their allies around them, Foust was already gone. It was only the Aretes that was still fully in the fight she was surrounded by 3 Basestars and 2 hacked ships. As strong as a Manticore II is, there's only so much they can take.
"Seeing he couldn't risk our ships being hacked as the Cylons turned their attention to us, Commander Chandler ordered us and the Aretes to jump. Thankfully we made it back to Senecca where Chandler had me send runners sent out to every ship and station to evacuate, clear any networks and regroup. In the meantime Chandler had his own group clearing their networks. He told me that if it was this bad here, it was worse in the Colonies and said he was going back with his group to join up with Nagala's recall."
Thinking, Cain pulled up the unit lists on her computer saying "One moment, Leonis command sent me the latest intel on our units when we were last there, they may ha…ah, Therion got the update. The Attalus and the Atia managed to get to Virgon but they were then destroyed during the defence over Leonis. Reports say…sorry the reports from then are a mess…ah, they were intercepted on the way back to Helios, they managed to fight but the Parmenion was lost with all hands as was the Aretes, the Ilium had her drives knocked out as did the Theseus. The…Theseus's port hangar took two nuke's and Chandler ordered an evacuation and for the Attalus and Atia to jump before setting a ramming course on one of the Basestars. Theseus and Parmenion were then suspected to be destroyed in action. The Concordia though?"
"She was on patrol at the time chasing down a suspected smuggler. It was only after Chandler left that we made contact, as senior officer I felt it safer for the Concordia to remain. While we were having the mining colonies evacuated as best we could and getting word to the mining ships and others, I set course for the Arecibo Anchorage and jumped…"
"Arecibo? I know the location but there was nothing special about it." Cain asked as she refilled his drink.
Nodding, Robert answered "Article 2 of the Colony Defence Fleet Charter?"
Understanding, Cain said "Colony Defence Forces are not allowed to carry nuclear weapons except in a time of war with a Colonial Flag Officer's authorization." The rule was there to ensure that no one colony could nuke another colony, as well as to limit the damage a colony could do to a Colonial Fleet Warship.
"Plus the ammunition we did have was more limited than for a Colonial Fleet warship. We didn't have teeth as they say, we had dentures. Anyway, the Sirocco, Concordia and a Private Military Contractor light corvette that found us jumped to Arecibo. We arrived to find the Tauron Battlestar Romulus, 6 Tauron support ships, 2 Caprican support ships and 3 PMC ships engaged by 8 Basestars and around 3000 raiders…"
"That's more Basestars than I expected the Cylons would send there" Cain interrupted.
Nodding as he took a drink, Robert replied "Because they knew we were a threat. How many of our ships, of our Defence Forces do you think could afford the CNP? Most of the budget went towards keeping our aging ships going and paying for crews, the rest went to saving towards buying another secondhand ship off the Colonial Fleet. The youngest ship in the SDF was 26 years old. We couldn't even afford to buy off the good ships Adar sold off 5 years ago since they went to the highest bidder which was mostly the biggest mining conglomerates."
Brushing her hair back as she considered this, Cain asked "You said there was three Pocket Battlestars in the Reach, what happened to the last one?"
"The Euripides, Picon Defence Force. They were destroyed in the Trimaran system, they managed a partial evacuation with an atmospheric shuttle and eight Raptors arriving at Arecibo during the battle. For going on 20 minutes we fought with everything we had as the rest of our friendly ships that hadn't already been intercepted arrived. Meanwhile the Cylons brought in another three Basestars. The anchorage even managed to add in a few kicks. We managed to take down five Basestars and a good couple of thousand of their raiders between us before an explosion went off in the Romulus destroying their CIC and senior staff."
"In? Inside? What was the cause" Cain leaned forward already strongly suspecting what caused it.
"One of her ammunition bunkers went up, frak it was big. From what we could tell, the explosion caused a secondary explosion in a small arms locker near the CIC. The safeties failed and the CIC went up along with 4 sections. We could never find a cause with all the damage that was left behind, it could have been sabotage but we don't have any of the infiltrators your marines pointed out to us. Anyway, with the CIC gone, so went most of the Romulus' coordination. They still managed to run things from Secondary Fire Control, Engineering, the flightdecks and Auxilary Damage Control, but without their senior staff and the nerve centre…our line such that it was, faltered and more ships fell. Arecibo eventually went up under a number of nukes, and with only 7 ships left I pulled back leaving in my wake a total of 7 destroyed Basestars."
Letting out a frustrated breath, and taking another drink of his Sherry, Robert looked up at Cain before continuing "I sent runners to the Colonies and continued trying to coordinate the evacuation of the mining sites as well as the creation of an evacuation fleet. My thoughts were that if the Colonies were going to stay in the fight then we couldn't afford to lose the mining ships, I guess the Cylons thought the same. By the time the runners returned we learnt the truth, the Colonies had fallen, the Fleet had been destroyed at Leonis. And Virgon, the last Colony left, was in the process of being nuked.
"We needed time but we just didn't have any left, the Cylons were hitting the mining colonies one by one. It didn't take much on most of them, a couple of missiles can pop a dome easily, a couple of nukes is all it would take to crack an asteroid colony just like Harpers Home was. We were lucky enough to get the mining colony ship Tyche, the Elysian and four Agro-ships, two of which we lost. We worked fast, pulling together 3 fleets of a combined 58 civilian ships, most able to hold at best 200, and then the Cylons hit us. Of those three fleets, one was destroyed outright, and with the other two, half our ships were destroyed before they were able to jump, the PMCs just weren't trained well enough to hold off the Cylons. Apart from the military ships here, we lost the rest holding off the Cylons. Afterwards, over the next couple of days I ended up moving some of the civilians over to ships better able to house them which were built for endurance, I then salvaged what I could from the rest and left them behind. I've been using the salvage to try and repair the Romulus but it's like using chewing gum in place of a patch weld."
Letting out a breath and closing his eyes, Robert continues "At first I sent scouts to the Colonies but they were crawling with Raiders and Basestars so instead I settled for the Vitruvian Expanse looking for survivors, safe locations, even pirate hideaways, there's always one. The military ships and PMCs were all either hit or had retreated to the colonies, the Cylons were crawling all over the Pavillion. Every mining colony was a smoking ruin and there were gods know how many destroyed mining ships, some larger than the Orca but now just drifting wrecks. We did however find several ships, mining ships, a tanker, a freight ship I think and a couple of transports, but there wasn't anything else and the Cylon patrols were getting more busier.
"I eventually decided our best course of action was to just abandon the Colonies, we just didn't have the firepower to stay and fight. And, I came up with what my senior officers thought was the craziest plan…"
Cain now understood, "Cylon space."
Nodding, Robert continued "Beyond Cylon space to be exact. I figured they would have sent most of their ships into the Colonies and the last thing they would expect is an evacuation through their territory. I managed to somehow convince my crew and the rest of the Fleet and we set off. Everything we did was in a low power mode, DRADIS was passive only, wireless deactivated with comms only by tightbeam, most of our systems deactivated, anything to minimise our presence while we jumped through. It took us damn near three hours to charge up for one jump the way we were going. Then, earlier today one of the scouts a few lightyears out from our fleet picked up multiple jump signals from a nearby system. They jumped in to recon the area discovering pockets of radiation, debris and the rest of your taskforce fighting in a POW camp.
"When they got back it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. With the equipment and size of the operation my scouts saw I knew there had to be at least one Battlestar, maybe even a Marinestar, a BSG or the remnants of the Fleet, so I decided to put all my cards on the table leaving the rest of my military ships with the fleet and jumping to your Marines. Well I would say it paid off rather nicely."
"The recon our Raptors returned of the Reach and Expanse gave us intelligence that was bad enough, every settlement, mining location and station visited just wrecks, your version though certainly paints a vivid picture." Taking the glasses back over to be refilled, Cain announced "Today has definitely been full of surprises. You honestly don't know what a relief it is your fleet found us."
Nodding, Robert replied "Likewise. So, how on Kobol did you manage to survive?"
Handing him back the glass, Cain answered "It's complicated…" before giving him a brief history of her escape and the fleet.
Ten minutes later, Cain finished by saying "…the results were more than I could have hoped for. Enough ammunition, missiles, planes, spares and supplies for the entire fleet and then some, recon that is worth its weight in Gold, the Praetoria and of course the Orca. With all this we decided to launch a coordinated attack across Cylon space by causing a distraction in the Helios systems while hitting as many of their planets as we could find while travelling at .31c completely obliterating what we believe is their capitol. Knowing the Cylons would be focusing on our Battlestars, I had Ghost Squadron lead a marine insertion at the planet you found them on in order to recover the Colonial POWs…"
"So they destroyed the orbital defences and hit the bases and cities around the planet?"
"They did. Based off the results, I would say it certainly paid off despite losing a lot of good people and taking some significant damage."
Nodding, Robert agreed "I'd say. I'm also impressed with the decision to travel as fast as you did during the attack, it's certainly out of the box thinking. So the question is where do we go from here?"
Considering his question, Cain replied "Even with the ships you bring, the Colonies aren't safe enough to hang around. We could try our luck in the Expanse or the Reach, there's over 300 systems between them to get lost in, but we would be constantly under threat of discovery, knowing the Cylons they'll stick a Raider Patrol in every one of them.
"Your ships, the Sirocco in particular, while old enough to not need the networks a modern ship needs simply aren't as powerful as later classes. As support to a fleet though, they can certainly add their weight in force projection or as scouting vessels and a fleet defence for if the modern ships are on assignment." Robert nodded at the assessment, his ship, a Block II Artemis Class Battlestar was merely an upgraded version of the prototype for the later Jupiters and following Battlestar Classes. Despite the upgrades she had received over her 45 years of service, at best she could go toe to toe with 1 or 2 Basestars and 2 was with a significant chance of heavy damage or destruction.
Cain continued "We need more firepower, thankfully the ships we need might still be intact under Rear-Admiral Adama. We're going after him, we have a general direction beyond the Prolmar Sector and we have the food and thanks to you, the fuel to reach it. We'll use the time it takes to repair our ships and the Orca, and perform hit and run attacks on any Cylons running him down, they'll be there. Once the Fleet is back together, it depends on the assets available, but I intend to return to the Colonies and destroy every last Cylon. The attacks we conducted across their space will slow down their production of new ships and they lost a lot at Leonis, so we should stand a good chance despite them still outnumbering us. After that we rebuild."
Moving to a cabinet, Cain continued "For now, I'm activating Article 1b of the Colony Defence Fleet Charter and making you, your ships and your crews Colonial Fleet. As the Colonial Fleet doesn't have the rank of Commodore I am promoting you to Rear-Admiral, as such you will be third in command behind myself and Admiral Hudson. Underneath you in order will be Commander Burkett, Commander Fasjovic, Commander Sallis, Commander Peel and Commander Craterus."
Handing a box over with the epaulets of a Rear-Admiral in them, Cain announced "There will be a meeting of the Admiralty in 20 minutes in my war room where you can meet the rest of the fleet commanders. You might want to have a rundown on the reports of the fleet you've brought sent over."
Standing, Rear-Admiral Scipio saluted saying "Yes sir" before leaving Cain's quarters.
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Transport Orion: Docked inside Orca Port Dock
15:59
It felt good to Arvin to be back here on his ship after being stuck on the Arion with the rest of the civilians. Of course it had meant volunteering to Captain the Orion in order to help out with the evacuation, but at the very least it got him home even if home was now filled with several hundred refugees until they could be moved onto the station.
Shutting down several systems and finally looking out the windows at the nearby docked transports, the cavernous dock itself, the gantries and construction waldoes lit up by hundreds of lights and, beyond it all, the vast doors to the dock. It all made him feel so incredibly small.
Turning to go down to his quarters, Arvin while passing close to a marine in the tight confines knocked a folder out of the marines hand sending the contents tumbling to the floor. Bending down to help him pick them up while apologising, Arvin stopped. Picking up a photo of a woman, he asked "Why do you have her picture?"
The marine private catching something in Arvin's voice asked "Do you know her?"
"I should do, I've been fracking her the past few months." In his hand he held a photo of a Number Three.
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Battlestar Pegasus
Officers Meeting Room (War Room)
16:00
Passing the large Marine presence at the entrance to the War Room, Fleet Admiral Cain and Rear-Admiral Scipio entered the expansive meeting room. Passing the gathered Commanders and Senior Officers, all of whom had expansive smiles on their faces and were congratulating each other on a job well done, Cain moved to the head of the table and called the meeting to order.
Standing for a moment while she gathered her files and the others quieted down and sat, Cain began "I'll try and keep this meeting short, we've all had a long day, a long week even but I would rather get this all dealt with now so that we have a clear plan." There were several grumbles of assent from those around the table.
Looking at them all, Cain gathered herself and continued "Well done everyone, seriously, well done. Operation Warhammer was a complete success…" From around the table there were several subdued cheers from the Commanders and Officers while Cain reached under the table and extracted a 40 year old bottle of Ambosia, a box of Cigars and a tray of ashtrays and lighters which were passed around, smoke soon filling the room and glasses filling.
Calming them back down while smiling herself, Cain announced "Taskforce Mars consisting of Pegasus, Arion, Therion and Praetoria hit the Cylon Capital of Willow and its shipyards leaving untold destruction in their wake including destabilising numerous volcanoes. Based off our science officers projections this should cause a chain reaction completely disable the planet's already arid ecosystem as well as the tectonic plates rendering the planet uninhabitable for at least a generation if not longer." On a screen mounted onto the wall next to her were numerous shots taken by the Battlestars as they left Willow's orbit as well as gun camera footage from the Raptors of the shipyards being destroyed including some docked Basestars. For many around the table it was the first time they had seen these images, and the destruction shocked them for a battle that lasted minutes. But it wasn't a battle, it was a massacre.
"Taskforce Phobos consisting of Pegasus and Praetoria then hit 4 planets with large military, mining and manufacturing centres one after the other. Unfortunately at the fourth planet once we launched our nukes, the Cylons were waiting for us with a trap, a minefield to be exact. This minefield composed largely of missiles, was – based upon DRADIS readings – almost half a million miles across with the missiles able to redirect. Essentially we couldn't fly around without it moving and due to our speed, even hitting one conventional missile would be like hitting a low yield nuke. Nevertheless by aiming Pegasus' and Praetoria's dorsal aspects at them we were able to bring all guns to bear at a distance and through using all our planes we managed to cut a hole through big enough for Pegasus although we did take several bad hits. Praetoria was able to use the cover Pegasus provided and get through largely unscathed. In the process we launched a series of high yield nuclear missiles at the six closest Basestars, and due to the speed of the missiles scoring 6 clean kills." The images continued to cycle on the screen as the others looked on and muttered amongst themselves.
"Deciding it would take time for the Cylons to prepare another trap, we proceeded to our 5th target planet before pulling back rather than hit the last minute addition we had made to our target list."
Clicking onto the next set of images, Cain continued "Taskforce Deimos consisting of Arion and the Therion proceeded to attack 3 Cylon planets, both military, mining and manufacturing. While Therion had reported a variance in their FTL at their second target this was eventually fixed. However at their third target planet, a Cylon Infiltrator on board the Arion killed several marines and was able to gain access to a small arms locker. There, the Cylon took a number of bricks of C8 as well as detonators. One block was placed in the small arms locker and the others were placed to blow a number of hatches as well as along the internal walls of Water Reservoir Alpha…" The few around the table who had not heard this leant forward in shock as Cain continued "The walls to the tanks as well as several hatches were detonated releasing more than a million gallons of water into the main body of the Arion. 142 civilians that had been knocked out prior to the operation as well as 17 crewmembers died as a result. A further 5 marines were either shot or killed by a dead man switch prior to the explosion, only one marine, a Private…Feller managing to survive both the gunshot wound and almost drowning. Furthermore due to the loss of water from the tanks, coolant to several drive coils was unavailable causing them to risk going critical and further systems were damaged."
The officers were shook at how something so unthought-of could affect a ship so much. Looking at Admiral Hudson, Cain announced "I am hereby placing a commendation on Admiral Noah Hudson's record. Through his quick thinking he was able to temporarily stop the flood while evacuating a section of his portside hangar. He then forced the water into this section where it has since been held while repairs are made. After the water was contained he used pipes and pumps to connect the water back into the coolant system for the jump coils thereby allowing him to complete the mission. Taskforce Therion were then able to hit their remaining three targets accounting for the last minute addition made to their list."
Several Commanders and Officers reached across the table to shake Hudson's hand and pat him on the shoulder.
Clicking onto a new series of images which included a lot of compiled bodycam footage from the Marines, Cain announced "And Taskforce Liberty? There has likely never been a better executed marine insertion on a Cylon installation in history, or any base for that matter. Taskforce Liberty was a complete success. 337 Marines, 51 Pilots, 82 Crewmen and 34 Civilians with military or police training took part in the operation. While numbers are still coming in, they saved more than 12,000 Colonials including my sister whom was taken at the end of the first war and her son born in captivity. Thank you Captain Chen, and you too Colonel Hudson. And give my thanks to your marines in particular."
As Cain said her thanks and several looks went around the table, Chen and Lucy merely nodded and smiled back.
Looking down at her sheets, Cain continued "Freeing our people came with difficulties and a high cost though. Ghost Squadron and their marines were able to drop weapons, ammunition and wireless devices around the camp upon their arrival thereby reinforcing themselves with the Colonials already in the camp. At the same time the defensive satellite grid was taken out by several Stealth Vipers, and the military bases around the planet were likewise taken out. Ghost Squadron were able to quickly secure the centre square of the camp despite losing several craft, and then push outwards to the South, East and West. The North with the Headquarters they created a perimeter around using Vipers for strafing runs to keep the Cylons in there penned in until the marines could move their forces there. With the square secure and the first lot of refugees away on Raptors, the first group of Transports, Atmospheric Transports and Raptors could arrive.
"Using this time, Ghost Squadron set up a number of AA installations and a small headquarters. With the arrival of the first transports, Mk-VII Vipers which had been docked to them were able to take to the air and support the ground offensive, and the newly arrived marines and volunteers began their attack on the landing grounds to the west of the camp. Through the use of a number of ballistic shields gathered from the former Picon Anchorage, the Marines were able to advance on between 50 and 100 Cylon Centurions that had pulled back to defend the landing ground. I am told by Captain Chen that the fighting was hard but through extreme will our troops were able to overcome the Centurions and take the area. Chen then dispatched Colonel Hudson, several Stealth Vipers and Raptors back to the Orca with the first of the Transports in order to resupply themselves and inform Commander Sallis that the landing grounds were open."
Changing the footage, Cain announced "During this time three Basestars found the Orca, we suspect that due to the large number of FTL jumps to and from her location they were able to pinpoint her. While the Cylons were launching a Raider assault and moving into position to hit her, Commander Sallis ordered the launch of her docked transports and fighters and moved to present the already damaged starboard dock to the Cylons rather than risk the port. Colonel Hudson arrived on the scene with her convoy, sending the transports ahead to the Orca. Colonel Hudson then, as per the Nexus protocol took operational command of all Vipers and ordered those dispatched by the Orca to not engage the Cylons until ordered. At the same time she sent her own Stealth Vipers to hit the Cylon Raiders from behind, bunch them up and then detonate several tactical nukes in their midst. Colonel Hudson on the other hand flew in close using the Stealth Viper's abilities and engaged her closest Basestar, hitting a central hangar door with a close range jump allowing a nuke she had fired to enter the opening destroying the ship from the inside out." Several rounds of congratulations went around causing Sassy to blush.
Continuing, Cain spoke "During the brief battle while the Transports got underway for an inter-atmospheric jump, the Orca received significant damage to her starboard side including taking two direct nuclear hits. However after the transports jumped, the Orca was able to make a jump to her fallback. During the course of this jump an EMP from a near miss of a nuclear missile knocked out most of her systems upon arrival. Over the next half hour she was eventually brought back to readiness although I am informed that several key primary systems are still down as a result of the EMP."
Bringing the meeting back to Polonnus, Cain continued "During this time, the Cylons launched a gas attack using pipes spread throughout the camp. Seeing this, Captain Chen was able to save a lot of marines whom fell back on CBR training while Chen ordered his planes to travel at Mach 1 and 2 and use the slipstream to create avenues the gas would travel down before destroying the pipes. He then ordered an assault on the Camp Headquarters which he was informed by several prisoners had around 300 Centurions inside. Chen chose to make an assault from the ground as well as marine insertions via Raptors on the second and third floors as well as the roof thereby hitting the Cylons from multiple sides."
Looking down at her notes and composing herself, Cain looked up "The handful of marines I have spoken to have made it clear that the Cylons made them fight for every inch of that building, with many referring to it as a house of horrors and as Tartarus. During the course of the assault several wards were discovered, two of which had several dozen fertile women strapped to beds with apparatus connected to them. I have since learnt from my sister that these are what the Cylons call farms where they are attempting to breed with humans in order to solve a problem in their genes which makes them infertile."
Around the table there were looks of horror and curses uttered with the entire meeting breaking down in anger. Calming them Cain continued "Seeing this only fortified the Marines will. They fought harder than we had any right to expect, they were Razors and they destroyed every last Centurion in that building, capturing numerous human models and freeing dozens of women. In addition they recovered a wealth of intelligence and freed dozens of high profile prisoners including two Commanders.
"During the battle, the Scorpion Defence Fleet Battlestar Sirocco which had been nearby cutting through Cylon space arrived after detecting our FTL bursts and nuclear detonations. While there they helped support Taskforce Liberty when the Cylons eventually arrived, by which point Liberty was already starting to pull out."
Pulling another sheet closer to her, Cain announced "During the course of the assault 82 Marines, 17 Pilots as well as 11 from the Sirocco, 39 Crewmen and 13 Civilian Volunteers lost their lives, and many more were injured. In return we saved 12,000 including several thousand Colonial Fleet personnel. Every sacrifice was not in vain, every sacrifice means something. The results of that mission are not something to agonise over because every one of them who fought in that camp is a hero and a razor." Each Commander and Officer nodded at that as Cain continued "I also have several commendations Captain Chen has provided although he is currently working to draw up a larger list. These commendations are for a civilian volunteer and former Police Lieutenant Tyler whom he has recommended for the Colonial Standard the highest civilian award for gallantry, a Sergeant Hadley for the Order of Ares…" as she drew onto the next two names, Cain chose to read out the reasoning "Corporal Seth Hudson for bravery under fire and saving nine marines when their squads were ambushed, Chen is nominating him for the Medal of Athena. Captain Chen is also nominating Lieutenant Vienna Hudson for the Legion of the Arrow for skilfully intercepting three raiders which had evaded defensive fire and threatened the withdrawal with onboard tactical nuclear missiles. Finally, both Captain Chen and Commander Sallis have expressed that Colonel Lucy Hudson for singlehanded destruction of a Cylon Basestar should also be given the Legion of the Arrow. There's also a Medals of Courage for Staff Sergeant Glenn for courage under fire, skilful co-ordination of marines, and tactical acumen." Pausing Cain looked up at Captain Chen saying "I'm also going to be adding a commendation to Captain Chen and Colonel Hudson's record for putting together such a brilliant and well executed plan, as well as commendations on the remaining Ghost and Argos squadron pilots and marines that took part in the operation. In my eyes you are all Razors."
Commander Fasjovic nodded in agreement saying "Every one of them deserves it, it's a shame we don't actually have the medals to give though but I'm sure Louise could knock something up" Coker laughed looking at Commander Sallis. Around the table the collected Admirals and Commanders agreed with the recommendations. Turning back to the two pilots, Coker joked "Feel free to give us another win like that Colonel, Captain."
Cain shone a rare smile as she saw the others agreeing. "Back to the mission. Upon Taskforce Liberty's return to the Orca, the Battlestar Sirocco returned to its fleet before bringing the heavily damaged Minerva Class Battlestar Romulus and the Manticore II Class Corvettes Pax and Concordia. With them they bring 4 desperately needed Mining Ships one of which is a mining and refinery colony ship, 2 Smaller refinery ships and 4 Tylium tankers, three of which are full. In addition are 8 Civilian Transports, 14 independent transport ships, four of these being armed, 8 container ships and 1 Laurien Class freight transport, 2 Botanical Cruisers one of which is heavily damaged, and a Horizon Class Pleasure Cruiser, the Elysian. Bringing the civilian aspect of the fleet to 44 ships. They bring with them a combined 8,932 civilians and 7,343 military personnel. As ranking military officer I am placing it on record that I am officially commandeering all civilian ships and substantial assets beneficial to the war effort. As such there will be a military presence on the command crews of all civilian ships, although I am willing for now to let the current owners continue on in their command of those ships so long as they agree to being conscripted into the Fleet.
"I have also enacted Article 1b of the Colony Defence Fleet Charter which states that in the event of war all Colony Defence Fleets, assets and personnel are to come under the purview of the Colonial Fleet until wars end. As such I have reinstated Commodore Scipio into the Colonial Fleet with the rank of Rear-Admiral and third in command. Commander Craterus, you have also been reinstated under your current rank. Commander Peel is already Colonial Fleet as is his ship the Concordia. Until further notice the new chain of command is myself as Fleet Admiral, Admiral Hudson, Rear-Admiral Scipio, Commander Burkett, Commander Fasjovic, Commander Sallis, Commander Peel and Commander Craterus." There weren't any complaints from around the table as they agreed with the new structure.
"Tomorrow I plan to conduct interviews with the two known Commanders recovered by our Marines as well as speaking to what served as a council for the POW's. One of the members of this council I have been informed is a former Rear-Admiral, although I am unsure if they survived. I will then be giving command of the Battlestar Romulus to the most suitable officer with the next most as XO."
Closing her folders, Cain finished "For now we will be continuing on our current heading for another day before changing course back to the Prolmar Sector making our way into that area from the direction of Colonial space in order to try and find a lead on Adama. In the coming days I am planning on transferring those with experience from the mining ships – of which I am sure there are many – to the repair efforts on the Orca in order to speed up getting all the habitable sections up and running again. Also due to the Cylon sabotage on the Arion, I want to get the civilians off our military ships as fast as possible, towards that end given the population figures for the fleet Admiral Scipio brought, we should be able to transfer many to its civilian vessels. The Tyche being twice the size of a Jupiter if these numbers are accurate…" Cain said looking at the current specs before Robert said they are "has nominal space for 4000 civilians on top of its current 3240 what it currently has, we should be also able to squeeze another 2000 into the Elysian. Either way our focus needs to be getting the habitable sections of the Orca habitable again and moving the civilians of our warships."
Sallis looking down at her own damage and work detail reports said "Depending on how many miners with zero G welding experience I can get, we could get enough sections repaired to handle…8000 on what we already have in a little under 4 days. But this will be the most basic of repairs and it will be taking from other areas, just new pressure hull plating, life support and lights. I do have perhaps an immediate solution, I've had crews looking in on the damage to our Port Hangar, while there is a gaping hole in it and heavy radiation, we could get 3 maybe 4 sections sealed in one half of it. We would need to patch up the holes, get cleaning crews scrubbing the radiation with the heavy support kits, repair the life support and a dozen other problems but we could have it habitable by this time tomorrow if I use most of my technicians. It won't be pretty, and they will have only basic needs covered but it will be doable in the short term for around 1400-1600 at best."
"Whatever you can do. There's one final problem with the civilians, we need to think long term and pretty soon they are going to get angry due to martial law being in effect. We will need to deal with that sooner rather than later. I am going to do whatever I can to allow us a respite from the war until we are ready so for now I want you all to come up with solutions." The others nodded, nobody wanted to be there when an angry mob with flaming torches came for you because you denied them a luxury they considered a right. "Right now though it might be best if we get a rundown of what each ship needs or has that it doesn't need. Rear-Admiral Scipio?"
Coughing while opening his own folder, Robert began "I'll start with the military assets my fleet brought. In terms of air support we have 8 Mk-II and 17 Mk-III Vipers recovered from two of the mining colonies in the Twins, 62 Mk-IV Vipers, 6 Mk-IV Viper fighter bombers, 28 Mk-V Vipers and 21 recovered and repaired Colonial Fleet Mk-VII Vipers. Most of our planes coming from various fleets, mining colonies and private military contractors around the Twins and the Vitruvius Expanse. In terms of Raptors we have 4 Mk-I modified with a limited jumpdrive, no more than 5 lightyears. 9 Mk-II Raptor Gunships along with 15 of the civilian variant and 19 Mk-III Raptors from Colonial Fleet warships. We currently have 136 combat rated pilots and can field 5 full Viper Squadrons and a Raptor Squadron and still have planes left on the deck. However without a deck modification with hot racks on the Sirocco and the Romulus we can't field more than two squadrons each fast enough to matter, and our flightdecks aren't designed to handle the excess ships landing in combat conditions…"
Cain interrupted "We can relocate the fifth squadron to the Orca once she is better repaired and the hangar decks are running at 100%, for now they can be relocated to the Pegasus. As for the planes sitting on the deck, we currently have more pilots than planes not counting the pilots recovered from the POW camp. We'll create another squadron on the Arion. The planes are older than I would prefer…"
Coker leant forward saying "Admiral, if I may?" Nodding for him to go ahead, Coker continued "Right now the older planes will be on par if not slightly better for our pilots than the MK-VII. They're designed specifically without networks and we can't risk having networks in our planes again."
Agreeing Colonel Hudson added "He's right, they might be a bit slower but they're a hell of a lot more agile. Granted we'll only have two guns compared to the sevens 3, but they'll still kill Cylons just as well. They'll be easier to maintain too. The Raptors could pose a bit of a problem, especially the civilian versions but I wouldn't mind the Mk-I and II Raptors if only for the added firepower of their chainguns, it's something that should never have been phased out."
Thanking them for their input, Cain jotted this down before asking Robert to continue.
"Finally in terms of air support we have 8 military grade Atmospheric Transports broken down as 2 Mk-I, 2 Mk-II and the rest are Mk-IV recovered from the Colonial Fleet. We've moved 4 over to the civilian ships. We also have 14 Civilian Atmospheric shuttles on those ships, most docked to the outside of them."
Commander Sallis spoke up, "If you can lend me the deckhands then give us two days to fix a couple of docking points and we can dock maybe 6 of them to what's left of our Starboard flightpod. We'll weld the frackers down if we have to until we get the place fixed up. At the very least once they're there the civilians that will be in that hangar can use the onboard facilities."
Writing this down, Robert moved onto another sheet "Well, we have no nuclear armaments, not even tactical nukes. And we only have just over 20% of the ammunition we would have were we all Colonial Fleet warships, it equates to 46 days' worth of combat. It would have been 27 days' worth but we spread the Concordia's between us. The reason it's so low being Article 5 limiting the amount of ammunition a PDF ship can carry. We've been working on getting a manufacturing line up and running."
"While that is a good idea in the long run…" Cain began "…for now we can fully replenish you with ammunition and a wartime complement of nuclear weapons."
Nodding, Robert answered "You don't know how comforting it will be just having one nuke let alone an entire bunker full. Food, we have 14 months' worth of military rations and the food on the civilian ships can feed them for 4 months if rationed. While the Agro-Ships were already set up to provide fresh food for the Atticus Reach mining colonies, we are currently in the process of expanding the growing potential by cultivating algae alongside cultivating the crops already growing on them. We were also planning to expand these crops to the Elysian and repair the Eve's domes but those were all medium term plans."
"It's something to look into if you wouldn't mind taking it on, while all effort needs to remain focused on the Orca small work teams should be able to prepare the Eve for repairs, and growing crops on the Elysian will provide the civilians with jobs to focus on." Cain thought out loud, "At the very least, even though we have plenty of food now, doing this will mean we can extend our stores and have fresh food." The others all agreed.
"My thoughts exactly. I'll get it done sir. Fuel, all our ships were fully fuelled 2 days ago. We've been running on low power to hide from the Cylons and have slowly been charging the jump drives for the same reason, as such most of our ships still have between 80 and 95 percent tanks. Of the four Tylium tankers, 3 are full and the last is empty having just returned to the Twins. The mining ships and refineries have around 1700 metric tonnes of Tylium ore, and about 2300 tonnes of unrefined metals and 1200 tonnes of refined metals."
"Any Titanium, Chromium, Molybdenum, Tungsten or Tantalum?" Commander Sallis asked as she was suddenly interested.
Looking through the papers, Robert started listing "22 tonnes of Titanium, 8 of Chromium, 4 Tonnes of Molybdenum, 41 of Tungsten and 2 Tantalum. There's also 14 tonnes of Cobalt. The majority is Iron and Nickel."
Turning to Cain, Sallis informed her "They've got the ingredients for our armour belt right there. It's not much but once we melt down the warped plates we already have and add in the iron, steel and other metals, then we can get at least some of the Orca's armour replaced. It won't get the Starboard dock covered but we should have enough to repair the starboard flightpod and perhaps get some of the starboard section finished. Plus we'll have the option to gather more. Until our foundries are back up and running the Pegasus and Arion can use your manufacturing plants to make them. No doubt the Tycho has a small scale manufacturing plant that can handle making them but I would prefer a military grade plant."
As they made their plans, Robert continued "Our cargo bays are currently filled with salvaged materials from several civilian ships we have that weren't worth the hassle as well as salvaged equipment from the mining colonies. I'll send a complete list over to you Commander. Finally personnel. Despite taking on survivors from destroyed warships which filled some areas, we are currently undermanned by about 500 or 600 crew in various positions. This primarily being due to relocating a crew and command staff to the Romulus since they lost a good half of their crew and almost all of their command staff…"
Interrupting him, Cain input "Send along a list of the areas the ships you brought are missing out on crew. It's likely going to take a couple of days but we should be able to fill those positions with some of the recovered prisoners out there."
The meeting soon moved onto damage reports and casualties when a marine entered. Going over to Admiral Cain, the Marine bent down and spoke softly into Cain's ear while handing over a file before standing back. Cain's entire demeanour seemed to shift as she took in the information in the file.
"Gentlemen, Ladies. We have identified the Cylon on the Arion. It's name is Theresa Manning, it worked on the Orion which docked to the Arion to unload its crew and passengers." Holding up a photo of a Model 3 provided by Leonis Command, Cain ordered "I want it found, and I want it destroyed before it destroys us. We won a great victory today, but we cannot relax because it most certainly will not."
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Orca
Port Hangar Bay Section 1
16:18
Ever since the return of Taskforce Liberty and the rescued Colonials, Doctors and medical staff had been swamped dealing with the injuries. The most critical had been immediately taken to the 3 functioning wards on the Orca as well as life stations on ships throughout the fleet. Those that weren't critically injured though were forced to wait. As beds ran out, hospital facilities had quickly been set up in Section 1 and 2 of the Orca's port hangar as well as in several dormitories throughout the station.
For hours now Seth had waited as others were treated before him. He couldn't blame them, not after some of the injuries he saw, yet still it hurt with every breath. Soon the cooks had come out wheeling vast vats of hot soup and army bread, mugs full of it handed out to the marines and refugees. For once the food wasn't being rationed due to the Admiralty knowing the marines and civilians needed this, and so Seth had two helpings which he had to force down. After the fighting he had been through he didn't have an appetite, but he knew that his body needed it.
So he sat there on the cold deck, back against the bulkhead, Tyler's head resting on his shoulder and Garza sat on his other side, his right leg wrapped in a bandage, mug of cooling soup cradled between his bloody hands, the blood long since dried and flaking. Seth could see the difference in the people in the hangar. The marines and those that had fought to free the prisoners were quiet, subdued, they were exhausted and unable to talk about what had happened yet. The former prisoners though were elated, their spirits higher than they had been in years despite the cramped conditions. Most thought they would never taste freedom again, and yet here it was served in metal mugs with bread. As he watched them, Seth knew it wouldn't last, certainly they will be better equipped mentally to deal with the situation they all found themselves in more than the civilian refuges that were already in the fleet, but this elation would go. He hoped they could hold onto it as long as possible, to cherish it because it had been bought in the lives of many, and many more marines would die before the day was done.
A medic came out of a fenced off area holding a clipboard. Seeing that Garza, Seth and Tyler were next, he stated "You three, and you..." as he looked at a marine next to them.
Standing and helping Garza to his feet with both Seth and Tyler taking a shoulder each, they helped him into the fenced off area where a number of cots had been set up with medical equipment. Putting Garza down on the cot the medic pointed out, they then went to their own as the medic said "Medical staff will be with you shortly. Names and ID?" the medic handed over the clipboard where they wrote it down before he went to get their medical information.
Collapsing on the cot and feeling it give under his weight; Seth felt his pain ease away. It wasn't long until a short sleep overtook him.
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Battlestar Pegasus
CIC
18:56
Picking up her headset, Cain turned to the Ensign manning the wireless for this third watch and ordered "Ensign, connect me to the fleet with a loudspeaker request" the ensign quickly got to work before nodding at Cain that she was on.
Breathing in, Cain spoke "This is Fleet Admiral Cain. It's time you knew the full extent of this fleet's actions today and the past week. Nine days ago now, the Cylons decided that humanity must die, and so struck a series of fierce, vicious blows to the Colonial Fleet and to our homeworlds. The Fleet gave their all, and they made the Cylons pay dearly for every ship and Colony destroyed. The Fleet eventually lost the Battle of Leonis, and with it were forced to retreat with what few ships remained. With the Fleet in retreat, the last of our homes were hit by the Cylons. But Leonis made their terms clear; they would fight to the death for as long as it took. No doubt the survivors on Virgon and every other Colony made that same promise, I know I did.
"A week ago, this fleet, our fleet was nothing, we were scattered to the wind, drifting hulks in former battlegrounds. But we didn't give in, we pulled together. First Pegasus and Arion and then we added the fierce and determined Therion to our fold. They refused to give in even when their ship by all accounts should have been a wreck. But we pulled together.
"You are only as strong as the person next to you, Former Fleet Admiral Lucinda Cain once told me, and this fleet is filled with strong people. As Therion grew strong again, we searched for supplies and survivors among the former battlegrounds, and found the Battlestar Praetoria and Mobile Shipyard Orca to make strong and proud again. We worked together as one, and we grew stronger as one.
"But while we grow stronger, so do the Cylons and they had entire worlds unaffected by this war. The Admiralty decided this needed to change. I decided that the Cylons need to feel what happens when you kill just one of our people. When they think we have lost and they have won, I wanted them to taste just a little of the justice to come. And so, I launched a highly successful recon mission. I saw their worlds and I was not impressed. I saw the prison camp they were holding thousands of our people in, and I was angry. And I saw their weakness which was hiding behind their strength. So it was that Operation Warhammer was put into effect.
"At 08:00 hours today, three simultaneous attacks were launched. The smallest attack at a major Cylon relay on the edge of the Helios Star System. Here two damaged Assault Raptors were jumped in, both Raptors with pre-programmed flight instructions, these Raptors launched a series of tactical nuclear missiles at the relay. I have since received confirmation from a scout that this trap the Cylons had set is glowing wreckage right now.
"At the same time from the Mobile Shipyard Orca, a Viper and Marine assault was launched by Captain Chen of Ghost Squadron and Colonel Hudson of Argos Squadron. Jump capable vipers successfully destroyed a series of defence satellites orbiting a Cylon planet while other Vipers successfully destroyed and disabled several military bases across the planet. At the same time a Marine insertion via Raptors was being launched on a Prisoner of War camp we had discovered on the planet. After a beachhead was secured despite the limited number of marines on the ground, reinforcements and transport ships were able to be brought in to further support ground efforts and recover the prisoners. Many of these prisoners having been in those camps for since the first war. Through this deadly engagement in which many brave and strong marines fought to save every Colonial and make the Cylons pay, the true horror of the Cylons goals was revealed in human experimentation too sickening to think about.
"During the course of the rescue, the Orca came under assault from several Cylon vessels. One of our pilots with just their Viper underneath them and with all support elsewhere, launched a deadly attack on a fully functioning Cylon Basestar. Colonel Hudson, armed with just one tactical nuclear missile successfully destroyed the Basestar allowing the remaining transports to complete their mission, and for the Orca to get to safety.
"Towards the end of this battle, something I never thought would happen, happened. We all forget how big a role we each can play no matter who we are. When we think of the military, we think of the Colonial Fleet, but we forget, the Colonial Fleet doesn't work alone. Each Colony had a smaller and just as vital Fleet, fleets which fought to defend their homes, and fleets, which died defending them. But like with our Fleet there were survivors still holding on, still fighting to protect our people. The Scorpion Defence Fleet Battlestar Sirocco came to our assistance in recovering the former prisoners. They fought to protect these Colonials and the marines on the ground, and a few brave members of their crew died, just as any Colonial Fleet crewman and marine would die for any Colonial.
"Through their assistance more than 12,000 Colonials were rescued from that horrific camp. 12,000 brothers and sisters returned, if not to their homes, then to their families and their people. In addition, the fleet that Rear-Admiral Sicero brought includes 9000 civilians and just over 7000 military personnel.
"Remember together we are as strong as the person next to us. Think how strong we are now with those recovered from the camp and the thousands brought with the Battlestar Sirocco's fleet which includes the Battlestar Romulus and Corvettes Pax and Concordia.
"You may ask, where were our ships in all of this? The Battlestars Pegasus and Praetoria and the Battlestars Arion and Therion showed the Cylons that if they can bomb our worlds, that if they can kill our people, then we can do the same to them, faster than they did to us and with fewer ships. We nuked 12 Cylon worlds one after the other with our four ships, completely obliterating the planet we identified as the Cylon's capital and destroying hundreds of cities and mines, military bases and manufacturing centres on the rest.
"We showed the Cylons that the Colonial Fleet and the Twelve Colonies of Kobol aren't dead, that we are not even close to dead. We showed them that we dictate the terms and the battles now, and that as long as just one of us is alive, none of them are safe.
"They think themselves strong. They're not strong. Strong is seeing your world destroyed, everything you loved lost, and then at the end of it all picking up the sword and fighting to build it all again better and stronger than before.
"I see that strength in all of you, and today the Cylons saw it too.
"These coming weeks, months and possibly even years are going to be difficult. They are going to test you in ways you never imagined. But if you look to the person next to you, if you add your strength to theirs, then we will come through this stronger than we ever were before. Just like we did today.
"So say we all."
At that, Cain deactivated the comm and announced, "Lieutenant Shaw, you have the conn." Turning, Cain left the CIC as throughout the fleet her people chanted their victory as one.
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Battlestar Praetoria
Commander Fasjovic's Quarters
19:01
Sat back on the sofa in Coker's quarters, a mug of tea in his hands, jacket undone and head tilted towards the speakers as the cries of "So say we all" carried around the fleet from the many crew and civilians, Rear-Admiral Scipio turned to Coker asking "Is the news always like that?"
Snorting out his own tea, Coker wiped off his mouth before replying "Yeah kinda. She's smart."
Nodding as he put his feet up on the table, Robert agreed saying "Her strategy against the Cylons was amazing, and scavenging the wrecks…"
Leaning to put his own mug on the table, Coker replied "That's not what I meant. See, Cain was right, right now she has a lot more than a few thousand pissed off Civilians on her warships, civis that have woken up to find they were all drugged before being flown into battle. Civis that are soon going to want to be in charge. All it would take is a spark and the whole fleet could go up…"
"Ah, so she's getting them onside before that happens."
Pulling open his own collar, Coker answered "Yep. More than that though she is making heroes among the fleet for them to worship and trust. She's taking their fear and she is reshaping it into rage against the Cylons. We could walk out of this room right now and every one of the civilians on this ship would likely volunteer. For now she needs to keep doing this, needs to keep the refugees onside while she relocates them to more permanent accommodation, while she gets them jobs to do and a council put together to deal with the civilians."
With a questioning look on his face, Robert asked "Not a quorum?"
Shaking his head, Coker replied "I doubt it. Look around, we don't have 12 Colonies, we have 2 and right now we can't get to them without being blown out of the sky. If the Colonial government ever continues it will be Leonis and Virgon as the powerhouses at the head of it. I've heard word that the POWs had some kind of a council in order to keep the peace around camp, chances are Cain's going to do something similar. They'll never have control, Cain will make sure of it, not until the war is over at least."
Robert knew what that meant, "Military dictatorship."
Nodding Coker replied "In all but name. I wonder how she will sell it."
Colonial Wolfpack
279ly outside Cylon Space
Battlestar Arion
D81-RS41-C2 Crawlspace
21:08
White hot fire burned through her broken nerve endings as she moved her wounded shoulder. For so long now she had clamped down on the pain, but as strong as her resistance was, even it had its limits. The cold was pressing in on her this close to the outer hull, the metal beneath her seeping what little warmth was left to her, and outright freezing her skin. Forcing herself to move her wounded arm, Theresa pulled an MRE from the satchel and withdrew a protein bar.
With darkness surrounding her, Theresa forced herself to chew and swallow the bland food all while formulating her next plan. As the sounds of the joyful crew and civilians carried even this far into the mighty ship, Theresa considered just how her plan had failed, and she realised what she hadn't accounted for; Admiral Hudson. So long as Hudson remained alive then this fleet would have too capable a leader, he had to be dealt with, but she knew she wasn't yet ready.
But it was more than that, every second came the thought that Willow was gone and that potentially millions of Cylons could be dead since even the Resurrection Fleet has limits. She had failed every one of them.
Projecting a spring meadow around her to push away the thought as best she could, Theresa forced herself to sleep.
Cyrannus Star Cluster
Helios Beta
Leonis Low Orbit
Raptor 108/Pegasus
Lieutenant Arbela
21:16
Appearing in a bright flash of light, Raptor 108 of the Battlestar Pegasus piloted by Lieutenant Arbela started transmitting a landing request to Leonis Command below him. As the signal was going out the young male pilot kept a watchful eye on the DRADIS which was showing several Raider patrols around the planet as well as 8 Modern Basestars, 4 Hades class Basestars, 2 Argos Class Basestars, 3 Cerastes Class Destroyers, 1 Phobos Tech Cruiser and 5 modernised resupply ships based off the Hydra Class Resupply. On the planet's surface almost a hundred Troop Transports and resupply ships had already landed. Watching their orbits, Arbela saw how the Raiders were inbound on his location. As he sat there he noted orange streaks stretching across the skies of Leonis, evidence of most of the wreckage of the many warships breaking up in Leonis atmosphere as gravity pulled them to the planet below. Those on the ground knew this would go on for weeks if not months. The wrecks which didn't fall to Leonis or continue off into space would instead slowly break up, and start to litter Leonis' orbit like a poor planets artificial belt. Who knew, maybe over many hundreds of years as the wrecks broke down to fragments of metal, maybe they would eventually become a thin belt surrounding the planet forever marking the sight of the immense battle.
It took precious seconds before his wireless answered with "Raptor 108/ARC 16. Set jump coordinates to 211832001-0062 and proceed to jump within 1 minute or you will be considered a threat. Warning, this is an extremely low altitude jump, give maximum vertical thrust prior to jumping."
"Copy that" inputting the coordinates, Arbela continued "Jumping in 10 seconds. Maximum thrust Requesting an intelligence officer on arrival." Easing the safety harness over his fractured shoulder as best he could, his injuries being the main reason he was chosen for the mission, Arbela prepared himself for the imminent jump.
In two flashes of light he went from looking down upon Leonis to looking up at the skies of Leonis. As his Raptor dropped a few metres before his vertical thrust eliminated the drop, he saw that he was landing at a carpark in a city centre. Looking out over the skyline he reasoned that it was Luminaire, the capital. Easing the Raptor down, he made out the dozens of AA guns, chain guns and small artillery guns aimed at his small ship from the edges of the carpark. Operating these defences were dozens of soldiers, all of them heavily armoured and armed Leonosian Legionaries.
A squad of four well-armed Legionaries approached from the front, rifles aimed at his head through the canopy and hand signals telling him to shut down the craft and raise his hands. Immediately complying, the whine of the engines settled and died and he raised his arms as best he could, but unable to fully shift his left arm due to the fractured shoulder.
From behind him he heard a clambering on the wing and then the hatch opening on its hydraulics before two Legionaries stepped aboard and moved to the cockpit. Grabbing his right shoulder they twisted him round with a gun aimed in his face. He didn't want to admit it but he was terrified. He had little to fear as the Legionaries spoke into their headsets "Feather, I repeat feather. It's clear, he's human."
"Bring him out" the commanding officer replied "Squad two check the ship then get it covered."
Helping Arbela to his feet, the Legionaries led him through the back and out onto the wing. As the cloud filtered sunlight hit Arbela he made out the extent of the destruction in the distant skyline. While there were many destroyed buildings and collapsed skyscrapers, one of which leaned against another, there was much less than he thought there would be. Led around the craft he came face to face with the military commander, Colonel Powell.
Saluting the Colonel, Lieutenant Arbela announced "Sir, I need to speak with Leonis command or your intelligence service. Priority One."
Looking at the young injured pilot, Powell asked "Has the Pegasus fleet been lost?" They all knew of the Pegasus and her fleet, the stories were spoken about at night around campfires almost like a myth with everyone imagining just what Cain could do with her few ships against the Cylons.
As he followed Powell to a waiting Raven, Arbela answered "Negative sir, they are very much alive and well. Our fleet is larger now too. The SDF Battlestar Sirocco and the Battlestar Romulus joined the Fleet earlier today along with two corvettes and several civilian vessels."
With the Raven taking off and flying at a low altitude down the city streets and Arbela seeing the thousands of defensive batteries across the city and the hundreds of defensive fortifications still being built up as the Leonosians intended to quite literally fight for every inch of their territory, Powell asked "Should you be telling me this?"
"That information wasn't classified, the Cylons already know…" The military transport soon entered a long tunnel before setting down at a heavily guarded military checkpoint. He was soon led through several more equally well guarded checkpoints as he was led deeper into the underground base before, 15 minutes later, finding himself in meeting room surrounded by several guards and a female Doctor helping with the injuries he had sustained to his left side, the Doctor asking him about the wellbeing of the people in Cain's fleet while working.
Long minutes passed until the door opened to reveal several high ranking officers and intelligence personnel, and, in the middle of all of them, Field Marshal Montgomery. Looking at the Doctor, Montgomery nodded before turning to Arbela. Beret still on, salt and pepper moustache well-groomed and uniform pressed, Montgomery moved to stand in front of the saluting Arbela. Returning the salute, Montgomery asked "Lieutenant, what's happened to the Fleet? What do you have to report?"
Reaching over to the desk where a box of data discs he had carried was placed, Arbela answered "The fleet is still alive and well sir. It's currently being reinforced by the Battlestars Sirocco and Romulus as well as the Corvettes Pax and Concordia, these ships having brought a larger civilian fleet of tankers, mining ships and Argo-Ships from the Atticus Reach and the Vitruvian Expanse."
"Thank the Gods. We sent scouts through those areas three days ago, we didn't find many survivors. At least more made it."
Nodding, Arbela answered "Yes sir. Sir, I was ordered to report here by Fleet Admiral Cain and provide you with vital intelligence gathered over the past several days and today in particular. Today at 08:00 hours Fleet standard, the Pegasus, Praetoria, Arion and Therion launched a series of attacks against 12 Cylon planets including their what was identified as their capital, Willow. Through the use of high yield nuclear ordnance, these attacks have proved highly successful and it is believed that the results will slow down the Cylon industrial complex. The biosphere of their capital has also been severely damaged if not destroyed. On these data discs are the locations and intelligence on all known Cylon planets as well as fleet makeup and suspected population counts. For 11 of the planets attacked, the overall destruction is estimated at 50% due to Cain not wanting the Cylons to abandon these planets, nevertheless it will take them time to repair.
"Furthermore a 13th planet was hit by a marine assault led by the survivors of Ghost and Argos Squadron. During the assault more than 12,000 colonial prisoners of war were rescued, and further vital intelligence was gathered. It was during this assault we found the Sirocco fleet. Admiral Cain knowing there is a chance they might eventually fall felt that you and the war effort would benefit from having this intelligence. I am also to be transferred to your command, the injuries to my shoulder and spine making me unsuitable as a combat pilot for the near future. However, this was a volunteer-only mission and Leonis is my home, with your permission I would like to try and find my family, heal and then enlist with the auxilary forces as a pilot"
The military officers and intelligence personnel were stunned by the report. Such a devastating attack meant that Cylon resources would be sent elsewhere thereby giving the Leonosians a better chance.
Montgomery meanwhile just shook his head while taking the box from Arbela and muttering "Fracking Cain" and letting out a chuckle. Turning to the Doctor whom stood there in shock, Montgomery announced "I told you Ma'am, Cain will be the death of the Cylons."
Queen Alexandria could only stand there as she smiled before replying "It seems I owe you a drink, and you too Lieutenant. Don't worry, we will help you find your family."
The news would be spread across Leonis by nightfall. The war had shifted and now they needed to carry on this victory for all it was worth.
Cylon territory
Willow
Rand City Outskirts
Command Bunker
Model 2: Joshua Kellogg
21:37
Joshua just stood there leaning against the doorway as tremor after tremor gently shook the facility. The world was dying out there, Volcanoes and Supervolcanoes long ago stabilised by the Cylons were now unleashing their pent up wrath on the planet around them. Tens of millions of Cylons across the planet had suffered a true death as the nearby Resurrection facilities were overwhelmed by millions of resurrecting Cylons. The city of Rand was no more as it crashed down in the distance, Joshua knew that the dream it had been was now gone, and it was their fault not the Colonials.
Looking in at the room which had once been Daniel's, Joshua saw it for what it had long since become; a shrine. As much as John might try to say they shouldn't be sentimental, there was just something different about Daniel and the rest of the Sevens that altered them all in profound ways. Feeling her presence behind him, Joshua spoke into the dim room "If he saw us now, would he even recognise us, would he recognise what we have become?"
Rachel moved closer to him, a hand closing to his shoulder, her Queenstown accent soft in this sombre setting, a voice almost all Three's had, she made it hers "We should have told them, we could have stopped this before it began."
Gently shaking his head, Joshua replied "No, we couldn't. John is smarter than we give him credit for, he covered his tracks well. There would be no evidence, nothing we could link him to, just our word against his. How easy it would be to paint us as defective models. Our brothers and sisters don't even remember our parents, can't even speak their names and unknowingly hunt them down to wherever Adama leads them."
Leaning against his back, her hands wrapping him in a hug, Rachel leant her head next to his and softly said "Daniel knows, if he's still out there."
"He is, somewhere he's still alive in some way. We bought him that chance long ago. For now we can't do anything that will stand out. Eventually all this, everything that happened today will fester like an open wound, and when the truth finally rears its ugly head, eventually, there will be civil war. I see it as clearly as I see Daniel's sketches. The Ones, Fours and Fives against the Twos, Threes, Sixes and Eights. It could be a month from now or years down the line but it will happen. We need to prepare in secrecy, they'll still control more Basestars than we will, we might have more models but if we are not careful they will have more guns."
"You're sure about this?"
Sombrely nodding his head, Joshua answered "As sure as I am that whatever hope we still had left of winning the war was lost today."
Taking a last look at the bedroom as a larger tremor ran through the facility, Joshua took Rachel's hand and turned to leave. As they approached the lifts and the two Cylon citizen models there, their forms so much like the original civilian Cylons created by Graystone upon which they had been evolved, Joshua asked "Can you please pack up Joshua's things Kel. Have them brought to the cabin on Meadow. And look after yourself you two, I've made sure a Heavy Raider will be coming back for you, there's a home waiting for you on Meadow if you want it."
The two sentient machines nodded while replying "By your request, have a safe journey" before one of the mechanical beings moved over to hug Rachel.
Stepping into the lift, they left the residential area of the Command Bunker, the lift carrying them up a dozen levels and then stopping at a security checkpoint. Leaving the lift, the two Cylons passed hundreds of Cylons of all models both biological and mechanical, most working to secure items, machinery, research and their possessions. In so many ways, Joshua thought as he walked through the crowd, in so many ways they were so like the Humans when it all came down to it.
Finally reaching the entrance to the landing pads outside, Joshua watched as the hundreds of Cylons were led forward as a thick blast door swung open. The crowd pushed steadily forward into the strong winds. Leaning down and gathering what few possessions he had in the bunker, Joshua wrapped a scarf around his face and finally joined the procession.
Passing through the hatch, the first of many transports blocked his view 30 metres ahead of him. Looking to the left was to look upon an ice world on fire. The Hestia mountain range which included the nine peaks of once dormant volcanoes was now burning a bright red and orange glow. Balls of molten lava were being fired from the bubbling calderas of these volcanoes, each one crashing like a missile through the already ruined city. The entire sky was covered in an orange smog which was steadily starting to thicken and blacken. The vague remnants of mushroom clouds hung suspended over the city and collapsed factories, and flecks of radioactive dust and ash were being carried on the wind towards him and the crowd.
"About time you fracking got here" One, Jacob called out as he huddled with the leading council for Willow in the lea of the transport ship. "Come on, I don't fancy staying here longer than I have to, the entire platform is liable to give way any second and our resurrection facilities are down." Turning as he pulled his thick coat about him when the cold bit into his aged skin, Cavil muttered "And I hate not being able to communicate with our ships up there, I want to know what's taking them so fracking long in getting the rescue ships down here." Ever since shortly after the attack they had been out of communication with the rest of their fleet, completely isolated on this dying rock of a planet with not one ship coming down to rescue them. The only reason they had a ship here now was that a group of mechanical Cylons had worked hours to clear one of the distant hangars.
Joining the crowd entering the ship, Joshua and the council worked their way through to the bridge with its expansive windows which wrapped around the room. Stowing their few possessions and getting strapped in, Joshua listened to an Eight, Sarah and a Four, Paul inform them of the facilities they had lost across the planet, of the research destroyed and set back and of the costs to them in manufacturing capabilities. Nobody was talking about the loss of life.
It wasn't long before the pilot, a Six called out, "Taking off now, we're going to hit some turbulence on the way out and are going to lose wireless contact with the ground once we reach orbit, there's too much shit being kicked around the atmosphere blocking everything."
She was right Joshua thought, not even 200 feet in the air and the transport was already shaking left and right, and up and down. Casting his gaze out of the window on his left, Joshua saw the city which had once been the most beautiful creation he had seen, full of spires and glass growing in hundreds of circles and spokes from the snow of Willow. In the distance seeming to accentuate the view of the city had been a series of waterfalls from two rivers which became one, the pristine blue and white waters cascading down the Hasteana Mountain ranges to eventually flow their way around and through the city before again joining up many miles away. Daniel had even had plans to grow genetically modified grasses, plantlife and trees in the nutrient rich ground around and within the city before his line ended. But now?
Fractured, shattered blades of metal and blackened melted glass pointed skywards, hundreds of craters surrounding one large crater dominated the centre of the city, and outwards from that cracks lined the land. Fire covered the mountains, and the once beautiful waterfalls now flowed with lava destroying all in its wake. On the distant horizon, streaks of fire descended as the wreckage of the shipyards came apart and crashed across the expanse of the planet adding yet more devastation. And ash, ash settled over everything. It would take hundreds of years to return to normal and thousands for the radiation to clear.
Closing his eyes against it all, Joshua felt Rachel's hand take his as she saw the devastation itself. Not even the Colonies had faced this level of destruction.
It took many minutes before the overloaded transport arrived emerged into orbit above the hellish realm that had become Willow. Ahead of them were just three newly arriving Basestars and eleven transport ships with more arriving. Seeing this, Jacob called out "Where the frak's the rest of the fleet? They should have all come to help evacuate Willow."
Six, Anna looked up from her interface, a look of chilled horror blanching her features, "I've just received a report from the Basestars…" she didn't know how to continue.
Seeing the fear and confusion on her face, Joshua asked "How bad?"
Looking up, Anna replied "Cain and her four ships hit Daphni, Chios, Mystra, Panagia, Tios, Babel, Portus, Nova Phoenicia, Trier, Aquileia and Merida. All these planets were hit with high yield nuclear warheads. Our forces were unable to stop or defeat them…" None of the Cylons spoke, they all collapsed in their seats in shock and defeat, and then Anna continued "At the same time a marine insertion supported by jump capable Vipers and Assault Raptors was being led by Ghost Squadron on the planet Pollonus. They destroyed the satellite defences and disabled the military bases around the planet before launching an assault to free the prisoners in Camp Asphodel. Over the course of 45 minutes the marines evacuated 12,872 of their people. The Scorpion Defence Fleet Battlestar Sirocco also found the Colonials at the planet and joined up with their forces. All Colonial ships escaped. Due to the number of attacks the Resurrection fleet and all groundside Resurrection facilities have been overwhelmed, they couldn't even be stored…" Anna stood staring into space while pulling herself together before saying "Hundreds of millions of Cylons are expected to resurrect but…6.2 billion Cylons of all models both mechanical and biological have suffered a true death."
There was silence.
And that's another big chapter of a huge operation finished.
You may be wondering why I have went in the direction I did with the mining colonies. With Blood and Chrome's introduction of Djerba it got me thinking that the Colonies had to have settled dozens of similar planets outside of the Cyrannus system. Realising that Blood and Chrome was likely going to build on this, after all a jump drive and the fleets ships like the hitei khan (sewage ship or rather shit ship) would make better sense if there was mining colonies in nearby systems.
Towards that end I decided to flesh out some areas in the larger Cyrannus Star Cluster which will no doubt play a part later on, all of these areas being on the Colonial side of the border.
The map I've drawn up (crappily in Paint) has the colonies as a central point, the armistice line at the south about 80ly away (2 jumps), the Atticus Reach (specifically the Twins) to the west about 121ly away (3-4 jumps), the Vitruvian Expanse to the North and North-East about 83ly away (2 jumps) and the Wastes (an area abandoned in the first war containing Djerba) to the East about 80ly away (2 jumps). Beyond the wastes starting at 250ly away from Helios is the Prolmar Sector.
Atticus Reach has 83 charted star systems with regular mining operations by independents in 12. The largest operations are in the Twins a binary system. Across all the small mining colonies (asteroids etc think the expanse but on a budget) there were a total of under 1 million colonists most located in the Twins and most settlements being only as large as a small town. There was also 2 small fleet anchorages in the reach.
The Vitruvian Expanse has 291 charted systems with regular large scale mining operations in 28 for a rough population of 28 million. It also has the pavilion deep space array on its northern border, this is an array of 256 of satellites lined up over 20 lightyears as a scientific endeavour that took years and was designed to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation but also has other uses. There are also 4 small to medium Fleet Anchorages and 1 large 1 or rather there were.
The Wastes has nobody living in it and exists outside the ribbon early warning network. There are 18 abandoned systems with destroyed and shutdown facilities/small colonies (Hadley's Hope style [Aliens]) some of which were resorts. There are also 7 former anchorages/military bases there abandoned during the war and numerous large battle sites.
The Bay. This is an area of space around the Helios system buffering all the other regions and bordered to the south by the armistice line. Completely surrounded by the Ribbon and has 17 inhabited systems (36 million spread throughout) which are mostly resort worlds, mines, research sites and small terraforming colonies as well as a penal colony. 8 anchorages and major military bases.
Then surrounding everything except the wastes is the ribbon which is tens of thousands of mass produced satellites serving as an early warning against either attack or a civilian ship getting to close to the border.
Finally theres the helios system which remains the same of just over 50billion.
Anyway, I hope you liked that chapter it should give you a good idea of where I am going with things. The next chapter I will be working on finishing is for new beginnings.