Chapter 10 – ….The Idles of Martius
(Raptor 204 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1025)
Roy had been smart enough to jump them in a good distance from The Pupil. It had taken a tic over twenty-two minutes to get here at top sub-light speed. So far, there was no sign of Cylon defenses around the planet. And that was worrying Ace. It was simply too easy. She would not have left such an obvious blind spot and it made no sense that the toasters had.
"They're not that stupid." She muttered. "Still nothing on DRADIS, Roy ?"
"We're all alone out here, skipper. I'm not reading any…." As if on cue, the DRADIS screen beeped and two dots appeared. "Two raiders, bearing 270 carom 28." There were more beeps. "We've found The Pupil's defensive hot spot. I'm reading a satellite big enough to hold two dozen raiders. If those two spot us, all Hell will break loose."
Ace put the Widowmaker through a sharp turn. This whole thing was a minefield, but they did have one of advantage of the toasters. Their DRADIS had longer range then the Cylon units. It gave them a fighting chance. But this was not going to be easy.
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1258)
Their preparations were on schedule. The Raptors were armed and ready to go, while they had loaded all the Vipers into the launch tubes that they could. All in all, they had done what they could to prepare for their combat jump. Williams watched as the clock ticked past 1258. Then he glanced at the countdown. It would still be several hours before the Wild Bunch could jump out of there. He hoped they would make it. But now he had other things to worry about.
"Thirty seconds, sir." Major DeSalle said.
The clock ticked on. It made it past twenty seconds, then ten – at which point the flightpods retracted and the FTL-drive began counting down – and finally five. Then – at exactly 1300 hours – the ship jumped.
(Caesar Nebula – Day 4570, 1300)
Xanthi appeared exactly where she was supposed to. According to the data collected by the Wild Bunch, their target was holding position inside a dense pocket of gas. They were using their thrusters to stay put. Williams had decided not risk an extended engagement here. The risk of them warning the Cylon forces at The Cheese or calling for reinforcement were simply too great. Xanthi was low on nuclear missiles. There were only three of them left and those had been loaded into the missile tubes before the jump. They had apparently caught the Basestar by surprise. Before they could launch there raiders, Xanthi launched one of her nukes and annihilated her. Then she jumped again.
(Raptor 204 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1301)
The Pupil had begun her passage at 1205 hours. It had been a close call, but the Wild Bunch had managed to arrive on time. (The window has been down to seven seconds.) All four of the Raptors were parked in a crater. The crater was there because the Caesar Nebula was not just gas, but also contained plenty of junk. And every now and then, something hit the planet. Given time, the crater would vanish under the ice and snow, but for now it was stable.
Roy had picked this crater as their spy-hole because it was one of several in this area. If they needed to, they could hop from this one to another to keep the toasters guessing. Ace was watching the DRADIS screen, take notes and doing the math. While she was doing that, Roy and Ice were sleeping. (This mission was a marathon and she figured that the only way to finish it was to share the load.) Suddenly, the DRADIS screen beeped as a massive target appeared overheard. Roy snapped awake and joined her.
"Is that the base satellite ?" He asked.
"It sure is." Ace said. "This is it, Roy. Crunch time."
If the Cylons spotted them now, it would all be over. They would simply fire a nuke from the satellite and wipe the Bunch off the map. And there was nothing they could do about it. Ace looked at Ice, who was still sleeping. An officer was not supposed to be caught sleeping. But then again, they hadn't been caught yet. And even if Ice had been awake, there had been nothing for him to do. All they could do was wait….
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1301)
The jump dropped the Xanthi outside of the Nebula with a clear line of sight to The Cheese. Her AA-batteries locked onto the Relay and cut loose with everything they could muster. Williams didn't waste any time and grabbed the intercom handset.
"This the Commander. Launch all planes."
He put the handset back and looked up at the DRADIS screen. Fixer clearly had things well in hand, because he was already seeing Vipers appear on the screen. At the same time, their Raptors were launching from both flight pods. ~So far, so good.~ He looked at the DRADIS signature of the Relay. It had taken several hits, but now it was using its weapons and the bulk of her raiders to screen itself. ~Come on, flyboys and girls, start punching me some holes.~ As if on cue, the first Vipers arrived and cut loose.
At the same time, six raiders entered DRADIS range and headed straight for the Xanthi. The point-defense guns cut loose and blasted them to pieces. Two seconds later, more showed up. That put them above the count given by the Wild Bunch. Williams figured they were from The Trap. It made sense that some of their raiders had been out on patrol when they had nuked it. He turned to Peters.
"Zak, coordinate the point-defense guns. This is going to be a long fight. So let's make every shot count."
"Yes, sir."
Peters grabbed his handset and began giving orders. Soon they were snipering raiders left and right.
(Viper 1105 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1302)
Lucky blasted the raider he had been chasing to pieces. Next to him, Bernice 'Fancy' Henderson was firing missiles from her Raptor – nicknamed Fancy because of her flying style – and taking out another toaster. He activated his wireless with one hand, while turning 1105 to starboard with the other.
"Stay close to me, Fancy." He said. "I'll cover you. We need those missiles to take out the relay."
=/\=You got it, boss.=/\=
McIvers put his Viper into through another sharp turn, with Fancy right behind him. Although they were outnumbered, the Cylons were putting up a good fight. And the weapons on the Relay itself were giving them plenty to do as well. He checked the DRADIS display to see how Xanthi was doing. The Big X had the guns to take the Relay with just a couple of shots. Alas, the fighter jumble was between them and the target. Before he could check it out further, a raider appeared right in front of him. He pushed the stick to left and 1105 rolled. Bullets whizzed left and right of him, but none hit.
"Still with me, Fancy ?"
=/\=Yes, boss.=/\=
"Good."
Lucky fired back at the toasters. He managed to clip it, but the raider kept going. It fired another salvo. He put 1105 through a turn and the rounds missed. Before the raider could fire a third salvo, it was hit by large caliber fire that came out of nowhere. Lucky checked the angle and realized what had happened. The Relay had tried to take Fancy out, but she had used the raider as a shield. They continued to close on the Relay. The good news was there were no more raiders between them and the Relay. The bad news was that the Relay was firing everything she could muster at Lucky and Fancy.
(Raptor 204 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1304)
The satellite hadn't nuked them….yet. It was slowly inching towards the other side of the DRADIS screen. Ace figured it would be another two minutes before the Cylons were gone. But then something bad happened. The satellite launched all of her raiders. Ace cursed and was about to wake up Ice, when Roy put a hand on her shoulder and pointed to the display. The raiders were FTL jumping away. Ace couldn't believe what she seeing.
"What the hell ?" She said. "Since when do raiders have jump drives ?"
"I don't know." Roy began. "But this is going to come back and bite us in the ass." He scratched his face. "For now, however, I'm more worried about where those raiders went."
"Well, we're not going to find out sitting here. Wake up Ice, we're going to find us some answers."
Roy nodded and went to wake Ice, while Ace made her way to the pilot's seat and began prepping Widowmaker for launch. She didn't have an exact plan in her head, but she figured she could make something up as they went along.
(Viper 1105 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1305)
Nineteen missiles hit the Relay, taking out a considerable chunk of it. The whole thing began to spiral out of control, putting considerable stress on the spaceframe. It hadn't been easy to get Fancy into position, but as they had approached the Relay, they had been joined by other Raptors and Vipers. While Lucky and the others – who had managed to break away from the fighter jumble – had provided cover fire to keep the Relay busy, Fancy had hit the Relay with everything she had left.
=/\=I'm out, boss.=/\=
"Nice shooting, Fancy." He began. "Now, boys and girls, let's…."
Before he could finish the sentence, two large explosions rocked the Relay. The relay had spiraled straight into Xanthi's sight. And she was using her cannons to finish the job Fancy had started. Three more shots hit and then the Relay exploded. When the light faded, there was nothing left, except for a few pieces of scrap metal. Lucky looked at the DRADIS display. The screen only showed Colonial signatures. They had won.
(Raptor 204 – Cockpit – Day 4570, 1305)
Ice looked at the DRADIS display and bit his lower lip. What he was seeing was wrong. Really, really wrong. A site like should be crawling with patrols, but there was nothing. Except for the Base Satellite – which was oddly silent - the DRADIS display was empty. At the moment, they were flying low above the surface of The Pupil, but he had feeling they wouldn't stay there. So he did the math on how long it would take them to reach the Relay at full sub-light speed.
"47 seconds to get the Relay into DRADIS range." He said. "In theory, we should be able to get a scan from outside the Relay's weapons range. Are you sure you want to do this, boss ?"
"I know, theory is very different real life sometimes. And even at maximum range there's a good chance we'll get blown to pieces. But if they've all left…."
"….then all Hell is about to break loose somewhere else. I presume we have a Plan B."
"The FTL is Plan B." Roy said. "We're spun and ready to go. Just give the word and we'll jump back to The Cheese." It was a gamble – presuming that the Big X would there – but it was the best they could do. "How long until we pull away from The Pupil ?"
"Let's put thirty seconds on the clock." Roy nodded and programmed the clock. "And….mark."
The clock began to count down. As soon as it hit zero, Ace pulled back on the stick and took them straight towards the Relay. Ice looked at the DRADIS display, but nothing appeared. It made him really nervous. Finally, the Relay appeared on the screen. And it was unguarded. Ice cursed like an experienced flyboy. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ace and Roy managed to exchange looks and smiles. Their rookie was going through a serious learning curve in a very short time. Two seconds later, Ace's console beeped.
"The Relay has locked weapons onto us. Roy, time to jump."
"Clock is running." Roy said. "Five…four….three….two….one….Jump !"
And with that, the Wild Bunch was gone from The Eye.
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1306)
They were collecting their birds and making the tally, but – at least so far – it appeared that all their birds had made it through this one. The toasters had not been so lucky….every single one of their raiders had been reduced to pieces and the Relay had gone up like a Caprican Candle. He turned to Peters, who was talking to Fixer on his handset. Finally, he put the unit down.
"What's the count, Zak ?"
"The good news is that we didn't lose any flyers." He said. "But we have sixteen Vipers and four Raptors in need of some serious repair. And we're still bringing in birds, so you can expect that count…."
His sentence was cut off by four signatures appearing at the edge DRADIS range. But that was not the problem. The problem was that they were Colonial signatures. Williams recognized them right away. It was the Wild Bunch. And that meant that something had gone very, very wrong over at The Eye. He turned to Lieutenant Jonas at Communications. Jonas had once been an engineer, but after the previous Communications Chief – Master Chief Petty Officer Alex McVeigh – had transferred to Fleet HQ, Jonas had gotten the job.
"Jonas, open a channel to Ace."
"Channel open."
"Xanthi Actual to Raptor 204." He said into his handset. "Report."
=/\=Ace here, Actual.=/\= Byron's voice came over the wireless. =/\= The scout mission to the Eye went sideways, sir. We were sneaking in when the Cylons suddenly all bugged out.=/\= Williams and Peters exchanged looks. The only reason they would do that if they were rallying their forces for an offensive of some kind. =/\= I made the call to come back here and raise the alarm.=/\=
"Get your birds aboard, Ace. We're getting out of here, now."
=/\=Wilco, sir.=/\=
Williams put the handset down, cutting the channel. Ace had made the right call, jumping out of there. They needed to hit The Eye, then warn the Fleet that the Cylons were about to hit them. He turned to Peters and the two of got to work.
(Caesar Nebula – Day 4570, 1315)
Xanthi jumped into the Eye. The Relay opened fire right away. But the Battlestar had more firepower and better armor. She steamrolled over the Cylon station like she was made out of tissue paper. Two seconds later, four Mark-II Basestars jumped in. They immediately opened fire with everything they had and began launching her raiders. The Battle of The Eye had just begun in earnest.
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1316)
The Big X was getting pounded from all sides. And she would not last long under this bombardment. Worse, the toasters had them surrounded. Williams decided that they had nothing to lose.
"Zak, tell all gunners to open fire. DeSalle, launch both our nukes."
"Yes, sir." Came the replies.
Xanthi launched her last two nukes. The first warhead hit one of the Basestars and vaporized it. Warhead number two missed its original target, but kept going and hit another Basestar. This left the Xanthi with a hole to escape the gauntlet. And Williams didn't waste any time. He turned to the Helm and gave the order to get them out of the kill zone. While all this happened, the weapons grid was sparing with Basestar number three and shooting down as many raiders as she could. But she was still losing. Williams grabbed his intercom handset.
"Actual to Fixer !"
=/\=Fixer here. We're launching birds as fast as we can, sir.=/\=
"Launch the Raptors as well. We need…." That was a far as he got before a load shriek indicated that the com-line had gone dead. "Frak."
"Radiological alarm !" DeSalle said. "I'm reading three nuclear missiles on the fourth Basestar, sir."
Williams suppressed another curse. Two seconds later, the missiles hit and hellfire washed over the Xanthi. The ship shook and rattled. And the hull breached in multiple places. Entire sections were vented to space, while a major fire erupted in the mid-ships section and people suffered radiation poisoning. Down in CIC, consoles sparked and fell over. Williams was thrown through the room and ended up landing against the Communications Station. He got back on his feet, not noticing the small piece of metal that fell from his pocket. It was a one-cubit coin. Two seconds later, the ship rocked again. The last thing Tyler Williams ever saw, was a rain of electrical sparks from the Communications station.
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1319)
The Commander fell to the deck, electrocuted. And part of Zachary Peters couldn't believe it. But a bigger part of him said that he still had a job to do. Normally, a Jupiter-class Battlestar like the Xanthi could take three hits. But the Basestar had been close and all three missiles had been targeted at the exact same spot in the mid-ship zone. And the raiders from the Basestars were also firing at the Big X, despite the best efforts by the gunners and the air wing. Then two of the main guns were blown to pieces, creating a hole in the ship's defenses. The Cylons immediately hit that section.
"Hull breach on deck seven, sir !" DeSalle said. "We have a fire spreading towards the fuel supply, sir."
"Get our people out of there and vent those sections !"
Before DeSalle could relay the order, the other Basestar launched her nuclear missiles. There were two of them. And Peters recognized them for what they were…a death blow. There wouldn't be time to evacuate the ship. Just an explosion and silence. He watched as the missiles closed and braced for the end. And then – just before impact – there was a flash….
(Battlestar Anubis – CIC – Day 4570, 1319)
The attack on Proteus Outpost had gone according to plan. In fact, it had been too easy. There had been a lot less raiders they then had expected and Anubis – together with Loki and Berserk – had waltzed over the place. Her CO – Commander Claus Donovan – had smelled trouble. So instead of jumping back to base, they had jumped to The Cheese. When they had found nothing but debris there, they had jumped to The Eye. And it had turned out to be just in time. The Big X had jumped into an ambush. They had just shot down two nukes that had been heading straight for the Big X.
"Prepare the nukes !" He said to his weapons officer. "And target the Basestar to port."
"Yes, sir."
Loki and Berserk were already hitting said Basestar with all their firepower. Now Anubis joined in. Being an Orion-class Battlestar, she was not meant to fight alone. But if there was one thing that this war had taught Donovan, it was that sometimes you had to forget the rulebook and just do. And between the three of them, the colonial ships were incurring some major damage on their target. Finally, a beep announced that the nukes were ready to go.
"Fire !"
Anubis launched two nukes – one for each Basestar – and Donovan bit his lower lip. The first warhead hit the starboard Basestar in the central section and vaporized it. The second missed its target, but detonated close enough to give it a massive wallop. It spiraled out of control, allowing the Anubis and company to descend upon it. Between them and the Big X, the Basestar didn't last long. That done, they began targeting the many raiders swarming around the place.
(Battlestar Xanthi – CIC – Day 4570, 1321)
Anubis had saved the Big X from the nukes, but she was not of the woods yet. The good news was that the crew had managed to vent the mid-ship section that had been one fire. The bad news was that they were still taking heavy fire from raiders. Worse, the Big X's FTL-drive was off-line. So getting out was not an option anymore. Even if the drive had been working, in their current condition jumping would have been far too dangerous. Between the nukes and the raiders, the Big X had suffered twenty-three hull breaches. Peters looked up to see three more raiders vanish from the DRADIS screen.
"How are our boys and girls doing ?" Peters asked Jonas.
"I can't tell, sir." Jonas began. "Our wireless system is damaged and the Cylons are jamming like crazy, sir."
Anubis had launched all her birds, which had cut loose as soon as they could. But even with the reinforcements, their Vipers and Raptors were still outnumbered four to one. And as much as he hated it to admit it, there was nothing he could about that. What he could do, however, was make sure that there would still be a bird farm for them to return to. He made his way to what was left of the Damage Control Panel and got busy.
(Battlestar Anubis – CIC – Day 4570, 1322)
They were slowly – but steadily – thinning out the raiders. Donovan looked up at the DRADIS display. Their orders had been to be back at base at 1310 hours. But at 1310 – they had been at The Cheese – where they had stayed for eight minutes before jumping to The Eye. He had ordered his weapons officer – Captain Zane Paulson – to put up a clock. It was at twelve minutes and ticking.
"Helm, keep us bobbing and weaving."
"Yes, sir." Came the reply.
"Come on, you paranoid misfit, send them in already." Anubis and company were based at Gamoray Base, a shipyard in orbit of Trevor. (Which was a moon of Sagittarion.) It was commanded by a really paranoid Admiral called Vallance. And besides the three ships here, it was also home to two Valkyrie-class Battlestars: Valkyrie and Yashuman. Donovan had gambled that if they missed their scheduled arrival time, Vallance would send those two ships after them. "Or this is going to end badly."
They kept shooting down raiders for another two minutes. Then two more signatures appeared at the edge of DRADIS range. It didn't take the computer long to identify them: Valkyrie and Yashuman had arrived. Donovan knew there would be Hell to pay later…but for now, he was glad that they were here. They launched their Vipers and opened fire. Eight minutes later, the Battle of the Eye was over.