Battlestar Leviathan, Docked At Ragnar Anchorage, Loading Munitions

The CIC was surprisingly empty for a battlestar preparing to enter combat, but with manpower in short supply everyone who could pull a cart or carry ammunition was working on the station. As he scanned through the list of crew members being transferred over from Galactica to what he had found himself referring to as his ship now, Vex asked Bulldog "Major, what's the status of the munitions transfer"

Standing on the other side of the table reading over his own chart, Bulldog replied "The starboard magazines are all being loaded first, that should take us another hour and the remainder should be done in another three. However sir their appears to be a small problem"

Looking up from the list Vex asked "What problem Major"

"Well since the heavy spinals are unique to the Mercuries like Leviathan they would never have stored that many here in the first place, but it seems that the last time they restocked this place they may have overlooked a few of the big ones we need for our bow guns"

"What?" Vex replied "how many rounds do we have"

"Twelve"

"Frak" Vex said as he banged his hand on the table. Neither Galactica, nor Leviathan had any nukes aboard and while they had found a few warheads on the station, he'd been hoping to try and pick up the slack with the eight bow guns that ran along Leviathan's spine. The entire ship had to be pointed towards the target to aim them, but the rounds they fired were about four times the size of a standard heavy cannon shell and whatever they hit generally died moments later in a spectacular series of secondary explosions.

"Alright, is anything else missing from the station magazines" Vex asked

"A few things, but there's still more then enough to fill our mags and Galactica's" Bulldog snorted then said "I bet it was that frakker over in Galactica's brig that made off with the smaller rounds"

"Probably, lot of groups on Sagittaron would pay good cubits for those warheads" the Commander replied. Sagittaron had been viewed, rightfully so in many ways, as having been exploited by the rest of the colonies for years and not many people had been surprised when the terrorists started popping up. Initially they'd been seen as a fringe threat by the federal government and the fleet though until one, Zac something, blew up a government building on Sagittaron. That had brought the fleet in with MPs and marines and the man, Zair maybe, had soon found himself in a nice prison cell.

"Okay, next thing is our vipers, I'm thinking we should slot in Apollo as our CAG"

"Weren't you thinking of bringing Thrace over?"

"Yes, until I realised that Lee has had a few more hours with our crew and has spent virtually no time on Galactica, while Starbuck has been in Galactica's brig since the start of her cruise," Bulldog said with a grin, the amount of time Starbuck had spent in the brig was quickly becoming a running joke on Galactica "Plus Starbuck's popular over on the old girl and Galactica's pilots will be more willing to take orders from someone they know then a complete stranger"

"Okay then I'll clear it with the Admiral, then I'll head over to the station see if we can't get the loading done any faster" Vex said as he scribbled a small note. Like most of the men and women on his ship he was looking forward to getting into combat, almost everyone on board was sure that they had lost friends over Picon and the desire for vengeance was obvious. Vex's grandfather had been a man deeply rooted in the old Tauron traditions and one thing the old man had once told his only grandson was that all death demanded vengeance, blood was to be repaid in blood and only then would the dead find their rest.

One of the things they had been taught in command school was the value of stirring up a crews anger before battle and while Adrian knew that motivation wasn't a sure fire way to win the Leviathan's crew was probably motivated enough right now to try and storm Olympus. A debt was owed and as far as the Leviathan's crew was concerned, it would be repaid.

Turian Dreadnought Palveran, Over Picon, Ten Minutes Later

The radiation was finally clearing, revealing the scrap yard on sensors in all its glory and that was what worried Septimus, the three vessels that had been moments before been firing at his fleet were gone. Twelve of his ships, mostly frigates and light cruisers, had been completely destroyed by the nuclear strike and more then double that number had suffered varying amounts of damage, ranging from scorched paint to major hull breaches and main gun damage.

"Communications, order all ships to watch out for enemy reinforcements, they may have fallen back and regrouped with additional ships"

"Yes sir"

"Ah sir" one of the bridge guards asked from his position behind him "Where would these ships come from, they have no mass effect drives, so no faster then light travel"

"Just because they don't have mass effect drives it doesn't mean that they don't have FTL, how would they have reached the relay then, do you think that they used sleeper ships? There's also the possibility that they are hiding behind the planet, using it for cover" Septimus replied, if he had been a crew member he probably would have shouted him down, but the soldier was young and his tone had been more questioning for knowledge's sake then questioning whether his superior was correct and Septimus had learned long ago that insulting a crew member's lack of knowledge in a fairly specialised field tended to do more harm then good for both morale his reputation among his subordinates.

"Ah yes, thank you sir"

Septimus turned back to the display. Of course the question was, if they didn't have mass effect based FTL, what kind of faster then light travel did they utilise. He had read a few of his people's old pre spaceflight science fiction tales, and an Asari novel once, and they all featured a wide variety of FTL travel methods. One had amusingly featured several of the prominent fictional FTLs existing side by side and the author had spent much of the story examining the benefits and problems that arose from such a setting. Of course it might not even be one of those, it could be something no one he knew could conceive.

"Order the fleet to reform into a half sphere formation, with us in the centre" Septimus ordered

Of course they might not even have FTL, they could have equipped their ships with some kind of near light travel, it wouldn't be as efficient but considering the close proximity of their worlds, it probably wouldn't present that much of a problem. They might have discovered the relay with a probe and then dispatched a near-light capable ship with its crew frozen in cryogenic suspension to investigate.

Then Spetimus mentally berated himself and reminded himself that the more relevant question at the moment was 'where did those ships go'. They could have escaped while their sensors were blind, although on the other hand they could be…

"Order all vessels to target those vessels in orbit, start on the left and move across, I want every single one destroyed" Septimus ordered

"Yes sir" the communications officer replied

"All crew stand by for firing"

The ship shook slightly, and on the sensor display, Septimus watched as his entire fleet began firing at the unmanned vessels in orbit of the planet. None of them tried to evade, but if he was correct three of them would begin moving any moment now, of course though if he was incorrect then he was still denying the enemy a large number of potential warships, a win-win for him. Flotillas were operating together to bombard the targets and every few seconds a vessel would break apart or explode under the hail of mass accelerator fire.

"There they are" Septimus whispered to himself as two contacts on the sensors began moving. They had been hiding behind the scrap heaps, probably waiting for his ships to move in. The third, smaller vessel wasn't on display but it had taken quite the beating before, perhaps it had retreated, or been destroyed?

"Order all fleet ships to target the two moving vessels from this range and have everyone be ready to dodge incoming enemy fire" Septimus ordered

The main display changed again to show the fleet firing at their two enemies, who swung ninety degrees to present a broadside to the Turians, while their single ships began launching from the from their launch bays beneath the hanger modules that were positioned on the flanks of both ships.

Pointing at two groups of frigates in the second line of the Turian formation, Septimus "Move these units forward to defend against enemy missile strikes, focus on single ships that get close but any missile launches are to take priority"

As the frigates moved up a salvo of rounds caught one of the enemy ships around the middle, the ship shuddered then snapped in half, under a second series of hits, one down one to go.

"Sir, we are reading some kind of sensor distortion to our rear" the Turian manning sensors stared intently at his console for a moment then screamed "CONTACT, six, no seven vessels of similar size to those engaging us, within our main guns accurate fire range but to far out for our lasers. More enemy ships are appearing by the moment sir, now at twenty eight"

"Break off a flotilla to engage the last remaining ship" Septimus roared "Then swing the fleet around to meet this new force, as soon as we are positioned fire off a burst from our main guns followed by a volley of torpedoes"

"Sir, the first ship has just disappeared"

"Then direct the entire fleet to engage these newcomers, all ships are to begin firing and not stop until I order them too" the General ordered with a snarl, he would teach these people for their defiance and crush them under the boot of his fleet.

Battlestar Pegasus, Approaching Picon, That Same Time

"Sir, our point guns have established their solutions and begun firing" Lieutenant Jack Fisk, the tactical officer, reported

"Admiral, we just received a report from Chimera, Victory and Olympia have been destroyed and Neros was forced to bug out with heavy damage, he also said that an unknown number of our disabled ships were destroyed" Lieutenant Hoshi, Pegasus's communications officer said

"Thank you Mister Hoshi, send to all ships, launch our planes and standby for simultaneous attack, all weapons" Helena Cain, commanding officer of Pegasus, a Mercury class battlestar, and the fleet approaching Picon, replied. It wasn't quite the decisive crossfire Neros had planned in his hasty transmission but the Admiral had to give the man credit, the enemy had their asses her task force and their necks on the chopping block. The only problem Cain had foreseen with the plan was that there might be some kind of leadership struggle when the ships began jumping in on short notice but the only other flag officer to arrive, Rear Admiral Xander on the Battlestar Hephaestus, had deferred command to her.

It was a shame about Victory though, Cain had known the ship's Commander, Jack Evans, for several years before she became a flag officer and while he wasn't the best outside the box thinker, the man had easily been one of her most dependable subordinates, one she could rely on to complete most instructions to the letter, a razor.

"Admiral, all ships report ready for attack" Colonel Belzen, Cain's executive officer, said

"Standby Colonel" Cain replied "Mister Hoshi, what's the status of our squadrons"

"All Vipers and Raptors are in the air Admiral, all the raptors are carrying their full nuclear strike packages" Hoshi replied

Cain thought for a moment. All the nukes she was able to get her hands on were currently either in their launch tubes on the battlestars, or slung under the wings of her planes, in all likelihood they would only get one shot at this attack and if the aliens decided to finish off the large portion of the fleet over Picon then the Colonies' stock of nuclear weapons would probably start drop to dangerously low levels. The only remaining stockpiles of nukes she knew of were the remaining warheads that they had been unable to load aboard Pegasus at the Scorpion fleet yards before the jump here and the small caches scattered around the colonies at ammunition depots.

"Fire a single volley with our guns first, then follow up with a full barrage, cannons and nukes and then finish up with our planes" Cain ordered, a second later the deck beneath her feet shook as the Pegasus's massive bow guns opened up. Looking up at the DRADIS screen Cain saw the readouts showing the rest of the fleet following suit, at the same time though the enemy fleet had reversed their positions with a speed that surprised her and were returning fire, a few small and slow projectiles launched towards the humans, which the DRADIS identified as missiles, but they were snuffed out a few moments after launching by the bullet wall the Colonial ships were producing.

"20 seconds to our shot's impact, the enemy's will hit us in eight" Hoshi said

"Mr Hoshi order all ships to go hot now, warn all our birds to stay out of our firing solution, Lieutenant Fisk as soon as you have control of the tubes you are to fire" Cain ordered before she pulled a chain from around her neck, on the chain was a locket, her dog tags and a key, the key to activate the Pegasus's main nuclear missile tubes.

"Colonel Belzen?" Cain asked, the Colonel already had his own key out and in its slot on the other side of the DRADIS console

"On three" the XO replied "One, Two, Three"

The two officers turned the keys together and Fisk reported "I have control of our tubes Admiral, firing now"

Looking up at the DRADIS display, Cain watched as the approaching alien shells were overlapped in their last moments of flight by a virtual wall of missiles and shells from her own fleet. The Pegasus shook once and then again, though the second was not the result of any kind of weapons impact on the ship.

"Report" Cain ordered

"We took a glancing hit, vipers are saying that there's a big chunk missing from our upper head" Colonel Belzen replied "Other ships are reporting similar damage, but five battlestars and three escorts have been completely destroyed"

Cain nodded then ordered "Commit all our main squadrons, launch reserves to provide close in defence"

"Pegasus to all ships, commit all attack squadrons and launch reserves" Hoshi said into his headset

On the DRADIS, the swarm of fighter symbols that surrounded the larger battlestar icons began heading for the enemy fleet, at the same time another enemy salvo reached its targets and three more battlestars went up.

"Admiral we can't keep this up" Belzen said

"I know Jurgen" Cain replied, never looking away from the DRADIS display "But let's see how this plays for a bit longer. Mister Hoshi tell the fleet to start spinning up their FTL drives, they are to jump to Caprica orbit on my order"

"Yes sir"

While she gave those orders the DRADIS screen changed to show the destruction of another two battlestars and symbols representing her fleet's missile attack began to disappear at a rapid pace, probably the laser defence system and those enemy fighters, but the shells struck home and a second after them the remaining nukes. Pegasus's view of the enemy force was distorted by radiation and heat.

"Mr Hoshi, tell our raptors that if they can't get a clean lock use line of sight to fire their missiles, once they've released their orders are to jump out, we'll need all our deck space to recover vipers" the Admiral ordered

The Pegasus shook again and the DRADIS console showed the destruction of yet another four ships, Cain shook her head, they couldn't keep bleeding battlestars like this.

"We just lost the lower starboard flight pod" Jurgen reported

"The frakkers also managed to wipe out a few of our defensive guns, I'm reconfiguring the other's fire patterns to compensate" Fisk shouted

There was another series of blooms on DRADIS, the squadrons had engaged.

Major Cole "Stinger" Taylor, Leading Pegasus Blue Squadron, That Same Time

Opening his eyes Pegasus's air group commander watched the bright flashes of the raptor's nuclear strike subside. Gunning his afterburners and with his squadron behind him Stinger pointed his fighter towards one of the alien fighters. This was the slightly more dangerous part of their mission, enemy fighters were about, though they appeared to have taken heavy losses, those laser defences had already snuffed out enough planes for Stinger to be wary of them and according to a raptor wrangler who had just jumped out there were a few rounds from the colonial's defence guns slipping past the larger alien warships.

"Okay people let's do this" Stinger broadcasted to the squadron "One pass then break off and attack targets of opportunity"

Putting his viper into a dive and lining up his target, Stinger pressed his thumb down on his firing stud and held it down for almost thirty seconds as he raced towards the silver hull of the alien ship. The ship's shields flared blue as his squadron all rained fire upon it until they seemed to fizzle and pop and while only a few of his shots hit the ship's hull as he broke off his attack there was a bright flash behind him, not the detonation of another nuke but the destruction of the alien vessel. As he let a grin spread across his face at the thought of being able to paint the silhouette of a major warship on his viper Stinger saw a pair of vipers, followed by trio of enemy fighters blur past his cockpit.

"Sniper, Stinger I've got eyes on bogeys chasing friendlies can you lend me a hand" Stinger transmitted as he swung his viper around to chase the enemy planes

"Stinger, Lightning, Sniper bought a laser during our run, I've got your back" Sera "Lightning" Ferris replied

"Roger Lightning, lets go make ace" Stinger said, Sniper had been a good fiend but at least they'd nailed the ship that killed him. He'd thought that the firing solution of a battlestar in full defensive mode was scary but at least you could see a battlestar's firing solution but those lasers were damn effective and you had no sign that your bird was about to die until it was disintegrating around you.

Patching himself through to the vipers being chased by the alien fighters, that his system identified as Smash Down and Brick off the battlestar Charon, Stinger said "Smash Down this is Stinger and my plus one, we're pulling up behind you and want to try a swing shot, how copy"

"Copy Stinger, we'll wait for your move, but be damn quick about it I can't dodge forever" Smash Down, whose voice identified her as a woman. The swing shot was a tactic that had been around since the early days of military spaceflight, Stinger and Lightning would start firing on the alien fighters and when they tried to break off Smash Down and Brick would swing their vipers around and counter attack, catching the enemy fighters in a crossfire with superior numbers, which would be vital if those fighters had shields on them as well.

"Lightning, Stinger take the one on the right" stinger ordered as he lined up his shot on the left fighter

"Roger, Stinger taking my shot" Sera replied, barely contained glee in her voice

Pressing his thumb down on his firing stud again, Stinger watched as bright tracer rounds raced from his guns and slammed into his target, as he expected the rounds just hit the blue shimmer of the fighter's shields but also as expected the enemy fighter began to veer away from Brick to get out of his line of fire and when Brick swung his viper around and targeted the alien fighter, the hunter quickly found himself the prey.

"You can have that one Stinger, I already got one for myself on the way in" Brick said as his fighter blew through the rapidly parting debris of the alien fighter

"Thanks Brick" Stinger replied "Lightning, how're you doing"

When he received no reply he tried again "Lightning, you copy. Brick can you raise her"

"Nope, can't get Smash Down either" Stinger's new wingman replied

"Frak, watch out for that fighter then" Stinger said as he turned his viper around, if the other two pilots were dead then it was highly likely that the alien was alive.

"Stinger I got one, pulling in behind you" Brick nearly screamed "Frak he's firing"

Stinger tried to pull his viper out of its turn but it was too late, there was a thump in his right wing and suddenly he had alarms and warnings going off all over his cockpit.

"Nail that frakker Brick, I'm punching out" Stinger ordered as he reached between his legs to grab his ejection seat trigger, he pulled it and with a bang he shot out of his beloved viper. He felt his whole body being pulled into the cushioned seat by the gee forces, then the counter thrusters in the top of the chair fired and Stinger felt his body float out of the seat about a millimetre before the seat's straps stopped him in his tracks.

"Brick, Stinger did you get him" Stinger asked using the seats in built transmitter, all he got in return was silence.

"Brick, don't tell me you bought it too"

Of course, Stinger reasoned it was entirely possible that Brick had chased his prey out of range, the ejection seat radio was supposed to be used for communicating with a rescue team that had picked up the long range locator beacon and just needed a specific fix when they were close. Then he noticed what looked like small, blue grey darts racing towards the fleet, Stinger thought for a second that they might be missiles but they were staying well out of the fleet's firing solution and he saw no sign of the battlestars shifting fire to intercept them. Then as the battlestars began disappearing in a series of bright flashes, Stinger felt an icy ball being to form in his stomach, the fleet was retreating and he was stuck here in his ejection seat. He felt like screaming at the universe, he was either gonna use up all his air and choke or end up a frakking POW.

A/N

Well here's the latest chapter, it probably would have been up sooner but my first term of year 11 has taken up a lot more time then I thought. None the less I shall endeavor to get the next chapter up ASAP.

And as always please read and review, every email I have in my inbox telling me I have a new review is a reminder to be writing the next chapter.