Battlestar Ajax
The CIC was almost dead silent. The Colonial officers all looked at each other and the empty DRADIS screen, all thinking the same thing but unwilling to say it out loud.
The Cylons had returned.
Every Colonial had been fearing this moment for forty years. And if Armistice Station was destroyed, that meant the Cylons were already behind the Line. They could be in the Colonies themselves by now.
Sensing the urgency of the situation, Commander King yelled," Captain, get your pilots back here right now at maximum burn. I'm sending the Raptor back to the Colonies to send an encrypted message."
Turning to Lt. Riden he said, "Encrypt and send the following and address it to Picon Fleet Headquarters. Mark it: 'Maximum Urgency-Case Zulu Theta Nine Constellation.
Message begins: Hen House gone. Farmer in Danger. Verification Code Hotel Mike Delta Delta Two. Send it to the Raptor and tell it to jump back to Picon and transmit."
Riden nodded his head. "Yes sir. Encryption complete." Riden typed jump coordinates into the computer and transferred them to the Raptor. In a flash the small ship was gone, back to the Twelve Colonies of Man.
"Put me online with the Escort Captains," the Commander ordered. His Communications nodded his head after a moment. Commander King picked up the tactical phone and heard the Escort Captains' phones acknowledge their activation with quiet clicks.
"Gentlemen, I think the Cylons may have slipped past us. There is a significant possibility that the Cylons have reached the Twelve Colonies by now. They're also likely responsible for the DRADIS beacons going quiet and my missing patrol."
The two officers agreed and they immediately began planning what to do next.
"We should jump back immediately. If the Cylons are at the Colonies they'll need every available ship," Athena's Captain said. "We can't just abandon our patrol duty. If this was simply an accident and there are no Cylons involved, we'll be court-martialled."
It was at that moment their DRADIS systems reported a contact. When it registered as the Raptor sent out to relay the message Commander King handed the phone to Colonel Siler.
"Why the hell are they back so early? It hasn't even been ten minutes." It was then the wireless speakers came to life.
"Ajax, Bean, I am declaring an emergency. I am losing engine power and have sustained heavy damage. My ECO is wounded and we're leaking atmosphere." King picked up the tactical phone dedicated to communicating with pilots.
"Bean this is Ajax Actual, what the frak happened?" he asked. "I don't know how sir, but Picon is crawling with Cylons. As soon as I jumped in my DRADIS went crazy. It wasn't five minutes before they noticed me. My Radiological alarm was screaming at me and we saw flashes on the surface so I think Picon was nuked."
Everyone in the CIC gasped. Picon was the center of Colonial military power. A fourth of the Fleet's munitions were on or around Picon. Fleet Headquarters was there and if it was nuked, it likely meant that the Colonies' highest ranked officers were dead.
It also meant his family was likely dead. His mother, father, two brothers and sister and her wife lived in Queenstown, and if attacked, Queenstown, the planet's capital city, would be the first city destroyed.
Many others were also thinking about their loved ones. Those who didn't have family on Picon were thinking about the other Colonies. That meant they weren't doing their jobs, and he couldn't allow that, especially not now.
He turned to Siler and motioned for the phone. When handed it he said, "Captains, the Colonies are under attack. Make your announcements, set Condition One, and prepare to jump. King out." He then hung up and turned to his Tactical Officer.
"Put me on ship-wide and send a ship out to retrieve the damaged Raptor." When Lt Riden nodded he continued. "Attention, this is the Commander. At this moment a Cylon attack against our home worlds is underway. We do not know the size, composition, or specific targets as of now, but we have an unconfirmed report that Picon has been nuked. We are preparing to jump back immediately."
Commander King looked at his bridge crew befor continuing.
"I know you are all concerned about your families, you friends, your loved ones, but now is not the time to think of that. That will come later. Now all we must concern ourselves with now is getting this ship into the fight, and that's exactly what we will do."
At that he hung up the phone and turned to his officers, simply watching them. This was the first time they were doing the jobs they had trained to do for years during an actual war. For many this was the first time in their lives that a war had even occurred.
And they were handling it wonderfully. They weren't panicking, they weren't running around the CIC screaming, and they weren't yelling about their families. They were sharing navigational information, transferring orders, and directing spacecraft as gracefully as any civilian air port controller.
After several minutes of fervent effort the ships were ready. The officers reported the completion of their tasks and Lt Riden reported FTL board status green. They were ready to jump and when the damaged Raptor was towed aboard he ordered the jump to begin.
Colonel Siler began the countdown and when the counter reached zero, the three vessels flashed in magnificent shows of light. They reappeared at almost the same moment in the Twelve Colonies in high orbit around Picon.
"Lt I want a report of all military units in the solar system. Colonel Siler try to find out who's in command of the fleet and launch the CAP. I want to know where the rest of the fleet is." Col Siler nodded and proceeded to the communications terminal to begin the search for the Colonial Admiralty.
Captain George Finch, CAG of the Escort Athena was hurled out of his launch tube and took up a position to wait for the rest of Athena's Viper squadron to join him for the CAP.
Colonel Siler, XO of the Battlestar Ajax had picked the Athena's squadron to provide CAP to the Battlestar Group. Each Escort carried a single Viper Squadron consisting of 14 Vipers and 2 Raptors and Captain Finch commanded Athena's.
As the rest of the fighters and their guiding Raptor joined him, he began the first of the long, circular orbits around the three massive ships. Over the wireless he began to hear traffic from his nervous pilots.
They had heard the announcement from Escort Captain Lawrence and were ready to kick Cylon ass, but that didn't change the fact they had never actually fought a real enemy.
"Does anyone know what Cylon fighters look like?" someone asked. A female pilot was the first to answer. "In old war movies they look kind of like flying wings." "Yeah, well those pics are forty years old." "So? Our Vipers still resemble the old MK IIs, don't they?"
Someone scoffed. "Maybe on the outside. I take pity on anyone who had to fly those old pieces of junk. My calculator had ten times the computing power of those scrapheaps."
"Cut the chatter, you're not here to gossip," he said through his wireless transmitter. The other pilots immediately shut up and began searching for targets.
After several minutes of nothing, their DRADIS systems buzzed and his wireless activated. "CAG, Snake, I've got ten contacts. They're not broadcasting Colonial IFF's and Commander King has ordered us to intercept. ETA; 1 minute," said the ECO of their guiding Raptor.
"How the frak did they get so close?" he asked as he banked his Viper in the direction of the presumed Cylon craft. "I don't know sir, there's so much jamming going on its hard to discern anything."
"Gods damn it. Ajax, CAG, we are moving to intercept unconfirmed contact." His wireless crackled for a moment before he heard a reply.
"Confirmed, proceed to target. Weapons hold until hostile confirmed." After receiving the order he pushed his ship's engines to their safe limit and headed towards the DRADIS point.
After a few seconds, he ordered the Raptor to break off formation and head back to the Battlegroup. Roughly thirty seconds after that, the enemy was finally in sight. They looked very strange.
The ships, significantly less than ten, looked like crescent moons with large bulges on the inside middle of them. From the distance they were at, the Colonial pilots couldn't see the metal coverings raise to reveal swiveling red eyes.
"Ajax, CAG, target is in sight. They don't look like anything I've ever seen. They're definitely not Colonial. Requesting permission to engage," he said into his helmet. "CAG, Ajax, request granted. Weapons Free."
"Alright everyone," he said, speaking to his pilots, "there's only three of them but that doesn't mean we can afford to get cocky. Stick with your wingmen and don't get sloppy. You've done this a thousand times with other Colonial pilots and in simulators. You can do it now."
It was at that exact moment his electronics completely shut down. His DRADIS went dark, his navigation system shut down, he lost control of his Reaction Control System, and his Viper began to tumble out of control.
"I've lost power, Sideswipe, take command. Sideswipe, do you read? Trash, can you hear me?" he said into his wireless transmitter. When he looked out of his canopy, a look of horror came over his face.
All the Vipers in his formation were tumbling about, bumping into each other and drifting out of place. However, their inertia was still carrying them towards the Cylons.
"Oh my gods. Snake, do you read? Ajax, this is CAG, please respond." Nothing. Not even the crackle of voiceless wireless. That meant his communications package was disabled. And that was very, very bad. He couldn't even declare an emergency or request rescue Raptors.
When he looked back at the incoming enemy fighters, he became overcame with the fear only experienced by those who know they're about to die and know there's absolutely nothing they can do.
The three unusual ships flew through the emptiness of space at the defenseless Colonial pilots. As the horrified humans watched them, the Cylons fired a volley of missiles, one for each of the Colonial craft.
The white streaks became connecting lines between the enemy fighters until the Vipers were destroyed by explosions. Debris flew in all directions as the humans were killed by their children. They joined most of the human race in the underworld as the Raiders flew through the debris field that had once been the proud fighter wing of the Escort Athena.
Lt Craig 'Gearshift' Phillips, pilot of the Raptor assigned from the Ajax to guide Athena's Viper patrol screamed in frustration as the fourteen Colonial Vipers disappeared off his DRADIS screen.
His ECO, Lt. Penelope 'Snake' Cruise, Gearshift's ECO, was shouting in futility as well she watched them disappear on her more advanced DRADIS console. Before she had finished shouting, Gearshift had already thrown the Raptor into full afterburner in what they both knew was going to be a futile attempt to escape their pursuers.
"What the frak happened there? They went straight in and didn't maneuver at all!" Snake yelled from behind him. He just shook his head and tried to coax every iota of speed he could from the ship's engines.
The CIC of Ajax came to a standstill for a single moment as the officers watched the fourteen Vipers disappear from DRADIS. However, knowing they could do nothing, they continued about their duties. They couldn't afford to stop. Too much was at stake.
Colonel Siler, on the opposite side of the tactical display from Commander King, said, "What the frak? How the hell did that happen? They weren't nuggets. They should have known better." He was clearly flabbergasted.
The Vipers had gone straight at the Cylons without bothering to move a muscle. It was as if the pilots had all suddenly decided to take a nap and had put their ships on autopilot. That left three enemy fighter rapidly closing on the Raptor that had been guiding the CAP and heading toward the Battlegroup.
King said nothing, simply picking up the tactical phone. "This is the Commander, launch all Alert Fighters. All pilots not currently ready to launch are to proceed to their ships immediately."
He switched phones to speak with the ship's battery commanders. "All Gun Captains are to immediately prepare to commence launching flak. Fire only on my order." Returning to the tactical display he spoke to his XO.
"Colonel, where are Colonial forces?" Siler shook his head which had become overcome with worry lines. "Apparently, we got here a bit late. I was only able to contact five Battlestars, three of which have since been destroyed.
The other two were engaging enemy forces above Virgon. We've lost contact but can't confirm their destruction. There's a lot of civilian chatter, mostly civilians begging for help and crying. Picon's atmosphere is setting off our radiological alarm so we know it was nuked.
We have wireless reports of the other eleven colonies being nuked. We were able to spot flashes on Caprica, Aquaria, Gemenon, and Tauron. We can't see the other colonies but there's nothing besides automated transmissions from them."
Commander King was silent. He was staring at the map of the solar system on the wall. "What are your orders Commander?" Silence. "Commander?" Silence.
King simply stared at the Cyrannus System, imagining the twenty billion people it had contained a day before.
Before Col Siler could ask a third time, Lt Riden shouted, "Radiological alarm! The Cylon fighters are carrying nukes." King's eyes immediately snapped to the DRADIS screen.
The dozens of Vipers Ajax and Delphi had launched were rocketing through the emptiness of space towards the three Cylon fighters. Among them was Captain Fairbanks, Ajax's CAG and therefore the CAG of the entire Battlestar Group.
In his helmet's wireless, Captain Fairbanks heard, "All Vipers, we have confirmed the presence of nukes aboard Cylon fighters. Weapons free. Repeat, Weapons free."
"Alright boys and girls, you heard the lady. The toasters have nukes and we need to scrap them. Now. Wing-men pair up and scatter. If they launch their nukes at us I don't want to lose an entire squadron. ETA to intercept, thirty seconds."
The Colonial fighters grouped into pairs and then put space between each duo.
At the same time, the Cylons' swiveling red eyes locked in the center of their visors and attempted to broadcast the virus that had crippled the Colonies.
Nothing happened. The Raiders experienced their equivalent of confusion; that being the process of checking their orders, their responses, their current position, the range of the virus, and confirming they had sent the virus.
Confirming that, they began searching for a solution that ended in the total destruction of the enemy ships with minimal loss on their end. A single solution entered all three of their minds simultaneously.
One of the fighters dropped slightly behind the other two. The two lead planes closed as close as they dared and all three maxed out their engines as the Colonials closed. They also began to broadcast a signal to their compatriots in case they failed.
The ships all closed at extremely rapid rates. When the Raiders were in range of their guns, the Vipers opened fire.
Dozens of bullet streaks impacted the Cylons who exploded in two large explosions. The Colonial fighter pilots woo-ed and celebrated their supposed victory.
However, that was when the third Raider flew through the debris of its two brethren. The pilots, unsuspecting and unaware, were unable to intercept it before it was among them.
Unable to fire on without risking destroying their fellow pilots, they were forced to watch as the enemy passed through them. It was at that moment there was nothing between possibly the last of the human race, and a Cylon fighter armed with nuclear weapons.
"Frak me!" Captain Fairbanks yelled as he whirled his Viper around in a 180 degree turn and thrust his plane into full burn.
He saw the other pilots doing likewise as they attempted to destroy the nuclear-armed plane.
"Ajax, Turtle, we have destroyed two of the Raiders but we have one en route to your location. Do not, repeat, do not recommend launching any more Vipers. The sky's already too crowded."
"Confirm, Turtle, will not launch Vipers. Be advised flak field may be launched. Try not to get shredded."
"Gods damn it, pilots, stop firing unless you have a good firing solution." 'Fraking nuggets' he thought. Two kills and they start having a frakking party.
This area of space was chaos. Too many Vipers, too little space, and too much overcompensating by pilots. Adding all this meant that the ships would not be able to intercept the Raider in time.
"Athena I want you to move to intercept the Cylon Raider. You are to fire your complement of ship-to-ship missiles. Failing that you are to use any means necessary to destroy that fighter, is that understood?" Commander King said into the tactical phone.
Over the tactical he heard an acknowledgment and watched on DRADIS as the escort moved to put itself between the Battlestar and the Raider.
He looked at his Tactical Officer who told him, "Time to Intercept, forty seconds."
All eyes not busy with other duties were on the screen. The red dot grew closer and closer as the Cylon Raider approached the Escort.
Then, all of a sudden, Athena died. All power, even emergency shut off completely. It began to drift aimlessly in space as everyone else watched in horror.
"Captain Dunn, do you read?" Silence. "Captain Dunn, respond." Silence. Looking to Lt. Riden, he asked, "What the frak just happened?"
Riden just shook his head as he worked furiously at the various control terminals. "I don't know sir, I'm trying to find that out. All transmissions from the Athena has stopped. Their thrusters have stopped all activity and their engines have shut down. It's looking like the entire ship lost power."
"How is that possible?" Col Siler asked. King shook his head. "What is the status of the-" before he was able to finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Lt. Riden.
"Raider is launching missiles! Trajectories have four of them at us, two at Athena and two at Delphi."
"Order battery commanders to throw up a flak field and initiate Point Defense Turrets! Brace for impact!"
The weapons of the Battlestar came to life, the massive batteries hurling fragmentation projectiles at the weapons of death. The Point Defense Turrets also threw their weight into the attempt, thousands of rounds of ammunition streaking towards the missiles.
And most were intercepted. Three of the missiles destined for the metal behemoth exploded before they reached their targets, as did both the weapons heading for the Delphi, but there were no weapons protecting the Athena.
Two thermonuclear weapons slammed into the ship. The armor of the ship burned away in the twin small suns. The ship lurched away from the impacts as the brilliant flash of light acted like a floodlight in the surrounding space.
After a few seconds, the vessel exploded as its magazines were destroyed and ordinance blew the ship apart.
A nuke also impacted the armor of the Ajax just behind the 'alligator head'. The crew of the ship was rocked violently as the heat burned a hole in the ship.
However, the armor belt of the Ajax was built to withstand the awesome force of nuclear weapons.
After the radiation subsided, the CIC crew worked to put the room back into order.
"Status report," King ordered. From the damage control terminal, Colonel Siler reported, "We have breaches in sections 17 through 25 and fires in sections 13 to 16 and 26 to 29."
"If we don't get those fires out soon they'll spread to the magazine and destroy the ship," said Commander King. "Take command of the Damage Control teams and get those fires out. Now."
Colonel Siler nodded and moved to the DC console. King picked up a tactical phone from the command table and directed himself to the Captain of the Delphi.
"Captain, what is the status of your ship?" he asked.
"It's pretty bad over here, but primary weapons, life support, and our FTL is all still online. We've taken a lot of casualties and may need to transfer some to your medical bay. Ours is just too small," replied Captain Lawrence.
"Confirmed, begin sending over shuttles and Raptors with your wounded." When Lt. Riden walked up to him with a communique and motioned it was urgent, King said, "Wait one Captain."
Riden handed him the paper and said, "Sir, there are civilian ships nearby sending out emergency distress beacons. They're under attack by at least one Cylon Baseship and are requesting assistance."
"How far away?" King asked. "Three hours at sublight." King shook his head.
"They'll be dead by then. Can you plot an FTL jump to their location?" Riden nodded.
"Yes sir, give me five minutes." As he rushed off to perform the necessary calculations, King yelled after him, "You've got three!"
"Captain Lawrence, I'm afraid your wounded will have to wait. We're about to jump to rescue some civilian ships. Get your crew in order and prepare for a Combat Jump. King out." With that he hung up the phone and returned to his own ship.
He walked over to his Landing Signal Officer, Major Mark Burr, and said, "Major, bring our birds home and get them back in the launch tubes now. We're doing a combat jump in three."
The dark skinned man nodded and returned to directing the Vipers. "All Vipers, all Vipers, come on home at high throttle. Upon landing prepare for immediate rearmament and refueling for another combat launch. We're jumping in three."
After what seemed like an eternity all the Vipers were back aboard Ajax and the FTL calculations were complete. Colonel Siler began the countdown and the ship jumped.
Right into a battlefield. The DRADIS system was screaming with contacts, most of whom weren't broadcasting Colonial IFF's.
"Commander we have five confirmed Cylon Baseships. Range; Five thousand kilometers. Seven civilians ships present. Range; Three thousand kilometers."
"All ahead full, put us between the civilians and the Baseships. Have Delphi hug them and intercept any ordinance we miss and begin launching missiles. All ships launch Vipers!"
The two Colonial warships moved as fast as their engines would allow to put themselves between the Cylons and the defenseless civilian vessels.
They also launched their Vipers, 84 in total, to intercept the machines' missiles and Raiders.
Colonel Siler returned to the command console and reported the fires were out, at the expense of several of the DC teams who had been vented into space to protect the ship.
"Colonel Siler, have all Battery commanders switch to salvo fire and target the nearest Baseship. Pass the word for Captain Lawrence to target the next closest with his missiles.
Point Defense Guns are to throw up an immediate flak field. Give priority to intercepting civilian-bound weapons. And for the gods sake see if those ships have FTL capability. We're not going to be able to hold the Cylons off for long."
Nodding, both men proceeded to the tasks battle necessitated of them.
The guns of the Ajax were tossing shells across space at the nearest Baseship, whose armor was almost nonexistent. The Delphi had also reached its destination near the civilian fleet and was adding its weight to the barrage.
White streaks began to emanate from the small escort as it fired its powerful ship-to-ship missiles.
All the while the hundreds of Raiders and Vipers quarreled in the space between the two fleets. The battle was a maelstrom of death and explosions as human fought Cylon.
The five Baseships, previously expecting easy kills, were instead taking heavy casualties in the form of Raiders and damage.
The mighty artillery of the Colonial Battlestar was destroying their compatriot who had the bad luck of being closest to the beast.
Dozens of missile streaks soared toward the metal monstrosity but many were intercepted by Vipers. Those that weren't met their deaths in the defense field around she ship.
"Commander King, I have a report from the civilians. Six of the ships have FTLs. The seventh, the, uh, the Reunion is a luxury liner. Its got over 1800 people on board."
"Have every shuttle in the fleet and our Raptors start ferrying the passengers of that ship to the other civilian ships. Have the other civilian ships get as close as they can to it to speed up the process and spool up their FTL drives."
The Ajax also began to rock occasionally as several missiles began getting through the flak field.
The first Baseship, having been the first targeted, finally succumbed to the Battlestar's impressive armament. It exploded in a massive fireball as its magazines were breached.
One of the arms of the once-great ship was propelled into the center spiral of another which in turn exploded in another great explosion.
The Colonial Battlestar and Escort both switch their fire to two other Baseships.
However, the firepower of the Cylons was not purely for show. The armor of the Battlestar was beginning to show signs of battle. Almost a dozen conventional missiles had hit the hull of the warship.
"Colonel, what is the status of the Reunion transfer?" he King asked.
Colonel Siler put the phone he was holding to his chest and said, "Still almost 700 people on the ship."
"Frak it. Have the ships that can and the Delphi jump to our emergency jump point. If we don't arrive in one hour Captain Lawrence is in command of all the ships."
Siler nodded and moved to relay the communication.
King looked at the DRADIS screen and and gripped the command table tightly as missiles struck the ship and the Baseships were hit by his ship's weapons.
He had trained for almost half his life for this moment and now the only thing he could think of was how to get out of it while losing as little as possible.
It was then that five more Baseships jumped in to join the remaining three. The sudden replenishment of their ranks prompted the original three to move toward Ajax in an attempt to get close enough to prevent the Point Defense Guns from intercepting their missiles.
"Lieutenant Riden, I want you to load nuclear weapons into launch tubes one through four. Remove launch safeties and arm them." Riden nodded and began the process of turning the heavy metal casings with radioactive insides into nuclear weapons.
"Civilian ships and Escort have jumped away," Siler told King.
Without moving, King yelled to his LSO. "Bring in all the Vipers, now! Urgent combat landings. Contingency; Storm Cloud."
Major Burr urgently ordered every remaining Viper to return to Ajax at full burn, and for good reason.
The Storm Cloud Contingency was used only in emergencies when Battlestars were in danger of being overrun and nuclear weapons were about to be used in the vicinity of Colonial units.
It had only been used three times in the Cylon War due to the extreme friendly casualties it tended to cause.
There was no hesitation among the Colonial pilots. One of the first lessons they were taught was when to get the frak away from targets who were about to explode.
The LSO began to count off as the Vipers landed. When the number reached sixty and the distance between the Battlestar and Baseships was only eight hundred kilometers, King steeled himself for the words he needed to say.
"Launch the nukes. Detonate at four hundred kilometers." Riden didn't reply. He only turned his launch key.
Four dull thumps reverberated through the hull as the missiles launched. Before the enemy Raiders could intercept them, the weapons detonated.
One after another, small suns appeared and consumed Raiders and the slowest of the Vipers, as well as the fastest of the Baseships.
Heat washed over the ships who were packed in a relatively small space.
Radiation scrambled the DRADIS of all the ships in the area. The surviving seven Base ships launched new Raiders to replace the ones that had just been destroyed.
When they moved in a position to see the Colonial ships, there was nothing, not even debris.
The Colonials were gone.
Alright guys this chapter took me almost two solid weeks to perfect. I'd like to thank Hobobillybob for his help as my beta. Review and tell me what you think of it.