Path to the Unknown Part II
12 Days Later Battlestar Atlantis C.I.C.
Orbiting Lobo Negro Station
2 Days Before Planned Departure
In the Atlantis CIC everything was quiet as everyone waited for the last ship to finally arrive. When suddenly...
"Sir, Argona just jumped in and it's not alone," the communications officer said.
"Finally, and what other ships are with the Argona?" Commander Stryker asked.
"The Medstar Caduceus and two Cygnus class Heavy Gunstars; the Cygnus and Onyx, along with the Mobile drydock Invictus," Colonel Haller said, "Admiral Nagala assigned those ships to our expedition believing that a fully equipped Medstar could help us a lot with establishing the colony, and those two Gunstars are only for additional support."
"Hmmm… I see. Well I'm not too happy to have so many ships under my command; after all, that's a job for an Admiral and not for a Commander," Commander Stryker said worriedly running his hands through his hair, wondering to himself if he was up to the task of leading such a large fleet.
"Sir! If Admiral Nagala put you in charge then you clearly are ready for it and deserve it," Colonel Haller said reassuringly.
"And yes sir, I almost forgot, Commander Thompson said that the mobile support dock has successfully docked with the port landing bay," Colonel Haller said, running through the messages to Atlantis from the Warstar Argona.
"Is there a mistake? Admiral Nagala said that the Argona would serve as a mobile platform with docks on her side, but now we have a fully equipped drydock?" Commander Stryker asked in confusion.
"No sir, it is not a mistake; Argona has had a small modification to her pods, but the admiral wanted us to have a fully equipped mobile dock for our ships. Having the Argona refitted into a full mobile dock was not possible due to time restrictions. From what I see from the messages Argona sent here, the mobile dock Invictus is the first of her kind and can hold any ship in our fleet, including the Argona itself. Additionally; she has 600 vipers, 200 raptors, 24 stealth raptors, 24 scimitar bombers, 12 heavy shuttles, and lots of tools, supplies and all the other stuff we could possibly need!" Colonel Haller replied, his eyes bugging out at the mobile docks capabilities.
"There's also 3,000 people on board that ship to add to our numbers. Admiral Nagalas orders are that when we reach the coordinates of the planet, Invictus will serve as a command base for repairs and protection. Once we arrive and establish the colony; Pleiades, Atlantis, and Argona are to return back to the fleet base. With only the Battlestar Sword and her three Gunstars to serve as the defense forces for the colony until the others return," Colonel Haller said.
"I see," Commander Stryker said and added, "Well then it seems everything is ready, open a channel to all ships."
"Channel open sir!" the communications officer replied a few moments later.
"This is Commander Stryker from the Battlestar Atlantis. With the last ships having arrived and all of our supplies and materials taken onboard, we are ready for a long voyage into the unknown. Our goal is to set up a new colony on a world that one of our probes found. Our Journey will take about 11 months if everything goes as planned. Military personnel for this mission were assigned directly by Colonial Command, and the civilians are volunteers for this mission. If anyone of you wants to back out: now is the time. Our mission is crucial for the colonies. I expect everyone to fulfill their duties and stay attentive to their jobs. I hope our journey will be blessed by the gods. So Say We All!" Commander Stryker said.
"So Say We All!" could be heard all around fleet.
"Colonel, give the coordinates for the first jump to all ships and inform all ships to be ready to jump in five minutes," Commander Stryker said turning to Colonel Haller.
"Yes sir, but can I ask why we are leaving 2 days ahead of schedule?" Colonel Haller asked.
"We finished our preparations and everything is ready, so there is no need to wait two more days. Send a message informing Admiral Nagala of my intention to leave early," Commander Stryker replied.
Battlestar Atlantis C.I.C.
5 minutes later
"All ships ready and all systems green. We are ready to go sir!" Colonel Haller reported.
"Thank you Colonel," Commander Stryker replied, "start the 10 seconds jump countdown."
"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1… jump," Colonel Haller said.
In space all the ships began to disappear in flashes of light.
Picon, Picon HQ Station
Fleet Admiral Torres Office
"So they have departed?" Fleet Admiral Torres asked.
"Yes sir, and from what Colonel Haller reported to me Commander Stryker was not happy about the number of ships in the fleet," Admiral Nagala replied and continued, "but he is an excellent choice for this mission. He is not a person that follows every rule by the book as he loves to make his own rules. Did you know that he beat Admiral Cain in the war games a few months ago?"
"Not really, but the Battlestar Triton versus Battlestar Pegasus is hardly a big deal given that they're both mercury class Battlestars," Admiral Torres said unconcerned.
"Not with the Triton, but the Poseidon," Admiral Nagala said grinning, "He beat a Mercury class Battlestar with a Valkyrie class Battlestar."
"Yes, if anyone can do this mission right it's him, whether he likes it or not. Besides that is not our biggest problem now," Admiral Torres said.
"What kind of problem?" Admiral Nagala asked.
"Do you remember the Sanctuary project?" Admiral Torres asked.
"Of course, the biggest ship ever constructed by the colonial navy, and our biggest loss," Admiral Nagala said somberly remembering the disastrous incident and the blowup of the civilians politically attacking the military for the mistake.
"Adar was against it, saying that it was too damn expensive to create such a massive ship, the super Warstar class. But I convinced Adar that this ship would have the power of half a dozen Mercury or Nova class Battlestars, and he finally agreed to build one. For three years the ship was under construction and a year ago when it was finally finished and put in service on Sanctuary's first voyage she jumped and she disappeared. There were 10,000 people on board when she jumped. Nobody knows anything about what happened to her; where she went or how she jumped so unexpectedly, and Adar didn't forgive me for that. He believes that I am responsible; for the loss of lives, and resources," Admiral Torres said.
"Sir, you are not guilty for whatever happened to that ship! For all we know she simply disappeared, we just don't know what happen to her. It was an accident," Admiral Nagala said.
"Yes a very costly accident, and if our dear President finds out about our mission and all the ships we used we will be arrested for treason against the government," Admiral Torres said.
Battlestar Atlantis Flag Suite
Commander Stryker sat looking over the list of ships under his command.
Warstar Argona
Battlestar Atlantis
Battlestar Pleiades
Battlestar Sword
Medstar Caduceus
Mobile Drydock Invictus
Heavy Gunstar Cygnus
Heavy Gunstar Onyx
Gunstar Illiad
Gunstar Novalis
Gunstar Fortune
Colony ship Taurus
Electronics ship Darthon
Tanker Ship Coursica
Tanker Ship Callpadia
Heavy Transport Epica
Survey ship Spica
Many thoughts plagued Commander Strykers mind; too many ships were under his command, was he ready? Too late for that question at this point. Admiral Nagala had faith in him, and trusted him enough to give him a mission of great importance to the 12 Colonies.
Commander Stryker thought about the Triton, and how much he missed his old ship. It was his first real command. The Battlestar Triton was a standard Mercury Mk I Battlestar; well-armed, and armored. Then there was the Poseidon, where he was the first officer and where he beat Cain and the mighty Pegasus using a supposedly less powerful Valkyrie class Battlestar. Now he was in charge of a fleet of ships. He would have to handle this extremely carefully for sure.
Cylon Space
Cylon Home World
"You promised me that the missiles would be much more effective and destructive than what I saw," John Cavil said angrily.
"We had some small problems with the new missile systems," Leoben replied evenly.
"A problem? We need to strike at the humans as soon and as fast as possible!" Cavil said forcefully, glaring at Leoben.
"We are not ready for that. We know that the CNP program is installed on almost 80% of their ships, but that still leaves 20% that are still working without it," a Six model known as Kathy said.
"And what is the delay of the installation of the program on other ships?" Cavil asked, silently cursing the stupidity of his fellow Cylons for their mistakes.
"Admiral Nagala. From the Intel we have received, we know that despite President Adar orders to install the CNP on every Battlestar, Admiral Nagala and Fleet Admiral Torres have not agreed to do it and they are delaying the installation in as many ships as they can. It appears they believe that the CNP could be a trap, and that it will make them vulnerable if we attack," Doral replied.
"So we eliminate them and the problem is solved!" John Cavil said simply.
"Hmmm, that is not how we should proceed. The murder of the two highest officers in the Colonial Fleet would not be good for our plan. Besides, they can't do very much; over 60% of their ships already have the CNP. It is only a matter of time until the remaining 40% also receive the upgrade," Kathy said and continued, "I'm more concerned about reports of phantom ships that were reported to the President's office quietly."
"Phantom ships? Explain," John Cavil demanded.
"Well, our spy in the President's office said that President Adar received some information about ships that are not registered in the fleet. We don't know anything about this story," Kathy said.
"We will investigate this, but later, now it is not important. What about this Sanctuary Project, are the colonials building more of them?" John Cavil asked.
"Our intelligence on this topic is that after the disaster with the original Sanctuary, they shut the program down. Which was logical as it was too expensive, even more so than creating an Andraste class Warstar. For now, we know that our agents were not on board when the ship was launched and when it disappeared. It simply jumped and disappeared," Leoben replied.
"So it was technical error?" John Cavil asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Leoben said simply.
"And we don't know where that ship jumped, or if she survived the jump!" John Cavil shouted.
"That is hard to say, a ship of that size and with an engine block bigger than a small Battlestar; it's quite possible for it to be anywhere in the galaxy. However, it's not our problem anymore and it saves us the trouble of destroying it ourselves," Leoben said.
"Good; I want a full investigation about those phantom ships, and also those ships that are still not upgraded with CNP. In case they are not ready when we attack, we will attack those ships first," John Cavil said.
Day 25
Battlestar Atlantis - Atlantis Flag Suite
Commander Stryker sat writing in his journal while slowly drinking his coffee.
It's been 25 days since our departure and we just jumped for the 46th time. Following Admiral Nagala's instructions, I have ordered a 6 hour break after every jump for our scout raptors to snoop around and map out exactly what's out there. So far we haven't found anything really interesting; just a few gas giants, and several cold rocks without any life on them. We also found a large deposit of Tylium. We marked it for future expeditions.
The crews are acting as they should. It's hard to believe that I'm only a few years older than a majority of them. Chief Engineer Fanner reported a small problem with the engines, probably due to all these jumps. It should be fixed shortly.
It was hard for me to take on this mission, believing that it should have gone to someone with more experience. I'm getting to know the crew of this ship, and I have faith in them to complete this mission for the survival of the colonies.
I hope we will finish this mission and return to our homes without any trouble or accidents. I didn't question the Admiral's orders; he must have a damn good reason for doing this. Fleet Command must have reason to believe that they need a colony so far from the 12 colonies.
Day 27
Atlantis C.I.C.
Colonel Haller and Commander Stryker looked at the screen as reports came in from their scout raptors.
"Sir, Raptor 285 just jumped in. They say that they've found something," the communications officer said excitedly.
"What did they find?" Commander Stryker asked.
"A ship sir, or to say it more accurately; a wreck," the communications officer replied.
"I want a full report in 15 minutes," Commander Stryker said.
"Yes sir," the communications officer said.
15 minutes later
Atlantis Flag Suite
"Enter gentlemen," Commander Stryker said after hearing a knock from the door.
Lieutenant Marks and Ensign Keller entered the room.
"Sit gentlemen," Commander Stryker said, "now, tell me what you found. I saw the images, but you have a better understanding from actually seeing it up close," Commander Stryker said.
"For one Sir, the ship is not colonial. Secondly, it was so damaged that I hardly think there will be anything useful enough to get identification from it," Lieutenant Marks stated.
"No idea where it came from?" Commander Stryker asked.
"No sir, except that it looks like it has been here for years, if not centuries," Lieutenant Marks replied.
"We didn't find any life form signatures, no markings on the ship hull, and actually it was very hard to find anything given that there is no part of the hull that is not damaged. She was about 800 meters long, relatively small in our terms, but several areas on the ship seem to have had enough weapon emplacements to have been considered well-armed," Ensign Keller said.
"That's all for now," Commander Stryker said and both men exited the room after saluting.
"Colonel to my office now," Commander Stryker requested of CIC.
Colonel Haller entered the room and sat opposite the Commander.
"Colonel, I want you to send three raptors to that ship and have some engineers and marines to find out whatever you can about it. If possible, download its logs, and anything that could help us to figure out what happened to it. If that ship was destroyed here, I want to know what destroyed it. Who knows what could be awaiting us at our next jump," Commander Stryker said worriedly.
"Yes sir," Colonel Heller said.
"And Colonel, tell whoever you choose to lead this mission that they have 8 hours," Commander Stryker said.
"Yes sir. Sergeant Davison will do this job quickly and efficiently," Colonel Heller said.
System 310
Three raptors jumped in formation into the system near the wreck of the unknown ship.
"Damn it was torn up," one of the marines said.
"Yes, it is," Sergeant Davison said nodding.
All three raptors reached the destroyed ship, and a few seconds later they split up to search for a place to dock, but unfortunately there wasn't a safe docking location.
"Hmmm, it appears that the docking port was completely destroyed," the co-pilot of Davison's raptor said.
"From my scans, it appears the ship is a total wreck. I doubt we will find anything useful, but we will keep looking," Sergeant Davidson said.
About five hours later, the three raptors jumped back to the fleet. The report was not immense, since there was nothing useful to find. It was found that the ship was about 700 years old, but what happened to it was a mystery.
Commander Stryker ordered the fleet to jump to the next set of coordinates.
But in his head, his thoughts were confused; a derelict ship, blasted into oblivion 700 years ago, why, from who? All those questions, and they didn't find any answers! Not a single one and something terrible had happened here a long time ago.
The Fleet continued jumping and was closer and closer to reaching its goal. There were only a few small accidents so far, nothing deadly. All ships performed well, and all military ships performed a standard set of drills as a precaution.
Stryker didn't believe that everything would go as planned, but so far things were going according to plan.