Shadows Of The Past
Day 40 since Atlantis fleet departed for mission
It's been almost two weeks since Atlantis and her fleet found a wreck of an old unknown ship. Commander Stryker knew that people in the fleet were concerned; this part of space they'd entered was unknown to the Colonials, except for a few drone probes sent ahead, nobody had ever explored it before. Scouting raptors hadn't found much to report; mostly barren rocks, hot hell like planets, two gas type nebulas, several asteroid belts, and a tylium deposit they marked for future expeditions. This sector was a lifeless part of space. However, the crew started to feel and act like they were being followed. Like something was stalking them. Several times, blips on the scanners showed and disappeared.
Atlantis C.I.C.
"Commander on deck," Lieutenant Wilson yelled when Commander Stryker entered the CIC.
"At ease people," Commander Stryker said, "Lieutenant, is my analysis of those fragments from the wreck we found ready yet?"
"Not yet sir, the computer said it is an unknown alloy, and it is hard to connect it with anything in our databases," Lieutenant Wilson replied.
Doctor Donald Aren was the chief scientist of the expedition, but also the inventor of the new missile system called IDS (Intelligent Delivery System). All 48 tubes on the Battlestar Atlantis for Nuclear and conventional missiles were upgraded with this system.
"I think I shall go and visit Mr. Aren. Besides, since we left Colonies I haven't had a chance to visit Invictus," Commander Stryker said.
25 minutes later
Mobile Drydock Invictus – forward flight pod
Commander Stryker exited his raptor and was welcomed by Commander Krasner, Commanding Officer of the Drydock Invictus, and Dr. Aren himself.
"Welcome aboard Invictus Commander," Commander Krasner said.
"Thank you, this is my first time here," Commander Stryker replied and continued, "I was told a majority of the colonists were originally on board Argona and remain on the Colony ship Taurus. What do you have here Commander?" Commander Stryker asked while they were passing the nearest corridor.
"Well, this vessel is actually a large shipyard; outfitted with Viper and Raptor production factories, and with enough space for building any kind of ship from a Gunstar to a Mercury class Battlestar. There's also an ammo storage and production facility for fighters, bombers, and Battlestars. As well as spare parts shops, and repair shops. We also have two spare Celestus jump engines, of which I believe one is meant for the Battlestar Sword once we get to our target location. And to add to all of this there is a small factory for ground forces. The Invictus carries 600 vipers, 200 raptors, 24 stealth raptors, 24 scimitar bombers, 12 heavy shuttles, and has space for even more small craft if the need arises. Invictus also carries an impressive array of weaponry; from the main cannons that are normally used on Battlestars all around the ship, plus the most advanced point defense grid ever installed on any colonial ships except maybe for Battlestars Atlantis, Prometheus, and the Warstar Argona," Commander Krasner said.
"Well Commander Krasner I must say I'm impressed. With factories and supplies on the Argona, Invictus is a great addition to our expedition. Due to several unknown contacts in the last few week, I want all vipers and raptors brought to a fully ready condition. I would rather be ready and not need them, than need them and not have them," Commander Stryker said.
"Yes Commander, and I must say I am glad that you are in command. I've heard many good things about you, especially how you kicked Cain's ass with Poseidon," Commander Krasner said with a smile.
"Well somebody needed to teach her a lesson," Stryker said, "and what about you Dr. Aren? What can you report?"
"Sir, since Commander Krasner described all the technical and other important military stuff, I will say that all of our labs are fully functional; both technical and biological, we have the most advanced technology in those fields. Also, we have large water and fuel tanks that can support the entire fleet for six months, and with conservation we could stretch that to a year. Right now, they are still at over 80% capacity. We also have a green zone on board this ship in short arboretums where we are growing all kind of plants for food. Plus, there is a large sick bay on Invictus, and it is as advanced as the one on Caduceus. But since Caduceus is a medical ship, it has a lot more room for patients and wounded personnel if necessary," Dr. Aren said, "I must also say that Dr. Rodham informed me, that we have enough medical supplies to last for many years. Also this ship has the best recreation facilities in the fleet, for all kind of sports so that the crew and the colonists can enjoy themselves."
"Before you ask, Sir, about the alloys we found on that derelict ship or wreck since there's not much left to be recognized as a ship. I did find something; the first alloy is unknown to us, it is light but incredibly strong and resistant to damage. The second alloy that I didn't mention is actually a similar alloy that we use on our ships. It is ablative armor sir! But that is all that I can say," Dr. Aren reported.
"Thank you for the report gentlemen. But I don't understand; were there not markings or anything else on those alloys, anything that can tell us who built it, or what destroyed it?" Commander Stryker asked.
"No sir, the entire wreck was heavily damaged, and the ship was in such a mess that it was not possible to find anything. Whatever destroyed the ship must be extremely powerful, and I hope we don't come across it ourselves," Dr. Aren said.
"Hardly after 700 years, but why are you afraid?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Well for one thing, it destroyed a ship that was covered with a much more advanced and stronger armor than our ships, and if we run into those responsible for destroying that ship, well, no matter how powerful our ships are, I don't think it would be good for us," Dr. Aren said worriedly.
"Okay and what can you say about those false readings that we have been getting?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Not much, but I have two or maybe three theories sir. First, it is possible that this part of space or at least this sector may have gravi-metric or subspace distortions, and it is too bad that our knowledge about that is too small even when we have enough advanced technology to fly between stars. Second, which would be similar to the first, is that it's not distortion but possible wormholes or micro black holes; we know of only one black hole in the vicinity of the twelve colonies, and that is in the Hades sector. But there is the chance that there are small micro holes all around this sector. And the third and more science fiction possibility is that there is a cloaked ship out there," Dr. Aren said.
"A cloaked ship?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Yes sir, if this space belongs to an advanced species, and if they have technology that allows them to cloak their ships; they could use it to protect it against intruders, in this case we are intruders, and there is a good chance that they could be observing us," Dr. Aren said.
"And if that is true why haven't they attacked yet?" Commander Stryker asked.
"To be honest, I don't know. Maybe they're scanning us to see if we are a threat or not, or maybe we haven't made a move that they might see as hostile. I really can't say sir, I am not a solider, but I suggest we continue without too much looking around, and be on alert," Dr. Aren said.
"Alright Doctor, Commander, I think that is all for today; I should go back to Atlantis," Commander Stryker said.
"Sir before you go, there is something else," Dr. Aren added.
"What doc?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Well sir, there is something very strange in those alloys that we picked up. The strangest thing is the type of offensive weapon that took down the ship," Dr. Aren said.
"What about it?" Commander Stryker asked.
"From my analysis, the armor was not hit by any known weaponry we know of in practice," Dr. Aren said.
"What do you mean?" Commander Stryker asked.
"It was not hit by a rail gun or missile, or heavy cannons that we have in use. It appears to have been hit by an energy based weapon. As you know sir, back on the colonies I experimented with a new kind of weaponry based on energy. This is similar, but much more advanced," Dr. Aren said.
"So it gives proof that it was an advanced race that destroyed that unknown ship?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Correct, it was a very advanced race," Dr. Aren said.
Commander Stryker realized just how big the danger they could be in. And if they were to find those aliens, it could be a big problem as to how to defend themselves against an attack.
"Thank you for now doctor," Commander Stryker said and turned away heading towards the flight deck.
30 Minutes Later
Atlantis C.I.C.
"So what do you think about Invictus Commander?" Colonel Haller asked.
"She's very impressive," Commander Stryker replied.
"You should see Argona, damn those boys and girls on the shipyards really made her worth every cubit," Colonel Haller said chuckling.
Commander Stryker had just started to reply when the Ensign on watch came near the Commander and gave him a report.
"Sir this is a report from raptor 221, they found something and this time it is a lot bigger," the Ensign said.
It took another 30 minutes before raptor 221 landed and reported directly to the Commander. The report was really big and this time on a much larger scale than last time.
The finding shocked Commander Stryker because the raptor had found a planet that once had life on it; with cities, towns, and everything destroyed on the surface. In orbit was the wreckage of hundreds and hundreds of ships, some similar to that founded earlier and some different. There were also a few large wrecks, probably from shipyards and defense bases.
The raptor crew also reported some kind of activity there, a probe of some kind that patrolled in the area. They didn't want to get too close to it to keep from being detected.
After reading the reports, Commander Stryker met with several of his highest ranking officers in the fleet.
Commander Stryker and Colonel Haller from Atlantis, Commander Krasner from Invictus, Commander Mark Peterson from Sword, Commander Richard Neros from Pleiades, Commander Arina Shak from Caduceus, Commander Anthony Thompson from Argona, and a few more officers from the Gunstars. Dr. Aren was present as well.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Commander Stryker started to say while he showed a slide show of the photos that were made by the raptor that found the planet.
"An hour ago, one of our scout raptors found this planet in sector 2A17 Binary. It shows the graveyard of a battle, we presume from approximately the same timeline as the destroyed ship we found before. There are also two or three new kinds of ships present that were destroyed in a battle. The cities on the surface were bombed with some kind of particle beams with enough strength to decimate the entire city. There's no proof of nuclear weapon use. The raptor crew also said that they intercepted what they believed was a drone of some kind patrolling the area. They were forced to retreat before the drone got to their position. I know that many of you are interested in exploring the ruins up close, but until we find out more about that drone and what actually happened here, we cannot proceed. After all, our job, our mission is not to investigate old ruins from dead civilizations. Our mission is to establish a new colony. However, since we don't know much about this part of space, any intelligence can help us. That's why I appointed Major Curtis and his ship Onyx to investigate the planet and the wrecks," Commander Stryker said.
"My ship is ready, sir," Major Curtis, the tall blond man, said. Major Curtis was often called weirdo because of his weird hair style, but he was one of the best tacticians in the fleet.
"Good, you depart in 30 minutes Major. I expect a full report when you get back. The rest of the fleet will continue on our route. And one more thing, Colonel Haller has there been any more of those strange blips?" Commander Stryker asked.
"No sir, in the last 24 hours we have not noticed anything new," Colonel Haller replied.
"Good," Commander Stryker said.
30 Minutes later the Gunstar Onyx jumped to the unknown planet, while the fleet continued with its course.
Heavy Gunstar Onyx C.I.C.
"Jump completed sir," navigation officer Markson said, "all systems working normally."
"Good," Major Curtis replied, "deploy our scout team to the surface by raptors."
"Dr. Aren is already on board one of them sir," Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"Well after all, he is the main scientist of the fleet," Major Curtis replied, "if anyone can dig and find something it's him."
"That's for sure," Lieutenant O'Higgins said, nodding.
"I want a full scan of the area," Major Curtis said, "and keep watching for that drone the Raptor reported seeing."
"Yes sir," the sensor officer Tyler replied.
Cylon Space, Cylon Homeworld
In a large spherical room, Cavil looked over information that his spies in the Colonies had gathered. Two men entered the room, a number four known as Simon O'Neil, and a number five Aaron Doral.
"Our preparations are coming along well," Doral said, "in the next sixteen months we will be ready for our mission."
"Sixteen months? Why so long, what is the delay?" Cavil asked unhappily.
"Right now we have almost 125 baseships, 150 support ships and patrol ships, but half of our current fleet still only has minimal armament. Also, there aren't enough missiles to supply the full fleet once it is ready," Simon replied.
"What! Why, what's your brother doing?" Cavil said watching Doral.
"They found a critical error in our missile systems as well as in the missiles; he is working to fix that and all the new specifications. He is also not happy with the nuclear missiles, he believes that a few more tests are needed before he can say everything's ready," Doral said.
"Now he's giving orders?" Cavil replied angrily, "he said that everything would be ready after Leobens screw up a month ago."
"Yes, but he didn't say when," Doral said, "at least a few dozen tests are required. And in sixteen months we will have almost 250 baseships, if not even more, plus 200 support and patrol ships. The entire force will be fueled and armed in that time, and then we can proceed with our plan. And one more thing, he fixed the problem that Leoben had, but this is different."
"Fine, we can take the Colonial Fleet with half of that number!" Cavil said.
"If the reports are true, maybe we can, and maybe we cannot. From our latest information, there's at least 35% of the colonial fleets ships that are without the new CNP and are still on their old CNP versions, and some of them are very powerful units. If we proceed now, we could jeopardize the entire mission," Simon said.
"Alright, we will wait, but if your brother comes and says that he needs more time to finish, I will personally order him to be boxed," Cavil said and continued, "Did Kathy find any information about this colonial Phantom Fleet?"
"Yes she found something, but not enough of any importance to give us more of a clue about these secret colonial operations," Doral said.
"Tell her to keep looking, we must find out what the colonials are up to. Maybe they are planning an attack on us? I would not be surprised if Torres and Nagala are behind this, who else would be foolish enough to go against Adar's orders," Cavil said.
Gunstar Onyx C.I.C.
"Dr. Aren and his team have been on the ground for four hours now, and they still haven't found anything?" Major Curtis asked.
"No sir, they are still looking, but for now nothing useful has been found, and more importantly there are no bodies," Ensign Corrine reported.
Curtis didn't like this, except for the destruction here and in space there was nothing useful that could tell them what had really happened here.
"Alright, tell our team," Major Curtis started to say, but was interrupted when a dradis officer yelled "Incoming boogie, sector 12H starboard!"
"What the hell?" Major Curtis asked.
"Sir, I'm picking up an energy spike, it's preparing to fire," the dradis officer said.
"How the hell did we not we pick it up on dradis?" Major Curtis asked.
"Too many wrecks sir, they can mask anything," the dradis officer replied.
"Point Defense guns to automatic, prepare to salvo fire the main guns," Major Curtis said.
A drone that had not been seen until it was on top of the ship now started firing on the Gunstar with some kind of blue energy pulses, but the weapon was simply too small and ineffective against the heavy armor that the Onyx had. It was of unknown origin and very simple in design.
"Fire, destroy it now," Major Curtis said, and the weapon officer complied.
Defensive guns started firing; it took only one full volley to intercept and destroy the enemy drone.
"Sir, I'm picking up more contacts," the dradis officer reported.
"How many?" Major Curtis asked.
"12, no 15, no 23, oh hell, 65, 65 in total sir," the dradis officer said going pale.
"Comms, send a message to our teams; I want them on the raptors and to jump to the emergency coordinates ASAP," Major Curtis said, "all defensive guns prepare to fire."
The drones started moving faster and faster, closing the distance between them and the Onyx. When they came within 3km from ship, the ships defensive batteries opened fire. It was a magnificent sight as the white lights travelled at high speed towards the drones. Onyx's barrage hit and destroyed several of them, but the rest kept coming.
"Sir, more drones are showing up, over 100 new contacts," the dradis officer said.
"Frak, what is the status with our teams?" Major Curtis asked.
"The first bird is away, and the second bird is still on the ground. Dr. Aron and two of his assistants are still on the ground," Lieutenant O'Higgins replied.
Time passed slowly; minute after minute, more and more drones showed up on dradis. The defense grid destroyed over 40, but some managed to get through and fire on the ship. One or two drones couldn't damage a ship the size of the Onyx, but over 45 buzzing around and hitting in packs could do pretty nasty damage.
"Sir, Deck section 1-5 damaged, sections 5-6 losing atmosphere, and one of our guns is got knocked offline - thankfully not destroyed. I don't know how much longer we can take this kind of punishment," Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"What is the status of our last Raptor?" Major Curtis asked.
"Sir the second raptor's approaching, but a few drones have turned their attention to it and it's damaged," the communications officer reported.
"Helm, ahead two thirds, course 117 karem 23, let's get closer to our bird," Major Curtis said.
"Yes sir!" the helm officer replied.
Onyx started moving faster and faster in the direction of the raptor. The raptor pilot realized what Onyx was doing and cut the power to the engines and rolled the ship into the direct path of the Onyx. The hangar deck was open, and when the Raptor landed the Onyx jumped away.
It took several hours before the Onyx rejoined fleet as they repaired their damage enough to jump to the fleet's coordinates.
Atlantis Flag Suite
"Well Major, you had an extreme adventure," Commander Stryker stated.
"I would not call it an adventure sir; luckily there were no casualties and only a few injuries, with nothing serious," Major Curtis said.
"I hope Dr. Aren found something of interest down there to make the hell that the Onyx went through worth it," Commander Stryker said.
"He did find a few things, but it will take weeks, maybe months to go through it all," Major Curtis said.
"What's the condition of the Onyx?" Commander Stryker asked.
"It received several good hits sir, and it will need some repairs on the forward section and its damaged guns," Major Curtis said.
"Right then, get back to the Onyx and get into the Dry dock with Invictus as soon as you can, I want Onyx back to 100% as soon as possible," Commander Stryker said.
"Yes sir," Major Curtis said saluting the commander and then leaving the room. Commander Stryker had a lot on his mind; first the derelict ship, now an entire graveyard in orbit of an unknown planet with destroyed cities containing no remains left, and then those phantom drones. What the hell is happening here? It was a question he didn't know how to answer. This mission was starting to become more and more interesting, not to mention dangerous.