Sanctuary
22 days before the fall
Avalon, First City Under Construction
Miral Skhan, Commander Stryker, and Commander Krasner walked between the digging equipment and made plans that Commander Krasner would give to the engineers.
"Commander Stryker, I must say that the hyper data link that we installed in our buoys works perfectly. Instead of 30 days, it's averaging around 5 to 10 hours to receive and send information between us and colonial command," Commander Krasner said.
"Yes, I know. I've already sent a message with all the details from the last month, as well a report on the colonization process, plans, and everything else," Commander Stryker replied.
"Commander, if I may ask, when are Atlantis and her escorts scheduled to return home?" Governor Miral asked.
"Atlantis and Pleiades are ready. We will need a few days to remove the docks from Argona's flight pods; once we transfer the docks to Invictus, all three ships will head home. Do not worry governor; with a mobile dock like Invictus, Battlestar Sword, and all the Gunstars, you will have adequate protection until the orbital defenses are online," Commander Stryker replied.
"Sir, I believe that some of the Gunstars will also be in the fleet that is returning home?" Commander Krasner asked.
"No, they will stay behind, because this is an opportunity to use our engines at 120% capacity. Instead of 11 months, it should take us 2 months at top speed to reach the colonies," Commander Stryker said.
"You are aware sir, that those modifications on our engines have never been tested. The ship could blow up when we try to jump or it could jump to the wrong place. Those modifications were made on the engines used by the Sanctuary Heavy Warstar, and look what happened: she disappeared," Commander Krasner said disapprovingly.
"We are aware of the risk, but this is an excellent opportunity to test them. Besides; new security measures were added, and the ships will be flying in V formation with the leading ship giving information to the remaining two ships. In short, all the ships have their targeted jump coordinates handed by the lead ship with the best Navigation systems for the most accurate jumps, so there is no chance that anything will go wrong," Commander Stryker said.
"To add to Admiral Nagala's orders; Governor Miral is in charge of the civilians, and Commander you are in charge of the military while I am gone, or until someone else come to replace me, is that clear?" Commander Stryker asked.
"Yes sir, but with Sword preparing for an engine upgrade on Invictus and the Gunstars; Illiad, Novalis and Fortune in for upgrades, it leaves only Cygnus and Onyx to protect the colony," Commander Krasner said worriedly.
"Yes, but even with only those two Gunstars you have a fully functional mobile dock capable of defending itself, and for god's sake you will not be tearing apart those ships, they are only being upgraded. Their weapons and defenses are still active enough to be useful in an emergency. Now, I've sent several raptors to scout around to see what we have in our neighborhood. They will start to return soon, and I don't want to miss their reports," Commander Stryker said and started moving toward the Raptor that was nearby waiting for him.
"Damn, I don't like this, only two active ships and the rest down for upgrades," Commander Krasner said unhappily.
"We will be fine Commander, relax, I trust Commander Stryker. He is a capable officer and he knows what he is doing, and so do you so just relax. Your job is relatively simple; my job on the other hand is not. Managing the civilian colonists to work on the first city and work on other structures on Avalon will require a lot of effort," Governor Miral replied smiling.
21 days before the fall
Atlantis C.I.C.
"Commander on deck," the marine guard said when Commander Stryker entered C.I.C.
"At ease," Commander Stryker said, "so Colonel, you said that you have something very important to report?"
"Sir, I think you need to see this for yourself," Colonel Haller replied and showed several photos on the nearest screen.
At first the Commander didn't react, because he didn't see anything, but then, he moved out from the table and said, "Lords of Kobol, is that?"
"Yes sir, it's the Sanctuary. I saw her at the Scorpion shipyards before she was completed. I also sent half a dozen raptors to make a full investigation," Colonel Haller said.
"She looks damaged?" Commander Stryker asked incredulously, wondering what could've possibly damaged the Sanctuary given its weaponry and remote location.
"Yes sir, but that is not all. Looking around, you can see several other wrecks are there as well. They are similar in size to those wrecks we saw in orbit around the dead world we found. They are in a different configuration, but the same color, a dark bluish grey," Colonel Haller said.
"Did the raptor find any life signs on board?" Commander Stryker asked.
"No sir, however, their scanners said that there are organic materials on board, dead, but there. I'm guessing the remains of the crew?" Colonel Haller stated.
"Send the Onyx with a full wing of Raptors. I want that ship to be checked from bow to stern is that understood? I want answers. She looks like she ran into hell," Commander Stryker said.
"You plan to salvage her sir?" Colonel Haller asked.
"If possible, yes," Commander Stryker said, needing to search for answers as to what happened to this ship, "I want this information included in the next report to Colonial Command."
"It will be done sir," Colonel Haller said.
System HA-110 (Pyros)
Several flashes appeared; one bigger and several smaller. The Gunstar Onyx and raptors jumped exactly on top of Sanctuary.
Gunstar Onyx C.I.C.
"Gods, it's huge!" Lieutenant O'Higgins exclaimed.
"She is one of the biggest ships in the colonies, at almost 4.2km in length; she was supposed to be the main command ship for the entire fleet. Atlantia would have served only as a support command ship. But after her disappearance, she became the biggest and most expensive failure in colonial history. Of course, Fleet Command was blamed because they insisted that the ship be built," Major Curtis explained.
"How many people were on board?" Lieutenant O'Higgins asked.
"I think it was around 10,000 between the crew, civilian contractors, and the press teams. It was a disaster, but here she is lying filled with holes," Major Curtis said.
"She doesn't look too badly damaged sir; we might be able to recover her," Lieutenant O'Higgins said confidently.
For several hours, many teams explored the massive ship; finding bodies everywhere, and parts of the ship that were open to space. After a detailed analysis, it was found that the ship was still functional, just barely, with a majority of the atmosphere gone. There was heavy damage to the engines, but not critical enough damage to require completely new engines. The body count had risen to a total of 3,500 found dead.
"Sir, there are several things you should know. First, the weaponry is similar to that of the drones that attacked us near Bynar, similar but much stronger. Also, the other wrecks are similar to some of those found in orbit, presuming this is the same enemy that destroyed those Atlantian's. The configuration is slightly different, but the markings we found and the color are almost the same. Second, only 3,500 of the crew have been found, all dead, so the other 6,500 are missing. Third, and maybe some good news I think, the raptor that scouted around pick up some kind of emergency transmitter though it is very weak," Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"Where?" Major Curtis asked.
"The nearest planet, sir, it was hidden behind a gas giant it's orbiting. It's a small rocky planet. Barely habitable, but it is covered with deserts," Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"You mean that some of the crew might have survived, and they might be on that planet in hiding?" Major Curtis asked.
"It's possible. We also found that some smaller parts of the ship are missing, not destroyed. There is the possibility that the survivors of the fight, escaped with shuttles and raptors, and later came back and took materials needed for their survival. Team 7 also reported that the sick bay is completely empty. All the useful materials; from operations inventory, to the medicals supplies are gone," Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"Send Raptors 71 and 72 to check it out, also I want several vipers to escort them. I want other Raptors not assigned to Sanctuary to be out scouting and scanning. I don't want anything to take us by surprise," Major Curtis said.
"Yes sir!" Lieutenant O'Higgins said.
"Communications, send a message to Atlantis telling them that we believe that there is a possibility of survivors, and we need more ships," Major Curtis said.
"Yes sir!" the communications officer replied.
25 minutes later Argona and Atlantis jumped to the same coordinates that Onyx jumped to before. With one third of the engines power, both ships started approaching slowly.
Planet Codenamed 'Pyros'
Raptor 72
"Nothing on scanners, but the scanners are having a hard time working through this damn atmosphere and the clouds," Lieutenant Mark "Fuzz" Fuzzner said.
"Well, let's get closer to the ground shall we?" Lieutenant Artie Morales, brother of Kathy Morales the CAG of the Atlantis Viper squadrons, proposed.
A few more minutes passed before Morales yelled…"I see something here, and it looks like structures!"
"Let's head on down?" Lieutenant Fuzner asked.
It took almost 10 minutes before the raptors landed on what appeared to be a platform built from Sanctuary's parts.
Both raptor teams exited. Fourteen team members in all exited from the raptors and started exploring around in the hopes that they would find survivors from Sanctuary.
"FRACK Fuzz, I can't see anything in this sand storm," Lieutenant Morales said.
"Keep looking," Lieutenant Fuzner said, but it didn't take long before the team realized that they were surrounded.
A tall man appeared from nowhere.
"You are humans? Colonials?" the man asked.
"Yes, we are from the Battlestar Atlantis, and you are?" Lieutenant Fuzner replied.
"Never heard of that ship, my name is Alex Croton, I was a sergeant on the Heavy Warstar Sanctuary," the man stated.
"Of course not sergeant, it's brand new," Lieutenant Fuzner said, grinning.
"Come with us, the Executive Officer Colonel Coven will be happy to see you guys, follow me," Seargant Alex Croton said.
Five minutes later Fuzner, Morales, and their teams entered what appeared to be a large underground chamber. Another man got in their way.
"My name is Irv Coven, the XO of the Heavy Warstar Sanctuary. Sergeant Croton says that you are from the Battlestar Atlantis?" the man asked.
"Yes sir, we are," Lieutenant Fuzner said.
"And you came to rescue us, so how in the hell did you find us?" Colonel Coven asked.
More and more people started coming and surrounding the Atlantis team. Most were military personal, but there were also a lot of civilians who were assigned to the Sanctuary at the time of her launching.
"Not exactly sir, we were sent in this area to establish a colony. It was, shall we say, luck that helped us find you. One of our raptors found Sanctuary lying near the asteroid belt in this system. Commander Stryker ordered all ships to explore the system and find out what happened here," Lieutenant Fuzner explained.
"Well a lot happened, a lot for sure, so if it is not a problem Lieutenant I would like to talk with Commander Stryker, I think he will find our story very interesting," Colonel Coven said.
"Of course sir," Lieutenant Fuzner said.
One hour later, Raptor 72 carrying Colonel Coven and Sergeant Croton entered the docking bay of Atlantis.
"I forgot how good it was to be on a ship," Sergeant Croton said, "This looks like a Mercury class ship, but somehow it's different?"
"It is a Mercury block II class Battlestar. It's the only one of its kind for now; with stronger weaponry, better armor, more missile launchers, and in many ways it's more advanced than the older Mercury class," Fuzner replied, "this way please."
Commander Stryker was busy with a written report that would be sent through the hyper link, the first test of the new faster than light communication, when he heard a knock on the door.
"Enter," Commander Stryker said.
Two men entered the room.
"Please be seated gentlemen," Commander Stryker said.
"Thank you sir," Colonel Coven said, "we never thought that we would be saved, or at least we didn't think we'd see any other colonial ship in this area for some time to come."
"Well as you were told, you were found only by luck Colonel. To be honest, you and your ship are the last thing that I would have believed that we would find out here. After Sanctuary disappeared, nobody even considered a rescue mission, when nobody knew where you were," Commander Stryker said.
"That is understandable sir, but I don't understand what brought colonial command to establish a colony out here so far from home?" Colonel Coven asked.
"Possible Cylon threat Colonel; for years now, command has believed that a Cylon attack is imminent. And each year that passed without it, we lost support within the political structures. But more importantly Colonel, what the hell happened to Sanctuary, and why is your ship is surrounded by so many unknown and destroyed types of ships?" Commander Stryker asked.
"It's a long story sir, and very complicated. As you know Sanctuary had an experimental drive. Now that I think about it, they said that we had 2 pairs of Andraste warstar class engines and a pair of Nova class engines, but that is not even close to the truth sir. It was a total secret. We had the first ever built antimatter reactor created by human hands sir," Colonel Coven said.
"Antimatter reactors? The R&D section said that it would take decades if not even centuries to crack that field of technology, the only thing they have so far is fusion reactors," Commander Stryker said, going completely pale at the thought of such technology in use, which had utterly failed considering what happened to the Sanctuary.
"Yes sir, fusion reactors, or more accurately fusion energizers; which are ten times better and stronger than the standard energizers used on colonial ships. Except this new technology was not yet tested, not even experimented with. You see the scientists on board believed that there would be two possibilities, it would work or it would not work. No explosions or anything so crazy, at least not in their opinion. But it did not go as planned. Half of those that were on board at that time are dead now. Their own reactor killed them..." Colonel Coven said.
Almost 3 years ago
Picon HQ station in orbit of Picon -
Heavy Warstar Sanctuary C.I.C.
In C.I.C. many civilian technicians gathered together; scientists and a command staff led by experienced Commander Roland Nimara stood in the center of the large C.I.C.
"All sections report," Commander Roland Nimara said.
"Com – ready, dradis - ready, navigation – ready, engine room - ready. Weapons not ready 100% sir, most of them not installed yet," Colonel Coven said rolling his eyes at the thought of going out without the weapons even installed.
"Very disappointing of our techies in the shipyards, they completed the ship but did not give her teeth yet," Commander Nimara said with a raised eyebrow.
"Sanctuary still has a lot of power to show off sir," Colonel Coven said.
"True, so let's start this show, helm one third forward," Commander Nimara said.
"One third aye sir," the helm officer replied.
Sanctuary is a magnificent beast, bigger than any ship in the fleet, matching in size only with Picon HQ station. It took almost 7 minutes before the ship was clear enough to commence a jump, on each side a Valkyrie class Battlestar took part in the formation with this mighty ship as an honor guard for the maiden voyage.
"All sections green, we are ready to go sir," Colonel Coven said.
"Start the countdown, all hands brace for jump," Commander Nimara said.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, jump," Colonel Coven said.
In moments, two flashes from the sides of the Sanctuary and the escorting battlestars disappeared. But onboard the Sanctuary everything starting shaking violently, then seconds later in a flash and the ship disappeared.
Present Day
"But it did not go over as well as we thought it would, the entire ship was shaken to the core, almost to the point that we believed it would tear itself apart. Soon after the jump, an explosion rocked the ship from the engine room. We were too busy to see that we didn't jump to the coordinates where the other two ships jumped. We didn't know that we weren't even in colonial space anymore. Flames were everywhere in the engine room, and most of the staff there, including the main engineer, died," Colonel Coven said sadly, remembering the details he recounted vividly.
"I recall that the Battlestar Yashuman reported to Picon HQ that they jumped directly to the coordinates, but they didn't find you there," Commander Stryker said interrupting.
"We didn't know at the time it happened, but later one of the scientists believed that the Antimatter reactor was not calibrated correctly and that some kind of anomaly triggered this kind of long range jump and overloaded the engines. We were lucky, very lucky, that the entire engine block did not explode," Colonel Coven said.
3 years earlier – Unknown location
"Damage report," Commander Nimara ordered.
"We have a large explosion in the reactor room, several of the conduits overloaded and exploded; we also lost four of the main and almost all the secondary energizers," Colonel Coven reported.
"Casualties?" Commander Nimara asked.
"From the initial reports that we have so far, nobody survived in the main engine room or the sections close to it. I think we've lost almost 500 people sir, but we can't confirm that yet," Colonel Coven said.
"My gods," Commander Nimara said going pale in shock and horror at what had happened.
Present day
"The ship was in fact intact on the surface, but it was in total chaos inside. Several smaller explosions followed, but luckily they didn't do much damage, with only a few wounded.
But from hour to hour our nightmares went from bad to worse. The main air filters that created air on the ship started to fail, and then the ships life support system shut down. All the main systems started losing power because of the loss of so many energizers at the same time. It took a month to fix the primary systems, and to get the ship back to at least 50% operational.
We started sending scouts around, searching for food and water and resources. A fortunate find during one of our scouting missions led us to a system with a large ship near the third planet that we believed was inactive, and we thought it was a wreck, but that cost us very dearly soon after we arrived. We sent two raptors to investigate the wreck, but when the raptors got closer; the ship came to life and launched some type of robotic fighters.
Ship scans by both raptors instigated a response, and as soon as the scan was started the drones opened fired and destroyed the first raptor. The second raptor managed to jump away. The pilot reported what happened, but we had barely five minutes before the same ship reappeared from nowhere in proximity to Sanctuary.
It did the same thing; it scanned the ship and started moving aggressively towards us, no matter that we were three times larger. We managed to activate the defense grid, or at least half of it, and some cannons, though at that time we didn't have the energy to power the main cannons. But we managed to survive the first attack. Our long range cannons opened fire on the unknown ship moments after they opened fire on us. They fired some type of large blue pulses. Since the ship was already badly damaged, most of ship was in a weakened state. So the pulses just ripped through the ship.
We returned fire, and at first the ship did not react on our fire at all, like it had some kind of energy shield around it that we didn't see. But overwhelming fire from our cannons finally tore apart the enemy ship, and our fighters cleaned the space of all enemy drones.
That was only the beginning though, you see commander, just before the destruction of the ship it sent a signal, a type of signal we've never encountered before.
Several smaller attacks occurred during the next two months before finally a larger force jumped directly on top of us. Fearing that Sanctuary could not hold for long, Commander Nimara ordered an evacuation of the ship to the nearby desert planet where you found us. From some parts of the ship, a settlement was created to hold all of us. But with only two thousand people on the planet our unknown nemesis struck again," Colonel Craven said.
The Past
"Sir, we have multiple bogies on dradis, I'm reading seven large ones and hundreds of smaller ones," the dradis officer reported.
"Frak, I want all evacuation shuttles and raptors to go into that asteroid belt. They are to remain there until we deal with our dear new friends," Commander Nimara said sarcastically, "I also want all Vipers to be launched."
"Sir many of the launching pads are damaged, only 48 work sir," one of the CIC officers reported.
"Dammit! Launch as many fighters you can, I want them out there as of yesterday!" Commander Nimara ordered loudly, frustrated at the impossible situation his command was facing.
"Commander, my last report was incorrect, we have Seven capital vessels and…over two thousand smaller presumed to be drone fighters," the dradis officer reported.
"Well this is becoming even better now isn't it? Great!" Commander Nimara said.
The Present
"It was foolish to say no to Commander Nimara, he didn't want no for an answer, but the battle was finished before it even started. In total 112 fighters were launched. And the fight started with so much brutality, like I have never seen before. Those drones are so lifeless and yet they fight as perfectly as a trained pilot, maybe even better.
Our fighter force was decimated in 30 minutes, while the enemy losses were over 600 fighters. But they just kept coming. The entire fight was almost 4 hours long, and by some miracle the ship stayed in one piece. In the middle of the battle, we got word that there was enough juice for the main cannons, at least for a few shots. It was the first time I've seen their disastrous effect. Each 8 barreled cannons launched so much destruction, that no matter how strong and old those ships were, they simply were not strong enough to survive that kind of punishment. All 7 mother ships were destroyed before the main cannons stopped working again. The enemy got reinforcements again, and this time three ships of a newer, even bigger class that we've never seen before. Fortunately enough time had passed that we evacuated those in the asteroid belt to the planet without alerting the swarm of drones and the enemy capital ships. During this last fight, the ship was punched from all sides, and Commander Nimara died when one of the monitors exploded and fell on him, instantly killing him.
Several seconds later the ship lost power and was starting to lose atmosphere fast. My assumption was that one of the ships scanned Sanctuary before they stopped firing. At that time only 300 people were left alive on board. I believe that the enemy ship saw that the ship was losing atmosphere and that the survivors would die sooner or later without air. So they withdrew.
From the 300, 125 made it to the hangar bay, and all the others died on the way to the hangar. From open areas to space, to the explosions and fires that were running around killing people. Several times we returned for supplies and materials for our small colony there. One other very important thing sir is that the enemy sent several drones each month to scout around the wreck of Sanctuary," Colonel Craven said.
"Do you know when will they next come again Colonel?" Commander Stryker asked.
"10 days sir!" Colonel Craven said.
"Colonel, your people will be transferred to Avalon, on that you have my word. It will be a priority, as will the repairs on the Warstar Sanctuary if it is possible, and my engineers say it is," Commander Stryker said.
"Sir, even if it is, it would take 5 years in a drydock. Here it will be impossible," Colonel Craven said sadly.
"Not quit, we have a large mobile dock Invictus, capable of repairing Andraste class ships, and it might not be enough to dock Sanctuary, but it will be more than enough to repair it," Commander Stryker said.
For the next nine days, the repair teams crawled through Sanctuary making repairs. They were giving their best effort to repair her at least to a state that she could be towed to Avalon. At the end of the ninth day, all ships and their crews retreated from the system, leaving only a stealth fighter that landed on the back of the Sanctuary and waited.
As Colonel Coven said, on the tenth day several drone ships appeared from nowhere. They circled several time around Sanctuary and the other wrecks, and then disappeared after just 10 minutes of scouting. The stealth fighter waited another 2 hours before jumping to Avalon to report.
As soon as it reported in, the other ships jumped back into the system and resumed repairs. A special clock was made that counted down the time before the next retreat again in another 10 days.
In the meantime, Atlantis was re-supplied from Invictus, and Pleiades from Argona in order to begin the long journey back to the colonies.
Commander Stryker was not happy with the current situation at all.
Two days later, the Commander finally decided to give command of all armed forces to Commander Krasner of the Invictus. He also ignored the governors' protests that the civilians needed to take charge until Atlantis or any other ship returned.
Atlantis, Argona, and Pleiades departed and jumped away with their full capacity.
1 day before the fall
Cylon space – Command baseship 01
All 7 cylon models stood in the main chamber on board baseship 01 or baseship prime, with several more copies.
"Well I am happy to say that we are ready to commence our plan given to us by the gods," Cavil said, smiling at the lie that made the other human Cylons agree to the attack on the colonies.
"Or given by yourself," a number six known as Kathy said.
"You should rejoice sister, the human pests will be dealt with in a swift fashion and without mercy, and their tyranny will finally be over," Cavil replied.
"Tyranny, you are a psychopath. They are not perfect, far from it, but they are not a threat. They have had the chance to attack us many times and they didn't," Kathy said, really trying to protect humanity believing that the humans could be better than they were.
"Thank you sister for your compliment, but you are wrong, they are up to something and we all know it. We still haven't found those phantom ships. Our spies did not succeed at all. They believe that the colonials are planning a pre-emptive strike," Cavil said, grinning with glee over having the phantom ships as an excuse to get the other Cylons, who were less willing to attack the colonies, to get with the program.
"Yes we cannot be soft now, we must finish what we planned for such a long time," a number four known as Jeremy Simon said.
"Oh please Simon, you will do everything what Cavil says, if he says jump, you will jump," Kathy replied scathingly, looking at Simon with disdain.
"I am only stating the facts," Simon said evenly.
"Doral, and you, yes you Leoben, I know that you have something to do with the malfunctions of those missile systems, you like Kathy don't approve of this attack," Cavil said.
"I did not sabotage the missile system if that is what you are trying to say," Leoben said, trying to protect himself against Cavil's accusations.
"Everything is working now, we are ready," Doral said.
"Good. Then, we will start with something that colonial navy believes is the strongest asset in their sleeve. We will start the attack with the Warstar Andraste and her battle group. Since they are the closest to the red line," Cavil said.
From all sides acknowledgements of agreement could be heard, only Kathy and Leoben remain silent.
Half an hour later, Baseship 01 cooling system room
"Well, you definitely have weird places to choose for talking?" Leoben said.
"This is one of the places where Cavil never comes, we are safe here," Kathy replied.
"I know what you want to do. Alert the colonial navy, but Cavil is not stupid, he will know, and then we will both have problems," Leoben said.
"I will not do that, but we can do something else, or actually you can. I want you to sabotage the jamming system; at least that way the colonial battle group of the Warstar Andraste will have a chance to warn the Colonial Fleet," Kathy said.
"And then what? Even if they succeed, thanks to the CNP program they will still lose almost their entire fleet, Cavil will make sure that they do," Leoben said.
"Just do what I say and we might have a chance. You forget Leoben, if you hurt humans they become stronger, and whoever survives this holocaust will attack us in return sooner or later. I think Cavil will find that the game he is playing is a deadly one. His actions will end us all, and you know what he did to the final five models, our parents," Kathy said.
"We need more supporters, without them this will be harder to do. But ok I will do my job; you just watch what you're doing," Leoben said.
22 hours later
The Edge of Colonial space – border with Cylon space
Warstar Andraste the pride of the fleet, identical with the Argona in any case, and her Battle group moved slowly through space with two Jupiter class Battlestars at her sides, along with four Defender class Gunstars.
Warstar Andraste C.I.C
"Admiral, I still don't understand why you insist on going with us on this patrol mission. It's a boring mission, and I am sure that you have much better work to do?" Commander Heinkel said who didn't like having an admiral on board his ship.
"You want to say Commander that I am not welcome on this ship?" Admiral Renant said amused.
"No sir, but this is standard patrol on the border, which is not an interesting place to be sir," Commander Heinkel said.
"Don't worry Commander, I will be on just one run with you and I am leaving..."
Before admiral finish his sentence, the proximity alert came online.
"Sir, we have bogies on dradis; it shows six Capital ships dead ahead," the dradis officer said.
"Identify those contacts," Commander Heinkel ordered.
"Frak! The War book says its looks like the Cylons, they are launching raiders!" the dradis officer replied quickly.
"Cylons? After all these year?" Commander Heinkel said looking at the other shocked faces throughout CIC.
"They are opening fire! We have multiple missiles incoming. Sir, the Battlestar Juno reports that they are losing power, Battlestar Odysseus as well!" one of the CIC officers reported.
"Move the Gunstars into a covering position, defense grid open fire when the missiles come into range," Admiral Renant ordered.
"What the hell is happening, I want answers!" Commander Heinkel said franticly.
"Sir, two of the baseships are targeting the disabled Battlestars; they are launching missiles, some of them are nuclear sir!" the dradis officer reported in the midst of his panic.
"Order the Gunstars Triad and Chaser to concentrate on defending Juno, and Gunstars Rusher and Smasher on Odysseus," Commander Heinkel said, "Admiral I have a Raptor ready to take you back to Picon."
"Not going to happen, I'm staying here Commander, but you can send that raptor with information I think Colonial Command will want to know about this," Admiral Renant said.
"Yes sir," Commander Heinkel said, all traces of his former annoyance at Admiral Renants presence gone given their current situation.
"Sir their missile barrage is penetrating the Gunstar's defenses, they can't stop it, gun..." the communications officer started to say.
In space several missiles struck the Gunstar Triad blowing it into pieces, two missiles were nuclear and the Gunstar didn't have a chance.
Moments later an additional salvo destroyed Chaser as well.
"Juno is defenseless, get into range I want iron rain on those baseships now!" Admiral Renant yelled.
"Aye Sir! Helm ahead emergency power!" Commander Heinkel said.
The massive Andraste class Warstar moved towards the enemy, missiles struck her on front section, but a majority was destroyed by point defense batteries. And then she unleashed her destruction on the nearest baseship. Huge rounds that flung ahead almost at the speed of light hit the lead baseship in the central axis and the ship somehow survived the first rounds, but the second volley sealed her destiny. It exploded in a large fireball.
Baseship 08
Janice D'Biers stood in the command center watching the battle. She believed it would be quick, but it was not going as planned.
"We lost a baseship damn it, Andraste is moving closer," Gary Doral said.
"Send raiders to finish those remaining Gunstars, and the disabled Battlestars. Have all baseships concentrate their firepower on the Andraste, I want her blown apart," Janice said.
"Done," Gary said.
"Gary why is the Warstar not shutting down?" Janice asked.
"I don't know? I think she has much stronger firewalls than we gave her credit for. We can't seem to break in!" Gary replied, frantically going through the data stream.
Raiders swarm over the colonial defenders, and to make it even worse, the battle group had lost 80% of viper squadrons in contact with the raiders, leaving only few older squadrons to protect them and their own point defense systems. It took a few short seconds before the remaining two Gunstars were destroyed by overwhelming offensive fire from the raiders. And then, one by one the Battlestars were destroyed by nuclear missiles fired from the raiders, but they did not go alone as a second Basestar exploded.
Andraste C.I.C
"Sir we just lost Odysseus, frak Juno is destroyed too," Commander Heinkel said.
"Get us out of here..." Admiral Renant started to say.
But before admiral said anything more, several explosion rocks the ship. It was for sure not from the outside, it was from the inside.
"Damage report," Admiral Renant ordered.
"Sir, one of our energizers just exploded, we are losing power," a CIC officer reported.
"How the hell did that happen?" Admiral Renant asked.
"Sir, our engineering team reported they found two dead guards near the destroyed energizer," the CIC officer said.
"Somebody sabotaged the ship, great," Commander Heinkel said.
"Commander deploy marines on every critical part of ship now," Admiral Renant said, "and Commander if you want to send that raptor, now is the time: do it quickly."
"Yes sir," Commander Heinkel said.
"Incoming missiles… lots of them, oh no, almost 40 are nuclear sir," the weapons officer stated worriedly.
"Damn it, restart the defense grid and point them all in the same direction. I want those missiles gone, nothing is to get through," Admiral Renant said.
A Raptor exited the docking bay just in time when first missiles penetrated the Warstars defenses; one of the first nuclear missiles hit the ship. Covered by the explosion the raptor jumped away.
But seconds later, several more nukes hit the ship.
"Report," Commander Heinkel said, who was hit in head with some debris and had a nasty bruise on his head.
"Sir sections 20-35 all venting atmosphere, several guns are out of commission, and we have too much damage so that there is no chance we can jump out of here now," a CIC officer reported.
"Well then, we do what we do best!" Commander Heinkel said, "Set course 1-3-1 I want ramming speed now!" he looked to Admiral Renant who approved his order, and said "It was an honor to serve with you Admiral. Let loose and arm the Nukes and Anti-ship missiles, and let's see if we can take some more of them with us."
"The pleasure was mine Commander, all hands abandon ship! Helm aim for the center Baseship!" Admiral Renant said, and both men saluted each other.
The wounded beast started her last run to destiny, she took an additional baseship with her main cannons before reaching the main baseship formation.
Baseship 08
"Evasive actions, back away!" Janice yelled, but she saw that it was pointless, so she only closed her eyes knowing that she will be born again.
The Massive Andraste class Warstar fired her missiles and then hit two baseships at the same time and all three ships exploded in large fireballs. The blast consumed baseship 08 as well, leaving only a single baseship that survived the battle, but even it was badly damaged.
It was the end of the mighty Andraste class Battlestar Andraste, but her sister ship will avenge her. It was just the first step in Cavil's twisted plan, a plan that will cost billions of innocent lives...