Death Of The Spider
Galactica Wardroom
Day 192 Since the Fall
Admiral Adama, Commanders Belzen, Hastings, and Lee Adama sat in Galactica's conference room, together with Colonel Fisk and Major Shaw. President Roslin was also participating in this meeting.
"Since we cannot risk losing any of our battlestars, we will go with plan B: we will send a strike team in a stealth raptor to plant a nuke inside the Cylon colony, which is currently in the process of modification in Galactica's hangar," Admiral Adama said.
"Who will lead the team?" Commander Belzen asked.
"Major Shaw," Admiral Adama replied, pointing to Major Kendra Shaw, "Commander Adama recommended that we try to capture another heavy raider from the Cylons, but unfortunately there is no guarrantee that we will succeed. Commander Belzen, you will take the Vanguard and try to locate the Cylon colony. The strike team and raptor will be on your ship. The rest of the fleet will continue towards Avalon."
"It will be done sir," Commander Belzen said sharply.
"You will give every detail to Major Shaw; where and how to place the nuclear warheads to destroy the Cylon colony," Admiral Adama said firmly.
A half hour later the meeting was over. When Commander Belzen stood up and started to leave the room, he was called over by Admiral Adama.
"Do not try and attack the colony with the Vanguard, if the strike team fails you are to re-join the fleet. Is that clear?" Admiral Adama asked staring piercingly at Commander Belzen.
"I hope it wont come to that Admiral," Commander Belzen said stiffly.
"There is no guarantee that this plan will even work, but don't throw away yourself or your ship in a pointless attack. If the team fails, it's over. We will need you commander, don't do anything stupid," Admiral Adama said.
"Rest assured I will follow your orders Admiral," Commander Belzen replied unflinchingly.
...
Unknown system
Three baseships slowly glided foward in standard V formation. It was one of the patrol fleets sent by Gary Doral.
The Cylons were getting very close to the Copernicus colony, without having any other option Rear Admiral Turner was forced to engage the Cylons. But attacking only Cylon ships that were close to Copernicus would make the Cylons suspicious of the colony's location, so every ship in the sector was to be attacked.
Suddenly in a bright of flash of light a massive battlestar appeared. It was the Nova, with all her guns pointed at the baseships. Since the ship jumped directly in front of the baseships, it immediatly started firing, launching all vipers as well. Firing her main cannons on the left baseship, the Nova tore it apart with ease before the baseship was able to respond. The remaining two baseships started returning fire, launching every missile they had, including nukes. But the Nova was too close and managed to destroy most of the Cylons missiles with its defensive batteries, some missiles hit the Nova but she continued her attack destroying the second baseship and crippling the third. In less than ten minutes, all three Cylon ships were destroyed and the few surviving raiders jumped away.
It was a victory, a single battlestar versus three baseships, with minimal losses of life on the colonial side. This was the second victory in the last fifteen hours in which five baseships were lost with no colonial ship casualties.
Copernicus system – Copernicus Colony – Rear Admiral Turner's Quarters
News reached Rear Admiral Turner fast. He looked down over the Copernicus colony as he thought about the victory against the Cylon fleets, considering how apparent it was that the Cylons were getting closer and closer to finding Copernicus. Prometheus and Nova delivered two new victorys for Copernicus, but they needed more ships right now. The defense force had four battlestars, not counting the old Ares from the first cylon war, and several gunstars. They needed more ships if they wanted to be sure they could stop any direct attack on the colony.
Admiral Turner gave orders for the Lobo negro station to design and build two new battlestars. But it would take a long time before those two ships would be ready for active duty. For now they had to hold, and hope their guerilla style of attack would hold off and damage the Cylons like last time.
Promar sector, both Cylon and Colonial fleet travelling towards the Terminus sector
Battlestar Vanguard off alone doing recon for the attack on the Cylon Colony
An entire week was needed to finally locate the Cylon colony, but the sight was not nice to see once found; the deadly and enormous spider like ship was surrounded by dozens of baseships and the ressurection hub. Looking over the photos, Commander Belzen asked himself how the hell could his team even succeed with its mission. The colony was too big, and they needed to get the nuclear warheads to one of the central rooms near the main reactors if they wanted to blow the entire damn thing. Thanks to help from the Cylon prisoners, they had schematics for the colony, but even with the schematics helping them along the strike team would have a long distance to cover from the raptor to the optimum area to place the nukes. From the nearest landing platform inside the colony it would take at least four hundred and fifty meters of walking to reach the designated area, with nukes that each were about a ton in heavy weight, and avoiding the Cylon forces along the way. Almost impossible with the nuclear warheads current size and weight, so the plan was re-designed to use smaller tacical nukes that the strike teams could easily carry. If placed in the proper place, the nukes should badly damage or maybe even destroy the colony. Target area was between the two main reactors for the ships engines and power supply. Ironically, there was a missile storage near that place also containing nukes as well that the strike team could highjack for detonation and ensure the colony's destruction with the Cylons own bombs.
Major Shaw saw this as a great advantage; there was no need to place nukes on the designated target place when they could rig them with some nukes in the Cylon missile storage, the chain reaction would consume the ship and possibly destroy the nearby baseships with the extra nuclear war heads adding to the explosion.
Commander Belzen approved the plan, but ordered Major Shaw to send one of their weapons specialists on the strike team. Weapon specialist Corry Tylin, who was an expert on nukes, was chosen for the mission. The Raptor that was chosen for the mission was retrofited, and was now ready to function like a stealth raptor.
Of course Admiral Adama had tested this new stealth raptor first and it had been proven to work perfectly for the planned mission. There were stealth raptors in the main fleet, but none of them was assigned to the fleet lead by Commander Belzen. Admiral Stryker had believed that stealthstars and standard raptors would be more than enough for Vanguard's fleet, and there were only two dozen stealth raptors in the fleet total, all were needed for the protection of the civilian fleet.
Testing the stealth raptors systems; for two days the stealth raptor on board the Vanguard nicknamed "Shadow" followed a Cylon baseship, jumping and flying near the baseship several times undetected.
Major Shaw was chosen to pilot the raptor along with five marines and weapons specialist Tylin. There were two small tactical nukes on board, nukes that needed to be carried to the missile storage on board the cylon colony. They had the schematics, they knew where to go, but Major Shaw knew it wouldn't be easy to get to, the chance that they would survive was less than five percent, or as Lieutenant Barkley leader of the marines shortly said: zero. Nevertheless, each member of the team knew what was at stake; they were ready to die if needed if it meant stopping or at least crippling the Cylons beyond possibility of re-build. The Cylon Colony was the mainframe for all the Cylons; it was needed to create new hybrids, even though the colonials didn't know that the Cylons were slowly starting to build ships not needing a hybrid. Still, the colony had the sample for every human Cylon model, and without her new Cylons of existing models could not be made.
Major Shaw and the rest of her team were armed with heavy guns, capable of disabling centurions as well as skinjob cylons. But she and specialist Tylin were tasked with carrying the warheads to their target, while the rest of the team gave them cover.
Shaw also had a choice; Admiral Adama had asked her if she was willing to take this mission, explaining to her that it was probably a one way mission but she was the best option for the job. She took it without question, after all she was not herself after what happened on the Scylla where she shot innocent people. She was a Razor as Cain called her, after all Cain gave her a razor, a protective sign that Shaw always carried with her. The Razor of death, as some of the Pegasus crewmembers called her. She would never forgive herself for the things she had done. This mission if it means death; would be for the good of all, and offered the chance to reedem herself in the eyes of others.
In the main hangar bay "Shadow" was already ready when Major Shaw approached it, and her team was already inside.
"Carrying the nukes to the missile storage won't be easy, but it is our only chance to cripple or destroy the colony. I would rather bring this ship and ram it into the colony, but the Admiral thinks this is a better plan," Commander Belzen said.
"And it is, Commander. I will do my best; we will destroy the toasters, I promise that," Major Shaw said.
"Then good luck major," Commander Belzen said and saluted her.
"Thank you sir, we will need it," Major Shaw replied, returning his salute, and then entered the raptor. A few moments later and 'Shadow' was already clear of the hangar bay, a few more seconds and the rapter jumped away.
"Blast I hope this will work," Commander Belzen said to himself, "or I just consigned seven people to their deaths."
...
"Shadow" jumped several times before finally finding the colony. In the dark cold of space it was a creepy sight; a large spider looking structure, surrounded by at least a dozen baseships and one large ship - no doubt the hub. Major Shaw turned all lights and systems off, leaving only the thrusters on to attract the least amount of attention possible.
"We are closing in people, lets hope the Cylons aren't looking out the windows," Major Shaw said.
"I calculate that our chances to finish this mission alive are, well, low," Specialist Tylin said quietly.
"You are correct, the chances are low, and I doubt any of us will make it. But we are doing this for all those who died by the Cylons hands and for the good of the fleet we have left," Major Shaw replied and then quietly to herself added and for redemption.
The Raptor closed the distance between itself and the Cylon Colony fast. There were lots of raiders and heavy raiders on patrol, so the Major was forced to take evasive maunvers more than once. It wasn't a problem to locate one of the large docking tunnels leading to the central docking bay. Once arriving near the tunnel, Major Shaw manuevered the stealth raptor inside. After a short flight inside the tunnel, they finally emerged to a large docking bay; a massive platform with four dozen heavy raiders. Shaw manuvered the raptor to the corner and darkest part of the platform.
"Alright people, we have a job to do. Lieutenant Barkley, you and Sergeants Knox and Willow will be on the rear, while Chelsy and Antei will be in the front. Specialist Tylin and I will carry the warheads," Major Shaw said as the team moved out of the raptor carrying their various weapons and gear.
"Yes ma'am," Lieutenant Barkley replied shortly.
Major Shaw entered the raptor again, and turned on the self-destruct mechanism.
"Let's move people, we have an hour to complete the mission," Major Shaw said as she ran back down the Raptor's ramp.
"Why an hour?" Specialist Tylin asked.
"Because I just rigged the raptor to self-destruct in sixty minutes. If we're lucky and get back in time we may even survive, if not, well at least we will blow the toasters with us. If we haven't been detected already, we will be soon. Move it people," Major Shaw said.
The group moved through the corridors on the way to the larger corridor leading to the missile storage. Shaw prayed that the Cylon prisoners were right and there were nukes stored there; the two smaller ones they carried wouldn't be enough to destroy the ship so if the Cylons were wrong the mission would fail and the strike team would likely be captured or killed.
"Ma'am, I don't understand, how would those nukes even destroy a ship of this size? Isn't the best place for the nukes to destroy the colony by the reactor core?" Lieutnant Barkley asked while they moved slowly through the corridor.
"That was the original plan, but the reactor is well shielded and we would never get that far. If we have luck this may work. Now move," Major Shaw said.
They passed a branch of two tunnels, one left and one right; they chose to go to the right. Major Shaw looked closely at the schematics provided by the cylon prisoner. On the next turn there was a surprise, a skinjob number six approached moving in the direction opposite of them. Major wanted to shoot her, but then realized that she would only download to a new body and would then alert the others of the strike teams presence.
"This way," Major Shaw said. They entered a small room, it turned out to be a storage for small parts - probably for heavy raiders. Some of which were organic. As the blonde cylon passed, they continued toward the room. Chief Tylin asked how the Cylons didn't detect them on approach or inside, but the answer was easy: the Cylons never believed they would be boarded by humans, the original plan to destroy the colonies was to destroy every single human ship, city, and shelter. Even if some survived, it was hard to believe they would ever get inside a Cylon basestar, and the Cylon colony was not even known to the colonials. So adding defensive technology such as internal sensors were not needed. Terrible mistake Major Shaw thought to herself, considering that colonial ships have internal sensors capable of detecting every organic on board. Although, like Cylons, they were not used before. However, around ten years prior to the fall a group of rebels took command of a gunstar and wreaked havoc on Canceron and Tauron before colonial forces managed to engage and destroy the ship. The ship was made by Scorpia shipyards, it was a big mistake by Scorpia yards, and a mistake that never again took place thanks to new technologies like internal sensors which detected every human on board. Of course after the second Cylon war, most of the sensors were shut down; fearing that if the Cylons got possession of the ship, they would be capable of detecting every human on board. But the Cylons used this fear to move on board fleeing ships, and since the human models were in every way human, the sensors didn't see the difference and could have caught them if they were turned on.
Shaw and her team finally arrived at the location of the missile storage facility. However, a new problem emerged; two Centurions stood near the large doors, guarding the missile storage area.
"What now?" Specialist Tylin asked apprehensively.
"Hmm, we don't have time to be stealthy any longer; Antei, Chelsy, clear the enterance," Major Shaw ordered sharply.
The two marines nodded and moved from their cover, targeting with their grenade launchers at the Centurions. Moments later they fired, hitting both Centurions in the head destroying them instantly.
"Clear," one of the marines yelled, and the entire group move forward.
"Sergeant, place charges here and here," Major Shaw said pointing at the places for plastic explosive charges to be placed. Sergeant Antei put both explosives in their places, and nodded at Major Shaw. The group moved to cover and the Sergeant clicked the detonator, blowing the massive doors to pieces. The group quickly moved in, and at first they were shocked at the size of the storage facility - it was one of nine on the entire colony, with large automated arms which loaded and armed the large missile silos of the colony.
Major Shaw gestured to Antei, Knox, and Willow to guard the entrance while the rest of the team moved in. With radiation scanners they found the nukes quickly; a massive pile of them.
"Alright specialist, now its your turn; no doubt the Cylons noticed our explosions and gun fire. We don't have much time, so do your job quickly," Major Shaw said as she gave Tylin her warhead.
"Ma'am, I have some knowledge about missile warheads, I can assist specialist Tylin," Lieutenant Barkely said.
"Alright then, Chelsy with me, lets see if there are more entrances to cover," Major Shaw said.
But there were definitely more of them, it was a huge place - no doubt on that, she knew that, so they need to make a second line of defense quickly.
Cylon Colony – Command Room
"An explosion? Where?" John Cavil asked in confusion.
"It appears it came from a corridor near missile storage A7," a number five known as Aaron Doral replied.
"Send someone to check out what's happening there," John Cavil ordered.
But before he could say more, a number six known as Jane entered the room. "I think I can explain what's happening," Jane said.
"Then explain!" Cavil shouted angrily.
She got closer to one of the consoles and connected herself to it. On one of the walls, a screen turned on showing the large docking platform where heavy raiders were stationed. "Look closely at the left side, we noticed this a few minutes ago while in regular control of the heavy raiders," Jane said. As the picture moved, it revealed "Shadow" parked between the wall and a heavy raider.
"That's a colonial raptor," Doral said, "it looks slightly changed, darker."
It was not unusual to have colonial Raptors on board their ships given that they had captured dozens of them from the Colonial worlds.
"Did we have any colonial raptors on board?" Cavil asked.
"Yes we have around eight of them, but all of them are stationed on landing platform beta, there shouldn't be any on gamma," Jane said, "and for sure we don't have one like this, all the others are standard colonial raptors."
"This isn't our raptor, this is current colonial military issue, a stealth one," a number two, known as Leoben Conoy said.
"Stealth raptor? What the hell is happening?" Cavil said angrily beating his fists on the table in front of him.
"It means we have colonial marines on board," Leoben said.
"How the hell did they get past our defensive fleet, and all those raiders on patrols? Not to mention our patrols inside the ship itself. And where are they?" Cavil asked.
"That question at least, is easy to answer. They are in missile storage A7, I just recieved a message from the hub; two Centurions are in the process of resurrection and no doubt those two were guarding the missle storage," Jane said.
"Send centurions there, wipe out the human pests. And I want answers on how they managed to get where they are undetected to all our sensors," John Cavil ordered.
"I will send a team to examine the Raptor, we may be able to crack open their stealth technology. As for how they walked around on the colony without detection; well thats your fault, we never installed internal detection sensors," Leoben replied.
"They were never needed," Aaron Doral added,"we never considered the possiblity that humans could find the colony and board it."
"Blast it, whose idea was that?" John Cavil asked.
"Yours," Doral said simply.
...
Inside the storage facility, Specialist Tylin and Lieutenant Berkley wired several of the cylon nukes together; some of them 25Mt and 50Mt nukes. Tylin had an idea to connect as many as possible, believing that the small portable warheads they brought on board would make a small electricity charge automaticly arming all the other nukes. Once the smaller ones exploded, all the others would explode at the same time.
Major Shaw recieved an urgent message from Sergeant Antei, "Ma'am we have company, huge number of Centurions and some skinjobs attacking."
"Hold them as long as you can, then retreat to our location," Major Shaw replied, but was cut off from saying more when cylon centurions started coming from another location, she and sergeant Chelsy opened fire on them.
Barely five minutes later sergeants Antei and Knox withdrew from the entrance and set down near the large wall to start providing covering fire. Lieutenant Barkley switched sides with Shaw and open fired on the other side, while Shaw moved over to take cover near Antei.
"Where is Willow?" Major Shaw asked Antei, leaning towards him so he could hear her over the gunfire from the firefight.
"He's dead, ma'am. We shot a few of them, including two skinjobs, but they kept coming and coming," Antei replied. Before she could respond, Shaw heard a small beep from her belt - it was the detonator controller for the Raptor.
"Cylons discovered the raptor, they tried to open it," Major Shaw said, and as she said that, she opened the small panel on the top of the remote detonator and pressed the red button. The Raptor exploded inside the hangar bay, killing all cylons nearby. The team felt the explosion even from their extreme distance away from the Raptor. "It's over now," she said.
"But ma'am, how do we escape now?" Sergeant Knox asked, and Sergeant Antei quickly answered, "we won't," Sergeant Antei said shortly.
Colony Control Room
"The Raptor just exploded, it seems it was rigged," Doral said.
"I want those parasites killed now," John Cavil said seething with rage, and then it hit him, "my gods they're trying to rig the whole damn missile storage."
"Not possible, their technology is not compatible with ours," Doral replied.
"Don't underestimate them brother," Leoben said.
"Stop them, send every centurion on board there, I want them killed before they can do more damage," John Cavil ordered.
...
One by one centurions fell, the heavy weapons the colonials brought with them were highly effective. But there were costs for the centurions downed; Willow was dead, Chelsy was badly wounded, and even Lieutenant Barkley was hurt.
"Ma'am, I'm done. All of them are rigged, at least in this compartment," Specialist Tylin said.
"Can they destroy the colony?" Major Shaw asked while firing at the centurions.
"They will blow everything in this section; with their combined force, they will destroy one or even two thirds of the ship. If hit from the outside this colony can take lots of nukes, but from the inside it would be torn apart - if we are lucky, the whole colony can be destroyed assuming everything goes right," Specialist Tylin said.
"Good. Lieutenant, can we break through?" Major Shaw asked looking at Lieutenant Barkley.
He looked at her, knowing that they couldn't - they would be dead before they could even leave the storage room, so he shook his head no.
"Then we will launch it now, this was our mission and we will complete it," Major Shaw said determinedly. Lieutenant Barkley realized what she was planning to do and nodded in approval. However Sergeant Chelsy was shot and killed moments later.
Shaw took the remote from Specialist Tylin, and pressed the button.
Colony Control Room
"Energy buildup out of scale in storage room A7," Leoben said when suddenly the entire ship shook so hard that everyone fell to the ground.
"They detonated the nukes," Aaron Doral said.
"To the escape raider now," John Cavil said.
Explosions started spreading throughout the rest of the ship and more and more explosions rocked the ship, each one stronger than the last. The Cylons ran toward a small platform near the control room where heavy raiders for emergencies were; fires and explosions rocked all around them, one of which killed Jane and one of the Doral's. They managed to arrive at the small landing pad, when larger explosions rocked the ship again.
"It must be one of the reactors; it's spreading, we must get out of here," Leoben said. And he was right, as Tylin predicted the explosion of so many nukes in one place destabilized the nearest reactor, which exploded causing even more damage to the sourroundings; more and more of the ship exploded as the nuclear shockwave spread its fury.
The Cylons lead by Cavil entered the heavy raider and they escaped the platform just moments before the entire section exploded. As they moved toward the hub that was a relativly safe distance away; the colony behind them suddenly exploded in a bright ball of fire, consuming a half dozen basestars that were closest to it. The heavy raider was caught in a shockwave from the blast and spun out of control for a few brief minutes that seemed infinitely longer. The only thing remaining of the colony were large chunks of debris.
"Contact the hub, we are landing there," Cavil yelled. The pesky humans not only managed to avoid detection, they managed to enter the colony and destroy it. This was the final insult by the colonials.
"What do we do now John?" one of the surviving sixes asked. "We didn't even have time to evacuate the colony. And from the nuclear blast of this magnitude, I don't believe more than ten or fifteen percent will resurrect."
"They didn't die in vain. We will go back to colonial space. I have to have a little talk with my dear brother. First a small fleet of colonial ships that was supposed to be destroyed or captured showed up with Galactica, then we lost one third of the fleet by a colonial trick with that black hole, and now we've lost the colony. Something tells me that there is more going on back home than we thought. This is not over," John Cavil said.
The Cylons remained in their location for weeks to commence slavage operations on their damaged baseships and raiders. Downloads on the Ressurection ship also took weeks, with some downloads corrupted and their deletion enforced – while others faield to download entirely. Some 80-85% of casualties from the attack on the colony failed to download successfully.
Battlestar Vanguard C.I.C.
Day 200 Since the Fall, not long after Colony's destruction
"Sir, our long range sensors detected massive nuclear explosions and a few minutes later it was followed by another much larger one. I believe the colony has been destroyed," Colonel Magene said.
"Any sign of our team?" Commander Belzen asked.
"No sir, and I doubt any of them made it out," Colonel Magene replied sadly in a low tone.
"I want a stealthstar sent there, I want to be sure that the colony is destroyed," Commander Belzen ordered.
"Yes sir, it will be done," Colonel Magene said.
Minutes later, the stealthstar returned and confirmed the destruction of the Colony and also about ten baseships destroyed in the assault. With this knowledge, and that the strike team was gone, Commander Belzen ordered the Vanguard to return to the fleet heading toward Avalon.
Day 210 Since the Fall of the colonies
10 weeks ago Ray Abinell had perished aboard the freighter Greenleaf, during a Cylon raider attack on the freighter. Sesha Abinell had created a hostage situation aboard Cloud Nine with the help of several other conspirators, hoping to force Admiral Adama to bring the captured Cylon model number Eight aboard the Galactica to be killed on Cloud Nine. Commander Lee Adama, Petty Officer Second Class Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, Presidential aide Billy Keikeya and several others were taken hostage aboard Cloud Nine, having been off duty aboard Cloud Nine for R&R.
Battlestar Galactica, Admiral's Quarters
"I'm interested in navigational weaknesses; wormholes, darkmatter blindspots, possible ambush areas," Admiral Adama said.
"I would avoid these pulsar pointers because of dradis interference. If I was gonna plan an ambush, I'd do it there," Sharon Eight said, pointing at a starcluster map for Admiral Adama to see.
"It depends Admiral. They adapt to your every move. Every move triggers a coutnermove," Sharon said.
"Adapt? That's what you're good at right?" Admiral Adama said rhetorically, not expecting an answer.
"Why won't you answer my question? Does the fleet know that I'm on Galactica?" Sharon asked, and then put her hand on her stomach as the baby was kicking.
"The fleet knows. That'll be all for today," Admiral Adama said, and Sharon was escorted back to her cell by the marine guard.
Admiral Adama had been visiting Sharon every so often for advice and to talk about the Cylons. Not long after exiting his quarters and seeing Sharon, Admiral Adama recieved the message from Sesha Abinell about the hostage taking on Cloud Nine.
Lieutenant Kara Starbuck Thrace tried to takedown the hostage takers unsucessfully by using the oppurtunity of the CO2 scrubbers malfunctioning by Captain Adama's handiwork. One of the hostagetakers was shot and killed, as were two marines who followed Starbuck inside. Commander Lee Adama was also shot, by friendly fire from Starbuck.
Admiral Adama arranged for the hostages release in return for the dead body of Sharon Valerii. The dead body of Boomer was used instead of the Sharon on Galactica, unknown to the hostage takers. While Sesha Abinell was focused on shooting the dead body of Boomer, a team of marines moved into the room to takedown the hostage takers. All three terrorists, including Sesha Abinell, were shot and killed by marines. Billy Keikeya was also shot in the chaos while helping to distract one of the terrorists from firing his gun.
Day 270 Since the Fall
Hera Agathon was born approximately one month premature.
President Roslin moved her plan into motion to claim the child and replace her with the remains of another child, and then to give Hera to a foster mother in secret. Commander Belzen found out about the plan through one of his stationed guards on Galactica overhearing a conversation between Tory and Cottle that raised the Commander's suspicions, after which he confronted Doc Cottle who gave in and told him everything. Commander Belzen confronted the President and sidetracked her plan. Commander Belzen knew Admirals Stryker and Adama would not accept the President's plan if they knew, and if the Cylons ever caught wind of it their alliance with their Cylon guests in the fleet returning to Avalon would likely be over. The plan was quickly cancelled with Doc Cottle obeying Commander Belzen's orders in lieu of the President's, and the President backed down after that. In time even she agreed the Cylon alliance and cooperation was too important to risk losing. Hera remained in her parents care.
Between Days 360-400 Since the Fall
Commander Lee Adama and Anastasia Dualla married and remained stationed on Pegasus together. Sharon and Karl Agathon married and remained aboard Galactica.
Admiral Adama met with Sharon frequently to discuss the Cylons, over time she earned his trust given the help she had given the fleet. Admiral Adama accepted Sharon Agathon's pledge of loyalty to the fleet and a personal promise to the Admiral, and she was commissioned into the Colonial Fleet as a Lieutenant, quickly earning the callsign Athena. Many were not happy with this, but most gave Athena leeway given the Admiral's decision and the knowledge of Athena's actions thus far in the fleets protection.
Athena herself asked how Admiral Adama knew she wouldn't betray him , and he replied that he didn't,"but that's what trust is."
Athena helped Chief Tyrol analyze the captured heavy raider, and they placed the Nav computer, or basically the brain, of the heavy raider aboard a raptor to test mixing its technology with one of their raptors. They found that they could immensely shorten the amount of jumps needed to jump between a large number of locations in a combat situation. They documented this infoand gave it to Admiral Adama, who in turn wanted a report on it readied for Admiral Stryker upon their arrival at Avalon.
Months after the Destruction of the Colony
The Cylon fleet was stuck at their location waiting for their damaged ships to complete necessary repairs, and their ressurection hub took an extended time to try to complete downloads of those who died in the attack on the Colony, though only a small percentage successfully downloaded.
Once repairs were completed and the downloads ended, the Cylon fleet started jumping slowly back towards the colonies to meet up with the rest of their fleet there. It would take several months to arrive given some of their ships were still damaged and limping slowly along. Jumping along faster and arriving at the colonies would've required abandoning the damaged baseships.