The Outcasts
Day 425 Since the Fall
Admiral's Log
A week and a half has passed since Galactica and her fleet arrived. About fifty thousand additional survivors arrived with the fleet. I assured President Roslin that the people from Galactica's fleet would have everything they need, and they were quickly put in tent homes like everyone else. We still don't have enough buildings for housing everyone, but the work on cities is moving quite fast with the addition of hundreds of thousands of civilian volunteers and specifically a few thousand prisoners working to earn their freedom. The prisoners in Galactica's fleet were given an unsteady freedom on their voyage from the colonies by President Roslin for their assistance on giving their fleet water, but to prevent conflicts with prisoners who've been working for their freedom on Avalon a compromise was called for all remaining prisoners to help create buildings in Avalon's new cities for our survivors. All those prisoners with past military and fleet experience have been reintroduced to the fleet with their records swiped clean, and the remainder working on building cities will be allowed to re-join the civilian population once the majority of people on Avalon have their own home. Already we're under great pressure to build new houses and buildings to accommodate everyone.
I must say I'm relieved knowing that another group of survivors has arrived safely at Avalon. We have more than enough people to rebuild our civilization. With more survivors on Picon, the rest of the colonies, and in Admiral Turner's fleet, I know humanity and the colonies will survive and rebuild.
President Roslin is now president not only of those people in Galactica's fleet, but also president of the entire Colonial remnant. Former Governor Shkan was appointed as Vice-president. Now that President Roslin is at Avalon, elections are in the process of being setup in order to legitimatize the new government. After all, President Adar's original term ended and thus President Roslin's term under emergency circumstances ended as well. Unfortunately that means elections to either re-elect Roslin or put someone else in power under the people's majority vote. I do hope Roslin is re-elected since logs of the Galactica's journey have made it clear to me that she is exactly the kind of leader we need to make the tough choices ahead of us in the future.
Gina Inviere, a Cylon number six brought aboard Pegasus, remains in the brig until further notice. She was responsible for the death of seven marines and I didn't want her free no matter the objections from Commander Belzen or Gaius Baltar. I think Baltar objected the loudest when he was informed about my decision; he slammed open my doors demanding an explanation. This was the man that developed the CNP which allowed the Cylons to shut our ships down and destroy our fleet and the colonies. I warned him that he was lucky to still be alive, and I called marines to throw him out.
The second Cylon in Galactica's fleet was a number eight named Sharon "Athena" Valerii serving on board Galactica as an official crew member. Another copy that carried the same name almost killed Admiral (Commander at that time) Adama. This one is fully loyal to Adama, and she's cooperating with us fully. After a long and extensive interrogation she was allowed to stay at her post.
And then there's Cain to consider, former Admiral Helena Cain. Oh how long I've waited for this day. I can't say that she was not a good officer; she was loyal to Colonial fleet, but her brute behavior and her actions are against her. Cain was always a pain in fleet command's ass. They probably promoted her just to get rid of her. I don't really know what was in Fleet Admiral Torres' head when he promoted her. Adama was the one who should have gotten that promotion instead of her. And now she lies in my brig. Oh it didn't take me long to realize that she had an escape plan. Her own bridge officer betrayed her. Lieutenant Louis Hoshi, the communications officer on board Pegasus. He never liked Cain, and why should he, from what he said she always treated him without any kind of respect. He faked being on Cain's side when Colonel Fisk came to him to find out about his loyalties to Cain. He overheard a conversation between Fisk and some other high officers on board Pegasus. They planned to hijack Pegasus during its refit and to rescue Cain from the brig. Without mister Hoshi I might not have found out about this before it was too late. So what to do with this information?
The obvious answer would be to arrest Fisk and the rest of Pegasus officers loyal to Cain, but then I would need to arrest about half of the Pegasus crew for conspiracy. I cannot order Cain's execution. Oh she knows I follow the rules, and for her those rules were pointless; she thought the colonies were gone, and the military chain of command was gone, but she was wrong.
Rather than kill her I decided on a more radical approach. Forming a court martial for her would take time. And I want to get rid of her as fast as possible. She is a monster now, and like Jason Campus she would start working from behind my back, even from inside the brig.
It is time to finally meet with her face to face. Cain probably expected that I would be the first person who would visit her, but I left her waiting. Now it's time to finally go and confront her.
End log.
Admiral Stryker finished his log and then called the Lieutenant that was on watch. He ordered that Helena Cain be brought to the secondary conference room on board the Unity. Colonel Fisk was also to be present.
Some thirty minutes later Admiral Stryker was waiting in one of Unity's conference rooms. The doors opened and Colonel Fisk entered.
"Sir, you called for me?" Colonel Fisk asked.
"Yes Colonel, sit. We are waiting for one more person," Admiral Stryker said.
Colonel Fisk nodded and sat down on the left. Several more minutes passed before the doors opened again, and this time a marine guard entered followed by Helena Cain and a second guard. One of the guards pointed Helena toward the table and told her to sit down.
"You may stay by the door sergeant," Admiral Stryker said.
"Yes sir," the sergeant replied.
Helena observed Stryker for a moment. Clearly he was not the same man; he looked older and more serious than when she had seen him before. She was also surprised to see Fisk here. She could move in her chair, but her arms were handcuffed.
"You?" Cain hissed, watching Stryker with her cold eyes, "Why am I here?"
"Yes me Cain. Why are you here? Why do you think you're here?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"Are you planning to execute me?" Cain asked.
Instead of answering her question, Admiral Stryker looked down at one of the papers in front of him and started dictating Cain's biography, while also taunting her at the same time.
"I have your entire file Helena, everything from your birth to the second Cylon war. You were born on Tauron during the first Cylon war by your parents Samuel and Soundra Cain. You had a younger sister Lucy that went missing during the last day of the war. Your father was also killed on the same day. Your mother raised you alone," Admiral Stryker said.
"Why are you telling me this?" Cain asked angrily, but Admiral Stryker didn't pay attention to her question.
"The loss of your father and your sister was probably what moved you toward a military career. By the age of seventeen you joined the colonial navy. You rose in rank quickly, showing great command capabilities. You were one of the best in your class and also one of the most aggressive and brutal. By the age of twenty nine you were promoted to Commander, the youngest Commander ever. Brilliant and resourceful; that was what your superiors thought about you. But everything changed when you were promoted to the rank of Admiral. You were always cold and hateful, having only a small circle of friends that you could trust; you become a terror to the majority of your crew. You ran your ship with cold and brutal discipline which did get you in some problems with other officers. The childhood trauma must be responsible for what you are today Cain. Hate and vengeance toward the Cylons were the fuel that powered you, but when the war with the Cylons started again you showed your full rage. You would probably have killed Belzen if Fisk hadn't stopped you, but that didn't stop you from making irrational decisions," Admiral Stryker said.
"You don't know anything about me Stryker. You're a worm that crawled under everyone skins to the top of fleet command," Cain said viciously.
"Like you Cain I was very resourceful, but I am also much smarter than you are. I was not the best in my class like you, but I did know how to do my job well. I beat your precious Pegasus with a ship that was three times smaller and weaker using only my brain. You like to win, you never lose and you couldn't reconcile with loss. I saved over two million people, and gathered dozens of warships. Most of all I had support from the entire military in this fleet and the civilians as well. Who gave you support? The only ones who respect you are your crew, and half of them are just afraid of you. After finding out that you had a Cylon on board you beat the crap out of her, and allowed your officers to rape her. Yes she did kill your marines, but what you did to her later, that was not how a colonial officer works," Admiral Stryker said.
"She was a Cylon, that thing pretended to be friends with everyone on board and then betrayed us. What I did was torture a prisoner of war to get information vital to the survival of the crew of my ship," Cain said.
"In your place I would simply have shot her, and not allowed the horrors that Lieutenant Thorne and others did to her. I could understand your actions; the Cylons had just blasted the colonies to hell, but you turned against your own people. If not for Fisk, you would have killed Belzen on site, but instead of that you condemned him to a slow death, and it was lucky for him that he found a military depot. Then there's what you did to that small civilian fleet. You ordered for those ships to be stripped for everything they were worth. You even took people against their own will, all those that could be used, leaving everyone else to die. Do I even need to mention that some of your officers opened fire on innocent civilians?" Admiral Stryker said.
"Now wait a minute Admiral, that wasn't Cain's fault, Lieutenant Shaw did that on her own accord. I was there," Colonel Fisk said.
"Shut the frak up!" Admiral Stryker yelled at a surprised Fisk who remained silent, "I don't want a word from you until I allow it, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Admiral," Colonel Fisk said stonily.
"Good," Admiral Stryker said, "You Fisk are responsible for what happened on the Scylla. Shaw was under your command and you could have stopped her. How do you justify that?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"Sir she acted without any orders; she simply started shooting people and by the time I stopped her a few people were already dead," Colonel Fisk said solemnly.
"Which makes you guilty as well; you are her superior officer. Do I need to start with you Fisk? You had a connection with the Black Market in Galactica's fleet. You smuggled forbidden contraband upon your meeting up with Galactica's fleet, and throughout the trip to Avalon. At least Shaw paid for what she did with her life. She redeemed herself at least in part for her sins when she destroyed the Cylon Colony, but you two are a disgrace for that uniform you wear. Cain wanted to play hero with one ship against the entire Cylon armada. Do I really need to remind you Cain that you lost half of your fighters in that attack on the staging ground, which you believe was only a Cylon supply point but continued with the attack even after it seeing the mass amount of raiders there," Admiral Stryker said.
Cain remained silent. She had met Stryker many times before the war, but this was the first time he had shown his fury. He was not as weak as she had thought. There were a few times she would have liked to say something, but instead remained silent.
"If you want to know what is going to happen next Cain, I will tell you. I won't execute you; I have better plans for you. I know of your little plan to hijack Pegasus and escape," Admiral Stryker said, stopping for a second to observe their reactions. They stared at him in surprise, probably wondering how the hell he could know.
"Not all of your crew really like and respect you Cain. And you never know who may be listening, especially at places where Colonel Fisk met with others of your crew. Bring him in," Admiral Stryker said to one of the guards. Moments later the guards returned with Lieutenant Hoshi.
"Mister Hoshi overheard talk between Fisk and Lieutenant Thorne about your plan," Admiral Stryker said.
Both Cain and Fisk looked at Hoshi, who was clearly terrified. Cain only yelled "Traitor!" at him.
"Oh, he was not a traitor: you are. You can go Mister Hoshi," Admiral Stryker said.
Hoshi nodded and exited the room.
"So what will you do now Stryker?" Cain asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
"It is Admiral Stryker to you, or if you want Fleet Admiral Stryker. What will I do? Well I will allow you and the crew that was on your side to take the Pegasus and get the frack out of my sight," Admiral Stryker said.
Both Fisk and Cain remained silent and surprised, staring at Admiral Stryker.
"Oh you heard me right Cain. I will allow you to take your ship and go. Limited supplies, limited fuel, a few fighters to protect you. Without a tanker or refinery ship you won't last for long. Once your ship jumps out of this system its computer system will delete all information about this system, most importantly its coordinates. After you leave this system, you're on your own; you and your little band of renegades. Without full crew, without supplies and resources how long will the mighty Pegasus last? Of course you could return back to Cyrannus but I'll simply send a message back to Picon to warn them about you. You won't have a home there. You will be forced to wander around, but be warned that if you stay in this sector too long darkness and other enemies far more dangerous than the Cylons may find you.
"You can't do that. The President won't allow it," Cain said, going pale.
"She can't allow or fight against something that she doesn't know about, and by the time she finds out about it, I'll make up some cover story. I am after all, Fleet Admiral," Admiral Stryker said coldly.
"You are mad, you are completely mad. My crew is not guilty. You've condemned them to die even as you know they are innocent!" Cain yelled in outrage.
"So you care for others after all?" Admiral Stryker asked quietly.
"If you have a quarrel with me, you don't have to involve my crew," Cain said.
"Yes you are right, but letting you go is not my real purpose. This was just a demonstration of what I could do," Admiral Stryker said with a wide smile.
"What do you mean you lunatic?" Cain asked.
"Me, well I've been called many names but lunatic isn't one of them. Nah I won't let you go. You and others from your crew will be let go, but not in our new society. You will live in the Annai desert. I believe a little vacation in the desert will do you well Cain. Letting you go in a ship is not a good idea.
I could give you a ship to go back to Cyrannus, but I cannot risk the Cylons or Harvesters detecting your ship. You will remain here where I can keep an eye on you. Consider this your punishment," Admiral Stryker said.
"Then why don't you simply shoot me and get it over with?" Cain asked.
"I don't want to give you the satisfaction of a quick and painless punishment for what you've done," Admiral Stryker said simply.
"You bastard, you fracking arrogant bastard," Cain said furiously.
"Call me whatever you want. You are the one who broke colonial and humanitarian laws; you are the one who is being judged right now, this very moment. And my conclusion is that you never changed, you are the same old Cain - ready to do anything and everything necessary to finish the mission. This time however, you lose; get over it," Admiral Stryker said.
Admiral Stryker signaled one of the guards to move Cain back to her cell.
Admiral Thorn emerged from a second set of doors.
"Is that really smart move? What about president?" Admiral Thorn asked.
"What about her?" Admiral Stryker said.
"She won't approve of this action of yours," Admiral Thorn said.
"I do not plan to kill Cain, no matter how much I want to. The Firestar Brilliant will be placed in the middle of the desert, and it will give them shelter and supplies. If they're smart, they will stay there. And besides, even if they try to escape the desert and move to one of the cities, there's no chance they will find where our civilization is located on a completely different continent from the desert they're on. How they will cross the ocean without an adequate ship given that the Firestar is permanently beached on land, and how will they navigate their way through an unknown ocean without any navigation tools. They could try to leave, but they simply don't have the means to get very far from the desert without our help. And I don't plan to keep them there forever; two maybe three years, that would be a fair punishment, and those who survive will be integrated back into society," Admiral Stryker said.
"I know you well; this is cruel even for you," Admiral Thorn said.
"It is not, it is… justice," Admiral Stryker said.
"You're practically leaving them to die there. Is that your way of justice?" Admiral Thorn asked.
"They will be monitored, but what happens there is up to them. I cannot have that kind of people here. Even those prisoners that came with us are doing something useful. I cannot have a bunch of officers who blindly follow someone like Cain, she is a menace. After a year or two I'll get them back to civilization, but for now they will have a chance to enjoy Avalon's wild beauty from firsthand experience," Admiral Stryker said.
Cain, Fisk, and fifty others of Pegasus' crew loyal to Cain were transported to the location of the Firestar Brilliant. It didn't take them long to find that the Firestar contained food, water, medicine, and other supplies. No weapons were aboard the ship except several combat knifes.
"So Admiral Stryker left us provisions, but no real weapons except a few knifes for defending ourselves against wild animals," Fisk said.
"He is afraid that we could use weapons in a futile attack on Colonial outposts or other bases on this planet," Cain replied.
"But how, we don't even know where we are," Fisk said.
"Never mind that, we have lots of work ahead of us. This ship could hold up to two hundred crew, we need to get everyone organized within the ship," Cain said.
A week later…
"You did what Admiral?" President Roslin asked, she had just found out about Stryker's deal with Cain. Admiral Adama stood beside Roslin as her adviser. "You cannot do things like that without the rest of the military command and civilian government knowing about it."
"With due respect ma'am, this is completely a military matter. A court martial would lead nowhere and eventually she would be freed. She deserves at least one year of hell in that desert and by gods she will have it. There's enough supplies for one year, maybe a year and half if they know how to economize it," Admiral Stryker said.
"But this is not the right way Admiral," President Roslin said.
"Maybe not, but it is one way. Having her in the brig for years is not an option, and killing her is not an option either. She cannot go without punishment. It's done, madam President. Right now there are more important matters for us to discuss. I called you here to tell you of my plan for getting all the survivors from Cyrannus here. Admiral Adama will lead the rescue mission," Admiral Stryker said.
"It would be an honor sir," Admiral Adama said in shock.
President Roslin didn't say anything but nodded for Admiral Stryker to continue.
"We've been building several heavy transport ships and upgrading our other older heavy transports to the specifications Atlantis, Pleiades, and Warstar Argona were running on which previously allowed us to reach the colonies from Avalon in 2 months. In a month the rescue fleet should be ready with several more heavy transports built during that time. Other upgrades to those ships were made from studying jump technology we found aboard the Cylon Resurrection hub at Picon. Additionally, our captured Cylons and Athena from Galactica have helped us figure out a way to lead a large rescue fleet to Picon in much fewer jumps using the Navigation computer from a captured Cylon heavy raider. Given all the factors involved, we're confident the rescue fleet can reach Picon from here in about a month," Admiral Stryker said.
"Only a month to reach the colonies?" Admiral Adama asked in surprise.
"Indeed. Unfortunately there's a great amount of risk involved with this mission. There is slightly over a million POWs and survivors spread across Picon, with several hundred thousand to a few million across the other colonies. Using all 9 of our assaultstars with only a skeleton crew aboard, 6 colossus heavy military transports, 80 large civilian transports, and the 50 heavy transports which will be ready by the time the mission launches in one month, we should be able to recover 1 million people from Picon. All of our heavy cargo ships will also go with the fleet with the intent to strip intact factories and buildings of supplies on Picon, which will be useful for our people on Avalon until we can start producing necessary supplies for such a large population. We've tried planning the mission to include more ships to get as many people as possible, but the fact is the more ships involved in the mission the slower the fleet of ships will move between Avalon and the colonies. We also can't afford to do several rescue missions since the Picon defense grid is the key to why the Cylons haven't moved on Picon already. Once the Cylons know a rescue mission is underway, they will most certainly be willing to commit their forces to attacking the rescue fleet and even the defense grid," Admiral Stryker said.
"I see. The Cylons haven't attacked Picon because they're unwilling to risk the fleet losses that would incur, but if we arrive to take people back to Avalon then the Cylons have a good reason to risk the fleet losses in order to follow us back to Avalon," Admiral Adama said, sighing in frustration.
"Therefore, the problem will be reclaiming the rest of the people left behind since the rescue fleet can only take on 1 million people. The plan requires exact precision in filling up the ships in the rescue fleet to full capacity, and striking the Cylons in hit and run attacks to distract them. Best case scenario, the Cylons don't immediately notice the rescue fleet carried out if the fleet is quick enough to get in and out. If the Cylons do notice the rescue fleet, then we have to hope to make them willing to wait to start attacking until all our forces retreat from Picon. Once the rescue fleet leaves Picon, the defense grid will remain in place and the majority of the military escort ships will continue hit and run attacks on the Cylons. The Cylons should assume then that there is another rescue mission underway until after the defense grid is removed from Picon and our remaining military ships leave the Cyrannus system. The most dangerous part of this mission will be the long wait time in between the rescue fleet originally leaving with the Picon survivors and returning; which would mean one month to return to Avalon and unload the survivors, and then a month to return for as many survivors left on the colonies as we can carry. During that time, your fleet will have to continue engaging the Cylons in order to distract them and keep them from massing their forces,"
Admiral Stryker said.
"Quite a dangerous mission and a lot rides on either the Cylons not noticing the first rescue mission arriving, or being willing to wait until we completely retreat from the colonies. And a lot could go wrong in the two months in between the recuse fleet's return," Admiral Adama said darkly.
"It sounds dangerous, but if it can bring back a large amount of survivors and resources from the colonies then it's worth it," President Roslin said firmly.
"Both of the two new Battlestars recently built will be assigned as command ships for the military escort fleet, joined by all nine Battlestars salvaged from the colonies on the way to Avalon, the Warstar Argona, and several gunstars and cruisers. Our other newest ship, the Combatcruiser Audacious, will be a part of the rescue mission as it is an excellent opportunity to test its capabilities. One of the new Nike class Battlestars has been named the Galactica, and I think you will approve of her taking the mantle from her namesake. She will be your new command ship Admiral Adama," Admiral Stryker said.
"Thank you sir," Admiral Adama said, with mixed feelings about the Galactica's replacement.
The group continued discussing the evacuation plan and discussed other issues on the surface of Avalon. A few hours later they went their separate ways as President Roslin returned to Colonial One, Admiral Stryker to the Atlantis, and Admiral Adama went to visit his new command ship.
Day 450 Since the Fall
The elections were completed without a hitch, and Roslin was re-elected as President with Governor Shkan officially her Vice President. The vote was nearly unanimous due to popular opinion favoring Roslin's leadership of Galactica's civilian fleet when the fleet was believed to be the last of humanity. The hardships of the fleet became general knowledge, and Roslin's ability to keep the fleet together despite their numerous hardships was quite appealing to the public given their new circumstances on Avalon. An official quorum of twelve was put in place, with few members coming from either Galactica's or Avalon's previous unofficial Quorums.
The evacuation fleet was completed with all the necessary upgrades to make the necessary long range jumps to Picon in a month. Athena was put in charge of regulating the jump coordination among the fleet using the Cylon heavy raider's navigation computer. Commander Thompson onboard the Warstar Argona was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral and put in charge of half the military fleet involved in the evacuation mission.
Battlestar Atlantis C.I.C.
"Sir, Admiral Adama reports the fleet is ready to move out to complete the rescue mission," the communications officer said.
"Very well. Tell the Admiral good luck, and good hunting," Admiral Stryker said.
Several minutes later, the fleet of ships for the rescue mission to the Colonies broke away from the main fleet's formation and jumped away.