The Fifth Race: Chapter 3 V2
7 light years from the Ionian Nebula, Terran Federation's first battle against the Cylons.
As the Cylons reinforcements appeared in front of the 14th squadron, they immediately began to open fire on the Terran Ships, hoping to destroy the Terrans in their first salvo. Their surprise was complete when none of the missiles they launched made contact. Almost 100 missiles were destroyed by the point defense laser system of the TFSN ships, well out of range of the shield which protected them.
Unknown to the Cylons, Rear Admiral Hitrakulos, the commanding officer of the 14th squadron, ordered all ships in his squadron to try to minimize the use of shielding technology so as to provide a strategic advantage in case of emergency and intimidation. Instead, the point defense lasers were set up to destroy all incoming ships and missiles from the Cylon Fleet before their contact with the shields.
His strategy was for the moment successful but the Admiral was still worried about the FTL capability of the Cylon Ships. They really didn't need for a Raider to suddenly appear inside their shield and be free to attack, even if Terran ships were made to sustain considerable damage.
The Terran Federation used an alloy of Trinium, Naquada and Carbon, created by the Asgard, that is still the most durable and solid alloy ever discovered, even by Ancients standard. The Ancients for their part used a Naquada alloy enhanced by the power grid from their ships. The Terrans combined the 2 in the construction of their ships which allowed them, even without shields, to survive multiple direct hits by Nuclear Weaponry.
Rear Admiral Hitrakulos turned toward Commander Mitarai, the commanding officer of the Autumn's Equinox «Commander Mitarai, launch all Arrows to take care of those Raiders. I don't want them to have a chance to harass the Colonials. From what the sensors detected some of them are even equipped with Nuclear Warheads. One of those in the middle of this fleet and the deaths will be measured in thousands!"
The Arrows were the space superiority fighters of the Terran Federation Space Navy. As their name suggested, they were shaped like a small arrow, able to fit through a Stargate for intergalactic travel if necessary and were a mono place fighter with a maximum speed of ½ the speed of light. Each fighter was equipped with basic shields, inertial dampeners and beaming technology adapted from the Wraith. They had a short range weapon capability, via the use of 4 lasers placed on their X shaped "wings".
Prepared for actions before they even jumped in hyper space, the Arrow's Pilots were ready to be deployed at the order of the commander. In less than 5 minutes, the Heavy Carrier's contingent of 300 Arrows was deployed and started engaging the Raiders. While the Raiders were a formidable adversary, by colonial standard, and they outnumbered the Arrows by 4 times, the results of the engagement was clear in five minutes of fighting.
The Cylon Raider's traditional tactic was to disable its adversary by the deployment of a technological virus. Unfortunately for them, the Arrows were completely impervious to viruses as all external access to their systems is encrypted with Asgard technology. Only Asgard AI and computers could access the Arrow's system from without. Left with no possibility to randomly disabling their adversaries, the Raiders were forced in dogfights which were not their forte.
At the same time, that the Autumn's Equinox started to launch its fighters, the Admiral ordered via the Squadron intercom for the Cruisers to launch active EM counter measures and for the Dreadnoughts Pyrrhus Victory and Angelus Choir, to prepare a tactical strike with their Heavy Laser Weapon. Their targets were the 2 Baseships situated at the edge of the Cylon Fleet.
The Dreadnoughts opened fire with their main ship to ship weapon, the Heavy Laser. Placed in the front of the ship, this weapon was an inspiration from the ORI war designed to destroy in one strike capital ships. While this weapon was powerful it was used only in a Capital Ship to Capital Ship Battle as its firing cadency was slow. In 2 seconds, 2 Basestars were dissected in 2, exploding afterwards and damaging their neighboring ships.
The battle had just begun but already the Cylons were rethinking their decision to attack.
Battlestar Galactica, CIC.
Admiral William Adama was ready to sacrifice his life and that of all his crew in the hope to give enough time for the Remnant to flee their assured destruction. It was then understandable that he could not believe his eyes when he saw on his DRADIS console the might the Terran federation displayed in front of him.
At first, when the Cylon reinforcements jumped in system he was ready to order his Vipers to help them. But seeing the results of only 10 minutes of battle he reined himself in.
Never, in his entire career in the Colonial Army, did he ever see such power. A Basestar is, for the Colonial Army, an incredibly powerful ship of war that was only slightly equaled by the Mercury type Battlestar. To see 2 of them be destroyed with a weapon he only thought existed in the wet dreams of scientists awed and terrified him at the same time.
Already the Raiders numbers were cut in half in the first 20 minutes of their engagement with the Terran Space Navy version of their Vipers. More so, The Terran's capital ships seemed to be left undamaged by the Cylon steady missile fire.
Without turning his head from the DRADIS console he addressed LT Gaeta"M. Gaeta, what can you tell me about their ships weapon from the description the Vipers gave, I have never seen such a thing!"
"Sir from what the Vipers described, it seems that they mastered the use of energy as a Weapon. The Colonial Defense tried to develop something similar but at a much smaller scale and the experiment was abandoned as the power requirements were so enormous that their implementation on ships was not possible. What we are seeing here should not be possible. I don't know what their ship's power source is but if they can power this thing, then one of their ships by comparison could power all of Caprica easily."
"Thank you M. Gaeta. Saul what do you make of this?"
"Bill I don't know what they want with us exactly, from their message to the Cylons they pretend to be Humans. Now I don't know you but according to the sacred Scrolls the only humans in the Galaxy are our brothers from the 13th tribe who traveled to Earth. We may have found the ones we were looking for without even having to go all the way to Earth. But what worries me more is that, if it is the 13th tribe, they seem to have lost all identity as a colony of Kobol."
"What gave you this idea?"
"Bill, they refer to themselves as the Terran Federation. Not the 13th colony of Kobol. But for the moment that is the last thing on my mind. What worries me more is the fact that our people are stuck here until Athena calculates the Jump coordinates."
Captain Kelly interrupted their quiet conversation «Admiral, Athena's Raptor advised me that her calculations are complete, the Fleet is starting to Jump."
"Finally. At least they will not be in immediate danger anymore."
Saul grunted and said in sotto voice "Considering how persistent the Cylons are to corner us, I hope they will be."
Lead Cylon Basestar, Command center.
The Cylons were calling in all their available reinforcements within a 400 hundred light Years radius since the apparition of the Terran Federation Ships but so far only 2 basestars responded and jumped to their hail. They had already lost 2 Basestars, destroyed in one attack by a weapon like they had never seen before. More, the Raiders reported that the Terran's superiority fighters were too fast for them to engage in direct combat and their Wireless Virus did not work on their systems. Already the minds of 200 Raiders were stored in the Resurrection Ship killed by the Terrans and waiting to be uploaded into a new "body". But the analysis of the first minutes of the battle gave them some hint to a strategy.
While the Terrans's ships where very powerful, their main defensive technology appeared to be a defense network that destroyed their ship to ship missiles before they even entered their detonation range. This presented them with an opportunity, the Cylons plan was to jump several Raiders very close to the Terran Ship's hull with Nuclear Weaponry and detonate themselves. If they were to lose Raiders, at least they will do some damage doing so.
The Cavils, acting this time in consensus with the other lines, gave the orders to 25 Raiders to implement their plan. This time, the Terran Federation will discover the might of the Cylons.
Bridge, Heavy Carrier Autumn's Equinox
Commander Miratai Takeru was using his command chair's neural interface to study the battle and transmit his orders to the actions stations of the ship. The Terran Command Chair is an evolution from the Ancient command chair that was used for defensive purposes on all Ancient technology, and installed in every bridge on Terran Federation Space Navy ship. While the ancient version of the command chair needed a considerable amount of concentration to operate, in addition to the ATA gene, the Terran version was networked with the Asgard conscience which enabled the Terran Officer operating it to conserve a level of external awareness.
Under orders from the Admiral, the point defense lasers were pushed to their maximum capabilities to destroy the incoming missiles from the Cylon Baseships. His cruisers escort group was under heavy fire and their Alteran drones were thankfully "swatting" Raiders and Heavy Raiders from Space while at the same time protecting the Colonials from the EM emissions given by the exploding Cylon nuclear Missiles.
As he was adjusting the position of his Ship so as to present a minimal "silhouette" to the incoming missiles the sensors detected a jump from the Raiders inside the perimeter of his shields, directly against the hull. The horror of the situation became apparent when one of the Raiders exploded in a ball of nuclear fire before the point defense laser could take the danger out.
Launching a squadron wide alert, he ordered the reduction of the perimeter of the shields to minimize the chance of damage for his ship. Thankfully, the ship's hull was capable of sustaining multiple successive hits from nuclear explosions, but not a combined explosion of multi Raiders.
Unfortunately for the Terran 14th squadron, even with their incredibly resistant ships, even, a Naquada – Trinium – Carbon alloy cannot withstand 4 Raiders exploding in a blast of nuclear fire at close contact. The Cruiser Anatolia was hit directly and suffered heavy damages on its hull, disabling its hyperspace drive and shields.
Rear Admiral Hitrakulos realized here and there that it was time for the gloves to come off. He immediately gave orders to the Dreadnoughts and Cruisers to open fire at will on the Cylon ships. In a blast of laser fire and drone lights 3 Baseships were destroyed instantly and one severely damaged.
Their Resurrection Ship suddenly exposed to danger, the Cylons decided a retreat was necessary and were already plotting a jump to a safe post 300 light years away. As 2 more Basestars reinforcement finally arrived to render assistance to them, the Cylons decided a last shot at destroying the Galactica might be possible. The 2 new Basestars jumped directly behind the Galactica, out of range of the 14th squadron and in a direct line to attack the Colonials.
Fortunately, Admiral Delterre and his command team had foreseen the possibilities offered by the jump technology of the Cylons, in this case the possibility for the Cylons to use a pincer tactic to attack the Colonials from a blind spot. As the cylon Basestars appeared and automatically launched Nuclear missiles, Admiral Delterre's Super Dreadnought General's glory and its escort group de-cloaked in front of them, hidden all along behind the colonials, effectively circling the Battlestar Galactica and providing them with a total range of protection.
The General's Glory opened immediately fire with all its armament, not taking any chance this time. 1 Basestar was destroyed with the opening shot, the second jumping to security with the Resurrection Ship and its 2 remaining Basestars.
The calm of space finally restored, the TFS Anatolia was free to dock in the hangar bay of the TFS Autumn's Equinox to begin its repairs.
Now the hard part for any military man could be started: diplomacy. While every Officer of the Terran Federation Space Navy was trained in diplomacy and first contact situations, it was not their choice of predilection, nor the reason they entered the Space Navy. Thankfully for Admiral Delterre, it was now time for the Contact Office to do its job.