Disclaimer: I own several characters like Seth Trakiss but the concept of Battlestar Galactica does not belong to me
A question if any one knows the answer how many Vipers are there in a squadron?
Chapter 6 – Action Stations Part 2
The 4 twenty strong squadrons of Vipers, numbering 80 in all zoomed into action, meeting the 4 squadrons of Raiders with cannons blazing, three Vipers and seven Raiders were destroyed in the opening barrage. Soon it descended into chaos as each side divided and started small one on one battles.
Siren (Serina) used her missile launcher to shoot one Raider down and blasted another with her cannons. She noticed ammunition shoot right past her cockpit and activated her turning thrusters on the nose of her plane to swing around and blast it.
The good thing about the Mark 8 was that the systems had inbuilt protections from hacking and were rigged to manage without networking, so they didn't lose performance without it. And a small electronic counter measure generator to jam missile lock on.
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Telmaya it's self turned to bring a full broadside side of its port armaments to bare against the Base ship, sending multiple warheads into the enemy star shaped warship. The Base ship sent some of its own but Telmaya's automatic guns shot the deadly warheads down before they hit. The guns were a new feature to be incorporated with isolated computers that did not network, designed to work in concert with the electronic counter measure generators to provide a very effective screen against missiles.
On Telmaya CIC, the ship rocked as an occasional projectile got through the anti-missile screen and Seth and Kendra kept up the battle.
"Sir all but one of the civilians ships has jumped, only Ortis left" Kendra said while clinging to the console as the ship shook again.
"Right let's see if we can get this over with. Bring out forward guns to bear again and focus all fire on the weakened centre column of the Base ship" Seth said and the navigation officer operated his station and once again the powerful forward batteries, now fully reloaded after their original firing began to blast the Base ship apart.
Ortis finally jumped and Seth ordered "Right all birds home. Bring all our birds home" and the Comm officer gave the order to their Vipers, who immediately started too returned to the ship and their jump computer started calculating their co-ordinates.
The planes zoomed into the hanger, being harassed all the way by Raiders which slammed into the thick hanger doors as they closed behind the Vipers.
As soon as the ship was secure the ship vanished in a flash of light.
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A day later the fleet rendezvoused at the asteroid belt near Picon. Fortunately every ship made it but the Battlestar itself had taken causalities.
During their battle they'd lost 15 Vipers, with 4 others too badly damaged to be repaired. Also some of the Cylon warheads had managed to cause 20 crewmembers to lose their lives.
Seth as he had done before during the refit officiated over the funeral, commending their bravery and honour, but all he felt was depression. They were his responsibility, as were their deaths.
Later in his quarters curled up next to a sleeping Kendra, he pondered. Before the attack they had had 3000 crew, now they had 2783 and were sure to lose more in future battles with the Cylons. A normal Mercury class Battlestar was crewed by at least 4000 although it could operate with less.
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The following morning he called a staff meeting with his department heads and the newly elected civilian liaison Hal Forrest. They thought it best that without a civil government that the civilians had at least some means of communicating their voices to the military, who were in effective command of the fleet. So all wanting to act as a liaison to the military put themselves up for election by the rest of the civilians.
Hal had put himself forward and won, so here he was.
"Now Eden reports that their maintenance crew is set up and seven other ships are nearly ready" Hal said, the civilian ships were having some of their personnel trained to act as mechanics so they were not so dependant on the Battlestar for aid.
"Right and repairs after the battle have been completed" Sheba said
"Now to the next item. I think we need to start training up some new crew members to fill the gaps left by our battles with the Cylons. So we need to ask around the civilians to see if there are any volunteers. What do think?" Seth asked
"Well we could use the extra help but training time could take awhile" Kendra said before looking to the others for their points of view
Tyber answered first "Well the marine core is pretty much intact so I won't need many new recruits"
Serina spoke next "Well we lost nearly an entire Viper squadron in that last battle. We've got enough spare vipers and parts to have at least 10 squadrons of Vipers but it could take time to train them up, even with the simulators given how much they had to learn. We the cadets had at least some training when we came onboard"
Tally Forego, the ship's doctor who was acquitting herself quite well added "Well I could use some more medics, right now I've only got a handful"
And Sheba said last "Given the facilities we have it shouldn't take to long to train some up"
Seth turned to Hal who looked to be thinking it over and asked "What do you think?"
Hal replied "I think there are a few young people and some older ones that would be open to the idea of joining up"
Seth "Alright if there are any volunteers tell them to be waiting at their ship's docking port in three days. Raptors will come pick them up. Agreed?"
Everyone nodded and Seth said "Right Final item. Installation of our secret weapon. How's it proceeding?"
Sheba said "Installation of the EM Cannon to the front of the ship is proceeding at a steady pace"
"EM Cannon?" Hal asked
"Electromagnetic Pulse cannon to give it its full title. The cannon sends out a concentrated blast of Electro Magnetic Radiation that shuts down anything with a electronic circuit. The problem is not only is the equipment difficult to install and program, but we have to also alter the circuits of Telmaya and the smaller craft so if the weapon backfires we aren't shut down or our vipers or raptors aren't shut down if they get caught in the pulse. It was too be mounted for a trial run on Pegasus but was being taken there by us. So we figured we'd use it, to bad it isn't ready yet" Sheba explained
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A bit rushed but I hope you like it
A Galactica class Battlestar has a maximum crew of about 4000/5000, So I think that with a fully functional Mercury class with reserves should (which is bigger) but with greater automation should have about 4000 itself. For Pegasus which was in drydock at the time of the attack, I think that some of her crew were already on shore leave.
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