I do not own Battlestar Galactica and this is not made for money, just for fun
Chapter 13 – Operation CP-789
The Battlestar Telmaya and its civilian fleet now accompanied by the Battlestar Rycon moved at Sublight towards the red line, they were almost certain that they wouldn't find any other colonial ships now. So the Civilian Assembly and Military had decided it was time to leave the area, time to journey past the red line and into space to find a new home.
They had reached the area where the armistice line had once been and crossed over to the Cylon side, less than a year ago this would have been an act of war but now there was little point when the Cylons had moved first and the Colonies had fallen
There was little known about this area because of the former armistice so they had no real idea where they were going, but this was the closest route to the Promar Sector which had been chosen at random as their destination. They were currently upgrading their own FTL drives with Cylon technology reverse engineered from the raiders that had captured so for the moment till the whole fleet was upgraded it was best to remain at sublight for now
In the Telmaya CIC all was quiet for once, outside of regular operations; Major Sheba Cain was on watch today. The Navigation operators were creating new star charts as they went and watching out for any potential obstacles, but apart from some deserted uninhabitable planets there was little too see
Trakiss was in his office writing up crew reports and log entries, as well as proposals from different ships in the fleet. Some wanted parts or supplies, some engineering assistance. He went through the list and deciding what was possible and what wasn't. The civilian assembly usually handled these matters but due to the manufacturing capabilities of Telmaya they were still catering to some of the fleet's needs.
Lieutenant Colonel Kendra Shaw was in her quarters, reading a book that she had bought just before the fall but hadn't had to chance to read till now. It was a tale set in Caprica City but before space travel where a private eye was on a case where a wealthy merchant was murdered and the investigator soon found himself caught up in a world of political intrigue and family feuds
Serina was in the rec room playing Triad with the other pilots
"So whose bet is it?" Ensign Brenda Margo 'Willow' said studying her cards
"Still yours" Ensign Wilma Ackerman 'Wild Child' answered without looking up
"Alright I see you twenty and raise you forty" Brenda said putting in a pile of chips into the pot
"Ok" Serina said watching the action looking at her own cards and said "Forty and forty" she added her larger bet to the pot
They all looked at her and tried to judge whether she was buffing or not and her emotionless face showed no indication
"Too rich for me" Brenda said throwing her cards to the table followed by Deck Hand Toby Silverman who had joined them to make up four players
"Well I guess it's just you and me" Wilma said to Serina with a grin which Serina returned and put her cards on the table showing Three Colours
The two other pilots whistled and Wilma threw down her cards
"Another round?" Serina asked grinning like a Cheshire cat, causing the other three to groan
On the CIC they were coming close to a small asteroid field near a planet with a breathable atmosphere, where they hoped to fill up their water tanks and maybe some food if there was any there
Then an alert klaxon sounded and Lieutenant Daniel Llewellyn reported "Major weapon fire detected in on the other side of the field from multiple vessels"
"Identify" Sheba ordered turning to the officer working the Dradis station "Go to action stations, set condition one throughout the ship" the officers quickly sounded the alert klaxon which blared throughout the ship causing people to jump to attention from whatever they were doing
Daniel worked quickly and read the comm. signals to get an ID on the warring ships
In the command centre of one the ship's a man was thrown to the floor as the ship shook from an impact of a nuclear warhead against the ship's armour, other crewmembers clung to their stations to stay upright
A hand grabbed the centre console and tensed as the owner pulled himself up, an older human man with a trail of blood descending down his face from a cut by his thin grey hair.
"Report" he called out
A young Caucasian woman with mussed up chestnut hair answered "Compartment 9 is exposed to space; batteries 5 through 8 are inoperable and we're losing main power" she said with distress evident in her voice
"What about the other ships?" the grey commander asked
"Achilles is holding her own but Ulysses is dead in the water" she answered fearfully looking at her flickering console
"Sir Baseships are firing again" another officer said
The three baseships fired standard missiles into the colonial warships that they were fighting
The Colonial ships were also three in number but only one was a Battlestar. The Battlestar Vulcan was a Valkyrie class, the same as the Rycon.
The Achilles was an older ship, much older, a dreadnaught from the age before the first Cylon War. Originally battleships that bristled with guns and aimed towards capital ship to capital ships fighting, heavily armour plated these ships could take massive amount of punishment and unleash a terrifying amount of firepower they were the very symbol of Colonial military power and seen much action through the first years of the war.
But then the Cylons began to make more use of their raiders in attacking capital ships, which weaved through the defences and struck like a pack of wolves taking down a bear. So a new type of vessel was created; the Battlestar which was covered with defensive weapons and the ability to launch large numbers of fighters. Dreadnaughts quickly became obsolete and despite upgrades like the adding of more point defence weaponry and two squadrons of Vipers they were unable to keep up. A battleship was overtaken by an aircraft carrier
The Achilles was even before the fall of the colonies the last Dreadnaught still in service, with serious overhauls and upgrades she had remained in service longer than any other vessel even Galactica. She was to have been made into a museum above Picon, but the fall had put those plans to waste
The third ship in the formation was a very different kind of vessel to the Vulcan and Achilles. Named the Ulysses she was a Guided Missile Cruiser with reconnaissance abilities. Equipped with long range extra powerful missiles and fitted with stealth technology, a hull made of a special alloy which allowed limited combat worthiness and made it very difficult to see on Dradis but some sets could see the small indication of the vessel. But with it's hull it had energy field projectors in concealed and extra armoured places on the hull which when activated completely hid the ship from Dradis and masked any emission's the ship might be making rendering it unseeable to near all scanning equipment.
This new type of vessel was meant to be the eyes and fire support of a fleet in any future conflict. Ulysses was the prototype and equipped with a number of stealthstar fighters to complement her limited number of conventional vipers.
All three ships had been on a long range reconnaissance mission out into the Virteron Cluster at the time of the attack looking for a potential base to use for future expansion of the 12 Colonies at the time of the attack. Returning to find the colonies in ruins they had started to plan counter strikes against the Cylons which was how they had found themselves in this predicament, they had underestimated the enemy numbers and caught in a trap.
As the Cylons kept attacking the damaged warships missiles from outside the battlefield streaked in slamming into the Baseship that was nearest to them
Seth stood on the CIC watching the Dradis as the Telmaya jumped into the fight, Rycon hanging back to protect the fleet
"This is a nuclear weapons order, load nuclear warheads into missile tubes 3 and 4" Seth said into the phone on the central console to weapons control
"Lock missiles onto Baseship nearest to our relative position" Seth ordered calmly and the weapons officer on the deck
"Ai sir" the young man who was rescued from Columbia's pontoon replied
"Baseship one is moving to intercept" Kendra reported
"Fire when ready" Seth ordered
Telmaya launched two missiles which slam into the Baseship's centre column which was consumed in a brilliant flash of light which blew the starfish shaped vessel in half
The distraction allowed Achilles to use her main battery to blast a pylon off another one of the baseships which jumped away as did the third Baseship, realising that they were outgunned
A half an hour later the jump drive on Ulysses was repaired enough for them to all jump back to the fleet, where on the Telmaya the commanders met
There was Commander Erickson of the Vulcan with his XO Colonel Russell O'Donnell
Colonel Paula Yates and Major Severin Marino of the Achilles
Major Abby Brant of the Ulysses with Major Daryl Yantos
Commander Seth Trakiss and Colonel Kendra Shaw of Telmaya
Colonel Ishii and her new XO Major Palin of the Rycon
And finally there was the chairman of the newly named Colonial Assembly, Hall Forrest
"Well I'm glad to meet you commander" Erickson said Seth once they had taken their seats accepting Seth's position as a battlefield promotion and perfectly valid "We were worried that we were the only survivors"
"The feeling is mutual Commander Erickson; perhaps we should discuss our logs later. But I believe you wanted to discuss something else?" Seth said sticking to the point
"Yes we were attempting a rescue operation we were set upon by those three baseships"
"Rescuing who?" Colonel Ishii asked
"Twenty thousand civilians being held in a Cylon Prison Camp" Erickson's XO Russell said
The room was shocked into silence, Seth recovered first and lent forward
"Tell us more"
Meanwhile on one of the Baseships that had fled the earlier battle earlier, a Model 1 sneered
"Once the pieces are in place, you wait for your opponent to make his mistake" he said cryptically
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