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Thunder-Cloud
Chapter 00
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The Cylons were created by Man.
They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.
And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.
After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.
The Cylons left for another world to call their own.
A remote space facility was built...
...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.
Every year, the Colonials send an officer.
The Cylons send no one.
No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years...
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Until Now…
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Emergency Delivery;
Ebba Maersk class Super Freighter: ThunderCloud;
Caprica outbound lanes;
Captain Mark Hardy looked at the dradis screen and frowned. They had been out bound from Caprica to Polyxera when the attack had started on the colonies. Orders sent out by the president's office ordered all civilian shipping to stay where they were, Mark had watched on the dradis screen as hundreds of civilian ships had come to a dead halt in the shipping lanes
Originally the thirty-four hundred meter long Thunder Cloud had been preparing for its maiden flight with the crew and the families from the retired Galloping Cloud. She had been retired by Mark and his family when an emergency came down, and Thunder had been the only ship that could deliver the massive amount of colonial aid required at one time. So, with the seven hundred crew in mass had said yes to the mission, Mark had decided to extend the commissioning service an extra few days by bringing their families along for an extended visit.
The ship was quickly loaded with five hundred and seventy-six containers of emergency medical and food supplies for the colony Polyxera, to fight off the famine that had been ravishing the planet. A disease which had ravaged the livestock, and had strangely jumped to the settlers. Before they knew it, seventeen thousand civilian and military personnel were dead. Up in the hydroponic bays were two hundred cattle, fifty swine, sixty sheep and several hundred ducks, turkeys and chickens.
The disease had been eradicated by fleet medical, but the new colony had been crippled. No new colonists were allowed to move to the planet, so the twenty-six hundred survivors had been gathered around the only major city, and allowed to settle there.
After listening to all the reports, Mark's fears were increasing at the losses the fleet were taking. With another glance at the reports he looked to his wife of twelve years and said. "Kim, I think we should get the hell out of here."
The thirty year old beauty known as Kimberly Johanna Hardy looked up from the dradis at her husband, and asked, "And go where?"
"I figured we'd use the programmed jump coordinates and then find a place to hide while the fighting is going on," Mark said as more icons vanished from the battlefield around Caprica.
"I agree, but why not tell our friends the same thing," Kim suggested as she highlighted the nearby ships.
"Do so. Also tell all our ships to set up their raptors as SAR units," Mark suggested and watched his wife turn to the communications station and whisper into the brunette's ear.
"Message from Caprica to Picon Fleet Headquarters, the Cylons have somehow got into the mainframes of the fleet, are shutting them down before destroying them," Alice Hall shouted out from the com station.
"How?" Marked asked as he slid into his command chair and picked up his handset and hit the ship wide, "All hands prepare to jump."
Hanging up the phone he said, "Kim, help prepare to jump the ship, turning he looked at Alice and said, "Notify all nearby ships to jump to the coordinates we will provide them. Contact the Gryphon, Picon, Restock, Melrose, Sanders and the Typhoon to jump when we do. See if they can evacuate any non FTL capable ships or have them park in our bays if they will fit."
As Alice started notifying the nearby ships of what they planned to do, ships started vanishing along the flight lines used by the inbound and outbound ships going to and from the capital of the twelve colonies. One thing Mark was glad about was that his ship was carrying the crews family on the christening of the Thunder as a reward for the crew getting the ship up and ready thirty-six days before her date of her commissioning. Being fully stocked with supplies, the ship was supposed to make a quick drop at Polyxera, drop off most of the cargo containers and then jump to Hyperion Station and deliver the rest before she begin a three week tour along the edge of the nebula as a gift to his hard working crew, the six ships of the company were to accompany them as well.
"The Cylons are attacking the civilian ships," Kim cried out in horror.
Mark's head snapped around as he took in the dradis screen and watched as hundreds of small craft closed on the thousands of civilian ships and launched hundreds of missiles.
"Order any small craft or ships that can to land in our landing bays to do so, now" Mark ordered as he knew a lot of the ships out there would not have FTL drives.
"Incoming missiles," Kim reported.
"How long until we can jump?" Mark snarled out as he buckled his harness.
"Ninety seconds," Jessie Black shouted out.
"Time to impact," Mark asked.
"Eighty seconds," Jessie cried out.
"Order the flack guns to fire on them," Mark ordered, as he watched the several small liners pull into the landing bay of his giant ship on the monitors.
Around the ship and on her smaller sister ship the Gryphon opened up with just under four hundred anti-missile batteries between them. Incoming missiles were intercepted as nearby ships vanished into FTL. Around both ships, eight barreled rapid fired light KEWS opened up, placing a wall of shrapnel between the missiles, incoming raiders and the fleeing ships. The fire intensified as ships vanished and then the Thunder and her sister Gryphon followed, leaving behind death and destruction
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Sub-Colony Polyxera;
Baseship 932;
The Cylon number one called Terrance watched as the only city on the planet burned under the single nuclear detonation while his raiders landed aboard the ship. The two colonial Battlestars of Battlegroup forty-eight were shattered wrecks along with her six Gunstars. Shut down by the fleet has been as easy as swiping a Capricorn Ruby Moth out of the night sky. The small station that served the planet and its system had been quickly wiped out with several more nuclear missiles while his raiders quickly hunted down any human ships in the system.
With his left hand in the data feed, the ships sensors detected no electronic transmissions but the failing colonial ones on the dying ships. As the last raider landed, the ship spun up its FTL drive and jumped to second mission.
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Sub-Colony Polyxera;
Fifteen minutes after the attack on Caprica.
With a flash of light, the Thunder and Gryphon appeared among the survivors of the attack. Around the two giant ships were thirty-six other ships including the six ships that belonged to Cloud Shipping. All the ships were civilian and only a third of them had some type of self-defense either guns or missiles. There were two Botanical ship, four 836 class liners from Capricorn tours, along with two of their smaller sister 826 class liners, the fleet tug Banshee, three Fork class freighters, two refinery ships, four Prometheus class passenger/freighter ships, the civilian Albatross class medical frigate Haven, three Cybele class light freighters, a former Colonial Navy Mule class freighter, a single Cloud class passenger ship, two electronics ships, and an Olympic class passenger liner.
"Sir, I am detecting emergency colonial beacons," Alice Hall reported from the com station.
"What about Battlegroup forty-eight?" Mark asked as he waited for the dradis to settle down.
"Nothing, Sir," Alice replied.
Kim was watching the dradis stabilize and then debris started showing up on the screen, "I have large chunks of destroyed ships and the station on dradis."
"Frak! They've attacked here already. Launch all search and rescue as well as Heavy Lifters to see what we can salvage," Mark ordered, then said, "Contact all ships and give them the coordinates for Baker fifteen."
Mark thought of Baker fifteen and how it was an old abandoned mining base near the Lion dismantling and ship storage station. The seven ships of Cloud Shipping burst to life as hundreds of small craft burst to life as they launched from the ships to search for survivors in the wreckage of Battlegroup forty-eight while other raptors descended to the planet to look for survivors. On the com system, the calls for help continued to come through and the reports of the battles of the colonial forces as they fought and died trying to hold back the holocaust that was taking place.
Finally, a last report came in about Admiral Nagala going head to head against the main Cylon fleet at Virgon and its destruction. Another report came in from Commander Adama ordering all surviving warships to rendezvous at Ragnar Station for the counter attack while a women name Laura Roslin was the new president. When Mark looked up in the database who she was, he shook his head when he found out she was the Secretary of Education.
"Mark, we've recovered over three thousand colonial personnel from the battlefield and the stations emergency's life pods with another five hundred from the planet. We've also pulled in two hundred and sixty-seven vipers and twelve raptors from the battle sight where the disabled small craft were shut down along with their crews. A Captain William 'Lucky' Hartman wishes to speak with you," Kim reported.
"Tell him I'll speak with him later but for now I need to finish what we're doing. Status on all small craft?" Mark asked.
On the dradis screen, it only showed the blue of the ships in the small fleet of survivors. Darting around the planet, several dozen Raptors were searching the remains of the station that used to handle the planets shipping while others were looting the small towns of supplies and small game. Already another hundred cattle and several hundred chickens from outlying farms had been ferried up by the modified shuttles that the Colonial Government had placed on the Thunder to deliver the animals in the original shipment. Several heavy lifters using empty storage containers had also picked up small construction equipment along with anti-gravity bikes and small vehicles that they could use on a new planet. They were stored in containers that were on two of the Fork class freighters that had been inbound to Caprica to pick up a load of battle plate for the Scorpio shipyards. The rest of their cargo was military hardware for several new Battlestars being built.
"Mark, I think we should get out of here," Kim said as she looked up at her husband.
Mark looked at his wife, then at the dradis screen and nodded, "Contact all small craft, and tell them that's it. We're out of here."
The small craft soon docked with their home ships. The wounded had been delivered to the hospital ship while survivors were found places inside the hulls of the other ships. Ten minutes after Mark gave the recall order, the fleet started jumping out to where he hoped they'd be safe while they met and figured out what to do.
Fifteen seconds after the last ship had left the planet, two raiders jumped into the system to check for survivors. They stayed for ten minutes scanning the planet and the debris, never realizing that items detected by Baseship 932 were missing until much later.
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Colonials
Captain Mark Hardy thirty-six year old commander of the Thunder Cloud, former commander in the Colonial Navy. Served from age sixteen to thirty in the Navy, retired to take over the family business on the death of his father.
Kimberly Johana Hardy thirty-five year old wife of Mark, served six years in the Colonial Navy.
Alice Hall former Colonial Navy, specialist in Communications systems and computers. Widowed, has two children. Twenty-seven years old
Jessie Black Navigations officer, served eight years in the Colonial Navy, Navigational specialist, sister to Alice, never married.
William 'Lucky' Hartman, Captain and JAG of the Battlestar Vesper which was destroyed over Polyxwn
Admiral Nagala commander of the fleet, killed over Virgon in the Atlantia
Commander William Adama commander of the retired Battlestar Galactica
President Laura Roslin the new president of the 12 colonies.
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Cylon
Number one called Terrance in charge of Baseship 932
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Ships
Ebba Maersk class Supper Freighter
Thunder Cloud
Large Tylium Tanker
Picon
Cornelius Maersk class Medium Freighter
Gryphon,
Mobile repair fabrication ship
Restock,
Lighter Bulk Freighter
Melrose,
Modified Prometheus class mining ship
Sanders
Derbyshire class foundry ship
Typhoon
Python
Botanical ship
Garden One
Harvester
Fork class freighter
Bishop
Mayhem
Grams
Apache class fleet tug
Banshee
836 class liners
Greengrass
Reliant
City of Desire
Windfire
826 class liners
Crystal Palace
Flying Star
Cloud class passenger liner
Cloud 6
Mule class freighter
Backpacker
Refinery ships
Screamer
Hampton
Electronics ships
Sparkplug
Electron
Olympic class passenger liner
Aurora
Albatross class medical frigate
Haven
Prometheus class freighters
Devils Day
Marleen's Gift
Precisions Point
Vapor
Cybele class light freighters
Brampton
Carolus Hope
Pestering Millie