A little note here I made a mistake, which I noticed thanks to one of the reviews. I meant to have the fleet hold in the Vilnus Cluster for a little longer to receive some much needed repairs, refuelling and rest following their time on the run. I've adjusted the times a little bit to help.

The Watering Hole

CIC Caerphilly, Manticore-class Customs Cutter, 95 Days after the Second Cylon War

The detour chasing down the rogue Artemis-class Battlestar had wasted time and fuel which the Massena's fleet could ill afford. The fleet had headed back along the same path that it had taken away from the colonies but it had moved through different parts of space, unfortunately they had detected no sign of additional survivors or Galactica and her fleet. The Caerphilly would jump ahead of the fleet scouting nearby positions for Cylons the Custom Cutter's sensors were superior to everything else in the small fleet and it was more capable of getting itself out of trouble with superior speed and manoeuvrability than anything but the small complement of Raptors the fleet had available to them.

In the Caerphilly's compact CIC Captain Raymie Steele stood monitoring the pilot, navigation, communication, and weapons stations at the front of the compartment at the rear of the CIC was the engineering control station.

"Jump Complete, gaining DRADIS data" Lieutenant Trace Arias said from the front navigation console. Raymie looked up at the console screens which were recessed into the CIC roof above his head.

"What have we got?" He asked Raymie Steele, he had spent nearly twenty years onboard the Caerphilly having taken command of the ship when it was decommissioned from the Colonial Fleet and turned over to system patrol with the Colonial Government's Customs Department. For twenty years the ship had been patrolling the space lanes where they had stopped and searched various civilian ships checking for contraband, weapons and other criminal goods and they had fought off pirate attacks against civilian traffic. Then the Cylons had attacked and life had been turned upside down their ship had fought off Cylons and joined up with Justin Wilkes and his band of criminals and now they were part of a criminal organisation. "Oh Frak!" Steele exclaimed looking at the screens "Helm, take us hard to port!" He ordered.

The Caerphilly had jumped into the middle of an asteroid field and its powerful sensors had detected a Cylon Basestar along with several other smaller ships. The small ship had one chance to get lost in the asteroids until it was able to jump turning quickly the ship headed into the field.

"Captain, look at the DRADIS readings…" Arias said glancing over his shoulder he looked astonished by what the Caerphilly had discovered Steele glanced upwards and saw that the field was full of Tylium the fuel that powered all Colonial ships.

"The Cylons are staking out this Watering Hole" Steele commented looking more deeply into the readings the field was full of Tylium with all three freighters registering as being near full of the fuel. "Arias, check out section four does that look like a facility?"

"It looks like the remains of one…" Arias commented "there's been a battle here, I'm seeing remains of Cylon Raiders and Viper Mk IIs around the base."

"Galactica's been here" Steele commented seeing a collection of rocks ahead of the ship "Jennifer bring up the nose, Daryl open up with the forward cannon make us space."

"The Cylons will detect that…" Daryl said then he saw on the DRADIS screen a collection of Raiders heading their way already "oh frak!" He said triggering the front capital Kinetic Energy Weapon (KEW) Jennifer put us in a spin. The Caerphilly began to rotate in space as the forwards twin cannons opened fire blasting rocks ahead of them allowing the small ship to pass through the gap, they had created behind the ship several Cylon fighters followed them through the gap created. "Firing aft weapons" he said activating the ships rear quad cannons filling space with KEW fire cutting down two of raiders straight away.

"How long until we can jump?" Steele asked turning around looking at Evan Cooper the ship's engineer.

"Three minutes" the oldest member of the bridge crew said he was old enough to remember the First Cylon War "things are going to get dicey; I've ordered the closing of pressure doors and damage control crews are ready."

"Thanks Evan" Steele said seeing the Cylon raiders close "Jennifer take us deeper into the field, dive us into the rocks." He ordered two silver flying-wing Cylon Raiders flew across the craft's right-hand side on both ships there was a cannon located under each of its two forward swept wings. Both ships fired constantly as they tore across the Cutter's hull before breaking off to the right.

"Armour held" Cooper reported the Caerphilly turned to starboard following the two raiders its forward cannon firing one of the capital rounds went straight through the aft of one of the raiders tearing through the hull of the craft shattering it into two pieces. The remaining raider spun one-hundred-and-eighty degrees in space now flying backwards along the same course under wing hatches opened and a volley of four missiles flew from the fighter in on the Caerphilly impacting on the top of the craft's nose. The fighter then accelerated forwards reversing its course flying over the Cutter firing its KEWs as it passed behind the fighter half a dozen more fighters were closing on the ship's position. "This isn't a Battlestar Captain! We can only take so much." Cooper called out as the Caerphilly fired its rear guns and turned away from the incoming fighters.

"I'm aware, frak!" Steele commented glancing at the monitors above seeing sixty seconds remained on the clock… "full evasive Jennifer, we just need a little more time." The Caerphilly continued to manoeuvre through space its forward and rear weapons firing taking out several of the fighters. From further away the Basestar fired a volley of four capital missiles into the field but there were too many rocks in the way and the missiles exploded in space. "Jump us away!" Steele ordered seeing the clock strike zero, as the Caerphilly disappeared in a flash of light the raiders and missiles were left in the field with no target to strike.

Raptor Flight, Asteroid Field, 97 Days after the Second Cylon War

When the Caerphilly had returned damaged and with news that the Cylons were mining tylium from the remains of a facility in the asteroid field Boyle had ordered an immediate attack. If this base had been attacked before by Colonial forces then they had deemed it a worthwhile target to be attacked instead of one to be avoided. The fact that the Cylons were continuing to try and mine tylium from the field also proved that they were in just as much need for fuel this far from the colonies and that they were reliant on its supply making it a valid target.

The eight Raptors and most of the marines assigned to the Massena II's small fleet flew towards their three targets, the Cylon Freighters which were in the asteroid field with the Basestar on a special mission to board and capture the three ships. The Massena II, Agosta, Caerphilly and Lucky 9 were meanwhile keeping the Basestar engaged in combat the multiple Colonial vessels easily keeping the Basestar's defences busy with several shots impacting on ship. It was only a matter of time until the Basestar was overwhelmed and destroyed; the plan was for them to destroy the Basestar but not too quickly because doing so may lead to the freighters spooling their own jump drives and escaping. Since the Caerphilly's return to the fleet Commander Matthew Boyle had ordered a strike on the asteroid field with an aim of destroying the Battlestar and capturing the three Tylium Freighters.

Onboard the Raptor Major Patrick Sinclair flexed his right shoulder a phantom pain from the gunshot wound he had taken on the moon of Minos. He tapped his personal wireless set connecting to all the marines on all the Raptors. "Remember people we do not know what to expect when we are on board these ships. According to sensor data these ships are like the freighters operated by the Colonies they are not remote-control ships so we should have crew of some sort onboard. Everyone onboard these ships should be considered to be hostile, whether they look human or not." He said remembering his experiences from Minos "our goal is to take these ships intact but if we have to, we will blow them."

The Raptors approached the freighters the first flight was armed with short-ranged missile pods if the freighters were armed it would be their job to disable or destroy the craft. When there was no defensive fire from the ships the two craft moved to a holding pattern nearby providing cover for the remaining flight of Raptors which split into three pairs. Two Raptors docked with each freighter and began to burn through the hulls deploying Marines onto all three ships.

Joining his marines onboard one of the freighters Major Patrick Sinclair dropped into the freighter finding a grey corridor. "One-One, onboard Freighter Alpha." He said hearing other troopers call out at the same time. "Let's move people take out all hostiles and gain control over this ship."

Moving around a corner the air was filled with bullets from both sides as Sinclair's men fought for control over the ship. Unlike the Cylons which he had encountered on Minos the Centurions here were of the older type of trooper which the Colonials had encountered during the First Cylon War. Unlike the modern centurions which had integrated weapons these carried massive heavy machine guns, while the marines all carried close personal sub-machine guns and assault rifles it felt like they were under attack with support weapons. Sinclair dropped to one knee and aimed at the enemy firing a concentrated burst of fire into one of the centurions' multiple shots hit the trooper on its chest and around the angled helmet and its chrome-coloured frame dropped to the ground. "Keep moving!" He ordered as they moved forwards bullets flew between both sides as marines and centurions fell on either side.

"They are falling back!" One of the marines shouted

"Do not let them lock us out! Keep moving forwards!" He ordered the last thing they needed was to be locked out of the ship's controls "One-One, to Two-One, status? We are encountering heavy resistance from centurions; we are approaching control." All around them bullets were flying near and around the marines.

"Two-One to One-One, status four troopers KIA, three troopers WIA, encountering resistance mission we are three sections short of the vessel control." The line was full of more heavy weapons fire in the background as the Centurions fought to protect their control over the vessel.

"Received, Three-One, status?" Sinclair asked taking cover behind a bulkhead as bullets ricocheted around the corridor.

"This is Three-Three, Three-One and Three-Two are down, Mission success unlikely. We are down a third of our team, heavy resistance." The marine replied, by the sound of it he could be injured, it sounded like hell on that ship.

"Three-Three, pull back if you can we will blow the ship!" Sinclair ordered as his own marines breached the vessels CIC. In the small compact room at the front of the ship it was carnage in the small room as three Cylon Centurions tried to stop six marines charging into the room at this close quarters the marines switched to shotguns, sidearms and then knives to assault the centurions who could not fight with their large rifles in such close quarters. Of over one hundred marines deployed to the three freighters sixty survived their battle with nearly half of those injured but all three freighters had been recovered as well.

Matthew Boyle's Office, Massena II Heracles II-class Gunship, 100 days after the Second Cylon War

Outside the Massena II cargo shuttles were transferring Tylium to each of the ships refuelling them for their continued search. While onboard Matthew Boyle had retreated to his quarters waited in his quarters/office for his visitor and in entered Captain Raymie Steele the commander of the Caerphilly.

"Captain, welcome onboard I am sorry I couldn't meet you at the landing bay, it has been another long day." He said the battle had occupied a good portion of the day he could not imagine what Commander Adama was going through commanding a ship the size of the Galactica with all its civilian charges needing constant supervision and defence.

"Not a problem Commander, how can I be of assistance?" He asked Raymie Steele was older than Matthew Boyle and given his past with Amelie Brand and Justin Wilks they may even have been on opposite sides of a fight before. Steele was a solid commander and had proven himself since joining the fleet, now Boyle needed his experience for a new mission.

"Your ship still has nearly ninety percent of its Tylium reserves, correct?" He asked Steele nodded, the Manticore had originally been designed as a long-range scout, she was design for extended operations without refuelling. "I need you to escort the Gambling Frigate to the Vilnus Cluster and when you are there, I need you to request Admiral Sarkis send you back with something capable of transporting addition Vipers and marines, preferably the Adironack if he cannot release a warship." He said naming one of the freighters from their original evacuation the Adironack was armed with long range capital missiles which would allow it to defend itself. "We lost several capable people here today and while we still have enough assets to continue out search some reinforcements would go a long way."

"And if the Admiral refuses to release assets?" Steele asked thinking that Sarkis already thought this was a fool's journey and that Galactica had been lost.

"I'm going to hope he doesn't but I hope he'll at least let you return." Boyle explained "I'll wait here for three weeks, that's how long it will take us to refuel and repair our ships. If you don't return by then we'll move on."

"Understood Commander, I won't let you down." He promised the Commander saluting him formally which Boyle returned, he really needed them to return with reinforcements, the lost marines here needed to be replaced for them to be successful.