A/N: Due to a mistake (ie I didn't read my own notes) I misnamed the civilian Fleet Repair Dock in the last chapter. That has been fixed and the correct name (and thus an homage to Arturus, the author of the very enjoyable BSG/Harry Potter/Stargate crossover 'Gods Among Us') shall be used going forward.
Refugee Fleet – Aphrodite's Veil
42 Days After the Fall
Major Dane was currently aboard the Fleet Repair Dock ARTURUS. After two days of discussions with the refugee fleet council, an agreement had been reached to join with the Trident Fleet and Director Smythe's plan. There had been a significant resistance to the idea from a coalition of groups who, quite logically, pointed out that there was a greater chance of humanity's survival if there were multiple groups heading out in different directions.
Unfortunately for their position, the condition of the ships in this particular fleet and the low availability of resources meant that it was unlikely that this particular group, in spite of its size, would be able to survive such a journey. There were too many repairs needing done and too few available resources to make them in a timely manner. So the safety in numbers position won out.
With the decision made, Tony had dispatched one of his Raptors to the Chest. He was still grinning at the dual surprise that was soon to be in store for both the refugee fleet and also for the Pirate operation. Security concerns had meant that no information would be provided to any outside group about the asteroid ships. The refugee fleet would soon be learning first hand about them.
More importantly, Hades' Chest would soon be discovering that this newborn star system the refugees had found was rich, no very rich in some of the materials that Gamma Cyrannus was short on to make their plan succeed. Particularly three key elements. Carbon and water to get the farming biomes up and running and most especially tylium to fuel the asteroid colonies and the fleet ships.
Meanwhile he was being briefed by the head of the ARTURUS's maintenance and repair team. "Basic work is nearly complete on the XEAL II. Our focus has been on the sublight and FTL drive systems, primary control runs, and the structural support and attachments for the SET's flight pods."
Tony nodded as he looked out the observation port to the kit-bashed ship.
"We were very lucky with the XEAL. Her final surviving crew pretty much mothballed her when they ran out of tylium and abandoned her for their attempt to jump back to the Colonies in their FTL shuttles." Nichole Asteria made a sign of fealty to her patron deity. "The XEAL's logs... well there are no more epic stories of triumph and tragedy that have ever been recorded. It's too bad that Commodore Odysseus never actually made it home. He and his crew fought like they were standing against gates of Tartarus. They earned the right to survive. Maybe someday we can learn what really happened to them.
"Anyway, we opened the main shuttle deck and ran structural members salvaged from the HIND's port pod through it to attach to the ship's keel and strongback structure. These became the primary supports to the central truss for attaching the SET's flight pods. Additional structural attachments were worked in immediately forward of the thrust block and and just aft of the hammerhead. We've transferred over the SET's sublight thrusters, FTL drives, computers and the necessary control runs."
"Would it not have been easier to rebuild the SET's structure?" Tony asked.
The M&R Chief shook her head. "Not with the resources we have available. ARTURUS might have been able to do such a repair, but our demilitarization and then the damage we took lost us our ability to make the necessary structural members without foundry-ship support. SET took two nukes to her spine right as she jumped. The only thing holding her together when she came out were the flight pods. We scooped her on the bounce and ran for the cloud with the group you see here. Finding the GRAND POTENTATE XEAL II seemed a gift from the gods."
"So," Tony mused. "By what you've said, she'll jump and can deck-launch her fighters for now."
"Yeah, power runs to the pods are basic as yet. We've been rebuilding the XEAL's main energizer, and she should have plenty of power to run all of the installed systems. Once that is finished we'll complete the power connections to the pods. She'll be able to carry our air wing but won't be much good in a fight otherwise. We haven't even begun to look at restoring the XEAL's weapon's systems. That is a project that we planned to do on the fly."
"What about the SET's weapon's?"
"Point defense systems from the main body have been installed in some of the empty hard-points on the ARTURUS. The main and secondary cannons are earmarked for repairs to GOLDEN HIND. Her missile tubes were destroyed by the nukes. Emptying SET's magazines brought the HIND back up to a half-load."
"Well, the good news I can give you is that Trident Base has the ability and resources to restore GOLDEN HIND to full operation," the Major gave his escort a reassuring smile. "We salvaged several Mercury Class battlestars, so I'm sure we can match up a pair of replacement flight pods and not only restore her main battery and armor but increase her point defenses as well."
Their discussion was interrupted by eight bright flashes that sparked at the designated arrival coordinates, swiftly followed by four more inside the perimeter defined by the first group. Overhead, the speakers of the ship crackled to life as the battered shape of the GOLDEN HIND hove into view between the new arrivals and the fleet.
"This is the Battlestar GOLDEN HIND. Identify yourselves or be fired upon."
"GOLDEN HIND, this is Trident Fleet Gunstar Division Three. SAVAGE Actual. Transmitting codes. Be advised we have one more arrival due in 90 seconds. All traffic is advised to get and stay clear of the provided jump coordinates."
At that, the twelve ships lit their sublights and moved outward from the center of their arrival point. Moments later there was an even brighter flash and Tony's grin broadened into a beaming smile at the reaction of those around them. Basically summed up by the response of Chief Asteria.
"HOLY FRAK!"
"Attention GOLDEN HIND and accompanying fleet. This is Director Smythe of the Hades' Chest Colony. We have received your status and aid needs and are prepared to bring you aboard for replenishment and repair. Welcome home!"
Gamma Cyrannus – Trident Base – Battlestar ANUBIS
45 Days After the Fall
In the past six days an amazing amount of work had been done in Graving Dock Four. Floyd Woodright flipped through the day's status worklist, noting that the former Battlestar ANUBIS had all six of her sublight engines now removed. They had been relocated to Graving Dock Three, now emptied of the two reactivated gunstars that had formerly occupied the space. Teams were removing the drives from the armor framework in preparation for installing a nearly new set pulled from a pair of surplus to requirements superliners. Said liners were also donating their sublight control computers and FTL drives to this build.
Speaking of the FTL drives, this morning had seen the dismantling of the third of the four installed and it was in the process of being removed via the port flight pod. However, all of that activity was in his friend Sue Clifton's hands.
Floyd was leading a team that was mounting missile box launchers between the skeletal ribs that once held ANUBIS' armor. Each box then had a data-feed cable strung to the nearest cable port and dropped into the hull of the ship. His job today... he snorted... his job for the next two weeks was to map out where those ports needed to be and install them.
Based on the number of holes he needed to bore, he really hoped that they did not make any mistakes sealing them. Finding leaks would be Hades' own bitch to track down.
He was just glad he was used to working in the armored pressure suit as he clambered over and around the ribs on the outside of ANUBIS' hull.
Gamma Cyrannus – Trident Base – Corman Command Center
45 Days After the Fall
Commander Montgomery stood at the plot table at the back of the room. It seemed weird for a combat plot table to be in a base command center, but once Poseidon's Trident's FTL drives were installed and calibrated, this part of the room would be where the fleet base was navigated and fought from. Both the plot table and the DRADIS tree above it, which had come from the Battlestar ATHENA, were currently showing nearby space.
DRADIS was running in passive mode using some interesting timing and analysis tricks relating to the emissions pattern of the various spectra of the Gamma Cyrannus star. Patterns which had been carefully mapped out over the time that Trident Base had been occupied. As a result, the passive DRADIS system gave nearly as clear a picture as an active scan. Of course, as soon as they left the system all of those carefully crafted algorithms would be useless. But for now it was the next best thing to running an active scan while remaining completely invisible.
Nodding at the information on the displays he carefully lowered himself back into the wheelchair. He was trying to be on his feet for at least 10 minutes of every hour today. According to the doctors, his recovery seemed to be going well.
The DRADIS sounded an alert as it detected the flashes of a pair of FTL events approximately fifty kilometers spinward and ten kilometers apart from each other.
"Two FTL arrivals in the designated zone. CAP is circling at the perimeter marker," the Colonel in charge of area defense reported
"Low power IFF signals coming in. Battlestar GOLDEN HIND and F-R-D ARTURUS."
A Major rapidly updated the plot table to reflect the two arrivals.
Montgomery cleared his throat. "Comms. Tight-beam. Issue confirmation challenge."
"Colonial Fleet vessels, Trident Base. Respond tight beam this vector with identification and codes."
"Trident Base, GOLDEN HIND Actual. Seabucks win the cup."
"Trident Base, Repair Dock ARTURUS. If the bones are good I can save her. Who comes up with this cr..."
Chuckling at the civilian's exasperation, Montgomery picked up the handset from its cradle under the edge of the plot table. "This is Trident Base Actual, Commander Hyram Montgomery. GOLDEN HIND, welcome back to the Fleet. Trafcon will guide you in. Major Alexandros, report with your logs and a detailed damage and casualty report to the Corman Command Center as soon as your ship is secure from flight stations.
"ARTURUS, contact New Scorpio control by tight beam on vecto carom minus 3 1. They have a dock prepared for you and should get you a new chin in no time.
Keep all signals tight beam and low power."
Gamma Cyrannus – Battlestar GOLDEN HIND
45 Days After the Fall
Major Russ Alexandros felt a mild sense of trepidation run down his spine at the order to report once the ship was secured. He knew it was standard procedure and that the damage report would be used to prioritize and schedule the ship's repairs. Still, one did not bring in a ship in the shape GOLDEN HIND was in and expect praise.
"GOLDEN HIND Actual. Acknowledged," he said, clicking the transmit button on his handset.
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Trafcon. Your approach vector i carom plus 1 7. Speed at outer marker should be 100 mps relative reducing to ten mps at five klicks."
"Comm acknowledge with read-back. Hel carom plus 1 7 and reduce our speed by half. Outer marker is at 30 klicks relative our current position."
"Trafcon, HIND, 1 9 3 carom plus 1 7 with 100 mps relative at twenty klicks reducing to ten mps at five."
"Commander, my course i carom plus 1 7 and speed is falling."
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Harbor Control. Understand you have severe damage. Please state positive control and percentage able."
Russ glanced at the DC board before clicking his handset. "Trident Harbor Control, GOLDEN HIND Actual. Positive control. Repeat positive control. Current thruster ability at seventy-five percent."
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Harbor Control. Acknowledge positive control. Harbor rules require minimum eighty five percent thruster ability for hands on docking. Upon arrival come to a halt in center bore and prepare to receive tugs."
Major Alexandros winced. No crew liked having their ship tugged. It was a point of pride for the crew. But harbor rules were inviolable. "Trident Harbor Control, GOLDEN HIND Actual. Eighty-five percent harbor rule acknowledged. We will halt center bore and receive tugs. Please pass on to Medical that we have approximately 1100 wounded with about 150 critical, including Rear-Admiral Hestia."
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Harbor Control. One One Zero Zero wounded, with One Five Zero critical. Medical will contact your CMO on discrete five."
"Approaching twenty klicks, Commander. Speed now 100 mps relative Poseidon's Trident."
Russ glanced at the DRADIS' navigation display. "Helm begin speed reduction to ten mps."
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Trafcon. Nice and smooth, right on the center. Maintain your current orientation. Opening bore-plug."
At a nod, the communications rating acknowledged the transmission.
On a monitor hung on the forward bulkhead the rock ahead of them now sported a glowing circle of light on the end facing them. As they drew closer, the circle thickened, then a vertical slash of light joined the top and bottom of the circle before the two halves of the door then slid away from each other until an opening as wide as the Shiny Deer was long stood in the end of the asteroid.
"GOLDEN HIND, Trident Trafcon. Maintain 5 mps until fully within the bore. Once inside maintain centerline and reduce to full stop at ten klicks from entrance."
"Trafcon," Russ answered. "GOLDEN HIND. Maintaining 5mps until clear of doors. Hold centerline and come to full stop at ten klicks."
Gamma Cyrannus – Trident Base
45 Days After the Fall
Floyd looked up from his latest hole as the main dock lights dimmed followed by the bore-hole door opening.
At first sight of the arriving vessel he thought Ryx had pranged the PHOENIX up royally only to blink and realize that particular ship was currently docked across the way.
"Holy crap!"
The members of his team all looked where he was staring.
"How the hell is that ship still in one piece?"
"It's not! The whole starboard side is gone!"
"Maybe, but hell, its another functional Mercury!"
"For a given value of functional."
"All hands, Harbor Control. Render honors! GOLDEN HIND arriving! Admiral Hestia arriving!"
All through the bay, Colonial Fleet sailors and marines with a view of the ship snapped to attention and saluted as the battered warrior drifted up alongside the waiting harbor tugs. A final spurt of the forward thrusters brought the scarred beast to a halt. A double flash of the harbor strobes acknowledged the ship's arrival. The HIND flashing her own lights in response.
"All hands, Harbor Control. Return to your duties. Graving Dock Two prepare to receive GOLDEN HIND."
"Okay guys, back to work. Only nine hundred and eighty three more holes to drill."
~-=/\=-~
In the command center, Commander Montgomery continued to stand at the window overlooking the harbor. Medical teams were already congregating at the hatches leading to Graving Dock Two. He really hoped his old friend Miriam would recover from her coma. Of course that little bit of rendering honors would probably bring a tear to her eye, right before she bawled him out for the time wasted in doing it. But hell, the fleet had only so many Admirals left.
Aphrodite's Veil – Un-Named System – Hades' Chest
45 Days After the Fall
Before the GOLDEN HIND and ARTURUS had departed that morning, the remains of the SET and the reactivated GRAND POTENTATE XEAL II had been moved inside the Chest's bore.
Director Smythe stood in the Hades' Chest's maintenance dock observation deck looking out on the now hybridized ancient battleship occupying the space. His first thought was to scrap the whole thing for materials, but the people of the recently rescued fleet had put too much effort into restoring the old ship. It would do their morale a ton of good to complete their work.
It was easy to see its Leonian design heritage, the hammerhead bow still being a common feature now seen primarily on the highly successful flattop repair ships. A little under eight hundred meters long and roughly a hundred meters wide at the stern engine block with a fifty meter wide body and a seventy-five meter wide hammer head bow. The ship tapered from a hundred meter height at the stern to thirty meters at the join to the bow. The two flight pods from the SET were sloped downward from stern to bow and nestled neatly between the engine block and the forward main battery cannon to either end of the bow.
The main battery cannon were housed in domed quad-turrets, with two forward on the port and starboard bows, two aft on port and starboard of the engine block. Three along the dorsal spine and two on the ventral keel for a total of nine turrets containing a total of thirty-six heavy 450 millimeter cannon. The cannon could 'elevate' up to 100 degrees from their horizontal position, allowing the ship to generally bring all but two of her battery (three in the ventral field) to bear on a target.
The Grand Potentate class Leonian Battleships were also some of the earliest known ships to use emrail guns, prior warships of the various colonies having used chemical propulsion not too dissimilar from that still used in fleet sidearms. The switch having allowed the truly monstrous (even by modern standards) size of the XEAL's main battery at a time when the largest ship-mounted cannon did not exceed a hundred and fifty millimeters due to the mass and handling requirements of the cased shells.
The XEAL carried a secondary battery of 125 millimeter cannon in a mix of dual and quad mounts. Where the main battery cannon were aligned laterally across the turret, the 125 quads were in a two over two box in their dome. The quad 125s being mounted three dorsal and three ventral along the width of the bow with four dorsal and four ventral in non-occluding trapezoids on the engine block. An additional ten 125 dual mounts adorned either side of the main hull, now occluded by the grafted on flight pods. The biggest drawback of these systems was that they required the chemical propellant shells that had long since degraded to the point they were now useless.
Jack was almost certain his people could get the main battery back up and working, even if it meant rebuilding the emrail guides and drivers from scratch. The 125s though were an entirely different matter. With no means to make new shells, even if the cannon were roughly the equivalent of the modern flack cannon, there was no way to make them useful. Replacing them with flack cannon, in fact, made a lot of sense. The XEAL's magazines and hoists should be able to handle those shells easily as they were of a similar size and weight. The issue would be power to the flack cannon's railguns.
And then there was point defense. The GRAND POTENTATE XEAL II was built at a time when space fighters and bombers were no threat to capital ships and missiles had too short a range to be effective. As such, the ship had absolutely no anti-air/anti-missile defenses. The two flight pods from the SET helped a little, still having their four flack cannon and twenty point defense guns each. Converting the fourteen quad 125s and the four non-occluded dual 125s to flack cannons would help, but the XEAL would need to add a significant number of close-in point defense guns to the main hull, bow and stern.
The modular refits done on the Colonial Heavies, like ACCIPITER, were the answer here. The point defense emplacements were boxes that were inserted through openings cut in the outer hull and then sealed. Each box contained a local magazine to feed the point defense guns which could be restocked by runners between, or even during battles. A PDS box mount could maintain constant fire for approximately ten minutes. It wasn't ideal, hell the modern central magazine fed systems were not ideal, but it was better than nothing. He would get his yard apes to look at the XEAL's structure to see where and how many PDSs could be mounted.
Flipping to the next page on the report he was holding he noted that the grafted on flight pods were due to undergo full power tests that evening. The ARTURUS engineering team and the surviving crew of the SET had done an excellent job of determining just how to mount the pods most effectively. They were set at a stern to bow, downward sloping angle to allow landing fighters to approach clear of the stern batteries, while the forward facing launch tubes fired clear below the bow quad 450's.
With a nod, he closed the report. After the raid on the Triangula Boneyard, Kylie Bauer had been looking for something new to sink her teeth into. Jack smiled. Bauer and her yard apes would certainly be able to get the XEAL up to snuff... if he could get Uri and Montgomery to part with the weapon systems they needed to complete the refit.
Gamma Cyrannus – Hades' Hope
50 Days After the Fall
Hawk Smythe looked around the control center at his crew. "Okay people, last week's thruster tests were an unqualified success. Hope moves, now tell me she can dance!"
"All individual spin tests on the FTL drives have come back positive," the lead FTL technician stated.
"And the synchronization test?"
"Ninety-eight percent. We're adjusting the coding and will re-run the test in approximately two hours. We fully expect to achieve ninety-nine point nine nine on that test. If we achieve that, we will be ready for the test jump tomorrow morning. If the schedule holds, we should be ready for the jump sequence to Hades' Chest's location as planned."
"I'll look forward to that report." Hawk turned to the next group. "Logistic's team?"
"Four Tylium refinery ships, a dozen tankers and ten mining ships are currently docked aboard. Additionally, we have another dozen ore-haulers and four water tankers.
"Work on digging out our refinery cavern is complete and the three tylium refinery ships that we are scavenging to build the refinery have been landed in the adjoining hangar. We hope to have it up and operating alongside the refinery ships in roughly six weeks.
"Commander Montgomery sent over a freighter loaded with at least some of the parts that Director Smythe requested. He said to tell the pirate that if he gets that relic's main battery working to send it back to Trident Base for the rest."
"Okay, other projects?"
"The last load of armor from the ZEUS and ATHENA was shipped out yesterday and the tugs took the ATHENA's starboard flight pod over to Trident Base for the GOLDEN HIND rebuild as well. We are continuing to tear down what is left of the two Battlestars and laying up the parts against future need or for eventual transfer to either New Scorpio or Poseidon's Trident."
"We are currently installing the thrusters New Scorpio sent us on the IMLAY. Wiring and control runs from the ZEUS and ATHENA are being used to replace and upgrade the carrier's current systems and we have four nearly new FTL drives that they sent us from their tear-down of some of the smaller surplus freighters. ZEUS' busted flight pod has enough intact catapults to reactivate half of the IMLAY's launch tubes. We hope to get the rest from one of the other wrecks being broken down at one of the other rocks. Thanks to all the parts we've been able to scavenge, we've reduced our estimates on reactivation down to approximately another four months."
Gamma Cyranus – Marinestar QUIGLEY
60 Days After the Fall
Marine Corporal Hector Corwin settled back on the ergonomic couch, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming training session. While civilian use had been outlawed after the, well… first Cylon war due to the dangers inherent in unregulated servers with the capacity to not only interface with, but actually host human minds, the Colonial Military had been given a blanket exemption to employ Holoband Technology so long as it was strictly for training purposes and the systems were tightly monitored and controlled. They had also been modified to incorporate a physical component.
Wiggling slightly, he maneuvered the catch points on his sim outfit to link to the frame rails running the length of the couch. With a final click, he felt the link behind his shoulder blades lock in place. Closing the visor on the helmet, Corporal Corwin took a deep breath while the system booted around the members of his squad.
The ten man team found itself part of a company sized formation standing in the cavernous cargo bay of a troopship configured Colonial Heavy liner.
"All right men, listen up," the Major commanding the company announced. "This goes the way the mission was briefed."
Vibrations ran up through the soles of his boots from the deck plating.
"This is a HALO combat jump from sixty k opening at five. Green light in ten minutes. Check your gear, then check your buddy's."
This was their tenth training jump in the last two weeks and each had progressed the jump altitude up five thousand feet while lowering the opening altitude a thousand. The goal was to have the teams ready for a near orbital jump, down to a fifteen hundred foot opening for the live mission.
The lights in the cargo bay switched over to a dull red.
Yeah, and the jump would be at night.
Hector smiled as the door at the rear of the bay opened and the green light beside it came on. As second stick lead, he punched the activator on his personal altimeter, tapped his buddy on the shoulder and sprinted out the hatch.
