Chapter 5:
CIC, Battlestar Hyperion, Near the Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
3 Hours After the Attack
In the half-an-hour since the Mercury and its Fleet had arrived, John had done surprisingly little. He had spent almost half that time talking around Admiral Berk and calming him down as much as was possible. The rest of the time he had spent checking manifests and talking to the COs of all of the other ships.
In the confusion he hadn't taken time to notice which ships had come with the Mercury. Three Battlestars, the Atlas – the Mercury-class leader of the second group, the Ceres – its Odin-class companion – and the Sirius, a Sobek-class that was, in fact, John's first command 20 years prior. The Sobek-class, a sort-of cross between an Odin-class and a Mercury-class, was small but featured large, double-decked flight pods. Most of the Sobek's had been retired, with only six being in service when the Cylons attacked.
John, who still knew many of the crew members aboard the Sirius, began to realise that maybe they may still stand a fighting chance in this still rather 1-sided war. Continuing on, John had a chance to read through the logs of his new ships and soon thereafter discovered that the Mercury was being escorted to Scorpia by the Battlestars of BSG-35 (the Battlestar Group led by the Atlas) when the first Cylons hit. All their escorts ships were destroyed and Admiral Berk ordered the other ships to cover him while the Mercury – and just the Mercury – escaped.
Luckily for the other ships, the Commander of the Atlas disobeyed Berk's order as soon as the Mercury jumped and they followed before the Cylon Basestars did much damage. In fact, it had been Rear Admiral Grey – CO of the Atlas – who had persuaded Admiral Berk to try and meet up with other ships in the first place, as the full Admiral had wanted them to strike out on their own.
The disregard with which Admiral Berk treated the ships under his command gave John the jitters. What if the Hyperion went down and BSG-53 was left under him? What if they met up with the civilians and Berk abandoned them or stole their parts? John knew, unfortunately, that neither of these things were impossible and in fact very possible given Berk's track record. Over his career, Benjamin Berk had not been afraid to what he thought was 'right'. One good example John called to mind was the time when the Admiral initiated the self-destruct sequence on a Battlestar he found a few flaws on during his tests. He even managed to escape the law by justifying the executions of two of his own crew-members for disobeying his orders by saying they endangered the mission and the crew.
Truthfully, John didn't trust Admiral Berk as far as he could throw him and wasn't about to jeopardize his fleet, mission and species to appease a psychopath and stop him from taking over by force, whether or not that meant leaving him behind.
John had been quietly deliberating on his unenviable situation for a while now and had left the CIC and began walking aimlessly through the ship's corridors. As he slowly brought himself back into reality, he realised that he was towards the hangar. Before the war, John often enjoyed watching his crew working first-hand; he found it calmed him and reminded him that his crew were indeed just as human as him, and deserved no less than any of the others, regardless of rank.
To John, the hangar had always felt reassuring. He supposed it came from his time in the First Cylon War when he'd sit alongside Colonel Virgon in between missions. For John, the crackling sounds of welders and the persistent noise of chatter had helped calm him down then and continued to do the same now. He leant on the silver rail that ran alongside the top walkway and closed his eyes to concentrate further on the familiar sounds that graced his ears.
This peace was, however, rudely interrupted only moments after it started, by the repeating sound of footsteps coming from his right. John broke off his train of thought and turned towards the direction of the footsteps to his right. "Ah, Captain Gemini," He said seeing who the footsteps belonged to.
"Admiral," Captain Harriet 'Hera' Gemini said, stopping and standing to attention.
"At ease Hera," John said casually, beckoning the dark-skinned pilot over. "What going on?"
"Not much sir," Captain Gemini said, walking over to the rail and leaning on it next to John. "We're still shuttling things between us and the Fleet at the moment. Techs are still trying to take off the CNP from all our computers, but not all the ships are giving it up,"
"What do you mean Captain?" John asked her, slightly confused but completely understanding at the same time.
"All the ships are letting us take off the CNP networks from their computers, except one,"
"Let me guess..." John said to the Captain sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he spoke.
"Yeah, Mercury's even giving the poor old techs a hard time," John nodded at the confirmation of his guess and returned his gaze to the hangar in front of them. The two were silent for a few moments before Hera broke the silence.
"So what happens now?" She asked John. He looked over at her and saw the usually strong and straight-laced Captain looking decidedly... worried, and not for the first time today.
"Once Admiral Berk yields we can destroy any trace of the CNP and head back to the Colonies," John told her.
"The Colonies? Why?" Captain Gemini asked.
"We still have people back there. Our people. We're not going anywhere until they're safely with us," John told her, the tone of his voice turning slightly more commanding, almost as if he was trying to convince himself that the civilians were still alive, beyond all the doubt in his mind.
The two dropped back into a companionable silence until John glanced down at the watch on his left wrist and saw the time, or at least the time since the attack. After they found respite from the Cylons after the initial attack, John ordered Emily to reset all the clocks and timers on the Fleet to a new standard time, starting from the attack. As the hands on his watch indicated that it had been exactly 3 hours since the attack, John pushed himself off of the rail and reassuringly gripped Hera's shoulder before heading back towards the CIC.
CIC, Battlestar Hyperion, Near the Ouranos Asteroid Belt.
For the countless time on his short walk, the lights again flickered throughout the Hyperion. As if the small, dark corridors weren't bad enough for some crew-members – John had thought – the flickering of the lights were enough to make some very claustrophobic.
As John stepped through the CIC's revolving doors, he felt a rush of silent panic coming from all the crew in the room. Even though you could hear a pin drop, everyone was rushing around the room, whispering to each other and accessing things on their computer screens; or not as John later found out.
"What's going on? Is there a problem with the reactor?" John asked as he stepped up to the Command desk in the centre of the room.
"That's just it, sir," Emily told his as she rushed past. "We have no idea,"
"What?" John said in confusion. "What do you mean 'we've go no idea'?"
"She means just that. We don't know. All of our computers are offline," Colonel Virgon spoke up, whilst handing a clipboard back to a waiting Ensign. "We aren't sure why, but the running theory is that it may have something to do with the Mercury,"
"The Mercury? What about it?" John asked his XO directly. The Colonel shrugged his shoulders before responding.
"We're not sure; but seeing as how the only difference between us and them is their Network, that must be it," Colonel Virgon said.
"Ah gods dammit!" John cried out, slamming his fist into the table. In response, everyone in the CIC turned to stare at him. "That CNP is what the Cylons used to take out our Fleet in the first-place! If it's been compromised, we'll get shut down too if we don't disconnect from them!"
"Abandon them sir?" Emily asked the Admiral.
"No," John said, shaking is head violently as he spoke. "We don't leave anyone behind. Can we disconnect the other ships as well as ourselves?"
"Only the ones running UMCP," Hermes spoke up. John nodded to him.
"Do it!" John ordered. Emily ran to her desk and she and Hermes both quickly used their consoles to break free from the inter-connected Networks. John looked around at his crew as they watched on; excited, nervous, unsure and downright petrified. Each one seemed to have a unique emotion being felt in their mind. John took comfort in their humanity as they waiting for Emily and Hermes tapped away at their desks. John eyes flicked up to the currently unreadable DRADIS screen, that was exclusively filled with blue-grey static and flickers of green from the other Battlestars. As John stared at it he thought – just for a second – that he saw a couple of flickers of red crossing the screen before everything went black.
A wave of shock, fear and realisation came over John. For a few moments the whole CIC – and ship – was completely blacked out. After only a few seconds though – no matter how long they felt – the emergency red lights came on and the ship was once again illuminated, albeit a lot less than it had been.
"Admiral? Colonel? Are you okay?" Emily shouted as soon as the lights came back on.
"I'm fine," Colonel Virgon called back. "We're both fine," John gave a reassuring nod to his friend before looking at the crew around them.
"Miss Jartell, status report," John called to Emily, his eyes still trying to take in the entire room at once.
"Power's out. We've got no comms and DRADIS is down. For all we know there could be Cylons knocking on our front door," Emily reported back. John shook his head and chuckled awkwardly.
"I think there are Emily. That's what's going on," John told her and, by extension, the crew. "Is the intercom working?"
"No sir," Hermes butted in. "We've got nothing inside the ship or out,"
"Thank you Hermes," John said. He silently beckoned Colonel Virgon away from the Command desk and towards Emily. The Colonel followed him to their Tactical Officer and stood around her desk. "I need a way to get gun crews to the cannons and pilots in the air. Have either of you got any suggestions?" John whispered to the two. Emily gave him a worried look and Colonel Virgon scanned the room behind him.
"A runner?" The Colonel suggested.
"Yeah why don't we-" John started saying before the CIC's door swung open and a tall-blonde deck hand ran in. "Umm, hello?" John said as the woman ran in and stood to attention without saying anything.
"Specialist Sally Six, sir. Mates call me Six," The woman said, snapping into a salute as she did.
"And?" Colonel Virgon snapped.
"We've lost power, but... I see everyone has too so..." Six started trailing off.
"Specialist, is everything alright?" Emily asked in a reassuring tone.
"We can't launch the birds sir. Or even get our pilots into them," Six told them. "Someone from the gun crew told me the same thing on the way here,"
"Power's locked us down, we're dead in space," Colonel Virgon said exhaustedly.
"Not yet we're not!" Hermes called to them, just as he pushed one of the buttons at his console and all the lights and screens came back on again. John let out a sigh of relief and collective cheer came from the crew. "Oh wait hold on," Hermes shouted, prematurely interrupting the celebrations. "Admiral you need to see this,"
"I see it too," Emily chorused as the Admiral and Colonel gathered next to Hermes.
"Radiation levels are off the charts," Hermes told them.
Behind them, one of the crew-members let out a huge gasp as she stared at the DRADIS screen. "It... it's gone!" She whimpered. In panic, John spun around like lightning and looked at it too. On the screen, right were the Mercury had sat, four unidentified red signals were displayed.
"Cylons! And they have nukes. Emily!" John called. "Tell our ships to fire as much flak fire as frakking possible right frakkin' now!"
"And set Condition One for frak's sake!" Colonel Virgon quickly added as the two reached their usual spots around the centre of the room. Around them – like clockwork – the crew immediately got back to their jobs as the deep klaxon's started ringing. As John began to brace himself for the worst, Hyperion shook violently from something hitting her on the port side.
"What was that?!" John cried out to Emily.
"Uh... no idea sir. It hasn't done any damage!" Emily told him, in a mildly surprised voice.
"Okay fine, we'll deal with it later. For now we need to focus on getting out of here!" John ordered.
It was only five minutes, but it was certainly the longest five minutes of his life. John watched the screen anxiously as the feeds from Vipers, guns and escort ships flickered to life around him and showed the extremely ominous Cylon Fleet surrounding the ever expanding fireball once known as the Battlestar Mercury. The Colonial ships were scattering here and there, trying to find the quickest route back into the asteroid belt.
"Emily how are our FTL drives coming along?" John asked across the bustle of the CIC.
"Only just charging sir, the were powered down during the blackout," Emily, who had taken command of jumping them away, told John and Colonel Virgon.
"What about our birds?" John asked Hermes.
"Still in the tubes sir. Do you want them to launch yet?" Hermes asked in reply.
"No, keep them there. I don't want to have to deal with birds in the air when we have to jump," Right as John finished speaking to Hermes, two impacts in quick secession rocked the ship.
"We may not be able to jump at this rate sir," Emily shouted. "We just took two conventional missiles to the aft; the toasters are trying to take out our FTL drives,"
"That isn't good, focus flak in that area," Colonel Virgon ordered as John was beckoned over by Hermes walked past him and stood behind him, who had comms open all of the other ship.
"What's the matter Mr Yo?" John whispered as Hyperion took another hit.
"It's Admiral Grey, from the Atlas," Hermes told him in reply. John held out his hand and Hermes reached below his desk to bring out a small headset that was connected to his main computer via a thin wire. John slipped it over his head and adjusted the microphone before speaking.
"Put me through," John ordered Hermes, oh quickly obliged and put the Admiral through. John waited for a moment before he heard the static cut out and give way to a familiar gravely voice.
"John," Admiral Grey said to John.
"Jeremy," John replied. "It looks like your up for a promotion very soon," Both men chuckled, despite the situations going on around them.
"Yeah, no retirement for me..." The Rear Admiral paused briefly and collected his thoughts before continuing his conversation with John. "Thing is John, it isn't that simple. Our FTL drives are faltering, we think they've been hit and the Ceres is reporting similar albeit much more serious damages," John looked desperately at Hermes who had been listening in due to standard Fleet regulations. Hermes gave John a subtle nod and brought a recently taken photograph from one of Hyperion's Assault Raptors showing the damages sustained on the rear end – or rather what was left at the end – of the Atlas and then of the completely separated flight pod from the Ceres whose main hull wasn't fairing much better.
"I have to say," John said, trying to start a joke. "For a Rear Admiral you seem to be missing an awful lot of rear," Both men broke into another, more sorrowful chuckle.
"John you see, the thing is: we still have all our guns and our missiles are primed but are slightly damaged," Admiral Grey told John.
"How so?"
"They've got no fuel,"
"So they're useless?" John asked in a mixture of confusion and dismay.
"No, the launchers themselves will have enough strength to dumb-fire them... but we'll need to get close,"
"How close?"
"Too close," Grey said.
"Oh no you don't!" John ordered.
"I'm sorry John, but we need to. We can take out all, or at least most, of those ships and you can get away otherwise you're all stuck here." John's hands balled into a fist as Admiral Grey spoke because he knew Grey was right.
"What about the Sirius?"
"She's fine. Commander Jorge Wilson can get away with you,"
"Fine then, abandon ship and remotely detonate it,"
"We can't. My CIC crew are willing to go with me until the end but I can send everyone else to Raptors or shuttles, but I'm not leaving this room," John took a deep breath as he listened to the Rear Admiral's words and gritted his teeth as he replied.
"Fine," John said painfully. He reached up to his headset and was about to take it off when he decided to finish it properly. "Jeremy..."
"Yes John?"
"Good hunting,"
"Always Admiral, thank you," Admiral said, before cutting the line. John looked down at Hermes and handed him the headset. He nodded towards Hermes comms switches and the Petty Officer hailed the other ships of – what was left of – the fleet as John headed back to the centre of the room and surveyed the feeds on the screens above him.
Between the smoke trails of the missiles, the fire spat out by the flak cannons and the buzzing dots of Cylon Raiders, John watched as large numbers of small craft launched from both the Ceres and the Atlas. The Admiral had clearly prepared for his suicide run as the ships' Vipers covered the escaping shuttles as they left the flight pods of both ships. The two great hulks then turned directly towards the Cylon Basestars and their flak fire abruptly stopped and heavy railgun rounds spat out of the turrets around the ships.
Then John saw the Cylon Raiders break away from them and towards the approaching shuttle craft as the old Battlestar Themis launched her alert Vipers and sent them towards the retreating Raiders. Even more fire filled the screen as Raiders were quickly being disassembled by the Vipers and the Base-ships turned their attention to the rapidly approaching Atlas and Ceres.
As the surviving Raiders broke away from attacking the shuttle and headed back to protect their command vessels, the fires of battle almost immediately receded and – apart from a few of Hyperion and the other ships guns' firing some carefully placed shots back towards the Basestars – John could see clearly as the Atlas and her smaller compatriot blasted towards the Basestars before the screen filled with blinding light and then returned to the inky-blackness once again after the all-to familiar noise of a Colonial FTL jump.