Chapter 21:
Battlestar Hyperion, Officer's Mess
Kobol Orbit
Day 78, 19:21 PFT
Emily slipped into the raucous mess and tried to slip her way around the drunken Triad games to get herself a drink without being heckled. In this, she was unsuccessful.
"Colonel! You're just the one we want to see!" Came a shout from Captain Gemini on a table across the room. Emily sighed and changed direction over to the table.
"Evening, pilots. Is this a social call or do you want all of the Admiral's secrets this time as well?" Emily said, as sweetly as she was fake.
Some of the pilots gave an exaggerated, equally as sarcastic gasp and most of them broke out laughing. Hera, the only one in her blue uniform rather than the flight suits in various states of undress, tried to quieten the group. "We were just wondering what you knew…"
Emily sighed. "And here I was thinking you wanted my company."
"We do, we do," Hera said, grabbing an empty chair from the table behind her and sliding it in between Emily and where she was sitting. "Please join us, grab a drink-"
"And then tell you everything I know?"
"Exactly!" Spinner shouted from the other end of the table. Hera elbowed him in the ribs.
Emily gave a nod and walked past them, pouring a glass of the fleet's finest, home brewed watered-down ethanol. It was supposed to be some form of vodka, but really that was in name only. She mixed it with condensed fruit syrup and water into the most bearable drink they could create and joined the others. Taking a large gulp, she slammed her drink onto the table. "Fine, what is it you want to know?"
"Look, we were just wondering about the Galactica," Hera said, carefully.
"Ah, you've all heard about that then, have you?" Emily said, washing back a bit more of her drink to try to catch up. "Well, I said we should've told more of you about that…"
"We're not really worried about that. We just… want to know if that changes anything?" Hera said, leaning in a little closer and speaking a bit quieter.
"Yeah, some of the pilots have been talking – not me, I should add – but they've been talking about whether it's still a good idea to stay on Kobol with the Cylons around when there's more of us out there," Spinner explained, copying Hera's quieter tone.
"And do you think that Kobol is a lost cause?" Emily asked, diverting from them possibly trying to ask her opinion.
"We don't, necessarily. It just seems like a risk," Hera said.
"Do you think it is, Emily? Or do you also think we're only still here is so the Admiral can keep true to his promise?" Spinner asked. Clearly the booze had emboldened him. People aboard Hyperion didn't usually criticise the Admiral, least of all the pilots, they respected him too much.
"Look, I certainly think it's a lost cause if we abandon a perfectly habitable planet to find a Battlestar that has disappeared from here without a trace, and one that we haven't encountered at any point since the fall of the Colonies," Emily spoke half spoke through gritted teeth.
"But this isn't the only habitable planet we've found, is it?" Spinner whispered again, leaning over the table.
"Sid, you can't throw that information around just yet. I know this planet might not be the safest, but the Cylons have just as much chance to find us here as anywhere," Emily snapped back at Spinner as the rest of the table went quiet. She was thankful for the raucous music being played, meaning none of the other tables could hear them.
"So does the Admiral have a plan for if the Cylons do find us?" Squirt added from the seat next to Spinner. "Is that why we've been so slow to get the civvies on the ground?"
"Alright, look. All the COs met yesterday to discuss the Galactica and security plans. I can't tell you everything, but people are heading to the surface tomorrow for settlement," Emily's explanation seemed to cause the others to sit back for a second to consider. "There is a plan for protection from the Cylons but we're not going to be chasing after Galactica. The Admiral was firm on it."
"The Galactica is a Jupiter-class isn't it? We could really use another of those," Spinner mused, to murmurs from the others.
"We don't know if she's even alone as well. Isn't it worth a look?" Hera asked.
"Not if we go off and don't find anything. Then we've wasted fuel, manpower, potentially ships for nothing when we have a perfectly good home here," said one of the pilots with them. Emily only vaguely recognised his face, his name alluded her.
"That was what the Admiral said, essentially, and the other COs agreed. You'll get the full brief from the XO in a few hours Spinner," she said, causing the CAG to choke on his drink.
"A few hours? How many is a few?" Spinner asked, wiping the drink off the lower half of his flight suit.
"No more than 4 hours. He's got to be ready by morning,"
"Got leave has he? Seeing the sites of the planet? That would be nice…" Hera asked, while Spinner worked himself into a panic behind her.
"He is heading planet-side. This isn't supposed to be widely known yet until the Admiral announces everything, but he'll be commanding the airbase on the ground, which you'll need to find a squadron to man, Major," Emily said. "You'd better sober up Sidney, he'll be calling you soon enough."
"Yes, right…" Spinner blurted. "Finish this for me Squirt."
"With pleasure," Squirt said, greedily pulling Spinner's cup towards him as Spinner stumbled over himself standing up. He hopped past people to the exit and went to leave with one last glance back at the chair he knocked over passing on the tables, just as its past occupant returned with her latest drink. His glance was apologetic as he quickly disappeared down the hallway, apparently at pace since the pilot whom he had offended gave up trying to chase him the second she stepped out into the corridor. As the door slammed shut, Hera turned to Emily.
"Emily?" She said.
"Harriet?" Emily replied.
"If the XO is heading down to the planet, what happens to his job?"
Emily didn't respond at first. She didn't want everyone to hear as it might sound like she was gloating. Frankly, given her rise from just a young Lieutenant in for a short spell in the Colonial Fleet just two months ago, she wasn't sure how people perceived her. "Well… I am. Temporarily at least, no full promotion just yet."
Hera's jaw dropped and she slapped the pilot next to her on the arm. "Did you guys hear that?"
Emily began to blush. "Harri, please don't…"
"Hey can I get that music off?" Hera shouted, the room immediately died down to listen. "A toast, to our new, 'acting' XO!" She raised her glass to Emily and the rest of the room did the same, giving a hearty cheer. "Hope you enjoy it, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Captain." Emily jived back. "I'll be sure not to bust down on you too hard." She tried to speak with the conviction of an XO, but she wasn't honestly sure what that meant. Commander Virgon had always been fairly no-nonsense, but she didn't feel like she could match his discipline. It was, of course, only a temporary placement, while the base on the ground had time to establish itself, but Commander Virgon hadn't exactly said anything about returning to Hyperion as XO again either.
Battlestar Hyperion, CIC
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:09 PFT
Emily was hunched over the CIC sorting through dossiers. Mostly of Hyperion's pilots of course, but a few other from other ships who had asked for consideration to be rotated into the planetary squadrons. There were two of them, launching from a very make-shift runway. It wasn't a good solution, but it was the best they had for now. They were still unable to construct anything that large and would be until they could get some sort of shipyard or planetary foundry operational. The onboard Viper manufacturing facilities had seen a lot of use since the fall of the Colonies, but very few of those uses had been in the construction of Vipers.
Ammunition had been the priority, then parts to aid in repairs. Vipers were lost in combat, but they equally had picked up many from other ships in the early hours of the attack. At this time, about half the number of pilots being permanently transferred to the ground were pilots from the Battlestar Mercury, or the Battlestar Atlas, for example, that had made it to Hyperion before her escape from those engagements, and later those from the Battlestar Themis who survived her destruction. This focus on repair parts and the creation of practical elements such as more parts to help civilian and military ships refine their own tyllium, combined with their limited resources, had dominated the manufacturing facilities aboard Hyperion and Draconis, the Mercury-classes being the only ones capable of such production. Since their arrival at Kobol however, production had been far easier, and so far had been constant on board both ships.
There were many resources available to them in the Kobol system, the gas giant they had named 'Orcus' had wide rings and resource rich moons, which were being mined by the ships that were capable. This steady flow allowed the foundries aboard the two Battlestars to keep working non-stop, however instead of making spare parts, ammunition or planes, they had been set up to design parts of future construction facilities. It was far from ideal, as the onboard facilities could definitely not produce anything larger than a Raptor at absolute most, so these parts had to all be small and easy to fit together.
The Defender Zeus was the only other ship in the fleet capable of something similar. The ship had been a carrier and Gunstar in the First Cylon War, but it's time in the Fleet post-war was relegated to support and repairs. Its repair bays weren't particularly suited for construction, however the Admiral and the few engineers he could find amongst the civilians had managed to come up with ways to upgrade those repair stations into construction facilities.
The Admiral's plan was to essentially step-by-step construct some form of drydock using small, technical parts made onboard Hyperion and Draconis and larger facilities constructed by the Zeus. Some progress had been made on this, but over the last month, they had mostly been focusing on repairing damage and upgrading the Zeus. The Zeus' new facilities became operational after three weeks of construction, so for the last few they had tested their capabilities by constructing drones and smaller craft to help with the construction of ships once the drydock was complete.
Down on the planet, not much else had progressed. The first issues of settlement had come and gone: water sourced; power generated. Commander Virgon was acting essentially as governor of the city they were constructing until the city was self-sufficient. That was where the Admiral had been, shortly before Emily had been checking dossiers and holding the con. He'd been off ship for several hours and Emily was feeling the strain on her tiredness. The rota on the fleet had been a lot less rigorous than on the hunt for Kobol, mostly thanks to their continued Condition Three.
Besides hanging around Kobol, Hyperion had not been fixed. Rarely did a Battlestar make its way out to defend the mining ships but sometimes they did, when the gunstars needed to be rotated out. It was usually the Gunstar Limpet and the Firestar Icarus who were the ships stationed out there, but they were rotated out every week or so for the crew to get a couple of days leave, either on the artificial parks of the Naxos, or on Kobol itself. This day was not one of those times though, and the Limpet and Icarus were in place over Orcus with the rest.
Thanks to the hunt for Kobol, this was far from the first time that Emily had held the con for several hours, so she was not concerned. Yes, it was longer than usual, but soon the Admiral would return from his stop-off on the limping Battlestar Eos to meet with Commander Caspersen about what would be done about the ship's extensive damage, and when he did return, Emily would finally be relieved. Although, his stint would be short, and Emily would have to then take over from a Spinner who was far in over his head taking con for only the third or fourth time. He'd only be given the role for being the next highest-ranking officer on the ship, but Emily did find it somewhat amusing to see him out of his depth for once. Unusual for pilots who were usually so confident everywhere they went.
The Draconis and Persephone were off on the patrol missions that the Admiral had ordered the Battlestars of the fleet to rotate onto. These were not keeping an eye for Cylons in the same way a normal patrol might, but were instead trying to find Cylons to confuse them and redirect their attention away from Kobol by attempting to trick them into thinking the fleet was still moving. For now though, Emily had the con, and once she had finished approving this list made by Spinner, she could relax with Hermes and Anastasia Bell until the end of her shift.
That was, however, until a DRADIS contact bleep popped off. She placed her pen down and stood upright. It wasn't unusual, freighters passed in and out of FTL to shuttle minerals between Orcus and Kobol. It was a rather expensive route to jump the ships, but they didn't have the manpower to provide escorts, so it was safer if anything met them halfway.
"Any register on that contact?" Emily asked over to Anastasia, who was filling in her usual role as Tactical Officer. Emily was not concerned, but as far as she could remember, there were no shipments scheduled for that day.
"Negative. It's showing up as unknown… wait…" Lieutenant Bell's voice dropped as another bleep came in. And then another, and another, and another. The board began to light up with contacts, until quickly the Hyperion's systems registered their tags.
"Gods…" Emily whispered, taking in the screen in front of her in shock.
"Cylons sir. I'm counting 5, no 6 Basestars?" Anastasia confirmed in a panic.
"You're sure?" Emily asked. Anastasia didn't give an answer, she simply made eye contact with Emily as they sat in silence.
Emily was frozen for a minute. There was no Admiral to look to. Even Commander Virgon wasn't here. It took her a minute to realise that the only other people in the fleet seeing this were them in the CIC, the command staff of the other CICs, and the pilots on CAP. There was no one to support her now. "Right," She said, snapping her mind back into the moment. She reached down and pulled the cord-phone to her mouth. She didn't even have an XO to call action stations, so she guessed she'd do that herself. "Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the fleet. I repeat, action stations, action stations, set condition one, this is not a drill."
"Sir, more contacts. They're launching Raiders!"
"Hermes, call the rest of the fleet to condition one if they haven't already. Miss Bell, launch our Vipers," Emily said, repeating the playbook she'd heard the Admiral follow many dozens of times.
"Alert Vipers sir?" Anastasia asked.
Emily froze again. Alert Vipers meant only a few, but more meant committing to a fight as it would take more time to get them home and get the fleet away. Somehow, it was only at this point that she remembered that the Draconis and Persephone were missing. Six Basestars suddenly looked a lot larger of a threat. There were still three fully operational Battlestars in orbit, one Gunstar (the Horatio ), as well as the Zeus and the rest of the civilian ships that didn't head to the ground, and also the limping Battlestar Eos. Between them, they might be able to hold on, at least for a while. The Admiral's orders in this scenario were to hold out for the civilians to rendezvous at Orcus while the fighting fleet waits for his further instruction. Unfortunately, the Admiral was not anywhere on Hyperion to give them.
"Launch them all," She finally decided. "Everything we can get in the air, launch it now. Prepare flak batteries for incoming missiles, and Hermes, tell the civilian ships to make the jump, we'll cover them until they do."
"Copy sir," Hermes said. They may have been old friends, but all of them were simply falling back on their training, they knew nothing better.
Looking back at the screen, Emily could tell the Cylons were still a couple of minutes away from being within missile range, but less before their fighters would be an issue. Once Hermes had finished giving orders to the civilians, she turned to him again. "Get me on the line with the Eos, I need to know if the Admiral is with them."
"Right away," Hermes replied, immediately setting to it. Emily watched as the first green pips representing their fighter squadrons began to launch. She felt a slight, brief rush as she realised that it was her who had made that happen. Moments later, Hermes called back to her. "I have Eos, their XO says Caspersen and the Admiral are on their way to CIC."
"ETA?" Emily called back.
"Less than a couple of minutes."
"Missile launches, from the Cylons," Anastasia called.
"Radiological alarms?" Emily checked, quickly realising that could make a difference to their response.
"Negative, but there's lots. And I mean, lots."
"Alright," Emily took a breath. "Activate flak. Hermes, order Vipers to intercept as many as they can."
"Affirm Colonel, though I have the other ships on the line asking you for orders sir," Hermes replied. Emily took a second. The other ships were asking her for orders? They were all Commanders, all of whom outranked her? But then, she realised she was in command of the Flagship, that was her responsibility now.
"Right, put them through."
Battlestar Hyperion, Hangar Deck
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:14 PFT
Spinner attempted to do up his flight suit as he charged down the dark corridors towards the hangar in the midst of other pilots running with him, and other members running against them. They had all worried about a Cylon attack since they arrived at Kobol, but this attack had still managed to catch them unaware. The hangar was chaos as he entered it, pilots running to their ships, Vipers being stranded on their way to the launch tubes because of crew and pilots running in front of them, Raptor crews arming their own craft while deckhands were too busy loading Vipers. The klaxons seemed almost more aggressive than ever as Spinner tried to get his bearings and find his ship. He ran through the throng, pushing people aside and ducking under a passing Viper. Finally finding his ship's berth, he pulled over his own ladder and began to climb it. A deckhand eventually came over as he pulled open his cockpit.
"What have we got out there, Specialist?" He shouted to the deckhand as the boy pulled away the ladder and gave the ship a visual once over.
"We're not sure, sorry Major," He replied in a weedy voice. Poor kid was probably only just 18, freshly joined up when the war began. Spinner imagined that Hyperion was likely his first posting. "All we know is Cylons. Lots of 'em."
Listening to the room around him before he put his helmet on, Spinner noticed the wireless communications between the fighters and the ship finally turn on. Suddenly he heard the voices of his friends calling out. It seemed like Hera's squadron had been the first out there. They were struggling to intercept missiles and he suddenly saw many members of the crew lean to brace. They were right to, as moments later the hangar rocked and the lights flashed as something hit close to them. "Get me out there now Specialist!" He boomed at the frightened deckhand. Behind him, a rack of spare parts tipped over, having been nudged by the Viper in the next bay reacting to the shock of the missile.
Spinner sat with his helmet off and his cockpit open as he was pulled to his launch tube, listening to the radio outside before his was activated in the tube itself.
"Hera, Hotshot: Raider's toast, you're clear to run that missile."
"Copy Hotshot, stay on me."
"Hera, Pole: committing to rear missile."
"Just be quick with that Pole I… scratch another missile."
"Almost got it… Frak you that was mine Hotshot"
"Keep up then Pole, you'll get another shot."
"Sooner than you realise you two, another wave is coming in,"
"Hera, Twinkle-toe: You guys need a hand with those missiles?"
"Twinkle-toe, Hera: You just keep those Raiders off you until the next squadron is in the air."
Spinner whizzed through the pre-flight checks and gave the signal to the launch control officer. He felt the familiar buzz of his engines firing and prepared to be slammed against his seat. Suddenly, the Viper dropped into its tracks and shot down the launch tube. Finally, the acceleration subsided, and Spinner dropped out into the darkness of space. He had come out of Hyperion's starboard flight pod, and as a result was facing towards the planet, and the scrambling civilian ships. As he gathered his bearings and prepared to turn over the top of the Battlestar to reach the fight on the other side, his first orders came through, just after he caught sight of a pair of missiles leaving the head of the Battlestar Sirius, just below and behind Hyperion.
"Spinner, Hyperion: Divert your squadron to escort the nukes headed from Sirius before moving to join the main fight."
"Tally Hyperion. Hear that, boys and girls? We've got an escort missile, ready up." He said, powering his engines to max and blasting down towards the Sirius.
Battlestar Hyperion, CIC
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:16 PFT
"Sir, radiological alarms!"
Emily snapped her attention from the cord phone to Lieutenant Bell as she shouted over at her. "From where?"
"Our side sir. Readying to launch from Sirius," Anastasia explained. Emily hastily checked the DRADIS screen above her head. None of the civilians had jumped out yet, with many Cylon missiles inbound. She hadn't been informed of this strike, although it had crossed her mind.
Emily quickly turned her attention back to the phone in her hand. She had been waiting on the line from the Battlestar Eos, hoping to get orders from the Admiral, but he still hadn't arrived. "Hermes, patch me through to Sirius Actual now please."
Lieutenant Yo gave a nod as he headed back into his computer and began to hail the ship on wireless. The voices of Viper pilots outside were filling the noise in CIC, aside from the faint, distant rumble of guns across the far side of the ship, already opening up even at this massive range. After a few moments, Hermes shouted back: "Sirius Actual on the line."
"Sirius Actual this is Hyperion Actual," she said, as stoically as she could as another wave of missiles was launched from one of the basestars.
"Colonel Jartell, it is you in charge. What do you need, we're a bit busy at the moment?" The voice of Commander Serikov said in a rather condescendingly toned voice.
"Yes Commander, it is me. Why are you launching nukes, I didn't authorise this?"
"Colonel there are half a dozen Cylon basestars out there, I'm throwing everything we have at them."
"I know, but until we have the Admiral on the line-"
"But we don't, do we Colonel? I'm a Commander without a higher officer in the field of battle, I will make my own calls." With that, the line to Sirius promptly cut off. Emily sighed. Her position holding the command of Hyperion hadn't been made clear, this had been bound to happen. It just had seemed unlikely that the Admiral would ever be caught so unawares.
"Red squadron launching sir," Anastasia reported, just as Commander Serikov cut his line.
"Right…" Emily took a breath. "Get Spinner to escort those nukes. If Serikov is going to use them, we might as well make sure they hit their targets."
"Colonel!" Hermes shouted just as Emily finished speaking. "Eos have the Admiral on the line."
"Thank the gods. Put him through," Emily felt a wave of relief as she reached again for the cord-phone, bringing it up to her ear.
"Colonel, what's the situation?" The Admiral's steady voice had never sounded so good to Emily.
"Six basestars all around us. Draconis and Persephone both still on patrol. I've launched every bird we have and the rest of the fleet is doing the same. Civilians have been ordered to jump away," Emily explained, about as fast as she possibly could.
"Good work Colonel. Anything else?"
"Serikov took matters into his own hands and is launching nukes. I couldn't dissuade him."
"Right, well I will call him before we jump and reinforce your control over this fight from the flagship."
"Thank you sir, I-" Emily paused for a second, her brain catching up fully on what she was being told.
"Jump, sir?" She asked.
"Yes, Eos is in no state to fight. We will jump away and look after the civilians at the rendezvous point. I trust you to join us as soon as you can."
Emily froze for a minute. The idea of getting Eos out of the way was not a surprise at all, but it meant losing the Admiral again. She was concerned that if any of the other Commanders, who did technically outrank her, decided to take matters into their own hands again, she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them. "Of course sir," she eventually mumbled, her eyes still rapidly scanning around at every piece of information available to her. In the silence after her reply, a missile hit rocked the ship again, knocking some of her dossier papers to the floor. She had no interest in picking them up.
"First civilians are reporting that they're almost ready to jump," Hermes shouted, drawing Emily's attention.
"Thank you for your time Admiral, I'll get the fleet away safely," Emily said, putting the phone down before the Admiral had chance to respond, although she assumed he wouldn't anyway. "Helm, slow our speed, and fire control widen our flak range as much as you can, don't let any of those Raiders through."
Viper 535
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:19 PFT
Spinner's eyes just glanced to his heat and fuel readings as he continued to boost after the rockets in front of him. The missiles were hard to keep up with in a Viper, but it was possible. They were passing now fairly close over Hyperion's engines, heading to skirt around the edge of the behemoth's flak field. The Cylon Basestars were still hanging above the fleet, a fair distance off. Spinner wasn't sure on exact distances, but it was certainly far enough that getting out there was going to take a hot minute, and that the amount of Raiders following them was going to be intense.
As they passed the flak field, he could just about make out the fighter battle going on just beyond; his fellow Vipers trying to keep off the encroaching Raiders, and knock as many Cylon missiles out of the sky that might have been heading for the fleet. They had been lucky really to have been in this formation, with the military ships and Battlestars sitting on the outside of the civilians relative to the planet. This had been intentional of course, but it was certainly making this fight a bit less chaotic than it otherwise might have been.
Glancing back behind him, he caught sight of one of the civilian ships next to the Eos jump away. The ships were all jumping sporadically, and far slower than he would like. Radio calls over his headset suggested that Eos was close to bugging out. It seemed like they were dumping all their Vipers into the fight and sending off all the missiles that they already had loaded before making the jump. For now though, Spinner had to keep his eyes locked ahead. As soon as the Raiders noticed their little convoy, they'd be right after them.
"Spinner, Squirt: I can see two breaking off," was the first call Spinner had been waiting for, this time from Squirt behind him.
Spinner craned his neck to get a better look down at where they should be coming from. "I have no visual Squirt, where?"
"Ahead sir, breaking from that new group." He was right. Spinner had struggled to make out the small group of bogies headed down towards the main fight. This generation of Raiders were so small and blended in so well with the darkness of space, that they were almost impossible to see from any kind of distance.
"Copy Squirt. I see them. Open racks everyone, go for them as soon as they're in range."
Spinner mostly held his course, drifting slightly to the side to distance himself from the other Vipers around him. He double checked all his weapon safeties to make extra sure his guns would be ready to fire. As they followed the missile on, the cloud of Raiders shimmered ahead of them, catching the light as they changed course. "This is it boys and girls. Good hunting, keep an eye on any looking to intercept the nukes," he said, opening up his weapons as soon as the first glimpse of Raider grew large enough to take a clear shot. Almost instantly, he was surrounded by waves of orange fire as the Vipers around him did the same. A few ships on both sides engulfed into flame as they began to pass between each other. Spinner broke off his throttle and spun his Viper over to face behind him as he carried on, spraying rounds at the Raider just passed him. A number of the other pilots did the same, only kicking in their own engines as the last of the Raiders shot past them.
Spinner pulled around and blasted down compared to the direction he had been travelling. As he did, he caught the blast of one of the nukes being shot down as it exited the cloud of Raiders, but moments later he also watched the second impact the central axis of one of the Basestars. The flash blinded him for a moment, but as the light dissipated he saw two of it's arms drift off into space, detached from the now hollow core.
"Red Squadron, Hyperion: recall to Civilian ships. They're having FTL issues, keep those Raiders off of them," Came the call from Hyperion. Spinner followed a Raider underneath the path of a passing Viper, looking over his shoulder back at the Fleet. Before, it had looked like the Raider squadrons were shimmering in the black of space. Now, it looked like the stars were moving. So many Raiders piled towards Hyperion and the other Battlestars. The flak fields were enormous, obscuring everything behind them in their fire. The waves of missiles, dozens, potentially hundreds, piled in towards Hyperion. Just ahead of it, Theia and her much smaller flak field were doing all they could, while Sirius passed over the top of Hyperion, forward guns firing ahead at one of the Basestars.
Spinner broke off his attack along with the other Vipers. They were behind most of the Cylon fighters by this point, but they weren't stuck in the melee as almost all the other squadrons were. It might have been easy to outflank the enemy fighters, but the ones heading over to the civilian ships behind the wall of battleships was far more of an issue. "Okay squadron, stay tight. We're gonna need to cut ourselves a hole through."
Battlestar Hyperion, CIC
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:19 PFT
"One nuke is a hit sir," Anastasia reported. Emily breathed a brief sigh of relief as the DRADIS screen crackled from the hit, then settled, revealing the Basestar's signal as completely gone.
"Progress on civilians?" Emily asked, scanning the DRADIS screen and seeing that only a couple of ships had jumped away.
"Struggling sir, many of them had their drives completely shut off and they're still spooling," Lieutenant Bell explained.
"How long do they have left?"
"A couple of minutes at most."
"Okay, get me on with the Vipers. I'll get Spinner on it." Hermes nodded to her from the side a second later, and she picked up a cord-phone. "Red Squadron, Hyperion: recall to civilian ships. They're having FTL issues, keep those Raiders off of them." As she spoke, multiple Raider squadrons separated from the main group to head towards Hyperion and the Fleet. "Where's the Eos?"
"About to jump sir," Anastasia reported, seemingly checking two screens at once.
"Give them authority to jump, same to any more who are ready. The less lives here, the less we can lose."
The response from her team was immediate, even despite all the fire, all the inexperience, they were pulling together. The DRADIS screen was chaos but her pieces on the board were moving mostly as planned. The Sirius continued to be doing its own thing, but as condescending as Serikov was, he wasn't an idiot. In fact, his head first gun run caught Emily's imagination.
As Spinner's Vipers followed their Raiders over Hyperion and towards the civilians, the Eos and two more civilian ships jumped away. While on the one hand, their focus on defensive flak meant their action in the battle so far was quite static, not every gun was focused on it. Now that Sirius was using Hyperion's flak to protect their own charge, it was able to get some rounds down range. They were primarily focusing down the Basestar that Eos had dropped their last missiles into. The majority of those missiles had hit their target, and with fire from both Sirius and the Horatio, a second Basestar dropped off of DRADIS. Four Basestars remained against three Battlestars. The odds were starting to look better, but the fire they had been taking, and the sheer number of Raiders in the air was too much to actively counter. Hyperion might have been a big, powerful ship, but taking out Raiders was far harder for its guns than Basestars of similar size.
Viper 535
Kobol Orbit
Day 116, 13:23 PFT
As Spinner watched someone score a Raider kill right in front of him, he entered into the melee of civilian ships. Ducking below a container ship, Spinner was suddenly rocked and spun around as it suddenly jumped away right above him. The stars and planet spun in his vision as he tried to wrangle his Viper back into facing ahead. He saw two Vipers pass either side of his as his ship flailed around.
"Are you hit boss?" Spinner heard Squirt ask as he fought his RCS thrusters to slow his spin.
"Negative… just… a bit stuck," Spinner struggled to get out words as the G forces from his deceleration tugged on his body. It didn't actually take that long for him to regain control, but it certainly felt like it. As he finally did come back around, and the spinning inside his own head subsided, he saw the field of civilians he had been ducking and weaving around just moments before was really starting to dissipate. There had been fourteen civilian ships in the vicinity when the Cylons arrived. Now they were down to the last three.
Two of the cruise liners were taking a long time to spool their FTLs and without the rest of the civilians with them were looking especially exposed. "Alright you lot, tighten formation around those two. The cargo lugger is stronger and it's pulling away to jump, let's make a wall and brace for Cylon missiles."
Spinner boosted over to the last civvies, the other pilots right in his wake. He flipped his Viper over as he got near and signalled the others to do the same. The squadron now formed effectively a wall facing back towards Hyperion and, more importantly, the next wave of Raiders.
"We're going to be sitting ducks if we don't light them up," one of the pilots said into Spinner's ear.
"Then we'd better not miss…" His fingers tightened around his joystick as the next wave got closer and closer to being in range. He smoothed his breathing and spotted out a target. "Pick a bandit, and don't let go of the trigger until the liner jumps."
The Raiders swung down over Hyperion, hanging close to its hull to avoid close-in anti-aircraft fire. They caught sight of the wall of Vipers and pulled up for them. "All wings…" Spinner's arm shook but he did not break. "Light 'em up!"
The stars lit up once again with waves of orange fire, soon met by returning blue rounds from the Raiders. The number of Raiders firing however, was much less. The wall of fire was knocking them out of the air faster than they could get a firing solution. As the crowd thinned, the began to get themselves into range of the Vipers. At this point, Spinner could finally let his fighters break off. "Break break, go take 'em before they get the liner!"
Spinner spun the nose downwards and blasted his engines. Now with lateral movement, he flipped the nose back up again and lit the guns up as he descended with his momentum. More and more Raiders fell, they were close enough to make hitting them easy, relatively speaking to normal. Their numbers got low enough, that within seconds of the Vipers breaking, the Raiders themselves broke off.
"Pursue, break off an pursue!" Spinner followed his own instructions and blasted his engines again to chase after the scattering Raiders. His eyes caught the glint of one moving off to the right, away from the main battle. He swung around and began to chase it, firing off small bursts. As he did, he noticed two flashes: one beneath him and one ahead. The two liners jumped away in sync. Spinner let out a sigh of relief as he shot off small bursts. The lone Raider suddenly had no target, so swung on its axis and pointed right back at Spinner. Jamming his finger as hard into the trigger as he could, Spinner winced as the Raider sprayed fire back at him. With a jerk of his stick, he began to spin the Viper around to make it a harder target, and seemingly also slightly widened the scope of his rounds, as a pair of shots too one of the Raider's wings clear off.
Spinner's head tried to regain its composure as a radio call cut through all the chatter. "All wings, Hyperion: recall for immediate jump, combat landings authorised". Oh, how Spinner had been waiting to hear that call. He pulled his ship around and made haste for Hyperion. The sky behind the great ship was filled with flak fire, lighting up the inside of the cockpit. Past that, the arcing missiles sweeping from the line of four surviving Basestars into the flak of the Battlestars still there. The space between him and Hyperion was full of his pilots as they broke off from their own dogfights and turned tail back to the nearest flight pod. Spinner rotated over and came into the front of the underside starboard pod at a far too tight angle, barely keeping it out of the wall, before slamming himself down on the deck and activating a magnetic lock. He breathed as his engines whirred down and Vipers splashed down all around him. A moment later, everything stretched as they jumped.
Battlestar Hyperion, CIC
The Near-Kobol Evac Point
Day 116, 13:28 PFT
Emily breathed as the FTL drives winded down. Everyone in CIC seemed to sit in a kind of stunned silence. Positive bleeps coming in was the only other noise as the rest of the fleet completed their jumps. "Report?" Emily finally said, after a moment of everyone waiting for someone to say something.
"All ships accounted for. We didn't lose any." Hermes said, flicking through the information on his desk. Emily gave him a slightly weary look.
"Apart from everyone on Kobol," she said, forlornly. Her brain rushed through hundreds of scenarios. Could they have held off? With Draconis they could've fought off 6, but then again, what would they have lost? Could they have waited for everyone on the ground to get into the air? What would the Admiral have done? Those scenarios needed to leave her mind though, and fast, as Anastasia called over to Emily. "Sir, call from the Battlestar Eos. It's the Admiral."
Emily nodded and picked up the phone, standing herself upright and straightening her uniform as if the Admiral were actually present. "Admiral?"
"Colonel, well done. I can't say I'm anything other than impressed. We didn't lose a single ship," his voice told her. Emily felt a slither of pride, but it was overwhelmed by her thinking about every other possibility. Every way it could've gone better.
"Thank you sir, but we still left everyone on the surface alone, and we lost pilots in the engagement."
"Of course, but we couldn't have stayed against those odds, not without the Draconis." Emily was at least a bit glad to hear the Admiral echo one of her thoughts.
"And your orders now sir?" She asked.
"Stay where you are until I return to Hyperion, I've got a Raptor getting ready as we speak. Beyond that, I don't think we have any choice but to wait for the Draconis and Persephone to return."
"Copy that sir, we look forward to seeing you back aboard." And that, from Emily, was an understatement.