Author's Notes: Hello all and thank you for reading this! A few years ago, I came across another author on this site who took one of my favorite video games, The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, and wrote an amazing story following the main quest line. If you're a fan of that game, I strongly suggest you read it. It's called Gatewalker by Raven Studios. About two years ago I found the game Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock during a steam sale. I had watched both the original Battlestar, and binged the 2003 series countless times, and always wished there were more of that world to explore, beyond Blood & Chrome and a few novels. This all brings me to about a month ago as I was writing up the plotlines of the various campaigns in an effort to truly appreciate how in depth the writers of this game went, when I decided, if someone else can take a video game and make it into a story, I think I can too. So, I'm going to do my best to turn at least the original game of Deadlock, along with the Broken Alliances DLC into a story. I hope you enjoy, and if you do, give the game a try. It's absolutely amazing.
Battlestar Galactica, and Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, along with any places, characters, and such do not belong to me, but to Universal Studios and Black Lab Games, respectively.
I will preface this story by saying that it is not currently being developed, and will eventually be reworked.
Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock
The Fragile Alliance
Chapter One
There are those who believe that life here, began out there. Far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may been the forefathers of the Egyptian's, or the Toltec's, or the Mayan's. Some believe, that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens.
"When Virgon buried their nukes, the leaders of the Twelve colonies promised we would never see war of that scale again. Peace would reign our lifetime, and the lifetimes of our children. They could not have predicted the Cylon Rebellion, less than thirty years later. The worst conflict in Colonial history, and we were at a stalemate. No foothold gained that wasn't lost again within weeks. The Jupiter Project was supposed to be our ace in the hole. The largest, most powerful battlestars ever created. Each of the Twelve Colonies were promised one in return for signing the Articles of Colonization. The first, Galactica, was Caprica's crowning glory. It went missing two weeks after deployment. Athena, the fifth ship to be completed, belonged to Picon. We were days away from delivering it when we heard the news. Picon's capital cities were devastated by Cylon assault fleets; among them, our own Colonial Fleet Headquarters. There was no chance to intervene. Command of Colonial Fleet fell to Rear Admiral Cain. Our mobile shipyard. Daidalos, became adhoc Fleet Headquarters. I had been stationed board for almost a year by then, standing in the CIC next to Cain, watching the best hope for our people being built around us. Until then an assignment to Daidalos meant being far from the front lines. All of that was about to change."
A violent shudder that rattled his bunk brought Commander Erik York instantly to full wakefulness. He had slept in his crumpled and stained uniform from the previous day, having not had the energy to remove it before falling into his rack only an hour beforehand. He flipped the emergency light switch over his head, bathing the room in red light . Muffled womps reached his ears as the defensive batteries opened fire. Klaxons were now blaring in the corridor outside his quarters, and the voice of Lieutenant Helena Agathon could be heard over the PA system.
"Action stations, action stations. Cylon attack underway. Set condition one throughout the station. I repeat, action stations, action stations."
Quickly, despite the fatigue that made his eyes feel as though they had bugs crawling behind them, Commander York pulled on his boots and buttoned up his jacket before wrenching open the hatch to his quarters. The comparatively blinding light of the corridor momentarily stunned his eyes. Crewmen and marines ran to their posts, throwing him hurried salutes as they passed, many of them not able to hide the fear in their eyes. That was no real surprise to York. Though the Cylon Rebellion was halfway through its second year, the mobile shipyard Daidalos hadn't seen much action. Even before the founding of Colonial Fleet and the signing of the Articles of Colonization, it had been moored to the Scorpia Shipyards as the primary repair hub for Scorpia. It now held the same role for Colonial Fleet, more importantly however, it was the building site of the Jupiter's.
It was three decks up from his berth to the CIC, or Combat Information Center, the nerve center of the entire station. Several times as he climbed the narrow ladders that were the only way to get between decks during an emergency, the lifts were reserved for pilots and ammunition, he was thrown against the handrails as another explosion sent tremors through the station.
The marines posted outside the CIC saluted crisply at the sight of him and Commander York took the briefest moment to straighten his uniform once more before diving into the maelstrom. The blast doors had been closed when Condition One was set, requiring one of the marines to undog it and open it for him. The circular room beyond, with its thick glass windows that gave a nearly full circle view of the surrounding space, was buzzing with activity, officers and crew running this way and that between terminals or shouting information to their comrades, attempting to be heard over everyone else. On the platform in the center of the room, like a statue in the eye of a hurricane, stood Rear Admiral Lucinda Cain. She had probably gotten even less sleep than York had, but somehow still managed to look as though she had just pressed her uniform. Her snow white hair was in it's usual crisp, short style, and her keen eyes took everything in that was happening around her with a intense confidence.
York moved quickly past the ring of consoles that faced outwards along most of the bulkheads under the huge windows, and then up the short steps onto the center dais of the room. The centerpiece of the CIC was the massive rectangular plotting table, which was covered in small models of various Colonial and Cylon ships that were being hurriedly moved around by crewmen to reflect the battle outside. Surrounding the table on three sides were five massive repeater display screens that could be programmed to show any information necessary. Currently the main screen, which was the largest and was directly across from Admiral Cain, showed the DRADIS scan for the entire system, while the other screens contained information on the disposition of Daidalos' two viper squadrons and the already lengthy damage reports coming from both Daidalos and the Scorpia shipyards.
As he approached the Admiral, she bent over the large light table. "Have the Trident and two Manticores move to cover the viper production facilities on platform three." Cain was ordering to Lieutenant Agathon, her aide and also the CIC duty officer. Foregoing his usual salute, York moved up beside her, subconsciously taking in information from every screen and focusing on the plotting table.
"What do we have, Admiral?" he asked by way of greeting. Cain was many things, but in a crisis the thing she hated more than anything was wasted time, something that York completely agreed with.
"It would seem a coordinated attack by the Cylons, Commander. Here." Without looking at him she thrust a crumpled dispatch sheet at him.
To: Cain, Rear Admiral, CO FG Daidalos
From: Simmon, Major, CO Iris, Picon Defense Ministry
Report Cylon orbital bombardment of Picon. Over half of defense fleet destroyed. Colonial Fleet Headquarters apparent primary target. Completely destroyed. Status Fleet Admiral Mckennelly unknown. Request Battlestar Athena ASAP.
"Frak" Commander York breathed so quietly that no one overheard him in the surrounding hubbub.
"Admiral! Another wave of corvettes is heading our way!" a specialist manning the DRADIS console along the wall yelled. York whipped around to look at the screen to his left. A trio of Nemesis corvettes were speeding towards them. Yes, he could see them out the window. Light from Scorpia's sun glinted off their wings as they tore across the carnage towards them. They were vicious looking ships, resembling birds of prey with their curved wings.
"Defensive batteries, fire at will!" ordered Cain, her voice as level as it ever was. "Commander, take command of Daidalos, I need to focus on the fleet."
"Aye, Admiral." York answered, moving away from the plotting table to stand In front of the two screens on the right. He keyed them to display a condensed version of all information pertinent to the defense of Daidalos. A cross section of the station took up most of the right screen, with large sections blinking red with damage reports. The left screen was taken up by a DRADIS readout, as well as the current status of his two squadrons. So far none of his forty pilots had been shot down, for which he was thankful.
The overall situation he saw there looked grim. The Cylons hadn't ever attacked Colonial Fleet with this sort of overwhelming force, preferring to attack local colony units in hunter packs. Only twice before had more than one basestar been seen in a battle at the same time. If the DRADIS was working correctly, they had brought four of them to Scorpia. They were hanging back, lobbing waves of guided missiles and torpedoes at the shipyards, while their escorts and raiders tangled with the defenses directly.
Daidalos didn't boast much in the way of direct weaponry, just a few point-defense cannons on its three rings. It's real teeth were the two squadrons of Vipers it carried in it's launch bay, both of which were already airborne. Green Squadron was vectoring at the approaching corvettes, trying to get them to scatter, while Purple Squadron was shooting their first of many salvoes of missiles out of the sky.
BSGBSGBSGBSGBSG
Debris tinkled on the canopy of her cockpit as her guns found one of the countless missiles screaming their way at her home, and she dove through the resulting fireball. Having completed her run, Captain Angela "Hades" Vale flipped her Mark I viper end for end and tore off back towards Daidalos. Her wingman, a new pilot by the name of Jansen followed her. "Stay with me rook" she called on the squadron frequency and got a click in response. A quick look showed that her squadron had managed to intercept most of the missiles the toasters had launched, but a few had gotten through.
"All vipers, on me. Let's go help out Green." She yelled even though it wasn't necessary. Her blood was boiling with combat adrenaline, something she hadn't felt in almost a year.
"CAG, Oddball. Bandits coming in low over platform six. Looks like their on a suicide run for the station." The voice of her squadron XO crackled in her comm.
"Oddball, take your flight and intercept. I'm not letting these corvettes get away"
"Wilco" answered Oddball before leading half of her fighters off towards the approaching raiders.
Corvettes were fast, that was for sure, but nothing she knew of, not even the most agile Raider could outrun a Colonial Viper. Centering her two wing mounted guns on the port engine of the rear corvette, she pressed the trigger sending orange tracers lancing into the ship. All around her nine other pilots did the same, their bullets seeking for the same target. For a moment it looked like their fire was having no effect, then with a brilliant explosion the thruster vanished, sending the ship careening off.
Cheers filled Hades' headset, but they turned to cries of anger and despair as the corvette launched its next round of munitions. Apparently, it was wounded, but not out of the fight yet. Throwing full power to her three engines, Vale tore after the missiles, guns blazing. It was no good though, six of the eight detonated against the skeletal framework of an unfinished Atlas carrier, decimating it. Flames engulfed her fighter and she dove through the inferno. She brought her fighter about searching for the corvettes to find the two that were still undamaged shepherding their wounded ally back towards friendly lines.
Her comm buzzed as a stronger signal than a fighter could produce broke in on the squadron frequency. "Hades, Daidalos Actual. Gather your fighters and provide cover for Athena and the other Jupiter hulls. Do not let anything hit her." Hades blinked for a moment. Daidalos Actual was Cain, but the voice that had just contacted her had been male. Commander York? Had something happened to the admiral? A quick glance at the station showed several small fires and a deal of damage, but nothing that should have damaged CIC. Shrugging off her thoughts, Vale rallied her squadron and filed questions on anything she couldn't immediately control away for later.
Athena was a beauty. The fifth Jupiter Class Battlestar to be completed, she was almost ready for deployment. So far it seemed that the Cylons had been avoiding targeting her, either because they wanted to take her intact, or because since she wasn't currently shooting back, she wasn't a threat. Either way, if Athena survived today Vale hoped that she would prove to be a large thorn in the side of the toasters.
"CAG, Sparkplug," that was Jansen. She hadn't quite learned yet what had prompted the young man from Aerilon to earn that name, but his personality may have something to do with it. Ever since he had reported on board, fresh from the fleet academy, his sense of humor had been unrepressed, and she suspected he had managed to get several of his squadron mates with quite a few practical jokes. He also never seemed to care that he was the newest member of the squadron, or that some sense of decorum might be expected from him. Instead, he brazenly asked any question that sprang to mind, even going so far as to put his foot in his mouth on more than on occasion.
"Go ahead." Vale answered.
"Why are we guarding Athena instead of her own pilots?"
"Because her birds are still brand new and they don't want to mess up their pretty paint jobs." Hades answered, hearing a few sniggers in the background.
"Ahh" Jansen answered and fell silent. It was quiet for a moment; the main battle having formed up between the shipyards and the four basestars. The large guns of the capital ships throwing up their flak fields to protect them from the Cylon missiles, which made quite a show.
BSGBSGBSGBSGBSG
Feeling as though he could breathe for a minute, Commander York looked around the busy room. Fleet Group Daidalos, led by the Battlestar Acropolis (BSG-30) which was the permanent fleet assigned to the protection of Daidalos, had managed to establish a defensive perimeter and was engaging the Cylons along with the Scorpia Navy. Cain was giving constant orders that were being relayed to various commands, with military efficiency. It looked as though they may just yet survive what could only be a strike to eliminate Cain herself.
As he surveyed the battle through the glass windows, a large explosion caught his eyes. In a spectacular eruption of metal and fire, a Colonial Battlestar perished with all hands, sending debris across the shipyard.
"My gods… That was the Rycon" whispered Ensign Reynolds, the CIC talker just behind York's shoulder. Rycon was an aged Artemis Class, the same class, if not age, as Acropolis, belonging to Scorpia. She hadn't really been fit for service anymore, but the threat of the Cylons had a lot of old hulls flying that really should have been retired.
"Breakthrough!" shouted the DRADIS operator. With the loss of the Rycon, an entire section of the Colonial formation disintegrated and Cylon raiders and corvettes took full advantage.
"Order the reserves to plug that hole!" bellowed Cain, but it was a futile effort. There weren't many reserves left to throw into the battle. As York watched a fresh salvo of Cylon munitions tore in at the various stations and platforms. The viper squadrons that had been held back intercepted most of them, but were then scattered themselves by hordes of raiders.
"All hands," shouted York, "Brace for impact!"
Seven missiles that had been assigned to target Daidalos found their mark. All across the first and second ring they impacted, jarring the entire station. York was thrown several feet, coming to a stop with a painful impact with the plotting table. Consoles exploded around the room and overhead two of the lights shattered into pieces, showering the room with glass and sparks.
"On your feet, solider." A voice said, roughly grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet. Blinking through the pain York saw Admiral Cain moving on to assist the next person.
"Sir, We've got incoming corvettes and raiders." Shouted Reynolds from his post. Somehow the kid had managed to stay upright, and despite his obvious terror was managing to remember his duty.
"Order Hades to intercept the raiders. If we die today, it won't matter if she's protecting Athena. Have batteries three and four focus fire on the lead ship in the formation."
All across his display, damage reports flooded in, and the news wasn't good. Most of the little armor the station possessed was gone, and several decks had vented to space. Thankfully Athena and the other three unfinished ships were still undamaged. Maybe Athena could try and get clear. He was reaching for his phone to contact her CIC and order her to cut moorings and run when an idea struck him. A quick check of her construction's status report confirmed his hopes. Snatching the headset from Reynolds, he quickly reached the Battlestar's CO and relayed his orders.
They Cylons were closing quickly, emboldened by the destruction of the Rycon. Out at what used to be the battle line, pockets of ships had gathered and were attempting to rebuild the formation. Several groups of Cylon Nemesis' were making runs on the shipyards, with another trio banking in towards them. The light gunfire that was all that could be thrown out by Daidalos' popguns did little to make the enemy ships hesitate, but it did make them angry. Even faster they closed on the helpless space station.
"Now!" York yelled into the headset once the corvettes had passed the point where they could no longer break off. Large salvos ripped out, seemingly from the station, bracketing the three ships. Corvettes were fast and deadly against enemies that couldn't shoot back, but when up against large caliber weapons, such as those of a battlestar, their flimsy hulls disintegrated. The Cylons had made the same mistake that York had, assuming that just because a ship couldn't move, it couldn't fight. Again and again shots ranged from the guns of the Battlestar Athena, blooding them for the first time.
BSGBSGBSGBSG
"Well, isn't that beautiful." Hades said watching the first of the ships vanish in a cloud of fire. When Jansen had reported that Athena had opened fire, she hadn't entirely believed it.
"Orders, CAG?" asked Oddball, who had just reformed with her.
Angela ran her eyes over the DRADIS screen that dominated her control panel. There were still plenty of raiders inside the shipyard, but none in her immediate vicinity. "Well, we can't let the battlestar boys have all the fun. Lets go finish off those frakkers who are trying to destroy our home."
BSGBSGBSGBSGBSG
It seemed as though the revelation that Athena was capable of dealing out damage, along with the timely arrival of reinforcements from Libran, made the Cylons have second thoughts about continuing the fight. Still firing off torpedoes, the basestars recalled their fighters and prepared to jump. They were leaving chaos in their wake. Fires raged across almost every platform, including Daidalos. As the raiders pulled back every viper that could still fight chased after them, intent on punishing the Cylons for what they had achieved.
"Commander, Hades is requesting permission to go 'join the fun" reported Reynolds, a grin cracking his young face. Despite the tension that still pervaded the air, York had to smile at that. Yes, that was just like his CAG, she'd been chomping at the bit to paint a few more silhouettes on her viper for months.
"Order the CAG to leave one squadron behind to cover us, and then yes, she can go join the fun."
Half an hour later it was all over. It would be days before a full accounting of everything they had lost would be possible, but the losses would be heavy. In addition to Rycon, two more battlestars that were under construction for Aerilon and Virgon were destroyed, along with a dozen other support ships. FG Daidalos was miraculously still intact, reporting moderate damage to all ships.
"Admiral," reported Lieutenant Agathon, "signal from the Acropolis. All Cylon marks are gone or destroyed."
"Set the fleet to condition two, lieutenant." Then turning to the room at large, "Good work people." York thought this was high praise indeed. Cain was quick to criticize and all too rarely offered words of congratulations.
With the tension of combat over the volume of the room dropped to almost a whisper. Air traffic controllers guided vipers back to the hangar deck, and coordinated SAR raptors searching for survivors on any of the wrecks. His adrenaline fading, York realized just how tired had was. In the last two days he had hardly gotten more than eight hours of sleep. He leaned against the plotting table, trying not to show the human weakness of being exhausted.
With a force of willpower, he brought his mind back to the CIC. Reynolds was attempting to hand him a clipboard, scrupulously avoiding noticing that his superior officer was tired. Taking the papers, York nodded and moved away. The words on the paper blurred in front of his eyes and he forced himself to focus. It wasn't anything terribly important, just one of the dozens of reports he dealt with on a daily basis. Even surrounded by death and destruction, the military ran on paperwork.
Ignoring the words, York used reading the clipboard to observe his crew as they came down from their adrenaline highs. For their first time in serious combat, he thought his crew had done extremely well. He had been Cain's XO for almost eight months and he had come to respect this group of officers and enlisted, green though they still were.
"Commander, Lieutenant Agathon, my office in fifteen minutes." Cain called, already moving for the exit flanked by two marines. York shot Agathon a glance, anything Cain wanted to tell them in private was probably not good. Sensing that his day had just begun, York returned the deck to Beta shift's OOD, Lieutenant Crystal and returned to his quarters for a quick shower before his meeting with the Admiral. Ten minutes later he was outside her quarters, hair somewhat returned to a military style and dressed in a fresh uniform.
The admiral's quarters were spacious compared to York's. Daidalos was an old station, with some sections of it dating back to the Imperial Wars. It had originally been just another part of the larger Scorpia Shipyards. After an attack many years ago, during which the spire and its rings were detached from the shipyard, it was decided to keep the station as an independent unit. When the Cylons had rebelled and Colonial Fleet was established, assets from all Twelve Colonies had been volunteered, requisitioned, or downright stolen, in order to fit it out. Daidalos was part of Scorpia's tithe, and it had been a blessing in disguise. As the Scorpia shipyards were flooded with requests for ships for the various colonies, Colonial Fleet had refitted the old station to not only build the Jupiters, but also to bring their "new" ships, most of which were in bad need of repair, up to snuff.
Cain was already waiting for them behind her standing desk. The admiral wasn't big on chairs, believing that meetings between her officers went faster and with less bullshit if they were all required to stay on their feet. The other occupant of the room was Sinon Quade. Sinon was a civilian, even though he wore a dark green outfit that closely resembled the cut of the blue Colonial Fleet uniform, albeit without any insignia. He had a reputation as a genius shipwright, and had designed the Jupiter class from the keel up. York had almost daily meetings with him to coordinates construction efforts and solve logistical issues, but still wasn't sure he liked the man. Sinon had an almost painfully unyielding idea of right and wrong, and seemed to view this fight for humanity's very survival as one big academic morality debate.
"Gentlemen, Agathon" started Cain, bringing everyone's attention to herself. "As you all know, Admiral Mckennelly is missing, presumed dead, following the attack on Picon. With Admiral Sarkis missing in action along with Galactica, it falls to me to take command of Colonial Fleet."
She stopped here, letting these words hang in everyone's mind. Galactica had been the first Jupiter launched almost ten months ago. Admiral Jubal Sarkis, Cain's next superior, had been placed in operational command of her at the request of the Caprican government. Whatever assignment she had been given, she had been declared missing in action not much later. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Agathon shudder. Her sister, Samantha, had been aboard the battlestar as the leader of it's marine contingent.
When she thought the silence had lasted long enough, Cain continued. "As of right now, Daidalos has become Colonial Fleet Headquarters. Commander York, you are hereby ordered to relieve me as CO, and to take command of Fleet Group Daidalos."
"Yes, sir." York answered. It was all he could say. Inwardly the news worried him, though he managed not to show it. He had only ever held one command before, and that was only an Adamant frigate. Now he was in charge of a station carrying thousands of souls, in addition to an entire fleet group.
"I've received reports from all four star systems." Cain said, "The Cylons have launched three other attacks in addition to here and Picon. Those attacks were repelled quickly, and no basestars were present. Picon is the exception. The Cylons hit them with a fleet even larger than what they sent here. The toasters brought six basestars and their support groups, which is the largest mass of Cylon forces we've seen so far in this war. After our headquarters were destroyed, the entire fleet jumped away."
"A decapitation strike" interjected Helena. "With Admiral Sarkis missing, taking out you and Mckennelly would eliminate our entire command structure."
"Precisely, Lieutenant. Which brings us to the urgent call I just got from the Picon Defense Ministry. Sinon, how soon can we get Athena completed and launched?"
"I still need one week, Admiral. As she showed in today's fight, she's armed and ready to fight. The last thing I'm waiting on is for her fuel system to stabilize enough for a FTL jump. Once that's done, we can hand her over to Picon."
"Not good enough. They want her yesterday. Commander, make all preparations to jump Daidalos to Picon ASAP with Athena attached. They are already blaming us for today's attack, as though one battlestar would have made a difference against six basestars. The sooner we can get them Athena, the sooner they get off my back."
Sinon didn't look pleased but nodded. With that the meeting broke up and Commander York followed Agathon back to the CIC. Expecting that it would be many more hours before he saw his rack again, he set to work informing the crew of the change in command, then preparing to jump the station to Picon.