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Makrino Sector
System 63214
37 Days After Attack
Sandpiper Bridge
1626 People
Captain Larry Russell had never dreamed of being given a provisional rank in the Canceron SDF. As a smuggler that supported the Canceron Independence Front he always thought that if he ever got noticed by the Stompers he would probably spend 20 years on some prison planet where he would probably be worked to death to further some megacorps profit margins. Colonel Gabrielle might be a bit of a prig being from an upper class Canceron family but he wasn't oblivious to the new reality. Making Harriet Greer and himself "Captains" and then saying "you are in charge of your ships just follow the basic rules" kept them as a "fleet" and if the Orion and Vigilant were destroyed it would the put Greer in command.
The problem was that almost a fifth of the population in the fleet was CIF. Many were unhappy that Greer and Russell were "selling out" and taking orders from the Orion. Currently no one was saying they should leave the fleet (since they had all the food and almost all the firepower) but there was some grumbling. Luckily the Sandpiper with it's crew of 6 was not part of that. Well other than some sarcastic "aye aye sirs" thrown in there lately. The Sandpiper had been doing the initial scouting of the systems in the Makrino sector as the Sandpiper was truthfully more expendable (except for the 6 people on it) and able to jump out faster than any other ship . This system so far was just as boring as the others over the last two weeks with no signs of Cylons, Colonials, or anything valuable having been found.
"Captain I am picking up some debris. It appears to be refined metals" said Linda Shelton his XO.
"Linda jump us out of here" said Larry Russell. Standing orders (and common sense) was that if anything artificial was found they were to jump to safety and then the Vigilant would look. The Vigilant had better sensors and weaponry and better the Stompers took the risk than their vulnerable selves.
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Patrolstar Vigilant Briefing Room
The Vigilant was smaller but had not lost it's officers and taken any damage. In many ways that he didn't want to admit the Vigilant was a "tighter" ship than the Orion. With his recent promotion LT Berkins was now third in command of the Orion and getting the Orion back to full fighting strength was also his responsibility. With only 2 of the Orion's original watch standing officers left alive Colonel Gabrielle had promoted him from LT JG to LT. Which would have meant a lot more if there was another choice but a promotion is a promotion however you get it. Now he was sifting through the evidence found in System 63214 which had brought him closer to the tactical officer of the Vigilant and LT JG Ed Patrick was cute and seemed to be interested in him as well. More important though is figuring out what happened in this system.
"LT Patrick what if the Cylons were using older Raiders and maybe even Baseships to patrol systems farther out from the Twelve Colonies" LT Berkins asked. "They hit the Colonies with over 200 Baseships and maybe they used their First War Raiders for patrolling farther out where they figured Colonial presence would be light."
"Maybe but that still doesn't feel right. If that is what they did you would think that they would stick with one type of Raider for logistical reasons or something" LT Patrick replied. "We have 87 confirmed destroyed Cylon Raiders. 61 are of the old design. The other 26 are of the ones you saw at Cyrannus and system 04187. Our best guess is that whatever happened took place about 3 days ago. Also we haven't found any signs of Colonial ships or craft. Unless a Battlestar jumped them and even then you would think there would some Viper debris or missile fragments. This appears to have been a dogfight and everything floating around we have found appears to be from the Toasters."
The Perseus even with fighters would be damn lucky to escape around 100 Raiders even with a squadron of Vipers which they probably didn't have. Much less for them to kick that much Toaster butt. "Agreed but what does that leave us? Either there is another Colonial ship out here, someone like the Thirteenth Tribe showed up, or the Cylons fought against themselves" replied LT Berkins. "Let's run everything again and see if we can figure out what happened."
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Missilestar Orion CIC
Captain Rebecca Dammers was slightly miffed. You could even say she was close to pissed. Being the XO of this half crippled ship with not enough officers much less ones qualified to stand watch on the CIC left her tired. Still LT Berkins and LT JG Patrick were insistent that they see her with the information they had gathered. Remembering how Major Bailey the Orion's previous XO always tried to give his junior officers confidence to do their job with little patience for bureaucratic crap. He was a good man and Captain Dammers wanted to try to honor his memory by acting like him. Both of the lieutenants seemed excited about something but in that "I have something but want someone above me make sure I am correct way" that Dammers remembers herself having from the ancient time of 40 days ago. "LT Berkins LT Patrick what is that you needed to report to me" she said patiently.
"Sir I know this might sound crazy but I think the two type of Cylon Raiders fought each other" said LT Berkins. "If you look here most of the old Raiders were facing one direction and many of the new Raiders are facing the other direction."
Looking over the report Captain Dammers saw what they meant. In the furball of space combat fighters ending up facing all directions but in general often faced in general directions. The wreckage showed the First War Raiders did not have any major upgrades or changes. The older Raiders holding off an attacking force while they protected their Basestar would explain the data. "I see. Good job Lieutenants. We will call the Triumvirate together. Make sure you have everything ready when you do the briefing."
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Colonel Gabrielle and the other senior officers of the fleet listened as the two tactical officers gave their report. Clearly both of them thought they were correct but were hesitant giving briefings to their senior officers due to their young age and likely felt in over their heads. Gabrielle didn't really want to admit it but he was in over his head as well. Gabrielle knew that he probably would have been the XO of a ship like the Orion in a year or so after getting transferred out of his staff position before getting the command of a smaller ship like an Escortstar or something similar. The Canceron SDF was small and without the patronage his family lacked it would be a decade or more before he would have been given command of a ship like the Orion and likely retired after reaching that zenith of his career. Now he is command of a Missilestar and has 9 ships under his command and over 1600 souls.
He also was the best trained tactical officer of the fleet and he did not see any flaws with the data as presented. Whether it was the answer is another question. Most of the questions had been of the "are you sure" and "what does this possibly mean" of which the second was outside anyone here's knowledge. After about 30 minutes of the same basic questions being asked different ways Colonel Gabrielle had decided that the grilling of the two Lieutenants while good practice for them was no longer adding anything of value. Now the "Triumvirate" was discussing among themselves what this might mean.
"Sir if the Cylons are fighting amongst themselves this might be useful. However even if they are that doesn't mean that the Older Cylons are any friendly to humans than the New Cylons" said Major Reginald Gobi.
"While correct I do think that if we come across some of the Old Cylons we should see what happens" said Captain Greer. "I have some experience dealing with groups infighting and it can be used to a weaker group's advantage."
"Agreed with both of you. We won't fire first if we find an older Basestar or Raider. However we won't trust them either. Also while this is interesting it does not actually change all that much. We will keep looking for the Perseus or any other Colonial ships that might be out here" said Colonel Gabrielle.
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Thank you all for reading. Any questions or comments are appreciated.