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Makrino Sector
System 65219
Sandpiper Bridge
95 Days After Attack

"Linda what do we see" asked Captain Larry Russel. His XO and girlfriend "LT" Linda Shelton was looking at the screen.

There had been a lot of conjecture but the two tactical officers of the Orion and Vigilant had guessed 13 systems where the Perseus might be using as it's base. Problem was their guesses seemed to be pretty good as the Cylons had been in 2 of the first 11 systems they had looked at. The first had been the most dangerous as they had jumped in very close to where two Raiders were. This seemed to surprise the Toasters as they were able to put 2 missiles into those Raiders before jumping away. After this Captain Russel had shown a lot more caution. Another system had a large number of Raiders that the Sandpiper had jumped out before (hopefully) being noticed by the Cylons.

"Nothing so far" she replied. Since they were 15 light seconds "below" the solar plane is not much of a surprise. "Frak more Toasters a lot of them." The Cylons were several light minutes away and appeared to be looking for something. This time there were a pair of Baseships with over 500 Raiders. Seeing this they wisely jumped out to the final of their predetermined search locations.

The final of the not so lucky 13 systems did not appear to have any obvious Cylon presence. Even more luckily Captain Russel could turn this problem over to Colonel Gabrielle.

Makrino Sector
System 64723 Oort Cloud
La Bellot
98 Days After Attack
Population 3803

LT Flacca remembered being called to the Colonel's office yesterday. She could tell this assignment was going to be in the "Gwen sorry to pass this BS off to you but well you are my chief of staff" type of thing immediately by how Colonel Gabrielle seemed a bit hesitant to explain it. In short she was to talk with the new spokesperson of the fleet Isabelle Martel. Spokesperson Martel (which seemed a clumsy and not exactly impressive title) had been a high ranking aide for a Leonis Senator in the Colonial Senate. Colonel Gabrielle had admitted that while the Makrino Sector was now far too hot with the much higher number of Cylons here he had no real idea of where else to go. Realistically they needed to go outside the "Red Line" but that has it's own problems. So LT Gwen Flacca was to "delegate and distract" the civilian so called government by asking what their recommendation is. If nothing else they had around 2000 civilians doing pretty much nothing so do. Hopefully some would have some experience or advice.

"LT Flacca I understand you are asking for our expertise" said Isabelle Martel. "Is Colonel Gabrielle working on getting our ships back from the Perseus and the Priam?"

"Spokesperson Martel" said LT Flacca. "First you know we will not give sensitive military information out. Second that is a fluid situation with many variables."

Spokesperson Martel's comment of "expertise" did more than somewhat rub Flacca the wrong way with her condescending attitude and forgetting that this current situation meant that Martel did not have several hundred underling staff members to keep busy. However Flacca did have to admit that Miss Martel had helped keep her small fleet calm even after the Perseus stole all of their support ships. As one of the "best" ideas the Orion had been able to come up with was if the Perseus was found was to use their final nuke to destroy the Perseus and then force the Priam to surrender along with it's other lesser armed ships to regain the stolen civilian ships seemed lacking.

"Third that is a military issue that we are working on. The point of this meeting is to get the "expertise" of the civilians onboard the ships" replied LT Flacca making sure to bring the subject back to where it was supposed to be. They didn't need a former high level political staffer setting up a subcommittee on "military incompetence" or whatever. "Fourth your fleet, the Perseus even with it's actions, and the Orion's fleet means that there were at least 3 possibly 4 groups of humans that were in this sector. Statistically other sectors should have some hopefully friendlier Colonial forces with at least a mining ship or two. What we are asking is for your underemployeed civilians to help out in coming up with ideas. Lastly did you bother to read the report from the Sandpiper? We have at least one pair of Baseships in this sector with large groups of Raiders scouting at least 3 systems. They definitely know the Sandpiper is here in this Sector. Is getting those ships back even if possible worth the risk?"

For her part Spokesperson Martel did realize that her demeanor and especially the comment of "expertise" was probably unwarranted. While the Cylons were always a risk that they were now more "present" had escaped her. They had not seen any evidence of Cylons since the attack on the Colonies. Yes the Perseus had stolen their support ships. However the Orion was trying to make amends for the mistakes of others. Also while Virgon had certainly done more historically to piss off the people of Canceron during the Imperial Wars Leonis did not have exactly clean hands. With a (hopefully) placating head gesture she continued. "Sorry LT Flacca I understand the situation and again realize that the Orion is not the Perseus and that you are trying to help. I will ask the people on the Le Bellot and Grand Adour if they have any experience. Also I do need to reach out to Captain Smith of the Pallas to see if they have anyone helpful."

Truthfully Martel had found the Captains of the 4 non CIF ships the Orion had been protecting to be somewhat standoffish. They didn't object to her being the "head" of the civilian government but they seemed indifferent. They filed their reports and made their requests but more seemed to go about their days as they had before the additional ships had been found. The CIF ships outright ignored the new government. If the historical issues from the Imperial Wars ruffled the average Canceron SDF officer from time to time the CIF was a full chicken coupe in a tornado level of problems. The CIF had unpopular opinions to the average Canceron citizen but "the people from Helios Beta suck" was widely agreed with. That Virgon had gained more out of the megacorporations that had replaced the direct rule of Virgon and at times Leonis didn't mean that the trade deals were exactly fair or benefitted the average Canceron citizen much. Since they were a weird middle ground of civilian and military anyway and if Colonel Gabrielle wanted to deal with the CIF ships more power to him.

LT Flacca acknowledge the sort of apology or at least peace making attempt the Spokesperson Martel had made so was willing to also try to improve relations. "Thank you. If you could try to get us some suggestion within the next 2 days. We have enough fuel to jump to a new Sector and anything better than a random jump would be appreciated."

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Geitona Sector
System 01647
Orion CIC
Day 104

Colonel Gabrielle did not know what got the Cylons so agitated (it could be the Perseus but that seems like massive overkill) so they returned back to the Geitona Sector. They had only been here for a few days before leaving and nothing of value had been found. The advice given by the civilians had been more of the "this system probably has been destroyed by the Cylons" type but removing potential dangers is better than nothing.

The Geitona Sector was closer to Cyrannus but was considered of little value. There had been a few Territories and some mining operations that the Sandpiper had reported as destroyed during the Cylon attacks but tyleum seems to be lower in this sector and for some unknown stellar reason this sector had higher than average amount of red and brown dwarfs. The Sandpiper had found a minor amount of tyleum that would be slower going for the LZ to mine but they were working on getting more tyleum. This particular system was a brown dwarf with a small asteroid belt. The Ruth was also working on getting water. Without a dedicated water ship like everything else it was slow going but they should be at least at full water capacity in a few days.

"Sir the Sandpiper has returned and has reported contact with a Colonial Raptor" said PO Gibson.

The Sandpiper's new orders were if a Colonial force was found they were to not report any details other than they did have other ships and to report back with a rendezvous location. This might possibly cause problems but having to jump out if they found another Colonial officer doing questionable things was not worth the small amount of good will that not be cautious might gain. Captain Russel had said the Raptor had agreed to this and they also did not share information like Raptor number or what ship they were based out of. Still this is something they could not pass up.

"PO Gibson get ahold of the Vigilant on a secure line" said Colonel Gabrielle.

"This is Vigilant Actual" said Major Reginald Gobi.

"Orion Actual here" said Colonel Gabrielle. There was a few minutes of conversation but the mission was simple if possibly dangerous. The Vigilant was being sent as the Orion was still damaged and it's lack of speed both in normal space and jump ability (Patrolstars have excellent jump times) made the Vigilant a much better ship to scout. The Sandpiper would stay back and observe. "Reggie stay safe out there" said Colonel Gabrielle.

"Yes sir" replied Major Gobi.

The Vigilant and Sandpiper jumped out.

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Geitona Sector
System 01725
Vigilant CIC

This was yet another red dwarf system. So far the other Colonial ship had not jumped in. The Sandpiper was hiding/observing with their standard (and not needed as the former smugglers had a great sense of caution) orders to jump away if ordered to or if anything goes wrong.

"Sir we just got a pair of Raptors and an Escortstar jumping in" said LT JG Patrick. "They are asking us to confirm Colonial transponder information."

That was a fair request. The Sandpiper of course was not able to send an official IFF signal and their obvious pirate appearance and claims that they were with a Colonial group of unknown size deliberately left as vague as possible would be suspicious. After a few seconds they confirmed that the Escortstar was a Scorpian SDF named the Aphid. They were much like the Vigilant unwilling to go into full detail but did admit to having other ships and were wanting to coordinate with any remaining human groups. They suggested an officer exchange to explain the situation on both sides. This was unexpected but made sense. Problem was the only real person that he fully trusted was his XO Captain Sheila Kinis as being senior enough (and dependable enough) to represent the fleet. The Aphid had agreed to send a LT over in exchange and to meet back here in 72 hours. After the exchange the Vigilant and Sandpiper returned back to their fleet.

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Orion Staff Officer's Meeting Room

"LT Desmos welcome to the Orion" said Colonel Gabrielle. I believe you have a status report of your fleet you would like to give us."

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Thank you all for reading any questions or comments are appreciated.