Chapter 1: Into the Storm
"Everyone remembers the big battlestars, both in the first and second Cylon wars. Ships such as the Galactica, Pegasus, Cunningham, Invicta, and Republica are remembered with fondness across the stars now inhabited by humanity. But few remember the tales of the escorts; the cruisers, gunstars, frigates, destroyers, and supply ships that kept the surviving colonial remnants going when they should have been defeated. The tales of these smaller ships, which on the eve of the second war numbered nearly 5000 strong are varied as it is fascinating. Of course, many were destroyed in the opening wave of Cylon attacks or hunted down in the first few days of the war but more than a handful survived in the long term, providing essential support to groups of survivors both big and small. Some of course would be lost, but in mobile drydocks and hidden shipyards across the colonies more would be built and serve practically every human survivor group as humanity was spread across the stars. This story, however, is about those who came with Galactica and how they changed her fate irrecoverably."
-Jake Hudson
A sigh escaped Commander Jake Hudson as he looked around at the CIC of his current command the Heavy Cruiser Lansing. Men and women of the colonial fleet bustled around, going about their duty as they always did. As he watched the people he was responsible for as a commander, his thoughts went back to how this small fleet of his was going to change now that the ship their group had been protecting, the Galactica, was going to be decommissioned. He would be getting his own Battlestar though he didn't know which one yet. Even though many disagreed with Adama he did hold sway and Hudson was thankful for that, as the senior commander's support had been a critical factor in him getting a larger command.
Unfortunately, some of the ships in the task force were getting axed from the fleet alongside Galactica, but thankfully not his current flagship as it was too modern. And unlike the infamous Galactica, the rest of the ships in his task force wouldn't get preserved, instead, those that were going to be decommissioned would be off to a scrapyard somewhere in the colonies.
That was still a few months away however and at least much of his crew was going to get promoted and head off to new assignments that would further their careers. With this major change he had contemplated leaving the fleet himself and taking an early retirement package before signing on as the captain of a super freighter or luxury liner; he'd have a far higher salary there. However, he wanted to get a battlestar under his command before he retired. That would increase his salary in the private sector, even if it was just a short stint commanding the largest type of combat vessel within the colonial fleet. And besides, he genuinely enjoyed the responsibility of commanding an entire starship along with its supporting units, along with the camaraderie that being in the colonial fleet brought.
His thoughts went back to a conversation with Adama he had had just a few hours ago right after the decommissioning ceremony.
"Well, Hudson I guess I'll have to admit it's been an honor serving as your commander, even if you were a bit inexperienced in the beginning and we don't agree with everything that doesn't change that you're a good commander and more importantly a good person," Adama said and shook his hand. "Whatever Battlestar you end up in command of you're going to do just fine you're going to do very well."
"Thank your sir, I hope that retirement treats you well."
"I'll make sure it does." They both chuckled. "And I'll keep watch over Tigh, 'cause I don't think he's going to be sober after this."
"Something tells me you're right sir.
"I won't leave you any longer than I need a commander but I hope your future commands are successful."
"I hope your retirement goes well." He told Adama and left.
"Something on your mind sir?" The heavy cruiser's executive officer, Colonel Carry Foln asked him as he snapped back to reality
"Just remembering what's going on with Galactica." He replied. "Anything I should know right now?"
"Two things sir. We've received two priority communications that the most recent patch of the CNP has a critical error and we are to revert to the last one immediately. The error in the patch would allow an attacker to breach the program and gain command of sensitive information and critical systems. The second message is that there are disturbing reports about unknown ships on the edge of the colonial space, they're consistently too big to be pirates and they have no reason to be launching an attack against us."
He knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Could it be the Cylons?"
"I can't rule it out sir, I mean what else would it be?"
"Hopefully it's just sensor glitches nothing but I want all ships to go up one level of readiness as the CNP is reverted. How long do you think it will take."
"It's going to be hours for the entire fleet sir. Let me get Chief Teho on the line."
"Chief, we need to revert the CNP to the last version throughout the entire fleet due to a critical error someone discovered. How long will it take, assuming all your guys drop what you're doing and focus on this as much as you possibly can?"
"It's going to take about four hours for the entire fleet if we do it comprehensively. But I can prioritize certain critical systems like FTL, life support, and weapons. What do you want me to do?"
"Get the most critical systems down first and keep working until the entire ship is reverted. I'll order the other ships to follow your order. What about the Vipers?"
"I can get you about a squadron in a half hour." He said. Lieutenant Commander Lance Teho was the chief engineer of the Lansing and also because the ship had a relatively small hangar facility the chief of the flight deck, though this was more over his overall command than his direct authority as the day-to-day operations of the flight deck were managed by another person, chief petty officer Landry. He was a 'Mustang' who had started in the fleet as an enlisted before being moved up to an officer and while he might be a lieutenant commander he was still called Chief by much of the crew, including Hudson.
As he managed operations in the ship he thought about the various ships in the task force that he had command over. The Lansing was the newest ship in the task force, a Thomas Burke Heavy Cruiser. About 850 meters in length its boxy and thick frame had been made to replace the previous generation of Colonial Heavy Cruisers, a role that had been served by a modernized and refitted Berzerk Class. The Berzerk wouldn't be replaced entirely, rather relegated to secondary roles in the colonial fleet and it was one ship that Hudson would not underestimate.
The Burke had a powerful main armament for its size including dozens of medium and heavy KEWs (kinetic energy weapons) and an impressive point defense grid, along with missile tubes both for large convention and nuclear anti-ship and land attack missiles and smaller turreted launchers for smaller anti-fighter missiles, which often been paired with 2 or four autocannons similar to many ground-based air defense systems.
The Burke's armor was also impressive, not quite as heavy all around as in the Berzerk Class but still capable of keeping it in the fight longer than it had any right to do. While it lacked the dual fight pods on each side of the vessel just like Battlestars it had a single underslung pod that could hold 3 squadrons of 20 Vipers for a total of 60 Vipers and depending on mission parameters 20 raptors, though this was normally kept at either 15 or 16.
All told it made the Burke's into an impressive ship for its size, and a good choice for command of this fleet. Unfortunately, he only had one, but this was understandable considering that generally no more than one heavy cruiser would directly be assigned to a Battlestar group though others may be attached as supporting assets.
Next, we're the two medium cruisers of the Halceon Class, the Miles, and Eduardo. The Halcyon was a design that was now approaching three decades in age but one that served its role well enough for a replacement to only now be rolling out. Its smaller frame was about 600 meters and sort of mid-way between when compared with a light and heavy cruiser. Its firepower was noticeably smaller than the Burke but this was understandable due to its smaller size which also decreased its armor and other characteristics such as fighter complement, with only 40 Vipers and 10 raptors. One advantage that it did have over the Burke was that it was more agile and had a faster sublight acceleration due to its lesser weight.
Overall it was a fairly economical ship and a good balance between the size of the Burke and the next ship on the list, the four Chester Class Light Cruisers. These small ships were only 400 meters in length and interestingly enough the most common class of ship in the entire colonial fleet. There were over a thousand various light cruisers in the colonial fleet, serving all through the colonies and acting as essentially the smallest vessel in the fleet that could operate independently for extended periods.
Its weaponry was fairly light along with its armor, though it could carry 20 Vipers which was impressive for its size. It was also quite fast, not as much as some of the even smaller frigates and destroyers that had largely been superseded by light cruisers like this class but still, it was impressive. Such a ship would be useful to defend larger vessels in the fleet, serve as a mobile base for scouting and recon raptors, and flanking attacks against larger vessels in wolf packs.
Those seven ships made up all of the combat assets under his command, making it a small but formidable force. The next three vessels however were just as important if not more so to a battlestar's groups. In deep space, logistics and supply could decide life and death.
The first was a Michelson Class Heavy support vessel. During a hypothetical second Cylon war staff officers had realized that the colonies would be vulnerable to raids that could significantly reduce if not cripple the industrial capabilities of the colonies. To mitigate this the war industry and other critical manufacturing would need to be relocated, and this was done by significantly upgrading facilities like the Scorpion Shipyards to allow it to relocate many parts of itself. However, deemed just as important was the fact that ships would need to be repaired and that facilities that might allow these repairs would be at risk during a conflict.
The solution now was the heavy support ship, of which now several variants and varieties existed. The Michelson Class was based on a spare Columbia Class hull built during the end of the Cylon war; the design had been stripped of much of its offensive firepower in exchange for large-scale manufacturing and fabrication facilities. If given enough time, and resources, and was not interrupted, it could construct an entire battlestar. It could create any component that a colonial task force would need, from office chairs, paper, and metal plates to heavy KEW batteries, armor, and microchips.
Attaching one to a battlestar group was generally considered a little overkill when dealing with the needs of a single fleet but it had recently been commissioned and was currently undergoing trials for some new advanced manufacturing equipment and would be transferred to a larger task force that had several battlestars later. And despite its focus on manufacturing and the fact that it was not a combat vessel it still had a powerful armament, especially when it came to point defense which made it more regular for the fleet and made it capable of defending itself from lightly armed opponents. But if avoidable it should not be used in combat, especially offensive operations.
Next was a somewhat smaller ship but equally as important, the Mayfield, a Viggen Class Supply ship. It held all of the supplies that a fleet would need for extended deployments away from the colonies and other forms of resupply, including food, fuel, ammunition, spare parts, and even a small number of vipers and raptors in crates. This ship would be critical to the success of the fleet if it were away from resupply for an extended period and provided the larger support vessel with the supplies that it needed to build the things it was tasked to do.
Finally was the combined tylium mining, refining, and tanker ship, the Sullustian. It was another part of the fleet's goal of increasing the sustainment of task forces and allowing them to operate independently for some time. It had the capabilities to both direct mine resources from asteroids and dispatch small shuttles and skiffs to continue the work as well. Then it would refine the ores back onboard and either store them or transfer them to another vessel, most likely the supply ship. While designed to mine and refine tylium it had the capabilities to refine practically any type of ore, which made it an invaluable asset to any colonial task force.
Hudson knew while these ships may be small and may be easy prey on their own they could still pack a punch in a group. Most importantly be able to sustain themselves in an environment where resupply and reinforcement might be challenging. If the Cylons came back, that would be an absolute necessity.
Hopefully, the Cylons weren't back and this was just some guy screwing up the sensor readings.
But it was always best to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
"Sir I have a message from fleet command, they are stating that a Cylon attack is underway across the colonies. President Adar has suspended all civilian space traffic, called up reservists, and ordered the colonial fleet to defend colonial space."
"Get me a fleetwide comm and tell all ships to go to condition one." He ordered, and soon he was speaking to all of the fleet. "Attention men and women of the Colonial Fleet, I have just received from the command that the Cylons have returned and are launching attacks against the colonies. The strength and disposition of these attacks are not known at this time but we are to do our duty and if necessary sacrifice our lives for the survival of the colonies. We are currently awaiting orders from fleet command as to our next objective but until then be vigilant and do your duty. So say we all."
He turned to the ship's communications officer, Chief Petty Officer Lauren Bridges. "Do we have any sort of information as to the attack on the colonies?"
"Not at the moment, but I'd expect we will have something shortly." The pale Caprican woman said.
"I want suggestions as to our next course of action." He looked at Lieutenant Ben Sparks, the ship's tactical officer.
"Sir I think we need to plot jump coordinates out of here immediately so we can jump the second the Cylons come in. I'd bet my pay for this rotation that they will exploit the vulnerability of the CNP for all they can get, which will be a lot. We need to jump out at the first sign of contact. As for other short-term goals, I think that we should try to link up with Galactica. She's a known quantity and we know generally where she is, and see if we can find a place to rearm her." Galactica had been stripped of most of her ammunition recently though token amounts remained, in many cases on display in a museum for people to look at. But regardless, if she could get back into the fight she would be a powerful asset.
"That sounds like a good plan, lieutenant," Hudson said. Everyone carried on with their work until 10 minutes later more information came through.
"Sir." Bridges said, her voice trembling. "The Cylons have exploited the CNP bug to great effect across the colonies. Hundreds of ships have been destroyed and on many worlds, defenses are collapsing. Major nuclear detonations are reported across multiple colonies including Caprica and Picon, though the scope of the destruction is unknown. Picon fleet headquarters has been destroyed, and Admiral Natalia has taken command of the fleet in the Atlantia. Only about 25 percent of the colonial fleet is operational, the rest is essentially non-operational due to the CNP or has been destroyed. There have been some reports of success, several worlds such as Scorpia, Virgon, and Leonis have organized successful defenses."
Everyone looked around at each other, knowing that it was inevitable that their loved ones had died in the needless detonations or soon would, considering the scale of the destruction. Hudson made a solemn announcement, explaining the situation and offering at least some hope that he would be able to fight the Cylons back.
For the next hour, there were intermittent reports from the colonies, none of which looked good at all. This war was not a conflict for domination over the colonies, it meant genocide of its people. There were occasional reports of successful defenses but they were in the minority. The parts of the colonial fleet that hadn't been destroyed were scattered across the colonies in hiding as they desperately tried to remove the CNP. Within the task force then crews worked vigorously to try and remove the CNP which had been removed from life support, FTL, and other areas that were critical to the operation and survival of the ship.
Then the contacts began to emerge. A single small fighter-sized ship emerged but then went to FTL as soon as it had emerged.
"It's a Cylon." Was the only thing he thought Hudson could think of.
"Tell all ships to get out of here." He ordered the fleet. A few minutes later a large group of raiders came into the space that the fleet was supposed to be in but found absolutely nothing. The raiders discussed the matter among themselves, not sure if the raider that had reported the small fleet had been making its existence up. Either that, or it had jumped away and now would not be able to be found easily again.
The fleet now began its goal of linking up with Galactica, reasoning its approximate position from the coordinates that it would likely fall back on.
Meanwhile, the Battlestar Galactica was facing some issues of its own though.
Author's Note: I'm back to making BSG fanfiction, this time with Galactica and her group of escorts as the main focus. I have to say, I received far more attention on Reap the Whirlwind far more than I ever anticipated. So thank you for that and I hope that continues with this fic.
One thing that has always annoyed me was the fact that Galactica doesn't have any escorts or support ships. It's like a modern US Navy supercarrier just waltzing around without any sort of support (though Galactica has a comparatively far larger ability to defend herself since a battlestar is essentially a battleship/carrier hybrid). Ronald Moore confirmed that Galactica would normally have a supporting fleet similar to how the USN has so I came up with an idea of how it would end up looking. It's more substantial than the comparable fleet that would normally be attached to a carrier but my justification for that is that the first Cylon war showed that more escorts would be needed to deal with the Cylons.
Anyways, for those of you who haven't read Reap the Whirlwind (you really should and while it isn't critical to understanding what's going on here it takes place in the same universe and some things here end up being influenced by it). The premise is that the CNP gets discovered slightly before the attacks and some ships can remove it (or at least jump out of harm's way) by the time the Cylons attack. There end up being a significant number of survivors, but if you want to find out more then go read it! I think it is a more realistic take on the world of BSG as there are more survivors of the fall of the colonies which I think makes a lot of sense. These survivor groups may eventually connect and the Galactica but that's far off.
I'll be roughly following the first two seasons of the show in this and its sequel, though Galatcia having some escorts along with a few other changes will make this more interesting. However past season two things are going to take a pretty substantial change from canon, and even before that, some things will change. I'll probably get through most if not all of season one in this fic and a future fic go through season two:
Please leave any questions or comments in the reviews or pm me directly.