Geitona Sector
System 01835 Planet 2 "Kokkinos"
Day 186
Atlis CIC
"Colonel Marton this is Deonna Breanne. I am going to power down my ships but we need to talk it's urgent" said a female voice.
"Sir the two Heavy Raiders have shut down their engines" said Ensign Coulter.
Colonel Marton thought for a second. That they were found by the Cylons by chance much less this Cylon was very unlikely which means it's probably not random. Now whether that means the Atlis itself is being tracked somehow or the entire fleet simply running might not be enough. He hit the microphone to talk to the Heavy Raptors. "I will send a Raptor over. You yourself can come over unarmed and you will be restrained." Deonna Breanne (if this is her) has been not exactly a friend but the times they saw the remains of pirates during the pirate hunt Raiders had jumped away without pursuing.
Geitona Sector
Darkspace
Atlis
Commander Jasper had gone to the Respite or other ships but this was the first time she was outside contact of the fleet. Marton had switched back to the Chiron in case this was a trap (Anders was relieved to not be the senior officer of the fleet) and after picking up some Marines from the Azeban they had agreed to this meeting in person. This Deonna Breanne (if it was her) had offered a temporary alliance along with the location of a fleet of humans.
The Atlis was down to a skeleton crew after all the nonessential personnel had been sent away with Captain Talbot commanding the ship. Deonna Breanne (or her twin sister or clone or whatever) was chained to a piece of metal piping with her arms handcuffed. As they entered the Cylon looked excited and said "Adrian it's good to see you" to one of the Privates.
Adrian Nysa had been one of the survivors of the Scorn and more to the point had worked with Deonna Breanne before the Cylon attack. The now Marine Private Nysa had known Deonna Breanne before the Cylon attack about as well as an intern knows a high level manager.
"It seems you know Private Nysa here. Tell us how you met" asked Commander Jasper. The Cylon seemed to find the question funny.
"Adrian got tipsy on ambrosia at a work party and unsuccessfully flirted with one of the other interns. I had to help Miss Nysa into a cab later that night" replied Deonna Breanne.
Private Nysa had told a slightly different story but in the "trying to make yourself look better" way that people do. As she had been instructed Private Nysa asked multiple questions regarding Scorpia Ships Inc (Jasper did not want to force the Private to discuss the matters that had happened on the Scorn) and from what Private Nysa indicated they were all correct. That the Cylons were able to resurrect had been a matter of debate since the people on the Chalice had been freed to join the Chiron and its fleet but due to caution they had gone under the assumption that everything that Justin Agios and Deonna Breanne had known up until their deaths was fully known to the Cylons and that the Cylons were somehow able to download their consciousness or "soul" over stellar distances. The question of HOW while hotly debated did not change the military implications.
"I will tentatively accept that you are Deonna Breanne" said Commander Jasper. "You told Colonel Marton that you had the location of another Colonial Fleet and you also needed our assistance for a possibly mutually beneficial attack on the Cylons."
Deonna Breanne then explained how there were 7 human looking models (that information she had previously given but getting the same story showed consistency) and that they were starting to splinter. The Model Ones had ended up (due to no one other than the Model Threes objecting) in control of the Cylons and the Model Ones seemed to hate humanity with a passion. The other Cylons had agreed to the attack on the Colonies because the Colonials were a threat or for "religious reasons" that their single god had ordered it. Breanne seemed skeptical about their god but claimed that many of them especially the Twos and Sixes were fervent believers.
"The reason I wanted to explain is that things have recently changed. As of 9 days ago the Battlestars Pegasus and Galactica attacked and destroyed one of what we call a Resurrection ship" said Deonna Breanne. She started but was cut off.
"Do you know the location of those ships and their fleet" demanded Commander Jasper.
"I will not at this time give you that information and no that is not the fleet we know the location of" said Breanne with some annoyance. There was some some glaring back and forth but Breanne decided to continue. "If a Biocylon is what you might say undercover without contact with another Biocylon they can sometimes forget that they are a Cylon. This happened a few times before the War and more times for our people who died during the attack. In the past we would have them spend time with their sibling models and in time they would admit they are Cylons but they would often have a strong pro human mindset that would usually decrease over time. (Commander Jasper was skeptical but could not see what the Cylons would gain lying about this.) "When we die our souls go to an available ship with the Resurrection ship having more range so when the Battlestars destroyed the Resurrection ship a large number of Biocylons ended up on the Baseships that were searching for the Galactica. Some of these were Boxed which means they were put into storage with their consciousness shut off" said Breanne.
Jasper had her doubts that the Cylons had souls but decided to not press that argument but did need clarification on a few points. "Did the Galactica and Pegasus find each other recently" she asked. Jasper knew from the Badger crewmembers that the Galactica had under the orders of the new President of the Colonies Laura Roslin left with around 70 civilian ships. For the Pegasus other than knowing it had escaped from the Scorpia Naval Yards they had no other information.
Breanne said "this will be easier if you let me explain but yes. The Pegasus and the Galactica met up no more than 30 days ago. We are not sure of the exact date. We will give you all the information we currently have if you agree to proceed." Seeing Jasper again being annoyed but acquiescing Breanne continued. "The fleet that was following the Galactica was under the command of what we call the Prime Number One who calls himself Cavil. This is the leader of the Number One Models and in some ways the highest ranking of our people." Breanne made sure this point was acknowledged by Commander Jasper. "Some of the Biocylons that were killed during the destruction of the Resurrection ship ended up on one of the closer Baseships which is called Tau 11 (Jasper quickly thought such a simple naming system was pretty stupid) that had a Model Six in command. A total of 5 Boxed Biocylons ended up on this Number Sixes' Baseship including a Number Six that was on the Baseship that recently destroyed the human ships in System 01682 this one named Chi 8."
Seeing Commander Jasper and the others clearly getting upset Breanne quickly continued. "This Model Six who is named Olivia Roberts is part of an anti-war party and objected to attacking these humans. For the last few months some of us have felt that pursuing the remaining humans is wrong. Sister Roberts ordered the Raiders to stop the attack. The Raiders paused their attack on the human ships but the Number 5 on the ship shot Roberts and then used the Baseship's missiles to destroy the human ships. After this, he sent Sister Roberts to Prime Number 1 where we thought she was going to get help but she was Boxed. Boxing is the worst punishment a Biocylon can suffer but some would consider because of what Sister Roberts did for Boxing to be justified. However there were 4 more Biocylons that ended up on Tau 11 of which 3 were Biocylons that thought they were human" said Breanne.
Jasper said "I am not certain this makes sense or that I believe you but I will for the sake of argument accept the general idea. However what exactly do you want from us?"
Deonna Breanne said "I will get to that. However do you know that the Pelinal and Limanil Whitestrake were captured by one of our ships around 3 months ago."
Jasper should have cared but for the "Chosen" that they had been captured and likely killed mattered little to her. "That is unfortunate but I am uncertain how that matters" said Commander Jasper.
"It matters because your people mentioned the crazy blond Cylon who is out to kill all pirates and some of the Chosen heard this and the Chosen gave this information to the Cylons when they were captured" said Deonna Breanne. Breanne could admit there might be some truth to the "crazy" part but the sloppiness shown by the Chiron was annoying. "When the other Cylons found this out I was "censured". Many understood why I did what I did in freeing the people on the Chalice and warning you but I had my Baseship taken away." Breanne thought her siblings might be correct in this as well. She had shown odd judgment even if it all made sense to her. "This brought me to the attention of the anti-war party. I will never agree to peace with any pirates but killing civilians because you might be a future threat seems foolish."
Jasper kept a very flat face. That Breanne used anti-war to describe the other Cylons though is interesting. The idea of any real "peace" other than a hollow one forced by the Cylons is unlikely however any split in the Cylons much less any that were willing to help them needed to be exploited. "An alliance is something that should be pursued" said Commander Jasper. While very hesitant to believe this the realities of being outnumbered by huge amounts and the lack of supplies meant humanity needed to keep all options open.
"Now this brings me back to the 4 other Biocylons that were Boxed. As I said 3 think of themselves as human even if they no longer believe they are human" said Breanne. "All three were part of the Colonial military and refuse to follow us unless they are ordered by a Colonial officer."
"Are you saying you want me to order 3 confused skinjobs to follow the orders of you or another skinjob? For what purpose" asked Commander Jasper incredulously.
"The Baseship Chi 8 that Olivia Roberts was on has returned to the Twelve Colonies and is currently orbiting Scorpia. The anti-war party wants to take what Baseships they can and they have been moving their people to ships in the Cyrannus System with almost all in Helios Gamma and Delta" said Deonna Breanne.
Jasper thought about this. While she would prefer the Toasters to be destroyed or fight amongst themselves some Baseships simply leaving would almost be as good. Things might change later but again any chaos caused to the Cylons is worth it.
"Olivia Roberts would not be allowed on Chi 8 but the 3 other Biocylons that consider themselves part of your military would. They could simply go to the ship, kill the single Biocylon, and then allow Olivia Roberts to land on that ship. The Raiders and Centurions would be neutral during all of this. That gains the anti-war party a ship" said Deonna Breanne.
Jasper had many doubts. She asked some questions and in short, the Biocylons had put some programming in their Centurions and Raiders (who were apparently living organisms!) to follow the orders of any Biocylon as long as they did not violate certain rules (Centurions and Raiders would not kill a Biocylon or purpose). This seemed damn stupid as any Colonial Officer would react poorly to someone shooting the Commander and then saying "we are leaving" but from what she had seen the "Biocylons" seemed to have little respect for any other type of Cylons (the irony of the causes of the First Cylon War apparently lost on them).
"And what is the 5th skinjob about" asked Commander Jasper.
"She is another Model 3 named Alexa Crowe. She is the one who has the location of the other group of humans along with a great deal of other information. She was undercover for a long time in the UIA and had survived the attack on the Colonies and spent months with another group of humans. She has refused to give me or any other Cylons this location" said Breanne. "She said if you agreed with our demands she would share their location along with other information to you."
The other Heavy Raider was also unarmed and there were people in it. That must be the 5 skinjobs she was supposed to impress. 'Stupid Cylons and their overly complicated plans' thought Jasper.
"I will agree to the interviews of the Biocylons (might as well try to be polite for now) as long as they agree to the same terms. One at a time and they will not have any electronic items and must agree to a search and in exchange they will not be tortured" said Jasper. Torture in Jaspers' opinion did not work that well with humans and probably would not work at all with a being that could after "death" send it's consciousness to a different body. If things went badly then she could still space or shoot the skinjobs.
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Geitona Sector
System 01835 Planet 2 "Kokkinos"
Day 186
Oliver Galley
The Oliver's galley was not exactly the best place to hold an interrogation but Jasper was not going to bring the Chiron or a more valuable ship here. The Oliver had been purposely kept relatively empty so they would have an "at need" ship. Also, its loss would be the least detrimental to the fleet which was why the Oliver was always given the dangerous jobs for when they needed another ship to carry Marines or cargo. Deonna Breanne was currently in one of the crew chambers with a Marine guard outside her door.
The first skinjob was one of the three that thought they were humans. Apparently this one was still uncertain she was a Cylon even if seeing dozens of her twins or clones made her know if not yet believe this was true. "Technician Sarah Kerrigan from the Battlestar Rycon is it" asked Commander Jasper.
The blond woman seemed deflated but answered "Yes sir or at least I think so" replied Kerrigan. Jasper asked questions regarding Kerrigan and her past. Her stories of being a child or anything premilitary seemed to be vague. Not hiding it but more like it didn't matter as no one had made the effort to make it up. Enough to fit it in but certainly not 20 plus years of history. Kerrigan talked about her friends on the Rycon and that she was having a secret relationship with another deckhand named Tripps and sounded like a fairly standard Technician.
"Technician Kerrigan tell me what happened during and after the attack on the Rycon" ordered Commander Jasper. They were aware of the fate of the Rycon and Breanne would certainly be aware of this but again she was trying to get confirmation.
Kerrigan gave the story of how there was an explosion on the Rycon moments before the Cylons attacked that killed Admiral Kronus, the XO, CAG, and CMO (who apparently was a skinjob Model 4) and then the LT Colonel who was now in command jumped the Rycon out due to being surrounded by 4 Baseships and all the Vipers outside the Rycon shutting down. This is why her boyfriend Tripps had become a Viper pilot as the Rycon was able to replace many of its destroyed Vipers but lacked pilots. A month later there was another fight with the Cylons where a Baseship was destroyed but her boyfriend Tripps was killed (this was devastating to Kerrigan). Soon after the Rycon found the Rambler, Onyx, and Larke. Finally, a few weeks later the Rycon was surrounded by 5 Baseships where apparently the Rycon destroyed 3 of them and badly damaged a fourth buying enough time for the Rambler and other ships to escape (a commendation even if such things no longer mattered would be entered into her records for the Rycon and Commander Birk. Also, Jasper was polite enough to not mention the grisly fate of the Rambler and sister ships in case Kerrigan was unaware). "Then I woke up and Doctor Donaldson of the Rycon and what I later learned was a Number One was there. I asked how we got away from the Toasters and then the last thing I heard before waking up again was "Box her". Later I woke up again and saw a woman who looked exactly like me." There was more information given but mainly the Cylons had been trying to explain to her that she was a Cylon while things were going on involving her being put on various ships and then the Heavy Raptor a few hours ago.
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The second person was a Model 8 a younger female who claimed to have been LT Eva Kahn a Viper pilot onboard the Aerilon SDF flagship Battlestar Sulis. Her background was different as LT Kahn was from Aerilon but the same sense of "vagueness" before joining the Aerilon SDF seemed to exist.
LT Kahn talked about the so called "Space Parades" that Canceron had roped the other two Helios Gamma planets into taking part in which left the Sulis alone protecting Aerilon during the Cylon attack and when the Sulis had found itself facing four Baseships and while it's Vipers did not fail (interesting if true that Sulis' Mk VIs and the ground based MK Vs did not crash unlike the Mk VIIs) they were overwhelmed by a massive amount of missiles and Raiders. A Minerva class Battlestars had a large amount of offensive firepower (almost as much as a Valkyrie) but were much lower in armor and defensive systems. The amount of Raiders and missiles four Baseships could pump out would certainly overwhelm a solitary Minerva. The last thing LT Kahn remembers was the Sulis exploding taking her along with it.
After she woke up it was a similar story. A Number One had talked to her and after she expressed confusion she was then Boxed. Then more of the same of waking up to a blond woman and a clone of her and then moving to various ships before ending up here.
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The last of the confused Cylons was the same model as the late unlamented Justin Agios a Model 2 who said he was from the Colonial Marines a Gunnery Sergeant Lew Ashby. Sergeant Ashby was a native of Picon and again seemed to have a very basic past before joining the Marines. However he had been in the Marines for almost 20 years and had been married with a pair of stepsons. Ashby was clearly pissed that the Cylons had nuked Perkinston (probably due to the Colonial Fleet Base but still the city itself was a likely target) and that he and his family had died.
His story after being woken up was more or less the same but with a far greater sense of depression and repressed rage.
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The next Cylon while clearly the same model as Sarah Kerrigan had her hair died a dark black. "Commander Jasper you have talked to the 3 other Biocylons. What do you think" asked Olivia Roberts.
"I think you need to answer my questions first" replied Jasper.
Olivia Roberts sighed and then started answering questions. Her story was different. She was VERY young probably about 7 months old (which in a body of a 30 year old woman was odd). Before the attack the numbers of Biocylons had been greatly increased to have enough to command all the Baseships. One of the things that Roberts let slip was that there were 284 Baseships at the time of the attack and there were very few other armed Cylon ships. No other designs had been made just the small number of secondary ships left over from the First Cylon War that were still operational. This seemed like a poor military decision to Jasper but (again if true) was interesting information.
Roberts had spent her time on board the Chi 8 (the names were based off of what shipyard and what sequential number they were made and this was concerning due to this implying they had 22 or more shipyards which Jasper made a note of). Roberts then explained how the Chi 8 had a Model 5 simply named Doral (the Fives apparently often used that name she learned after an eye roll from Roberts) and their Baseship had been considered second string so after the initial attack on Helios Gamma they had been ordered to clean up the Geitona Sector. The Chi 8 had made sure that the various mining locations and Territories had been hit and dealt with any surviving Colonial ships. Things had been pretty slow other than finding a few mining ships and destroying them. Then the Chi 8 received orders to if possible capture any civilian ships and send any young women and children to one of the camps on Scorpia. Apparently, Cavil had a plan for them. When a Sunliner ship had been captured she and Doral had found starving people many of which had radiation poisoning. They were in Roberts' words "pathetic" and she felt guilt for the first time. Murdering off starving parents who tried to protect the children and shoving sickly grandparents outside airlocks because whatever Cavil wanted could not be God's Will.
Soon after the Cavils had ordered them to stop sending people and to just destroy any more civilian ships because "they were not worth the effort" but when the Chi 8 later ran into the Brickel and the Milino (sister ships of the Aglaea) along with 6 civilian ships Roberts just could not do this anymore. She ordered the Raiders to stand down. She had thought the humans would be able to escape but Doral shot her. Roberts claimed she had only found out the fate of these ships after being woken later. The next thing she woke up and one of the Number Ones (also a Cavil) was standing over her asking questions. He said she would be Boxed until she could be brought back to (suddenly Roberts stopped and lamely continued) "somewhere". Roberts thought that the Raiders and Centurions on the Chi 8 would follow her orders but knew the Doral onboard would not allow her to land there.
If this is all true a few things are important. First Olivia Roberts is either incredibly naive or the best liar Jasper had ever heard as quite a bunch of information had slipped out by mistake. Second Roberts seems to be honest about being disgusted with what she had done to the civilians and Roberts felt that a Baseship against a pair of Missile Colliers is more bullying than anything else (which is true but in the military mindset should not matter). Important points such as the total number of ships the Cylons had (minus losses) seemed to match the very rough numbers they were given by the Herse. Jasper could not see why the Cylons would need to lie (being so much more powerful than the Chiron after all) and the confused Cylon stories "felt" true and Olivia Roberts while not likable did seem to be honest.
Under guard and handcuffed the 4 Cylons were brought back to the galley. Jasper ordered the 3 "Colonial Military" Cylons to follow the directions of Olivia Roberts as long as such orders benefitted humanity and did not violate the Tauron Rules of War (which no longer existed but seemed more official sounding) and were to be available if more questions were needed or orders changed. Then the 4 Cylons went back to the now empty Heavy Raider and sent a single word of "applesauce" to the other. The second Heavy Raider then agreed to allowing a Raptor to pick her up and after which the Raptor docked with the Oliver the second Heavy Raider jumped away. This was all agreed to before and the Atlis and Oliver along with their supporting Raptors all jumped to a new location. The remaining Heavy Raider would wait here to see if the two Model Threes would be returned.
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Thank you all for reading. Any questions or comments are appreciated!