Atilla System/Fleet Base Atilla
Orion CIC

"Commander Gabrielle I will go over everything with you. My Cylon "friends" say they can keep the Raiders in check for a day or so but eventually another Cylon will show up here and when that happens we will have two or three Baseships jump in hours later at most. For now I am asking that you agree to a joint salvage mission on the Sigyn" said Commander Ronda Jasper.

Commander Gabrielle seemed to think it over. "Fine we will both send a Raptor and if both report things are safe and anything salvageable then we can split it."

Jasper suppressed a snort. The Orion might be able to whip the Chiron in a fight but when it came to stripping down a partial Battlestar the Chiron and survivors from the Kestrel would be far better qualified. However that is fine. After both messaged their people a salvage expedition was sent to the Sigyn.

They then moved to Commander Gabrielle's office and were joined by the Orion's XO a Major Dammers and a BuPers Captain Flacca.

"Thank you all for greeting me. I think it's best if we start with some background information" said Commander Ronda Jasper.

Commander Olaf Gabrielle did not know what to think about everything that was said. The fact that there are 7 human form Cylons (they also used the term Skinjobs from that old holoshow) was news. From her description the three they currently knew of were 1, 4, and 6 models. That after "dying" a Skinjob would download into another body with its memories intact was something no one had thought of and the military implications of Cylons being able to download their memories across lightyears after dying was staggering. Apparently most of the information the Chiron had gotten from the Cylons was from a pair of Model Threes who for different reasons were willing to work with humanity. Some of what Jasper had mentioned had been incorrect but that was understandable. A Model Three named Alexa Crowe had heard things secondhand from Commanders Valdez and Atwood along with Admiral Howard. While he repressed his rage against the people who had abandoned them mainly because they were racist assholes he did understand they probably wouldn't have given a formal briefing on the various ships they had left to die especially at what was a dinner party. The Vigilant was just known as a Patrolstar and Commander Jasper had called the Zephyr the Ogre which had been Greer's ship before the Cylons attacked but the general details were correct.

"I would like to ask how did you find us" asked Commander Gabrielle.

Commander Jasper decided that patience with this SDF officer was needed. In theory, she outranked him due to seniority as Commander Jasper had been a Commander longer than Gabrielle had been a Major. Still they needed each other and after the summary given by Alexa Crowe it would be understandable for the crew of the Orion to distrust outsiders. "Deonna Breanne was the lead ship designer for Scorpia Ships Inc. She was able to order Cylon Raiders to ignore certain ships and report back to her."

"Sir if I remember Scorpia Ships Inc. were the people who were working on the next model of Raptors" said Major Dammers.

Commander Gabrielle appreciated his XO trying to relieve some of the tension between the two senior officers. "Commander did this Breanne express any concern about how turning down the intelligence of the Raiders might backfire" he then asked.

"Commander she did not. Apparently, none of the skinjobs feel that the Raiders or Centurions are their equals and yes I am aware of the irony of that" said Commander Jasper. "Breanne noticed that your ships were moving towards the Cylon Zone and due to your scans surmised you were looking for supplies or salvage. The two Fleet Bases were left with extra Raiders and when your Raptors arrived here earlier we then jumped here to make contact with you."

Commander Jasper then told them that Deonna Breanne and Alexa Crowe had a plan to take a total of 17 Baseships and said that over a thousand humans were in just over 2 weeks being sent to Caprica. Helios Gamma would be uncovered for several hours if things went according to plan with not a single Baseship in that system. "We have an opportunity to not only rescue some people but also grab items in the Gamma System."

"And Deanna Breanne won't agree unless we rescue these humans and over half the ships in the Gamma System won't leave without Deanna Breanne's orders" asked Commander Gabrielle. Seeing Commander Jasper agree with this assessment they discussed.

There would need to be some revisions to the plan as little as it was so at this point. If they were going to put their ass on the line they needed more than the word of these two skinjobs that both seemed to be somewhat "off" for different reasons. They also for now decided to not merge their civilian fleets. If the Cylons were found to be trying to set them up they would be better off keeping their people split up. If the attack went through they would consider what their best choices were.

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Atilla System/Battlestar Sigyn Wreckage

Captain Randy "Warlock" Hamlin thought this mission was an odd one. There were 50 Cylon Raiders who were just sitting there doing nothing. The order of "do nothing unless ordered or you are being shot at" did not fill him or any of his 5 squadron mates with joy but orders are orders. "Gods damn it Black Eye keep your frakking distance from those Toasters" he said. LT Carl "Black Eye" Jorins might be his best pilot (after the Kestrels had been raided of their most senior pilots to fill in other positions) but was a hot head. According to rumors a single Raider getting killed would be known by the Cylons and might cause a dozen Baseships to jump in on them. They were to provide cover for the Raptors and if sent the shuttles that would gut the Sigyn of supplies.

Hamlin had never served on the Sigyn and as far as he knew none of the survivors from the Kestrel had ever served on that ship but he was an expert on Valkyries. It had the same lengthened landing pods from the refit a decade ago which allowed Valkyries to launch 3 Vipers at a time and increased the squadron size from 20 to 25. There had been a whole "thing" when the Valkyrie Class had their squadron size increased from 20 to 25 while all the other Battlestars squadrons stayed the regular size but the gain of 10 more Vipers was worth pissing off some old fossils who probably need to unzip their trousers to count to 23. The tyleum tank hadn't exploded like the Kestrel's had but the Sigyn had apparently been hit hard by Cylon missiles and then hit strafed by Cylon Raiders for a considerable amount of time. The Valkyries might have been small (well in comparison to the Jupiters and Mercuries) but they were tough. Without the CNP virus the Sigyn or Kestrel probably would have been an equal match for a Baseship. 'Frakking coward Toasters' thought Warlock for probably the thousandth time.

"Warlock we have landed and are checking it out" said Captain Shayla "Juno" Tonis.

"Juno we will keep an eye on things but watch your ass" said Warlock.

"Yes sir" said Juno.

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The Sigyn was badly damaged as the ship had so many holes in it that anything within 5 decks of any part of the hull was probably opened to vacuum within minutes. Likely the Cylons had just left any survivors to die from lack of oxygen or starvation. With the CIC, engineering, engines, and both flight operations destroyed the remaining ship was little more than many thousands of tons of metal drifting in space. Both ends of the flightpod were filled with debris so the safest entry in the Sigyn was through a particularly large hole in the remaining landing pod.

"LT have your people check out whether we should send more people" said Captain "Juno" Tonis. LT Alex Glover was the former deck chief of the Kestrel and current LSO of the Chiron and was the best person they had to check out the Sigyn as where the various parts, tools, and munitions should be would be second nature to him and his crew.

"Everyone watch your frakking ass and keep your gods damned magnetized boots on" came from PO Verdan and when PO Verdan saw the people from the other Raptor looking confused he yelled "You all check over there that's where the Raptor armaments should be" as the people from the Orion's Raptor (well assigned to the Orion) clearly did not have this planned as well. Which was fair as at least the Chiron had a 12-hour notice of this "plan" and were able to spitball a few ideas around and give everyone an assignment. Upon seeing his size and demeanor, the other Raptor team wisely decided that complying was a good idea.

It took more time than they hoped because of the damage (many doors were melted or twisted into scrap) but they did find the location they were looking for. "Sir we found some supplies. If you and the Orion would send a shuttle each we could start loading them up" said LT Glover. They had found a decent amount of medical supplies and some parts and munition for the Raptors and Vipers along with some hopefully useful other items. However, they had not found any ship missiles and the missiles for the Vipers and Raptors were unfortunately nonnuclear. This was expected as such armaments would per standing orders be stored in the main armory which was part of the Sigyn that had been destroyed. Luckily there had not been a secondary explosion of the main armory or tyleum reserves or the Sigyn would be little more than small pieces floating in the Atilla Sector. It took a total of 3 trips before the Sigyn was stripped of what little remained to it that they could salvage.

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Atilla System Oort Cloud
Orion CIC

Commander Olaf Gabrielle had talked to the people who had gone to the Sigyn. From all reports the people from the Chiron (or Kestrel in a roundabout way) were bog-standard Colonial personnel. Unless there were dozens of Skinjobs then this probably was not a Cylon trick. That doesn't mean that this could not be another situation that would end up with a questionable officer who might try to use them in some stupid way or even get them killed. The Orion, Lamia, and Chiron along with the Heavy Raider had jumped away leaving the Cylon Raiders behind. Oddly there was a single lightly armed cargo ship here. The Cylon was moved to the cargo ship jumped and the Heavy Raider was to wait at this location. Then all four ships jumped to a different location in another system. 'This level of complication probably doesn't mean trust is great between the Chiron and the Cylons' thought Gabrielle.

"Commander Jasper I believe it would be best if you return so you can get your guests ready" said Commander Gabrielle. Keeping Commander Jasper as a temporary hostage had reached whatever point that "trust" had been earned. They agreed to meet an hour later.

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Thank you all for reading any questions and comments are appreciated!