Roads Paved in Shadow
Book II
Chapter V
"Earth War-Part 1"
Cyrannus Star System
Battlestar Galactica
"Eight cruisers and twelve destroyers, and three heavy missile-class Strikestars," Lieutenant Gaeta relayed to Adama. The younger man almost slumped to the floor but managed to pull himself up and back into position. The first-aid drugs were wearing off quickly considering how bad his arm felt. Standing and working with a broken arm under battle conditions was as bad as anything he could imagine, and he hated it. "We've got forty-nine civilian ships converging on our position." He was focused on DRADIS, but he could imagine the frantic screams of the officers and crew blaring through the Galactica's communications screaming for help. The word hadn't gotten out yet an it was likely that every one of those civilian ships were detecting 'Cylon' fighters homing in on them ready to fire missile at them sending them all to a fiery, agonizing death. "Some are redlining their engines trying to get to us." There was a minor tremor throughout the ship as another engine violently gave up then ghost. Gaeta slipped and hit the floor, howling for a moment as the pain washed over him.
Colonel Tigh glanced at the now fallen man. "You've done enough," he said matter-of-factly. Gaeta was a good DRADIS officer but beyond that, Tigh had little use for such a weakling. If it were him with a broken arm, he would still be at his station ignoring his pain by sheer force of will. Even if his eye was ripped from its socket, they would still have to drag him from his post. "Weak piece of felttercarb," he whispered too softly for anyone to hear. But he was still needed, and would be useful in the future, provided they survived the next few hours. It took him a moment to decide whether to help pick him up from the floor. There were others who deal with him. "Get to the life station, Lieutenant," he dismissed. He didn't have time for sentiment in the middle of a battle. It could get you killed. "Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla, take over. I want to know the instant any Earther shows up on the grid."
"Yes, sir," the no nonsense woman responded, immediately taking over Gaeta's station in a smooth, professional action that Tigh could appreciate.
Adama turned away from the DRADIS station. "Lieutenant Hoyt, I want an update on fleet status. I want to know what's happening." He then whispered to Tigh. "Update on the Galactica."
The look of concern etched all over his face, told the story. "Our short-range communications are restored. We have to replace the entire long-range comms. The replacements should be ready in about two hours if there's enough crew to rush the job. We're using the Unidynal as a long-range trans-communications carrier for now. Two main engines are working, number three and number seven. Number four just went a minute ago. Three quarters of our thrusters are offline. Unidynal's engineers are doing their jobs helping with the repairs, but the old gal's structural integrity is shot. Even if we used the main engines she might break up. With our luck, that's what would happen. Forward guns are okay, but we don't have any way to supply them other than with the ordinance that's already there. We can jump but there's a good chance that we won't get to where we want to go in one piece. We can only move at a snail's pace. We're target practice, Bill."
"What did they hit us with? It looked like a laser," Adama said.
"We think it was some type of plasma weapon, or maybe a particle weapon" Tigh answered. "Real sci-fi stuff. Very powerful and hit had some serious kick behind it."
"Plasma?" Adama wondered in shock. "Not laser?"
"No, not at that slow speed. Whatever it was, it tore apart the landing bay just as we jumped. We're lucky that any of us are still alive. Some of their nukes are like nothing I have ever seen."
The Commander shook his head in dismay and anger. "The Unidynal is reporting that a lot of the fighting is centering near Picon and Caprica space. Even if we had long-range communications, there's heavy EM and jamming interference, making comms almost impossible. Our forces are using raptors to communication just like the old days before we started getting our first gen subspace communications."
Adama glared at the updated data map supplied by the Unidynal, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. "There are Earth forces right near the Tancea asteroid fields attacking our forces here and here," he said as he pointed to the locations to the Commander on the digital map in front of them. "We're right at the edge of the fighting. We need to get the civilians out of our way. These people don't seem interested in taking hostages."
"Half those civilian ships don't have jump engines. The slower ones were heading for Tauron when the fighting started. They're being told to continue to head for Tauron as fast as they can. That will get them out of our way in case the balloon goes up. They'll have two destroyer escorts," Tigh added before being interrupted by lieutenant Hoyt.
"Commander, the cruisers have been able to burn through some of the jamming. Our forces are passing intelligence to us. I have some preliminaries from Fleet Command. I'm patching it through now."
Both senior officers turned to the commander's monitor and watched as the information began scrolling across the screen. "Gods, Bill. Three of their small gunships can take on a battlestar," Tigh whispered. "Fleet has no idea what type of FTL they're using but they are using it to jump directly into formations and letting the energy tear our ships apart."
"They tried to do that to us," Adama nodded."
Tigh hissed as he read the numbers. "Eight confirmed battlestar kills in the Fifth Fleet alone. That's the whole group. Five of the Earther ships, the small ones were damaged. Only one confirmed kill. Those fracken shields the flaunted us with all those years ago. We can barely blow through them."
"Has Central Command re-called the fleets from the border?" Adama asked, which sounded like a that should have been implemented a long time ago.
"No idea," Tigh answered. "We've no reports about the recall from our data bursts. As much as I hate to say it, we need those reinforcements. If we can't protect ourselves from the Earthers right now, there's little use for us worrying about the Cylons."
Adama stared at him for an instant, shocked by his friend's comments. The man hated Cylons more than another person Adama knew and for him to say what he had just said had to have cost him.
Tigh must have seen the look in his commander's eyes and simply shrugged. "Gods, I need a drink," he muttered to himself although he doubted if he could even get drunk at a time like this.
"Sir, short-ranged DRADIS just picked up an EM burst. Defense forces are detecting a dozen corvette-sized ships with heavy fighter escorts entering our sector. We believe the EM burst was the result of them jumping into normal space. There are twelve thousand kilometers out vectoring in on our position. we're being scanned."
Commander Adama gritted his teeth. "Make sure action stations are ready for eminent contact with enemy." He turned to Lieutenant Jansan. "How much power do we have left for our engines? Can we move at all?"
"We have twenty percent functional power, sir," was the stiff response. "Secondary forward weapons are online. Primary weapons are limited to what we have on hand in the forward magazines. Missile on our portside bays are functional and active. Nothing on starboard. But the fires are out."
Small comfort. "We're sitting ducks here like this," grumbled Tigh. "We can't move and are primary guns and less than fifteen shots before we run dry. We still haven't even rescued some of the survivors yet. And, we can't run."
"Then, we had to fight. Order all missile bays to prepare for firing. Fire control, Nukes are authorized. Repeat, nuclear ordinance are authorized to be fired at my order. Our missile suppression guns are functional. If they use missiles against us, I want a wall of flak protecting us. The last thing we need is one of those super nukes to it us."
"As far as we know, they've only used two. Might be in limited supply, Tigh mused. "Or they're saving them for something else."
Adama, deep in thought didn't answer. "Have what's left of our vipers and raptors join the rest of the squadrons try to keep those Earther ships off our back. We just have to let the cruisers and destroyers do their jobs and support them as best we can. Calculate jump coordinates for the Gemenon Pythia ship yard," he said after a moment's hesitation.
Tigh nodded slowly, knowing the reasoning behind his commanders' orders. The shipyard was small and likely (hopefully) not known to the Earthers. If the Galactica made it, it was good. If not, then some of the crew might survive after that final jump.
"It's a gamble if worse comes to worse," Tigh grumbled. "Gods help the civilians who can't get out of the line of fire."
Three minutes earlier, Major Hatashi Kinto gritted his teeth against the tremendous acceleration he always loathed, pulling him from jump space into normal space. Going through scores of such transitions, he remembered his training which kept him from throwing up into his helmet. Nevertheless, he once more thanked his ancestors watching over him, for allowing him to become part of Earthforce after the R&D figured out how to minimize the physical effects of deceleration in smaller craft. There was a time not too long ago when civilian ships required nearly an hour to decelerate to reasonable speeds after transitioning from jump space into normal space. Combat decelerating, no matter what the military propaganda advertisement to the contrary, was a brutal affair and left long-term depilating effects on those who constantly transition into and exiting from jump space. A few years of fighters and small ships constantly going through those transitions could cripple the strongest man or woman. Technology had improved considerably in the last few years. He no longer feared becoming a crippled old man just because he served his country. Despite the discomfort, he felt exhilaration for being a part of this glorious but very critical mission.
His parents were so proud that he was one of those honored to travel to a new universe. All those years of training, all those years of frantic modifications by Earth Alliance scientists and theoreticians, all the preparations, and worry about what they might find in a new universe and how it might affect them were over. They all were spot on. There was no catastrophic cascade failure, no 'universal' rejection of the ships and crews. This was in fact already proven when the hated Tau'ri ship pushed its way into Earth Alliance affairs. Now he was honored to be part of the tip of the spear, to be among the first to see the fruits of more than fifteen years of hard work. Now, their vengeance against the Tau'ri was beginning. The first wave of the Earth Alliance strike force had revealed themselves to these Colonials and he was proud to be part of the vanguard of that initial thrust towards the Tau'ri home world and retribution.
These 'Colonials weren't responsible for what the Tau'ri did, but they were related to them and they possessed resources that the Alliance desperately needed. Those resources were needed back at home. President Clark and the Council of Justice understood the need for the sacrifice of some for the greater good. These Colonies were a potential threat and according to all the surveillance data, they would likely side with the false Earth. These Kobollian Colonists were Human, but they were not part of his universe.
It really was an amazing concept. He would have never believed it if there weren't proof of concept, namely the Tau'ri traitors and not for the first time did he wonder if these traitors knew how much they were hated. The Council of Justice had long ago concluded that these Colonials were as bad as the Centauri and other aliens that fought against the Earth Alliance's right to survive and expand in his universe. And those threats and dangers at home were numerous.
Aliens surrounded his Earth and they were always waiting to take advantage of any weakness. The Narn were little more than pirates and thieves. The Vree were cowards and backstabbers. The Abbai were all but useless, and the Centauri were the worst of the lot. Those aliens were decadent, lazy, dishonorable, and their government was ruled by an insane lunatic that exuded hostility against Earth and openly threatened war numerous times.
The Drazi… No one understood why they willingly changed so drastically.
All aliens were treacherous and mankind, his mankind, if they were to survive couldn't dare let their guard down. Earth Alliance had to be able to defend themselves from those threats.
Most people of Earth still remembered President Morgan Clark's electrifying inauguration speech the day as he ascended to the Presidency after the death of President Elizabeth Levy three years after the false Earth ship Achilles fled. Everyone knew that alien sympathizers had poisoned her, but the killers had gotten away. The Minbari resistance was blamed but it was never proven. President Clark asked the billions of people watching him, "what do you want? What do we, as a species, want? We know what we want! We want to survive, to thrive, to protect ourselves against our enemies. We want to be able to protect ourselves from all of the aliens that seek our destruction. We want revenge on the traitors that brought us to the brink of annihilation by refusing to aid us when we needed them the most. We want to be safe. We want the power to be what we want to be!"
In light of that, Kinto often wondered how Humans could side with the genocidal Minbari over their own kind. It didn't really matter now. The Minbari were nearly extinct now and Earth Alliance had very long memories concerning traitors.
It was true that the Tau'ri initially helped defend Earth against the Minbari as none of the historical accounts dispute that. Some of their technologies were incredible, like the sensors which had the ability to burn through Minbari stealth. That went a very long way in allowing Earth to defend itself. During those terrible times though, it wasn't enough, not nearly enough. EF needed the FTL hyperdrive system that the Tau'ri had as well as the much faster computer technology. Earth needed those devastating beam weapons that could turn Minbari armor into melted cheese. And most of all, they need the Tau'ri energy shields that would have made Earthforce ships invulnerable to any Minbari attack. With those technologies, the war could have been easily won and afterwards, Earth would have been secured from any attack in a matter of months. But the Tau'ri would not share those technologies with their brothers.
None of the events that subsequently occurred would have happened if only General Jack O'Neill had decided to side with his Earth cousins and given them the technology to defend themselves properly. If nothing else, he should have given Earth Alliance the technology to produce energy shielding for themselves. But he didn't. In fact, according to the history books, the documentaries and first-hand eyewitnesses, he was responsible for nearly destroying the government politically by releasing classified documents to the public and the Minbari, threatening to destroy any legitimate Earth Force vessels trying to minimize the situation, resisting lawful arrest, and threatening to use high-yield nuclear ordinance to destroy the very heart of the government in Geneva Switzerland. His actions and those people under his authority and by default, his traitorous world have never been forgotten. And, that world he came from would never escape justice. That was one of Clark's inauguration promises, one he has always intended to keep and now, it was coming close to being fulfilled.
President Clark's political career was almost destroyed by the debacle when the lies planted by O'Neill circulated throughout the planetary net. It was little wonder that he hated the oppressive Tau'ri government and that world with a passion.
He, like most of the new world government, interpreted O'Neill's actions as a precursor to a future war in which the Tau'ri would have a critical advantage when they came back to attack and conquer Earth, if there were anything left of the planet and its people. But Earth survived, and the Tau'ri invasion would never happen because Earth Alliance would strike back first.
The Minbari had superior numbers of ships and a fanatical will to commit genocide despite numerous entreaties by Earth Alliance to come to the peace table. As a prideful people unused to accepting anything less than total victory, they could not conceive of bowing down to a so-called lesser race. They rejected peace talks as many of their warrior castes refused to accept the fact that they could be defeated or even fought to a standstill by mere Humans. Only after the fact that Earthforce discovered a new use for Quantium 40 as an enhancement for nuclear explosives did Earth Force really began to hurt the Minbari in small-scale engagements. The discovery of the new use for that very expensive and precious element came from the Tau'ri's use of an even rarer mineral based on element Q40. The Q-nuke wasn't as powerful as the Tau'ri version, but they were magnitudes more effective than anything else that EF had at the time.
Those losses should've brought the boneheads, as he referred to them, to the table, but it just made the situation worse. After the traitors threatened to nuke Earth and then fled, all reports indicated that the Minbari were pushing for a final strike against Earth. They would attack and turn Earth into a desolate wasteland using overwhelming forces and then exterminate every remaining colony that Earth had remaining as they returned to their borders. The war was already genocidal however the Minbari warrior caste went collectively insane at the thought of losing to a lesser people. No words would stop them from completing their unholy mission.
Documentation proved that the Tau'ri warship's victories over the much feared Minbari Sharlin war cruisers had made the Minbari more cautious. Despite vehement denials the Minbari were afraid of the Tau'ri ship and their allies, those pyramid looking ships, and what they represented.
When their very public departure of those traitors was confirmed, this once more left Earth Alliance to face the Minbari wrath alone. Even with the new defensive technologies filtering throughout the fleets, there wasn't enough time. The two thousand strong Minbari war machine was still too powerful. They had been chastened by their defeats but would not stop until every single Human was dead and Earth a smoldering rock. The people of Earth were forced to use a final weapon, one they hesitated to use because of the political damage that it would cause once they did use it.
President Levy approved the decision that would doom the Minbari. She ordered General Franklin to take his son's, Doctor Stephen Franklin's, medical and biological notes and data he had collected on Minbari physiology and biology. Stephen, realizing what was about to happen, tried to destroy it but his own father, flanked with MPs stopped him, literally shooting him in the leg to keep them from destroying those precious notes and data files. From those notes frantic researchers were able to create biological weapons specifically tuned to Minbari physiology.
The bioweapon had a significant incubation time, more than three months. During that time the viral cocktail appeared perfectly harmless, giving no suggestion of its danger. This allowed the prion/viral agents to spread throughout the population without detection unwittily carried by infected Centauri information traders and Minbari prisoners who 'managed' to escape to the warrior caste. The Minbari were infected in every subsequent land engagement with Earthforce GROPOS. One of the greatest military secrets of the time was the battle of the Kallar colony. Five hundred GROPOS, secretly infected with the bioweapon, fought and died to the last man against a superior force of Minbari ground forces. Those Minbari 'victors' were infected by the airborne, highly contagious agent that Minbari agents couldn't even detect.
Within a month, ten percent of the population were infected. In two months forty percent of the Minbari home world and several colonies were infected. After the three-month incubation period, the viral agent activated, and the horror began as the Hanta/Ebola-based viral agents began is deadly mission, burning through more than ninety-seven percent of the population of Minbar and its colonies. Twelve hours after the symptoms appeared, the victims were either dead, crippled, or carriers. Earth scientists did their job well. Less than two percent of the Minbari population were immune to the viral agent. Billions of Minbari started dying before they were even aware that the plague was so widespread. The Minbari civilization collapsed, and within weeks the war was effectively over. In the end, only three million Minbari survived the plague and they never knew that Earth was the cause of their downfall until long after the war. It was a terrible secret Earth never officially acknowledged for over fifteen years, although it was an open secret to most of the alien governments for more than a decade.
Stephen Franklin blamed himself for the genocide and took his own life. His father was never the same after his son's death; but, he always maintained that he never regretted his decision to protect his world either even though that cost was the death of his own son. Earth's status as a galactic power not to be trifled with. When the alien races eventually discovered what Earth had done, relations with most of the major powers were strained and Earth was essentially isolated from the stellar community. Since the Great War, President Clark was proven right time and again when he insisted that aliens were a threat to the survival of Humanity. The Minbari war prove that and the small conflicts with the Centauri and the treacherous Streib was further evidence that aliens could not and should not be trusted. President Clark and the military also understood the importance of the events that happened when the Tau'ri turned on their fellow brothers and sisters. It was their fault that Earth Alliance was forced to use biological weapons to subdue the Minbari, creating their own form of genocide.
The Colonel did feel a small bit of remorse for the Minbari but not enough to really change his overall hatred of those people. He remembered the fear at the time that permeated everyone he knew. "The Minbari were coming," was the phrase that everyone whispered. He remembered his history quite well since his father told him about the war over and over, plus reading the history books made him want to become part of Earthforce, the protector of Humanity unlike those traitors.
After the end of the Minbari war, the spoils were humanities for the taking. In the next ten years, Earth's technology advanced significantly. The scientific treasure troves gleaned from them made Earth Alliance one of the most powerful of the stellar younger nations. But the others were jealous, especially the Centauri. The President is acutely aware that for Earth to survive, it had to subdue every race in the sector or risk destruction, hence the reason why these Colonials were targeted. This Colonial nation had vast resources that Earth Alliance needed. Those resources could easily be shipped back through the rift sing the new shielding system developed by IPX and the EA R&D. Most importantly, they were the road to the Tau'ri. They knew exactly where the Tau'ri home world was located.
Kinto was also proud to be a senior ranking member of the Ministry of Justice embedded into Earthforce. He was fully aware of his President's plans and fully supported them. Like Clark, he and many others were true believers. But unlike others, he was in the loop, knowing exactly what the ultimate plans were. The Colonials knew the precise location as they had sent an expedition to Earth using their admittedly impressive but slower FTL jump drives. For years, beacons were placed around Colonial and Cylon space and beyond for thousands of light years in the general proposed direction of the Tau'ri. Those associates were, in his opinion, less than forthcoming about the location of the Tau'ri home world. The President called them givers of breadcrumbs. Typical alien trash. When EA was strong enough, those associates would be put in their place. It was going to be chaotic but there was strength in chaos. Chaos made one strong. Clark was on point about that.
The Tau'ri (who dared to call their world Earth. They had no right to the name!) and aliens were made of the same cloth, treacherous and traitors all. Why the Council accepted help from the Drazi and those 'associates' was something that for the life of him, he couldn't wrap his head around. He understood the reasoning, but this way was a means to an end that could easily blow up in their faces if they weren't careful. Many of his colleagues quietly agreed with him. There were heavy odds betting that both of those aliens would betray Earth before the year was out. It was very hush, hush but even Las Vegas were playing the odds and silently encouraged it while the Council looked the other way.
With the defeat of the Minbari, Earth's reputation as a power was established throughout the sectors of space. The Non-aligned League of Worlds, the Centauri, the Narn, the Drazi, and of course remnant of the Minbari all respected, feared and hated Earth Alliance. With access to all of the Minbari technology, Earth Alliance's understanding of science in dozens of areas grew in leaps and bounds, something that President Clark's administration strongly encouraged. Constant vigilance was Earth Alliance's mantra. Those aliens were still out there, still a threat. They were jealous of Earth's progress and they were afraid and being afraid, they became aggressive. There were many reasons why 'Clark's little wars' were so necessary. Earth Alliance had become a fortress for a reason.
O'Neill's people were about to receive firsthand knowledge that they would never escape justice and they would pay for betraying their fellow Humans. Tens of thousands of the new generation of Earthforce enlisted men and women were sworn to bring the Tau'ri traitors to justice. It was President Clark's plan to unify all of Humanity wherever it was, into one glorious Alliance; but first, they required the massive amounts of infrastructure and ships. These Colonies of Kobol would help that dream become a reality. Their resources could easily be updated and converted for use by Earth Alliance in the coming war against the alien aggressors.
Earth Alliance was spreading fast and aliens were losing their fear of Earth's power. The Vree were actively hostile and somehow, they had Tau'ri-style FTL, which they must have somehow either stolen (not likely) or traded with the Tau'ri for! Tau'ri traitors. The Abbai were afraid of EA and he agreed that taking their shield technology and improving it went a long way for Humanity's security. The League governments were actively building their space fleets no doubt to hit Earth when they felt that were ready. Dozens of unknown aliens were being discovered and all of them were hostile.
It was as if there were forces in the background stirring up hatred against Earth and everyone else.
But the Ministry of Peace and the Ministry of Justice also knew that eventually the survivors of the Tau'ri world(s) and the Colonials would be absorbed into Earth Alliance and brought to established 'safe' colonies to become loyal members of EA. when they could be properly initiated. Or, if necessary they would, regrettably, have to be put down for the betterment of all concerned. The so-called Tau'ri, who dared to call their home world Earth had no right to even utter the name, not after what they did! Just because they were from another universe didn't mean they would escape justice.
'Enough of this diatribe' he thought bemused by the fact he was mentally monologuing. 'Now is not the time to rehash the past. No one but historians and people who read their books will care'. He needed to focus on the now or risk doing something stupid and getting himself killed.
Major Hatashi Kinto, like so many of his generation who entered the service after the war, was a true believer, just to type of soldier that President Clark loved to serve under him. Most never questioned too deeply why Earth Alliance had turned into a fascist state as all of the threats in the galaxy were trying to kill them. Those people that did question the shadowy road that Earth was heading, disappeared in the early days of the Clark administration. Those that rebelled against the Earth Alliance mandate were confined and reeducated. The defiant colonies were reigned in. Earth Alliance was more united than ever against the alien threat as it should be. The few rebels that were left were being hunted down and would soon be only a footnote in the history books, if that.
Kinto's threat indicators on his HUD immediately lit up as targeting beams crisscrossed his modified SA-38 block-C Thunderbolt star fury was pinged. The Minbari-based stealth system kept his fighter from being locked onto at this range but the enemy knew that his squadron was closing in. He felt the thrill of anticipation. This was what he was trained for and was very eager to mix it up with these 'other Humans'. Targeting systems identified thirty-seven targets ripe _
"Stay tight," Captain Kara 'call sign Starbuck' Trace ordered her squadrons of vipers who were rapidly closing in on their Earth counterparts position. "Remember, they have a longer strike range than we do just like the chrome heads. We have to hit them several times to kill them. They have crystalline armor that makes them hard to kill. They're hard to track and we have to get in close, but little things like that won't bother us. That's what we do. Stay frosty and remember your training." She cursed silently. Getting in close was going to be a difficult challenge without casualties.
Her sixteen viper Mark VII class were the points of the sword in this engagement. The Mark VIIs were recent upgrades, anticipating the newer Cylon fighters developed during the cold war. Both Cylon and Colonial continually advanced their fighters naturally assuming the other side would do the same. As a result, ECM systems had advanced significantly in the last five years.
The three raptors configured for long-ranged support were following up some thirty kilometers back, providing much needed logistical and tactical support. Two of the raptors provided the newly developed heavy ECM burn units and DRADIS support crucial for the survival of the combat group.
Despite not participating in actual combat with the Cylons, Starbuck was more than thankful for the upgrades in technology designed to combat Cylon infiltration and ECM capabilities. She was upset that the upgrades couldn't burn through capital Earth ships' impressive stealth systems, but the smaller fighters were another matter. They didn't have the power to continually spoof her fighters or raptors for long. It made for a more even fight. Of course, the enemy was using lasers or ray guns of some kind which had a longer and more effective kill range. But targeting and hitting your targets were another matter and her people and the other pilots excelled in evading attacks from multiple vectors before hitting back. Those anti-Cylon tactics would help to keep her people alive.
"Vigilantes and Primus squadron actual, we have thirty fighters inbound. DRADIS sees two, repeat two gunstar class ships forty klicks behind the fighters. There may be more coming into range. Will update."
"Acknowledged. All squadrons, prepare for engagement."
"Vigilantes actual, Black Wolves squadron coming up on your nine o'clock low," said Captain Emandes from the Unidynal combat group. His squadron of sixteen were charging in fast waiting to join the others. Another fourteen vipers and five raptors would join them in two minutes at their six. He was deferring to Starbuck as she had the most experience fighting the Earthers and they all knew that they would need all their firepower to combat the two Earth gunstars trailing the fighters.