Chapter 2: The Attack

"This is the commander. Moments ago, this ship received word of a Cylon attack against our home worlds being underway. We do not know the size or disposition or strength of the enemy forces. But all indications point... to a massive assault against Colonial defenses.

Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the fleet aboard the battlestar Atlantia, following the destruction of Picon Fleet Headquarters in the first wave of the attacks.

How why ... doesn't matter now. What does matter is that, as of this moment, we are at war. You've trained for this. You're ready for this. Stand up to your duties, trust your fellow shipmates and we'll all get through this. Further updates as we get them. Thank you."

-William Adama's speech to the crew of the Battlestar Galactica after learning of the Cylon attacks on the colonies.

"Tell Dipper and his squadron to return to base immediately at max speed," Adama ordered Dualla as he received the report of the Cylon attack. He should have pushed harder to make sure that the CNP not be installed on the Vipers but it would have made them significantly less efficient. As much as Adama wouldn't want to admit it, networked computing infrastructure had its use when it came to fighters as you simply couldn't run wires between them.

Galactica's two remaining Viper squadrons were on their way to Caprica to be reassigned to other missions. The notice about the CNP had come out just as they were launching and as far as Adama was concerned he didn't have authority over them anymore. He had even laughed about it, as his ship wouldn't need to go through hours of reprogramming as it didn't have the CNP on it.

But that laughter had died away with the Cylon attack underway and the likelihood that they would exploit the vulnerability would be highly likely. And additionally, the Galactica had very little means to defend herself. Most of her ammunition had been stripped away and what remained would be sufficient for a delaying action at most. This ammunition was meant for live fire demonstrations of her firepower, not for an actual battle.

Right now the flight crew were attempting to get the four dozen or so Mk II Vipers ready for combat along with token numbers of MK I's and MK III's. About 40 of the MK II's were certified to fly and were being loaded with combat munitions with the rest of them being made operational, though to be completely honest they should not be let anywhere near combat. Not all of the MK VII's had been offloaded and there were still a dozen of the reserve birds that were supposed to reinforce the squadrons if they had fighters down. At least they did have pilots for all of the operational fighters, and they would be putting up a combat air patrol as soon as possible. They also had a lot of ammunition for their 30mm autocannons, though there were very few air-to-air missiles as most had already been offloaded. If the Vipers went into combat they would need to kill Cylons the old-fashioned way, at least most of the time.

"Sir, Dipper is reporting that his viper is freezing up. None of the others are doing so and it looks like a technical issue."

"Have Boomer tow them in," Adama ordered. "Do we have any luck with any of the MK IIs?"

"Starbucks has said no joy yet… wait, never mind we have four confirmed launches," Dualla said, a hint of excitement in her voice. "Tyrol thinks he can get half a dozen more within 15 minutes.

"Tell her to escort our squadrons in as they return to base," Adama ordered.

"Do we have an estimate on how long they will take to get back?" Tigh asked.

"At the current speed, they should be back in 15 minutes. The engines might wear out a bit faster but they should be enough." Lieutenant Gaeta said.

"Engines can be replaced more easily than Vipers," Adama said.

Starbuck led three of the old Viper MK II towards the 2 squadrons that were returning to Galactica. These museum pieces were handled surprisingly well considering their age though she indicated that they had been maintained. They had been bought from some private collector, and he had cared for them if their performance was any indication.

Her DRADIS array, one of the only computerized parts of the cockpit, showed that 39 vipers were on a standard course in one big group back towards the Galactica. Meanwhile, Sharon's Raptor was busy trying to tow Dipper's viper which had a critical malfunction in one of the engines. Her goal was to protect the mass of Vipers.

For about the next 12 minutes, everything went well and there were no contacts. Several more MK II vipers even managed to join the ranks of the existing escorts, bringing the total to eight.

But then two contacts emerged, lacking colonial IFFs. A minute later four more emerged. It was less than a minute before all of the Mark VI's had their weapons, sensors, communications equipment, life support, main engines, and secondary thrusters disabled. A volley of missiles soon followed as the Cylons attempted to destroy all of the vipers.

However, they didn't expect Starbuck and the other Vipers to turn around and charge at the missiles, downing a couple of dozen before turning around for a pursuit. Pushing her Viper to the limits of its speed, Thrace destroyed more and more of the missiles to the point that only five hit their targets. Four in the main group of 40 along with Dipper's Viper. Sharon's raptor had also jumped out after sustaining damage.

The raiders however had expended all of their missiles in the first attack, meaning that they would now move into a dogfight and would now fall into a close-range duel. The MKII Vipers fired missiles at them however, cutting down half which was impressive since the small missiles had been grabbed from the museum about half an hour earlier. Some of the pilots had been wondering if they were even functional. Starbuck then closed in for a gun kill, taking down two of the raiders with her twin 30-millimeter autocannons while the last one was taken down by another pilot.

A couple of the pilots had managed to eject after their vipers were destroyed and all of the MK VII were towed into the flight pod by raptors. Considering the circumstances, the Galactica got off lucky. Before the crews of the Vipers were even out of their fighters the deck crew under Chief Tyrol were beginning to remove the current patch of the CNP from the Vipers and install the older version which was not compromised. More MK IIs were ready to fly and sent on a combat air patrol around the old battlestar.

However, another four contacts soon appeared on DRADIS which lacked colonial IFFs.

Missiles fired from the craft and the Galactica's radiological alarm began to flare. Four nuclear missiles were inbound to the ship, and the half a dozen Vipers on CAP began racing towards the missiles in an attempt to shoot them down.

Starbuck managed to get one and another pilot got another, with one of the alert vipers that had just launched getting another. However, all failed to get the last one, which was about to impact the Galactica in mere seconds.

While almost all of her ammunition had been offloaded a small amount had been kept aboard for demonstrations and as museum exhibits, along with a small supply for its point defense guns to be used in the event of an attack. Half a dozen point defense guns opened up on the missile as it was mere kilometers away. They would have begun to fire sooner if not for their small amount of ammo; each gun had approximately 5 seconds worth and if they expended all of it before the missile hit nothing was stopping it. The one missile was vaporized in seconds and a cheer came up from the crew of the CIC. Adama signed in relief as the missile disappeared from DRADIS. That would have been a major problem if it had hit.

Starbuck and the other pilots meanwhile chased after the four raiders who attempted a close-range dogfight with them. After two of them were destroyed, however, the remaining ones chose to spin up their FTL drives and jump out. One against the colonials had triumphed, despite all the disadvantages.

Back in the CIC Tigh presented Adama with several options for the rearming of the ship. Gaeta and Captain Kelly would also be advising the commander on what his next course of action should be.

"All of the colonies are unsafe for us at the moment, which takes them out of the question," Tigh said. "However there are several anchorages near us including Ragnar which is the closest and probably not a major target of the Cylons. We should have way more than enough munitions and spare parts. Additionally, the radiation that it produces is not harmful to humans but is for some reason when it comes to cells. So we should be safe while reloading."

"The flight pod that was turned into a museum isn't capable of launching vipers and even if it's just for raptors and shuttles we don't need all of that space." Captain Aaron Kelly said. "We should be able to fit a lot of stuff in that space. And it would free up the LSO staff if we reduce operations there."

"You have my approval then," Adama said, turning to Gaeta. "Plot a course for Ragnar. In the meantime, I want to find out where the remaining ships of the colonial fleet are and figure out what to do next."

The reports kept coming in of devastation and destruction from the colonies as the Cylon attack continued. They heard the order to rendezvous over Virgon but decided to ignore it, as it was probably a death trap. The news was mostly bad, but there was some occasional good news. Scorpia seemed to be hanging on to its defenses and a large number of base ships had managed to have been destroyed. The counterattack over Virgon seemed to work and even though it would later come to light that it was eventually defeated it bought time for many civilians to be evacuated from the colonies along with critical supplies to sustain them.

But this was far from a victory, and even if the colonials would manage to destroy the entire Cylon invasion force the Cylons had already won in some of their objectives. Most significant parts of the colonies were already either nuked or irradiated and those that weren't now would be shortly. Billions were dead and while it appeared that some of the fleet had survived it was perhaps a quarter in the most lucky estimates. The fact that severe damage had been done to the fleet was known but the full extent would not become apparent immediately.

"Set a course for Ragnar Anchorage and prepare the FTL drive," Adama ordered. As far as he was concerned, the Galactica was useless in a fight if she didn't get rearmed, and that was exactly why she was planning to jump to Ragnar.

Galactica's goal was now to get restocked with munitions which would return it to combat capability. There was no other way for it to have an impact on the war.

"Sir, we have two multiple contacts appearing on DRADIS," Gaeta said, staring at the DRADIS console. "Wait, it's our task force!" He said with excitement. There was a cheer in the CIC and Adama smiled. Hudson had somehow figured out where he had ended up, which wasn't a major surprise since he had been aware of his general location a few hours ago.

"Open a channel to Lansing and tell Commander Hudson our plans," Adama said.

Author's note: Galactica was mentioned to have its last operational squadron going on to Caprica which gets shot down. I'm doubling this number because I think the amount of Vipers that she would be carrying is under-emphasized and I want to give her more firepower for what's coming. Sure, I am increasing the size of the colonial survivors in Galactica's group but the Cylons will also have larger numbers especially as time goes on. Both sides are going to have more resources at their disposal.

For those of you wondering, the group of escorts won't be the only colonial ships that meet up with Galactica but her force will still be far smaller when it comes to military ships than any other of the colonial survivor fleets that were in Reap the Whirlwind. (At least in the short term). There will be more civilian ships, however, because there are several factors compared to Canon which would allow more to survive. (The fact that the CNP is discovered slightly before the attacks for example.) But that will be covered in the next chapter.

As for Hudson and Adama being of the same rank; Hudson is still subservient to him because the task force is under Adama's direct command, and that Adama has been an officer longer. In a lot of cases, Adama would be an admiral but he isn't for political reasons and the fact that the mission behind Cylon lines went poorly. However, if Adama is unable to command the fleet then Hudson gets command. This may be important later on…

Anyway, see you next chapter.