"The Valkyrie Class Battlestar was endemic to the colonial fleet from its first deployment during the end of the Cylon war to the fall of the colonies and beyond. It was first proposed as a cheap and fast light battlestar to complement the larger ships within the colonial fleet but also the smaller ones, having the speed of a corvette, the armor of a gunstar, and the firepower of a light battlestar in the hull of a cruiser. It might not have always been called one, but ultimately it struck fear into anyone who opposed the colonies. From these humble beginnings midway through the First Cylon War, the multiple variants would be produced over the next few decades up to the fall of the colonies (and in some cases beyond it) which were far more lethal than their predecessors."
- Jane's Guide to the Fighting Ships of the Colonies
Chapter 3:
(This chapter starts when the Cylons try to nuke the colonial one and get stopped by Apollo)
Laura Roslin looked around in disbelief at what had happened.
They somehow weren't dead, even though they had essentially no defenses and the Cylons had just launched a missile at them.
After getting back up to the main cabin Captain Adama told her the trick he had played with the electronic pulse generators and she sighed with relief. They had survived despite all odds.
The stranded civilian ship was soon evacuated and its passengers loaded into Colonial One and the other ships accompanying it.
More and more civilian ships soon arrived, and soon a Colonial Fleet Raptor arrived as well. It was piloted by a lieutenant from the Galactica, Sharon Valeri, and carried on among other people, Gaius Baltar, the famed scientist and genius. Boomer began helping search for and lead in more and more ships, both FTL capable and sublight.
In the middle of space, a ship emerged, and then more and more. It was the battlestar Valkyrie, the namesake of her class that had been based on a previous design known as the Mars Class from the first war that was a lot smaller than it. Valkyrie had been in orbit of Caprica defending it while the fleet.
Commander Audrey Bakerson paced through the CIC, concerned about the state of the colonies and her ship. She had gotten word of the attacks after being deployed to a remote mining colony to investigate some weird sensor readings. Accelerating her journey back, the ships of the task force now had the CNP purged from their computers and we're ready for a fight. Thankfully they hadn't seen the Cylons yet, but the picture that they had gotten from the reports had been devastating. Once they had gotten word about Secretary Roslyn's survival that the only realistic choice was to join and provide protection to that force.
By the time they arrived a fleet of 20 civilian ships had been assembled, with about two-thirds of them being FTL capable. The non-FTL capable ships were docked with or in some cases inside the ones that were, either prepared to jump with the ships or being unloaded so that they could be left within deep space.
"This is the Battlestar Valkyrie to Secretary Roslyn, we are awaiting your orders, ma'am," Audrey said. "This Battlestar is also much better protected than your civilian ship," Audrey said in a message directed at Colonial One.
"Thank you commander but I am fine here. I want you to assume a defensive position around the fleet and deploy your raptors to find more ships and bring them back here." Roslyn said. "And I have a pilot from Atlantia over here, he was taking part in the decommissioning ceremony."
"Well if you want ma'am I can get him in a Viper and make him useful. What's his name."
"Captain Lee Adama."
Pretty much everyone in the fleet knew of Bill Adama by reputation, but Audrey hadn't heard of his son. She decided to ask a person that she did know.
"Hey Chris, have you ever heard of Captain Lee Adama?"
"Sure as hell have." Captain Christopher Kinsingser, the ship's CAG said. "He's a damn good pilot and inherited Adama's skills in the cockpit. He was in the Advanced Tactical Training Class right after me and we had a few drinks together in the officer's club."
"Could you make use of him if he came over?"
"Frak yeah, I'd put him in a Viper right away." He replied with bravado.
With all of her 20 raptors deployed, more and more civilian ships were found, and led to the growing fleet. Far more were being found when compared to those who had found their way on their own or with the help of Boomers.
In about an hour 200 ships had been found, with over 120 of them having FTL drives. As was taking place before, people and supplies were being transformed over to the FTL capable ships or the non-FTL ships were being docked with the ones that could. While docking ships with the Battlestar would impede flight operations some of the small ships were being docked with or landing in the fleet tender and marine assault ship. Even though it was carrying an entire brigade, it had been designed to carry several divisions which would total up to tens of thousands of troops along with their vehicles and supplies. Therefore the ship had a lot of room and its hangar was soon crowded by a dozen civilian ships.
There were now a dozen other military vessels in the fleet that had been found by the raptors, and unfortunately, all had some bad stories to tell about how the war was going throughout the colonies. The Cylons had begun nuking the colonies and what wasn't being nuked was being invaded by waves of centurions. The colonials lacked space superiority and while the airspace above the battlefield was contested, that wouldn't last long with orbital superiority. It seemed that just about everyone the Cylons managed to capture was executed on the spot.
This wasn't a war, it was a genocide. The Cylons were simply trying to eliminate the colonials from existence.
There was a small blimp on DRADIS, a contact accelerating from FTL most likely. However, it lacked identification and jumped out mere seconds later.
The CIC of the Valkyrie was dead silent. They all knew what this was, though none of them said a word.
"We need to get out of here," Audrey said and immediately told the president what she thought was going on. Luckily almost all of the civilian ships had been made ready, and the few that weren't would be ready in five minutes. Soon those that could be jumping out while the Valkyrie and the other military ships stayed behind to provide escort.
Three minutes later, the Cylons arrived. Two basestars and hundreds of raiders were soon screaming toward the fleet.
The ships of the colonial fleet launched their vipers and put up flak; trying to stop the Cylon's waves of missiles from hitting the civilians. Even the lightest military vessel could shrug off hits that would cripple a civilian ship. The defensive perimeter that had been formed around the fleet was proving effective, and a screen of mobile vipers made it even more so.
A few civilian ships were hit but they were all non-FTL capable ships that had been used as decoys to draw Cylon's attention. They would realize their mistake. After the last ships jumped the Vipers were recalled and the colonials jumped to the rendezvous coordinates.
136 ships arrived in the coordinates that had been planned to be used as a backup if they had to jump out, with over two dozen others that lacked FTL and had been attached to or docked in other ships.
Audrey breathed a sigh of relief as she counted the ships. It was a relief that so many had survived, and she hoped that they were only some of the ones that had survived.
"Madam President, I suggest we go to Ragnar. There is a colonial fleet anchorage there and one of the few coherent messages that we've received indicates that Commander Adama is planning a counterattack there. He may have additional ships, including the Galactica. It also damages cylons when they come inside the nebula, so we should be safe for some time." Audrey said.
"Then I believe that that is the best course of action Commander, do it," Roslin said.
In a few minutes, the fleet jumped. It would take the Cylons several hours to find the path they had gone on even though they had superior reconnaissance abilities due to their massive numbers of raiders. And even then the raiders didn't have a great idea of where the fleet was as it was impossible to track ships once they jumped out of range of DRADIS.
That was why space combat was rare in deep space, as an enemy could just keep on retreating further and further into deep space. This could be mitigated by several factors, however, if you could slowly whittle down a ship's fuel, and ammunition and generally slowly damage it over time. Additionally, you could always wear down the crew making them sleep-deprived as you kept on attacking, but all of these strategies relied on a good idea of where your enemy was, which most fleets simply couldn't get. So instead they attacked objectives that their enemy simply had to defend, like planets, space stations, and strategic locations. As far as warfare in space was concerned, a stateless strategy, or at least keeping their bases well hidden and few had always been incredibly effective as it allowed one to strike without having to defend their land. They would always be able to be on the offense and never on the defensive, if they suffered heavy losses in a battle then they could always just run away. That would have to be how the remnants of the 12 Colonies would have to fight.
Soon after the fleet arrived in Ragnar. They entered the large nebula to find the anchorage (which had once been a mobile shipyard during the Cylon war) Galactica, and some escorts and civilian ships.
On the Valkyrie, there was a sigh of relief as the crew of the ship realized that they were not the last Battlestar in existence. Sure there were probably others out there at this point but they were isolated throughout colonial space. This battlestar was here right now, which gave Bakerson a lot of relief.
She turned to her communications officer. "Open a channel to Commander Adama."
Author's note: Thank you to everyone who has already reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. It really gives me the motivation to continue writing this.