Chapter 4: Ragnar

"Ragnar Anchorage has had a storied history, produced before the first war as a mobile part of Scorpia Shipyards as Dadilous Shipyard which served the colonial fleet as a mobile headquarters during the beginning to middle of the first war. However it would eventually be left at Ragnar following an ill-fated mission, and it would therefore stay there after its FTL drive was stripped for parts by a desperate colonial fleet. It would be relatively intact after the first war, due to the Cylon's inability to stay in Ragnar for significant periods, and the colonial fleet would convert it into an anchorage that held loads of old first-war weaponry to re-equip at least two colonial battlegroups. This is why it would serve as an important point in the journey of Battlestar Galactica and her fleet, and interestingly after it left plenty of other fleets. Years later when the counterattack to drive the Cylons out of the colonies began, Ragnar was still standing and is still around to this very day, now a museum to both of the wars. A testament to colonial engineering."

- Deadlock, the Untold Story of the First War

Eleven ships emerged in the orbit of Ragnar Anchorage, the station that would refill them with ordnance desperately needed to continue the fight.

But they weren't alone, there were a dozen other contacts in the vicinity of the anchorage. Thankfully DRADIS revealed that they were all colonial, revealed to be a mobile mining company of eight ships escorted by two frigates from the colonial guard and two civilian freighters that had been picked up on the way.

This was a lucky find, but Adama wasn't sure what to do with the frigates. The Colonial Fleet doctrine had mostly moved away from these types of small ships that were less than 350 or 400 meters in length because they were extremely vulnerable in combat against larger vessels, as they were only lightly armored due to their small size.

Their vulnerable hulls could be destroyed by a few powerful conventional missiles, and would instantly be destroyed if hit by a nuke. They were a bit less vulnerable to guns, especially lighter caliber ones, but still far more than light cruisers, which were now the fleet's mainstay escort vessels as they could take more of a hit. The fleet did still use these two types of ships in planetary security and anti-piracy missions, but their numbers were relatively scarce. An exception to this rule of smaller ships was the fast start, which was designed more like a high-speed missile and gun attack craft than a slower escort. The fleet did also use several patrol ships, mostly in the same role that frigates and destroyers once were used in.

Destroyers and Frigates still had users outside the colonial fleet, however. Planetary defense forces which answered to the government of the colony that operated them used them prolifically, as they eagerly snatched the inexpensive vessels that would be heading to be scrapped or if they were lucky the reserves. And since the Colonial Guard was a law enforcement agency, these types of ships were far more useful to them. In some worlds, corporations and even wealthy private citizens could own them. And practically every significant pirate group used them as well. The Guard didn't operate combat vessels larger than a destroyer as it was a law enforcement agency that had little offensive capability. In the event of a war their forces would be placed under the command of the Colonial Fleet and their assets be dictated as Admirals or even commanders saw fit.

"This is Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica to an unidentified fleet, please identify yourselves." He said as he got Dualla to transmit to the ships.

"This is Captain Ray of the Colonial Guard Frigate Izmir, escorting ships of the Red Sun mining company. We thought that this would be one of the safest locations from the Cylons, considering its history."

"Captain, I'm sure you're familiar with the colonial laws that place you under my command in wartime. I am having you placed under my command and will have your ship along with the other frigate to protect the civilian mining fleet. Do you and the other ships have any extra space aboard?

"This frigate doesn't have much room but one of the freighters is practically empty."

"Have any ships that have room docks at the anchorage to take on supplies. I'm taking control of the civilian ships as well." Adama knew that the facility had enough munitions and other supplies for an entire battlegroup, far more than Galactica and even all of these other ships in their current condition would be able to carry. Hopefully, he would be able to leave a lot of it for other groups of colonial ships to find. He knew there were parts of colonial fleet ships out there, and they needed ammunition to carry on the fight.

The Galactica and her task force moved over and began talking about supplies from the vast station. A single person was found in the station, apparently an arms dealer. He managed to capture Adama temporarily but Adama managed to overpower him and soon heavily suspected that he was a Cylon, which he did admit. It was hard to deny due to his illness, and Adama began considering that there might be more Cylon agents throughout the Galactica and the fleet. He decided to stay a bit inside Ragnar, which radioactive effects would make any Cylons that were aboard sick and therefore reveal them.

Adama had sent a message out to the fleet calling for any surviving ships to meet there but at first, no one took him up on his message. Cylons electronic warfare abilities were vast and the vast network of satellites and other equipment that allowed the colonies to communicate was either being jammed or destroyed. Communications were still possible due to the individual transmitters in the various ships but they didn't have nearly the bandwidth when compared to the dedicated satellites. That didn't even begin to factor in the fact that many messages could be traps, so some ships were likely to make their decisions cautiously before acting.

However, after some time, some colonial ships did arrive. Another cruiser squadron, this time with more modern ships arrived. They had narrowly escaped destruction over Aerilon, managing to make an FTL jump out before the CNP inflected their ships. They cleared it and tried to reinforce the colonial bread basket but it was in the process of being overrun and they wouldn't be able to do much. They had managed to find a group of eight auxiliaries and support ships that had also escaped and brought them along, and in addition, a few civilian ships had come along for the ride. Out of these support assets, there was a large troopship operated by the Colonial Marines which held an entire mechanized infantry brigade and a mobile drydock that could repair ships up to the size of a Mercury Class Battlestar. Adama knew that such an asset would be invaluable as the Cylons had destroyed most of the colonial infrastructure and would probably continue to destroy the rest of it.

Adama was at first reluctant to protect civilians; while he would not harm them they would get in the way of military operations, and he couldn't have loose lips sink ships. However, these mining ships would be invaluable, and from the limited history of the company he had managed to acquire they had performed several contacts for the colonial fleet. The lead ship for the company was an old Defender Class support vessel, which according to its manifest supposedly had a squadron of MK II Vipers and some armaments. So he decided to commission some of the ships into auxiliaries, as they would need whatever resources they could get.

Adama decided to stay in the anchorage for a small period to see if any more Cylons emerged from the ship. If someone got sick with the same conditions as Aaron Doyal they'd be put in the brig under heavy guard for the time being. He couldn't afford toasters running around throughout the ship.

Massive quantities of munitions were being loaded onto Galactica, enough to keep her supplied through battle after battle. Priority however was given to things that weren't munitions as Galactica could produce those in her workshops with the right parts, parts that could be made with the heavy support ship. The heavy support ship in fact could make far more than that, and Adama could produce entire ships thanks to that mobile drydock. Things like spare parts and even several hundred old MK II and III Vipers, which could replenish all of Galactica's complement and bring her up to wartime fighter levels.

Even with the large amount of supplies they had the capacity for they would not be able to take all of it. And Adama was glad for that, as if the Cylon's situation was as bad as it sounded he would need munitions for other ships.

"Sir, we have over a hundred contacts on DRADIS that are coming into Ragnar. Wait, I'm getting colonial transponders from all of them. Looks like most of them are civilians but there are about a dozen military vessels and half a dozen auxiliaries. One of those is a battlestar, the Battlestar Valkyrie, and what looks to be her escorting force, along with a smattering of other ships." Dualla said.

"Well it looks like we aren't alone," Tigh muttered.

"Commander Adama, this is Commander Bakerson. I have the President of the Colonies on one of my ships, the former Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin. As the senior officer between us, she is requesting to meet with you."

"Thank the gods that there are more of you alive. Send the President over." Bill said. Truth be told he wasn't looking forward to this meeting. She was a god's damn school teacher and didn't deserve to be President of the colonies. To be fair, everyone above her in the line of succession was probably dead or about to be so, but he didn't plan on taking any orders from her of all people. He didn't want to harm these civilians, but he would take what he could get from them.

"The President also wants me to come over," Audrey said. "And I believe that I have your son over here, I can send him over as well."

Adama was glad that his son had survived, as he had assumed that he was dead after the previous conversation with him.

Soon two raptors came over to the Galactica from the other Battlestar, with one picking up Roslin from Colonial One.

"She's going to want protection from the fleet," Tigh said, not looking particularly happy about that fact.

"Perhaps," Adama said. "Go to the conference room and get ready for this meeting." Tigh did as he was ordered. He also called Hudson over to ask him about what he thinks he should do in the current situation. Adama wasn't exactly sure yet to be completely honest, but he was far closer to being in favor of counterattacking the Cylons and causing as much damage as possible. They had a decently large fleet and several support assets. Additionally, much of the fleet was probably not destroyed, though it was undeniable that serious losses had been taken.

Soon everyone entered a large conference room. In a moment of closeness the two had not faced in quite some time, Lee embraced his dad. After that brief moment of tenderness along with other more mundane greetings, everyone got down to business.

"I intend to launch a counterattack against the Cylons and link up with as many colonial fleet elements that remain and can be found," Adama said. "I will take all of the military vessels in this fleet and some of the civilian ships that are armed or are vital to resource production. I will not harm any civilians that wish to stay here, however, and I hope to create an environment that you can return to when the time's right."

"Commander, I'm not sure how much you will respect my orders and words. But we need to abandon the colonies as winning this war will be impossible in the short term. Yes, there are other survivors out there but we can do little for them as we don't know where they are. What we need to do is get out of here and start having babies fast. If we flee we can go somewhere where we can rebuild and one day return to the colonies with a more substantial force" Roslin said.

"Bill, for fracks sake she's a schoolteacher, what the hell does she know about running a war?"

"What objections do you have to this plan, Major, even though they come from the Secretary of Education." Baker shot back, a snarky tone in her voice.

"I don't think we should give up on the colonies until we have more information. If a large chunk of the fleet is still around then I think it would be wise to wait on a decision." Hudson said. "I'd recommend sending our recon flights with our raptors to see if we can find more survivors." He looked around at the pensive expressions in the room. "However I wouldn't be opposed to fleeing at a later date."

"The military vessels have a more powerful FTL drive and can jump back to the colonies more easily. We can lead the civilians to safety and also jump back here to conduct reconnaissance, raids, and salvage operations regularly." Lee said, looking at his father. "But this is likely one of the last major groups of human civilization and I think we as members of the colonial fleet are under an obligation to protect it." Audrey and Hudson nodded, now clearly in support of the fleet's choice.

"I'm willing to go along with the President's plan, especially after my son's recommendation. But I want to ensure that the president stays out of military affairs, and in return that the fleet stays out of civilian affairs except matters critical to our survival."

"That is a compromise I am willing to accept," Roslin said. "But we need to figure out where we will flee towards."

"Do you remember Project Exodus?" Audrey asked. Everyone looked in confusion, as they didn't know.

"It was a project about three years ago that was officially planned to be the furthest deep space exploration project that humanity had ever attempted. It was sent in the general direction of what we thought was the 13th tribe and officially had mostly civilian and scientific aims. Unofficially and known by a select few individuals was that this mission was designed to create a colony of humans away from the colonies to give us a fallback option if the Cylons ever attacked and wiped us out. They had a massive exploration and colony ship larger than a Titan Class Battlestar, a Mercury and refitted Jupiter Battlestar, several dozen escorts, and support ships of both military and civilian origin. They were ready to create an entire new civilization and we lost contact with them about 200 lightyears from the colonies, though to be fair we didn't plan on keeping contact with them for much longer. We know their direction and FTL and coordinates that they traveled for those 200 or so jumps."

Audrey paused and looked around. "We can follow them up to a point at least and find a safe place for the civilians to hide. All this time we can also jump back here to conduct reconnaissance, raids, and salvage operations regularly." Audrey said. "That shouldn't be too hard since the FTL drives of all the military ships are better than the ones onboard the civilian ships; more efficient and with a much farther range. Even though the colonies are going to be wrecked, there is likely a lot of material that can be salvaged. If we can get good enough reconnaissance we could even see if we could strike behind Cylon lines."

"For now I think we should focus more on getting the civilians to safety," Roslin said. "While I will stay out of military matters that doesn't mean I will be silent with my opinions."

"I agree," Adama said slowly. "According to colonial fleet regulations I am in command of this fleet, and wish to stay there. We will depart shortly, once 50 percent of Ragnar's supplies have been extracted and loaded into the ships. Return to your ships."

"Why are we leaving usable munitions on this station?" Bakerson asked.

"Because we don't have the capacity on the military ships to take more, and I don't want to put any on civilian ships due to how explosive they are. Outside some special weapons like nukes which we took all of there is nothing we can't produce ourselves that we haven't already taken. Since the Cylons probably won't come in here we should keep this area clear for other survivors." There was a nod from everyone.

"How are we going to structure this fleet? Will you use existing task forces, Commander?" Hudson asked.

"Both the Galactica's escort group and the Valkyrie and her escorting task force will be kept together," Adama said. "The remaining ships including the Cruiser Squadron 57 will be put in a task force to protect the support ships and the civilian fleet. That should allow us to have a balanced posture of both offensive firepower and defensive protection."

Soon everyone was out of the room, and making their way to the raptors that would take time back to their ships. Commander Adama wanted him to stay soon, however.

"Captain, you may not have heard but we lost Dipper and a few other pilots while fighting off the Cylons and I need a new CAG. That's your job, and since you're the highest-ranking flight officer in the fleet you will be in overall command of all pilots and fighters throughout the fleet. That's not going to be an easy job but knowing you my son, I think you can do it."

"Yes sir," Lee said and saluted. Bill pinned a new placard to his uniform to date his greater rank and both left to head their respective directions.

"Any orders for your new CAG?"

"Our sensors can't penetrate outside the nebula so I need some eyes on whatever is out there," Adama said. "You only need a Viper, not Raptors since we only need to see if something is clear in the short range.

Lee was soon down at the flight deck, which was busy with all sorts of activity. A bunch of old vipers had been taken off of Ragnar along with loads of spare parts.

A familiar blond woman walked up to him.

"How the hell did you get here, Lee?" She asked. He briefly explained the events of the past few hours to her, and she listened intently.

"Well as much as it's difficult for me to admit, I'm frakin glad you're here Lee." She said before tackling him in an embrace. Lee was certainly at least a little embarrassed by this move but regardless it was nice to be back on the Galactica.

Since she was ready to go and her viper was in the tube Apollo got Starbuck to go and perform the recon mission.

"Starbucks, what do you see out there?" Adama asked a few minutes after she had launched.

"I see half a dozen basestars and a few small ships, along with a thousand raiders." She said with a grimace. "They're right in our path for when we jump out, and honestly I don't like the odds of this. They have the location that we need for the jump, surrounded."

"Good, that means that we can fire in all directions," Adama said. He turned to Gaeta. "There are no alternative exits?"

"There are asteroids all around the anchorage which would make jump calculations impossible." He replied.

"I think we only have one choice," Tigh said with a sigh. "We either fight our way out or we die trying."

"Tell all ships in the fleet to prepare for the FTL jump and for military ships to go to condition one," Adama ordered. "Starbuck, what do you think of the Cylon raider? You've fought a few."

"Maybe I'm a bit biased sir but I think it sucks. Don't get me wrong it's a great missile truck and recon craft and having FTL capabilities is great and all but it's dogshit in a dogfight. Even its armament when it comes to guns is the same as the MK II. Not great speed and acceleration and its maneuverability is ass. Or at least I don't know how maneuverable it is because whatever is supposed to be a pilot in there does nothing but the most basic maneuvers. Fight them a little bit more and I'll come up with a handbook on how to fight those little frackers." She said,

"How smart are they?" Adama asked.

"About as much as a dog," Starbuck said.

"Come meet back with your squadron, I have a plan to catch many of the raiders." He said.

The two squadrons of MK VI Vipers that had almost been destroyed in the previous encounter with the Cylons were scrambled and led by Apollo and Starbuck to the edge of the nebula, while the rest of the fleet stayed waiting behind. The Galactica, Valkyrie, and the rest of the Colonial Fleet vessels had prepared in a wall formation horizontally behind the two squadrons.

The Vipers rushed out of the Nebula, finding the same collection of raiders and basestars as before. This time they were realized and about half of the raiders charged against them, trying to shut the vipers down through the CNP but doing so unsuccessfully as it had been purged from the vipers. The hopelessly outmatched vipers made a sharp turn and rushed back into the nebula, breaking off to the sides to avoid the incoming onslaught.

The raiders had been ordered to not try and fly j to the nebula due to how it would erode the Cylon silica pathways. Only about half of them obeyed and over a thousand of the Cylons craft had instinctively rushed in to catch their prey.

When they got there they found themselves amid a massive flak barrage, with every gun that could on both the Galactica, Valkyrie and other escorts firing into the mass of raiders. Even the main battery joined in, firing massive airburst shells that could obliterate anything meters from its impact point.

The raiders kept coming and none of them stood a chance. A few retreated and made it out before it was too late but more and more kept coming until about half of the deployable raiders in the Cylon fleet had been destroyed.

While this was going on Lieutenant Sharon Valeri led a dozen raptors out the other side of the nebula through a dense asteroid field. They soon were positioned in a flanking attack against the force of bastards. They however would wait for the right moment, as timing would be critical to this operation.

Reloaded with regular anti-ship ammunition, the Galactica and her fleet charged out of the nebula. Immediately they found themselves taking missile fire from the half dozen basestars but the fleet was prepared for such an outcome with a massive field of flak that still left the main and secondary batteries

With an idea of where the basestars were located the colonial ships began firing through the nebula, as shells and bullets weren't stopped by it but sensors were. Raptors farted in and out of the nebula, feeding targeting information to the ships inside. The Cylons meanwhile struggled to respond effectively and didn't have targeting data for their missiles, which was effectively the only offensive weapon that they had besides raiders. The basestars were slow to move and the colonials were able to correct their targets through the raptors outside the nebula.

As was shown by the few reports that they had received since this war started, the basestars had armor that was less effective than that which was on the Battlestars. Under sustained and focused fire they crumpled, with one destroyed in several minutes. The remaining basestars retreated further back to be out of range of the colonial guns, but their speed was poor and another one was picked off in fairly short order, explosions rippling through its double Y frame.

Out of effective range, the four remaining basestars now had given the colonials what they wanted; some space they could use to jump. The two Battlestars, escorts, and Vipers emerged from the nebula and created a defensive ring alongside which the civilian ships could jump out. First was Colonial One, followed by one of the passenger liners, then a bulk freighter, and so on.

While the Cylons were focused on a large missile barrage against them the half dozen raptors fired their missiles from behind. There were 24 missiles in total, 18 conventional anti-ship, and six nuclear. Raiders were scrambled to intercept them but it was too late, with almost all of the missiles hitting their targets successfully. One basestar was destroyed and another was heavily damaged.

More and more of the civilian ships jumped, and soon all of them had successfully gotten away from the fleet, recalling Vipers and Raptors. Some of the colonial ships had suffered minor damage, but nothing anywhere close to preventing them from being able to jump.

Soon Galactica had recalled all of her vipers and soon she had jumped, the last ship that had done so. They re-emerged in the coordinates that they had jumped to, and after a count, every ship was accounted for.

A dozen Vipers of both MK II and MK VI varieties had been shot down in the battle and half of their pilots had failed to eject and perished. A few had died on the other ships as well, bringing the total death count of the colonials to 18. Adama would now be leading service in the Galactica's large auditorium.

"Many people died today most of humanity is dead or about to die. Are they the lucky ones? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? We're a long way from home. We've jumped way beyond the Red Line, into uncharted space. Limited supplies, limited fuel. No allies, and now, no hope? Maybe it would have been better for us to have died quickly, back in the Colonies with our families, instead of dying out here slowly, in the emptiness of dark space. Where shall we go? What shall we do? Life here began out there. Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls, and they were told to us by the Lords of Kobol, many countless centuries ago. And they made it clear that we are not alone in this universe. Elosha, there's a thirteenth colony of humankind, is there not?" He asked her.

"Yes." The priest replied. "The scrolls tell us a Thirteenth Tribe left Kobol in the early days. They traveled far and made their home upon a planet called Earth, which circled a distant and unknown star." She said,

"It's not unknown," Adama said. "I know where it is! Earth. The most guarded secret we have. The location was only known by the senior commanders of the fleet, and we dare not share it with the public. Not while there was a Cylon threat upon us. For now, we have a refuge to go to. A refuge the Cylons know nothing about. It won't be an easy journey. It'll be long, and arduous. But I promise you one thing: in the memory of those lying here before you, we shall find it, and Earth shall become our new home. So say we all!"

There was an echo of the same phrase throughout the room. Adama smiled. Whatever happened next, the crew of the Galactica, Valkyrie, and their escorts would be here for humanity. All 153,628 thousand of them in this fleet were probably one of the largest concentrations of surging humanity. With over 20,000 military personnel they would ensure that the fleet was protected.

"Adar didn't believe that Earth existed, and I'm not sure you do either," Roslin said as they entered his quarters.

"People need more than the tools to live, they need a reason to live. And the possibility of Earth's existing will keep us going for some time. Additionally, we do have a legitimate goal in that area which will be following the Project Exodus."

"I don't like lying to people but I can't fault your arguments Commander" She replied. "As long as you leave civilian affairs alone I will leave military ones alone."

"Then you have agreement from me, Madam President.