"When the Cylons attacked and began nuking the colonies, a truly massive amount of people died. Once a ground invasion followed, this only continued and soon humanity was dying out faster than one could say toaster. However, there were always survivors, people who the Cylons forgot about or were unaware of. These people would keep fighting until their death or ultimate victory. Just like we did."

-Jerry Hicks

Chapter 7: Helo

Unknown Farmhouse in Northern Caprica, several hours after the Cylon attacks had begun:

"They see us god damn it," Helo said as he peered out the open window of the farmhouse. Since he had been stranded on Caprica after giving up his seat onboard the raptor he had tried to lead the civilians to safety. They had found this farmhouse and were planning on staying the night there when they saw the heavy raider come in, firing its quad miniguns at the civilians resting in the field nearby.

"I don't think they see you and me." Cadet Jerry Hicks said. He was the closest thing to anyone in the group having military experience, being a member of his high school's ROTC.

"We open up on them once they land." Help said. He had taken some of the survival gear that had been in the raptor including an assault rifle and a dozen magazines, an extra handgun with some mags for it, several boxes of ammo, a few grenades along with some MREs, water, and medical supplies.

However, the biggest asset that he had taken from the raptor was an ATU-56 rocket-propelled grenade launcher with five rockets. The marine team who had had it never took it out of the raptor and no one had returned it to the armory since. The weapon was meant to be used against fortifications and light armored vehicles but could have at least some effect against tanks if used correctly. Unlike the heavier ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) that the colonials also used it was unguided so Helo wasn't going to use it until he felt that he was confident that he could hit the target.

Even though they would be exposed while exiting the craft he wouldn't be aiming the device on the mass of centurions. He'd instead fire at the heavy raider's quad gun as it would be able to obliterate their position the moment they open fire. With a reload, he could then fire on the centurions while Hicks would use the rifle to try and suppress the toasters.

The heavy raider fired on the fleeing civilians, cutting many down as they ran for cover. When the craft was stationary, Agathon fired the rocket at the turret. It exploded and minor damage was done to the rest of the craft. However, it didn't try to regain altitude and stayed on the ground. It didn't seem that it had any other weapons despite its size; they could easily mount many more.

Hicks had moved to another window in another room which he would use as his firing point. It would divert attention from him and mean that the Cylons would not realize that he was there before they left.

The Cylons soon began to exit the craft as it landed and Help fired another rocket, taking out at least half a dozen of them from what he could see. They returned fire and he had to duck as their arm-mounted machine guns opened up on his position. Hicks took the opportunity to open up the rifle, resting it on the windowsill out of the window to give it more stability. As the centurions faced him Helo sent a hand grenade onto the group of them and finished them off with his pistol. The centurions had not all been focusing their fire on the two they had been firing on the fleeing civilians as well. That was weird, as the military target should logically take precedence.

But upon further thought Helo knew that the civilians had been killed for a reason. The mass of nuclear detonations on both military and civilian targets across the colonies indicated that the Cylons wanted nothing less than the total annihilation of the human race. A genocide with no survivors.

And every measure they had indicated that they were going to succeed.

"I think they're gone," Hicks said.

"We need to find the rest of the people and then get out of here. Bring the packs out." He said, indicating the two full backpacks that they had. It was stuffed with a small amount of survival gear that he had taken off of the Raptor and in addition to all of the food, water, and medical supplies that they had been able to find in the house. Hicks also had a similar pack that he had had from ROTC.

But when they got outside, they saw most of the people were dead, cut down by the Cylons as they landed. That made sense since they were exposed and unprepared for the rapid Cylon attack. Others had fled into the woods but Helo wasn't sure how long they would survive. Even without Cylons and nuclear radiation, finding food would be difficult as pretty much everyone else was dead.

"Should we look around inside?" He asked Helo.

"We might be able to learn something. What were you training for with ROTC?"

"I did well in ground combat but I always wanted to be an ECO for a Raptor," Hicks said.

"Well, you're in luck because I am one," Helo replied as they walked up to the Cylon craft, weapons drawn. One Cylon who had been downed raised his head as an arm-mounted gun but Help quickly shot him dead with his pistol.

They made their way into the raider, which aside from the turret was fairly damaged There were two centurions manning a command position inside it which were both shot dead before they could do anything to react. Otherwise, it looked to be fairly intact.

"Could you fly this thing?" Hicks asked as he looked around inside it.

"I don't have any fracking ideas." He looked at several red flowing panels inside the cockpit."

"What I'm sure about is that this thing is pretty heavily armored. It took two rockets and wasn't damaged except for a little bit of the exteriors." He said. "This thing can carry about 12 troops, more than our raptor but significantly bigger so an interesting tradeoff. It's got dedicated armament and it looks like I saw some missile tubes outside. Good thing that turret didn't fire because it looks like an autocannon, not a HMG and besides directly hitting that I wouldn't be surprised to see how difficult it is to be damaged."

"Is there anything we can salvage?" Hicks asked.

"With more time and resources sure but I don't think that is going to be realistic," Helo said and looked around. "But not now. We have more important things to worry about."

Some of the now-dead civilians had firearms that they had attempted to use against the Cylons but to little avail. It wasn't necessarily that they had been poorly equipped but they had taken positions without cover and often ran away when the Cylons approached.

They took what they could carry and what would be useful, as the civilians didn't bring that much ammo with them. Helo's rifle was a Cx4 Storm and both he and Hicks had Five Sevens. Hicks took a Mini 14 off of one of the dead along with a few magazines and a M870 shotgun which he both attached to his back. Helo wouldn't be able to take any more large weapons with the rocket launcher and rifle both on his back but he did take a M92 pistol.

With that, they left as quickly as possible. About 10 minutes later a heavy raider flew above them towards the farmhouse. It didn't notice them but they accelerated their pace until they reached a road with forests on either side of them, which they began walking down. There were a few abandoned vehicles but they noticed no one as they walked down the road.

"So what's being an ECO like?" He asked as they walked down the road.

"It's a pretty cool job, you get to manage all the sensors and electronics on a Raptor. Good for the technically minded and very useful. The Viper pilots may get their shiny toys, but if they go out without electronic warfare support then I wouldn't want to be them…" He trailed off.

"Did something happen?" Hicks asked. Helo retold the story and explained what happened with the Galactica.

"The fleet suffered heavy losses and when we got to Caprica we saw that there were still colonial fleet survivors and members of the Caprican Defense Force. A commander of one of the ships told us to get survivors and jump to some coordinates that were too garbled. We had a general idea of Galactica's location and knew the backup coordinates that they would be going to. Sharon took as many as she could; I just hope that she got away safely." He said wistfully.

"At least the fleet's out there, though based on what I can see they've lost space superiority." As he finished saying that, two Atmospheric Vipers charged by at low altitude, flying towards some target further on. The two cheered as they passed. The colonials were taking heavy losses but they were fighting back, and he hoped at least, to win some victories.

They soon spotted a car on the horizon, apparently broken down or out of fuel. There was a woman in a white raincoat sitting on its hood. She ran away from them in the way that they had been coming towards.

"What's going on…" Hicks said, before seeing what was going on.

Four vehicles of unknown type drove down the road in the direction that the women had fled. Centurions disembarked from them, indicating they were some sort of armored personnel carrier. Both of them ran for a ditch and took cover which was large enough for them so that Cylons wouldn't be able to hit them.

At least a couple dozen centurions were firing at them, along with machine guns on the APCs providing suppressive fire. Ducking up quickly, Helo sent a rocket into the nearest APC, destroying it in a ball of fire and taking a few centurions with it. The fire coming at them was still intense and they barely could take shots at centurions, who were advancing steadily but slowly. They managed to take out over a dozen but it wouldn't be enough.

Suddenly the roar of advanced jet engines filled the air as the three Vipers that had passed them earlier rushed back in their direction, opening up on the centurions with autocannons. One of the two remaining APCs exploded after being hit by an ATGM fired from one of two raptors that were now providing close air support and dispatching troops.

Helo cheered as the fighters took out the centurions. The rapiers provided heavier fire support with anti-tank missiles and rockets and soon the Cylons were no more. Combined with the fact that a dozen troops had been disembarked by the raptors the centurions didn't stand a chance. The two of them were ushered into one of the raptors, which had still not used most of its extensive arsenal of weapons.

"Sharon?"

"Helo?"

Author's note: I'm using the real-life name for firearms that the colonials used since it would be complicated and all the guns in the show are used in real life.

I haven't figured out what the colonials would be armed with fully but it looks like the Five Seven is the standard handgun for colonial forces and they are going to be used throughout the colonies. The Cx4 Storm is also seen a lot and I'd imagine the Colonial Fleet would use it as a shipboard weapon because of its lightweight and low caliber. Both the L85 and G36K have been seen extensively but I haven't come up with any lore around how they are specifically used. We see a lot of other guns throughout the series but I think that those are the main ones that we see the most commonly throughout the colonies.

I talked in Reap the Whirlwind about the colonies.

There has been a lot of discussion as to what the armor of Cylon centurions is capable of withstanding since some are very heavily armored and only capable of being pierced by explosive rounds while others don't have so much armor and most rounds within BSG can destroy them.

The way I am addressing that is this: The Cylons that boarded Galactica and could only be taken out with HE rounds were elite and experimental and won't be seen here for some time. Most Cylons can be pierced by just about anything in the colonial arsenal (a bullet is still a bullet) but smaller rounds might not necessarily kill the centurion unless it's a headshot. Some centurions designed for noncombat roles have even lighter armor specialized for their role, but combat centurions can still be killed by most regular firearms (unless it's ridiculously underpowered)

I'm doing this too to at least give humans fighting them a chance to survive, however, more powerful models of centurions will come around in the future.

My theory is that while the centurions could be heavily armored like we see in boarding the Galactica would have a significantly higher cost as the Cylons generally overestimate how effective colonial resistance will be. I'll give something from the point of view of the Cylons at the end of the fic. Waiting to see their perspective until the end of the story will keep the fog of war up for you readers so to speak, and you'll know as much as each of the surviving colonial groups know.