Chapter 22: Scattered Part 1
"Apollo to Galactica, are you alright? Do you copy?"
"We're a bit shaken up," Dualla said. "But we're still in the fight. Tigh wants you to keep the raiders occupied."
Lee Adama and Anastasia Dualla after Galactica was hit by several nuclear missiles.
The Galactica emerged from FTL, prepared to see the many DRADIS contacts of the fleet. But there was simply nothing to be found.
"Check the Jump Coordinates!" Tigh ordered, pacing around the CIC. Gaeta was checking the ones that he came up with with the ones that had been entered.
"Sir, it appears that this key on the keyboard is faulty." The number nine key on the keyboard that Gaeta had used to plug in the coordinates had failed due to old age. I manually override it in the jump computer, but that must not have worked."
"Can you get us back to the fleet, Lieutenant," Tigh asked.
"I can get the coordinates if I go down there and pull one of the wires to make a number 9 until that key can be replaced. But the drive is going to need to cool down for 15 minutes otherwise we are going to significantly reduce the accuracy." Gaeta said, before turning his attention to the flashing DRADIS screen. "Colonel, I'm getting new DRADIS contacts, looks like another three Basestars."
"Gods damn it how many of those do they have!" Tigh said. "Go back to condition one." He turned to Gaeta. "Can we hold it until then?"
"Yes." He said. "As long as we keep our flak screen up and stay at range."
Vipers were launched, staying close to Galactica to force the raiders to engage with the massive armored fortress of a ship nearby. The raiders did what they always did, charging single-mindedly as the Vipers lured them into flak screens and point defense ambushes, and then exploiting their maneuverability and acceleration to get into dogfights with the slower and bumbling raiders.
A few Cylon missiles were able to hit Galactica, but they didn't do much damage to the heavily armored warship. However, a cluster of nukes was soon launched. Over 50 sped towards the Galactica, and it seemed that the Cylons simply had thrown every nuke that they had toward her.
"I've never seen that many used in a salvo," Tigh muttered before looking at Gaeta.
"Tell the gunners to give everything they have to stop that salvo." He then turned to Dualla.
"Tell the Vipers to intercept the nukes."
Apollo didn't need to be told, as he had ordered the vipers to charge forward and intercept the nukes before the word was received from the battlestar. Any reluctance they might have had to expose themselves to enemy fire was gone as they heard that so many were threatening their mothership. The raiders pursued, but the Vipers were able to use their powerful afterburners to stay ahead of them and race towards the missiles. Some fell, of course, but they were able to down 20 missiles.
Next, the broadside guns on Galactica began taking down the nukes, and a heavy flak screen was put up to prevent any from getting through. This was at least partially successful, as soon many were falling to point defense fire as well.
Out of 50 that were fired, four impacted the ship successfully. Despite the damage that they would cause, the numbers shot down were a testament to the success of the colonial designs.
The first one hit on the ship's "alligator head" which was heavily armored and designed to survive such a nuclear blast. There were some issues with several electronics in this area of the ship and a significant dent in its armor itself but no penetration or other issues.
The next three however were more deadly. One hit the upper armor section near several of the sets of heavy KEW upper turrets. Eight were destroyed in the blast and 10 others were disabled, somewhat reducing the firepower of the upper section of the ship.
Another hit the port flight pod, causing significant damage. Atmospheric pressure was lost in the hangers below the pod. The armor was blown straight off in one section, where the ship had taken significant damage before. This vented part of the flight pod into space, and ruptured a fuel line, causing a fire throughout the hangar.
The last one hit the rear engine section, which was the weakest section of the ship's armor due to the massive thrusters needing to be exposed to space to power the ship. The hit caused major damage to the ship, heavily damaging one of the four massive main thrusters of the battlestar and making it nonoperational while causing heavy damage to the other ones.
Inside, the ship shook due to the massive release of energy generated by the impact of the nukes. People and items were thrown about, however the effects were different in different parts of the ship. Near where the blasts had taken place, the explosions threw people at high speeds in multiple directions, oftentimes injuring them. In other areas, it might be a slight bump.
"Apollo to Galactica, are you alright? Do you copy?"
"We're a bit shaken up," Dualla said. "But we're still in the fight. Tigh wants you to keep the raiders occupied."
"Lieutenant, I want a nuclear launch to target the basestar one. Three missiles with MIRVs, and 24 conventional to give them cover." Tigh and Kelly turned the key that authorized the launch, and soon the missiles were streaking toward their targets.
The raiders didn't notice the missiles being launched until it was too late, and they lost the best vector to intercept them. The raider could turn and accelerate far less effectively than a Viper and as they did so were cut down as time went on.
The basestar was not defenseless, however. It had a token battery of point defense close-in weapon systems and batteries of small missiles that were used to intercept incoming missiles, along with a token force of raiders that were held back for point defense. The CIWS battery had been a recent addition due to the unexpected resistance the Cylons had faced and the lack of such defenses. Combined with how effective colonial anti-missile defenses were proving to be.
The conventional missiles traveled ahead of the nuclear ones, temporarily shielding them and ensuring that they would be the first to fall. However, this wouldn't stop the Cylons from targeting the missiles as they could tell due to their radiological activity. So they would have to target them ahead of the conventional missiles.
That was far harder than expected, however.
While two of the nukes were shot down along with a lot of the conventional missiles, the remaining two nukes managed to release their warheads. The missiles carried multiple nuclear warheads, in this case, four per missile. One hit one basestar and another hit another, crippling them. The damage was critical enough that they had to be scuttled later on.
Galactica may have been wounded, but she had gotten her revenge. She would live to fight another day.
Meanwhile, Starbuck was busy back at the Delphi Museum.
"So we're stuck here," Starbuck said.
"Well, I'm glad that you made it here." Helo buckled his friend in a hug."
"Why did you come here?"
"I'll explain when we get out of here." She replied. "I need the Arrow of Apollo though." After quickly finding the arrow, Starbuck went over to put it in her bag. However, as she was doing so a blond woman emerged from behind the display counter and charged at her. Starbuck's rifle was thrown out of her hand and the two were soon engaged in a brutal fistfight. At first, it appeared that this Cylon lady would win due to her superior strength, but she got thrown off a balcony by Starbuck who then threw her off a ledge before retrieving her rifle and shooting her.
Helo, who had been checking for useful supplies elsewhere emerged.
"Is everything ok?" He asked.
"Another skinjob." She replied.
The two of them set off north to the outskirts of the city as they wanted to avoid contact with the Cylons.
"How much food do you have?" Starbuck asked.
"Three days' worth of rations from the raptor I was on." He said.
"I got two in this bag. There was more in the raider."
"We should find someplace with food. I know a supermarket down this way." Starbuck said.
"Anything perishable is probably going to have gone bad but there should be lots of nonperishable stuff." She said,
They soon found the place and loaded their bags with extra food. As they were doing so, the two discussed where they had been since then.
"Galactica's still fighting she has two Valkyries, the Valk herself and Cunningham along with several dozen escort ships protecting over 200 civilian ships. We're trying to find Earth, and found Kobol which was why I came here to find the arrow. We haven't looked back at what's going on in the colonies though. What's going on here? Are there more survivors?"
"Yes, I got picked up by them after almost being killed by a Cylon convoy. There is a set of bunkers all across Caprica and supposedly the rest of the colonies, but their knowledge was limited to the top brass in the colonial army. They had a plan for shit hitting the fan like this, hell if you look at their doctrine and equipment it makes a lot of sense."
"So what have you been doing while it was going on?"
"You think that there's a bunker in the Delphi Mountains?"
"I heard that there was, but it's far smaller and not connected to any of the others. We don't know if anyone is even in there. Delphi is a major target, and these bases are meant to be hidden so that the Cylons don't find them." Helo said. "Though in the long term, it could serve as a good FOB (forward operating base) for an effort to retake Delhi?"
"Do you even have the capabilities to do that?" She responded.
"Well maybe in the future." He replied.
"It's getting late, do you want to rest somewhere?" Helo said.
"My apartment is just down here. We can crash there." She replied. It was a convenient location, one that they were lucky to
There were plenty of destroyed buildings along with what looked like what was minor damage across many of the remaining buildings, probably due to small arms fire, artillery shrapnel, and bomb and missile impacts.
"Can you get us back there, and do they have a ship that I could take back to Galactica?"
"Well it depends on how far away the old girl is, but we do have raptors and shuttles. I'm pretty sure you could get back though." He said. "
The next morning, Starbuck led Helo into the apartment's garage, which held a HMLTV (High Mobility Light Tactical Vehicle) It was a lightly armored vehicle that had replaced various Jeeps and small trucks across the colonial service branches.
"You didn't tell me that you had one of these?" He asked.
"Ehh military surplus is cheap, and I'm not sure that it hadn't been taken by the Cylons or someone else." She said. "But it's a good vehicle." She produced a map from one of the cabinets in the house. "Can you tell me where your base is, and how to enter it?"
"It's here, in fact, there is a nondescript dirt road over that leads to the entrance. The entrance is well concealed though, but by this tree over here is a button with a code that you have to enter to get in. There is a camera over there, so if they are watching they might see you and let you in without the code."
"Ok." She said, "We should go and get more supplies before heading north. As a secondary mission, I want to search any houses we come across to see if we can find more survivors. A lot are probably dead due to radiation poisoning at this point, but there could still be some people alive. There are probably doomsday preppers that are having a field day with this."
"Indeed they are." Helo chuckled. "They got the last laugh as well. Most everyone is dead or going to die soon. Maybe some people could get anti-radiation meds but most people didn't get enough to last for a while."
"Which is why we need to try to find them," Starbuck said. "I assume that this bunker is protected against radiation."
Helo laughed. "Starbuck, it most certainly is."