I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any related media.

Prolmar Sector "Darkspace"
Chiron Commander's Office

Commander Jasper had been told by LT Tonis that the message was critical and from her tone it was not good news. This class of Postal Service ships almost always went from one of the 12 Colonies to another. High value messages or very valuable cargo of government nature (the cost was outside what even a huge megacorp is willing to spend) when news has to get from from one planet to another and then another as fast as humanly possible while staying secure. That such a ship had been sent to the Alvae system along with confirmation that another Territory has been destroyed says that this is not good news.

Leaving Major Marton in the CIC in charge of the ship to finish up the removal of all potentially compromised systems she was waiting for Captain Ormo to arrive. There was a knock on her door and Crewman Krytos along with a black haired man wearing a CPS Captain's uniform. "Thank you, Crewman Krytos. This is Captain Ormo, I presume," said Jasper.

"Yes I am" said Captain Ormo. He seemed, if not rude, then as if people were wasting his time. Well, it's been a shit day for everyone so best to ignore it for now at least. "Commander I would like to inform you that the Cylons have attacked the 12 Colonies."

Reading over the reports that was an understatement. President Adar had tried to surrender and the Cylons had still dropped nuclear weapons on all 12 planets, and estimated deaths were in the 25 billion range.

"Commander I know this is a shock. We were ordered to inform any ships or Territories of what happened. I also have some data that I was supposed to give to any Colonial Navy ships we came across."

"Thank you, Captain. What are your intentions now?" asked Jasper.

"I would stay with you if you would have us. The other systems we were going to contact have been reported as destroyed" said Captain Ormo. His class of ship wasn't designed for long range and was already low on fuel. "I can't promise everyone on board the Herse would want to join the Navy but I am offering up the ship for your use."

"I will accept of course. Anyone who doesn't want to stay can move to another ship" said Jasper. Since the Herse's crew was only 10 people and were all well trained spacers finding spots for anyone who wants to leave the Herse wouldn't be that difficult. "Thank you Captain."

Taking the data chip offered and typing in her Command Access Code she found some sensor data and official Naval broadcasts. It looks like the Cylons had attacked the Cyranus System with around 200 Basestars and that around 80% of the fleet was destroyed. Some Colonial and SDF ships were still fighting but against overwhelming force.

Picking up the phone and hitting the CIC button, Jasper said, "Major Marton, come to my office and have Captain Anders and the CAG show up 10 minutes later."

"Sir, we need to at least look at the Colonies. That all four systems and 12 planets are lost seems impossible. Even if lost, there might be more ships we can get out of there," said Captain Anders. Anders was in obvious shock but doing her job.

"Sir I agree but I think we need to also consider this as a salvage operation. I don't know what we can make ourselves but I know eventually parts if nothing else will be an issue" said Captain Limaki. With the mining and ore ships tyleum won't be a problem for a while at least but they weren't set up to be self sufficient.

"I agree with both of you. The election that Maxon and Decat agreed to should be announced very soon. Let's talk to our civilian leadership and see what they would like us to do," said Jasper. Using Maxon would remove about 70% of the work to keep the civilians organized from her and Marton's plate.

"Right now Juno and her ECO are running patrol" said Major Marton. "They haven't spread the news to other Raptors." LT Tonis "Juno" had requested to stay on patrol until contacted by the CO, which was now explainable. She thought her young Ensign couldn't keep the information hidden.

"We will wait for Maxon to win and then set up a meeting with her. For now keep this under wraps" said Commander Jasper.

Prolmar Sector Soham System
LT Geri Cassel "Silk" ECO Ensign Laura Wysohi (Turtle) and LT Scott Demal (Matchbox) ECO LT Tami Dinar (Wombat)

Finding nothing in the main asteroid belts they went to the agreed "emergency" rendezvous point. The rendezvous spot in case no Colonial ships were on station was one of those things that sounds good on paper but in reality this spot sucks. The rings are far closer together than even the densest asteroid belt around this bright blue planet and its yellow moon.

"Sir I am picking up some faint signals" said Wombat.

As he had learned in the last year Wombat was amazing as an ECO. This planet's radiation and all the random ice dust make picking things up challenging.

"Good job Wombat. We will head over that way" said LT Demal "Matchbox" after ensuring Silk had the same information. Dradis showed there appears to be at least one smaller than what you would expect from a mining ship and one shuttle sized craft at distance from the other ship. As they got closer the "shuttle" was a Colonial Raptor and presumptively the Kestrel's missing Raptor.

"Colonial Raptor, this is LT Cassel. Do you require assistance" said LT Cassel "Silk".

Demal did have seniority, so by tradition, he should have been the one to contact, but Demal could see why he would be concerned. The Colonial ship appeared to be of the ancient Picon "Barracuda" class.

The other Raptor replied over open channel, "Silk, glad to see you. I was discussing our options with the other ship. They were saying that I could join them, but I was waiting to see if any contact would be made with Colonial Forces" said who had to be the missing LT. Brown (Slider).

"We did find Colonial Forces within jump range" said Silk in response.

The Barracuda class was a low-crew ship that was the "grandfather" of the modern Patrolstars, but even before the First Cylon War, it had been retired for the Stingray and other Patrolstar designs. Even at the most desperate times in the Cylon war they had never been considered for military use due to their being ancient (even then) and their very low firepower. Their small size made them not useful for any civilian use or at least legal civilian use. However, for a smuggler or a pirate going up against unarmed mining ships, that was enough firepower, and they were cheap to maintain.

"Thank you for your assistance Colonial Ship. We can confirm that the Cylons have attacked the Territories. We are taking Colonial Ships to our Commanding Officer's location if you would like to join us" said LT Demal "Matchbox". The orders to "grab any Colonial ship and bring them here" would also mean pirates but this would be a problem.

Thankfully it didn't matter as the Barracuda jumped away.

"Thank you for the rescue" said Slider. There was a short round of introductions and checking on fuel levels (which were very low) of Slider's Raptor. Not trusting the probable pirates they jumped to a new spot in system to do the fuel transfer so they could get back to the Chiron.

During the refuel Slider and Timbers gave a quick rundown.

The Barracuda named the Anastasia commanded by a Captain Wilson, had jumped in with another Barracuda and two cargo ships. When Slider made contact the other Barracuda and the two cargo ships left. There was some back and forth where the Anastasia offered to take the Raptor to Alvae if the Raptor crew would leave the Raptor.

This being an obvious ploy both just sat there. A "free" Raptor would be a nice bonus to a pirate group. However, if the Raptor was telling the truth, they would either run out of air or give up. When the other two Raptors showed up the Anastasia decided enough was enough.

"That should do. OK everyone let's head back to the Barn" said LT Demal "Matchbox". This mission report will be a long one.

Prolmar Sector "Darkspace"
Chiron Flight Pod Raptor Ready Room

"Everyone I wanted to go over a few things. With us merging our two groups I want to make some things clear" said Captain Limaki. "LT Tonis you are staying as head of Raptor pilots. See what we can do to get our broken Raptor working."

"Yes sir. We are already low on crew for the Raptors though" said LT Tonis asking the question they had already agreed to. This new CAG seemed more respectful of Raptor crew than her last CAG that's for sure.

"On that subject we need to deal with a few Viper issues. We have at this time 14 Viper pilots and 9 Vipers. We are missing 2 Raptor ECOs. Also we need to admit that the Chiron is not a Battlestar. Its half-sized landing bay without the autolanding system, which will be a challenge for some of our pilots," said Limaki. The original plan of having swarms of Centaurs work with Atlases to land Vipers (while the vulnerable Atlases jump away) was quickly decided to be unworkable even before the design issues of the Centaur. Or maybe the changes made to the Centaur design were because of the half assed plan. Doesn't matter 25 years later.

"LT Tymes you did a tour as a Viper trainer before this. If a pilot can't land on the Chiron then they are going to learn to fly a Raptor or become an ECO." This order would not be popular due to Viper pilot ego but Raptors are more important right now. "LT Hamlin you will be DCAG of the Vipers. LT Gavin until your arm is healed you are grounded so you are now our new LSO. Make sure that the deck crew is removing the CNP program and check on supplies. We need a good inventory on what we have and can replace." Best to set up what is likely to be the new organization table now to see how they do. "Last thing if there is any hostility between any formerly different crewmates over bunks or shit like that will end up with all parties being put on latrine duty for a month."

Maxon's Respite CEO's Office

When the Chiron had left just how vulnerable they were was really obvious. Jasper had agreed after the election to a council and thankfully Captain Kristis had agreed to be their "military go between" which as he was one of the few former Colonial Navy officers in the fleet made sense. With Decat, her head of security Mikah Torin, and her corporate lawyer (the only legal expert in the fleet) Pual Andre. Carl would be the final of the six person council. It's about as good as we could do she thought.

"And with results of 20 to 2 with 1 abstention Jessi Maxon has been picked as temporary governor of the fleet" said the announcer.

"Miss Maxon I have a message from Commander Jasper" said her secretary.

"Put him through James" said Maxon. That was fast she thought.

"Congratulations Governor Maxon. I am requesting your and your counsellors presence onboard the Chiron within the hour. I have some information we need to go over" said Commander Jasper.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Author Notes

I wanted to say that Jasper does not want to become a dictator mainly because it would be a pain. Using Maxon to do most of the work makes things easier. Now if they disagree then things might change.
I am expecting one more chapter before the end of Part 1.
Thank you all for reading. Any questions or comments are appreciated.