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Chapter 7

Prolmar Sector "Darkspace"

Chiron Ready Room

Carl Maxon was not expecting good news. The fact that Chiron had contacted the new civilian government right after the election and then requested their immediate presence showed that time was tight. After the report was given that the Cylons had attacked the 12 Colonies, refusing President Adar's surrender and then destroying many cities, it fit the limited pattern they had already, that the Cylons were attacking all of humanity. However, this was way beyond their worst fears. Informing the people of the fleet was the first part they had agreed to.

"Councilors, this brings us to our next issue. Due to the Emergency Nature of the situation, I am invoking Article 4 of the Colonial Code which says 'In time of an emergency that all former and reserve military forces are to remand themselves to the highest ranking Colonial Officer if requested'. Followed by 'During such an Emergency as need the highest ranking Colonial Officer can procure material as needed'. Now, I will not force Captain Krystis here to join the Navy again. However, we are going to come up with a reserve system. This will give some organization and oversight to the ships," said Commander Jasper. "Captain Krystis, I would like you and Major Marton to have a meeting to get this set up, but in short, the jump timing and maintenance of the ships needs improvement."

Carl was aware of the issue. Mining ships need to get to whatever system they are heading to, work there for a few years, and possibly do an intersystem jump once a month. This means that the jump coils are not up to full readiness levels and that training is often bare bones. But with the Cylons attempting to exterminate humanity they can't be sure when they will need to jump. All bridge crew needs to be able to jump as the Toasters are unlikely to be so kind as to wait until the Chief Pilot is there to make sure things go smoothly. Maintenance is another issue. Some of the ships have jumped more in the last two days than in the last two years.

"Looking over your reported numbers I think food, tyleum, and water are manageable for the ships we have now" said Commander Jasper. "We will need to confirm those numbers but we also need to see what the situation in the Cyrannus System currently is."

Carl was fairly certain that the numbers were correct. They were about 70% full of their next shipment of processed tyleum that was scheduled to pay Illumini shipping for their leased (that is over at least) ships. Illumini would then "help" to sell the remainder, which usually paid the costs that Maxon Mining would have. Maxon's "profit" came from selling metal ores found in the system or sometimes sending tyleum fuel to SoFi Mining or other local corporations. Grandad sure did "luck" out when he agreed to this deal. The Prolmar Sector would have been a prosperous sector when all the Territory Planning Bureau ideas were done but this sector is low on tyleum. Except for Ofis B. None of this matters now I guess.

"Commander, I agree, except for refined tyleum. Your Raptors and Vipers will burn through that fairly quickly" said Carl. "If you could give me an estimate so we can ramp up production" said Carl. Carl also made a quick note to talk to Decat about possibly turning the Quincy over to tyleum fuel production. This small fleet doesn't need 3 ships breaking down rocks into tyleum and other processed ores and the Quincy looks to be a more standardized design than the "better but more expensive" ships that MM were leasing. There was a large amount of raw tyleum in their holds but eventually that will run out. Depending on what happens they would possibly need to find another source of tyleum.

"I will get you those numbers" said Commander Jasper. "We are going to send three ships to see what the situation is in the Cyrannus System. Along with the Herse I will need to requisition the Atlis and another cargo ship. Hopefully, there will be some Colonial Government that we can join up with. However, we also need to plan for the worst. I would like you in the next day to give us a list of potential areas that we can search and what items you need. The three ships would reconnoiter the Cyrannus system looking for supplies and ships along with any military presence."

Carl knew what his mother would say and he knew he had to prevent her from fraking up the delicate balance that she and Decat had worked on. "Commander I think that the Epsiki is the best choice. Its cargo holds are low at this time. Also, I would like to volunteer as a consultant. I do have some previous experience with dockyards and other civilian matters in the Cyrannus System" said Carl. His mom had looked annoyed about volunteering one of HER ships, but that her only child had agreed to go on a likely dangerous mission stopped her cold. 'Not looking forward to when his wife and mom discussed this decision with me at the same time,' thought Carl. At least Decat shot him a grateful look.

"Thank you, Mr. Maxon, that would be helpful," said Commander Jasper.

The rest of the meeting was things like coming up with a message to let the whole fleet both civilian and military the nature of the attack on humanity by the Cylons. Head of Security Torin seemed to at least be ready and was willing to use marines if needed (but that would not help out their case as a "legitimate government". The security forces on the civilian ships would be stretched very thin. Most ships only have one or maybe two security officers. The Respite has more due to its R&R nature of "Deck 7," but there are less than 50 security personnel under their control. Then, a few military or mining jargon popped up that Captain Krystis had to help explain to both sides. All in all, things seemed good. Well, except for the billions dead. Carl is not sure how people will react when people they have time to think. Pretty sure Jasper has the same issue. This "explore Cyrannus" plan while important feels like a distraction. Still, a mediocre plan is often better than no plan.

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Chiron Commander's Office

The news to all the ships had been made. Unfortunately there had been 3 suicides all of which were of the new personnel that MM had added in the last few months. People who are willing to pick up multiyear contracts away from the Colonies are often the type that don't have close relationships with people in the Colonies. The people on the Chiron both original and picked up from the Kestrel are doing their jobs under under the watchful and when needed forceful eyes of their officers and NCOs.

"Sir with the people from the Kestrel we can just stretch out what we have available. I talked to the Captain of the Herse and Atlis about how we are going to use their ships. Most of their crews are going to switch to other ships which should help out some of the crew levels that the RM ships especially need" said Major Marton. "Captain Anders is coming up with the list of changes for enlisted personnel." With Marton leading the reconnaissance, this meant that Anders would be the acting XO, and figuring out how to move people around to cover four ships would be a good experience. And just as important a bullshit job that I don't have to do, thought Marton. Having civilians onboard as personnel on the "auxiliary" ships doesn't make anyone happy. While likely a violation of the Tauron Rules of War (author's note basically Geneva Convention) with the Cylons trying to kill all humans it was considered a justified risk. Plus they volunteered for this one mission. Afterwards deciding what to do might hopefully be someone else's problem. At worst, Jasper and Marton will be asked to leave the service, but that seems unlikely the Navy would want to lose two senior officers considering the current circumstances.

"Thank you Major. I checked over the regs and I do believe that if we do things in this exact order it should make any chain of command issues clear cut" said Jasper. The civilian government is dubious at best. It really only works as it's just Maxon Mining with a few add-ons. But the military side (such as it is) is also a mess. Exactly who outranks who should not be something that has to be figured out by "position vs. seniority" of about ten different Lieutenants. Especially with 2 of the 4 "senior" officers leaving for a potentially dangerous mission. Jasper passed over a list of personnel changes.

Marton looked it over but there was no real surprises as it was his plan. Going over everything the next 36 hours were going to be a bitch. It was best to make sure that Anders and Limaki were going over the new duties for the people that are going to be affected. Making sure that the civilians and whatever exactly the crew of the Heste (and their testy Captain) roles would be. And then not so minor things like supplies needed for the mission and what the desired goals of the mission are.

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Auxiliary Naval Ship Epsiki

Carl was ready for the next morning when the Epsiki would go on its mission and "officially" become a temporary Naval ship. The conversation with his wife and mom had gone about how he had expected. Carl had always known that he would get control of Maxon Mining. His grandfather and mother had always pushed him towards it, and honestly, I am pretty good at it. Going to college at Kobol University and getting his degree in astral mining was fun. He always hated the business part, but the "coils and rocks" aspect of running a midsized mining company outside the Colonies was something he did very well.

Carl had met his wife Amanda at the University. Carl was never sure if their marriage right after graduation was because of Amanda's love for him or just the desire to escape Gemenon's religious nature. Amanda was pretty good at the business part of Maxon Mining, even if neither had the outright shark nature of Carl's grandfather or the driving desire to see it succeed as his mother. Honestly, Carl had thought about just selling the damn thing off when he got the company and then retiring and letting his two daughters do whatever they wanted with their lives.

Then the Cylons attacked. Luckily, Captain Decat seemed to care about his people and had no issues working with his former "adversaries." Decat had agreed that having the Quincy refine tyleum would make more sense and fill one of the likely needs. Even if nothing goes wrong with this scouting mission the Raptor flights in the last few days and expected ones in the next few days were going to move the Chiron's onboard fuel levels to below recommended levels.

The biggest problem had been replacing Captain Krystis when he became a reserve officer and was now in charge of maintenance (a good choice for the job) and replacing the moronic Captain Tourika. Carl had been willing to cut Captain Tourika some slack when the Cylons had attacked but after talking to the crew Carl had found that Captain Tourika had been half drunk when he had his own ship had its minors down on an asteroid which showed poor judgment. A couple of promotions and changes of jobs and Captain Tourika is now Captain of the "poop" ship. Frak him if he doesn't like it. Heck, I would put him on the Lita if it wasn't so mission-critical.

Most of the former crew of the Epsiki had left for other ships but there were six people who wanted to stay (and that had enough skills to make that useful). The person who was now the head Petty Officer (but not Chief Petty Officer due to some only understandable by Naval personnel reason) had finished explaining in a weirdly polite and only slightly condescending manner how they were to do their jobs unless ordered to not do them and to go to Mister Maxon with any complaints (while Carl had been told to deal with such complaints or to go to the Major or the XO with any complaints). Honestly, Carl was more impressed how PO Verdan dealt with everything. The tall PO from Sagitaria projected an air of command to Carl's admittedly civilian eyes.

"Mister Maxon, can I ask you a question?" asked PO Verdan.

"Go ahead, PO Verdan, and you can call me Carl if that's okay with you," Carl replied.

"Since I guess we are off duty Carl should be OK" said PO Verdan. "I was wondering why your ship names are so weird."

Carl had heard this question many times from new hires. "It's kind of a funny story. You remember those "Swords of Kobol" books that came out just before the War?" Seeing PO Verdan give a confirmation. "Well after the war when building civilian ships started back up a few Gemenon companies including the one that made our ships liked the fake Old Kobol. It let them seem religious without pissing off any actual religious people." Carl actually liked the fake names, but they were kind of silly.

"Well we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and our Raptors will be landing in a few hours. I better get down there to make sure that we are all ready for them" said PO Verdan.

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Auxiliary Naval Ship Atlis

"Atlis Actual this is Chiron Actual. Good luck Dom" said Commander Jasper.

"Thank you sir" said Marton. "You keep an eye on everything and we will be back as soon as we can. Atlis out."

"PO Baines contact the Herse and Epsiki. Tell them that we are jumping in two minutes to outside the Cyrannus System" said Colonel Marton.

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Author Notes

I will go over individual ships and their changes later but for the four highest officers I want to explain.

Commander Jasper stays the same. Also want to repeat one thing which will sort of come up below. Commander Jasper is LT Commander Jasper or Colonel Jasper. LT Commander is the same rank as Colonel but a "Commander". Think the same logic western nations use for their naval captains being captains even if they are not the rank of captain. It's a combination of a title and rank.

Major Marton had a brevet promotion to LT Colonel. This let's him be called Colonel but still be officially below Jasper. This gives him clear rank above.

Captain Anders had a brevet promotion to Major. She is now the XO of the Chiron.

Captain Limaki had a brevet promotion to Major. He was promoted just after Anders. Limaki was given command of the Epsiki. If by some chance Jasper and Marton died Anders would have seniority. If they stayed Captains then Limaki would be the senior officer but lacks the training that Anders had received. "Limes" is perfectly happy with this so did not raise any issues.

"Swords of Kobol" is like a bad BSG LOTR want to be. Think fake Latin trying to sound "old timey" in a cliched book series.

This ends Part 1. Part 2 will involve the exploration of the Cyrannus System and other hijinks.

Thank you all for reading. Any questions or comments are appreciated.