When you have the most basic needs satisfied, it's when you start planning for the long term. Laura Roslin, President of the Colonial Remnant, was comfy sitting in the meeting room on her ship, the Colonial One. She was actually reading the maintenance reports, and she was amazed at what the repair ships were doing.
The pictures sent by the raptor teams showed how the mobile shipyards had extended huge mechanical arms that were hugging the colonial ships. A lot of protrusions from the arms were replacing plates and parts from the worn ships. Of course, it was a challenge to your sanity when you see a girl using some kind of plasma welder without a space suit and greeting happily to the raptor crew.
The crew of the Galactica was especially happy with Akashi. The girl had insisted that a fine warship like her must have her services immediately. Right knew she was replacing the scorched armor and adding new plates. So far, thirty percent of the armor was replaced and it needs approximately two days of work to finish. To repair the microfractures was a more delicate problem, and it involved introducing the Galactica crew to Akashi's subnodes. A lot of them were introduced to the Tyrol's guys in the left flypod. It was a very educational moment, and Roslin took advantage of it, streaming the occasion to the fleet.
Adama and Akashi were working together very well, especially after the girl had said to Adama she could fix the right flypod to combat readiness in short time if he wanted. Of course, Adama accepted enthusiastically and let the subnodes do their jobs.
Literally, an army of little versions of Akashi were monitoring the structural ribs of the old ship in the company of Tyrol personnel while they sprayed a silver dust on the metal. To say that a lot of work was necessary was an understatement. Along forty years of service, the old girl has accumulated a lot of jump stress, so if the microfractures were allowed to worsen, catastrophic damage could happen.
However, in front of Laura and her assistants were steamy cups of real Terran coffee and pastries. Adama has brought her XO and her CAG, a tall, blonde girl named Kara Thrace. The hate and apprehension were painted on her face, but she kept a facade of professionalism and her mouth closed. Her last encounter with Takao has left the blonde truly angry with what, now she knew it, was a new kind of intelligent machine from fraking Earth.
This time, a human Lieutenant General from the ground forces and a trio of blond girls were sitting with them. Sisters. Saul had an attack of laughter when Adama told him that the ships had families. Lt. Gen. Hudson, the human counterpart from the Admiralty, had the aspect of someone accustomed to the permanent weirdness of these girls. He explained he will be in charge of the ground operations. The mental model of the large battleship Bismarck was a young girl with a cheerful disposition and a huge beer stock that she was sharing with Adama and Tigh. The other two girls were the battleship Tirpitz and the SSS Graff von Zeppelin. She recognized that her name was mouthful, so she insisted they called her Graffi. Both girls were a more subdued version of Bismarck and referred to her as their elder sister.
Bismarck was leading the meeting, and she was clearly the more militaristic of the trio. "Once we will be detected rescuing people, I believe the cylons will start killing as many humans as they can," said the girl. They had the time to know where they are located, so it's a perfect bait to catch colonial ships trying a rescue. "
"We will use a fleet by planet," said Bismarck, "it's the only way to deploy enough forces to stop any attack." Graffi added, "we have small and stealthy ships from the submarine corps. They will approach the planets before, and they will scan for living people."
Adama nodded his agreement, "She is right, Ma'am. It's really hard to cover an entire planet. However, he said while looking at the girl, "it's quite possible that these persons could have had contact with the humanoid cylons. Would they trust unknown people?"
"That is a risk," said Bisko. "We don't look like any cylon model, but they could think we are. I can't see what more we can do even if we land with colonial marines using Raptors."
Right in this moment, a distressed Kara said, "Excuse me, it's great that your fleet is so big, but what are you going to do with the Raiders? They are jump capable, you know. If they mass their fleet, we are talking about thousands of Raiders, and that means a lot of nukes flying.
"Bismarck nodded, "We have jump disruptors on our hulls, battleships and cruisers. The light cruisers and destroyers will have to remain closer to the big ships. However, I'm afraid of, LT., our jump disruptor doesn't work close to a gravity well. We are working to improve it, but so far, we need to keep an orbit far from the Lagrange point, "explained Bismarck.
Adama looked at Bismarck with curiosity, "What's a Lagrange point?", Bismarck smiled and explained "Excuse me, Commander, it is an astronomical term from Earth. In this point, the gravity from a planet and its moon is zero. I can see every colonial planet has at least one moon, so.."
"We are going to stay a bit far from the planets," Tirpitz finished her sister's sentence.
Graffi nodded, "It's true, LT, and even if we have our own fighter wings, the amount of Raiders by baseships is enormous. The jump disruptor will protect us from tactical jumps, but not from a missile broadside. " Adopting a pensive posture, she mentioned, "Big sis, the SGCs using a wide focus would be the best option."
The other sister, Tirpitz, suggested another option, "Perhaps it is time to unleash the Tsars on them, sis." Bismarck looked at her sisters and said, "They are valid options, but I would like to save them as a tactical advantage for the future." Seeing that the colonial officers were left behind again, Bismarck explained, "My sisters are talking about really big cannons and nukes, perfect to clear clouds of fighters."
Tigh thought about what he listened, "I remember someone had the same idea, but the EMP would have toasted our ships too." "A logical consequence and it would affect our senses too, but it's the best answer to a cloud of little ships", Graffi said and added, "my pilots would love to clear the sky by themselves but the losses against the cylons will be huge".
This time, Adama, being an ex-pilot, smiled and said, "I share the feeling, but we have to be practical. This a battle of numbers, too, and they have the advantage of dying and coming back with more combat experience. "
"So you reduce the numbers and your fighters kept the perimeter. We must form an umbrella over the rescue zone. Suicide attacks are common, especially against troops' transports, " Kara said. She remembered an odd word mentioned by Graffi, "What's a SGC?"
Bisko explained happily, "There are the initials of Super Graviton Gun. If you watched the battle between Kongou, Choukai, and the two baseships, the weapon used by Choukai is a SGC".
Kara remembered the scene of complete devastation left by only one shot. She just could say, "Wow."
Laura looked worried at the mental model, "Will it be enough against a Cylon fleet?". Tirpitz only said, "Choukai is just a heavy cruiser, Madam President. A Battleship's SGC is considerably more powerful. A superbattleship like Yamato or her sisters can split a planet in half. "
The Colonial officers remained mute for several seconds. It was too much destructive power in the hands of a machine disguised as a girl. The necessity of rescuing so many humans as they could was, however, a much more pressing issue, so to hell with the prejudices.
Have you used that weapon before?", asked Roslin. "Never against a planet. We used it in small engagements on Earth, but we had very small versions of the SGC", said Bismarck.
Time to change the topic fast, thought Tigh. "These stealth ships," asked Tigh, "Are they here?" "Yes, colonel," answered Tirpitz, "due to their small displacement, they are moored inside the battleships." The three mental models had exhibited a certain curiosity about the bald man, but they refrained from making questions.
Laura said finally, "When do we begin? "Soon, ma'am, we need to send our explorers and bring more ships to the party. We will need at least twelve carriers, battleships, heavy cruisers, hospital ships and more destroyers," said Bismarck. She fought with a smile similar to a shark, and she said, "Everything will be for naught if we don't locate the cylon base. When our explorers locate the base, we pretend to erase these assholes from the universe in a permanent way."
Laura considered what she said and had to ask, "The government on Earth has declared war on the Cylons?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes Ma'am," Tirpitz answered. "We, the Fleet, accepted that these beings are a lost cause."
"Well, please send to Commander Adama how many raptors and marines you will need", Laura said. "Ma'am", said the Lt. General speaking for the first time, "I know Colonial Marines want to do their jobs, but I can suppose Commander Adama only have the Galactica's, right?".
"Yes, I wanted to talk about that. I only have two hundred marines and many are on police duty in the civilian ships", said Adama. Hudson nodded, "It's a logical consequence of this situation. However, we bring all the First Marine Regiment from Earth on the ground, ten thoundsands marines".
"I'm sorry, but we are talking of twelve planets. It's less of one thoundsand by planet", Kara said. "You are right LT, but we are not going to retake planets. We are just going to protect the civilians and medics on the ground. Nothing more", the General explained and said, "And I, together with my boys and girls want to test our powered armors in a real battle".
After another round of lookings waiting for an explanation, the General said smiling mischievously, "thinks of the armor as an walking tank. I really want to see what I can do against a Centurion". "Are you going with the troops?, Adama said a bit surprised. "Yes, Commander, it's an old tradition of the Corps, first feet on Hell".
Kara had to admitt she was begining to like this guy.
"Ma' am President, can we speak in private?", asked Bismarck. "Just you and I", she said. Laura showed a bit of surprise but nodded in acceptance.
Although the colonials were a bit reluctant to leave Roslin alone with the mental model, they left the room. Tirpitz and Graffi were chatting with Adama, Tigh, and Foster. Graffi chatted with the woman before the meeting and naturally included her in the conversation.
"Well, we are alone, Bismarck. What's the matter?", Roslin asked, knowing that a new pain was coming. "Ms Roslin, I'm sorry to tell you this, but Foster and Tigh are different models of humanoid Cylons". Laura stayed looking silently at Bismarck for several seconds. "How is that even possible?", asked Laura. "I know that Adama and Tigh have been comrades for decades. Are you sure?"
Bismarck nodded and explained, "Ma'am President, we detected in both of them the same biosignatures that we found in the humanoids. A bit different, yes, but the energy profile and subspace beacons are identical. I can not explain the time difference, but we are sure. And they are not the only ones. When Akashi introduced her subnodes to the Galactica technical crew, she detected the same profile in Chief Tyrol.
"Ma'am," said Bismarck, "I believe they can be considered sleeper agents. They possibly don't know they are cylons. We should wait until we identify everyone. "
Now Laura was positively worried. "Gods, we were infiltrated since the end of the first Cylon war!" exclaimed Laura. Bismarck asked, "Ma'am, I want your permission to scan your fleet for Cylons and especially for beacons. They were following you, and we need to know how."
"Please, do Laura. We need to be free of spies, or we will bring them with us."
"Don't worry Ma'am" , said a smiling mental model, "that it will not happen."
The terran fleet began to scan the colonial fleet. Several interesting facts were discovered. In first place, they detected two beacons, one aboard Galactica in the CIC - Adama was extremely pissed about that - and the second one in the Cloud Nine Liner. What was more worrisome, two more humanoids were detected.
The two cylons were on board Galactica. The first was posing as a priest of the Gods, a model One. He didn't resist, courtesy of a terran taser, and he was occupying a cage in the Galactica brig, nursing a terrible headache. Several subspace disruptors, courtesy of Akashi, inhibited all communications with the cylons. The second was a raptor pilot called Sharon Valerii. That was a severe hit to Adama, due to he had helped the not so gifted pilot to make decent landings more than once.
So far, Adama didn't know about Tigh and Tyrol. Roslin decided that she would wait. The sagacious mental model had doped the beer with nanomachines, and Tigh was permanently tracked.
Chief Tyrol was subjected to the same treatment by one friendly subnode. So far, Lt. Valeri was transferred for her own safety to the Titanic. The mental model, a nice-looking woman attired as a Victorian nurse, accepted her case. According to her report, the poor girl was still swearing to the gods she was human. Her body scan, however, revealed silica neuropathways enhancing her brain, a modem port in her left arm, and artificial ganglia along her dorsal spine. The truth reached her at last, and she fell into a severe depression.
Titanic took the chance to analyze the programming inside Valeri's silica pathways and found a set of instructions about Adama. She overwrote the code and released the woman from her status as a sleeper agent. If this was enough or not, only the time would say it. Adama decided to pay a visit to the kid, but that is a story for a different time.
The Cyrannus quadruple star system was a navigational nightmare, full of gravitational edges and asteroid belts. However, the little dimensional submarines from the Fleet have identified so far only six basestars. Since the Fleet were masters of dimensional physics, it was natural to make a new class of ship that used that knowledge. The little submarines from the old oceans, when they adapted to space, were provided of a field around the hull that changed the relationship among the first six dimensions. The separation was enough for the photons and electromagnetic waves to go through the matter inside the field, rendering the ship effectively invisible.
The mental models of these ships were introduced to Adama previously. The leader de facto was a teenager with long and white hair named Iona. She was absolutely indistinguishable from a human girl of fifteen or sixteen years old, and her comrades were a bunch of eleven girls with the most weird hair colors he had ever seen in his entire life. He had to admit that they looked like experienced warriors with a very good plan to infiltrate the colonies. After he reviewed the plan, he felt obligated to ask, "Excuse me, ladies, what are you going to do if you are detected and you need to fight?" Adama asked.
Iona looked at the old warrior and said, "Then, commander, we will show the Cylons the dangers from the depths." One of the girls, with the weird name of Harder, added, "The submarines like us hunt using a mix of patience, stealth, and really big torpedoes."
"Of course, Commander we will try to not be detected. Until the Fleet arrives, we wll track the cylons and we will wait for our time" said Iona. All the girls showed the same confidence in their abilities as explorers and hunters. For a moment, the old soldier felt the same as a prey would feel when it was hunted by a predator.
"Understood", he said. "So, it seems we will wait for your news". The girls nodded and they cut off the holographic projection.
From the Galactica CIC, both friends watched how the submarines left the battleships. Small ships of two hundred meters in length, with a low profile and numerous missile hatches and guns around the hull. They left the nebula and folded away.
At last, after almost ten hours of folding, hiding, and scanning, the submarines were reunited close to the edge of an asteroid belt in the Alpha System. Hidden inside the multidimensional ocean, they were talking. Inside the local tactical network, twelve girls were sitting around a table in a garden. An holographic map was showing the location of every human pocket in the colonies. The situation didn't look too promising, and the gloomy expressions on their faces showed it.
"So few..." said Mia (formerly known as I402), "what were these ... things thinking". "At most", said Iona, "we could rescue alive six thousand people". Another girl with striking Caucasian features added "there is a lot of radiation, if the fleet doesn't come fast we will lose more than half of them". "Not even the hospital ship girls could help them". She sent the data to Yamato and frowned at the caustic response.
"It seem the Admiralty Code will intervene directly", she only said. The other exchanged looks of surprise, since Gretel usually didn't take part of human matters. "Let's focus in what we can do. Unfortunately, we don't have cargo space for so many, "said Iona. But, she added with an angry expression, "we could intervene in that infernal place."
"The Farm...we could assault and rescue them," said an Oriental looking girl.
The farm was a secluded installation, located in the middle of nowhere on Aquaria. The humans inside were mostly young females. The girls didn't know what was happening, but instinct and experience suggested that it couldn't be anything good.
The fact that Aquaria was an entirely oceanic world will help since the farm was located on an island. A useful feature of the submarines was that they could defold inside the water, although the shock to the ship was severe, but it was not too debilitating. After Iona assigned the targets, the ships rebuilt their interior spaces to accommodate as many humans as they could. If they needed to evacuate the humans, they would be ready.
Iona sent the signal, and they folded to their assigned coordinates. When they reappeared in the ocean, everyone remembered the almost forgotten feeling of water pressure, the biological noises and the contour of the sea floor.
After all the girls reported a successful defold, they approached slowly to the shore in the middle of the night. The Centurion presence was minimal, and the girls jammed their communications. One by one, silently, the robots were dispatched with extreme prejudice, clonning their beacons so the humanoids believe the centurions were still alive. The twelve girls surrounded the installation, where they could hear screams of pain.
"Girls, do you remember we look like humans?", said Iona. "So, that's the answer. We could introduce ourselves as people looking for help. If they are kidnapping females, wouldn't it be perfect?" All the girls looked at each other and finally agreed, "they will open the doors to us. How convenient."
A few minutes later, the group walked to the main door. A surprised Four opened the door and greeted them. "Young ladies, what are you doing here? Please come in," said the black guy. The innocent looking girls explained they were in a recreational boat when they lost communications. A couple of Sixes and a Three, approached the group. "You are welcomed here. We will find a place to stay for you, " the Four said.
The cylons separated the girls in pairs while they were distributed in the hospital. A lot of pregnant women in different stages were observed, their location mapped and shared inside the tactical network.
"What are you going to do to us?" asked an apparently scared Iona. "We are doctors, and we are studying our reproductive issues. You and the others will be used as experiments," smiled the Four. The guy was rudely interrupted by a number four flying through the wall and then crashing with all his limbs broken. Iona looked at the scared Four while she negated with her head, "Doc, on Earth we have an old saying - doctor, heal yourself - can you do that?"
What happened later was a literal butchery. Every kind of ship in the fleet has certain behaviors influenced by the ship class. Thus, the submarines were always patient, very cunning to ambush an enemy, a little playful with the prey and really violent when they decided to kill. The fact that the girls were disgusted by what they saw fueled a nasty fight. This particular battle will be remembered by the Dimensional Submarine Corps as the Crushed Bones Battle.
The human women, all of them tied to the beds, were terrified by what they were hearing. In one case, when a Six tried to use a woman as a shield, she had to watch the effects of a collapsing Klein Field on the cylon woman's head.
"Well, I don't know if my core is a bit corrupted after so many battles, but this was satisfactory," thought Iona. To be a mental model has its good things such as self-cleaning. The blood and gore from the battle was quickly removed by a Klein field adjacent to her skin, and she was clean and tidy again.
Adopting her leader posture, Iona spoke in a low voice, "Ok girls, let's do this. We need to release them and introduce ourselves as Earthers. Nothing more. We can speak about the colonial fleet but not about mental models and things like that". The girls went to every room, releasing the prisoners. Every woman was pregnant and the data the mental models were obtaining were worrisome.
"Iona, the fetus are not completely human", said a red hair, assisting a woman the double of her size. "Same here", Swordfish said to Iona inside the link. The patients were carefully moved to the central room so they could be together. So far, they have recovered thirty-two patients. One of the girls has found a morgue and a pile of corpses. The records were sent to their sisters.
"Girls," informed Iona through the tactical network, "the Fleet has arrived. The twelve fleets defolded successfully, and they are starting the rescue operations. I am using the long-range network to inform Yamato about what we did and what we found. The fleet above us will take them."
After minutes of stupor, one woman in her twenties could speak. "What happened to the monsters? We heard the screams. Where are they? Who are you?"
Iona stood up in front of the women and said, "Please, let me introduce myself. My name is Iona, and these are my battle sisters. We are from Earth - a murmur of incredulity and surprise erupted among the group - and we met the Colonial fleet in deep space. I think you would say beyond the Red Line. Right now, a fleet from Earth is above every planet in the Cyrannus star system, and we are locating and rescuing all the survivors. Of course, if we found cylons, there will be a bit of payback."
Only woman was showing a crooked smile. She was the one who witnessed the famous "red paste death." The sound of a big splash was heard, and Iona said, "it seems Titanic has arrived."
TBC part 2.