Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, ideas, or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Wireless/communication"
"Speaking in a different language"
"Reading a text"
Chapter fifteen: Be wary of plan C
Day 128 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 31st of May, the year 2378, Starfleet forces, the same system as the Cylon homeworld
Now while James Kirk had a long career in his life and many adventures seen and problems solved, being caught in an AI civil war was new. Even for him. The battle in Cyrannus was already underway. And as expected, Cavil was throwing his forces into the meat grinder there just to distract the rebels as much as possible. They could guess his plan and they were probably within 90% on the money on what it was. Divide, distract, and conquer. Divide the rebel forces into three groups. One to go after his colony ship, which he would use as a trap. One to occupy in Cyrannus, as Cavil knew that the rebels were using the Colonial infrastructure just as he used Kobol. And the last one to break the blockade over the homeworld. Only the fly in his soup would be that the homeworld was already taken and the rebels sent no forces of any meaningful size to deal with his colony ship. He knew that they knew of this old hiding spot, so he made it obvious. And they knew that he knew that they knew, but everyone was pretending not to know.
Kirk's force was being held back. He was waiting for D'Anna to give him the signal, in the form of a Rebel raider jumping in and transmitting the security code and coordinates as to where they wanted him. More precisely, where he will sandwich Cavil in, between his force and the rebels defending.
On the Babylon bridge, he was observing the development across the entire board. The data he was receiving was from the Columbus, which was hiding with the Ares and the Vulcan cruiser at the fallback location, should everything go south for them. The Columbus had thanks to its sensor pod, a far better overview of the situation and was giving the telemetry data to the other Starfleet ships.
His ships were already in combat status. Sitting in his CO chair, his hands interlocked while he observed the continuous updates, he saw that Cavil would begin to lose more than the rebels, soon. To his left was Jürgen, who was far more nervous. His youth and smaller experience pool showed here, but what experience he did have with the Cylons was what Kirk wanted. He told him days before this battle began, that if his experience or intuition would tell him that something in a situation was off, he should not hesitate to tell him that. Of course to his right, the Vulcan science officer was the literal definition of calm.
After about seven minutes of the battle raging across the multiple theaters, the raider they were waiting for, jumped in and transmitted the coordinates where D'Anna wanted them.
"OK people. This is it. Stick to the plan and adapt to the developing battle. Helm, begin jump countdown."
As they executed the jump, they found themselves around three clicks behind the main Cavil thrust in the middle of the attack formation. Seemed that the rebel's flanks were holding, so D'Anna wanted him to stab Cavil in the proverbial back. Something Cavil was good at as well.
As the attackers were concentrated at the middle and their formations got thinner the further out you went in the three-dimensional space, Kirk understood what he was there to do. The raider and basestar concentration, as well as ship parts at this point, was so high that both rebel and Cavil had issues getting any ordinance past the defensive perimeter, not with so many fighters, point defense guns, and interception missiles at the disposal of both sides. So D'Anna decided to throw the colony ship the rebels got when they took the homeworld, into the fray as well. It was in the scope of durability, size, and firepower, several magnitudes larger than anything else the Cylons had. Even the prototype warstar the Colonials once wanted to build, were dwarfed by the thing. Now Jim was against this usage of such a viable asset, but he had no say with the rebels except in making suggestions. He thought that the colony ship was a logistical treasure, not to be risked in such a manner. After all, was this not the main point as to why Adama was right now hunting Cavil's own colony ship?
Anyway, as they blinked into existence, Jim did not waste any time. "To all ships, fire at will!"
At three klicks, they began a barrage of their beam phasers and torpedo salvos. The Babylon was in the center of their formation. All other ships would flank her and give fire support if needed. At least two ships would at any given time focus fire at a single target. All ships were ignoring the enemy raiders. For two reasons. One, if they switch to the point defense mode, their phasers can't be used to pound the capital ships. Two, mere 10 seconds after they arrived, several dozen of raider wings jumped all around them. At this point, the rebels had more raiders than they knew what to do with. Except that every basestar and other ship had a limited capacity for them. Most now came from the homeworld. And they would be the point defense for the Starfleet task force.
As the first salvo of ordinance hit the enemy formation into the back, destroying three basestars and crippling the same amount as well, the Cavil force noticed the new situation. And now what would they do? If they focus some of their forces to try to deal with Kirk's force, that would not be enough. If they deploy too many of their forces, their attacking units would be too thinned out.
In any case, Jim had several scenarios made and the crews of all ships practice, to counter what Cavil might come up with. For now, they were just deleting basestar after basestar, salvo after salvo. He was not conserving ammo anymore. But around two minutes in, he saw Cavil change tactics in two ways.
First off, the aft force began rotating their basestars so that either the dorsal or ventral armored hulls were now facing Kirk's force. Guess Cavil noticed that the Starfleet ships always tried to focus their weapons in the middle section where both basestar halves met. Normally this was the best-defended location when it comes to fighter cover and missile batteries. But when it came to phasers and antimatter warheads that meant nothing. And if that meant nothing, the weapons could and would pierce the armor there and hopefully hit one of the three vital spots on a basestar. The main reactor, fuel tanks, and ammo storage. In any of the three cases, it would cause the ship to be ripped in two as the said location would detonate if hit properly. With the enemy aft force now no longer exposing their belly, so to speak, Kirk's force would have to strip the organic armor off and then try to hit something vital there. If they would have to disable a ship this way, it would take far too long. Because in this case, simple physics was on the Cylon's side. Their ships were massive. And if they were organic, unless you hit a critical system that cannot regenerate or the ship cannot function properly without it, Kirk's force would be bleeding ammo and time.
The second battle alteration was that two dozen enemy basestars left their formation, some jumping behind Kirk's force, some just pushing away from the main front to engage them.
Kirk did not look at anyone directly. His two officers at his flanks already knew what was coming. "Plan Beta two. Helm, rotate us by 90 degrees to the port, we're taking the four approaching bogeys at our port bow. All other ships execute formations as planned."
The allied raiders kept up with them, if barely, as the ships broke up into three smaller formations plus the Babylon going solo, using their acceleration and smaller size to their advantage. The Excelsior and one Miranda went bow starboard, one Miranda and one Constitution went full port and up along the Z-axis, the other Constitution and the remaining Miranda and Constellation went full astern, taking on each basestar group like that.
And for the first time since this battle began for them, the Babylon was now in real close quarter combat, which meant that Sisko could really take the gloves off. The plasma orbs were launched at one and a half klick away. And this time it didn't matter if the Cavil force was wising up. The two plasma orbs shredded the heavy organic armor off the first target and melted the interior. Now the rebels shared their detailed schematics of their basestars interiors, even if some among the rebels were against this as well, but by doing this they increased Starfleet's success chances significantly. But in this case, it didn't matter what was his and melted, as the targeted basester began acting really slowly and uncoordinated. Like its brain was fried. Perhaps they did manage to hit the hybrid control room, but with all the melted and blown-off materials in that section, no one knew the extension of the damage. And honestly, Starfleet didn't care, as a bombardment of heavy pulse phaser bolts finally killed the basestar as it went dark, its hull mostly intact on the other side.
The Babylon kept accelerating past the husk, doing another 180-degree roll to avoid the long extremities of the basestar hull. As they passed it, Sisko didn't hesitate to unleash a volley of photons at the next ship, his plasma launchers still on a reload cycle. The pulse phasers kept on firing, not taking a break and whenever possible, all weapons ports focusing on one target or one point on a target. Once again, easier done with such large targets. The torpedo salvo was partially absorbed by the dorsal armor, but as the Babylon was not only getting closer but flying in a direction that would get her aft into the perfect firing position to hit the vulnerable central spot, several of the torpedoes did hit the interior section of the lower half of their target. That created a hole large enough that Sisko got a clean lock on the main reactor.
The Babylon flew past that enemy ship as it fired the more accurate beam phasers to ensure a killing blow. The ship exploded behind them as now two more basestars were about to engage them.
"Maneuver Epsilon three, helm. Get Mr. Sisko a clear shot at both targets." Kirk ordered.
The helmsman did as ordered as the otherwise large Starfleet ship, but small when compared to the Cylon behemoths, began a weird sliding maneuver. The main engines were cut off and RCS thrusters began aligning the front and aft sections with both targets as the ship still moved to the original direction. Sliding in space. And Sisko got the shot he wanted, his launchers now reloaded. Now both the aft and bow launchers fired the plasma orbs. And since they got a clear shot at the weak areas, Sisko tried to preserve ammo, only launching one plasma torpedo at each target, but launching from the main hull launchers a volley of photons at each target as well. The photons weaken them, the plasma ones finish them off.
As Sisko was done, the helmsman reactivated the mains and began turning from both ships. Had they continued down this path, they'd been in real danger of hitting the main Cavil force and even the Babylon would be in trouble then. Thankfully that force was still a bit preoccupied with the rebels.
Or they were preoccupied. They noticed that their entire fore of basestars intended to get these interlopers off their backs had just cleaned the floor with their force. The other ships had finished their targets off as well, with only raider-on-raider battles still going on. And while Jim could help them out with his point defense capabilities, even their targeting system would have issues seeing the difference between friend or foe in this mess.
But what happened next was not what Kirk or anyone would expect. The main Cavil force did not send more ships after them. No. They closed ranks and began pushing harder into the rebel defenders. To Jim, this made no sense. If he was Cavil, he would see a lost cause by this stage and tried to get away. And since Cavil was not reacting like that, worried him.
"Tactical, get me an overview of the battle progression. Helm, back into formation."
As he got the chaos outside shown to him in a digital form on the main display, he was trying to see what Cavil was up to. According to the growing losses, his science officer predicted that Cavil was facing total destruction within fifteen minutes. Even less, if kept on pushing this much. But to Jim, something was really off here. All of Cavil's flanks were not getting any backup from the main formation. They would collapse even sooner. As if Cavil didn't care about them or the ones in Cyrannus. Only this main thrust was what seemed to be important to him. He saw that the eventual jump of a Cavil basestar to get past the mainline was tried, only for the said ship to be shredded by the planetary defenses. So Cavil had to know by now that the homeworld was already in enemy hands. And they were fortified on it and not intending to let it go. So why keep on pushing…
"Shit. Tactical. Get me a close-up of the colony ship. Now!"
The data sown was clear. Cavil was not only going for the rebel colony ship but there were so many raiders there that the display had issues giving accurate data. But heavy raiders were in the mix there. "Comm, contact the rebels and inform them that the enemy might try to get their colony ship under their control and jump out with it. They are better off blowing it up themselves if they can't keep it!"
The whole comm traffic with the Cylons was being handled by Dualla. "Sir, they are jamming all Cylon frequencies. I get no response."
Kirk pondered for a few seconds as the battle kept on with his force returning to their long-range bombardment. "Is close range possible?"
She checked. "Only proximity range. Less than 200 meters."
"Any allied raiders within that range?"
She got his plan. "Several. Am transmitting the message."
And sure enough, several allied raiders jumped away, carrying the message to the rebel leaders.
But Kirk knew that it might be already too late. "Comm, inform the rest of the fleet to keep on doing what they are doing. But from now on to give us as much fire support as possible. Mr. Sisko, you do not stop firing, no matter what and if you get a clear shot at the colony ship, you take it and ignore everything else. Engineering, we have three jumps worth of energy stored up in our coils, right?"
"Confirmed, sir."
"Make one jump worth of energy be available to boost the shields if needed. I'd rather sacrifice that than the ship. Now, helm, full impulse. Mr. Sisko, fire at your own discretion. Navigation, see if we can use our own jump capabilities to get into firing range of the colony ship sooner."
The navigation officer responded that it would be a miracle to make the jump into that cluster and not hit something with the erratic flight patterns of both friend and foe there. So the Babylon entered the fray now, with the rest of his fleet remaining behind, as ordered. The Babylon began zig-zagging in the cluster of enemy ships, who were frantically trying to box her in and to prevent her to proceed further. To Jim, it didn't matter if they realized that he knew what they were doing or not. He had an objective. And he could only hope that the rebels got the memo.
But then three basestars managed to block their path in such a way that they would have to either fully stop, which was in this situation the worst thing you could do, as it would make a perfect target, or alter course so much that they would be going the wrong way. Jim had a better idea. "Mr. Sisko, make us a path please."
And Sisko knew what the admiral wanted. He targeted the central basestar, managing to do the same as he did a dozen times by now. Blow its core and rip both halves apart. The phasers were now set to point defense, but only to blast the debris from the flight path as the Babylon did a course adjustment of 10 degrees down the Z-axis and a rotation of 33 degrees starboard to fit between both halves of the destroyed enemy ship. As they were about to emerge from the wreck and continue on their course with only one more layer of enemy ships between them and their new target, one of the destroyed basestar's outer parts that were blown off, hit the dorsal shields of the Babylon. Everyone noticed that as the ship now shook more violently than ever before.
"Sir, dorsal shields are down to 12%." Sisko alerted the admiral.
"Shit. Helm, stay on course but rotate us 55 degrees to take the pressure off the dorsal section. Engineering, we need the power transfer we talked about."
And he got the transfer. On his command console, he saw one jump icon disappear but the dorsal shields were now being recharged to 88%.
As they made their approach, the remaining layer of basestars were now rushing to block them. But irk saw that the rebels lost control of the colony ship, as the ship was now firing on the rebels and was surrounded by Cavil's forces on all sides. He also saw that the colony ship was already damaged, probably from the fighting on the ship itself as well as all of the commotion in space. He also noticed how the rebels were trying to regain control or at the very least deny Cavil his prize. But every nuke launched was shot down or intercepted another way. Time to open a new front.
"Sir, I have a clear shot."
"Then, by all means, Mr. Sisko. Remember what I told you."
And he did as it was told to him earlier. Another salvo or ordinance. He even used one of the plasma launchers, even if at this distance the torpedo would lose much of its energy. It was only a hunch on Sisko's end, but he was expecting some form of suicidal interception.
And he was right. Two of Cavil's basestars moved to intercept the incoming ordinance, with their own frames. As the warheads impacted, one basestar was knocked out of the fight, its power seemingly being disabled, while the other now had a gaping hole in its inner ventral side. But both of them could not intercept anymore as the Babylon zoomed past them, trying to get another clean shot. It did not stop Sisko from already opening fire with the phasers on the colony ship, but if the basestars had a mass advantage, this was the next level. And Jim knew that they had to disable its engines or blow the reactor.
As Sisko saw that no more enemy ships could intercept them at this point, even if they tried by throwing everything at them, he fired the other plasma torpedo as the Babylon flew past the target and pulled up on the Z-axis. After some distance, they would make another pass, once again dancing around the defenders.
Once the aft launchers now had a clear shot, Sisko took that one as well. The three plasma torpedoes and the dozen photons with the phasers did significant damage, but only took out one of the three FTL cores. But they did strip most of the aft dorsal armor off the colony ship. The rebels saw this and began focusing their own weapons on that location. Seems that they saw that ship as a lost cause as well.
Just as the Babylon was about to make the turn for another pass, the colony ship jumped away. In the next 15 seconds, the rest of the remaining Cavil force did the same, leaving the defenders and all the dead raiders and basestars in orbit, wondering what had just happened.
"Comm, contact the Columbus. They have to transmit the FLT jump location of Cavil's forces. Once they have it, we'll follow. Now, tactical, get me a status report on all ships, comm, get me the rebels, as the jamming is probably gone now?"
Dee nodded and contacted the rebels.
"Frak it, I should have listened to you." It was D'Anna. Inside the rebel planeside CIC.
"Yes you should have, but beating yourself up gets us nowhere. I already ordered the Columbus to start scanning as to where they jumped to. Once we know, I'm going. And it would be good if I get as much support as I can." Kirk basically laid it down to her.
"Right. The Cyrannus battle ended two minutes ago as they pulled back as well. I'll have half of our forces from there and half from here join you once you get the coordinates. God damn that fraker. To go after our Colon ship…"
"You still don't get it? That was his plan C. His consolation prize. The homeworld was probably plan A as the main target, destroying Cyrannus was the distraction and plan B. If those failed, getting this was plan C. What I want to know is how he got control of it so fast?"
"We found his remote and direct override systems on the planet in all key installations and removed them. But we checked the colony ship and found nothing."
"Seems you missed it."
"Yeah, no shit. But we will be making more of them after we find this backdoor hack of his and remove it."
"Good, cause if you want to do to Cavil what you wanted to do to the Colonials, which is to starve him of resources and hunt him down, having more logistical power than him is key. How many can you make?"
"Since our ships are more organic now, we need a planet with a magnetosphere to protect the softer insides of a ship from radiation, until the outer shell hardens, or preferably an atmosphere, not all places are suited for construction. Here in the homeworld, one every six months, if we don't make any basestars. Or one in the colonies, if we put all of their intact infrastructures together. Why?"
"Then, in my opinion, use 12 months to make four of them, hack-proof of course. Then rebuild all your basestar losses. I doubt he'll have much in the way of fabrication, even if he gets away. Then secure Kobol and Cyranuss properly. Now…" He saw Dee get an update. "The coordinates?" She nodded and transmitted it to everyone. "27 Ly from here. You got that?"
"Yes. Give my forces two minutes to organize and contact our Cyrannus forces. Then we jump."
Jim had the same idea. "Two minutes it is." As the Babylon returned into formation with its own ships, he saw the preliminary damage and casualty report. It wasn't bad, but not good either. Every ship would need more than just a paint job. And he lost seven people so far with 17 more in critical condition.
As they jumped to the coordinates, both Starfleet and Rebel Cylons saw the formation of Cavil's remaining forces. But something was off again. The basestars immediately redeploying to shield off the colony ship, was not it. Them concentrating their defensive force to meet them head-on was also not it. But the six basestars who were all around the damaged colony ship in pairs, a pair on the dorsal and ventral sides, a pair on the port and starboard side, and a pair on the bow and aft sides.
On his personal display, Jim saw something new. The six mentioned basestars were emanating huge power spikes from their main jump drives. If he didn't know it any better, it was almost like pushing the acceleration pedal on a car all the way down but keeping the handbrake on.
"OK, comm, open a channel to the rebels. Listen, I don't know what they are doing, but we use the phalanx formation. My ships are the tip, then once I manage to punch through, you jump behind them…"
Jürgen stopped him. "We may not have time for this, sir. If I am right about what they are doing, we have anywhere between two to four minutes to kill that ship. We can't do fancy formations."
Kirk saw the seriousness in his face and tone. He also knew he didn't have time for 20 questions. "Cancel that idea. You go at it directly, we go behind. Out." As he sat down to get ready for the next jump, as the Babylon had no left saved up after this, he whispered to Jürgen. "I hope you know what you are doing."
"So do I, sir. So do I." As they appeared behind the colony ship, the response was fast as enemy basestars jumped from their initial formation to greet them. "Sir, if they are doing what I think they are doing, we have to take out the basestars around the colony ship."
"Got it." And Kirk did understand. If his XO was right, the basestars were an easier target to destroy than the colony ship. "Kirk to all ships, we all rush them together, but keep some distance from each other and be wary of ram attempts and surprise jump-ins. Engage!"
The rebel force was already occupied with the frontal force of the surviving Cavil ships. They also sent forces to most flanks, trying their luck there. Starfleet had the aft of the defensive formation to deal with.
Again the game of getting 'the clear shot' was being played. But Kirk noticed it on the spot. The defending basestars were singling out the Babylon heavily. They must have extrapolated the previous battle and realized that only this ship had the extremely dangerous green orbs of death.
And just as Jim feared, the defenders were far more willing to use extreme measures this time. The Babylon could not get a clear shot at either the colony ship or one of the six basestars, as the helmsman had to do emergency maneuvers almost every 10 seconds to avoid a direct collision or something to that effect.
The tactical situation for Cavil was deteriorating. He was now bleeding what was left of his forces. But he got what he wanted. Just as the Babylon got close enough and managed to get two plasma torpedoes off at one of the basestars around the colony ship, said ship jumped away. And even before the torpedoes could tear into the basestar, it exploded on its own. In fact, out of the six basestars, four exploded, one lost all power and one had several explosions in the interior, signaling that its FTL engines just blew up, stranding it here.
It took not more than 10 seconds after this that the remaining Cavil survivors jumped away. At least those that could. Kirk had the Columbus transmit the new coordinated for the fleeing Cavil forces, but the FTL signature of the colony ship was gone. Even the Columbus did not detect an exit point.
In a way everyone was relieved. And angry. Jim had his people begin searching for survivors, help the rebels clean up what was left, and begin to make a detailed report from every ship section and every ship as well on losses and damages.
In his ready room, Kirk then sat down behind his desk as D'Anna arrived. He also called Jürgen in as well as his Cylon officer assigned to the Babylon, Sophie.
"That didn't go as planned. Mr. Jürgen. We need an explanation as with what just happened." Indeed all three were eager for him to say what Cavil probably just did.
"It was an old war college idea, from the First war. But was abandoned due to its impracticality and risks. Sir, in a simple way, what Cavil just did is the jump drive equivalent to that warp bubble that Commodore O'Donnell's force did. The six basestars were charging up the hull and FTL systems of the colony ship. Just like the tests with raptors were done back in the Colonies, decades ago. When it worked, the six ships could increase the jump range of a ship by 10 to 20 times. Add the highway effect on top of that… and we can only guess as to how far the colony ship jumped."
"Then why was this never in any of the Colonial military servers?" D'Anna asked. "Remember, we hacked your entire network back then."
But Jim had a pretty good idea as to why that was. "Either Cavil kept that data to himself or it was never in a digital form. Mr. Jürgen, it was not a successful trial, was it?"
Jürgen hesitated for a moment, searching for the proper words to describe what he did know. "Sir, all I know is not even second hand, but more third hand. In the ship tactical class for officer training, our professor, Commander Xirin, told us of the ideas from the First war he was part of. He was in the Strategic Planning Bureau at that time."
"We know of them. And they were known as crackpots even among the Colonials." D'Anna interjected.
"Well, crackpots or not, they were successful with jump-capable raptors. When six of them were doing the same thing to the middle raptor with what Cavil did on a much larger scale, the jump capabilities of the intended target were far superior. But the issues were so big that the idea was apparently not just scrapped but they buried it, as to not piss off the public when they would have to admit to wasting resources, time, and lives at such a plan when there was a war going on."
"Let me guess, crap blowing up was an issue?" Kirk asked bluntly, now leaning casually at his desk.
"For us, the first issue was jump calculations. At such distances, it was basically a semi-blind jump. Even modern nav computers would have issues. But we can all agree the Cylons would have no such issues. Or Starfleet."
Sophie responded for the first time. "That's for damn sure."
"Well, the second problem was the risk to the ship doing the 'enhanced jump'. According to the number crunchers, there was a 27% chance of a fatal overload that could either destroy the ship or cripple it by a complete power loss or the jump engine blowing. The ships assisting the jump were much worse off, as you saw with Cavil's basestars. Now I don't know if he improved the numbers in any way, but as I remember it, 87% chance of a complete power failure across the board, 64% chance of the FLT blowing, leaving you stranded, and a 55% chance of a reactor overload."
Sophie was the math genius here, even if D'Anna had similar capabilities, she was too lazy for that. Not her field. "Possibly he reshuffled the numbers, increasing chances for the ship that does jump by decreasing the survivability of the support ships."
"Either way, there is a chance he didn't make it." That was all D'Anna wanted to hear. But Jim remained skeptical, as he observed Jürgen.
"No." Jürgen concluded. "The only constant was that the risk always applied before you jump. If you jump successfully, there is no risk for the jumping ship after the jump. Had the numbers been against Cavil, the colony ship would have blown up here, not there. Wherever there is."
D'Anna cursed and grinded her teeth. "I can only hope Adama doesn't screw up as we did."
"We?" Sophie corrected her. "Sorry, Three. Your ego screwed up."
D'Anna glared at her, but this time Sophie glared back.
Jim had to stop this. "As much as I would love to see this catfight, we have more important business to attend to. Don't you think?"
D'Anna none verbally agreed to it. "Help us with any search and rescue or to capture the stragglers. We'll do the remaining clan up, you can then get some R&R in Cyrannus or at that hiding spot. We'll deliver the remaining part of our deal once Adama returns."
They all agreed to that and D'Anna left. "Mr. Jürgen. The bridge is yours. I'll go see Manor about the casualties' status. And once you have some off time, write a proper report on this jump method that you just described. And… did Adama know about it?"
"Perhaps, but I don't know how. He was in that war as well, but only as a pilot. And his academy days were before this was even discussed. And it was mostly only theoretical."
"You mentioned the time and lives lost. How many?"
Jürgen hesitated but replied nonetheless. "34 pilots were lost in total."
Day 128 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 31st of May, the year 2378, Starfleet Carrier Pegasus, near nebula Y-70116, harboring a stellar-mass black hole
The Carrier Pegasus was approaching their intended destination. A few jumps from the gas cloud containing the singularity, Bill had the ship enter silent running, but not cloak, as the attached raiders made that difficult. And it could not launch nor retrieve its own fighter wings while cloaked. That would be used as a desperation move, should it come to that.
In the main hangar, Starbuck, Sheba, Apollo, and Bishop, the four fighter wing commanders, which were right now at double the size for this operation, were getting the last-minute briefings from Admiral Adama.
"You all know the main plan and all the backups. As Earth likes to say, Kara, you're the wild card. The three of you know what to do." He turned to Leoben, who was his Cylon contact for the raiders. "Same for the raiders. AI or not, I hate losing people."
"Understood, Admiral. But they are willing to die, if necessary."
Bill nodded, understanding their thirst for vengeance. Something he knew all too well. The last person was now addressed. "Bulldog. You too. I got my friend back and I don't intend to let your smart-mouthed ass be MIA again. Stick to the decoy and scouting plan for the raptors, got it?"
"Clear as Ambrosia, sir. In the one ear, out the other. So, what were you saying?"
Bill knew he was being himself. He could also see that while Kara approved, she was the only one. Sheba was not amused, Apollo stayed silent, and Bishop was already eager to go. "Fine. Just no fraking heroics." He saluted them and entered the main turbo lift with Leoben. Bill went for the bridge, Leoben for the CIC to oversee the raiders. After the next jump, the first phase of the mission begins. Search. Once they have a confirmed location, the distraction commences. Then with any luck, while the main force thinks they are going after the rebel Cylons, his people strike and deal with the colony ship.
As the jump was complete, all the raiders began detaching themselves from the outer hull and the Pegasus began launching most of the hybrid raptors in the aft hangar.
"Pegasus, this is Bulldog, initiating jump sequence for a hybrid raptor scouting run. If we find anything, will report back ASAP, otherwise see you in 15. Out."
On the bridge, Adama oversaw the deployment, but let the people who were at the specific stations for this handle everything.
Then they waited. 15 minutes later Bulldog's raptors returned from their scouting missions. They didn't detect any activities in the assigned sectors. So they would do the next scouting run in the roster and continue until they either find something or realize that Cavil played them.
Around 30 minutes later they initiated the fourth mission in the nest search grid. And this time they found a basestar patrol. Now they could just go for the cloud, but Bill guessed that a direct assault was what Cavil wanted from D'Anna. Since he was here and not her, he'd not play Cavil's game. But force Cavil to play his. After another 30 minutes, they had a good idea of the patrol pattern of Cavil's perimeter. They also found what Bill wanted to find. The ambush fleet. There was a system less than 1 Ly from the cloud. Too far for the small singularity to affect it, but it was nevertheless cluttered with asteroid belts. Belts with high radiation signatures they used for masking their presence. So now they knew where to plant the decoys, the heavily modified 23rd-century Starfleet probes that would emit a massive EM signature and lure Cavil's forces out. The moment Cavil sends his ambush fleet out, they strike.
So now Bulldog was only an observer as he escorted one of several raptor units to the designated target locations where they would deploy the decoys. In multiple locations several raptors launched four decoys per raptor and then began a hard burn into the opposite direction, to get some distance between themselves and the decoys.
It didn't take long for enemy raider forces to notice the wireless traffic. It was in code, so they didn't know what was said. If they did, they'd known that it was gibberish.
As Bulldog sent one of his raptors to report this to Adama, Bill already had two specially coated raptors jump into the gas cloud. With the sensor and nav upgrades from Starfleet, they had almost no limitations as to where they can or cannot jump to in the cloud. The raptors remained undetected. And once they returned and reported the discovery of the colony ship, they also confirmed two other things. Half of the basestar defenders jumped away not long after they arrived, confirming that they took the bait, going after the decoys. The other was that the regular equipment would make it impossible to jump anywhere but a gravitationally stable area right next to the colony ship. Right into the gun barrels of most ships Cavil had there.
At this point, Bill also launched all of his fighters and bombers from the lateral launchers. The game was on.
Lee was in his Wasp-class fighter. And to no one's surprise, most top pilots took these as they had the privilege of the first pick. Including Bishop, Sheba, and Starbuck. But all Starfleet fighters were for this operation, carrying the heavy anti-capital ship ordinance. That would limit them in a dogfight somewhat, but it was the raiders that were really screwed. They had one ammo loadout to be used. All nukes. Rearming them after this would take a lot of time as the Pegasus had limited capacity to do so with so many raiders.
As their jump coordinates were put in, as the Starfleet fighters were to do the second attack after the heavy hybrid raptors and the raiders would then jump to the only place they could, as they didn't have the navigational advantage of Starfleet computers, the killing zone. Hopefully, the chaos that would ensue would turn that zone into a less hostile environment.
Lee inspected everything one last time and called out all of his pilots to report their status. Once all was in the green, he contacted Kara one last time. "Don't be impatient, Kara."
"Frak you, Lee. You get to play while I'm sitting this one out."
"I read a lot on Earth philosophers. One was a devoted believer that if something can go wrong, it will. I think you'll not be sitting on the sidelines for too long."
"Your words in god's ears."
"Cut the chatter." Sheba reprimanded him. "Focus on your task, Apollo. You can flit after this mission. Everyone, we jump in 10 seconds, counting down from now…"
The three fighter wings jumped into the could to the coordinates provided by the stealth raptors. It was a mess of swirling matter, micro asteroids, gasses, and other materials, all in an accretion disk around the rather young singularity.
Lee's display showed him their main target, but he had no visual confirmation. They would have to remain in this soup to avoid detection till the last minute. But they also could not stay for too long. Keeping this position while above a singularity was only asking for it.
One beep later on their comm system told them that the raptor strike was underway. All the raptors that were not on decoy duty, jumped in at the flanks of their target and unloaded their nuclear arsenal. That got the remaining defenders to react as Bill wanted them to react.
The three wings of Starfleet fighters left their position, flooring their impulse drives. And because of their raised shields and armed micro photons, their EM signature was easily spotted now. But enemy raiders would have serious issues jumping in this mess, just like the rebel ones would.
The three CAGs were at the front with the Yellow Jackets and Wasps leading the charge. Their main target would be the engines. If disabled the singularity would take care of the rest for them.
As they unloaded their heavy ordinance, they pulled from the attack run and identified the closest enemy raiders that would intercept them and the Hornets. So that was their next duty.
"Apollo, you take the bogeys at nine O'clock, I'll take the ones at three. Bishop, remain in defensive formation."
"Confirmed."
"Roger that Sheba. You heard her."
As Lee did as he was ordered, the first strike ripped the ventral armor off, exposing much of the interior of the larger ship. The raptor nukes were mostly all intercepted or hit basestars, but that was expected.
Before the colony ship could begin powering up its own FTL engines, the Hornets unleashed their armament. And with the armor mostly gone, the main power distribution system was crippled and two FTL engines were blown off. They had this plan far better done than Kirk, who had to improvise his the last minute. They also got better hits in and more of them. That was the main reason why fighters only did so much more than the Babylon in the battle at the Cylon homeworld.
As the Starfleet fighters began their retreat protocols, they saw all the allied raiders jump into what was previously known as the kill zone. The moment they jumped in, they unloaded everything they had. The point was to either kill the colony ship off completely or if that fails, with her engines gone, push her closer to the singularity faster.
But while the kill zone was clearer than before this skirmish began, the defenders still managed to begin grinding the rebel raiders down fast. And while the nukes did the second job of pushing the colony ship out of a stable orbit, the issue was that the sublight engines were not out completely and the final FTL core could be fixed.
"Colonel?" Lee asked his CO.
"I know. Strider, jump back and update the admiral. We need Starbuck and my plan C here on the double!"
In less than a minute, Kara's wing jumped into the same spot Lee and the rest jumped only a few minutes earlier. "Idiots can't do a proper job without me, it seems."
"Major. Run your mouth on your time, not mine! Finish this job!" Colonel Cain ordered.
"Yeah. I got that. OK, boys and girls. Form on me. Let's show them how it's done properly."
"Apollo. We'd better provide her cover. Your raider buddies already jumped away, not that I can blame them. So it's on us."
"Understood, sir."
The enemy raider formations tried to stop Kara at any cost. They were desperate. And so was Adama's force. In this cluster of fire, Lee, like most Colonials, decided to use the plasma bolts rather than the particle beams. They were far better for their style of dogfights.
His ship rocked hard, however, as an enemy raider and his Wasp collided with their wings. Not that he was the only one, but he took it the hardest as his instruments showed complete shield grid failure, as well as a fuel leak. He could jump out already as the protocol they established would allow him this due to the taken damage. But keeping Kara's ass clear was more important to him.
And Starbuck got yet another chance to brag in the future. Her wing got the final hit off, destroying the last FTL core and disabling the entire sub-light block. The colony ship was going nowhere but into the singularity.
"Job well done, people. Begin jump preparations." Sheba ordered as her people began pulling back to their carrier. She stayed the longest to see their target begin getting torn apart by the increasing tidal forces. But even she outstayed her welcome as the enemy raiders were still on her.
As she jumped to the Pegasus, she saw that the situation changed here as well. And not for the better. Cavil's forces must have found them and were no longer fooled by the decoys. She dodged the basestar parts that indicated that the Pegasus was putting up a decent fight. But she was hopelessly outnumbered and already at full impulse pulling away.
"To all allied forces, jump to fallback location Alpha, we'll collect you all there. We cannot hold this position and enable you to land." It was Adama. And Sheba knew that he was not wrong. Even a battlestar would have issues picking up its fighter screens this way.
"You heard the admiral. We're clearly not welcome here any longer."
As the fighters, raptors, and raiders managed to jump away, as they too were hopelessly outnumbered now, the Pegasus had to dodge another basestar that tried to intercept her by jumping ahead of them. The problem was that the Pegasus could not jump.
"Engineering, status?!" Bill was sitting in his command chair overlooking the rapidly deteriorating situation. Before their fighters returned, seven basestars jumped into their space and with their opening salvo hit her port shields with so many regular and nuclear missiles that the shield could not stop all the damage. Her port nacelles got singed and several coils in both the upper and lower one were out of alignment. They also could not just cloak as the Clyons would just blind fire then.
This was one of the cases where the Carrier Pegasus was worse off than the Battleship Babylon. Similar size perhaps, but the Pegasus was slower to accelerate, more massive, the shields were of similar strength but had to cover a greater surface area and her close-range weapons were not as good in knife fights as the Babylon's. And her heavy weapons ports were in smaller quantities.
"Sir, we have seven to ten coils out of alignment. We can't jump until that is fixed."
Bill knew he would not like the answer to his next question. "How long?"
"24 hours minimum."
"We don't have that kind of time! Any alternatives?"
"Sir, I can reroute the warp command protocols. We can use the starboard nacelles to jump to warp. But warp three is the best I can offer."
"I'll take it. Get it done!"
The Pegasus had to dodge another basestar intercept attempt. But it was at her aft that the real issue was brewing. Most of the raiders and the incoming fire were in this section. The point defense was already overwhelmed there, enabling many missiles and raiders to hit, and in the case of raiders themselves, do ramming attacks against the carrier. Only the torpedoes were still used to try to persuade the pursuing basestars to frak off, with little effect.
And as that shield section began weakening, again some damage bled through, piercing the hull and damaging a fuel tank in the aft section.
"Sir, axillary fuel tank four is leaking, we're losing deuterium fuel for the fighters." The operations officer alerted the admiral.
"Can anything be done about it?"
"Negative sir. All valves to the other systems closed off automatically."
But this gave Bill an idea. "Aft view." As he now saw the force behind them and the leaking fuel turn into ice crystals, Adama decided to take advantage of this. "Tactical, can we deploy a torpedo as a mine with a time-delayed detonation?"
"Yes sir, easily done."
"Then get one ready. Have it deploy and detonate once all the fuel from tank four has been vented. It should ignite, correct?"
"Yes sir…" The tactical officer grinned, getting the idea. As the fuel tank was now empty, the torpedo was dumped. And as it detonated several seconds later, it did ignite the fuel, burning many raiders who were now drenched in it. It also caused a fireball that persuaded the remaining raiders to fall back for a while.
"Sir, we have mains again." The helmsman reported.
"Then jump to warp, any direction!"
The Cavil force had to watch as its prey disappeared in a way they had never seen before. On the Pegasus, the bridge shook a bit but stabilized soon.
Bill felt relieved. "Let's hope we don't have to do something like this again. Tactical, get me a view of the surrounding space, our location, and our fighter location." As the main display showed him the requested information, he went to the helmsman's console. "I can only guess, but with only warp three and no highway, even one light-year will take a lot of time?"
"Correct sir. Too long."
"Hm… engineering. Commander Scott. Damage report, please."
"Sir. I can give you only a preliminary one."
"I'll take it. Go ahead."
"Sir, we'll need to go to impulse at some point and shut the nacelles off for my people to fix and realign the coils. Lateral tactical sensors are damaged and at 50% efficiency, long-range sensors are down, I have three port phaser arrays down and the aft shield grid will need some patching as well. Plus the hull breach on deck seven, aft section, for the fuel tank, and a small breach near deck 23, fighter repair facility."
"And long-range communication?"
"Oh, that is undamaged, sir."
"Thank you. Get your people ready for the necessary repairs so that we can leave the enemy territory, once we do stop. Out. Now, helm, get us to these coordinates…" Bill pointed at an area of space on the map on the main display. "Should not be longer than three hours. Then we slow to sub-light there and our fighters jump to us, land, we cloak, and begin repairs. Comm, contact our people and give them the update."
As they did as he told them, he also got some bad news. Some raiders and Starfleet fighters were not capable of jumping anymore. Damaged engines or loss of fuel, like Lee. But fortunately for them, they had a solution already in the works on their end.
Three hours later and the fighter force jumped to the Pegasus as the ship did slow down to impulse. All the raptors, raiders, and fighters landed fast. Yes, even the raiders, since only 27 of them were left from this mission. And they and the raptors were used to help jump a damaged ally to this location. Lee's fighter was now attached to a raider, who disengaged the magnetic lock as Lee's ship was guided in by a tractor beam. He was running on low power settings to conserve energy, since with no more fuel, his reactor shut off. This included leaving his life support on low.
And while Lee was not the only one that needed help getting out of his fighter, he was the only one that needed a gurney. Hypothermia.
The admiral was there to greet all of his soldiers back home. As soon as the last fighter landed, the Pegasus cloaked.
Bill patted his son on the shoulder as he was being carried away. "Good job."
"Cough… yeah. That ship is done for. And I think my balls are frozen." They all laughed a bit.
Bill indicated that they can take him away. He then addressed the remaining pilots, deck crews, and the Cylon allies. "I would like to say to take some rest, but we can't. We're still in Cavil's sandbox. So every pilot that can fly is on alert status. Scott will have her hands full with the Pegasus, so I suggest you try to help the deckhands to patch your machines up. Or the raiders. Leoben. Tell the raiders that they did a great job, even if I disapprove of so many losses. And If I had medals for them, I'd give them some."
"I think they'll like hearing that anyway, sir."
"Good. Now, no sleep or drinking. Get some chow if you need, but then as I already told you. Dismissed."
Adama walked off to the main turbo lift, meant for the bridge.
"Well, all I need is some water and a leak. Then I'll grab my tools and start fixing my baby." Kara announced as most began going to their intended locations. Either like her for the lavatory or to go directly to the repairs.
Sheba was not too keen on staying in the dedicated Cylon part of the main hangar, but Kara didn't care either way, once she returned. Her Wasp was mostly undamaged, except for the few scorch marks. So she went to help an Eight with a raider.
The raiders were like all damaged machined, hooked up to a system that kept them suspended and allowed easier access to the engine parts.
"Hey… Eight?" She asked the model Eight working on the first raider In the group.
"It's Jill. Want to help?" She was cleaning the aft engine exhaust.
"That's why I am here for. Still weird that they can't talk." She remarked as she took the digital communicator of Cylon design that displayed what the raider was saying in a text form.
"Not a priority to do in a war." Jill reminded her.
"Right. So he is saying that the lower side was pierced."
"Yeah, was about to go there."
They both lied on the floor and moved to see the damaged area from below. "Clean hit. We'll have to remove this panel to see the inside damage." Kara took a power tool and began removing the screws on the panel where the damage was.
"Before you remove the last screw and open the panel, move aside."
"Why?"
"You'll see. And thank me later for it."
Kara didn't get it, but whatever. She went into a kneeling position as she was about to remove the panel. Once she pulled it open, blood fell to the floor. Had she been in the previous position, it would have been on her face. "Shit, thanks."
"Told you." Jill took a flashlight and inspected the interior, which was the raider's guts. "Ah, there it is, pliers please." As Kara gave them to Jill, she pulled the shell out. "There. Now, can you give me that needle and then go see what the raider said."
As Kara went to see the communicator, Jill injected a medical liquid into the raider's tissue. "Em, it's saying that the pain is gone. And thanking us."
"Good. Cylon antibiotics and pain killers. Now get me that spray please." Again Kara obliged.
"What is that"?"
"A thinned-out version of the paste in the bucket next to your feet. In a spray form. It'll help the healing process for the organics."
"Still waiting for a useful explanation. My brain is rather slow in such things." Kara remarked as she observed Jill working. As Jill was finished, she pulled her head out and they began returning the damaged panel back.
"It's an organic paste, or epoxy if you will, specially made for ship maintenance and regeneration purposes. The spray form is for smaller craft and organics specifically. Now, can you give me the trowel and add some of the paste from the bucket?"
Kara remained kneeling, but Jill went to the floor again, after wiping the blood off. She used the paste to seal off the puncture hole. "It also binds with metals. This hole will be as hard as the metal of the panel in a few hours. We use them for basestar repairs as well."
They both finished up and cleaned themselves a bit. Jill then turned the raider off. "Let him sleep now when he's dozed."
"Right." They went to the next patient. "You should offer that tech for a trade with Starfleet if you are allowed to do so. They can be a bit of geeks and don't discriminate tech like this."
"Oh… good idea. Now…" They inspected their next patient. His one had the frontal visor damaged. Like a scar from several near misses.
"OK, if we're giving names, this is so Scar for a name. And not being evil here."
The raiders' central eye went from Kara, slowly going to Jill, then to Kara again. Jill was reading its comments. And chuckled. "Well, aside from the need to inspect its targeting scanner, it responded to your remark that Scar it is. But you are Loudmouth then."
"Oh, look who has a sense of humor. OK, Scar, you me and a simulator when we get back."
Jill read the response again. "It seems you have a date."
Day 134 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 6th of June, the year 2378, Starfleet forces, orbit over Caprica
As the Pegasus managed to return and join the formation above Caprica, some final R&R was given as the Rebels held their end of the bargain and gave the Colonials three mobile shipyards to use as they saw fit. As well as the First war era basestars. In addition, some other technologies were also exchanged, like the impulse engine designs for all the knowledge on Cylon organics and the regeneration epoxy.
Where D'Anna wanted to argue was the Orb of the Prophets, but since the rebels were now forming a republic of their own, she was outvoted. No other model, raider, or centurion wanted any more hostilities. Unless it was Cavil.
Most Starfleet ships would need some form of repairs once they got back to New Settlement. But everything was jump-capable. And once they do depart, they will have one final meeting with the Cylon leaders over Kobol. Seemed that the former rebels were actually thinking of sending some form of escort with the Colonials all the way to Federation space. But for now, several so-called cultural exchange people would go to New Settlement, still unaware where it was, to keep us the talks and see what the Final Five and Sharon would have to say.
On a beach on what could easily have been the Caribbean islands, the people from the fleet were enjoying the last few days before their possibly final departure from Cyranuss.
However, no one noticed two individuals at the beach bar. They could have easily fit in with the sunglasses and hats, slurping their drinks.
"Have to say, good idea, Junior." The older of the two remarked as he enjoyed the view and drink.
"Told you. The Organians were caught so easily by them."
"Yes. Remind me to give them a visit and make them remember who the Organian is and who the Q is. But you were right. Jean-Luck has his witty repartee. Benji has a nasty right hook."
"He's a Prophet now too."
"Yes, quite an improvement. Kathy is the survivor but this Kirk. He is special indeed. Combining the aspect of the others into one person. But it's the rule breaker in him that interests me."
"Why? Because of the similarities to Quinn?"
"Shhhhh! Remember Junior, the Continuum may be listening in." He finished his drink. "But this Adama is intriguing as well. Worthy of another look."
"Should we not do something?"
"You mean like helping them?" His son nodded. "Oh Junior. You still have much to learn. And Aunt Kathy has put some bad habits into your head. No. They'll do it themselves. Why else would Archer do this for Kirk? Anyway. It is not the time yet for you and me to entertin them. Let's go."
They both snapped their fingers and were gone, no one knowing they were there in the first place.
Commander Kelly Rose Scott - Jennifer Lawrence (Chief Engineer) (Scotty's distant relative)
Captain Sakari Hauaman - Catherine Bell (Challenger Captain)
Lt. Adrian Garcia - Michael Peña (Computer scientist)
Major Michael David Sisko - John Boyega (MACO Commander) (Benjamin's distant relative)
Lt. Commander Sachiko Hayashi - Kim Tae-hee (Challenger comm officer)
Dr. George Manor - Hugh Laurie (Rank Lt. Commander, Chief Medical Officer of Challenger)
Commander K'Lir - Melinda Clarke (Vulcan and Challenger's XO)
Commander Naomie Evans - Emmanuelle Vaugier (Crusader XO, now acting CO)
Lt. Commander Noah Hill - Timothy Olyphant (Crusader tactical)
Major Jacques Friloux - Casper Van Dien (Champion MACO Commander)
Lt. Commander Alex Nelson - Dean Cain (Crusader Chief Engineer)
Dr. Krisha Kumar - Aarti Mann (Rank Lt., Chief Medical Officer of Crusader)
Commodore Fiona O'Donnell - Lauren Holly (Bismarck CO)
Colonel Alan Walker - Michael Biehn (Bismarck MACO CO)
Lt. Jacob Rivers - Seth MacFarlane (Paladin Chief Engineer) (Ship's acting CO, all higher officers are dead)
Captain Carlos Ramirez - Josh Cruze (Champion Captain, transferred from Intrepid, as Starfleet needed all experienced officers in more capable ships)
Captain Khari Oladoyinbo - Cuba Gooding Jr. (Knight CO)
Commander Sek'Ris - Tom Selleck (Officer of Vulcancolonials)
Commander Jerome Hasapis - Bob Gunton (BSG Victory)
Colonel Colin Hawks - Nathan Jones (marinestar commander)
Governor Elliot Fabron - Forest Whitaker
Minister V'ok Miller (Short for V'okoris) - Clancy Brown
Lt. Commander Var'anis - Lou Diamond Phillips (Vulcan Commander from the colony)
Admiral James T. Kirk - OG Kirk, accept no substitutes
Admiral Augustus Cain - OG Cain from 1980 Galactica, accept no substitutes
Colonel Miranda "Sheba" Cain – (Augustus Cain's niece, CAG) OG Anne Lockhart
Colonials: 529 Civilian ships, including dozens of tankers, refinery ships, cargo transports, and mostly civilian transports.
One Marinestar, the Broadsword. Eight Sobek class ships (Victory being one of them), 29 Adamants, Pegasus and Adonis (Mercury-class), Military ships: Three Jupiter class ships (Galactica, Hydra, and Titania), one Janus heavy cruiser (Oberon), one Atlas carrier (Ibis), 16 Valkyrie class (Morningstar among them) and seven Minotaur gunships. The three support ships are Defender class.
One Adamant was destroyed. The Jupiter class Pegasus was sacrificed.
Starfleet: Challenger (NX update class), Crusader, Paladin, Champion, Knight and Nightingale (hospital ship) (all Poseidon class), Bismarck and Yamato (Yorktown battleships), Volga, Denarius, Pathfinder, Mississippi, John Brown, Merchant, Concordia, Settler's Dream, Danube, Ares (Ares class), Colonial Hope (Klingon D-6), and Vo'kor (Vulcan cruiser). Ulysses class dreadnaught (Babylon), one Ark Royal class fleet carrier (Pegasus), two Constitution-class heavy cruisers (Inferno and Solaria), one Constellation heavy cruiser (Fury), one Excelsior mark One heavy cruiser (St. Michael), four Miranda class light cruisers (standard module ones: Surak, Seleya, Feneris, one sensor variant, the Columbus.)
Three modern basestars, one First War-era basestar, and the alien gunship (Paris) are also part of the combined fleet so far (this has since changed).
Destroyed: Marco Polo, Frontier, Boston, Oracle
Total Colonial survivors: 515.000 + 78.000 (original fleet) civilians and military personnel. 593.000 Total Colonial population (rounded). Lost in insurrection: 4.500, civilian and military. The remaining population is 588.500.
12.700 Federation/Starfleet people. Insurrection casualties: 150. Total remaining 12.550.