Chapter 18 - The Fall - Part 1

TN:- Just to make sure you guys are reading everything as i have a high amount of views on chapter 17 and less than half that number on chapter 16 so guys who are not sure they have read everything you might wanna go back and check as you might miss some important information

TN:- I will be doing the odd look in on the Galactica and other stuff in the tv series during the attack but wont be going into too much detail as if you have watched the series you will know what they do and what happens to them up until the point where Leo interferes. Also what happens and when it happens might not sync right up with the series as I want to add things to the timeline and may need to delay or speed up some events.

TN:- Just a Heads up as well this is the first of 8 parts for this as the original chapter was 15k+ words so decided to split it up. I will be releasing one chapter a day for the next week to spread out the releases a bit.

Alteran Stealth Scout Ship - Moment Of Attack On Armistice Station

Sat at the pilot controls of the newest Stealth scout ship of the Alteran Navy was the now younger looking John Thrace who now held the rank of Commodore and was in charge of the Navies scout ship elements and their special forces branch. He was currently watching as the Cylon Base ship Jumped in and a heavy raider left the base ship and docked with the station.

While the heavy raider docked with the station and did whatever it was doing John was passively scanning the base ship and the readings were both worrying and relieving.

The information the sensors were giving stated that the Base Ship had 168 missile launchers, 400 or more raider Launch bays and a number of heavy raider bays. But what had his hopes up was that they had no anti air or missile defense and by the looks of the ship very poor maneuvering ability. The sensors also picked up the weakness of the armor around certain points of the ship. He made sure to flag these observations and saved the data for more detailed analysis when he returned to waypoint alpha.

Just as he finished saving his notes the heavy raider left the station and the base ship launched missiles to destroy the station and the colonial shuttle before it jumped away.

John decided he would wait a few minutes before leaving and spend the time to scan for survivors but given how thorough the cylons were he didn't expect any survivors. He then sent out a signal that matched the emergency beacon of the station but had it cut off after a few seconds just hoping someone would pick it up and know something was up.

Once his scans came back negative he left and made his way into the colonies.

Battlestar Rycon CIC - 30 Minutes Into Attack

Leo knew the time had come but couldn't make a move until something came up that would warrant it. So was sitting in the chair that had an overview of the CIC and waited as the Commander and XO commanded the ship on its day to day operations. As he waited the first of those reasons came through when the comm specialist called out to the XO.

"Sir we just received a short burst from the distress beacon of Armistice Station. It was active for a few seconds then stopped." Said the Comm specialist.

The XO walked over to the Comm station to double check before he looked at the Commander and said. "I can confirm that sir and it looks like we have lost signal with several other stations on the edge of colonial space both civilian and military sir."

The commander looked at his XO before looking at Leo and on his nod spoke to the comm specialist. "I want all ships to set condition two and all traffic to be put on hold and any civilians and crew not on their assigned ships to stand fast and help maintain order where they are. Lastly, I want you to have all ships charge up their jump drives ready for an emergency jump to Ragnar Anchorage as emergency plans indicate."

The comms specialist replied an affirmative and got on with his job as Leo and the command crew watched the dradis for any sign of trouble as the rest of the command crew went about getting the ship ready.

"Sir I have confirmations from all ships and can confirm condition 2 throughout the fleet." Comm Specialist Lt Williams called out.

It was another 5 minutes before a ship jumped in squawking friendly IFF and when challenged by the commander their reply played over the loudspeakers. "Battlestar Rycon, this is Postal Ship Hermes operating out of Leonis, We request help as we have received damage from fighter craft while en route to Caprica. We also need to report that we watched as a Battlestar patrolling the area shut down completely when confronting an unknown ship before being nuked several times. they never stood a chance, i can honestly say i have never seen anything like it." The panic and shock in the voice was unmistakable.

The staff on duty started to whisper amongst themselves at what they just heard before Leo stood up to take charge. "SILENCE." Leo shouted. "Commander I expect better of the crew than to turn into a group of housewives. Now set condition 1 throughout the fleet, have the postal ship take up position with the rest and send them the coordinates for our emergency jump. I want Vipers in the tubes ready to launch and I want queries sent out to Fleet HQ, The nearest Fleet groups and as many of the colonies that are in range for status updates. Understood."

"Sir, Yes sir." At that response the crew started to get to work as Leo watched on as he waited for the next shoe to drop.

He didn't have to wait long. "Sir where not receiving any signals on primary or secondary channels sir, all where picking up is local civilian chatter." Commander Agathon looked at Lt Williams and before he could order anything another ship jumped in.

The commander turned to the dradis and waited for an IFF to pop up but got nothing. "New contact, No IFF, Ship Launching fighters."

Leo knew he could now do what he needed. "Commander, get the vipers aboard, Emergency Landings authorized. Get the civilian ships to jump and once the vipers are down we will jump as well."

As Leo was ordering this the person he knew was a Cylon agent that was assigned to infiltrate his crew pulled his weapon and went to shoot Leo. But Leo has been keeping an eye on him so dived for cover while pulling his own weapon just as the first shot rang out. In the panic that followed the Cylon managed to injure the commander and 3 others but was then shot and killed by the marine guard before calm returned to the CIC.

The Cylon model was a Two but Leo knew he needed to get on with commanding the fleet. "Lt Williams, get medics up here asap. XO you have command of the ship now get those vipers aboard and get us out of here."

It took the fleet less than 2 minutes to collect the vipers and jump as they were more than prepared for it. The Base ship that was assigned to take out this fleet group reported the escape of its targets before recovering their raiders and jumping away to its next assigned target.

Picon Fleet HQ - Command Bunker Control Room - 1 Hour Into Attack

Fleet Admiral Corman stood watching the dradis screen as more and more reports of lost contact were coming through the comms as the unknown enemy jammed their comms.

They finally had some luck as a comms officer reported. "Sir, I have Admiral Nagala on the horn."

Admiral Corman walked over to the comm unit and picked up a receiver. "Admiral Nagala, It's good to hear from you if you have any information on the disposition of the enemy force."

Admiral Nagala replied. "No, sir. Any replies to the forces confronting the enemy are short and usually cut off part way through. I have decided to start gathering any units i can over Virgon for an eventual confrontation, I'm hoping to use the defense satellites of Virgon to pin the enemy units in between us."

Admiral Corman understood the need to regroup and was about to reply when a report came over the comms of ships appearing in orbit and taking up position around the planet as if to get ready for a bombardment. "Well Admiral it looks like the enemy has stopped hiding as they have appeared in orbit and by the looks of it are getting ready to launch an attack on the planet. Also by the appearance of the ship profiles and familiar sensor strips on their fighters the enemy is someone we both know."

Admiral Nagala replied in kind. "Yes it appears the old enemy is back again and thanks to the politicians where no where near ready for them." There was a pause as some static was heard over the comms. "It looks like they have appeared above all colonies except Virgon and have moved into orbital bombardment positions."

Admiral Corman didn't like what was coming next as he got reports of the defense satellites shutting down and attacks on the mainframe's as well as the people who have the emergency access codes. "Well James it looks like my luck is up as they have managed to hack into and shut down the defense mainframe and i imagine it's the same on the other colonies as well so if i were you i would send crews over to the satellites on Virgon to try and turn them over to manual. Im transferring command of the fleet to you good luck my friend"

There was silence on the commas until a broken response came through. "Good luck Peter I will do my best to make them regret co..." The comms cut out before he could finish as reports of detonations in all major cities on the planet started to come through when all of a sudden the room shook.

"Sir all comms have been cut and internal comms have reported that the elevator shaft to the surface has caved in from sub level 6 and up." Comm specialist Lt Bishop reported.

Admiral Corman just looked on as the room shook again and waited for the end before remembering that he had Leo upgrade the defenses of the base through one of his companies and that Leo mentioned that he upgraded both the shock absorption as well as the armor plating between the upper and lower bunkers.

"Sir, We have lost all contact with anyone above sub level 7." Came the report from Lt Bishop.

Admiral Corman then ordered. "Lt Bishop, I want you to put out an order that everyone is to get to the lowest level as soon as they can in hope that the lower levels survive the bombs. Once done you go down there too. I will follow once I have scrubbed the data files."

Lt Bishop looked like she wanted to argue but knew from the look in Admiral Cormans eyes that she would lose that argument. "Yes, Sir." Then she went about her duty and did as ordered.

Galactica CIC - 2 Hours Into Attack

Commander Adama had just finished his announcement to the ship when he ordered Lt Dualla to call back their viper squadron. "Well my old friend it looks like it was part of another war" He said as he turned to his XO Colonel Saul Tigh.

"Yes it does and god help us." Col Tigh replied.

Commander Adama started to go through the charts on the table before pointing out Ragnar Anchorage. "Let's get something to shoot."

"Ragnar." Col Tigh looked at the chart and then ordered the course changed to the helmsman.

As they were going over what they could do and what they had to defend themselves, they received more and more comm reports of ships being destroyed by enemy fire or going offline for other reasons. They had a brief discussion with Starbuck about what vipers they had when they decided to use the vipers from the museum.

It was 20 min before the first viper was launched and it was just in time as two raiders appeared and launched missiles at the Galactica and then waited to confirm the destruction of the target. What they didn't expect was that an older model viper intercept one missile while what few flak guns the Galactica had destroyed another. Before the raiders could jump away they were attacked by the old model Viper and another that had just launched and were destroyed.

It was then that the radio signal to the viper squadron that went silent came back to life with reports of power coming back online and reforming to make the last of the journey back to Galactica.

Alteran Stealth Scout Ship - Galactica Viper Squadron On Route To Caprica - 2.5 Hours Into Attack

John Thrace watched on as the Vipers and Raptor turned around and started to make their way back to Galactica. He was following them as 2 raiders appeared and confronted the full squadron and if he didn't know better they wouldn't have been a threat. But he did know better and waited as the vipers took position to attack with a pair moving towards each raider as the rest took positions to cover them.

He watched on as the raiders sent a signal and the vipers shut down and turned from a unit flying in formation to a group of objects floating all over the place. He was watching when he made the decision to save them without revealing himself so he launched 2 missiles at the raiders before they could attack the vipers and watched as they exploded. He knew that the vipers wouldn't know who saved them so went back into stealth mode and went back to monitoring them.

He noticed that the vipers were fine and slowly coming back on line now the shut down signal was gone but the raptor that was accompanying them had jumped out. He watched as the Vipers got control and regrouped before making their way back to Galactica. He intercepted their message to Galactica about what he had done but they never reported that they spotted him so he just watched on.

He followed them at a distance as they made it back to Galactica but didn't make it in time to protect them from an attack so he watched on as the Mark 7's were met by a group of Mark 2's and 3's and then landed on the Galactica.

He watched as his Brother's granddaughter flew around the Galactica before she landed just before they jumped out. He then left to the orbit of Virgon to get sensor readings of the Base ships in full on combat instead of just ambushing and deactivating their targets.

Cylon Command Base Ship - 3 Hours Into Attack

John and the rest of the leaders for each model had met up on the command base ship after resurrecting from there planned suicide to make sure they get there without any complications.

John paced the command center as he listened to the reports from the Five who had his hands in a gel-like substance that connected them to the wider network of the ship through their silicon pathways.

"We have confirmed reports of destruction of 45 of the colonies battlestars and numerous escort and support ships. We have confirmed reports that all outer fleet anchorages have been destroyed as well as any mining sites and research bases outside the cyrannus systems." The Five reported.

John was pleased with the progress they have made but wanted more. "How many Base ships do we have in reserve that are not assigned to either the colony or the resurrection ships."

The Two responded. "We have 26 Base ships patrolling the border or defending mining sites throughout Cylon space." The Two knew what was coming next but didn't want to do anything that would have John aim his ire at him.

John contemplated then ordered. "Move 20 base stars from the reserve and assign them to hunt down any civilian ships that make it out of the cyrannus systems before we are done here. Then have the final 6 patrol the border to stop any possible infiltration from desperate ships."

It was the Three who spoke up at this order. "You would leave our home systems vulnerable just to hunt some ships down that we would get to anyway as they have nowhere to go." She then looked at the rest. "Are we seriously going to do that as all it will take it one Battlegroup to decide to jump into our space instead of defending the colonies and we would lose our supply bases."

John was now pissed that someone would contradict him. "Do you seriously believe that any of them will survive long enough to get that far in such numbers? The way I look at it is that there won't be any group big enough to even face 1 base ship and get away let alone 6."

Just as he finished his tirade the Five who still had his hands in the gel substance spoke. "John I think your hubris is getting the better of you and god has decided to punish you as a report has just filtered in that states that a whole battle group under the command of Admiral Kosta jumped away before engaging the forces sent to finish them off and we've lost all signal from that fleet."

At his report there was uproar and John was about ready to rip the Five to pieces there and then. It was then the Two who spoke up. "The fact that they got away and more than probably are aware of the CNP and our tracking devices we need to tread with caution when it comes to pulling the defensive fleets away from our home so I think we will leave them where they are and have raiders start looking for the missing battlegroup."

The others agreed so John stormed out of the command center and attacked the first human Cylon he came across that wasn't one of his own models before making his way to his own chambers.

Presidential Bunker - 3 Hours Into Attack

Adar was watching on as more and more bombs fell but was relieved that he was safe in the bunker he had built after a weakness was found in the outer shell of the old bunker below the city.

He then ordered his comm officer to send a message out on all channels from the relay in Caprica City. "To the Cylon forces as president of the 12 colonies I am offering our unconditional surrender. Please stop all hostilities, we are at your mercy." He finished before looking around him in desperation looking for some support.

What he saw in the eyes of those in the room was both panic and fear but there were a few who looked at him with disgust at the way he just threw in the towel and gave up so easily.

"Sir, the message was sent and received but no response was given and they are continuing the attack." The comm officer reported.

Adar just looked on in horror as bit by bit they lost contact with the rest of Caprica until the only signal they had was emergency beacons from both bunkers and ships in orbit. He had all but collapsed as the base shook from a nearby detonation and then the report he was fearing came through.

"Sir the Caprica City Government building is gone and so is the surrounding area. I also have reports of several Neutron bombs being deployed over the rest of Caprica City and any other large population centers on the planet." The comms officer reported while holding back tears at the knowledge his family is gone.

At the report not only was Adar in shock but nearly everyone in the room was either crying or fell to the floor at the shock of so much death and the loss of their families and friends.

The comms officer then continued. "Sir i have lost contact with the old Presidential Bunker, The vice president and the rest of the cabinet are dead and without the inability to broadcast case orange has been initiated from the destruction of the old bunker sir."

Adar had now lost all hope as the rest of the colonies now believed him dead as he made sure this bunker was put on the same network as the rest and now he is suffering the side effects of doing that.

The only colonial officer in the room decided to speak now. "So let me get this right, we are trapped here and have no hope of rescue as the colonies have been nuked and we have no idea of what forces we have left out there because you didn't connect this bunker to the emergency network."

Adar could only nod his head as he didn't trust himself not to dig his grave deeper at this point. The officer who was a colonel decided there and then to leave the room before he did something that would cause more problems later.

Adar just watched on as more and more people just left the room until he was alone staring at the screens that displayed nothing but "NETWORK ERROR" on them as they had no signal to connect to.