Chapter 29 - The Butcher's Bill and Schemers

TN:- Again I'm sorry for the time between chapters, i am doing my best but working a lot doesn't leave me with much energy and drive to write but i promise i will not let the story fall into the void that other unfinished stories go so please be a little patient with me. I will try to maintain a chapter every 10 days or less while I'm working a lot but will increase the release rate when I get more free time to write.

Battlestar Olympus - Admiral Stokes - 3.5 DAH

Admiral Stokes watched on as the raptors jumped in and did an excellent job of showing the Cylons how a real battle is fought. As usual the overconfidence of the Cylons cost them dearly with the loss or damage of more than half of the reinforcement fleet that jumped in.

He was just contemplating their next steps when the Cylons pulled back from the tunnel. "Lt have the rescue raptors make a thorough sweep of the battlefield for any survivors."

He then turned from the Dradis screen as another comm's officer relayed fresh orders from Ragnar Station. "Sir, Ragnar Actual instructs us to finish up here as soon as possible and make our way to rendezvous point alpha." A pretty standard message and he was expecting to get it before Ragnar Station jumped to follow the last of the Civilian ships.

"Very well send out orders for all small craft not involved in rescue operations to land and have the Gunstars form up around Olympus to begin our withdrawal in 30 mins." He then left the Fleet CIC heading down the steps to the ships CIC. "Commander, how's the ship and crew looking?"

Commander Svenson looked up from the clipboard full of reports he was currently going through. "Well the crew took minimal losses but the ship itself has taken a lot of damage. It's mostly minor damage but we have lost one engine, several decks have structural damage that will need a dry dock to repair and worst of all is we have lost nine out of twelve missile tubes. From the observations from the raptors sent out to eyeball it the missile tube doors have melted shut." Svenson talked of a few more minor problems while the Admiral listened until he finished.

"We have come out of it a lot better than I thought we would and shows that the new armor polarization works. What are our Viper losses?" Stokes asked.

Svenson picked up another clipboard and read some stats to the admiral before commenting. "Overall we have lost 65% of our vipers with 20% of those pilots being recovered. I have already had the stored Vipers made ready but we are still short of craft especially with having Hades' viper wings as well. Do we have a count on those who made it of the Hades'?" He asked.

A look of sorrow came across the Admiral's face and shook his head. "We are still taking count of those who made it off but the priority right now is to recover who we can and get out of here before the Cylons decide that they need to finish us off after all."

With that comment the officers went back to work and it was 2 hours later that they made it to the other tunnel meeting up with the ships left to support them if needed. It only took them 5 minutes upon meeting up to jump to where the rest of the fleet was waiting for them.

Container Ship 26611 - Unknown Location Outside Colonial Space - 3.5 DAH

Admiral Nagala was sitting on the edge of the bunk in the small cabin that the captain of the container ship let him use. It has been 4 days since the attacks and the devastation of the colonial fleet and he still didn't understand how it happened. He was just glad that they had started that colony project all those years ago as it was a way for humanity to survive.

He stood up and left the cabin and made his way to the bridge as after coming to terms with everything that's happened it was time to stop acting like a drama queen and get back to work.

He entered the bridge and found the captain along with his pilot talking but he was unable to catch what was discussed as they stopped the moment he entered. "Admiral, It's good to see you up and about. Is there anything that you need?" Captain Edinson asked as Nagala approached where he was sitting.

"No thank you there is nothing I need but there is something that I need to discuss with you about our current predicament." Nagala said as he stood looking out the window at the blackness of open space.

Nico looked at Nagala and nodded in reply before asking his pilot to take a break. Once the pilot had left the bridge Nico indicated the chair just vacated and asked. "Well Admiral, what is it that needs to be discussed?" He sounded skeptical about whatever Nagala wanted but gave him a chance due to who he is.

Nagala sat down in the now empty seat and said. "Well given what's happened it's pretty safe to assume nowhere in colonial space is safe from the Cylons so the only option is to leave colonial space." With that comment he turned his head and looked straight into Nico's eyes and continued. "You don't need to panic as I know a place we can go where we will find both supplies and help that the Cylons wouldn't know about. The only thing you need to know before we get there is that the place where we are going isn't run by the colonies but by a separate shall we say government than the 12 colonies and was only known to me and Admiral Corman."

To say Nico was shocked was an understatement if there ever was one. He looked at the Admiral to see if what he said was the truth and his years of dealing with the shadier side of society gave him the impression that what was just said was completely truthful. "So what you are saying is that there is another society out there and you and Admiral Corman knew about it but didn't tell anyone and now that we're in deep shit you want to go to the for help. Did I get that right?"

Nico's shock at what he just heard led to him being slightly flippant but not to the point of being offensive. "Yes Captain, that's entirely what I'm saying." Nagala then typed something into the navigation computer and said. "Those coordinates are the location to a nebula some distance outside colonial space that has one of their space stations that was used by us as a meeting point and should be safe from any Cylon trouble."

Nico looked at the computer monitor and did some math in his head and said. "It will take us the better part of a month to get there which will stretch out supplies some." He then remained silent for a minute or two and continued. "We might be able to use some of the stock we were transporting to make the journey easier. But that's still a lot of space between here and there and we have no weapons to defend ourselves with."

Nagala nodded and said. "That would be ideal and what I would do is look over the manifest and see if there is anything there that can be used to speed up the charging of the jump drives to allow us to run if we encounter any trouble." Nagala was no stranger to struggle having fought in the first Cylon war.

Nico looked at the coordinates again and said. "Well looks like we have a plan and a place to go so i guess we have work to do." He then stood up and walked to the internal comms and flicked the switch. "This is the captain speaking so listen up you reprobates, I want everyone to meet in the main cargo hold in 10 minutes." Once that was done he started to think about how he was going to break the news to his crew.

Ragnar Station - Rendezvous location Alpha - 4 DAH

Leo was going over the reports from the ships as they reported in after the 3 continuous jumps that took place to get to this location outside colonial space where they were to wait on the distraction fleet to return.

He just finished going over a report on their supply situation when there was an alert indicating new contacts jumping within dradis range. "Lt, Report." Leo called out.

The dradis operator replied. "Sir, several contacts have jumped in, IFF confirmation indicates they're the distraction fleet." It was a few seconds later when he continued. "Sir, The Hades is missing but all other ships are accounted for."

Leo was about to respond when the comm's officer called out. "Sir, Receiving wireless from Admiral Stokes aboard the Olympus."

He replied. "Put them through." He then picked up the receiver and spoke. "Olympus, this is Ragnar Actual."

It was a few seconds before a reply came through. "Admiral Kosta it's good to be back but unfortunately I must report the destruction of the Hade's along with Commander Christoph's passing."

"Understood, Have your ships take up station around Ragnar and initiate repairs and then report to the station for debriefing." Leo replied then left the CIC and headed to his office to get ready for the notice of death meetings he would have to give to the families of those lost now on the ships situated around the station.

Caprica - 4 DAH

Karl Agathon has spent the last 3 days foraging for supplies while using the military surplus store as a base. He had managed to find enough anti-rad meds to last him a few weeks if he rationed them. He had enough food and water for that time and by the time he was expecting to run out he was hoping to be in the mountain ranges and able to forage for more.

He has encountered any Cylons yet but he has heard the occasional gunshot and low flying craft but hasn't seen much but he knew it was only a matter of time and he didn't want to be unprepared for when that time came. The only trouble he had was finding weapons to defend himself with as being close to Caprica City there weren't a lot of illegal firearms or even legal ones that he could find. All he managed to find was a few handguns with little ammunition but if the history lessons about the first war were remotely accurate then small arms weren't enough to damage the metal monsters that were the Cylon foot soldiers.

He was just contemplating his next steps when there was a commotion outside that sounded like the mechanical hammer used in the old steel foundries he once visited with his school when he was younger. Eventually the noise got louder and the store started to vibrate in conjunction with the noise from outside.

He crept towards the front of the store to take a look through the small window in the door and he regretted doing so as all he saw was hundreds of humanoid metal constructs marching in formation down the street with small amounts breaking off down each side street as they passed by them.

He edged away from the door then rushed to the back of the store while picking up the prepared backpacks on his way out. The noise continued to increase and he figured he had a minute or two before they reached outside the store so he wasted no time in hopping over the back fence.

He barely made it to the next street when he started to hear screams followed by gunshots in the surrounding area. He had to fight with his sense of duty to save those who are in need but common sense won out as he knew he couldn't actually help those in need without the resources to actually succeed.

With a heavy heart he secured his backpacks and made his way towards the mountainous areas in hopes that the Cylons wouldn't be able to navigate through the terrain due to their large and bulky bodies.

It only took him a short while to make it out of the city as he was relatively close to the edge when he decided to lay low, He only encountered one small patrol of Cylons but they were busy clearing houses that they either didn't notice him in the distance or didn't consider him a threat worth deviating from there assigned tasks. He could only guess that a robot wouldn't understand the conscious thought of humans; a human couldn't understand the complex algorithms of a robot's mind.

Picon - Cabin Exit of Secret Escape Tunnel - 4DAH

Admiral Corman was now standing looking out the window of the cabin used to conceal the exit to the emergency escape tunnel as he ran through scenarios as to how to get everyone off the planet safely as the planned extraction fell through as the Cylons ramped up their aerial patrols in the last 2 days.

He looked over his shoulder at the marines moving supplies from the tunnel to a corner of the cabin to allow easy access if they have to leave in a hurry given that they have heard sounds of digging from several of the stairwells. He has already had everyone moved to the lowest level and charges placed in hidden but critical places throughout what's left of the bunker ready to bring it all down on whoever manages to dig through the rubble.

He was just about to leave when one of the Kronus marines entered the cabin and saluted. "Admiral, we have received a message from your daughter asking us to be ready in 2 days for extraction." He handed Corman a slip of paper and then saluted again and left the cabin back to his post outside.

Corman looked at the piece of paper with the written message and smiled at the thought of seeing his daughter again after such a close brush with death. He turned to one of the marine moving supplies and ordered. "Corporal, Inform all senior officers that they need to meet here in 3 hours for a mandatory meeting and have whoever is in charge of medical information as well."

He then turned back to the window to continue surveying the area as he made mental notes on what needed to be done in the coming days.

Ragnar Station - Leo's Office - 4.5 DAH

In the room designated as Leo's office while he was aboard the station are four people, Three with the rank pins of Admiral and the fourth having the pins of a Marine General.

Leo was the one currently speaking as the others listened. "So the final numbers are, 3458 KIA, 2766 WIA and 210 MIA. I think given what you faced it could have been a lot worse but I still think the loss of the Battlestar Hades' will be felt for the next few years until industries can be built to facilitate the building of new ships." He then put the folder onto his desk and looked up at the other officers in the room and said. "We will hold a public funeral honoring all those who gave their lives to allow us a chance to escape without being noticed.

Admiral Bill Adama was the first to respond. "I think that would bring more comfort to those who have family among the fleet and will allow us to control the fall in morale due to the loss of life. I think we also need to give the people hope so we may need to reveal some information about the colony as I think without something to work towards people's thoughts will start to wander and cause more problems going forward."

General Ferguson nodded and continued along the same lines. "I agree with Bill as the marines can keep the peace for now but they don't have the training for long term peacekeeping and having them confront unarmed civilians will cause more anger and resentment. So with that in mind I would like to have Roslin form a peacekeeping force to patrol the ships in place of the marines as civilians need to be policed by civilians and not the military."

Leo accepted this as he agreed with what they were saying and then looked at Adama and smiled. "Well Bill you have named your own poison, I think given your reputation and record you would be the ideal person to lead the ceremony in honoring the fallen as revealing in part what the plan is going forward." He could see his decision was not something Adama wanted but before he could argue Leo continued. "I know it's not something you want to do but we need more heroes going forward and your record during the first war makes you the likely candidate. The rest of us have little combat experience when it comes to actual war as fighting pirates and insurgents isn't the same as fighting a real war so we need you to do this."

Leo's words took all the wind out of Adama's sails and he nodded. "I understand and will do it but don't ask me to like it." He then smiled and said. "Although i wouldn't want to be you right now as i heard the President is meeting with the civilian representatives trying to gain their support to reimpose civilian control over the fleet."

Admiral Stokes frowned and said. "I thought it was already agreed that as soon as we are a safe distance from the colonies and are able to set it up that the civilians will be able to govern themselves again?"

Bill nodded and answered. "It seems our new president doesn't trust Admiral Kosta to keep his word and has become impatient in waiting so is arranging things in advance up to the point of arranging meetings with the workers representative among others to hold the threat of work stoppages over us."

Leo spoke before it could devolve into a more troublesome conversation. "I know what she is doing and i will deal with it when we get to the Supply station in a few weeks as before that there is not really much she can achieve without the support of anyone in the military and given that most of the military here are from my own battlegroup and General Ferguson's own troops we don't have much to worry about yet."

After that they went back to discussing repair schedules and arranging for the memorial service to be held in 2 days aboard Cloud Nine ship. They even discussed the possibility of sending some scouts back to get a better idea of what is happening in the colonies.

Colonial One - President's Office - 4.5 DAH

President Roslin is currently holding a meeting of her most trustworthy supporters after word of the return of the distraction fleet minus one Battlestar. "So his distraction plan cost us a battlestar and numerous pilots and he says that falls within acceptable losses for the plan they had in place." Commented a Captain representing the interests of a coalition of privately owned ships. "Does he realize that we don't have the ability to replace those losses!"

"I think he does but he is just like every other member of the military hierarchy, They just relish the chance to fight and gain glory." Said the representative of the wealthy business owners. "I think we need to put an end to this martial law and put a civilian government back in charge who will put the safety of the civilians first."

Obviously there was no one defending Leo and his officers and Roslin was just listening to the back and forth as the comments regarding the loss and Admiral Kosta's martial law continued. It was 10 minutes before she decided to comment. "Unfortunately we don't have the ability to oppose him currently as he has all the armed forces behind him as well as the majority of the workforce as he treats them well and maintains the safety from without and within the fleet." She then looked at each of them in turn. "As well as having his marines stationed on each ship means he has enforcers in place to put down any resistance to his leadership before it can gain any traction."

They all nodded at what she said before someone asked. "So what do we do?"

Roslin looked down at her desk and then said. "We build out forces starting with a Peacekeeping force to maintain order on the ships and allow us to ask for the marines to be taken off the civilian ships and if he doesn't we will encourage protests about the military taking over and circumventing the civilian government." She then picked up a folder. "Also we look into his officers and see if any are likely to support us if the need to replace him becomes necessary."

After that comment they all smiled and started discussing plans to make Leo's role as leader more difficult while not being able to trace it back to them.

Caprica City - Repaired Luxury Apartment Building - 5DAH

Former President Adar was enjoying being above ground even if it was restricted to this suite, He was given everything he asked for including a couple of companions that were brought to him after he asked for a female assistant. He was sitting in the living room sipping on a glass of ambrosia when there was a commotion outside the suite's door followed by the distinct sound of marching centurions.

He stood up wondering what was happening when Brother Cavil walked in. "Hello Richard, I see you're enjoying yourself." Cavil walked over and poured himself a drink before sitting in the seat opposite Adar gesturing for him to sit back down. "I have good news and bad news for you Richard, Which would you like first?"

Richard looked at Cavil and took some time to come to a decision. "Good news first."

Cavil smiled that if seen by a child would have them running away crying. "Well we have found several groups of survivors and have collected them together with a ship for you to take control of." His smile then became more sinister if that was at al possible. "The bad news is that we won't be seeing each other for a while but don't worry we will see each other again."

Richard smiled. "That is good news and I'm sorry to hear that we won't see each other for a while but knowing that you are using your skills to bring peace between us and the Cylons is comforting."

Cavil took a sip of his drink and asked. "You understand your role in this right?"

He nodded and answered. "I will disband the Colonial military and surrender to the Cylons as soon as I can. You are sure the Cylons will accept and will make me the leader for life right."

Cavil smiled and said. "Have i ever led you astray Richard, If it wasn't for me you would still be in that bunker with only yourself for company."

Richard thanked him again. They then spent 20 minutes making small talk before Cavil got up and left the room.

TN:- Just so you know Adar has had a mental break so he is a little more simple minded and easy to manipulate than he was before the attack.