Chapter 32 - Gathering and The Future
TN:- Ok guys I'm back from my break and here is the last chapter that will focus on the colonials. I plan to come back to the colonials every so often but the main focus of the story will be Leo and the Alterans and their involvement in the bigger Stargate universe.
TN:- From today going forward i will be posting one chapter a week on a Sunday and will also try and build up a buffer of chapters so if i have trouble writing there won't be much of a break in releases as has happened in the last month or so.
Waypoint Station Alpha - 14 DAH
Louise was standing in the main hangar deck waiting for her father to arrive after his successful rescue of Picon a week ago. She was relieved when the report came in that he had been evacuated without any problems and that they had also managed to secure digital copies of the entire Colonial Fleet Database. Her and Leo had plans to use some of the ship designs that were mothballed as they were going to use their new technology and advancements to refine the designs.
She knew that it would take time to do this and planned to send these designs to Altera as soon as she talked her father into giving her copies even if it meant making a deal to help the Colonials more than they already were up to and including giving them new ships with improved technology.
It was a few minutes later that the raptor touched down and the hatch opened. She walked over as her father stepped down off the wing of the raptor. He noticed her approach and when she reached to within arms length he grabbed her into a fierce hug and said. "I'm so glad you're safe."
Louise is not the most emotional person there is but she still found it hard not to let a few tears stream down from her eyes as she returned her fathers hug. "I missed you, dad." They continued to hug each other for a few minutes but then separated and composed themselves.
"I think we have a lot to talk about and there are some others who need to speak to you as well so why don't we move this to my office." Louise said as they started walking towards the hangers exit.
Corman nodded and replied. "That's fine as there is a lot that needs going over before Leo and the other survivors make it here." They left the hanger together and made their way through the station and up to one of the highest levels where Louise's office was and she explained the functions of the station as they walked.
Louise's Office Aboard Waypoint Station Alpha
Louise was sitting on one side of a big oak desk with her father sitting on the other side sipping a glass of very expensive ambrosia that she had for important visitors. "So where do you want to start?" She asked.
"Well I think what would be best is to start with what ships are left and the number of survivors you have managed to get to safety so far." He replied after taking another sip of his drink and placing it on her desk. "Also I think you should include what resources there are available as well."
She nodded and picked up a folder that was sitting on her desk and started to give him a run down of the surviving ships and people of the colonies. They spent the better part of an hour going over all the information and what it meant for the continued operations of the fleet and the survivors.
"Ok with that out of the way let's get down to the question that will be on everyone's mind once they get here and that is what role are the Alterans going to play in the war with the cylons?" Asked Corman.
Louise looked at her father while forming her response in her head as she needed to be careful as she knew that Leo didn't want to get bogged down in the war with the Cylons as their goal was to rebuild the Alteran civilisation. Leo was already committed to exploring what he called the Pegasus galaxy for any left behind technology of their ancestors and to help the humans of that galaxy from becoming the food of the dominant force of that galaxy.
She was still thinking things through when she heard a cough and realized she got lost in her own head. "Sorry, Got lost in thought there for a minute." She then picked up a folder and opened it and handed it to her father. "That is the basic framework of a defensive treaty between the Alterans and the Colonials going forward."
Corman looked at the folder before taking it from his daughter's hand and opening it to find out what conditions Leo and his council had put forward. He started reading and was surprised at what he read as it could mean the difference between surviving and thriving.
The document was pretty long and detailed but the points that drew Cormans attention were the ones that laid out the plan to provide certain ships to the colonials allowing them to rebuild their defensive fleet without having to rebuild their infrastructure first.
He looked at his daughter and asked. "Are you seriously sure that the terms of this pact have been agreed upon by your council?"
Louise smiled and nodded. "Yes we have agreed that we will provide you with the sum total of the Kronus security fleet once it reaches Waypoint Alpha to use as you see fit but be warned the crews will be transferred to Altera Prime to man new ships we currently have in production. We will of course provide specialists to train your crews in how to operate any new technology on those ships."
Cormon couldn't believe what he was hearing but then something she said registered. "What new technologies are you talking about?"
She picked up another folder and started reading a list. "Well the main ones are the Fission generators that are installed on all ships, Advanced sensors, Improved polarized hulls that more than triple what the fleet was capable of before the attack and on a few of the ships improved weapons including plasma weaponry and improved missile launchers."
He took a minute to process what he was just told and couldn't help but ask. "How long have you had this technology?" He realized what he was implying after he asked so backtracked a bit. "I'm not implying anything, I am just curious as to how battle tested the technology is if it will be aboard the ships you're willing to give us."
Louise nodded and knew her father wouldn't blame them for not giving them the technology sooner. "We have had the generators for close to a decade but the rest have been in continuous development until a few years ago." She waited a few seconds and then continued. "We would have eventually made the technology available to you and the fleet but with the increased strain between Kosta Enterprises and Adar's administration we were going to hold off until he left office. We were worried that given his track record if he was given new technology that increased the combat efficiency of the fleet units he would cut more of your budget and scrap more of your ships so we held off including the tech in any new designs we gave the fleet."
Cormon knew she was right as a prime example are the Mercury class battlestars that had so many automated systems that caused so many problems with the initial operating systems that it lead to the new one written by Baltar which gave the Cylons the ability to implant the virus. The original design called for less automation and bigger crews but the demands of the government and Adar led to what they now have. "Ok I don't see anything wrong with that. Lets move on and talk about what help you can provide in the rescue of survivors from the colonies."
Louise nodded and said. "We have agreed that we will run joint operations when the aim of the operation is to rescue survivors as our main aim is to continue to build and expand out new home world and eventually travel to where our ancestors came from and where not just on about Kobol but the Pegasus galaxy and eventually the Avalon Galaxy as well."
Cormon knew some of what Leo and his people considered their origin but didn't want to delve into that theory right now. "We can agree to that as your giving us the ability to rebuild out forces and train our crew on operating them so we couldn't ask for much more in terms of military but what I'm more interested in is what medical aid you can provide as the colonies were hit with nukes and a lot of the survivors will likely have radiation poisoning of varied levels before we can rescue them all."
"Well we can help with the production of anti radiation meds and other medications needed and we will even provide shipments of food and other essential aid but that will take time to set up given the distance we have to travel from our new home world and the colonies. What I would suggest is to set up rescue missions for a single colony at a time and salvage all the resources we can from storage facilities." Louise suggested as she knew they had stations with resources set up between the colonies and Altera Prime system but she wanted to encourage the colonials to provide for themselves.
They then spent the next few hours going over different points in the defense pact including rules for recognising sovereignty of territory and creation of embassies on their respective worlds. The last point they discussed was when Leo decided to go in search of their origins that a group of colonials go along to represent the Twelve Colonies and to report back on what they found. Louise easily agreed to that and they finished their meeting and went to the officers mess for a meal together.
Container Ship 26611 - Admiral Nagala - 20 DAH
Nico was rushing towards the bridge after the alarms started to go off due to unknown contacts at their targeted jump location. He barged through the bulkhead door and all but shouted. "What's going on?"
Nagala, who was on the bridge when they transitioned back to normal space after their jump, replied. "We have picked up 3 unknown contacts on long range scanners. We first thought they might be Cylon scouts but they have remained stationary and are only giving minimal power readings."
Nico looked at the readouts and said. "Well we are getting pretty low on fuel so it might be worth a look to see if we can salvage anything." He then looked to Nagala and asked. "Do you want to join me on the shuttle or will you wait here?"
Nagala thought for a minute and answered. "I will join you in the shuttle as I would like to see what's out there first hand." They both then left to get into some patched up flight suits and boarded the shuttle and launched.
It took them 10 minutes to get within visual range of the ships and what they saw surprised them considering how far they have traveled from Colonial space. The biggest contact was a beaten up heavy cruiser that was leaking air from several hull breaches. The other two contacts looked like two older style frigates but it was hard to tell their class as they were so beaten up he was surprised they were still in one piece.
Nagala looked at Nico in the pilot's seat and said. "I don't know what they're doing this far from colonial space but we should see if there are any survivors aboard and if there is any salvageable equipment."
Nico nodded and then flipped the short range comm unit. "Unknown Heavy Cruiser, This is colonial shuttle 339880 hailing on open channel. Please respond."
They didn't receive any reply at first but as they listened they could hear what appeared to be the standard code for help and what surprised them more was that there were two different signals, one from the heavy cruiser and another from one of the frigates.
Nagala tried to clear up the signal but couldn't make it any clearer so he said. "Nico can you find us a functioning airlock we can connect to on the heavy cruiser so we can suit up and board her." Nico nodded and flew the shuttle around the hull till he found what looked like an intact airlock. He piloted the shuttle with deft hands till the shuttle locked into place and he received a green light confirming connection.
Nico and Nagala collected their suits and helmets and made their way to the docking port and prepared themselves to board the ship. It took some effort to unlock the hatch but when they did all they saw was a corridor with wreckage all over the place and unfortunately they also noticed a few bodies buried beneath the wreckage.
They both agreed that the best place to look for survivors first would be the med bay as they both knew it is reinforced and able to be sealed in case the ship has a major catastrophe that causes severe decompression. It took them a while to make their way to the connecting hatch to the med bay and Nagala was glad to see that the hatch was closed and secure. He approached the hatch and knocked on the hatch hoping to get the attention of whoever was in there and was rewarded with a knock in return.
To say he was happy that they found survivors would be an understatement so with some help from Nico he had a conversation with the person on the other side of the door with short hand tap code. They found out that nearly 120 people had squeezed into the med bay when the ship started to decompress and they were taxing the air scrubbers to their max so they needed to get them out of there quickly.
Between them they agreed that the only way to save them would be to repair and secure the hallway to the shuttle and evacuate them a couple dozen at a time to the container ship. With that decision Nico had already left for the shuttle to radio through to the ship to get some of the engineers ready to do the repairs and have the container ship move closer to the wrecks.
While Nico was doing that Nagala tried to make his way towards the bridge to see if anyone had managed to take shelter in the hardpoint around the CIC but he wasn't holding out hope as it wasn't as secure as the med bay in these older designs.
Container Ship 26611 - Admiral Nagala - 23 DAH
It took the ship's engineers three days to secure the hallways necessary to move the survivors to the container ship they decided to name Hope given the hope it was giving to the survivors and the crew of the ship itself.
While the engineers were working on the heavy cruiser those that could be spared took the shuttle and made their way to the hanger deck to see if there were any small craft that could be salvaged and managed to find 2 raptors and half a dozen MKIII vipers still in decent condition. They put off moving the vipers till later but made use of the raptors to search the other wrecks for survivors and managed to find another 40 survivors between the two ships.
They knew that space was going to be a problem so they checked the containers that were stored in the inner holds and spaced the least useful supplies and converted them into bunk rooms and a temporary medical bay. They then moved the survivors found on all the ships to the Hope where they were triaged and moved to containers that best suited their needs.
It took the crew and any healthy survivors another week to move the vipers to the available hard points and secure them in place. They also managed to find enough fuel and supplies to last them several weeks which was a god send given their increased numbers and fit in well with the plans given Nagala was certain they were only just over a week away from this mysterious safe zone.
They left the wrecks 12 days after finding them and continued on their course towards Waypoint Alpha.
Ragnar Station - CIC - 34 DAH
Leo was standing overlooking the busy CIC as the fleet was preparing to make its final jump to Waypoint Alpha and for most of them safety. He was waiting on the completion of final checks from the fleet's ships when Commander Thompson walked up and reported that the media representatives were all aboard and secured within the media section.
He thanked Commander Thompson and replied. "Good, It warms the heart to know the vultures are all safe and secure." He smiled when he saw the look on Thompsons face. "Oh relax commander, they aren't around to hound you here."
"Yes sir." Commander Thompson replied and seemed to relax a little and turned to watch as the navigations officer reported all ships were ready.
"Very well LT, Start the countdown to jump." Leo ordered the LT.
The jump countdown started and as the number hit zero he felt the jarring feeling of the station's displacement from one location to another and as he looked at the monitor showing the outside space he was glad to finally see the Alteran Station and the several dozen ships surrounding it.
"Sir, Receiving a message from Waypoint Station reading 'Welcome to Waypoint Station, Make yourselves at home.' End message." Smiled the Comm officer as the staff of the CIC cheered.
Leo just smiled in response and looked around the CIC knowing this part of his life was now coming to a close. He looked forward to making his way out into the bigger universe and finding what was left behind by their ancestors no matter if it's friends or enemies. "Send a message 'Thank you and we look forward to some down time in a safe place.' End Message."
TN:- I probably should have made more effort with Nagala's arc but wanted to push on and get this chapter done so i can start pushing the story more towards the main arc of this story. The next chapter will lay the groundwork for the Alteran arc of the story and the start of Leo's journey towards the ancient old domain.