Chapter 28 - The Ultimate Sacrifice
TM:- Thanks for sticking around and sorry it's taken a bit longer than normal as needed to sort out characters and where they were as I'm sure you would notice if people started appearing in more than one place at the same time.
Battlestar Olympus - Admiral Stokes
Admiral Stokes watched on as the battle entered a more chaotic phase as holes started to appear in both forces as losses were taken by both sides. He was worried about the boarding action the Cylons had initiated against the Battlestar Hades as he heard about what they did during the first war and the massive loss of life those actions brought to the fleet forces. He was just contemplating what he could do to drag on the fight longer when the comm's officer called out.
"Sir, We have received orders to start operation bloody nose." Ensign Galanis called out.
Upon hearing that he was relieved but couldn't relax as this was the most important part of the plan. "Very well order the other ships to initiate the slow withdrawal and have the engaged vipers pull back with the reserve units covering them before disengaging themselves." He ordered.
"Yes Sir." Replied the staff who were responsible for sending the orders.
He watched on as the orders were relayed and the ships slowly started to retreat into the tunnel while their flak screens became more concentrated solving the problems of the gaps that have opened up due to damaged guns. He did notice that the Hades was a bit slower in following the orders and the flak from the ship was not as intense as it should be.
"Get me an update from the Hades on their Cylon problem." He called out knowing one of the comm's officers would do it.
Battlestar Hades - CIC
The CIC staff where getting worried as more and more gunshots and sounds of battle where coming through the hatch that lead to the corridor outside, Lt Andino would glance at the hatch every few seconds as he did his job of flying the ship. The ship itself felt sluggish and slow to respond but there was not much they could do about it right now as most of the crew were either maintaining what was already working or fighting off Cylon borders.
"Admiral Stokes is asking for an update on our situation sir." Called out the comm's officer.
Commander Christoph didn't respond straight away as he was busy with directing the ships response to the boarders and keeping them contained as best they can. "Inform him that we have them contained currently but losses are high so may need support from them for emergency repairs." He eventually replied.
Lt Andino noticed the stress in his voice and hoped things weren't that bad as the likely hood of the crew of the CIC making it to escape shuttles was slim to none. As he was thinking about this his thoughts were interrupted by sounds of heavy weapons fire coming from the hallway outside and the hair on his neck started to stand up straighter than they already were, whereas fear started to grow in his mind.
He took a glance at the other members of the CIC close by and even with the reduced lighting and red lights he could still see that they were as pale as he imagined he had gone. He looked over his shoulder at the commander but he caught his eyes and received a glare in response as he should be monitoring the gauges and dials while piloting the ship.
Christoph after glaring at his ship's pilot turned back to the reports he has been receiving and it didn't look good as he made out as the Cylons with their new model of centurion have been breaking through everything they have put in their way. He is considering calling for an evacuation but knowing how limited the colonial fleet was when it came to capital ship assets he held back on giving the order.
"Sir the reinforcements from the Olympus have been stalled by heavy resistance and are saying it will take them longer than originally estimated to reach critical areas." said one of the officers being used to relay the situation inside the ship.
"Any news from aft damage control?" He asked.
"No sir, they went quiet 5 minutes ago after reporting gunfire nearby." Was the answer he received.
"Get me Admiral Stokes on the horn." He ordered. He waited for the nod from the his comm officer. "Admiral i'm sorry to say we may need to consider abandoning ship as we have lost contact with Aft damage control and your marines have been held up from making to the critical areas of the ship. Our losses are heavy and I don't think we can stop them from taking control of the ship presently."
He waited for the reply but received nothing but silence for a while before he got a reply. "Although we can't afford to lose a battlestar, your crew are just as important so do what you think is best and I will back you up with Admiral Kosta."
After receiving this response he breathed a bit easier and replied. "Thank you sir, With that in mind i would like to start having non essential crew start evacuating to shuttles and raptors asap and there just more casualties waiting to happen at this point."
"Very well commander I will have what shuttles we can spare sent over to help and try and get out of there yourself as we cant afford to lose seasoned officers any more than we can afford to lose ships." Admiral Stokes replied.
"Thank you Admiral and I need to save as many of my crew as possible before thinking of myself." He replied. He then turned to his CIC and called out. "OK i want all non essential crews to evacuate to the shuttles now. Have any marines that are still able to fight delaying actions and to do their best to slow the Cylon advance. He then picked up the comm's receiver and flicked a few switches. "Chief, before you evacuate can you rig the armories with delayed charges as there is no way I'm leaving the Cylons an intact ship."
"Yes sir i will get right on it, May i also recommend putting charges on the Tylium tanks as well as that should leave nothing for the Cylons to use." The Chief replied.
"Very well get it down quick as i don't know how long we have." He then flicked a switch and said into the receiver. "Lt Svenson, Commander Christoph, here I need you to wipe everything from the computers and take any measures necessary to stop the Cylons from getting any information from the computers if any survive."
"Yes sir we will get right on it and then evacuate with the rest." Replied the Lt before the line went dead again.
After setting things in motion he looked up at his officers. "I want 2 volunteer's to stay behind while the rest use the service ladder to the deck below and evacuate to the nearest shuttle." He waited for two people to step forward and when they did he said. "Thank you Lt Steven's and ensign Aetos. To the rest of you it has been an honor and a privilege to command you these last few years and I wish you good luck."
With that they got to work while from outside the ship, shuttle after shuttle launched from the Hades and flew down the tunnel to await pick up as the other ships retreated from the battle later on. Colonel Hobbes and the last of the Hades marines knew their chances of getting off the ship were non-existent so they did their best to sell their lives dearly which slowed the Cylons down and gave the rest of the crew enough time to evacuate the ship. It was as the last of the Marines reached the last barricade before the CIC that commander Christophe came over the speakers.
"Men and Women of the Hades it is with regret that this is where our story ends but know that what we have done today has given those we leave behind a chance to avenge us in the future. Now we must ensure that the Cylons aboard pay the ultimate price for their betrayal and unprovoked attack against our world. We will deny our enemies the chance to use this ship and the information aboard against our fellow colonials. We will face the God's and our ancestors with pride knowing we made the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard our people. So it's with those words and all the respect that I have that I say it has been a pleasure serving with you and I couldn't have asked for a better crew." With the end of the speech the speakers didn't cut off and picked up the orders the commander gave next which added more resistance to those still aboard. "Ensign Turn us about and set course for the nearest base ship and increase speed."
From outside those who were still fighting watched as the Hades turned about and its engines flared as it made its way towards the nearest base ship pursuing them.
Battlestar Olympus - Admiral Stokes
He had just received confirmation that everyone who was going to get off the Hade's had, including the majority of the marines he sent to help. He watched the dradis screen as the Hades charged the enemy line with whatever weapons firing that were still manned and causing chaos amongst the Cylons forces. He knew what Commander Christoph had planned and wished them luck and the god's blessing.
He turned to Ensign Galanis. "Have the ships speed up and increase the distance between us and the enemies." He then turned back to the dradis screen as he waited for Hades' final charge to finish.
It was a long five minutes as what was left of the hades crashed into the base ship they targeted, you would think the base ship wouldn't have been caught but the Cylons in their arrogance didn't retreat in time and now were caught as the battlestar crashed into them. That wasn't all though as just before impact the hades launched all the missiles they had loaded at the other base star causing severe damage to one of their arms.
Just before the crash happened he received a message from Hades. "Admiral, I wish you and our people good luck and please tell my family I love them and I did this for their future." Then the line went dead as the dradis screen became erratic with static from the explosion that overloaded their sensors.
Space Outside Ragnar Anchorage
The Hades crashed into the base star and the base star was driven back from the force of the impact and the continued pressure from the battlestars engines. If that wasn't enough the Battlestar then exploded into a massive ball of flame and debris that finished any chance of the base star surviving. The destruction of another base star slowed down the Cylon advance letting the colonials take a breath and re-organise.
But just as they were getting into position to defend the tunnel again several new contacts appeared just beyond the remaining base star. As the flashes of the jumps cleared the unmissable profile of 10 base ships led by what looked like 7 Gunstar size ships. As soon as they jumped in, all the base stars launched their small craft in the thousand followed by hundreds of heavy raiders.
The colonials continued to fall back into the tunnel and the new Cylon forces moved forward as the original surviving base ship held its ground due to how damaged it was.
The New Cylon ships just continued forward ignoring the impacts of the debris from the ships already destroyed as if the impacts and the small amount of damage meant nothing to it as long as they destroyed the colonials.
Ragnar Station - Outside Secondary Tunnel
The mood in the Command center of the station was somber as word of the fate of the Hades had been relayed through the relay satellites. Leo looked around and saw sadness at the loss of more of their friends and in some cases family. Leo himself knew this may happen as though the Battlestars were great combi carrier-battleships they lacked the punch that the Cylon base ships had with their large amount of missile batteries.
Leo decided that he needed to speak out. "Ok people let's not let the loss of the hades distract you from your work as their loss will mean less if we let the Cylons get away with causing yet more pain and loss upon our people." He then walked to the console and picked up the receiver. "All hands secure yourselves in designated areas and prepare for jump in T-Minus 5 minutes."
He then focussed back on the dradis screen and said. "Have Admiral Stokes retreat in full as the Cylons will think they have the advantage and chase them in. Tell him once he is comfortable with their position at the entrance to order execution of plan Hammer." He then turned and walked back to his seat and got ready to strap in as although the jump drives and the station are in working order it has still been decades since the station has jumped anywhere.
Cylon Base Ship 188 - Outside Ragnar Anchorage
Lewis Cavil was pissed he came here thinking that he would just have to clean up the colonial remnants and what he found was a full on battle with only 1 base ship remaining from the original 3 stationed here. "What the FRAK!, Is every other line so incompetent that we have to do everything. We have lost 2 more ships and god knows how many more raiders and heavy raiders." He then stormed over to the interface and put his hands in before opening up a channel to all ships. "This ends today ordering all ships to advance on the colonials. They are no threat, they have 1 damaged Battlestar and some support ships so just keep launching missiles and have the raiders finish off the vipers NOW!"
At his orders the Cylon ships moved forward and launched every small craft they had to engage and finish off the colonials. "Have those waste's of resources in the surviving ship pull back and have what raiders they have join ours in the pursuit of the enemy."
As with most from his line he was very quick to anger and rage which had the rest of the Models that were in the control room of the base ship look at him with wariness and fear which when he noticed only fuelled his ego. What no one seemed to realize is that the colonials were not making any attempt to face them or stall them and seemed more than happy to retreat as fast as they could down the tunnel.
Battlestar Olympus - Admiral Stokes
He watched the dradis with anticipation as the Cylons acted true to their nature and charged blindly ahead without care to what they may face in the tunnel. He thought again that the Cylons were too arrogant to win a prolonged war and explained why they thought they could win with an all out strike without any contingencies which he thanked the gods for as without that arrogance and superior thinking they would have found it much harder to fight back.
He counted down the time as the Cylons narrowed their formation to enter the tunnel and chase the Colonials further into the Gas Giant. He waited until they were just about to enter the tunnel when he smiled with maliciousness.
"Send the GO order for plan Hammer." He ordered and waited for the order to filter through to the waiting Raptors. He was almost twitching with the adrenaline from knowing the Cylons have dug their own graves with their eagerness to catch the colonials as they have held no raiders or heavy raiders back in reserve.
It was a few minutes when the dradis screen flickered as the raptors that have spent the whole time of the battle so far waiting for this moment. They jumped in and out within a minute or two but that was all it took for them to do their job.
He watched as the dradis screen went blank due to the interference from the nuclear explosions and he just had to wait to see what result they had achieved.
Cylon Base ship 96 - Outside Ragnar Anchorage
The Model 3 named Catherine on the surviving base ship watched as the latest foolhardy plan by the model they supposedly choose to lead their civilization. She watched as he sent all their small craft ahead keeping none in reserve which represented how little he knew of tactics and strategy when it came to combat. She watched as they approached the entrance to the tunnel and slowly became congested as they all made their way to the tunnel with no actual order to how they approached.
It looked like a busy entrance to a carpark on one of the human worlds when it's busy with everyone trying to be first in to find a spot. She thought of the rumblings she has been picking up on from certain models due to how much the plan has failed and the damage they have taken to their own infrastructure since they launched the attack on the colonies.
As she looked at one of the other human models on her ships shouted out. "Colonial Raptors have just jumped in and launched a massive wave of missiles, most are ship to ship but at least 30% are nuclear." Then there was nothing but chaos as the missiles hit the Cylon base ships and ship after ship exploded. "By God, They didn't have any raiders to defend themselves."
Catherine looked at the Model 8 and said. "I can see that, What are the losses and where are the raptors?"
The model 8 nodded and accessed the Gel interface and it took a few seconds for her to answer. "There is no sign of the Raptors, I suspect they jumped away after they launched their payloads. Our losses are 4 base ships destroyed, 3 more have severe damage, the last 3 only have minor damage and we have lost 6 out of 7 destroyers. Thankfully the Raiders and heavy raiders came out mostly unscathed as they were far ahead of the capital ships."
Catherine looked at her with a frown and asked the most important question for her right now. "Did Lewis's ship make it?" She was hoping that his ship was destroyed and it did cross her mind that it would be good if he was close enough for the radiation of the gas giant to mess with the resurrection tech.
"No, His ship was one of the first to be destroyed as he was at the rear of the fleet." The Model 8 names Julia replied.
She thanked the gods for that as it will allow her to take back command if only for a short while. "Have any ship that can move to pull back out of the tunnel and have the raiders retreat and provide close defense for the base ships as they should have been in the first place." She then walked over to the Gel interface and accessed the Cylon network.
She appeared in the Cylon Virtual network and waited for those she wanted to speak to appear here. She waited for a while and then she was slowly joined by 6 other humanoid Cylons from the models 2,3,6 and 8. They all approached her and they greeted each other before getting down to business.
"Catherine, why have you called us here?" Ask the 2 named Patrick Leoben.
"Yes, I would like to know that too?" Asked the 8 named Susan Valerii.
The others nodded as well. She looked at each of them and then answered. "We have suffered yet another loss above Ragnar. We have lost 6 base ships in exchange for 1 colonial Battleship. We also have 3 more with heavy damage that will probably need weeks if not months in dry dock for repairs. I asked you..."
Before she could finish she was interrupted by the 6 named Emily. "What do you mean you have lost 6 more ships. I thought you were just there to watch and make sure they didn't escape." The other exclaimed and wanted to know the answer as well.
"That was the plan but James..." She glanced at Patrick and the other person of his model that was there. "...decided when he saw the colonial ships start to leave the tunnel to engage them as he thought with 3 base ships against 2 Battlestars and a few support ships that we could win easily. He was mistaken and his ship was destroyed within the first 20 minutes of the conflict. I did my best and managed to force the colonials to sacrifice one of their Battlestars due to boarding actions from my centurions but that came at the cost of them ramming another of our base stars destroying both."
She took a breath while waiting for any questions so far and received none so she continued. "But the worst part was as the Colonials started retreating back into the tunnel Lewis Cavil turned up and took over. He ordered me to retreat after calling me incompetent then launched all his small craft and like a rabid animal charged straight ahead into the tunnel. Well I think the Colonials expected that so they had raptors waiting with Nuclear payloads and with no raiders for defensive cover due to him sending them all after the colonials they had a free shot at the capital ships." She shook her head as she finished. "As you can imagine it wasn't a pretty site."
They just stared at her with shock at what they heard as the losses they received would usually have been accepted but with the loss of their main shipyards and tylium reserves they had to reduce their losses and pull back forces at the same time or suffer more strikes against their home. "The sheer stupidity is astounding and it's been the same since the initial attack. The whole plan has been an utter failure and now we're stuck listening to someone who can't control his own anger and only feels joy when he is killing humans."
The other Three whose name is Harriet had just been watching all this unfold before she said. "I take it you called us here because you want to make some changes to how things are done."
Catherine looked at her and nodded. "My own sister knows me best. We need to break off from Cavil and his sycophants and find somewhere we can strive to be better than the colonials and develop a civilisation built on equality and peace like God originally intended." She then looked them all in the eyes one by one. "Look, we have turned into beings no better than the colonials, we all but enslave our own kind with the centurions. We pursue conflict when we should have just left this area of space and we don't follow logic and let our emotions control us. We could have gone any where as we're practically immortal so why did we stay if not to continue the conflict with the colonials and commit genocide like they tried to do to us during our past. So answer me this with all those things in common. How are we any different from them?"
They all looked at her with shock at her outburst but couldn't answer her question as she was right. It was the Six that answered with a question. "Well what do you think we should do?"
Catherine smiled and started to outline her plan for the future of their branch of Cylons and how they could get away without Cavil destroying them.
She left the Virtual space after what seemed like hours in virtual time but was only a few minutes due to their higher processing power.
"Have all the raiders to land on any ship that can take them. The heavy raiders are to follow behind us with their own jump drives, Set course for Cylon space; we are retreating before we suffer any more losses as we need to effect repairs immediately." She ordered but they didn't follow her orders straight away but after a look from her they just did as they were told.
TN:- Someone pointed out that i missed one of the ships from the list so i've updated it with that ship.
Fleet Summary of known ships as of 3DAH
The Jupiter's have been renamed when they were refurbished and upgraded so don't take offense to me not following the standard naming of the ships.
Also i have cheated as I'm not very good at naming things so used things like god names and Greek city state names as Leo being from an alternate earth means his knowledge of Greece and there pantheon would be limited somewhat to history lessons and the like even if he was brought up with colonial history in his second life
Underlined and Bold names are ships that have been destroyed.
Alteran Fleet
Battlestars
3 - Alteran Mars Class (Agis, Pelops, Apollo)
6 - Refurbished Colonial Jupiter Class (Artemis, Strength, Pride, Honour, Legacy, Medusa)
Support ships
11 - Upgraded Gunstars (Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, Syracuse, Aegina, Rhodes, Argos, Elis, Eretria)
2 - Alteran Corvettes (Swift, Hermes)
6 - Patrol Stealth ships
Other ships
4 - Fleet Tenders
8 - Transports
2 - Cargo Haulers
3 - Tylium Tankers
Kronus Fleet
Battlestars
1 - Upgraded Colonial Mars Class (Olympus)
3 - Refurbished Colonial Jupiter Class (Agios, Hercules, Perseus)
Support Ships
9 - Upgraded Cruiser (2 with Plasma Cannons)
Other Ships
10 - Upgraded Transports
4 - Heavy Cargo Haulers
2 - Tylium Tankers
1 - Tylium Refinery ship
3 - Mining Ships
Colonial Fleet Remnants
Battlestars
3 - Colonial Mercury Class (Pegasus, Rycon, Hera)
3 - Colonial Mars Class (Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Lions Pride)
1 - Colonial Valkyrie Class (Hestia)
1 - Colonial Jupiter Class (Galactica)
Support Ships
9 - Colonial Gunstars (Trinity, Aetos, Nike, Samos, Hydra, Shield, Spear, Chariot, Phalanx)
6 - Colonial Firestars (Kos, Psara, Leon, Velos, Lerax, Elli)
Other Ships
Ragnar Station
2 - Supply ships
1 - Large Tylium Tanker
150 - Various Civilian Ships (I dont have the time or the will to go into too much detail here as they wont be as important in my story as they are in others.)