Aerilon Orbit
3 Months after the start of the first Cylon war
A steel bulk hung silent beside the colossal form of Aerilon's biggest space station, its 600m length awaiting clearance to dock, multiple gun turrets in their safe positions, thrusters cold and jump engine hot.
Commander Flint stood watch over the CIC of the Velos, his greying hair the only sign of his 47 years of age, he sat in his command chair positioned with good lines of sight to every station in the CIC of the Velos, the ship itself was a former Virgonian Cruiser fresh from a service upgrade performed by Caprica Aeronautics, ever since receiving the ship 4 months the problems were non stop, it was small fortune that the Aerilon Fleet even got the ship due to the Cylon situation, currently they were holding position next to Aerilon Fleet HQ waiting for a berth to clear.
Flint looked around the CIC, only a few crew were present, Ensign Baker at his console, a thin and pale young man fresh from the academy and petty officer Grey a twenty something woman with brown hair but otherwise unremarkable who was manning the comms, most of the crew was already on leave, Flint giving approval after being informed by the stationmaster that the berth for the Velos was occupied by a commercial freighter that suffered a minor engine problem.
A loud clunk was heard as the heavy door opened to the CIC, a stocky man in his 50's entering the room, Captain Athos, the ships chief engineer.
"Commander, here's the final report before I leave on the shuttle, we had to switch the Jump computer to local control, it kept in charging mode otherwise, its fully charged now so ill leave the rest to the engineering team on the station"
"A whole month to fix this computer problem, too much automation with this upgrade"
"Lowest bidder sir, they should have went with Scoripa yards instead of Caprica, anyway the transport shuttle is leaving in 10 minutes so I better get going"
"See you in a month Jim, say hi to the wife and kids"
Jim Athos gave the commander a firm handshake and hurried out the door
"Grey contact the station and get me an update on this delay"
"Roger sir" Grey replied, Flint went back to reading the news report on the current war situation, the Cylons had gained more territory on both Caprica and Tauron, the other worlds were untouched for now but who knew how long that would last, Grey finished talking on the wireless and addressed the commander.
"Commander, Station control reports another 2 hours before they clear dock 2"
"Right, keep me informed if anything changes Grey"
A tremor was felt through the ship, the shuttle with most of the crew leaving, all the was left was a small crew to run things before docking and a raptor and pilot for any emergency.
Flint stood up from his chair as a luxury that most Virgonian ships employed unlike Caprican command centres which favoured standing, he started to wander around the room to stretch his legs examining the crew as he went.
"Baker's working hard at something there, I wonder what"
He wandered over to him and had a look, Baker was engrossed with a writing pad, occasionally looking up to type away on his console
"Baker, what are you working on there?"
Baker sat up straight after the commander broke him out of his trance
"Just a pet project of mine sir, I was using the downtime waiting to make some progress, honestly I think I solved it."
Flint nodded distractedly, his thoughts on the current Cylon situation, fortunately most of the fighting was limited to Caprica and Tauron for now, Aerilon was safe for the present.
Baker looked down at his notes his cheeks gaining a red tint, he ran his hand through his short dark black hair and looked back at the commander
"Its embarrassing sir, but I'm working on the coordinates to Earth"
Flint scratched his chin in thought as he considered Earth, supposedly where the 13th tribe fled to, but there was little actual evidence they even existed, only mentions in the sacred scrolls.
"Really? And here I thought Earth was just a myth"
Baker grabbed bound copy of the sacred scrolls, one of the core tenants of the colonial religion and started to flip through the pages as he replied to Flint
"That's the thing Commander, there's little definitive proof of Earth or the 13th tribe but the scroll of Aniketos mentions the exodus, there's a section here that's supposed to contain the coordinates to Earth but every astronomer say they make no sense"
He grabbed the notepad we as writing on and pointed to some numbers written down
"The problem was that no one accounted for the different number system….."
Flint stopped listening, only occasionally giving a nod as Baker went on about stellar drift and hidden numbers in the sacred scrolls, his thoughts turned to the reason they were docking at Fleet HQ, numerous computer errors occurring after the refit.
The ship had received new computers and a new Jump drive, the rest of the ship refurbished to bring it to current standards. Experts had traced the problem to the new computer system but the war had put a stop to any fixes in the near term, the only solution was to reinstall the old computers and hope for the best.
"… so when I take all these hidden numbers and convert them to modern colonial jump coordinates and calculate over 4000 years of stellar drift, I think I found Earth"
Flint decided to humour Baker, he knew some nutjobs from back in college who would gobble all this Earth stuff up.
"Most interesting Ensign, write up a report and ill have a look, I know some people in Colonial Explorations who would be interested"
Baker had a pleased smile hearing that, some validation for his theories after all the ridicule he received on the Aerilon public network, like his theories on the Lords of Kobol being aliens and the existence of a previous civilization before the colonials came to the 12 worlds.
Flint after stretching his legs sat back down in his chair and began killing time reading again..
30 Minutes Later
Aerilon orbit was busy with the usual traffic, mostly food and medicine exports from the mostly agrarian planet, due to the war the amount of incoming goods was reduced drastically but he hardy people below made due.
A thousand kilometres from the ship a bright flash occurred, a Cylon raider now occupied the space, it quickly oriented its antenna towards Aerilon Fleet HQ and initiated a burst transmission.
Baker was alerted by a beeping from his console, he looked up from his notes and noticed the red icon on the dradis display
"Hostile contact 1000km away, heading 423 carom 125, war-book identifies as a Cylon raider"
Flint went from a slouched reading position to alert in an instant. "Sound battle stations and get those engines restarted" he knew it was futile if it was a full scale invasion, there was only 10 crew onboard at the moment.
As Baker was reaching towards the button to start the alert everything went black, from the outside the running lights around the ship went dead as the alert fighters from the station raced towards the raider, the Cylon ship wasted no time before engaging its jump engines, its mission successful.
The CIC was illuminated by the emergency lights before anyone could even process what happened. "Baker report" the commander was up on his feet now, his body tense, a frown creased his brow.
Baker looked down at his console, it touchscreen powering back on, a cursory tap showed that he was locked out of the controls but could still see status updates.
"Main energizer is offline, all systems except life support and gravity are also down, the controls are not responding"
Flint put the dots together, computer errors since receiving the ship from Caprica, Cylons also from Caprica, the ship must have been compromised even before the Cylons rebelled, they must have left a backdoor in the system he thought.
"Sir there's something else, the tylium fuel pumps are active, the pressure in the energizer is rising"
Flint considered this, if the energizer restarted but was full of tylium beyond the normal amount it would turn into a giant bomb, normally this wouldn't be a problem for multiple reasons, automatic safety shut-offs, the fact that it would take 10 minutes to fill the energizer main chamber even at the pumps maximum flow rate.
That must be the Cylons plan he thought "if not for that freighter the Velos would have been docked by now, they must have planned to take out Fleet HQ", he turned to Ensign Grey
"Ensign are the internal comms still up?"
Grey typed away at her console but soon looked back at the commander "sorry sir comms are down, external and internal"
Flint's mind raced "we're on a timer now". he considered his options, "better evacuate the ship but we can try to manually stop the fuel pumps, we have some time before its too late"
"Grey, get to the shuttle bay, tell Lt Gordon to warm up the raptor and inform anyone you see we're abandoning ship" he turned to Baker, "Baker with me, we'll try to turn off the fuel pumps manually". He knew that the energizer room was uncrewed right now, having granted them all early leave at the request of Captain Athos earlier that day.
6 Minutes Later
Energizer room
The journey to the energizer took far longer than Flint liked, without power the internal lifts and small tram were off, locked doors had to be opened manually but still only 5 minutes was a personal record for him, his body was drenched in sweat.
They only encountered Ensign Baltar on their journey, Baltar was a technician for the jump engines and wholly unfamiliar with the energizers. "Ensign Baltar, when you get to the shuttle bay, tell them to leave immediately, there wont be enough time for us if we fail" Baker looked shaken as Flint spoke those words but resolved himself, success or death, Baltar ran off quickly as Baker and Flint made their way to the energizer.
Upon their arrival the signs of stress upon the main body of machinery was apparent, the pumps working overtime to push tylium inside the main chamber of the energizer, fortunately it was designed to stand up to an impressive amount of pressure but the main threat would be from it being activated.
Tylium fuel being the most powerful chemical fuel known to colonial science, its power nearly as much as a fusion reaction, if the main chamber was overfull when the machine was initiated the explosion would be as powerful as a small nuke.
Flint had spent his early career working in the engineering department of a military transport ship before transferring to command roles, so he knew his way around the energizer, they quickly made their way over to the controls for the fuel pumps.
Flashing warning signs illuminated the display, a glance the amount of fuel already pumped in filled Flint with despair, it was already enough to send the ship to fiery oblivion if the system restarted, He sat down on the ground as his emotions raced.
Baker took in Flints reactions and understood they were doomed, "Is there nothing we can do Sir?" Flint looked up at Baker, his expression resigned, "No son, this is it" he said tiredly, his hand weakly wiping the sweat from his brow.
Baker's expression became fearful, death imminent but he remembered that his brother and family were waiting on the station for him, an explosion at the distance they were at posed little danger but the debris from the ship could be catastrophic.
Filled with resolve, he remembered the conversation the Commander had with the Chief Engineer, the jump engines were full charged and on local control, the Cylons couldn't have disabled the control systems if they weren't connected.
Without even bothering to tell the commander he rushed out of the cavernous Energizer room and ran to the jump engine, only a short distance away, the commander this without comment, but stood and followed.
Baker was already working the active console when Flint arrived, "The explosion could still damage the station, I'm jumping the ship", Flint could only nod, at-least they accomplished this much, he walked to an empty control panel and luckily could access an exterior camera, watching to see if anyone would escape the ship
Baker had never plotted a jump in reality before, being a DRADIS operator it never had come up, but he recalled his training and input the only coordinates on his mind, the coordinates to Earth.
Bakers coordinates were in reality nowhere near Earth, not even the version the 13th tribe had occupied, but higher existences had been watching, rebels among their kind, Baker's own belief allowed them the opportunity to influence things, Baker had been unwittingly entering the real location of Earth.
To the outside observers all they saw was the Velos going dark and then vanishing in a flash of light minutes later, the mystery of where it went unanswered to the colonials, under normal circumstances the engines on the Velos would never manage the massive distance, colonial drives maxing out at 5ly a jump, but helping hands made it work this time.
The ship reappeared over a blue marble of a planet, Flint and Baker treated to the sight, the jump engine in the room a molten pile of slag from the effort it had just expended. Flint saw a solitary raptor leave the shuttle bay, it was the last thing he saw before being enveloped in a blinding light, he and Baker knew nothing more.
The raptor sped away as the Velos erupted behind them, the engine block and rear of the ship exploding with kilotons of force, flinging the front of the ship away, the five survivors lost in unknown space headed for the only place they could, Earth.
40 Years Later
Earth orbit
2064 AD
For a long time only satellites orbited Earth, now-days the orbital space was home to countless space planes and cargo ships travelling to and from the surface, countless space installations now floated above from ore processing to shipyards and everything in-between.
The largest was Sentinel Station, began as a multinational effort 30 years earlier, its modular construction allowed it to grow to its present massive size, hundreds of square kilometres of factories, air docks, shipyards, offices and even a museum all in the spindly construct.
It was also home to the Terran Unions space command centre, responsible for all ships in cis-lunar space, most of the time the command centre was full of chatter about flight paths and timetables but today all eyes were on Admiral James Borman.
Just recently transferred from the United States Space Force, supposedly to lead some new secret program, Borman stood back straight in the artificial gravity of the station, no signs of his 56 years of age in his stance, his new gray uniform hat covering his balding shaved head.
His eyes focused on the screens before him analysing the information, 20 large contacts were present midway between the Earth and moon, Cylon baseships, their double disk shapes visible on one of the screens, thousand of raiders launching as he watched.
"First fighter squadrons assembled at waypoint alpha, Sir" one of the crewmen shouted over from behind him, Borman glanced over at another screen showing friendly forces mustering at preplanned waypoints, several hundred fighters launched from the orbital stations for now, it would take time to get ships up from Earth, they would have to buy time for the rest of the fleet to rally.
A grouping of capital ships, a sword class cruiser and 3 missile frigates, were five minutes out from waypoint alpha but there was no time to wait, "order the bombers to engage, fighters cover and disrupt their raider formations", he paused and glanced back to the plotter, "Tell Task Force Rapier to start long range missile bombardment, all other forces prepare for enemy breakthrough"
Waypoint Alpha
Cis-Lunar space
"Bombers are cleared to engage enemy capitol ships, Fighters are on the raiders, give the bombers a chance to launch their payloads" Lt Phillips heard Major Durant on the radio, both of them were flying SF-05 Angel space fighters, sixteen meters long with twin 20mm auto cannons, her main offensive power was her missiles though, everything from conventional explosives to a 4 kiloton nuclear warhead.
"Alpha lead confirms" she replied over the comms as her wing formed up around her, "Alpha lead to Wing, assume escort around bomber squad Sigma". The bombers were larger than her fighter, twenty meters long but far wider than her mostly thin fighter, it was also slower to accelerate.
"Command has authorised full nuclear armaments, engage the fighter swarm with nukes before we close the range"
The fighters finished moving into escort positions around the Athena bombers, engines burning as they accelerated towards the Cylon raiders, the massive cloud of raiders already at full burn towards Earth.
Lt April Phillips armed her two anti fighter nuclear missiles, her fingers steady despite her inner turmoil, when the groups of fighters neared ten thousand kilometres she and every other fighter and bomber launched.
Task Force Rapier
Several thousand kilometres away from the fighters, four ships were burning their fuel reserves to catch up, leading them was the cruiser Rapier, a sword class, under the temporary command of Marcus Baltar, His father one of the survivors of the Velos.
He sat hunched in his chair, studying the Cylon ships thousands of kilometres away, his face darkened by his frown, what limited information about the Cylons his father had told him repeating over and over in his head.
"Sir, Fighters have launched their missiles" the sensor operator reported, Balthar's attention turned to the radar display showing thousands of missiles flying towards the raider formation, the raiders didn't respond and just kept on flying.
"enemy missiles must be shorter range than expected" he mused.
The missiles closed the distance to the raiders, but then the unthinkable happened, the raiders began to emit signals, the guidance system of the missiles completely failed, their counter measures completely useless, every missile veered off course away from the raiders which continued on undeterred.
Baltar face fell, "How?" he thought, "Prepare all missiles for launch, target their baseships", he turned to the gunnery officer "All guns load flak, prepare for fighter attack"
Alpha Lead
Lt April Phillips
No simulation had prepared her for this, 40 years of developing weapons to counter a potential Cylon invasion and they all failed completely, the tech difference was too great and it wasn't even all their ships, over half the raiders had stayed to escort the baseships.
"Flight lead to all fighters, go to max thrust and begin strafing runs"
They were closing on the raiders now, the bombers left behind, April picked a raider out and made a beeline towards it, guns ready as she closed, "controlled bursts" she repeated as a mantra, as the swarms closed the Cylons finally responded, a wall of anti fighter missiles launched from the raiders, each one finding an earth fighter to track, new stars were born as fighters exploded around her.
She saw a missile flying right at her, quick reflexes let her put a burst of rounds in its path, it exploding safely away from the ship, very few others were as lucky, earth ECM having no effect, not even flares.
Finally she was in gun range of her target, the 20mm armour piercing explosive rounds shredding the oblong shaped raider, she continued on full burn past the melee and raced on towards the baseships.
A look at the rear view camera showed little damage to the Cylons, the fighter corps was gutted and the bombers now exposed, of over 500 fighters at waypoint alpha only 14 remained. She flipped her fighter to slow down and saw her doom, a Cylon missile zooming straight at her, the last thing she saw before darkness took her.
Task Force Rapier
Baltar felt the pit forming in his stomach as he watched the destruction of the fighter force, all destroyed for a paltry 36 confirmed raider kills, 36 out of thousands.
Stunned silence surrounded him, every member of the crew in shock, he quickly rallied himself, "Report" his shout woke the crew from their stupor, he regretted that he knew none of them, having being put in command at the last minute.
"All fighter forces lost, enemy forces moving towards Earth" the sensor operator's report was redundant but Baltar forgave him that in the circumstance, his first instinct was to launch all the nukes but given the performance of the fighters missiles that would most likely be a mistake.
"Sir, enemy capitol ships just jumped into Earth orbit", Baltar looked over, 4 baseships had just bypassed their lines, unsurprising really, and were in the process of turning Sentinel Station into scrap, the thin armour was no match for Cylon heavy guns.
"Raiders entering gun range, Sir" Baltar moved his eyes from the screen, Earth would have to manage without them for now, "All guns engage, helm, increase to max thrust on heading 192 mark 325, comms, inform the frigates to keep formation".
As a splinter of the raiders veered towards the ship, sentinel station gave up its last, modules spinning away to burn up in the atmosphere, defence satellites and stations launched everything towards the basestars in orbit, ground defence batteries preparing to intercept anything approaching the planet.
The Cylons had other plans though as each basestar began to launch 50 megaton bombs towards the surface, genocide their only aim.
The hundred raiders approaching the Rapier launched their missiles with mechanical precision, the ship responded by firing off flak shells into their path, missile after missile exploding but even still plenty got through, the CWIS providing a last line of defence, 20mm rounds exploding missiles that closed.
The frigates provided their own fire but their armaments were limited, no heavy guns like the cruiser, mostly long range missiles and point defence systems.
Sill it was not enough, the second volley of missiles found gaps in the defences and began to slip through, the heavy armour of the cruiser easily able to take the hits from the anti-fighter missiles used by the Cylons, even the frigates held up against the small warheads.
The Cylons finally entered gun range, accelerating as the flak exploded around them, the shrapnel claiming raiders as they approached, Baltar watched as they exploded, but still they came, undeterred by their losses, "Cut thrust and angle the ship towards the raiders" the crew was quick to obey, the ships engines cut out as it turned it broadside to the raiders, the multiple guns opening up, the raiders evading as best they could but their numbers dwindling by the second.
"All raiders destroyed" the radar operator reported, the crew giving a small cheer at the news but it didn't last long, a fraction of the enemy force was all they destroyed, a cry of shock drew Baltar's attention, a crewman pointing to the screen showing the mushroom clouds on Earth.
Far away one of the Cylon baseships finished its calculations, disappearing in a flash of light one instant and reappearing beside task force Rapier, the ships barley able to respond before being hammered by massive shells from the Cylons.
The relatively thin armour on the frigates offered no resistance to the heavy Cylon ordinance, armour piercing shells went through them like a hot knife through butter, until finally a lucky shot hit the fuel tank on one of them causing it to cease existing.
The cruiser returned fire with its own weapons but the armour on the baseship shrugged them aside with little effort, only leaving small craters, the cruisers armour likewise could handle the Cylon weapons for a time but the Cylons had other ideas, 12 large missiles flew out from the launchers on the baseship, CWIS turned to engage from the 3 remaining ships, shooting down several, several wasn't enough, Cylon anti-ship missiles struck all around, the multi megaton explosions claiming the 2 frigates, the Rapier itself was still intact, its armour designed to take hits like that, unfortunately all its weapon mounts were erased so the second volley hit the ship unimpeded.
The last thing Marcus Baltar saw was an Earth on fire.