Chapter 25 - The Fall part 8

Various Locations Around the Colonies - Between 3-24 Hours Into Attack

Mining Station Scorpus - 4 Hours Into Attack

James hated the twilight shift, he was just thankful he only had 2 hours till midnight station time and he would be done for the day and he could finally get some sleep. He was sitting at the monitor looking over the reports from the sensors and the station's functions such as life support and power generation.

He was just contemplating getting himself a cup of coffee when a new contact appeared on dradis with no IFF. He took up a receiver and spoke into the microphone. "Unknown ship on course for Mining Station Scorpus please identify yourself immediately." He waited 20 seconds for a reply before repeating himself.

When he didn't get a reply the second time he hit the alarm for the station called out over the speakers of the station. "Unknown ship inbound with possible hostile intentions all staff to stations. Civilians are to gather in shelters immediately." The station was more prepared than most having come under pirate attack before so they had prepared shelters with their own life support and power to protect their families while they defend the station.

It was 2 minutes later that more staff started to run into the CIC and take up their positions. It was then that the station commander walked in and asked. "James what the frak is going on." He all but shouted over the hustle and bustle of the station preparing its defenses.

James looked up at Colin who commanded the station during emergencies. "About 4 minutes ago a contact appeared at the edge of the system and started making its way directly to the station. There was no IFF confirmation from the contact. I made several attempts to make contact with them but received no response as they continued on their course and as things stand they will be within extreme attack range in 5 minutes."

Colin didn't like what he was hearing and replied. "You did the right thing activating the alarm." He then turned to the dradis screen as they monitored the approaching ship. He was just about to send another warning as the ship approached the station's weapon range when alerts started blaring.

The officer monitoring the sensors shouted out. "They launched missiles. A dozen inbound." He just finished his report when the alert became more severe as the dradis confirmed nuclear armaments. "They launched nukes."

Colin looked at the screen and shouted. "FIRE THE FLAK GUNS NOW." He was panicking at this point as this was no pirate attack.

The Dradis officer reported with a little stutter as worry leaked into his voice. "Flak guns activated." A few seconds later he continued. "10 missiles remaining, 7 left, 4 left, 2 left." That's where he stopped when the two missiles hit the station.

The station shook with the impact and alarms started to go off where whole sections were opened to space and nuclear fire spread through the station. Those in the shelters didn't know what happened right up until they were swallowed by the nuclear fire. As the explosion cleared all you could see was a crater and a few pieces of the station that survived as they drifted off into space.

The unknown contact scanned the station to make sure it was destroyed and when confirmed jumped away.

Kefalonia - Leonis - 5 Hours Into Attack

Ambrose was running back to her home from the fields she was working when she heard a loud explosion in front of her and several ships flying overhead. She ducked down and looked for somewhere to hide and found a ditch at the edge of the road. She was lying in the ditch when another wave of ships flew over and she looked up in hope but didn't recognise them so she stayed where she was.

She watched on as those ships flew over and launched more missiles into the buildings of her hometown. The buildings disappeared into balls of fire and debris flew in all directions. She had tears trailing down her face as she watched on as her home was destroyed by the unknown ships. She turned away not wanting to watch as the attack continued, She curled up into a ball and cried until she ran out of tears.

It was a time later when she was woken from her shocked state by someone shaking her. "Girly, are you ok, Are you hurt?"

She looked up at the older man who was shaking her with a blank look. The man was well built and had graying hair and tanned skin from being outdoors a lot. Ambrose shook her head and replied. "No, I'm not hurt."

The older man introduced himself. "That good, I'm Evander i live in a house not far from here and was looking to see if anyone survived the attack." She still had that blank look and he felt sorry for her as she obviously witnessed the attack. "Why don't you come with me and get you somewhere warm."

She looked at him again and nodded. He helped her up and directed her down the road away from the town. While walking she noticed a lot of time had passed as it had turned from day to night while she was in the ditch.

It was an hour later that they approached a single story farmhouse that looked like it had seen better days. "This is my home, I live here with my wife and two sons." He led her to the door of the house and called out. "Honey, I found someone. She has been outside since the attack. Can you get her a blanket?"

"Yes dear." answered a voice from inside as he held the door open for Ambrose to enter. As she entered she was accosted by a portly looking lady with dark brown hair. "Come on sweety, let's get you inside somewhere warm." She maneuvered Ambrose through the kitchen into another room with a fireplace and several comfortable but worn chairs. Ambrose was deposited into one of the chairs and a blanket was draped over her as she looked around the room.

"Let me get you some soup for you to eat." The lady said as she left the room back towards the kitchen she passed through to get here. Evander sat himself down in another chair after stoking the fire to get it burning a bit better. "Well Girly, are you going to tell me your name?" He asked with a disarming smile.

Ambrose looked at him then nodded before saying in a quiet voice. "I'm Ambrose i live..." She stopped and started sobbing again before continuing. "...lived with my parents. I was on my way home from work when everything happened and I hid when the ships started appearing in the sky and I didn't recognise them." She explained.

"I'm sorry you witnessed that. Well you're welcome to stay with us here until this is all sorted out. My name is Evander and my wife, the lady you met just now is Diana. We live here with my two sons Jason and Lysander. They are both out at the moment securing the cattle but should be back soon." He smiled at her and then sat back as Diana walked in the room with a bowl of soup and a spoon and handed them to Ambrose. "Why don't you eat that and get some rest then we talk some more ok." She nodded and he left her in the care of his wife as he got up and left the room for the kitchen.

Evander was a marine when he was younger and mustered out when his father passed leaving him the farm and cattle business. He had some lean years but he met his wife and raised two grown sons who he was worried about at the moment. He was just contemplating going back out to look for them when they came into the kitchen in a panic.

"Dad, there's been an attack. We were out in the northern pasture and we saw mushroom clouds over the capital." Jason said while out of breath. "We ran back as soon as we secured the cattle. We saw dozens of strange shaped craft flying over head and decided to get back as soon as we could."

Lysander shook his head as being the older brother he was a bit calmer than Jason. "Father it looked real bad we saw several vipers in a dog fight with these strange craft some distance west of us. They had the vipers outnumbered and we didn't stay to watch so dont know who won but all we have seen since is those strange ships."

Evander looked at his sons and frowned and asked. "Are you sure it was a mushroom cloud and not just normal clouds or smoke from a fire?" They both nodded in response and he started to get worried as the use of nukes was a whole different story than just the attack on the town with conventional weapons. "I want you both to go into the shed and get the hunting rifles out of the safe and pack all the ammo and handguns in a duffle bag and get back here asap."

They both looked ready to argue but stopped when they saw his face. As they left Diana came into the kitchen and asked. "Is it really that bad?"

He nodded and said. "I fear it's even worse than I think it is and we need to leave soon to the cabin up in the mountains until we get word it's safe." He looked at her and took her hands in his and continued. "We need to get somewhere safe as if it's as bad as I fear. The next stage is a ground attack to clear up any resistance."

She nodded. "We need to let others know." She then got up and walked to the phone on the wall next to the living room door. "I'll tell my brother and sister to meet us at the start of the trail into the mountain."

He nodded and they got busy with getting ready to leave.

Northern Mountain Range - Caprica - 8 Hours Into Attack

They stood there watching the horizon as more and more mushroom clouds appeared and with each one there worry and fear grew. Questions were asked out loud by many of them but no one answered and it took what looked like old war Cylon raiders flying by to break them out of their shock at what they had witnessed. It took several people stepping forward to calm the panic that took over and they agreed to hold a meeting in the mess hall.

It took them 30 minutes to gather everyone in the hall and when everyone had quietened down the person they all looked to as their leader climbed up on one of the counters and shouted for quiet.

"QUIET!" Samuel Anders shouted. "I know there are a lot of questions about what has happened but running around screaming like school children won't get you answers."

Being told of had a lot of them quieten down in shame but as with all groups there was someone who didn't want to be a follower. "And who put you in charge." Asked one of the security guards as he stood up to be noticed.

Anders replied. "Well I don't see anyone else stepping up and if you want to lead us then we will hold a vote to see who everyone wants to lead them." What he said shocked the guard and the looks being thrown at him by those around him led to him nodding and sitting back down with a scowl on his face. "Now that's done what i can tell you is that there have been a multitude of nuclear attacks, we can't say what or where was hit and we don't know where our defenses where but what we can determine is that it was more than likely the Cylons given the craft we have seen look a lot like Cylon raiders from the first war."

They were all listening with undivided attention and when he was finished explaining what they knew someone asked. "What do we do now?"

"Well what i think we should do is collect up what supplies and weapons we have and move away from the camp as its an established location and if or when the enemy ground troops come they will look here before they go looking into the wilderness." He waited for any questions or comments when he received none he continued. "Apart from that we need to send some volunteers down to the local town to see what they know and to find out what happened to the fleet and marines."

Several people nodded but somewhere just struck with fear hoping they weren't the ones asked to go down the mountain to find out what happened. "That's all well and good but what do we know about surviving in the wilderness and fighting?" Asked one of the cooks.

Anders looked sheepish at that. "Well to be honest we all know very little but we have to do what it takes to stay alive until help arrives." Several agreed with him. "And not everyone has to fight as there will be plenty that needs to be done and who's to say we will need to fight anyway."

Some didn't look convinced with what he said last but they were too scared to cause any trouble. The meeting wrapped up and people were assigned to take stock of supplies while some went to find any camping equipment they had. Anders himself went with the security guards to find out what actual weapons they had which didn't turn out to be much more than a couple of pistols and a few flashbangs.

After finding out what weapons they had Anders knew they would need to find more so he left to find someone he thought would have an idea of where to find some. "Lewis, You were a marine before you became a fitness specialist?" Anders asked the team's fitness coach.

Lewis looked at Anders and nodded. "Yeh 6 years with the marines here on caprica before i retired and finished college. What can I help you with?" He asked.

Anders asked. "Do you know of any small marine bases or stashes that could be nearby as we need weapons and supplies like anti radiation meds and with nukes comes radiation."

Lewis had to think for a few minutes then nodded. "Yeh there was an old training base for forest warfare about 50 miles east of here. Not sure what will be there though as with the cuts and all I'm not sure if it was still open."

Anders thought it over and decided that they would have to take a look as they needed those meds or they were dead either way. "Ok well once we are out of here and somewhere more secluded we need to go there to find out."

Lewis nodded and said. "I can lead you there and even get you through some of the security that might be in place but I wouldn't just hand weapons to the civies without at least a little training first or they are likely to blow their own toes off."

Anders laughed and said. "Yeh we all need to do a bit of training as i think it's been a while for most since the basic arms training we all got in high school and even then a lot of schools stopped doing that in the last decade or so with the government deciding that the cylons were not coming back." He then looked at Lewis. "If I didn't think they were already dead from the nukes, I'd want to find them and shove a grenade up their ass."

Anders and Lewis finished up and got back to packing supplies and preparing to leave. They left an hour later and disappeared into the wilderness that was the mountain ranges of northern Caprica.

Container Ship 26611 - Orbit Of Virgon - 3 Hours Into Attack

Nico Edinson was the Captain of a privately owned container ship, he has been for the last 15 years and has been to every colony at one time or another and if he had to choose one colony that he would want to call home it would be Virgon which is why when he lost all comm's and signals from every colony apart from Virgon he decided to jump here to find out what was happening.

He had his ship jump just outside orbit of the farthest moon and the moment they jumped in he was glad they did as their limited sensors were picking up 2 unknown contacts and a lot of debris in orbit. Although he was worried he didn't panic as after facing several pirate attacks over the years he was skilled enough to know when to get shit done and when to freak out.

"How long to spin up the FTL?" He asked his Pilot.

"5 minutes to spin up but i need coordinates to jump to." The pilot answered.

Nico nodded and walked over to his cabinet and pulled out a small notebook. He leafed through the pages until he found what he was looking for and ripped the page from the book and handed it to the pilot. "Plot a jump to these coordinates and use the second set as a back up."

"Right away." The pilot got to work plotting the jump as the FTL drives charged up again.

While that was happening the dradis beeped an alert about an object that was nearby so Nico went over to the monitor and looked at it and noticed it was a life pod from a colonial ship. He checked to see if they had been noticed yet and was glad to see that they weren't so he pulled up a receiver and spoke into the microphone. "Chris, get in the shuttle and secure that life pod to our starboard and make it quick as we don't have time to play games."

"Yes, Boss will do." Chris replied.

Nico went over to the pilot and instructed. "Hold off on the jump while we rescue the life pod as they might be able to answer some questions about everything that's happened."

"Sure Boss, if you think that's best" The pilot replied.

It was a long 10 minutes while the life pod was rescued and it was just as the shuttle docked that the dradis beeped again in warning letting them know they had been found so Nico ordered the jump once the shuttle was fully secure. Once they had jumped he ordered the drive recharged and the second set of coordinates mapped out and ordered that they were to jump at the first sign of trouble.

He left the Bridge and walked on down to the shuttle bay where the ship's medic was looking over a man in a colonial fleet uniform. "How is he?" Nico asked.

The medic responded. "He is a little dehydrated and suffering from a mild concussion but apart from that he is fine."

Nico nodded and looked at the uniform and noticed the admiral pins on the uniform so he walked round the medic to get a better look and stopped dead in his tracks as he looked down on someone he saw regularly on the holovid whenever the fleet was involved.

The colonial Admiral was waking up when Nico called out. "Easy Admiral, you're safe now just give it a minute for your head to settle."

The Admiral asked. "Where am i?"

Nico answered. "You're on board a container ship. We just picked up your life pod in orbit of Virgon and have jumped out to somewhere. I hope we will have time to plan out our next move. I'm Nico Edinson, Captain of this ship."

The Admiral sat up and offered his hand. "I'm Admiral Nagala which i imagine you know and why I'm in a life pod well that is down to my ships crew knocking me out and putting me in one before the ship made its last dash to take the Cylon command ship with them." Nagala didn't look happy at what he revealed about how he survived but in the end he was alive and he had to make the most of it so that his crew's sacrifice wasn't in vain."

"Well Admiral I'm sure you have a hell of a story but I think you need to rest a little and get some food in you first. You can use my cabin to rest and I'll have the Cook bring you something there." Nico said in response to Nagala revelations.

Nagala nodded and with the help of the medic left the shuttle bay while Nico and Chris looked on.

TN:- I thought I would save Nagala as I like the idea of him leading the Colonial remnants on the front line more than any of the other surviving leaders.