Chapter 9 - The assault

TN:- OK guys with more and more stuff happening in the Altera Prime system I'm looking at naming the planets and moons so i would like to see some input from my readers about what to name them in the comments and please stick to either Greek or Latin type names thanks

TN:- I changed the ship name from mars to Lions Pride as it gets slightly confusing using the name of a planet as a ship name when it might come into use later.

11 years before the fall

Leo stood in the CIC of his ship looking at the dradis screen as reports to confirm readiness for the operation. The plan they went with in the end was to infiltrate important areas of the ship and station before launching a larger boarding action after a given amount of time.

"Sir raptors and infiltration teams report ready sir" Lt Jones reported.

"OK, set condition 2 throughout the fleet and give the raptors the go order." Leo replied. "Lt Williams set the timer for 2 hours and as soon as they jump away start the countdown"

After giving out the orders he went back to monitoring the dradis and thinking over contingencies for any problems that may come up as the operation progresses. He was a little nervous about going into combat while being in command of so many men and women but knew if he wanted to save the lives of as many as possible he needed to move past his nervousness and get the job done.

"Raptors away, timer starts T-minus 2 hours." reported Lt Jones as the raptors IFF disappeared off the dradis screen.

It took the 6 marine assault raptors 40 min to float into position to allow the marines to board both targets. They were split into 2 with the raptors code named Ghost 1 through 3 for the ship and Justice 1 through 3 for the station. Each team leader was given a print out of the last known layout of their targets and told to take and hold their targets. They were also told that if they couldn't hold their targets they were to destroy or disable them to deny its use to the enemies.

Their secondary objectives were to take note of any locations where civilians are being held to be reported to the main assault teams when they breach the targets.

So it's with those orders that the teams land and breach the emergency airlocks while disabling the alarm sensors for the doors. After they entered the airlock and closed and re-pressurised the entrance they took off their EVA masks and stashed them out of sight in case they needed them again.

Each team then made their way to their targets. The only team who had trouble getting to their target was Ghost 2 as it seemed that whatever the pirates had for command staff were actually alert and doing their job.

Ghost 2

The team with the call sign Ghost 2 were currently hiding in a maintenance room while their scout was crawling through a ventilation shaft to get a look at the command center of the station.

Sgt Siler managed to get to the vent cover of the station CIC and managed to count 4 people on duty monitoring the various systems and scanners of the station. It looked like out of the 4 on duty staff 3 were just going through the motions and were distracted chatting or using handhelds. The last member of the staff was watching the dradis screen that was doing regular passive scans of the system looking for any high energy emissions.

After watching the staff for 10 min he made his way back to the maintenance room and laid out his plan.

"ok we have 3 targets who will be easy to take as they are distracted and 1 target who is alert so he is the first to be taken. So this what we will do, corporal Haines will crawl back through the ducts and line up a shot with a silenced rifle on the alert target. Private's Smith, Arnold and Black will each take one of the other three." Said Sgt Siler as he assigned the targets to each of his team. "Corporal Miller will watch the hallway for any wandering pirates. I will double up on the alert worker while maintaining awareness for any problems that come up. Any questions?" He finished

With shakes of the head from his team he sets the go time for 5 min as they only have 25 min before the main fleet jumps in and they need to take control of any defensive weapons before then.

So it's coming up on 5 min when everyone was in position and ready to go that a complication happened, It turned out that it was shift change and the targets had doubled so with a few quick hand signals they assigned the new targets and on the count of three they attacked.

Inside the Asteroid Station CIC

It was like any other shift change from late night shift to early morning shift when all hell broke loose. It all started with a bang of the CIC's door being kicked open and four men dressed in black body armor and silenced rifles rushing in.

The first to drop was the night shift leader with a round to the head from somewhere else and then the rest of the night shift where shot as the morning shift leader dived for cover behind a console. There were shouting and moaning from the injured as the rest of the morning shift team dived for cover with only one other making it to cover before he could be shot.

Corporal Haines did his job and took out his first assigned target and then looked on waiting for another opportunity to finish off another when he noticed one of the new targets hiding behind a console with his back to the vent he was hiding in. He lined up his sights on the nape of the person's neck and took his shot but just as he pulled the trigger the person he was aiming at rolled to his left dodging a shot from one of his team members so he ended up missing and giving away his position. The person he was shooting at ducked behind another console that provided cover from both the doorway and the vent and started to take pot shots at the vent hoping to kill whoever was in there.

The echo of the pistol shots spread through the corridors and alerted more people to the commotion in the CIC and the pirates were starting to converge on the CIC in force after they were unable to get any response from the intercom.

Ghost 2

"Sarge we have a lot of incoming from down the hallway." Corporal Miller reported over the comm's now that their presence has been given away.

"Roger, pull back to the door and give them a little welcome with a couple of grenades." Sgt Siler ordered while putting 2 shots in the center mass of the pistol wielding pirate. "Haines reports in."

"I'm ok Sarge, will be down in five." Replied Haines while crawling his way back to the vent and pushing it open after making sure it won't hit anyone.

"Smith, Black go and help Miller hold the door. Arnold you're responsible for monitoring the camera's, Haines once you're done see if you can access the station systems and put the station into lock down to slow their assault till our main force gets here." Sgt Siler said as he made his way to the console that controlled the base defenses to deactivate them as the fleet was due to jump into the system in 5 min.

He listened to several acknowledgements that the orders were received and understood and then got on with completing the mission and putting a small explosive on the console just in case they lose control of the room at some point.

"Sarge there is no lockdown system but there are emergency air tight doors between here and the living quarters that I've closed and locked that might buy us some time until they manage to get around it locally." Reported Haines after spending a little time typing away at a console.

Just as he finished reporting the familiar noise of gunfire started coming from the hallway and Sgt Siler made his way over to Pvt Arnold to see what's on the camera's.

CIC of Battlestar Lions Pride

At T-minus 5 min Leo prepared himself and started giving orders.

"Lt Jones set condition 1 and have the pilots man their vipers and ready for combat launch as soon as we arrive." Leo ordered his communication officer. "And have the marines board their shuttles and have them warmed up and ready for launch as soon as we have confirmation of the shut down of their defenses."

Lt Jones replied in the positive and carried out his order as the time ticked away. At T-minus 30 sec's Lt Jones reported in. "Sir all ships report ready and vipers manned and ready for launch. Marines are in their shuttle's and ready in the bays or the assault ships."

AT 10 seconds to jump Leo braced his knees ready for the slight shift as they jumped and then like they jumped.

Space around the Asteroid Station

As the Lions Pride finished its jump with its bow facing the station and the stolen ship. The stolen ship was a smaller cruiser type ship that looked heavily modified but lacked the uniformity in its armor that a regular military ship would have as it looked like they salvaged armor from different places to replace lost or damaged parts.

The Lions Pride's thrusters flared as they powered their way towards their target while 3 fleets consisting of a heavy cruiser and 2 cruisers appeared at each of the other compass bearing to block any possible escape route.

The fleets launched vipers and prepared to contain any escaping vessels. While this was happening the marine assault ships jumped in behind the Lion's Pride and waited for orders to launch their marines.

All this happened in a matter of seconds and any of the Pirates that noticed the Battlestar from the station would have seen the Lions Pride floating forward looking like an alligator stalking its prey and preparing to pounce when opportunity presented itself. Its 4 main guns looked like teeth and its flight pods like an alligator's legs. As the Ship moved forward it launched the smaller vipers from its sides until 4 full squadrons were launched.

Despite all that was happening there was no movement or fire from either ship or station which meant that the infiltration teams had done their job without waiting for their confirmation over the comms which they sent on loop as soon as the time set for the fleet to jump in passed.

CIC of Lions Pride

With confirmation from all 6 teams and requests for reinforcements from 2 of those, Leo gave the order for the marines to launch their shuttles and board both the targets.

"Order the vipers to set up a cap around the station and cruiser while keeping an eye out for anything odd." Ordered Leo. "Also pass on the locations of the civilians the infiltration teams have found to the respective teams. Get onto Doc Wilson and get his Med teams ready to raptor over as soon as the all clear is given."

After that Leo was pretty much a quest as his own show as he watched the dradis and listened to the reports coming in over the comm's as the marines assaulted both targets. As things were progressing they finally got a report of casualties from a unit trying to get to the team holding the station's armory.

The report that came in stated that one of the supposed freedom fighters ran at the teams approaching them and detonated an explosive vest and killed 4 marines and injured 7 more. Leo was pissed at that as it just reminded him of the terrorists back on his old earth and didn't want to see the same happen here so he ordered the marines to not take chances and ensure their own safety rather than take risks when taking prisoners.

It wasn't something he liked doing but he would rather see more of the marines survive who are protecting their homes than people who are more than willing to not only fight against their enemies but target non combatants as well.

It was as he was coming to terms with the order he was given that reports started coming in about the civilians they had found and secured. The image the reports were giving was truly barbaric as it looked like they only kept women alive and what they did to them was beyond description especially considering that the youngest girl they have found so far is 12 years old.

It was as he was bringing his anger into check that Lt Jones informed him of the latest messages. "Sir where receiving the all clear from the cruiser and there requesting medics be sent over asap for injured marines and civilians."

"OK gets Doc Miller to send over a third of his med teams and get the rest in the air to land on the station as soon as the all clear comes in. Also send a raptor to the support fleet and get a tender here for the cruiser so they can get whatever information they can from the computers asap." Leo ordered and then went back to waiting for the final all clear.

It was 45 min later when the final all clear signal was given and they started clean up and final sweeps. In the end the casualties amounted to 8 marines, 3 civilians and 55 Terrorists dead with a lot of injuries from bullet wounds to long term abuse. There were so many injured that a raptor had to be sent back to the colonies for a hospital ship to better care for the civilian injuries and a prison ship for the terrorists and pirates who surrendered or were incapacitated.

He also ordered all the fleets to converge on their position and have the majority of the vipers return to the barn apart from a modest CAP.

All told it was a successful opp but time will tell if it revealed anything useful in the hopes of finding the stolen battlestar.

Unknown location in Caprica City

John Cavil was sitting in an apartment waiting for the time to enter the virtual meeting room for the planned meeting to discuss their progress on infiltrating the colonial civil and military hierarchy.

He looked out the window and thought how pathetic the humans were, where they run around living their lives while achieving nothing. How he will celebrate when they are wiped from the galaxy and the Cylon empire will take their place as rulers of this area of space.

It was while his megalomaniac tendencies were revealing themselves that the time for the meeting approached and he entered the virtual meeting room.

Meeting Room Virtual Space

As John closed his eyes, he appeared in the meeting room with its bright white walls and plain metal table shaped like an Octagon with 8 seats around the desk on each straight side. It turned out he was the first to enter the space but it was in no time at all that all eight seats were filled with the leading model of each number.

"Now that we're all here, let's get down to business. We will start our reports with 8 and work our way down by model number." Stated John with a no questions to be asked attitude.

The model eight stood and proceeded to report that she was making progress with placing both infiltrators into the colonial fleet and that they will have all the records and data in place ready for the sleepers to be placed 18 months before their planned attack.

Next the model 6 stood up and made her report.

"Well everything is going as planned so far apart from finding someone strategically placed to give us access to the defense mainframe who will be easily manipulated." She stated. "Also having some problems with getting the needed bugs into the fleet's computers without them noticing it."

John didn't like that as he looked at six with a condescending look and with rising anger replied. "How, you have all the resources you need and you're nowhere, we need the back door to neutralize the fleet to stop this becoming a protracted war." John stood and started to pace as he went into a rant. "You should have one of these programming nitwits eating out of the palm of your hand by now so what's taking you so long to get the back door into place or do i need to box you and have someone else do it instead."

Six looked at him with a little bit of panic in her eyes as she knew from what happened to Seven that he would do as he said. "No you don't need to do anything, I will get the job done on time."

As six sat back down five stood up and reported on the progress of his infiltration into the offices of the important officials for each colony to be able to track where they are on the day of the attack so they don't miss anyone. He also reported there progress on compiling a list of dangerous people that need to be taken care of before the attack to make the Genocide of the humans easier and to limit the potential for experienced leaders from surviving the attack.

After that four stood up and started to describe how he had copies of himself in most major research center's and has almost completed his first objective of collecting and compiling all the research into the human genome and physiology and that any more research will have to wait until after the attack when they can start experimenting on the human females.

He sat down with a satisfied grin on his face before three stood up and reported that she has infiltrated the biggest news agency in each colony and has other copies situated in newsrooms and offices ready to filter reports on their activities when they start their assassination campaign on their list of targets.

The last to report was two and he reported that he has people in all major factions outside of the colonial fleet and that he has found all rogue ships and weapon stashes currently in the colonies.

"I have had problems with one firm though, the vetting they use is too in depth and detailed for our basic infiltrators to pass. The most concerning part is their resources and combat ability as they have the biggest assembly of fleet units outside official forces. They even rate above some of the defensive forces of a few of the weaker colonial defense forces. They even have the ability to build battlestars if they were so inclined to but at the moment the colonial fleet is restricting them to only building for them." Two said all this then stopped as he was worried about what he was about to say next.

"That's not all. They only have one owner and he is not a normal layabout either as he is currently one of the youngest and most promising commanders in the colonial fleet and has just been given command of the Battlestar Lions Pride." Two then continued on. "His name is Leonidas Kosta, grandson of retired admiral James Adama and owner of maybe one of the biggest companies in the colonies." Two then went on to detail all of Leo's known holdings and his fleet records. As he spoke he became more and more worried with what John will do to him when he is finished.

John looked ready to murder two right there and then but he reigned in his rage and looked at two and said. "Do whatever is necessary to get a sleeper onto his ship and an infiltrator into his company or you will find yourself boxed, you hear me."

Then John leaves the virtual world and goes back to planning on how he was going to manipulate Adat into doing what's needed to make their attack succeed.