Chapter 24 - The Fall part 7
Alteran Battlegroup - Rendezvous Coordinates Outside Colonial Space - 26 Hours Into Attack
Admiral Adama's battlegroup just finished their last jump to the rendezvous when the dradis came alive with 5 contacts. The Admiral waited for the IFF system to register their transponder signals when they were identified as battlegroup Beta and they were 2 ships short.
He looked at the dradis again to make sure he was seeing things right and then ordered. "Lt Smith, ask Commander Korvas over here ASAP." He then thought about what could have happened and added. "Also have our engineers and medics ready to help them where needed as with 2 missing ships I doubt they are undamaged."
"Yes sir." Lt Smith replied and got to work doing what was ordered. A few minutes later he informed the Admiral of the responses he had received. "Sir, Commander Korvas is on his way ETA 10 min. Engineering crews and medics have been loaded and raptors are launching as we speak.
Admiral Adama nodded and waited and hoped things weren't as bad as they seemed from the missing ships. It was closer to 15 minutes later when Commander Korvas entered the CIC and saluted Adama. "Sir, reporting as ordered."
"At ease Commander, Follow me to my office and you can give me a report on what happened." They both then left the CIC to the Admirals day cabin. They entered the room and Adama sat down with Commander Korvas waiting to be offered a seat before sitting. "You may sit Commander. Now why don't you fill me in on what happened."
"Well sir we followed your orders and approached the main supply depo we suspected the Cylons were using to store their reserve of munitions. We jumped in and launched vipers with the Gunstars taking flanking positions. As we approached the Cylons moved to intercept us and launched their own raiders." He then took a breath. "We were well on our way to destroy the base and the base stars when 8 more base stars jumped into the system surrounding our battlegroup. The minute they jumped in they launched a massive nuclear attack. We lost the Gunstars Edun and Fantasia and the rest of the fleet took massive damage. As ordered we had our jump drives spun up and ready so the minute the vipers landed we jumped out but not before taking another dozen nukes which left us severely damaged. All told we lost nearly 2500 people, with hundreds more injured."
Admiral Adama gave the Commander a look of sympathy as they planned for every eventuality but 8 base ships jumping on top of a single battlegroup wasn't one of them. "OK write up your report and send it along with your battle data to Waypoint Alpha for analysis then get some rest. I've already sent engineering crews and medics over to help and if we have to, I'll get tenders from Waypoint to tow your ships to the mobile docks if I have to."
Commander Korvas was thankful, He stood up and saluted before leaving the room after being dismissed. Adama sat there thinking over what happened as it showed that the Cylons were quick to adapt to a threat but still had weaknesses that could be exploited. He also made a note to push the research on the energy shields more as with the Cylons heavy handed method of launching nukes and missiles in every engagement armor just wasn't going to be enough.
It was an hour later when he got a message reporting that Battlegroup Charlie had jumped in and reported some minor damage but the mission was successful. He then ordered the fleet to be ready to go to hyper speed as they needed to get to waypoint Alpha to effect repairs and to be ready to help the colonials when their fleet gets there in a few days.
He was just contemplating what his grandson and future granddaughter were planning next when he felt the jolt of entering FTL and marveled at everything they had discovered or rediscovered if Leo was right and they were from a much older civilisation than they realized. He just hoped when they revealed it to everyone else they accepted it for the honor it is rather than an attempt to destroy their belief system. He then went back to his reports on casualties and damages to each ship for the hour-long trip to the Waypoint Station.
Waypoint Station Alpha - CIC - 30 Hours Into Attack
Louise was just making her way to the CIC after getting some rest from a long 24 hours of heartache and stress from the decisions that needed to be made after the Cylons attacked. She had sent rescue ships to the battle sites and managed to pick up and save 22 thousand colonial fleet members including Admiral Wallace from Battlegroup 16 and 5 other battlestar commanders who were now waiting to join up with the colonial fleet units at Ragnar.
Thankfully they were kept busy with ships and small craft they had recovered as they had managed to recover 2 Battlestars and 3 Gunstars. These ships had their atmosphere vented by the Virus planted through the CNP backdoor, They were then left in space as with no crew they were not a threat any more. So the people they saved that weren't injured were now crewing these ships and making them ready for battle.
Louise had also met with her and Leo's family that they had managed to save, Although she has some explaining to do as the person Leo sent was a slight heavy handed in a few cases where they initially refused to leave but once Louise explained that they suspected something but that they had no proof that would change the mind of the government that a threat was incoming they took measures to secure their families and whatever people they could that would be needed in the future.
So Louise had slept for the last 5 hours or so but she can't say she felt rested but there was too much to do with everything they needed to do before they left colonial space for the foreseeable future.
Her plans included sending out the stealth ships to find what civilian ships had survived and bring them here and keeping them secure till Leo came back. She had also sent out the biggest stealth ship they had to pick up her father and the survivors of the attack on Picon but the problem there was she needed to create a distraction so she had one of the Alteran Gunstars that stayed behind to protect the station go with them and there job was to pull the base ships away from the planet long enough for the rescue.
She walked into the CIC and was handed a computer pad with all the reports from the last 5 hours for her to go over. She was half way through when she went over the report from Admiral Adama. She took note of the fact that they only achieved partial success with the plan to cripple the Cylon war machine but was happy with the fact that they have lost their shipyards as with limited ships the amount of supplies they have would not make enough of a difference.
"Captain Aetos, I need you to prepare two of the fleet tenders as we have some damaged ships returning with Admiral Adama." She ordered the Captain who was standing at one of the computers.
He looked up and nodded and went about his orders. Louise then finished looking over the report and was glad they had managed to save another 2 thousand people being a mix of colonial fleet and civilians. She then came across the last report of an attack by a colonial battlestar on a civilian convoy. According to the report they seized the ships, stripped them of resources and manpower then left the vulnerable people behind with no food or water and no way to get to help. It also indicated that they executed the families of the men who refused to be drafted which didn't sit well with her.
"Major Drakos, I want you to take a Stealth Corvette and see if you can find this rogue Battlestar and then report back on their location. Try to be quick about it as the longer they are out there the more people they are putting at risk." Louise ordered.
"Yes, Ma'am." He then left the CIC to take a shuttle to one of the two Stealth Corvette's they had as the other was being used for the rescue mission on Picon.
Louise watched him leave and then sat in the command chair and waited for whatever came up next. She was finding it harder to be the military leader but knew it was needed as Leo couldn't be everywhere at once and he had a lot on his plate with the colonials.
Ragnar Station - CIC - 34 Hours Into Attack
Leo was in yet another meeting this time with the added members of his company's fleet and that of the marines. "So now we have all gathered we need to start planning out our evacuation." Leo said as he looked at each of the leaders in turn.
General Ferguson was the first to ask a question. "I've been filled in on everything that has happened and what you know and I agree we need to secure those survivors we already have rather than risk everyone and the future of our race to save more at this point in time." The others agreed though the president didn't look happy doing so.
Leo nodded and continued. "Well with the Cylons guarding the current exit we will have to look for another way out and lucky for us Corman did exactly that when he ordered me to revamp the station."
They looked at him in shock and suspicion and it was Adama that asked the question on everyone's mind. "You mean we have a safe way out that no one knows about? Why is it that Admiral Corman was so prepared for this attack, did he know it was going to happen?"
Leo looked at him and answered. "As i told you in the last meeting with the administration making massive cuts in fleet funding and several weird reports of increased nuclear explosions on the other side of the armistice line Corman, Nagala and myself set in place contingencies to secure the future of our species if the worst ever came to pass. The fact that it happened so soon was not really expected as we were hoping to get a few more decades to prepare before anything really happened." He then looked everyone in the eye one by one. "That we didn't include Adar or the Quorum in this is why the Cylons don't know about it and they didn't mess it all up with fights for control of the colony itself."
The President wanted to argue but held back as she knew that it won't change anything and they really needed to move on from the argument about how corrupt the government was. "So what is the plan moving forward?" She asked
Leo took out a folder and handed each a piece of paper. "Well first of with my current authority i am promoting Adama to admiral and giving him tactical command of my battlegroup and Galactica for outer defenses of the fleet. He will coordinate with Kronus fleet and form a perimeter to defend against any ambush or attack from base ships if they appear." He smiled as he handed Adama a set of Admiral pins. "Congratulations Admiral and I'm sure Corman will confirm your promotion as it is long overdue."
The rest congratulated him and he thanked them back. "You can stay on Galactica or move your flag as i will be staying on the station as yes we are bringing it with us as with the jump drives we installed and the increased power from my companies fission generators she can match the civilian ships for jump range."
He then turned to General Ferguson. "General you will keep your current forces including the Gunstars and be responsible for maintaining inner security of the fleet and will assign marines to each ship to maintain order as I will not have us descend into barbarism because there are no longer any peacekeeper forces." Leo then stared the General in the eye. "They will keep to non-lethal means at all times unless ordered by myself or President Roslin. Is that understood General as I will not condone tyranny as we are a people built on democracy and human rights."
The General nodded and replied. "Yes Admiral and I totally agree with you that we need to maintain peace while still being true to what the colonies stand for." Leo smiled and handed him a piece of paper containing ships and passenger numbers.
He then looked at Commander Davidson. "Commander I'm putting you in charge of logistics as according to your records you spent a few years in the fleets Logistical department." He then handed him a folder. "That contains all our supply ships and all their manifests but if I were you when we have a little distance between us and the colonies I would check them to see what is actually on the ships. I also want you to work with who ever the General assigns to work out security as we dont need looters or those who think they have a special right to certain supplies to help themselves."
Commander Davidson nodded and said. "I can do that Admiral. Though if possible I would like to at some point spread each type of supplies out so if we do lose a ship we don't lose all of one type such as medicine or precious metals."
Leo agreed before looking at the president. "While martial law is in effect i would still spend the time until the turn over building up your cabinet and recruiting and training some peace keepers as though the marines will do the job it would be best if the civilians enforced the laws themselves to avoid the look of a military take over." Roslin looked at him skeptically before he continued. "Also I would like to address the fleet before we depart to inform them of who is in charge and a general outline of what we are doing. Lastly we need to finish the sweep of the fleet for infiltrators and any suspicious tech and thanks to Admiral Stokes boarding the damaged Cylon base ship we have a general idea of what there tech looks like so we will give each ship a once over with mark one eyeballs starting with the military ships for any new tech that's out of place."
They all agreed and then went on to discuss some of the finer details and it was a rather successful meeting till they came to a problem which they all had different opinions on how to handle. "So you're telling me that not only do we have 2 prison transport ships in the fleet but one of them has Tom Zarek on board." Adama was not happy with this.
Leo decided that he needed to take control. "We will not condone cold blooded murder even if some of them deserve it." He then looked at the General. "General i want you to take command of both ships and assign 1 marine for every 5 prisoners on board and you are directed to not have more than a quarter of the inmates out of there cells at any one time. I say this with all the authority that I have that if an escape attempt happens the ring leaders are to be held and then executed as we cannot afford to be held to the whims of criminals and despots no matter who they are."
They all looked at him with different expressions from shock to acceptance and relief. The President was the most vocal though. "That is unacceptable, we cannot just execute people."
Leo looked at her and tried to hold back a laugh as a thought crossed his mind that if she got any more worked up she would have steam coming out of her ears. "I'm not saying just to execute people, what I'm saying is if they try to escape lawful custody then they will be punished and we don't have the time or infrastructure to hold trials so summary execution will be used for the leaders, instigators of said attempt. Once we reach the new colony you can arrange hearings about there parole but until then there still convicted criminals." He finished as he was getting a bit fed up with her holier than thou attitude.
She looked ready to argue again but looking round the table she realized she didn't have any support so she nodded and said. "Fine but you will warn the prisoners about what happens if they attempt to escape and you will make sure the people you are executing are the actual perpetrators as I don't want any innocent people executed." Leo nodded and she seemed slightly relieved. They then ended the meeting and started the preparations for leaving.
Caprica - Northern Hemisphere - 35 Hours Into Attack
Karl 'Helo' Agathon was making his way to a national park he knew was in the area as with the nukes the Cylons dropped on the cities radiation levels are going to rise the closer you are to major population centers. He has been hiking his way here for the last 15 hours and was looking for somewhere to lay low and get some rest when he heard the familiar noise of aircraft flying in the atmosphere.
He ran for the nearest cover which happened to be a bus shelter and peeked out to find out if it was friendly or Cylon. He was hoping for colonial fleet, shit he would be happy to see a civilian shuttle but then a formation of Cylon raiders fleet over escorting something slightly more box shaped. He ducked back into cover and waited for the noise of their engines to fade before checking if the coast was clear and seeing that it had started making his way north again.
It was 25 minutes or so later when he came across a military surplus store and figured if anywhere had supplies that he could use it would so he walked around back and kicked in the back door. He swept his pistol around the room checking for any danger and seeing none walked in, He closed the door behind him and wedged it shut with what looked like an old model ammo crate that was full of squadron patches from the first Cylon war.
He then moved towards the other door in the room leading to the main shop floor and pushed it slightly ajar before peeking through and seeing the store dark and empty he pushed it open and carefully walked in. He saw no threat so he looked around for some food and found some old emergency rations. He pulled open an old bedroll and laid it out behind the counter and sat down while taking out his med kit.
He was looking over his med kit working out how long his anti-radiation meds would last, especially as he would need to ration them as he had no idea when he would get more. He finished that and packed his kit away again and took the MRE he found and started eating.
It wasn't exactly a five star meal but it would do and it being 20 years old didn't make much difference to the taste if he was being honest. He then got up and looked around the store and found a few metal tins he then placed in front of both doors so that if anyone came in they would make a lot of noise.
He then went back to the bedroll, sat with his back to the wall and his pistol to his side and closed his eyes to get some rest.
Pegasus - Unknown location beyond redline - Admirals Office - 36 Hours Into Attack
Admiral Cain was sitting in her day cabin going over repair reports and supply lists as her XO walked into the room. "Admiral the latest reports from engineering." He hands her a folder with a few documents in there. "Gardner says as long as we can find the supplies he could have us at 100% in less than a week but any structural damage can only be patched up without the use of a dock or fleet tender."
Cain looked over the reports and handed them back to Colonel Belzen and looked at him and asked. "How are the new recruits handling things?"
Colonel Belzen looked uncomfortable with the way she described the people they literally abducted from their families. If that wasn't bad enough they then stripped their ships of both parts and supplies and left them there to die because they were not useful for the war machine that is the Pegasus. "They are doing what is needed but you can tell they don't want to be here."
Cain looked at him with a little disdain. "No one wants to be here but someone has to fight back and we will make the Cylons pay for everything they have taken from us." She replied with a fair amount of fanaticism in her voice with unnerved the colonel. "Just keep them in line and doing their jobs, that's all I ask."
"Yes Admiral." Colonel Belzen gave her a standard reply not trusting himself to say the right thing if he said more. "Anything else Ma'am." He asked, hoping that it was.
The Admiral looked through a pile of documents and handed him a folder. "This came through the comms when we repaired them. It is a message from Adama taking command of the fleet and directing them to Ragnar station. Once we have made repairs we will go and take a look to see if there is anyone there before we look for a chance to hit back."
Colonel Belzen looked over the file and nodded and prayed to the gods that there was someone of a higher rank there to put a stop to her crazed crusade. "I believe it's best to send in some raptors first to make sure it's not a trap for whatever ships we have left."
Admiral Cain nodded and ordered. "Have a pair of raptors scout it out but tell them to remain hidden as we can't afford the Cylons following them back to us right now."
Colonel Belzen saluted and left the cabin and she got back to work looking over reports while her mind drifted to how to make the Cylons pay for everything they had done.
Ascended Plane - Meeting between Athena and the Elders - 2 Days into Attack
Athena once again stood before the Elders as they were to decide on the progress that her chosen one has made. "Well Athena it looks like your chosen one has followed your rules and did not interfere with the attack but now comes his real test as he must navigate not just the problems our descendants have created in their own systems but the wider universe as well." The lead Elder said with a little condescension hidden in the way he was talking.
She looked at him and said, "I think he is a credit to our race that he has managed to save so many while shouldering the guilt that he has to let so many die." She then looked at the rest of the council. "But I think he will surprise you and bring our race back to the wider universe."
The Elders were split as some had checked in and while they still had a high and mighty attitude they could give credit where credit was due. The Elder on the outermost left spoke. "Well we will see. Now to other business we have decided to restrict the others from interfering with the dozen or so galaxies surrounding what the humans refer to as the milky way as there are some events happening that we want to take place naturally in the next few years."
She nodded and replied. "I understand and will inform my brother not to get more involved than he already is. What I want to ask is what restrictions have you put in place when it comes to descending as I have heard talk of some ascended ancients looking to re-join our descendants if they manage to get past the hurdle that is the Cylons."
The Elders were shocked to hear this and they turned to each other and had a conversation using their ascended powers. It was a few minutes before they answered her. "We have decided that if they choose to descend that is their right but they will be restricted to the knowledge they had when they ascended. They can keep their memories of the higher plane but will be unable to speak about it with anyone but another descended as if too much advanced knowledge is given to the younger races it could cause another catastrophe such as what happened with Orlin."
Athena agreed and decided she has made some ground towards her aims of having their race rejoin the wider galaxy instead of just languishing in the higher plane and thinking of themselves as the higher authority on the way things should go.
Earth - Stargate Command - 2001
General Hammond stood in the control room watching as Nirrti left through the stargate while Colonel O'Neill stood at the end of the ramp. He contemplates what releasing her back into the galaxy will lead to but a deal was made and Cassie is healthy again which is the main thing they were worried about.
He leaves the control room and heads back to his office to write a report about everything that's happened for the president to look over. He was quickly joined by O'Neill who sits in the chair on the other side of his desk.
O'Neill rubs his face and asks. "Do ever get the feeling that we are losing a bit of ourselves every time we make a deal with one of those snakeheads." He asked his friend and Commanding Officer.
Hammond looked at him and put the paper he was looking at down and replied. "The burdens of protecting the ones we love often means making the hard decisions and then having to live with them. The most we can do is hope that the choices we make are the right ones and that we can do better next time."
O'Neill nodded and then said. "Do you think they have jello in the mess today?"
Hammond looked at him as if to say "Do I look like I care if they have jello in the mess." O'Neill took that look as an answer and got up and started to leave before stopping at the door. "I've invited everyone up to the cabin this weekend if you're interested, Maybe bring those granddaughters of yours to meet cassie as she could use the pick me up."
Hammond thought it over and answered. "I'll check with their mother and let you know." O'Neill nodded and then left the General to his work.
TN:- The Cylon attack happens towards the end of 2001 earth time so a few years before they send there expedition to Atlantis