Aboard the UNSC Midway the destroyer led the small fleet of ships through slipspace the jump being too small to worry about cryo every man and woman rested and ate for the twenty three hours towards Reach. So when the ships began to shake and alarms began to blare, Captain Brian Jackson and Lieutenant Amanda Wilks on their way back to the bridge after a late lunch looked at each other and broke into a run.
The two arrived on the bridge out of breath and panting as Brian gasped out "status report?" as they both took their positions, Commander Aaron Willson the ships executive officer got out of Captains chair. As they entered.
"We don't know Commander, the drive just started overheating we received a message from the Artemis first followed moments before the others, slipstream is becoming unstable not sure why." Aaron finished his brief report.
"Is there any threat…." his question died in his throat as the six ships were suddenly thrown out from the swirling blue nothingness of slipspace the crew was thrown bodily around the bridge as the inertia dampeners failed. It took a few minutes to pick themselves up from the floor but lucily no one was severely injured Brian looked out the viewscreens as saw they were in a distant orbit of a world.
Brian went to ask a question when twelve giant six pointed star….ships? Mobile space station? Appeared over the horizon of the world. With a squeal the Communications gear started going crazy on every frequency, Jackson couldn't make out the words but the images from the video broadcast they were picking up he didn't have too.
A blonde haired reporter was holding a microphone up to her mouth was talking in the background soldiers and armored vehicles rumbled along artillery positions opened fire throwing shells beyond the angle of the camera Text scrolled along the bottom of the screen.
Η αιφνιδιαστική επίθεση με Cylon αφήνει τις αποικιακές άμυνες κατέστρεψε το 14ο τάγμα πεζοναυτών Scorpion στέκεται για την υπεράσπιση της πόλης Argentum
Not needing any orders Communications officer 1st lieutenant Samantha Wright ran the text through a translation protocol after a moment it chimed with a hit and she spoke up "Translation complete using the written language we traced it to approximately…"She paused temporarily in confusion. "19th century Greek"
Before anyone could question it the feed restarted and was translated from the beginning again the troops ran across the screen in the background followed by strange looking tanks as the reporter spoke:
" The surprise attack from the Cylons leaves colonial defenses shattered. The 14th Colonial Marine Battalion along with elements of the Scorpio defense ground forces stands in defense of the city of Argentum." The woman repeated this time in english. "The assault began two hours ago when the battlestars Minos and Perseus moved to engage unknown ships before just shutting down…. The feed died in a burst of static.
The feed switched to a view from one of the space stations showing a crowd of men and women in utility jumpsuits holding a door shut "MAYDAY MAYDAY the shipyard Scorpio-4 has completely shut down and lifepods are not responding" in the background the bridge crew could hear automatic weapons fire and screams "Please there are over seven hundred civilians aboard we need he…" the hatch behind the man slammed inward on a explosion and a tall humanoid shaped Robot? Stepped through leveling both of its arms witch held small but fully automatic machine guns and the view dies in static.
"Is this come kind of new Covenant strategy?" Lieutenant Amanda Wilks asked her tone confused.
Ensign Sarah Conners the weapons officer scoffed "why would they need these machines armed with guns if they were Covie wouldn't they have sheilds and plasma weapons?"
"Innies then?" Samantha spoke up? "Maybe they are trying to fight the UNSC while we are distracted fighting the Covies?."
Captain Smith said "no…" manipulating the video rewinding it to the reporter "en the Battlestars Minos and Perseus moved to…" Brian looked around "i don't think this is Covenant or Innie activity i've never heard of any class of ship being called Battlestars much less this 14th Scorpion Marine Battalion." he looks around again and looks at the screen "Amanda is the navigational system telling us anything yet?"
Amanda looked at her terminal with a frustrated series of hammer clicks on the keyboard "No Sir, it has so idea even when crossing the stars we can see with the astrological charts no data is coming back."
"Then what is the possibility that something happened to our drives to throw us somewhere else?" Brian asked looking towards Amanda this time.
"Its….possible sir the principle of the Shaw-Fujikawa drive is over five hundred years old there have been cases where ships jumped and never returned the Frigate New Deli back in '18 jumped from Reach and was never seen again or accidents like the colony ship heading to Cygnus back in '37? The drive cut the ship in half seven hundred dead the front half made it while the rear of the ship stayed behind. Could explain the overheating that was reported. Just before we were thrown from slip."
"What are the chances of us getting back on track towards Reach?" Brian nodded at the screen showing a few dozen craft some kind of fighter or interceptor dogfighting with a small craft launched from one of the six pointed ships. "These Cylon ships are are obviously out to exterminate these colonials if anyone can help us it would be fellow humans right?"
Amanda looks at her navigational display for a few moments "as it is right now sir its impossible to make a guess the system needs more information before it can even begin the basics of calculations. And yes sir to Defend humanity thats what the UNSC stands for be it against the Covies or the terroristic Insurrectionist….or these…..Cylon things."
"Lets see how these Cylon fucks like it when someone is shooting at them." growled Ensign Conners cracking her knuckles.
Seeing the nods from the rest of the Bridge crew even the look of the Marine guards who had been listening in at the mention of fellow Marines in danger. Brian sighed "Very well lets treat them as Covenant and be careful just because all we have seen are fighters and missiles doesn't mean they don't have weapons just as advanced as the covenant does."
Looking at the status of the Cylon attack he hits the intercom button on his arm rest
"Attention all hands of Task force Midway. Something strange has happened, we aren't sure where we are but the planet ahead of us has humans and they are under attack we are going into a fight against the enemies of mankind we are unsure of their technology or numbers but just like the last thirty years of fighting the Covies we will show them Humanities Strength and determination." he took a deep breath and called out among the cheers of the crew "Battlestations