0734 hours September 02 2552 (Military Calendar) UNSC Able
Unknown system
Captain Jackson looked at the dozen weird "Cylon" warships ahead of his taskforce as the cheers died down following his speech "designate the twelve ships as Delta one through twelve and Inform the Midway to ready their MACs and we will both fire on Delta one." Brian looks at the strange craft not even a Covenant CPV destroyer could resist four heavy MACs
"Mac Charging Sir" Ensign Conners called out.
"Link the Midway and Able to a timer so all four shots hit at once." Jackson ordered the Ensign who nodded and a small thirteen second timer appeared
"9 seconds to fire sir." Sarah called out a verbal countdown
"5 seconds targeting computers linked and set to fire."
"Firing." she said as the destroyer sole MAC fired at the same time as Midways and a pair of half ton tungsten projectiles slammed almost immediately through the center of Delta 1 causing it to go up like a NOVA bomb as the internal fires hit its fuel bladder or missile racks
The bridge crew looked shocked other then Ensign Conners who was busy paying attention to her redouts "Looks like this Cylon ship doesn't have energy sheilds sir" she stated scrolling through the incoming information from her weapons computer "in fact its hull seems be a strange Steel and Niobium mix." she laughed "doesn't hold a candle to TitaniumA Battleplate,"
The Cylons almost came to a complete pause for a few heart beats as they finally seemed to notice them. Before they returned fire with hundreds of missiles and what looked to be fighters dropped from cradle hangers on both upper and bottom pylons rushing in right right behind the missile swarm.
With a grin Jackson ordered "turn us broadside let the Sentrys and Ramparts clear the sky."
At the same time Captain Eric Howler of the Midway thought the same thing as both destroyers almost as one turned broadside to the incoming swarm and bogies and opened fire. Brian could almost feel the deck under his shoes vibrate as the autocannons and point defense guns got to work.
"Tell Commander Hook of the Artemis to move up we will keep the missiles and fighters off of them and start firing on the remaining ships."
Lieutenant Samantha Wright starts talking into her headset passing the orders along.
The Phoenix carrier Artemis wasn't a dedicated warship but she was armed well enough as her three MACs could fire independently and proceeded to do so firing one MAC at a time destroying a Cylon ship with each gun.
The Cylon missile barrage picked up in intensity as its few dozen surviving fighters withdrew never having landed a single hit on the UNSC ships. The point defense changing target to focus on the incoming missiles rather then the retreating fighters.
"Time for the Longswords to join the fray Commander." Jackson told the XO
With a savage Grin Aaron Wilson sent the order "Crusader Squadron take to the field boys and girls theres some infidels you would love to meet."
Captain Howler and Commander Hook must of had the same idea as they started launching their fighters too soon the entire AIr wing was in space a hundred and fifteen Longswords who tilted downward under the firing arcs of the two fleets and roared their way towards the ships.
Then the destroyers MACs had recharged turning again towards the enemy they fired just in time to match Artemis's recharge four of the five MACs scored hits the last missed as the ship blinked out of existence.
"Where did it go? Did it self destruct or maybe some kind of cloaking field?" Capitan Jackson looked around in confusion
As the other officers ran checks and sweeps of local space the other surviving Cylon ships too blinked out of existence abandoning the remaining fighters and ground troops on the planet.
"How well is the Translation software Lieutenant?" Jackson asked.
"To be honest sir." Samantha said "id give it a seventy percent but as the conversation goes on any dialect changed will be filtered in by the program if we had a AI id let them do it.."
"Seventy percent will have to do." he said "Open a channel all bands and frequencies lets see if we can get a dialogue going."
Wright taps a few keys and nods.
He clears his throat " My name is Captain Brian Jackson of the UNSC Able Task force Midway. We come in peace.
A few moments later a voice answers him " This is General Lieutenant James Parks of the Colony Marines 14th Garrison." the voice pauses as if unsure how to proceed " You are the outsiders on the ships that destroyed the Cylons?"
At the weird translation Brian shrugged just glad its working somewhat. "Yes General Parks we don't know how we got here but saw your planet under attack its always been UNSC doctrine to assist Humans but to be frank we don't seem to be in UNSC space anymore do you happen to have any star charts so our navigational computers can try to figure out where we are?"
"Well Captain my Marines and the people of this world thank you for your assistance and this UNSC you speak of we don't have any information on any government past or present baring that name. As to Star Charts we can help although the most detail will be in the four star systems the Colonies of Kobol call home. Since the last Cylon war."
"Well would you like some assistance in clearing these Cylons from your planet?" Brian offered "It seemed like they were overwhelming you when we arrived."
"We don't know how they did it." the Generals voice seethed "when they arrived almost everything with a computer shut down forcing us to use antiques our software people have no idea so any help you offer will be appreciated." Parks translated voice sounded annoyed at not knowing what had happened and relieved to have some assistance. "The Cylons have a firm hold on the cities of Salene and Crius all of my forces are engaged at the moment elsewhere on the planet." he said something that couldn't be translated "ive instructed my communications officer to send a map of the planet and the two cities highlighted when this is done we should hammer out a contract of peace. Until then."
"Until then General and im looking forward to it." the line went dead.
As the map is looked over and translation software is uploaded to the rest of the fleet and its ODSTs and Marines maneuvers are planned drops are coordinated with other ground forces from the other ships.
"The corvettes would be ill suited for this kind of combat" Captain Jackson said "order them to the wrecks of the battlestars to search for survivors." the corvettes only carried a single old Seagull dropship. "If they don't find any take the ships in tow one at a time and bring them into a stable position around the shipyard. The colonials might try to salvage or even repair them."
The destroyers on either side of the Artemis they sailed above the planet as they reached their points and opened their drop tubes the destroyers launched their compliment of four dozen of SOEIV's towards the town of Crius while the Artemis dropped three quarters of its pods towards Salene while the others would join the party at Crius.
At the same time Pelicans launched carrying troop bays loaded with heavily armed Marines heading for the orbital shipyards. Each force escorted by a dozen Longswords.
With a grumble from their captains the three corvettes with a squadron of fighters as escort headed towards the drifting hulks of the massive Battlestars in search of survivors.