Colonel Robert McKay stood on the CIC of the Berserk class assault cruiser Peitcho watching the tactical board as his cruiser had joined the destroyer UNSC Able allowing him and his crew a chance to see the strange ship up close the destroyer was almost as big as his cruiser.

"Amazing isn't it sir?" his XO Warrant Officer Christina Garret said looking out the small view screen drawing the Colonel over to see with his own eyes.

"It is, Definitely not a Battlestar Warrant." he said "i saw the footage of their arrival how easily they swept the Cylons aside with that cannon that MAC as they call it." felling a bit inadequate

"Did you see the transfer of that giant shell from the ship that's behind the Artemis?" Garett asked. "It was bigger than a hundred shells from our main batteries. You have to wonder w…."

The communications officer broke the Conversation "Sirs, the Able is calling all ships."

Robert walked over and activated the speaker

"...Able thanks to a joint effort by Colonial technicians and our own Specialist we have gotten the difference in your FTL and ours figured out." the commander of the Able was saying "while your drives are able to make a jump every .25 light years nearly instantly ours has no limit so in order to successfully make it to the colony of Caprica the Able will jump first with a six minute delay before the rest jump after us we will ensure the Cylons who have acted up to this point strategically are not sitting in ambush to catch civilian and military shipping as they try to flee or fight. Using your FTLs it is seventeen jumps from here to Caprica." he finished with "and by your gods and mine we will get there intact. Start your clocks."

As the transmission ended a swirling blue vortex appeared in front of the Able as the ship moved forward being swallowed by it before it disappeared.

6;00….6;59

"How long to jump again when we arrive? Robert asked

The Navigation officer Crewmen specialist Rebecca Keys responded without hesitation "two minutes Sir.."

As the clock clicked down McKay looks at the DRADIS monitor and sees the transponders for the five passenger liners and the freighter clustered together with the Peticho and the Minotaur medusa in front of them was the other Berserk Eunomia and another Minotaur Gorgon. While the last MInotar Harpy hovered directly above them.

0;10….09…08

02...01…

00…in a rapid fire series of flashes the eleven colonial ships blinked from existence and a quarter of a light year away reappeared in a graveyard and a warzone.

The Able was surrounded by a massive swarm of Cylon raiders and their own Longswords. . A new model but damaged Baseship was maneuvering to keep beyond the destroyer. Forcing them to use nothing but their missiles and secondaries, as they continuously shot down incoming missiles and raiders alike.

Around them floated the wreckage of a fractured and burning first war Cylon baseship lay scattered the destroyed wreckage of a dozen civilian ships and what looked to have been a Caprican Cypress class police cutter.

Seeing the Destroyer unable to maneuver fast enough McKay ordered the fleet "Launch all vipers and get me a targeting solution on that baseship while they are distracted"

The fleet only had forty vipers and all of them shot out of the Peitho and Eunomia's underslung hangers as the fleet turned to present a broadside.

The Cylons must have noticed the Colonial arrivals as missile launchers that had been out of position to fire on the Able suddenly started firing towards the small group of warships.

"Ready all batteries alternating fire armor piercing and flack rounds" McKay ordered as the first Vipers scored their first kills on Cylon raiders who were chasing Longswords.

A small field of explosions began intercepting the incoming missiles and small explosions on the baseship marked a growing number of hits from the fleet; a new swarm of raiders dropped from their cradles on the lower pylons and started screaming towards the new arrivals.

"We have inbound Sir."the tactical officer announced Junior lieutenant Sally Henderson called out. "Reading a hundred and twenty of the frakkers."

As McKay watched the forty Vipers pulled a hundred and eighty degrees and came up behind the Raiders and after getting target lock each Mk Vl Viper ripple fired a pair of missiles. The ordnance unaffected by the cylons attempts to activate the CNP virus. Only a handful were able to successfully launch countermeasures. In rapid succession sixty three of the hundred and twenty raiders became a short lived galaxy as the missiles slammed home.

The fighters in wingmen pairs entered the furball that was knife fighting the nose and wingtip mounted 30mm getting adding more dead cylon metal to the free floating debris field but not all of the killed were Cylon as the first viper exploded too quickly for the pilot to eject. Before the cylon could pull away to go after another it died after eating a burst of bullets from the vengeful wingman.

At a small alert Roberts attention was drawn back to the Able; its point defense guns had just finished the last raider off. Leaving the half dozen Longsword fighters a clear path to directly engage the Baseship

A model eight who had named herself Sharon Valthon was serving as the commander of the baseship sent out to hunt down any fleeing human ships she could find. She was a skinjob or unknown to her or the other Cylons, Clankers by the UNSC (after some marines made the joke during the first combat on Scorpia) who out of fighters and running low on missiles saw her death approaching and closed her eyes ready to bring the information about the strange ship capable of destroying a first war ship in single shot and holding its own against almost the entire complement of raiders. Her last conscious thought as the Baseship exploded around her was who the Frakk are these humans.

The new model cylon baseship exploded after a dozen Archers fired from the Able and programmed by Ensign Conners to fly right inside the drop cradles the raiders had launched from detonated.

"It's a good thing we went first." Captain Jackson's voice came from the Able "thanks for the help. From the look of things it looks like the cylons may have set traps around the maximum safe jump range around the colonies."

"It looks that way " agreed McKay before asking "any damage Capitan?"

"Just some scratched paint." Jackson replied "you?"

"We lost two Vipers. We have received a beacon from one of the pilots SAR Raptor is on route." said McKay hiding his annoyance at losing another man. The cylons have murdered millions already… he takes a breath before speaking again "no damage to our ships.

"I'm sorry for your loss Colonel." Jackson said his voice heavy knowing the feeling of losing men after nearly twenty years fighting the covenant every human in the UNSC knew someone who had been killed in the war and now here in this war where thirteen men under his command had already died he hated these cylons as much as the Covenant.

Colonel McKay knew that tone was the sound of a commander who has had people die under his command. At a nod from Warrant Officer Garett "SAR bird is aboard Captain, we are ready for the next jump."

It took a moment before Jackson replied "understood, let's cut the delay down to four minutes this time I have a feeling this isn't the only trap that's waiting for us."

"Understood Captain." Mcay said watching the destroyer disappear into the vortex again.

During the next sixteen jumps they encountered eight more Baseship pairs and nearly a hundred destroyed and lifeless Colonial civilian and Naval ships. They were able to destroy five of the Base ships and severely damage the other three before they jumped away. Having a mission to complete the hulks were tagged on the maps for possible salvage and they continued on.

They hovered on the edge of the last jump to Caprica making sure everything was in tip top shape for whatever they would encounter in orbit and together they jumped.