Task force Able jumped in as a single force in a distant orbit of Caprica. And they were not alone; a dozen Cylon ships were scattered around in various orbits but Colonel Robert McKay drew the assault forces attention to a cluster of four basestars in geosynchronous orbit above the southern island of Arcus, home of the Colonial Marines Training grounds.
As they watched missiles being exchanged from several areas of the planet "There still fighting going on" Robert grinned as one of the three base ships took a direct hit and one of the lower pylons broke off.
"Colonials" Captain Brian Jackson called out from the destroyer UNSC Able "We will take the lead form up behind us." Without waiting Robert watched the Engines of the Destroyer flair brighter as it surged ahead aiming right for the cluster of three Base ships.
With a near feral grin on their faces the others formed up right behind.
The Able spat out a few Dozen of their missiles followed by another that set alarms off on the COlonial ships "Radiological Sir." Junior Lieutenant Sally Henderson started and rechecked her systems "Holy Frack back us off!" The Peitho began to slow down followed a moment later by the others increasing the distance from four miles to nearly ten behind the Able.
As the Colonials watched not trusting their own systems the UNSC nuclear missile covered by the swarm of Archers slammed into the middle Baseship.
A forty Megaton blast swallowed the three ships vaporizing them; the EMP washed over the four nearest Base ships as the shockwave slammed them into a plunging trajectory towards the surface. What few lights there were on the hemisphere facing the blast blinked out as the pulse fried their circuits.
As the light faded from the blast the colonials looked in shock at the four Cylon ships that they knew were heavily EMP shielded from the number of times they had been hit and kept going plunge into the atmosphere the heat of an uncontrolled reentry already licking at the superstructure. Of the original three there was no trace.
His face pale, McKay looked at the readout from the blast "is…" he started mouth dry "is that number accurate lieutenant?"
Sally couldn't talk but she slowly shook her head indicating that it was.
Forty megatons Robert shook his head in stunned amazement for a Colonial nuke to hit that same destructive yield the warhead would have to be the size of a Raptor and they made it into a warhead small enough to fit on a standard missile.
The Archer missiles of the UNSC were nearly the same size as the decade old Skybolt missiles the Colonial fleet deploys. The largest Anti-ship nuclear missile in the Colonial arsenal was the two megaton Black arrows carried aboard battlestars but they were hardly ever used, preferring for the more proportional half megaton tactical Firestreak missiles.
"Just what kind of war were they in?" Colonel Mckay asked quietly aloud "to need a weapon like that?"
The remaining Cylon ships thought better then to engage something like that and blinked as they FTL'd away leaving hundreds of raiders who spread out and screamed towards the Able completely ignoring the Colonial ships.
Being completely ignored by the raiders snapped the Colonial crews out of their stupor as they pushed their ships to close the distance to the Able.
"Lets just be glad they're on our side" Mckay said no one countered him as the Colonial ships started to fire flak rounds to clear the incoming Cylon fighters.
The five passenger liners being completely ignored dived towards the planet under a escort of a dozen Vipers.
The combined fire from the Able, Peitho, Eunomia, Medusa, Gorgon, and the Harpy working in conjunction with the six Longswords and thirty eight Vipers wiped the two hundred Raiders out.
The battered and radioactive planet was theirs for the moment anyway
"Excellent work everyone."Captain Brian Jackson radioed a few minutes after it was confirmed no remaining Cylon craft were active, his voice calm and determined despite the fact unknown to him, he had detonated the single most powerful nuclear weapon in Colonial history.
Freighter Wayward looks." Jackson called the single bulk freighter. "Looks like the Cylons towed what was left of the Colonial military and civilian shipping to.." he paused "...Copernus." he continued naming the larger of Caprica's two moons. The domed cities on its surface broken and airless. "Looks like the remains of the fleet shipyards were deorbited on top of the sole city on the smaller moon Umbra." he paused again "let's get to work people and get as many off the planet as we can."
The next four hours was a whirlwind of activity as ships from the otherside of the planet unaffected by the massive EMP were activated and loaded with hundreds of thousands of people. Pelicans and Raptors were dispatched full of the Anti-radiation meds using the UNSCs medicine for the worst cases as well as medics and fleet doctors to treat the injured.
Colonel Felicia Abbott of the Eunomia was the one who suggested "From the number of ships recovered on the planet the Cylons must have been using them as bait to lure the survivors out."
"Then it's good luck for us I suppose." Captain Jackson said with a grin as the twenty second passenger liner lifted off filled to practically overloaded.
With no threat appearing after the second hour Colonial personnel from the strike force were rotated out to assist the wayward and the shipyard workers in reactivating ships above Copernus. The majority of the ships just had every hatch and airlock open venting the crew into space.
As survivors were treated with a quick injection their profession was noted and that dictated which ship they loaded military personnel were loaded onto a Sagitarrian Spaceways passenger liner to be brought to the reactivated warships to join the escort force. Before returning to the planet for another load of military.
Six hours after arrival the first small group of Colonial warships came fully operational after every system was completely scrubbed of the corrupted CNP and manned with fleet personnel from the planet.
The Battlestars Valkyrie and Yashuman
Seven Firestars
a dozen Gunstars (seven of them in carrier configuration, three loaded with frigate weapon pods and a pair loaded with heavy cannon pods.
Work was progressing on more but it was cut short by the detection of a Cylon scout raider appearing over Nike, the largest moon of the gas giant Zeus, that had been the deciding factor for when to fall back the first hint of Cylon reinforcements.
"Attention all ships and personnel in the Capricia area of operations." came the call "As you may or may not know my name is Captain Brian jackson of the UNSC destroyer Able placed in command of this rescue operation by the new president and former Secretary of the Interior Elizabeth Horner. She has given me command authority over all Colonial assets engaged in and recovered. And I'm calling it now it's time to get our hard won gains and fall back to Scorpia for the next fight." he paused for effect Colonel McKay thought looking over the nearly a hundred ships in orbit. According to the last ship launched the refugee count of just over a million people. Jackson's voice continued drawing him back in.
"In order to avoid any potential traps that we encountered on the way here, all ships are to set their FTL drives to jump .35 light years instead of the standard quarter light year. All recovery operations are hereby ordered to halt engineers and troops reboard your ships we are leaving in thirty minutes. Able Out."
McKay looked out over the massive fleet of ships seventy six civilian ships of various types and classes had rallied in orbit. Surrounded on all sides by nearly thirty warships, all of them loaded with nearly a million people. As he looked over the planet a handful of pelicans and longswords as well as hundreds of Vipers and Raptors came in merging with their home ships.
The minutes seemed to fly by as the shuttles and fighters from the planet slowed to a crawl as tens of thousands of people had been left behind. Including the members of the 21st, 32nd, and 19th Marine Battalions holding island bases where they would continue to gather survivors having used the freedom to replenish their stocks of well everything from around the planet including replacement Vipers and Raptors since the nukes EMP fried everyone they had.
Several Marinestars and Firestars had been left behind for them as well, to evacuate should the time come.
As the last minute counted down Alerts began to sound as contacts appeared over the Gas giant Zeus.
05
A Cylon Baseship appeared and then four more… a dozen more until there were almost fifty of the massive ships. They didn't dare get closer as hundreds and then thousands of raiders dropped from their cradles.
04
The raiders started heading the fleets way so many they were practically visible to the naked eye
03
The shorter ranged DRADIS started screaming its digital heart out from the number of incoming.
02
The raiders entered maximum missile range and ripple fired their entire payload rapidly climbing into the quadruple digits
01
Across the fleet FTL keys were inserted and turned.
00
In a rapid series of flashes the Colonial ships jumped as the whirlpool ring consumed the Able. The thousands of fired missiles sailed harmlessly past to detonate against bits of wreckage burn up in Capricas atmosphere or to sail into the void becoming ballistic as their fuel ran out.