Rear Admiral Tomas Walton stood overlooking the Tactical board in the Battlestar Minos CIC or Combat Information Center, overlooking the models of the eighteen other Colonial warships including another Battlestar Yashuman that would be following him to the Odessa Nebula.
He looked around the ship, impressed that the army of shipyard workers and UNSC engineers had gotten the old Valkyrie combat ready in only a week using parts from the Perseus and from the salvage above Caprica operation. Word was the lead ship Battlestar Valkyrie herself would be fully repaired and crewed by the end of the week and then work would start on repairing the stripped Persus as a test ship mounting UNSC style weapons being produced by the Artemis.
Their Commander Hook was planning to uninstall three of their frigate sized MAC guns the giant support ship was manufacturing in pieces as they spoke the first of the giant barrels had already been ejected from the massive underslung cargo bay in eight pieces and welded together. As well as other UNSC and Colonial weapons. He shook his head but that was months away.
Drawing his attention to his fleet the pair of battlestars were surrounded by three Berserk class carriers, seven firestar frigates and six Gunstar's split down the middle in carrier and heavy cannon pods.
Rear Admiral Walton looked to Commander Caleb Banks, the Minos's commanding officer "Commander Banks had the fleet prepare to jump, ending at the Odessa Nebula."
Commander Banks nodded "yes sir. Lieutenant inform the fleet and set the clocks."
Lieutenant Micheal Davis saluted "Yes sir, fleet notified and coordinates entered seventy eight jumps to the Nebula." he said typing into the navigational terminal "time to jump three minutes."
The minutes pass quickly and with a rapid fire series of flashes the fleet begins its journey.
Each jump carries the fleet four tenths of a lightyear.
Commander Banks looks to Admiral Walton "What are we expecting to find exactly at the Nebula Admiral? All I heard was some Imperial Virgon ships managed to get out and they with about two dozen civilian ships are in tow."
"That's pretty much all we got Commander." Admiral Walton tells him "the information gathered from the cylons code did not go into much detail other than two dozen Virgonese navy ships with a heavily damaged Jupiter class named the Intolerant were there with thirty off civilian ships. No idea how they escaped Virgon and the Cylon massacre there. Hopefully if they are still there we can ask them."
The commander "nods any ideas on the ships?" Banks asks "I know they had one of the largest non Colonial militaries i remember a few years ago when their Courage of Virgon was launched." he shakes his head. "At the time I was impressed that a single colony could afford to build a almost battlestar on their own. When the other members of the articles have to pay a share to commission a new battlestar."
"For which we should be lucky, Commander." the Admiral tells him "over the last few days Raptors have been jumping to not only the other colonies but also fleet rally points and there isn't much left. We have confirmed the destruction of one hundred and seventeen of the fleets active one hundred and seventy battlestars. We have eight more under repair to add to the two we have combat capable right now. Making for a total of fifty unknowns when we left which is nearly identical to the number of Battlestar groups assigned to patrol the Armistice line.
Hearing the numbers aloud helps the Commander drive home just how bad the navy was hit. "What about the escorts of the fleet? We have what nearly a hundred in service right now?" he asked, thinking to the numerous ships that had been recovered and were in the process of being repaired "surely there must be more escorts out there running around fighting or running. Right?"
"Let me answer your question with one of my own commanders." Admiral Waltons looked at him "how many of these escorts" he waved his hand over the display showing their own ships. "Would a reasonable commander need to have the same capabilities as a Valkyrie Battlestar like the Minos?"
"With a full complement of Vipers and Raptors the Minos carries twenty squadrons of ten fighters for a total of two hundred and fifteen Raptors." the Commander said immediately. Doing some quick math outloud "Berserks carry four squadrons of ten fighters each and three or four Raptors. So five Berserks to carry the same air wing." he answered.
"How about the same number of artillery as a battlestar?" the Admiral continued probing
"The Minos carries thirty three 210mm dual cannons and one hundred and ten 90mm CIWS cannons as well as eight missile tubes capable of firing either the conventional high explosive Skybolt, firestreak or Black arrow nuclear missiles." looking over the ships arrayed on the tactical board it hit him. "But each of these small escorts could be destroyed with a single Viper or Raider launched nuke whereas Battlestars can shrug off multiple…" he trailed off remembering Colonel McKay's report from Caprica "Colonial or Cylon grade nuclear hits." he finished.
"Exactly."Walton said "Minos has a standard crew twenty two hundred throw in the marines and that's another eight hundred so call it three thousand even. You would need that many just to crew the Besarks."He looked over the fleet "to be honest if we had the ships id scrap every escort we had for nothing but battlestars. Or maybe a few of those UNSC ships their Commander Hook proposed Able, Hillsborough class destroyers Charon class frigates hells Phoenix support ships." he finished wistfully "their ships are better than ours in practically every way."
The Commander nodded "with them in control of Shipyard F given enough time I could see those ships completely replacing ours. Don't even get me started on their Longswords." remembering his tour aboard the Midway "the only thing we have that's better is our Raptors being capable of FTL where their Pelicans are not."
"Last Jump" Lieutenant Davis called, drawing the two men out of their conversation.
The clock started counting down from three minutes as they mentally prepare themselves to talk with the Virgons
03…02…01
In a flash the fleet made the last jump and came face to face with seven Cylon basestars in a long ranged missile battle with a dozen Colonial-ish warships, the bright yellow and green standard of Vigons flag.
"Launch all Vipers, get the fleet to target the base ships nearest the Virgon ships." Admiral Walton ordered as personnel positioned models on the tactical board to represent all the ships.
As he finished the deck started to vibrate under his feet as the heavy cannons opened fire with a mix of armor piercing and flakk towards the cylons.
"Hail the Virgon ships." Admiral Walton called out as the first Basestar cracked open. A few minutes pass and a man's voice calls out "This is Admiral Javin Hopkins of the Imperator Typhon." the man said
"Typhon-actual this is Minos-actual we heard you were out here." Walton grinned as the Vipers from his fleet slammed into the outnumbered raiders "We have a safe haven, let's finish these toasters off and get back there."
"Minos-Actual we copy" the two forces being working together focusing their heavy guns on one baestar after the other striking from both sides.
Cylon ship after ship explodes under the two pronged artillery fire until the last three under consent firing runs from Vipers blink and disappear trailing debris and atmosphere. One of the Virgon heavy cruisers was so heavily damaged, raptors filled with repair teams from both sides started tackling the damage inside and out as a Virgon Raptor jumped away to bring the civilian ships and their escorts back.
During the hasty repair Colonial Marines spread and tested every member of the Virgon ships crews. Surprisingly only three are found and immediately committed digital suicide rather than be captured.
Less than an hour later the civilian ships and other half of the fleet returned just as engineers reported the cruiser was repaired enough for the long trek back to Scorpia.
Hey everyone if you liked the story of the last imperial fleet by Fabius Maximus im going to throw the ships and personnel he created into my story so it may continue under a slightly different course Fabius should you ever return to continue the story we will welcome it for Virgon