30 days second Cylon war
Scorpia
Battlestar Orion battlegroup
Commander Philip Connors stood overlooking the tactical board of his Mercury class battlestar Orion looking at the models representing his small fleet of twelve Berserk Carriers and ten Firestar frigates and his own Orion at their center on their assigned patrol over Thyrsus.
He shook his head in annoyance. A month ago he had been part of BSG 41 four battlestars and thirty six escort ships and now his battlestar was one of twelve active Colonial capital ships protecting Scorpia, the last human colony. Looking around his CIC he felt a sense of pride in his species at standing and fighting in defense of their homes rather than run into the black as others he had heard decided.
Taking a deep breath he could still faintly smell the ozone from recently replaced control panels the Orion had been declared combat capable just a few days spending almost two weeks in drydock undergoing minor repairs and a complete purge of that bastard Baltars CNP.
Since the Octopus class heavy fleet tug, capable of latching onto any ship smaller than a Eden class agro ship and towing it through FTL. The Tugs had found them and the remains of BSG41 at Rally point Victor. The Cylons had jumped in disabled every ship with their hacking and opened every computer controlled bulkhead and airlock venting the majority of the fleet to space.
They had been in too big of a hurry to finish them off as they jumped as soon as the entire fleet completely shut down. Trusting in their virus and the damage it caused to various systems and junctions They had drifted there for four days on emergency batteries until they had been rescued.
He had been one of only eleven hundred survivors of the Orion; the other thousand crew and marines had died being in unpressurized portions of the ship or their life support failing as the batteries died…alerts broke him from his dark memories.
"Action Stations Action Stations set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill." The DRadis officer looked over her shoulder calling out "DRADIS contact" Called Lieutenant Sarah Fowler "Correction multiple DRADIS contacts its the cylons.
At a low orbit on the other side of the moon eight Cylon basestars appeared and then four more followed by a dozen craft of Colonial designs. As the arrivals stopped Sarah called out "fourteen Cylon Baseships along with twelve Berserk carriers, a dozen Firestar's and eight Gunstars with what looks to be heavy weapon pods."
Commander Conners swallowed "Launch the alert vipers have them reinforce the CAP." he ordered "And make a system wide announcement. The Cylons are here.
All over Scorpia's area of space, mixed Cylon and Colonial fleets jumped in and started launching raiders. The Colonial ships responded by launching their own Vipers to intercept preparing their cannons for the moment they all knew was coming.
Within a few minutes the cylons outnumbered the humans almost twelve to one.
And then the first of the fighters and ships entered the minefields and triggered the mass of two megaton nukes. In that single moment hundreds of Cylon raiders and Vipers were destroyed and a handful of cylon operated colonial firestars and old Manticore corvettes shattered into radioactive debris. Causing the cylons to slow their advance and look for the mines.
The Colonial Vipers knowing where the mines were avoided those areas going after the hundreds of Cylon vipers and raiders swinging wide of the few mines they could nearly the same time both human and Cylon ships opened fire with their heavy guns setting up a flakk defensive zone intermixed with AP shells.
The machine operated Colonial ships screened their cannonless basestars as they began firing both conventional and nuclear missiles towards the numerous human warships. The first four human kills started the ship to ship combat as the UNSC destroyers and frigates fired their MAC guns and the relativistic slugs killed three base ships and an older Mercury class named Demetier. The slug struck just at a downward angle on top of its alligator head and exited through the engine block leaving the ship dead in space.
The initial kills were followed by cylon ones as raiders pinpoint jumped in and launched a half dozen nukes that claimed four Berserks and critically damaged the Battlestar Hera hitting her landing bays and closing them off with fires.
Dozens of longswords launched from the UNSC ships and several of the shipyard facilities as raiders came screaming in launching missiles. Each station had been armed with a pair of Rampart point defense guns produced by the Artemis.
The radar controlled guns came online as the raiders entered their weapon envelopes and died almost as quick a few managed to launch missiles but Colonial standard 90mm guns opened up their gunners expressions grim as the first few rounds missed their operators corrected and the missiles exploded
Elsewhere the corvettes Catapult, Crossbow, and Nightfall made a high speed driveby their coilguns and autocannons slamming heavy hundred pound slugs into a pair of basestars as they flushed their Archer and Ares missile pods destroying several raiders who after failing to shoot the missiles down slammed into them not that it saved their baseships as dozens of missiles homed in and detonated against their raider harnesses setting off a chain reaction as tylium fuel lines went up destroying the base ships.
The frigates Colossus and Hyena were screening the broken Battlestar Hestia. As evacuation, Raptors and pelicans under a desperate escort of Vipers and Longswords rescued as many of Hestia's crew as they could. The frigates Raparts scored kill after kill as raiders and Cylon vipers were swatted from the void with dozens of 50mm rounds.
The Rushmore was making near suicidal runs firing its MAC and pair of heavy focus cannons (the jackal pirates had slapped on from looted scarabs.) the high energy plasma burning through the Cylon ships.
Occasionally across the battlespace intense white explosions would flare as a mine was activated by nearby Cylon shipping or a nuke slammed against a human ship. Or in one case a Longsword out of ammunition for its 110 rotary cannon Second Lieutenant Mathew Ready physically intercepted a cylon nuke heading towards the civilian evacuation fleet above Scorpia's North pole.
A Cylon model one watched the impressive firepower of the ships energy weapon and with a hand in the interface dozens of Heavy raiders and Raptors launched from his ships to attempt a boarding if they could figure it out the Cylons could mass produce it and it would all be thanks to him he grinned.
The incoming ships were immediately targeted and the Rushmores Ramparts made short work of the Raptors; the heavy raiders lived up to their name, their heavy armor taking hundreds of 50mm rounds before losing control and exploding as one of the rounds found something critical. However three heavys were able to launch a missile and blow a hole in the Rushmore's hanger big enough for them to squeeze through.
The heavy cylon transports ramps slammed down and a dozen heavily armed cylons stepped down the ramp pointing their tri barreled integrated machine guns around the alien ships hanger.
FFG-2122 UNSC Rushmore has been boarded