2 days after the attack
Zeta Sector Armistice line
Battlestar Pegasus
The last two days had been a whirlwind of activity for the almost seven hundred people aboard the massive battlestar meant for thousands. The massive hull breaches that had been sealed now had at the minimum of thirty centimeters of armor using the remnants of the shipyard that had been dragged along with the battlestar in its blind jump.
Using the shipyard personnel as well as the remaining manufacturing personnel of the crew using the stockpiled materials they were able to repair a forward heavy gun, bringing their heavy guns back up to two. As well as fixing four of the medium guns bringing their total up to twenty two. Being unable to fight left their shotlockers full so ammunition wasn't an issue.
The CNP virus was found by a Pegasus cyber security officer and purged reloading the older version. With the help of a few of the installation team. Gina the blond head anylist had been right there in the thick of it helping reinstall and repair both damage from the upgrades and also from the battle damage.
The viper pilots had thrown the biggest fit at having to cross train to use the slower raptors, Octopus tugs, and mining shuttle. While nowhere near as experienced as a crew trained for years they had learned to at least land…without causing too much of a dent.
Admiral Cain watched as the joint training of seven vipers and two Raptors came in for a landing. Satisfied they would be able to handle small encounters, they spoke up."It's time Pegasus is almost full capability; we have to jump to Virgon, the nearest colony as well as emergency fleet rally point and begin offensive operations."
Fisk and Belzen looked about ready to argue but the spokesperson for the civilians Gina Briar spoke up "yes absolutely the ship can fight now we have to get back as soon as we can our people are dying by the day we have to fight!" she looked around her eyes pleading for the crew to listen.
The two men looked skeptical but the Admiral put a stop to it " I am the commanding officer and we are in a state of war." she said her voice steady "we are heading to Virgon to to join in the fight. Or. we will start the fight."
Belzen and Fisk sighed as they snapped to attention "Yes, Admiral." and set about preparing for the first of the eleven jumps to Virgon.
The jumps proceeded smoothly all across the ship as the crew prepared for battle. Airlocks were sealed. The Vipers were loaded into their launch tubes and the Raptors were manned. Everyone is preparing for the desperate fight that would be raging across the planet and its surrounding space.
The Pegasus appeared in a distant orbit the planet blocking Virgons only Moon Prytaneum. Into a slaughter, hundreds of wrecks both human and cylon littered the orbit as three dozen Basestars sat in orbit launching raiders and missiles to hit cities and military bases across the hemisphere.
Closer and a much bigger deal was the remains of the Battlestar Atlantia and her ragtag battlegroup, a single basestar sitting close. Upon closer inspection Admiral Cain realized no the basestar wasn't sitting there the Atlantia had rammed the baseship a long sharp pylon had punctured the starboard flight pod a Beserk had docked at the upper primary airlock of the port flight pod. But the engine block had been completely destroyed leaving the assault carrier unable to move. Atmosphere could be seen leaking out of several holes in the Atlantia's hull. Meaning there could be survivors.
"Keep DADIS passive, looks like they haven't noticed us." Colonel Belzen practically whispered. He turned to Cain "Admiral, even if we had a full crew and an escort fleet with us we have no chance of victory here. There are too many enemy ships here."
Cain looked at the forty basestars and thousands of raiders and gritted her teeth and slammed a fist into the tactical table. The sudden loud noise startled almost everyone. "Fine." She ground out through locked teeth begin SAR on Atlantia and any opportunistic ships prioritize stealth to see if we can rescue anyone."
You could practically feel the tension in the room release knowing they were not going to brainlessly charge in and die as Belzen and Fisk began issuing orders Vipers were unloaded from their tubes as pilots raced to raptors and Tugs.
The silent Battlestar drifted in complete electronic silence; the only equipment with power was the FTL drives and passive DRADIS. Within a few minutes the twelve raptors and two tugs launched, also staying quiet.
The raptors pulsed across the void using their RCS thrusters rather than their engines and docked or entered the flightpod of the massive battlestar. Each raptor had a pair of EVA suited marines as security.
The Tugs however began chasing down adrift vipers and raptors checking for living pilots and crew. While not large, each tug could carry eight people plus the three crew.
As Helena watched the progress of the tugs come close to the first viper she watched as the radiation resistant glass was physically shattered with a sledgehammer and the pilot wearing his helmet followed the tug crewmen inside before heading to another nearby viper.
Her attention was drawn back to Atlantia as the first three raptors took off and headed back the lead bird started flashing its light in a visual code. She didn't even have to ask as Ashi translated the morse code for her "survivors. aboard. hundreds alive."
A small grin spread across her lips as the raptors landed and she watched first a few then dozens come stumbling out of the raptors. As soon as they were empty they took off to go get another load.
For the next hour a grand total of three hundred naval personnel from the Atlantia are shuttled to the Pegasus. The tugs bring in forty three pilots from eight different ships. Most of them are not ready for active duty three days of decreased oxygen and light rations if any, most of them were delirious but alive.
As the tugs are bringing in more surviving pilots and crews a viper drifting its pilot dead hits a raptor and triggers its active DRADIS, the ping washing over everything nearby in just a few seconds.
Everyone watches as the pulse washes over the closest basestar in orbit of Virgon. "Get everyone back on board right…" her order dies as the baseship and eight others disappear and reappear right on top of them.
The gunnery crews don't even wait for orders as the medium cannons that can bear open up throwing heavy AP shells at the enemy. At nearly the same time the cylon ships launch missiles, and only a handful of raiders.
"Most of their raiders must still be on the Virgon." said Fisk "sending a general recall looks like we only have a single tug out right now."
Cain nodded watching the first barrage of cylon missiles get shot down by the CIWS guns. As small explosions began to dot the first baseship as the pegasus maneuvered to bring the heavy fore battery into action.
The tug making use of its massive engines came barreling into the hangar bay just as the first missile slammed into the side armor of the port flight pod destroying the E in Pegasus.
"Tug secure!" came the call
"JUMP!" Cain ordered as the Pegasus was rocked by another hit.
The Pegasus sent a finally spiteful volley of AP shells into the closest basestar as it jumped to FTL
The model two in command of the eight basestars Betori Conoy that had jumped to the wreck of the Alantia watched the Battlestar Pegasus flee into FTL. turning to the Centurion hooked into sensors "are we able to track them?"
The chrome machine turned its sensors toward Betori "Yes sir we have a girl track on their drive signature."
"Good we shall pursue to bring that ship to be with the one true god." Betori said "send a message to the others im pursuing the Pegasus."
"By your command." The message sent the eight baseships jumped after the pegasus.
Aboard the Pegasus, Cain seethed as they dropped into normal space slamming her fist against the display "we ran away again."
And it wouldn't be the last time she found out as eight basestars appeared not far away and opened fire. With the high powered reactors it took less than ten seconds to build up enough power for a jump and after throwing a few shells towards the cylons that's what the pegasus did. Jump after jump the cylons chased them not even bothering to fire missiles after the eighth time knowing they would be wasted.
It wasn't until the Pegausus lost the baseships in old colonial territory that had been ceded to the cylons at the end of the war by performing an extremely dangerous double jump. A double jump can and did destroy the Pegasus FTL drives but landed them above a frozen world the computers identified as Djerba.
In orbit of the frozen world the wreckage of a battlestar could be seen. As Helena watched the bold words Osiris could be seen on the small flight pod.
(not sure if it's a real thing or not but a double jump is a back to back jump without waiting for a sufficient charge to build up. Figured it would be an interesting thing to do since we know the cylons can track ships through a FTL jump.)