32 days second cylon war
Cypress islands Caprica
32nd Marine Battalion AOR
Corporal Samual Wright sat in the conference hall of the operations lead with rapt attention today would be yet another busy day he knew. Looking at the ever active monitor it showed four Cylon Basestars escorted by an even dozen Cylon operated Colonial warships he gritted his teeth remembering when the former human ships appeared a week ago on the other side of the cylon formation.
The 19th marine battalions command echelon had been at the cracking point under the constant orbital bombardment and atmospheric assaults from raiders they had cleared the primary continent including the capital of human life nearly sixty thousand civilians add that to the fourteen thousand marines in their Area of Responsibility and it made for cramped conditions on the best of days. When the colonial ships arrived in orbit they didn't hesitate loading everyone aboard their two Marine stars and four Firestar frigates broadcasting on the UNSC frequency they had been told to use to no reply.
Samual shuddered as he remembered hearing the cries of panic and horror from those six ships as the cylons open fired on them the handful of Raptors from the 19th were joined with Vipers from the 32nd and 21st and they had successfully shot down a pair Manticore corvettes but it didn't help the fact that nearly seventy thousand marines and civilians had just been shot down.
Any further bad memories were interrupted as the door opened and General Chris Howler walked in causing all the men and women to jump to attention at the shout of "OFFICER ON DECK!"
The general walked behind the podium and saluted signaling the men to relax and be at ease. Waiting for the forty men to sit before speaking
"I know you boys and girls are wondering why you were called out of the blue like this, seeing as this is the first operations meeting since we successfully cleared our Area of Responsibility of survivors so let me cut to the chase." he gripped the edge of the podium and leaned forward "we received three words on the UNSC frequency three hours ago."
He paused as a small roar of quiet questions arose but he stomped his boot quieting everyone looking around at the men and women under his command "it has been twenty three days since they assisted in the evacuation of nearly a million Caprican survivors and however many they rescued from the thirty ships they were able to get operational."
A hand behind Samual drew the general's attention "yes Major Mele Darcy?"
A female voice called out "are we certain this is real sir? It could be another cylon trick. Like what happened with the 19th battalion."
"I won't rule that out." conceded General General Howler "which is why Major Darcy we will assume it's a trick until we see the UNSC ships they will be here within two hours and in that time every Viper, Raptor, and anything else that can fight and fly will be taking off thirty minutes before their projected arrival." he looked around the dozens of young men and woman with steel in his eyes. "If it's the UNSC fine, if it's the Cylons well…"the full weight of his fury and anger entered his voice "we will deal with them and leave anyway."
The chant started up coinciding with stopping of feet and pounding of fist on desk
"SO SAY WE ALL!
SO SAY WE ALL!
SO SAY WE ALL!"
General Chris's voice yelled out over them his deep baritone strong "SO SAY WE ALL! Now back to your units and prepare for combat we are airbourne in an hour and fifteen minutes."
Corporal Wright stood and as did everyone else saluting as one.
The next hour passes in a blur of frenzied activity as hundreds of Vipers Raptors and older Rattlesnakes and Condors are prepared for combat over two thirds of the planet. Marines and civilian militia take up positions manning orbital and anti air positions.
Watching the timer click down 14:00… 13:59 ... .58 Wright checked his personal pistol making sure the magazine was loaded and the safety was on.
12:30….29
"Begin preflight checks" came the command from the intercom.
fuel…97%
Thrust nozzles… Wright moved the flight stick while looking back to check the directional thrusters moving in synch with the sticks movements
Oil pressure check
Life support check
Ejection seat armed and on safe
30mm KEWs checked Wright looked at the ammunition counter 3015 per gun for a total of 6030…he looked around to locate a red jersey weapons officer.
"Hey excuse me red." Wright called out "standard load is four thousand per cannon i only have just over three what's going on?"
The red jersey looked over from the empty crate she was throwing onto the trailer "that's all we got sir." she replied "we divided the ammo we had left the best we could but our armories are empty."
"Frakk ok, thanks." wright thanked her looking back to his screens
Only three skybolt missiles
Four 220 kg bombs
A full load of defensive flak and flares there's something at least.
Samual looked up just in time to see the timer hit 4:00. He took a deep breath the siege of Caprica was going to end one way or another tod…alarms sounded jolting him out of his thoughts.
Throwing his helmet on he switched to a command frequency and heard
"...SC ships have arrived. I repeat three UNSC ships have arrived. Launch all fighters. Engage the enemy."
With a grin Corporal Wright hit the power switch bringing the low hum of the Vipers turbine to full military power sealing the cockpit he saw the end of the first war underground hanger his squadron had been using cycle open.
Watching row after row of vipers punch the acceleration and rocket out and up. His hand tensed on the throttle control and then it was his turn.
He shoved the throttle wide open and felt the viper jump forward pushing him back into his flight seat. Before he could even blink his fighter and the other four of his wings were out of the hanger and screaming into the ashy grey sky.
Looking around the canopy he saw everyone was forming up into wedge formations as wings formed into sections and then squadrons. The ashy sky around him was getting lighter as they continued soaring into the edge of the atmosphere. Then he saw them three completely alien ships just as he focused on the massive one in the center it flashed three times in quick succession destroying a pair of cylon basestars outright annihilating the central spire causing the two three pointed wedges to splinter in other directions the last round destroyed a first war Cylon Talon carrier that had arrived with four older cylon ships the day before.
The two smaller ships surrounded by dozens of large fighters darted in close and opened fire on a swarm of hundreds of raiders. When the command came through
"When the raiders engage the UNSC forces take the toasters and cut their shiny frakking asses."
With a grin he armed his missiles as they turned and burned towards the furball, small micro meteorite and other debris lightly hitting the canopy and hull, sounding like a steady rain almost enough to cause the mind to drift. And then a steady tone rang out and Wright grinned as the active seeker in his first missile found a target; a cylon raider in a group of twenty heading towards a cluster of four UNSC fighters.
At the same time as Samual called out "Fox two" a dozen other voices called out as both Vipers and missile laden Raptors fired a volley of infrared heat seeking missiles. Samual watched the majority of the missiles fly true slamming into the dual thrusters of fourteen of the targeted Raiders. The last two missiles fell victim to flares and chaff countermeasures launched by a pair of particularly attentive machines.
With a grin Samuel called out to his three wingmates "stick together lets go after that Hydra," he looked around "Wing two continue to engage the raiders."
"So say we all." came the reply. As the eight Vipers of the two wings split up.
As the four vipers lined up to drop some of their full armament of bombs they discovered the hydra wasn't alone as a colonial firestar frigate pulled out of the hydra's mass and DRADIS shadow. Before it could fire any of its dozen AA cannons it detonated under a concentrated missile barrage as a small sleek ship appeared out of the blackness; its small size benefiting a small DRADIS outline made it almost impossible to discern from a Colonial Raptor or viper squadron.
"You're clear for your bombing run, Vipers." a female voice said "UNSC Catapult has your back"
"Uhh thanks Catapult." said Samual "understood"
As the eight vipers continued their approach the hydra sent out its repair drones in attempted ramming but they were too slow and easily avoided "Fox2 Fox2" each Viper dropped half their bombs on the repair ship. The two dozen bombs detonated along the ship's length, overloading the reactor and igniting the fuel bunkers the massive Hydra detonated and just as quick the fire was snuffed out in the vacuum.
Elsewhere cylon ships were dropping like flies from the UNSC Artemis three MACs and nearly a hundred fighters swarming any cylon they got in their sights as the last three cylon ships a Cylon Berserk and a pair of nemesis corvettes.
The battle for Capricas two million survivors was finished. With the combined colonial and UNSC forces a SAR operation was launched for the single Marine Frigate that had broken her back from dozens of direct hits but also the area around where the 19th was slaughtered.
During the same time salvage operations began on the wrecked ships pulling any munitions fuel or usable parts they could find.