50 days second cylon war
Code name "Revenge" battlegroup
Commander Robin Huey let her mind wander standing at the newly installed tactical table of the old Cerberous supercarrier christened Turncoat her former ship the Adamant class frigate Talbot had been destroyed over Scorpia, thankfully most of her crew were able to evacuate thanks to the frigate Rushmore. So once the damaged supercarrier pulled from the mass of captured ships in the following days of the battle it had been fully repaired and augmented thanks to the UNSC shipyard workers.
The Turncoat now sported in addition to her normal half dozen heavy KEW turrets had to keep its old look now had a teeth a pair of mass drivers the UNSC technicians called "Onagers" concealed inside most of her hanger cutting down her embarked squadrons to four squadrons of first war raiders, she didn't understand it but she didn't have to to utilize the weapons. She remembered the weapon's live fire test.
The target had been a Cylon Gorgon support carrier; it had been fully stripped of everything useful to repair three others that had been captured at Scorpia; the double flash of the mass drivers deleted the stripped hulk into tumbling bits of wreckage. Her smile was cold and dangerous.
The Turncoat wasn't alone either; all of the ships of the battlegroup were cylon designed; at their heart was the Turncoat and four other normal carriers. Although they were visibly unaugmented to ensure they didn't make the cylons suspicious, all ships of Revenge battlegroup were augmented in some way or another. They were surrounded by a pair of Phobos cruisers, an even dozen Talon class frigates, and double that in Nemesis corvettes.
The forty three ships were patrolling the space lanes ambushing smaller task forces or lone Capital ships they had just departed a colonial fleet rally point they had stripped of disabled and wrecked ships earlier the cylons still ran light patrols hunting down any potential human they could successfully kill. Picon and Scorpia hadn't been truly attacked in almost a week from what she had heard.
"Ma'am" called Colonel David Diez the ships XO and CAG commander air group for the fleet "coming up on Caprica"
"Ready the fleet for combat just in case, but remember we are cylons so dont fire first unless we give the word."
The fleet emerged in a rapid series of flashes; the ashen globe that had once been the capital of the twelve colonies filled everyone's view screens as did the small force of seven Cylon and colonial warships in orbit.
A grin appeared and Robin said "spread the fleet out time to add to our kill board." In the last week of their patrol they had engaged and destroyed nearly a hundred cylon ships in deep space and in orbit of four colonies.
Diez grinned as well "they will make a fine addition to the roster."
As the fleet approached the still unaware cylon force robin thanked the gods for the enhanced radar the techs had called it with a range nearly triple that of DRADIS. They had managed to sneak up on plenty of enemy ships. All over the fleet hundreds of pilots and crew manned their old raiders and vipers eagerly awaiting the word to launch.
Holding his hand up Diez watched the radar screen he counted down.
3.
2.
1.
And a notice pinged of an incoming message the binary code translated for them to read "Servants of the one true god we welcome you to cleanse the heretics."
"Send the same reply we sent to the last force over Tauron." said Robin "and be ready the moment we get within mass driver range"
The reply was a short one "God wills our journey to cleanse the non believers."
As the two forces approached each other something strange happened a single cylon Raider appeared in the middle of the two forces. It seemed to hang there for a few moments as if it was surprised to see nearly fifty cylon ships in orbit before heading towards the planet.
"Ma'am we are receiving another message from the cylon force."Diez said as the message was translated.
Robin walked over to look over his shoulder.
"Raider unclean infidels must be cleansed." The seven ships in the cylon flotilla all opened fire and began launching raider and viper squadrons.
Commander Robin stood transfixed in confusion "Diez is this the start of a civil war? Or do you think it's a trap for us to lower our guard?"
Diez looked at the wildly maneuvering raider as its guns flashed claiming a pair of raiders before spinning out of the gun sights of a Viper that had snuck up behind it. "I'm not sure ma'am i've never seen anything like this."
On the screen the raider had done a flip flying backwards and opened fire destroying a viper and another raider "it seems to be more talented than any raider we have fought so far." commented Robin as it flipped to the side and strafed a heavy raider with cannon fire causing it to spin out of control into a nearby Manticore.
The raider took a few hits and started trailing smoke "if it is a civil war the enemy of our enemy is our friend right?" Robin looked between her fleet and the small task force of cylons "and if it is a trap we can just jump out. So I'll risk it opening fire on the cylon ships and launch squadrons."
Across battlegroup revenge the alarms sounded as pilots and crew rushed to their ships and positions the pair of Onager's barrels slid out of the recessed firing ports above the supercarriers secondary hanger and locked onto a Cylon Talon. Other ships bringing their weapon systems online and targeting other cylon ships.
"Attention rogue cylon raider this is Commander Robin Huey of the Supercarrier Turncoat identify yourself." Robin announced as the fleet opened fire the heavy shells from multiple Onagers from across the fleet slammed into and disabled a Talon and an Adamant and shattered a pair of Nemesis if the first salvo.
As nearly a hundred old raiders and modern Vipers shot out of hangers the Cylon raider responded on Colonial frequencies "This is Lieutenant Kara Thrace call sign Starbuck what in the name of the gods is going on?!"
"Starbuck this is Turncoat. Actual we cleared Caprica a while ago. Where are you from and lots has happened. I recommend you dock with the Turncoat as we finish this dance."
A Firestar fractured into multiple pieces as the mass of human piloted raiders flashed over her firing guns and missiles. Even as a squadron of Vipers cleaned Starbucks' tail of cylons.
"Roger Turncoat actual" Starbuck replied. "And I'm from a group of survivors led by President Laura Roslin and Captain Adama of the Battlestar Galactica."
—-
Kara's eyes widened as her raider was escorted into the hanger of the Turncoats primary hanger looking out of the improved viewport of the raiders old faceplate she could see dozens of men and women fueling and prepping a handful of raptors and shuttles. Off to one side was a flashing pad with a full squad of….Marines maybe? They were wearing strange armor and holding strange rifles. A yellow jersey sailor pointed at the raider and the flashing landing pad. She shrugged and eased the throttle forward,
Setting the craft down she cut the power and the raider settled on its wingtip landing gear. Opening the belly hatch she called out "i'm coming out unarmed so don't frakking shoot got it! "
A man's voice called out "once you exit, keep your hands where we can see them and there will be no problem."
Rolling her eyes she shimmied her way out and onto the deck, keeping her hands open and in clear view. A pair of the troops help her up and wave a strange handheld device over her "she is clean."
A woman in the Colonial fleet uniform with a Commander's twelve pointed star walks up with a small smile on her face "clean is relative Sargent." she holds her hand out to starbuck and they grip wrist with a solid pump "welcome to Revenge Battlegroup Lieutenant i am Commander Robin Huey."
A tone cut off Starbucks reply as a voice over the intercom announced "Salvage teams away." as the seven Raptors were lowered out of the hanger
"Commander?" Starbuck said looking around "what exactly is going on?"
Robin smiled and replied " let's walk to my stateroom. I'll fill you in on the way."
As they started walking Robin informed her that the salvage team was heading over to a Manticore that had been hit by the heavy raider Starbuck had strafed the damnaged was superficial to the corvette but the primary computer node that allowed the older centurans to operate had been destroyed leaving them in a hibernation state.
The rest of the thirty minutes to the stateroom was a blur of information the arrival of these other humans from Earth the power of their ships and weapons and the war they were involved in with these aliens these Covenant, their arrival in the opening moments of the attack on Scorpia shipyards leading assaults on other Colonies. The massive Cylon counter attack on Scorpia. And finally the assault and capture of Picon and the massive orbital shipyards
The briefing was now complete and they were in her stateroom Robin leaned forward and looked at Starbuck "now that you're caught up what brings you back to Caprica?"
"Well ma'am" Kara started "President Roslin wants to lead the fleet to earth from the ancient scrolls as a safe haven for humanity away from the Cylons we found Kobol."
Commander Huey leaned forward in surprise "Kobol? Are you sure? It exist?"
Kara smiled "yes ma'am the planet was covered in ancient human ruins covered in writing from the scrolls. It had background radiation. It's just like the scrolls say it has all happened before and it will all happen again."
Robin leaned back in surprise, her mind racing "so why come back into an active warzone? What's so important here?"
"We need an artifact called the Arrow of Apollo in the Delphi Museum of the Colonies as a physical sign of proof of the ancient humans from the scriptures fleeing from Kobol." explained Kara "apparently we need it for the Tomb of Athena to point a way to Earth."
"How many people are in your fleet?" inquired Robin
"Roughly forty three thousand Ma'am" said Kara
Unsurprised by the number, Robin said "that's good to hear how many ships?"
"Seventy eight civilian ships and then of course the Galactica." Kara informed her
"A single warship? You must be run ragged defending so many civilian ships." said Robin, surprised "even the smallest group of civilian ships we have uncovered had at least five or six warships."
Kara momentarily sagged at the memory of her own exhaustion "Yes Ma'am but we have done our duty."
"Of that" Robin said walking around the desk to place a hand on Starbucks shoulder "i have no doubt. But you don't need to fight anymore. Do you know where the fleet is? If so we can go get them and escort them as soon as the Manticore is repaired and crewed."
The exhaustion and loss fell away from Kara as a surge of hope "Yes ma'am i can input the coordinates myself."
The surge of energy spurred Starbuck to motion "Ma'am i can do it right now."
The Commander led the energetic Starbuck to the bridge and the navigation console entering the series of numbers into the FTL drive it was calculated to be one hundred and fourteen jumps and nearly forty three light years from Caprica.
Three hours later Commander Robin Huey received word that the Manticore was now repaired and crewed. Having a Raptor head to Scorpia with a full report of her patrol route engaugments and the information on Galactica she gave the order and the Battlegroup Revenge's forty four ships jumped heading towards the Galactica and her ragtag fleet of civilian ships.