Pre authors notes.
Before we begin i want to set something straight we all know the UNSC in amber clad was taken over by the flood over the Ark the flood few the ship INSIDE HIgh charity where it was then crashed into a tower the frigates Pelicans being used to accelerate the flood infection. When the flood successfully took over the giant ass mobile space station it then converted it into a flood hive spawning more flood forms that took the multitudes of dead from the raging great schism and made modifications INCLUDING Precursor as in older then both the ancient humans and forerunners I.E. more technologically advanced who is to say when 117 destroyed the reactor who is to say it didn't rip a hole in space time plucking a Pelican (or more) under the grave minds influence to escape so the flood wasn't totally wiped out i mean if i was a flood gravemind and my combat infection stalker and ranged combat forms dying left and right id want to ensure at least a part of me got out so i could regenerate so throw a couple human- alien bodies into a Pelican with some escorting combat and infection forms as guards and run..but i'll do 2 world building chapters before getting back to Kobol so… think about it.
1940 hours 1 December 2552 (Military Calendar)
Scorpia orbit
UNSC Artemis
Commander John Hook stood on the catwalk overlooking the machine shops lost in thought. Over the last week since the others had left in search of the Galactica's survivors. Not a single moment had been lost. The Artemis and her army of engineers were spread all over the system on a hundred different projects.
The Conversion of the other five shipyards had been completed three days ago, and with round the clock work the skeletal super structures of eight new ships were already taking shape. Word was Admiral Thomas Walton the senior Colonial Admiral had ordered five frigates and a pair of destroyers and a cruiser. To form the core of the new colonial navy.
The SuperMac station was nearly complete less than a month left. Having completed its proof of concept power up the dozens of colonial reactors on the surface more than adequately charging the massive capacitors with no noticeable problems. With the fleet expansion the one SuperMac would more than likely be the only one built.
A quarter of his crew was planetside, having become teachers to help Colonial Engineers, programmors, and scientists better understand the tech they were being given. The ship's complement of marines and ODSTs were spread out in pocket deployments running a brief bootcamp and academies to bring the Colonial Marine and Army units up to UNSC standard.
"sir..?"
Nearly five hundred of her engineers and scientists were aboard the captured pirate corvette. Still working on better understanding the Covenant tech. The Unggnoy were a big help of the nearly a thousand recovered, over eight hundred were employed by the Colonial and UNSC navies.
"sir?"
The three damaged colonial ships given to the grunts had been repaired as well as upgraded the reactor output had been optimized producing 34% more power as well as thruster output increased 21% and word from the marines assigned to watch over them they had taken a great interest in Colonial Entertainment programs using them as a form of currency among themselves.
Of the Artemis's ten thousand man crew less than two thousand were UNSC origin personnel the rest were colonial trainees learning UNSC computers and doctrine before giving them their own ships. As well as get the advisory UNSC personnel off the Minotaur and Centaur.
Just two days ago Task force revenge had returned with Galacticas Refugee fleet of seventy one ships and forty three thousand survivors had been sorted and processed it came as no surprise there wasn't a single active, reserve or retired military member in the whole fleet all of them capable of serving had been taken as crew by the Galactica even civilians had been drafted to fill the rank.
Their names taken and family members located on the four worlds Humanity had recolonized and families and lovers were reunited. People thought dead were found to be alive, those that were confirmed dead were mourned. In a small way the colonials way of life was getting back on track.
"SIR?!"
John was startled out of his thoughts as the head manufacturing officer Lieutenant Richard Hikowai shook him "Sir!?"
Shaking his head "sorry lieutenant my mind was scattered all over the system what's up?"
"Well sir it's the cylon project you gave me two days ago." Richard said "we have plenty of repaired centurion bodies and we have tested the code and everything works so far."
"Well lieutenant." prompted John "where is the other shoe?"
"Well one of the last things the cylons do when catastrophic damage is detected they overload their power cell as a sort of denial subroutine." said Richard "and the best internal batteries we can produce only power one for about thirty minutes before they shut down. The best option for sustained use is a backpack powercell. The one I tested lasted a full twenty four hours."
So they are more suited to rear line operations rather than front line." John said "that's fine we can have them take over manual labor and clean up duties on the planets it will help speed recovery along."
"That's what I was thinking." said Richard "plus i don't think the colonials are ready to see Cylons fighting side by side with them against other cylons."
"Not that we have enough operational any time soon to make a war wide effort." said John "we have what two thousand?"
"Three" corrected Richard. "Right now anyway. I just needed your signature to have them shipped to the surface."
The paperwork appeared in his inbox and after scanning it he electronically signed.
An hour later two freighters docked with the Artemis off loading raw materials once the holds were empty they were loaded with the machines. The two freighters headed for a southern continent that had been completely evacuated and left empty as recovery effort was focused more on the heavily populated main continent.
John spent the next hour ensuring the Artemis and all the other space projects were on track, the new shipment of material was properly organized, and other command duties all over the system. When he checked in he was impressed two city blocks had been cleared of debris. And repairs to the houses were underway. A pair of shipping containers that had been dropped off to store the bodies of the fallen and personal effects like clothing, jewelry, and photos.
Nodding he continued overseeing the building and reconstruction efforts.
POV shift
Rear Admiral Robin Huey stood in confusion aboard her flagship the Cerberus class supercarrier Turncoat looking around the space surrounding Aerlion at a loss of words there was wreckage of several ships and stations in orbit and the two primary cities had been erased with nukes but the cylons were not here "What the Frakk?" she asked
Colonel David Diez looked almost as confused "the last time we were here there were dozens of cylon ships. Where did they all go?"
"That's what I want to know." says Robin "order the nemesis corvette Backstab to head to Picon to notify them that Aerlion is abandoned moving to Tauron."
"Yes ma'am" David acknowledged
The Backstab jumped followed by the rest of task force Revenge. Just like the trip from Scorpia they encountered only wreckage and death but no active ships. The trip from Aerlion to Tauron was short, only twelve jumps.
Task force Revenge appeared in orbit of Tauron to discover half a dozen Manticores surrounding a single MarineStar with Raptor's making trips from the barren worlds mountain regions. The moment they arrived they picked up colonial transmissions:
"Hurry up, we have company."
"Cylons? We still have hundreds of people down here. I told you it was too soon!"
"Shut up, Looks like almost fifty long to get the others loaded?"
"Twenty minutes or so."
"Frakk us. We will hold them off as long as we can."
On top of the marinestar several add on Cargo boxes launched dozens of Vipers
"Colonial vessels this is Rear Admiral Robin Huey of Battle group Revenge. Stand down, we are friendly. I say again stand down, we are not Cylons."
A male voice replied "Huey? Robin Rebbeca Huey?"
"Yes, that's me." Robin said raising a eyebrow
"What did you get for your son's eighth birthday?" the voice asked.
The mention of her son Roger made her lip quiver as he had been the communications officer of the Battlestar Atlantia. When the war started Admiral Nagala and Atlantia had led what remained of his fleet in a counter attack over Virgon. Robin had cried herself to sleep multiple times over the last two months whenever her mind wandered back to him.
The tears threatened to overwhelm her and she swallowed and breathed deeply pushing herself to bring her emotions under control. "A Adamant cruiser carrier RC drone…"
"...with a dozen Viper sub-drones…" the voice finished practically on the verge of tears.
"Roger?" Robin Gasp "is that you?"
"Hi mom." cried the voice "it's me.."
Over the next hour the first thirty minutes a tear filled reunion the story was uncovered Nagala had ordered all non essential personnel off the battlestar and launched every nuke they had to cover the escape of the four escorting Manticores overloaded with the Battlestar's crew. They had linked up with the Marinestar and the last two Manticores running from the Cylons. They had come to Tauron and hid in the ships inside ravines inside the mountain range.
The last of the survivors were brought up and Revenge and the new ships all headed back to Scorpia space. The Turncoat with a new Communications officer. And a Marinestar full of naval and civilian survivors long thought dead.
POV SHIFT
Cylon space
Rear Admiral Cain looked over the debris of the Pegasus' latest kills, a new Basestar and a half dozen first war relics and Colonial antiques. "Send out the savage teams and tell them to prioritize fuel; we have plenty of everything else."
"Yes Ma'am." twitched her XO Colonel Jack Fisk
She watched the man turn to obey his orders and felt her trigger finger itch in memory after encountering the civilian ships Scylla and others how Belzen had refused her order to strip the ships and take any valuable crew.
Before Helena could delve deeper into her thoughts she was interrupted when the cyber warfare lieutenant called out "Ma'am you ne… should see this."
Helena walked slowly over to the young man recognizing him as a DRADIS operator for a civilian ship they had encountered a few days ago. "What is it?"
The young man pointed to his monitor "We broke the Cylons security during the fight and I was able to make a partial copy before the baseship was destroyed."
He flinched when she put a hand on his shoulder "Good work lieutenant."
Scorpia Assault unsuccessful all units retreat.
Picon under attack request reinfor…
Picon lost
Caprica under attack reque…
Caprica lost
The gods have forsaken….
"Sounds like the Colonial Navy made good use of us keeping the Cylons busy" Cain said looking over her crew "the navy is taking back our worlds. The last two months were worth it. Your sacrifice was worth it. Your family's friends and loved ones didn't die in vain."
In the distance a half dozen flashes show the arrival of another cylon task force
"We are winning. We are fighting." Cain yelled "We are going home!" She hit the command button on the tactical board and alerts and lights began to flash. "WE! Are going home. BATTLE STATIONS!"
—-
Authors notes
hey guys sorry this chapter is all over the place this one and the next one will be focused on world building so everyone that is reading has a chance to get to the chapter 58 and the revel of what's buried in the ice and let me know their thoughts if people can give me a good reason i'll remove the flood…for now (evil laugh) until then enjoy two world building chapters.
Reviews
Chronus, thanks glad you're enjoying it don't forget to check ch37 for my random information on ships when I get to ch 60 before the possible continuation of the flood. I'll do another updated information page until then please enjoy and let me know what you think.
Guest dude honestly the pre authors note was directed almost exclusively at you when the flood infected the in amber clad they had multiple pelicans aboard that's how they completely infected High charity in only a month i think i read and then the flood crashed high charity into installation 00 it's clearly stated the flood gravemind made many modifications to the holy city including precursors tech. So why couldn't it cause ripples of temporal instability? To relocate a pelican or spirit or hell amber clad wreckage? And bury it millions of lightyears away under a klick of ice? That's the fun of the possibility of unknown tech being abused by human persuasion.
Hell jumper evil ... .evil….lmao bet it was an unexpected turn for the readers huh? That's the point of being authors puting characters we create through hell to make an enjoyable story and in the unlikely event I get Re: Creators (the anime) I will turn it around to make them live a happy life. So keep reading and enjoying this rollercoaster til the end.
Agusfedredhunter yep i dont think anyone was expecting it.