Hey everyone wow I honestly didn't expect the number of people who wanted me to continue the adventure so I'll do my best to keep it going for you all so to keep yall happy and to continue the fun I'll do my best so continuing where we left off…
15 days attack
Pegasus
Beyond the red line, former colonial territory…
"MA"AM Titan class Osiris has just emerged from FTL range 6000 meters, and she isn't alone!" the DRADIS tech called out.
Rear Admiral Cain grimaced looking away from the thirty seven newly arrived cylon ships to look at the mission clock.
17:19
"Land our birds and recall salvage teams." Cain ordered. And then to Colonel Belzen she commented looking over the burning wrecks of three cylon ships and a pair of demolished shipyards in orbit of a radioactive former colonial world. "they are getting faster."
Over the last week they using archive data performed lightning strikes on a dozen pre war colonial shipyards and depos destroyers and nearly forty ancient colonial and cylon warships and freighters but the cylons had been gods damn quick the last few raids.
Watching the Raptors full of engineers dragging salvaged missiles, parts, and fuel from the wreckage she knew each salvage load would help restock the critically empty munitions bunkers and give the munition factory a much needed repreve. But it seemed they were not making enough progress.
The voices over the wireless drew her attention to the Viper wings as Raiders jumped in cutting their withdrawl off dozens of Vipers were trapped in an encircling globe of Raiders. The planes themselves were not a huge issue the Pegasus Manufacturing bays had fully restocked the viper wings but the pilots…. Each pilot represented hundreds of hours of training simulated and real flight time.
It still didn't make it easy as she watched the remaining fifty odd Vipers spin on their axis to re engage "Ares Squadron this is a direct order to return to the ship there are too many of them we have to fall back."
"Pegasus actural this is Ares actual." came over the wireless "confirm? Did you say to leave them? We can't! My pilots can blast a hole for them to get out."
"Ares actual fall back now." Cain said through gritted teeth "this is a direct order."
Ares proceeded towards the free for all another couple of seconds but the arrival of a old Minotaur gunship sealed the trapped Vipers fate as its turrets opened up swating a Viper from the furball every few seconds Ares squadron pivoted again and punched their drives to max right into another pair Minotaur that emerged from FTL in the perfect position on either side to wipe all of Ares from existence in na concentrated burst of fire.
Colonel Belzen slammed his clenched fist on the table as the two squadrons were wiped out. With heavy enraged breathing he announced "all… surviving craft have docked and the board is green."
JUMP
When the Pegasus arrived they were shocked to see they were not alone eight Colonial ships including a moderately armed Manticore corvette who promptly moved to the head of the unarmed civilian ships
"This is the Corvette Scylla to unknown Battlestar." came the announcement over the wireless " we are fully armed and carry many nukes approach and we will launch everything we have."
As the announcement was made from the freighters scores of older MKlll and lV Vipers and Raptors launched forming up on either side of the Scylla to screen the otherwise defenseless freighters.
For a few minutes no one on the Pegasus bridge said anything, shocked to see other humans had survived before Cain blinked and picked up the handset "This is the Battlestar Pegasus Rear Admiral Helena Cain you have nothing to fear."
Over the next four hours the Pegasus is filled in the the Scylla's journey as it is discovered the Secretary of transportation Brian Englas is aboard the Scylla having assumed command of the only warship at his direct control under the Articles of Colonization Emergency charter and the succession laws and assumed the mantle of president of the Colonies and it was there the problems started to arise.
He had been on a PR tour aboard the Piconese Atlas Carrier Broadside, which had been largely shut down in a cyber attack; what few weapons remained operational had covered the Secretaries retreat escorted by two full squadrons of Vipers. Picking up stragglers and surviving pilots until they had met with the Scylla.
The Colonial fleet and marines following their last orders followed the command of the decimated civilian government they could find. In other words Secretary Brian Englas was thrust into the president position.
The last week had been spent scavenging, hiding, and running.
Now aboard the VIP shuttle the Secretary had been rescued in and had demanded to keep forcing the Scylla to lose three of the Vipers they had also rescued from the Broadside despite the top notch environmental systems was intermittently sweating and grinning the Pegasus would be his throne to keep running from the apocalyptic graveyard of the colonies.
As the shuttle came in for docking Brian took a deep breath and reminded himself to be direct and not to give this rear admiral Cain or her sailors any space or chance to refuse his demands
The hatch lowered and he didn't give it time to finish ducking his head to get out quicker
"President of the Colonies Arriv…." started the announcement by the chief deck officer but Brian interrupted him "where is Rear Admiral Cain?!"
Brian looked around seeing several dozen soldiers in armor with rifles and even more in normal uniforms seeing a severe looking woman at their center is suspensions were confirmed when he noticed several people looking towards her in confusion from the brash interruption
"Welcome aboard the Pegasus Secrit.."she paused "...President Englas." Admiral Cain said professionally with a rigid salute "allow me to introduce my X.."
Brian interrupted her "we are in an emergency situation." he waved her off "we need to withdrawing to consolidate our forces and resources to better protect what remains of our people."
"Withdraw? Sir?" Cain said skeptically "Sir we are in a state of war millions possibly billions of our brothers and sisters have died." Cain said with a pointed tone " we should consolidate our forces to better fight the cylons and not run away."
"None of that matters Admiral." Brian said, waving his hand dismissively "they are all dead or soon will be what matters to us is not joining them anytime soon." his eyes narrowed "and as the President of the Colonies. My. Word. Is. Law." he said pointedly ending with actually poking Admiral Cain on her shoulder.
A nearby marine moved to pull his hand away but the Admiral stopped him. "Very well Mister. President, if those are your orders then I would recommend stripping your ships of parts and personnel to fill out the pegasus crew and weapons the pegasu.."
Cain was interrupted again as the "President" started to sputter "absolutely not there is safety in numbers and there are hundreds of children they have no place on a warship!"
"Military needs must come first if we are to win this war Mister president." Cain said " a battlestar is much more capable than those manticores and freighters both to fight and to survive an attack. If we run they will hunt us down one by one. If we fight we can win."
Brian's eye twitched and sweat sprung up on his forehead and face this woman was going to take away his command his authority….his power and the lives of the people who he served to fuel this hopeless crusade of hers….."very well i will head back to the Scylla and inform everyone to prepare to shuttle over and assist is stripping their ships." he turned on his heels and headed for his shuttle "there are nearly two thousand people please ensure the pegasus is ready to receive them."
Cain blinked at the rapid change and her eyes narrowed on the so called presidents back as the door shut without giving her a chance to reply.
As the shuttle left the flight deck heading back to the handful of ships filled with refugees Brian knew he would have to reign in Cains antics or she would lead to the extermination of the human race.
As he docked with the Scylla he climbed the ladder that linked the small flightbay to the primary deck of the corvette as he entered the Command deck his first words was "get me a secure link to the other ships to ensure Pegasus is locked out."
The young woman manning the dual communication and cybernetic warfare station set it up and after a nod Brian took a deep steadying breath.
"Brave men, women and children aboard the ships following the warships Scyllia and Charybdis the discovery of the Pegasus and Rear Admiral Cain is not the joyous occasion we thought it would be. She seeks to only fight, throwing the protection and safety of our people away in blind vengeance. I have just returned from a brief audience with the admiral and she told me to ready our ships to be stripped and useful people removed to fill out her crew."
He could hear muttering from the bridge crew
"FIght? We have already lost"
"We can't give up."
"Think of all the people that are trapped, we are their only hope."
"We can't help them if we are all dead we need time to rebuild to rescue anyone"
Brian turned them out and continued speaking "as it stands the corvettes Scylla and Charybdis and the numerous vipers and raptors we have don't stand a chance against the pegasus and we cant jump fast enough if they open fire on us." Brian looked around. "So I will do my best to negotiate for friendly terms but we shouldnt offer any reason for them to perceive us as threats."
Before Brian Englas could even begin to formulate a plan however thirty raptors and twice that in vipers launched from the pegasus. At the same time Pegasus made an announcement over an unencrypted channel so there was no chance people didnt hear it
"Citizens and crew of the refugee flotilla this is Rear Admiral Cain under the articles of colonization wartime act all ships and useful personnel are drafted to military service until the end of the current state of emergency. Marines and Engineers are en route to your ships for survey if you have any arms, do not offer any resistance and no harm will come to you."
Four days later the Pegasus left the striped ships behind after removing their FTL drives any useful parts and stripping the corvettes of their weapons and munitions some of the families of useful people had offered resistance and had resulted in wartime executions as deserters and pegasus gained forty eight new pilots and crew.
The surviving crews and refugees watched the hated monster of a Battlestar kidnap mothers, brothers, husbands and sons unable to stop them.
President Englas was found hanging in his quarters a section of cable around his throat and a single note on his desk…
Im sorry
I hope you all enjoyed the scylla encounter. After this it will go back to the joint UNSC and colonial forces on Scorpia.
Review replies
Helljumper i'll do my best to keep it up thanks for reading along
Mericore no the UNSC task force is named midway Captain Jackson's ship is the Able class destroyer UNSC Able most ship classes the first ship has the name of the class