chapter 8: Leap of faith.
(Dedicated to CanisD for his contribution to the scifi community)
1137 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, planet side, the ruins, engaged in combat against cylon aggressor ground force. seperated from ground team.
"You know, this night have been a bad time to seperate from the rest of the ground team" Rommie admonished me, as we continued to take fire from that walking monstrosity of a tank.
"Thanks for stating the obvious" I replied, ducking in a hurry to avoid getting my damn fool head blown off, yet again.
I checked my ammo count, not good, only ten rounds left, "Some one had to move off and get a second laser on that first tank, or the fighters woulda dropped tier bombs on top of us!" I added, as now the Elite started firing on us, this was way out of hand, and being pinned to a rock, with a sheer dropoff behind me, had to admit, I'd screwed up.
"Ground lead, Reaper, we've expended our ground ordinance, want us to try anti fighter missiles?"came over the comms, "Yes, please" was my response.
"Thats it" I said as the Elite fired s grenade, which went wide, "I', taking that son of a bitch out"
I raised the scope up, slaved to the optics in my suit's helmet, zoomed in, and took the shot, and, naturally, given my bad luck of the day, the frakker did not go down.
"Ground lead to anyone with a sniper rifle, please take this SOB out" I radioed, "Ground lead, all we have is assault rifles and pistol grenades" Sykes radioed back, "Hit him with a grenade, get his attention" I replied.
"You arent thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" Rommie asked, uncertainty in her voice, "depends" I commented, fitting a bayonet to my rifle, "yes, you are, despite that damned tank" she replied, resignation clear in her voice, "I want to bring the teck geeks a souviner" I calmly stated, prepairing to get shot.
"You are nuts" came the terse reply, "Yes, I am" I grunted as I set myself for a possible long drop, for the Elite had just moved next to the cliff's edge. "Why me?" I asked, then barked over the comm"Now, Fire!", as a shot rang out, and theElite turned to see where its tromentor was shooting from, I bolted, moving much faster I realized, than the tank could track.
It's loss, slow dumb tank.
I yanked the Elite off its feet with a tackle around its throat, and slid the bayonet in between the armor plate, right where its lung would be, and twisted, and held on, then it was dead, kicking it off me, I rooled over and went to stand up, thats when I remembered the tank.
It was looking right at me.
All I had time to even say was simply "Oh, ****......" and I took a nice dozen rounds in the right shoulder, sending me right over the cliff, and I fired my grappler from my left arm, and lucky frakking me, the hook held.
This was just not my day.
"Ya know, assumption is the mother of all frakkups" hammered an unwelcome voice from the depths of my brain.
Just then, I heard the unmistakable roar of a Canis class patrol cutter, noise is very distinctive, almost like one loooong constant car backfire, with her jumbo sized engines lit, anyway.
I took a literal leap of faith, and dialed the commscan, and nailed the channel the patrol cutter was on almost instantly.
"colonial marine to Canis class Cutter, I could use a hand here, mind stopping by so I can hitch a ride on the wing?" I radioed, "What the frak? what the hell did ya get yourself into marine?" came the response.
"I picked a fight with a centurian and a tank, and lost against the tank, speaking of which, see if you cant put a few rounds in its optical scanner"
"Why not just total it?" replied the cutter, "Because I want my people to see what makes it tick, so we can come up with a response"I grunted, starting to feel all three hundred and twenty pounds of myself starting to tear at my arm muscles" "And hurry, my arm's gonna come off" I grunted, this caused the armor to inject a painkiller, precisely what I didnt want.
As the cutter moved under me, I looked at my shoulder and saw that the bleeding from where the rounds had penetrated had already stopped
I started feeding out cable, and then, dropped onto the wing, careful to keep my balace as the cutter's pilot began maneuvoring for a shot the tank, and promptly took fire.
I felt a vibration, and saw the ventral turret swing about, and open fire, shattering the tank's scan visor in one hit, and the tank for lack of a better way to put it, keeled over, dead.
"Well, scratch one toaster tank" the cutter radioed, "Nice shooting, even by my standards", See that clearing off by the temple entrance? set down there" I radioed, wanting very much to be on terra mostly firma.
The cutter swung around, and lowered itself down, and I hopped off the wing, and felt, for the first time in about four ours or so, relieved.
Looking at my shoulder, I was astonished to see not even a scratch on my skin, still, this was a pointed reminder to not take unneccsary chances, period.
Opening a channel, I called in some more gunships, we were gonna need help getting the remains of that tank to the Atlantis.
As I walked back, Sarge came running up, the rest of the survey team not far behind. Moving to acknowledge the salutes being offered, I winced, seemed my shoulder wasnt fully healed.
She came up and saluted, and I settled for offering a handshake, seeing as my right shoulder wasnt permitting me a salute.
"Welcome back, old friend"
1200 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Temple
"Well, that was certainly interesting, you seem to still have a knack for finding trouble" Sarge remarked, seeing how banged up my armor had gotten.
"Believe me, thats not the half of it" I commented, as I peeled back the suit's gel layer, and promptly discovered a fragment of a high velocity round sticking out, which explained why my shoulder still hurt like hell. "Here, let me help" she replied, seeing me unable to get at the fragment myself.
"Yeeooch!" I cried out, "Hmm, guess this thing had barbs on it" mused Sarge.
As I sealed my armor back up, another elder approached, and instead of the reaction I got earlier, the one I got this time was far more friendly, she extended her hand, and careful to avoid shredding my hand on her claws, I shook.
"You do the Eleanor a great honor with your bravery, even though this was not your fight, you stepped in, and defended us, and risked alot."
"This may not have been our fight, but the cylons regard us the same way" I replied.
"Even if we had turned and run, they would have kept attacking anyway" I commented.
"This is true, only because they seek the very artifact that has appartently chosen you as its protector, you must keep it safe at all costs, its power can not be allowed to fall into their hands" the elder cautioned.
"I understand, I would sooner see this artifact tossed into a black hole than allow the cylons to get possession of it" I vowed.
"That artifact will lead you to thirteen others, these, have the power to save the future home of your people, and remember, any time you wish, you may return, for you will always be welcome among the Eleanor"
"Thank you, I will not fail this mission, I never fail" I vowed.
"Time to go home, I guess", Sykes sighed, it was clear to me that she wanted to spend more time here, I wish I could have obliged.
As we lifted off, I reflected on the day's events, and on my meeting a rather interesting people.
"Someone one once asked me, why does humanity deserve to survive?, before today, I didnt have an answer, today, after meeting the eleanor, my answer is simple: to learn from our mistakes, to seek to better ourselves, to learn" I mused, looking out the window, watching the transport and the other gunships keep formation.
"Sir?" Sykes inquired,with a puzzled look.
"All life is precious, this is why we fight, to save lives" I mused, as the gunship set down on the landing pad.
Some hours later, as the fleet cruised out of the system, I was pouring over some reports, and came across one that caught my eye. "Meia, how come we left ships behind back there?" I asked, pausing to take a sip of my tea.
"Their captains told me the civilians on board had expressed a desire to remain with the Eleanor" she replied, as she read over another report, "I didnt see the point in forcing an issue, and the ships left behind arent considered essential, and the Commanders of a few combat ships volunteered to remain as well".
"I see, well, as much as I dont like leaving people behind, we cant force them to come with us, all the same, we cant leave them unprotected" I nodded, I knew my XO had made the right call.
While I was engrossed in the damage reports from that last battle, the Comms unit rang, and Meia answered it, while I sat there looking at her from the corner of my eye, alert for possible bad news.
For once, it was good news, "We've cleared the asteroid field, and can now jump, hang on...... We've just detected another one of those bouy's from the Prometheus, and downloaded some more data" she informed me, looking very relieved at the good news.
"John, something else, seems there's several messages we only just got access to, they've been routed down here" she informed me, hanging up the handset. I got up, went to my console, and punched in my code, and saw something that gave me some hope for the future.
"To the commander of the Atlantis, a word of advice, 'No fate but what we make', signed Gen. O'neill"
Then immediately below it, one from Admiral Nagala, dated the day of the fall, "John, get out, save yourself, protect our species' legacy, protect the survivors of this day, its been an honor"
I didnt know what to make of that last one, half the systems on the ship must have been still offline when we got this message, I felt a touch of regret about that day, wished I'd shown more gratitude to her for going to bat for me.
1800 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, just outside Eleanor home system
"General and XO to CIC, repeat, General and XO to CIC" blared out over the PA.
"Wonder who else wants to play" muttered Meia, I couldnt find reason to disagree, seemed we'd been jumped by almost everyone since we'd entered this region of space.
As we strode in, I noticed a look of hope and sadness on the face of the ship's comms officer, "Ok, give it to me, what have we got?" I asked.
"Hermes class gunstar just jumped in, by the reports I'm getting from CAP, she's badly damaged, and I'm getting nothing on comms from her" Sykes replied, obviously very concerned with a lack of reply to repeated transmissions.
"CAP reports ship ID as gunstar Katana, and it seems she's got zero attitude control at present, and zero sublight speed".
"Anything else on Dradis?" Meia asked, "Nothing" Ensign Welles muttered, eyes on the holographic dradis display.
"Instruct the pawnee and arappaho to maneuvor the Katana over to the cradle" I barked.
"Watchman reports evidence of combat or damage control onboard her sir, some decompressions have been seen from around her dorsal port amidships defenseive battery", Skyes commented.
"Why do I get the distinct feeling that things just went south in a way no one could have expected?" I asked.
Several hours later, after the Katana had been secured, and the damage to her contained, we learned of survivors fighting a desperate batle to survive.
As for the battlegroup the Katana had been assigned to, they were lost, trying to evacuate survivors, only the Katana had survived, and barely, judging from the damage reports I had been seeing.
I was hell bent on assembling a rescue operation, even though we would likely arrive eight months too late, it still had to be done.
To that end I spent the next few days pouring over the list of ships and personel who had survived, and immediately saw several ships that would be perfect for this mission.
I set aside the data packets for the Battlestars Eternal and Celestial, the Gunstars Sabre, and Comanche, and the scoutstars Olduvai and Triton. I had found my two strike groups.
"Why does it have to be you?" Meia asked me, "Because of this" I indicated the crystalline band around my wrist, "This thing has been pulsing weaker and weaker the farther we get from the colonies, that tells me that the keys the Eleanor spoke of are there, or at least some of them, and, there are possible survivors, I have to go" I sighed, "Come here, I want you to hold onto one of these" I indicated my dog tags, taking one off the chain around my neck and handing it to her.
"I'm coming back for that" I promised, knowing I would deliver on my word yet again.
"You had better" she breathed in my ear, then, unexpectedly, she kissed me.
"I'm leaving Jake in charge of the fleet in my absence, not that im not confident in your ability to command, but commanding a fleet is a much harder task than a solitary ship, and, you'll have my old mentor here to help you, she has knowledge and experience you'll need to learn" I started to unpack a certain locker I had not touched since it had been brought on board, removing first, a black beret.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked, eyeing the black beret, uncertain.
"Yes, I'm a black beret, one of the best in fact, there's only one who is better than I am, thats my old mentor, she's the best, you can learn alot from her, you'll need that kind of training later on" I turned to my XO, seeing the look in her eyes.
"I trust her, she's Jake's mother, and, she has saved my life countless times, theres no one else I'd entrust your training to", pausing, I turned and removed class photo of another old friend, my protegee, and one of the best I'd ever seen.
"And he is?" Meia asked, probing me for yet more detail.
"Allain Halloran, a damn fine officer and black beret, met him in his sixth month at the academy, real sharp one, never misses a trick, and a real cunning genius, I respect him for that, and he's my former protegee"
"Former?" Meia inquired.
"Yes, when word had spread of the construction of the Nova class Prometheus, her Commander to be came and toured the facility, and noticed the up and coming black beret, and I recommended him for the job as Prometheus' operations officer" I paused, feeling a tinge of regret, and pride.
"He was like a son to me, still is" I put the photo away, not wanting to become a blubbering idiot in front of my XO.
I had just unpacked the guncase that held my trusty old Variable, when there was a knock, a marine guard entered and said "Jill to see you, sir", "Send her in" I said, before picking up my now cold coffee and taking a sip.
"General- John, I think we got the bugs ironed out of that enhanced ground combat armor, shaved about 100 pounds off it, and dialed down the response time to compensate, got one suit prepped and ready for transit to the Eternal" she said, and I looked at her, wondering how in the heavens she knew what was going on.
"Word travels fast on this ship, and way I see it, after damn near getting killed facing off agaisnt the souvener you brought me, you'll need it" she finished, then added, "Dont be an idiot and get your self killed, I dont think I could stand miss charm school here bitching about it".
My XO looked at her as if she wanted to scream, then laughed, making us both jump.
"Note to self numknuts, Teenagers and your XO do not mix" the voice of badly timed news announced from the recesses of my brain.
I could not agree more.
And with that exchange over with, it was time to go.
As I made my way to the flight deck, I took one last walk, something told me that before this was over, things would be very different.
I stopped in the CIC, and took one look around, then turned and headed to the flight deck.
Hours later, Aboard the Eternal, I reflected on my decision, and realized it was the correct one, and just as that happy thought crossed my brain, I felt that familiar queasyness that always preceeded a jump, and then we were away.
1835 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, just outside Eleanor home system.
I was gravely concerned, when the general entereed the CIC, I knew, as I saw him sweep his vision across each station, each person, that he was fixing the CIC in his memory, almost as though he never expected to see it again.
I waited for the XO to be alone, then I projected my hologram and said "He looks as if he never expects to see this ship again" Meia replied "He will be coming back, he gave his word, I feel it in my heart, he will be back"
I tried again, "Perhaps it would be a good idea to hedge our bets"
"What do you suggest?" she asked.
"We follow him, something about the look in his eyes tells me he'll need help at some point"
"Agreed" she replied.
0100 hrs, January 4th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U. beyond Kobol 188 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, Battlestar Eternal
Log entry: day 4
We'd made great progress in 4 days, stopping only once to repair a minor malfunction in the FTL system, so far, no opposition has greeted us, I know this cannot last, I have a bad feeling about this.
"Good morning, General" , Commander Aileen Tajalle said, by way of greeting, and held out a cup of fresh coffee.
"Thanks, and yes it is so far"
"Morming stauts report is unchanged from yesterday, General" Tajalle said, making me uncomfortable, I kinda have an issue with formalities, so, I commented "Call me John, or at least use my last name"
"Understood, John"
"Sir, Raptors four oh five and two oh one just jumped back, and report course is clear." the officer of the watch reported from the ops console.
"Its been quiet since the Eleanor homeworld, Tajalle muttered, clearly as ill at ease as I felt.
"Ok, this is pointless" I suddenly burst out, causing the comms tech, who had been quietly snoozing, to fall to the floor in shock, "We cant all be depressed on this flying tin can", "Uh, no offense" I added on seeing the dirty look Tajalle threw at me. "They packed the prototype jumper packs, lets put some birds up, see how the damn things perform, and while we're at it, give the rest of the strike group something to do"
Grabbing the headset, she dailed the portside deck,
"This is Tajalle, airboss, break out the jumper packs, time for some long ranged training"
"Yes ma'am" the Airboss cired, sounding relieved to finally have something to do, as our viper pilots would also soon be.
0630 hrs, January 4th, 2005
300 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 76 S.U. beyond Kobol 188 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space
"That fuel transport is becoming an issue again" Sykes grumbled, clearly not pleased with the latest reports on one of the more problematic ships in the fleet.
"Let me guess, their port intercooler again" Welles commented, clearly not surprised.
"I'll bet thirty cubits its her jump drive" Lefler offered.
"And the winner is, none of those" Sykes said, clearly enjoying herself, and the dirty looks her fellow officers were now throwing her.
I spoke up, "Ok, what is it?", "Colonal, its Her sublight number two, for the third time in as many days" Sykes was clearly more amused than the rest of us.
I sighed, "Ok, send an engineering team, its clear the civilian techs havent a clue whats wrong with her".
"Ma'am, we have something at extreme outer range on dradis" Welles announced, breaking what had been a nice calm respite.
"Send Echo's two and ten, they should be on the side of the fleet closest the signal about now" I ordered, certain something wasnt right.
"Meia, something's not right" Rommie ventured, the concern in her voice evident, "I know" I replied.
"Sykes, have those pawnee tugs move in on that fuel transport, I want it secured and ready to FTL out at a second's notice" I barked, trusting my initial instincts.
"Tugs are moving into position, all but the Pawnee herself" Sykes frowned, "They dont seem to be recieving our transmissions" she commented, worried.
"Atlantis actual, Echo ten, we have a fast mover inbound, hot and fast, long ranged tac missile size, moving to intercept" came over the comms.
"Snap to, attempt visual identification first" I advised.
"On heading, attempting visual ID, FRAK, its accelerating!" Echo ten cried, "Take it out!" I barked.
"Additional signals on Dradis, its a full Terran Alliance battle fleet and.." Welles broke off, as an alarm went off, "Radiological signature detected, that frakker's live!" Sykes cried.
"Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship" I screamed over the ship's PA.
"Whats the status on that fuel transport, why havent they jumped out yet?" I asked.
"Theres only 3 Pawnee class tugs" Sykes replied, "Where are the others?" , "They turned back, low fuel, and that transport's fuel pumps kept locking up, they headed back to the Eleanor homeworld" Sykes responded, just as the first rounds hit, causing some relays to overload and blow out.
"Report!" I screamed, just as another salvo hit, "Second Terran alliance battlegroup sighted on dradis, advancing from our port side, and it seems, our port defenses arent responding" Welles responded
"Now I know why the Pawnee wasnt responding, they saw a problem we didnt, I want those guns operational, Now!" I barked, managing to brace myself just as we took a particularly bad hit.
"Damage to frames two oh four, through two ten, decompressions in those sections, and we have multiple breaches in the hull", huffed chief wilson, as he came rushing into the CIC, "Those are some seriously overpowered weapons they have"
"Crimson alert, tactical analysis complete, immediate withdrawl is advised" Rommie announced. Then the missile zeroed in and took out the fuel transport, and, along with it, the brave souls of two ships that never saw it coming.
"Get the fleet out of here!" Col. Wilder barked, entering the CIC and finding total chaos.
"Ma'am, Intruder actual has just issued jump orders, and they advise us to send a tight beam to the Raider, advising of our course change" Sykes replied, "We just lost our number four and five HKEW batteries, and we've sustained more breaches" Wilson advised, from the CIC damage board.
"Civilian ships have jumped, Intruder has just spun her drives, and Concordia is away" Sykes advised.
"Frak, we just lost the Atlas, she came between us and a bad couple of shots" Welles advised.
"We need to withdraw" I advised, seeing the holographic dradis display flash yet another crimson alert.
"Why withdraw?" Wilder asked, "This alert, its the first thing John told me about, it means this ship is effectively outgunned and in danger of being captured, only way out is to withdraw" I advised
"This fight is over, get us out of here" I muttered
"Executing jump" Wilson replied.
I knew, before things got any better, they would get a whole lot worse.
____________________________________
this is the very latest, completed just in time for xmas, please, enjoy!
(yup, posted here cause alot of the ships I have posted here are also in the story)
About the " Defender " It is or rather was a Titan Class Gunstar from the First Cylon War, and still it had not been decommisioned, because of it's capabilities.
A Gunstar of the Titan Class called the Sentinel was part of a 3 ship Exploratory Expedition and was commanded by fleet Personnel, however Most of the Crew were Colonial Marines, as told by Author Ryan Keeton , In the Fanfic Battlestar Prometheus.
to read and to see the site, please go toBattlestar Prometheus - (BSR-01) and scroll down to bottom of page and hit the red link stating Battlestar Prometheus, then scroll down to the menu and you know the rest.
What I'd like to see, Is the Renderer of the " Defender " do a multi view render of the Battlestar Prometheus, that would be So Cool.
I find it very hard to see a Battlestar with four landing/launch/hanger deck pods as a viable warship, It would need a more powerful engine to even move something like that and the unsafe having that many vipers in the air, the CAG and Fighter controllers on the ship trying to organize all those squadrons would be a nightmare, besides the ship just looks too ponderous. Unlike the Battlestar Prometheus, from the Ryan Keeton stories, To me it looks like the Pegasus " On Steriods " and it is in a class by itself
FatKlingon48
XRaiderV1.7226I have absolutely no ideaPosts: 1,074Member
I have some Information on the TITAN CLASS GUNSTAR, (er the Battlestar looking ship with the underslung short Landing/Launch Pod and Two complete engines at the end of outriggers and turned 90degrees).
The Titan, though commanded by a Fleet Officer, the Majority of the Crew were Marines, you heard right, Colonial Marines, these ships are firce fighting ships, with a small complement of Vipers, But mainly had Raptors and Assault Shuttles.
On Top of that the ship itself had the ability to land on a planetary surface, deploy the pod to the ground and unload almost the entire complement of Marines and their fighting vehicles.
0630 hrs, January 9th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U. beyond Kobol 197 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space
Battlestar Atlantis
Executive officer's log entry, day 13
Three civilian ships, two tugs, one Atlas class, a fuel tanker, and one unlucky Raptor pilot, plus some thirty odd personel from this ship, were lost during an attempted withdrawl from hostile contact, I'm told damage was significant, and evidence suggests the developement of weapons systems based on Colonial technology.
This has me greatly concerned.
"Are you listening colonal?", "You hesitate, people die!"
Wilder was saying, truth is, I already knew what she was saying.
I turned and looked at her, and she could see, I already knew.
"Look, Leaders have to make decisions everyday about who lives and who dies. What's important is that you go to bed every night knowing that the lives you spent weren't wasted" she was trying to reassure me, I knew.
"Does it ever get easier?" I asked, "If it ever did, we wouldnt be any better than the cylons, we learn, we move on, we survive, and most important, we get these civilians to somewhere safe" she replied, still looking at me.
"I know you dont like me, and truth is, I cant stand you, so lets just get on with it"
"Agreed", I said.
0745 hrs, January 9th, 2005
225 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: In range of Kobol 197 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, Battlestar Eternal
"Reaper, squadron, tighten it up, too loose"
"Wolf six, Reaper, with all due respect, shove it!"
I stood there in the CIC, listening to the current round of discourse that seemed to have taken hold.
"They seem to be ready to start shooting each other, never mind any enemy units we encounter" Tajalle commented, as much at ease with the situation as I was.
"Wolf two, wolf six, go space yourself!"
I decided I'd heard enough, seemed I had a discipline problem brewing.
"Call them in, I want them all in the pilots ready room now!" I barked, "Then I wanna see all department heads in the situaton briefing room by 0900 hours, its time to set this house in order" I snapped, guess this has gotten to me more than I realized.
Half an hour later:
"Wheres the boss?" asked doctor Rosmary Roberts, "Dont know, but whatever iut is, its important enough to make him late" Reaper replied, checking his wrist watch again, for the thrid time in that half hour.
"Well, I do wish he'd hurry along, I need to go and get that intercooler fixed, before something else breaks, damn, these mercury class ships can be so tempramental" replied the ships engineer, Ronald wessman.
meanwhile:
As I strode towards the situation briefing room, I glanced at the thick pile of folders I'd gathered,Suddenly, the marine at the hatch cried "General on deck!"
I wished they would stop doing that, I had asked them repeatedly to stop, ah well, time to go crack some skulls.
"Ok, I just had a chat with the Master at arms, seems we have a discpline problem, I want it sorted out, now!" I barked
"These folders, they contain everything from discplinary reports to matenance reports, I am not impressed"
"General.." doctor Roberts began, but I cut across her, "I want this frakking **** knocked the frak off! Who dances in a launch tube at oh three hundred hours, on a battlestar?!" I barked.
"Why, for the love of frak, are the pilots of one of my best squadrons fighting amongst themselves while on a training flight???" I asked, feeling rather exasperated.
"Sir" Reaper began, but I cut him off too, "I want it to stop, now sort your houses out, and do it fast, two weeks, or the **** starts flying, we have another 5 months, and four weeks to go, and I want this strike group in fighting form"
I stood there, then added "Now, am I understood?"
"SIR,YES SIR!" they responded.
While I believed discpline was needed, I still dont like treating my own people like this, I've seen too much over the years, to not appreciate just how much words alone can help or hurt, so, it was somewhat reassuring to see a renewed determination in each of their faces, it translated into message recieved.
As they stood to leave, I walked over to the ships engineer, Michael Brown, and asked "How's the production of the block 1 vipers proceeding?"
"Not smoothly, the facilities on this ship were set up for Mark Sevens, not Eights, but, good news is, except for the avionics, EWS, certain hull and control systems, they use pretty much the same parts as the Sevens do, oh, the engines, those are most problematic at present, so, we've stripped a few so we could machine tools and whatnot to build additional ones"
"In otherwords, pretty much as expected"
I said.
"Yes, we've got tools and whatnot built, the servicing manuals I asked Reaper to bring over have been most helpful"
"I trust we'll be ready?"
"I'll make sure we're ready within three months if I have to"
"I've got a funny feeling, something tells me we're gonna need all the Eights you can have built" I paused, a nagging sensation at the back of my brain.
"Sir?" Brown asked, clearly picking up on my concern.
"It's nothing".
I prayed my instincts were wrong, but, truth is, they rarely were.
1230 hrs, January 30th, 2005
285 S.U. beyond the Redline, 60 S.U. beyond kobol, 218 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: within range of Terran alliance supply depot
Battlestar Atlantis
I took a breath before entering the CIC, so many lives depended on my pulling this off, without that fuel, alot of the ships wouldnt get very far.
I entered and strode over to Col. Wilder, who was busy looking over the daily reports, "I've gone over the intel or stealthstar flights brought back, and I think we're frakked if we try anything but a straight up"
"Oh, how so?" the Colonal asked, concerned.
"Truth is, we just dont have the ships to pull off a proper surgical strike, and a seizure op at the same time" I turned to the holographic console, and pulled up a tactical projection, and outlined my concerns.
"These defenses, they're not the problem, its the ships, the Atlantis, Intruder and Concordia constitute the majority of the resupply capacity for some forty odd civilian ships, plus an additional eight combat ships, we just dont have the ships to spare, now, look at this next one" I pulled up another projection, and highlighted the shortest path.
"If we bring Atlantis in here, and come at them at speed, their cruisers and carriers wont be able to get in position before we've secured the fuel and begun to withdraw"
Wilder highlighted the battlecruisers, and replied "I see your plan, but, these battlecruisers could quickly move into play and make things outright hell for us"
"Thats where Bullseye and echo squadron come in, they'll jump two minutes ahead of us, head right for those ships and draw them off just long enough for us to jump in, set up a holding action, and get our people to those fuel transports docked here and here" I indicated the ships docked at the orbital refinery.
"Then what? we just waltz on out? those carriers are faster than a Cygnus class cruiser, they will be on us before we even get our birds back on the deck"
"i'm counting on that, once they are in position, the Katana will jump here right behind that small moon, deploy an emp jump missle, and jump out, the missile will blind their dradis just long enough for us to slip out unnoticed, and with two nice big fat tankers as door prizes"
She looked at me, and shook her head.
"I just dont think it will work, too much depends almost solely on chance"
"I think its the only way, I've run every other variation I can think of, and this is the only one to offer a chance of success" Rommie suddenly announced, her trim form fading into view over the tactical projection.
"Ok, I give, besides we need the fuel"
0700 hrs, January 31th, 2005
287 S.U. beyond the Redline, 67 S.U. beyond kobol, 219 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: Terran alliance supply depot
Battlestar Atlantis
Things were quiet at the terran allaince supply depot, when suddenly, we jumped in, and all hell broke loose.
"Well, I dont think they expected us" I commented, "How rude of them, not to put out a welcome for us" Wilder replied.
"I show four battlecruisers, not the two the recon flights showed" Ensign Welles commented, "Bullseye says they can still make it work" Lt. Sykes reported.
"Execute attack plan" I barked.
Suddenly, we started taking fire from several previously unknown satellite missile platforms.
"I show two, no, make that three missile platforms, Point defenses have commenced fire" Sykes reported.
"Tell the railgun crews to pulse their fire, target the platforms, move us into position"
The ship rocked under the fire of two of the battle cruisers, their improved ordinance was not doing us any favors.
"Echo squad reports two battle cruisers have moved out of position, the other two, dont seem to have functioning drives" Sykes reported, and just then, we took a bad hit, several lightng units blew out, showering the deck with sparks.
"Load sledge hammer missiles, fire tubes one through fifty, I want those cruisers disabled" Wilder barked.
As the missles streaked out to the two alliance ships, the Katana jumped in, right on time, and promptly went into silent running mode.
On the Katana:
"Jump is complete, we're right on target" "Good, hold us here Liutenant" Colonal Ecks replied, taking a cigar out of his uniform's breast pocket and lighting it, taking a long drag, and gazing at the dradis screen, clearly not happy with how things seemed to be going.
"I have a bad feeling this is the easy part" Ecks whispered to himself.
On the Atlantis:
"Those cruisers seem to have thicker plating than we're used to seeing" Welles replied, clearly unsettled by the ineffectiveness of our missiles.
"Ok, lets see if we can get lucky with the MAC's, charge and load one round per MAC, and fire!" I cried, and felt the deck shudder as the first MAC went off, and, MAC number two malfunctioned yet again.
"MAC number two system failure, accelerator coils fried beyond repair" Rommie informed us, "MAC number one breech is cycling"
"Direct hit! battle cruiser out of the fight!" welles cried, and then the cruiser exploded, her fuel reserves making one hell of a show for the pilots of echo squadron.
Echo squadron:
"Frak! look at her burn! echo two commented, "Cut the chatter echo two, back around for one more pass on that second cruiser" Bullseye barked, pulling her viper back around.
On the Atlantis:
The ship shuddered under the concussive force those missile platforms were bringing to bear, "We need to silence those platforms!" Wilder cried, as a power relay overloaded and caused several lighting units to blow out.
"Portside railgun batteries one and three concentrating fire on platforms one and two, starboard battery one and two targetting platform three, platform two showing signs of drifting out of position" Sykes reported.
Suddenly the ship rocked as one of the platforms went up in a massive explosion.
"Platform two destroyed" Welles cried.
"We cant wait any longer, the carriers are on the move!" Wilder cried.
"Send the boarding teams, launch red, gold and grey squadrons to provide cover, send the signal, execute phase two!" I barked.
On the flight deck:
"Ok, you heard the lady, scramble everything we have, move!" cried the deck chief, "I want those gunships and shuttles airborne now!"
In the CIC:
"Boarding parties away, Viper escort hot on their tails" Sykes cried, as the ship rocked under the shockwave of another successfully destroyed platform.
"Platform one destroyed" Welles cried.
"Boarding party one lead unit reporting they have made contact, ETA ten minutes, boarding party two lead reports ETA at five minutes" Sykes reported.
"Those carriers will be on us in eleven minutes" Wilder barked.
Damned if she wasnt right, we'd still need another four minutes to recover our fighters.
"Sykes, tell all squadron leaders to have their birds latch onto those tankers, they're hitching a ride" I barked, "Set us up for a holding action, we need to buy our teams a few more minutes, instruct fire control to bring the heavies into play, I want that battle cruiser off our six now"
"Fire control reports they have a solution on that cruiser" Sykes reported.
"Fire!"
From outside the ship, all four of the ship's dorsal heavy guns swung ponderously about, and locked on the cruiser, and suddenly, great gouts of fire issued forth, barrels pistoning back, as all eight shells streaked forth, impacting and sending the alliance battlecruiser tumbling out of the fight.
Over the comm came:
"Bullseye to Actual, that last cruiser is toast, permission to engage that frak load of fighters headed your way"
"Not good" Wilder muttered.
"Tell me something I dont know, Sykes, tell them to come on home and re-arm, then send em back out" I cried.
"Carriers advancing, and prepairing to set up for a north south pole solution" Welles said, eyes going wide, I looked and saw what she was reacting to, a full alliance battle group.
"Tell those teams to get those tankers mobile now!, I dont care if they have to get out and push!" I barked, "Signal Katana to be ready to move into firing position, we may need her missile batteries shortly, and have them arm that jump missile for firing, I think we may need to set it off early" I barked.
"Tankers Mobile!" Sykes cried, "Tell squadron leaders to get their birds latched to those tankers now!" I replied, "Ma'am! Boarding team three reports they've snagged a destroyer!" Sykes cried.
"Well, fuel and a door prize", Wilson muttered, moving to his station, "as fun as this has been, can we go home now?" he asked pointedly.
"I cant agree more, signal Katana to set off that missile" I barked.
On the Katana:
"Atlantis is on the move, fire the missile" Ecks barked, taking a long drag on his cigar, and added "Take us to the rally point, our job here is done"
As the missile detonated, five ships jumped away.
1030 hrs, January 31th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, 50 S.U. beyond kobol, 219 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: Deep space
Battlestar Atlantis
"Well, two tankers, a Destroyer, and all personel accounted for, I call that an outstanding success" Wilder commented.
"Those carriers had us dead to rights, just after the tankers went mobile, why didnt they capitalize on it?" I replied.
"Who knows, what counts is we pulled it off, and even better, according to this report, that destroyer was fully loaded, sans crew" Wilder replied, taking a sip of her coffee.
Rommie shimmered into view, and added; "Damage reports are in, only moderate damage to several systems, damage overall is considered minor, time until repairs completed, is six hours".
"Thank you Rommie" Wilder replied, dismissing her.
"Yes, we did get off easy" I muttered.
Epilogue:
"Interesting, splitting the fleet, at a time when his forces are depleted" said the first voice.
"But which group is he with, the Elites seem most interested in him" said the third voice.
"Who knows with those religeous fanatics these days" replied the second voice.
"But, there can be no denying it, he is the one our oldest prophecy refers to, the one who will awaken the ship of lights, this, represents our god" said the seventh voice.
"He cannot be allowed to begin the awakening, it is too soon, all our plans are dependant on our god not returning for some odd decades" said a fifth voice.
"Are we in agreement, on either removing or neutralizing him?" asked a sixth voice.
"I have grave doubts on this, he is critical to the prophecy, if he does not exist when the time comes, things will not go well" replied a fourth voice.
"nevertheless, are we in agreement?" asked the sixth voice.
"Agreed" said all seven voices.
"By your command" said an unknown eighth voice.
___________________________________
sorry for the unusually long delay between chapter's 8 and 9, you know me, I dont ike to write when I'm particularly agitated or upset, I feel that ruins the story, to write when like that, and, the real world has not been kind to me these past few months.
on the bright side, the return of jericho, and the chance to play super smash bros. brawl provided just the recharge I needed, and, playing melee led to unexpected creative inspiration. this chapter's for all those who've wanted to see the atlantis in a knock down drag out brawl on her own(face it, you know you wanted to see this sooner or later).
with the pending resumption of the show on scifi channel, this release could not have come at a better time. I will keep writing this story, even after the tv show's end, there'd just too much left to tell, lol.
to all you vets out there, keep up the good fight, this one's for you as well.
I do hope all of you will continue to read this story.
XRaiderV1.7226I have absolutely no ideaPosts: 1,074Member
"So, you split the fleet, even though you knew there was little chance anyone would still be alive by the time you got there." I commented, finishing off my jersey mile.
"Yes, but I just couldnt let anyone else die if I could help it, so, I took a chance" John replied.
"Speaking of taking chances, it took some doing getting here" replied Jackson.
"Oh, how so?" I asked.
"My cell was compromised, a skin job infiltrated, they seem to be going after our intelligence assets first" he shook his head sadly.
"I'm all thats left of my cell"
"Retribution, swift and sure" I commented.
"Speaking of retribution, we were just about to run into some pirates I'd had a run in with some years ago, and they were not happy to see us again" John said, and then he continued his story.
Chapter 10: The Pirates of deep space
1 year, 8 months prior:
0900 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Location: in orbit of Sanctuary
Battlestar Eternal, docked to Cradle II
undergoing viper flight system upgrades
I strode across the deck, to the observation port, and gazed down at the planet below, to think, I thought this to be purgatory.
Well, some carrer mistakes do have their upsides. Just then, I saw one of the new Vipers come screaming past, just feet from the portal, swearing, I reached for the handset and dialed CIC.
"CIC, Conners, someone care to tell me why the frak we just got buzzed by one of our new vipers?"
"Conners, CIC, that would be Reaper, sir, seems he's gotten bored again"
I was in shock.
"What?!" I replied, barely keeping the amusement I felt from my voice.
"We got him with the last batch of transfers, seems no one else wants him, Commander Tajalle could better brief you, sir, she's already on her way to you"
"Thank you, Conners out"
As I hung up the handset, the voice of dumb ideas offered its two cents.
"ya think someone's gunning for a promotion?"
Dismissing the thought, I turned as the lift doors opened.
"Well, I assume you've just seen the latest frakup care of fleet command" she said, by way of greeting.
"Yeah, damn near choked on my coffee" I commented, noticing I'd apparently sprayed the porthole, the chief was gonna wring me a new one.
"We're the third ship he's done that to, and the first Battlestar, according to the stack of reports I have here"
"Let me see those" I asked, and as I read, I drank the rest of my coffee, and the further I read, the more amused I became, seemed this hotshot had an almost unnatural amount of skill with a viper.
"Damn, the kid's good, each time he's buzzed a ship, its always been with just a foot's space to spare, been a long time since I've seen anyone with this kind of skill" I replied, clearly amused.
"Well, did you read the last page of the fourth report?, the second to last ship he buzzed was Admiral Nagala's cruiser, just before he landed on the Atlantia"
Tajalle replied, shaking her head.
"Ouch, now thats a career killing move"
"To say the least, he's lucky he's still a pilot"
she replied.
"Well, I have a confession to make, I was there, just hours before we departed dock, I saw it happen from the portside observation deck, and, I called in a favor"
I replied, in a deadpan voice.
"Musta been one hell of a favor, to save that screw-up's six"
Tajalle commented.
"Actually, it was".
"Care to tell me?"
she asked, curiosity evident in her voice.
"When the time is right, yes".
The phone buzzed, and Tajalle answered, and turned to me.
"He's just landed".
"Lets go introduce ourselves, shall we?" I asked sarcastically.
"Lets", was the reply.
0930 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Starboard hanger,
Battlestar Eternal
"What the frak?"
"Why'd you pull me in?" was the first thing we heard, as we exited the lift, clearly, someone was pissed.
"General on deck!" barked one of the knuckle draggers.
"I wish they'd stop doing that, I've asked repeatedly" I leaned and muttered, so that only Tajalle heard me, she gave a noncommital shake of her head.
As we strode over to the scene of the yelling, I gave the scene a once over, that pilot was pissed.
"Someone care to tell me why they felt the need to buzz the portside observation deck while I tried to enjoy my morning coffee?"
I asked, curiousity evident in my voice.
The pilot turned and started to blast me, and stopped when he saw the rank insignias on my shoulders, reconsidering what he felt to be a precarious position, he saluted.
Acknowledging the salute, I added "While on most days I'd be inclined to toss your ass in the brig, truth is, that move impressed me, care to tell me how the frak you're always within one foot of the porthole?" I asked.
"Pushing myself to the limit, sir!"
He spoke that last word like it were an obscenity.
"Easy there, now, stand at ease..........."
Suddenly the klaxon went off, and over the PA came: "Alert vipers scramble, inbound supply ship is under attack by pirate vessels, repeat, alert vipers scramble"
"Ok, hotshot, you wanna show me pushing it to the limit, you're coming up with me" I replied, turning on my heel, as Tajalle inquired; "Sir?"
"Need to keep my skills sharp somehow", was my reply as I entered the pilots ready room.
I dressed quickly, and ran to the waiting viper, one of the new Eight series, and recalled what I'd only just read last night, and quickly ran down the checklist, and grasped the flight sticks, noticing a pair of icons lighting up on the helmet's HUD, and saw I'd been loaded into one of only 6 operational launch tubes, gave the launch ready salute, and held on, as the catapult literally threw me down the tube, throttling up as my viper left the tube.
"CIC, where are they?" I radioed, "course one oh four, by one one seven" CIC radioed.
I swung the starfighter into a sharp turn, and my foot pushed down on the throttle, accelerating to combat speed, Reaper on my port, following suit, damn, he was good.
"Where are they? I dont see them visually or on dradis" Reaper inquired.
"Just up ahead, in the shadow of the second moon, dradis shows two medium cruisers, and at least a solid two dozen fighters" I replied.
"We might need some help" Reaper commented, sizing up the situation.
"Copy, Actual, Conners, dispatch a squadron of fighters, we've got two medium cruisers and two dozen fighters harrasing the transport and and her scoutstar escort"
"Actual, copy, squadron eta is five minutes, actual out" came the reply.
"Five minutes? this'll be over in two" Reaper commented, clearly not happy with the situation.
"Well, lets go say hi, dont want to be rude now, do we?" I replied, sending my viper into a shallow dive, and coming up under the first cruiser.
"Nah, we wouldnt want that, I call the second cruiser" Reaper replied, making me wonder what he was thinking.
I opened a channel.
"This is colonial viper one one oh four november alpha, cease hostile actions immediately, or we will open fire, this is your only warning"
At that, a quartet of pirate fighters broke off, and tried to take a few potshots at us.
"Ok, weapons free, I show four bandits on our tail, split, take two" I growled, "Copy, weapons free, tally two, copy that" Reaper replied, thumbing the safeies off, I noticed a targeting rectical, and decided to see just what this new bird was made of, selecting missiles, I noted the icon changed and started moving about, guess thats what the manual meant when it said 'going to active targetting'.
Going nose over tail, I locked on, and fired, just as what I recognized as an old model asp shot past, missiles streaking out from under both my wings, and angled over, and hit the fleeing asp.
"Frak! did you see that?" Reaper cried, "I saw it I saw it, think this means if we can see them we can hit them, and, I think they know it" I replied, "Switch to guns, on my mark, up and over, two, one mark!"
As we both went vertical, the asps chasing us streaked past, and as we came back down, they tried to flip, pulling the trigger, the auto cannons spewed dozens of rounds a second, and shredded two asps, and the last elected to run, I decided to let him go, let him spread the word, Sanctuary was not an undefended backwater world.
Suddenly, over the comm;
"Pirate vessels, this is the scoutstar Peragrin, disengage now, or we will fire, this is your final warning"
"They're pulling back, boss" Reaper commented
Over the comm came:
"Transport to colonial vipers, requesting you begin landing procedures, we have injured on board, and, we were boarded just before you showed up"
"Boss?" Reaper inquired, finally with some hint of respect in his voice.
"Transport, viper one one oh four november alpha, we're inbound, prep landing deck for two" I radioed.
"Copy, we'll set out places for you" replied the transport comms officer.
"Ok, Reaper, let's go see what's up"
"Yes sir" he replied.
Fifteen minutes later, we'd landed.
1030 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Primary hanger,
Transport Starchaser
As we exited our vipers, someone, I'm assuming was the commanding officer, came towards us.
"I'm Lt. Singer, Thank you for coming so fast, we've got at least ten of them trapped in cargo hold fifteen, this way" she said.
As we made our way deeper into the transport, the sounds of gunfire became more distinct, nodding to Reaper, we drew our sidearms, and came up alongside some of the ships crew, who were exchanging fire with the pirate boarding party.
"Is there another way in?" I asked, "Yes, vent shaft, two corridors back, vent one oh five six" Singer replied.
"Reaper, keep these guys from getting killed, I'm gonna try and sneak in" I said, moving off, I found the indicated shaft, and noticed the ship's armory, so, I grabbed a trio of flashbangs, and started climbing the shaft, and soon, I found the vent, easing it open carefully, taking care to stay silent, I froze when I heard who I took to be the leader say they had hostages.
Thank god for my training, I'd almost dropped in early, thats how unexpected that declaration was, as it is, I couldnt stop the flashbang that came loose and fell, so, I popped another and tossed it down, and shielded my eyes.
The Flashbang went off, Frak, those things were loud, particularly in the vent shaft, still, I moved, dropping in behind a row of cargo modules, moving quickly, I neutralized several, and just as I signaled the all clear, I felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against the base of my skull, and right then and there, the voice in the back of my brain chose such a time to make a wisecrack.
"You missed one, numbknuts"
"I'll take that sidearm" a gruff feminine voice said.
I fell back on my training, as I 'dropped' my sidearm, I spun, and cold clocked my wouldbe captor, and she was down, but not out, and suddenly found herself staring down the muzzles of several weapons.
"And thats the game, you loose, lady" was my response to the cold glare she threw my way.
"I'll be seeing you again" she spat, as she was led off.
"Sir, message came through for you, the archeology site on sanctuary found something, the Doc seems to think you'd be interested" Singer announced, as she came running in.
"Well, be seeing you, glad we could be of some help" I replied, holding out my hand, grasping and shaking, she replied; "Oh, yes, you will be seeing me again"
As we took off, I couldnt shake the feeling that she was right.
About half an hour later, we sat, in hover, waiting for the LSO's to wave us in, the whole time, I kept my eyes on the temperature gauge, I'd been told the thrusters weren't very tolerant of lengthy hovers, finally, they brought us down, and I felt the viper settle down.
1100 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Defense compound air field,
Sanctuary Colony complex,
Sanctuary.
"Well, whatever it is, it took some doing to extract it" Doc said, hefting a small armored case onto the table, and he opened it.
"Well, I think those pirates might have been after this" I replied, removing a crystal with strange etchings on it from the case, it was a thin hexagonal shaped crystal, glowing slightly.
"Dont worry, there's no radiation hazard, first thing we checked" Doc replied, on seeing my questioning look.
As I looked out the window, I knew, this crystal, would one day be important.
"Something tells me, this isnt the end of it, not by a long shot"
I just knew I would be proven right.
________________________________
and thats chapter 10, please, enjoy, chapter 11 is in progress.
Hi Guys! love the ship design. I hope i can show you the design I am currently working on. it is not warship, but a fighter class. a heavy fighter / bomber 2 man cockpit. when finished, will gladly post it for comments and suggestions on your part.
started work on the top view, ive completley revamped her and i think this is probably the best look, ive been sketching for weeks on pod configs with the weapons i want to put on there, giving it firepower but not look OTT
this is a size comparison with a murcury class battlestar and a Zeus class warstar which i happened to find in google
Posts
enjoy!.
haha i forgot about this place a long time ago, ive missed soo much.
i really need to dust off my old work and get some new stuff on the go
nice to see you guys keeping the thread alive.
chapter 8: Leap of faith.
(Dedicated to CanisD for his contribution to the scifi community)
1137 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, planet side, the ruins, engaged in combat against cylon aggressor ground force. seperated from ground team.
"You know, this night have been a bad time to seperate from the rest of the ground team" Rommie admonished me, as we continued to take fire from that walking monstrosity of a tank.
"Thanks for stating the obvious" I replied, ducking in a hurry to avoid getting my damn fool head blown off, yet again.
I checked my ammo count, not good, only ten rounds left, "Some one had to move off and get a second laser on that first tank, or the fighters woulda dropped tier bombs on top of us!" I added, as now the Elite started firing on us, this was way out of hand, and being pinned to a rock, with a sheer dropoff behind me, had to admit, I'd screwed up.
"Ground lead, Reaper, we've expended our ground ordinance, want us to try anti fighter missiles?"came over the comms, "Yes, please" was my response.
"Thats it" I said as the Elite fired s grenade, which went wide, "I', taking that son of a bitch out"
I raised the scope up, slaved to the optics in my suit's helmet, zoomed in, and took the shot, and, naturally, given my bad luck of the day, the frakker did not go down.
"Ground lead to anyone with a sniper rifle, please take this SOB out" I radioed, "Ground lead, all we have is assault rifles and pistol grenades" Sykes radioed back, "Hit him with a grenade, get his attention" I replied.
"You arent thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" Rommie asked, uncertainty in her voice, "depends" I commented, fitting a bayonet to my rifle, "yes, you are, despite that damned tank" she replied, resignation clear in her voice, "I want to bring the teck geeks a souviner" I calmly stated, prepairing to get shot.
"You are nuts" came the terse reply, "Yes, I am" I grunted as I set myself for a possible long drop, for the Elite had just moved next to the cliff's edge. "Why me?" I asked, then barked over the comm"Now, Fire!", as a shot rang out, and theElite turned to see where its tromentor was shooting from, I bolted, moving much faster I realized, than the tank could track.
It's loss, slow dumb tank.
I yanked the Elite off its feet with a tackle around its throat, and slid the bayonet in between the armor plate, right where its lung would be, and twisted, and held on, then it was dead, kicking it off me, I rooled over and went to stand up, thats when I remembered the tank.
It was looking right at me.
All I had time to even say was simply "Oh, ****......" and I took a nice dozen rounds in the right shoulder, sending me right over the cliff, and I fired my grappler from my left arm, and lucky frakking me, the hook held.
This was just not my day.
"Ya know, assumption is the mother of all frakkups" hammered an unwelcome voice from the depths of my brain.
Just then, I heard the unmistakable roar of a Canis class patrol cutter, noise is very distinctive, almost like one loooong constant car backfire, with her jumbo sized engines lit, anyway.
I took a literal leap of faith, and dialed the commscan, and nailed the channel the patrol cutter was on almost instantly.
"colonial marine to Canis class Cutter, I could use a hand here, mind stopping by so I can hitch a ride on the wing?" I radioed, "What the frak? what the hell did ya get yourself into marine?" came the response.
"I picked a fight with a centurian and a tank, and lost against the tank, speaking of which, see if you cant put a few rounds in its optical scanner"
"Why not just total it?" replied the cutter, "Because I want my people to see what makes it tick, so we can come up with a response"I grunted, starting to feel all three hundred and twenty pounds of myself starting to tear at my arm muscles" "And hurry, my arm's gonna come off" I grunted, this caused the armor to inject a painkiller, precisely what I didnt want.
As the cutter moved under me, I looked at my shoulder and saw that the bleeding from where the rounds had penetrated had already stopped
I started feeding out cable, and then, dropped onto the wing, careful to keep my balace as the cutter's pilot began maneuvoring for a shot the tank, and promptly took fire.
I felt a vibration, and saw the ventral turret swing about, and open fire, shattering the tank's scan visor in one hit, and the tank for lack of a better way to put it, keeled over, dead.
"Well, scratch one toaster tank" the cutter radioed, "Nice shooting, even by my standards", See that clearing off by the temple entrance? set down there" I radioed, wanting very much to be on terra mostly firma.
The cutter swung around, and lowered itself down, and I hopped off the wing, and felt, for the first time in about four ours or so, relieved.
Looking at my shoulder, I was astonished to see not even a scratch on my skin, still, this was a pointed reminder to not take unneccsary chances, period.
Opening a channel, I called in some more gunships, we were gonna need help getting the remains of that tank to the Atlantis.
As I walked back, Sarge came running up, the rest of the survey team not far behind. Moving to acknowledge the salutes being offered, I winced, seemed my shoulder wasnt fully healed.
She came up and saluted, and I settled for offering a handshake, seeing as my right shoulder wasnt permitting me a salute.
"Welcome back, old friend"
1200 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Temple
"Well, that was certainly interesting, you seem to still have a knack for finding trouble" Sarge remarked, seeing how banged up my armor had gotten.
"Believe me, thats not the half of it" I commented, as I peeled back the suit's gel layer, and promptly discovered a fragment of a high velocity round sticking out, which explained why my shoulder still hurt like hell. "Here, let me help" she replied, seeing me unable to get at the fragment myself.
"Yeeooch!" I cried out, "Hmm, guess this thing had barbs on it" mused Sarge.
As I sealed my armor back up, another elder approached, and instead of the reaction I got earlier, the one I got this time was far more friendly, she extended her hand, and careful to avoid shredding my hand on her claws, I shook.
"You do the Eleanor a great honor with your bravery, even though this was not your fight, you stepped in, and defended us, and risked alot."
"This may not have been our fight, but the cylons regard us the same way" I replied.
"Even if we had turned and run, they would have kept attacking anyway" I commented.
"This is true, only because they seek the very artifact that has appartently chosen you as its protector, you must keep it safe at all costs, its power can not be allowed to fall into their hands" the elder cautioned.
"I understand, I would sooner see this artifact tossed into a black hole than allow the cylons to get possession of it" I vowed.
"That artifact will lead you to thirteen others, these, have the power to save the future home of your people, and remember, any time you wish, you may return, for you will always be welcome among the Eleanor"
"Thank you, I will not fail this mission, I never fail" I vowed.
"Time to go home, I guess", Sykes sighed, it was clear to me that she wanted to spend more time here, I wish I could have obliged.
As we lifted off, I reflected on the day's events, and on my meeting a rather interesting people.
"Someone one once asked me, why does humanity deserve to survive?, before today, I didnt have an answer, today, after meeting the eleanor, my answer is simple: to learn from our mistakes, to seek to better ourselves, to learn" I mused, looking out the window, watching the transport and the other gunships keep formation.
"Sir?" Sykes inquired,with a puzzled look.
"All life is precious, this is why we fight, to save lives" I mused, as the gunship set down on the landing pad.
Some hours later, as the fleet cruised out of the system, I was pouring over some reports, and came across one that caught my eye. "Meia, how come we left ships behind back there?" I asked, pausing to take a sip of my tea.
"Their captains told me the civilians on board had expressed a desire to remain with the Eleanor" she replied, as she read over another report, "I didnt see the point in forcing an issue, and the ships left behind arent considered essential, and the Commanders of a few combat ships volunteered to remain as well".
"I see, well, as much as I dont like leaving people behind, we cant force them to come with us, all the same, we cant leave them unprotected" I nodded, I knew my XO had made the right call.
While I was engrossed in the damage reports from that last battle, the Comms unit rang, and Meia answered it, while I sat there looking at her from the corner of my eye, alert for possible bad news.
For once, it was good news, "We've cleared the asteroid field, and can now jump, hang on...... We've just detected another one of those bouy's from the Prometheus, and downloaded some more data" she informed me, looking very relieved at the good news.
"John, something else, seems there's several messages we only just got access to, they've been routed down here" she informed me, hanging up the handset. I got up, went to my console, and punched in my code, and saw something that gave me some hope for the future.
"To the commander of the Atlantis, a word of advice, 'No fate but what we make', signed Gen. O'neill"
Then immediately below it, one from Admiral Nagala, dated the day of the fall, "John, get out, save yourself, protect our species' legacy, protect the survivors of this day, its been an honor"
I didnt know what to make of that last one, half the systems on the ship must have been still offline when we got this message, I felt a touch of regret about that day, wished I'd shown more gratitude to her for going to bat for me.
1800 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, just outside Eleanor home system
"General and XO to CIC, repeat, General and XO to CIC" blared out over the PA.
"Wonder who else wants to play" muttered Meia, I couldnt find reason to disagree, seemed we'd been jumped by almost everyone since we'd entered this region of space.
As we strode in, I noticed a look of hope and sadness on the face of the ship's comms officer, "Ok, give it to me, what have we got?" I asked.
"Hermes class gunstar just jumped in, by the reports I'm getting from CAP, she's badly damaged, and I'm getting nothing on comms from her" Sykes replied, obviously very concerned with a lack of reply to repeated transmissions.
"CAP reports ship ID as gunstar Katana, and it seems she's got zero attitude control at present, and zero sublight speed".
"Anything else on Dradis?" Meia asked, "Nothing" Ensign Welles muttered, eyes on the holographic dradis display.
"Instruct the pawnee and arappaho to maneuvor the Katana over to the cradle" I barked.
"Watchman reports evidence of combat or damage control onboard her sir, some decompressions have been seen from around her dorsal port amidships defenseive battery", Skyes commented.
"Why do I get the distinct feeling that things just went south in a way no one could have expected?" I asked.
Several hours later, after the Katana had been secured, and the damage to her contained, we learned of survivors fighting a desperate batle to survive.
As for the battlegroup the Katana had been assigned to, they were lost, trying to evacuate survivors, only the Katana had survived, and barely, judging from the damage reports I had been seeing.
I was hell bent on assembling a rescue operation, even though we would likely arrive eight months too late, it still had to be done.
To that end I spent the next few days pouring over the list of ships and personel who had survived, and immediately saw several ships that would be perfect for this mission.
I set aside the data packets for the Battlestars Eternal and Celestial, the Gunstars Sabre, and Comanche, and the scoutstars Olduvai and Triton. I had found my two strike groups.
"Why does it have to be you?" Meia asked me, "Because of this" I indicated the crystalline band around my wrist, "This thing has been pulsing weaker and weaker the farther we get from the colonies, that tells me that the keys the Eleanor spoke of are there, or at least some of them, and, there are possible survivors, I have to go" I sighed, "Come here, I want you to hold onto one of these" I indicated my dog tags, taking one off the chain around my neck and handing it to her.
"I'm coming back for that" I promised, knowing I would deliver on my word yet again.
"You had better" she breathed in my ear, then, unexpectedly, she kissed me.
"I'm leaving Jake in charge of the fleet in my absence, not that im not confident in your ability to command, but commanding a fleet is a much harder task than a solitary ship, and, you'll have my old mentor here to help you, she has knowledge and experience you'll need to learn" I started to unpack a certain locker I had not touched since it had been brought on board, removing first, a black beret.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked, eyeing the black beret, uncertain.
"Yes, I'm a black beret, one of the best in fact, there's only one who is better than I am, thats my old mentor, she's the best, you can learn alot from her, you'll need that kind of training later on" I turned to my XO, seeing the look in her eyes.
"I trust her, she's Jake's mother, and, she has saved my life countless times, theres no one else I'd entrust your training to", pausing, I turned and removed class photo of another old friend, my protegee, and one of the best I'd ever seen.
"And he is?" Meia asked, probing me for yet more detail.
"Allain Halloran, a damn fine officer and black beret, met him in his sixth month at the academy, real sharp one, never misses a trick, and a real cunning genius, I respect him for that, and he's my former protegee"
"Former?" Meia inquired.
"Yes, when word had spread of the construction of the Nova class Prometheus, her Commander to be came and toured the facility, and noticed the up and coming black beret, and I recommended him for the job as Prometheus' operations officer" I paused, feeling a tinge of regret, and pride.
"He was like a son to me, still is" I put the photo away, not wanting to become a blubbering idiot in front of my XO.
I had just unpacked the guncase that held my trusty old Variable, when there was a knock, a marine guard entered and said "Jill to see you, sir", "Send her in" I said, before picking up my now cold coffee and taking a sip.
"General- John, I think we got the bugs ironed out of that enhanced ground combat armor, shaved about 100 pounds off it, and dialed down the response time to compensate, got one suit prepped and ready for transit to the Eternal" she said, and I looked at her, wondering how in the heavens she knew what was going on.
"Word travels fast on this ship, and way I see it, after damn near getting killed facing off agaisnt the souvener you brought me, you'll need it" she finished, then added, "Dont be an idiot and get your self killed, I dont think I could stand miss charm school here bitching about it".
My XO looked at her as if she wanted to scream, then laughed, making us both jump.
"Note to self numknuts, Teenagers and your XO do not mix" the voice of badly timed news announced from the recesses of my brain.
I could not agree more.
And with that exchange over with, it was time to go.
As I made my way to the flight deck, I took one last walk, something told me that before this was over, things would be very different.
I stopped in the CIC, and took one look around, then turned and headed to the flight deck.
Hours later, Aboard the Eternal, I reflected on my decision, and realized it was the correct one, and just as that happy thought crossed my brain, I felt that familiar queasyness that always preceeded a jump, and then we were away.
1835 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol 184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, just outside Eleanor home system.
I was gravely concerned, when the general entereed the CIC, I knew, as I saw him sweep his vision across each station, each person, that he was fixing the CIC in his memory, almost as though he never expected to see it again.
I waited for the XO to be alone, then I projected my hologram and said "He looks as if he never expects to see this ship again" Meia replied "He will be coming back, he gave his word, I feel it in my heart, he will be back"
I tried again, "Perhaps it would be a good idea to hedge our bets"
"What do you suggest?" she asked.
"We follow him, something about the look in his eyes tells me he'll need help at some point"
"Agreed" she replied.
0100 hrs, January 4th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U. beyond Kobol 188 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, Battlestar Eternal
Log entry: day 4
We'd made great progress in 4 days, stopping only once to repair a minor malfunction in the FTL system, so far, no opposition has greeted us, I know this cannot last, I have a bad feeling about this.
"Good morning, General" , Commander Aileen Tajalle said, by way of greeting, and held out a cup of fresh coffee.
"Thanks, and yes it is so far"
"Morming stauts report is unchanged from yesterday, General" Tajalle said, making me uncomfortable, I kinda have an issue with formalities, so, I commented "Call me John, or at least use my last name"
"Understood, John"
"Sir, Raptors four oh five and two oh one just jumped back, and report course is clear." the officer of the watch reported from the ops console.
"Its been quiet since the Eleanor homeworld, Tajalle muttered, clearly as ill at ease as I felt.
"Ok, this is pointless" I suddenly burst out, causing the comms tech, who had been quietly snoozing, to fall to the floor in shock, "We cant all be depressed on this flying tin can", "Uh, no offense" I added on seeing the dirty look Tajalle threw at me. "They packed the prototype jumper packs, lets put some birds up, see how the damn things perform, and while we're at it, give the rest of the strike group something to do"
Grabbing the headset, she dailed the portside deck,
"This is Tajalle, airboss, break out the jumper packs, time for some long ranged training"
"Yes ma'am" the Airboss cired, sounding relieved to finally have something to do, as our viper pilots would also soon be.
0630 hrs, January 4th, 2005
300 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 76 S.U. beyond Kobol 188 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space
"That fuel transport is becoming an issue again" Sykes grumbled, clearly not pleased with the latest reports on one of the more problematic ships in the fleet.
"Let me guess, their port intercooler again" Welles commented, clearly not surprised.
"I'll bet thirty cubits its her jump drive" Lefler offered.
"And the winner is, none of those" Sykes said, clearly enjoying herself, and the dirty looks her fellow officers were now throwing her.
I spoke up, "Ok, what is it?", "Colonal, its Her sublight number two, for the third time in as many days" Sykes was clearly more amused than the rest of us.
I sighed, "Ok, send an engineering team, its clear the civilian techs havent a clue whats wrong with her".
"Ma'am, we have something at extreme outer range on dradis" Welles announced, breaking what had been a nice calm respite.
"Send Echo's two and ten, they should be on the side of the fleet closest the signal about now" I ordered, certain something wasnt right.
"Meia, something's not right" Rommie ventured, the concern in her voice evident, "I know" I replied.
"Sykes, have those pawnee tugs move in on that fuel transport, I want it secured and ready to FTL out at a second's notice" I barked, trusting my initial instincts.
"Tugs are moving into position, all but the Pawnee herself" Sykes frowned, "They dont seem to be recieving our transmissions" she commented, worried.
"Atlantis actual, Echo ten, we have a fast mover inbound, hot and fast, long ranged tac missile size, moving to intercept" came over the comms.
"Snap to, attempt visual identification first" I advised.
"On heading, attempting visual ID, FRAK, its accelerating!" Echo ten cried, "Take it out!" I barked.
"Additional signals on Dradis, its a full Terran Alliance battle fleet and.." Welles broke off, as an alarm went off, "Radiological signature detected, that frakker's live!" Sykes cried.
"Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship" I screamed over the ship's PA.
"Whats the status on that fuel transport, why havent they jumped out yet?" I asked.
"Theres only 3 Pawnee class tugs" Sykes replied, "Where are the others?" , "They turned back, low fuel, and that transport's fuel pumps kept locking up, they headed back to the Eleanor homeworld" Sykes responded, just as the first rounds hit, causing some relays to overload and blow out.
"Report!" I screamed, just as another salvo hit, "Second Terran alliance battlegroup sighted on dradis, advancing from our port side, and it seems, our port defenses arent responding" Welles responded
"Now I know why the Pawnee wasnt responding, they saw a problem we didnt, I want those guns operational, Now!" I barked, managing to brace myself just as we took a particularly bad hit.
"Damage to frames two oh four, through two ten, decompressions in those sections, and we have multiple breaches in the hull", huffed chief wilson, as he came rushing into the CIC, "Those are some seriously overpowered weapons they have"
"Crimson alert, tactical analysis complete, immediate withdrawl is advised" Rommie announced. Then the missile zeroed in and took out the fuel transport, and, along with it, the brave souls of two ships that never saw it coming.
"Get the fleet out of here!" Col. Wilder barked, entering the CIC and finding total chaos.
"Ma'am, Intruder actual has just issued jump orders, and they advise us to send a tight beam to the Raider, advising of our course change" Sykes replied, "We just lost our number four and five HKEW batteries, and we've sustained more breaches" Wilson advised, from the CIC damage board.
"Civilian ships have jumped, Intruder has just spun her drives, and Concordia is away" Sykes advised.
"Frak, we just lost the Atlas, she came between us and a bad couple of shots" Welles advised.
"We need to withdraw" I advised, seeing the holographic dradis display flash yet another crimson alert.
"Why withdraw?" Wilder asked, "This alert, its the first thing John told me about, it means this ship is effectively outgunned and in danger of being captured, only way out is to withdraw" I advised
"This fight is over, get us out of here" I muttered
"Executing jump" Wilson replied.
I knew, before things got any better, they would get a whole lot worse.
____________________________________
this is the very latest, completed just in time for xmas, please, enjoy!
(yup, posted here cause alot of the ships I have posted here are also in the story)
A Gunstar of the Titan Class called the Sentinel was part of a 3 ship Exploratory Expedition and was commanded by fleet Personnel, however Most of the Crew were Colonial Marines, as told by Author Ryan Keeton , In the Fanfic Battlestar Prometheus.
to read and to see the site, please go toBattlestar Prometheus - (BSR-01) and scroll down to bottom of page and hit the red link stating Battlestar Prometheus, then scroll down to the menu and you know the rest.
What I'd like to see, Is the Renderer of the " Defender " do a multi view render of the Battlestar Prometheus, that would be So Cool.
FatKlingon48
The Titan, though commanded by a Fleet Officer, the Majority of the Crew were Marines, you heard right, Colonial Marines, these ships are firce fighting ships, with a small complement of Vipers, But mainly had Raptors and Assault Shuttles.
On Top of that the ship itself had the ability to land on a planetary surface, deploy the pod to the ground and unload almost the entire complement of Marines and their fighting vehicles.
Check out battlestar.prometheus - NEW EPISODE: "GAMMA" A*NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD! 02.2.2008 To get all the latest updates on th
Scroll down to " Second Season " and Read episode 4 and then 5, You'll love it.
0630 hrs, January 9th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U. beyond Kobol 197 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space
Battlestar Atlantis
Executive officer's log entry, day 13
Three civilian ships, two tugs, one Atlas class, a fuel tanker, and one unlucky Raptor pilot, plus some thirty odd personel from this ship, were lost during an attempted withdrawl from hostile contact, I'm told damage was significant, and evidence suggests the developement of weapons systems based on Colonial technology.
This has me greatly concerned.
"Are you listening colonal?", "You hesitate, people die!"
Wilder was saying, truth is, I already knew what she was saying.
I turned and looked at her, and she could see, I already knew.
"Look, Leaders have to make decisions everyday about who lives and who dies. What's important is that you go to bed every night knowing that the lives you spent weren't wasted" she was trying to reassure me, I knew.
"Does it ever get easier?" I asked, "If it ever did, we wouldnt be any better than the cylons, we learn, we move on, we survive, and most important, we get these civilians to somewhere safe" she replied, still looking at me.
"I know you dont like me, and truth is, I cant stand you, so lets just get on with it"
"Agreed", I said.
0745 hrs, January 9th, 2005
225 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: In range of Kobol 197 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Deep space, Battlestar Eternal
"Reaper, squadron, tighten it up, too loose"
"Wolf six, Reaper, with all due respect, shove it!"
I stood there in the CIC, listening to the current round of discourse that seemed to have taken hold.
"They seem to be ready to start shooting each other, never mind any enemy units we encounter" Tajalle commented, as much at ease with the situation as I was.
"Wolf two, wolf six, go space yourself!"
I decided I'd heard enough, seemed I had a discipline problem brewing.
"Call them in, I want them all in the pilots ready room now!" I barked, "Then I wanna see all department heads in the situaton briefing room by 0900 hours, its time to set this house in order" I snapped, guess this has gotten to me more than I realized.
Half an hour later:
"Wheres the boss?" asked doctor Rosmary Roberts, "Dont know, but whatever iut is, its important enough to make him late" Reaper replied, checking his wrist watch again, for the thrid time in that half hour.
"Well, I do wish he'd hurry along, I need to go and get that intercooler fixed, before something else breaks, damn, these mercury class ships can be so tempramental" replied the ships engineer, Ronald wessman.
meanwhile:
As I strode towards the situation briefing room, I glanced at the thick pile of folders I'd gathered,Suddenly, the marine at the hatch cried "General on deck!"
I wished they would stop doing that, I had asked them repeatedly to stop, ah well, time to go crack some skulls.
"Ok, I just had a chat with the Master at arms, seems we have a discpline problem, I want it sorted out, now!" I barked
"These folders, they contain everything from discplinary reports to matenance reports, I am not impressed"
"General.." doctor Roberts began, but I cut across her, "I want this frakking **** knocked the frak off! Who dances in a launch tube at oh three hundred hours, on a battlestar?!" I barked.
"Why, for the love of frak, are the pilots of one of my best squadrons fighting amongst themselves while on a training flight???" I asked, feeling rather exasperated.
"Sir" Reaper began, but I cut him off too, "I want it to stop, now sort your houses out, and do it fast, two weeks, or the **** starts flying, we have another 5 months, and four weeks to go, and I want this strike group in fighting form"
I stood there, then added "Now, am I understood?"
"SIR,YES SIR!" they responded.
While I believed discpline was needed, I still dont like treating my own people like this, I've seen too much over the years, to not appreciate just how much words alone can help or hurt, so, it was somewhat reassuring to see a renewed determination in each of their faces, it translated into message recieved.
As they stood to leave, I walked over to the ships engineer, Michael Brown, and asked "How's the production of the block 1 vipers proceeding?"
"Not smoothly, the facilities on this ship were set up for Mark Sevens, not Eights, but, good news is, except for the avionics, EWS, certain hull and control systems, they use pretty much the same parts as the Sevens do, oh, the engines, those are most problematic at present, so, we've stripped a few so we could machine tools and whatnot to build additional ones"
"In otherwords, pretty much as expected"
I said.
"Yes, we've got tools and whatnot built, the servicing manuals I asked Reaper to bring over have been most helpful"
"I trust we'll be ready?"
"I'll make sure we're ready within three months if I have to"
"I've got a funny feeling, something tells me we're gonna need all the Eights you can have built" I paused, a nagging sensation at the back of my brain.
"Sir?" Brown asked, clearly picking up on my concern.
"It's nothing".
I prayed my instincts were wrong, but, truth is, they rarely were.
1230 hrs, January 30th, 2005
285 S.U. beyond the Redline, 60 S.U. beyond kobol, 218 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: within range of Terran alliance supply depot
Battlestar Atlantis
I took a breath before entering the CIC, so many lives depended on my pulling this off, without that fuel, alot of the ships wouldnt get very far.
I entered and strode over to Col. Wilder, who was busy looking over the daily reports, "I've gone over the intel or stealthstar flights brought back, and I think we're frakked if we try anything but a straight up"
"Oh, how so?" the Colonal asked, concerned.
"Truth is, we just dont have the ships to pull off a proper surgical strike, and a seizure op at the same time" I turned to the holographic console, and pulled up a tactical projection, and outlined my concerns.
"These defenses, they're not the problem, its the ships, the Atlantis, Intruder and Concordia constitute the majority of the resupply capacity for some forty odd civilian ships, plus an additional eight combat ships, we just dont have the ships to spare, now, look at this next one" I pulled up another projection, and highlighted the shortest path.
"If we bring Atlantis in here, and come at them at speed, their cruisers and carriers wont be able to get in position before we've secured the fuel and begun to withdraw"
Wilder highlighted the battlecruisers, and replied "I see your plan, but, these battlecruisers could quickly move into play and make things outright hell for us"
"Thats where Bullseye and echo squadron come in, they'll jump two minutes ahead of us, head right for those ships and draw them off just long enough for us to jump in, set up a holding action, and get our people to those fuel transports docked here and here" I indicated the ships docked at the orbital refinery.
"Then what? we just waltz on out? those carriers are faster than a Cygnus class cruiser, they will be on us before we even get our birds back on the deck"
"i'm counting on that, once they are in position, the Katana will jump here right behind that small moon, deploy an emp jump missle, and jump out, the missile will blind their dradis just long enough for us to slip out unnoticed, and with two nice big fat tankers as door prizes"
She looked at me, and shook her head.
"I just dont think it will work, too much depends almost solely on chance"
"I think its the only way, I've run every other variation I can think of, and this is the only one to offer a chance of success" Rommie suddenly announced, her trim form fading into view over the tactical projection.
"Ok, I give, besides we need the fuel"
0700 hrs, January 31th, 2005
287 S.U. beyond the Redline, 67 S.U. beyond kobol, 219 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: Terran alliance supply depot
Battlestar Atlantis
Things were quiet at the terran allaince supply depot, when suddenly, we jumped in, and all hell broke loose.
"Well, I dont think they expected us" I commented, "How rude of them, not to put out a welcome for us" Wilder replied.
"I show four battlecruisers, not the two the recon flights showed" Ensign Welles commented, "Bullseye says they can still make it work" Lt. Sykes reported.
"Execute attack plan" I barked.
Suddenly, we started taking fire from several previously unknown satellite missile platforms.
"I show two, no, make that three missile platforms, Point defenses have commenced fire" Sykes reported.
"Tell the railgun crews to pulse their fire, target the platforms, move us into position"
The ship rocked under the fire of two of the battle cruisers, their improved ordinance was not doing us any favors.
"Echo squad reports two battle cruisers have moved out of position, the other two, dont seem to have functioning drives" Sykes reported, and just then, we took a bad hit, several lightng units blew out, showering the deck with sparks.
"Load sledge hammer missiles, fire tubes one through fifty, I want those cruisers disabled" Wilder barked.
As the missles streaked out to the two alliance ships, the Katana jumped in, right on time, and promptly went into silent running mode.
On the Katana:
"Jump is complete, we're right on target" "Good, hold us here Liutenant" Colonal Ecks replied, taking a cigar out of his uniform's breast pocket and lighting it, taking a long drag, and gazing at the dradis screen, clearly not happy with how things seemed to be going.
"I have a bad feeling this is the easy part" Ecks whispered to himself.
On the Atlantis:
"Those cruisers seem to have thicker plating than we're used to seeing" Welles replied, clearly unsettled by the ineffectiveness of our missiles.
"Ok, lets see if we can get lucky with the MAC's, charge and load one round per MAC, and fire!" I cried, and felt the deck shudder as the first MAC went off, and, MAC number two malfunctioned yet again.
"MAC number two system failure, accelerator coils fried beyond repair" Rommie informed us, "MAC number one breech is cycling"
"Direct hit! battle cruiser out of the fight!" welles cried, and then the cruiser exploded, her fuel reserves making one hell of a show for the pilots of echo squadron.
Echo squadron:
"Frak! look at her burn! echo two commented, "Cut the chatter echo two, back around for one more pass on that second cruiser" Bullseye barked, pulling her viper back around.
On the Atlantis:
The ship shuddered under the concussive force those missile platforms were bringing to bear, "We need to silence those platforms!" Wilder cried, as a power relay overloaded and caused several lighting units to blow out.
"Portside railgun batteries one and three concentrating fire on platforms one and two, starboard battery one and two targetting platform three, platform two showing signs of drifting out of position" Sykes reported.
Suddenly the ship rocked as one of the platforms went up in a massive explosion.
"Platform two destroyed" Welles cried.
"We cant wait any longer, the carriers are on the move!" Wilder cried.
"Send the boarding teams, launch red, gold and grey squadrons to provide cover, send the signal, execute phase two!" I barked.
On the flight deck:
"Ok, you heard the lady, scramble everything we have, move!" cried the deck chief, "I want those gunships and shuttles airborne now!"
In the CIC:
"Boarding parties away, Viper escort hot on their tails" Sykes cried, as the ship rocked under the shockwave of another successfully destroyed platform.
"Platform one destroyed" Welles cried.
"Boarding party one lead unit reporting they have made contact, ETA ten minutes, boarding party two lead reports ETA at five minutes" Sykes reported.
"Those carriers will be on us in eleven minutes" Wilder barked.
Damned if she wasnt right, we'd still need another four minutes to recover our fighters.
"Sykes, tell all squadron leaders to have their birds latch onto those tankers, they're hitching a ride" I barked, "Set us up for a holding action, we need to buy our teams a few more minutes, instruct fire control to bring the heavies into play, I want that battle cruiser off our six now"
"Fire control reports they have a solution on that cruiser" Sykes reported.
"Fire!"
From outside the ship, all four of the ship's dorsal heavy guns swung ponderously about, and locked on the cruiser, and suddenly, great gouts of fire issued forth, barrels pistoning back, as all eight shells streaked forth, impacting and sending the alliance battlecruiser tumbling out of the fight.
Over the comm came:
"Bullseye to Actual, that last cruiser is toast, permission to engage that frak load of fighters headed your way"
"Not good" Wilder muttered.
"Tell me something I dont know, Sykes, tell them to come on home and re-arm, then send em back out" I cried.
"Carriers advancing, and prepairing to set up for a north south pole solution" Welles said, eyes going wide, I looked and saw what she was reacting to, a full alliance battle group.
"Tell those teams to get those tankers mobile now!, I dont care if they have to get out and push!" I barked, "Signal Katana to be ready to move into firing position, we may need her missile batteries shortly, and have them arm that jump missile for firing, I think we may need to set it off early" I barked.
"Tankers Mobile!" Sykes cried, "Tell squadron leaders to get their birds latched to those tankers now!" I replied, "Ma'am! Boarding team three reports they've snagged a destroyer!" Sykes cried.
"Well, fuel and a door prize", Wilson muttered, moving to his station, "as fun as this has been, can we go home now?" he asked pointedly.
"I cant agree more, signal Katana to set off that missile" I barked.
On the Katana:
"Atlantis is on the move, fire the missile" Ecks barked, taking a long drag on his cigar, and added "Take us to the rally point, our job here is done"
As the missile detonated, five ships jumped away.
1030 hrs, January 31th, 2005
275 S.U. beyond the Redline, 50 S.U. beyond kobol, 219 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Location: Deep space
Battlestar Atlantis
"Well, two tankers, a Destroyer, and all personel accounted for, I call that an outstanding success" Wilder commented.
"Those carriers had us dead to rights, just after the tankers went mobile, why didnt they capitalize on it?" I replied.
"Who knows, what counts is we pulled it off, and even better, according to this report, that destroyer was fully loaded, sans crew" Wilder replied, taking a sip of her coffee.
Rommie shimmered into view, and added; "Damage reports are in, only moderate damage to several systems, damage overall is considered minor, time until repairs completed, is six hours".
"Thank you Rommie" Wilder replied, dismissing her.
"Yes, we did get off easy" I muttered.
Epilogue:
"Interesting, splitting the fleet, at a time when his forces are depleted" said the first voice.
"But which group is he with, the Elites seem most interested in him" said the third voice.
"Who knows with those religeous fanatics these days" replied the second voice.
"But, there can be no denying it, he is the one our oldest prophecy refers to, the one who will awaken the ship of lights, this, represents our god" said the seventh voice.
"He cannot be allowed to begin the awakening, it is too soon, all our plans are dependant on our god not returning for some odd decades" said a fifth voice.
"Are we in agreement, on either removing or neutralizing him?" asked a sixth voice.
"I have grave doubts on this, he is critical to the prophecy, if he does not exist when the time comes, things will not go well" replied a fourth voice.
"nevertheless, are we in agreement?" asked the sixth voice.
"Agreed" said all seven voices.
"By your command" said an unknown eighth voice.
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sorry for the unusually long delay between chapter's 8 and 9, you know me, I dont ike to write when I'm particularly agitated or upset, I feel that ruins the story, to write when like that, and, the real world has not been kind to me these past few months.
on the bright side, the return of jericho, and the chance to play super smash bros. brawl provided just the recharge I needed, and, playing melee led to unexpected creative inspiration. this chapter's for all those who've wanted to see the atlantis in a knock down drag out brawl on her own(face it, you know you wanted to see this sooner or later).
with the pending resumption of the show on scifi channel, this release could not have come at a better time. I will keep writing this story, even after the tv show's end, there'd just too much left to tell, lol.
to all you vets out there, keep up the good fight, this one's for you as well.
I do hope all of you will continue to read this story.
The second grand journey
Prologue: Retribution.
"So, you split the fleet, even though you knew there was little chance anyone would still be alive by the time you got there." I commented, finishing off my jersey mile.
"Yes, but I just couldnt let anyone else die if I could help it, so, I took a chance" John replied.
"Speaking of taking chances, it took some doing getting here" replied Jackson.
"Oh, how so?" I asked.
"My cell was compromised, a skin job infiltrated, they seem to be going after our intelligence assets first" he shook his head sadly.
"I'm all thats left of my cell"
"Retribution, swift and sure" I commented.
"Speaking of retribution, we were just about to run into some pirates I'd had a run in with some years ago, and they were not happy to see us again" John said, and then he continued his story.
Chapter 10: The Pirates of deep space
1 year, 8 months prior:
0900 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Location: in orbit of Sanctuary
Battlestar Eternal, docked to Cradle II
undergoing viper flight system upgrades
I strode across the deck, to the observation port, and gazed down at the planet below, to think, I thought this to be purgatory.
Well, some carrer mistakes do have their upsides. Just then, I saw one of the new Vipers come screaming past, just feet from the portal, swearing, I reached for the handset and dialed CIC.
"CIC, Conners, someone care to tell me why the frak we just got buzzed by one of our new vipers?"
"Conners, CIC, that would be Reaper, sir, seems he's gotten bored again"
I was in shock.
"What?!" I replied, barely keeping the amusement I felt from my voice.
"We got him with the last batch of transfers, seems no one else wants him, Commander Tajalle could better brief you, sir, she's already on her way to you"
"Thank you, Conners out"
As I hung up the handset, the voice of dumb ideas offered its two cents.
"ya think someone's gunning for a promotion?"
Dismissing the thought, I turned as the lift doors opened.
"Well, I assume you've just seen the latest frakup care of fleet command" she said, by way of greeting.
"Yeah, damn near choked on my coffee" I commented, noticing I'd apparently sprayed the porthole, the chief was gonna wring me a new one.
"We're the third ship he's done that to, and the first Battlestar, according to the stack of reports I have here"
"Let me see those" I asked, and as I read, I drank the rest of my coffee, and the further I read, the more amused I became, seemed this hotshot had an almost unnatural amount of skill with a viper.
"Damn, the kid's good, each time he's buzzed a ship, its always been with just a foot's space to spare, been a long time since I've seen anyone with this kind of skill" I replied, clearly amused.
"Well, did you read the last page of the fourth report?, the second to last ship he buzzed was Admiral Nagala's cruiser, just before he landed on the Atlantia"
Tajalle replied, shaking her head.
"Ouch, now thats a career killing move"
"To say the least, he's lucky he's still a pilot"
she replied.
"Well, I have a confession to make, I was there, just hours before we departed dock, I saw it happen from the portside observation deck, and, I called in a favor"
I replied, in a deadpan voice.
"Musta been one hell of a favor, to save that screw-up's six"
Tajalle commented.
"Actually, it was".
"Care to tell me?"
she asked, curiosity evident in her voice.
"When the time is right, yes".
The phone buzzed, and Tajalle answered, and turned to me.
"He's just landed".
"Lets go introduce ourselves, shall we?" I asked sarcastically.
"Lets", was the reply.
0930 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Starboard hanger,
Battlestar Eternal
"What the frak?"
"Why'd you pull me in?" was the first thing we heard, as we exited the lift, clearly, someone was pissed.
"General on deck!" barked one of the knuckle draggers.
"I wish they'd stop doing that, I've asked repeatedly" I leaned and muttered, so that only Tajalle heard me, she gave a noncommital shake of her head.
As we strode over to the scene of the yelling, I gave the scene a once over, that pilot was pissed.
"Someone care to tell me why they felt the need to buzz the portside observation deck while I tried to enjoy my morning coffee?"
I asked, curiousity evident in my voice.
The pilot turned and started to blast me, and stopped when he saw the rank insignias on my shoulders, reconsidering what he felt to be a precarious position, he saluted.
Acknowledging the salute, I added "While on most days I'd be inclined to toss your ass in the brig, truth is, that move impressed me, care to tell me how the frak you're always within one foot of the porthole?" I asked.
"Pushing myself to the limit, sir!"
He spoke that last word like it were an obscenity.
"Easy there, now, stand at ease..........."
Suddenly the klaxon went off, and over the PA came: "Alert vipers scramble, inbound supply ship is under attack by pirate vessels, repeat, alert vipers scramble"
"Ok, hotshot, you wanna show me pushing it to the limit, you're coming up with me" I replied, turning on my heel, as Tajalle inquired; "Sir?"
"Need to keep my skills sharp somehow", was my reply as I entered the pilots ready room.
I dressed quickly, and ran to the waiting viper, one of the new Eight series, and recalled what I'd only just read last night, and quickly ran down the checklist, and grasped the flight sticks, noticing a pair of icons lighting up on the helmet's HUD, and saw I'd been loaded into one of only 6 operational launch tubes, gave the launch ready salute, and held on, as the catapult literally threw me down the tube, throttling up as my viper left the tube.
"CIC, where are they?" I radioed, "course one oh four, by one one seven" CIC radioed.
I swung the starfighter into a sharp turn, and my foot pushed down on the throttle, accelerating to combat speed, Reaper on my port, following suit, damn, he was good.
"Where are they? I dont see them visually or on dradis" Reaper inquired.
"Just up ahead, in the shadow of the second moon, dradis shows two medium cruisers, and at least a solid two dozen fighters" I replied.
"We might need some help" Reaper commented, sizing up the situation.
"Copy, Actual, Conners, dispatch a squadron of fighters, we've got two medium cruisers and two dozen fighters harrasing the transport and and her scoutstar escort"
"Actual, copy, squadron eta is five minutes, actual out" came the reply.
"Five minutes? this'll be over in two" Reaper commented, clearly not happy with the situation.
"Well, lets go say hi, dont want to be rude now, do we?" I replied, sending my viper into a shallow dive, and coming up under the first cruiser.
"Nah, we wouldnt want that, I call the second cruiser" Reaper replied, making me wonder what he was thinking.
I opened a channel.
"This is colonial viper one one oh four november alpha, cease hostile actions immediately, or we will open fire, this is your only warning"
At that, a quartet of pirate fighters broke off, and tried to take a few potshots at us.
"Ok, weapons free, I show four bandits on our tail, split, take two" I growled, "Copy, weapons free, tally two, copy that" Reaper replied, thumbing the safeies off, I noticed a targeting rectical, and decided to see just what this new bird was made of, selecting missiles, I noted the icon changed and started moving about, guess thats what the manual meant when it said 'going to active targetting'.
Going nose over tail, I locked on, and fired, just as what I recognized as an old model asp shot past, missiles streaking out from under both my wings, and angled over, and hit the fleeing asp.
"Frak! did you see that?" Reaper cried, "I saw it I saw it, think this means if we can see them we can hit them, and, I think they know it" I replied, "Switch to guns, on my mark, up and over, two, one mark!"
As we both went vertical, the asps chasing us streaked past, and as we came back down, they tried to flip, pulling the trigger, the auto cannons spewed dozens of rounds a second, and shredded two asps, and the last elected to run, I decided to let him go, let him spread the word, Sanctuary was not an undefended backwater world.
Suddenly, over the comm;
"Pirate vessels, this is the scoutstar Peragrin, disengage now, or we will fire, this is your final warning"
"They're pulling back, boss" Reaper commented
Over the comm came:
"Transport to colonial vipers, requesting you begin landing procedures, we have injured on board, and, we were boarded just before you showed up"
"Boss?" Reaper inquired, finally with some hint of respect in his voice.
"Transport, viper one one oh four november alpha, we're inbound, prep landing deck for two" I radioed.
"Copy, we'll set out places for you" replied the transport comms officer.
"Ok, Reaper, let's go see what's up"
"Yes sir" he replied.
Fifteen minutes later, we'd landed.
1030 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Primary hanger,
Transport Starchaser
As we exited our vipers, someone, I'm assuming was the commanding officer, came towards us.
"I'm Lt. Singer, Thank you for coming so fast, we've got at least ten of them trapped in cargo hold fifteen, this way" she said.
As we made our way deeper into the transport, the sounds of gunfire became more distinct, nodding to Reaper, we drew our sidearms, and came up alongside some of the ships crew, who were exchanging fire with the pirate boarding party.
"Is there another way in?" I asked, "Yes, vent shaft, two corridors back, vent one oh five six" Singer replied.
"Reaper, keep these guys from getting killed, I'm gonna try and sneak in" I said, moving off, I found the indicated shaft, and noticed the ship's armory, so, I grabbed a trio of flashbangs, and started climbing the shaft, and soon, I found the vent, easing it open carefully, taking care to stay silent, I froze when I heard who I took to be the leader say they had hostages.
Thank god for my training, I'd almost dropped in early, thats how unexpected that declaration was, as it is, I couldnt stop the flashbang that came loose and fell, so, I popped another and tossed it down, and shielded my eyes.
The Flashbang went off, Frak, those things were loud, particularly in the vent shaft, still, I moved, dropping in behind a row of cargo modules, moving quickly, I neutralized several, and just as I signaled the all clear, I felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against the base of my skull, and right then and there, the voice in the back of my brain chose such a time to make a wisecrack.
"You missed one, numbknuts"
"I'll take that sidearm" a gruff feminine voice said.
I fell back on my training, as I 'dropped' my sidearm, I spun, and cold clocked my wouldbe captor, and she was down, but not out, and suddenly found herself staring down the muzzles of several weapons.
"And thats the game, you loose, lady" was my response to the cold glare she threw my way.
"I'll be seeing you again" she spat, as she was led off.
"Sir, message came through for you, the archeology site on sanctuary found something, the Doc seems to think you'd be interested" Singer announced, as she came running in.
"Well, be seeing you, glad we could be of some help" I replied, holding out my hand, grasping and shaking, she replied; "Oh, yes, you will be seeing me again"
As we took off, I couldnt shake the feeling that she was right.
About half an hour later, we sat, in hover, waiting for the LSO's to wave us in, the whole time, I kept my eyes on the temperature gauge, I'd been told the thrusters weren't very tolerant of lengthy hovers, finally, they brought us down, and I felt the viper settle down.
1100 hrs, May 27th, 2003
Defense compound air field,
Sanctuary Colony complex,
Sanctuary.
"Well, whatever it is, it took some doing to extract it" Doc said, hefting a small armored case onto the table, and he opened it.
"Well, I think those pirates might have been after this" I replied, removing a crystal with strange etchings on it from the case, it was a thin hexagonal shaped crystal, glowing slightly.
"Dont worry, there's no radiation hazard, first thing we checked" Doc replied, on seeing my questioning look.
As I looked out the window, I knew, this crystal, would one day be important.
"Something tells me, this isnt the end of it, not by a long shot"
I just knew I would be proven right.
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and thats chapter 10, please, enjoy, chapter 11 is in progress.
Can't wait to read them
started work on the top view, ive completley revamped her and i think this is probably the best look, ive been sketching for weeks on pod configs with the weapons i want to put on there, giving it firepower but not look OTT
this is a size comparison with a murcury class battlestar and a Zeus class warstar which i happened to find in google