In the shadow of the events and chaos of Disclosure, the first Battlegroup is formed...
And sent straight into action!
“Battlegroup stands ready Captain,” Lt Hayes announced briskly, hiding her unceratinity.
Jones nodded acknowledgement, his thoughts also uncertain. They were mere days out of dock and outside of simulations; the ships hadn't yet operated as a group. Indeed, they hadn't yet finished the individual trial runs of each ship and minor and some not so minor issues were already on the fix list, waiting for the Yard Boys at Thundersdawn station and as long as the ships were still ‘proving' the docks couldn't be reset for different ships.
Indeed, on her second day out of dock Overseer had headed back in for a replacement gauss mounting, her existing unit having cracked, obviously flawed and something the Yard boys were supposed to have picked up on.
Truth be told, and hew wasn't going to hide it from himself, not in the privacy of his own mind, the group was not yet ready for combat, not by a long stretch.
Of course, the alert could easily mean that the issue was about to be forced, but damn, were trials by fire for green units a very bad idea, if sometimes unavoidable.
Thor blinked, his eyes tracking across his holographic displays as the Earthers system became, what was the cute human phrase? Ah yes, like a kicked anthill.
Interesting, he had dropped out of hyper towards the edges of the system deliberately, knowing that the Tau'ri would most likely be in a shoot first, ask questions of any surviving molecules later type mood, but he hadn't expected to be detected quite so far out.
The Tau'ri's actions clearly showed that he had been detected however, even though his own passives had picked up the Tau'ri sensors and declared them to be below detection threshold.
Of course, there reaction also showed that they most likely didn't know exactly who was out there but…
How had they detected him?
Thor tapped lightly at his controls, working his way through the masses of data and analysis the Carter's small but exceedingly powerful processor banks were generating.
His eyes widened, and then he nodded in frank approval.
The Carter had reported that at least three separate sets of sensors had locked onto his ship despite the strength of the beams being below that required to actually get a solid return off the hull even flying, as he was now, with the bulk of the sensor foxing technologies turned off, something he hadn't previously considered installing aboard a warship.
Individually, Thor knew, the beams were below detection threshold but together….
Thor of all the Asgard had the most experience of working with these humans, he had the best idea of how they thought and indeed, according to more then a handful of his compatriots he had become infected with some of their thought patterns, a cry that had turned to grudging admiration after he had shown exactly what use the sensor foxing technologies were when the Goa'uld Rast seized a protected world, planning on the relatively large size of his fleet to protect him from the weakened Asgard Fleet.
Rast never once achieved a sensor lock on his ship; indeed, his ship hadn't taken a single hit which was a good thing since he was using an aging Beliskner at the time.
The Tau'ri were great believers in team-work, training their forces to work cooperatively to a far greater extent then most, why would they not apply that doctrine to there sensors too?
A blip that meant nothing on one sensor would of course mean something entirely different on three or more…
Thor made a mental note to make some modifications to the sensor grid defending the new home world and ordered his ship to proceed deeper into the sol system.
“You're what?” Adama asked, startled, rising to his feet in shock even as beside him, Oslin carefully resisted the urge to flee.
“We're sending in the Battlegroup,” Thompson said, his tone firm and strong even as his eyes betrayed his amusement at the Colonials reaction to his words, “we don't expect any more Colonial units to be discovered, but we do know that the Cylons have set up a fleet train of some sort, they have to have in order to effectively maintain their constant and rather annoying attacks on the Sol System and their occasional probes here. Primary mission for the group will be to find and disrupt that fleet train, but the nature of space and FTL drives means that is likely to be difficult.
Secondary objective will be to investigate known Colonial graveyards and check for hulls that are potentially salvageable as well as destroying any colonial outposts and units they come across at group commander's discretion”
Adama nodded, his expression pleased, “Good. The Cylons need to learn the meaning of the word fear”
“Rumour has it, the Loyalists already have,” Thompson commented dryly, “fear of their own master anyway. Either way, we do not have strength enough to wage a full scale war against the Cylons; that is clear.
We do have certain advantages but for the moment, all we can do is probe, poke and maybe weaken them a little”
“Do you require the assistance of the Colonial Military?” Roslin asked carefully.
“No, well not in any major way anyway,” Thompson shrugged, “a few bodies familiar with Colonial warships would be nice just in case we do find potential salvage but other then that as soon as Atlantis launches, she will reinforce and spearhead the group. For now, you only have three operational warships, you need to keep them home or at least, near home in order to keep your surviving population protected. You can't unmask Freedom for the time to we intend this mission to take without heavy risk”
The Admiral shrugged, “I did think you had the right to be informed as to the operation we intend to send into Cylon territory though”
Adama grunted, “We need more warships brought back online and operational”
“So do we,” Thompson pointed out, “but we are limited by the available resources, the available yard space, personnel, a thousand and one other things, just like you are”
“Unfortunately true,” Adama noted, “though you might be please to note that the first Viper IX will launch in approximately two months”
“Aye yes, I had heard that was preceding well,” Thompson nodded, “better to make new hulls then refit old, they will last longer as they will not have suffered so many stresses, or metal fatigue”
Roslin shrugged, “Will that really make a great difference? As far as I was aware the nine was merely a scratch built eight, as opposed to the eights themselves which are refits of mark two's”
Adama nodded, “short term, the only difference is a few structural changes which we couldn't get away with in the refit. The nines will be slightly stronger then the eights structurally, meaning the potential to survive more combat damage, the potential to make tighter manoeuvres in combat”
“Long Term is where the real differences come in,” Thompson pointed out to the President, “the nines should have a longer effective life then the eights and should require less maintenance for a few years at least. Even with the main spar replacement and similar work that was done to refit the Viper twos into eights, they are still ‘used' hulls”
“I see,” Roslin nodded, “one thing I must ask, how goes the Raptor replacement program?”
Thompson nodded, “okay, fair question”
He paused, gathering his thoughts, “currently it is being pushed through as a priority as part of the SWACs program, the Space Warning And Control program the Americans have been funding.
Refitting the previous Raptors as was done with the Viper II's has been ruled out by the engineers and designers, which has left the SWAC team seriously considering only two options.
One, a modification of the existing Paladin design that has already proven itself as a highly capable utility craft. It has the advantage of better commonality of parts, reducing costs”
Adama nodded, “good craft, FTL capable, some ability to defend themselves combined with reasonable manoeuvrability for their size as well as speed. Effectively, they are your Raptors already; you just haven't added the fighter support systems that made the Raptor such a useful craft”
“I agree with you, as do most of the design teams” Thompson grimaced, “unfortunately a nasty political element has entered this. A few members of the American Government are throwing their weight about, trying to gain more control of the alliance for themselves”
Roslin rolled her eyes, her expression proclaiming with great irony that she had no idea what sort of people the Admiral was talking about.
Thompson nodded in agreement, his tone “they are pushing for a new design produced specifically for the intended role, something which will increase costs both in the long and short term but considering the budget is American, they will be able to claim it as a purely American design”
“Prestige,” Roslin noted.
“Precisely,” Thompson shrugged, “they don't control the American Government frankly or we might be in for some interesting times, but they are large enough in number to be a problem”
“Good luck with that,” Adama noted, “for the record, I personally believe a Paladin redesign sounds the better option”
“Noted and thank you Commander,” Thompson replied, rising from his seat, “now, I do believe I was promised a pint…”