Red Line
by Silent Bob Foley
When Blastboats sensors pick up Colonial transmissions on an unauthorised rescue mission, they are soon sent to investigate.
Will they find more survivors, or a trap set for anyone sent to investigate?
Chapter Seven
Edge of Cimtar nebula
One hundred Eighty Degrees Clockwise from Raider position
The first fleet of ships the Heavy cruiser and Carrier and her attendant civilian vessels swept through the edge of the nebula and pulled into a high orbit awaiting the second fleet and the roving patrol to come through. The sight that came to them as they waited was not one they had ever wanted to see.
“By the lords of Kobol.” The captain of the Carillon flicked a control on his console over to transmission as the second fleet came out of the clouds, “Carillon, Dreadnaught we’ve got a… You have to see this yourself sir sending sensor information.”
The Heavy cruiser’s sensors while old were almost as powerful as those of the later classes of ships and in some cases much more accurate, her long range Dradis information showed the command staffs of both ships a massed debris field outside the orbit of the last planet of the system.
Debris of Colonial Warships, system patrol boats, fighters, tankers, container ships, private and commercial liners was scattered across the edge of the system, Bodies of humans and animals could be seen floating frozen in space, fuel and oxygen supplies had spilled out of the ships and coated the debris in glittering crystals and frozen chunks.
Thousands upon thousands of people from the colonies had been killed in this way obviously trying to escape from the Cylons perhaps to Cimtar maybe to other sectors but had been caught in the attempt.
The remains of three Battlestars were amongst the destroyed ships, Vipers both intact but out of power and destroyed were all evident, evidence of Nuclear detonations and massive railgun fire was seen all around the wreckage.
A few raiders and pieces of Basestar hull were intermixed with the fleet’s remains the Battlestars must have given some back to the robots even after being overwhelmed by the forces that attacked them.
“Carillon, Dreadnaught. We see it, Looks like some others knew about the Base and couldn’t get to us before we stopped the outer system patrols.” The system patrols had been a constant for a while with three Vipers on continuous watches at all times insystem, at until it was deemed too risky in case of Cylon identification, now only the destroyers went out further into other sectors to look for anyone who could help or had survived.
“Yes sir,” The ship’s commander whispered over the Comm lines, he looked up as the ship’s Dradis console printed out onscreen the names of the Battlestars that had been part of this Refugee Fleet. “Positive Identification on the New Bellerophon, Hyperion and Prometheus, three Identified smaller cruisers as well as the Fleet tender Athena.”
“Admiral Hawkins of the Prometheus was the Son of the man who created Cimtar base, odds on were he knew of the base and was caught in the right place at the wrong time, it’s likely the Cylons just thought this was a rendezvous or we would have been found long ago. Continue on course Captain we need to get out of the system before we make the FTL jump we’re still coated in the nebula’s radiation we need to lose most of it before we can jump.”
“Aye sir continuing in.”
Silently the combined survivor fleet passed the destroyed ships and dead humans flickering their running lights in turn as a salute to those whom attempted to escape from the destruction of their homes and unlike those with the Galactica or Cimtar Fleet had failed and died.
The last ship past the remains of the fleet was the MTB ‘Blastboat, she slowed to a full stop and turned towards the wreckage and dimmed both her internal and running lights as a final salute to the brave but futile actions of the colonial ships, running back up to full power and lighting the small ship sped away from the ships and into formation with the rest of the civilian fleet taking the rear position once more.
The MTB’s sensor arrays were much more advanced than those of the rest of the fleet, the array itself was almost as powerful as those used on her bigger sisters the Dauntless class Destroyers, it was inevitable that they would be the first to see the renewed attack coming at them from the clouds of the Nebula.
“Blastboat to all warships. Cylon ships inbound from the Nebula. Reading five repeat five Basestars on intercept.”
“Blastboat, Dreadnaught. We’re not in condition to jump, first fleet and roving squadron will break off and hit the Cylons second fleet will escort the civilians to prescribed co,ordinates. Good luck gentlemen Dreadnaught out.”
“You heard the guy, full shields arm cannons and torpedoes. Stepanik, we’ll need the secondary power up for this is it repaired.”
“Ready to go Bossman. Just treat her gently she doesn’t like to be rushed.”
“Well done Brad. All hands stand by for combat.”
The Blastboat engaged it’s engines jumping ahead of the destroyers of it’s patrol group whom were only seconds behind them, the massed raiders of the Basestars were surging ahead of the massive ships attempting to take on the small warships and if possible capture the MTB or her crew.
Sixty Viper fighters caught up from the three carrier craft with the fleet one squadron from the refitted container ship and one each from the Battlestars, tens of thousands of railgun rounds crossed the space between the two group slamming into everything and anything in the area, fighters on both sides were killed the Cylons taking more and more from the long range of the destroyers and the accuracy of the pulse cannons on the MTB.
The fighters on the colonials side engaged their turbos and ran into the wall of Cylons weapons blazing, a full squadron of Mk fours hurtling into the phalanx of Scimitars with their missile salvos ripping them apart.
The MTB followed them in damaging fighters with all the weapons available and came out the other side intact and with only minimal shield damage, they had been lucky but that kind of luck does not last long.
A second wave of Vipers set into the massed ranks of the raiders as the Cylon fighters attempted to form a cohesive unit and were roundly smashed by the colonials, pairing up or in single dogfights the Vipers wore away the Cylons numerical advantage to parity losing almost a half squadron themselves in a matter of minutes the surviving pilots fought harder and fiercer trying to buy time for the civilian and second fleet to get away.
The Cylon Basestars were now upon them.
Hundreds of turrets opened up on the destroyers and damaged or destroyed anything they hit, fifteen Vipers were destroyed by the massed artillery and raider fire as three destroyers also went up.
The six remaining destroyers and thirty or so remaining fighters pulled back from the engagement as fast as possible while the Basestars kept on at them, the artillery from the destroyers removed more and more fighters but did little to damage the Basestars, the remaining flight of Mk fours and sixes attempted to use their missile armament against the closest Cylon ships and while they did serious damage to two of the ships it was not enough to even slow them down.
The MTB’s main armament ripped into the Basestars three of their four remaining torpedoes rammed the ships of the Cylon task force, two detonated damaging again the two closest ships but the smaller than usual warheads did not destroy the ships however it slowed them down.
The third was hit by a lucky shot from an artillery cannon and veered off course straight into the side of a colonial destroyer detonating its engine core and exploding it.
The crew of the MTB and it’s surrounding fighters froze at the sight of it’s own sides weapons destroying one of it’s few precious warships, that few seconds was all the Cylons needed.
With machine precision six Basestar’s worth of heavy weapons impacted on the already massively depleted forward shields of the tiny Gunboat, with a flash the shields died and the armoured prow of the small spaceship was ripped into by the railgun rounds chewing up the armour and destroying the forward weapons stations.
A single round sliced into the torpedo tubes and imbedded itself in the torpedo’s guidance system fusing the activated weapon’s controls shut, the jolt from the attack threw the entire crew off their feet and onto the floor or the bulkheads, the crewman at sensors was thrown from his chair and into the consoles across the other side of the room he was killed instantly by the shock of the impact.
“Return Fire.” Shouted Harris
“All weapons are down, shields are gone and we’re getting hammered.”
“Dammit, Call in one of the other ships…”
“Sir the Dreadnaught’s coming in red hot.”
The massive Colonial ship was over a kilometre of steel, circuitry and weapons she took the hits for the small warship as came up and over the collection of warships, her powerful engines in overdrive she hit and hit hard at the Cylons.
One of the ships practically exploded from the hits they took from the six linked railcannons of the warwagon, the ship’s other weapons came online and smashed the squadrons of Cylon raiders enough for the Colonials to extract themselves and reform around the destroyers.
The fire from the destroyers intensified as the raiders tried to pull away and were successful in destroying many more flights, the shock of the attack soon wore off however, the dreadnaught and patrol vessels pulled away at full speed back to the awaiting first fleet.
A flash of light caught the attention of the entire fleet as a Basestar came in close to the first fleet weapons blazing, the closest ships stood no chance as the scimitar shaped raiders of the sixth Basestar launched nuclear weapons an any target in sight.
Many of the destroyers and heavy ships were able to shoot down the incoming weapons, two destroyers were caught by multiple detonations and with little fanfare exploded as their engines were critical and their fuel exploded.
The Vipers already launched as a protective screen for the first fleet attempted to head off the enemy ships to no avail, for every raider destroyed three more were launched from the Basestar, with most squadrons already trying to return from the melee of the massed fighter combat against the five Basestars there was not nearly enough experienced warriors or fighters to take on the advanced Cylon machines.
Attempt after attempt was made by both sides to attack the massive warships that were the command ships for either side, the overwhelmed Vipers had little chance of stopping the more advanced enemy fighters as one by one they started to lose more Vipers than the Cylons did raiders.
As the fighter battle slowly went against the colonials the warship battle heated up to incredible proportions, the firepower of two Battlestars old as they may be was sufficient to hit and damage the new Basestar, ripping into it’s thick armour and detonating it’s raider’s fuel supply blowing a chunk out of the side.
The detonation took out the upper hanger bays where a good half of it’s fighters were still loaded, the Viper pilots heartened by the explosion redoubled their efforts against the crescent shaped fighters and with a vengeance ripped their ranks apart, this was enough to knock the fighter squadrons off balance and allowing the Colonials to cause even more destruction in the android ranks.
With two Basestars damaged and one destroyed it looked to many that the fleet may be able to pull out and leave the Cylons behind to lick their wounds, however outnumbered and outgunned as they were the battle took a turn for the worst for the colonials.
A burst of very heavy fire from the sixth Cylon warship slammed into the ventral hull of the Olympus, the ship literally jumped several feet from the impact of the ship’s weapons against the armour of it’s upper hull, a second and a third salvo impacted against the stunned and stricken ship, the fourth and final salvo coincided with the impact of a pair of nuclear torpedoes fired from a raider that had made it through the gauntlet of the Vipers.
The ship’s back literally broke as her hull was compromised by the fire of the enemy ship the hull supporting structure disintegrated as the twin white hot flashes of nuclear detonations ripped into it’s armoured body.
The forward and rear sections were blown away from each other, one of the twin landing bays spinning off into the darkness, the ship’s entire remaining fighter wing went up with her including those whom had landed to refuel.
The Loss of the Battlestar horrified the Colonials, enough that the ships’ cohesion in battle became non-existent allowing the Cylons to overwhelm the ships piecemeal and destroy them.
More and more hits were taken by the trinium/titanium hybrid armour of the MTB as the baseships came closer a few hits penetrated into the systems and engine compartments holing them, the main engineering space took an artillery shell straight through the middle explosively decompressing the room, only Stepanik survived the hit and made it out through the whistling air as it was pulled out into space..
“Dreadnaught this is Blastboat we’ve taken massive damage request extraction if possible.”
“Negative you’re in a hot zone and we are reading the Basestars coming in we can’t get a shuttle into your area.”
“Bring the Dreadnaught we’ll use the rings and transport aboard.”
“We’ll try Harris No promises.”
“Thanks Achilles we’ll try to hold out, Blastboat out.” Xander turned to Steppanik whom had taken weapons while Radar had taken the Navigation post. “Brad what have we got left?”
“A pair of railguns and a fused torpedo, she’s armed and ready to go but jammed in the tube by a piece of debris, the firing mechanism may get it out but again may not we could lose the rest of the ship.”
“Forget it set the fuel cells and engine systems to maximum and overload the systems, smash the crystals if you have to.”
”What?”
“We’re gonna send the Cylons a gift.”
Bridge of the Cylon Basestar THX-1138
The latest incarnation of a Cylon known simply as Number three stood upon the command centre of the massive Cylon warship, had she been fully human she would have realised the irony of the fleet being destroyed by yet another version of an infiltrator that had been destroyed herself by these colonials.
The latest reports of the loss of many of the colonial’s heavy units and even more of the pathetic destroyers was heartening to the Cylon woman, hundreds of dead humans and more to come, the Galactica would be found next and then any remaining ships unknown to the Cylons at this point.
The destruction of half a million human survivors on a base outside the sector would be the final nail in the coffin for the twelve colonies.
“We are being hailed by the new human warship.”
“Really put them on screen.”
The upper screen above the droid’s head flashed on and showed a picture of a haggard and dirty Alexander Harris an explosion of sparks and smoke came from behind him as a computer system exploded.
“This Is Commander Harris of the Royal Starship Blastboat to Cylon flagship please respond.”
“Well, well the humans wish to talk, open the channel. Then prepare to destroy the remaining Colonial ships whatever the cost.”
“This is the Commander of the Cylon forces, your people are surrounded human you’ve lost. Please surrender your vessel and in return you and your crew shall be allowed to return to whatever little planet you are from.”
“Why should I believe you.”
“Commander, If I wanted you dead you would be, we would like your ship and that’s it.”
“What about the colonial survivors.”
“I’m afraid not they are slated for destruction, you and your people are not Kobollian Colonists therefore are of no use to us.”
“They aren’t of any serious trouble to you can’t you let them go.”
Bridge of the MTB01
The bridge of the MTB had fallen silent around him as Xander was talking to the Cylon woman, to the side out of range of the pick ups were his remaining crewmembers setting up the new program in the engineering computers.
“Will you at least let us leave with one of the ships in order to return home.”
“One of the Destroyers will be allowed to retrieve you and your crew in ten minutes and more time than that and you will be taken by my centurions and if necessary tortured and killed.”
“Ten minutes sounds good.”
“Then have one of your ships take a position to dock with you immediately.”
“Understood, Harris out.” Xander jumped out of his seat all pretence of tiredness and pain gone, he knew that the Cylons would never let any of the fleet’s human populace leave the sector and he was planning accordingly.
“How long Radar?”
“Two minutes sir we need to tie in the Nav program to the engineering systems.”
“Stepanik How’s the engines.”
“We ready to go boss the hyperdrive’s shot but the reactors are in top condition, only bloody thing that is.”
The commander of the MTB oversaw the last few minutes of his command knowing that soon it and possibly many others would be in the hands of the Cylons, however not for long if he had anything to say about it.
“Set the program when ready Radar we’re going to give them a little present, Brad get the Overseer on the line have her take position so we can get the rings directly into their airlock.”
“Boss that’s gonna be a hell of a squeeze for the three of us in spacesuits.”
“That’s why we’re going shirtsleeve Stepanik.”
“Commander that’s nuts.”
“May very well be Lt, but it’s the only way we can get out and get away before the Cylons figure out what the rings are.”
It had been the one problem in the plan, the Cylons if they saw the rings used would realise that the humans could get off quickly and something might be up. The only way across without the massive bulky spacesuits would be for them to go across using the rings directly into the colonial ship’s airlock, with luck the seconds needed to seal and re-pressurise the airlock wouldn’t harm the remaining MTB crew much.
“Aye sir.”
Within seconds the fighting around the ships had petered out, the Cylon raiders had pulled away from the combat back to their ships, the Viper squadron remnants had also pulled back to the Battlestar or carriers many to rearm and refuel after the intense combat.
Directly between the two sides almost equidistant sat the MTB ‘Blastboat’ awaiting whatever was going to happen to happen. The lull in the fighting had allowed the Overseer to respond to the MTB’s Request for assistance, slowly she turned and pulled up airlock-to-airlock outer doors now opened.
“She’s here Sir.”
“Radar?.”
“We’re ready sir?.”
“Stepanik hit the overload.”
With a massive swing of one of the ship’s heavy tools the crystals controlling the Naquada generation were smashed, the systems started to overload and heat up consoles exploded all across the bridge as power was forced into capacitors not rated for the power being fed into them.
“Let’s Move.” Shouted Xander.
The three remaining crew ran towards the transport rings at the end of the ship’s main hull activating them on the run they skidded into place as the rings dropped ‘down’ to them transforming them into an energy pulse sent directly to the Sentinel Destroyer’s main airlock.
With the end of the cycle the three men were dropped unprotected into the cold airless vacuum of deep space, for all three it was a strange experience, the weightless and lack of friction was a study in contrasts to the inside of their spacecraft or the planetary surfaces of their home planets.
The thrill was dropped away instantly with the cold of space and the boiling of their own internal fluids, pain shot through their lungs as they exhaled the last of the oxygen from their bodies.
Within seconds the Airlock doors closed upon the three Tau’ri astronauts and the small room as filled with the atmosphere of the ship, once equalised the inner doors opened and a medical team sat there waiting for them.
“It’s alright Commander, you’re safe now.”
“We need to get to the bridge.”
”In a moment.”
“Doctor.” Piped up Radar “In a few seconds there might not be a bridge to get to.”
Outside the Destroyer the small Minor warship of the RSS moved away from the Destroyer of it’s own accord firing burst from it’s RCS thrusters and then floating along in minimum power slowly towards the Cylon warships.
Multiple Phalanxes of Raiders spilled out around the warships and the MTB, one flight of raiders took her into tow and paraded her to the Cylon flagship. The remaining fighters pulled away now more than obviously preparing to attack the colonials once again.
The ready Viper squadrons were also deployed by the motherships of the fleet ready to fight to the end, the second fleet all but forgotten by the Cylons were almost away only a few more minutes would be needed to ensure their escape to the human world of Alpha One.
Almost in unison five fully armed squadrons over one hundred fighters launched from the four carrier ships of the fleet, two from the Atlantis and three from the others, The two gunships were also launched by their tender and finally the single armed raptor from the station’s supply train launched, a formidable force already outnumbered by four to one were lined up ready to fight or die.
Silently the remaining destroyers and heavy warships of the colonial first fleet lined up in battle formation some towards the four remaining Cylon capital ships in front of them and a few towards the last Basestar that had destroyed the Olympus, The final battle lines for the Cimtar sector had been drawn by either side.
On the Bridge of the Overseer the crew of the MTB were staring at the screen watching either side take up their positions for combat.
“Captain can you put me on to the All ships frequency.”
“Yes Why?”
“Because in less than a minute they will need to be ready for my orders.”
“Commander Achilles is in command Mr Harris.”
“Captain put me on to him and he can re route it, that make you happy or should we just wait here while the Cylons destroy every ship we have.”
Bridge of the Dreadnaught
“Commander, Message from Overseer. Simply says ‘Fire In the hole’.”
“All Ships this is Dreadnaught Tie into Frequency Six Alpha and follow Instructions exactly.”
Bridge of the Cylon Flagship.
“Number Four. Human ship on approach to fleet.”
“Good, once on board…”
“Message from Colonial Destroyer.”
“Bother. Oh well put on screen.” The screen lit up to show the pleasantly handsome features of the New Human commander. ”Commander Harris, Nice to see you again.”
“You agreed to let this ship go we want your word we can get out without being fired on.”
“I’m afraid not, all human ships will be destroyed as per orders colonial or not, as we have your ship we no longer need you or the other humans in your little fleet.”
“I guessed you might say that.”
The Dradis screen the transmission had been displayed upon shut down from the other end as the destroyer attempted to flee the Cylon ships, the four Cylon vessels moved from their positions closer to the fleeing colonial warships.
Bridge of the Overseer.
A single voice came from the communications system, a young male American voice
“Three… Two… One…”
Outside in the midst of the Cylon fleet a single electronic impulse was sent from one system to another aboard an advanced ‘Alien’ ship belonging to the home of humanity, that single impulse did just one thing.
Nestled in amongst the hundreds of fighters and close by the four Basestars making up the enemy fleet, a ship known as ‘Blastboat’, the prototype warship of an entire class of military support ships, a cobbled together minor warship designed and built of spare parts and carefully looked after by those whom had built her did one last good for those she protected.
In the rear of the small ship, in a breached compartment an overloaded system hit a peak.
The Blastboat Exploded.
The Naquada powered engine magnified the ship’s explosive concussion by over one hundred times, the blastwave devastating anything within immediate reach, hundreds of raiders tried to run from the explosive front only to be caught by the expanding wave as it overtook the slowly moving fighters. Many of the rest were caught by long range sniping from the colonial fleet
The same voice that had counted down to the explosion keyed in a transmission to the remaining colonial ships, he said just one word.
“FIRE.”
Across the system over four hundred guns of all types raked the lines of Cylon ships blasting apart the smaller fighters and ripping into the hulls of everything they came in range of.
The fireball that had been the MTB had engulfed hundreds of fighters and all four of the Basestars on that front of the battle, the thermonuclear explosion was far greater in size than any weapon used for Anti ship warfare in either of the Cylon wars, hence the Cylon ships while massive and heavily armoured could not withstand such a massive explosive force as they had witnessed.
Across the forward facing hulls of the Basestars armour panels were disintegrated or ripped off by the blast, the electro-magnetic pulse of the blast piercing the heavy shielding of the ship’s core processors immolating them and disabling the artificially grown internal organic brains, rendering all four ships useless.
Within the few seconds the blast took to dissipate the four Basestars had been reduced to little more than ruined hulks, scorched and burned beyond all recognition. Following up literally seconds from the blast hundreds of high explosive armour piercing railgun rounds peppered what was left of the intact sections of the Basestar ripping apart the sections and destroying what was left of the ships.
The ships of the colonial fleet were soon besieged by the surviving Cylon raiders of all five of the destroyed Basestars and the one undamaged and fully operational one, dozens of fighters on each side launched into dogfights protecting or attempting to destroy the other side’s motherships.
Piecemeal the Cylon fighters were no longer a match for the angry and unafraid colonial pilots, for those human this was a fight or die combat to allow those the loved another day to fight on against those whom would destroy their people, for the Cylons it was nothing more than an attempt to follow their directives, destroy humanity at all costs, no matter when or how.
The final firefight of the second battle of Cimtar came between the combined remaining heavy ships of the First fleet and that of the massive and advanced Cylon Warship that blocked their way.
One by one the heavy ships opened up their main armament directly at the Cylon ship taking hits of their own as that self same ship opened up it’s monstrous firepower on the approaching fleet.
Squadrons of fighters that approached from any angle were wiped out by Vipers and Sentinels from long range, missiles and atomics were blown out of the sky by the hands of gunners experienced by decades of Colonial Warrior training and by young warriors sharp of eye and quick of hand allowing their fighters to outgun and out fly the Cylon death machines before them.
Colonial pilots died as lucky shots broke through their ranks, Cylon raiders rammed fighters and ships alike attempting by suicide that which their massive battlewagons couldn’t do, two destroyers were hit by two and three raiders respectively both exploding into incandescence and blinking out their hulls dark and broken.
But for the Cylons the battle was all but over, the heavy ships now engaged on all vectors all weapons both heavy railguns and artillery systems pummelling the droid ship from all sides, with a final shudder the ship’s hangerbays exploded as the remaining few raiders and fuel tanks ignited from a direct hit.
The ship’s bridge went up soon afterwards, piece by piece the Basestar was shot apart but the massed fire of the heavy units of the Colonial fleet.
The final salvo from the Dreadnaught sealed the fate of the baseship as all eight of it’s projectiles penetrated the massively armoured section of the Cylon ship’s tylium engines detonating the fuel and blowing the centre out of the ship, the battle was over and for the first time in over a year the crews and civilians of the combined fleets a ray of hope now shone as they entered the out reaches of the system.
The Cylons had been defeated three times by the forces of the Colonials and their Tau’ri brethren, they had a fleet and a place to go and they would take their planets back, it may take generations, many of them may not see the reign of a new civilisation on the twelve colonies, but they would take them back and if they had to turn every Cylon into scrap to do it they will.
The rear port quarter of the Dreadnaught exploded as it was rammed by an unseen vehicle of some kind, the engines shut down as the ship’s emergency systems kicked in before the damage could cause the ship’s entire engine block to detonate.
The blast had kicked the ship’s entire length sideways making the ship literally spin in mid-space, the light of the fires blaring out across the entire rear of the ship lit the five remaining armed Cylon Raiders that were attempting a final suicide run on the command ship attempting to complete the mission the first had attempted.
The Dreadnaught’s sparse anti-fighter firepower wasn’t enough their slow rate of fire and limited fire arcs made them all but useless against the smaller fast moving targets, a ship built primarily for overwhelming heavy capital firepower could not hope to match the computer controlled movements of the Cylon fighters.
The escorting fighters tried their best to catch and stop the small but nimble fighters failing to get them with the first pass, the second squadron pulled up close and a few hits striking each managed to turn the raiders away and out into space allowing the close by destroyers to wipe them out.
The final of the raider flight stayed on course for the rear of the dreadnaught ignoring the guns of both the massive battlewagon and the fighter escort trying to shoot her down, a lucky hit smashed the raider’s port engine and sent it spinning, directly into the already damaged hull sections of the Dreadnaught.
The fighter exploded detonating the two nuclear weapons still attached to her hardpoints, with the armour already compromised by the impact of the first kamikaze hit there was nothing to stop the fighter’s explosive damage.
The combined explosion of the fighter and it’s munitions blew the entire engine core off the rear of the warship sending it spinning into a glancing collision with the side of the heavy cruiser to her port quarter crippling the smaller ship’s systems with the impact and destroying four Vipers as it’s ripped through the escorting fighters.
The lights of the warship blinked out as the power shut off across the ship, weapons and defensive power dropped offline as did all other systems bar the emergency environmental systems, the smaller destroyers pulled in close ready to take in any survivors that may be able to escape the disabled ship.
Bridge of the Atlantis
“Any response to hails?”
“Negative sir, she’s completely dead in the water.”
The Dradis screens had shown in graphic detail the crippling of the heavy warship by the Cylon strike, the battle had all but destroyed the entire first fleet and the loss of the dreadnaught was heartbreaking to those who had spent so long trying to bring her back to operational use. With her loss the hope that had kept the colonials going was not embodied in the single Battlestar that now led the fleet.
“We have escape pods leaving the ship sir.”
“Have all remaining ships bring them aboard, and have the Atlantis come round she’ll need to take the Dreadnaught in tow.”
“Receiving a message from the Dreadnaught sir. It’s Commander Achilles.”
“On Speakers.”
“Atlantis, This is Achilles.”
“We read you commander, good to see you alive.”
“Good to still be alive, we’re on emergency power and we’ve taken eighty percent casualties. Vacuum doors throughout the ship are sealed and we’re losing the emergency generators.”
“The Atlantis is on it’s way to take you in tow.”
“Negative Captain the Dreadnaught is too big for the Atlantis to move dead weight, we haven’t the time or manpower to rig a multiple ship tow.”
“We’ll dock and take the survivors aboard.”
“No captain most of the crew that haven’t already gotten out can’t get out, doors are sealed and there are breaches in most compartments. Leave the dreadnaught it’s likely the Cylons will send more ships to find out what happened to their task force and we’re right out of plans.”
“We have the fireships commander they won’t make as big a bang as that small ship did but it’ll hold ‘em off.”
“That may be captain but we can’t get everyone off in time have the Atlantis regroup the remaining ships and leave, rendezvous with the civilians and get to earth. We’ll watch your back.”
“Commander…”
“This is an order Captain… Commander… Take care of my people, Dreadnaught out.”
“Commander, Do you read. Damn it Achilles. Bring us up close to her we’ll force a dock if we have to.”
“Sir I’m reading power transfer from the Dreadnaught, she’s activating her main armament.”
“What, that’ll drain the life support systems, dammit bring us around now.”
“They’re firing.”
A single heavy weapon shot passed by the Battlestar’s starboard side with room to spare, the commander of the Atlantis was in no two minds that the shot had been a warning to stay away.
”Prepare to fire on the Dreadnaught cripple her weapons and prepare to board her.”
“Sir?”
“That’s an order XO.”
“Sir we’ve been ordered by the commander to leave the area immediately, sir we have to leave them.”
“NO.”
“Sir Your in command of the fleet now you have dozens of ships awaiting your orders, sir we have to go.”
The commander of the Atlantis leaned his hands on the plotting table and bowed his head he knew his XO had been right and that the dreadnaught was unsalvageable her crew all but dead.
“Order the remaining ships to form up around the Atlantis we’ll rendezvous with the second fleet and jump to the edge of Polaris sector.”
“Aye sir.”
The Majestic sight of the damaged Battlestar was still awe inspiring to the surviving ships of the fleet even those that would have to be left behind on the damaged ships, the surviving ships of the first fleet, The Battlestar Atlantis, the Heavy cruiser Carillon, One Rebuilt Civilian carrier and five Destroyers, eight survivors from a force of twenty warships and barely three squadrons of fighters returned to the outward course leaving the debris of so many ships from both sides to float into the depths of the system.
The Second fleet was awaiting the remnants of their brethren close to the edge of the sector’s boundaries, the first fleet and second fleet took their assigned jump positions and with a massive grouping of flashes the last survivors of the Cimtar system left their home to a new beginning.
And perhaps an end.
Finish