Unforgiven
by chaos_eternus
“We should not allow this,” the Cavil noted imploringly, “right now they are weak, it is the perfect time to strike and remove the stain of the former Loyalists.”
“Do not forget,” a Six noted dryly, “that most of your model is in the ranks you wish to deplete.”
“All the more reason for me to push for their destruction,”
“Perhaps,” she replied, “but the Loyalists are being led once more. Whilst some still flee to us and yet more fall under our guns it is no longer as easy as it was.”
“We did capture several of their resurrection ships in the chaos following their acceptance of Anubis as a false God,” the Boomer noted her eyes dark, “but the bulk of their remaining forces are now concentrated around the remaining resurrection ships. It is no longer cost effective to try capturing them and even destruction is tricky.”
“How many resurrection ships are we talking about?”
“Three, each with a minimum of seven basestars as escort.” Cavil noted.
The Leoben winced, “upgraded vessels?”
“Indications are the Loyalists no longer have full control over any standard basestars. That is not confirmed however.”
“And the Unforgiven?” Leoben asked, his faced screwed up as if he had just stepped into something distasteful.
“They may have removed the governors from the minds of their drones.” The Six noted reluctantly.
Cavil's eyes widened, “I had not heard of that.”
“It has been kept out of the primary datanet,” the Six admitted, “and should be kept that way. The net is being compromised by the other factions just as fast as we can secure it.”
“And we do the same to them,” the Boomer noted.
“Need to know,” the Leoben grimaced, “is it just me or are we getting more and more like the Forsaken everyday?”
His received several glares in response, but not outright denials and after a few moments, the Boomer sighed, and spoke once more.
“The Humans, the Unforgiven, the Loyalist remnant, Anubis, Maktenos… if we concentrate on anyone threat, we leave ourselves more vulnerable to the others. In this the Humans are right; we need to reduce the threats.”
“Call them what they are,” Cavil glared at her, “they are not human anymore, God took away their souls for their apostasy. They are the Forsaken.”
“We should not allow the meeting to go ahead,” she noted rolling her eyes towards the Cavil, “the Humans and the Unforgiven not having to worry about each other just means more strength they can potentially gather against us.”
“We risk revealing our collaborators within the ranks of their military if we do that,” Leoben noted, “the operational security on this mission is impressive and it appears they have deliberately not put into their computers the mission they have assigned ‘Athena' to.”
“Nor has it been in their transmissions,” Six noted, “The Unforgiven do not even appear to know of their plans yet.”
“If the Indomitable were not to arrive, the Unforgiven would not therefore know to raise the alarm,” Cavil mused.
The room fell silent for a moment then Boomer noted “if the Humans were to hear of it and be lead to believe the Unforgiven themselves destroyed the Indomitable to send a message of their own…”
“It has possibilities,” Six agreed.
“It may take some time to gather enough ships together to ensure the mission succeeds,” Leoben noted, “we do not know the Indomitable's route, that is being left to her Captain. We would first need to find the ship then amass enough strength in her path to take her out.”
“ Raider tripwire?” Boomer noted.
Cavil grimaced, “the fact that they use hyperspace drives will make things trickier.”
Six nodded, “the bulk of our fleet only has jump drives. If we do not select our ships carefully the Indomitable could simply bypass our ambush in hyperspace.”
“So, a taskforce to prevent the meeting between the Unforgiven and the Forsaken,” Cavil replied pointedly, “do we have consensus on that?”
He nodded as agreements sounded in the room, “Still, what of Anubis and the old Loyalists?”
“The Loyalists have concentrated their forces too tightly,” Six noted reluctantly, “I do not believe we could gather enough strength to take out anyone of their fleets without taking severe losses ourselves.”
“And their fleets are grouped,” Boomer noted after a few moments, “taking out a fleet before reinforcements could arrive would be practically impossible.”
“And there are a number of ships within their fleets whose purpose is still unknown.” Leoben noted.
“They have at least six of Anubis's new destroyers,” Boomer noted, “and they are not ships to be trifled with. But those larger designs, they are completely new.”
“Any leads?” Cavil asked, his eyes narrowed as he gazed upon the Boomer.
“No,”
Leoben caught her hesitation, “go on.”
“Two main possibilities come to my mind,” she reluctantly acknowledged, “we know Anubis has been increasing the size of his fleet at all levels, from the new destroyers through to upgraded capital ships such as the improved Cheops and Rel'tecs, what we haven't seen much of is entirely new Capital ship designs.”
“There's a happy thought,” Cavil noted sarcastically.
“Not likely though,” Leoben noted, “Anubis has already pushed hard against the Loyalists. If they had walked away with his new pride and joys, I doubt he would have turned his attention back to Maktenos as quickly as he did.”
“Or they could have been a ship design which only Cylons have any use for,” Boomer noted.
Silence filled the room once more, followed after a few minutes by Cavils grunt of dissatisfaction, “resurrection ships.”
“Apparently armed and armoured resurrection ships.” Boomer noted in reply.
“Doubtful,” Six noted, “we do have a visual of more of those ships, whatever they are, being in one of Anubis's shipyards.”
“Anubis knows enough about us now that he could make his own Cylons.” Boomer countered.
That stopped the room dead and after a few moments she continued, driving her point home, “Anubis fighters with Cylon brains, brains programmed to perfect loyalty. Ships with Hybrids loyal to Anubis… Centurions made by Anubis for Anubis.”
“That, if we knew it were true” Cavil noted, “would persuade me to ally with the Humans.”
Carefully, no-one mentioned that he hadn't called them the Forsaken this time.