Colonial_Command

[XRaiderV1]

I've Decided to start a new Fan Fic to hold you all over until Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica Begins in 2008.

WARNING< THIS FAN FIC CONTAINS MATURE LANGUAGE, AND SOME SUGGESTIVE THEMES

Based on the 2003 miniseries, and the current series aired by sci-fi channel.

Written by XRaiderV1.7 of scifi-meshes,
XRaiderV1 of wolf's shipyard(same person, slightly different user names)
Real name: Marshall Margaritell

So, without further ado, here is:

THE FIRST SAGA: THE FALL OF THE TWELVE

Epilogue: Easy path/Path to ruin/Renewed hope
I'd been sent to interview a Colonial officer, and already I regretted taking the job. as I came 'round the end of the bar, I saw him. God that scar on the left side of his face, it reached from his chin to just below his hair, just slightly right of his left eye, my right, not his. He had the look and posture of one who'd seen too many battles, like he half expected an ambush, in a bar, of all places. Now I was jumpy, come to think of it.
I hesitated, wary of this veteren of a war straight from hell itself.
He looked up and to me, with eyes that said 'I knew you were here the moment you entered' and said "have a seat" I sat, took out the voice recorder, and got straight to it. "Tell me what happened to your people" I said. "Im General John conners, and how this war started is simple: my people tried to take the easy way to paradise" "We tried to create a servant race, to do the hard things for us" "in the end, all we succeeded in creating, is not a new utopian age, but humanity's own worst enemy" He said "Im Christopher Jackson, and I'd be honored to take the legacy of your people and share it with mine" I said "But first, how much do you know?" he asked me. "Not much beyond what our governments have stated" I said, suddenly suspicious, "Why?". "Because what Im about to tell you could get alot of good people killed, and it could also prove to be the one thing that gives a renewed hope to the people" he said. "You shouldnt be telling me this, right?" I asked. "Correct, now, take a drink of the vodka, its good" replied John. "Why?" I asked, confused.
"You could have been followed" John said casually. So I took a sip, and decided vodka wasnt for me. "Hey, bar keep, I'll take a Jersey Mile" I said. "Comin on up" replied the barkeep. "Vodka not to your liking?" "It's not that, I just prefer something with a bit of kick" i said, then went on "Tell me about the war, tell me what the people deserve and have a right to know" "If you're sure, because there's no going back" he asked. Feeling relieved, I replied "I wouldnt be here otherwise" John started telling the story I prayed would save our world........



Chapter 1: Coming of the storm


July 1st Year 2004, 2100 hrs.

3 Days BCI(Before Cylon Invasion)


"I had to admit, Atlantis was a fine ship, Just wish I was the one to command her"
As I stood on the Docking bridge, I knew it wasnt to be, for I had just been Charged with disobeying a diect order, an order to forcibly remove some protesters by force, and striking a superior officer. It seemed that president Adar had little patience for the articles of colonization, specificaly the articles dealing with the right to Peacably protest.
Pending Court martial aside, I had to admit, I'd Probably make the same choice again, if givin the opportunity.

While I stood there, deep in thought, it seemed, however , that events were about to sweep us along for the ride. Suddenly, the alarm sounded, we had Unknown contacts, closing fast. Immediately, I ordered the ship to action stations.
"Give it to me straight Ensign" I barked, mindful that I was only the temporary care taker of the ship, for Atlantis' Commanding officer still hadnt arrived yet and was 2 hours overdue.
"sir, I show 4 unknowns, Closing fast, no ID, no Transponder, no response to signals" replied the young ensign, very much concerned at what she was seeing.
It seemed I had been given a choice, disobey orders, and save the ship, or sit tight, and let whoever it was blow us to pieces.
"Hard to port, Present minimun Aspect to unknowns, Stand by Anti starfighter guns" I barked. "answering Hard to port aye, Anti starfighter guns Standing by, gun captains report all positions manned and ready, All sections report action stations manned and ready sir" Replied a noncom. This is akward, I really needed to know every one's name, I thought to myself.

"Ahead One half Power, Course two four three, Karam two oh seven, Rotate x axis ninty degrees, Present gunners with optimum firing angle" I ordered. "sir, Contacts pegged as Cylon" the ensign said. I froze, in my 20 years in the service, I'd never faced a cylon attack.
At this point, that voice in the back of my brain Shouted "GET WITH THE PROGRAM, YOU BRAINLESS GORM". I had to admit, that voice had never steered me wrong. "change Course to two seven seven, karam one oh four" , I ordered.
Suddenly, "Incoming", Yelled Ensign whats her name. I picked up the Comm Handset, Tapped over to all sections, and Yelled " ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR CONTACT", just then we took a nuke to our forward port side.

The Armor held.
As i picked myself up from the deck, I gave silent thanks to the Gods that I'd gotten my wish and gotten that new lamenated armor installed. It saved our collective Ass. "Sir, contacts are gone" Ensign Welles said. I just knew we'd gotten off easy, and that it probably wasnt over, not yet, not by a longshot. "Begin Jump Prep, Destination, Outpost Reach" I ordered. "Be ready to broadcast on all channels, In the Clear, to fleet command, and attach our logs and all reports on this brief encounter, they're gonna want to know what we can offer in terms of solutions', I added Something told me my day had just gone to total frakking shit.



2341 hrs, July 2nd, 2004, reach Outpost
2 Days BCI


We Jumped in to a scene of total devestation. The reach station had been blown out of orbit.
"No signs of aggressors", Welles reported. "keep the gun crews sealed in, and yank the wrappings off those new Mark Eights, I've got a Bad feeling we'e gonna need them" I ordered. "sir, Chief wilson", said an officer, I'd only just met the other day,"I had a couple damage teams check out the area where we took that nuke, and theres little if any noticable damage. If it werent for that armor, we might not have survived that seventh nuke" the chief said.

I was stunned, I could have sworn we'd only sustained one direct hit. "are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes. In fact, we took at least five confirmed hits, and two probables." said the chief.
"Just perfect, that means that those bastards can shoot from a distance" I remarked.
"If it werent for the fact that our dopplar dradis isnt yet operational, we would have seen them coming" replied the chief.
"What?!" I exclaimed. "They mentioned it as we were getting the ship under way, apparently, its supposted to be brought online today" mentioned the chief. "Forget it", I advised, "Wilson, I want to to put together a team, with your best people, and get that blasted dradis online, after that last fight, I wouldnt trust those shipyard idiots to find their way out of a cargo pod, much less install and activate a dradis" I remarked. "Sir, Yes sir", replied the chief, he saluted, turned and snd strode off.

Some time later as I stood there, on the docking bridge of Atlantis,observing the rescue effort, ensign Welles remarked "theres a storm coming , isnt it, sir?" I replied "no, the storm has already arrived, and after yesterday, I would not be surprised by what the toasters do next" Suddenly over the comm: " Action stations, action stations, unknown contact inbound" I picked up the reciever and barked "IFF Liutenant?" "Sir, contact identified", "its Mako, he says Carson's Raptor was blown apart" replied the liutenant. "Explains why Carson never showed", I mused. I knew Carson, knew he'd been looking forward to his first command. Minutes later, "General Conners, priority comm, its the Vice President" came the announcement. "Ah hell", I exclaimed. The VP and I couldnt stand one another, you see, it was the right hook I delivered to his jaw that landed me in a cell on Caprica. You're probably wondering why. I'll tell you. It's because the bastard pulled a gun on my CAG after he'd refused orders to 'escort' me to the brig after I'd refused the order to 'clear' the protesters out. This comm could only be more bad news.

I picked up the reciever and said "Conners here sir" "Conners?, where the hell's Carson?" came the expected reply. "Carson's dead, Mako says Carson's Raptor was blown to hell by the cylons" I replied. "Cylons, you sure?" came the reply. "Yes, sir, Mako tells me a pair of Raiders also tried to take him out too" I replied. A pause, then "Fine, take command of Special Operations Command, effective immediately, put together a strike group, and find out what the hell is going on" the VP ordered. "Yes, Sir" I replied, stunned at the order, I figured someone wasnt quite done with me yet, cause the VP had a reputation as a man who dosn't give second chances. "Out" and the transmission was terminated. I stood there, trying to process what had just happened, at that moment, that little voice in the back of my skull, the one that had such a pessimistic bend to it, yelled "Get a move on it". I sighed, turned and asked for the files the VP had sent. "Here sir" replied the communications officer, Lt. Sykes as she handed the files over. I strode to the nearest terminal, input the disk, typed in my authorization, and exlaimed in shock "WHAT THE FRAK?" as some weird computer program suddenly activated. "Systems check initiated, running initialization, confirming system status, all systems green, AI online. Right then, that damned annoying voice in my brain Screamed "HA, FRAKKED YOU OVER IN THE END, DID HE" I needed a vacation bad, cause this was just getting too weird for me. Cylons I could handle, insane superior officers, fine,civilians, sure, ok. But I was one hundred percent absolutely completely unprepaired to find myself face to face with a freaking Artificial Intellegence. "I assume you're General Conners", The AI inquired. Uncertain, I asked "Who the frak are you?" "My name is Rommie" replied the AI, "And I'm here under orders to assist you" came the answer to my question.

All eyes were on the mysterius Female AI, which had commandeered the Dradis console's Holographic display system. "Relax, My program is based on human brain scans", Rommie replied in response to the 'deer in headlights' look on my face. Recovering from my momentary shock, I Barked "The moment the last survivors are on board get us under way" "And plot a jump to the coordinates Rommie will provide", I added, anticipating her next statement. "Yes, Sir" replied ensign Welles.
I knew we needed to hurry, I had a bad feeling we were about to run out of time.


Chapter 2: Lurking in the shadows.


0900 hrs, July 3rd, 2004, Hidden Special Operations Base, deep within the Pulsar Nebula
1 Day BCI

We jumped smack into the middle of the worst soup I've ever seen, if not for our newly operational Dopplar Dradis, we would not have even seen the shipyard, let alone that entire strike group moored to the station. "Collision alert" chimed Rommie "Initiating contact, docking clearance recieved, proceeding towards docking position" She announced. I had to admit, I was impressed, she certainly seemed to know what she was doing.

Meanwhile, on the portside flight deck, the airboss was busy getting aquainted with the new Vipers.
"If the old man thinks we're gonna be able to simply hop in, press a few buttons, and be off, then we're frakked" he announced to no one in particular. "These birds are more advanced than anything else I've ever seen" he said more to himself than to the ships CAG, who replied "Can we get them in the air?" "possibly", said the airboss, "but keeping them airborne, might be a problem" he said.
"how so?" replied the ships CAG, Mako. "well, most of our pilots are trained on the MK VII, and we only have two or three dozen even checked out for flight training, let alone actual combat" replied the airboss."wait, no, lemme check the computer, ....... yes! we do have them" he exclaimed. "Have what?" Mako asked. "Flight simulators", replied the airboss. "Get our pilots up to speed yesterday, Boss" Mako ordered. "Yes Sir, replied the Airboss.

As the new Vipers were readied, and thier pilots trained, General Conners was dealing with the station's Commander.....

"I dont give a flying frak what your orders are, or what orders the Commanders of those ships have, I'm countermanding them and giving every ship thats docked new orders, starting with the removal of the Command Navigation Program". I yelled. "I've seen the code for it, and as far as I can tell, that thing's one big back door trojan horse" I bellowed. The young Commander in front of me looked scared shitless. Good, that meant the shock treatment had worked, I knew because he managed to stammer "Sir, Yes Sir", and issued the order, before passing out cold. Figures, man had no stomach for confrontation, no small wonder how he ever made it out of the academy. I just had to shake my head as I had him brought to the med bay. Things began to move fast. Word had reached us of a massive cylon fleet headed for the Colonies.

I was determined to meet it head-on. Even at the cost of the Battlegroup. I strode to the operations console, picked up the reciever, and barked: "Now hear this, we have just recieved word of a massive fleet of Cylon ships approaching the Colonies. I intend to engage and delay them for as long as possible. I want all ships ready to rock and roll. Our objectives, Delay the enemy's advance as long as possible, gather any Intel that may prove useful, and to rescue, and ensure the safety of, at all costs, any survivers we may run across.
You know the mission, you know the stakes, now lets remind the Cylons why they should fear us". I could tell my words had had the desired effect, because immeadiately everyone moved to perform their assigned tasks with renewed effort. I knew this was going to be rough. "You know", mused Rommie, "Our orders were to try to stop this, not make it happen sooner" "I know, but at the rate those ships are moving, by the time we get there, it will already be too late" I replied. "True", Rommie replied, "But I hope you have a better plan than a reckless, suicidal charge." she added. "So do I, so do I", I muttered.

2200 hrs, july 3rd, 2004
Middle of Pulsar nebula, headed to deep space.
2 hrs BCI

We were in deep kimche, and everyone knew it. I had ordered the battlegroup to cruise at top speed towards the edge of the nebula, and already, several of the 40+ ships of the battlegroup had blown their intercoolers. The strain of goin at top speed through this muck was proving deadly. We had no choice. The orders I had been givin made that clear. Halfway through, as if things were not bad enough, we recieved fragmentary transmissions. These transmissions were not reassuring. Put simply, the shit had hit the fan. "Sir, most of our pilots can handle the MK VIII's without additional training"
said the Chief, demonstrating yet again the proclivity most engineers had for sneaking around unnoticed. Seriously, that kind of crap annoys the shit out of me. "But?" I asked, convinced I was about to recieve more bad news. I was proven a prophet, because the next thing the Chief said was: " However, turns out we have only the Alpha model, not the 12 squads of Beta's we should have" he said. "Some brainless Gorm of a Frak-up must have thought we could make do" the Chief said. "Must have been a bean counter" I mused, rather Pissed. My Battleplan assumed a whole complement of Beta's. At that moment, the voice in the back seat that I hadnt heard from in a day, a new record, chose that moment to say: "ASSUMPTION IS THE MOTHER OF ALL FRAK-UPS, YOU BRAINLESS IDIOT!" I had to agree.
Lacking a better plan, I had to use the one I did have. " Nothing changes Wilson, see about getting as many of our Alphas up to Beta standard, we should have the plans and data in the computers, and we've still got another 12 hours in this muck." I ordered. " Sykes, any further transmissions?" I inquired. "No, Sir", "Silence on every channel, except for some of the civilian channels", she replied. "Either the Toasters are picking them off, or we've got some smart Civvies wising up to the situation", She said, confirming my fears, that we were already too late. "DRADIS CONTACT !" Welles screamed, making half the operations personel jump, myself included. "WhoWhatWhere?" I asked, feeling half panicked. "Two oh four, karam three five one" she said.
"Contacts identified as civilian" she said. "Figures", I said, "Someone must have figured out that the toasters cant see shit in this muck", "hell, even we can barely see through this muck, even with our Dopplar Dradis", I muttered. Smart place to hide a shipyard, dumb place to try to navigate out of. As ot was, we barely avoided a collision. "Sir, contact established with civilian ships" Sykes said, anticipating my next question. "Whats their status?" I asked. " They were just asking us the same thing", she said. "Tell them... tell them to take up formation with us. "And order the Battlegroup to reform, with the civilian ships in the center with us" I ordered. "Sir, ships acknowleging orders", replied Sykes. "Give me fleet wide" I ordered. "Fleet wide sir" came the reply as I picked up the handset. "Alright, listen up, these civilian ships are why we are still here, we must at all costs ensure their survival, in all likelyhood these are the only survivers, and its up to us to get them to safety, to Earth. This is OUR mission. Lets keep them safe. Atlantis Out" With that came more good news: "Dradis contact, oh eight seven, karam two two four constant bearing" Welles announced. "More playmates, this is just barrels of fun" said that next door neighbor I wish I could strangle, the voice in my skull just had the absolute worst sense of timing. "Action stations, action stations, this is not a drill" I barked into the ships PA comm. I switched over to launch control "Chief, I need good news" I said. "Sir, we got 10 out of 12 squadrons converted" he said, convincing me that the Gods still had more in store for us, why else had the Cylons not launched nukes at us? seconds later I had my anwser. The bastards started shooting missiles at us, well, one little mystery solved, and another one in its place: " Id on contact at two seven zero karam two one six" I asked. " No match in database" Welles replied. "Second set of contacts identified as Friendlies" Welles said.
"Sir, Contact with lead ship, the Goliath, her commander, Commander Willex says to get the civilian ships we found as well as the ones headed towards us the hell out of here". "He also says Jake saved his everyone aboard goliath when he jumped his ship into the path of an incoming Nuke, and yes Jake is ok, in fact he's providing escort for the civilians while Goliath and the rest of her Battlegroup move to interept the Cylons". Sykes informed me. Suddenly the ship rocked, we'd just taken a stray hit. That decided me. "Set course two seven four, karam oh one seven, we're going straight through that formation of cylons" I ordered. "Sir, we'll risk exposing the civilian ships to stray fire" Welles said. "I know, but our only exit is right through them" I said. I picked up the headset, said "open a channel to all ships in our fleet" "Sir, channel open" Sykes replied. "Listen up, our only way out is through those Cylon ships, I'd rather go through them than through that soup we just exited. now for all you civilians, just stay in the center of the spherical formation, and keep going at top speed, we're gonna blow righ through them" I said, as we took several more hits, "proceed to coordinates three oh four, karam one oh seven, and stand by for jump co-ordinates, Atlantis out" I hung up and barked "Advise all ships to spin their jump drives, and plot out and distribute jump co-ordinates to all ships" I picked up the headset, dialed launch control and issued the command: "Launch Vipers, repeat, launch Vipers" Combat formation delta two two seven, Conners surprise"

Meanwhile on the portside launch deck, Chief Wilson was getting the Vipers in the air....
"Alright, you heard the Boss, lets get these birds in the tubes and ready to kick some Cylon Ass" I Yelled . As I stood there, issuing commands, Our freshly upgraded Vipers were loaded into the tubes, and I had no doubt they would all come back. If the technical data was to be believed, they would be able to take some serious abuse. Then the ship rocked, and I knew we were going in straight down the throat of the beast.

Back in the CIC, Conners was wondering what he'd gotten his fleet into...

"Rommie, your situation analysis" I asked, "Enemy Battlegroup has engaged Goliath battlegroup, which is succeding in drawing the Cylons away, we should have a clear path past the Cylons" she replied. "Battlestar Kobol has been disabled" Sykes Said, "Sir, Evac Raptors from the Kobol are requesting landing clearance" Ensign Welles added. "give them clearance" I barked, "And tell all ships all ahead full !" I added. "We just got noticed" Ensign Welles Announced. "Enemy suppression fire" I barked. "Weapons commencing fire" Came the reply from Rommie. The battle was joined. Reports were coming in so fast it was all I could do to make sense of it all. " Have the Triton change course to one oh eight karam two one one, we have a civilian ship about to get a face full, send the Avenger to two seven seven, karam two one one, I want to try to divert the Cylons attention from that mining ship, and I want Fighter cover on our port side, I dont like the way that Basestar is shadowing us" I Ordered, trying to buy the civilians time to get ready to make the jump. We took our thirteenth and fourteenth nukes of the day on our starboard side. Grasping the console in an effort to remain standing I shouted: " Ready to jump?" "Two minutes" came the reply. "All ships, recall Vipers, standby for Jump command, Sykes, get our birds back on the deck" I Ordered "Ready for jump" Welles reported. "All ships, Execute Jump" I yelled into the headset.
We jumped just as the goliath blew apart. We made it.
Mission complete, now we had to stay alive, and keep the civilians safe.
Easier said than done.

1100 hrs, July 4th, 2004, Halcion Shipyards.
Deep within the Halcion Nebula
Day of the Cylon Invasion

We'd been through absolute hell. No other way to put it. Even so, we'd only bought ourselves a brief respite. the cylons very likely knew where this place was. It was up to me to find a way out of this. I'd been in this kind of situation before. It was several years after I joined the colonial marines.
The date, August 14th, 1984, 2345 hrs, location: Virgo 3( a moon of the planet virgon) We'd been called in, in response to a hostage situation, seemed the caprican representitive to the qorum of 12 had been taken hostage. the hostage takers, a group of disgruntled saggitaron Mine workers, were demanding better wages, better conditions, unionization, the usual bit. Our job was to neutralize them, extract the caprican diplomat, and his staff, and get the hell out. " Team leader to point, what do you see?" Asked the Sargent, Chris Wilder, " Nothing good" I replied, using an old joke to discribe the situation exactly. Seemed that this was gonna be alot harder than we thought. Because, as usual, fleet intellegince had Frakked the pooch, and it seemed, bad this time. "Alright, take position on that northern ridge, and get eyes on target" ordered the sarge. "Already on point, eyes on target" I replied, anticipating the order. Just then, Pressman, leading the extract team reported "Bug out, bug out, extract successful". Mindful of what could happen, I unslung my Variable Sniper Rifle, sighted, and took out the perimeter guard. Just then over the comm: "Cover team taking fire!" "wheres my cover fire Point?" Sarge screamed. "Give me a location" I said. "two oh four, karam two two one" Came the reply. Having a fix, I sighted, and squeezed the trigger twice, two shots, two kills, and still, the cover team was pinned down. "Pop a flare" I Yelled. "Whats your plan?" Sarge asked. "Just do it" I yelled, frantic by this point. I saw the flare, chambered an HE Shredder round, Sighted, and fired. Even at this distance, I felt the Concussion kick. "Status?" I asked, "Status is your ass is mine" the Sarge replied. I cracked a smile. I knew I'd done the job. I'd distracted the saggitaron miners.

And suddenly, I woke up, finding myself asleep, leaning on the railing of in Atlantis CIC. Figures, falling asleep while on watch woulda gotten me a night with the Sarge, If she were still here. She always found my ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime quite amusing. And Quite suddenly, I had the solution. We needed a distraction. and I had just the plan. It was exceptionally risky. We needed to split the fleet, two groups, one cover, one extraction. I layed it out to Rommie, and listened as she said: " That might be something I'd do", she commented, making me wonder for the upteenth time who's brain scan she was based on, "come to think about it, it might, no, maybe, yes, it will work". "Ok, lets rock and roll, I yelled", jostling the CIC staff to action. The stage was set, and one way or another, this was going down. Ten minutes later, I had the Commanders of each ship on the line, and I laid out my plan: "Half of the battlegroup will serve as the cover fire team, the other half, extraction. Each group of civilian ships will have two fleet escorts, with the MK VIII's of Atlantis, Intruder, and Phendrana will ride CAP, with each group of vipers turning back to join the fight as each group jumps away. I have to warn you all now, that we will be making one of the longest jumps ever attempted. We will be pushing well past redline limits. You know whats at stake here, now lets show thesetoasters why they should never underestimate oue tenacity". With that I hnded off the line to my communications officer and my dradis officer, who promptly starte doling out ship assignments. I had more pressing concerns, namely a certain brawl that had broken out in the ship's maintiance bay. I rode the lift down and emerged just in time to see a Firey Redhead literally slam a burly 260 pound marine to the deck. I mean, she hauled him up and over, simultaneusly escaping a choke hold, and tossing him to the deck. " You do realize this is tantamount to suicide, right?" asked that nagging voice next door. Well, I needed an XO, why not someone who could toss marines around like they were preteen sparring partners? So, just as the sargent at arms raised his pistol, I strode up, and asked: "Since you seem quite capable of handling yourself on a Commandstar, you want a job?". First thing I learned as a spec ops marine: always give the right job to the right person, and I'll be damned if she didnt turn and reply:" does that mean I get to tell the monkey here to go space himself?" I had to laugh, "we'll discuss it later, meantime, get a uniform, and meet me in the CIC in fifteen" with that, I turned and strode off, and just as the lift doors closed I heard that woman screaming at the marine to drop and give her one hundred. What a day.

1900 hrs, July 4th, 2004, Halcion Shipyards.
Periphery of the Halcion Nebula
Day of the Cylon Invasion

As the Fleet slid out to the edges of the nebula, mulitple baseships jumped in. As planned, the two groups split, one headed for deep space, the other, a direct beeline to the Cylons. The first casulty was the Virgon. We didnt even see it happen. One moment, we had twenty six ships, the next twenty five. "What the Frak just happened?!" I exclaimed "An enemy controlled Colonial ship launched a jump capable Nuke from behind the Cylon battlegroup" replied Rommie. "Saved a surprise for you didnt they" announced that little gremlin in the back of my skull. Couldnt it offert something encouraging for once? "Begin jump sequence" I ordered. "Set course two three three karam oh one seven" I barked "Sir, helm answering" replied that redhead, whose name I still didnt know. Me and my manners. "your name, Red" I asked, fully aware that introductions should and could probably wait. "Meia, Meia Langley" she answered. "nice to meet you, would you mind getting those destroyers off to our port to swing around and shoot that son of a bitch that fired that nuke?" I asked. " not at all" Meia replied. It occured to me that everyone was staring, wondering for what I would guess to be the hundredth time if I was perhaps a bit insane. Who the hell am I to disappoint? "change course to oh seven karam one one four" I ordered, trying to flank the closest baseship. Just them we took a nuke to our dorsal bow. Meia seemed to take that as a personal affront, because next thing I know, she'd ordered the number four portside battery to quote unquote"blow them to hell" Stunned, I realized she'd seen what I'd missed: a baseship trying to sneak in under our defense screen. I'd had had just about enough. As the sarge woulda said, "I dont find this shit amusing anymore"

I ordered our nuclear armament readied for firing from the forward guns. We had six more groups to go, and I had to make this count. "Give me a target on those lead ships, rotate bow pitch negative 15 degrees, lock on and fire" Eight gun turrets fired, eight ships crippled. And with that, the last ships had jumped. As Meia screamed:"get those birds on the deck now!" I knew we had to get the hell out of dodge. Two ships left to jump, and they rammed the Gunstar Viscount. The toasters had claimed another good ship. We jumped. We would spend the next two months in constant running engagements.


Chapter 3: The Long Night


1235 hrs, September 21th, 2004, Somewhere out beyond the Colonies
2 Months, 2 weeks PCI (Post Cylon Invasion)

I suppose I could recount the countless battles of the past 2 months, but I wont bore you, I'll leave that for Rommie. Suffice it to say, things were proving eventful, even without the constant harrasment we'd been putting up with from the Cylons up till 2 weeks ago. Administrative, political, religious, etc, you know, the kind of crap a 20 year carrier Marine normally isnt quite qualified to handle. We Marines arent normally known for subtlety, or taking the indirect approach. Covert, yes, subtlety, no. So I figured it would be a good idea to get my new XO involved in what seemed the umpteenth frak-up of the morning.
Nope, Wrong answer. " Okay", I tried again, for the tenth time, "step over here, let the doctor draw some blood, take an X-Ray" I asked, "hell no!" Came the response, from a rather irate civilian systems technician. You see, we needed someone qualified to check part of the ship's mainframe, but, as usual, some snafu prevented what needed to be done from getting done, in this case, the ships surgeon, whom most of us affectionately referred to as Bones, wanted the guy to get a physical, which the tech promptly refused. At which point, Meia said, " we need diagnostics performed on the computers, let him pass, Bones" "absolutely not" he replied. "I refuse to allow anyone onboard who hasn't previously had a physical, I dont want him dropping dead mid task" He added. So what does Meia do? She grabbs the tech by both shoulders, shoves him down into the seat, rips his left sleeve, sticks him, and draws some blood, at which point he slugs her. Anyone else would have been down for the count, probably myself included. Quickly, before Meia could decide how to respond, I intervened. "Off my ship, I wont have anyone working on this ships systems, who cant keep from slugging someone who's trying to do her job" I yelled, convinced I was gonna slug him myself.

"Well, who's gonna check the damn thing now?" I asked. "I will", came the reply. Looking around, I spotted a sixteen year old female walking purposely toward me. Sensing my XO's feathers ruffle, I asked: "What makes you think you can handle the kind of hardware on this ship" "I can handle any kind of computer, day or night, blindfolded, one arm tied behind my back" came the smartass response. "Sure, you'd just as soon electrocute yourself as figure out what the problem is" Meia suddenly snapped, staring at the teenage girl, a foxy little item ready to stare back. Sensing danger, I barked to bones: " If she doesnt want the physical, let it go, Lennie" " My name is Jennifer Watkins" She said, scowling at me. I decided, right then and there that I liked this kid, she definitely knew how to handle Adults. Manipulate, is more like it. "Okay, hon, lets get you set up in mainframe control" Meia said, "My name isnt hon.." she started to say, then noticed my XO's expression. Context definitely made a difference. Kindness was evidently a new experince for her. Suddenly, from the aft end of the deck, came shouting, banging, all manner of noises were heard. Sensing danger, I muttered: "ah hell, what now?!" I strode on down to 'investigate'. In all honesty, I was just plain curious. I came upon a pair of village idiots, if you will, having it out, over the Gods only knew what. I stepped in to intervene, and was rewarded with a right cross for my troubles. Before I could get up, in comes Meia, launching herself into a flying tackle, taking both combatants to the ground. Getting to my feet, muttering, "stupid crazy, dumb-ass frakkers..." I proceeded into the fray, grabbing idiot 1 by his right shoulder, spinning him around, and slugging him. One down, for the count. Looked like Meia had her idiot subdued. "Liutenant, escort these two 'village idiots' to the brig" I barked. " General, the representatives are here to see you" Rommie announced, as she appeared next to me. "Great, more 'good' news" I complained. I emerged from the meeting four hous later only to discover that some brainless gorm had blown a relay on the secondary communications interlink, which meant, naturally, no internal comm, etc. By the end of the day, I was ready to slug someone myself.


1100 hrs, October 31th, 2004, Somewhere out beyond the Colonies
3 Months, 3 weeks, 3 days PCI (Post Cylon Invasion)

Having settled matters related to keeping the fleet together, I volunteered to fly Cap on, of all nights, halloween. "Trick or treat, mother frakker" shouted that brainless idiot upstairs in my brain. I was seriously considering a vacation, to where, who frakking cares. That said, I'd take what I could get, in this case, a jaunt in a Viper for five hours. Sure enough, four hours went by. Then another half hour, and just as I was coming in for a landing, wouldnt ya know it, I got jumped. "Fraking hell!" I cried, jerking my Viper up and over to evade the lone Raider that had almost cashed my chips in for me. "Atlantis actual, whats your status, General?", came the inquiry. "Just frakking marvalus" I yelled back. Just them, the son of a bitch took a pot shot at me. This only served to kick long dormant combat reflexes into hi gear. A series of rediculas maneuvers ensued, colmenating in me pulling a reverse emmelman, dangerous even under ideal conditions, flipped tail first, sighted, and shot the bastard at point blank range, just as the rest of the CAP arrived. Suddenly, I realized what the presence of a lone Raider meant. Bad news city. "Jump prep, all ships I screamed" " John, get your ass on the deck, we've got problems" Yelled Meia over the open comm. "You got problems, try stepping outside and having a look at this mess" I yelled, "we have problems of our own out here" I Cried. I looked to my left, spun around and avoided a near miss, and saw a sight that chilled my blood to the marrow. We were in a star system whose star had been projected to go nova in two weeks time, obviously, someone screwed up, cause what I saw was the approaching shockwave from said super nova. "All Vipers, Combat landings now, Repeat now", I screamed over the comm, swinging around, coming down on the deck hard. Another fifteen seconds, and all the birds were down. As the lift brought me up to the service hanger, I yelled over the comm "FTL JUMP NOW, GODDAMMIT,NOW"
Moments later, I came to, lying on the deck, wondering how I'd gotten from my viper to the deck , I started to stand, only to be held down, looking up above me, I heard the concern in my XO's voice, she was telling me to lay still while the medics checked me over. As Meia turned to see how the damage teams were making out, the ship suddenly rocked, pitching my XO off her feet, causing her to land hard on my midsection. Aware that a certain pair of areas were mashed against my face, I muttered: "XO, if you dont mind, I'd like to breath now", which was true. As she pushed herself up, she whispered in my ear "First, and last time looking", which left me wondering what the hell she meant, because I couldnt see, had blood in my eyes from a head wound that I had no recollection of sustaining. I spent the next two days in bed, under Physician ordered 'bed rest'. I later found out that it wasnt a super nova, but a cleverly orhestrated attack. The shockwave hit just as the lift was raising into the bay. If I hadnt unstrapped when I did, I might not have been as banged up as I was. Meanwhile, my XO was refusing point blank to even look at me, let alone talk to me.


0100 hrs November 21st 2004, near the Epsilon Earindus Deep Space Station
4 Months, 3 weeks, Post Cylon Invasion

After three weeks of Meia's ignoring me, I decided that this was gonna be a detriment to the ship and crew, and thus, needed to be fixed. So I had Wilson clear 2 decks, and decided a DI response was needed.I Knocked on the hatch, waited 30 seconds, spun the wheel, and kicked in the hatch, simultaneously pulling the pin on a smoke grenade, lobbed it, and emptied the entire clip of blanks from my rifle, screaming at the top of my lungs: "Get up" "Move move move" Driving Meia towards the first ladder. "Drop and give me fifty!" I howled, then I counted her off. "Time to run" I cried "Ten laps through decks fifty and fifty one". "Move!" I cried "Move move move" I yelled as I jogged to keep up. "Down that ladder" I barked, "Drop and give me fifty" I yelled. For some reason, she did not pick a fight the whole time, but the moment we got to the third lap, I knew Meia was back. How? Because she spun on her heel, and delivered what was supposed to be a knockout blow. I deflected it with practiced ease, following that up by knocking her legs out from under her. She responded by jumping to her feet and leveling a spin kick to my head, which I blocked. "Good, that means I'm getting through" I said "what?!" Meia asked, looking stunned. "your behavior over the past three weeks has been unacceptable" I continued, looking her straight in the eye. "On a warship, refusing to interact with your CO because of a situation out of my control is stupid". "It places this ship at risk" I said. "I cant do this without your help" I added, softening my tone slightly. "In battle, it's my job to focus on overall battle strategy, therefore, I count on you to direct the ship in battle" I paused, then continued "I cant do this on my own, I need you with me, directing this ship". I stood there, waiting, wondering if my words would mean anything. "You bastard". "lets do this" she said, much to my relief. "Good, because we have a message to send to Earth" I replied. Fifteen minutes later the strike team met Meia and I in the pilot's briefing room. "Ok, here's the situation, we need to retake that station" I said, pointing to a picture of the station. "It is most likely heavily defended by the enemy, and likely a one way mission, therefore, this is a voluntary mission". Immeadiately everyone stepped forward, surprising me. I hadnt even asked for volunteers yet. "you know, you'll probably never see any of them again" said that idiot of a jerk, the voice in the back of my brain. "your objectives", I continued, "are simple, board the station, secure the control center, upload the program being prepaired by rommie, and key the station's transmitter, broadcasting at maximum power towards coordinates two three three, karam one oh seven, karam zero seven three". I added "I feel I should tell you all this will probably be a one way mission" I paused, allowing this information to sink in. "I wish I had some grand speech to reassure you, to speed you on your way, truth is, all I can say is, do your best, and good luck" I stopped here, trying to find the right words, thankfully they did not give me the chance. "Sir, yes, Sir" they said in unison. "Head to the Raptor gunship, Dismissed!" I stood there, as they filed out, Meia by my side, wondering what was going to befall the individuals I had probably just sent to their deaths, when Meia snapped me out of my reverie "You know, they are the best, they will get the job done" she said. "I know" I replied. "Rommie, get me those commanders I mentioned" "Yes Sir" she replied, "Online now" she advised "Ok, listen up, we have a lot of work to do, and none of it is easy" I paused, then continued, "The Hera, Achillies, Eternal, Excalibur, Paladin, Minotaur, Triton, Vigilence, Aurora, and the Zues will be assigned to run defense for the civilian fleet, the rest of the battlegroup will sieze, and attempt to hold for as long as possible, the Epsilon Earindus Deep Space Station" Stunned silence met my short briefing. So I elaborated, "We need to hold the station long enough to both get any supplies that arent bolted down, and send an extremely long distance transmission", "To do that we need the majority of our forces on the station, so, I'm assigning most of the ships that are able to deploy the MKVIII to defend the Civilian fleet". "We will in fact be dividing our total fire power in half". In unison: "Lets do this sir!" came the reply.
This battle would either see us safely on our way, or reduce the battlegroup's ability to defend the civilian fleet. Possibly fatally.
Rommie appeared next to me, and said "Something feels very wrong here" "Agreed" I replied "Something about this situation, not the mission, is making me nervous" Meia admitted. "Well, theres nothing to be done about it, except to accomplish what we came here for" I said.
An hour later, we were in the thick of it.


0245 hrs November 21st 2004, Epsilon Earindus Deep Space Station
4 Months, 3 weeks, Post Cylon Invasion

We jumped into a scene the likes of which I never want to see again.
Thirty baseships, all big and bad looking, Immeadiately came towards us, and anticipating a slaughter I Yelled "Formation two Delta, stagger the ships" No sooner did I issue the order, than over half of them jumped away. "For once, a lucky Frakking Break" came the smartass reply from the voice from the depths of my brain. "Well, how kind, they gave us an opening" Meia said aloud, to no one in particular. "Im intercepting some extremly long distance communications", announced Lt. Sykes. "It seems that the toasters have an even bigger problem than us to deal with" she said. "I doubt that", Rommie replied. Suddenly, I knew what my earlier feeling of unease was all about. "There must be other ships out there" I mused "Ships that for some reason, are more of a concern to the Cylons, and if that's the case, we need to find that ship or ships" Meia said. "Agreed, but in the meantime, we have a space station to seize" I replied. I picked up the headset, tapped the launch control freq and issued the order:" Red squad, Wolf squad, launch and take up vanguard position, Gold squad, Grey squad, to standby" I turned and said to my xo "You have command of the boat" She turned and nodded assent. "Incoming!" yelled Ensign Welles. I Immediately saw it on dradis, but there wasnt enough time to warn the Phalanx. I looked away, winceing as Welles announced the loss of the Phalanx. Immeadiately, I ordered a change in the formation. "Attack pattern Delta two two, divide and conquor" I cried. As the ships moved apart I saw my opening on dradis, and seized it. "Meia, the opening..." I hinted. "set course oh nine one, Bow pitch negative thirty, roll fifteen to port" Meia ordered.
"Helm answering aye" replied the ship's helmsman, Petty Officer Anthony Buckman. "Main battery seven, track and fire on target bearing one oh six, karam one one two", Meia advised fire control. "Fire control, target locked" came the reply. "Mind clueing me in?" I asked. "That big ship", Meia indicated it on the dradis. "They seem intent on flanking us" Meia replied. "Sykes, tell those gunships and raptors to get a move on" I cried, just as the Gunstar Essex Bought the farm. "Aye, ships away" she replied. "Remind them to grab anything not bolted down" I advised. "Sir!" Welles yelped, "Im intercepting an extremely long distance tight beam transmission, Its from a ship identified as the Prometheus". "Well?" I asked, stunned at this latest twist. "It seems to be a routine Sitrep, Im getting logs, analysis's, reports, the works". "Hmm, Prometheus, Nova class, built like a fortress, as I recall" I mused, then I had it, "Get me strike team alpha lead" I Barked. "Sir" Sykes replied, "Team lead online" "team lead, this is Conners, Im encrypting and transmitting to the data unit an additional message, this one for the Prometheus, Rommie will feed you targeting coordinates for the transmitter" I said "Teamlead, new objective accepted, out" Just then, another two ships went up, one from a nuke, the ther from a suicide run, this was fast degenerating into a free for all. Then, to the complete surprise of no one in the CIC, another contact appeared on Dradis, confirming that our damned jump detection unit was fried. "To the commander of Atlantis Battlegroup, this is the Battlestar Pisces, mind if we join the party?" Stunned silence. Then "Permission granted, the more the merrier", replied Meia, who next said "General Conners is in command, and sends his greetings" "Acknowldged" came the reply. "Sir, raptors inbound hot with cargo, and requesting additional raptors and personal" Sykes advised. Suddenly the ship pitched, knocking me off my feet and into my XO. Sensing a return to an unwelcome place, I muttered "See, out of my control" "Apology accepted" she said, "Now if you dont mind, please get off" to which I laughed as I got up. This was senseless, here we were, in the middle of an all out fight, and Meia and I were having one of those moments best left for off duty hours. "As if such a thIng exists any more" Meia replied, reading my mind. "Sir, strike team alpha reports they are in position, and have secured the control deck, and are ready to commence tansmission" Lt Sykes advised, just as the deck pitched, yet again, but this time, slammed me into the Dradis console. Darkness overtook my vision, I drifted back, to the last time I saw Gunnery Sargent Chris Wilder alive, it was after she had told me of the son we had, her last words, I struggled to remember....Suddenly, they came to me : "FINISH THE MISSION!" as I came to, the CIC was in pandimonium. "What the frak are you all panicing for!" I Howled, Focus, mission now, Panic later, now lets finish this"


0425 hrs November 21st 2004, Epsilon Earindus Deep Space Station
4 Months, 3 weeks, Post Cylon Invasion

"We need to get out of here" Meia shouted over the din of the claxons. "Agreed" I replied, "Status on those messages?" I asked "Messages and data packets sent, Strike team reports that they are pinned down" Sykes reported. "Divert Supply team sixteen to provide extract.." "Sir, strike team also reports that the centurians that have them pinned, have also zeroed the station's guns on us" Sykes finished. "Frak.." I started to say, when Ensign Welles cut me off "Explosive decompression detected in Station Command deck, possible Heat charge detonation" "Damn" I muttered. "they did pack it after all" Meia muttered. "Status on those guns?" I barked, "Guns offline" replied Sykes. "Supply teams report that they've stripped the holds of everything but the kitchen sink, and they netted us a nice two dozen MK II Transport shuttles to boot" Sykes informed us. "Nice, I was wondering how they were gonna get all that cargo back here" Meia replied sarcasticly.
"Good" I replied just as the Persius and Repluse went up. "sir, you need to here this" Sykes advised, then she clicked the fighter Freq: "red two, heavy fire, zone six" "Wolf eight, copy" "grey four, looks like those baseshiups are fixing to pull out" I picked up the headset, and advised "All birds, come on home, repeat, come on home, combat landings authorized" "Sykes, spin up the drives" "Rommie, plot and distribute return coordinates" "Yes Sir", both of them said. "All birds are back on board" Ensign Welles announced, "All ships report jump ready" Sykes announced.
"Ready for jump" Rommie announced. "Execute Jump" Mere seconds later, what was left of Atlantis batlegroup materialized in formation with the civilian fleet and their escorts. It had been a long day, and alot of lives were lost. it was the first of the two things I hate about command. Losing lives.


0900 hrs November 22nd 2004, Epsilon Earindus Deep Space Station
4 Months, 3 weeks, 1 day, Post Cylon Invasion

Gathered on the portside deck we stood in silence, remembering those who had fallen in battle. I strode to the podium, tried to compose myself and failed, decided to get it over with. "We stand here, in rememberance, of those who fought, and made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we could continue on" I paused, then continued "The brothers and sisters we lost the last few months died, and in so doing, saved the lives of everyone here today". "They died so that the mission would succeed, its our duty, to continue, to go on" I paused here, reflecting for a brief moment, then continued "They would want us to push on, to live.." I paused again, trying to keep my cool, then continued "Someone I once served with once said, when a comrade gives their life to save you, the right way to repay that, is to finish the mission, save humanity, and find our new home, Earth" Here, murmers of assent swept those assembled, then I continued "This is what they would want" "So say we all !" Barked my XO, Meia. "So say we all !" I replied. Then chief Wilson stepped forward, and shouted "Aten shun, salute! " at that last, the guns of atlantis fired for the first time in honor, in rememberance, of fallen comrades.

"Honor detail, Dismissed" Wilson Barked.

We would see good days, and bad days, but as I stood there, Loyal friends and comrades next to me, I knew this was only the beginning, of a grand adventure, the kind a good old marine like myself would enjoy.


Epilogue: Moving within the shadows

"Interesting, the performance that Atlantis' commander put on" said an unknown voice. "Yes, but do they have the courage, and determination and the will to survive?" said a second voice. "It matters not, the vote is unanimous, Humanity's time is up" said a third "But, they could have persued our retreating ships, but did not, why?" asked the first voice. "Who cares" "They must be eradicated", said a fourth voice. "I think not just yet", said a sixth voice.
"Agreed" said a seventh, "Agreed", said an eighth.
"We concur" said a ninth and tenth voices.
"Is the spy in place?" said the first voice?
"Yes, and ready to act" said the eighth voice.
"By your command" said all ten voices.

----------------------------------------------------

Well, thats the first 3 chapters, and with that, saga one.
what a nail biting torture that last chapter was. sorry it took so long.
I hope you all enjoy it. Unfortunately, the real world beckons, as do several bitmap projects ive been planning.
but fear not, in mid july or early august I plan on starting the second saga, and I have plans to try to work out a crossover event, I'll have to ask the author of the Battlestar Prometheus fanfic, so thats iffy for the moment.
but who knows, anything is possible.

Sunday, June 24th, 2007, 4:42am
XRaiderV1 aka XRaiderV1.7

Peace.
_________________
Universal Law #001: anything and everything that could possibly go wrong can and probably will, and, most likely, at the least opportune time.

[XRaiderV1]

WARNING< THIS FAN FIC CONTAINS MATURE LANGUAGE, AND SOME SUGGESTIVE THEMES

Based on the 2003 miniseries, and the current series aired by sci-fi channel.

Written by XRaiderV1.7 of scifi-meshes,
XRaiderV1 of wolf's shipyard(same person, slightly different user names)
Real name: Marshall Margaritell


The Second Saga: The Grand Journey

Prologue: Going Through Hell.

"You ok?" John asked, I looked at him, wondering what other kinds of hell he'd been through. "Yeah, I should be asking you that" I took another sip of my Jersey Mile, and asked my next question, "how many ships did you loose that day?" "Too many, we lost 10 ships" "Wow, so, how many ships left?" I asked him. "17, and we still had a 30 ship civilian fleet to guard" He replied. "Take another drink" He said.
I did so, then asked him to continue.


Chapter 4: Unexpected Complications


0900 hrs, November 31st, 2004
250 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U from Kobol
4 months, 4 weeks, 2 days Post Cylon Invasion



"Damage reports are in, we got off lucky, they had enough ships out there to vape everything we had out there, and do us some serious damage" Meia informed me, as she passed over a cup of coffee to me. "How's the Atlas checking out?" "Superb, hardly even a scratch" she replied. "well, with over five thousand tons of armor, I'm surprised they didnt try to ram a base star or two" I muttered, not really paying attention. "They did, three of them"
"What?" I looked at my XO in shock, all thoughts of my morning coffee lost to me. "they've got hull fragments lodged in several spots on the bow of her, and they took a prisoner" Meia said. "Any possibility of some good intel?" I asked, remembering my forgotten coffee and taking a sip. "a one Liutenant Robin ‘Talon’ Lefler" "shes listed here in after action reports as KIA" Meia finished reading and looked at me expectantly. "Get the commander of the Atlas on the line" I barked, then looked at my coffee and breakfast, suddenly, for reasons i did not know, i had no appetite. The wall phone rang, and Meia got up and answered "John, Atlas Commander" as she handed the reciever to me, I noticed she looked, well, nervous. She never got nervous. This was not encouraging. "Henry, what've you got?" "Someone who claims to be Liutenant Robin Lefler, and she's demanding to speak to you john".

Long ago, I'd learned to trust my instincts, and right now they were telling me something was way off. "you know, why dont you ever follow that instinct?" asked that voice in the back of my brain. Trouble was, I do follow my instincts, its just that they always seem to lead to trouble. "I'm on my way over, I want to hear what this liutenant has to say for myself" I replied. "See you in twenty, john, Atlas actual out" I dialed Combat, and ordered a raptor made ready, turned and said "Something doesnt feel right" "Since the attack, when hasnt that instinct of yours gone off?" came the smartass reply I expected.

In less than five minutes, we were both suited and on a Raptor headed to the Atlas. I knew something wasnt right, it was taking longer than it should have for us to land. "XO, something feels way off" I remarked. "I feel it too, something tells me we should turn back" Meia replied. "Pilot, get me Atlas Actual online" I barked. "Sir" he replied. "Atlas Actual for you" said the pilot. "Whats the holdup?" "landing systems are offline, computer glitch" "Great, and we left Gizmo on Atlantis" I muttered in reply. "Gizmo?" my startled XO inquired, "Jennifer", "the crew started calling her that two weeks ago, seems shes not just a teenage commputer systems expert, she also knows her hardware" I replied nonchalantly. "sure" came the reply I knew was coming. "Permission to land" came over the comm, "Bay 3, approach manual, call the ball" came over the comm. "Bay 3, manual, half speed" replied the pilot, "Roger Ball" In seconds we were on the deck, and after another moment, we were lowered into the bay. We both stood, popped our helmet seals, and waited for the deck gang to taxi us in. As we stepped off the Raptor, both of us noticed something was way off, a clue: no security detail. I was glad I'd thought to bring my double backdraw pistols.

I noticed John looked nervous, and he'd brought his pistols, he never wore those, not if he wasnt expecting trouble. This made me nervous.

I noticed Meia noticing how nervous I was, good, both of us were paying attention. Suddenly, "General on deck" snapping a smart salute, our marine escort finally arrived. "Petty Officer" I replied, returning the salute. "Take us to the prisoner". "Sir, this way sir" he replied.

"Sorry that took so long, we've had some unusal glitches since we removed the CNP from our mainframe" "Understandable, I have someone on board Atlantis who could probably help" " I'll let the commander know sir". we walked for several minutes, eventually arriving at the ship's brig. The petty officer knocks, and the door opens, and we cross the threshold into the brig, and I stop, frozen in place, she looks like my old mentor, instantly, every instinct tells me I should hear her out, my brain, wants nothing to do with her.
"Who are you?" I ask, "Someone who came to warn you of a threat to humanity's survival" "They are coming to destroy humanity's greatest warriors, and to find and bring back to the cylon homeworld, the descendants of the progenitors of the human form cylons, the two of you" she replied "Why would they want us?" Meia asked "There are human form Cylons?" I asked, curious and alarmed. Something told me I could trust someone who was obviously a human form Cylon.

Suddenly, the ship was rocked by an explosion. "Action stations action stations, explosion on portside deck" followed by "Intruder alert, we have hostiles on board, repeat, we have host....." suddenly gunshots were heard, and the line went dead.

"Guard, remove those restraints from the prisoner" I barked. "Sir?" "You have a hearing problem son?, remove those shackles" I barked. Suddenly, the hatch was blown in, and in strode a two meter chrome plated nightmare: a Cylon Centurian!.
Instinctively reacting, I drew doth pistols, and wham! The second hatch was blown in, and I saw stars. As I came to moments later, the ship was in chaos.

I looked around, my XO was nowhere in sight. "Where's Meia?" "Your friend was taken, they left you when that marine resisted" came the reply, I looked, it was Lt. Lefler, "You ok Liutenant?"
"yes" she replied, suddenly in came several marines, one of which yanked the Liutenant by the hair and proceeded to shove his piece in her mouth. "At Ease!, Safety that sidearm NOW!" I howled, reasserting Command.
"Unshackle that officer" I barked "Sir, no disrespect, but are you out of your fraking mind?" replied one of the marines. "None taken, now do it!" I replied, loosing patience.

As she was unshackled, she said "Why are you doing this, you have no reason to trust a cylon" "So far, you are only the fourth person I've felt I could trust outright, and my instincts have never lied to me"

"Lets go" and we tore ass down the corridor to the CIC, and upon entering, I saw a Scene of compete devestation, it looked like a pitched battle had taken place. "General on deck" Yelled an enlisted crewman, "At Ease, sitrep, now" i replied.

"Sir, at oh two hundred three days ago, we captured what the deck gang calls a heavy, or Cylon transport, we had no clue there were centurians on board, it was drifting when we picked it up" replied the crewman.

"I see, classic trojan horse tactic, and this ship fell for it"
"are there any centurians on board still?"
I asked, "No, after they hit the Brig, they tore ass through here, dragging an unconscious female with them" he replied.

"My XO", I muttered, "she must be important to you" remarked the liutenant.

"She is my XO, and best friend, I gotta help her" I replied

"They probably used that same heavy that this ship picked up, and if so, then they must be headed close to the colonial system" Lefler replied. "Lets go" I said
We ran at top speed to the lift, and rode down to the starboard deck, and boarded the first Raptor we saw, "Pilot, get us to the Atlantis, best speed" I barked.

As they say, 'The shit had hit the fan'


1130 hrs, November 31st, 2004
250 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U from Kobol
4 months, 4 weeks, 2 days Post Cylon Invasion
Enroute to Atlantis



In seconds we were airborne, and as we headed to Atlantis the pilot said over the comm "Sir, Atlantis advises they are aware of the situation, and they say 10 ships stand ready to assist. They also report that they were unable to intercept the heavy"

"very good, get clearance and set this bird down" I replied. In a minute we were on the deck, and before the ship had been taxied, We were already out the hatch, and barreling to the CIC, upon entering I Barked "Get me the commanders of the Phendrana, the Comanche, the Sabre, Zephyrus, and the Heracles on secure channel, my readyroom, Now!" and I strode into my readyroom, and stood, fuming, I'd seen it staring me in the face, how could I have been so blind?

"It wasnt your fault, you had no way of knowing" Lefler said, startling me out of my self loathing. My old mentor always had a knack for getting me pointed right, and I was reminded of her yet again by this enigmatic woman standing before me.

"I know. And Im gonna get her back, and keep a promise." "And that would be?"
Lefler asked. "When my mentor died, she made me swear that when I found my best friend, to protect her no matter what, and I will give my life if need be to fulfill that promise"

"Rommie, please tell me you got a jump vector on that bastard" "Confirmed, precise jump coordinates plotted. "Good" I muttered. "Chief counselar of the Qorum on Secure channel" Rommie announced, "this oughta be good, I hate politicians" I muttered, expecting trouble.

"General, this is Yates, I'm giving you a direct order, under no circumstances are you to go after that Raider" he said, the bastard, he'd just ordered me to abandon a member of my ship's crew! "Im sorry sir, i cannot obey that order on the grounds that it violates at least two dozen regulations and procedures, foremost among them, we never leave our people behind"
"Im sorry son, your XO was a fine officer, but shes lost to us now, understand?" I considered my next words carefully, then replied "Your honor, those arent just words to us spec ops soldiers, thats a promise, and I hereby refuse that order, good day, sir" and i slammed the reciever down.

"Sir, the commanders of the Phendrana, the Comanche, the Sabre, Zephyrus, and the Heracles are standing by" Rommie advised, "Tell them our mission, and issue the co-ordinates" I ordered.

"Time to stir up the hornets nest" i said with conviction
I strode into the CIC, tooknote of each face I saw, Welles at the Dradis, Sykes manning Comms, Buckman at the stick, and the chief, unusual though it was to see him up here, it was somehow reassuring. "I have just been ordered not to go after the XO" I paused, to let it sink in, "However, I intend to disobey that order, we dont leave our people behind"
"In the few short months we've known each other, everyone on this ship has pulled together, and made this a command I feel proud to have had the honor of serving", "you are probably wondering why I'm saying this, well I'll tell you", "There is a strong possibility that for some of us, this may be a one way mission", "And I feel honored to have the privledge of seeing it through with you" I stopped there, searching for the right words to send us on our way, "Sir, I feel I speak for all of us when I say, Saddle up, lock and load" Ensign Buckman said.
"Sir, its time to show those toasters what happens when you piss off a Commandstar" Lt. Sykes said, "Sir, my boys are ready to take it to those bastards" Mako replied, upon entering the CIC. "Very well, Sykes, prep and distribute a return set of co-ordinates for the fleet's next three jump points, and signal the Phendrana, the Comanche, the Sabre, Zephyrus, and the Heracles to match in to jump count" "sir, strike group reports ready" Sykes said.
"Very well", I said, "Execute jump!"


1500 hrs, November 31st, 2004
30 S.U. from core of Colonial home system
4 months, 4 weeks, 2 days Post Cylon Invasion



We'd completed all but the last couple jumps, and preperations were underway for a sizable marine strike force to board an enemy ship. This was by far, the most demanding, dangerous mission yet, and at stake were not only the life of my XO, but the lives of everyone on the six ships in the strike group. I'd decided on the last jump that I would lead the assault myself, this caused my marine security detail to have fits, but i wasnt backing off. So, at their insistance, I'd gone to see Gizmo, and what I saw Impressed the hell out of me. "Step forward, let me scan you, we want to fit this armor in one pass" She said, so I complied.

"What exactly are the benefits of this new armor?" I asked, "enhanced ballistics protection, reaction speed, some strength augmentation, a combat computer, and a new heads up display" she replied, "It weighs less than stadard issue armor, thats why your reaction timing is boosted"

"So, in other words, this armor turns me into a bloody cyborg?" "No, it boosts yor chances at survival, and the ehnancements can be removed, think of this as an exo armor suit" she replied, "I was planning on deploying these a couple months from now, but after hearing of what those centurians can do, you'll need them now"

"Thanks" I said, "Dont thank me, just save our friend" she replied, "You got it" and with that, encased in state of the art Body armor, I strode from the room, and went to the CIC to issue the commands that would, gods willing, see this mission through safely.

"Spin the drives, ready the strike group for battle" I said, "Sir, strike group reports ready for a fight", replied Lt. Sykes
"Time to launch a First strike, Execute Jump!"



Chapter 5: First Strike


1535 hrs, November 31st, 2004
10 S.U. from core of Colonial home system
4 months, 4 weeks, 2 days Post Cylon Invasion



In less than thrity seconds, the strike group had jumped insystem, in perfect formation, minus two ships, because I'd given the Sabre and Comanche orders to run under stealth, and await orders.

The rest of the strike group accelerated to flank speed, and I swa we had indeed achived our first objective: Gain the enemy's attention, so they woudnt notice two ships stealthing into position for a First strike.

"Ok, Rommie, find my tracking signal" I said "Scanning" was the response. A tense minute passed, suddenly "Signal found, course two oh four, Karam one one seven, Confirmed, signal lock, ident confirmed, TARGET FOUND!" "Good, mister Buckman, please put us on the specified course" I said, "Sir, scopes show one rather large Basestar on that course, and the heavy is making a beeline for it" ensign Welles said. I picked up the Comm, and said "Action stations, set conditon one throughout the ship, all hands be advised, we are going toe to toe with a basestar, the possibility exists for the ship to take sudden and catastrophic damage"

As the order was broadcast throughout the ship, weapons systems hidden under massive armor plate began to deploy all across the ship, in seconds, the ship had shown her teeth, and was about to bite.

"Sir, we have a 'antiship Railgun weapons system on board, shall we deploy it?" Lt. Sykes asked. "Deploy Railguns" I barked. "Railgun crews report to duty stations, I repeat, Railgun crews report to duty stations, this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill" Sykes cried into the comm. Immediately I could feel the new weapons deploy, and somehow, I knew we'd need them.

"Dont get complacent" said the voice in the back of my brain, sound advice for once. "Sir, two additional Cylon ships are closing" Welles advised.

"close range with that basestar, and disable their FTL and sublight drives, order all ships except Sabre and Comanche to establish a holding action"
"Order Sabre and Comanche to execute maneuvor now!" I yelled, seeing two more ships coming in range

On dradis, I saw several signals appear from nowhere, and impact into the basestar, crippling it, completing our second objective, just then, the Phendrana reported heavy fire of her starboard side, and they were taking casulties. This was getting bad. "close range with that basestar to point oh four three, and commence fire" I barked.

As our fighters launched, Atlantis' main guns spoke, massive barrels pistoning forward and back, shells hitting true, dealing massive amounts of damage, unfortunately, nowhere near what was needed, when suddenly, Atlantis' Railguns spoke, shooting fast bursts, rounds traveling at near lightspeed.

To our pilots, it looked like a lightshow was taking place. "Wolf six, holy frak, those guns are shooting so fast, looks like they're firing lasers"
"Wolf two to wolf six, cut the chatter, squadron move to point oh seven, cover the Heracles", "Wolf leader to Actual, those railguns just shot the frak out of that basestar off your portside, nice shooting"

"Actual copies" Sykes replied, "Damn those guns are powerful, that basestar is indeed breaking up" Welles remarked, "Sir, this is Chief wilson, those railguns are firing so fast, that Armory control reports the auto loaders are having a hard time keeping up" "Acknowledged chief", I replied, "Tell the railgun crews to pace themselves, we're running the auto loaders ragged" I barked. "Sir" replied Sykes

As I looked at the dradis, waiting for my opening, what do the dumbass toasters do? they give it to me. "Sir, Zephyrus reports holding action established" Sykes reported. "Very good, Liutenant, you have the ship, keep her safe until I return" I replied, "Sir, yes sir!" she replied.

"We should hurry", Lt. Lefler advised, "Flight deck", was my response, we hauled ass down to the deck, and saw, a brandy dandy new Spooky Gunship waiting, and on board was the noncom from the Atlas. "Sir, Permission to tag along" he asked, "Permission granted" I replied. "All set sir?" asked the pilot, "Take us up son" I replied, and seconds later we were airborne.

Mere seconds into the flight, we were taking fire, and the pilot took evasive action, "Hang on back there, taking evase action" he said, "This is Hobo, taking fire, somebody get this guy off me" he cried, "This is wolf six, copy Hobo, I got your back", and with that a Viper swung in behind the Raider that had until that moment been taking potshots at us. A second later, and the Raider was space debries.

"Consider that Raider toast" wolf six advised, "Thanks" Hobo replied.
"You can thank me later" wolf six replied, "Coming up on target, make ready" Hobo advised, and a team of five marines, the noncom, Lefler, and myself stood, sealed our armor, and checked each other to makesure we had good seals.

It was at that moment that Rommie chose to speak up.
"hmm, not much room in here, is there?" "what the hell?" I exclaimed.
"I downloaded into your armor just as you launched, you'll need my help on this one" Rommie replied.

"Problem?" Lefler asked, "Oh, not a big one, just Rommie tagging along in my armor",I said, somewhat annoyed "Really, how did she manage that one?" Lefler asked. "Dont know, dont really care" was my response.

"Airlock module in place" Hobo announced, "And go!" I pushed the hatch open, stepped off, looked at the massive metal form below me, and had a momentary attack of vertigo, then I aimed and fired my mag grapple, and winched myself in, magnatized boots hitting armor plate at the same time as the rest of the squad, gods, it felt good to be back in action. "Stay focused, stay on mission" advised Rommie, "I was just remembering what it was like to do this for a living" I remarked, then turned and said, "Make a hole in this battleplate" I ordered, and suddenly I felt a shock as shaped charges went off.

"Go go go", cried one of the marines, leading the charge, and we dropped in on some very decidedly unhappy occupants, who reacted to our sudden appearance with some weapons fire, which a frag grenade quickly took care of. "The signal is comming from dead ahead, take a right at the first junction, go down two meters, and take a left" Rommie said, "Got it" I replied. "move out, right at the first junction, go two meters, then left" I barked, just then, the deck rocked, and over the comm: "Score two for two, both the FTL's and sublights are out, this is Sabre, moving for new shooting position".

"Be advised, this is the Phendrana, we're taking major damage, unable to hold position, request permission to leave the combat zone to attempt emergency repairs" "This is Conners, Permission granted" I spoke into the comm.


1700 hrs, November 31st, 2004
10 S.U. from core of Colonial home system
4 months, 4 weeks, 2 days Post Cylon Invasion
On board Cylon Basestar



"Corridor secure, agghh.." one of the marines started to say, then his line went dead. "All units regroup central junction" I barked. "something's not right" Rommie said, worried,
"I agree, Rommie, can you hack the basestar's security systems?" I asked, "I can try", while Rommie was busy, I moved towards the signal on my HUD, Rifle raised, instincts on full alert, I turned the corner, and came face to face with the wierdest mad science lab I've ever seen, and to think, I thought gizmo was a geek, who ever runs this nut house is downright certifiable.

And then I saw her, They'ed had to restrain her, she was strapped to a gurney, stripped down to her skivvies, immediately I wanted to run over and make sure she was ok, but something felt off, so I made to back around the corner, and then I noticed her eyes were wide with fear, not for herself...then I noticed she was looking past me! "oh Frak me sideways..." never got to finish the thought,
all I saw was a glint, and I hit the deck, just in time to avoid a skull crushing blow, <watch out! thats an Elite centurian>, "Better late to the party than never" I replied, eyeing my opponent wearily. "Be careful, you took a piece of that swing, your shoulder's gonna need looking at" Rommie advised "Frak, wouldnt have noticed if you hadnt said anything, now it hurts like hell" I replied to Rommie's admonition.

I heard rather than saw, several marines come up on us, "Back away! this is my fight!" I barked, "Finish setting the charges, I'll be ok" I Barked when they still hadnt moved. Finally they backed off. "Now, where were we" I asked, "You were about to surrender, and take your place along side your counterpart as a Cylon messiah" replied the armor suited elite.
"You must be joking" I replied, unslinging and dropping my rifle, and drawing my two assault knives, ready for a fight. "You and the woman are the descentants of those who evolved the Cylon race" the elite replied, "Tell me something I dont know" I shot back, keeping my emotions in check.

"Your father was one of the original progeniters of the Cylon race, He was Cylon, you are a Hybrid, as is the woman, havent you ever wondered why you heal so fast?, your shoulder, it has healed, and I hit you with enough force to shatter Bone" this stopped me cold, I was in shock, and Rommie said "He's right, there's almost no trace of injury, that said, dont let him get to you, you have someone you came to rescue, you have a mission to finish, and a promise to keep".

This stirred some long forgotten memories, and spurred me into action, before the elite could even react, I'd launched myself at him, all 225 pounds of armor augmented muscle propelling me headlong at him, my knives struck true, and he went down. I turned, Gave Meia the thumbsup, and noticed tears running down her face, then I looked down and noticed why she was crying, the bastard succeded in ramming his own blade home.

It was bad, I'd lost alot of blood, and then the Fraking bastard got up, laughed, pulled out the knives, and said "You may heal fast, but Ive hit you in a bad spot, you're gonna die here" Id collapsed to the deck, I could feel death coming, "There's nothing I can do, you're too badly injured for the onboard medical suite to make a difference" Rommie said. "You did what you could, It was an honor, and a privledge" I replied.

"You're not dead yet! FINISH THE MISSION!" Rommie screamed into my ears, stirring more memories, and rather than push them away, I instead drew upon them for strength, forcing myself upright, even as the deck continued to pitch and roll. "Im not dead yet!, turn and face me, you bastard!" I howled. "You should be unconsious by now, what gives you this new found strength, not the woman, not your armor, what can possibly give you strength to fight that injury?" the elite mused. "The Armor, the woman, and most importantly, the memory of a similar situation, these things are what drive me to fight back the specter of death!" I howled, consious of the fact that I was still loosing blood.

"Ive activated the Armor's biofoam injectors, that should stop the bleeding" Rommie said in a reassuring voice. "Come here and face me!" I yelled
"Coward!" I howled. That got his attention, suddenly, it struck me as a rather brainless move to insult his courage, and I was proven right, yet again, as the Elite Centurian charged recklessly at me.

I was Ready for his charge, when he was just feet from me, I drew my pistols, and fired, dropping him in his tracks. I stood over him, as he died and said "It was the memory of a painful loss that enabled me to beat you here today, you may be right about us being hybrids but you were wrong to think that made us weak".

I stood there, trying to calm down, when she called out "John!", "whoops, forgot why I was here for a second" I replied sheepishly. "Lefler, bring that suit of armor, on the double" "On my way" she replied

While I waited, I cut Meia free, and just stared at her, thankful that she was still alive, and she said, "Dont just stand there, Kiss me you dumbass"
Embarrased, I removed my helmet and did just that, when we parted, she said "No words, I already know" to which I said, "likewise".

Lefler chose that moment to waltz in, lugging the armor in with her.
"You let that poor girl lug that the whole way here!?" Meia said, incredulas, "I felt it would be wiser if someone kept YOUR new armor out of harm's way, and I felt I could trust Lefler to do that" I replied, now, if you dont mind, please get dressed so we can get the hell out of dodge before this place goes up" I replied. Meia noticed she was decidedly under dressed and suddenly went red in the face, shouting "Turn round damn you", to which I replied, fat chance, this is no time for modesty, just getting into this armor is a three person job", which prompted Lefler to say "Sir, I have a replacement chest plate for you too, Gizmo seemed to think it likely you'd need it". "Thanks Liutenant" I replied.

Fifteen minutes later, we were headed back to the extract point, when that noncom from earlier shouted over the comm "Primary Extract point compromised, request secondary extract" "Great, more good news" Meia replied. "General, good to have you back, welcome back Colonal" he said to Meia and I. "Colonal?" she inquired, "Needed to give you rank so those idiots would stop questioning your orders" I remarked, smiling through my depolarized faceplate. "Hobo, you read, this is extraction team, primary extract compromised, request secondary extract" I said over the comm

"Hobo here, can you make it to the auxilliary docking bay?", "Rommie?"
"scanning, route plotted, be advised the ship has been abandoned, seems a false radiation leak scared them off" I could just sense her grinning from ear to ear. "You brought the damn AI?", "had no choice, she tagged along for the ride" I replied in response to Meia's question. "Ok, demo team, rendevzos at secondary extract, marking with a nav waypoint" I said over the comm, "Demo team leader, copy that boss"

We booked, and fifteen minutes later, we arrived to find a collection of toasted and very dead centurians, and Hobo, standing there, with a huge grin on his face, "Well, what are ya waiting for, lets get the hell out of here" he said.
We'd just left the Basestar when a blinding flash kit up the view ports, our First Strike was a success, we'd taken out a basestar with nothing more than some shaped charges. As we came in for a landing on Atlantis, I could see things were gonna be difficult on the way out.

"Ok, I'm back in the computer core" Rommie said, "That eager to cut and run?" I asked, "No, just wanted to be back home" she replied. After we were taxied in, we removed our helmets and disembarked and headed to the CIC, and just as we entered, I could tell I was suffering from the loss of blood, couldnt think too clearly, not a good sign. Suddenly two more baseships arrived, and double tapped us with a pair of nukes, the deck rocked, alarms blared, and some of the CIC lighting units shorted out, accompanied by some dramatic sparking.

This was not good, "Where are the Sabre and Comanche?" I asked, "They withdrew after a baseship noticed them, I think their stealth must have been compromised by that nuke we launched at that Command class basestar"
Welles replied, shaking her head.

"You mean to tell me that that deck rocking jolt we felt was you guys!?" I exclaimed in shock, "Well, if we'd let them, they'd have had the phendrana for lunch" Sykes replied. "Sir, we're just about out of ammo for the railguns, and those basestars are using some kind of formation I've never seen before, just when we start pouring fire into one, the other moves in and takes some of the damage" Welles said, to which I replied "Thats a Stagger tactic, never thought the toasters capable of using that move, those ships arent exactly built for that kind of move" this prompted Lefler to add "They arent built, more like grown, as are the Raiders, and when the ships and fighters die, they download to new bodies too"

"Great, thats just perfect, precisely the last thing I wanted to hear" I replied, as a sudden wave of dizziness struck, and the voice in the back of my brain said "Perfect way to die, bloodloss induced shock, great"

Suddenly, a salvo of HKEW rounds struck the one basestar dead on, drawing its fire, and in to view on the dradis holographics we saw the Phendrana, on a suicide run, hull bruised, and battered, belching fire from multiple points, and Persius, the Phendrana AI spoke: "General, there's your opening, now go!"
"Evac your crew, we stand ready to provide rescue" I replied

"Not neccesary, I left my crew wth the Sabre and Comanche, This is my last mission, besides, with incomplete armor, I'm a liability, better to go down fighting", " Safe voyage, it was an honor", to which I replied, "The honor was mine". And with that, Phendrana rammed the basestar whose attention was focused on us, exploding in a massive ball of fire, her reactors breaching, going out with honor. I saluted. It was the only reaction I had left.

Then I passed out.


0900 hrs, December 10th, 2004
300 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 50 S.U beyond Kobol
5 months, 1 week, 1 day Post Cylon Invasion(approx)



I woke up about two weeks later, turned out I'd lost so much blood, even with the Biofoam, that I should have been dead, even with my hybrid physiology, although the way Bones explained it, thats why I healed so fast, even with how close I'd been to death. I left the med bay soon there after, and headed to my quarters, where I found my XO, Meia, waiting for me.

"You idiot, why did you come after me?" she asked me, "Because of a promise, made to an old friend who died in my arms", "She made me promise, when I found my best friend, to do whatever it took to protect her", "That best friend is you, I know its you, you have the same temper, as my mentor did"
"I would go to the ends of existence to protect you, and if it came to that, stand by your side with death itself rushing us head on" I said, meaning each and every word, "You are that important to me, besides, our destiny lies else where, on Earth" I finished, waiting for her response, and she surprised me yet again, wrapping her arms around me, and we kissed. Then all holy hell broke loose, the ship rocked under the cuncusive force of multiple weapons hits, things had gone south.
Again.

I strode over, picked up the comm, and spoke "Conners to CIC, what the hell is going on?", "Sykes sir, unknown hostiles, they refuse to identify themselves" "Cylons?" I asked, "No sir, vessel configurations match nothing in the database" she replied, "Im on my way" I replied, hanging up.

"Trouble? Meia asked, "When is there not any trouble?" I replied. "Good point"
she replied. We both headed to the CIC, the deck continuing to rock, and made it just as the ship took a particularly bad hit. "That one packed something" the chief advised, looking worried, "Damage report" I barked, "Negligible", "Some minor buckling, no breaches" the chief repiled.
"Zoom in on this ship here" I indicated on the holographic display, and the image zoomed, and I saw something that had me worried instantly, "Pull up that Prometheus data", I barked, "On the monitor now" Sykes replied.
I paged through the data files, and found precisely what I didnt want to find.

"Ensign Welles, target identified as a Kraken class terran alliance battle cruiser" I calmly said, "What?" Meia asked, "Its here, in the data we intercepted from the Prometheus" I replied, "Get the civilian ships outta here" I barked. "action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship!" Sykes cried over the ship's pa, "Launch wolf squadron, and prep Red sqaudron for launch, also, I'm told the missle slinger packs are online, have the deck crews equip all units" I barked, feeling an unexplained sense of rising fear, for some reason, that ship, and it's escort scared the living frak out of me.

"Get control, you idiot, focus" the voice upstairs yelled. "Mr. Buckman, if you will, turn to course one oh seven, karam one one two" Meia cried, anticipating my order, she was really coming into her own, seemed Battlestar or should I say Commandstar command suited her. "Deploy squadrons right in front of the ship, and keep them out of our HKEW's lines of fire" I barked, "Rotate fifteen to port, bow pitch plus three" Meia ordered, "Stand ready to Fire batteries one and two, and batteries nine and ten, full forward salvo" Meia barked, I looked at her, thinking, a little over kill there?, and she looked at me and winked, now I knew she had this down. "Specified batteries ready to fire" Rommie chimed in, "Fire!", and with that, the massive main guns of the Atlantis spoke, gouts of fire issuing forth, massive barrels cycling back and forth, and all eight rounds hit home, sending the Terran alliance ship to the junk heap.


1025 hrs, December 10th, 2004
301 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 51 S.U beyond Kobol
5 months, 1 week, 1 day Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Under fire from Terran Alliance aggressors



Suddenly, several blips appeared on Dradis, this was fast becoming a bad situation. "Why havent the civilain ships jumped yet?" I asked, concerned.
"Sir, Sabre just jumped back, they report a massive hostile task force at jump co-ordinates" Sykes informed me. This was not good. Suddenly, just as the deck pitched yet again, another blip appeared. "Great, more good news" was Meia's only comment. "Sir!, FOF tag confirms, new signal friendly!" Sykes screamed, "Incoming, ship identified as the Battlestar Concordia!, they want to know if they can join the party" she cried. "Sykes, patch me through" I replied
"Online" she said, "This is the Commandstar Atlantis, General Conners in command, and the more the merrier, welcome to the fight Concordia.

One more ship had been found, another ally, against not only the Cylons, but now the Terran Alliance, and yet, I had the distinct feeling that things were looking up.

Only Time would tell.


Chapter 6: Aggression of the Terran alliance/Death of friends/New heros Rise


1050 hrs, December 10th, 2004
301 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 51 S.U beyond Kobol
5 months, 1 week, 1 day Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Under fire from Terran Alliance aggressors


Things were getting bad, we had a battlegroup capable of handling a good three dozen ships, yet our strength was diminished, we needed to get the civilian fleet to safety. It was as these thoughts raced through my brain that we received an incoming transmission.

"To the Commander of the Colonial fleet, stand down, or we will begin by targetting the civilians"

"Sir, we cant let this happen" Sykes said, the fear in her voice clear, "Get control Liutenant, this isnt gonna go down" I replied, and even as I spoke, I felt something was off, and that became clear real quick, for over the comm: "Reaper to actual, they've got several cruisers, a frigate, and one very pissed battleship hidden behind a moon at two oh seven, karam one one three, and theyve got lots of fighters headed your way" an unfamiliar pilot said over the comm.

"Pilot identify yourself, NOW!" Meia barked, I saw my own concern mirrored on her face, who was this reckless pilot? "John Grimm, REAPER, in wolf 7, and you've got incoming" he yelled.

"All hands brace for contact!" I howled into the comm, just as we took a broadside from one of the aforementioned cruisers.

I glanced at the damage board, so far nothing but green, but for how much longer?

While that oh so cheerful thought crossed my mind, we took a particularly bad hit, and conduits ruptured, lighting blew, cableing came down, in short all hell broke loose.

As I picked myself up from the deck, Meia screamed "Damage report, now!"

"Power outages across the ship, intermittant systems failures, casulties reported, no hull damage, thankfully" Sykes reported

"Im detecting interferance in several systems I'm running", Rommie announced "Pattern analysis" I barked, "Patterns are indicative of sabotage" Rommie reported, and more lighting elements blew out, showering the deck with sparks.

I motioned to the noncom, who came over, "whats your name son?" "Corporal Cody Jackson" he replied, "Ok corporal, we have a bad problem, a sabotur loose on the ship", and several more lighting fixtures blew out at that moment, lending emphasis to what I was saying, "I need you to report to one of the marine security detachments, and have them begin a section by section search, have them send runners, no comm, dont want the bastard to know we are onto him".

"Sir!" as he turns and runs off, Rommie suddenly exclaims "Ive just lost my network connections with several systems, including propulsion and navigation" "Sir, Main drives just went down, secondaries are not responding to commands, and the helm isnt responding, worse, we seem to be locked into a slow flat spin!" Mr. Buckman screams, over the din of several alarms.

"Get me the CAG on the line!" I howl, and the ship rocks under another broadside, "Sir, defense mainframe is down, suspected cause is a power overload" Sykes screams, "Cag on the line".

"Mako, we got some major problems, I need you to pull wolf squad back, we need cover" I said, "Wolf squad on the way" was the response.

Elsewhere,

"This is the CAG, Atlantis is in trouble, Wolf squadron, withdraw and provide cover"

"Reaper here, Boss, you have one on your six, evasive! Im on my way!'

"Reaper, you have your orders, aggh...."

I sat there, in shock, as the ship's Cag was blown to pieces, and suddenly, I got very pissed, something just snapped.

"This is Reaper, Atlantis actual, the Cag is gone, I'm assuming command of the air group"

"Atlantis actual, we copy, good hunting" With that, I swung my viper into a sharp turn, taking me up and over the ship, and back into the fight.

"Listen up Wolf squad, we are the only thing between those terran alliance bastards and our home, lets give em hell!" Just then a terran alliance fighter clipped my wing, fortunately, the armor stopped the shots, and I quickly dispatched him.

"Intruder actual to all units, civilian fleet and escorts away"

"Reaper, Wolf squadron copies"

"Atlantis actual to wolf squad, we've just lost the defense mainframe, all weapons except the railguns are off line"

Back on the ship,

"General, they found the sabotur" Meia announced, "Great, now how bout fixing the ship, before they overrun us" I said, calmly, as I watched the approaching enemy fighters, when suddenly, a new group of signals appeared.

"Perfect, I'd say we are well and truly frakked here" Meia remarked with the air of one who knows they are gonna die.


"Attention colonial ships, this is the Destroyer tug Pawnee and company, requesting permission to join the fight" I was stunned, recovering, I picked up the handset, and said "Atlantis actual here, permission granted, we could use a hand"

"roger that, we're on the way"


"Echo squadron cover the destroyer tugs!" I screamed

Elsewhere,

Im 16 years old, a kid, and yet this happens, nothing to be done, but to fix the ship,so I instructed my assistant, 14 year old Jill lovelace, to come and help me.

Lagging behind,

"Coming, keep your pants on, old lady" I yelled, over the alarms, "Hey!, im not an old lady!" Jen yelled.

As I came up to where the damage had been done, an electrical conduit blew, showering the area with sparks, and then I heard the scream, a scream of death, and I knew, my friend, and mentor was dead.

I moved forward intent on fixing the damaged relays, when a big burly marine stopped me.

"Sorry ma'am, cant let you go in there, you'll get fried too" he said, to which my reply was simple, I bit him, and he let go.

Seizing my chance, I grabbed the tool kit, and dived into the service crawlway, his shouts of protest fading, and I came upon the lifeless body of my friend, and I dragged her back to the service crawlway entrance, and handed her off to the medics who had just arrived, then headed back in.

The whole time, the ship bucked and rolled, taking hit after hit, I knew I had to fix that relay.

Just as I reached it, the ship took a bad hit, and a section of wiring in the crawl way sparked.

Just then, Rommie appeared using one of the projectors. "I know you gonna try and talk me out of this, so dont bother"
I said.

"No, actually I'm here to help if I can"
she replied. "Sure, tell me what I need to do to get the defense mainframe back online so I can restore the point defense system"

Elsewhere,

"Ok, combat landings on Intruder, rearm, refule, relaunch" I said, noting how low on fuel and ammo I was, "Copy that Reaper, Intruder stands ready to provide refuel and rearm"

"Toasters and Terrans, Fear the Viper, Fear the Viper!" screamed a fellow marine viper pilot, callsign Bullseye.

"Bullseye, refuel and rearm, now!" I cried, watching another pilot in a MK VII get blown to pieces, this was bad, if the sevens were getting shot up, then we, in our eights wouldnt last much longer.

I swung my viper on down into the landing bay, rode the lift up, and poped my helmet seals, slid the canopy open, and screamed "Fast turn around!"

Just as I said that, the ship rocked, seems Intruder had been noticed.

"Intrider actual, were they shooting at the ship?"

"Negative, we detected another signature the moment the shots hit, appears we have a stealth hitch hiker, a stealth cruiser called the Raider" "They've transmittd a colonial transponder, and it checks out"
"Also, be advised Atlantis and the destroyer tugs are really getting slammed"

"Copy actual, Wolfs are on the way" I replied, concern evident in my voice.

"OK, you heard the man, lets go score some kills"
Then I launched back into the hellstorm.

Else where,

I stood there, listening to the pounding my father's ship and the destroyer tugs were taking.

"Atlantis actual, back off, we're gonna get you killed"

"Negative"

"Pawnee here, we will stand by you, always"

Suddenly, it appeared they were maneuvoring Atlantis to face the approaching Terran battle cruiser head on, I was ready to order everything we had directed at that damned ship, when suddenly "Stay clear of our forward line, we're gonna try and shoot off one of our MAC's"

Back on Atlantis,

As we picked ourselves up, for the umpteenth time, I decided to risk firing one of the MACs, despite having been told they may not even fire.

"Prep available MAC guns for firing" I barked, surprising myself with how calm I sounded, my XO, on the other hand, seemed a woman possesed with saving her ship.
Understandable

Suddenly, Rommie screamed triumphantly "Defense mainframe back online, point defense systems up and running!" To which I replied "Sykes, tell those destroyer tugs not to disengage now, or they will get caught in our firing solution"

I picked up the handset, dialed the service bay, and said "Well done Gizmo, give me a sitrep"

I was not prepaired for the response.

"Gizmo's dead, she got caught in an electrical explosion"

I was stunned, the look on my face must have been bad, because my XO was at my side instantly. "Who am I talking to?"

"Her assistant and friend, Jill Lovelace", "And the situation is far from ok, that idiot fraked up some major systems, I should have Engines, thruster and helm control back up soon, with Rommie's help"

My response, tempered in anger and sorrow was nonetheless reassuring "Just take it slowly, do your best to restore those systems, I have complete faith in you"

"Thrusters and helm should be back online now, main sublight and FTL eta, Fifteen minutes"
came the reply.

"We have Maneuvoring thrusters!" Buckman cried, "Good, now point the nose of this ship at the enemy" Meia yelled.

"Sykes, have weapons control charge the driver coils, and load one charge in each MAC gun, stand ready to fire" I said.

"General, be advised, our MAC guns are only prototypes, they may not even fire" Rommie advised.

"Targets confirmed" Ensign welles announced.

"Dradis contact!" Welles cried, "Confirm FOF status" Meia barked, "Target confirmed non hostile, and identified as a relay bouy"

Though we once again had point defense, still, every once in a while, a round gets through, and one did, rocking the ship, and causing yet another lighting unit to blow out, showering the deck with more sparks.

"Confirm MAC status" I inquired, "MAC systems online, rounds loaded, weapons are loaded and hot" Rommie reported,
"Because of the potential yield, you will both need to insert and turn your nuclear launch keys" Rommie advised.

Both Meia and myself inserted and turned the keys, initiating the system prefire sequence.

From the outside of the ship, it was clear to everyone almost at once that Atlantis had begun deployment of some kind of weapons system, the main guns on the front of the ship had ceased fire, and retracted to stowed positions.

Then a pair of massive barrels lowered and slid out into position.

It was clear almost at once to Reaper, that something seriously frakked up was happening.

"All vipers, stay well clear of Atlantis' front end, Something tells me any one who gets in her flight path is gonna have a real bad day"

Then the first shell was fired.

All holy frakking hell broke loose, it was a total rout.

Back on Atlantis,

"First round away, direct hit!" Welles screamed triumphantly. "Well, seems those terran alliance ships dont want nothing more to do with us", I remarked. "Sir, Reaper is requesting permission to persue" Sykes advised, "Tell them to persue to fifty thousand kilometers, then turn back" Meia replied.

"MAC gun one malfunction"
Rommie advised, to no ones surprise.

Yet another disaster averted, too narrowly, this time.


0130 hrs, December 11th, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 76 S.U beyond Kobol
5 months, 1 week, 2 day(164 days, new day tracking format) Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Standdown from combat



"Damage control teams, damage reports asap!, Medical to CIC!" Meia screamed into the ship's PA system. "I want every last bit of data you can suck outta that relay bouy, then I want the bouy destroyed" I advised.
"Why destroyed?" Meia asked, "To cut the only remaining path that the Cylons can use to find Earth" Rommie replied.

"Chief Wilson here, Jump drives up and running, Jill says at least fifteen for spinup, seeing as how the drives are essentially doing this from a cold start" came over the comm.

"Remaining Terran Alliance units have withdrawn" Rommie announced, "Sykes, please set condition two throughout the ship, if you please" I said.

"Echo squad has landed, and Wolf is inbound, Intruder advises that we should begin moving out" Sykes informed me. "Mr. Buckman, co-ordinate with the Pawnee and her fleet of tugs, I want us at a leisurely half sublight speed"
I ordered.

Now I had to see to the little frakking sob who alost cost me my crew and ship, no doubt my XO would want to accompany me, so I asked her along.

We entered the ships brig, and I felt a chill of Deja vu, I looked over and saw the same look in my XO's face, "Marine detail at guard!" I barked, and at once both marines unshipped their SAW 160LMG rifles, and took up positions flanking the entrance, thankfully, Atlantis' brig only had one entrance and exit.

I looked at the prisoner, and realized, it was the marine who had tried to accost my XO when she had first tried to come aboard!. Immediately, every last bit of rage and anger over the deaths of Gizmo and my old friend Mako threatened to boil over, and I decided this was a bad idea, and turned and left.

Evidently, Meia felt the same, cause she followed me back to my quarters, where I promptly proceeded to freak out.

She stood there, watching, as I lost all control, with this look of shock on her face, I guess this was the first time I had truly lost it like this.

I kept slamming my fist into the bulkhead, the whole time, the voice in the back of my brain, the one that chose such wierd times to make comments, was screaming "GET CONTROL YOU FRAKKING MORON, KEEP IT TOGETHER GODS DAMNIT, YOU'RE A MARINE!"

I sat in my chair, feeling like I did when my mentor died, and I honestly dont wish this feeling on anyone, not even the Cylons.

"She was just a kid, she did not deserve to die like that" "And Mako, gods, I swore to his wife I'd keep him safe" "This all reminds me of when my mentor died" I held my head, wishing these memories would take their leave of me.

A knock, and one of the marine guards opened the hatch and said "LT. Lefler to see you sir"

"Send her in", I said, she entered, and started talking at top speed. "Whoa, woa, slow down, take a breath already" Meia said, shocked at the entrance.

"That marine frak up, he's a human form, a model five, one of the most dangerous, I might add" She finally managed to say. Immediately, Meia was on the comm, ordering round the clock watch on our 'little' friend.

"In the meantime, lets get the ship back up to full capacity, I'm pretty sure the Chief is gonna want to take some things offline for repairs" I remarked.

"Im certain this isnt the last we'll hear of our new playmates" Meia replied

"Only time will tell"
was my only response.


Epilogue:


"The attempt failed" said a first voice, "Our spy was discovered" said the fifth voice. "Outside forces interfered before we could move in" said a second voice.


"I thought we agreed to wait a while longer before acting" said a fourth voice, "That fleet was and is getting dangerously close to something even we fear" said a third voice.

"What would that be?" asked the fifth voice, "An ancient dark race" replied the third voice. "What is this dark race?" asked a sixth voice, "We do not speak of this race directly, it is forbidden to speak of them" said a seventh voice.

"We have identified the interlopers,they are known as the terran alliance" said the first voice, "Well, it seems the terrans have persuaded the fleet to continue towards the world of the forbidden race" said the seventh voice.

"Attempts to persue will not be possible for some time as a result of this latest development" said the first voice.

"That fleet must be stopped" said an eighth unknown voice.

"By your command" all seven voices reply.
_________________
Universal Law #001: anything and everything that could possibly go wrong can and probably will, and, most likely, at the least opportune time.

[XRaiderV1]

WARNING< THIS FAN FIC CONTAINS MATURE LANGUAGE, AND SOME SUGGESTIVE THEMES

Based on the 2003 miniseries, and the current series aired by sci-fi channel.

Written by XRaiderV1.7 of scifi-meshes,
XRaiderV1 of wolf's shipyard(same person, slightly different user names)
Real name: Marshall Margaritell


The Third Saga: From the ashes comes renewed hope



prologue: Seige


"Wow" was all I could say, "You think that was something, I should tell you how I got this scar on my face, but that comes later"

"Take another drink, I think we definitely have a spook on us", he said.

"Where?" I asked, "The bar", he's been eyeing us the last 5 minutes.
John gestured to the barkeep, who promptly proceeds to shove a duck gun in the spook's face, guess there's something to be said for saving someone's life.

I sat there, and watched as he had a word with the spook, then the two of them came back over and sat down.

"Sorry about that, didnt recognise you with that Errol Flynn getup" he said, "Oh, this is Malcolm jacobson, local CIA cell" "Nice to meet you, I'm Christopher Jackson"

"Very brave thing you are doing, and I for one think the people have a right to know" he said. "Yo, mikey, round of liquid ice with a splash of vodka" he said to the barkeep, "Commin on up" Mikey replied, and slid the drink over"

"What happened next was completely unexpected"

"Please, continue" I replied.




Chapter 7: An old friend returns


1730 hrs, December 25th, 2004
350 S.U. beyond the redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
178 days post cylon invasion(Approx)
Armed transport Avenger: Running hard and fast to Atlantis


"Ok, remind me one more time why the frak we be headed towards the mother of all warships?"

"Because, Mac, this intel is critical to humanity's continued survival" I replied, growing short tempered.

"But Captain manchesco.." Mac started to say, "Enough, the other reason why, is because I know the skipper of the Atlantis, he's an old friend, and he'll know what to do"

"You put alot of stock in 'old friends'", said our weapons guru Jax, as she came into the mess deck, "How do you know he wont just shoot you on sight?" she asked me, "Because he's like me, a hybrid, one of the original ones, one of the so called 'failed' experiments, and, he knows me"

"Captain to the cockpit, we got company" Jammer screamed over the comm, she was very observant, I'd consider her skills at detecting and eluding persuit sacrament any day, they are what made her such an effective pilot.

"Wake Kong, and get to the gun turrets Jax, Mac, I want you on the nose gun" Time to cook some more toaster metal.

We took a near miss, we never took near misses, and just about got hulled when I got to the cockpit.

"What the frak are you doing?" I screamed, utterly stunned, "Must be a new model of toaster, these frakkers are all over my ass, cant shake em" she replied.

"Pull it up" and I saw, that we indeed were facing a new type of bastard, and suddenly, to the complete astonishment of everyone on board, a burst of Fifty calibur weapons fire shreadded the toaster, and I saw come screaming overhead, nothing I'd ever seen in the fleet database, an arrow head shaped type of interceptor.

At first we thought it was a friendly, until it turned and opened fire on us.

"Frak frak frak frak!" Jammer screamed, pulling the Avenger into a maneuvor I'm still, to this day, surprised she survived.

"Take us into that asteroind field" I barked, "Are you frakking crazy?"
she replied, "Well, youre a hotshot pilot, time to take it to a whole new level" was my response.

What ever was going on, we needed to get to the Atlantis, and fast.


930 hrs, December 31th, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Downtime and Resupply
Refuge system, planet side

I stood there, on a new world, looking up at the sky, seeing the visible reminder of why we came to this world, the asteroid storm up above. The perfect defense, was Lefler's response, upon seeing why the crew on Hobo's gunship was so damn excited, not only would we be safe for some time here, but the asteroids themselves had proven a most bountiful source of supplies.

Skyes came running up, out of breath, looking like she'd just kicked over a can of JP 9.

"Hey, this planet is bad news, dumb ass" the voice upstairs said.

"Sir, scouting party found some ruins they think you may want to see" She said, then motioned to the waiting runner.

"I have a funny feeling, did that last raptor bring my armor?" I asked, "Yes, and a selection of weaponry", expecting trouble?" was the response.

"Lets just say I've got a funny feeling", I said, as I donned the armor that had alrady saved my life once before.

As I put on the helmet and closed and locked the suit's seals, I couldnt shake the memory that chose that moment to surface.


December 10th, 1994, geminon
northern continant
routine training op


It was Ten years after the Virgo 3 mission, on a standard training op, we'd just set down and set up a base camp, Sarge had sent us out on recon, something didnt feel right, as second in command, it was my job to voice them, so, I did.

"Boss, something feels way off, dont you think it odd that they put us here, what with that situation on tauron?" I said over the comm

"Agreed, but, our orders are specific, command must have a good reason, though, what, only the gods know" she replied

We'd just come over the ridge, the treeline was still a ways off, but, something about the area felt off, suddenly, the man on point, a rookie, or as we called him, Rook, froze.

When the marine on point does that, its time to play living statue.

I could tell something wasnt right, so I motioned the group back, when all holy hell broke loose.

One second, it was quiet, when, all the wild life went silent, as a marine, they train you to run and gun, as force recon, they train you to think along with run and gun, so, as we were taking all manner of automatic fire, I was on the comm.

"Sarge we got problems" I yelled, "Whats happening?" she screamed over the comm, I started to reply, when I took a glancing hit.

"Sarge, this aint no training exercise, these jack asses are using live ammo!"

"What!" she screamed.

"Get that raptor back here, we need to pull out" I replied, then realized we were pinned down.

"we could use some help, who ever these guys are, they are good, and they have us pinned down"

"Copy that, raptor inbound, as are we" she replied.

We waited, trading fire with the attackers, when Sarge and the gang came rushing over the hill, and before they could take cover, Sarge took a round to her upper right chest. She collapsed into my arms, and I could tell it was bad, she was losing alot of blood, and her skin was pale.

She tried to speak, coughing up blood in the process, "Promose me, when you find your best friend, promise you'll do what ever it takes to protect her"

"Stop trying to talk, youre gonna be ok" I replied, tears streaming down my face, "promise me" she insisted, coughing up more blood, "I promise" I replied.

"Watch over our son" with that last effort expended, she died in my arms.

"Sir, evac raptor inbound" Rook cried, ducking to avoid getting his head blown off, I looked, and saw the raptor make a few strafing runs, attempting to clear the LZ.

I lifted Sarge's body, and hustled to the evac raptor, where the systems officer trid to keep me from bringing Sarge's body aboard, "Sir, she's dead, just leave the body"

"Get the frak out of my way, we dont leave our people behind, everyone comes home, even the dead"

The son of a frakking bitch wouldnt get out of my way.

We were still taking fire, so, I cold clocked the bastard, getting aboard, and closing the hatch.

I sat there, the whole way back, holding onto the body of my commanding officer, mentor, and friend, I'd never felt such loss before.


"General!" sykes screamed, shaking me, jostling me from the memory of one of the worst days in my life, she looked at me, "You ok, you looked out of it for a minute"

"Remembering an old friend, I dont know why, but there's something about that memory" I muttered.

"Almost as though something is trying to warn me" I continued, "Warn you about what?" Sykes asked.

"I dont know, I get the feeling, that something dark is coming"


950 hrs, December 31th, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, planet side, approaching the ruins



"I see there's still not much room in here" "Rommie? what the frak?" I replied, "I thought you might need a hand".

"Ok, guess I shouldnt complain, seeing as you seem to bring me good luck" I replied.

Sykes was looking at me, watching me have what looked to her to be a one sided dialogue.

"Its Rommie, she downloaded into my armor again" I said, answering her unspoken question.

"Sir, we've arrived at the ruins", the runner's driver said, as he brought us to a stop.

As we got out, I looked around, marvelling at the condition of the place, Rommie commented "Wow, big place", "Yeah, big place" I agreed, then proceeded inside.


1730 hrs, December 25th, 2004
350 S.U. beyond the redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
178 days post cylon invasion(Approx)
Armed transport Avenger: Refuge system, planetside, running low and fast in a canyon 5 miles away from the ruins


"Time to get dressed" I said, "Captain, that armor's untested, and, he may well kill you on sight" Jammer said, becoming the umpteenth person to try and dissuade me from using it.

"Dont worry, he wont hurt me", I replied.

"Its been, what, ten years?" "He might not even remember you" Jax said, as she came in to the lounge.

"Not remember me? We had a kid together, he damn well wont have forgotten about me" I snapped.

"Well, technically, you hid it from him, up till your 'death', he probably wont be as receptive as you think" Kong said, from behind the counter.

"I've made my mind up, you can all leave me behind if you want, but, I'm seeing this through" I replied, in the tone of voice that signals finality.

I stripped down, and got into the cotton liner, and was pulling armor parts on, and Mac ambled on over, and started helping me put on the armor, that for some reason, I felt would ultimately save my life.

"Thankyou, for helping me Mac" I said, "Dont thank me, only reasons im helping you are cause you're so damn convinced this'll work, and so I can save some face, and keep my honor"

"Thankyou anyhow" I replied.

"You are aware this armor was modified from the original specs you were told it would have?" He asked, "Yes, Im still doing this" "Ok, he replied, lets get the upper torso on you, seal you up, and turn this thing on" He muttered.

It powered up as expected, and what had been two hundred pounds of armor, and one hundred sixty pounds of me, became just that, hundred sixty pounds, I could see my friends and crew watching me, waiting, so, I went to move, and promptly went sailing into the bulkhead.

"Well, seems that worked well" Jax snorted, to which I replied "It takes getting used to, this thing amplifies speed and reaction time, still, should start slowly"

I focused by putting one foot in front of the other, then gradually moved to more complex tasks, and within half an hour, I was doing backflips in the cargo hold, seems this armor worked as advertised.

Now, all that was left, was to get to John, before the badguys could.

"Now, we wait for them to show up" I commented.


1035 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

I stood there a moment, fighting down the memories of that day, and the emotions that came with them, wondering, why now? of all times, why were these memories surfacing now?

We proceeded in, and immediately, I could see why the survey team had sounded so freaked, there were hieroglyphs all along the walls, and I stopped, dead in my tracks, and saw, what was unmistakably the figure of an armored warrior, descended from the heavans, fighting for something.

"Its you, has to be you" Rommie mused, and almost on cue, my least welcome friend, choose to speak up. "Hey, you're famous here".

"Run some translations, I wanna know what Im looking at" I said quietly.

In truth, though it sounded as though I was in awe, I was in fact, somewhat in shock.

I kept panning left and right, trying to get as much on the mission recorder as possible, and then stopped dead.

We werent alone.

At first, it was little scrapes, tiny scuttling noises.

Then, a single, barely audible noise, that got my attention.

"Weapons ready" I quietly said, "Whats wrong?" Rommie asked, "We are not alone". Before I could even voice my next order, a stone wall slid shut behind us!

"Perfect" was all I could say.

"General, we need to get you out of here" Sykes said, which further added to my concerns.

Suddenly, I became acutely aware of a low sounding noise, a brum beat! Now things were beginning to make a bit of sense.

"Weapons safety" I said, "General?" Sykes asked, "Weapons safety" I replied, confirming the order.

I started walking, convinced this was gonna make sense, and then we were jumped, by a group of creatures, I had no idea what they were, but, judging by both the manner in which they were acting, relieving us of our guns, and the purposeful manner in which the person wearing armor much like my own, was walking towards me, I gathered one of us was expected to do something.

"I dont like this" Rommie commented, voicing exactly what I was thinking, "If I translated those symbols right, and if I'm reading this situation right, this is some kind of a challenge, and we initiated it when we entered what I'm guessing is some kind of temple" she commented.

"Oh great, I just lost my uplink to the ship, looks like we are on our own", Rommie commented.

"Perfect", "whats going on now?" Sykes asked, uncertain.

Suddenly, I heard a ruckas behind us, and turned to see one of my marines resisting one of the creature's attempts to relieve him of his sidearm.

"At ease corporal, let him have it" I barked, the steel tone of my voice making it clear that any attempts at arguement would not be advised.

The corporal looked at me, and replied "Sir", and ceased his attempts to hold onto his pistols.

Remembering my own double back draws, I drew and held both by the barrels, placing them on the ground in front of me, along with my rifle, which were collected by another example of what I was seeing as an exremely diginified race.

Suddenly one of the more agitated ones spoke clear understandable english!

"Why should we allow them to challenge for something we have guarded for centuries, and why these offworlders"
he said, clearly very angry, "This has been discussed before, and decided by the council of elders, you will mind your place Wind Steppe" replied one of the older aliens, "But Elder..." Steppe protested, "Enough!, you will be silent, and allow the contest to go forward".

The whole time the arguement was going on, I'd been approaching the two, to better hear what was being said, so, it came as no surprise to me when I suddenly found myself holding the fist of the one called Steppe. Seemed, he'd lost his cool.

"Im sorry, Elder, is it, but I cannot allow an unprovoked attack"

"Where I come from, one of the things we are taught, is to show respect to our elders" I said, while the young upstart glared daggers at me.

"I will face this one, or there will be no challenge" he snarled.

"NO!, this was not what was agreed to" the heretofor silent armor clad person said, and I froze, I knew that voice, but it was impossible, I watched her die in my arms.

Judging by my body language, and choosing his words with great care, the elder spoke.

"I did not know the two of you were known to each other"

"I did not intend for it to happen, not like this" she replied, depolarizing her faceplate, confirming what I suspected.

"Isnt that the one you are always referring to?" Rommie asked, curious.

"Thats Christine Wilder, or, as I knew her, Sarge, but, she should be dead, theres no way anyone could have survived that kind of a bullet wound" It was very apparent, to the rest of the group, that something unexpected had happened.

"I was supposed to be your challenge apponent, by getting in the middle of that, you've just made him your opponent, and he will kill you, for fraks sake, this wasnt supposed to be a death match"
Chris said, giving me that look that said I was in deep kimche.

"Sykes, what ever happens, keep this bunch of loose cannon jarheads in check, no one, repeat, no one is to interfer, under any circumstances" I said.

"Understood", Sykes replied.

"It is time, Wind Steppe, choose the combat style" the Elder said.

"Melee combat, bladed weaponry, dual style" Steppe snarled, "Combatants, choose your weapons", the Elder replied.

Steppe pickled a pair of nasty looking daggers, and I drew my assault knives from my boot sheaths, and I assumed a classic neutral stance.

From the way Steppe stood and glared at me, I knew, neither of us would be leaving until the other was dead.

I depolarized my faceplate, allowing the young hothead to see, that he was not fighting an inexperienced pushover.

we stood, sizing each other up, then charged as one.


1040 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, Atlantis actual, resupply completed, conducting training maneuvors.



"XO, we've confirmed no contact with survey team since they entered the ruins, and I was just informed that the AI's link to the ship has been severed, theres some serious shit going on ma'am" Ensign Welles said, visibly concerned.

"Go to condition two, I want our birds recalled, rearmed with live ammo and on out there on patrol" I ordered, whatever was going on, I was sure John could handle himself, it was the fleet I was concerned about.

"Dradis contact, one oh seven, karam two one one, unarmed, no, wait, armed transport headed hard and fast to the planet's surface" Ensign Welles cried, but from the look on her face, something wasnt right.

"Out with it Ensign" I said, the no nonsense tone clear.

"Ma'am, that transport is squaking a Colonial black ops ID" she replied, the alarm in her voice clear.

"Black ops, they answer to the president, and only the president, this isnt good" I muttered.

"All attempts to raise them have failed, they wont respond to transmissions" Ensign Welles said.

I dont know if this is what John meant when he mentioned 'funny feelings', but, I had a funny feeling things just got worse.


1041 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 challenge


I stood there, watching the General, and the warrior go head to head, I prayed I hadnt just gotten my old friend killed.

It seemed he still had the moves, and his reaction timing seemed way faster than I recalled it being.

They traded knive blow for knife blow, blocking each strike with ease, their movements almost poetic and graceful, and suddenly, John got in a solid hit, a crippling hit too.

"Enough, its clear to me any further fighting would only result in death" John said, surprising me, seemed he'd gotten a sense of honor since I last saw him.

"We either fight to the death, or neither of us will leave alive, my people's honor demands it" snarled Steppe.

"Theres gotta be some other reason, fighting for honor alone is not enough" John howled.

"There is no other reason, now, silence, and fight me, or die" and with that, Steppe propelled himself into what was clearly meant to be a killing blow, and John did not evade, but rather grabbed Steppe by the arm, and flung him into the wall.

"Give up, and walk away with your pride intact, or you will loose" John cried, and Steppe swung his dagger, and John just barely blocked it.

Suddenly, the temple started to break apart, or, at least I thought it was, for the walls had started to move apart, structures were thrust upward, and the General and the warrior leapt off a ledge to avoid being crushed, and, landed two stories down.


1110 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 challenge, two levels down.



We landed hard, and I tasted blood, "John, you've got a fractured rib, I'll do what I can" Rommie said.

Just as we both were about to square off again, my armor's damned motion tracker chose that moment to start screaming its fool head off, as did the other backseat driver, my friendly little voice.

"Ha ha! saved by the buzzar, lucky frak!"

I knew where it was gonna come from before Rommie could even shout an alarm, and I bolted, leaping, and tackling Steppe, who, unaware of what was even going on, thought I meant to kill him, and a shot cracked overhead just as we landed, barely missing us, in fact, I would later learn there was this long assed black streak where the bullet had grazed my helmet.

"Kill me, get it over with, you have won" Steppe cried, ceding the fight, "Shut up, I just saved your ass from getting your fool head blown clean off" I replied.

"You lie!" he snarled, "Look up at that wall, thats a fifty calibur round, could have killed us both, there's no honor in letting a weakened opponent get killed by another's hand, now, please excuse me, I have a sneaky bastard to hunt and kill"

As I got up, I could hear gunshots, seemed whatever had happened, had gone south and fast, and me without a rifle! I grabbed my combat knives just in time to see another Elite come waltzing in.

"John, I dont know how it happened, but your rib has already healed" Rommie replied, mystified, "File it under the weird category, I need a way to get Steppe out of here, he's not going to last long with that wound to his side" I growled.

"Im sorry, I dont have any options for you, John" she replied, the sorrow in her voice clear.

I repolarised my faceplate, set myself, and charged.

I didnt even get half way.

The toasters had brought a new toy, a damned tank!

I skidded to a stop, and bolted in the opposite direction, leaping, grabbing Steppe, and diving over yet another ledge, just as the tank fired.

This day just kept getting worse.

"Crap, I had a signal for a second, but we're too deep to transmit now" Rommie announced

"Perfect, Steppe's vitals arent getting any better, those couple rounds he took did some damage, and I cant do anything more with this limited field kit"

"This is why I fight, to protect my friends and comrades, others, in the fleet I'm responsible for, who have come to depend on my leadership, I fight for the sake of others, its my purpose, to defend the defenseless" I spoke, relizing he was near death, "Brave words, for an honorable opponent, my reason for fighing, is to prove I'm alive, to test myself, I was to one day inherit guarding the artifact, my dream"

"Alert, subject vitals critical" intoned the suit's computer, "There is the way to the artifact, go, claim the legacy, your legacy, protect it, or all is lost" Steppe muttered, and then, he was dead.

I knelt there, conscious of the gunfire going on above me, paying respect to a fallen warrior, then, clenching my fist around his sword, I got up, and headed in the direction he had indicated.

Soon, I had found myself face to face with a giant alter, in a room with lots of hieroglyphs, depicting what I took to be a great warrior, "Translation, please?" I asked, "It seems to be you, who these symbols are depicting, something about honor, virtue, some symobls i cant translate, and, only the guardian can claim the legacy of the first ones" she replied.

"Well, got to be some way of cracking this thing open, oh, ah" I mumbled, noticed a hieroglyph depicting what I guess is my slicing my palm, and letting blood drip, but where?

"I think that stone alter is where you neeed to drip some blood" Rommie said, clearly concerned.

So what do I do? I amble on over, take out my combat knife, remove my gauntlet, and slice open my palm, dripping blood into the tiny hole.

I got the feeling I'd soon find out what I'd tripped, for a loud grinding, stone on stone noise drew my attention to the big alter in the center of the room, and on it, sat a trapezoidial crystal.

Kinda let down, I muttered "A crystal? are you kidding me?", "You expected more, from an old lost advanced civilization?" Rommie muttered, reproachful tone quite clear.

"Ok, time to grab it, and get the hell out of dodge" I commented, reaching to grab the crystal, when suddenly, there was a flash of light, and in place of the crystal was a crystalline wrist band, so I did the obvious thing, and put it on, the two ends merging seamlessly, and I put my gauntlet back on, and sealed the suit back up.

I returned to the first level of the temple to find a full scale fire fight in progress, and my people pinned down.

Ducking, just narrowly missing having my fool head blown off, I found Sarge, with a bad shoulder wound, memories came flooding back, of that day.

I took the rifle she held out, and pounded a few shots into the nice shiny irresistable target that is the back of a centurian's head, then I saw, that Elite from before, and he was looking right at me, linek he knew me.

"Watch your six, General" Chris said, "you watch yours, and let that shoulder heal before you try and move", was my reply.

I moved out, exchanging fire with the centurians, and then that damned tank from before showed up, so, I ran for cover, diving over the wrecked pillar, and found myself face to face with Sarge, who proceeded to ask "Whats wrong?" just then, the sob gunner lobbed a shell, which went off, blowing a hole into the wall behind us, shards of stone and morter pinging off our armor.

"Rommie, see if you can reestablish your uplink" I shouted, over the gunfire, amazing how loud it was, even inside a sound proofed helmet. "Attempting, unable to establish a full uplink, I can communicate, but, the jamming's toostrong for me to upload" she replied.

"Call in an airstrike, get this tank off our asses" I barked, as our friend, the deadeye, fired yet another shot. "Got it, transmitting" she replied.



1150 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the Redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond Kobol
184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, Atlantis actual, resupply completed, conducting training maneuvors.




"Uh, ma'am, Im reciving a transmission from the AI, very weak, almost as though something's jamming the signal" a comm tech I did not know announced, "Let me hear it" I said, walking over to the comm console.

"Atlantis AI Rommie transmitting, situation critical, requesting airstrike at the following attached co ordinates, strike authentication alpha zulo seven seven four one one alpha, equip for surface armor busting, confirmation repeats"

"Ma'am, thats a valid strike order", he replied. "Get Echo squad in the tubes, fitted as specified..."I broke off at a gesture from the tech, "Ma'am, Wolf squadron is already airborne on maneuvors, and two of them are indeed fitted as specified" he informed me, "Vector them in" I ordered, picking up the reciever, get me an open link on that same channel" I ordered.



1110 hrs, December 31st, 2004
325 S.U. beyond the redline, location: 101 S.U. beyond kobol
184 days Post Cylon Invasion(approx)
Refuge system, Wolf squadron, conducting training maneuvors.



"Ok, form up, we're going in hot and fast" I advised, "Reaper, this is Atlantis Actual, be advised, this will be a danger close combat support mission"
"Reaper, copy that", "Ok you heard the boss, danger close, means we got people on the ground in close proximity to the target, so, to all you nuggets, stay sharp, stick close to your wing man, and trust your instincts, they will save your life, here we go" I advised over the comm.



1125 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.



"Incoming response, rolling strike package thunder, time on target eta five minutes" Rommie replied. "We got reenforcements coming" I shouted, "Who?" Sarge shouted, "Wolf!" I shouted, pounding some more rounds at the enemy, "Best squadron in the fleet, real crazy frakkers!" I shouted over the cannon fire, seeing the look on her face. I risked a peek, yup, he was still there.
Waiting.

Then I heard him speak.

"Surrender the artifact, Or the elder dies!" the elite spoke, my blood ran cold, I knew I had to do something, then the elder took the choice out of my hands.
"Foolish one, the guardian has been chosen by the artifact, something an alien like yourself will never be able to undo" said the Elder.

"Then you die" I saw the elite snap the Elder's neck and toss him aside, like nothing more than a rag doll.

I felt a rage like nothing I'd felt in years, an unarmed religious elder! of all people.

Then I heard several dozen sonic booms. "Viper viper, we see you, tally two targets, targets will be marked, popping green smoke" I spoke into the comm.

"Copy that general, swinging around for our first pass, we only have four AGAB's, lets make em count" replied the lead viper.

"Cover me, I'm gonna mark the tanks" I said, moving to go, Chris grabbed my arm, "Be careful" she said, "Oh, I will, theres someone waiting for me, who will hunt me down if I go and die" I replyed, with a light tone and a nod, and I was off, creeping around boulders, and fallen pillars, very much reminded me of my earlier years, they say you never forget your training, well, its true, as those memories came back, so did the training.

"This looks like a good spot" Rommie remarked, "Signal Chris to pop smoke" I barked, raising my rifle, and thumbing the laser sight.

Off to my rear, I heard a pop and a clatter, as the smoke grenade was popped and tossed, nothing more to do but hope those missiles took out atleast someone on the enemy force.

In came the vipers, screaming right towards the tanks, missiles streaking forth, both hit a tank apiece, I felt a measure of satesfaction, until the smoke cleared, and I saw one of the tanks doing something that had me very much scared shitless for truly the first time in my entire carrer.

The tank had reconfigured itself into what Jill would call a mech.

"Oh, you have got to be frakking kidding me!, what does it take to put one of these things down?" I exclaimed, stunned.

I heard Reaper over the comm, trying to grasp this latest unexpected developement,
"Reaper, squadron, split, four groups, diamond head atack pattern, Bullseye,you still got missiles, take lead, group one, I got four, go"

I watched as a dangerous move was attempted, and it seemed to work, until the walking tank turned, and started chewing sky, a hailstorm of rounds issuing forth, several Seven's bought it quick, and I saw as bullseye lived up to her name, concentrating on the lesser threat, before it became a big one, blowing the frak outta the other tank before it too transformed.

"YEEHAW, yet another pair o bullseye's" she screamed, leaving no doubts in my mind as to how she got her callsign.

That left the walking tank, and the voice upstairs had impeccable timing "Well, if this aint a switch, first tanks, now walking tanks, whats next, a toaster?"

Sometimes I hated that voice, but it had a point.

Lo and behold, there came my 'Elite' toaster, strolling round the bend, guess it was time to face the music.




chapter 8: Leap of faith.
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Universal Law #001: anything and everything that could possibly go wrong can and probably will, and, most likely, at the least opportune time.