The Second Exodus - Pt 2 (FT, Invite-Only)

[Morningstar Coalition]

****************************************************************************************************
"Eastern" border of Telrosian Dominion - Morningstar Coalition Fleet
****************************************************************************************************

To later historians, it would come to be known as "The Great Sorrow"; but to those who had just came out of the nightmare, it had no name, it simply was. A little under a month ago, the fleet had entered space claimed by the Telrosian Dominion, people known to TRIAD and people the Admiralty had hoped would be friends. Sadly, the fleet's passage had attracted the attention of several pirate clans; who had themselves just been driven out of Dominion space. While the Fleet was large, most of it's number were poorly armed transports and industrial vessels, hastily built in Raysian shipyards. The fleet must have seemed a choice target to the pirates, desperate for plunder and willing to band together to overwhelm the limited military presence within the Coalition.

Starting first with a devastating ambush, then in the following weeks, the pirates had managed to cripple or destroy a large number of Coalition ships. Worse yet was the loss of three of the great Sleeper ships. Massive transports each housing half a million citizens in stasis. In the initial attacks which had claimed the three great transports, almost two million lives had been extinguished. By the time the fleet reached the relative safety of space heavily patrolled by the Telrosians, over three million had perished. To a people who had started this exodus with just over five million, the loss was profound, and only just now starting to truly sink in.

Originally the plan had been to stop briefly among the Telrosians, to foster diplomatic ties to their Dominion, and to barter technologies they would later need. With a full fifth of the fleet destroyed, and another third badly damaged; their stay had been longer than anticipated. Unfortunately this had not been the end of the nightmare for the Coalition survivors. After finally making their way through Telrosian space with the aid of escorts, the fleet once again blindly stumbled into dangerous space while en-route to their old allies.

This is the story of the Great Sorrow...

[Huerdae]

The Huerdaen Star Empire had always been at war with the pirates that seemed to plague the systems surrounding their small section of the galaxy, and that war hadn't stopped in the face of the Ataster campaign. It was during that very campaign that one of the greatest coincidences in the history of the Star Empire came to realization, starting with the humble beginnings of an offhand report on the desk of Commodore Sal'Suveen, the man who was given credit for the operation...and sometimes, the blame.

Solar Naval Command, Command Hub of Huerdaen Southern Sector

The man was surprisingly young for a Commodore, with many of those who reported to him significantly older. His requests had finally been agreed to, and the previous week, Battlegroup Hope had arrived at the hive. It was a carrier group to support the other main battle fleet, and while it carried significantly less firepower than the other battle groups, it was led by the stalwart Harbinger-Class battleship. Reinforcements for the other battle groups had also arrived, finally giving the man a full battle fleet in the area.

But the report that caught his attention was that of findings by a destroyer patrol closer to the western sector. They had located several bombed-out carcasses of starships in a nearby system, as well as evidence that a refueling station had been constructed some time ago, and only recently broken down. More importantly, however, there were indications that whoever had done this had been fighting frequently...indicating a pirate presence. The patrol had followed protocol and shadowed the pirate group to where they were once more setting up, but what they saw there was what was contained in the report.

The pirate forces had shifted back, away from Imperial space, but they had moved toward the border with Rethast space, and while they were currently located in an area that was nearly an intersect of the two empires, they were preparing to make a long trip. Ships and damaged vessels were arriving and leaving the system, with two large converted super-freighters remaining and acting as the core of the fleet. By the entrance and exit trajectory, the destroyers were able to determine the location of another pirate outpost, a system that nestled into the edge of Rethast space.

However, the pirates moved again, headed south with haste, as if they had found their new prey, and were closing in on them. The destroyers, unwilling to abandon such a mobile enemy, shadowed them south, toward the Ataster Empire. With a sizeable force so near the empire, it was a danger to all Huerdaen interests in the area, and Sal'Suveen wasted no time in contacting the battle-scarred battle fleet around Storan, giving them their orders.

Colonel Ju'Niic,

We have located a significant pirate presence in a sector you control, headed toward the following coordinates - [Information Attached] - The enemy group is significant in size, and could pose a danger to operations in your area, which is a threat we cannot abide by. You are being given directives to contact Stalwart, a destroyer currently shadowing the enemy group. She will feed you information on their current location and activities - but you are ordered to engage and refit at first favorable opportunity.

[The Cylon Collective]

"They're getting too close. If they keep cutting through the nebula, they'll stumble right into our patrols..."

"No, they won't. They can't; there's plenty of space for them to just stumble on past..."

"We don't know how advanced their detection systems are. They might be bumbling around blindly, but they could still pick us up from a distance..."

"And there are others shadowing them. Smaller ships, probably no match for a baseship, but there are lots of them..."

"But it doesn't matter. If we're detected, we have to find somewhere else to move the colony. This used to be a nice neighbourhood you know, but there's too many human neighbours moving in for my liking..."

The debate continued, a Cavil, Six, and Tigh debating the course the collected cylons should take. At least one of each other model was present, though they deferred to these three for their opinion. It was usually these who would reach a consensus, they would vote, and that would be that. Thirteen votes to decide the fate of millions.

Moving the colony was a long process, and not one that they could undertake lightly. Even if they decided to leave, it would take months to make everything ready, and the fleet of ships that had wandered into the dense nebula where they hid would likely stumble across them in a matter of weeks. Something had to be done now.

"Maybe we should confront them," said the Cavil, his brow furrowed as he rubbed his temple in frustration, "Jump in with half a dozen baseships, tell them to divert course..."

"And what if they decide to shoot first?" scolded Tigh. "If they are refugees, they'll probably be edgy and trigger happy. We don't want to test their resolve to defend their civilians. And if they're military..."

"Then we risk greater detection and outright war," concluded Six. "Maybe a single baseship, to ask them politely for a change of course. Or, maybe we offer them aid..."

"Fine. A single ship, but I want at least four ready to jump in on a moment's notice..." Cavil sighed, the others nodding. "If they're refugees, we can escort them around. Alright?"

The others nodded, the plan put in motion. One of the D'Anna's, her hand immersed in a shallow pool of water lit from below, relayed the order to the fleet, and one of the dozens of ships sitting silent sentinel around the massive asteroid spooled it's jump engine, and it's hybrid began calculating coordinates...

[Morningstar Coalition]

****************************************************************************************************
9013 Caeli Star System - Advance Recon Task Force "Ishida"
****************************************************************************************************

Glass Singer rolled slowly to bring another section of her heat vanes into the shadow of her hull. On the sun-side of her long form, she tasted the spectra of the local stellar body, listening for echos from her sensor drones. Five systems she had come through, and none of these had the right kinds of worlds the fleet needed. Data from the scout frigates had indicated this star just might have deposited enough enough helium-3 to make harvesting operations worthwhile. Things were further complicated by diminishing stores of certain organic compounds the agri-ships needed for the hydroponics, so this re-supply stop would need to be in a system where they could get everything they needed: fuel, water, hydroponic supplies.
The systems on the outside of the nebula had been rather barren, and a couple of the rocky worlds even showed signs of long-abandoned mining outposts. It was possibly some ancient stellar empire had already picked this subsector clean. The nebula was dense enough that it might have made harvesting operations there problematic, so the Captain had chosen to take the recon force into the nebula to check things out.

Glass Singer shivered as an echo returned from one of her drones. Spectrograph readings indicated that the fourth planet did possess sufficient trace organics. Combined with the data on the comets in the outer system, this was enough confirmation for the Irukan to withdraw her consciousness from the ship's systems, diving back into her body and letting out a squeal of delight as she rolled to face the Captain. "Captain! Scan data confirms it. The fourth planet has the organics we need for the agri-ships. The second and sixth planets show sufficient deposits of helium-3, and there are water-ice comets in the outer swarm. This system has everything we need!"

The Captain of the ship was Nississ of Ssriith, a middle-aged male Ssslakai who had managed to find some measure of favor with the Admiralty ever since he had led the successful mission to make contact with the Sertian people. Not only had Nississ made contact, but they'd come back with agreements to exchange technology data; data that the Admiralty hoped the Coalition would be able to utilize to replace the gaps left in the wake of TRIAD's abandonment of this universe's holdings. Nississ had only taken command of the destroyer "Essence of Time" a scant two weeks before what people were now calling the Exile, so the Ssslakai had not had time to distinguish himself until the Sertian mission.
He was still in command of this destroyer, but he could not fault the Admiralty for that. The entire Coalition was simply struggling to survive, so there were few chances to advance in command unless Captains were killed and someone was required to take their place. Ambitious Nississ might be, but he would not wish to command a new ship under that condition. No, he was content with the Essence for now. Once the fleet reached Praxis and they could tend their wounds, address their weaknesses. Maybe then there would be a place for him aboard a larger vessel.

Nississ had used the pretext of reviewing Glass Singer's data to cover his musings. Finally he nodded to the Irukan and turned to the hologram of the Essence's Shipmind, a digital entity that had chosen the name Seneschal. The Shipmind chose to wear a human avatar, something which Nississ personally found annoying. "Comms. Inform Fleet Command that this system is suitable for harvesting operations. Request two squadrons of scout frigates so we can set up a two jump perimeter. Inform Command that we will notify the fleet to jump in once we've scouted the nearby routes."

The Shipmind's avatar nodded silently and prepared the message drone for launch. Resonance comm units were too rare and scarce to be wasted on anything smaller than a cruiser, so the fleet had had to rely on using small courier drones equipped with Alderson jump drives for interstellar messages, while local communications could be done by tachyon burst relays. The small drone, properly programmed to return to the fleet rendezvous, shot off towards the jump point and vanished.

Glass Singer dove from her body back into the destroyer's systems, launching additional whisker drones and widening her sensor net, beginning the work of searching the system for anything out of place, and always, watching for any sign of the attackers which had been hounding the fleet since they had first entered the space surrounding the Telrosian Dominion...

[Huerdae]

I.M.S. Angel of Death, Storan High Orbit

It wasn't until the alert went off a third time that Junie awoke, rolling in her bed toward the noise and slamming her hand against the bulkhead. The miss woke Mahi, and the man pressed his head into the pillow face-first, reaching up to key in the acknowledgement to her alarm. However, as he was doing so, a voice began speaking, the woman entirely too cheery to be waking them up in such a vile way.

"Colonel, we got a message from Solar, they found some pirates in our sector." There was a pause, and then a couple laughs sounded in the background. "Would you like us to contact Colonel Mah'Ahrrir and ask him to ready his battle group, Ma'am? It seems he did not leave with the rest of his officers last night." There was amusement in her tone, but it was the sort of laughter that came from a sister who knew exactly what had occured, and was comfortable with the knowledge.

Colonel Ju'Niic responded first, groaning. "Why did they task out his group without my orders? They're just out of refit, by rights, Glory should be going.."

However, the other Colonel cut her off. "I heard, I'll get back to my ship. Did they leave a shuttle for me?"

The response was to both, and still quite amused. "Yes, Colonel, the shuttle is here. And they didn't task Victor, ma'am, they tasked the whole battle fleet. We're to leave the captured vessels behind to watch the Hive, and go after them. Apparently, they're the ones we displaced when we moved so aggressively into the Ataster sector. They kept out of our way, but something drew them out."

There was a moment of surprise, then Mah'Ahrrir spoke, before Ju'Niic could respond. "Prep the shuttle. I'll be on Hellfire shortly. Can you relay orders to the rest of Victor for me?"

"Yes sir."

The comm clicked off, and Ju'Niic grabbed the other Colonel's arm as he was leaving, standing and looking down on the smaller man. For a moment, they were silent, then the door opened from the hall, revealing Silvoya, a new inductee from the Ataster Empire.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and face turned a deep red at realizing what she had walked in on, but Mah'Ahrrir just smiled and dressed, offering her a nod as he passed. Silvoya had the grace to turn away while he did, and Ju'Niic also took the moment to hop into the shower.

"I'll be on the comm in a few, Mahi. Have yours ready."

"Be safe, Junie. They'll probably go for Angel, you know."

It was all the farewell they gave, and then Mah'Ahrrir was out, and Ju'Niic was once more business, speaking past the shower wall to Silvoya.

"Something to report?"

Red-faced and more embarassed than the two Colonels, Silvoya's words caught in her throat, but she nodded, and offered a sloppy salute, something that couldn't be seen. "Yes Ma'am. I...ah...have been assigned to Bastion, XO of the Destroyer Seeker. The captain wanted me to speak to you, to see if you had anything to say."

Ju'Niic knew the woman was Ataster, and though she wasn't sure, she suspected they were...particularly less open, so she simply smiled at the much larger woman, standing well over half a foot taller than the Colonel. "Not really." Slipping from the shower, she hurried to dress herself, quickly fitting back into the hard-line Colonel that Silvoya had known, though the woman had learned some of the woman's other side after joining the Star Empire. "Mostly, I'd like to welcome you. The Star Navy coud use someone like you. I'm surprised they spat you back out so soon, most of the officers stay in training for a few years. I suppose already having been a captain gives you some privaledges."

Silvoya nodded, but didn't sound particularly pleased over the reasoning. "Yes Ma'am. They wanted to redeploy me because I know the Ataster tactics, ma'am, wanted me on a ship to give advice."

Ju'Niic nodded, and then gestured for the woman to walk with her. "Well, then I don't want you down on some destroyer. I'm going to re-assign you to the Angel, you'll serve as my XO. Regulation be damned, you've already been a captain of a warship, we both know that, and I'll need the help. Anyway, it'll be good for you to see how we work a bit, we're just going to go hunt some pirates. I assume you're bound?"

It was something that very few knew about, but something that Silvoya had learned rather quickly. Bound was a word that symbolized the whole of the oaths taken by Star Navy officers, oaths which, if broken, were universally punishable by death. After a slightly uncertain nod from the woman, Ju'Niic continued.

"Good. And if I say so, you're right to treat it like that. A lot of people have died because of those. Be careful what you do, alright dear?"

Silvoya nodded, and swallowed at the woman's words, eyes cast down the hall, as they neared the bridge. "Ah...I have my possessions in the shuttle, is there some way I could get them out before it heads back?"

Ju'Niic nodded, waving off the concern before stopping her in front of the bridge doors, doors which required clearance to pass. "Silvoya. It's going to be hard, I know. As much as you know the Star Empire, and obviously believe in us, those are still going to be your people. A lot of what we do...may hurt. I understand, I really do. My father was in the same position you are, he told me more than I'd care to know. If you want to talk about it, just let me know. I want to make this as easy for you as I can. If you don't feel comfortable, just keep your mouth shut. Nobody will pressure you. Understood?"

The woman nodded, and her shoulders relaxed visibly, but her moment of relaxation ended quickly as the doors swiftly opened, revealing the bustling command crew, and Silvoya was dragged into the heart of the Huerdaen Star Navy.

[The Cylon Collective]

"They're too close," Cavil sighed, rubbing his temples in annoyance. "We've been wasting time and they're already scouting our home system."

"We can still turn them around," Tigh grumbled, holding his hand in the data stream and seeing the dradis returns of a smaller, single ship and it's small swarm of tiny drone probes. Without knowing much about them, they couldn't tell if they'd been seen, or if they were paying more attention to the world that the Colony orbited, and from where the cylons drew their supplies.

"What, jump in on top of them and order them to turn around?" one of the Sharon's said sarcastically. "You don't think they might not appreciate that?"

"It looks like we don't have much choice," Ellen added, joining the debate. "If they do decide to try and gather supplies from the planet, they'll be jumping in nearly on top of the Colony, and we can't risk that..."

The others all nodded their assent. The hybrid was informed, and the engines started to hum. Moments later, they jumped...

... Only to reappear less then thirty kilometers off the intruding destroyer's bow.

Unsure how exactly to communicate with the strangers, so they simply blanketed the wireless freqs with their repeating message.

"Foreign vessel, turn back now... this system is sovereign territory, and will be defended if necessary."

To prove the point, the baseship unlimbered it's missile racks, and began launching Raiders into a holding pattern...

[Morningstar Coalition]

****************************************************************************************************
9013 Caeli Star System - Advance Recon Task Force "Ishida" - Assault-type Destroyer, MCDF "Essence of Time"
****************************************************************************************************

#Attention all personnel! Set condition Cee-Two throughout the ship! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill!# The Shipmind's voice rang throughout the destroyer as the Cylon vessel suddenly dropped into realspace less than a tenth of a percent of a light-second off the destroyer's position. Only milliseconds after the ship's appearance on the sensor net, and the Shipmind was issuing a call to general quarters, as well as lighting the Cylon vessel up with every sensor system available to the multiple Whisker-class sensor drones in the network. Seneschal apologized to Glass Singer, then subverted her control over maneuvering systems. Plumes of plasma exhaust swung the bow of the destroyer to face the new target, gun-ports concealing the four spinal-mount particle beams opening up even while the capacitors began emergency charging.

While the Shipmind was preparing everything for a counter attack to what it expected was imminent, it's own protocols dictated that only a Corporeal, the term Shipminds used for those with physical bodies, member of the crew could actually give the order to fire. Only if all Corporeal officers were incapacitated could a Shipmind issue fire orders on it's own. There may not be time for Seneschal to wait for Captain Nississ to reach the bridge, so the Shipmind located him and projected an Avatar in the corridor as the Ssslakai officer slithered towards the bridge from the officer's mess. #Captain! Seconds ago an unidentified contact entered our inner contact perimeter through the use of some kind of space-fold drive. There was no... One moment. Receiving high-power radio transmission. Relaying...#

"Foreign vessel, turn back now... this system is sovereign territory, and will be defended if necessary."

#Captain. The profile of the vessel matches those of known Cylon design. Requesting orders.# Seneschal's Gaian avatar actually looked worried, and that concerned Nississ enough that he suddenly stopped, tails twitching and quills rattling in agitation. What TRIAD knew about the Cylons was limited to a handful of encounters, and while those contacts had been with fairly low technologies, the ones of this universe could not be counted on to be as weak. His ship wasn't prepared for a fight, and it was possible that at this range the Cylon ship could destroy the Essence even before her barriers were deployed. On the other hand, he couldn't simply abandon the system without orders. The fleet was critically low on essential supplies, and they might not find another system with everything they needed for light-years. They needed time...

"Continue combat preparations. If they launch a single missile, open fire with whatever is ready. Begin emergency charge of our jump core and plot a jump to the Alderson node. We may need to withdraw and rendezvous with the fleet before taking these Cylons on. Open a radio channel to the Cylon ship and put me through."
Nississ waited until Senescha's avatar nodded, then continued, "Attention Cylon vessel! This is Captain Nississ of the Morningstar Coalition destroyer "Essence of Time". We did not intend to intrude on claimed space and were unaware of your presence here. We are not interested in conflict however you need to be aware of certain facts. Our fleet is critically low on supplies, namely fuel, water, and organic chemicals for food production. We had intended to re-supply in this system and be on our way. If required, we will compensate your polity for what we require, but we must re-supply here. Essence of Time standing by."

Seneschal nodded again to let the Captain know the channel was still open, but inactive. Nississ opened and closed his mandibles, clicking in thought. "Seneschal, get whatever combat drones we have prepared for launch. We're going to need something in space for close defense if they start launching missiles. Start launching craft the moment Wings become ready."


Over the next minute, assuming no attack was forthcoming from the Cylon ship, the Essence of Time would open launch bay doors and releasing multiple small attack drones. Only slightly smaller than a Raider, each was armed with a pair of particle beam cannon for offense. A total of forty-five craft would be launched over the course of three minutes. In that time, the hull of the destroyer would also be obscured by two dozen spatial anomalies. The gravitic-based Combat Barrier was a circular, two dimensional disc of warped spacetime, similar to the event horizon of a singularity, but without any accompanying mass or gravity field. In essence, the barrier was a small interception zone that could diffuse energy and destroy mass that came into contact with it's movable "surface". Each was only ten meters in diameter, so there were only enough Barriers to cover perhaps only one full facing of the hexagonal column that was the destroyer. A secondary layer of magnetic fields could partially diffuse energy weapons, while short-range plasma turrets handled physical masses that managed to bypass the Barriers. For offense, the destroyer sported four spinal-mount, neutron particle, pulse beam cannon at the bow. Three heavy gamma-ray laser turrets were set amidships on three facings, while eighteen medium particle beam turrets were spaced evenly across the hull.

The Assault-type was a true warship, and while she might not be a match for the Cylon vessel, she could still do considerable damage before either succumbing, or being forced to withdraw. Right now however her Captain was hoping it wouldn't come to that...

[Huerdae]

I.M.S. Sovereign, Shadowing Pirate Group "Arnold"

The destroyer had been following Group "Arnold" for well over a week now, keeping quietly out of sight and observing their tactics and assault plans. They moved about, clumping forward without any real tactical forethought. The ships were of varying designs, varying abilities, and varying strengths. Some specialist ships were particularly vulnerable, a few even being so vulnerable that they were tempting targets to the little Sovereign, but for the orders to hold fire and observe. Finally, after this long, they were able to locate what they needed. The Destroyer sat on the edge of a system as Arnold stopped to offload and resupply, using what appeared to be the remains of a fallen civilization as the skeleton of their organization. It was a common occurance in this sector, where a nation would rise and fall, leaving spaceports and other heavy equipment for the first to arrive, allowing simple pirates to make dangerous enemies. It was these that the Huerdaen fought most of all, and with an enemy so near, just outside the clear-zone, it made the captain nervous.

Of course, Senior Lieutenant Marn'Es wasn't about to sweat because of one planet just outside their zone. He was, however, quietly disturbed by the fact of where the planet lay...and whose territory it fell within. Quietly, he sat up long hours checking the work before sending the message back to command, requesting the relevant resources be allocated to eliminate the stronghold. However, even as he was sending it, a pirate force began to move again, this time nearly four times the size of Arnold. Reclassifying the group as "Billy", Sovereign moved for a closer look, only to realize that the ships were headed straight for the 'clean zone' that bordered Huerdaen space, an area where pirates and pirate vessels were automatic kill-on-sight orders.

It required the messages to be re-written, but the pirate post would go nowhere, and Billy was on the way out. Quickly, Sovereign was on Billy's tail, keeping tabs on the large group and feeding information back, as it started out at a surprising speed, despite the pair of modified freighters that seemed to act as command ships for the fleet. It was as if the fleet were headed for a very specific destination, somewhere it knew it could find a significant amount of gain. It was time to get their own forces into position.

I.M.S. Angel of Death, Ready to Deploy, Hive

The messages came through one after the other, first the location, then the description on ships in Billy. It was like reading the newspaper, and seeing it start bad and only get worse. A pirate assault into Huerdaen space was about to occur, and the Huerdaen had no intention of allowing the ships to have free reign of their systems. In minutes, deployment orders were given for the group as the whole of the battle fleet, over a hundred ships in all, readied to strike against the pirates they were tracking. Engines warmed, weapons readied for the kill, and crew made final checks. Slowly, the ships began to pull from the harbor like great turtles casting out into the sea, their dark hulls falling into formation moments before they Gated, starting on the trip to preserve the integrity of the Empire.

What surprised her, however, was the direct involvement of Solar. Within minutes of receiving the notices, Solar had notified Ju'Niic of her orders. Ignore the pirate base and eliminate the mobile elements. The proper authorities were being contacted to take care of the base, but should those attempts fail, they needed to be sure that Billy did not return bearing supplies for the base to make use of.