So Say We All (FT, CLOSED)

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22
Second Cylon War, Day 1

Spencer turned as he heard two combat boots clipping together in time to watch as a young woman in black combat clothing rendered a crisp salute, one which he returned promptly. Captain Amy Coleman, Colonial Marine Corps, commanded the Acheron’s tough-as-nails Marine Detachment and, despite her youth, exuded an aura of competence and professionalism. If she was off-put by the idea of having to plan an operation with less than thirty-minutes notice she didn’t show it; indeed from her expression and the glint in her eyes it was obvious she was looking forward to get some payback on the Cylons, after all the Marines had been kept out of this fight to a significant degree by the nature of the painfully short-lived conflict.

“Captain Coleman,” Spencer nodded in greeting. “You have an op plan I take it?”

“As good a one as I can come up with in ten minutes, Commander,” Coleman replied with a grin, “You like to play things fast and loose don’t you, Sir?”

“Only when I have to, Captain,” Spencer smiled. “Alright, lay it out for me.”

Coleman nodded and placed a map down on the plot table.

“Pallas doesn’t have what could even charitably be called a breathable atmosphere, so we’ll have to wear breathing gear until we get inside the main facility,” Coleman replied with a grimace, such devices were well known to be a pain to fight in. “We’ll land on the opposite vector to the enemy’s axis of approach and quickly move to reinforce the Marines guarding the facility whilst the civvies bug-out.”

Coleman paused.

“Once we’ve done that the defending force will fall back in good order and we’ll all get the hell out of there and back to the Acheron,” Coleman continued. “From insertion to extraction I anticipate no more than thirty minutes.”

“What sort of forces are you taking?” Spencer queried.

“Just a platoon, Sir,” Coleman replied.

“Just one?” Spencer frowned. “That’ll be cutting it pretty tight.”

“Can only spare one; we’ve already got one platoon over on Icarus, and I want to keep the other two aboard ship in case you get boarded whilst we’re away,” Coleman shrugged. “There’s two points of entry through the flight pods, you’ll want at least a platoon each to hold the causeways, besides I’m assuming the Pellas Detachment’s primality rifle platoons, I’ll be taking my weapons platoon.”

“I’d still feel comfortable if you were taking more than one platoon,” Spencer grumbled. “But I see your point… alright, how many of my Raptors will you be wanting?”

“As many as you can spare, Sir, the more the better,” Coleman replied bluntly. “You can use the shuttles to transfer over to Icarus.”

“And we don’t know how many survivors are at the Pellas base,” Spencer nodded. “Very well, take the lot.”

“Very good, Sir,” Coleman nodded. “I’ve got five minutes before we need to get going, I’ll run you through the particulars…”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody listened carefully but said nothing while the two talked. Then she spoke up. "Commander, I have a small marine compliment aboard my ship. I You want more Marines, you can have some of them. I still would like to retain a few for the sake of not gutting all the extra help damage control gets from them just in case... But it's better then nothing."

While she did that, part of her attention turned to something else, she 'reached' out slightly with that sense she'd learned over the years to find hiding spots she could transmit to. Given the lack of networks, she didn't sense much, she could faintly sense Audeamus, in the distance. She was just a tad bored and anyways, if something damaged her body badly enough to be considered dead, she wanted to know if she could computer jump her way back to her own ship. Given the crudeness of the tech around her, it would be a stretch.

Melody shook her head a little and covered her mouth with a hand as she yawned. She didn't think she was tired, but the programming was telling her she'd been up too long for a human. Not sure if she dare ask the shuttle crew if.thry had stimtabs to keep her awake because they'd have to be illegal (only med bay can hand them out) and if they actually gave her one, she'd have to bust them for it. No she'd suffer until she absolutely had to put herself down for a few hours to look human.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22
Second Cylon War, Day 1

Spencer glanced across at Captain Insaro as she made her offer. He hoped for her sake that she was acting the way that her government would want, otherwise she was in for a hell of a lot of trouble when she made it back home, given how much help she was offering him. Never the less he appreciated it; right now when the Colonies were most at risk to have someone from outside offering to help was a literal gods-send.

“Captain?” Spencer queried, glancing across at Coleman.

“I’ll never so no to extra troops, Commander, as long as they can follow orders and now how to fight,” Coleman grinned as she looked across at Insaro properly for the first time. “Ma’am, if you could have your Marines muster on our port flight pod as soon as possible, we need to get underway quickly if we’re to effect this extraction quickly.”

Spencer nodded his agreement. He knew that this operation was about more than just extracting the Pallas Research Base’s personnel and some of their equipment; it was about dealing a blow to the Cylons. Right now the Cylons were occupying the Twelve Colonies, their progress in that endeavour remained to be seen but it was what they were up to, but a defeat like the one that Spencer and Coleman hoped to inflict upon them would spread like wildfire across the Colonies. Especially if Spencer and his group helped them along, and it was important to make clear to the occupied population, who were doubtless about to endure a horrific occupation, that not only was there still hope out there but that the Colonial Fleet was still there and still fighting and that, one day, they would once again be free.

“Very well, let’s get the ball rolling then,” Spencer said simply.

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

"Alright you screw ups, get you asses in gear, we're going on a hunt today!" First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins yelled at people as they ran into the shuttle. The small ship was only home to a platoon of 40 marines, the captain had spared half for this little trip, so he had 20. Colonel Mark wasn't coming along, so he was send Fabio in his place.

And Fabio was an a AI as well. Marines was a tough place to be an AI, as so much physical contact while exercising and the chances of injury made it more likely to be revealed. But he liked it here, he use to be an AI called Slinger, who had served a gun range on an Army base. He was pretty much a crack shot, (though had code to prevent perfection that would tip someone off.

"Captain called and said we're saving some people from this Colonial's colony." He explained as he stepped into the shuttle, this one a drab matte gray, and it took off for the battlestar. "You're going to be following my orders, I'm taking them from their people. This isn't your average enemy, they appear to be AI of sorts."

A few of the Marines made sounds of anger.

"I'm sure we'll get some sorta brief from the man in charge. But for now let me tell you if any of you die, I will find you in the afterlife and slap you back to life." Jenkins snapped and the shuttle burst out laughing, easing the tension.

---

Once the shuttle landed in the port flight pod, the Laudian marines exited the shuttle. One in particular, dark skin, darker hair, with a helmet under an arm, rifle secured to his persons, looked around for all of a few seconds before he jogged over to Coleman, obviously identifying the man by how the activities centered around him.

"Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins, Laudian Marines Force, I was told to report here to Captain Coleman."

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Captain Amy Coleman, CMC
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22
Second Cylon War, Day 1

Captain Coleman stood at the centre of a whirlwind of activity as her weapons platoon worked closely with the deck gang to load their men equipment aboard an array of Raptors lined up ready for them. It would take six Raptors to carry all forty-four men and women that made up the platoon, and they would be accompanied by the rest of the Acheron’s complement to ensure that they could evacuate as many people as were required. Given that they were, by necessity, going in without Viper support (they weren’t FTL capable), the Raptors themselves were being armed to give them a fighting chance at shooting their way out of a problem if the need arose, as well as to support their troops on the ground. Truth be told she knew that this entire little mission of theirs was, well not ill-advised but certainly on-the-cuff, to say the least, with all of the difficulties that entailed. She had every faith that her Marines were up for the challenge, at least their objective was simple enough; she knew that no plan survived first contact with the enemy, but at least if their job was simple enough it would be far easier to get the job done regardless of what happened.

Their main advantage was that they at least had an idea of what they were about to fly into. Coleman had taken as much time as she could to thoroughly debrief the two Colonial pilots that had brought the news to them, and as such she had a good idea on the size and disposition of the Cylon forces, as well as their capabilities. This was essential to getting this mission conducted in a safe manner and with as few casualties as possible; good intelligence was crucial to a positive outcome after all

“Looks like we’ve got the Laudian Marines on deck, Captain,” First Sergeant Lee Kincaid commented, gesturing to the newly arrived shuttle. “Let’s hope they can keep up with the Colonial Marines.”

Coleman grinned but turned in time to nod her greeting to the Laudian Lieutenant.

“That would be me,” Coleman said simply. “Gather your Marines around.”

Coleman waited until the Laudian Marines had joined the wide circle of Colonial Marines around the field diagram she had made on the deck of the hanger.

“Alright people, we’ve got a simple enough job; this is the Pellas Research Base, we believe there to be approximately one hundred civilians trapped inside with a heavy Cylon presence outside, currently being repelled by the remnants of the base’s marine detachment,” Coleman explained, indicating to the line of defensive positions around the most easily accessed part of the base, the ‘front’ if you will. “Our job is to deploy and reinforce the Marines on the ground long enough for the civvies to be evacuated, we’ll then withdraw in good order and get the hell out of there and back to the ship; insert to extract should be no more than thirty mikes.”

Coleman paused.

“We shall deploy one raptor at a time to this landing pad on the rear of the base, from there we’ll head through the facility and reinforce the defensive lines out front, holding our positions as the Raptors take groups of civvies to safety,” Coleman continued gesturing to the landing pad. “We’ll have some Raptors overhead to provide covering fire, and we’ve rearmed that Scimitar that got this entire thing rolling, but for the most part it’s going to be good old-fashioned fighting Marines, so I hope you’ve all got the appetite.”

Coleman paused again.

“According to our Scimitar pilots the modern model of Cylon Centurion is an imposing sight to say the least, they are also reported to be heavily armed and very well armoured, so we’re going to be fighting the toughest foe you can imagine,” Coleman said bluntly; there was no point in sugar coating this. “Initial reports indicated that lighter-calibre weapons such as carbines and pistols were totally ineffective against Centurion armour, so we’re going to have to use high-calibre AP rifles and explosive rounds on our pistols if we need them.”

Coleman glanced around at her assault group.

“Any questions?”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

This sounded like one hell of a spot to be in. Surrounded by enemies you could only use a certain type of ammo on, with civilians to protect, that was a nightmare. Not to mentiont he fact that the world they were going to, Pallas, didn't have a breathable atmosphere. That meant breathing gear, and having to lug it around and having to worry about possible compromises to said equipment. He wouldn't have to worry, though Fabio wished he could forgo carrying it, but in order to appear human, he had to use up functional equipment like the rest of the meat bags that were humans.

No offense to them, most of the humans he worked with were fucking awesome to work with. These ones seemed fairly cool too. After all the captain seemed to like them, and was daring enough to stay on their own ship while she knew that if she was injured here she'd be revealed the second she got to sick bay or did one of the many things AIs couldn't quite code out of themselves. Like not actually sleeping (they could fake it, but they never really slept, even if the android body was programmed to sleep) or doing math too mast, being too perfect, things like that. But if Melody wasn't worried, then he wasn't either. Anyways, if something shot to kill him, he was probably dead anyways, so when they dragged the body back to find it an android they wold be relieved he was gone.

"You got none from us." Fabio said for his marines, he knew most of them well enough that if they'd had a question, they would of piped up by now. "We're all ready to go."

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Captain Amy Coleman, CMC
Pallas Research Base, Helios Beta, Cyrannus Star System
Second Cylon War, Day 1

“Then let’s not waste any more time, the longer we wait the longer our fellow Marines are fighting for their lives,” Coleman said simply looking around at her group. “Marines, man your transports! And may the Lords of Kobol watch over you all.”

The Colonial Marines let out a battle cry before hurrying away to the waiting Raptors. As soon as they were all aboard and secured the Raptors began the process of being moved up to the flight deck by the craft elevators and getting into space. It took a good fifteen minutes to get all twenty-four Raptors into space but they quickly formed dup and on Coleman’s word they executed their jump. One minute they were floating serenely above the Battlestar Acheron, the next they were in a close combat orbit of Pallas, and as one every inhabitant of a Raptor waited anxiously to see if there would be any hostile craft on DRADIS. After a few moments it became obvious that the reports were accurate, that the Cylons had landed troops and then moved on to a more important target. This made sense given the scattered reports they were receiving that, despite many of the Planetary Defence Force’s vehicles and advanced equipment also likely falling victim to Cylon hacking, the Colonial troops on the ground were putting up one hell of a fight, as were the Colonial Reserve and Sovereign Units that had been called up to join the fight.

Without the Fleet it would all be in vain, as the Cylons could just bring in more and more troops, but it would make the Cylons pay for every inch of soil on every one of the Colonies and, more importantly, it would weaken them for when the Colonies could be liberated and maybe, just maybe, there would be some hold-outs.

As the Raptors angled downwards towards the dwarf planet Coleman couldn't help but feel an odd feeling she couldn’t quite explain; here they were, back in the Cyrannus System itself, and yet there wasn’t a damned thing they could do other than their assigned mission. Even if they had brought the Acheron, if the intel was correct the only working Battlestar (aside from Galactica), she would simply be swarmed by Cylon base ships and overwhelmed. In a way Coleman was glad that they couldn’t risk using active DRADIS, for fear of being detected, she almost didn’t want to know how many Cylon base ships had violated the Colonial system, it would just seem like too high a mountain to climb when the time came.

But she couldn't focus on that too much right now, she had a job to do. Thumbing the push-to-talk button on her wireless she spoke over the group-net.


“Scimitar 194, this is Hell Dog Six, commence your CAS run against the Cylon positions to take some heat off the Marines on the ground whilst we insert,” Coleman ordered firmly, watching as the Scimitar peeled off from the group. “All Hell Dog call signs, this is Hell Dog Six; deploy as per Op Plan and reinforce friendly positions, break, Boffin Six, Boffin Six, this is Hell Dog Six, do you copy?”

There was a few moments of silence on the wireless before a weary voice responded.

“Hell Dog Six, this is Boffin Six, reading you five-by-five, by the gods its good to hear your voice.”

“Boffin Six, Hell Dog Six, we’re deploying troops to the rear of the base to reinforce your defensive positions; start getting your civilians ready for extract,” Coleman grinned as they rocketed towards the base. “Keep your heads down, got that Scimitar of yours on a CAS run.”

Sure enough a few moments later, as the Raptors were swooping in for their landings, the entire area was lit up as the Scimitar dropped her entire load of cluster bombs on the Cylon lines, causing enough carnage and destruction to take some of the heat off the Marines holding the line. Gripping her rifle tightly Coleman jumped down from the Raptor and led her Marines into the facility. As the bulk of the weapons platoon headed off to reinforce the line, under the command of their platoon leader, Coleman made her way to the command centre in order to get the evacuation started. Once she had spoken briefly with the head scientist she quickly made her way back down to the defensive line, pulling the hated breathing apparatus on as she did so, and stepped out into a hailstorm of fire. Her Marines had successfully deployed and, with the machine gun section putting down some pretty heavy fire they were making headway, but the Centurions, which cared little for suppressive fire against them, were still returning fire even as their fellows were cut down. And the fire the Cylons were putting down was damned accurate; although that was perhaps hardly surprising, and many of the defending Marines were pinned down, and it was obvious there had been casualties.

“Captain Coleman!”

Coleman turned as a voice called out her name and watched as a Colonial Marine ran up to her, only once he was close enough did she see that he was wearing the rank insignia of a Captain

“Captain Fernandez, I presume?” Coleman smiled, offering a hand.

“That’s me,” Fernandez replied, shaking her hand firmly. “It’s good to see you guys here.”

“It’s good to be here, Captain,” Coleman grinned. “What’s the situation?”

“We’ve got a major Centurion force throwing itself against us, although that Scimitar run did great things for the odds against us we’ve still got an uphill fight there,” Fernandez replied grimly. “Those MGs of yours blunted the last Cylon push, and once we get your mortar team set up we should be able to hold them off long enough to evacuate; but there’s no way we can hold this position longer.”

“Good thing we don’t have to then,” Coleman said simply. “We brought some high-calibre rifles, have they been handed out yet?”

“Yes, and a damned good thing too; the carbines just bounced off the Centurion’s armour like they were nothing,” Fernandez grimaced as they both ducked their head as a Cylon rocket struck the base above their heads. “We took heavy casualties before you arrived.”

“I know,” Coleman said quietly. “But let’s just make sure we don’t lose anymore.”

“So say we all,” Fernandez agreed with feeling. “Alright then, I’ll defer to your command, let’s get this job done.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Pallas
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

Fabio and his Marines wasted no time setting up shop with the Colonials to help fight off the enemy. He looked over the enemy for a few moments... They were shiny metal... Toasters? It was the best description he could come up with. He had to admit they looked rediculous. Honestly he didn't like the idea of crazy AI at all. He wouldn't have to be here if it weren't for a single crazy one back home.

Then again,an AI hiding in a realistic human android body was a bit rediculous too.

He took aim and fired watching with satisfaction as his plasma dug into the armor and melted it like ice. Soon his own Marines' fire was pouring into the enemy if the shots didn't melt something important, it at least softened it for the Colonials around him.

He took aim and watched with vicious satisfaction as he got one right in the 'face' and it fell down dead.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Captain Amy Coleman, CMC
Pallas Research Base, Helios Beta, Cyrannus Star System
Second Cylon War, Day 1

“They’re making a push, Captain!”

Coleman turned her attention from the Cylon Centurion that she had just gunned down, the situation was such that she couldn’t take the step back a Marine Officer was supposed to do in order to direct the battle rather than actively fighting it, and glanced over to where she knew her Company First Sergeant, Jack Williams, was positioned as his voice came through her headset. Sure enough as she looked up and took in the entire battlefield, rather than just the narrow tunnel vision she had got whilst gunning down Centurions, she could see that a group of Centurions were indeed making a push on the left flank using heavy supporting fire and mortar rounds to keep her Marine’s heads down to cross the open ground and close to a range where Coleman knew from Captain Fernandez’s report that they would be utterly deadly; after all apparently when not used as a gun their long fingers could make for some vicious melee weapons. She had seen the bodies herself, literally ripped to pieces, armour or no armour, it wasn’t a pretty sight to say the least. This was an unfortunate development; clearly the Cylons had worked out what her mission here was up to and were determined to stop it.

Coleman grimaced as she thumbed the push-to-talk button on her wireless.

“Scimitar 194, this is Hell Dog Six, priority fire mission,” Coleman said grimly. “Centurion formation, advancing in the open, I need them delaying.”

“Roger that Hell Dog Six, rolling in.”

“All Hell Dog and Boffin callsigns, this is Hell Dog Six, when that Scimitar starts to lay down covering fire I want everyone to withdraw inside the base,” Coleman ordered. “We’ll fight a delaying action as we withdraw to the Raptors for extraction.”

A flurry of acknowledgements responded and a few moments later as the Scimitar let rip with hits powerful gun the Marines began to perform a combat peel back towards the base; the flanks withdrawing first followed by the centre. It was a close run thing as the Centurions were relentless in their attempts to push through, but they got the job done and began to set up defensive positions inside the base to receive the Cylons; fortunately they would be able to steadily give up ground by using a similar technique as their extraction site was a the rear of the base anyway; and more importantly they were now unable to be hit by Cylon mortars. Of course the same meant that the Mortar sections weapons were useless, so they picked up their rifles and fell back on the old Colonial Marine mantra; every Marine a Rifleman, and added their weight of fire as they steadily withdraw deeper and deeper into the base.

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Pallas
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

As they drew back Fabio cursed under his breath. God what he wouldn't give to just flatten the base and all the Cylons around it. Of course this wasn't exactly an option since they were here and this wasn't their rescue. Of course he'd want the humans out first, but never the less it would of made this a hell of a lot easier if the civies had been evacuated quicker and they could of just rolled over them.

What he wouldn't give to have a troop transport with him, not only would he be a relatively insignificant cog in the works, but he was AWP Certified, and that would of been very useful to drop into right now. He shot down another one, watch it slump over to the ground as he covered his troops retreat. He didn't even flinch when he heard a bullet ricochet off his armor. Lucky. Nothing new in the ways of the universe.

He helped a Colonial up to his feet from where he had tripped, thankfully already well behind cover, looked to be one that belonged to the base. He imagined they were worn from the fighting with inadequate weapons and making sure the Cylons didn't get through. He could admire that. As stupid as humans could be, they were good about somethings.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Captain Amy Coleman, CMC
Pallas Research Base, Helios Beta, Cyrannus Star System
Second Cylon War, Day 1

The fight through the research base was brutal; the Cylons utterly brutal as the Colonial Marines did their best to fight a holding action to give the scientists and other civilian staff time to escape. What Commander Spencer had said to Captain Insaro was very much in evidence’ the Cylons didn’t just want to kill the Colonials, they wanted to rip them to shreds, to inflict the all-too-human desire to inflict pain and revenge. The Pallas Detachment suffered even more losses, and Coleman’s platoon lost more men in the fighting withdrawal than it had in the holding of the line, most cut down by Centurions who used their deadly hands rather than their weapons; more than prepared to suffer losses if it meant getting up close and personal. And the Cylons certainly had the numbers to sustain such losses if needs be. Never the less the Colonial Marines did their duty and they held the enemy back, every minute they held the enemy back was long enough for another Raptor to come in and take out another full load of survivors before jumping out almost immediately; there was no holding around and waiting for the rest as at every second there was a possibility of a unpleasant surprise in the form of a Centurion baseship or a wing of Raiders.

By the time the rearguard reached the landing platform at the rear of the base the last two groups were waiting for extraction, after that it would be a case of getting the Marines themselves safely extracted, but they could do that a whole lot quicker. Indeed it was not long before the last of the civilians were extracted and the Raptors continued to swoop in to extract the first of the Marine squads. Coleman was one of the last Colonial Marines on the defensive line which had withdrawn to the narrowest point and were laying down a lot of fire on the Cylons to keep them back, whilst the Scimitar overhead continued to provide valuable close air support in the form of repeated gun runs that undoubtedly kept the enemy at arms reach. Although it was in many cases a Marine Officer’s responsibility to step back it was also tradition that they get stuck in when the need arose, and a fierce fight like this was clearly one of those times.

Coleman was loading one of her last magazines when Captain Fernandez, who had likewise insisted on staying in the last of the rearguard, scrambled up beside her.

“Another glorious chapter in the annals of our beloved corps, Captain,” Fernandez grinned. “But this is the last ride, we should get out of here.”

“Roger that!” Coleman agreed. “Let’s move it!”

Fernandez nodded and stood to begin heading towards the Raptor, and then the next second Coleman was blinking in surprise as the Marine Captain suddenly fell to the ground minus a head, and hot, steaming blood splattered all across her face and uniform. For a moment she just knelt there utterly shocked by what had just happened, then she felt a firm hand on her equipment webbing and a powerful arm pulling her up and towards the Raptor. It was only once she was scrambling into the Raptor that she realised that the arm in question belonged to a young PFC, who likely had not seen combat before, like all of them really. She didn’t say anything, there wasn’t much that could be said, but she nodded her appreciation to the young marine who nodded in return.

“Got enemy fighters incoming, Captain!” The Pilot called urgently from the cockpit as the Raptor screamed skywards.

Coleman overcame the last of her lingering shock and pushed herself forward to stand between the two pilots as the Raptor bucked wildly to avoid incoming enemy fire and sure enough a pair of Raiders sped past, almost immediately turning to come back around at the Raptor. Then, with confirmation that the last of the Raptors, and their allies, were safely out of the battle zone, the pilot slammed his fist into the jump controls and in the blink of an eye (and a flash of light) the atmosphere of Pellas disappeared.

And was replaced by the comforting sight of the Battlestar Acheron hanging almost serenely in deep space. The crippled hulk of the Battlestar Icarus still hung in the background, but the Battlestar and her two Gunstars were now joined by two additional ships; both just over eleven hundred meters in length.

“Are those Combatstars?” Coleman frowned as she strained her eyes to get a better look.

“Looks like it, Sir,” The Pilot commented.

Combatstars, sometimes known as Baby Battlestars, were a smaller carriers, capable of operating as part of the Colonial Fleet’s main battle like, but differentiated from their larger brethren by having less overall endurance, lacking extensive fuel, ammunition and provisions instalment of a full battlestar, but still capable of longer-range independent operations than a Gunstar (which committed most of their internal space to gun emplacements. As such the Combastars, originally conceived as a 'cheaper' alternative to a full Battlestar, Combatstars have seen their place evolve as both a complement escort to the larger vessels and as a dedicated patrol vessel along the rim of Colonial territory opposite of Cylon space . Furthermore, Combatstars are often used as carrier qualification training vessels for nugget Viper, Raptor and shuttle pilots.

“IFF reading them as Combatstar Proteus and Combatstar Pontus,” The Pilot added.

“Damned good to see more survivors,” Coleman grinned.

“Hell yes, Sir,” The Pilot grinned, then cocked his head as if listening. “Acheron-Actual on the horn for you.”


Coleman nodded and switched her headset to the right channel.

“This is Hell Dog Six, go ahead actual.” Coleman said simply.

“Hell Dog Six, this is Actual,” Commander Spencer’s voice replied. “I take it from the number of Raptors that have jumped back that your mission was a success.”

Coleman winced.

“Successful, Sir, but it cost us,” Coleman replied bitterly.

There was a moments of silence before the Commander replied.

“Roger that Hell Dog,” Spencer said softly. “Get back aboard as soon as you can, we’ve got some new friends I want you to meet…”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Pallas
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

Once they managed to get all the civilians out (and thank god they did get them all out,) He was quick to climb aboard one of the raptors and they were gone. He didn't like that people had gotten killed and even less that they couldn't honor the bodies like they deserved. They deserved better then being dumped in a ditch somewhere and left to rot. Made him queasy just thinking about it. He knew he lost one in the final fighting to get the last group out, he knew others had to be injured.

"Excuse me Lieutenant."

He turned to his right to look at one of his soldiers, a Corporal, "What is it?"

"Think you might've been hit on a fabric at some point."

Fabio felt his thoughts stop for a moment, how did he not notice damage? He looked down at his right arm and sure enough at a place where the fabric was torn and showed drying red blood beneath it. He hadn't turned off his pain and damage sensors, or was his programming still trying to replicate the adrenaline high? He reached up to touch it and winced slightly. Okay that registered. But it wasn't bad enough to be considered serious, he'd live til they got back to Audeamus. He had to. They were the only ones that could service him.

He shook his head. "Its fine, small nic, nothing serious. Thanks for noticing."

"You're welcome Sir. Can't have my Lieutenants dying left and right on me." The corporal said. "Just make sure medbay takes out the bullet, or else it'll rattle every time I punch you to the gym floor."

"I kind of like sound effects." fabio replied and got a faint humored smile. Even with the horror they just witnessed, he was glad that they had held up and fought with honor. Not many people could do that.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Captain Amy Coleman, CMC
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 1

Coleman stepped down onto the flight deck of the Acheron and looked around as medics swarmed them group of civilians and marines, picking out the injured and taking them aside to an area that had been set up for triage. One tried to steer Coleman herself towards the triage area, given how much blood there was on her uniform and skin, but she had been able to get across the message that it wasn’t her blood and the young man relented. She watched with a numb sense of horror as she realised how many Marines had been deemed injured enough to need medical care quickly; everyone had some form of injury even if it was just bumps or bruises, but she knew that on balance she and her Marines had come out of the entire affair well enough. Comparatively speaking anyway, overall between her own unit and the Pallas Detachment, the Colonial Marines had lost thirty-six men and women in the exchange; sure they had taken a great deal of Centurions down with them but that was still a massive amount of casualties when defending a fixed position; but she supposed the ought to be glad not only had they been able to sae the civilians but to get as many of her Marines out of there as possible.

“Captain Coleman!”

Coleman glanced up as she heard a strong male voice snap her name across the deck, finding that it belonged to Commander Spencer; a quick glance at his face told her that he wasn’t displeased at her, merely wanting to get her attention on a busy flight deck. Despite her weariness; the combat high and adrenaline was rapidly leaving her body, she snapped to attention and rendered a crisp salute.

“Commander Spencer, Sir,” She nodded. “Mission accomplished.”

“So I can see, Captain, good work,” Spencer nodded. “Casualties?”

“Thirty-six dead between the two detachments, twice that many injured in some way, eighteen seriously,” Coleman replied bitterly as she looked down at her combat boot, stained with drying blood. “These new Centurions are a right bitch to take down, Sir, inside a ship…”

“They’d be formidable,” Spencer agreed. “However we must assume it will be a tactic they employ, so we’ll need to prepare for it.”

“Agreed, unfortunately,” Coleman sighed. “I see you’ve had some success.”

“Indeed we have; we took over a thousand survivors off the Icarus, as well as a number of other supplies we were running low on,” Spencer replied with a nod. “Those two Combatstars were a nice surprise; they just came out of nowhere responding to the same EWO.”

“That’s something at least… especially the survivors,” Coleman commented. “Even so… a thousand, out of three thousand, that’s…”

“Sixty-six percent casualties,” Spencer nodded sadly. “We were lucky to get that many, the Cylons did a right number on that ship.”

“I guess we have to take what we can, and give the Cylons as little back in return,” Coleman sighed. “Where do we go from here?”

“We move on to the next rally point, and hope we have as good luck, if not more, than we did here,” Spencer said simply. “Get your Marines squared away, and yourself cleaned up, then report for a debriefing.”

“Aye, Sir,” Coleman nodded.

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro
First Lieutenant Fabio Jenkins

Fabio had been able to, barely, keep away the medics from his own detachment. Other then the one who had spotted it, he was able to keep it cover and ignore the sharp pain. He saw Melody walk over to join him.

"How many did you lose?" She asked.

"Two, three are seriously injured," He motioned over to his own marines who were getting ready to fly back over to Audeamus. "Well, technically four but..." He tapped his arm and she looked down, noticing the injury. Had he been human, that arm would of been a loss cause considering where it hit. But as an android body, it didn't matter other then getting the bullet, if there was one, out. Not to mention patching and repairing the internals

"You need to get back to the ship. I can't have you walking around like this." She said with a glance over at the Acheron's medic working on those injured. "Now get."

"Yes Ma'am." He said before turning to walk to a Laudian shuttle waiting for him. She sighed and shook her head. Too dangerous for him to be here.

She joined Spencer again. "Sorry about wandering but I needed to bend my marine's ear. My Lieutenant was injured and needs to be send back to Audeamus for proper treatment." She said. "If we need him, I can send for him, but I'd rather not have to find out the hard way if we aren't actually compatible humans."

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 1

“That sounds like the best idea,” Commander Spencer replied with a nod.

Looking around at the Colonial Marines and the civilians that were arrayed around he noted glumly that the vast majority of them all had some form of injury, many were cuts and bruises that were to be expected from a crisis situation but many more were injuries of some form inflicted by the Cylons. Whether it was a bullet, shrapnel or, for a lucky few who had managed to get that close and survive; close quarter injuries from trying to go toe-to-toe with a Cylon Centurion, although given that they were to a man missing an appendage he doubted they felt lucky right now. It was obvious that for all the Colonial Fleet clearly had the advantage in a space engagement, when the Cylons weren’t shutting down their ships anyway, the Cylons certainly had the upper hand when it came to ground fighting, especially if there wasn’t Colonial air support available. Of course from what Captain Coleman had said there were many constants from the First Cylon War; the Centurions were predictable in many ways for example, but that weaknesses was easily overcome by their firepower, their toughness and their unrelenting advance.

Glancing down at the pistol on his belt he suspected that regular rounds would be next to useless, after all the lower calibre carbines used by the Marines at the Research Base had been next to useless, with only the heavier full-length rifles of the Acheron’s Marines doing any real good. Fortunately all Colonial sidearms came with a launcher for explosive rounds underneath, which the Marines reported were effective, but unless they could develop an even more effective armour-piercing rounds they simply weren’t going to be able to get through the Centurions thick armour unless they hit a weak point which, at any real range, required better marksmanship than most would be able to attain.

“From what Captain Coleman said we were lucky to get as many of our people out of there as we did, the Cylon Centurions sound very effective in ground combat, even more than the last war,” Spencer sighed heavily. “I had hoped that there would be some successes planetside on the Colonies, but if they were able to cripple our ground forces as they apparently have our Fleet… facing off against the Centurions without armour or air support…”

Spencer sighed.

“Our Planetary Defence Forces will have put a hell of a fight, man-to-man, but I suspect they’ll be overrun quickly enough, Cylon control of the Colonies seems unavoidable now,” Spencer shook his head. “Alright, well we’ve tarried here too long now, we need to start moving on to our next rally point; we’ve done reasonably well here, let’s see what we find at the next one, what I wouldn’t give for another operational battlestar!”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"Hopefully we'll find more ships Commander. If the ones we found survived, then there has to be more." Melody said with confidence she hope was warranted. Everything she learned just kept painting a worse light on the Cylons, and she did not envy the task ahead of the Colonials. It would be a hard fight, but they'd already won a couple battles, found some ships and survivors. They were damned lucky that the Cylons coverage wasn't complete, that they'd missed a couple battlestars and other managed to deactivate that network that had fucked them over. Surely there were more, other smaller ships, pockets of troops to form resistances, somewhere a leader who would step to the plate when needed.

She had to cover another yawn, damn human programming! She half wished she could shut it off and ignore it. The other half would be glad for a break from reality. Even if she didn't really 'sleep.' "Lets see what else we can find, hopefully I won't keel over on you in the mean time." She joked slightly, not trying to force the humor but even in such a dark time there had to be some little light patches.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 1

“If the rest of the Fleet Rally Points are in as good shape as this one then we should do fairly well; hopefully some more of the battlestars will have been able to jump out here in better condition,” Commander Spencer commented. “Even one more battlestar would do wonders, but I’ll settle for rescuing crews that managed to jump their crippled ships out of combat; saving lives is today’s priority.”

Spencer sighed and shook his head as they made their way from the flight deck, glancing wryly across at her.

“You can return to your ship if you’re feeling tired, Captain, not that I don’t enjoy your company but I wouldn’t want you to work yourself to exhaustion; gods knows there’s enough of that right now,” Spencer added. “Or, if you’d prefer, we can probably find you a bunk aboard the Acheron; it won’t be much, this is a warship after all, but I’m sure we could find somewhere appropriate for your rank.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"I'm military Commander, I'm use to sleeping anywhere they tell me to. Can't say my room is terribly fancy back aboard my ship. Fit for a captain? Yes, but with a ship that small you can't waste space." Melody replied. "I just want to be here, rather then having to waste time shuttling back and forth. I'm here to help and my XO can run my ship well enough without me hovering. I'm more useful to you here Commander." She looked over at the Commander and noted he had to be getting as tired as she was right now, stress and action wore a human down fast, hopefully he wouldn't fall out or start using drugs to stay awake.

Though she couldn't help feel bad for the humans who would have to deal with things like 'nightmares', which were apparently common after traumatic events. Such a shame they couldn't just 'power down' for a few hours. She mentally pushed aside those thoughts.Sometimes thinking like an AI seemed heartless, after all humans couldn't help being organic and all the negatives that come with being such a being.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 1

“Very well, Captain, like I said I’ll do my best to find somewhere appropriate for your rank, but if not you’ll have to go into a duty locker with some of the other officers, so I hope you don’t mind sharing with a dozen or so men and women,” Commander Spencer replied with a slight smile as they made their way from the flight pod. “Very few people aboard a Battlestar get their own cabins, only the CO and the XO are automatically entitled to one, even some of our senior officers don’t; our CAG bunks down with his pilots.”

The Colonial Fleet had long ago sacrificed personal space and personal modesty in the pursuit of mass savings to ensure that they could cram as much armament and armour onto the hull as was physically possible. A dozen-man duty locker saved massive amounts of space over the same number of individual cabins. Appropriate separation of rank was maintained by ensuring that each duty locker was either officer-only or enlisted-only, there was no cross-rank accommodation aboard a Battlestar, or indeed anywhere else in the Colonial Defence Forces, and there were strict regulations against fraternization. A lot of things could be allowed to pass on a battlestar, between personnel of the same rank, but anything that violated that officer-enlisted boundary was a crash-and-burn affair in almost every occurrence, it simply wasn’t worth it in the vast majority of cases.

“We’ll make the jump to the next rally point, then as long as there are no cylons waiting for us there I intend to start rotating our duty watches through; let a fresh bunch of hands handle any recoveries,” Commander Spencer added. “If all goes to plan those of us getting our heads down will wake to some good news; gods know we need it after the day we’ve had.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"It's fine Commander." Melody assured him, there were worse things and anyways it didn't really matter, she was going to 'sleep' no matter what. It was only for at least an hour, that's all she really needed to reset the 'sleep cycle' and she could pretend to sleep the rest of the time. She could amuse herself by talking to the other AIs for the rest of time she needed to 'sleep'. Check up on the injured AI, see how the ship was fairing, etc. "I'm not going to ask for 5 star room service, I just don't think you want to scrape me off the deck when I faint from exhaustion... nor anyone else for that matter."

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 2

It was a quiet night, in the end. An absence of Cylon attacks had allowed the Colonials to stand down from Condition One and get some proper rest; after all they had been at action stations for hours on end and everyone was exhausted. As much as it was difficult to come to terms with the fact that, even as they rested, the Cylons were occupying the Colonies the simple fact was that they had to rest if they were going to be able to continue the fight going forwards. The even more unpleasant reality was that they were going to have to accept Cylon occupation of the Colonies for the foreseeable future; one Battlestar and a handful of smaller vessels was simply not enough take on the entire Cylon Fleet; which meant that they would have to play the long game. Commander Spencer had insisted that Colonel Constanza take the first watch off, despite her protests, before taking six hours off himself. By the time both shifts had rotated through their rest cycles the war had entered its second day; and things had not exactly got better.

Throughout the night they had jumped to two more Fleet Rally Points, picking up a badly damaged, but still operational, Gunstar at the first and utter disappointment at the second when they had, for a moment, believed they had found not one but two more battlestars fully operationally. Unfortunately whilst the ships were still squawking their IFF transponder the ships were far too badly damaged to be any use to anyone. The ships had been Valkyrie-Class Battlestars; the most modern ships in the Colonial Fleet; smaller than the Acheron but well armed and boasting advanced technology to make up for the size difference. Unfortunately it was that advanced technology that had likely proven their downfall; for reports from the survivors indicated that the ships had been shut down by the Cylons just before contacting the enemy, and gods alone knew how they had managed to escape. Unfortunately it was likely that ships like these, ideal for a peacetime fleet and supposedly immune to Cylon hacking, that had helped bring about the downfall of the Colonial Fleet; for the Valkyrie-Class made up the bulk the Colonial Fleet and it was highly likely that all the ships, with their advanced networks, had been shut down by the enemy in very short order.

The mood in the CIC was very muted when Captain Insaro was escorted back to the CIC by a Colonial Marine. Commander Spencer was stood at the DRADIS table, looking up glumly at the two markers that identified the two Battlestars, and watched as they blinked out as the salvage teams deactivated them prior to scuttling the ships. In the end their visitor had been accommodated in the cabin that was set aside for visiting Flag Officers, so on par with Commander Spencer’s own accommodation. Stood beside Spencer was Commander Maynard; former Commander of the Battlestar Icarus, who had survived even if his own ship had not been so luck.

“Good Morning Captain; just in time, we’re about to jump again,” Spencer said by means of welcome as he noted Insaro’s arrival in the CIC. “We’ve got one more rally point on our list, then we’re going to go ahead and jump to Ragnar Anchorage to try and link up with the Battlestar Galactica.”

“All salvage teams back aboard, Commander,” Colonel Constanza reported glumly. “Flight pods retracted and ready for jump.”

“Start the clock,” Spencer ordered.

“Jumping in thirty seconds.”

“This is Commander Maynard, by the way, Captain, formerly of the Battlestar Icarus,” Spencer said as he noted Commander Maynard’s confused glanced. “Commander, this is Captain Insaro of the Maxis Laudian Naval ship Audeamus.”

“I was going to ask you about that, Spence,” Maynard frowned. “They’re from outside the Colonies?”

“Indeed, but we can talk about that later when we’re not about to jump,” Spencer grinned.

“JUMP!”

A few moments later the wave of nausea disappeared and the Acheron and her group completed their jump and were immediately reaching out with DRADIS to see what they had just jumped into.

“DRADIS contact!” Major Hastings snapped. “One large contact… rated possible Cylon baseship.”

“Frak,” Spencer scowled. “Stand by to engage, all hands brace for combat action.”

“She’s launching Raiders,” Major Hastings reported urgently.

“Launch Vipers,” Spencer ordered crisply. “All batteries, enemy suppression b-“

“Sir!” Petty Officer Dunn interrupted from the Comm Station. “I’m receiving Colonial transponders…”

“Colonial? Why didn’t we detect them immediately?” Constanza frowned moving over to Dunn’s station.

“They weren’t online initially,” PO Dunn replied. “She may have been running quiet to avoid Cylons sweeping the FRPs.”

“Weapons hold,” Spencer ordered after a moments thought. “Send hostile challenge and ID, and put up the response on the speakers.”

“Aye Sir,” PO Dunn nodded. “Attention unknown vessel, this the Battlestar Acheron; identify yourself or we will fire upon you.”

A few moments of tense silence followed before the wireless crackled to life with a response.

“This is the Battlestar Majestic to the ship claiming to be the Acheron, please respond.”

The Colonial Officers shared a glance as they took in the information they had just been given; the Majestic was a Mercury-Class Battlestar, larger, more powerful and more modern than the Acheron, if the ship was operational enough to launch Vipers this was a very good sign. Spencer picked up a handset and lifted it to his mouth.

“Majestic, this is Acheron-Actual; authenticate identity with recognition codes immediately,” Spencer ordered crisply, watching PO Dunn carefully until the man nodded confirmation. “Majestic, this is Acheron-Actual; Samantha… is that you?”

“You bet your ass, Spence,” Commander Samantha Byrne’s voice replied wryly. “Ahem, Acheron-Actual this is Majestic-Actual… it is damn good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Majestic-Actual,” Spencer smiled. “What’s your status?”

“Beaten up but operational,” Byrne replied. “How is that old tub of yours holding up?”

“Perfectly fine, than you very much,” Spencer grinned. “What happened to your Battlestar Group?”

“It’s a long story,” Byrne replied, audibly sighing. “Requesting permission to come aboard.”

“Granted,” Spencer nodded. “See you soon, Sam.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody nodded to the former Captain, or commander really, as they were introduced. Everyone looked better, relatively speaking. a bit of rest always helped.

She watched the entire thing play out as they jumped in, found a contact, and realized it was friendly. She was glad to see that not every ship was lost, even if most of them had suffered at the hands of these Cylons.

Audeamus kept station a safe distance from its companion, watching the whole think play out without so much as raising its sheild, it had seen what the ship looked like long before friendly id had reached them.

"You know the other Commander?" She asked. "A friend?"

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 2

“Commander Samantha Byrne; we went through the Academy together, and attended the Colonial War College at the same time a decade or so later,” Commander Spencer replied with a fond smile. “I should have known that she would have survived; if there is any Battlestar Commander in the Fleet who could get one over on the Cylons its Sam Byrne.”

It was maybe fifteen minutes before Commander Byrne strode into the CIC, having come across from the Majestic in a Raptor, and been received on the hanger deck by Colonel Constanza. In the meantime Spencer had reviewed a status report transmitted by the other Battlestar, and sure enough although the exterior likely showed signs of a significant fight the ship itself was in generally good working order. Moreover, the XO reported having successfully flushed the Cylon backdoor from the Command Navigation Program aboard the Majestic, enabling the ship to operate without having to worry about the ship suddenly malfunctioning. The woman that strode into the CIC with Colonel Constanza was an attractive middle-aged women with auburn hair and sharp, but playful, eyes, even after everything that had happened over the last few days the fire in her eyes was still very much present.

“Commander Spencer,” Byrne said with a smile as she stopped a few steps away and saluted. “It is a pleasure.”

“The pleasure is mine, Commander Byrne,” Spencer smiled as he returned the salute. “Welcome aboard the Acheron.”

“It’s damn good to see another Battlestar; even if it is the fleet’s dumping ground,” Byrne commented with an obvious teasing tone, ignoring the angry looks of the officers in earshot. “I appreciate the irony of this ship, above all, surviving.”

“I’ll have you know the ‘fleet dumping ground’ is now, effectively, the Colonial flagship,” Spencer replied with a wry, self-satisfied smile. “Last time I checked, despite my reputation, I have seniority on both you and Commander Maynard here.”

“Planning to start calling yourself Admiral, Spence?” Byrne grinned.

“I’d rather not,” Spencer rolled his eyes. “But the fact remains that I am the senior officer.”

“No arguments from me, Spence,” Byrne nodded. “I just want to kick some Cylon ass.”

“That makes two of us, Commander,” Maynard said firmly. “I’ll follow your lead, Commander Spencer.”

“Good,” Byrne smiled, her smile fading as she turned to Insaro. “Now, I do have to ask; what is that strange ship out there, and who, exactly, are you?”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"I am Captain Melody Insaro of the Maxis Laudian ship Audeamus. I am from a different nation than your own and have been helping fight against your Cylons since we met." Melody said. "The Democratic Republic of Maxis Laudi is my nations full name, and when it comes time to leave, I hope I can bring back some further help for your people."

She was confident at least she'd be back to help. experience tends to be favorable and maybe a couple of other ships would join her.

Maybe she could even talk someone into donating some different foods and drinks. After all if all they are going to be living on was rations and whatever stuff was left in storage, it would get old fast.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 2

“Humans?” Commander Byrne frowned. “From beyond the Colonies?

“So it seems; we’ve not really had the opportunity to discuss the matter in any great detail; we simply accepted what was in front of us and moved on, for now,” Commander Spencer replied with a shrug. “Whilst the thought might aggravate the Gemenese but we cannot afford to look gift horse in the mouth, and they have fought the Cylons with us.”

Byrne inclined her head; accepting Spencer’s explanation of the current situation without further comment. She herself hailed from Caprica, the most socially liberal of the Colonies, and as such her view on religion was equally liberal; she didn’t have issues of humans from outside of the Twelve Colonies, and her intellectual interest could wait for a more opportune time. Instead, she changed the subject.

“Alright Spence, what’s our plan?”

“We’ve got several more fleet rally points, then we’re going to head out to Ragnar Anchorage to see if we can link up with the Galactica,” Spencer replied, eager for the opportunity to change the subject. “We received a message from Commander Adama yesterday, ordering all ships to report to Ragnar for a re-group, so that’s our best bet.”

“I may have an idea,” Byrne commented. “But let’s see if we can’t meet up with Adama first.”