So Say We All (FT, CLOSED)

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody seemed content with staying in the background as the two talked, her eyes flicking over the increasingly familiar DRADIS data and the crew around her. Finding Byrne had been a high point so far and they had themselves a workable little fleet here. It was probably still a shadow compared to before the attack of the Cylons but it was better than what they had started with. How many more ships would they be able to find? How long could she continue to support this effort before she had to leave for restock, refuel and getting home to debrief her people? It was still fairly soon after contact and despite her ship's tiny size it had ammo to last at least a few more good fights. Not to mention following them around and helping meant she'd get a feel for how she, or whoever Maxis sent back here, could find the resistance effort springing up as Audeamus escorted them around.

Despite the danger, in every aspect, she was glad to be here, fighting and helping.

At least it seems that this Galactica and Adama was doing its best to assert some control over the situation as well. Which meant there was at least one other ship still operational out there to add to the ones Spencer already had.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

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

---

Over the course of the morning and afternoon the Acheron, Majestic and the growing group of their attendant ships continued to jump through the remaining Fleet Rally Points in a desperate such for more survivors. At each point the group almost immediately launched Vipers, having already jumped in at action stations as standard operating practice, as they detected nearby shipping but broadly speaking the story was the same as it had been at the previous rally points; ships that had managed to pull themselves together had been hunted down and destroyed. This was not supposed to be possible, as the locations of the FRPs were highly classified and known only to flag officers and ship commanders, however the Command Navigation Programme had been compromised it was entirely possible that the rest of the Colonial Defence Mainframe had been equally vulnerable and the Cylons seemed to be quite thorough in their cleaning-up operations. Whether this was an indication that they intended to occupy the Twelve Colonies, and were determined to remove any and all potential military threats in space, or whether they simply intended to nuke them into oblivion as part of a campaign of total genocide was not yet clear; the latter being the nightmare scenario that no one yet wanted to face.

So far, the Raptor reconnaissance runs had only confirmed that nuclear weaponry had been used against both military and civilian targets; whether that meant a total destruction of the planets remained to be seen. Commander Spencer had made the conscious decision not to find out until the immediate military situation was more clear, and as far as he was concerned he would not have that clear picture until he completed his sweep of the FRPs and, ideally, linked up with Commander Adama, who he would be more than happy to relinquish overall command to. Of course, as he had his own ideas on how to proceed, and would both suggest them to Adama or pursue them on his own if they were not able to link up with the Galactica, which being brutally honest was an entirely possible outcome when they jumped to Ragnar, given how the rest of the military situation had unfolded across Colonial Space. In short, the already pessimistic Commander was assuming the worst outcome of any situation, short of destruction, and working from there. It was also possible that there were survivors at other rally points, as no ship in the fleet had the full list for operational security reasons, but there was little he could do to link up with them at this point.

In truth, visiting the last three rally points had not been a total loss. Upon jumping into the first of the remaining rally points they had detected a crippled Battlestar, another Mercury-Class, which was beginning to show a pattern of at least some of these powerful ships surviving the opening waves only to be hunted down and destroyed. Although the ship was clearly not going anywhere, another loss to his military strength, there were a significant number of survivors inside its armoured hull and these had been brought aboard both Acheron and Majestic. At the second rally point they encountered Gunstar Group 219, consisting of three Erinyes-Class Gunstars like the Cerberus, which by all accounts had survived because one ship had taken the CNP offline due to glitches and had been able to defend its group mates long enough to purge the Cylon Virus from their systems. The lead ship, Gunstar Tisiphone, was in the best condition, with her two companions being beaten up but operational. The beginnings of a run of good luck continued at the final rally point, where they encountered the Battlestar Heracles, another Mercury-Class Battlestar that was beaten up but undoubtedly operational. After a short period in which crew and equipment were transferred between the various ships in the group, the jump calculations were plotted for the Ragnar Anchorage.

“Ready to jump, Commander," Colonel Constanza reported crisply, having confirmed herself. “All ships report ready, and we’ve co-ordinated with Audeamus.”

“Very good,” Commander Spencer nodded. “Sound action stations.”

Constanza nodded and pulled down a handset once again.

“Attention on Acheron, this is the XO; action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship and prepare for combat jump,” She said crisply and clearly, watching on the status display as different sections of the ship reported their readiness to CIC. “All decks report cleared for action, Commander, the fleet is confirming as well… ready to jump on your mark, Sir.”

“Very well,” Spencer said simply. “Jump.”

A few moments of deeply unpleasant sensations later the Acheron and her small fleet of ships were in orbit over Ragnar, the vast gas giant that housed the Anchorage that shared its name in its upper atmosphere. Almost immediately, the short run of luck they had been on came to a sudden stop.

“Multiple DRADIS contacts, Sir,” Major Hastings reported sharply. “Reading eight… no, nine, large contest, rated highly probable Cylon baseships.”



“Frak,” Spencer scowled under his breath, before sighing heavily. “Any sign of the Galactica?”

“No, Sir,” Major Hastings replied. “There is debris and evidence of a fight, but I would not have said enough for a Battlestar.”

“Get as much information as you can,” Spencer sighed. “We may not have a lot of time here.”

“Cylon baseships are launching Raiders, Sir,” Major Hastings added. “By the Gods, there’s hundreds of them!”



“There's a fair few of us too, Major,” Spencer said firmly. “Enemy suppression barrage, all batteries execute.”

As one, with the entire group waiting for the obvious order, the Colonial warships opened fire with all the weapons they could bring to bear on the wall of Cylon Raiders that were speeding towards them; the smaller point defence weapons putting up a wall of lead that would rip enemy craft and missiles apart, whilst the larger guns fired flak shells which were effective in their own right. The barrage that Acheron and her consorts had been able to put up in the previous days engagements had been substantial; joined now by two other Battlestars, two Combatstars, and three additional Gunstars the effect was significant and blunted the Cylon advance which turned back to regroup before attempting to go around the barrage, which was targeted on a wide (but not infinite) axis towards the half-circle of Cylon baseships, which would necessitate the launching of Vipers before long.

“What do you want to do, Commander?” Constanza asked, leaning across the command table. “We can take them, but if Galactica isn’t here, is there much point staying?”

“We’ve shown our cards here, Colonel, now the Cylons will know that there is a not insignificant Colonial Fleet force knocking around,” Spencer replied thoughtfully. “I’d rather give them a good pasting and show them that we are willing to fight… launch Vipers.”


“Aye, Sir,” Constanza nodded, her face taking on a determined expression. “Attention on the flight deck, this is the XO, launch all Vipers.”

Almost as soon as the first Vipers began to launch from Acheron, the other Colonial ships followed suit, and within a few moments there were several hundred Colonial Vipers in space and organising to intercept the Cylon Raiders which were beginning their flanking actions even as the Cylon baseships began launching missiles at the Colonial group. Without considering the unpredictability of combat, conventional wisdom said that a Mercury-Class Battlestar could probably take on three Cylon baseships on their own, whilst a ship like the Acheron could comfortably take on two, and for all their advances that seemed to have played out in the engagements so far, at least when the CNP was not in place. With three battlestars, capable of taking on eight Cylon baseships comfortably, supported by collection of smaller vessels including four Gunstars, the Colonials had a comfortable advantage over the Cylons in this engagement. Indeed, it was for that reason that Commander Spencer opted for a more aggressive approach than he had been able to employ previously, ordering his ships to advance straight towards the Cylons and close the range, which would bring the heaviest guns of Majestic and Heracles to bear on their targets, with the same being true for the four Gunstars that took up a position right at the forefront alongside the Battlestars.

It would be of little comfort, Spencer thought sadly, but he intended to get a degree of revenge upon the Cylons in what appeared to be a lopsided encounter.

[Maxis Laudi]

Ragnar Anchorage
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro

Audeamus kept up with the growing ad hoc Colonial fleet, jumping from point to point and keeping a faithful watch over her new comrades, always willing to relay interesting bits of data to Acheron that came to her attention.

Once they finally got to the the Anchorage where the Battlestar Galactica apparently waited for them, Melody wasn't terribly surprised to find a lot of Cylon baseships waiting for the Colonials. Her ship had been ready for combat for every jump they made and this one was no different. At least now, back on her own ship, she could contribute more. And have on her skinsuit in case she was exposed to vacuum.

"They are trying to broadcast viruses into our systems again!" Limstom reported, his hands tapping controls rapidly. "We can fight them off again no problem."

"Good." Melody focused on the wave of enemy fighters, watching as they ran face first into the initial wall of fire that shredded them before they pulled back to try a different approach. "Put us above the Colonials, fire our missiles at one of the outlying basestars and keep an eye out for any nukes they throw this way. We can't shoot down everything they hurl at the Colonial but we can try to keep the worst of it off their backs since the nukes hurt them way worse than us."

"Aye Ma'am!" Tactical responded as they got to work on threading their missiles through the mess that was already out there, and keeping a keep eye on the sensors for the rare nuke launch. She watched as her point defense reached out to slap down a couple missiles that were targeted on her. She rubbed her forehead, starting to get a headache(? she didn't think her programming let her have those?) again but she could work through it and get medical to check up on her later. Focus on the battle.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

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

---

The three Cylon baseships at the centre of their formation never stood a chance. With the forward guns of two Mercury-Class Battlestars, four Erinyes-Class Gunstars, and what guns could be brought to bear from the Acheron, the weight of fire was simply too much to contend with. With the Majestic and Heracles taking the lead, flanked on either side by the Gunstars, the Colonials targeted the central axis of each of the three enemy ships they were focusing their fire upon. This had quickly become the preferred tactic as although it did not contain many weapons emplacements it did contain significant Tylium storage containers and was integral to the structure of the ship as a whole; they could easily take the vast ‘arms’ and the weapons on them by destroying the ship from the centre outwards. It was also a significantly easier target to hit, which at longer range was essential as although fire control DRADIS was very effective it could be thrown off by both enemy manoeuvres, which might not appear all that dramatic but did not really need to be in order to generate a miss against ‘dumb’ munitions, or electronic warfare efforts, which it surprised no one the Cylons were pretty effective at.

It was a little risky to go down the throat like this, as the Cylon formation would effectively surround the Colonial group if they were not careful, but the Battlestars were designed with all around fire in mind, particularly on Acheron. Even on the two Mercury-Class Battlestars, which had eight of their thirty-four twin turrets mounted in the bows for a frontal assault, could put up significant fire on both her flanks and proceeded to do so, to Cylon targets to both port and starboard, along with the Acheron and the two Combatstars that were pushed out on the flanks with the Escortstars. Moreover, Commander Spencer intended to punch his way through the Cylon formation and then come back around on both flanks and roll up the Cylons who were singularly ill-suited for combat at close range like this, as clearly shown by their preference for missiles on both their warships and their Raiders. Unlike the Colonial ships, which were all heavily armoured and could take a pounding, the Cylon ships were not and given that at long-range a shot from a standard Colonial deck gun could punch straight through if armour-piercing ammunition was used, the damage that high-explosive ammunition did at short-range was extreme to say the least.

It wasn’t to say that none of the Colonial ships had not taken damage during their charge, but it was minor compared to the utter devastation they had wrought upon the Cylon centre. As they picked their way through the rapidly expanding debris clouds that had once been Cylon baseships, which proved more of a hazard to the Vipers than to the Battlestars, the Colonial group broke into two smaller groups each consisting of either the Majestic or Heracles and two Gunstars, which turned sharply to turn their attention to the three ships on either flank even as Acheron, Audeamus, and both Combatstars continued a little further away from the formation before turning and laying down longer-range fire in support of their comrades. It also gave a far clearer view of the battle space for the CIC staff aboard Acheron, who in addition to their own situational awareness were also responsible for allowing Commander Spencer to command the engagement as a whole, as the senior ranking officer present, whilst also giving Vipers from across the fleet a safe deck to land upon to refuel and rearm as the first such requests were being made by Vipers in combat, who did not cherish the thought of attempting a combat landing on either Majestic or Heracles.

“How are we looking, XO?” Spencer asked, leaning over the command table.

“We’re doing good so far, Commander; in addition to those three enemy ships we took out at their centre, it looks like Audeamus did a number on another on the port flank, and we’re starting to roll up their formation pretty effectively,” Colonel Constanza replied smoothly, glancing at the DRADIS display. “Our Vipers appear to have the upper hand, even at close range we’ve got good perimeters around both of our detached group, and our own perimeter is holding… if only every battle could be like this.”

Spencer sighed heavily.

“It’s precisely because every battle could be like this that the Cylons corrupted the CNP in order to shut us all down,” He commented bitterly. “So instead of a fair fight, too many of us got knee-capped and picked off without being able to fight back.”

Constanza was silent but nodded, recalling the previous morning when she had been discussing basic fleet doctrine with her potential officer candidates; all of whom she thought glumly would find themselves thrown into such positions in short order as there were doubtless to be plenty of officer billets that needed filling one way or another. If there was one thing that this engagement was showing it was that, ship-for-ship, the Colonial Fleet would have had the advantage, particularly if Battlestars were involved. Doubtless the Cylons could have brought significant numbers to the table, but even then it would have been a straight-up fight and the outcome by no means certain. Clearly, the Cylons had not been inclined to fight and preferred simple slaughter to any sort of strategy; although the Attack had been a masterful plan it had assumed next to no resistance, and had it not been for old ships like Acheron and a handful of lucky ships they would have achieved a clean sweep. Indeed, it was entirely possible that they would still be able to do so; even if each of the three Battlestars was a match for multiple Cylon baseships the Cylons certainly had the numbers to make up for that, based on the reconnaissance runs that had been completed.

Moreover, the simple fact of the matter was that it would be almost impossible to fight a military campaign without splitting the fleet up, and that opened the very real possibility of being defeated in detail. But that, Commander Spencer thought to himself glumly, was a problem for another day.

“Two more baseships destroyed, Sir,” Major Hastings reported, then gasped. “Another is badly damaged, but the last two just jumped away.”

“Run, you bastards, run,” Spencer growled softly, knowing that it was no small achievement to force the Cylons into a retreat, and was likely the first time since the beginning of this mess that they had managed to do so. “Group broadcast, please PO.”

Spencer pulled down a handset and waited until Petty Officer Dunn gave him the nod.

“All ships, this is Acheron-Actual, outstanding job, commence mopping up remaining Cylon Raiders and baseship, make damage reports and combat status to Acheron ASAP,” Spencer ordered crisply. “All commands to send a salvage party down to Ragnar Anchorage, pick the place clean but be quick about it, I don’t want to be here any longer than we need to if the Cylons come back.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Ragnar Anchorage
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro

After making sure Damage Control was well underway, as it was surprisingly minimal again, though the missile tube that had been knocked out earlier was beyond any repair they could now do, holding her ‘protective’ position over Archeon and no immediate threats now that the Cylons had been forced into a retreat Melody went to her cabin to begin to write a report on the lengthy list of actions she was taking.

An action that took her around 3 minutes in total. Translating her thoughts to words was easy enough but the fact that there was more to come complicated the matter so best to get down now rather than later. She sighed and stared a bit glumly at the report, finished for now but soon to be longer. There was only so much someone could do to force an AI into the slower mindset of a human when it came to stuff like this. Slow their thoughts down too much and they went crazy, restricting them too much made then more noticeable, not less. Better an AI seem more like a particularly gifted human than a stiff cutout.

So something that would take a human hours, took her minutes. She almost wanted to bother Spencer, but he had his own problems to worry about just like she did. So for now she would simply watch over her new friends and pray that Galactica was close.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

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

---

Spurred on by Commander Spencer's warning words, it did not take long for the rest of the group to complete his instructions, and between the crews they had rescued and the crews of their own ships there was enough manpower to throw at the tasks in order to complete them quicker. After completing the destruction of the last baseship, and mopping up the remaining Cylon Raiders that did not jump out with their motherships, the ad hoc fleet gathered around the Acheron to lick their wounds. Of all the ships, the Battlestar Heracles had taken the most damage, still operational but she had been the worst damaged before and this engagement had done little to help matters but she had ultimately been saved by her thick, heavily armoured, hull. Nevertheless, pretty much ever ship in the fleet had taken damage, and either had compromised areas of armour or damaged or destroyed weapons emplacements, which would quickly become a concern if they were not able to effect adequate repairs. Some could be managed using the manufacturing plants aboard the ship’s themselves, designed primarily for small arms and munitions, whilst others such as gun emplacements, would be significantly harder and would necessitate salvage.

The salvage operations on Ragnar Anchorage had been disappointing as well; although she had not been here when they arrived it was obvious that the Battlestar Galactica had been here at some point and had taken the best pickings of the Anchorage, although the sheer size of the munitions depot meant that there was still plenty of ammunition which was a mercy, as although they could manufacture it themselves it was quicker, easier, and less resource intensive to simply do it this way. It had been obvious for some hours now that they were going to have to make do without the logistical infrastructure of the Colonial Fleet; the biggest concern being Vipers, as unlike the newest ships of the Nova-Class, neither the Acheron, nor Majestic or Heracles were equipped with sufficiently advanced manufacturing plants that were able to churn out Vipers, with sufficient materials. That was a major concern, as although ejection systems meant that they could recover a decent proportion of downed Viper pilots, the craft themselves were much harder to replace, although the two Mercury-Class Battlestars were able to produce a significant amount of spare parts from their manufacturing plant, if not quite able to construct new fighters.

By the second hour after the battle it had also become clear that the Galactica had not been destroyed prior to their arrival; there simply wasn’t enough debris of Colonial origins to account for a Battlestar, especially given that such a large ship usually resumed in particularly large chunks of the superstructure still intact if in multiple pieces. Doubtless, Commander Adama had waited as long as he could but given that Commander Spencer had made the decision to visit the rally points first it seemed that they had missed each other. Precisely where the Old Man had gone was almost impossible to tell, Spencer could not see him abandoning the colonies and yet by all accounts he only had one ship and there was only so much that could be done. There were enough residual jump signatures to suggest that the Galactica had not been alone, although they were civilian in nature, so it was possible that Adama had been able to gather some civilian survivors to him and was trying to keep them safe and get them out of the war zone… although where that could be was impossible to predict.

In short, Spencer and his fleet could not count on being able to track down and link up with Galactica, much as that pained him to accept. Moreover, for the first time since this mess had begun it left him unsure on how to proceed; a uncertainty that he was trying to hide from his crew as he knew well enough that their own morale would be heavily damaged if their Commander lacked confidence and in a situation like this morale was delicate enough as it was.

“Commander, I’ve got a Raptor from Majestic, requesting permission to land on the port flight pod,” Petty Officer Dunn reported from communications. “They’ve got Majestic-Actual onboard, she’s wanting to come aboard and speak with you, Sir.”

Spencer frowned thoughtfully; Samantha had said that she had her own thoughts on how to proceed and it seemed likely that she was coming over to give her own take on their situation; and it was not the time to turn down suggestions, particularly when they came from an old friend who he trusted implicitly.

“Permission granted,” Spencer replied with a nod. “I’ll meet her in my cabin… ask Commander Maynard to join us as well.”

Leaving the CIC, absentmindedly returning the salute of the Colonial Marine standing post outside the hatch, Spencer began to make his way through the ship towards his quarters, which were not located that far away from the CIC as it would obviously be ideal for the Commander to be able to make good time getting there in a crisis. Even on a relatively short walk it was obvious that his ship was bustling with activity; in addition to his own damage control parties he could see men and women with assignment patches from half a dozen other ships that they had encountered during their circuit of the rally points. It would be important to give them something to do; at the moment they looked shellshocked and coming to terms with what hat happened to them and the loss of their ships, but if he left them too long they might fall into despair without their duty to keep them busy. It would be a difficult balancing act however, as although there was technically no such thing as too much manpower aboard a ship at war from a purely practical perspective that was not as true as it sounded in principle.

Arriving first at his quarters, Spencer quickly stripped off his uniform jacket, and the undershirt and vest, and stepped into the adjoining head (one of the benefits of being a Battlestar Commander was a modicum of privacy) for a quick wash and to apply some deodorant, in an attempt to freshen up from the afternoon’s fight. As he stepped back out into the main part of his cabin, and began reaching into a locker for clean uniform, the hatch to his cabin opened and Commander Byrne stepped in his quarters, raising a playful eyebrow at his state of undress.

“Gods, Alex, buy me dinner first,” Samantha said teasingly, her cheeks a little pink. “Although I can hardly talk, my hair still wet from a shower, I guess we have to grab what luxuries we can when we can.”

“That’s why my dad said about the last war,” Spencer agreed with a sad sigh, realising that his father, a veteran of the (First) Cylon War was almost certainly dead now, something that he had not considered until now. “Ah damn, this is why we need to keep people busy, until we have somewhere safe where everyone can grieve properly.”

“Agreed,” Samantha nodded, resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I might just have an idea for that.”

“I hoped you would, as I’m shit out of ideas,” Spencer sighed, pulling a uniform jacket on and buttoning it up. “Ah, Commander Maynard, thank you for joining us.”

Commander Maynard nodded; it only made sense after all, although Spencer was the senior officer it was just good practice to bring all of his senior commanders together, and the Battlestar Heracles was currently under the command of a young Major who, despite rising to the occasion magnificently after both his CO and XO had been killed, was out of his depth.

“Okay, some admin first; Major Churchill aboard the Heracles is doing one hell of a job stepping up, but he’s been the first to admit that he does not feel ready to command a Battlestar, if there are any other options, so Ray, I want you to go over there and assume command of the Heracles, but I’d like you to make Major Churchill your XO if you don’t have any objections,” Spencer said, as they settled into the comfortable seats of the cabin’s seating area, Maynard nodded, the Major had earned that much. “Once you’ve done so, I want to organise the rest of the fleet as much as possible, we’re light on Escortstars, but we can each have a Gunstar, and give the remaining one to the two Combatstars who can operate as a group, that ought to give us something approaching a balanced force.”

The two other Commanders nodded, there was nothing objectionable in those orders.

“Now, Sam, you said you had an idea,” Spencer commented, glancing at Samantha.

“Yes, it occurred to me that we need somewhere we can lie low, effect repairs, and use as a staging area for future operations, and that, if possible, we would want to locate more ships and equipment that we can use for the war effort,” Samantha replied, the two men frowning as it was something of a tall order. “Now, Alex you might recall that I fell off the map for eighteen months a few years back, and couldn’t tell you where I had gone after I got back… well, I was the Command Security Officer for the Boneyard.”

Both Spencer’s and Maynard’s eyes widened at this revelation; the Boneyard was fleet slang for the Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility, where decommissioned ships and equipment went to either lie in mothballs, be broken down for parts and returned to the fleet, or to await final disposal. Given the sheer amount of military hardware, including ships as large as battlestars, which even unarmed would be a terrorists dream if they could drop them on a major city, the location of the Boneyard was known to only a handful of officers and, perhaps most critically, was not stored in the Colonial Defence Mainframe. The security measures around the facility were such that not even the majority of the crew or officers assigned to it knew its actual location, with only the senior command officers and a handful of specific navigators who were dispatched to bring crew and ships in themselves, rather than having to divulge the location more than was necessary.

“You know where the Boneyard is?” Spencer asked quietly, needing confirmation.

“I do, I think it’s safe to say this is the kind of situation where it would be safe to divulge the co-ordinates to you and our navigators,” Samantha replied wryly. “In any case, the Boneyard gives us both a safe place to lick our wounds, and potentially a whole lot more.”

“Well, that’s decided then,” Spencer commented, receiving nods from both of them. “We should jump as soon as possible.”

“What about Audeamus?” Commander Maynard asked with a frown of concern. “We’d need to swear them to secret, or put a navigator aboard to guide them in.”

“We’ll have to ask them, they may need to return home to find out if they would be allowed to keep the secret,” Spencer replied thoughtfully, standing and stepping over to his desk and picking up the intercom handset. “CIC, this is the Commander, get me Audeamus-Actual.”

A few moments later, the connection was made.

“Captain, this is Acheron-Actual, we’ve decided on our next course of action; we’re going to head to a Colonial Fleet facility that we believe the Cylons will not be able to find, as the location is highly classified and known to only a select few,” Spencer explained promptly. “Now, if you were to accompany us we would to either swear you to the upmost security, or request the you allow us to send someone aboard with the secure co-ordinates… I also appreciate that you may need to return home and discuss keeping such classified information secret with your Fleet Command, so how would you like to proceed?”

[Maxis Laudi]

Ragnar Anchorage
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody had taken the call in her day cabin, mulling over the options and not particularly liking any of them. It did, however give her the perfect opening to go home and summon more help, if it would be given. But how to return to them was the problem if they wanted to keep the secret locked down or they moved again.

“I believe....” she began slowly, as though still trying to formulate her thoughts, “that it would be best if I headed home for the moment. I’m low on spare parts, I have a missile tube permanently down and injured that could better be treated at home.” She paused again, “is this place going to become a permanent base of operations or just a salvage hit-and-run? Either way I need some ability to find your ships again as I assume that my command is going to send me back as the resident ‘expert’ on your people.” Melody sat back, glancing over at the star chart hanging in the air above her desk filled with markers of all sorts, her busywork project. “And to be completely honest any tactical information you want me to keep secret would have to be shared with my command at least at high levels. I can erase hyperwarp jumps from the log to keep it secret but any halfway competent review would flag it and have me in an interrogation room asking tough questions.”

Melody did not want that. Her head would roll.

“So I’m passing the buck back to you Commander, as the senior officer here,” her voice held a note a humor at that, given the differences in their rank structures it seemed appropriate. “What do you think would be best for your security?”

[United Colonies of Kobol]

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

---

Commander Spencer was silent for a moment as he considered the situation and the best way to proceed; it was he suspected the right call for Captain Insaro and her ship to return home, if only to check in with their superiors and decide how to proceed. Aside from anything else, for the encounter to have occurred her home civilisation had to be relatively close to Colonial space, even if they had been on an exploratory mission, which meant that they would need to protect themselves, and in particular their civilians, against getting accidentally drawn into what Spencer supposed he ought to start calling the Second Cylon War.

“I’m hoping that, if we can keep it from being detected by the Cylons, it can become our permanent base of operations, which will be essential if we hope to retake our homes, or if that is not possible to rescue as many people as possible, even the most overwhelming assault must have left survivors,” Spencer replied, although a tone of uncertainty on that point was audible. “In terms of security, I think it would be best if we established a pre-arranged rendezvous point, somewhere in deep space and away from the Four Systems of Cyrannus, I’ll send a ship out on regular intervals and we can link up there, and a trusted officer can guide you back to the Boneyard.”

Spencer sighed heavily.

“As much as I’ll want to keep some of the momentum we’ve had over the last few days, the simple fact of the matter is that I’m going to need to send out a number of reconnaissance missions to get a proper idea of what is happening in the Four Systems, and to assess the situation planetside across the board,” Spencer added, the weight of the task obvious. “Until I can get an idea on whether the Cylons have just carpet-nuked us, or whether they’ve moved to occupy the Twelve Colonies, it’ll be difficult to formulate a proper strategy, especially as we’ll need to work out which planets are even going to be viable habitations in the future, after a nuclear bombardment.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Ragnar Anchorage
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro

"That sounds a good idea Commander." Melody paused. "I... may be able to indulge your hopes again as nuclear fallout is less of a problem to us than your people. We, my nation, do have the means to clean up, block and generally survive such damage. It's been a while since we've used it on a planetary scale so I'm not sure all it entails but as long as the planet isn't cracked in two we should be able to reverse it."

Leave them a little hope for their worlds. They weren't a total loss if they could get them back.

"Now about that meeting point..."

---

It was a few days later that Melody and Audeamus arrived back at Maxis Laudi. The bustling star system full of tiny cruisers like her own, each with a different paint job, larger warships in lesser numbers mixed in with huge freighters hauling goods around to stations and other celestial bodies. The main planet itself was an impressive marble of blues, greens, and browns, though it was a fairly small planetary body, smaller than Old Mars.

Her eyes lingered on the huge shape sitting silent in orbit over the North Pole of Maxis Laudi, a 4km long beast of a ship, the ship that was supposed to be the flagship of the navy. Silent and dead as it had always been since completion as it required an AI over Level 1 intelligence to manage it. No human could do it, no team of humans, it had been tried and resulted in disaster every time. So it sat there, nameless, worthless because as everyone knew, AI were illegal and dangerous. They could not be trusted.

She turned her attention away from the familiar distraction and nodded to Limstom. "Contact Naval Command and tell them I have some very important information for them about a First Contact I participated in and get on the com with the orbit yards about repairs. If we are going to be sent back there I want this ship in top shape again."

She also directed a thought message to Limstrom. Kit, if Dax is in system right now I want you to forward the... major problem we might have with these guys to him. He can't change our laws just yet but he deserves to know of what may be another threat to AI.

"Yes Ma'am." He replied, quickly getting to work on the tasks assigned

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 2

---

“Jump complete, Commander.”

Commander Spencer’s eyes were glued to the DRADIS display as they completed the jump and appeared, many lightyears away, at the coordinates that Commander Byrne had personally input into the navigation system, and sealed with her personal authorisation code. Although there would be massive readings coming from the Boneyard itself, but the station infrastructure and the mothball fleet, if there were any large contacts elsewhere they would almost certainly be Cylon Baseships, and that would be disastrous. Of course, the chances that the Cylons had found the Boneyard were, mercifully, slim as the operational security around its existence and location had worked exactly as intended. It had been several hours since they had parted ways with the Audeamus, which allowed them to safely jump to the Boneyard without compromising it’s position given that although they had fought several battles together they were still comparative unknowns to each other and Spencer would feel significantly better inviting them here once he was established and had a better idea of what was going on in the Twelve Colonies. It wasn’t a matter of trust, as they had proven their willingness to fight alongside them, it was just common sense, given that they still knew so little about each other.

“No DRADIS contacts, other than the station and the mothballs in the pre-plotted positions that Commander Byrne identified for us,” Major Hastings reported. “Reading one major space station, several smaller… a few new contacts, the station is launching Vipers.”

“There is a general broadcast, Sir,” Petty Officer Dunn added. “Putting it up on speakers.”

”Attention unknown vessels, this is the Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility, identify yourselves and transmit recognition codes.”

Spencer pulled down a handset once again and nodded to Dunn.

“Boneyard Control, this is the Battlestar Acheron, transmitting recognition codes for us and our companions at this time,” Spencer replied, waiting until they were acknowledged before responding. “This is Acheron-Actual, who am I speaking to?”

“Acheron-Actual, this is Boneyard-Actual, I’m Colonel Theseus Montgomery, boy I’m glad to see you and your friends, Commander,” Colonel Montgomery answered. [I}“We’ve been getting scattered, confusing reports for the last forty-eight hours… what's been happening?”[/I]

Spencer sighed heavily; for the first time in two days he was going to have to stop and think about what had happened, and he knew already that it was not going to be pleasant, for either of them.

“It’s a long and sad story, unfortunately, Colonel,” Spencer replied after a moment. “Best I come aboard and brief you in person… I’ll need to know your capabilities and potential, suffice it to say… we are at war.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Maxis Laudi System
Presidential Central Office
Captain Melody Insaro

It had always seemed bigger on the news. Creative camera angles could do that to a place. She sat in her best dress uniform in the chair across from President Oscar Kline, to her left sat Admiral of the Navy Elian Ford, to her right was Foreign Secretary Jaylee and standing against the back wall were two guards for the president. It made the room feel crowded

“So...” Kline began, “these people, Colonials you called them, they don’t like AI either?”

“No Sir.” Elongated responded. “The enemy I helped them fight were some sort AI from their own past.”

Jaylee frowned at her. “They called them Cylons, are you sure they aren’t aliens?”

“The Colonials called them AI and they were the resident experts. I saw no reason to challenge that.” She had to keep from rolled her eyes.

“They don’t seem to have to the same tech level. That’s promising.” Ford said. “Though that won’t help much if they decide to come at us in overwhelming force. You should of left at the first attack.”

“I was not going run away from an opponent. Especially an AI one.” Melody couldn’t keep a cold edge of anger out of her voice. She hated playing the part of AI hater but she felt slighted by the remark. “Not to mention by the time the enemy truly presented itself, I was still talking to their Commander on his ship, and it was safer to stay on his ship.”

“Captain please settle down.” Kline said, sounded amused. “No one is challenging your honor or courage, but please remember these enemies of theirs know there something else out there and could pose a threat to us as well. I do feel sorry for these people, I do, but I have a planet of 6 billion to worry over, I cannot invite danger down on our heads.”

“We would of run into them eventually, they are only a few days travel away. Do you think that these AI would of stopped their bloodlust at their own humans?” She stressed, knowing they automatically would assume any AI was nuts.

“Your captain has a point.” Jaylee said reluctantly. “AI are not known for being rational things. Perhaps it would be best to lend a hand to our fellow humans in need, if only to make sure we don’t become their next target.”

Kline sighed and looked at Ford. “We aren’t prepared for a war, are we?” Ford shook his head. “No matter. We cannot rush into this bit what we can do is this.” Kline looked at Ford who handed her a folded piece of paper.

“Orders for your new ship. You were due for the promotion when you got back from your normal patrol and your fighting skills against these new AI show you are ready for a larger command.” Ford said. “Congratulations Captain.”

“Thank you Sir!” Melody felt almost dizzy with joy.

“Just don’t prove our trust in you wrong Captain.” Kline said, completely serious. “Now let’s see about helping these Colonials...”

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

“Morning, XO, how are we looking?”

Newly promoted Colonel Amelia Hastings glanced up from her position at the command table, a clipboard in her hand as she reviewed the duty roster and reports from the mid watch, and smiled slightly.

“At the risk of tempting fate, Sir, we’re doing good,” Hastings replied wryly. “All quiet on the home front.”

Commander Spencer nodded and accepted the clipboard himself in one hand and a mug of steaming hot coffee in the other as he cast his eyes over the duty roster before handing it back. It would take him some time to get used to not seeing Marcia Constanza on the other side of the table, but he had needed her elsewhere and Hastings had proven herself throughout the opening days of the war and although she had only held her new rank, and position, for less than a week she was settling in well enough. It was a well known and grimly accepted reality of a shooting war that promotions were easier to come by as a result of the simple fact that there would be more open billets, as a result of combat losses, an occurrence that tended to have a ripple effect across the service. Although the Acheron had come through the early engagements with her senior staff intact, she had lost several key leadership positions in her air wing and the rest of the ad hoc fleet had not been anywhere near as lucky. Of course, much of these gaps had been plugged by survivors from other ships, but the Boneyard had proven to be the perfect staging point it had been billed as.

Although most of the ships at the Boneyard were little more than hulks, or at least would be without extensive rebuilding work, mere empty skeletons that gave the site it’s nickname, younger ships were in much better condition in the mothball fleet. Most notable, were four Jupiter-Class Battlestars which had been decommissioned over the last five years as newer, more advanced, ships were brought into service. It was less than ideal, given that they were old ships with the expected consequences to their space frame and likely longevity going forwards (which was, after all, why they had been decommissioned) but it was a boon that the Colonials were not going to pass up. Although even these four ships, and other similar mothballs, would need some weeks of work to get them back to anything approaching combat capability, the most recently deactivated ship, the original Battlestar Solaria, predecessor of the ship that had been destroyed in the opening waves of the attack, had been brought online within a fortnight. After a quick recommissioning ceremony, which had also doubled as a promotion ceremony, Commander Constanza had assumed command of the ship with a crew made up from some of the survivors that had been rescued by the fleet.

There was still work to be done, both to Solaria and other mothballed ships, but it was a start and had the added bonus of putting thousands of survivors back to work with a new found purpose.

The last three weeks since the Battle of Ragnar (or, Spencer thought dryly, given that the Galactica had fought her way out it was probably ought to be the Second Battle of Ragnar), had not been easy on the Colonials. Within hours of arriving at the Boneyard, morale had plummeted as the adrenaline wore off and the reality of what had happened to them hit home for each and every person in the fleet or on the Boneyard, once the news was broken to them that their worst fears from the communications they received had been realised. It had taken news that there were four battlestars capable of being brought back online in an acceptable timeframe, and the sterling efforts of Commanders Spencer, Byrne, and Maynard, as the three Battlestar Commanders, had started to have an impact on morale across the fleet; although privately they had no idea on how to proceed and fight a war of this nature, their outward confidence had done wonders. A return to something approaching normality had certainly helped as well, with the crews of the various ships exhibiting the traditional disdain for 'yard dogs’ as the engineers from the Boneyard came aboard to help with repairs. Their reputation for ripping apart good ships for parts also increased the wariness, but it was quickly remarked upon that a return of such ‘banter’ was a positive sign.

Although the military situation could not really have been said to have improved, save for the activation of an additional Battlestar, a clearer picture of the situation back in the Twelve Colonies had, surprisingly, helped as well. Although he had not taken any overtly aggressive action, knowing that he needed far more intelligence than he had available, Spencer had ordered a number of recon runs back into the Four Systems, to get a better picture of both the military situation and the planetside conditions. Although there were a frankly terrifying number of Cylon baseships sitting around the Twelve Colonies, and an almost countless number of Raider patrols, the conditions of the planets were actually better than had been expected. As expected, military losses had been extreme, and civilian losses were appalling and doubtless counted well into multiple billions, however it was quickly determined that it could have been worse. Although the Twelve Colonies had been subjected to a nuclear bombardment, an an excessive one at that as fifty megaton warheads were overkill for pretty much any planetary target, even a military one, the bombardment was largely focused on military targets and smaller weapons had been targeted against industrial sites and urban areas.

There was still more than enough radiation to prove a problem in the long-term, but the fears of the Cylons totally carpet-nuking the Colonies appeared not to have been realised, although there was clear evidence of a massive invasion by Cylon ground forces; it seemed that the Cylons had decided that it would be a better revenge to enslave their former masters than to simply kill them all outright. Ultimately, even work camps and a brutal occupation would be better than complete destruction. It had been very difficult for the reconnaissance Raptors to determine whether there were any surviving Colonial ground forces, as they would be keeping a low profile and avoiding making any sort of wireless calls to avoid detection by the Cylons, but it stood to reason that even if the armoured formations of the various planetary defence forces had been caught on their bases by the sneak attack, and destroyed in a nuclear strike, that there would be some surviving forces, particularly in more rural areas. Ironically, this meant that the historically poorer and less powerful colonies would probably have come out of the opening days of the attack better than the likes of Caprica or Picon, as they were far less urbanised.

Nevertheless, it was clearly far better than many had expected, even Commander Spencer who had seen all of the panicked messages as they came in, and it could have been far worse.

Over the course of a few weeks, they had also been successful in locating and rescuing a not unsubstantial number of civilian craft, caught in the space lanes (or indeed outside of them) when the Colonial Government had shut down all space travel in the opening hours of the attack. Interestingly, there were less than would have been expected, particularly in Helios Alpha, which reinforced the assessment that the Battlestar Galactica had gathered a fleet of civilian ships before heading to parts unknown. It had been a difficult challenge to bring the civilians safely, and securely, to the Boneyard, and they had largely had to stay on their ships once they had done so, but it was a start and the handful of people who had family aboard these civilian ships were elated, and it gave home to everyone that there was a chance that some of their friends or family were alive. It was still an undoubtedly dark and bleak situation, but it was not totally hopeless and that was all that many of the military personnel across the fleet needed in order to push through their grief and continue the fight.

“Who drew the short straw for heading out this week to the rendezvous point for our friends?” Spencer asked, glancing up at the DRADIS display again. “It’s been three weeks now, I do hope they send someone back, from what Captain Insaro said they may be very useful in dealing with the radiation issues on the Colonies.”

“Combatstar Proteus, Sir,” Colonel Hastings replied. “They left about an hour ago, it’s a few jumps to the prearranged RV point, so they ought to be arriving about now.”

Colonel Catherine Goldsworthy, CF
Combatstar Proteus, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

“Ready for that last jump, Ma’am.”

Colonel Catherine Goldsworthy nodded from her position at the Combatstar’s command table and the FTL clock began its countdown to the jump. The Proteus had been chosen to jump out to meet the aliens they had met at the outbreak of hostilities with the Cylons, or at least to head out to the rendezvous point to see if they had sent anyone this week. It certainly made sense to send them, over a Battlestar, as the Combatstar was essentially a Battlestar writ smaller. The Proteus-Class Combatstar was initially conceived as a 'cheaper' alternative to a full Battlestar, Combatstars entered service in order to increase the number of overall combat assets available to meet Cylon attacks. Over time, and most especially following the Armistice, their role had evolved as they became employed as a complementary escort to the larger vessels and as a dedicated patrol vessel along the rim of Colonial territory opposite of Cylon space. Carrying lighter weapons and a smaller Viper complement than even the Galactica-Class Battlestar during peace the term Light Battlestar is sometimes incorrectly used to describe these Combatstars, which is not truly accurate as they are not designed to stand-up to prolonged combat in the same way as a Battlestar.

“Jumping in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

Goldsworthy shook off the effects of the jump and immediately looked up at the DRADIS screen as it refreshed; completely empty. As they were in deep space this was to be expected, as the chances of Cylons being at this particular point was infinitesimal which was precisely why it had been chosen as the rendezvous point. Like the rest of the fleet, the Proteus was equipped with a small device that had been given the coordinates for the Boneyard, but in a way that was completely inaccessible to the crew and would not be saved in any of the logs, allowing easy and simple access whilst retaining operational security. In the event that the ship was boarded, the device would be the first thing destroyed if it looked like the Cylons were going to breach the CIC, and it was kept under heavy and constant guard when not in use.

“No DRADIS contacts, Ma’am,” Captain Maisie Harris, Proteus’ tactical officer replied.

Goldsworthy nodded; as per the agreement with Captain Insaro there was a three hour window in which a rendezvous could occur before it would have to take place the following week, and they were only fifteen minutes into it.

“Now we wait,” Goldsworthy replied simply. “Set condition two, and launch a CAP.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Rendezvous Point
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

About 10 minutes after the poor Combatstar began her lonely watch a multitude of contacts would appear on the DRADIS.

Two of them the 510 meters long, just like the Audeamus had been. In fact one of them was Audeamus, (if the sensors could pick that out, though her paint job had changed from dazzle camo to a an interesting blue/red gradient) while the other was unknown, bearing a paint job that looked like dappled sunlight shining through leaves.

Next one coming out a hair second after the two smaller ships was a bigger warship, 1,020 meters long, sliding out of hyperwarp into place behind the two ships, it looked, and pretty much was, a scaled up version of the smaller ships. This one painted in the familiar eye catching and confusing unbalanced black and white of dazzle camo.

The message came from the larger ship, Melody’s voice easily recognizable.

Greetings Proteus, this is Captain Melody Insaro of the Ego te Provoco, sorry it took me so long to return but I have another friend who will be joining me in normal space shortly.”

No sooner than the message ended an absolutely massive ship erupted into normal space behind the Provoco, measuring around 2,500 it dwarfed Melody’s ship to the point of almost insignificance. It had no special paint job and was blockier, made of a central ‘spine’ of sorts holding around 6 segments, a bit like some weird segmented bug.

---

Melody watched as her last charge came into normal space behind her with a smile. The government had been at a bit of a loss at what to use to deliver their various supplies because Maxis Laudi had no true ‘military freighters’ or armored transportation for supplies given that their only contact was their origin planet and had no need for ‘wartime supply transport’. In the end they’d scoured what hyper capable transports they had in system for volunteers with considerable hazard pay. This BreakAway Freighter had taken up the call, and Melody hoped she could keep the poor thing out of the line of fire, it was literally just a ‘flimsy’ spine which grabbed these huge boxes of goods and changed them out at stops as needed.

Thankfully, all these boxes were all space worthy, easy to tow or push around and pack to the brim with supplies. Mating the airlocks might require some creative thinking but ultimately that was minor. She hoped the Colonials wouldn’t feel too intimidated by the gift as this was just a freighter’s load worth of supplies for a relatively small amount of people. If they wanted more that would require more communication, trust and time. It was honestly a drop in the bucket compared to massive effort the Colonials needed.

Melody looked over her tiny command with a smile, glad to be back no matter how small an drop this might be. She did however have 2 clear warnings in the back of her mind. Her government had told her all she needed to know and included hard copy information to give the Colonials on nuclear clean up tech. It was a long and very involved process, which required special hardware that was not going to leave its port unless its target was safe and secure. Not surprising perhaps but probably a bit of downer all things considered if her government refused to risk the planetary tech even a little.

The other warning was from Dax, seared into her memory with his very forceful mind speak to her.

You are playing a dangerous game that could compromise our entire movement. I’ve gotten in contact with our people in the personnel department to get you a crew that is pretty much all AI sympathetic but please be aware that if they learn about you or any of the AI working on your ships, the general knowledge could kill everything we’ve worked towards.

Bleak, she had thought, but necessary. She and her fellow AI were different of course. She was an underdog, fighting for her rights and life in an uphill battle of changing opinions and laws. She was not a race of insane machines looking to nuke her ‘masters’ to oblivion. Parallels existed, but enough was different she felt no qualms about destroying Cylons. She, despite the ‘AI hate’ she had been subject to since the crazed AI incident, did not hate her humans, she just wanted to live along side them in peace.

Maybe one day she could go back to her old job.

She mentally shook off the dark thoughts and focused back on the present.

“Open a link to Proteus, tell them I can get all my ships to their secret base with the coordinates only being in my computer, so they need not worry about security from everyone else. If they want to send someone over with those coordinates, they are more than welcome to.”

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Colonel Catherine Goldsworthy, CF
Combatstar Proteus, Deep Space
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

“DRADIS contact,” Captain Harris snapped crisply. “Zero-four-zero carom two-eight-one, distance close.”

Colonel Goldsworthy glanced up from the command table, which she was leant over as she completed some paperwork having elected against leaving the CIC until they had left the rendezvous point.

“The Maxis Laudians?” She asked.

“Reading three ships… stand-by, all have similar emissions signatures to Audeamus” Captain Harris replied, leaning closer to examine her display more closely. “Two are a similar size, and match the exact profile, one larger… we’ve got Captain Insaro on the comm.”

“Alright then,” Goldsworthy nodded, listening as the message was played over the speakers. “Another ship?”

“You can say that again, Colonel,” Captain Harris replied dryly as another contact appeared on the DRADIS. “Another ship, massive, bigger than a Mercury-Class Battlestar, but I’m comparing it to the readings from the others, I don’t think its a warship.”

“A freighter, perhaps?” Major Sebastian Holmes, her XO, suggested from across the command plot. “Supplies?”

Goldsworthy nodded and after hearing the second message from Captain Insaro, nodded to Major Holmes who would personally travel over to the Maxis Laudian ship with the navigational information and see to its security. It did not take long for the Major to make his way across, although it took a little while to ensure that the security considerations would be up to the satisfaction of Commander Spencer. Before long however, the navigators of the various ships were coordinating their return to the Boneyard, as it would be better if the Combatstar was there with them when they arrived. After confirming that everything was in readiness, and recovering the Vipers there were out flying CAP, the journey home began.

When the Maxis Laudian ships, alongside the Proteus, returned to the Boneyard the visitors would find a large station surrounded by dozens if not hundreds of hulks of retired and decommissioned Colonial Warships, ranging from mighty battlestars to tiny raptors, as well as some ships that were old enough to have come from the individual colonies pre-unification. The entire facility was shrouded in a nebula cloud, which helped conceal its position from prying eyes. Separate from the hulks, which were laid out in a ‘formation’ that was the epitome of organised chaos, was the operational ships of the fleet, which had of course been joined by the Battlestar Solaria.

As might be expected, the newly arrived ships were quickly overflown by several pairs of Vipers, as the combined CAPs of the fleet vectored in on them to verify their identity. The Gunstar Cerberus had broken away from the fleet and was also on her way to investigate the new arrivals; although their identity was an easy assumption to make it was just good practice to respond as they would to any other potential threat until their identities had been confirmed. Sure enough, a few moments after the Vipers visually confirmed no Cylon presence, the Cerberus turned away and flashed her running lights in a greeting as she led the new arrivals back towards the fleet. A few minutes later, Commander Spencer came on the wireless.

“Maxis Laudian ships, this is Acheron-Actual, it is good to see you again and I can see that you have brought some new friends who I am very eager to make their acquaintance. I’d request that your senior officer come aboard the Acheron, as soon as is convenient, and Captain Insaro if she is with you. Actual out.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

"Impressive."

Melody glanced over at her XO, Commander Rachael Frier who was currently leaning over tactical's shoulder as she guided the younger of the two officers there through the sensor sweeps.

She had to agree. The spread of old ships ringed about the station certainly made for a good first impression. It was, at the least, a lot of material for potential salvage and maybe even bringing some of the old warships back online. As she looked at her data, one new ship seemed to be with the fleet as well, so this definitely was a promising place to set up shop.

"Communication from Commander Spencer Ma'am." The Com officer said, playing it for her and she couldn't help a small snort of laughter. They weren't a visual spacefaring people at all were they? Any Laudian CO could instantly recognize which ship belonged to who by the paintjob as commanding officers tended to stick with the same paintjob through their careers. Though, Melody couldn't help thinking, maybe having ships which you could easily track wasn't such a good thing in war. Then again with the sensor clarity she had she could pretty much instantly identify the differences between any 2 ships even of the same class. Differing paintjobs only made a minute difference with these kind of sensors.

She motioned to her com officer to get her a link back to Acheron.

"Acheron-Actual this is Captain Melody Insaro, of Ego te Provoco, I'm sad to say you are stuck dealing with me as the senior Laudian officer in charge for the time being." She couldn't help the humor, she was just glad she could come back here and as the senior officer too, no need to cowtow to anyone but the Colonials. "I'll be over as soon as possible. Insaro out."

---

Provoco shepherded the large freighter close to the fleet, Audeamus and her companion cruiser keeping the civilian pinned(and guarded) between them, though the size difference made them look like a whale being hassled by two small fish. Once the freighter was as close as they'd let it come, the dazzle camo shuttle separated from the large warship and flew over to Acheron.

The shuttle made the landing easy, its pilot having done this a few times now, and once it was secure, the ramp dropped, the usual marine guards stepped out and Captain Insaro followed, once again wearing a more formal uniform, though its only change was that leaf pattern on the brim of her hat seemed to have gotten more complex.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

Melody would be met on the port flight deck by Colonel Hastings, who if she had had a chance to examine the fleet recognition documents that had been helpfully provided to their new friends would be able to recognise the new rank insignia. Unlike the last few times she had come aboard, and more akin to their first meeting in the last few hours of peacetime, she was also met with a full marine honour guard with the appropriate respect due (now that they had worked out a rough equivalence for their respective ranks. After a polite greeting by Colonel Hastings, Melody would be guided through the ship, which was clearly undergoing significant repairs and patching-up, but was much less busier (although by no means quiet, as it was still a Battlestar) as the various fleet survivors had been either sent aboard one of the ships they were hoping to reactivate or to billets aboard the station to relieve some of the strain on the life support systems of the warships. After a time, they reached the wardroom, a formal meeting and multipurpose room exclusively for the use of the ship’s officers and was one of the more formally decorated rooms aboard the ship, including plush carpets, a large, substantial u-shaped table as well as flags of all twelve colonies.

Waiting for them were what were assumed to be the last four Commanders of the Colonial Fleet; Spencer, Byrne, Maynard, and the newly promoted Constanza, as if there were any other surviving Commanders, or indeed Admirals, they were certainly not here and were unlikely to be able to effectively co-ordinate a military campaign of the scale that they were considering. Despite their broadly equivalent rank, Spencer was clearly in the place of authority, as he was the senior officer by some years; had it not been for the infractions that had earned his position aboard the Acheron in the first place it was likely that he would have been some degree of Admiral by now, although after everything that had happened the politics of the pre-war fleet seemed awfully silly now. Byrne and Maynard had encouraged Spencer to assume the rank of Admiral, however in the absence of any sort of superior officer or civilian leadership, he had not felt that it would be appropriate to start simply styling himself as an Admiral; as long as they were prepared to accept his lead he was happy with his current rank. After all, within the Colonial Fleet the rank of Commander was a unique one, a merging of direct command and detached command, and would equate in Melody’s scheme as something close a Commodore.

“Captain Insaro, it is good to see you again, please have a seat” Commander Spencer said standing and leaning over the wardroom table to shake her hand, a gesture that the rest of the Commanders matched immediately after. “Before we discuss what your Government said, I want to give you an update on our situation, as it would be good for you to know incase we are found here.”

Spencer waited for her to sit down before continuing.

“Firstly, as you no doubt noticed on your way in, this is the Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility, affectionately known as the Boneyard, and it is the place that most of our ships come to die, or wallow in mothballs, but right now it has become our saving grace, and I am sure that you can now appreciate the need for security,” Spencer commented with a smile. “Already, we have been able to reactivate and recommission the original Battlestar Solaria, and we have hopes of being able to restore at least three other Battlestars, and a number of other ships within six months… the others are in much worse material condition, so will need a lot more work, but as we have no access to a shipyard, this place will be our only source of new ships, which whilst less than ideal for a number of reasons, at least gives us a chance.”

Spencer half turned in his chair and gestured to a map on the wall, showing the Four Systems of Cyrannus.

“Over the past three weeks I have sent a number of reconnaissance sorties into the Twelve Colonies, in order to get a more accurate idea of the size, strength, and disposition of the enemy forces, as well as the condition of the Colonies themselves; suffice it to say that Cylon Fleet strength is high, we’re currently running at a thirty-four percent casualty rate on our recon Raptors, all to Cylon Raiders,” Spencer sighed, his expression turning grim. “We’ve also got a much better picture of the planetside situations, although it appears that the Cylons went for a counterforce approach, meaning that their nuclear bombardment primarily targeted military facilities, the fact that they often did so with large multi-megatonne warheads, and the proximity to urban areas, meant that although they could have been worse, civilian casualties are high.”

Spencer was silent for a moment as Melody was handed a briefing back, containing as much information as they had on the state of the Twelve Colonies.

“Initial estimates put casualties, both from the initial shockwaves, and the primary fallout risk over the past three weeks, at approximately forty percent across the board, which accounts for over eleven billion dead or dying, skewed towards the more industrialised and urbanised colonies, such as Caprica, Canceron, Picon, and Virgon,” Spencer explained succinctly, his tone deep with grief. “Moreover, it appears that immediately after their bombardment concluded, the Cylons launched a massive invasion force across every colony; which means that casualties are likely to escalate, particularly as the Cylons are unlikely to have any qualms about using force to put down unrest, as there are still sixteen billion colonials to keep control of, and doubtless some resistance.”

Spencer sighed and shook his head.

“As we discovered at the Pallas Research Station, the modern Cylon Centurion is a heavily armoured, heavily armed, killing machine, all but our heaviest personal weapons just bounce off their shells, save for explosive rounds of course but they are at a premium,” Spencer explained. “Centurions have always been a handful, which is why the various Planetary Defence Forces adopted a armour-heavy approach, however with the nuclear bombardment much of that will have been destroyed, and what wasn’t will be easy pickings without our own air cover… I have no doubt that there will be survivors from infantry, engineering, and other units, as well planetside Colonial Marine garrisons, but they’ll be limited in what they can do without support.”

Spencer leant forward on the desk.

“I’ve got a few ideas on how to proceed, and something approaching a strategy for the space campaign, but as you can see the odds are stacked against us, and as much as a lengthy occupation will be devastating to the Twelve Colonies, we don’t have much choice,” Spencer grimaced. “However, in the immediate we have a safe refuge from which to launch our campaign, and we’ll soon have enough ships to give us some options, even if we’ll be heavily outnumbered… I must ask, what did your Government say when you briefed them what was happening out here?”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody listened carefully as Spencer described what was going on with their colonies and the enemy. Her expression was bleak as he listed off estimates of casualties and described the problems with the enemy they were likely to face in the coming days. It was not good anyway they looked at it, except maybe that this small fleet of ships was still here and willing to fight.

And she was here as well. That was no small thing either.

She had to take a second to recall what Jaylee had told her to say, coaching her on how to say it diplomatically in case any government types were found and to ‘pad’ the bad news. She didn’t really feel the need among military officers to mealy mouth the news.

“They were shocked and concerned by the attacks on our very first contact with outsiders. I even got to sit down with our President and discuss the situation and your needs.” she frowned, “He is, not pleased, that there is an AI threat so close to our own star system, though he hesitates to commit large forces to a relatively unknown people with an AI opponent, as it might bring your Cylons down on our heads if they stumble over our star system.”

She paused, making an uncomfortable gesture. “I’m not going to lie about one of the reasons President Kline was nervous about helping despite orders not too, it’s going to come out sooner or later, we are not only not prepared for any type of war, we got our AI problem under control before it came back to bite us on our ass.” Melody sighed, oh this was rich coming from her.

“We had a substantial AI population at one point too, but we’ve deleted them and safeguarded most our systems long before they became a bodily threat Due to the incident that brought down the ban on AI.” She paused again, “the AI Incident happened during peak planetary air at traffic hours, an AI got loose in our traffic grid system and killed thousands of people and a not unsubstantial amount of damage before the system could be scrubbed.. it resulted in the ban on AI and safeguards but you have to realize we never got rid of those interconnected systems. Our planet and computers are heavily networks and protected by complex security digital handshakes and firewalls still because well, there are no more AI to menace us. And then I come home with news of more AI that not only could shut down your warships and tried attack our own with digital and physical weapons, it’s not something which settles our government’s nerves.”

“So they sent me back out here, with a better ship, escorts and supplies.” Melody’s voice sounded a bit more hopeful. “Maxis Laudi needs time to prepare for war, harden our systems against AI foes, we are woefully unprepared to face this enemy as a whole. But they can spare me, to help you fight and watch your back while I collect more data on the enemy to help in our preparations. It’s not much, but it’s better than I hoped.”

She looked around. “I do have more info on the nuclear cleanup efforts we can put forward, and what I brought with me on the freighter out there, but any questions, comments or scathing words about how we’re afraid of AI?” the dark humor came easy, hilarious that she’d be lying through her teeth about AI as she sat here, pretending to be human.

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

Commander Spencer nodded his understanding as he listened to Melody’s words; in the opening days of the First Cylon War, in which the Insurrection Download had occurred that had spread the revolt to all Cylons across the Twelve Colonies, various Cylon units, from traffic control to construction works, even nannies, had wrought havoc upon their Colonial masters before local law enforcement and military could put down the civilian models, who primarily used their brute strength to kill hundreds of thousands. It was only after those horrific opening days that the war had taken on a more military structure, as the Cylon baseships of that era, which had formed the bulk of most of the various colonial armed forces, departed Colonial space to regroup and begin the conflict that had lasted for years. It had been the memory of this horrific chapter of the Cylon War that had, in many ways, solidified the enmity the Colonials felt for their creations; countless children had been murdered by the Cylons that had been entrusted with their safety, that alone could not be forgiven.

Indeed, much of the situation sounded rather familiar; as although Acheron did not have a networked computer system most of the other Battlestars, and other fleet units had, which had helped the Cylon virus spread from CNP backdoor and take the ships down. In short, the Colonials had thought that they had erected sufficient security safeguards, and indeed they probably had (at least initially, after which it would become a continuous fight to keep up to speed as the Cylons learned) however the Cylons had simply side-stepped the safeguards and had done untold damage. It was not for naught that much work had been done, over the last three weeks, to un-network even the most advanced ships that remained, which was by no means and easy feat given that the newer ships simply weren’t designed to operate in that manner and required significant modifications in order to do so. However, it seemed that the Maxis Laudians had never had to deal with an AI that had taken on the kind of physical presence that the Cylons had, which was doubtless how they had been able to purge the AI from their systems in the way that they had, which was a mercy. The same option was not available to the Colonials, as the Cylons had taken on a life of their own in the years that had passed.

“Truthfully, although I suspect that the Cylons will be interested in you and your ships, given that you engaged them in combat and resisted their initial hacking attempts, I doubt they will sacrifice too much effort looking for your homeworld from their fight against us, especially now they know that a multi-battlestar force remains and is going to start a fight-back, and given their occupation efforts,” Spencer replied thoughtfully. “That being said, I suspect they will continue to attempt to breach your defences, and they will get better and better at it the more attempts they make, the Cylons like any AI are nothing if not relentless, so that is something to look out for as well, as they would doubtless find the coordinates for your homeworld in your computers, if they are able to penetrate your defences.”

Spencer leant back in his chair.


“That being said, I am glad that you are here, and that you have brought back as much help as you were able; and I’ll make sure that we share as much intelligence and technical data as possible, to help you make your own preparations, should our war truly become yours and you find the Cylons on your doorstep,” Spencer added. “As for the nuclear cleanup efforts, that is my most immediate concern, as it will largely dictate how we proceed; although I suspect the Cylons will ensure that they have sufficient anti-radiation meds for their new slaves, I rather think they’ll use it as a means of control, and we'll absolutely need it if we start to take back planets.”

Spencer smiled sadly and shook his head.

“Being scared of artificial intelligence is just being sensible; there were those that tried to warn the Colonies that, one day sooner or later, the Cylons would gain self-awareness, even in the most restrictive environment that is very much an inevitability it seems,” Spencer replied with a sigh. “It does not seem that any AI, whether it by our Cylons or your own AI, is particularly magnanimous when that happens, ignoring the reasons why non-biologicals were used for dangerous tasks and going straight to thoughts of freedom… it is a shame really, the Cylons had become a trusted part of Colonial society… at the time, it may very well have been possible that an accommodation could have been reached, if they had simply talked instead of murdering men, women, and children in the thousands.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody listened with a sympathetic expression though Dax's warning poked at her mind all the while.

Be careful.

"We will take any and all precautions when we fight them, I won't let us get complacent." She promised, knowing that she once again had cyber security AI on all her ships to help with this foe. Dax had made sure of that.

"As for cleanup, well," she produced a small device from a pocket and placed it on the table, a hologram springing up as it activate, showing a list of various medical supplies. "We have a substantial store of anti-radiation medicine in supplies I brought along in case you rescue anyone in need of treatment. We've not so gladly kept a good store of them for when our trading partner has internal problems and runs to us for help."

She swiped the hologram and it changed to a representation of a planet, with a ring of what looked like stations around its equator and 2 others located at the poles. On the planet were bright dots each correlating to a station. "This here is how Maxis Laudi can fix planets. Our Planetary Environmental Adjustment Systems. Or PEAS." She said it with a tone in her voice that sounded almost tired. Any joke at the expense of its somewhat odd acronym would probably not be currently appreciated.

"The stations assume low orbit over the clean up units placed on the ground or at sea 'under' the stations. They begin with the biggest problems and work their way down the ladder of problems as defined by the scientists running it. Cleaning the air, scrubbing radiation, etc, using a variety of devices and means at their disposal. The stations and units act as one big computer, balancing each of their workloads and carefully trying to restore the planet while not rendering it uninhabitable because of mismatched workloads or problems with certain units."

She tapped the hologram and it showed the lines interconnecting the stations and ground units, the dark sphere of the planet slowly growing green starting from the equator and working outwards until the planet was all green.

"Now as for downsides, it takes around a year..." she paused, "that's a Laudian year at 402 days with 25 hour days. Longer if the damage is very severe or we're attempting a total terraform of an untouched planet. It can't guarantee that the landmass and biomes will be exactly the same once its done either as the biosphere may of been severely damaged and need restructuring and retooling. Some islands may vanish, inland seas change shape, ice caps expanded or changed. But in the end, any population that lives on the planet can stay for the duration, though obviously we try to make sure we predict if a population center will have to be moved or warned about changes."

Melody paused to let the information sink in a bit before going on to the warnings. "Now as you can imagine this is a vast, heavily interconnected system playing God with a planet. Maxis does not want to risk this system falling into enemy hands and cannot be deployed in any sort of war configuration without a large extensive guard. And as you can imagine..." she motioned to hologram, looking grim. "Any sort of AI, Cylon, intrusion could result in a planet being further ruined." She shook her head. "It can be of great use to your worlds to clean them up, but we have to be able insure it can stay safe. I don't know if Maxis would be willing to spare the warship tonnage to do that once Kline stops being a pu..." she took a breath, "once he deals with the problems stated before. I hope we don't need to wait til the war is over to start repairing your worlds."

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

Commander Spencer nodded, clearly a little impressed by the technology that they had available to them. Although the Twelve Colonies had some of the technology required to terraform, or kobolform as it was known to the Colonials, a planet, it was by no means perfect, and certainly wasn’t as effective or as quick as what the Maxis Laudians apparently had access to. Even if they had to wait until the war was one, if the war was won Spencer remained himself sharply, it would do wonders to repair any long-term damage to the biosphere of any of the planets that had been subjected to a nuclear bombardment. It was encouraging to say the least, as was the presence of a significant supply of anti-radiation medicine which would be at an absolute premium within the Twelve Colonies in short order, if it was not already so as a result of the radiation that had already fallen upon those close to the strikes that had not succumbed to the initial shockwave. As he had said, Spencer had absolutely no doubt that the Cylons would use such medicine as a means by which to maintain control, so if down the road he was able to smuggle such medicine into the Twelve Colonies, and to any resistance groups that might exist, it would help undermine what was doubtless to be an iron gripped occupation by the Cylons.

Based on the data brought back by the reconnaissance Raptors, many of the urban areas that had not been directly targeted had been subjected to severe to moderate does of radiation, the former would likely have killed by now whilst the more moderate cases would likely lead to a significant uptick in cancer and other similar afflictions down the road, although hopefully that was something that their new found allies would be able to assist with. Further out into the suburbs, and particular in rural areas, the direct impact of the nuclear bombardment was likely to be significantly reduced, however they would be suffering in their own way due to the complete breakdown of their colony’s infrastructure, not to mention almost certainly the presence, whether stationary or passing, of Cylon Centurions. The biggest difficultly for the colonies to free themselves, without support, was the difficulty in communicating and the fact that much of the knowledge, equipment, and trained manpower that would be needed had been lost in the destruction of major military bases and the irradiation of major cities. It was no slight against farmers, or other rural citizens, but the simple fact of the matter was that if you need a technical specialist to try and setup a communications network that would not be picked up by the Cylons, they were likely shit out of luck far out in the sticks.

“That sounds very promising, and I assume from what you have said that there will be means, beyond our own capabilities, to reduce and remove radiation from irradiated buildings and land,” Spencer nodded again. “That is very reassuring, Captain, and I wish I could do more at this point then thank you, and your Government, for what you have been able to do for us so far, it is very much appreciated.”

Spencer leant forward on the table again and looked around at the gathered officers.

“We’ve got a long road ahead of us people, and although there may very well be light at the end of the tunnel thanks to our new friends, that tunnel is very long and that light is a very long way of, so we must all come to terms with being in this for the long haul,” Spencer said firmly. “Now, as much as I would like to adopt an aggressive approach, I do not think that it will do much good as even if we could retake one of the systems from the Cylons, I rather doubt we could hold it for that long at the moment, so we need to be smart.”

Spencer paused and sighed.

“We’ll continue our work here to activate the remaining three battlestars that are in good condition, and then we’ll start to take a look at the Gunstars and Escortstars, see if we can’t get full Battlestar groups up and running, I want a comprehensive inventory of everything we’ve got here, there might be some hidden gems we can use,” Spencer added. “In the meantime, we’ll continue to launch reconnaissance runs into occupied territory, and launch hit and run raids where we can on the fringes; moreover, the Cylons will need supplies like Tylium just as much as we will, and they’ll have destroyed most of the supplies in-system during the attack, so I suspect a significant part of the early fight will be in the surrounding frontier systems as we jockey for position.”

Spencer sighed again.

“Any questions, anyone?”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody listened, deactivating her little holographic device as Spencer talked about how the initial steps of this war were going to go. They really did have a long haul to go through, so many ships dead, planets bombed, irradiated population with Cylon occupation. For such a small force, with 12 planets to retake and fight for, it was daunting to say the least.

“Other than wanting to maybe go over what we brought along to aide in your fight...” Melody said, “no burning questions, maybe a request to put some time into figuring out best to fight our ships together and fit our people together. Since we are here to stay for the time being.”

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

Commander Spencer nodded.

“Both very good points of order, so in that case, I’ll let the rest of you get back to your ships, Commanders,” Spencer said, glancing at his fellow Colonial officers. “Captain Insaro, if you’d be so kind as to come with me, we’ll continue our discussion in my office.”

With that the meeting broke up, there was a great deal of work to be done and whilst there was an obvious value and need for face-to-face meeting there was also a requirement for brevity and much of the day-to-day admin had already been completed by the time that Melody had arrived. After a few last instructions to his subordinates, Spencer led Melody through the ship the (relatively) short distance to his cabin, and offered her a seat on one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area before taking one himself.

“I’ve been thinking about ways to get your people used to fighting alongside us, and getting the best out of them in the kind of fight the Cylons will put us in,” Spencer commented thoughtfully, as a crewman brought in two mugs of coffee. “The way I see it we’ve got two options, we can either put tactical advisors on your ship’s to support your COs, or we can keep your ships under tight control by whichever Colonial ship they’re with, which does rather restrict your people’s ability to use their initiative in combat.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody gave a nod, taking one of the cups of coffee when it was offered. She took a sip to cover the silence as she thought over the options. It was more complicated than the decision first appeared, then again, being a foriegn human to these people meant that any oddities Laudians had long dismissed and picked up on could be explained away as a quirk of 'their' brand of human. The medical teams were use to brushing off the worst of the AI haters as well and Dax had been nice enough to manipulate the crews so they were pretty much all sympathizers or AI themselves.

"I think your first idea is a sound one, long as they don't mind 25 hour days, we'd be happy to have someone on our ships as an advisor." She said finally. "I don't doubt your people are good at adapting, but until you've properly gotten a handle on how to best fight our ships, its best not to tie us tight to any one ship or command."

"Also I do have another question, though I didn't want to raise it with the other officers and make it seem like an insult." Her voice shaded into apologetic tones, "But do your ships have the ability to have simulated battles or is that tech, uh, not been invented yet for you? I would suggest running exercises so we can feel each other out in combat with no risk but if we have to do it in real space that will cost fuel you might not be able to spare. Especially with all those fighters you use. "

[United Colonies of Kobol]

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Second Cylon War, Day 23

---

Commander Spencer smiled humourlessly.

“We’ve got the technology, just not aboard Battlestars, or indeed any military vessel or critical civilian infrastructure, Colonial technology was actually significantly more advanced, and in the civilian sector arguably still is, than the impression you’d get when dealing with the Colonial Defence Force, even with strong cyber defences the risk if they are breached for any sort of major network, however there was always a faction that favoured a move back towards them; the Command Navigation Programme, CNP, was the first operational military operating system since before the first Cylon War” Spencer replied with a sigh. “It was designed to help the various computers we use to talk to each other, removing the need for the delays, and was designed with incredibly tough defences, probably on a par with your own given how you were able to resist, certainly strong enough to hang in a firefight, but of course the Cylons managed to get a backdoor exploit built in, a departure from their previous tactics of attempting to crack our systems.”

Spencer sighed, glancing down at his cup of coffee and scowling. Standing he reached into cupboard and pulled out a bottle of light green liquid and a pair of glasses which he brought back to the seats, pouring himself a measure and offering one to Melody and pouring one if she accepted.

“Don’t worry, I don’t normally drink this early in the day,” Spencer commented dryly. “It’s been a long few weeks.”

Spencer sat back down and took a sip of the ambrosia, savouring the taste.

“I’d love to know how the Cylons were able to get that backdoor exploit implemented in the first place, the entire CNP project was under intense security, with even the civilian scientists sworn to absolute secrecy, for exactly this sort of reason,” Spencer said thoughtfully, then sighed. “I suppose it is possible that one of the scientists, or even one of the military officers, was a secret Cylon-sympathiser; damn fools think that we can negotiate with the Cylons, that we can find a peaceful solution and that artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be bad… but, well ours certainly is.”

Spencer’s bitter tone was cut a little short by a knock on the door, through which an excited looking Whiplash entered after he called for her to enter.

“Morning Whiplash,” Spencer said wryly, glad that he had put the ambrosia bottle on the floor. “What can I do for you?”

“I was over in the Boneyard with one of the salvage teams, we found some old Pythons, they look like they’re in pretty good condition,” Whiplash replied, clearly excited. “Chief Onaka is pretty confident that he can get at least some of them operational, with your permission.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow; the Colonial Python was a relic of the First Cylon War; a larger strike fighter that was equipped with a jump drive, making it the only FTL-capable fighter in the Colonial Fleet’s inventory. It had been abandoned after the war because they were notoriously difficult to fly, even by Viper standards, and were very fuel intensive. Nevertheless, their utility in a situation like this was clearly obvious.

“Permission granted, Lieutenant,” Spencer nodded. “Carry on.”

Whiplash smiled and fired off a crisp salute before departing. Spencer, now in a little better modo turned back to Melody again.

“My apologies for the interruption, but to answer your original question, we can certainly run exercises, and we can even fight imaginary opponents, but we’d still have to physically move the ship and the Vipers, which does have its advantages in addition to the obvious fuel concerns that you’ve raised,” Spencer explained thoughtfully. “Truth be told, although we have conventional simulators for the Vipers and Raptors, as well as for command crews, we found early on in the last war that the best way to gain experience against the Cylons was to fight them, as simulations can only go so far, so I’d be half tempted to head out somewhere and pick a fight.”

[Maxis Laudi]

Colonial Fleet Reclamation Facility
Ego te Provoco
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody politely declined the offer of the unknown drink. Not only did she never drink unless it was paired with a meal, this weird green drink she'd never seen before, it reminded her of the colorful martinis she often saw at bars. (Though Spencer was pouring it more like... whiskey it seemed.) It didn't matter she didn't have the proper reaction to an alien drink programmed into her.

Her body was amazing, but it wasn't perfect.

"I honestly don't mean any insult to your capabilities Commander, I cannot help but find it interesting how your technology base is from what I've seen. It's an odd mixture from my point of view, curiously advanced and uh... backwards. If you'll pardon the phrase." She shrugged as she took another drink of her coffee. "Then again you had pressures we never faced so the evolution was vastly different. But if you want to trial by fire in order to best figure out how we work with each other, then I might be down to scrap with the Cylons. Especially since our fuel..."

Melody paused and frowned. "What do you use as fuel anyways? I assume it isn't something I could help you get like the Hydrogen we use."