NationStates

Posted: **Mon Feb 20, 2017 3:54 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Commander Spencer yawned into his coffee as he casually returned the salute of the Colonial Marine standing post outside the CIC, then watched as the Marine spun the wheel to unlock the hatch before stepping into the compartment. Stepping forward into the low chatter of the nerve centre of his ship Spencer looked up at the DRADIS screens above the chart table to get an instant idea of the operational situation immediately around him; as had been the case for most of their patrol there was absolutely nothing out there aside from the other three ships of their escort. Looking back around his CIC he couldn’t help but sigh slightly; at first glance there was nothing wrong, merely several dozen men and women getting about their various duties, however there was just that lack of polish and lack of an edge that, usually, set a Battlestar crew above their compatriots in the rest of the Fleet, or indeed that exemplified the standard that every ship in the Colonial Fleet should strive to attain. More painfully this wasn’t even unusual, it wasn’t like they were having a bad week or were approaching the end of a major deployment, Spencer knew all too well that this was unlikely to change.

The reason for this was simple enough; the Battlestar Acheron was, fittingly given it’s name, essentially the Colonial Fleet’s purgatory, where the screw-ups and malcontents that were either too well-connected or two valuable, when they weren’t being annoying, to drum out of the service. Aboard they had hot-shot pilots with far too many flight safety violations to be assigned anywhere else, some of the best engineers and deck gang in the Fleet who also seemed constitutionally incapable of going ashore on liberty without getting into a bar fight, and that was without considering those that had merely pissed someone off in their time sufficiently to scuttle their hopes of career advancement. Hell, even Commander Spencer himself was sufficiently in someone’s bad books that he was lucky to have risen to command a Battlestar in the first place, but then a drunk affair with a future Admiral’s Daughter would tend to do that. All of this meant that, aside from more discipline problems on the lower decks than one could shake a stick at (the only bright spot was a top notch Marine Detachment, necessary to keep order aboard), the men and women assigned to Acheron were unmotivated and unwanted, which even their command staff could not seem to counteract.

The men and women of the Acheron were fiercely loyal to their Commander, and each other when they weren’t beating down on each other, but they all knew that their careers were effectively in a dead end. The fact that the Acheron was the second oldest Battlestar in the Fleet, only the venerable (and soon to be decommissioned) Battlestar Galactica was older, and a member of the Jupiter-Class of Battlestar. This meant that in addition to being an old lady the Acheron lacked many of the creature comforts that had become common place on newer, larger Battlestars, after all she and ship’s like her had been designed to fight the Cylons and to be impervious to any attempts by their foe to compromise their systems. Indeed the Acheron had a war record that any ship could be proud of, in many ways it was a damned shame that such a proud ship be relegated to a state where she was viewed so negatively by the rest of the fleet; to say that the ship’s reputation preceded it would be an understatement.

However; the fact that the Acheron was the Fleet’s shit-list ship did not mean that she could not play a role in the Fleet, she was after all still a Battlestar once all was said and done.

The Acheron had been assigned to the Frontier System Patrol, tasked with performing sweeps of a number of star systems, usually dead and lifeless, to make sure they had not become home to a secret band of pirates or, worse, Cylons. It was boring, monotonous work of jumping into a new system and launching recon sorties, but it was important as they would constitute early warning of an impending assault against Colonial defences. Truth be told Spencer was skeptical how his crew would handle themselves in a combat situation; aside from suffering the same lack of institutional combat experience the Colonial Fleet had lacked since the Cylon War the Acheron always seemed to be missed out on the orders for the major Fleet Exercises, his crew would pull together as they always did in a crisis but few if any of them had ever been in a combat situation, real or simulated.

Sensing movement to his side Spencer looked away from the DRADIS display and turned his attention to Lieutenant Michael McKay, the current Officer of the Watch, returning the salute the man rendered. Lieutenant McKay was a likeable young officer, handsome and charismatic; it was a subject of much discussion as to why he was assigned to the Acheron, with only Spencer knowing the full story.

“Good morning, Sir,” McKay said formally. “Comm traffic from the midwatch.”

“Morning, Lieutenant,” Spencer nodded in reply. “Anything good in there?”

“Mostly routine traffic, a few updates and the like,” McKay replied, then frowned and flipped through to one of the messages on the stack. “There is one odd message we, and the rest of the fleet, were copied in on.”

“Oh?”

“It’s from Picon Fleet Headquarters, apparently the Courier Officer’s overdue coming back from the Armistice Station, no one’s heard anything from him,” McKay replied handing over the clipboard. “They’re asking for a status report on all FTL-capable ships in case they need someone to jump out there and see if his ship’s having a mechanical problem.”

“Well, send a message back reporting that we’re FTL-capable if they need us, but I don’t think it’s likely that they’re going to call on us now, is it?” Spencer replied bitterly as he began to leaf through the message print-outs, the rest was indeed just routine. “Did Lieutenant Anderson have anything else to report?”

“It was mostly a quiet night, by our standards anyway; there were a few D&D reports but they’ve been dealt with on the lower decks by the crew chiefs and the divisional officers, no charges pending,” Lieutenant McKay replied. “The Marines busted another illegal still, so we should have less of those problems going forward, the XO is going to be recommending charges against the two idiots responsible.”

“Understood, I’ll sit down with the XO at some point today and we’ll have a Commander’s Mast by the end of the day,” Spencer replied promptly. “In the meantime, the crew’s been doing really good, let’s keep that going and see if we can’t rise above what the rest of the Fleet thinks of us.”

“Couldn’t agree more, Sir,” Lieutenant McKay smiled.

Spencer nodded in response and was about to turn away when a change in the DRADIS display above his head dragged his attention back, causing a frown. For all their bad traits aboard few aboard the Acheron were incompetent and this change was picked up on quickly enough by others in the CIC.

“DRADIS contact!”

“No Colonial transponder.”

Spencer frowned and watched as the contact was marked as unknown on the display.

“Identify that ship,” Spencer ordered crisply, glancing at McKay who moved over to the tactical station. “Is it a Cylon?”

“It’s been a long time since anyone saw a Cylon ship, Commander, but it’s not matching up with anything we’ve got one file, so we’re rating it as unlikely,” McKay shook his head as he leant over an enlisted crewman to get a better view of a display. “In fact it’s not matching anything we’ve got on file, it doesn’t even look like a heavily modified civilian ship, we're looking at a true unknown.”

“Well it’s far too close and far too unknown for my liking,” Spencer scowled. “Vector the CAP in, launch the alert Vipers and send hostile challenge and ID.”

Colonel Marcia Costanza, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Colonial Marcia Constanza, the Executive Officer of the Acheron, nodded with a satisfied expression as the room full of enlisted crewmen jumped to their feet as she stepped into the room; for all their other problems their basic military discipline was not one of them. In fact the group gathered before her was part of a project that she and the Commander had instituted aboard the Acheron in order to try and alleviate some of the reputation that followed the Acheron round like a curse. Each and every person aboard the Acheron was assigned here because they had pissed someone off or were deemed ‘troublemakers’, however in some cases there was a lot of potential there if it was properly polished and neutered. The men and women in front of her were bright and motivated, most of them would have been officers if the circumstances of their upbringing had been better, indeed that was the whole point of the project; to give these men and women a shot at becoming Colonial Officers. It would not be easy getting them into Officer Candidate School, but that was why Constanza was here to teach them; to ensure that they had as many of the ‘ideal but not essential’ qualifications as possible to make their applications more appealing, despite their duty posting.

“Good morning everyone, keep your seats,” Constanza said evenly, taking her place at the podium at the front of the room. “Today we’re going to start work on your Fleet Operations Doctrine knowledge.”

Constanza waited for her class to return their seats.

“The Battlestar is the most powerful and most versatile capital ship ever to exist; she is equally capable of engaging an enemy vessel ship-to-ship, launching, recovering and supporting squadrons of Vipers and spearheading a major planetary offensive operation,” Constanza began. “One of the first questions that we must therefore examine is why does the Fleet consist of more than just the hundred-twenty Battlestars that make up the backbone of the service; why do they exist and what are their roles within the Fleet?”

Constanza paused again.

“Some ships exist because it is more economical to use a vessel dedicated to a specific role than shoehorning tastings onto the Battlestars who, in a war situation, would quickly find themselves in short supply; Assaultstars for example are far more effective at planetary invasion than a Battlestar,” Constanza continued, watching as her students began taking notes. “However as you all know there are three other warships sat outside our hull whose role is specifically to support and escort us; and yet we can launch enough Vipers to protect ourselves and put up a defensive perimeter that would take some penetrating; so why do escorts exist?”

Constanza brought up an image of the Acheron Battlestar Group on the display.

“In effect the reason we have escorts is the same reason that we have Vipers; defence in depth, the escorts provide additional firepower both offensively and defensively allowing us to ensure that the Battlestars take as little of the enemy fire as possible, that’s the role of our escortstars,” Constanza explained. “Having a Gunstar assigned to our group ensures that the Battlestar can focus on the enemy capital ships, whilst the Gunstar either takes on another enemy capital ships or keeps lighter enemy ships away from the Battlestar; whilst also providing additional flak capability.”

Constanza brought up another image.

“Best example of this? On the last day of the Cylon War the Colonial Fleet launched a major operation to capture a planet that the Cylons had been paying a lot of attention to; three Battlestars were dispatched on the operation which was known as Raptor Talon,” Constanza gestured to the new image. “The Battlestar Columbia was destroyed during the engagement because her own defences failed and there were too many Raiders for even the combined air groups of the three battlestars to deal with, had there been escorts available on the short notice required for the operation it is entirely possible that the Battlestar Columbia would have survived.”

Constanza paused again, and was about to continue when the intercom suddenly rose from the background routine chatter to a much louder general broadcast.

“Attention; inboard DRADIS contact, unknown, all hands stand by, launch the alert Vipers.”

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

“Attention; inboard DRADIS contact, unknown, all hands stand by, launch the alert Vipers.”

Even before the voice of the Officer of the Watch had finished Lieutenant Lyla Kelso, callsign Whiplash, was on her feet and sprinting across the deck towards where her fighter, a Viper Mark VII (the Battlestar Acheron didn’t rate the most modern fighters available), was waiting already loaded into one of the launch bays. She climbed quickly up into the cockpit and with the help of her crew chief she quickly strapped herself in and attached her helmet.

“Whiplash, this is Shooter, I have control standby,” The Launch Control Officer reported as the bay was sealed and then exposed to space. “Viper 289, clear forward, Navcon green, interval check, Navcap ready, tube door, ready, thrust positive and good luck.”

Although she was getting pressed back into her seat by the sheer G forces Whiplash couldn’t help but grin her face off as she was spat out into space and away from the Acheron. She loved nothing more than flying and she was one hell of an instinctive pilot, however she was also reckless and had absolutely no regard for flight safety rules. The Colonial Fleet had recognised her skill, she had after all attended and passed the Fleet TOPGUN programme, which meant that they didn’t want to lose her from the service, at the same time however she had been the bane of literally every CAG she had ever served with. She had more dings against her name than she could count and had pretty much scuppered any chance for realistic career progression in the Colonial Fleet; but as long as she could fly then right now she didn’t care too much. As soon as she and her wingman, who went by the callsign ‘Snicker’, had cleared the Acheron they pulled up hard and to port, linking up with a second pair of Vipers who had also launched, before kicking in their main thrusters to catch up with the existing four Vipers that had been flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) around the Acheron.

“All outbound Vipers, this is the CAG,” Major Adam Castello, the Commander Air Group, said crisply as Whiplash and the rest of the Vipers formed on his wing. “We’ve got an unknown vessel out there, we’re here in case it launches fighters to give Acheron time to get the rest of the group in the air, so stick close and be ready.”

Whiplash couldn’t help but feel more than a little nervous as the reinforced CAP proceeded outbound towards the target. As Major Castello had said their role was to engage any hostile fighters that were launched to give the Acheron time to launch more Vipers and to engage the enemy herself. Unfortunately there was every possibility that they would have to tangle the enemy ship on their own, and their odds in such an engagement were slim to say the least if it was armed in any reasonable fashion; they were not armed with any anti-ship missiles nor did they have so-armed Raptors following them up. Despite her skill and experience in exercises this was Whiplash’s first time performing a live interception, and from the sweat gently beading on her forehead, although she took some comfort from the next broadcast from Acheron.

“Attention unknown vessel, this is the Battlestar Acheron; identity yourself of we will fire upon you.”

Posted: **Tue Feb 21, 2017 10:28 am**

Unknown Space
Audeamus

Captain Melody Insaro, had to keep herself from humming a small tune as she sat on the bridge of her ship, Audeamus, ready to translate out into the next star system. Still she could barely believe she managed to get this far without being found out. Even with the network in place in the military and on Maxis Laudi as a whole, she was amazed that no one had suspected her. She wasn't exactly the first AI to be forced into military service because it was, strangely, the safest place for AI. Her android body was light skinned with long white hair and blue eyes, the realism extended beyond the looks, it had warmth and a pulse, the ability to 'process' food, and even sexual parts. It was as close to human as it could get, and unless one took a detailed scan or saw the android body take damage that should of killed a human, it was extremely hard to find out if it was real or not. Even though white hair was an uncommon trait at best in younger populations, she had the 'DNA' profile to justify it. But she'd been merely an AI used to help with DJing a radio station, intelligence level 2.3. Which hadn't exactly been the most human-like AI ever created.

But when the ban came down and she managed to live through the first couple purges, her evasion and learning knocked her up from 2.3 to a 1.0, on level with a human. And then Daz had found her and took her in, getting her one of the android bodies and putting her through the Naval Academy. She'd struggled at first, but she'd adapted and was pleased to find herself promoted the captain of one the many cruisers, the Audeamus. The ship was small by any standard, only 510 meters, but it was a powerful little thing, and she was glad to have her. She even got to personalize the paint job like every other captain in the service did.

Out here looking around for pirates, slavers, etc. Maybe even other planets to settle.

"Captain, 50 seconds to hyperwarp exit." Her helms officer said. Melody gave a nod, good. Maybe she'd have to get with her XO and see if they could do some maneuvering practice in the next system after studying it. crew was probably getting bored.

The ship that imposed itself on the star system, 510 meters long, painted in an interesting patchwork of confusing black and white sat there for a few moments before realizing it was being approached by fighters and its raised it sheilds. Its power signature (if they could see that) spiked, but no weapons became active.

After receiveing the message one was quick to come back, in English, female voice.

"Battlestar Acheron, this is Maxis Laudian Naval ship Audeamus. We are here to chart and explore star systems, we mean you no harm.

Posted: **Tue Feb 21, 2017 12:14 pm**

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

"Acheron, Longshot, reading an spike in the energy readings from the unknown contact,” Major Castello reported back to the Battlestar as the intercepting flight continued to speed towards their target. “DRADIS is also showing an odd energy reading around the ship.”

Whiplash split her attention between glancing across at Major Castello’s Viper, glaring down at the DRADIS display in her cockpit trying to get an idea of what was going on and straining her eyes into the distant out her canopy searching for the hostile ship she knew they were rapidly approaching. The sweat beading along her forehead was only getting worse and she was nervously flexing her fingers around the stick; the tension was driving her mad. If they had known full well that it was an enemy ship, a Cylon no matter how unlikely that was after forty-years of peace, then they would know what they were flying into, but the fact that they were likely flying at an unknown made it ever worse. She knew that theories would be speeding through the minds of everyone aboard the Battlestar, and her attendant escort vessels, everything from this being a ship belonging to the lost tribe to it being an alien vessel straight out of science fiction. Moreover that made things so uncertain; if it was a Cylon then they at least had the comfort of knowing that they could, probably, take the damn thing out; if it was an alien ship then that was by no means certain.

After all, what if that energy reading was something as fanciful as an energy shield or some such alien technology!

“Longshot, this is Acheron-Actual; we’re reading the same thing on long range DRADIS, but we do not appear to be getting pinged by anything more than their area-search either,” Commander Spencer replied promptly. “No indication that we or you are getting locked up by fire control DRADIS… assuming of course they use DRADIS… continue to close with an investigate.”

“Roger that Actual.”

By this point they were quite far out from the Acheron and rapidly approaching the unknown vessel, indeed Whiplash could just about to see the contact growing larger ahead of her. Her eyes were having difficulty in properly forming the ship, most likely due to the unusual paint scheme it was sporting, one seemed designed to dazzle the senses.

As the unknown contact crew larger however it was becoming increasingly obvious that the ship was neither Colonial nor anything the Cylons had ever come up with before; it simply looked too different. They had known from the silhouette that it was unlikely to be friendly or a known Cylon vessel but seeing it with their own eyes was something else entirely. A quick order from the CAG altered their course to ensure that they didn’t slam directly into whatever that strange energy reading was, none of them particularly wanted to risk tangling with it in case it was something unfortunate, or deadly. The flight of Vipers performed a close flyby of the unknown vessel, but as there were no hostile fighters launching and given that they were not fired upon it was pretty safe to say that the ship did not wish them harm, at least not right now.

The Vipers settled into an overwatch position whilst they awaited orders.

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

“How can they be broadcasting in Kobolic?” Lieutenant McKay frowned.

“Unimportant at this point, we’ll deal with it when we get to that point, but it seems unlikely that it’s the lost tribe with a name like that,” Commander Spencer replied crispy. “Do we have anything approaching a technical readout on that ship yet?”

Major Amelia Hastings, the Tactical Operations Officer, stepped up to the plot table with a printout of just that information. Major Hastings was a competent officer, she had been posted here specifically at the request of a high-ranking male Admiral; when looking at the rest of her service record it didn’t take a genius to guess whose ire she had piqued to get stationed to the Acheron.

“The vessel is approximately five hundred meters in length, it’s certainly smaller than even one of our Ophan-Class Escortstars, so we’re presuming it serves a similar role if it is a warship,” Major Hastings reported, referring to the two smaller vessels that made up the Acheron’s escort. “Other than that we can’t get a good read on their weapons emplacement from this range; and that energy field is looking a whole hell of a lot like something out of science fiction; I’d say we’re dealing with an energy shield.”

“Sweet Lords of Kobol, that could severely blunt the effectiveness of our weapons,” Colonel Constanza commented grimly as she stepped up to the plot table opposite Spencer. “Where did this ship come from?”

“We can’t worry about that now, XO, we deal with what we have right in front of us and the questions will answer themselves in good time,” Spencer replied with a subtle shake of his head. “I want to get a whole lot more information before we report this to Fleet Headquarters, and as long as they don’t attack us I think we can afford to do just that.”

Constanza nodded her agreement with Spencer’s sentiment; with a reputation like the Acheron’s there would be little point in reporting the situation until they had more information. As long as they weren’t under attack they would be able to take things slowly, and only report in when they had as much information as possible; it was selfish perhaps to ensure that the situation reflected as well upon them as possible but the Acheron needed every advantage they could get.

“Get me return broadcast,” Spencer ordered.

Audeamus, this is Acheron-Actual. Your designation is unknown to us. From which world do you hail?

Posted: **Tue Feb 21, 2017 4:10 pm**

Unknown Space
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro,

Melody frowned slightly at the message, shouldn't it be obvious that they were not from any of their world's?

"Well skipper, it seems that were out matched here. Three larger ships, fighters..." Tactical said. "Good thing we aren't looking to fight."

"While that is true, com, keep the communication uplink hot and ready for transmission just in case this gets ugly." Melody said, smoothing a stray piece of hair back into place. " Also return message., Need to clarify some things to these people."

After a minute or so came a reply.

"Acheron-Actual. This is Captain Melody Insaro, commanding officer of the Audeamus. We are from the world and government, The Democratic Republic Of Maxis Laudi. We are here on a simple mission of exploration.

Alea iacta est,
Captain Melody Insaro."

Posted: **Tue Feb 21, 2017 4:41 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Commander Spencer frowned as he considered the message that they had received back; it certainly seemed that they were indeed dealing with an alien civilisation, gods only knew what they looked like over there, they sounded human enough but then it made no sense that they should be speaking kobolic in any event. This was so far outside of everything that Spencer had ever been trained for, indeed anything that any Colonial had ever expected to deal with. After two thousand years since they had left Kobol, and having never encountering an alien species, it was generally believed that there were no alien species out there. This was backed up by the general religious belief that it had only been possible for life to evolve on Kobol and, as given that only humans had evolved on Kobol (aside from the Lords of Kobol themselves of course) it was a given that there humans were indeed the only species out there. This entire affair flew in the face of everything that they had all been taught, whether they were particularly religious themselves most had accepted at least the idea that life had only evolved on Kobol and nowhere else. There was the possibility that these people descended from the Thirteenth Tribe, but somehow Spencer doubted it.

Of course such matters were all above his pay grade; as he had said to Colonel Constanza and Major Hastings his concern right now was dealing with the situation right in front of him.

Not that that was particularly easy to deal with, as he had to do his best to determine precisely what the intentions of these interlopers were. Somehow he doubted their claims to be here merely one exploration; what self respecting naval force had the time or resources to deploy ships on exploration missions? The Colonial Fleet committed its entire order of battle to protecting and defending the Twelve Colonies and its citizens in the Four Systems of Cyrannus, removing even one ship capable of long-range independent missions (more than likely a Battlestar, although perhaps a smaller Combatstar would suffice) would mean one less ship to defend against a renewed Cylon offensive, which was always possible. As such exploration missions conducted by the military would be criminally negligent of the Fleet’s real mission. Civilian ships might be possible, although they would likely lack the ability to defend themselves adequately, meaning that exploration missions for anything beside resource gathering around immediate systems was a pointless cause.

Which made him more than a little skeptical of their claim.

“What do we do now, Commander?” Colonel Constanza queried across the plot table.

“We’re not going to get any answers to the kind of questions that the Fleet is going to want by staring at each other on DRADIS across several SU worth of hard vacuum,” Spencer replied after a few moments. “I’m going to invite their Commanding Officer aboard… if nothing else it’ll ensure that that the Acheron gets remembered for something more than being a bunch of screw-ups if we have the first aliens aboard.”

“Very well, I’ll have a Marine honour guard assembled on the port hanger deck,” Constanza nodded.

“Comms, return broadcast.”

Audeamus, this is Acheron-Actual. I suspect that our discourse would be more effectively handled by our meeting in person; I would therefore invite you to join me aboard the Acheron. My Vipers will escort one of your support craft to a landing on our port flight pod.

Posted: **Wed Feb 22, 2017 5:28 am**

Unknown Space
Audeamus
Captain Melody Insaro

"Acheron, I will be delighted to meet you in person. I will be over shortly."

Came the short reply. After a couple minutes a shuttles separated from the small ship and began to make its way towards the battlestar, allowing the vipers to form up with it. The Shuttle was a sleek think, kind of small, and painted exactly like the ship was that confusing white and black striping. It was surprising fast, yet it was not as fast as its escorts were. In any event it didn't take too long for the shuttle to reach the port flight pod and come into land.

Once the shuttle was secure, the back hatch dropped and three people stepped out. Two were obviously marines and armed as such, but they took up post beside the shuttle, as the last person stepped down and walked towards the greeting party. In a sharp gray uniform with golden rank cuffs on the sleeve, the gray cap on her head having the symbol of her navy and the black visor having a few gold leafs of sorts on it it seemed. The woman herself had long white hair,halfway down her back and bright blue eyes with a light tan skin. But she was human.

Or at least looked liked it.

"Greetings, I am Captain Melody Insaro." She said formally, her accent nothing like any of them had heard before, but it was English. "I believe your commander invited me over, if that is who this 'actual' is and not just a codename for something else."

Posted: **Wed Feb 22, 2017 2:45 pm**

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

“All Vipers, this Acheron, assume escort positions around the alien shuttle and bring it in.”

With a wave of acknowledgements the six Vipers moved into position around the alien shuttle as he launched from its mothership and began to make its way towards the Battlestar Group. Given that this was a hostile escort two assumed positions on either wingtip and the other four immediately astern of the target; none of them strayed in front of the target and, more than likely, the firing of arc of any weapons it carried. The intent was to ensure that, at any given moment, the target vessel could be shot down, whether with a well placed burst of auto cannon fire or with an anti-fighter missile, indeed Whiplash was carefully ensuring that the unknown shuttle firmly in her gunsights as they sped towards home. As she examined the shuttle ahead of her she couldn’t really understand exactly what the intention was with the paint scheme; sure it was difficult on the eyes but against the stark blackness of space it still stuck out like a sore thumb even if it was dazzling on the eyes to say the least, but beyond that she couldn’t see its purpose. Of course they had bigger things to think about right now.

One of which was the question of what precisely was inside that shuttle; the rumour mill was working overtime assuming that the aliens, and indeed that was what Whiplash believed right now. As they continued forwards she thumbed the activator for the secure wireless between the Vipers.

“Longshot, Whiplash,” She said simply to the CAG. “What do you make of this Boss?”

“Fraked if I know, Whiplash; for now we just focus on what’s right in front of us,” The CAG replied dryly. “We leave the rest to the Commander.”

“Roger that.”

By now they were getting close the Acheron and it was obvious that, even if one of the aliens was coming over to see the Commander, precautions were being taken to be better prepared to defend against a surprise attack. One of the Escortstars, the Spear, had moved into a position that would enable her to put down a withering barrage of defensive fire along the vector upon which the alien ship sat, whilst the other, Escortstar Phalanx, was moving out with the Gunstar Cerberus into a flanking position to put down additional offensive firepower in support of Acheron. An additional four Vipers had been launched to fill in for the CAP and alert aircraft whilst they were out of position. As they got closer it would also be clear just how larger the Acheron was. The Battlestar was some fourteen hundred meters in length, the Cerberus was eleven hundred meters on her own, even the two Escortstars were over six hundred meters in length. There was no more comforting sight for any Colonial pilot than that of a Battlestar and Whiplash personally doubted that would ever change.

That same sense of awe she was feeling now as they began their approach onto the port flight deck never went away.

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Commander Spencer watched with professional approval as the Marine honour guard moved into position as the alien shuttle was towed into position by the deck crew. The Colonial Marines were well turned out as always; they were adorned in the more formal Dress Grans uniform and were armed with highly polished, if still fully functional and quite deadly, rifles which they carried and moved with precision. Spencer by contrast was still in his normal service blues uniform; after all he had absolutely no intention of changing into the quite frankly cumbersome, if very good lucking, dress uniform if he could at all avoid it. In addition to these two uniforms also on display were any number of others; the distinctive flight suits of the pilots, the colourful jumpsuits of the deck gang and the standard olive-green fatigues as was typically worn by enlisted personnel if they weren’t actively working the deck. These latter were all visible because the arrival of the unknown shuttle on their hanger deck had, naturally, attracted a lot of attention from anyone who could see what was going on and few of them, officer or enlisted, were particularly interested in showing any restraint when it came to gawking at the ship and, soon enough, its occupants.

They were however keeping a respectful distance away so Spencer didn’t mind too much, and he knew the Crew Chiefs would get them back to work soon enough.

As the shuttle was finally moved into position Spencer considered what was about to step out of it. But it was safe to say that he did not expect what proceeded to do just that; indeed he and everyone else around him were simply shocked to see a human, more or less, step down from the shuttle and onto the deck. That blew all the assumptions about it being an alien species, which could at least have been understandable, out of the water and brought back the possibility of this being the Thirteenth Tribe back on the table. At the very least it was a question that was going to need to be answered at some point; just how human were these people, was it just their appearance was so damned close or were they bona fide humans. The honour guard recovered first and performed a crisp present arms; even if this was a foreign (it didn’t seem right to call them aliens any more) officer (one of comparatively low rank as far as they were aware, in the Colonial Fleet a Captain was a junior officer rank) there should still be military courtesy rendered, it was polite if nothing else. Spencer watched as the officer approached and whist he didn’t salute, not only was this apparently a lower ranking officer (albeit a Ship Commander) but in general a Battlestar Commander didn’t salute anyone on the deck of his ship short of flag rank, he did not respectfully.

“Welcome aboard the Acheron, Captain Insaro, I am Commander Alexander Spencer, Commanding Officer of this Battlestar,” Specner said formally. “Thank You for coming aboard; this is an usual situation for us.”

Spencer gestured towards one of the passageways that would take them into the ship.

“If you would follow me to our Wardroom… it’s more quite than a hanger deck like this,” Spencer added. “It’ll also make it far more likely that my deck gang get their asses back to work!”

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:16 am**

Unknown Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"Of course Commander." Melody said with a smile, not seeming terribly surprised by the fact that they were humans (or humanlike) like she was. she nodded to the marines who stayed where they were to protect the shuttle. Seems she was confident that she was in no danger here to not need an escort.

"Thus is quite a nice looking ship you have here commander." She said as they began the walk to the wardroom. "Never seen a ship of this size before, is she a capital ship?" She paused for a moment. "Like a mainline warship instead of an escort?"

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 2:34 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

As they walked through the passageways of the ship it became immediately obvious just how busy an environment a Colonial Battlestar was; officers and enlisted making their way about their daily duties, or their off-duty time in some cases. After all there were more than five thousand men and women stationed aboard Acheron, and their duties took them all over the ship in some cases. Furthermore unlike many a science-fiction flick (even those based aboard a fictional Battlestar), where the corridors where bright and uncluttered places the corridors (whilst hardly being dark) were not unnecesserially lit and there was various bits of cargo and equipment stacked along the bulkheads, although never enough to block the passageway in any meaningful way. In short the Colonial Battlestar was a working warship, she was not a cruise ship or a civilian vessel, but even with all this taken in mind she was still tidy and well-presented, in a uncompromisingly utilitarian sort of way. It was also obvious, although their guests wouldn’t know any better, that for all the crew’s reputations and shortcomings on duty they were professional and did their jobs, all straightening a little as their Commander approached and passed them, it was to him that they all felt most loyal after all.

“She is indeed, the Battlestar is the mainstay of the Colonial Fleet; equal parts carrier and battleship; the Acheron is the oldest in the fleet, now that the Battlestar Galactica has been decommissioned,” Spencer replied with a proud smile, for all he commanded an ageing ship with a crew that the Fleet considered troublemakers he couldn’t be prouder. “There are a hundred and twenty or so other Battlestars in the Fleet, each of which operates with a collection of other vessels in what we call a Battlestar Group, or BSG.”

Spencer paused.

“The larger of the three ships you saw on your way in that makes up the rest of our BSG is the Gunstar Cerberus, designed to run heavy escort for the Acheron, whilst also more than capable of engaging an enemy vessel ship-to-ship,” Spencer added, without giving too many details there was no harm in answering his guests questions. “The other two ships are the Escortstars Spear and Phalanx, as their name would suggest their role is to fly escort for us; we can put up a significant defensive fusillade ourselves, but more is never a bad thing.”

By the time Spencer had finished speaking they had arrived in the wardroom; which served as the principal conference and meeting room for dignitaries. Unlike the majority of the rest of the ship the floor was carpeted (a lovely shade of blue) and the large desk at the centre of the room was of a gorgeous polished oak. Around the perimeter of the room were twelve flags, each identifying one of the twelve colonies whilst the last flag represented the Twelve Colonies as a whole. Spencer gestured for Captain Insaro to have a seat, he himself sitting opposite her as a deckhand appeared with a jug of iced water and two glasses.

“Now Captain, as you may have gathered, this is the first time that any Colonial Battlestar has come into contact with an, ahem, alien civilisation, and as far as we know no civilian has either, as such its an uncertain moment for us,” Spencer commented with a slight smile. “Now out here on the frontier I’ve got the ability to take things slowly and gather all the information I can about you and your people before I make my report to Fleet Headquarters, at which point I suspect things will get quite busy for both of us as the machinery of government roars into action.”

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:57 pm**

Unknown Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

As they walked, Melody listened carefully to the commander talk about his ship. It did seem to be quite the important ship, and he did sound to be quite proud of his ship. She of course studied carefully as they walked, making notes of what she might want to write down later in a report to her government about these people and their ships. While she would never claim her ship was fancy, everything here seemed a bit too utilitarian. Her own ship's passages were a tad bit wider, and a little less... post-apocalyptic? It just seemed weird. But all the information she took in, knowing what these ships were and their roles would be of use in case they became friends or enemies.

Not to mention she had to bring up the AI litmus test. She didn't like doing that, because if she wasn't careful, if they didn't like AIs, then if she was too quick to pour on the hate herself, she risked being called fake and possibly revealed. If they had AIs or supported them in some way, she'd have to be extra careful in how she phrased herself. She wasn't sure what she would do, her crew and officers knew she didn't like AIs (just like the rest of them) but she wasn't a vehement hater, so she might get away with a disgusted look and saying something lie 'as long as you can control them.'

As they entered the wardroom and sat down, she gratefully took the glass of water and took a sip as he explained exactly why this was such an important occasion. Funny that they didn't have too many outside contacts themselves (beyond some roaming traders and the Earth they settled from,), but she was the more calm of the two of them.

Then again she was AI, that gave her a little bit of an advantage she guessed.

"I am glad to have met you out here while on patrol. Its a much nicer occurrence then finding hostiles like pirates or slavers." Melody said. "But to start, I am from, as I've told you, The Democratic Republic of Maxi Laudi, our motto is Alea iacta est. We are a one star, one-inhabited planet nation. Relatively small by galactic standards I assume. We have been trying to put out feelers for others for a while, as so far we have come across pirates, slavers, and roaming traders from nations we can probably never travel to in a reasonable amount of time, we have only one other inhabited star to keep up company with which we trade, our 'home' star system from which Maxis Laudi was settled. Spero autem die we will grow into a much larger nation, but for now we are..."

She stopped for a moment and gave a small laugh. "I'm sorry, in my nation its not uncommon to use a different language called Latin mixed with our regular language called English. I said 'I hope one day' we will grow into a much larger nation. If I say something you can't understand, please tell me and I'll make sure to say it so you can understand."

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:11 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Spencer nodded his understanding; although Kobolic was far and away the dominant language of the Twelve Colonies (as it was the common language they all shared) there were some minor languages that were only existent on one of the individual Colonies, and whilst they rarely got mixed up with each other he could, just about, see how it was possible that they could. Whilst he had been listening to the other information he was told he had been making some brief notes; his full report to Fleet Headquarters would be far more in depth but he wanted to get as many of the important points down in his notes. He knew that his report would inevitably get read at very high levels and as such he wanted to ensure it was perfect and that it had all the information any of them could ever possibly want to know; after all it would be damned good for a report with the Battlestar Acheron watermark to be remembered for positive content rather than yet another negative report or personnel assignment. In any event he learned two important things; the first was that this Democratic Republic was not some massive power that could prove to be a threat, and that there was plenty more intelligent life out there in the Galaxy.

“Thank you for that information, Captain, I think it’s only fair that I give you a little in return; the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, as our name might suggest, are a dozen major inhabited worlds spread across the Cyrannus star system, two pairs of binary stars that all orbit around a common barycentre,” Spencer explained, handing over a print out of the basic layout of the system. “The Twelve Colonies have only been unified as a Federal Republic for a little over fifty years, before that each of the Colonies was an independent political entity, however that seems a long time ago now and for all the growing pains our relatively young Republic, compared to our thousands of years of history, we seem to be doing well.”

Spencer paused.

“As I mentioned; we have not previously encountered another civilisation from outside our own Star System; we have all the same undesirables you’ve encountered however ours are all, one way or another, from one of the Twelve Colonies, which at leasts makes dealing with them less of a legal minefield,” Spencer continued with a slight smile. “Although we’ve explored a little around our star system, and we maintain a handful of mining outposts, we’re not really a sort of people for exploration for explorations sake, and given that we didn’t find any life nearby many assumed there wasn’t any extra-colonial life, this encounter with you may change a few things.”

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:06 pm**

Unknown Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"Your star nation sounds amazing Commander." She said as she looked over the printout of the star system. Was this paper? She hadn't felt actual paper before, even the 'real' books in her cabin were made of specially formulated materials designed to last longer and generally be safer for use in space. She wondered if she could keep it. That probably seemed stupid, but Maxis never used paper because it was a waste of resources and space. "I'm not sure we've ever seen or heard of a star system like this, the fact that your people managed to settle it and make it work is just wonderful." She had to keep herself from singing a small tune as she continued her study of the print out.

"Its a large galaxy out there Commander. It takes a lot of resources to dedicate people and ships to exploring. I was out here with my ship to explore as a secondary to making sure that there were no pirates or anything that could threaten us. It will be nice to know we have a friendly neighbor." She shifted slightly, and reached to take another sip of water. Sometimes it was so cumbersome to act human, like drinking water, she preferred when all she had to worry about was selecting the next song on the radio and telling everyone news and weather.

Now she just needed to broach the topic of AIs and technology. And she was holding a good conversational piece right here.

"I do have a question, is this paper you're using?" She asked, tapping the printout in her hands. "I've never actually touched it before, Maxis Laudi is all digital, holograms, various chips and tablets all connected together in a network to allow for ease of information sharing. "Ignosce mihi, forgive me, I don't mean to insult your technology, but... I've never used paper before. Only read about it."

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:19 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Spencer nodded slowly; clearly these people would be in for a surprise if they ever encountered the Cylons! By the Gods it sounded as if their entire ship would be open for incursion and even the strongest firewall would only delay a Cylon incursion, not stop it completely, more to the point if their entire ship was networked… It was true that many in the Colonial Fleet had begun to forget just how dangerous networks could be; with the advent of the Command Navigation Program (CNP), which was vaunted to be Cylon proof, the use of networks aboard Colonial warships had been approved. Although he had not been alive during the Cylon War serving aboard the Acheron had brought home just how effective a warship could still be without networks, and just how vulnerable a networked ship would be if it was compromised by the Cylons, and whilst CNP was supposedly Cylon proof… what if it wasn’t.

“All that technology still exists in the Twelve Colonies, Captain, particularly in the civilian sphere, indeed in recent years the Colonial Fleet had begun to bring networked systems back into mainline service,” Spencer commented. “However the Acheron was built in a time where networked computer systems were the single biggest threat to their survival, and in respect of those who lost their lives aboard this ship I felt it more appropriate this way.”

Spencer shrugged.

“Although not networked there are thousands of computer systems aboard this Battlestar, and although in some cases a network will speed up reaction times or effectiveness, the ship is still vey effective without a network, it just requires a slicker crew and much more training, after all I could still put a main battery round into your ship without a network, not that I would want to!” Spencer added. “As I mentioned ships like the Acheron were built specifically to defend against an enemy that had the skills and expertise to use our own computer systems against us; without a network however the enemy would not be able to compromise anything more than the communications systems, or perhaps DRADIS, in short not enough to take the ship out of the fight.”

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:29 pm**

Unknown Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

Okay. So that sounded like a digital type of enemy. But people could create viruses to broadcast to enemy ships if they knew the base code of the system, or just brute force it if necessary. She had to probe further. She needed to know. After all she was an AI sitting alone at a table with people who she'd just met. She was glad she had a concealed pistol in her tunic and as an AI would have a much faster reaction time then a human. She hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"I get that. Maxis Laudi has never had problems with people trying to get into our computer systems." Melody folded her hands in her lap.

Though, she thought sourly, The great AI escape Suda pulled while I was in the home system did show the downside to having such a heavily networked world.

"Who was this enemy? And I"m assuming that by your use of past tense you've defeated them?"

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:48 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Spencer was about to answer when a broadcast over the main intercom attracted his attention.

“This is the XO, all hands pass word for the Commander; contact CIC.”

Spencer frowned but never the less stood from his seat and made his way over to one of the internal comm stations and picked up the handset and punched in the code for the CIC.

“This is the Commander, go ahead.”

 “I’m sorry to disturb you, Sir, but we have a priority one alert message from Fleet Headquarters,” Colonel Constanza replied promptly, with an grim an uncertain tone in her voice. “It was transmitted in the clear.”

Spencer’s frown deepened; that was highly unusual.

“In the clear, what does it say?”

“Attention all Colonial units; Cylon attack underway,” Constanza said, as if she couldn’t believe the words she was reading. “This is no drill.”

For a moment Spencer was silent and frozen as the news hit him like a body blow. This was what literally each and every person in the Colonial Defence Forces had been worried about for the last forty years; a renewed Cylon campaign. Sure it was true that the Colonial Fleet was ten times as strong as it had been during the war but it stood to the reason that the Cylons had not been left napping either, and that last war had dragged on for twelve years. Moreover he found himself hoping to the gods that the potential threat posed by a network he had just been discussing proved to be unfounded, and that the CNP proved to be as Cylon proof as its advocates claimed it would be. If the last war was anything to go by then the Colonial Fleet would have the upper hand ship-to-ship, but then that was why the Cylons had always done their best to outnumber the Battlestars, and given that they could just build more ships and soldiers far easier than the Colonials could, they were experts at attrition warfare.

“Sound action stations,” Spencer ordered grimly. “I’ll be right up.”

Hanging up the phone Spencer turned back to his guest.

“You wanted to know what the enemy was, Captain, you’re about to find out,” He sighed. “You’re welcome to join me in the CIC.”

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

“Action Stations, Action Stations; set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill. Repeat, action stations, action stations; set condition one throughout the ship, this is no drill…”

As the distinctive and unmistakable alarm began to sound through the decks of the ship Whiplash stood on the hanger deck and, like pretty much everyone else, looked around in confusion at each other; the Acheron had not gone to action stations outside of a drill in years. They all knew what to do of course but the idea that they actually had to, and without any real warning, was surprising to say the least. Never the less their training, and the shouted orders of the senior petty officers, got everyone moving. Whiplash herself sprinted back along the hanger dec towards where her Viper was waiting for her; at action stations the entire air wing would man their planes and be placed into the launch tubes, ready to launch as soon as they received orders to do so from the CIC. Her heart was racing in her chest as she scrambled up the ladder into her cockpit and quickly got to work on the checklist with her plane chief. Even as they worked quickly to get the Viper ready to fly it was obvious from both their faces that they, along with everyone else aboard, had the same question; what the hell was going on?

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:00 pm**

Unknown Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

"Of... Of Course Commander." Melody said slowly, looking worried. She didn't have her skinsuit with her... not that it would matter for her, she didn't need oxygen to function, but it was such an automatic reflex to want it she almost laughed. An AI wanted a skinsuit so she could breath oxygen her android body didn't need? Daz and all the other experts AI coders really knew how to program a human being.

She followed him through the now bustling passages of his ship to the CIC... god this place looked like it was from the time when Navy was only a thing in the ocean! But she didn't make any comment like that as her eyes flicked across what data she could try to interpret. What she could only describe as space radar was showing her ship sitting far from her new friends. She reached up to place a hand on her hear, hearing a slight 'shhh' noise of the earbug she'd worn in case she needed to tell the shuttle crew something. They could relay orders to her ship.

"Commander, I might, technically, have the higher rank but this isn't my star system, nor an enemy I know. Do you want Audeamus's help or should I send her off?"

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:20 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

As soon as they arrived in the CIC Spencer made his way over to the plot table and the central DRADIS console; his eyes immediately locking on the display and discovering that, thankfully, no Cylons had deigned to grace the Acheron with their presence. Colonel Constanza immediately stepped up beside him with a report that all sections were reporting that condition one was set, as were all three ships in the rest of the Battlestar Group. Spencer acknowledged the report and was soon at the centre of a flurry of information as his officers quickly briefed him, or handed him printouts, on their department’s status and readiness for combat. Few knew exactly what was going on, indeed no one outside of the CIC yet knew that it was the Cylons that were causing this excitement, but they would soon enough. Spencer signed heavily as he was handed another print out detailing communications that had been received in the time that it had taken him to reach the CIC, his eyes widening slightly as he read it, his heart sinking in his chest.

Looking up he could see an odd look on Constanza’s face, for all she was his always confident XO it was obvious that she was looking to him right now for leadership and guidance, as was everyone, and he did not intend to let them down.

Glancing over at his guest as she asked her question he chuckled without much mirth.

“Not in my fleet, Captain is a junior officer rank for us” Spencer replied flatly. “It’s up to you Captain, but you should listen to this.”

Picking up the main broadcast handset he took a deep breath before speaking, knowing that every man and women aboard the Acheron, and her escorts, would be waiting on his every word.

“This is the Commander. Moments ago this ship received word that a Cylon attack against our home worlds is underway. As yet we do not know the strength or disposition of the enemy forces, but all indications point toward a massive assault against Colonial defences,” Spencer said grimly. “Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia, following the complete destruction of Picon Fleet Headquarters in the opening wave of the assault, preliminary reports suggesting a thermonuclear warhead in the fifty megaton range was detonated there, with other nuclear detonations reported at key military facilities on for other colonies.”

Spencer paused.

“How and why don’t matter anymore; all that does matter at this moment in time is that ware at war; casualties will be high but we must mourn the dead later, right now our duty to get this ship into the fight,” Spencer continued. “We’ve all trained for this; so trust that training, trust your shipmates and trust yourselves and we’ll get through this, more updates as we get them. That is all.”

Spencer sighed heavily and leant forward on the plot table for a moment.

“Tactical; based on comm traffic begin a plot of all military vessels in the solar system, friendly or otherwise, once we get back I want it updated fully using DRADIS,” He ordered after a few moments of expectant silence. “FTL, start plotting a jump home; the Fleet is forming up near Virgon’s orbit, so let’s plot a jump into the Helios Beta system and we’ll take matters from there.”

The two officers nodded and quickly turned to their teams to begin carrying out their Commanders orders, and it was obvious that everyone concerned was just pleased to have something to do; the worst thing in a situation like this was to have too much time to think, especially with far too little information. It was only once he was satisfied that his orders were underway that Spencer turned back to his guest.

“Captain, this entire sector has just turned into a war zone; I cannot ask your ship for help or commit your nation to a war you know nothing about even if I could,” Spencer replied evenly. “If you want to return to your ship now would be the time, if the Cylons don’t find us out here we’ll be jumping back home soon enough to join the defence.”

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:10 pm**

Colonial Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

she felt a bit of a smile flash across her face, not that she was amused at the difference in their ranks, it was just a different system apparently. Perhaps one based off an army chain instead of a navy one like her own was. But Melody listened carefully to the Commander speak and felt dread grip her. Dear god this was bad. There had to be millions of people who were dying in the attacks on the military installations alone. She realized in war that those were fair game, but for everything to be toppled so quickly? Nothing could be that efficient and calulating to pull something like that off.

An AI could do it. A small part of her mind thought to herself. Suda caused mass chaos in her departure, other AIs went down fighting to the tune of quite a few military units, don't forget the incident that has you standing here where a rogue AI managed to take control of the planetary aircar grid and kill thousands during peak traffic hours. She felt herself pale at the very thought. She could pass it off as shock for their losses.

Melody was snatched from her dark thoughts when Spencer offered her her way out. She straightened a little. "Commander, I cannot in good conscience leave you when you have just described such a horrible first strike in a war, I want to help you strike back at these 'cylons' for what they've done. A 50 megaton nuke on a planet is a warcrime from where I'm from,especially when no one gave any chance to surrender." She paused for a moment, glancing at the lone contact that was her ship on the DRADIS CONSOLE. "Let me help you Commander. I'm sure we can be of some use, even if its only point defense. However, I cannot force you accept my offer, if you order me to leave I will."

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:11 am**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

Spencer glanced across at Captain Insaro and considered her offer. Truth be told he knew that the Colonies could use every bit of help they could; although he had confidence in the Colonial Fleet’s ability to rally in order to defeat their foe he also knew that the Cylons had certainly dealt them a heavy blow in a very short span of time, sure they had now lost the element of surprise but the damage was done, after all Picon Fleet Headquarters’ loss would be felt for years to come, both in terms of the strategic planning capability lost but also the fallout from the nuclear blast. Hell, Spencer just hoped that the Cylons were restraining themselves to only striking military targets; or that the Battlestar Groups protecting each of the planets could prevent them from striking civilian targets; if they did so with nukes then the the casualties would be in the billions; gods knew that they were already going to be n the millions as is, and that was a sobering thought. However as he had said to his people right now they couldn’t afford to think about that, all they had to focus on was getting the Acheron into the fight.

“I cannot force you to go, Captain, not when you are offering me your help, but I am worried how vulnerable your ship will be to Cylon hacking attempts; I’m sure your firewalls and defences are strong, but if you are as heavily networked as you say then if they manage to get in they could shut down your entire ship,” Spencer said cautiously. “You’ve also never encountered the Cylons before, so you won’t know how best to defend against their incursions, leaving your ship more vulnerable… but if you are willing to take those risks then I will allow you to stay.”

Spencer paused.

“My only condition is that you follow my orders if we find ourselves in combat; unless the Cylons have dramatically changed their way of fighting over the past forty years we know how to fight them effectively,” Spencer added. “If your ship is going to stay it should slot itself into a position alongside the Escortstar Phalanx, and your people should co-ordinate with my Tactical Officer, Major Hastings.”

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:19 am**

Colonial Space
Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

You have no idea of the kind of the kind of defenses we can put up. Melody thought. Maybe not her, that wasn't her specialty, but she did have a few cyber security AI aboard her command, one of which was her com officer. She'd have to keep the com officer out of it unless things really went south, but the other two were in other postings in medical so they could, if needed, protect the ship's computers. After all the entire medical department was staffed by AI or supporters, so they wouldn't say anything if one had to start acting like an AI.

But she was starting to have a sinking feeling that these Cylons were not biological enemies.

"I her by put myself, and the Audeamus, in manu tua, at your mercy and under your command Commander." She said formally, tapping her earbug. "Shuttle, relay to Audeamus, get yourself into formation alongside the ship called Phalanx, I have been informed that a hostile civilization has attacked these people's homeworlds. We are staying to help fend off these attackers. XO is in change until I can get back."

She watched as her ship kicked itself into high gear, as it sped up to join them. The ship closing the gap between them and settling alongside Phalanx. She was happy to see the way the ship had responded to her commands.

"I guess I should make my way back to my own ship and leave you to yours."

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:52 am**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

“Very well, Captain,” Spencer nodded. “Good hunting.”

“DRADIS contact!”

Spencer’s head snapped up to the DRADIS screens above the plot table. Sure enough there were now three contacts on the display that did not immediately assume the marker that identified them as bearing a Colonial IFF transponder, which would have happened automatically if that had been the case. Although as his guest and her ship had demonstrated it was entirely possible for there to be other civilisations out there the timing meant that he could only assume that it was the Cylons. Sure enough a few moments later his fears were confirmed.

“Rated highly probable Cylon baseships,” Major Hastings reported grimly. “New contacts detected, Sir, they’re launching Raiders.”

Sure enough the DRADIS display was blossoming with new contacts, indeed by the time they finished appearing twelve hundred such contacts had appeared. Spencer nodded slowly; this at least was expected; the Cylons were known to employ Raiders in significant numbers in order to adequately protect their motherships from attacking Vipers and to keep the Battlestars at arms length where they couldn’t harm them. Fortunately unless things had dramatically changed over the past forty years he could be confident that the Vipers would be able to outfly his foes, and his own defensive fire would keep the enemy at arms length. Never the less he knew that his air group was gong to be heavily outnumbered, their job in this case would be to keep the enemy well clear of the Battlestar Group.

“I wouldn’t head out there if I were you, Captain,” Spencer commented to Insaro. “Looks like you’re stuck with us.”

He then immediately turned his attention back to the DRADIS display as the hostile Raiders were beginning to approach.

“Weapons grid to full power,” Colonel Constanza ordered from across the plot table. “Standby for enemy suppression barrage.”

“Incoming, five twenty Cylon Fighters, closing at two one eight mark two,” Major Hastings reported. “Remainder are holding back to cover their baseships.”

“Enemy suppression fire,” Spencer ordered crisply. “All batteries execute.”

“All batteries, commence firing,” Constanza relayed the order into her headset.

The five hundred and twelve light dual kinetic energy batteries opened fire, sending their rounds speeding away from the Battlestar at high speed, ripping into the advancing wall of enemy fighters, these were joined by the twenty-four dual heavy kinetic energy batteries that made up the main armament of the Battlestar; these latter firing in their flak mode, adding a significant amount of fire to the defensive effort. Although none of the other ships could put up the same sheer volume of fire as the Battlestar the rest of the group opened up as well, either shoring up the Battlestars defensive fire or adding an extra vector of fire in the case of the Gunstar which was too far away from the Battlestar to benefit from its firing solution. The combined effort of the Battlestar Group ripped massive wholes into the Cylon formation, taking out a decent number of the Raiders before the Cylons turned back under heavy fire; they would have to find their ow way past the defensive fire.

“Perimeter established,” Major Hastings reported as the vibrations of the ships guns firing continued.

“Launch Vipers.”

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

Despite the terrible news that they had received Whiplash couldn’t help but feel a rush of exhilaration as she, along with the hundred and sixty other Vipers stationed aboard Acheron, sped away from their Battlestar. In the distance she could see that the Cylon base ships had started to open fire with missiles, although many of them would fall victim to the same defensive fire that had blunted the assault of their Raiders. Their job was to engage the enemy fighters, who were even now trying to work their way around the firing solution attained by the Acheron, in order to launch their own missiles at the Battlestar, so that the Acheron could rely on just her secondary batteries to suppress the enemy whilst they allowed their main batteries to engage the target. It wasn’t long before the wall of Cylon Raiders, thankfully far less than it had been before they had flown into the fires of hell, was on them and Whiplash found herself in the fight of her life, squeezing the trigger for her first kill was instinctive and she had absolutely no time to savour the moment as she found herself speeding after another Raider that was chasing down a friendly Viper; that just wouldn't do.

In the back of her head however she was wondering the same thing everyone else had; the Cylons had flown straight into the defensive fire of the Acheron, even if they had been hoping to get into firing range before the Battestar could respond it still didn’t make sense. It was almost like they hadn’t been expecting any defensive fire, but that would simply never happen.

Colonel Thaddeus Denning, CF
Gunstar Cerberus, Colonial Frontier System 22

Colonel Denning watched with professional eyes as the engagement unfolded on his DRADIS screens; for all that the Acheron and her crew had a bad reputation he couldn’t know how well they were responding to this attack, and it wasn’t like Commander Spencer was out here for incompetence or anything like that; just poor choices in his personal life. Denning and the Commander got on well, they talked regularly and dined together at least once a week; after all Denning was the senior officer of the escort detachment and even if Commander Spencer who was in overall command it was Denning who commanded the escort; after all Spencer had his own ship to worry about as much as the overall battle plan. By all accounts the Cylons were focusing the bulk of their fire on the Battlestar, which made sense given that it was the biggest target, but one of the basestars was detaching from the main group to counter the flanking action of the Cerberus; and that just wouldn’t do. However despite lacking a Viper complement the Gunstar was a powerful combatant in its own right, easily capable of taking on a Cylon base ship that lacked its raider complement, or one that did if he was in company with an Escortstar as he was.

“Incoming seventy-two Cylon raiders,” Captain Samuel Cutler, his Tactical Operations Officer, reported.

“Enemy suppression barrage, all secondary batteries,” Colonel Denning. “Primary battery; target the enemy baseship’s centre mass; one-to-one ratio AP to HE.”

It was just as the Cerberus was about to open fire that it all went wrong. In the blink of an eye every computer system and light in his CIC simply went off; the distinctive low vibration of the engines faded away to nothing and a deathly silence filled the compartment. Externally it would appear like someone had flipped a switch, turning off the Gunstar, which began to fall into an uncontrolled tumble as it was caught in the middle of a manoeuvre. There would be no weapons fire from the Gunstar, only that provided by the far older Escortstar; and she couldn't fight off a Cylon base ship alone. In one fell swoop his ship was effecting blind and dumb and unable to defend itself; only one question as important right now; what the hell had just happened?

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:22 pm**

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

Melody watched with something bordering on horrified fascination. She wanted to be with her own ship, making sure they knew what they were doing. She trusted her exec, but to be stuck as someone watching the fight and not actively participating was torture. She reached up to rub at her forehead, before taking her earpiece out, it was making a tad bit of strange... sound? It was functioning fine just a few moments earlier, what a time to have to take it out.

Even with the minor 'headache' she'd gotten from whatever was wrong with earpiece, she turned her attention to the DRADIS. She watched as the gunstar, the Cerberus was it? suddenly began an uncontrolled tumble. Almost like someone had just shut it off.

"Commander, your gunstar just got shut down." She said, perhaps a bit too quickly, but she didn't have anything else to do so her attention was focused on the DRADIS like her life depended on it. "But she's not even damaged!" She said, probably more to herself then to anyone else, but it was obvious the Laudian captain was confused as to why a ship would just stop working without a scratch on it.

The Audeamus seemed alright for now, her point defense was mostly of the 'light' variety rather then actual bullets, but they reached out with unerring efficiency to smack down missiles and Raiders as needed.

Aboard her, though the biological crew wouldn't know it, the two cyber security AIs that served the medical department aboard the ship were having a field day in the computers. While all AIs were outfitted for their 'human' jobs, their original uses is what was made them the happiest, and even with the weight of the current situation, the two were having fun driving out the viruses that were attempting to get into their ship. As such because of this unseen battle, the Audeamus stayed up and running without a single flicker. A missile, one lucky enough to get past the combined defenses, slammed into the shield, causing a ripple and energy surge, but no damage to the actual ship.

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:50 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

“I see it,” Commander Spencer nodded. “Tactical, what happened? She take a nuke somewhere soft?”

“Not that I can tell, Commander, she hadn’t even engaged the enemy yet,” Major Hastings replied with a confused expression on her face. “One minute she was moving into an attack position the next she was out of control and powered down; Spear is doing her best but…”

Spencer frowned as he looked up at the DRADIS display and considered the situation. What on Kobol could have caused that ship to simply stop working. Not even the Cylons could hack a secure system that quickly, as the cyber battle aboard the Luadian ship was showing; it should still take some time for the Cylons to get into the systems, and it wasn’t like the crew wouldn’t know that they were trying. And even if they had managed to get past the firewalls on the comm systems and DRADIS they’d still have had to fight their way through all the security features that had been built into the CNP when it had been approved for widespread deployment. It seemed impossible that this was enemy action; the only other explanation was that it was the worlds worst case of timing for the ship to develop a catastrophic fault. More unlikely things had happened, but it seemed almost too much bad luck for him to believe; after all the Cerberus was a young ship, such a catastrophic failure shouldn’t be possible. Although at this moment in time precisely what had happened wasn’t important; all that was important was in protecting that ship and the thousands of men and women aboard who were now defenceless.

“The Spear can’t hold back those Raiders for ever, Commander, they’ll be all over them both soon,” Hastings added as Spencer watched on DRADIS as the enemy Raiders continued to close on Cerberus. “They’ll need… incoming ordinance!”

Spencer grabbed onto the side of the plot table just in time as the entire Battlestar rumbled from an impact, thankfully a quick glance over at the damage control station suggested that it was a conventional warhead; clearly the Cylons were saving their nukes for when they had a better chance of hitting. Glaring back up at the DRADIS display Spencer made a quick decision; his own Vipers were holding their own against the enemy onslaught, even as the Cylons threw more and more fighters into the fray the Vipers worked closely with the fire control teams from both Acheron and Phalanx, as well as their new friends, to lure the Cylons into a hailstorm of defensive fire whilst generally making a good showing of themselves even if there were some Vipers being destroyed out there.

“Detail a squadron of Vipers to get out there and assist the Cerberus,” Spencer ordered firmly. “Helm; half ahead both engines, ten degrees up angle on the bow planes, lets put ourselves between the Cerberus and the enemy.”

As his orders began to be carried out Spencer scowled. His initial intention had been to engage the enemy, both in order to get a better idea of the modern Cylon’s capabilities, but also to get some payback for what had already been done to the Colonies, but now he was committed to this fight; with Cerberus out of action he couldn’t jump out if the tide of the battle turned against them; this would be a fight to the death now; one that the Colonials were at a disadvantage due to the loss of one of their ships; the situation could only have been worse if the Acheron herself had been taken out of action. It was also obvious that he had to take at least one of the enemy Cylons out sooner rather than later.

“Tactical; target the leading Cylon base ship with all main batteries, two-to-one, AP to HE; let’s rip those motherfrakers apart,” Spencer ordered flatly. “All primary batteries, execute.”

Even as the Acheron was beginning to move towards her lamed consort, with her firing solution constantly changing and her Vipers doing their upmost to hold back the enemy, her defensive fire was lessened slightly as her primary batteries turned their attention to one of the enemy ships and, after the few moments it took to reload, began to open fire. As the range closed the effectiveness of this fire began to increase steadily; and soon enough debris was flying from the Cylon ship as the Acheron’s AP rounds ripped through her hull and rippled with explosions as the HE round said their work as well.

“Reading sympathetic detonations throughout the lead enemy ship, DRADIS is reporting that the contact is beginning to break apart,” Major Hastings reported with a satisfied smile. “Incoming enemy fire is lessening, that second baseship is trying to link up with the one menacing Cerberus.” 

“Good shooting, but we’ve still got work to do,” Spencer replied crisply. “Switch target to third Cylon and fire at will, let’s see if we can’t take some of the fire off Cerberus.”

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

Whiplash growled with frustration as the Cylon she was after continued to skilfully evade her fire. A few moments ago her squadron had arrived around the Cerberus, having been detached to receive their stricken comrade, just in time to prevent the Raiders that had survived the defensive fire from Spear from ripping the crippled Gunstar apart. Their arrival had surprised the Cylons, who had seem almost fanatically focused on the destruction of their lamed prey; it was almost like they were mere animals caught up in the bloodlust of a hunt, but they had responded quickly enough ad the engagement had turned into an equally matched furball. At this point it was almost impossible to intelligently follow the course of the fight, it was all a combination of instinct and subconscious acknowledgement of the chatter on the fighter tac net, after all the modern dogfight was a confusing thing; the sheer manoeuvrability of both fighters concerned meant that the pilot could only focus on one thing; anything more and they risked losing focus as the critical moment and paying for it with their lives.

“Acheron to all Vipers, splash one Cylon baseship."

Whiplash allowed a smile to cross her features as she heard this report and this smile grew to a grin as she finally got a bead on the enemy fighter in front of her, ripping into it with her auto cannon fire until it disappeared in a small tyllium explosion. It was only now that she allowed herself to look around; they had managed to repel the enemy fighters but the base ship was still closing in on them and pounding the Gunstars’ armoured hide with missile after missile; she sure as hell hoped the Acheron could take her out of the fight sooner rather than later otherwise she doubted there’d be much left of the Cerberus, after all her armour could only protect her from so much.

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:21 pm**

Colonial Space
Battlestar Acheron
Captain Melody Insaro

One down, two the go. Melody mentally grimaced as her 'headache' grew, last time she felt this was the last time she was med bay getting serviced, like someone was trying to access the android software that ran her body.

Captain!

She almost lept out of her skin at the voice in her 'head', she was glad she all she did was twitch slightly, but she recovered, leaning against the plotting table to continue her watch over the battle.

You took out your earbud. It was her com officer, Jackson Limstom, or by his AI name Kit. Captain, we have everything under control here, the other two cyberAIs are protecting us against these yahoos. But while I am busy with keeping in touch with all of these people, that dead ship is a sitting target. Can I reverse access it to bring it under control?

You'll give yourself away, we have it under control Jackson. She responded. If they start launching dirty nukes, you make sure as hell Audeamus shoots them down. Surely tactical has information on the weapons they are using.

tactical knows of all the different types. If she gets a whiff of nuclear blast, the computers know to switch as well as she does.

She rubbed her temple, half frustrated she wasn't on her bridge right now. Nothing worse then being a ship captain stuck on another command deck. She watched her tiny ship shred through a few more raiders and suddenly shifted slightly, sending volley of her missiles towards one of the base ships. They were tiny things, but tiny as they were, they did contain radioactive warheads, the thinking behind it was if they found a moon or planetary base for the criminals, to turn into radioactive dust so they wouldn't be able to come back and reclaim their territory if they still had any ships left. nukes weren't often used against warships, not in Maxis Laudi's navy anyways, because of the shields, but against planetary targets, large staions and asteroids that needed to unclaimable they worked great. Fallout was expensive to clean up.

Posted: **Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:37 pm**

Commander Alexander Spencer, CF
Battlestar Acheron, Colonial Frontier System 22

“Commander, the Audeamus is engaging the second Cylon base ship with missile,” Major Hastings reported as the Battlestar rumbled under another missile impact. “The Raiders are sacrificing themselves to stop those missile short of the target.”

Spencer nodded as he digested the information; it was good to see that the Audeamus was trying to take some heat off them whilst the Acheron dealt with the third Cylon still menacing the Cerberus. At the very least it would force the second Cylon to turn his attention onto that small but plucky ship, and not onto the Acheron which was arguably exposing its flank to allow it to engage the enemy threatening the Cerberus. Furthermore the more Raiders that had to sacrifice themselves to take out the friendly missiles the fewer his Vipers had to deal with, and given some of them were reporting squash ammo and bingo fuel this was important as he was going to have to start rotating them onto the deck to rearm and refuel; the rigours of air combat manoeuvring (ACM) tended to burn through tyllium and bullets like nobodies business. Never the less he was concerned about the Cerberus; although it was still in one piece it had taken over two dozen missile hits and for all its heavy hull armour it was going to start showing signs of damage and, doubtless, that would be when the Cylons chose to step it up a notch and make use of nukes of their own.

“Radiological alarm!” Major Hastings reported urgently. “Reading six nuclear missiles on target for Cerberus.”

Spencer’s head shot up to the DRADIS and sure enough the distinctive signature of a nuclear warhead was showing as they blasted through space towards the Gunstar. They were still far too far away to be able to intercept in any meaningful way and the Cylons had timed it just right so that the six nukes were fired alongside two dozen conventional missiles to increase the chance of one of the nukes getting through.

Lieutenant Lyla ‘Whiplash’ Kelso, CF
Viper 289, Colonial Frontier System 22

Whiplash felt her blood run cold as the radiological alarm went off in her cockpit and she whipped her Viper around and began to speak towards the incoming enemy missiles, the rest of the squadron following her lead; she was the senior pilot left in the squadron after the death of their leader, Captain Abbot. The dozen or so Vipers opened fire as soon as they could, but the Cylon missiles were fast and agile in equal measure and more than twelve got through, and there was still a radiological alarm out there. The Spear continued to fire in the forlorn hope that they would be able to down the missiles, but without the additional defensive fire from Cerberus herself there were simply too many incoming missiles to shoot down.

“Cerberus, you’ve got inbound nukes, port side,” Whiplash called in the hope that someone on Cerberus would hear her wireless call and be able to do something. “All Vipers break, break, break!”

Just before the missile would have hit the Cerberus the Escortstar Spear interposed itself between the missiles and their target; giving them no time to avade any further, but at the cost of three missiles, one nuclear, slamming into the small escort. Whiplash looked away quickly as a flash as bright as a star lit up the battle space as the nuclear weapon detonated against the flank of the escort. When she looked back there was nothing left of the escort, and its crew of hundreds, but a floating cloud of debris; but the Gunstar was still intact, if a little singed by the close explosion. Whiplash felt a surge of anger rising through her body and flipped her Viper around to face the enemy basestar, intent on attacking it directly, when Cylon ship went up in a large explosion as the rounds from Acheron finally hit something important; detonating the ships tylllium storage pods.

NationStates

So Say We All (FT, CLOSED)

So Say We All (FT, CLOSED)