CIC: “We are staged and ready to jump. All ships report green. All birds in the tubes. Ready to launch on the other side.”
CIC: “Jump complete. Holding vipers as per battle plan. Scanning for targets. There is heavy jamming.”
CIC: “Recon is up. Attempting to clear the jamming.”
Mercury Actual: “All guns are free to fire at any target.”
CIC: “Valkyrie is taking heavy fire.”
CIC: “That is two or three base stars down. FRAK! We lost contact with a Valkyrie.”
CIC: “Enemy formation is breaking up. We have an FTL spool on the resurrection ship.”
Admiral Lawson: “Partial viper launch is authorized. Stop the resurrection ship from jumping”
CIC: “The board is clear at the Cylons are dead. The resurrection ship is history.”
After action report
Admiral Lawson slammed her yellow legal pad onto her desk. The cost of today’s action had been very much too high. Another month of Valkyrie production is floating atomized at the battle zone. Two more experienced commanders were lost.
During the past week, four Valkyrie class ships have been lost. That represented two months of production. The number of Valkyries still flying was under a dozen. Production issues with the ones that were being built or responsible for them not holding up combat conditions.
This Battlestar type have been designed as a support ship. It was not meant as a capital ship. As a nuclear weapons delivery platform, much older Artemis, classic been doing much better. Not a single Artemis has been lost in any of the nuclear engagements that form the center of Admiral Lawson’s battle plans.
Reluctantly, she signed in order, eliminating the Valkyrie class ship from future nuclear strikes. The ships that perform well against older Cylon ships. Digging through her email box, looking for a secure transmission, she found the inventory report on nuclear weapons.
The count on weapons of this type we’re down around 70 to 80. Not all of them have been tested in order to be certified as combat ready.
The Admiral dug through a pile of papers and folders on the floor. Remember, it was classified. She got up and walked over to her safe. The biometric lock let her in.
She sat down at her desk with the folder labeled: “Requirements to restart a nuclear weapons program in the colonial fleet.”
The report have been offered by Dr. Mayer Paddington. Apparently he was the most senior scientist on nuclear weapons associated with this fleet.
The report was full of passwords in terms that she did not understand. The equipment list was three pages long and filled with things that are probably not attainable.
Next page concerned, better news. That was an adequate supply of enriched uranium. They were plans on how to build a processing plant. After that, there was a warning that such a ship might have difficulties with radiation poisoning of the workers.
It did not look like the colonial fleet was going to go back in to the nuclear weapons production business. The amount of sophisticated equipment that was not available cannot be manufactured. One of the missing elements in the suite was machine tool industry. That industry thrived in all 12 of the colonies, and was difficult to bring up into space.
Admiral Lawson leaned back in her office chair. She twirled a small bit of hair in her fingers, and was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. If they could not build nuclear weapons, perhaps they could take nuclear weapons away from the enemy.
Analysis has shown that the weapons the enemy was using against the colonial fleet based on designs from the colonial fleet. They have been upgraded and improved. If such weapons could be obtained, they would have to be modified to work in the watchers of the various battle stars, they would have to deliver the weapons.
There were several plans using marine shock commandos that has been drawn up in order to obtain nuclear weapons. The admiral had remembered reading these plans. She also remembered rejecting these plans because they would signal to the enemy that there was a shortage of nuclear weapons in the colonial fleet.
If the enemy knew they could simply wait out Admiral Lawson, it would defeat the purpose of the current campaign, which was to make the war much more painful for them.
Of the 25 modern base stars that have been tracked by intelligence a week ago, 12 were confirm and destroyed. The movement track on every Cylon ship that could be scanned showed they were leaving the area.
Suddenly Admiral, Lawson realize that she may have already achieved her goal. The enemy was running. It was an open question whether they were running away from her operations or moving in to protect the trapped, colonial civilians, wherever new Caprica was.
A large amount of data has been collected on various Cylon supply lines. There were a lot of the posts that were not being defended anymore. It was time to turn the fleet loose and gather data. There were seventy ships that could make FTL jumps.
They were going to go to work and take the supplies that were needed. From the movement plots on Cylon forces, it suddenly became obvious where New Caprica was. Admiral Lawson wondered why the intelligence services had not figured it out.
Lawson jumped out of her chair and walked back into her office. She brought up the 3D map of Cylon movements. There was a log of room for extrapolation, but it was also obvious where New Caprica was.
She decided to send a raptor recon. She needed someone she could trust. That meant “Wheelchair”.
Sitting down at her desk, she cut orders breaking the fleet into pairs. Resources needed to be located and seized before the Cylons caught on to what she was doing.
It was also time to write a little note to the Cylon command structure, such as it was.
She composed it:
To: Cylon commander.
From: Admiral Eva Lawson CINC Colonial Fleet
Undoubtedly, you have been made aware of the heavy casualties we have recently inflicted on your forces. We retain the ability to continue destroying your assets, and supply lines.
I would like to broach a topic with you for discussion.
I ask, it this the only way forward for us? Are we destined to be pursued across the Galaxy bathed in the blood from unending warfare? I would like to propose an alternate solution.
I am willing to take the Colonial fleet and survivors far away from the Cylon.
Our numbers are few, and we can disappear into the far edge of the galaxy and never threaten you again.
For this to work, we would have to establish trust. I am going to propose a series of steps that we could take together. This would involve a standing down on some of the tactics that we have been using rather freely.
We could halt the nuclear raids we have been punishing your fleet with. In return, as a gesture of good faith, you could stop using destructive boarding tactics.
I think the time has come for us to meet on neutral ground.
The uniform code of military justice made one thing very clear to Admiral Lawson. She was not permitted to negotiate anything more than a temporary cease fire. In order to do anything beyond that, she would need the civilian government to be part of the plan.
Full chapter 16 video