Commanders Log: Battlestar Saturn. “Commander Maria Ramirez recording. My orders are to take out the largest and most powerful task force to,,, jump out of fleet HQ in 90 days. The mission is to capture a supposedly lightly defended Cylon arms depot. The facility is large enough to store several hundred nuclear weapons and thousands of conventional shells. What could possibly go wrong? The combat jump is scheduled in 10 minutes.”
The Saturns popular XO Call sign “Wild Bill” looked morose and particularly tense. “We are green all 10 ships ready to jump. I don’t like this Sir. It feels like a set up. Marines are ready to board.”
“Recon is an hour old. Hold the jump send new Raptors I want a new scan of the entire target jump location,” ordered Commander Ramirez.
10 minutes later
“I don’t know what to say commander. The reconnaissance information is just as clean as an hour ago. There is no reason not to jump. The radiological profile of the facility has not changed. She’s got nukes!”
“Lets do the jump, carefully. Send out the order to hold viper launch on the other side.”
“This is the task force XO execute job don’t launch on the other side we gotta do a little extra recon.”
“This is Solaria actual. Acknowledging the order change. All birds, hold launch.”
4:25
“XO Saturn, begin jump stage 2!”
CIC Solaria
4:42
“Retract the pods,” ordered Commander Modi.
After the jump: CIC Saturn.
6:54
“Jump Complete,” reported the XO.
“Threat Level?” Commander Ramirez asked.
“DRADIS is clear. All ships are ordered to launch their birds, marine strike team are launching.”
“I want missiles in the tubes, weapons, hot, ready to fire immediately,,. Threat level, alpha,” ordered. Commander Ramirez.
“DRADIS contacts six ships 5 base stars launching raiders. Two Argos class base stars packing nukes.”
“Frack me it was a trap. Defensive formation, jump preparations. Fire offensive salvo, all missile tubes weapons free.Time to spool FTL?”
“Seven minutes,” answered the XO.
“This is solaria actual. New Cylon, jamming field in place. They NAV computers cannot calculate a safe jump. Solaria will take the fire. Other ship should move away and prepared to jump.”
“Negative solaria. This is Saturn, actual,,,, Maintain, defensive formation, all fighters, defensive, shield, missile batteries, target the closest ship! ”
“This is Saturn XO wild Bill. Execute turn to starboard battle plan omega. Prepare for flak shield left side all ships maintain formation. Repeat all ships maintain battle plan omega. Maintain formation!”
“This is Mongoose, Commander air group. Remember your assignments. In your navigation computers is every ship and it’s engagement sound. Stay in your lanes and don’t go out of line. ”
“This is the XO launch reserve fighters!”
“Hey Mongoose, which battlestar type is in groups of three?”
“Hey princess, don’t Frack with me you know those Artemis battlestars are in a group of three and they’re going to be targets if this battle lasts any amount of time.”
“Princess. All vipers remember stay loose don’t be too nervous. We will take care of you. Keep your head on a swivel and remain situationally aware. All 10 of the ships have engagement zones and you don’t want to be in them when they pour out a fountain of fire.”
“Roger that boss. Which one he’s gonna keep me warm in this cold cockpit?”
“Mongoose. Everyone in your assigned slots, check your targeting sensors get ready to frack up some toasters!”
“Roger that boss!”
“Mongoose. Remember your assignments. Conserve ammunition we don’t wanna have to land in the middle of us to pick up more bullets. Don’t be afraid of them inbound missiles they’re not gonna hit you.”
“Princess. Probably not.”
“Mongoose!!! Princess!! You aren’t helping!!!!”
“Saturn XO to air wing, stand by for inbound ordinance.”
“Saturn XO to all ships. Confirm your targets and firing solutions.”
“Solaria Actual to warships. Easy on the stick. If you roll too hard you might lose your firing solution.”
“XO Saturn. Defiance, Onward start hitting our targets. You’ve got the best long-range guns in the fleet.”
“The jamming is getting worse. But they are not attacking our networks! FTL navigation computers unable to calculate a safe solution.”
“This is Saturn actual. Signals intelligence. Try to triangulate and get the source of that jamming. We need to knock it out!”
“Saturn gun crews. Point Defense cannons have a solution. Firing!”
“This is Solaria actual. We have picked up jump spool FTL activity on the modern base stars They are preparing jump and fire missiles. Standby flak left. Broadside batteries prepare to target those base stars the instant they jump.”
“This is the XO Saturn. They just jumped! They are targeting the top side of the three Artemis class battlestars. Artemis class battlestars posture full defensive flack left Bank right protect your fire control!”
“This is solaria actual. Broadside guns open up on the nearest base star!”
“Saturn XO. Air wing move to defensive formation Baker. All batteries come to bear on the salvo target. Maintain formation. Maintain defensive coverage keep those flak fields up and protecting your assigned ship.”
“Solaria actual. Order gun cruise alpha through Echo to switch to Salvo fire!”
“Too many raiders. The air wing cannot protect the Artemis battlestars, task force, actual please acknowledge. Repeat. We cannot protect the Artemis battle stars they need to jump out!”
Saturn CIC
“This is task force XO. I mean wild Bill Saturn, XO. All ships we have radiological alarms. Inbound nuclear missiles. Headed for the Artemis class and other ships. Apollo prepare for borders. We have heavy Raiders in the air!”
“How the Frack did we get into this fracking mess! Why can’t we recover our birds and jump?” Shouted commander Ramirez.
“Jamming has made use of the navigation computers to calculate jumps dangerous. All ships your FTL navigation computers are dangerous do not jump. Jamming is preventing us from getting astrological data to calculate safe. FTL jumps. We can’t even calculate safe jumps in our recon raptors.”
“We are going to have to fight our way out of this and destroy the ship that is jamming the FTL star fixes,” the XO answered.
“Two base stars down. Third managed a tactical jump to try and provide cover for more nukes. They fracking practiced this battle plan.” reported the XO.
“This is marine strike team jar head zed. We have the depot. It is filled to the rafters with ammunition. There are pallets of nukes. Looks like a few of them are missing.”
“This is the Artemis squadron. Two cluster nukes heading for our fire control. Triton is in trouble.”
“Cluster nuke in the air. Six targets. Most of them are aimed the Artemis. Add one seems to be tracking towards Solaria.”
“Solaria actual to Fleet. We’re going to do an S turn right then crash left. We will try and slap that nuke with our flack.”
“Artemis down. Artemis down.”
“Gods damned base star jumps in drops a salvo on the Artemis fire control and then jumps away while we are trying to get guns on them.”
“ Saturn XO. Scratch one more modern base star”
“Vampire. Princess why are having the same call sign as a pilot on Athena? Isn’t that bad luck? After all the other Princess bought it.”
“Princess. Vampire. I had the call sign first. You honor her by showing some respect!”
“Mongoose Princess. Vampire break right you got two on your tails squadrons anybody free to cover the the Artemis’s are taking a beating topside?”
“Turkey left 17 high. Break left and trying to shake free. We got to take some responsibility for the Artemis is Artemis is taking fire topside.”
“Nuke hit Triton I think. Joe-joe just bought it.”
“Yeehaw. I just got 2”
“Mongoose. All bird brained pilots. Quit your accounting. People are dying on those ships. This is an ambush. It’s a complete Frack up, so shut the fuck up and do your jobs!”
“This is Apollo actual. Boarders have captured both pods. Toasters are attacking subsystems. Navigation almost gone. Fire control almost gone. We hear shots outside CIC. Requesting marine reinforcements.”
“This is XO Saturn! Marine strike team launch for the Apollo. Expect heavy fire on your way in!!”
“Mongoose. Squadrons good job enemy air wings almost wiped out. Prepare to switch to defend the capital ships!”
“This is WHAT WE do!!”
“Nukes targeting the three bezerks. I don’t think they’re inside the flag field from the Apollo. Frack nuclear detonation. I can’t see a thing. Flack got the nukes I hope.”
“More cluster nukes in bound!”
“This is XO Saturn. Tracking three cluster weapons, six nukes each, heading for almost every ship in the fleet. Air wing we need your help!”
“Mongoose. Saturn. Two vipers each. Two back up teams each nuke. Scramble now now now!!!”
“Princess. Saturn. Stopped most of them are they ever gonna run out of weapons?”
“Another nuke just snuck through it and got the berserk. We might’ve lost one this time.”
“Solaria actual. Air wing we have several ships in trouble. Please make all possible efforts to protect the remaining capital ships!”
“Our gunners just blew out a nuke listen 100 meters from the Solaria. Fighters nukes are you’re number one priority we cannot lose the fleet.”
“Aqua squadron, taking up position close to the closer Argos base star. We need more time to engage the nukes.”
“Manticore with heavy damage, sending another salvo targeting the toasters.”
“Radiological alarm another salvo coming out of the Argos!”
“Another near miss! Solaria’s armor is degrading.”
“Executive officer. Berserk squadron split up. You got nukes inbound and no flack protection.”
“Nuclear detonation. Second Bezerk just melted.”
“This is Saturn actual. Solaria and Saturn are going to charge the Argos formation. Any other ships I can try to take out the medusa begin forward, motion immediately. Good hunting!”
“All vipers form up and make a shield in front of the Solaria and Saturn!”
“Artemis class battlestar Discovery on fire, firing torpedoes at the enemy! We may not have much more hull left, but we’re going to give it our all back it up our two big sisters!”
“Air wing set up for the next nuke salvo.”
“”Commander, we have three ships approaching the Cylon fleet, Solaria, Saturn, and the badly damaged Discovery. Discoveries heading for the Medusa. We’ve got an Argos pair in front of us. It’s gonna be a few minutes before we get into optimal firing Range. Going to prepare to go to salvo mode when the firing solution becomes optimal.
“Another wave of small cluster nukes dispatched by our flak. Solaria is adjusting speed to match Saturn’s.”
“Solaria forward guns switching to mode salvo mode.”
“Fighter squadron in blocking position in front of the medusa.”
“This is Saturn executive officer. Recall squadrons. Set up a fleet, CAP. Losses are 2 berserk and 2 Artemis class. What’s the status on the Apollo.? This is the battlestar Saturn to the battlestar, Apollo, please report your status.”
Chapter 36 Video