Combat information Center Battlestar Mercury: “Well Major Jacobs, this is the last jump. No sign of the Battlestar Fearless. Can you predict what we will find?”
“Five seconds on the jump clock, we will find out soon, enough” the medically grounded pilot answered.
“Contact! Five ships. Transponder indicates colonial signatures. The encryption codes are years out of date.”
“The air wing has launched, playboy is asking for instructions. Sir, there is a second colonial task force , five ships. They are signaling us to prepare for contact with the Cylons.”
“Target identification, shows the battlestar Demeter. Jupiter class, type one.”
“Mark one!,,,Everyone has heard the mystery of the Demeter, several months after being delivered to her assigned colony, she disappeared without a trace. It was fairly early in the first Cylon war.” Admiral Lawson answered.
“Demeter actual is on wireless saying he is Captain Morgenstern of the Aquarian national guard.”
“Contact! Contacts! 10 enemy ships just outside of identification range. Small contacts coming onto the scope. This is just what he predicted. The toasters are throwing us a party!!!!”
“This is Mercury actual to all colonial ships. Engage the enemy. We will sort out who is who after the battle. Playboy set up a defensive formation. Helm 25° to port. Forward weapons stand by for salvo mode.”
“Frak me its a pair of Cratus base ships, right out of the fleet museum!”
“Two large contacts in front. Deploy PCM, to block their missiles. They are toasters that they must have a whole shit ton of missiles. This is the XO, call sign Wheelchair, ordinance crews, look sharp. There are a couple of hundred pilots out there depending on you to do this right.”
“Vampire,,,, Vampire,,, Vampire,,, two hundred inbound missiles type 1. Endurance, Pamir, full defensive, they are focused on you.”
“Two salvos. First one is aimed at the new battlestar. The old battlestar. Whatever.”
“Endurance and Pamir have broken right and are both full defensive.”
“The battle plan said we all go left. Who the frak is running that ship, a toddler?”
“Genius. If they turned left, they’d be on collision course with the Demeter right now stop questioning other commanders, and do your own job!” Wheelchair barked the explanation and the order.
“Two more salvos inbound aimed at the Endurance.”
“The air wing reports, no modern goo filled raiders. Target ID shows large numbers of first war, Mk.1 raiders.”
“Admiral, the fleet is fully engaged. Forward forces are massive gun ships, we are forces are missile carriers, looks like old Argos class.”
“Viper pilots report close contact with two giant gunships, spewing missiles too.”
“This is Mercury XO to all ships. Concentrate all Salvo fire on the left side base ship. She has a lot of guns. She needs to find out we have more guns and better guns!”
“We have five pilots reported ejected from destroyed vipers. Search and rescue is ready to launch.”
As a long-term viper pilot, captain Jacobs knew what it felt like to be floating in space waiting for rescue. In his new role, he needed to take into account, the safety of the rescuers, and those who are awaiting rescue.”
“Hold the SAR launch until the enemy air wing is eliminated.”
“The two lead ships are closing fast.”
“Steady as she goes,” Jacobs ordered.
“The Endurance reports heavy fire. They are managing it for now.”
“Those gun crews are twice as fast as us.”
“Most likely some kind of toaster auto loaders,” Lawson commented quietly.
“The air wing reports resistance is heavy, but they can protect the S A R birds.”
“Those pilots have a 48 hour air supply. Hold the Search and Rescue launch until conditions are safe for those pilots. Do not make me repeat myself again.”
Admiral Lawson made a mental note that Major Jacobs even sounded like Saul Tigh.
“There go the Big Ugly Frackers,” a lieutenant junior grade, noted the passing of one of the two Cratus class ships.”
“Second gunship is down. Pressure on our forces is lessening.”
Jacobs, grabbed his headset and started barking out orders.
“Air wing, get right in the face of those two Argos missile carriers and block their fire. Launch the SAR birds. Lets start picking up those pilots.”
“The Cylon fleet is collapsing. We need to plow through the rest of that formation before the first rescue convoy jumps in.”
“Helm, This is Wheelchair um, the XO. Combat turn to starboard. Maintain flak to starboard until the turn is complete.
“This is engineering. We have some port side armor damage, recommend we not show the toasters our port side.”
Lawson shook her head in agreement.
“Helm, this is the XO. Abort the turn. Maintain heading. We need to out climb the two missile ships.”
“Vipers this is playboy. Heavy missile salvos inbound. Lets get organized and shoot them the frak down.”
“This is the Demeter, turning starboard, maintaining a low profile to keep our topside guns on the toasters.”
“New salvo inbound coming in heavy. 100, 110 inbound vampires.”
“All right, make the turn twenty degrees starboard. Boost the engines and put the forward guns to salvo mode. Firing solution is on her center axis.”
“Roger that Wheelchair.”
“Demeter turning starboard, flakking port side. Maintaining firing solution.”
“Argos missile platform, under heavy, colonial fire. There she goes. Torch one first war, relic!”
“The enemy is breaking! The enemy is breaking!”
“This is the XO. Fire guided missile salvo.”
“This is Mercury XO call sign Wheelchair, to Demeter actual. Admiral Lawson wants to see you in her office on the Mercury.”
“This is James Morgenstern of the Aquarian national guard. We have 80,000 Colonists in danger of Cylon attack. I don’t have time for meetings Mercury XO. These people hate you. They say you left them behind.”
“Of that, I have no doubt. It has seared our hearts that we did not have enough space to take you all along. We assume the Cylons slaughtered you. We have come back to rescue you. We have 5 convoys scheduled to jump in during the next twelve hours.”
“We cannot understand what you have been through. We cannot make up for it. We are ashamed that we did not plan better. The admiral will tell you this herself. We have come back for everyone in the settlement. This time our mission is clear. Nobody will be left behind. Get a signal to everyone who’s left in all of the outposts. Your ride is here and we’re going to be leaving in 72 hours. All we have to do now is complete a rush upgrade of all your FTL systems to the new standard. We’ve nicknamed it the toaster drive.”
“After we found this ship, we raided the toasters warehouses for better FTL tech. We have not finished the upgrade on the rest of our warships. That Heracles class that just got melted used to be flag ship. I had grown rather attached to it.” Morgenstern sounded suspicious.
“The admiral will explain everything. We’re sending over a raptor.”
After every pilot was recovered, and damage control was started on all the war ships, the commander of this ragtag force excepted a raptor ride to the battle star mercury. He was escorted by two very, husky colonial Marines. Their expressions were dour, and they seem to mean business.
Admiral Eva “Yevka” Lawson greeted him at the door of her office. Behind her, he could see a good meal laid out, and stacks of books and navigational charts.
She greeted him warmly, squeezing his hand at the door. The handshake preventing him from saluting once he saw her at rank insignia. “So Commander Morgenstern, tell us the story of how you got here and salvaged the wreck of the Battlestar Demeter.” Admiral Lawson led him to the dinner table.
“I am a Captain in the Aquarian national guard,” he answered, pointing to his rank insignia.
“You were, in the Aquarian National Guard. Now you are a commander in the colonial fleet. Your first meeting with the admiral, and you’re already out of uniform!” Lawson laughed at her own joke. Behind the smile was worry lines and tension. The 43 year olds eyes were slightly bloodshot due to dreams that reached into her sleep and tortured her every night.
“Which first, the story or the food. I have a lot of work to do.”
“You must be famished commander, food first story second. Please try and relax, I don’t bite”
James Morgenstern had always been known for being an odd duck. Aquaria had very cold weather, thus having the lowest population of all the Colonies. A member of the underfunded Aquarian National Guard, he searched for purpose.
James lived in the town of Helim, a frigid, lonely place. It would’ve been a beautiful port. If the world were warmer because of the planet’s high orbit, it would be nothing but an ice ball.
During the first Cylon war, the colonial flotilla abandoned a Heracles class ship in orbit. Deemed to be unrepairable and not worth the time, they left it in a Geosynchronous orbit above the only major settlement on the planet. Of course, this ship would never show up on a list for installation of the CNP. It was an oversight that would insure his small fleets short term survival.
The people of the world, being skeptical and used to hard Times, decided to crowdfund a way to restore the ship to protect their exports of water and fish for the rest of the colonies from pirates.
There was no funding for a fleet, so he took an abandoned Heracles gunship out of a scrapyard orbit, making it the flagship of the Aquarian national guard. This was ten years before the fall. Never married, he did not have the time.
They named her Kebechet, the daughter of death, because of one man’s end, a new generation is born.
James Morgenstern was elected captain by the settlement. He was a veteran icebreaker and a tall, redheaded man who served in the colonial Marine Corps during the first Cylon war before coming home to help break the ice to provide his people with a better life.
He knew how to command a ship and instilled trust in the reliability of the people under his command. by putting a level head and reasonable expectations of goals and achievements contoured by his fiery resilience to protect his people and culture.
The stiff hull of a Heracles was very similar to the old hull of his icebreaker. They knew how to charge it to break pirate lines.
During the fall of the colonies, he returned home after a routine pirate patrol with his crew of 500. Finding three base stars over his home, he moved to engage but was ordered away by the council of elders on his planet. He was told to save himself and his people. After picking up a collection of stragglers, he moved to the system’s edge and began blind jumping to ensure the Cylons did not follow him.
His complement was 758 Aquarian men, women, and children when he left the system.
Probably last because of his world’s low population.
When ammo ran low, he turned the rear magazine into a communal space that holds the Kyros Summerfest to raise morale amongst the crew and her passengers.
The crew pokes fun at the captain for standing on deck and in his chair with a Cutlass, like a captain of an old. He claims he struck down Cylons in the first war.
The captain is a levelheaded man outside of combat, but he understands his ship is made out of nothing but steel and grit. He will happily charge into the breath of battle to defend a floundering ship or on the edge of defeat.
When he is not commanding the ship, most people can find him gardening in the old stern magazine, growing hydroponics, or welding on more plates to the exterior armor.
The only thing he cares about is the protection of his people and the preservation of civilians. That’s why he keeps old raptors strapped to every airlock as makeshift escape pods.
Never married, he was devoted to his ship and his crew.
When the Cylons jumped over Aquaria, raining down a fountain of nukes. Morgenstern sadly concluded that the future of the Colonies and the Aquarian people was elsewhere.
Gathering together a fleet of seven ships, he quietly repaired the fleet, began training and searched for ammunition. The Cylons never noticed the small fleet. They went after the battlestars, they went after the big fleet remnants, led by Commanders Adama and Lawson.
While Galactica and Pegasus left the colonies with a bang, and Admiral Lawson was literally forced to retreat. Both actions were quite noisy and ended up attracting a great deal of attention.
Morgenstern, however left quietly, eventually gathering a fleet that had a pair of Heracles gunships, a pair of Atlas carriers, a Defender, an Adamant, Bezerk, and a pair of Celestra freighters. In the first weeks after the fall, they scrounged for food, parts and fuel. Their FTL drives worked about 80 percent of the time.
A Captain in the Aquarian National Guard, he was a historian. Lawson’s Mercury led fleet soon explored the Cylon logistics network for parts, Morgenstern began by exploring wrecks and missing ships. His quarters on the Kebechet was lined with history books.
When Admiral Cain happened upon a 15 ship civilian fleet, she stripped it of military age people, and treated it as a gigantic parts depot. After the riots and the massacre, everyone expected to be murdered by the Cylons.
Because the Cylons were scanning for FTL signals, this fleet hung in space for two weeks before the Kebechet jumped in with its under staffed fleet. Pegasus had left behind a lot of elderly and young persons. Morgenstern, by his very nature, a protector, took hundreds of children and elderly aboard his fleet.
The able bodied elderly were offered crew positions 4 hour shift per day. Others taught a trade school. Morgenstern led with a gentle hand. It was amazing how many trade school graduates were not taken by Pegasus. Soon his fleet had a trade school established. Their main class project involved improving engine systems.
The Cylons rarely showed up. When they did, the order of the day was to jump away.
Mostly, they made slow progress, by not making a lot of noise.
He fancied himself something of an explorer. His first big find, was the wreck of the Jupiter Mk.2 class battlestar, that had survived the first Cylon war, but had ended and FTL jump with an astroid fragment inside its port flight pod.
The victim of the early post war exercises, the Venus had exploded. The port pod was turned into metal confetti. The main section of the ship had been cracked into hundreds of parts. The wreck was in a dangerous high radiation zone. Colonial fleet had given up salvage operations, after taking the main guns.
Using a dusty book on his bookshelf “Journey of the Venus”, Major Morgenstern surmised that with the explosion and thirty seven years of drift away from the radiation field, the ship could be safely salvaged. It took two months to find the wreck, a month to salvage it. Venus had many usable smaller guns and full ammunition magazines.
Every magazine and storage are in his fleet was packed to the rafters with armor and weapons.
Food was a problem, however an out of print book by Sean Fain included the diaries and star charts of hundreds of worlds, up to 100,000 light years from the burning twelve colonies. The few of these worlds that might support a civilization, were too close to the Cylons to be viable.
The book was an explorers guide to fast food. If you didn’t mind being a vegetarian, you ate well in Major Morgenstern’s fleet.
Stragglers ran into his food foraging missions, sometimes piloting first war era Cylon ships. The frequency of first war ship spotting increased as Cavil surged the modern Cylon fleet away from the Colonies hunting down Adama, Cain and Lawsons fleet.
The prize of this exploration mission was the battlestar Demeter. The subject of four books over the intervening 40 years between Cylon wars, this was a great mystery. It was a great mystery. Everyone wanted to solve this mystery, but nobody during the interwar arms build up had the time or resources to follow.
The Demeter had been lost with all hands, two years after delivery to her home Colony. As opposed to Galactica famous disappearance and recovery, the war ended with this mystery not being solved.
Ethan Kelly’s work of fiction, “Demeter’s Glory” has based on an enormous dump of navigational data gathered in the last year of the war, proved very useful. Though feeding and protecting his fleet was the top priority, there were few actual battles with the Cylons. There were other more important targets other than the remnants of the Aquarian national guard.
After 408 days of foraging and exploration, the DRADIS chirped after completing an FTL escape jump. It turned out to be a first war raptor, not much newer than the one flown by Husker and Coke. Its door was opened and its front screen was shattered, there was no sign of the crew. Most likely part of a multi plane flight, they had probably encountered a Mark one raider. Clearly shot up, batteries drained for more than 4 decades, her crew had been rescued.
James stood on the repair bay of an Atlas class, looking at the wrecked raptor, jotting down information in his dog eared notebook. A half dozen engineers and deck gang workers were crawling up and down the hall of the shattered raptor. Their language was blue-collar, but they cared about their mission to protect the few thousand survivors that may be the only ones that have a chance.
The name of the home battlestar of this raptor was scratched and worn. It clearly indicated the Home ship as the Demeter.
The deck gang chief of this at this carrier was named Hillary Ryan. She was an Aquarian.
46 years old and full of a lot of spunk, and she crawled out of the Raptors door. In her left hand was a small black box. It looks like some kind of disaster recording device. It might’ve been some kind of first war computer.
Morgenstern keyed on this and followed her to the work bench. She was whistling as she laid the device on her work bench, carefully cleaned it and hooked up cables to a diagnostic computer on the work bench.
She spoke with a heavy Aquarian accent. “Don’t get your hopes up, sir. This piece of tech has been hanging in space for 45 years at least. It’s not likely to yield any usable….”
The device lit up, a small fan inside, begin to spin. Lines of computer code displayed on the monitor above the workbench.
“Well, sir, I was wrong. This is the complete navigational history of this bird before she got burnt. I don’t know what else we will find in there, but if we’re lucky, we may find the wreck of a long lost Battlestar Demeter.”
“I know the most important thing is the survival of our people. We need to get back to foraging for food. But solving the mystery of this planes home ship that is something to think about. That is something to talk about. If I do say so myself.”
“I have salvage this birds entire navigational computer system. I can tell you the last 10 places that up on the Home ship jumped before this mission. There are also five meeting points set in case of unexpected battles. We have ourselves three or four dozen places to look for the Demeter.” Ryan smiled.
“I just love a chance to solve a big mystery,” remarked the odd Aquarian.
It took 71 jumps, three battles with the remnants of the toasters. Their food inventories were now flush, and their ammunition stocks were still very near capacity. They finally found the battle star, dark in the orbit over an asteroid. Behind it was a field of millions of other asteroids.
From the bridge of an Atlas carrier, Morgenstern listened to his crew report the sad site before them.
“Power emissions negative. Life signs negative.”
They approach slowly, fearing a Cylon trap. The wreck had drifted into the asteroid Field. It was partially obscured by it. The flight pods were extended.
“We have a feed from the raptor now going on video.” The hall of the ship was scored, victim of many impacts with kinetic ammunition. There were marks near the name tag. The feed from the raptor was very eerie, as there were no signs of life.
“This is cowboy, I’m taking a look at the external hatch on the app damage control. The door is wide open. The toasters did the normal thing they boarded the ship. They attacked aft damage control. When they took it from the Marines, they vented the ship.”
Morgenstern took the microphone, speaking directly to his best SAR pilot. “What is the mechanical condition of the ship?”
The SAR pilots voice crackled on the speakers in the Atlas carrier’s CIC. “Actually, sir, not so bad. The toasters seem to have skedaddled soon after venting the ship. I sent in my drone, I’m in helmet. No atmosphere in the raptor right now. The drone is exploring the ship. They are still bodies in the hallways. Space preserve them quite well. God’s forgive us.”
“OK everybody quiet down and let the man work.” The next hour all they heard was the crackle of their head SAR pilots voice as he explored the ship with a drone.
“This is cowboy. The ships conventional engines, FTL, and major infrastructure is intact. The bunkers are empty, the magazines show a very large battle was fought to save the ship this battle star can we make combat ready if we put the time and resources into it.”
This began the two-year mission to make this relic, as old as the original Galactica combat ready once again. The toasters at successfully vented the atmosphere in the ship, the sick bay, which was designed to act as a life raft and several other sections of the ship had survived the battle.
With no help and no hope, the survivors recorded the history of the Demeter. The last person in sick bay ran out of oxygen six weeks after the ship was lost.
The diary was recorded by a private, who had been tasked to the Battlestar commander. Apparently, the man had to be reminded, went to eat and take care of himself.
The FTL jump had been in a complete disaster, ending up far across the red line, surrounded by Cylon forces. The Computer systems aboard the battlestar has been compromised. Every time they tried to repair a system a new virus took over. Their fate was written when a virus took over the communications array and broadcast their position to the entire Cylon fleet.
They decided to go dark, while they repaired their ship. The backups of the systems and also included the virus. It was painstakingly difficult to disrupt the network segments and individually clean each system. They had plenty of food and supplies, so they didn’t mind taking weeks to do the job right.
The ships chief engineer was a cautious fellow, who wanted to know three times that a system is clean before he would powered back up. In the midst of the final systems check before heading back to the colonies, the Cylon arrived.
The warship had fought mightily, taking out one base star, early in the battle, badly damaging the second before the overwhelming numbers eliminated the last of their viper pilots.
Has hundreds of centurions boarded her flight pods, the mighty Battlestar continue to pump main battery ammunition into the enemy base ship. After the battle was lost, they all expected to be murdered. They had enough power to talk to the sections of the ship that were sealed off. They soon realized that rescue was not going to happen. The strange thing was that the toasters never came back to salvage the wreck.
Just an hour after the atmosphere had been vented from most of the ship, the gun noises and shooting stopped. The survivors were left alone in six sections that still had air. They died slowly writing letters to the relatives that would never arrive. It was sad and heroic at the same time.
Captain James Morgenstern’s childhood dream had been fulfilled. He commanded a battlestar. Now he could hurt the toasters and get a little revenge for the billions of slaughtered souls. The next year was spent rebuilding the damaged systems of the battle star. Months later, they had encountered survivors of the settlement. These 11 outposts where 200,000 souls have been left behind at the mercy of the Cylons. Their story would be heard by human ears again.
By the time his battle Fleet had reached the new settlement, the toasters have been pounding the 11 outposts for 15 months. Once again, his mission was to preserve and protect life. He really had no plan. They began the task of stealing Cylon FTL technology. The computer support for that technology was very difficult.
Every few months a gigantic enemy fleet jumped into the outpost and pounded one of the colonies. Each time it was a slaughter. The so-called new settlement was a funeral, pyre, and the commander of this battle star was merely a witness.
Captain James Morganstern had a problem on his hands now. Counting methods were not very accurate on population during the time of the settlement. Over 200,000 people were left behind when Admiral Lawson jumped away with every bunk in every available space on every ship full.
Morganstern, had been democratically elected to his post. He now faced the leader ship of some 87,000 settlers, who had survived the harshest of conditions. Siege was not the right word to describe what the Cylons had done to the settlement.
Naturally Captain Morganstern, thought that the best option was to go with Admiral Lawsons fleet. That seemed to be the logical option. There’s a lot of emotion and anger out there about being left behind.
Eva Lawson had wised up in the field of politics over her nearly the three years as fleet admiral. She told Captain Morganstern that these were his people and it was up to him to convince them to come along peaceably. They had approximately 90,000 bunk spaces in the fleet that jumped in. She set a date and time 48 hours from now for the fleet to leave even if it left empty.
She gave him a letter which he didn’t fully read to the committee of 11 outposts leadership.
Brave, settlers,
I know it is no compensation to you for your honored dead. I came back for you without civilian authorization, because guilt had held my life hostage long enough. The hardest decision I ever made was to jump the fleet away from the settlements
We made every effort to save as many people as we could. Had we stayed, the entire Cylon fleet would have come down and you and wiped you out the day we left. We were outnumbered by a factor of 20 to 1. My orders were to make every available space open. We filled every available space even if the risk of crew and pilots. When you arrive at our new home, you will find testimony to the fact that we converted flight pods into open air camps to accommodate people.
On my ship, there were four persons assigned to each available bunk. Everyone had to work a six hour shift to help keep the ship going. They had to find something else to do with their set time for six hours when their bed was occupied. As fleet admiral, I take full responsibility for all that happened. I am responsible for all the lives that were lost. I should’ve been prepared. I should’ve convinced the government to spend the resources necessary to evacuate the entire population.
History may see me as the admiral who led our people to safety. I was a senior officer in the fleet before the fall.
I am partially responsible for the state of our people and the loss on the first day of the second Cylon war. History should not be kind to me. Either way, I will not be kind to me. I will search and serve the rest of my life to atone for this mistake. We should have been ready for the Cylons. We were not.
Me and my crew will gladly lay down our lives to protect you and bring you to safety. We have found a new home and if we are fortunate, we may be able to secure it from the enemy for all time.
You deserve better, but you got me. Though I know it’s impossible. I will do my best to earn your trust. My pilots and my crew risk their lives every day to save humanity. I cannot leave you behind again.
Sincerely,
Eva Lawson
Rear Admiral
Commander in Chief, Colonial fleet.
CINC Colonial Fleet
Day 997 of the Second Cylon war.
Morganstern read the letter aloud at the meeting, which was broadcast all over the orbiting fleet.
Mercury’s crew started clapping their hands in unison, Colonial style and chanting “So say we all.”
The meeting was boisterous. People were loud. There were modicums of civility. People tried hard, not to interrupt each other. At the end of the speech by each of the leaders, the audience often got loud and made cat calls.
Full video for chapter 45