Commander Steven Evans had never felt more alone in his life. He was tucked away in a tiny office on the mobile shipyard, which had before the exodus been Ragnar anchorage, and before that Daedalus.
When Admiral Lawson had gone missing along with a force of ancient Atlas carriers, it had been fairly obvious to Evans that she had gone off on a mission to rescue the remnants of “the settlement”. That adventure had angered all the senior commanders who might be called upon to fill in for Admiral Lawson.
Most of the stress had fallen on Commander Ramirez who was the most senior commander under Lawson, among those that had survived. This time, the strategic and tactical plans of the last battles of “Operation Magic Trick” the plan had made sense. This time it all fell on Steven Evans. There was nobody above him to act as a buffer this time.
The Cylon base star fleet was trapped in the massive rock field, spread out among the jump points that were the only safe, plotted route through the massive obstacle. There were three gathering points that had been scouted out.
The plan to bring 3 heavy battlestars seemed quite reasonable, based on the data brought back by over a dozen raptor reconnaissance missions. After the three main strike missions jumped away from the hidden New Helios star group, some distressing news came back.
Three new concentrations of base stars were discovered, all in the vicinity of the heavy fleet, led by Mercury, Saturn and Solaria. Still, the strike plan was overwhelming, and in simulation the most likely outcome was success.
—–
If the first nuclear strike went according to plan.
If the Cylons did not hit the strike force before the ambush targets were destroyed and planes were recovered.
Suddenly there seemed to be a lot of large “what ifs?”
Now it was twelve hours past the return date of Task Force Mercury. The largest, most powerful task force in the fleet was overdue. Now Commander Evans was in command of the Colonial fleet and was putting together a strike force to rescue Task Force Mercury.
His task force consisted of the Mercury class battlestar, the Athena. Second was the Demeter, which was coming out of a major refit. The Jupiter class battlestar was led by Commander James Morganstern, though experienced in basic air tactics, had decades of experience in the Heracles class operations.
A pair of Atlas and 4 Valkyrie class ships rounded out the planned task force, which was provisioned to provide extra air power. A dozen support warships had been damaged in strike missions one and two, and other actions in preparation for the battles. These damaged ships were in the queue for repairs at the mobile shipyard.
—-
His wife was recovered from her miscarriage was back in the XO slot was preparing the Athena to lead the rescue task force.
She was depressed and withdrawn after that experience, though she was processing through it by working hard to improve every department on the ship. The fitness report on the Athena was very high due to her return to duty. She was once again the heart and soul of the Athena.
As he flipped through the fitness reports of each ship in the task force, a lieutenant junior grade softly padded into the office and laid some folders on the desk. More intelligence information, none of which gave any indication as to the fate or disposition of Task Force Mercury.
There was a soft knock at the door. Corey Brooks, looking rather crestfallen, walked into the office, in her signature white blouse with khaki skirt uniform.
Commander Evans stood up, his back ramrod straight.
“You weren’t planning on jumping away without giving me the talk about how you will be careful and bring Admiral Lawson home are you?”
—–
He gestured toward the cheap, folding chair in front of the desk, which had been previously been occupied by a supply master sargent.
—-
“No Miss Brooks,” he said. “I was planning to assign you an officer to keep you up to date.”
“What the frak do you think happened Commander?”
“Could be something simple like FTL damage.” His expression did not sell this as the most likely possible outcome.
“It would make sense though, if they had to stay behind and defend one of the heavy battlestars,” Brooks opined.
“Or it could be they were ambushed and utterly destroyed. That is why we have to jump to see for ourselves.” Commander Evans warned.
“So why is it important to send a mission now?” Brooks asked.
“Well, if there are Vipers or other planes that were left behind by their base ship destruction or an emergency jump, each pilot carries a 48 hours of reserve oxygen. We need to get out there and rescue any pilots we can. That and the flight recorders from damaged planes and even capital ships will give us some idea what happened.”
“So we need to get there before the oxygen runs out because living humans will provide better information than a flight recorder. Am I right?”
“You are Miss Brooks.”
“If they are lost, you are going to have to be my Admiral. We seem to have made it into New Helios without the Cylons finding us. I am relying on you to close up and pull back so we don’t give away this position by conducting a hunt for the Mercury when hope is lost.”
“I understand Sir, every other battle site we have reconnaissance on did at least yield us some clues on what happened. If they got destroyed and a camera was collecting footage, or scope was tracking, we will grab that data.”
“Are we going to be able to defend this place?” Brooks asked.
“No sir. If they discover us and jump in with a force of base stars, no way will we hold out. Even with our peak strength right after the start of the second war, we can not survive a major Cylon invasion. If we disappear, that will give us the best chance of survival. That was Admiral Lawson’s plan. Our only hope is a successful conclusion of Operation Magic Trick.”
“Does this reconnaissance make sense? Might it be better to close up and hide now?”
“We don’t leave people behind like that Sir. It is extremely likely that we will find survivors even if the task force was ambushed and defeated.”
“Well then Commander. I wont keep you any further. Good hunting.”
“Yes Sir,” Evans stood up and escorted the Executive of the Peoples Council to the door.
Video segment 1(7:49)
“That was way too easy,” he thought after getting back to the tiny desk, designed for a low level bureaucrat. Checking his messages, Commander Evans found three messages from jewelers offering discounts on Admiral’s rank pins.
Grumpily, he looked at his watch, seeing that Admiral Lawson was only 13 hours over due. These merchants had better intelligence on fleet movements than the head of the fleets intelligence division.
Captain James Morganstern, commander of the Demeter was on board the Athena 30 minutes later. He was being escorted by Major Amelia Evan’s the executive officer and spouse of Athena’s commander. Everyone who cared to listen to gossip knew about Major Evan’s difficult pregnancy and miscarriage, some months ago.
Morganstern, who spoke with a thick Aquarian accent was known as an odd duck and never bothered with warship gossip. He did notice that the Major moved with some pain and her skin had a pallid hue to it. Not knowing her story, he wrote it off as the effects of too much time in space, and not enough time in natural sunlight.
Major Evans who earned her call sign “tool”, shared quarters with her husband, knew he was ready for the meeting and did not bother with a knock on the door to gain entrance. She had the door key code and used it casually as if she were coming home with the groceries.
Commander Steven Evans stood, up and offered his outstretched hand for shaking.
“A pleasure to meet you Commander Evans” he said after a vigorous hand shake.
“The pleasure is mine commander,” Commander Evan’s gestured for his guest and XO to sit.
“Now wait a minute, I told the Admiral and I’m telling you I prefer my rank from the Aquarian national guard,” Morganstern objected.
“Cut the bullshit. As you know, Commander, Admiral Lawson, commanders, Modi and Ramirez are 14 hours past due from a very critical battle. We’re going out with a heavy task force to try and find out what happened to them and rescue any survivors from the battle has been lost.
The likelihood of combat is extremely high and we need to know who is in charge in case I get killed. Commander Morganstern that would be you.”
Commander Morganstern shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He did not object. He was emotionally attached to his National Guard rank but quickly saw the situation was quite serious, and there was no time to express his preferences or show eccentricity’s.
“Aye Sir,” he said. “I read the briefing sir. We are to go to the battlefield area and rescue any pilots that got left behind by an emergency jump. The Cylons are considered to be hostile and we shoot upon contact. Mission timing is to get there within the 48 hour oxygen supply that viper pilots take out on combat launches.”
Commander Evans flip through the fitness report of the Demeter. “I understand you’re refusing to onboard Mark seven vipers why is that?”
“Well sir my squadrons have trained heavily with the Mark 2 Viper. Quite frankly, we don’t have the facilities to store the spare parts we would need to support the second viper type. Of course we can adjust long-term, but I believe there are some problems with the tolerances of our launch tubes as well. For now it’s best we stick with the Mark two so we remain Mission ready.”
“In an emergency,” asked Major Evans. “Can the Demeter recover Mark seven vipers and all raptor types?”
“Aye major, we’ve got the manuals and we’re training up our deck gangs. There are a lot of common parts between the two types as matter fact. We can get them the mark sevens off the deck, if we need to. I would not worry about our Mark to viper pilots. My CAG says we just want to exercise against a squadron of Mark sevens from the Athena. My pilots are very well trained.”
Commander. Evans look up from his papers, and met Morganstern’s eyes. “I understand your executive officer is a lieutenant, junior grade. We’re gonna have to deal with that situation, but that can wait till after the mission. Command of the task force goes for me to you and then major Evans. The commanders of the smaller ships may have rank pins but they don’t have the experience they need to know when it’s time to give up on the mission.”
“According to the fleet roster, our combat power is degraded by these missing ships. If we enter a battle, we may need to run away quickly to avoid taking more heavy losses. This goes against my grain but I understand that the welfare of the New Helios colony takes precedence. My entire CIC crew understand the protocols and jump logging procedures necessary to keep the location of new Helio secret. We know the mission. We want to make sure we leave nobody behind.”
“Commander,” Evans said. “You seem to have picked up quite quickly on our strategic situation. Good hunting and thank you for your assistance.”
“I know they call me the odd Aquarian. I’m an old man and habits die hard but west of here I know the importance of the mission and I will execute it with all of my strength. After the mission will deal with the executive officer situation. I could use somebody from your fleet with more experience with this modern technology like Mark seven vipers for example.”
Battlestar Athena squadron ready theatre.
Todd “Toddler” Matthews stood at the podium in Athena’s large pilot ready room. As he gazed around the room, he noticed a lot of new pilots that he not recognized. On the monitor behind him was a countdown timer to the end of 48 hours of reserve oxygen. A signal had been received from the battle site, relayed by a recon bird.
The clock red 33:30 and counted down.
Of course, Captain Matthews knew why all the extra pilots were here. The countdown clock on the monitor behind him told the story. Admiral Lawson now almost 15 hours past due was a much maligned personality for whom most pilots had strong feelings about.
For three years now, she had led this fleet. In spite of all the jokes about her hobbies before the fall of the colonies, most held her in high regard. When she’s gone missing for several weeks to rescue the residence of the first settlement, rumors had gotten out that she was off on a special mission and pretty much nobody worried.
This situation was much worse.
The battle was supposed to be the closing act of operation magic trick. The point of the magic trick happened to make the colonial fleet and civilians disappear. The operational plan was to win a massive battle and destroy the enemy fleet that was pursuing them back to New Helios.
The last thing that operation magic trick needed, was a messy battle that required a lot of jumping and flights and further fighting. One simple mistake could lead the Cylons straight to new Helios, and end the streak of the magic trick, which had up to now been very successful.
He touched the live microphone and heard it echo. The CAG “Pony” was away but expected back soon.
“For those of you that don’t know me I am Captain Todd Matthews. My call sign is toddler. You might’ve thought that meant something different now that you know my first name. I see a lot of new faces here. This is an air wing that works hard and operates by the book.”
“We will take high risks to save our people and leave nobody behind. That does not leave room for stunts, crazy maneuvers or anything they can put your fellow pilots or this ship in danger. We go skids up after a combat jump in 30 minutes. We need to rescue anybody that needs rescuing collect information as best we can and get the frack out of there without anyone else getting dead.”
“Stay on mission. Collect as much data as you can. Protect your wingman or wing mate shall we say.”
Everybody in the room, immediately stood up to attention. Toddler looked over his shoulder and saw commander Evans walking to the podium. “Admiral on deck,” someone shouted. The first word of that sentence drew a sharp look from Evans.”
Steven Evans. Walk to the podium, touch the mic and spoke. “That’s Commander. On deck nuggets,” he briefly flashed a smile. “There is only one admiral in this fleett. That is admiral Eva, Yevka Lawson. Call sign Shepherdess.”
“This mission is to save three battle stars, and any surviving members of that battle star group. We are there for the Mercury, the Saturn, and the Solaria.”
“Preliminary data indicates there may have been a need for an emergency jump. Recon Raptors show several transponders from Valkyrie class battle stars in the battle area. There is other transponders from viper pilots that were not rescued by search and rescue.”
“Our mission is to clean up that mess. Operation magic trick must come to a close without revealing the location of new Helios. I expect your best in this mission. I expect you to stay focused on the goal. We are there for comrades but this operation is the best chance of survival for our species.”
“We have to be ready to die to protect our secret. That being said, fight, hard and good hunting.” Commander Steven Evans had a solemn look on his face when he turned and walked off the stage.
A pilot stood up, clapped his hands together and shouted, “So say we all.” This chat was repeated several times before the commander managed to leave the room.
* * *
“Contact Commander, three or four small craft, enemy electronics signatures. Looks like they are holding back for a missile shot,” Major Evans, was staffing DRADIS and damage control. This was a sign of recent turnover as serving on a battlestar was not the only way to get a bunk, since the discovery of New Helios.
“Combat landings are authorized, make sure the air wing stays in fleet defense positions and they stay out of flak engagement zones.”
“Yes Sir, all birds are in the correct deployment. The good news is we got nine jumps away from new Helios before we encountered any toasters.”
“They are making a strafing run astern port side!” Warned Major Evans.
“Signal at the Demeter preplanned engagement turn let her act protectively, so they don’t collide with any of the smaller warships.”
“Demeter is acknowledging and engaging the gunships.”
“This is Athena actual. Recall the birds combat landings now now now.
“FTL is green! All ships report boards are green. Ready to Jump.” the XO reported.
Above: video segment 4
Below: Full chapter 1 video