Book 4 Chapter 12 “Resistance”
It was very uncomfortable in her office. Admiral Lawson was dizzy, her stomach was doing backflips. The room was too hot, and the wait for the video conference to sync up seemed to be lasting for days. . It was supposed to be a three way meeting between the Admiral and the two commanders. The most recent jump to avoid the Cylons had overloaded the power supply to the short range communications array.
There was no way for Commander Ramirez to attend the meeting.
Admiral Lawson snapped a pencil in two and slammed a hand on her desk. “We will get this meeting on a USB stick and fly it to her on Saturn.”
“Roger that,” Commander Modi replied.
“So we have a few difficult jumps coming up according to your reconnaissance report.”
“There are very few safe jump locations in the next five plotted jumps on our likely course back towards New Helios. This area is probably a recently burned out stellar nursery. Recently in this case meaning the stars finished forming and the supply of materials ended in the last few million years.”
“Why is that a problem?” Admiral Lawson squirmed a bit in her seat.
“There is radiation and debris for at least one hundred thousand light years in every direction. Raptors can make the jumps, no problem. Big old, heavy battlestars are likely to get pounded.”
“Even with our fancy new Cylon jump drives and navigation computers?”
“Yes Sir, Admiral. The longer the jump, the more calculation errors become a problem. We have managed to seize a fairly large quantity of supplies the past week. We have not been so lucky with fuel.”
“So we can’t go around this nursery thing?” Lawson asked.
“No Sir. It seems when we took that last emergency jump, we landed smack in the middle of it. Every safe jump point we have discovered so far has active first war era Cylon forces. The alert level is not so good, but that might change if we start to bloody them.”
“Can the Cylons jump to our current location?”
“We are however using modern Cylon FTL technology here against ships that were designed forty to fifty years ago. Well I guess 90 years ago now. Assuming there have been no upgrades while we were proving Pearson’s theory of relativity, it is difficult, but not impossible for them to attack us here. Yes they can jump in and ambush us, Sir. If we sit here too long, we will get attacked. I would feel better if we were on the offensive.”
“Agreed. Notify the task force CAG. Have someone fly to Saturn and get them up to speed. Let’s do the combat jump at 09:35 hours. I don’t like doing the early combat morning jump every single time.”
Major Jacobs entered the office and announced the operation. He had been told of this plan before the meeting.
“All right, we have a three jump mission ready to go for 9935 hours this morning. The air wings are ready for a combat jump. We will have to fight our way from the target jump location to a safe jump point.”
“Are we ready?” Admiral Lawson asked.
“If we pull that off,we will have a better choice of routes to avoid the Cylons and seize supplies. Overall we have thirty percent of the air strength we left for the last mission of operation magic trick.”
Admiral Lawson reacted when an NCO entered her office and handed her a printed report. She quickly flipped through the first few pages.
“This is the Saturn’s readiness report. Her short term communications array will come online at 08 hundred hours. The jump is on for zero nine thirty-five hours.”
“Yes sir,” Commander Modi answered. “Good hunting.”
“Good hunting!” Lawson answered.
0933 hours in Mercury CIC 2 minutes to combat jump
Major Jacobs stood next to Admiral Lawson, who still looked sick to her stomach.
“All battlestars show ready to jump. All squadrons are ready to launch, other than our substantial fleet Combat Air Patrol admiral.”
“Combat landings,” ordered the admiral.
“This is the XO. Combat Air Patrol, combat landings. Jump when all birds are in the pods.”
“We have multiple Cylon contacts. Small gun ships. They are already inside weapons range. Major should the air wing engage?”
“All port facing weapons, weapons free. Target the nearest gunship. All birds proceed with combat landings.”
“We have vampires, targeting all battlestars.”
“This is Mercury XO to all battlestars. Engage the enemy with flak port side now. As the jump clock hits zero, cease fire all gun batteries. “
“Jump complete. Looks like 6 enemy targets. CBDR. Coming in hard.”
Major Jacobs. “Launch all alert fighters. Turn around the birds that combat landed prior to the jump. Hold them in reserve.”
“Launch missile salvo one at contact five.” Major Jacobs ordered.
“Scratch one classic base star!”
“This is Saturn actual. Guns new target starboard side. Helm make a crash turn to starboard. We need a better firing solution.”
“This is Tiger to assault raptors. Target the nearest gunship with missile salvo.”
“We have a firing solution on the forward batteries, request weapons free!”
“This is XO Mercury Wheelchair. Fire missile salvo at target three.”
“Saturn just took a hit on her S T L engines. Damage control check.”
“This is Mercury Actual. Helm crash, turn to starboard.”
“Helm hard to port, roll the ship to improve gun solution.”
“Mercury just took a hit on S T L engine. Recommend a systems check.”
“This is Solaria Actual, Cylon gunship squadron one is defeated. Squadron two due in 15 minutes. Air wings will cycle to second shift and prepare for battle.”
15 Minutes later
“Weapons crews, this is Saturn X O. Maintain firing rate.”
“This is Mercury XO Wheelchair. Seven minutes to planned jump point. Air wing stay frosty, stay tuned in for changes in battlestar engagement zones.”
“Wheelchair XO Mercury. Open fire at contacts 3 and 6. Maintain formation. Keep an eye on FTL damage control.”
“New contact. Phobos class. It’s firing missiles.”
“This is Wheelchair. To all battlestars, toasters are trying to hack our networks. Implement defensive plan gamma. Admiral is ordering a systems check on nav and FTL systems.”
“All vipers and raptors. Combat landings now! Battlestars check FTL jump coordinates code name Dalmation! Spool up FTL!”
“Tiger to Saturn air wing! Combat landings all 4 landing decks!”
“This is Solaria Actual. We are taking heavy fire. Switching topside turrets to salvo mode.”
“Mercury Actual to all battlestars. Jump now!
“This is CIC Solaria. DRADIS is clear. We are doing some quick repairs, getting the air wing ready and racing to the next jump point. Solaria is providing 2 Vipers to fleet Combat AIr Patrol.”
“CIC Solaria to all battlestars, toasters have inbound contacts. FTL should be spooled for Jump point Omega. Get that combat air patrol on the deck.”
“Wheelchair Mercury XO to all battlestars. I show your boards are green. Prepare to jump!”
“This is Solaria Actual. We are ready to jump. Air wing is on the deck.”
“Saturn Actual. FTL actuator 2 has failed. FTL system is syncing and compensating.”
The FTL status display froze for a brief moment, then showed the drives shutting down.
“Override it. We need to end up at the same jump coordinates as Mercury and Saturn!”
The status panel then froze again and showed green. The display was choppy as if it was a computer freezing up.”
Mercury CIC
“This is Wheelchair, um, Mercury XO. Saturn is past due. Combat air patrol, formation telescope. We need maximum warning time. We will proceed to the alternate waypoint in 30 minutes or when the um toasters show up.”
Full chapter 12 video:
Warning this video plays on mobile and auto plays on certain browsers.
