{"id":1115,"date":"2020-10-07T08:51:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T08:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2023-02-16T10:16:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T10:16:32","slug":"chapter-38-the-fight-goes-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/?p=1115","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 38: The fight goes on!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 38: Alternate title. Recovery and Discovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plano and Jaybird were together again, both infected with the Sunspot virus, both asymptomatic. It was a pleasure to get out of isolation and back into space flying. The mission was extremely dangerous. They were to jump 4 plotted FTL jumps back to Caprica. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were based on the original Solaria, commonly referred to as \u201cThe Museum\u201d or the Battlestar Museum. This decision had little to do with tactics. It was simply to show the Cylons another signal what they were used to from the Battlestar Mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The virus was contained by blast doors being shut. It had infected most of the civilian population before even being discovered by medical tech. The other purpose of basing the mission from the ship was to give the board and ready to riot residents something to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being busy with the mission prevented the revolt that was being planned for being carried forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission was to Caprica, to participate in the salvage of the Battlestar Amagossa. The ship was named after a Colonial general in the first war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those that were allowed to talk to each other in person or over the communications network were buzzing about this in the discovery of the ship. It was proof that another branch of the fleet had escaped the extinction of the colonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a bottle of ambrosia to whoever picked through the dangerous wreckage and retrieved the flight data recorders and the voice recorders from the CIC. The plan was even hatched to decontaminate the bottle in case the owner who is infected with the virus or touched it or coughed on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plano was maneuvering very carefully with a soft touch on the control stick. A sudden move could mean a collision with a structural support beam. They were quite near the wreckage of the FTL drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though they might survive the destruction of the raptor in their flight suits with their helmets on, the radiation would only almost certainly kill them before they were rescued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see something,\u201d Jaybird said as he squinted at the scanner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can you see anything with all this garbage?\u201d Plano asked shaking his head. \u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight near the FTL thrust rod.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJaybird that is too big to be a flight data recorder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndeed it is,\u201d Jaybird replied. \u201cUp fifteen meters then forward ten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the frack are we looking at Jaybird?\u201d Plano asked after delicately and precisely following his instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is the one part of the ship that has more data than the data and voice recorders?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJaybird didn\u2019t I warn I wanted no more fracking quizzes or riddles. This looks a ship’s computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is exactly what it is Plano. Looks intact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJaybird deploy grappling hook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten minutes later they were clear of the wreckage. Four minutes after that the Cylons showed up and demolished the wreckage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their final approach to the Jupiter class Battlestar they were given the secret coordinates and diverted to the Mercury. Six plotted jumps later they were landed and met by Major Ramirez in a full hazmat suit. She directed a crew of four operating a wench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They slowly lowered the computer after taking it from the jaws of the grappling hook onto a rolling cart designed to move armaments to the vipers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An hour later it was disinfected and in a lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The XO was back in her element, information technology. The computer technology on the Amagossa was compatible with that of the Mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After replacing three power supplies into system boards, Ramirez hunched over the keyboard and watch the system boot. The system stored information in 4 databases. Each what\u2019s the word on the highly redundant disk array.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was with the situation became complicated. When the computer system had been blown loose from the ship and gotten too close to the FTL structures, radiation-damaged some of the disks. Since there were four different copies of the database there was a chance some of that would be recoverable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was disappointed with the quality of the data, but there were video logs available. She started a script triggering a reconstruction of the data. Now it was time to get some sleep while her program did its work.  It would take days to recover data this badly compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days later a video conference was set up to brief the commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe easiest log to recover was the most recent,\u201d Major Ramirez began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young dark-skinned, woman of thin build appeared on the screen. Her hair was mussed, and she made no effort to control it. Her uniform was dirty and wrinkled. It was a burn mark showing on her left shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She spoke deliberately a slight accent possibly from Tauron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA month ago I was a fighter pilot. Now I am promoted to captain and in command of a Valkyrie class Battlestar. We have signals intelligence that there was a resistance movement on Caprica. It appears to be a pyramid team from Caprica city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cit is a mission of the highest risk in this crew is all volunteer. We have a full complement of vipers and we are going to jump to Caprica. The force recon we sent ahead shows there may be base stars in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have forces in the area and we believe we are going to come in during a time when patrol pattern is away from Caprica. My training as a Battlestar commander is inadequate. I\u2019ve had a three-hour course in ship systems, and I have two veteran crewmembers in CIC to help out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a fleet composed of <screen goes to snow and the sound of static> Battlestar\u2019s and <screen goes to snow and the sound of static> support ships. I will not record where you\u2019re based in case the Cylons capture this computer system. Radiation levels in the colonies are very high due to nuclear strikes. Our scientists do not believe that life in the colonies is sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not believe it is possible to for fill orders but the commander who is really just a major insisted we try and rescue this team of pyramid players running a resistance cell in the mountains. May the gods of mercy on our souls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video illustration:’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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