{"id":9231,"date":"2025-02-28T00:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T00:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/?p=9231"},"modified":"2024-09-27T12:02:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T12:02:38","slug":"book-4-phrophecy-chapter-8-passing-the-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/?p=9231","title":{"rendered":"Book 4 Phrophecy Chapter 8: Passing the Torch."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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CIC Athena.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMajor Evans, all of the main line search party fleet have jumped in. All air wings are launched and defensive stations. We are missing a set a few of the smaller ships. The Celestra class is missing along with the supply freighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have Intel on this area and have diverted the supply ships to the next jump point. We are still missing the manticore that were supposed to take over the search while we head back to the barn. Maintain the combat air patrol for now, and let’s give them some time to catch up to the jump schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMay I ask where the commander is Sir?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Major Evans opened her palm and dropped a couple of small batteries on the CIC table. She spoke her next words with a wicked grin.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCommander Evans is asleep. I used my authority as executive officer and spouse to seize the batteries to his alarm clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThank the Gods! He was driving us all up and down the bulkheads. Master Chief Wilson was jumping any time the phone chimed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI will pay the price once he realizes who swiped the batteries. For now its considered a critical morale directive.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe air wing is whining about having to maintain full combat status with the threat board quiet Major Evans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat is because we have a three base star fleet looking to jump in an ambush us. We’re going to keep the vipers in the air until the last second before jump. The Athena is an important ship because of its contribution to our manufacturing capacity. With Mercury and Saturn missing we cannot afford to have Athena damaged. Also, if they come after us, that is a sign, they feel they have destroyed the Mercury. I am not sure the cylons are certain of the fate of Task Force Mercury, but this is one way to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe can jump now, please forgive me Major, isn’t the risk very high of sitting here?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCalculated risk. In an ambush, we might need Athena’s firepower. We need to transfer our current search data to the new search fleet before we go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cContact, three base stars point blank range. Launching raiders and missiles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWeapons free. Fire counter measures. Air wing weapons free.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cImpact, conventional weapons topside. Armor is holding.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cSend marines to wake up Commander Evans, just in case the crashing of missiles didn’t wake him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMajor, the marines report Commander Evans is on his way to CIC!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAcknowledge the report.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A large, crashing sound followed by dimming of the lights and the deck heaving up and down, made it impossible to speak for several seconds.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnother large salvo. Armor breach topside, internal communications are down across most of the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cDispatch damage control. We need internal comms. Spool up FTL.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cJump is plotted Major, we can’t get drive status at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvasive turn, try and get main forward gun solution. Salvo mode, when achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cRoger that Major, the heavy fire is making that pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cSTL Engines taking fire!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another crashing noise drowned out voices in CIC. The lighting went dark and the deck heaved beneath everyones feet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cInternal communications are back online Major. Damage control reports several internal explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhere the frak is the commander?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cStand by Major. Getting something. It’s sick bay. Commander Evans is in sick bay. He is in emergency surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cGet the LSO up here. We need a number two. Can we signal Demeter actual to take over the task force?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cNegative Sir. Main antenna took a missile hit. We can transmit, but we can’t hear anything except our own air wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are taking damage. Signal the air wing to take combat landings. FTL shows ready. Prepare for an emergency jump.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWeapons free. Put me on ship-wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMajor ship-wide. The mic is hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cLSO to CIC. Bring you nuclear firing pin. Commander Evans is in emergency surgery. He needs your thoughts and prayers. We are in a bit of trouble here. We need to fight our way through it and get home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMajor, Demeter is reporting she is under heavy fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCoordinate our fire with other ships. Lets take out those base stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur birds are recovered. Cylon raiders are formed up and hitting us topside. Fire control is still fully functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cDamage control teams to fire control.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBase Star down. More vampires inbound. We are taking a pounding!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe raiders are running.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOrder the air wing to hunt them down and make sure they don’t get a chance to jump. Where the hell is the LSO.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe’s dead Major. If you want to go to sick bay, I can watch the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBegin jump prep. After we make the jump, I can go to sick bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cHow is he Doctor?\u201d Major Evans asked as the ships doctor intercepted her and guided her to a chair in his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was touch and go there for a while. Commander Evans is going to go through rehab. He nearly bled out. Neurologically, he is fine. It is going to take three or more months before he can go back on duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, he wanted a reason to reject the Admiral’s position. Can I see him?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe will be conscious in about four hours. I just gave him another shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI will have to get back to CIC. Keep me up to date on his sitrep. Combat this is the XO, we jump as soon as FTL is back on line!\u201d<\/p>\n

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End of chapter 8<\/p>\n

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CIC Athena.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor Evans, all of the main line search party fleet have jumped in. All air wings are launched and defensive stations. We are missing a set a few of the smaller ships. The Celestra class is missing along with the supply freighter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001880,"featured_media":1901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-9231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prophecy","tag-prophecy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001880"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9231"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9537,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions\/9537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}