Journey Along The Stars [nBSG/Macross]

[deathzealotzero]

NOTE: Like Meeting Along The Stars I am spreading the love this story to other forums out there to get more people to read it. Like Meeting this story is already on both Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity along with FFN. So please let me know what you think?

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the franchises known as Macross or Battlestar Galactica, they are owned by their respective owners. I only claim to own the plot, the new characters, and everything else I have created for the purpose of this story. So please support the official release. Thank you.

Battlestar Galactica: Journey Along The Stars

Part of the Wayward Family Series

A Macross Frontier and Battlestar Galactica Crossover Story


Written by,

William R. Woods

aka, “deathzealot” or “deathzealotzero”

​

Foreword:

To start things off, I like to welcome you all to the total rewrite of my old Lucky Miracle story, a Macross and Battlestar Galactica Crossover, which I decided to use as my project for this year’s National Novel Writing Month. It will be quite different from the original story with new ideas and a new will being put into the story. Not to mention I am splitting the main story into two different shorter stories to make things a bit more different. Both are going to cover a different point of view of a different faction and characters. However, both stories are going to be crossovers, with them being crossed with Macross and Battlestar Galactica.

This story can be said to be the actual rewrite of the original Lucky Miracle story with it being based similarly, basically the Colonial Rag Tag Fleet finding something from Macross to help them in their flight from the Cylons. In Lucky Miracle that was a sole Macross Factory Ship found in the all-out destroyed remains of a Macross Colony Fleet. Here it is going to be a bit different for the Colonials will find a Colony Fleet that has been brutally torn apart and in desperation would fold which throws into a sector of space of the Milky Way Galaxy that is blocked from any form of Fold Tech. This Colony Fleet would be whittled down to almost nothing with only a few ships remaining, and an all-out destroyed Colony Ship but with a good majority of its population alive in shelters.

The primary reason for such destruction to the fleet is that a full-on colony fleet, even a small First-Generation Fleet, would basically outright destroy the pursuing Cylons forces with little effort at all. Therefore, a smaller damaged colony fleet would be able to help get the Colonials back onto their feet while at the same time, the Colonials can help the colonists from the Fleet get back onto their own feet. Both sides would help one another giving them a sort of mutual understanding. Even then, if you want to see the Cylons get curb-stomped by a Macross Fleet there is the other story Meeting Along The Stars, which has a weakened but still strong fleet from the Macross Frontier’s newly settled colony that ends up finding a Cylon force chasing another Colonial refugee fleet.

One last thing. I mentioned in the Foreword for Meeting that I am following information taken from the various background material, like the Variable Fighter Master File Books, and the Macross Chronicle magazine. While some of that info won’t be that useful in this story compared to Meeting, there will still be some notable pieces of information that I am using for this story. That said, there are going to be some stuff that I am creating for the purpose of this story that is not from any of the background material. Some of it will I will be borrowing from other sources. Then we have Battlestar Galactica, which I am going to be using a mix of official stuff from the series and game along with some things I created for the purpose of the story. Just like Lucky Miracle.

Anyhow, I do believe that is enough for this foreword. It is already longer than the Foreword for Meeting. Time to get to the main event. So please sit back and enjoy the ride.

- William R. Woods
November 6, 2019

Prelude: A Forlorn Hope

The Vajra War ended on September 25, 2059AD, in orbit of the colony we now know as Terra Nova. However, during the battle, while the Macross Frontier Colony Fleet was starting to discover the horrible plans the Macross Galaxy had for the Vajra, numerous fleets of the insectoid-like aliens appeared out of Fold Space to attack various New United Nation Government colonies and colony fleets across the galaxy. One such fleet attacked would be the Seventh Long Distance Colonization Fleet, led by the Megaroad-07, which had only recently fought off an attack by a small fleet of Uncultured Zentradi. Thanks to this the Megaroad-07 and her fleet were quite weakened leaving it easy prey to attacking Vajra under the control of the Macross Galaxy and its leadership. Before any help could be sent from the nearby Thirtieth Long Distance Colonization Fleet, the Seventh, and the Megaroad-07 went dark with only some battle debris being left behind to be found by the reinforcements. So far, no clue about what happened to the Seventh has been discovered, and like the Megaroad-01 many years before, there exist numerous theories that try to predict what happened to the missing colony fleet. Though that is all that they are theories, and like the Megaroad-01 before her the Megaroad-07 has become just another mystery that may never be solved.

- Taken from a Report from the Galactic Network News Site
Written by Dennis Lone, Circa. December 15, 2060 AD

-o-o-o-​

Argos Asteroid Belt
Ulysses Solar System
September 25, 2059AD

The Seventh Long Range Colonization Fleet is one of the oldest active colonization fleets of the New United Nations Government, having launched from Earth on September 22, 2016. It is notable for several discoveries and its exploration of space, including the discovery of the Zolans, through that the Galactic Whales, the first alien life discovered by humanity since the Zentradi. It later found the Tirolian Cluster and the fallen empire of the Tirolians that once inhabited the cluster, which is now several constantly warring states. They have discovered numerous ruins of the fallen Protoculture civilization discovering various things about them and the Stellar Republic that they had built. They were also the first to run into an active part of the Supervision Army, and the brief battle that followed would go a long way to help the Macross 7, and it’s own fleet during the Varuta War years later. Due to this the Seventh and its flagship the Megaroad-07 has become quite famous across the various colonies and colony fleets of the New United Nations Government. There were numerous accounts along the media of the New United Nations that the Megaroad-07 and its fleet would continue exploring the galaxy till there was nothing left to explore.

However, that was all about to change as the sizeable Megaroad-07 Colony Ship, and its fleet was under attack by the relentless Vajra aliens. Three massive Bishop Class Mobile Fortresses and dozens of smaller Knight Class Carriers had arrived out of Fold Space before disgorging thousands of smaller Vajra organisms to brutally attack the colony fleet’s escorts. A massive battle then erupted between the Vajra and the Colony Fleet, with numerous unprepared New United Nations Spacy ships falling to the unrelentless assault of the insectoid Vajra. Even the Megaroad-07 Colony Ship itself was not safe from this battle, having several of the large Knight Class Carriers firing their main guns at the unprepared colony ship, which literally cut it in half much to the shocked horror of the desperately fighting NUNS Forces. Other civilian vessels of the fleet fell to the smaller heavy reaction cannons of the Heavy Soldier Vajra, including the massive Vulcan Class Factory Ship.

All this horror was witnessed by Captain Marcus Rush from the command bridge of the newly constructed Atoll Class City Ship Island Mayan, which had been built to counteract the overpopulation onboard both the Megaroad-07 and the Habitation Section on the fleet’s sole factory ship. Not to mention the ARMD-Sized Habitation Ships that the Megaroad-07 towed behind her in a similar way to the newer Island Cluster Class Colonization Ships, which were supposed to extend the aging colony ship’s overall population. Captain Rush wasn’t a combat officer having been trained as an engineer, which is why his command, the Vestal Class Support Ship Anaheim was docked with the City Ship in the first place and why he had been on board along with several members of his crew. He had been overseeing the final checks of the City Ship before official delivery of the ship to the Colonization Fleet’s government the next day. Now it looked like the Captain was pretty much the only calm senior commanding presence in the fleet with the death several senior officers with the Megaroad-07 in two pieces and the destruction of every single of the fleet’s remaining carriers. Still the Captain had to be crazy to think up the plan that he was explaining to the remainder of the fleet’s officers.

“This is crazy! Purposely overloading our Fold Drives is madness! Who knows what will happen when we do,” a voice shouted through a holographic communication window in the almost silent command bridge of the large colony ship towards the red-headed uniformed man standing at the back of the bridge staring at the large holographic screens that made up the forward wall of the colony ship’s command bridge. He could only sigh in some sadness at the slaughter going on knowing he was losing friends and maybe even some loved ones as the battle continued to go on around him. With that cheery thought Marcus turned to look at the communication window.

“Commander Romero, yes it’s crazy and insane, but it’s our only hope. If we try to continue fighting the Vajra, we are dead. We can’t seem to just Fold Out due to some sort of Fold jamming coming from those mobile fortresses. Even if we could Fold Out of here, we would be leaving behind the remains of the Megaroad-07, with who knows how many surviving civilians in shelters to the mercy of the Vajra. Therefore, if we go through with this plan, we can expand our Fold bubble by a significant amount, which will allow us to bring the shattered remains of the Colony Ship and along with several of our other wrecked ships with us in the fold. We have no choice but to do this,” Marcus Rush explained to the older man that dominated the communication window. Commander Robert Romero had been the senior officer on board the recently constructed Macross Pathfinder Class Variable Battleship, the SDF/C-104 Macross Vanguard. It had been designed a couple years ago to serve as a mass-produced version of the older SDFN Class Super Dimensional Fortresses that had been produced to serve as centerpieces of the Short Range Colony Fleets in the late 2010s and into the 2020s. Not to mention the Battle Class of the later New Macross Colony Fleets. However, the price tag of such a project was higher than planned which saw further development of the class, which would see the Macross Quarter Class which was a quarter the size of any Macross-Type Ships. Still the Macross Pathfinder Class where still quite powerful ships, and a few colonies built them to serve as forward command ships or command ships of pathfinder groups paving the way for a colony fleet. The Seventh constructed their own Macross Vanguard to more easily take on Uncultured Zentradi fleets since they had been attacked by such a fleet a few months beforehand.

“Very well then Marcus, which ships are you going to use for this stunt of yours?” the other officer asked with a frown making Marcus nod his head at the older man. He quickly checked a small holographic screen showing notes of the engineering team and the Fold Drive Specialist Team that he had onboard checking over the Fold Drive before the battle.

“By our calculations, we would only really need the Island Mayan to do this really for it has one of the largest Fold Drives in the Fleet currently,” Marcus replied to the other man with a wave at his surroundings. Both men flinched as a nearby ship exploded from a strafing run by a trio of Heavy Soldier Type Vajra, which were soon engaged by several of the fleet’s new VF-20 Virago variable fighters. Marcus watched the passing fighters with a small smile on his lips, for he had been quite surprised that these new fighters using both new and old tech were working so well against the Vajra. Though as a pair of the fighters exploded from return fire from the Vajra, Marcus knew that it didn’t stop the Vajra from destroying them regardless. Still the three Heavy Soldiers were killed by a combined barrage of beam machine gun fire and missiles from the remaining fighters. Their job done they quickly moved away, heading towards a group of nearby smaller Mobile Soldiers for another fight. With a shake of his head Marcus turned his attention away from the new fighters and back to the displayed holographic window of Commander Romero.

“Damn it! That was the Rigel! We cannot afford to lose any other ships,” the older officer snarled out in some anger before he turned slightly to bellow orders to his own crew. Marcus sighed at this for the Rigel happened to be a Northern Cross Class Artillery Cruiser, which sported a Heavy Super Dimensional Cannon built into its Auxiliary Hull, which combined with several turrets of Heavy Particle Beam Cannons gave the design quite a long-range punch. The Rigel had been using its main gun to punch holes in the Vajra Swarm by sniping the Vajra Knight Class Carriers allowing some breathing room for the remaining NUNS forces fighting for their lives.

“Alright, do it, but please make it quick we are not going to last much longer,” Commander Romero replied a few moments later, turning back to his own communications window after passing numerous orders to the other remaining ships of the rapidly shrinking NUNS Garrison Fleet.

“Understood we shall be starting in a few moments Commander just hold on a bit more,” Marcus replied, making the other man nodded, and with a wave of his hand the communication link was closed. Marcus then turned to look at another smaller holographic window showing the readings on the Fold Drive of the Island Mayan. Seeing that everything was ready and turned his attention to his own crew.

“Alright. Let’s do this starting powering up the Fold Drive,” he ordered the handful of men and women with him on the command bridge of the Island Mayan. They all replied positively and relayed his orders to the rest of the ship. Then within a few minutes, a gentle hum could be felt throughout the large City-Ship as the Fold Drive started to power up. Gritting his teeth Marcus really hoped this worked or they were all screwed.

“Captain! The Vajra are retreating from battle! We are getting Fold readings across the battlefield,” a voice called out from the colony ship’s sensor station, making Marcus turn to look down at the station in some surprise before he looked up at the forward screens. Sure, enough, every single remaining Vajra were disappearing in their own unique pink fold spheres making his jaw drop in some surprise before shaking his head with a short victorious sounding laugh. He then turned to the bridge’s engineering station with a relieved look on his face.

“Alright now that they are gone stop the power-up of the Fold Drive,” he ordered, for now, they were not fighting for their lives; they didn’t need his plan anymore. Granted, the Vajra could return, but he had a hunch that they won’t for something must have happened elsewhere that saw them retreat. At the nod of the engineering officer Marcus turned towards the communication station.

“When engineering is doing that, I want you to broadcast a general SOS on the Fold Comm since I am sure the Fold Jamming has disappeared with the Vajra’s Fortresses. For we are going to need some help to recover from this,” Marcus mentioned with a sigh as he looked back up at the holographic screens eying the split into two derelict that once been the Megaroad-07.

‘God. I hope you managed to make it to the shelter Komilia with the kids or your Father will kill me if your mother doesn’t get to me first,’ he thought with an inner chuckle mentioning his wife Komilia Maria Rush the older daughter of the legendary Admiral Maximilian Jenius, ‘Though I would have most likely killed myself before that.’

Suddenly he noticed the increasing panicked mutterings from the engineering station and the now audible hum getting ever louder instead of starting to decrease as the Fold Drive started to be shut off. He frowned at this before leaning forward slightly and looking down at the engineering station in some concern.

“What is going on? Why haven’t you shut down the Fold Drive yet?” he called down to the engineering station and was surprised by the now cursing officer looking back up at him with a fearful face.

“Sir, we can’t! The charge is increasing, and we cannot stop it!” the man mentioned making a chill pass down the back of Marcus. Yes. They had planned for this and did all the calculations, but who knows where they would end up.

“Captain! The Macross Vanguard is hailing us!” the officer at Communications reported making Marcus look over that station knowing why Romero was calling him. However, he was more worried about something else currently, along with the issue with the Fold Drive.

“Did you manage to fire off an SOS?” he asked the woman who nodded her head at him making him sigh in some relief.

“Good. Well, let’s hope our planning and the calculations are correct, or this is going to be a one-way trip to hell,” he mentioned with a sigh as the hum was literally screaming, and the ship was shaking. Then everything went white as the Fold Drive finally released its charge spreading out through the now recovering fleet. The globe of white light expanding out from the Island Mayan covering the entire fleet before suddenly with a flash the glowing sphere disappeared, leaving behind some limited battle debris and empty space where there was once a fleet of hundreds of ships. Nothing was left to tell the tale of what happened here, and the Megaroad-07 would like the Megaroad-01 years before becoming a legend and a mystery. Though unlike the Megaroad-01 the remaining population of the Megaroad-07 will be seen again by the galaxy at large but not for a few more years. Till then it remains a mystery.

-o-End-o-​

Post Chapter Notes

Well, this is the opening chapter of my second Macross/nBSG Crossover Story, Journey Along The Stars, which will focus more on the canon Rag Tag Fleet we see in the Battlestar Galactica series. Like my earlier Lucky Miracle story, the Macross Colony Fleet I have chosen to represent Macross in this story is the Megaroad-07 and the Seventh Long Distance Colonization Fleet though this time more of the fleet survive than just a handful of surviving people from the Megaroad-07 along with a single Factory Ship. We shall learn more about the fleet and what had survived in the next chapter. Though it is not much. Far less then what the Colonials have in their own fleet.

Anyways. I am sure you all have some questions about a few things. Therefore, I shall answer a few of them. First off, this chapter takes place right alongside the Final Battle of the Frontier Series over the Vajra Homeworld during the scene where Grace O’Conner and the other leaders of the Macross Galaxy take over the Vajra. We could see a few brief scenes of a few locations getting attacked by fleets of Vajra. I figured those locations were not the only places attacked by the Galaxy-Controlled Vajra, which saw my fan-created Megaroad-07 being one of the attacked sites. In response to this one of the remaining senior officers of the fleet, Marcus Rush, who was the dead husband of Komilia mentioned in Lucky Miracle comes up with a crazy-ass plan to get the fleet plus the half-destroyed Megaroad-07 out of the battle. Basically, they are going to purposely overload their Fold Drives, which would unleash a giant fold bubble to allow the entire fleet to escape. This plan goes side-ways after the Vajra retreat due to our loveable Princess Alto Saotome killing Grace in the final shot of the war resulting in the plan going off anyways.

Next up, I am sure you notice a few minor things like the so-called Atoll Class Colony Ship that is the centerpiece of the chapter. This is the same type of ship as the Island Jackpot from Macross Delta, which looks like a smaller island-type city-ship. It will be the next colony ship for the survivors of the Megaroad-07 and maybe some people from the Colonial Fleet. Then you may notice the Macross Vanguard, which is the same class as the Macross Elysion also from Delta. I am actually a big fan of the design. Therefore, I have added it to story to serve as a counterpoint to the Galactica and Pegasus. It is not the same as the Elysion having a pair of slightly lengthened and modified ARMD-L Units from the Macross Quarter as its “arms” instead of the Enterprise Class ships that the Elysion sports. That means it doesn’t have a main gun, but it still has the hefty amount of regular particle cannon turrets, which will be enough for taking on Cylons. Finally, we have the VF-20 Virago Fighter, which replaces the earlier VF-20 Wasp, which is based on the SW-XAII Schneegans from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: VF Experiment. At its most basic it is a VF-1 Valkyrie made with modern tech which is what it meant by being it made from both old and new tech. This is from a comment read somewhere that said the two VF Experiment units were Shoji Kawamori’s attempt on making a VF-1 Valkyrie in a more modern style. Do not know if it is true, but I thought it would be interesting to have a VF-1 unit that was produced with more modern tech.

Okay. Further questions will be answered either in the coming chapters, like what is going on with Komilia, and what is going on with the Colonials or be explained in other ways like background files. One of which would be the Background Wikia Page I made for the Virago which will be linked to on the Sufficient Velocity and Spacebattles threads for this story.

Anyhow. I have rambled long enough. I hope you enjoy this little prelude, and I shall see you all in the next chapter. Ciao!

 

[Ariel Schnee]

Interesting. And I look forward to more. Hope to see it soon.^_^

 

[deathzealotzero]

Interesting. And I look forward to more. Hope to see it soon.^_^

Blink. My apologies for apparently I haven't posted the rest of this story on this site. I shall see about posting the rest of what I have written for this story over the next couple of days. Still though thanks for the reply and like.

 

[ATP]

Good to see you here.

Blink. My apologies for apparently I haven't posted the rest of this story on this site. I shall see about posting the rest of what I have written for this story over the next couple of days. Still though thanks for the reply and like.

Good.I like your story.And sending wrecks instead of fleet is good move - otherwise they would just wipe out cylons,which would be boring.

 

[deathzealotzero]

Good.I like your story.And sending wrecks instead of fleet is good move - otherwise they would just wipe out cylons,which would be boring.

Oh. The remainder of the Megaroad-07 Fleet would still deliver a pounding to the Cylons but yeah a fully functional Macross Colony Fleet, even a smaller Megaroad Class Fleet, would indeed be kind of a boring curbstump on the Cylons. Though I wouldn't call it boring if it is done right.

Anyways. I shall see about posting the next chapter of this story later tonight. Stay tuned!

 

[LordSunhawk]

I just found this, this is well written and I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

 

[Ash's Boomstick]

Oh. The remainder of the Megaroad-07 Fleet would still deliver a pounding to the Cylons but yeah a fully functional Macross Colony Fleet, even a smaller Megaroad Class Fleet, would indeed be kind of a boring curbstump on the Cylons. Though I wouldn't call it boring if it is done right.

Anyways. I shall see about posting the next chapter of this story later tonight. Stay tuned!

To be honest even an SDF Macross era Oberth and ARMD group would slaughter the Cylons if it came to it, double that if they are the later versions with VF-1s replacing the Ghosts and Lancers (if you go with that version of things). The SDF-1 alone with the twins attached even more so, although I'd love to see the DYRL version instead have a go at the Cylons.

 

[deathzealotzero]

Chapter One: Respite & Reflection

The Battle of the Resurrection Ship is the first time during the Second Cylon War that would see the Colonial Fleet of the fallen Twelve Colonies of Kobol, represented by the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus along with their fighter complements, fighting on a level battlefield without any tricks or surprises by the Cylon Empire. The two Colonial Battlestars efficiently managing to fight against twice their number in Cylon Hel Class Basestars while also managing to launch attacks against the Cylon Resurrection Ship and its accompanying support ships including an old Specter Class Basestar of the First Cylon War which had been converted into a dedicated support tender for the modern Hel Class Basestars. The resulting battle saw the destruction of two Hel Class Basestars, a third heavily damaged, the converted Specter Class Basestar destroyed, the Resurrection Ship destroyed, and several support ships including the Cylon’s entire Tylium stockpile in the form of four heavy tankers destroyed. The final Hel Class Basestar retreated with the remaining support ships leaving the victorious Colonial Battlestars with some moderate armor damage and a few deep hits along with the destruction of nineteen Vipers.

The aftermath of the battle left the combined Colonial Refugee Fleet with a much-needed breather of fresh air. This allowed them to finish a few projects to make living in the fleet easier for the civilians, rounding up the remaining Cylon Spies in the fleet, complete training on replacement Colonial Fleet personnel and pilots, gathering needed resources to construct supplies required to keep the fleet running, finish repairs on several of the civilian vessels, and completing several significant tasks that had been delayed due to Cylon Attack or some other needed job like emergency repairs. One of these mentioned tasks would be the general integration of the Galactica and the Pegasus crews, for neither crew was used to operating with another Battlestar. All of which allowed the Refugee Fleet to gather its breath and to smooth out operations along with the entire fleet.

Meanwhile, the Cylon Empire was left shocked and surprised at the brutal attack on their Resurrection Ship along with the support ships. This was a significant setback for the Empire, for, with the destruction of the Resurrection Ship and its support ships, it couldn’t maintain its pursuit of the Colonials. Especially with many of the human-form Cylons afraid of dying permanently. The leader of the Cylon Forces chasing the Colonial Refugee Fleet, Primus John was asked to step down from command by the Imperious Leader and was temporally Boxed in punishment for letting a valuable Resurrection Ship be destroyed. It also for the first time since the First Cylon War that the Empire has tasted such bitter defeat. In answer to this defeat, the Imperious Leader installed Primus Sonja as the new commander of the Empire’s Second Fleet and the forces chasing the Colonial Refugee Fleet. Even then, before any further pursuit of the Colonial Fleet could be started, a supply of tylium and supplies needed to be built up while one of the precious few remaining Resurrection Ships had to be recalled from the Empire’s capital, the mobile colony, Graystone.

However, before either side could start fighting once more, the Colonials were surprised to stumble onto numerous ancient battlefields and ruins in several systems. While the Cylon Empire was shocked to the core by reports of the Empire’s Third Fleet about the existence of some sort of unknown space nation that sported advanced technology, which includes particle beam cannons, advanced ECM Jamming, an unknown FTL Drive, and an advanced Active Stealth System. It would be the start of a third party entering the Second Cylon War, one that would send shocks through both the Colonials and the Cylons.

- Taken from The Great Exodus: A Tale of the Second Cylon War, written by Lieutenant Colonel Louis Hoshi (retired), Published on March 10, 2064AD

-o-o-o- ​

Aether Star System
Hatari Sector
275 Days After Fall of Twelve Colonies
36 Days After Battle of the Resurrection Ship
October 3, 2061 AD (Earth Reckoning)

The gathered Colonial Refugee Fleet was gathered around the massive pair of Battlestars as it silently held a position in a thick asteroid field in a recently surveyed star system. The fleet had changed very little since their departure from the massive Helios Star System over nine months before with only the addition of the mighty Battlestar Pegasus and its own tiny fleet of civilian ships to the overall more extensive fleet being the only significant change. The fleet sported seventy-six ships, including the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus as well the military support ship Swordfish while the civilian ships ranged from a pair of tiny Flea Class Lightweight Transports all the way up to the massive Star Cloud, a newly constructed Cloud Series Luxury Liner, that sported a couple of large pressurized domes on the bottom of and top of its main auxiliary hull. It had been recovered pretty much intact from the builder’s fitting out yard by the Battlestar Pegasus during its guerilla war against the Cylon force occupying the Colonies. The large liner was used by the crew of the Pegasus to house the few hundred or so civilians they had managed to recover from drifting wrecks during their ongoing guerilla war with the Cylons. Currently, the large fleet was using the time given to them by the Cylons not pursuing them to gather needed resources from the giant asteroid field while also finishing repairs required on a few of the overworked civilian ships. Along with seeing about getting the older of the two Battlestars, the Galactica back to full operation. The planned resourcing operation and the repairs were projected to take around three months to complete.

Watching all this activity around the fleet is newly promoted Admiral William Adama from the small porthole built into one wall of his newly appointed Flag Quarters. This small porthole is one of the few actual windows in the entire ship even then it's quite small when compared to the even larger viewport on the bow of the massive Battlestar. Even then it was enough for the Admiral to watch as several space-suited figures and a single Mule Fleet Shuttle hovered over the ship’s starboard flight pod. One of the major parts of the operation to restore the Galactica back to full service was reactivating this particular flight pod which thanks to the operation to convert the ship into a mobile museum of the First Cylon War had been completely closed off. He couldn’t see it from the porthole, but the Kodiak Class Support Tender Swordfish was docked along the bottom of the flight pod with another pair of Mule Shuttles. He had been quite glad to find that one of the ships of the small Pegasus led civilian fleet was a military support ship like the Swordfish. The Kodiak while not designed to service and repair the large Battlestars still sported the needed equipment to help in getting the Old Girl back into full fighting shape when teamed up with the ship’s own engineers along with a team of civilian engineers that had been onboard the Pegasus starting its own refit when the Cylon Attack began.

As he watched, he reflected on a few events that happened over the past couple of months that would lead to their current respite from Cylon aggression. First, there was President Laura Roslin being cured of her cancer using some blood of an unborn human/Cylon hybrid baby. This saw the President’s plan on faking the death of the child after she was born and placing her up adoption to protect her in a way be dropped. He frowned at this thought, for he had been quite upset when the President had confided in him what she had planned. Still though with that plan thrown out the Cylon Human-Form Eight had pretty much defected to the Colonials due to her falling in love with a human Raptor pilot who had her baby a few weeks later. This saw the Adama moving the woman, her baby, and her lover, Lieutenant Karl Agathon, to these Flag Quarters away from anyone wanting to harm them. From there the Eight, now named Sharon Agathon, started a thorough debriefing by Adama and a picked team of officers which for the first time gave the Colonials a dedicated look at the new so-called Cylon Empire. The Eight also managed to describe the other Cylon Human Form Lines enough to get a general picture of each Cylon Line, allowing the Colonials to mount a search through the fleet to find further Cylon spies or saboteurs. This debriefing would also reveal one significant tidbit of information that shocked everyone who had been listening. There was another Battlestar out there and even a second refugee fleet under the control of Gerald Cain, an old legend from the First Cylon War, who was confusing the Cylons deeply with his random change in direction which like the fleet chasing the Galactica and its fleet would have them hold back to try to find out what he is planning.

Soon after the debriefing, the recently revealed second Battlestar, the Pegasus, and its gathered small fleet of ships arrived at much fanfare from the Fleet. However, soon that general excitement waned as Admiral Helena Cain, commander of the Pegasus revealed a few things to Adama and the President on what she had done over the past few months. While Adama had been quite interested in hearing about the woman’s one-ship guerilla war against the Cylons back at the Colonies. He was aghast at the methods she used, impressing civilian spacers, executing an officer when he refused to follow her orders and several other notable incidents which left the larger Battlestar with only about just shy of seventy percent of its crew. The only thing she did right was to rescue numerous stranded civilians trapped in drifting shipwrecks across the colonies and escorted several other civilian ships out of combat. Even then she impressed the civilians and spacers that had needed skills into her crew. That a few even all-out volunteered didn’t diminish her pretty much taking a bunch of civilians and spacers at gunpoint to serve on her crew. The only reason she had gotten away with it mainly was that many of those civilians were angry and wanted some form of revenge against the Cylons.

Still having a second Battlestar around gave the Colonials a much-needed opportunity to see about giving them a needed reprieve from the pursuing Cylons. During the debriefing of Sharon Agathon, one major thing revealed was the existence of the Cylon’s Resurrection Technology, which allowed Human-Form Cylons and Raiders to resurrect after their death at the nearest Resurrection Ship. The fleet chasing them sported a single ship of this type along with several needed support ships. With a second Battlestar and her complement of fighters, a battleplan was drawn out by both Adama and Cain to use their two ships to destroy that ship along with the Cylons’ Fleet Train. The resulting battle did precisely as they intended destroying two Basestars in the process while also accomplishing their mission of destroying the Resurrection Ship and the Cylon’s support ships. The Cylons soon backed off giving the Colonials their needed reprieve from pursuit.

Soon after the battle, Cain stepped down as Admiral and Commander of the Pegasus leaving the command of the larger battlestar to Commander Cade Ward who becomes the Admiral’s XO after the death of her old XO during one of the earlier battles of her guerilla campaign while also promoting Adama to replace her as Admiral of the Fleet. During a talk between the two after Adama’s promotion ceremony, Cain revealed the reason why she had abandoned her guerilla war to search out the Galactica and its fleet. She had found out from a captured Cylon agent that her father was still alive and leading his own refugee fleet somewhere out in space. After recovering from the emotional breakdown from this revelation she asked herself what her father would do in her place. She then gathered the civilian ships she had hidden away across the former colonies and nearby space before jumping away from the Cyrannus Sector entirely and starting to search for either the Galactica’s Fleet or her father’s fleet.

However, while the Fleet started to see about widening the gap between them and the Cylons, they began to find numerous ancient battlefields with numerous old shipwrecks and debris while several planets were ravaged by some unknown weapon. A couple of planets even being totally broken apart into several pieces. This scared many in the Fleet mainly when they recovered a pretty much intact small craft from one of the battlefields. This large, but viper-looking craft surprised many in the Fleet with examples of its hull armor standing up against 30mm KEW Fire from a Viper and the craft’s primary weapon being some sort of directed energy weapon. The result of this observation would scare many across the fleet, while others asked if this was the work of the Thirteenth Tribe. It would be thanks to these ancient battlefields that would see the Fleet stopping in this system for a needed rest and refit period.

A sudden beeping from the large desk that was shoved into one corner of the large main room of the lavish quarters drew the Admiral from his reflecting of the past few months. Blinking, the Admiral turned away from the porthole and his own inner thoughts, seeing that the beeping was from the corded handset built into one side of the desk. With a sigh, the Admiral stepped over to the desk and picked up the handset.

“This is the Admiral,” he said into the receiver of the handset.

“Admiral, this is Captain Gaeta. Sir, you want to be notified when the last of the officers for the fleet briefing were aboard. Commander Ward just landed, and he is the last of the officers you requested for the briefing,” came the voice of Captain Felix Gaeta, the ship’s former overworked operations officer, and his current aide-de-camp. One of the first acts upon being promoted to Admiral was to promote a few of his most trusted officers which included Gaeta. Blinking, Adama looked over at the ancient clock that sat at one wall of the office area of his quarters surprised to find that it was later than he thought.

“Yes. Thank you, Mister Gaeta. Please let Major Kelly know of this and that he is to take command of the CIC before you head down to the briefing yourself,” he ordered the much younger man.

“Aye sir,” the Captain replied before with a click the line disconnected, making the Admiral nod at this setting the handset back into its cradle before he turned to his desk and grabbed several stacked folders that laid there. He then made way for the main hatch of the room; however, as he headed for the hatch, he passed a pair of paintings that took up much of the main wall of the room. The first is a lovely painting of the Galactica during Operation Raptor Talon, which had sat on the wall of these quarters ever since the final days of the First Cylon War. Though it recently received a companion in the form of a new painting done by a civilian painter that had arrived onboard one of the civilian ships that accompanied the Pegasus. It showed the entire Colonial Refugee Fleet orbiting around a large Gas Giant they had come across a couple of systems back. The painting is very detailed, with every single ship of the fleet lovely painted to the tiniest detail. It was really an excellent piece, and the Admiral had loved it when the painter had presented it to him a week before when they first entered this new star system. He smiled at the painting, for it represented that while they were running from the Cylons, life continued in some form for the civilians. With a brief smile, the elderly Admiral stepped away from the paintings and exited his quarters heading towards the afternoon’s officer meeting.

-o-o-o- ​

Main Briefing Room
Battlestar Galactica

“Admiral on deck!”

Someone called out as Admiral Adama entered the main briefing room a few minutes later with his yeoman following behind him to find several of his officers that were gathered in the room snap to attention at his arrival. He nodded at this before setting the folders down at the head of the table the dominated the center of the room. This room had stood pretty much barren since the opening battle of the Second Cylon War. It had briefly been used during those hours before the Cylon attack as a press room where members of the press where briefed on the project to make the Galactica into a ship museum and had been where Adama had met with his remaining son for the first time since their estrangement after the death of his other son, Zac. Later, it was used by the newly elected President Roslin as her own office while onboard the Battlestar, but when the civilian space liner Colonial One was finished with its hasty conversion she moved back on board the liner. Now with Adama elevated to Admiral, he ordered it cleaned up and returned to its original role as the main briefing room for gathered officers of a Battlestar Group or an entire Fleet of several groups.

“At ease and take a seat, we have a lot to go over today,” he mentioned with a wave of his hand to the table. The gathered officers stood at ease and quickly took seats around the table while the Admiral took the position at the head of the table as his rank dictated. He looked around, looking over the officers putting faces to names since the familiar faces from the Galactica were joined by new faces from both the Pegasus and Swordfish along with a few former retired officers that had been along with the civilian population before being recalled to service.

The familiar faces of the Galactica were all gathered nearest to the end of the table and the Admiral. First, there is Colonel Saul Tigh, currently the overall Commander of the Galactica though the other man generally remained Adama’s XO as he hadn’t officially given up the Command of the Galactica just yet, though that may change in the coming days. This was mainly thanks to him not only being in command of the Galactica but the rest of the fleet therefore wouldn’t really have the needed time to actually command the old battlestar much to his own annoyance but he understood the reasoning. Then there was the youthful face of Captain Felix Gaeta, an officer who had risen from being a fresh-faced Junior Lieutenant on his first shipboard assignment before the start of the war all the way to becoming the ship’s jaded Operations Officer. Sitting next to the youthful Captain is the slightly older Captain Karl Agathon, callsign Helo, who had once been a member of the ship’s sole assigned Raptor Squadron before the Cylon Attack and as a result of the attack had been briefly stranded on Caprica where he managed to run into the Cylon Number Eight, a virtual copy of the pilot of his Raptor, that is now known as Sharon Agathon. He was now assistant to Captain Gaeta, filling more duties as the main Operations Officer while Gaeta became taking on more responsibilities due to him becoming the Admiral’s go-to Aide since his promotion.

Then there Adama’s son Major Lee Adama, callsign Apollo, the ship’s Commander Aerospace Group. Lee had changed very little since the arrival of the Pegasus besides a brief assignment as the main tactical officer and third officer onboard the Pegasus. He then returned to his role as the CAG of Galactica though unknown to Lee, the Admiral was planning on giving Lee some more shipboard experience to eventually prepare him to maybe take on more duties as an officer onboard one of the Battlestars and finally perhaps command of one of them. Sitting opposite of these three officers was the blond-haired newly promoted Captain Kara Thrace, callsign Starbuck, who was now the commander of the newly reorganized Primus Squadron, the Red Squadron of the Galactica Viper Wing. While normally Captain Thrace wouldn’t be in a meeting like this, but the Admiral valued her input on many things therefore she was attending.

Next to the cocky Viper pilot was the towering figure of also newly promoted Captain John Halsey the senior Marine officer onboard the old Battlestar who could barely fit into the chair. He had formerly been the officer in charge of the Galactica Marine Detachment before being promoted by the overall commander of the gathered marines of the entire fleet, one Brigadier Miranda Keyes formerly Colonel and commander of the Colonial Marines 142nd Mobile Task Group which had been mostly recovered from the drifting hulk of the Marine Assault Ship John Forge by the Pegasus. The final of the familiar officers was someone not often seen in these meetings or briefings, Captain Davis Llewellyn the ship’s sometimes cranky Chief Engineer who now sat next to the unmovable tall figure of the Marine Captain. The gray-haired middle-aged woman had been the chief engineer of the Galactica for the last decade and a half. Therefore, knew pretty much everything about the old Battlestar, more so than Adama, who had served on the ship several times throughout his somewhat storied military career.

Then there were the new faces which include a few officers that Adama either had met before in his career or only knew of them from other sources. One such officer is Major Brian Carter, a member of the Colonial Fleet Research and Development Department before the Fall of the Colonies, due to being on board the Pegasus during the opening battle of the war he had been saved and helped in getting the ship back into action. Adama knew him from the early days of the decommissioning of the Galactica and knew that he has taken part in a few different projects across his career. Then there is Commander Cade Ward, the new Commander of the Pegasus, who once been the CAG for the Battlestar Valkyrie during the first year of Adama’s command of the smaller Mars Class Battlestar. After that he had then had a slew of different assignments after entering further training at the Colonial Fleet’s War College, briefly serving as Helena Cain’s XO onboard the Pegasus before being assigned to command the newly commissioned Mars Class Battlestar Dynamite right before the Cylon attack. The next officer is Lieutenant Colonel Charles Renner, commander of the Swordfish. Adama knew that Renner had been a longtime Colonial Fleet Reserve Officer hence only really served on or commanded support ships like the Swordfish. Hence, for that reason, he was not considered a combat-rated officer of the fleet though he was still quite a good engineer. For that reason, he had been primarily reasonable for the refit of the Galactica. Still, though his input was still quite valuable in a meeting like this one. Finally, there is Colonel Samuel Kronus, an aging First Cylon War veteran that been along with the civilians rescued by the Pegasus after the Cylon Attack and been called back to service by Admiral Cain as commander of the recovered modified Aquila Class Through Deck Transport Victoria.

The Aquila Class was notable as being quite like the slightly smaller Titan Class Through Deck Container Freighter like the current fleet’s own Prometheus; however, what made the Aquila different was that they were created from the Flight Pods of decommissioned Jupiter and Neptune Class Battlestars. The Pod’s Flight Deck is used to carry various types of containers while the hangar deck of the former Flight Pod was converted to other uses, including needed crew space and other needed machinery for a ship. While a pair of attached engine nacelles gave the ship its FTL Drive and Sub-Light Engines. However, with the introduction of the smaller, more efficient Titan Class, along with several further freighter designs, the Aquila Class would be mainly removed from service.

However, what made the Victoria so valuable to the Pegasus was that it had been a prototype for a planned conversion of the entire class to make them more useful to the Colonial Fleet. This conversion basically turned these ships from dedicated civilian-run container transport to that of military-run light fighter carriers. A few dozen point defense guns were added back to the ship to give it a decent defensive screen, while each side of the flight deck had received a large airlock-like hatch that sealed off the entire deck. This modification allowed the ship to carry a single squadron of Vipers and a couple of Raptors in a redone combined flight deck and hangar bay. However, with newer Gunstar classes introduced after the end of the war sporting their own ability to carry Vipers and Raptor themselves these converted light carriers did not become a thing in the Colonial Fleet. Even the Victoria and another converted ship of the class the Boras were retained by the Fleet as Viper Training Ships before both of them were replaced by more dedicated training ships a few years ago. Still, Admiral Cain saw this ship as a perfect ship to run herd on the handful of intact civilian ships they had found allowing the Pegasus to run its one-ship guerilla war against the Cylons occupying the Colonies. Now it remained as a light carrier and the third main military ship of the fleet where it often was the first ship of the fleet to jump to provide fighter cover for the incoming civilian ships.

“Alright, I do believe the first thing we need to discuss today is the report on the recovered alien fighter. Major Carter if you please?” the Admiral finally said after a few minutes of looking over the gathered officers before nodding to the figure of Major Carter. The black-haired young engineer officer nodded in response before standing up from his seat, retrieving a small data drive in front of him, and walked towards the other end of the table where a large display screen stood displaying a rotating crest of the Galactica. The Major inserted the data drive into the laptop computer that is connected to the screen and retrieved a remote that had been placed next to the laptop.

“Thank you, Admiral. As you all aware, we recovered an alien fighter from one of the numerous battlefields in several star systems we passed by,” the man mentioned as he came up alongside the display screen which at the command of his remote switched on to display images taken of the said fighter.

“We have thoroughly looked over every inch of the fighter and come to a few conclusions,” he continued on as the screen went through the dozen or so images taken of various parts of the fighter, including its damaged hull, the cockpit, and a few other points on the fighter. A few of the officers could be heard either hissing or gasping in some surprise at the displayed pictures of the enlarged cockpit.

“First of all, the cockpit section is quite large, which we believe is for a giant-sized alien to pilot the craft. Though upon inspecting the cockpit and its controls we were surprised to find we pretty much understood what many of them would be able to do. That is not even considering that all the displayed text on the controls are some variation of Ancient Kobolian Text,” the engineer mentioned bringing up the several images taken of the cockpit on the screen with another click of the remote. The gathered officers could only stare in some surprise, they all had read the preliminary report on it, but still hearing it and seeing was quite something else.

“Interesting. If I remember right, some of our other ancient religious texts have mentioned several times of creatures called titans. I wonder if the pilots of these fighters are actually these titans or some form of them anyways,” the Admiral mentioned thoughtfully, which made a couple of the officers blink in some surprise while Major Carter nodded at him.

“Yes. A few of my more religious team members had mentioned something similar, especially when we realized that the text in the cockpit is some sort of off-shoot of Ancient Kobolian,” the Engineer replied before with a click of his remote brought another series of images which made him frown in some concern.

“That said. We have tested pieces of the fighter’s hull, and we are quite surprised to find that while it is quite light it is very tough. More so than our own fighter hulls. We even did a test firing a dismounted MEC-A6 30mm KEW Cannon at a piece of the hull and we were surprised that the rounds simply bounced off the hull before finally after several barrages of fire from the cannon we managed to break through the hull,” he reported with a shake of his head as a video played of the mentioned test making the officers start mumbling in some worry. He then clicked his remote again with a shake of his head, stopping the video and bringing up a few more images onto the screen. This time of the fighter’s primary weapon which looked like some sort of triple-barreled cannon of a sort.

“Next, we took a long look at the primary weapon of the fighter, and we were quite surprised to find that it is not as we first thought a heavy kinetic cannon of some sort, but a direct energy weapon. This surprised the frak out of us for that is the last thing we were expecting,” Carter said with a pained look on his face as the officer’s stopped mumbling in worry and outright looked at him in some shock. One of them Commander Ward leaned forward and stare directly at the engineer with a frown on his face.

“Major, I hate to ask you this but are you sure that you are correct in that it is a directed energy weapon?” the man asked making the Major smile slightly at the question before clicking on his remote once more showing several images of the weapon including a few images of the weapon removed from the fighter itself. One such image had zoomed on looked to be some sort of battery or energizer. Another image showed the weapon’s mount inside the nose of the alien fighter. Nothing in either photo showed anything like an ammo magazine. Finally, a short video started showing the weapon mounted onto a frame like the one that held the KEW Cannon in the earlier video. A moment later it fired at some sort of placed target outside of the camera’s view. Indeed, some sort of beam emerged from one of the barrels of the weapon.

“We did numerous tests on the weapon Major. We are quite sure with our results,” he mentioned with a mirthless chuckle before continuing on, “That said. It appears to be a sort of particle beam cannon that instead of firing like a three-barrel version of our own 52mm Rapid-Fire KEW Cannon, it instead fires one barrel at a time with a couple of seconds in between each shot.”

Major Carter then looked around at the other officers to seem them all pretty much shocked speechless over this revelation. All but the Admiral who had read his full report a few days beforehand to prepare for this meeting. The Major chuckled at this before turning back to the screen, which now returned to the image of the alien fighter’s main cannon on a testing rack.

“I like to point out that the Fleet’s Advanced R&D Section Black-Three was in the process of developing a similar weapon, but they were around a decade away from a viable design. The prototypes they did manage to develop were heavy and cumbersome, nothing like this design at all. That is the only reason we were able to discover how to fire this thing and how it worked so easily,” he said waving at the image with a shake of his head and a sigh before with another click of his remote the screen displayed a few points on the fighter’s hull along with an image taken of looked to be some sort of missile. Another showed the same missile disassembled into several pieces.

“Finally, we have the auxiliary weapon of the fighter, which is three paired missile launchers, quite like the missile bays on our own Viper Mark-VIIs. The missiles themselves are quite interesting for instead of sporting some sort of explosive warhead at the front of the missile they are instead large kinetic penetrators which are design to pierce through an enemy’s hull before the explosive in the mid-part of the missile explodes taking out the enemy,” he said pointing to several parts of the disassembled missile.

“And that concludes my report,” the engineer said with a final click of his remote, which returned the display back to the rotating image of the Crest of the Galactica. The Admiral nodded at this before looking over at the still shocked officers before looking up at the Major.

“Before we get to the next item on the list, you had mentioned at the end of your report of something that you believed may be able to take on these alien fighters if we ever encounter them. Can you further explain that?” the Admiral ordered, making the Major facepalm slightly and mumbled something before sighing, looking up at the Admiral. He then went over to the computer connected to the display screen and retrieved the data-drive connected there before replacing it with another data-drive he fished out of a pocket of his uniform. A moment later the display beeped a few times, and several images appeared all showing schematics of a large fighter craft.

“Very well, sir. As you know I was involved in numerous different projects that Fleet R&D had been working on over the past few years in conjunction with the civilian-run Colonial Research Institute. One such project had been Project Scorpion, which was an old project from the final days of the First Cylon War. It was to be a heavy fighter to complement the Viper, but with the signing of the Armistice the project was shelved,” he started off bringing up a gray and white image of a strange-looking fighter that looked more squarish then a Viper.

“It was brought back a few years ago for some reason or another where it would be redesigned vastly to serve not only as the original heavy fighter but as a needed bomber craft in the Colonial Fleet,” the Major continued on now showing a second image that showed some schematics of another fighter this one looked to be a slightly enlarged version of a Viper with marginally longer wings.

“This version of the Scorpion looked more like a Viper, and due to this is shared sixty percent of parts with the Viper Mark-VII and unlike the earlier version of the type was able to be launched via normal Viper launch tubes. For weapons, it sported a nose-mounted MEC-C5 52mm KEW Cannon and a belly-mounted bay that could be configured to carry numerous missiles or bombs even a pair of Thunderbolt Nuclear Missiles if required. The engines were also tuned heavily, allowing the Scorpion to sport eighty percent of the speed and maneuverability of a Viper,” the engineer explained with a nod to the displayed schematics. The officers who also wore the wings of a Viper pilot looked quite impressed with the design. Captain Thrace had a small grin on her face as she eyed the images while Major Adama silently whistled in some appreciation at the displayed design.

“What I suggested in my report Admiral was to take the MEC-C5 Cannon from the Scorpion Design and maybe finding a way to mount it onto our current Vipers. Since my team did manage to develop a more cost-efficient variant of the Mark-VII at the request of Admiral Cain, I figured we could do it. We basically redesigned the vertical stabilizer wing a bit to allow a single KEW-C5 Cannon to be mounted in the place of the single MEC-A9 Cannon. Though the amount of ammo would be quite light compared to the smaller cannon. Like mentioned, the stabilizer would have to be redesigned slightly, but I think it would doable,” he continued on, showing a rough sketch of what he was talking about. However, he sighed and leaned back from the laptop to look at the Admiral.

“However, Admiral, I am not convinced such a change would be viable, for we don’t have a way to build a MEC-C5 Cannon with us currently. We do have the dies and such to allow us to build the smaller MEC-C3 52mm Rapid-Fire Cannon, but those were meant to be mounted onto the hardpoints of a Raptor and not on a Viper. When I wrote that part of the report, I was not aware of this and was only informed afterward,” he mentioned with a shake of his head. The Admiral nodded at this before sighing sadly.

“Very well, Major. Still please keep looking into it,” the Admiral directed, making the Major nod in understanding. Then with a salute to the Admiral, he retrieved his data-drive from the computer and sat back at his place. A moment later the Admiral looked down at some notes he had brought with him before turning to look at Colonel Renner and Captain Llewellyn.

“Next up, I do believe is the report on the Galactica refit. So Colonel Renner, Captain Llewellyn which one of you is willing to do the report?” he asked the two officers in charge of the refit of the Galactica. The two looked at one another before Captain Llewellyn grunted and waved at the bald mustachioed commander of the Swordfish to go ahead who only sighed before getting up from his seat to take Major Carter’s place at the other end of the table. However, instead of going to the Laptop at that end of the table, and placed his own data-drive into the slot on the small computer. He then retrieved a collapsible pointer from a pocket of his uniform and hit a button on the computer which sent several slides onto the display screen.

“First of all Admiral, I need to mention that with our current equipment and tools we cannot forge new armor panels for the Galactica. Nor can we construct new weapons for the ship outside of the smaller point defense cannons. Therefore, for now, the Galactica will have to retain its current armament I am sorry to say,” the man mentioned starting off the report pointing to both a wireframe showing the old Jupiter Class armor scheme and then circling points on a schematic of the post-First Cylon War Jupiter Class weapons mounts with the pointer. This made both Colonel Tigh and Admiral Adama frown in some displeasure but understood the reasoning behind this portion of the report. They both knew going in that it would take more than just a small support ship like the Swordfish to be able to get the Old Girl back into full shape.

“Understood Colonel, continue please,” the Admiral bid with a wave of his hand and a deep sigh making the slightly younger officer nod before moving his pointer over to a zoomed-in wireframe-like schematic of the starboard flight pod of the Galactica.

“That said, we can definitely finish converting the starboard flight pod back to full operation with what we currently have in the Fleet. Like I mentioned earlier we can construct the smaller point defense weapon mounts between the equipment on the Swordfish and the support factories onboard the Pegasus. So we can place the required amount of point defense weapons onto the flight pod to allow it to be fully used in combat. Giving the Galactica for the first time since the start of this war a full 360-Degree Defensive Screen,” the Colonel mentioned with a small smile almost hidden behind his bushy mustache. The Admiral smiled himself at this news before exchanging looks with Colonel Tigh who had an almost bloody grin on his face.

“However, Admiral I must warn you that this will take time to place every single one of these new weapon mounts onto the pod. Therefore, I will like to have the Galactica to remain in one place for now so we can more easily put in these new weapons,” the Colonel went on making the smile on the Admiral disappear to be replaced by a frown. He then sighed before nodding to the Colonel for he did kind of expect something like that when he first ordered the refit.

“Even so Admiral, I do have some further good news. By the end of the week, I do believe we can have both the flight deck and the hangar’s launch tubes in full operation. Therefore, give us a couple more days and you can start flight operations from the starboard pod,” the man reported using his pointer to tap a few places on the Flight Pod schematics. This made the smiles on both the Admiral and Colonel Tigh to reappear while Major Adama and Captain Thrace both looked at one another in some shock at this announcement.

“With that said that is my complete report on the Galactica refit Admiral,” the Colonel mentioned with a nod of his head before collapsing his pointer and walking back to the laptop to retrieve his data-drive which was slipped back into his pocket alongside the point.

“Thank you, Colonel, that was quite an interesting report,” the Admiral said to the younger man who nodded and retook his seat. The Admiral then turned his attention to his own son, “Major Adama, I want a report from you sometime in the next couple of days on a staggered plan on putting the Starboard Pod back into full operation.”

“Yes Admiral,” the younger Adama mentioned with a nod his head making the older one smile at him before turning his attention down to his notes. He nodded before looking over at the white-haired Colonel Samuel Kronos who was even older them him.

“With that done I do believe it is time to move to you Colonel.” Adama mentioned turning to the man who nodded at him with a small smile, “You have volunteered to take over the training program for new Viper pilots correct?”

“Yes Admiral, I have volunteered for that duty,” the man mentioned looking over at him making the Admiral briefly look over at Kara who had previously been reasonable for training new pilots for Vipers. She looked quite interested in this while Lee only hummed in some thought at this announcement. He really shouldn’t be surprised for he knew that both of them were quite aware that Kronos had been reasonable for together one of the first Colonial Fleet Viper Training Academies after the end of the First Cylon War.

“Very well, then I shall have orders to that effect by the end of the day for you along with a promotion to full Commander,” the Admiral mentioned to the only other Cylon War veteran at the table making him nod in pleasure.

“Thank you, Admiral,” the man replied before turning to look at Captain Trace.

“I will like any notes or other material you had put together Captain,” he asked her making the often cocky often pilot only nod in response to such a legendary figure like Kronos.

“Yes Sir, I shall get those to you as soon as possible,” she replied making the man nod with another smile on his aged face.

“That said, you also mentioned that you plan on moving the training program off of the Victoria or even one of the Battlestars. Can you explain that Colonel?” the Admiral asked with a frown on his face looking down the table at the other man who only blinked over at him before sighing.

“Of course Admiral, if I may?” the Colonel mentioned waving at the other end of the table in a silent question making the Admiral blink himself before he nodded in answer. The Colonel then nodded and got up from his seat before limping over to a small lectern set to one side of the top of the table. He briefly stared at the laptop with a hint of distaste before taking his place behind the lectern after pulling a couple of pieces of what looked to be paper from a folder that sat on the lectern itself. He held up the first page which had an image of what looked to be a Defender Class Medium Weight Gunstar. Admiral Adama immediately recognized that this particular Defender is actually the Adriatic a demilitarized example of the class.

“The Adriatic had formerly been a member of the Defender Class Medium Weight Gunstars introduced to the Colonial Fleet a couple of years after the end of the First Cylon War as one of the first of its class to be commissioned replacing the aging Adamant Class Medium Gunstar. Nearly a decade later it would be retired from service and demilitarized before being sold a civilian party who mainly used it as a carrier for small work shuttles for mainly mining interests in the Ida Asteroid Belt in Helios Gamma. Despite it being demilitarized it retained a pair of missile tubes and its main hangar bay which was used to carry said work shuttles. Thanks to this it was on station when the Cylon attack began and managed to rescue a couple thousand of asteroid miners and their families off the Ida Anchorage,” the veteran officer mentioned after placing the image back down on the lectern. The Admiral blinked at this for he had not known the backstory of that vessel and it did make some sense.

“Thanks in part to the recent reorganization of the fleet much of these people were taken off the ship and placed on other ships including a couple of our mineral storage vessels and our now three mining vessels. The remainder of the ship’s passengers can easily be moved off the ship if the Star Cloud manages to increase its own passenger facilities to take these people on board,” he went on a moment later. A couple of the gathered officers, including the Admiral, were looking a bit leery of moving civilians around the ships. Since for many of the civilians these ships were now their homes therefore, they rarely wanted to leave them unless it was required. That said, if the Star Cloud could improve its new passenger facilities then perhaps it would be easier to move them since the increase in comfort that came with the larger ship would be quite a bargain for those civilians.

“With our pilot training being moved away from either of the Battlestars any training accidents won’t muck things up for their own flight operations. While the Victoria can focus on being a dedicated reserve ship and protecting the rest of the fleet,” the old veteran wound down with his presentation making the gathered officers look quite interested. The Admiral though looked a bit undecided but he knew that getting the training operations off either of the Battlestars would help in a sense. Sighing he nodded and leaned forward to ask a few questions of the old legend.

“Excuse me, Colonel? Can I ask who you plan on taking command of the Victoria when you move to the Adriatic?” the admiral asked making the older veteran blink in some surprise before chuckling lightly.

“My Granddaughter Gloria Alonzo will take over as commander of the Victoria. There is a reason I kind of stole her from the Swordfish after all,” he replied with a small smile on his face shooting a look over to Colonel Renner who only scowled at that admission. The Admiral smiled himself at this before he nodded in understanding.

"Very well, Commander Kronos. I shall approve this plan and once the basic refit of the Galactica is finished then we shall get started on converting the Adriatic into a training ship," Adama mentioned after a few moments of thought making the older veteran nod in some pleasure before he started to limp back to his seat. That done Adama turned to look over at Commander Ward.

“Commander, I do believe you are up next for your own proposal,” he directed with a nod to the front of the table. The other man sighed and combed his hand through his brown hair mixed with some gray before getting up to walk over to the front of the table and inserting his own data drive into the laptop before taking up the remote.

“Admiral, if I remembered right a few months ago before the meet up between the Galactica and the Pegasus Captain Thrace put forward a proposal to launch a mission that would head back to the Colonies in an effort to rescue the resistance group that had helped her get back to the Fleet after retrieving the Arrow of Apollo,” he said looking around at the gathered officers. The Galactica officers all blinked in some surprise at this while Captain Thrace herself blinked in some surprise at this opening while the Admiral just narrowed his eyes at the Commander.

“Correct Commander. I denied the proposal because while it was a noble thing to do, we would have civilians wondering why we didn’t try to find other survivors on other colonies, which would be a larger operation than we could afford to mount at the time. Not to mention it wasn’t worth it to try to rescue a few dozen survivors when we only had a handful of remaining Raptors available,” the Admiral replied making the Commander nod in agreement with him. Not even looking at Kara when he mentioned it making the young Viper pilot sigh in some agreement with his words, but still, she looked hopeful as she stared up at the Commander.

“Yes, sir, you did the right thing. I am not saying anything about that, but what I propose is quite like that earlier proposal. Though instead of using a handful of Raptors and Fleet Shuttles for the mission we instead use a full-on Battlestar along with a few of our civilian ships,” he mentioned making more than one of the gathered officers stare at him in sheer shock at his statement. The Admiral meanwhile looked at him with a frown before waving him to continue. Kara though just looked outright shocked at such a proposal, for she would have never had thought to use a full-on Battlestar for her own planned operation. For she knew that the Admiral would never have allowed it in the first place.

“We now have two Battlestars in the Fleet, and with the Cylons, at the moment not pursuing us we can afford to see about heading back to the colonies to find not only survivors but needed supplies and parts to keep the Fleet going for many more years ahead,” he continued on making a few officers nod in some understanding for it make sense. Major Carter looked quite excited and had leaned over to mumble something to Colonel Renner who nodded in agreement with the younger officer. The Admiral, though just looked on with a thoughtful look on his own face. The Commander looked around at the other officers and nodded before turning to Display Screen and clicking the remote which brought up a few slides onto the screen. All of which showed a basic FTL Plot Map and several other minor images. The Plot Map had their current location and the location of the colonies marked, then in between the two marked areas a series of smaller marks were displayed.

“Like Captain Thrace’s proposal, this one would require the FTL Navigation Computer captured from a Cylon Heavy Raider to work. However this proposal wouldn’t require the back-to-back FTL Jumps and would instead use the Cylon FTL Computer to plot a series of a dozen or so Maximum Range Jumps back to the Colonies,” the Commander said nodding at the FTL Plot Map before bringing up a couple of the images.

“Now according to the debriefing of the defected Number Eight Cylon, Sharon Agathon we know that the Cylons have around a dozen to two dozen Basestars in the Helios System itself with a further several Basestars searching in nearby star systems for stranded civilian ships that may have jumped from the Colonies in the panic of the initial attack. However, that was around a few months ago. Therefore, they may have moved on, especially with the destruction of one of their Resurrection Ships,” Commander Ward mentioned bringing up Agathon’s debriefing on the display screen.

“Therefore, if the Helios System is clear of any Cylon Presence, then the Rescue Force moves in first at Caprica before moving onto the other colonies. While this is going on, the Rescue Force will have several Raptors on DRADIS Overwatch to make sure the Cylons don’t return while the mission is going on. If the Cylons do return, then the plan is to jump out before further Cylon Forces arrive. Even if there are further detected survivors, we can’t afford to lose the Battlestar assigned to this mission, so it has to jump out no questions asked,” the Commander said, bringing up several stills showing the operation plan of the Rescue Operation. A moment later the Commander sighed and shook his head before continuing.

“However, this operation will need the vast majority of the Cylon Fleet to have left the Colonies, hence if there remains a major Cylon presence in Helios then the plan will call for the Battlestar assigned to this mission to move onto the secondary objectives of the mission which is to clear out the rest of the supplies at Ragnar Anchorage. Since when the Pegasus was doing her one-ship guerilla war against the Cylons, we left several Civilian ships at Ragnar, and they reported there is still a significant amount of supplies in other warehouses of the Station. There will also be Orion-7 Anchorage in the Orion System seven lightyears from the Colonies which will a vast amount of supplies and tylium stored onboard along with some needed factory lines that can be disassembled to be transported back to the fleet,” the Commander continued on bringing up several images, of Ragnar Anchorage along with a few of the mentioned other warehouses on the station and of the smaller Orion-7 Anchorage.

“That is if the Cylons still have a heavy presence in the Colonies that would require us not even trying to get anywhere in the Colonies. Another option would use a version of Captain Thrace’s plan just from a shorter range that would allow a team to get into Caprica Airspace with an in-atmosphere FTL Jump. We also can a similar mission to Aquaria and Leone which we know still have survivors due to wireless intercepts from Raptor Fly-Bys from the Pegasus during her Guerilla War,” the Commander finished things off by bringing up reports on the mentioned wireless intercepts and a planned FTL Plot for the Caprica Rescue Mission. The gathered officers looked quite impressed with the plan while the Admiral just seemed a bit thoughtful at the idea of going back to the colonies. However, before anything further happened a handset mounted on the wall next to the display screen started to trill for attention making the gathered officers look over at it in some confusion since the meeting still had a few hours to go. The Admiral frowned and looked over at Colonel Tigh next to him, who got up from his seat to angrily stride over to the handset.

“Colonel Tigh here,” the man angrily barked into the receiver of the handset. He briefly listened and after a few moments, nodded.

“Understood. I shall pass that along to the Admiral. I should be at least up there in a few minutes,” the Colonel mentioned before racking the handset and turning to look at the Admiral.

“Sir. That was Major Kelly apparently one of the Raptors we sent on the surveying mission has returned and reported that something is happening in the star system they are surveying,” he reported making the Admiral lookup in some confusion before shrugging and looking over at the gathered officers.

“We shall continue this meeting at a later date ladies and gentlemen, so you are all dismissed,” he said, getting up from the table before stopping Major Carter from leaving with a raised hand.

“I have a feeling Major that you are going to be needed, so please follow me back to CIC,” he directed as he gathered the reports.

“Yes sir,” the Major replied following in behind the Admiral as he walked towards the briefing room’s main hatch with Colonel Tigh joining him. Outside of the hatch, the Admiral handed off the reports to the young man standing outside of the briefing room along with a few others.

“Mister Jaffee, please take these back to my quarters if you please,” he ordered his yeoman, Stewart Jaffee, who had been with him since he started to command the Galactica. The young yeoman simply nodded and with a salute started to move off towards the Admiral’s quarters. The three officers then exchanging brief farewells with the other officers before beginning to head off towards the CIC. All three wondered what had happened now, and how it would affect the fleet in the days ahead. Of which unknown to these three men something wonderful for the Colonial Fleet was about to happen.

-o-End-o-​

Post Chapter Notes

God! That took forever to write! I think I had to rewrite this thing a couple of times before I was comfortable with it. Then it becomes one of the longest of the chapters so written in both Journey and Meeting. So, I am entirely done with it, and its now time to move onto the fun part of the story. The meeting between the Colonials and the people of the Megaraod-07 Colony Fleet.

Still. I do apologize for the lengthy infodump that took up most of this chapter. First, I needed to get across on what had been going on between the Battle of the Resurrection Ship and now, which took up the first half of the chapter. Secondly, the briefing needed to be done to show a few things critical to the story ahead. The most significant being that the Colonials needed to get the idea of aliens in their heads before the first meetings with the Megaroad-07 people.

One last thing. You may notice a bit of discrepancy from the official timeline of the series. This is mainly because I really don’t agree with the timeline of the second half of the Second Season. It just jumped around a lot and didn’t really make any sort of sense. The First Season had a gradual procession of time going by while the second half after the arrival of the Pegasus just starts doing these large time-skips that really kind of make no sense. Therefore, I have changed things to make better sense in my mind.

Oh. Cain here still kind of canon Cain but she didn’t order the civilians killed when they refused to be impressed into her crew. One, they actually went along with the impression mainly due to their anger at the Cylon attack, and two, Cain wasn’t that far gone yet therefore after impressing the needed crew from the civilians she ended up hiding the civilian ships in a few places away from the Cylons while she did her guerilla war against the Cylons. Still, she feels guilty about what she had done therefore had stepped down, making way for Adama to become Admiral of the Fleet. That said, I really do not know what to do with Cain right now unlike in Lucky Miracle where she becomes the Secretary of Fleet Defense in Roslin’s cabinet. So for now she won’t appear all that much in the story, though if anyone has an idea on what to do with her then feel free to mention them to me. Thanks.

Anyways. I really don’t want to make these notes any longer than they need to be. Hence, I am going to cut it off here even I am sure you all still have plenty of questions. So, Chapter One of Journey is finished, and I shall get to work on Chapter Two soon. Till then. Ciao!

 

[ATP]

If Colonials recognized language from wreckage,then they must be in Macross Universe,but for some reasons forget anything except "titans".
Which means,that colonials either always were in Macross Universe,ot somehow run to another from Macross - with few systems full of ancient wreckage.

 

[Ash's Boomstick]

So what is the actual breakdown of this larger fleet? Could you do a proper catalogue of what exists?

Also are any other survivors going to turn up, I personally always found it unlikely that all 120+ Battlestars were wiped out so simply, it was just bad writing IMO.

 

[ATP]

So what is the actual breakdown of this larger fleet? Could you do a proper catalogue of what exists?

Also are any other survivors going to turn up, I personally always found it unlikely that all 120+ Battlestars were wiped out so simply, it was just bad writing IMO.

Well,that was just classical alien invasion story on steroids - usually alien come,kicked all armies,and then our hero somehow defeated them.
Now,instead of lonely hereo,we have lonely Battlestar - but principle is the same.