StarDestroyer.Net BBS

*Salutes*

*Salutes*

Wow. That'll fuck 'em.

Wasn't quite the George Kirk moment I was expecting, but as usual, E_F did it better. Can't complain - I ain't writing this.

*Salutes*

So Say We All.

fnord wrote:Wow. That'll fuck 'em.

Wasn't quite the George Kirk moment I was expecting, but as usual, E_F did it better. Can't complain - I ain't writing this.

Look at it this way, now you get to update TVTropes to include Heroic Sacrifice, Dying Moment of Awesome and Ramming Always Works

Smartass.

I already had Heroic Sacrifice up after you posted the start of Frankie's Wild Ride. Had to add a couple more: Cool Starship, Driven To Suicide.

fnord wrote:Smartass.

I already had Heroic Sacrifice up after you posted the start of Frankie's Wild Ride. Had to add a couple more: Cool Starship, Driven To Suicide.

Sweet, though you might want to put spoiler tags around the new ones about Barham and Baltar.

Ok, think that's it - if you think there's any tweaks yet to be made, go nuts.

Too early for a characters page?

fnord wrote:Ok, think that's it - if you think there's any tweaks yet to be made, go nuts.

Too early for a characters page?

Yeah too early, especially since only a handful of new characters are fleshed out at all. This may be what Steve referred to as my "minimlaist" style, I'm not doing a character-focused story, it's the plot, the action and the backstory. I don't see the need to write lengthy internal monologues when one or two lines demonstrate things sufficiently.

The Thirteenth Tribe Rides Again!

Fire in the Sky
The Battle for Terra
Terran Orbital Space

With the mutual destruction of the Barham and her Cylon assailants, the battle shifted into a temporary lull. The main Cylon force, with three First War Basestars, fifteen shielded new-model vessels and nine unshielded ships remained in formation beyond the human’s weapon range. The remaining Raiders, almost exclusively refitted First War craft from the old Basestars, flew a defensive pattern around the force, while the Basestars themselves did nothing more than launch occasional missile salvos at the humans.

The reason for this lull was understood by both sides, though in this case the human’s understanding was wrong, despite being based on perfectly correct reasoning. In the Fleet Operations Centre on the Lionheart, Admiral Lethbridge-Stewart stood resolutely before the holographic display, his trusty Chief of Staff beside him.

Captain Mace was the first to break the tense silence. “What are they doing? Why wait?”

The Admiral turned his head slightly and said, in a voice low enough that the battle staff around him would not hear: “They’re waiting us out. They’re machines, they don’t need rest or sleep, our pilots and gunners do. The missile salvos are there to keep us at full alert at all times; we can’t even start rotating Vipers back in for refuelling while they’re waiting.”

Mace nodded in understanding. “Cunning bastards aren’t they? It’s a damn shame we couldn’t get Nemesis completed in time.” There was a hint of a smile, as the thought of what the mostly-completed Warstar could do to the assembled Cylon fleet flashed through his mind.

“She’s safe enough for now Alan, we’ll just have to finish this with what we have on hand. We’ve taken a bloody enough nose as it is.” That was very true, one of their six Battlestars and three of their fourteen destroyers were now nothing but scattered debris. The Barham’s crew had mostly been evacuated but the destroyers had gone down with all hands.

The thought of the destroyers and their fate brought a new tactical idea into the Admiral’s mind. Clearly they couldn’t survive a straight-up fight against Cylon capital ships; they needed speed and agility to evade incoming fire. So what if they used that?

He picked up the comm set and hailed the Challenger, his daughter’s flagship destroyer. The conversation was short, professional and conveyed none of the parental fear the Admiral felt over sending Kate off on a dangerous mission. She fully supported the idea, and she and her staff began working up a plan.

Meanwhile, over on the Cylon flagship, things were progressing very differently. The machines were now displaying their single greatest weakness compared to the humans; their lack of a command structure based around experienced, seasoned commanders. They had always decided matters with debate and consensus and whilst that worked admirably in strategic decisions and planning, it failed them utterly in crisis situations like this.

The Three that had argued so vociferously for an immediate assault now found herself, much to her distaste, acting as a commander. The urge to consult her fellow Cylons was strong enough that she delayed any further orders to discuss the situation. This required several long minutes as communication links were established between the various ships the other Cylon leaders were aboard.

This cost the Cylons their greatest chance for victory. For whilst the human formation was strong, the two most dangerous ships, the Lionheart and the Excalibur were still recharging their shields. Had the Cylons attacked immediately after the Battlestar’s wild charge, they may well have triumphed.

Instead, debate took hold. The Ones, Fours and Fives argued that they should hold position and tire the humans out, whilst the more bloodthirsty Twos, Threes and Sixes called for an immediate charge. The Eights were more cautious, remembering the devastating loss of their Raider squadrons and fearing a similar fate would befall many Basestars.

With the decision made to make a frontal attack, One made a proposal. He suggested that the remaining unshielded vessels should jump to a position further around the planet and begin firing on the surface. This would not only accelerate the genocide that God had demanded, but it would force the humans to split their forces. The modification was discussed and adopted, but again crucial minutes had been wasted, and the surprise, initiative and momentum of their assault were being drained.

In a rare cosmic coincidence, both sides put their plans into effect at virtually the same moment. The unshielded Basestars jumped away from the main fleet while the human destroyers also jumped. The Cylons reappeared over the Terran’s capital city, Lemuria, and began firing on the shields protecting it.

The human destroyers appeared behind the Cylon fleet and formed up into two loose squadrons, one of six led by Captain Stewart aboard Challenger and the second of five following Captain Stephen Garrett in the Aurora, with each ship having room to manoeuvre and evade enemy fire. As one, they opened the throttles on their drives and charged in towards the Cylon force. It was a classic destroyer assault, charging in from an unexpected direction, firing every weapon available. As with the earlier Battlestar charge, there was no slowing down. This was a single pass like the cavalry of old before retreating to regroup and repeat the strike.

The Cylons reacted quickly, missile volleys and salvoes of plasma fire raced out to swat away the attackers. The destroyer’s point defence blasted away the initial missile salvos while they spun and weaved to avoid the unguided plasma bolts. The few missiles that got close enough to detonate did little to impede the Terran charge.

And the Terrans were firing back. Turbolaser fire streamed in precise salvos; striking the Cylon shields and draining their strength shot by shot. At a shouted order from their captains, the twin mega-lasers mounted on the destroyer’s flanks flared into deadly life, beams of bright crimson fire shot forth to impale Cylon shields.

First one, then two and finally three shielded Basestars succumbed to this furious assault; their shields collapsed and their hulls dissolved under the hellish energies before their reactors and magazines detonated, scattering dust and debris among the Cylon formation.

The Terrans did not escape unscathed. The Valiant was struck in her stern section by a salvo of plasma bolts, destroying the main drives and sending the ship spinning out of formation. A volley of missiles fired at point-blank range detonated all around the Stalwart. Just as had happened to the Resurrection Ship earlier, the press of energy from all sides crushed the destroyer and her five hundred crew.

Other ships took hits but survived in a seemingly miraculous fashion, determined solely by where the shots hit them. The Resolute had her starboard mega-laser pod sheared clean away by an errant plasma bolt. The Champion took a nuclear hit to her upper hull; her dorsal weapons were burned away and the hull peeled back like burned, dead skin, but she managed to maintain formation on the run out. The crippled Valiant was put out of her misery by a second volley from the Cylon flagship.

As with the Battlestar charge earlier, the destroyers flew past the Cylons at full thrust, quickly escaping from missile range. Three Basestars destroyed for two destroyers lost and two heavily damaged, it was a fairly even trade.

Before the destroyers had begun their strike, Lethbridge-Stewart was reacting to the unexpected Cylon diversion, he quickly sized up the problem and called for a priority channel to Galactica. The response was prompt; Admiral Adama remained remarkably calm despite the fire and chaos all around them.

“Husker, Battleaxe, we have nine Cylon Basestars, unshielded ones, holding position over Lemuria and firing on the surface. The city shields will not hold for long. Your guns won’t do much against shields, so take your ship and engage those nine Basestars.”

A brief silence greeted his order. One old Battlestar against nine Basestars was very long odds, even for a man who was used to such one-sided fights.

”Battleaxe, Husker. Understood. Can you give us any support?”

“I can spare your air wing plus four extra squadrons. Maybe a couple of destroyers after their attack run.”

”Copy. Preparing FTL jump now. Good hunting Admiral. Husker, out” Adama’s voice was once more level and calm, even though two hundred Vipers would not help much against Basestars.

Lethbridge-Stewart gestured to Captain Mace to send the Vipers, they couldn’t jump with the Battlestar and there wasn’t time to take them aboard, they’d have to fly at full thrust around the planet, a flight of at least nine minutes.

The tactical display beeped to gain his attention; Galactica had jumped away and the results of the destroyer strike came in. The Terran Admiral sighed regretfully at yet more destroyed ships and dead spacers, with a single thought of relief that his daughter survived.

“Call the destroyers back to the main formation, we’ll need their point-defence soon. Detach Resolute and Champion to jump to join Husker’s force over Lemuria.”

It was a gamble, those two ships were damaged and their combat strength was reduced, they would not last long against nine Basestars. But they could cause a lot of pain for the Cylons, and every missile fired at them was one less fired at Lemuria and its twenty nine million inhabitants. He knew none of the crews would flinch from such a sacrifice.

Two minutes passed as the Galactica jumped into position and opened fire. But Lethbridge-Stewart and his fellow officers couldn’t spare any thoughts for the old warhorse. The destroyers jumped back into position just as the battered, bloodied and greatly reduced, but still very deadly Cylon main force began pressing forwards.

The Terran ships moved forwards to meet them, Vipers flew ahead to tangle with the Raiders, and the main fleet action was imminent. The Terran Admiral issued one final order before effectively relinquishing command to his Captains and their own judgement.

“All ships and fighters, weapons free. Capital ships, close on the First War ships. Destroyers engage at will. Terra expects that every man and woman will do their duty.”

Moments later, the battle was joined.

===========================

You didn't really think this was dead did you? This chapter adds a new character that will be familiar to anyone who reads Steve's various works, he's got a bright future ahead....if he's spared....

Ghetto edit; for those keeping score at home, we now have nine of the 14 destroyers named (five of which are now dead...sniff...). The remaining five are Daring, Dragon, Centurion, Ranger and Avenger.

Eternal_Freedom wrote:

fnord wrote:Ok, think that's it - if you think there's any tweaks yet to be made, go nuts.

Too early for a characters page?

Yeah too early, especially since only a handful of new characters are fleshed out at all. This may be what Steve referred to as my "minimlaist" style, I'm not doing a character-focused story, it's the plot, the action and the backstory. I don't see the need to write lengthy internal monologues when one or two lines demonstrate things sufficiently.

When I said "minimalist", and I'm not even sure that's accurate, I wasn't referring to that. I think it's more that your descriptive pieces are quick and you keep the story focused more on actions than exposition or description.

I think the style really works for this story too.

As for your new character, heh, one good insert deserves another.

Steve wrote:

Eternal_Freedom wrote:

fnord wrote:Ok, think that's it - if you think there's any tweaks yet to be made, go nuts.

Too early for a characters page?

Yeah too early, especially since only a handful of new characters are fleshed out at all. This may be what Steve referred to as my "minimlaist" style, I'm not doing a character-focused story, it's the plot, the action and the backstory. I don't see the need to write lengthy internal monologues when one or two lines demonstrate things sufficiently.

When I said "minimalist", and I'm not even sure that's accurate, I wasn't referring to that. I think it's more that your descriptive pieces are quick and you keep the story focused more on actions than exposition or description.

I think the style really works for this story too.

As for your new character, heh, one good insert deserves another.

Ah I get you. In fairness this is pretty much the same style I have always used. Part of it is that I'm better at action scenes and such than exposition and dialogue and whilst the latter has improved, I prefer to use action elements. It's just more fun to write.

It may also be that in real life I tend to be quite taciturn and, well, efficient with words, avoiding using seven when four will do.

Eternal_Freedom wrote: Ah I get you. In fairness this is pretty much the same style I have always used. Part of it is that I'm better at action scenes and such than exposition and dialogue and whilst the latter has improved, I prefer to use action elements. It's just more fun to write.

It may also be that in real life I tend to be quite taciturn and, well, efficient with words, avoiding using seven when four will do.

Fair enough. My style's bounced all over the place over the years. Looking back I think my writing in the 00s, especially the Star Trek Timelines stories, tended to be more detailed, while these days I tend to write more succinctly, avoiding excessive detail to keep the story flowing.

As long as this style is working for this story, I'm happy

Just caught up. Read the battle chapters and the Roslin/Baltar interlude a couple of weeks ago but forgot to comment. I am liking the battle so far but it seems like Lethbridge-Stewart isn't a fan of combined arms. His strategies so far have been to send a wave of bombers and then one of Battlestars and then one of Destroyers.

I was kind of surprised when the destroyers sent for Barham all died with that ship. I'd expected them to FTL out when Barham's evacuation was complete since they were there explicitly to cover the evacuation iirc. But then the Terran Captains down seem the type to cut and run.

LS does seems to be sending small forces against big ones and then expecting heroics from them. Like what he's doing for Galactica. I would have thought quickly taking down unshielded basestars is exactly what you'd use a destroyer wolfpack for, but maybe the fact they attacked the fleet at the same time as the basestars attacked the planet would scupper this. (Incidentally shouldn't Adama be referred to as 'Galactica Actual' in communications. Husker is only his callsign when actually piloting a Viper or Raptor. )

The Baltar scene was very interesting though. I take it in this continuity head!six really was the result of cylons messing with Bal'tar head? Like a headchip or other goa'uld mindwashing thing like nish'ta or za'tarc programming. Was his death the result of a dislike of his character EF? Or did he just not have a role in your story?

Hope these comments don't seem too critical. I really am enjoying this.

Comments are fine, it's reassuring to know I have more readers than fnord and Steve

LS's tactics may not be particularly developed, but he is working under several constraints, the first being that this is his first actual fleet engagement, the TCN is a comparatively new phenomenon. The second is that he knows he is vastly outnumbered and probably outgunned, though he isn't certain on that. Third is that he is stuck defending a fixed position against enemies that can jump around all over the place firing nukes at (mostly) defenceless civilians. Finally, he knows he has six Battlestars, fourteen destroyers and 3,000 Vipers and that's it. He does not know how many more Cylon vessels exist, whether this is the first wave, whether more fleets are coming etc. So everything he has tried so far is an attempt to inflict maximum damage with minimal losses (the bomber strike, the giant space mines, the Battlestar charge, the destroyer attack run and it has, largely, worked, the Cylons are down to 3 First War ships, nine upgraded Basestars and nine unshielded versions - 21 Basestars and a fraction of their Raiders, compared to the 53 they arrived with, for the cost of one Battlestar and five destroyers.

As for why the destroyers sent after Barham didn't jump away, by the time the evacuation is finished they're already under fire, so charging up the jump drive means akign power from shields, weapons etc, which is bad. Plus, there is a lingering sense that maybe they can save the wounded Battlestar. By the time they see how outmatched they are, one's dead and the other two die i short order.

The reason LS isn't sending the rest of the destroyers to help Galactica is that he has seen how fragile they are in comparison to capital ships and also that he needs them as escorts and anti-missile ships for the main body. Yes, it's probably a mistake but he is thinking on his feet - and as mentioned, the humans have been on the go for a while now, he's tired.

As for Baltar, yeah, head!Six is a result of Goa'uld brainwashing. As for why I killed him, well partly I felt the character gets off far too lightly int he series for what he winds up doing. And second, as you said there really wasn't a need for him anymore - scientists are in abundance and the election is over. But I didn't want to leave him hanging there on the periphery so I figured I'd just kill the bastard.

Finally, about the Husker/Actual thing, I figured that the Colonials had to give way on a few things. In this case Husker is being used to signify his command rather than him as a pilot. Like how modern navies might use codenames for ships rather than the actual names. I figure it's a Terran idea the Colonials adopted for ease of use.

What's wrong with having Steve and I as readers?

Ah, you're running with my PMed suggestion that Husker, like Battleaxe, is (now) the particular flag's callsign, not the individual flying it? Where does Badwolf fit in - is it attached to a pennant (OC Destroyers), or Captain Stewart?

When will Cavil be making his move? He's got the true believers pretty well spread out now, so piking would really spoke their wheels.

That's who Lieutenant {$Bloggins} was aboard Valkyrie - Wallace!

You and Steve are great readers, but more is good in this case.

Nah, Husker still refers to Adama, but it's Terran practice to use codenames/callsigns for the senior officers rather than Galactica-Actual, so Adama and co just went with it.

And like hell was it Lieutenant Wallace aboard Valkyrie! If I were to do a self-insert I sure as shit would have myself survive the battle

EDIT: Cavil will make his move next chapter most likely...and Ba'al will resurface, and other elements of the SGVerse will begin to appear, in passing at least.

Coises!

In light of you saying that Ba'al will resurface next chapter, any comments on the casting call PM I sent you?

Eternal_Freedom wrote:You and Steve are great readers, but more is good in this case.

Yes. Yes it is. It's our best source of feedback, to know that the view count includes readers and not people just clicking the link and leaving a moment later.

Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity give the alternative of the "Like" system - like social media sites a la Facebook or Twitter, you can click "like" on a post - but nothing beats someone actually saying "I like the story due to X" or "I think you need to do Y better".

Otherwise, we have no clue if people like our work, hate it, or anything in between.

(Hell, I'm not even sure how many people on SDN actually like "The Power of a Name" since Tevar is the only one commenting on it, and that's mostly remarking on the progress since she read it back when I was posting it. )

Hey I like it, but I was reading something else for a while so I've got about seven updates to binge-read before I can comment

Also, fnord: casting call, nah I'm not bothering with that so much. Especially since virtually all characters either already exist in the shows or are based on other characters (Lethbridge-Stewart, his daughter Kate, Captain Mace etc).

Eternal_Freedom wrote: Also, fnord: casting call, nah I'm not bothering with that so much. Especially since virtually all characters either already exist in the shows or are based on other characters (Lethbridge-Stewart, his daughter Kate, Captain Mace etc).

Casting calls are always fun, especially when it's original characters, or ones never used in shows.

That was sort of main idea, for the original Terran characters - Frankie, Shtarker, Pendragon, Jellicoe, Beatty, Raines, et al.

Ah well, no biggie. The stuff I've previously suggested, you've disappeared over the horizon with anyway.

Needed to get it out of my noggin anyway - but so much for the Awesome Aussieboat (aka Warspite). Sigh.

I think we wound up with a Battlefield-era Nicholas Courtney for the Terran Admiral (duh) and for some reason Hugh Jackman as Chief Walwyn...nah I can't see that. There is simply no way I could contemplate Warspite, of all ships, as an Aussie ship. Sorry dude. Plus for Jellicoe I'm thinking more like, oh, Robert Lindsay as he was in the earlier Hornblower works. Either that or he's the narrator Beatty can be Paul McGann from the same works

The three destroyer skippers are somewhat redundant now....they're just dust in the wind...