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.
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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....