In orbit above Avalon, over a thousand defense satellites stood guard arrayed across different points in orbit to provide global coverage. Each of the 80 large defense stations had the firepower of a mercury class Battlestar, each hundreds of meters apart able to use boosters or FTL aboard to move to reinforce a particular position quickly. The hundreds of smaller anti-fighter/missile point defense satellites remained in position in between the larger satellites.
Farther beyond the satellites, the colonial fleet maneuvered into formations of BSG units.
Battlestars Atlantis, Nike, Galactica. Rycon, Deucalion, Indra, Apollo, Theseus, Caprica, Pisces, Scorpio, Aries, Pacifica, Neptune, Vanguard, Chimera, Pegasus, Polaris, Trinity, Atlas, Ithaca, Sword, Minerva, Pleiades, Valkyrie, Poseidon, Concordia, Sleipnir, Titan, and Phoebe formed the center of formations with support ships around them. Baseship Pallas of Athens, WarstarDaedulus and Heavy Warstar Sanctuary hovered among the fleet. Spread between the capital ships were the 6 supercarriers, 20firestars, and 66 gunstars.
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
Commander Haller once again tapped his fingers rapidly on the plot table across from Admiral Stryker, joining the many others in the fleet showing signs of anxiety as they awaited the predicted arrival of the Cylon fleet. Hours had gone by, requiring pilots manning planes and officers at their stations to stand at a stance of readiness for an extended time, stepping down to condition two as personnel showed signs of the stress getting to them.
"What do you think? Could they run?" Commander Haller asked, eyebrows scrunched together in consternation, voicing a question asked more than once.
"I don't know," Admiral Stryker said irritably, voice taut with stress, "Cavil's a mad dog. He's got a juicy target, all he's been working towards in his goal to eliminate humanity; faced with the option to give up and run or stick to his guns, he's going to come."
A quiet spread among the crew, personnel whispering to one another, each anxiously eyeballing the dradis every now and again from their stations.
The tactical officer Lieutenant Nelson Miles was visibly sweating, blinking rapidly, as he stood at his station wearily studying the sensors from the ship and reports coming in from the rest of the fleet.
A sudden loud beeping noise disrupted the quiet among the crew, causing everyone to look up to dradis. The first signal detected showed a large red icon signifying a capital class ship, within seconds being registered as a Cylonbaseship. More beeping as another contact appeared, then another, and more continued to follow.
The Cylon fleet appeared in a flash of white light out of FTL, maneuvering into formation across from the colonial fleet just outside of their firing range. 26 of the new Adonis class baseships appeared, along with 28 of the standard baseships; each launching raiders upon arrival.
Cylon Adonis Baseship 001, CIC
Inside, the Adonis class resembled the structure of a Battlestar; a motley collection of computer stations in a circular room that formed the CIC, with large view screens above a plot table at the center of the room. Only the hum and lighting of the data streams which each computer station had a port for human Cylons to immerse there hand in, in order to access all data collected by the ship, differentiated the warship from a human ship aesthetically.
In times previous, the centurions aboard stuck the sides of the CIC, completely separate from the human Cylons and forming solely a defensive perimeter to provide security. Aboard the Adonis baseships, centurions stood with a large group of human Cylon fives and ones, forming the crew of the baseships.
"All ships of the fleet accounted for. Processing. Colonial fleet detected above planet's defensive perimeter. 27Battlestars, approximately 66 gunstars detected. Unrecognized fighters launching, assumed new model of Vipers. Database searching for a match... Previously determined destroyed warship detected; Heavy Warstar Sanctuary. Warstar Daedalus detected. Unrecognized baseship detected. 26 Unknown warships of unrecognized configuration detected. Massive flux of new configuration of presumed viper fighter craft launching from the six large unidentified warships; over 1000 and counting from each," Centurion Alpha One said monotonously with its synthetic robotic voice, its red eye vrooming back and forth loudly.
"Sanctuary?! But it was lost, we made sure of it!" one of the Cavil number ones exclaimed.
"Along with fighters from their Battlestars, that'saround 12,000. That's more than usual for the colonials; way more than expected," a number five Doral said, eyes narrowed calculatedly.
"Irrelevant; our Raiders still outnumber them even so," a number one Cavil model said hatefully.
"By a small margin. Not large enough to feel overconfident of victory, especially since test results from your science experiments with the Raiders predict lowered combat performance!" the number five Doral snapped back angrily, glaring at the Cavil across from him.
"Those 6 ships look like Battlestars... How can they launch so many fighter-craft?.." another number Five interjected, hand immersed in the black gooey control pad of the data stream at his computer station where he sat.
"What's the plan exactly?" a frazzled number one asked, sweating as he looked at the images of the colonial forces before them.
"Obviously we destroy them all," an angry looking number one said, rolling his eyes.
"Destroy the warships first, then we can take out the orbiting defense grid at our leisure," a number five said serenely, standing firmly upright in his tight red plaid suit as he objectively analyzed the data coming in from the fleet.
"Objective clear. Remove the capital ships first and the remaining targets will be eliminated with ease," one of the centurions inputted, its red eye scanning the human Cylons around it as they considered this idea.
Other centurions appeared to 'nod' their heads, their mechanical heads creaking forward slightly at an odd angle with the thick layer of armor encircling their neck and head prohibiting movement. The centurions remained focused on their tasks, red eyes vrooming back and forth as they began making calculations in preparations for the battle ahead, all but ignoring the squabbling human Cylons continuing to talk loudly and arguing with each other.
Gary Doral was ignoring his brothers and their arguments, which grew steadily louder, gazing at the screens above the plot table showing their target as the colonial fleet began moving forward towards them. The enemy was not waiting for them clearly. He pushed down his fear angrily, knowing that he had to crush the colonials. Put in charge of the fleet by Jack, he had to perform well or risk death by Cavil's hands later, assuming they even survived or succeeded in winning this battle...
"All ships forward. Standard baseships form up and focus all firepower together. Adonis baseships concentrate KEW fire together on one target at a time but focus on shielding standard baseships from return fire," Gary Doral, commander of the Cylon fleet above Avalon ordered coldly. Setting this last battle in motion as the Cylons aboard the fleet of baseships received orders and began maneuvering to head-on toward the colonial fleet.
Missiles launched from the Cylonbaseships, detonating in flashes of light short of their targets as point defense KEW fire from the colonial ships eliminated them. The colonial Battlestars began launching forth heavy KEW fire at extreme long range heading towards the Cylon fleet, as the Cylonbaseships maneuvered into formation with the more heavily armored Adonis baseships taking the full brunt of the KEW fire that managed to hit the ships in their new positions almost a minute later. Both fleets of ships kept moving forward only slightly moving evasively to dodge weapons fire given ever decreasing range and capability of the ships given their size to evade much at all.
With decreased distance; in increasing number, the Cylons standard baseships began launching large wave after wave of missiles including a number of nuclear warheads among anti-ship missiles. Within 60 seconds, a successive wave of missiles trailed after the prior one. Then another followed...
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
"382 missiles incoming detected, radiological signatures detected within... New launches detected, 248 and counting..." Tactical Officer Lieutenant Samuel Brandt reported frantically, eyes weaving back and forth quickly as he continued looking at oncoming reports from the ship's sensors, primarily dradis.
Sensor data became less reliable as more 'noise' come from appearing munitions contacts, drones and interceptors along with the many ships of both fleets. Manually counting as best as he could, Lieutenant Brandt noticed the hundreds of incoming missiles appearing within sixty seconds of each wave like clockwork, clearly coordinated fire among the Cylon fleet – a fact he reported to the Admiral.
Several hundred raptors, unencumbered by the raiders engaging in dogfights with the viper formations, forming a picket line launched hundreds of jiggers, drones and interceptor missiles crashing through the oncoming Cylon missiles. Point defense KEW fire shattered dozens upon dozens more Cylon missiles as they grew closer and closer, creating large brilliant flashes of light as they detonated on contact. Most of the Battlestars and the Firestars and many Gunstars launched point defense pulse cannon fire which burned through multiple missiles in their path, incinerating them as the beam passed on through and continuing on until burning out as the energy expended forming the beams depleted. Handfuls of missiles made it through, impacting and slowly damaging colonial ships, doing little more than paint job damage to some and moderate damage on less armored ships. The number of hits began growing as the distance between enemy ships closed.
Admiral Stryker pieced together this information, feeling overwhelmed as more and more sensor data came in while damage began accumulating among his ships while they reacted as fast as they could before orders were even given, having little choice against the force and speed of the Cylon onslaught. The Cylons required far less time to coordinate and really even think, forcing their human adversaries mostly to just react until they could actually do something to seize the initiative. Seeing the Cylon strategy to wear the colonial fleet down and moreover overwhelm them, Stryker came to a decision to not allow this, nor to repeat past mistakes by the colonial fleet.
"The Cylons intend to just keep launching wave after wave of munitions until they wear us down, staying safely at a distance to mitigate their own losses. They certainly have the stockpiles of munitions to do it,"Admiral Stryker said, snarling in disgust.
"Just like Virgon," Commander Haller said, narrowing his eyes.
"Let's not oblige them. All ships forward. Push through, close to point blank range. Get in too close for nukes or missiles, too risky to take out an ally as much as an enemy ship, so it'll become strictly a gun battle," Admiral Stryker ordered. Commander Haller nodded, in complete agreement, his fists clenching and unclenching rapidly from the tension he felt, turning to the assembled officers to give orders.
"All ahead full. Forward KEWs take aim at the nearest target as we come about," Commander Haller said loudly, the helmsmen and weapons coordinator officers responding affirmatively and carrying out his orders.
The colonial fleet in formation with capital ships; the Battlestars at the head, with Firestars and Gunstars trailing, surged ahead at full speed toward the Cylon fleet that had stopped maneuvering toward them.
Amidst the hundreds of oncoming missiles and nukes from the Cylon fleet, the colonial ships sped through to reach the Cylon ships at close range. As they went closer and closer, defensive fire became less effective as more missiles would come faster and at high speed with less time to intercept - more and more damage was inflicted, with the additional factor that their fleet's own speed added to the force of the impacts.
Gunstars Aggressive, Damia, Eleusis, Armada, Pallas, Altair, Raven, Striker, Phobos, Tyr, and Izanami blew up in brilliant explosions consuming the ships as several nukes and many anti-ship missiles that had weakened their armored hull impacted. Old and proud Battlestar Phoebe similarly detonated, falling under the impact of over a dozen high yield nukes, splitting into several large pieces that nearby ships had to quickly maneuver to avoid. Many other ships received varying damage across their hull, some extensively heavy damage being reported among both the large Battlestars and smaller support ships that would move in front of the larger ships in sacrifice to save them if they could.
The colonial fleet continued moving forward under withering fire as the Cylonbaseships launched as many missiles and nuke after nuke towards the enemy.
By the sixth wave of missiles launched from the Cylon fleet, approximately half including large numbers of nukes started getting through the colonial defensive fire. More ships were felled and became spreading pieces of debris in the way of the remaining colonial ships that pushed onward through the ever saturated space around filled with oncoming missiles from the baseships. Support ships took hits for the larger capital class colonial ships, saving their crews lives at the cost of their own, while the Battlestars continued compiling damage from multiple missile impacts, taking several systems offline. Gunstars Garnel, Set, Kali, Resurgence, Black Widow, Eos, Romulus, Remus, Kios, Severus, and Hellion, and Firestars Javelin, Bacchus, Thalia, Thrace, and Faith broke apart under the withering firepower from the Cylons.
Finally breaking through the launched couple thousand missiles in the eight waves of missiles from the Cylonbaseships, the colonial fleet closed to point blank range, fully engaging with all the KEWs aboard and their own missile stores being brought to bear launching against the Cylonbaseships. Missiles became few and far between from the Cylonbaseships now that they risked their own destruction against the colonial warships from the proximity between the fleets.
Nike and Galactica focused fired on a standard baseship, spreading fire on other ships in range, while focusing their heavier KEWs and pulse cannons on the one baseship. Viciously tearing through the hull of the baseship as the pulse cannons and KEW fired again and again in rapid succession, the pulse cannon emitting a highly focused blast of energy that burned through layers of the baseship's armor on contact, trailing KEW rounds fired right after caused explosions upon entering holes in the hull. One of the extending legs of the baseship broke apart, cleanly cut in half, drifting away. More explosions inside the baseship occurred, until one caused a fire that reached the tylium lines – rapidly burning up the fuel source until reaching the main source. The resulting boom caused an implosion consuming much of the ship's guts, the fire and destructive force of the blast continuing outward in an explosion consuming the rest of the ship within a minute.
The standard baseships began taking heavy damage from multiple ships, Battlestars and Firestars focusing their KEWs on single targets, weakening them quite quickly. Four baseships became a pile of expanding debris after a couple minutes, others beginning to lose combat effectiveness or drifting aimlessly. The Adonis baseships held up better, their armored hull taking a beating but their own KEWs aboard rivalling a colonial warship beginning to give as good as they got aside from pulse cannon and laser turret fire from the Battlestars impacting dealing much more damage than their weapons. The Adonis ships maneuvered closer with the standard baseships falling in line trying to hide behind them once more even as the colonial Battlestars moved forward and tried to engage them one on one at close range, within a few hundred meters of each other, to prevent this tactic.
Among the fighter craft, the battle quickly turned in favor of the fighter pilots and large number of drone fighters controlled remotely on the colonial Super Carriers. Clearly affected by the work on their brains to force their compliance the raiders were erratic and unable to work together effectively, not even grouping into pairs like the vipers that grouped in twos and up to four - working together cohesively. The raiders also took no initiative or complex tactics, though they matched the same disregard for their life shown by the viper pilots in dogfights to eliminate each other at high speed.
Drone vipers controlled from the Super Carriers worked together in groups of five, each controlled by one person manning their station remote controlling the fighter-craft and able to maneuver their fighters cohesively - to have a viper fire on a raider chasing one of the other viper they controlled.
Squadrons of dozens of Peregrines also tore into the raider formations, unleashing hundreds of missiles blasting apart hordes of them with little resistance, few munitions missing their targets, while their chainguns took out one raider then another and another as they swiveled in fast pace – cutting through them like carving a cake. Squadrons of colonial raiders, their original instincts and combat functionality intact without being lobotomized, were covered in special paints differentiating them from the enemy and weaved in sync with other allied fighters ganging up on enemy raiders in groups.
Within twenty minutes of the battle over 2000 vipers were lost, many of them drones, before the vipers greatly turned the tide and outnumbered the raiders almost two to one. The majority of the raider forces were also tied down against the vipers, only a couple hundred having remained around the baseships providing defensive fire, preventing colonial nukes from eliminating them.
Battlestar Pegasus maneuvered head-on toward a heavily damaged Adonis baseship that tried fleeing from Theseus and Minerva, rapid-firing its heavy KEWs from the forward cannons.
Seven nukes from a large group of missiles launched from a baseship impacted on Battlestar Atlas on areas already damaged across the surrounding structural hull and armor, the blast shredded through the crumbling hull opening large sections of the ship up to space with oxygen flushed out at the exact time the explosions expanded in plumes of fire running across and through the ship – the oxygen added to the concussive force of the blast. In moments a colonial warship standing proud and defiant against the Cylononslaught began breaking apart into large chunks of burning sections of the ship, crashing into nearby colonial ships. Those unlucky to be so near in defending the Atlas were unable to maneuver to safety; Circe, Skyfox, Caelus, Hebe, and Perses joined the Atlas in death as their own comrade ship's remains rammed into them, the large pieces of debris hammering through the ships on impact causing internal explosions which rapidly consumed the ships even as more debris continued raining down upon them.
Other colonial ships further away had to account for this increasing growth of debris from colonial ships as well as Cylon ships, the close distance within a thousand meters of several ships on each side posing a hazard in this battle. Combined with munitions flying among each fleet which could land on debris showering an enemy ship with large pieces of metal that could rip apart a ship, particularly if the impact was on a previously damaged section of the ship.
Cylon Adonis Baseship 001, CIC
"Baseship 028 is eliminated. 027 and 029 plugging the hole in our lines. Analyzing. Notable change in colonial warships firing patterns. Conclusion. Standard baseships targeted for elimination of their missile launch capabilities,"Centurion Alpha One reported loudly over the sounds of cannon fire and shouting between human Cylons.
"If they take out our launch capabilities, we'll be crippled. Our chances to stand up to the superior firepower on those newer battlestars will not look good," a number five Doral said, frowning as a bead of sweat ran down his face.
"Not to mention we won't be able to target the defense satellites covering the planet and ultimately our goal to take out the humans below, will be lost..." another Doral added with concern in his voice.
Loud arguing with the Cavil models present yelling angrily ensued, the idea of defeat not sitting well with anyone.
"We don't need to worry about that, just focus on the fleet. Jack intends to handle the planet. So we need to even the odds while we still have the ability, or we'll lose our ability to nuke the colonials anyway," Gary Doral said loudly, speaking over his brothers with authority, giving them and several ones a hard look if they looked to challenge him.
Centurion Beta One looked around the room, its red eyes vrooming back and forth scanning the room; discounting the human Cylons proving unhelpful to the battle at hand. Several more ships were lost while they argued, producing no solution.
"All Adonis ships are to fall back to these coordinates," Gary Doral said, inputting coordinates over a thousand clicks out from the battle.
The Centurions automatically began maneuvering the command ship and sending orders to the other Adonis' ships as soon as the words came out of their commander's mouth.
The command ship plowed through debris in its path, continuing past colonial ships and followed by the other nine functioning Adonis baseships capable of maneuvering through the battlefield. The hole in the Cylons' lines was felt within minutes as the colonial ships surged forward, focusing on the standard baseships and damaged Adonis ships in their wake that now stood all but helpless before them.
Four baseships were lost as concentrated firepower was brought to bear; Pegasus and Pacifica, Nike and Galactica, Vanguard and Sword, as well as others combining heavy KEW and other arms to bear in concentrated fire that quickly wore down the Cylon ships until the explosions caused by this might blossomed in large fiery explosions.
"We're leaving our brothers aboard the fleet to die!" A number five Doral protested, tears in his eyes as the wake of destruction appeared in the data stream showing images of baseships being destroyed in violent blast-waves.
"Are we giving up?" a number one Cavil demanded.
"Our ships are being lost rapidly," a number five Doral said, teeth gritted.
Gary Doral closed his eyes as the ones and fives began shouting back and forth at each other, trying to relieve the tension and stress he felt. Opening his eyes, his eyes widened at the sight of several ones and fives raising handguns, mutinous looks on their faces.
A Cavil pulled the trigger, shooting a number five in the head that tried reasoning with him to lower his weapon.
"I won't accept this! The humans have to be destroyed. Pull the fleet back together, now!" the Cavil began shouting, eyes wide and frantically looking among the other Cylons as he pointed his gun around.
A Doral approached the Cavil from behind, stabbing him in the back repeatedly in rapid succession. Blood spilled to the floor as the Cavil fell to the ground with a shocked expression, breathing his last.
Other Cavils and Dorals began raising guns at each other, uncertain who to side with and just what they were doing.
Gary Doral looked to Alpha centurion whose red eye focused on him, ignoring the chaos around them as the centurions looked for orders. Gary simply nodded at Alpha. In the data stream among the centurions orders were shared and acknowledged in seconds.
As the human Cylons looked among each other with frantic, emotional looks, the centurions raised their arms that released the guns attached to their arms and took aim.
Several shots were fired in rapid succession, loud machine gun noise from the centurions' weapons filling the room as they turned to their targeted human Cylons and unleashed bullets ending lives before turning to the next target and the next. Blood filled the air before dropping to the floor in a splattering mess as bodies dropped with hard thuds.
Gary and a handful of Dorals were left standing among the dozens of human Cylons previously alive and unharmed moments ago as the centurions lowered their weapons and turned back to their consoles.
Turning off his own emotions, Gary narrowed his eyes at his brethren, "My orders are final, and unless anyone wishes to join the last Cylons that disobeyed my orders I suggest you get back to work."
The Fives looked at each other, before rapidly nodding and returning to their consoles, back to work at their duties on the ship.
The ship shook as long range KEW fire and missiles impacted, compiling damage to the hull. The lights flickered briefly as one of the ship's generators went offline, before returning to normal as the other generators took up the slack.
Warstar Sanctuary and a handful of Battlestars began turning to give chase as the Adonis baseships made it away from the area of space encompassing the battle, quickly distancing themselves hundreds of clicks away once safely past the expanding debris fields of destroyed ships in the area.
Gary was deeply entranced by the data stream that showed their progress away from the rest of their fleet that was being eliminated one ship at a time, quickly reduced to nine standard baseships and a couple heavily damaged Adonis baseships in the process of being destroyed.
"Desired distance achieved," Alpha Centurion 001 reported, raising its robotic head to look at Gary.
"Begin. Activate hybrid program, code Alpha Omega Zero One," Gary Doral ordered coldly.
"Acknowledged. Transmitting. All munitions aboard to self-detonate in t-minus ten seconds. All hybrid controlled baseships accepting code, beginning program, maneuvering to impact with closest colonial targets,"Alpha Centurion 001 said emotionlessly, no doubt or hesitation in its course of action.
Gary Doral plunged his hands deeper in the data stream stressfully, eyes wide as he looked at the images of the merged Cylon/colonial fleets.
Aboard the standard baseships, the hybrids gasped and began babbling incoherently as they initiated the program Alpha Omega. The remaining human Cylons aboard were bewildered as the ship's thrusters activated at full power, pushing the ships forward into oncoming weapons fire toward the opposing colonial ships. Onboard, munitions spread among the vast armories and those missiles yet in the launch tubes began activating with a short countdown sequence.
The standard baseships capable of maneuvering still launched at their highest speed directly toward the nearest colonial warship, with no intention of stopping or slowing down.
The colonial warships had no time to respond aside from a handful of commanders with a kneejerk reaction ordering the ships to turn away, but even the fastest reaction time was too slow to accomplish anything. In seconds the baseships completed their programming objectives.
A baseship rammed into Battlestar Pegasus, the sharp extending 'arm' of the star shaped ship piercing straight through the mighty Battlestar like a spear; crushing the weakened armor and inner hull until the baseship was extending through to the other side of the Pegasus.
Explosions detonated at various points inside both ships, culminating when the tylium lines were set ablaze and followed the source of the ships' fuel to the fuel tanks. A massive fiery plume engulfed both ships, the concussive force of the blast continuing to build as both ships broke apart and unleashed a hail storm of debris in every direction. Large debris streamed at high speed at multiple support ships and other colonial Battlestars in range.
Four baseships came apart in explosions within meters of FirestarsJanus, Venitrix, Endymion, Andrastea, Pluto, Diana, and Electra, at point blank range the massive explosions overtook the comparatively smaller ships along with the basestars, fire greedily ate away the guts of the ships until the ships blew apart in explosive shrapnel-like debris that impacted on other colonial ships, damaging and otherwise destroying more of the colonial fleet.
Nukes aboard the baseships that rammed colonial ships and three others that failed to make it to their targets, detonated. Dozens in the stockpiles in the ships' armories, each nuke between ten and fifty megatons, which created a massive wave of explosions that threatened a chain reaction that would consume all the colonial fleet in their path.
The colonial ships with FTL spun up jumped to either the rendezvous coordinates for combat incapable ships or to the safety of proximity with the PDS satellites surrounding Avalon, while a very lucky few managed to move fast on enough on sub-light away from the rest of the fleet and toward the colonial ships engaging the Adonis ships a safe distance away.
The nuclear explosions formed a domino line of a wave of destruction, fiery plumes consuming everything in their path, moving from the destroyed baseships to the couple nearby gunstars, firestars, and even consuming through the mass of debris from both fleets. Fighters with FTL jumped away to safety, thousands without that luxury were consumed in the blast wave, screaming their last as their bodies were doused in fire that moved on past them without a thought. Burning, burning, until nothing was left in the path of this wave of destruction.
Support ships; Mithras, Blizzard, Vacunas, Aristotle, Apollonius, Troy, Illiad, Fortune, Fortuna, Castor, Pollux, Hurricane, Whirlwind, Wasp, Fury, Miranda, Asteria, Cygnus, Medea, Diomedes, Tempest, Hoplite, Battlestars Deucalion, Indra, Aries, Pisces, Ithaca, and the SuperCarrier Outpost, were all destroyed, lost with all hands aboard ship. Tens of thousands of lives snuffed out within mere moments.
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
Crew members sat in shock, several with hands to their mouth as they expressed their horror. Some with people they lost crying openly, others hugging each other.
"Gods..." Commander Haller said, wearing a look of distraught.
Admiral Stryker put a hand to his face, stemming tears from his eyes, names of people under his command or he knew among those lost flashing before his mind's eye.
There was a long moment of silence as the crew digested recent events.
Slamming a fist on the plot table, Admiral Stryker drew the attention of the CIC personnel.
"Regroup the fighters. I want all remaining combat capable ships to form up, prepare to eliminate the threat of the Cylon fleet, once and for all," Admiral Stryker commanded loudly, fury evident in his narrowed eyes and snarl.
KEW fire once again began lighting up space as the Adonis baseships and approaching colonial ships began firing at each other.
Warstar Sanctuary led the charge, down the center taking on four Adonis ships alone, flanked by Warstar Daedalus and baseship Pallas of Athens. At the signal from Atlantis; Nike, Galactica, Apollo, Theseus, Vanguard, Chimera, Polaris, and Pleiades formed up, FTL jumping from the safe zone over Avalon to close ranks around the Adonis baseships, leaving no escape vector.
The heavy guns aboard Sanctuary boomed, vibrating heavily inside as she unleashed hell. After a minute of heavy KEW fire the first Adonis that had already been moderately damaged began turning away, heavily damaged. Daedalus and Pallas of Athens began tearing into two of the other Adonis baseships Sanctuary was firing on; Heavy KEW fire brow beating against the armor of the ships and destroying more than one gun emplacement aboard causing internal explosions.
Nike and Galactica maneuvered close together; concentrating pulse lasers on a single Adonis ship and rapidly melting through layers of armor, burning a hole into the enemy ship as they targeted the same area for repeated fire.
As the other six Adonis ships faced a single Battlestar, two Adonis baseships maneuvered together a mere hundred meters apart, focusing KEW fire on the Chimera.
Launching from Nike and Galactica, over a dozen Peregrine fighters engaged in a micro-FTL jump to close distance with a baseship. As point defense locked onto the fighters, they unleashed over 70 missiles before turning away to escape the blast radius. The few dozen of raiders remaining under Cylon control that had stayed to defend the Adonis baseships engaged the missiles along with the ship's point defense.
Explosions lit up space as 58 anti-ship missiles and a few nuclear warheads detonated short of their target. Fiery explosions surrounded the front and down the starboard of the Adonis baseship as more than one nuke impacted on the hull, burning through layers of armor and into the inner hull. Explosions erupted inside, consuming centurions and human Cylons in the affected sections, including the starboard hangar.
Theseus fired its pulse lasers several times at the large gaping hull that had been ripped in the bombed Adonis ship. The explosions inside the Adonis began picking up steam, growing in fervor and size until it consumed the guts of the ship relishing the central core of the ship. Human Cylons and centurions aboard were consumed as the baseship imploded, and threw large meter-wide chunks of the graves of those aboard in an expanding cloud of debris. The other ships not packed as closely together as the earlier battle maneuvered more easily away, limiting damage from the hailstorm of debris.
The Peregrines maneuvered around, turning toward the few remaining raiders and unleashing KEW fire from the onboard chainguns, rapid firing that impacted on several Raiders that detonated in small plumes of fire as they were destroyed while the chaingun simply moved a few degrees to target other ships. The fighters moved at combat speed at several Gs as they hunted the Raiders, rapidly tearing through them.
The two Adonis baseships targeting Chimera maneuvered on each the port and starboard of the Chimera, firing heavy KEWs that tore into the mercury class Battlestar; ripping apart hull plates and armor. KEW fire entered holes made in the hull, causing turmoil inside as explosions blew back outside the hull ripping out chunks of the ship and ejecting human bodies in affected sections directly into space. Leaking tylium from ruptured fuel lines was set ablaze from continued KEW fire entering the ship, rapidly tracing the fuel lines back to the source, the large tylium tanks which made a large boom and explosion that consumed first the nearby working personnel and continued burning through the entire ship from the inside out. Chimera detonated in an expanding debris field, all hands aboard screaming, heard aboard the comms throughout the fleet, as the rapidly suffered and were silenced forever as the Chimera was destroyed.
Sanctuary closed distance as it continued rapid firing the majority of its KEWs at the two nearest Adonis baseships. The two baseships began showing a series of explosions ripping their way outside the hull to space all across the topside of the ships. After another minutes both baseships detonated, destroyed as they unleashed large chunks of debris this way and that. Sanctuary moved on, engaging another two baseships along with support fire from Daedalus and Pallas of Athens.
The baseship Nike and Galactica had ganged up on with pulse laser fire was ripped apart in a concussive blastwave as the ship finally gaveway to the withering firepower. At a cost the pulse lasers needed downtime to cool down, while the two Nike class Battlestars moved to other targets already showing signs of wear as they fought other Battlestars. In conjunction with the Apollo, the Nike class Battlestars began quickly wearing down another Adonis baseship together.
Atlantis and Theseus drew away from the burning husk of the Adonis baseship they'd destroyed with combined firepower, heavy KEW and pulse lasers having worn it down until succumbing to destruction. The two moved to the aid of the Vanguard which faced a standoff with an Adonis baseship, neither side having gained an advantage and wearing each other down to that point.
An Adonis baseship maneuvered to port away from the Pleiades, now firing on the Polaris from its starboard while another Adonis continued firing away at Polaris' portside, with the armor showing signs of weakness as fiery plumes appeared across the hull from explosions inside the ship. A nuke launched from one of the Adonis, from their handful of launch tubes, impacted on the Polaris. Hitting an already weakened portion of armor, the nuke's blast wave melted through layers of armor and consumed a large section of the ship. Spurred on by heavy KEW fire the continued damaging the ship and adding more explosions throughout the Polaris, the explosions grew into a chain reaction as fire consuming the ship grew in size and scope meter by meter going throughout the innards of the ship. Polaris came apart in a large detonation, fiery debris spreading outward from the blast. The Adonis and Pleiades were dinged by multiple fragments of debris.
Battlestar Apollo CIC
Lee Adama watch the remains of battlestar Pegasus, his face was grim and full of sadness. It was his first command before he was transferred to Apollo. Half of the Pegasus crew were also here on Apollo, rest died on Pegasus, including Pegasus commanding officer, Anastasia Duala. She was promoted to rank of commander only week ago and was given Pegasus after Lee was transferred to Apollo.
"Thank you" he said for himself, watching on Pegasus remains.
Battlestar Atlantis CIC
"Peregrines reporting space is clear of raiders," the tactical officer reported.
"Have them form up for another bombing run on the nearest baseship," Commander Haller ordered, receiving a quick 'yes sir' in response.
Standing across from Admiral Stryker, Commander Haller also looked up at the dradis above the plot table, studying the battle field.
Daedalus jumped away from the battle after a nuke that impacted did damage severe enough their combat capability was questioned.
The CIC crew erupted in applause as another Adonis ship was destroyed by Sanctuary. Nike, Galactica, and Apollo also eliminated another baseship with their combined firepower proving too much to handle alone.
The three Nikes moved toward the two Adonis maneuvering away from the Pleiades, which was heavily damaged and wenting atmosphere, despite been heavily damaged it was still in one piece. Ship destruction was stopped only because three Nikes focused its firepower on two Adonis which tear started to tear Pleiades apart.
"It'll be over soon sir," Commander Haller said, startling Admiral Stryker as he looked to his side when he felt Haller clap him on the shoulder hard.
Admiral Stryker nodded numbly, rubbing his eyes to see better, removing unshed tears. He was furious to see how many lives were taken. How many were killed here and back on the Colonies, by their own creations who show no remorse. He watch stricken Pleiades as her crew abandon her. "Hang on old girl, you will be repaired, i promise you that".
Before Stryker could order Atlantis to help with another target, the dradis began blaring loudly. A large contact appeared above Avalon, taking a long moment to identify...
When the contact was identified, it showed in large letters; the Dreadstar.
The command staff stood straighter while the crew began speaking loudly among themselves while they continued working at their stations.
"So it's arrived at last..." Admiral Stryker said, eyebrows furrowed in consternation.
"Yes. Though why is a good question, a better question is what do we do about it?" Commander Haller asked.
"The Point defense satellites can hold it off until we can regroup. Its size makes it slow to maneuver, not too unlike Sanctuary sadly for us," Admiral Stryker said.
"Sanctuary's still working on an Adonis ship, at the farthest edge of the fight. We're the closest in range sir...," Commander Haller said.
Admiral Stryker nodded, glaring up at the dradis screen.
Alarms began blaring throughout the CIC.
Admiral Stryker, Commander Haller, and other personnel looked around confused, alarmed but not sure of its cause in this manner. The tactical officer was not so confused, paling as he looked at the consoles before him.
Dozens of nuclear warheads between 50 and 250 megatons were launched from the dreadstar in close range of a dozen large defense stations and many smaller point defense satellites guarding Avalon. Space high in the sky of Avalon was lit up as rapid firing point defense KEWs launched toward the oncoming missiles.
Several of the satellites were destroyed before getting off many shots at all against the rapidly increasing number of nukes that continued launching from the dreadstar. As nukes were detonated on contact by defensive fire, the blastwave was large enough to reach many satellites and destroy them. Over a dozen of the smaller satellites were consumed in nuclear fire in seconds, many others nearby followed along with six of the large defense stations.
Defensive fire continued against more launches from the dreadstar. KEW fire began pouring out of the Dreadstar as well, crashing into the satellites. The smaller satellites didn't withstand more than a couple rounds, not designed for such high firepower. Another three of the large defense stations blew up a minute later, from the KEW fire overpowering their armor along with impacting high yield nukes.
Within a couple minutes, a large hole was created in the defenses above Avalon, leaving a clear sight of the vulnerable planet below to the dreadstar.
Personnel aboard Atlantis' CIC gasped in horror at the sight, others wore dumbfounded expressions unable to believe what sensors aboard were telling them.
"All ahead full! Get us over there now!" Admiral Stryker yelled furiously, fists balled tightly enough to whiten his knuckles.
"We'll weaken our position with finishing the rest of the Cylon fleet if we take more than one ship as support sir," Commander Haller said as Atlantis began moving at high speed away from the battle among the two fleets back toward Avalon and the dreadstar.
"Yes, and Sanctuary's too slow to help anyway, leaving them to ensure the destruction of the Cylon fleet is best anyway. Once more of the Adonis' are destroyed, any of the other ships freed up are to rendezvous," Admiral Strykersaid, and noticed on the dradis that Theseus was coming to the flank, trying to match Atlantis' speed to support the flagship.
Avalon
Citizens looked up to the sky after the loud booms from nuclear explosions above were heard. Minutes after the initial noise had driven the curiosity of the people across Avalon to look up curiously, fear and panic set in causing a maelstrom of chaos as people began running, no particular direction in mind simply to get away as objects began dropping from the sky.
In a small town at the outskirts of society of Avalon, the first nuclear missile dropped from the sky impacted hard on the ground. The initial explosion groundside was over several miles wide, the fire expanding outward from the detonation point growing to dozens of miles across the ground consuming everything in its path. Thousands of lives were silenced in final loud screams of anguish and fear.
Above Avalon, the sight of several large plumes of fire from nuclear explosions could be seen across the planet, not too dissimilar from the sight of one of the colonies all those years ago.
Point defensive fire from groundside bases destroyed many of the dozens of nuclear missiles dropped to the ground, and continued alongside launching fighter forces to hold off oncoming missiles that continued dropping down to Avalon.
The cities of Avalon without military bases setup fared far worse, defenseless against the onslaught.
Dreadstar CIC
Jack Cavil stood at the center of the CIC, hands meshed down in the data stream console so he could see in his mind's eye the sight of the devastation the dreadstar wrought.
Jack smiled widely at the sight of the first nukes impacting and destroying structures and people on the ground on Avalon. He began laughing maniacally upon seeing the fiery plumes rising to the sky high enough to be easily seen from orbit while more and more missiles were dropped on Avalon.
Atlantis CIC
Admiral Stryker slammed his fist down on the plot table.
"Put the engines to overdrive, bypass safeties if you have to, and get us there now!" Admiral Stryker ordered angrily as Atlantis halved the distance to the dreadstar while more and more missiles launched to the ground although
"Yes sir," the helmsman said, grumbling quietly about stressing the engines, looking away as he received glares.
Atlantis began streaming forward leaving Theseus in its wake, once more using 125% of its reactors capacity which was deemed for emergencies only for its risks involved.
Among the battle with the Cylon fleet, Sanctuary finished off another Adonis ship and maneuvered to help Vanguard finish the moderately damaged Adonis it faced. The two Adonis ships facing Nike, Galactica, and Apollo were weakening under the withering pulse laser fire they produced. Escape was out of the question among the fleet as FTL systems were down among other systems being damaged and sent offline in the fight.
Dreadstar CIC
"Centurions report the command baseship's been lost," a number one reported.
Jack rolled his eyes and sighed loudly, "Once a failure always a failure, Gary. He served his purpose."
"The Atlantis is on a fast approaching intercept course. Theseus is not far behind," another Cavil model said, frowning.
"Stryker," Jack said hatefully, glaring as he focused on the image of the Atlantis approaching, "let him come to his death. I'll enjoy seeing him set ablaze as well."
As Atlantis neared, the dreadstar made no move to turn its main focus from firing missiles toward Avalon, merely shifting its large number of heavy KEWs across its vast hull to target the oncoming Battlestar.
KEW fire was exchanged as both shops began firing once in range, with Atlantis maneuvering and tilting its axis to dodge much of the oncoming fire while the dreadstar was unable to maneuver at all due to its bulk. Several cannons across the large mass of the ship's hull were blown apart, the loss made light as the remaining KEWs continued firing large masses of munitions toward Atlantis.
Atlantis CIC
The plot table shook violently along with the CIC as munitions impacted hard on Atlantis. Nuclear missiles had joined the KEW fire targeting the Battlestar, stopped only by the point defense fire launched to shield the ship. As Atlantis reached close range the shaking in the ship intensified along with damage reports.
"We're taking heavy fire. Not sure how long even we can hold out if they keep it up," Commander Haller said nervously.
"Theseus is adding supportive fire. We don't seem to be damaging the dreadstar enough to stop their launches to the planet...," Admiral Stryker said frowning hard, deep in thought.
"It's too massive. And if we maneuver to the front to take the brunt of their firepower... I don't suggest it sir," Commander Haller said.
"Every second we delay in stopping it, more lives are at risk of being lost. There has to be a way to take it down now," Admiral Stryker said.
"Open to suggestions sir," Commander Haller said, raising his hands up.
Admiral Stryker glanced around the CIC thinking hard, as an idea struck him he stilled. A slight grin graced his face.
"How fast can FTL be readied?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"Thinking of leaving?" Commander Haller asked bewildered.
"With a guest along with us for a tug jump," Admiral Stryker said.
Commander Haller's eyes widened, "Its too massive sir. Atlantis could be ripped apart in the attempt."
"Whether it works or not, the FTL jump envelope window will still take a very large amount of the dreadstar with us; they will be ripped apart. I can live with going down if we take them with us," Admiral Stryker said.
Commander Haller wore an expression of combined awe, disgust, and bewilderment, shaking his head.
"FTL is online sir, we just need to input coordinates," the tactical officer interjected.
Admiral Stryker nodded to himself, "Tell the Theseus to break away to a safe distance and bring us about. Ramming speed, directed at the center of the dreadstar."
"Aye sir," the tactical officer replied.
Other members of the CIC crew wore expressions of shock and fear. A few had the look of acceptance and determination, glaring at the dradis showing the dreadstar threatening their home below.
Lieutenant Trace that just arrived on Atlantis CIC after hard landing on Atlantis remained silent at the doorway of CiC but quickly take a seat on one of the seats near the entrance and strap herself out. Other member including the guards did the same.
Battlestar Atlantis maneuvered straight ahead toward the dreadstar, plowing through defensive fire in its wake and shrugging off impacts from a couple oncoming missiles even as fire streamed from hull breaches across the ship.
The dreadstar could do nothing, failing at slowing down the Atlantis and unable to move at all, only able to take the force of the impact as Atlantis rammed into the center of the massive ship. Metal gave way, groaning as it went, as the dreadstar's hull was breached with a large hole the size of the head of the Battlestar. Large metal beams struck out through the head of the Atlantis breaching its hull, the otherwise large holes not an issue as the two ships merged, forming a single dradis contact.
Unable to fire at the Atlantis anymore from proximity on top of itself and risking damage even if it could, the dreadstar was powerless against its enemy.
In moments, the Atlantis' FTL engaged. Despite the lack of connection with the tugged ship as in most cases, the FTL worked as normal going into overdrive compensating for the combined mass that the FTL window would envelope. Going as far as the FTL window could, the process for faster than light travel known as jumping engaged.
With a bright white flash of light, Atlantis disappeared with the majority of the dreadstar in tow...
Silence once more reigned in space in the coming minutes as the battle over Avalon finally ended.
For Avalon, the last bastion of the tribes ofKobol, the second Cylon war was finally over...