With a great flash the 3 kilometer long, slender vessel appeared out of nowhere. It's bow could remind some of an alligator head. On the dorsal hull many large cannons mounted on turrets were coming out of their support nests and started to rotate around, looking for a now non-existent enemy. A few small fighters emerged from the external flight pods on both the port and starboard side and started a patrol.
Some parts of the hull were smoking from what appears to be a recent ship-to-ship battle.
Slowly and gracefully it slid forward through the void. For an outsider it might look as if not much was happening.
But inside the massive ship this was certainly not the case.
Inside the ship's Combat Information Center, CIC, the activity was comparable to a beehive.
Officers and operators were walking around talking to their peers while simultaneously talking into the comm horns dotted around the room.
'Report!'
'Weapons online and ready, light damage only. Propulsion is online. Medium damage to the inner port engine.'
'Flight deck reports minimal losses. 6 planes lost and 20 more damaged, 3 severely. All launch tubes are operational, minimal damage to the flight pods.'
'DRADIS sensors are clear sir. No sign of pursuing Cylons. There is an asteroid field on our present course.'
'Very well. Navigation?'
'The Navigation computer is making no sense sir. It can't find any known constellations out here. Until I get some reliable data out of this, I have no clue where we are.'
Frack, just what he needed. Jumping straight into the unknown ending up who knows where, he knew this was a risk. Commander John Price had just ordered a blind FTL jump to escape an incoming fleet of Cylon basestars. He was not one to run away from a fight, but taking on twelve basestars in a single battlestar was suicide.
The past two weeks were an absolute nightmare. Just before he could get his ship in space dock for an upgrade, the enemy attacked.
Out of nowhere basestars jumped in from all around and hammering the fleet and the nearby colony with nukes.
For some reason all the defences went offline the moment those damned toasters arrived. By now he knew why.
The damn Command Navigation Program upgrade in fleet use was faulty.
Through a backdoor in the software the Cylons hacked every fleet computer and caused chaos.
Ships powering down just before a fight, or turning their weapons against one another, blowing each other to pieces while the crew stood helpless.
It was a massacre, thank the gods his ship didn't have those upgrades.
As soon as he realised what the CNP did, he ordered his crew to break any computer networks present on his ship.
He remembered the stories of his old time friend and First Cylon War veteran, William Adama, and acted on his advice to break the computer networks.
It gave him an edge, but an edge is not worth much when faced against twelve Basestars launching every fighter and missile they had at his ship.
The Battlestar Invictus was a powerful ship. It could take on multiple basestars at once, but twelve? That, Price and his ship could not do.
And now he was here, wherever 'here' was. Probably way beyond the red line, uncharted territory.
The only thing he could do now was get his ship back in order and move from there.
However the relative calm would be short lived.
'DRADIS Contact, bearing 090 carum 24, this suckers big!'
'Identify! Operator Hoshi?'
'No transponders, no recognition codes. Could be the cylons, sir.'
Again? This was not a good day.
'Commander, I am getting a transmission from the contact. You might wanna hear this.'
'Put them on speaker Specialist Trask.'
The comms specialist flipped a few switches to tie the comm signal to the built in speakers in the CIC.
What the men heard then was disconcerting to say the least.
'Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill'
The single word brutally chanted over the comm echoed through the room. Whatever anyone was doing, they weren't now, just listening to the maddening chant, trying to figure out what it was.
'Cut the transmission Trask, I don't want to hear that chanting here anymore. Hoshi, what is the contact doing?'
'They are coming about. Looks like an intercept course with us.' The chanting made the young operator nervous. He seemed to peer in his scope more focused than ever, but the tension within him was clearly visible.
'Multiple smaller contacts are coming from the first! They are launching strike Craft! 92 strikers closing, bearing 090 Carum 21'
Again into the fray.
'Action stations!' Price ordered grimly. 'Weapons grid to full power. Enemy suppression fire, all batteries execute.'
Within seconds the entire broadside of the battlestar opened fire on the incoming strike craft.
Half of the 40 massive double barrel rail cannons started blasting 200CM projectiles into the void, exploding as enormous Flak in the middle of the formation.
Anything not directly hit by the shell itself was at least damaged by the thick cloud of shrapnel flying about. The Flak was so thick one could walk on it.
At the same time numerous small calibre minigun point defence guns across the entire hull and flight pod opened fire. Each gun firing over a hundred rounds a second in the same direction.
Any spacecraft not torn apart by the large calibre Flak would be now.
Within thirty seconds, a third of the enemy strike force was taken out, and they weren't even in their weapons range yet. The surviving craft started to turn and find another approach.
'Hoshi here sir. We've established a perimeter!'
'launch Vipers!' Almost immediately, at least forty Viper space superiority fighters shot out of the side of the Invictus Flight Pod, on the way to intercept.
'Signal Vipers, take out those raiders, leave the big ship to us. And redirect battery three through eight to fire on the largest contact while you're at it. Switch them to Armour Piercing!'
Outside the ship a true furball was enveloping the space between the invictus and the blood red dagger-shaped vessel. Swift Death fighters and Hell talons fighting a vicious melee with Viper Mk IIs and VIIs.
Vipers were dancing around the red strike craft: blowing holes in them and tearing off wings, avoiding incoming fire as much as they were able. They were firing what seemed to be like... lasers? The Vipers quite determined to destroy these craft without too great a loss. This was evidently, however, easier said than done. And it appeared their new enemy was more advanced than they were, they were certainly larger, probably about double the size of a Viper. Despite this, the first few cannon shots didn't even seem to hit, even though they were spot on target.
At the same time the Great red dagger who had just launched the strike craft started to fire their two massive dorsal turrets towards the battlestar.
Not long after, the shots started impacting, everyone inside the battlestar was thrown to the ground by the sudden impacts. Commander Price just managed to crawl to his feet when he was thrown to his plotting table by another series of impacts.
He hoped the thick armour of his ship could take this punishment. The armour of his ship was thicker than your regular Mercury Class, but these impacts were harder than anything he ever encountered. He needed to end this soon. Parts of the hull beginning to buckle and small armour plates drifting away into the void, shattered and burned.
'Bring us about and switch all main batteries to AP! Get in as close as you can! Ahead full!'
The Flak barrier started to ease up It's savage retort against the strike craft, and instead large solid armour piercing shells started flying through the same paths towards the mystery capital ship.
Not exploding, but silently gliding through the void at extreme speeds until they reached the red dagger.
The first few salvoes didn't seem to hit, stopped by some sort of energy barrier, but many many more shots were piling in behind the first salvo. It seemed that the sheer volume of fire coming from the Invictus overloaded the barrier eventually and shots started impacting the hull.
It didn't take long for the Invictus' batteries to chew through the armour of its enemy, especially now Invictus was had closed in so rapidly.
The Invictus started to slide under the enemy ships belly, where the dagger's main cannons could not hit and the armour was thinnest.
At least, that was what Price hoped. His Gamble paid off, significantly less dangerous looking fire from, he could only assume where secondaries, firing at him from the belly of the great red capital ship. The enemy captain evidently fully aware of this, and endeavouring to turn the ship over.
Not waiting for the ship to get its weapons on target, Invictus rolled over and fired its full broadside into the belly of the enemy ship. Piercing the light armor and blowing holes in key systems.
The explosion was quite impressive, the whole top side of the ship detonating in a great flash and orange, blue and red flames. Invictus turning its batteries to support the fight against strike craft.
Within minutes following that, the remaining strike craft broke and fled. The engagement had cost Invictus a gun, few PD weapons and 6 Vipers.
Suddenly, the dagger was accelerating away and not long after, an enormous hazy purple eye opening up in front of it. As soon as the eye appeared it was gone, taking the crippled Crimson capital ship away without a trace.
'Recover all vipers and stand down to condition two, and get me damage reports from all sections! Let's get out of here before more of those ships arrive.'
Price he thought to himself. Price where have you lead us to this time?