Chapter 3: An unexpected escape.

Scorpion ship yards:

In the orbit of Scorpion, lay one of the Colonial fleet's most impressive shipyards. Surrounding the planet were scores of scaffle holdings large enough to hold the newest battlestars such as the Mercury class battlestars. Today though, business at the base was slow and only one battlestar, the Pegasus, lay in one of the docks of the base, undergoing repairs and maintenance.

The Mercury class battlestar first began construction some time in the aftermath of the first Cylon war. Discovering that attempting to upgrade the old battlestars took much time, the Colonial military decided to construct a new class of battlestar from the kneel up with the planned technological improvements. Though bearing an outside resemblance to the legendary Galactica, the Mercury class battlestars contained heavier armor, larger aircraft capacity and extra weapons that could fire with a greater accuracy at fast moving targets. Most importantly, they had the latest fire-wall systems designed to deal with the cybernetic attacks the Cylons used on the colonies in the last war.

In the captain's quarters of the Pegasus, a female admiral by the name of Admiral Nelena Cain sat at her desk reading through some of the old stories of the first Cylon war. A middle-aged dark haired woman, Cain cut an imposing figure, especially with a face that, if angered, can chill people right down to their bones. She also had a keen mind that worked somewhat well under pressure and if things go her way but if things turned disastrous, it always weighted heavily on her.

She was reading about her days with now Commander William "Husker" Adama when an alarm rang throughout the ship, attracting her attention. Cain immediately walked to one of the consoles and contacted the bridge, "Colonel Tolen, is there something the matter".

Colonel Tolen, an old friend of the admiral, replied from the bridge with a message in his hand and an angry look his face and in a dark tone of voice, "Yes admiral, I know you didn't want to be disturbed but this message was marked priority one". The voice on the other end of the line breathed deeply before replying, "Read it". Tolen took a deep breath before reading its contents, "To all colonial units, Cylon attack underway, this is no drill".

The moment her XO said those words, Cain took a deep breath as she realized that the fear she and other veterans like her, especially Commander Adama dealt with for the past 40 years suddenly became reality. Though having much faith in the new colonial fleet, a small part of her conscience remembered the events of the last war as well as the warnings of William Adama and that persuaded her to issue the following orders, "Recall all crew to action stations, send word to all ships in the area, warm up the Vipers and check all of our systems to ensure that the toasters won't be able to hack our systems". She immediately put her book back on the bookshelf, pulled up her jacket and headed to the bridge.

In five minutes, she arrived at the bridge where everyone was already at their stations. After the two commanders exchanged salutes, Cain immediately asked, "Any new updates".

Tolen nodded and spoke as he handed a recently decoded message to the admiral. Her eyes widened as the commander updated her, "Picon fleet headquarters has been destroyed and Admiral Nagala is now the commander of the fleet aboard the Atlantia". He paused before continuing, "Ma'am, they've issued general order Op Plans One".

Nelena Cain nodded and asked, "Any nearby units in the area"? Tolen then told her that the other battlestars should be arriving soon. She nodded and activated a mike linking her with the rest of the ship as well as the dockyards, "This is Admiral Nelena Cain reporting to all units, this is the day we've prepared for forty years", "If we do our best then we will triumph", "All units prepare for combat".

Scores of Vipers soon poured out from the battlestar and they soon joined with Vipers launching from the base and they soon formed a huge wall. As they waited, the Draidis sensor array soon started to fill with Colonial military signals as more battlestars completed their FTL jumps".

While the reinforcements continued to pour in, Tolen and the communications officers poured over the reports arriving in from the combat zone. The reports soon began to chill them and when Cain read the reports herself, she took a deep breath as she recognized what was going on". The admiral turned to the colonel and asked, "Are you sure that you've checked all of our systems".

Tolen winced but replied back in a calm tone, "With the limited time we had left, I had all the engineers looking over the systems several times to ensure that there were no holes for the Cylons to exploit. Realizing that she was becoming a bit paranoid, Cain nodded at the statement and returned to observe the operations as the reinforcements formed up.

It came just in time for as the last battlestar arrived, the Dradis system started to fill with new signals and these were Cylons. The huge imposing basestars soon appeared and only a minute passed before the scimitar shaped Cylon raiders starting dropping out of their mother ships by the score before heading towards the battlestars.

Cain immediately yelled out, "All units open fire now, don't let them get close". The colonial fleet battle group and the fixed defenses soon came alive as the enormous rail guns blasted away at the Cylon fighters, more to keep them off than to kill them. Meanwhile, the Vipers hovered very close to their mother ships as they waited and hoped for the best.

Stunned by the surprised and quick defense, the Cylon fighters immediately backed off since the distance was too great for them to use their cybernetic attacks. The basetars had no problems and moving as one, they began to close in.

The battlestars tried to fall back but they barely had any room to maneuver and soon the basestars closed the range to the point that they began to launch their cybernetic attacks against the lead Colonial warships. Eventually they started to lose power and drift, creating obstacles throughout the battlefield. Joining the now disabled battlestars were scores of Raptors and Vipers. Wasting no time, the huge gray ships started launching missiles in every direction, turning the area into an inferno.

The sight stunned Admiral Cain and she immediately knew that the battle was lost. Cursing at the thought of retreat, she yelled out, "Frak, Order every available fighter to land back and activate the FTL drives as soon as possible. The rest of the crew, knowing full well that they had to get out of the battle zone immediately rushed into action as the battle continued to rage and Cain started counting the time as she continued to watch the slaughter unfold.

For the Cylons, it became a simple matter of breaking down doors for with the disabling of each battlestar and a fixed defense battery the colonial fire began to die down. It soon became a race to between the colonial defenders and humanity's children and they were gaining at a devastating rate.

Soon the alarms started to go off on the Pegasus and one of the officers yelled out what everyone feared, "The Cylons are attempting to hack us". He immediately started typing commands and replied, "They've already gotten past four of our firewalls and are about to get through to the last one".

Cain turned angrily to Tolen and asked, "Are all fighters aboard". Tolen nodded as they continued to watch the Dradis map with a nervous look. Cain took a deep breath before yelling out, "Prepare to commence a blind-jump".

Everyone turned to the admiral with shock and disbelief and Tolen said it all for everyone when he said, "Ma'am if we jump now, we won't have a clean jump". Cain nodded and roared angrily, "If we don't retreat then we're dead". She turned to one of the other officers and yelled out, "All hands prepare for jump".

The battlefield soon transformed into a jumbled mess of metal with the wrecks of the enormous battlestars and dockyards, creating huge obstacles for any jump in or from the area. Yet that did not deter the battlestar as it continued to fire all of its weapons and maneuver to get at least a possibly clean jump.

The Cylon fleet immediately saw what was about to happen and started to launch missiles at the retreating colonial forces but they were too late as white flashes occurred in space, signaling the jump of the Pegasus and other survivors.

On one of the Cylon basestars, stood two other humanoid Cylons, one a thickly built male and the other, a dark-haired woman. As they saw the survivors retreating, the man turned to the woman and replied, "What do you think we should do next"?

The woman replied, "Hunt them down". They both turned to another humanoid Cylon in the form of a woman who replied, "I already have them in my sights, just give me a few hours and then I will deliver you the location of the survivors". The two other Cylon humanoids nodded and they all walked off to conduct their respective duties.

Meanwhile, the space outside of the basestar suddenly came alive as they and their Raider squadrons launched scores of missiles, some of them nukes, on the Colonials in the area. Soon the area turned bright as that of the sun as the missiles tore and incinerated the ships, stations and the structures. After the explosions died down, they soon turned their weapons on the planet Scorpion.

1. I realize that the fact that the Pegasus managed to survive as long as she did is contrary to the mini-series where the colonial forces were disabled as if someone had turned off a light switch but I felt that if the Pegasus could survive an initial Cylon assault long enough to make a jump then perhaps she should have had some layer of protection against cybernetic attacks. Also, as mentioned on websites about the new series, it stated that Cain suffered mental problems as a result of the battle so it had to be somewhat horrifying for her in order for her to develop the condition.

2. Sorry for not continuing but I felt that this was a good point to stop since I'm betting we'll find out about the next few battles that the Battlestar Pegasus will endure including loosing 800 of her crew thanks to a Cylon agent discovering their location.

Well this ends my Battlestar Galactica fanfic. This is my first story outside the realm ofGodzilla and Gundam so it may look alittle dull compared to theother stories. Still I did take the time to do some research and write to the best of my ability.

As always, please read andreview, I would be very gratefull.