BSG 41 Chapter 16: Alternate Ending, a battlestar galactica: 2003 fanfic

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

I would like to say that everything after that was fine and dandy, and we all lived happily ever after.

"And then what?" I asked my brother excited.

"Well, after Gemenon Frontage Beach, we will hit up Virgo Space Park," said my brother. He was planning a future vacation for us. I was seven years old and very excited. I loved my big brother. We were going to be together always. He was my best friend. "Just you and me."

"Can we see Caprica City?" I asked. I was laying next to my brother in his big bed in his room. We had been up all night telling ghost stories and playing with our Action Figures.

"You bet sport."

"Get to bed you two!" yelled my father from the other room. I usually slept with my brother so me being in here was okay. My dad was just upset we were up so late.

"We'll talk about it later. Night kid."

"Night Danny." I turned on my side and closed my eyes. Then asked another question. "Are we going to really do this?"

"You bet kid. Things always go as planned."

Unfortunately, things seldom go as planned.

As it turns out, the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira were all part of the Armistice Station Delegation, along with the Battlestar Mercury. They were the escort for the Colonial Armistice Officer. Due to the outlining regulations in the Cimtar Peace Accord, they could not ferry the Officer all the way to the Station, but had to remain fifty thousand kilometers from it during the Annual Peace Talks. After we racked all the timestamps from our reports and experiences, we concluded that those vessels were the first to engage the Cylons.

The three ships also offered another insight into the Cylon attacks. Each ship had a human model Cylon on board. We know now that the Cylon's must have infiltrated all our warships with an operative. Through our experiences thus far, in comparison with the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira, that operatives job was to terminate the Command Officers during the attack. Their Long Range DRADIS logs showed Armistice Station being destroyed by a Basestar. While that was happening, they were being attacked by a Raider Wing.

Fortunately, things seldom go as planned. That was the Cylons first engagement of Colonial warships in 40 years. They just so happened to attack four warships that were prepped and waiting for a fight in case the talks ended badly (which they did apparently. Sadly we will never know what went on during the talks on the station). They successfully infiltrated the computer systems of the four ships through the Command Navigation Program. The heavily networked Battlestar Mercury was quickly destroyed. The two old Venus Class Battle Cruisers and the fairly new Destroyer were heavily damaged. We don't know why, but the Cylons didn't shut the three ships down through the back door. Slaton and I think its because after the Battlestar was nuked, the resulting DRADIS static and residual radiation blinded the Raiders, but we will never know.

After the three ships jumped out, the human Cylons activated and killed the Command Officers. We know had five known Cylon models. The highest ranking officer of the three ships is a Major (a Doctor) and he has been trying to delegate his time between surgery and commanding. They picked up the full Case Orange transmissions immediately after it was broad casted and began investigating off that. They had no knowledge of Finwat Terish Bason before hand. It just so happens, the first part of the Case Orange transmission contained a set of coded jump coordinates for Orange Bunker. When they arrived, they picked up the Secretary of Interior (now the President) and his staff before the Cylons arrived. With the help of the new President they found Jaygo's Comet and the Twin Moons.

While they were at the Twin Moons getting the second set of coordinates, the Cylons jumped in and they began the first battle right before us (which explains why eight additional Basestars jumped in during our battle). They managed to get the coordinates, but not before their ships were crippled and hundreds died. The President was injured and fell into a coma. The Cronus was barely holding together. A few of her engine pods were ejected and most of her hull was breached, she would have to be scrapped. Oceanus was banged to high heavens but she was reparable. Metanira was the best ship out of all of them. Her speed and agility kept her in good condition.

When they arrived at the station, they had reset the jump timer until they could figure out how to jump with the station (Oceanus and Cronus FTL's were off line). They had a small contingent on the station (ten people) investigating, but their resources were devoted to triage. When we arrived, we were banged up pretty badly. I had a Raptor go back and get the fleet. Meanwhile I assumed command of the three ships (to the Majors relief) and began helping with the injured. I found out that they started with over five thousand people. Now there was only just under one thousand alive. I had to try to keep them alive.

The station was a different story. FTB was indeed very small. So small its gravitational field was practically zero. There were four surface defense sentry's that were still online. They guarded a massive retractable door, big enough for a Battlestar to fit through. Those were the only things on the surface. A Raptor team had entered the station through a smaller manual door on the larger one and were in the interior control station inside FTB.

Meanwhile, my fleet arrived and everyone breathed a sigh of relief to the sight of our largest Battlestar orbiting with us. Once they got here, all ships FTL's were online, so we jumped with the station. It was then, and only then did we breathe our first real sigh of relief.

A few more hours went by before the Raptor team figured out the door mechanism on the station. It stumped them because it was built before the first Cylon war. Once the door opened, the stations interior power grid must have been automatically triggered because the Raptor team reported back something astonishing. The interior of FTB was hallow and large enough to fit an entire armada inside. I, along with Slaton, and Tinker manned a Raptor and went to go look for our selfs.

"Virgil this is Craton Raptor zero one, request permission for takeoff," I spoke into the headset. I manned the pilots seat, while Tinker had the copilots seat. Slaton took the ECO station in the back. We all had on our blue duty uniforms because I couldn't fit my arm into a flight suit with my cast.

"Craton Raptor zero one, you are cleared for takeoff," said the control station from Virgils port landing bay.

I grabbed the throttle and pushed it up. We flew out the massive pod and into open space. Once out, we got our first real look at the entire fleet. So few had survived. We did a quick flyby of Cronus and assessed the damage. She had been evacuated because of the decompressions. We wanted to save her, but it would take so many resources we didn't have, not to mention manpower. The Venus Class looked very different from the Mars Class. My ship looked like a miniature Battlestar without the flight pods. Cronus and Oceanus looked like a passenger transport ship, but heavily armed and armored.

We turned towards the open doors on the surface of the celestial body. As we approached, we received Automatic Approach Telemetry from FTB. Tinker and I both looked at the approach vectors and decided to follow. We entered the pattern and flew through the open doors and into a tunnel. Yellow lights on all four sides of the tunnel began to strobe in the direction we were flying. We were in an Instrument Landing System (ILS). The tunnel was about the length of two Battlestars. When we exited the tunnel, we received the most impressive view I had ever seen.

The tunnel opened up into a cavern that was massive. Structural supports lined the walls of the gigantic moon sized cave like a spiders web. The weightless environment allowed for such engineering feats to be constructed, but I couldn't help but wonder at the cost. The entire zero degree horizon immediately shifted. Instead of us flying forward, the cave was set up so that once we were out of the tunnel, we were flying directly down relative to the landing pads that lay below us.

Landing pads lined a central hub elevated in the middle of the cave big enough for Raptors and Shuttles. The edge of the circular hub resulted in a drop off to the first level of landing pads.

That first level was amazing; lined in a circular parking fashion around the elevated central hub, were twelve dry docks. The dry docks were immediately recognized as Battlestar Docks. We knew that because resting in six of those docks were six of the Original Battlestars from the first Cylon War. They appeared to be berthed. Four massive clamps were locked onto either side of the flight pods. Their flight pods were retracted and several causeways and airlocks connected all sides of the Battlestars to the station. Most interesting was the engine sections. The Battlestars were anchored with their engines pointed toward the elevated central hub. A giant device (looked like a clamp and hoses) was connected to its engine pods from the central hub.

One level above the Battlestar level, and half way up the elevated central hub, were twenty four more dry docks. These docks were one ring out from the first level. On these docks were nine original Battleships (the prelude to the Venus Class). They were berthed the same way as the Battlestars but without the engine device connected to them. Also on that level were three Freighters.

Finally, on the third level were generic dry docks that were easily recognizable. The third level was against the canyon walls and level with the elevated central hub. It encompassed fifty docks, with twenty of them being used by old Colonial transports. Like I said, the scale of Finwat Terish Bason was massive. I wanted to land and get to a computer to answer my piling questions.

The ILS had lit up blue lights strobing in the direction of a landing pad directly in front of us around the elevated central hub. The hub was completely flat and just had a dozen or so small landing pads. We didn't see the Raptor from the team we sent. I adjusted our horizon by pulling up ninety degrees. The result made us level with the landing pads. We came down nice and soft on the designated pad. Once down, the pad began to retract into the hub (much like a Battlestar does in its flight pods). While retracting, I looked up through the bubble canopy and saw the entrance tunnel directly above us. Through the tunnel I could just make out Virgil flying by. Then the pressure doors closed above us and we waited.

We felt the lift stop and saw on our sensors the outside had been pressurized. Thats when another door retracted in front of us and there was a lighted circular hanger bay. We saw the other Raptor in the opposite airlock. One of the team members was waiting on us. We didn't have a deck gang to tow our Raptor out, so we left it in the airlock. We all stepped out and immediately smelled stale air. It reminded me of the Ragnar Anchorage. The Marine that was waiting on us informed me that the team was in the stations CIC. He lead us there.

We took an old elevator that was loud and rusted. The ride took nearly five minutes as we slowly descended the central hub tower. The elevator itself was an old grated service elevator. We could see through the mesh grate at the concrete wall moving on the other side. I was staring at the moving wall when everyone else gasped. I turned to the opening the doors made (they didn't shut all the way) and saw another massive display before me. Right then I knew why the Battlestars had devices connected to their engines. I saw another vast cave with a giant FTL in the middle. I could see eight independent spinners designed to charge the one FTL (which made since because building a moving object that large had design flaws). Further, and to answer my question how they managed to build a jumping planet, I saw six power cords the size of shuttles piped from the edge of the cave to the FTL. The six Battlestar FTL's were supplementing the stations FTL.

I was trying to look for more details when the walls to the elevator shaft returned. We eventually stopped descending and made our way through a labyrinth of dark corridors. When we entered the CIC, I thought I was just taking another turn in the maze, but instead I found I giant octagonal room. In the center of the room was a huge lighted information management table. Above that table was a retracting DRADIS console. The Raptor team was at various stations. Tinker, Slaton, and I walked to one of them and began pulling up files.

It turns out FTB Station was originally a military outpost built by the Capricans sixty years ago when the colonies were still independent governments and conflicted with each other, even had wars. The Capricans dug out some of the dock and these lower tunnels. Then the Cylon War broke out and construction stopped (they had to build Battlestars as quickly as possible). During the war, this place was a fraction of what it is now, and was used as a fall back supply station. After the war, the station was turned into a dooms day bunker. The resources of twelve worlds pitched in and built the giant dry dock and these lower tunnels. This place was designed to support one million people for fifty years. The best scientific minds came together and constructed the largest FTL ever.

Further, not only were ammunitions and supplies stockpiled, but instead of the old Battlestars being torn apart and reused for the newer Battlestars, they were secretly retired here, with the old Battleships, freighters, and a few transports. Each Battlestar was fully stocked, armed, fueled, and ready to launch with full Wings of original Mark II, IV and V Vipers. If we were going to mount a resistance and take back our homes, this is exactly what we needed. But when I was going over all the assets in the station, I realized one flaw to my thought of resistance, we didn't have the manpower to operate this armada.

We needed at least 2500 personal per Battlestar (minimum and that was pushing it. The older Battlestars are not networked. Each system must be operated locally). The older Battlships required at least 1000 personal to operate effectively. Then there were the Vipers. We had six full Viper Wings (not including Virgil). Each Wing had 160 Vipers. We needed about 1000 trained Viper Pilots. After all the math, I needed 15,960 trained personnel to operate just the Battlestars. We had maybe 10,000 people in our fleet. Two thousand were either too old or too young. Another few thousand were whiny civilians. I didn't know what to do.

That night I opened my dads letter I kept in my pocket in a plastic bag. It had tape holding it together.

Dear Son,

I know you must be angry at me for what happened to your brother so long ago. Hopefully, in time, you will forgive me. I know you do not want to hear it, but your brother was working with the Soldier of the One. He helped to influence several Unions into taking action against the government. The day he didn't pick you up from school, he was getting illegal explosives for a group of Sagittaron radicals. He wanted to help them kill the Mayor that day when I took you to school.

When we were almost hurt, he ran away. I didn't quit my job, I was being accused of helping him. I had to chose. Help one son or lose both of them. I decided to resign and stay quiet to keep you. There was nothing I could do to keep Daniel.

After your brother was executed, you pulled away from me and left the house as quickly as possible. You changed your last name and enlisted in the Fleet. I was so proud when I heard you were in the Step Up Program. You didn't know this, but I was there in the back of the room when you graduated with your commission. I was never so proud of you. Then I heard about your promotion to Lieutenant and your Pilot Instructor slot. I had friends send photos of you from each event. When I moved to Caprica to be near you, you didn't try to talk to me even though I worked so hard at it. It was then I knew you would never forgive me. I figured it was because you were too much like your old man.

There is something else I never told you. We found Daniel in an escape pod when he was a little boy. I am sure Danny told you this. What he didn't tell you, is that you were in the same pod. You were an infant. Both of you were too young and traumatized to remember. Your mother and I started raising both of you as our own, not to lie to you, but because we couldn't see any advantage to knowing the truth. Your brother remembered being found. So we raised you as our own. I am sorry for not telling you the truth.

Through your whole life, I have tried to instill a set of morals and fundamental beliefs that will hopefully help to shape you for the things to come. I do not know what is to come, I just feel a reckoning for the sins we as a species have committed in the past against each other and our selfs is about happen. I feel the scope of the reckoning will be massive. In the reckoning, I always hoped you would have an important place saving our future. You are just, moral, good, funny, clean, nice, authoritative and above all, you instill respect from those around you. Son, you are a natural leader, don't run from it.

This is my last letter to you my boy. I have a wife now, and some little kids running around the house (hers not mine). I have decided to take up my old commission in the Colonial Fleet as a Viper Pilot (chip off the old block). They are going to give me my old rank of Lt. Col. Hopefully, I might run into you one day. If not, you are my legacy. Goodbye my son. I love you.

Your Father: Lt. Col. Jurgen Belzen, Colonial Fleet

Engineering teams worked around the clock to bring the station all the way on line. Once they did, we docked our fleet inside the station. We ended up tearing apart Cronus to patch up the Oceanus, Virgil and Craton. I refused to let Virgil integrate with the stations FTL. I wouldn't even let her dock for the first couple of weeks.

When the President woke up, he went into an uproar. He didn't like I was making the decisions that would effect our legacy. He really didn't like how I was promoting fleet officers. And he despised how everyone called me Fleet Commander even though I was a Captain. He accused me of a Coup d'etat. To which I, in front of the newly promoted Commanders of the Oceanus, Metainra, our retrofitted Battleship the Athena, and Commander Tinker, knocked him on his ass. The five of us gave him an option: He could stay President and help start a new government, or he could be thrown in jail. Either way, I made sure he knew Military decisions rested with us, the Commanders.

After the President calmed down, he turned out to be an okay guy. He was just scared and depressed at the tragic loss of life. With just 10,000 alive, he readjusted the government. To his credit, he stepped down as President and instituted a governing council, much like the Quorum of Twelve, but this was the FTB Quorum of Thirteen. He made it Thirteen to Symbolize our lost brothers on the Pegasus and Galactica and its fleets (it was a metaphor for the mythical thirteenth tribe of man. I don't know too much about colonial religion). He was voted into the Thirteenth position which was now Chief Councilor.

The Commanders and I met with the Quorum several times to come up with a strategy. After weeks of meetings, we had a plan. It was laid out on paper and posted in the council chambers for us all to remember.

THE PLAN

THIS IS OUR HOME. THERE IS NO GOING BACK. NOT YET ANYWAY.

FOR SIX MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO THE TWELVE WORLDS AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS IN LOW RADIATION AREAS.

FOR THREE MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO VARIOUS BLIND SPOTS THROUGH OUT THE SYSTEM AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLE CRUISER OCEANUS TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLESHIP ATHENA TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR PEGASUS.

FOR ONE YEAR WE WILL LAY LOW BEFORE WE BEGIN OUR RESISTANCE

WE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL WE HAVE ENOUGH NUMBERS TO LAUNCH AN ALLOUT ATTACK ON THE CYLONS. THIS IS OUR ULTIMATE GOAL. EVEN IF IT TAKES A HUNDRED YEARS, WE WILL STAY HERE AND RAISE OUR NUMBERS. THROUGH THE CENTURIES THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, AND WE WILL MAKE SURE THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

The man stopped the playback on the computer. He was tired. Furthermore, he was scared. No ship had ventured this deeply into enemy space. For that matter, no ship had been able to make their way this far into the heart of the enemy's section of the galaxy. From what was known, they were close to the enemy home world. They were on alert, waiting, and searching. For a few hundred years, they had received the same transmission. This was the second mission sent to search for it. The first one was lost ten years ago.

On August 15th, 1977, a United States communications satellite picked up a very faint transmission coming from the direction of a dim yellow star, far on the other side of the galaxy. The bulk of this transmission was lost, but a few small pieces of information were decoded, and another few pieces were picked up by an Ohio research school. Due to the Earth only being able to look at this section of sky for half the year, the US government launched three satellites in Lagrangian Positions Three, Four, and Five. This provided a full 24/7/365 monitor of that particular section of space.

Exactly 392 days later, the full transmission was repeated. Every year after that, up to the year 2390, the transmission was repeated. Why it stopped after 2390 was not known. The transmission was heavily encrypted and remained elusive to US encryption specialists for decades. When the specialist failed, the transmission was filed away, buried in some dark file in some section of a building that didn't exist.

In 2051 man finally landed on Mars. 2095 saw the first Martian Colony. By 2341 mankind had mastered the Solar System, Mars was well into the middle stage of terriforming and, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter housed cities with populations of hundreds of thousands. The Solar System was mans, just as the Earth had been once the oceans were conquered. In 2409, mankind began to leave the system in generation ships. The Solar System was peaceful and man devoted its time to research and science. Science and Research ships littered the System.

2420 marked the arrival of their enemy. They appeared in three vast, gigantic vessels like chrome shaped stars. Government officials sent Diplomatic Envoys to the Chrome Stars to make First Contact. The envoy, a collection of a dozen of the most scientifically advanced ships, were destroyed. Religious scholars announced the arrival of Armageddon. Earth, a world rapped in peace, with no reason for planetary defensive weapons, was attacked.

The first wave saw Earths largest cities destroyed in brilliant, non-nuclear, flashes of light. The second wave consisted of an air raid. The Chrome Stars launched entire wings of space superiority fighters that bombarded continental defenses. The three most powerful Air Forces left on the planet put up a costly fight. The United States Air Force, European Union Air Force, and Asian Union Air Force lost eighty percent of their assets. Then the third wave came: the ground troops. They looked like eight foot chrome men. They had metal fibers like muscles. They had two red eyes. They had guns for hands. They moved fluidly like a man. They were quiet when they walked.

They began to round people into camps and take Earth for themselves. For two months Earth was theirs. The Clergy refused to authorize nuclear attack. They proclaimed "God will save us." Then, an answer from the heavens. A fleet of ships arrived. They were different from the Chrome Stars but equally large. In a battle fit for books, they destroyed the enemy Chrome Stars and their ground troops. Another First Contact resulted in peace. But contained a warning.

The new arrivals called themselves the Protectors. The Protectors were reluctant to talk to the people of Earth. They appeared to be human, but revealed to man, that they were biomechanical. Underneath their imitation skin was the most advanced sentient robot ever. Earths contact with the Protectors came with reluctance due to the Occupation, but in the end everything worked out.

The Protectors told of a story of a race of Cybernetic Life-forms that were created hundreds of thousands of years ago. They told an amazing tale how eventually they split from that race and had evolved on their own ever since. Out of fear that the enemy would find Earth, the Protectors stayed close enough to keep an eye on us. The fear was justified.

With diplomatic relations with the Protectors well underway, Earth began reconstruction of its cities. Also, with help from the Protectors, Earth began fortifying and building defenses for their planet. The Protectors assured the people of Earth that the enemy would return, and they couldn't protect us for ever. The only technological advancement the Protectors gave man was an engine called a Faster Than Light Drive. The engine allowed man to finally reach stars in reasonable time.

It took eighty years, but Earth had built what they needed and not only fortified Earth, but their stations around the system. The year 2505 marked the beginning of the war and the test of Earths defenses. For nearly thirty years, Earth lived under constant hit and run attacks from Chrome Stars. It took a direct attack on the Vatican, but in 2531, the Clergy finally authorized all resources from the system into constructing Space Warships.

Ever since the first Warship was commissioned in 2555, man began to defend Solar System borders and push into the galaxy in order to find this enemy. Through research and help from the Protectors, the location of the enemy's home system was found. A fleet of Earths most powerful ships set out to find it, but instead encountered the enemy.

It was 2691, and now the USS Dallas was the second ship to get as far as they had into enemy space. They were going off of a several hundred year old transmission that was decrypted with the help from the Protectors. They were looking for a System. They were looking for answers.

He pressed play again on the computer, "This will be my final log as Fleet Commander of the Colonial Military. This morning, the Quorum informed me of my new position as Admiral. If only my father could see me now. We received reports of a civilian fleet that had been stripped of their supplies and jump drives by the Battlestar Pegasus. Presently we are under operations to recover and bring them back here. Furthermore, I have dispatched the Athena along the Pegasus' last known trajectory (providing they jumped in the direction of their momentum). Hopefully we will find out something soon. Admiral Ryan Cody, end log."

-THE END-