Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 55: Attack the Basestar
Ares listened to the report from Captain Gunther. He had returned on board the Colonial Bound. There was not much information that Gunther could provide. The basestar appeared to be fully functioning but any scans were just too far away to be accurate.
“To be honest commander we’re just too far away to make an accurate scan,” Gunther said concluding his report.
“It’s okay,” Ares replied. He glanced down then back up taking a breath. General Pakrov, Commander Pratt, Troy, Nall, Bri, Senator Sam, President Xai Chang along with a few other senators. “As many of you already know, the history of the Cylons is one of war with humanity, or at least the Colonies. This basestar is a threat to everything.”
“Commander Ares,” Xai said, picking up a piece of paper and tapping it on the table. “I recall you saying that the Cylons were not anywhere nearby, or were you lying?”
“Mr. President, I can assure you I don’t know anything about this,” Ares said. “I do know we need to eliminate the basestar now, before any technology is taken and discover if the Cylons are really part of this.”
“You are planning an offensive no matter what commander,” Xai said.
“If its the Argo by herself then yes,” Ares said. He did not raise his voice but kept a tone of steel in it.
“I have seen such conviction many times in my life. I know that nothing can change your mind, so how can we help,” Xai said finally, resting his chin on his hands.
“I’ve thought about that. The Enterprise undergoing trials. I would like to join it with the Argo, and the First Fleet, with the Daedalus and the Second Fleet protecting Earth. With two battlestars we stand a better chance of survival than with one,” Ares said.
“An inexperienced crew on board the Enterprise might be dangerous,” Pakrov said, speaking up for the first time.
“I can vouch for the fighters groups, they are ready,” Bri said jumping to the defense of her people.
“It doesn’t matter, this must be done. If Cylons really are here then they are a threat to Earth’s survival,” Ares said, looking at each person.
“When do you propose this mission,” Xai asked.
“As soon as possible,” Ares replied. “This is something that we cannot wait on. The Cylons must not be able to find Earth.”
“Very well, I can see you feel very strongly about this so I will authorize this mission, be careful and return alive,” Xai said getting up effectively ending any further discussion on it.
Ares nodded his head then got up as well. They had some planning to undertake.
*****
Bri looked out of the hangar. She could see the battlestar Enterprise following behind them. Even from this distance Bri could see the difference in the design. The Enterprise was built to a slimmer, almost sleeker, design. The ship also had better weapons to go along with a more powerful power plant.
“Hey, having second thoughts,” a voice said from behind her. Bri turned to see a new member of the squad come up.
“Nope,” Bri said. “Just looking at the Enterprise.”
“Are these Cylons really that dangerous. I mean they’re just machines,” the man said.
“Donald, they killed my family when I was only five. They don’t care how they win, only that they wish us all dead,” Bri said to him.
“If their machines, can’t we just reprogram them,” Donald asked.
“Not that easy, you need the code of the machines, that and its written in another language, which no one understands, makes it a bit hard,” Bri said.
“But you were able to make Earth’s computers and yours talk to each other,” Donald said.
“Yes, and from what I’ve heard from Rebecca and others, its because we have people on both sides who know the code,” Bri said.
“That and we’ve already tried it,” Troy’s voice said from behind them. “The last time it almost shut out systems down. They forgot that a door, once opened, will allow things to go both ways.”
“Couldn’t you come up with something that blocks that,” Donald asked.
“That’s part of the problem, we would be fighting on their battleground. We would always be behind them in that department,” Troy said. “Remember the greatest commanders pick their battlegrounds carefully, not randomly.”
Bri watched as Donald walked away without saying anything. He did not look like he fully understood.
“That’s going to be a major stumbling block with the Earthers,” Bri said to Troy. He looked at her his face a bit confused. “They are wonderful diplomats, but how can you have diplomacy when all one group wants is to destroy you.”
“Maybe not, but they might be useful in talking with the Arbus,” Troy replied. “But for now we should concentrate on the basestar.”
*****
Ares stood on the bridge of the Argo looking at his scanner. The latest intelligence had just come in. The report stated that the basestar was still there. There were two other Arbus ships of an unknown type. He also wondered about this faction within the Arbus.
If there really were two different factions of the Arbus then which side was he about to attack? Would one group want to help them out, or were they just at odds as to how to control the populations. The other thing that worried him was the basestar itself. Did it have Cylons on board? Would they remember the Colonials?
“Commander, all ships report ready,” Aaron said, walking up next to him.
“Good, have the Enterprise ready as well,” Ares said. “I want everyone to remember that if the Cylons remember who we are, we cannot stop our attack until they are all destroyed. All ships, engage!”
The Argo’s shields came down as the vipers launched. Ares watched it all as he looked for any sign from the basestar.
“Can we scan the basestar yet,” Ares asked.
“Not yet commander. We’re almost in range though,” Aaron replied. The vipers were streaking though space. Their one and only mission was to destroy anything that was Cylon.
Ares glanced down at his scanner waiting a few more seconds until he saw raiders beginning to come out of the basestar.
“Scans coming in now, Cylon,” Aaron said.
Ares’ blood ran cold upon hearing that. “Attention fleet, scans confirm Cylon readings, begin jamming of all frequencies. The basestar must not be allowed to escape.”
*****
Troy banked his fighter, listening to what the commander had to say. There were Cylons on board that basestar. That meant there would be no retreat with this battle.
“All right, green squad, begin your attack runs,” Troy said. “Everyone remember, the Cylon raiders will not break off, they will fight to the last.”
He glanced down at the scanner watching as several raiders formed up. “Blue squad, protect green squad.”
He had already turned his viper towards the raiders as blue squad formed up behind him.
A part of him made sure that Bri was safe even though a larger part of him knew who the better pilot really was. He watched as green squadron launched their missiles at the basestar. The pre-determined attack had already been calculated to maximize the damage the basestar would take. Cylon raiders were suddenly upon them.
Troy banked his fighter hard leaving his wingman hurrying to catch up. The move put his viper in perfect position to attack. He fired his lasers watching as the middle raider exploded.
“Quadrant six,” Troy heard over the intercom. He glanced down to see several raiders heading though the vipers towards the Argo.
“Bri, finished,” Troy asked.
“Just finished now, we can handle this area,” Bri’s voice said.
“All right, green squad pull back to protect the battlestars,” Troy said as he turned his viper toward the battlestars. So far the Arbus had seemed too stunned to even engage, or they were allowing the Cylons to bear the brunt of the fighting. At the moment Troy could not tell which happened to be the truth.
*****
“Commander, we have raiders incoming,” Aaron said.
Ares glanced down at the screen to see that the raiders were being chased by several vipers.
“Have all defensive batteries manned and ready,” Ares said. The orders relayed to the turrets where the defenders waited.
He looked once more to see the range of the basestar. The Argo had just come into range but the Enterprise was still out of range.
“Main guns ready,” Ares said. He looked over at Aaron who nodded that everything was indeed ready. “Fire!”
The Argo’s main guns opened fire. The lasers streaking towards the basestar even before it had found a target to attack. The beginning attack by green squadron had targeted the sensors and main weapon systems.
Ares looked down to see what type of damage the basestar had. He could tell that many main systems were already damaged. Now all he had to do was destroy the basestar and minimize damages. A few moments later he noted that return fire started coming from the basestar. It appeared however that the scanners of the basestar were not able to lock on to the Argo. Several shots by the basestar missed giving Ares a sense that they just might win. The one thing that concerned him happened to be the fact that the Arbus had not done anything yet.
“Curious,” Ares said out loud.
“What is commander,” Aaron asked.
“The Arbus haven’t joined the attack yet,” Ares replied. He watched as Aaron glanced down to confirm what Ares had already noticed.
“What do you suppose that means,” Aaron asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ares said. “Right now we can’t worry about that. Our main target is the basestar.”
“Commander, we’re receiving a message from one of the ships,” Aaron said suddenly.
“Can you pinpoint the source?”
“Negative commander, it will take a few minutes,” Aaron replied. “They want a cease-fire though.”
Ares sat there for a few seconds thinking about that. There were Cylons on board that basestar, a group wanting a cease-fire and a secret that he had to keep at all costs. He realized that everyone looked towards him to give the next order.
“Open a frequency, I’ll reply,” Ares said, sitting down at the chair waiting while the communications was opened. “This is Commander Ares of the Earth Battlestar Argo, the Cylon basestar, and its raiders, must be destroyed before any cease-fire talks can begin. Only when this has happened can we talk. End communications.”
“Commander, do you mean that,” Aaron asked.
“Very much so,” Ares replied. “If it’s not destroyed it has the ability to send a signal back to the Cylon Empire notifying them where Earth is. If that happens Earth could be fighting a war on two fronts.”
Ares turned to see what damage had occurred on the basestar. “Inform all craft not to attack any Arbus ship, just Cylon.”
“Yes sir,” Aaron replied.
*****
Troy asked for the message to be repeated. When it came back the same he wondered what had happened.
“Listen up everyone, do not attack any Arbus ship, only Cylon,” Troy said to them.
“What,” Bri’s voice said.
“It came from Commander Ares himself,” Troy replied. “I don’t know what’s going on either but something strange is going on.”
“Strange, how about downright weird,” Jax’s voice said.
“It shouldn’t be too hard anyways seeing how the Arbus haven’t attacked us yet anyways,” Nall’s voice said.
Troy banked his fighter destroying another Cylon raider before replying. “Let’s hope it stays that way.”
The Cylon raiders continued attacking so the battle raged on. Troy watched as Bri lined up another fighter destroying it as well. Nall stuck close behind her while Troy had a new recruit as his wing mate.
“Robin, still with me,” Troy asked.
“Stuck to you like glue captain,” Robin replied.
“Good,” Troy said. “We’re going in again. Take the raider on the left, I’ll take the other two.”
“Got it.”
Troy brought his viper around to lineup the kill shot. The three raiders were busy firing on another group of vipers. His first shot missed but the second one hit causing the raider to explode. Robin took a few shots more to before destroying her target. By then Troy had already switched targets.
“I see you still know how to shoot,” Bri’s voice said.
“Very funny, just wait,” Troy replied to his wife.
“Promises, promises,” Bri said.
“Looks like both battlestars are fully engaged,” Nall said.
Troy took a quick glance over at the battlestars. Indeed the two battlestars were slugging it out with the basestar. His scanner indicated that the basestar had taken quite a bit of damage. Experience told him that the Cylon ship would not take much more.
*****
Ares watched, knowing the Cylon basestar could not withstand two battlestars. Aaron kept relaying that the Arbus were still trying to establish communications with him.
“Basestar at critical,” the report came in.
Ares already knew this but watched anyways as the next salvo overwhelmed the basestar’s defenses. The basestar exploded leaving nothing behind but debris.
“All right, now put the Arbus though,” Ares said, turning to the screen waiting. A grey head with large black eyes appeared on the screen. “I am Commander Ares of the Earth defense fleet.”
“Human, why did you destroy our ally, and greatest hope to freeing you,” the Arbus asked.
“You’re what?” Ares asked. He tried to wrap his mind around that fact that, according to this Arbus, the Cylons might be the best hope for the humans. It sounded way to strange for him.
“Our allies, and your Earth’s greatest hope,” the Arbus replied.
“Well, this is a bit absurd,” Ares said. “Perhaps we should talk some more in person.”
“Very well, I shall be aboard your ship shortly,” the Arbus said, ending the transmission.
“This should prove most interesting,” Ares said to himself.
*****
“They what,” Pratt heard himself say when he listened to Ares account of the battle.
“Who did what,” Pakrov’s voice said floating up to where Pratt stood.
Pratt glanced down noticing the general standing there. “It seems that some of the Arbus think that the Cylons were the best hope for peace for Earth and the human race.”
“I don’t follow,” Pakrov said.
“I know, neither do I,” Pratt replied. He wondered about that statement. Ares said he would be meeting with one of the Arbus leaders soon and would report back. Pratt thought about what that might mean. Were the Cylons and a group of Arbus allies and if they were what did that mean for Earth and the Colonies.
“I think we should be on guard,” Pakrov said. “We don’t know what’s going on and the last thing we need is for the Arbus to launch a surprise attack on us.”
“I’ll notify all Second Fleet commands. Any contacts will be reported in,” Pratt said.
“Good,” Pakrov said. “I guess I should alert Earth Gov and tell them the ‘good’ news.”
“Good news,” Pratt asked back. He wondered where the good news was in everything that had been talked about.
“The Cylon basestar had been defeated and the battlestars Argo and Enterprise survived,” Pakrov said. “No need to tell them about anything else just yet.”
“I hope Commander Ares knows what he’s doing,” Pratt said as Pakrov turned and walked off the bridge.
Pratt watched the general walk away. He had to admit that he hoped Ares knew what he was doing as well.
*****
Ares stood waiting in the hangar bay of the Argo. The Arbus shuttle had just landed. Their design seemed to vary a bit from their own. It seemed like every shuttle designer was given a basic blueprint and made minor adjustments.
The door opened allowing several people out of the shuttle. Normal Arbus stature he waited to see what they were doing. A couple of guards went forward first to check out the ‘guest’ to make sure everything seemed clean. They waved the commander on over.
“I’m Commander Ares, you are,” Ares said, not wanting to give up an advantage.
“I am Torla,” the Arbus replied. “You are human are you not?”
“Yes,”‘ Ares replied.
“Earther then,” Torla said. “Interesting that you would fire upon those who would help you.”
“From our view point there are no Arbus helping us,” Ares said. “Let’s get more comfortable.”
Ares led the group off the hangar. He watched Torla closely to see if the Arbus gave anything away. He seemed to look at the construction of the ship as they walked down the hallway.
“Why did you only attack our ally,” Torla asked as they walked.
“That’s part of everything, and the reason this ship was built,” Ares said, knowing that he had confused Torla.
The group arrived at the meeting room. It had been altered a bit to accommodate the smaller stature of the Arbus.
“You knew that we were smaller,” Torla asked.
“This isn’t our first encounter face to face with an Arbus. The last time your race pulled weapons on us,” Ares said.
“I’m sorry for that, our leaders are scared,” Torla replied, sitting down.
“I’ll introduce everyone, this is Captain Troy, his wife Gabrielle, Lieutenant Nall, and Mike,” Ares said. He had thought it over as to who to invite. It had actually been Troy who had suggest Mike be there. Ares trusted Troy and decided sometimes it was better to go along then try to get an explanation.
“I am Torla, this is Reejo,” Torla said, introducing his companion. “Perhaps I should start in the beginning.”
“That’s always a good place to start,” Troy said, speaking up for the first time.
“The Arbus are, were, an advanced race, at least we were at first. We are a very old race. Our technology advances slowly compared to later races. I think somewhere along the way we became fearful of others,” Torla said. “In an effort to limit other races, out of our fear, we made sure to control other races.”
“By mass extermination,” Ares asked. He was quite ready to judge them all yet.
“Yes, I make no excuses for my race,” Torla answered. “I cannot control what happened before me, but I can make a difference now.”
“So, what happened,” Bri asked.
“We, or some of us, questioned the wisdom of our elders,” Torla said. “We figured that if trade and respect happened then we would have no reason to fear the younger races. We would advance alongside them, as they advanced.”
“I take it others don’t agree,” Ares asked.
“No, a civil war has erupted. I fear we will destroy ourselves in this war,” Torla said. “Our greatest hope came when we came across the machine ship.”
“The ship we destroyed,” Ares said clarifying the situation.
“Yes, its technology was needed to push the advantage our way. I fear now that everything has been lost,” Torla said.
“Then you don’t know where the ship came from,” Troy asked.
“No, the robots on the ship were unlike anything we had ever encountered. We were able to reactivate many of them, enough to operate the ship and its fighters. Their history had been severely damaged in some fighting. We assumed the robots were warriors against another enemy,” Torla said.
Ares sat back in his chair wondering what to tell them. What would they understand? Troy caught his attention and Ares nodded.
“What do you know about Earth’s history,” Troy asked, changing the subject.
“Earth, not much, they appeared on the edge of our Empire several thousand years ago. At the time their technology was inferior to ours. But humans seem to adapt very quickly. That is why we attacked them. The fighting took a while but we finally defeated them,” Torla said.
“The group from Earth you defeated was only one tribe out of thirteen,” Troy said. “The other twelve colonized elsewhere, and we’ve been fighting the Cylons now for almost a thousand years.”
“Cylons,” Torla asked.
“The robots, they only want to destroy humanity, and any race that is organic. They will do anything to destroy their perceived enemies,” Ares said.
“You’ve fought them,” Reejo asked, speaking up for the first time.
“The Argo, this ship, was designed and built for that purpose,” Ares said.
“That would be why the humans are causing so much trouble,” Reejo said more to himself than anyone else.
“Perhaps an alliance,” Nall said. “Its time to change things.”
“Yes, there are many on our homeworld who feel this way. The fears are deep though,” Torla said, taking a second to think about the situation.
“Well, not that far away is a Cylon Empire that only wants to destroy you. Actually you are lucky that the Cylons didn’t know their history. Otherwise they would have attacked you as well,” Ares said.
“They have an empire,” Reejo asked.
“Yes, they’ve destroyed several races already. We’ve tried to help but so far it’s been a long battle. We came to Earth to find help,” Ares said.
“And we, by interfering, might have doomed ourselves,” Torla said looking at Reejo.
“We have no warships, but we can give you information for the classes of ships our military has,” Reejo said.
Ares thought about that. Every advantage would help, but he didn’t want to kill anymore than possible. Perhaps there could be another way.
“Perhaps we can help each other out,” Ares said.
*****
Pratt stood by, as a new message came in from the Argo. He quickly read though the message then once more to make sure he hadn’t misread it. No, Ares wanted to help out a group of Arbus.
“Well, this sure doesn’t make any sense, but I’ll begin the preparations,” Pratt said, more to himself. Now all he had to do was inform the president.
“Commander, I’m getting an information request from a Rebecca on Nall?”
Pratt almost denied it for a second then remembered who they were. “Put it though,” he said waiting only a few seconds for Rebecca’s face to appear.
“Commander, I wasn’t expecting to see you, I just wanted some information on Nall,” she said.
“Well, we don’t have the casualties yet, but I know he’s safe,” Pratt said to her.
“Good, that’s the last time he goes on a mission without me,” Rebecca said.
“What about Mary,” Pratt asked. He knew about Nall’s daughter, and for a brief second felt sorry for the girl, to have Nall as a father.
“She’ll go with us,” Rebecca said. “Or I’ll tie him to the chair at home.”
Pratt had to laugh at that thought. “I’m not sure if he’d like that or not.”
“Hmm, right,” Rebecca said.
“I’m about to send a message to the fleet, I’ll send one for you as well,” Pratt said.
“Thanks, commander,” Rebecca replied.
“Don’t worry about it,” Pratt said as Rebecca signed off. Things were definitely looking differently then a few days ago.
End part 55