Silent Fleet
by AJ Marks
Apollo and Starbuck raced to their vipers along with the rest of blue squad. The alarm did not surprise many, considering a patrol destroyed a Cylon scouting party only a few days earlier. Since that moment, everyone wondered when the first attack might occur.
Starbuck jumped into his viper, handed his helmet and quickly received permission to launch. He pressed the turbos and felt the viper accelerate quickly out of the launch tube. Apollo quickly followed along with several others.
“Form up,” Apollo said, as the pilots quickly carried out the order. “Cylons approaching from quadrant six.”
Blue squadron turned to engage the incoming Cylons. Apollo heard the orders to the other squadrons as they head to their assigned position. Blue squad had the task of engaging the Cylons as far out as possible. Others like Silver Spar would protect the Argo ships.
“Heads up,” Apollo said, as the range closed between the two groups.
“How many basestars do you think Apollo?” Starbuck asked.
“I’d say two, at least,” Apollo replied glancing at his scanners.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Starbuck replied in a flat tone.
“More for each of us,” Apollo replied, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, we’re still better than they are,” Boomer said speaking up.
Apollo focused on his mission, destroying the raiders before they reached the fleet. The more he destroyed the less damage they could inflict on the fleet. That was his entire goal today.
*****
“Commander?” Tigh said, getting Adama’s attention. “We have a problem.”
Adama felt his heart drop at the words, feeling afraid to even ask the question. “What’s wrong?”
“Long range scans don’t pick up any Cylon basestars,” Tigh replied, looking down at the screen then back up at him.
“No? Then that would put these raiders at the maximum range they can operate,” Adama said thinking quickly about that information. “What about in front of us?”
“Already checking that area out,”‘ Tigh replied. Adama watched as Tigh worked on the scanners for a few microns. “We have one basestar in front, that’s it so far.”
“Not good,” Adama said, knowing that with his vipers engaged behind, if they launched a new wave from in front it would split his forces. “Anything else?”
“No sir,” Tigh replied.
“Frack, we can’t turn around, and going forward means we must deal with that basestar,” Adama said, knowing that this time they did not have the advantage of surprise on their side. He quickly glanced down at the scanners for anything that they might be able to use, a place to hide.
Even as the thought raced through his mind he knew the Cylons could hide in such places. His options were running out rather quickly.
“What about right here, we could hide in there with the fleet,” Adama said.
“The Cylons might use that as a place to ambush the fleet,’ Tigh said, repeating what Adama already thought of.
“I know Tigh, but we have few options,” Adama said. “Scan it again.”
Tigh did as he was ordered, and a few seconds later the results came back. “Still nothing found on the scanners.”
“Head there, its our best chance,” Adama said, hoping he had done the right thing.
The order went out to the fleet as it made a slight course change. He knew the basestars could go faster than most of the ships in the fleet. There were a few that were actually faster, but the bulk of the cargo ships were slow.
“Commander, scanners picked up new contacts,” Omega’s voice said. He looked over waiting to hear what type of ships. “Baseestars.”
“What type?” Adama asked.
“Two Hades and one Tartarus.”
Adama turned to look at Tigh, who had the same shocked expression on his face. They were being destroyed by an overwhelming force. He could only assume this was a trap. Four basestars would be more than enough to overwhelm their defenses. He racked his brains for some bit of encouragement, some advantage he might be able to use.
“Has the basestar in front of us moved?” Adama asked.
“Yes sir, heading towards us,” Tigh reported back to him. The trap sprung, and he headed right into it.
He looked at the scanner quickly trying to decide what might give him the best advantage of the fight. Making a decision he stood a bit straighter. He would not give any indication they were doomed.
“Prepare for battle, helm, change course towards the basestar in front of us,” Adama said.
“Yes sir,” Tigh said, as navigation carried out the order.
Adama hoped they could destroy the basestar in front of them before receiving too much damage. Then turning to engage the basestars behind them. He hoped they would survive.
*****
“This isn’t looking good,” Starbuck said, turning to destroy another cylon raider.
“No, but keep it up,” Apollo replied, knowing that the odds were not in their favor. He had seen the basestars coming in. He also saw the Galactica heading away from the fleet. He could only assume some threat was in front greater than behind.
“The Galactica is turning away from the fleet, but not towards us,” Boomer said.
“Heard there is a basestar in front of us,” Jolly said.
“Great, combined with what’s behind us, just fracking great,” Starbuck said. Apollo had no time to as he dodged another Cylon raider while firing once more, destroying it.
“We’ve had worse odds,” Apollo finally said.
“Yeah, when?” Boomer asked.
“Ah, Cimtar,” Apollo replied, it was the first battle that came to his mind.
“Apollo, we lost that one,” Starbuck said, pausing before saying something again. “Anyone get a strange flicker on their scanners a micron ago?”
“Yeah, but no time to figure it out,” boomer replied. “Too busy trying to survive here.”
The vipers continued racking up higher and higher kill totals, but they were taking losses themselves. They had lost about a quarter of their number already and knew the attack would not let up anytime soon.
“Another incoming flee and a wave of fighters, get ready,” Apollo said, quickly glancing at the scanner. He would not give up without a fight.
*****
“Commander, new ships entering scanner range,” Tigh reported, causing Adama to look over. The news kept getting worse.
“Where and how many this time?” Adama asked, looking down at the scanners hoping to get a tactical advantage somewhere.
“A lot,” Tigh replied. “In fact, haven’t seen this many since the fleet was gathered years ago.”
Adama looked down at the scanner wondering if the Cylon had finally managed to win the war. They had gathered a massive force, one he knew his limited manpower and military might could not handle.
They would come in and focus on the Galactica, and once it was destroyed, nothing would prevent the Cylons from destroying the rest of the fleet. He had to hold on for as long as possible.
*****
Jolly lined up another raider and took a micron to look down at the scanner, noticing the different way the incoming fighters were lined up. It did not appear normal, but quickly refocused on the Cylons as his viper rocked from a few close calls. He pulled the viper into a quick turn hoping to dislodge the raider on his tail, and managed to succeed.
He looked back down at the scanner, this time dividing his attention between the fight and his screen.
“Can’t be right,” he mumbled slightly, and tapped the screen to make sure it worked properly.
He barely had time to think about it before another Cylon engaged him. He managed to avoid the attack and looked over as the incoming fighters engaged and he was able to see for himself what his scanner had told him.
Vipers!
A lot of them engaged the battle. The new arrivals were quicker than the Galactica’s, and it was not long before the others realized it.
“What is going on?” Starbuck asked.
“Don’t know, we’ll figure it out later, right now I’ll take any help I can find,” Apollo stated.
The new vipers added to the ranks of the Galactica’s vipers quickly attacking the Cylons with a vengeance. Apollo wondered if it was the Pegasus.
*****
Athena was the first on the bridge to notice the incoming fighters joining the fight were attacking the Cylons. In a brief, surreal moment she finally pushed for an identification of the ships. What came back shocked her.
“Commander, I think you better see this?” Athena said, as she did the same thing with the incoming ships. Her suspicions were confirmed a few seconds later. “Father, there are three battlestars in that incoming fleet.”
Her words rang across the bridge shocking everyone.
“Battlestars?” Adama stated, stunned at the news he heard. No explanation he knew of could cover what he was thinking.
“Yes sir,” Athena replied, as Tigh moved over to where she was.
“Conformed, three battlestars,” Tigh said.
“Direction they are coming in on?” Adama asked, taking a look at the scanners.
“Heading towards the basestars behind us,” Tigh replied.
Adama thought about turning to help out, but if he left now, the basestar in front of them had a clear shot at the fleet.
“Continue on course, destroy that basestar,” Adama ordered.
“Yes sir,” Tigh replied. The two warships closed the distance until both opened fire.
*****
Adama looked around the bridge, there was some damage during the battle, but they had beaten the basestar. The unknown battle fleet was most welcomed, but also very mysterious. So far there had been no attempt by anyone in the fleet to speak to them, hail the Galactica or any viper pilot.
Now, looking at the scanners, there appeared one major problem I his mind. The fact the fleet had turned and seemed to be heading towards the Cylon Empire.
“Any response to our hails?” Adama asked, unsure if they knew where they were headed. He also had so many questions.
“No sir,” Athena said. “Hold on, getting a message now, um, father, you might want to look at this.”
Adama walked over himself this time, wondering what he might find. There on the screen a message, ‘stay on course’.
It sounded strange to him. Why should he stay on course? He could join up with that fleet.
“What do you think?” Tigh asked, standing beside him.
“We can’t follow them into Cylon space, it would be too dangerous,” Adama said.
“We might be able to reclaim the Colonies?” Tigh said, some hope in his voice.
“No, we’ve been gone for two yahrens, no way to build up our forces, and whoever built the battlestars is out there, probably ahead of us,” Adama said.
“You think, whoever they are, are ahead of us then,” Tigh asked.
“It’s the only logical explanation,” Adama finally stated.
“End program,” a male voice said, the image of the Galactica’s bridge faded away leaving a class room full of students and a teacher. “That was the last time the people of the Galactica saw the Cylons for almost fifteen years.”
A hand rose up in the back of the room. The teacher motioned for him to ask his question.
“Do we have any idea where the ‘Silent Fleet’ came from?”
“No, there have been many theories, but nothing specific. Some say it was Commander Cain, others don’t think so,” the teacher replied. “All we do know, is the fleet consisted of three battlestars, and almost fifty warships. It earned the name toe to the fact no one in the fleet communicated to anyone of the Galactica ruing the entire battle, and the only communications came in the form of a text.”
They all knew what happened to the Galactica after that. They traveled on finding Earth a couple of years later. Then with some effort, managed to build up a military force. With that force they finally managed to defeat the Cylons once and for all. The Cylons never asked for peace, even as the last one was destroyed.
Still, the ‘Silent Fleet’ remained a mystery of the universe.
*****
The USS Richelieu made its way through space. The flagship of the mighty Seventh Fleet, out on a training mission. It was made up of six battlestars, twelve heavy and light cruisers, ten destroyers, six patrol ships and ten support ships. A might fleet, typical of the fleets that had defeated the Cylons. Some were wondering if they still needed to keep the fleets around anymore. Some argued. To keep a few of the ships, in case a new enemy was discovered.
“Commander Markus,” Jason said to the commander of the Richelieu, and the Seventh Fleet.
“Yes,” Markus replied to Jason.
“The scanner is picking up something large, not far away. It wasn’t detected because it’s not emitting any power, but looks like s ship,” Jason said.
“Can we identify it?” Markus asked.
“Just a moment,” Jason said, looking at his screen for a few seconds. “I think so, its,,,” his voice trailed off at the information on the screen.
“Well what, spit it out man,” Markus said.
“The ID is the Richelieu,” Jason replied.
“What! Impossible,” Markus stated, standing up and heading over to the monitor.
“I’ve run it twice, the ID is confirmed, it’s the Richelieu,” Jason said, unable to believe it either.
“Change course towards the wreck, we’re going to find out what happened, and how it can be the Richelieu,” Markus said. “Have a team ready to go upon our arrival.”
“Yes sir,” Jason replied turning to inform the team to be ready to go.
*****
The lone shuttle made its way towards the landing bay of the floating, burnt-out wreck that the scanners identified as the Richelieu. The passengers of the shuttle looked at the exterior of the ship wondering what had happened. The name on the landing bay did nothing to alleviate his concern, it bore the burnt out markings of the name Richelieu.
Keith looked upon the ship and took a closer look when the pilot asked the question he had been thinking.
“Karen, doesn’t that look like Cylon weapon marks to you?” the pilot said.
“Now that you mention it, yeah it does,” Karen replied.
“How’s the landing bay look?” the pilot asked.
They looked over at the part of the ship in question. Finally after making a couple of passes they determined they could land in the alpha landing bay. Minutes later the pilot did a wonderful job landing, at least to Keith he did.
“Let’s don some gear and check it out,” Keith said.
Quickly putting on a suit they pressurized the exit way and made their way out of the shuttle, and decided to head towards the bridge. Keith felt unprepared for what he saw, piles of bones where a crewman had died along with clothing, giving an eerie look to the corridor as they made their way into the ship.
“Hey, there’s atmosphere in here, somehow the ship is still airtight,” Keith said, looking at his scanner. “I’m not sure I recommend breathing the air though.”
“We don’t know what caused this, so I have to agree,” Karen answered.
The three made their way to the bridge, which looked horrible. Heavy support beams had fallen, and they spotted more skeletons all over the place. The spread out searching for anything that might explain what happened.
“Over here,” Karen said, pointing to a blinking light. Keith looked over noticing it was a data crystal.
“Let’s see if we can find out what’s on it,’ Keith said.
Karen slid into the chair and typed a few commands waiting for anything to happen. “Nothing, password encrypted, and it seems to be the commanders.”
“Great, we should probably get back to him,” Keith said. “Stay here and look around to see f you can find anything else.”
“All right, I think I can make it until you get back,” Karen said.
“Be right back,” Keith said. He watched as Karen made her way around the bridge as he went back down to the shuttle. There he opened a communications to the Richelieu and Commander Markus.
“Captain, what’s the situation?” Markus asked.
“Well, it appears to be the Richelieu sir,” Keith said, wondering how the commander would react to that news.
“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Markus replied.
“We have found this message,” Keith said, holding up the data crystal. “I’ll transfer the file to you.”
“Good, we’ll see if we can unlock it from this side,” Markus said. “Anything else?”
“Well sir, it seems like it was in a battle with the Cylons,” Keith replied.
“Cylons, they’ve been gone for almost ten years,” Markus said, something Keith knew all too well. “Maybe the file will have something on it. Sending it now.”
He watched the commander’s face for a few seconds as he watched the file come over. He worked off screen for a few seconds. Keith thought he heard the commander’s voice.
“Hold on Keith, going to put you on hold for a bit,” the commander stated, as the screen went to the Richelieu’s insignia. He waited a few minutes before the commander came back on the screen, looking a bit paler than normal. “Get your team together and head on back.”
“Commander to the bridge,” Keith heard the announcement.
“Gotta go, get back here right away,” Markus said.
“Yes sir,” Keith said, pushing his communicator to the rest of his team. “Karen, Eric, get back to the shuttle now.”
“What’s going on?” Karen’s voice said.
“Orders,” Keith said, waiting a moment for the two to make their way back to the hangar. He operated the doors and had to wait until they both took off their suits. “Can you fly us out of here?”
“No problem,” Eric replied, powering up the shuttle and a few minutes later it lifted off and out of the hangar.
“Nothing about why we had to return?” Karen asked.
“No, I think he watched that file, and then he suddenly recalled us,” Keith said.
“Uh, guys, we have a problem,” Eric said, his tone unbelieving.
“What?” Keith asked, looking up at the man waiting for his reply.
“The fleet isn’t on my scanners anymore,” Eric said.
“What? Impossible!” Keith replied, looking at the scanner for himself. He frowned at that, looking around through the windows. An entire fleet just doesn’t disappear.
“Um, not good,” Karen said.
“This is shuttle 1107A to anyone out there, come in,” Eric said, getting no reply.
“Keep trying, if we have to head back and land again, conserve fuel,” Keith said, turning to head back into the shuttle, seeing Karen’s wide eyes.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“No idea, but I’m going to try that data crystal again, might be something on there,” Keith replied.
They both went back to a computer where Keith tried again to access the data on it. After a few tries he finally got a message, with the commander’s face appearing.
“Greeting Captain Keith,” he said. “If you’re seeing this then I did it right. You should get this after the fleet disappeared. You never made it back to the ship before the temporal rift swallowed us up. If you did get caught up in it, you did not appear with us. We were sent back in time you see. Where, you might say to a point many of us know, a certain battle, which he helped out in. Knowing that if we returned to Earth we would change history I’ve decided to head into the heart of the Cylon Empire. I think we can cause a lot of damage, we are the ‘Silent Fleet’.”
The file stopped leaving Keith slightly stunned at the revelation. He looked over at Karen who also looked shocked. They both headed back to Eric.
“Well, any luck?” he asked.
“Yeah, start back, but continue to broadcast,” Keith said.
“Okay,” Eric said.
Keith and Karen took over the communications, sending out a signal hoping for a response.
“Incoming signal,” Karen replied.
“Put it through,” Keith said, watching as a face appeared on the screen, one he recognized.
“This is Commander Apollo of the battlestar Galactica.”
“Commander, this is Captain Keith Velk of the battlestar Richelieu, we need a pick up,” Keith said.
“We’re day away, can you hold out that long?” Apollo replied. “And where is the Richelieu?”
“That, sir, is a long story, one I’ll tell you all about when I see you,” Keith said, wondering about how ironic it was, he was to be rescued by the Galactica.
“All right,” Apollo said.
“Take us back, we’ll wait it out there and conserve fuel,” Keith ordered.
He sat back knowing Apollo would be shocked to learn one of the biggest mysteries of his life had been solved.
The End
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