Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 4: Ambush Squared
Bri made her way down the corridor to the computer room, she had a bit of free time before her next patrol. There she could read about the latest news from the Colonies sent to the Argo by a few people who know of their mission. It helped to receive such news. The last news she heard, the Delphians had gone to war against the Cylons. That would help out the colonies as it might split the Cylon forces and allow the Colonies to rebuild the fleet a bit. She read of a rumor that the Battlestar Pegasus was going to be the center of a new battle fleet. That would be exciting, especially if they were led by Commander Cain.
Entering the room she noticed that Troy already in the room reading something on his screen. She took a seat next to him hoping he would notice her. When he did not, she felt a bit deflated before wondering what had his attention.
Bringing up the main menu, she tried to act casual, like she was looking at her own screen. She did not want anyone knowing that she was really trying to figure out what Troy was reading. After navigating several screens she thought she finally had what he was reading. It was an article about ancient Kobal and the thirteenth tribe, or at least that is what she thought she was reading.
Bri scanned down the article until she came to the part where it described the system they had settled in. There were eight or nine planets; it depended on what one considered a planet. Earth was the third planet from the local sun. It also had four gas giants with the furthest planet which was a small planet. That was the one that seemed to be in doubt. Bri wondered how small the planet really was.
“Hey Bri, I didn’t notice you come in,” she heard Troy’s voice say. She looked up to see Troy was now looking at her.
Now that she had his attention she was not sure what to say. She had been a bit disappointed when he did not notice at first but now she felt a bit uncomfortable. She briefly hoped he did not see what she was reading.
“Yeah, you looked like you were pretty engrossed in your reading,” Bri said, quickly changing her screen to another article.
“Yeah, when I get involved in articles about Earth I seem to forget where I am sometimes,” Troy replied.
“Well that can happen. Happens to me all the time,” Bri replied with a smile and a slight, nervous giggle.
“Really, even that one,” Troy said with a nod of his head to her screen.
“Huh,” Bri replied then looked at her screen. In her haste to change the article she had not seen where she was going. Now she wanted to somehow disappear from the room, either that or start over. “That, well I ah, well it’s like this I wanted some information, well,” Bri mumbled as she looked at the screen. There in front of her was an article with Troy’s picture at the top. “I was curious all right,” she finally said, though she really wanted to melt though the floor and disappear at the mistake.
“You could have just asked me,” Troy replied as Bri looked at the article. She looked it over and noticed it was about a yahren old, and he had written it about the thirteenth tribe along with a professor of a college on Caperica.
“Well, yeah, but you seemed to be into your reading and I didn’t want to disturb you,” Bri replied.
“It’s no problem, disturb me anytime,” Troy said with a smile. Then exiting out of the article he was reading he got up. “Well, it about time for the briefing.”
Bri glanced at the clock and realized it was about time for their patrol. “Right,” she said also exiting her article then quickly walked out of the room. Part of her wished to forget the entire conversation. She should have kept it on the same article, would have been better for her.
*****
Colonel Pratt waited in the briefing room. This one was only a simple patrol to a system that had only two planets. The Argo’s scanners had not detected any sign of life from the system. No ships, or communications were intercepted. Commander Ares wanted to make sure that the scanners were not wrong about anything.
He watched as the two pilots came into the room. This one would be manned by Captain Troy and Lieutenant Bri. He had watched them closely, as he did with all the pilots. These two though had been getting along quite well lately. He had a feeling that they liked each other. That also meant that he would have to keep an eye on them as well for any signs of trouble.
The one thing that Pratt did not want was a lover’s quarrel. Such actions would disrupt the workings of the ship too much and it was his duty to make sure that everything worked.
“All right we’ll get down to business,” Pratt said, as Troy and Bri sat down. “We have just approached the second system on our journey. It should be a short patrol as the scanners haven’t picked up anything in the area. We don’t expect you to find anything here either.”
“Is there anything else colonel,” Troy asked.
“Nope, just be careful as always otherwise good luck,” Pratt said with a nod of his head.
“Then we should be back quickly,” Troy said. Pratt watched the two pilots stand and exit the room. He stood himself and headed towards the bridge.
*****
Troy made his way to the launch bay along with Bri. They were intercepted by Nall and Martin. The two of them were standing by the entrance to the hangar.
“Hey, we heard you have a patrol, and we’re not going to be there to watch your backs, so be careful,” Nall said to the two of them.
“Didn’t know you cared,” Bri said with a teasing smile on her face.
“Always my dear,” Nall replied, returning the smile then turned serious. “If you run into any trouble don’t hesitate to call.”
“We won’t Nall,” Troy replied.
“Then I’ll see you later at dinner time,” Martin said giving Troy a clap on the back.
“Right,” Troy said slowly. He shook his head to clear what he had just seen. It was the second time that he had seen that vision. Martin in a cabin with a blonde-haired woman. It made no sense to him as the woman was not Bri, nor did the cabin appear Colonial.
“You all right,” Bri asked seeing the look on Troy’s face.
“Yeah, we should get going,” Troy replied saying another good-bye to the two men. He walked over and climbed into his viper.
He gave Bri a thumbs up listening to Renee transfer the coordinates to the viper. He felt quite uneasy now about this mission. He could feel an underlying current about the mission. He could almost imagine something waiting for him out there.
He acknowledged the transfer and that he had control of the launch, pushing the turbo button and within a few seconds was out in open space. Bri joined him a moment later beside him.
“Well, let’s get this one over with,” he said. He wanted the patrol to be over that was for sure.
The trip to the system proved uneventful and they began to scan the first of two planets. It was a giant gas planet, one of the largest they had ever seen. The three moons were all good size but did not have anything that contained life. The atmosphere was very deadly to any known living organisms. With no luck here they turned towards the second planet.
Troy felt his nervousness was creeping up again as they approached the planet. He was always one to take heed of his gut feelings and he had the feeling like something was wrong. He warred with his gut for several microns before finally making a decision.
“Bri, stay back at the gas giant,” Troy said to her. “There’s something wrong here.”
“Then perhaps we should both go,” Bri replied.
“No, let’s minimize the risk,” Troy replied. “And be prepared to head out as soon as possible.”
“My scanners show nothing unusual?” Bri said, confusion in her voice coming though the communications.
“Just follow my orders, I have a reason for this,” Troy replied, hoping she would not question his decision much. He could barely explain it to himself, only the feeling had grown stronger the closer they got to the planet.
“All right, but you owe me an explanation later,” she said.
“Fine,” Troy said, nervous about approaching the planet. There was something about it that made him weary. He kept one eye on his scanner and the other on the planet. It was just before he approached the planet that he saw what it was he was looking for. Coming around in orbit around the planet as it rose from the other side and into scanner view.
“Get out of here, hit your turbos now,” Troy said as he quickly turned around. “We have Cylons.”
Troy turned around quickly, seeing Bri in the middle of her turn before leaving the system ahead of him. Questions poured though his mind. What were Cylons doing way out here? He looked down at his scanner, a bit relieved not to see any raiders following him.
*****
“Commander Ares to the bridge.”
Ares heard the call, placing aside his reading he walked over to the intercom to figure out what the problem was.
“Bridge, this is Commander Ares, what’s the situation?” Ares asked hoping the request meant good news. He knew a patrol to a nearby system was underway but that it would not be Earth. According to the legends there were too few planets in the system.
“Patrol picked up something and are coming in hot,” Pratt replied over the intercom.
That got Ares’ attention, and he wondered what would have had two experienced pilots running back to the battlestar on full turbos. The news did not seem good in his mind.
“I’ll be right there,” Ares said, quickly pulling on his uniform and headed to the bridge.
Several questions ran though his mind as he made his way to the bridge. One thought was they had found some intelligent life forms on one of the planets. Entering the bridge he was astonished by the amount of activity that was going on. People were bustling around quickly doing their jobs.
“Pratt, what’s going on,” Ares asked, walking over to where Pratt stood next to the command center of the bridge.
“Our patrol ran into Cylons,” Pratt replied.
“Cylons, here,” Ares said, frowning. The statement made no sense to him but he had to make a decision. “All right, keep the long range scans on the system. I want to know about everything that comes into and out of that system. I also want to meet with the patrol and see what happened.”
“Yes sir,” Pratt replied. “So far scanners indicate no movement from the system, either in or out.”
“Good, that means either they didn’t see the patrol, or they are massing for an attack,” Ares said, not liking the second option. “Put the ship on yellow alert. I want red squad ready to launch on a microns notice.”
People went about their jobs making sure that everything was ready just in case. People were nervous about an impending attack by the Cylons that everyone hoped would not happen.
“Sir, Captain Troy and Lieutenant Bri are waiting for you in the briefing room,” Pratt said watching as Ares nodded and walked off the bridge for the room. He had two good pilots to hear from.
Ares made his way down to the mission briefing room. His mind swirled with the implementations of having Cylons in the area. It disturbed him as well. They really needed to figure out what they were doing our here so far away. The other thing that he was aware of was the fact that they had to avoid capture. If the Cylons found out about this mission than they might have put another planet in danger.
He walked into the room seeing Troy and Bri waiting for him. Usually there would be nothing much to talk about. The information gathered from the patrol would be sent to fleet command. They would wait for orders or reinforcements. This time he was in charge and had to figure out what they had to do.
“I hope that you have more news for me then you found a group of Cylons,” Ares asked the two, looking at Troy, the leader of the patrol.
“The Cylons are orbiting the first planet in the system. From what I saw, at least one Cylon basestar along with some sort of platform,” Troy said, thinking about the patrol. “I don’t think we were detected leaving the system.”
“I don’t think so either. If they had we would have seen a patrol or an attack wave already,” Ares replied calmly and logically. The amount of time for such an action had passed with nothing coming out of the system. “Now the question is what do we do about it?”
“We could warn the fleet,” Troy replied seriously. “They would be able to send in a couple of ships and wipe it out.”
“Yes, but we are ordered to maintain radio silence,” Ares replied, drumming his fingers on the table. “That and we only know of a basestar and a platform, some sort of orbital station.”
Ares rubbed his chin in thought as he pondered a few options that they had. The easiest course of action was to warn fleet command. That however brought up the problem that the signal could be intercepted by a Cylon listening station. Warning the fleet might alert the Cylons to a Colonial warship out this far. They might send more ships out here, and endanger his mission.
The second thought was that he still needed more information about what was here. Even if he decided to warn fleet command he would need information about the strength of the Cylon position. That still led him to the question as to why it was here. What were the Cylons doing this far out?
“Was there any indication of what the station was for,” Ares asked Troy and Bri. He was looking for more information.
“I didn’t get a good scan on it,” Troy replied. “That and I left Bri at the other planet.”
“Yeah, I just wish you had mentioned something about Cylons though,” Bri said with a look at Troy.
“Hey, at the time I didn’t know,” Troy replied honestly. “I just had a feeling that something was wrong.”
“I know the feeling,” Ares said. He had been in combat before when he had a strange gut feeling. He learned to listen and act upon such feelings when he got them. He turned towards Bri. “Did you see anything on your scanners?”
“Nope, I was hidden behind the other planet,” Bri replied. “The only thing I saw was Troy getting out of there like a daggit on a hot roof.”
“All right, assemble the squads for a briefing,” Ares said, then left the room to head back to the bridge. He wanted to make sure that nothing else had happened. This was definitely going to be a sticky situation.
*****
Troy watched the commander leave the room and wondered what was going through his mind. He had a small feeling that he knew what was going to happen. He walked out of the room on his way to the pilot’s quarters to find red squad leader with Bri right behind him.
“What do you think is going to happen,” Bri asked, drawing even with Troy.
“I’m not really sure. Probably wants our opinion about what to do,” Troy replied. “I think that he’ll ask for another patrol for more information. All we know at the moment is there is at least one basestar orbiting the planet, perhaps more. That and what type of station is nearby as well, is it a combat station, or some other type.”
“Well, that clears things up a bit more. The only question is how are they going to get close enough to scan the Cylons without getting caught,” Bri asked.
“That I don’t know,” Troy replied honestly, entering the pilot’s room. He glanced around looking for Gunther, finally finding him on the opposite side of the room.
“Hey, Gunther,” Troy said walking up to the man.
“Troy, tell me you know what is going on. We’re hearing all types of rumors from Earth to Cylons,” Gunther said, as Troy approached him.
“It’s Cylons,” Troy replied. “The patrol I was in ran into a basestar and some sort of station while on patrol of the system.”
“And what are they doing out here? Seems a bit strange if you ask me,” Gunther said musing this over.
“Yeah, Commander Ares is asking for a meeting of all pilots,” Troy said.
“When?” Gunther asked.
“As soon as we can get everyone together,” Troy replied to him.
“Then we’ll be right there,” Gunther said turning to his squadron. “Listen up,” he said gaining everyone’s attention, but they were all looking at him and Troy anyways. “Everyone in the briefing room now. We have a situation going on.”
Troy walked out of the room to head to his own squads barracks. They would have to be in the meeting as well. The first course of action would probably be another patrol to the planet. Walking into the room he noticed that most of the squad was sitting around waiting. Nall and Martin noticed him walk in and got right up as if they knew something would happen.
“What are the orders?” Nall asked. He had already heard about the Cylons and informed the rest of the squad. Now they were just waiting around to see what the next step was.
“The commander wants a briefing with all pilots. I’m not really sure what he’ll say to do, probably another patrol,” Troy replied.
“Perhaps we should get back and find out,” Martin replied.
Green squad got up and walked out towards the briefing room to see what the commander had decided. There was no panic in their steps just a determined mind set of whatever needed to be done they could do.
*****
Ares stepped back on the bridge to gain the latest intel, if anything had changed. He made his way over to where Pratt stood, listening to the reports as they came in to the bridge.
“Anything new,” Ares asked, watching the scanner as Pratt replied no. Ares thought about that before replying. “I’m sending in another patrol. We need to know what type of Cylons forces are there.”
“Understood commander,” Pratt replied. Ares knew finding out what Cylon forces were there would indicate what course of action he could take. It was the next part that had him worried. He had a lot of different possible scenarios in his mind. One possible solution was to leave, and perhaps send a message to high command. Of course the location kept bothering him.
“Keep us at a distance for right now. I don’t really want them knowing that we are there just yet,” Ares said. “And keep an eye out for any other movement from the nearby systems.”
“Yes sir,” Pratt said as Ares again left the bridge leaving Pratt in command.
Ares went back down to the mission room where he found almost both squadrons there. There were a few people missing but that was probably due to the fact that they were on combat patrol right now. The extra pilots were also in the room waiting to see what was going on. Everyone focused their attention on him, waiting to hear what he would say.
“By now you all know our last patrol encountered a Cylon base of sorts. We’re not sure what it is just yet, but it doesn’t look good. The fact that it’s all the way out here means that it’s probably going to be used to attack the Colonies,” Ares said having given it much thought.
“But that would mean the defenses would be looking the wrong way,” one person replied.
“Exactly, and by the time the fleet could arrive to help out it would be too late,” Ares said. “The more I think about it the more I’m sure that this base is designed to attack the Colonies.”
“And the fleet probably would not be able to help due to a Cylon frontal assault,” Nall said out loud.
“Right, this is why I believe that we need to destroy it as soon as possible. But first we need to know what type of forces we are going to be up against,” Ares told them. “For that I need a couple of volunteers to take another patrol into the system. Using the gas giant they will approach the planet when the Cylons are on the other side of the target planet. They will then land on the planet and observe the Cylons as they pass overhead. Then, carefully backtracking using the same path, return back to the Argo safely with the information. Any volunteers?”
The pilots digested the information Ares give them. It was a daunting task put before them, yet was very much needed. A couple of red squad pilots stepped forward to take the mission. So far red squad had not had much action yet but that was about to change.
Troy wanted to volunteer but knew that Ares would want him to rest a bit longer. The commander did not like to send people out on patrols right after they had just been on one. Ares believed in giving his crew rest time to keep them at the top of their job and to avoid burnout and mistakes.
“Very well, report to your vipers when you are ready. Everyone else is dismissed unless you’re on combat alert,” Ares said then walked out of the room.
The two pilots were wished good luck by everyone on the mission and to return safely. The one thing that was on everyone’s mind was what would they find and what would be the next course of action.
*****
Ares sat in his command chair as Renee gave the permission for the scouting team to launch. So far scanners indicated no movement from the system which meant that the Argo was still hidden. That had him worried as well. Why had the Cylons not seen the first patrol when they left the system? What was going on there?
On the monitors of the bridge Ares saw as the two vipers made their launch. The scanners indicating they were moving towards the target system. They would learn soon enough what forces the Cylons had there.
Ares already thought of different tactics to use against the Cylons. It was a dangerous situation they found themselves in. He really thought that this could be a slow buildup by the Cylons for an attack against the Colonies. It would be easy to do. The Cylon fleet provides a distraction then this group attacks. Then a different idea came to him. What if this group was the distraction? It would draw a major part of the battle fleet’s attention away from the Cylon boarder that it might allow an attack to surprise the fleet thereby destroying it.
“Anything wrong commander,” Pratt asked seeing Ares rub his eyes.
“Yeah, I think it doesn’t matter what we find there anymore,” Ares replied, not really answering Pratt’s question.
“What do you mean?” Pratt replied, his questioning look directed at Ares.
“It will be up to us to destroy them here and now,” Ares replied. “It is an ambush squadron. I’m also thinking that it’s more of the diversion then a major attack force.”
“Diversion,” Pratt repeated. Ares knew he had lost his colonel.
“Yes, this Cylon force here is part of a group that will probably attack the Colonies, diverting and drawing the battle fleet attention away from a real threat,” Ares said.
“By the lords of Kobal,” Pratt replied, understanding the enormity of the situation. “They would be caught in an ambush. They destroy the fleet then the defenses of the Colonies would not be able to defend themselves against the entire might of the Cylon Empire.”
“That’s why we must destroy them here and now,” Ares replied. “There might not be time to warn fleet command either.”
“Then what about our mission,” Pratt asked.
“If we survive, we’ll continue on our way,” Ares replied logically. “It depends on the damage.”
Pratt nodded his head in agreement. This was a situation that he had not envisioned when he signed on. He had visions of encountering strange new alien civilizations and perhaps finding Earth on day.
Now the only thing left to do was wait until the report came back from the scouting team. That would tell them what they would be up against when they finally attacked.
End part 4