Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 24: The Enemy Attacks
Troy and Bri landed the shuttle on the hanger of the Hermes quickly disembarking from the shuttle. Nall and Jax were there quickly to find out what they had seen. From the way they had come back it was obvious that the two had encountered something out there. Now all they had to do was figure out what it was.
“I think we’ve got a problem,” Troy said to the two of them before they could say anything.
“We encountered a fleet of unknown alien ships,” Bri said. “At least six ships and a base of operations.”
“Warships,” Jax asked as she tried to think of why there would be ships there.
“Unknown,” Troy said. “Of course we didn’t stay very long to find out either.”
“Probably a wise decision. Though the scanner operator says that nothing has moved out of that area,” Nall said.
“It’s probably something that we’ll want to keep an eye on that’s for sure,” Troy said. “I would like to come back and try to gain more information about what they are going here and about the ships that are there.”
“I wish that the new vipers would be ready soon,” Jax said having seen a prototype of the new viper. They all knew that the new viper that Doctor Weaver and his team were constructing would be faster and more maneuverable than the current viper. One thing that would be different would be the addition of missiles or bombs to increase the firepower the vipers. Such an increase would allow for the elimination of the bombers enabling a more flexible strike force.
“I know, but we will have to make do with what we have,” Nall replied. “I hope that we will be able to do whatever is needed with what we have.
“I think then we should wait until we have more information,” Troy said.
“I’ll talk to Commander Ares when we get back,” Nall said.
“So, how was the vacation,” Jax asked as they walked out of the hanger and towards an area where they could sit down and talk for the trip back. With the improved engines it took the Hermes about twelve hours to travel the distance to Centari One from Earth.
*****
The scanner operator heard the report that came back from the shuttle. He was a bit relieved that he was not seeing things on the scanner. He was a bit disturbed that they had found a collection of ships this close to Earth. No one seemed to know anything about them that was what worried him even more.
He leaned back and stretched his back from sitting down for so long when the scanner indicated another change. This one was something that he was sure that this captain would want to know about.
“Ah, captain, I think we’ve got a larger problem,” the scanner operator said.
The captain walked on over to where the scanners were and glanced down at the screen. He had known about the ships in the asteroids but now he was not sure he liked what he was seeing. The scanner indicated that several large ships were now on their way away from where they had been. The projected course was Earth.
“Get me Lieutenant Nall at once,” the captain said. He was sure that they would want to know what was going on. He only hoped that what was going to happen was not what he thought was going to happen.
*****
Nall made his way up to the bridge along with the rest of the group. They had been on their way to a small sitting room where they could talk when Nall had received the call from the bridge. If it had not been for the tone of the captain’s voice only Nall would have gone up to the bridge.
“I wonder what’s going on,” Nall asked as they made their way to the bridge.
“The tone in the captain’s voice held a bit of disbelief in it,” Troy said hoping that what he thought it was it would be. He had decided to remain quiet for the moment. If he was right there would be little they could do right now.
They walked onto a very quiet bridge where several were huddled around the scanner. It confirmed Troy’s fears as to what was going on. They quickly made their way over to the scanner to see what was going on.
“Captain,” Nall said as he approached the man.
“Lieutenant Nall,” the captain replied still looking at the scanner. They glanced at the scanner and noticed a group of ships heading towards Earth.
“What’s going on,” Nall asked as the continued to watch.
“These six ships just left the asteroid field and are now headed on a course straight for Earth,” the captain said. “I’ve ordered the ship to head back a bit to see if we can figure out what is going to happen.”
“None of the ships have made a move towards us,” Troy asked wondering how much of an improvement the stealth metal was. They might be able to watch what happens without being noticed.
“So far no,” the captain said. “I am maintaining our distance just in case.”
“Wise decision,” Nall said. The estimate of when the ship would arrive was quickly calculated. The ships would arrive in Earth’s orbit in twenty minutes. They would have their answer then as to what was going on. Several people had theories as to what was going happen. They ranged from a first contact ambassador fleet to an invasion fleet. It was the invasion fleet that Troy thought that the ships were. He also knew that there was little they could do at the moment to stop the invasion.
Even if they contacted Commander Ares the Argo was too far away to do anything useful and would arrive too late. The other thing that Troy wanted was to find out what type of technology the aliens were using. If one of their ships had the same amount of firepower as the Argo then it would ride into a six to one disadvantage. Troy figured that the best thing was information. The more information they could gather the better off they would be.
*****
Six alien craft made their way to Earth. As the ships approached Earth one broke formation and headed to the moon base. So far no one on the lunar base had noticed the approach of the ships. The staff had been reduced to the point where they were lucky to be operating right now. Most of the operations were centered around the few experiments that were still being undertaken using the light gravity of the moon.
Several smaller craft appeared from the larger craft. The smaller craft quickly made their way to the lunar base. The ships opened fire upon the base. The people in the base did not have a chance to escape from the death trap that the base was. The hull integrity went almost immediately allowing the air to escape into the vacuum of space. The few areas that had managed to close the pressure doors found themselves protected for only a little while.
The smaller craft continued to fire on the base until it was nothing but rubble. The odds of anyone surviving the attack on the base were not good. There were few places that could have survived without losing its precious air. The smaller craft returned to the larger ship which returned to where the other five ships were waiting.
*****
Troy and the others watched on the bridge of the Hermes as the alien ship attacked the base on the moon. Many were shocked by what they had seen. Troy had the feeling that the worst was still yet to come.
“Did they manage to get any signal out,” Troy asked the operator.
“No,” the operator said with a slight shake of her head. She had not been prepared for this.
“Do we have laser communication with our base on Earth,” Troy asked.
“Yes, the building just came into range,” the operator said.
“Get them on the line using the laser right now,” Troy said. It took a few second before the Earth base commander came on the line. He looked like he had not been there too long. Troy was also sure that he did not know what was going on.
“Captain Troy, what can I do for you,” the man said.
“Put the base on immediate lockdown and get your people to the shelters now,” Troy said watching as the man looked a bit confused by what Troy was saying.
“Peter,” the captain of the Hermes said. “We’ve just seen an attacking force of six ships destroy the lunar base.”
That got Peter’s attention as he heard what his friend has just said. “What, that’s impossible,” Peter said not wanting to hear what he had just said.
“Believe it or not commander, they are taking up positions as we speak. They are going to attack,” Troy said.
“I need to warn the government and the military,” Peter said.
“Which you can do from the shelter,” Troy said. “I want to make sure that you’re all right okay. You can call us again from the shelter after you contact the governments. But I don’t know how much time you have.”
“Fine, we’ll go on ahead and go on down,” Peter said. “Sara, order a lockdown of the building.”
Troy could hear a voice in the distance who he figured must be Sara then Peter’s voice again ordering the lockdown. A few seconds later Peter came back on.
“All right, it’s done,” Peter said. “Now what?”
“For now stay put, we need information about these aliens,” Troy said. “Just do whatever reporting that you can do without getting caught.”
“All right,” Peter said. “I’ll call you from the lockdown position.”
“We’ll be waiting then,” Troy replied as the line when dead. Troy could only hope that it was for now.
*****
The six ships then took up positions around the Earth and waited until each ship was in position. One each ship was in position a swarm of fighter type ships headed straight for Earth.
On the Hermes Troy and the others watched as the smaller ships left the large ships and headed for the Earth’s surface. Troy was wondering what the alien race was doing. Six ships seemed to be a bit small of an attack force to conquer a planet to him. There had to be more to this plan than what they had seen already.
“Captain, scan the surrounding area for anything that might be a bit different or out of the ordinary,” Troy said. The more he had thought about everything the less he like it. If the aliens were intent on conquering the planet then they would need a larger ship, a transport or something like that.
The scanner operator scanned the surrounding area for what he hoped would be nothing. He did keep a sharp look out for anything that might be a bit different. He did not see anything at the moment but knew that the situation could change at any moment.
The captain had turned on news reports from Earth to see what was going on. No one on board really thought that Peter had a chance of informing the government in time to really do anything about it. There was also the believability factor that they had to consider as well. This would be considered to be quite unbelievable to anyone who heard it.
The news programs that they were picking up so far did not say anything about what might be going on? There was also the reason that the alien craft had just reached the planet’s surface and that the signals from the news programs took a few seconds longer to reach them.
Then the news reports began to inform their viewers that something was going on. The reporters struggled to get information about what was going on. The sketchy reports of explosions at the military bases had begun to filter in.
“This is one time that fractured governments will really hurt them,” Troy said more to himself than anyone else. That was something that he and Ares had talked about. If Earth was to fight a war against the Cylons then they would have to be united to do it.
“The first thing they will probably think about is that it’s being done by one of the other governments,” the captain said with a snort. No one disagreed with the statement.
“We can only hope that Peter is able to survive and give us a report,” Troy said. “We should relay this to the Argo and everyone there so they know what’s going on.”
The captain and his crew quickly worked to get the signal headed to Centari One. Troy also put a request in to talk with Commander Ares as soon as possible.
*****
“Captain Gunther, come in,” Ares said motioning the man into his office. The Tiger was approaching completion and Gunther was working on training the fighter crews while Jax and Nall were away. “How are they doing?”
“They will be ready when the Tiger is fully operational at the end of this month,” Gunther said. “They are picking up the training quite well.”
“That’s good news,” Ares said. “Any word on the rest of the crew?”
“Well, all the reports are that they are ready to serve aboard the Tiger already,” Gunther said having heard some of the reports. “Colonel Pratt said that he was looking forward to putting the crew to their tests at the end of the month.
Ares nodded his head with agreement and was about to say something else when Renee’s voice over the communicator interrupted him. He got up and went on over to ask what the problem was.
“Captain Troy is on the line for you commander,” Renee said.
“Any idea as to what he wants,” Ares asked.
“No sir,” Renee replied.
“All right, I’ll be right there,” Ares said turning around to where Gunther was. “We’ll finish this later.”
“Yes sir,” Gunther replied wondering what Troy was calling about. Like everyone else he had heard the rumors running around about what was going on. They were all waiting for something to happen but no one had any idea as to what or when this problem would occur or even if it would.
Gunther followed Ares up to the bridge to see if he could find out what was going on. If something was going on he wanted to be in the position to help out as much as he could. The bridge of the Argo was lightly manned at the moment as the ship was on some down time. Ares walked straight up to his command position and waited a few seconds for the screen to turn on and Troy’s face to appear.
“Captain, what can I do for you,” Ares asked wondering what was so important that Troy had call in.
“We’ve got a big problem here commander,” Troy said. “We discovered what the unidentified reading on the scanner was.”
Ares heard what Troy said and had a feeling that he was about to receive bad news. The tone in Troy’s voice told him that it was going to be worse than what he was expecting.
“Bri and I took the shuttle out to investigate, we found six ships of unknown configuration along with what was a base of operations,” Troy said letting that news sink in before he told them the rest of the news.
“Any idea as to the type of ships,” Ares asked. He wanted to know if the ships were warships or something else.
“Warships,” Troy replied.
“Are your sure,” Ares asked wanting to know for sure.
“Yeah, you might say we positive,” Troy said. “The ships are currently attacking Earth.”
The comment spread across the bridge as if it had been yelled. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at the command chair. Those few people from Earth were hoping that what they had just heard were not true. Ares sat back in his chair stunned by the news he had just been told. A thousand thoughts went though his mind and none of them were good.
“What are the attackers’ abilities?” Ares asked hoping to at least gain a little bit of information that could help them.
“We’re working on that right now. I’ve got Peter locking down the building on Earth. He then is going to try and contact the governments on Earth to get their defenses up in time. If they do we might get a good idea of what type of abilities they have,” Troy said to Ares.
“Then I guess we wait to see,” Ares said. If they knew the attackers abilities i t would help make a decision on if he should order the Argo to Earth or not.
“Captain, we’re picking up transmissions from Earth,” a crew member said. The captain ordered it to be put up on the screen.
They watched as a news cast reported on what was going on down on Earth’s surface. The reporter did not seem to know what was going on only that an unknown force was attacking the city. A few external pictures were taken as ships flew though the atmosphere strafing the city. They all could see explosions occurring in the city.
“My God,” they could hear the reporter exclaim. “Someone has launched an attack using advanced weapons against the United America Confederation. The rumor is that the Asia and Eastern Alliance have joined forces against us and have attacked us.”
“Suzy, that’s not entirely true,” another reporter said, this one a man stepped into the picture. “I’ve just received word that the Eastern Alliance and Asia are also under attack.”
That stunned Suzy who had been talking. The bridge crew could tell that the reporters were not sure what to make of everything that was going on. The image went back out to the city were smoke and fire could be seen. A building collapsed sending a dust of debris up chocking the view that the camera had. But that did not last too long as the picture went dead replaced with fuzz.
“Can we get another channel,” the captain said.
“Working on it captain,” the communications officer said while working at her station. A few seconds later the screen blinked back to life with another reporter. This one was spoken in a language that Troy and them did not understand.
They watched as the reporters seemed to be a bit on the panicked side. Troy could not blame them at all. He was sure that to them it looked like the end of the world was about to occur.
“I’m picking up power reading from the six ships,” the scanner operator said drawing their attention away from the screen in front of them. They looked at realized that it was a weapon build up. What they had to find out was what type of weapon the ships had.
One of the alien ships opened fire on the planet’s surface. The scanners tracked the weapon where it impacted on the surface of the planet. There the beam exploded with the force of a nuclear weapon. It took out an entire section of a city within moments. The other ships also opened fire targeting the larger cities and military installations taking them out with pinpoint accuracy.
There were a lot of sad faces on the bridge of the Hermes as they watched what was going on. They felt helpless at what was going on. Several felt angry at what was a surprise attack on their planet. They had done nothing to incur such a hostile attack on Earth.
“Troy, continue to monitor, I’ll call you back in a bit,” Ares said watching as Troy nodded his head and the screen went blank.
“I want to talk with Robert and Senator Sam at once,” Ares said then wondered what he would tell them.
*****
“Let’s record as much as we can people, we need to know what we’re up against,” Troy said taking command sending people into action from their stunned positions. They had a lot of work to do still.
“Any word from Peter yet,” the captain asked hoping that they would have some communications from the small base on Earth. That would help them understand what type of weapons they were dealing with. The shelter of the building was designed to withstand the blasts of a Cylon attack. if it survived then they would be dealing with a race with either similar or weaker weapons.
“Not yet,” the communications officer replied. She was quite busy at the moment with everything that was going on. She was hoping that they could get in touch with the base on Earth.
The screen which had the reporters on went out like the last group. Troy figured that either the place where the news group had been hit or the city had been destroyed. The alien ships in orbit had continued to fire their weapons at targets on the planet’s surface. Troy was wishing that he was on board the Argo right now where they could launch a counter attack.
“I’m getting a communications captain,” the communications officer said. “It’s from the alien ships.”
“Put it on,” the captain said. The screen showed a grey alien with large black eyes and a small mouth and two holes where a nose would be.
“Attention people of Earth, surrender now and you might be spared your lives,” the alien said. “We are the Arbus and you are now part of the Arbus Empire.”
‘Arbus,’ Troy thought. He now had a name to put with the new enemy.
*****
Ares turned to see Robert and Senator Sam walk onto the bridge. He had summoned them there once he had learned what was going on. Robert and Sam noticed a bit of a somber atmosphere on the bridge. They walked up to Ares who had Gunther standing behind him.
They both quickly walked up to the center of the bridge where Ares was standing. Both men were sure that the news was not that good but wondered what it could have been about. Robert wondered if the Cylons had finally beaten the Colonists or if the Cylons had found Earth. Either one was not a good situation.
“We just received some news from Earth, and it isn’t good,” Ares said.
“What do you mean it isn’t good,” Sam said not sure if he followed what Ares was saying.
“On the last few trips to Earth the scanner operator of the Hermes had picked up a strange object on his scanner. I had Nall and Jax go along this time with a few vipers to check it out,” Ares said.
“I take it they found something then,” Robert said.
“Yes, six ships along with a space station of some sort. We’re still not sure about it,” Ares said to them.
“And the ships,” Sam asked.
“Warships,” Ares replied evenly.
“Are you sure about that, you could be mistaken,” Robert said.
“I wish I was, but a few minutes ago they began attacking Earth,” Ares said.
“What,” both men said at the same time. They could not believe what they had just heard.
“The ships attacked Earth. I just received word of it from the captain of the Hermes. We’re waiting to hear from Captain Peter on the Earth base to find out what the casualties there were on the planet’s surface,” Ares said. He was not sure how to break such bad news to friends of his.
“Are we on our way to help,” Sam asked hoping that the Argo would be able to help them.
“I’m waiting on information. If it turns out that they are about equal in strength then six on one odds are not good,” Ares said.
“But you would still be able to do something,” Sam said.
“Senator, if we lose the Argo and her people then we lose the only chance we might have to counter attack,” Robert said beginning to understand why the Argo did not head into battle right away.
“In war information is key,” Ares said. “The more we have the better off we are.”
“Right I forgot,” Sam said. “I guess I’m just worried.”
“Understandable senator,” Ares said. If he was in the same position he would be thinking just like the senator was.
“So what’s the plan then,” Robert asked.
“We’re waiting to see what Peter can tell us, if he is able to that is,” Ares said. “The Hermes is still standing by near Earth and I’m going to go ahead with the planning of the upgrade of the Argo. If this group is powerful then we’ll need every advantage we can get.”
“We should probably see about what help we might be able to render and when,” Robert said looking to Sam.
They had plans to make in order to save Earth. Ares wondered if this would affect their plans for helping the Colonies as well. He did know that if he did not help out
Earth then there would be no help for the Colonies.
Go on to Tiger Attack