Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 25: Tiger Attack
Peter quickly headed down the stairs along with the rest of his staff. They were headed to the basement of the building. It was a bomb shelter that had been specially constructed for an invasion by the Cylons. Now they were headed there because of an unknown alien force.
The one thing that made Peter proud of his people was the fact that no one was panicking about what was going on. He was sure that they all had a reason to but was glad that no one was. The next step he had to do when he got down there was inform the governments of what was going on. He had a contact with the North America government and wondered if he would listen to him.
Peter reached the ground floor then made his way over to the phone as quickly as possible. He dialed a number then had to wait until he would pick up the phone. It rang three times with each ring Peter was becoming more impatient.
“Dan Hemmin,” the voice said over the phone.
“Dan, Peter,” Peter said waiting a moment for Dan to recognize the name. “Listen, I have information that a force of six ships is headed towards Earth.”
“Aliens,” Dan said a bit perplexed by why Peter was calling.
“Yes, and they are going to attack Dan. We need to warn the people and the military,” Peter said.
“There’s not need to worry Peter,” Dan said suddenly. It sent warning bells off in Peter’s mind.
“What do you mean no worry Dan,” Peter said.
“The government has been training in first contact with an alien race for a while now,” Dan said. “Don’t worry everything will be all right.”
Peter stared at the phone as the line went dead. Dan had been a friend since college. When Peter went into business Dan had gone into politics. It was something that the man had always wanted to do. The way Dan had shrugged off the news made Peter uncomfortable for some reason.
“Get me the Hermes,” Peter said to a communication person. He glanced around at the many faces that were around him. It was a feeling of being in charge as they were all looking at him for the answers for what was going on. “I want people watching the news or anything else they can find to give us any information about these aliens. If they’re right then the aliens should be entering the atmosphere any moment.”
Peter called out for one person to turn on the news to see if anything had happened yet. The screen flicked to life in time to hear a live report from a person out in the field covering a local fire. That report was quickly overtaken by what was happening in the sky over the city. They could hear background explosions coming from the screen. The reporter jumped a bit at that.
“Looks like someone is attacking us from the sound of it,” Peter said.
It was then that the camera caught a movement in the sky. It was a fighter of some sort that no one had seen before. It fired off several rounds from its weapon at some target that could not be seen from the camera. Another explosion occurred indicating that whatever the fighter had been firing at had been hit.
The situation of what was really happening began to crash down on the people in the armored bunker. Panic was beginning to set in with them and Peter realized that he had to calm everyone down. He quickly took control of the situation giving people as many duties as possible to keep their minds occupied off what was happening. Then he had to contact the Hermes again.
*****
Troy received word that Peter was calling back up from their base on Earth. He was a bit relieved to hear from the man as he was concerned over their safety. The reports from Earth were not good. Many cities had been destroyed along with untold millions of lives had been killed. It was something that no one had seen coming.
Peter relayed that the building had probably collapsed on top of the bunker but that everyone was all right at the moment. The bunker was holding for the moment. That was the best news that Troy had heard so far. It would take a lot more to make everything better.
“Captain,” Peter said gaining Troy’s attention again.
“Yes Captain Peter,” Troy replied wondering what the man had to say.
“There is one thing that concerns me,” Peter said. “When I contacted an old friend of mine in the government, he acted unconcerned about what I had told him.”
“Interesting,” Troy said. “Unconcerned as in not believing in aliens or,” Troy’s voice faded away to let Peter fill in the blanks if he had to.
“Unconcerned as in meeting an alien race is no big deal regardless of what will happen,” Peter said.
Bri glanced at Troy wondering if he knew something by the way he slumped back into his chair. “Anything wrong,” she asked him.
“I don’t know, just a vague feeling like this is important, but I don’t know why,” Troy said.
“It’ll come,” Bri said.
“Thanks captain, we’ll see what we can do from up here. In the meantime keep down and out of sight. Any information you can give us will help out later,” Troy said. Peter acknowledged what Troy had said as they signed off.
“The base survived for now, that’s good news,” Nall said from where he was speaking up for the first time. He also knew that the base had enough supplies for the members for a couple of weeks. He hoped that they had enough information to rescue them before that time ran out.
“Yeah, now we’ll need more information. From all accounts it appears that they do not know that the Hermes is here. That gives us a slight advantage with the ability to scout around undetected,” Troy said.
“I guess we’re staying for a bit longer then,” Nall said.
“Yep,” Troy replied.
*****
“Colonel, I’m moving my command to the Tiger until the Argo has completed its refit,” Ares said to Pratt who was standing in his office. It was something that Pratt had seen coming ever since he heard about the attack on Earth. At first Ares was just going to be stationed on Centari One but now everything had changed.
“All right, just remember that the crew is a majority of people from Earth, and they are still learning the systems,” Pratt said. He was impressed with their computer abilities and how fast they were picking things up.
“I will,” Ares said.
“Any new word from the Hermes,” Pratt asked.
“Nothing yet, but I hope they remain there a bit longer. It will allow us to gather information,” Ares said.
“I know, hopefully something comes along quickly. When can I expect to see you aboard the Tiger,” Pratt asked.
“I’m sorta packing things up right now, so hopefully in a little bit,” Ares replied.
“I take it that you’re leaving the majority of stuff here,” Pratt said looking around the room.
“Yeah, just taking the basics that I need,” Ares replied.
“All right,” Pratt said. He knew that it would not take Ares too long to switch his command from the Argo to the Tiger. He handed Ares the remaining report of the Tiger and how operational she was then left the office. He quickly headed back to the Tiger to get her ready for the commander’s arrival.
*****
Troy stepped into the area where he and Bri were going to wait out the trip back to Centari One before the attack on Earth. He and Nall had gone over to talk with the new recruits that had joined up before the attack. Now they were somewhat safe aboard the Hermes while friends and family could be dead. It was one thing that Troy could understand. His family was a year away and on another planet. The one thing that he was sure of was the fact that the planet had not been destroyed by the Cylons.
Troy’s speech to the recruits had been one of the toughest he had ever given. There were many questions that he did not really have answers to. He wished that he did but at the moment the only thing he had was the name of the aliens, the Arbus.
“Captain Troy to the bridge,” the intercom sounded. Troy sighed as he had just sat down next to Bri.
“There paging you dear,” Bri said.
“I know,” Troy said looking over to Bri who had a sparkle in her eye. “Why is it I get nervous when you get that sparkle in you eye?”
“Who me,” Bri said putting on an innocent face.
“All right, I’ll be right back,” he said with a quick kiss he hurried to the bridge. He was sure that Bri was up to something, now he just had to wait and find out.
He arrived on the bridge which had activity going on it again. He quickly found the captain who was standing next to one of the controls. Troy walked on over to where they were standing and waited a few seconds. The captain finally realized that he was standing there.
“I’m glad that you’re here captain. We’ve picked up some strange signals and are not that sure where they are coming from,” the captain of the Hermes said to Troy.
“Any idea as to who or what they are,” Troy asked.
“Nope, just a vector, we recorded the message just in case,” the captain replied.
They stood there and listened to the message again. Troy had not heard of the language before either. The only think that he could think of was it belonged to the invaders. He had the signal bearing which was in the opposite direction of the Colonies.
“This just might be the invaders,” Troy said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” the captain said.
“Sir, new signal from Earth, in the same frequency. Sounds a lot like the same type of language as well,” the officer said.
“Relay it to Centari One,” Troy said.
*****
“Commander,” a female flight deck officer said as the shuttle landed on the Tiger. Ares turned and walked towards the officer who had spoken to him. “We’ve received a communication from the Hermes while you were in transport.”
Ares wondered what new type of information had been found out while he was in flight. She handed him the paper which held the information. Ares was not sure what to make of the information. A radio signal was received by the Hermes. From the report he read that they did not know what it said. The one thing that he did like was the fact that they knew the direction that the signal had come from.
Ares thank the officer and walked up to the bridge where he knew Pratt would be waiting for him. Walking onto the bridge he was not disappointed when he noticed Pratt standing in the middle of the bridge.
“Commander, I hope that you’ve received the message,” Pratt asked.
“Yes I did,” Ares said. “I have an idea. Whoever sent that message is probably part of the group that attacked Earth, I think we should take the Tiger and go exploring.”
“Are you sure commander,” Pratt asked.
“Yes, we’ll leave Renee in charge of the base in case we don’t come back,” Ares told him
“All right, when do you want to leave,” Pratt asked.
“As soon as we can. Troy will be in charge of Earth space until we return to see about capturing any other messages. I think we find out what their capabilities really are,” Ares said.
*****
Gunther landed his viper aboard the Tiger along with several other pilots from his squad. There was also a group of recruits as well. He had the familiar feeling that he usually had when he was about to head into combat. It was a feeling that he had when he left on board the Galactica. Along with the Atlantia the two battlestars had attacked a known Cylons base.
Commander Ares had picked Gunther to lead the viper squadrons on the Tiger because he was a veteran of so many battles. He had served aboard battlestars for almost ten yehrens before volunteering for the Argo mission. Gunther had also served under Ares before. They had been in the same squadron when Gunther had graduated flight school. Now so many yeherns later he was under Ares command and about to head into an unknown battle against an unknown opponent.
Most of the squad was already aboard the Tiger when Gunther arrived. The fighters were lined up all over the hanger of the Tiger. He knew that it was going to be a tighter fit aboard the Tiger compared to a battlestar. There were fewer launch bays for the fighters to use. The Tiger only held about twenty fighters anyways but would be a good way to test out what they were up against.
Gunther made his way to the bridge to report into the commander. He could hear Ares making the command to move out as the ship moved away from Centari One.
“Everyone on board,” Ares asked.
“I was the last one,” Gunther said.
“All right,” Ares said. “Carry out the order to move out.”
The Tiger moved out towards where the strange signals had come from. They were not sure what they were going to do when they reached the destination.
*****
“Commander Ares to the bridge,” the voice said interrupting Ares as he sat as his desk. Pratt was on the bridge taking control of everything so Ares wondered what they had found that would call him to the bridge.
Ares quickly walked up the bridge to see what was going on. Pratt was looking over the shoulder of the scanner operator. Ares walked over to him and glanced over to see what he was seeing.
“Commander,” Ares said noticing that he was standing next to him.
“What do we have,” Ares asked.
“Well, it just appeared on our scanner not too long ago. The course its on means it’s headed towards Earth, and that it came from the direction that the signal did,” Pratt said.
“The Arbus,” Ares asked.
“That’s what we think,” Pratt said. “There are two ships. It might be a supply ship and its escort or something like that.”
“Possibly,”‘ Ares said thinking about it. Did he attack the ships without real knowledge about who they were or did he let them continue on their way to find our more.
“We’re getting another communication this one is from this ship towards Earth,” Ares heard the communications officer say. They still did not know what they were saying which meant the Arbus had an advantage at the moment.
“What do you think commander,” Pratt asked.
Ares glanced around at the faces that were on the bridge. Most were from Earth worried about their families. They also knew that the aliens had attacked Earth. The two ships were close in design style to the ships that had attacked Earth. He was also not sure when he would gain another moment like this to test out their weapons against the Arbus.
“Sound red alert. Negative shield now,” Ares said quietly. The crew reacted immediately as the regular lighting gave way to the red glow of red alert. The shielding came down to protect any window of the Tiger from damage and now all they had were their scanner to view what was going on. “Helm, bring us closer to the target.”
*****
Gunther was relaxing in the pilot debriefing room passing time. Several others were there as well. Most were Colonial warriors but there were a few pilots from Earth in the room. They were listening to the stories from the Colonials about engagements with the Cylons. He was about to speak up to correct another pilot when the red alert sounded.
“All right everyone, this is the real thing,” Gunther said. “Grab your stuff and head to your ships.”
The room emptied quickly as pilots rushed out. They were at their vipers within seconds. Gunther was climbing into his viper while a flight crew member handed his helmet to him. The bridge was giving instructions over the intercom about what they were up against. It was two ships that were possibility enemy in origin. They were being given permission to engage at will.
The order to launch was given to the pilots. Gunther pressed his thumb down on the launch button and felt the familiar pressure of the viper launching out of the launch tube. Within moments he was in space and glancing at his instruments to see where the enemy ships were.
He turned his viper towards the enemy ships as the rest of the squadron lined up behind him. They headed right towards the ships. So far there was no reaction from the ships. Gunther at first thought it was a bit surprising then realized that he should not be surprised. The Tiger was cloaked and the enemy ships probably did not even know the Tiger was there until the vipers were launched.
“All right squad, split up. We don’t know which ship is more dangerous. So until we do we will target both ships. The larger ship could be a transport but it could also be a warship,” Gunther said to the squadron. They split the squad and headed towards different ships.
Gunther targeted the nearest ship which the computer could not identify. That was something that he was sure would be rectified in no time at all once they gained more experience and intelligence against this enemy. This ship would be recorded for future reference. For now they needed to do their jobs.
*****
On the bridge of the Tiger Ares watched as the viper squadron approached the alien ships. He ordered the Tiger in on an attack vector which would bring it into firing range of the Arbus ships.
“Commander Ares, I think you should see this,” one of the scanner operators said.
Ares walked on over to see for himself what was going on. He glanced at the scanner and wondered if the scanners were malfunctioning in some way.
“Are the scanners malfunctioning in some way,” he asked quickly.
“No commander,” the operator said quickly. He had already done a systems check to make sure about that.
“Get me Gunther right now,” Ares said.
*****
Gunther was lining up for his first pass though on the Arbus ships when he heard Ares calling for him.
“Green leader here,” Gunther said waiting to see what Ares had to say.
“Gunther, don’t open fire on the larger ship,” Ares said. “We have reasons to believe that there are humans aboard the ship.”
“Humans, are you sure commander,” Gunther asked wanting to make sure.
“Yes, concentrate you fire on the smaller ship, there are not humans aboard that one, but try and disable the larger one if you can,” Ares said.
“I copy commander,” Gunther said. “All right squad, concentrate on the smaller ship for now,” he said to the rest of the squad. They all switched their targets to the smaller vessel which did not take long to open fire at them.
The vipers began their strafing runs on the Arbus ships. The Arbus vessels returned fire with green lasers. The air was criss crossed with red and green laser fire as both sides engaged each other. Gunther ordered his group to aim for the weapon systems of the Arbus ship.
******
Ares stood in the middle of the bridge watching what was going on. He wanted to make sure that his ships would not be outclassed when they started to engaged once the enemy ships. The last thing he wanted was for the Tiger to be badly damaged or worse destroyed.
The communications picked up a message from one of the two Arbus ships. Ares guessed that it was a communication indicating that they were under attack to any nearby ships. He would have to work fast to ensure that they were victorious in this battle without being overwhelmed.
“How are the vipers doing against the enemy ships,” Ares asked.
“Scanners indicate that there is damage to the smaller ship. The larger ship appears to only have limited weapon abilities,” the reply came making him a bit glad for that.
“Bring us in,” Ares ordered almost feeling the ship turn into the battle.
The Tiger closed to attack range with still nothing from the enemy ships. Ares waited until they were closer before opening fire on the enemy ships. The main weapons of the Tiger were standing by waiting with the gunners just waiting to open fire.
“Open fire,” Ares finally ordered.
The two massive main lasers in the bow of the ship opened up on the smaller enemy ship. It was struck by both shots. Ares turned to see what type of damage had been inflicted on the enemy ships.
“Reading damage to the smaller ship. We’re receiving return fire,” the scanner operator said. “It’s a bit erratic kind of like they cannot lock onto our ships.”
“Good, continue firing on the smaller ship,” Ares said as the main guns opened fire again. He knew that this would be the true test as to how well their weapons did against the enemy’s. If they faired well against them in this battle then they just might be able to win this war. This was a war and it actually made Ares feel a bit better. He knew warfare better than he did diplomacy. He also had a feeling that it might just help him in his real mission.
The Tiger continued to fire on the smaller ship. Ares wondered how much damage it would take before it would finally succumb. He was just thinking about that when the smaller ship exploded inn a ball of flame.
“Open a hailing frequency to the remaining ship,” Ares said. It did not take long before the channel was open. “Arbus ship, this is Commander Ares of the Colonial ship Tiger, you are ordered to surrender.”
A few of the crewmembers looked at him when he said Colonial ship. It was a last second decision that he made. He had decided not to mention that they were from Earth as it might give them an advantage. After a few seconds he glanced at over and the communications officer shrugged. Ares was not sure how long it would take to receive a reply or not. So far they had received nothing.
“I’m picking up increased energy on board the ship,” Ares heard Pratt say from the command console. “I think they are planning to self destruct.”
“Can we stop it,” Ares asked quickly.
“Don’t think so commander,” Pratt said.
“Positive shield now,” Ares said. They looked out of the window at the Arbus ship. At first there appeared to be nothing wrong. Then came the first sign of an impending explosion. Part of the hull of the ship failed as an internal explosion occurred making flame leap out into space for a brief moment. It was quickly followed by several more then a final large explosion that wiped out the rest of the ship.
“Recall all vipers,” Ares said quietly.
*****
Gunther relayed the recall orders to the rest of his squadron. He mentally went over how many had survived. They had lost two vipers in the engagement which made him glad. He was sad about the fact that the ‘transport’ ship had been destroyed. He wondered why they had done such a thing. It would be a mystery that they would need to solve during the war he hoped.
He turned his viper towards the Tiger which had turned on the signal enhancer. He finally spotted the ship and waited to hear the landing instructions. He was sure that there was going to be a debriefing over this. His squad had not attacked the transport ship at all so he figured that damaged from the battle had to be ruled out.
He concentrated for a few moments while he landed on the Tiger’s landing bay. The landing rotation when by how much fuel or damage a viper had not on rank. He landed and waited a few moments until the landing crew moved his viper out of the way for the next one to land.
Gunther got out and made his way up to the bridge where he knew Ares would be. Walking onto the bridge he spotted the commander talking with Pratt.
“Gunther, glad you made it,” Ares said spotting him walking towards them. “Did you notice anything unusual in the engagement?”
“If you mean aside from the suicide attitude they had at the end, not really,” Gunther said. “The weapon systems of then I guess the escort seemed equivalent to a frigate.”
“That’s what we were just discussing,” Ares said. “We’ll need to categorize these ships for later on if we see them again.”
“If you’re asking me, a transport and an escort ship,” Gunther said.
“That’s what I said,” Pratt said.
“Then I guess we’ll go with that for now,” Ares said. “I just wish we had been able to save those lives on board that ship.”
“That may be something to keep in mind for later on,” Pratt said. “They have shown a willingness to blow themselves up. They might use it to lure some of us on board and then blow it up next time.”
“That will be another thought then,” Ares said. He was having a lot to think about. He was informed that all fighters were now back on board.
“Set course to Centari One,” Ares said. They had a lot of thinking to do.
End of part 25