Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 37: Secret Base
Renee continued to look at her screen even though there was little that she had to do at the moment. There were a few patrols going at the moment but nothing that required a lot of concentration for her. It had been almost two months since there had been an attack on Earth. There had not been any new developments on the war so far. She was beginning to believe that the losses the Arbus had suffered had severely limited the campaigns against them. She knew that only time would tell for sure.
“Transferring coordinates to green patrol,” she said as another patrol was about to launch. She received the reply back that the coordinates had been received. “Green patrol, launch when ready.”
She looked over at the monitors to see the two vipers fly out of the launch tubes. It was something that she was used to seeing. She could think back to when she was on board the battlestar Pacifica. It had been quite an experience and so far this war had not yet equaled the Cylon war in its intensity. There was danger but so far nothing that could not be handled by the Argo.
Glancing at her screen she noticed something a bit different. Quickly running a few programs she hoped that there was enough time this time to get a more accurate location.
“Commander, I’m intercepting another transmission from the planet’s surface,” Renee said not looking up from her work.
Ares got up and walked over to where she was working. Several times strange messages had been intercepted coming from the planet’s surface going to where they thought the Arbus came from. Ares thought that it might be a group of spies working on Earth’s surface and perhaps with a few of their human clones as well.
“I think I was able to narrow it down even more,” Renee said. It was hard to do but if the message kept coming from the same point then they had a pretty good location to work with. She brought up a screen with a map on it which pinpointed a location on the map.
“Have Captain Troy meet me in the briefing room right away,” Ares said walking off the bridge leaving Renee in charge of the battlestar.
*****
Troy walked into the briefing room not sure what to expect. The only thing that he knew was he had been called by the commander to the room. They had not said what they had wanted. There had been no attacks by the Arbus so he was left to wonder why he was being called.
“Have a seat captain,” Ares said to him as he entered the room.
“Yes sir,” Troy said taking a seat across from Ares.
“I’m sure that you’re wondering what you are doing here,” Ares said as Troy nodded his head. “It concerns the strange messages we’ve intercepted from Earth’s surface.”
“You think it might be a group of Arbus spies,” Troy said thinking quickly.
“Yes,” Ares said. “It’s either a group of Arbus themselves or a group of clones who are reporting back to the Arbus. Either way we need to silence them. They are getting information about us and we are getting nothing in return.”
“What do you need me to do,” Troy asked.
“We’ve been able to narrow down the location on the surface to a small area. I want you to head up a team to find out the exact location and neutralize it,” Ares said.
“Take out the station,” Troy said.
“Yes,” Ares replied. “And capture any Arbus in the area if you find any for questioning.”
“Okay, do I have my pick of personal,” Troy asked.
“Yes, as long as it doesn’t affect our abilities to train the new recruits too badly,” Ares said.
“I’m thinking about Bri, Nall, Jax and Rebecca,” Troy said.
“Small team,” Ares said.
“Yes sir,” Troy said.
“Very well, but your team members are the only ones who will know about the mission,” Ares said. He was hoping that with secrecy they would be able to neutralize the Arbus base on Earth.
“Understood,” Troy said getting up to walk out the door after Ares handing him the information of where the base was thought to be.
Ares watched as he left the room with a purposeful stride. He had confidence in the young man to succeed with the mission as it was the reason he had chosen Troy for it. With that base neutralized they would be able to concentrate on more serious problems.
*****
Bri and Troy walked down the street near where they had thought that the signals were coming from. The group was walking around blending in while looking for any buildings that might be holding something strong enough to send the signal in question. So far they had not discovered anything.
“Looks like a storm is coming in,” Bri said as they walked. Troy looked up and noticed the darkening clouds and realized that she was right.
“Perhaps we should head back before it hits then,” Troy said as they turned around to head back to the hotel that they were staying at.
Troy looked around noticing that there were several buildings that could house such a communications device. He wondered if the others had found anything. He just hoped that they would be able to discover where it was without spooking anyone.
They just barely made it into the hotel when the rain began. There were also several lightning strikes nearby followed by the thunder that rattled the windows. Troy looked out hoping that the others had made it back before the rain had started as well.
The door opened letting three drenched people into the building. Troy had his answer now as he looked at the three people. Nall was shaking himself off while the other two were trying to dry themselves.
“Got caught huh,” Troy said to Nall.
“Yeah, but I like wet things so no problem,” he said looking to Bri with a smile.
“Keep that up and I think you’ll be safer out there with the lightning,” Troy said looking at Bri then back outside.
“I know but I like living in danger,” Nall said.
“Does that mean that things will always be this exciting,” Rebecca asked from where she was trying to dry her hair.
“Yep,” Troy said.
“Great, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand that then,” Rebecca said with a sigh.
“You’ll manage,” Nall said throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Besides it makes life interesting.”
“For you,” Rebecca said.
“Come on, let’s go to one of the rooms where you three can dry off a bit more,” Troy said to them as they turned to walk to one of the rooms.
“Did you find anything,” Troy asked once they were in one of the rooms.
“Not really, what about you,” Nall replied.
“There’s too many possibilities at the moment,” Troy replied.
“And if it’s underground,” Rebecca said bringing a whole new aspect to what they were looking for. If it was a large underground complex then it would be harder to find.
“We’ll just keep our eyes out for something unusual then,” Bri said.
“Sounds about right,” Jax said. “We could set up a couple of listening stations to help locate the place.”
“That would narrow down the direction,” Troy said. “I’ll contact the commander about it then.”
*****
“Commander incoming report from the planet’s surface. It’s Captain Troy,” Renee said to Commander Ares.
“I’ll take it up here,” Ares said to her waiting for only a moment before the captain’s voice could be heard.
“Have you found anything captain,” Ares asked him.
“Not yet but we would like permission to bring in a few listening stations on the surface to better pinpoint the location,” Troy said. “There are too many buildings to investigate and if its underground it could be anywhere.”
“All right,” Ares said. He had thought about that possibility but had hoped that Troy and a small team would be able to locate it easily. It now appeared that they would not so it was on to plan b. “I’ll inform a small group to report to you for location of where to set up.”
“Copy that, will be waiting,” Troy said as they broke off the communication just in case the conversation was picked up by the enemy.
Ares sat back in his chair. He really wanted this base neutralized quickly. If they could capture a few Arbusians in the process then it would be even better. He hoped that the mission would remain a bit quiet even with the additional personal that would become involved. He thought about who to include in the group and realized that Doctor Weaver would have to be one of them.
“Get me Doctor Weaver at once,” Ares said over the intercom. He did not have to wait long until the monitor came to life with Weaver’s face on it. “Hello doctor.”
“Commander Ares, what can I do for you today,” Weaver asked.
“I need for you to come to Earth for a special assignment along with two others that you trust,” Ares said.
“Is there anything else that I would need,” Weaver asked wondering what he was going to be part of this time.
“No, everything else will be provided here doctor,” Ares said.
“All right, we’ll be on the next return flight on the Hermes,” Weaver said.
“Good, I’ll be waiting to see you then,” Ares said as the line when dead. That brought the number of people involved in this mission up to eight. He hoped that the number involved was not too large to alert the Arbus that they might know about the base on Earth.
*****
Weaver knocked on the hotel door that he had been told was Troy and Bri’s room. The door opened to reveal the blonde head of Bri. She recognized him and led him inside.
“Welcome doctor,” Troy said as Weaver walked into the room. “I hope that your trip here was not too unpleasant.”
“Nah, a bit bumpy but with the storms in the area it was to be expected,” Weaver said. “I have two others along with the equipment,” he said pulling out a small device.
“Is that what you’ll be using to detect the signal,” Bri asked looking at the small device.
“Yep, seeing as we are close to the signal we don’t need anything to large,” Weaver said. “The other two are at hotels in neighboring cities not that far away.”
“Is that too far away,” Bri asked.
“Nope, all I need is where they are and the direction of the signal,” Weaver said pulling out a map. “They will be contacting me with the exact coordinates of where they are set up, then they will give me the direction. Once all three have the direction we’ll be able to locate where the signal is coming from.”
“I guess now all we can do is wait and watch for now,” Troy said to the group.
“All right, I’ll go get set up in my room as well. The moment I have anything I’ll let you know captain,” Weaver said getting up to leave.
“Doctor, be careful, we don’t know who we can trust and who we can’t here,” Troy said.
“I will captain,” Weaver said.
“Do you think we’re in danger,” Bri asked.
“I assume we are, just to be on the safe side,” Troy said. “There are too many unknowns to thing that there is no danger.”
*****
Troy and Nall sat at the hotel restaurant eating breakfast the next morning. They were waiting for Jax, Rebecca and Bri to show up still.
“So what do you think takes them so long,” Nall asked. “After all you’re married now.”
“I don’t know. I do know that it does take Bri a while to do her hair. She’s always fussing over it,” Troy said with a shake of his head. “I’m just glad mine hasn’t started to fall out yet like my dad’s has.”
“No kidding,” Nall said running his hand though his hair. “I did notice that Gunther’s hair was thinning lately.”
“Last I saw he shaved it real close,” Troy said. “Could be worse, kinda like him,” Troy said in a whisper and a pointing glance over at a white haired man at a nearby table.
Nall glanced over and noticed that the man had taken his hair and tried to do a comb over. It looked really bad to Nall. “Good point, if I ever do that slap me.”
“Only if you do the same thing to me,” Troy said with a laugh but continued to look around. The man with the comb over caught his attention again. He was mumbling to himself or so it looked like. It was not that unusual with all the portable communication devices Earther’s had.
The man got up after paying his bill and walked out. Troy thought that what he had seen was a bit interesting. He would have to tell the others later on. Looking up he saw the girls coming out of the elevator and walking towards them.
“Finally we can eat,” Nall said.
*****
“So what’s the plan for today,” Bri asked when they arrived back at their hotel room.
“I really haven’t thought too much about it. We could be here for a while so we’ll have to start looking for something to do around here,” Troy said. “We could try and find some local work nearby, say that we are new to the area.”
“That might work, after all we don’t know how long we are going to be here,” Bri said.
“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about that when I started this mission,” Troy said realizing that he was not thinking ahead for this mission.
“Wonder if we should talk to the others about this as well,” Bri said.
“Probably,” Troy said. “Is there anything around here to do that we could really use to explain our presence here.”
“Honeymoon,” Bri said to him.
“For us yeah, but what about the others,” Troy asked.
“They can make up their own stories,” Bri said.
“That would ruin the finding work story,” Troy said.
“But a honeymoon would be so much more fun,” Bri said.
“Now you sound like Nall,” Troy said. “Are you sure that you two are not related?”
“Never,” Bri said holding her head up at the thought before a smile came to her face.
“I remember one of the first times I saw you two,” Troy said. “It was on the surface of Kobal.”
“I pushed him down, yeah I remember,” Bri said.
“I can remember thinking that you two were crazy but I was already falling for you,” Troy said sitting down on the bed.
“I think I knew that as well,” Bri said remembering that she had put a bit of sway in her hips as she walked away from Nall that day. She had the feeling that Troy had been watching her and she was flirting.
A knock on the door interrupted their musings as Weaver came into the room. “We’ve got it captain,” Weaver said to them.
“Get the others and I’ll be right there,” Troy said then turning to Bri. “Well I guess duty calls.”
“Then we should go,” Bri said walking to the door. She put a bit of sway in her hips as she had done that day back on Kobal.
“And I’ll be right behind you,” Troy said looking at his wife’s ass as it swayed while following like a puppy.
*****
The group watched as Weaver pulled out the map to show them where the location that the signals were coming from. When he did Troy was also trying to see if he could remember what type of building it was in.
“We’ve located the position to here,” Weaver said pointing to a spot on the map. “Remember that it’s not that accurate as the base entrance could be further away.”
Troy looked at the spot on the map. He was not that familiar with that area so he looked at Nall. Nall was looking trying to think of what was in that area that might stand out as an entrance to the base.
“Isn’t that where we saw that one building that had no damage on it whatsoever,” Rebecca said from where she was sitting.
“Now that you mention it yeah,” Nall said. “There was one building in the area that had no damage on it from the invasion not that long ago.”
“Perhaps they’ve already fixed it,” Bri said thinking logically.
“True but they had not begun to fix any of the buildings around it and it did not look that important,” Nall said as he thought about it. “Most of the construction in the two I’ve seen on the other side of town.”
“True,” Troy said as he thought about it. They were making their way across the town doing the rebuilding so that the supplies and manpower would be there. “I think we should check it out then.”
With the plan made of where they were going to go they made plans just in case something went wrong as well. After the meeting was over Troy went back to his hotel room to contact Commander Ares. He was sure that the commander would want to know that they might have a lead to the whereabouts of the Arbus base.
*****
Troy walked around to the building that was in question. He looked at it without trying to be obvious about it. The building was in fact not damaged much at all. There was the normal chipped exterior from flying debris and a few other visible signs but aside from that nothing structural that Troy could see.
Then Troy spotted a man who he had seen before. It was the man he had seen with the bad comb-over as he was waiting for the girls to eat breakfast.
“Do you recognize him,” Troy said to Nall who was walking with him.
“Yeah, that’s the one we saw at breakfast in the restaurant,” Nall said. “What’s he doing here?”
“Not sure,” Troy said. “But I have a feeling that he might be working with the Arbus.”
Troy then began to walk towards the building with the intention of going inside to see what was in the building. Nall followed not that sure what Troy was doing. They had barely made it inside when they were looked at with suspicion.
“This is a private building,” one man said coming up to them. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Private huh. Some sort of military secret then,” Nall asked from where he was standing. Troy continued to look around to see if there was anything that he could tell was going on.
“You’re going to have to leave sir,” another man said coming up to them. Troy could see that this person was a bit more authoritative in his words and actions.
“All right,” Troy said motioning to the others that they were going to leave.
“What was that about,” Nall asked once they were out of the building.
“We have our entrance,” Troy said quietly. “We would know if they were associated with the military. I think we should bring someone else in on this.”
“Who,” Nall asked.
“Actually I don’t think we should hold anything back,” Troy said walking to the hotel to contact Commander Ares.
“What are you thinking my friend,” Nall said noticing that his smile looked like Bri’s did when she had a truly evil idea.
“You’ll see, and we’ll be back to that building as well,” Troy said.
*****
Rebecca glanced around at the group that had been assembled. After Troy had come back and talked with Commander Ares she knew that he had a plan. Now they were headed back to the building that Troy and Nall had tried to get into a few days earlier. Now as she looked there were more people and the current President Sam Harvey was with them.
The group walked back into the building this time with the intention of not stopping. The Battlestar Argo was in orbit as was the Tiger at the moment. This was to ensure that if anyone tried to get away they would be captured.
“I’m afraid that you cannot come in here,” the man with gray hair said to the group.
“No I will because I want to know what is so private about this place that I have not been informed,” Sam said as he walked straight up to the men. “So why don’t you just go ahead and show me what you are doing?”
“I’m afraid that I cannot do that,” the man said as a few others appeared.
“You will, that is a presidential order sir,” Sam said with authority causing the man to hesitate.
“I’m sorry I cannot,” the man said as he looked at the others that were with the president. They were soldiers and were armed. Right now several had their hands on their weapons waiting to see what would happen.
Bri’s hand was on her weapon and she could feel her heart pounding in anticipation for what was going to happen. There was a tension in the air that she could smell it was so thick.
One of the men that was keeping them from the building suddenly drew a weapon causing the chaos to erupt. Weapons fire rang out all as people dove for cover and then returned fire.
“Well so much for the peaceful way,” Bri said over to Troy as he fired a shot in the direction of other group.
“I didn’t think it would be peaceful,” Troy shouted back as a laser hit close to where he was.
“Just don’t get hurt or killed or I’ll kill you myself,” Bri shouted back over the gunfire that was going on.
“I don’t plan on it but the same goes to you as well,” Troy said.
“Earthlings, surrender or we will destroy you. We have you outnumbered,” a tinny voice said as the gunfire had stopped for a few seconds.
“I was hoping that you would think that,” Sam said from where he was. “If you look outside you will see that you are the ones outnumbered. We have the building surrounded.”
Troy had managed to look up to see what was going on from his position. He could see a few humans and two Arbus warriors or so he assumed. From what he could tell the two aliens looked a bit confused by what was going on. It really seemed like they did not know what to do when they were confronted.
“I think you would do well to surrender instead,” Troy said from where he was crouching. They waited a few heartbeats to see what they were going to do.
“I don’t think you understand humans, we have all the control not you,” the alien finally said in its tinny voice. “We control all the humans.”
“Not me you don’t,” Bri said as she fired a shot above the heads of the other group that began another round of hostilities.
A few more of the defenders of the building fell when Troy saw the two Arbus point weapons at themselves. He knew that they were going to do even before they pulled the trigger. The two aliens slumped to the floor and a high pitched wail pierced the building.
“This doesn’t sound good,” Nall yelled from where he was.
“I have to agree,” Troy said. “All units, fall back at once,” he said as the group pulled back from the building.
“What was that,” Bri asked as they met up with the corporal that was leading the group outside the building.
“I think it’s a self destruct,” Troy said. “I think we should pull back even further,” he told the corporal. “Have a general evacuation of the surrounding area of this building, probably a few blocks,” he told him.
“Yes sir,” the corporal said then instructing his men to carry out the order.
“Come on,” Troy said to Nall, Jax, Bri and Rebecca. The group quickly ran down the street to where Troy thought they might be safe and set up a new headquarters with the men who followed him. “Now we wait.”
It did not take too much longer when they all heard a loud explosion. They could see the dust of debris in the air as smoke began to rise from where the building was. They felt the concussion wave from the blast as it rolled away from the destruction causing the ground to quake and windows rattle a bit as well.
“I guess I should contact Commander Ares and tell him what happened,” Troy said.
“He won’t be that pleased,” Nall said. They all knew that Ares had hoped to capture the base intact. For some reason the Arbus had a habit of blowing themselves up before being captured. That hindered gathering information about who they were and why they were attacking Earth.
“Nope, but it can’t be help this time,” Troy said as the President walked up.
“That didn’t go quite as I expected,” Sam said.
“Didn’t go according to anyone’s plans President Harvey,” Troy said. “But I believe the base has been neutralized,” he added.
“True,” Sam said. “I leave you with the cleanup captain,” Sam said as he turned to a waiting car to take him back to the council.
“Tomorrow is another day. Maybe we’ll find something out in all this rubble,” Nall said. “In the meantime lets go back home.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bri said wanting to head back to her quarters and relax.
“Let’s go then, I’ll give my report in person,” Troy said as they walked towards a nearby shuttle to head to the Argo.
End of part 37