Disclaimer: I do not own Battlestar (or we'd have Battlestar micro machines too)

Cerberus

"Launch Vipers, and prepare to engage." Mandell ordered, her blood pumping with fury, and now, for the first time, Croft was looking at her in fear.

"Commander, that's another Battlestar, why are you?" he asked, and Maine cracked before she did.

"Because you idiot, it's launching its Vipers, and it's moving in to attack position! We've encountered it before, the entire ship has gone rogue, so now get up into the core and get the hell out of our way!" he barked, while Mandell addressed the ship.

"We have arrived at the rendezvous point. We are not under attack by the Cylons, but instead, we are under attack from a rogue Battlestar by the name of Charbydis which is launching it's fighters. These men are traitors to the colonies and have defected to the Cylons. Muster people and prepare to engage the enemy." She snarled, her eyes fixed on the Battlestar which had destroyed the Isis.

"Commander?" Sampson asked nervously as a frightened looking Croft scurried up to the core beside Newlands, whose eyes were wide with shock as he heard the events unfurl.

"This time we end this colonel. Wipe that ship off the face of the galaxy." She spat as her own Vipers began to launch into space as the guns and flak fields began to light up the space between the two mighty warships.

Haymaker blazed his Viper into space, the others close behind him, following in tight formation as the Vipers of the Charbydis sped out to confront them. While they were still in Viper Mark IIs, they were still a force to be reckoned with. Raptors sped out of the flight pods backing up the Vipers as the two space forces approached collision point.

"Actual, this is Haymaker, orders?" Haymaker asked nervously, firing on fellow colonials did not inspire him with confidence, and he heard Mandell breath through her nose in anger.

"As I have said Captain, that ship is a traitor, it has attacked our forces and is now actively endangering our mission, so weapons free! Take them out!" she spat, and Haymaker exhaled in disgust as he gunned his engines, his forces right behind him.

"Haymaker does make a point though ma'am, blowing apart fellow officers without them having direct proof of their treachery isn't going to sit well with any of them." Sampson warned quietly, and Mandell exchanged a tortured look with Maine, did they tell the crew what had happened to the Isis, and risk demotion, discharge, disgrace and death? Or did she keep quiet, and pray to the gods that her crew would follow her orders without asking questions?

No, there was no way around this one, she couldn't ask them to go up against another Battlestar and not tell them everything. She couldn't ask them to put fellow officers, some of whom may even be friends or family, in their crosshairs and blast them out of the sky. She had to tell them, and hope to hell that she could survive the consequences and that by doing so, she wasn't dooming the lives and careers of every single person aboard her ship.

"This is the commander. Some of you might not like my orders, and may be questioning my role in them. So I have no choice but to tell you the truth. The destruction of the Isis happened as you have all heard, we jumped in to investigate what we thought was a dead Basestar. We were then ambushed by another two, all three of them attacked my ship. We tried to evacuate, and we thought we were saved when the Charbydis arrived. Until it fired a nuke right into the prow of my ship, and launched its own Vipers to assist the Raiders in destroying our forces. The Charbydis and its crew are traitors to the Twelve Colonies, and it is our duty, however distasteful it may be, to eradicate them for their treason. So I say again, weapons free." She said grimly as with renewed vigour, her fighters sped towards their opponents as the guns of both warships opened fire on one another.

"A traitor Battlestar?" Shakti asked in disbelief, and Player pursed his own lips, it didn't sit well with him either, but the proof was right in front of him, the other Battlestar was opening fire, its heavy guns blasting away at Cerberus which was firing back with gusto, seeming to channel its commander's determination to bring the rogue ship to justice.

"Stow the chatter Shakti, and get to it, we have our orders." Haymaker barked, and she scowled at the voice of her CAG, he hadn't been quite so gung ho a minute ago, but nonetheless she gunned her engines, blazing towards a Viper, and with the other craft in her sights, she reluctantly opened fire.

She was not the only one to have done so, as her fellow pilots, however much they might have hated it, opened fire on their enemy as bullets pierced the space all around them. Vipers on both sides were ripped to shreds in fiery explosions, venting their pilots into space as the Vipers entered the throng together, bullets filling the air around them as the two fighter forces battled for supremacy.

"They're all together now, it's going to be hard to keep track of who's who in that throng." Maine said worriedly, and Mandell nodded silently, her eyes fixed on the battle as another heavy blast rocked the ship from their opponent.

"She's got the high ground commander!" Rayden called, and Mandell cursed, turning to the helmsman.

"Bring us up to face it, full acceleration, we are taking that ship down!" she spat, and Cerberus gunned its engines, soaring towards the Charbydis which upped its fire rate, the heavy blasts starting to rock the ship. However, having regained some of the initiative, Cerberus was now giving as good as she was getting, setting the prow of Mandell's obsession aflame.

Raptors zoomed towards one another, their weapons blasting towards each other, both sides clashing with the same ferocity as the Vipers all around them. Vipers were nearly evenly matched, planes blowing apart left right and centre as the two sides sought dominance. Player reversed his thrusters, dropping off from his pursuit and flipping around in order to open fire on the plane chasing him, but that had left him open to an attack from above. Shakti was there a second later, ripping apart the Viper that had tried to down her wingman, both of them blasting their engines in order to go and help Eyeball, who was dealing with an enemy Raptor and two Vipers chasing his tail.

"Friendly fire, friendly fire!" came a cry before their voice was cut short by an explosion, Mandell closing her eyes in dismay, her men were dying out there, all because of this treacherous Battlestar that had gone rogue.

"Commander, we're picking up some strange readings from the Charbydis." Rayden alerted, and Mandell turned her attention to the young lieutenant, something beginning to twinge in the back of her mind.

"Strange readings such as what, nuclear?" she asked in alarm, she wouldn't put it past them, after all, that's what had killed the Isis.

"No ma'am, it's kind of like an EMP reading, you know, like what we use on the Cylons to narrow the field." She reported, and Mandell realised too late what their plan was.

"Pull up, have all our Vipers pull back to the ship, get them out of there, now!" she cried in alarm, and Sampson looked at her in concern.

"Commander, what are you thinking?" he asked worriedly, and she turned to him, her face white.

"Think Colonel, if you are a rogue Battlestar in league with the Cylons, what's one thing you don't have a use for?" she asked, and Sampson's face drained of blood as well.

"EMP, but if you're suddenly in combat with another Battlestar…" he began, and Maine looked grim.

"Then you have a use for it again. And because each EMP weapon needs to be configured to protect the ship it's from, and if it wasn't assigned with any other ship…"

"They can release an EMP burst without risking their own ship. Get our people out now!" she barked as her Viper and Raptor pilots, still questioning orders, turned tail and began to streak back towards Cerberus, the enemy Vipers in hot pursuit, their rounds taking down a few more of her fighters as they all sped back to their mothership.

"Get us out of here, now!" Mandell ordered as Cerberus began to turn, the FTL drive spooling up to use the preplanned escape route.

"There'll be another time." Maine vowed to her, taking a firm grasp of her hand as another heavy impact shunted into the ship as Cerberus turned away from Charbydis, opening itself to further and more powerful attacks as the enemy Battlestar let loose a massive broadside, and she gave him a nod, but both of them knew the truth, if they didn't jump soon, there wouldn't be a next time because as soon as that blast went off Cerberus would be dead in the water and at the mercy of the ship named for the ancient maelstrom.

With its flank now exposed, Cerberus was being hammered as Charbydis pressed its advantage, the entire ship rocking as explosive rounds from its light and heavy cannons thundered down against the hull of the newer Battlestar, as alarms blared throughout the ship, fires erupting along it's port flank as it tried to make good its escape.

"Ma'am, ready for jump!" Sampson bellowed, and Mandell nodded.

"Do it!"

"They've launched the EMP missile, we're not going to make it!" Rayden cried as a new type of alarm blared throughout the ship as the EMP rocket sped right towards Cerberus as the normal cannons of the enemy continued to chew into the ship, as the flight pods sealed into place.

"JUMP!" Mandell screamed, an in those two split seconds, several things happened at once.

The rocket slammed into the alligator's head section of the ship, the entire ship shuddering from the impact, its crew falling to the floor and crying in surprise or pain as they were suddenly blasted from their positions. A field of crackling energy buzzed across the ship, plunging the ship into total darkness as it shut down around them. The FTL drive, one of the last things to shut down, spooled up and with that, the ship jumped just before the entire ship went dark, escaping the Charbydis which lost several Vipers in the slipstream as the enemy ship jumped, and with that the Cerberus vanished, the entire ship shutting down in seconds but not before making good their escape. However, where they would wind up was anyone's guess.

"There's no sign of them Commander Jarvis." Colonel Grundy, the XO of the Charbydis informed him, and Jarvis sighed grimly.

A tall man with broad shoulders, Jarvis had been horribly scarred in a recent attack, half of his face marked with scar tissue, which also affected his left hand. The right hand side of his body was in still reasonable condition, and he had a shock of white hair on the right hand side of his head, along with a bright blue eye, counteracted by the black eye patch he wore to cover the loss of his other.

"Thank you Colonel." Jarvis said turning to the three Cylon Centurions that were a permanent fixture of the CIC in recent days.

The lead one, called Nines, was a blood red colour, glinting in the night, whereas Fives and Eights, a dark blue and silver model respectively, all turned their glowing visors onto Jarvis, who exchanged a look of dislike with Grundy.

"You have done well Commander. Our congratulations." Nines said, before clanking out of the CIC, leaving the crew looking at their commander in distaste as they pondered the fate of the Cerberus.

XX

Red clouds of stellar mist drifted past the blackened hull of the lifeless Battlestar, drifting aimlessly through space as blue crackles of electricity flickered across her hull. For all intents and purposes, the ship appeared to be a ghost ship, and it was now floating listlessly through space following the battle that had nearly destroyed it.

Inside the few remaining lights were dim, and almost all of the power was being directed towards CIC and the medbay, both of which were hives of activity since the attack.

"Miss Rayden!" Mandell snapped, leaning more heavily on her stick than she would have liked, but the attack had knocked her off her and she had landed badly on her bad leg, and now it was hurting like a bitch, but right now, her crew needed her so she had to struggle through the pain.

CIC was a mess. Several panels had blasted outwards with the energy surge, sending people clambering for cover, but many more had been lacerated by shards of glass and plastic. Shrapnel had also erupted from exploding consoles and had impaled at least one member of her crew, costing him his life. Another hadn't even had any warning as the console he was at had exploded in his face, his decapitated corpse still sitting at his station. Panels had fallen from the ceiling, and a few had come loose from the floor, and what was more, small electrical fires were blazing at various points throughout the room. DRADIS was a lost cause, but at least the command console was managing to flicker with some last vestige of life.

Rayden was bleeding from a wound on her temple and had electrical burns up her arm, but other than that, she seemed alright. Well other than being hysterical.

"A Battlestar, it was a Battlestar…" she was prattling, and Mandell finally cracked.

"Miss Rayden, get a grip!" she bellowed, slapping her across the face, which stopped the girl's babbling and she focused on her commanding officer.

"Sorry ma'am." She muttered, and the older woman nodded, her face grim but understanding.

"I know it's a lot to take in, and I will explain everything later. But for now, Cerberus is out first priority, we need to see exactly how damaged she is, and what we can do in order to fix it. For that I'll need your help Miss Rayden, can I count on you?" she asked, and the girl nodded, saluting smartly.

"Yes ma'am you can count on me."

"Then resume your post and give me a sitrep now." She ordered, and the girl headed back to her station.

There were groans as more people felt the force of their injuries, and the walking started escorting people towards the medbay. Maine hobbled over, looking a little winded, and Mandell shot him a curious look. His wheeze and a gesture was all she needed, and despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile at his predicament. Poor bugger needed some ice where it'd do most good, alas, he had to suffer. Suppressing a snort of amusement, she turned to Sampson who was holding his waist, wincing in pain as he moved, and Mandell's sharp eyes picked up on the trail he was leaving.

"Five dead in here ma'am, and three were killed in the nest up above." He told her weakly, and she bit back a curse before fixing him with a steely glare.

"And you Colonel?" she asked, and he nodded bravely.

"Fine ma'am." He replied, and she rolled her eyes.

"Poppycock. Now I am going to ask you that question again, and bearing in mind the consequences of lying to a superior officer: these include court-martial, demotion, loss of earnings, loss of military pension, lifelong shunning from your fellows, and most likely a lifelong dependency on prescription anti-depressants and haemorrhoid ointment. Now I shall ask you again colonel, what is your situation?" she asked sharply, and he looked at her sheepishly before removing his hand from the slice of shrapnel embedded in his side.

"Sorry ma'am." He mumbled, and she shook her head.

"Your dedication is admirable, now get to medbay. We're in enough of a mess and I can't have my XO dripping on my deck wherever he goes, go on." She said without heat and he nodded and followed the exodus from the CIC.

"The good ambassador has made himself scarce, as has the agent." Maine muttered, his voice tight, and again smirking at his predicament, she nodded before turning to Rayden.

"We're on emergency power, but we still have life support and a few of the backup generators. The FTL drive seems like a good restart will fix it, which is something. The engines are down, we can't extend the flight pods and they're depressurised, so our pilots are stuck in their ships and our crews can't get to them. Power outages across the ship, medbay seems fine but it'll be taking up a lot of our energy now which could cause us problems. Communications and DRADIS are both out, we can't even communicate internally, and emergency power won't last for long." The girl reported, and Mandell harrumphed in irritation.

"We're going to have to do a whole restart, that should hopefully reset some of the systems. Alright, I'm going to go and see Chief Milne, see what he can tell me. Captain, you have command up here, get as many things repaired as humanly possible, once I've met with the Chief, we can then see about doing the full restart." She ordered, and Maine nodded, and Mandell turned to leave when Sergeant Trask entered the CIC, looking grim.

"Ma'am, can I borrow you?" he asked, and there was something about the tone of his voice that gave Mandell pause.

"Certainly." She replied, following him from the room, and after they were out of the earshot of the crew, he leaned in close.

"We have a problem." Trask informed her, and she let out a long suffering sigh.

"Of course we do, let me guess, the good ambassador?" she asked, and he chewed his lip, pulling his black cap lower over his eyes.

"In a manner of speaking. I was in the head, and slid in something. So, I'm all fit to chew out the cleaning crew when the emergency power sets in. And, well, I found this." He said gravely, opening the currently sealed door into the head, and after looking around nervously, Mandell entered the room after him.

He was in the far corner, and his expression was grim. Hobbling over, he opened the door for Mandell, and she bit back a curse.

There was a dead man in the stall, clad in beige shorts and a floral shirt. Blood was smearing the wall and his eyes were open and glassy.

"Marvellous, Mr Rose is no longer among the world of the living. How the hell did this happen? Did he hit his head on something when we got attacked?" Mandell demanded, the last thing she needed was a dead civilian on board, especially when he was part of the good ambassador's crew.

Trask sighed wearily.

"If only ma'am. There's nothing in here that could have done it. The mark on the wall is from when he was sat in here." He told her darkly, and Mandell looked at him in alarm, a horrible feeling rising in the pit of her stomach.

"Wait, are you telling me he was murdered?" she demanded, and he nodded.

"Afraid so ma'am." He told her, and she glared at the dead body of the journalist, then looked down at the deck.

"If you're listening Hades…your timing's lousy." She grumbled, pondering her next move.

XX

"This is intolerable commander, you promised us protection!" Croft stormed inside her darkened office, the fish the only ones who were happy present in the room, and Mandell struggled to keep her temper in check.

"Yes I did, however I did not realise that I had to protect you and yours from people on the ship. Your press man was murdered ambassador, and I'm afraid that I'm at a loss to explain why." Mandell told him, trying and mostly succeeding at keeping her temper in check.

"Who would want to murder him?" Keenan, who had came with his father, asked nervously, and she chewed her lip, the same question was occupying her thoughts as well.

"That young man, is the question." She admitted, and Croft gave her a vexed look.

"I insist you take us back to colonial space at once, if my son and I's personal safety is in jeopardy, you must return us home." He insisted, and she looked at him in disbelief.

"Did you miss the battle? We can't go anywhere, my crew are currently trying to perform a restart of the engines so that we can at least move somewhere but half the ship is still fried, we're not going anywhere any time soon. So ambassador, I'm afraid I must insist you, your son and your security man head back to your quarters, and remain inside. I will have two marines standing guard on your door at all times and I will keep you abreast of all developments." She informed him, and he looked as though he was about to argue when Keenan got to his feet and bade her goodbye, defusing his father, and the three swept out of the room, Mandell suppressing a groan as she did so.

"Maybe they missed." Maine quipped, and she grunted in annoyance before she turned her attention to Newlands.

"Agent, have you had any sign of your traitor yet?" she asked, and the well-groomed agent shook his head.

"I'm sorry commander, but one, I can't actually talk about the investigation and two, well, I haven't. I have got some leads though. Do you think this traitor killed Mr Rose?" he asked, and she nodded.

"I see no other option, the question is why? Rose as far as we know was just a normal journalist, hired by Croft to document the mission, he wasn't that high profile, yet someone saw fit to off him." She growled, and Yeager emerged from the shadows, looking pensive.

"Well, his unfortunate dress sense aside, as far as I can tell, bearing in mind I've only done a preliminary inspection of the body, he was hit from behind with a heavy implement, which on a ship like this could be anything, and above that, whatever was used has most likely vanished now anyway. And as far as we know he had no problems with the crew either." He told her, and Mandell sat down in her chair wearily.

"I can't believe that someone on the crew did this, no, this has to be the work of this mysterious traitor, which means it's now imperative we find him or her before they strike again. Agent, go, carry out your investigation, see what you can find out. Meanwhile we need to try and get Cerberus back to normal. Alright, captain, go and see to the restart, I'm going to help Milne with the flight pods, doc, you go back to medbay and for heaven sake make sure my XO stays put until later. Let me know as soon as you do the autopsy, well, provided we have communications back. We're sitting ducks out here, and I don't like it one little bit. Let's hustle people, I want us at least able to put up a fight should they come back for round two." She said in distaste, and Yeager fixed her with a concerned look.

"Dotty, the Charbydis nearly got us. I know you have a score to settle with it, the three of us do, but we've got to be careful. There's something not quite right about all this, about Charbydis showing back up right now, on top of this peace mission. We're missing something here." He warned, and she nodded.

"I know old friend. Alright, keep me updated. I need as many crew on deck as possible if we're going to get out of this." She said and the doctor gave her a world weary nod and left the room allowing the two remaining to get to their feet.

"So I guess that proves that there is a traitor on board." Maine grumbled, and Mandell nodded, looking supremely irritated.

"You're right. I had hoped it was just intelligence jumping at shadows but it appears not. And now we need to keep an eye on the good ambassador, while it would be an odd way to go about it, we can't dismiss the possibility that they may actually be after the good ambassador. Alright, go back to CIC and supervise operations, I'll head down below and help out Milne. But let's be watchful, there's something not right on this ship." She said in distaste, and as he headed for the door, she voiced something that was niggling at her.

"And when you get back, have Miss Rayden examine the computer for any of Mr Rose's previous work. As I say, we can't assume that this isn't about the ambassador, but as he is the one dead, we would be foolish to rule out that perhaps he was the target. I'll ask the ambassador later. Right, I want us back in business as soon as possible. Because once we are, we're resuming our mission." She said forcefully, and Maine looked at her sceptically.

"What, the peace offer with the Cylons? Since we know they're in it with the Charbydis I think we can safely assume that all negotiations have been cancelled." He told her, and she narrowed her eyes in anger.

"That's true, I expect the negotiation is off the table, and as such we need our communications fixed so we can inform command. But, you and I, we have unfinished business. We won't be caught by surprise again. This time we will end the Charbydis." She growled menacingly, and Maine didn't doubt for a minute that she meant it as the two of them left the room.

XX

One of the flight pods had been pressurised, and as per Mandell's instructions, the pilots were out and about, helping with the repairs to the ship, while remaining on a state of alert, because if the enemy Battlestar came back for round two, it would be up to them to try and hold the line, as Milne was having trouble pressurising the starboard flight pod, which would severely undermine their ability to hold off the enemy.

However, with Mandell on the rag, her fury was echoing throughout the ship. They had encountered not only a traitor Battlestar, which was bad enough, but it was a traitor Battlestar which was allied with the Cylons and had shot at their fellow colonial officers. And what was worse, this wasn't the first time this ship had apparently fired on their own, since they had been the ones truly responsible for the destruction of the Isis. The ship was hence bustling with activity as they did everything to get the ship back to fighting readiness, replacing fried wiring, reworking junction boxes, restarting systems as the ship steadily came back to life following the attack.

And all through it all Agent Newlands moved like a shadow, talking to crew members, gauging their responses, on the lookout for something that only he knew. And it was his endless quest for answers that had led him to Wilma, who was currently helping Milne, a couple of deckhands and Mandell herself rewire the controls in one of the LSO station.

"So, you've noticed nothing suspicious on board?" Newlands asked, and Wilma shook her head, swearing as her knee spasmed in pain from leaning on the cold hard deck.

"No, nothing really out of the ordinary, well, at least not inside the ship, there's still an enemy Battlestar out there shooting at us, which is a little odd don't you think?" she asked, and he smiled, checking her out as she put her head back under the desk, pulling out some fried wiring.

Mandell was at the other end of the room and snarled in annoyance, and giving up trying to use the wrench to unscrew the bolt she was trying to access, she went to her old standby of hitting it until it worked. With several loud bangs, she did indeed loosen it, and with a smug grin and a pointed look at Milne, who grinned and shook his head, she pulled the bolt out, accessing the wiring with a disdainful expression on her face.

"Of all the crappy…" she complained.

Her mind was abuzz. Rose was dead, having been murdered, most likely by their mysterious traitor, whilst on board her ship. The Charbydis was involved in all of this, but she didn't know to what extent. The Cylons had made a peace offer, but it was fairly clear that the attack of the hated Battlestar had scuppered any possible chances of that working, but that had never been much of a possibility anyway. There was a traitor on board, and her ship was half dead in space, in Cylon territory, and was basically sitting out in the storm with its trousers down. She knew one thing, she was damned if she was going to let Charbydis or the Cylons take another of her ships.

The phone buzzed and she answered it without thinking.

"Yes?" she asked, and it then dawned on her that communications were down.

"We're nearly back to full operations ma'am. We have communications back up, the FTL is rebooted and ready to go, and we have just got pressure back in the starboard flight pod. The engines are going through their spooling up cycle now, and we are nearly off emergency power. We'll be able to get underway within an hour or two." Rayden reported cheerfully, and Mandell breathed a sigh of relief, at least they weren't dead in space anymore.

"Well done Miss Rayden. And the other matter, the one I asked Captain Maine to ask you about?" she asked, and Rayden lowered her voice.

"I did some checking, but its odd. As far as I can see, Rose didn't do all that much, he was a photographer, not a full fledged journalist. Looks like the ambassador was going to write the piece himself, you can imagine how that would go down, Rose was only on board to photograph the event." She explained, and Mandell frowned.

That was even more curious. While the egotistical nature of the good ambassador didn't surprise her in the slightest, the fact that Rose was only really a photographer did, there was no reason a photographer should make any enemies.

"What stories has he covered?" she asked in interest, and Rayden popped her lips as she consulted the databank.

"Nothing really juicy, not as far as I can see anyway. Took photos of the exposure of the corrupt local council on Leonis." She suggested, but Mandell shook her head.

"By the time that one broke everyone knew it anyway, all the colonies knew they were corrupt, tends to raise eyebrows when their entire year's budget vanishes in a fortnight." She said sniffily, making Rayden snigger.

"He covered the teacher's strike on Picon, not that that would make him any enemies, it only got so bad because of when the strike fell, two weeks before the summer holidays, it was parents complaining because it meant they had to spend more time with their kids than they wanted." She reasoned, and Mandell smiled at that.

"Anything else? The corruption story's the only one that might have triggered anything, and considering the man who broke the story is now the breakfast host on Caprica Today I doubt it's that." She said, and Rayden made a small noise of interest.

"Well there is actually, do you remember after we lost the Semele? Caprica launched the Day in the Life series, following several military people around?" she asked, and Mandell nodded.

"I remember, it was to try and show the people what we do day in and out to protect them, and to distract them from the fact that we just lost an entire task force. Was he involved?" she asked, and Rayden nodded.

"Yes actually. It seems he was on board the Battlestar Elysium, which if you recall…"

"Was destroyed by the Cylons only a few days later after they left the ship. Interesting. Once we get underway, ask the ambassador about why he hired Mr Rose, and get me the after action report on the destruction of the Elysium. That might yield answers. Thank you Miss Rayden." Mandell said before hanging up.

"You've done a good job commander." Milne said, inspecting her work, and the commander smiled.

"Thank you. Do you need me in here still?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No we've got enough of a head start now commander, you go on." He encouraged and she nodded.

"Very well, I'll visit the medbay, check up on the wounded. Troops." She said with a nod to the others and left the room as Milne finished the work the commander had started.

"What do you think of Commander Mandell?" Newlands asked as Wilma extracted herself from beneath the desk, stretching herself to work out the knots, and she shrugged.

"She seems a pretty good commander, she's already more than proved herself if you ask me. Wait, are you inspecting the commander?" she asked suspiciously, and he smiled easily, shaking his head.

"No, it's just that if there's any possible hint of insubordination or resentment of a soldier's superiors, there's a good chance that that's where the poison is coming from. See, since I came on board, I've seen a lot, and it's kind of unsettling." He said nervously, and she glared at him.

"Well obviously, you're a spook, that puts people on edge before they even know why you're here. On top of that they know you're here to investigate someone on board, and since you don't know who, you're bound to put people on their guard in case they say something and you get the wrong idea. Then we get a mission to go make peace with the Cylons and encounter a rogue Battlestar, course we're jumping at shadows, wouldn't you be?" she asked waspishly, and he patted the air to calm her down.

"I know all that, but with everything else going on here, it could be that things are going under the radar. I'm just trying to get a feel for what's going on here, that's all." He assured her, and she huffed as she headed out of the room, the agent hot on her heels.

"Yeah, and are you any further on with your investigation? I mean where's your proof that there even is a traitor on board?" she demanded, and he laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her storming off.

"Well I think the fact that the location of the meeting site was betrayed is pretty good indication that someone on board doesn't want the peace deal to go forward, or is up to something, wouldn't you agree?" he asked, and she nodded, looking nervous.

"Look I get you're just doing your job, but we're trying to do ours, and it's pretty clear that something isn't getting told to someone, we just don't know what, or to who. And after the battle, we're all a little highly strung." She complained, and he nodded in understanding.

"Yeah I get it. Look, we've all had a rough day, why don't you and I go and relax in the observation deck later on tonight? Would that be alright?" he asked hopefully, and she snorted in amusement.

"Really, was that your best line?" she asked in disbelief, and he grinned, shrugging.

"Hey, beggars can't be choosers, like I said, we've had a rough day. So, you up for it?" he asked, and she smiled and nodded.

"Sure. I'll call you when I'm off duty." She promised, and he grinned, taking her hand and kissing it.

"I'll hold you to that." He promised, and with a last amused smile she turned and left, leaving the grinning agent behind her.

But before he made his rendezvous that evening with the attractive pilot, he still had work to do. Despite what he had told her, he was beginning to get suspicions of who the traitor really was, by examining the crew, by listening, observing. And now it was time to take action.

XX

With the vast majority of repairs either being carried out or having been completed, Mandell strolled back into the CIC and then stopped short, as she saw, to her great surprise, her XO leaning against the DRADIS console, still a little grey, but to her great bemusement, back at work.

"Colonel!" she barked and he went pale, and Maine looked up from the report he was reading, allowed himself a small smile, before going back to it as she stomped into the room, looking most bemused.

"Ma'am." Sampson said, with only the barest discernible wobble in his voice as she fixed him with her steely glare.

"Would you be so kind as to explain why in the name of Olympus you are here and not in the medbay where you belong?" she snapped, and he gulped.

"Well, since I'm not critically wounded, and the doc already patched me up, and he's got more immediate worries, like the other wounded and our dead body, so I ordered him to discharge me. Though he did say I did so at my own peril and that he wouldn't patch me up after you were through with me." He admitted fearfully, but instead Mandell looked at Maine, thoroughly put out.

"He lets the kid order him around, but he doesn't let me do it? I'll string him up, I outrank him but he always prattles on about doctor's prerogative and some such nonsense and keeps me in bed when I want to get out!" she raged, and Maine chuckled, as did Rayden while Sampson smiled a little behind her.

"Maybe the kid isn't as stubborn as you are yet." Maine suggested, earning him a glare from Mandell who turned her fiery gaze back onto her XO.

"Alright, he wouldn't have let you pull rank if you were in any immediate danger, but I should warn you, if you drop dead on my deck I'm not informing your family." She huffed as with a final whirr the DRADIS console came back online, restoring her CIC to its former grandeur while Sampson smirked a little as he leaned against the console.

"Ma'am, we're nearly back to full fighting readiness, we've got a few last bits and bobs to replace but other than that, Cerberus is ready for action once again." Rayden reported cheerfully as Maine descended to join the other two.

"Thank you Miss Rayden. Alright, it's high time we get some answers around here. Colonel, prep us a course back to the rendezvous site where we encountered the Charbydis, let's see if we can't find any more information on the Charbydis, it's time for round two, and this time, they won't get the better of us." Mandell vowed, and Maine nodded grimly towards the door.

"Commander." He warned, and the tone of his voice left her in no doubt as to who had just entered the CIC, making her sigh in annoyance.

"Ambassador." She greeted as she saw Keenan climb the stairs into the nest above them as Croft approached the commander.

"Commander. Where do we stand with my mission now, after the battle?" he asked, and she had to admit, it was a good point.

While they did know that the Charbydis was in cahoots with the Cylons, most of the people back home did not, and the ones who did would certainly not back them up. The attack of the Charbydis did seem to indicate that the Cylons weren't interested in peace, however, they couldn't rule out the possibility that the rogue Battlestar had attacked of it's own accord and that the offer was still open to try and end the war with the Cylons however remote the possibility might be.

"That is rather a good question ambassador. However you are quite welcome to remain in the nest until we get back to the battle site, so we can see what our next move will be." She told him, and he nodded, looking worried as he headed up towards the nest.

"He's mellowed a little." Maine commented dryly, and Mandell smirked without humour.

"It seems like not knowing what his purpose is anymore has robbed him off some of his ballsiness. Such a pity." She commented as Sampson leaned against the console as it finished flickering and came fully online.

"Looks like we can get back on track commander." He reported, and she nodded, picking up a phone so she could talk to her people.

"This is the commander. As you know, we were attacked by a rogue Battlestar, the same Battlestar which destroyed the Isis. The Charbydis is a traitor to the colonies, and has endangered the entire ship and our mission. Now, before assuming command of Cerberus, I was told that if I repeated the Charbydis incident to anyone, I would be shot as a traitor, for spreading such malicious lies and letting people know we have rogue Battlestars out there. Unfortunately, events forced me to reveal what I was ordered not to tell, and now, all of your lives and careers are in danger. That is why we must end this. I intend to take us back to the battle site. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, our mission may still have a chance at success, however remote the possibility might be. While we believe the Charbydis is in league with them, we can't know for sure that the Cylons ordered the attack on the summit site, which means our mission still has an outside chance of success. But above and beyond that, that is the last site where we saw the Charbydis.

I'd rather not place you in this position. I never wanted to endanger your careers, or your lives by bringing you into my own private war. But I'm afraid, we have been left with no choice in this matter. We are going back, to see if our mission still stands. And if not, I'm going to use my authority as a commander at war to hunt down the Charbydis. A rogue Battlestar presents just as much of a danger to the colonies as a whole fleet of Cylon basestars, and it is our duty to end that threat, whatever it takes.

So I lay it on the line to you. We are no longer following official Colonial orders, we are technically committing mutiny as we are going against the wishes of the Admiralty. But it is our duty to hunt down this rogue Battlestar, no matter what the cost. And once again I'm sorry that you are all caught up in this. If, once all this is over, you wish to remove me from command, feel free. But until such a time as this mission, or our hunt, is over, I'm afraid I have to ask you for your service, despite knowing what it could cost you in the end. So, everyone to your stations, and prepare for battle, as there's no telling what we might find at the other end." She concluded grimly, ending the announcement and looking around the CIC.

Her crew met her stare, and all of them to a man looked her square in the eyes, and nodded, filling her with confidence. Her crew was behind her, and for now, that was all she needed, she could deal with everything else following all this…if they survived.

"We're ready for FTL jump ma'am." Rayden reported, and Mandell nodded.

"Very good. Jump." She ordered tightly, as the mighty ship blasted away.

They emerged back into real space, surrounded by the wreckage of destroyed Vipers and other associated debris. Mandell looked at the DRADIS readout, her eyes narrowed. Their great enemy was here, the Charbydis, the ship that had betrayed the colonies, had destroyed the Isis, that was threatening their mission and their futures. Either way it was time for an end to this.

"Any sign of the Charbydis?" Maine asked as Croft rejoined them, and Sampson shook his head.

"There's no sign of them anywhere. Other than their destroyed Vipers, but that still isn't enough to convince the Admiralty that there's a rogue Battlestar out there that's sniping our forces." He concluded grimly, and Croft stood beside Mandell.

"What about the Cylons, is there any sign of them? Perhaps they still wish for peace?" he asked hopefully, and Sampson shook his head.

"No, no sign of the Cylons anywhere, or of the Charbydis. Hate to say it commander, but it doesn't look like there's anything here we can even use to try and hunt them down." He concluded, and Mandell shook her head softly.

"No, there's something here. Send out the Raptors, examine the wreckage, we'll bring it all aboard if we have to, we just need to try and find it. There's something here, there has to be, that can help us track down the Charbydis." Mandell said, and Maine looked up at the DRADIS, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Commander, several DRADIS contacts." He reported, and she looked up to see seven contacts, all cruiser sized, enter their immediate vicinity.

"They just jumped out of nowhere, is it the Cylons?" Croft asked, his eyes flicking to his son worriedly, and Rayden shook her head.

"Commander, they're broadcasting a colonial ID." She reported in surprise, and Maine looked at Mandell questioningly.

"Reinforcements?" he asked in surprise, and Mandell narrowed her eyes, they weren't meant to receive reinforcements, their mission was meant to have been top secret, so why would there be a colonial task force here?

"Get me their command ship, let's see what they're doing here." Mandell ordered, reaching for the handset, when Rayden frowned.

"Commander, their command ship, the Jupiter class, it doesn't have a name, it's not listed on any of our databases." She reported, and Mandell suddenly had a very bad feeling developing in the pit of her stomach.

"There's an entire task force out there, the Jupiter class, three Valkyrie class, two Gemini and one Pisces, run all their names." Sampson ordered, and Rayden looked at him in confusion.

"Sir, all those ships, they've been registered as destroyed." She said in disbelief, and now Maine looked at Mandell, the last desperate hope they had fading him.

"A last remnant of the Ghost Fleet Offensive?" he asked hopefully, and Mandell shook her head.

"Somehow I doubt it. Set condition one throughout the ship." She ordered, that feeling in her stomach growing stronger.

XX

"Agent, where are you going?" Trask asked as Newlands headed towards the hangar, and he started in shock.

"Sergeant. I was trying-" he began, and Trask shook his head.

"Don't you realise what's happening, the pilots are gunning to get out of here, you'll only get in the way come on, we'll head to CIC." He said, leading the slightly bewildered agent away to safety as alarm klaxons began to blare throughout the ship.

XX

"Commander Jarvis! You were right. They're there." His lieutenant called, and Jarvis growled, it was time. The probe they had left behind in the wreckage had done it's job, and now, the very thing that had set him and his crew on this path had revealed itself.

"Jump the ship. And prepare for battle." He ordered as the Charbydis moved towards the battle site.

XX

Mandell looked up as Trask and a worried looking Newlands entered the room, and Newlands rushed right to her.

"Commander, what's going on?" he asked nervously, and she was about to respond when Rayden looked up at her in alarm.

"Commander, they're arming nukes!" she yelled in terror, and Mandell looked at her in shock as alarms began to blare.

"Commander?" Sampson asked in shock, and she looked at Rayden.

"Get us out of here, evasive action!" she ordered as more nuclear readings began to blare up on DRADIS as the colonial task force armed its heavy weapons.

"Another DRADIS contact, it's the Charbydis!" Maine shouted as the other Battlestar dropped out of nowhere, and to their great surprise, moved itself in front of Cerberus, putting itself between them and the enemy task force.

"The task force is launching nukes, they're bound right for us!" Rayden yelled as their guns opened fire, shooting at the oncoming nukes, but without their Vipers, they had little chance of intercepting them all.

"Ma'am, the Charbydis is firing too, at the nukes and the task force, not at us. What the hell is going on?" Sampson asked in confusion as the phone buzzed.

"Mandell." She barked as she answered it.

"Commander Mandell, I know I'm not going to be the most trustworthy person to you, but this is Commander Jarvis of the Battlestar Charbydis. The task force is called Titan Command, and it won't stop until both our Battlestars are destroyed. You need to trust me." He insisted as her eyes bulged with anger.

"Trust you after you destroyed my ship and had a damn good shot at this one too, what planet are you on?" she spat, brimming with fury.

A nuke then slammed into the alligator head of the Cerberus, shaking the entire ship as it tried to cope with the sheer force of the attack. Radiation washed over the hull as the ship struggled to recuperate as crewmembers toppled to the floor and the entire ship shifted.

"Severe radiological damage, but it didn't breach the hull." Rayden breathed as she clambered back into her chair while Mandell propped herself up on the DRADIS console, sending Sampson a reproving look as he clutched his side.

"Commander, we just received a blast ourselves, and if we're hit, our nukes will go too," Jarvis told her urgently, but there was something in his voice that gave her pause, "you need to trust me. Titan Command is here to destroy you, and me if they can, we need to go!" he urged as more nukes were launched from the rogue Battlestars, a cascade of nukes that was going to annihilate both Battlestars unless they did something.

"Trust you? Are you crazy?" she spat, and Jarvis swore as his guns blew up a nuke just before it hit.

"Fine don't trust me, but you need to follow me, if you come with me, I can explain everything, but you need to come with me now, because we're not going to survive this barrage for long!" he yelled, and Mandell looked at the readout showing the dozens of nukes firing towards her ship and closed her eyes in resignation.

"Lead the way. Miss Rayden, link our jump with the Charbydis. And if need be, be prepared to blow them out of space." She spat, and the two Battlestars jumped away just as the barrage of nukes sped through the place where they had been a moment before, the fate of the Cerberus and her crew now in the hands who not a day before had been trying to kill them, the very rogues who Mandell wanted dead above all.

XX

Commander Hovis frowned as the ships escaped. Now, both traitors were now together, which, while irritating that they had fled, made everything easier. The traitors were now together, and all that meant was that destroying their contagion would be that much easier.

"Signal the rest of Titan Command, have them spread out and look for the traitors. Transmit a message to Commodore Leonard and inform him of what's happened. The traitors are now together, and now it's time to end this, once and for all." He vowed, his eyes flashing with malice as he looked at the DRADIS console, determined to find the remaining traitors and hunt them down, and bringing them to justice once and for all.

First of all, apologies, I didnt realise it's been over a year since I last updated it, but I intend to have it finished by this time next year, so I hope you'll keep coming back in order to read it

So, the mysterious Titan Command has revealed itself, and is determined to hunt down all traitors. But what brought them there in the first place? And the mysterious traitor aboard Cerberus has killed Croft's press officer, but who is it, and why, and what else do they have up their sleeve?

And worst of all, Cerberus has now had to join forces with Charbydis, so what does the future hold for Mandell and her crew?

So once again, apologies for the lateness and I hope to update again soon after the new year, so please read and review and I promise I havent forgotten about this story, and I hope this update holds you off until next time!