PEGASUS Book 11: Way Beyond and a New Beginning
CHAPTER ONE.
Battlestar Pegasus – Combat Information Center
The Pegasus shook as another Cylon missile penetrated the anti-missile barrage.
"Damage Control, report!" Colonel Geoff Tolen barked as he grabbed the dradis console in order to stop being flung to the deck.
"Hull breach on alpha deck - quad 2", Major Glen Sanders replied after checking his console display, "The airtight hatches are still in place in that area, but I don't know how long we can maintain hull integrity if we get another direct hit in that location".
"If we don't get the FTL drive activated within the next couple of minutes, Comms", Cain said, "Then there won't be anything more to worry about as there won't be anyone alive on board to be able to worry!"
"CAG reports that another attack phalanx of raiders are homing in on our position", Lieutenant Ginnie Annan reported from the Core Command console, "He reports that if they maintain their engagement they will very soon be overwhelmed".
Cain glanced at Tolen, who got the unspoken message. He went over to Annan's position.
"Issue the general recall to CAG", Tolen ordered, "When all of the strike wing have landed, we'll head out at flank sub-light speed".
Annan nodded, and clicked on her comm.
"Spar Actual, this is Core Command", Annan spoke into her mike, "Home Plate Alternate orders full recall. Acknowledge".
Silver Spar Group Leader
Out in his viper, Syke keyed his mike.
"This is Bojay", he replied, "I acknowledge". Keying his mike to the inter-wing uni-com frequency, he spoke again.
"Okay folks, let's head back to Home Plate. Disengage and return for combat landing. Stay out of Home Plate's firing solution".
At his command, the vipers that had been attacking the initial Cylon raider attack formations disengaged and headed back to the battlestar at full throttle. The Cylon raiders started to give chase, but the suppressing fire from the Pegasus' anti-aircraft batteries forced them to break off pursuit. Still, when the additional attack phalanx arrived to reinforce them, then the batteries would be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers.
Battlestar Pegasus – Combat Information Center
Looking over Annan's shoulder, Tolen noted the readouts indicating the Silver Spar Wing vipers heading back to base, then he went over to the Helm console.
"As soon as the last viper is back, give us all you got", Tolen ordered the helmsman, "We've got to get as much distance as possible between us and those tin-head toasters!"
"What course, XO?" Helm inquired.
"Any frakking direction away from that attack phalanx!", Tolen screamed. Pale faced, the helmsman nodded. Catching Cain's look of disapproval, Tolen paused and took a deep breath. Losing one's temper was not going to make things any better, he told himself. Stay frosty. He gave Cain a thumbs-up.
Nodding, Cain picked up his interphone. Punching in a code, he waited for a connection, then spoke to Major Wyatt Thyssen, the Pegasus' Chief Engineer.
"How goes the FTL, Wyatt?" Cain inquired.
"We're working as fast as we can, Commander", Thyssen replied, "but whoever sabotaged the navi-comp links to the FTL did too good a job. We can't finish getting the backup installed for at least another thirty minutes".
"We can't remain here for that time, Major", Cain replied, "So secure from your work and crank up the sub-light drive to flank speed. We'll try and outrun them".
"Understood, Commander", Thyssen acknowledged, "but we haven't had time to check for any other sabotage. They could also have been tampered with".
"We don't have the luxury of choice, Wyatt", Cain responded, "so move it!"
Clicking off the interphone, Thyssen gestured to his engineers to leave the FTL control console (where the navi-comp linkages to the FTL itself were housed), and directed them to the control console for the sub-light propulsion systems.
Normally, when the FTL was in need for repair, the battlestar would need to have its other propulsion systems 'idling', given the arrangement of the propulsion systems on the Columbia-class battlestars. But with the tactical situation that the Pegasus suddenly found herself in when she emerged from the last FTL-jump - at a different location that originally programmed – to what was supposed to have been a quiet jump to the outskirts of the Kobol Star System, turned out instead to be right in the midst of a Cylon Task Force of three Base Stars and over two hundred Cylon raiders already deployed! The fact that the navi-comp linkages had then suddenly blown up from a small hidden thermite charge had rapidly confirmed that the mis-programming was a deliberate act of sabotage.
Thankfully, Cain had - habitually - had his crew at Condition One alert when the jump was made, so the suppressing fire and the scrambling of the four strike squadrons of Silver Spar Wing was done quickly, but with the ability to activate the FTL through the navi-comp now gone, a programmed FTL-jump was now out of the question.
"Sheba reports all surviving vipers down", Annan reported after a couple of minutes from Core Command.
Captain Tricia 'Sheba' Cain - as the Deputy CAG of Silver Spar - was the tail-end viper. As soon as her viper thumped down on the port landing bay deck, Annan nodded to Sanders.
"Retract the landing bays, Helm", Sanders ordered, "Flank Speed!".
The battlestar started to accelerate, heading away from the three base stars - which were now starting to give chase. Their missile batteries were still firing salvoes after them.
Cain winced as the Pegasus shuddered again from the impact of another missile hit. Sanders quickly filled him in on the damage inflicted from it, then returned to his station.
"When I find the frakking Cylon spy that sabotaged our FTL", Tolen grumbled, "I'm going to have the distinct pleasure of stringing it up in a launch tube in front of a viper, then firing the viper's cannon at its synthetic guts!"
"Let's just hope we live long enough for you to do that, Geoff", Cain replied.
Just then, another shudder ripped through the Pegasus. Sanders looked ashen as he scanned his console.
"That was no missile hit", Sanders blurted out. Just then, the interphone from Engineering buzzed.
"What is it, Wyatt?", Cain demanded into the interphone.
"The sub-light drive controls have been sabotaged, Commander", Thyssen replied, "Both interfaces from the primary and secondary energizers to the propulsion units have been severed. The charges must have activated when we hit flank speed".
With the sub-light propulsion out, the battlestar was now no longer accelerating, and the dradis console showed that the base stars - with their raiders - were closing in again.
"Our sub-light is out, our FTL navi-comp is out, and there are too many raiders for our strike wing to deal with", Tolen reported unnecessarily." Those frakking toasters have got us where they want us.
Just then, a new voice came over the bridge unicom: "Pegasus, power down your weapons systems and prepare to be boarded, or else we will destroy you".
The CIC went silent as the crewmen turned to Cain.
"That will be the day!", Cain ground out. He turned to Sanders and Annan.
'Lieutenant", Cain ordered, "Order the marines to prepare to repel boarders". As Annan turned back to her console to comply, Cain turned to Sanders.
"Comms", Cain ordered, "Get ready to fire up the FTL".
"But Commander", Sanders replied, "with the navi-comp fried, we can't determine where we would end up jumping to. We could end up in the middle of a star or a supernova..."
"If we remain here, we'll be destroyed!", Cain stated, cutting Sanders off, "and since you know what Cylons do with prisoners, better we take our chances with a random FTL".
Sanders nodded, then turned his interphone on to Engineering in order to communicate with Thyssen.
Battlestar Pegasus – Engineering
"He wants to do what?" Thyssen screamed, "Not only is the navi-comp down, but also the power regulators. The only power I can put through to the FTL is raw power from the energizer. A random jump with that much unregulated power will jump us at least a half-galaxy away, and eat up a lot of our fuel as well! We could end up in intergalactic space, or in the other direction like the galactic center. And even if we came up in a safe place, there's a good chance that the FTL itself will be well and truly fried and we'll be stuck powerless and propulsion-less in Gods-knows-where!"
"Better that than being stuck here at the mercy of the toasters", Sanders responded, "Actual is right: we have got to risk it!"
Nodding, Thyssen hung up the interphone, then walked over to the FTL. Quickly grabbing some cabling, he connected one end up to the FTL - splicing in some bypass connections, then as he took up the other end, a thought struck him. He turned to one of his colleagues.
"Get another power lead and run it to the secondary energizer", Thyssen ordered. As the secondary energizer put out a peak rate of about a third that of the primary, then not only would the jump range be somewhat shorter, but the lower max power throughput would mean that the FTL itself would not be as-highly overloaded. It might even survive, but even that amount of power was taking an awful chance, Thyssen knew.
Battlestar Pegasus – Combat Information Center
Cain ordered the suppressing anti-missile batteries to be shut down. As the weapons officer complied, Tolen turned to Cain, not quite believing what he heard.
"By doing this, they will think we are surrendering, and that will mean they will not be firing any more missiles at us", Cain explained. As he finished his explanation, Anna reported that the remaining incoming Cylon missiles had self-destructed. It looked like the Cylons believed it too…
Command Cylon Base Star
On the control deck of the lead Base Star, the humanoid Cylon in command - a number Six model - noticed that the Pegasus had ceased firing.
"Looks like Cain has decided to succumb to the inevitable", the number Six remarked to her deputy; a number Two, "Our agent did his work well".
"With his propulsion out and his fighters being totally outnumbered, what choice did he have?", the number Two asked rhetorically with a broadening smile.
"Order our raiders to form a covering formation completely around the battlestar", the number Six ordered a Centurion, "Once they are in place, we will dock and board the Pegasus".
"What if Cain tries to self-destruct?" the number Two asked as the Centurion left the control deck, "he night have decided that if his ship is doomed, to take us all out in a last blast of defiance".
"Those circuits have also been disabled by our agent", the number Six answered, "So that option will not be available to him. Once we get our boarding party on board the Pegasus, they will overwhelm any resistance from their marines, then we will kill every human on board. And once that is done, we will make use of the battlestar for our own purpose".
Six's idea was to use the Pegasus as a Trojan horse and thus bait out any other human survivors…
Nodding in satisfaction, the number Two watched as the Cylon raider squadrons started to change their formations to cover the Pegasus from all angles. If Cain tried to open fire again, then the raiders would blast the battlestar into oblivion…
Battlestar Pegasus – Combat Information Center
Sanders monitored the disposition of the approaching Cylon raiders on the Dradis console.
"The raiders are positioning themselves to completely besiege the Pegasus", Sanders reported to Cain, "The classic bad tactical situation, in other words", he added unnecessarily.
"They're making sure that we don't re-open fire on them without getting ourselves vaporized ", Tolen commented.
"One of the base stars is moving in above us", Annan reported immediately after, "Looks like it is going to try and dock onto our upper hatch. I've ordered the marines to deploy there".
Just then, the interphone buzzed. Tolen picked it up and listened to the voice on the other end.
"Thyssen reports that he has the FTL hooked up directly to the secondary energizer - completely bypassing the damaged circuits", Tolen said to Cain, "When he switches the power on direct into the FTL, it will activate the jump, but with that amount of raw power, he can't make any guarantees that we'll survive it" .
Cain nodded. It would be now or never…
"Tell him to activate the FTL", Cain ordered, "and pray that we live through the jump".
Battlestar Pegasus – Engineering
Mouthing a silent prayer, Thyssen flipped the switch to pump all power from the secondary energizer into the FTL. The FTL glowed red from the power overload, then activated.
Command Cylon Base Star
The Cylon raiders covering the Pegasus saw the battlestar shimmer, then flash out of existence.
"They jumped!", the number Six exclaimed, "But how? Their navicomp was disabled!"
"They must have activated the FTL without it", the number Two replied, "The humans could be anywhere! We've lost them again".
"If they survived the jump, that is", the number Six commented, "They may have just saved us the trouble of killing them, and if not, our agent is still on board…"