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Battlestar Argo

By

AJ Marks

Movement

Gunther waited as the Hermes settled into an orbit around the moon near Earth. They figured that it was probably the best spot to watch Earth from. There was a lot that they still had to find out about the Arbus. The aliens had not done much else from what they could tell of Earth. There was still a few faint news programs running but there were more independent operators talking back and forth then anything else.

"Ah, captain Gunther good to see you on the bridge," a voice said from behind him.

"Captain Scott," Gunther said to the captain of the Hermes with a slight head nod in the man's direction.

"Aye, it's a terrible sight my lad," the man said. "I never figured that I see the day where my own home world was invaded," he said shaking his head.

"Did you have any family," Gunther asked.

"No lad, was married to the sea for many years. Was a fishing captain until just a few seasons ago," Scott said. A whopper of a storm came up and she took me boat to Davy Jones Locker."

Gunther frowned a bit at that wording. He had not heard anyone describe anything the way this captain had.

"She sank lad," Scott said.

"Sorry to hear it," Gunther said.

"Aye, she was a beautiful ship she was," Scott said. "Ye could feel the sea breeze on your face and the rocking of the ship under yer feet. Somedays I miss it."

"Maybe you'll get another chance one day," Gunther said.

"Perhaps, perhaps," Scott said. The universe he was discovering was a strange place with a mind of its own. He was just glad to be useful again.

The scanner operators would keep an eye out for anything that was a bit unusual and notify them. With little else to do the two men sat down to listen to the reports that were coming in from the surface while they waited for Peter to report in. They just hoped that the man did.

Troy and Bri walked into the room where they were to meet up with the new pilots. They were the group that had come aboard the Hermes just before the attack on Earth. Their emotions were still mixed up. Many had families back on Earth that hey did not know if they were alive or not. Troy had a feeling that that might come into play.

"All right, listen up," he said to the group. "I know that many of you are worried about your loved ones but if we do our job then we hopefully see them again. I know that a lot of this is a shock to you, its a shock to us as well. I will tell you from experience that doing you job will benefit them more than anything else right now. We're going to strike back, but we'll have to be patient."

"Easy for you to say," one of them said.

"Actually it isn't," Troy replied. "I have a father, mother and sister back at home, which is a year of traveling away. I don't know if they are alive or not right now. If a massive attack occurred back at my home then I would not know about my family for at least a year, consider yourself lucky."

Bri watched as the room went quiet as they absorbed that. They all knew that a strike back would occur before the year was over. She almost felt sorry for Troy at times. His life had changed so much. She also wished that she could meet her in-laws. She had not had a true family since she was four. She pushed those thoughts aside for now and brought her mind back to what was at hand.

They were giving the group the basics of flying a viper. There were several simulators set up to give a safe environment in which to learn how to control a viper. Aside from a few G's that the dampeners did not cancel there was almost no difference in what they saw.

Troy watched as the group went thought the first training system. It was a basic flight control system. The first thing that the new pilots had to do was learn how to fly the ships. The simulators were a great way to have them learn without endangering anyone's lives. He could still remember his first live flight. He had trained on the simulator so long that it felt just the same.

He glanced over at Bri who was studying the readouts of the flight performance of the group. A thought came to him that they might not have any more replacements for a while now. That was something that they would have to fix if they wanted to build up their fleet to free Earth.

The simulator finished up with Bri and Troy taking the results to another room to look over. The rest of the recruits waited in the room to see how they did.

Peter waited a few more minutes. The last day had been a bit harrowing to say the least. They had reports of armed troopers on the ground taking control over several large population centers that were still functioning. There was still a lot that puzzled him but it appeared that much of the military was ineffective. Peter was not sure why the military was ineffective but sure wanted to find out.

"Sir, my sister is in the military not far from here. If I get in and out I might be able to find out what is going on," a young woman kept saying to him.

Peter was weighing the advantages against the disadvantages. If she was captured then she might give away the fact that they were here. But he also needed information. He finally made up his mind.

"Al right Tammy, you can go, but be very careful. I don't think that they realize that we're here at the moment," Peter said to him.

"I will," Tammy said then walked over to where the door was to begin her small mission.

"Tammy, if you're not back in two days we might not let you back in," Peter said.

Tammy nodded her head in understanding. The military base was only a few hours walk away so if she was gone too long they would know that something might have happened.

Peter turned back to the communication station. He flipped a switch to see if the Hermes was nearby to get a transmission to yet. It would be good to hear from someone friendly that was for sure.

"Captain Scott, incoming transmission from Earth," the communications officer said.

"That's good news today," Scott said walking over to the communicator. "Get that lad, Gunther, up here. I'm sure he'll want to hear this," he said as the communicator came to life. "Peter, how be ye?"

"I've been better that's for sure," Peter replied.

Gunther walked onto the bridge and quickly made his way over to where the captain was. He hoped that he had not missed anything important. From the looks of it he thought that Peter had just called.

"Captain Gunther," Peter said. "I’m glad to see your faces that's for sure."

"Why, something going on," Gunther said as Scott listened in closely.

"It seems like the Arbus are invading the planet now," Peter said. "I've gotten reports that they are trying to take over the remaining population centers."

"Interesting," Gunther said. "I thought that they destroyed most of the population centers?"

"A few of the smaller large cities were not destroyed, damaged yet but not destroyed," Peter said. "There also appears to be very little resistance by the military as well."

Gunther's eyebrows went up at that comment. That was not something that he had been expecting to hear. "Any good news that you can report," Gunther asked.

"I've got a person heading towards the local military base. Her sister is stationed there and I'm hoping that she finds something out," Peter said.

"All right, report back when you have that report, and Peter, it is good to know that you're still there," Gunther said.

"I will," Peter said as they signed off.

"The news doesn't sound good laddie," Scott said.

"Nope, it isn't," Gunther said knowing that he had to make a report to Commander Ares.

"Hey, what if we take this here ship and go see if we can find that station again," Scott said. "There might be something going on there that we can see."

"Hmm, not a bad idea, especially seeing how I don't see all of the attacking ships," Gunther said. "I'll make a report to the commander while you do that."

"Sounds good laddie," Scott said turning to the crew and gave out the order to head out.

Ares sat at his command station on board the Tiger. He had just received the latest report from Gunther at Earth. So far there was not a whole lot going on. The latest report was that the Earth military was not seriously fighting back which did not make much sense to him. He had the feeling that something else was going on.

Ares had sent the report to the senator along with Robert. They were both important in what would happen with the Earth if they ever managed to free it from the Arbus.

"Commander," Troy's voice said breaking though what he was thinking about.

"Captain Troy, what can I do for you," Ares said seeing the young man.

"Well I was just reporting in on the new pilots," Troy said.

"Ah, how are they doing," Ares said leaning back to listening to the report of Troy.

"They appear to be learning fast," Troy said. "Most passed the first couple of flying lessons on the simulators."

"Hmm, not surprising seeing how many were former pilots back on Earth. A few even have military experience as well," Ares said having reviewed the preliminary reports before they began their training.

"Yeah, but even the ones without any flying experience are doing good," Troy said. "Well ahead of schedule."

"Perhaps they have a good motivator," Ares said. "Being attacked is a good motivator for a lot of people."

"I suppose so," Troy said. "I guess it helped us out as well. There were times that I know my mom wished that the war was over. I don't think that there will ever be peace with the Cylons."

"No, but these Arbus are different. It will take a bit of time to learn what they are fighting for," Ares said.

"True," Troy said.

"You haven't seen anything that might help," Ares said.

"No, just a lot of jumbled things from the first vision. There is one where someone is standing in a large room, or cavern and there are hundreds of cylinders. It seemed like humans were in them," Troy said.

"Interesting," Ares said. "Could they be prisoners or food or something?"

"I don't know," Troy said. "It’s just like a picture and nothing else."

"Well whatever it is, we'll figure it out when it comes up," Ares said. "In the mean time keep up the good work."

"I will sir," Troy said. "Any news from Earth?"

"Gunther reported back in. It seems like the Earth military isn't fighting back as much as Peter thought it would be," Ares said.

"That's surprising," Troy said. "I would have thought that they would be fighting."

"That's what I thought as well," Ares said. "He does have someone going to investigate it."

"Maybe we'll find out something that can help us out," Troy said.

"I hope so as well," Ares said.

Troy made his way from the bridge over to where the cafeteria was on board the Tiger. His wife was saying that she was hungry and to meet him there. He walked in not surprised to see Nall and Rebecca also with her. As he walked over to where they were sitting he wondered what type of trouble Nall was going to get into this time. He had known him for almost two years now and Bri could still invent new ways to get back at Nall.

"Hey, what did I miss," Troy said sitting down.

"Nothing much," Nall said. "Bri was just telling us what was new."

"Ah, I just came from the bridge," Troy replied.

"Any news," Rebecca asked.

"Nothing much, just that for some reason the military isn't really fighting back. Don't have much information beyond that," Troy replied.

Rebecca looked a bit confused at that statement. She was sure that the military would be fighting back against this new threat. Perhaps they were waiting to strike back. She voiced that thought out loud to the rest of the group

"Could be," Troy said thinking about it. "It just might be the break we are waiting for as well. But I think we'll find out after Peter reports back. He has someone working on that question."

"Seems to me that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered before anything happens," Nall said getting an agreement from Troy. "Questions like how about a threesome," he said looking over to Bri then Rebecca. Rebecca rolled her eyes at Nall's comments.

"You couldn't handle me, what makes you think you could handle two women," Bri said with a smirk making Rebecca choke on the drink she had just taken.

"You know, being married sure has changed you," Nall said after getting over his shock at Bri's response. "You used to get all embarrassed if I mentioned sex in any way."

"I found my tree," Bri said with a wink at Troy who suddenly found a lot of interest in the drink he was holding.

"Hey we could make it a foursome then," Nall said not missing a beat. I'm sure Jax wouldn't mind."

Rebecca just shook her head as suddenly Nall jumped with a sharp yelp. Both Rebecca and Troy realized that Bri had kicked him.

"Baby, she kicked me," Nall said giving her puppy eyes.

"You're just lucky I couldn't reach higher," Bri said. "Not a word," she quickly said pointing to Nall.

Things were back to normal Troy thought to himself. He leaned back and took a bite of his sandwich listening to the normal banter between the two of them.

Pratt wondered around the bridge of the Tiger. He would glance over at the shipyard where the Argo was stationed. He could see the glint of metal and the small workers that were scrambling around the hull to place the new stealth covering over the ship. They were working around the clock to get the ship done. It would sure make him feel better to have the battlestar operational again.

Next to the Argo he could see the shape of a new destroyer class warship under construction. The general idea was to build smaller ships at the moment. They were not sure how long it would take to build a large complex warship like the Argo. The new ship was called the Cheetah class. They were naming the ships after animals on Earth.

"Commander Pratt," Renee said gaining Pratt's attention. He quickly looked around the bridge for Ares until he realized that he was the one she was talking to. He had been promoted to the rank of commander to take over command of the Tiger.

"Renee, what do you have," he asked her walking over to where she was sitting.

"Communication coming in from the Hermes," she said.

"Put it though," he said walking up to the command chair. "Get Commander Ares up here as well."

The picture came on showing Captain Scott and Gunther on the screen.

"What have you heard," Pratt asked.

"No good sir," Gunther said. "We got a report back from Peter. For some reason the Earth military commanders are unwilling to engage the Arbus."

"What," Ares said having just arrived. He was already on his way to the bridge when the call came in to him.

"Tammy, one of Peter's crew has a sister in the Earth military. She says that her superiors are unwilling to order any engagements. Many in the military are feeling that they should leave the military to organize their own counter-offensive," Gunther said.

"Hmm, I don't like this," Ares said. "Is there any reason given as to why their superiors are unwilling to fight back?"

"No, that's what is making things worse for them. There is no feeling that there is going to be a counter strike soon," Gunther said.

Ares could imagine the frustration that such leadership might cause. It was something that he was trying to avoid. He wanted to make sure that the people knew that he was going to be doing something.

"This sound very unusual," Pratt said. He was hoping that something else would be the reason for the Earth military's reluctance to engage in combat.

"Yes it does," Ares said. "Call a meeting of all deck commanders and flight leaders. Also make sure that Robert and Senator Sam are there are well. Is there anything else that we should know?"

"No, but I have a feeling that if something doesn't happen soon then It might be too late," Gunther said.

"All right, I'll take that under advisement," Ares said as the conversation ended. He and Pratt both walked off the bridge heading to the meeting room.

Troy and Bri had been headed back to their quarters when they received the message to head to the meeting room. Neither of them knew what this was going to be about. They had heard nothing recently and could only conclude that the commander had heard something from Earth.

Walking into the room they noticed that Nall was already in the room. The senator along with Robert was also there. The group did not have to wait much longer until Commander Ares walked in along with Pratt. Troy looked around and noticed that the room was full. Now he really was curious as to what the commander wanted.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I wanted each of you to be keep abreast of the situation," Ares said to the group. "It appears that the Earth military organizations for whatever reason are not fighting back."

That comment got everyone a bit restless along with a quiet murmur or talking as people realized what he had just said. There was something definitely going on.

"I think we can use this to our advantage if we plan it right," Ares told the group. "I've already asked the construction crew working on the Argo to see if they can speed up their refit. It will take till the end of the week but it will be done ahead of schedule."

Troy glanced at Bri as they thought the same thing. It meant that their own training schedule would have to be accelerated as well. He just hoped that they would be ready when the commander needed them.

"Our base on Earth has talked with people in the military and I think we can achieve a surprise counter strike in the next week or so. With the coordination with Earth military forces we should be able to free Earth. The problem is not free the planet its keeping it free," Ares said. "With only a battlestar and a gunstar it will not be easy especially since we do not know the strength of the Arbus forces."

"We'll need to take out the Arbus station nearby," Troy said speaking up from where he was sitting.

"Yes, along with at least six of their warships," Ares said. "I never said that it would be easy though. It is something that needs to be done however."

That was something that they all agreed on. It would be the first offensive of the young war by the humans. No one could really guess as to how the new attack would go.

Peter walked around the small underground compound. So far he had done quite a lot in such a small time. Tammy had gotten in touch with her sister a couple of times to tell her what they were thinking and what was going on. The strange thing was the fact that the commanders further up in the command were either reluctant to do anything or did not want to do do anything.

He was glad to hear that Tammy's sister was able to coordinate with several other units in the military to go with the coming assault by the Argo and Tiger. Tammy came walking into the room after her latest outing.

"What's the news," Peter asked.

"Well, my sister says that she can confirm people ready to go in several countries. It's weird," she said with a small shake of her head. "I watched the commander of the base walk though a couple of rooms. It was almost like he was seeing who was still there and who was not."

"Strange indeed," Peter said.

"I did hear of a couple of skirmishes in town. I was able to get some information as to what happened. Seems like a couple of ex-police officers attacked an Arbus group. Both men were killed but they did injure a few Arbus. A couple might have died," Tammy said.

"Well, at least we know that our weapons will work," Peter said. He had heard of several reports on the news of attacks by small groups but nothing was coordinated yet.

"The officials are still doing nothing," Tammy asked.

"Nope, they are pressing for talks with the Arbus but I don't know, I don't think that they are talking right now," Peter replied.

"People are living and hiding in groups, the Arbus haven't attacked the military bases that have been left this entire thing doesn't make sense," Tammy said.

"I know," Peter said. Nothing made any sense in this attack. The first invasion destroyed a lot of cities, now it seemed like everyone was just avoiding each other. Something had to give but what.

Scott and Gunther were relaxing on the bridge watching for anything that might happen. They had scouted the station that was nearby. There were four ships at the station while two orbited Earth. So far Gunther hoped that they had not picked up the Hermes on their scanners. He had toyed with the idea of going down to Earth on one of the shuttles to see what was going on. Scott had argued against it at the moment. He was not sure that such a risk was worth it with Peter still reporting in.

Gunther had relented in his argument as if they were spotted then it might give away what they were planning. That was something that he did not want to do. The latest report had the Argo at over seventy-five percent done. That meant that the attack might happen in the next couple of days.

"Incoming ship, repeat incoming ship," the scanner operator said taking Gunther's mind of what he was thinking.

He and Scott quickly walked over to the scanner to check it out. There on the scanner was three ships incoming. By the speed they would arrive in the next couple of hours. He recognized one of the ships as the transport that the Tiger had attacked a couple of days ago. The other two were escort ships but what they had seen.

"I think we should call this one in what do you think," Gunther said looking over to Scott.

"Aye laddie," Scott replied. "I think the commander will want to hear about this."

Gunther quickly walked over to the communication console. The conversation was quick but there were only the incoming ships to report. Once that was done then Ares would make up his mind as to what needed to be done.

Ares thought about what he had just been told. He needed to know what was on the ships, but did not want to risk having the Hermes seen. Instead he told Gunther to inform Peter that the Arbus might be beginning a second phase of their invasion. He would have to be aware of what was going on.

Gunther acknowledged the order then signed off. He would wonder if this ship also had humans on board. It would be interesting to find out.

End of Movement

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