Dislaimers: See Part 1
To Stop Running
by
AJ Marks
Part 7
Commander Tigh watched as the Cylon baseships now numbered six in front of him and he knew that there were probably at least two behind him. He had decided to send the Pegasus to the rear to try and stop the Cylons from destroying their fleet, and he ordered the fleet to head toward Earth in the hopes that they might provide some assistance to what remains of the fleet. The Galactica would delay the six baseships in front of them.
The viper pilots were still holding their own at the moment and he had no doubt that they could continue to fight against the overwhelming odds. He did wish that he had a few vipers to help him out in the battle, even tow could make all the difference in such a battle.
Apollo meanwhile had taken the Pegasus and was headed towards the rear to engage the Cylons there.
The Cylon commander was very pleased with the way the battle was going. The odds were now six to one in front and three to one in the rear, victory was almost assured, almost.
A centurion entered the room bringing the latest news.
"Speak centurion!" The leader said.
"There is an unexpected development in the battle." The centurion said before continuing. "It seems that there are some new combatants in the battle."
"Explain." The leader said.
"Our rear base ships have stated that there are a large number of fighters approaching from behind them." The centurion said waiting for further orders.
"Is there any identification?" The leader asked trying to figure out who this unknown force could be.
"Our scanners cannot tell." The centurion reported back. "Should I tell the baseship commanders to recall their fighters?"
"At once, there are more than enough ships to destroy the human fleet." The Leader said.
Apollo watched in disbelief as the Cylon fighters turned around and started to head back where they came from. He wondered if it was a trap that he was headed into. There were more than two baseships worth of fighters that he was tracking.
He was still thinking about it when the communications operator called him telling him that there was a communications coming through for him. Apollo knew that it was not Tigh, he would have been put through already so he assumed that it was one of the ships captains. Perhaps he had seen something that Apollo had not.
"Put him through." Apollo said not really knowing who to expect on the screen, but it was not Admiral John White.
"Looks like you could use a hand there commander." John said as a welcoming to the man.
"You could say that." Apollo said wondering what the man was up to.
"Well, we are engaging in the battle. Our fighters are about to engage the three ships behind you, we noticed them right after you left." John said hoping that they would take their help in the battle.
"So your the reason that the Cylon fighters suddenly turned around?" Apollo said putting the events together. "How many ships do you have?" Apollo suddenly thought.
"The entire fleet. Twenty-one ships ready to go." John said.
"Then you should be able to defeat those baseships quite easily, I hope." Apollo said beginning to formulate an idea in his head.
"Tigh, I have an idea." Apollo said getting Tigh's attention on the Galactica. "Do a stalling engagement, we have reinforcements from Earth." Apollo told him giving him a brief outline of his plan.
"That should work, provided that their ships are advanced enough." Tigh said hoping that their new allies would be.
"They are." Apollo said with confidence remembering the ships that he had seen.
The Cylons that had been at the rear found themselves against a superior enemy. Some sort of energy field that seemed to make the new fighters immune to Cylon weapons protected the fighters.
The centurion reported to the imperious leader to tell him of the latest news.
"Report centurion, how goes the battle?" The leader asked.
"The rear forces are in danger of being eliminated as we speak." The metallic voice of the centurion said.
"Explain?" The leader commanded.
"The new forces are human, but their technology is far superior than ours is. Their fighters and ships are protected by some sort of energy shield that our weapons can not penetrate." The centurion reported. "It is advised that we retreat before we lose all of our ships in the area and bring up reinforcements."
"How many new human warships are there?" The Leader asked wondering how many baseships they would need to fight this new enemy.
"The baseship commanders report about twenty-five human warships." The centurion said.
"Order the recall, and we'll have to step up the baseship two design series construction." The Leader said and watched as the centurion went to do his duty.
Apollo watched now really to surprised when the Cylon ships began to retreat. The fighters left the battle scene leaving only the ragtag human fleet and the new arrivals of the Earth war fleet.
"Do we pursue?" Bojay's voice said over the intercom and Apollo was glad that he had survived.
"Negative." Commander Tigh said. "There is a lot to do and we have no doubt not seen the last of them."
"Come on home, you'll get another shot at them." Apollo said watching as the fighters broke away and headed back to the battlestars.
Apollo took a look to see what was going on behind them and ordered the Pegasus to take up a position between the fleet and the battle between the Cylons and the Earth fleet. The Earth fleet did not take long to finish off the Cylons, and only one baseship was able to escape, but it was damaged.
Apollo wondered how long it would take for Admiral White to contact him. The thought was barely in his head when he was told that the admiral wanted to talk to him.
"Admiral White, I want to thank you and all of your people for stepping in." Apollo said.
"No problem, and call me John." John told him knowing that if the positions were reversed that Apollo would do the same thing. "Although it will cause some problems back home." John told him honestly.
"What's up?" Apollo said wondering what he meant.
"Some of our politicians don't want to get involved, but they forget that last time we didn't do anything and the alien race tried to destroy everyone and many of us welcomed them." John said remembering that frightful couple of days when humankind stood at the edge and step away in defiance.
"Sounds like our politicians." Apollo said with a chuckle then was interrupted by Tigh.
"Apollo I'd like to request to our new allies to move our fleet into their solar system if we can." Tigh said knowing that he would be in contact with their new allies.
"Did you hear that?" Apollo said seeing John nod his head and waited for a minute.
"I can allow you to move your fleet into the outer system, but any closer would require the approval of the council, I'll talk to the president and see what he says." John said signing off to contact his government.
President Steven Hiller sat at his desk wondering what was going on. He had been in the middle of a meeting when he had gotten an urgent message saying that the second fleet had left the system. Since then there had been no contact with the fleet and it was making Steve nervous. He wished that David were here. The man's brilliance was what allowed them to defeat the invaders. His computer virus allowed them the oppurintunity to destroy the aliens. Steve just wished that he and his wife were not on Mars right now. They were investigating some interesting ruins on the planet.
"Sir, Admiral White is on the line for you." His secretary said and Steve almost jumped to the phone.
"What's going on up there?" Steven said right away, his brash attitude coming out in full force.
"Sorry sir, but you did give me free reign at the moment." John replied to the president. "The Cylons attacked again, this time the human fleet outside our solar system, and we went to help."
"So we're now at war!" Steven said. "You know that there are some council people that will be very upset with you."
"I know, but I couldn't stand by and allow them to be killed if we had the chance to stop them." John said.
"I know." Steven said. "I think that it was inevitable, at least we will have help."
"They've asked our permission to come into our system, I've allowed them access to the outer part, but it would be up to you and the council to allow them passage to the inner system." John said watching the President's face and knowing that if he did not have to tell congress that he would allow it.
"I'll talk to them." Steven said. "For now we welcome them into the outer system. And I think that we would like to meet them as well."
"I think that it can be arranged." John said. "I'll talk to them."
Tigh watched as Markus walked onto the bridge. He was one of the few council members that Tigh did not mind on the bridge. The man was strong, smart and listened before starting to talk.
"I see we survived." Markus said. "How close was it?"
"To close." Tigh said wearily as he looked over the bridge. "If we hadn't received help from the Earth military we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"That close." Markus breathed.
"There were six baseships closing in on us from the front and three from the rear, a classic movement." Tigh said. "If we hadn't been on alert it might have been even worse."
"Yeah, Ziers has been taken down a peg or two for the moment." Markus said himself wondering how long before the man would bring something up again.
"His zealous attitude almost cost us everything." Tigh said not wanting to think how close it could have been. If Apollo had followed orders the fleet could have been lost. "We have been given permission to head into their solar system, only about half way, but it will provide some protection for the fleet."
"I don't have a problem with it, but some of the others on the council might, like Ziers, but I think I can handle him now." Markus said with confidence.
Tigh looked at the man and knew that he meant what he said. Markus was a bit younger than he was, but the man had a good head on his shoulders. "We should probably be ready to meet with some of them, they'll want to talk to us."
"That would probably mean you, commander, probably several members of the council, including Ziers." Markus said trying to make a list of names that would probably go. Ziers was still too powerful to not be included in the process.
"You should probably go and tell the council to either prepare to meet with some guests or be ready to go meet them. I'll have a shuttle standing ready." Tigh said and watched as Markus nodded and walked off the bridge to inform the council of what had happened now.
President Hiller walked into the meeting room where there were several senators and military commanders waiting for him so the report of what had just happened could get underway. Steven noticed that Senator Mitchell made it to the meeting for which he was glad.
"Okay, General Rejters has the report from Admiral White, C-in-C of Fleet Alpha." The president said as he sat down.
"Thank you Mr. President." The general said standing up to walk to the chart nearby. "As many of you know one of our outposts was destroyed by an unknown force. Captain Johnson was sent to investigate and found himself running form another ship, about a mile in length." The general said flipping over the chart to reveal a picture of the Battlestar Pegasus.
There were several murmurs as the people saw the picture for the first time. The ship was quite large and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the ship was a warship.
"This is the Battlestar Pegasus, a warship that was built by humans, who are looking for Earth." The general said and there were more clamoring, as the others did not believe what they were hearing. "We have learned that the ones who attacked us are called Cylons, pictured here." A picture of a Cylon raider and a basestar was shown. "If our new allies are correct, they are a race of robots who are bent on conquering all life."
"Do we know who they are yet?" One senator asked.
"Well, according to them, we are their thirteenth tribe that disappeared." The general said. "The Pegasus, along with her sister ship the Galactica, have lead a ragtag group of ship, over one hundred, from the Cylons after their home worlds were destroyed. Admiral White has said that they were almost destroyed by the Cylons a couple of hours ago. Our forces engaged in the battle and helped defeat the Cylons."
Several people started to talk at once. With so many people talking it was difficult to understand what was being said, but there were several arguments going on over the actions taken by Admiral White.
"Silence!" The President said getting everyone's attention. "That's better, now it no longer matters what the reasons were, the action is done. The Cylons know we're here and will probably be coming after us weather we help them or not."
"If the admiral had not done anything they would have probable passed right by us." One senator said.
"Yeah, like the last ones, who almost wiped us out!" Mitchell replied to the senator. "According to the reports our technology is better than theirs, our shields give us an advantage, let us use it before they can reply."
"This conversation will take place later, right now we have the problem with their fleet, they want permission to stay." The General said. "Admiral White has given them permission to stay in the outer part of the system, but that solution won't last."
""I think that we should meet with their leaders. The question the becomes where and when." The President said.
"Let's do it here." Mitchell said seeing several others nod their heads. This way all of congress could see them.
"Very well, I'll let Admiral White know." The general said getting up and walking out of the room.
End Part 7
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