Battlestar Argus

Toaster one was slowly coming up on the Argus. Reeves was in a space suit, on the remains of the hull, re-working the network connections to the FTL systems on the basestar. He quietly fumed because they could spool up the engines fairly quickly but the computer systems were going to be sluggish. He would have to do several tests but couldn’t think of any way to improve performance. Lieutenant Ford had noted he did too well of a job striping the ship for parts. As it now stood, several sections of the craft were exposed to space.

The Captain could see the battlestar in the distance as he made a few final connections, then worked his way back to the airlock. He radioed the raptor on the flight deck and asked to be patched through to the Argus. He wanted a hauler sent over to pick up the last remains of their work. But he also wanted some food and basic necessities sent over. It was a prudent idea considering the possibility of Toaster one becoming their ride home.

Actual responded directly and the captain spoke in short sentences, “We should be in orbit within a few hours. Anyway you can send over a hauler of human needs?” There was a pause for a moment and an agreement that this was a good idea. The Admiral responded, “I’ll send over 2 haulers, load the one up, send it to me and unload the other and park it on your deck.”

Reeves continued, “I’ve stripped this boat as much as possible. To do anything more will require a wrecking yard.” Hallis thought about it for a moment and wondered if given their current situation they might reconsider sending goods the opposite way, but the question was shrugged off, as it wouldn’t make much of a difference in a worst-case scenario.Admiral Hallis concluded the conversation and walked away. More or less the Argus was restocked and even had a surplus of food supplies. Most of the feature comforts were still missing aboard ship but at least he wasn’t worried about slow painful starvation or freezing to death.

Bridgeford intercepted the Admiral on the way to engine room. He was enquiring about Toaster one’s status and how the Captain was holding up during his command. “The man is like a machine in his efficiency and needless to say he is getting the job done. I expected nothing less from him.” The Colonel was inclined to agree; he would never forget how Reeve had to be ordered to perform the funeral service for someone who was like family to him.

“There is one other thing too. He made Ford his acting XO.” Bridgeford stopped in his tracks and looked at the man in dead awe. He could immediately understand why Ford would be the practical choice for an XO given the circumstances. But he never expected that Reeves could remove personal feelings so completely from a decision, or if he himself could have made the same judgment call, regardless of how much sense it appeared to make. Catching the look on the marine’s face, the Admiral commented that captain Reeves’ ability to make tough calls was one of the reasons he turned command of Toaster one over to him and not his XO.

The colonel simply snorted in response and asked what was the proposed plan. “He’s got the FTL drive operational again. I’m sending over two haulers, one to pick up the last of the parts and stuff. The other is to remain there in case it is needed. Zeus only knows that those machines have saved our butts a couple of times.” In the end it all made sense to the two men and it warranted no further discussion.

-----

The man-like cylons were inside the building, talking as Bear snuck around the perimeter. Bear was surprised at how much they appeared to be human and kept wondering what he would find inside one when he sliced it open. He was sure the opportunity would make itself present soon enough. Stealthily he moved closer to the building. The place was of advanced build and made to look like old bombed wreckage from the original outpost. If someone didn’t examine the place up close, they would easily overlook it. Two of the 6s and Mr. Conoy were inside talking. Bear avoided detection by two centurions and crawled under a window ledge to listen.

“Oh, she is a screamer!” commented one of the 6s. Lieutenant Gains was in the distance yelling in pain. Bear wondered to himself what information could she yield that they didn’t already know. With an outpost and an airbase they must know the location of the Argus and apart from that, what else could they want to know? But he, at the very least, needed an idea of where in the building Sasha was being kept. He kept his head below the window and strained to hear. Perhaps something in their dialog would yield an answer.

A 3 came in and approached Mr. Creepy, taking a seat beside him. “When are you going to share your memories?” She was curious to find out how exactly Leoben got onboard the Argus. Mr. Creepy groaned and responded. “I hate sharing memories because it takes away from the human experience.” Everyone present nodded in agreement, but the 3 talking pushed for further information. “If you must know I was on the Pegasus trying to help a 6 make certain it was destroyed.” There was a sound of delightful acknowledgement because they suddenly realized who he was.
“We had identified Cain as being one of those humans that are a serious threat. A 6 and I were dispatched to make sure things went according to plan. The ship had its networks taken offline in preparation for a 3-month overhaul. They should have been back online by the time of the attack, but unfortunately for me there were serious problems with their networks and I did everything to try and get them back online.” He paused for a moment, and Bear could make out the sound of him sipping what he believed to be coffee or tea. “It became obvious that someone was purposely sabotaging the system, keeping it offline. Sadly 96 hours before the attack, someone framed me for the problems and admiral Cain took me into custody. With it being that close to the war, I played along to avoid detection.” He slurped his drink again and asked how 6 was doing.

The 3 who was doing the questioning raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Sounds like you were dealing with a shadow.” She paused and poured herself something to drink. “This coffee stuff is very addictive, I can understand why humans consume somuch of it.” Taking a sip herself she continued, “The Pegasus got away and we were wondering why neither you nor 6 downloaded. Still I would like you to share those memories. We could all learn from your experiences. Especially if you have anything that will help against the shadows.”

Leoben quickly agreed to share, after he had another coffee and a piece of pie. He appeared surprised to find out that the Pegasus escaped and 6 didn’t download. He was then informed that there were other vessels surviving, under the protection of an obsolete battlestar, the Galactica. She had taken a group of refugee ships and headed out into deep space, under the pretence of going to earth.

The room grew silent for a moment and Mr. Conoy broke that silence by enquiring about lieutenant Gains. “Are you certain that the north-east room is secure enough? I mean, no one can climb down through that vent on the roof and rescue her?” One of the 6s responded, “I’ve got 2 centurions patrolling the perimeter of the building. I’m certain nothing will get past them.” This was the tidbit of information the Lieutenant was hoping to receive. He knew about the patrol and with the stealth that one uses to hunt animals and good timing, he had slipped in between them without notice. He looked up, noting that now the challenge was to scale a wall in equal measure.

He closed his eyes and used his other senses to see. The voice of his grandfather was once again heard in his mind. “There is a strong breeze today and when the machines walk you can hear it blow through them.” His surroundings became silent and harmonious at the same time. The beat of his heart pounded in his own ears so loudly that he thought for a moment he would die of a heart attack. But slowly he heard the inaudible soft sound of wind against the metal parts of the centurions. Without opening his eyes, he felt for a place to hold the building, away from the view of the window, and began to scale the wall. His fireman’s axe tied tightly to his waist.

His hand reached the ledge of the top of the building and he softly pulled himself over. Crouching low he surveyed the area and satisfied there was no immediate threat he made his way to the ventilation shaft. Upon examination of it, he discovered that front grill would need to be pried off and with a whispered cuss he set about using the axe to gain access. The panel screeched at one point and he paused waiting to see if it had alerted anyone. The centurions below stopped momentarily but continued on. Bear grinned to himself because with the slight wind today the sound could appear to come from multiple directions. Obviously it was good enough to fool machine ears as well as human. He crawled into the shaft and began his decent.

Several times the lieutenant had to close his eyes in order to refrain from sneezing within the dusty metal tunnel, that otherwise was quite easy to traverse. When he reached the room, he sat back in the shadows of the ventilation shaft and peered through the grill covering it. He could see two identical women torturing Sasha. She was tied to a wall and the women were giggling at her like little girls because she had soiled her pants. In addition to their physical attacks, there was loud repetitive noise that Bear could feel almost disrupting the natural rhythm of his heart, and a voice that blared at her, “You’re Sub-human…Sub-human.. Sub-human!” over and over again.

A skilled hunter, Bear resisted the urge to move from his hiding spot and attempt an attack. He wouldn’t be able to exit the shaft fast enough, and one never enters a lion’s den while the lion is feasting, one waits until it sleeps with a full belly. Sinking his teeth into his lower lip he watched in disgust the cruelty of the women. Finally, Sasha passed out from pain and her torturers decided to let her sit with her wounds for a little while. Then they figured they would have one more go at her before hosing her down as prep for shipment to a harvest farm. They exited the room and one yelled out that someone had better have saved her a piece of pie.

The lieutenant shoved his fingers into the grate and took firm hold of it. Again he used the axe and started to pry the covering open. Fortunately this time there was no real sound from it and once free he hooked it on to the pike end and lowered it to the floor. He then pulled himself out and went immediately to the room’s door locking it. Reaching Sasha’s side, he attempted to wake her. “Sasha,” he shook her slightly. “I can’t carry you through an air vent.” She rolled her head and spat in his face. “Sasha, it is me Bear. I’m here to rescue you.” Her one eye was swollen shut but with the other she looked at him and gurgled a chuckle. “I’m chained to a wall.” Lieutenant Bear looked at her and smiled, a fireman’s axe was light, but it was made to chop through obstructions quickly. It was proving to be an ideal hand-to-hand weapon against the toasters. But hacking at the restraints would bring attention of the enemy upon them. He examined the wall and laughed because it was the weak point. He could use the pike end and rip the restraints quietly out. It would only be a simple matter of making sure the chains were muffled as they crawled back out the shaft. Bear went about his work and only commented that they both needed to bathe after this.

Lieutenant Gains fell to the floor with a thud. Her body ached and once again Bear repeated that he couldn’t carry her in a ventilation shaft. She forced herself to stand and began moving to the vent. Bear then pushed her up into it and she forced herself to crawl down it into the darkness. The coolness of the metal surface helped soothe the pain somewhat and with each movement the blood re-circulated back into her limbs and her movements became sturdier.
They exited back onto the roof and Bear paused for a moment. He gritted his teeth as he looked at his companion. “You can’t climb, you can’t sneak and you can’t fight in your condition.” He then walked to the edge of the building and noted that the two toasters were circling the building in counter directions. These new centurions were not slow like the old ones. He could wait until they were directly opposite of each other but he doubted if he would have enough time to destroy one and then turn to face the other. Seeing no other way he jumped the 7 meters to the ground with his axe at the ready, attempting to embed his weapon in the skull of the robot. His aim was off slightly and it glanced off the machine’s head and bit hard into its shoulder. The landing was hard and Bear blindly jumped back up to loosen his axe from the centurion’s body. It spun wildly and as Bear grabbed onto the handle of his weapon it knocked him and it to the ground.

The wind was knocked out of the man and he struggled to take a fighting position. Bullets began to hail around him from his immediate opponent and the colonial warrior was forced to retreat slightly, abandoning an attempt at a face-to-face assault. Sub-consciously aware that he didn’t have the luxury of time and that he stood no chance of defeating the cylon from a distance. He threw his blade and screamed a battle cry as he did so. The weapon flew true and the pike of it embedded into the optic center of the robot’s moving red eye. It lost direction and sprayed gunfire wildly. Out of reaction alone Bear ran and leaped at it. The force of his body colliding with it knocked it to the ground; he retrieved his axe and swung it hard down on the metal skull, cleaving it in half and leaving it’s metal body twitching.

Unfortunately, the combat took too long and the other centurion was now upon him, firing a barrage from its arms as it rounded the corner. The Lieutenant dove for the ground and attempted to keep rolling in either direction from the volley of bullets. In the back of his mind he could feel his family waiting for him on the Elusian fields. Dirt flew into his eyes as a shot grazed his nose and landed in the ground. Suddenly the gunfire ceased coming in his direction and for a stunned moment, he looked up in the direction of his enemy. Her voice broke through, screaming at him. “Kill it!” Lieutenant Gains had also jumped off the building landing on the centurion’s back. She was holding on with all her strength as the machine twisted about attempting to throw her off.

Bear jumped to his feet and grabbed his axe once again. He ran directly at the centurion only to have it momentarily ignore the woman on his back and direct gunfire at the man. Gains wrapped one arm around its optic area, momentarily distracting it and giving her friend the opportunity to close the distance. The Lieutenant finally arrived just as the centurion was able to reach behind him and hurl Sasha by the hair to the ground. But Bear seized the chance and dove low for the knee joints on the robot and hacked through one in two blows, causing the machine to fall forward. With the metal enemy down at his level the lieutenant brought the blade down again, directly cutting its head off. The two toaster guards were now destroyed and the two colonial officers paused for a brief second to catch their breaths.

The sound of aircraft engines in the distance brought them back to the reality of the situation. Looking back at the building, they had just escaped; they could see movement quickly coming around the corner. Without a further reflection the two ran off into the nearby tree line and didn’t stop until they could no longer keep running.

-----

It had been 10 minutes and neither Forester nor Max was able to figure out how to start the plane, forget about getting it off the ground. The Maxime was fretting that the fleshy brain thing was some how needed to make this aircraft start. Needless to say that the two men were exchanging heated words and at one point lieutenant Max ended upc omplaining his fist was sore from banging it against the hull. “Fraking toast-heads, you think if they went to all the trouble of acting human they would carry it one step further and put a label on something.” He resisted the urge to slug the plane again. The Chief was tired of arguing, he liked his companion but secretly wished he never faced an emergency situation with the man again. He took out a knife and started to remove one of the panels and spoke calmly to himself as he did so. “Ok girl, not sure what your systems look like but I’m sure you will kick over for us if I stroke the right circuit.”

Engines began to warm up as soon as he finished his comments. “What did you touch?” Max was excited. “Nothing yet! I only got the cover off.” The two men looked at each other in a state of confusion and it was finally Max that just sat down in the pilot’s seat. He then called the plane a “Fraking whore” and struck the control panel. At which point everything shut off again. Forester just shook his head, “Good going sir.”

Another 5 minutes had passed with various intervals of the aircraft starting up and powering down. Finally it was Maxime that noted it was more temperamental than Sasha when she has PMS. He stopped being angry and decided to try his hunch. He ran his hand along the surface in front of his chair and cooed with a gentle soothing voice. “Baby I’m sorry we fought. Can you please forgive me because I promise it won’t happen again.” The engines started to warm up again and he continued talking sweetly. “You’re my sexy girl. I need you baby. I need you real bad.” The Chief walked to the opposite wall inside the aircraft and gently thudded his forehead against it as he listened to his friend. “I knew the day I laid my eyes on you that no other toaster plane could satisfy me like you. Come on baby, give daddy some sugar.” All of the aircraft’s systems came on and Max sat down in the pilot’s seat again preparing for take off. “Just like any woman you got to know how to talk to them.”

Lieutenant Maxime played with the controls for several minutes before finally saying it was time to lift off. The Chief decided to lay flat on the floor because he figured if they fell hard, he might have a chance of surviving the impact better. The heavy raider didn’t exactly come equipped with a lot of restraints or safety features. Max mumbled to himself about making sure the stabilizers were set and keeping the thrust up. He counted down from 3 and commenced to lift off with an enormous amount of speed. Both men were pushed down by the corresponding g-force. The plane almost left the atmosphere before it’s pilot was able to power down and regain control over it.
“Keep your thrust up, huh?” It was more of a rhetorical comment than a question. “Now where is this airfield?” Both men looked out the forward window and were able to see it. It was so obvious to spot that both men were left scratching their heads trying to figure out why know one had see it before. The chief finally spoke up saying that it was time they did the job because they spent a lot of time getting this plane airborne and the cylons had to be moving in on them soon. Maxime then did a mid-level altitude pass on the airfield in order to practice his attack run and to get a better look at what they are up against.

But as they swung the ship around having just passed the hangars, they suddenly weren’t there, or at least disappeared completely within the layout of the land. Having flown the entire length, Maxime turned the craft around again to reveal the bunkers clear as day. He shook his head in understanding saying that only those coming from the direction of refuel depot would be able to spot it. He then drew Forester’s attention to the way the fins were laid out on the buildings. Chief Forester sat there in stunned disbelief, “By Zeus, that not only really camouflages them but it’s like a battlestar’s haul. And looking at how those building are angled a nuke wouldn’t hurt them unless the blast came from the exact same direction we are flying from.” This suddenly made both men wonder if the weapons aboard the heavy raider had any chance of taking out the airfield.

“L.T., we’re going to try! Those hangers are virtually impenetrable to standard air assault, if they could even be seen. Maybe if we come in low, we can fire our weapons directly into them.” Max looked at him with a perplexed look and made it clear that he wasn’t able to flyby that low and still couldn’t see how bombs would get inside the hangers. The Chief shrugged, saying not to do a flyby, but to hover, and that he didn’t recall seeing actual bombs but missiles on their plane. Maxime just looked at him and repeated the word “ hover” several times.

The plausibility argument that ensued was won by Forester who noted that the longer they debated what they could and couldn’t make the craft do, the more likely they would lose their opportunity of attack and find themselves in a defensive situation. Silenced Max focused on slowing the forward thrust of the aircraft down and to make it hover in one spot. But it spun and moved all over the place and neither argued the fact that hauler operators should not be raider pilots. Gaining a measure of control, the slow descent into the airfield began. The plane periodically continued to spin or tilt this way or that as Maxime struggled to maintain control. He grunted that a gauge for an altimeter would have been nice because he had no idea how exactly close the ground was. They were eyeballing the situation from the window when they saw the open half of one the hangers. “Looks like we are level with it.” Forester went to the rear of the craft and attempted to fire one of the missiles, but nothing happened. Cusses came from both men and Max made it clear that he was fighting to keep the plane in the air this close to the ground. The Chief complained he was certain this was the control panel for the warheads.

The raider began to spin counter clockwise wildly and Forester yelled because he couldn’t focus on his work. Max tried to correct the problem but only managed to make it spin in the opposite direction just as fast. Finally the chief stripped the casing off of two wires and yelled he thought he could fire the weapons. “I’ve only got to touch these two lines together and it should launch the warheads.” Both men then looked out the window and saw that centurions were now walking toward the low flying plane. The two men figured that since the mechanical warriors weren’t running at them, they were confused by their erratically spinning fighter craft.

“Max just slow the fraking spin down so I can shoot” Once again the hauler driver began to move the thrusters in the opposite direction and this time instead of spinning, the entire aircraft lurched horizontally to the left. Despite the approaching robots, the comedy of the situation wasn’t lost on the two men. Max laughed that this was insane and as the Chief continued to look out the window waiting to touch his two wires together.

“Insane?” He diversely retorted, “So blowing up a fuel depot with granola bars or trying to make cylons chase women’s panties isn’t insane?” Maxime broke a smile and noted that this was perhaps the sanest part of the mission. He then told the Chief that whatever happens, it was good serving with him. At which Forester spotted an open hanger and connected the lines. The missiles launched and flew inside the building. It blew up in a massive explosion.

The centurions began running toward the raider and opening fire on it. Lieutenant Max managed to make the craft do a slow rotation 3 meters above the ground and the Chief fired wildly into anything he could see. In less than a minute their warhead supply was empty and the entire airfield was exploding around them.

They would have cheered but the flames and explosions threatened to destroy them. With a comment that this part was easy, Max reset his stabilizers and powered up the thrust. Once again, the raider shot up vertically into the sky at a high rate of acceleration. Well clear of the danger, the plane levelled and the two shook hands, and Forester yelled, “Frak me, we did it.” The Lieutenant agreed but sheepishly punctuated the end of their mission by admitting he had no idea of how to land. “I only flew an atmosphere jumper once and I crashed on the landing.”