A sense of bewilderment ensued aboard both the Argus and Toaster One. Given the fact that there was a missing nuke, the explosion wasn’t surprising. However to the Admiral, Colonel and Captain it appeared to be detonated uselessly. Hallis was just about to contact Reeves when petty officer Richards reported a distress call was coming in from Cupcake. “This is Cupcake, I am declaring a state of emergency! We have an out of control enemy bird manned by friendlies. I repeat the enemy bird is under fleet control. Do not destroy!” She was frantic because there was nothing else they could do to help. Toaster one was the closest to render aid the Captain responded by ordering their hauler into the air. It was designed to grapple moving spacecrafts and tow them. However, lieutenant Ford personally delivered the news that the hauler operator, chief Cudrows was passed out drunk and he had relieved him of duty. Reeves groaned noting that they had already sent the other hauler back to Argus. He then looked at Ford and noted he was a pilot.
“It’s heavy equipment but if you can fly it, I’ve got someone that can handle the grappling and towing controls.” The Lieutenant quickly saluted and ran toward the flight deck. The Captain ordered another crewman to accompany him. Ford scraped the hauler against the haul of the flight deck. The machine was big and didn’t respond to controls as quickly as he was used to. His partner laughed that he was being trained to operate the equipment and the last time he tried a take off, all he did was scrape the bottom all over the flight deck. Laughing with him, Ford inquired if there would be a problem grabbing the raider. The young man assured him that he was already cleared to do such things.
They came upon the spinning raider and he shook his head. He was certain that anyone inside would not only be sick to their stomachs but might have had their brains turned into milk shakes. His co-worker spoke, “keep pace with the center of the spin. I’m going to launch a magnetic grapple on it, once it locks on, you must pull up hard on it. That will slow or stop the spin and bring it under our control.” Ford paused for a second to inquire about how this sudden jerking might affect the occupants and was told there was no other procedure to control spinning debris in space.
The magnetic grapple was fired and it hit the target. Ford powered up the thrust but was reluctant to push too hard on the throttle. The hauler’s haul groaned and the cable vibrated causing the machine to begin lurching out of control. His companion quickly dove over the Ford's lap and shoved thrust control almost to maximum. The problems that were starting suddenly cleared up as they were violently jerked inside the cabin. Lieutenant Ford looked at the man next to him in stunned amazement wondering how in Hades could a single operator pilot this craft and do stuff like they just did. The young man apologized for his actions, “Sorry sir, I’ve just seen the procedure done several times and was told what could happen if there wasn’t enough thrust.”
“Toaster one, lieutenant Ford. We have the bird and requesting priority clearance.” As they towed the raider onto the flight deck, the lieutenant gained new respect for the people that flew these crafts; their jobs could be just as dangerous as a fighter pilot’s. Cupcake contacted the hauler and ordered Ford to remain on board until she cleared him. When Reeves asked for clarification she responded that she would explain later.
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“We got lucky and only lost 5 people on that planet. Cupcake say’s both Lapointe and Mr. Creepy are toasters. And that it was a cylon outpost.” Hallis looked tired and although he wasn’t too happy about loosing any men. He was relieved to see that the nuke was, at the very least, no longer a concern. The Colonel asked the obvious question, “Why would a toaster blow up his own base?” Neither of them had an immediate answer but at least they took comfort in knowing that Forester and Maxime were fine. Albeit, they were slightly sick to their stomachs and the chief had a broken nose.
Petty officer Richards yelled out, “Dradus contact!” CIC went quiet for several seconds and all eyes were focused on her. “It’s a cylon basestar! Oh Frak me! Brace for impact!”A nuclear warhead hit the starboard-landing pod, leaving everyone scrambling aboard the Argus trying to deal with the sudden emergency. Hallis barked out orders, “Launch all planes and return fire! Damage report!” The combat patrol was moving to intercept the volley of incoming missiles. Unfortunately they were being easily overwhelmed. The cavalry of additional vipers were astonishingly slow to join them. As another warhead struck the same pod and damage reports started to come in., the Admiral ordered, “I don’t care how inferior the launch tubes are, I want more of my planes in the air!”
After several minutes and several hits on the starboard flight pod, 2 squadrons of vipers were finally in the air. Only then did the basestar bother to launch raiders. The cylon baseship had delivered a staggering nuclear assault but unlike its modern counter parts, the haul of the Argus was much thicker and heavier. What would have easily have destroyed a more modern battlestar was only beginning to impact its super structure. Although a benefit, 8 minutes into the combat other problems for the old ship were mounting. Its best long-range weapons were only mid-range by modern standards; they couldn’t reach the enemy and the toasters appeared to have knowledge of this fact. The Admiral and Colonel were frantic trying to develop a quick strategy. Bridgeford noticing that the enemy was faster, more manoeuvrable and was easily keeping them at a distance ordered an FTL jump to close the range. Unfortunately he was quickly told that jump engines were down. He fumed repeatedly demanded to know how they could have gotten on them so fast. “Old dradius system and Mr. Creepy relayed our exact position. They knew exactly where to be to get us.”
“Gold squadron pull it tight to the Argus and keep those nukes off her ass! Blue squad hit the raiders. Razzle and dazzle and confuse them so the rest of our planes can launch.” As the raiders encountered the vipers they didn’t immediately open fire with conventional weapons. Instead they attempted to shut down the planes in the same manner they did in the attack on the colonies. Only this time, it didn’t work. All of the colonial aircrafts had their main boards bypassed and under direct pilot control. Someone screamed “Not so easy this time frakheads” over the wireless.
The starboard flight pod took several more hits and it quickly became obvious that the bulk of their attack was focused on that section of the ship. The Admiral screamed over the com, at engineering for more speed. Despite the Colonel’s protests to retreat he was intent on trying to get as close to the basestar as possible. “They’re too fast! The result will be the same except that they blow us up running instead of fighting!” Another nuke struck the hull of the Argus and smoke started to fill CIC.