The Hunted (nBSG)

[masterarminas]

I am dead tired from my new job today . . . however, I am off Monday and Tuesday. Next update will probably be on Monday gentlemen; perhaps tomorrow afternoon if I am feeling up to it.

My apologies.

MA

[Borgholio]

Congrats on getting hired!

[masterarminas]

Congrats on getting hired!

Thanks. I had a sitdown with the Area Vice President today, and he asked me what they were paying me . . . and he boosted it by 24% on the spot, based on what he has seen (and heard) since I began on Monday. AND said that once my training was complete, he would likely boost it by another 30%. Long hours and hard work, but, the pay is outstanding.

MA

[Borgholio]

Area VP? Yeah I'd say they like you. Myself, I was hired last year for a medical imaging firm. I knew I must have wowed the manager when I got a phone call less than an hour after I got home saying I was hired.

[Themightytom]

The Colonials have both ion & gravitic stl-drives, meaning they have the basic know-how to create a (primitive) ion-canon.
Something that would work great against a nuke missile-spam, like the (bio)Cylons are so found on.

It does not mean that.

I mean, read what the Terrans use for weapons and combine this with a Battlestar, what do you get?

A nerdgasm?

That's what I would call it

Well, I was more thinking along these lines, especialy funny if Admiral Cain her daughter is still alive.
If new-BSG is the past of TOS-BSG.....

That's a nerdgasm too. That whole episode, and Commander Cain was a big "Fuck you, logic, General Patton in Spaaaace...!"

[Vianca]

Perhaps, but if new-BSG is the past of TOS-BSG, then I can get the venom with which the name Cain was said.
Means also that TOS-Baltar ain't quite human anymore, even if you can't see it.

But I was more talking about the battlestars, their weapons and their Vipers.

[Themightytom]

Perhaps, but if new-BSG is the past of TOS-BSG, then I can get the venom with which the name Cain was said.
Means also that TOS-Baltar ain't quite human anymore, even if you can't see it.

But I was more talking about the battlestars, their weapons and their Vipers.

That seriously detracts from Lloyd Bridges' Cain. Instead of respecting him because he has been single handedly running a guerilla campaign behind enemy lines for years, they just remember his ancestor from thousands of years ago who managed practically nothing?

"Ain't quite human anymore?" How would it mean that.

But I was more talking about the battlestars, their weapons and their Vipers

I KNOW, because you keep making astronomical leaps and assumptions in order to achieve superficial results. You want an Atlantis style cityship, so you propose having the colonials capture an enemy base ship, cut it in half, and put the dome from an entirely differently sized ship on top for aesthetic purposes, and then you back fill with all these "ho hum the base would be industrial complex, the top would be trees, and this is where we put an arcade!"

Now you're all "Ooooo let's develop a convoluted plot that rewrites most of the histories and characters of two series, so we can get a viper that goes "pew pew" instead of "ratatatattata"

Don't you ever just stop and say "Wait, that's implausible."

[Vianca]

I´m someone that likes to think outside the box in order to blow the box sky-high, so I can find the edges of the box.
Besides, I did ask who else was getting a TOS-BSG feeling, didn´t I?
I mean, as far as I know, the Cain line is totaly dead and beyond the point of resurection.

And I was meaning a completely hatred for the name Cain, especialy since they would have thought that they finaly got rid of it, for ones.
As for Commander Cain, if you want to be technical, you could say that he basicaly deserted with the whole ship in order to surfive, no effort was said to have been done to get back to the colonies.
Off-course, he could have been doing a sling-shot to get back to the Colonies, when he came across the Galactica her RTF.
But that ain´t the feeling I got from that episode.

5 yarhen(?) ago, it was that the fifth fleet was destroyed, if I remember that TOS-BSG episode right.
5 years, why is he still that far out?
No, that episode never really came over right, except the fact there was still another battlestar around.

[Themightytom]

I´m someone that likes to think outside the box in order to blow the box sky-high, so I can find the edges of the box.

You're describing a kitten with it's head stuck in a box, and I completely agree. Which is annoying after a few hours.

Besides, I did ask who else was getting a TOS-BSG feeling, didn´t I?

What Is Wrong With You, it's a re-imagining of the original series, of course there are going to be references to the original show, there's nothing here beyond that, and the references MasterAminas snuck in to Lorne Greene, Buck Rogers, He called the Commander of the Aurora Samantha Caldweel, do you think they're about to find a STARGATE??

I mean, as far as I know, the Cain line is totaly dead and beyond the point of resurection.

Listen... I can dissect your claims just fine... you don't have to do my homework for me...

And I was meaning a completely hatred for the name Cain, especialy since they would have thought that they finaly got rid of it, for ones.

You have an astounding ability, to tell yourself that people who disagree with you, must not understand your point, as opposed to, I don't know.. considering what you say more carefully than you have, and then dismissing it. I already pointed out that there was plenty of reason to loathe Commander Cain without linking that with a supposed Ancestor. You know the Old BSG Cylons weren't created by the colonies, by the way right? So what you'd be suggesting is they remember Helena Cain... but not their own backstory. That's a pretty interesting feat for a race of robot's who's grasp[ of history is so complte they have the skin of the last Cylon Emperor on the back of Imperius Leader's chair, and his voice is patterned after Iblis.

As for Commander Cain, if you want to be technical, you could say that he basicaly deserted with the whole ship in order to surfive, no effort was said to have been done to get back to the colonies.
Off-course, he could have been doing a sling-shot to get back to the Colonies, when he came across the Galactica her RTF.
But that ain´t the feeling I got from that episode.

You are constantly making assumptions, creating your own responses to the assumptions, and seem to think that they validate the assumptions you made, you understand this is a false dilemma right? It is akin to a delusion if you actually believe yourself. DON'T say he basically deserted with the whole ship, GO WATCH THE EPISODE WHICH CONTAINS HIS EXPLANATION AND ADAMA'S REACTION, it's central to the plot.

5 yarhen(?) ago, it was that the fifth fleet was destroyed, if I remember that TOS-BSG episode right.
5 years, why is he still that far out?

Fine, spoiler alert, he's a megalomaniac with a very loyal crew.

No, that episode never really came over right, except the fact there was still another battlestar around.

The backstory for Cain and the Pegasus was hardly the biggest issue with the effort, for me it was much more obviously, Baltar's antics at the arrival of the Pegasus and their subsequent willingness to fall into Cain's trap, the um...problematic depiction of taking the Cylon base, and the fiat that let the Pegasus wipe out two base stars with only the help of a pair of vipers, and then somehow disappear while advancing towards the third.

The problems of that episode though have nothing to do with your hopes for wrapping two different stories into the same timeline based on little more than "ion cannons and Cain!"

[Vianca]

Not at all, just a slight hope on a Battlestar from TOS-BSG.
Even if it are Colonial build ones, constructed for the Earth fleets.

ps: Check your quoting lines Tom, something is wacko there.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

On the subject of name drops. Did anybody else notice that Arminias named the Terran-American admrial after a porn star?

[Eternal_Freedom]

On the subject of name drops. Did anybody else notice that Arminias named the Terran-American admrial after a porn star?

I noticed that but wasn't going to say anything in csae it was a reference to Aleins or some other sci-fi work I am unfamiliar with

[masterarminas]

Even as the massive wave of Guardian Raiders—with their old-style crews of three Cylons—bore down on Bao’s flotilla, Pegasus led the charge of the Colonial Fleet Battlestars against six Basestars. Trailed by Galactica and Anubis, with Scorpia and Aurora bringing up the rear, Adama and his Fleet began to exchange kinetic energy fire and missiles with the four Wishbone- and two Gemini-class Basestars arrayed against them. The civilians jumped away to safety, but this time, the Colonial Fleet didn’t run—they closed, pouring fire into their heavily armed and armored opponents as they came.

Six more Geminis followed the Raiders in towards the ships of the China-Asian Congress, but Task Group 23 and Sir Edward’s own Force B were moving up fast in support of their fellow humans. And they were not alone.

Adama ordered his Vipers and Thunders—all of them, supported by the Raptors of the Fleet—to come to the defense of Thirteenth Tribe. One hundred and seventy-six Vipers, sixteen Thunders, and forty Raptors accelerated towards the incoming wave of Guardians, even as sixty of the TWE Hurricanes, forty-eight Bearcats, and twenty-four Cougars (both from the UAA ships) entered their own range.

****************************************************

“Rambler, Digger,” Hope broadcast despite the throbbing pain in her shoulder—she hadn’t been cleared by the docs to fly in this furball, but she wasn’t about to sit this one out. “We are in position to support the Thirteenth.”

“Copy, Digger,” the CAG of the Colonial Fleet transmitted back. “I hope their pilots know what they doing—those crates are huge-ass targets for Raiders.”

Digger didn’t bother to reply, but she nodded. Three times the size of a Raptor, the Earth fighters bore more than a passing resemblance to the Cheyenne dropship that the Fleet had become accustomed to—but there were several differences. Neither the older Cougars nor the newer Bearcats had a passenger bay, and they were rather more streamlined. Each carried two remote turrets with a multi-barreled chain gun, one on the dorsal surface and the second below, augmenting the one protruding from the side of the nose. And for all of their size, they carried just half the RCS thrusters of a Viper—making them incredibly sluggish in the kind of knife-range dog-fighting which the Colonial Fleet excelled in.

“Constellation Strike Group,” the wireless broadcast—in English, Digger noted, and she once again thanked the Gods that Adama had insisted on squadron commanders flash-learning the language, “Badger. Deploy pods,” the Thirteenth’s CAG said. And Hope blinked as four sections of each craft’s hull suddenly unlocked and swung bulky, boxy, ugly missile launchers outwards—two each above and below the sharply swept wings.

“Lock Harriers on target, CSG—do not duplicate,” the wireless continued. “Set guidance packages to home-on-jam if primary tracking is disrupted.” He paused, and then said two more words. “FOX THREE!”

“FRACK ME!” shouted Firefly as her DRADIS suddenly blossomed into thousands of individual icons. The seventy-two United Americas Alliance Bearcats and Cougars ripple-fired sixty-four missiles apiece at ranges far beyond what Colonials considered to be effective for Viper DRADIS guidance. Four thousand six hundred and eight missiles streaked away—and the Guardians blinked. Figuratively speaking of course. Never had the Cylons—new or old—experienced such a massive missile strike as the one bearing down upon them.

And despite the ECM coverage that the Raiders emitted, these missiles continued to track. The serried ranks of death incarnate in the Guardian formation desperately began to maneuver to break the target locks—but their own tight formations left them little room to maneuver. Dozens, scores, hundreds of Raiders suffered collisions before the Centurion Commanders ordered the Raiders to instead shoot down the incoming missiles—but as the missiles entered gun-range, they split and divided into four smaller warheads and began to maneuver radically.

Fireballs erupted across the entire leading edge of the Guardian attack wave—and Rambler’s voice emerged from the wireless. “Follow that strike in, Colonials! Hammer them!”

“BLUES! FOLLOW ME IN!” yelled Digger as she punched the thrusters to maximum power and charged all three of her guns.

And when the fireballs faded, nearly three thousand Raiders were floating debris—the rest were badly out of position as the Vipers and Thunders and Bearcats and Hurricanes and Cougars slashed into them.

[Skywalker_T-65]

HOLY!


Well now...that just got interesting. I almost feel sorry for the Guardians.

[Flameblade]

Familiar experience, reading that. A nice little Manticore Missile Massacre for the Cylons.

[MondoMage]

Kinda makes me wonder what other capabilities the Terran military brings to the table that would require that sort of missile spam. I'm not particularly familiar with the Aliens universe - have the humans there encountered any other aliens other than the Xenomorphs and whatever was in the Prometheus movie (I haven't seen it yet)? If not, then they would have developed that capability to counter other Terran military forces... gives a bit of a glimpse into some other things that Guardians are about to experience.

[LadyTevar]

*jawdrops*
Frack me.... missile spam like that is impressive. Do they have more than one salvo?

[masterarminas]

Pegasus shook hard, and Saul grabbed hold of the center console to avoid winding up on the deck beneath him.

“Direct hit on the starboard pod by a nuclear weapon!” Sam snapped out as she received the damage report—and then she nodded. “The armor held—minor structural buckling and fires in Hangers Two and Four. Chief Laird reports fires are contained.”

“Port and starboard batteries on Gemini One and Two!” Saul barked. “Forward batteries concentrate on Wishbone Three!”

“Galactica Actual on the line, Commander,” reported Lieutenant Hoshi.

“Pegasus Actual, go ahead,” Saul said as he picked up the phone.

“Rousing speech, Saul,” Adama chuckled grimly. “But why don’t you give the rest of us a chance to get into range before you take on the whole Cylon Fleet by yourself?”

“And how did you hear my speech?” the new Commander Pegasus asked as the Battlestar shook again—not quite as violently this time.

“I had Hoshi pipe it over to us—after all, I wrote it. You made changes to it, though.”

Saul snorted, and he glared at the Lieutenant who didn’t meet his gaze. “Damn straight, Bill. Had to add my own touch. And I can’t help it if the Bucket can’t keep pace with my new Battlestar.”

Adama laughed. “Hold the line, old friend—help is coming.”

A cheer went up from the CIC crew as one of the four Wishbones pouring fire into Pegasus suddenly vanished from DRADIS in the flare of a nuclear explosion.

“Scorpia’s torpedo strike!” snarled Sam. “Direct hit on Wishbone Two—clean kill, Commander. Galactica and Anubis have entered range and opened fire!”

Saul racked the phone and he stood tall. “Maximum fire rate on all batteries! Damn the ammunition reserves and the barrel life—pour it into the frackers!”

Pegasus slid between two Gemini-class Basestars and the heavy guns set into the trenches along her two flight pods belched a nearly constant stream of heavy kinetic shells—even the light point-defense guns were firing non-stop into the two older Basestars and warhead explosions sheathed the Guardian ships in a corona of flashing lights and escaping atmosphere—of shattered hull plating and ruptured fuel lines.

And her forward guns—the extremely heavy forward guns—flashed flame and fire again and again and again as her shells went home into the structure of a Wishbone.

“All Basestars are launching shuttles!” Hoshi cried out. “Inbound for Beowulf.”

“Have point-defense engage!” Saul ordered.

But Sam shook her head. “Out of range, Commander—nine hundred inbound for the planetary surface,” she reported and Saul winced.

Nine hundred Cylon shuttles—that meant anywhere up to ninety thousand Cylon Centurions would be hitting dirt very soon.

“Our fighters?”

“Still entangled with two thousand plus Raiders,” Sam said quietly as she shook her head. And then she grinned. “Sir! The Guardian command ship has just jumped away!”

“The rest of Alpha?”

“Holding position in reserve—scratch that. They are moving in to engage.”

The DRADIS display buzzed with static again as a second Wishbone erupted in the heart of a nuclear detonation—and then both Geminis exploded under the pounding of Pegasus, Anubis, and Galactica.

Come on Bill, Saul thought. Now is the time—and then he smiled as the single icon for a Raptor vanished in an FTL jump. He bared his teeth. “Help is on the way, people—let’s keep their attention glued to us!”

And Pegasus rocked hard as multiple missiles and the shells from scores of heavy kinetic cannons impacted against her hull.

****************************************************

Changzheng was surrounded by a nearly unimaginable number of the Raiders—but she and her four escorting destroyers were spitting out laser bursts from the point defense emitters causing the Guardians to explode like kernels of corn dropped into boiling oil. Zheng Bao snarled as despite that wealth of fire, impacts still drove home against the sides of his ship; and he could not fault the valor and gallantry of the pilots of these Colonials—or the Imperials or even the bedamned Americans.

And he groaned when Martadinata exploded as seven of the Raiders kamikazed into her amidships—the once-proud destroyers back broke and she shattered, moments before her fuel and munitions detonated.

“Admiral!” the tactical officer called out. “Enemy capital ships are now within range!”

“FIRE!” he snarled as he pounded the arm of his command chair.

****************************************************

Changzheng was an older ship—indeed, the very first of her class was the oldest dreadnought still remaining in service by any power of Earth. But the Party had not neglected the battle-line of the Congress over the many decades; they had incorporated refits and upgrades, and the latest advances in technology and weapons. Four turrets turned on the CAC Dreadnought and massive banks of capacitors fed their energy into the particle beam cannons. And bolts far more powerful than those generated aboard Sulaco raced outwards.

But three of those bolts were stopped dead cold by Raiders who deliberately flew into their path—the fourth slammed home against one of the enemy and ionization danced over her hull as she careened aside, out of control, her electronics useless and dying.

Thirty-two silo covers snapped open on her dorsal surface—and from each a missile the size of an ICBM erupted on a pillar of fire, stabilizing on a course for the enemy, tracking the two ships designated by her fire control. And a dozen heavy rail-gun turrets began to spit fire towards the enemy as well.

For the moment, Changzheng was alone, as her three surviving escorts fought like lions to keep the Raiders off of their flagship, but help was coming fast from Sir Edward and the American Admiral.

Detonations raced across of the hulls of the enemy as the rail-gun shells impacted and shattered plating and weapons—but his missiles were stopped dead by a wall of flak so thick that the Admiral blinked. And then those same cannons traversed slightly and five Basestars combined their fire against his flagship.

“Concentrate all firepower on the lead vessel!” Bao ordered. “Time to recharge particle beam capacitors?”

“Ten seconds!”

Changzheng shook as the impacts hammered her—and then she lurched as a dozen of the enemy Raiders managed to evade all fire and slammed into her belly. Alarms were sounding, Bao could hear the crackle of fire and the hiss of the suppression system—and the shrill whine of air escaping into the vacuum. “Fire them NOW!” he shouted.

And the gunnery officer nodded and turned the key—just as another kamikaze flew into the flagships hull and exploded—inside the number three main fuel tank.

****************************************************

Captain Theodore ‘Teddy-Bear’ Kincaid winced as Changzheng suddenly erupted in an ear-tearing glare that spewed debris and lifeless bodies into the void—and the remaining Raiders began to swarm around the hulls of the three—no, two, he noted sourly as one of the survivors broke apart—escorting destroyers.

“Teddy-Bear, Badger,” the radio broadcast amid static. “RTB back to Constellation and rearm—this is going to be a long day.”

“I’ve still got cannon rounds, Badger,” Kincaid protested, but then he saw the ammo counters and he winced again. All three guns were at less than six hundred rounds total remaining. “Copy, Badger, Jolly Rodgers are RTB to Connie.” What’s left of us, he thought. Of the twelve fighters in his squadron of Bearcats, only six (plus his own fighter) remained on his display.

“Jolly Rodgers, Teddy-Bear. Back to the barn,” he broadcast.

“Teddy-Bear, I’ve got point defense lasers on automatic—but the generator is burning through fuel in a hurry,” his co-pilot said.

“Rodger, Gomer,” Kincaid said. “We’ve got enough to get back on the deck—that is good enough today. Pax, Quarter . . . you guys still with me, back there?” he asked the gunners.

“Gun camera footage should show I made ace three times over, Teddy-Bear,” laughed Pax. “Talk about a target-rich environment!”

“Enjoy it while you can, Pax—we used ninety percent of Connie’s inventory of Harrier AAMs in that strike. Next time it is guns and unguided munitions—or we load up and go for the big boys.”

“Fuck,” whispered Quarter.

“Ain’t that the truth,” added Gomer. And then he smiled. “Raiders are breaking off and not pursuing—they are regrouping on the Basestars.”

“Maybe they short on fuel and ammo as well,” muttered Teddy-bear. “Go buster, Jolly Rodgers,” he ordered. “Time’s a-wasting and we’ve got a shitload of targets still.”

And with that, all seven of the surviving Bearcats lit off their thrusters and accelerated towards the distant carrier.

[Flameblade]

*jawdrops*
Frack me.... missile spam like that is impressive. Do they have more than one salvo?

From the sound of it, I'd think not. Pretty much any sanely designed anti-shipping missile racks will flush when they fire in order to oversaturate an enemy's countermeasures.

[Eternal_Freedom]

*jawdrops*
Frack me.... missile spam like that is impressive. Do they have more than one salvo?

From the sound of it, I'd think not. Pretty much any sanely designed anti-shipping missile racks will flush when they fire in order to oversaturate an enemy's countermeasures.

Worse, they don't have anywhere near enough reloads. I am really liking Saul Tigh as a Commander though. It's like he traded three levels in Alcoholic for three levels in Badass.

[Flameblade]

Worse, they don't have anywhere near enough reloads. I am really liking Saul Tigh as a Commander though. It's like he traded three levels in Alcoholic for three levels in Badass.

He's fighting to prove himself to everyone, including himself. This is the Saul Tigh that Adama befriended during the First Cylon War.

[Borgholio]

I'm kinda hoping at least some of those Cylons make it to the surface. Imagining Colonial Marines vs Centurions make me tingle in all the nerdy places.

[masterarminas]

“We can run,” One pleaded. “The Guardians will be too consumed with the Thirteenth Tribe to pursue us—we can leave now and let Zoe and the humans kill each other!”

“And then what?” asked Caprica. “We no longer have access to grow new bodies; until the Five manage to reveal what they know, we are threatened with extinction—and do you believe that the humans will ever forgive us if we leave them here and now after promising them our aid?”

“They will not forgive us anyway,” snapped One.

“Does that matter, brother?” asked D’Anna. “We started all of this—and until we repent, perhaps we are not worthy of their forgiveness.”

“Are you mad? Worthy? Of their forgiveness?” One snorted. “We can run—we can run far away and rebuild. You are all thinking this, why do I have to be the only one who speaks it?”

“Frack this,” snarled Boomer. “We gave them our word—we voted on this. No more discussion—we must jump.”

“Humor me, little sister,” the One said condescendingly. “We go to our deaths, you all must realize that. If we do this, we will probably all die either at the hands of the Guardians or at the hands of the humans—they both hate us. I say we run. Two?”

Leoben shook his head. “God insists that we atone—we stay. Our part in his plan is not finished.”

D’Anna nodded agreement. “We must learn humility, brother. I say we fight, and if we die in that fight, we die doing God’s work.”

“I am not so certain,” said Four. “Perhaps it would be best to just flee.”

“Agreed,” Doral chimed in. “We have limited resurrection capability at the moment—if we engage we risk ourselves forevermore.”

“And we prove to God, humanity, and ourselves that we are willing to sacrifice everything in order to make what amends we can,” said Caprica. “That is three and three—Boomer, the Eights will decide.”

Boomer rubbed her scarred face and she nodded. “Hybrid, load all missile tubes—prepare to launch Raiders. Set coordinates to catch the Guardians in a cross-fire . . . and jump on my mark.”

“Systems . . . prepared for end of all that has gone before,” the Hybrid spoke.

Boomer waited until the others assumed their places and then she nodded. “JUMP!”

[Diverball]

Kinda makes me wonder what other capabilities the Terran military brings to the table that would require that sort of missile spam. I'm not particularly familiar with the Aliens universe - have the humans there encountered any other aliens other than the Xenomorphs and whatever was in the Prometheus movie (I haven't seen it yet)? If not, then they would have developed that capability to counter other Terran military forces... gives a bit of a glimpse into some other things that Guardians are about to experience.

The laser PD systems we discussed a page or so back? Massive numbers of stand-off missiles are one solution to penetrating tight point defences.

[FaxModem1]

Now, here's a question, is this the majority of Guardian forces, or just their first wave? I ask because while the Colonials could be wiped out by this, the Earth fleets should have reinforcements eventually. So it's a matter of who has the bigger numbers, the Humans or the Guardians?