Battlestar Valkyrie: Operation Bifrost - Operation Bifrost - Shadows within shadows

[Callsign Bedrock]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"Bedrock, dock with the nearest ship and fill that Raptor up. As many as you can squeeze in, then jump back. When they're offloaded, get back here and we'll do it again. Deadbolt, we're securing these heavies."

"Affirmative, Callisto. Maneuvering into position now. Will advise when we have hard seal. Recommend we contact the Valkyrie and request immediate additional Raptor support." Bedrock takes the yoke and pilots it towards the undercarriage of the nearest ship, looking for the ship-to-ship transfer hole.

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Battlestar Valkyrie brig

Originally Posted By: Agrippina Solas

"You could tell him I didn't do it," Agrippina said, gripping her hands together so tightly that the skin turned white. "I didn't know him to have any enemies, or any blacklisted books. If he'd had one, I would have made him turn it in to me, or go to the brig." She looked hopeful. "Does that help?"

Lt. Everette looked long at her contemplating the situation. Searching her eyes he nodded slowly and said, “I believe you, Chief. I’m going to tell the Admiral that I see no reason to keeping you under arrest – on one condition. There is still a murderer out there and I need to catch him before he kills more people. I want you to tell me everything I want to know concerning the activities on both flight decks. I expect a short report weekly and ASAP if something of importance happens. Do we have a deal, Chief?”

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Gemenon Prophet

Originally Posted By: Callsign Bedrock

"Affirmative, Callisto. Maneuvering into position now. Will advise when we have hard seal. Recommend we contact the Valkyrie and request immediate additional Raptor support." Bedrock takes the yoke and pilots it towards the undercarriage of the nearest ship, looking for the ship-to-ship transfer hole.

Bedrock turned the Raptor around and slowly drifted towards the Gemenon Prophet searching for the transfer hole. After a few seconds which passed like an eternity he finally found it and yanked the Raptor around to match speed with the drifting vessel. With a rough chafing noise the Raptor docked with the Gemenon Prophet and Ensign Wade proceeded to open the hatch. “Sir, there is no gravity on board. I thought you might want to know.” Checking his sidearm and oxygen on his suit he gave Bedrock an “OK” sign with his fingers and jumped through the hatch headfirst.

Inside people and all kinds of lose items floated through the corridors of the vessel. Your scanner show a minimum amount of oxygen left on board and everyone appears to be unconscious.

[Mr Fox]

The Bull snorted. Damned civilians getting tossed into this. Right well it had to be done might as well do it right, trap or no.

"Lieutenant Abrams, get us over there and hook up to the Gemenon Prophet, I want marines on hand to escort the civilians into secure rooms and kept there until they can be debriefed, and yes that includes members of the Quorum that might happen to be aboard. I also want ever gun manned and ready to fire at my command. If this isn't some kind of trap I'll be very much surprised. I also want our vipers flying patrol around us." McLeod was all business and it was times like these he hated the most. He wanted to be everywhere and have his hand in everything, but that would be counterproductive.

"Lt. Make sure that the marines get those civvys off that tub as fast as possible. Assign two squads of Marines to do a sweep of that tub to verify there is no hostile presence aboard. Keep em in radio contact. I want to know immediately if things go south."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

CIC Destroyer Herakeles

The CIC immediately got into action orders getting relayed and executed. The Herakeles took course for the Gemenon Prophet and slowly moved parallel to the floating vessel. It would take another 10 minutes at least to dock with the other ship else they’d risk destroying both vessels.

The Raptors got ready for take off with the Marine Squads on board and everything went as smoothly as Major McLeod had expected, yet it was too slow for his taste. Time was not on their side and there was still that nagging feeling that this was a set up.

[Callsign Bedrock]

Bedrock affixes his helmet in place and checks oxygen as well. "I hope you've brushed up on micro-gravity maneuvers." Bedrock pushes himself through the hatch, feeling the lurch of microgravity.

"Wade, start waving people into the Raptor. I'm going to look for anyone who can't carry themselves."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Gemenon Prophet rescue mission

„Aye, Ell-Tee.“, replied Wade and immediately set off to carry people into the Raptor.

In the meantime Lt. Bedrock drifted further down the corridor towards the bridge of the Gemenon Prophet. He reached the sealed doors that led inside and peeked through the window. What he saw froze the blood in his veins. The stations were blood splattered and no one seemed to be alive.

[Callsign Bedrock]

"Lords above us." Bedrock drew his sidearm. "Wade, there's blood. Weapons out. They may have turned on each other, or..."

Or something attacked them. Killed them. Something seven feet tall with the eye of a demon.

"Or anything. Proceed with the utmost caution." Bedrock then attempted to open the doors.

[SalmonMax]

Originally Posted By: Callsign Bedrock

"Affirmative, Callisto. Maneuvering into position now. Will advise when we have hard seal. Recommend we contact the Valkyrie and request immediate additional Raptor support." Bedrock takes the yoke and pilots it towards the undercarriage of the nearest ship, looking for the ship-to-ship transfer hole.

How many people are going to tell me how to do my frakking job today?

Her voice is clean of any trace of her irritation though as she replies, "Already have. We should be getting them any second now. Deadbolt and I are going to fly out a bit to get better visibility. We'll coordinate the Raptors and keep a watch for tricks. You focus on getting as many of those people out as you can."

She flies out with her wing to a standoff position where she can see all three ships clearly, as well as surrounding space with as little obstruction as possible.

"Okay Deadbolt, I'm gonna play traffic control for a swarm of Raptors, so you take the scans."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Originally Posted By: Callsign Bedrock

"Lords above us." Bedrock drew his sidearm. "Wade, there's blood. Weapons out. They may have turned on each other, or..."

Or something attacked them. Killed them. Something seven feet tall with the eye of a demon.

"Or anything. Proceed with the utmost caution." Bedrock then attempted to open the doors.

Bridge of the Gemenon Prophet

Intelligence+Repair Electrical Systems vs. #7 (1d8+1d8=11)

The door was locked but it took Bedrock only a few seconds to bypass the security. With a noticeable clacking sound the door unlocked and opened automatically. Bedrock slowly drifted inside the bridge. There was blood virtually everywhere and traces that made a fight obvious only that the crew didn’t seem to have much of a chance to defend itself. Most faces where frozen in a look of surprise and disbelief.

Bedrock instinctively floated towards the communications unit and checked the status of the ship. There was no power shortage – the ship had been ‘turned off’ manually. Warning Wade that they would have juice in a few seconds again which would re-establish the artificial gravity Bedrock initiated the commands to activate the reactors again. Depending on how long the deactivation of the reactor was it could take up to several minutes before the ship was fully manoeuvrable again. Just before Bedrock wanted to report back to the Valkyrie he noticed that something had been torn out of the communication console. He reached down and with his lights managed to get a better look what was missing. Someone had removed the black box recorder which would have revealed at least technically when and how the ship has been obviously hijacked. Someone knew what he was doing.

[z-Agrippina Solas]

Originally Posted By: CIC BS: Valkyrie

Lt. Everette looked long at her contemplating the situation. Searching her eyes he nodded slowly and said, “I believe you, Chief. I’m going to tell the Admiral that I see no reason to keeping you under arrest – on one condition. There is still a murderer out there and I need to catch him before he kills more people. I want you to tell me everything I want to know concerning the activities on both flight decks. I expect a short report weekly and ASAP if something of importance happens. Do we have a deal, Chief?”

"Yeah," Chief Solas said, nodding. It's not like I have a choice, she added quietly to herself. And to be honest, she would do just about anything to get out of here. She wasn't adverse to helping Everette; someone had set her up for murder again, and this time, she could do something about it. "Yeah, it's no problem. I'm glad to help."

[Callsign Bedrock]

"Callisto, Bedrock here. Signs that this was a surprise attack. I don't see any survivors. The ship's recorder has been removed. We are working on restoring power so that the ship can be guided back to the Valkyrie."

Bedrock then gets Wade on the comm. "Wade, try to remember exactly what you've touched and when. Without the flight recorder we'll have to reconstruct what happened here so this ship must be treated with care."

Bedrock then continues his search.

[SalmonMax]

Callisto replies to Bedrock, "No survivors? I know I saw movement in the portholes, Lieutenant. You're saying everyone on the ship is dead?"

[Callsign Bedrock]

"If there are any survivors, they're in hiding. The gravity was off - it's possible that a body drifting might have been what you saw..."

Bedrock drew his sidearm and double-checked his ammo load, tapping the barrel twice - an old superstition, for when he felt alone in the land of bad things.

[Jhonen Erasmus]

The colonel nods slowly, surveying the dispersion of the CAP line with a practiced eye.

"This must be treated with utmost suspicion, in my opinion, sir. Crippled civilian vessels behind the Line? Unlikely."

He examines the disposition of the fleet for a moment more.

"I recommend increasing the CAP and moving the Calypso and the Phalanx in closer to support the Herakles in the event that this isn't as simple as it seems."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Battlestar Valkyrie Brig

Originally Posted By: Agrippina Solas

"Yeah," Chief Solas said, nodding. It's not like I have a choice, she added quietly to herself. And to be honest, she would do just about anything to get out of here. She wasn't adverse to helping Everette; someone had set her up for murder again, and this time, she could do something about it. "Yeah, it's no problem. I'm glad to help."

„Good.“, was all Lt. Everette said and for a moment it felt like he had set her up. He walked to the table where the Corporal was sitting and unlocked the bars. “You can go, Chief. I’ll report to the Admiral ASAP.”

As she walked out of the brig he added, “You did the right thing, Chief.”

Starboard Flight Deck Battlestar Valkyrie

All hell had broken out in her absence. 2 Full Squadrons had been launched and the deckcrew was preparing another 2 Squadrons for emergency Alert 5. It took her only about 20 seconds to assess the situation and conclude that things where going south. People were bumping into eachother and had trouble adjusting the missile loaders for the Vipers. Most of this because they weren’t familiar with the Mk IIs. The loading mechanism of the Valkyrie was designed specifically for the Mk VIIs and should save time in emergency cases. Now it looked like she had to do some modifications in order to make it work for both designs. Frakking brilliant.

Gemenon Prophet bridge

Originally Posted By: Callsign Bedrock

"Callisto, Bedrock here. Signs that this was a surprise attack. I don't see any survivors. The ship's recorder has been removed. We are working on restoring power so that the ship can be guided back to the Valkyrie."

Bedrock then gets Wade on the comm. "Wade, try to remember exactly what you've touched and when. Without the flight recorder we'll have to reconstruct what happened here so this ship must be treated with care."

Bedrock then continues his search.

„Roger that, Ell-Tee. Most of the people here are unconscious but I think they’ll make it. Did you say there was an attack? I can’t see any signs of a fight back here.”

With his sidearm ready Bedrock slowly continued his search on the bridge. Every member of the crew has been shot by large calibre rounds. It was hard to tell if those were colonial or zylon origin.

[SalmonMax]

Callisto frowned at that and squinted at the massive hull of the ship in front of her. The motion had seemed purposeful to her...but maybe she'd been reading into it? Making it what she wanted to see?

"Bedrock, if you've got life support back on in there, keep moving. There's two other ships. If they can be reactivated like that maybe we can save them all. There'll be time to work out what happened once that's done."

[Callsign Bedrock]

"Roger, Callisto. Do you have an ETA on the other Raptor squads? Wade, start carrying the survivors into our bird. I don't see anyone up here. Anyone alive, at any rate. So I'll join you shortly..."

Simon brushes his gloves fingers over the controls. He then checks the exits to see if they've been forced, reasoning that if they haven't been then the black box must be on board.

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Originally Posted By: Jhonen Erasmus

The colonel nods slowly, surveying the dispersion of the CAP line with a practiced eye.

"This must be treated with utmost suspicion, in my opinion, sir. Crippled civilian vessels behind the Line? Unlikely."

He examines the disposition of the fleet for a moment more.

"I recommend increasing the CAP and moving the Calypso and the Phalanx in closer to support the Herakles in the event that this isn't as simple as it seems."

CIC Battlestar Valkyrie

The Admiral nodded briefly acknowledging the Colonel’s suggested order and the crew proceeded relaying that information to the other ships. The situation seemed to get slowly under control although the launching of the Raptor’s and Viper’s was awkwardly slow. If this had been an attack they would’ve been seriously frakked – someone had to give an explanation for this substandard reaction time of the crew. The Admiral made some mental notes to address this topic ASAP once the situation was fully contained.

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

Callisto frowned at that and squinted at the massive hull of the ship in front of her. The motion had seemed purposeful to her...but maybe she'd been reading into it? Making it what she wanted to see?

"Bedrock, if you've got life support back on in there, keep moving. There's two other ships. If they can be reactivated like that maybe we can save them all. There'll be time to work out what happened once that's done."

Originally Posted By: Callsign Bedrock

"Roger, Callisto. Do you have an ETA on the other Raptor squads? Wade, start carrying the survivors into our bird. I don't see anyone up here. Anyone alive, at any rate. So I'll join you shortly..."

Simon brushes his gloves fingers over the controls. He then checks the exits to see if they've been forced, reasoning that if they haven't been then the black box must be on board.

Armistice Line

Callisto cursed once again under her breath before she started to coordinate the Raptor and the Viper Squadron’s to do their frakking jobs. “ETA 3 Minutes, Bedrock – I’m going to make one more sweep across the blindside towards open space, some thing doesn’t feel right about this.” Callisto just nodded to Deadbolt who immediately joined her side to give her cover in case of a surprise attack.

In the meantime the Squadron’s had been finally fully deployed and what appeared to be a crowd of confused chicken quickly reformed to a task force with deadly precision. Reflexes were kicking in and adrenaline brought the crew back on line and contained the situation within a few minutes. Slowly relief was spreading as several minutes without fighting passed. This seemed to be a “just” a rescue mission after all.

Gemenon Prophet

Lt. Thanatos “Scarface” Davies volunteered to lead a small strike force of marines to make a quick reco-nmission inside the Gemenon Prophet. His small squad of 5 experts were all fully geared for the worst case. Lt. Bedrock managed to re-establish Life support short after the Squad boarded the Gemenon Prophet – yet Lt. Davies had a strange feeling that something was not quite right. Carefully the Squad proceeded to check out the Ship Deck by Deck.

15 Minutes later the Squad reached the area where Lt. Bedrock and Wade were waiting and nervously “holding” the bridge until reinforcements came while the Raptor crews evacuated those passengers in dire need of medical attention. Fortunately most of the passengers just passed out without hurting themselves – nothing more than a few bruises and scratches.

Within another 15 minutes the three stranded ships had been brought on course parallel to the Armistice line – now they only needed to find out why by the gods these ships had jumped into the sector in the first place...

Starboard Flight Deck Battlestar Valkyrie

Captain Callisto and Deadbolt had barely signed their flight protocols when a young Deckhand named Harris told them that the Admiral was expecting them for a full debriefing in his quarters. "He seemed kinda pissed, Sir.", added the young man before he sped away to do whatever seemed more pleasant than meeting the Captains gaze.

[Rorx]

Gemenon Prophet

Than carefully approaches the bridge, leading his squad, and wary of the possibly nervous flight crew that were meant to be there. Once it is clear that they aren't going to be too twitchy with their trigger fingers he swaps his assault weapon to his left hand (still active since his ambidextrous) to have be ready to shake the officiers hand.

"Lt Bedrock, I'm Lt Davies, callsign Scarface. My squads done a sweep on our way up through the decks, but we haven't seen anything unusual yet. What did you find when you arrived here?"

[z-Agrippina Solas]

Originally Posted By: CIC BS: Valkyrie

Battlestar Valkyrie Brig

"Good," was all Lt. Everette said and for a moment it felt like he had set her up. He walked to the table where the Corporal was sitting and unlocked the bars. “"You can go, Chief. I’ll report to the Admiral ASAP."”

As she walked out of the brig he added, "You did the right thing, Chief."”

It didn't feel like the right thing, necessarily. It felt like she was spying for Everette, like her choice on how to discipline her staff had been taken from her. Grumbling and in a sour mood, she was already irritated when she arrived on deck. The whispers and rumors circulating around her made her scowl all the harder.

But seeing the birds back on deck eased some of her anger. Work was exactly what she needed right now. It was the one part of her job that Everette hadn't just ruined for her. She snagged the flight protocol from a deckhand and checked to see if they had reported any issues.

"Captain, Deadbolt." She greeted them the same way she always did, with an easy, half-absent air. "Any trouble with the birds out there?"

[Jhonen Erasmus]

Colonel Erasmus continued to survey the deployment of the ships under his command. The Admiral seemed to have everything well in hand, but the CO felt like he was being sidelined during the first command situation on his new ship, a situation that irked him.

Strangling off his growing resentment with years of professionalism, he strides to the CAP station and looks over the shoulder of the junior officer stationed there. He too notices the slow dispersal of the Raptor and Viper wings.

"Admiral, with your permission, I'm going to call the deck, find out whats holding things up."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

CIC Battlestar Valkyrie

"Permission granted, Col. I'll be in my quarters and expect the CAG ASAP for a full report.", the Admiral said leaving the CIC to the Colonel.

In the meantime Deckhand Harris answered the call on Deck, "Yes sir? What can I do for you, Colonel?", the young boys' voice sounded obviously intimidated.

[Callsign Bedrock]

Originally Posted By: Rorx

"Lt Bedrock, I'm Lt Davies, callsign Scarface. My squads done a sweep on our way up through the decks, but we haven't seen anything unusual yet. What did you find when you arrived here?"

"As soon as we went through the hatch, I noticed blood, and everyone was either alive or unconscious. I made my way to the cockpit and noted that the flight recorder had been removed. The crew had been shot by large caliber rounds, of unknown origin. I'm glad you're here, Lieutenant. Something evil is afoot on board this ship."

[Rorx]

"Ok, Lt, lets see what we can find out."

He turns to his squad members who have drifted into the room,"Right, we need to find out what happend here in as much detail as possible. Obviously we won't be able to get a decent time sequence as the bodies will have all moved about in the zero-g. However, I want as good a time of death for each individual as possible, although I expect them to all be at the same time within our error margins. Someone get into their computer system, I want a record of who was meant to be on duty and whose bodies we actually have here. ALso there last recorded logs on the main system, both from the bridge/command and any possible records from the drive and engineering sections. Information on the weapons, check the calibre as close as possible, and look for any residue that might indicate where each shot was fired from or how far away the attacker was. That might be able to give us an idea of how many attackers there may have been."

"Once we have a crew and passenger list we'll need to ascertain where all the crew who weren't on the bridge were at the time we think the attack occurred, as well as any passengers who might have had the seniority or interest to have been invited on to the bridge. I know being a civilian ship they don't have a guarded bridge/CIC as we do, but I'd hope they didn't allow anybody up here at any time."

Turning back to Bedrock, he replies to his last statement first, "I'm afraid I have a bad feeling about this as well Lt. I don't think it's coincidence that these ship have appeared here, and quite possibly that they appeared now, just as we are in the area. However, we will have to deal with that as and when we have more solid information to go on and a more substantial object for our concerns. Right now, is there anything else you can think of to add to what we should be looking for here on the bridge?"

[SalmonMax]

Great. Frakking great.

Callisto turned away from the retreating duty officer and gave the Chief a thin, strained smile.

"Nothing mechanical at least," she assured Solas. "Everything else was frakked to hell, but the actual machines look to be working fine."

She sighed and forced herself to relax a little.

"Sorry. I'm just about to march to a nice ass-chewing on top of everything else. Didn't mean to spill it on you though. Nothing to report, engineeringwise. You guys are taking great care of my babies."

Her smile was smaller, but more genuine, when she gave Solas a companionable pat on the shoulder and headed past her to the 'debriefing,' as the Admiral was calling it.

[Jhonen Erasmus]

Colonel Erasmus salutes the Admiral as he leaves the bridge then turns his full attention to the comms unit in his hand, his voice cold.

"I want to know the situation down there, Mr. Harris. I want an explanation for the delay I see in the CAP launch."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

The Bull snorted. Damned civilians getting tossed into this. Right well it had to be done might as well do it right, trap or no.

"Lieutenant Abrams, get us over there and hook up to the Gemenon Prophet, I want marines on hand to escort the civilians into secure rooms and kept there until they can be debriefed, and yes that includes members of the Quorum that might happen to be aboard. I also want ever gun manned and ready to fire at my command. If this isn't some kind of trap I'll be very much surprised. I also want our vipers flying patrol around us." McLeod was all business and it was times like these he hated the most. He wanted to be everywhere and have his hand in everything, but that would be counterproductive.

"Lt. Make sure that the marines get those civvys off that tub as fast as possible. Assign two squads of Marines to do a sweep of that tub to verify there is no hostile presence aboard. Keep em in radio contact. I want to know immediately if things go south."

Armistice Line, uncharted space

The Herakeles Raptor’s quickly took both Colonial Heavies into inspection initiating the docking procedure with the Herakeles to re-initialise the engines. The marines found most of the passengers unconscious with the crew killed just like on board of the Gemenon Prophet. Someone or something had managed to catch the crew by surprise and then jumped to this location. It only didn’t make any sense at all.

An emergency engineering team was deployed to help facilitate the repairs on board of the Colonial Heavy which was about to dock with the Herakeles.

The engineers immediately started a routine procedure to take stock of the situation and find a reason for the systems failure. They were unaware of the large array of hidden explosives which had been hardwired to the Powergenerator…

Originally Posted By: Rorx

"Ok, Lt, lets see what we can find out."
He turns to his squad members who have drifted into the room,"Right, we need to find out what happend here in as much detail as possible. (...)
"Once we have a crew and passenger list we'll need to ascertain where all the crew who weren't on the bridge were at the time we think the attack occurred, as well as any passengers who might have had the seniority or interest to have been invited on to the bridge. I know being a civilian ship they don't have a guarded bridge/CIC as we do, but I'd hope they didn't allow anybody up here at any time."

The Squad started to search the bridge for any signs Lt. Davies asked to look for. The computer specialist started to work through the damaged system and tried to get at the passenger list or any other valuable data that could help find answers.

Alertness+Perception vs. #11 (hard difficulty) (1d10+1d6=8)

Intelligence+Technical Engineering vs #7 (1d6+1d6=6)

The team seemed to be busy for a while before they got any results.

(ooc: Both rolls failed – Specialist will get a retry vs. #9 but that’ll take some time)

Originally Posted By: Jhonen Erasmus

Colonel Erasmus salutes the Admiral as he leaves the bridge then turns his full attention to the comms unit in his hand, his voice cold.

"I want to know the situation down there, Mr. Harris. I want an explanation for the delay I see in the CAP launch."

Starboard Flightdeck Battlestar Valkyrie

"We're... having trouble with the missile-loading system for the Mk IIs, Sir.", stammered the young man. "The Chief was missing, no one knew what to do, Sir." frak, shouldn't have said that!, cursed Harris to himself.

"But we're getting things done, no more delays", he hoped the XO wouldn't bite his head off.

[Callsign Bedrock]

"Nothing leaps to mind, Lieutenant. I'm no detective, I'm afraid."

[Jhonen Erasmus]

The Colonels jaw clenched. The Chief Engineer was missing? What kind of lax operation was the previous CO running where senior officers could duck out during combat operations?

"Very well, Mr. Harris. Have the Chief report to me when she returns to her station." His voice is clipped and cold.

He Waits a brief moment for the Deckhands response before slamming the receiver down, earning a concerned glance from the junior communications officer. Ignoring her, Colonel Erasmus absentmindedly strokes the deep scars on his cheek for a moment before picking up the receiver again.

"Put me through to security." He orders.

[Rorx]

"That's alright Lt Bedrock, none of us detectives in this line. I just probably have had more dealings with IG while I was a marine than you have as a pilot."

[z-Agrippina Solas]

Agrippina nodded as Callisto apologized and explained her terse mood. It was pretty normal for the pilots to shit all over the techs, though the apology was a sweet surprise. So Agrippina was sincere as she said, "Sure thing, Callisto. Not a problem. Hope you get out with only minor teeth marks." She even got a smile from the normally surly Chief.

Agrippina's good mood lasted for a few seconds, which was how long it took her to see the numbers for the CAP launch. Her gut tightened in anger as she reviewed the entire mess and realized that her team had fallen apart when she'd left.

"HARRIS!" she roared, calling for deckhand who had been in charge, no matter how nominally. Her bellow rose easily over the other noises of the bay, and dead silence fell as Agrippina subtly attempted to ease her now-raw throat.

Harris responded relatively quickly for a man who knew that his boss had a temper and had been jailed for murder for a time. "Yes, sir?" he asked, clearly nervous.

Agrippina extended the reports, holding them out and waiting silently for an explanation.

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

CIC Battlestar Valkyrie, Armistice Line

Originally Posted By: Jhonen Erasmus

The Colonels jaw clenched. The Chief Engineer was missing? What kind of lax operation was the previous CO running where senior officers could duck out during combat operations?

"Very well, Mr. Harris. Have the Chief report to me when she returns to her station." His voice is clipped and cold.

He Waits a brief moment for the Deckhands response before slamming the receiver down, earning a concerned glance from the junior communications officer. Ignoring her, Colonel Erasmus absentmindedly strokes the deep scars on his cheek for a moment before picking up the receiver again.

"Put me through to security." He orders.

The young communications officer quickly contacted security and handed over the receiver to Col. Erasmus. A rather annoyed voice saluted at the other end, “Corporal Hicks, Sir. What can I do for you?”

Just in that moment Lt. Everette entered the CIC and smiled briefly before he went over to his station.

Starboard Flightdeck Battlestar Valkyrie

Originally Posted By: Agrippina Solas

"HARRIS!" she roared, calling for deckhand who had been in charge, no matter how nominally. Her bellow rose easily over the other noises of the bay, and dead silence fell as Agrippina subtly attempted to ease her now-raw throat.

Harris responded relatively quickly for a man who knew that his boss had a temper and had been jailed for murder for a time. "Yes, sir?" he asked, clearly nervous.

Agrippina extended the reports, holding them out and waiting silently for an explanation.

Deckhand Harris never wanted to have a position with responsibility. Being from Tauron he preferred to work with his hands and use his natural strength and bulk to do the heavy duty stuff. Things got quickly out of his control once the Chief was arrested and for the first time he realized that being the senior Deckhand wasn’t an advantage from his point of view.

No one had expected to rush into such a situation shortly after the mission started which was no excuse for their weak performance. Most Deckhands had been recently transferred to the Valkyrie after Cmd. Adama took almost his complete crew with him to his new command. They had little experience and most certainly didn’t know how to improvise in case of an emergency. That was the reason why Chief Solas had been called to duty in the first place. She was on the Admirals wanted list.

The crew had major problems loading the missiles for the MK IIs using the autoload-mechanism that was designed for the Mk VIIs. There were rigs for manual load but most Deckhands had never used them or had little experience and walking around live ammo made most people nervous – extremely nervous.

Harris took the report and reported without looking at it, “The XO just called and almost bit my head off. I shouldn’t have told him that you weren’t around, Chief. We’re getting things slowly under control but currently there only 2 Deckhands experienced with the manual rigs and that includes me. We could improve launch times if we didn’t load the missiles until we’ve found a faster way to arm the birds.”, he knew that this wasn’t really an option but it was the only thing that came to his mind to speed things up.

“Good to see you back, Chief.”, he added quickly before he prepared himself to get his ass whooped.

Bridge Gemenon Prophet

The specialists were taking too much time and there were no results yet. “Sir, I’m having serious trouble accessing the data. This may take a while. Shall I proceed?”, reported one of the marines assigned to salvage the Data Lt. Davies wanted.

The other specialists seemed to make slow progress, too. Everyone looked expectantly at the Lt.’s decision.

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

Battlestar Valkyrie, Admiral's Quarters

The Admiral was obviously in a foul mood as Callisto entered his quarters. He had unbuttoned the first two buttons of his uniform and stared at his desk rubbing his temples. Standing up to receive the CAG of the Valkyrie he slowly straightened his uniform and closed the buttons again before he addressed her.

“As you were.”

Pause.

Awkward long pause.

“I suppose there is no excuse except for inexperienced crewmembers and a long chain of unlucky events. I’ve been through the facts at least a hundred times and I’m at a loss of words. If this had been a cylon attack we all would be dead by now, I’m certain of that. But I can’t blame you, Captain. But I need to blame someone if not myself.”, he poured himself a drink and followed through to a second glass which he offered Callisto.

“This mission is being sabotaged, Captain… on many levels. I need good people whom I can trust. People that are absolutely loyal beyond any doubt. Do you think you are up for this assignment, Captain?”

[SalmonMax]

Callisto's eyebrows knit together as she watched the Admiral warily. She respected the old man a great deal, as she did any veteran of the Cylon Wars. There was relief that he wasn't holding her responsible, but also shame because she WAS responsible. Inexperience was no excuse. And "unluckiness" was just stupid. You couldn't depend on luck. You trained so you didn't need it. You trained so that when things turned against you, you were ready for it.

It felt to her as if the Admiral were...capitulating somehow; surrendering his control to the whims of fate, and that was unsettling to her. Even so, she knew her duty.

"Definitely, sir," Callisto replied. "I've never taken a mission I wasn't committed to, and that includes this one. And if I had any loyalty issues whatsoever, you'd be the first to hear about it. I don't play games when lives are on the line."

[CIC BS: Valkyrie]

“Good, I expected nothing less from you.”, he smiled an offered her to sit down.

“The CFOSI has one of their agents on board of my ship. A watchdog. I won’t tell you who to protect you, but I can assure you that I don’t approve of his presence. Only the XO knows about him and that’s the way the CFOSI wants to keep it, but I’m not playing by their rules. If there is anything wrong with this mission I’m not going to sacrifice my men for the decisions some stupid members of the Quorum have made. They know nothing about war, sacrifice and loyalty. We have sworn an oath to protect the colonies from any enemy and the cylons aren’t the only threat we face.”

The Admiral seemed to recover quickly after venting some of his anger through his little speech. “We gotta get rid of those bad apples lest we get frakked between the frontlines. First I want you to work through the Squadrons – any rumor about this mission or the CFOSI – I want to know it, no matter how trivial it appears to you. I know this may sound paranoid, Captain but it has to be done. Once I’ve gathered enough information I can start to work out a plan to find the reasons for the CFOSI presence. I have my suspicions but that’s not enough to act. Any questions, Captain?”

[Jhonen Erasmus]

"Corporal. This is Colonel Erasmus. I want Chief Engineer Solas located. This is not a security concern, but she needs to contact the bridge. Immediately."

He waits only a moment for an affirmation before he returns the receiver to its cradle. He straightens, takes a deep breath, then returns to the fleet dispersion. Watching the maneuvers of the Phalanx and Heracles as they move closer to the wounded vessel.

[SalmonMax]

Callisto considers, then says, "I don't have your experience, but in the experience I do have people are more likely to get hurt or die because of what they don't know than because of what they do."

She meets the Admiral's gaze.

"I'll do this, but unless there's a good reason not to, I think you should tell me who the CFOSI is. I'm already going to be working with one hand since I can't be open about it. Without a name, I'll be working with one hand...and in the dark."

"Other than that, do I have permission to let other people I trust in on this?"

[Rorx]

"What's causing the delay with the data? Is it damage to the system or does there appear to be any other factors involved, could it be sabotage?"

"The rest of you, do what you can, I didn't expect it to be easy after the ship had been in freefall. We'll just give it another 5 minutes then we bug out. Make sure you've got what photos and measurements you can to replicate the scene as we found it when we arrived as close as possible."

He turns to Bedrock, "Well, I didn't expect much and it looks like that's what we've got. I'll be glad to get out of here, something doesn't feel right about this whole set up."

[Callsign Bedrock]

"Agreed, Lieutenant. The whole ship feels as though we are treading on gravestones."