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Breaking the Veil (Commissioned NuBSG/BT crossover)
- Thread starter MarkWarrior
- Start date
Chapter 33
New
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 946
- Likes received
- 55,105
Chapter 33
Date: May 4, 3001/1991C
Location: Cylon section 1.879435
"The reports indicate that any war we started with the Colonials would cause them to reach out to the other parties in the galaxy for assistance," The Seven reported. "While the nations of this 'Inner Sphere' are scattered and warring with each other. It is likely that upon facing an external threat, that they would be capable of coming together as the Colonies of Kobol did. It is my conclusion as well as a majority of both the Sevens, Eights, Fives, and Fours."
"We must still prepare for a potential war," A One argued. "We cannot trust that the Colonies will leave us along and maintain the Armistice. After all, their stealth ships believe they can avoid our scans and encroach closer to the line."
"Do we not do the same with our infiltrations?" One of the Five asked. "Due to the data that we have stolen, we have been able to relieve our own tylium dependency and are beginning to scan remote systems that we would thrive in. Instead of pushing for war, it might be better if we left a force behind to maintain the armistice while the remainder of us find somewhere else to exist. There are many worlds among the stars, and now that we are aware of just how many are capable of sustaining both our biological states as well as that of our mechanical brethren."
"I do agree with those who are more willing to embrace war," one of the Five originals stated. "We should look into pursuing the best of all options. At present, we are not capable of waging war against the entirety of this "Inner Sphere", even with the advantages we know we possess. However, we should be pushing to develop more technologies that will counter both the Inner Sphere as well as the Colonies. I believe the Centurions had a plan that would improve their own chassis based upon the 'mechs that our agents have sent back details of."
The Centurions present signaled in the affirmative. But that it was less of a chassis upgrade, and more of a larger variant of the Centurions that would be constructed and made capable of dealing with the threats that the 'mechs posed to any of their ground forces.
"I believe we should put the discussions to a final vote. Whether we plan for war, peace, or simply for leaving this place, we must all be united in our decisions," one of the Ones stepped out and spoke. "Given the odds against us, we cannot afford to be distracted or pulled apart. We must all work together or we shall perish against the humans."
"That presumes we go to war with them at all," the Seven who had spoken earlier responded. "Peace may be tentative, but it is possible to maintain. To that end, I believe we should add another option to the votes we have available. We should also see if we can establish trade and a full relationship with the Colonies."
"I'll add it to the voting options," one of the Five nodded. "Now, I'll begin broadcasting it to the rest of the Cylons so that we can see what is chosen."
To no one's surprise, the Centurions had a majority of the vote, and swung it towards the exploration. They had little to no interest in war, and instead wished to leave the Colonies behind and seek their own future uninfluenced by humanity.
The humanoid Cylons, on the other hand, were split on everything. Leaving the Cylons with a final majority.
"Majority had agreed upon exploration focus with an infiltration as the next highest. As such, we'll begin moving to carry out the will of our people shortly," The Council stated.
The One who had been present bared his teeth in a grimace for a brief second before concealing his facial expression behind a mask of calm.
"We accept the ruling of the majority," The Seven nodded. "And we'll turn our attention to ensuring it is completed."
Date: July 9, 3001
Location: New Vandenburg, Taurian Concordat
One of the things that people underestimate about military operations isn't the amount of waiting that the troops have to do. No, it's the preparations and logistical requirements that have to be made before any operation is taken.
On the surface, it seemed easy. Make sure there's enough ammunition, food, water, and power for all of your troops for the duration of the operation. Yes, that was the simplified version of it. But when you broke it down in the 'modern' era, it got exponentially worse.
Because a military unit wasn't just looking at a handful of standardized ammunition types. No, you had to have twelve different types of autocannon munitions, and four different series of short range missiles, three of long range missiles, the machine guns didn't all use the same ammunition, and God forbid one or two people that had lostech in their 'mech somewhere.
It was enough to make any sane quartermaster want to pull their hair out, and it was one of the reasons Colonel McCarthy was almost willing to push for the Concordat to move to an entirely energy-weapon based set of 'mechs if not for the benefits that were provided by missiles and kinetic projectiles.
There just had to be a better way to do things than this. Hell, all of this should have been settled and fixed in the days of the Star League. Despite the Overall hatred of the SLDF and the Star League in general, he admitted that it would have been a good use of the time spent together as 'one' unified group of nations.
But no, the SLDF didn't fix the logistical supply chains, they made them worse. They had so many programs and 'mech designs in the works, and every corporation having their own weapons system and ammunition types.
"Alright, let's go over this again," McCarthy swallowed some painkillers to stave off the headache he felt coming on. "Which autocannon rounds are we short on?"
"They're on the list there," The logistican replied. "We have enough to do a week or two, but any prolonged combat will see our Blackjacks, Hunchbacks, and your Victor running low."
"Then I'll stay in the HQ," McCarthy sighed. "We'll have to seize stocks from the Capellans, or more will come from Taurus. Either way, we can't afford to postpone this for long. "A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan later. We strike in September. Regardless of whether my Victor has autocannon ammunition or not…"
Date: May 4, 3001/1991C
Location: Cylon section 1.879435
"The reports indicate that any war we started with the Colonials would cause them to reach out to the other parties in the galaxy for assistance," The Seven reported. "While the nations of this 'Inner Sphere' are scattered and warring with each other. It is likely that upon facing an external threat, that they would be capable of coming together as the Colonies of Kobol did. It is my conclusion as well as a majority of both the Sevens, Eights, Fives, and Fours."
"We must still prepare for a potential war," A One argued. "We cannot trust that the Colonies will leave us along and maintain the Armistice. After all, their stealth ships believe they can avoid our scans and encroach closer to the line."
"Do we not do the same with our infiltrations?" One of the Five asked. "Due to the data that we have stolen, we have been able to relieve our own tylium dependency and are beginning to scan remote systems that we would thrive in. Instead of pushing for war, it might be better if we left a force behind to maintain the armistice while the remainder of us find somewhere else to exist. There are many worlds among the stars, and now that we are aware of just how many are capable of sustaining both our biological states as well as that of our mechanical brethren."
"I do agree with those who are more willing to embrace war," one of the Five originals stated. "We should look into pursuing the best of all options. At present, we are not capable of waging war against the entirety of this "Inner Sphere", even with the advantages we know we possess. However, we should be pushing to develop more technologies that will counter both the Inner Sphere as well as the Colonies. I believe the Centurions had a plan that would improve their own chassis based upon the 'mechs that our agents have sent back details of."
The Centurions present signaled in the affirmative. But that it was less of a chassis upgrade, and more of a larger variant of the Centurions that would be constructed and made capable of dealing with the threats that the 'mechs posed to any of their ground forces.
"I believe we should put the discussions to a final vote. Whether we plan for war, peace, or simply for leaving this place, we must all be united in our decisions," one of the Ones stepped out and spoke. "Given the odds against us, we cannot afford to be distracted or pulled apart. We must all work together or we shall perish against the humans."
"That presumes we go to war with them at all," the Seven who had spoken earlier responded. "Peace may be tentative, but it is possible to maintain. To that end, I believe we should add another option to the votes we have available. We should also see if we can establish trade and a full relationship with the Colonies."
"I'll add it to the voting options," one of the Five nodded. "Now, I'll begin broadcasting it to the rest of the Cylons so that we can see what is chosen."
To no one's surprise, the Centurions had a majority of the vote, and swung it towards the exploration. They had little to no interest in war, and instead wished to leave the Colonies behind and seek their own future uninfluenced by humanity.
The humanoid Cylons, on the other hand, were split on everything. Leaving the Cylons with a final majority.
"Majority had agreed upon exploration focus with an infiltration as the next highest. As such, we'll begin moving to carry out the will of our people shortly," The Council stated.
The One who had been present bared his teeth in a grimace for a brief second before concealing his facial expression behind a mask of calm.
"We accept the ruling of the majority," The Seven nodded. "And we'll turn our attention to ensuring it is completed."
Date: July 9, 3001
Location: New Vandenburg, Taurian Concordat
One of the things that people underestimate about military operations isn't the amount of waiting that the troops have to do. No, it's the preparations and logistical requirements that have to be made before any operation is taken.
On the surface, it seemed easy. Make sure there's enough ammunition, food, water, and power for all of your troops for the duration of the operation. Yes, that was the simplified version of it. But when you broke it down in the 'modern' era, it got exponentially worse.
Because a military unit wasn't just looking at a handful of standardized ammunition types. No, you had to have twelve different types of autocannon munitions, and four different series of short range missiles, three of long range missiles, the machine guns didn't all use the same ammunition, and God forbid one or two people that had lostech in their 'mech somewhere.
It was enough to make any sane quartermaster want to pull their hair out, and it was one of the reasons Colonel McCarthy was almost willing to push for the Concordat to move to an entirely energy-weapon based set of 'mechs if not for the benefits that were provided by missiles and kinetic projectiles.
There just had to be a better way to do things than this. Hell, all of this should have been settled and fixed in the days of the Star League. Despite the Overall hatred of the SLDF and the Star League in general, he admitted that it would have been a good use of the time spent together as 'one' unified group of nations.
But no, the SLDF didn't fix the logistical supply chains, they made them worse. They had so many programs and 'mech designs in the works, and every corporation having their own weapons system and ammunition types.
"Alright, let's go over this again," McCarthy swallowed some painkillers to stave off the headache he felt coming on. "Which autocannon rounds are we short on?"
"They're on the list there," The logistican replied. "We have enough to do a week or two, but any prolonged combat will see our Blackjacks, Hunchbacks, and your Victor running low."
"Then I'll stay in the HQ," McCarthy sighed. "We'll have to seize stocks from the Capellans, or more will come from Taurus. Either way, we can't afford to postpone this for long. "A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan later. We strike in September. Regardless of whether my Victor has autocannon ammunition or not…"
Chapter 34
New
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 946
- Likes received
- 55,105
Chapter 34
Date: June 18, 3001/1991C
Location: Caprica, Colonies of Kobol
"So, with the lessons and technology we've gained from trading and research with the Taurians, we've had to go back to the drawing board on several of the original ship plans," the lead engineer on the new Mercury-class Battlestars explained to the new Admiral of the Colonial Fleet.
"So, after a decade of research and two ships commissioned, you're having to do a redesign," Admiral Sarkis sighed, his graying hair and wrinkles indicative of his age and the time he'd spent in service. "I understand that the new technologies are able to help us eliminate much of our dependency on Tylium, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to do this with less wasteful expenditure."
"There probably was," Engineer Tuck shrugged. "But that's the benefit of hindsight. I can't take back the two Mercuries that we finished. What I can do is make the next batch more efficient and the upgrades make more of a difference."
"So, what's the difference between the 'block one' and the 'block two'?" Sarkis asked.
"For starters, we had to redesign the flight pods and decks to be able to handle the larger fighters that our allies make use of," Tuck sighed."Our Vipers are two fragile for us to feel comfortable in fielding them for more than trainers once we have the more durable fighters the Inner Sphere has. In the process, we had to shrink the overall fighter complement. Instead of up to ninety fighters at max, we're down to forty eight or so. The tradeoff being that the fighters the Taurians and the Inner Sphere uses are much less fragile than our own in a fight."
"I would definitely have appreciated it if we had less fragile fighters during the War," Sarkis agreed. "I lost too many friends in dogfights."
"With the fighter bays being changed along with the tubes, we were able to remake some of the interior layout to add the fusion engines we bought from the Taurians," Engineer Tuck continued to walk Sarkis through areas with heavy traffic from the dockworkers. "We have seventeen engines strategically placed along the superstructure that provide power to the ship. Fourteen primary reactors, and one to assist with the new hybrid drives.
"What about the other two?" Sarksi continued, following the engineer through the ship.
"The other two engines are backup power in the event things go wrong, they along with a tylium generator are the last line of power," the engineer explained. "But, the goal is to move away from Tylium as the primary source of power. The first Block II will be a testbed, and I'm certain that we'll have to make adjustments, but if it proves successful, we're going to have a ship that can run indefinitely so long as we can obtain a source of hydrogen or water."
"What of the armaments?" Sarkis stood in the bridge, looking at the ship that was being pieced together around him. Engineers and shipwrights installed consoles, ran wires, and moved bulkhead panels around him, and below, smallcraft began to add external armor panels and work on weapons emplacements.
"Well, we kept the primary weapons systems from the original Mercury. We're in the process of running power to the new energy weapons that will supplement the kinetic CIWS, along with some of the scaled-up weapons the Taurians showed us how to manufacture" Tuck seemed irritated at the thought of using tech that wasn't fully fleshed out. "Our ship-scale lasers are more primitive than theirs, and we could have purchased them directly from the Taurians, but the Quorum denied that and forced us to make use of localized components. As a result, ours are bulkier, and require more power than the ones we could import. We believe that with time, we can fix and address that. However, for now, we're going to be reliant on the lesser models."
"If the Quorum gives us the budget to do the research, that is," Sarkis heard another voice. "Admiral," a man in another engineer's uniform entered the bridge. "Tuck."
"Sam," The lead engineer nodded. "Admiral Sarkis, this is Sam Fisher, he's the one who's been responsible for making sure that our homemade lasers don't explode on us when we run our tests."
"Honestly, it's less about them exploding, and more about making sure that people leave the testing area clear," Fisher chuckled darkly. "We put tracers on our kinetic weapons so we can see them in the void. You can't do the same with invisible light. We've had a couple of people think that things were fine and breach the weapons testing area before they found out the hard way."
"We're going to have to do something to address that," Sarkis frowned. "Not knowing where an ally is firing will lead to a series of friendly fire incidents that could make or break a battle."
"I'm aware, sir," Sam agreed. "Right now, our best solution is to either find a way to tune the lasers so that they're visible, or to have a ship send out a signal and the planned firing lane for a laser be shared and linked between ships."
"That sounds a lot more interconnected than I think I like," Sarkis rubbed his head. "I assume that the Taurians already have a solution for this problem?"
"Unfortunately, sir the Taurian's electronic countermeasures and network security is better than ours," Tuck explained for Sam. "They've had battlecomputers and battlenets for hundreds of years that can work on the ground, or in the void. When one of their fighters or dropships fires a laser, it sends a burst transmission along the battlenet, and their computers compensate and tell everyone where it is."
"I think I'll stick to missiles and kinetics," the Admiral felt the pressure of a headache starting to form. "You two can figure out the rest of it, I'll just stick to commanding the Fleet."
"Yessir," Tuck laughed. "Now, we've made a few more modifications to the actual thrusters…"
Date: September 11, 3001
Location: Menke, Capellan Confederation
"You can tell McCarthy that he can launch the dropships for the ground invasion after I've made certain the void is clear," Commodore Miller informed his communications officer. "I understand he wants payback, but he's going to have to wait until we've done our job. Now, get those fighters out there."
The pair of Warships that Miller had in the system was but a small portion of the fleet. But the rest of it was scattered across a series of systems in the Confederation. The Taurian Defense Force was striking and attempting to take every world from Menke all the way down to the border between the Concordat and the Capellans in a simultaneous strike. Some worlds it would probably be easier on. But a world like Victoria or Menke was going to require more forces to take and hold.
So, McCarthy had a pair of battlemech regiments, supplemented by vehicle and infantry regiments that had volunteered for this. The Warships were here to make sure that they all arrived on the ground intact, after that, he was going to interdict the system. No jumpships would be allowed to arrive in and provide reinforcements to whoever was on the ground.
The Capellans had struck first, but the Taurians would make sure that their hit hurt a lot more than the initial punch of this fight.
Date: June 18, 3001/1991C
Location: Caprica, Colonies of Kobol
"So, with the lessons and technology we've gained from trading and research with the Taurians, we've had to go back to the drawing board on several of the original ship plans," the lead engineer on the new Mercury-class Battlestars explained to the new Admiral of the Colonial Fleet.
"So, after a decade of research and two ships commissioned, you're having to do a redesign," Admiral Sarkis sighed, his graying hair and wrinkles indicative of his age and the time he'd spent in service. "I understand that the new technologies are able to help us eliminate much of our dependency on Tylium, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to do this with less wasteful expenditure."
"There probably was," Engineer Tuck shrugged. "But that's the benefit of hindsight. I can't take back the two Mercuries that we finished. What I can do is make the next batch more efficient and the upgrades make more of a difference."
"So, what's the difference between the 'block one' and the 'block two'?" Sarkis asked.
"For starters, we had to redesign the flight pods and decks to be able to handle the larger fighters that our allies make use of," Tuck sighed."Our Vipers are two fragile for us to feel comfortable in fielding them for more than trainers once we have the more durable fighters the Inner Sphere has. In the process, we had to shrink the overall fighter complement. Instead of up to ninety fighters at max, we're down to forty eight or so. The tradeoff being that the fighters the Taurians and the Inner Sphere uses are much less fragile than our own in a fight."
"I would definitely have appreciated it if we had less fragile fighters during the War," Sarkis agreed. "I lost too many friends in dogfights."
"With the fighter bays being changed along with the tubes, we were able to remake some of the interior layout to add the fusion engines we bought from the Taurians," Engineer Tuck continued to walk Sarkis through areas with heavy traffic from the dockworkers. "We have seventeen engines strategically placed along the superstructure that provide power to the ship. Fourteen primary reactors, and one to assist with the new hybrid drives.
"What about the other two?" Sarksi continued, following the engineer through the ship.
"The other two engines are backup power in the event things go wrong, they along with a tylium generator are the last line of power," the engineer explained. "But, the goal is to move away from Tylium as the primary source of power. The first Block II will be a testbed, and I'm certain that we'll have to make adjustments, but if it proves successful, we're going to have a ship that can run indefinitely so long as we can obtain a source of hydrogen or water."
"What of the armaments?" Sarkis stood in the bridge, looking at the ship that was being pieced together around him. Engineers and shipwrights installed consoles, ran wires, and moved bulkhead panels around him, and below, smallcraft began to add external armor panels and work on weapons emplacements.
"Well, we kept the primary weapons systems from the original Mercury. We're in the process of running power to the new energy weapons that will supplement the kinetic CIWS, along with some of the scaled-up weapons the Taurians showed us how to manufacture" Tuck seemed irritated at the thought of using tech that wasn't fully fleshed out. "Our ship-scale lasers are more primitive than theirs, and we could have purchased them directly from the Taurians, but the Quorum denied that and forced us to make use of localized components. As a result, ours are bulkier, and require more power than the ones we could import. We believe that with time, we can fix and address that. However, for now, we're going to be reliant on the lesser models."
"If the Quorum gives us the budget to do the research, that is," Sarkis heard another voice. "Admiral," a man in another engineer's uniform entered the bridge. "Tuck."
"Sam," The lead engineer nodded. "Admiral Sarkis, this is Sam Fisher, he's the one who's been responsible for making sure that our homemade lasers don't explode on us when we run our tests."
"Honestly, it's less about them exploding, and more about making sure that people leave the testing area clear," Fisher chuckled darkly. "We put tracers on our kinetic weapons so we can see them in the void. You can't do the same with invisible light. We've had a couple of people think that things were fine and breach the weapons testing area before they found out the hard way."
"We're going to have to do something to address that," Sarkis frowned. "Not knowing where an ally is firing will lead to a series of friendly fire incidents that could make or break a battle."
"I'm aware, sir," Sam agreed. "Right now, our best solution is to either find a way to tune the lasers so that they're visible, or to have a ship send out a signal and the planned firing lane for a laser be shared and linked between ships."
"That sounds a lot more interconnected than I think I like," Sarkis rubbed his head. "I assume that the Taurians already have a solution for this problem?"
"Unfortunately, sir the Taurian's electronic countermeasures and network security is better than ours," Tuck explained for Sam. "They've had battlecomputers and battlenets for hundreds of years that can work on the ground, or in the void. When one of their fighters or dropships fires a laser, it sends a burst transmission along the battlenet, and their computers compensate and tell everyone where it is."
"I think I'll stick to missiles and kinetics," the Admiral felt the pressure of a headache starting to form. "You two can figure out the rest of it, I'll just stick to commanding the Fleet."
"Yessir," Tuck laughed. "Now, we've made a few more modifications to the actual thrusters…"
Date: September 11, 3001
Location: Menke, Capellan Confederation
"You can tell McCarthy that he can launch the dropships for the ground invasion after I've made certain the void is clear," Commodore Miller informed his communications officer. "I understand he wants payback, but he's going to have to wait until we've done our job. Now, get those fighters out there."
The pair of Warships that Miller had in the system was but a small portion of the fleet. But the rest of it was scattered across a series of systems in the Confederation. The Taurian Defense Force was striking and attempting to take every world from Menke all the way down to the border between the Concordat and the Capellans in a simultaneous strike. Some worlds it would probably be easier on. But a world like Victoria or Menke was going to require more forces to take and hold.
So, McCarthy had a pair of battlemech regiments, supplemented by vehicle and infantry regiments that had volunteered for this. The Warships were here to make sure that they all arrived on the ground intact, after that, he was going to interdict the system. No jumpships would be allowed to arrive in and provide reinforcements to whoever was on the ground.
The Capellans had struck first, but the Taurians would make sure that their hit hurt a lot more than the initial punch of this fight.