Season Two opened with Picon having been retaken after the capture of CFAB Crandall knocking the Cylons back. They seemed to cede control which left the Fleet and Resistance forces in control of a foothold on the Colonies but in a precarious position due to the proximity of Caprica – the Cylon stronghold and symbol of their occupation. With the primary ground war raging on Aerilon, the fleet focused its efforts there in order to try to secure the ‘breadbasket of the colonies.’ Meanwhile back at Piraeus a new force emerged. The ruins of an ancient civilization, later to be known as ‘The Abbey’, were discovered near the abandoned Raptor of disgraced CAG Zachary Sheperd. It was discovered that the location had been the site of a massive assault and upon interior investigation seemed to awaken the appearance and presence of seemingly conscious beings that claimed to be the guardians of Piraeus. Are they ghosts? Are they holograms? This is still unknown, but they claim to have died more than 3000 years prior. Their commander, Captain Kha’lila al Yamoha, who claims to have once been a Model Five, speaks for them. Over time these ‘beings’ began to earn the trust of some of the crew but they have unexplained abilities. Depending upon who you ask, they are either close allies or something dangerous because we do not understand them.
Around the same time the fleet saw the introduction of a more sinister enemy on Aerilon: Child Soldiers. The Cylons had begun fielding combat effective troops between 12 and 18, brainwashed children with similarly modified adults to lead, and put them directly in contact against resistance forces and Marines. This had the desired effect of demoralization and shock, causing some units on Aerilon to capitulate. These landings were done en masse and with massive fire support. With this came an identification for them, The Allied Planetary Forces, or ‘APF.’ These individuals captured several airbases on Aerilon and began flying strikes using fleet aircraft and fighting for control. It turned Aerilon into a mess with even more consistently changing lines of advance and retreat.
Behind the scenes, both the Sixes and Nines had begun building large defecting forces on Caprica and Leonis. They voluntarily organized themselves and placed themselves under local Colonial Command. Well equipped and armed, they rapidly became a formidable force thanks to targeted assassinations among their own lines in order to infect them with the ‘effects of Piraeus’ which seemed to awaken them to a truth: They all originally came from Piraeus and were in fact not Cylons at all. They were the troops created to protect humanity, not slaughter them. Model One had corrupted the lines while they were in stasis and allied them with the Cylons for an as-yet unknown reason. But with the building of an army, the Sixes and Nines approached two other model lines about The Truth – Seven and Twelve. They contacted Fleet Command and requested to come to Piraeus. It was granted and marked a watershed moment.
With Seven and Twelve convinced that they were on the wrong side, they began infecting their own lines. Once done, they also started approaching the other lines. Things began happening quickly from that moment. Once these truthes were revealed, the Lines became increasingly outraged in their own way. However, they continued their masquerade. At about the same time the Marines conducted a small unit recon on Libran to find out what was going on there at an ancient mine location. Upon finding the site, they found a large QRF (Quick Reaction Force) of trucks as well as a lot of scientific and historical research. And the potential idea that this was the original landing place of humanity on the Twelve Colonies.
Around the same time, Captain al Yamoha, ‘The Ghost Captain,’ revealed the location of an ancient command bunker on Piraeus that was only forty miles from Sheridan. Buried beneath a mountain, this place was discovered to be a tomb and likely the last stand of ancient forces that had suffered a horrific defeat at the hands of their unknown enemy. Within that command bunker a safe was found. The contents of it were discovered to be something of an ark, as told by a recording of the base’s commanding general a few short weeks before they fell. Intended to pass along to anyone who may discover the location in the future, the safe contained a solid state drive with a huge storage of intelligence on what had happened to them. The contents were staggering. The drive provided a holographic interface well beyond the capabilities of Colonial technology that provided a galactic map as well as force structures of the enemy that killed the Piraens: The Machines. The Machines had been chasing them across the galaxy for thousands of years from an original home that had sent out colony ships to three locations. Two were meant to restart humanity in a safe location, and one was a fallback at the edge of the galaxy known only as The Rally Point. One ships Captain was known as Captain Kobol, and another was Captain Eart – the latter having sailed with orders to set up Rally Point. There was no information further about the fate of Captain Kobol or his colonists.
At roughly the same time a bold plan was unveiled from command level. Recon had been flown by the fleet and discovered the location of two (of three?) Cylon home worlds, known as Twin Rocks. With the Cylons having to navigate a narrow area of safe travel through a nebula, it created a bottleneck. One single massive strike would be flown by all combat vessels to hit both worlds simultaneously to cause maximum disruption, followed by a jump to the bottleneck to destroy the responding Cylon basestars. An audacious landing would be performed to wake a ‘corrupt and dead’ line, the Threes. However, the Three that revealed herself within the fleet knew better. They would awaken the line and prove, finally, that the Lines had been lied to by Model One and the Cylons.
Titled Operation Blue Axe, the Battle of Twin Rocks was just the first stage. The Marine landing came off and the fleet destroyed every basestar in orbits, eight of them, with some losses of their own. They managed to even tank up fuel levels off a refueling facility and then move out with the Three’s awakened and the secret out. An additional three basestars were killed in the intervening 24 hours. The wing suffered losses, but nothing irrecoverable. Having taken on a huge number of Nines, infected by a former Viper Captain and Double Ace, it continued on to the bottleneck.
Part Two of Three, the Bottleneck Battle, was a bushwhack ambush performed within the nebula. They jumped in without weapons armed or raider packs primed, bringing logistical ships with them. The initial attack came off well but as the number of ships mounted, so did the Colonial losses. Any skinjob who died there, including the Nines in Vipers, never had a hope of being downloaded. With all nuclear safeties released in both battles, the Bottleneck proved to be a slugfest of guns and nuclear weapons. The Fleet’s Air Wing suffered horrific losses, but the Navy prevailed with a massively one-sided victory. Through both battles the Fleet took down 29 basestars and an estimated six to eight thousand Raiders – the latter mostly through nuclear weapons used as flak defense in bursts. More fleet losses were suffered, including some of the flak frigates that were intended to be used to defend the Super Dreadnaughts.
The fleet’s Air Wing, in whole, ended Phases One and Two with a total of sixty qualified aircrew. Two entire Raptor squadrons were destroyed, as well as four full Viper squadrons. Going into phase three, these pilots were to be known as ‘The Sixty.’ Two understrength Raptor squadrons with seven Raptor pairs each now exist. There are two full Viper squadrons left as well, each with roughly 30 Viper pilots. Half of them are Nines left in place under temporary commissions as LTJGs with one holding Captain as a Viper squad leader. Things were desperate in the Air Wing heading into Phase Three: Leonis.
Phase Three of Operation Blue Axe was intended to be the liberation of Leonis. A massive Marine landing was performed near the capital, Luminere. With the cities walled and turned into prisons, this was a huge undertaking. Both fleet landing ships discharged their Marine battalions. The Air Wing gave what support it could to clear the streets in a knife fight in between the buildings and ended up having to withdraw due to APF cover, with one Predator crew shot down. The Marines, however, made a successful assault through the city. Dog Platoon, from the Headquarters Company on Orion, assaulted the Prime Ministers home (Mitterrand House) and managed to retake it, but taking losses of their own. But this was not done alone.
Just prior to the landing on Leonis, Tactical had given an ultimatum to a Seven envoy: Join us in your own rebellion or be declared an enemy. Those who join can have Piraeus as their home and be welcome on the colonies if the Fleet succeeds in their endeavor. With only a few days to work with, the envoy convinced the other lines to rebel. Except for the Tens, who were trapped with One, all of the Line members who knew the truth threw off their masquerade and rebelled. They fought alongside the Marines on the streets of Luminere. The Lines in command of basestars turned their weapons on hostile basestars, killing several, before jumping back to Twin Rocks. There, the Lines engaged further. They are reported to have killed a total of nine enemy basestars while capturing eight. Only five ‘friendly’ basestars survived the battles and jumped into Leonis orbit to report for orders to Colonial Fleet Command. Additionally, the Lines took up combat on every occupied colony while the Cylons began a systemic ‘Scorched Terra’ campaign by burning and destroying what they could. But, employing the Cylon's own chemical weapons, the Sixes and Nines captured the four APF Wing bases on Aerilon, causing problems for the defending Cylon forces.
The battles still rage. The Colonial Fleet is still strong but is in dire need of qualified pilots. The Sixty have shed their previous callsigns and been issued new ones in line with their status as protectors and survivors – even the Nines based on the Orion. With even the Nines who went into the nebula risking everything, the Sixty have been granted unified respect for having proven their loyalties while watching their friends and family be killed in staggering numbers. The skinjob fleet, overall, have taken themselves under the command of the Colonial Fleet with their ships. The Lines brought two refueling ships, four amphibious landing/assault craft, four resurrection ships, and eight basestars. This also includes just over 1900 Heavy Raiders flown off Twin Rocks. These numbers augment the fleet massively, but leave the Colonials in a position of trust going both ways with heavy Line integration with the Colonial fleet.
Can the Lines be trusted? They are so apart of the resistance and command structure now that if they rebelled against humanity, it would mean total destruction. Will they try to seize control of Piraeus? For now, they are holding back on their request for coordinates except for a chosen few to be taken back to be ‘awakened.’ Jacob, the Seven in command of the Line Fleet, has indicated there are only 28 Cylon basestars left on active duty. However, there is an armada of unknown size rumored to be out there, supposedly protecting a garden world of humanity of their own devices.
The questions remain:
Can the Lines be trusted to remember who they were intended to be? What of the last two worlds the Cylons own? …And what about the larger ‘Machines’ that have spread across the galaxy? Just what remains of humanity in the galaxy and what is to be found at The Rally Point? Is there anyone out there? And what, exactly, is going on at Libran?