Chapter 3

Traveling to Port Maw took just under a week of traveling. Both ships kept traveling in Convoy for security reasons, but because they were now well within Imperium controlled space, it wasn't really necessary. Aside from a single skirmish with a possible lost red escort the journey itself wasn't very eventful. With three days to go, the little group met up with a couple of frigates. It seemed that the SkyWatcher had sent word of their arrival. This group was some kind of Honor guard or something like that. It didn't matter what it was called, the crew on board both ships were happy with two extra ships flying alongside them.

At last the small convoy entered the system on the outer edge. Slowly the group slid towards the massive spaceport, while the small escort ships broke off and took position on the systems outskirts.

Docking in massive spaceport took a bit longer than usual. Not because it was harder, or busier than the battlestar crew was used to. This was done by choice. Most people were in awe of how big the spaceport was! The Scorpio spacedocks were big but this, this blew the other completely out of the water! Ships larger than anyone had ever seen were flying to and from the massive station, while smaller craft were buzzing about. Every now and again someone had to be snapped out of their awe. Partly because of this, Price had ordered the ship to basically crawl towards their spot, where they docked without issue.

In anticipation of the evaluation/inspection the ship was to be subject to, Price had ordered that no man was to leave the ship without his express permission. The evaluation was due this morning, so the crew got to work on repairing any damage they couldn't fix when on mission. It was not clear when exactly when the inspection came, or with how many would be attending. Just to be on the safe side he had ordered all critical systems to be guarded by a small detachment of marines.

He himself had, like his officers in time of war, holstered his trusty Five-Seven pistol to his waist. Price didn't expect trouble, but when dealing with an unknown caution is golden. For this occasion he had dusted off his dress uniform. Dark gray, with a leather belt and sash, the latter carrying his few Pilot's Elite Wings and the few medals he was awarded. His uniform was lined with red and gold piping along the edges, signifying his rank. His XO Colonel Howard's piping was red and silver in colour.

Fifteen minutes ago he got the call that the evaluation envoy was to arrive. Right on time there came the call on the other side.

After double checking the docking seal and pressure, the large steel doors slid open. In the walkway, much wider than the invictus-airlock was, four men appeared flanked by a squad of soldiers. The imperial officers wore a bright blue uniform jacket while the trousers were white. Most men present were highly decorated. By comparison his own dress uniform looked pale and plain.

The lead man, who seemed to be in good shape, although a bit of stress was giving him a few grey hairs, was the most decorated, but managed to display his achievements with style. The officer beside him, also decorated, displayed his medals plumply, while looking towards the colonials with arrogance. It was clear that sitting behind a desk didn't do him much good.

The third man, standing to the right was the least decorated, but only slightly. The fourth and final character standing at the door was dressed in a rust-coloured robe. He was the most peculiar of the set with all sorts of technology sticking out of him. Price could not help but wonder if he was looking at a man or a machine.

After a few seconds the lead officer walked up to the threshold of the airlock but stopped just short. At the same moment, men on both sides saluted each other, the Imperials with the sign of the aquila and the colonials with their hands straight to the hairline.

Then the man spoke: "I am Lord-Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg. I am in command of the Battlefleet in the Gothic Sector. You have already met Admiral Julius Lahain" He said while gesturing to the man standing on his right, who nodded slightly before adding: "We've met before commander, the battle of Relay 571. I thank you again for coming to the aid of me and my men."

Both men approached the threshold and shook hands.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Admiral."

"Standing on my left are Admiral Kraego Caligarus" Ravensburg continued. The plump officer to his left looked a bit down, to raise his head again, "and Fabricator Cambrios, he manages this Spacestation." The mechanical man made a slight bow towards both colonials.

"Gentlemen, I am Commander John Price, commander of the 92th BattleGroup and the Battlestar Invictus. Standing beside me is my second in command, Colonel Mark Howard" who nodded upon the mentioning of his name. I welcome you aboard my vessel. Before you enter however, I understand your need for a security team, but I must insist on them leaving their assault weapons behind." he nodded at the bulky looking rifles the soldiers were carrying. "Enough accidents have happened when someone got jumpy. You may keep your sidearms."

The soldiers gave questioning looks to their superiors, but after an approving nod, they left behind their rifles with one of their comrades before stepping through the airlock.

The group moved down the Invictus' corridors with Ravensburg and Price at the lead. "The reports provided by Admiral Lahain about the skirmish of Relay 571 were quite impressive. You could start with a rundown on your ship's capabilities, particularly your carrier and self defence capabilities."

"The Invictus is capable of launching 80 Viper space superiority fighters within seconds"

"That sounds highly unlikely" said Admiral Caligarus

"You will see for yourself momentarily Admiral. What I've seen so far is that your strike craft are fairly large. Ours are small by comparison, this allows us to quickly launch and recover our fighters. Loading the launch tubes takes only a couple of minutes. Once the fighters are in, it takes only a few seconds to launch them. The ship can carry about 600 vipers, including their strike variant and 45 raptor shuttles."

Moments later the group moved through the bulkhead-hatch leading to the port hangar deck. The deck stretched for hundreds of meters, each set containing at least a dozen fighters ready to go. Modern grey painted Mk7 Vipers stood along their older red and white colored brethren, some positioned just before the launch-tube doors, while others stood in maintenance nests. Crews were working hard servicing and repairing the fighters from past battles and malfunctions, while pilots talked with their ground-crews. The vipers themselves are less than ten meters in length, while their strike variants were just over twelve meters long.

"These are your all powerful Vipers? These puny craft? Pathetic" the plump Admiral spewed.

"They're not so pathetic when over eighty of them are racing towards you, mate!" Flight Lieutenant Thatch said while tapping his Fighter "Each of these babies launching eight 50 megaton nukes at your face is a pretty scary sight don't ya think?"

The sole notion made Admiral Caligarus mad, but seeing the smiling face of the pilot who had the audacity to talk like that made him red in rage.

Price could see Lahain making a half-attempt at suppressing a smile on his face. Ravensburg held a straight face, not letting it betray his thoughts.

"It does sound impressive. Was that the armament used during the Relay battle?"

"No mister Lahain, we used conventional warheads. We use nuclear warheads only when necessary."

"Still it is impressive considering their limited size."

"Continue Commander" Ravensburg added

"Our vipers are fast and highly manoeuvrable, able to turn on a dime and launch up to eight anti-fighter or anti-ship missiles. This includes Nuclear devices. Strike vipers carry up to 12 heavy missiles, intended to destroy or disable enemy subsystems. These ships are Nuclear missile capable, same as their fighter counterpart. We have 45 shuttlecraft able to carry marine strike teams.

As far as defenses go, we rely mainly on fighters, Triple-A, FLAK and our armour should ECM fail."

"How capable is your defence battery?"

"We can put up a FLAK screen thick enough to walk on. But it can't take up everything."

"Seems reasonable. What can you tell us about your main batteries?"

"The ship possesses over 40 turrets with two 250CM Rail cannons each, capable of firing anti-ship AP/HE shells and FLAK. in the bow we have six High-Calibre Railcannons capable of firing superdensity shells to take out armor. Enough to take out those red escorts at the relay."

"It is an impressive amount of firepower you can field for a ship this size. Which brings me to the following subject." Ravensburg paused for a bit and took a very serious tone. "What is a ship of this firepower here, in this sector? I do not recall any people of your faction being present here, Commander."

"That is a good question Mister Ravensburg. Sufficive to say, we were attacked by enemy forces, the Cylons."

"I have never heard of these Cylons."

"I am not surprised Admiral. The Cylons are machines, our own creations. A long time ago they became intelligent, they rebelled and a bloody war was fought, lasting for over a decade. An armistice was declared and the cylons retreated in deep space. We didn't hear from them for over forty years. Until about a month ago... The Cylons broke the armistice and nuked our planets. They had infiltrated our defence networks and many of our ships, powering them down or turning them against us. We were lucky to survive. I had to risk a blind FTL jump or lose the ship. That is how we ended up in this sector. From the moment we entered this region of space we've been under attack by those red ships you call Chaos. Not knowing where we were or who was out there I decided to retreat into an uninhabited system for intel. That is where we met the SkyWatcher in battle. The rest is history."

"A wise decision, considering your position, but it doesn't answer why you chose to aid Admiral Lahain in his battle."

"Listening to the chanting that our 'welcoming committee' gave us was maddening. No one should suffer their attacks."

"Admirable." the Lord-Admiral remarked before turning to his peers, "Gentlemen, do you have anything to add?"

Lahain was first to speak up: "No sir. There are still questions to be answered, but this will suffice for now. I think we now have a general idea of the Invictus and her capabilities."

"Agreed, Kraego, do you have anything to add?"

"Though I still do not have much faith in the commander's claims, it is a carrier and we need them. No questions at this time."

"I have a question to the Commander" The machine man spoke with a distorted voice.

"Ever since I set foot on this vessel, I sensed something off. Now I realise I can't sense the Machine Spirit of this vessel. Is something wrong with the ship's Spirit?"

"Machine Spirit? I am afraid I don't understand..."

"All complex machines have a Machine Spirit one has to tend to, to keep the machine in working order."

"This ship was designed to combat a foe which is more advanced than us, outnumbers us and tries to use our ships and weapons against us. So we find our strength in simplicity and the lack of computer networks, for all the good it did us..."

"The ship is dead?"

"The ship was never alive Fabricator. Nor are our fighters"

Price could hardly believe it but the Mechanical Man almost looked sad at the notion. He even made stuttering noises, like machine language in a serene way, as if he were mourning a dead friend.

The short silence was broken by Ravensburg. "I think we have what we need for now. We shall retire for the moment and find a suitable task for your ship. In the meantime Fabricator Cambrius shall aid you with any repairs should you require them. We may station a Liaison Officer here for observation and communication. Do you have any objections to these statements, commander?"

After taking a quick glance to his XO Price agreed and lead the group back towards the airlock, which closed behind them.

"Did we go too hard on one of the admirals, Howard?"

"No Sir! He deserved what he got! He was looking down on us from the start. I frankly enjoyed seeing him blow up more than he already was."

"In that case we'd have to give Thatch a raise don't you think?"

"We may have to" Howard answered as he started to grin. Both officers walked off to have one of their famous drinks in the Readyroom, just for the heck of it.