Current location:	Rhoose, South Wales
Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Robbie Williams, Life Thru A Lens

Tigerclaw (WingCO / BSG03)
Tigerclaw

For the record, I do not own nor do I claim ownership of characters and / or concepts from Wing Commander (movieverse used here) or the new Battlestar Galactica.

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Captain Jason Sansky was not a happy man. A mere month had passed since the failed Kilrathi assault on Earth, an incident which had been saved only by the desperate actions of his ship, his crew and the desperate race by Admiral Tolwyn’s forces to make Sol space before the enemy did, it was an incident that was still sending shockwaves through the Terran Confederation.

His ship had spent two weeks in dock being brought back to full operational readiness, and then had been ordered to picket duties in the sol system, picket duties!

The politicians were scared, the populace was scared and the military was being forced to provide a heavy fleet presence in the sol system at the one time they should have been advancing into Kilrathi territory.

Yes, they had lost Pegasus and all the ships docked there, an incident that was still being investigated as highly suspicious, but the enemy had lost more simply because Blair had done his job and Admiral Tolwyn had accepted the arrival co-ordinates for the Kilrathi.

It was a massacre, and for the first time the Terran Confederation truly appeared to have more ships then the enemy, albeit it marginally. They should be advancing, instead the fear of the politicians was keeping the fleet at home and it was the enemy who were advancing, the enemy who were pressing what had to be an unexpected advantage.

Bastard politicians, let fear overrule basic common sense, not that many of them had much of that to start with. Occasionally, he had fantasies of telling them what he truly thought to there faces, but alas, that would have to wait until the day he retired as otherwise it would kill his career, and well, he wasn’t ready to retire yet, not with the war still on.

Of course, the way things were headed, the politicians might just lose the war for them. Idiots.

Well, Tolwyn was rumoured to be raising a stink, hopefully he would be bale to get some results, otherwise, they might well be buggered.

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“Sir,” Tolwyn replied, reining his temper in with great difficulty, “surely you must see what I am say, if we do not push forward now, whilst we still have some semblance of an advantage, we may well lose this war.”

“And unmask Earth? The enemy knows where we are know, they can attack at any time and if Earth falls, you lose the bulk of your recruitment and resources, surely you must realise that,” Defence Minister Fredericks replied sarcastically, parroting the Admirals words back at him.

Tolwyn shook his head, “I’ve been telling you for ten years now that the military budget needed to be increased, that the only reason we have been able to keep up any kind of an offensive with the limited forces you have allowed us is that the enemy do not know where Earth is. Now, the other shoe has dropped and as I have warned you on many an occasion, we are left without forces enough to be offensive whilst maintained the defensive depth needed. I told you this would happen, and now it has. It was always a matter of time before Earth’s only real defence was stripped and it has happened. We must resume offensive operations now or by the time we have forces enough to both defend and attack, the Kilrathi will have taken over much of the Confederations territory and we will have lost.”

“But Earth must have a physical defence, we must have ships in force to keep us safe, neither the government nor the populace will accept anything else,”

“Then you have no choice,” Tolwyn replied, “whether you like it or not, you are going to have to vastly increase the military budget and increase the rate of ship production and you must do it fast. You are also going to have to allow me to release some of the ships from picket duties to offensive duties.”

“You have no right to tell me what to do Admiral, the navy serves the government, the government does not serve the Navy!”

“We are losing this war,” Tolwyn shot back, “and we are losing it through inaction forced upon us by the Government. Now, I have told you what must happen it we are to have a shot at winning, and we can still win, but time is running out,”

“I will not push for an increase in the military budget,” the defence minister replied, “so far, the war has had only a minimal effect on the basic standard of living and it has been a delicate balancing act to manage that. If we increase the military budget then the basic standard of living will be affected, this government will not survive such an act,”

“The government will not survive its constituents dieing either,” Tolwyn spat out, turning to leave the room, “and for the record, the military might serve the government, but the government is supposed to serve the people. Ultimately, that means the military serves the needs and will of the populace, you might want to consider what that means.”

Angry, the Admiral strode from the office, his expression grim as he carefully turned off the transmitter hidden inside his jacket.

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“Admiral Tolwyn,” Sansky smiled tightly as he welcomed his old friend onto the Tigerclaw, “what brings you here?”

“A mission,” Tolwyn replied, “an… unofficial mission. I’m afraid Minister Fredericks is still refusing to get his head out of his arse, but I have plans in place to combat that. Until then, I am taking personnel responsibility for releasing five ships to raiding duties behind Kilrathi lines,”

“I see,” Sansky replied, “am I to presume the Tigerclaw has been chosen for such duties?”

“No, your old friend Taggert has gone missing; his last report indicated that the Kilrathi had made contact with a new race, a highly amicable contact,”

“That can’t be good,” Commander Gerard noted as the trio stepped into Tigerclaws briefing room,”

“No, its not,” Tolwyn replied, “if they start exchanging knowledge, we could be sunk, just another little problem Fredericks is ignoring in the name of votes at the polls.”

“Recon then,” Sansky suggested.

“Not quite,” Tolwyn replied, walking across and gesturing at a point on the star charts which covered the wall of the briefing room at the foor of the long table, “his last report indicated a group of refugees fleeing these new aliens, the ‘cylons’ in this general area. Had a nice recording of a battle between the only military ship in the group successfully holding off a trio of Cylon carriers long enough for the civilian ships to escape through an unknown FTL method.”

“Rescue those refugees, guide them here, we get intelligence on the Cylons, possibly a new warship hull and a public relations victory we might be able to use,”

Tolwyn shot the abrasive Commander a slightly startled look, “I was thinking more of intelligence, but you are right. I might be able the PR aspect as well.”

“So,” Tolwyn said, turning from the charts to face Captain Sansky, “is the Tigerclaw able to carry out the mission?”

Sansky shot the Admiral a mildly insulted look, “we can leave before the morning is out.”

“Good,” Tolwyn smiled tightly, “then I suggest you get to it. Good day.”


Day One

Captains log entry: TCS Tigerclaw departed Sol System space at Ten hundred hours with a full complement of personnel, munitions, parts and consumables, the stores masters at Lagrange station having been unusually co-operative.

This is certainly to our advantage as we begin a search for what will almost certainly be the needle in the proverbial haystack, one convoy of ships in th vastness of space when we only know of a few stars they have visited, nothing of where they came from or where they are headed?

This certainly promises to be an interesting challenge and one I sincerely hope the Tigerclaw is up too. I will certainly be glad to miss the current politicking which is adversely affecting the bulk of our operations and hope that this is cleared by the time we return.

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Commander’s Log, BSG-75 Galactica: It’s strange, the Cylons have almost disappeared, the last week they have not attacked, not raided; they have not so much as shown up as a blip on the Dradis.

I don’t like it, I don’t trust it.

Still, I must take advantage of the opportunity whilst we have it. Between them, the science ships, mining ships, refinery ships and the flattop, the fleets repair and recovery ship have managed to devise a way to produce segments of the old Mark VI armour as used by Galactica during much of the first Cylon war. It is not as good as the Mark IX that replaced it during the last refit, but it is still extra armour.

The process is of course resource intensive in our depleted state, but the Galactica is supposed to have a double armoured hull, and the outer layer was mostly removed prior to decommissioning. That means Galactica has been taking damage on the inner layer of armour and the ribs designed to support the outer layer.

All the battles, all the nukes the hull has taken has weakened what armour we have, making replacement a priority, a priority even the full Council of the Twelve was forced to agree with.

Of course, we are vulnerable whilst the new segments are being moved into position and fixed, indeed, we are forced to remain at an absolutely constant course and speed, but so long as the Cylons keep away, the two completed segments of armour should be placed with little difficulty.

Nevertheless, the worry is simple, why now of all times, are the Cylons staying away? What has them so distracted that we have become insignificant to them?

The only thing I can thing of is that they have found somebody else to fight, perhaps even Earth and that is a thought that fills me only with dread.


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