Part 6 Battlestar Galactica: Back To The Colonies,: War On The Mountain

Chapter 7

Chapter VII

Commander Cross had left Justin Bond's quarters a half-hour earlier, giving him an abridged brief of what Lee had given the Command Authority. Like them, he didn't like the news; and like them, he knew they were determined to see this through.

He heard another knock on his door and got up to open it. "Governor Kwok", he said in delighted surprise, "welcome! It's good to see you, Ingrid!" He embraced the new Governor, whom he had known for years and counted as a friend.

"It's my privilege to be here, Justin. I haven't had much time for such a visit, and I do apologize for that."

Justin Bond waved her to the kitchen table. "Consider it a non-issue, you've had to hit the ground running since the transition, and I know you've been damned busy."

"How are you feeling, Governor", the new Governor asked the old one.

"I'm feeling fine, Ingrid. We finally are beginning to have an idea what I'm up against with the trembling and the memory loss." He explained the report on the plaque buildup. In fact, he was expecting Gaius later that day to brainstorm what to do next.

"I'm glad to hear that, my friend", she said sincerely. "I'm so sorry what you've been going through, Justin. Believe me, I'm honored to be Governor, but this is hardly the way I wanted to become Governor."

"I understand, Governor Kwok", he said graciously. "How can I be of service to you today?" He was pouring her a fresh cup of coffee when he asked the question.

"I'm just here to get your view on the intel we've gathered, and to pick your brain."

Justin Bond laughed. "Well, my brain has been picked a lot lately, but not in the way I'd like, but I assure you I haven't lost my marbles yet."

The Governor laughed. "I was quite sure of that."

Justin Bond sighed. "This isn't gonna be as easy as we dared hope it would be. We didn't think it would be easy to begin with. Twenty-thousand possible combatants, with better weapons than we thought?", he shook his head in dismay. "Has any thought been given to postponing until Louis arrives?"

The Governor had expected that question and took no offense to it. "I've been rolling it around in my mind, to be quite candid, Justin, but I don't think we can do that. We've got seventeen-thousand down there, locked and cocked, as the saying goes, and to pull the plug now? Morale throughout The Fleet would be shaken."

Justin Bond had to agree with that. "That's a good point. Even though they have a numerical advantage, I think we can still beat them with what we've got."

"Justin", Ingrid inquired, "do you think we can beat them before Louis and the second fleet arrives?"

He sighed. "I still think we can; my hope is that we can because I'd like for that fleet to have a fresh start, and really begin the heavy lifting of what will need to be done here for the next century at least. Louis and Helo want to get in the fight, but I'd rather have to see them only tidy up what we've left."

Thinking about leaving the Twelve Colonies actually made Justin Bond sad. True, the coming conflict against these nuts in the mountain was a stain he'd rather not have, but he had learned so much about the people of these worlds; he had met representatives from each planet; he marveled at their geography and their own beauty. He truly felt a visceral connection to these worlds of man. He was proud of the role he had in making this mission happen.

"Justin, I know I've kept you too long, and you should be relaxing", Governor Kwok said, rising, Justin rising with her. "I promise you'll continue to get the briefs, and I promise I'll give you a few them myself."

Justin reached out and hugged the diminutive Governor to indicate his support. "I'm behind you a thousand percent, Ingrid. And I'm proud of how you've handled things since I had to step aside. Now kick there butts?"

She lopped off a bad rendition of a salute to her predecessor. "Yes, sir, I shall!"

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Down in The Kingdom, Clevin Monteith readied his followers. He had been awakened in the middle of the night when sentries had reported what looked like small firecrackers in the trees above. It had stumped him for a few minutes, but as the sky above became completely visible, after looking through the shadow of the netting for years, he realized that war would soon be upon him and his followers.

He had been planning to face this foe for two years, ever since one of his sentries had shot down a Raptor and killed two of the pilots on board. It had started a short, violent melee as the two sides looked to find the one pilot still missing. He had lost almost fifty men and women to that search in two fierce firefights, and he was still angry about it.

He and his followers hadn't been idle all those years before this fleet arrived. They had scoured the planet, not just for food, workers to build, woman to mother children, but also for military supplies that had somehow survived the Cylon assault on the planet so long ago. The Toasters hadn't destroyed everything. They had acquired guns, ammo, pistols, SAM's, RPG's, field artillery and shells, as well as anti-personal mines and traps. He didn't know back then if they'd need such things someday, but while he might be on the crazy side, he wasn't stupid. He had prepared for any eventuality-a fight with others on the planet; the Cylons; or any other force that wanted him out of his territory.

He was holding a meeting with his top lieutenants that afternoon. "As you can all plainly see when you look up, the netting is no longer above us. Seems our friends down by Caprica City have managed to burn it off. And they've been doing air recon over our territory.

"There's no doubt that there will be troops coming up the mountain, and very soon."

That sent consternation through the gathered. "We've prepared for this for a long time; we hold the high ground; we have more weapons than they think we have; we can make them hurt, and hurt badly, and still hold on to what we have.

"Beginning this evening, we will have pickets posted on all approaches to the mountain. Your anti-personal mine maps are up-to-date, as are the handhelds that can spot them. We've been working on assignments all night, they'll be posted in one hour."

"Boss", someone asked, "how many combatants are we estimating they have?"

It was the obvious question. "As you know, despite their blockade against us, we've sneaked some spies around their encampments, and we're estimating about fifteen thousand on the ground, and that does not count the aircraft that they can bring to bear-an advantage they have that we don't." Lee Adama would have been impressed at how close his count came to the actual numbers.

"When do we think they'll begin?" Another good but obvious question.

"Our intelligence gatherers believe it will be with the next seven days, probably less, so that's why we go on alert this evening."

"You said they have another fleet coming? Did they tell you how many are coming in that fleet?"

The Crown shook his head. "No, we don't know how many people, but that Admiral Adama said there is a fleet of sixty-eight ships due here in the near future, but we don't know when. Since its a larger fleet than this one, we have to assume they'll drop a lot more troops in here when that fleet arrives."

"Can we take them, Sir?" There was silence.

"I won't blow smoke up your asses and tell you that yes, definitely, we can, but we have the tactical advantage, and I believe we have an advantage in numbers of troops; they have more modern weapons, and they own the air. But if we're smart, and use our advantages, I think we can take them, or at least hurt them so badly in the process that they may just leave us alone."

He might as well be honest with them because he didn't doubt the resolve of either of the Admirals he had met or their capabilities. He thought they could win if they were smart. But he knew that the odds still weren't in their favor.

By nightfall, he had his pickets up, and his forces taking their strategic places, and they waited for the curtain to rise on the next scene.