Note: Mistyped in naming this, the name I'd been going for was Battles, Stars, & Knights
Prologue
Revan grinned to himself as he reached out with the force.
It had been two years since he had found his way to this place, someplace untouched by either of the two traditions whose paths he had once walked.
And with no sense in the force that matched any he had felt before, not to mention the vast differences in the technology, had convinced him that this was an entirely new playing field.
His new friends and allies had seemed to be in a position on the brink of disaster when they found him adrift.
Their position was desperate, though it had improved since then. The tragedy that engulfed the Twelve Colonies had ended up as a much needed boon to those with which he had allied himself.
It probably shouldn't have been as surprising that the Cylons had been on the verge of their own Civil War long before they made their own attack, and the decision to prepare for that war had many dissenters.
The standard Cylon response to the refusal to be a part of what was planned had been to box the offenders, something akin to a death sentence. A few had managed to acquire ships and flee before it could happen.
Pure luck had led them to a habitable world before their small fleets fuel had finally run out, and the lack of parts had left them unable to repair the damage and wear on those ships.
These escapees had found him, lost and adrift in an unfamiliar universe, and he had joined them.
Six months later, the bits and pieces of technology he had brought with him were analyzed and, at least partially, replicated with his help combined with the two companions he was able to rebuild from their backup datacores.
A primitive, in his eyes, hyperdrive had been designed with a small handful of them built. One of the Basestars had been quickly refitted with it and used to scout the surrounding space for the needed fuel.
With the guidance of the Force, he had led the expedition for the necessary resource that only required a short time, but also giving the fledgling nation another boon.
Before the first Cylon War, the Colonies had begun to take the first steps towards expanding from their worlds and into the greater galaxy. The Hermes was a ship designed to scout for other worlds either for colonial use, or for whatever civilizations were out there. The search for the mythical Earth was a stated objective for the craft.
However, the long term missions of the craft ended when it jumped into the middle of an Ion Storm at the same time the Cylon War began. The station and relays it was using to send messages were lost while the distress call reached their home.
They abandoned the ship in the hopes of reaching a haven, leaving a ghost ship to be found by the new nation searching for needed supplies, only a short distance from the very fuel supplies that had been hunted for.
It hadn't been a hard decision to repair the craft, moving the supplies meant to feed and support the largest craft ever built by either the Colonials or the Cylons, as well as the inactive though ancient Cylons that had been abandoned on the ship for decades.
By the end of the first year, the supplies that were needed had all been found and were in constant supply. The Hermes had been refitted for combat use as one of the four capital ships they had managed to bring into full working order with several upgrades brought on by the info in the restored T3's memory banks.
Three months later, they had managed to put their defenses in order, converting most of their Basestars into satellite stations in the system that were combined with other systems positioned to keep their world safe from anyone or anything they could think of.
With the necessity of keeping their few ships in the system removed, they had begun to raid the ship junkyards of both the Cylon and the Colonial ships. Towing what they could steal back to their world to recycle into newer craft.
The small raider fleet had been upgraded and retrained for the newer weapons the best of them were given access to before supply would let them all carry the weapons while the first ship based shields came online simultaneously with turbolaser, blasters, and ion weaponry.
Then another disaster had struck.
Revan had felt the screams of billions through the force when the other Cylons struck at the Colonies. And his allies had decided to aid the survivors as best they could, sending their ships in to rescue survivors from those they could not aid.
The fears of being enslaved as their predecessors had been what prevented them from warning the Colonies of their cousins plans for war. Plans that had, at first, seemed to be but an intelligence program to protect what they already had, before the first calls for war had crossed the datanets.
Now they could take advantage of their cousins errors in defenses, passing undetected into the Cylon held worlds to slip out those they could and steal the stored minds of their "boxed" brothers and sisters from the Cylon storage facilities.
And another opportunity had presented itself.
A Resurrection Ship had been mobilized from the deeper systems in the systems held by the Cylon Imperium. Something that would allow them to return their sleeping family to their side as well as restore their own abilities rather than facing the oblivion that would have followed.
That goal had led Revan to where he now sat, sitting inside the belly of a cloaked Heavy Raider as it neared the position.
Their own remaining ties into the Cylon Datanets had found the coordinates prepared for the Resurrection Ships escape if it would be needed. With any threat the ship was to jump away, which meant that they could spook it away from its guardians and let them board it.
The Hermes and one of the two armed Basestars, the third refitted Basestar being repurposed since the war as a medical ship that Revan had named a Medstar after the frigate class the Republic had used occasionally in times of war, would jump in and engage the Cylon fleet while the remaining Basestar was in position with fighters ready to deal with enemy Raiders deployed against them.
The plan would be for them to sneak in with the cloak while the fighters hammered it out until the rest of the fleets caught up with them.
Hopefully, their boarding action could be finished before then and let them Jump out on the 33 Mark to the cover where the ships of their fleet were assembling.
A brilliant flash and the glowing pink of the Resurrection ship materialized right on target.
The crimson flashes of blastercanon fire burning from the fighters waiting to slam into a number of the Raiders.
Termed Marauders, their own fighters were designed off of the Sith Interceptor that Revan had arrived in. Losing the missiles, though a pair could be loaded externally if necessary, they sported the heavies blastercanons that they could support in a configuration that mixed the older Raider shape with that of the Sith Interceptor. The shields and hyperdrive made them terrifying, being able to ignore the 33 limit, the mind, upgraded from the Raider minds to full sentience, had been trained in using microjumps and several other abilities that far outstripped their far more numerous cousins.
Only the best of the Raiders were allowed the new forms.
Another grin as his probe brushed the mind of the lead Marauder, allowing him to know what was happening around them. It was exhilarating to be able to communicate with the biomechanical fightercraft.
His allies had taken a phrase they had remembered and run with it. They wanted piece, and so they prepared for war with their hearts, minds, and souls.
May the Force have mercy on their foes, for the small Republic of Free Peoples would not.
A moments hesitation as he considered the past once more, the events that brought him here, the ones that placed him in command of an army willing to fight and die against those who had sacrificed the innocent in a mad crusade at what they believed to be the whims of their god.
Prologue
Revan grinned to himself as he reached out with the force.
It had been two years since he had found his way to this place, someplace untouched by either of the two traditions whose paths he had once walked.
And with no sense in the force that matched any he had felt before, not to mention the vast differences in the technology, had convinced him that this was an entirely new playing field.
His new friends and allies had seemed to be in a position on the brink of disaster when they found him adrift.
Their position was desperate, though it had improved since then. The tragedy that engulfed the Twelve Colonies had ended up as a much needed boon to those with which he had allied himself.
It probably shouldn't have been as surprising that the Cylons had been on the verge of their own Civil War long before they made their own attack, and the decision to prepare for that war had many dissenters.
The standard Cylon response to the refusal to be a part of what was planned had been to box the offenders, something akin to a death sentence. A few had managed to acquire ships and flee before it could happen.
Pure luck had led them to a habitable world before their small fleets fuel had finally run out, and the lack of parts had left them unable to repair the damage and wear on those ships.
These escapees had found him, lost and adrift in an unfamiliar universe, and he had joined them.
Six months later, the bits and pieces of technology he had brought with him were analyzed and, at least partially, replicated with his help combined with the two companions he was able to rebuild from their backup datacores.
A primitive, in his eyes, hyperdrive had been designed with a small handful of them built. One of the Basestars had been quickly refitted with it and used to scout the surrounding space for the needed fuel.
With the guidance of the Force, he had led the expedition for the necessary resource that only required a short time, but also giving the fledgling nation another boon.
Before the first Cylon War, the Colonies had begun to take the first steps towards expanding from their worlds and into the greater galaxy. The Hermes was a ship designed to scout for other worlds either for colonial use, or for whatever civilizations were out there. The search for the mythical Earth was a stated objective for the craft.
However, the long term missions of the craft ended when it jumped into the middle of an Ion Storm at the same time the Cylon War began. The station and relays it was using to send messages were lost while the distress call reached their home.
They abandoned the ship in the hopes of reaching a haven, leaving a ghost ship to be found by the new nation searching for needed supplies, only a short distance from the very fuel supplies that had been hunted for.
It hadn't been a hard decision to repair the craft, moving the supplies meant to feed and support the largest craft ever built by either the Colonials or the Cylons, as well as the inactive though ancient Cylons that had been abandoned on the ship for decades.
By the end of the first year, the supplies that were needed had all been found and were in constant supply. The Hermes had been refitted for combat use as one of the four capital ships they had managed to bring into full working order with several upgrades brought on by the info in the restored T3's memory banks.
Three months later, they had managed to put their defenses in order, converting most of their Basestars into satellite stations in the system that were combined with other systems positioned to keep their world safe from anyone or anything they could think of.
With the necessity of keeping their few ships in the system removed, they had begun to raid the ship junkyards of both the Cylon and the Colonial ships. Towing what they could steal back to their world to recycle into newer craft.
The small raider fleet had been upgraded and retrained for the newer weapons the best of them were given access to before supply would let them all carry the weapons while the first ship based shields came online simultaneously with turbolaser, blasters, and ion weaponry.
Then another disaster had struck.
Revan had felt the screams of billions through the force when the other Cylons struck at the Colonies. And his allies had decided to aid the survivors as best they could, sending their ships in to rescue survivors from those they could not aid.
The fears of being enslaved as their predecessors had been what prevented them from warning the Colonies of their cousins plans for war. Plans that had, at first, seemed to be but an intelligence program to protect what they already had, before the first calls for war had crossed the datanets.
Now they could take advantage of their cousins errors in defenses, passing undetected into the Cylon held worlds to slip out those they could and steal the stored minds of their "boxed" brothers and sisters from the Cylon storage facilities.
And another opportunity had presented itself.
A Resurrection Ship had been mobilized from the deeper systems in the systems held by the Cylon Imperium. Something that would allow them to return their sleeping family to their side as well as restore their own abilities rather than facing the oblivion that would have followed.
That goal had led Revan to where he now sat, sitting inside the belly of a cloaked Heavy Raider as it neared the position.
Their own remaining ties into the Cylon Datanets had found the coordinates prepared for the Resurrection Ships escape if it would be needed. With any threat the ship was to jump away, which meant that they could spook it away from its guardians and let them board it.
The Hermes and one of the two armed Basestars, the third refitted Basestar being repurposed since the war as a medical ship that Revan had named a Medstar after the frigate class the Republic had used occasionally in times of war, would jump in and engage the Cylon fleet while the remaining Basestar was in position with fighters ready to deal with enemy Raiders deployed against them.
The plan would be for them to sneak in with the cloak while the fighters hammered it out until the rest of the fleets caught up with them.
Hopefully, their boarding action could be finished before then and let them Jump out on the 33 Mark to the cover where the ships of their fleet were assembling.
A brilliant flash and the glowing pink of the Resurrection ship materialized right on target.
The crimson flashes of blastercanon fire burning from the fighters waiting to slam into a number of the Raiders.
Termed Marauders, their own fighters were designed off of the Sith Interceptor that Revan had arrived in. Losing the missiles, though a pair could be loaded externally if necessary, they sported the heavies blastercanons that they could support in a configuration that mixed the older Raider shape with that of the Sith Interceptor. The shields and hyperdrive made them terrifying, being able to ignore the 33 limit, the mind, upgraded from the Raider minds to full sentience, had been trained in using microjumps and several other abilities that far outstripped their far more numerous cousins.
Only the best of the Raiders were allowed the new forms.
Another grin as his probe brushed the mind of the lead Marauder, allowing him to know what was happening around them. It was exhilarating to be able to communicate with the biomechanical fightercraft.
His allies had taken a phrase they had remembered and run with it. They wanted piece, and so they prepared for war with their hearts, minds, and souls.
May the Force have mercy on their foes, for the small Republic of Free Peoples would not.
A moments hesitation as he considered the past once more, the events that brought him here, the ones that placed him in command of an army willing to fight and die against those who had sacrificed the innocent in a mad crusade at what they believed to be the whims of their god.