<div class="floatleft">(http://www.bambammodelproductions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pegasus01.jpg)</div><br/>At the edge of the lower frontier, there was a section of 'dead' space, so called because it had the odd quality of hindering fleet-wide communications, as well as FTL jumps.  Simply put, if a vessel went into that place, it was alone for as long as it took for the vessel to cross it.  The Colonial Fleet's Admiralty found that this particular section of space, called 'No Man's Land', was a perfect addition to the standard shake-down route that all new ships would follow, before taking thier places in the Colonial Fleet.<br/><br/>Such was the reason now, as the newest of the  Colonial Fleet's mighty battlestars emerged from No Man's Land, the last of the mercury-class battlestars to be built.   Her given name was<em>Ares</em>, and she was intended to be the new seat of Admiral Negalla's flag, as well as the center of the newly-formed BSG-77.<em>Ares</em>, BS-69, was the most advanced battlestar for her day, and her power was easily on par with the other Mercury-class ships of her line.  While she bore a skeleton crew, an interim crew intended to finalize her acceptance into the fleet, she could still stand on her own and deal a deadly blow to a suspected enemy.<br/><br/>Now, though, she stayed put, her engines venting negligable tillium-based fusion plasma.  The cool  blue flames would never entirely die out unless Ares' reactors were shut down, and the engine nacelles would act as a beacon for any pilot that needed one.  In this day and age of super-advanced comouter networking, though, there was little need for a visual beacon.  Still, some pilotswould welcome the sight.<br/><br/><em>Ares</em>held her position, her maneuvering jets puffing erratically to counter inertial drift.  She hovered several hundred meters above a small communications drone, one that recieved and stored all fleet-wide communications messaged that were sent, holding them for whatever ship may be coming out of No Man's Land.<br/><br/>And, now, the interim commander of the Ares was reading what messages the drone could give.<br/><br/><strong>BATTLESTAR <em>ARES</em>, CIC</strong><br/><br/>Jacob Heller, Commander, stood at the plot table and looked at the printed messages in his hand.  After reading them all, he carefully went over each of them again, and tried to come to terms with what they meant.<br/><br/>The Cylons had attacked the home worlds, roughtly two weeks before.<br/><br/>Admiral Nagalla had taken command of the fleet, following the initial attack that took out nearly thirty battlestars.  Other reports of ships simply 'shutting off' as they neared engagements with Cylon forces.<br/><br/>Another message that said that Negalla had been killed, as his entire force was destroyed.<br/><br/>And anther from William Adama's<em>Galactica</em>, stating that he was taking command, and ordering all fleet assets to converge on the Ragnar anchorage.<br/><br/>And...  nothing.  Nothing after that.  Apparently, Adama's ship was destroyed as well, because there was no other message after that.<br/><br/>How could this be?  How...  how could the Cylons have simply eradicated the whole Colonial fleet like so many insects?<br/><br/>"Set Condition Two throughout the ship."  Jacob said, as he came to terms with the message's meanings.  "Send up a CAP, three vipers and one Raptor.  And have the XO and CAG come up here, on the double."<br/><br/>Instantly, the officer of the deck nodded, and triggered the inter-ship address system.<br/><br/>"All hands, all hands, set conditoin Two throughout the ship."  the words echoed throughout the massive warship.  "Send the word for the XO and CAG to report to CIC immmediately.  This is not, I repeat, not a drill."