Greetings community!
For those who have never encountered my work in the past, my online name is Randomscifiguy1. In the past I've experimented with a BSG fanfic called Battlestar Daedalus, based from the Reimagined Series we all know and love. I've attempted it twice and then abandoned it for a while. But now I am back.
Please read and provide any feedback you see fit.
Regards,
Randomscifiguy1
The universe has changed, the premise has changed, the story has changed… but has the plan changed?
The Cylons were created by man.
They rebelled.
They evolved.
They look and feel human.
Some are programmed to think they are human.
There are many copies.
And they have a plan.
BATTLESTAR DAEDALUS
Chapter One
Zero Hour
As an asteroid tumbled silently through the vacuum of space, the light from the Star Helios Alpha caused the dull grey hull plating of the Battlestar Daedalus to glisten. The glow from her engines lit the stern as she slowly thrusted past the asteroid.
Aboard the ageing, but proud battlestar, was her equally ageing but proud Commanding Officer, Rear Admiral James Yerome. He stood tall at the tactical plot at the centre of the Jupiter-Class Battlestar's heavily modernised CIC, which reflected the modern style more expected in a Mercury-class Battlestar like the Pegasus rather than the first class of Battlestars built by the unified colonies just before the Cylon War. Standing beside his commander was the Executive Officer of the Battlestar, Colonel Peter Seelix. He served as Admiral Yerome's ECO during the Cylon War, when Yerome himself was a young Raptor pilot trying to live up to his Viper pilot ace father, Colonel Emerson "Emmo" Yerome, who served on the Battlestar Columbia before she was tragically destroyed during a mission that essentially ended the Cylon War.
Admiral Yerome was a tall man, about 182 cm, with greying earth brown hair and matching eyes. Upon his chest were the distinctive insignia of a Senior Pilot, a symbol of his status as a veteran Raptor Pilot before he was granted his first command, a Defender cruiser at the ripe young rank of Major. His counterpart, Colonel Seelix, was much shorter, about 173 cm, with dark skin and a shaved head. He bore many scars on his face, the result of a computer overload during Operation Raptor Talon that barely missed Yerome in the pilot's seat.
"Sir, we're nearly at the end of our patrol, why are we circling an asteroid?" Colonel Seelix enquired, scratching his hairless scalp.
"Well Peter, we need to wait for the Valkyrie to come on station, let's do some science." He replied, smiling.
"Time wasting manoeuvre sir?"
"Precisely Peter."
The comms officer, a Lieutenant Jane Kilo, put her hand against her headset headphone, "Sir, we've received a confirmation message from the Valkyrie, they'll be here within the hour."
Lieutenant Jane Kilo, callsign "Liquid", was a former Viper pilot who was destined to become an instructor at the Colonial Fleet Pilot's School until a Colonial Day flypast during a Colonial Forces parade in Caprica City went awry. Poor maintenance work on the Viper Mark II she was flying caused an engine compressor stall which led to her Viper careening into a highrise apartment block at more than 200 km/h. The event left her traumatised and almost killed her. She was offered early retirement and a promotion to Captain with an honourable discharge from the service, but she instead asked to retrain as a comms officer. As a result of the crash, she had many scars all over her body, the result of fuel fires and lacerations from glass, parts of highrise and parts of her fighter being thrown at her by the impact.
Despite this, she had a cheery disposition and was a very well-liked member of the crew. Admiral Yerome was going to promote her to Captain at the end of the mission.
"Thank you Lieutenant," he replied before patting his XO on the shoulder and walking over to his Officer of the Watch, Lieutenant Kyle Geren, who was currently manning the ship's flight controls, "Lieutenant Geren, how are we over here?"
"Fine sir, just fine," he replied, "If Petty Officer Ortiz would hurry up with my coffee, I'd be happier though."
"Very good Lieutenant." He replied, secretly smiling. Lieutenant Geren was the son of a Colonial Marine Corps Major who mysteriously died ten years ago, allegedly by gunshot. Geren was brought to the edge of a deep depression thanks to this event, but instead decided to go to Officer Candidate School and serve in the Colonial Fleet as a Battlestar flight controller. Geren hailed from Gemenon, and was a highly spiritual person. He believed that his father's death was a sign from the Lords of Kobol.
"DRADIS contact, small craft, bearing 330 carom 05." The DRADIS officer, Lieutenant Peter Lopez, called out.
"What?" Admiral Yerome asked, turning his head.
"We've got a DRADIS contact, small craft, bearing 330 carom 05."
"Colonel Seelix, do we have any Raptors due in?" He asked the XO.
"No sir, no Raptors or Vipers have been launched for 48 hours." He replied, consulting the flight rotation clipboard.
"Colonel, order a Viper to intercept and identify." He commanded.
"Yes sir," the XO responded, picking up the intercom handset, "Spread the word throughout the ship. Launch recon Viper to investigate DRADIS contact at 330 carom 05."
In the hangar bay, the leader of Red Squadron, Captain Marco "Cheese" Vasquez, ran towards his Viper Mk. III while trying to put his helmet on at the same time. The result was a lot of fiddling that didn't stop until he was just short of the boarding ladder. The Chief of the Deck for the Port Flight Pod, Chief Warrant Officer Mackey "Mack" Maddon, tried to hold back a laugh as he stood next to the boarding ladder at parade rest, "Are we having trouble sir?" he asked, provoking a giggle from the nearby knuckledraggers, who were silenced by a death stare by the Chief Warrant Officer.
"No problems Chief," he replied, finally getting his helmet on and starting up the ladder, "I'm just going out for a little looksee."
"Yeah right, it's probably space debris. Just in case sir, we loaded your Viper with maximum cannon ammo and topped off the RCS and main propellant tanks," he informed the Captain as two Specialists pulled the boarding ladder off and rushed out of the way as the Viper's triple Voram VM3-D22 turbo-thrust engines roared to life and the Viper started to levitate off the ground and towards a launch tube. The tube doors opened as Cheese slowly pushed the throttle down and it slowly touched the deck, its front skid locking into the catapult shuttle. Instinctively, Cheese pushed his throttles to 85% of max thrust and gave the catapult operator the thumbs up as he settled into his seat.
"Viper niner-three-eight-niner, Daedalus, clear forward, nav-con green, interval check, thrust positive and steady. Mag-cat engaged. Good hunting."
The Viper suddenly accelerated out of the tube and into space. With the launch procedure over, he began to manoeuvre the ship so that he was pointing at the location of the DRADIS contact. As he moved closer, he noticed that the object glinted brightly in the sun, implying that it was very shiny, possibly made of some sort of chrome alloy. Whatever it was, it was still too far away for Cheese to identify it. Then it started to move away from him, and it wasn't just his eyes deceiving him, it was confirmed on DRADIS.
"Daedalus, Cheese. The DRADIS contact is moving away from me, please advise."
In the CIC, Admiral Yerome's face morphed into a frown, "Set condition one, order alert vipers into the tubes."
"Sir?" said Colonel Seelix as he looked up at the Admiral, perplexed as to why the Admiral would issue such an order.
"Gut instinct Colonel. Please bring the ship to action stations and scramble alert Vipers."
"Aye sir," he sighed as he flicked the switch that activated the alert klaxon, "Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill, this is not a drill. I repeat, action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill, this is not a drill. Scramble all alert fighters."
Meanwhile, Cheese was now within range of his Mark One Eyeball (a fancy way of saying visual range). The craft resembled a shiny silver crescent that was squashed on the ends. In the centre of the crescent shaped wings, a section that Cheese guessed was the cockpit and main engines, "Daedalus, Cheese. I have visual, transmitting visuals now."
Admiral Yerome looked up at the screen as the fuzzy transmission resolved into a coherent, if spotty, image. He stared at the image of the crescent-shaped silver spacecraft, "It looks alien. I've never seen anything quite like it before."
"It looks like someone bothered to polish it though. It looks like it's made of…" he paused, taking care to choose his words carefully, "Chrome, sir."
"Does that mean you're thinking what I'm thinking?" Admiral Yerome asked his XO, secretly praying that their suspicions would not prove to be true.
"Cylons sir?"
The very word 'Cylon' sent shivers up the spines of everyone in earshot. The race of robot servants created by Greystone Industries to serve humanity that ended up rebelling and evolving into a race of genocidal warriors bent on destroying humanity, but ended up signing a treaty and going into self-imposed exile far away from the Colonies. Colonel Seelix slowly nodded his head.
"Frak, I wished this day would never come," Admiral Yerome whispered, bowing his head as he leaned on the tactical plot, "Lieutenant Kilo, contact Fleet Headquarters on the Priority Frequency. Inform them we have credible evidence… of an evolved Cylon threat… in Colonial space."
"Yes sir," she replied, her voice heavy with worry.
"Sir, I can't raise the Fleet Headquarters Communications Centre," Lieutenant Kilo reported, "It's as if someone shut down the Fleet Wireless Network." A sense of dread fell upon the CIC staff as the thought of the possibility that the Cylons may already be in the Colonies and may have already attacked, "Wait, telex from Picon sir, for you."
Admiral Yerome walked over to Lieutenant Kilo, who handed over the freshly printed telex. He read it and suddenly his entire world exploded as if it had been hit by a nuclear weapon. The telex dropped to the ground, "They've been in hiding all this time. They've been hiding because they were preparing to attack the Colonies," Admiral Yerome realised, standing still, "We were duped into thinking we were at peace, and then they destroyed us when we were at our least expectant."
He walked back to the tactical plot and picked up the intercom handset, "All hands, this is your Admiral speaking. While we were least expecting, the Cylons breached the Armistice and instigated a full scale attack on the Twelve Colonies. Picon Fleet Headquarters has been destroyed by Cylon nuclear weapons and reports are coming in from all over the Colonies of Cylon nuclear strikes. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the Colonial Fleet from the Atlantia. Crew of the Daedalus, I will be frank with you. I am concerned that the Colonies may not survive, but we must make our stand, whether it be above Caprica, Picon or any of the other colonies. Therefore, I am taking the ship to Caprica to bolster the already present battlestar groups. All hands prepare for combat jump, all pilots prepare for combat action!"
He put the handset down and looked at Colonel Seelix, "Colonel, bring our Vipers home, order them to perform a combat landing, they'll be headed back out as soon as we arrive at Caprica."
"Aye sir," he responded, picking up the wireless handset, "All callsigns, Daedalus. Return to base, we are performing a combat jump in three minutes."
"Let's pray to the Gods that everybody isn't dead." Admiral Yerome whispered.
That was chapter one. I will post new chapters as quick as I can, be it a minute after the first or an entire week. Until then, please give any comments in the review section.