Hello one and all! This is my first story to be published on and as such I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this. Any and all criticism is welcome and well be taken into consideration to improve my writing. Once again thank you for taking the time to read this.
Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Battlestar Galactica or its characters. I am simply using the characters and situations of the series to create a piece of fiction for no other purpose then to entertain. I have no financial or legal claim for the use of the characters belonging to the series. I only ask that any characters created by myself for this or any other story be used with my permission only.
There were times when in the cockpit of a viper when it was easy for your mind to drift, to forget about the destruction of all you had ever known and held dear. The stars had a way of making you forget all the worries you have. The beauty displayed in the cosmos bewitches all who are not careful to keep their minds focused on what they are doing. It was far to easy to let your mind wonder and forget about the devastating troubles you faced as one of the last survivors of the Colonies and that's exactly what was happening to Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama at this moment. He was supposed to be leading a short-range recon patrol into the next system in front of the fleet but the trip was long and dull and so his mind wondered back to the time before the Colonies went up in smoke. However when there are only two of you in a recon patrol away from the fleet and your wingman is a rookie then letting your mind wonder can be a very dangerous thing.
Pilot Adrian 'Lightening' Kree was a rookie but a rookie with a gift for speed in a viper. He could coax more speed out of a viper then even the legendary Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace and it was that skill that allowed him to come on this recon patrol sooner then was normally allowed. However, even though he was fast in a viper he was still a rookie and as such didn't fully recognise what his sensors were telling him until it was to late, the Cylons' once again achieved surprise over the Colonials but it was to have world shattering results for both sides.
The first strike of a laser bolt against his viper brought 'Apollo' back to reality, the second caused him to throw his viper into a sharp turn, buying him time to look at his Dradis screen. Cursing himself for spacing out he throw his viper around to try and get a look at his wingman, only to find him being chased by ten of the twenty Cylon raiders that managed to get the jump on them. He knew that the odds were hopeless and he also knew that the fleet needed to be warned, the Cylons would have called for a strike force as soon as they found the patrol, rightly assuming that the fleet was nearby.
"Lightening you've got ten on your tale break left. The fleet needs to be warned and we both know you're the fastest out of the two of us so while I try to buy you some time high tail it back to the fleet and warn the Galactica." The only response he received was an acknowledgement beep from 'Lightening' before he saw the other viper open its throttle and speed away from its pursuers. He came in behind the raiders and kept his finger on the trigger for a full five seconds before the warning blips of his sensors told him the raiders behind him had locked on with missiles. He quickly turned his viper to avoid laser shots and opened his throttle to try and get some distance. Once he thought he had gotten far enough away he flipped his viper end over end and blasted back towards the raiders. The flaw in his plan became apparent when he saw the vapour trails twenty Cylon missiles emerge from the cluster of raiders. He cursed his stupidity and threw the control stick down to the left, sending his viper into a tight downward turn. He knew that the only way he was going to survive was to loose the missiles and get away from the raiders, and the odds were so massively against him he knew no one in their right mind would try to fight against the inevitable. However the loss of his home and all he held dear had put 'Apollo' in a less the stable mindset and so he tried a tactic that all military training and logic said was suicide, he lead the missiles back to the raiders in the hopes of causing their own missiles to destroy the Cylons.
Raider 506978 was by most standards a sentient being. It knew it was alive, knew of its own existence and knew that its existence was threatened by the viper before it. Being the leader of the raider attack squadron it knew the raiders under its command were threatened as well. As such it knew that the Cylon high intelligence would want I to destroy the human before it was destroyed and gave its squadron orders to suit this. As one all twenty raiders opened fire, hoping to destroy the mortal enemy of the Cylons, the ones who had created them to be slaves and the ones they now sought to destroy every second that they were operational.
He saw the raiders open fire a spilt second before the first few shots struck where his viper had been a few seconds before. 'Apollo' was no idiot, he knew the Cylons would figure out what he planned as soon as he turned back towards them and he knew that they'd open fire. He grinned behind his helmet as the explosions of around half the missiles showed on his Dradis screen. He'd used the Cylons programming for self-preservation to destroy the missiles intended to kill him. However that still meant there were ten missiles after him and twenty raiders still out there. His grin became a look of determination, he would not die here and the Cylons would not beat him. These were the beings who had destroyed all he had ever known, destroyed all he ever cared for with very few exceptions and these were the beings who had been the cause of the destruction of most of his race and he would make them pay for it as long as there was breath in his lungs, with this thought in mind he threw his viper back in the direction of the raiders for the final confrontation.