Preface for Armageddon Series Chapter Sketches...

I need to do a little bit of setup here so that these sketches have some kind of context. Please understand that these are individual and independent chapter sketches only and therefore are not intended to start the reader off at the beginning of the story.

In 2000, a British gentleman by the name of Neil Adams wrote a crossover he called "Armageddon 2493", which was posted elsewhere, and I was completely enthralled by it. It was right around the time Richard Hatch had started his series of follow-on novels to what is now "classic" Battlestar Galactica. I don't really remember how I ran across it, but once I did, I couldn't stop reading it. I've jokingly complained before that it was all Mr. Adams' fault that I was up until like 3 in the morning.

Anyhow, over the years I have searched as extensively as I know how, and I've never seen any follow-up works, and this both saddened me and also encouraged me, because I wanted, really desperately, to know what came next. Eventually, I started thinking about working on my own follow-up. The more I schemed, the more I really didn't write any finished materials, but just lots and lots of background and structural stuff. Being something of a J. Michael Straczynski follower (and massive Babylon 5 nut) I really wanted to take a crack at what made Earth, and the Draconians, and the Colonials, and even the Cylons, tick. They don't exist in isolation, obviously, so then all the other stuff started drifting in as well.

What followed was just endless amounts of pre-development material. As I write this, I can cast my eye upon about nearly 1 foot (or, in round terms, 30-ish centimeters) of notebooks and sheafs of paper with notes, diagrams, outlines... in other words, lots and lots of the lifeblood of story development. However, I had absolutely no chapter materials to show for my effort.

I started writing out bits and pieces, which then evolved into what I call "chapter sketches". These function in much the same capacity as initial sketch art done by artists prior to actually painting a finished work. I needed to work on my writing techniques, pacing, and so on, and frankly I wanted to satisfy myself with something beyond mere skeleton to show for my efforts.

So, that's a very short synopsis of how what you're about to read has come to be.

Now, let's (briefly) take a look at the background from an in-universe perspective so that you can read what lies ahead and feel like you know enough for it to make some degree of sense.

It's been about five years or so since the last events depicted in the initial 1978-79 Battlestar Galactica series. To all intents and purposes, the abomination known as "Galactica 1980" never happened. Neither Glen Larson nor anyone else out there who's a true, dedicated Galactica fan would likely feel too differently, I suspect.

The Galactica and her fleet have been continuing on along the path they determined based on the course heading given them by the Ship of Lights people. They haven't really had any skirmishes with the Cylons during this time, though of course the threat of the Cylons pursuing them is never far from anyone's mind. They have just about traversed the distance between segments of the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms.

The Cylons have been spotted, but the Cylons have not spotted or engaged Galactica or the rag-tag fleet. The Cylons have, however, discovered a Buck Rogers story universe stargate, managed to gain access to it and make it work, and have jumped into another system which lies beyond. Naturally, excitement and adventure and action and mayhem ensues, but you will need to either go and read Neil Adams' story, or my own introduction story, to learn how events play out and the characters of the two universes meet.

Switching momentarily over to the Buck Rogers universe, it's now been about two years or so since the events of "Flight of the War Witch". Buck Rogers Season 2 never took place, which is not to say that everything and everyone from Season 2 was thrown out, like the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

In 2010, I attended MegaCon in Orlando, Florida, where I had a chance to speak briefly with the (now late) Richard Hatch, who originated the character of Apollo, as well as Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) and Erin Gray (Wilma Deering) and I was able to learn a few interesting things from the story concept and production end of things, plus some of the things they liked and didn't like. Gil, basically, really didn't like the first season very much, with the exception of the pilot movie, and wanted to see Buck explore more of the universe and the people around him, not just go fly action missions. Erin said basically the backstory to her character is that in the 25th century, everyone as they go through school are evaluated based on abilities, with all schools and such run by computers and the members of the Computer Council. Her character showed aptitude for leadership and things military, and so she went on a military career track.

What I've tried to do is massage as much of that into general development as I can because I think those elements can produce something a lot better than the shlock, unsophisticated story telling of the 1970s did. Bear in mind I'm not trying to attack the writers of either Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galactica. They were pulling all kinds of crazy hours and had insane deadlines and did the best they could, but the norms of the era meant that stories were in no way on the level they are now (Babylon 5, Star Trek Deep Space 9, Enterprise, Galactica 2003-9, The Newsroom, Bluebloods, etc.) and I simply want to give the story ideas of each of these universes the treatment I feel they deserve.

Ok, so anyhow, at the point that any of the chapter sketches which follow on hereafter take place, the Rag Tag Fleet and the Buck Rogers universe folks have met and joined forces. We have learned more information about the interstellar alliance of which Earth is a part. I've at least tentatively decided to call it the Terran Federation. It's multi-system kind of like the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek, though I am doing everything I can not to rip off Star Trek in any respect. The Draconian Empire, we will learn, is an oligopoly comprised of a number of so-called "houses", not unlike the Centauri from Babylon 5 (though, once again, I'm not trying to rip off Babylon 5, either; this simply serves as a basic point of reference for you the reader)...

Though I love Buck and have done so since I was a kid (the character was a childhood hero, and it was I felt the honor of a lifetime to have met the man who played him... awesome human being, btw... if you haven't met Gil, or Erin, just stop, turn your computer off right now, and go attend one of the conventions they're at... it's totally worth it) I really, really, really wanted to try my own hand at a person-out-of-time, fish-out-of-water character. Buck has already been written and depicted, and so all I can do is be faithful to what's already been established. But that, to me, just isn't very fulfilling.

So... I looked around and decided, having also been a fan of the 80s TV series Airwolf, to managed to wrangle Caitlin O'Shannessy into this project.

In case that kind of is confusing, and again for the benefit of those here who may not be really familiar with the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century storyline and backstory...

Buck Rogers launched in a scaled-down version of the Space Shuttle, which honestly should have been depicted as something more along the lines of the U.S.A.F.'s X-38, but anyhow it launched in 1987. Stepping back in time roughly six years, President Reagan was more seriously injured than what actually happened in real life when John Hinckley, Jr., shot him. This caused him not to seek re-election in 1984, which is how I have sketched out in my endless development materials when we do see a U.S. president in Buck Rogers Season 2's "Testimony of a Traitor" the man we see is most definitely not Reagan.

The man who replaces him turns out to be even more hard-line than Reagan, and between that and also having someone else become Premier of the Soviet Union, we wind up having a nuclear World War III about nine months or so after Buck's launch.

When this happens, it transpires that Caitlin is in a car on a road somewhere between A and B, and naturally all hell breaks loose with pandemonium, etc., after Russian nukes start hitting the country. One can only assume there are a lot of car accidents, and through some random turn of events, she winds up in a cryogenic suspension unit being tested, along with another one which as Buck Rogers viewers will remember contained Hieronymus Fox (Gary Coleman). His was taken off-planet, hers was not. Simple as that.

It got lost in the shuffle, and so it's at some point about a year after the last year episode of Buck Rogers Season 1 that it's re-discovered, and she's revived. She's basically restored, but she's disoriented and out of her element and all she knows is Airwolf has to be kept safe and don't go around trusting anyone.

That should be enough to bring you up to speed. Naturally, it's likely you'll have questions, so if you do and when you do, feel free to fire away.

So, without any further ado...

We begin with the first chapter, titled "Escape From Walnut Canyon"...