Chapter 1
I had completed Viper training two days ago. I was being assigned to the Battlestar Galactica. I was led to my quarters by a marine. There were four other raptor pilots in there already. I recognized them from different broadcasts, there was Kara Thrace, better known as Starbuck. There was Louanne Katraine, known as Kat for short and Brendan Constanza whose call sign was Hotdog. Lastly there was the son the commander of the fleet, Lee Adama, affectionately known as Apollo.
"Who are you?" Starbuck asked me.
"I'm the new pilot," I replied extending my hand in greeting.
"You sure you can even move a flight stick, beanpole?" Starbuck asked joking about how skinny I was.
I scoffed at her weak joke. I'd heard this stuff my entire life it didn't bother me anymore in fact it was getting annoying to hear the same few jokes repeatedly.
"You won't be saying that when I beat your single flight kill score," I said.
Starbuck's joking attitude quickly turned serious, "Is that a challenge, Ensign?" Starbuck asked.
I straightened myself up to full height. Starbuck may have been tall for a woman, but I was pretty tall myself. I looked down into her eyes trying to discern what fuelled the fire I saw in them, but to no avail.
"It's good to have you on board," Apollo said, intervening before there was any chance for things to get ugly.
"Thank you Captain," I said not taking my eyes off of Starbuck.
"Kat, show him around the ship," Apollo ordered. "Starbuck, I need to have a word with you."
Neither Starbuck nor myself stopped glaring at each other as we were led out of the room in opposite directions.
"You must either be completely fearless or an idiot," Kat said to me as soon as we were out of sight of Starbuck.
I looked down at the diminutive woman beside me. "Why do you say that?" I asked.
"Starbuck is the best Viper pilot in the fleet, better than even Captain Adama." Kat said. "She also has a pretty infamous bad temper. You've just set yourself up for a lot to prove."
"I don't see anything wrong with that," I said. "I believe, 'go big or go home' and for me, there's no home left."
"So what's your history?" Kat inquired changing the subject.
"I was on Cloud Nine when the attack happened," I replied. "I was just content to live through this on the ship, waiting for the Cylons to come and wipe us out. But then the Pegasus showed up and realised that we might just have a chance. So I decided that if we were going to win this, I need to take out as many Cylons as I can."
"So what are you fighting for?" Kat asked.
"I don't know," I replied. "Survival I guess. There's nothing left for me in the colonies, I don't really have anybody. Revenge maybe?"
I hadn't thought about it before. Why I was fighting. Suddenly alarms went off.
"Viper pilots to the hanger decks, prepare to launch alert fighters." A voice came over the com.
"Looks like you're about to get your first combat flight," Kat said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The alert fighters had been scrambled for three Cylon raiders that had jumped into the system.
"Just hang back beanpole and watch how the pros do it." Starbuck said over the com.
I gritted my teeth and watched as her Viper, flanked by Hotdog and Apollo sped up to meet the three raiders head on.
"Something doesn't seem right," I muttered.
"Cut the com chatter rookie," Starbuck said. "This is an easy mission."
"No," I muttered to myself. "Something isn't right."
I angled my ship slightly to starboard.
"Hey where are you going?" Kat asked. "Stay in formation."
I ignored her orders and continued on my course. Kat adjusted her own course to follow me. Suddenly a wave of twenty Cylon raiders appeared in front of us, just barely in weapons range.
"How did you know?" Kat asked.
"I don't know," I replied. "Just shoot."
I jammed the throttle forward and soared at the Cylons. A raider flew head on at me. I weaved past it's fire and managed to angle my shit for a slight strafe. I fired off a quick burst the Cylon lost control and took out another one. I didn't have time to admire my kill as Cylon weapons fire flew past my ship from behind. I spun my Viper around and fired off an extended burst at the source. Another raider exploded. I pulled up and found myself right on the tail of another raider. The ship weaved to get away from me but I was quicker. I fired off a burst of only three rounds; all of them hit the ship in the engine. It was ripped apart and I angled down to avoid the wreckage.
"Starbuck, this rookie may be better than you are!" Kat called excitedly over the com.
I started ignoring the com chatter. It was only serving to distract me. On a hunch I spun my Viper around and found myself face to face with a two raiders. I flew directly at one, let loose a burst destroying it. I then angled sideways for a strafe and fired off a burst. The other Cylon dove to try and avoid my fire but I was able to compensate and my fire blew off the raiders port wing. The ship went spinning out of control towards Kat's Viper. Kat rolled her Viper out of the way and the damaged raider crashed headlong into the raider that had been following Kat. I looked around for another target but couldn't find any.
"Looks like they jumped," Apollo said. "Nice job there rookie."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back on the Galactica I was almost mobbed by the deck crew and some of the other pilots.
"That was amazing," Kat commented. "Seven kills on your first flight."
"It would have been more if the cowards hadn't jumped." I said.
"Seven kills?" Apollo asked.
I nodded in reply.
"Are you going to confirm that Kat?" Apollo inquired.
"I will definitely confirm that," Kat answered. "This kid may be the best Viper pilot I've ever seen. He's got some sort of precognition sense that's just crazy. He seemed to know that those raiders would be jumping in to our starboard, and it ended up being us ambushing them instead of the other way around."
"Well I'll speak to my father; something like this deserves some sort of commendation." Apollo said.
"No really I don't want anything," I said. "Just knowing I'm the best is enough for me."
Just then Starbuck pushed her way through the crowd.
"You did good out there," she said. "But don't go getting any crazy ideas. That was beginners luck, you're not the best yet."
"Yet being the operative word there," I said.
Starbuck glared angrily at me before storming off.
"You might want to be careful about who you choose to fight with here," Apollo advised. "Starbuck is not someone you want to mess with."
"Maybe not," I agreed watching the back of Starbuck's head.
"Look I'm going to try and get you two on friendly terms," Apollo said. "Excuse me I've got to go talk to some people."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that is chapter 1. See what happens to "Beanpole", maybe we'll learn his real name.