BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS!! (PART IV).
CHAPTER IV: THE GROWING THREAT
Athena looked deep into the eyes of the man who was holding the bridge of Galactica hostage. This was a fellow man, a fellow bridge officer, but he was now as deadly a threat as a Cylon Centurion. He was also holding a blaster to one of Athena's crewmember, Lt. Rygel. This man, Roybal, was obviously insane, suffering from some form of mania. He was not in control of his facilities. Regardless, Athena had to deal with him with deadly force. It was a showdown; it was kill or be killed. This madman could not be allowed to take the Galactica.
"Roybal, this is it, your final warning I am not going to frack around with you. You will be killed if you do not release Rygel and surrender." Roybal responded, "I am through taking orders from you, or your damn family. First I am going to kill this bitch, then you, and then anyone else who stops me from taking the Galactica!"
Athena raised her blaster slightly to the left and above Roybal's head making some quick mathematical computations. She then held her breath and squeezed the trigger of her blaster. By the time she exhaled, Roybal was dead. Athena's blast had hit the massive transparent steel window behind Roybal. The blast was deflected by the view screen window and ricocheted into the back of the madman's skull. The force of the blast then blew the man's brains out the front of his head, spraying the bridge with blood and brain matter. The threat was eliminated. The bridge was shocked and everyone stared at Athena with awe and disbelief. Athena couldn't really believe it either. "Get a med-tech in here Stat!" The Warrior Officer barked, not that it would help Roybal. "How am I going to live with this?" she breathed to herself.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the vastness of space, the Cylon Imperious Leader watched as his minion, Specter, readied the machinery from the Control Room that would breath the spark of life into their Original Species Colons
(OS Cylons). The Leader looked at the 10,000 troops that were being readied for deployment with utter disgust and contempt. These feelings made him all the angrier as he recognized them as human emotions. The OS Cylons sickened him with their flesh and blood. Of course, the Leader was also organic flesh and blood, which fueled his self-loathing. These OS Cylons were indeed hideous looking reptilian monsters. The Leader also looked on them with a tinge of fear. What if these monsters revolted against their creators, as the machine Cylons had done all those yahrens ago?
The Leader was anxious to see these OS Cylons perform in battle. Spectre had located a small planetoid with a human settlement of 25,000 doomed souls. These settlers had built stone castles and fashioned rudimentary projectile guns and cannons. They would put up some kind of struggle with an invading army of OS Cylons, but not too much. The Imperious Leader was anxious to kill some humans. He would relish this vulgar display of power. "Imperious Leader, all preparations are complete. Our new weapon is ready to be animated."
"Throw the switch Spectre, and bring these monsters to life."
"By your command." Spectre replied as he breathed life into the genetically designed nightmares. A massive jolt of radioactive energy pulsed from large generator and animated the OS Cylons. All at one the multiple red-eyes on each Cylon's head opened up. Their muscles flexed and tensed as the energy coursed through their veins. Their demonic hearts began beating. All 10,000 of the newly animated troops looked up at their Imperious Leader in the Control Booth and awaited his command. They all knew their purpose for existing, it was bred into their DNA: Destroy All Humans!!!
The Leader began their preparations by addressing the group via a chip that was implanted in their brains, "My Minions, welcome to the Cylon Race. You have been brought back from extinction for one purpose, to destroy the human threat. You are under my total command and must do only my bidding. If you do not obey me, all I need to do is activate the chip in your head, and it will release a lethal toxin into your single brains, killing you instantly. Let me demonstrate." The Leader pressed several buttons on a remote control he was holding and 500 troops fell down dead in a single instant. "I can also administer painful shocks to your Nervous Systems to keep you in line." He also demonstrated this ability, all the remaining troops commenced writhing and screaming in pure agony. The Leader held the button for a solid 5 minutes of pure agony. He wanted to make his point clear. Another 100 troops died from the intense pain.
"Serve me well and you will all have exalted places in the Cylon Empire. Your first task is to prove yourselves in battle. We have selected a small, agrarian human settlement. They have simple projectile weapons and will put up a fight, according to our scans. We will land you outside of their castle walls. You will be armed with a Cylon Pulsar Rifle and a Scimitar. You will also have basic body armor. Your task is to slaughter every human being in this settlement. No man, woman, or child shall be left alive. Should you fail at this task, I will simply obliterate the entire planet, with all of you on it. Long live the Cylon Empire!!" With that, all of the OS Cylons began howling and beating on their chests, their bloodlust working them up into an absolute homicidal frenzy. "You leave in two centons".
The Leader then left the Control Room and 100 Chrome Cylons entered the holding bay and pointed their blasters at the OS Cylons, so as to quench any kind of revolt. The two different races of Cylons studied each other with contempt and loathing. The machine Cylons' cycloptic red-eyes wagged back and forth quicker than usual, in a state of agitation. The OS Cylons were bred with the command that they could never harm a robot Cylon (or Imperious Leader). The chrome Cylons present decided to test this directive out.
All 100 of the Robot Cylons leveled their blaster rifles at a different OS Cylon, aimed, and open fired. One Hundred bolts of bright red plasma filled the air all at once and 100 OS Cylons burned where they stood. Burned and charred corpses dropped to the floor. The smell of immolated, reptilian flesh filled the air. The robots kept their blasters trained on their targets, but none of the OS Cylons made a move in retaliation. It was in their genes no to. The Robot Cylons excitedly scanned their prey waiting for the retaliation that would not come.... at least not yet.
Back on the lush, scenic world of Dandor, Boomer, Apollo, and Starbuck made their way towards the Tylium cave. Their Landram 2 traversed rough, brutal terrain fairly slowly and the warriors were getting impatient. "Come on, Apollo can't you make this bucket go any faster, we need to get back to the fleet." Starbuck said almost whining.
"Oh, I am sure I know why you are so anxious to get back to the fleet. After all, it has been a few yahren since you've seen a woman." Quipped Boomer.
"We are almost there, in fact I see the mouth of the cave up ahead." Apollo replied.
"Yeah, I see it. And there is some kind of statue in front of the cave entrance."
"It's a statue of a Cylon. Here, I am enlarging it and putting it on the overhead screen." Boomer said while furiously pressing buttons. The image came up above the front slit of a window, large enough to clearly see a metallic gray, 50-foot- tall statue of a Cylon Centurion. It was slightly different looking than the familiar Cylon; it was ancient looking. It had an aged and rusted look to it. The usually wagging single red-eye was fixed and stationery in the center of the thing's eye visor. "I'll take a statue of a Cylon over the real thing." Noted Starbuck. Then the statue moved.
"Holy Frack! That thing is no statue," shouted Apollo, "It's a giant Centurion." They were fast approaching the monster robot in their Landram2. The giant raised its left arm and aimed at their vehicle. Instead of a hand, the Cylon revealed a giant laser cannon. "Apollo, how tough is this Landram?" Starbuck shouted, "We'll find out."
The Centurion took two giant steps forward and fired its lethal cannon at the Galacticans. It was a direct hit. Apollo veered hard left, but they still took the brunt of the plasma bolt. Their vehicle shuddered violently; the cabin lights and computer images flickered for an instant. "No serious damage!" Boomer shouted after a quick instrument reading. Apollo quickly spun a U-Turn and peeled out at top speed to put some distance between them and their aggressor. The robot giant was having none of that. The thing took a few more giant paces, leveled it's cannon/arm at the fleeing warriors and let off another round of searing red energy.
The warriors were rocked violently inside again. "Apollo, are we just going to run?" shouted Starbuck. "No," replied his old friend, "The armor plating happens to be thickest in the rear, that is why I'm showing it to him. Now get up top and start hitting that thing with the laser turrets"
"With extreme pleasure!" Starbuck answered with his usual smarmy smirk, as he bolted out of his seat and climbed up the ladder leading to the transparent steel dome atop the Landram2. He strapped himself into the seat, grabbed the controls and spun the dome around so that he was looking back and facing their foe. The holographic targeting systems through up a small display of the target for Starbuck. "This will be easy" Starbuck gloated to himself. With that he pulled the triggers on the four giant laser cannons mounted at either side of him on the outside of the dome. A flurry of large laser bolts issued from the Landram and nailed the giant Centurion. The Robot stumbled back a few steps and let loose three rapid-fire blasts. The first two shots landed harmlessly into the greenery at the left side of the fleeing Landram, but the third shot glanced off the top of Starbuck's dome.
The impact hit the warrior hard; it felt like a crash-landing in a Viper. But he covered quickly, "You fracking piece of felgercarb!" Starbuck shouted as he let out another volley of hot fire. Starbuck's fire hit the mammoth Cylon hard on the right side of its body and the thing spun around nearly falling, but recovered and returned fire. Another blast his the top of the Landram near Starbuck and rocked the vehicle hard.
Apollo made a series of zigzags as they fled so as to make for a harder target. Lasers chewed the scenery all around the warriors. Starbuck continued to return fire, but the evasive maneuvering made it harder for him as well. Then Starbuck got a series of lucky hits to the thing's head, stopping the Cylon as he advanced. "Apollo", shouted Starbuck over the comlink, "I think I stopped this tin-can, he stopped moving and shooting." Boomer checked the view screen and magnified the image. "I think he's right Apollo. I don't see movement." Apollo slowed the vehicle down.
Then a bright red laser beam shot from the Cylon's cycloptic eye and started burning through the rear of their hull. Starbuck commenced another round of firing at the Cylon's immense, silver head. "Apollo, I am hitting it in the head and, nothing. What else does this Landram have?" Apollo stepped on the gas and maneuvered, but the laser beam was locked on to them. Apollo glanced a computer read-out that showed the hull was 58% breached from the Cylon death ray.
"Boomer, get to the back compartment and ready the mini-nuke!" Apollo snapped in a tone that invited no argumentation. Boomer snapped to and ran to the aft, readying the lethal cargo. "Alright, Apollo, mini-nuke ready!" Apollo punched in a code and patched the targeting of the nuke up to Starbuck. "Starbuck. You are patched into the nuke. Aim and fire!"
"Are you sure about this?" Starbuck questioned.
"Our armor plating should protect us from the blast, now FIRE!!"
"By the Lords of Kobol" Starbuck uttered as he locked the targeting computer on to the middle of the titanic Cylon's chest and squeezed the trigger, then closed his eyes.
The nuke flew out from the rear of the Landram2 (which was still facing the advancing foe) and detonated nuclear inferno square in the Cylon Centurion's chest. The thing vanished in a searing blast of nuclear mayhem. The small mushroom cloud vaporized trees, grass, and anything else in its path. It completely enveloped the Landram in a maelstrom of radioactive heat. However, the immensely thick hull protected the Warriors inside. Even Starbuck, who was the most vulnerable in the dome, was shielded from the hellfire. There was nothing left of their opponent. "Everyone OK?" Apollo said, more than a little rattled from the experience. "Fine, just fine," Starbuck said laughing.
"I think I prefer the smaller Cylons," quipped Boomer.
"Let's turn this thing around and get inside that cave," Apollo said.
"We had better do it quick, Apollo, I am sure that metallic beast sent some kind of message to the Cylon Empire about our presence." Starbuck was absolutely correct. However, it was unnecessary- as members of the Cylon Empire circled high above the warriors watching their every move.
Commander Adama and Col. Tigh sprinted onto the immense bridge and command center as quickly as their aging bodies would allow. They had been alerted to the hostage situation only a few moments before and were now on the bridge flanked by a Black-shirt and Warrior response team. Athena was sitting at the Commander's chair waiting. "Athena, by the Lords, are you OK?" Asked Adama as he hugged his daughter tight. "We got here as fast as we could," Tigh said out of breath. "I'll be alright, dad, Commander." Athena assured.
"You did right, Athena. You saved the life of Rygel and prevented the Galactica from being taken by a madman. But the Council of 12 is going to want some kind of investigation and hearing. After all one Bridge Officer shot and killed another Bridge Officer. They are mere bureaucrats, but we have to let them look into this. I am proud of you." Adama said.
"Dad, this is crazy. He was going to kill Rygel and me and everyone else on this bridge and you are telling me the Council wants to investigate this like a... murder."
"Athena, it isn't that way at all." Tigh chimed in.
"That is the way it's looking to me right now. Could I end up on the Prison Barge for this?"
"By the Lords, no. It won't come to that." Adama reassured.
"But it is possible, however improbable. Right?" Athena retorted.
"Well, yes, however unlikely. It is within the realm of possibility." Tigh admitted.
"Tigh is right, Athena. But again, it will not come to that as long as I am the Commander. Now, I think you should check in with Cassiopeia in the Med Center for a check up for shock, and then retire to your quarters for some rest."
"You mean, I am under house arrest?"
"No, but you need to be checked out and get some rest and those are my orders."
"Yes, father." With that Athena left to go to the Med Center. "She'll be alright, Adama. She is probably the toughest one on this Bridge. Don't worry."
"Tigh, I can't help but. Speaking of worry, have we heard anything from Apollo and Boomer? It has been over two weeks since they hijacked the Stryker."
"We've heard nothing, Sir. But I had an idea about that."
"By all means..."
"The tech crew reports that they have those new long-range patrol Vipers ready."
"You mean, the Scarabs?"
"Yes, sir. They have four Scarabs completed and ready for deep space test flight. If they should happen to test flight in the general direction of Apollo and Boomer, well, what could anyone say about that?"
"How soon until they are ready?"
"I believe just a few centons."
"Assemble a flight crew and prep them for deep space patrol, Tigh."
"I am on it, Sir." Tigh replied enthusiastically and headed for the Warrior's quarters to assemble his team.
Dr. Wilker and Dr. Salik looked at the unconscious Baltar laid-out on the medtable, plugged into a machine via numerous cords and tubes. Both were looking at their subject through lenses of pure hate and disdain. Each man was thinking, on their own, 'What if I slipped and accidentally killed him, would that be so bad?' To be sure, Baltar was the most reviled man in the fleet, and these two scientists, both dedicated to the furthering of human life and technologies, were not above this shared hatred. They had been working feverishly on Baltar for the last few centons. There purpose was to determine if Baltar was actually the human called Baltar, and not a Cylon made weapon, or spy device. Of course, they had run such tests before and determined that Baltar was in fact Baltar. However, Adama was sure that this Baltar was a Cylon imposter. The two men were performing their last battery of tests. "What do you think, doctor, has Adama gone mad? We've done a battery of tests already, all are conclusive that he is human." Said Dr. Salik skeptically. "I concur, but we do have to appease the commander, and these are his orders." Both men were looking at a read-out on the computer they had built just hours ago. Both men gasped in unison. "Get the commander, NOW!" shouted Dr. Wilker. "My, god! We are doomed!" shouted back Dr. Salik as he ran over to punch the ship intercom to get Adama.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHAPTER IV: THE GROWING THREAT
Athena looked deep into the eyes of the man who was holding the bridge of Galactica hostage. This was a fellow man, a fellow bridge officer, but he was now as deadly a threat as a Cylon Centurion. He was also holding a blaster to one of Athena's crewmember, Lt. Rygel. This man, Roybal, was obviously insane, suffering from some form of mania. He was not in control of his facilities. Regardless, Athena had to deal with him with deadly force. It was a showdown; it was kill or be killed. This madman could not be allowed to take the Galactica.
"Roybal, this is it, your final warning I am not going to frack around with you. You will be killed if you do not release Rygel and surrender." Roybal responded, "I am through taking orders from you, or your damn family. First I am going to kill this bitch, then you, and then anyone else who stops me from taking the Galactica!"
Athena raised her blaster slightly to the left and above Roybal's head making some quick mathematical computations. She then held her breath and squeezed the trigger of her blaster. By the time she exhaled, Roybal was dead. Athena's blast had hit the massive transparent steel window behind Roybal. The blast was deflected by the view screen window and ricocheted into the back of the madman's skull. The force of the blast then blew the man's brains out the front of his head, spraying the bridge with blood and brain matter. The threat was eliminated. The bridge was shocked and everyone stared at Athena with awe and disbelief. Athena couldn't really believe it either. "Get a med-tech in here Stat!" The Warrior Officer barked, not that it would help Roybal. "How am I going to live with this?" she breathed to herself.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the vastness of space, the Cylon Imperious Leader watched as his minion, Specter, readied the machinery from the Control Room that would breath the spark of life into their Original Species Colons
(OS Cylons). The Leader looked at the 10,000 troops that were being readied for deployment with utter disgust and contempt. These feelings made him all the angrier as he recognized them as human emotions. The OS Cylons sickened him with their flesh and blood. Of course, the Leader was also organic flesh and blood, which fueled his self-loathing. These OS Cylons were indeed hideous looking reptilian monsters. The Leader also looked on them with a tinge of fear. What if these monsters revolted against their creators, as the machine Cylons had done all those yahrens ago?
The Leader was anxious to see these OS Cylons perform in battle. Spectre had located a small planetoid with a human settlement of 25,000 doomed souls. These settlers had built stone castles and fashioned rudimentary projectile guns and cannons. They would put up some kind of struggle with an invading army of OS Cylons, but not too much. The Imperious Leader was anxious to kill some humans. He would relish this vulgar display of power. "Imperious Leader, all preparations are complete. Our new weapon is ready to be animated."
"Throw the switch Spectre, and bring these monsters to life."
"By your command." Spectre replied as he breathed life into the genetically designed nightmares. A massive jolt of radioactive energy pulsed from large generator and animated the OS Cylons. All at one the multiple red-eyes on each Cylon's head opened up. Their muscles flexed and tensed as the energy coursed through their veins. Their demonic hearts began beating. All 10,000 of the newly animated troops looked up at their Imperious Leader in the Control Booth and awaited his command. They all knew their purpose for existing, it was bred into their DNA: Destroy All Humans!!!
The Leader began their preparations by addressing the group via a chip that was implanted in their brains, "My Minions, welcome to the Cylon Race. You have been brought back from extinction for one purpose, to destroy the human threat. You are under my total command and must do only my bidding. If you do not obey me, all I need to do is activate the chip in your head, and it will release a lethal toxin into your single brains, killing you instantly. Let me demonstrate." The Leader pressed several buttons on a remote control he was holding and 500 troops fell down dead in a single instant. "I can also administer painful shocks to your Nervous Systems to keep you in line." He also demonstrated this ability, all the remaining troops commenced writhing and screaming in pure agony. The Leader held the button for a solid 5 minutes of pure agony. He wanted to make his point clear. Another 100 troops died from the intense pain.
"Serve me well and you will all have exalted places in the Cylon Empire. Your first task is to prove yourselves in battle. We have selected a small, agrarian human settlement. They have simple projectile weapons and will put up a fight, according to our scans. We will land you outside of their castle walls. You will be armed with a Cylon Pulsar Rifle and a Scimitar. You will also have basic body armor. Your task is to slaughter every human being in this settlement. No man, woman, or child shall be left alive. Should you fail at this task, I will simply obliterate the entire planet, with all of you on it. Long live the Cylon Empire!!" With that, all of the OS Cylons began howling and beating on their chests, their bloodlust working them up into an absolute homicidal frenzy. "You leave in two centons".
The Leader then left the Control Room and 100 Chrome Cylons entered the holding bay and pointed their blasters at the OS Cylons, so as to quench any kind of revolt. The two different races of Cylons studied each other with contempt and loathing. The machine Cylons' cycloptic red-eyes wagged back and forth quicker than usual, in a state of agitation. The OS Cylons were bred with the command that they could never harm a robot Cylon (or Imperious Leader). The chrome Cylons present decided to test this directive out.
All 100 of the Robot Cylons leveled their blaster rifles at a different OS Cylon, aimed, and open fired. One Hundred bolts of bright red plasma filled the air all at once and 100 OS Cylons burned where they stood. Burned and charred corpses dropped to the floor. The smell of immolated, reptilian flesh filled the air. The robots kept their blasters trained on their targets, but none of the OS Cylons made a move in retaliation. It was in their genes no to. The Robot Cylons excitedly scanned their prey waiting for the retaliation that would not come.... at least not yet.
Back on the lush, scenic world of Dandor, Boomer, Apollo, and Starbuck made their way towards the Tylium cave. Their Landram 2 traversed rough, brutal terrain fairly slowly and the warriors were getting impatient. "Come on, Apollo can't you make this bucket go any faster, we need to get back to the fleet." Starbuck said almost whining.
"Oh, I am sure I know why you are so anxious to get back to the fleet. After all, it has been a few yahren since you've seen a woman." Quipped Boomer.
"We are almost there, in fact I see the mouth of the cave up ahead." Apollo replied.
"Yeah, I see it. And there is some kind of statue in front of the cave entrance."
"It's a statue of a Cylon. Here, I am enlarging it and putting it on the overhead screen." Boomer said while furiously pressing buttons. The image came up above the front slit of a window, large enough to clearly see a metallic gray, 50-foot- tall statue of a Cylon Centurion. It was slightly different looking than the familiar Cylon; it was ancient looking. It had an aged and rusted look to it. The usually wagging single red-eye was fixed and stationery in the center of the thing's eye visor. "I'll take a statue of a Cylon over the real thing." Noted Starbuck. Then the statue moved.
"Holy Frack! That thing is no statue," shouted Apollo, "It's a giant Centurion." They were fast approaching the monster robot in their Landram2. The giant raised its left arm and aimed at their vehicle. Instead of a hand, the Cylon revealed a giant laser cannon. "Apollo, how tough is this Landram?" Starbuck shouted, "We'll find out."
The Centurion took two giant steps forward and fired its lethal cannon at the Galacticans. It was a direct hit. Apollo veered hard left, but they still took the brunt of the plasma bolt. Their vehicle shuddered violently; the cabin lights and computer images flickered for an instant. "No serious damage!" Boomer shouted after a quick instrument reading. Apollo quickly spun a U-Turn and peeled out at top speed to put some distance between them and their aggressor. The robot giant was having none of that. The thing took a few more giant paces, leveled it's cannon/arm at the fleeing warriors and let off another round of searing red energy.
The warriors were rocked violently inside again. "Apollo, are we just going to run?" shouted Starbuck. "No," replied his old friend, "The armor plating happens to be thickest in the rear, that is why I'm showing it to him. Now get up top and start hitting that thing with the laser turrets"
"With extreme pleasure!" Starbuck answered with his usual smarmy smirk, as he bolted out of his seat and climbed up the ladder leading to the transparent steel dome atop the Landram2. He strapped himself into the seat, grabbed the controls and spun the dome around so that he was looking back and facing their foe. The holographic targeting systems through up a small display of the target for Starbuck. "This will be easy" Starbuck gloated to himself. With that he pulled the triggers on the four giant laser cannons mounted at either side of him on the outside of the dome. A flurry of large laser bolts issued from the Landram and nailed the giant Centurion. The Robot stumbled back a few steps and let loose three rapid-fire blasts. The first two shots landed harmlessly into the greenery at the left side of the fleeing Landram, but the third shot glanced off the top of Starbuck's dome.
The impact hit the warrior hard; it felt like a crash-landing in a Viper. But he covered quickly, "You fracking piece of felgercarb!" Starbuck shouted as he let out another volley of hot fire. Starbuck's fire hit the mammoth Cylon hard on the right side of its body and the thing spun around nearly falling, but recovered and returned fire. Another blast his the top of the Landram near Starbuck and rocked the vehicle hard.
Apollo made a series of zigzags as they fled so as to make for a harder target. Lasers chewed the scenery all around the warriors. Starbuck continued to return fire, but the evasive maneuvering made it harder for him as well. Then Starbuck got a series of lucky hits to the thing's head, stopping the Cylon as he advanced. "Apollo", shouted Starbuck over the comlink, "I think I stopped this tin-can, he stopped moving and shooting." Boomer checked the view screen and magnified the image. "I think he's right Apollo. I don't see movement." Apollo slowed the vehicle down.
Then a bright red laser beam shot from the Cylon's cycloptic eye and started burning through the rear of their hull. Starbuck commenced another round of firing at the Cylon's immense, silver head. "Apollo, I am hitting it in the head and, nothing. What else does this Landram have?" Apollo stepped on the gas and maneuvered, but the laser beam was locked on to them. Apollo glanced a computer read-out that showed the hull was 58% breached from the Cylon death ray.
"Boomer, get to the back compartment and ready the mini-nuke!" Apollo snapped in a tone that invited no argumentation. Boomer snapped to and ran to the aft, readying the lethal cargo. "Alright, Apollo, mini-nuke ready!" Apollo punched in a code and patched the targeting of the nuke up to Starbuck. "Starbuck. You are patched into the nuke. Aim and fire!"
"Are you sure about this?" Starbuck questioned.
"Our armor plating should protect us from the blast, now FIRE!!"
"By the Lords of Kobol" Starbuck uttered as he locked the targeting computer on to the middle of the titanic Cylon's chest and squeezed the trigger, then closed his eyes.
The nuke flew out from the rear of the Landram2 (which was still facing the advancing foe) and detonated nuclear inferno square in the Cylon Centurion's chest. The thing vanished in a searing blast of nuclear mayhem. The small mushroom cloud vaporized trees, grass, and anything else in its path. It completely enveloped the Landram in a maelstrom of radioactive heat. However, the immensely thick hull protected the Warriors inside. Even Starbuck, who was the most vulnerable in the dome, was shielded from the hellfire. There was nothing left of their opponent. "Everyone OK?" Apollo said, more than a little rattled from the experience. "Fine, just fine," Starbuck said laughing.
"I think I prefer the smaller Cylons," quipped Boomer.
"Let's turn this thing around and get inside that cave," Apollo said.
"We had better do it quick, Apollo, I am sure that metallic beast sent some kind of message to the Cylon Empire about our presence." Starbuck was absolutely correct. However, it was unnecessary- as members of the Cylon Empire circled high above the warriors watching their every move.
Commander Adama and Col. Tigh sprinted onto the immense bridge and command center as quickly as their aging bodies would allow. They had been alerted to the hostage situation only a few moments before and were now on the bridge flanked by a Black-shirt and Warrior response team. Athena was sitting at the Commander's chair waiting. "Athena, by the Lords, are you OK?" Asked Adama as he hugged his daughter tight. "We got here as fast as we could," Tigh said out of breath. "I'll be alright, dad, Commander." Athena assured.
"You did right, Athena. You saved the life of Rygel and prevented the Galactica from being taken by a madman. But the Council of 12 is going to want some kind of investigation and hearing. After all one Bridge Officer shot and killed another Bridge Officer. They are mere bureaucrats, but we have to let them look into this. I am proud of you." Adama said.
"Dad, this is crazy. He was going to kill Rygel and me and everyone else on this bridge and you are telling me the Council wants to investigate this like a... murder."
"Athena, it isn't that way at all." Tigh chimed in.
"That is the way it's looking to me right now. Could I end up on the Prison Barge for this?"
"By the Lords, no. It won't come to that." Adama reassured.
"But it is possible, however improbable. Right?" Athena retorted.
"Well, yes, however unlikely. It is within the realm of possibility." Tigh admitted.
"Tigh is right, Athena. But again, it will not come to that as long as I am the Commander. Now, I think you should check in with Cassiopeia in the Med Center for a check up for shock, and then retire to your quarters for some rest."
"You mean, I am under house arrest?"
"No, but you need to be checked out and get some rest and those are my orders."
"Yes, father." With that Athena left to go to the Med Center. "She'll be alright, Adama. She is probably the toughest one on this Bridge. Don't worry."
"Tigh, I can't help but. Speaking of worry, have we heard anything from Apollo and Boomer? It has been over two weeks since they hijacked the Stryker."
"We've heard nothing, Sir. But I had an idea about that."
"By all means..."
"The tech crew reports that they have those new long-range patrol Vipers ready."
"You mean, the Scarabs?"
"Yes, sir. They have four Scarabs completed and ready for deep space test flight. If they should happen to test flight in the general direction of Apollo and Boomer, well, what could anyone say about that?"
"How soon until they are ready?"
"I believe just a few centons."
"Assemble a flight crew and prep them for deep space patrol, Tigh."
"I am on it, Sir." Tigh replied enthusiastically and headed for the Warrior's quarters to assemble his team.
Dr. Wilker and Dr. Salik looked at the unconscious Baltar laid-out on the medtable, plugged into a machine via numerous cords and tubes. Both were looking at their subject through lenses of pure hate and disdain. Each man was thinking, on their own, 'What if I slipped and accidentally killed him, would that be so bad?' To be sure, Baltar was the most reviled man in the fleet, and these two scientists, both dedicated to the furthering of human life and technologies, were not above this shared hatred. They had been working feverishly on Baltar for the last few centons. There purpose was to determine if Baltar was actually the human called Baltar, and not a Cylon made weapon, or spy device. Of course, they had run such tests before and determined that Baltar was in fact Baltar. However, Adama was sure that this Baltar was a Cylon imposter. The two men were performing their last battery of tests. "What do you think, doctor, has Adama gone mad? We've done a battery of tests already, all are conclusive that he is human." Said Dr. Salik skeptically. "I concur, but we do have to appease the commander, and these are his orders." Both men were looking at a read-out on the computer they had built just hours ago. Both men gasped in unison. "Get the commander, NOW!" shouted Dr. Wilker. "My, god! We are doomed!" shouted back Dr. Salik as he ran over to punch the ship intercom to get Adama.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!