Disclaimer: Please note that I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any of its affiliates and that absolutely no profit is intended to made from this. I am not intentionally making any copyright infringements of any sort by doing this.
That aside I give you Battlestar: Horizons
A War for Survival
2 hours before Cylon attack
BATTLESTAR REVELATION:
The rhythmic hum came first, the throbbing of the mighty engines that pulsed beneath him, and then the annoying beeping of the alarm clock that was placed on his bedside table. Venerus sat up in bed pushing off the covers and then stared aimlessly at the bulkhead in front of him. His thoughts gathered slowly as life came back into focus. Two days from Scorpion Shipyards, two days before the Revelation gets ripped apart and glued back together again. Venerus sighed as he pushed himself into a standing position, where the artificial gravity of the battlestar almost pulled him back down.
Teetering on the verge of collapsing, Venerus grabbed the wall and steadied himself. He shook his head and stumbled over to the commanders' desk where he sat down, and looked through the stack of manila envelops. He slid his hand through his slightly graying hair. He had to find a new CAG now that Amanda was leaving.
Gods damn that stuck up little bitch. The best pilot he had ever seen, and a fine leader as well. Amanda could look a nugget flyer in the eyes and they would go out and win a fight. Now she had a promotion given to her, she was becoming a major. Venerus remembered when he left the cockpit for the battlestar's CIC almost fifteen years earlier. It was a very big change for him.
The first few manila folders had the names of the wing leaders in them, not surprising. Lillian did her job well but probably didn't think about finding new wing leaders. Venerus pulled out a pen and started circling names for a possible candidate for a new CAG. He looked the file up and down. A fully loaded Orion class battlestar held five thousand vipers and their pilots while holding eleven thousand extra vipers, finding a CAG capable of handling a group that size was rather difficult.
He put the folder aside and had just moved on to the next one when the heavy sound of a fist impacting the metal bulkhead rang throughout the CO's quarters. It startled Venerus slightly but he quickly composed himself and looked at the blank bulkhead with the double triangle door imprinted on it.
"Enter," Venerus said as his cold voice carried quite far for the little effort he put into saying it.
Amanda Shay walked in, her black hair pulled into a crisp bun, and her uniform buttoned perfectly without even a wrinkle. Her collar was still adorned with the captains wings, but Venerus new that would change fairly soon. She walked up to the desk as Venerus rose to his full height to salute her.
"Commander," Amanda said addressing Venerus.
"Is there something you wanted major?" Venerus responded.
A silence followed for a moment before Amanda finally broke the silence, "I just wanted to tell you that it was an honor to serve with you, and I hope I get the chance to serve under you again."
"It's a well earned promotion, you deserve it," Venerus extended his arm.
Their hands grasped one another's and shook with militaristic precession before they both let go. Venerus brought his hand to his brow in a salute and Amanda followed suit. They held their position for a moment and then Venerus brought his hand down.
"Will that be all?" Venerus asked.
"Yes sir" Amanda said.
Amanda turned around and exited the room. Venerus sat down again; this was going to be a very long two days.
Amanda walked down the hallway. The humming of the fluorescent lighting buzzed in her ears. The sound of fatigued metal reached her very sensitive ears. The Revelation always creaked, it was so fracking massive that the lateral and structural support creaked and groaned. Granted she would miss this ship, but she would not miss the maze like design of the Revelation's hallways.
Her destination was the mess hall, she was starving after all, but she had to think of where the mess hall closest to her location was. She stopped for a moment and then saw a map on the side of the wall; she glanced at it and found that it was only a deck above her. She turned around and headed for the ladder.
Everywhere she went Amanda got the doe eyed stares of men who seemed intent on staring at her ample chest. She liked the attention but often found the whole thing repulsive. Of all the things Amanda was, she wasn't frack toy. Stupid men, she hated them, all of them after him. Each time her mind floated to that subject a pang of pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She shook the thought off as she reached the ladder.
"Demeter!" Came a voice from behind her.
She turned around; one of her pilots was jogging towards her. It was Hades, nicknamed after the god of the underworld; he did have the highest kill count on training drones in the squadron.
"Lieutenant, what is it?" Amanda said with a slightly more arrogant tone than she intended.
"I just wanted to wish you luck," the lieutenant stumbled over his words like a young puppy.
"Luck has to nothing to do with my accomplishments, Lieutenant," Amanda swung her hair back and off of her face, "but I appreciate the sentiment, thank you."
"Of course," Hades said with a boyish smile.
"Is that all?" Amanda said as the young lieutenant
"Yes," The boy stuttered and then he walked away with a quick salute. Amanda smiled, that young kid had had a crush on her since the day the two met. He was handsome enough, and cute, but he was skittish. If he ran into a real Cylon his balls would drop off, assuming he had any.
Amanda sighed heavily as she grasped the rung on the ladder and began to climb up the terrifying tube that held the ladder. One hundred and twenty three decks made up the impressive Orion class Battlestar that she had served on since she was a young lieutenant herself. She smiled remembering days where she thought she'd never make it into the CIC. Now she was almost there.
She reached the mess hall fairly quickly after getting to the subsequent deck. After grabbing the tray of that horrible food that every military officer learns to love, that was made available to her she sat down, to be joined shortly by Lieutenant Jackson Reed.
Jackson walked down the hall smiling at his mastery of flirting with women, even Amanda. Especially Amanda, he had chatted her up, wow what a master male he was. Now all he had to do is get in the chicks pants before she left for her promotion. Jackson was now on his way to speak with the marine captain about acquisitions for the armory as soon as they docked at Scorpion.
In his hand Jack carried a checklist of all the things they had and needed ammo replenishing. It wasn't very thick; after all they had not dealt with anything difficult enough to really warrant pulling out guns. The worst they had to deal with was a few angry pirates. He came to the ladder and grabbed on and descended to deck seventy-nine. That was a very long way down. After a rather labor intensive decent Jack stepped out onto the deck and walked towards the armory.
As he approached the armory he heard intensive clunking from within the training area. Entering he saw a man fly past him and impact a wall, and get up rubbing the back of his head. In the center of the room was Talon Grey taking on three more of his marines, and doing very well at it too.
"Yeah baby!" Talon cried as he smashed another marine into the bulkhead, "Bring it on!"
Jack almost smiled as three marines get knocked on their asses. The last two were in combat now, the young private Emma Lean and Talon Grey duked it out. Honestly, Emma was going up against impossible odds but she held her own for a while. Not bad for a new recruit, but Talon brought her to the ground eventually and then picked up a towel and wiped his forehead off.
Jack walked over to Emma and offered to help her up. She looked at him with a glare that might have frozen methane. Jack let go and backed away with his hands in the air.
"Just trying to help," Jack confessed.
"Mmmmhmmm," Said Emma now pulling on her uniform and buttoning it.
"Is there a reason you are in my training area Lieutenant?" Came the booming voice of the Marine captain.
Jack turned around and saluted. He extended his hand holding the clipboard with all the info he had been requested to deliver. Talon took it a flipped through papers. Jack was sure the paper would rip and fly off as Talon pushed aside all five pages.
"You can put in requests for whatever you might need," Jack said.
"Right, and that'll make it happen," Said Talon, "They never respond, check everything for me and take it back to the commander."
"Are we low on everything?" Jack raised his eyebrows in confusion and astonishment.
"Of course not, but having more never hurts. Now run along lieutenant," Talon said, saluting half-heartedly.
Flirting with his marines, and trying to break their hearts now, Talon would see that tech officer ripped to pieces. Shaking his head the huge marine captain walked into the locker room where he finished wiping off the sweat and pulled on his uniform. Closing his locker with a slam causing most of the tired marines to jump. This also served to get their attention.
"Excellent training session," Talon said, "Emma, nice blocking, watch your lower body that's important. York look for swings to your sides; that took you off guard, the rest of you work on blocks, I won far too easily … actually I won which shouldn't have happened. Otherwise you guys are improving; you've all earned yourselves a shitty ass meal so go eat it."
There was a reverberating chuckle that passed around the locker room. They gathered their things and left in a single file leaving Talon all alone. He sat down pulling out his mouth guard and removing his gloves. He shook his head after putting his stuff away. He stepped out into the training room, Talon appreciated how the training room, armory and bullet factory were all part of the same area in the Revelation. It made life much simpler than it was on other battlestars on which he had served.
The hall lights always gave him a headache; the fluorescent bright white blasting light drove him nuts. He covered his eyes for a moment and let them adjust and then kept walking. Talon's heritage from Virgon gave his skin a black color that had always screamed his heritage, making it harder to climb the ladder of ranks the military set out for all of them. He had though.
"Well if it isn't the muscular man," Came a soft voice from behind him, "how's the claw today?"
Standing behind him was an officer, with beautiful golden hair that was cut to medium length with braids throughout it. Her uniform held the wings of colonel, but she was young. Her eyes were piercing blue, almost scary to look at, especially when she was angry.
"Colonel," Said Talon saluting.
She smiled her beautiful white death glistened, "formalities."
"Is there something I can do for you?" Talon asked.
"You and me, tonight in my quarters involving my clothes and bed," She said and then moved on. Talon smiled, that woman was almost as insane as he was.
Lillian walked down the hall her mouth stuck in a smile. She ran her hand through her hair. As she turned towards the CIC a young deck hand flagged her down. His neon orange jumpsuit stood out from the cold navy blue of the rest of the crew's uniform.
"The chief wants a word, sir," he said saluting.
"At ease before you strain something," Lillian said, "Do you know what she wishes to discuss with me."
"No sir, I think it might be about the Mark IX viper. I don't think she believes we have enough storage space," The young man said.
Lillian nodded and waved the young man along. She turned around in the hall and sighed. She hoped that when they brought the Revelation in for its overhaul they would install some of the fancy elevators that some of the other battlestar's had. Heading towards the end of the corridor she reached the ladder and began the long climb down to the flight deck. As she approached 65 she swung off and landed on the deck and headed towards the port-landing bay, where she knew Arway's office was.
The landing bay always gave Lillian chills because it was beyond huge. The entrance was on the third level up, which looked out over the massive cavern that was the landing bay. And this was just the upper deck to the actual hanger, the lower one was separated by what could be called the floor, or the ceiling for those farther below. The outer doors had been shut and men were sweeping the runway while others were busy at vipers. Sparks flew out of some of the vipers as men repaired them while others released steam or nothing at all. The Landing bay was almost a giant spaceport, like the one in Caprica city.
Lillian descended the ladder that lead to the main deck of the landing bay. She spread her feet apart and placed them on the long rails and then used her hands to stabilized herself, and slid three stories to the ground where she landed with a small clunking sound. She smiled, this ship was a mighty and beautiful thing, and she was her XO. A smile of pride walked across her face.
"Colonel," Came a voice from behind her.
She turned around to see Sara Arway standing there with a cigar in her mouth. She put the Cigar out in an ashtray and walked over to the colonel, her face and hands covered in grease. Otherwise her white blond hair was pulled into a bun. Arway was the pinnacle of no nonsense.
Arway wiped off her face with a towel, when she saw the towel after pulling it from her face it was clammy and covered in black grease. She sat down at her desk, which was filled with the smell of engine lubricant, and sweaty human being. Not the most pleasant combination. That was the life of a deck chief in the colonial fleet though.
"How did it go?" Came the voice of Ryan, one of her deck hands, from the door.
"Fine," Arway replied, "I think I made my point about the vipers."
Ryan nodded and then went to duck out; Arway reached out and grabbed him. He looked startled for a moment, and then relaxed and turned to face her.
"What's the status of the deck?" She asked.
"Good to go," Said Ryan, "Both of them."
Arway smiled and let him go. Ryan left, perhaps more quickly than he meant to. Sara smiled as she sat down again. On the table in front of her was the next day's repair schedule filed by Captain Shay. Several vipers were named, but at the bottom there was a sticky note. She picked up and read it.
At least you won't have to deal with me.
Arway smiled and let out a laugh. That girl was a real pain in the neck to deal with. She looked out for her own, however, and even Amanda respected that. After all what's a leader without the follower? She pushed the file aside, and stretched her back, it had been a long week, getting the Revelation is perfect shape for inspection by Admiral Cain.
Now there was a fellow woman that Amanda had no respect for what so ever. She was tough, strong and encouraging when she had to be, but something always rubbed Sara the wrong way with that Admiral. She had in fact run into her several times at conferences and special dinners that the two had been invited to. A social gathering that she couldn't get out of. Developing the Valkyrie class battlestar's weapon systems had its down side. There was a thunking at the door.
Arway looked up to see a young man, about twenty three years at the oldest walk into her office. It was the com officer from the CIC who had taken some of his own time to help rewire the intercom system in the landing bay. A good man … almost an oxymoron.
"It's done, Chief," Said the young petty officer.
"Thank you, Mr. Moore, I know your shift on the bridge starts shortly," Sara smiled, she knew the four to twelve watch was one of the worst one could be assigned to outside of one's own full watch.
The young man nodded and left the room. Sara smiled and leaned back in her chair, the only comfy thing on the whole Flight deck.
Shiak Moore was top of his class, Geminon was his home world and he was damn proud of it. He had earned his way onto a battlestar, granted it wasn't a permanent posting nor was it a true officer's posting, however, it was a step in the right direction.
Shiak walked directly into the tube that led up to deck 49 where the CIC was located. He began to climb the ladder, he had fixed the COM system inside the landing bay and helping others always put a smile Shiak's face. The young petty officer had a spark inside him that day, partly because he was on several cups of coffee but he also was about to get his transmission from Colonial command and he was sure he had gotten promoted to lieutenant.
The climb took Shiak longer than he had expected and by the time he finally stepped off the ladder he found himself wishing to be posted on a Battlestar with elevators, or possibly just a smaller battlestar. Either way he walked to the other side of the deck and into the CIC. This was the heart of the great ship Shiak was serving on. It was designed like most of them, with a conglomeration of information centers and computer consoles creating a semi circle, much like the coliseum on Caprica. There were two levels of these computer consoles, but Shiak had entered on the upper level and climbed yet another ladder down to the floor.
On the floor of the CIC was a central console where seven people sat around controlling the various battle systems of the battlestar. Two his left was the semi circle of secondary consoles, in front of Shiak was the seven person circular command post, and to his right was the CIC's heart. Three glass doors opened sideways onto a much smaller command center. Inside was a main table shaped like most flat tables on the ship with a light that glowed from within the table itself. The Dradis console and tactical display hung over it. The front held the helms station and fire control while the back held communications, nuclear launch and STG missile control as well as CIBER warfare station.
Shiak walked towards this much smaller command center. He showed the guard on duty his ID and the guard punched in a code. The three doors opened onto the command center. Shiak entered and took his position at the COM station. The electronic swooshing sound of the Dradis and control beeping was all that could be heard. It seemed like a fairly normal day until that first message was received.
Commander Venerus pulled on his uniform and cuffed his sleeves. He then tucked in his shirt and exited his quarters. As he walked officers stood at attention as he passed. He saluted over and over again. To be perfectly honest with himself he enjoyed the respect he was given as the commander of this mighty battlestar.
"Pass the word to Commander Venerus, Lieutenant Reed on Line five, Lieutenant Reed on line five," came Reeds voice over the booming loudspeakers that lined the battlestar's corridors.
Venerus picked up the nearest phone, "Venerus here, what is it Jack?"
Venerus almost always called his command crew by their first names to instill teamwork and trust in the ranks, but he occasionally had to remind them that he was still the CO of the ship.
"Commander," Jack panted, "we have a message that just came in from Colonial command."
"What does it say?"
"Attention all units, Cylon attack underway …." Jack responded.
Venerus's heart skipped a beat.
BATTLESTAR KUTHIA
1 hour before attack
The smell of freshly made coffee poured into Arkanas's nostrils like a wave of good smells. The olfactory nerves could be a detriment on a battlestar most days, especially in the head(1) or even worse the gym. But the smell of coffee made it all worth it. He poured himself a cup and took a sip. He was still in his under uniform. A grey shirt with a well made vest underneath it. It was surprisingly comfortable.
The cup reached his lips and the hot liquid fell into his mouth like a river of eternal youth. He let the first sip simmer in his mouth before swallowing it. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes as he felt the pulses of energy from the coffee leak into his bloodstream. The energy was magnificent, and after this cup he would be ready for the day.
"If Ambrosia didn't already exist, that's what I'd call coffee," Arkanas said sipping at his coffee again.
The cup clinked onto the table as Arkanas opened his locker and pulled out his uniform. He slung it around himself and straitened it, buttoning it. He pushed his medium long hair out of his face. Arkanas was a tall man, and he usually didn't have trouble with the Ship's doors, however a few of the automatic ones, including the one to his quarters did give him trouble. His face was poorly shaven giving his skin a dirty look, which was the way he liked it. Made him look really tough even though the truth was he was a kind, forgiving soul.
Kiean Arkanas stretched his hands and arms behind his head until his back popped loose. He popped his neck from one side to the other and went towards the door to his quarters. The door slid open and he ducked out. The one annoying thing about his new ship was that his electric automatic door was meant for someone several inches shorter. He looked out into the corridor and walked forward on his way to the CIC.
The lights were now much less abrasive than they used to be, allowing a cool blue color instead of its former white harsh color to fill the hallways. The refit on the Kuthia was well worth it. He smiled, right before he took command it had several problems with its tech. Now Baltar's navigational program had augmented their jump and thruster capabilities phenomenally.
There was some noise behind him as two men in bright orange jump suits bolted past him. Kiean stepped out of the way quickly as they jumped passed without saluting. Chief Shwen would have their asses if he knew they hadn't saluted. Shortly thereafter Shwen himself bolted past with only the briefest salute. That could only mean that something was wrong on the landing deck.
Schwen bolted around the corridor, he felt his stomach sink as he had passed the commander, but he had much more important matters to attend to at the moment. Damn newbie didn't know the first thing about landing a Viper on a deck. What were they teaching these half-witted morons at the academy? Schwen was sure that flight school taught landings as well as take offs, but who knew these days. They might as well let a dickless monkey into the cockpit, they couldn't land any worse.
He jumped in the turbo elevator and punched deck 22. The door remained open for a short while before closing. He tapped his foot slightly as the elevator descended slowly. Sure it was safe in ideal circumstances, but in an emergency it might be faster to send a gods damned snail. The elevator came to a halt and it dinged as it opened. Schwen sighed slowly and bolted out. Obviously the designers of this ship didn't have the word efficiency in mind when they built it.
Schwen reeled around the corner knocking a poor lieutenant of her feet. He pulled her up, apologized quickly and kept watching. He thought for a bit and then decided there really wasn't any way he could blame that collision on the young woman. He kept running. The corridor finally led to the hangar bay where he bolted out jumped over the rail guard, fell ten feet where he collided with the ground. He shook it off and jumped back up again.
"Status!" He barked at his crew.
"One Viper just hit the deck at over 1000 kph," Said a non-commissioned officer, "it skidded for several hundred feet before it collided with the wall, and we also have some damaged deck plates and a lot of bent wall and piping."
One would think of slowing down before colliding with a giant metallic landing deck, but apparently this pilot didn't, "Okay Reeves, Barky, Basil and Fragrance, let get going, get some spare deck plates, pull the piping and get those wall panels off, it needs some replacing, and someone get that fracking moron and his bird off my hangar deck floor!"
He hissed under his breath. Someone crashed one of his birds, damn idiot. He didn't have to repair the damn thing. Schwen grabbed his tool kit and darted for the smoke rising at the far end of the hangar bay. The pilot was lucky that the Kuthia had heavy blast doors over the entrance to the Landing Pod or he would have shot out and died in space.
Killian was standing over a stretcher, "You'll be fine," She said, "The doc will look out for you."
She turned away and put her head in her hands. Schwen walked up to her, with a rather aggravated expression on his face.
"What did that idiot pilot do to my bird?" Schwen growled.
Killian grabbed the chief and slammed him against a viper bay wall and looked him in the eye, "That idiot pilot is one of my idiot pilots so don't frack with him, and two, do your fracking job because that's my viper not yours. You just fix the damn thing."
Schwen broke loose and shook off the adrenalin rush that the attractive young CAG had just given him, "you don't repair them, I do. That makes me the artist and you the appreciator."
"Maybe so," Killian turned to walk away, then looked back over her shoulder "And chief, don't insult one of my pilots again until you actually fly a viper into a landing bay."
Killian Aronai was among the most talented whining machines on the planet and she knew it. She could whine about too much food if she had nothing else, but when it came to her pilots nothing was more important. 150 people aboard the crew of the Kuthia were her responsibility and she would make damn sure they came out of any instance alive, even if she had to go out and grab them herself. Hanur was a decent enough pilot, but he had just screwed up a landing that should have been the simplest op in the book, and to make things even better, the chief had rubbed salt in the wound.
This was not going to be a great day, and even better she now had one of her early morning exercises with the XO of the ship, and he was really fun in the early mornings, the type of fun where you bring a riot shield and hope you survive. Mark was not an early bird, but to his credit he never took it out on the pilots, just her, which she could live with. She walked out of the hall and leaned against the wall putting her head in her hands.
If there were almighty gods up in the heavens, Killian knew they had a really dark sense of humor. One pilot crashes, the briefing with the XO, and to boot the commander came out with her review today and she knew she hadn't done everything he had hoped for. The weight of a screwed up year hung heavily around her neck, the kind that eventually drags even the strongest man underwater. Sucking a deep breath of artificially freshened air, she stood up again and kept walking down the endless maze of corridors that eventually led somewhere inside the Cyrene class battlestar.
After a very long ride to deck 19, which really shouldn't have taken that long, Killian walked into the pilot ready room where the pilots that where up for the first mourning flight routine sat.
"Okay, you guys know the drill, let's see if we can't get the combat drone time down a few more seconds today. I know you guys are up to it," Killian said, "So chop-chop and good hunting. Bring me back some training drones. And please rehearse landing a viper; we don't need to pull another crash landing today."
There was a murmuring of 'yes sir' as the pilots got up and left the room. Killian turned around to see the XO standing in the doorway. His eyes were dark and grey and his hair looked like he had stuck a cubit in an energy socket. He looked just as pleased as ever to have been woken up for this early morning weekly conference.
"Sir," She said snapping to attention.
He waved his hand for her stand at ease and she did. He sat down in one of the pilot's seats and looked up.
"So let's go over this week's schedule," He murmured.
Colonel Kenpachi was among the oldest veterans of the fleet. He had seen the first Cylon war, battled in it and even watched his battlestar, the Colombia, go down. Such memories stick with a man for a long time; especially when so many of your comrades were killed. Mark Kenpachi was impressed with the CAG's performance; however the young woman also was inexperienced. He felt she needed some more time under her belt before she had truly earned the title of CAG.
The colonel's uniform went flat as it could as he straitened it. He pulled his crazy black hair into a tight bun of sorts to fit with regulations, and walked out of the ready room heading for the shipboard café. He was ready for a nice extranet news report. The education rally's on Caprica were causing serious problems, he heard rumors that the president had sent the marines. Good for him, Kenpachi thought Adar was a spineless wimp.
The hallway elevator dinged as he indicated his deck and it began to descend. His eyes stung slightly, they always did in the morning. He rubbed them with his thumb and middle finger. Stretching he prepared to step off the elevator. The doors swung open and he ran into two men punching each other in the hallway. Mark scratched his head for a moment not sure how to handle this. It was a marine and a pilot.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kenpachi barked over the brawling couple.
The two seemed to ignore him as they went about beating the living daylight out of one another. First thing in the morning and he runs into a bar fight in the corridor after a CAG briefing, the XO sighed. He stepped into the fight grabbing the pilot and smashing him into the bulkhead and then put the marine in a neck lock. They seemed to ignore his presence and fought against the invisible restraints until the saw him and fell limp.
"Now, would somewhat like to tell me what is going on," He said looking at each other.
There was a slightly awkward silence before the soldier broke it, "The Caprica Buccaneers are better than the panthers, and he knows it but he's standing up for them."
"So this fight is over the Pyramid ball game on Geminon?" Kenpachi let go of the two as they looked like innocent puppies that had gotten into the cookie jar.
They both nodded. A man came around the corner, his goatee and large face gleaming with anger, when he saw Mark his composure stiffened. Captain Chad Rios had just arrived; obviously someone had called this fight in. Mark turned back to the two brawlers.
"The fact is we both know that it's the fluffy tigers that are the best at Pyramid, right?" Kenpachi said smiling, "This won't go on any reports but I don't want to see it again."
The two nodded and saluted as stiffly and properly as they could. Kenpachi gestured for them to get out of there, and they did, he turned to Chad.
"Close one," The XO said.
Chad felt his heart lighten slightly, "An excess of testosterone sir," Chad said.
The XO smiled, "Yeah, I'm needed in the CIC. Good day Captain."
Chad saluted and then turned the other way, and walked down the Kuthia's hallway on his way to the mess hall which had been his destination before his young marines had gotten in a fight over the Buccaneers. That was dedication, to fight over a pyramid ball game. Chad had played pyramid in his college days; he wasn't bad at it either.
Chad was well built for a blocker in Pyramid; he was quick and fast, muscular but not huge. He entered the mess hall and saw the assortment of foods lined up. He went for the giant sizzling stake, even though it reminded him more of rubber than meat. He grabbed some asparagus and some bread and sat down, and began to eat it.
A young man walked across the room and sat alone in a corner. Chad sighed, another young man fresh out of War College. Chad stood up slowly, his height was impressive, but his clean-shaven face showed off more than a few battle scars from several pirate raids he had gone on as a private in the colonial military. His eyes were a dark brown and had a unique ability to overpower anyone else who might be trying to annoy him.
He moved over to the young man and sat down putting the rubbery meat into his mouth and chewing, sometimes a very strange sensation. He looked up to see the young man starring at him. His smooth face was twisted into a very awkward expression. It was obvious this young man hadn't seen any combat in his life at all. Being trained and living with battle were very different things.
"They never get the meat right," Chad said, "I think they might have painted some rubber stores."
The young man remained silent, he was obviously scared. Chad supposed he couldn't blame the poor kid. One of Chad's traits was looking rather intimidating even if he didn't mean to. It had always served him well in fights and combat situations.
"The names Chad, Chad Rios," Chad cut into the silence again.
"Vashtin Kylos," Said the young man again, "I handle communications in the CIC."
"A bit of friendly advice kid," Rios said looking him in the eye, "There is more to living on a battlestar than simply being good at what you do. You've gotta learn how to make friends here or you'll go stir crazy in two months."
"I don't make friends very easily," he straightened up and tried to appear more confident than he was, "and I'm not looking for friends."
"Too bad for you kid, you just made one," Chad said smiling.
Vashtin Kylos was almost always alone in life; he had been since he couldn't hold his own ground on the playground in grade school. Everyone seemed to hate him, but here he was on a Battlestar. He was persistent, and even when things looked dark as hell he kept going and pushing forward. Kylos was actually very good looking, or so he thought. His hair was a soft black, and his face was clean-shaven and his eyes where blue and that was always a good thing. Both way though, he wore glasses and that made him look like a computer geek, which he guessed wasn't far from the truth. He was no tech genius like Sylla, who he could never stop thinking about.
Sylla was among the few things that got under Vashtin's skin. She was beautiful and attractive, and … and … and everything he thought he wanted in a girl. His father had always told him that what he thought he wanted and what he needed were often nowhere near each other. He needed to get to the CIC anyway and that was of great importance to him as well. All his life he dreamed of serving aboard a battle star, and today he was serving aboard one.
He walked into the head outside the CIC and washed his hands and flushed his face with some cold water. It felt really good in the early morning right before duty began. His eyes darted to the side as Sylla walked in, her blond hair flowing backwards. She unbuttoned her uniform and pulled off her clothes and hung them on the rack. Kylos was awe stricken as his eyes moved up and down her body. Her bra was basically all that stood between him and ….
"Quit staring," Said a voice next to him, "It's rude."
He and a line of people at the sinks snickered at him. He glared down at his bowl, his face was probably glowing it was so red at this point. It never mattered how far you went into the world, some people were always there to tease you. He had learned long ago how not to cry, but still he was hurt every time someone took a pot shot at him.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Sylla slip into the shower, and he sighed. That would be one thing he never got to see upfront. Shaking his head, Kylos left the room.
Sylla let the warm water flow over her body. The steam wrapped around her like a blanket. She pulled the pencil in her hair and her long silk like blond hair fell about her back. The water soaked through it washing out the sticky feeling she had gotten over the course of her last shift. She had half an hour before she began her primary shift. Getting drawn for the 12-6 shift in addition to one's own daily shift sucked.
She let the warm water run for as long as she could before turning it off and stepping out into the head. She pulled on her under clothing. She never stopped getting looks from men when she did this. Not always their wisest move, since she was also a hand-to-hand specialist.
"Hey babe," Came a crewman's voice.
She darted a glare that made him back up and slowly enter his shower stall. She grabbed her uniform and put it on and buttoned it. Pulling it tight she wrapped the belt and side arm around the middle and pulled some strings out. She looked at herself in the mirror, her hair dangled down about her shoulders, but her golden eyes and fair features were otherwise just fine.
She pulled her hair back into a bun and stuck the pencil in it again to keep it there. Shaking her head to test the hairs stability caused some hair to fall out; she flushed them with some water and thrust them back into the bun. She opened the door to the head and exited.
It wasn't far to the CIC, and as she entered the beeping of consoles and the swooshing of the Dradis filled the room, along with muffled voices of people discussing work. The CIC was comprised of a full circle of officers surrounding the central combat table, which had the Dradis, combat and tactical displays above it. Sylla's position was in the circle outside it. However, there were seven more circles of stations outside of that one, giving the CIC an almost theater like feel to it. Descending the stairs she slipped into her stations relieving the officer that had taken charge.
Kiean Arkanas entered the CIC and walked right out into the flat stage are where the primary combat table sat. On the opposite side stood Kenpachi. They looked at each other and then up at the Dradis console. It swooshed back and forth revealing several colonial vessels, and the position of a nearby dock, other than that it was completely blank.
"Anything interesting over Caprica?" Asked Arkanas.
"Nothing of note," Kenpachi responded.
Suddenly there was a beeping sound and Kiean's head shot upwards to the Dradis console where four red contacts appeared, then ten, and then almost fifty contacts had appeared.
"Combat stations," Arkanas barked, "prepare STS missile barrage."
The alarm blared throughout the ship.
A/N
And there you have it! Please tell us what you think of the story, once again a story I have posted is being written by two people, why you ask? Well to put it simply, if it was just me writing there would never even be a story, I am just that damn lazy. So if like this story than thank my friend because he is the driving force behing it. But I digress i'm ranting again, so i'll shut up now and get out of your hair.