Chapter 8

Canceron

Concert Orbiter

The Fall

Nathan ran to the auditorium of the Orbiter and saw Hanar talking to Allison about something. He had an extension cord wrapped up in his hands. Nathan stopped running and walked down towards the stage. Neither one of them noticed Nathan as he walked on-stage behind Hanar. Nathan took the gun and turned the safety off. He raised the gun and shot Hanar twice in the back. Allison screamed as Hanar fell over on the ground. He was bleeding out on the stage and Nathan walked up and shot Hanar in the back of the head, spraying Hanar's brains everywhere.

Nathan looked at Allison and said, "We need to talk."

Centarus

"Admiral," said one of the specialist in CIC.

"Yes?" asked Adonai.

"We are getting weird readings from the Armistice Station," said the specialist.

Adonai's blood ran cold. His face froze and he looked at Persephone, his expressions dark. He asked her quietly, "Do you think?"

"Gods I hope not," Persephone replied quietly.

Adonai asked the specialist, "What kind of weird reading?"

"Readings that match two massive detonations," said the specialist.

Adonai's breathing sped up and he said, "My gods, they're doing it."

"What do you want to do, Adonai?" asked Persephone.

"The only thing I know to do," answered Adonai. He turned and said loudly to his CIC crew, "Okay, listen up. Those readings may be false, but they may be true. I would rather be safe then sorry. Go weapons hot. Be ready to scramble alert vipers on my mark. I know we haven't seen the Cylons in over forty years, but I don't want to be caught with my pants down. Do you? Let's just hope that those readings aren't real, but if they are, we need to be ready. So for now, set Condition 2 throughout the ship. If we get bogies, set Condition 1. Understood?"

The CIC hesitated and then said as one, "Yes, Sir."

Persephone looked at Adonai and said, "Yes, Sir."

"I hope this isn't for real," said Adonai.

"Me too," said Persephone, "I thought I'd never be at war with the Cylons."

"Me either," said Adonai. He looked up at the DRADIS and stood there, anticipation and adrenaline flowing throughout his veins."

Concert Orbiter

Nathan looked at Allison and lowered his gun. He told her, "We need to talk, Allison."

She looked at him in complete shock and horror. She said, "About what! You just murdered Hanar. Am I next?"
"I would never hurt you, Allison," said Nathan, "And Hanar's not dead. He's being born in a goo bath right now."

"What does that mean?" asked Allison.

"It mean I have lied to you from the day I met you. I lied to you about where I'm from, but I haven't lied to you about the way I feel for you. I love you Allison Santorini. That will never change. Me telling you this is proof that I care for you," Nathan explained.

"What are you on about!" asked Allison. She was confused and tried to put things together.

"I am not human, Allison," said Nathan.

"What? You have to be. What else could you be?" asked Allison.

"I'm a Cylon," said Nathan.

"A Cylon?" asked Allison, "Do you expect me to believe that? The last time anyone saw them they were more like glorified toasters."

"Those models are still around, but they are no longer being manufactured. My kind of Cylon is being manufactured now, the human kind. There are 13 humaniod models. I'm a Nathaniel, a Number 2. I have always been a Cylon since we first met."

"If that's true, Nathan, then why are you here? What's your purpose?" asked Allison. She was less scared and now growing angry.

"We planted sleeper agents, humanoid models programmed to think they are human, into your civilization. Hanar was one of those agents. His model is Number 5. He was supposed to disable this ship, but he didn't. I didn't allow him. I was his handler. I was sent to monitor him and activate him when the time war ready, but something happened that I didn't plan for," Nathan explained.

"And what was that?" asked Allison now completely angry at him because she could tell he was telling the truth.

"I fell in love with you," said Nathan. His eyes watered at that very statement, "I fell in love with a human, my enemy. It was because of that I couldn't activate Hanar. This ship has FTL. Use that and jump far away from the Colonies."

"Why? What's going on?" asked Allison. Her anger gave way to fear again, "What's going to happen?"

Raptor Flight 62

"Centarus Actual to Raptor Flight 62, ground your flight immediately onboard Centarus's port flight pod. Don't ask questions. That is a direct order from Admiral Adonai himself. Do you understand?"

"Raptor Flight 62 to Centarus Actual, copy that. We will touch down within a couple minutes," said the raptor's pilot.

"We'll be waiting."

In the back of the raptor, Conner Gailec was sitting next to Brianna Swanson and asked, "What did you think of the commissioning ceremony?"

"I don't know. It wasn't what I thought," said Brianna.

"That's true," said Conner.

He was going to continue, but the pilot cut him off. She told the passengers, "We have been ordered to land onboard the port flight pod of the Battlestar Centarus. I'm sorry for the delay, but it's orders coming from a fleet admiral."

"That's fine," replied Gerald Bhuta who was sitting next to his wife, Jennifer.

"Why? What's going on?" asked Conner.

"I don't know," the pilot answered, "But it's orders and I have to comply. You can ask Admiral Adonai when you get onboard the Centarus."

"Okay," said Conner.

Brianna turned and asked Christina, "Who's Admiral Adonai?"

Christina opened her computer and searched for Adonai in the military records. She found his file and she read, "Admiral Struchen Adonai. He's the commanding officer on the Battlestar Centarus and the admiral over Battlestar Group 17 which includes the Battlestar Centarus, Battlestar Hera, Battlestar Uned and the one we just left, the Battlestar Byzantium. He is the youngest admiral in the fleet. It says he was born on Sagittaron to Gemenese parents and is the oldest of three children. He was seventeen when he left his family and went to Picon and joined the Colonial Forces. He became a Picon citizen seven years later. Is that enough?"

"Yes," answered Brianna, "I just want to know about him before I am forced to stay on his ship."

A siren went off in the raptor. The pilot looked around and asked himself, "What's going on?" She looked at the DRADIS and said, "Oh my gods!"

"What is it?" asked Conner from the back.

"I have two dozens unknown just jumped into orbit. They don't have Colonials signatures," the pilot rattled off, "According to the DRADIS, they are the size of battlestars. Oh frak! They're taking positions around the planet and they're weapons hot. Oh thank the gods, we're entering Centarus's flight pod."

Concert Orbiter

Allison asked Nathan, "What's going to happen?"

Nathan walked to the massive window wall that was at the back of the stage. He stared out the window and solemnly said, "The genocide of humanity."

"What?" asked Allison.

"Humanities children are returning home right now," Nathan said.

"You mean right now?" asked Allison. She cautiously walked up to Nathan and looked out the window. She saw over a dozen Y shaped ships jump into orbit around the planet. That feeling of fear, loneliness and hopelessness flooded back to her.

"There they are," said Nathan, "Those are Cylon basestars and they are going to make the sky fall and turn the Colonies of Man to a burning cinder."

Nathan turned back to Allison. The basestars started to take position around the planet and Allison said, "The Colonial Forces will win."

"No they won't," said Nathan.

"Why?" asked Allison.

"We've hacked the defense mainframe and put backdoors in all the battlestars and military vessels. With them gone, it is only a matter of time before the Cylons hunt down and destroy the civilian ships. This won't be a war. This will be a slaughter."

Centarus

"Admiral! We have two dozen bogies that just jumped into orbit. We're not getting any recognition codes," a specialist told Adonai. After a long ten seconds, the specialist added, "They are being recognized as Cylon basestars. They're going weapons hot."

Persephone froze and said, "They're here."

"Set Condition 1 throughout the ship and launch the vipers. Aim all of our weapons to the nearest Battlestar."

"Yes, Sir," some one of the techs in the room.

Persephone looked at the DRADIS and said, "They're taking position around the planet. They're avoid us, but they've launched raiders to get us."

"Tell the battlestars surrounding the planet to prepare for battle," said Adonai.

"We can't reach them. They've been cut off from us. Wait, I've got the Byzantium. Commander Bhuta's done the same as we have."

"That's good," said Adonai, "Take us in to fight those baseships. Our vipers can deal with the raiders."

"Yes, Sir," said a tech.

"Sir, the Cylons are sending something towards our ship and the vipers. It's a data package," said another tech.

"Of what?" asked Persephone.

"Frak! It's some kind of virus," said the tech, "It trying to shut down our ship."

"Vipers are reporting the same thing!"

"What are they doing?" asked Adonai.

"Most of the battlestar surrounding Canceron have shut down. Oh my gods, the Cylons are launching nuclear warheads at the lifeless ships and at us."

"How many nukes inbound?" asked Adonai with a fire in his voice.

"Five!"

"Tell some of the vipers to take out the nukes!" ordered Adonai.

"Yes, Sir!"

Outside in the battlefield, half a dozen of Centarus's vipers broke off their attacks on the raiders and targeted the nuclear warheads. One of the vipers got to close and a nuke locked onto it and detonated taking out several raiders in the process. The other four nukes were fired on by the five other vipers. The vipers were able to take out three more nukes before the raiders descended all on them. One viper made it through and locked on the missile. The pilot radioed, "Centarus. Roadkill. I've got the missile locked on. It's close so..."

A raider ran a kamikaze run and took out the viper and the missile continued on its course.

In the Centarus CIC, they saw Roadkill's viper explode on DRADIS and knew the missile was going to be a direct hit. Adonai saw the missile as it closed in on the ship. He told Persephone, "Brace for impact, Persephone."

"Never thought I'd hear that," Persephone replied.

"I know."

The warhead made it's way and hit the Centarus's head and exploded knocking the ship into an uncontrolled clockwise spin. Raiders and vipers fought as the Centarus started to spin down towards the planet below.

As for the basestars, they launched hundreds of nuclear warhead down on the planet down below. The missiles exploded when they the ground on Canceron. The genocide had begun.