Origins of Humanity
Chapter 10
Battlestar Zeus – Unnamed system past the limit of Colonial explored space
If you don't close your eyes when entering an FTL jump you are left for a few moments not being able to see anything. It is a similar effect as staring into the sun for too long. Gundwyck McReardon had made that mistake, his vision only returning after their Raptor had already taken off.
Gundwyck McReardon was an Environmental Analyst (ENVA) attached to the Colonial Marines based out of the Battlestar Zeus. He had been transferred to the Zeus along with half of the Galactica's crew. His job was to continually assess the natural environment of habitable and non-inhabitable places that the marines went during their everyday missions. He was only required on missions that would potentially involve zero-gravity, zero-oxygen or missions that were not on any of the Colonies or the normal outposts. As the majority of Colonial military operations in the last forty years had been conducted inside known space, people in McReardon's profession were few and far between.
McReardon would be essential to this misson though. Four hours ago, the advanced reconnisance divison of the marines aboard Galactica had been called into a briefing, supposedly lasting one and half hours. McReardon was ordered into that briefing as well. Most of the fleet assembled around the Pegasus and Zeus knew that they were out here hunting for something very valuable. When the command staff of the mission had told them about the Stargate and its supposed location on a planet only one jump away, McReardon learned just how important the mission was.
Orbital reconissance raptors had already been sent ahead and had taken satellite imagery of the entire planet. Analysts within the fleet detected signs of numerous towns across the planet, all of them deserted and in ruin. They had also detected tell-tale marks of nuclear explosions. Ten marine reconissance teams were being dispatched to various settlements around the planet simultaneously with the recovery mission for the Stargate to learn just what had happened on the planet. McReardon was part of one of those missions.
The planet was not unlike Tauron from orbital view. A few large and rather arid continents circled the equator of the planet, with cold seas occupying a third of the northern and southern hemispheres. Large dust storms could be seen rolling across the landscape, intermingled with large forests surrounding inland water bodies and rivers. McReardon snapped out of his gaze at the planet just as the Electronics Countermeasures Officer (ECO) Helo Agathon indicated to prepare for orbital entry.
"I hate this part," McReardon said out loud to no one in particular. He was sitting with his back against the wall in the cargo compartment of the raptor, strapped in next to others of the unit he was attached to. The thing that got him about entering orbit was the fact that they taught you everything that could go wrong, but then said 'but don't worry, that's what the pilots are for'.
"It becomes nothing once you've done it enough," the marine next to him said. They continued the rest of the journey in silence, McReardon catching a few smirks between the marines at his expense every time they hit major turbulence. They quickly passed through the upper atmosphere and flight became stable.
"I'll take your word for it," McReardon replied just as they hit the first patch of heavy turbulence, juttering the Raptor.
"Two minutes to landing zone," the ECO stated. Simultaneously the rest of the marines started to un-buckle their harnesses and do last-minute preparations on their weapons.
"What's the readings Lieutenant?" McReardon asked Agathon. He turned and looked at his sensors before reading out a list of standard measuements
"Gravity is 1.15 Caprican Standard. Oxygen levels are slightly elevated at 22%. Humidity at our current elevation is 10%. Temperature 35 degrees standard. Ultra-Violet rating of 13. Atmospheric radiation is within standard limits," Helo read out.
"We're good to go as soon as we land," McReardon told the squad commander who just replied with a nod. Soon afterwards they settled down onto the ground with a soft thump and the doors on either side of the landing raptor folded up, marines deploying and setting up a perimeter.
They had landed just outside ruined village by the looks of things from the air. The vegetation around the village was not overgrown and had not actively began to reclaim any of the buildings yet, indicating that it had once been historically cleared. From what McReardon could see from the distance, it must have only been ten or twenty years since vegetation clearing stopped around the village, indicating that whatever had happened here was only just recent.
Overhead two vipers did a flyby of the village. They were circling between all the landing zones to provide air cover and air support if they needed it, which was highly doubtful.
"Clearing of vegetation around the village stopped roughly ten years ago by y estimations. No one has been here since that," McReardon said after shuffling over to the commander of the marines.
"Good. Our perimeter is almost set up. Once it is done, we'll sweep the village for anything that might be alive or a threat. We can move in from there," the commander replied. McReardon turned his gaze to watch the remaining marine teams move out. There were twenty in this landing party, spread between three raptors. Two of the teams had already moved out and McReardon could see a few members still disappearing into the distance to circle around the village and form the perimeter.
"Perimeter secure. Sweep now beginning," McReardon heard over his hand-held radio. It was only a few minutes until he heard more, "there are what appears to be human skeletons everywhere, scattered around the village," he heard. There was constant radio chatter, the marines outlining what they were finding in their initial sweep of the village for security threats. They were only a few minutes in when a tense, strained voice came over the radio.
"Code Red Snake. Code Red Snake. North-east corner of the village," McReardon heard. Code Red Snake was short for the requirement of a senior officer to attend the location at hand, where a defensive perimeter was being set up. McReardon saw the commanding officer start to jog toward the village, waving his hands for numerous people around him to join him. In McReardon's mind, the commander's sweep had included him and he joined the back of the group of about five people. His justification was that there was a high probability of there being an environmental threat to one or more marines, because there was obviously nothing alive or no technology in the village that could pose the marines any harm. McReardon was the best to handle that situation.
Jogging through the village, McReardon could see that many of the houses were made out of mud-brick and logs. Many were burned out and had vegetation growing out them, reclaiming the land that humans had taken from them. A lot of the houses looked like they had seen battle-damage from tools of modern warfare. As the marines had said, there were quite a few human skeletons around the village. Some were half in doorways while others just lay, weathering in the street.
There were a lot of marines crowding around something on the north-east corner of the village. McReardon followed the commanding officer as he barged a hole through the crowd of marines. He stopped dead in his tracks, his heart almost coming out of his throat when he saw what was on the ground. It was a horror to every Colonial, right down to their sub-conscious. Lying on the ground was the damaged body of a Cylon Centurion, battered, bent, missing an arm and with a stone-axe protruding from the middle of its head.
Battlestar Zeus
Excitement had run through Commander Cain's veins when they had reached their target system. They were finally here and she would be able to see the device for herself. It also broke up the boredom of jumping between empty systems. Since this system had one of these 'Stargates' present she had assumed that the planet would be habitable.
Now she stood on Commander Adama's ship, getting a briefing from the commander of the reconissance mission to the planet and charged with recovery fo the Stargate. Cain prided herself on being able to keep it calm and collected during stressful situations, but now her mind was racing with a million thoughts flying through her head. She didn't have any control of any of them.
"There were human skeletons everywhere. Although the buildings were old and primitive, the majority of them that were left standing had received explosive damage," one of the ground team said. She couldn't believe it. There were humans on this planet. The first planet that they had actually gone to, other than Earth, that had humans on it. It didn't fit with everything that Cain had been taught growing up. She didn't put very much weight behind the Sacred Scrolls documenting the Colonial's exodus from Kobol and the whole religious system that the Colonial culture had been based around. She had always suspected that there were a lot of truthes in the Sacred Scrolls that were overlooked, missed out or mis-interpreted. She wouldn't go as far as to say that she was a conspiracy theorist, but more logical. Anyone with a logical working mind could see that there were large gaps in the sacred texts and story of their exodus. It didn't take a genius to work out. From what the mission commander had told her already, she knew that there was something on this planet that would contribute to their history. She knew that deep down inside, once they unlocked the secrets of this planet, Cain would be secretly saying 'I was right' on the inside.
"That's not all," the officer continued, pausing to add suspense, "once we entered the village, there was something else we found. The remnants of a Cylon Centurion," he said. Before Cain could take in what the ground team member had said, he continued. "It looked like they exterminated the entire village."
"Centurions. Out here?" Cain heard herself ask, not knowing it was her own voice at first.
"It looks like they slaughtered the village. The vipers spotted the results of nuclear detonations from the upper atmosphere as well. There are large patches where nothing grows, much like the irradiated zones on the Colonies," he continued.
"They nuked them from orbit?" Adama asked.
"It looks like they nuked a few of the larger settlements, and sent in ground forces to investigate some of the smaller villages," the officer replied. Cain didn't say a word, just kept looking at the mission commander as her mid was racing. She had felt some, curious thought about the people on this planet and what had happened to them. It was not a common event in the Colonies where an extinct civilisation could be studied to determine the reasons behind their downfall. All the Colonies had were a few histories from Kobol, translated into the religious zealotry which was the Sacred Scrolls, and the rise and fall of numerous empires across the Colonies soon after settlement. The models for those civilisations were mostly the same – rise up, expand your powerbase, expand it too far, and then implode.
"So the Cylons left the Colonies and decided to slaughter weaker civilisations of humans?" Cain half questioned, half stated, bitterness dripping from her speech.
"This is our fault," Adama stated.
"How is this our fault?" Cain replied. "We didn't even know this planet existed until three weeks ago."
"We created them. The Cylons. Then we let them loose on the universe, without our knowing. It's our fault that this planet is dead. You can't create a monster and then wipe your hands of your creation," Adama replied. Those words gave Cain pause as she mulled the concept over. She would have to think about it later, as other parts of her mind were still churning over the new information.
"What about the device?" Cain asked. "Is it still there? Did the Cylons take it?"
"That's where things get really interesting," the mission commander replied. Cain could tell that the officer meant to continue but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.
"Yes officer, what is it?" Adama urged.
"It doesn't even look like the Cylons knew of the device. It is not near any settlements at all…," he started. After pausing for a few moments, he continued "also, the device was surrounded by twelve statues of the Lords of Kobol, each about two-storeys tall."
"I told you so," flashed through Cain's thoughts before it was just as quickly discarded and put away to think about later, when Cain had some private time and her thoughts could be her own.
"They were standing around the Stargate, as if they were guarding the planet from whatever came through." There was silence in the room for about a minute.
"Sergent. Begin extracting the device as fast as you can," Adama said. "Not a word about the statues to anyone that doesn't need to know. You're dismissed." Cain looked at Adama, cottoning onto what he was getting at. Even though they were Colonial Military, there were a fair few people who were very religious through the fleet. The last thing that they needed was religious hysteria within their personnel. After the officer left, Cain could feel Adama's eyes on her. But she didn't say a word. Her mind was racing.
"What are you thinking?" Adama finally said, breaking Cain from her thoughts.
"There are three other planets," Cain replied. She looked to Adama, knowing that he wasn't following. "Our mission orders state that there are three other planets close by with Stargates on them. We should investigate them and see what happened," Cain explained.
"Our other mission orders are to retrieve the device and bring it back to the Colonies," Adama replied. "We should make that our imperative."
"But we're here now. We need to investigate the Cylon presence and find out whatever we can about them. If they've done this to the other planets nearby, and if they've gotten hold of a Stargate," Cain replied.
"And what if we encounter the Cylons, live Cylons. They could chase us all the way back to the Colonies. Or worse, we could start a war," Adama replied. Before Cain could respond, Adama continued almost cutting her off, "Once we have the device back to Colonial Space, we will be able to use it to travel to the other planets."
"That will take another week and a half of jumping back to the Colonies. Then another few weeks to organise another mission back here… We have the personnel, the equipment and the means to do this now. We need to know as much about the Cylon presence before we return to the Colonies…" Cain started, allowing a few moments for her words to sink in. "The armistice line is on the other side of the Colonies. My bet is that the Cylons came out this far to start encircling us, and encountered these worlds," Cain stated. "We…" she started before Adama cut her off.
"I know that… Fine. But we need to get the Stargate back to the Colonies as quick as possible," Adama replied. There were a few moments of silence in the room as the two commanders thought about their options.
"You take Zeus and the fleet back to Colonial Space with the device. We fuel up the Pegasus and investigate the other planets and then follow you home a week afterwards," Cain suggested. Cain could see Adama thinking about her proposal. It was the most valid – that way the most protection was given to the Stargate in case they ran into the Cylons.
"Okay, I agree," Adama replied. Cain knew her face didn't betray her emotions. She needed to find out what had happened to those other planets. Secretly, she knew that they were likely heading into a conflict with the Cylons in the future. Cain wanted to make sure that she was one of the ones spearheading that conflict, and what better way of doing so than by bringing back extensive reconnaissance of Cylon activity behind Colonial lines.