Episode 8 Part 4:
130th Day of the Second Cylon war:
Johm:
The CRPD regrouped in Shargotti's lounge. Fifty-six men collapsed into plush armchairs and around water features. Bodies shook with exhaustion and charred jackets were sloughed off. A handful of medics loaned from the colonial fleet arrived and tended to the bruises and burns. The only sound aside from the whispers of a defeated force were the occasional gunshots from the colonial marines outside.
Johm wiped the blood trickling into his eyes. He felt along his blackened forehead until his numbed fingers stumbled over the gash just below a receding hairline. He couldn't control his own trembling or heaving sides. Nor could he erase the memories from his mind.
"We fraked that up" he muttered. He was horrified at what he'd seen. They'd been barely holding the crowd back until the molotovs started flying. Officer Amy Whiter slapped his shoulder.
"Shit happens. We didn't expect the molotovs."
"Should've prepared for it. Shouldn't have had to call in a company of marines. I saw at least twenty civilians die alone." A brace of rifle fire rang out. Johm only paled a little further but Amy jumped.
A medic sat down before him and unpacked his satchel. Johm pushed him away. "Find someone who actually needs it." He went to Amy, who couldn't move one arm.
They'd run. He couldn't blame them. The only thing stopping the chase was a hastily bolted bulkhead. Johm had been forced to call the marines in and turn the riot into a bloodbath. The captain of the Shargotti had done absolutely nothing to help. Hadn't even given a copy of the ship's schematics. He followed that chain of thought. The molotovs were using diluted tylium. The only person on a spaceship who had access to the tylium tanks was the captain and chief engineer.
That bothered him. Johm put an arm beneath him and with a grunt heaved himself up. His police officer's eyes all went to him. "If you feel like you can walk stand up." Five men and women stood up. After a minute four more rose slowly. "Grab you weapons and handcuffs and follow me."
He picked up his riot gun and checked it was loaded with beanbag shot. "Officer Lily Shulz go down to engineering and check on the tylium tanks and chief engineer. Interview him if necessary and radio your findings."
The heavily muscled woman hefted her riot gun and walked out with a salute. "The rest of you with me. We're going to the cockpit. The ship was silent as the nine of them marched down its corridors. The few civilians they passed whispered amongst themselves and pointed in mockery. Screw you too. It was like watching the protestors chanting 'the whole world's watching!' twenty years ago.
He went through one of the coach cabins. It was occupied with shaken and injured civilians. They stood up, and as one laughed. It was like being machine gunned by cylons. Cups and rotten food flew out of the seats to bounce off their shoulders. Johm stopped short.
That was it, they'd broken. "Lets get out of here" he muttered. Without any fight the officers of the Colonial Remnant Police Department retreated.
Marlay:
Don't listen to the static. She reminded her department every time she walked into the radio room. The PSA repeated on Remnant radio every hour on the hour. The static took form with every listening. Voices grew defined until tables theoretical words appeared on multiple computers. Those became actual words. Then those words became phrases of increasing coherency.
Marlay took off her headphones. She opened her own table and wrote down 'they were not dead merely sleeping. The dreams of a god." It made her hair stand on end to think of that voice.
To take her mind off it she looked over at Aelia. The girl was reading another fantasy book in her usual eager way. The only time she actually looked peaceful was when she had a book out. Otherwise she was a bag of nerves. Aelia shifted a little to try and hide that she'd noticed. Her cheeks flushed scarlet. Marlay's prickled a little.
Aelia was interested in her without a shadow of doubt. And in turn Marlay was absolutely in love. Her heart pumping she reached over and flicked Aelia's hair a bit "What's going on Ally?"
Instantly she became jumpy again. "Nothing. I like this book a lot." She held it up with shaking hands. 'The Sons of The Black Priest.' "It's a slow day, everyone's quiet." She lowered her voice. "Too quiet."
Marlay giggled. "Yes it is. Listen, do you-." She paused. She's a fifteen year old girl. You're a grown woman, what are you doing?
"What do I want to?" Aelia perked up.
"No, never mind." Marlay put her head down. Fortunately Aelia got a call and didn't get a chance to inquire.
"Vindication-control, go ahead." Marlay looked at her from beneath her arm. She was fiddling with the controls. "Who are you and what are you saying? You're not broadcasting any registration." After a minute she said "Traye, trace this call back."
He did so. "Its coming from space ahead of us. Doing some science and math, it looks like its coming from our destination." Marlay sat up and looked over.
Aelia stared at him with confusion. "That can't be right." Her hand clapped to the earpiece. "What's that?"
She jumped halfway out of her seat and stiffened. Blood vessels burst in her eyes. Marlay almost screamed in horror. "Ally!" she grabbed her shoulders. Her eyes rolled up in her head. Then the convulsions started. Marlay pulled her away from the console. She ripped the headphones off and cradled Aelia to the ground as the girl twisted into grotesque positions. Her back arched so far it strained to breaking. Then she slammed her head into the floor before Marlay could catch her. The girl coughed, and then vomited blood over both of them. "Call a medic now!" Marlay shrieked. She had no idea what to do except hold on for dear life.
She heard them as she struggled against Aelia. The girl was striking out at everything in range and she hit hard. Her knuckles bloodied against the floor and Marlay caught an errant haymaker to the nose that made her see stars. "Hang on Ally."
Behind her Traye picked up the headphones and placed a muff to his ear. He went down like he'd been slugged by a lead pipe and the headphones went flying. "What the frack is that?" Blood dripped from his nose and his eyes were empty.
Aelia's convulsions subsided into faint twitching. Snuggling her close against her chest, Marlay felt her breathing fade away until she stopped. With trembling hands she checked her pulse. Aelia's heart wasn't beating.
Huxton:
The object emerged from the fog on visual. Sensors remained dead. "Good job on calculating its position, ten thousand kilometers to any direction and we'd have missed" Huxton said.
"Thank you sir" Grissom replied with a smile. His beard was fast approaching his waist. Huxton wasn't much for beards, but he had to admire the length and consistency of that one. "Now the question is: what is this thing? It seems to be absorbing our sensor beams across every frequency."
"Put it on visual. Stop the fleet where we are for now."
The object appeared on one of the screens. Huxton took a moment to make out the dimensions. Not because it was hard to discern amidst the swirling nebula, but because of its shape. It twisted in ways that looked physically impossible. Red metal folded on red metal to produce a monstrosity out of his daughter's nightmares. A couple of lesser objects drifted around it.
Nessella said "I have a couple of ships on DRADIS. Their profiles match those of old Virgonian navy ships, but their radiation output indicates the reactor compartments have been breached and irradiated the entire hulls. So much for salvaging those."
"I wouldn't trust them anyways. Have the fleet spread out in cover-two defensive formation. Remind everyone that they are not to use any of the radio frequencies that thing is broadcasting on." Specialist Endera occupied the radio station. Traye was in the hospital with cranial bleeding. Marlay was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. "What's the medical status on the kid that got zapped by the thing?"
"She's in surgery to seal a ruptured artery. Veris is worried she might be brain dead when he's done." Unlucky.
The ship jolted. "What was that?" Huxton demanded.
"We just pulled a full stop," Grissom reported. "I've got thrusters firing at flank acceleration and we're not budging."
"Sensors, scan the area" Huxton said.
Grissom kept hitting switches. "Its every ship in the fleet. We're all motionless." His jaw went slack. "There's a magnetic field holding us in place. It's coming from that thing." He jabbed a finger at the glowing red icon that was the station.
"Sir" Endera said quietly. Huxton looked over. "The radiation that indicated what frequencies that thing was broadcasting on, it's spreading."
And now the trap was sprung. "How far?"
"Across a third of the remaining frequencies. Its showing no sign of slowing down."
Time to start thinking outside the box. "The other ships should have that same gauge. Switch to the signal lights and tell every ship to cut all radio communications. Then order anything with firepower to open up on that structure."
"All batteries fire at will on target unknown-one. Fire until target is destroyed." Vindication rumbled. Her railguns shot titanium into the terrifying object. Signal lights along her flanks flashed to life. The ships that caught it repeated the message on their own. Within minutes the fleet was flashing like the ball on Caprican New Year's.
Railguns and missiles pummeled the station for several minutes. "Signal to cease fire" Huxton said. It took another minute for the fusillade to die down.
"No noticeable effect" Nessella said.
Huxton studied the structure. He spotted an indent on one side. "Can we still launch camera drones?"
"Let me check" Cage said. A minute later her replied "yes we can."
"Check that out. Lets see if it's a way in." The drone zoomed over unhindered. It passed the Virgonian ships. A tendril of red metal had grown off the side of the object and through several kilometers of space. The ships were connected now, fused together.
The indent magnified to become a cavern with twisting structure hanging from the ceiling. A silver Virgonian warship was half-buried within. The structure was absorbing it. The drone zoomed inside. There were airlocks along one wall. A plan formed. "Amy. I am authorizing the release of a fifty-megaton nuclear warhead. You are going to collect it from the main armory along with the requisite technicians. From there you will take a company of assault marines and board that station. Plant the nuclear weapon inside and detonate it."
"Yes sir. If we find any computer terminals on that thing, should we try and pull data off it?"
That's how the cylons had spread viruses in the first war. Hide a subroutine on an innocent looking or even friendly information packet. Watch colonial cybernetics fail at critical moments. "No. Everything there is a level five security hazard."
"Yes sir."
Huxton watched her walk out. "Good luck Amy."
She turned around. "Thank you."
Nessella:
There were four raptors, two shuttles, and a cargo launch. Between them were one hundred and twenty marines, six technicians, and a nuclear warhead the size of a bathtub. Nessella was strapped into the lead raptor. She wore light body armor over her uniform. The marines with her were completely silent as they flew past the dark Virgonian warships.
"See anything?" Nessella asked into the cockpit.
"Nothing but nightmares" Vendetta replied. "Wait, check that out!" She swiveled the nose mounted camera to point at the structure just beneath the first growth. A stalk of red material was growing out of its skin with visible pace. Nessella didn't need to guess its prey.
"Can we still send images?"
"Yes."
"Send pictures of that back to Vindication."
"Yes ma'm." Relaying instructions via signal light Rango coordinated a neat swoop inside the hangar. At that angle Nessella could see not one but two Virgonian ships half-buried in the red metal.
"Is this thing alive?" she asked aloud. "Its like one of the flesh eating plants back home. We walked into the trap and now we're going to be reeled in and consumed."
"Well then lets blow it the frak up. That's a lot of dead spacers we've got to avenge" Rango spat. They found a shelf the size of a battlestar's hangar pod. The raptor thudded onto the deck. "We've touched down. The platform is stable. The atmosphere is a total vacuum outside. Beginning decompression protocols." Nessella pulled on her borrowed helmet. The seal hissed and cold oxygen was blown into her face.
"Its been a few years since I've worn one of these" she muttered.
"Eh it feels just like home" Belsinki rumbled.
She looked the giant over. "Well you've probably got enough space to stow a viper in there." His booming laugh filled the cabin.
"This thing got to our shortwave frequencies too. Hand signals only" Alenko ordered. Only afterwards did he look sheepishly at Nessella. She shrugged. You know this better than I do.
"Helmet check" Vendetta announced. They did the standard buddy check.
"All helmets ready" Nessella said.
"Depressurizing the cabin." The air was slowly drawn out. Silence fell. Vendetta gave a thumb's-up. Alenko returned it. He marched to the back and yanked a lever. With a light rumble the seal broke and the door fell open. They spilled out onto the deck. It was cold hard steel that looked like a tacked on addition. The walls had visible encroached upon it. They rose into a vaulted ceiling a kilometer overhead, and then fell away in the distance. Serpentia could fit inside with room for a couple cruisers. Nessella felt tiny and insignificant.
In silence the company formed up. The bomb was wheeled to the front on a magnetic cart. A trooper was even riding on it like a halftrack. Nessella led the way to the line of airlocks. A pair of engineers got to work on hacking the ancient but still active equipment.
Four airlocks slid open before they could touch anything. Or it could just let us in. Alenko looked to her for instructions. She gave a thumbs-up. He pointed at his squad and another, and made a sweeping motion. They started inside. Nessella followed. Alenko shook his head and pointed back. She gave a thumbs-down and kept walking. Gods damn it she wasn't going to hang back.
The room on the other side was reminiscent of a standard asteroid station ready room. There were equipment lockers and shelves lining the walls. Benches sat on the ground. The same fluorescent strips dangled from the ceiling. Except the red metal had penetrated and was slowly overtaking the entire room. Several corpses lay on the ground, visors shattered. Nessella drew her pistol and walked over to examine one. To her surprise its face was perfectly preserved. It was a young man with squared jawbone and a hint of black stubble. He looked younger than half the marines around her. His eyes were shut fortunately. The next corpse was a woman who looked the same age.
"No entry wounds" Alenko suddenly said. She jumped. "A techy just notified me. The radios work once we step through the airlock. I guess whoever came up with this thing wanted their own people to be able to communicate just fine."
"Well at least we have that. Lets turn over one of these bodies, check the back."
As two marines grabbed the woman's head and shoulders Venko asked "how old do you think this place is?"
"Judging by the design of the Virgonian Royal seal on their uniforms I'd say three hundred years. Right at the height of the Empire's power."
"You know your history ma'm."
She smiled. "It's a hobby of mine." The marines lifted. Several people audibly gasped over the radio. The woman's spine was hanging halfway out of her back, torn open by an enormous blade. The other bodies were rolled to reveal similar injuries.
"Something with giant claws killed them while they were running away. They didn't even make it to the airlock" Alenko said.
"Cylons have claws that could do that," Mctane said.
"Cylons aren't five hundred years old. I hope. Now, first through third platoons form up we're going in. Four kilometers if we can, then we drop it and run."
The interior looked like any normal base. They passed barracks, kitchens, and labs on their way through the twisting corridors. Everywhere was butchered corpses. A squad was left every five hundred meters.
Then the corridors changed from the silver to a more worn brown. Everything looked older and halfway through decay. The bodies remained the same. Nessella spotted a flag dangling eternally from the wall. Gingerly she lifted it. "That symbol has been found on ancient archaeological digs. It's the sigil of the twelve tribes during the exodus from Kobol."
"So you're saying this area is two thousand years old?" Alenko asked.
"I'll put my money on it." She had to wonder how many souls had been trapped here.
"Hey check this out!" Ahead one of the specialists was pointing at a Virgonian-era computer. "I turned it on, anyone know what its saying." Nessella checked out the message on the cracked screen.
"I do" an accented voice said. It was Corporal Richt Veygur. "I grew up under the Cyrano Cartel, everyone spoke Virgonian or Picon. Let me see."
He read for a minute. "It says they found the blueprints for an advanced computer system in one of the older corridors ahead. They sent a couple of hard drives back to Virgon." He toyed with the ancient device. "This is the last entry. The previous ones stretch back for several months. They're dated to sixteen-ninety-one."
"A computer system?"
"Yes. Whoever wrote this entry thought it could give them an advantage over Leonis and Picon."
Nessella remembered something from her own history lessons. "Ten years from that date the Virgonian Empire would send a task force of advanced warships to attack Picon. They called it the dragon armada. It apparently had computer systems even the cylons could only dream of. The fleet never made it. The loss cut Virgon's economy in half and took out almost its entire cadre of young, gifted soldiers. The Empire held on for another two hundred years before its final collapse at the beginning of last century. We might be looking at the beginning of the end for Imperial Virgon."
"Then where'd the fleet go?" Veygur asked.
"It was never found."
"That's a lot of people to avenge" Venko said.
"Right. Keep moving, how far down are we?" Alenko asked.
Nessella checked her computer. "Almost two clicks." They continued. After awhile the corridors changed colors. The metal here was a shade of golden. It crackled under their feet from age. The consoles had a design to them that looked just barely colonial but so twisted as to be unfamiliar. Everywhere the red metal was pulling through.
"Can I take a chunk of metal back to the ship so we can date it?" Mctane asked.
"Just a bar, go for it." He broke off a decimeter of flooring with ease and gingerly placed it in a containment package on his pack. The station rumbled. In the distance what sounded like an alarm wailed. Alenko gave Mctane a withering stare. "We're three and a half kilometers in, just a little further!" Nessella said. They started forwards.
The lights died. "Lights, lights!" Alenko yelled. Flashlights came on everywhere. Nessella ignored them. Something was moving ahead. She walked forwards, straining her eyes into the darkness.
A red light appeared. It slid to the right, then back again. She drew her pistol and screamed "Contact!" What surfaced in the darkness wasn't quite a cylon. It had the same red light and humanoid appearance but there the resemblance ended. Its face was fashioned to look like a grinning skull. Its body was thinner than a human's but more precisely engineered than a centurion. The monster's hands ended in foot-long claws while its legs were oversized for presumably sprinting. The entire body was black with red stripes on its torso.
The corridor ahead filled with roving red eyes and a mechanical hiss like out of a nightmare. "Open fire!" Alenko screamed. Nessella fired a grenade from her mini launcher. She didn't even see the results as the entire horde charged like a mechanical tsunami.
Alenko dropped to his knees and began spitting rounds from his under slung grenade launcher as fast as he could jack them in. Belsinki stood over him and hosed the corridor down with his fifty cal. Nessella pumped the trigger into the flaming maelstrom. One marine got a clawed hand through her chest. A second bled lost his mask and flailed about before backing into Alenko's grenades.
"Cease fire!" Alenko bellowed. The cylons had withdrawn, leaving dozens of shattered corpses. The troopers stood there, admiring the destruction. Mechanical footsteps sounded in the distance and they stopped.
"We can't drop the egg of death here?" Alenko asked.
"Our orders were four kilometers. So we're going four kilometers."
She swore he gave an exasperated sigh beneath his balaclava. "Yes ma'm. Lets move people!"
A hundred yards down was a cross-intersection. Red eyes appeared ahead. "On the flanks!" Venko yelled. Nessella saw them to either side.
"Tube charges to the flanks, rifles ahead!" Alenko ordered. Nessella was almost blown off her feet by the force of the blast. The corridors on either side collapsed in a tangle of debris. They moved forwards.
She felt helpless to assist the charge. "I need a weapon." No one heard. She grabbed Alenko. "Give me a weapon I'm not going to sit here useless."
He pulled a matte-black pump shotgun from over his shoulder. "Ten round magazine, bump fire if you need it. Can you use this?"
She balanced it in her hands. All shotguns work the same her father had said the first time they went hunting. "Yes I can."
"Alright Ma'm" he said with approval. A bandolier of shells followed. Two cylons emerged from around the corner. She put two shells into the first one, shattering its chest. The second made three steps and took a marine's head off with one swipe of its claws.
Several more marines died in the last half-kilometer. Finally they made it. "Can they disable the bomb?" Nessella shouted over the din.
Specialist Grideron replied "The timer's analogue so it can't be hacked. They could claw the bomb apart. Cylons are programmed to know how a nuke works. We might have to stay here and guard it."
"If we have to we will" she said grimly. "Or we could collapse the tunnel on it. Can the bomb survive the ceiling coming down?"
"That casing can withstand twenty tons of force on it." Engineer slang for 'yes.'
"Put the bomb down here. Mctane?"
The sapper pulled out explosives and handed them. "I need these set up there" he pointed to the corners of this section of corridor. Grideron halted the bomb cart and opened the timer. Nessella pulled out a pair of keys and handed one to him. "How long?" she asked.
"Two hours." A fresh wave of cylons came around the corner.
"Think these things can dig?"
"The first war cylons certainly could and these only look more advanced."
"One hour. We're going to be running anyways." He adjusted the timer. A cylon hacked straight through two marines and leapt at them, claws extended. Nessella didn't have time to aim she just fired from the hip. She hit it in the shoulder and it slammed into the bomb case. Her wrists burned as she pumped and fired again. The machine fell. "Alright. Ready?"
"Yes ma'm." She inserted her key. He did a second later.
"Three, two, one." They twisted. With a thunk the timer began turning.
"Charges set!" Mctane yelled. Nessella looked ahead. With the cylons halted for the moment she could see into the distance. The corridor appeared to change color yet again ahead. Beyond that there was something moving. She shined her light down the tunnel. The shape was undefined, but it filled the corridor and moved like it was sliding through. She was transfixed by its rolling swirling mass.
"Colonel!" Alenko pulled her away. A fresh wave of cylons appeared and she ran, Alenko and the others throwing grenades behind them.