The Battlestar Ryker

Commanded By Tal "Striker" Ferral

"There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans, that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids, or the lost civilization of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens" - Narrator, Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World

Chapter 2

The warheads that did manage to fire began to go off course and flew back towards the Raiders and advancing Vipers while a man in a large building screamed "It's Working! The Defenses Are Working!" and they did, for the warheads crashed into the Raiders, disintegrating them, and some of the Vipers which had gotten a little too close.

Up above in the heavens, the Battlestars were pumping their railguns at maximum power in order to attempt to stop the attacking Basestar, which would provide less than a match for the Battlestars. Nuclear Warhead after nuclear warhead came plummeting from the launchers towards the four Battlestars, but each warhead was being exploded long before it reached any of the Battlestars. Around the Battlestars, dog fights were being fought, with the Vipers tearing through the metal material of the Cylon Raiders, and the Cylon Raiders ripping through the Vipers' armor with smaller nuclear warheads than those fired by the Basestar.

"Come on! We have to hold them! Or else this planet is doomed!" Commanded Tal from the bridge of the Ryker, by his side was his Colonel, Terry "Heartbreak" Russell, a veteran from the beginning of the war.

"Are you alright, sir?" questioned the Colonel, having never seen the Commander like this before.

Realizing that people were staring at his small outburst, he blushed and muttered "Quite alright, thank you Colonel" and began staring at the combat screens.

Down on the planet, another set of events was happening. In the sky, a small dogfight between a viper and a Cylon raider was occurring, the Cylon being the one to fire its cannons. As the viper began to do its 3.5 second head-to-tail turn, the Cylon shot a hole through its wing, sending the Viper hurtling towards the ground with the Cylon raider flying off to join its group.

As the viper crashes towards the lake below, a crowd looks up in despair as one of their beloved Viper Pilots ejects and is hit by gunfire from several Cylon raiders., leaving a shredded corpse floating towards the lake and the crowd in a parachute.

A young man dashed out of the crowd towards the damaged viper as it crashed into the lake and began to swim towards the damaged viper. The young man began to check all its systems to see if they were normal. This man was obviously no curious bystander; he was an ex-viper pilot. He is Dominic "Ice" Hayward. Dominic, or Dom, began to climb into the cockpit as it began to sink. The computer chirped into life with "Systems Active. Systems Restored. Welcome Ensign Daniel "Blind-Eye" Wesley" and the engines fired.

Dominic leaned over to push a series of numbers on a panel on the HUD and blankly said "Change of Pilot. New Pilot; Dominic, D-O-M-I-N-I-C – Hayward, H-A-Y-W-A-R-D. Call sign; Ice, I-C-E."

It could be said that one would be able to hear a pin drop as the internal computer of the viper made the changes when it suddenly replied "Change of Pilot; Accepted"

As the Viper began to sink, some bystanders from the crowd who came to watch Dominic swim to the downed Viper threw some ropes to the man in the cockpit. Attaching the ropes to a large vehicle and the other end to the Viper, the vehicle roared into life and began to drag the slowly sinking Viper on shore. Making long scars into the water saturated mud, the Viper came ashore, looking worse than it was, and swiftly Dominic jumped out the cockpit to assess the damage.

Looking at the holes in the wing, and the water logged engines, he began a quick estimation of how long it would take him to fix up the Viper to flight status. Estimating at around 4 days, he got some civilians to help pull out the landing gear so the Viper Mk II could be moved much easier and then told the driver to take the Viper to the nearest garage.

Back up in the sky, Vipers were trying their best to stop the Cylons from laying Caprica to waste. This was the 6th time in 2 months they had tried to destroy the Colonies leading City, and the Colonial pilots would be damned before the Cylons succeeded.

"Got 'im!" Came the usual shout of a Viper pilot as he put a hail of fire into a raider, using the sleek maneuvers taught to them at the Colonial Viper Academy.

From the intercom came the familiar sound of Rek Avery's voice saying "Don't get to far from the rest of us, I'd hate to lose a pilot, no matter how bad you are."

Then came then warning from Avery's wing mate "Sir! Check 6!" when a Cylon Raider approached behind Damon Hunt and starting to send a hail of fire into the Viper.

Doing a quick 3.5 second nose-to-tail turn, Rek's Viper returned fire, receiving a hail of machine gun fire into the cockpit and engines, instantly tearing it apart in a heart-wrenching explosion.

"No Fracking Way!" Came the shouts of many pilots as they saw their CAG destroyed, and instantly turned onto the Raider that took out one of the best pilots the Academy had seen and fired upon it, turning it into shredded raider, although this would offer no consolation for the loss of the Rykers CAG.

The Battlestar Ryker was taking dangerous fire from the Raiders, while the Basestar tried to concentrate it's fire on the Atlanta, taking out one of it's 8 engines. Tal turned to the man standing a meter behind, when the man give an instant textbook salute, perfected to perfection.

Reading off a piece of printed paper, Commander Tal Ferral begins to read "Rhett 'Devilo' Gardner… Wanted for murder and theft of Colonial Military property…. Rhett… Rhett… I remember you… But I cannot place where…"

"Sir?" asked the man with a quizzical look on his face.

"You should be in the prison, awaiting your death sentence, but I'm not going to. I'm giving you the title of CAG and making you a Captain. I saw you fly that Viper in one of the hardest strafing maneuvers and it seems we have lost our CAG. We need you now, so get into your Viper, and make you family proud, make us proud" and with bone-cracking swiftness, salutes Rhett, putting the new Captain's previous salute to shame.

Rhett literally ran to his viper, mostly through relief, and partly because he just loved to fly. Just that now he had a reason to fly. Running round a corridor to the flight deck, he bumped into an old friend, someone who he hadn't seen for years, then swiftly received a punch in the jaw, knocking him down instantly.

"How dare you show you fracking face back here again! After all these years Rhett! What the frack did you think you were doing!" screamed the woman, "I thought you were gone! Dead! Now, I see your fracking face onboard this ship! Well, Frack you!" The last words were said as she stormed off down the corridor.

Getting up slowly, the captain began to wonder what the frack had just happened, wondering who that was, and how she knew him. Running off again, he managed to get the flight deck 5 minutes later before anyone else saw him and decided to give him a new look.

"Let's go! Move it! Move it!" screamed one of the loadies, trying to give it all that, but quickly told to shut his mouth, after one of the maintenance felt that he was putting too much pressure onto the pilots, and loadie also received a smack in the stomach from one of the pilots for his troubles, this, of course, causing a surge of laughter through the deck.

Climbing into his Viper, Rhett briefly looked at what he had scratched into the paintwork of one his missiles that was being loaded, "If you can read this, you're screwed, mate" and what he had also had scratched into the tail of his Viper as another joke, "if you can read this, get the hell of my ass!" and "About to do 180, you're screwed". Calling to one of the loadies, he called "Hey! You! Could I have some help here please! The cockpit shutters jammed!"

"Sir, right away sir!" The loadie called back, scurrying to gather some tools together, then running up to the Viper. Hastily pushing Rhett into the seat, the loadie then began oiling the screen, and slammed it down, then jumped down, as the all clear was given for the Viper to be towed to the shoots, and into the melee.

"3… 2… 1… 0… All systems are affirmative, fire thrusters Devilo, and… 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LAUNCH!" the flight master said, watching another pilot scream down the tube and into the fight.