Shawn L. Scialo's
Saga of the Star Worlds
Book One: The Gathering Storm
From the Adama Journals:
I don't know where to begin. I'm entering this log as a matter of protocol. I should get a good nights' sleep before submitting my historical footnote on the events of the past several days, dark days that saw the end of our once proud civilization. How? How could we have let it happen? Twelve thriving worlds full of human life are now in ruins, reduced to rubble by our inhuman enemies, the Cylons. The families, the art, the music, the history…it's all gone.
The thousand yahren war against the Cylon Empire has claimed billions of human lives. But, as I sit here now staring out at my rag-tag fleet, a convoy really, my mind keeps bringing me back to ten yahrens ago. It was ten yahrens ago that something changed. (Long Pause) What changed? Seemingly, everything changed after the attack on our Capital. Our military stance, our political stances, the very psyche of our society, everything was different after that day of infamy. Something was afoot then that began a chain of events that led us to this day. Armageddon, the end of all things, that's what the destruction of the Colonies may very well prove to be.
Illya, my beloved wife…I—I found her remains on Caprica after the first wave of attacks. Now I know how he felt, how Cain felt that day ten yahrens ago. It was at the funeral that I first felt the pang in my heart that dark days were ahead for all of mankind. A shroud of evil had descended on the human race that day, we all felt it.
We did nothing.
(click)
Saga of the Star Worlds: The Gathering Storm
Ten yahrens earlier
Caprica City, Caprica
Alert claxons rang out throughout the installation. Boomer jumped from his rack, bumping heads hard with Jolly, his new roommate. Both men stumbled backward, massaging their heads to ease the pain. They both were embarrassed and angry seeing as how the claxon was probably just another drill. After all, Cylons never made it this far into the Colonial defenses.
Jolly, a slightly overweight pale Caprican was fresh from the academy and he looked the part. His movements were unsure and there was definitely fear on his face. Sergeant Boomer, meanwhile, had seen quite a bit of action for someone only two yahrens removed from the academy himself.
"Don't sweat this---"
"J-Jolly. My name is Jolly", stammered the young warrior. "Actually, it—its' a nickname---"
"I got it, Cadet!" said Boomer as he headed out of their quarters. "Just try to relax, Jolly. It's probably just a drill or some poor sap that can't read a nav chart and wandered into restricted space."
As soon as the duo reached the base Command Center, Boomer realized he had made a very bad assumption. Officers raced from one station to another as their techs and communication details relayed incoming data at a furious pace. The scanners and other computer equipment chirped urgently as it worked to handle the overload of data and activity.
"Lords of Kobol", whispered Jolly. "What's going on, Sergeant?"
"Trouble", answered Boomer succinctly. "Let's get to our---"
"Battle Stations! Battle Stations! All warriors, man your battle stations! This is no damn drill!"
As Boomer led Jolly away, he could hear reports being shouted to and fro. He definitely made out the one that said they had multiple incoming bogies up and down the eastern seaboard of the Atlantis Ocean. Another officer shouted something about his screen being full. Regardless, it didn't sound good. Something or someone with bad intentions was getting too close to seven million Caprica City residents.
Saga of the Star Worlds: The Gathering Storm
The medium sized Civilian Transport Ship from Scorpio broke through Caprica's atmosphere violently. The vector angle the pilot had chosen was not a safe one. The skin of the craft would be severely tested. On either side of it, Colonial Vipers seemed to be escorting the passenger ship through the upper atmosphere. However, upon closer examination, the pilots of the 2 Vipers were not Colonial Warriors.
Not far behind the transport and its escorts were the real heroes of the Colonial Fleet. A dozen Vipers screamed through space at full turbo thrust, their blue-white vapor exhausts seemingly leaving a trail for the distant battlestar in their wake to follow.
"CAG, this is Cain", said the legendary Commander of the Pegasus. "Open fire immediately! We can't allow those bogies to get any closer to the Capital!"
Captain Artemus glanced down at his scanner readout. The Life form indicator read human. Instinctively, he looked out of his cockpit, towards Bale's ship. The two had been flying together for several yahrens now. They could practically read each other's minds.
"It's ok, Art. I've got your backside", offered Bale.
"Captain Artemus!" raged Cain. "I don't know how you do things on the Galactica, but I gave you a direct order! Destroy those ships!"
"Understood, sir", replied the usually unflappable Artemus. "Ok, Silver Spar Squadron, weapons free to lock and load. Fire on my mark."
"Actuating attack computer", said Bale. "We're all ready, Captain."
"3-2-1-Mark!"
Red laser beams erupted from the twelve Vipers of Silver Spar Squadron. Explosions rocked the Scorpion passenger ship, which had already begun evasive maneuvers along with its two viper escorts. The technique did not impede the three bogies from continuing on their general heading of Caprica City, however.
"I can't get a good lock, Captain", reported one Silver Spar pilot.
"Ditto, for me, Art", admitted Bale.
"Keep on them, Warriors!" ordered Artemus sternly. "We are closing the gap!"
Saga of the Star Worlds: The Gathering Storm
The voice of Artemus still rung in Bales' ear receptor when the two Viper Bogies suddenly turned to face their Colonial pursuers. Laser fire shot past Bales' fighter as he was barely able to react to the lightning quick maneuver by these flying devils. Unfortunately, three of Bales' fellow warriors were not so lucky. Three Pegasus fighters burst into flames. Boy, I wish I was back in my bunk on the Galactica, thought Bale.
"Holy Frak, they're fast!" exclaimed Bale.
"That's not all", Artemus says with a sigh. "My radiological alarm just went off. That transports got nukes!"
"And you said this mission, escorting a courier to Pegasus, was going to be boring."
On Pegasus, Cain was all over the bridge, consulting with and counseling every member of his command crew. With the planet Caprica filling the entire view screen behind him, Lieutenant Tolen approached his intimidating Commander.
"Sir, permission to speak freely?"
"Yes, Tolen. What is it?" asked an agitated Cain.
"Sir, we're approaching Caprica at a dangerous clip. Should we not adjust course and let---"
"Nonsense! Didn't you just hear Adama's CAG? Those frakkers have nuclear bombs! Back to your station, Tolen, and increase to flank sub-light!' ordered Cain.
"Sir?"
"Then, calculate a full stop just above Caprica City. I want to be able to touch the spires atop the tallest Pyramid"
"Sir, that's insane. A ship this size?" said a meek and ghostly looking Tolen.
"Tolen, you are relieved of your duty", said Cain coldly. "Cadet Sheba?"
"Yes, Commander?" said the young, athletically built daughter of Cain who had been merely a visiting observer at the beginning of this day.
"Please take Lieutenant Tolen's station and execute my last order!"
"Yes…Yes sir", said Sheba as she nervously crossed the bridge.
Sheba stared at the controls blankly. She was choking. She knew she couldn't, she was the daughter of the great Commander Cain. She couldn't freeze up, but with every set of eyes of the Pegasus bridge crew on her, she was. There was just too much at stake, too many lives. She began to tremble. Damn it! I'm the daughter of Cain, she thought. Sheba's mind raced back several yahrens to the day she had declared her desire to be a Colonial Warrior to her parents.
Saga of the Star Worlds: The Gathering Storm
You're too much like your mother, baby. Cain's words reverberated through her entire being. A hand touched her shoulder, waking her from her daydream, and then guided her out of her seat. Sheba looked up to see the suddenly aged and weathered face of her father.
"It's ok, baby", he said soothingly. "This is something that I should do myself."
Even the crew of the Pegasus, a crew accustomed to the fly by the seat of your pants Cain, audibly gasped at their Commander's order and action.
Meanwhile, the seasoned survivors of Silver Spar Squadron were fighting for their lives against the flying aces inside the enemy Vipers. As the fleeing Transport ship became a distant dot in their fighter cockpits, Artemus and Bale directed their ships to take the enemy head on. Four Vipers sped towards each other on a direct collision course, guns blazing the entire way. Each of the fighters had to duck; dodge and spin to avoid deadly energy blasts, but none of the combatants were deterred from their course. If the laser fire didn't find its marks soon, the four ships would ram each other.
"I've never seen anything like this", Captain Anders gulped from afar.
"Art?" the voice of Bale came over the com-link.
"Shut up, Bale! I'm a little busy now!" exclaimed Artemus.
"I just got a glimpse of my form scan magnifier. The pilots of these runaway Vipers, they're Nomen! Borrellian N----"
Static erupted into Artemus' ear. With his peripheral vision, he could see that Bale's viper blew apart in three sections as the body of his friend blew apart in the cold of space.
"Bale!" he cried.
As his heart pounded through his chest and the tears flowed from his eyes, Artemus pressed the fire button once more, this time finding his mark.
"Yeahhhhh! Burn in Hades, you piece of felgercarb!" shouted Artemus.
"Nice shot, Mister Galactica!" deadpanned Cain's top pilot.
"Anders! I'm leaving you in command. Take care of that other bogey. I'm going after that transport ship!" Artemus gasped.
Lieutenant Anders had been waiting for this very opportunity. She knew that Artemus had reservations about her ability to lead, said she was too methodical. Self-centered, that was the other thing, that she was too concerned with her own career aspirations to care about the warriors under her command. Apparently, when the felgercarb hit the fan, he was willing to accept that she was CAG as well. She silently cursed him. So what if she didn't have the stamp of approval of the all mighty Artemus. She was still the CAG of the great Commander Cain.
"Yes, sir. Form up on me Silver Spar", Anders answered, her mane of red hair barely contained from her helmet, just as her resentment of Artemus was hardly contained in her voice.
"Sorry about your friend", she added in a whisper too quietly for Artemus to hear.
Captain Artemus' Viper rocketed towards the Caprican surface. The bogie was fast approaching the teeth of the planet's defensive battery. If he was going to avenge his friend Bale, he had about ten microns to do it before Caprica City's laser turrets fried him along with these Nomen terrorists. He pressed the fire button hard and gritted his teeth as he watched the enemy evade his best efforts.
On Caprica, Boomer and Jolly were experiencing the same frustrations as Artemus. Both were strapped in tightly to their turret guns, their backs to the floor, they peered skyward from beneath the protective bubble of a thin force field. Row upon row of their comrades saw exactly what they saw. A transport ship heading directly towards them that was somehow evading thousands of deadly lasers intent on its destruction.
"What the frak is flying that thing?" pleads Jolly.
"A devil to be sure", Boomer shouts over the roar of laser fire.
Friendly fire was the last way any warrior wanted to die and exactly what Artemus faced now. His viper had been stung by a grazing shot from Caprica's defense battery.
"Mother Fracker!" he raged as he punched out of his cockpit.
Moments later, he watched his ship explode as he pulled the rip-chord on his parachute. Then, just microns after his feet touched Caprican concrete. He found himself herding disbelieving Capricans to their bomb shelters. The streets of Caprica city were filled with throngs of people seemingly bent on defying the alert claxon blaring from every city speaker and billboard. These people acted as if hearing an alert claxon ring out and seeing a Warrior drift down into a busy intersection by parachute were normal occurrences.
"Move! Get to a fall-out shelter!" he pleads.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Artemus's feet shakes violently, knocking him to the ground. As he looks around, hundreds of terrified Capricans try to regain their balance. That couldn't have been the Nuke, he thinks.
The shadow blankets the entire area of Union Square in downtown Caprica City. Artemus glances up to see a breathtaking sight, the underbelly of a giant ship, a battlestar not 200 meters above the surface.
Jolly and Boomer sit in awe as they simultaneously take their thumbs off of the firing trigger. They stare in amazement, knowing they are seeing the impossible. All they can make out from the giant nameplate that fills their sky is P-E-G.
"You don't see that everyday", whispers Boomer to himself below the deafening roar of the battlestars' station keeping thrusters.
Cain now oozes a cocky confidence on his bridge. "Fire missiles!" he orders.
Instantly, four glowing red spheres shriek towards the Scorpian Transport. A milli-micron before its imminent destruction, the terrorist pilot releases his deadly cargo.
A Nuclear bomb falls clear of the Transports destruction and activates its timer.
5…4…3…2…1.
KRAkA-BOOM!
To be continued…