Thirteen
Chapter Five:
Before You Go Home…
He was called the "Imperious Leader", mainly because he found it funny. He had been the one to encounter the mechanized Cylons a decade and a half ago, as the machines began to explore the galaxy after the end of their war with the Colonials. They had been impressed with his power, and they asked him to help them get their revenge on the humans. Since he was not exactly fond of them himself, he agreed.
He had used the technology he had found on the world where he resided to assist the Cylons in creating humanform clones, and he had also chosen the subjects to base those clones on. It hadn't taken him long to perfect the techniques, and soon he had been able to merge Cylon technology with organic technology to create a weapon to infiltrate the Colonies and to bring about their downfall.
He also had plans of his own, for a certain third rock from the sun. Thinking back to what they had did to his kind on Earth made him angry, especially in light of recent events over the years. The Cylons knew this and had agreed that if he helped them exact their revenge on the Colonial worlds, they would help him take out his on the Earthers.
Aaron Doral came into his office, bowed, and announced, "The fleet is ready to jump to the coordinates where the Galactica and the rest of the fleet is located. We've learned that Pegasus is there as well. Your orders?"
Imperious Leader scratched his chin, rubbing his leather like skin that came with his advanced age, which he wasn't exactly sure of anymore these days, as he had lost track of time. "Prepare to jump. Let the civilian fleet escape. We'll track them down soon enough after we've dealt with the battlestars. Besides, we need them in order to do what is necessary for the will of God to be enacted. Inform the others, then prepare to jump."
Aaron Doral genuflected again before his master and exited the room, and the Imperious Leader watched him go with satisfaction. The twelve models he had created had so impressed the Cylons that he had essentially become their de facto leader. He took out the book that had gone a long way to helping his ascension to power and thumbed through it, looking randomly through passages. He was about to read more in depth when Six came into the room.
She bowed before him, saying, "Imperious Leader, we are ready to launch our attack on the Colonials, per your orders."
He nodded and placed the book down on his desk and walked out with her. He looked at Six and remembered the woman that he had based her on, and wondered what she was doing back on Earth even now. It was her copy of the Holy Bible that he had obtained and was now sitting on his desk as he made his way to the bridge.
"Action stations! Set Condition One throughout the ship! Launch alert Vipers!" called out Admiral Adama as the DRADIS detected the two battlestars jumping into their sector of space. Surprisingly, they didn't even bother with the Earth Alliance ships for some reason, going after the two battlestars instead.
Commander Saul Tigh ran his hand over his bald head, musing, "Why would they ignore Hollifield's fleet?"
Before Adama could answer, Dualla cut in by announcing, "Sir, we're picking up a signal from the Independence! It's in the clear, directed towards the Cylon ships!"
"Patch it through!" Adama commanded, and the voice of the Earth Alliance president boomed over the loudspeakers:
This is Garrison Hollifield, President of the Earth Alliance, to Cylon vessels. You have illegally entered Earth Alliance territory. Leave at once or we shall used deadly force on your vessels.
Adama turned to his tactical officer, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta, and asked, "What's the status of the Battlestars?"
Gaeta squinted his eyes as he studied the DRADIS, then answered Adama, "One of them is turning to engage the Alliance forces. She's launching raiders!"
Adama nodded and looked towards Tigh, commenting, "Let's hope Sheridan's plan works."
"General quarters! All hands man your stations!" came the announcement over the loudspeakers, and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace took a instinctive step towards the hanger bay when she realized she was no longer on Galactica. General Susan Ivanova, who was with her at the time, noticed and commented, "Wanting to jump into a Viper, huh?"
Starbuck nodded, and Ivanova added, "I feel the same way. Well, except I'd be jumping into a Starfury instead. C'mon, let's get to the bridge!"
When they arrived on the bridge of the Excalibur, Ivanova had to remember that Matthew Gideon was no longer in command of this vessel. It had been a long time since she'd been aboard, so seeing the dark skin and bald head of Captain Malcolm King instead of the lighter skin and full head of hair that the man who had done so much to help cure Earth of the Drakh plaguehad caught her up short for a second, but only for a second.
"Status report!" she said, and King returned to give his commanding officer the latest: "We've detected one of the basestars changing course and heading on an attack vector towards us. Independence, Paladin, and Titans have launched fighters, and Whitestars have assumed attack formation, awaiting orders."
Ivanova gave a sharp nod, ordering the ship and its fighters to engage and attack.
On board the massive mothership of this part of the Cylon fleet, a copy of Sharon Valerii and a copy of the reporter, D'anna Biers, were observing status reports coming in from the battlestars as well as the fighters. Aaron Doral came into the bridge, asking, "What are those ships?"
"Unknown, but they said that they came from something called the Earth Alliance. Isn't there an Earth somewhere in those Colonials' Sacred Scrolls?" Biers replied.
Valerri answered, "It's a mythical world, or so we thought. Looks like myth may not be myth after all."
"Earth is no myth. It's real.", said a voice from the hallway, and the three turned to see Six and the Imperious Leader come onto the bridge. The mechanized Cylons turned, bowed to their Leader, and went back to work. "I know, because I was born there, long ago. They are like the Colonials: sinful, arrogant, murderous. We cleansed the twelve Colonial worlds of the wicked in order for the Second Coming to take place, and we must do the same for Earth."
The four humanoid Cylons bowed in respect to the words of the Imperious Leader and went back to their work. The Leader went to turn back to return to his office with Six in tow, but stopped momentarily and looked off into space.
"Sir?" Six asked, curious as to why the Imperious Leader had stopped.
He chuckled and said, "He's here! Fitting, I suppose, since he's a chip off the old block, after all. Well, a couple generations removed, but a chip nonetheless!"
Six looked on, saying, "Sir, I don't understand!"
The Imperious Leader put his arm around Six and led her back to his office, replying, "Let's just say that the universe is full of irony. Never forget that!"
Garrison Hollifield felt something in his backbrain, something as familiar as the thoughts coming from his parents back when he was a kid. For a moment, it felt like those from his mother, and he frowned at the memory. Cassandra Hollifield may have been his birth mother, but, as far as he was concerned, he had nothing left in common with her. She was gone now, lost in the Telepath War, and he wasn't sad to see her go. What she had done to him when he was a teen was unforgivable, and he had no intention of forgiving anytime soon.
He snapped back to reality as Captain Siobhan Brennan ordered the Independence to follow Excalibur and prepare to attack the Cylon basestar approaching them. Starfury Thunderbolts were dropped out of the ship, and they blazed away towards the oncoming Cylon raiders. Whitestars joined them and they threw themselves at the enemy fighters, taking them out with surprising ease. However, the sheer numbers of raiders made their job all the more difficult, and Independence lost three fighters as they began to make their way through the swarm.
The computers blinked for a split second, then came back online. "Status!" called out Brennan in the direction of one of the computer techs, a Indian female with dark skin and even darker hair named Sarishkara. In her clear Mumbai-accented English, she reported, "Cylons attempting to upload some sort of virus to our computers. Internal firewalls working on fighters as well as on main ships. No effect."
Brennan turned to the president and remarked, "Looks like the Colonials were right! Bad thing for them that the Dilgar made us wise to that tactic!" She turned to her fire control officer, a Finn named Kiimo, and ordered him to get a firing solution on the basestar.
Vipers from the Pegasus and the Galactica were ripping into the raiders like a chainsaw through a badsheet. Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama and his counterpart heading up the Pegasus' Mark VII Vipers, Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor, were doing their part to lead the raiders away from the other basestar, hoping to get it out in the open for another part of Sheridan's plan to take place. He didn't know if it would work, but if it could buy them time for the civilian ships to jump away, then it was all for the good. And if it took out the two basestars, so much the better.
Admiral Adama and Commander Tigh looked at the DRADIS, keeping their eye on the basestar and willing it to come to a certain point, which is was very close to doing. "Dee, prepare to send the signal in the clear on my mark!" Adama commanded, and Dee Dualla readied herself to send the code signal. Adama returned his eyes to the DRADIS and focused upon it, steadying himself to give the order at the precise time that was required.
When the basestar moved to the target point, Adama spun around on his heel and yelled, "Dee, now!", and Dualla opened a signal and said, "Galactica to allies: two minute warning! Repeat: two minute warning!" Adama had no idea of what "two minute warning" was to the Earthers, but he knew it wouldn't take two minutes for what the Interstellar ships were about to do.
The Cylon basestar had just launched missiles at the Pegasus when its outer spokes were blown off by the formation of jump points at the basestar's edges. The massive ship visibly shook as the edges of the various vortexes sliced away at the basestar. Meanwhile, the other basestar was getting a similar treatment as well. But the one immediately concerning Adama was being attacked by Minbari and Centauri vessels, who wasted no time in using their beam weapons and slicing into the outer hull of the massive Cylon vessel.
Doral, Biers, Six, and Valerii looked concerned as the basestars suffered terminal damage from the unknown ships, but the Imperious Leader looked on at the defeat with just a wan smile. He saw on the monitor that some of those Whitestars, which seemed to attack in swarms, were headed in the direction of his mothership. "We've done all we could here. Time for us to go! Prepare to jump to new coordinates!"
"By your command!" said the copy of Six, and she pressed a few buttons on the control panel and the ship jumped away from the oncoming ships. The Imperious Leader ran his aged hand through his steel gray hair, which still was full despite all the years, and silently laughed to himself.
The others looked at him curiously, and Doral asked him, "Sir? Why are you laughing?"
"Ah, Mr. Doral! I must admit that I underestimated my brethren from my old homeworld! However, I do think I know something of their tactics, or, more to the point, who is behind those tactics. But that's for another time! For now, we must patch up our basestars and prepare for our next move."
The basestars moved to dock with the mothership, and swarms of repair robots began to repair the damage wrought upon them. From his office, The Imperious Leader looked at them through the monitor and remarked to himself, "So he's not dead yet? Soon, though. He's not got much longer!"
Adama recalled the fighters and both battlestars jumped to where the civilian fleet were now located at. Earthforce and ISA ships were surrounding them to protect it, as well as help lead them to their destination: Babylon 5. Whenever Adama thought of the place, it seemed as if the tension in his body that had started since the attack on the Colonial worlds relaxed a bit, and the fears that all his efforts were in vain ebbed away. From the look in his friend and executive officer's eyes, he could see that Tigh thought that as well.
"Who'd have thought we'd ever get shore leave again? I'll be glad to get to that Earth station and relax a bit, that's for sure!" Tight said.
"You've earned it! We've all earned it! I just thank the Gods they came as soon as they did!"
"Maybe I didn't earn it, after what happened. But I'll take it."
"Trust me, Saul, you earned it. So you goofed? It's not like I hadn't made some major blunders in my time!"
Tigh nodded, adding, "Maybe you're right, but it still doesn't make me feel any better, you know?"
Adama replied, "No, but it's supposed to make you feel that you're not alone in being occasionally stupid."
Hollifield sat in his office aboard the the Excalbur and pondered what he felt in his mind during the attack. He had a feeling of familiarity with someone on board one of those Cylon ships, and it troubled him greatly. It couldn't be who I think it is, could it? he thought to himself. If it is, then why would he side with them? What's in it for him?
He walked around, not believing what he was thinking. For now, there wasn't much he could do. Besides, he had to get back to Earthdome and go back to being president. Somedays, he had wished that Suzanna Luchenko hadn't died during the Drakh plague, because it was so much easier to do what he needed to do when he was just vice-president.