Thirteen

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Laying The Foundation

Galen knew that Herazade and the rest of the Circle that led the technomage order would be highly upset that he, Alwyn, and Andromeda had allowed Hollifield and his allies to construct ships using the same materials that the mages used to build the ships that would land the troops on the Colonial homeworlds. He didn't really care, though, as he never had any intention of seeing her or any of those in the hideout ever again.

Galen's ship was inside the transport shuttle, heading towards the plateau that would give them an excellent view of the main settlement on Picon, where the Colonial defense headquarters was once located, but now housed the force of mechanical Cylons on this world. Foolishly, the Cylons had nothing on this high plateau, which gave them the perfect position to launch an offensive against the enemy.

Their forces could not take down the Centurions one-on-one, but they had no intention of letting it get to that. Hollifield had gotten a commitment from the Earthforce Marine Corps for as many troops as he needed, and Galen had a significant force of jarheads ready to go when Admiral Adama launched his attack. However, Galen had some other ideas to beat the enemy before the head of the Colonial fleet jumped into the system.

"You sure you want to do this?" Dureena asked.

Galen nodded and said, "I know that using the spell of destruction carries a lot of risk. I haven't used it since we were on the Excalibur, but I think I could handle it now."

"But what if you aren't able to? You could destroy the entire settlement if you're not careful!" Dureena replied.

"Trust me, Dureena! I'll be careful!" Galen said calmly. Dureena still looked haunted, and he didn't blame her, because he had a hard time trusting himself.

Over the years, Galen and Alwyn had thoroughly doused all twelve planets in the system with microscopic probes, and those probes had found their way into the headquarters of the Cylons on Picon. All he would have to do is pick the right targets and cast the spell, but not get so caught up in casting them one by one. If he did, he didn't know if he would be able to stop.

While all this was going on, the special ops forces were creeping their way close to the settlement. They had managed to avoid Centurion patrols easily, because they were hardly more than cursory. Had the probes not been showing him otherwise, Galen would think that they were setting them up for a trap. But the Centurions were almost exclusively corralled behind the settlement walls, and there weren't nearly as many of them as he had expected. He wondered if the Cylons were just arrogant or incompetent, or if they were planning something else somewhere.

Night fell on Picon, and Galen and the others knew that they would be moving within twenty-four hours. Adama had sent them a coded transmission informing them that they were ready to jump when Galen gave the signal. The marines set up the PPG artillery cannons on the plateau, which would rain down destruction onto the base. The special ops forces converging on the settlement from several different directions were armed with PPG rifles and bazookas, as well as all sorts of other armaments to cause havoc to the enemy.

Galen ate dinner with Dureena, Matthew and Elizabeth Gideon beside the campfire. They were all quiet, because they knew that at daybreak they would be starting the offensive. Matthew breached the silence by asking Galen, "You don't have to use the spell if you don't want to, you know?"

Galen sighed and said, "I know, but we need it if we're to accomplish what we want to do! If I didn't think I could control it, I wouldn't have even brought it up!"

"You were able to control it when we made that final offensive against the Drakh, but that was almost twenty years ago now!" Elizabeth added.

Galen was getting a little upset about all of this, but he managed to calm himself before he spoke. "I understand your concerns, believe me, I do! But please, trust me on this! If you've ever trusted me before, trust me now!"

All three of them looked at each other before Matthew said, "Okay. We trust you to do this, Galen. Just know when to stop if you find yourself about to lose control, okay?"

"I will, Matthew!" Galen replied.

As dawn began to break, Galen stood at the edge of the plateau and activated the sequence of probes he had devised for what he had planned. The first was right in the heart of the base, where the IL-series Cylons were housed. He had found out that they were the ones who led the Centurions, and he had decided to take off the head before going after the body.

As luck would have it, several of the IL-series machines were meeting at that moment, discussing the deposition of forces on the planet. They were worried about an invasion, not knowing that one was already underway. As they were about to adjourn, Galen cast the spell in his head and a ball of energy grasped five of the IL machines inside of it and slowly began to crush them as it contacted.

The machines were at a loss as to what was going on, which made Galen's job easier. He counted to ten, focusing on calming his mind before launching another spell and taking out even more of the IL-series machines. By the time Centurions had come into the room, all the IL Cylons were being crushed inside the rapidly condensing balls of energy. When the first one imploded, it knocked the Centurions over, and as the others began to do likewise, the Centurions were unsure as to what was going on.

"Now!" Galen called out, and Matthew ordered the PPG artillery to open up on the base. Massive plasma burst flew from the cannons and hammered into the settlement, creating havoc inside the base. Wherever a group of Centurions gathered, he crushed them inside his spheres of destruction, always making sure to count to ten to calm his mind before launching another one.

Suddenly, he saw in his mind's eye that the basestars above the planet were launching raiders, and they were heading towards the planet. "We've got incoming, Matthew. Handle the ground attack. I'll deal with the raiders."

"Right, Galen!" Matthew said, then he turned to the artillery personnel and ordered them to concentrate their fire on breaching the defenses to allow the special ops forces to enter the city.

While he was doing that, Galen began to scope out the oncoming raiders as they headed towards the planet. Whether it was arrogance or foolishness, they were clustered together in such a way that Galen could gather two or three at a time, and he did so, crushing the autonomous machines inside his spheres and watching as other raiders flew into them without knowing any better. Galen knew he had to shorten his count if he were to get them all, so he counted to five to refocus his mind and calm himself.

Much to his surprise, he never lost control, nor did he even come close. The Cylons had launched over a hundred fighters towards the settlement, but none came anywhere near them. The basestars were out of range, but the missiles they launched were not, and Galen picked them off one by one while hardly breaking a sweat.

The special ops forces entered the breach and had a relative easy time of it. The Centurions were bumbling around, unsure of what to do. Before they could even engage the forces, they were taken out before they even had the chance to fire. When the sun began to sit in the west, the Centurions were wiped out and the special ops forces had taken the settlement.

Late the next day, Galen and the others entered the city. He could tell where he had used the spell, as perfectly scooped out sections of the ground were seen every so often as they headed towards the main headquarters. The Centurions that didn't get ensnared in the spheres were scrap metal now, and the Special Forces went about gathering them for intelligence gathering purposes.

Durenna was using a scanner to detect any human life signs, trying to find any evidence of Cylons farms. Galen hadn't seen any in his probes, but he knew that his probes might not have been able to penetrate into every room of the settlement. "I've got something!" she said, pointing northwestward. "Isn't there a warehouse of some sort in that direction?"

Inside Galen's mind, he checked a map that had been made of the settlement, and he realized that was where Dureena was picking up the life signs. "You're right, Dureena! Come on, we've got to check it out!"

They slowly entered the building, not taking for granted that there might be Centurions waiting for them inside. None were around, though. What they did find shook them to their boots. "My god! Look at this place!" Elizabeth Gideon said as she spotted the harvesting machines with survivors of the holocaust strapped into the benches.

Dureena gulped and Galen could tell she was trying her best to keep her emotions in check. "They're alive, but barely. The females have had their ovaries tapped by the machines, and the males have had their testicles hooked up for the mining of sperm."

"Can we remove them without killing them?" Matthew asked Galen.

"I'm not sure, but we should try. Wait until we get some medical personnel down here, though. I'll see what I can do with the machines to stop the harvesting process without killing these people." Galen replied, then went to work trying to stop the machines.

They were able to move the transport to the spaceport near the settlement, where the medics took a look at the situation and determined that the survivors might be able to be saved. "They're horribly malnourished and in very bad shape. Reminds me of the time in class I saw survivors of the Holocaust during World War II. Good thing Adolf Hitler never knew about these Cylons!" Dr. Horst Abelman said as he finished with his examinations. "We shouldn't move them right now. I'll set up some IV lines into them to replenish them and build their strength."

"Good, doc. Thanks." Matthew Gideon said, then turned to Galen and said, "What next?"

"What next? We get these bastards, that's what's next!" Elizabeth said, her face furious at what she had seen.

Galen looked at his love and saw the same look in her eyes. "Yes. We'll get these bastards! Evil like this can't be allowed to survive anymore!" They walked out of the facility and headed towards the defense headquarters to see what else they could find.