Battlestar Galactica
Nightmare?
Chapter Four
Soaring through the darkness of space, the squadrons of the Battlestar Galactica continued forward toward what was sure to be a fierce and brutal battle with an enemy they knew would give no quarter, nor show any mercy. This would be a struggle not just of life and death, but for the right of an entire race, the human race, to exist.
Captain Apollo, the strike leader for the Galactica was in his customary lead position. Like every other warrior, he felt the total helplessness and frustration of the situation. He knew that his meager forces, just over a hundred vipers, were going to be outnumbered again. They had been so since long before the destruction of their home worlds three yahren ago. But this time it seemed there was no way around an all out, winner take all battle. The telemetry being sent to his viper from the scanners of the Galactica told a very grim tale. What looked to be nearly a thousand Cylon fighters were closing on their position, backed up it would seem by at least three baseships. This was almost a repeat of what they faced at Gammory some two yahren before. Only this time it was highly unlikely that the Pegasus would show up and save the day.
This time, they were on their own!
As if that was not enough, three of his pilots were about to be swallowed up be the incoming Cylon attack force. Two of those pilots, Lieutenant Jolly and Flight Sergeant Greenbean were good friends. Not that he was not as concerned about the third pilot, Ensign Konst, but he had flown with Jolly and Greenbean for a number of yahren as members of Blue Squadron where as Konst was one of the few survivors from the Battlestar Acropolis, when she was destroyed along with the rest of the fleet at Cimtar. Apollo believed he would never see his friends again. In truth, only a miracle could save them.
All of them!
Apollo watched his scanner intently as the Cylon forces closed on the three Colonial Vipers. The distance between them was diminishing by the micron.
"They're not going to make it, are they Apollo?" his wingman and best friend, Lieutenant Starbuck asked rather sadly.
Apollo glanced over at his friend's viper, just off his right wing, and said, "I wish I could say they would, but I don't see how they can." He said.
Switching from his ship to ship frequency to the viper attack frequency, Apollo spoke to his disheartened troops. "Flight leader to all squadrons, I know how you all feel. I wish there was something we could do for our fellow warriors, but we can't. All we can do is make sure that their sacrifice was not in vain. We can't save them, but we do have a lot of people depending on us to protect them. So lets hit them fast and hit them hard! Watch your tails and those of your wingmates. Watch your fuel so you don't run out. Lets make this battle one for the history books! Five centons to intercept."
It was at that moment that Apollo saw one of the vipers on his scanner pull a full speed turn and head directly back into the Cylon formation.
"Apollo, did you see that? What in Sagen's name is he doing?" Starbuck exclaimed in total disbelief.
"I don't have a clue Starbuck. It has to be Konst, the other two vipers are moving too slow." Apollo answered.
"Konst must have decided it would be better go down fighting then to take one in the exhaust," Boomer said. "Gutsy move!"
"Hey guy's, listen to channel four! It's Konst!" the excited voice of Lieutenant Sheba chimed in. All the other pilots switched over to channel four, which was the frequency that all patrols used. Now all the pilots of the Galactica were listening to Ensign Konst as he attacked the Cylon fleet alone. What they heard filled their hearts, each and every one of them, with a kind of pride and courage that none of them had ever felt before.
"Come on you good for nothing, god forsaken, soulless, rusted out, refuse yard rejects! Let's see how many of you I can take out before you get me." They heard Konst yelling at the Cylons. They continued to listen as Konst went on with his assault, both physical and verbal, on the Cylons. "I'll make you pay for what you did to us. Yea! Take that you stinking rust buckets. That's it, come and get me if you can. That's it. Keep coming, I got plenty more where that came from! There's enough for every last one of you. Yea! That was for the Acropolis! And that's for the Solaira! This ones for the Atlantia! Here some for the colonies! Oh Yea! Bring it on, I'm ready for you! YYYYEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!"
Then there was a brief silence, broken only by the sound of heavy breathing. Then, in a voice that was little more then a whisper he said, "I'm still alive!"
With that, every viper pilot let out a huge cheer and doubled their resolve to beat back this attack....... No matter what the cost!
Apollo had been watching his scanner the whole time as he listened to Ensign Konst's amazing flight. What seemed at first to be a suicidal attack, had in fact caused a great deal of damage and confusion amongst the orderly formation of Cylon fighters, at least in the center of the formation. Konst had destroyed at least two score of Cylon fighters himself while another four or five score were disabled or destroyed by their own ships as they tried to get at him. With so much confusion at the center of the Cylon formation, Apollo believed his small force could split the huge Cylon fleet in half, making it easier to defeat them.
"Flight leader to all squadrons, form up in wedge formation. Blue Squadron will take the point, Red Squadron, take position on my right, Silver Spar, you're on the left. We'll go right down the middle of their formation, right where Konst went through. If he could cause that much havoc with just one viper, imagine what a hundred of them could do!"
Just then, two very badly damaged vipers came into view directly ahead of the Colonial strike force. Both ships had extensive external damage and were flying at extremely slow speed.
"Its Jolly and Greenbean!" Giles called out.
"Lords of Kobal, how is Greenbean's viper still in one piece? The number one engine is totally gone!" Starbuck said in amazement.
As the two damaged vipers got closer, it became evident that their friends were badly injured. Apollo hit his turbos and jumped ahead to rendezvous with the two wounded pilots. When he pulled his viper in between the two of them, for a moment, he was unsure that either man was still alive. Jolly's head was tilted back against the head rest of his seat; his face and the front of his uniform were covered in blood. Apollo tried to get his attention by firing his lasers. This brought Jolly back to awareness and even made the corpulent warrior smile weakly. Then Apollo looked over at Greenbean. He seemed to be slumped over to his left and leaning forward. At the sound of Apollo's lasers, his head came up and the pain on his face made it obvious that he too was in bad shape. Apollo gave them both a thumbs up signal and signaled them to keep going. Each of them acknowledged him and kept going.
Apollo got on the comm system and called Ensign Colla. "Colla, I need you to escort Jolly and Greenbean back to the Galactica. Advise them that both men have badly damaged ships, no communications, and are severely injured. Tell them you don't know if they will be able to land without assistance. You got all that Ensign?"
"Yes sir! I got it." Replied the young pilot. "I'll get them back safe sir."
"I'm sure you will" Apollo said. "When you're finished with that, report to Colonel Tigh for assignment."
"Yes sir." Colla said. "Good hunting sir!"
With that the young pilot broke formation and turned back to join up with the two damaged vipers.
Apollo watched Colla's viper turn back and wondered if Jolly and Greenbean would make it back in one piece. Then the voice of Starbuck brought him back to the task at hand.
"Hey Apollo, I hate to bother you right now, but we've got company!"
Starbuck had a gift for understating the obvious, Apollo thought to himself, as the Cylon attack force came into view.
"Alright, all squadrons move into wedge formation. Let's plow right through them!" Apollo told his people. "When we come out the other side of the formation, break off into two's and go hunting. Whatever you do, do not engage those baseships until we cut down some of these fighters, otherwise the Galactica won't stand a chance. Any questions?"
No one made a sound.
"Alright then, here we go!"
And as if of a single mind, every one of the Colonial ships went to full turbo. The large formation of ships, now forming a huge wedge, accelerated toward the center of the Cylon fleet. The Cylons opened fire first, scoring only a couple of hits and only one viper destroyed. A few microns later, the Colonial forces opened fire as one. The massed fire of the humans was devastating as the wedge struck the Cylon center. With so many Cylon ships to shoot at, it was hard to miss. But this was both an advantage and a detriment. The vipers were clearing a wide path through the Cylon formation, but like trying to dig a hole in water. You can shovel the water away, but it will always flow back. This is what was happening with the Cylons. As the human formation made its way deeper into the Cylon formation, those Raiders from the flanking formations were filling in behind the humans and reaping havoc on the trailing vipers.
Apollo and the rest of Blue Squadron were slicing a huge path through the Cylon fleet. Hundreds of Raiders were being destroyed as the massed fire worked to perfection. But then came the calls from the ships near the rear of the formation, calls for help and the screams of pilots being blown to bits by pursuing Cylons.
"Apollo, we're losing a lot of people at the rear of the formation." called Lieutenant Bojay, commander of Silver Spar Squadron. "I've lost eight people already. We need to break off now!"
Apollo was about to answer him when he saw the flash of a viper heading the opposite direction, lasers blazing. Just as fast as he saw it, the viper was gone. Then there was no more Cylons to shoot at. He had broken through the rear of the Cylon attack formation and was now in the clear. He immediately got on the comm system.
"We've made it through, now all squadrons break off and attack at will." Apollo ordered.
With that, pairs of vipers broke off in all directions and turned back toward the pursuing Cylons. Hundreds of Cylon fighters had been crippled or destroyed in the Colonial attack, but the losses to the humans was very high as well. Twenty seven out of the one hundred fifteen Colonial Vipers had been destroyed in the first engagement.
It was to get much worse in a hurry!
As the Colonial Vipers began splitting of into their battle pairings, they were immediately assaulted by scores of Cylon fighters that had been in pursuit and now had the advantage of position, being behind their human foe. Vipers were being attacked by groups of Cylon fighters before they could bring their own lasers to bear. The battle frequency was overwhelmed with the cries for help as one after another, vipers came under attack.
"I've got six of them on my tail! I need some help here! Is anyone clear to assist?" Brie yelled into the comm system.
"Hang on Brie, I'm on my way." Said Giles as he swung around to help his fellow warrior, not realizing that he had three Cylons on his tail getting ready to attack. Giles was almost in position to fire when the three Cylons opened up on him. He was able to avoid their first volley of laser fire, but he had no place to go to get away from the next round. His viper became a massive fireball at almost the same instant as Lieutenant Brie's.
Lieutenant Deitra had heard her friends call for help; she was in a bit of trouble herself. She had six Cylons of her own to deal with. Deitra was turning and twisting her viper in ways that would have made their designers cringe. She had no choice but to push her viper to the limit, to do less would mean instant death. She was doing everything she could to find a way to escape her pursuers but was unable to shake them. She began a series of hard banking turns, hoping she could turn inside the pack of Cylons behind her. Unfortunately, the Cylons were spaced out behind her so even though she was able to get in side the nearest pursuer, those that were holding back were able to turn with her and take her head on. Seeing this, Deitra came out of her turn firing. She was able to hit two of her antagonists as she flew through them, but the third one was able to avoid her attack.
"FRAK!" she yelled as the third ship flew by only a few metrons away from her.
She went into another series of turns, trying to get position on the other three ships that were after her. She came out of her turns going head to head with the second group of three Raiders and immediately opened fire. She was rewarded with a quick kill on the lead ship with the first volley and a glancing hit on another ship, causing it to veer off to the left, out of control and on fire. Deitra had no time to celebrate though because as she came out of that engagement, she found herself nose to nose with yet another Cylon. There was no time for her to think, she simply reacted on instinct and threw her viper into a hard right turn and began to roll away from the Cylon fighter.
This unfortunately was not enough.
The Cylon opened fire before Deitra was able to react and scored a glancing hit on her left side stabilator. This caused her to momentarily lose control and stall her engines. She was still rolling out of control as she fought to restart the engines of her viper. Warning lights lit up all over her panel as she set her switches to their start up positions and hit the igniter switch. She was rewarded with the sweet sound of all three engines roaring back to life. Deitra was able to bring her viper under control, with a bit of effort. Now that she had control back, she had to locate those Cylon fighters. She began to visually scan the area, but it was already too late.
The two remaining Cylon fighters had already completed their turns and had closed in on the wildly spinning Colonial Viper. As the human pilot regained control of the craft, the nearest Cylon ship opened fire. The explosion lasted only a moment and then was gone, taking with it the promising career of the young warrior inside it.
Ensign Cree and Flight Sergeant Barton were in the midst of a large group of Cylons, when they seen Deitra's viper blow up. There had been nothing they could do seeing as they were trying their best not to join her. Barton was on the tail of a group of three Cylons with Cree just a bit behind and to his right. Four more Cylons were maneuvering into a position behind the two Colonials.
"Come on Barton, take the shot. We have company on our rear ends." Cree said to his wingmate.
"I'm almost there! Give me just one more centon and I'll have them." Barton replied.
"We don't have a centon! Take the shot so we can get out of here." Cree said nervously as he watched the Cylon fighters circling in behind them.
"Say good bye tin cans!" Barton said as he hit the fire button on his joystick. Several lances of laser energy shot forward from his ship. His aim was true, despite the distance, as two of the three Cylons turned into fireballs far ahead of him. He watched for a moment as the third Cylon veered off to the right. Barton had a thought to go after the third ship, but Cree's yell on the comm system brought his attention to other matters.
"Barton, break left! Break left! We got six of them on our tails. We have to move now!" Cree yelled at his partner.
With out delay, Barton acknowledged his wingmate and threw his ship into a sharp left turn. Cree stayed right with him as laser blasts began to explode all around them. With turbos going full ahead, the two vipers opened up the distance between themselves and their pursuers. Once they were out of range, the two warriors did a one-eighty and charged back into the fray, head on with the six Cylons that had continued to chase them. The Cylon fighters began firing first; using their superior range to try and score a lucky hit on the fast approaching vipers. The two human pilots were more then up for the challenge as they easily dodged the long range shots. Once they were in range, Barton and Cree began to return fire. As was usually the case, the Colonial warriors proved to be the better shots, as they each scored a kill with their first volleys. The four remaining Cylons continued their massed fire on the fast approaching humans. Barton was lining up another round when his viper suddenly began to shake violently. He'd been hit! He pulled the joystick hard to the left and hit his turbos. The warning lights for his number two engine were flashing, indicating he had lost that engine. He looked back over his shoulder and sure enough, half of the engine had been blown away. He hit the button to his comm link to let Cree know he was hit.
"Hey Cree, I'm hit! They took out my number two engine."
Cree looked over at his partner's ship and could see sparks trailing from the other side of his ship.
"Yea, I can see sparks flying. We need to get you back to the Galactica. Think you can make back?" Cree asked.
"Yea, I think so, as long as those damn tin cans don't hit me again." Barton said. "Let's get out of here."
"Right beside you." Cree replied.
With that, the two vipers turned away from the battle and made a run for the Galactica. A group of four Cylon fighters broke away from the fray and began to pursue the two vipers. With a damaged engine slowing Barton down, it didn't take long for the Cylons to catch up and renew the attack. Barton and Cree began evasive maneuvers, twisting and turning to avoid the heavy laser fire. Things were not looking good as laser blasts exploded all around them. Barton looked over his shoulder, seeing the Cylon fighters closing in on them.
"Cree, I can't out run them. They're coming in too fast. Get out of here before it's too late."
"No way pal, we stick together." Cree said.
"Cree don't be stupid! Barton yelled into his comm unit. "There's no way I'm going to make it, now get out of here!"
"Listen, you just keep pushing that thing to the max and leave those Cylons to me!" Cree told his wingmate.
Then without another word, Cree hit his reverse thrusters and breaking flaps, coming to a dead stop in space. The pursuing Cylons were traveling too fast to even take a shot at the now stationary viper as they flew past. Two of the Cylon ships veered off in an attempt to attack the stopped viper while the other two continued to close on the wounded Colonial Viper.
Cree hit his turbos as soon as the four Cylon fighters over flew him and began to chase the two that continued after Barton's viper. He closed on the quickly and lined up the first one in his sights. He pressed the fire button on his joystick, unleashing a double dose of laser fire at his target. The first shot was just a smidgen off the mark, but the second volley was right on, striking dead center of the doomed ship. It exploded in a huge fireball that burned out as fast as it started. Cree was already lining up the second ship before the first one had quit burning. He was almost in position.
"Come on you rusted out scrap heap, just a little more to the right and....." Cree said to himself.
The Cylon slid just a bit to the right as if by Cree's request. He locked on to the Cylon fighter and pressed the fire button. He was just a half micron too late.
At the same moment Cree was pushing his fire control button, the Cylon commander was doing the exact same thing. Deadly blue laser blast's leaped from the Cylon ship just before it was struck by the red laser bolts from Cree's viper. The Cylon ship was struck on the right outer edge and the right engine. The ship immediately began to spin out of control, ripping itself apart. Then it went up in a blaze of fire.
Cree had taken out both of the Cylons chasing Barton, but it wasn't enough. The second Cylon was able to get off several volleys before being destroyed. Cree watched as the blue laser bolts sailed off into the dark, right at Barton.
"Barton, roll out! Roll out now!" Cree yelled into the comm unit.
He was too late.
Barton's viper began a roll to the left, but before it could move more then a metron, it was hit squarely in the number one engine and the aft fuselage. The viper flipped over twice, the engine burning from the broken fuel lines. Cree heard Barton yell in pain as the fire moved forward into the cockpit. The cries of pain stopped as the viper exploded.
"NOOOO!!!!! Lords of Kobal, no!" Cree yelled in anguish at seeing his friend killed. He hung his head in grief, believing he had failed his friend. His guilt would be short lived however. At that moment, the two remaining Cylon fighters had moved in behind Cree. He never felt anything as the two Cylon ships opened fire at the same time, turning Cree's viper to atoms. Then they turned around and headed back to the battle to reap more death on the humans.
Apollo was not having what could be called a fun day by any standard. He was currently engaged with no less then eight Cylons and was having no luck in getting away from them.
"Starbuck, where are you? I need help over here." He said into his comm unit.
"I'm a little busy myself. I've got a dozen of our friends trying to vaporize me." Came Starbucks tense reply.
"Hang on Apollo, I'm almost there." The voice of Lieutenant Sheba said.
"You better hurry Sheba; I don't know how much longer I can avoid them." Apollo told her.
"I'm right on their tails; let's see how they like being shot at." Sheba quipped.
Laser fire erupted from Sheba's viper as she strafed the pack of Cylons that were in hot pursuit of Apollo. She got hits on four of them before they even realized they were under attack. They split up, two veering right, the other two to the left. Apollo was now in the clear. Inside his cockpit, he let out a long sigh of relief then he turned to see Sheba's viper pull up next to his. He could see her smiling at him and couldn't help but return the smile.
"Thanks for the help. It didn't look all too good there for a centon." Apollo said.
"My pleasure! I couldn't very well let them blow my favorite viper pilot out of the stars could I?" Sheba said with a sly smile.
Apollo shook his head and laughed, but to light hearted moment didn't last long as the frightened voice of Starbuck came through the comm system.
"I hate to interrupt you two in such a touching moment, but I could really use some help here. I still got eight or nine Cylons on my tail."
Apollo and Sheba both frowned, as they realized that while they were off flirting, the rest of their friends were fighting for there lives and in need of their help.
"I'm on my way. Where are you Starbuck?" Apollo asked his friend.
"How the frak should I know! Just look for the viper with every Cylon in the galaxy chasing it. That'll be me." Starbuck said irritably.
Apollo was about to say something when he spotted Starbuck's viper. He was being chased by no less then a score of Cylons now, all taking pot shots at him from a distance. He and Sheba hit their turbos and fell in behind the Cylon ships. Both warriors began to fire as soon as they came into range and were successful in destroying nearly half those pursuing Starbuck before the Cylons realized they were under attack. Half a dozen Cylons broke off their pursuit of Starbuck and began trying to get behind Apollo and Sheba. This gave the two Colonial warriors the chance they needed as it opened up a clear path to those Cylons nearest Starbuck. Apollo and Sheba moved up fast and began firing, taking out four more Cylons with their first few shots. The last two Cylons veered off to avoid the fate that had befallen their comrades. Starbucks tail was now clear of Cylons.
"Thanks you two, you got here just in time." Starbuck said, the relief in his voice obvious.
"Glad to be of help, but we have another problem now. I'm getting low on fuel, so I know the rest of our people have to be low too." Apollo said.
"I'm down to less then a quarter." Sheba said.
"I wish I had that much." Chimed in Starbuck, his humor beginning to return.
Looking around them, Apollo could see very few ships of either side near by. He knew that his people could not have taken out all of the Cylons, there were far too many of them. So where did they all go? Then a frightening thought came to him.
Flight leader to Galactica, come in please. Flight leader to Galactica, please acknowledge!" Apollo said trying to raise the Galactica.
Nothing but static answered him.
"What is it Apollo?" asked Starbuck.
"I can't raise the Galactica. All I get is static, like we're being jammed." Apollo said.
"Didn't Konst say something about being jammed?" Sheba asked.
"That's right, he did. But why aren't we being jammed here?" Starbuck said.
"Unless......" Apollo said, realizing why the jamming had stopped. "The Cylons have moved on to the Galactica. We have to reform the squadrons and make our way back before it's too late."
So Apollo put the call out to disengage and reform on his position. To his shock and horror, less then twenty vipers out of what was one hundred seventeen answered the recall. His heart sank as he thought of all the fine warriors that had perished that day. He would grieve for them later; there was no time to now. They had to get back to the Galactica before it was too late. And so, nineteen vipers, some with battle damage and all low on fuel, set off for what could very well be their last battle.