Chapter 2

I found myself meeting with Admiral Adama about an hour later in his personal quarters. Apollo had informed me about the meeting and had brought me to his father's quarters before leaving.

"Take a seat," Admiral Adama said gesturing to the couch.

I nervously sat down. "Thank you sir," I said quietly.

"What's your name?" Adama asked.

"Ensign Marcus Sittler," I replied.

"I hear you got seven kills on your first flight, Sittler." Adama said. "That's quite a feat."

"Thank you sir," I said again.

I felt incredibly odd being with Admiral Adama, he looked like my complete opposite. I was rather tall and lanky while Adama was short and stocky. I tried to push my biases towards heavier set people out of my mind.

"It's the kind of feat that would normally get a commendation but I understand that you refused that already." Adama said. "I'd like to know why."

"Sir, my job is junk as many toasters as I possibly can." I replied. "I don't need commendations to help my moral. Another chance to junk some more of those frakkers is all I need."

"I understand that," Adama said. "However, these kinds of things are good for morale. But if you won't accept a commendation that's your decision. I am however going to promote you to Junior Lieutenant."

"Thank you sir," I said one more time.

"I want you in full dress uniform and on the flight deck in an hour," Adama ordered.

"Yes sir," I replied standing up and saluting.

"Dismissed," Adama said.

I left and headed down the corridors to my own bunk. Just outside the bunk I ran into Kat.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Gotta get into dress uniform," I replied. "There's a ceremony on the flight deck in less than an hour."

"How'd you find out?" Kat inquired curiously.

"Admiral Adama told me personally." I answered.

"Alright everybody get into their dress uniforms," Apollo ordered. "We've got a ceremony to attend at seventeen hundred hours."

Everybody began getting their dress uniforms on.

"So what's this about?" Kat asked me in a whisper.

"I've already made Junior Lieutenant," I whispered back.

"Might want to be careful or the CAG might think you're gunning for his job." Kat warned me jokingly.

"I don't want his job," I replied. "I just want to junk some toasters. I have no desire to be a leader."

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"Today we bore witness to perhaps the greatest first combat viper flight in history," Admiral Adama announced to the crowd gathered in the hanger deck. "If Ensign Sittler would please step forward."

I took a deep breath, and then stepped forward in front of Admiral Adama. He was flanked by Colonel Saul Tigh on his right and his son on his left.

"Ensign Sittler, in his first combat mission managed to destroy seven enemy vessels." Admiral Adama stated. "This record is completely unprecedented. As such he being promoted to Junior Lieutenant."

Colonel Tigh handed a set of pins to Apollo. Apollo stepped forward and pinned them on by uniforms collar.

"Congratulations," Apollo said softly.

"Congratulations Lieutenant," Adama said shaking my hand.

The hang bay then erupted in applause. I looked about completely awestruck I had not been in the military very long. Most of my time had been spent in training. I had expected the people in the military to be stoic and emotionless, which is how the press portrayed them, which is how I thought I needed to be. But as I looked about at all the happy faces that were applauding, applauding for me, I realized that this was not true. They were as human as any of the civilians in the fleet. I turned and faced the crowd and finally allowed myself to smile.

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I awoke to the sound of the battle stations alarm.

"Come on," Kat yelled at me. "Suit up, Apollo and Starbuck are off ship right now so I've got the squad."

I got my flight suit on and ran down to the hanger bay.

"Where's my Viper?" I asked the chief mechanic.

"I had to take it out for a while to replace the cannons," he replied. "You'll have to fly Starbuck's Viper."

"She's not going to like that," I muttered.

However, I was not about to abandon my mission. I jumped into the Viper. The launcher sent my Viper out into space. I looked back to see my wing mates but no other Vipers were launched. I looked out to see ten Cylon raiders closing in.

"Where is everyone?" I asked into the com.

"The launchers shut down!" Kat said. "You've got to hold your own while we start launching from the other side."

"Screw that," I said. "I'll take these frakkers out myself."

"Beanpole you are not to engage the enemy on your own," came an order from the Galactica bridge. "Wait for the Pegasus alert fighters to join you. They'll be there in two minutes."

"Sorry Galactica, but in two minutes these mother frakkers will all be gone," I said.

I slammed the throttle and the ship launched forward. Two of the raiders broke of and came flying towards me.

"Only two?" I muttered at the Cylons. "You're gonna need all ten to take me out."

Enemy fire began to fly close to my ship but I was able to pull up and then dive down slightly and shoot the raider sending it drifting off into space destroyed. I then spun the ship in a corkscrew to avoid the fire of the other raider. I then pulled a tight half loop to wind up face to face with it. The raider was surprised and I was able to get off a burst to destroy.

"Two down, eight to go!" I announced.

"This kid is good," someone said on the bridge of the Galactica.

The remaining eight raiders continued on their attack run on Galactica flying right past me leaving their tails exposed.

"Bad idea guys," I said quietly.

I set my Viper on an intercept course and throttled up.

"See you frakkers in hell," I muttered as I pulled the trigger.

I fired an extended burst. The group of raiders began exploding and crashing into each other. When the debris had cleared there were only two raiders left.

"Galactica, what's the ETA on the other Vipers?" I asked.

"They'll be less than a minute," Galactica responded.

"Good," I said. "I could use an escort back to the hanger."

At that moment one of the two remaining raiders crossed in front of my nose. I angled to follow it and unleashed a burst. The raider exploded into debris. The front end of my Viper then received a ding from fire from another raider that was coming at me from above on my port side. I killed the throttle and the raider blew past. In seconds it was over. I saw the Vipers finally showing up.

"It'd be nice if you guys got here sooner to offer me some competition," I called out over the radio.

"Nice job Beanpole," Hotdog radioed. "You may just beat Starbuck's record yet."

"You keep this kind of pace up and we may just win this thing yet," Kat agreed.

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Upon returning to the Galactica I was once again mobbed as I got out of the cockpit. Before I knew what was happening I was being carried away by the maintenance staff and having booze poured all over me. I looked around at all the exuberant faces. Finally I put down and the celebration began to die down a bit.

"That was amazing," One of the female maintenance crew members commented.

"Sorry I didn't catch your name," I said.

"I'm specialist Cally," she replied.

"Well thank you Specialist," I said. "But I can't take all the credit. If you guys didn't keep these old Vipers in top shape I would probably be drifting in space."

She turned away from me clearly hiding the fact that she was blushing. I was about to say something else to her when someone tapped my shoulder.

"Admiral Adama wants to talk to you." A deckhand told me. "Now."

The tone of his voice led me to believe that this wasn't a congratulations talk.

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Well, our hero now has a whole name. Let's see what Adama wants to talk about.