Chapter 2
New Caprica
President Baltar sat in his office, contemplating the conversation he had just had. He had very nearly gone against the Cylons, very nearly stood up for what was right and told them to get the hell of New Caprica. He didn't. Why didn't I? He thought to himself.
"They'd never leave Gaius" said a voice, he looked around and the Cylon was back, this time talking in a much friendlier, human voice. She was in his head.
"Well maybe we need to force them, they can't be that tough."
"Don't be a fool; you might get out of your door before you were shot."
"But at least I'd die as a human, not a conspirator to destroy the human race!" he shouted.
"Gaius," she said "You'll always be a conspirator to destroy your race; you were the one who allowed me to deactivate the defences."
He went quiet, clearly, being reminded of his failings in the past, struck him hard. He looked away.
"Go." He commanded, "I don't want you here, you aren't real – you're an expression of my subconscious, the part of me who only cares to save myself." She smiled, glanced a look to him and disappeared. Her last words burnt into his memory.
"Who are you Gaius? A Cylon or a human? Choose."
The Fleet
Bill Adama, still shocked by the Galactica's sudden injection of new recruits, walked to the hangar deck. In less than a week, they needed to be ready to re-take New Caprica. When he arrived, he was met by the young blood that had taken the place of his experienced pilots.
"Commander on deck!" came a voice. Unlike Lee, Bill liked the procedure; it helped to keep things clear.
"At ease" Adama said, allowing the man to lower his salute. "All of you, I'm going to be asking an awful lot from you soon. I brought you all here because of prior experience or attitude. Either way, that doesn't make you prepared for a mission like this. You can of course back out; no one here will think any less of you."
"What's the plan sir?" asked a new Raptor pilot.
"We're going back to New Caprica. The Cylon's aren't expecting us, we're going to use the FTL drive to get us in to the vicinity, engage the fleet with the Battlestars whilst raptor crews and any civilian ships that can land will be landing, fending off the Cylon's and getting as many people off of the planet as possible. Not all of you will come back, if you accept this mission, in ten minutes of jumping in, we suspect that if we haven't won, we may have to pull out."
"Sir, how are we going to pull off a ground assault if they're ready for us?"
"I'm sure you've all heard of Kara Anders. Colonel Saul Tigh. Samuel T Anders. President Laura Roslin. Chief Tyrol. None of them will have quietly accepted the Cylon regime. Hopefully there's some kind of resistance movement on the surface, we are going to give them the chance to rise-up, with support. Again I repeat; anyone who doesn't want to join in, take a step back now."
No one moved a step.
"Okay," Bill said "This will be the biggest and toughest challenge you will ever face. Those of you who have never engaged in space combat will be flying raptors, delivering marines. Those of you who are trained, will fly vipers to stop the Cylon's raider attacks. Marines, a large amount of you will be training to fly vipers. Why you might ask? Well, that's where we have to be quick. We need our best people in the air. Marines, you will launch the second we arrive at New Caprica, you will fly your vipers directly to the planet's surface and find our trained pilots. Get them in the air as fast as you can then engage the Cylons."
There were murmurs and nods of agreement, people clearly agreed with the plan.
"Any questions?" Bill asked
"Sir," a young recruit said "What about the Pegasus, I heard it hasn't fully been re-crewed?"
"The Pegasus is running skeleton crew so we can get the most people in the air, Galactica herself will be at low crew levels as soon as people are gone. There's a chance that one, or possibly both, Battlestars will be destroyed in the battle, the human race cannot afford to lose the full crew compliment of even one." The men nodded and Adama spoke again "Get to it."
New Caprica
"Shereen, Shereen come quick!" said a woman entering her abode, "The Cylons have apprehended Kara!" Without another thought or word, Shereen rushed out of her door. Why would Kara have been arrested? Everyone knew Kara's disgust for the Cylons but they'd promised that, so long as they were left to get on with their business, the Cylons would leave the humans alone.
"What happened?" she whispered to a man whom she later recognised as Saul Tigh.
"She killed one." He replied.
"A Cylon?"
"Leoban. He was seen entering her dwelling and never came back out. His neck was broken."
"Was it her?"
"Does it matter? They'll shoot her anyway!"
"Is there nothing we can do?"
"We can watch, learn and hope the Cylons don't decide to find vengeance for him."
They were interrupted. As Kara was thrown down, someone could be seen running through the crowd. In the small clearing, a tin can model Cylon was standing over her, gun ready. It took aim, locked and in the split second before firing, was knocked to the ground by a speeding blur.
"Run Kara!" Shouted a man, whose voice she could identify as Sam. She watched in horror as he, in his ill state, wrestled the mechanical killing machine. "All of you go!" He screamed at them. They stayed for a short while, their eyes transfixed on the location in which Sam was fighting. No one tried to help him, Kara was beaten and could barely walk and the others were all too scared. The crowd began to disperse. It could only herald the arrival of more Cylons.
"Sam" she weakly groaned before collapsing back to the ground. Shereen grabbed her and lifted her up. Unwittingly, she had become part of an active rebellion. She got Kara to the house, just in time to see four other Cylons lift and throw Sam from their comrade. He slid across the ground and was beaten, over and over.
Shereen saw everyone run, she saw them abandon Sam to his fate and they seemed to be afraid to go near to her, they were all avoiding coming close to her tent.
She was far too involved to turn back now.