Chapter 9
Location: Battlestar Pegasus, Brig
Date: February 8, 2025
Time: 0930 Zulu
Admiral Cain couldn't help but despise these mongrels. She'd ordered the captured prisoners from the commando rescue mission brought to her ship which had the facilities to hold them and the Colonial Intelligence officer present to interrogate them. She had little hope that they would really get anything out of them except for some babbling in a language none of them could understand.
Her CMO had taken blood samples from the individuals as was standard so that they would know if there were any infectious diseases present within their systems. Even without that knowledge their CI Major had ordered a HAZMAT team to clear everything that these pirates came into contact with just to be safe. For an added safety measure he was waiting for the tests to come back before interrogating them.
The waiting was what was killing Cain, she hated waiting. But Major Liotes knew what he was doing, so she'd stood back and let him do his job. There were three of them, each was no more than thirty of forty from what she could tell and all of them appeared scared out of their wits. She didn't blame them, their whole crew had just had their asses handed to them and now all thirty-one of them were on ice aboard the Host of Hades. One wore a roughly cut tank top and leather pants, the second was shirtless aside from a brown vest and blue pants, and the third had a large gray shirt and black pants with patches on the knees. They all wore thin beards from just not shaving and some longer hair than normal. Their hands were cuffed behind their backs and linked to loops in the metal floor of the glass enclosed brig. And watching them were two Marines, Admiral Cain, and Major Liotes. However they were soon joined by two more Colonials, Lieutenant Kendra Shaw, Cain's aid, and Dr. Kiros, the ship's Chief Medical Officer.
"Sir," Shaw stop just short of her commander with a crisp salute as the doc stopped next to her with a clipboard in hand.
"Lieutenant," Cain nodded before turning to the doctor, "Well doctor?"
"They're human alright and despite some higher than recommended blood alcohol levels they are in good health."
"You may proceed Major," Cain immediately said to the spook next to her who nodded and then signaled the two Marines to follow him in, "Lieutenant?"
"Host of Hades reports that all civilians are on board and crews have been place aboard the civilian vessels and are awaiting orders," the young officer said crisply, glaring at the prisoners as Major Liotes stood behind them with the Marines one each side, causing each of the prisoners to shake in fear at what he might do to them.
"Very well Lieutenant," Cain said, "We'll hold position here until the Atlas Battlestar Group arrives to escort the Host of Hades and the civilian ships back to Colonial space. What's the status on the pirate vessel on the ground?"
"Our chief engineer has been down to inspect the vessel and has declared it to be of unknown origin and unknown design. Its computer surfaces are built entirely of crystals of unknown properties and he's suggested that we use the Host of Hades to descend into the atmosphere and lift the vessel into orbit for transport back to the Colonies. He doesn't want to trigger anything potentially dangerous."
"Can't Rovers bring it up?" Cain asked.
"Negative sir," Shaw responded tactfully, "The Chief has spoken with the Captain of the Host of Hades, It would take five Rovers to do the job but at that close proximity the risks to the craft and their crews is too high."
"Very well," Cain replied, "Relay to Captain Atros, order him to prepare his ship for entry and to lift the pirate vessel into orbit."
"Yes sir."
Cain turned around just in time to see one of the prisoners turn to look at the Major standing behind him. But as soon as he did that he had the butt of one of the Marine's rifles break his nose and collapse onto his belly, much to the fright of the other two. Major Liotes then seemed to snap into a rage. But it was all calculated and masterfully controlled.
"Do not look at me filth!" he roared, causing the other two to snap back and do exactly what he said not to do.
For this Liotes back handed the one in the middle with enough force to lift the pirate off of his knees and spin and fall onto his back. The second was kicked by the second Marine onto his front.
"The Colonial Fleet does not deal with terrorists, brigands, or pirates," he began, "To me you are the lowest of the low. And you will be treated as such. Your only hope of preventing your own demise is to cooperate and your lives may be spared. Do I make myself clear?!"
One of them began babbling again in his strange language and wouldn't stop. So to deal with his running mouth one of the Marines stepped forward and delivered a brutal kick into his ribs with Major Liotes right over him.
"I did not ask for you to speak!"
Cain and Shaw watched the interrogation continue, their own thoughts on the brutal process masked behind the outrage they felt. The ink of the reports sure to be on Cain's desk weren't even dry yet and it was ship-wide knowledge that these pirates were guilty of two of the highest form of crime in the colonies, rape and murder. So who cared if the Colonials roughed them up? If there were a vote amongst the crew these scum would be launched out of a Viper tube and then strapped to the front of the Pegasus as a warning to other pirates who may be out there.
However the torture and constant repetition of questions got old, and so Cain decided to better make use of her time and walked over to the comm that spoke into the cell.
"Major when you get anything out of them contact me," she said calmly before turning away and walked out of the room with Lieutenant Shaw behind her.
"Permission to speak freely sir," Shaw asked.
"Granted."
"Is it true they did everything that the rumor mill said they did?"
"We won't know for sure until the civilians who were…" Cain paused, not comfortable with discussing this, "Who were in that ship can be properly debriefed."
"We're not going to execute them are we sir?"
"Unfortunately no," Cain growled, "That's Fleet Intel's call."
"As long as the frakkers get what's comin' to them I'm…" Shaw began growling before a loud alarm that everyone recognized blared out.
"Action Stations!"
Location: Caprica, Fleet Air Base, Caprica City
The city was a mess of activity, as usual. But out in the country things were slightly less busy. But you could only get so much calm on a military base. Fleet Air Base, Caprica City was the largest military base on the planet, with seven runways and huge flat gray expanses of immaculately cleaned concrete for VTOL landings by everything from Rover and Raptor dropships to Marine and Army Falcon gunships and the old but still useful Blackhawks. A huge number of squadrons of were based here with their aircraft laid out in long rows outside their hangars or in the ready hangars at the beginning of the runways in groups of eight in four concrete hangars.
A separate base's enormous expanse was home to thirty thousand Army troops from the 12th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 10th Armored Division. Their heavily armored vehicles sat in large underground garages, where they were believed to be safe from surprise airstrikes. Their doors were open to allow some to come and go freely to undergo routine maintenance or training maneuvers in the large plains and isolated forests outside the city. Tall control towers vectored and controlled coming and going aircraft besides larger concrete blockhouses with four CIWS turrets on each corner while large concrete rings on the ground with tall stacks of surface to air missiles in their launch boxes sat on standby with Army troops standing with their rifles outside the metal barred entrances. And both bases were separated enough by untouched countryside for twenty miles north and south.
Needless to say, if these bases fell then Caprica City would fall right afterwards. Although an orbital bombardment wouldn't be something either base had the ability to do anything about. Yet even this was a remote possibility to the many thousands of Colonial personnel stationed here. The destruction of the Cylons had seen to that. But one more threat remained to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, a threat believed to be even greater than the Cylons: Earth. It was this threat that still had the Colonial Defense Force on high alert.
"Scramble!" the voice of the newly assigned Lieutenant Kelsey Adama ringed out in the squadron ready room of the 348th Viper Squadron, the 'Gold Tails'.
On her orders six freshly minted Viper pilots rushed from the couch in the back of the room watching CSN, the Caprica Sports Network and grabbed their helmets from off of the shelves at the front of the large room and followed her out into a humid and overcast day. It was their turn to take part in the combat drills taking place over Caprica City today. Another smaller base off to the east on an island was home to a larger than normal contingent of Vipers manned by fresh new rookies and reservists in need of more experience before being shipped up to the Fleet squadrons.
Their mission was a simple one, prevent those fighters from attacking their base. Kelsey was a section leader now, serving right alongside Starbuck who was the Golden Tails squadron commander while Lee was the commander of a fighter group composed of four different Viper squadrons. But today only the 348th was going up to challenge what was obviously an incursion by the opfor. The other three squadrons would be taking their own turns right after hers.
The alert pilots however were the first into the air, and would be followed by the other half of the squadron whose Vipers were parked under their open shelters just off the tarmac. These pilots too had been itching to go, sitting around the ready room either reading, watching TV, sleeping, or playing cards. They weren't all the way in their flight gear, with the upper garments tied around their waists as they would normally whenever they weren't expecting an air raid, and truth be told they weren't.
None of the squadrons of Lee Adama's fighter group knew which of them were going up first for training or when. But now they knew, as Starbuck had gotten the call on her phone sitting on her desk where she'd been sitting with Kelsey, watching the Caprica Buccaneers game. She'd grabbed her flight helmet and was now standing at the door urging her squadron forward.
"Move it! Move it! Move it!" Starbuck yelled, pushing the pilots out the door.
Kelsey was already running off of the patio towards the ready hangars. She could see that the ground crew, dressed in the classic orange and yellow coveralls that their comrades aboard the fleet wore. Many were strapping on their helmets and goggles while the pilots ran to their birds. Kelsey was the first to her Viper, a Mark VII.
"Come on, come on!" she yelled urging the other fighter pilots to their birds as they summited the ladders to their Vipers.
The red ribbons and tags mounted on her Viper's nose and weapons were removed by a gaggle of ground crew as she climbed upon her Viper and dropped into her seat. She was joined by a man who helped rapidly secure her helmet in place and then she started going through a detailed systems check starting with her engines and got an all green after hitting the systems check buttons. She then hit the button for the avionics and got a green light there as well and then checked her weapons systems and got a full set of green lights. She then checked her controls, getting all the right responses from across her Viper. She was all set.
"Starting!" she yelled as she spun her hand in the air to let the ground crew know her three engines were starting.
The high-pitched whirring of the engine turned into a high-pitched roar as life was breathed into it. Warm orange white flame jetted from the rear as the engine warmed up and gave the concrete wall in the rear of the hangar an extra coat of burnt black soot on its surface. Kelsey could now hear the air controllers sounding off along with the check-in calls from the other pilots as their Vipers checked out all green.
"Starbuck, Control, you are green for takeoff at your discretion," Kelsey heard the single male voice call over the wireless.
"Copy Control," Starbuck called out, "Lightbulb lead off with Dusty followed by Piledriver and Baitfish. Daisy you're with me, and Comet and Olive will follow in the rear."
"Lightbulb rolling," Kelsey said out loud, hitting the final button that sent the canopy sliding over her head and sealed itself shut.
"Dusty rolling," the young ensign called out right beside her as the two Vipers next to one another began rolling out of their hangar.
"DRADIS tallies six contacts coming in at extreme range at low altitude," their controller informed them as the two Vipers lined up beside one another as two more Mark VII's came out of their fortified hangar across from them.
"Roger," she replied, and then pinned the throttle forward, "Taking off."
Take-offs from a Battlestar were far different than take-offs from a runway. It was a gradual pull as the three powerful engines powered the Vipers forward, sending the surroundings past them at increasing paces. Then at a certain speed Kelsey pulled the stick back and went airborne and then pull even harder on the stick. The Vipers went almost vertical with their comrades already half-way down the tarmac as eight more Vipers went through their inspections as the other pilots of the 348th scrambled into the cockpit.
"Climbing to angels five," Kelsey said, checking to see that the other Viper was off to her right, even with her, "Dusty pull back, you're too close," she snapped to him, annoyed at how close the rookie pilot was.
"Roger Lightbulb," the other pilot responded, getting a shake of the head from Kelsey as they started to circle over the airfield and saw the other six Vipers all lifting off in close succession.
"All Vipers, vector to heading zero-eight-five," Starbuck called out, "Barricade formation, set DRADIS to active scanning. You ready for this Lightbulb?"
"Always," Kelsey said as the other Viper came right up next to her before banking away to spread out in the classic interceptor formation known as the Barricade.
The Colonial Barricade Formation was a simple wide formation of Vipers at even altitude with each pair of Vipers spread apart, their DRADIS scanning in a wide active sweep, ready to meet any hostiles. The rest of the squadron would be forming the rear guard, ready to pick off any missiles and stragglers that the alert fighters had missed. All eight of the alert Vipers were now taking up this formation, and their active targeting DRADIS sent their feeds right to their pilots and to the eight simulated missiles mounted in the underbelly of the Vipers' weapons bays.
"Tally-ho, six contacts, make four Vipers and two Raptors," Starbuck called out, being in the lead she saw it first.
"They see us too, reading active targeting DRADIS lighting us up," Kelsey alerted the other Vipers.
The Vipers were just below the cloud cover, jumping back and forth between patches of gray angry clouds. The ground disappeared beneath them after a minute with Caprica City off to their left, the glinting of the skyscapers being the most visible cue. Their DRADIS picked up several civilian ships in the area and the usual Viper CAP over the city was just on their normal patrol, their pilots doubtless watching the alert Vipers of their home base going after some intruders. But then, several Vipers' control surfaces began blazing an alert as their Vipers were targeted.
"Missiles in the air! Missiles in the air!" Kelsey heard several of the rookies yell, causing her ears to ring as she was about to lock on with her own missile.
"Take evasive action!" Starbuck called out, slamming her stick down and jamming her Viper into a spinning dive that her wingman could barely keep up with.
Kelsey obeyed the call for evasive action and yanked her Viper straight up, charging through the clouds, feeling the buffeting of the large winds in the clouds through her controls. Her wingman stayed with her, the two Vipers rolling as their DRADIS tracked the formation of Vipers coming at them with the missiles highlighted on their HUD's as blinking red and black in front of them as they closed with their targets. Their breaths were caught in their chests until they saw the missiles tracking towards Starbuck's lead element which had gotten pinged first and thus targeted first.
So, she decided to fire back. Her DRADIS had already locked onto one of the rapidly closing Raptors in the rear of the formation, and knowing that was her target she hit the red button next to the trigger button on the stick. Normally a live missile would be jettisoned out of the bottom of the Viper and then jet off towards its target. But these were simulated dogfights, so all her 'missile' in fact was, was a data stream fed to all participating aircraft to see on their HUD's and instruments.
"Fox Two," she calmly said over the wireless right as she hit the button.
That data stream had ben smiling upon Kelsey Adama, as she saw the red symbol on her HUD of her target blink and go black, signaling that it was destroyed.
"Splash one!" Kelsey whooped as she inverted her fighter and rolled down to engage the closing formation of four Vipers and the lone Raptor coming in at low level.
"Good shot Lightbulb, now watch this," Starbuck cockily said as she triggered her own missile volley, this time firing two missiles towards the Vipers coming at them.
The two opposing formations were now getting very close to one another, and there wasn't much time for the attackers to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the incoming missiles coming from above them. But one of them fired off a pair of missiles right at Kelsey's Viper and that of her wingman right before Starbuck's simulated missiles struck the Viper as it pulled up and knocked it out along with its wingman on its left side.
"Frak! Incoming, deploying countermeasures!"
Kelsey hit her maneuvering thrusters hard, sending her Viper into a swift pivot downwards with an arc of flares and chaff right behind her as she hit her engines to full afterburner and rolled left into the missiles. The G-Forces bombarding her body were extreme, but she handled it thanks in part to her flight suit. The missiles missed her, but one hit her wingman.
"Dusty's hit!" the rookie yelled over the wireless, "FRAK!"
"You out?" Kelsey asked as she rolled right and came level with the climbing pair of escorting intruders as the Raptor dove for the hard deck with its escorts trying to busy the interceptors.
"Yeah, I'm KIA," Dusty groaned, "Returning to base."
Kelsey noted it, flinching at the loss of her wingman but continued to press the attack as she saw Starbuck alone pressing in from above her. Her wingman hadn't been able to outmaneuver the initial missile wave either and had taken a hit, but was only damaged and unable to continue the fight so he too was going home. Kelsey didn't notice where the other four friendly Vipers had gone and had no clue where the other half of the squadron was which was going through its preflight checklists as she and the alert Vipers had taken off.
"Looks like it's you and me Starbuck," Kelsey chuckled as they finally got into gun range with what they now saw were Marine painted Viper Mark VII's.
"No it's just me," Starbuck grinned, before doing one of her classically wild, out-of-the-blue maneuvers.
Starbuck's Viper seemed to just drop all of a sudden as she cut power and then pulled her nose up and hit her wing mounted maneuvering thrusters. Her Viper slowed down immensely and dropped in altitude immensely right as the four Vipers closed in on each other. Starbuck laid into her guns at that point, sending three lasers lancing out from her three cannons, raking the Marine Viper along its right side, dealing a crippling blow. And without missing a beat Starbuck's Viper came head-to-head with the Raptor and once more fired at her new target getting another easy kill.
Kelsey's opponent hadn't been so awestruck, he just started firing right as Kelsey did so as well. Simulated rounds flashed by on her HUD as she and the opposing Viper jinked and maneuvered as they closed. Her readouts flashed as her left wing took a hit as a white flash erupted from her target, indicating that she'd also scored a hit, but not a critical hit. So right before they closed Kelsey rolled left and pointed her nose down and then pulled back on the stick hard as she laid on the trigger. However her opponent had done likewise, and both Vipers strafed past one another, neither scoring a hit. But the maneuvers had bled airspeed and the Marine Viper dove to regain momentum in a tight dive.
She followed the green and brown painted fighter with guns spitting out rounds as she got her target in the position she wanted it and scored several hits through the swirling maneuvers. But right as she was about to score one last lethal hit the target's symbol went black, signaling her pounding had killed the Viper.
"Frak yeah! Got another one!" Kelsey roared in triumph as the Marine Viper she'd 'killed' banked up and away, headed for home.
"Nice job," Starbuck grinned, her own Viper appearing off to Kelsey's left as it pulled in close as both Vipers scanned for additional targets, "Looks like it's mission accomplished, let's head for the barn."
"Dusty won't be happy," Kelsey winced, "I think I blocked his path with that chaff drop and he had to turn away from the missiles."
"Well he should've been in tighter then," Starbuck grumbled.
"Yeah…" Kelsey cooed, "I might have…sorta told him to give me space as we climbed to altitude."
"So you indirectly got your wingman killed?" Starbuck laughed, "I might have to give you latrine duty for that."
"Maybe," Kelsey corrected, "I may have indirectly done it."
"Well that's why we're training here Lightbulb," Starbuck shrugged, "If we run into an Earth ship I doubt their missiles will be simulated."
"Does that mean I'm not on latrine duty?" she laughed.
"Meh, I'll give it to sections three and four. Those frakkers are just getting to altitude."
"Are you kidding me?" Kelsey groaned, she knew they should have been at altitude five minutes ago. They took too long getting off the ground, so it may or may not have been the pilots' faults. It could have been the ground crews at fault instead or as well. Either way, Starbuck was not happy.
"Getting too complacent," Starbuck mused, "With no real threat, at least to them, we're getting sloppy. And we don't have to be reminded of that."
"Sloppy about got me killed," Kelsey mumbled under her breath, remembering several times in her previous experiences where being too comfortable with the circumstances had resulted in some close calls.
"And kidnapped," Starbuck poked, "Although saving you was a ton of fun Lightbulb."
"Yes I know, you got to kill Cylons congratulations," Kelsey responded bitterly, "But we also missed the last battles didn't we?"
"Oh…yeah, still a bit pissed we didn't get to see the old man in action."
"Yeah," Kelsey grumbled, "Me too."
Location: Leonis, Luminere, Capital City of Leonis
The crew was none too happy, things had gone too easily and they'd found themselves a buyer who was much too willing to pay their rather outrageous price. In a nutshell they were jumpy. Who could blame them, after all a heist crew worth its salt never believed in an easy job. This was especially true with one-of-a-kind treasures. They'd hitched a ride aboard a transport out of Caprica City immediately after the job had taken place and then changed over to a shuttle to Leonis where their boss had found a buyer who was willing to pay the hefty sum of ten million cubits for their haul.
The job had taken place a long time ago, five years to be precise. Since then, due to the sensitive nature of the item, they'd laid low. The cops had been canvasing thoroughly, watching for any signs of the impending sale of such an item. So the crew had waited, biding their time until the heat had died down. But now their payday had come.
All seven of them were now set up in different locations with their pistols hidden underneath their thin jackets. It was a nice night in the planetary capital, albeit very windy. They could see the lone moon constantly get covered up by thin clouds high overhead, but the meager light of the lights in this small mall's parking lot kept them lit up enough.
One of them was standing outside their van, smoking a cigarette as he stood on watch. Four of the others were in the van, two in the front seats and the other two in the empty bed behind the sliding doors. Lastly two more were in a separate car parked down the row with the cargo in the back seat. They were completely hidden from view as they were far away from any lights coming from the lamps over the middle of the parking lot.
"When do we leave if this guy doesn't show?" the driver asked as he sipped from a bottle of Leonis Red, the most popular energy drink in the Colonies.
"Give it fifteen minutes," the boss said as he looked at his watch and gave the item in the back one more glance, "And he'd better be here."
"How are you so sure it's a he?"
"Women don't usually do these things themselves, especially women who are rich enough for our little item."
"I don't know, Trish might have something to say about that," the driver chuckled.
He was of course referring to their crew's youngest member, a hot little redhead that they tasked with distractions and seductions to get the job done. And she usually got to kill those she'd seduced to tie off loose ends.
"No she won't," the older man responded, "At least not to me."
"Oh, got her intimidated now have we?"
"Frak no," he chuckled, "But there's another reason."
The younger man hesitated as he tried to figure out exactly what his boss was trying to get at and then it hit him.
"You're frakkin' her aren't you?"
The confident smile his boss gave him was all the confirmation he needed.
"You lucky bastard. That's why she's been in a slightly better mood."
"If by better mood you mean she's not been as willing to kill the rest of you then…" he started but then the headlights of a car pulling into the parking lot caught his attention, "Buyer's here."
His partner saw the lights too, and screwed the cap back onto his bottle and put it into the cupholder next to the stick of the old car. The car was an expensive one, that was for certain. It was colored a dark blue with chromed wheels and grill with chromed trim along the side panels and roof. The windows were heavily tinted as well, just what they'd expected.
"Alright, eyes up, keep quiet and don't spook him. If he's got the money make sure it's the price we agreed on before calling us over," he spoke into his walkie talkie to the rest of the team in the van.
"Got it boss," the driver said back to him, giving the car a nod calmly as they waited for the large SUV to pull up next to them.
And it didn't waste any time, and pulled up with the headlights illuminating the van and the man next to it. The man held his hand over his face the lights were so bright as he tossed his cigarette to the ground and let it blow away with the strong wind. All of them waited as the front and rear passenger doors opened and out walked two men in suits with one holding a suitcase and walked over to the van.
"Have our money?" the man outside asked.
"Have my item?" the suit with the suitcase replied calmly, clearly not jumpy or intimidated.
"They've done this before," the boss whispered as he watched the exchange, impressed with the calm confidence of their buyer.
"We've got it, but you're not leaving with it until we know you're not trying to stiff us."
There was a moment as the duo examined one another, waiting to see who would show their hand first. But a quick glance from the man next to the van towards the car set everything in motion.
"So that's where you're keeping it," the guy with the suitcase grinned slyly, looking at the car, "Smart."
But the two robbers in the car went white with what happened next. The second guy who'd been waiting and watching quietly put his hand to his ear and spoke.
"Take 'em."
Then two armored vans roared out of their hidden locations behind the mall and lurched to a stop in front of the van. The glass doors of the closed mall swung open revealing over a dozen heavily armed police wearing Kevlar body armor, helmets, and goggles with submachine guns pointed at the car. More identically equipped black clothed police appeared from the rear of the two armored police vans and had their weapons aimed at the van. This happened just as the other members of the robbery crew emerged from the sliding door with pistols in hand, but were stunned to see how much weight had been brought down on top of them.
"LPD, drop your weapons!" each of the cops roared out as they had their flashlights pointed at the robbers who dared not try to fight it out.
The duo in the car were quickly surrounded and had a dozen submachine guns pointed at their chests as their window was lit up and they instinctively put their hands in the air. The jig was up, the law had caught up with them. This fact was especially well enforced when the cops opened the doors and wrenched the men out of their seats and had them face first on the concrete before cuffing them. One of the cops read them their rights with careful precision as their hands were cuffed tightly before they checked them and found two pistols in their waistbands.
But one of their number opened the rear door and saw the tube in the back and grabbed it carefully, knowing what was inside. He then carefully unscrewed the cap on the end and checked for booby traps before reaching inside and saw the other police next to him watching in anticipation. He smiled behind his balaclava as he carefully drew out a long golden arrow.
"Team Two to Control, we've got it. Objective secured, all suspects detained," the man said, speaking loud enough for all to hear.
"Copy that Team Two, good work."
What he was holding was the subject of five years of investigation and tracking. It was the Arrow of Apollo. And with it the Colonies might finally be able to find their way to Earth.
It's a little shorter than the normal chapters I come out with but this one is meant to be a simple one for getting the plot going. As usual this one took a bit long to get posted, but I have a very good reason for that. Besides school and everything I had to scrap the original chapter on Friday after what happened in Paris. I'd originally planned a terrorist attack on Sagitarron, but after Paris it just didn't sit right with me to have that in the story so soon after such a tragic event occurred. So this is what came after a few days of work to get the next chapter up.
I think we all know by now what has occurred in Paris. It was a terrible and barbarous act of terrorism against innocents. But Paris shall recover, France will rise to the challenge, and all that is good in this world will step forward to punish those animals responsible. I have already sent an email expressing my condolences to the government of France but I think that I should say this to all the world:
Je suis Paris. Nous sommes avec vous.
Next Chapter Preview: An ancient race gives the Colonials their reality check and the Pegasus meets the Colonials' new enemy.