There is a event in this chapter which may seem ridiculous (or not). But just hang on, everything will be explained soon.
Disclaimer: I don't really own them, except for a couple. Not nearly enough, though.
Spoilers: Up to Scar, I guess, but nothing major.
--
Chapter 13- Something's Wrong
--
One hour ago, the Olympic Carrier
"Are you sure you can do this?"
"Yes."
"No one will blame you if you can't. You'll get home, and no one will know."
"I can do it."
"If you can, remember, you'll have to wait for days, weeks, maybe months. And when it happens, no one can suspect you. No one. I know how much you miss them. You can't let that compromise the mission. At all."
"Yes."
"I know he said this would happen, and we all pray that it will. If you're detected, terminate yourself. We'll be in range."
"By your command."
--
Raptor 316
The Raptor the carried Cain had just departed from the Pegasus. Cain was sitting in the copilot's seat, watching the image of the Olympic Carrier grow in the cockpit windshield. She had looked at what few records the had on it. It was a typical passenger carrier, presumed lost in the Cylon attack, just like thousands of identical ships. The Caprica's Pride, one of the civilian ships, was of the same class as her. She wondered about the ship. It couldn't just be a Cylon ship, the recognition codes were impossible to duplicate, they were so unique. Cain doubted that the Imperials would be able to duplicate them. But how did they survive?
The Raptor finally docked with the liner. Three Marines preceded Cain, rifles at the ready, searching for any threats. But there was only a short, plump and jovial man waiting for them.
"Greetings! You have no idea how good it is to see a Colonial uniform! It really is a miracle. Stuff like this makes you really believe in the gods. Why-"
"That's very nice, but we have some questions that need to be answered now."
"Of course. Ask away."
"How did you manage to evade the Cylons for so long?"
"Well, we've been jumping from place to place. We originally met up with a group of mining ships. We all tried to evade the Cylons, but one by one they picked us off. We found some Tylium, and managed to mine some before the Cylons found us again. We're almost out of fuel, and only have enough for a few more jumps."
Cain was not convinced. "And how in the world did you managed to hold off the Cylons until you spun up your FTLs?"
"Well, we were only attacked by some of those fighter craft, but never the big ships, so it took a bit longer to kill us off. But mainly we have one man to thank for survival. I believe he's coming up now."
Sure enough, a man walked into the cabin. He had piercing blue eyes, and was very muscular. He looked at Cain, then at her rank insignia. Noting that she was a admiral, he saluted sharply. "Captain Lee Adama reporting. It's good to see you, sir."
--
Cain took Lee back into the Raptor where they would have some privacy. She took a longer look at his face. He had a long, jagged scar that ran from his hairline down to his jaw, narrowly missing his left eye.
"Captain Adama, I'm very curious how you ended up with these civilians."
He shrugged. "I don't remember much, I think must have hit my head really bad. I just woke up in my Viper, with debris from some Cylon Raiders all around me, and some from Vipers too. About the same time as when I woke up the Carrier jumped in. They took me and my Viper into her cargo bay. They had enough fuel for me, and we managed to gather some ammunition from the downed fighters. I managed to fight off the Cylons for a while, but then I ran out of ammunition. Lately I've just been running out there to scare them away. It hasn't worked very good, and it's how I got this." he said, indicating his scar.
Cain nodded. "I can believe that. Let's take you back to the Pegasus. We've got plenty of ammo there."
"Yes sir."
In all the commotion, no one noticed that a small figure dressed in a full EV suit had climbed onto the bottom of the Raptor, and was riding it to the Pegasus.
--
Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
Cain was in her quarters, mulling over the day's events. And there were a lot of them. Although she wasn't happy about Deadbolt getting off scotch free, the truth was that she hadn't done anything wrong. What really pissed her off was that Daala had made the decision by herself. It was a unfortunate fact of life that Daala could destroy the Pegasus. At least until they were repaired. A few salvos from the main guns, if they hit in the right spot, could be pretty damaging to that destroyer.
And the Marines. One dead, the other unconscious. She did believe that they had started the gun battle, and that the other was killed in defense of the pilot. Still…
Daala had found out about the prisoners. She didn't encourage her crew in what they had done, but she also pretended she hadn't heard about it. And this new ship. Something about it seemed wrong, just like this Lee Adama. Something wasn't quite right about him. She couldn't see anything wrong about him, it was more of a feeling. She shook her head. She wasn't thinking straight. Maybe it would be better in the morning.
--
Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
Daala walked into the tactical planning room of her ship, followed by Talon and Sophie. Kirana was in her quarters. Daala had relived her of duty for the next few days, until she could figure out what was wrong with her. She had brought the two pilots with her to discuss some problems she was having.
She took as seat, and motioned for the pilots to also sit down.
"Well, now that all that's over, we have some things to talk about. Devruin, as you are aware, you are now Major. Also, Deadbolt, you've been promoted to Captain. Cain may not like you, but she needs a CAG. And the whole issue with the G-4 is on hold for now. Cain is pretty sure you didn't do it. After all, records say that you sent that message to Cain's quarters before we even started to search for you. Anyway, you're the CAG, at least until a few things get sorted out regarding this Apollo. Do you know anything about him?"
"Yes sir."
"What is it?"
"He's very by the book, honorable, and," she said, quoting her not-friend, "he has a stick up his ass."
Talon was obviously trying not to laugh, and Daala looked mildly amused. "And how do you know him?"
Sophie tensed. "I'd prefer not to say, sir."
"Noted. Say it anyway."
Sophie knew that Daala was not technically her superior officer, but the way things were going, that might change soon. And she had the impression that she was going to be on the Gorgon for a little bit.
"He was my boyfriend's brother."
"So would you say you know him well?"
"Never met him. I don't even think my boyfriend told him about me. But I heard he's a great stick."
"That's why I want your opinion on this. I took the gun camera footage from his fighter. Take a look."
She pushed a button, and a 2-D recording of his footage sprang to life on the holo projector. They saw the Viper close on a Raider. The Raider was flying straight and level, but even so the first few bursts missed, and the one that killed it only impacted on the wing, but for some reason it blew up in a spectacular explosion. Over and over, the same thing was shown. The Raiders didn't perform even the most basic evasive maneuvers, and blew up even if only one round hit. And no Raiders went head to head, and the telltale blue-white streams of Raider KEWs didn't even come close to hitting the Viper.
Sophie shook her head. "He's horrible. I mean, I've seen worse nuggets, but for an ace, well, it's horrible. And it looks like those Raiders are rigged to explode. Almost like they want him to think he's escaping."
"Or providing cover, if he's a Cylon." Talon added.
Daala shook her head. "We scanned him. He's not Cylon, but we were confused at first. The scan couldn't tell at first, and even then it had trouble deciding. So he's not Cylon, but I'm not sure if he's human either. And here's the thing. The difference between Cylon's and humans is very small. And from what we gather about their "final five", if we see them, our sensors will go off. It's almost like parts of him are Cylons and some aren't."
"What are you saying?" Sophie asked.
Daala shrugged. "I'm not saying anything. Just wanted your opinion."
They sat there, not saying anything. Then Sophie spoke up.
"Completely off topic, but what's the status of the Peg's main guns? Didn't one of them break off?"
"Yes. It's not completely destroyed, but it'll be too much work to put it back on."
"I was thinking we could put it in another ship. The Mirage was originally deigned as a military transport. It's big enough to hold the gun, and it's got pretty think hull plating. Not enough to protect against a nuke, but it could survive at least ten missile hits, and Raider strafing wouldn't do too much damage."
Daala shook her head. "The recoil from something like that could shake the ship apart."
Talon had a idea. "What if we took a couple shield generators from some of the TIEs? We could configure them to protect the ship from the recoil. And as long as we're scavenging some TIEs, we could mount the cockpits on the ship, maybe in swivel mounts or something like that allowed them to fire. Add any spare weapons you have and we could have a tactical assault ship. It has a hanger bay big enough to house Vipers, TIEs, or Raptors. Even if everything fails, the worst that will happen is we loose some spare parts and about half a day of work."
Sophie nodded. "I heard rumors that we're scavenging Colonial Heavy 535 and the Scylla for part to fix the Pegasus. Some of the engines from Heavy 535 could boost its speed."
Daala looked from one pilot to the other. "You two are really sold on this idea, aren't you? Draw up the plans, borrow a couple engineers. If you can get a working model, then we'll try the modifications. But first, I need help, especially from you, Deadbolt. Do you know someone named either Kara Thrace or Starbuck?"
Sophie looked like she had just been shot. How did they know about her?
"Captain!"
Sophie snapped out of her state. "Yes, admiral?"
"I said, do you know this Starbuck?"
"Yes sir."
"Is she a pilot?"
"Yes. She's as good as me."
Talon raised an eyebrow. Coming from a pilot, that was a huge admission.
"Good I need some help. From both of you. We captured a Cylon Raider during our first battle with them. We've nicknamed him Scar, after a gash on his face. We call him 'he' because we want him to identify with us. All Cylon Raiders have a telencephalic inhibitor. It keeps the Raiders from getting too smart. The Cylons don't want their own rebellion on their hands. Anyway, he's still getting used to this new intelligence, and is very susceptible to manipulation. We're trying to use him against the Cylons. Unlike the Cylon Raiders we're producing, he has a actual brain, so they can't tell him apart from all the other Raiders. We've learned how to shut him down and turn him on, so we can make him think that months have gone by even if its just days. Captain Narcasa, you probably haven't been told this, but when the humanoid Cylons die they have their consciousnesses will be downloaded into a new body. The same goes for the Cylon Raiders. We've accessed his memories from his deaths. He has been killed 47 times. 36 of those times were by the same pilot. He is considered one of the more capable Raiders, so its not much of a surprise that it takes a good pilot to shoot him down. We took the visual impute from right before he died the 12th time. He was killed in a head to head pass."
She pushed another button, and the image of a Viper appeared. "If you zoom in on the cockpit, you find this." The image zoomed in on the Viper until it was right bellow the cockpit. There were three words printed on the side of the Viper. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.
"This was right before the most painful memory that he had stored, the one that filled him with the most hate. Scar took a bullet hit right in the cockpit, and crashed on a moon, but not before taking this Starbuck down too. Apparently, she used him to escape the planet. Before he downloaded he had felt the pain of getting sliced up inside. And this is where you two come in. Captain Narcasa." she said.
Sophie rose. "Sir."
"We hooked up a Viper simulator to our computer systems. I want you to pretend you're this Starbuck. Major, You'll be in a simulation control TIE. You can't get hurt, you're invisible, and you can do what you want to another ship. I want you to be in there to back her up. She can't die in this simulation. The Raider will be fully hooked up, so for him it will feel like actual combat. I want to make Scar angry at the Cylons. The simulators are ready now. Lets go."
--
Everything with Lee will be explained. And I also want to make it clear that htis is not somthing that takes place before 33. See you next time.
This button really likes to be clicked on. Try it!