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Dawning Light

Her heart pumped, and her lungs sucked in air, this was all that reminded her she was alive. Amanda floated, helplessly through the vacuum of space. How many hours had it been since the Revelation jumped away? Couldn't have been long, she was still alive. She glanced down at her O2 gauge. It was just about empty. She let out a long breath of air, and closed her eyes. She knew it wouldn't be long now. As a little girl Amanda had always feared of dying in an enclosed space. But here she was in the widest place the galaxy had to offer, and yet she felt trapped.

PICON – 12 YEARS PRIOR

The wind blew across her face numbing her cheeks and her nose. The great Oceans of her home rose up in angry defiance of the rocky shore that stood in its way. Again and again the mighty waves crashed against the great rocks, as if they were trying to bring down the continent. Ice was smashed over the lip of the cliff as the water brought it in from way out over the horizon. Amanda admired the waves; they never gave up no matter how much resistance they met. Though her lips hurt and her cheeks stung, she smiled, Poseidon was the greatest God of all.

Two lovers, ran across the cliffs edge smiling and laughing with one another, they embraced each other as a great wave crashed into the cliff spraying huge quantities of water into the air over them as if to join in their love. The smile on her face began to fade as she saw a ship riding the waves. The large metal monstrosity was being carried towards the cliff wall, with no way of stopping. The lighthouse not far from where she stood did little to aid the ship or her crew, besides telling them how close they where to their final doom.

The two lovers on the edge noticed the ship heading for the rocks and began waving their hands and shouting in audible words, even if the ship could hear them, there was no stopping. The sound of bells began to reach the shore as the ship continued to approach, carried by the waves. Her father served at sea for longer than she had been alive, his ships name was the Aquamore, a cargo carrier like this one, carrying goods to the spaceport. Why these sailors kept putting themselves on the angry ocean when they could fly bemused her.

The ship dipped out of sight and never came up again, the two lovers went silent, and Amanda felt her heart skip a beat. The ship had crashed into the reef or worse. Her eyes blinked tears out as she held her hand up in the traditional seamen's farewell she had seen her father use many times. The storm finally began to drop rain on them, and as it did the wind began to die down.

"Amanda?" Came the shrill voice of her mother, "Amanda! get inside now. It's too dangerous in a storm like this."

The woman came out to grab her daughter but stopped when she saw he daughter's eyes fixed on the ocean.

"What happened?"

"A ship mother," Amanda replied, "It crashed onto the reef."

Seeing the two lovers standing on the edge of the cliff looking out over the ocean convinced her that her daughter was telling the truth. Her hands slipped over her daughters as they stood in the rain together looking at the ocean, which had claimed so many lives over the past 3000 years. Poseidon had claimed yet another great ship.

"Come on inside sweet heart," Said Amanda's mother, "We will take the boat out to help as soon as the storm clears."

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

Amanda sucked in as much air as she dared now, knowing how precious little there was left. A tear dropped from her eye. How little that little girl had known. If she had known that her life would end above the skies of a world dozens of light years away she may have never joined the Colonial fleet. Maybe she would have followed her father, and become a sailor as he had been.

The 02 Gauge was as low as it had ever been. The lack of air was now getting to her. She let out a breath and drew in another. How few of those wonderful conglomerations of air were left. A body floated by her she grabbed it and looked. The face was dark as night, a crack in the helmets glass emanated from a hole, obviously due to a bullet, she let go of the body and it floated away. Shortly thereafter the empty burned hull of a Viper floated past her.

PICON – 12 YEARS EARLIER

Bits of debris bobbed up and down in the water. Amanda's mother sat at the wheel of their small boat as they headed towards the empty shell of a giant super tanker that had been filled with tyllium at some point in time. If anyone had survived they would be in bad shape. The bow had been ripped and twisted to pieces and a massive whole offered a view into the great interior of the ship. Fire scars surrounded it as if it had been an explosion of some kind.

A body bobbed in the water, it had been dead for some time. The lips of the young man had turned bluish-purple and his face was completely white. Amanda's mother put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't look dear, you don't have to look," She said.

It was expected of a Picon citizen to help injured sailors, their patron God was Poseidon. Amanda looked away and what met her eyes was even more heart wrenching. The massive hull now loomed above them, and in large lettering was written the words Aquamore. Her father's ship lay in ruins before her. She dived into the water before her mother could stop her. Swimming to the metal hull she felt the water currents pulling her under but managed to grab onto a sharp piece of metal. Blood oozed from her hands as she pulled herself up onto the latter not far from the rip in the hull.

Once at the top of the deck she looked around expecting to see her father running out to greet her. Or at the least to see him sitting on the deck, maybe a little damp from the storm but alive, but the deck was silent. There weren't even any bodies, no sign that the ship had even been crewed except for the one man they had seen on their way over. She collapsed onto her knees and cried, she was angry and sad, the most powerful thing in her life was just gone, swept away by the mighty ocean that only a few hours ago she had been in awe and reverence of.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder and her mother's voice came to her in sobs of her own. They hugged each other and upon the deck of the Aquamore they cried. Mother and Daughter in each other's arms wept over their loss together.

BATTLESTAR REVELATION – PRESENT DAY

Lillian stood over the combat table in the war room aboard the Revelation. The hum of the engines, the sounds of the great Jump drives throbbing with in the heart of the ship and the buzz of the fluorescent lights all were the same but the world was so very different now. Lillian stood with several other officers trying to plan a rescue for their pilots in the hour they had left.

She put down the piece of paper she was holding and leaned against the table propping herself up with her two hands. The paper was a gridded map of the star system surrounding the Cylons. They had to find a way to get the pilots aboard who may still be alive, without risking their lives. If the Cylons had left Tauron it would make life a great deal easier.

"We counted thirty three nuclear detonations while we were in orbit," Said one of the lieutenants.

"Yes I know," Lillian said, "it is entirely possible they could have upped and left the vicinity. They certainly did enough damage."

Venerus shut the door behind him startling everybody. Lillian jolted up from her position and saw him. She snapped to attention.

"It won't be long before we are going, is there a plan or should we just scoop up our pilots with the flight pods?"

"Nothing solid yet, sir, some recon would be nice," Lillian replied.

"Well its the needing the pilots to go get the pilots paradox, live with it," Venerus snapped, "a thousand of our people are out there. We are going to get as many back as possible, all their O2 is nearly out so we launch this mission in a couple hours or we don't launch it at all."

BATTLESTAR KUTHIA

Schwen pushed as hard as he could, the large metal beam digging into his shoulder. Grease dripped down his face and he was rank with the smell of refined Tyllium. Two of his deckhands, armed with arc welders began to weld the massive beam together. With so many of the ships damage control teams either deployed, injured or dead, the deckhands had been called upon to assist in what has become essentially rebuilding the Battlestar from the inside out.

Schwen growled under his breath. The only people good at their jobs anymore was the deckhands. The damage control teams should be able to handle damage, right? But no, when there was too much damage they called on the deckhands and now he had to force his hard working men to pull double shifts. That just made him plain mad.

"I think it'll hold," Said the young deckhand.

"You think?" Schwen scolded, "If it doesn't hold there's gonna be a roughly two hundred pound bludgeon of sorts ready to fall on someone's head."

The deckhand looked down and saw the hallway floor below him, "I just don't know how much beating it'll take."

"Do we have those support rods I asked for?" Schwen asked.

The clanking indicated that they did. An officer assigned to assist them helped drag them down the hall.

"Time to get your hands dirty LT" Schwen said pointing at the beam.

To Schwens surprise, the lieutenant pulled off his uniform and picked up an idle torch and a rod.

'Where do you want it, chief?" asked the officer.

Schwen took a moment to answer before he pointed to the rod and the wall, "See if you can't wedge it against the wall, make it nice and tight. It'll add some structural support. Andy, Reeve help at this end, we need to get this beam in place. This ain't gonna look pretty but it'll do its job."

The sparks began flying again as the four of them now tried stabilizing the corridor. This was gonna be a long day.

Arkanas walked down the hallway and turned into the medical bay. Every bed was full, moans and cries of pain filled the air, and the stench of charred flesh reached his nostrils. A nurse walked up to him and then recognized him, she saluted.

"Can I help you, sir?" She asked.

"My tech officer, Sylla," Arkanas said, "Is she going to make it?"

"She's in emergency surgery right now, with Doc Mallard," said the nurse, "She's gone in twice now, but I think it's just to touch up on some internal bleeding this time around."

"So is that a yes, or a no?" Arkanas rephrased.

"Sir I have over four hundred patients to attend to," The nurse said, "I'm not in charge of knowing whether or not everyone is going to make it, I'm sorry."

Arkanas nodded, turning around he exited the sickbay. The hallway seemed so undamaged. Lights shone brightly, crew members hustled down it going about their daily duties. Just standing here, he would never know he had over 700 men and women dead and 400 wounded. More than half the crew was incapable of doing their job. That meant that the Kuthia was less than a half strength battlestar. It also meant that if the Cylons found them, they would be fish in a barrel.

He continued down the hallway, he was needed in the CIC, and from what he had heard from Kenpachi, the CIC had some serious of issues of its own to deal with. He pulled a folder from under his arm, which he had been carrying, and looking over it, he took out a damage report. The entire ship was outlined in red. Arkanas sighed, if this was in any other situation, the Kuthia would be scrapped.

Entering an elevator he punched the deck '22' button and waited as the grinding noise of the lifting mechanism to engage. He folded the manila folder and tucked it under his arm again, as the lift jostled and shook. A day ago it was a smooth ride; today wasn't so pleasant, especially when the lights started flickering. Finally the lift opened onto the twenty-second deck and Arkanas exited, perhaps slightly faster than was necessary. He took a right into the CIC and looked out across it, damaged or not this was his ship and he would see her make it through this dilemma.

PICON – 7 YEARS PRIOR

The sun shone brightly as Amanda walked down the road, a bag slung across her shoulder. She had just gotten through high school, a feat in and of itself. If her life had been normal she would have gone to college, but now she had to make a decision for her mother's sake. After Amanda had lost her father 5 years ago, the income to the family had been laid upon the shoulders of her mother. A weight that was difficult to bear with the memory of a loved one's death so close at hand.

She rounded the corner and looked across the beautiful blue ocean, rolling gently and peacefully. No one would have known it had claimed the life of her father not five years ago. She turned into her driveway and walked up to the door. She paused slightly before opening it. Her mother sat at the table looking many decades older than she had a few years ago. A lit cigarette smoked in her hands as she read over a red slip of paper.

"Mother," Amanda said quietly.

"What is it?" Her mother snapped.

"What happened?"

"I got fired."

Amanda pursed her lips, "I'm not going to college."

"What?" Her mother looked up from the piece of paper.

"I signed up with the Colonial fleet," Amanda responded.

"Why?" Her mother tried holding back a tear.

"Mother, look around you. You set aside the money for me to go to college, but you need it more than I do. Especially since … well especially now," Amanda said.

The silence filled the room for a moment, "Why not go into the Picon Traders Guild, or the Sea command?"

"Seriously Mother," Said Amanda, "Look how the last person in our family who boarded a sailing vessel ended up."

"Your father was happy where he was." Her mother argued.

"My father is dead," Amanda snapped, "I'm not going to end up missing in some gods forsaken shit hole known as the ocean."

The silence continued and then Amanda's mother broke down into a flow of heavy tears. Amanda walked over to comfort her but she shook her off ran into her room and slammed the door. Amanda let out a sigh and collapsed into a chair. Deep in her heart, Amanda knew she had done the right thing, but watching what was happening to her mother now took its toll on her soul.

After a few minutes she wrote on the red piece of paper, 'I Love You Mother' and got up and left the house. At the end of the driveway she looked back and saw the house. She waved a farewell to it before she finally turned around and kept walking.

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

Amanda felt a tingling sensation in her extremities; she could tell that her Oxygen was very low now. She didn't bother checking, feeling was beginning to recede from her fingertips. Her head was swirling and she was getting very tired. She tried clenching her fists but her muscles wouldn't respond. She drew in a breath but felt little relief.

She looked out across the battlefield, no Cylons had remained, but dozens of once mighty battlestars drifted helplessly. Most were in pieces; a few were intact but burning. Amanda wondered what had become of the Revelation. If she had survived they would have sent a rescue bird by now. The only problem with that hope was that the rescue birds needed to be piloted and all the pilots were here, most of them were dead for sure.

Amanda tried sucking in another breath; her body began to spasm with the lack of oxygen. She felt her breathing increase involuntarily. All of a sudden she couldn't breathe any longer no matter how much she did. She tried and tried but to no avail. Things began to darken as she struggled for consciousness, and then everything vanished into the encroaching dark and the edge of her vision.

PICON – 4 YEARS PRIOR

Amanda turned her viper hard to the left dodging the training marker by inches. She brought it about and pummeled the daylights out of the last training drone. She looked at her clock; the time had just reached 37 seconds. She had just broken the infamous Starbucks record. Coming about she aimed at the Athena's deck. Coming in she landed the bird and popped the hatch and jumped out. Three other viper pilots ran up to her to high fived her.

"GO, GO, GO," They yelled.

From the back of the flight deck walked a white blond haired woman, wearing a colonial fleet uniform, her eyes would cut through anything. Amanda snapped to attention and brought her hand to her forehead. The woman looked her over.

"Very well done," The officer said, "And get out of that salute nugget."

Amanda dropped her salute.

"You pulled some risky moves, and you obviously weren't thinking at all about the consequences had you ruined the viper in that close turn you pulled at the end of that simulation. Maybe my name for you is better than I thought, well Coyote?" Starbuck looked into her eyes, "not thinking is good Lieutenant; it means you don't over think, and that's what will frack you up."

"Lieutenant, sir?" Asked Amanda.

"You just passed your test Coyote," Starbuck said, while turning to look to the left "She's all yours commander."

Amanda nearly jumped with joy and then she saw a young man walking up to her. His hair had the smallest bit of grey streaking the sides, but aside from that he was young and handsome. He wore a colonial uniform and on his neck was pinned the commander's wings.

"Welcome to my crew," The man said holding out his hand.

"Sir, thank you sir" Amanda said.

"The names Venerus, Verric Venerus, commanding officer of the Revelation, your to be one of my pilots," Said Venerus with a smile, "Also this letter arrived earlier today, from home I believe. Report for duty at 0700 tomorrow, Captain Marron will want to see you."

They saluted each other. A commander had come to personally say hello. Amanda was absolutely thrilled; she might even have her own battlestar someday. She tore open the envelope that Venerus had handed to her and read it. Her smile began to fade and she collapsed to the deck. The letter was from her closest friend from Picon.

Dear Amanda

I'm sorry to tell you this, I couldn't reach you any other way. Your mother burned her house down the other day, and the body has just been identified. I'm so sorry, if there is anything you need just let me know.

Sincerely, John

Amanda began to cry uncontrollably, three pilots and several deck hands came to surround her and comfort her. Tears rolled down her face and her heart nearly stopped.

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

"CLEAR!" Came a strange voice.

Amanda's eyes opened as she looked at the brownish metal top of a raptor. A man kneeled above her with two defribulators. Amanda coughed and gasped for air, the fresh oxygen filled her lungs and then her whole body started tingling.

"We thought we lost you," Said the man.

"Where … who …" Amanda could barely speak.

"I'm colonel Midren of the gunstar Amara," Said the man, "we are here to help you."

BATTLESTAR REVELATION

Venerus sat starring at the glowing white table of the Battlestar's CIC. He glanced up at the clock that was ticking away. It was closing in on the final few minutes, signifying the loss of all the pilot's air in the standard supplies allotted them. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the table, waiting for Lillian to come back with an idea. Venerus had been trying to think of something on his own but the simple truth was that he couldn't.

"Sir, two minutes remaining," Reeds voice came from the front of the small command center within the CIC.

"I can see that Mr. Reed," Venerus replied looking up at the large numbers on the screen just above him that counted down every second; "Spin up FTL drives one, two, and three and prepare for a combat jump."

"Yes sir," Reed replied.

Venerus looked down again at the glowing table, "All hands, action stations, bring the ship up to condition 1."

"All hands action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill," Shiaks voice echoed over the com speaker.

The claxons began to sound and red lights began to twirl as the ship went into combat status. Venerus clenched his fist in frustration. No one had been able to come up with any rescue plan; no one had ever considered this possibility before. Since when could Cylons just shut down Viper squadrons and battlestars with the flick of a switch?

The doors hissed open and Lillian walked in. She rounded the table as the three doors hissed shut behind her. Standing opposite the combat table she looked him in the eye. A look of conviction flashed across her face.

"We have an idea," Said Lillian, "But it's going to require raptor pilots."

"And where would we get those raptor pilots from?" Venerus inquired.

"We only need two raptors sir, and I know of two pilots in this room, you and me." Lillian said.

Without hesitation Venerus picked up the phone and put it to his mouth and flicked on a direct channel to the flight deck, "Sara, get me two Raptors, prepped and ready for rescue ASAP," he put the phone down and turned to Lillian, "and how are two raptors going to save 1000 pilots?"

Lillian pulled an air canister off her belt and held it up, "We'll deploy these."

Venerus smiled, he could always count on his XO to come up with an insane plan, "One of us has to take CIC, but I happen to know that Sara can also fly a Raptor."

"Already on it," Lillian said, as she made for the exit, "I'll be back before you know it."

"You better," Venerus shot back, "I want those Raptors in one piece."

Lillian left the room and as the doors shut behind her he turned to stare at the clock again, it was down to a minute and thirty seconds "JUMP!"

The ship seemed to elongate before his eyes as a humming sound built up to an imminent overcharge, and then the entire room went blindly white for a split second and then returned to standard appearance. The sound of all the Revelations systems recharging was heard and then the familiar sound of Lillians voice announced that they had just departed the ship for search and deploy operations.

"Gun batteries ready and waiting," came Shiak's voice.

"Dradis!" Called Venerus looking up at his screen where thousands of dots jumbled the screen making it impossible to comprehend.

"Unknown, most of this soup is sensor echoes, or debris, I can't find any Cylon's," Said Reed.

Venerus tilted his head back to observe his screen with the Dradis moving back and forth across the screen. Venerus sighed with relief. He looked down at his glowing command table and let the feeling wash over him.

"Find my pilots and bring them home, "He said to Lillian even though she couldn't hear him.

"Captain," Came Reeds voice, "Contact baring to port."

"Target the base ship," Venerus said.

"Receiving Colonial transponders, sir," Reed replied.

Venerus thought for a second, could another ship have survived? He turned to Mr. Moore, "Send hostile challenge and request ID."

Moore nodded and began to talk into his phone. Venerus turned back to the Dradis display just above his head. The line at the top moved back and forth displaying red and green dots and each time the orange wave passed over them they changed locations. The mesh of red and green dots ended almost an inch away from the red screen. They should have been able to see the planet.

"Captain," Moore broke into his thoughts, "We are receiving Colonial IDCs, and they appear to be authentic, the gunstar Amara."

Venerus nodded and picked up his phone, "Patch me through."

"Aye sir."

"This is Revelation actual requesting to speak with Amara actual," Venerus said.

"Revelation, this is Amara actual, it's nice to hear your voice Verric," Came a familiar voice over the phone.

"Professor!" Venerus said his voiced gasping for breath out of astonishment.

"I'm glad you remember me," The man replied.

"Admiral it's been almost seven years," Venerus said, "I'm glad you survived. We are on a rescue mission for our pilots."

"We've picked up upwards of 700 pilots who managed to eject or otherwise survive the Cylon attack. We can't support them over here, how much air does that Orion class monstrosity actually have?" The Admiral replied.

"Enough we'll dock with you shortly and take on the pilots, I think I may owe you one," Venerus said.

"That's two you owe me commander, but that's a subject for another time," Said the Admiral.

BATTLESTAR KUTHIA

Chad walked down the hallway; he had to duck several times to avoid slamming into the heavy objects that had collapsed in the last battle. The sounds of ship repair crews drilling and hammering at the hull echoed throughout the ship making it very hard to sleep or get some peace or quiet. Chad by this point had become very agitated. A woman in civilian clothing walked by, Chad shook his head, civilian contractors or designers should not be allowed down here.

Doing a turn around on his heels he retraced his steps towards the woman. After catching up with her he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and looked around, her long blonde hair dangled gently around her face, and her eyes seemed to bore into his.

"What do you want?" She said in a soft accent.

"Civilians are not allowed down here, I'm sure we can accommodate your needs, but at the moment you must stay in your cabin. I'm afraid we have a situation." He said after looking around at the hallway.

She nodded, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"Well now you do, please step come with me," Chad said.

The woman nodded and began to walk with Chad, moments later Chad watched as the wall came flying at him, or maybe he was flying at the wall. The collision hurt either way, with his head throbbing from the impact he got up and threw a punch at the civilian who caught it and twisted his arm. The battle of strength went on for a few moments as Chad tried to force her hand back. She was not particularly muscular, and yet she had immense strength, something was wrong. Slowly she pushed his hand down and then through him to the ground.

"What the frack," Chad shouted.

He got up again refusing to give into this civilians protests, although her strength was not proportionate to her size or gender, he looked her in the eye again.

"Who are you? " Chad asked quietly trying to put her at ease.

"Oh please human," Her accent cut him now, "your kind never did have much intelligence."

"You're a Cylon, but how is that possible?" Chad said.

She smiled, "That is one thing you will not live to find out."

Reaching into her bosom she pulled out a small black box and showed it to him. Chad jumped back in fear, he slowly stepped back.

"You know what this is, then," She said.

"That's a heavy explosive block used during the first Cylon war, it was banned to its unpredictable nature," He said, "Do you know what would happen to either of us if you dropped that?"

"Oh I know exactly what would happen, and I know exactly what it will do, you see I can predict what this block will do if I drop it just right, and obviously you do too," She said, "Your loyalty is admirable, but it won't be enough to save this ship.

She dropped the block. It fell towards the floor and Chad turned and ran. He bolted into a bathroom and slammed the door. The sound of an explosion was heard seconds later. First the deck vibrated and then an alarm blared once and the door exploded in and flew right towards Chad. The nine hundred pounds of solid metal smashed into the floor right next to him on its edge where it lost its balance and again came for Chad, but hit the wall and leaned there as fire burst around it and flooded the hallway, moments later, the explosion had passed.

Chad crawled out from underneath the door, which seemed to have protected him. Coughing slightly as he inhaled a little too much smoke, he crawled onto his feet. Blood dripped from his head; he reached up and touched it. It was nothing more than a deep scratch. He leaned out of the bathroom and saw a burning fire.

"Damn," He said, "This cannot be good."

A/N

No Chad this cannot be good. The Cylon model who just suicide bombed the Kuthia is a 3, if you don't know what I mean when I say that then go and actually watch and or read Battlestar. So with that little tidbit of info I leave you until next time. ChaoslordZX out