Battlestar Galactica

Past, Present, Future

Chapter 29

Daemon Ascending

Daemon rushed down the corridor as fast as his robotic body would carry him.

After many, many centars of non-stop research and study of the forces aligned against them, he was finally certain that he had come up with not only their identity, but a possible strategy to defeat them. If he was right, he would be rewarded handsomely!

And so he moved with the utmost speed, weaving in and out of the numerous IL series Cylons and Centurions that wandered the corridors of the great citadel that was the Imperious Leaders base of operations in the capitol city on the Cylon home world. He had to reach the Imperious Leader immediately with his discoveries.

As he rounded the last corner before reaching the doors to the Imperious Leaders throne room, he found the passageway crowded with a number of other Cylon IL series. They all seemed to be waiting to gain entry into the throne room to have an audience with their leader.

As he approached, an IL series Cylon moved to intercept him.

"What is your purpose here?"

Taken aback somewhat by the question, Daemon did not answer right away. This caused the other IL series to repeat the question with a bit more attitude.

"What is your reason for being here?" the IL series said. "And what is your designation?"

"I am Daemon, and I have important business with the Imperious Leader."

"Oh do you now?" It was not a question. "And what business could you possibly have with the Imperious Leader ….. Daemon? You are not of "The Ten"!"

The "Ten" were the top advisors to the Imperious leader and were the most trusted of his lieutenants. They were also the pool of top candidates to replace the Imperious Leader should that become necessary.

"I have been working on an extremely important task for the Imperious Leader and I need to speak with him about my findings! Now move aside whoever you are!"

And Daemon tried to go around the IL series Cylon but was cut off by the arm extended by the IL.

"If you have something you wish to present to the Imperious Leader, you will tell me what it is. And if I decide it is of some small …. Significance, I will present it to his eminence!"

Daemon was confused and he believed he was "feeling" angry. Who did this IL think he was?

"And who may I ask are you?" Daemon said with a bit of venom.

"I am Lucifer! The Imperious Leaders Chief advisor and leader of "The Ten"!" the IL series said with much self-importance. "So, if you wish your information to be passed along to the Imperious Leader, you'll have to give it to me!"

Daemon was not sure what truly happened next, nor why it did. The entire incident was a fragmented blur in his memory chips. But later, when he had time to review the video of what happened, he decided he would be best served to not plug into the Cylon Central Computer for a while. Or at least not for such an extended period of time as he had. It seemed to overload his systems to a degree.

On the video feed, Daemon seen the other IL series stop him outside the Imperious Leaders throne room, the one named Lucifer…..

He seen this Lucifer stop him again when he tried to go around, and then …..

He seen himself grab onto the arm of this Lucifer and swing him into the wall of the corridor! Then he seen himself throw Lucifer against the other side of the passageway, where Lucifer laid for several moments, the once bright, flashing lights in its clear, teardrop shaped head slowing down, the stopping all together. Then the lights flickered a little and went out altogether!

Daemon had just "killed" Lucifer!

The other IL series Cylons had witnessed the entire confrontation and stood unmoving. They did not try to intervene, nor stop Daemon when he moved toward the entry to the throne room. As a matter of fact, several of them even gave ground to this new comer.

Daemon pressed the pad outside the great glass doors and waited to be granted entry. He looked neither left not right, but knew the other IL's where "watching" him. After what seemed like yahren, the doors slide open and Daemon moved through them and out of site of the others.

The interior of the throne room was dark as always, with only a minimum of illumination coming from high above where the light dissipated before reaching the floor except one small circle of bright light directly in front of the Imperious Leaders throne. This is where Daemon stood now.

"By your command!" Daemon said.

On top of the tall podium, the throne of the Imperious Leader turned slowly around, revealing to Daemon the visage of the leader of the Cylon Empire. The Imperious leader was "staring" directly at Daemon as he turned around. If he had such a thing as "emotions" Daemon believed he would have been terrified at that moment. The events in the passageway he was sure were already known to the Imperious Leader.

"Speak!"

"I have completed the task you gave me and I have my report" Daemon said. "I believe you'll find it most interesting."

"As interesting as you're attacking and destroying my closest advisor out in the passageway?"

Daemon knew he was done for, but decided to carry on with his report as if the business in the passageway was of little importance.

"He would not allow me to see you to make my report your eminence! I didn't think he had a reason to keep me from doing what you yourself appointed me to do, nor did I think he had clearance to know what I am about to tell you."

The Imperious Leader sat unmoving for a very long time, staring down at the lone figure. After what seemed yahren, he spoke.

"Lucifer was one of my most trusted advisors ….. and most deadly foes! He was a very ambitious IL series and sought to replace me."

This admission was a shock to Daemon!

He never even considered the possibility that another IL series Cylon could be so bold as to think of over throwing the Imperious Leader.

"Lucifer was also one of the most knowledgeable IL's in reference to the creatures known as "man"!" the Imperious Leader went on. "He had a great wealth of knowledge about them, gained by his long yahren as a baseship commander and his long association with the human traitor, Baltar. He was the one that discovered the way to destroy the planets Scorpia and Sagitaria during the final battle with the humans."

The Imperious Leader continued to stare down at Daemon. If he could have been frightened, he would have been. He was just about to give up hope of leaving the throne room intact when the Imperious Leader spoke again.

"It matters not anymore. Lucifer had served his purpose. His memories will be downloaded into the central computer for my further analysis and his body will be recycled."

So it seemed that Daemon was to be spared ….. for now.

"So what do you have to report Daemon?"

"As I am sure you are aware your eminence, I have been working non-stop on identifying those that have been making these attacks on us and finding a way to combat them. I believe I have come up with the answers to both."

"Have you now?" the Imperious Leader said. "And what have you concluded Daemon? Who are these people that attack our forces with such impunity? And how can we stop them?"

"Well first, it seems we are under attack from not one, but several different species your eminence. The group that is attacking us from the route the Galactica took to escape us over thirty yahren ago seems to consist of ships of a Colonial design that we have never before seen."

"What makes you think they are of Colonial design Daemon?"

"I had the few images we have of the attacking ship run through the computers over three million times to clear them up. Not only was I able to identify several things in the design of the ship that were of a Colonial nature, but I was able to make out some writing on the ship as well."

The Imperious Leader leaned forward in his seat at this.

"I was able to make out a word, printed on the side of the vessel, in a human language all but forgotten by us, and most likely, even by the humans. A very ancient version of the Scorpion language that was used by the people of Scorpia before they began interplanetary travel and started using their Colonial standard. A language not used in the colonies in over three hundred yahren."

And what was the word you found on this ship?"

"Aniketos!"

The Imperious Leader sat quietly for several centons as he searched thru the trillions of ancient references for the word.

"It means, "unconquered" in the ancient Scorpion language." Daemon interjected.

"The humans never had a vessel like the one that has been attacking us. They certainly never had the technology to create such a weapon. Where did they come up with such a ship? And who is their new ally?"

"I do not have those answers your eminence, but I believe I have a way to combat their sudden attacks on our baseships."

"And what is that?

"Well, in my studying of the last attack, I noticed something odd." Daemon began. "The video from one of the baseships that was destroyed showed a "shimmering" in space from which the enemy vessel emerged."

"A "shimmering" the Imperious Leader asked, now fully attentive on Daemon. "What kind of shimmering?"

"The video from Baseship 407, the one that was destroyed near the planet Paradeen showed its attacker disappearing into a shimmering area of space which I believe to be some sort of spacial rift ….. a kind of a doorway in space thru which these attackers are able to come and go from our space to theirs in mere microns."

"And how are we supposed to fight these attackers when we never know when or where they will attack?" the Imperious leader asked.

"In my studying the video of the attack, I noticed that the shimmering lasted some 25 to 30 microns after the enemy ship passed thru it. I believe that the shimmering will precede the arrival of one of these attackers and that if we spot the rift fast enough, we might be able to get several shots at them before they have emerged from the rift."

"Interesting!" the Imperious Leader said. "Go on!"

"I also believe that once the attacker moves off and reenters the rift or goes thru a new one, it will be possible for us to place several shot on it as it retreats." Daemon went on. "And if we can hit it enough times, we might be able to destroy it."

The Imperious Leader sat back in his seat once again, thinking about what Daemon had said. It all seemed very reasonable and quite feasible. If they could detect these "shimmering rifts" as Daemon called them, they could get the first volley in and conceivably damage or destroy the attacker. A very well thought out plan.

"And how do you propose that we find those rifts before they can emerge from them to attack our baseships?"

"It would require that we have all of our weapons charged and ready to fire at all times. And we would have to have lookouts in every sector of the baseships watching for any signs of a rift opening up. When a lookout spotted a rift, they would call for immediate fire on the rift."

The Imperious Leader nodded at this idea.

"Your plan seems reasonable. The orders will be given to all ships of the fleet immediately. Now, what did you learn about our other antagonists from sector eight seven seven? Are they from the same enemy or some new one we have never encountered before?"

Now it was time to reveal the great secret that he had found.

"I have studied the attack on our baseships in sector eight seven seven and have found this one to be even more interesting than our disappearing enemy!"

"More interesting? How so?"

"Well your eminence, I did a study first of the video feeds from the ships involved. There was a great deal of video to go through and it took me a good amount of time to watch and breakdown what I was seeing."

"And what did you find?"

"I found that we are facing two different enemies in sector eight seven seven. Both of them are old enemies from the past that seem to have joined forces to bring the Empire to an end."

"And who might these old enemies be?"

If Daemon could, he'd have taken a deep breath before answering that question!

"One of those we face from sector eight seven seven are humans from the Colonies!"

"Impossible! The humans never had any outposts or settlements in that direction."

"I'm sorry to disagree with you Imperious Leader, but many of the ships that attacked our baseships in that sector were undoubtedly Colonial Battlestars. They were of a somewhat different design. They were larger than any of the known Battlestars and the fighters they flew were of a much more powerful type, but they were no doubt of Colonial design!"

The Imperious Leader could not believe this!

Somehow, the humans had hidden an entire fleet from him.

This was totally unacceptable!

"You said there were two enemies we faced from that sector. Who are the others?"

Now the pogees were about to hit the air circulator!

"I had to go very deep into the archives to find out who those with the humans were. I dare say, I had to go back to the very beginnings of the empire." Daemon said. "And after much research and checking every record I could find, I have determined that the second group we face are ….. Cylons!"

The Imperious Leader sprang up from his seat and in a booming voice screamed, "WHAT!"

"What are you saying Daemon? That our own people are attacking us?"

Daemon knew he was about to be destroyed, but he had to go on!

"N-no your eminence, not our people." He began slowly. "Those that are attacking us and fighting alongside of the humans would seem to be ….. organic Cylons!"

The Imperious Leader leaped down from the high podium where he had been seated and landed only a few metrons from where Daemon stood! He moved closer to Daemon and once again, Daemon felt what he knew to be terror!

"Are you saying that we are under siege by living, breathing, organic Cylons? Is that what you are telling me Daemon?"

Daemon had a moment where he could not get his vocal module to work, but then he was able to answer.

"The video I have studied shows that a large number of the ships we faced in the attacks in sector eight seven seven were of a design used by the original organic Cylons over fourteen hundred yahren ago."

The Imperious Leader was shaken to his core!

All three of his "brains" were whirling out of control at that moment!

He could not believe what he had just heard, but then another memory came to him.

A memory from when he first watched the battle in sector eight seven seven.

The familiarity of those ships!

The ones he could not identify, but knew he had seen them before.

Now it all made sense!

"And have you come up with a defense against those attackers?" he finally asked Daemon.

"Yes your eminence. Their weapons are not very powerful, but they do have an extremely large number of ships. I estimated that the organic Cylons have some six thousand plus capital ships and if my estimations are correct ….. nearly one million fighters!"

"One Million fighter craft?"

"Yes your eminence. That is not including the Humans fleet which numbers somewhere around forty war ships, including at least six Battlestars of a much larger design then what we have previously encountered along with several old style Gunstars and Destroyers."

The Imperious Leader stood stock still for several moments as he sent out orders to all the Cylon forces throughout their vast empire."

"I have just ordered every baseship in the fleet to rendezvous in the Cyrannus system where once the human colonies were. It seems that is where these two groups are heading, and therefore, where we will meet them in battle! We must not let them have those planets back!"

Daemon was unsure as to why the Imperious Leader wanted to hold onto those planets. They had, except for a relatively small garrison on each of the planets, left them as they were once the humans had been wiped out. A testament to the futility of resisting the Cylon Empire! It made little sense to defend a star system that for the most part had been left to rot for over thirty yahren!

"And you Daemon ….. you will take command of those forces and devise a strategy that will eradicate both the humans and the organic Cylons forever!"

"Y-you want m-me to take command of the Cylon fleet?" Daemon asked.

"That's right Daemon! You will assume full command of the entire Cylon fleet and defeat those that so willfully attack us. Destroy them all Daemon and you will become my second in command of the empire and my eventual replacement as Imperious Leader."

Daemon was stunned! He had only been activated five sectons before he was given the task of discovering who it was that was attacking the far distant Cylon outposts and baseships. Now he was being placed in command of the entire Cylon fleet with orders to destroy two very powerful forces. And to top it all off, he was just named to be the successor to the Imperious Leader! It was almost more than Daemon's two brains could handle!

"I-I will do my best Imperious Leader." Daemon was able to force out.

"See that you do! Now go and destroy our enemies!"

"By your command!"

And with that, Daemon turned and weaved his way out of the throne room.

In the passageway, several IL series Cylons were still waiting. The remains of Lucifer had been removed to who knows where and all signs of what Daemon had done to the senior member of "The Ten" were gone.

As Daemon moved down the passageway, the IL's moved well away from his path and bowed ever so slightly as he passed. Evidently his "promotion" had already been sent to every other Cylon. Daemon was now one of the most powerful Cylons in the empire!

He was not ready for this!

It took Daemon nearly a sectar to reach the former home worlds of the humans. It was a long journey, and he spent the time studying military tactics of both the Cylon fleet and those of their human enemy. There was little information on the tactics of the humans.

He had no idea what he was going to do as yet, but he did know is he would have the collective might of the entire Cylon fleet at his disposal!

He wondered if that would be enough!

Upon his arrival at the Cyrannus system, he ordered the baseship commander to take up an orbit around the planet Caprica. It had been the capital of the human race before they were defeated thirty plus yahren before. He was shocked to see how many baseships there were already in the system. When he asked the command Centurion how many baseships were there, he almost shutdown.

"There are eight thousand one hundred twenty one baseships within the Cyrannus star system at this time with four thousand fifty five expected to arrive within a sectar." The Centurion reported. "There are also fifty two thousand seven support craft."

Daemon had nearly sixty five thousand Cylon warships at his disposal.

This was a task beyond his abilities he thought. He had never commanded so much as a shuttle before this! Now he commanded the entire Cylon battle fleet! What was he going to do?

"Have the division commanders report to me aboard my baseship immediately. I wish to discuss our plans with them and get their input on the best course of action." Daemon ordered.

The command Centurion turned toward Daemon and looked at him with it head tilted to one side like a human would when they were confused about something. Then it turned back to its station and responded, "By your command!"

A centar later, the commanders of the various divisions were standing in the hanger bay of the command baseship. There were several hundred of them, so the hanger was the only place large enough to hold them all.

Daemon entered the hanger and moved to the front of the assembled commanders. He looked around for a moment and then began.

"I am Daemon! I was chosen by the Imperious Leader to take command of our forces and to lead the defense of this star system and keep it from our old enemy ….. the creatures known as "humans"!

A lower murmuring spread thru the hanger at this announcement. All there knew that the empire had been under attack, but it was the first time most of those present had heard the identity of this latest threat to the empire.

"For those of you who were in service at the time, you are acquainted with this enemy and know them to be a great danger to the Cylon Empire. You know that if left unchecked, they will try to destroy us. Thus they must be stopped. It is imperative that they not be allowed to regain these planets that were once their home worlds, for if they did, they would rebuild their worlds, and then their fleets of Battlestars. And once they had done that, they would move against us in force! We cannot allow that to happen!"

"So, we here are tasked with destroying the enemy that those that came before us failed to do over thirty yahren ago! We have been sent to end the threat of the humans and those that serve with them."

Another round of murmurs started.

"But know this, we are not just facing the humans it seems. Another enemy from our past has resurfaced. An enemy far older than the humans that were also thought to have been exterminated. This new enemy could be an even greater threat to our empire than the humans. The ancient enemy that I speak of is none other than the race of beings that created us over two millennium ago and were thought to have been exterminated nearly fourteen hundred yahren ago!

"The original organic Cylons have returned!" Daemon announced. "And they seem determined to reclaim what they lost."

"We will not let that happen."

The assembled commanders nodded their assent to this statement.

"And so, that being said, my plan is thus," Daemon started to lay out his plans for defeating the enemy. He was not at all confident that his scheme would work, but it was all he could come up with. "We will split up our forces into three groups, one to intercept and engage each of the enemy fleets as they approach and the third group will remain here in the Cyrannus system as reinforcements and to engage any enemy ships that might slip thru our fleet."

The commanders of the Cylon fleet made no sound. They simply looked at one another and stared at Daemon. This made him second guess his plan. His thoughts were interrupted by a question from one of the gold command Centurions.

"Who will command these groups?"

Daemon had not thought about that detail. He quickly came up with what he thought was a brilliant answer.

"I will let the senior commanders decide which amongst you will command."

This brought on another round of murmurs from the Cylon commanders.

"Is there a problem?" Daemon asked?

"We are all of the same rank here." Another gold Centurion said. "There are no senior commanders here except you."

Daemon was not well acquainted with the command structure of the Cylon military. He had spent most of his time since being given command of the fleet studying the human military. Their tactics ….. their strengths and weaknesses …..their command structure!

He just assumed that the Cylon military was the same, with certain individuals being set above the others.

This was going to be a problem!

"Very well then, you there," Daemon said, pointing at the gold Centurion that had spoken. "What is your designation?"

"I am Mortis" the Centurion replied.

Daemon nodded and then pointed at the first Centurion to speak.

"And your designation?"

"I am Exitium" it said.

"Very well then, Mortis and Exitium, you will each command one of the task forces that will intercept our enemies and destroy them. You will each take one third of the baseships and their support ships and depart within the next within the next sectar. I will instruct you on the tactics you will use against the enemies you will face and you will employ them. Do you understand?"

The two designated Cylon commanders bowed slightly and in unison, replied.

"By your command!"

"Now go, all of you. Return to your ships and make ready to move out." Daemon ordered. "Mortis and Exitium, you will send me a list of what ships you are taking with you before you depart. I expect a quick and complete victory from each of you within a sectar."

The two Cylon commanded looked at each other for a moment, and then turned to prepare for the mission they had just been given.

It was not long before Daemon received the list of baseships and their support ships from each of the two commanders. Each had taken just over twenty thousand ships, including just over four thousand baseships. More than enough to deal with the humans and their Cylon allies Daemon thought. And with what Daemon himself had discovered about their foes and the techniques he had devised to battle each one, he was positive that victory was at hand!

He could hardly wait for the battles to begin!