Adama and the Artemis
Post-Exodus, Second Cylon War, Battlestar Galactica
The Twelve Colonies of Kobol were gone and it had happened in a single day. The Colonial Fleet had been caught off guard by a massive Cylon surprise attack. Now all that remained of the human race were the civilians on board the sixty-four civilian and those Colonial Fleet officers and non-commissioned officers on-board the last Colonial warship the Battlestar Galactica.
Galactica had served in the first Cylon War and had been close to being decommissioned and being turned into a museum when the Cylons had struck. Now the Galactica and her fighters were all of the Colonial fleet that remained to defend the remaining civilians. Because Galactica had been close to decommissioning the ship had no ammunition for its guns they had been forced to stop at a Colonial base called the Ragnar Anchorage while there the Cylons had attempted to ambush the Colonials but Galactica had stood firm against the Cylon onslaught and the fleet had escaped.
Commander Adama, commander of the Galactica, had called for members from across the fleet to assemble on Galactica to pay respect to those who had died on the Twelve Colonies and in the more recent battles with the Cylons. Afterwards Adama had given a rousing speech to give their people hope he had spoken about a secret location known as Earth, the mythical thirteenth colony of mankind, a place that new Colonial President Laura Roslin had heard of all her life but always in religious story or myth.
Now she sat with the Commander in his quarters as he tried to catch a meal the man who had defied the Cylons to survive, the man who had defied his own instincts to protect the civilian fleet instead of chasing down every last Cylon and now the man who had lied to everyone in this fleet. "There's no Earth, you made it all up" she said pausing. Adama stopped eating and glanced towards her "President Adar and I once talked about the legends surrounding Earth. He knew nothing about a secret location regarding Earth" she pointed out "and if the President knew nothing about it, what are the chances that you do?" She asked Adama slowly closed his jacket.
"You're right there is no secret colonial location of Earth." He said stepping towards the bookcase removing a small book "however there is an Earth." He said holding the small brown book embroider with a Colonial seal.
"You are so convinced of that? So convinced on that dream that you are willing to lie to our people?" She asked angry that he would take such a leap of faith. From what she had seen of him Roslin did not see him as a religious man.
"It's not a dream I saw something during the First Cylon War that convinced me Earth is real. I'm not entirely convinced that it ever left this ship but it never stopped me believing." He said defensively turning back to her handing over the small book "this is a report of what happened that day. I hadn't long arrived on board Galactica but I'd been assigned Blue Squadron and had been assigned to CAP duties. We had been assigned to Sectors 10, 11 and 12 keeping an eye on Cylon threats. It was in Sector 10 when we encountered it..." He said his words merging with the words of the report as Roslin read.
Sector 10, CAP Patrol off Battlestar Galactica, Ten years into the Cylon War
"Keep up Husker this old crate might just beat you home" Croaker the ECO aboard the CAP's Raptor called out. There were two Vipers and a single Raptor in the CAP Coker Fasjovik had been Adama's ECO during his first mission and had come up with Adama's call-sign "Husker" which the entire flight group on board Galactica had adopted.
"Keep dreaming Coker" Adama said "I could run rings around you."
"Both of you keep your eyes open" CAP leader Lt Rodney "Rat" Tanner called out from his own Viper. The Viper's sensors were less effective than the Raptors but a pilot's eyes could be just as effective.
"Eyes are open Rat" Adama answered glancing around his cockpit seeing nothing special.
"Well my sensors are always on" Coker replied
"But his eyes are always closed" the female Raptor pilot replied
"Ouch now that hurts, Heats" Coker replied. When Amanda "Heats" Rush had joined the squadron she'd tried to convince Coker that they should have more than a professional relationship however Coker only had eyes for his wife Katie. "Wow, we've got something" Coker replied as his screens lit up to the right of their formation.
Adama looked out his the right side of his Viper's canopy window seeing a contact, it was like nothing he had ever seen before, there was two of them they had what looked like a ball cockpit with small wings spaced evenly around the hull on each of these wings was an engine pod. They were a good bit shorter than Colonial Vipers and the lack of wings and control surfaces probably didn't mean they'd be very good in an atmosphere, if they were even capable of atmospheric flight. "What the hell are those?" Adama whispered before regaining his composure "I don't recognise their design, pirates?" He asked wondering if the pirates that had sprung up during this war could have produced something so radical, or so clean, they looked almost factory made which was unheard of in pirate hands.
"I don't know but we need to report them to Galactica" Rat ordered "my long range communications are down "Coker, how's yours?"
"Pretty broken, we're being jammed," Coker reported after several moments of trying "we've got contacts coming up behind us!" He called out a warning but it was too later before either of the Vipers or the Raptor could react several blue bolts flew past them. Coker rushed to the rear window of his Raptor "two more of those things." He called out "and I don't think those bolts were fairy lights" he said grimly. "We have incoming communications!" He said darting back to his communications console each of the pilots heard a series of words none of them recognised.
"This is Lt Rodney Tanner to unidentified fighter craft this is Colonial Government claimed space you have no reason to be in this region of space and no authority. Identify yourselves now or we will consider you to be hostile." The CAP's lead pilot said the response was a series of words Tanner could not make out. "Rat to Husker, we need to turn and burn these guys. Coker, you are going to be our diversion get on the rear gun and light up the space."
"Coker, Rat, I'm on it say when L-T. Say when" Coker replied moving back to the rear fighters he could see what looked like helmeted heads in the fighters cockpits. Fighting these pilots wouldn't be like fighting Cylons it would be living beings dying on both sides.
"All right in three...two..." Tanner said beginning to count down in all three ships the Colonials readied themselves for a fight with the unknown. However before Tanner could finish a female voice broke in.
"Lt Tanner, this is Captain Sarah Richards, the commander of the EAS Artemis" she said in awkwardly spoken Caprican. He couldn't be sure but it sounded almost artificial "you have violated our defence zone. Any false moves will result in your destruction. We will be leaving this area soon." She said out of the corner of his cockpit Adama could see the first pair of fighters they had seen peel off arcing out of sight. Moments later a far larger vessel slip into view the first two fighters flying alongside it in escort positions.
"Oh my Gods!" Adama shouted out alarmed "Rat, Heats major contact to starboard raising fast." He said as the ship raised its hull was of a similar tone to that of a Battlestar but that was where similarities ended the ship was easily as long, or longer than, the Galactica.
Unlike the Colonial Battlestar it had a thin hull with slopped upper armour sections that was dotted with several weapon turrets. The nose of the ship had a series of external sensor and communication arrays while mid way along the hull on a raised section of the hull were a several dishes that Adama guessed were used for communications or sensors. The rear of the hull was far thinner than the front of the ship with an almost scaffolding-like support structure. Further weapon turrets preceded a bulky engine area at the far rear.
"Our rear contacts are moving off" Coker said after a couple of moments "Rat, do I fire?" He asked for conformation.
"Negative" Tanner replied watching the fighters fall into formation with the larger craft and the first two fighters matching their speed and course.
"Fighter craft this is Artemis, we don't mean you any harm, for now we need to remain separate." Richards said as the larger ship quickly changed course taking it away from the fighters ahead of the craft a blue swirling vortex opened.
"Oh my gods!" Adama said for the second time not believing what he was seeing as the massive ship entered the vortex the two smaller fighters followed the larger craft into the vortex without hesitation. Once all three craft were completely within the vortex the disappeared as if it had never existed. "No-one will ever believe this."
Post-Exodus, Second Cylon War, Battlestar Galactica
"And no-one ever did" Adama said with a small smirk as Roslin closed the book. "The CAG and the Commander of the Galactica at the time wrote it off as sensor ghosts and a pirate force that didn't want to be tracked." He explained
"Even with all this?"
"Further teams went into the area in the days that followed" Adama explained "they found nothing. It was all rapidly buried Commander Nash said 'he would not send a report to Fleet Command stating that his fighters did not engage a raider contact.' We all received extended CAP duties for a month as well as additional assessments by the CAG."
"The man should have been court-martialed this ship and its potential technology could have been a major threat to the Colonies!" Roslin said angry at the incompetence that Adama had described.
"The Fleet was a different place" Adama said "we already faced threats that we were struggling to cope with. Nash simply wanted to make sure we remained focused on the enemies we could fight. Forty years later and our contact in this book" Adama said taking the book back from Roslin "has never returned. To my knowledge there has never been another encounter." He said stepping back to the bookcase putting it back in its place.
"But you still believe they were from Earth?" Roslin said Adama nodded "and now we are going to chase after potentially a more dangerous group of people than the Cylons?" She pointed out as Adama turned back towards her.
"These people didn't mean us any threat." Adama said convinced "if they are out there we will find them and we will find Earth."
