Second Face of Evil
by AJ Marks
Part 6
The bridge of the Pegasus was full of activity as the crew went about their duties for combat. They were all a bit nervous about what was going to happen. Apollo sat in the middle of the bridge in the command chair watching. He would have liked to have Starbuck leading his viper squadrons but he was still helping out on Earth.
“Hel, take us in nice and steady,” Apollo said calmly. “All vipers prepare to launch.
“We’re getting a communications from one of the Earth ships,” Athena said to him.
“Put it through,” Apollo said having been expecting something. He felt no surprise when he saw Admiral White’s face on the screen. “Admiral White, how can the Pegasus help?”
“Commander, what are you doing, the battlestars don’t have any shields,” the admiral said quickly.
“Helping in this battle, and our armor is quite advanced,” Apollo said wondering if the admiral would accept his help.
“Don’t you have a fleet to protect?” John said to him.
“Don’t get me wrong Admiral White, you have a gallant crew and military, but your fighters are outnumbered and I’m not sure they are used to fighting in such actions, we are. Our anti-fighter weapons are much better than yours,” Apollo said to him.
“This isn’t your fight commander,” John said to him.
“Admiral, if Earth falls then we have nowhere else to go,” Apollo said. “Now, we’re here to help, where can we help out?”
Apollo watched John think about it for several more seconds, probably having an internal conversation inside his head.
“All right, just remember your hips don’t have the shields our do so be careful,” John said.
“Don’t worry,” Apollo said as he received a spot to head to. Now he had to address the crew. “All weapon systems active, close blast shields, and use manual to target incoming fighters.”
Apollo did not want to shoot down their allies, it might not look good.
The Pegasus made its way to a position like an ancient giant armored knight. Lacking the shields of other ships some might have mistakened it as obsolete, at least until its weapon systems opened fire. The space around the Pegasus became a fighter killing space as vipers launched to help out
Apollo directed orders on the bridge on where the battle needed to go. He kept the Pegasus out of the main battle at the moment and wanted to avoid getting too much damage. The viper pilots sped in and out through the battle destroying large swathes of alien fighters easily moving from one target to the next with calm precision. Apollo knew they were still in for a long battle ahead.
*****
“Commander,” Omega sad from where he was sitting. Tigh made his way over to see what was going on and to see if the Pegasus had started to engage.
“Well, now we wait,” Tigh said seeing the scanner and the fact the Pegasus had engaged in the fight. “Anything from Commander Apollo?”
“Nothing yet commander,” Omega said. “We are noticing a large number of fighters engaged by the Pegasus”
“Keep me informed,” Tigh said, nervous for the outcome of the battle. He committed a battlestar for the battle and hoped it did not backfire. They would need the ship for the upcoming battles against the Cylons as well.
Tigh made his way back to his command chair to continue to wait. He hoped nothing unexpected happened.
*****
Ziers sat in the shadows of the large tree thinking about everything. He knew there was a battle going on in space. He had been approached by several senators of Earth already who were not pleased with how things were being handled which meant he might have allies.
“Councilman Ziers, good to see you,” a voice said causing Ziers to look up. Two Earth councilmen were standing close by.
“Have a seat,” Ziers said with a motion of his hand to some of the other empty seats.
“Thank you,” one said as they sat down. They sat in silence for several long seconds before Ziers finally said something.
“It’s obvious you want something,” he said in a low voice to avoid being overheard.
“Quiet right,” one said. “Smith was right, you are perceptive.”
“There is a problem, and it has everything to do with the current government. We think Hillar is concentrating too much on the threat the aliens might pose,” the other man said.
“Don’t get us wrong, they are a threat,” the first man said. “Perhaps even more than you’re Cylons, but we have enough firepower to stop any threat to Earth.”
“Not sure about that,” Ziers said, suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation. He always wanted power but to underestimate the Cylons was to be foolish.
“We’ve defeated your enemy once before, we can do it again,” the second man said unconcerned with the Cylons.
“And now we need your help,” the first man said looking directly at Ziers.
He looked back and it became clear they were not the ones in charge, but the messengers. In order for him to figure out who that was he had to play along.
“All right, what type of help?” Ziers asked seeing the game about to begin.
“Its simple, we plan on doing away with the current President, we control the vice-President,” the first man said. “Once that happens then we’ll be in a position to help each other.”
“And where do I fit in with all of this?” Ziers asked, unsure how he could help with such actions.
“You’re fleet’s arrival messed up our plans. Hillar was supposed to make a trip to New Newport for the opening of the spaceport for the Fourth of July festival. Now we have a different plan in place, that’s where you come in. You can get him down there,” the second man said to him.
“What’s in it for me?” Ziers asked. So far he heard nothing which benefited him, or the fleet.
“After Hillar is out of the way, you would be the direct contact between our two people,” the first man said.
Ziers gave it come thought. Their plan gave him little incentive. He already was the man for Earth to talk to regardless of who controlled the Earth government. As he thought about it another plan came to him, one which could expand his power both in the Council of Twelve and here.
“One condition, I want to meet someone higher up, I don’t make deals with messengers,” Ziers said, watching the shock on both men’s faces.
“How do you know we’re not the leaders?” the second man said.
“Simple, you’re acting like messengers, besides, the real leader would not risk meeting with me without testing the water, its how I would operate,” Ziers said with a smile watching them.
“We’ll see,” the first man said as they stood.
“I look forward to it,” Zier said, watching as the two men walked away.
*****
Starbuck turned the corner before jumping back a bit taking Boxey with him. He quickly held up a hand to shush Boxey before he could say anything. Peering around the corner Starbuck watched as Ziers sat with two other men under the shade of a tree. From the expressions Starbuck felt sure they were up to no good.
He was curious about who the two others were. He did not recognize either of them and hoped that Ziers had not managed to gain some new allies here as well. The Councilman had done some questionable things lately.
“Ah, Starbuck,” Boxey finally said gaining Starbuck’s attention.
“Shh Boxey,” Starbuck said, waving his hand while still watching Ziers. Boxey seemed to be getting impatient over something.
“Hi there,” Starbuck heard a female voice say behind him
“Um, hi,” he heard Boxey reply back.
“Is he all right?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s always a bit crazy,” Boxey said.
Starbuck turned to see Boxey talking to a cute young woman and quickly got an idea. Grabbing her hand pulled her forwards despite a yelp of surprise by her.
“Hey, listen, I don’t know what type of customs you have where you come from, but here they’re different,” she protested even as Starbuck pulled her forward and Boxey stood there in shock.
“Do you know those two men over there?” Starbuck asked, looking over where Ziers was talking to the two men in question.
“What?” she replied, confused about the question by Starbuck who repeated it. She looked at him then back at the men in question for several seconds.
“You know who they are?” Starbuck asked going with a hunch.
“Yeah, don’t like them. Their names are Kevin grotto and Jim Torbe,” she replied.
“Thanks,” Starbuck said leaning against the corner for several seconds thinking about what he might do.
“Interesting friend, he always do that?” the woman asked Boxey.
“Like I said, he’s crazy, by the way, I’m Boxy, normal,” Boxey said to her.
“Renee.”
Starbuck watched as the two men walked off before getting an idea himself. “Boxey, stay here, I’ll be back,” he told him before taking off after the two men himself.
*****
“Sir, we can’t continue the battle at this pace,” the captain of the Pacifica said causing John to look over at him.
“I know,” John finally said, but was running out of ideas. The missiles sent against the mothership had not done enough damage and most exploded harmlessly against the outer armor. He knew that to end the battle they had to destroy the mothership.
The only real positive had been the losses had gone down since the arrival of the Pegasus and her fighters. The thing in the back of his mind was the fact there was a second mothership outside the system.
“Get me an inventory of all ordinance of all ships, especially those who have nukes left,” John said.
He felt the Pacifica rocked by another hit. Reports came in about the damage which was again limited. John looked down at the screen as the answer to his question started coming in, and he was not happy. Most nukes had been fired in the first couple of minutes of battle. The Pacifica had none left.
None of the nukes had made it inside the motehrship, most exploding outside on the armor or just near the entrance to the hangar. He toyed with the idea of bringing in the second fleet.
“Sir, what about the Colonial ship, the Pegasus?” one of his aides asked.
John sat there for a couple of seconds wondering if the Pegasus might have something on board. It was a warship that fought other ships. It had more than defensive firepower.
“Get them on the line,” John ordered, glad he did not have to wait too long before Apollo’s face appeared. “Commander, what’s the Pegasus’ capability against other capital ships?”
Apollo appeared a bit confused by the question. He did noticed Apollo give the question some serious consideration before he answered.
“We have a compliment of anti-ship missiles, why?” Apollo asked.
“We’re almost out of ordnance of anti-ship missiles,” John replied back to him. “We need to knock out that mothership to end this battle.”
“What about the missiles you fired, none of them did anything?” Apollo asked.
“The nukes needed to get inside the ship, most exploded on the outer hull and near the hangar entrances,” John replied back to him. “They need to get inside to work.”
“Our missiles are designed to penetrate armor, the Cylons use armor all the time, but these aliens might have thicker armor,” Apollo said, taking a second to look down at the scanners. “But we might have a weak spot, it might be a plan.”
“You have an idea?” John asked, wondering what their scanners had picked up. Were the scanners able to analyze unknown ships?
“Our missiles can destroy the armor, and you can send your nukes in to destroy the interior, but we’ll need to get in closer to fire the missiles,” Apollo said.
“Then we do it, if you’re up for it,” John said, seeing Apollo ready to do.
John ordered several ships to clear a pathway for the Pegasus as the Pacifica joined in. the Pegasus was faster than any Earth ship and the few ships with nukes were close by ready to fire when an opening was formed.
“Fighters, your primary mission is make sure the saucer ships do not fire their primary weapons, the vipers will provide cover for the Pegasus,” John said as the groups began to work together.
Apollo stood on the bridge watching as the range closed. Explosions were going on all around the battlestar. He noticed a few more of the saucer ships had been disabled by the Earth fighters, but most were too far away to be a problem for the Pegasus.
The alien fighters were a bit slower than the Cylons were, it was the fact they were so numerous. He continued to watch the range hoping to get close enough for a perfect shot.
“In range,” Athena said.
“Fire missiles one through four,” Apollo said, pushing the fire button.
Four large missiles streaked out of the launch tubes from the Pegasus and raced towards the mothership. Apollo hoped their aim was true. Due to the war against the Cylons they had not given the missiles any sophisticated firing controls. They were fire and forget and head in a straight line, something the Cylons could not override with their computers.
On board the Pacifica John watched the missiles streak towards the mothership. The speed was faster than any missiles Earth had. Small explosions occurred on the surface of the ship, and though smaller than the nuclear explosions the damage was far greater. All four penetrated the armor leaving massive, gaping holes into the interior of the ship.
“Tell all ships to target the openings and fire,” John ordered. Several ships replied as they began their retreat away from the mothership.
Several missiles entered the ship through the holes before exploding inside the ship. A giant chain reaction occurred deep inside the ship as the power core went critical and the ship was destroyed in an explosion.
John breathed a sigh of relief as the ship was destroyed. He still had several saucer ships to take care of, but with the mothership destroyed it was a much easier fight.
End part 6