The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 15
Apollo piloted the shuttle towards the planet Jolly said Boomer crashed on. The flight had an escort of three vipers and so far encountered nothing which could be considered threatening. He wondered who they had encountered and might have attacked Boomer after entering the atmosphere. He picked up no transmissions either which only added to the mystery of what happened.
“Apollo,” Brie’s voice said breaking his thought process.
“What’s up Brie?” Apollo asked having a feeling she had seen something due to the tone of her voice. She was always easily excitable.
“I’m picking up five craft in orbit around the planet we’re headed towards,” Brie stated surprising Apollo, he had not been paying attention as he should have and now had to think of what to do next.
“Keep an eye on them and be ready for anything,” Apollo said turning towards Jolly. “Are they the ones who attacked Boomer?”
“I have no idea, never saw them when I went into the atmosphere,” Jolly replied back to him leaving the mystery to deepen.
“”Sheba, Bojay?” Apollo said.
“Yeah, we see them,” Sheba said. “You want us to scout on ahead?”
“No, we’ll stay together,” Apollo replied.
They continued on towards the planet keeping an eye out for the any movement the contacts took. The tension of the situation took over as they were all ready to react. Apollo didn’t want to be caught like Boomer had. He also wanted to know who they were and why they attacked a scout who posed no threat to them and he hoped he wasn’t leading them into an ambush.
*****
Niobe and the second group flew around the planet this time and saw no signs of any ships like the ones which had attacked them on any of the previous flights of the Falcons. Of course the fact they saw nothing only increased their nerves. A quick glance at the fuel levels indicated they could fly around the planet again if they needed to.
She started to call everyone to start to head back when a blip appeared on her scanner. It made her nervous as she watched it for several seconds silently praying it would only be an asteroid or an anomaly, anything but another ship. The contact changed direction indicating it was not an asteroid and appeared to be on a controlled flight.
“Flight squad, heads up, we have incoming,” Niobe reported to the rest of the group as she continued to watch her scanner.
“What should we do?” a voice said a bit panicky.
The question caught her off guard as well. What could they do she thought to herself as she looked on. If this was an attack they had too few fighters to defend themselves, and if it was an attack they were probably outgunned as well. No one had any experience in combat and had a feeling they were woefully outmatched in every category.
“Rick, head to the planet’s surface, tell DE that we’ve encountered a new group of contacts but are unsure who it is,” Niobe said as another thought suddenly came to her. “It might be a rescue group for the human who was shot down earlier, but we need to be ready for both.”
“Yes ma’am,” Rick replied turning his fighter back towards the planet’s surface.
“The rest of you form up with me, we’re going to see if we can identify who they are,” Niobe ordered unsure she wanted such a responsibility. They lined up and started heading out.
*****
Sheba watched her scanner as the group of fighters circled the planet with no indicating they had been spotted. That changed when one fighter broke off and headed back into the planet’s atmosphere and the others started to head towards them.
“Heads up,” Sheba called out to the group, but they probably already knew. “Looks like we’ve been spotted.”
Everyone watched their scanners as the distanced between the groups closed. Sheba and Bojay positioned themselves in front of the shuttle in a defensive position while Brie would remain with the shuttle. They knew what to do, the question remained what would happen next.
Sheba felt the tension rapidly reaching a breaking point. Her scanners indicated the incoming group had yet to break off yet they knew nothing about what their intent would be. The uncertainty of the situation made things uncomfortable. She would rather be staring down a phalanx of Cylon fighters than in this situation.
On the shuttle Apollo, Jolly and Starbuck were just as tense, with Starbuck having joined them in the shuttle cockpit. If things got ugly they would have to try to get away as fast as possible leaving the vipers to engage.
The distance closed down and the group was in weapons range of the vipers. No one fired a shot, waiting to see what might happen next.
“Apollo, look,” Starbuck stated pointing to the scanner.
Apollo looked down and felt a bit of a shock at what he saw. “I see it, but I don’t believe it.” Now even jolly was looking seeing it as well. “Sheba, Bojay, Brie, hold your fire. Their human!”
*****
Niobe felt nervous as the approaching ships closed the distance between them. Her first reading indicated only one ship, but now she had four ships closing in. She had already given the others instructions not to fire. She didn’t need the situation made worse with an errant weapons fire if they were non-hostile.
As the ships drew closer they were finally in range of the weapons and she repeated her order to not fire. They might be able to gain some answers with this, like who was attacking them.
“This is Captain Apollo to unknown ships,” a voice over the communicator suddenly said startling Niobe. She jumped tightening her hand over the trigger causing her weapons to briefly fire a burst of bullets towards the oncoming ships.
The approaching ships broke their formation accelerating faster than anything Niobe had seen yet, nor could they follow. One of the ships opened fire shooting red bolts that exploded all around them but none hit them. A few others opened fire but Niobe noticed they were very different than what had attack the Machine City.
“Everyone, cease fire, cease fire at once,” Niobe screamed into her communicator.
It took a few seconds but finally everyone stopped breaking away from the group and Niobe hoped that whatever had happened no damage had been done and they unknown group still wanted to talk.
*****
Apollo opened up a communications with the incoming ships not expecting them to open fire. A brief firefight occurred which caused Sheba and Bojay to break off, neither of them returned fire even as he heard her say the weapons seemed ineffective.
He heard her call out a few more times to cease fire, which took several microns. Fortunately the one doing most of the firing had been Brie, who had some of the worst aim among all the pilots making Apollo feel thankful no one had been destroyed.
Apollo glanced over at Starbuck who merely shrugged back at him.
“Think we can try again?” Apollo asked.
“They are human,” Starbuck replied back to him.
“Good point,” Apollo replied, but before he could say anything a hail was heard.
“This is Niobe, who are you?” the female voice asked.
“Well, they seem to want to talk,” Starbuck stated.
“This is Strike Captain Apollo, of the Battlestar Galactica, we’re here on a rescue mission to recover one of our pilots,” Apollo replied waiting for a response.
“Is he human?” Niobe asked, a strange question to Apollo.
“Yes,” he replied back exchanging a glance with Starbuck and getting some hope up.
“Then you didn’t attack us?” Niobe asked, causing Apollo to frown in confusion. Had they walked into another war?
“No, this is only our second visit to your planet,” Apollo replied, wondering where this conversation was going. The last thing they needed was to drag the fleet into a warzone. They waited for several microns causing Apollo to wonder what was going on.
“All right, follow us, but if you make any move to attack we will fight back,” Niobe finally replied back.
“Understood,” Apollo said, he had no intention of fighting. The only thing he wanted to do was rescue Boomer and head back to the Galactica. He thought of something else, and decided that the Galactica and the commander should be warned as well. The last thing they needed to do was worry over this too much. “Sheba, head back to the Galactica and let the commander know what’s going on. He might want to consider a course correction to avoid another war zone.”
“On it,” Sheba replied turning her viper around and heading back to the fleet.
He watched as the other fighters didn’t do anything to stop her as they continued on to the atmosphere of the planet.
“Follow us down, you might want to strap in, it gets bumpy, and our defenses are much better once we get below the clouds,” Niobe said and he heard the warning in her voice.
“Right behind you,” Apollo replied.
He piloted the shuttle into the clouds and realized she was right. The shuttle bounced a bit and he noticed how full of static it was. He decided the quicker they found Boomer and left the better.
*****
Sheba raced back to the Galactica as fast as her viper could take her. They encountered another group of humans, something the commander would want to hear for sure. Part of her wondered if they were like the Terra group, and what groups were fighting for control over the planet. It seemed like they had encountered one group which was at least willing to talk to them.
She also had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to trade for anything on the planet, from the far scans she had seen the planet was covered in a thick electrical storm and she wondered how anything lived under it and looked forward to what Apollo told her.
Reaching the halfway points she suddenly spotted fast moving white balls of light zipping past her viper and returning back. She frowned wondering what they wanted even as a familiar piercing sound seemed to fill the cockpit.
The shrieking became louder and louder until she passed out. Her last thought was what were they doing here? She never saw the large white mother ship approaching her ship rapidly. The ship closed the distance and brought the viper on board.
*****
Apollo looked around at the ground as they broke through the clouds covering the planet, the sight in front of him was not what he expected to see. He noticed a large city of some sort, unlike anything he had ever seen before. There were hundreds of strange crafts with multiple arms almost as if they were waiting for them to make a wrong move. The vipers had some superior weaponry, but these would easily overwhelm them.
“Very, interesting,” Bojay said.
“Not sure I like this,” Brie replied back.
“Everyone stay calm and follow them down,” Apollo stated to them calmly. The last thing he wanted was for someone to get trigger happy and start something they might not survive.
Reaching the ground he noticed that a small group of humans were waiting for them. The sight of them made him uneasy, along with how the city seemed to be laid out and operating. He wasn’t able quite figure it out, yet but hoped it came to him quickly.
“Apollo, is it me or does this city seem strange to you?” Starbuck asked as he too looked around outside the window echoing Apollo’s own gut feelings of what he saw.
“No, been thinking the same thing,” Apollo replied back as he continued to look around, hoping to figure out what he thought was wrong with the situation.
He saw a lot of high technology all around him, most of which he didn’t recognized at all, yet other pieces of technology seemed almost primitive compared to what they had back in the fleet. Perhaps they might be able to do some trading with them after all?
The shuttle landed and the group inside were unsure what type of reception they might get. Apollo and Starbuck walked out first leaving Jolly with Cassiopeia in case things got ugly. With a glance he headed out of the shuttle.
End part 15