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"Doomsday Rock"
Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978 (Grandreams)
Author Unknown
Artist Unknown |
An asteroid heads straight for the
Galactica!
Story Summary
On the bridge of the Galactica, Athena detects a large object in
the distance of space, heading towards the fleet. The bridge
crew soon identifies it as an asteroid. But, as they alter
course to get out of its path, the giant rock does so as well,
keeping the battlestar on its trajectory. They realize someone
must be guiding it on a collision course. The rock is too big to
take out with the ship's lasers, so Commander Adama orders two
vipers out to set an atomic charge on the celestial body to
destroy it.
On stand-by are Starbuck and Boomer, so they get the mission.
They head out to the asteroid and, circling behind it, discover
a Cylon craft using a powerful tractor beam to maneuver the
giant rock, guarded by three Cylon Raiders. The two warriors
make short work of the Raiders, but Boomer's Viper is damaged.
Starbuck sets down on the asteroid and lowers the bomb onto the
ground with a timer of five minutes to allow him and Boomer to
make a getaway. But Adama's voice cuts in over the intercom
with a report that a flight of 20 Cylon Raiders are coming up on
them.
Starbuck finishes programming the bomb and finally launches off
of the asteroid. He catches up with the partially crippled
Boomer as the Cylons begin to pass the asteroid and head towards
them. Suddenly, an atomic explosion rips the asteroid into
pieces, taking the Cylon squadron with it. "The charge went off
early!" cries Boomer.
"No..." Starbuck replies, "...twenty against two are odds I
don't like...so I decided to shorten the odds...and shorten
the timing too! I set it for one minute, not five. So it didn't
go off early...it went off just on time!"
THE END
Notes from the BSG chronology
This seemed to be the appropriate place to put this story since
the Cylons had earlier tried to collide a basestar with the
Galactica in "Collision
Course", so they may have decided to try again with a less
expensive object and, also, we learned that the Cylons are
capable of moving an entire planet in the novelization of
"The Gun on Ice
Planet Zero", so it should be no problem for them to move an
asteroid as they do here.
Didja Know?
This story appeared in the British
Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978, a book of short stories, articles, and
games all about BSG,
geared towards kids.
Didja Notice?
Page 1 suggests that the approaching asteroid is still millions
of miles away from the fleet. But then Adama orders Vipers
launched to destroy it. So Vipers are capable of travelling
millions of miles without refueling?
Page 5 of the story indicates that Vipers are capable of
carrying a bomb that can be dropped (or set, as is the case
here).
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