Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 2

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Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 2 An issue of the Dynamite series.
Issue No.	2
Writer(s)	Tony Lee
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Penciller(s)	Aneke
Inker(s)
Colorist(s)	Alex Starling
Letterer(s)	Marshall Dillon
Editor(s)
Collection Design	{{{designer}}}
Cover Artist(s)	Ardian Syaf (Cover A) Sergio Fernandez Davila (Cover B)
Adaptation of
Published	September 10, 2014
Collects
Collected in
Reprints
Reprinted as
Pages	{{{pages}}}
ISBN	725130219275
Population	0 Survivors
Special	{{{special}}}
Chronology
Previous		Next
Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 1	Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 2	Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 3
Purchase
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Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at Things From Another World - Purchase

Summary

As the Colonial Fleet gather together under Arch-Duke Adama, Athena and Starbuck find themselves captured by the pirates of the Rising Star! Will Apollo and his friends defeat Professor Baltar's Cylonic Knights - and what secret will they discover? Come with us on this Steampunk re-imagine of Battlestar Galactica by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tony Lee!

Plot

Aethership Galactica

• Archduke Adama castigates Fleet Admiral Tigh for allowing Athena to pursue Starbuck's help to rescue Crown Prince Apollo.
• Adama is interrupted by a communication from Lord Cain aboard Pegasus. He takes the call, believing it to be false.
• Cain reports that they're "broken, but not out" as he reports that Baltar's army approaches Gemini.
• Tigh informs Adama that out of the approximately eighty ships, about ten to twenty have fighting capabilities. Summarily, Adama orders the conscription of any and all fighting personnel into the Colonial Army to meet Baltar's fleet at Gemini.
• Tigh is told by Adama that Tigh's decision best be the right one where Athena is concerned, otherwise he'd have both their heads.

Rising Star

• As Queens Cassiopeia and Sheba quarrel, Starbuck turns the odds back into their favor: Muffit deploys Starchaser's cannons. Firing mere test cartridges at the quarrelsome Queens and their crews, Starbuck and Athena make their escape.
• A dubious Athena boards the craft, while Boxey mans the firing controls noting that he's "never felt so alive." He asks Muffit if they could use real ammunition, to which Muffit replies in the negative.
• Leaving Athena's bubbleship behind, they depart leaving the Queens behind. The Queens are aware that Starbuck used blanks against them, and believe that he'll be dead soon enough; they bet two hundred credits that they kill him first.

Helia

• Proteus lands on the planetoid Helia and the Cylonics unload their prisoners, including Crown Prince Apollo and Lieutenant Boomer, passing by Baltar's Centurions as they disembark. Boomer tells Apollo about the Centurions, and notes that so many have been built as they are Baltar's weapons of mass destruction to be used to destroy the The Twelve Colonies.
• Prior to exiting the craft, a Cylonic Knight orders them to wait. As they wait, an old man makes himself known to Apollo; Apollo is reintroduced to Count Iblis, who offers Apollo and his friends a way to escape certain death on Helia in exchange for being able to accompany the younger Warriors.

In The Aether

• The quarreling Queens of Rising Star pursue Starchaser into the aether.
• Starbuck tells Athena that he may have dated both at the same time, without telling them—ergo their considerable annoyance on display.
• Starbuck pilots Starchaser towards an asteroid field, releasing mines and dissuading both ships from pursuing.
• Cassiopeia informs Sheba that a mine has damaged her cavorite shell and they are dead in the aether. Sheba takes advantage of this by instructing her crew to open fire on Cassiopeia's damaged ship.
• As the equally-matched quarreling Queens engage one another, Starchaser probes deeper into the asteroid field. He feels that the field is familiar, and asks Muffit for a damage assessment: they're venting air. Starbuck seeks to find a place to land, so they may effect repairs.

Helia

• Iblis extracts a power module from Boomer's prosthesis; Iblis is constructing a weapon from various prosthetics and parts taken from the other prisoners.
• Jolly confides his distrust of Iblis to Apollo, to which Apollo replies that keeping one's moral standards is questionable after the long-term imprisonment that Iblis has been subjected to.
• Iblis presents his "one of a kind" retroblaster, informing Apollo that it only has three shots at best. Apollo takes the weapon and begin acting upon their escape plan.

Asteroid Belt

• As Starbuck affects repairs on Starchaser, he asks Muffit to run a scan on the geological composition of the asteroid, seeing as he cannot shake a feeling of familiarity.
• Meanwhile, Athena asks when they can resume their search for Apollo. Starbuck replies that they'll be able to do so in microns, and that he knows where Apollo would be taken to: Helia, an abandoned Colonial prison mining planet where Baltar acquired the materials used to construct the Cylonics.
• Muffit completes the analysis, informing Starbuck that they are on the remains of Carillion.
• Starbuck and Muffit make haste back toward Starchaser's landing ramp, but are intercepted by surviving Ovions.

Helia

• Apollo expends the last shot from the retroblaster upon a Cylonic Knight, while Iblis hot-wires the door panel.
• The prisoners make their way out and Apollo goes to aid them, but Iblis holds him back. He tells Apollo that all lives are expendable, except for the Crown Prince's to prepare for the eventuality of Adama's fall.
• Apollo refuses to accept Iblis' words and goes to aid the prisoners as the Cylonics slaughter them, while Boomer and Jolly make their way to the hangar in the hopes of using Proteus to make their escape.
• They storm the hangar, finding Proteus gone and another wave of Knights closing in on them.
• Iblis is able to short out the local network and disable the clockwork Knights, explaining that with Lu-c-fer gone the control of the local Cylonics reverted to said local network. Unfortunately, the tactic isn't usable on the babbage computer itself.
• During Apollo's questioning of Iblis, the greater secret is revealed: Baltar did not create the Cylons—both Iblis and Athena had. Apollo is shocked to learn this, but is distracted when informed that another ship has been found.

Aethervoid

• Galactica and a group of six ships—all that could be spared from protecting the surviving fleet that they had left behind—make haste to Gemini.
• Adama calls Cain, who claims that the Cylonics are depleted and Pegasus is holding its own. Buoyed by this, Adama tells Tigh that he fears too much, and orders them to phase back into the aether.
• As the group phases back into the aether, they fall under attack by a Cylonic force. Much to Adama's horror, the call was a ruse orchestrated by Baltar, and the small force faces an overwhelming contingent of Cylonic ships.

Notes

• Following the author's admitted Star Wars nods in the story, Starbuck's entering an asteroid field to evade the quarrelsome Rising Star's Queens, Cassiopeia and Sheba, and setting down for repairs is inspired by Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Analysis

• Athena's role in the creation of the Cylonics is not common knowledge, not even to her own brother. This fact has clearly been suppressed, and it is likely that Adama and the Quorum had a part in that, otherwise she would have fallen victim to the "clean up" that Jolly and Boomer experienced after the Battle of Carillion.
• Iblis appears very protective of Apollo to the point where all other lives are expendable. His motivations are not without self-serving interest.

Questions

• What are the fates of Queens Cassiopeia and Sheba?
• Will Starbuck make amends toward the Queens?
• How were the Ovions able to survive? Did they have available stockpiles of resources that survived Carillion's destruction?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Starbuck tells Athena how he managed to annoy Queens Cassiopeia and Sheba so deftly, as they are pursued through the aether by said Queens:

Starbuck: I may have dated them.

Athena: And? There has to be more!

Starbuck: Both at the same time. Without telling them.

Athena: And you tell me this now?

Starbuck: It didn't seem important!

• Apollo attempts to help the revolting prisoners against the better-armed Cylonics:

Iblis: No, Crown Prince. You need to do nothing. You need to survive in case your father has fallen. All of us are expendable. You must live.

Apollo: The Hades I am. I'm a soldier and these are my brothers. Fight or run. Your choice. I choose to kill some clockworks.

• Baltar springs his trap on Adama at Gemini:

Baltar: Oh, I'm afraid Lord Cain isn't here right now. He hasn't been here since we blew him from the aether. It's just you and me, Adama. Well, me—and a few thousand of my children.

Adama: I've killed us all. We're the last aethership—and if we fall, so does the Empire!

Related Imagery

Covers

Even though the covers are not identified with letter designations on the cover identification sheet inside of the issue, they are used below for consistency and order purposes.

• 
  Cover A Main colorized cover.
  Art: Ardian Syaf
  Inks: Guillermo Ortega
  Colors: Kyle Ritter
• 
  Cover B: Starbuck Concept Art Incentive Cover.
  Art: Sergio Fernandez Davila
  
• 
  Cover C: Apollo Concept Art Incentive Cover.
  Art: Sergio Fernandez Davila

Preview Pages

Please Note: These are used for promotional purposes by the publisher, and are provided here in the same vein.

• 
  Page 1
• 
  Page 2
• 
  Page 3
• 
  Page 4
• 
  Page 5

Original Series definition: a title of nobility (e.g. Lord Baltar)

Re-imagined Series definition: battlestar landing bay mechanism that arrests a landing Viper, Raptor or other small craft ^{(TRS: "Final Cut")}