Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse 2

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Issue 2 An issue of the Dynamite series.
Issue No.	2
Writer(s)	Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Penciller(s)	Carlos Rafael
Inker(s)
Colorist(s)	Carlos Lopez
Letterer(s)
Editor(s)
Collection Design	{{{designer}}}
Cover Artist(s)	Michael Golden, Pat Lee, Carlos Rafael, Jim Starlin
Adaptation of
Published	March, 2007
Collects	Jim Starlin Virgin Cover Incentive Carlos Rafael Foil Cover
Collected in
Reprints
Reprinted as
Pages	{{{pages}}}
ISBN	[[Special:Booksources/|]]
Population	0 Survivors
Special	{{{special}}}
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Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse 1	Issue 2	Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse 3
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Overview

After the Colonials fight off a Cylon boarding party, they investigate the strange substance at the center of a mysterious Cylon internal civil conflict.

Summary

• A stealth Cylon stealth team had followed Starbuck and Apollo from their patrol and investigations on a uninhabitable watery planet. The Cylons attack Galactica with a boarding party.
• Adama is worried that the Cylons may have detected the Fleet's presence in the Korax nebula, and orders all Vipers to launch as a precaution. Colonel Tigh notes that no other Cylon presence has been detected.
• Apollo radios in from the science deck. He, Starbuck and Dr. Wilker are trapped on the science deck; the Cylons are deliberately approaching their location and are attempting to break in.
• While Adama orders a special Warrior group, the D-Com team, to help, Apollo realizes that they are pressed for time; the Cylons will be in the room in thirty microns.
• Starbuck has a plan: "Why don't we give them what they want?"
• Starbuck has one pocket grenade, and the lab has environment masks. Starbuck surmises that the Cylons will expose this area to the vacuum of space soon, so they might as well take the tactical advantage in helping the Cylon's entry along. Starbuck asks Apollo if he's carrying his grappling gear.
• Just as the Cylons are about to enter the lab, the lab's door explodes from Starbuck's grenade. Starbuck and Apollo, wearing the environmental masks, zip by the Centurions as they are pulled towards the hull breech and space, but are held inside by their grappling gear.
• The Warriors begin blasting the Cylons. Apollo sees one Centurion arming an explosive and performs an artful series of weightless maneuvers using his grapple.
• Punching and kicking other Cylons on his way, Apollo gets to the Cylon and throws him out through the breech, where both Centurion and his explosive detonate harmlessly.
• Starbuck's environmental mask has lost its air, and the Warrior is losing consciousness. Adama's D-Com team, led by Sheba, get to the area to assist.
• Adama orders repair crews to the science lab and heads to the Life Station to see his son's condition.
• Sheba finds one Centurion, clinging to an interior strut in the ship. The Colonials have a prisoner-of-war.
• Boomer and Adama try to interrogate their Cylon prisoner, but Boomer notes that a force field they have set up around the Cylon's imprisoning chair is designed to cut off the Cylon from communicating with others of his kind. The Cylon's programming may also have failsafed, switching off the Cylon to prevent interrogation.
• Adama orders Boomer to note any changes or attempts to communicate, and to destroy it if it becomes aggressive. Boomer notes (as a dozen other armed Warriors move aside to allow Adama to leave the room) that they will have no hesistation in destroying their prisoner.
• On Tessida, Viceroy Abbadon reports to Imperious Leader Barkol of his efforts to rid his city of the "infidel" Cylons and their experiments. Barkol questions Abbadon's efforts, warning him that any leak of information about the infidel's experiment could mean the downfall of the Cylon Empire.
• Starbuck awakens to find Cassiopeia tending to him. He mistakenly calls her "Aurora", inciting an return insult by Cassiopeia for reminding her of the events on the Rising Star and Starbuck's "old flame".
• Dr. Wilker explains the strange substance brought back by Apollo from Burania. The substance is a nano-cybrid, a biological and nanotechnological substance that was intended to revert any Cylons it comes in contact with to return to their original reptilion state (a state that the Cylons willingly abandoned to become a fully robotic race, thousands of yahren before).
• But the nano-cybrid doesn't work as designed, and Dr. Wilker wants to experiment on the Cylon prisoner to confirm his theory.
• Later, when Starbuck approaches the Cylon with the nano-cybrid sample, the Cylon reactivates and warns not to come closer; the Colonials interpret the Cylon's reaction more to fear.
• The tiny sample is dropped on the Cylon's body, and the Centurion reacts violently, exploding and imploding into a massive black monsterous mass, a fusion of Cylon parts and biologic goo. The Colonials fire on it, with several of them getting smacked about by the being before extensive fire stops the rampaging goo.
• Later, Apollo asks Dr. Wilker if the nano-cybrid can be transformed into a weapon. Adama asks Wilker to leave for a moment to discuss matters with Apollo.
• Adama is worried that the use of the nano-cybrid as a weapon to destroy the Cylons could bring about an "apocalypse". Apollo counters that the Cylons themselves are the apocalypse, noting that 70 million humans, including his mother and younger brother are dead because of the Cylons.
• On Tessida, the Cylons receive a communication from the Colonials on the Cylon's gamma frequency, inviting the Cylons to a peace negotiation. Abbadon orders a flight of Raiders to the site of the transmission, allowing Abbadon to speak with Adama and stall any movement of his ships before Abbadon orders Adama's destruction.
• Abbadon takes the aggressive approach, asking Adama's image if he is calling to arrange terms of surrender. Adama responds that the Cylon should identify himself or start talking of the Cylon's own terms of surrender.
• Adama tells him that the Colonials have the nano-cybrid. Meanwhile, Abbadon's forces approach the vicinity of the Korax nebula and the transmission.
• As Abbadon tells Adama that the nano-cybrid is the work of "the infidel", Adama tells Abbadon that he is offering the Cylons a chance to move aside to allow his Fleet to pass--a diplomatic gesture that the Cylons did not give the Colonials not long before. Adama tells the Cylon to cease hostilities and submit their fleet to a holding area where they can be monitored by the Colonials later.
• As Abbadon prepares his answer, his strike force finds a Colonial shuttle at the coordinates, but no one is aboard. Abbadon's answer is "no peace, no mercy."
• Apollo looks on at Adama, who now feels that he has given the Cylons a chance to surrender.
• His "conscience" now clean of any lingering guilt, Adama orders the weaponization of the nano-cybrid into bombs to attack Tessida.

Analysis

• The Re-imagined Series episode, "A Measure of Salvation", also finds Admiral William Adama, like his Original Series counterpart, weighing the consequences of inflicting genocide on the Cylons in his universe with a ancient human virus that President Laura Roslin wants to weaponize to destroy all of their pursuers as a race, once and for all.
• As does Apollo in this comic, Apollo's Re-imagined Series counterpart, Lee Adama, thinks of the idea of weaponizing their biological discovery and has no hesitation in using it.
• Admiral Adama's conscience is somewhat cleared when he requires President Roslin to give him a direct order to use biological weapons, a tactic normally forbidden by their Colonial laws.
• As Apollo and Adama debate the morality of mass destruction of the Cylons, they speak of "gods" (plural). This contradicts the Original Series notion that God (singular) co-existed with the Lords of Kobol (see the dialogue in the article, Seal). By the episode "War of the Gods", however, the usage, powers and dialogue surrounding the Beings of Light and Iblis adds to further confusion in intepreting the nature of the Lords of Kobol in the religion of the Colonials.

Alternate covers

• 
  Michael Golden cover.
• 
  Pat Lee cover.
• 
  Lee sketch cover.
• 
  Jim Starlin cover.

External links

• Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse 2 - Regular Edition
• Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse 2 - Foil Edition

Original Series definition: an all-purpose term for Colonial soldier and Viper pilot (see: Warrior)

Galactica 1980 definition: a safety device that restrains the Viper pilot in their seat ^{(1980: "The Return of Starbuck")}, Troy and Dillon refer to the invisibility field as thus ^{(1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I")}