Armageddon

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This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Richard Hatch continuation separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

Armageddon A book of the Richard Hatch line
Book No.	1
Author(s)	Richard Hatch Christopher Golden
Adaptation of
No. of Pages	{{{pages}}}
Published	August 1, 1997
ISBN	0671011693
Chronology
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None	Armageddon	Warhawk
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Audiobook Version
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Armageddon is the first novel in Richard Hatch's continuation series, published 1997.

Twenty years after the fall of the colonies the Fleet has long since left the Cylons' behind. Or have they? As Commander Adama's health fails Starbuck and Apollo encounter Cylons on a recon patrol. Starbuck is shot down and seemingly killed.

Soon after Adama dies and Apollo is left in temporary command of the Fleet. But a Cylon fleet is closing in and the evil of Count Iblis is rising once more. He also faces internal strife and a nagging certainty that Starbuck isn't dead.

Summary

Chapter 1

• Captain Starbuck and Lieutenant Commander Apollo are investigating the Binary 13 star system. Apollo is piloting a Scarlet Viper. As they approach Binary 13, Apollo wakens Starbuck from his sleep period.
• Starbuck reveals that he spent two cycles aboard the Rising Star winning at games of pyramid. He brought himself ambrosa, which earns a friendly chiding from Apollo: he pretends he didn't hear that, as he'd "hate to report [Starbuck] for launching while altered".
• Apollo tells Starbuck that Ochoa is their target, explaining to him the extraordinary nature of the planet. Starbuck voices concern about the potential instability of the planet, despite the fact that the sensors do not detect seismic disturbances. He makes a crack about recon missions not usually "risking my neck".
• Apollo replies that Starbuck's risks his neck every time he flirts, play triad with cadets, cheat at pyramid, or launch in "that antique Viper" of his.
• At Apollo's order, Starbuck sends a narrow-beam message to Galactica, informing them that they have arrived and are going to perform a recon orbit of Ochoa before landing on the planet.
• After a minor course correction, Starbuck comments that he wants the recon taken care of, so that he can continue his "long-delayed furlon", and mentions that he's saved up enough cubits from his last game to buy a bottle of ambrosa for himself and Cassiopeia.
• Starbuck also relays that Athena tells them not to waste time, as Adama has taken ill. Despite Athena's plea of not wasting any time, Starbuck assures his friend that Adama's fine. Apollo pushes forward, despite his concerns about his father.
• The two Vipers are experiencing problems getting detailed readings on the planet; Apollo voices his belief that they are being jammed. Starbuck brushes this off as paranoia, but Apollo believes that they are being jammed; he also assumes that the occupants on Ocoha may be jamming them in a defensive manner.
• As they close in on the planet, Apollo gets detailed readings about Ochoa, a planet rich in mineral and tylium resources. It is also inhabited, and he's found the source of the the jamming: a techno center on Ochoa's furthest axis. What ever jammed them has stopped doing so, Apollo orders his onboard computer to broaden the scan of the entire sector.
• Starbuck urges Apollo to continue on. Apollo replies that he senses danger, hostility and familiarity. Starbuck replies that he thought Apollo was "done with that mythical feldergarb (sic)"; Apollo briefly retorts that his intuition is neither "feldergarb" or mystical, but purely scientific in exercising the mind and its power.
• Apollo is resolved to warn the Fleet, but realizes he cannot simply send a message that could be traced back to the Fleet's location. As they continue their approach, they are attacked by a phalanx (12) of Cylon Raider, having not seen the Cylons in the past six years until then.
• Apollo is sided by a laser hit, but the shields on his Scarlet Viper shrug it off. Between them, they destroy three Raiders, making a full-thrust flyby of the planet in order to make a detailed scan of what's down there, discovering that it is, indeed, a Cylon base. The remaining Raiders gain on them as Apollo scanned the base.
• After executing a "divide and conquer" tactic, Apollo destroys the five Raiders that pursued Starbuck; Starbuck had taken out three of the four. Before Apollo could destroy the fifth Raider, it released a volley of laser fire that destroyed the apex pulsar of Starbuck's Viper. It impacted with the remaining lone Raider, destroying the Raider in the process and allowing Ochoa's gravitational pull to grab a hold of Starbuck's Viper, dragging it into the atmosphere.
• Apollo detects another phalanx launching from the planet, and is forced to leave as he is severely outnumbered. He believes Starbuck to be dead, and weeps.

Chapter 2

• Three weeks have passed since Adama had his first cardiac seizure and the Battle of Ochoa. Since then, he has been in and out of consciousness, however it is known that Adama himself is now dying.
• Athena is at his bedside, keeping vigil. Others of his family had come to visit, but he is incapable of recognizing or acknowledging them.
• A second seizure occurs, which results in Adama awakening, lucid and smiling. Apollo and Troy (Boxey's real name) are present during this period. Adama asks that he be moved to his quarters and that they not concern themselves with him, but with their responsibilities to the Fleet.
• Adama asks for "Boxey", who kneels by his side, and asks what he can do to ease Adama's pain. Adama tells Troy that "one day, you may command this fleet", and gets Troy to swear to him an oath that he will dedicate his life in service to the Lords of Kobol.
• After tousling Troy's hair like Adama did when Troy was a child, Adama's begins to lapse into a coma, his last response being that of a throaty laughter, and his pronouncement that "the light has come, Athena. The Lords have come. Kobol is so close now. I hear their voices."
• Since falling into a coma, he is moved back to his quarters, with Athena still attending to him, during which she thinks about her father and Starbuck. Meanwhile, Apollo and Troy meet with Tigh, who was Adama's president-by-proxy to the Quorum of Twelve as the members of the Fleet are now fearful for they had no clear line of leadership. After Athena hums a lullaby to Adama, she falls asleep after laying her head on Adama's chest.
• Athena is awakened by her brother, after which she discovers that Adama has passed away. Both siblings have a discussion, where Athena claims that "we always knew you were his pride and joy", which Apollo dismisses, claiming that she was both a soldier and born diplomat, traits that their father greatly admired in her.
• After consoling one another, they leave to tend to the needs of the Fleet, but before doing so Apollo tells his father that he can now rest, and that his great burden has been lifted.
• At Adama's private wake, his immediate family, in addition to Tigh, Cassiopeia, Boomer, and Cassiopeia and Starbuck's daughter, Dalton, pay their respects before the funeral.
• After they had paid their respects, Cassiopeia tells Athena that Adama gave her more support, understanding and encouragement than her own father did, and offers to do anything for Athena. Athena, however, changes the subject, first discussing Dalton and how she graduated from the academy early, making her the youngest graduate and Colonial Warrior in the Fleet. The conversation turns sour when Athena mentions that Starbuck planned to spend two weeks of his furlon with Cassiopeia. After a heated exchange, Cassiopeia reveals that the reason she left Starbuck many yahren prior is due to the fact that Starbuck, the "man he was at his core, the courageous and giving person beneath the facade, that man always belonged" to Athena.
• After the conversation, they mend fences, knowing that now that Starbuck is dead, there's no need for their rivalry to continue unabated, and that while they may not be friends, they both lost something and that it was time to move on.
• During the funeral, Apollo receives many condolences from mourners, and some odd attention due to his choice of Warrior's clothing; as he is descended "the pure blood lineage of the Lords of Kobol", he "has greater access to certain areas of the brain than other humans", and is thus able to become more sensitive to the emotions of others. It is also the reason why his father, apparently, had been able to be the commander he was, since he was empathic to others' plights.
• As he continues to participate in the funeral, his mind is weighted by command, seeing how it affected his own father. He also thought of Starbuck, reflecting on their friendship and how, if it were not for Starbuck's insistence, he would likely never have been friends with Boomer.
• Tigh, who was voted as President of the Quorum in an emergency session less than a centon after Adama's death, presents an eulogy. After Adama is buried in space, his casket launched through the launch tube, Tigh announces that the Quorum has revoked the state of war and thus assumed command of the Fleet, while they deliberate on who shall become commander. Despite Apollo's lack of diplomacy, having offended members of the Quorum at one time or another, he is appointed as Galactica's Interim Commander, until the Quorum casts a final vote one way or another.
• This announcement comes as a surprise to both Apollo and Athena, as neither were consulted beforehand. Additionally, Tigh himself did not consider Athena for the job, at all.

Changes

The story picks up about eighteen years after "The Hand of God" so there are some major changes.

• Commander Adama dies in the opening sequence of an heart attack.
• Tigh has now retired from active service and is the president of the Quorum of Twelve after Adama's death.
• Apollo holds the rank of lieutenant commander, having been promoted from captain. He becomes temporary commander in aftermath of Adama's death. During the events of the past eighteen years, he is driven by developing mental powers. He sets out to rescue Starbuck and defeat a Cylon armada. By the end of the book he is made full Commander, on the condition that he can keep flying Vipers.
• Starbuck is a captain. He still continues his maverick ways, although he fathered a daughter, Dalton, with Cassiopeia. Eventually lived with Athena for some years before she threw him out when he asked to marry her. Has bounced between the two ever since.
• Athena is a lieutenant colonel and second in command of Galactica, and she considers herself capable enough to become Commander.
• Cassiopeia had a daughter with Starbuck but married another man, who goes unnamed. She divorced him some years before, though she appears to have reconciled with Starbuck since this. She and Athena still don't get along.
• Sheba is now a major. She is an active pilot as well as pilot trainer, and still believes her father Cain is alive.
• Boomer is also a major, and also teaches pilots.
• Baltar is still in command of a basestar, presumably after being rescued after Adama dumped him on a nearby planet soon after "The Hand of God".
• Lucifer is still Baltar's advisor and second in command, although Lucifer ascends to command the basestar at the order of the Imperious Leader, thus relieving Baltar of command.
• Omega is still in the service.
• Boxey is now known by given name of Troy. He was the youngest to graduate flight school, but Dalton has since broken that record. He may have feelings for Dalton. The only one who still called him Boxey at this point was Adama.
• Dalton is Starbuck and Cassiopeia's daughter. She is said to have her mother's looks and her father's cardshark and piloting skills. It is rumored that she was rushed through flight training because she won everybody's money.
• Muffit II is not mentioned.
• Pegasus is the battlestar that is still presumed destroyed in action. Sheba believes it survives, although there is no evidence for or against this belief.
• The Fleet's numbers have dropped slightly as ships have broken down for good or had to be canabalized to fix another. Some groups have settled habitable worlds along the way. (It is unknown whether the Cylons have found any of them.) There is a movement within the Fleet to break off and colonize the nearest habitable planet rather than go on to Earth.
• The Cylons have not been seen in six yahren. However they are still around and they may be changing.
• Count Iblis has not been seen since the Fleet's last encounter in "War of the Gods, Part II", but for a being as old as him that may not mean much.

Notes

• This series led to a further six books (as of 2006), these stories continue the series and do not hold Galactica 1980 as canon. Nor are they, in and of themselves, canonical to the Original Series.

• However, one of the few things to be held over from Galactica 1980 is the fact that Boxey is the nickname of Troy, who is also a Warrior.

• The rank of lieutenant commander is established. The rank is higher than captain. Apollo holds this rank at the beginning of the novel.

• The rank of lieutenant colonel is also established, apparently lower than a full colonel. Athena holds this rank in the book, having been promoted from lieutenant.

• The word felgercarb is misspelled "feldergarb" thorughout the book, with the exception of the glossary.

• A "phalanx" is defined as 12 Raiders.

• Caprican burial tradition stipulates that the immediate family of the deceased would attend in a private wake-like ceremony prior to the funeral.

• Adama revealed Apollo and Athena's Kobollian heritage to Apollo ten yahren prior.

• Tigh hails from Leonis; his people are called Leonids. In addition, Tigh is the only Leonid to have served as the Quorum's President.

• Richard Hatch played Apollo in the Original Series and plays Tom Zarek in the Re-imagined Series.

• The book includes a glossary of terms on page 310, the unique (or different) terms from which are located at List of terms (RH).

Analysis

• Apollo makes an incorrect comment regarding the fact that the ambrosa waiting for Starbuck has "been fermenting for six hundred yahren". As it stands, unless the Fleet has found another ambrosa refinery like Proteus, there should be no ambrosa over 500 yahren old, since this did not exist for the Colonials of the Colonies, as established in "The Long Patrol".
• The book implies that more than one Agro Ship is in the Fleet, however all but one of the Agro Ships are destroyed in a Cylon attack in "The Magnificent Warriors".
• The life span of a human from the Colonies is stated to be 120 yahren. However, Adama in "War of the Gods" tells Apollo that "our life span, now, Cylons notwithstanding, is about two hundred yahrens".
• The gaffe nonwithstanding, given that Hatch's books define a yahren as "250" days, the life expectancy of a human of the Colonies is 30,000 days. With that number by the days in an Earth year -- 365 -- this brings the Colonial's life span to a little over 82 Earth years. This is just a decade and a half more than the average life expectancy of humans on Earth, which is, as of 1998, is reported to be 67 years; Japan itself held the highest mortality record, with an average life expectancy of 81 years.
• Ironically, like the television series itself, the use of terms for time (for instance, "years" instead of "yahren") varies between the Earth equivalent to the Colonial equivalent in the text.

Questions

• It is mentioned that an antique clock is "the one thing [Adama] had salvaged from the ruins of their home on Caprica". Did Adama not take the pictures of Zac, Ila and his family that were in the box that survived the Cylon attack as well?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Starbuck replies to Apollo's mocking of his "antique" Viper:

Apollo: You risk your neck every time you flirt, or play traid with the cadets, or cheat at pyramids (sic), or launch that antique Viper for that matter.

Starbuck: That's different. I'm a Warrior, not an idiot. There's no way, as I see it from my limited knowledge of science, that Ochoa could not be unstable. Oh—and I've had enough of you mocking my ship. She's kept me alive this long, and I don't need a shiny new toy.

• Apollo remembers a piece of advice from his father:

Adama: Love and compassion are not liabilities, but strengths upon which to draw. A Warrior has nothing to fight for if he does not allow himself to love, and be loved in return.

Original Series definition: a title of nobility (e.g. Count Iblis)

Re-imagined Series definition: popular Colonial ball game, see: pyramid

Original Series definition: a card game, similar to poker (see: pyramid)

Original Series definition: a form of coined currency (see: cubit)

Original Series definition: an expensive alcoholic intoxicant (see: ambrosa)

Re-imagined Series definition: mineral that can be refined to a powerful fuel, see: tylium

Original Series definition: a highly combustible fuel (see: tylium) ^{(TOS: "Fire in Space")}

Original Series definition: region of space or planet, see also Quadrant. Usually named after a Greek letter (space sectors), or a geographic formation on the surface of a planet (geographic sector, e.g. Sector Hekla on the planet Arcta")

Original Series definition: unit of time akin to a "year" (see: Yahren)

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

Original Series definition: agriculture ^{(TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors")}