Armageddon

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
Previous		Next
None	Armageddon	Warhawk
Paperback Version
Available at Amazon.com – Purchase
Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at BOOKSAMILLION.COM - Purchase
Available at Half.com by eBay - Purchase
Audiobook Version
Available at iTunes – [{{{itunes}}} Purchase]

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 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.

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.

• 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, which can be 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 years old, since this did not exist for the Colonials of the Colonies, as established in "The Long Patrol".
• 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.

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.

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

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