Warhawk

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Warhawk
Warhawk
A book of the Richard Hatch line
Book No. 2
Author(s) Richard Hatch and Christopher Golden
Adaptation of
No. of Pages {{{pages}}}
Published September 1, 1998
ISBN 0671011901
Chronology
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Armageddon Warhawk Resurrection
Paperback Version
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Audiobook Version
Available at iTunes – [{{{itunes}}} Purchase]




"Warhawk" is a Colonial term refering to a military overlord. The term is indeed a reference to Commander Cain who was a character who appeared in "The Living Legend" episode of the TV series, and subsequently was believed to be killed in a battle with Cylons at the end of the episode. However in the story of Warhawk, Apollo leads the Galactica to the planet Poseidon, believing it to be one of the outposts of the fabled 13th tribe. Instead, Poseidon is a planetary fortress of Cain who had surived the confrontation with the Cylons, and since then had joined up with a small lost fleet of ships that had fled the Colonies at the time of the massacre before establishing a base with them on Poseidon. Apollo and his followers are overjoyed at finding Cain but the celebration soon becomes sobered once Cain's ambitions, which are contrary to the Galactican mission of finding the Earth, are finally revealed.

Apollo learns that Cain has turned Poseidon into a vast armaments facility which is in production of a war fleet. There is something of a power clash between Cain and Apollo, as Cain wishes to go on the offensive against the Cylons. Apollo opposes the notion and is shocked to find that Poseidon is under martial law. There are other shocking developments, as it is revealed that Cain is trying to make allies with a mysterious warlike race known as the Chitain, who appear to have an agenda of their own. These developments result in Apollo leading Starbuck and Boomer on a diplomatic mission to the Chitain homeworld, leaving the galactica under the command of Athena.

But unknown to the Colonials, the Imperious Leader is hot on their heels due to receiving their coordinates from the mysterious Count Iblis. All this results in a climactic space battle as the Galactica goes on the offensive.

There are also new additions to the BSG saga such as new weapons like the viper-duet - a type of viper bomber developed by Cain's military. Also there are new aliens such as the Chitain who are an insectoid/reptillian race, that are equipped with scorpion-like stingers, and who seem to "glide" on snake-like trunks.

Cain appears to be a very militaristic and brave anti-hero among the Colonials. In the novel Cain requests advice from Colonial prisoner Baltar about the reptillian Cylons and their genetic make-up. Cain exudes delight upon hearing from Baltar that the Cylons, despite their cybernetic implants, can indeed feel pain and suffering, and he swears to Baltar and present company that he will make the Cylon race suffer for it's crimes against humanity.

With regards to Baltar, Hatch uses a touch of revisionism when it is explained how Baltar managed to be in control of a Cylon baseship in the "Armageddon" novel. Hatch ignores the final TV episode "Hand of God" where Balter was released by Adama in return for providing him the information about a Cylon baseship that was threatening the Galactica. In Warhawk, Hatch rewrites Galactica history by explaining that Balter merely escaped from the Colonials by bribing a prison warden before stealing a viper and flying back to the Cylons.

In Armageddon, Hatch explains that the Cylons are organic (which corresponds with the original concept of the Cylons before the studio-execs interfered and had them re-written as fully mechanical robots for the TV series). But in Warhawk Hatch backtracks a little and pays some lip service to this studio concept of the Cylons by providing some exposition explaining that the organic Cylons did create some fully mechanical drones to augment their military near the end of their thousand year war with the Colonials.

In the Warhawk novel it is revealed that Count Iblis is the Cylon Imperious leader. This contradicts the previous novel where Iblis himself explains to Apollo that he had only helped the Cylons in their evolution to being reptillian cyborgs but that he did not interfere in their affairs. It also contradicts the TV series where Iblis did not have any control over the Cylons and their empire.