BSG Game XIII: 8/20 "All My Past and Futures"

[Chris]

Fleet Population at start of game: 48, 887

Raptor 256 containing Billy, Eva, Kareem, Jimmy, Delphina, Jake, Benjamin, Ares, Thorn, Bruno, and two detainees (from Cecilia's mob) returns to the civilian ships to give Thorn urgent medical care. She is in critical condition when they get permission from Cloud Nine to dock. Isabella Alvarez has seized the ship in Algernon and Spartozza's absence and greets them, albeit carrying an assault rifle. She lets med techs take Thorn away ot the med bay, but Ares crowds them. When Jake tries to remove him, they both fly off the handle and Ares must be knocked out to avoid further harm. Before he is, though, he activates cylon "push" and throws Eva across the flight deck with preternatural strength. A deck hand tries to pull a weapon to detain who he can only assume is a cylon, but Jimmy and Delphina stop him. Billy intervenes to keep them from going too far, and the situation is defused by Billy and Senator Farris.

Bruno and the two detainees remain on the Cloud Nine, as does Thorn in the med bay, as everyone else boards raptor 256 to scout the presumed Earth in greater detail. The civilian ships unde rIsabella's urging say they are returning to the Galactica to take their chances with what is happening there between the Galactica and the Pergasus. The groups gives Isabella the jump coordinates to Earth and tells her to tell the fleet to follow.

Once orbiting Earth again, Raptor 256 homes in on the signal of the song coming from the planet's surface and lands in a city. Signs outside the city are in several languages, some of which can be read to say: "Shanghai, 37 miles" and the like. The city, like all the cities on the planet, are long-dead and decrepit. Many building are collapsing and everything in open air is covered in a thick blanket of ash and dust. Radiation levels require anti-radiation gear and anti-RAD meds. Communications and scans are dampened a bit by the ambient radiation.

In the building that is apparently broadcasting the signal, relatively recent footprints are found. The footprints in the ashes go deep into the building and only inside, not back outside. These tracks and the signal of the song is tracked to a sub-basement room whose door is closed. The group prepares for a fight and carefully opens the door.

Inside the room is:
-Communications equipment run via a generator in the room. It is tinnily piping the song out to space. The comm equipment reports a ping of "echoes," which are either long-range scans incoming or the remnants of recently jumped-out ships, so the group assumes there are long-range scouts sweeping the planet.
-A table with a poloroid photograph, a hand-written note, and an antique revolver.
-Four chairs in which sit four dessicated, skeletal remains.

The bodies are seemingly shot through their heads. The note reads "Jump into the river. There is nothing to fear and nothing to doubt." The photo depicts Kareem and Eva with their arms around each other, facing the camera, and Billy can be seen in the mirror behind them, holding the camera.

There is some increasingly tense discussion about what to do before Senator Farris recieves a signal form the comm gear he took form the raptor. The Galactica and the reunited fleet has arrived in orbit around Earth. The group asks Delphina about the contents of the room, and she explains that Jimmy's information is incomplete: the missing cylon, #9, is not completely lost. He rebelled as a result of the cylon's decision years ago to prempively attack the humans. He took many of the late-model cylons with him long before this copy of Jimmy ever woke up, let alone escaped. Under pressure, she says that he took with him three Base Stars...and a Resurrection Ship. She says that these people would have downloaded if that ship was in range, but this place is out of range of any known normal cylon Resurrection Ships, but apparently not the rebel one.

Kareem prays to the gods and Delphina joins him in prayer to her own god. As discussion about what to do or tell Galactica continues, the Galactica reports multiple DRADIS contacts. The group pulls-up a DRADIS signal on the room's comm equipment and sees eight Base Stars jump into range of the Galactica, the Pegasus, and the civilian ships. Over the communicator, the Galactica reports that both Battlestars and several civilian FTL drives are disabled by initial tactical strikes. Several civilian ships are destroyed before most of them jump away. A handful are stranded but defended valiantly by the Galactica and the Pegasus.

As the cylons begin launching nuclear strikes and the DRADIS screen flashes white, Jimmy snaps into action. He says the rebel cylons are the only chance, however slim it may be. He demands the revolver that Eva picked up off the table and its ammo. She gives it to him and he aims the gun at her head. She just closes her eyes and seems to be on the same page as Jimmy, but Senator Farris tries to stop him. A tussle begins, during which Eva turns her own shotgun on herself. Senator Farris is shaken and flees the room. Billy asks Jake to shoot Billy and Jake does so, and Kareem shoots himself after making peace with the gods. Ares turns his weapon on Jake, but Jake is able to shoot him before being shot himself, and Eva turns her own shotgun on herself. Jimmy shoots himself during the chaos, leaving an unwilling and very much alive and terrified Delphina with the two humans, Jake and Benjamin.

The humans and Delphina glance at the DRADIS to see that there are still seven of the initial ten Base Stars, and all of the civilians have either been destroyed or have fled. Benjamin asks Delphina if there is anything she can do to disrupt the cylon attacks. She says that she needs more sophisticated equipment, such as those aboard the raptor (although she says even that is a long shot). They rush to the raptor.

Meanwhile, on an unknown Resurrection Ship, Billy, Kareem, and Eva all wake up in tubs. Having died before, Eva is jarred, but much less so than Billy and Kareem, who finally comes to terms with his cylon nature (Billy having done so already). They are all greeted by other copies of themselves and two centurians, and Evan is also greeted by a new face. The new cylon says his name is Thomas and is willing to help her transition. All three of them begin ranting about a battle and that the remnants of humanity are in danger of extinction. They are initially hesitant to tell the cylons they find themselves with the location fo Earth, but once they all meet up and talk to Thomas about the rebellion and the promise that they will help the human fleet. Thomas is concerned that the humans will assumne they are foes and attack on sight, so Kareem and Billy say if they fight the other cylons and communicate with Galactica, they will be heard. (They urge speaking to Hastlett, not knowing what has happened to Admiral Cain yet). They agree and Eva gives the coordinates to Earth.

Jake, Benjamin, and Delphina arrive the Raptor 256 and Delphina immediately gets ot work using the ECO system to muddle the Base Stars' plans. She warns that the Base Stars may detect their presence if she does so, but she is ordered to do so anyway. She is able to disrupt some Raider formations and is able to maneuver one Base Star into a vunerable place between both Battlestars, but she says she is then locked-out and the base stars have launced two nukes at the surface of the planet where they sit. Having no other skilled pilots, the humans turn to Delphina to fly them out of harm's way, which she is barely able to do. During the trip, the Pegasus is seen on DRADIS to have sustained three nuclear strikes and massive damage and is moving to block and draw f ire form the Galactica, whihc is not yet mortally damaged. As Raptor 256 breaches the atmosphere, the cylon nukes go off behind them and out in orbit the Pegasus is destroyed. Five Base Stars remain against a badly damaged Galactica.

DRADIS reveals three more Base Stars and a large, unknown vessel jump into range. Delphina says "well, looks like this is it, gentlemen," but the new Base Stars immediately fire two nukes each at the other Base Stars. The larger vessel lags behind and does not fire. Four of the five enemy Base Stars are destroyed in the initial volley, being blind-sided by the attack and already damaged by both Battlestars. The remaining Base star is destroyed by the Galactica.

Still on Raptor 256, deafening cheering is heard over the Galactica open channel to the CIC, but Commander Hastlett interrupts:

"We're not out of the woods, yet. Turn broadside the new Base Stars and get a weapons lock."

Delphina is piloting Raptor 256. She urges running to the other side of the planet, where they might escape detection. Benjamin orders her to fly to the unknown ship, but (knowing what it is: the rebel Resurrection Ship) she refuses. When he threatens her, Jake loses his temper a bit and threatens the senator, saying she is the only pilot and he doesn't want to die on the raptor so they should do what she says. The senator responds to Jake's threat by trying to flush them all into space. Delphina is able to barely hold the senator back form doing so, and Jake attacks but keeps his cool enough to notice what happens next over the communications channel.

Billy and others aboard the Resurrection Ship urge Thomas to open a communication channel to Galactica. Hastlett asks "friend or foe" and the cylons agree to a diplomatic exchange not unlike the first negotiation with the Delphina's group. Billy declares who is aboard and asks to help negotiate. One Thomas, representing the rule-by-committee rebel cylons, will accompany Billy, Kareem, Eva, and Ares back tot he Galactica.

Delphina agrees to move toward the Galactica only if the senator promises that she will be treated like a person. He promises to help her and offers her a prayer and a token of the gods. She accepts and lands at the Galactica. The flight deck crew immediately detain Delphina and hold her forcibly and at gunpoint, against the senator's orders and best efforts. When the commander arrives, he orders the deck crew to stand down and he and Benjamin help elphina to her feet. The commander inquires about Thorn's last known location, and the senator confirms that she was on the Cloud Nine recieving medical attention. The commander says the Cloud Nine was destroyed in the battle. President Loyola is informed of his daughter's death as he arives on deck, and he takes some time to mourn his daughter.

The cylons arrive and negotiate with the commander. Thomas reveals that the rebel cylons have found a habitable planet nearby, beyond a large nebula, which would be nearly undetectable by the other cylons. He also tells the humans what the rebel cylons want: peace and freedom from the other cylons, and to strive ot be people as opposed to machines (quite the opposite of #1). Commander Hastlett defers the decision to join with the rebel cylons and follow them to the planet. Senator Farris informs the president, who is still solemn and shaken by the death fo his daughter. He grants vice presidential power to Farris and asks his informed opinion. Farris urges following the rebel cylons, so the human fleet does so.

With mutual trust and understanding established, the united fleet moves ot the new planet and establishes a colony. Several issues must be addressed:
-Cylons are eventually treated with respect. Humans greatly outnumber them, as there ar eonly about 500 of them at any given time, but their help in literally saving humanity in orbit around Earth earns them a great deal of initial respect, which oinly grows into real citizenship.
-Delphina, the "swing vote" #7, is of questionable loyalty but Farris' vow stas true and she is taken care of and treated as a person, as are all the cylons. "Person" is gradually redefined as "being of sentience" and not just "human."
-The rebel cylons' Resurrection Ship houses dormant copies of the #1 through #6 model cylons. They cannot be reporgrammed, or at least the cylons are unwilling to reprogram living things, even if they are dangerous. But they are determined to be too dangerous to wake up, so they are left dormant until their cilica pathways deteriorate and those models become inert biological matter over many years.
-When cylons are eventually accepted into society, they demand citizenship and representation. A compromise is reached wherein they hold two of the twelve senate seats. the PC copy of Billy Keikeya and one copy of Thomas serve as the cylon representatives.
-Thomas says Earth contains a lab that the lost tribe, now clearly extinct, could have use dto wipe out cylons with a biological weapon. This was apparently the impetus for the cylon attack on the colonies and the source of the division between the rebels and the rest. The #1's extrapolated the probability of humans finding and using such a lab ot eventually be 100%, so they decided to wipe out humanity before such an event could take place. It was seen as the only option to avoid such a fate, but the later models disagreed and had to escape. Using this lab is tempting to remove the clyon threat forever, but that would be genocide and would prove them right anyway, so it is passed upon.

Humans and cylons coexist on this new planet for the concieveable future, free of further external threats or intrusion. Cylons are most concerned with advancing their own selves to that of humans, which ultimately requires them to procreate and wean themselves off the Resurrection Ship. The humans seek to rebuild their civilization in tandem with the cylons. Slowly, they both accomplish this, although a great many lives are lost in the battle around Earth. The sacrifices of the crew of the Pegasus and the Galactica is not forgotten for freeing civilization from the iron grip of the cylons and of Admiral Cain. Their common struggles, hopes, and fears unite them, and over a great many generations, the two races become one and the same.

Civilization population at end of game: 30,003.