Chapter 1: "Error"

CHAPTER 1: "ERROR"

 24 Days Before the Attack on the Colonies

  Her green eyes scanned her surroundings with heavy discretion through the plexiglass visor that continued to fog with her every breath. Hardly daring to make a move or a sound she turned just far enough so she could just out beyond the glass canopy of the cockpit and in to the vast, dark vaccuum of space. The soft, green glow of the Viper's DRADIS reflected off the tinted canopy, slightly obscurring her view as she continued watching. Looking down at the small screen she squinted as the DRADIS made one pass...two passes..three passes. All clean.

  "Come on," she murmured as she peered out of the canopy again. "I know you're out there."

  Outside the silver skinned Mark VII Viper only the vastness off space, distant stars and unknown nothingness continued to greet the young, eager pilot.  Intelligence from the Admiralty had indicated that the Cylons had been working very close to the Armistice Line and, possibly, even over it; a move that had left the Admiral rather uncomfortable. Sent out to inspect the area the Cylons had been seen she now drifted alone in this sector of space and had laid a trap for her enemies. Surely, she had reasoned, an enemy scout would be drawn to an abandoned Viper drifting aimlessly this close to the Armistice Line.

 The DRADIS beeped, drawing her attention. 2 red blips had appeared on screen. Bogeys. Bearing down on her position. Like predators swooping down on a wounded prey, they had taken the bait. The computer beeped again and revealed the bogey's identification: raiders. 2 Cylon Raiders.

  "Viper 1517," the garbled voice of the CAG spoke through her headset."DRADIS contacts at one four hundred meters and closing. Cylon Raiders inbound. Weapons live, execute targets."

  She clutched the joystick between her legs and placed her finger on the trigger. A sly grin crossed her face as the Viper's engine sprang to life. Jetting forward the young pilot drew in a sharp breath as the G force pulled her back in to the seat.

  Through the Vipers canopy she could see the inbound Raiders. The black and silver hulls of the Cylon ships nearly blended with the black, star filled horizon that dominated the view through the canopy. She could just picture the three Cylon Centurions that were, no doubt, piloting each Raider. Their silver, metaloid bodies and red visored faces always struck fear in to a Colonial Marine but she was a pilot, a Viper pilot. Fear was not in her vocabulary and she had the records to prove it.

  "Viper 1517," the CAG  said. "Inbound Raiders are on a collision course. Suggest a change of heading to one five niner. Acknowledge."

  She shook her head. "Negative, CAG," she said. "Maintaining current heading. Thanks for the heads up."

  "Have you lost your godsdamn mind, nugget?"

  She shook her head. She knew what she was doing. Shifting her course ever so slightly she brought her Viper in to a collision course with the approaching Raiders and boosted her speed. The flight computer began to blare with a shrill alarm as the words 'collision alert' flashed across the screen. Focused on the approaching Raider the young pilot bit her lip and braced herself as the distance between the two vehicles shrunk.

  Two hundred yards...one fifty...one ten...eighty five...thirty five...

  Just when it seemed as though the Viper and Raider were going to make contact she punched the button to activate her aft-most, port thrusters, throwing the tail end of the Viper out of the collision course while also pulling the nose just beyond the course as well. Traveling full speed on a diagonal course to the approaching Raider she brought the nose of the Viper up just a few degrees and aligned the starboard and port side guns to intercept the Raider. Squeezing the trigger on the joystick she watched, with a great deal of satisfaction, as round after round found their mark in the hull of the Raider. As she watched the Cylon vessel began to shudder then exploded, an explosion that was silenced by the vacuum of space, and the remains of the vessel drifted off in to space.

    Punching the aft, starboard thruster button she brought the Viper around until she had the second Raider in her gun sights. Unable to match the young pilots speed the Raider began to bank to starboard, exposing the lightly armored, extremely vulnerable underbelly of the ship to the waiting Viper. Firing off just four rounds she watched as the second Raider met a similar end to the first. Within ten seconds both Raiders had been reduced to heaps of shrapnel floating through space.

  Before she had time to celebrate the DRADIS blared again, alerting the young pilot to four more bogeys bearing down on her position. Adding a degree of difficulty her navcom also alerted that a weapons lock had been detected, indicating that the Cylons had fired a guided missile on her.

  "Oh," she muttered with a smile. "Wee lamb..."

  Slamming the throttle forward the Viper quickly jumped to full speed as the incoming missile and Raiders gave chase, staying in her wake as she banked the Viper from side to side in an attempt to shake off the pursuit. Seeing that the serpentine method wasn't going to cut it she twisted the joystick to the right and made a wide, high speed roll with her Viper. Before finishing the roll completely the young pilot shoved the throttle forward again while pulling back on the joytick, sending the Viper on a new course in a split second. The sudden change caused a lot more g's than she had anticipated and winced as the pressure made it hard to breathe.

  "Are you crazy nugget?" the CAG called over the radio. "You can't bank at that speed."

  If the CAG was concerned after that last maneuver,  she reckoned,  the next one she had in mind would have him squirming in his seat for sure. Punching the aft portside thruster and the bow starboard thruster switches simultaneously she sent the Viper in to a spin, something pilots referred to as a 'dead spin'. As the horizon began to swirl around the Viper she closed her eyes momentarily and fought to remain calm as she became nauseous. The alarm from the nav computer shrieked in detest as the flight systems struggled to compute the abnormal flight as the engines of the Viper whined from the stress that they were being put under.

  One spin...two spins...three spins...four spins...five spins...

  "For frak's sake, nugget," the CAG scolded over the radio. "You're approaching the atmospheric, no-return zone. Correct your heading and get the frak out of there."

  Opening her eyes she grabbed the joystick and brought the Viper back to a controllable state and jetted the plane forward at top speed. Letting out her breath, which she hadn't realized she had been holding, she grinned. Despite suffering the after effects of the g-force her plan to throw the guidance system of the missile paid off. Unable to fully track the erratic flight pattern of the fleeing Viper the Cylon missile flew off in to the void of space and exploded, harmlessly, four hundred yards later. Staying on the chase the four Cylon Raiders struggled to keep up as the young pilot made a sudden one hundred and eighty degree turn. Traveling backwards and now facing the approaching Cylons she pressed the missile release button on the joystick, releasing a decoy drone right in to the path of the Cylons. Quickly anticipating their next move she then brought the nose of the Viper up a few degrees, fired off three rounds and destroyed a Raider. Continuing on she readjusted to the right a few degrees and destroyed the next Raider before it had a chance to react. Two down and two to go. Adjusting down a few degrees she squeezed the trigger...

  Nothing.

  Puzzled she squeezed the trigger again. No response. Looking through the canopy at the two remaining Raiders she narrowed her eyes as the Cylon vessels seemed to waiver in place. Upon closer inspection she also noticed that her environment had completely frozen; the space around her and the Raiders suspended as though someone had stopped time. Everything became fuzzy for a second then became clear again but she noticed that something was off. Before she had further time to think about it she noticed an oddity just outside the canopy of the Viper. Suspended in space red letters seemed suspended in space that spelled out the word "ERROR".

  A man dressed in a Colonial officers uniform suddenly stepped in to view with a stern expression on his weathered face, a man she knew as Haslinger. "Congratulations,  Ensign Nevarro," the man grimaced as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You've managed to wreck yet another simulator. I hope you're proud of yourself."

  The young pilot (Nevarro) grinned sheepishly.  "So did I pass?" she asked with a shrug.

  The other cadets in the class laughed and some applauded as the man shook his head.

  Haslinger rolled his eyes as Nevarro climbed out of the mockup of the Viper cockpit and removed her helmet. "The day the Admiralty make you a pilot, Pherin Nevarro, is the day the worlds end."

  Pherin grinned as she handed off her helmet to a classmate. That would be the day...