Part 1 Battlestar Galactica: Back To The Colonies: Of Droughts And Grudges

Chapter 5

V

February 2043

The Battlestar Winston Churchill had been back to Earth for almost one month since being recalled by UED due to bombings in Sioux City by terrorists. Helo's ship hadn't been called to action because of the unrest to this point but Admiral Hoshi had wanted a ship on patrol in case some extra air power was ever called for. There had been six other minor attacks since that first attack that had shaken the New Caprican nation but nothing that approached that level. Those attacks had only cost three people their lives which were three too many, but better than the alternative.

One of those taking advantage of the Shore Leave was Lieutenant Tiana Morilio who served primarily as a Raptor pilot onboard the "Old Winnie", but who was also more than proficient in the Falcons. She had been in UED for seven years now and at age thirty-five was right in her prime for flying. Tiana's Call Sign was "Fantasma" which translated to English means "Ghost".

When the Churchill arrived back at Earth a month ago she had requested a Transfer to an Earth-bound assignment. Her mother, Carmen, lived in St. Joseph, Missouri and she wanted to be closer to her as she was pushing seventy years old as counted on Earth. And the best place for her to transfer to if it was approved was to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha. It was only a hop, skip and a jump from St. Joe. And Offutt was looking to beef up with the unrest down next door in New Caprica.

Tia had put in the request the year before and hadn't heard anything in that whole time period. In fact, she hadn't even thought of it for months. She wasn't big with staying up on the new back on Earth but when the order came in for her ship to head back to Earth she started to read up on what had caused the sudden change in their assignment. She came from a family that was political, but what she read and what she thought, she kept to herself.

Tia wasn't the first member of her family in the service, either the Colonial military or now it's intergalactic follow-up the UED. The military had always been a major part of her family history. He paternal grandfather had been a Marine on Picon fighting against the organized crime syndicates, and her late father had served as a Marine on several Battlestars. It was simply luck of the current billet that had put him on Galactica when the Cylons had attacked the Colonies. She had only been a teenager then living on Picon when the attack began. She and her mother had escaped aboard the Thera Sita. Her brother Ossi, who was 15 years older than her and had been a Raptor pilot was killed along with all hands aboard the Battlestar Atlantia in the first hours of the Cylon attack. They were reunited with her father when Colonial One rendezvoused with Galactica. He had died before the fleet arrived at Earth.

She had just finished a routine exercise consisting of both Raptors and Falcons and was just getting out of her cockpit when an Ensign approached her, holding an envelope in his hands, "Sir, this came in a short time ago from UED", handing her the folded paper.

"Thank you, Ensign, I appreciate it, have a good day." She started to casually walk toward the showers and opening the letter at the same time. Get got it open and unfolded the letter and...her transfer to Offutt had come through! She let out a small yip of glee. Her transfer was immediate and her orders were to report to Offutt no later three days hence. She quickly showered and requested that ship scheduling assign her a Raptor as soon as possible to take her to St. Joseph to visit her mother before heading to Offutt.

Two hours later, she was strapped into the passenger section and eighty-five minutes after that, she landed at Rosecrans Memorial Airport. She flagged a taxi down for the ten minutes it would take to get to her mother's apartment. She hadn't told her mother she was coming.