FLEET NEWS SERVICES
Special Edition: Fleet News Service Remembers
By Reporter Alyaa Moonwall
As we look back at our life over the past few months, so many stories have made their way to conversations. Little pieces of our history shared in dark corner conversations, over cigarettes and past its prime coffee. FNS takes a moment to bring you some of those stories. Reminding us all, just how much we have fought for what little we have left.
One such remembrance tells the story of those brave souls that fought to save the home we had made on Sanctuary as cylons captured the Tyllium Queen, her crew and residents. FNS remembers:
Horrible and trying for everyone directly involved in the battle grounds. An excruciating wait for those on the side lines. This is just one person's story, a first hand experience of the exhausting week and horrors many had to face.
CSA Director Gnosis Aljon watched the occupation and the fight to end it from the colonial-held northlands. She expressed that the fighting had been intense all week. There were many mortar fires and the buildings on the surface had experienced heavy damage. Numerous Tyllium Queen crew and residents as well as several members of a scientific expedition had been inside the TQ when the cylons had decided to make their attack. Many people hid in various hard to access areas of the ship, sometimes their only means of travel from one area to the other being the ventilation system. Unfortunately, during a brave attempt to gather supplies and attempt to communicate with the colonials, Tyllium Queen's own captain-Bob Glazner. Aljon knew the result of his capture would not be pleasant, however she watched horrified as his captors played their game of torture in full view of the colonial stronghold.
Cylon Centurions held Glazner, weakened by several beatings, as a device was strapped to his back. Unknown at the time, it was later discovered that the contained a very dangerous chemical. The chemical is called Vitrite and consists of 70% cyanogen chloride with 30% arsenic trichloride, with the arsenic trichloride serving as a stabilizer to prevent the formation of the trimer. Depending on the degree of intoxication, symptoms may range from from tearing, convulsions to cardiac arrest. Glazner was marched toward the colonial stronghold and allowed to proceed unescorted, his face steady and calm belying the shear terror he felt knowing his death was imminent.
The cylon designed bomb was made so that if it was removed from Glazner's back, it would explode. Those that attempted to rescue Glazner had to put on masks and emergency gear, so should device explode no one else would be seriously injured. After several trying minutes, a decision was made and the device was ripped away from Glazner's body. Glazner ended up with a horrible rash and had to be treated. MCIS Agent, Kris Pennell had to be treated for breathing problems, after inhaling some of the poison. Others were cleaned up by the HAZMAT team and fortunately, no other injuries were reported in that incident.
But the cylons were not going to stop their torturous ways just because their attempt to disable the colonial stronghold did not work. The next day, believed to be a Wednesday, cylons proudly displayed a recovered pilot before executing him. His hanging body could still be seen dangling from the Tyllium Queen's bow-in full view of Aljon and those with her. A brave and rushed attempt was made by CSA Director Aljon and the others, to save this person, but unfortunately it was too late. The person's neck had been broken by the fall. Days later, when a rescue attempt was launched, Marines did recover the body for burial.
Throughout the week, advancements were halted, though a strong division line was held. The cylons did not make a full advance to the north though they did engage in guerrilla warfare, attacking water tanks, supply lines and communications towers in the north.
By Saturday, Aljon watched as the marines planned an assault to rescue and retake the Tyllium Queen. She assisted in the assault, providing cover fire. After special ops style entry, Aljon, her team and the marines were able to recover the civilians who were there.
Aljon still gets up everyday, goes to work and does her job to keep the civilian fleet safe. But she remembers the chaos and destruction that she witnessed first hand during the Tyllium Queen occupation. Those memories make her who she is today.
