Battlestar Galactica Annual 2014 is a one-shot comic by Dynamite Entertainment.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
Baltar has been living alone, exiled to an unidentified fifth planet of an unknown system by Adama for almost a Yahren. As he is cooking a small animal he has caputred, his short-range transmitter crackles. He tries to call for help, but the signal fizzles out. Baltar smashes the radio on the ground, destroying it in anger. He swears that Adama has not heard the last of him, and begins recounting his life story.
He was born on the planetoid Cygnus, outpost of the Picon Colony. His father was a Tylium Miner who was making an adequate profit. His mother was the only person who could control her husband's drinking and temper. After she died, his father, Sela, took young Baltar to see the family mine for the first time. This was something his mother had always forbidden, feeling it was too dangerous. Young Baltar was immediately struck by the temptation of money and power the mine possessed. They are met by a miner named Merab who takes them deep into the depths of the mine, where another miner, Temon has found a new vein of Tylium. Baltar takes some of the shining Tylium from the mine, but is caught when passing through a detector. His father threatens to strip search him in front of his workers, but Baltar reveals the nugget he took. In private, Sela recounts that he and Merab once arranged a worker who stole some Tylium to have a deathly accident in the mine. Young Baltar is whipped as a punishment. He recounts that was the day the boy in him died.
Some time later, the Cylons invaded Cygnus. The Caprican President never sanctioned a rescue operation. Baltar was kept alive and put to work in the mines. Despite being treated harshley by the Cylons, Baltar began to admire them and wanted to be like them. He learned his father was part of a small group of rebels who planned to detonate radiation charges and contaminate the Tylium deposit so it wouldn't be of use to man or Cylon. Baltar snitches on his father to the golden Cylon Commander, asking for his freedom in return. Young Baltar is afraid the Cylons might doublecross him, but the Commander insures him they would not act like humans do. His father was soon executed and Baltar had his revenge on him. He was put on a Colonial Shuttle and sent to Picon. There he spent some time in an orphanage and was eventually granted a scholarship to the university of Picon. By the time he graduated, Caprica was finally willing to fight against the Cylons.
Baltar returned home to inherit the family business and took a classmate named Abel with him. In less than ten Yahren Baltar owned the largest intercolonial Tylium trading Firm and made his first foray into politics. Sire Damaris was particularly impressed with Baltar's ability to discover new sources of Tylium and offered him a contract on behalf of the Colonies. Less than half a yahren later, Abel contacted Baltar on a secure channel and asked him to come to a remote world called Carillon. Abel has found the largest amount of Tylium ever seen. Baltar wanted to keep it and sell it to the Cylons. Abel was shocked to learn his partner had been dealing with the Cylons for some time. He refused to be a part of it and threatened to expose Baltar. The two fight and Abel fell off a cliff.
Baltar went into a period of seclusion and mourning. He made a deal with Lotay of the Ovion race to build a gambling chancery where none of the visitors ever lost on Carillon. Instead, the gamblers became food for the Ovions who's society was scarse on food supplies. Baltar rigged the mines with radiation charges and let the Cylons know he would render the Tyliumuseless if they invaded Carillon. Instead, they became his biggest customers. For nearly 15 yahrens, Baltar lived in luxury, even taking the title of 'Count' for himself. Then a Cylon commander arrived with a proposition. Baltar was to tell the Quorrum that the Cylons wanted peace, but instead they would wipe them out of existence. Picon and Cygnus would be spared for Baltar to rule. Baltar was surpised to learn this golden Cylon Commander was the same one he met as boy. Having been assured that Cylons do not doublecross, he agreed to their offer.
But the Cylons had learned how to lie. Picon was destroyed and Cygnus was occupied in order to strip it off it's Tylium. Furious, Baltar confronted the Imperious Leader, and was beheaded for his insuborniation. His head was taken to a lab and crafted onto a mechanical Cylon body, but covered with organic material as the Imperious Leader ordered his memories altered to have Baltar belive he was spared. Baltar wakes up in his small quarters on the planet he was abandoned on. He tells himself it was a nightmare and he wasn't killed at that time, but spared by the Imperious Leader. Still upset, he runs outside where a Cylon Raider has landed and three Cylons, including a golden one, have come out of the ship. Baltar wants to know how they found him despite his destruction of the transmitter. He wonders if he has implant in his head they used to locate him. He thinks they want to convince him he's a Cylon, but he insists he's comletely human. The Golden Cylon uses a shocker to knock Baltar out and orders the other two to take him to their ship. Baltar remembers his mother holding him as they looked up into the sky, where she pointed out the Cylon empire to him.
Individuals[]
- Baltar
- Sela (First Appearance) (appears in flashback)
- Baltar's mother (First Appearance)
- Merab (First Appearance)
- Temon (First Appearance)
- Abel (First Appearance)
- Quorum of Twelve
- Sire Damaris (First Appearance)
- Imperious Leader
- Cylon Warriors
- Lotay
- Colonial Warriors
- Commander Adama (mentioned only)
Locations[]
- Unidentified Fifth Planet of a solar system
- Cygnes
- Capria (mentioned)
- Picon
- Nova of Madagon (mentioned)
- Carillon
Items[]
Technology[]
Vehicles[]
- Battlestar Galactica (mentioned)
- Colonial Movers
- Cylon Basestar
- Cylon Raiders
Minerals[]
- Tylium
Behind the Scenes[]
- Coming Soon
Notes[]
- The death scene of Baltar in the movie version of Battle Star Galactica and the subsequent rewritten scene in the TV version of Saga of a Star World are adressed in this story: it is implied that Baltar was indeed beheaded, after which his head was put on a Cylon body covered in organic material. His memories were altered to make him believe he was spared. The comic leaves it up in the air what really happened, as Baltar himself refuses to believe it happened that way and claims to be fully human.
External links[]
Sources[]
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