"The Hard Six" Battlestar Galactica: Origins #6 (Dynamite) Writer: Robert Place Napton Pencils: Jonathan Lau Cover A: Jonathan Lau 2008

The Galactica is boarded by an attack force of renegade Cylon Annihilators.

Read the story summary of this issue at the Battlestar Wiki

Notes from the BSG chronology

This story opens on the Atlantia 2 years after the armistice with the Cylons that ended the first Cylon War. The flashback sequences take place 6 weeks after the armistice, when Adama was still assigned to Galactica.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Origins was an 11-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment, covering the origins of several characters of BSG2000. Issues 5-8 featured a young William "Husker" Adama during the first Cylon War and its aftermath.

Characters appearing in this story

Lt. William Adama (promoted to captain in this issue)
Leadfoot
Ratchet
Atlantia commander (unnamed)
Joseph Adama (mentioned only)
Alexa Cain
Houseman (mentioned only)
Annihilators
Hammer
Helena Cain (mentioned only)
Lucy Cain (deceased, mentioned only)
Ex-husband of Alexa Cain (unnamed, deceased, mentioned only)
Lucky (flashback)
Jaycie (flashback)

Didja Notice?

Adama's Viper is referred to as Viper-Nebula-7242-Constellation. In episodes of the series, the designation is abbreviated to N7242C. Likely, the "Nebula" for "N" and "Constellation" for "C" is representative of the Colonial version of Earth's NATO phonetic alphabetic, in which "N" is represented by "November" and "C" by "Charlie".

As Adama is coming in for a landing on Atlantia, he is told to "call the ball". This is naval pilot terminology for sighting the landing lights on an aircraft carrier on approach to landing.

This is the first appearance of the battlestar Atlantia, though a battlestar Atlantia did appear in the BSG70 episode "Annihilation".

Adama's LSO for this landing is Ratchet. LSO stands for Landing Signal Officer in navy aviation.

Completing his 1,000th landing, the control room tells Adama, "Bravo zulu." "Bravo zulu" is naval code for "well done".

Adama is promoted to captain in this issue...just in time to be mustered out of the service due to military cutbacks in a time of peace.

The ball game played by Adama and Alexa in the flashback scene on pages 9-10 is pyramid (known as triad in BSG70).

This issue is the first actual appearance in a story of Annihilators, suicide cells of Cylon centurions programmed to act independently of command and strike at random Colonial targets (first mentioned in "Armistice"). Even post-armistice, Cylon command has no means of recalling them.

The Annihilator ship that lands in the Galactica's flight pod is a Cylon Heavy Raider, a combination fighter/transport later seen in several episodes of the TV series.

On page 16, Alexa asks for sitrep. "Sitrep" is military shorthand for "situation report".

On page 16, panel 6, "hangar" is misspelled "hanger".

On page 16, panel 7, "causeway" is misspelled "cause way".

Two other battlestars are part of the Galactica's battlegroup, the Ulysses and the Cerberus. This is the first appearance of both, though a battlestar Cerberus did appear or was mentioned in a few licensed stories of BSG70.

As the Annihilators begin venting the air from the Galactica, Alex orders the men with her to get their EVA suits on fast. EVA stands for Extra-Vehicular Activity in outer space.

The Annihilators fire one of Galactica's nuclear missiles at one of its companion battlestars, striking it, causing severe damage or possibly destroying it. Which battlestar was struck is not stated.

Facing a bad situation against the Annihilators aboard the Galactica, Adama tells Alexa, "...sometimes you gotta roll the hard six," something his father used to say when he was about to make his closing argument on a tough case. "Roll the hard six" is a phrase originating in the dice game of craps; it refers to rolling threes on a pair of 6-sided dice.

In the course of the story, Alexa Cain reveals she has a daughter named Helena. Helena Cain later is seen to have become an admiral in the Colonial military in episodes of the TV series. However, in "Razor", Helena Cain's mother is said to be Saundra Cain, who died during the Battle of Tauron, one of the last battles of the first Cylon War and no mention of an Alexa is made.

In panel 6 of the final page of the story, a misprint reads, "Life doesn't always give us what we what." Obviously, "what we what" should be "what we want."