Razors Edge
Redemption
AU for the nBSG movie.
By Mackon.
Beta testing by bullethead
Don't own anything, certainly not trying to make money off of these.
Prologue
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Abridged Synopsis of the Final Scene of the nBSG film Razor: Events take place at the same time as Season 2, Episode 18 "Downloaded". Of note Season 2, Episode 19 is the beginning of the New Caprica story arc
A Raptor - carrying a rescue team and a nuclear weapon - jumps past the advancing Raiders and heads for the Basestar. When two enemy fighters spot the Raptor, the crew fakes an engine malfunction and abandons ship with the warhead in tow. The Raiders subsequently destroy the Raptor and break off their attack, believing the crew to be dead. No longer pursued, the team continues on its way by means of thruster packs.
Upon successfully boarding the Basestar, the rescue team locates the room where the science team is being held. While freeing the prisoners, the rescue party is ambushed by Centurions, and Dasilva is critically wounded. As two Centurions drag him away, Major Shaw shoots and kills him, believing that he would have been used by the Cylons for experimentation. Shaw is subsequently shot in the abdomen by one of the Centurions.
Starbuck reveals that the warhead's remote detonator was damaged in the fire fight with the Centurions. The only way to set the warhead off is to do it manually. Reluctantly, Lee orders Starbuck to fulfil this role, and she complies.
Pegasus immediately launches a second Raptor, getting it close enough to the Basestar to land within a hangar bay and to evacuate the rescue team. Starbuck is ready to stay behind when Shaw orders her to leave at gunpoint, intending to detonate the warhead instead. The two argue, but Starbuck eventually concedes, boards the Raptor, and returns to Pegasus with the others.
With blood streaming from her open wound, a delirious Shaw descends deeper into the Basestar, eventually coming across the Hybrid's chamber. The Hybrid knows she wants redemption for her past actions and tells her to come closer, as he has something he needs to tell her. He explains to her that Starbuck will lead mankind to its end, and that they must not follow her. Shaw attempts to contact Pegasus and warn them, but can't deliver the entire message due to Cylon jamming. As Shaw prepares to destroy the ship, the Hybrid calmly addresses that "all this has happened before, and will happen again" repeating "again...again" over and over. Shaw detonates the nuke, destroying the Guardian Basestar, along with herself, the Hybrid, and the entire Centurion crew (Razor).
--ooo000ooo—
Command Bunker, Guardian Baseship.
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Kendra watched the... 'What did Adama's pet skinjob call it? A 'Hybrid?' Yeah, a Cylon Hybrid.' Unlike a normal skinjob, Hybrids were kind of like a Cylon ship's main computer, handling the navigation and life support, although this one was obliviously more than that.. Watching the Hybrid mumble to himself about "All this has happened before, and will happen again..." over and over again nearly made Kendra hesitate. It was hard not to pity the creature, stuck in its tub, looking like someone's kindly old grandfather.
Then again, she wasn't big on pity.
'Click'
There was a suspicious lack of blinding light, a split second of heat, and the darkness of death.
After a glance at the cobbled together trigger in her hand, Major Kendra Shaw shared a brief look with the ancient Cylon Hybrid, as they both realized they weren't going to die in a nuclear fireball in the next few seconds.
"FRAK!" Kendra frantically reset the pistol grip shaped trigger and snapped the last button shut again.
'Click'
The Guardian Hybrid's eyes lost their focus as he turned his attention from the woman in front of him towards the sea of information that connected his command nexus to the Guardian Basestar and its crew.
A clank of metal on metal sounded from outside the room's door, as Centurions heard the Hybrid's call and heeded its summons.
"Oh, frak me." Kendra could feel the blood trickling down her chest, under her fatigues, from her still bleeding bullet wound. She could barely stand. Gray was starting to cloud the edges of her vision and it took all her concentration to not just collapse to the floor, lay down, and die. The thought of going out that way, so weak and pathetic, brought a vile taste to the back of her throat.
Not her, not here and certainly not now.
The trigger handle made a satisfying crunch as it smashed into the Human/Cylon thing's skull as the bloody, snarling Colonial major hurled herself on top of its emaciated body. The Hybrid's head lolled back into the gel that filled its tub its arms flying up, trying to ward off the woman's attack.
Thrashing and splashing the thick liquid sloshing over the trough's sides, Kendra struggled with the surprisingly strong Hybrid, trying to crush its windpipe with her bare hands. Kendra screamed incoherently as she focused all her remaining strength on death. Her death, the Hybrid's, it didn't matter... all that mattered was that someone was going to die. Images of the people -civilians- she'd killed, or had killed, on the Scylla. Admiral Cain shooting Colonel Belzen in the Pegasus's CIC. Images that haunted her to this day flashed through her mind as she wrestled with the being before her.
The Hybrid started a confused whine as Kendra tore at the paper thin skin with her nails and took a bite out of its shoulder with snapping teeth. A knee slipped between the Hybrid's unwisely parted legs and Kendra reflexively snapped in a blow that hadn't been taught in any of her OTS classes.
PAIN! The Hybrid hadn't felt anything like this in decades. It needed the pain to stop right now... it needed to get away...
--ooo000ooo--
Inside the Raptor ferrying the survivors of the rescue mission back to their home Battlestar, Kara Thrace watched the Guardian Basestar, waiting for what she thought was coming. Her thoughts were about Kendra Shaw; on the whole, she'd struck Starbuck as a hell of a bitch, but she was going out in style. 'Got to give her that,' thought Thrace as she felt the seconds tick by, as anxiety wormed its way into her mind. 'When the frak is she going to detonate that nuke?'
The brilliant flash of an FTL jump caught her completely by surprise.
"Damn it!"
--ooo000ooo—
After a second of brutal kicking and punching, the Colonial officer wound up straddling the Hybrid's bony chest, as its claw like hands clutched her wrists. Slowly, it forced her hands away from its throat, breaking the strangle hold she'd obtained in the chaotic melee.
Suddenly, the bulkhead door clanged open as a towering Elite gold Centurion stepped into the room, aiming its sidearm at Kendra's head. Two silver Centurions came in behind it, bearing the "rifles" -in actuality general purpose machine guns- of Cylon ground troops.
The command Centurion's red scanning eye focused on the bloody human, making sure its aim was perfect, trying to minimize the risk to the Hybrid. If it hit the Hybrid, the Basestar would be left adrift in space, until the crew managed to bring the back-up navigation systems online... if they were lucky. Its subordinates flanked it, aiming their heavier rifles at Kendra's body, ready to fire at their superior's command.
"Wait!" The Hybrid croaked, as his whispered voice gained strength and volume for a second. Whether the Hybrid was worried about the Centurion's aim or wanted to tell her more of its prophecies, Kendra didn't know or care. All she saw was an opportunity. In a blur of thoughtless action, she wrenched her right arm free and snatched something small and familiar from a breast pocket.
The folding knife, a memento of Admiral Cain, flicked open, its blade glittering in the room's orange light. Kendra half collapsed, half dove at the Hybrid, blindly swinging the knife at the thing. Its razor sharp blade opened the Hybrid's throat in a quick, smooth cut, pealing back flesh, almost reaching the Hybrid's spine.
It died between one breath and the next, barely having time to even see what killed it before the darkness of death embraced It. Blood gushed into the command pool, turning the pinkish liquid blood red.
Kendra landed on top of the corpse, ending up covered in its blood, along with the thick opaque gel that surrounded it. The fluids soaked through her uniform instantly, seeping into her wounds and mixing with her blood.
She hurt all over, as the pain from the gunshot wounds seemingly spread to every part of her body. From her toes to the tips of her hair, every centimetre throbbed with crippling agony. A strange buzzing clouded her mind, stopping her from thinking straight. Kendra rolled, doing her best to ignore the immense pain the movement created, and pushed the Hybrid's copse over so she could lie straight in the tub. Closing her eyes, she tried to catch her breath, the pain of her laboured breathing searing through her mind.
'Cli-Click.' The sound of a gun being cocked echoed around the metal walled room, until the sound of the other Centurions cocking their rifles joined the cacophony. Kendra slowly turned her head. 'Might as well look my killer in the eye,' she thought grimly.
The bore of the closest gun barrel looked huge and intimidating, especially once she realized she could see the rifling. The Centurion's machine pistol moved slightly, pointing straight between her eyes, in position for a perfect execution shot. She could see the Cylon's eye focused on her, the lack of its usual side to side motion emphasizing the seriousness of this one job.
"NO!" Kendra had no idea why she opened her mouth. Half a second ago, she thought she didn't care if she lived or died. After all, since she took out the old frakker and the nuke was a lost cause, Kendra expected to be on the receiving end of Cylon bullet. She'd won, if not as spectacularly as she'd hoped; what happened to her was irrelevant... or so she thought.
.
'Why isn't it shooting?'
.
.
The Centurions lowered their weapons and uttered the last words Kendra or any other human would have thought possible.
.
.
"By Your Command."
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TBC