Phoenix Rising

Chapter Seven

The Old Great Ship Is The Same As She Used To Be

September 12, 2214

In orbit of New Caprica

On the bridge of EDS Yamato

Derek Wildstar knew he would have to take some time soon to thank Stephen Sandor for doing such a magnificent job of bringing the Yamato back to life and into fighting shape so soon. Cylon raiders from the surface tried to strafe the ship, as well as its companion, the Algeria, but pulse lasers and shock cannons put paid to them with no harm coming to the main ships.

Meanwhile, the Mizutani, Gideon, and Yamanami were devastating the Cylon basestars with their shock cannons. Despite being outnumbered four to one, the EDF ships were more than a match for the Cylons. This allowed the Galactica and Pegasus to jump into low orbit to assist in the rescue.

Combat Chief Peter Svenson watched the monitors as the Yamato descended down onto New Caprica, waiting for the moment when they could level out and launch the Black Tiger fighters. They would take out Centurion installations as well as escort the detachment of EDF Marines that Wildstar and Singleton had managed to warp in before the attack launched.

"We're clear, sir! Ready to launch fighters on your command!" Svenson called out as Chief Pilot Brandon Lange leveled the mighty ship out and deployed the wings for atmospheric maneuvering.

Derek smiled slightly and thought to himself, here we come, Nova! then gave the order to launch fighters. Out from beneath the belly of the ship, the squadrons of fighters and transport ships raced out and began to deploy. The Algeria followed suit and, soon, the skies were full of Black Tiger fighters, racing off to engage the Cylon raiders who had launched in an attempt to head them off.

On board Colonial One Inside the President's Office

Gaius Baltar knew the end was near. The Cylons were in a panic, not expecting to meet this kind of resistance. Two forces had come out of the forest near the city and went through a couple of platoons of Centurions like a hot knife through butter. This sent shock waves through the command structure of the Cylons, as they hadn't expected the humans from the Earth ship to have such heavy weapons on them.

But Baltar was not surprised, as it seemed that everything about the occupation had gone wrong for the Cylons. They hadn't expected the amount of resistance they met, and they hadn't acted quickly enough to suppress it. Now that resistance was moving on the detention center as well as the spaceport. The Cylons had thought this a gesture in vain until one of the Number Five's came running in to announce that the launch keys were gone. They had found one of the Number Three's on the ground with bullet wounds in her knees.

"It's that bastard Graham Walter! He somehow managed to convince this Three to let him into the facility and to give him access to the keys!" Five said in a rage.

One of the other Three's said, "This is a distressing development! We should find out from this Three what she knows."

"We'll have to wait until she downloads again. She had bled heavily, so we had no choice but to put her down." Five replied.

Caprica Six sat beside Baltar, but the president of the Colonies did not notice her presence. He was beginning to realize that he was doomed no matter what happened. If the humans got hold of him, he would probably be deposed and executed for collaborating with the Cylons. If the Cylons took him with them when they fled (and he began to suspect that they were planning to do just that), he would probably be killed out of rage at the rebellion.

Caprica Six stood up and said, "We need to leave! This battle is lost!"

Three sneered and said, "Have you such little faith, Caprica?"

One of the Cavil's took up Six's position and retorted, "She's right. They're almost through to the detention facility, and they're less than two hundred meters from the spaceport. If we're going to leave, we need to leave now!"

So it was decided that the Cylons would evacuate, but not before Three said that she would stay behind to set off the nuke. The Cylons departed the office, and Caprica Six was left there with Baltar. "We need to go, Gaius! You'll be okay with us!"

Gaius couldn't take it anymore and broke down, setting his face wet with tears into his hands. "I wish I could just roll up and die!" he mournfully said.

"You're about to get your wish!" said Gaeta, with a pistol trained on Gaius' head.

Caprica Six put her hands up and asked Gaeta to put the gun down. Gaeta swung the gun over towards her and said, "No! I believed in him! I believed in his vision for us! But he didn't! All he believed in was himself!"

In that moment, Gaius decided that he needed to be sacrificed. He stood up and began to slowly walk over to Gaeta, who brought the pistol back to put its aim right on his heart. "Do it! I don't deserve to live! But you need to know something: the Cylons have a nuke here, and they plan to use it once they've fled the settlement."

At first, Gaeta didn't believe him, but he could read on Gaius' face that the fallen president was telling the absolute truth. "Go! Leave her, Gaius! Go find that nuke, and may the Gods forgive you!" Gaius made a gesture with the pistol and Caprica Six said, "Come Gaius! We need to find that nuke!"

Just as Six and Gaius rounded the corner to leave the ship, they heard a gun shot. "My Gods!" Gaius said, knowing that Gaeta had probably just blown his brains out. Six nodded and replied, "There's nothing you can do for him now, Gaius! We need to hurry!"

Outside the detention facility, Nova and Starbuck were pinned down from Centurion fire. "Frakking Centurions!" Starbuck said in frustration as she jumped out and shot at the Centurion, then jumped back around the corner when the Centurion's range of fire swung towards her position.

It was then that something caught Nova's eye. A pair of Black Tigers flew by, shooting up a pair of Cylon raiders. Nova searched inside her coat jacket for her communications link and activated it to try and get in touch with the fighters. "This is Captain Nova Forrester to Black Tigers! We're pinned down by gunfire! Can you lend us some assistance?"

"No go, Captain, but we know some guys who can! Cat, Hot Dog, can you help them out?" said Black Tigers leader Paul Conroy.

Galactica CAG Lt. Louanne "Cat" Katraine replied, "Roger that, Black Tiger leader! C'mon Hot Dog! You take the toaster in the tower and I'll take the one by the gate!"

Lt. Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza answered back, "Will do, CAG! Getting a lock on the toaster right now! Making final approach!" Hot Dog swung his fighter around and began to make his run at the guard tower. The Centurion didn't even notice him, focusing on gunning down the resistors who were trying to break into the center. Hot Dog armed his missiles and fired them from point blank range, scoring a bull's eye and taking out the Centurion.

Cat fired her missiles right at the Centurion standing in front of the gate, and she scored a direct hit as well, which threw what was left of the Centurion right into the gate and bringing it down. Nova looked up from her position alongside Starbuck and saw that the approach to the gate was free. "Let's move!" Nova said as she was grabbing her Astro-Automatic rifle and running crouched forward towards the outside of the gate. Starbuck followed, as well as the rest of the resistors.

Meanwhile, Tory Foster had just sent Maya and her baby off with two guards, just like Roslin had asked her to do before the former president had been locked up. Foster was in charge of getting the civilians to the evacuation points, where they would board ships and get the hell out of New Caprica.

She ran down a corner to check to see if everyone was evacuated from the last road in her sector when suddenly she ran into two Centurions. Oh frak! Tory through as she watched them slowly walk towards her, their robotic fingers morphing into pistols and starting to take aim at her. That was when she saw a couple of figures in green sneak up to the robots and slap something onto their bodies. "Get down!" they yelled, leaping over to the sides as the Centurions looked around dumbfounded until they blew up a minute later.

The force of the blast knocked Tory off her feet and onto the ground, spraining her wrist. Her two saviors helped her to her feet, and she asked breathlessly, "Who are you guys?"

"We're EDF Marines, ma'am! We're here to help you guys get off this rock!" said the taller, stockier white male, who had a curious drawl to his voice. The shorter, darker male marine called his position over the radio, and they began to head towards the spaceport, which was close to being liberated.

Tigh watched in astonishment, as the three Centurions were sliced apart by the fire coming from one of the Black Tiger fighters. Over the radio, the youthful voice of Paul Conroy called out, "Approach clear to the spaceport! She's all yours, Colonel!"

"I'll be gods damned!" he said, picking up his own rifle and hauling ass beside Galen Tyrol. "Those damned Earthers know how to fly a fighter! Now let's go get these bastards!"

Galen marched beside him, looking right as Tigh looked left for potential enemies. On the far side of the spaceport, Cylon heavy raiders began to take off in a hurry. Several managed to jump before they could be shot down, but a few were not so lucky. One of the Black Tigers shot down a Cylon raider, which pin wheeled into the ground, taking out five more heavy raiders.

They found the Raptors untouched by the Cylons and Tigh distributed the keys to those as well as the civilian transport ships. Before Tigh and Tyrol could get the one they were going to fly up and running, a couple of guys in green-gray came running up with Tory Foster. "Are you Colonel Tigh?" said the taller one.

"Who wants to know?" said the old man, not sure who exactly that was.

The tall man saluted and said, "I'm Sgt. Major Marcus Wallace, sir, and this here is Corporal Dante Logan! We're from the EDF Marine Corps, and we landed not far from here!"

Tigh returned the salute, then asked, "Where are your men now?"

"Sir, we're securing the route for the evacuees to make it to the transports! They should all be on board within the hour."

"Good work, sergeant!" Tigh said, and then noticed a familiar figure run up towards them. "Gaeta? What the hell are you doing here?"

Gaeta had to take a moment to catch his breath, as he had run at full sprint, probably from Colonial One. "Sir…the Cylons have…a nuke…and they're planning to use it!"

Tigh's eyes shot wide open at the news. "Holy frak!"

Wallace got on the horn and told his troops, "This is Bubba to my fellow swamp rats! Toasters have a nuke somewhere in the settlement! Try to find it before they can use it! Bubba out!"

Tigh looked at the tall Marine and asked, "What the hell kind of name is Bubba?"

Back at the detention facility, Nova and Starbuck, along with their task force, had begun to free the prisoners. When they got to Sam Anders' cell, Sam looked up and saw his wife for the first time in weeks. "Kara?" he asked disbelievingly.

"It's me! Listen, we don't have much time, hun! Take this rifle and lead the people out towards the evacuation points!" Kara said, taking just a moment to kiss and embrace her husband.

Sam was about to leave when he noticed Nova. "Who's this?" he asked.

Kara smiled and said, "A friend! I'll introduce you later! We have work to do!"

Sam went off with the others and began to help lead them to safety. Starbuck and Nova continued their search for Laura Roslin, and managed to find her minutes later, right after they had freed the pregnant Cally Tyrol from her cell. "Praise the Gods! Kara!" Laura said, leaping to her feet and embracing Starbuck like a long lost daughter.

"Good to see you again, Madam President!" Starbuck said, surprised that she had a tear in her eye. After she released the president, she turned and introduced Nova. Roslin extended her hand and Nova shook it, "Thank you, Captain Forrester, for all you've done!"

"You're welcome! We still have a few cells to go, though. Cally needs some help to get out, so could you assist her?" Nova asked of the president. Laura looked and saw that Cally was having a bit of trouble standing up. Roslin went over to her, put her arm over her shoulder, and said, "I'll get her safe. You two get the rest of us!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Starbuck said, and they turned back down the hall to free the last of the prisoners.

In orbit, on board Galactica, Adama watched as the last of the Cylon basestars fell at the hands of the three EDF cruisers. Four more had jumped in, but they soon found that they were the only ones left, and Captains Jordan, Eager, and Conroy turned their broadsides towards them and gave them lethal volley after lethal volley from their shock cannons. The basestars launched nukes in vain, but the anti-missile systems the EDF ships had intercepted the nukes long before they could cause harm.

XO Karl "Helo" Agathon picked up a message from the ground. "Sir! Colonel Tigh reports that the first civilian transports are airborne and starting to warp out towards the rendezvous point. Orders?"

Admiral Adama replied, "Bring our birds home! Yamato's Tigers can handle the rest. Contact Pegasus and have Lee jump to where the rest of the fleet is and standby for our return. We'll escort the rest back there."

"Aye sir!" Helo said and went to execute those orders.

"Damned if we didn't pull it off!" Adama said to himself, lightly pounding his fist into the central command station. He wouldn't be satisfied until the operation was over, but the tide was definitely turning their way.

Laura Roslin passed Cally onto some EDF Marines, who put her on a stretcher and began to work on her. "She's okay, ma'am! Just a little malnourished from her stay behind bars! We'll fix that with an IV feed." The female medic quickly and competently inserted the needle into Cally's arm and set up the IV bag on a little hook attached to the stretcher.

Tom Zarek walked up to Laura Roslin just then and said, "No slap in the face today, I take it?"

Instead of a slap, Laura Roslin gave her former political foe a big hug, "Tom! Glad to see you got out!"

"You and me both, Laura!" he replied with a smile. Then he turned and looked at Colonial One up on the hill. "Going up there, I presume?" Zarek asked.

"Yes. Seemed fitting. Unless you want to become president?" Roslin asked.

"I doubt they'd have me, Laura. You deserve to be back in office. I'll support you taking back the presidency." Zarek said as the two of them joined the resistors who began to make their way towards Colonial One.

"And what do you want in return, Tom?" Roslin asked.

"You could give me my old job back as vice-president." Zarek said.

Roslin took a moment to think about it as they walked up the hill, and then said, "I'll take that under advisement, but I'll probably do it anyway. Last thing I need is a political crisis as soon as we get into orbit!"

Zarek stuck his hand out and asked, "Deal?"

Roslin smiled and replied as she shook his hand, "Deal! Now let's go get my ship back!"

Tigh and his team managed to find the nuke when they walked right past it. "I'll be damned! They had it next to the farm entrance?" he said as the radiation detector clipped to one of the corporal's belts started to go off.

"Tell Cool Hand Luke to get over here!" Bubba said into the radio.

Tigh gave Bubba a strange look, and Bubba shrugged a reply, "I'll explain them later, Colonel. That is if Luke doesn't make a mistake."

Cool Hand Luke turned out to be a woman, Sergeant Lucy Maxwell. She was a short woman of barely five feet and looked so light that a gale could blow her away, but she went to work on disarming the nuke with a cool, professional air. Soon enough, she pulled away the trigger mechanism and announced, "She's disarmed, sir!"

"Good work, Luke!" Bubba smiled and patted the petite demolitions expert on the shoulder. Luke and her team took the disabled nuke away, and Bubba turned to Colonel Tigh and said, "Looks like we're done here, sir! Ready to head into space aboard one of those Raptors of yours?"

Tigh smiled for the first time in what seemed ages, and clasped Bubba on the shoulder, saying, "About damn time we got off this miserable rock, if you asked me! Besides, I need some flight time!" They all laughed at the remark and made their way back to the spaceport.

Tory looked around desperately for the two guards and Maya, but she couldn't find them in the crowd as it flowed aboard the transport. The ship's captain said, "Ma'am, we need to take off, we're full!"

"Not until we get those four others on board!" Tory protested.

"We have orders to take off right now, ma'am. Galactica is ordering us to the rendezvous point, so we have to go!" the captain said, urging her to get inside as the last of the crowd entered the transport.

Tory looked and looked, but saw no one else coming towards them. "Roslin's going to be pissed with me." Tory said to herself as she went into the transport, letting the captain shut the entrance ramp and begin the procedure to launch.

Maya and the two guards hadn't made it, caught in an ambush near the Oracle Selloi's tent. One of the Three's entered the tent, looking for the oracle that had told her that her dreams were real and that she would find the baby born of human and Cylon blood. "Frak! Where is she?" Three said, tearing up the place, looking for any sign of the baby. "Damn bitch lied to me!" she said as she threw down a plate. That's when she heard the cry of a child.

Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar had followed her to the oracle's tent. "She went in there, Gaius!" Six said, and Gaius started to go for his gun when he suddenly heard a baby beginning to cry. He looked around, walking from body to body, finally finding a baby underneath the body of a dead young woman.

It was then that his inner Six, the one inside his mind ever since he managed to survive the shockwave from the nuke that destroyed his home beside that lake, showed up beside him. "Congratulation, Gaius! You found our child!"

Caprica Six saw him holding the baby and said, "She's alive! It's a miracle from God!" Gaius held the baby, somehow knowing that this was the child of Sharon and Karl Agathon.

Three came up to them as Gaius held the baby, her eyes locked on the child. "Can I hold her?" she asked, and Gaius handed her over without thinking. Three looked at it as if it were her own child, and slowly began to walk away. As soon as she turned away, Gaius took out his gun and aimed it at her.

"No Gaius! She won't set off the nuke now!" Caprica Six said with resignation. "Let's go. We have to leave!" Gaius put his pistol away and reluctantly followed Six to one of the last Cylon raiders.

Nova Forrester and Kara Thrace-Anders were almost finished checking out the last of the cells when they came to a doorway that seemed to be to a much larger room than a cell. Nova set the charge and they both moved back so she could set it off. After the explosion, Starbuck raced in to see if anyone was in there, only to find something totally shocking. "Oh frak!" Starbuck said quietly.

"What is it?" Nova asked.

"It's…it's my old place from Delphi City!" Starbuck said, shaking her head in disbelief. "But it can't be!"

A voice called from down below. "Hello Kara! I knew you'd come!" The Cylon known as Leoben Conoy came into view and stopped at the end of the steps, and, in his arms, he held a young child who seemed to be two years old. The child had blond hair and looked right at Starbuck.

"What is that?" Starbuck asked, pointing at the child.

"Do you remember when you were on the farm? When we took one of your ovaries from you? We used one of your eggs and fertilized it with one of my sperm, and implanted it inside a human woman." Leoben smiled as a chill ran down Starbuck's spine as she began to suspect whom the child's mother was.

Leoben smiled and said, "Kacey, this is your mother, Kara!" The child smiled and waved at Kara, simply saying, "Hi!" in a gentle voice. Kara was so stunned that the rifle dropped from her hands and fell down the stairs.

Nova instinctively pointed her rifle at Leoben and said, "Listen you! I don't know what game you're playing at, but we're getting the hell off this rock! If that is Starbuck's child, then let it down and walk away from it!"

Leoben shook his head and said, "She's my child too, and I will be with the mother. You can't stop the work of God!"

"You're right!" Kara said, as she began to walk down the stairs, brushing off Nova's attempt to grab her to stop her. "If she's my child, then I should be with her, and with you!" Nova watched in horror as Kara walked up to Leoben and looked him in the eyes.

"Say it, Kara! Say it!" Leoben said.

"Say what?" Kara asked.

"That you love me!" Leoben asked.

Kara smiled, leaned in, and kissed him. She then said "I love you!" then promptly plunged a knife in the back of his neck. She took the child off of him as he began to drop down to the floor. Nova hurried down to the base of the stairs, aiming her gun at Leoben just in case he tried anything.

"It's okay, Kara! I'll see you again soon!" Leoben said as his final words before dying.

Kara asked Kacey is she was okay, and the child nodded her head vigorously. "C'mon, Nova! Let's go!" Starbuck said, holding the child in her arms as she began to ascend the stairs. Nova's mouth was open, in shock at what had just taken place. At the top of the stairs, Sam Anders entered the room with his rifle up in an aiming position, but dropped it down as soon as he saw Kara climbing the stairs.

"Kara, Nova, we need to get to the transport!" Anders said. He then nodded at the child, and asked, "Who's she?"

"I'll explain later." Kara then walked out of the room and out into the hallway in a daze. Nova followed up the stairs and watched as Kara walked down the hallway, Kacey in her arms.

"What the hell went on in here?" Anders asked Nova.

Nova looked down at the deceased Leoben, her mouth still open and in shock. "I…I'm not sure. He said…" Nova pointed her rifle at the fallen Cylon. "He said that she was that child's mother!"

"What?" Anders exclaimed. He shook his head and said, "This has to do with the time she was shot and taken to that breeding farm on Caprica." He saw incomprehension in Nova's face and quickly added, "I'll explain later. Like I said, we need to leave now!" Nova nodded and followed Anders up the stairs and out of the detention facility.

Back on board Yamato, Derek Wildstar leaned back in his seat, exhausted from the battle. A hand patted him on the shoulder, and he looked up to see that it was his old friend, Stephen Sandor. "Good work, Derek! You still got it!"

"Thanks!" Derek replied. "And thanks to you for putting the old lady back together! I never imagined you'd have her up and running this fast, especially given the lack of resources we had to work with!"

"Agreed! But you and Wendy managed to get us what we needed, when we needed it." Stephen turned and looked towards one of the turbo lifts and added, "Speaking of Wendy…"

Derek turned around in his seat and saw that Wendy Singleton had just come onto the bridge. "Any news on Homer?' she asked.

"He's okay. He's on board a Raptor, with Nova, and some of the Colonials. They're heading towards Galactica." Derek replied. "Shall we take one of the Cosmo Foxes over to see our better halves?"

Wendy smiled and the two were soon off to board the multipurpose two-seater space plane, leaving Sandor in command of Yamato for now. They didn't need long to get into their flight suits to head over to Adama's flagship and meet up with some of those that they had rescued.

Later that night, back in her quarters aboard Colonial One, Laura Roslin prepared for bed. It had been a long night of getting used to the place again. She knelt down in prayer to the Gods, using the blood stained copy of the Sacred Scrolls that Elosha had with her when she perished on Kobol. Once she was done, she put the holy book back up and got into bed, falling asleep quickly.

It was then that the dream came to her. When she woke up in the middle of the night, she went to her office and immediately called Admiral Adama, asking him to join her over at Colonial One. He had just woken up from his own dream, according to him, and didn't hesitate to board a Raptor and head over to Colonial One.

Laura knew he was shaken when he appeared before her somewhat disheveled in his uniform, which was very much unlike him. She was still dressed in her nightwear, which led him to ask, "I take it that this is not a formal visit?"

She shook her head and said, "No. I've been having dreams again."

Adama replied, "That's funny. So have I!"

Kobol

Inside the Tomb of Athena

The being touched the mind of the old man that had come inside this tomb almost two years ago now. She had taken the advice that Laura Roslin had given him in her own dream and did one better, reaching out to touch the minds of all that had been in that temple that day. Sadly, one of those was missing, but she found the minds of Kara Thrace-Anders and Lee Adama, and touched their minds with the same dreams. Even now, they were headed over to Colonial One to discuss those dreams.

She hoped that they believed in the dreams she sent them, because they would not be dreams for long. They needed to know what was coming, and they needed to be prepared for it.

Now she had one last task: to touch the mind of some of the Earthers that had aided in the rescue of the Colonials on New Caprica. She found two candidates as they slept together aboard Yamato, and she gave similar dreams to Nova and Derek, hoping that they would understand.