Chapter 20 Running in Place
When the call from Patterson doesn't come by 0600, Lee volunteers to make Kara a more substantial breakfast than the power bars they'd shared an hour before. She turns him down, saying the phone still might ring, and there's nothing less impressive than puking your guts out in an 8/9ths G's Academy sim. Lee accepts her reasoning with nothing more than a nod, but as he watches her get ready for the day, he notes how she keeps holding onto her stomach like she's already sick. After feeling like he had eyes crawling all over him all day yesterday and then the way the conversation with the Old Man went last night, he can't really say that he feels any differently.
The call offering an open viper sim doesn't come at all, so they go about their day—Kara to class and Lee to Cylon Central. He only works a few baseline flights. Officially, he's decided that he's getting the patterns recorded onto his datapad for their programmer, Cadet Henderson, to analyze and incorporate into their new program when he'll meet up with the Cadet later in the day. Mostly though, Lee's just distracting himself. He really doesn't want to think about yesterday at all, but especially not without Starbuck there with him to ground him so he doesn't feel that edge of panic start to grind him down again.
Lee itches to enter into the sim network and link up with the raptor and viper pilots already engaged in their own sims. He holds off, saving the treat for when Kara arrives. Even though he feels almost desperate to try to work out yesterday's anxiety where it still fidgets through his whole body, he aches even harder to take to the skies with his wingman. There's never been anything in the worlds better than flying with Starbuck to help Lee find his focus and remember where he is so he can figure out where he's going.
Sitting here on the ground, it feels so unnatural to Lee not to have a backup plan to cover their asses just in case—especially for the massive and unbelievable possibility of near extinction looming over their heads. In the air, though, Lee knows it'll all start to come together. It won't even matter that the 'air' is really only an 8/9ths Gs sim as long as Kara's got his wing.
When she finally walks into the Raider Complex after her morning classes, Kara's eyes travel over Lee's body like they always used to when he came back from a mission, checking him for damage. When her gaze meets his, he realizes, to his chagrin, that he's been looking her over in the same way—as if a three hour separation on planet is in any way comparable to combat.
"Hey," Kara calls to him, already in her flight suit, helmet hanging from one hand as she approaches his sim. "You ready for me?" She tilts a hip and lifts an eyebrow. By her stance, it's easy to see, Kara's at least as eager for flight as he is.
Suddenly that tight and achy feeling in his chest loosens up just a bit. "Been ready all day," Lee smirks, but he's not sure the expression quite covers how relieved he is to see her.
Kara walks up close beside him. "Well, don't let me set you off too early, then," she smirks right back, though her eyes are still wide open and keep glancing him over like she can't stop it.
"Don't worry," he winks and grabs her hand maybe a little tighter than he should. It's still just a little touch, though, not like he's spinning her in circles after coming home from war or anything. "I'll come through for you."
She grins hugely and squeezes his fingers. When she lets him go a moment later, she scans her card into the access panel of the raider sim next to his. She steps into the outdated cockpit just as he ducks back into his own. They hold eye contact until the canopy closes.
There are no communications officers in Cylon Central—an oversight in and of itself—but since few individuals earn the right to fly in the sim raiders and since programmers who can truly simulate cylon communications are tagged for the Intelligence and Operations branch as soon as possible, it's difficult to create enough stability in the system to manage a flight team for the sims. And so Starbuck and Apollo open up a secure line between them, talk to each other in near-whispers and hums as the stars appear on the screens around them. The Fleet's information on Jump ships and raider take-offs is still limited and what they do know is classified, so raider sims always begin in the dead of space.
They take a couple minutes to move with each other through the faux night sky, both of them imitating cylon moves they'd seen after the end of the worlds and incorporating the style into their own. Since Lee'd had all day to play around in the raider sim, Starbuck feels her way with her own raider a little longer now, getting used to the movements. Apollo keeps to her nine o'clock and complements her motions. And just like that, the tension that's kept building in his body all day melts right through the floor of the raider as Starbuck flies his wing.
"Let's call the kids," Kara declares once she's settled into the foreign bird.
"Honey, we're home," Apollo grins as he joins the active sim pool with her.
"Viper squad on Orion's port," Starbuck points out right away.
His eyes follow her direction to the dozen birds on his Dradis. "Not a full CAP?" he wonders aloud.
"Not yet, anyway," and her grin comes across the wire loud and clear.
"You want to draw 'em out or go for broke?" he posits, though he already knows what she'll want.
That rough chuckle of hers warms him to his fingertips. "Have you ever known me to play it safe? Balls to the wall, baby! Woo-hoo!" and she takes it hot, aimed right at Orion's center axis.
His feet bid him to follow her without thought, his own grin so wide across his face it seems to lift his helmet.
At the moment, theirs are the only raiders in the sim, human-navigated or otherwise. However, instrumentation tells Apollo there's a Jump Ship five thousand kilometers behind them. He flips 180 to check their six visually, confirming Dradis. He twists back quickly but carefully because the maneuver can often cause a bitch of a horizontal spin if executed improperly, and, at these speeds, not everyone's reflexes can hack it. He feels the thrill all the way down to his toes as he twists back to center with his raider. His eyes lock back onto the players in front of him the moment his turn's complete.
"Only the jump ship's at our back," he tells Kara, exhaling heavily as he does, the tight motions of his bird soothing him just a little more.
"Nothing on our 'z'," she relays in turn, and Lee can hear a quiet hum of satisfaction through the comm, and he knows Kara shares the peace he feels as they synchronize their motions.
They don't speak another word as they go in for the first kill. They don't have to. They shoot at the three, four-wing groupings as they fly through the vipers. The blitz takes out five birds. The remaining nuggets don't even have time to regroup before Starbuck and Apollo duck and flip around to catch them again. The squad's out a total of seven pilots before the kids can even complete their in-flights.
"Hmm," Starbuck hums into the mic as they pass the outside range of the vipers' guns. "Not very sporting was it?"
Lee grins anew, "Then let's make it a little more interesting."
"Ooh, Lee Adama, I love it when you get that devious tone in your voice," and he wishes he could see her smile 'cause he knows it's a big one, can feel the thrill of her joy straight over the comms.
"They've gotta learn somehow," Apollo lifts an eyebrow above the grin settled across his features.
She chuckles, "And we are such good teachers."
"My thinking exactly," he bares his teeth. "Up for a chase?"
"Always," she wiggles her wings at him. "You're it!" she hollers and dives down and back towards the nuggets.
"Starbuck!" he yells back at her even as he shoves his stick forward and rolls into position behind her. "You're gonna pay for that!" he warns though he enjoys hunting her as much as she loves to be pursued by him.
"Yeah? And who's going to make me?" she taunts. "You? I'd like to see you try."
"You'll see more than 'trying' when I'm nailing your ass to the side of the Orion," he cautions though he knows there's too much humor in his tone to pull off the warning.
"Ooh, Lee, say that to me one more time, but lick your lips first," her sweet alto intones over the wireless.
"Frak, Kara!" he's laughing so hard he chokes out the words.
"My thinking exactly," she comes back saucily.
"One thing at a time, Kara," he tells her just as they come back into range of the remaining viper pilots.
"Spoilsport!" she teases, dodging the bullets coming from the single re-formed wing.
Lee jukes with her, shaking his head at the single grouping, though he's glad to have his mind narrowed to this single task. The young pilots obviously believe in the old adage of having safety in numbers, but they'd have been better off against a small force of superior fighters by separating into two wings. All he and Kara have to do is spritz a few rounds in their direction and those who don't catch the bullets would get taken out by the ones that had. But then, what would be the fun in that?
Kara and Lee zigzag across the sky, flirting in and out of the vipers' range.
"Check out the lead pilot?" Apollo asks when they zag once more towards Orion.
"Yep. He's new with the stick, but he's got good instincts. Let's leave him for last."
"He's the one keeping them together," Lee points out. "We won't get a good judge of the other players if we don't take him out first."
"Yeah, but if we do take him out first, then the other nuggets won't have a rally point. And then, tsch," she pulls her lips from her teeth with a loud snick. "Game over."
Lee crinkles his nose and concedes to her reasoning, "Alright. Let's take it aft then."
He no sooner finishes speaking then the two of them both reverse power of their engines long enough to let the nuggets zoom by them. They resume their forward speed a nanosecond later, each of them already targeting a single viper in the formation. Lee takes the one farthest to port, and Kara creams the pilot clinging to starboard. The skies alight with fire. The remaining three vipers from the head of the wing scramble, as if avoiding the debris, even though the wreckage could never have touched them at their current velocity.
Apollo and Starbuck use the panic against them, each of the experienced pilots tracks a nugget, Lee again takes port, and Kara goes starboard. They let the leader go. Their pursuit of the vipers shakes the young pilots and the nuggets break formation. Hysteria written in every jerky motion, the kids try juking, try spinning, try flipping. No matter what they do or where they lead, neither of them can shake their pursuers.
Their young leader tries to intercept Apollo's pursuit, offering himself as prey by trying to work his way in between Lee and his distressed pilot. Lee's not dissuaded from his task in the least. Apollo could take out both of the nuggets now with just a few squeezes of his stick. He doesn't because these kids should know this feeling of dogged pursuit, of arbitrary engagement if they want to have a chance of making it against some real toasters. They deserve to have that chance.
When the young leader slips the stick and doesn't quite make the turn with Apollo and his nugget prey, Lee lets loose with the artillery, just barely changing vectors in time to avoid becoming part of the crash. The head kid immediately opens fire on Apollo, who easily dodges those bullets.
"Incoming," Apollo warns Starbuck as he comes up on her 4 o'clock.
Before she can respond, the kid Kara's chasing tries going 180, but he spins out of control before he can complete the turn. She shoots him immediately, and Lee knows it's a reflex to keep the nugget from becoming a danger to her.
"Frak!" she nearly spits the word.
Lee clears his throat. The nugget leader's still on his tail and now more fervently trying to stay with Lee and take him out. However, the kid's aim is rougher now, all over the place, really. Lee barely even needs to alter his course to avoid him.
"Let's end it," Kara says, her bird becoming larger in Lee's canopy window.
"I want the shot," Lee asserts.
"Take it," she races towards him to catch his back just as Apollo flips around to fly backward.
Lee's careful with his aim, going for precision. He blindly guides his bird backwards, knowing Kara's his eyes right now, and then Lee squeezes the trigger. A burst of fluid emits from his target with the second bullet, and Lee knows he got the coolant, just like he was trying to. Lee flies away from the kid's dying bird, watches the viper's course stagnate until it can't veer one way or the other in the slightest, so that even though the bird keeps its speed via inertia, it's still dead in the water, easy pickings. The kid strikes back with the rest of his ammo, shooting insistently even though he can't move at all, can't even angle his guns, and of course Lee and Kara aren't going to go anywhere near his line of fire.
"He needed to know what it's like," Lee watches the lights flash as the nugget tries to restart the dead bird, but his mind veers back to yesterday's Colonel and the inevitability the man's come to stand for in Lee's mind. "Sometimes there's nothing you can do," Lee declares even though a part of him hopes that's not the case for the situation he's in right now. The truth is though, that Lee knows Kara's ultimately right: The two of them need to narrow their focus and their actions to the Fleet itself and what they can do within it in order to attain their goal. And so Lee hopes they really are getting recruited by the Upper Tier. He hopes even harder that that's all they need to have or be in order to find a way to help their people defeat the Cylons.
"Come on," Kara bids Lee solemnly, setting a course for the Jump Ship.
He follows her afterburners, and they go, leaving the head nugget alive, though Lee feels the kid's torture like it's his own.
Before he and Kara can get within two thousand kilometers of the Jump Ship, Lee's Dradis beeps at him: Multiple contacts emanating from the Orion.
"Round two?" he asks Starbuck if she wants to keep going.
"You bet your ass," she declares, merriment returning to her voice as she angles her bird for the new fight.
When they pass the lead nugget's dead viper on the way back towards Orion, they leave him alive again. The kid'll either have to wait to be 'killed' or 'rescued,' or he'll have to exit the sim himself.
The new wave of fighters from Orion includes 24 vipers and four raptors.
The vipers form up two squadrons at 10 and 2 on the clock, angling toward the Jump Ship. Then they make for Starbuck and Apollo. A single raptor follows each of the squadrons, while another stays close to Orion and the fourth makes for the dead viper.
Kara's voice is level over the comm. "What do you think?"
"Mmm," he hums, tilting his head to one side as a jolt of anticipation has him refocusing on the moment, burning everything else in his mind away for now. "Make 'em come to us. Fly it tight and use their numbers against them."
"It'll at least teach them a little more about situational awareness," she agrees, and there's that smirk back in her voice. "Let the raptor rescue the kid," and he doesn't have to see her to know she's looking at the drifting viper. "They'll need practice at towing the birds in."
Lee lifts his brows. "You want to let them do the tow? They're more likely to have to catch an ejected pilot in practice."
"Yeah, but how often do they tie the lines in the sims?" she points out.
He shrugs. They fly casually, relaxed. He hears her soft breath in the open line between them while they wait for the vipers to close the distance. The two squads separate into three as they close in.
"That was nicely executed," Kara compliments the maneuver, which can often be a struggle for new pilots to perform.
The newly formed squadron of ten vipers comes right at them. Starbuck and Apollo let the other two groupings—each consisting of seven birds—flank them on either side. They wait until the nuggets are nearly in position and then they rush the center line, weaving along the elliptical of the battle as they go.
A kid on the starboard flank manages to shoot down one of his brethren on the port side. The flanks cease fire about twenty seconds later—which is way too much later. In those long seconds, the nuggets manage to wound two more of their own birds, disabling at least one of them.
Lee and Kara fire as they ram through the center flank. The vipers, now gunshy, shoot towards them only sparsely as the flanks try to regroup. The kids let Starbuck and Apollo escape to a safe distance, seemingly to work on their strategy.
"That on the other hand was frakkin' embarrassing," Kara's tone lowers in disappointment. "The flight instructors really need totalk to these kids about intercept protocol."
"You're not kidding," Lee turns 180 degrees to peek at the debris behind them, using Starbuck's raider right beside him to guide the motion. "We need some real competition out here," he sighs, wishing for that moment when the world whittles down to his bird and his wingman. Lee shoots toward the nuggets as Starbuck pilots their course. Their range from the targets is a little too far to be very accurate, but he still manages to light up two fireballs.
"Eh," he can practically see her shrug a shoulder, and he wonders if she's got as much unexpected antsiness lingering as he does. "Lunch time is prime nugget hours," she points out. "Let's clear the board, and if nothing more interesting comes along, we can just break until early evening. There should at least be some instructors, maybe some pilots from Headquarters coming over by then."
One of the raptor pilots scurries away as Starbuck and Apollo draw closer, not even taking time to gather any intel on their birds.
Beside him Kara's incredulous at the move. "Wow."
Lee flips back around to face forward, does a visual check at Kara's bird to readjust his distance from her. "Let's take off the gloves," he suggests.
Her response is to come around, twisting to starboard. He twists with her, and they move together to face the nuggets. He and Kara shoot down another eight of the 20 vipers still in the battle within a minute. Another three birds are lost to friendly fire, two to battle confusion when they drift into one another while trying to come around and rejoin the battle after Kara and Lee execute a sharp turn.
"Multiple Dradis contacts," Kara turns her raider toward the Orion with interest.
"I count five," Lee comes back.
"Confirmed."
The new vipers form up immediately, smoothly, with one wing consisting of three birds, a second of two.
"This looks promising," Kara declares with amusement.
Lee does a visual confirmation as they get closer. "More coming from the tubes," he says just before the latest ships become distinguishable from Orion on Dradis.
"Oh, we are definitely getting somewhere now!" Kara spins the raider in glee as the make for the newest vipers, the seven remaining vipers from the latest battle hot, well mild anyway, on their tail.
The two new launches bring four groupings, 11 vipers total, coming at them from Orion, each of the wings only consisting of two or three vipers. In splitting into smaller groups, they spread farther out into the sky, covering more ground as they cast a net towards Starbuck and Apollo.
Lee and Kara avoid the noose this time, taking the long way to starboard and drawing the fresh pilots out and away from Orion.
The screen in front of Lee beeps, and someone must be monitoring their flight from back at Cylon Central because all of a sudden there are more raiders on the horizon, "Dradis is coming alive at the Jump Ship, too," Apollo tells Starbuck.
"How many raiders?" Kara asks for the count while she keeps her eye on the vipers creeping up on their tail.
Lee waits a moment for the number of blips to cease multiplying. "I count a full squadron, but they're not in visual range yet," he shifts his gaze out the canopy to let Starbuck confirm the count.
"Okay, I see twelve, too," her words are interrupted by the distinct whoosh-bang of a missile firing.
He turns and wiggles the stick to get a quick look behind him. "Heat seeker!" he hollers as soon as he sees it.
They both turn hard to port, circling in a wide arc towards Orion.
Kara puts a bit of space between the two of them, causing their shared heat trail to dissipate slightly as their engines gain a bit of distance from each other.
"Did it grab us?" Lee asks, keeping his eyes ahead of them while Kara checks.
"Umm," she watches, and all of a sudden they have to start dodging gunfire. "Nope, it sailed right past. Not close enough to us," she declares as she jukes back and forth.
Starbuck pulls back towards Lee, and flips to fire behind them when he's close enough to guide her as she flies backward. "Woo-hoo. Eat that, nuggets!" her jubilance comes on the heels of a lightshow behind Lee.
Kara keeps firing, and they both keep dodging.
"Coming up on the raptor near Orion," he lets her know. "I want to put it in between us and the vipers."
"Ooh, good idea. These bus drivers are jumpy as hell," she continues unloading her ammo, moving still closer to Lee so they can fly a little tighter, maneuver a little more quickly.
"You see the other raiders yet?" he asks since she's more or less facing that direction.
"I can see the light bursts from ammo discharging, but that's it. They must have engaged the first grouping of vipers," she reports.
He feels the aftershocks of another couple explosions behind him.
"Got three with that blast," Kara brags.
Lee just pays enough attention to what's going on at his six to keep with Starbuck as she slides across the sky. He squints his focus towards the bird in front of them.
Lee narrows his eyes, "We've gotta book it, or the raptor's gonna ghost."
"Yes, because I'd previously decided to fly slowly since we only had eleven vipers on our ass," he can almost see those eyes roll.
He straightens out his bird, setting an exact course for the raptor, "Give me some space," he orders. "I'm gonna flip it, and then we can use missiles to gain some speed."
She immediately complies. They each shoot off a rocket the second Lee makes 180, causing the vipers on their trail to scramble. They still catch two of the kids with the blasts. The boost from the missile also helps them pick up another half-G.
"Frak me," Lee curses, seatbelt practically cutting a hole through his suit as the gravity pushes him forward.
"And here I thought you said one thing at a time," Kara just barely grunts out, as affected by the G's as he is.
He glances down to Dradis. "Almost there. Ready to flip it back around?"
"Just so you know, if you spin out now, I will never let you live it down," she warns haltingly as she fights for air.
The chuff that escapes him would have been a chuckle if he'd had the breath. "In three…two…one."
Starbuck and Apollo flip back around as one. Lee's wings wobble just a touch, but he holds it steady. A brief wave of dizziness hits him, but it's there and gone within seconds; he's nowhere near G-LOC. The exhilaration that comes with the wooziness balloons and sticks around, stretching Lee's senses until his body seems to flatten into the raider, meld with it.
The lone raptor fills his window immediately after he flips back around. He reacquires the target in nothing flat, taunts it, keeps it in his sights.
"Frak it. Check the Dradis," Kara orders. "The vipers are fifteen seconds out at least."
"Eh," he winces at the delay, knowing the raptor will microjump before the vipers arrive. He shoots the bird rather than to let it escape. "There are three of them left," he reasons. "We can scare another one into the line of fire."
"Aww, Lee, that's so sweet," she gushes, her voice saccharine. "You really know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?"
His whole body—his whole frakkin' bird—seems to smile at her tease. "Nothing but the best for you, 'Buck. And hey," Lee twists his raider to flirt with hers. "We've got a straight shot to Orion now. Let's see if the landing bays could use a little remodeling."
"Oh, wow. You really do know how to show a girl a good time," her intonation rises and quickly falls like the crest and crash of a wave, and her bird seems to follow suit. She flies below and around him. By instinct, he twirls his raider down and below hers. She follows the pattern, and they weave a brief Reverse Twist—narrower than anything Lee's ever done in a viper—for maybe five kilometers before they break apart as they approach Orion's range.
Orion's heavy artillery is difficult to aim at a target as fast and agile as a raider. The big guns are meant more for distance, speed, and the massive payload they discharge when they slam into the side of a ship. That doesn't stop whoever's been listening to the chatter in the viper SimCon from trying to hit Starbuck and Apollo with a lucky shot.
One of the explosions gets a little too close for comfort. The shockwave knocks Lee's raider off balance. He has to roll with the concussive force to keep his bird intact.
"Apollo!" Kara yells.
"I'm okay. Not a scratch," he sets his plane to rights.
"Good, because that could have been really embarrassing," she teases in that low tone that drives him wild.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep 'em coming, Kara," he shoots back, grin intact.
That low, satisfied chuckle of hers bubbles up, "I will if you will, Lee."
They come up onto the Orion and slip right into her port landing bay. They shoot it to pieces, not really causing much in the way of true damage as the area has to be stable enough to withstand explosions during its daily use and was built to that end. Still, two small ships slipping past all the small spacecraft and frakking with the battlestar is an incredible insult to morale.
Starbuck and Apollo pop out of the landing bay just in time to see the vipers come into artillery range. Orion ceases fires immediately, and then the two of them practically hug the ship as the nuggets circle above them. The kids don't fire because even if they landed a direct hit and didn't accidentally let loose on the Orion itself, the fiery death of a raider over the battleship could cause secondary explosions across the carrier, and potentially lead to the Orion's death.
Lee and Kara start taking potshots at the kids. They hit a couple here and there, some even severely, but it isn't until Lee catches a viper coming towards him that a true fireball ignites over the carrier and slams into the stern, near the engines.
All the vipers break away at that point. It'd be the perfect opportunity for them to take out the Orion if only he and Kara had a big enough payload.
"Too bad we don't have a nuke," Kara says exactly what's on Lee's mind.
"Another time."
"Check it out," she bids him. "The other raiders are finally bringing the fight in towards Orion."
He looks. "Hmm. Oh, wait, wow," movement catches Lee's eye as he brings his gaze back to center. "We've got more vipers launching right now. Let's take it towards space," he orders because there's no telling how capable the new players are.
As soon as they gain a bit of distance from the Orion, the vipers are back on their tail.
"Can you see how many new ships are out there?" Apollo asks.
"At least—frak!" she cuts herself off as a couple bullets rip through her wing. He watches as she wiggles her raider experimentally, assessing the damage. He winces at the wound, though he can see immediately that it's not bad. She briefly straightens out again before twisting back to normal. "I think there's another eight players on the board," she finally tells him.
They glide together, movements complementing each other as they weave in and out and around the vipers. They shoot down a few more, and then the other raiders make it to the middle firefight.
There's six raiders remaining. They blast into the wall of vipers, trying to maneuver up to Starbuck and Apollo. The raiders lose two more of their number and can't quite make it inside viper territory.
"Let's get lost inside the raiders and regroup," Kara proposes.
Lee winces. "Okay, but I want you back at my wing ASAP."
"Aye, aye, sir," she says with not a little irony, but he can hear the pleased smile in her voice that he wants her by his side.
Lee jukes 'n shoots his way through the viper wall separating him and Kara from the other raiders. And in that moment, with Kara still at his side, it's like the skirmish slowly starts to still around him as he and Starbuck zoom through enemy ranks, cleanly, purely—as untouchable as the stars themselves. The vipers around them move as if in slow motion. He squeezes his trigger finger, watching the birds light up and fall from the sky. And it's horrible to think that these kids might actually die this way, but right here, right now, it's like there's nothing more perfect than flying through the vastness of space connected to his bird and his wingman while the pyrotechnics light the way.
When they succeed in reaching the other raiders, he bites the inside of his cheek, checks Dradis and says, "Raiders four and nine on me. Twelve, two, and five on Starbuck." Lee honestly does agree that they're more likely to kill a greater number of vipers and keep more of their raiders alive if they separate and each lead a charge of raiders, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.
Kara hums in disdain at being given the extra raider, but she accepts the order anyway, grouping the raiders up with her in two by two formation while Lee takes lead in his own grouping.
Starbuck and Apollo separate as soon as they form their wings. She takes it low to starboard to circle back around to the nuggets, and he flies high to port.
Apollo pulls off a couple attack runs, shoot and run style, teasing the pilots in a little closer each time. He peeks toward Starbuck when one of the raiders disappears from his Dradis, but he spots her right away, ducking and gliding from her pursuers with grace. He pulls his attention back to his own squad and boxes a viper right into his trap. The bird spirals out of control and right into another nugget.
The board's nearly clear when Dradis explodes with contacts again. Kara shoots down the last of the vipers in the immediate battle.
"Twenty-five new contacts on Dradis," he tells her as she comes back around to him.
"Looks like we're getting a reputation," the amusement in her voice is undeniable. "We might have to break out some hot moves in a minute."
Kara forms up on his wing…and he breathes. The moment he spots her through the canopy, the tension across his back eases completely. He rolls his neck in relief and lets her be his eyes for that brief second. They look toward the Orion together, twenty-five new vipers zooming across the sky in challenge.
"Bring it on," Lee declares to the universe at large, the feel of Kara on his wing spurring him onward.
And they fly into the fight together, and what's more, Lee's sure they're going to win.
