Wow, chapters in the double digits. Finally. For the reasons stated in the previous chapter, this is a bit shorter than usual.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own all of this, just a few characters.
Spoilers: Not much.
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Chapter 10- Defender of the Angel
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
After a few hours Daala had finally healed and was coherent again. She walked from the medbay to the auxiliary control room. It would take several hours of not moving to make enough repairs to the main bridge for it to be functional. She called over her new damage control officer. She just realized that this was the third damage control officer her ship had needed since the jump. The damage control officer walked over to her, his expression grim.
"Give me the bad news." she said.
"Yes sir. First, we lost seventeen TIEs. Sigma squadron, one of our bombers, got heavily hit, with eight down. Then we lost three from Omega, a Starfighter squadron, three from Epsilon, another Starfighter, and two from Drake, one the interceptors. We were able to recover two pilots. Capitan Repness and Lieutenant Devruin. Major Brimfane is dead."
Daala let out a hiss of anger. They just lost their lead pilot.
The officer continued. We sustained moderate damage to our structural integrity, and we won't be able to repair that unless we have a long stay in a shipyard. We lost one of our heavy turbolaser batteries, and multiple lasers and turbolasers along the ship. We have severe damage at the bow of the ship, if it takes any more it's the forward forty meters may just be blasted off."
Daala looked at him. The expression on his face said that he had such bad news that he really did want to tell her.
The officer looked at her and took a depth breath. "The long range nav computer is gone. Not just damaged, but gone. It took a direct hit from a nuclear tipped missile. Even if we return to their home colonies, they wouldn't have the technology to repair it. And our fighter's nav computers aren't designed to have that kind of range." He didn't have to add that now they had no way of getting back to the known galaxy, or even know how far outside it they were. They only knew that their star charts did not match the stars around them.
After dismissing the officer, Daala walked over to the medbay. She had to know how Kirana was doing.
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Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
Sophie had finally made it to her spot. A Battlestar was a bigger place that it looked like, and it looked pretty big. She had found a little closet that probably hadn't been ever used, way in the bowels of the ship. Only mechanics came here, and then only rarely. She also knew that the room was not on any map of the ship. She opened the door and slipped inside. It was probably about ten feet by ten feet with an eight foot ceiling. It had two ways in and three ways out. There were to doors that could be used to open it, but for some reason there was a little trap door in the bottom that led to causeway 18W. It was a twelve foot fall from the door, cushioned by some pillows. When she had created this place she had no idea whatsoever why she was doing it.Sometimes she didn't even remember getting some off the objects. She sat down on the floor, reached up into on of the helves for a bottle of Ambrosia, took a swig…and noticed a few cases that she didn't remember putting there. Curious, she grabbed the case and lowered it the ground.
She almost dropped it, surprised at the weight of the case. it must have weighed at least 75 pounds. Even more curious, she opened the case. When she saw that contents she gasped and stepped back. The case had twenty blocks of G-4 and detonators. Franticly, she pulled out all the other cases, all five of them. All had twenty blocks and detonator. 100 five pound bricks. 500 ponds of ultra-dense reactive explosives. That was than enough to blow a hole it the hull of a Battlestar. She remembered that about a week after she joined the Battlestar someone had stolen about 10,000 pounds of explosives. They had investigated for almost half a year, but never found a trace.
2 years ago, Battlestar Pegasus
Sophie was in her quarters; celebrating both her birthday and her promotion to captain in her bunk, with a very big bottle of Ambrosia in one hand a lit cigar in the other. She was the only one in the room; all the other pilots were probably on shore leave. She had just put the cigar in her mouth when there was a knocking on the bunk room door. She tried to ignore it, but the pounding continued. With a sigh, she slid out of her bunk and opened the door, reveling two Military Police. She was about to see if she could order them away when she noticed their rank insignia. A major and a captain. It was highly unusual for high ranking officers to go pounding on doors. She looked them over, noticing that their hands were nowhere near their sidearms. That was a good sign. She cleared her throat, which was a bit scratchy after the Ambrosia and the cigar.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
The MP nodded. "May we come in?" the major asked. Sophie knew that he didn't have to ask permission, especially since it wasn't her room. After she let then in, the major sat down at the table in the middle of the room.
The captain checked each bunk to see if they were occupied and then waved a portable electronic sweeper around. "Clear." he said. Sophie also took a seat, across from the major.
"What we are about to discuss in classified. You may not discuss it with anyone, regardless of rank, unless directly authorized by the Admiralty."
Sophie blanched. The MP continued. "This morning over 10,000 pounds of G-4 explosive was stolen from multiple Battlestars. Pegasus was the hardest hit, with all of its explosives gone. We know it wasn't any of the crew, so it had to be visitors to the ship. We were hoping you could help us find and investigate a friend of yours. Kara Thrace."
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Present time
Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
Daala walked into the medbay and saw Kirana sitting on a chair. She had just gotten out of the bacta tank. She stood up and saluted. "At ease." Daala said. "How are you feeling?"
Kirana smiled. "Just glad to see that you are well, sir."
Daala resisted the urge to sigh. Typical Kirana, never worried about herself. Kirana ventured a question. "Is Araeya alive?"
Daala shook her head. Kirana's face remained the same, but for a brief moment Daala could see hurt in her eyes. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. "Kirana, I want to go to the captured Basestar. Would you like to come with me?"
Kirana nodded her head. "Yes sir."
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Basestar 201
Daala walked the halls of the Basestar, accompanied by Kirana and a Stormtrooper acting as their guide. With the help of the captured Cylons, Imperial technicians had restored atmosphere to most of the ship. When they entered the control room they found the Two and the Six.
"Well," she said, addressing them, "It's nice to see you two again. I know you as Leoben and Gina. Do you have different names, or should I just use your numbers.
The Two didn't hesitate. "You can call me Leoben, but I'm not the one you captured." The Six took a moment before responding. "You may call me Natalie."
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They made their way to the room of the hybrid. She was in her tank, and at once it was obvious what was wrong. She was sitting there, not moving, and a chunk was blasted off of the tank, and before a patch had been hastily slapped on her tank her goo had been draining. She was just staring in space, repeating:
"Must jump, FTL offline/End of line. Must jump, FTL offline/End of line."
Daala looked at the prisoners. "Does she usually do this?"
Leoben shook his head. "She usually talks of ship functions and other lines. Many believe that they are ramblings, but they are not. Perhaps she has seen God. To know the face of God-"
"-is to know madness, yes I've heard it before." Daala leaned down over the tank, staring into the hybrid's eyes. Suddenly it reached up and grabbed her by the neck, pulling her head down until their faces were only inches apart. Daala's escorts instantly trained their blasters on the hybrid, but didn't dare fire in fear of hitting the Admiral. The hybrid looked into her eyes and spoke softly enough so that Daala was the only one who could hear her.
"You are the outsider who comes to destroy us/You are not one of us/End of line. You must find the thirteenth defender of the angel who is hunted on the son of Poseidon. End of line." After that she released Daala and began reciting the same FTL offline sentence again.
Daala cocked her head. The son of Poseidon? Who was Poseidon? She turned to the Cylons. "Who's the son of Poseidon?" she asked. Natalie looked startled by the question, but Leoben did not. He had spent enough time listening to the hybrid to know that it had told her something.
"The sun of Poseidon is Pegasus, the winged horse."
Daala though that over. Pegasus. Battlestar Pegasus? Someone was being hunted on the Battlestar Pegasus? Then she remembered. A request had been sent to the Gorgon about finding a pilot who had escaped while on the way to the brig. Was the pilot the "defender" the hybrid had talked about? Daala didn't know why, but she felt that the hybrid was talking about somthing importatn. she had to find the pilot, and she knew just the person the help her. But first she had to do somthing. She talked to the Stormtrooper next to her without turning her head. "Trooper, have you installed our power generator and computer control systems?"
"Yes sir."
"Good." She drew her blaster from her belt, flicked the safety off, and shot he hybrid in the for head, burning a neat hole into it. Immediately all lights went out in the Basestar, before flickering back on. Both Cylons were rooted to the spot, incredulous. It was one thing to have the hybrid die on battle, but this?
Daala holstered her blaster and shrugged unapologetically. "If we plan to use this Basestar we can't exactly have a Cylon controlling it, now can we?"
Leoben had a smile on his face. "That's not why you killed her." he said. She looked at him. "You knew she was speaking to you, and you were afraid."
Daala didn't know how to answer that. Shaking her head, she walked back to the shuttle that would take her to the Gorgon.
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Well, that's the chapter. The next one should hopefully be up soon. And just to clarify, Kirana has nothing to do with Kirana Ti, just took the same name and didn't notice it until GalacticaCAG said so. Also, Natalie was my favorite Six model and I was very unhappy about her short lifespan in the show, so she will be appearing throughout the story. Please review!