I'm not sure how this chapter cane out, but I hope you all like it. I'm really trying to meet up with the Galactica soon, but there's one or two things that need to happen first.
A note: This story is obviously AU. I did add on my own characters, but I also had to do something else. In one of the flashbacks there is a big issue with timing, and where there someone is on one Battlestar or another, or whether someone died or not. That may or may not make sense, but I have to bend the rules a little for this particular part of the story.
Disclaimer: Only own a couple
Spoilers: Not much at all.
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Chapter 11- Recovery Operation
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
Talon Devruin was in his quarters, resting. He looked at his left arm, and then at his right. They both looked the same and felt the same, except for the unnatural strength it gave him, but something just felt wrong about having a mechanical right arm. The prosthetic limb went all the way up and encompassed part of his shoulder. Fortunately, the doctors said that he was a good fit for the arm and should be in flying condition within a week. He was about to try to fall asleep when the intercom buzzed.
"Lieutenant Devruin, report to the briefing room. Repeat, Lieutenant Devruin, report to the briefing room."
With a groan, he stumbled out of his bunk and walked down to the briefing room. When he got there he skidded to a halt. Their were three occupants in the room, Guardswoman Forr, Capitan Repness, his squadron leader, and Admiral Daala herself. He tried to salute but misjudged the momentum with his new arm and just ended up hitting himself on the head. Blushing, he more carefully raised his arm in a salute. A ghost of a smile flickered across Daala's face. "At ease." she said. Lieutenant Devruin, you pilot, or piloted, a TIE Starfighter in Omega squadron, right?"
Talon nodded.
"I'm sure you're aware," she continued, "that you are the best pilot on the ship, a fact the Captain Repness will attest to. A pilot of your caliber should be flying a Interceptor, and have at least a rank of captain. In fact, I do believe that you have been offered that position many times ago, yet each time you turn down the promotion. Why?"
Talon cleared his throat. "You're right, I am a better pilot than most of the others on board this ship. That's why less experienced pilots should take the Interceptors. They'll live longer."
"That may be true, but you are the best we have. And we almost lost you. You're lucky that your arm was fit able for a prosthetic, or you would have lost enough mobility in that arm that you would only be able to fly shuttles. And, as I'm sure you're aware, Major Brimfane is dead. So, we need a lead pilot. I have a mission for you. After the mission you will accept a promotion to major. We have to skip the rank of captain because you will be our lead pilot. You will assume the position of Drake Lead. And I personally couldn't care less if you want the promotion. But first, we have a problem. I assume you remember the pilot you saved."
Talon nodded. How could he not? He also knew that the fighter that she had downed had crashed into the Pegasus.
"Well," Daala continued, "She is in a bit of trouble. Cain ordered her sent to the brig on ridicules charges, but she took down two marines and is in hiding. I need to find her for….personal reasons."
Talon briefly wondered why the Admiral wanted to talk to the pilot, but he quickly put that out of his mind. He had his orders, and it was not his place to question Daala's commands. "And why do you need me Admiral?"
"Because you may be the only one that can get her to come out of hiding. You saved her, and she saved you. That sounds like a bond to me. We'll go to the Pegasus together. "I don't think you should pilot the shuttle until you spend a little more time in the simulators." she said, referencing his earlier blunder with saluting. "Come on," she said, "let's go."
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Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
When the Lambda shuttle docked in the upper starboard hanger bay, Daala was pleased to see that most of the Pegasus's Vipers had been retrieved by their shuttles. Unfortunately, almost all of the pilots had been sucked into space without a fully sealed suit, so it was vital even to Cain that Deadbolt was to be taken alive, to train more pilots. Daala had looked over her transcript which had been forwarded from Cain along with the request for the search. What Daala couldn't understand is why she felt she had to escape. She had been in the hack multiple times before the nuclear holocaust, and had been their three times before the Gorgon had shown up. Daala would make sure that Cain dropped all charges against the pilot. Daala had control over Cain, considering that she could blast the heavily damaged Battlestar out of the sky with almost no effort. But Daala had made the decision to help repair the Pegasus's main batteries and engines, along with their own bridge. The disadvantage to the plan was that they couldn't move for almost a week, and would have to rely on the fighters for defense. But Daala's technicians had reported that the captured Basestar not only was adapting well with the replacement of the hybrid with their computer systems, but it also could "heal" itself, regenerating damaged parts. It also had a small production facility that could turn out three or four Raiders per day. To ensure that the Raiders wouldn't be loyal to the Cylons, they had their organic material replaced with droid brains. Unfortunately, that meant that they would be recognized as enemies by the Cylons. The Basestar could prove incredibly useful as a weapons platform. It had yet to be named, and the were still sorting out how to crew it, as a force of Stormtroopers could not be trained well enough to operate it. She was thinking of getting some of the Pegasus crew members to join.
Daala also wanted to check on Cain's prisoners. Gina had murdered an Imperial soldier and would be sentenced to death. Suna Yres would be a bit more difficult, but most of the negations would be whether Cain decided her fate or if Daala did.
As they stepped off the ramp they were greeted by two big marines, the same ones that had been taken down by Deadbolt. They wasted no time in speaking.
"We've searched every inch of the ship. We know she hasn't left. All Raptors are accounted for and DRADIS logs are clean."
Daala gestured for Kirana to join the conversation. Royal Guards were trained in search operations.
"Well, if she's not in any room on the ship, could she be in the ship?"
The marine with a mark on his throat, probably from being strangled into unconsciousness, sneered at her. He had very little respect for women. "We've searched every place on the map, including causeways. She's not here."
Kirana sighed. "Help me get some equipment from the shuttle."
She walked back to the shuttle with the Marines in tow. She had brought four advanced heavy duty life scanners. She planed to attach them to the walls of four places in the corridors, scanning for life in the bowels of the ship. She grabbed two of them and walked back to where Daala and Talon were standing. The Marines each grabbed a container…and ended up having to drag them out of the shuttle. They were heavier than they looked. Embarrassed, the marines dragged the containers through the corridor. They placed the scanners in the ends of the ship and activated them.
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Sophie was unsure of what to do. If she reported the G-4, she would be tossed in the brig and suspected of being a traitor. But she had only found a fraction of what was stolen. She wondered if Cain knew about the investigation.
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Two years ago, Battlestar Galactica,BSG-75
Sophie walked out of the Raptor that had carried her to the Galactica and headed to the enlisted officers quarters. She had just seen Kara a couple of day ago. Kara was up for promotion. She was going to go from lieutenant junior grade to senior lieutenant. Sophie was scared for Kara. She knew Kara couldn't of stolen any G-4, that just wasn't Kara. But their really wasn't any other suspect. She had made sure that she could have a private chat with Kara before those goons got to her. She rapped twice on the door. She heard someone come to the door. The door opened and a man she had never seen opened. "Is Starbuck here?" she asked.
He just grunted and pointed to one of the bunks. She slipped past him and waled to the bunk she was in. "Kara?" she said.
Kara looked up from the book she had been reading and saw Sophie. "Hey," she said, "what are you doing here?"
Sophie looked around the bunk room. The only other occupant were the male pilot. Sophie turned to him. "Out." she said.
He looked at her like she was crazy. "You can't tell me to get out of here. This is my frakking room."
Sophie reached into her left pocket and pulled out a sheet of folded paper. Unfolding it, she shoved it in the pilot's face. "Se this? This is a direct order from Admiral Corman. Unless you'd like to take it up with him, I suggest you leave. The pilot leaned in close to look at the paper, and when he read it he wasted no time in getting out of the room.
Kara let out a classic Starbuck laugh, obviously thinking the paper was a joke. "A letter from a admiral. I'll have to remember that one. What'd you do, forge his signature or something?"
Sophie didn't laugh. She handed the paper over to Kara. Her smile quickly disappeared. It was real. "Frak me." She looked at Sophie. "What's this all about?"
Sophie ran her fingers through her hair unconsciously, something she did when she was very nervous. Kara had known Sophie long enough to recognize that, and she knew something was wrong. "I could go to prison for telling you this Kara. A couple of days ago someone cleaned out all of the Peg's G-4. Got a hell of a lot of it from other Battlestars, too."
Kara's eyes widened. "And where do I fit into this?"
"They think you might have done it. You're the only suspect. Everyone was accounted for on the Battlestar. They figure you must have stolen it during the hour you had between leaving my quarters and boarding the Raptor that took you back to the old bucket. Where were you?"
Kara shrugged. "Mostly in the hanger, checking out the Mk.VIIs. We only have a handful here."
"Damn. No one else can remember seeing you during that time. And let me tell you something. Even though the investigation has only been going a few days, the trails are cold. They have some suspects for other ships, but you're it for the Pegasus. And to tell you the truth, the investigation's probably going black. They'll keep up the search, but they want a scapegoat. And with your disciplinary record, you're a perfect candidate."
Kara narrowed her eyes. "How did you get involved in this?"
"Mostly because of you, actually. They want me to get information on you. They said that I could uncover information proving your innocence, but that's a load of crap. They just wasn't me to find something that could remotely prove that your are somewhat guilty. I pulled every favor I have just to get to talk to you alone."
"And why are you sure I didn't do it?"
"Because I know you. You may be a frak up, just like me, but there's no chance you did it."
Kara smiled. They were both frak ups, but they were still able to function reasonably well within the military. "And how's Zak?" Kara asked.
Sophie smiled. "Good. He came on the left right before you came on the Raptor. It's to bad you haven't met him yet."
"I still can't believe you're dating the son of the Galactica's commander." Kara said.
"Once I get you out of this I'll introduce you."
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Present time
Just remembering hurt. After all these years, Sophie still couldn't believe that Kara had stolen him from her.
She crawled out of her space and walked over to one of the access shafts. She kept going until she found a bundle of wires. Perfect. She could tap into the communications system. Using a trick she had learned long ago, she took her digital assistant and typed in some words.
STOLEN BLOCKS OF G-4 ABOARD SHIP. WILL RETURN.
Perfect. Now she just had to splice it into the personal communication wire. She connected the digital assistant and sent the message directly to Cain's quarters. Now she just had to wait a few hours. Then maybe she could figure out where the rest of the G-4 was.
--
Right after Kirana set the last scanner and turned it on the system detected one human-sized life form. It was at causeway 25 H. Kirana motioned over Talon. He came over and peered at the sensor. "She's way deep in the ship. I'll go and flush her out. You go to here," she said, indicating a spot on the map, "and talk her into surrendering. Take those two Marines with you. Go."
As Talon and the two Marines headed to one spot, Kirana slipped into the hatch leading to causeway 25H. Not only was the hatch right next to the spot she had escaped from, it also lead to the spot where the pilot had been detected. Toggling on the map in her helmet, Kirana sliced her way into the ship until she was only 20 meters from the source of head. If she could, Kirana would take down the pilot and bring her back. If not she would just chase the pilot into the area where Talon was waiting.
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Sophie was on the way back to her room when she heard a noise. It was actually barley even a noise, just the rustle of something moving. Suspicious, she quickened up her pace. She was only a foot away from the door when everything started happening fast.
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Kirana didn't know what had startled the pilot, but whatever it had been was enough. As Sophie made a dash to the door, Kirana jumped down from the cable she had been perched on. She wasn't able to reach her in time. Sophie rushed inside and slammed the door shut. Kirana stopped and looked at the door. By observing the room that it led to she could tell it had two doors. While she could easily get in, chances were that the pilot had some kind of weaponry. A head on approach could be fatal for either or both of them. While she was pondering what to do she detected movement on her sensor The pilot's life signature was moving away from the room. But how was that possible? She hadn't come out of the room. Kirana dashed in, but all she found was a empty makeshift living area. There was no sign of her.
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Sophie barely had time to shut and latch the door before the thing in armor came dashing in. She thought it might have been one of those Imperial Guards, but she was not about to find out. She grabbed the carbine, her digital assistant (you never knew when they would come in handy), a horrible tasting ration, and of course, a few stogies. She went to the middle of the room and stomped hard on it. The door underneath her opened, and she fell the twelve feet before landing on a pile of pillows. Just like she had planned. The trap door above her was on a spring mechanism, so it automatically closed when she had left it.
She made sure she had all of her possessions before she started to sprint down 18W, afraid that the armored woman was on her tail. She rounded a corner and saw three men running in her direction. A man she had never seen before and the two Marines that she had humiliated. Frak. She automatically stopped and raised her rifle, its barrel pointing at them. So this was it. She could either surrender and head to the brig or take these three down, steal a Raptor and get blown up in the process of trying to escape to nowhere. Not a very good set of choices. As she peered down the sight of the rifle at them, she could see them. She had a choice to make.
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Talon had disobeyed orders from Kirana when he had seen Sophie's blip start to move. He had ran down the paths of the Battlestar at a pace the Marines could barely match. Using his feelings, not his thoughts or equipment, he steered towards Deadbolt. Something was telling him that she was close. And sure enough there she was, wielding a wicked looking SA-80 assault rifle. Time seemed to slow down for him. There she was, pointing a deadly rifle at him. It was a standoff. At least until the crack of the bullet filled the hallway.
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Well, there it is! The problem I was referring to is whether Zak is alive in the flashbacks or not. I just had the idea floating around in my head that maybe Kara didn't have Zak first. Anyway, please review! It lets me know of any problems in the story!
