TWELVE

Sergeant Grant Lohan entered Bay Four via the small access door at the edge of the hangar as the main door was closed. For a moment it was almost as if he were back on the Galactica. Closest to the main door was a Mark II Viper with sleeves and flags over the KEW barrels with the ominous words "ARMED & COMBAT READY" embossed on them. Next to the Viper was a Raptor with the same banner on its weapons. Beyond that were the other fighters in one stage of maintenance or another.

Throughout the bay were the sounds of industry. Swarming over the battle damaged FoxViper were several of Senior Chief Teague's deck crew. From the underside was the ratcheting of an air impact wrench as someone worked on the main landing struts. On the left wing were two technicians in welding gear, obviously well into returning the wounded Viper to the battle as soon as possible. Lohan stood and watched for a moment, intent on not disrupting their efforts.

Just then the bluish flames of the welder stopped and the man wielding the torch flipped his safety visor up. Behind the visor was the man Sergeant Lohan was looking for, Specialist Kevin Payge. The other man flipped his visor up and revealed one of the Anderson brothers who was obviously supervising the young avionics technician.

Lohan walked over to the Viper. "Specialist Payge?"

Kevin looked up from his work to see the Marine sergeant approach. "Yep, that's me, and as you can see I've already enlisted!" Lohan could tell he was going to like this guy already.

"Yeah, yeah…I get that all the time…I was told that you were the man to see about getting my binocular optics downloaded and screened?"

Payge handed the welding torch to Jerrod Anderson, popped his welding helmet off and slid down the short wing to the floor. "Well, that would be me. There's only two avionics techs here and the other one is in some topside meeting right now."

"So how'd you wind up doing the welding chores?" Lohan inquired. He may be a garden variety grunt, but he knew the difference between a soldering iron and a gas welder.

"Easy, Sarge…There's only eleven of us deck apes and only five are qualified mechs. We're going to be cross training each other over the next few weeks. We might even let a grunt come down here and do some wrench-bending…if you're bored…?"

"Sure…if you'd like to come down to the South Pole and cross train in the CQB house!" Lohan was sure that would be a wasted invitation. A lot of the fleet guys were wannabe Marines that didn't want to undergo Marine training. But somehow Lohan knew Payge was different…They'd have plenty of time to find out.

"Maybe…so where's the disk?" Payge motioned to Sergeant Lohan to follow him as Lohan handed over the disk. As they headed to the back of the bay they worked their way around the nose of one Viper then around the exhaust pipes of a Raptor to get to the maintenance pods at the rear of the bay. Over the door of the next-to-last pod was a sign that just said "INTEL".

"Here, slide these on." Payge handed Lohan a pair of what appeared to be flimsy cloth covers for his boots. "Helps to cut down on dust and foreign debris in the circuitry" Payge explained. Lohan just hoped that none of his fellow Marines saw him with these booties on.

"So let's see what you've got, Sarge." Payge took the binoculars from the young Marine and popped the access slot open pulling the data card out. He spun around and popped open a slot cover on the viewer. He checked to make sure he was putting the card in the right way and then slid the card in fully. After a moment the screen went dark blue and then the video started.

Sergeant Lohan was amused when Payge abruptly fell off his stool as the first view of the Cylons came up on the viewer. One second the screen was blank, then suddenly Payge was "eye-to-eye" with a squad of Cylon Centurions. The screen of the viewer they were using was itself almost a full meter across so everything on it was bigger-than-life. It was natural that the untrained technician flinched…especially when the Cylon in the cross-hairs of the viewer seemingly looked right at him as tracer rounds "flew in". That the sergeant hadn't been hit was nothing short of a miracle.

Payge collected himself and got back on the stool in front of the scanner. He hit the "freeze" button just as two more of the hulking Centurions appeared. "Damn, Sarge. How far away were you from these guys?" The young specialist was obviously glad that it had been someone else in that firefight and not him.

"Oh…I'd say not any more than two hundred meters…maybe…"

"Well..if you want to leave this with me I'll get the scan done and let you know what I see."

"OK…yeah, just let me know if you see any green monsters in there, alright?" The sergeant offered Payge his hand and Payge took it.

"No problem…You know where to find me. And Sarge…I'd take those booties off before the Gunner sees you!"

For the first time in his adult life, Sergeant Lohan did something he thought almost impossible…He blushed. "Yeah. Thanks…"

The Marine bent over, slid the covers off of his boots and headed towards the exit he had come through only fifteen minutes before. As he did, Kevin Payge turned back to the scanner that held the stopped frame and pushed the "resume" button. He sat back and watched as the firefight continued. The engines of the Breaker Castle could be heard running, but the sergeant's wireless interface was also plugged in so all of the communications could be heard too.

Payge moved to the edge of his seat as he watched the battle unfold. The view kept bouncing around as the Marine was obviously ducking fire and then returning fire himself. At one point it was apparent that Sergeant Lohan had set the optics down and was engaging the Cylons with his service rifle. Payge could hear the wamwamwamwam of the Marine's weapon and then see the resulting impacts on one of the Cylons in the viewer. A second series of rounds went down range and the Cylon was sheared in half at the waist. "Good shooting, Jarhead!" Payge burst out loud.

Just after he saw the Marine's kill of the Cylon, Captain Rohs' Raptor flew into the viewfinder. Payge marveled at the sight of the high explosives tearing up the end of the runway, then the berm, and finally the six Cylons. Following each round hitting the ground was a muted "thud" that always followed a split second later, the sound traveling slower than light.

As the last Cylon fell the background noise dropped back to just that of the BeeCee's engines and the sounds of someone rustling around behind the optics. Payge could hear Sergeant Lohan checking his on his own team, then calling Corporal Jarvis on the wireless to get a sitrep on the team that had set the defensive perimeter around the BeeCee.

At that point, Payge could tell that Sergeant Lohan had picked his binoculars up but had failed to switch the record function off. For a moment, all he could see were random, meaningless swings from pavement to horizon as Sergeant Lohan ran across the flightline to the site where the Harlow Center supervisor had fallen in the attack. Lohan had obviously come to a stop and several people were stooped over the body of the older man. The optics weren't stabilized and the view kept wavering, but it was enough for the specialist to see how horrifically Elliott Ward had met his end.

Suddenly the picture steadied as it was apparent that Sergeant Lohan had set his combat load belt down. As it happened, it was facing back towards the end of the runway where the firefight had just occurred. Payge could even hear the occasional wireless calls and people yelling over the sound of the BeeCee's engines from the wireless interface..

He was about to stop the download, but as he reached for the "pause" button, he thought he saw something…Something moving…Something chrome and moving.

Payge let the video run for another half minute and saw nothing at first. He stopped the video and ran it back sixty seconds and then let it resume running forward. He zoomed in, and sure enough there was one, then two Cylon Centurions moving from just behind the spot where the group of six were destroyed by Captain Rohs' pass in the Raptor

They were headed for the cover of the treeline only forty or fifty meters behind them. Payge couldn't be sure but he thought they were carrying something.

He ran the video back again and then advanced it, but at half speed. There were the Cylons rising up from behind the berm. One of the Cylons had obviously sustained quite a bit of damage as it was missing its left arm and had a considerable amount of scorching on it's chest.

The other Cylon wasn't damaged, however, and it was apparent that it was lumbering slowly for some reason. Payge slowed the video down yet again and then zoomed in on the scene once more. Sure enough, the Cylon was moving slowly, but not because it was trying to assist its fellow automaton, but rather because it appeared to be carrying something.

Payge backed up one more time and zoomed in yet closer. The picture was getting blurry due to the over-magnification, but there it was. He was carrying something…

Or rather someone.

A woman!