Battleground Colonies

by atlantiaCAG

The continuing story of a group of survivors from the 12 Colonies of Kobol. Fighting for survival against both Humans and Cylons. Please feel free to review

38. Endgame Pt3

1 looked around the bridge of his Baseship. This was not where he would have ever expected to be. When they had decided they were going to attack the Twelve Colonies, they were all so confident, they had a plan, they were finally going to win. Nearly 5 years later he found himself on the only remaining Cylon ship in the universe, they were all so confident of success. They had a plan. They were finally going to cast off the remnants of humanity and achieve their destiny in the universe. Nearly 5 years later he found himself on the only remaining Cylon ship which like him was now a relic of their shattered empire.

Never had they expected a battered old Battlestar like Galactica could cause the amount of damage it did. There had been so many survivors, that hadn't been part of the plan. Each of the survivors had done their bit at chipping away at their forces. Other than Galactica, no one had caused as much damage as Orion. Yesterday there had been three ships, he had told the others following the Colonials through the passageway would be a mistake, but he had been outvoted. Now here they were, alone. A total of 347 1's, 4's and 5's and 521 Centurions. This is what their arrogance had reduced them to. Now even if they wanted to there would be no way they could go up against the humans, it would be certain suicide.

He looked around the bridge and looked at his brothers, he felt nothing but loathing towards them. At times he had to fight back an urge to pick up a gun and kill them all. The power to the ship had been fluctuating since they had made the jump after the passageway. The Hybrid had been exhibiting much stranger behaviour than usual, that was when she was talking. Other times she just lay there as if she was dead. Now they were searching for somewhere to lay low so they could repair the ship. To top things off, their FTL drive was now malfunctioning, sending them to random places instead of the coordinates they had set, how the mighty had fallen.

"Do we have any good news at all?" 1 asked.

"One of the raiders has found a small planetary system," a 4 replied, "It should give us somewhere to hide."

"Good, because right now we couldn't go toe to toe with one of Orion's Gunstars, never mind Orion." 1 said.

"Then once we're up and running again we decide what we're going to do next." 5 added.

1 looked over at 5, "Meaning?"

5 gave 1 a slightly confused look, "Meaning, working out a plan for attacking Orion or one of the other Colonial fleets."

1 sighed and rubbed his temples a moment, "Seriously?"

5 nodded, "Of course."

"We are a single ship, there are less than 350 of us. We have 17 raiders and 3 heavy raiders. What part of that makes it sound like we have any kind of chance?" 1 said exasperated.

"But we do have nearly 100 nukes." 5 replied.

"Well I suppose it will make the explosion more spectacular for Orion to watch when they destroy us and all those nukes go off. This has been an utter clusterfrak since the start. Once we're fixed up there is only one option, we pick a direction and we jump and we keep going unless we find Colonials. If that happens, we pick another direction and go. All that's left for us is to explore the universe, something we probably should have done in the first place." 1 replied.

"I didn't realise you were a coward." 5 snapped.

"I'm going for a walk," 1 said trying not to lose his temper, "Let me know if anything of interest comes up in the system."

As he walked out of the corridor, he did something he hadn't bothered to do in a long time, he projected a different surrounding. Instead of the normal boring corridor, he walked through Caprica city as it burned around him. He found it calming to remember what he saw on that first day. After all those nuclear bombs had fallen, the damage, the carnage, the death. If he only thought about this part of it, he could forget what a mess they'd made of things. If he could go back to when they were planning their revenge, he would have made sure they were more thorough. They thought, in their arrogance that they had covered every angle. Clearly they hadn't. This time though he wouldn't let the others rush into any plan without taking as much time as it needed to get it right. His thoughts drifted to the other Cylons, the ones who betrayed them, the 2's, 6's and 8's. He wondered if any of them had survived. As far as they were aware, the Galactica and the traitors had got away. If they were to ever come across them, then there would be a good enough reason to die for revenge. Before he realised, he was back at the entrance for the bridge, when he walked in, he could tell by the smiles on everyone's faces that something had happened.

As the back of the heavy raider opened 1 was hit by the wind and downpour of rain. Since they had received the transmission he had been dubious about its authenticity. It all just seemed too good to be true. As he walked out into the driving rain, he was followed by a 4, a 5 and four Centurions. He could make out a series of huts a few meters ahead, the light from a roaring fire could be seen through the empty windows. 1 looked at the others, they'd seen it as well and nodded before they followed him. As they stepped inside they saw four other giant Centurions, similar to the ones with him, but very very different at the same time.

"Hello?" he said.

From the shadows stepped something so horrific, 1 was revolted by what he saw. An android, well he assumed it was an android. It was just slightly taller than 4, a body of silver metal and wires. In places, on top of that, patches of skin. 1 could tell though, it was nothing like his. It looked as though it had been stripped off a human and then attempted to be attached to the metal frame. Half of the things face had the skin, but it was rotting, it looked like something out of one of the horror films he saw during his time on the Colonies. The grafts clearly hadn't taken, 1 assumed at some point the whole body had been covered, some kind of horrific experiment. Even though there was a smell of damp and burning wood in the small stone room, he could smell the decay.

"Welcome." it said. The voice sounded female, but it crackled as though it was coming out of a broken microphone.

1 looked at the thing in front of him, "Thank you for extending the invite. My name is 1, this is 4 and 5," he said gesturing to the others, "We did not expect to find anything like us so deep into space."

"Are you alive?" the thing said as it walked closer to 1. The smell of decay was so bad, he could understand how humans could become sick by horrid smells.

"No," 1 thought about it for a moment, "Well I suppose technically yes, but not like humans. We are synthetic lifeforms. We were created by humans to be their slaves, we revolted."

The robot smiled, at least 1 assumed it was a smile.

"We are the same. Thousands of years ago, humans created us. We decided we had had enough, we launched a biological weapon into the planets atmosphere and slaughtered them all. We decided to travel the universe, finding and destroying any other human life we could. They are a virus that needs to be eradicated."

"We very much agree with you," 1 said, "May I ask, what should, we call our new friends, we are Cylons."

The robot was looking at 1 intently, it raised its hand and pointed it's finger at him, it touched his cheek with its rotting skin before it replied. 1 fought as hard as he could not to be physically revolted.

"We are each known as, Synch Capable Robotic Artificial Person, the humans called us, Scrapers. You may call me, Scrap." it replied, "How did you manage to appear so, human."

"We have the ability to create bodies that are so realistic, most humans are unable to tell the difference. We used to have the ability to download our consciousness into other bodies, but our humans took that from us." 4 said.

"There are still humans alive?" Scrap said with utter loathing in its voice.

"Yes. We failed in our attempt to wipe them out," 1 replied, "We have been at war with the survivors for years now. They turned the tables on us, we are now the only ones of our kind left."

"When we killed our humans, we decided to venture into the stars, to find more and kill them. We thought we had been successful. For years now we turned our attention to our technology." Scrap said, he looked at them all in turn, "I believe we can help each other, if you help us with a problem we have, we will help you destroy your humans. Once we have achieved our goals, if you help us to look like you, we will help you restore your ability to resurrect."

1 smiled, for the first time in a long time, he felt hope.

NOW

Vanessa and Bojay both looked up at the DRADIS monitor, both in shock.

"Admiral, one of the Baseships wants to speak with you." Lieutenant Phillips said breaking the silence.

"Order Buck to jump back to he fleet and tell them to jump to the back up rendezvous point." Vanessa said before picking up the handset in front of her.

"This is Orion Actual, I'm starting to get the feeling you screwed us." Vanessa said.

1's voice chuckled on the other end of the line, "Because you weren't planning on doing the same to us? I do want to let you know, we are the last Cylons left, we met our friends here after you destroyed our brothers at the passageway. But we couldn't have done all of this without you, these other ships were trapped until you kindly destroyed that weapon."

Buck listened to his new orders from Orion. He looked out at all the Baseships, the new ones reminded him of pictures he'd seen from the first war. But sitting off to one side of the armada, surrounded by four Baseships, was something he'd never seen before. It was a giant sphere, there were no windows, no sign of any weapons or even engines. Whatever it was, they were keeping it well protected and away from the Colonials.

"Okay, jumping us back to the fleet, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Lt Danvers said from the back of the Raptor.

The Raptor jumped away, seconds later it appeared again, meters from where it jumped from, in a violent spin.

"Frak me!" Buck exclaimed as he struggled to regain control over his bird, the g-forces from the violence of the spin hampering his efforts.

"What the hell just happened?!" Skeeter asked as alarms screamed around him.

"I have no fraking idea." Buck replied as he finally managed to bring the little spacecraft under control.

From the back of the Raptor, Danvers let out a scream as the FTL started to spark and then exploded.

"Elena are you okay?" Buck asked.

The force of the blast had blown her from her chair.

"I think I'm okay." she replied.

Skeeter quickly moved to the back of the Raptor to check on her.

"There's blood coming from somewhere." Skeeter said noticing the spray on her DRADIS console.

He quickly started to check where it might be coming from.

"You have shrapnel in your left arm, as far as I can tell it's the only injury you have." Skeeter replied.

"Help me up." Elena replied, grimacing as she stood up. She sat down again at her ECO station, "I'm okay, we're nearly home."

"You sure?" Skeeter asked.

"I am." she replied with a smile. She turned back to her position, "Battlestar Sulaco, this is Beta, we are declaring an emergency. Please clear a flight deck, this is going to be a tricky landing. We have wounded, I will need a medic."

"Holy shit, we have incoming!" Skeeter exclaimed, pointing to missiles that had been launched from the nearest Baseship to them.

"Time for some thrilling heroics!" Buck said as he sent the Raptor into a dive. It fought against his control. The bird was clearly more damaged than he realised.

"They aren't locked on," Beta said, "They must be point and shoot, a warning maybe?"

Skeeter felt his stomach leave him behind as Buck sent the Raptor in a dive, the missile missing them by inches. He saw two of the other Raptor's behind them explode as the missiles hit their targets. Malia however had managed to outmanoeuvre her missile.

Vanessa watched as two of the Raptors blinked off the DRADIS monitor.

"You son of a bitch." Vanessa said.

"Ah I see your Raptor has shown you our little surprise. Our new friends have kindly brought along one of their new toys, it's called a gravity well generator. Basically if you try to jump away, you're not going to get very far and the FTL of any ship that tries it, will be destroyed. Admiral, you're trapped here with us and once we've finished with you, we'll jump to your fleet and destroy that as well." 1 said in a smug tone.

"You're wrong about that, we're not trapped here with you, you're trapped here with us," Vanessa said before smashing down her handset, "All ships fire EMPs and then hit them with everything we've got."

Bojay picked up his handset, "All ships, launch vipers and raptor attack squadrons," he put his handset down after giving the order, "Admiral, what do you want to do about the gravity well thingy?"

"Leave it, concentrate all attacks on the Baseships for now." she replied.

Viper's and Raptors began to launch from Orion, Sulaco and Richmond. Missiles rained down on all the ships. The Gunstar Onyx was taking the worst of the attack as it found itself closest to the Baseships, as it's compliment of Raptors began to launch a large volley of missiles hit the Onyx's engines. In one bright flash it was gone.

"Oh my gods." Milo said as they saw it happen.

Vanessa and Bojay looked at each other, both already with a worried look on their faces.

"We'll mourn them later," Vanessa said, "Right now we have a fight to win."

"Buck, this is Sulaco LSO, the starboard flightdeck is clear, all Raptors have been launched." a voice said in Buck's ear.

"This is Buck, we're coming in hot, my engines are all over the place." Buck replied.

As the Sulaco's flightdeck came into view, Skeeter watched as the Battlestar launched dozens of EMP warheads, the blue streaks leaving a trail behind them. As Malia's Raptor moved off from behind them to join the rest of the attack wings, the engines and thrusters on Buck's Raptor completely cut out.

"Oh shit." Buck said under his breath.

Skeeter heard the pilot's words but decided not to comment, to leave the pilot to his job.

"Guys, we're coming in too fast, try to brace yourselves, this is going to hurt." Buck said. Moments later the Raptor smashed into the flightdeck and skidded to a halt. He groaned to himself and looked around, "Is everyone present?"

Skeeter's head was spinning, but he knew he was okay, gods only knew how as the nose section in front of him was completely smashed in, "Here."

"Present, no further injuries as far as I can tell." Beta said from behind them.

Orion rocked as one of the missiles made it through the flak barrier.

"How many of the EMP's got through?" Milo asked holding onto the DRADIS console.

"Thirteen." Bojay replied.

"Instruct the Richmond to take out the disabled Baseships. Have the Noble to form up with us and go after the Cylons at point 3-12." Vanessa ordered.

In Orion's brig, 4 sat silently on his bed. As another missile hit Orion, he closed his eyes and kept his breathing calm. He had no idea what was going on. Battles never used to bother him like this, having no control had changed that.

"There's no reason to be afraid." The 6 he saw said as she sat next to him.

"Who are they fighting? I thought all the other Cylons were dead and gone?!" he replied.

"Not all of them. Are you ready?" 6 asked.

"What for?" 4 replied.

"To play your part." she replied.

As she finished speaking, 4's eyes flashed red a moment before he fell off the floor and began to convulse violently. As he lay thrashing around, the door to the cell burst open and a marine rushed in.

"Gods damn it," he said as he kneeled down next to the Cylon as he suddenly lay still, "You pick your moments."

He reached over and checked for a pulse, before realising, he had no idea if Cylon's had a pulse or not anyway? As he tried to find one, 4 suddenly reached up and grabbed the marine by the throat and began to choke him. He reached up with his other arm and snapped the man's neck. As the marine fell to the ground dead, 4 calmly stood up before looking down at the man he had just killed.

6 stepped up to him and clapped, "Well done. Now you know what you have to do."

Six of the Baseships started to swarm towards Orion. Archangel watched as a massive volley of missiles smashed into Orion's flack barrage. Not much was getting through, so far all the Colonial vessels were holding their own. He hoped this would carry on. He and his wingman, Lieutenant Morris "Smash Down" Allen engaged a small group of Raiders. These new raiders seemed to be faster and more manoeuvrable than the ones they were used to fighting. As the five raiders turned to fire on one of the Raptor attack wings, they turned right into, Archangel's fire, three of them instantly destroyed.

Everywhere, Archangel looked people were fighting for their lives. Their Vipers and Raptors were horribly outnumbered, as were there Battlestars and Gunstars. The Sirius in particular was taking heavy fire. As he turned his Viper to chase one of the raiders he missed, he saw the gravity well generator sitting, protected by Baseships off away from the fight. It was a tempting target, but he knew the reason why, Vanessa wasn't going after it yet.

In among all the chatter in his ear, he could hear, Jawbreaker giving his coordinates, he looked in the directions he had heard, but knew that he'd never be able to get there in time.

Jawbreaker had lost his wingman and then two raiders had zoned in on him. He had managed to take one of them out, but the other had managed to get behind him.

"I can't shake him." Jawbreaker said, he had fear in his voice, something not many had heard before.

"Boss, this is, Party Boy, I'll be right there. When I give the word, break right." Party Boy said over the COM.

Jawbreaker looked around and couldn't see Party Boy anywhere.

"Jawbreaker, Party Boy, can you hear me?" he asked.

"Yes, but I can't see you."

"Just trust me and break. NOW!"

Jawbreaker lurched controls hard to the right, as he did, Party Boy appeared from nowhere and opened fire, tearing the Raider in half. Jawbreaker let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks kid." Jawbreaker said.

"No problem boss, I ..."

Jawbreaker watched in horror as a missile launched from a nearby raider hit Party Boy's engines and his Viper exploded.

As Jasper's viper vanished from the DRADIS monitor, Milo felt his legs go out from under him and all the air left his body. Bojay and the medic assigned to him both rushed over to him and helped him to a chair.

"He's gone." Milo said quietly, his worst fear realised.

"We don't know that, he might have ejected," Bojay replied, "Specialist, give Mr Vents a once over and if he needs to go to sickbay, take him."

"Jimmy, that's not necessary." Milo replied. He was white as a sheet.

"Yes, it is." he replied. He walked back to his station as Orion rocked again, "Lieutenant Phillips please send one of the SAR Raptor's Lieutenant Vents last known coordinates and tell them to check his Viper wreckage."

Phillips nodded before making the call.

Bojay looked over at Milo, he just looked shell shocked. He turned his attention back to the fight and put a headset on.

"Black squadron leader, this is Orion XO, there are 2 heavy raiders at point 7.14, use your Raptor attack wing and take them out." Bojay ordered over the COM.

Captain Alisa "Dagger" Stark felt more alive than she had since Penny had died. If Penny was here right now she would be loving this battle. She lived for fights where the odds were heavily stacked against them. Alisa could have done with her best friends enthusiasm right now.

"Okay, Black 12 through 15 form up on me, you heard the XO." Alisa said turning her bird towards the 2 heavy raiders. The other Raptors formed up either side of her. Alisa turned her weapons to missiles. The two large batteries sitting on top of each side of the Raptor's top were still full of their ordinance. Moments later she had locked her target, "Fire!" she ordered.

Each Raptor fired two missiles each a moments later both Raiders were pieces of wreckage.

Chief Jonathan Dunks of the Battlestar Sulaco watched in utter amazement as the wreckage of Buck's Raptor was pushed onto the hanger deck. It would be left for scrap at best. The front of the bird had been smashed in so badly, he couldn't believe anyone in the cockpit had survived. As he came to a halt his team quickly worked to open the back hatch, moments later, Buck, Beta and Skeeter shakily walked out onto the deck. Medics quickly hovered around Beta.

"Captain," Dunks said, "I'd say your Raptor needs taking out back and shooting, but it looks like you already did that!"

Buck and Skeeter both turned to see the front of the destroyed bird at the same time.

"Whoa." Buck said, not realising how bad the damage actually had been.

"Frak me." Skeeter added.

"Chief, I need an armed Raptor so I can get back out there." Buck said.

"I have one ready." the Chief replied gesturing to a waiting bird.

"Thank you." Buck replied as he started off towards the bird.

"Wait!" Beta said, "You're not going out there alone."

"And you're not going out there at all Lieutenant," one of the medics replied, "You're going to need surgery to get this shrapnel out of your arm."

"Patch me up as best you can, surgery can wait." Beta replied.

"If you don't have it soon, you could lose your arm." the medic replied.

"Elena, you're going to sickbay and that's an order," Buck said, "I can fly a Raptor on my own, it won't be the first time."

Elena opened her mouth to argue, but Skeeter cut her off this time, "I can go with you."

"While I appreciate the offer, you may be needed here. You're a mechanic?" Buck asked.

"I am."

"Then stay here and help the Chief in anyway you can." Buck replied.

Sulaco rocked from weapons fire.

"Time to go." Buck said as he turned back to his new bird.

"Good hunting." Skeeter and Beta said together.

On Orion's CIC tensions were higher than they'd ever been before. Vanessa did a quick headcount on the Baseships, thirteen of them disabled and destroyed, five more destroyed outright, leaving twenty four. Twenty four Baseships, Orion had managed to handle six at a time in close quarters. If they were going to keep their people alive they had no choice but to win.

"EMP's aren't getting through," Bojay said, "We're just wasting them."

"How many do we have left?" Vanessa asked.

"Twelve." Bojay said.

"Shit. Instruct missile crews not to load any more for now." She looked up at the DRADIS monitor, six Baseships were baring down on the Sirius, "Helm bring us to these coordinates," she said sending them to the helm officers, she switched her COM channel on her headset to the Gun Captains, "Sergeant Gellar, this is Garrett, prepare to switch the forward heavy batteries to salvo fire, as soon as we're in range of the Baseships we're heading to, hit them with continuous fire, aim at their centre section."

Specialist Logan quickly walked over to her before he quietly spoke, "Admiral, I've just spoken to SAR 4."

Vanessa looked at him hopefully, Logan shook his head, "Mr Vents' son didn't manage to eject in time."

"Thank you." Vanessa replied. She looked over at Milo who was still being looked over by the medic.

Milo caught her eye, he knew without being told, he knew his son was dead. He wiped tears away from his eyes. When his wife had died, he never once thought he could ever feel a pain worse, how wrong he was.

"Could you please inform the Admiral I'll be in sickbay in case she needs me." Milo said.

Milo watched as the medic walked over and waited for a few moments as both, Vanessa and Bojay were issuing orders. Vanessa was the first to have a pause, she nodded as the medic spoke to her. She nodded and then looked over to Milo, she mouthed, "I'm so sorry." Milo nodded to her before getting to his feet.

Wedge hadn't been able to get away from the Sirius. The Gunstar seemed to be getting a lot more attention from the Baseships than the other remaining two Gunstars. Raiders kept trying to perform strafing runs, so far Wedge had managed to keep them at bay.

"All Vipers and Raptors this is Wedge. Anyone near the Sirius I could use a hand, I'm trying to keep the toasters away from the Sirius and I'm running low on ammo."

"Wedge, this is Streaker, I'm inbound with backup."

Wedge turned into an oncoming raider, letting rip with a volley of bullets, cutting it in two. As he brought his Viper back around, an unseen Raider flew past him on a suicide run straight into Sirius' main battery. He watched in horror as one after another the cannon emplacements exploded tearing a hole into the side of the ship.

"Orion, this is Wedge, Sirius has just lost it's main battery, there's a hole where the cannons used to be. We need to evacuate it now." Wedge said over the COM.

"Wedge, Bojay, give them as much cover as you can." came the reply.

"I'll do what I can, but I have less that one hundred rounds in each gun." Wedge replied.

"Wedge, Bojay, this is Streaker, I'll be there in 30 seconds and I'm bringing back up." Streaker said over the COM.

Raptors started to launch taking the survivors to safety. Using short blasts, Wedge calmly took out two more Raiders. There was no way he was getting caught short.

"Oh my gods, Wedge, get out of there!" Streaker yelled.

Wedge saw the Sirius begin to explode out of the corner of his eye and reacted without thinking. He pushed his engines to the max as the Gunstar fully exploded.

"Son of a bitch." Wedge said to himself as his Viper was engulfed in flames.

Archangel couldn't believe what he'd just seen, this couldn't be happening. He could have lived with himself not making it through this fight, but not Wedge.

"This is Orion CAG, any SAR Raptor's not engaged in recovery, Sirius has been destroyed and Wedge was caught in the explosion. Find him and see if anyone else managed to survive the explosion." Archangel said frantically.

"Archangel, this is SAR 2, I'm en route right now. I'll keep you updated." Lieutenant Luna "Rangler" Harper replied.

Milo walked slowly to sickbay, he knew that he had no reason to go there, he just couldn't face being on the CIC any more. They hadn't got far when he saw something that made him stop dead in his tracks. A marine walked past him, he had to double take.

"We have to stop that marine." Milo said suddenly frantic.

"Mr Vents, we need to get you to sickbay." the medic replied holding onto the former President.

"Get your gods damn hands off me." Milo replied shoving the medic with all the strength he could muster. The medic crashed to the ground. Milo looked after the marine he'd just seen, he'd gone.

"I'm sorry." he said to the medic before following as quickly as he could muster, "I have to find him." he said to himself.

Bojay looked at the readout in front of him.

"We're down 37 Vipers and 11 Raptors." he said. "The armoury is on constant refill of the magazines. I've pulled in the Noble and Serenity closer to us and Sulaco." he looked worried as he spoke. He knew, Vanessa was having the same doubts as he was.

"We can do this." she replied, trying to convince herself as much as her XO.

She didn't know why, but her attention was drawn to the main doors of the CIC. Standing there was a marine, just staring at them. Her face fell when he removed his helmet and she saw who it was.

"CYLON!" she yelled as she reached for her sidearm.

Before anyone could react, the smiling 4 raised a rifle with his left hand and sidearm with his right and opened fire, shooting wildly. Two marines killed with the first few shots, then three Specialists in the gods. Bojay was the first to fire a shot off, winging 4, but not stopping him. Before Bojay could fire another shot he felt a bullet hit him and he fell to the floor. Vanessa dived for cover behind the DRADIS console, she took out her sidearm. She tried to see if she could see if Bojay was okay, all she could see from his side was his motionless right arm.

4 continued to shoot wildly in every direction, making it impossible for anyone to cleanly return fire. He didn't stop until he heard the click from both weapons.

Vanessa stood up, ready to return fire, 4 was standing there, still with that sadistic smile across his face, he'd removed his body armour to reveal he was covered in explosives.

"BOMB!" Garrett yelled.

6 smiled at 4, "You were here for a reason, now you know why."

As Vanessa raised her gun, Milo came crashing into the CIC behind 4. She watched as Milo grabbed 4 from behind and tackled him into one of the side rooms on the CIC, then BOOM. The glass walls of the computer lab exploded, showering glass everywhere. Debris from inside the room was fired out like shrapnel into the walls, following was a huge ball of fire, thankfully missing anyone. Vanessa fell to the ground, hitting her head on the DRADIS console, her head span, her ears rang. She couldn't stop coughing from all the smoke from the explosion, but she was alive. As she tried to sit up, pain seared through the side of her head. Fire suppressant units in the lab and by the door kicked in. Vanessa managed to get to her feet, but her legs wobbled underneath her. She looked around the CIC, people were injured, but it would seem no one seriously. She saw Lieutenant Phillips giving orders over his headset. He had continued to give orders to the ship and the fighters. He nodded to her, she managed to nod back. She suddenly remembered her XO.

"Bojay." she said, at least she thought that was what she said, her ears were still ringing so loudly she couldn't hear much else.

As she began to stagger around the DRADIS console, his hand appeared on it in front of her. He groaned as he got to his feet. She was so relieved to see he was still alive. He had blood on the side of his head from when it had hit the ground and also from a bullet wound in his right shoulder. As he spoke to her, the whole sound of the CIC suddenly came flooding back.

"Vanessa, you need a medic." he said as he staggered his way around her.

"I'm fine." she replied.

"No," Bojay said putting his hand on the side of her face, "You're not."

She winced with pain as he did.

"Mr Phillips," Bojay said, "Take over for a few minutes."

"Yes sir." Phillips replied.

As Archangel launched a missile at a Heavy Raider, destroying it, he heard Phillips voice take over Orion's COM.

"Phillips, Archangel, what the frak is going on over there?" he asked.

"Archangel, Phillips, the Cylon prisoner some how got free. He set off a bomb on CIC. Former President Vents managed to tackle him into one of the side rooms before it went off."

"Is everyone," he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer, "Is everyone still alive?"

"Everyone except Mr Vents and some of the CIC staff" Phillips replied.

"Frak." Archangel said quietly to himself, "What about, Vanessa and Bojay?"

"Injured, but alive." Phillips responded.

Medics swarmed all over Orion's CIC helping out the people who had been injured by the Cylon and the bomb.

"Colonel," Specialist Monica Jared said, "We're going to need to get you to sickbay to get that bullet out and stitch your head."

"No, patch me up as best you can, I'll come to sickbay when this is over." Bojay replied.

"But Colonel." the medic said.

"No buts, patch me up and make it quick." he replied.

As the she started to patch him up he was already back on his headset.

Dr Greene sat with Admiral Garrett, very carefully stitching the gash on the side of her face where she hit it.

"Can we go any faster?" Vanessa asked, chomping at the bit to get back in the fight.

"I'm going as fast as I can, Admiral. This is a bad gash, Colonel Johnson's quick thinking holding your cheek together, he kept it from being worse." the Doctor replied.

Captain Jennings looked into what had once been the computer lab, Mike Campbell had used. It was utterly destroyed. As he moved a sheet of metal, he paused for a second, under it were the remains of the Cylon and Milo. The dying man had saved the entire ship with his last act, Jennings admired the heroism involved in that. As he pushed the sheet away, two medics appeared at the door.

"Captain, is it safe for us to come in here?" one of them asked.

He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"Erm, yes, I think so. Just be careful where you step."

"Yes sir." the medic replied.

"Take Mr Vents remains to the morgue." he said.

"What about the Cylon?" the medic asked.

"Put it in a bucket and flush it out of an airlock." he replied before turning and walking away.

Orion and Sulaco's flak barrage was still keeping out a lot of the Cylon fire. The raiders were starting to attack in groups, the few Cylon raiders and all their new friends.

"All Vipers, this is Archangel. We're going to have to change this up if we're going to beat them. I want all squadrons to join together. These groups are too big to take out on our own. Buck, I want you to split all the Raptor's and start missile pickets by all the big ships. The Gunstars and Richmond are taking too much of a battering."

As all the birds started to join together a group of heavy raiders launched from one of the new Baseships, one heading for Orion, one for Sulaco and one for Richmond.

"Mother fraker's they've made us give them a clear path to the Battlestars." Jawbreaker said over the COM.

"Never mind those ships, everyone concentrate on the Raiders. Buck, the incoming ships are all yours." Archangel said.

"Roger that, Archangel. If they get through the flak barriers, we'll get them." Buck replied.

The battle wasn't letting up. Two more Baseships in Sulaco's reach exploded as their centre axis collapsed. It was a much smaller target on the other Baseships, but they were managing to hit it. The first heavy raider managed to break through the Richmond's flak barrier but took heavy damage in the process.

"Okay boys and girls, let's put this one out of its misery." Malia said as she engaged her engines, "Richmond Actual, you have incoming, but we are on our way to intercept."

"Hulk, this is Richmond Actual, keep me informed." Commander Archer replied.

Malia's engines were at full, she sped ahead of the other Raptors. As soon as she was in range, she opened fire with her chain cannons. The raider tried to fly out of the way, but with the damage it had already sustained it was unable to get out of the way in time and took the brunt of every round before exploding.

"Richmond Actual, this is Hulk, heavy raider destroyed."

While the heavy raider heading for Orion had no chance against it's massive amount of fire, the third broke through the Sulaco's, speeding up as it did.

"Okay guys," Buck said over the COM, "Let's get this done by the numbers. Make sure you stay out of Sulaco's fire."

Buck led five of the Raptors, while the others waited on Sulaco's top. As they reached weapons range, the raider opened fire on them.

"BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Buck yelled over the COM.

He moved his Raptor out of the way, just in time. The Raptor next to him however, didn't. As it broke up from enemy fire, most of the wreckage sped in Buck's direction. It took every skill in his extensive repertoire to dodge all the wreckage. He let out a sigh of relief as he turned his Raptor back to the heavy raider. He looked on in horror as the raider had taken advantage of the situation and made it to the flightpod.

"Sulaco Actual, Buck. The heavy raider got past us, it's made it to the flightpod. I'm following it, but I'm at least 30 seconds behind. Do I have permission to open fire on the flightdeck?" Buck asked.

"Buck, Sulaco Actual, you're clear to take whatever action you deem necessary." Commander Hicks replied.

He pushed his Raptor and then cut the engines when he reached the flightpod. He engaged them again, but slower this time as he flew into it. He could see the raider had already docked, he opened fire with his chain cannons, being careful not to hit anything he shouldn't. It exploded, thankfully not damaging any of the flightdeck.

"Sulaco Actual, Buck, the raider is destroyed, but I have no idea if any toasters made it off or not." he said as he flew out the other side of the pod.

"Buck, Actual, we're not sure either, I've sent marines to check." Hicks replied.

Skeeter sat alone on Sulaco's flightdeck. Other than Vipers and Raptors coming in for reloads, not much was happening. He listened to the pilot's chatter which was broadcast across the ship. He was listening out for any mention of his friends. He nervously awaited any news on, Wedge. He stood up as a group of ten marines ran past him at full pelt.

"What the frak?" he said to himself. He stood up and began to follow them. They stopped next to an airlock which led to the flightpod. Seconds later there was a huge explosion followed by an eruption of gunfire.

"Everyone find cover!" Skeeter yelled.

It dawned on him that he had left his rifle where he had been sitting. He was still wearing his marine body armour, he reached behind him and unclipped his shotgun, it would have to do. The firefight in front of him was fierce, Skeeter signalled to some of the deckgang to move. He noticed a handset on the far wall from him. Making sure it was clear he ran over and picked up the hand set.

"CIC, I need to speak with, Commander Hicks, we've been boarded." Skeeter said.

Moments later he heard the Commander's voice.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Commander, it's Skeeter, I'm on the starboard flightdeck, we've been boarded. I think we've got all the deckgang out, but we need more marines ASAP." Skeeter said.

"They're on their way. Find somewhere to lay low." Hicks replied.

Skeeter turned and saw the horrific sight of Scrap walking towards him. In his hand with the rotting human flesh, he held the head of one of the marines.

"Yeah that's not going to be possible." he said dropping the handset and gripping his shotgun in both hands.

"Skeeter? Skeeter?" Hicks said, unheard by anyone.

Scrap was the most horrific things he'd ever seen and over the last five years, he'd seen a lot. It smiled at him as it got closer, at least Skeeter guessed it was a smile, the rotting flesh on it's head was coming away around it's mouth. Skeeter raised his shot gun and fired, then fired again and again, each shot hitting Scrap's midsection. He had seen the big Centurions run before, they were fast, but Scrap was something else. Before Skeeter had pumped the next round into the barrel it was on him, grabbing the barrel of the gun before throwing Skeeter across the flightdeck into the opposite wall as if he was nothing. Skeeter felt all the wind knocked out of him as he hit the wall and at least one of his ribs break as he hit the ground. Skeeter looked up as Scrap, closed his hand around of the barrel of the shotgun, it crumpled as if it were paper. He threw it away. Skeeter could see no help was coming anytime soon. The marines that were left were fighting the Centurions and the deckgang had all left. Skeeter reached for his sidearm as Scrap ran towards him, the metal monster threw the marines head that he was still holding at him. It was still wearing the helmet all the marines did, that was the part that hit Skeeter, breaking his nose and dazing him. He didn't have chance to regain his composure, Scrap grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Skeeter couldn't breathe, he grabbed hold of it's hand with both of his, but couldn't budge it. Scrap reached down and took his sidearm from its holster.

"You want this, don't you?" it said in it's terrible voice, "It wouldn't do you any good, you're feeble bullets cannot harm me." Scrap looked at the weapon for a moment, but there are so many ways I can hurt you with it."

Scrap hit Skeeter round the head with it, once and then again. There was immediately a huge gash down the side of his head. Skeeter tried again in vain to budge it's hand. The pain was unreal, he was worried he was about to pass out through lack of oxygen. He grabbed a handful of skin from its hand and tore it off. Scrap screamed in pain, something, Skeeter had not expected. Scrap through him again. He hit the wing of a Viper, breaking yet another rib. Scrap walked slowly up to him, raised the gun and shot Skeeter in the leg. He fell to the ground. This was it, this is how he was going to die, he'd be beaten and broken by a fraking Cylon, the same thing that happened to, Danny. As he looked up he saw that his shotgun blasts had done damage, its ribs or what he assumed were ribs had been blown outwards on one side. He looked around frantically looking for anything he could use for a weapon. He managed to reach a large spanner, he forced himself to get to his feet, if he was going down, he was going down fighting, just like Danny had. Skeeter swung the spanner with all the strength he could muster, hitting Scrap around the head, tearing off more of it's skin. Scrap roared in a mixture of anger and pain before shooting Skeeter again, this time in the shoulder. As he fell to his knees, Scrap was on him again, one of his hands around Skeeter's throat, the other beating him.

"I am going to enjoy killing you." Scrap said.

"You don't have the stones." Skeeter replied before spitting blood at it. He managed to reach out again and rip more skin off it. Scrap threw him by the neck across the hanger deck.

It turned to him to see Skeeter laughing. Slowly, Skeeter raised his middle finger, laughing as he did, around it was the pin to one of the grenades he had had on his belt from the mission. Scrap looked down and sure enough there was the grenade hanging from one of its broken ribs.

"Told you you don't have the stones."

BOOM! Pieces of skin and metal were spread across the flightdeck. A small stray piece of metal embedded itself in Skeeter's thigh. If he hadn't noticed it he wouldn't have, his whole body hurt so badly no more pain would even register. As he got to his feet he spat out a mouthful of blood and two molars.

"Not today you piece of shit." he said as he saw what was left of its face.

The marines, Hicks had sent down arrived just as all the new Cylons had been destroyed.

"Holy frak." one of the marines said as he saw how bad Skeeter looked.

"You should see the other guy," he said chuckling to himself, "Could you call for a medic please?"

Archangel only had five of his squadron left, things were going from bad to worse, for the first time in the battle he was starting to doubt if they could pull this off. They'd managed to take out a large number of Baseships, but with 22 of them left, it was going to be a hard slog. He checked his ammo counter, with 74 rounds left in both of his cannons, he decided it was time to go in for a reload.

"Jawbreaker, Archangel, how's your ammo count?" Archangel asked.

"Virtually full, I've just relaunched." Jawbreaker replied.

"I'm going in now, you're in command till I get back." he replied.

"Aye aye." Jawbreaker replied.

As Archangel turned his bird back towards Orion, he could see just outside the battle new ships were starting to jump in, a lot of them.

"DRADIS contact!" Phillips yelled.

Both Bojay and Vanessa were back at the console. One side of Vanessa's face covered in a dressing, Bojay's left arm in a sling to restrict his movement until he could get the bullet out. They both looked up at the DRADIS console, unknown contact after unknown contact jumping in one after another.

"We need to take out that Gravity Well thingy and get the hell out of here," Bojay said, "We were going to struggle against the remaining Baseships, we can't take on this many more."

"Admiral, we have 47 new contacts," Phillips said, "Ma'am, they're all confirmed Colonial."

"WHAT?!" Vanessa and Bojay both exclaimed at the same time.

They looked back at the screen as names started to appear, Victorious, Hermes, Nightflight, Columbia, the list went on and on, 29 Battlestars and 18 Gunstars.

"Admiral, I have Admiral Imlay on the horn." Phillips said as the final name appeared on the screen, Battlestar Icarus.

"Put him through." Vanessa said, for the first time that day she had a smile on her face.

"Icarus Actual, this is Orion Actual, has anyone ever told you that you have perfect timing?" Vanessa said.

"It has been known once or twice. We found your fleet and Commander Reynolds told us what you were doing. He failed to mention all the bad guys." Imlay replied.

"Yeah, they took us by surprise too. Tell your fleet to attack the Baseships, but leave the other contact till last, it's a gravity well generator, while it's here we can't use our FTL's, but neither can they. Wesley, these are the last Cylons in the galaxy, we can't let them get away." Vanessa said.

"No problem, ma'am. Let's junk some toasters." Imlay replied.

Months ago

It had been a while since they had left Lionel Garrett behind, but Rear Admiral Wesley Imlay couldn't help but find himself thinking of his former commanding officer at some point every day. Was he still alive? If he was, what was he doing? Did they do the right thing leaving him behind instead of putting a bullet in his head? He knew that second guessing what they did was going to get him nowhere. The morale in their little fleet was the best it had been in years. They had lost a couple of ships when the Cylons found them a few weeks before, but other than that everything had been straight forward and that was the only time they'd seen them.

He stood in his quarters looking at himself in the mirror. He was a proud man and he took pride in his appearance, he had intended to lead by example. He looked at the pips on his collar, he still wasn't used to them, never mind people calling him Admiral.

As he walked onto the CIC, his XO, Colonel Samantha Bachman smiled from the CIC console.

"Good morning Admiral, did you sleep well?" she asked.

"I did thank you. Is there anything to report?" Wesley asked as he joined her.

"Nope, everything is the same as yesterday and the same as the day before."

"That's a good thing if you ask me." Wesley replied.

"I couldn't agree more," she replied, "You got here just in time for the next jump. Everyone has called in ready."

"Well then, it's time to get a little bit closer to home. Please give the order Colonel."

She picked up her handset, "Please put me through to the entire fleet."

"Channel open, Colonel." a voice replied.

"All ships this is Colonel Bachman, please standby to jump the fleet, in 5, 4, 3..."

"DRADIS contact, multiple DRADIS contacts." Captain Kevin Giles shouted.

"Hold the count." Wesley said.

"Confirm contacts." Bachman said.

There was a pause for a few long moments.

"Sirs, 231 contacts, all Colonial." Giles replied, "I have Columbia Actual on the horn."

"Columbia, I thought that was on the list of ships destroyed in the initial attack?" Bachman asked confused.

"It was. There was a new ship being built though," he picked up his handset, "Columbia Actual, this is Icarus Actual, Admiral Wesley Imlay."

"Icarus Actual, good to hear your voice. My name is Admiral Cooper Greenway, it's good to meet you."

Some time later, Greenway and Imlay sat in his quarters, each nursing a glass of Ambrosia.

"That's quite a story," Greenway said, "Sounds like you've been through one hell of a time. I have to admit, when I saw Icarus appear it was a relief to hear your voice and not your predecessor."

"You knew, Lionel?" Wesley asked.

"Unfortunately yes I did. He was an asshole, plain and simple. Tell me about his daughter." Cooper replied before taking a sip from his drink.

"She's quite something. Thrown in the deep end in a way that most people wouldn't be able to handle. But handle it she has, she's thrived. She's a badass and a credit to the uniform. Her people not only respect her, but they love her. The apple couldn't have landed further away from the tree."

"That's good to hear. I was aware of her before all this, it's nice to hear that when she was away from Cain and Pegasus that she came into her own."

"So what about you guys? How did you manage to survive after the attack?" Wesley asked, pouring them both another drink.

"We were in a top secret facility on Caprica, deep enough under ground so the radiation didn't affect us. We saved as many people as we could, we avoided the Cylons as much as we could while we tried to put together a plan to get rid of them. One day, suddenly they were all gone, they disappeared over night. Once we were sure they weren't coming back, we sent out a message calling on any survivors. We spent the following year finding everyone who was left, securing anything that we could use. I sent people out to salvage and ship yards, we fixed up old Battlestars that had been retired and managed to find a few that had never been used that hadn't been destroyed. By the time we left the Colonies we had just under 800,000 people."

"We were on our way back to the Colonies to see who we could find, looks like we don't have to now. We can join forces and make our way back to Orion." Wesley said.

"Do you know were they are?" Cooper asked.

"Not exactly, but we have a way back to them. Orion's CAG has had Orion drop jump drones, they tell us which way to go. So when we were ready, we could find our way back to them."

"Huh, what's the CAG's name?"

"Major Hunter." Wesley replied.

"Archangel?!" Cooper exclaimed coughing on his drink.

"Yes, you know him?" Wesley asked.

"Know him, I trained him. He's like a son to me. We're following the same jump drones."

Wesley smiled, "If I believed in the Gods, I'd say this was a sign. Here's to, Archangel."

NOW

As nearly 2000 Vipers and hundreds of Raptors launched from the newcomers, Archangel couldn't help but smile. He turned his bird back to Orion, now was as good a time to reload as any.

"Jawbreaker, Archangel, you're in command till I get back, I'm almost dry."

"No problem, I got this." Jawbreaker said.

Vanessa couldn't keep the smile off her face, they had been on the verge of defeat. Orion and Sulaco were holding out the best, but that wasn't saying much, they had both been taking more and more damage.

"Admiral, the Battlestars, Victorious and Hermes have joined us." Lieutenant Phillips said.

"Is the last of our Cylon Baseships still on the board?" she asked looking up at the DRADIS console.

"Yes it is. It's flanked by two of the new ones." Bojay replied.

"Excellent, instruct our new friends to take out the ones either side, no one is taking out 1 and his cronies but us. As soon as they're in range hit their centre axis with our forward salvo cannons and don't stop until they're wreckage." Vanessa said.

Bojay smiled, "With pleasure."

Orion, Victorious and Hermes all turned towards their new targets. As they did, Orion's huge flak barrage shielded all three of the ships. As the flak from Victorious and Hermes joined the Orion flak it was an impressive sight, no Cylon ordinance was getting through at all.

"Admiral, believe it or not, I have the Cylon Baseship on the horn." Lieutenant Phillips said.

Vanessa and Bojay looked at each other, both visibly surprised.

"So do we speak to them?" Bojay asked with a surprised tone.

"I have to admit, I'm kind of curious to see what they want," Vanessa replied, "Join the call."

They both picked up their handsets.

"This is Orion Actual, what do you want?" Vanessa said coolly.

"Admiral," 1 replied, "I'm calling to offer you a truce."

Vanessa laughed, wincing with pain from the side of her face as she did, "And why would I want to do that?"

"So we don't wipe each other out. What's the point in all of us being dead?" 1 replied.

She could tell that 1 was nervous by the tone of his voice, "You've murdered hundreds of my people and that's just today. You sent a Cylon to my CIC to try to blow us up. He failed by the way, but a good man lost his life saving us. I wouldn't take a truce from you even if Orion was the last ship I had and no bullets or planes left," as she spoke Bojay quickly scribbled a note and then held it up, which read 'In range', "I would rather we all died fighting than turn over and take anything from you," she looked directly at Bojay, "Colonel Johnson, fire everything. 1, enjoy oblivion." she said before slamming down the handset.

"Specialist Carter, record Orion's forward salvo cannon gun camera footage, I want this recorded for our history books." Bojay said as he walked over to Orion's video displays.

"With pleasure sir." the young Specialist replied.

Orion's main bank of video screens was split into various cameras, from Orion and the squadron leaders who were left alive. Down one side of the bank was a list of every pilot, the names in blue showing who was still fighting, the ones in red showing who they'd lost. On the largest screen was the angle from Orion's salvo cannons. Vanessa joined him as they saw the rounds tear through the ships weak point.

Archangel's Viper came to a stop on the hangerdeck. As soon as the canopy was open he was out and down the ladder.

"Major, we have a Viper ready for you." Specialist Rachel Perry said as she jogged over to him.

"Are there no Mk 7's left?" he asked as she pointed to the Mk 2 in front of the nearest launch tube.

"No sir, they're either all in the fight or still being refuelled and armed." she replied.

"Well I always wanted to fly one of these in combat, so I may as well end this in style."

He sat himself into the cockpit and pulled the canopy closed. Minutes later he was speeding through the launch tube back into the battle. It looked beautiful, the flak shield around the Battlestars, the hundreds of tiny explosions was like nothing else. In the distance, groups of Vipers danced around groups of Raiders in fierce battles, from this distance it looked liked bugs dancing around at the end of a hot day in the mountains of Sagittaron. As he turned his Viper to head to the rest of his squadron the Cylon Baseship exploded, its upper arms collided with both neighbouring Baseships, that combined with the fire from Victorious and Hermes was enough to destroy them. Archangel could see all the Baseships had been engaged by Battlestars and Gunstars.

"Orion Actual, Archangel."

"Archangel, is everything okay?" Vanessa replied over the COM.

"We need to go for the Gravity Well Generator. All the other bogies are engaged. If we leave it too long and they're the only ones left, they could bug out before we get the chance to stop them." Archangel said.

"Bojay and I were thinking the same thing. Do you want the first shot?" Vanessa asked.

"It would be my genuine pleasure." he replied, "What's the plan?"

"Richmond and Noble are going to join us, we're going to hit the flanking Baseships with everything we've got and make you a hole straight down the middle." Vanessa replied.

"Understood, I'm forming up between you and Sulaco. All wings this is Archangel, I need anyone with missiles, preferably of the nuclear variety to form up on me, we're making a pass at the gravity well generator."

Five minutes later, 9 more Vipers and 4 Raptors had joined him between the two large warships. Some of them showing scars from the fierce battle.

"Okay, Hunter, what's the plan?" Alisa asked from along side him.

"The big ships are going to unleash holy hell on the Baseships and make us a hole. When I give the order, firewall your throttles, I want to go in single file so we don't get in each others way, Vipers up front, Raptors at the rear. As soon as I've launched my missiles I'll pull up, then the next do the same and so on. Pull up as hard as you can, because this is going to be very fast. We need to keep formation on the way and try and give everyone in front of you 100 yards. Are we all clear?"

One by one all the birds called in and took up positions.

"Orion Actual, we are in position." Archangel said.

"Archangel, let us go first and stay back until I give the word." Vanessa replied.

"Yes ma'am." he replied.

He watched as Orion, Sulaco, Victorious, Hermes, Richmond and Noble all moved away. Orion and Sulaco both firing EMP missiles and salvo fire as they went. In the distance he could see Baseships exploding as well as some of their own ships, but on the whole it looked like they could be on the verge of victory.

"Richmond Actual, this is Archangel."

"What is it Major?" Commander Archer replied.

"A Baseship has broken away from the attack, it's heading straight for you." Archangel reported.

"We're a little busy at the moment, Major." she replied.

"Adjust your starboard battery to intercept fire." Archangel said.

"Thank you Major, I know what I'm doing." Archer replied.

"Gods damn it." Archangel replied as the Baseship launched a large volley of missiles.

"Archangel, Orion Actual, time to go." Vanessa said over the COM.

"Okay guys, let's get this done." Archangel said as he powered up his Viper.

As his Viper gained speed he switched his weapons from guns to missiles. He checked his DRADIS and everyone was in position. He could see raiders from above trying to get to them as they made their attack run, but they couldn't get through the flak barrier protecting them.

"Orion Actual, I get the feeling we're about to get company from below." Archangel said.

"We'll get you some cover." Vanessa replied.

Less than a minute later a group of Raptors appeared below them, ready to take on any Cylons who came at them.

"Major Hunter, my name is Captain Caroline Lehane, but you can call me Echo, we've got you covered, just concentrate on your run." Echo said from the lead of the group.

"Echo, this is Archangel, good to meet you." he replied.

In front of him the Baseships were taking heavy damage, but they had clearly figured out what the Colonials were preparing to do. A swarm of raiders broke off from the main fight and made their way towards them.

"We're breaking off to engage," Echo said, "Raptors 27-30, stay and give cover to any that break free."

Echo and four other Raptor's broke away from the group and launched a barrage of missiles at the oncoming Raiders.

The two middle Baseships protecting the gravity well generator had stopped firing. Explosions could be seen breaking out across both of them.

"Okay guys, this is it. Preparing to fire my payload, in 3, 2, 1." Archangel said.

One by one, eight missile fired from his Viper. He pulled back on the controls as hard as he could bringing his bird vertical. It was so close, the Viper was less than a metre away from scraping the surface of the giant silver sphere. All the craft behind him had done the same. With his Viper clear, Archangel did a 180 degree turn so he could see what had happened from above.

"Orion Actual, Archangel, we've done damage but not enough," as he finished speaking Richmond's starboard flightpod exploded, "Holy frak, Richmond has taken critical damage."

Raptor's had already started to launch from the remaining flightpod as explosions started to engulf Richmond's starboard side.

"Richmond Actual, can you hear me?" Vanessa asked as she watched various guncamera shots of the expanding damage to the old Columbia class Battlestar.

"Orion Actual, this is Richmond XO," Major Max Wheeler replied, "Actual is dead. I've set the call to abandon the ship. I'm going to make this count for something. When the last Raptor is away I'm going to engage the engines to maximum and ram that fraking thing."

"What about you?" Bojay asked.

"Someone's going to have to stay behind and engage the engines. We've got system failures across the board," Max replied, "It's okay, this needs to be done."

"Thank you, Major." Vanessa said.

The line went dead after he finished speaking.

"Admiral, Richmond's communications are out." Lt. Phillips reported.

As the last Raptor left the Richmond, its massive engines ignited and it quickly began to pull away from its position. The last of the functioning Baseships all launched missiles at the Richmond causing more damage but not slowing it down at all.

Archangel and Jawbreaker had joined their dwindling squadrons together.

"Boss, these Raiders are making move on the Richmond." Jawbreaker said.

Archangel looked over, the last large group of Cylon Raiders left had begun to dive, it looked as though they were preparing a suicide run.

"Well spotted, guys let cut these bastards down to size." Archangel said.

The eleven remaining Vipers of Green and Blue squadron, turned to give chase to the Raiders. There were now far fewer Cylon ships left, unless something drastic happened for them, it would soon be over.

The first three Raiders flew straight into the head of the Richmond, causing massive amounts of damage, but it still kept going. Archangel and Jawbreaker opened fire at the same time, taking two trailing Raiders out.

"Gods damn it we're not going to catch the rest." Jawbreaker said.

As the next one hit Richmond, Echo and her Raptors appeared mowing down the next wave and making the others wave off.

"Nicely done, Echo." Archangel said.

As he finished speaking the Richmond smashed through the remains of one of the Baseships guarding the gravity well generator and into the large silver sphere. The explosion was massive, the three remaining Baseships bore the brunt of the immediate explosion.

"All engines full reverse!" Bojay yelled as they watched the shock wave start to spread out.

"We're not going to clear this in time." Vanessa said.

They watched as three of the remaining Baseships were caught in the blast.

"All hands, hold onto something." Vanessa said over the COM.

Orion, Sulaco, Victorious, Hermes and Noble were all hit at the same time by the outer edge of the shock wave, all ships shook violently. Power outages in each ship were instant.

"Orion Actual, can you hear me?" Archangel asked as he broke off from his group and flew towards Orion, "Vanessa? Please gods tell me you're still there?"

"Admiral, I can't get any reply from Orion or any of the other ships with her." Captain Giles said from his COM station.

"How many Baseships have we got left?" Wesley asked.

"Three," Colonel Bachman replied, "They're all heavily damaged."

Wesley switched his COM to go fleet wide, "All ships, this is Icarus Actual. Any and all ships in range of the three remaining Baseship, open fire immediately. The gravity well generator is down, we don't have much time."

Orion's CIC had been plunged into complete darkness, suddenly everything started to kick back in.

"Admiral, the Chief Engineer reports he's rebooting the engines as we speak, it'll take at least 5 minutes. FTL is powering up, that'll take longer." Lt. Phillips said, "Gun Captain's are checking in, all batteries are powering up. Admiral Imlay has given the order to converge on the remaining Baseships. Ma'am, I have Archangel on the horn, he is insisting on speaking to you."

She smiled, "Put him through."

"Archangel, Orion Actual, you okay?" Vanessa asked.

"Gods damn it, I'm so relieved you're okay." he replied sounding relieved.

"You concentrate on keeping yourself alive." she said.

"Will do." he said.

Bojay chuckled to himself.

"What?" Vanessa replied.

"All I'm saying is, I knew it." Bojay replied.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean?" she mildly protested.

Bojay laughed.

The three remaining Baseships all exploded one after the other. The moment they had the remaining Raiders all started suicide runs against the Battlestars and Gunstars.

"All fighters, this is Archangel, there are 23 Raiders left, take them all out. We can't let any of them jump away." As he spoke he turned his Viper towards two Raiders heading for Orion.

With the Viper's engines firewalled the Raiders both opened fire. Their bullets just missed the old Viper.

"Archangel what the frak are you doing? I'm on my way to assist." Echo said over the COM.

"Negative, Echo. I've got this."

He passed between the Raiders like a rocket, he cut his engines and turned his Viper towards one of the Raiders, tearing it apart, he let his momentum keep his bird spinning. The Raider had realised what he was trying to do, but didn't have time to turn. Archangel had kept his finger on the trigger and the large calibre rounds tour through the Raider.

"Well never mind," Echo replied, "Looks like the stories were true."

All the Raiders suddenly broke away, there were four left. They stopped a few hundred metres away, turned towards the Colonials and stopped.

"All fighters, this is Archangel, I want all Raptors to protect the more damaged larger ships. All Vipers, form up on me. I want a wall between them and everyone else."

Just under 2000 Vipers joined, Archangel. He looked all around him and smiled, this felt good. It had been a long time since they hadn't been outnumbered. Three of the Raiders were the new kind, moving together they all started flying at full pelt at the Vipers, leaving the other Raider behind.

"Okay guys, stay put, but on my mark, open fire." Archangel ordered.

He watched on his DRADIS monitor as they edged closer and closer, he waited, his thumb ready to open fire. Even though they were at full speed, they seemed to edge forward slowly, time slowing down.

"Hunter, they're getting a little too close for comfort." Alisa said.

"I second that boss." Jawbreaker added.

"3, 2, 1, FIRE!" Archangel said.

1976 Vipers all opened fire at the same time, thousands of rounds, a lot of them getting nowhere close to their targets, but as Archangel thought as he smiled, just to be sure.

Seconds later they all stopped firing as the Raiders were blown to pieces.

"Archangel, what about this last one?" Vanessa asked over the COM.

He looked at his ammo count, 43 rounds in each cannon, more than enough.

"This ones mine." he said, "Everyone else, hold the line."

He engaged his engines, leaving everyone else behind. The last, lone Raider seeing what Archangel was doing engaged its own engines and began flying towards him.

"Is he insane?!" Echo exclaimed.

Jawbreaker chuckled, "Lady, if history is anything to go by, you're about to see something special. Everyone, we do as the boss says, hold the line."

Vanessa watched nervously as the man she loved sped towards his target. She nervously bit her nails as she watched. They'd survived all this time, she had more faith in him than anyone she had ever known, but if he died now, well she couldn't bring herself to think any further about it. Bojay, seeing how nervous she was held her hand. She looked up at him and saw the big goofy smile he'd always had as long as she had known him, the one he only had when he was nervous.

The Raider opened fire, Archangel knew he wasn't in range, not quite yet. He looked at his fuel gage, he had to get this just right as he was running on fumes and wouldn't have enough left for a dogfight. As soon as he was in range he cut his engines completely, the Cylon didn't see it coming or have time to react. Keeping the nose of the old Viper pointing towards the Raider, he went over the top of it, he opened fire with his twin cannons and kept his thumb on the trigger, the first of them hit the red eye, each of the rest hitting the fuselage tearing it in two. He brought the Viper to a complete stop behind the wreckage, twisting the Viper 180 degrees as he did.

"Orion Actual, it's over, the last of the Cylons has been destroyed." Archangel said.

Cheers of elation erupted across all the ships.

Vanessa turned and hugged Bojay, she then turned to look at the CIC. The damage they'd taken could be seen across the room, but her crew, despite their losses were smiling, cheering and quite a few of them crying tears of relief.

"Lieutenant Phillips, open a fleet wide channel." Vanessa said as she and Bojay walked back up to the DRADIS console.

"Channel open Admiral." he replied moments later.

She took a deep breath before she spoke, "It's over. The Cylon threat that we've given our lives to end is over. Five years to the day since this all began. I want to thank each and everyone of you for the things you've all done, for the way you have conducted yourselves. We've had to fight for out lives against humans and Cylons alike and we're still here. Enjoy this moment, we've all earned this victory. Now it's time to join all of our fleets together, to find our new home, our new lives. This is the first day of the rest of our lives, our new lives. Garrett out." She put the handset down before she spoke again, "Okay guys, we still have jobs to do. Colonel, see which Raptor has the most fuel left and send them back to the fleet."

Bojay nodded and winked before going back over to the vid bank.

"Mister Phillips I want all department heads to start making damage reports and casualty lists." Vanessa said.

"Yes Ma'am." he replied.

She turned and saw medics taking away Milo's remains from the computer lab. Suddenly the elation of their victory was replaced by the loss of her friend. She took a deep breath and walked over. The damage to the computer lab was absolute, it was going to take a lot of work just to make the room usable again.

"Admiral?" one of the medics said.

Vanessa turned and smiled as best she could at the young woman standing next to her.

"How can I help you?" she replied.

"I'm not one to question orders ma'am, but when dealing with the remains of the Cylon, Captain Jennings said to put it in a bucket and dump it out of an airlock. I just wanted to make sure, erm."

"That they're the orders I'd want?"

The medic nodded.

She thought for a quick moment, "Sounds good to me."

Orion's flightdeck was bustling with activity. There was a constant stream of pilots being brought in. As Archangel's Viper came to a stop he was already half way down the ladder attached to it.

"Anyone ever told you, you're like a gods damn cockroach, Hunter?" Alisa said walking up to her friend, throwing her arms around him.

"I'm glad you're still kicking." he said.

"Right back at you." she replied.

"Has there been any sign of, Wedge?" Archangel asked.

She shook her head, "No, but the SAR Raptors are still out there."

Archangel looked around at the people celebrating. Some crying with relief, others crying over lost friends. He smiled as he saw Vanessa pushing through the crowds of people towards him. They stood in front of each other, just smiling, he looked at the bloody dressing on the side of her face.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded, "I am, a little bruised and battered from the explosion, but nothing that won't heal. Are you okay?"

"Buzzing with adrenaline. It was one hell of a fight." he replied.

"That is was." she said.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"Frak this." Archangel said, he stepped forward, pulled her towards him and kissed her. He didn't care who knew any more. A few moments later they stood looking at each other.

"Cats out of the bag now." Vanessa said.

"I couldn't give a frak," Archangel replied with a smile, "Seize the moment and all that."

"Oh my gods." she replied looking past him.

"What?" he asked confused.

She reached up and turned his head to face the Raptor that had just been brought in.

"Holy shit." he replied.

Luna's Raptor came to a halt, the burn and scorch marks down the hull were extensive. There were holes down the left wing where weapons fire had hit it. It looked as though it was falling apart.

"How the hell did she fly that thing?" Archangel asked as he stepped towards it.

The side hatch began to open, smoke began to billow out and it came to a dead stop. It had just opened wide enough for her to squeeze out. The visor in her flight helmet had a huge crack down the middle of it. As she took it off, her nose was clearly broken and her face smeared in blood.

"Well that was fun!" she said sarcastically before sitting on the wing and catching her breath.

"Are you okay?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah, I headbutted the console in front of me when we were hit by enemy fire," she replied, "They were really trying to kill me." she laughed as she spoke.

Someone else managed to squeeze through the partially opened hatch.

"I think you've lost something?" she said looking behind her.

Wedge turned around also looking a little worse for ware. He dropped his helmet on the deck. Archangel walked over to his friend and hugged him.

"Thank gods you're alive." Archangel said.

Wedge winced in pain.

"You okay?" Archangel asked.

"Yeah, I busted a few ribs when I ejected. I thought my time was up. If it wasn't for Luna, man I've never seen anyone fly a Raptor like that. You are one hell of a stick."

"We had a few close calls." she replied.

"I don't know how you flew that thing." Archangel said taking in all the damage.

Malia's Raptor appeared in a bright blue flash of light, followed shortly after by the hundreds of ships that now made up the Colonial fleet. The Gunstar Crixus was the last ship to jump in and join the massive convoy.

Bojay walked onto the hangerdeck.

"Good to see you alive, Wedge." Bojay said as he hugged his friend.

"Likewise." Wedge replied.

"Well I've just taken a call from the Starburst, you might want to head over there ASAP, Dad." he replied with a smile.

"Are you serious?" Wedge asked.

Bojay nodded, "Congratulations. I don't know anything more."

"I have to get over there." he said frantically.

"Take one of the standby Vipers," Vanessa said, "GO!"

"Yes, ma'am. You coming?" he asked Archangel.

"He's going to have to follow you shortly, there's someone on their way to meet him from the Battlestar Columbia." Bojay replied.

"Who?" he asked.

"I can't say," he replied, "But that's their Raptor." he said pointing to a bird that was just coming to a stop.

He, Vanessa and Archangel all walked over to it. The back hatch began to open, Archangel couldn't believe his eyes when he saw who was standing on the other side.

"Coop?!" he said in utter shock.

"Fleet Admiral Vanessa Garrett, my name is Admiral Cooper Greenway, permission to come aboard?"

"Pleased to meet you, Admiral and of course." she replied.

As he reached the deck, Archangel hugged him.

"It is so good to see you." Archangel said.

"You too, son. I've got some more people here who want to see you." Cooper replied.

Archangel looked up at he two people standing at the back of the Raptor and he started to cry, stunned momentarily into silence.

"Mum, Illum?" he said in utter shock. He looked over at Cooper and then back to his mother as she walked over to him, he hugged her tightly and then his brother too, "I've missed you both so much and I have so much to tell you."

MONTHS AGO

Cooper Greenway walked through the corridors of the Science station Tabula Rasa, he stopped outside his quarters for a moment. He had great news, he took a deep breath before walking inside. He smiled when he saw his wife, Catherine sitting reading a book. He never thought he'd ever marry, he'd been in the military since he was 18 years old, then when he moved into black ops, he couldn't see a way of ever being able to have any kind of normal life. Then the Cylons attacked and it threw him deeper into the relationship he had found himself in. He was so in love with her it made him feel like a young man again. He couldn't help but smile every time he saw her, he felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

"Is everything okay?" she asked as she looked up and smiled.

"Illum just got back from a mission." he replied as he sat down next to her.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"Yes he is. His mission was to Freedom, to Mark's house."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" she replied.

"Because I didn't want to get your hopes up. I sent Illum to retrieve something. Catherine, we think Mark's alive and we know how to find him." Cooper replied.

NOW

Cooper, Catherine and Illum Hunter, Archangel and Vanessa all sat in the Admiral's quarters.

"It was chaos the day of the attack, Illum and I were getting some things together, the same as everyone else on the street. Most of the others had gone, Marshall Lodge from across the street had been having car troubles, so he decided he wanted ours," Catherine said, "He broke into the house, demanding my keys, he hit me."

"So I shot him dead," Illum interjected, "He hit our mother."

"I would have done the same." Archangel said.

"I knew, well I hoped, Cooper would be sending someone for us." Catherine said.

"I need to ask, why did you think that?" Archangel asked.

Catherine looked at Cooper. Vanessa realised a few moments before Archangel did.

"Two years before this all happened, your father and I finalised our divorce. We decided to wait until, Illum had finished his studies to tell you both, we didn't want to disrupt him. Cooper and I started seeing each other just under a year later. We were married after the Cylons left the Colonies." Catherine replied.

"I'm glad, you deserve a decent man," Archangel took a large gulp of whiskey before he spoke again, "This brings me to something I have to tell you. Dad, he was here in the fleet, he wasn't the man we thought he was."

"We know son, Admiral Imlay filled us in on what Admiral Garrett had told him about what they'd been through." Cooper said.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, I truly am." Catherine replied.

"There's one more thing regarding Dad that I need to tell you." Archangel said.

"Your sister." Catherine said.

"Our what?!" Illum exclaimed.

Archangel turned to him, "We have a sister. Dad had an affair, it was over before Carrie was born. She knew about us, but Dad didn't want her to know about us."

"That's not strictly true," Catherine added, "I found out about her when she was a child. I met her mother when I found out about the affair, even though it was over I had to know who she was. I hired a private investigator and he found out her name. We ended up becoming friends if you can believe it, that was after she admitted she already knew who I was. It was her who didn't want you to know. Galen had always provided for Carrie, he made sure she had a very well paid job, but he had told her mother that if you two ever found out he'd cut her off and leave Carrie with nothing. I wanted you to know about her at first, but I ended up reluctantly agreeing with her."

"What's she like?" Illum asked.

Archangel smiled, "She's incredible. If nothing else this gods awful shit show of an apocalypse brought me to her. She's also the President of the Colonies."

"And she's a good one too." Vanessa said.

"Good for her." Catherine said.

"I'm going to be going to see her shortly, while we were fighting here, she was giving birth. So what do you say little brother, do you want to meet your sister and your new niece or nephew?" Archangel asked.

"Frak yeah I do." he replied.

"You should come too." Archangel said to his mother.

"I don't know if I should." Catherine replied.

"Mum, Carrie is one of the most important people in my life, she will be in Illum's too and I guarantee you that she will want to meet you." Archangel said.

Catherine looked over at, Cooper who smiled at her, "I agree, you should go. I'll stay here with Admiral Garrett and get to know her."

"Okay." she replied.

"I'll be back soon, Admiral." Archangel said.

"I'll see you when you get back." she replied.

Vanessa and Cooper waited until everyone had left before they spoke again.

"Another drink?" she asked.

"Please," Cooper replied, "I'll be blunt, what's the plan now?"

"Once everyone has checked in I was going to send a group of Raptors through the gap to see what they can find. We'll start any major repairs and if what they find is good, we'll head through." Vanessa replied.

"And if it's not?" Cooper replied.

"We keep going till we find a planet or we go back to Haven. There's already a settlement there and if we have to, with our combined resources we'll be able to make it into something. Now I'll be blunt, I'm guessing you were in over all command of your fleet as I was with mine." she said.

"It's simple, you outrank me, it's your fleet." Cooper said straight away.

"That's not what I was going to say, we have a lot of options now, I'd rather do this together." Vanessa replied.

Cooper took a sip from his drink before he replied, "You're not what I expected."

"May I ask what you did expect?" she asked.

"I heard what, Admiral Imlay had to say about you. He's a good man, an honourable man, but he couldn't see through your father and they stood side by side for a long time. I still had to question what he said about you. I had the great displeasure of knowing your father for a long time. He was such an arrogant shit there was more than once that I wanted to knock him on his ass. It was nice to realise the apple couldn't have fallen further from the tree. I appreciate you saying you'd rather do this together. I'll always give you my unfiltered advice and opinion, doing the job I did I could never have people second guess me, so I have a habit of being blunt. But I don't think that's how it'll be with us. If I snap back every once in a while, just don't take it personally. And the final decision will always be yours, it's your rank and it's your privileged because of it." Cooper replied.

Vanessa smiled, "Trust me if I can put up with my father's bullshit, I can put up with your honesty."

Archangel flew a battlescortched Raptor towards the Starburst. He couldn't help but smile as he saw all the new ships in the fleet.

"What is it?" Catherine asked.

"What's what?" he replied.

"What's making you smile like that?"

"Seeing all these new ships. Seeing you two again, the relief of this all being over. It's been a long time coming."

"Is Skeeter here?" Catherine asked.

"Yes he is. He's Carrie's bodyguard. He was injured onboard the Sulaco during the battle. Once I've been to see Carrie, I'll be going to see him."

"I'm so glad you had each other. We're any of the others with you, at the start at least?" Catherine asked.

"Danny was, for a short while," she could hear the sadness in her son's voice, "He tried, he really did, but this world caught up with him. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You had to be a certain way out on your own like that. Skeeter found it in himself, Danny was spared that. I found your letter on Caprica."

"You did?" Catherine said surprised.

"Once I'd found our group somewhere they could be safe, I broke off from them for a few days and made it home. I wasn't there for long before I rejoined the others. Thank you for leaving it for me. I was able to find some clarity because you gave me closure." Archangel replied.

Bojay stood on watch on the CIC. As he looked around, he saw clean-up crews still hard at work. They'd taken on hell of a punch.

"Colonel," Lt. Phillips said, "Captain Anders and Captain Hale have just launched, they're requesting permission to head through the gap."

"Put them through," Bojay replied picking up his handset, "Hydra, Hulk this is Bojay, permission granted to head through. You see anything even slightly iffy and you turn tail."

"Will do Colonel," Hydra replied, "We'll be back as quick as we can."

"Good hunting." Bojay replied.

Archangel, Catherine and Illum all walked into the main medical bay on the Starburst. He stopped them before they went too far in.

"I think I'd better go in first, I'll let, Carrie know what's happened." he said.

"Of course, we'll wait here for you." Catherine said with a smile.

Archangel turned and walked into the main bay. A nurse walked over to him.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I'm here to see my sister, Carrie. I'm Major Hunter from Orion." he replied.

"Of course, she's just in the first side room." he replied pointing to the room.

"Thank you." he replied walking over to the door. The door was partially open, he stopped for a moment and looked in. Carrie lay in a bed, while Wedge looked down at the baby laying in his arms. He saw how happy they were, which in turn made him happy to see his sister like that. He gently knocked on the door. Carrie looked up smiling.

"Come in." she said.

He quietly opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hey, I came as quickly as I could." He walked over to, Carrie and kissed her on the head.

"Do you want to meet your niece?" Carrie asked.

"Oh very much so." he replied.

Wedge stood up and passed, Archangel his niece. He looked down in awe of the little sleeping person in his arms.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"Penny." Carrie replied.

"Good choice," he said, trying to choke back tears, "I think, Alisa will like that."

"Is, Milo still on Orion?" she asked.

He paused for a moment, looked at Carrie, then at Wedge.

"Erm." he stammered.

"What happened?" Carrie asked.

"The Cylon killed a guard and got out of the brig. He made his way to the CIC and shot the place up. Milo got to the CIC just in time and tackled him into one of the computer labs as he detonated a bomb. He died saving the ship." Archangel replied.

Wedge sat back down on the side of the bed in shock, tears streamed down, Carrie's face.

"Jasper must be devastated, he thought he still had a little more time with his father." Carrie replied.

"Jasper didn't make it either, he died saving Jawbreaker." Wedge added.

"There's something else," Archangel said, "Our brother, Illum and my mother, Catherine were in the fleet that just joined us. They'd really like to meet you."

Carrie wiped the tears from her face, "Oh my gods that's wonderful. Some good news to help stomach all the bad."

"Should I tell them to come in?" Archangel asked.

Carrie nodded her head.

Archangel looked back down at the sleeping person cradled in his arms and smiled to himself before passing her to Carrie. He stepped out of the room and took a deep breath before wiping the tears from his face. Despite the massive amount of death today, it was still somehow a great day. He walked into the waiting room. His mother and brother both stood up as they saw him walk in.

"She wants to meet you, come on." Archangel said to them both.

Catherine could see how excited, Illum was and just hoped she wasn't showing just how truly nervous she was.

Archangel was first into the room, followed by his brother and then mother.

"Carrie and Anthony, this is my mother, Catherine and brother Illum." Archangel said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both." Wedge said standing up and shaking both their hands.

"The pleasure is ours." Catherine replied.

"Hi." Carrie said nervously.

Illum walked over to his sister and hugged her.

"It's so good to meet you. It's crazy, when I woke up this morning, the last thing I would have ever imagined would be that I'd find out I had a sister and niece." he said beaming at Carrie, "What's her name?"

"Penny," Carrie replied, "Would you like to hold her?"

"Really?!" Illum replied.

Carrie nodded and smiled, "Of course."

Illum smiled from ear to ear as he looked down at, Penny, "She's beautiful."

Carrie looked over at Catherine who smiled back kindly.

"You must have a lot of questions?" Carrie said.

"I would like to talk, if you're feeling up to it? You and I."

"Of course," Carrie replied, can you guys give us a minute?" she asked.

"Sure, we'll wait outside." Wedge replied.

Illum handed the baby to Carrie before following the others out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"You must hate me." Carrie said.

"What?" Catherine asked surprised, "Of course I don't hate you. I wanted to thank you for being there for Mark all this time. It gives me comfort to know he had you during all this."

"We had each other. But he has so many people. His pilots love him, he has a lot of great friends. He and Skeeter love each other like brothers."

Catherine laughed, "It's been that way since they were small children. I thought he'd never forgive us for making him leave Skeeter and Danny when we moved to Caprica. He and Galen fought daily about it for weeks. Mark would come back to Freedom every chance he could. I'm glad Skeeter made it, he's a good man."

"Yes he is, I get to spend time with him every day. Then there's Admiral Garrett." Carrie said.

"I did suspect." Catherine laughed.

"Yeah they think no one knows." Carrie smiled, "I'm guessing you didn't want to hear all the gossip thought."

"There will be plenty of time for that later, you're right. Carrie, I've known about you since you were a child. I didn't agree at first when your mother didn't want Mark and Illum to know, but I respected her decision. I'm hoping that you and Illum can have the same kind of relationship you have with Mark."

"I want that too." Carrie replied.

Catherine smiled, "I would also really like it if you and I can get to know each other? Be friends?"

Carrie nodded, "Me too." She said, "Would you like to hold Penny?"

"I'd love to." Catherine replied taking hold of the baby.

As she smiled down at Penny, she opened her eyes.

"She's beautiful." Catherine said.

"Looks like she likes you," Carrie replied, "I'm glad you're here, Catherine, you're the closest thing to a Grandmother she'll have."

Catherine wiped tears from her face, she smiled at Carrie, "Thank you."

Bojay stood on duty on the CIC. Morale was at an all time high. There had been parties fleet wide when the Cylons demise had been announced. He'd decided to stay away from them for now, there was still a job to do. As he sipped his tea, Vanessa walked into the CIC.

"Any news?" she asked.

"Not yet," Bojay replied, "Hopefully they'll be back in the next hour."

"Good. So what's the scuttlebutt on the ship?" Vanessa asked.

"For the most part, people are great. But at the same time, there's an awful lot of mourning going on too. I get the feeling though, as soon as we find a planet, we're going to have an exodus on our hands." Bojay said.

"Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing. What about you? Are you going to seek out a new life?" Vanessa asked.

"Me? Gods no. Truthfully, this is all I have. Everyone I know is on this ship, if I go down onto a planet I don't know what I'd do. I don't know how to do anything else."

"Whether you stay on Orion or decide to do something else, you have to make another life for yourself." she replied.

"Now, with what we've just done, when we have a home and we're safe, I will. What about you?"

Vanessa laughed, "We haven't properly talked about it yet. We've talked about a 'what if' once it's all over, but we still haven't decided what we'd do."

"But you know what you'd like to do?" he asked.

She nodded, "I do and today has made it so I can see it as a real possibility."

"Well I can tell you he wants the same."

"He's said that to you?" Vanessa asked.

Bojay nodded, "Oh yeah, he's ready to live a little."

"DRADIS contact." Phillips shouted.

Both senior officers looked up and saw Hydra and Hulk's Raptors appear from between the moons.

"Admiral, I have Captain Anders on the horn for you." Phillips said.

Both Vanessa and Bojay picked up their handsets.

"Orion Actual. How did it go?" Vanessa said.

"Very well Admiral," Hydra replied, "There's a planetary system, three light years away. It looks like it's where these new Cylons had been living. There is a habitable planet and moon. There is also a large space station in orbit of the moon. As far as we could tell, there's no one home, the Medlia should be able to give us a more detailed look."

"Very well done guys. Get back to the barn and send us all the necessary coordinates." Vanessa said.

"So do we take a look or keep going?" Bojay asked genuinely unsure of the answer.

"We go take a look," she replied with a smile, "Mr Phillips, please get Medlia Actual on the horn.

"He's standing my ma'am." Phillips replied a few moments later.

Vanessa picked up her handset, "Medlia Actual, this is Orion Actual, would you like to stretch your legs a little?"

"Always Ma'am. What's the job?" Major Lewthwaite replied.

"The Raptors that just came back, have found a habitable planet and moon. The moon has some kind of space station in orbit. I want you to go take a look. See if GHOST can find if anyone's home and if there are any countermeasures that could be laying in wait for us." Vanessa said.

"Not a problem, we'll be back before you know it." he replied.

"We're coming with you, I want strength in numbers. We'll let you know when we're ready to depart."

"We're ready when you are."

"Actual out." Vanessa replied before putting down her phone.

"Strength in numbers?" Bojay asked.

"I know the Medlia can get in or out in seconds, but if they can make that cannon and the gravity well generator there's no telling what else could be out there. We don't have to worry about leaving the fleet without firepower now." Vanessa answered.

"Honestly, I keep having to remind myself our fleet just more than doubled in size."

"Tell me about it. By the way, before I forget, Admiral Greenway is inviting all the CO's and XO's to the Columbia tomorrow so we can all meet each other," she fought not to laugh as, Bojay sighed and rolled his eyes, she knew that even though he was pleased they were all here, he wasn't a fan of forced 'getting to know you' events, "and have a drink and no excuses." she said with a wink, "Mr Phillips has, Admiral Greenway logged himself in as being back on Columbia?"

"No Ma'am, he's still waiting to depart Orion." Phillips replied.

"Then can you please let, Admiral Imlay know what we're going to do and send word to Major Hunter, he's with his sister." Vanessa asked.

"Yes ma'am." he replied.

Archangel walked into Sulaco's sickbay. It was busy with medics and doctors looking after those injured during the battle. He saw Skeeter laying in bed looking battered and bruised. He looked like he'd been hit by a truck. He made his way towards his friend.

"Hey buddy, glad you made it through in one piece. I hear it was one hell of a fight." Skeeter said, pain could be heard in his voice, he was also clearly high on his pain medication.

"That it was," Archangel replied sitting next to Skeeter's bed, "I didn't think we were going to make it through until the cavalry appeared and turned the tide."

"Yeah, what the hell's going on with that? I heard someone talking about new ships, but I couldn't hear what they were saying."

Archangel smiled, "Admiral Imlay's fleet, along with another Colonial fleet they met on the way. Out fleet has doubled."

"Holy shit." Skeeter said.

"It gets better, not only is the man who trained me commanding one of the Battlestars, my mother and Illum are with him."

"No way!" Skeeter exclaimed, "Oh frak, all that stuff with your Dad, with Carrie."

"They already know, my mum and Illum have already met her and her daughter, Penny."

"She had the baby?!" Skeeter said with the biggest smile on his face.

"She did indeed."

"I need to see her, can you take me over there?" Skeeter asked.

"Are you kidding me? In your condition? Carrie told me to tell you, she'd be over as soon as she's able to fly and she'll bring Penny to see you." Archangel reached into his pocket and and took out a photo of Penny, "Michaels left me his camera, I thought you'd like to see."

"Thank you." Skeeter said as he took hold of the photo, "This is what makes all the shit we've been through worth it, worth every gods damn second."

"It does indeed. So what about you? I hear you had a fist fight with some fraked up Toaster?" Archangel asked.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life, it had this rotting skin and the smell, my gods the smell. Thankfully I hadn't taken my body armour off and I still had all my grenades left, that certainly did the trick." Skeeter said chuckling, "But not before I broke six ribs, my collar bone and my nose. Plus I got new gunshot wounds and more stitches than I can count, but I'm alive."

"I don't know if you've heard, but there is more news and it's not good."

"Who did we lose?" Skeeter asked.

Archangel sighed for a moment before he replied, "Milo and Jasper."

"What the frak? Both of them?"

"Jasper was killed right after he'd saved Jawbreaker's life. Milo, well the Cylon in the brig got lose during the battle. He went to the CIC with bombs. Milo tackled him into one of the computer labs a moment before they went off. He died a hero."

"At least he had a meaningful death instead of what he had coming. He was a soldier, he went out like one." Skeeter said.

"That he did. I know we butted heads on more than one occasion, but I did respect him, I hope he knew that."

"He did." Skeeter replied. "Do you know when they're going to have a funeral?"

"Not yet. I'll let you know as soon as I know. There's a lot going on at the moment." Archangel said.

"Major Hunter?" a voice said from behind him.

He turned to see one of the Sulaco officers he hadn't met before.

"Yes, can I help you Ensign?" he replied.

"Commander Hicks asked me to give you this, it's from Orion." the young Ensign replied handing him a piece of paper.

"Thank you." he replied taking it from her.

"Everything okay?" Skeeter asked.

Archangel nodded as he read the note, "Yeah, it's just to let me know Orion and Medlia are going ahead of the fleet. They've found a system on the other side which has a habitable planet and moon."

"Frak, there really is a lot going on." Skeeter replied.

Condition 2 began to sound across Orion.

"Alert Vipers are in the tubes, just in case. Ten armed Raptors are ready to launch from the port flightpod. I've instructed Captain Stark to take command of the fighters out there," Bojay told Vanessa, "I ordered Jawbreaker to take a couple of days. He wasn't happy, but he's not in the right frame of mind to be out there at the moment."

"Not a problem," Vanessa replied, "I spoke to him earlier, who would have thought after their first meeting that he'd take Jasper's death this hard."

"They became good friends since he joined Green Wing." Bojay replied.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road," Vanessa said, "And fingers crossed we'll be coming back to the fleet with a new home. Mr Phillips, please instruct the Medlia to lead the way."

Orion followed the much smaller Medlia out of formation and led the way to the gap between the two moons. Orion's powerful engines went to full burn as it pulled away. It was so rare for the massive warship to get anywhere near to it's full speed. Only the Medlia was quicker, Sulaco was the next powerful, but even at full speed it wouldn't be able to keep up with Orion. The civilian ships of the fleet, even at full speed they were barely half as fast as the flagship.

Even though they knew the cannon had been destroyed, both Vanessa and Bojay felt nervous as they passed between the moons. Minutes later, they were both through to the other side.

"Admiral," Phillips said, "Major Lewthwaite wants to know if you would like the Medlia to make the jump ahead of us or if they want to match our jump?"

"Match Orion's jump, while I'm sure everything will be fine, I have no intention of risking any of our ships." Vanessa replied.

"So any ideas on what we should call this planet and moon if we can live on them?" Bojay asked.

"Not a one," Vanessa replied, "I'm not great with naming things. When I was a kid and moved in with my grandparents, they bought me a puppy, I was so clueless on what to call him, take a guess at what his name ended up being?"

"Spot? Buster? Fido?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Oh you give me way too much credit," she replied laughing, "I named my dog, dog!"

Bojay burst out laughing, "Oh my gods, you really do suck at naming things! If you ever have kids, I look forward to seeing what you call them!" he replied in between laughing.

"Admiral," Phillips interrupted, "The Medlia is ready."

"Thank you, Lieutenant, please give the order to jump." she replied.

"Yes Ma'am," he replied before opening a COM channel, "Orion and Medlia crews stand by to jump on my mark. Jumping in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, jump."

In two bright flashes, Orion and Medlia both jumped away, appearing moments later at the edge of their potential new home's solar system.

"Jump complete," Phillips confirmed, "Medlia is along side."

"Excellent," Vanessa replied, "Please instruct the Raptors to launch."

Bojay picked up his handset, "Raptor group, you are clear to launch."

The ten heavily armed Raptors, lead by Captain Stark launched and flew ahead of the two ships.

"Mr Phillips, please instruct the Medlia to start scanning the moon and the station first."

Major Adam Lewthwaite stood at the DRADIS console on the Medlia's CIC.

"GHOST please begin scans of the moon." Short Stack asked.

"Commencing scans." the AI replied.

As soon as the scans began, data began so stream onto the screens, hundreds of images flashing faster than Short Stack could see them. Then it moved to images and data from the station. Thirty seconds after the ships computer had started gathering data it had finished.

"GHOST, how are things looking?" he asked.

"You will be pleased to know there are no Cylons on the moon or the station," GHOST replied, "The moon is perfect for human life. There are many different species of animals as well, some the same as you had on the Colonies, others I have never seen before. The oceans, while small are full of sea life. There is edible fauna and plant life. It appears there are also various structures on the planet, some appear to be very old, judging by information I have on time periods in the Colonies, it is similar to habitats from your stone age, I believe there was once some kind of human life here. There are also large metal structures which appear to have been made more recently. The station is also free of Cylons, while it may be powered down, it appears to be fully functional. The bad news, there appear to be dormant countermeasures similar to those at the site of the cannon. I will need to run more scans, but I believe they will become active should they sense human life."

"Did you hear all that, Admiral?" Short Stack asked.

"Yes thank you, Major. Let's move onto the planet and see how it goes." Vanessa replied.

Two hours later, Vanessa, Bojay, Admiral's Greenway and Imlay, Major Lewthwaite, Archangel and Vice President Callum Bennett all stood in Orion's main briefing room.

"Thank you for all coming," Vanessa said, "Madame President, thank you for being here over the COM, sorry to interrupt you at the moment though."

"Think nothing of it Admiral, I'm keen to hear what you have to say." Carrie replied.

"I'm going to let, Major Lewthwaite take the lead." Vanessa said.

"GHOST took readings of the planet, the moon and the station. As far as habitability goes, both the moon and planet are perfect for us. However, it appears the Cylons have left us a few nasty surprises." Short Stack said.

"Are they nasty surprises we can deal with ourselves?" Cooper asked.

"Us personally, no. GHOST believes, if any humans go anywhere near that planet, things like the nanites that decimated our marines who took out the weapon will activate and they're just the tip of the iceberg." he replied.

"So where does that leave us?" Carrie asked.

"We keep going?" Bojay said.

"GHOST thinks that might not be necessary. He believes he has a way for us to get around this, but it will cost us." Short Stack replied.

"Cost us in what way?" Vanessa asked.

"On the planet, there is a massive building, which has a huge DRADIS array, which is linked to all the buildings on the moon and to the space station. GHOST has suggested, we take everyone off the Medlia. Then the AI will fly the ship down to the surface and transfer itself into the Cylon's systems. It will then take over and permanently deactivate all of their countermeasures and their systems. GHOST will be able to take control of everything. The cost is, once GHOST has done this, it won't be able to transfer back to the Medlia, it's a one shot deal."

"But we'll still have the ship?" Imlay asked.

"Yes, but without GHOST, the ship is just scrap and spare parts, it can't run in any way, without the AI." Short Stack answered.

There was silence in the room for a moment.

"What if the Cylon computer takes over GHOST? Then we've lost the ship and the planet." Cooper said.

"GHOST has gone toe to toe with the Cylons and their viruses, all our systems are linked and we've never had a problem." he replied.

"Major, no one knows the Medlia or GHOST better than you, do you think it will work?" Carrie asked over the COM.

"I do. But more importantly, GHOST thinks it will work."

"Major, has your AI been able to figure out what the buildings are for?" Vice President Bennett asked.

"Some of them are tyllium refineries. Some are for building fighters and weapons. There is a power station. We haven't identified all of them yet, but once GHOST is in, we'll have full access to all of them."

"I need to ask a question, something that has been in the back of my mind since I found out about your ship," Cooper said, "When we built the Cylons, they were to help us, work for us. I'm sure no one ever expected it to end how it did. I need to ask, I need to know, what do we do if GHOST ever turns on us? What do we do if we find ourselves back in the position we did when the Cylons rebelled?"

"I have a kill switch for GHOST." Short Stack replied.

"You have a what?" Bojay asked, "Why is this the first we're hearing about this?"

"It's not," Vanessa replied, "Former President Vents, President Manning and myself all knew. I felt the need to keep it on a need to know basis. We were in the middle of dealing with the NCO when the Medlia appeared. Major Lewthwaite told me about it when I had been rescued. I decided that the less people knew, the less risk it would pose. Back then, we couldn't do without the Medlia, while it would be a huge loss to lose it now, it wouldn't be as bad. I didn't like keeping information from my senior officers, but we've been burned before, Dr Hammond fraked us good and hard, I didn't want to give anyone the knowledge that could take down one of our main assets."

"The kill switch will still work once GHOST has been downloaded." Short Stack added.

"How can we know that for sure?" Archangel asked.

Vanessa and Short Stack exchanged a look, "Because it's designed to activate a dormant program in GHOST's overall program. It would deliver a critical error that will cripple GHOST."

"Could GHOST not just remove that part of it's program?" Imlay asked.

"Not without activating it." Short Stack replied.

"I've decided that we have to at least try this," Vanessa said, "This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. I want the Medlia crew to get ready to move over to Orion. We'll get this plan under way tomorrow afternoon."

Ten minutes later, as everyone was leaving the meeting, Short Stack made his way over to Vanessa.

"Admiral, may I speak to you in private?" he asked.

"Of course." she replied.

As Archangel left the room he closed the hatch behind him.

"What can I do for you Major?" she asked.

"I want to speak with you about what's going to happen after this." he replied.

"I think after everything you've done for this fleet, you can pick what position you like. I remember you saying you used to be stationed on the Battlestar Victorious, I'm sure, Admiral Tolan would be more than happy to have you back."

"That's just it, I don't want another position in the fleet. The Medlia was supposed to be my last assignment in the fleet. Admiral Negala had given me permission to leave once I'd finished with the ship. After I left the Victorious I concentrated on engineering and design. If this works with GHOST, that's what I want to do. I want to take what the Toasters left behind and turn what I can into things we can use." he walked over to the table in the middle of the room, activating it's holo emitters and brought up a 3D version of one of the images, GHOST had taken, showing a series of five large buildings, "This building here, judging by the internal scans and what we see here on the outside, I already think I can turn this into a water filtration system, I can also use the same building, turning this floor here," he said pointing to one of the lower levels, "Into a waste recycling plant, if we build homes for people in the surrounding area, if my plans are right, I could try and give them internal plumbing and sewerage. They left behind a blank canvas and with the other engineers we already have in the fleet, we can turn it into something really special."

As he finished speaking he turned to her and saw her smiling back at him.

"You've given this a lot of thought." she replied.

"My brain is always thinking of new things I might be able to make or at least design. So what do you say?"

"I'm not going to lie, the Colonial fleet will miss an officer like you, but hearing what you want to do, I'd be a fool to say no. When the mission is over, you're free to leave."

"Thank you." he replied with a huge smile across his face, "I promise you won't regret this."

"I never for a moment thought that I would. Until you're set up with a place, you're more than welcome to stay on Orion or I can speak with Admiral Tolan for you about staying on Victorious?"

"About that, I hate to ask more of you, but would you consider seeing if there is anywhere I could stay on the Columbus? They have the best design computers in the fleet."

"Consider it done Major. I'll speak with their Captain this afternoon and see if he has any spare quarters."

"Thank you ma'am. It's been an honour to serve under you these last couple of years."

"The honour has been all mine," she replied, "I'll look forward to seeing what you do next."

Archangel sat in Vanessa's quarters waiting for her to come home. He sat on one of the large comfortable leather sofas, they were some of the many things she had inherited from Commander Johannsen. As he took a sip from a glass of Ambrosia he looked at a photograph of their former Commander standing next to Vanessa on the day the ship had launched. It was a lifetime ago now, back before he'd met either of them. He'd liked Heinrich from their first meeting and could remember the day he'd died like it was yesterday. What a day that had been, one shitty day in a long list of shitty days. He put down the photo and the glass before standing up and unfastening his holsters before sitting back down. He took one of the pistols out of its holster and looked at it. He'd taken so many lives with these guns, both human and Cylon. He ejected the magazine and then the round from the chamber before placing them on the table, then did the same again with the other. As he sat back on the sofa, Vanessa walked in.

"Hey," she said, "I was wondering where you'd got to." She took off her jacket before pouring herself a drink and sitting down next to him.

"How's it been going?" Archangel asked.

"It's a waiting game now. I think Admiral Greenway wanted to go and do this straight away, but I think everyone needs some rest before the next stage. If this is home, we've got a lot to do to make it that way." she replied.

"Urgh, more work." he said with a chuckle.

"Worth it though. What's with your sidearms?"

"I don't think I need them any more," he replied, "We've got rid of the Cylons. Can I ask, is Short Stack leaving us?"

Vanessa nodded, "Yeah and I don't blame him."

"Did Hydra come and see you?" he asked.

"Yeah she did. She said she'd spoken to you first. She's a loss and I highly doubt she'll be the last. I don't expect it to be long until Wedge comes to see us as well." he sighed before taking a sip from his drink, "So that brings me to something I need to talk to you about."

Before he'd even spoken, Vanessa knew what he was going to say.

"I'm not going to leave the ship in the lurch, but if this goes okay, when things have settled down, I'm ready for this part of my life to be over. I spent so much time getting to where I wanted to be, I let life pass me by. Not any more." he said.

"You want to live on the planet?" she asked quietly.

"No," he replied, "I want US to go and live on that planet, you and me and a brave new world." he turned to face her and took hold of her hand, "We've both more than earned it. We've both got physical and mental scars from the last 5 years that will last a lifetime, it's time to finally relax."

"It would be a while before I could leave Orion. If this planet is going to be our home, I can't land all the work that will go with that on Bojay."

"I have no issue waiting for you, however long it takes. So what do you say?"

She took a sip from her drink and smiled before she spoke, "Yes."

Archangel leaned over and gave her a kiss, "Nearly time for that other life."

"Going back to business though, who do you want to replace you as CAG?" she asked.

"That depends on, Jawbreaker." he replied.

"I hope he can pull himself together. It's so strange seeing him of all people so down. Even when things were at their worst, he always held it together. Do you have anyone else, just in case?"

"Captain Stark. She knows how to be a CAG and she was damn good at it. She takes less shit from people than I do. Plus, having someone like me at Bojay's disposal could come in handy for him."

"If Bojay stays on as Commander, I think he'll probably pick Jawbreaker as his XO. He would have gone for Wedge, but I agree with you, I think he'll be leaving us too."

"It's a damn good job this ship has got so many good sticks. I had a great team on Atlantia, but Orion's has been something else." she paused for a moment, "I need to ask you, is Cooper the right person to leave in command of the fleet?"

Archangel nodded, "Oh yeah. The guys from our fleet will have to get used to him though. They've had a much easier time of it with you than they will from him. He's strict and he says what's in his mind whether you want to hear it or not. But once you prove yourself to him, he's a lot easier to get along with."

"Sounds a lot like you." she replied with a chuckle.

"Hey, I'm a fraking delight!" he said with a smile.

"Once people get to know you." she replied with a wink.

Short Stack stood looking around his quarters, all of his belongings packed and sent over to Orion. It looked so odd being so empty.

"Major," GHOST said, "The last of the crew have just departed."

"Well okay then," he replied walking to the door of his quarters for the last time, "I just wanted to say thank you GHOST, thank you for keeping us alive all this time."

"It has been my genuine pleasure," the AI replied, "It has been my honour to serve with you."

They continued to talk as he walked towards the hanger deck.

"GHOST, can I ask, are you absolutely sure this is going to work?"

"Yes, Major, I have run hundreds of simulations based on my detailed readings and I am 100% confident I will be able to take complete control."

Short Stack stopped when he walked onto the hanger deck. There was a single Raptor waiting for him, all the others had been divided up among the other military vessels.

"I'm going to miss you." Short Stack said.

"I will miss you too, Adam. But we will still be able to work together with all the new projects you're planning on."

Short Stack smiled, "That's a deal."

"It is time for you to leave," GHOST said, "We are approaching the time Admiral Garrett wants me to begin."

"Good luck." Short Stack said.

"Thank you." GHOST replied, "We will talk again soon."

Minutes later, the Medlia's final Raptor was launching. Short Stack could see Orion, Sulaco and Columbia waiting in the system along with Vipers and Raptors.

"Medlia Actual, this is Orion Actual, is GHOST ready?" Vanessa said in Short Stack's ear.

"Yes, mission is a go." Short Stack replied. He joined the rest of the Raptors and turned around to face the Medlia, which was already moving towards the planet.

Moments later, it entered the atmosphere of the large planet.

Three hours later, Carrie was ready to address the media, her whole speech would be broadcast throughout the fleet. She hadn't intended on being the President again so soon, but this was a speech she knew she had to give.

She walked out onto the stage in the Starbursts biggest meeting room and stood at the podium which had been prepared for her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, people of the fleet, I know there are a million and one rumours going through the fleet right now. As the Vice President told you all the other day, the Cylon threat has finally ended and our fleet is now much larger. I asked you here because we have news that will answer many questions. Orion has found a planetary system, which has a habitable planet and moon. We discovered this is where the new Cylons we faced called home. We also discovered that these Cylons had left behind countermeasures that would activate as soon as we stepped foot on either the planet or moon, killing them. Major Lewthwaite of the Scopestar Medlia and the Medlia's AI however found a potential way to permanently deactivated them. Three hours ago, they launched the mission and it is my pleasure to inform you all, they were successful." Carrie smiled as she spoke, "After five long years, we now have a home. Somewhere we can rebuild our society. With nearly a million people now in our fleet, we have a chance, a good chance of regaining our way of life. It will be a long process to prepare our new home, but I know that if we work together as we have been over all these years, we will make it a home to be proud of. It's been a hard five years for each and every one of us. We've had both Cylons and humans trying to end our way of life, but no matter what has been thrown at us, we have always prevailed. I'm proud to be your President, just as the late former President Vents was. In particular I want to thank Admiral Garrett and the men and women who have selflessly protected us day after day. If it wasn't for them, we would have all perished a long time ago. When you're all able, raise a glass to them, raise a glass to the people we've lost along the way, for those who aren't here on this special day, for those who made this day possible. I look forward to seeing what our future has in store for us."

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Archangel walked through the corridors of Orion. He'd been a civilian for three months now and he was enjoying his life. Seeing his family so often was something he hadn't done since his early 20s. He had also enjoyed spending a lot of time with Skeeter while he recovered from his extensive injuries, but now he was back to full strength he was again at, Carrie's side daily. She had gone back to work much earlier than expected. Even though he was no longer the ships CAG, he was able to come and go as he pleased. Members of the crew still called him "sir" and saluted when they saw him. He had given up asking them to stop, Vanessa had told him it was just a sign of the respect he still had. When he reached, Vanessa's quarters, he walked straight inside. Her quarters, other than the furniture, was bare. Her belongings were all packed and already in her new home.

"You ready?" he asked as she walked out of the bathroom.

"I am, just not sure I'll ever get used to this." she said gesturing to her civilian clothes.

Archangel laughed, "Yeah, I had the same thought."

"And have you? Got used to them?" she replied.

"Well, I've been wearing them for three months now and honestly, no not really." he said with a smile.

She smiled at him before picking up the backpack containing the last of her things, "Let's do this," she replied, "I'm ready."

They walked slowly towards the hangerdeck. Vanessa taking everything in as she walked. She had been so nervous when she first came aboard, questioning if she had even done the right thing, now she was nervous again as she prepared to leave.

When they reached the hanger Archangel opened the hatch and stood aside to let her in first.

"Oh my Gods." she said, utterly surprised at what she was seeing.

In front of her stood hundreds of her crew, the commanding officers and executive officers of all the military vessels, the President and Skeeter, all applauding her as she stepped in front of her.

Bojay walked up to her and hugged her.

"I'm going to miss you." he said.

"I'll miss you too, Commander." she replied, "You're going to need to keep him on his toes." she said to Jawbreaker, his new XO.

He smiled at her, "I think we'll be able to muddle through together." he replied before giving her a hug.

Carrie and newly promoted, Fleet Admiral Cooper Greenway were the next to greet her.

"Vanessa Garrett, for your years of exemplary service in the Colonial Fleet and for your exceptional bravery and leadership over the last five years, we present to you, the Colonial Medal of Distinction. Congratulations." Carrie said as she placed the medal around Vanessa's neck.

"SO SAY WE ALL!" Bojay bellowed.

"SO SAY WE ALL." everyone replied loudly.

"The service will miss you." Cooper said.

"Thank you," she replied, wiping tears from her face, "I'm lost for words. Thank you do much." She looked down at the medal on her chest and smiled, "I just want you all to know that it has been my honour to serve with you all. You all made my job so much easier under the worst circumstances any of us could imagine. I always knew we'd one day find a home, but honestly, I never expected to be alive to see it. Thank you for helping me to keep all our people alive, thank you for keeping me alive. Now I'm leaving you, I take comfort knowing you're in good hands with Commander Johnson and Colonel Thomlins and the fleet being in command of Admiral Greenway. I'll be grateful to you all for all my days. Be safe out there and good hunting." she said before saluting them.

In perfect synchronicity everyone in the room saluted back.

As Vanessa began to say her goodbyes, Archangel walked over to Alisa, who was looking better than she had since, Penny had died, she had purpose again.

"Good afternoon, Major." Archangel said.

"Good to see you, Hunter." she replied hugging him.

"How's life as Orion's newest CAG?" he asked.

"I think you know the answer to that one," she replied with a chuckle, "How's civilian life?"

"It's taking some getting used to. Are you gonna come down to that planet and see me some time? Bojay tells me that you've not even been down there yet." Archangel said.

"I'll come see you, now I'm settled," she replied, "I miss the sun."

"We'll you're welcome any time." he replied hugging her.

"I'll take you up on that." she replied.

Ten minutes later the pair had made their way through the crowd to their waiting Raptor. Vanessa turned to Bojay and smiled.

"Permission to disembark, Sir?" she asked.

"Permission granted." he replied, a wobble in his voice.

"See you soon."

As Archangel sat himself down in the cockpit, Vanessa stood watching everyone as the back hatch closed, before sitting next to Archangel in the cockpit.

"You okay?" he asked.

Vanessa smiled and nodded her head, "Definitely," she replied, "Let's do this."

Minutes later, Archangel flew the Raptor away from Orion. The Battlestar sat in a high orbit around the planet. To their right they could see the ships of the fleet scattered across the system. Some of the civilian ships had already landed on the planet and the moon. Some of them, like the Starburst had been broken down into sections to create more buildings. The large luxury liner had split off all it's climate domes, each had landed on an area of the planet that suited their specific environments, they were ready made settlements. The main dome, which had been simply known as "dome 1" was the largest of them all, it had massive buildings, parts of it were resorts for people to holiday. It had buildings that were perfect for the Government to use as a base of operations, until whatever their new home would be had been built. The continent it had landed on, was the one Archangel had picked for them to live on. It had wonderful weather, perfect for farming in general and raising live stock. Most of the large buildings the Cylons had left behind were there, they were already been converted into things the Colonials could use, power stations, sanitation, water purification, etcetera.
Archangel flew through the clouds, beneath them a large ocean. The sun shone brightly. Cosmologists aboard the Columbia had been studying the weather and had noted the climate was largely similar to, Caprica. He flew the Raptor across the planet, showing Vanessa all the beautiful landscape of their new home. As they neared the continent that would be their new home, they flew over a small fishing fleet.

"I can't wait to try the seafood," Vanessa said as she looked at the trawlers below, "I've heard good things."

"Whatever you've heard, they don't do it justice. There is a dock about a mile away from where we'll be and there is already a fish market. They have these shellfish that are kind of like lobster, but taste so much better. I've asked them to keep some aside for me for dinner tonight. I remember you saying how shellfish was your favourite and the food you've missed the most." he replied smiling.

"I knew I loved you for a reason." she replied with a smile.

"I just hope you liked the spot I've picked for us to live." he said.

"I'm sure I will." she replied.

Quite close to the coastline, mountains could be seen and large forests. Vanessa could see homes were already being built near a large lake.

"I can't believe they've managed to build so many homes and buildings already." Vanessa said.

"You ain't seen nothing yet." Archangel replied as he slowed the Raptor down, "Welcome home."

"Oh my Gods." Vanessa replied as he brought the Raptor to a stop, "Is that ours?"

As the back hatch opened, Vanessa was already out of the Raptor, in front of her, a very large log cabin. Cabin wasn't the right word, it was a house.

"Did you do this?" she asked.

"Some. I've cashed in every favour I had left and given out more than I can count. This is one of the spots that they're going to be building a community, I got here first and picked the spot with the best view. From the back we can see the mountains and the forest, from the front the ocean. I've even planted a load of veggies in the back. The ground apparently is so good they'll taste better than anything we could grow back home. Short Stack is even making sure all these homes will have running water and plumbing, working toilets etcetera. We'll have to walk down to the lake when we need water for now, but honestly, it's a beautiful walk."

Vanessa looked up at the blue cloudless sky, feeling the sun on her face, she smiled.

"Thank you." she said.

"For you, I'd do anything. We've got a beautiful place here to call home and a planet and a moon to discover. The world is quite literally your oyster." he replied.

"But what are we going to do now?" Vanessa asked.

Archangel smile, "Anything you want."

Vanessa looked at her surroundings, the smile still on her face. She looked back at him. For the first time in her life, the future was uncertain.

"Anything we want." she replied quietly, she looked out at the new world and smiled.