Thirteen

Chapter Eight:

Back home again on Caprica

"So it's settled…Garibaldi and Tessa Halloran will look into these people and find out why there are younger Cylon copies of themselves in existence. We'll try and find out what we can on Caprica, and Adama and Roslin will try and find out more from the reporter that did a piece on them not long ago. Kinda seems strange, since my sister-in-law is rather shy and doesn't like to have her picture taken." President Hollifield said.

"I'll head back to Earth and interview them myself, along with Ms. Halloran. Three of them work in the same facility, and the fourth is the First Lady's sister, so they should have no problem keeping all of this on the Q.T. Last thing we need is this news leaking out to the mass media." Garibaldi added.

Adama walked up to the viewer and asked, "How close are you to Caprica?"

"About a couple of jumps away, from what our star charts say. We're in Vorlon space now, and haven't encountered any of the Vorlon defense systems that took down the other ships that came into this space after the Vorlons left. It could have something to do with me, or perhaps with Starbuck, but we'll worry about that later. Right now, I've got a bunch of Rangers and Earthforce Special Ops personnel ready to go when we get there. I'll let you know what happens when we get back. Hollifield out!"

Hollifield clicked off the display and turned to Starbuck and Ivanova and said, "Well, this whole situation seems to get more bizarre by the minute, and I thought I'd be used to stuff like that by now. Anyhow, it's in Garibaldi's hands now, as well as Tessa Halloran's, and I know those two will find out all they can. Right now, that's not our worry."

Starbuck nodded and added, "Right. I can't be sure of Anders' exact location, but I know where their last headquarters were before we left. Delphi Union High School is in the mountains above Delphi, so we should be able to find it. Are we prepared in case the Cylons have?" Worry filled her voice as she said that, as she wondered what had happened to her lover.

"There's no guarantee that he's still alive, but we have to hope that he is. If he is, as well as his group, then that gives us a leg up on things. We have enough of a force to make some raids and get some intelligence on the Cylons. We can't stay long, because when we take out the Cylon basestars around the planet, they'll want to move fast to replace them and to get back at us for what we've done." Ivanova said, keeping her face hard as a defense against her own worry. Since encountering Starbuck, she had become close to the pilot, having had a few conversations with her and developing a strong working relationship as well as a friendship. Ivanova had never seriously considered having kids, so this strange sense of motherhood coming over her when she dealt with Starbuck was quite a unique feeling to her.

That feeling came out stronger as Starbuck was just about to add something, but grabbed at her side and collapsed. Hollifield grabbed her before she hit the table, and he gently laid her down onto it. Ivanova hit her communications like and called for a medical team to rush her to Medlab on the ship.

"Bad news: she'll have to take it easy for a day or two. Good news: all that happened was that the sutures from the operation that she had for being shot weren't as good as they should have been. Granted, that could have been caused by her overdoing it before she was properly healed. She had some internal bleeding develop, and it could have been a lot worse had she not collapsed like that. I've been able to redo the sutures and fix the problem, so with some rest, she should be ok." Dr. Franklin said to Ivanova as Starbuck lay there, coming out of the daze that the anesthetic had put her in for the operation.

"Doctor, can you tell me why there are two scars on my belly? I never got an answer to what the other operation was all about." Starbuck asked.

Franklin shook his head and said, "I was under the impression that it was just some cleanup work they did for the wound. Granted, it's below where I would have went in, and right near where your left ovary should be…"

Starbuck's eyes went wide and she said, "Wait! You said where it should be?"

Franklin and Ivanova looked at each other for a moment, then the doctor said, "So you didn't have it removed because of any medical condition?"

"Those bastards at the farm must have taken it!"

Later on, Starbuck was able to sit in a wheelchair and brought to the conference room, where the Caprican version of Boomer was sitting along with the president, General Ivanova, and Dr. Franklin. Starbuck couldn't look over at the copy of her former friend, but she didn't have the same loathing as she once had, especially after hearing that she had been raped aboard the Pegasus.

Boomer said, "From what I can gather, it appears that the Cylons took her ovary to mine the eggs from it in an attempt to create hybrids. So far as I can tell, they haven't planted anything on her, but I can't tell you for certain if she's free of any kind of Cylon implants."

Hollifield sighed and said, "We've checked her out thoroughly and haven't been able to find anything, and our medical sensors are very detailed indeed. So I figure that she's clean, which means that we still have to figure out why they consider her 'special', as you said the Cylons consider her to be." He turned to Dr. Franklin and asked, "Will she be good to go in two days' time when we launch this mission?"

Franklin nodded and said, "I'll have to check her again before you head down to the surface of Caprica, but I think she'll be ok. The sutures' we've used have healed very well, so she shouldn't have any further problems with bleeding, as long as she doesn't overdo it."

"Good. We've got plenty of anti-radiation patches that'll help protect us from long-term exposure to the radiation on the planet. Alwyn jumped in and did some scans of the planet as well as in low-orbit. From what he's gathered, we have four basestars to worry about. We'll use the Independence, Excalibur, Titans, and Paladin on each one to draw out their fighters and distract them, then use the Whitestars to jump in close and take out their spokes. With the Minbari and Centauri ships, as well as the other Earthforce cruisers with us, we should be able to take them out.

"Now, we all need to get some rest. Dismissed." Hollifield said, and Ivanova, Franklin and Starbuck exited the room. Boomer stayed seated and Starbuck looked back at her. Hollifield noticed and nodded to her, letting her know it was ok. She then returned the nod and left the room.

"She still doesn't trust me." Boomer said about Starbuck.

"Given the circumstances, I don't blame her. Then again, I deal with people I don't trust everyday, so this isn't exactly unusual for me. Just do what we ask of you and you and your baby will be ok." Hollifield replied.

"I'm afraid of what will happen if I encounter Cylons again. Will they activate something inside of me to turn me against your people?" Boomer said as she looked up at the president.

"Don't worry about that. I've taken care of it!" Alwyn called out as he emerged.

Boomer was momentarily startled, but rallied quickly, saying, "I really hate it when you do that!"

"So do a good many others, but it doesn't stop me from doing it." Alwyn replied.

"I'm sorry, I should have said something earlier to you. He's been here all the time." Hollifield then turned to his old technomage friend and asked, "Are we sure that the jamming equipment we've put on Boomer will work?"

"Wait! You've put it on me already?" Boomer asked.

Alwyn smiled and said, "Yes, while you were talking to the group. It's microscopic and undetectable. Nanotechnology happens to be one of my various specialties, and I've been able to create a series of probes that will deflect any Cylon signals being sent to your brain."

"Have you been able to locate Anders and the others?" Hollifield asked.

"You're in luck. They're still at Delphi Union High School. However, you may want to act fast, because they looked to be preparing for an assault of some kind. I'll head back and track them down for you should they leave."

"Good, Alwyn. We need all the help we can get on this!"

Two days later, the ships jumped out of hyperspace and Independence started in on an attack vector towards the basestar nearest her, as did the other ships in the fleet. Alwyn had gotten extremely close to the basestars and had planted scores of microscopic probes onto the ships, and the information from those probes gave the Whitestars as well as the other ships accurate information as to where they were and what the composition of the huge dreadnaughts were.

"Basestar launching fighters. We're detecting missile bays opening up on their ship. Reports coming in from other ships saying other basestars are following suit." A tech said to Captain Brennan.

Captain Brennan ran her fingers through her red hair and looked at the president, who gave her a slight nod. "Launch fighters and bring our defense grid online. Keep them focused on us so that they don't see what's about to hit them!"

Commander Akhbar nodded and relayed the orders. Pulse cannons as well as other weaponry on board the ship deployed and began to pick out targets from the oncoming raiders. Starfury Thunderbolts were dropped out of the ship and zoomed away from the ship.

Minutes passed by like hours as the Cylon raiders raced to meet the oncoming enemy, unawares of what was about to happen. "Get close enough to draw their missile fire! Prepare long range dispersion fire in case they pack nukes into those missiles!" ordered Brennan.

"Aye, Captain! Sensors picking up missiles leaving launch bays! Repeat: missiles being launched!"

"Send the signal, Akhbar! Time to take these babies out!"

The missiles didn't contain radioactive warheads, and the Cylons would live to regret that as the basestars were violently shaken as the tactic of opening hyperspace vortexes beside the massive ships took off the points of the basestar. Whitestars raced out of the vortex, looped around, and dove onto the basestars, opening up on them with pulsed lasers as well as the beam cannons on the noses of the ships. They raced away to deal with the Cylon raiders as Minbari and Centauri ships jumped in and began to slice and pound away at the basestars with their various weapons. It wasn't long before they were reduced to metallic husks and their fighters were taken out with relative ease.

"Easier than I thought it was going to be, but we can't afford to let our guard down. Keep the ship at condition yellow, Captain, and be ready to deal with a basestar jumping in at a moment's notice. We'll head down to the launch bay and prepare to head down to the planet." Hollifield said to Captain Brennan.

"Aye, sir! Good hunting to you!"

The president wasn't going in with a barebones force, as four squadrons of Thunderbolts escorted the squadron of atmospheric shuttles into Caprica's atmosphere. Whitestars stood ready to deal with whatever additional problems that might confront them, as well as doing their own scans of the planet.

Hollifield took out a communications link, which looked like a pen, and hailed Alwyn. "Are Anders and company still at the high school?"

"Yes, they are, but they're about to have company. I've spotted scores of Cylon Centurions as well as a few models of the human variety Cylons. Recommend that you fly in from the south, as they are coming in from the north, and get a jump on them."

"Confirmed Alwyn. Hollifield out.", said the president, who turned to the pilot and said, "Tell the fighters to fly over the high school from the south, and to have their weapons running hot and ready to go. If you see any metallic robots roaming around down there, tell them to turn them into melted slag."

"Yes sir!", said the pilot, and he relayed the message to the Thunderbolts.

Boomer, Starbuck Helo and Ivanova were in Earthforce uniforms, and they were pressed back against their seats because of the speed of the descent. Starbuck felt up the ring on her thumb as she worried about the fate of Samuel Anders.

Samuel Anders and his ragtag bunch of resistance fighters could see the end was near as they spotted the Centurions coming towards the school. They hid themselves well and began to take out as many of the enemies as they could, when a great conglomeration of noises shook the air up. "What the frak!" Anders said as he looked up from his position on the roof, as he watched the fighters scream past the school and headed down towards the Centurions, who opened up on them with the guns that had morphed from their hands. Their bullets may tear into flesh, but did nothing more than scratch up the paint on the Thunderbolts. The megawatt pulse cannons on the fighters, however, did nice work of turning the Cylons into heaps of melted slag when the bolts of energy found home.

Anders looked around and saw two of the shuttles descending down in an open area around the school, while the others found landing areas nearby. They were clearly not Colonial, and didn't look Cylon either. He didn't know who these people were, but he didn't care as he saw the Centurions go down faster than he could count. None retreated, and none were left when the fighters were through.

One of the overseers, an Aaron Doral model, ran alongside another overseer, one of the Six models. They were deep in the forest and got under cover as quickly as they could as the fighters roared overhead.

"Where did they come from? None of the Colonial ships in the records we've found could do anything like what we've seen from these forces! They slaughtered those Centurions…" Doral said.

Six replied, "We need to get back to Caprica City and inform the others! Whoever these invaders are, they won't stop here!" They made their way through the forest and towards the Cylon heavy raider they had flown in. Simon, one of the dark-skinned human male Cylons, as well as a Leoben Conoy copy, met them at the heavy raider and they got on board the vessel and took off.

However, the heavy raider didn't make it as their engines were shot up and they were captures by one of the fighters. The human Cylons were the only ones on the vessel, and the Sharon copy tried to free them, but a bolt from one of the fighters took out their guns. They had no other weapons on board, so they prepared themselves for capture.

Starbuck and Anders ran towards each other and embraced. "I never thought I'd see you again!" Starbuck said through her tears, and Anders replied, "Neither did I!" through his own. When they ended their embrace, Anders asked her, "So where did you find these people?"

"They're from Earth!"

"Yeah, right! That's a myth! C'mon Kara!"

Hollifield said as he walked up to shake Anders hand, "She's telling the truth. We're from Earth, and we've come to help free your worlds."

Anders warily shook the hand, not fully believing what he was hearing. "So when do we get off of here and out into space?"

Ivanova was the one who answered. "Soon enough. You've been raiding these 'farms' that Starbuck told us about, right?" Anders nodded and Ivanova continued, "Then we're here to help you out. We have some news that you need to know, and we have questions that need answers." She looked up and saw the fighters coming in with the damaged Cylon heavy raider and remarked, "And that will provide us with some of those answers."

Anders looked at Starbuck and smiled, hugging her tightly against him and laughing at the turn of good luck that had suddenly come into his life. Meanwhile, Helo and Boomer looked out at the raider being gently lowered down to the ground by the fighter. Rangers and Earthforce special ops forces took positions around the raider as it opened up.

The humanoids came out with their hands up, dressed in a variety of civilian clothes. There were twelve of them, and as they descended, Starbuck and Helo soon discovered that one of them was someone that they knew all too well.