Thirteen

Chapter Fifty-One

Here Comes The Cavalry

Things were beginning to look bleak around Babylon 5. The Cylon basestars were taking a pounding, but were so large and so plentiful that it took a lot of effort to destroy them. Meanwhile, the Drakh ships were making their way towards the station, and the Drakh fighters were making strafing runs on the station's hull.

Starbuck's Whitestar had taken a pounding, but managed to stay in the fight, despite the bridge being hit twice, the second strike having thrown her out of her command chair and caused her to land hard on her left shoulder. She managed to get up and shake off the pain of what she believed was a separation of her shoulder, getting back into her seat and asking for the ship's status.

Helo, who had also been knocked from his feet and was holding his left wrist, quickly scanned the display and said, "Port side nacelle had been hit. Weapons are down to thirty percent effectiveness. Hull is still intact. Orders?"

"Find us a target to shoot at, Helo, and shoot it!" Starbuck said. Helo nodded and looked for one, then, upon finding one, he set course to make a run at one of the Drakh carriers.

Captain Artemis Kelly was just about to say something when the whole world exploded around him. "We've been hit!" someone yelled, and it made Kelly think that there was a Captain Obvious on board. He managed to make it to his feet, only to see that Commander Saul Tigh had taken the energy surge from a nearby console right in the back. "Get Cottle up here! Tigh's been hurt!" he yelled, and the crewmembers scrambled to bring him up to CIC. Matheson looked over Tigh, felt for a pulse, and said, "He's got one, but not much of one. Better get the doctor up here soon!"

"Make way! Get the hell out of my way!" Dr. Cottle yelled as he made his way into CIC. He looked at Tigh and said, "Holy frak! Is he still alive?"

"Yes, but barely, Doctor! What shall we do?"

Cottle looked him over and quickly surmised what needed to be done. "Get him to the medical bay! I'll need to operate on him ASAP!" He turned to Kelly and Matheson and said, "Congratulations! You're both in command of this rust bucket!" Cottle made his way back to the medical bay behind the medics who were transporting Tigh to the operating room.

Apollo had managed to bring in the fighters from the fallen Pegasus and get them back into the fight. The destroyed ship's CAG, Cole "Stinger" Taylor, had been lost in the fight. His Viper had been sandwiched by two Drakh fighters before any Starfuries could get to him in time. Leading them now was Lieutenant Shawn "Whiplash" Hart, who Apollo knew as a cocky pilot who liked to show off his "scorecard", which were markings on his old Mark VII Viper of all the Cylon raiders he had downed.

Whiplash wasn't being cocky now, as he handed the reins of command over to Apollo willingly. The Cylon raiders were becoming fewer and fewer, being replaced by the much harder Drakh fighters that were more agile and faster than the raiders had been. Had they been in the old Vipers, even the Mark VII version, they would have been in trouble, but the Mark IX Vipers were much faster and much more agile than their predecessors, and they were a match for the Drakh fighters.

Whiplash called out over the wireless, "Dammit, we lost Thumper! We need some help out here, Apollo! We're getting our ass kicked out here!" Then his fighter blew up as a Drakh fighter, which had snuck up from behind him, attacked him.

Apollo gripped his controls tighter, then willed himself to relax a bit and acquired a new target: a Cylon heavy raider that was trying to make a run on the Galactica. He dove down steeply onto it and fired his weapons with maximum effect. Then he saw a Drakh fighter coming at him from behind, readying to fire. He waited until the last second, then swerved away, letting the enemy fighter's beams finish the job of destroying the enemy raider.

"Sir! They're sending heavy raiders towards Galactica! I think they're doing their damnedest to board her! Moving to…" called out Lt. Joe "Hammerhead" Palladino, who had been in the brig for attempting to shoot Tigh, but was sprung by the commander of the Galactica when it was apparent that they'd need every hand they have to fight the enemy. His message was cut off when his ship was destroyed by enemy fire.

Apollo knew they were running out of time, and out of pilots and Vipers. He managed to shoot one Drakh fighter, and blow it up in a way that sprayed the one behind it with enough shrapnel to destroy it. As he did his best to take out as many fighters as he could, he began to wonder if his own clock was running out of time.

Rissen watched as another Omega-class destroyer, the Valkyrie, was destroyed by the Drakh. All the Warlock-class destroyers as well as the Victory-class destroyers were intact, but taking a beating. Even the Minbari ships were taking a beating, and one of the Narn destroyers, the Vak'Shal, had been wiped out. The Cylons had brought in a dozen basestars, but only three were left operational as the other nine were either destroyed or disabled. The Drakh ships, however, were taking a huge toll on the Alliance ships, as they had come to the battle loaded for bear and ready to fight.

"Any idea if our message has gotten through?" Rissen asked Valerii, whose head was bandaged after her own console had blown out from a near hit after a Drakh fighter collided with the station just under the Dome. She stubbornly stayed on duty, and informed the admiral that they had not heard anything yet from the Centauri.

"It'd be our luck that the Drakh had sent out an attack on their homeworld to distract them. They'd sacrifice those ships to make sure they won here."

Adama nodded his head and asked, "What about the government? Should we get them to the life pods?"

"Negative. All your people are here, so what's the use? Besides, with what's going on out there, they'd be shot out of space before they barely got out of the bay. Besides, they're still trying to send boarding parties, so maybe we can use that tactic against them." Rissen knew he was pulling that out of his ass, but he was running out of options.

Alpha and Delta squadrons were down to only three fighters apiece, and Zeta squadron was hardly any better, with only four fighters remaining. Rissen wished that he could go out there and fight in one, but he knew he was needed here in command and control.

"We've got inbound breaching pods coming our way!" called out one of the techs.

"Target them with the defense grid and destroy them!" Valerii commanded. The pulse cannons opened up on the pods and managed to take all of them out, but the last one got so close that it managed to crash into the station.

"Crap! Where'd it hit?" Rissen asked.

Valerii scanned her console. "Brown 23. We have a security team down there. Looks like the hull wasn't breached. Dropping pressure doors, just to be safe."

Rissen breathed a sigh of relief, but wondered how many more breaching pods and heavy raiders they could hold off before one managed to breach the hull and board the station.

Galen Tyrol and his girlfriend, Fabby Cortez, were huddled in a shelter in Blue sector, hoping that they would somehow survive the battle. Things weren't going well, that they knew. Rumors flew through the maintenance crew like swarms of bees, but hardly any of it seemed to be true.

In charge of this facility was Zack Allen, who had been pressed to reassume his duties as a security officer here at the behest of Michael Garibaldi, as they had worried that the debates might get out of hand. The shelter was crowded, not only with station staff, but with many civilians spilling over from the other shelters.

In her hands, Fabby her rosary beads, silently praying in her religion in her native Spanish, and Galen had no idea what she was saying. She had told him some things about her Catholic faith, but he hadn't quite fully grasped the religion. He thought of his own religious upbringing, with his priest father, Doran, and his oracle mother, Helen. He had been raised on Gemenon, where literal interpretation of the Sacred Scrolls was popular among religious scholars like his father.

They were dead now, perishing in the holocaust, along with his three brothers and two sisters. He was now alone, all by himself.

Then he looked over at Fabby, and realized that he wasn't alone. Assuming that they survived the battle, they could get married and perhaps move back to Earth. He figured he could pick up some Spanish along the way to make his prospective in-laws happy, as well as adapting to Earth culture.

But that would mean leaving behind the culture in which he had grown up in, and the thought of that wrestled with him as well. It was kind of odd, because they were in danger, and could possibly die if things went wrong.

He was just about to nod off on Fabby's shoulder when one of the security officers ran into the shelter. The female seemed to be out of breath, but she managed to say, "Zack! They're here!"

"Who's here?" Zack asked.

"The Centauri! They've arrived!" The female security officer announced. The crowd in the shelter buzzed, and one of them, a husky male with skin the color of chocolate named Bubba Harris leapt up to his feet with surprising agility and raced over to a monitor. He turned it on and clicked on one of the views outside the station. "Hot damn! It's those high haired bastards all right! The cavalry's here, baby!" More of the people in the shelter got up to see, and they whooped with glee as they saw the Centauri battleships join the Alliance ships in turning the tide of battle.

General Rhys wished the emperor had stayed behind, but Vir Cotto was not a man to be deterred. He may have been meek and mild in days of yore, but he wasn't like that these days. When pressed now, he was as solid as iron, and looked on his ship's attack on the Drakh and Cylons with a determined glare.

One of the officers, Colonel Panali, came up to them and said, "Scanners report that the Drakh are jumping and the remaining Cylon forces are in full retreat, jumping out as well. Orders?"

"Send ships to track them. I don't want them to get away." Vir said. Panali bowed and left to carry out the orders.

"How bad is it out there, General Rhys?" the emperor asked.

Rhys looked grim as he reported, "It's a good thing we made it when we did. The Colonials lost one of their major ships, and the Earthers suffered quite a few losses. The station is lightly damaged, but, thank the Great Maker, wasn't breached."

"When you feel it is safe, prepare a shuttle. I want to go over and check thing out for myself." Vir said. Rhys got up, bowed before his emperor, and left. "Maybe one of these days, Great Maker, I'll get used to people bowing to me!" he said, looking up as if he were looking at the Great Maker himself.

The government shelter was ecstatic that they had survived, and Laura Roslin was happy, relieved, and thrilled as well. She even deigned to kiss Tom Zarek on the cheek, getting a very cold stare from his mistress, Ellen Tigh. Laura smiled sweetly at her, then turned to head out of the shelter, arm in arm with John Sheridan. "Thanks to your people, we're still safe."

"Yes, but we both have suffered greatly. However, we stood our ground and ran them off. They took as much of a pounding as we did." Sheridan said, happy that he survived but uneasy that the battle hadn't gone any better than it had.

Hours later, Admiral Adama stood beside his president aboard the Galactica, at the bedside of Saul Tigh, looking down at his mortally wounded friend and former executive officer. Ellen Tigh hadn't made the trip over, which didn't exactly shock him. He looked down at his friend and could barely hold back his sorrow.

Dr. Cottle felt for a pulse one last time, then shook his head and covered up Tigh. "He's gone. I did the best I could, but the wounds were just too much." Cottle said in a very subdued manner. He left the room, and Adama figured the doctor would be going out for a smoke.

Lee "Apollo" Adama looked down at the deceased commander of Galactica, saying, "We managed to make some peace before he died. Damned thing that I found out too late that, underneath his crusty exterior, he was a pretty good guy after all."

Admiral Adama couldn't hold it in any longer, and the tears flowed from his eyes. Laura Roslin held him, and Lee came over to take the other side. "Dammit!" the elder Adama cried out, "I'm sorry Saul!" His legs gave way, and Lee helped support his father. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who had come aboard to meet with the crew, came into the bay with Karl "Helo" Agathon, and Helo hurried up and took the side that Roslin was supporting. Together, Apollo and Helo helped Adama into a chair.

Starbuck looked down at the body of the man she had quarreled with for so long. She placed her hand on his and said, "May the Gods bless you and take you into their loving arms." She closed her eyes and said another silent prayer, then opened her eyes and turned them back to her former commanding officer.

Adama got up and hugged her. "It's good to see you again, Kara!" he said, embracing her like a long-lost daughter. Starbuck's eyes watered as she hugged him as well, having missed his presence in her life. "Good to see you too, sir!" Together, they walked out of the room and headed back to CIC.

Tom Zarek stood in the Sanctuary with John Sheridan and Michael Garibaldi, having just stood in as Colonial representative to the memorial service for those who fell during the battle. They regarded each other warily, but they kept the cordial environment intact.

"Thank you for all you've done for us!" Zarek spoke up, breaking the silence.

Sheridan nodded along with Garibaldi, but said nothing for a while. Then, he mused, "It's sucks when so many young people have to die to save your ass."

Zarek pondered that for a moment, then nodded and added, "I just hope that they weren't lost in vain."

Sheridan extended his hand and said, "I know that we may not see eye to eye, but at least we can try and start out on the right foot."

Zarek took it, not noticing the look Garibaldi gave him. "Well, I'm willing to try. I do have to give you credit for not publicly taking sides during the election, even thought I know you didn't want me to win."

Sheridan nodded and said, "Hopefully, for all our sakes, they're wrong about you!"

"They are, but I'll have to prove it to them. They'll never fully trust me, but I can't do much about that. All I want is a better, more secure future for my people." Zarek said.

"Well, we'll do our best to help." Sheridan said, and he motioned for them to head out as officers came in to take out the furnishings used for the service. They had survived this day, and they celebrated the fact long into the night.

Back on Earth, Cain looked out of her apartment out onto Lake Geneva. She was sitting on her balcony, taking advantage of the unusually warm weather that had come over Geneva. She sipped some of the red wine that Ivanova had brought with her. The chair of the Earthforce Joint Chiefs of Staff sat in another chair, both of them in silence for a long time.

"Is it always like this?" Cain asked Ivanova. "Is it always so hard, knowing so many died just to ensure your survival?"

Ivanova sighed, "It is. I've never been able to forgive myself for sending people out to die in battle, no matter how justified it might be." She refilled her glass with wine, lifting the bottle towards Cain, offering a refill to her. Cain nodded and brought over her glass, which Ivanova filled. "You going to be okay?"

Cain looked out onto the lake some more, taking a moment to reflect. "Yeah. It'll take some time, but…yeah, I think I'll be okay!" She sat back down and they watched the sun begin to set in the west.