CHAPTER 8 OF THE PHOENIX AND THE WOLVERINE

XXXIX

Raptor 1; a few minutes earlier...

Sharon watched as the basestar turned to focus on the smaller strange ship.

"Starbuck; what do we do now?" she asked in a tense voice.

"We get down to the surface pronto; for some reason the skinjobs are ignoring us and concentrating on that ship.

Listen up people; we play this fast and hard. Raptor one and 3 core vipers are going to the surface. The 2nd group will be led by Ensign Anders; do not land close to us. The last thing we need is to present one target to these tincans! Move out!"

Starbuck launched her fighter towards the planet's surface as Sharon's raptor and two other vipers followed the fighter pilot towards the planet's surface.

"Lieutenant!"

Sharon turned to face Racetrack; who was acting as her ECO for this journey.

"We've got company ! The cylons are sending ships as well."

The monitor was showing 6 heavy raiders leaving the basestar.

"How long until the eclipse ?"

"24 minutes and 47 seconds," replied Racetrack.

We need to get there first thought Sharon."Everyone; hang on !"

Racetrack swallowed nervously; the raptor shook noticeably as it gathered speed and the surface of the planet got closer.

XL

Cally heard Sharon's warning and felt her insides turn cold; she prayed to the Gods that they were not about to crash. She could see remember the surprise on Galen's face when she hastily informed him she was going on a mission to collect edible algae; she had hugged him so tight as she struggled not to cry.

The specialist looked at the seven marines around her and saw only hard grim expressions.

These soldiers looked ready to die.

She on the other hand was not.

The raptor began to shake violently for what seemed like an eternity ; then she felt her ears begin to pop. They had reached the atmosphere of the planet; but they continued to drop like a free falling stone.

Cally closed her eyes and could just picture the raptor crashing into the ground before it went up in flames killing everyone inside.

Thus she was stunned when they managed to land safely; she had no time to rejoice when she heard Sharon's next words.

"Lieutenant Starbuck has ordered that we move rapidly towards the temple; the eclipse is in exactly 8 minutes and 40 seconds!"

Starbuck was already out of her viper; beside her stood Hotdog and Lieutenant Hamish 'Skulls' McCall.

"Specialist Tyrol, Lieutenants Hotdog, Athena and Racetrack are coming with me; as well as 4 marines."

One of the hard faced soldiers stared at her. "Don't you need us all sir?"

Starbuck was already shaking her head. " The bigger our group; the harder this will be; 3 of you will stay with Skulls; keep your radios on. If I can get a signal through I will send a message; in the meantime maintain radio silence until you hear from me. People; let's move!"

She turned and took off in a run; not looking back as the people she selected tried to keep up with her.

XLI

Kara could hear her heart pound as she ran towards the direction of the temple; she had marked its location when she flew over; she had a feeling they were already too late. She glanced quickly beside her to see Sharon keeping pace.

She did not look behind her; she just hoped she got them all back home safe; especially Cally. Galen would kill her if anything happened to his wife.

After what seemed like an eternity; they reached the outer ring of the ruins; Kara looked at her wristwatch. They had exactly 3 minutes and 50 seconds before the eclipse began. She tried to look everywhere for cylons as the others searched for the opening.

"There!" yelled a marine. Kara turned and saw a single entrance several feet away on her right; the marine who saw it first was much nearer.

The marine began to run towards it; as Kara noticed a glint of yellow metal from the corner of her eyes.

"Wait!" shouted Sharon in alarm; but the marine kept running as a several shots rang out. The first one hit the marine in the lower back; before his head was blown apart.

The surviving members of Kara's team hit the dirt.

Starbuck cursed into the sand as she quickly crawled to safety; she ended up beside Sharon and Cally.

The cylon looked at her with frightened eyes. "They are on the other side of the ruins."

Kara nodded; she stuck her head up slowly and cautiously to look over the crumbling wall and almost got her skull blown off for her curiosity.

"Frak! There's no way we can get close enough!"

"That's not the only problem."

Kara looked at Sharon. " What do you mean?"

"They will try to flank us; using these ruins as cover; if we stay here ...we're dead."

Cally's face went deathly pale.

Kara stared at Sharon. "There has to be another way into the temple; we need to find it soon."

"Sharon Agathon!"

The two viper pilots looked at each other in horror.

"I know that voice...its Cavil."

"Helloooo Sharon! I know you're there! I would recognise your head anywhere. How have you been lately ?" taunted the Number One.

There was silence.

"Well? Aren't you going to answer ?" Cavil sounded angry.

Sharon swallowed nervously. "What do you want ?"

Cavil laughed. " Where do I start ? Anyway your sick little halfbreed Hera is driving me insane ; so I guess my first request is if I get to kill her !"

Kara watched the blood drain from Sharon's face and knew in an instance what the cylon wanted to do.

She lunged for her and held the cylon down. " No ! Don't; he's lying to you. He wants you to lose your temper; stand-up and get shot so that when you download to his ship; he gets to torture you for a long time. That will kill Helo."

Sharon stared at her for a long time; then nodded. Kara waited then let her hold on the cylon relax.

Cally silently watched them both.

XLII

Caprica Six grabbed Cavil's hand and turned him towards her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get your dear sister back into the fold," he pushed her away.

"Try another one retard!" yelled a familiar voice.

Cavil's eyes narrowed. " Is that Lieutenant Crazy aka Starbuck ? Tell me; how's your marriage been since New Caprica. I bet Anders really appreciates the time you spent with Leoben."

On the other side; Kara shook her head in disbelief. Cavil was acting like a child.

Then Kara saw Cally look up at the skies; it was getting dark; the eclipse had started; they had run out of time.

"Wait; no comeback from the fantastic Starbuck? that's unbelief..."

"What do you know about Hera?" interrupted Sharon with a yell.

Cally stared at her. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

Cavil was silent for a while; he looked at D'anna, Boomer and Caprica Six.

"She's alive and with us," he answered calmly.

Kara and Cally watched as rage appeared on Sharon's face. " You're lying!"

The Number One smiled to himself. "You need to ask Roslin what she did with Hera and how come she ended up been adopted by another woman on New Caprica. By the by; she's quite unwell and her screams are really getting on my nerves."

He's lying; he had got to be lying ! Thought Sharon.

Caprica Six watched as Cavil leaned towards Boomer and whispered a few words into her ear. The Eight looked at him then turned towards the wall they were hiding behind.

"Sharon; I know you can hear me. Cavil is telling the truth; Roslin lied to you and everyone; she took Hera from you. We found her as the Colonials escaped from New Caprica; the woman who was taking care of her was already dead. Don't you want to hold your daughter ?"

Kara cursed as Cally watched Sharon's shoulders shake in grief.

Cally thought of her own son Nicholas; he was only 3 months old and she would die before anything happened to him. For one brief moment Cally saw a fellow mother who was still grieving for her dead child.

Damn the cylons to hades; what kind of sick game were they playing ?

"Oh Starbuck; it seems to be getting quite dark," taunted Cavil

Kara was about to answer when Sharon stood up quickly with a roar and started shooting.

" NO!" yelled Cally; she and Kara grabbed Sharon's legs and yanked her down quickly as the centurions returned fire. The three women huddled together as the wall they hid behind was peppered with shots.

The shooting lasted for three more minutes then stopped as abruptly as it started. Kara raised her head cautiously and looked into two other frightened female faces.

"You guys okay?" Cally and Sharon nodded.

Kara focused her gaze on the cylon. " What the frak was that? You almost got yourself and us killed!"

Sharon's face hardened. "It was worth it; I got to shoot the bastard."

It was Kara's turn to be stunned. " You killed Cavil ? "

"Has he said a word since I stood up ?"

XLIII

Aboard the Basestar in orbit...

In one of the resurrection quarters a Number one got up shakily from a vat of fluid. He took several painful breathes as he mentally cursed a certain Number Eight to the deepest regions of Hades.

XLIV

Boomer looked at the half blown off head of Cavil beside her; the arrogant fool had decided to stand up ; confident that the Colonials would not dare raise their heads above the old walls they used as shelter.

"Congratulations Sharon; you killed Cavil; but this changes nothing."

Sharon cursed. " Damn ! I thought I got her as well."

Kara grinned at her while Cally had a small smile on her face.

"However; his death changes nothing," continued Boomer "Hera your daughter is still with us; it's high time you realized that. Also you know by now that the centurions are almost upon you.

Surrender and you will get to meet your daughter."

Sharon looked at Kara and Cally. " We have got to leave this place."

Then the ground began to shake.

XLIV

Delta Flyer Alpha.

The ride down to the planet surface was fast but not without questions.

"Q ;give me a summary of what we're about to face " ordered Laura.

He looked at her; she looked ticked off.

"The cylons were the mechanical servants or slaves of the citizens of the 12 colonies of Kobol they were robots. 54 years ago; there was the 1st Cylon war; it lasted 12 years and cost both sides heavily; then there was a truce. "

" The 2nd Cylon war started 2 years ago when the cylons nuked the colonies; 20 billion lives were lost; all that remains of the colonies is less than 50,000 humans."

He paused. " Those survivors are searching for Earth and so are their enemies; the Cylons," he looked at her " by the by; the cylons are the ones who just tried to hack our ship's computers."

Laura looked at him and for a brief moment he could see hurt in her eyes; quickly replaced by a cold look.

"Laura; I was planning to tell..."

"What do the cylons look like ?" She cut him off not wanting to hear his excuses.

Q Junior wisely complied and pressed a few screen symbols and a one foot hologram of a human form cylon and a centurion appeared.

"They have human forms and the huge mechanoid forms are 7 feet tall and called centurions. The bigger ones are faster and deadly. Their mothership; is a basestar and is packed with tens of thousands of the centurions and hundreds of the cylon models."

Laura looked at the holographic projections for several moments.

" What weapons are effective on them?"

Q Junior looked at her and could tell she was not going to take no for an answer. "Plasma phasers and blasters would do enough damage."

"What of my claws ?"

"They would be sufficient but these centurions are very fast and dangerous..."

"We need to hurry; the eclipse has already begun," interrupted Laura as she looked at her sensors.

Q Junior wisely kept silent and hoped Laura would not let her anger cloud her judgement.

XLV

On the surface of the planet...

Anders cursed as he tried to flatten himself on the ground behind a low rock.

He had done as Kara ordered and landed his group of vipers and 2 raptors 10 klicks away; with his high range military binoculars he could see Sharon's raptor. However once they disembarked they had been shot at by centurions.

He had 5 men dead and 4 injured and at the moment he was cut off from the rest of the team.

It was turning into a cluster-frak of a mission. He just prayed Kara was having better luck then he did.

Then when he thought it couldn't get any worse; the eclipse began.

"We are so dead," said Anders to himself as several shots went off too close to his position.

Then the ground began to shake

XLVI

Hera's temple.

Logan and Jean ran out of the room as the ground began to buck and heave violently. Dust fell from the roof as the foundation shook.

Jean fell against the edge of the doorway and looked up to see large cracks on the ceiling appearing rapidly at an alarming rate. It was going to fall in and bury them alive.

Not on my watch, said the Phoenix.

"Jean ! We have to move !" yelled Logan as he grabbed her hand and helped her up; unaware of the darkening of the telepath's eyes. However she allowed him to help her up and the two tried to run down the rapidly shaking corridor.

Logan glanced back briefly and saw the roof was slowing falling in.

"Captain," he looked at Jean and saw the Phoenix "you have to carry me...Mother nature is determined to destroy this place."

Wolverine didn't hesitate; he lifted her in his arms and made a beeline for the exit which seemed too far away.

Jean leaned into him as she concentrated intensely on keeping the roof and floor beneath them intact; however for each step they made towards the exit and safety; the way behind them was been steadily destroyed.

The room where they had watched the holograms was the first to collapse as huge fissures opened up beneath the podium.

Outside the temple; Cally, Kara and Sharon stared at the ground in horror as it began to shake; then fissures began to form beneath their feet.

"Run !" yelled Kara over the horrendous groaning noise from beneath them; she and the two women got up with help from Hotdog and another male marine.

The viper pilot felt exposed as she tried to run; but fortunately the cylons were more concerned about not falling into the fissures that were opening beneath their feet.

Kara, and the people with her tried to move closer to Racetrack and the two marines that were with her.

Then the ground shook even more violently ; even in the darkness Kara could see the sudden wide fissure that appeared between her group and Racetrack's smaller group.

"Stop!" she yelled as she almost slid into the gaping hole; she felt someone grab her flight jacket and yank her backwards. She looked briefly to thank Sharon for her prompt action.

Then shots rang out over her head.

Kara cursed; it was the cylons. " Take cover!"

She crouched down low and turned to look at a frightened Racetrack and the remaining two marines on the other side.

"Get to the Raptor and come back for an evac if you can !" yelled Kara.

The ECO looked at her then nodded; she and the two marines took off at a run for the Raptor as the ground continued to tremble beneath them.

"Starbuck, let's go," shouted Hotdog " we may be able to get to the temple!"

Kara followed him and the others as they ran among the falling ruins and over the shaking ground.

A gold centurion who had fired the earlier shots saw what direction they were moving and raised it's firearm.

"No," commanded Caprica Six " the temple is our priority...not their deaths."

The centurion looked at her. The number One was the ultimate leader; but with his absence it had to obey the others.

"Understood."

He and the other 20 centurions began to move towards the temple entrance; with Boomer, Caprica Six and D'anna not far behind.

Kara suddenly noticed the darkness was lifting; a swift glance up revealed that the eclipse was ending. She bit her lower lip and she tried to run faster towards the entrance.

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see glints of yellow and grey metal. The cylons and their guard dogs seemed to have the same destination. She gripped her firearm tighter as she readied herself to fire.

Then the earth moved violently beneath her and threw her sideways. Darkness threatened to overwhelm, her as she dimly heard someone yell her name and felt strong arms lift her up.

"Kara! Keep moving !"

Sharon and Cally were on either side supporting her.

The viper pilot shook her heard in order to clear her sudden blurred vision; she looked up to see Hotdog and the other marine had run back to them.

She opened her mouth to order them back to the temple; when a man carrying a woman emerged from the entrance.

The cylons arrived just in time to see the new arrivals as the entrance to the temple was destroyed .

Then as abruptly as the earthquake had started; it ended.

XLVII

Jean felt Logan's arms tighten around her as they both realized they were no longer alone.

Where the hell did they spring from ? asked the Phoenix in an amused voice.

Oh! And by the by it looks like we missed the eclipse.

Jean did not answer; something told her; missing the eclipse was the least of their worries.

"Logan; put me down; you're going to need your hands very soon," whispered the telepath.

Wolverine nodded minutely and slowly let her down as he took in their immediate surroundings. Jean turned as well until she was back to back to Logan.

On his right stood 3 humans; well dressed young women; one looked asian maybe Japanese; the other two were Caucasians. They also had more than 10 mechanoid looking tall robots who looked like they would fit in a 'Terminator'movie.

While on Jean's left stood 5 humans; 2 men and 3 women; the two men were Mediterranean looking while two of the women were Caucasians and the third one looked japanese. They looked tired and shabbily dressed in comparism to the other group.

He noticed instantly that the Asian woman with the 'robots' was an exact twin of a female of the second group.

However; Logan had an odd feeling that these two groups were not working together.

Maybe it had to do with the way their guns were pointed towards each other; but there was one additional problem.

He and Jean were smack down in the middle of what appeared to be a standoff.

Logan raised his hands slowly as he racked his brains for words to defuse the situation. "Eh...we come in peace...we were just passing through."

Jean gave him an odd look.

"Who the frak are you ?" asked the dirty blonde with the huge rifle that swung to cover him.

"You're the Thirteenth Tribe ?" asked the Asian woman with the robots at the same time.

Logan and Jean shared a brief look; unsure who to answer first.

"Excuse me ?" asked Logan; somehow he knew this question was very important.

"Are you from Earth ?" asked the blonde beside the Asian woman impatiently.

Logan stared at her while Jean answered.

"Yes; we are. You know of Earth ?"

Wolverine noticed several things at once; the way the dirty blonde's hands tightened around her weapon; the looks of fear and hope on the faces of her group and the looks of joy and fierce determination on the faces of the three women with the robots.

He had no idea which to fear more.

"Ladies and gentlemen; maybe we can discuss this rationally..." started Logan.

"You're coming with us," demanded the Asian lady with Terminators.

"No!" shouted her twin " if you go with them; you will die; you cannot lead them to Earth!"

The auburn haired woman with the robots looked at her. "Sharon; you're not in the position to negotiate; at the moment you are surrounded."

Logan heard clanking noise and saw more robots appear behind the group of five humans. He saw the sharp curved claws of the robots and how obviously terrified the five humans were.

They knew they were as good as dead.

He looked at the apparent leader of these 'terminators.'

"What happens to them if we go with you ?"

She stared at him. "It is no concern of yours; the Colonials are our enemies; whatever befalls them is justly deserved."

'In summary; they get to die.' Logan glanced at Jean.

'Not on our watch,' thought Jean.

'This is going to be fun,' whispered the Phoenix.

XLVIII

Q Junior ran to catch up with Laura; they had landed the shielded Delta Flyer Alpha a few minutes ago close to where the 2nd group of colonials had landed.

Due to the combined interference from the EMF waves from the sun and the Cylons' jamming frequencies. There was no way of communicating with Logan and Jean.

Laura had demanded they land close to the 2nd group of colonials when they got close enough to see a fire-fight breaking out. Her argument had been that any battle taking place on the surface would be where Logan and Jean would most likely be.

Q on the other hand; had wanted to do a quick fly by to assess the situation before landing and hoping to catch a glimpse of the other Delta Flyer and the origin of the radio signal which was no longer transmitting.

His own argument had been that Logan and Jean would not be far from either the flyer or the ruins.

However his advice fell on deaf ears when Laura threatened to fight him in order to take control of the spacecraft.

Q gripped his phase pistol tighter as he caught up with her.

"Laura! Wait!"

She ignored him and kept running.

"Are you still mad at me?"

She gave him a scathing look and tried to outdistance him as they got closer to the ground battle taking place in-front of them.

Q Junior sighed and kept running as he tried to assess the present situation.

There were two raptors and 3 vipers which had landed but the crew were pinned down behind the ships and rocks as grey centurions fired at them. From this distance he could see that there had been casualties already.

He had also noticed the eclipse had begun; somehow he felt that was going to make the situation more complicated.

In front of Laura; 5 robots were slowly advancing and shooting at a rock and whoever was hiding behind it.

They had not noticed the two figures racing towards them.

She didn't bother to give a warning.

Snikt!

Two centurions found themselves literally cut off from the knees as she dived low and slashed through the back of their legs. She rolled and extended the feet adamantium blades ; then stood quickly and used a roundhouse kick to simultaneously decapitate both robots.

She turned to face the other three robots; only to see large smoking holes in their chests as they fell to the ground. Q was standing over them.

It looked like the hologram had been busy.

For some reason; despite how he had lied to her and the others; some part of her was pleased that he knew how to defend himself.

Before she could pounder on the thought; the ground began to shake.

Anders had noticed the shots had stopped just before the earth began to move; he risked a quick look to see two teenagers standing over what appeared to be the remains of centurions.

"What the f...?" his question was interrupted when more shots flew over his head. More centurions had arrived and were bearing down on his position.

He crouched and tried to aim. " You two! Take cover !"

The two teenagers ran towards his position and Anders felt his jaw drop when the girl vaulted over the large rock to land beside him; the boy just ran around and plopped down on the other side of him.

"Hi," said the male teenager.

Anders stared at him. "Who are you ?"

The girl ignored him and risked a quick look over the rock; 15 centurions were rapidly approaching their position. At that moment; the earth moved violently and she saw fissures appear in the earth which seemed to swallow 4 of the centurions.

"We're got 4 terminated and 11 still approaching."

Anders turned to stare at her.

"Hi; I'm Q Junior and that's Laura with the claws," said the boy quickly.

That was when the Colonial pilot noticed the gleaming claws protruding from the back of her hands.

"Oh my Gods! What the frak are you !" asked Anders in disbelief.

Laura looked at him with a hard glint in her eyes. "Right now; we're not your enemy; we're just looking for our two crew members. A man with claws like these and a woman. Have you seen them ?"

Anders was unable to answer; his mind was screaming at him that these two were cylons when Q shouted beside him.

"Incoming!" the boy pulled out what looked like a toy gun and aimed at a rapidly approaching centurion. An energy bolt emerged from the small weapon and blew the huge cylon's head apart.

Anders tried to keep his wits about him as the boy shot down several more centurions despite the ground shaking violently; apparently that did not affect his aim.

"So, have you seen them or not ?" asked the girl calmly.

The colonial pilot risked a quick look at her claws. "No...I haven't...where in Hades are you from ?"

She looked at him for what seemed like an eternity.

"We're from Earth."

XLIX

Kara saw the two members of the thirteenth tribe exchange a glance when Boomer practically condemned the Colonials to their deaths.

The Number Eight moved to grab the man's right forearm.

"You will come with us..."

Kara was about to shoot her when the woman beside the man moved her right hand towards Boomer.

The female cylon went flying backwards along with the other two humanoid cylons and their centurion guards.

Before Kara's mind could process what was going on; the strange woman turned towards her and made the same the motion. Kara heard Cally yell in pain as shots went off.

The viper pilot turned to see the centurions who had surrounded them had also been flung backwards. Sharon was trying to stop the bleeding around Cally's right thigh.

"Damn! One of them shot before I could stop it," shouted the strange woman as she moved to help the cylon.

Kara swung her weapon to try and cover the woman ; then noticed she could not move.

"Do you want to live or die ?" asked the man quickly before she could demand what was going on. Kara looked and could see the others apart from Sharon and Cally were frozen as well.

Something told her she had to answer quickly.

"Live."

"Great; then get your people to come with us while those terminators are down. Jean; we're moving out."

The woman nodded after helping Sharon tie a makeshift tourniquet around the specialist's right calf.

Kara suddenly realized she could move. She glanced around quickly and could see the cylons were barely conscious and the centurions were slowly trying to get back up.

"Come on people!"

The other s silently followed her and the two members of the thirteenth tribe.

Kara did not know what weapon they had used but she certainly wanted it.

XLX

D'Anna watched groggily as the colonials left the area quickly with the two members of the thirteenth tribe. She did not know what had been used on them; but Cavil had to be informed on what was going on.

As if the Number One could read her thoughts; her communicator went on.

"D'anna; what is your progress ?"

She struggled to organise her thoughts as she tried to give a coherent answer. "We've...made contact...with the thirteenth tribe...they...left with...the colonials."

Aboard the basestar; Cavil's face turned to stone; he had turned off the jamming frequencies in order to find out what had occurred since his termination.

This was not the news he wanted to hear; to make matters more infuriating; the raiders had still not caught up with the Xavier. He had a funny feeling that the ship belonged to the Thirteenth Tribe.

Cavil was running out of patience.

"Cavil...we need help...we..."

"D'anna my dear," cut in Number One " you need to evacuate the planet now because I will be initiating orbital bombardment in 4 minutes."

She looked at the Number Eight and Six in horror.

Fear gave them new found strength as they struggled to stand up and head for their ship.

XLXI

Jean and one of the women called Sharon supported the wounded woman called Cally. They all ran as quick as they could because Sharon had warned them that the centurions were on the move.

The telepath had hastily introduced herself and the captain as they ran towards the hidden Delta Flyer Beta.

Meanwhile the leader Kara was asking Logan a lot of questions.

"You're really the Thirteenth Tribe? You're from Earth ?"

Logan glanced at her briefly; thanks to Jean he had not needed to show his claws but the suspicious glint in Kara's eyes was getting on his nerves.

"Lady; I have no idea what tribe you're talking about; but Earth is our home and we were just trying to get back there when we decided to land on this Godforsaken planet."

He did not notice how Kara looked sharply at him when he said 'God'.

She stopped running. "What do you believe in? What do you mean by God ?"

Logan turned and stared at her in disbelief. "This is no time for a theological discussion; because in case you have forgotten; we have killer bots on our tails so you either move or die soldier!"

Something in his eyes almost had her snapping to attention; this man had seen combat and lots of it. She was about to ask one more question when the woman called Sharon shouted.

"Kara; we're got to move quickly! The centurions have stopped chasing us; in fact they are running away."

Logan saw the colonial go pale.

"What is it?"

She looked at him. " We better find your ship fast and lift off!"

"Why ?" asked Logan suspiciously.

"Orbital bombarbment with nuclear weapons."

He looked at Jean who was staring at Kara in barely concealed horror.

"Oh my God; she's telling the truth."

"Let's move people," yelled Logan as they broke into a run.

He reached the concealed untouched ship before them and started pressing in the code to get it open. He ignored the stunned looks on their faces as Jean guided them in and had the colonials strap in securely.

Kara touched her communicator; praying and hoping she got through to anyone out there who may be listening.

"Racetrack; Skulls; Longshot; anyone; this is Starbuck; I have the members of the Thirteen Tribe. We are evacuating in their ship. I repeat; evacuate everyone. The cylons are initiating orbital bombarbment soon."

Logan closed the door and sat down in the captain's chair; Jean took the co-pilot chair as he powered up the engines; the shield generator and began to initiate lift off.

Kara gripped her seat firmly as the strange craft began to move; she was praying her message got out.

XLXII

Racetrack heard the radio come on as she flew the raptor closer to where she had left Kara and the others.

"...this is Starbuck; I have the members of the Thirteen Tribe...we are evacuat...in...ship. I repeat evacuate...cylons...initiating orbital bombarbment soon..."

Skulls saw her go deathly pale.

"We have to leave!"

"What of the others?"

She looked at him; anxiety and fear written on her face. " Starbuck just ordered us to evac; she also said something about a ship...maybe they are on it."

Skulls stared at her. " She mentioned the thirteenth tribe ! Something is going on down there..."

"And we won't be able to report it if we're all dead !" yelled Racetrack " we need to..." her voice trailed off when she noticed 3 raiders were heading towards her at deadly speed.

"Frak! We're out of time!" she tried to turn the ship as the raiders flew closer and closer; then as they passed; several shots were fired.

What Skulls and Racetrack noticed was that they did not explode; what they failed to realized was that 4 mini-tracking devices had been imbedded in the hull of their raptor.

As the two colonials pilots and their passengers thanked the Gods of Kobol for been so merciful; the specially adapted raiders relayed a message to their commander; a certain Number one.

"Phase one completed; on route to the remaining targets."

Cavil nodded and looked at the hybrid. " Initiate bombarbment."

XLXIII

Anders and the two teenagers suddenly saw the centurions turn round and run away quickly. The three stood up slowly. Fortunately the earthquake had stopped a few minutes ago.

"That is odd," said the Colonial pilot; then he turned to the two strangers.

For several moments he was unsure how to address two members of the fabled thirteenth tribe that their fleet had been searching for.

"I...I'm Ensign Samuel T Anders, callsign Longshot; thanks for your help..."

"We'll be leaving you now," said Laura as she sheathed her claws; she turned to go when the colonial's radio went on.

"...this is Starbuck; I have the members of the Thirteen Tribe...we are evacuat...in...ship. I repeat evacuate...cylons...initiating orbital bombarbment soon..."

Laura and Q Junior saw him go as white as a sheet; then he looked up quickly and from a distance he could see a raptor in the sky.

"What does that mean ?"

He turned to see Laura looking at him.

"Kid; we need to get off this planet; because nuclear weapons are about to rain down on it from the basestar in orbit!"

The two teenagers shared a worried look.

"You're worried about your crew ? From what I heard; Starbuck; one of our pilots has already found them and they are probably on that raptor in the sky."

Q shielded his eyes and used his extremely good eyesight to look further . " You mean the raptor currently been chased by 3 ships ?"

Longshot stared at him before hastily using his binoculars and seeing the raiders chasing a raptor; then after several missed shots the raiders turned.

"Oh shit! You need to come with me now !"

"Why ?" demanded Laura.

"Because those ships are not friendly and they are headed in our direction as we speak!"

The two teens looked up and at this distance could see the raiders getting larger as they got closer.

"Laura; we need to head back to our flyer and..."

Q Junior soon realized that she was no longer with him and was running after Anders.

The Q cursed and ran after her.

Fortunately; there were 2 raptors a short distance away and the personnel were hastily loading the wounded and dead aboard. Weapons came up when Anders appeared with the two teenagers.

"Hold your fire; they are friends! People load up and get the frak out of here; we've got raiders inbound!"

Anders quickly showed the two teens how to strap in and was initiating lift off when the raiders reached them; however the raptors and vipers were able to get off the ground as the enemy fired at them repeatedly.

Many of the shots went wide but a good number hit the raptors and small tracking devices embedded themselves into the hulls of both ships before the raiders flew away.

Anders did not have time to pounder on the 'poor aim' of the raiders; because at that moment; the nuclear bombarbment started.

Hi everyone; hope you like this part; it took me forever as I was trying to combine what was happening in 4 or 5 places at the same time!

Here's hoping the other chapters will be easier to write. Please read and review!

Have a great week people.