President Milo Vents had had a long day. After a meeting with the Quorum had gone on for nearly three hours, he had a meeting with the woman who would be his new Vice President by the end of the week. Natasha Cobb had been involved with organizing the elections and the running of the fleet before he had been elected. When she had been suggested as becoming the Vice President he had no doubts in his mind she would be the perfect choice. After the monthly meeting with the fleet's Captains, he had finally managed to get home to his quarters on the Caprican Sunrise. As he sat down and took a sip out of his whiskey there was a knock at the door. He sighed to himself, all he wanted to do was relax for the evening. As he opened the door he was relieved to see his son Jasper Vents standing there.
"Hey son, come in." Milo said, "Can I get you a drink?"
"Yeah please." Jasper replied sitting down.
"How have you been?" Milo asked.
"Good thanks. I've been thinking about my future in the fleet and where my place could be." He replied.
"I've told you that there is always a job for you with me." Milo replied handing his son a glass of ambrosia.
"I know and I've seriously considered it. This whole thing, the Cylons destroying our homes and our race, my life before hand. My gods the only thing that I will be remembered for if I died today is being your son. I partied to hard, slept with women I didn't know, I did frak all. I realised that everyone has to make a difference and do their part, if we're going to survive," he nervously took a sip from his drink and took a deep breath, "I joined up for pilot training onboard the Orion."
Milo choked on his mouthful of ambrosia, he quickly wiped his mouth, "You did what?" Milo replied.
"Dad this is something that I want to do, my way of helping." Jasper said.
"Son I really don't think you've thought this through at all." Milo replied.
"I have, it's all I've been thinking about for weeks. You fought in the first war, both my grandfathers were in the military, this is what I'm supposed to do." Jasper said proudly.
This surprised Milo. Before the attack all he had wanted was for his son to do something with his life, he just never expected it would be this.
"Dad , please say something." Jasper said.
"Okay, if that's what you want then I'll support you. Just remember that when you start this you have to follow it through." Milo answered.
"I know, I can do this." Jasper said.
Archangel sat looking at the list of paper in his hand, he'd had to read it twice and was trying to register what it said, "Is this for real?" he asked looking at the list of new recruits.
"Apparently so." Bojay replied.
"I thought Jasper Vents was a party boy and took nothing seriously? I have a lot of respect for his old man, but he's a punk." Archangel said.
"We can turn him down." Bojay said.
"No you can't." Commander Garrett said.
"And why not?" Archangel replied.
"Come on guys think, if we turn down the President's son, then the media will take hold of it and blow it out of all proportions." Garrett replied.
"Who gives a frak about the media?!" Bojay said.
"The people of this fleet. Look between the NCO, the Cylons and the fact that the Pegasus story just won't seem to go away the last thing we or the government need is another scandal." Vanessa replied.
"I understand that but it's hardly a scandal." Archangel replied.
"Before the attack no it wouldn't be, but now the slightest thing is a fraking scandal. The fact they haven't found out we are keeping a Cylon on Orion and that we're using her for intel against her own people is somewhat of a miracle." Garrett said.
Archangel grumbled before he spoke "Okay." he said, "But he gets no special treatment just because his old man is the President."
"That's fine." Garrett replied with a smile.
"On that note I have to be on my way, I have a scouting mission that I should have started half an hour ago." Bojay said excusing himself.
Once he had left the pilots briefing room Archangel turned to Garrett, "How have you been?"
"Good thank you. You?" she replied.
"Yeah I'm good. We never really talk any more," Archangel said, "I miss talking to you."
"Yeah, well we're busy people." She said getting up and walking to the door.
"Vanessa talk to me." Archangel replied.
She turned around, "Major other than work we have nothing else to talk about any more. Go talk to your Cylon." Garrett said coldly as she walked out of the room leaving Archangel lost for words.
As Raptor 1 made its jump to start its scouting mission dradis was clear.
"Everything's clear," Bria said, "Starting scans of the system."
"You're never going to guess who just signed up for Viper training?" Bojay said.
Bria sighed to herself, she had never known anyone who was as big on gossip as Bojay, "Surprise me." She replied.
"Jasper Vents." Bojay said.
Bria actually did find herself surprised, "Seriously, the President's son?" She replied.
"Oh yeah, the very same. Apparently he wants to better himself." Bojay said sarcastically.
"Well if he's anything like his old man in the cockpit he'll be one hell of a Viper jock." Bria replied.
"I knew the President served in the first war, didn't know that much about what he did though." Bojay replied.
"Well that's because you know nothing about history," Bria said, "He served with Commander Johanssen aboard the original Atlantia, he was even the CAG at one stage."
"Everyday is a school day." Bojay said.
"It certainly is for you." Bria replied.
"Any one would think you thought I was a bit dumb?!" Bojay said with a chuckle.
"I wouldn't say dumb," Bria replied, "Ignorant sometimes." She said laughing.
Bria checked the readouts coming from the system they had just entered.
"There's a planet up ahead we should check out, I'm sending you the co-ordinates." Bria said.
"Got them, let's go see what we can see." Bojay said.
Raptor 1 made its way through the large system to the massive planet ahead of them.
"Wow it's twice the size of Caprica." Bria said.
"Did you see that on dradis?" Bojay asked.
Bria looked and saw the ghost that Bojay must have seen.
"Whatever it is, it seems to be in a high orbit with the planet." Bria replied.
Bojay moved the raptor closer and then they saw what was causing the ghost.
"Holy frak!" Bojay exclaimed.
"Oh my gods." Bria added.
In front of them drifting in orbit of the planet was the Valkyrie class Battlestar Olympus.
"Battlestar Olympus do you copy this is Battlestar Orion Raptor 1?" Bria said over the COM.
There was no reply. The Battlestar looked battered, it looked as though it had been in a huge battle and come off badly. The entire hull was scorched and riddled with pot marks from missiles and bullets.
"There appears to be no power signatures coming from Olympus," Bria said, "We should get back to Orion and tell them what we found."
"Agreed, spool up the FTL." Bojay replied.
Colonel Rae stood on CIC. Things were quiet, just as she liked them. No sign of the Cylons, no sign of the NCO. Things had been so hectic, that it was nice for the crew to be able to stop and catch their breath for a change. She took a sip from her coffee, the simple pleasures in life such as a cup of Tauron coffee were the things that made life worth getting up for each morning.
Dradis beeped. She looked up and saw Raptor 1 appear.
"That's too quick." She said to herself.
"Colonel, I have Bojay on the horn." Lt Taylor said.
She sighed to herself, here we go again she thought, "Put him through."
Rae picked up the hand set in front of her.
"Orion XO." She said.
"Colonel you are not going to believe what we just found?!" Bojay replied excitedly over the COM.
"Captain I'm in no mood for guessing games." She replied.
"The Battlestar Olympus." He replied.
Commander Garrett walked into the wardroom and met Colonel Rae, Archangel, Bojay and Bria.
"Talk to me." She said as she sat down.
"We found the Battlestar Olympus," Bojay replied, "She's sat in a high orbit around a planet we found, but there appeared to be no power or sign of life aboard. Whatever happened to them they were battered about. There was damage all over the ship. It may never fly but we could use it for parts."
This brought mixed emotions for Garrett, excitement that they had found another part of home, but disappointment there was probably no one left alive onboard.
"Okay we take Orion and the repair platforms to Olympus. Major get five boarding parties together and go aboard. I want to know she is safe before we send anyone aboard to see what we can salvage." Garrett said.
"Yes ma'am." Archangel replied.
"We'll leave the fleet here under the protection of the Gunstars." Garrett said, "I better tell the President." Vanessa said.
Commander Garrett sat in her quarters talking to the President.
"I'd love to see the Olympus." Milo said.
"Once we know it's secure and everything is okay, I'll have it arranged." Garrett replied.
"Thank you Commander that would be fantastic."Milo replied with a huge smile on his face.
There was silence for the next few moments.
"Vanessa are you okay?" Milo asked.
"Yes Mr President I'm fine. Just disappointed that it doesn't seem like anyone will be alive onboard." She replied.
"Fair enough. I just want you to know if you ever need to talk or vent any frustration I'm here." Milo said kindly.
Garrett let out a little laugh, "Thank you, I'll take you up on that some time."
"Please do." Milo replied sincerely.
"I'll get back in touch once you can come and see Olympus." Vanessa said.
"Of course." Vanessa smiled.
Orion and the two support platforms moved out of their position in the fleet formation and jumped away. They appeared in a bright flash next to the massive planet and moved towards the fallen Battlestar.
On CIC Garrett and Rae stood at the dradis console.
"Lieutenant Taylor, please inform Major Hunter he is clear to begin his mission." Garrett said.
"Yes ma'am." She replied.
Four raptors launched from Orion and headed towards Olympus. As the Raptors got closer, they moved to land in one of the flight pods. Inside there was damage everywhere. The remains of three Vipers scattered the ground in pieces. As the Raptors touched down the backs opened. All in flight suits, Archangel led all the marines towards one of the airlocks. Vannick stood along side him.
"The Vipers are empty. Looks like whoever was in them managed to get out." He said.
"That's good. Let's get this door opened." Archangel replied.
Archangel tried the hatch release and the door opened straight away, they all walked into the large air lock. As the outer door closed the inner airlock door opened.
"Okay, it appears the ship still has some emergency power. Life support seems to be working at least." Archangel said.
"Should we take our helmets off?" one of the marines asked.
"No," Archangel replied, "There's no telling when the life support could give out. Okay you all know your areas, let's get this done."
Orion's CIC was silent as they listened to the chatter from the boarding parties. Tensions were high, no one knew what they would find.
"There are a lot of Vipers and Raptors here that we could use." Archangel said over the COM.
"Any idea how many?" Garrett asked.
"Not an exact amount but there are dozens of Vipers and I can see at least twenty Raptors." Archangel replied.
As Archangel and his team of marines moved into one of the corridors, lights were flickering on and off.
"Whatever happened here, happened quickly," Archangel said, "Lockers and doors have been left wide open and there are empty ammo and supply boxes. There is still no sign of anyone."
Vannick led his team towards the engine room. There was far more damage in the bowels of the ship than he had expected. There were parts of bulkhead torn apart by explosions. There were scorch and burn marks everywhere as well as dried blood. As he walked into the engine room he could see immediately why they Olympus would never fly again.
"Orion this is Vannick we're in the engine room and it's a mess in here. There is no way Olympus will ever fly again. There have been so many explosions in here virtually everything is in pieces."
"Can anything be salvaged?" Garrett asked over the COM.
"It doesn't look like it to me but I'm not an engineer so I could be wrong. There have been explosions and fires all over the deck. We found dried blood stains in places as well." Vannick replied.
"Thank you Sergeant, carry on." Garrett replied.
Archangel walked onto Olympus' CIC, much like everywhere else there were signs of fires and explosions. Archangel went to the dradis console and opened a panel at the bottom.
"Okay the flight recorder is still here and it looks to be in one piece." Archangel said as he took it out and put it on the console in front of him. He pressed a few of the controls and it flickered to life, "That's affirmative the flight recorder is functional."
It took a further two hours for the teams to fully check the fallen Battlestar. There had been no signs of life at all. Raptors and other shuttles were gone and unaccounted for. Archangel had come to the conclusion that the crew must have abandoned ship but they wouldn't know for sure until they could check the flight recorder and the Commander's log books. Once it had been deemed clear the two recovery platforms had secured Olympus and teams were being prepared to salvage anything that could be useful.
Archangel sat in the mess eating his lunch. The ghost ship that was the Battlestar Olympus had affected him more than he had realised. It was horrible to see a Battlestar in that condition. It had been people's home, their protection. Gods only knew how many people had survived. He had sent Raptors out to investigate the planet and take some sensor sweeps to see if they could find anything, he was hopeful. Wedge came in and sat with him.
"You okay?" Wedge asked.
"Yeah I'm good," he replied, "It was eerie over there, seeing the level of destruction they had taken and not knowing what happened to their crew, it's horrible."
"Hopefully when the Raptors get back, they will have some good news from the surface." He replied.
"I hope so. It'd be nice to have a win for a change." Archangel replied.
Commander Garrett sat by herself in her quarters. On her desk in front of her were the logbooks of Commander Jonathan Fincher. She had never met Fincher, she had never even heard of him before. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of man he was? What type of Commander? She took a deep breath and opened the first log.
Personal log of Commander Jonathan Fincher.
I am already falling in love with this ship. This is my first command and things couldn't be going smoother. Our shakedown is over and passed without any incident at all. The crew are working well together and I am more than impressed with them. I was told my XO should be firm with the crew, but never break them. That is certainly the case with Colonel James. She is such a softly spoken woman, makes sure everything she does is perfect and then when her temper erupts, the gods themselves must have heard her. She is the best choice I could have made.
We are on course to begin our first assignment. We have been assigned to Admiral Lionel Garrett's battle group.
Vanessa stopped reading, she was shocked, this she had not expected. She composed herself and continued to read.
This is going to be a long mission, charged with finding new habitable worlds, worlds that we could live on if we had to. I'm not expecting anything in the way of trouble, all I have to do is think about the day-to-day running of my ship.
Vanessa read on late into the night, things didn't get very interesting. In the two years they had been on their mission they had found a dozen worlds that could potentially be home to their race. She did find the comments about her father interesting. He didn't like Fincher and she knew why. The Commander had a mind of his own and sometimes questioned her father and that was something, Lionel Garret hated, in his mind he was always right.
The events of the battle still haunt me. They came out of nowhere at first we didn't know what hit us. Thankfully we quickly regained our composure, banded together and kicked the Cylons seven ways from Sunday. When things calmed down after the attack, I went to see the Admiral. I told him that we should head back to the Colonies, we had to warn the people back home that the Cylons were around again. The Admiral in his infinite wisdom didn't agree. He told me that they must have been exploring like us and there was nothing for the people back home to worry about. The discussion became heated and before I realised we were screaming at each other. I told him he was a short sighted fool and that's when he swung a punch. It only clipped my jaw but I saw red, the punch that I threw knocked him on his ass. I left as quickly as I could and flew back to Olympus. The fleet prepared for a jump, when we reached the other side the rest of the ships were nowhere to be seen, the son of a bitch left us behind. I decided that we should head back to the Colonies, he may not have thought the Cylons were a threat, but I certainly do.
She would have loved to be able to believe that her father wasn't that short sighted, but she knew otherwise. He had to be right, he always did. No matter how wrong he was, even if it was proved to him that he was wrong, he still wouldn't believe it. Now he had left over two thousand people stranded in deep space alone. She just hoped they would be able to find survivors somewhere, so that she could in some way, make up for what he had done to the Olympus. She thought of Commander Johannsen, he had been a great man, a great teacher, somebody she would have been proud to call her father. How could two men who did the same job be so different? She hoped that she was in no way like her father. She put all her command skills down to the teachings of Johannsen and Colonel Belzen. Her thoughts were broken by a knock on the door.
"Come in." she said looking up from the logbook.
President Vents walked in.
"Mr President when did you arrive?" Garrett asked.
"About an hour ago. Bojay came for me per your orders." He replied.
"Can I get you a drink?" Vanessa asked.
"Yes please." He replied.
Vanessa walked over to her glasses and bottle of whiskey and poured them both a glass, she handed one to him before sitting back down at her desk.
"Interesting reading?" Milo asked.
Vanessa nodded in reply, "Very, the Olympus was part of a battle group sent out to look for habitable worlds, commanded by my father." She replied. "They were attacked by Cylons. Commander Fincher told my father that he thought they should head back to the Colonies to warn us, my father disagreed, he said that the Cylons were probably just exploring like they were. They had a heated disagreement and my father left the Olympus behind."
"That sounds like your father." Milo replied.
"You knew him?" Vanessa asked in amazement.
"I met him on a few occasions. We didn't really get on, if I may say I found him to be arrogant amongst other things." Milo answered, choosing his words carefully.
"You can call him anything you want, we have never got on either." Vanessa replied before taking a sip from her glass.
"I gathered that from something Johannsen said, which is why I never brought it up." Milo said.
"He's still out there, oblivious to what's going on around him. I hope we never find him." Vanessa said.
"Wouldn't you like the opportunity, in light of recent events to patch things up with him?" Milo asked.
Vanessa laughed, "No chance. He hates me and I can honestly say the feeling is mutual. If we find them one of the first things he'll do is try and remove me from command."
"He would do that?!" Milo asked surprised.
"Oh yes. As I said he hates me. He was sure while he was away in space that my mother had been having affairs, he is convinced that I'm not his daughter. When he found out I had joined the military he tried everything he could to get me kicked out." Vanessa answered sadly.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Milo replied sincerely.
"Don't be, I got over it a long time ago." Vanessa said before she drained her glass.
"For what it's worth your father will have to go through me before he can even think of removing you from Orion." Milo said with a kind smile.
Vanessa laughed, "Thank you."
The phone on the wall next to her starting to ring stopped the conversation. She picked it up.
"Garrett."
"Commander sorry to call so late but we have the flight recorder working." Archangel said.
"Very good Major the President and I are on our way." She replied.
The Commander and the President met Archangel, Bojay and Chief Arthur James.
"What do you have for us gentlemen?" Milo asked.
"Well we know what happened to Olympus. They were attacked by Cylons and took one hell of a beating. They managed to jump back to one of the planets they found. They knew they couldn't stay on Olympus so they abandoned ship and headed down to the planet we found them in orbit of." Archangel said.
"You mean they're down there?" Garrett asked, "For how long?"
"The flight recorder indicates they abandoned Olympus three weeks ago." The Chief replied.
"Have Raptors found anything yet?" Garrett asked.
"Not yet, but they're still searching." Bojay replied.
"Double the amount of raptors you sent out, I want them found as soon as possible." Vanessa ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Bojay replied.
Lieutenant Jessica "Hydra" Anders flew her Raptor across the massive planet. Since rejoining the fleet after being rescued from Delta Seven, she had been offered a position on Orion, as well as a leg up to first seat. Being back in the military had given her the new lease of life she had been looking for for a very long time. Her ECO Ensign Tim "Upchuck" Hurley had been sat in the back of the Raptor babbling on for the last half an hour. Hydra had realised soon after starting to fly with him, that if she zoned out when he started to talk and just replied with "Yeah" or "aha" every now and again he figured she was paying attention.
"Hydra I just got a blip." Upchuck said.
"From what?" Hydra replied.
"Hang on." He replied as he checked into what it could be, "Holy frak it's a Colonial transponder, it's very very weak but we have a position."
Hydra smiled, "Okay let's get back to Orion so they can launch a SAR team."
As the Raptor broke atmosphere, they spoke with Orion.
"Orion this is Upchuck."
"Upchuck, Orion go ahead." Lt Taylor replied.
"We have found a weak Colonial transponder, sending you the coordinates now." The young Ensign replied.
"All Raptors please return to the barn." Taylor ordered.
Archangel stood in a briefing with the Commander and XO.
"I'll lead an initial SAR mission with three Raptors. I'll take a few marines and medics with me and we will asses the situation before landing more shuttles to evacuate the crew." Archangel said.
"Very good Major, when do you launch?" the Commander replied.
"Within the hour. Sergeant Vannick is gathering a team of marines and I need to inform the medics." Archangel answered.
"Be careful down there." Garrett said.
"What could go wrong?!" Archangel replied, "A little walk on a planet with no Cylons chasing us all the way."
"Famous last words." Rae replied.
The three SAR Raptors broke through the planets atmosphere and headed in the direction of the transponder signal. The terrain of the planet was similar to Caprica. They passed over part of an ocean as well as forests and fields of grass. It was typical Archangel thought that the closer to the signal they got the more barren the landscape began. Rocks and sand as far as the eye could see and a canyon that ran, as far as they could tell, across most of the continent.
"Major we're going to have to set down here." Hydra said from the front of the Raptor. Archangel gave her the thumbs up.
"All Raptors this is Hydra, form up on me we're going to land." she ordered.
The three birds landed near a huge rock formation, which was the only flat land for miles around. The backs of the Raptors opened up as they powered down.
"Major do you want us to come with you?" Hydra asked.
"No stay with the birds in case any survivors saw us come in." he replied.
"Yes sir." She replied.
The heat of the sun hit them when they walked outside despite generous cloud cover. The marines and medics gathered around Archangel.
"Okay the signal is about three clicks north from here. Keep your eyes peeled for anyone who could be injured or not able to draw attention to themselves." he said.
The SAR team began their trek through the heat.
As Raptor 1 launched from Orion the president sat in the cockpit next to Bojay. He was quite excited to see the Battlestar. The Commander had given him permission to take a walk on one of the recovery platforms. He couldn't remember the last time he had taken a space walk but he was surprised at how excited he was about it.
"Everything okay there Mr President?" Bojay asked.
"Yes thank you Captain. I appreciate you finding the time to indulge me, I know as squadron XO your time must be limited." He replied.
"Don't worry about it, I have to admit that I'm looking forward to taking a walk out there myself." Bojay replied.
"I do hope Major Hunter manages to find some survivors down there." Milo said.
"Likewise and let's face it sir, if anyone is going to find people it will be Archangel." Bojay said.
The President chuckled, "You're quite right Captain."
"Please sir, call me Bojay." He replied, "And this is Bria or Typhoon. We tend to call her Bria as she's one of those pilots who hates her call sign."
"It's very nice to meet you Bria." Milo replied.
"Thank you sir." She replied.
"Please while were on this little outing and nowhere official call me Milo."
As they reached the Olympus, sat on one of the giant recovery platforms, Milo was hit with a twinge of sadness, that this once great ship was now relegated to scrap.
"I think this is a sight that anyone who has been in the military would find sad." Milo said.
"Agreed sir, I mean Milo. This ship should be kicking the Cylon's asses." Bojay said.
"I couldn't have put it better myself." Milo replied with a chuckle.
"Can I ask you a question?" Bojay asked.
"Of course." Milo replied.
"What was your call sign while you were a pilot?" Bojay asked.
"Breakneck." Milo replied, "I was always getting into trouble when I was training for flying too fast when I didn't need to, apparently I flew at 'breakneck' speeds."
"That's a good one." Bria replied.
"If I may say, Bria, I like Typhoon as a call sign, let's face it, it could be much worse." Milo said with a smile
"Thank you. It's not the name, it's more about where it came from. But that's a story for when we're all very drunk and you both won't remember me telling it in the morning!" She replied with a smile.
"Raptor 1, this is recovery platform two we have cleared a spot for you to land." A voice said over the COM.
"Recovery platform two this is Typhoon thank you very much and we are coming into land." Bria replied.
Bojay brought the raptor over the massive platform and gently brought it to a standstill. As the back opened Bojay led the President to the hatch.
"I'll stay with the Raptor if that's okay." Bria said.
"Sure thing." Bojay replied.
As they stepped out onto the platform the view was amazing. The Olympus stood in front of them, they could appreciate just how massive it was. Orion sat to the left of them with a CAP flying through the stars and to their right the massive planet, it was breathtaking.
"Oh wow." Milo said, "This is amazing."
"Yes it is." Bojay said as they began to walk to Olympus. There were salvage crews at work on the platform and on the fallen Battlestar.
"I have to touch her." Milo said, "How often do you get the change to actually touch the outside of a Battlestar?!"
The two men walked in almost complete silence, taking in this once in a lifetime view. As they neared Olympus they could hear a loud creaking noise from the ship. Neither of them thought anything of it and just kept walking. Moments later the outer hull of the Olympus ruptured causing a series of short explosions knocking both men off their feet and floating off into space.
"Holy frak. Orion this is Typhoon, I'm declaring an emergency. There has been some kind of explosion, President Vents and Bojay were right next to it, they're floating off into open space, be advised I am going after them." Bria said as she got into the cockpit and took off, without waiting for a reply.
"Typhoon this is Orion, once you have them both onboard please head back to Orion to see if they need medical attention." Colonel Rae replied, "Do you need any assistance?"
"No Colonel I'm nearly there." Bria replied pulling the raptor to a halt next to the two men as they drifted. Bria attached herself to a chord before pushing herself out of the Raptor, floating into open space after them.
"Bojay, Mr President can either of you hear me? Are you okay?" Bria said. She reached Bojay first and grabbed hold of him by the ankle pulling him towards her.
"Orion I have Bojay, he's out cold. There is a crack in his helmet and he appears to be bleeding from a wound on his head." Bria said as she attached her friend to her.
Holding onto Bojay as tightly as she could she managed to grab the President and move back towards the raptor. When they were inside, she pressurised the raptor. Both men were out cold.
"Orion this is Typhoon I have both men, both are unconscious and not responsive to me. I am on my way to you right now." Bria said as she sat back in the pilots chair.
"Typhoon, Orion XO, there are medical teams standing by and the port flight pod has been cleared for you." Rae replied.
Sickbay was in chaos as Garrett and Rae walked in. Both the President and Bojay were being tended to by medics. Dr Hammond came over to the Commander.
"How are they?" Garrett asked.
"Bad," Hammond replied, "The force of the blast and the debris that hit them has caused massive internal injuries."
"Can you save them?" Rae asked.
"That's the problem, they both need to go into surgery now and I'm the only doctor who can perform the surgery." Hammond replied.
"We can take Orion back and get a doctor off the Medstar?" Rae replied.
"We don't have the time they both need to go into surgery now. Commander one of them is going to die, I need to know who you want me to operate on." Hammond said, giving her the impossible decision.
Garrett was speechless. She looked at both men whose lives were in her hands.
"It has to be the President." Garrett replied.
Hammond didn't wait for her to say anything else she turned and walked over to Milo.
Garrett and Rae stood looking at Bojay as the medics tried to help him as much as they could.
"I can't believe we're going to lose him." Garrett said.
"Hang on," Rae said, "What about the Cylon? She has medical knowledge, she says she wants to prove herself to us."
Garrett turned and picked up the phone next to the door.
"Lt Taylor I need to speak to one of the marines guarding the Cylon immediately." She said.
"Putting you through." Taylor replied.
Moments later one of the marines picked up.
"Corporal Blackman." Came the booming voice on the other end.
"Corporal this is the Commander, I need you to bring Grace to sickbay immediately, run if you have to it's a matter of life and death." Vanessa ordered, trying to keep calm.
"Yes ma'am we're on our way." He replied.
The next few minutes seemed to last an eternity. Garrett and Rae both breathed a sigh of relief as the two marines appeared escorting Grace between them.
"Grace how much medical knowledge do you have?" Garrett asked.
"Extensive," she replied, "I was given all the knowledge that is usually given to our doctors."
"There has been an accident and if Captain Johnson isn't operated on right away he will die." Garrett replied.
Grace walked over to Bojay and looked at the information written onto the charts. She looked at the dying pilot and knew she could save him.
"Commander I can do this." Grace said honestly.
The medics looked a little concerned.
"Then save him." Garrett replied.
The heat of the planet was intense. After Archangel and the others had walked for two clicks they stopped for a quick break. Sergeant Lucas Jennings, who Archangel had barely seen since they rescued him and the others from Caprica, walked up to him.
"You okay there Major?" he asked.
Archangel took a sip from his water before he replied, "Yeah hanging in there, you?"
"All good, although they could have been kind enough to land in the countryside or by the coast." Jennings replied.
"Couldn't agree with you more." Archangel replied with a laugh.
"Major come look at this." One of the medics shouted.
Archangel and Jennings walked over to them.
"What have you seen?" Archangel asked.
The medic pointed into the valley below. In front of them sat strewn the wreckage of a ship.
"What the frak is that?" Jennings asked.
Archangel took out his binoculars and took a look.
"Oh my gods." He said.
"What is it?" Jennings replied.
"Of all the places, it's the Pandora." Archangel said.
"The Pandora?" Jennings replied.
"Twenty three years ago the science vessel Pandora was sent out on a six year mission to find new planets, see if they could find life and to see what they could find. Six years came and went and the Pandora never returned, no one knew what had happened to them. Ladies and gentlemen we've just made one of the most important finds in the last seventeen years." Archangel said.
"Is that where the transponder is coming from?" Jennings asked.
"It seems like it. Lets just hope the Olympus survivors heard the transponder and came here." Archangel answered.
The group walked another half a click before they found somewhere they could easily get down the valley and be able to get back up again.
It was clear that when the Pandora had crashed it had been going at speed. There was wreckage everywhere. As they got closer, they found a large section of the ship that was still intact and found an area they could get into. Archangel climbed in to the pitch-black interior and switched on his torch. Vannick and Jennings followed him next. The inside of the ship looked as badly damaged as the outside. The light from all the torches illuminated the long broken corridor enough for them to see quite clearly.
"Surely there can't be any survivors from the original crash?" Vannick said as they walked.
As they reached an adjoining corridor they found three severely decomposed corpses.
"How many crew-members did this ship have?" Jennings asked.
"Over three hundred." Archangel replied.
Archangel looked at the uniforms the corpses still wore.
"These are the Pandora flight uniforms." He said.
As he stood up a blood chilling screech could be heard from somewhere in the ship.
"What the frak was that?" Vannick asked clutching his rifle nervously, panic in his voice.
"Calm down guys it could be anything at all, we don't know if this planet has any animal life." Archangel replied.
The screech came again, this time from in front of them, startling them all.
"Is anybody there?" Jennings asked loudly.
"Frak me why did you shout that? Don't you ever watch movies?" Vannick said.
Archangel flashed his light up ahead and they could see someone standing in front of them.
"My name is Major Hunter, I'm from the Battlestar Orion, are you okay? Do you need medical assistance?" Archangel asked.
He flashed the light so they could see the man's face. It was smeared in blood. Parts of his own skin had been torn away, his eyes were jet black and he looked as though he was slowly rotting away while still alive, if indeed that's what he was. It was then they realised the screech had come from him as he begin to sprint towards them. Archangel drew his sidearm and shot the man between the eyes killing him instantly.
"What the frak was that?" one of the medics asked with terror in his voice.
"That was a man and we're getting the frak out of here." Archangel replied. Everyone paused for a moment, "NOW!" he ordered.
As he finished speaking they could hear multiple screeches, too many for them to know how many "people" they were coming from. Vannick shone his flash light back down the corridor they were facing and five of them were running towards them, men and women.
"Get the frak out of here!" Archangel yelled.
As the others began to retreat Archangel calmly began to shoot the people running at him as he walked backwards. He counted the rounds he fired in his head so he wouldn't be caught short and kept firing till they were all dead. He turned and joined the others as they ran.
"How many did you just kill?" Jennings asked.
"Nine." Archangel replied.
One by one they all dived out into the daylight. As Archangel was about to join the others one of them dived on him out of the shadows. He fell with the woman on top of him. She was definitely human, or she had been at one time. Like the others he had already killed they wore Pandora flight uniforms. She snarled at him as she tried to rip into his face with her hands. The blankness in her eyes was unlike any he had ever seen in a before. With all his strength he pushed the woman off him, giving Vannick a clear enough shot to take her out.
"Thanks." Archangel asked as Vannick helped him to his feet.
As they joined the others outside they were met by a group of people all dressed in Colonial military clothing, all with their weapons pointed at them.
"Who the frak are you?" a woman asked.
"My name is Major Mark Hunter from the Battlestar Orion, who are you?" Archangel said, his hands raised.
"Captain Amy Wesson, Battlestar Olympus. What the frak is the Orion doing here?" she replied, as though she didn't quite believe him.
"Listen I'm sure we all have lots of stories to tell each other, but right now we have to get the frak out of here. We came here looking for you guys and well, we didn't just find you." Archangel replied gesturing to the body of the woman Vannick just shot dead.
"There are more of them in there." Amy said.
"More of them?" Vannick replied.
"Can we talk and walk or even talk and run?" Archangel replied.
Colonel Rae was back with the fleet. She had come to tell the Quorum what had happened to the President. She hated politics and politicians in general, President Vents was the only exception in a life long disliking of them.
"How is he? Will he live?" one of the quorum asked.
"He is currently in surgery, our doctor is convinced that he will be fine." Rae replied.
"Whose fault was this?" the Arilon representative asked.
"This is no one's fault, what happened was an accident plain and simple." Rae replied, getting more and more irritated by the inane questions.
"Surely Orion should leave what they are doing and come back to the fleet straight away." The Picon representative said.
"Orion will stay where it is for the time being. Olympus is being stripped for anything we could use, we have people on the planets surface searching for any survivors. Plus the President is receiving the best care possible. As there is no current Vice President, Commander Garrett has assumed total command of the fleet." Rae answered.
"So she is declaring martial law?" the Arilon representative asked.
"No she hasn't, but it stands to reason that she should take command." Rae replied.
There was disapproval from the quorum.
"I'm sorry would you like her to declare martial law? Because she can if that is what you would prefer?" the Colonel snapped back.
"No that's fine, we should look into getting Miss Cobb sworn in as soon as possible."
"You do that, meanwhile till we get back, Captain Reynolds from the Gunstar Cryxus is in command." Rae replied angrily.
"Where are you going?" the Picon representative asked.
"Back to Orion, I'll let you lot sort out what you're going to do next. If you need us talk to Captain Reynolds, I'm sure he'll be able to help." Rae replied.
Colonel Rae got up and walked out of the room and gave a sigh of relief.
"So do you have any idea what is going on here? It's like something out of a fraking zombie movie!" Vannick said.
"They're not zombies Sergeant," Amy said, "They're human like you and me. Something in the atmosphere messes with the human brain. The water on the planet seems to accelerate it quicker. It's starts with paranoia before moving onto hallucinations. Then after that you turn violent and unresponsive to other people. Out of the three hundred people that landed with us at our site there are seventeen left. Some of them were killed by the ones from the wreckage you were just in, the rest turned after drinking water from a stream we found. I'm sorry to tell you guys, but the second you took a breath of the oxygen down here it started to effect you too."
"Well that's just fraking wonderful." Jennings said.
"Have you managed to get in touch with any of the other camps?" Archangel asked.
"No. When they found us they decimated our camp, destroyed our Raptors and most of our equipment," Amy replied, "So why is the Battlestar Orion doing out this far?"
"We're on the run." Archangel replied.
"From who?" Amy asked.
"The Cylons. They attacked the Colonies and left it a nuclear wasteland. We all survived and have been running every since, looking for somewhere to live." Archangel replied.
"And that's when you found us?" Amy asked.
"Yeah we found the Olympus dead in orbit and then your Commander's logs and the flight computer led us here." Archangel answered.
"Oh this isn't good." Vannick said as they saw their Raptors.
There was smoke billowing out of the birds and dead pilots scattered across the ground. As they quietly approached everyone had their weapons drawn. A Colonial officer who had changed appeared from the back of Hydra's raptor and stared at them.
"Oh no, that's Commander Fincher." Amy said.
He jumped down from the raptor and ran at them at full pelt. Archangel raised his weapon and shot the man in the head.
"I'm sorry." Archangel said as he looked down at the Commander before moving to the back of Hydra's raptor. He signalled the others to go and check the other birds. Slumped in a heap in the back section of the bird was Hydra, Archangel checked her pulse and was relieved to find her still alive.
"Hydra, Hydra can you hear me?" Archangel said.
She began to come round and for a moment flinched when she saw Archangel.
"Are you okay?" Archangel asked.
Hydra nodded, "We were attacked."
"I know, can you walk?" he asked.
"I think so." she replied nodding her head.
Archangel helped her to her feet before turning to the storage locker at the back of the ship opening it. He handed Hydra one of the rifles, an ammo belt and a med kit before taking the same out for himself. The silence outside was shattered by the blood curdling screams and gunfire. As Archangel turned to face the hatch two of the former Olympus survivors lunged for him but were taken down by Hydra.
"Thanks." Archangel said.
"You're very welcome." She replied.
As they were about to leave the Raptor they saw at least a dozen more of the Olympus crew heading towards them and Vannick and the others on the move. Vannick saw them and turned to help his friends.
"GO." Archangel yelled, "WE'LL CATCH UP."
Archangel and Hydra began to open fire as they got closer to the Raptor, more and more began to appear.
"I'll be fraked if I'm dying here." Hydra said as she opened fire.
Vannick led the others away, the sound of gunfire still ringing through the air from behind them.
"We should go back," Amy said, "They won't survive."
"If there's one thing you'll find out about Major Hunter, not even a hundred centurions could stop him. Seriously, I've seen it." Jennings replied.
Moments later the sound of gunfire stopped.
"Let's wait here." Vannick said.
Minutes passed that felt like hours as the group waited. There was a collective sigh of relief as Archangel and Hydra appeared.
"Did no one else make it?" Hydra asked as they joined the others.
"No everyone else was dead." Vannick replied.
Commander Garrett walked into sickbay as Hammond finished operating on the President.
"How is he?" Garrett asked.
"There was a lot of internal bleeding but I managed to fix it all. He's in a bad way but he's stable." Hammond replied.
"Will he make it?" Garrett asked.
"Yeah he'll make it." Hammond replied before taking a drink from a bottle of water.
"Thank the gods. How is Bojay doing?" Vanessa asked.
"The same. Grace is just finishing up. I've had medics keeping me updated on her progress and they tell me she has done a great job." Hammond replied.
"Good. Thank gods she was here." Vanessa said smiling with relief.
"I know, she could be very useful." Hammond said.
"That would be if the crew would accept a Cylon?" Garrett replied.
"I think with what she's already done and the fact she just saved Bojay's life, it will go a long way. For what it's worth Vanessa, she's won me over." Hammond said.
As Hammond went to clean up, the Commander watched Grace as she worked on Bojay.
On Orion CIC, Colonel Rae was pleased to be back. She took a sip from her coffee.
"Colonel, the Chief reports they've finished transferring over the functional Vipers and Raptors from Olympus." Lt Taylor said.
"How many do we have?" Rae asked.
"72 vipers and 33 raptors."
"Excellent. Keep me informed how they're going with munitions. Has there been any word from the SAR mission?" she asked.
"No ma'am." Taylor replied.
"Let's hope no news is good news." Rae replied.
Archangel and the others reached the Olympus survivors camp. The ten people who were there seemed surprised to see the newcomers.
"Captain is everything okay?" Chief Henry Andrews asked.
"Yeah. This is Major Mark Hunter and some others from the Battlestar Orion." Amy replied.
"Orion?" the chief replied.
"It's a long story, Major do you want to tell it?" Amy replied.
Archangel sat down and told everyone about the attack and finding Olympus in orbit. The Olympus survivors were all clearly in shock at what they had been told.
"So Major." Amy said.
"Please call me Archangel." He replied.
"Okay, Archangel, when do we get rescued?" Amy asked.
"If we haven't been in touch with Orion by 0900 hours then they will launch more Raptors to come find us?" Archangel replied.
"Great another night on this rock." The Chief said.
"At least it's only one night." Vannick said.
"Let's see if you have the same thought in the morning. Those things are worse at night." The Chief replied.
"So how come you guys are still unaffected?" Jennings asked.
"We haven't drunk any of the water or eaten any of the plants. I was leading a team to see what I could find when they found the stream. We've been drinking and eating from our supplies. By the time we got back to the camp it had been three days and those who had drunk from the stream had already become violent and unresponsive. It seems when you get to that stage that's it, there is no way to reason, no way to communicate. So far everyone we've met who had got to that stage just attacks." Amy answered.
"Hopefully our doctors will be able to reverse it." Vannick said.
"I hope so." Amy replied.
"So what do we do, just wait here to be rescued?" the Chief asked.
"We stay here tonight. In the morning we head back to our Raptors and wait." Archangel replied.
"We wait, after what just happened?!" Jennings exclaimed.
"What would you prefer, stay here and turn into that?" Archangel replied.
"Whose to say we're not going to turn into that anyway?" Jennings said.
"The doc will be able to reverse whatever has happened to us." Archangel said calmly.
"And if she can't?" Jennings said.
"I haven't been through everything on the Colonies and now here just to end up like that." Archangel replied.
"Here here." Vannick added.
"Now Sergeant, let's stop this type of talk." Archangel replied.
"Yes sir." Jennings replied, still unconvinced.
"Archangel I have a problem." Amy said.
"What's wrong?" he replied.
"I'm starting to feel, paranoid." She replied.
"Oh frak." The Chief said as he started to slowly move away from her.
"Okay how after the paranoia do the hallucinations start?" Archangel replied.
"I have no idea sir, I'm the first of us that are left that this has happened to." Amy said.
Garrett sat in her quarters with Grace sat opposite her.
"Can I offer you a drink?" Garrett asked.
"No thank you." Grace replied.
"I just wanted to personally thank you for what you did today." Vanessa said.
"I'm just glad you came to me for help. It would have been tragic if Captain Johnson had died for nothing." Grace said.
"Yes it would. I'm going to have you transferred from the brig to your own quarters." Garrett said.
Grace was surprised by this, "Thank you Commander."
"I'm afraid there will still be the same strict restrictions on your movement on the ship but it should be a little more comfortable. You've been good to your word so far and you have already done a lot of good in this fleet and on this ship. However I'm not 100% convinced that the crew would be ready to accept a Cylon walking around this ship freely." Vanessa said with a sigh.
"I completely understand Commander. I just hope that in time everyone will accept me, as you and some others already have." Grace said with a smile.
"I'm sure they will. I also wanted to thank you for saving my life back on Caprica, with what was going on at the time I'm not sure I said it." Vanessa said.
"It's not a problem Commander, with all due respect I wasn't sure you even remembered I had." she replied.
"I had and I am thankful that you did." Vanessa said smiling.
As night fell, some of the camp managed to fall asleep while the others stood watch. Archangel sat with Amy as they talked.
"So I thought you were on Atlantia before the attack?" she said.
"I was. The day before the attack I went home to Sagittaron on leave. When the bombs started to drop, myself and a group of others went looking for some way off the planet. We managed to get to Caprica and then Orion found us." He replied.
"So whose in Command of Orion?" she asked.
"Commander Vanessa Garrett." Archangel replied.
"Garrett? Is she any relation to Admiral Garrett?" Amy asked, her tone changing noticeably.
"Yeah she's his daughter." he answered
"Frak me!" she exclaimed.
"It's not something to worry about she's a good CO. Her only concern is protecting the fleet and finding a new home for us. From what I've heard they couldn't be less alike and by all accounts, they hate the site of each other." Archangel said reassuringly.
"Normally I wouldn't worry about such things but under the circumstances I can't help but feel a little paranoid." She replied with a smile.
They both laughed.
"So what's your call sign?" Archangel asked.
"Streaker." She replied.
"Should I ask how you ended up with that one?" he asked changing the subject.
"During some downtime during my flight training I was dared to streak across campus. I was caught by my flight instructor and the rest is history." She replied.
Archangel laughed again.
"Do you really think your doctor will be able to help us?" Amy asked.
"I think that with all the doctors and scientists we have in our fleet there is nothing to worry about." Archangel said, "We one of the most technologically advanced science ships from the Colonies, plus a Medstar which has departments for every kind of medicine you can think of. We'll be okay." he said still smiling.
"I hope you're right." she replied, still not reassured.
The next morning acting CAG, Lieutenant Anthony "Wedge" Manning walked onto the CIC to be met by the Commander.
"Good morning Commander." Wedge said.
"Morning Wedge there has been no word from the SAR teams?" Garrett asked.
"What do you want to do?" Wedge replied.
"With everything that's been going on I'd rather know what's happening down there. Send out four Raptors, two medical, and two support just in case. I don't want you to lead the mission though, with Archangel on the surface and Bojay in recovery, I want my lead pilot to stay where he's needed most." Vanessa said.
"Of course ma'am I'll put Jawbreaker in charge." Wedge replied.
"Very good." she said with a smile.
Archangel and the others checked the landing site with binoculars to see if the area was clear.
"Anyone see anything at all?" Hydra asked.
"Yeah I can see four of them by Raptor 7." Vannick replied.
"We have to make sure they're gone before anyone comes down here for us." Archangel replied.
"There's no guaranteed time when the raptors will come, what are we going to do? If we take them out now, more could come before the Raptors get here. The gunfire will just attract more." The Chief said.
"We wait as long as we can," Archangel replied, "We should hear a sonic boom when they enter the atmosphere or at the very least, should they enter the atmosphere too far away we'll hear them in the sky before we see them. As soon as we do Vannick, Jennings, Hydra and I will make a move for the Raptors and take them out so it's clear for them to land."
"There's no way this is going to work." Amy said.
Archangel turned to her, "Trust me it will work."
"Trust you I don't even know you, we're going to die here just like everyone else!" Amy shouted back getting more and more frantic.
"Erm boss." Jennings said.
"What?" Archangel replied.
"I don't think we're going to be able to wait to take them out." He replied, "I think they just heard Streaker."
Archangel turned to see the four "changed" as the Chief had nick named them, running towards them.
"Frak this." Archangel said.
He drew both side arms stood up and walked towards the running enemy. He fired four shots and took them all down with one shot each. As the last one dropped they all heard the sonic boom from above.
"I told you it would work." Archangel shouted.
As the others came out from their hiding place, Archangel holstered his weapons and looked up into the sky. He couldn't yet see any sign of the Raptors, but they should be there shortly. He looked back down and smiled at the others and then turned to look around him. The smile quickly fell off his face when he saw dozens of the "changed" running towards them at full pelt.
"This is fraking typical." Archangel said as he grabbed his rifle off his back and began to fire. One by one as he shot, they fell, "Why is it never easy," he said quietly to himself, "First the Cylons chase us, now these frakers. Just once, just once it would be nice to catch a fraking break."
As the others joined and opened fire more and more of them began to appear.
"Looks like we found the rest of your crew." Vannick said.
"Major!" Hydra shouted.
Archangel turned and saw more coming from the opposite direction.
"Oh frak." he said to himself.
He opened fire with Hydra.
"If this is it Major, I just wanted to say that it's been an honour to serve with you." Hydra said.
"Likewise," he replied.
The gunfire was constant, only pausing for reloads. The "changed" were a mixture of the Olympus crew and Pandora crew.
"Fraking Cylons!" Amy shouted.
Archangel and Vannick both turned at the same time to see her firing at nothing, both men realising that she had already moved onto the hallucinations. Archangel moved to relieve her of her weapons when one of the "changed" that they hadn't spotted dived on him. As he crashed to the floor his rifle slid out of his reach. Archangel turned and punched the man bearing down on him as hard as he could sending him crashing away. Jennings moved into help.
"I can deal with this." Archangel said and the young Sergeant turned back to the hoards bearing down on them. Archangel didn't even have time to draw one of his side arms, with all of Archangel's strength, he let leash an uppercut, connecting perfectly with the man's jaw sending him crashing to the ground out cold. He turned and quickly checked the situation, it wasn't good, within minutes it wouldn't matter how many of them they had taken out, they would be overrun.
The noise of chain guns was deafening. Archangel and the others looked up to see two of the raptors opening fire with their weapons, mowing down all the "changed". Amy was still firing at nothing, Archangel grabbed her rifle from her.
"What the frak are you doing?" she screamed, "There are centurions."
"There aren't any, you're hallucinating." Archangel replied.
"No I'm not." She yelled at him. As she reached for her side arm Vannick grabbed her from behind.
"It's okay, I've got her." He said.
As the Raptors touched down Hydra and Jennings stopped them from opening the side hatches of the ships. Lieutenant Charlie "Cyanide" Mason knew something was wrong. As he powered down his Raptor, Hydra signalled him to make sure they were all wearing their flight helmets.
"Everyone this is Cyanide there's something wrong out there, everyone get your helmets on before you open up." He said.
As the Raptors began to open Cyanide was met by Archangel.
"Is everything alright sir?" Cyanide asked.
"There's something in the air that has infected us. We need to get out of here now." Archangel answered.
"Yes sir." He replied.
"And Cyanide." Archangel added.
"Yes sir?"
"Thanks for saving our asses." Archangel said with a wink.
"You're welcome sir. What were they?" he asked.
"Human but they were at the end of what might be happening to us." came the answer.
As they all got onto the birds, Amy and the "changed" Archangel had knocked out were sedated by the medics.
Dr Hammond had never had her sickbay so busy. Archangel and the other survivors picked up by Cyanide were all being looked after there. Luckily the Medstar was looking after the other survivors that had been found at the other three Olympus sites. She sat in her office waiting for the results of the tests she had been running. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before taking a sip from her coffee. Dr Joseph Green walked into her office.
"Are you okay Christine?" he asked.
"Yeah it's just been a long couple of days." She replied.
"I have the results of the tests." Green said sitting next to her.
"And?" Hammond asked.
"Some good, some bad. There is a compound in the atmosphere, plant and water samples that we've never seen before. It has an effect on the human brain that we have seen. The compound seems to come from the plant life and when it's in the water it is intensified, hence when they drank the water it seemed to accelerate faster than the trace amounts that were in the air. As soon as Major Hunter and the others began to breathe clean air, the effects began to reverse themselves. Unfortunately when the effects get to the violent stage then it is too late, the damage has been done. Captain Wesson should remain in sickbay for a few days until all her symptoms have reversed but everyone else can be released." Green said.
"What should we do with Ensigns Jessop? He's been sedated since Archangel knocked him out." Hammond asked.
"There's not much we can do for him other than keep him sedated and as comfortable as possible." Green replied.
Newly sworn in Vice President Natasha Cobb walked through Orion for the first time in her new job. The President, despite being stable, was going to be out of action for a while so any honeymoon period would end before it even started. Moments later she found herself being led nervously into the Commander's quarters. Garrett, Rae, Archangel and doctors Hammond and Green stood waiting for her.
"Madame Vice President." Garrett said as she walked in.
"Please everyone sit down." Natasha replied, "My aide filled me in on everything that has happened. First how is the salvage mission of the Olympus coming?"
"Very well ma'am we should be ready to move on by the morning." Colonel Rae replied.
"Excellent. The Quorum has been asking for the President to be moved to the Medstar." Natasha said.
"Moving the President at this stage would be incredibly unwise," Hammond said, "I would consider it when he is more stable, but not at the moment."
"I'll inform them." Natasha replied, "Now as for what happened on the planet, what should we do about the people who are still down there, those who have been changed, is there anything we can do to help them?"
"Nothing at all. Those who are still down there, from the remaining crew of the Pandora and the Olympus, they're both at what appears to be the end stage and from what we can tell there is no way for it to be reversed when it is that far along." Dr Green said.
"I was told it was an element or compound that we have never seen before?" Natasha asked.
"That's true, there is nothing like it on the Colonies," Hammond said, "We've called it Pandora."
"So do we just leave them there?" Rae said.
"I for one have been thinking about that." Archangel said. All eyes turned to him, "If I knew I was going to end up like that, I wouldn't want to end up in this condition for the rest of my life."
"So what are you suggesting Major?" Natasha replied.
"We level the Pandora wreckage and all four sites where they landed. Hit them with enough explosives to put them out of their misery." Archangel answered.
"You mean murder them?" Dr Green exclaimed.
"No I mean euthanasia," Archangel replied, "Put yourself in their position."
"And what about Ensign Jessop?" Natasha asked.
"What kind of life is he going to have, locked in a room on the Medstar drugged out of his mind, no contact with anyone, no rational thought for as long as he lives? Put yourself in his position, I know what I would prefer." Archangel said.
"You cannot do that, it's murder," Green said, "Madame Vice President, Commander Garrett you cannot even consider this."
Both Natasha and the Commander looked at each other.
"This is wrong, what will the people of the fleet say?" Dr Green said.
"Dr Green first and foremost anything that we discus in this room, stays in this room. This is privileged information and if any of it gets out to the fleet, then you will find yourself in the brig," Garrett replied, "I have to say that what Major Hunter is suggesting would be the kind thing to do."
"No Commander it is not, murder is murder no matter what Major Hunter wraps it up as." Dr Green said.
"Madame Vice President what do you think?" Garrett asked.
Natasha sighed, this was not the kind of decision she had expected she would have to make on her first day.
"To be honest I just don't know," she replied, "Both arguments are valid."
Garrett could tell by the look on Natasha's face that she did not know how to react to this situation, or what to do.
"Madame Vice President, this whole thing has been a military mission, I'll take it out of your hands." Garrett said.
Natasha had to stop herself from giving a sigh of relief, "Very well Commander. Whichever choice you make, I will support completely."
"I am inclined to agree with Major Hunter." Garrett replied.
"So what, you're going to go and put a bullet in Ensign Jessop's head or smother him with a pillow?" Dr Green said.
"Dr Green your opinion has been noted." Garrett said.
"So who is going to kill him?" Green snapped.
There was silence for a moment.
"I'll do it," Archangel said, "Dr Hammond if I can have some morpha I'll help him."
"Of course." Dr Hammond replied.
"I'll also organise a strike team for the planets surface." Archangel said quietly.
"Thank you Major. I just want to say before we disband that everything we spoke of and all information is privileged, no one else can know." Garrett replied looking at Green.
As everyone got up to leave Garrett put her hand on Archangel's arm.
"Can you wait a moment? I need to speak to you." Vanessa said.
"Of course." He replied.
Archangel sat back down as everyone left.
"Thank you for volunteering to do this." Garrett said.
"It's not a problem, it's my job. Is everything okay?" he replied.
"My father is still out there. Chances are we will never run into him but if we do, we will have a problem." Garrett said.
"I had thought as much." Archangel replied.
"You've seen what he's capable of. If he got his hands on a civilian fleet then there's no telling what he would do with them." Vanessa said.
"We won't let it get that far. All you need to remember is when and if the moment happens, just say the word and any problem can be fixed. He's a dead man already, I'm just carrying his bullet until I'm close enough to fire it." he said looking her in the eye.
"I know." Vanessa said putting her hand on his.
"You know I'm always here if you need to talk, about your father, about anything." Archangel said, his tone kind.
"I'm sorry." She said.
"For what?" Archangel replied.
"For the way I've been acting towards you. For what I said yesterday. Things are just stressful and then when Grace appeared along with everything else, it was all just too much and I took it out on you." Vanessa said apologetically.
"I understand, better me than anyone else, it's okay." He replied.
"How are things with you and Grace? Must be nice to have the woman you love come back from the dead?" Vanessa asked, forcing a smile.
Archangel paused, just long enough for Garrett to realise she may have said something wrong.
"Things are different. I have to be honest and say that's all I wanted, to see her again. When I did I felt a mixture of emotions, the love I felt, the rage at other things. I'm not the same person I was on the Colonies. But I do still love her but we'll have to see what could happen, let's face it, right now she is sat under armed guard. Anyway things have changed since then."
"Like what?"
Archangel didn't reply straight away, he just looked at the Commander, "Things." he paused again, "Before all this, even on the Colonies, there were three versions of me. The Mark Hunter my friends and family knew, The CAG of the Battlestar Atlantia and a killer for the military. I'd always been able to keep them separate, there was rarely ever a moment when all three, when any of the three needed to meet each other. Now I'm here with my best friend, I'm a CAG again and I'm still needed to kill people, I'm all three at once and I'm having to find out how to be that person. You're the only one who can objectively see all three. It's different. I don't know who I am any more."
They both sat in silence for a few moments.
"In another life." Garrett said.
Archangel smiled, "Another life."
As Archangel walked into sickbay he tried not to think of what he had to do. He saw Bojay lying on a ventilator and walked over to his friend.
"I don't know if you can hear me. The things you do to get some time off. Well take your time and get yourself better." Archangel said to his friend.
As he turned he saw Dr Hammond waiting for him.
"Everything is ready Major." She said with sadness in her voice.
"Thank you." He replied as she handed him two needles full of morpha. Archangel took a deep breath and followed Hammond through to where Ensign Jessop was laying sedated. He didn't think about what he had to do, he took the needle and inserted it into the vein tap in the man's hand followed by the second one.
"I'm sorry." He said.
Moments later the heart monitor began to beep, before it flat lined.
"Thank you doctor." He said as he walked out.
Three hours later Archangel walked down the flight deck holding his helmet in his hand. He had decided that what had to be done, could be done by him, alone. The Chief had a Raptor ready for him. Missile batteries had been added to the small ship. Wedge walked up to him.
"Major." He said.
"Yes Wedge?" he replied.
"Let me take another raptor down to the surface and help you." He replied.
"Thank you for the offer but I'll do this by myself. But honestly thank you for the offer." Archangel said.
As he walked onto the Raptor Hydra sat at the ECO station.
"Everything is ready." She said.
"Thank you, you better head off, I need to get ready to take off." Archangel replied.
"I'm coming with you." She replied.
"I can't even order you off this raptor can I?" Archangel said.
"No, you can't." she replied.
Archangel took his seat and the Raptor and began to move off.
Nearly an hour later Archangel and Hydra arrived at the final site. The Pandora sat below them. He couldn't believe that after finding the Pandora, one of the Colonies biggest mysteries, he was now about to destroy it. Below he could see people who had succumbed to what they were now calling the "Pandora effect". He took the safeties off the remaining missiles and fired. The explosion was massive, when it finished there was nothing left. The sides of valley had collapsed, covering what was left of the wreckage.
"Okay Jess, let's go home." He said.
The events of the last few days had taken its toll on Archangel as much as it had on everyone else. He found himself out side the door of Graces' new quarters. He exchanged brief pleasantries with the guards before he went inside. As the door shut Commander Garrett walked past and sighed as she saw Archangel walk into Grace's room.
"Are you okay?" Grace asked as he walked in.
"It's been tough couple of days." He replied sitting on her bed.
"I noticed." She replied sitting next to him.
"Thank you for saving Bojay's life." he said.
"I didn't do it for thanks," she replied, "He's a good man and didn't deserve to die."
"Things are getting worse." Archangel said.
"We're in for some dark days ahead," Grace said, "But you have to have the bad as well as the good."
