2 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

Archangel walked up the stairs in his house. He held a tray carrying a plate with bacon, scrambled eggs and mushrooms. A small rack with three slices of toast, a dish of butter, a mug of hot steaming coffee, a glass of fresh orange juice and a single white rose. He smiled to himself, today would be the day, he could feel it. He nudged the bedroom door open and walked inside. Penny began to stir when she heard him come in.

"Good morning," he said to her, "Sleep well?"

Penny nodded as she began to sit up in bed.

"Thought you might like your favourite for breakfast."

"Oh frak yeah," she said with a smile, "You sure know how to make a girl happy. But if you wanted to get laid, you only needed to ask." she took the tray from him, "Thank you."

Archangel went to kiss her, she moved away, "Morning breath." she said with a giggle.

"I don't care." he replied, kissing her anyway.

He stood up and opened the curtains that covered the huge windows that ran floor to ceiling all away along the room.

"It's a beautiful day. I was thinking, if you're up for it, Archer will be holding his famous Colonial Day barbecue and party, it's friends only, one of the only two days he shuts up shop each year."

Penny smiled, "They still have no idea we're here?"

Archangel shook his head, "Nope."

"Then can we stay here? We don't often get a chance for it to be just us."

Archangel smiled, "That is more than acceptable." he replied with a laugh.

"Thank you." she replied with a smile.

Archangel sat on the side of the bed.

"What is it?" she asked.

"There's one other thing. I've had the best time with you, as I always do. When we're together like this, it makes me think about all the things we're missing. I know I've asked you this before," he reached into his pocket as he got down on one knee, "Please Penny Cooper, please will you marry me?"

Penny put the tray on the bed next to her and took the large diamond ring from the box. She looked down at it and then up at Archangel. He almost looked scared. She cracked a smile before placing the ring on her finger.

"Yes, and we should muster out, come live here."

Before she could react, Archangel hugged her and kissed her, "You won't regret this."

"I know. This is the only place I've ever felt at home, here, with you. We could try and be normal."

They both burst out laughing.

"Spoiler alert, but you and I, we're never going to be normal." Archangel said.

"Yeah, even hearing myself say that was wrong." she replied, "But I stand by the rest of it. We're going to have a good life Hunter, I can feel it."

TODAY

As Archangel's Raptor moved onto the Trinity's hanger deck he could see Commander Knox standing waiting for him. He moved through to the back of the Raptor and picked up his bags and pulled the release for the side hatch. As the Raptor came to a stop, the hatch opened fully.

"Permission to come aboard Commander." Archangel said.

"Permission granted Major." Knox replied with a smile.

As far as he could tell, Knox appeared to be in a great mood, he wondered why, no doubt Penny was in hack. He chuckled to himself at that thought. As he stepped onto the hanger deck the Commander shook his hand vigorously.

"Welcome aboard Major. I trust everything is well back with the fleet?" he asked with a smile.

"It is sir. I heard something about you finding a planet?"

"Come, walk with me, I'll tell you about it. Captain's Stark and Cooper found it while looking through the system. It's the most interesting thing we've found so far." Knox said.

"Certainly sounds like a good find. Anything interesting on the surface?" Archangel asked.

"Well the weather there is bad, I mean worse than Aquaria bad, but they managed to find a deserted settlement. We're currently putting a team together to go and explore and see what we can find about whoever may have lived there." Knox enthused.

"Wow, sounds like something I'd love to see."

"Well I'll be going down with Stark and Cooper, you're here to see the squadron in action, it would be a perfect time for you to see the CAG in action. I know you're old friends, but you've never seen her in her role as CAG before. What do you say?"

Archangel was in total surprise at this, he had not expected to be invited along.

"I say I'd love to, thank you very much sir." Archangel replied.

"Well I'll take you to your quarters now, then you can go and liaise with my CAG, I believe she's in the pilot's main briefing room going over the pictures she's taken so far. Once the Medlia has had a chance to take more detailed readings from the planet, we'll put together a plan of action."

Archangel smiled to himself, finally, he thought, something different from the normality of the last couple of months.

"Still complete radio silence from the Richmond." Lieutenant Phillips said from Orion's COM station.

"Is the President's shuttle en route?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes Ma'am." Phillips replied.

"Please inform Commander Hicks to distribute the new secondary standby coordinates to the rest of the fleet and inform them to jump away. Bojay, can you meet the President on the hanger deck and bring her here?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes Ma'am." Bojay replied before heading off the CIC.

"Mr Phillips, can you try and get through to our shuttle on the Richmond? If we're lucky, they'll pick up." Vanessa said.

"I'll try Admiral." Phillips replied.

The hanger deck of the Richmond, compared to the other Battlestars was very quiet. Vannick stood and watched as members of their deck gang unloaded the cases of missiles and bullets. The large shuttle was full to the brim of reloads.

Lieutenant Luna "Rangler" Harper walked up to Vannick, she was still adjusting to life in the military, but she was enjoying it more than she'd enjoyed anything since the Fall.

"What's it like being back?" Vannick asked her.

"I've never been here before. I was only ever on the Rangler. What is strange is being on a Battlestar hanger deck that's so quiet." Luna replied.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Vannick replied.

"Lieutenant." One of the Specialist's supervising the Richmond deck gang shouted.

Both Luna and Vannick turned to see him walking towards them.

"What is it Specialist?" Vannick asked.

"Someone from Orion is trying to get through to you on the radio." he replied.

"I'll go." Luna said.

Vannick nodded to her.

She quickly jogged back onboard the shuttle and made her way to the cockpit. She picked up her headset and put it on as she sat in the pilot's chair.

"Hello, this is Lieutenant Harper." Luna said.

"Rangler, this is Lieutenant Phillips, please hold for the Admiral." Phillips replied to her.

There was a brief pause.

"Rangler, this is Orion Actual, I need to be straight to the point. Something is going on aboard the Richmond, they're in radio silence. The General's son sent someone to try and kill the President, we think he may be trying to make a play to take the ship."

"Admiral, what do you want me to do?" Luna asked.

"You need to inform Lieutenant Vannick. If you see Maxwell, you need to ask him to talk to me. Do not engage with them unless necessary. I don't want any loss of life if it can be avoided." Vanessa replied.

"Should I get Vannick, Admiral?" Luna asked.

"Yes." Vanessa replied.

"I'll be quick." Luna replied.

She took off her headset and ran as quickly as she could through the shuttle.

"Vannick!" she shouted as she reached the door, "You need to..."

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Maxwell with a gun pointed at Vannick's head. Every person who had come with them from Orion had someone standing next to them with a gun pointed at them. Without even realising, her hand went for her side arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Luna. I'd hate to have to kill you." Maxwell said.

She put her hands up in the air and stood completely still.

"Good girl." he said before hitting Vannick round the head with the butt of his gun.

Bojay stood on the hanger deck watching as the shuttle from the Starburst came to a stop. After the hatch at the front of the ship opened, two members of the Starburst security team came out first, followed by the President, her assistant, General Magnusson and finally Skeeter who looked the worse for ware.

"Madame President are you okay?" Bojay asked as he helped her down the final few steps.

"I'm fine thank you Bojay, sorry, Colonel Johnson." she replied.

"I've said before, Bojay or Jimmy is just fine. Are you all okay?" he asked.

"Skeeter needs medical assistance," Carrie replied, "But Gwen and I are okay thank you."

"I'm fine, honestly." Skeeter protested as two of Orion's medics walked towards him.

"No, you aren't," Carrie replied, "I followed your suggestion to come here, now you follow mine and let them help you."

Skeeter smiled and let out a slight laugh, "Okay." he replied.

Moments later, Wedge pushed past everyone and kissed his wife before hugging her.

"I just heard," Wedge said, "Are you okay?"

Carrie nodded and kissed him again, "Skeeter and the General saved us both."

"Thank you." Wedge said.

"It was all Mr Kent." Silas said.

"I will say though, if I get my hands on your son, he's a dead man." Wedge said.

"Captain Manning, if we get my son, I'll lead you to the front of the queue." Silas replied.

"If you would all follow me, the Admiral is on the CIC and has requested I take you to her." Bojay replied.

"Of course." Carrie answered.

"Mr Phillips, is the line still open?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes Ma'am." he replied.

"I want EMP warheads ready to go." Vanessa replied.

She looked up as Bojay led everyone else onto the CIC.

"Is everyone okay?" Vanessa asked.

Carrie nodded, "Skeeter has been hurt but your medics are seeing to him."

"Admiral, has there been any word from my son?" Silas asked.

"No nothing yet. I managed to speak to one of my people on the hanger deck, she was going to get one of my marines to speak to, but there has been no reply since. General, I have to ask, do you have any idea of what your son is up to?" Vanessa replied.

Silas shook his head, "Nothing for sure. I assume he is going to make a play for the ship."

"We have to get through to the ship somehow." Bojay added.

"While I cannot cut through the communications blackout, I do have a way so that we can see what is going on. I have cameras all over the ship and I have remote access to them." Silas replied.

"Then let's see what's going on over there." Vanessa replied signalling him to follow her to the huge bank of monitors on one of the CIC's walls.

Archangel walked into the pilots briefing room aboard the Trinity. Alisa stood looking at the photos of the planet she had found. She hadn't even noticed he was there.

"Looks interesting." Archangel said.

Alisa jumped at hearing her friend.

"You made me jump, I didn't realise you were there." she replied giving her friend a hug.

"Sorry about that. So what's this I hear about a planet?"

"We're just getting the first pictures through from the Medlia now. Looks like there used to be some massive settlements here once. We're heading down to the planet to see what we can find."

"Knox already told me. Guess who's coming with you?" he replied with a smile.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah."

"It'll make it easier for you to spy on him." Alisa said.

Archangel laughed, "You figured it out then."

"I knew it!" Penny said as she walked into the room, before hugging Archangel.

"Nothing I haven't already done with Hicks." Archangel replied.

Penny and Alisa both burst out laughing.

"I didn't mean, you guys are just perverts. Setting the subject back on track, any ideas where you want to set down?"

Alisa turned back to the pictures.

"I was going to suggest here where it's open. From what I can tell it's where the biggest settlement was. I was initially looking at the settlement at the bottom of these mountains, but with the weather being at it is I was worried about any potential flash flooding."

"Looks like a good plan," Archangel replied, "Are those caves?"

"Yes," Alisa replied, "Major Lethwaite has said, Ghost reports when it looked with infrared, there appears to be a cave network that link some of the settlements together, apparently there is a massive cave in the middle."

"Looks like this should be fun," Archangel said, "So is it just us three and the Commander?"

"No he's bringing a couple of marines and a couple of other crew members with us," Penny said, "Our little bird is going to be crowded."

All of the monitors on Orion's CIC began showing a different feed from the Richmond.

"Oh my gods." Carrie said as they all saw the amount of people Maxwell and his people had killed.

General Magnusson was utterly shocked into silence.

"Admiral, you need to see this." Bojay said as he moved the feed from the Richmond's main hanger deck. All of Orion's crew members had been forced to kneel down, behind each of them, one of Maxwell's people, each with a gun pointed at the back of their heads. Maxwell stood in front of them talking to two people. Suddenly one of them pointed up towards the camera. Maxwell turned and looked up. Then he smiled and waved before walking towards one of the phones on the wall, he picked it up and started to say something.

"Admiral," Lieutenant Phillips said, "Maxwell wants to speak to you."

"Bojay, Madame President, General, please take a headset," Vanessa said picking up hers and putting one on, "You need to stand down before you do something you can't come back from."

"Ah, so I guess the President is alive," Maxwell replied, "Oh well, I wasn't really bothered if she came out of it alive. It was just a distraction after all."

"Just a distraction?!" Carrie exclaimed, "People are dead."

"How many of my men and women are still alive?"

"None of them." Vanessa replied.

"Oh, now that is a shame. Here's the deal Admiral, you let me leave and you'll get your people back."

"You release them at once boy!" Silas snapped.

"Father please, I'm talking to the person in the room who actually has authority. Now Vanessa, I'm sure you have some of those fancy EMP's ready to launch at us, but know, that if you do, you'll get none of your people back."

"Why are you doing this?" Carrie asked.

"Because the sight of my father with his nose so far up your ass sickens me. My dearest father has taken everything his father and his father achieved and shit on it. I am taking all of those who feel the same way and we are leaving, you'll never see us again. We want to be free of Colonial oppression."

"If you let my people leave, unharmed, along with everyone else who wants to stay with the fleet, then you can have that ship and go."

"You see Admiral, while I can agree to 99% of that, there is one thing I need to do now, something to even the score a little."

"What?" Vanessa snapped.

"You know, one of the few things I remember my Grandfather always telling me as a kid, was, Maxwell, take the time everyday to enjoy the little things. Now these are words I've always lived by, my morning cup of coffee and that first cigarette of the day. But there's one thing I've always enjoyed and so infrequently get to do, murder," he laughed as he said that, "One thing I said to Mr Chiwell before I killed him was how easy killing someone is with a gun, but it's too quick, you don't really get the chance to savour the kill. So I had an idea. Oh and don't panic, Miss Harper is safe, she may have joined you, but she was never really one of us, so I'll let her off, she was following a dream and I can appreciate that, plus look at her, she's smoking."

As he finished speaking, they could see him drop the phone and pick up a rifle by the barrel and began to walk over to the cowering Colonials.

"Who to pick? I just don't know." he said smiling maniacally.

As he walked past Vannick he scowled as he walked past and then stopped at the female Specialist crying next to him.

"What's your name honey?" Maxwell asked.

"Casey." she replied quietly.

"Do you want to die today Casey?" he asked.

She just began to cry more.

"Maxwell, you don't have to do this." Luna said.

"Yes, yes I do." Maxwell replied.

Before she could say anything, Maxwell swung the rifle into the air and with all his strength brought it down onto Vannick's head with a sickening crack. He slumped forward and groaned. He couldn't think coherently.

"Holy frak, did you see that?!" Maxwell exclaimed with a laugh, "You know it's amazing what kind of damage the human body can take, I mean look, I can see his fraking brain!"

Blood poured from the devastating wound on his head. His skull had split down the middle.

He turned to smile and wink at the camera. He span back around.

"Don't worry Lieutenant whatever your name is, I'll try to finish the job on the next swing."

Blood poured down into Vannick's eyes and mouth, he tried to steady himself, but couldn't stop swaying.

"Frak... frak you." he managed to say.

As he finished speaking Maxwell swung again and buried the end of the rifle into Vannick's head. Luna and several others screamed. Blood had splattered over everyone near by, Maxwell's face in particular. Moments later Vannick slumped to the ground dead.

"You son of a bitch." Luna screamed.

Maxwell dropped the rifle and smiled. His face covered in Vannick's blood, small pieces of skull bone and brain. He turned and walked back to the phone before picking it up.

"Now did you see that Admiral?"

"You son of a bitch, if you hurt one more member of my crew."

"You'll what? Nuke us and kill everyone?"

"You killed six of my people, so I intend on killing six of yours."

"Son, I told you there would be consequences for your actions and I will make sure you pay for murdering that man." Silas said.

"Frak you," he replied, "And I intend on murdering more than one." he dropped the phone again.

Maxwell took a couple of steps forward.

"Take Luna out of the line up and shoot five more people in the back of the head."

"Admiral, you need to see this." Bojay said pointing to another monitor.

Vanessa wiped tears from her eyes before looking at the monitor.

"That's Ron," Vanessa said, "He was with Luna on the Rangler. What's he doing?"

On the monitor they saw him and a group of others in one of the Richmond's armouries. They could see two dead men on the floor next to the door.

"Those dead men," Silas said, "I think they're my son's friends."

"So they could be fighting back." Bojay said.

"We need to find a way of getting in contact with them, right fraking now." Vanessa replied.

The weather on the small planet was calm. As the landing party got off the Raptor they could see how far the settlement went. Other than Knox, Alisa, Penny and Archangel, they had been joined by two marines and two crew members who had joined the party to take as many samples as they could. All of them were wearing jock smocks with their helmets still on, despite the clear weather there was a concern it could change at any second.

"This is truly breathtaking." Knox said.

"Looks as though no one has lived here in a very long time." Archangel replied.

"I doubt we'll find out what happened here, but I'm looking forward to finding out more." Knox said.

While the Specialists took samples of various things, the others took the time to explore. Penny walked towards one of the remaining complete dwellings that were left and stopped when she heard something crunch under her feet. She looked down at the ground and could see something just under the surface. She knelt down and began to brush the dirt away.

"What have you found?" Archangel asked as he walked up to her.

"Before I stood on it, I think it was a pot," she replied as she picked up some of the pieces, "Hang on, there's something else here."

She dug down deeper and stopped, her eyes widened at what she saw.

"What? Penny, what is it?" Archangel asked, kneeling down next to her, "Holy frak."

From beneath the pot, Penny pulled out a gun, covered and clogged with mud, with the remains of a metallic hand still holding it in its grip.

"This can't be possible, surely?!" Penny exclaimed.

"A bit of a fraking coincidence, don't you think?" Archangel replied.

"What have you found?" Knox asked as he and Alisa walked up to them.

Penny held up the gun and hand to show them both.

"That can't be. Whatever happened here must have happened long before we created the Cylons." Knox said.

"Look at this place, there's no way whoever lived here made robots," Alisa said, "Yeah they managed to create some utterly incredible stone statues, but there's no way they had the tech to do this."

"So then they came from somewhere else." Archangel replied.

"Now there's a worrying thought." Knox said.

"We're going to have to launch Raptors loaded with marines," Bojay said, "We've done this before with the Musa Sala."

"Does the Richmond have any DRADIS blind spots?" Vanessa asked.

"No." Magnusson replied.

"Admiral, if I may, I have a suggestion, but it's a long shot." Gwen said quietly.

All eyes suddenly turned to Carrie's assistant.

"General, you've been able to patch us into your ships cameras, I have two questions. Do they have any kind of light on them when they're activated like some security cameras do?" she asked.

"Yes they do." Silas replied.

"Would you be able to switch a specific one on and off at will?" Gwen asked.

"Of course." he said again.

"We can track these people, see where they're going. We try to get their attention with the lights."

"And then?" Carrie asked.

"We communicate with them in morsecode." Gwen said.

"And hope one of them can understand it." Carrie said.

"Like I said, it's a long shot."

"But it's the only one we have right now." Vanessa replied.

"Where is this?" Bojay asked pointing to a monitor where Ron walked with the others in the group.

Silas looked at the screen for a moment, "G deck, section 14." he said.

"We need to keep following them." Vanessa said.

She handed him the control for the monitors and cameras.

"What should I say?" Silas asked.

"You need to tell him what happened and tell them to head to the hanger bay." Vanessa replied.

Everyone was silent as they waited and hoped Ron or one of the others would notice the flashing lights on each camera they passed. It took six cameras before Ron noticed. They saw him stop and then say something to the others making them stop. When he saw Ron had seen him, he began to tap the message. When Silas had finished, Ron nodded his head and gave the camera the thumbs up.

"Now we only have to hope we haven't sent more good people to their deaths." Silas said.

The wind had started to pick up out of nowhere on the small world, the sky had gone from bright blue to grey in a matter of moments.

"I think we should start heading back to the Raptor." Knox said.

"The way the weather is turning so quickly, sir, I don't think we'll make it back in time." Alisa replied.

"I have to agree," Archangel added, "We can get to one of the complete huts we found and sit it out. Worst case if it lasts too long, we can explore the tunnels. I mean, if you agree Commander."

Knox looked at his CAG and then Archangel, he knew they were right.

"Lead the way." Knox replied.

The group got their gear together and started to make their way to the nearest of the habitats. As Commander Knox reached their destination, the rain started to lash down heavily.

"Frak me, this is bad." Penny said as they all finally got inside.

The group quickly worked together to make as best a camp as they could. Ten minutes later, lights had been rigged and they were all sat around drinking hot drinks and talking.

"I've never been caught in weather like this before." Knox said.

"I have," Archangel replied, "After the Cylons attacked back home on Sagittaron."

"I can't imagine what it must have been like to see and go through all of that." Alisa replied.

"It was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. Seeing all those nukes was one thing, but having to fight and run for so long. I know that's what we're having to do now and have been for what feels like forever, but having the added security of the Battlestar you serve on, having thousands of people fighting with you, makes it a little easier. When it rained and it rained a lot, it was like this. But we had a good group and we did whatever it took to stay alive."

"You guys must be close." Penny said.

"Those of us who are left, there are only four of us now, but yeah, we're close." Archangel replied before taking a sip from his drink.

"Do you think we'll ever find somewhere to settle?" one of the Specialist's asked.

"I do," Archangel replied, "Hopefully sooner rather than later."

"Did anybody hear that?!" Penny asked.

"Hear what?" Alisa replied.

Penny put her finger to her lips and everyone stayed quiet.

"I don't hear anything but the wind and rain." Knox said.

Penny gave him a look that told him to be quiet. From outside, despite the noise of the weather, some of them heard the faint sound of movement.

"I heard that." Archangel replied as he stood up and drew one of his side arms, he, Penny and Alisa moved towards the doorway.

"Can you see anything?" Alisa asked.

Archangel looked for a moment, he saw a shape a split second before gunfire erupted from inside the storm. Without even thinking, Archangel and Penny returned fire. When Archangel hid behind the wall from the incoming fire, he saw Alisa on the ground, a bullet wound in her left shoulder.

"Give me cover." he yelled to Penny, who again opened fire.

Archangel moved out from his cover and dragged Alisa out of the way.

"Are you with me Stark?" he asked.

She groaned and nodded her head in reply.

"Who the frak is it?" Knox asked as the two marines joined the firefight.

"No idea," Archangel replied, "We have to get out of here."

"And go where exactly?" Knox replied.

"We can head for the caves, we'll have more room to run." Archangel replied, before he returned fire.

"We're leaving," Knox ordered, "NOW!"

"Commander, help Alisa and we'll cover you." Penny yelled as she reloaded her side arm.

As Knox helped Alisa towards the back of the building, the wall behind Archangel exploded into pieces. Archangel tried to dive out of the way, but he was still being showered in rubble. He turned in time to see a Cylon the likes of which he had never seen before. It was the height of the Centurions they were used to fighting, but seemed much bigger. The head was much more angular with sharper feature. It looked terrifying, as much as it was different, the flashing red eye was still the same. Before Archangel could even raise his weapon, one of the marines shot it several times in the head destroying it.

"Thanks." Archangel said.

Corporal Martin Ripley nodded a response.

"We need to move, NOW!" Penny yelled.

As they turned to run, Ripley threw a grenade out towards the oncoming enemy.

"Frak me." Penny said as they passed one of the Specialists who had been killed.

As they reached the exit at the back of the building they could see Knox and Alisa heading towards the entrance to the cave fifty meters ahead.

"We need to get our helmets." Private Alice Kirk said.

"We can't," Archangel said, "Cover your face as best you can and move."

Kirk opened her mouth to speak again.

"MOVE, NOW Private." Ripley bellowed as he returned fire.

Ripley threw two more grenades before turning, bringing the entire structure down.

The rain painfully hit them in the face and the wind nearly knocked Archangel off his feet. He turned quickly to check behind them, but nothing was following, for now. He was the last to make it to the cave entrance. He followed Corporal Ripley inside who had switched on the torch on his rifle.

"You okay back there Major?" Ripley asked.

"Present, you?" Archangel replied.

"All good here."

One hundred metres ahead as the cave widened out, everyone had stopped.

"Did we get them all?" Knox asked.

"I have no idea. Corporal Ripley took out most of them with his grenades. I didn't see any more following us, but that doesn't mean they're not there." Archangel replied.

"We need to do a weapons check," Penny said, "I have a full magazine and two spare."

"I'm still fully loaded," Alisa added, "I didn't get chance to get a shot off."

Archangel ejected an empty magazine and loaded a full one as he spoke, "I've got two side arms, three magazines for this one, four for this one." he said patting the one still in it's holster.

"Two magazines for my rifle and four for my side arm," Ripley said, "As well as four more grenades."

"I have the same. Except I have ten grenades." Private Kirk said.

"Ten?!" Ripley said.

"Yeah, I had an iffy feeling about this mission." she replied trying to hide a smile.

"I'm unarmed." the Specialist said, "Not that I want one, I've never even fired a gun."

"Commander?" Archangel asked.

"I'm unarmed as well," he replied, "I never carry a weapon."

Archangel unholstered his unused side arm and passed it to the Commander with the extra magazines.

"You sure you don't want one?" Ripley asked the Specialist.

"Positive sir, I'll just follow you if I may?"

"So what's our next move?" Alisa asked.

"We go deeper into the caves. If we head to the next entrance, we can use the mountain range for cover and then double back to the Raptor." Knox said.

"Let's move." Archangel added.

The caves wound on and on. They moved quickly and as quietly as they could. Suddenly Penny stopped, forcing everyone else to do the same.

"Why are we stopping?" Archangel said, bringing up the rear.

"Major, you need to see this." Knox said.

"Oh my gods." Archangel said as his mouth fell open.

The massive cave, the Medlia had seen on its thermal scans was right in front of them. Along the edges were level after level of metal gantry. Huge metal girders reinforced the cave walls. In the middle of the cave was what looked like some kind of Cylon Baseship. It looked like a huge metal yo-yo, with six metal spikes sticking out of the top and bottom section. There appeared to be no sign of any activity off any kind.

"Have any of you seen a ship like this before?" Ripley asked.

"It reminds me of the Baseships from the first war, but at the same time completely and utterly different." Archangel replied.

"What the frak is that on the other side, can anyone make it out?" Alisa asked.

Ripley took a pair of binoculars out of his bag and looked over.

"We should keep going." he said.

"What is it?" Archangel asked.

Ripley handed him the binoculars, "Well now we know what happened to the people on this planet."

As he zoomed in further he could see what looked like old laboratories, parts of human skeletal remains were still on some of the table. Behind them on the walls were what looked like tubes, which were just big enough for a person to fit into. Everyone who wanted to see had seen the horrors of the cave.

"We should keep moving." Knox said quietly.

"When we get back to the ship, we need to nuke the site from orbit," Archangel said, "Only way to be sure."

"You watch way too many movies, Hunter." Penny said as she started walking away, "But, you're not wrong."

"How long until we're overdue?" Archangel asked as they started walking again.

Knox looked at his watch, "Another five and a half hours."

"Okay, the next time the caves broaden out again we need to stop, I have an idea."

Skeeter had been patched up, his hand stitched up and his wounds covered over. As he walked onto Orion's CIC he saw Carrie and the others standing next to the bank of vid screens.

Bojay walked over to him, "You okay buddy?" he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, had much worse. So did we get him yet?" Skeeter asked.

"Not yet, but hopefully we'll have him soon. You should go and rest." Bojay replied.

"Why are you trying to stop me from seeing the monitors?" Skeeter asked. He didn't wait for an answer and pushed past his friend.

"Skeeter, there's something you need to know." Carrie said.

"Who is that?" Skeeter said pointing to one of the bodies on the hanger deck, he could already tell, but he was praying he was wrong.

Carrie turned to him, "Skeeter, it's Darius."

"Who... what... who killed him?" he asked as he started to cry.

"Maxwell." Vanessa replied.

"How?" Skeeter asked as he wiped his eyes.

"Skeeter, trust me you don't need to know." Vanessa replied.

"HOW!" Skeeter yelled.

"He beat him to death with a rifle." Vanessa replied.

There was silence for a moment, the rage Skeeter suddenly felt, he hadn't felt it since Bria had died. He turned to look at Silas. Bojay and Vanessa realised what was going to happen a second too late. Skeeter lunged at Silas catching him off guard. He grabbed him by the collar, spun him around and threw him against the wall before drawing his weapon.

"Skeeter, stop, it wasn't him." Carrie pleaded.

"You knew, admit it." Skeeter said with pure rage in his voice.

The General looked up at him and held his hands up.

"Mr Kent, I swear I had nothing to do with this. You have my word." Silas stammered.

"Your word, YOUR WORD?! Your word's not worth shit."

The whole CIC had gone silent, all eyes on what was happening. Marines looking confused over what they should do, they all knew Skeeter. They raised their weapons as Carrie stepped towards him, they looked at the Admiral for orders. Bojay, eyes wide shook his head silently at them. Skeeter looked up as Carrie stepped in between Silas and him. He lowered his gun to point to the ground as he saw her, the marines did the same.

"Do you trust me?" she asked.

Skeeter nodded through the tears.

"Then trust me when I say, he had nothing to do with this. It's because of him that we have a chance of stopping this before anyone else dies," Carrie said, "I know how upset you are, I know what he meant to you and Mark. Give me your gun, I am begging you." her voice so quiet the others could barely hear her.

Skeeter handed her the gun and she passed it to Bojay before hugging Skeeter.

"I'm sorry." Skeeter said.

"It's okay," she replied, "It's okay."

The tunnel started to widen out again. So far they had seen no other Cylons and everything had been quiet. As Archangel walked into the wider section everyone was waiting for him.

"So what's your idea Hunter?" Alisa asked.

He quickly shone his torch around the cave.

"We take all the grenades we have left and we split them. We put half of them this side of this stone beam and then the others this side. Is the Medlia still here?"

Knox nodded, "Yes, they're here till we get back. They're taking whatever samples we bring up to the Columbus."

"Good, if we're lucky the Medlia will see the explosion and if we can't get to the Raptor, they'll send someone to come get us." Archangel replied.

"I like it." Penny replied.

"It'll definitely work?" Knox asked.

"Not definitely, but it's worth a go, plus it'll stop anything from following us." Archangel replied.

"Good enough for me," Knox said, "Corporal, Private if you can go back into the tunnels, not too far, but just in case they find us."

Everyone started to busy themselves.

"Captain Cooper," Knox said, "Can I just say, I was so impressed to see how you handled the situation when the Cylons first attacked us."

"Erm, thank you." Penny replied.

They all worked as quickly as they could to set up the explosives. As they were finishing they could hear gunfire in the tunnels behind them.

"Are we done?" Knox asked.

"Yeah, the last of them are ready," Alisa replied, "All we need to do is pull these wires when we're in the next tunnel."

"I'll tell the marines." the Specialist shouted. As he turned into the tunnel, a bullet hit him in the head killing him instantly. Moments later, Ripley was backing into the tunnel firing his rifle.

"GO GO GO," he yelled, "There are at least six.." before he could finish speaking he was shot dead. As he fell backwards his rifle went off and hit one of the grenades making it and all the ones with it explode.

Rubble fell everywhere as part of the ceiling caved in.

Knox coughed and rubbed the dust off his face, "Are you all okay?"

As he looked around he saw Penny unconscious on the ground, blood running from a wound on her head from falling debris. He saw Archangel start to stand up, he swayed slightly. He could see blood pouring from a wound in his shoulder where shrapnel from the grenade had hit him, then he saw Stark at the same time Archangel did.

"ALISA!" Archangel yelled as he staggered over to his friend.

The stone beam from the ceiling had collapsed and it had crushed her left leg under it. As she started to come around she began to cough and then began to yell out in agony.

"I'm gonna lift this off you," Archangel said frantically, "When I do, I need you to pull yourself free, okay?"

She nodded.

"Commander, help me." Archangel said.

Knox dashed over to them.

"On three." Archangel said.

Knox nodded to him.

"1, 2, 3." on three, both men summoned all the strength they had, nothing happened.

"Again?" Knox asked.

"Again." Archangel replied, "1, 2, 3."

Yet again, nothing happened.

"Stop, stop," Alisa said, "You guys need to go."

"What?" Archangel said, "No."

"You guys couldn't shift this even with Jawbreaker. Commander, you need to take Penny and you need to go to the Raptor. Even if you could get this off me, I'd bleed out before you could even get me back to the barn." Alisa replied as she calmed her breathing.

Archangel slumped to his knees and nodded at the Commander, "I'll be right behind you."

Knox looked down at Alisa, "It's been my honour to serve with you as my CAG, Alisa."

She forced a smile and nodded, "You too sir. She's going to be more of a handful than she ever has been after this, please Commander, please be patient with her."

"You have my word captain. See you on the other side." he said before standing up and going over to Penny and carefully picking her up.

As he left, Archangel sat next to his friend and took hold of her hand.

"What are you doing? You need to go." Alisa said.

"Why? This is as good a place as any to die and I'm not going to let you die alone." Archangel replied, utterly at peace with his choice.

Alisa squeezed her friends hand, "No Hunter, you need to go."

He turned and looked at her, tears streamed down his face, "I'm not leaving you."

"Your sister is going to give birth to a baby soon and you need to be there for that. You have a woman on Orion who loves you."

"You know?"

Alisa laughed, "Everyone knows. It's the worst kept secret since you and Penny. For a spy, you've always been shit at keeping secrets."

It was Archangel's turn to laugh, "I don't know if we can do this without you."

"You were doing it all those years without me."

"I don't mean that, when we're together, you're the glue, you're the one who slaps sense into us. You were always the best of us. Please Alisa, I can die, here, with you. You're my sister, I can't let you go alone."

"We always go alone, one day, you'll have a bad day in the cockpit and you'll be alone. But until that day Mark Hunter, go be with the admiral, go keep everyone safe. If I let you stay here Penny dies too, Knox can't fly and Penny's out cold. I know the part of you that's still in love with her can't let that happen either. So go, and do me one last thing, don't let the pain take over, in either of you."

Archangel nodded.

"No, I need to hear the words, I need you to promise me. No one in this fleet deserves you two on a rage fuelled rampage, I need you to swear it to me."

Archangel wiped the tears from his eyes, "I promise."

"Don't make me haunt you." she said managing a little smile, "Now stand the frak up Major, hand me the wires to those grenades and stay alive."

He took a deep breath, he turned to her and kissed her on the forehead, and stood up, wincing with pain as he did. He reached over and took hold of the wires still connected to the remaining grenades and passed them to her.

"Nuke this place when you're safe." Alisa said.

Archangel nodded, "I love you Stark."

"I love you too. Tell Penny to be strong, to stay living and that I love her."

"I will."

"Now turn around and walk the frak away, let me do one last good thing. See you in Hell Hunter, just don't make it too soon." she smiled at her friend one last time.

Archangel took a deep breath and walked away.

Alisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them again as she started to hear the sound of the Cylons walking into this part of the tunnel.

"Now that looks painful."

She looked up and saw a 1 model Cylon walk in surrounded by centurions.

"Well it doesn't tickle." Alisa replied.

"I won't lie, I was hoping for Major Hunter or Commander what's his name. I'll have to let you bleed to death, you're not an important hostage."

Alisa couldn't help herself, she started to laugh uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" 1 asked.

"What you just said," she replied trying to stop herself laughing, "You have no idea who I am do you?"

"Enlighten me." he replied.

"My best friends, one of whom is, Major Hunter, would tear your ship apart in order to get me back. The last thing you ever saw would be him and Cooper as they slaughtered you and every toaster you have."

"Is that so?"

Alisa nodded, "You have no idea."

"So what you're saying is, I should ask my friends here to lift this off you and I should take you hostage?"

Alisa smiled, "No, that's not what I'm saying at all."

As she finished speaking she pulled the wire in her hands and all the remaining grenades exploded.

Commander Knox could make out the Raptor up ahead. The rain had stopped, but the wind was still as fast as it had been since they arrived. He held his gun tightly in his grip. Penny lay unconscious over his shoulder.

"Well Captain," he said to her, "It's now or never."

Without thinking, he stepped out from the cover of the mountain and out towards the Raptor. The minutes seemed to last an eternity before he reached the bird. He managed to climb up the wing before opening the side hatch. Moments later he was inside and he laid her down gently on the ground. As he turned around he saw Archangel step inside and close the hatch behind them. He walked straight through to the cockpit.

"Put on your headset and sit at the ECO station." Archangel said.

"Of course." Knox replied.

Moments later the small craft lifted off.

"Sir, as soon as we break orbit I'll open a channel to the Trinity." Archangel said.

"Thank you Major." he replied.

For the next few moments they flew in silence. As they broke through the atmosphere, Trinity and Medlia appeared on DRADIS.

"Channel is open Commander." Archangel said.

"Battlestar Trinity, this is Commander Knox, can you hear me?" he said.

"Commander Knox, this is Trinity XO, is everything okay sir?" Colonel North replied.

"No Colonel, no it is not, I need you to listen to me very carefully, I need you to load nuclear launchers 1 through 5 and target the exact coordinates I'm going to send you. I also need you to have medics ready for us on the hanger deck, Major Hunter and Captain Cooper are both injured."

"Commander, is everyone else okay?" North asked.

"Colonel, there is no one else left. I'll explain everything when we're aboard." Knox replied.

"Admiral, Madame President, it would seem, Ron and his men have arrived at the hanger deck," Bojay said, "It appears they're having to cut through a door."

As Vanessa looked back at the monitors, she could see Ron and his team. They then saw Maxwell's face appear on one of the screens showing the hanger deck. He was still covered in Vannick's blood. He held up the phone and pointed at it.

Vanessa and the others picked up their headsets, "Are you ready to give us our people back?"

"Oh Vanessa, it's as though you read my mind. It's such a shame we won't be able to come proper friends."

Vanessa had to bite her tongue and hold back on what she wanted to say.

"What do you want in return?" Bojay asked.

"Who are you?" Maxwell asked.

"Colonel Johnson, Orion's XO." Bojay replied.

"At least you're important, if my father had responded, I would have had to kill someone else. Colonel, here's what is going to happen. I am going to send the shuttle with your people on it and then they're going to wait. If any of your Vipers or Raptors approach, then the missiles I'm going to have locked on to it will blow it to pieces. What you are going to do is send another shuttle to the Richmond and it is going to land on one of the flight pods. When landed, some of my people are going to unload the twenty nuclear warheads that will be onboard and then leave. When I know they are nukes the lovely Miss Harper can fly back to Orion and we will leave. Simple as that, no one else needs to die."

"Fine," Vanessa replied, "But if anyone else dies, I don't care if my people are still on board, I will fire every weapon I have at you and you won't have chance to jump away, do I make myself clear?"

"Agreed." Maxwell replied before dropping the handset again.

"Vanessa, you're not really going to give him nukes are you?" Carrie asked.

"Frak no," she replied, "As soon as the shuttle is off the ship, we're going to hit the Richmond with every EMP we have loaded."

Maxwell almost skipped over to Luna with a huge smile on his face.

"You ready to go home?" he asked.

Luna nodded her head, she was terrified of the man standing over her.

"I have a proposition for you. I know you like the ladies, but have you ever even been with a man? How about you and me go into one of those tool rooms and I'll show you what you've been missing?"

Luna got to her feet, she'd had enough of being terrified.

"If I ever were going to 'see what I've been missing'," she said sarcastically, "It would have been with a real man, like Lieutenant Vannick, the man you butchered for fun." she spat in his face when she finished speaking.

Maxwell hit her hard in the face, sending her crashing to the ground.

"You just proved my point." she replied spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"If it wasn't for the fact you're the only one who can fly this shuttle, I'd kill you for that? Question, can you fly with a bullet in your leg? Let's find out." Maxwell replied.

He took his gun from his belt and smiled at her. Before he could pull the trigger, gun fire erupted from all around.

"What the frak?!" Maxwell said.

He turned in time to see, Ron and the others shooting all of his people. He raised his gun to shoot Ron, that was when Luna took the moment and dived onto him sending him crashing onto the ground on his face. His gun clattered out of his reach. Luna grabbed his head and smashed it into the ground. She reached over to some spilled tools and grabbed a large spanner. With all her strength, she hit him with it on the back, she could hear ribs break. Maxwell screamed in pain and managed to turn over onto his back.

"Please, please don't kill me." he said weakly.

"This is for Darius." she said before lifting the spanner above her head, "I'll try to do this in one."

"LUNA," Ron shouted, "Stop."

She looked up at her friend.

"He deserves to die," she snapped back fiercely, "He caved in that man's head, a good man, a decent man who didn't deserve to die that way. He had those people shot in the face so he could see what they would look like, before and after. He doesn't deserve to live."

"I agree, but not by your hand. I know you, it'll haunt you forever, it'll kill whatever light you have left in you. I'm begging you," Ron pleaded, "We take the fraker back to Orion and we get front row seats when they kill him."

Luna dropped the spanner and stood up.

"Thank you." Maxwell said.

"Frak you." she replied before kicking him in the head as hard as she could, knocking him out cold.

She staggered over to the dangling phone and picked it up looking at the camera.

"Admiral, are you there?" Luna asked.

"Yes, Luna, we're here. Are you okay?" Vanessa asked.

"I'll be okay. What are your orders?"

The Trinity's sick bay was relatively quiet. Archangel looked over at Penny who was being seen to by doctors. Nurse Nancy Scott was stitching up the wound on his shoulder. Archangel thought she didn't look old enough to be in the position she was. She was extremely youthful.

"Are you sure you don't want my to numb this for you?" Nancy asked.

"No I'm fine," he replied, "It's not my first time getting stitches."

"I can tell. I don't think I've ever seen so many scars on one person before." she replied.

"I used to get in a lot of fights." he said.

"Okay, we're all done here," she said, "Do you want to keep the shrapnel as a memento?"

Archangel shook his head, "No, I don't need any more reminders of that planet." he looked over at Penny again, "Is she going to be okay?"

"She is. They've checked her over and she'll be back to her normal self in a week or two."

"Good. I can't lose anyone else I love today. Can I sit with her?"

"When the doc has finished with her. The Commander is waiting to speak with you though. Can I send him in?" Nancy asked.

"Yes of course. Thank you, Nancy."

"You're very welcome Major." she replied.

Moments after she'd left the room, Commander Knox walked in.

"Stupid question, but how are you Major?" Knox asked.

"Honestly sir, I really don't know." he replied, "All I can think is, I have no idea how I'm going to tell Penny what happened down there. It's going to break her, they were like sisters."

"I should be the one to tell her." Knox replied.

"No sir, it should be me, Penny, Alisa and I go way back, I love her like a sister, I owe her that much."

"If you change your mind, my offer stands."

"I appreciate that, but I won't change my mind. So how long do I have before I need to head back to the Medlia?"

"I've already sent them on ahead. I've set course back for the fleet myself, we'll be back with them in a few days. I think right now, we all need to be back together."

"Good call."

Knox sat next to him, "It probably won't surprise you, but I've never been in many situations like that before. You, Captain's Stark and Cooper, the marines, the way you all handled the situation, I am beyond impressed. I know what people think of me Major, all I want to do is help people, keep them alive. I know I can be abrasive, I know I annoy people, but after seeing how the both of you handled yourselves, took command when you needed to, I've vowed to be more like you. I feel I owe it to Captain Stark and all the people we've lost, I owe it to them to be better."

Archangel turned to look at him, "I've never been backwards at coming forward. I don't coddle my men and women and I won't tolerate anything but the best from them. But I treat them like people, I listen to what they have to say, I let them know that I'm here for them no matter what. I don't rule with an iron fist, but I don't take any shit from anyone. I learned this from Admiral Negala and it's one of the things I respect most about Admiral Garrett."

"Sounds very much like how Captain Stark did things. When the time is appropriate, you'll have to be blunt with me about how I can improve." Knox said.

"You're a good CO, Allen, that's all I've got for you right now."

"There is something I need your opinion on if that's alright?"

Archangel nodded.

"Can Captain Cooper hold it together enough to be CAG?"

Archangel turned and looked at Penny, "Yes. She's going to react very badly to finding out Alisa is dead. I'm barely holding it together, but once she's got over her initial reaction, she'll be up to the challenge."

"Can you help me help her?" Knox asked.

"We'll help each other." he said still looking at her.

Knox stood up and offered his hand. Archangel got to his feet and shook it.

"If you're feeling up to it, please stop by my quarters tonight. My XO and I are going to raise a glass to Captain Stark and the others."

"I'll be there." Archangel replied, "I'm going to sit with Penny for a while, if you'll excuse me?"

"Of course." Knox replied.

Archangel slowly walked over to his friend who was still unconscious. He sat in the chair next to her bed and held her hand.

"What the frak are we going to do?" he said quietly to her.

Vanessa, Bojay, Carrie, Wedge, Skeeter and Silas all stood on the hanger deck watching and waiting silently as Orion's shuttle from the Richmond came to a full stop. The side hatch opened and moments later Luna walked out.

"Are you okay?" Vanessa asked stepping towards her.

Luna nodded her head, "Better now I'm home." she said quietly. She turned and looked as Maxwell was roughly pushed through the door by Ron Barnes, "Have fun with this sack of shit. The Richmond is ours."

Vanessa turned to Maxwell and slapped him hard, "You're going to pay for what you did."

He didn't say anything, he just smiled at her.

Silas walked over to his son, "I warned you there would be consequences and they will be severe."

"I'm not afraid of you old man, you don't have the stones to kill your own son." Maxwell replied.

"Your fate is out of my hands son. Admiral Garrett will decide your punishment and I stand by whatever her decision is. Just be thankful it's her who decides and not Mr Kent or the President's husband."

"It was nothing personal, Madame President, you were just a distraction." he smiled as he finished speaking.

As Wedge's fist connected with Maxwell's jaw, two of his teeth flew out of his mouth.

"You don't look at my wife, you do not speak to my wife." Wedge snarled.

"Or what?" Maxwell said smugly.

"Or I'll feed you your eyeballs." Wedge replied.

"Captain Jennings." Vanessa said to the marine standing near by.

"Yes Ma'am." he replied.

"Please escort the prisoner to the brig." she said.

Archangel had been sitting with Penny for a couple of hours, he sat forward as she began to stir.

"Penny." Archangel said.

She began to groan as she woke.

"Penny, it's me." he said squeezing her hand.

She turned to look at him and smiled.

"Hey." she said.

"Hey." he replied smiling back at her.

"You got us home."

"You've been back for a few hours now. You've got a few lumps, cuts and bruises, but you'll be okay in a week or two." he said.

"You got hurt too?" she said pointing at the dressing sticking out from under his t-shirt.

"Just a little bit of shrapnel. I've had worse." he said.

"Where's Alisa?" she asked.

This had been the question he had been dreading. He took a deep breath before he replied.

"She didn't make it back." he said wiping tears away from his face. He hurt every time he thought of her.

"What? How?" she said as she began to cry.

"When Ripley was shot, he fell backwards and his gun went off. He, erm, he hit one of the grenades and it went off. The stone beam across the ceiling came in and it pinned her down. I tried to lift it off, but it was far too heavy," he wiped his eyes dry as he spoke, "I was going to stay with her and detonate the remaining grenades, but she wouldn't let me. She said if I didn't leave, then you and the Commander would be dead as well as he can't fly."

"So she might not be dead?" she said trying to hold onto the smallest sliver of hope.

"I'm sorry, but she is."

"But how do you know?" Penny replied as she sobbed.

"She detonated the grenades and the Commander nuked the site. She told me to tell you that she loves you. She said we need to live, for her, to keep fighting."

Penny couldn't speak, the grief was uncontrollable, she covered her face with her hands and just sobbed.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't save her," he said now crying herself, "I hope one day you'll be able to forgive me."

She took her hands away from her face and looked at him.

"Forgive you for what?" she said trying to control herself, "I know you, I know you probably better than anyone, I know you wouldn't have just left her there if you could have saved her. I know how much you loved her."

She took hold of his hand.

"I know you loved her too."

"You know, from the first day the three of us met, I knew we would be friends. Before that I could count on one hand the people I could call friend, you guys changed my life. I don't know if I can do any of this without her."

"We can and we will," he replied, "Because we have to. We have each other."

Three days later

Bojay stood on duty on the CIC. The last few days had gone by in a haze. While the Admiral had been busy with dealing with what had happened, it had fallen to him to pick up the slack aboard Orion. He had barely slept, he looked down at the very strong black coffee in his hand. He'd never really enjoyed the taste, he much preferred a cup of tea, especially tea from Canceron. But as he was running on fumes himself, coffee was the only thing keeping him standing. DRADIS bleeped. He looked up and saw Trinity had returned.

"Colonel, they're back." Lieutenant Phillips said.

Since the Medlia had returned and told them what had happened, it had taken morale to the lowest he could remember for a long time. He took a deep breath and put his cup down.

"Mr Phillips, please inform the Admiral they're home and please get me Commander Knox on the horn."

"Sir, Commander Knox is already on the line." Phillips replied.

Bojay picked up his handset.

"Trinity Actual, this is Orion XO, good to see you back." Bojay said.

"Orion XO, good to be here. I trust Major Lewthwaite has informed you of what happened?" Knox replied.

"He has. Admiral Garrett would like you to send Major Hunter over, but she asks if you'll give her an hour before you head over."

"Of course, is everything okay?"

"Not really Commander. The Admiral just needs to speak to Major Hunter, she has something she needs to discus with him."

"I'll send him over straight away Colonel."

Archangel was pleased to be back on Orion. The familiarity of the ship helped to calm him a little. He walked with Vanessa to her quarters.

"I'm so sorry about Alisa, I know you were both close." Vanessa said.

"Thank you," he replied, "I'm glad to be home."

Moments later they reached her quarters and went inside. Out of nowhere Carrie appeared and hugged him. She and Skeeter had been waiting for him.

"I've been so worried," she said, "I was so sorry to hear about Alisa."

When she let him go, Skeeter gave him a hug and then they all sat down.

Vanessa poured Archangel, Skeeter and herself a glass of Ambrosia and Carrie a glass of water. For a moment they all sat in awkward silence.

"Spit it out. There's clearly something you all want to tell me, so someone spit it out." Archangel said.

For the next few minutes Archangel sat and listened as Vanessa told him about everything that had happened and Vannick's murder.

"Is Maxwell still alive?" Archangel asked when they finished telling him. He felt utterly empty. First Alisa, now Vannick.

Vanessa nodded, "For now."

"Why?" he replied curtly, he could feel his temper starting to grow and he didn't know if he had it in him to keep it in check.

"We were waiting for you to come home," Vanessa said, "We're having a memorial tomorrow for all those we've lost and then tomorrow afternoon, we're putting him down."

Archangel wiped more tears from his face. He had cried more over the last few days than at any point in his life, until now, he hadn't thought he had any more tears left.

"I want to speak to him." Archangel said.

"No." Vanessa replied.

Before he even realised what he was doing he launched his glass across the room and it smashed into the wall sending glass everywhere. Everyone flinched.

"Why?" he asked coldly.

"For the same reason I won't let Skeeter see him, because you'll kill him." Vanessa replied.

"I just lost someone I loved like a sister. I get back here and find out, not only did Maxwell try to have my pregnant sister killed, but he butchered a man I loved like a brother. A man who I owe my life to many times over. Maxwell deserves to die." Archangel said quietly.

"Mark, he is going to die," Carrie replied, "Even his father agrees. You can have five minutes with him, before he dies tomorrow before he's executed, but you're not going to kill him."

Archangel dried his eyes and took a breath to calm himself.

"Okay," he said, "I'm sorry about the glass." He stood up, "I have to go."

He turned and walked for the door.

"Mark," Skeeter said, "You want some company?"

He shook his head, "I appreciate the offer, but no. I need to be by myself."

He turned and walked out.

"I've never seen him like this before." Carrie said.

"Neither have I." Skeeter replied.

The following morning, Orion's hanger deck was full of crew members from Orion, Sulaco, Trinity, Richmond, the Gunstars and members of the Government and civilians. Brother Ramok had been leading the service. They all listened as he spoke, then as other spoke on behalf of those who had died. Archangel stood in the front row next to Admiral Garrett, as Penny finished speaking on behalf of Alisa, she came and stood back next to him. She wiped the tears from her cut and bruised face.

"Next to speak, is Major Hunter." Brother Ramok said.

Vanessa squeezed his hand and smiled at him. He walked up to the podium in a haze of sadness and anger. He looked out at the thousands of people standing looking at him and took a deep breath before speaking.

"We've all lost so much. So many people, our planets. I didn't think I could ever feel this level of loss again. I know we lose people, far too often, but I never let myself think about losing the people I love the most. I've known Alisa Stark for a long time. I've been fortunate enough to serve with some of the finest officers the Colonial Fleet has produced and I still do, but Alisa was the best of them. She was the best person I've ever known and I'm lucky enough to know a lot of good people. She was strong, she was fearless, she was loyal, she was honourable, she was truly kind and she was a warrior. She reminded me of the person I wanted to be. I hadn't seen her for a very long time, but now she was back in my life I have no idea how I'm going to manage without her. She knew my demons, she's one of the few people who truly knew me and still she wanted to be my friend. I would have gladly traded places with her. You were safer with her than you ever were with me. She is also one of only two people to ever truly kick my ass. I was prepared to die with her on that planet, she told me if I did then Penny and Commander Knox would have died too. She was selfless, there are so many stories I'd like to tell you about her, she did so many things for the people of the Colonies, she was a hero. She was my friend, she was my sister and I'll miss her every day of my life. She said to me that we need to survive, we need to make every day count. This is something we all need to do. I never thought I'd live this long, not with the life I've led and continue to lead," he paused for a moment and took a breath, "One of the reasons I'm still here is because of Darius Vannick. We met on Sagittaron after the Cylons attacked. We bonded quickly and he showed me that not only could I trust him, but he had my back. I owe him my life so many times over and now I can never repay him that debt. He had such a dry sense of humour, towards the end of our time on Caprica, he kept us all sane. Most of that group of people are dead now, there's just my best friend, Skeeter, Brother Ramok and myself left now, I never thought I'd be one of the last standing. I remember he could talk all day about how much he loved steak and he really REALLY loved it. Every year on the anniversary of Orion finding us, we'd get together and try to find somewhere to have one. No matter how good it was, he'd always say how it was nothing compared to his grandmothers." he looked over at Vannick's daughter and the two made eye contact, "Jenny, I know I speak for Skeeter when I say, you're not alone. If you need to talk, if you need utterly anything, no matter what it is, we're here. I didn't know Corporal Ripley, Private Kirk or Specialist's Andrews or Gail very well at all. But when the shit hit the fan on the surface of that planet, they all stepped up, they were all heroes. They didn't deserve to die how they did, neither did the people on the Richmond. Darius didn't deserve to die the way he did at the hands of a coward. I'll take some comfort in watching his murderer die this afternoon."

Hours later, Maxwell was led cuffed by Captain Jennings onto a closed section of Orion's hanger deck. Even though they told him he was being led to his execution, he was still confident his father would step in and stop it. Waiting for him was Vanessa, Bojay, Archangel, Carrie, Skeeter, Wedge, Luna, Ron Barnes, a handful of other people he didn't know and a few marines. He smiled at them as he was led into an open and waiting launch tube. As Jennings joined the others, Archangel walked up to him and punched him in the gut as hard as he could, knocking the wind out of him.

"That is for trying to kill my sister," he then punched him in the face as hard as he could, sending him crashing to the ground, "And that is for killing a good man, a man I loved like a brother." he crouched down next to Maxwell who spat out a mouthful of blood, "Be thankful for this death, if I'd had my way I would have made it last for days and you would have died screaming." He then turned and walked back to the others.

"Admiral, please may I have a moment with my son?" Silas asked.

Vanessa nodded, "Of course."

Silas nodded to her and then walked into the launch tube.

"You're not going to let them kill me," he said laughing, "I'm your son." His voice sounded slurred, the punch had caused considerable damage. A black bruise had already began to spread

"I've told you many times, a man must accept the consequence for his actions. You have done terrible, terrible things. I am ashamed to call you my son. I know what you think of me and I do not care. I never thought I'd say this, but I am so pleased your mother isn't alive to see this moment. It would break her heart as it breaks mine. But I too must pay the price for my actions." as he finished speaking, he walked he looked up and saw the controls for the launch tube near him were active. He turned, nodded and smiled at Garrett and then pressed the control to close the launch tube.

"What the frak are you doing?" Maxwell yelled.

"Paying the price. The blood of those people is on my hands as well." Silas replied.

Vanessa, Bojay and Carrie rushed into the launch control room. Vanessa turned on the intercom.

"General, what are you doing? Open the tube back up right now." Vanessa pleaded.

"I am sorry Admiral, but I cannot. There is a high price that has to be paid for what has happened here."

"Yes, but not by you." Vanessa replied.

"I have a to take a large part of the blame here. It is because of me, it is because I am soft on my son, because I foolishly indulge him. I should have known he would do something because of the things he said."

Archangel, Wedge, Skeeter and Luna joined them in the control room, all of them in their own way, needing to see Maxwell die.

"General, please." Carrie pleaded.

Silas smiled at her.

"It has been my absolute pleasure to meet and get to know you Admiral Garrett and you Madame President. I take comfort from knowing my people, no, OUR people will go on with you both leading them. Vanessa, you are an impressive woman, wise beyond your years and a credit to your ship and your uniform, Commander Johansson would be very proud of the woman you have become. Madame President, Carrie, you are a remarkable young woman, being in your presence these weeks, I have marvelled at the way you conduct yourself every day. I can only imagine, what you will achieve and the things you will do. I have no doubt that your child, your children will be extraordinary people. I only hope that you can all forgive me. When you all find a new home, I know you will all thrive." he smiled and saluted them.

"General, please don't do this." Vanessa pleaded.

"Silas, please." Carrie said.

Silas turned away from them and looked at his son who was sobbing uncontrollably, "Please father, please don't do this."

Silas reached down and pulled his son up by his collar and stood him up.

"Please son, for the first time in your sorry, life. Have some dignity." Silas said.

He held his son tightly and opened the launch tube at the other end. Before anyone could protest anymore, both Silas and Maxwell were gone.

The following morning Vanessa sat alone in her quarters. She looked at her coffee that sat on her large desk in front of her. It was stone cold, she had sat looking at it while thinking to herself for what felt like forever. The events of the past week would stay with her. She sighed and drank her coffee down in one. As the door to her quarters opened, she stood and fastened her jacket. Captain Karen Archer and her former XO Lieutenant Max Wheeler walked in.

"Thank you both for coming so quickly, please sit down." Vanessa said sitting back down behind her desk.

"Of course, Admiral, what can we do for you?" Archer asked.

"How are you both finding your new positions?" Vanessa asked.

"I've been an LSO before so I was quick to get back into it." Archer replied.

"What about you, Lieutenant Walker?"

He paused for a moment before he replied, "It's a job."

"I thought as much," Vanessa replied, "As I know you're aware, things have changed aboard the Richmond. We're currently bulking up their staff, adding ours to the ones still there who were loyal to the General and know the ship. I'll cut to the chase, I brought you both here to offer you both a new job, as the Richmond CO and XO." she smiled as she spoke.

"Wow, I didn't expect that," Archer said, "I won't lie, I expected you to offer that job to Colonel Johnson."

"I'm not going to lie to you Karen, I did. He turned it down and said I should offer it to you. I know you're an excellent commanding officer and I also know how well you both work together. I know as well as anyone, an XO who knows you and works with you as well as you is key. So what do you both say?"

Wheeler looked over at Archer, Vanessa smiled when she saw his face, he was pleading with her with his eyes, he was even slightly nodding.

Archer smiled and looked back at Vanessa, "I think I speak for both of us when I say, yes Admiral, we accept your offer."

Vanessa smiled and shook both of their hands.

"That is very good news and we need good news at the moment."

She opened her desk draw and took out two small boxes, "Congratulations Commander, congratulations Major."