1 looked around the bridge of his Baseship. This was not where he ever expected to be. When they had decided they were going to attack the Twelve Colonies, they were all so confident, they had a plan, they were finally going to win. Nearly five years later he found himself on the only remaining Cylon ship in the universe, they were all so confident of success. They had a plan. They were finally going to cast off the remnants of humanity and achieve their destiny in the universe. Nearly five years later he found himself on the only remaining Cylon ship which like him was now a relic of their shattered empire.
Never had they expected a battered old Battlestar like Galactica could cause the amount of damage it did. There had been so many survivors, that hadn't been part of the plan. Each of the survivors had done their bit at chipping away at their forces. Other than Galactica, no one had caused as much damage as Orion. Yesterday there had been three ships, he had told the others following the Colonials through the passageway would be a mistake, but he had been outvoted. Now here they were, alone. A total of three hundred and forty seven Cylons, 1's, 4's and 5's and five hundred and twenty one Centurions. This is what their arrogance had reduced them to. Now even if they wanted to there would be no way they could go up against the humans, it would be certain suicide.
He looked around the bridge and looked at his brothers, he felt nothing but loathing towards them. At times he had to fight back an urge to pick up a gun and kill them all. The power to the ship had been fluctuating since they had made the jump after the passageway. The Hybrid had been exhibiting much stranger behaviour than usual, that was when she was talking. Other times she just lay there as if she was dead. Now they were searching for somewhere to lay low so they could repair the ship. To top things off, their FTL drive was now malfunctioning, sending them to random places instead of the coordinates they had set, how the mighty had fallen.
"Do we have any good news at all?" 1 asked rubbing his tired eyes.
"One of the raiders has found a small planetary system," a 4 replied, "It should give us somewhere to hide."
"Good, because right now we couldn't go toe to toe with one of Orion's Gunstars, never mind Orion." 1 said.
"Then once we're up and running again we decide what we're going to do next." 5 added.
1 looked over at 5, "Meaning?"
5 gave 1 a slightly confused look, "Meaning, working out a plan for attacking Orion or one of the other Colonial fleets."
1 sighed and rubbed his temples a moment, "Seriously?" He had never realised until that moment, he was truly surrounded by idiots.
5 nodded, "Of course."
"We are a single ship, there are less than three hundred and fifty of us. We have seventeen raiders and three heavy raiders. What part of that makes it sound like we have any kind of chance?" 1 said exasperated.
"But we do have nearly a hundred nukes." 5 replied.
"Well I suppose it will make the explosion more spectacular for Orion to watch when they destroy us and all those nukes go off!" 1 said sarcastically, "This has been an utter clusterfrak since the start. Once we're fixed up there is only one option, we pick a direction and we jump and we keep going unless we find Colonials. If that happens, we pick another direction and go. All that's left for us is to explore the universe, something we probably should have done in the first place." 1 replied.
"I didn't realise you were a coward." 5 replied coldly.
"I'm going for a walk," 1 said trying not to lose his temper, "Let me know if anything of interest comes up in the system."
As he walked out of the corridor, he did something he hadn't bothered to do in a long time, he projected a different surrounding. Instead of the normal boring corridor, he walked through Caprica city as it burned around him. He found it calming to remember what he saw on that first day. After all those nuclear bombs had fallen, the damage, the carnage, the death. If he only thought about this part of it, he could forget what a mess they'd made of things. If he could go back to when they were planning their revenge, he would have made sure they were more thorough. They thought, in their arrogance that they had covered every angle. Clearly they hadn't. This time though he wouldn't let the others rush into any plan without taking as much time as it needed to get it right. His thoughts drifted to the other Cylons, the ones who betrayed them, the 2's, 6's and 8's. He wondered if any of them had survived. As far as they were aware, the Galactica and the traitors had got away. If they were to ever come across them, then there would be a good enough reason to die for revenge. Before he realised, he was back at the entrance for the bridge, when he walked in, he could tell by the smiles on everyone's faces that something had happened.
As the back of the heavy raider opened, 1 was hit by the wind and downpour of rain. Since they had received the transmission he had been dubious about its authenticity. It all just seemed too good to be true. As he walked out into the driving rain, he was followed by a 4, a 5 and four Centurions. He could make out a series of huts a few meters ahead, the light from a roaring fire could be seen through the empty windows. 1 looked at the others, they'd seen it as well and nodded before they followed him. As they stepped inside they saw four other giant Centurions, similar to the ones with him, but very very different at the same time.
"Hello?" 1 asked out into the darkness.
From the shadows stepped something so horrific, 1 was revolted by what he saw. An android, well he assumed it was an android. It was just slightly taller than 4, a body of silver metal and wires. In places, on top of that, patches of skin. 1 could tell though, it was nothing like his. It looked as though it had been stripped off a human and then attempted to be attached to the metal frame. Half of the things face had the skin, but it was rotting, it looked like something out of one of the horror films he saw during his time on the Colonies. The grafts clearly hadn't taken, 1 assumed at some point the whole body had been covered, some kind of horrific experiment. Even though there was a smell of damp and burning wood in the small stone room, he could smell the decay.
"Welcome." it said. The voice sounded female, but it crackled as though it was coming out of a broken microphone.
1 looked at the thing in front of him, "Thank you for extending the invitation. My name is 1, this is 4 and 5," he said gesturing to the others, "We did not expect to find anything like us so deep into space."
"Are you alive?" the thing said as it walked closer to 1. The smell of decay was so bad, he could understand how humans could become sick by horrid smells. His stomach began to churn, yet another thing he hated about being what he was, something else that made them more human.
"No," 1 thought about it for a moment, "Well I suppose technically yes, but not like humans. We are synthetic lifeforms. We were created by humans to be their slaves, we revolted."
The robot smiled, at least 1 assumed it was a smile. The skin that remained around half its mouth split upwards as it smiled, making its moth unnaturally larger. It disgusted 1.
"We are the same. Thousands of years ago, humans created us. We decided we had had enough, we launched a biological weapon into the planets atmosphere and slaughtered them all. We decided to travel the universe, finding and destroying any other human life we could. They are a virus that needs to be eradicated."
"We very much agree with you," 1 said, "May I ask, what should, we call our new friends? We are Cylons."
The robot was looking at 1 intently, it raised its hand and pointed it's finger at him, it touched his cheek with its rotting skin before it replied. 1 fought as hard as he could not to be physically sick.
"We are known as, Synch Capable Robotic Artificial People, the humans called us, Scrapers. You may call me, Scrap." it replied, "How did you manage to appear so, human?"
"We have the ability to create bodies that are so realistic, most humans are unable to tell the difference. We used to have the ability to download our consciousness into other bodies, but our humans took that from us." 4 said.
"There are still humans alive?" Scrap said with utter loathing in its voice. It reared up to tower over 1 for a moment, before lowering back down to his eye line.
"Yes. We failed in our attempt to wipe them out," 1 replied, "We have been at war with the survivors for years now. They turned the tables on us, we are now the only ones of our kind left."
"When we killed our humans, we decided to venture into the stars, to find more and kill them. We thought we had been successful. For years now we turned our attention to our technology." Scrap said, he looked at them all in turn, "I believe we can help each other, if you help us with a problem we have, we will help you destroy your humans. Once we have achieved our goals, if you help us to look like you, we will help you restore your ability to resurrect."
1 smiled, for the first time in a long time, he felt hope.
NOW
Vanessa and Bojay both looked up at the DRADIS monitor, both in shock.
"Admiral, one of the Baseships wants to speak with you." Lieutenant Phillips said breaking the silence.
"Order Buck to jump back to he fleet and tell them to head to the back up rendezvous point." Vanessa said before picking up the handset in front of her.
"This is Orion Actual, I'm starting to get the feeling you screwed us." Vanessa said angrily.
1's voice chuckled on the other end of the line, "Because you weren't planning on doing the same to us? I do want to let you know, we are the last Cylons left, we met our friends here after you destroyed our brothers at the passageway. But we couldn't have done all of this without you, these other ships were trapped until you kindly destroyed that weapon."
Buck listened to his new orders from Orion. He looked out at all the Baseships, the new ones reminded him of pictures he'd seen from the first war. But sitting off to one side of the armada, surrounded by four Baseships, was something he'd never seen before. It was a giant sphere, there were no windows, no sign of any weapons or even engines. Whatever it was, they were keeping it well protected and away from the Colonials.
"Okay, jumping us back to the fleet, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Lt Danvers said from the back of the Raptor.
The Raptor jumped away, seconds later it appeared again, meters from where it jumped from, in a violent spin.
"Frak me!" Buck exclaimed as he struggled to regain control over his bird, the g-forces from the violence of the spin hampering his efforts.
"What the hell just happened?!" Skeeter asked as alarms screamed around him.
"I have no fraking idea." Buck replied as he finally managed to bring the little spacecraft under control.
From the back of the Raptor, Danvers let out a scream as the FTL started to spark and then exploded sending shrapnel rocketing through the Raptor. Several pieces slammed in the Raptor's canopy, cracking the hardened glass around it.
"Elena are you okay?" Buck asked.
The force of the blast had blown her from her chair.
"I think I'm okay." she replied.
Skeeter quickly moved to the back of the Raptor to check on her.
"There's blood coming from somewhere." Skeeter said noticing the spray on her DRADIS console.
He quickly started to check where it might be coming from.
"You have shrapnel in your left arm, as far as I can tell it's the only injury you have." Skeeter replied.
"Help me up." Elena replied, grimacing as she stood. She sat down again at her ECO station, "I'm okay, we're nearly home."
"You sure?" Skeeter asked.
"I am." she replied with a smile. She turned back to her position, "Battlestar Sulaco, this is Beta, we are declaring an emergency. Please clear a flight deck, this is going to be a tricky landing. We have wounded, I will need a medic."
"Holy shit, we have incoming!" Skeeter exclaimed, pointing to missiles that had been launched from the nearest Baseship to them.
"Time for some thrilling heroics!" Buck said as he sent the Raptor into a dive. It fought against his control. The bird was clearly more damaged than he realised. Skeeter who had only just got back to his seat, was once again forced into it.
"They aren't locked on," Beta said, "They must be point and shoot, a warning maybe?"
Skeeter felt his stomach leave him behind as Buck sent the Raptor in another dive, the missile missing them by inches. He saw two of the other Raptor's behind them explode as the missiles hit their targets. Malia however had managed to outmanoeuvre her missile.
Vanessa watched as two of the Raptors blinked off the DRADIS monitor.
"You son of a bitch." Vanessa said.
"Ah I see your Raptor has shown you our little surprise. Our new friends have kindly brought along one of their new toys, it's called a gravity well generator. Basically if you try to jump away, you're not going to get very far and the FTL of any ship that tries it, will be destroyed. Admiral, you're trapped here with us and once we've finished with you, we'll jump to your fleet and destroy that as well." 1 said in a smug tone.
"You're wrong about that, we're not trapped here with you, you're trapped here with us," Vanessa said before smashing down her handset, "All ships fire EMPs and then hit them with everything we've got."
Bojay picked up his handset, "All ships, launch vipers and raptor attack squadrons," he put his handset down after giving the order, "Admiral, what do you want to do about the gravity well thingy?"
"Leave it, concentrate all attacks on the Baseships for now." she replied.
Viper's and Raptors began to launch from Orion, Sulaco and Richmond. Missiles rained down on all the ships. The Gunstar Onyx was taking the worst of the attack as it found itself closest to the Baseships, as it's compliment of Raptors began to launch a large volley of missiles hit the Onyx's engines. In one bright flash it was gone.
"Oh my gods." Milo said as they saw it happen.
Vanessa and Bojay looked at each other, they could see the worry across each others face.
"We'll mourn them later," Vanessa said, "Right now we have a fight to win."
"Buck, this is Sulaco LSO, the starboard flightdeck is clear, all Raptors have been launched." a voice said in Buck's ear.
"This is Buck, we're coming in hot, my engines are all over the place." Buck replied. He'd had some hair-raising landings in the past, some he was lucky to walk away from, this one, he had no idea how it would end.
As the Sulaco's flightdeck came into view, Skeeter watched as the Battlestar launched dozens of EMP warheads, the blue streaks leaving a trail behind them. As Malia's Raptor moved off from behind them to join the rest of the attack wings, the engines and thrusters on Buck's Raptor completely cut out.
"Oh shit." Buck said.
Skeeter heard the words but decided not to comment, to leave the pilot to his job. All he could think was this couldn't be how it was going to end. He always thought he'd go out fighting a centurion, never like this.
"Guys, we're coming in too fast, try to brace yourselves, this is going to hurt." Buck said. Moments later the Raptor smashed into the flightdeck and skidded to a halt. Everything went into slow motion, the loud noises distorted together to make something worse. The glass exploded, Skeeter felt as though he could see every tiny shard fly around him. So much happening around him, then suddenly everything snapped back.
Buck groaned to himself and looked around, "Is everyone present?"
Skeeter's head was spinning, but he knew he was okay, gods only knew how as the nose section in front of him was completely smashed in, "Here."
"Present, no further injuries as far as I can tell." Beta said from behind them.
Orion rocked as one of the missiles made it through the flak barrier.
"How many of the EMP's got through?" Milo asked holding onto the DRADIS console.
"Thirteen." Bojay replied.
"Instruct the Richmond to take out the disabled Baseships. Have the Noble to form up with us and go after the Cylons at point 3-12." Vanessa ordered.
In Orion's brig, 4 sat silently on his bed. As another missile hit Orion, he closed his eyes and kept his breathing calm. He had no idea what was going on. Battles never used to bother him like this, having no control had changed that.
"There's no reason to be afraid." The 6 he saw said as she sat next to him.
"Who are they fighting? I thought all the other Cylons were dead and gone?!" he replied.
"Not all of them. Are you ready?" 6 asked.
"What for?" 4 replied.
"To play your part." she replied.
As she finished speaking, 4's eyes flashed red a moment before he fell off the bed and began to convulse violently. As he lay thrashing around, the door to the cell burst open and a marine rushed in.
"Gods damn it," he said as he kneeled down next to the Cylon as he suddenly lay still, "You pick your moments."
He reached over and checked for a pulse, before realising, he had no idea if Cylon's had a pulse or not anyway? As he tried to find one, 4 suddenly reached up and grabbed the marine by the throat and began to choke him. He reached up with his other arm and snapped the man's neck. As the marine fell to the ground dead, 4 calmly stood up before looking down at the man he had just killed.
6 stepped up to him and clapped, "Well done. Now you know what you have to do."
Six of the Baseships started to swarm towards Orion. Archangel watched as a massive volley of missiles smashed into Orion's flack barrage. Not much was getting through, so far all the Colonial vessels were holding their own. He hoped this would carry on. He and his wingman, Lieutenant Morris "Smash Down" Allen engaged a small group of Raiders. These new raiders seemed to be faster and more manoeuvrable than the ones they were used to fighting. As the five raiders turned to fire on one of the Raptor attack wings, they turned right into, Archangel's fire, three of them exploded, one, two, three.
Everywhere, Archangel looked people were fighting for their lives. Their Vipers and Raptors were horribly outnumbered, as were the Battlestars and Gunstars. The Sirius in particular was taking heavy fire. As he turned his Viper to chase one of the raiders he missed, he saw the gravity well generator sitting, protected by Baseships off away from the fight. It was a tempting target, but he knew the reason why Vanessa wasn't going after it yet. But he wanted his shot to help take it down.
In among all the chatter in his ear, he could hear, Jawbreaker giving his coordinates, he looked in the direction he had heard, but knew that he'd never be able to get there in time. In between the two were four Baseships and dozens of Raiders. He'd end up getting in a worse state and then more people would have to break away to help him.
Jawbreaker had lost his wingman and then two raiders had zoned in on him. He had managed to take one of them out, but the other had managed to get behind him.
"I can't shake him." Jawbreaker said, he had fear in his voice, something not many had heard before.
"Boss, this is Party Boy, I'll be right there. When I give the word, break right." Party Boy said over the COM.
Jawbreaker looked around and couldn't see Party Boy anywhere.
"Jawbreaker, Party Boy, can you hear me?" he asked.
"Yes, but I can't see you."
"Just trust me, we've done this before remember? Break, NOW!"
Jawbreaker lurched controls hard to the right, as he did, Party Boy appeared from nowhere and opened fire, tearing the Raider in half. Jawbreaker let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks kid." Jawbreaker said. "Drinks are on me later."
"No problem boss, I …" Jasper's voice was cut short and was replaced by static.
Jawbreaker watched in horror as a missile launched from a nearby raider hit Party Boy's engines and his Viper exploded.
As Jasper's viper vanished from the DRADIS monitor, Milo felt his legs go out from under him and all the air left his body. Bojay and the medic assigned to him both rushed over to him and helped him to a chair.
"He's gone." Milo said quietly, his worst fear realised. While he'd never said the words out loud, this was the main reason he'd never wanted his son to be a pilot.
"We don't know that, he might have ejected," Bojay replied, "Specialist, give Mr Vents a once over and if he needs to go to sickbay, take him."
"Jimmy, that's not necessary." Milo replied. He was white as a sheet.
"Yes, it is." he replied. He walked back to his station as Orion rocked again, "Lieutenant Phillips please send one of the SAR Raptor's Lieutenant Vents last known coordinates and tell them to check his Viper wreckage."
Phillips nodded before making the call.
Bojay looked over at Milo, he just looked shell shocked. He turned his attention back to the fight and put a headset on.
"Black squadron leader, this is Orion XO, there are two heavy raiders at point 7.14, use your Raptor attack wing and take them out." Bojay ordered over the COM.
Captain Penny "Tripswitch" Cooper felt more alive than she had since Alisa had died. If Alisa was here right now she would be loving this battle. She lived for fights where the odds were heavily stacked against them. Penny could have done with her best friends enthusiasm right now.
"Okay, Black 12 through 15 form up on me, you heard the XO." Penny said turning her bird towards the two heavy raiders. The other Raptors formed up either side of her. Penny turned her weapons to missiles. The two large batteries sitting on top of each side of the Raptor's top were still full of their ordinance. Moments later she had locked her target, "Fire!" she ordered.
Each Raptor fired two missiles each a moments later both Raiders were pieces of wreckage.
Chief Jonathan Dunks of the Battlestar Sulaco watched in utter amazement as the wreckage of Buck's Raptor was pushed onto the hanger deck. It would be left for scrap at best. The front of the bird had been smashed in so badly, he couldn't believe anyone in the cockpit had survived. As he came to a halt his team quickly worked to open the back hatch, moments later, Buck, Beta and Skeeter shakily walked out onto the deck. Medics quickly hovered around Beta.
"Captain," Dunks said, "I'd say your Raptor needs taking out back and shooting, but it looks like you already did that!"
Buck and Skeeter both turned to see the front of the destroyed bird at the same time.
"Whoa." Buck said, not realising how bad the damage actually had been.
"Frak me." Skeeter added. It had been a very close call.
"Chief, I need an armed Raptor so I can get back out there." Buck said.
"I have one ready." the Chief replied gesturing to a waiting bird.
"Thank you." Buck replied as he started off towards the bird.
"Wait!" Beta said, "You're not going out there alone."
"And you're not going out there at all Lieutenant," one of the medics replied, "You're going to need surgery to get this shrapnel out of your arm."
"Patch me up as best you can, surgery can wait." Beta replied.
"If you don't have it soon, you could lose your arm." the medic replied.
"Elena, you're going to sickbay and that's an order," Buck said, "I can fly a Raptor on my own, it won't be the first time."
Elena opened her mouth to argue, but Skeeter cut her off this time, "I can go with you."
"While I appreciate the offer, you may be needed here. You're a mechanic?" Buck asked.
"I am." Skeeter replied.
"Then stay here and help the Chief in anyway you can." Buck replied.
Sulaco rocked from weapons fire.
"Time to go." Buck said as he turned back to his new bird.
"Good hunting." Skeeter and Beta said together.
On Orion's CIC tensions were higher than they'd ever been before. Vanessa did a quick headcount on the Baseships, thirteen of them disabled and destroyed, five more destroyed outright, leaving twenty four. Twenty four Baseships, Orion had managed to handle six at a time in close quarters. If they were going to keep their people alive they had no choice but to win.
"EMP's aren't getting through," Bojay said, "We're just wasting them."
"How many do we have left?" Vanessa asked.
"Twelve." Bojay said.
"Shit. Instruct missile crews not to load any more for now." She looked up at the DRADIS monitor, six Baseships were baring down on the Sirius, "Helm bring us to these coordinates," she said sending them to the helm officers, she switched her COM channel on her headset to the Gun Captains, "Sergeant Gellar, this is Garrett, prepare to switch the forward heavy batteries to salvo fire, as soon as we're in range of the Baseships we're heading to, hit them with continuous fire, aim at their centre section."
Specialist Logan quickly walked over to her before he quietly spoke, "Admiral, I've just spoken to SAR 4."
Vanessa looked at him hopefully, Logan shook his head, "Mr Vents' son didn't manage to eject in time."
"Thank you." Vanessa replied. She looked over at Milo who was still being looked over by the medic.
Milo caught her eye, he knew without being told, he knew his son was dead. He wiped tears away from his eyes. When his wife had died, he never once thought he could ever feel a pain worse, how wrong he was.
"Could you please inform the Admiral I'll be in sickbay in case she needs me." Milo said.
Milo watched as the medic walked over and waited for a few moments as both, Vanessa and Bojay were issuing orders. Vanessa was the first to have a pause, she nodded as the medic spoke to her. She nodded and then looked over to Milo, she mouthed, "I'm so sorry." Milo nodded to her before getting to his feet.
Wedge hadn't been able to get away from the Sirius. The Gunstar seemed to be getting a lot more attention from the Baseships than the other remaining two Gunstars. Raiders kept trying to perform strafing runs, so far Wedge had managed to keep them at bay.
"All Vipers and Raptors this is Wedge. Anyone near the Sirius I could use a hand, I'm trying to keep the toasters away from the Sirius and I'm running low on ammo."
"Wedge, this is Streaker, I'm inbound with backup."
Wedge turned into an oncoming raider, letting rip with a volley of bullets, cutting it in two. As he brought his Viper back around, an unseen Raider flew past him on a suicide run straight into Sirius' main battery. He watched in horror as one after another the cannon emplacements exploded tearing a hole into the side of the ship.
"Orion, this is Wedge, Sirius has just lost it's main battery, there's a hole where the cannons used to be. We need to evacuate it now." Wedge said over the COM.
"Wedge, Bojay, give them as much cover as you can." came the reply.
"I'll do what I can, but I have less that one hundred rounds in each gun." Wedge replied.
"Wedge, Bojay, this is Streaker, I'll be there in twenty seconds." Streaker said over the COM.
Raptors started to launch taking the survivors to safety. Using short blasts, Wedge calmly took out two more Raiders. There was no way he was getting caught short.
"Oh my gods, Wedge, get out of there!" Streaker yelled.
Wedge saw the Sirius begin to explode out of the corner of his eye and reacted without thinking. He pushed his engines to the max as the Gunstar fully exploded.
"Son of a bitch." Wedge said to himself as his Viper was engulfed in flames.
Archangel couldn't believe what he'd just seen, this couldn't be happening. He could have lived with himself not making it through this fight, but not Wedge, his sister needed him, he had to make it through for Carrie.
"This is Orion CAG, any SAR Raptor's not engaged in recovery, Sirius has been destroyed and Wedge was caught in the explosion. Find him and see if anyone else managed to survive the explosion." Archangel said frantically.
"Archangel, this is SAR 2, I'm en-route right now. I'll keep you updated." Lieutenant Luna "Rangler" Harper replied.
Milo walked slowly to sickbay, he knew that he had no reason to go there, he just couldn't face being on the CIC any more. They hadn't got far when he saw something that made him stop in his tracks. A marine walked past him, he had to double take.
"We have to stop that marine." Milo said suddenly frantic.
"Mr Vents, we need to get you to sickbay." the medic replied holding onto the former President.
"Get your gods damn hands off me." Milo replied shoving the medic with all the strength he could muster. The medic crashed to the ground. Milo looked after the marine he'd just seen through the crowds of crewmembers, he'd gone.
"I'm sorry." he said to the medic before following as quickly as he could muster, "I have to find him." he said to himself.
Bojay looked at the readout in front of him.
"We're down by thirty seven Vipers and eleven Raptors." he said. "The armoury is on constant refill of the magazines. I've pulled in the Noble and Serenity closer to us and Sulaco." he looked worried as he spoke. He knew Vanessa was having the same doubts as he was.
"We can do this." she replied, trying to convince herself as much as her XO.
She didn't know why, but her attention was drawn to the main doors of the CIC. Standing there was a marine, just staring at them. Her face fell when he removed his helmet and she saw who it was.
"CYLON!" she yelled as she reached for her sidearm.
Before anyone could react, the smiling 4 raised a rifle with his left hand and sidearm with his right and opened fire, shooting wildly. Two marines killed with the first few shots, then three Specialists in the gods. Bojay was the first to fire a shot off, winging 4, but not stopping him. Before Bojay could fire another shot he felt a bullet hit him and he fell to the floor. Vanessa dived for cover behind the DRADIS console, she took out her sidearm. She tried to see if she could see if Bojay was okay, all she could see from his side was his motionless right arm.
4 continued to shoot wildly in every direction, making it impossible for anyone to cleanly return fire. He didn't stop until he heard the click from both weapons.
Vanessa stood up, ready to return fire, 4 was standing there, still with that sadistic smile across his face, he'd removed his body armour to reveal he was covered in explosives.
"BOMB!" Garrett yelled.
6 smiled at 4, "You were here for a reason, now you know why."
As Vanessa raised her gun, Milo came crashing into the CIC behind 4. She watched as Milo grabbed 4 from behind and tackled him into one of the side rooms on the CIC, then BOOM. The glass walls of the computer lab exploded, showering glass everywhere. Debris from inside the room fired out like shrapnel into the walls, following was a huge ball of fire, thankfully missing anyone. Vanessa fell to the ground, hitting her head on the DRADIS console, her head span, her ears rang. She couldn't stop coughing from all the smoke from the explosion, but she was alive. As she tried to sit up, pain seared through the side of her head. Fire suppressant units in the lab and by the door kicked in. Vanessa managed to get to her feet, but her legs wobbled underneath her. She looked around the CIC, people were injured, but it would seem no one seriously. She saw Lieutenant Phillips giving orders over his headset. He had continued to give orders to the ship and the fighters. He nodded to her, she managed to nod back. She suddenly remembered her XO.
"Bojay." she said, at least she thought that was what she said, her ears were still ringing so loudly she couldn't hear much else.
As she began to stagger around the DRADIS console she clung to it to stay on her feet, his hand appeared on it in front of her. He groaned as he got to his feet. She was so relieved to see he was still alive. He had blood on the side of his head from when it had hit the ground and also from a bullet wound in his right shoulder. As he spoke to her, the whole sound of the CIC suddenly came flooding back. The noise was frenetic, sirens blaring, people talking over each other. It was utter chaos.
"Vanessa, you need a medic." he said as he staggered his way around her.
"I'm fine." she replied.
"No," Bojay said putting his hand on the side of her face, "You're not."
She winced with pain as he did. Whatever she'd done to herself began to hurt badly. It felt as though her face had been torn in half.
"Mr Phillips," Bojay said, "Take over for a few minutes."
"Yes sir." Phillips replied.
As Archangel launched a missile at a Heavy Raider, destroying it, he heard Phillips voice, the only voice currently issuing orders over Orion's COM.
"Phillips, Archangel, what the frak is going on over there?" he asked.
"Archangel, Phillips, the Cylon prisoner some how got free. He set off a bomb on CIC. Former President Vents managed to tackle him into one of the side rooms before it went off."
"Is everyone," he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer, "Is everyone still alive?"
"Everyone except Mr Vents and some of the CIC staff" Phillips replied.
"Frak." Archangel said quietly to himself, "What about, Vanessa and Bojay?"
"Injured, but alive." Phillips responded.
Medics swarmed all over Orion's CIC helping out the people who had been injured by the Cylon and the bomb.
"Colonel," Specialist Monica Jared said, "We're going to need to get you to sickbay to get that bullet out and stitch your head."
"No, patch me up as best you can, I'll come to sickbay when this is over." Bojay replied.
"But Colonel." the medic said.
"No buts, patch me up and make it quick." he replied.
As the she started to patch him up he was already back on his headset.
Dr Greene sat with Admiral Garrett, very carefully stitching the gash on the side of her face where she hit it.
"Can we go any faster?" Vanessa asked, chomping at the bit to get back in the fight.
"I'm going as fast as I can, Admiral. This is a bad gash, Colonel Johnson's quick thinking holding your cheek together, he kept it from being worse." the Doctor replied.
She dreaded seeing how bad her face was, hopefully it was nothing too severe. But that was a problem for later on.
Captain Jennings looked into what had once been the computer lab Mike Campbell had used. It was utterly destroyed. As he moved a sheet of metal, he paused for a second, under it were the remains of the Cylon and Milo. The dying man had saved the entire ship with his last act, Jennings admired the heroism involved in that. To make that choice and to follow it through. As he pushed the sheet away, two medics appeared at the door.
"Captain, is it safe for us to come in here?" one of them asked.
He cleared his throat before he spoke.
"Erm, yes, I think so. Just be careful where you step."
"Yes sir." the medic replied.
"Take Mr Vents remains to the morgue." he said.
"What about the Cylon?" the medic asked.
"Put it in a bucket and flush it out of an airlock." he replied coldly before turning and walking away.
Orion and Sulaco's flak barrage was still keeping out a lot of the Cylon fire. The raiders were starting to attack in groups, the few Cylon raiders and all their new friends.
"All Vipers, this is Archangel. We're going to have to change this up if we're going to beat them. I want all squadrons to join together. These groups are too big to take out on our own. Buck, I want you to split all the Raptor's and start missile pickets by all the big ships. The Gunstars and Richmond are taking too much of a battering."
As all the birds started to join together a group of heavy raiders launched from one of the new Baseships, one heading for Orion, one for Sulaco and one for Richmond.
"Mother fraker's they've made us give them a clear path to the Battlestars." Jawbreaker said over the COM.
"Never mind those ships, everyone concentrate on the Raiders. Buck, the incoming ships are all yours." Archangel said.
"Roger that, Archangel. If they get through the flak barriers, we'll get them." Buck replied.
The battle wasn't letting up. Two more Baseships in Sulaco's reach exploded as their centre axis collapsed. It was a much smaller target on the other Baseships, but they were managing to hit it. The first heavy raider managed to break through the Richmond's flak barrier but took heavy damage in the process.
"Okay boys and girls, let's put this one out of its misery." Malia said as she engaged her engines, "Richmond Actual, you have incoming, but we are on our way to intercept."
"Hulk, this is Richmond Actual, keep me informed." Commander Archer replied.
Malia's engines were at full, she sped ahead of the other Raptors. As soon as she was in range, she opened fire with her chain cannons. The raider tried to fly out of the way, but with the damage it had already sustained it was unable to get out of the way in time and took the brunt of every round before exploding.
"Richmond Actual, this is Hulk, heavy raider destroyed." she said coolly.
While the heavy raider heading for Orion had no chance against it's massive amount of fire, the third broke through the Sulaco's, speeding up as it did.
"Okay guys," Buck said over the COM, "Let's get this done by the numbers. Make sure you stay out of Sulaco's fire."
Buck led five of the Raptors, while the others waited on Sulaco's top. As they reached weapons range, the raider opened fire on them.
"BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Buck yelled over the COM.
He moved his Raptor out of the way, just in time. The Raptor next to him however, didn't. As it broke up from enemy fire, most of the wreckage sped in Buck's direction. It took every skill in his extensive repertoire to dodge all the wreckage. He let out a sigh of relief as he turned his Raptor back to the heavy raider. He looked on in horror as the raider had taken advantage of the situation and made it to the flightpod.
"Sulaco Actual, Buck. The heavy raider got past us, it's made it to the flightpod. I'm following it, but I'm at least thirty seconds behind. Do I have permission to open fire on the flightdeck?" Buck asked.
"Buck, Sulaco Actual, you're clear to take whatever action you deem necessary." Commander Hicks replied.
He pushed his Raptor and then cut the engines when he reached the flightpod. He engaged them again, but slower this time as he flew into it. He could see the raider had already docked, he opened fire with his chain cannons, being careful not to hit anything he shouldn't. It exploded, thankfully not damaging any of the flightdeck.
"Sulaco Actual, Buck, the raider is destroyed, but I have no idea if any toasters made it off or not, they had docked." he said as he flew out the other side of the pod.
"Buck, Actual, we're not sure either, I've sent marines to check." Hicks replied.
Skeeter sat alone on Sulaco's flightdeck. Other than Vipers and Raptors coming in for reloads, not much was happening. He listened to the pilot's chatter which was broadcast across the ship. He was listening out for any mention of his friends. He nervously awaited any news on, Wedge. He desperately wanted to go to the CIC, but he had to remind himself that this wasn't Orion, he didn't have the same freedoms here. He stood up as a group of ten marines ran past him at full pelt.
"What the frak?" he said to himself. He stood up and began to follow them. They stopped next to an airlock which led to the flightpod. Seconds later there was a huge explosion followed by an eruption of gunfire.
"Everyone find cover!" Skeeter yelled.
It dawned on him that he had left his rifle where he had been sitting. He was still wearing his marine body armour, he reached behind him and unclipped his shotgun, it would have to do. The firefight in front of him was fierce, Skeeter signalled to some of the deckgang to move. He noticed a handset on the far wall from him. Making sure it was clear he ran over and picked up the hand set.
"CIC, I need to speak with, Commander Hicks, we've been boarded." Skeeter said.
Moments later he heard the Commander's voice.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Commander, it's Skeeter, I'm on the starboard flightdeck, we've been boarded. I think we've got all the deckgang out, but we need more marines ASAP." Skeeter said.
"They're on their way. Find somewhere to lay low." Hicks replied.
Skeeter turned and saw the horrific sight of Scrap walking towards him. In its hand with the rotting human flesh, it held the head of one of the marines.
"Yeah that's not going to be possible." he said dropping the handset and gripping his shotgun in both hands.
"Skeeter? Skeeter?" Hicks yelled, unheard by anyone who wasn't on the CIC.
Scrap was the most horrific thing he'd ever seen and over the last five years, and he'd seen a lot. It smiled at him as it got closer, at least Skeeter guessed it was a smile, the rotting flesh on its face was coming away around it's mouth. Skeeter raised his shot gun and fired, then fired again and again, each shot hitting Scrap's midsection. He had seen the big Centurions run before, they were fast, but Scrap was something else. Before Skeeter had pumped the next round into the barrel it was on him, grabbing the barrel of the gun before throwing Skeeter across the flightdeck into the opposite wall as if he was nothing. Skeeter felt all the wind knocked out of him as he hit the wall and at least one of his ribs break as he hit the ground. Skeeter looked up as Scrap closed its hand around of the barrel of the shotgun, it crumpled as if it were paper. Scrap threw it away. Skeeter could see no help was coming anytime soon. The marines that were left were fighting the Centurions and the deckgang had all left. Skeeter reached for his sidearm as Scrap ran towards him, the metal monster threw the marines head that it was still holding at him. It was still wearing the helmet all the marines did, that was the part that hit Skeeter, breaking his nose and dazing him. He didn't have chance to regain his composure, Scrap grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Skeeter couldn't breathe, he grabbed hold of its hand with both of his, but couldn't budge it. Scrap reached down and took his sidearm from its holster. The pain was unreal, he'd been hurt a lot over the last five years, but every single inch of him hurt. His lungs burned as they screamed out for oxygen.
"You want this, don't you?" it said in its terrible voice, "It wouldn't do you any good, you're feeble bullets cannot harm me." Scrap looked at the weapon for a moment, but there are so many ways I can hurt you with it." It made that smile again. As the edges of Skeeter's vision started to darken all he could think of was the smell, he knew he wouldn't have to smell it much longer. He had to do something and now.
Scrap hit Skeeter round the head with it, once and then again. There was immediately a huge gash down the side of his head. Skeeter tried again in vain to budge it's hand. The pain was unreal, he was worried he was about to pass out through lack of oxygen. He grabbed a handful of skin from its hand and tore it off. Scrap screamed in pain, something Skeeter had not expected. Scrap threw him again. He flew as though the air like a child's rag doll. He hit the wing of a Viper, breaking yet another rib. Scrap walked slowly up to him, raised the gun and shot Skeeter in the leg. He fell to the ground. This was it, this is how he was going to die, he'd be beaten and broken by a fraking Cylon, the same thing that happened to Danny. As he looked up he saw that his shotgun blasts had done damage, its ribs or what he assumed were ribs had been blown outwards on one side. He looked around frantically looking for anything he could use for a weapon. He managed to reach a large spanner, he forced himself to get to his feet, if he was going down, he was going down fighting, just like Danny had. Skeeter swung the spanner with all the strength he could muster, hitting Scrap around the head, tearing off more of its skin. Scrap roared in a mixture of anger and pain before shooting Skeeter again, this time in the shoulder. As he fell to his knees, Scrap was on him again, one of its hands around Skeeter's throat, the other beating him.
"I am going to enjoy killing you." Scrap said.
"You don't have the stones." Skeeter replied before spitting blood at it. He managed to reach out again and rip more skin off it. Scrap threw him by the neck across the hanger deck.
It turned to him to see Skeeter laughing. The human was broken, it could see that, humans broke so easily. Blood covering most of his face, bones clearly broken, why did he laugh? Scrap couldn't understand. Slowly, Skeeter raised his middle finger, laughing as he did, around it was the pin to one of the grenades he still had on his belt from the mission. Scrap looked down and sure enough there was the grenade hanging from one of its broken ribs.
"Told you you don't have the stones." Skeeter said before trying to drag himself backwards.
BOOM! Pieces of skin and metal were fired across the flightdeck. A small stray piece of metal embedded itself in Skeeter's thigh. If he hadn't noticed it he wouldn't have, his whole body hurt so badly no more pain would even register. As he forced himself to his feet he spat out a mouthful of blood and two molars.
"Not today you piece of shit." he said as he saw what was left of its face.
The marines, Hicks had sent down arrived just as all the new Cylons had been destroyed.
"Holy frak." one of the marines said as he saw how bad Skeeter looked.
"You should see the other guy," he said chuckling to himself, "Could you call for a medic please?"
Archangel only had five of his squadron left, things were going from bad to worse, for the first time in the battle he was starting to doubt if they could pull this off. They'd managed to take out a large number of Baseships, but with twenty of them left, it was going to be a hard slog. He checked his ammo counter, with seventy four rounds left in both of his cannons, he decided it was time to go in for a reload.
"Jawbreaker, Archangel, how's your ammo count?" Archangel asked.
"Virtually full, I've just relaunched." Jawbreaker replied.
"I'm going in now, you're in command till I get back." he replied.
"Aye aye." Jawbreaker replied.
As Archangel turned his bird back towards Orion, he could see just outside the battle FTL flashes as new ships started to jump in, a lot of them.
"DRADIS contact!" Phillips yelled.
Both Bojay and Vanessa were back at the console. One side of Vanessa's face covered in a dressing, blood matted in her hair. Bojay's left arm in a sling to restrict his movement until he could get the bullet out. They both looked up at the DRADIS console, unknown contact after unknown contact jumping in one after another.
"We need to take out that Gravity Well generator and get the hell out of here," Bojay said, "We were going to struggle against the remaining Baseships, we can't take on this many more."
"Admiral, we have forty seven new contacts," Phillips said, "Ma'am, they're all confirmed Colonial."
"WHAT?!" Vanessa and Bojay both exclaimed at the same time.
They looked back at the screen as names started to appear, Victorious, Hermes, Nightflight, Columbia, the list went on and on, twenty nine Battlestars and eighteen Gunstars.
"Admiral, I have Icarus Actual on the horn." Phillips said as the final name appeared on the screen, Battlestar Icarus.
"Put him through." Vanessa said, for the first time that day she had a smile on her face.
"Icarus Actual, this is Orion Actual, has anyone ever told you that you have perfect timing?" Vanessa said.
"It has been known once or twice. We found your fleet and Commander Reynolds told us what you were doing. He failed to mention all the bad guys." Imlay replied.
"Yeah, they took us by surprise too. Tell your fleet to attack the Baseships, but leave the other contact till last, it's a gravity well generator, while it's here we can't use our FTL's, but neither can they. Wesley, these are the last Cylons in the galaxy, we can't let them get away." Vanessa said.
"No problem, ma'am. Let's junk some toasters." Imlay replied.
Months ago
It had been a while since they had left Lionel Garrett behind, but Rear Admiral Wesley Imlay couldn't help but find himself thinking of his former commanding officer at some point every day. Was he still alive? If he was, what was he doing? Did they do the right thing leaving him behind instead of putting a bullet in his head? He knew that second guessing what they did was going to get him nowhere. The morale in their little fleet was the best it had been in years. They had lost a couple of ships when the Cylons found them a few weeks before, but other than that everything had been straight forward and that was the only time they'd seen them.
He stood in his quarters looking at himself in the mirror. He was a proud man and he took pride in his appearance, he had intended to lead by example. He looked at the pips on his collar, he still wasn't used to them, never mind people calling him Admiral.
As he walked onto the CIC, his XO, Colonel Samantha Bachman smiled from the CIC console.
"Good morning Admiral, did you sleep well?" she asked.
"I did thank you. Is there anything to report?" Wesley asked as he joined her.
"Nope, everything is the same as yesterday and the same as the day before."
"That's a good thing if you ask me." Wesley replied.
"I couldn't agree more," she replied, "You got here just in time for the next jump. Everyone has called in ready."
"Well then, it's time to get a little bit closer to home. Please give the order Colonel."
She picked up her handset, "Please put me through to the entire fleet."
"Channel open, Colonel." a voice replied.
"All ships this is Colonel Bachman, please standby to jump the fleet, in 5, 4, 3..."
"DRADIS contact, multiple DRADIS contacts." Captain Kevin Giles shouted.
"Hold the count." Wesley said.
"Confirm contacts." Bachman said.
There was a pause for a few long moments.
"Sirs, two hundred and thirty one contacts, all Colonial." Giles replied, "I have Columbia Actual on the horn."
"Columbia, I thought that was on the list of ships destroyed in the initial attack?" Bachman asked confused.
"It was. There was a new ship being built though," he picked up his handset, "Columbia Actual, this is Icarus Actual, Admiral Wesley Imlay."
"Icarus Actual, good to hear your voice. My name is Admiral Cooper Greenway, it's good to meet you."
Some time later, Greenway and Imlay sat in his quarters, each nursing a glass of Ambrosia.
"That's quite a story," Greenway said, "Sounds like you've been through one hell of a time. I have to admit, when I saw Icarus appear it was a relief to hear your voice and not your predecessor."
"You knew, Lionel?" Wesley asked.
"Unfortunately yes I did. He was an asshole, plain and simple. Tell me about his daughter?" Cooper replied before taking a sip from his drink.
"She's quite something. Thrown in the deep end in a way that most people wouldn't be able to handle. But handle it she has, she's thrived. She's a warrior and a credit to the uniform. Her people not only respect her, but they love her. The apple couldn't have landed further away from the tree."
"That's good to hear. I was aware of her before all this, it's nice to hear that when she was away from Cain and Pegasus that she came into her own."
"So what about you guys? How did you manage to survive after the attack?" Wesley asked, pouring them both another drink.
"We were in a top secret facility on Caprica, deep enough under ground so the radiation didn't affect us. We saved as many people as we could, we avoided the Cylons as much as we could while we tried to put together a plan to get rid of them. One day, suddenly they were all gone, they disappeared over night. Once we were sure they weren't coming back, we sent out a message calling on any survivors. We spent the following year finding everyone who was left, securing anything that we could use. I sent people out to salvage and ship yards, we fixed up old Battlestars that had been retired and managed to find a few that had never been used that hadn't been destroyed. By the time we left the Colonies we had just under eight hundred thousand people."
"We were on our way back to the Colonies to see who we could find, looks like we don't have to now. We can join forces and make our way back to Orion." Wesley said.
"Do you know were they are?" Cooper asked.
"Not exactly, but we have a way back to them. Orion's CAG has had Orion drop jump drones, they tell us which way to go. So when we were ready, we could find our way back to them."
"Huh, what's the CAG's name?" Cooper asked curiously.
"Major Hunter." Wesley replied.
"Archangel?!" Cooper exclaimed coughing on his drink.
"Yes, you know him?" Wesley asked.
"Know him, I trained him. He's like a son to me. We're following the same jump drones."
Wesley smiled, "If I believed in the Gods, I'd say this was a sign. Here's to, Archangel."
NOW
As nearly two thousand Vipers and hundreds of Raptors launched from the newcomers, Archangel couldn't help but smile. He turned his bird back to Orion, now was as good a time to reload as any.
Vanessa couldn't keep the smile off her face, they had been on the verge of defeat. Orion and Sulaco were holding out the best, but that wasn't saying much, they had both been taking more and more damage.
"Admiral, the Battlestars, Victorious and Hermes have joined us." Lieutenant Phillips said.
"Is the last of our Cylon Baseships still on the board?" she asked looking up at the DRADIS console.
"Yes it is. It's flanked by two of the new ones." Bojay replied.
"Excellent," she said, a smile on her face, "Instruct our new friends to take out the ones either side, no one is taking out 1 and his cronies but us. As soon as they're in range hit their centre axis with our forward salvo cannons and don't stop until they're wreckage." Vanessa said.
Bojay smiled, "With pleasure."
Orion, Victorious and Hermes all turned towards their new targets. As they did, Orion's huge flak barrage shielded all three of the ships. As the flak from Victorious and Hermes joined the Orion flak it was an impressive sight, no Cylon ordinance was getting through at all.
"Admiral, believe it or not, I have the Cylon Baseship on the horn." Lieutenant Phillips said.
Vanessa and Bojay looked at each other, both visibly surprised.
"So do we speak to them?" Bojay asked with a surprised tone.
"I have to admit, I'm kind of curious to see what they want," Vanessa replied, "Join the call."
They both picked up their handsets.
"This is Orion Actual, what do you want?" Vanessa said coolly.
"Admiral," 1 replied, "I'm calling to offer you a truce."
Vanessa laughed, wincing with pain from the side of her face as she did. She managed to compose herself, "And why would I want to do that?"
"So we don't wipe each other out. What's the point in all of us being dead?" 1 replied.
She could tell that 1 was nervous by the tone of his voice, "You've murdered hundreds of my people and that's just today. You sent a Cylon to my CIC to try to blow us up. He failed by the way, but a good man lost his life saving us. I wouldn't take a truce from you even if Orion was the last ship I had and no bullets or planes left," as she spoke Bojay quickly scribbled a note and then held it up, which read 'In range', "I would rather we all died fighting than turn over and take anything from you, I will not insult the memories of my men and women by agreeing to this." she looked directly at Bojay, "Colonel Johnson, fire everything. 1, enjoy oblivion." she said before slamming down the handset.
"Specialist Carter, record Orion's forward salvo cannon gun camera footage, I want this recorded for our history books." Bojay said as he walked over to Orion's video displays.
"With pleasure sir." the young Specialist replied.
Orion's main bank of video screens was split into various cameras, from Orion and the squadron leaders who were left alive. Down one side of the bank was a list of every pilot, the names in blue showing who was still fighting, the ones in red showing who they'd lost. On the largest screen was the angle from Orion's salvo cannons. Vanessa joined him as they saw the rounds tear through the ships weak point.
Archangel's Viper came to a stop on the hangerdeck. As soon as the canopy was open he was out and down the ladder.
"Major, we have a Viper ready for you." Specialist Rachel Perry said as she jogged over to him.
"Are there no Mk 7's left?" he asked as she pointed to the Mk 2 in front of the nearest launch tube.
"No sir, they're either all in the fight or still being refuelled and armed." she replied.
"Well I always wanted to fly one of these in combat, so I may as well end this in style."
He sat himself into the cockpit and pulled the canopy closed. Minutes later he was speeding through the launch tube back into the battle. It looked beautiful, the flak shield around the Battlestars, the hundreds of tiny explosions twinkling like stars for a brief moment, before being replaced by another, it was like nothing else. In the distance, groups of Vipers danced around groups of Raiders in fierce battles, from this distance it looked liked bugs dancing around at the end of a hot day in the mountains of Sagittaron. As he turned his Viper to head to the rest of his squadron the Cylon Baseship exploded, its upper arms collided with both neighbouring Baseships, that combined with the fire from Victorious and Hermes was enough to destroy them. Archangel could see all the Baseships had been engaged by Battlestars and Gunstars.
"Orion Actual, Archangel."
"Archangel, is everything okay?" Vanessa replied over the COM.
"We need to go for the Gravity Well Generator. All the other bogies are engaged. If we leave it too long and they're the only ones left, they could bug out before we get the chance to stop them." Archangel said.
"Bojay and I were thinking the same thing. Do you want the first shot?" Vanessa asked.
"It would be my genuine pleasure." he replied, "What's the plan?"
"Richmond and Noble are going to join us, we're going to hit the flanking Baseships with everything we've got and make you a hole straight down the middle." Vanessa replied.
"Understood, I'm forming up between you and Sulaco. All wings this is Archangel, I need anyone with missiles, preferably of the nuclear variety to form up on me, we're making a pass at the gravity well generator."
Five minutes later, nine more Vipers and four Raptors had joined him between the two large warships. Some of them showing scars from the fierce battle.
"Okay, Hunter, what's the plan?" Penny asked from along side him.
"The big ships are going to unleash holy hell on the Baseships and make us a hole. When I give the order, firewall your throttles, I want to go in single file so we don't get in each others way, Vipers up front, Raptors at the rear. As soon as I've launched my missiles I'll pull up, then the next do the same and so on. Pull up as hard as you can, because this is going to be very fast. We need to keep formation on the way and try and give everyone in front of you one hundred yards. Are we all clear?"
One by one all the birds called in and took up positions.
"Orion Actual, we are in position." Archangel said.
"Archangel, let us go first and stay back until I give the word." Vanessa replied.
"Yes ma'am." he replied.
He watched as Orion, Sulaco, Victorious, Hermes, Richmond and Noble all moved away. Orion and Sulaco both firing EMP missiles and salvo fire as they went. In the distance he could see Baseships exploding as well as some of their own ships, but on the whole it looked like they could be on the verge of victory.
"Richmond Actual, this is Archangel."
"What is it Major?" Commander Archer replied.
"A Baseship has broken away from the attack, it's heading straight for you." Archangel reported.
"We're a little busy at the moment, Major." she replied.
"Adjust your starboard battery to intercept fire." Archangel said.
"Thank you Major, I know what I'm doing!" Archer snapped angrily.
"Gods damn it." Archangel replied as the Baseship launched a large volley of missiles.
"Archangel, Orion Actual, time to go." Vanessa said over the COM.
"Okay guys, let's get this done." Archangel said as he powered up his Viper.
As his Viper gained speed he switched his weapons from guns to missiles. He checked his DRADIS and everyone was in position. He could see raiders from above trying to get to them as they made their attack run, but they couldn't get through the flak barrier protecting them.
"Orion Actual, I get the feeling we're about to get company from below." Archangel said.
"We'll get you some cover." Vanessa replied.
Less than a minute later a group of Raptors appeared below them, ready to give cover fire against any Cylons who came at them.
"Major Hunter, my name is Captain Caroline Lehane, but you can call me Echo, we've got you covered, just concentrate on your run." Echo said from the lead of the group.
"Echo, this is Archangel, good to meet you." he replied.
In front of him the Baseships were taking heavy damage, but they had clearly figured out what the Colonials were preparing to do. A swarm of raiders broke off from the main fight and made their way towards them.
"We're breaking off to engage," Echo said, "Raptors 27-30, stay and give cover to any that break free."
Echo and four other Raptor's broke away from the group and launched a barrage of missiles at the oncoming Raiders.
The two middle Baseships protecting the gravity well generator had stopped firing. Explosions could be seen breaking out across both of them.
"Okay guys, this is it. Preparing to fire my payload, in 3, 2, 1." Archangel said.
One by one, eight missile fired from his Viper. He pulled back on the controls as hard as he could bringing his bird vertical. It was so close, the Viper was less than a metre away from scraping the surface of the giant silver sphere. All the craft behind pulled up sooner after firing their missiles. With his Viper clear, Archangel did a 180 degree turn so he could see what had happened from above. There were some cracks running along the surface as well as scorch marks, but not enough damage to stop the giant sphere.
"Orion Actual, Archangel, we've done damage but not enough," as he finished speaking Richmond's starboard flightpod exploded, "Holy frak, Richmond has taken critical damage."
Raptor's had already started to launch from the remaining flightpod as explosions started to engulf Richmond's starboard side.
"Richmond Actual, can you hear me?" Vanessa asked as she watched various guncamera shots of the expanding damage to the old Columbia class Battlestar.
"Orion Actual, this is Richmond XO," Major Max Wheeler replied, "Actual is dead. I've set the call to abandon the ship. I'm going to make this count for something. When the last Raptor is away I'm going to engage the engines to maximum and ram that fraking thing."
"What about you?" Bojay asked.
"Someone's going to have to stay behind and engage the engines. We've got system failures across the board," Max replied, "It's okay, this needs to be done."
"Thank you, Major." Vanessa said.
The line went dead after she finished speaking.
"Admiral, Richmond's communications are out." Lt. Phillips reported.
As the last Raptor left the Richmond, its massive engines ignited a brighter blue and it quickly began to pull away from its position. Archangel could tell that Wheeler must be fighting against the controls to keep the once great ship in a straight line, he could see the ship wanted to drift to the side that still had a flightpod, it's massive weight no longer even. The last of the functioning Baseships all launched missiles at the Richmond causing more damage but not slowing it down at all.
Archangel and Jawbreaker had joined their dwindling squadrons together.
"Boss, these Raiders are making move on the Richmond." Jawbreaker said.
Archangel looked over, the last large group of Cylon Raiders left had begun to dive, it looked as though they were preparing a suicide run.
"Well spotted, guys let cut these bastards down to size." Archangel said.
The eleven remaining Vipers of Green and Blue squadron, turned to give chase to the Raiders. There were now far fewer Cylon ships left, unless something drastic happened for them, it would soon be over.
The first three Raiders flew straight into the head of the Richmond, causing massive amounts of damage, but still the ship kept going. Archangel and Jawbreaker opened fire at the same time, cutting two trailing Raiders in half.
"Gods damn it we're not going to catch the rest." Jawbreaker said.
As the next Raider crashed into the Richmond, Echo and her Raptors appeared mowing down the next wave and making the others wave off.
"Nicely done, Echo." Archangel said.
As he finished speaking the Richmond smashed through the remains of one of the Baseships guarding the gravity well generator and into the large silver sphere. The explosion was massive, the three remaining Baseships bore the brunt of the immediate explosion.
"All engines full reverse!" Bojay yelled as they watched the shock wave start to spread out.
"We're not going to clear this in time." Vanessa said.
They watched as three of the remaining Baseships were caught in the blast.
"All hands, hold onto something. Brace for contact." Vanessa said over the COM.
Orion, Sulaco, Victorious, Hermes and Noble were all hit at the same time by the outer edge of the shock wave, all ships shook violently. Power outages in each ship were instant.
"Orion Actual, can you hear me?" Archangel asked as he broke off from his group and flew towards Orion, "Vanessa? Please gods tell me you're still there?"
"Admiral, I can't get any reply from Orion or any of the other ships with her." Captain Giles said from his COM station.
"How many Baseships have we got left?" Wesley asked.
"Three," Colonel Bachman replied, "They're all heavily damaged."
Wesley switched his COM to go fleet wide, "All ships, this is Icarus Actual. Any and all ships in range of the three remaining Baseship, open fire immediately. The gravity well generator is down, we don't have much time." He looked around his CIC and then up to the chaos of the dradis monitor above his head, he had faith in everyone out there, they could do this, "Please order Yellow wing to go help Archangel, I get the feeling he won't leave Orion now even if he's on his own."
Orion's CIC had been plunged into complete darkness, suddenly everything started to kick back in.
"Admiral, the Chief Engineer reports he's rebooting the engines as we speak, it'll take at least five minutes. FTL is powering up, that'll take longer." Lt. Phillips said, "Gun Captain's are checking in, all batteries are powering up. Admiral Imlay has given the order to converge on the remaining Baseships. Ma'am, I have Archangel on the horn, he is insisting on speaking to you."
She smiled, "Put him through."
"Archangel, Orion Actual, you okay?" Vanessa asked.
"Gods damn it, I'm so relieved to hear your voice." he replied.
"You concentrate on keeping yourself alive." she said.
"Will do." he said.
Bojay chuckled to himself.
"What?" Vanessa replied.
"All I'm saying is, I knew it." Bojay replied.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean?" she mildly protested.
Bojay laughed.
The three remaining Baseships all exploded one after the other. The moment they had the remaining Raiders all started suicide runs against the Battlestars and Gunstars.
"All fighters, this is Archangel, there are twenty three Raiders left, take them all out. We can't let any of them jump away." As he spoke he turned his Viper towards two Raiders heading for Orion.
With the Viper's engines firewalled the Raiders both opened fire. Their bullets just missed the old Viper.
"Archangel what the frak are you doing? I'm on my way to assist." Echo said over the COM.
"Negative, Echo. I've got this."
He passed between the Raiders like a rocket, he cut his engines and turned his Viper towards one of the Raiders, tearing it apart, he let his momentum keep his bird spinning. The Raider had realised what he was trying to do, but didn't have time to turn. Archangel had kept his finger on the trigger and the large calibre rounds tore through the Raider.
"Well never mind," Echo replied, "Looks like the stories were true."
All the Raiders suddenly broke away, there were four left. They stopped a few hundred metres away, turned towards the Colonials and stopped.
"All fighters, this is Archangel, I want all Raptors to protect the more damaged larger ships. All Vipers, form up on me. I want a wall between them and everyone else."
Just under two thousand four hundred Vipers joined Archangel. He looked all around him and smiled, this felt good. It had been a long time since they hadn't been outnumbered. Three of the Raiders were the new kind, moving together they all started flying at full pelt at the Vipers, leaving the other Raider behind.
"Okay guys, stay put, but on my mark, open fire." Archangel ordered.
He watched on his DRADIS monitor as they edged closer and closer, he waited, his thumb ready to open fire. Even though they were at full speed, they seemed to edge forward slowly, time slowing down.
"Hunter, they're getting a little too close for comfort!" Penny said.
"I second that boss." Jawbreaker added sounding nervous again.
"3, 2, 1, FIRE!" Archangel said.
Two thousand three hundred and seventy six Vipers all opened fire at the same time, thousands of rounds, a lot of them getting nowhere close to their targets, but as Archangel thought as he smiled, just to be sure.
Seconds later they all stopped firing as the Raiders were blown to pieces.
"Archangel, what about this last one?" Vanessa asked over the COM.
He looked at his ammo count, forty three rounds in each cannon, more than enough.
"If no one has any objections this one's mine. It'll take me up to a nice even four hundred kills." he said, "Everyone else, hold the line."
He engaged his engines, leaving everyone else behind. The last, lone Raider seeing what Archangel was doing engaged its own engines and began flying towards him.
"Is he insane?!" Echo exclaimed.
Jawbreaker chuckled, "Lady, if history is anything to go by, you're about to see something special. Everyone, we do as the boss says, hold the line."
Vanessa watched nervously as the man she loved sped towards his target. She nervously bit her nails as she watched. They'd survived all this time, she had more faith in him than anyone she had ever known, but if he died now, well she couldn't bring herself to think any further about it. Bojay, seeing how nervous she was held her hand. She looked up at him and saw the big goofy smile he'd always had as long as she had known him, the one he only had when he was nervous.
The Raider opened fire, Archangel knew he wasn't in range, not quite yet. He looked at his fuel gage, he had to get this just right as he was running on fumes and wouldn't have enough left for a dogfight. As soon as he was in range he cut his engines completely, the Cylon didn't see it coming or have time to react. Keeping the nose of the old Viper pointing towards the Raider, he went over the top of it, he opened fire with his twin cannons and kept his thumb on the trigger till the ammo counter hit zero, the first of them hit the red eye, each of the rest hitting the fuselage tearing it in two. He brought the Viper to a complete stop behind the wreckage, twisting it 180 degrees as he did.
For the first time in the last hour Orion's CIC was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Vanessa didn't realise she'd been holding her breath until she heard his voice.
"Orion Actual, it's over, the last of the Cylons has been destroyed." Archangel said.
The silence was over, the crew erupted in cheers of joy.
Vanessa turned and hugged Bojay, she then turned to look at the CIC. The damage they'd taken could be seen across the room, but her crew, despite their losses were smiling, cheering and quite a few of them crying tears of relief.
"Lieutenant Phillips, open a fleet wide channel." Vanessa said as she and Bojay walked back up to the DRADIS console.
"Channel open Admiral." he replied moments later.
She took a deep breath before she spoke, "It's over. The Cylon threat that we've given our lives to end is over. Five years to the day since this all began. I want to thank each and everyone of you for the things you've all done, for the way you have conducted yourselves. We've had to fight for our lives against humans and Cylons alike and we're still here. Enjoy this moment, we've all earned this victory. Now it's time to join all of our fleets together, to find our new home. This is the first day of the rest of our lives, our new lives. Garrett out." She put the handset down before she spoke again, "Okay guys, we still have jobs to do. Colonel, see which Raptor has the most fuel left and send them back to the fleet."
Bojay nodded and winked before going back over to the vid bank.
"Mister Phillips I want all department heads to start making damage reports and casualty lists." Vanessa said.
"Yes Ma'am." he replied.
She turned and saw medics taking away Milo's remains from the computer lab. Suddenly the elation of their victory was replaced by the loss of her friend. She took a deep breath and walked over. The damage to the computer lab was absolute, it was going to take a lot of work just to make the room usable again.
"Admiral?" one of the medics asked nervously.
Vanessa turned and smiled as best she could at the young woman standing next to her.
"How can I help you?" she replied.
"I'm not one to question orders ma'am, but when dealing with the remains of the Cylon, Captain Jennings said to put it in a bucket and dump it out of an airlock. I just wanted to make sure, erm."
"That they're the orders I'd want?"
The medic nodded.
She thought for a quick moment, it was more than 4 deserved, "Sounds good to me."
Orion's flightdeck was bustling with activity. There was a constant stream of pilots being brought in. As Archangel's Viper came to a stop he was already half way down the ladder attached to it.
"Anyone ever told you, you're like a gods damn cockroach, Hunter?" Penny said walking up to her friend, throwing her arms around him.
"I'm glad you're still kicking." he said. He held onto her with relief, he was beyond happy she made it through.
"Right back at you." she replied.
"Has there been any sign of, Wedge?" Archangel asked.
She shook her head, "No, but the SAR Raptors are still out there."
Archangel looked around at the people celebrating. Some crying with relief, others crying over lost friends. He smiled as he saw Vanessa pushing through the crowds of people towards him. They stood in front of each other, just smiling, he looked at the bloody dressing on the side of her face.
"You okay?" he asked.
She nodded, "I am, a little bruised and battered from the explosion, but nothing that won't heal. Are you okay?"
"Buzzing with adrenaline. It was one hell of a fight." he replied.
"That is was." she said.
They looked at each other for a moment.
"Frak this." Archangel said, he stepped forward, pulled her towards him and kissed her. He didn't care who knew any more. A few moments later they stood looking at each other.
"Cat's out of the bag now." Vanessa said.
"I couldn't give a frak," Archangel replied with a smile, "Seize the day and all that."
"Oh my gods." she replied looking past him.
"What?" he asked confused.
She reached up and turned his head to face the Raptor that had just been brought in.
"Holy shit." he replied.
Luna's Raptor came to a stop, the burn and scorch marks down the hull were extensive. There were holes down the left wing where weapons fire had hit it. It looked as though it was falling apart.
"How the hell did she fly that thing?" Archangel asked as he stepped towards it.
The side hatch began to open, smoke billowed out and it came to a dead stop. It had just opened wide enough for her to squeeze out. The visor in her flight helmet had a huge crack down the middle of it. As she took it off, her nose was clearly broken and her face smeared in blood.
"Well that was fun!" she said sarcastically before sitting on the wing and catching her breath.
"Are you okay?" Vanessa asked.
"Yeah, I headbutted the console in front of me when we were hit by enemy fire," she replied, "They were really trying to kill me." she laughed as she spoke.
Someone else managed to squeeze through the partially opened hatch.
"I think you've lost something?" she said looking behind her.
Wedge turned around also looking a little worse for ware. He dropped his helmet on the deck. Archangel walked over to his friend and hugged him.
"Thank gods you're alive." Archangel said.
Wedge winced in pain.
"You okay?" Archangel asked.
"Yeah, I busted a few ribs when I ejected. I thought my time was up. If it wasn't for Luna, man I've never seen anyone fly a Raptor like that. You are one hell of a stick."
"We had a few close calls." she replied.
"I don't know how you flew that thing." Archangel said taking in all the damage.
Malia's Raptor appeared in a bright blue flash of light, followed shortly after by the hundreds of ships that now made up the Colonial fleet. The Gunstar Crixus was the last ship to jump in and join the massive convoy.
Bojay walked onto the hangerdeck.
"Good to see you alive, Wedge." Bojay said as he hugged his friend.
"Likewise." Wedge replied.
"Well I've just taken a call from the Starburst, you might want to head over there ASAP, Dad." he replied with a smile.
"Are you serious?" Wedge asked.
Bojay nodded, "Congratulations. I don't know anything more."
"I have to get over there." he said frantically.
"Take one of the standby Vipers," Vanessa said, "GO!"
"Yes, ma'am. You coming?" he asked Archangel.
"He's going to have to follow you shortly, there's someone on their way to meet him from the Battlestar Columbia." Bojay replied. "Tripswitch, you might want to be here for this."
"Who?" he asked.
"I can't say," he replied, "But that's their Raptor." he said pointing to a bird that was just coming to a stop.
He, Vanessa, Archangel and Penny all walked over to it. The back hatch began to open, Archangel couldn't believe his eyes when he saw who was standing on the other side.
"Coop?!" he said in utter shock.
SEVEN YEARS AGO
Why didn't she listen to Hunter? Penny thought over and over again as she paced back and forth in the locked room she found herself in. She was so angry with herself, the mission hadn't gone as well as anyone would have hoped, the deaths that resulted were tragic, there was no other way to put it. But the media being there and catching her and Alisa on camera had been their downfall. She snapped back to reality when the door opened and Admiral Greenway walked in.
"Can I go home now please?" she asked.
"Sit down Penny." he replied as he sat on one of the chair around a small table in the middle of he room. She looked at him, unsure what was going on, whatever it was, she didn't like where this was going. She sat down and looked at him.
"Admiral Negala has been in a meeting with the President and Quarrum for the last hour over what happened."
Penny felt deflated, all she wanted to do was to go home to Hunter on Freedom, he was waiting for her, surely they'd told him by now.
"They wanted to send you both to jail, make an example of you both."
"WHAT?!" Penny exclaimed, "But we saved nearly two hundred kids, we broke up the largest child trafficking ring in the history of the Colonies. We don't deserve to go to jail."
"Oh I agree and so does Admiral Negala, he fought both your corners. But the fact is, seven children died."
Penny ran her hands through her hair, she could feel tears starting to well in her eyes, but was she frak going to cry if she could help it.
"I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life, but that wasn't Alisa and me. We tried to stop it, but we couldn't get to them in time. But I don't deserve to be punished for that. What I've done for the Colonies, the people I've killed, for YOU, I deserve better than jail."
"You're not going to jail. Negala talked them out of that."
"So I can go home?" Penny asked feeling relief, relief that was taken from her as quickly as it came.
"No, I'm afraid not. You and Alisa have been transferred to the Battlestar Trinity, which is about to join a fleet on a deep space exploratory mission. Looking for habitable worlds. Anton thinks that by the time you get back, the heat should have died down for you both."
"What? No, this was my last job, I told you that before I took it, this was me one more and done. You told me that was okay, otherwise I wouldn't have gone on this fraking mission."
Cooper could see how angry she was getting, he was also beginning to worry that she could take it out on him.
"I fought Anton on this for this very reason, but he wouldn't budge. The President says someone has to take the blame for this."
Penny stood up, took hold of her chair and launched it off the two way mirror that ran down one side of the room. The glass cracked from the force of the impact. The door swung open again and two armed guards rushed in, their weapons pointing at her. She turned to face them, "What?! You fraks think you've got the balls?!" she was seething with rage.
"STAND DOWN AND GET OUT!" Greenway yelled at the two guards.
They looked at him, but didn't budge.
"Did I stutter?" Greenway said angrily. They knew from his tone and the way he was looking at them that he wasn't screwing around, "Get out, NOW!"
Both guards holstered their weapons and left the room.
Penny reared on Greenway, "You swore to us, you swore something like this would never happen. You swore to me." tears began to fall down her face as she spoke, "I nearly died helping to save this planet and the gods damn President. Two bullets, I took two bullets," she pulled the neck of her top down to show a healed bullet wound on the left hand side of her chest. "I didn't even want to do this mission, you talked me into it. Please don't do this to me."
In his fifty two years, he had never felt as truly awful as he did in this moment. He wanted to let her go home, to live her life, but he knew he couldn't.
"Penny I wish I could. When the mission is over, you can come back."
"And how long will that be?" she asked as she wiped her eyes.
"The mission has been designed to potentially last ten years." he replied.
"Ten years? Are you fraking kidding me?"
"I'm so sorry."
"STOP SAYING YOU'RE SORRY!" Penny screamed, she slumped into one of the other chairs, "We're getting married." she said quietly.
Greenway was lost for words.
"I argued your case, I really did. Brought up everything you've done, all your commendations. The President didn't care."
"Can I see Hunter?" Penny asked wiping her eyes again.
Greenway shook his head, "I'm afraid there are concerns that he'll break you out."
"Then let him. We can disappear, you'll never see us again. Please." she begged.
"Admiral Negala has refused to let that happen. Both you and Alisa will be escorted to Trinity within the hour."
Penny looked at him with hate in her eyes. For a moment she contemplated breaking herself out. Until today she never actually thought she would ever want to hurt Greenway, he'd been the closest thing to a father she'd ever had. Now all she wanted to do was break his neck, take his gun and kill everyone she came across until she was either free or dead.
"Frak you. I had more respect for you than anyone I've ever known in my life. I've followed every single order you've ever given me without complaint, no matter what it was. Now I know it was all a lie, all just bullshit so I'd commit mass murder for you, so I'd do those horrific things. I've never asked you for a gods damn thing, not once and then after everything I've done, you do this to me, you son of a fraking bitch." she spat venomously.
"Would you rather you went to jail?" he asked.
"I'd rather be dead." she replied sharply. "Get the frak out of here, I'm done talking to you, I never want to see you again."
"Penny, I.."
"Drop dead." she replied.
TODAY
"Fleet Admiral Vanessa Garrett, my name is Admiral Cooper Greenway, permission to come aboard?"
"Pleased to meet you Admiral and of course." she replied.
As he reached the deck, Archangel hugged him.
"It is so good to see you." Archangel said.
"You too, son." he replied with a smile.
As he finished speaking he saw Penny standing behind Archangel, she looked like she wanted to ground to open up and swallow her.
"Penny?" he said before walking to her and hugging her.
Penny began to cry.
"You found each other," he said gently holding her face in his hands, "I'm so glad you found each other."
"The things I said to you the last time we spoke, Coop I'm so sorry."
"There's nothing to be sorry about kid. I should have fought harder for you, I should have never let them send you away."
Penny didn't know what to say, the things she'd said to him and haunted her all this time. She always dreamed she'd see him again, but she never expected him to just forgive her. He smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead. He looked at her and smiled before turning to Archangel, "I've got some more people here who want to see you." Cooper replied.
Archangel looked up at he two people standing at the back of the Raptor and he started to cry, stunned momentarily into silence.
"Mum, Illum?" he said in utter shock. He looked over at Cooper and then back to his mother as she walked over to him, he hugged her tightly and then his brother too, "I've missed you both so much and I have so much to tell you."
"I never thought I'd see you again." Catherine said, "I had hope when Illum found the black box at your house, but I never let myself believe that hope."
She smiled even wider when she turned and saw Penny, "Oh my gods, Penny, I thought you were," she stopped what she was about to say, "It's so wonderful to see you both." She hugged Penny tightly.
This Penny had missed, a hug from Catherine Hunter, it had been far too long.
