IV
Connor's team were swarming the prison now, using either their weapons, or small amounts of plastic explosives to blow open the doors to the cells. They had no idea where anyone was, so all the doors had to be blown. That was a lot of doors. They moved quickly.
Laura Roslin had never been so frightened in her life. She was no soldier, and the sound of battle right on top of her was a new experience-one she'd rather not have gone through. But her wife was here. Her life was in here somewhere. She only had a sidearm, but she kept moving forward.
Prisoners began to leave their cells, Roslin desperately looking to see if Kara was one of them. She wouldn't begrudge any of the prisoners getting out, but she had one mission here-get to Kara, and get her to Colonial One.
Colonial One
The Cylons were packing it in. D'Anna had given the order to abandon the planet, while the Centurions fought a delaying action. The only ship that didn't have a captain already onboard to fly it was the Presidential ship. That would arrive when Laura Roslin arrived.
As The Cylons abandoned, only Caprica remained for the moment with Gaius Baltar.
"I just want to sit here, and die", Gaius said, meaning every word of it.
Her heard a click from a weapon.
"Well, you're going to get your wish, Gaius", Felix Gaeta said, anger etched on his face. "I believed in you, Gaius. For a while, we all did."
Caprica approached Gaeta, the former Ops Officer pointing the gun at her, his mind drawn away from Gaius for a few moments.
Looking quickly in front of him, Baltar saw a gun within reach, probably left by one of the Dorals, who so loved to keep one on him. As Caprica walked to Gaius' right, drawing Felix's sight away from the President, Gaius picked up the gun. He was no expert with firearms, but he had used them a few times.
He fired.
Caprica turned to look at her lover full in the face, not believing what just happened. Then she looked down in front of her: Felix Gaeta lay dead on the floor.
"My God, Gaius!" Caprica hadn't expected anything like that.
"It was him or me, Caprica." he holstered the gun in the back of his pants. "Let's get the hell out of here."
The Centurions were still screening Colonial One, as their humanoid brethren were still evacuating that ship. Tom Zarek and his team had halted their advance, taking cover to one side of another ship near the Presidential transport.
"Roger", he yelled, "take Kacey! I want to peek out here in a few moments."
"Be careful, Tom!"
Zarek just looked at him. "Just keep Kacey safe, for gods sake."
They watched as more insurgents moved in toward the Centurions. Tom's men wanted to join the rush, but Zarek had given his word that they would get Roslin's daughter to the ship. Tom was a son-of-a-bitch, and he knew it, but his word meant something.
Tom looked briefly around the corner, and saw the Centurions being knocked down quickly. The insurgents were almost to the ship.
"OK, guys", Tom screamed, "let's get to the ship!"
They moved, with Roger cradling Kacey protectively, who was crying and screaming from all the thunderous noise around her.
Centurion bullets were screaming all around them. Even these tough men were frightened like they'd never been, never seeing anything like this. The ramp under Colonial One, and into the shop came closer and closer.
As they were perhaps fifteen meters from the ramp, a hail of Centurion bullets rang out. One of Zarek's men lifelessly dropped to the ground, a second bullet catching Zarek in the back. It drove him into the ground.
He looked up in time to see three insurgents turn and pour a hail of fire into the Centurion who had fired on them, getting the satisfaction of seeing the Toaster fall to the ground. He turned back up to look at his remaining two men.
"Get her into the fraking ship! Go!"
As the two men clamored up the ramp, another bullet from another Centurion struck Zarek, killing him instantly.
The insurgents assigned to the prison were getting the many doors open as quickly as they could. But there were hundreds. As the Centurions began to withdraw, more and more people moved to help get the job done.
Laura Roslin had her sidearm out, but thankfully hadn't had to use it. There were still Centurions in the area-all of them had not withdrawn quite yet, so there was still some death and violence around them.
As Laura followed Seelix to the next door, they heard someone yell loudly.
"Get President Roslin over here!"
Hardball and Roslin locked eyes, both with frightened looks on there faces.
"C'mon, Madam President!" The two ran in the direction of the call, others pointing out where the shout had come from.
Laura and Diana came around a corner, and four doors down on the right, an insurgent eyed them. "We found her, Madam President!"
Laura raced by Seelix, as a number of insurgents made a protective ring outside the door. Laura went inside. There was a male insurgent inside, laying a coat over Kara.
For a moment, Laura panicked, thinking he was covering her because...
"Noooooooo!" The blood-curdling scream ripped at everyone who heard it. "Kara, no!"
The man instantly knew the reason for the scream. "No, no! Madam President, she's alive! I've got a pulse, she's alive. She is just cold!"
Laura collapsed in tears next to the man, who put a steadying arm around the former President.
Kara was unconscious, a large bruise on her cheek. Obviously, someone had laid her out cold. "Kara, baby! Honey, wake up!"
Seelix followed Roslin in. She had some smelling salts, giving out in case of just such a thing-someone being unconscious during the evacuation. She put the salt under Kara's nose, the blonde woman starting to groan back to consciousness.
C'mon, love", Laura urged her young wife. "C'mon sweetie, wake up."
Kara's eyes fluttered. She was still only half-conscious, but she had heard the one voice that had sustained her through her personal hell.
"Laura?" The word was soft, groggy and rough, but she knew...
"Oh, gods, yes, baby. I'm here. I'm here. We're going home."
Seelix didn't want to break up the reunion, but had no choice. "Madam President, we need to get the two of you to Colonial One." Diana looked at the man who had found her. "Can you carry Starbuck to the ship?"
"Consider it done", the man said without hesitation. "C'mon, Madam President. We need to get you to safety."
"Dradis back online", Kelly said to Adama, who was wrapping his hand, which had been sliced up with the jump in and out of the atmosphere. It had played hell with their system. "Two Cylon Baseships coming out of the nebula."
Helo nodded at the Admiral. "Just as we suspected. Cylon Raiders are still scattered to hell and gone. They're coming at us with no fighters."
"Hold on", Kelly said warily, looking at Dradis. "Two more Baseships just jumped in." He looked at his Admiral. "We've got four Baseships out there, Admiral."
Adama glanced up at his Dradis display, going slightly pail.
"We can't hold off four..."
On the surface of New Caprica, only a few Centurions remained, and they were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed. All that was taking place was the mop-up, making sure no one was left behind. Above those that remained on the surface, ships that had landed twenty months earlier were jumping away to the rendezvous coordinates that Athena had brought with her.
Laura and her party, including Charlie Connor, boarded Colonial One. Armed insurrectionists led the former President in, doing a sweep of the ship, before allowing the group had boarded. There was no sign of Gaius Baltar, nor any of The Cylons.
When Laura stepped into the Presidential office, she gave out a small gasp, as the body of Felix Gaeta lay on the floor, blood pooling under him.
Before she commented on Gaeta, her mind snapped back to her family. "Where's Kacey?"
In moments, the man, Roger, who had grabbed Kacey from Tom Zarek, was in the room with the frightened little girl. When she saw Laura, she squirmed away from the man.
"Mommy!"
"Oh, baby, gods, I'm so glad to see you!" She hugged the girl tightly to her bosom, tears of relief streaming down her cheek. "Mommy is so glad you're hear."
"Did you get Momma for us?"
The man who had carried Kara in spoke. "I took her below. Nurse Ishay is looking her over right now."
Laura went up to the man. "In all this mess, I haven't even asked you your name."
The man slightly bowed. "Pernell Robinson, ma'am. I'm a civilian FTL mechanic by trade."
Laura didn't wait, and pulled the man into a hug with he and Kacey. "Mr. Robinson, Kacey and I thank you for bringing Kara back here. You have my eternal thanks."
"It was my honor, Madam President." He looked at her as the hug broke. "You take good care of this beautiful little lady, and your wife, ya hear?"
Laura laughed through her tears. "Yes, sir."
The man looked around. "I was supposed to be on another ship, but..."
Laura waved him off. "You stay right here, Pernell. You've earned a spot on Colonial One today."
Laura then turned to the man Roger, and the other man Zarek had assigned. "Where's Mr. Zarek?"
Roger shook his head, sadly. "He died down by the ramp earlier, along with the other guy with us. He kept his promise."
Laura nodded.
Charlie Connor looked down at Felix Gaeta, rage in his eyes. "Should we dump this piece of shit off of the ship, Madam President."
She didn't miss a beat. "No", she said firmly. "He served honorably in the Colonial Fleet, and he deserves to come back home one last time. Perhaps we'll figure out what was going on here for all those months. For now, put him into a casket. I know there's at least a few onboard."
Charlie nodded sullenly, but he obeyed.
"I'll, uh, get someone to clean up this floor once we're airborne", he said, looking back up at his former President.
"Thank you, Mr. Connor", Laura said softly.
She put Kacey down for a moment, then sat in the chair that recently had been used by Gaius Baltar. She looked around the room, took a deep breath, pulling Kacey on her lap.
She looked up at one of the insurgents. "Tell the pilot we can go now." She stood up again, with her daughter. "Let's go below and see how your mommy is doing, Kacey."
Onboard Galactica
The four Baseships were on top of Galactica in a matter of moments, pounding away at the old Battlestar. The ship was taking a tremendous beating, people in the CIC simultaneously doing their jobs, and putting out small electrical fires that kept popping up.
Kelly was on the horn with Engineering. "We've lost maneuvering thrusters."
"We can't take many more hits, Admiral", Helo commented, tense but calm. "We've got explosive decompression, Sections 36 through 48."
Adama glanced around the room. "FTL?"
Karl simply shook his head. At that moment, a tremendous explosion rocked Galactica, knocking most of the crew over.
When Adama rose, he knew this was the end.
"That's it", he said. Even though his voice wasn't loud, everyone in CIC heard it, and they all looked at him, knowing what the next order would be.
"It's been an honor."
The Human-looking Cylons on the Baseships were not happy that they had lost New Caprica, but they were on the verge of destroying the once-mighty Galactica.
They would take that.
Onboard one of the Baseships, Cavil was ready to celebrate.
"I want everything poured on that frackin' ship. Don't show it any mercy."
A Sharon spoke up. "The Raiders we have left will be back in one minute."
"Put them in on the fight. Destroy that ship!"
As Cavil stood grinning, anticipating the demise of that pain-in-the-ass, Bill Adama, his ship was suddenly rocked by fire."
"What the hell was that?"
Lee Adama had never been one to completely follow orders to the letter. This time, he had no qualms about ignoring what his father had told him.
The more modern, and slightly bigger Pegasus had caught the Baseships flat-footed as they tried to finish off her sister ship. The first of the four Baseships took a full barrage of missiles, disintegrating in mere seconds, a second one taking heavy damage.
"Galactica, Pegasus, let us take some of the work off your hands. Get your FTL up and ready, and we'll take care of the rest."
Aboard Galactica
That boy never could obey my orders, thank the gods this time.
He didn't know if he wanted to curse Lee up one side and down the other, or thank him.
So he did both, to cover all the bases.
"Keep working on the FTL's, and get the frakin' things online. Those bastards will redeploy as soon as they recover."
"Aye, Admiral", Kelly hollered back, more calmly than he felt.
At that moment, the second of the four Cylon Baseships.
"Commander", Dee told her husband, "they're coming about! Trying to bracket us."
She looked directly at him.
There was a calm look of resolve on his face. "Take us right down the center, right between them."
"We won't last long there, Commander."
He didn't flinch. "No."
"Most of the civilian ships are off the ground, Admiral. Most have jumped away, only a few left."
"Thank you, Mr. Kelly. It's working."
At that moment, Helo said four words that Adama silently blessed.
"FTL's back online."
"Spin up the FTL."
"Pegasus is taking a helluva pounding, Admiral. I don't think she has one single plane up."
Adama shook his head. "Lee left the Vipers and Raptors with the civilian fleet." He looked over at Agathon. "Lee knew this would be a one-way trip for Pegasus."
Helo blanched at those words. "He's not..."
Admiral Adama cut him off. "Let's worry about ourselves right now, Mr. Agathon. Land our birds, and let's get the hell out of here."
The Vipers and Raptors that had been out since the operation began heard Helo give the order that was music to their ears.
"All wings, Galactica, head on home. Combat landings are approved. Repeat, all birds, come on home and prepare for jump!"
Hot Dog advised his squadrons that had launched from Galactica during the jump into the atmosphere to hold off landing until the ships that Kat and Racetrack were landing could touch down first. They had been in the air the longest. Kat and Racetrack landed their birds last, Kat informing Hot Dog his groups were clear.
In a matter of minutes, all the fighters were aboard.
Within moments, the badly damaged, but still intact Battlestar jumped away, leaving Pegasus behind.
Massive explosions were rocking the Battlestar Pegasus. The Beast was heading to her death.
"Set main batteries to auto-fire Cycle B", he informed those who were left in CIC. He looked at Dee. "Lock engines ahead flank!"
He lifted the growler to talk to his crew for the last time aboard the mighty ship.
"This is the Commander. Abandon ship, I repeat, Abandon ship. Report to your evac Raptor, and jump to the rendezvous point. Good work, everyone. See you on the other side."
Another massive explosion rocked the ship.
"All right people", Dee yelled as loud as she could over the hellish noise, "let's move, let's go!" She looked over at Lee, who had remained amazingly calm through the battle. "That means you, too, Commander."
"Yes, sir", Lee said absentmindedly, making Dee want to laugh, but this wasn't the time for laughter.
As the ship was exploding around him, taking her literal last breaths, he looked back to CIC. "Thank you."
He and Dee headed to their Raptor.
Pegasus continued to close the gap with the last two Baseships, her systems on automatic, now in a closed-quarters duel with her Cylon counterparts.
As the last three escape Raptors exited her landing bay, jumping away, Pegasus plowed into the nearest of the two Cylon ships, a tremendous explosion rocking the heavens as the two ships blew apart. The debris from what remained of Pegasus and the other Cylon Baseship tore through the remaining Baseship, and it, too, disintegrated into the void of space.