Starbuck ran to the freighter's hangar bay and climbed into her viper. She started the engines and checked her instruments. She activated the viper's comm system and told the worm alien that was piloting the freighter to open the hangar bay doors, so she could leave.
"Sorry, but we are about to land on..." the worm said.
"Open the damn doors, or I'll shoot my way out", she yelled into her comm.
The worm pilot realized he had no other choice than to open the hangar bay doors and let her out.
Starbuck flew her viper out of the freighter's hangar bay toward the Colonial fleet, while the freighter attempted to land on the asteroid. Then, suddenly two Cylon baseships appeared on DRADIS.
"Oh frak!" Starbuck cursed.
Two more baseships jumped in on the opposite side of the fleet. The baseships started launching raiders and the battlestar launched vipers. Starbuck was surprised when the organic looking ship that seemed to belong to the fleet launched a small number of vipers as well. The civilian ships started jumping away, one by one, including the clunky yellowish ones.
Amidst the comm chatter between the vipers she could hear voices and call signs she didn't recognize. A woman with the call sign "Mad Cat" seemed to be in charge and a man with the call sign "Bojay" appeared to be her wingman.
"Ratface, this is Mad Cat. Five raiders are making a run for the Scylla. You and Noodle guard her rear flank; Bojay and I are on our way".
"That can't be right, Starbuck thought. The Scylla had been one of the ships that had been stripped and abandoned by the Pegasus. The ship was now apparently having trouble with her FTL drive and the Cylons have recognized her as an easy target. Starbuck decided to help protect the Scylla, since it was the most vulnerable ship to enemy fire. Two vipers went to intercept the raiders heading toward the Scylla, with two more on their way. Starbuck saw eight more raiders leaving the main formation and flying toward the Scylla. Another odd thing Starbuck noticed was that there were two cloud type luxury liners, while she remembered there had been only one, the Cloud Nine, when she had last seen the fleet. She was now between the two luxury liners, getting closer, but still too far to join the fight.
Two vipers began exchanging fire with five raiders. Two of the raiders exploded in fireballs and one of the vipers lost its starboard wing.
"Ratface, I'm hit, I'm hit", Starbuck could hear a male voice frantically shouting.
"Stay calm, Noodle", she heard his wingman reply.
Ratface brought his viper around and fired. He managed to destroy two of the raiders, but was unable to save Noodle.
Four raiders and one viper had been destroyed in this engagement, while at the same time similar dogfights were going on all around the slowly retreating civilian fleet. The fifth raider began a strafing run on the Scylla before being destroyed by the two other vipers which seemed to have arrived just in time. They appeared to belong to Mad Cat and her wingman Bojay. They barely had enough time forming up with the surviving viper when the eight raiders came into weapons range. Starbuck came out from behind one of the cloud type ships, which was jumping out at the exact same moment. She fired on the raiders, destroying two and damaging a third. The remaining raiders damaged one of Mad Cat's engines and destroyed another viper, which seemed to be the one belonging to Ratface. Mad Cat was able to destroy one of the raiders and Bojay got another two. The damaged engine prevented Mad Cat from performing more tricky maneuvers; otherwise she might have scored at least another kill. Starbuck could tell by the actions of the other pilots that Noodle and Ratface must have been complete nuggets who could possibly have survived if they had been more experienced. Mad Cat and Bojay however seemed to be seasoned veterans.
The remaining raiders attempted an attack run on the Scylla, but were quickly destroyed by Starbuck and the other two vipers before they could do any major damage other than scorching a few hull plates.
And then her comm unit began to crackle again.
"Unknown Viper, this is Mad Cat. Please identify yourself", the pilot of one of the vipers said through her comm.
"Mad Cat, this is Starbuck"
"Starbuck? We don't have anyone with that call sign. But thanks for pulling our asses out of the fire. Please stand by to be escorted to the Pacifica"
"The Pacifica? You guys are from the Pacifica?" Starbuck couldn't believe that another battlestar had survived.
One of the baseships that were trading shots with the battlestar was hit by three nukes and exploded. The other one was missing two of its arms. The battlestar had taken some minor damage.
A squadron of heavy raiders fired missiles at the asteroid base. Some of the missiles were destroyed by the base's defense grid, but there were too many. A damaged basestar kept attacking the battlestar and the civilian fleet, while one basestar joined the heavy raiders in the attack on the outpost and the other two gunned down several of the other ships of unknown design. Starbuck cringed as she saw the worms' freighter explode.
Some of the alien ships fought back, but were no match for the firepower of the basestars and their raiders until finally a group of 3 alien ships formed up and concentrated their fire on one of the baseships. These three ships were very similar in design, with one of them larger than the other two. They had been caught by surprise and it had taken their crews a while to get their bearings, but now they had targeted the attackers and were heading toward them with all guns blazing. By now the last civilian ships, including the cloud type passenger liners and the lightly damaged Scylla had jumped out of the system.
"Pacifica actual to all vipers. Return to the barn immediately. We're bugging out", Starbuck could hear through her comm.
While the surviving vipers, including Starbuck, were returning to the Pacifica, the three alien warships had managed to destroy one of the Cylon basestars, while the Cylons had destroyed the trading outpost and many of the alien ships.
After Starbuck had landed her Viper in the port hangar bay of the Pacifica she was escorted to the brig by marines, who told her that they needed to verify that she was in fact a pilot from the Galactica and not a Cylon imposter. She was used to spending time in the brig, albeit for different reasons. She still could not believe that Pacifica and another whole fleet of civilian ships had survived.
As the commander walked in, Starbuck stood up and saluted. He returned the salute.
"Welcome aboard the Battlestar Pacifica, Captain Thrace. Please excuse the rough treatment. Security measures." the commander of the Pacifica apologized. He gestured the marines to leave.
"I am Commander John Crichton", he introduced himself.