Sensor data from a raptor that had been sent on a recon mission to the apparently abandoned station had shown that 90% of the station was powered down and that its weapons were inactive. A squadron of vipers led by Sheba Cain remained behind to secure the station until it could be boarded. Commander John Crichton had ordered the launch of ten raptors carrying a company of 80 marines. Their task was to capture the station intact, if possible, or to destroy it if necessary to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Cylons. Thomas Hill, who had been promoted to Captain, was in command of this mission. He was eager to prove to his mentor John Crichton that he deserved the new rank and swore not to let him down.
Raptors took off from both Pacifica and Moya, because half of the marines participating in this mission had been aboard Moya for training. Besides being the CO of Moya and babysitting a bunch of teenagers, Aeryn was also responsible for training Colonial Marines. They had started out with 78 marines aboard the Pacifica after the fall of the colonies and managed to increase that number to up to 400 since then. This had been accomplished by drafting reserves from civilian ships and training new recruits. The marines were trained in Peacekeeper tactics and had been issued pulse pistols.
Unbeknownst to Hill and the marines, one of the raptors also carried two of the worms who had stowed away under the assumption the raptor was leaving for one of the freighters. The worms were hoping to get aboard the freighter that carried part of the supplies for the fleet and help themselves to some coffee.
At the same time, a squadron of Cylon Heavy Raiders led by a number six made their way to the gas giant. The Cylons had discovered the object orbiting the gas giant as well. The Heavy raiders were escorted by a squadron of standard raiders.
Hill's raptor was the first ship to reach the station. Shortly after that a heavy raider that had managed to get past the vipers arrived. One viper had followed the heavy raider and tried to destroy it before reaching the station, but was shot to bits by two raiders. The other raptors were ordered to fly around and enter the station from the other side. One raptor was destroyed before more vipers were able to destroy the attacking raiders.
After burning through an airlock, Hill and his team had made it aboard the station. The other teams would arrive shortly at their entry points. Outside the station, the battle between Sheba's viper squadron and the Cylon raiders was still going on.
Hill was moving swiftly but with caution through the corridors with his marines, trying to reach and secure the station's command center. According to various signs on the walls, the name of the station appeared to be Babylon 4, which was abbreviated Bab 4 or B-4 in some places. The station seemed to belong to an organization called Earth Alliance. When he was a child, his grandmother had told him stories about a mythical planet named Earth. It was supposedly home of a 13th tribe that had left Kobol. He had heard priests and religious scholars talk about Earth as a mysterious 13th colony, and it had been mentioned in various religious scriptures.
For Protestnik Vogon Jeltz, who was secretly watching the intruders using the stations' surveillance system, the planet Earth had a completely different meaning. To him Earth was a place of utter defeat and humiliation. A place he had been longing to erase from his memory. It had meant the end of his career many years ago, when he had been sent with a constructor fleet to demolish this utterly insignificant little blue-green planet far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy. The galactic government had planned to create an artificial wormhole as an entry and exit point for a hyperspace bypass. Unfortunately, the most optimal location for this wormhole was an orbit around a small yellow sun which was already occupied by the aforementioned planet. Since the Earth would interfere with the construction and operation of the artificial wormhole, it had been decided to destroy this useless planet. Protestnik Vogon Jeltz had been chosen to carry out this task, but unfortunately the Doctor and his travel companion had shown up and put an end to these plans.
Jeltz had been left no choice but to return to Vogsphere with a single ship, where he had been publicly humiliated in a trial that was broadcast live to hundreds of inhabited planets. Not only had Jeltz failed to destroy Earth, he had also been forced by the Doctor to leave behind most of his constructor fleet. He had been stripped of his position as well as all titles, honors, and lost his health plan and his retirement benefits as a punishment for his failure. Jeltz had spent almost three decades wandering the galaxy in shame aboard a barely functional cargo shuttle until he had found this abandoned space station.
Now the station, which had been his home for the past 3 years, was being boarded by intruders. Humans and it would not have surprised him if they were from darned planet Earth. Unfortunately for Jeltz he had been unable to get the station's defense systems operational. The weapons controls were password protected and he didn't have the technical knowledge to bypass the controls. Jeltz was neither a computer hacker nor a weapons technician.
There were several groups of Humans entering the station from different locations. Most groups seemed to be soldiers of some sort, wearing military uniforms, but one group was different. It was led by a woman in a revealing, yet practical outfit and consisted of several armed robots. Jeltz recognized that woman. Her hair looked different, but her face was the same. She was the Doctor's travel companion, there was no doubt in his mind, but he was curious why she had not aged in all those years. Jeltz did not realize that the groups of intruders belonged to two different factions and assumed the leader of one of the other groups to be the Doctor, despite differences in appearance. Jeltz knew that Timelords could change their appearance when they regenerated.
The battle outside the station was finally over after Starbuck arrived with a second squadron of vipers and the Cylons were outnumbered and sandwiched between both squadrons. Her squadron had been on standby and was launched as soon as the first squadron had reported contact with the Cylons. Eight of the Cylon raiders withdrew; six more were destroyed while attempting to escape. Nine out of the ten raptors had managed to dock with the station, while only one heavy raider out of fifteen got there. Most of the heavy raiders that were carrying Cylon Centurions for boarding the station had been destroyed; the rest had fled when the second viper squadron arrived. That meant that the Six, whose name was Gail Golden, was left aboard the station with only a small group of centurions. Enough to inflict heavy casualties on the Colonials, but not enough to prevent them from taking the station. She decided to send the Centurions to detonate the station's reactor core, while she made her way back the heavy raider. Gail did not want to go through the painful process of dying and downloading again, not if she could help it.
With the push of a few buttons Jeltz sealed the corridor Hill was in as well as the one two tiers below where Gail was heading to her raider. He vented the oxygen in both corridors until Captain Hill and his marines as well as Gail passed out. He also saw that the centurions were getting dangerously close to the reactor core and determined to stop them, he remotely opened a nearby airlock and the sudden decompression vented them into space.
When the remaining marines finally boarded the station, they were unable to contact Hill. They proceeded toward the Control Center and managed to secure it, allowing Sheba's squadron to land inside the station's main hangar bay, while Starbuck's squadron returned to Pacifica.
When Hill woke up he found himself strapped into a metal contraption, with the Six who had been leading the Cylon assault team strapped in a similar contraption next to him. The marines had been locked into the station's brig, to be interrogated later. Hill and Gail were both facing a very ugly creature that was sitting in a chair and began reading the most awful poetry they had ever heard.
"I'm not the Doctor, don't you understand?" Hill shouted, trying to be louder than the Vogon.
"Don't interrupt me, Doctor. You and your companion have the pleasure to listen to the most beautiful Vogon poetry before I will toss you out of the airlock. You should be grateful to be given such an opportunity. Now please be still and enjoy.
"For the five hundredths time, you overgrown potato: I am not your Doctor. I am Captain Thomas Hill from the Colonial Battlestar Pacifica. Do I look like a Doctor?" Hill protested.
"Don't lie to me, Doctor. I know that you can change your face when you regenerate." Jeltz shouted at Hill.
"And you are his travel companion", he shouted at Gail, the Six who was strapped to the table next to him. "Don't deny it. I remember your face. You helped the Doctor ruin my career. "
The Six didn't know what to say. She had never seen an alien before. Especially not one as repulsive as Jeltz.
"The Doctor? Changing faces? Are you referring to your plastic surgeon? If that's the case, he ruined more than just your career. Just look in a mirror.
"Oh no, we've got to help him", the worm whispered to the other when they saw Hill. Both had gotten off the raptor after the marines had been out of sight and had started wandering the station in their search for coffee. They had finally reached one of the station's cargo bays and were hiding behind a stack of crates. The worms were grateful to the humans for rescuing them after their ship had been destroyed by the Cylons. Now they realized it was their turn to help the humans.