Chapter One: Penance

Cylon-Occupied Caprica

Lee Adama Call-sign: Apollo

37th Day on Caprica

Lee's life had been reduced to the amount and kind of pain he felt at any one moment. The dull ache in his back from sleeping huddled in the back of alleys or against a tree trunk since the moment he'd touched down twenty miles outside of Caprica City had become a constant throbbing pain that shot up and down his spine. The stiffness in his arms and legs from injecting anti-radiation meds almost daily was gradually getting worse. Then there was the dull ache in his stomach that signaled his body's displeasure at not having a decent meal in over a month. Hell, there was even a stiff discomfort to the thirty-plus days of beard growth he had on his face.

He was reasonably sure his body was coming apart at the seams.

None of that mattered because he was about two weeks' travel from Delphi and he had to get there. His plan was simple; sneak in, steal a ship, ANY ship and fly the frak off the planet. He'd worry about where to go later.

Two months would be far too long marooned on his home planet under Cylon Occupation, but he'd already been there far longer than he would have liked in the first place.

Hours after the attacks, President Roslin had been trying to mount rescue operations from Colonial One. She'd sent an already fatigued Boomer out in her Raptor to jump aorund the systme and find surviving ships. Apollo had decided to give Boomer a rest, and make the final few jumps before they attempted to get out of the theroreticical combat zone. Theorietical, because the President hoped that somewhere, somehow there was a safe harbor.

He jumped into a shipping lane between Picon and Canceron and found the Daru Mozu, a tylium refinery ship and after he'd picked up the confirmation from Colonial One that the ship had arrived, he'd started plotting a jump into orbit over Caprica.

He'd been most of the way through the computations for the jump and spinning up the FTL when the raider appeared on his DRADIS on an intercept course. He tried to run while he completed the jump computations and took some hits from the raider's guns. Then the frakking thing fired off a nuke. A quick check of his instruments confirmed what he already knew, he had no countermeasures. As he had no other options, he jumped with incomplete computations.

The jump was completed within the atmosphere of Caprica and it took every bit of his ability to not drop out of the sky like a rock and just make a hard landing in the farmland outside of Caprica City. His inspection revealed him leaking fuel from a damaged fuel line and even if he'd had repair parts he'd already lost more fuel then would be needed to break orbit. He'd quickly turned some of his parachute into a sac and emptied the emergency supplies and both med-kits into it before he triggered the self-destruct and took off into the forest.

He'd spent nearly every moment since then running from Toasters. He'd made it to Caprica City after about ten days of travel and raided a hospital for a fresh supply of meds as well as the back room of a military surplus, where he found a supply of MREs and more importantly a compass and map to use with the GPS in his survival kit, an assault rifle and a supply of ammo.

Both the spaceport and government airfield were crawling with Toasters and he knew it'd be suicide to try and get at a ship there. He then decided to try the lesser known, test airfield outside of Delphi in the hopes of getting a ship there. He'd even managed to find his apartment complex relatively untouched and he'd shoved his flight suit in the sac in favor of a set of BDUs before he'd left the city behind.

Then he'd made his way to Athens, the suburb of Caprica City where his mother lived but couldn't find any evidence of his mother still being alive. After taking only two photos, one of him Zak and Kara while Zak and Kara were dating and the wedding photo of his parents, he started the long journey across the countryside towards Delphi.

As time passed he saw less Cylon patrols but he'd still catch glimpses of that blonde woman leading Toasters around, looking for survivors he wagered.

His musing was cut short when he noticed a clearing up ahead. He pulled out a set of binoculars and found a barn in the clearing; after he failed to find any movement in the barn itself, he scanned the surrounding area but didn't see any movement. He carefully made his way to the barn and entered to find it empty of person and animal.

He climbed up into the barn loft and collapsed on the loose straw. He wasn't sure when the last time he'd been able to sprawl out for even a moment was, it might have even been months before the Attacks as he couldn't exactly "sprawl" in his bunk on Atlantia.

He rested quietly for a while as his limbs sent sensations of gratitude to his brain before he sat up with a groan and looked around the loft. In addition to the ladder, he had a loft door from which he could make a fast exit as well as a clear line of sight of the nearby dirt road with quite a lot of visibility. He slowly got to his feet and restacked a few of the hay-bails until he had a hiding place in the back corner of the loft then tucked himself in it and closed his eyes for some sleep.

&&&&&&&&&

"Do you know the nice thing about being on the run after a nuclear war?" Lee's eyes snapped open instantly at the sound of a man's voice. He stiffened and grabbed his assault rifle silently then looked around the loft. He'd been drifting in and out of a restful sleep when a voice invaded his consciousness. He wasn't sure if he'd heard it or if he'd been dreaming. Then he heard it again, "Nobody left to complain if we hide out in their barn or raid their pantry while you're on your way to steal a ship and get off the planet."

He knew he'd heard that, he slowly crept along the wall and he could hear footsteps approaching from between the stalls. He could assume that since the man was speaking, he was either with another person or people, or he was bat-shit crazy. He clicked off the safety and prepared to get the jump on any potential hostiles that were approaching.

The approaching person kept speaking though, "It's odd, isn't it?"

He (They?) were definitely coming closer. "What?" A woman's voice confirmed there was another person with the man; Lee withheld judgment on the man's sanity for at least another moment.

They were almost to the ladder, when the man spoke again, "That we haven't seen a single living human being since the one you shot, when you rescued me." Apollo smirked at that remark while the man continued from the foot of the ladder. "I mean, we're still alive, why nobody else?"

The woman replied, "Probably holed up in their fallout shelters or something."

Lee tensed further when the ladder creaked and his trigger finger pressed against the trigger. The creaking became more pronounced and a moment later a head appeared, he caught eyes with Lee and Lee smirked, "Freeze." The man nodded, "Now, with two fingers, pull your sidearm, put it on the floor and slide it over to me."

The man nodded, "Okay, We don't want any trouble."

The woman's voice called from below, "Helo?"

Lee felt a morbid grin stretch his face, "You picked the wrong Twelve Colonies to live on then."

The man did as instructed and then his gun slid across the floor to a stop near Lee's feet. "Come on up, slowly, your friends too." The man climbed the rest of the way up and revealed a Colonial Flight-suit with a Raptor Patch. He looked vaguely familiar as well. He pitched his head over to the corner and said, "Hands on your head and cross your ankles."

The woman's head appeared as "Helo" crossed the loft and did as he was instructed, "What's going-" The woman's question died on her lips when faced with the barrel of his rifle.

"Whoa! It's okay man!" Helo turned to the woman and said, "Sharon, just do what he says."

Lee took a closer look at the woman and frowned, "Boomer? What the frak are you doing here?"

Her eyes widened, "Oh thank the Gods! Apollo! You're alive!"

Lee slowly lowered his rifle and relaxed. He didn't know why Boomer was here, but a friendly face from the Galactica was just what he'd most needed. He slid down the wall to the floor and set the rifle aside as Helo relaxed and Boomer climbed into the loft, still speaking. "We thought you were dead, the Raider had fired off a nuke and then you were gone…"

He nodded warily, "I performed a blind jump into the upper atmosphere. Damn near crashed outside of Caprica City for the trouble."

Helo looked back and forth between his companion and the man who'd been waving a gun around, "Apollo? As in Captain Adama?"

Lee nodded, "Captain Lee Adama at you service."

He held out his hand and after a shared look and a nod from Boomer, Helo took it. "Karl Agathon, call sign's Helo." He pulled his pack off his shoulder, "I'm starving."

He began to rummage through his pack while Lee retrieved his from his hiding place and opened it. "I have some MREs, what do you two have?"

Helo rummaged around his pack and pulled out a jar of peanut butter, "Peanut butter… corn… baked beans…" He produced a can and presented it to Boomer, "Chili?"

The raptor pilot turned green before she ran to the loft door and retched. Lee and Karl exchanged a mildly amused look before Helo said. "Is that a 'no?'" He got to his feet and walked over to his companion and led her back over to them and helped her to a seated position on the floor, "Have you been taking your meds?"

She wiped her mouth and grimaced, "I think it was the cold beans. I'm fine."

The trio began trading foodstuff, all three looking forward to some measure of variety from what they had been eating before today. After a few minutes, Sharon broke the silence, "So, Captain, are you trying for Delphi too?"

He nodded, "Yeah, there's an airfield there for the test pilot program. I'm hoping the Cylons aren't crawling all over that one like they were the airfield in Caprica City. I figure if I can… if we can make good time we can get there in about ten days."

They settled back into quiet as they ate, the sound of the approaching rainstorm echoing in the distance. Lee spread a dollop of peanut butter on a cracker; before he began to eat it he turned to Boomer and asked the only question on his mind. "What the frak are you doing on Caprica?"

She flushed slightly and looked to her companion and it clicked for Lee. "Ahh, I get it."

She looked down at her MRE for a moment before saying, "You have no idea how much it hurt to tell the Old Man that you were dead."

He grinned, "Sometimes it's nice to be wrong, isn't it?"

&&&&&&&&&

38th Day on Caprica

For the first time in weeks, Lee didn't awake with a start, this time he woke slowly, his eyes fluttering open and his mind almost tricking him into thinking that he wasn't living a nightmare… but only for a moment.

The stiffness in his back quickly dashed any hope that the last thirty-eight days were just a nightmare. He pulled himself into a sitting position and found Helo and Boomer spooning with each other, both sound asleep.

Lee reached over and grabbed his pack; he rummaged through it and pulled out a vial of anti-radiation medication. After retrieving his syringe and preparing the dose, he rolled up his pant leg and flexed his calf until he found a vein, after a quick swab with the alcohol pad he pressed the needle into his skin and pressed down on the plunger. He stored the needle away before returning it and the vial to his pack. Finally, he rolled his pant leg down and rubbed his calf until the discomfort went away.

He pulled out his canteen and took a measured drink. He was never sure when he'd get access to water again so he tried his best not to drink too much. He got to his feet and crossed the loft to the large window and looked out towards the road. The sun was just cresting the hills in the distance and there was a fine layer of fog on the grass, a month ago he might have found the scene pretty but right now all he could think was they'd have to get moving again soon.

It was the stillness of the Caprican morning that allowed him to hear it. With a muttered curse, he quickly crossed the loft and shook Helo's shoulder along the way. He rummaged through his pack and grabbed binoculars and his rifle then led the still hazy ECO over towards the loft window. He raised his binoculars to his eyes and scanned the road and saw them. As the road bent into the hills in the distance there was the glint of metal off the armor of a squad of Toasters and in the lead was that frakking blonde! She even had that horribly serene expression that made Lee's skin crawl.

He handed off the binoculars to Helo and hissed, "Boomer!" He then pointed towards the approaching patrol, "Frak!"

Helo looked in the direction Lee was pointing while Sharon crawled over to them, "What the Frak?" He fumbled the tool to Sharon, "Sharon- You killed her!"

She looked through them and frowned, "Lords!"

Lee had already crossed the loft and was shouldering his pack, "We have to move, Right Frakking Now!"

Helo nodded but still waved his hands towards the approaching Cylons, "I saw you kill her! The blood spilled on my lap, what the frak is going on?"

Lee filed the questions Helo had just raised in his mind for later and barked out, "We have no time for this shit, we have to go!" Helo and Boomer both reacted to the Drill Instructor tone and began to gather their things while he jumped from the loft to the floor of the barn. Helo was a moment behind and they both caught Boomer before they sprinted from the barn into the early morning bound for Delphi.

End Part