Kara placed the final charge in her pack; her fire team had the easiest job of the demolition teams, blow up the generators. The two other demo-teams were to find structural weak points and plant charges. Two others fire-teams were going through the facility looking for prisoners healthy enough to extract while the rest kept the exits secure.

Kara armed the final charge, then keying her mic she whispered, "Starbuck to all teams, final charges placed proceed to extraction point." She took point as her team exited the generator room, they moved silently down the hall, weapons at the ready they moved to the exits meeting up with the others teams along the way before they moved two-by-two across the yard protecting the half-dozen women they managed to get out. The other women were simply too far gone for them to save. They got past the perimeter fence and made for the tree line.

Kara pulled out the remote detonator and armed it, "Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Take your daughters peacefully from their suffering and forgive us for not being able to save them sooner." She pulled the trigger and turned back to the farm.

She watched as fire erupted out of several windows before the entire facility went up in a fireball and she was thrown to the ground by the concussion. When she sat up and looked at her handiwork, the smirk that defined her attitude stretched lips and she got to her feet. "That's how it's done.

She followed the others and before long arrived at the small clearing her raptor team touched down at. She entered her raptor and put on her ear pieces and she started to power up the raptor, "Starbuck/Kat you still out there?"

"Kat/Starbuck, still overlooking all positions. Do not launch, repeat do not launch. Toasters are in the air, too hot for take-off."

She scowled and slammed a fist on the instrument panel, "Frak!"

&&&&&&&&&

Marcia Case and her strike team was not faring much better than the others, they'd stormed the prison and took down most of the guard positions before they manage to get into the cell blocks. Once they started moving the prisoners towards the extraction points they came under fire from Centurions.

She peered around the wall she'd taken cover behind and caught sight of the arrogant smirk of one of the Leoben models and scowled at it before taking cover again. She pointed to a marine and nodded. The marine leaned out and fired an RPG into the Cylon position; another marine followed this up by yanking the pin from her grenade and tossed it into the smoke cloud.

Several Centurions and a couple skinjobs were taken down, including that smirking bastard. However, this did nothing to slow the incoming fire. She pulled out her field radio, "Showboat/Head Case, under heavy fire. Inform Kat and await instructions."

"Copy Showboat, stand-by."

Showboat pocketed her radio then said to one of the other marines, "Hit em' again!"

&&&&&&&&&

The words still rang in Wilkins' ears as the Cylon gun towers opened fire, "We're frakked!"

Many of his troops had started quick prayers for their souls only to be stunned into inaction as all hell broke loose, the gun towers rained fire through the Toasters while the Centurions themselves opened fire on each other as well as the skin jobs. The Raiders that were passing overhead suddenly engaged and shot each other out of the sky.

Wilkins watched all this with wide-eyed fascination as the Toasters destroyed themselves. He watched as three bulletheads gunned down a stunned Six and another gunned down a Doral as he tried to run away. A young private moved in next to Wilkins and watched along with him, "Sarge, what the frak's happening?"

The Tauron man turned to the private, a young Sagittaron boy they nicknamed "Diapers" because of his baby-face just as the four Cylons that killed the skinjobs turned and gunned down each other, "I have no clue."

Wilkins felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Lieutenant Agathon, the raptor pilot watched the scene before him with a raised eyebrow before he turned to the Cylon they had brought with him, "What did you do Sharon?"

The Cylon smirked slightly at him three men and said, " Gaeta and I modified the CNP-virus."

Diapers looked at her with a worried expression, "To do what?"

The Cylon looked out on the scene again, "We reversed some parameters of their IFF programming. So they now recognize all their IFF signals as 'Foe.'"

Wilkins eyes lit with glee, "Which means, they'll gun each other down everywhere that receives the signal from here."

Sharon nodded, "I imagine they'll be able to cut off the signal before it gets off Caprica but it'll be enough for us to get back to Pegasus."

The older Marine gave her a look of gratitude, "We were pinned down and going nowhere, you saved all our lives."

Karl grinned then turned to Sharon, "Is it safe for us to go?"

Sharon nodded, "Yeah, let's go."

He signaled to Wilkins to issue the move out orders while he contacted the Raptors, "Playboy/Helo, we're on our way plus one-hundred fifteen."

"Copy that Helo. We're getting some weird shit on DRADIS."

"We'll explain when we get there," He pulled his rifle off his shoulder and said to the others, "Alright, move out."

&&&&&&&&&

"Pegasus/Kat, I'm getting some unusual DRADIS activity."

Lee and Kendra had been watching the DRADIS intently, both of them practically vibrating with tension. When the call from Kat came in, Lee's eyes snapped to Hoshi's station. The communications officer remained calm as he spoke, "Kat/Pegasus, SitRep."

"It's hard to explain Pegasus, but it looks an awful lot like dog fights breaking out."

Lee picked his receiver, "Kat/Actual, Raiders are firing on our Raptors?"

Kendra, anticipating his next orders, ordered the jump to Caprica prepped and the alert fighters on standby. But Kat's next message gave them pause, "Negative Actual, the raiders are firing on each other… Standby… The remaining Base Ships have jumped away."

Lee looked up to the DRADIS, then said, "Kat, do a long range sweep. We're coming in."

"Copy Pegasus."

He hung up and turned to Flight Ops, "Take us out of the storm; we're jumping into Caprica orbit. Alert fighters on standby and all batteries prepare for defensive fire." He turned back to Kendra as they carried out his orders and said, "I don't know what the Frak is going on, but this is too bizarre not to investigate."

&&&&&&&&&

Sam and Jean had taken cover behind the remnants of a retaining wall with Mathias when the fire started. The Cylons weren't actually firing on them, they'd cut off their route to the raptors and weren't letting up at all.

The former Pyramid player scowled at the ordnance streaking down, "Well, this is some rescue."

The marine didn't even turn his way as she was trying to find out if the raptors would be able to make a pick-up run. She finally scowled and tossed the radio to the ground, "FRAK!"

They were showered with dirt as one of the Cylon shells had hit a little close, Jean then spoke. "What happened?"

Mathias shook her head, "As pinned down as we are, the raptors are buried in shells they can't even think of taking off."

Sam shook the dirt out of his hair and replied, "What are we supposed to do, just sit here and die?"

Mathias shook her head, "No, the raptors have triangulated where the Toasters are firing from. They're requesting assistance from Pegasus, they'll jump in and rain fire on their chrome-plated asses."

That was when all hell broke loose, a gigantic mushroom cloud rose in the distance and suddenly the fire stopped. Mathias snatched up her radio and keyed it up. "Anvil/Mathias, come in! Anvil, come back! Murphy, are you there?"

The radio crackled, "This is Anvil… stand by Strike Two."

Everyone exchange tense glance in the sudden silence. None of them dared speak for fear of bringing the Cylons back in on top of them. Sam's eyes were drawn to the ridge in the direction of the billowing smoke; he wondered if that might have been where the Cylons were.

"Is it possible Pegasus has already jumped in?"

Mathias was scanning the distance for incoming hostiles and didn't look in his direction, but she did answer. "I don't know."

Mathias' radioed crackled to life again causing all three of them to jump, "Strike Two/Anvil. Hostiles have bugged out, Pegasus is en route, stand by we're coming to you."

"Ten-four, Anvil." Mathias pocketed her field radio and rose to her feet, "All Right Marines, incoming raptors, secure the perimeter. Medics, medics check over the Civvies."

Sam watched as his people were tended to and the other marines checked the perimeter. It suddenly felt like they were being rescued and the massive weight of his people's lives was suddenly easing off of his chest. He sagged against the wall and looked up towards the sky as a giddy sensation swept through him and turned his mouth up in a silly grin.

Jean stood over him with a confused grin on her face, "You okay, Sam?"

He chuckled for a moment before if turned into a laugh that threw his head back and boomed out of him until tears ran down his face in rivers. His stomach was cramping by the time he managed to calm down and he noticed Hillard and Ten-Point had joined Jean and Mathias in giving him looks that clearly questioned his sanity. He wiped at the tears still in his eyes and choked out, "I'm sorry… It's just… We're not gonna die here."

He stood up and said, "It just hit me… We were going to die here, I guess I accepted it on some level, maybe even embraced it and now we're getting out of here."

Jean exchanged looks with Hillard and Ten-Point and slowly, each of them came to the same realization as Sam and the giddy thought of surviving Caprica swept through them as well as the other resistance members. Laughing sobs and whoops began to fill the air and boisterous hugs were exchanged both between resistance members and with the marines as well.

Finally as the celebrating dissipated, Sam noticed Father Cavil step into the center of the group. He removed his fedora and called out, "My friends, I think it's time for a prayer to remember all our friends that couldn't be here now and one of thanks to the Lords for delivering us from Caprica."

&&&&&&&&&

Lee stepped onto the flight deck just as Helo and Sharon's team were taxied onto the flight deck. Their team was the first to return and other than seeing Kara and making sure she was alright, Sharon was the person he wanted to see most.

His eyes found a raptor with Helo in the co-pilot seat and he moved towards them. He stepped to the base of the raptor as the hatch popped and he grinned slightly at the packed cabin. The medics and deck crew began helping the malnourished prisoners out of the raptor.

As Sharon stepped out Lee offered her a hand down and led her to a corner of the Flight Deck, "Good job Sharon."

She smiled gracefully, "Thanks Lee, and thanks for putting this much trust in me."

He shrugged, "My dad says that sometimes you gotta roll the hard six, but this roll was pretty easy." His eyes scanned the refugees being helped out of the raptors as well as the raptors from Showboat's mission being taxied onto the deck.

Sharon's voice broke his scan of the deck, "Lee. I'm so sorry." He turned back to her with wide eyes, "She wasn't there. The Cylons found her and knew who she was but by the time…" She swallowed hard and started again, "By the time they found her, she'd suffered fatal radiation poisoning. She died comfortably; they had intended to get her healthy and try to bargain her life for the Fleet. Lee, I am so sorry." She stepped closer to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and offered him support.

Lee looked at his feet for a long time as he tried to regain his composure, he'd have plenty of time to mourn his mother once all the teams were back safe and sound. After that, in the safety of his cabin he'd cry for his mother with Kara. But for now…

His chin rose and he felt his composure slide into place and he gave Sharon a nod before he said, "Thank you, Sharon. You tried and that's all I could ask."

She nodded and stepped back her hand sliding down his arm and squeezing his hand before she broke the contact.

Karl approached them with several of the refugees, "Commander, some of the prisoners we extracted wanted to speak to you."

Lee turned to them and realized that he recognized two of them from War College, "Colonel Watkins? Major Jameson?"

Colonel Watkins had been the advance tactics class at the War College and Lee's advisor while he was there and Major Jameson had Military History, he'd had both of their classes. Colonel Janice Watkins was a dark skinned woman from Aquaria with as stern a demeanor as Lee had ever met. Her hair had always pulled back into the strictest of regulation styles and her glasses had only made her even hawk-eyed. Right now her hair was unkempt and her glasses missing, she also had one of the happiest expressions he'd ever seen on her face.

Major Randal Jameson was also tall and lean, his pale skin and eyes gave him the classic features of a native of the tundra just south of Aerelon's South Pole. He'd served in the Fleet since the Armistice and had taught military history with the passion of a man who truly loved the subject.

Watkins stepped forward and surprised Lee with a hug, "Thank you so much, Lee, you have no idea what it was like down there. We'd started to loose hope."

Jameson's hand landed of Lee's shoulder, "We're in your debt, Adama."

A third man stepped forward as other the two officers stepped back, his eyes dark and his hair though mostly grey showed signs of a former dark brown and his stern face reminded Lee of the Commander. Major Jameson then introduced him, "Commander Lee Adama, meet Admiral William J Cain, formerly the Commandant of the Colonial War College."

Lee snapped to attention and saluted, "Admiral Cain, sir."

He returned the salute and smiled, "As you were, son. You're the hero of the hour." He searched the flight deck, "But I have to admit, I'm a little surprised, last I heard my daughter was in command of Pegasus."

Lee smiled ruefully, "It's a long story Admiral, but your daughter recently resigned her commission to take over the office of the President of the Twelve Colonies."

The Admiral's eyes widened and Lee noticed that as they spoke more of the refugees began to crowd around them and Lee suddenly found himself in the midst of a wave of humanity as the people they'd rescued off Caprica began to push to touch or speak with the man who had rescued them. Somewhere in the back of the crowd a chant of some sort started, as it moved forward and grew louder Lee realized it was his name they were chanting. "Adama! Adama! Adama!"

The chanting crowd suddenly picked Lee up onto their shoulders and Lee was carried around the flight deck as each of the two hundred plus refugees clamored to shake his hand and express their gratitude. His eyes scanned the flight deck and he caught sight of Kara standing on the wing of a raptor, leaning against it with a slightly sad smile and Lee knew he'd have to talk to her, as soon as he could convince these people to let him down.