Daala and the Fleet Chapter 9: Escape, a battlestar galactica: 2003 fanfic

This was originally going to be half of a longer chapter, but I decided to make two shorter chapters.

Disclaimer: I only own a couple of these guys. The rest are not mine.

Spoilers: Not much.

Chapter 9- Escape

Bravo 3, Lambda Shuttle

The medics on board the rescue shuttle quickly went to work on both Talon and Sophie. Sophie's injures were minor, but her body temperature was very low. They quickly wrapped her up in a heated blanket and went to work on Talon. The 30mm KEW shell had pulverized the bones in his right shoulder, and the arm looked like it was in danger of falling off. The medics injected him with a painkiller and turned around back to the Gorgon. His arm needed to be amputated.

Bravo 0, Sentinel shuttle

The Gorgon's only Sentinel-class shuttle, the same one that led the boarding party to the Pegasus, headed towards the drifting Basestar. No missiles were fired and every single Raider was gone or destroyed. The 54 Stormtroopers on board were decidedly nervous, despite all of their training. After all, the last boarding party who had boarded a Cylon ship had been blown up by the self destruct, and they were only pretty sure that the destruct mechanism was gone. As Cylon Centurions, possibly armed with the large weapons that penetrated armor, could be waiting at any docking bay, the pilot fired a pair of concussion missile straight into the landing bay. When the troopers disembarked, they were surprised to see no Centurion wreckage whatsoever.

Basestar 201

They had made it half way to the control room when they ran into the first pair of Centurions. Both war machines turned their heads towards the troopers, but did not fire. Instead, they just seemed to turn off, collapsing to the ground. Confused, and unsure whether this was a Cylon trick, the troopers fired at the downed Centurions, blasting them to pieces. All along the path to the control room, the Centurions that they encountered just deactivated. Once they reached the control room they saw a Model Two and Six.

Before the Stormtroopers could fire the pair of Cylons raised their hand in surrender. Without saying a word, the troopers snapped stun cuffs on them and threw them against a wall. Three Stormtroopers covered them while the others secured the control room. The leader opened a comm channel to Kretas. Daala was not coherent enough issue commands.

Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon

"Commander, the captain of the boarding party is on the line."

Kretas turned to the young communications officer. "Put him on the speakers."

"Captain, what's the status of your party?" Kretas asked.

The voice of the Stormtrooper captain crackled to life on the speakers.

"Sir, we've secured the control room without resistance. We've encountered some Centurions, but when ever we get near they just deactivate. We found two human models in the control room, and they surrendered. Hold one second, sir."

After a moment the captain came back on line. "Sir, we spoke to the prisoners. Their models go by the numbers Six and a Two." Kretas bristled at that. He knew that Daala had interrogated a Two model. After a conversation with him she had sent in an interrogation droid, using drugs and other painful devises. They had not gotten any information from the Cylon before he was rescued. Was this the same one?...or just another copy.

"Continue." He said.

"Yes sir. The prisoners said that for some reason the Centurions wouldn't move. Their… hybrids, the organisms that control their Basestars, jumped without receiving an order to jump."

Kretas shook his head. Why would you make one of your most important systems on your ship be controlled by an entity that could make decisions your consent?

"Anyway, apparently their hybrid was injured in the fight. It stopped circulating air and all humanoid Cylons died, except in the isolated control room. The ship is ours."

Kretas mulled over that. A Basestar under their control. That could be quite a military asset. Too bad that it was missing all of its Raiders. "Roger that," he said, "We'll send reinforcements over to secure the whole ship. Carry on."

Kretas terminated the call. He had to check on Daala.

Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62

Admiral Cain stalked the corridors of her vast warship, furious. Her ship had been badly damaged from the attack, she couldn't jump, almost all of her pilots were dead, her Vipers were floating in space, the Imperial shuttles dragging them back to her ship one by one, Gina had betrayed her, her lead pilot had caused an accident that had disabled most of her guns, and Gina had betrayed her. She shook her head violently. Why the hell couldn't she get her mind off that fraking Cylon?!

She walked into the pilot briefing room, slamming the door shut behind her.

There was only one pilot in the room, Lt. (J.G.) Sophie "Deadbolt" Narcasa. Cain had to admit she was pretty, with slightly longer then regulation length dark red hair tied back in a ponytail. She had a large cut on her arm which came from part of her cockpit. That had exposed her to the cold of space, almost killing her. The Imperials had treated the cut with a bandage, but Cain had refused to send her to the medbay to get stitches. She had even refused to give her a med kit with morpha and a fresh bandage. Cain had kept her waiting in the briefing room for almost an hour, and in that time the pilot had discarded her used bandage. Cain knew the cut must have hurt. The lieutenant snapped to attention, but was slow to salute. When she did Cain made her hold her salute for a long time, straining the deep cut on her arm. When Cain finally let her drop the salute, she gestured for Sophie to have a seat.

"Well," Cain said pulling out a folder. "You racked up quite a kill today. What was it, four Raiders?"

Sophie fumed. The Admiral knew exactly how many she had shot down. "Twenty-four. Sir."

"And I see your last kill was unconventional, to say the least. After that Imperial pilot took the bullets, you literally turned your Viper into a bomb. Right?"

Sophie nodded. "Well," Cain said, walking closer to Sophie until they were only a couple of feet apart, "Usually a pilot gets a metal for that kind of thinking. But do you know why you won't?"

Without waiting for an answer Cain the folder containing Sophie's records at the floor, causing a loud bang. Sophie jumped back instinctively. "Because you sent the fighter right at the main guns of our ship. As it is, almost all of them need serious repairs, and a couple we can't even fix. Did you notice that you were flying a intercept course with the Pegasus when you ejected?!" Sophie thought about that for a second. She had been on a intercept course, but not only had it been the last thing on her mind, even if she had just punched out the Raider would have shredded her ship.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" she said in a tight, controlled voice.

"Denied!" Cain shouted, unleashing all of her frustrations and anger on the Viper pilot, knowing that the pilot had done nothing wrong. "You just had to save the Imperial pilot. Well guess what?! If they lost a pilot and a fighter, well, they can just make more. But you felt a need to save the pilot, and for that you crippled the offensive capabilities of this ship!" Cain knew she was pushing it, and was not surprised when Sophie took a few steps in her direction, eyes blazing.

"Frak you sir! It wasn't my fault that the Raider crashed into the ship, and it sure as hell isn't my fault that some freak accident made the guns explode. It's also not my fault Gina Inviere turned out to be a Cylon-"

At the same time Sophie realized that her big mouth had made her cross a line, Cain punched her in the gut. Doubling over, she didn't see the kick that knocked her to the ground. As Sophie struggled to stand up, Cain kicked her again, this time in the chest, and she felt some ribs give way. Sophie collapsed back to the ground. Cain grabbed her by the collar of her flight suit and hauled her up into a standing position. Cain looked at her for a few seconds. When the pilot finally was able to stand up, Cain said. "If it weren't for the fact that you are one of our only pilots, and I need you to train some new ones from the civvies, I would shoot you right now for insubordination, and recklessly endangering all of the people on this ship."

Sophie tried not to roll her eyes. Cain was famous for making up charges just to get someone to the brig. Sophie had tried to be on her best behavior, and it had been a whole three weeks since she had been to the brig. Usually she didn't mind; she had spent lots of time with the fraking pilot, the one who ruined her, in the brig and various jail cells. But something happened to the crew after the incident with the Gorgon and all the deaths that came after the attacks. The men who went to the brig sometimes looked like they had been physically assaulted, and the one woman who went to the brig…Sophie remembered her. Her name was Petty Officer Sarah Cholampter. She protested one of Cain's orders and had immediately been sent to the brig for "sowing mutiny aboard a Battlestar in a time of war". When she came out of the brig she wouldn't talk and freaked out if anyone came near her. She committed suicide the same day she was let out. Sarah was her friend. Sure enough, Cain called some Marines, looking for all the world like shaved apes, and they started to drag her to the brig. She knew she wouldn't allow herself to go to the brig. She'd die first. She put up no struggle, waiting until they were about two thirds of the way to the brig when she saw her opportunity. It was a hatch leading to causeway 25H. It led to her "hidey hole", the place she illegally stored all of her precious possessions, like Ambrosia, some really good but cheap cigars from Picon…and automatic carbine with lots of ammo. She never knew why she had "borrowed" it from the arms locker, maybe she knew that something like this was bound to happen one day. Her sidearm had been confiscated by the marines, and she had a feeling she might need it.

She waited until they were only twenty feet from the catch and until they were alone, and then she purposely stumbled. With a sigh, one of the marines turned to pull her to her feet. Lighting quick, she snapped up and drove a knee into his groin. His eyes widened, and he fell to the floor, moaning in pain. As the other marine turned to get her she side-stepped around him and slipped her handcuffed hands over his head and pulled, chocking him. When he finally lost consciousness, she let him fall to the floor. Then she kicked the first marine in the head, knocking him out. She awkwardly picked up his gun, because it was hard to move her arms when she was handcuffed. She tucked the gun into her pants, crawled into the hatch and closed it behind her. Now only about half an hour of crawling to go.

"How the frak did she escape?!" Admiral Cain had been in her quarters, trying to figure out how to repair the damage to her ship, when she had heard that Deadbolt had somehow taken down two Marines and was loose on the ship. Only one of the two Marines was reporting to her, the other one was unconscious due to a lack of oxygen when he was chocked. He'd be okay, but wouldn't be awake for another hour or two. The other Marine was not sure how to respond. Part of his mind wanted to claim that she had help, instead of the painful truth that a woman had bested him. But the other part of him knew that lying to the Admiral could have deadly consequences. He described the sequence of events. Cain shook her head. Not only did she have idiot pilots but now she had incompetent Marines that couldn't even take a frak up pilot to the brig!

Cain closed her eyes for a minute, and the Marine shifted from foot to foot, obviously nervous. Finally, she spoke. "Find her. Get together a team, get some people from that Star Destroyer if you have to. I have a feeling that she won't be found easily. Go. Find her."

Hope you liked it. I always thought of the crew on Pegasus as a good crew that made bad choices. GalacticaCAG pointed out that Sophie should have had protection against the cold with her EV suit, but I really needed to write it in that way. Thanks for reading, and please review!