Responses to Earlier Comments:

Chronos and War Sage - thanks for your comments. I avoided Cru going down to Kobol. His training would have put him in front, regardless of which group he joined, which would be a canon problem (like maybe Elosha not dying). Without pushing Cru into that, there wasn't a lot that happened until Pegasus, so timeline jumped ahead. I went back to some of the chapters and added a little to convey more time passing.

LOL Blaze. I loved to hate Cain. Her character was well-played by M. Forbes. Very believable. Maybe Cru can walk the Six over to Cain's quarters. :)

***I would love to hear from all of you. Please comment.***

Disclaimer: Please note: I own no part or share in the Battlestar Galactica realm, either commercial or otherwise. This story is submitted for entertainment purposes only.

Reminder: I did not spend time making up non-earth names for BSG things - weapons, military ranks, etc. They are in there as is. I wanted to avoid introducing new terms, explaining them, and potentially causing confusion if/when they are used later without their explanations.

Chapter 25

Panhead Payback

"Husker owes me."

~Cru's Journal if he had time to keep one.

Admiral Cain had no interest in keeping Marine Major Cru in his current capacity. In her very military mind, Cru's processing out to the Reserves was a betrayal. Whatever Cru's reasons, to her it was him turning his back on the military, and by extension, on her. But also she perceived a threat to her absolute authority. Marines were fiercely loyal to 'The Corps'. All of her marines were enlisted. By chance, none of Pegasus' Marine officers survived the Cyclon attack on the colonies and she chose not to promote able marines into the officer ranks. Her highest-ranking marine was a Staff Sergeant. Now, they had a Marine Major representing them. And that Major, was thoroughly installed under Adama's mantle. Marines were the enforcers aboard her ship. They wore full armor and they were heavily armed. Cain needed to be certain that when she gave an order, which might be against Adama, and by extension, against Cru, she needed to ensure it was followed. Marines were loyal indeed, and she demanded undivided loyalty.

Cain had papers drawn up that offered Cru a choice of accepting the enlisted rank of Corporal or returning to his derelict freighter, Bree's Twin, as a civilian. She sent the orders over to the Galactica with a courier packet of documents for Commander Adama. Apollo, Commander Adama's son, unknowingly placed it into his father's hands. Adama saw it and without changing his facial expression, ignored it while having a brief conversation with Apollo.

~~~~~/~~~~~

Galactica

Raptor 478

Cru had been ordered to the flight deck, despite his no-fly status, and piloted out a Raptor with a Marine Strike force at his command.

The two warships were going to battle and Cru was going after Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant "Helo" Agathon. His primary mission was to swing wide, cut in, and knock out the Pegasus' near-side targeting and comm arrays. Pegasus was a Mercury Class Battlestar and like other large ships, it had a small number of maintenance access ports away from the main landing decks. One such port was only a short run and a staircase away from the brig area. This was Cru's secondary mission.

Lieutenant "Friendly" Thrace returned just in time to avert a shooting match between the two heavyweights. This was altogether handy and timely because both of Cru's missions were very likely one-way trips.

One of the marines had a camera. At the young private's request and before they returned to the Galactica, Cru spun the raptor around so the marine could take a group selfie with the Pegasus in the background. Troop morale was important.

~~~~~/~~~~~

Bree's Twin

Early Hours Before the Resurrection Ship Joint Strike Mission

Operation 'Majestic Revenge'

"Do you know this, 'Admiral Cain'?" asked Evvie. She had a piece of masking tape wrapped around her hand, facing outward, and was using it to dab at Cru's uniform. She was removing bits of lint and the hair from Emily's cat. Cru had never ever been around the cat in his uniform, but the little hairs somehow seemed to find him.

"I don't," said Cru with a shake of his head. He worked an electric razor to mow down the last of his beard stubble. "There were many Admirals of different ranks. There were more than a hundred across the combined fleet."

"A hundred? Wow," said Evvie as she continued to dab. "What rank of Admiral is she?"

"Well, there are two levels of Rear Admiral. She is the lower one. She is a 'One-Star' Rear Admiral. There is Vice Admiral above those two levels and the rank of 'Admiral' above Vice, plus Fleet Admiral and Admiral of the Navy."

"And she outranks you by a lot, I'm guessing."

Cru gave a single nod. "Yes, she is at the top of the food chain, now."

"Except the President," said Evvie. Her voice showed concern. "The president is the top."

Cru nodded his agreement - a little. "...As was conferred by an interplanetary system of governments that no longer exists," said Cru. "Yes, she should be, for civilian matters, but I don't know. Things are a bit fluid. The Admiral is making a lot of changes."

Evvie nodded. Cru did not respond as she would have wanted. He should have responded, "Yes, Evvie, except for the president".

Cru stood in thought for a moment looking in the mirror at his uniform and at him wearing it. The Pegasus' arrival changed much, not just all their lives but the danger in which they lived them.

After a moment, Cru spoke. "On the military side, Admiral Cain has a Colonel as her Executive Officer, a couple Lieutenant Colonels and several Majors within the support ranks, plus her CAG is a Major. I have a lot of 'Time in Grade' which puts me over most Majors and anyone lower ranked, but not the others. I expect I'm now nine or ten in the order of succession. It puts a lot of their officers ahead of most of ours."

Evvie nodded again as she stood back and viewed Cru's uniform for any errant bits.

"Evvie, I don't know how this is going to play out. History suggests we should tread lightly and be prepared. Admiral Cain is in a position of power. Her guns are bigger than ours and she has more of them."

"Is that what you think?" asked Evvie. She looked around Cru's shoulder, into the mirror, and straight into Cru's eyes. "Is that what this is coming down to?"

Cru returned her gaze, unblinking. "Evvie, I know you've always pushed for us to be fully independent; food, fuel, recycling, all of it. I have too, but you are way ahead of me, and for that I am grateful. I think we continue on that path with a doubling of the effort."

"Richard, you are frightening me. We have a great responsibility here. A lot of people depend on us."

Cru gave a sigh. "If rumors are true, there were fifteen ships that came under Admiral Cain's command and she had her people strip them down for parts and supplies. She left all those people adrift."

Evvie nodded. "I've heard the same. I pray there is no truth in it…no truth at all."

"Yes, well, that can never be allowed to happen - truth or not. We need to keep our own jump numbers at all times. Work in secret with John and Tanner and T-Dog and the people you most trust. We need to have options sooner than later."

"We will," Evvie whispered as if speaking it out loud might make it the more necessary.

"Galactica and Pegasus are bringing this war to the Cylons at long last - a joint strike mission. If Galactica doesn't return-"

"Don't," said Evvie. She would not hear it - she would not hear where Cru's comment was going. "Do not."

Two days earlier, John had called Evvie to the bridge. She had arrived at a run amid the blaring of alarms. Cru was away serving aboard the Galactica. Bree's Twin was three hundred meters from the Galactica and had a front-row seat as both battlestars launched their fighters and "lined up broadsides", as John called it. A single raptor with a Marine Strike team was making an end-run maneuver. Cru was flying that raptor and leading that team. Evvie didn't know this and Cru made no effort to tell her.

"Okay," said Cru in a softer tone. "I will not."

~~~~~/~~~~~

The Beast

Reprisal

"By gods, Chief, take me hard and I will have your child."

Chief Tyrol stifled a laugh as did others nearby.

"Major," said Tyrol, "I take it you're pleased,"

"Yes I am," said Cru with a look of disbelief.

"Good," said Chief. "For the record, sir, I am declining the taking of anyone hard and them having my child."

Cru nodded. He was distracted. "Where have you been hiding this magnificent creature?"

Cally leaned forward. "Chief and I and Dauber built it out," she said. "Two days, sir."

"Specialist Henderson," said Cru with his back to her and the others. "The offer was to the Chief only. My apologies, I forgot you and the others were there."

"Understood sir."

"We call her 'The Beast', sir," said Dauber. He stood next to Cally.

"The Beast," repeated Cru. "I love it."

"The Beast" was a Raptor in the 'Juggernaut Configuration' of which Cru was intimately familiar. It was a gun platform of sorts and had the ability to fully wreck most anything in front of it, including Sloop-of-war ships, corvettes, and maybe a frigate if surprise was won. It was armed with eight MPR-82 short-range missiles, four mounted Gatling-style mini-guns and two mounted 20mm cannons. Cru flew a 'Jug-Fig' raptor for twelve months during the Asteroid Belt campaigns in his first enlistment. He had three major kills to his credit, including the destruction of an armed blockade runner named "Trident", which was captained by a murdering criminal named Kelsir Ben-Sheply.

~~~~~/~~~~~~

Conflict erupted.

The Cylons were caught by surprise. The Galactica and the Pegasus had missiles, including nukes, halfway to their targets before the Cylons showed a response. Eighty seconds later saw both basestars in unsalvagable ruin. Pegasus swung over and engaged Galactica's basestar as well, firing broadside salvos to starboard and port. Cain was gutsy or reckless or brilliant. The action drew fire away from the older Galactica and saved it from excessive pounding.

When Apollo destroyed the resurrection ships' ability to jump away, both battlestars launched their squadrons. Every viper and every raptor that could fly was immediately engaged. Within moments, the radio rang out with the calls of battle.

"Form up! Form up!"

"Breaking right!"

"Coming about 223!"

The viper squadrons and the teaming raiders came together in a chaotic swarm of motion and energy.

"Hold on TooTall, I'm almost to you!"

"I'm hit! I've lost control!"

"Beata! Form up with Whack-a-Mole! Do it now!"

"Scratch one Raider!"

"Diamond Dog! Watch your six! Watch your six!"

"I got him! I got him!"

"Woooo! Woooo! I got two with one burst!"

"Gods no, they got Rocket Man!"

"Eat that, Toaster Bitch!"

Cru stationed The Beast under Galactica. His orders were simple. Drop low under the 'Big-G' and protect the less protected underbelly. There were two narrow, somewhat vulnerable, channels where the defenses were weak and the enemy could get underneath and cause havoc. The vulnerability was known since the first Cylon war, decades prior, and the Cylons would no doubt seek to exploit it. Cru took up the position as ordered and waited.

Cru's "Telemetry Hog" or Electronics Countermeasures Officer, ECO, was Lieutenant Sessy "Dragoon" Deepwater. Dragoon had her reservations. She had heard Cru was a crazy man in battle. She was the last one left when raptor crews were paired up and Cru showed up late. "You're with me, Lieutenant" Cru had said. Sessy said something like, "lovely…he hasn't flown in years".

"Lieutenant, I'm spinning up the guns," said Cru. "It's gonna get noisy."

"Yessir, understood," said Dragoon. In her mind, she thought, "Really? And here I thought they were whisper-quiet".

"We won't get much warning," said Cru. "Directioning may be sharp-ish."

"I've done this before, sir."

Cru nodded without looking back. "Good to know, Lieutenant."

The four Gatling-style mini-guns spun up. The sound of a loud mechanical whirr filled the cabin. It should be noted that a mini-gun is by no means, "mini". Each of the four was a long six-barrel rotary machine gun that could send 6,000 rounds downrange in a single minute. They had to be mounted because they were immensely powerful and no one in the colonies, past or surviving, could carry one and hold it on target for long. A Cylon probably could.

Cru and Dragoon watched Galactica engage the nearest basestar with salvo after salvo of outgoing ordnance. Cylon missiles and raiders returned in kind, only to be shredded in the phalanx of Galactica's perimeter defenses.

Out beyond, was the Pegasus laying waste to a second Cylon basestar. Further beyond was the prize. The massive resurrection ship was there with its FTL disabled, and a flight of vipers closing in on it.

"Freefall! Freefall!" shouted Hotdog over the radio. The name 'Freefall' was Cru's callsign back in his Raptor days. "They got through! Seven or eight coming under!"

"Where at?" shouted Dragoon into the radio mic. "This is Raptor 338, Someone give us the approach!"

The Galactica was a mile long and half a mile wide. Saying "Coming under" was on the same level as someone shouting 'Heads up!" at a Pyramids game with no clue where the ball was. Still, the perimeter defense had overlapping fields of fire except in two places. Cru angled The Beast towards the port-side vulnerability.

"This is Kat, they're coming down forward of the port beam!" added Kat, which was right where Cru was aiming.

Cru smiled. "Classic Pan-Head scripting," said cru to himself.

"Copy that, Kat," said Dragoon. "We're standing by with weapons hot."

"Sca-doosh," said Cru. He sent two missiles angling up towards Galactica to strike at the edge where it begins an upward slope. He targeted them left and right, about thirty yards apart.

"...or maybe negative on that 'standing by' part," said Dragoon out loud.

"Freefall, did you mean to do that?" asked Dragoon as she worked the electronics to compensate ahead of the impending explosions.

"I did," said Cru. "I'm trying something."

Foomp! Foomp! The blasts were silent in the void of space, but the effect was clear. The missiles did nothing to Galactica's heavy armor, but they exploded outward in two expanding columns. The seven Cylon raiders channeled right in between them, one after another, right in front of Cru and the meat grinder called The Beast.

The Cylons tried to scatter. They were wild and maybe panicked like they knew the resurrection ship was in peril and their deaths might be permanent.

Cru chewed them up with thousands of lead and explosive rounds. The first Raiders were no shields for those following behind them because the rounds cut through them and into the next and into the next. Blood boils and evaporates in space, but enough of it was blasted into a mist, again and again, and lasted long enough, to know undeniably what it was. Big and small pieces of cyclon wreckage struck The Beast and some of the thickish material splattered against it with the dark color of uncooked meat.

Dragoon's mouth dropped open.

Cru dropped low to get out of the way of the spinning, twisting, and burning bigger pieces.

"That's all of them," called out Cru to Dragoon.

"Underside is cleared!" called Dragoon over the radio. "All hostiles…cleared!"

Dragoon clicked off the mic. "That was frakking insane. That was seven raiders in three seconds."

"That was pretty cool," said Cru with a smile. "Okay, eyes wide for more."

~~~~~~/~~~~~

But not long after-

"Apollo - Galactica, do you read?" called Dee from her seat in the CIC.

"Apollo - Galactica, do you read?" She called out again.

"Apollo - Galactica, do you read? Can you say your position?" Dee continued.

"Frak," said Dragoon. "Apollo's been hit. We lost Apollo. He was our CAG."

Moments later.

"HARFOR Raptor! HARFOR Raptor! Stand down from sentry. Commence recovery operation immediately, I say again, commence recovery operation immediately."

"Here we go," said Cru. He gunned The Beast forward and it shot out from under the Galactica like an arrow. He didn't wait for an opening, he went right up the vulnerable channel the Cylons came down through, and out into the open. Three cylons banked in front of him, coming around as they chased down a damaged viper. Cru lit up two of them and thought he winged the third. He chased it away with a stream of hot lead and tracer rounds.

"Okay, Apollo, where are you?" said Cru to no one.

"Sending you up his last known coordinates," said Dragoon. "He was in the stealth ship. It's a best guess."

Cru read the numbers and made course adjustments. The coordinates were right in line with the exploding resurrection ship.

"Lieutenant, you may wish to say your prayers."

Cru gunned the beast through the converging wreckage of the two basestars and the resurrection hub."

"This is 338. Anyone have eyes on Apollo?" called Dragoon into the mic. "HARFOR en route."

The Cylon raiders, those that could, were jumping away. The battle was over but chaos and the fog of war remained. The vipers formed up and tried to work their way through the chaotic debris, looking for surviving pilots. The longer it took, the more wreckage pushed through, with much of it at lethal speeds.

"This is Scorch! I got him!" shouted one of the pilots. "HARFOR on me! On me!"

Cru caught sight of Scorch as he did several wing-overs to draw Cru's attention. Cru cut right in pursuit, under a hard burn. He lit thru the debris field, dodging back and forth to miss the big stuff and hoping the little stuff didn't punch through his forward windows when impacting.

Dragoon took the seat next to Cru. Her instrumentation was useless in the scattering waste and she thought a second set of eyes up front would be more useful. "There!" she shouted and pointed.

Between Scorch's heading and where Dragoon was pointing, Cru zeroed in on Apollo. The stranded pilot was about to be smacked with the galaxy's largest flyswatter. A piece of the resurrection ship, the size of Colonial One, was barrelling through, right where apollo was drifting.

"Whattaya think Lieutenent?" said Cru. "Can we do it?"

Cru flew The Beast faster than anyone should have in the mix of destruction, except maybe StarBuck - she was crazy enough to do it - some of the others too, perhaps.

"It'll be close…"

"Yeah, really close," said Cru. "Make ready to decompress and we'll see if we can't catch him on the run."

"Yessir," said Dragoon. She had heard Cru was a crazy man while flying. In her mind, Cru was proving it. Death was an unwelcome house guest and every moment longer brought it closer to their door.

Cru wove The Beast through the Cylon ruins like a needle through unwilling fabric. They closed in on Apollo from one direction as the flyswatter detritus closed in from the other. Cru slammed The Beast to a halt with ample use of the forward maneuvering thrusters. He swung around as the Raptor hatch opened and Dragoon, tethered in place, waited for Apollo as he floated at them. On the other side of the raptor was the hulking Resurrection Ship remnant.

Apollo was unmoving as if unconscious and he floated as if in slow motion. "C'mon dammit," said Cru. He gave a little push to the thrusters to move them towards Apollo as the massive remnant loomed large.

"Got him!" shouted Dragoon as she punched the button that controlled the hatch. It too, seemed in slow motion as it closed. Cru took one quick look as he turned the raptor around in a hasty retreat. There was a full-size window facing towards them. On the other side of the window were two Godrey-looking Cylons, a Sharon, and Cru caught a fleeting glimpse of an older-looking male. The Sharon and one of the Godfreys were visibly frightened - it was on their faces. The Sharon pounded on the window in panic. They were going to die and a big part of Cru was glad for it. The massive genocide back on the colonies, the loss of everything they owned, and being hunted to extinction, had a way of galvanizing the anger into one's character.

He spun The Beast around and gave a short burst at the cylons with two of the mini-guns. Cru cut through the high-impact window like the keen-edged blade of his fighting knife through smoke. The inside pressure exploded outward with violence and took the Beast with it. Cru manhandled the raptor to regain control as it shot backward and away. Once the ship was righted, he sped back through the debris, as several vipers joined them.

He would give the Cylons more thoughts, later. He sighted a new one and would have to document it in his report. There would be questions. Meanwhile, he had Commander Adama's son on the floor of his raptor. Dragoon got the Captain's heart beating and his breathing going. The Indomitable Husker might have something to say on that score.

This ends Chapter 25

What I was thinking while writing

The Marines are almost entirely shown as grunts. I expect there would be a certain frustration that comes with being ordered around by non-grunt officers (and Navy instead of Marines). It's the end of the worlds and the draconian command structure is maintained by Cain's iron-fisted rule. I believe she is right to fear a Marine officer like Cru, who is loyal to Adama, and who may be preferred by the marines, over her or her officers.

Cru has a bad eye - central serous retinopathy. Galactica needs pilots. His No-Fly status was revoked.

My spell check didn't think I should use "immensely powerful" in writing. My spell check doesn't know mini-guns.

I always thought Apollo getting hit so close to the exploding resurrection ship was problematic.

I had to look up to confirm standard rounds can be fired in space. I thought they could but needed to check. One article said no and everyone else said yes.

Cru won't be able to recall what the older-looking Cylon looks like, It would interfere with canon. Still, everyone knows there are other Cylon models, and having it confirmed could be unsettling.