Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

Lindsey's face lit up, "Survivors!" I covered her mouth with my hand. The move shocked her. I nodded 'no' and made the motion for her to stay quiet. I turned and focused my attention to the voice's on the other side of the door. I heard what sounded like a piston hitting the floor. It was a distinct clang against deck plating. Very slowly, I turned the lock on the hatch. No matter how slowly I turned it, the sound of the rusted metal was loud. When I felt the bolt about to unlatch, I waited for the clanging to return from the other side. After mere seconds, the clang sounded again, and I slid the bolt out with a loud THUD!

We waited to see if we caught anyone's attention. The clanging and the voices continued, they had not heard us. I tried to open the hatch as slow as possible, but the hinge was so rusted, the sound it created echoed down the spoke we were in. The clanging and voices continued. I opened the hatch just enough to squeeze through. We made it to the other side and found ourselves in a winding corridor that turned with station. The voices were coming from down this corridor. I drew my sidearm. Cramer did the same. We walked as quick and quietly as possible toward the voices. The clanging continued. I didn't have any idea what it was.

"The Galactica took the civilian ships with them," said a female voice one.

"We monitored the civilian ships as they jumped out from behind Galactica," said male voice one. "Their jump distances will be limited by the Delta Class Transports."

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"A few of us are with them," responded female voice two. "Basestars have been dispatched and are pursuing. A Six has sabotaged an Intersun Passenger Cruiser. We are getting fixes on the rogue fleet every half hour."

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"Our brothers will destroy the Galactica's fleet, no matter how far into uncharted space they get," said male voice two. I stopped dead in my tracks and listened. "My concern are the remaining Colonial units in the system. We downloaded the flight plans from Cyrannus Traffic Control and have destroyed most of the transports. We have seven Colonial Fleet vessels yet to be destroyed. The Battlestars Pegasus and Virgil are the two priorities."

"What about the Craton?" asked female voice two.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Male voice two continued, "We know where the Craton is. For the time, we will observe from a distance. The Craton is capable of taking us out easily. We will wait until we have a strong defense against the new ship's automated weapons. We should also find the Battle Cruisers Oceanus and Cronus. The Destroyer Metanira and freighter Theban are low priorities."

I thought I recognized the voice. I slowly walked around the final corner and peeked in the room that they were talking in. My heart was pounding. I felt adrenaline pump through my veins. I heard my heart beat in my ears. My palms were sweaty and I was breathing hard. I held a death grip on my sidearm. My eyeball moved insight of the group of people talking. I saw Shelly Godfrey. I saw a young woman in a flight suit. I saw a man I had never seen before. I saw metal Cylons! I began to hyperventilate. I saw the owner of male voice two. I saw his twin brother. I saw copies of everyone. I saw a man I knew! I couldn't believe it.

I eased back into the corridor. Lindsey had a confused look on her face. I wanted to tell her everything I saw. I didn't know if I even understood the things I saw. The Cylons looked like us. I saw him in there. I saw him in there! We had to get back to the Craton. By the time I grabbed her, she was looking in the room also. Her reaction was the same as mine. We made our way down the hallway and around to the spire's maintenance shaft. We didn't dare try to use the elevator in fear of being heard. I kept my sidearm out. Once we safely made it to the shaft, I ran. We had the entire length of the spire to get down. I checked my watch. We had sixty minutes to get to the Craton. My legs were heavy. I holstered my sidearm so I could run quicker. Lindsey had the lead and she was faster than I.

The near mile shaft took its toll on my thighs. Once we reached the pressure hatch for the open landing bay I checked my watch; we had ran the shaft in just under eighteen minutes (a personal best). Lindsey began to put on her helmet, gloves and collars. I had on my gloves and collars when I realized I still hadn't done what I set out to accomplish. I hadn't checked the communication's room just below us. I told Lindsey to wait for me in her Viper. She reluctantly agreed. I left my helmet at the hatch and ran back towards the top of the spire, but stopped at the first staircase. My instincts told me to go back and get in my ship, but I found the will power to overcome them.

I went down the grated stairs and found myself in another dark shaft. Frak. I pulled out my flashlight with one hand and held my sidearm with the other. I walked quickly to the communication's room. Outside the room, I saw the metal door was cracked open. My heartbeat quickened. I was ready to shoot anything, and after what I just saw in the Ordinance Room, I would probably shoot anyone. I swung open the hatch. A metal screech echoed down the corridor. I stepped inside and flipped the switch on the wall. I got a face full of sparks as the lights flickered on. The room was empty. I holstered my weapon and put my flashlight back in my pocket. I was in a octagonal room. Old computer monitors lined all eight walls. The consoles were older than I was. Everything had a layer of dust on it. It was clear from the look of the room that no one had stepped in here for a few decades.

I stood in the middle of the room. I sighed loudly and looked straight ahead. There it was. Taped to the center console was a note. The paper was fresh. I walked over to it. Written in elegant handwriting was a message. I gasped when I read it: Finwat Terish Bason –Adama

I grabbed the note and stuffed it in my upper flight suit pocket. I turned around. Shelly Godfrey was standing in the doorway. I tasted bitterness in the back of my throat as adrenaline rushed through my system. I knew how fast she was. I could only guess what else she was capable of (being a human model of Cylon). She looked at me and smiled. She was beautiful. I went for my gun. Everything else was a blur. My gun flew across the room before I knew what had happened. I was on the floor in pain. She had me in a pin with my already broken arm behind my back.

"Do you know how much it hurts to be electrocuted?" she asked me. Right then I had a moment of realization. She was the same person I killed on the Craton.

I went for my knife on my ankle. When she saw I had another weapon, she snapped my arm in the same place that it was already broken. I screamed and cried. The pain was unbearable. What little my arm had healed was gone. I heard bone on bone as she crushed it. I puked because of the pain. I looked up at her with tears in my face. I said a prayer for the Gods to take me.

BOOM!

Her face exploded as blood splattered all over the room. I saw Lindsey in the doorway. She had used an explosive round on Shelly. I had fallen on my back and held my arm with my right hand. She rushed over and helped me up. The pain wasn't going away. She reached in her flight suit. She pulled out something and stabbed me with it. My arm felt better. I felt amazing! "Let's go," she said as she helped me walk.

When we got to the staircase, we heard the clanging again. I knew now it was the footsteps of the Centurions. They were coming down the shaft. We slowly made it up the stairs and back to the pressure door. The clanging was getting closer, and we saw metal reflections in the distance. I saw pictures growing up, and heard stories. I knew why they were called toasters, but now I saw for myself. Lindsey put my helmet on me and sealed it. Then she put hers on. We entered the air lock just as bullets rang out. She closed the door. The first lever was flipped.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Boom. Boom. Boom.

The inner door locked. She flipped the second lever. The air was sucked out.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The third lever flipped. The outer door unlocked. She swung it open and helped me to my Viper. I couldn't help but look up at the storm. The view was amazing. The Anchorage was just floating here in the calm of the gas giant. Above the station was a Cylon Basestar and a Wing of Raiders flying in a grid formation. I heard Lindsey over the intercom, "can you fly?" I mumbled something like yes. She gave me an uncertain look, but there was no other way to get out unless I flew my own Viper. She helped me in. I was drugged and only had one arm that worked. I had to pull it together. I had to get back to the Craton and save them before the Cylon on board could do any damage. I had to follow Adama's note.

I took a deep breath and did my best. I sealed the canopy and turned on my engines. I had thrust the Viper up, retracted my skids, and punched it. Lindsey was following close behind. We were at full power in the storm. I knew the Cylons were behind us, and I couldn't control my speed and fly, so I just left it on max. "They're following!" I heard Lindsey on inter plane.

"Understood. Keep it maxed out. We can outrun them," I said.

"If we do that Roller, we won't have enough fuel to jump."

She was right. I pulled back a little on the throttle. It was enough to allow the Raiders to catch up. Blue bullets streaked by my canopy. "Frak! Flash, get on my wing. I'm going to try something." She got up next to me. I took a deep breath. "Roller's going Foxtrot Charlie. Keep straight controlled turns Flash, or I'll go flying off into the gas giant." She clicked her radio twice. I flipped my Viper. I over corrected. I had more drugs in my system than I thought. The entire Wing of Raiders were flying after us and they were shooting. I saw the station explode just before we took the first turn. I kicked in Split Axis and began to take out the Cylons. "They're not too efficient when they can't rely on DRADIS."

"From the looks of things, you're not too efficient being on drugs!"

She was right. I was missing most of the shots. So I decided to go all in. "Flash. I got an idea." We quickly went over the plan I formulated in my head. She thought it was too risky with my broken arm, but I outranked her. We had a turn coming up, and I knew Foxtrot Charlie automation would kick off when the flight parameters exceeded tolerance limits (you can't fly backwards at 80% power and take a sixty degree turn). We had to do it now!

I fired a screen a missiles, followed by my one tactical nuke. The missiles were all destroyed before doing any damage to the Raiders. But since they were programed to detonate on any impact, half the missiles exploded when the bullets hit them. The resulting explosions provided a perfect screen for my one small nuke. The tactical warhead zoomed through the explosion screen and detonated in the middle of the Raider Wing. Just as the Raiders became engulfed in light, I flipped my Viper around the turn as Lindsey flipped her backwards. She did what I did.

We took the turn at a too high a speed. The automation kicked off. I rolled the craft around the turn and punched up to eighty percent. After the turn, Lindsey flipped and went Foxtrot Charlie. She dropped her missiles like mines. They didn't launch, they just stayed active, floating, in the blind spot on our side of the turn. She waited for the Raiders to come around the corner (what was left of the Raiders). She remote detonated her missiles. Then, while she had an explosive screen, she launched her one nuke. Most of the Raiders were history, the half a dozen others continued their pursuit. She flipped back over, and we went to 100% on the engines. We were close enough to the exit to not run out of fuel.

While we were outrunning the Raiders, I took a look at the on board network. The old CNP was doing a good job with the mark eights. A few faults had popped up and they were easily correctable. The Cylons hadn't even attempted to hack the Vipers. I guessed this was due to the gas giants EM field. As soon as we were clear of the field, we had to jump or I was sure they would get in. I checked my watch. The Craton was going to jump soon. At 100%, the path through the eye of the storm was quick.

We took another turn, and saw the opening. But more importantly, we saw four more Basestars in orbit above the storm, with Raiders dispatched in a grid. They were forming a net around the opening. We would be out of the EM field in minutes, but the Cylons would see us approaching long before then. The Raiders were still pursuing behind us. We were trapped. Our only hope was a last ditch effort to run the blockade with our guns blazing. "Blow your way through. Jump as soon as you get a lock!" We approached the edge of the storm at full speed. I waited for the Raiders in front of us to see us before I opened up. It didn't take them long. Just as I was about to fire, I saw one of the Basestars explode in a blaze of light. We didn't waver at the distraction. We kept pushing on, almost about to reach the edge of the EM field. Again, I was about to engage the Raiders in front of us, when they broke off towards the exploding Basestar.

My DRADIS screen came to life as we exited the field, simultaneously; the FTL computer began calculating our relative position. It locked the jump in no time flat. The DRADIS sweep was distorted by radiation from the exploding Basestar. At that moment, I didn't think anything of it. I looked over and saw Flash disappear (she jumped). Just as I was about to engage the jump drive, the radiation cleared, and I got another large blip on my DRADIS. Something told me to wait. I looked in the direction of the exploding Basestar. The other Basestars were heading that direction. All the Raiders were on the other side of it. The DRADIS screen made noise of a contact. I looked down and saw a blue dot on my screen.

I looked over at the now destroyed Basestar, and saw a ship move out from behind it and engage the other three base ships. My heart jumped. I looked down at DRADIS. The IFF read: BATTLESTAR VIRGIL.