Author's note: Here is the third and final part of the introductory chapter. Just to mention, next week I will be updating the spin-off story instead of this one. I got inspired and wrote something worth posting.

Thanks to my beta reader, and I'm hoping you'll enjoy this chapter as well.

'It is cloudy today,' Daniel thought as he looked up into the sky.

It had been almost an hour now, and except for some involuntary twitching from Vala who was otherwise still fast asleep, nothing else was moving anywhere he looked. It was a good sign. A little longer and he could, with finality, say that this town was desolate. It was the best they could have hoped for. No Crabs, no Hunters, and no humans. Sometimes having other humans could be even worse than having aliens bent on eating you. In such dire circumstances, humans should be friends and allies who need to help each other. Sure, and then you suddenly are stabbed in the back because they decide how they liked your rifle better than they liked you. No, a deserted town was exactly what he needed right now. He glanced at Vala still soundly asleep. He told Vala that he wasn't tired. He told her that he didn't need rest, but that wasn't true. He was tired, and when tired you let your guard down. That's why he wanted this to be a desolate place with no monsters, but also with no humans in it either.

Another ten minutes and he would go check the apartments below as he had planned. Then, both of them would go in search for the much needed and sought supplies, and if possible, he would then go in whatever bed there was in this building and sleep until tomorrow at dawn. There wasn't much else to do anyway, not after gathering what they came here to gather.

Daniel jerked suddenly. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he caught something with the corner of his eye. He turned in the direction of the plaza, around five hundred meters distant. He took his binocular and began watching in the general direction. There was nothing to see.

Then, suddenly there was.

It was a man, and he looked all worn down. Yet, he did carry some rifle with him. He also looked aware of his surroundings while looking very cautiously in all directions. Unfortunately, he was also coming in their general direction. This wasn't good. If the man continued, he was going straight for the street where this building and more importantly the large store were. The store he was planning to raid less than fifteen minutes from now. Apparently, if something didn't force that person to change direction, his plan will have to change too.

The guy wasn't alone after all.

He must have been some kind of scout for the rest of his little group because now he was able to see that there were two more men and a woman following him. They were all carrying rifles except for the woman who was carrying a gun. This was getting better and better. Four people could easily take whatever little was left in that store, leaving nothing behind.

"Vala," he whispered to her while shaking her a little. She meekly opened her eyes. "We have some company."

Her eyes opened fully. She was quickly getting up, "What?"

"People. There are people coming our way," he answered.

"You are going to give me a heart attack," Vala said while getting back down. "I was already imaging Hunters everywhere around us."

"Well, that's your imagination. I can't help you with that," he retorted. "Instead, what we have here are four people, armed and coming in our general direction."

"And in the general direction of the store, I presume?"

"You presume correctly."

"Daniel, they are going to eat all our food. If there is any food left in the first place."

"And you want me to do what exactly?" he asked. "I mean, since I'm not going to shoot them, what else can I do to prevent them from going inside that store?"

"I don't know, Daniel. All I know is that I'm not going to walk back for seven more hours without having taken something edible back with us. We should at least get first inside that store and call dibs."

"Call dibs? On the store?" Daniel asked. "Like starving people are going to listen to that kind of argument."

"We need to do something," Vala replied, with clear urgency in her voice.

"And what if they decide to talk with bullets?"

"Then, we have better bullets and armor than what they have."

"Vala, I'm not worried about their bullets as much as what the sound of them being fired will bring upon us."

"You mean… the Hunters and the Crabs?"

"If there are some in this town, bullets being fired are certain to attract them," Daniel explained. Although, the time they'd spent talking had allowed those people to get much nearer to the store. Now, even if they were to run down and go straight to the store, they would still get there too late.

"I agree. That would be bad," Vala replied.

"They are already closer to the store than we are. I suggest we let them do whatever they are planning to do and see if there's anything left afterward."

Daniel sat next to Vala. They were going to wait and see. There was a chance of the store having more than what those four people could carry. In that case, once they were gone, they could easily pick what's left. There was also the possibility of the store being empty in the first place. In such a case, a confrontation would have been pointless.

Minutes slowly passed by, with both of them almost falling asleep. In the meantime, the four people had reached the store and entered inside. It took them at least another twenty minutes before they got back out. Once out, they were showing each other what they'd found in the store. With his binocular, Daniel could clearly see that for the most part, they had found cans. It wasn't much, maybe two cans each. Regrettably, it didn't look as if there was anything left in the store. It also looked as if two of them were starting an intense argument. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but their demeanor was showing that something was clearly wrong. Daniel understood what the argument was about when one of them tried to grab the small backpack the other was carrying. Apparently, he had been accused of having found more food than what he said he did. Now the other two people were backing up the one who had accused the fourth.

It was the moment when, unfortunately, Daniel understood what was going to happen next.

"Don't do it. Please don't do it," Daniel said it, more to himself than to anyone else.

He did do it. The one being accused must have felt cornered by the other three. What he did next was to go for his rifle.

One shot rang in the street below. The woman with the gun had been the fastest to draw and the one being accused took a bullet straight in his chest. The others didn't waste any time either by doing something as meaningful as mourning the loss of a comrade. They immediately began stripping the dead guy of everything of any value.

"Idiots!" Daniel said with clenched teeth.

"Don't they realize what they did?" Vala added. They both knew how far away the sound of that gun firing could be heard, especially if the one doing the hearing were the Hunters.

"Well, soon we will find out, without a shadow of a doubt, if there are aliens still in this town or not," Daniel said, not very happy about such prospect.

"We are not going down there. If there are Crabs anywhere in a mile radius, they will be here in less than three minutes."

"I'm sure they will. Those Hunters can probably make it in even less time than that. It's strange though that those down there don't seem to think that way. They are still staying in front of the store and sharing what they took from the guy as if nothing on this planet can harm them."

"Well, the guy did hide some stuff in that backpack of his," Vala added. Not that any of them thought that the punishment fits the crime committed.

"That's not the issue right now. He's dead anyway. The other three remaining there like idiots is the bigger-"

He saw it with the corner of his eyes, some six hundred meters in the distance. It was almost like a swift shadow that jumped from one rooftop to another.

"What is it?" Vala asked. She must have understood that something was wrong.

"There! In the distance," Daniel replied, sharply, while pointing to the distant building where he thought he saw something move.

Both of them were now looking intently in the general direction he had pointed to see if anything moved again. It already appeared as if Daniel had imagined it when it happened again. It startled him.

"He's already crossed five buildings!" The startling part wasn't just the distance he'd covered, but also the fact that some of those buildings were more than ten meters apart.

"How distant can they jump?" Daniel asked, seeing and yet not quite believing.

"It appears more than what we can."

While hunkered down as much as possible, both of them were looking at the progress the beast was making. It did look like some werewolf from some b-rated movie while he moved on all four. Even though moving on strange rooftops and jumping from building to building wasn't the road any of them would ever choose, the Hunter was making it look so simple. As predicted, in about three minutes the alien was upon the clueless people down still on the street and still in the same exact spot. The beast was on top of a side building now, looking straight at them. He was probably getting a feel for his prey, how dangerous they were and how best to approach them.

"We need to take him out," Daniel said.

"Daniel, I don't care about those people down there. They brought this calamity on themselves," Vala replied.

Daniel could sense how frightened she was and he also shared her opinion that those people had brought this on their heads without anyone else's assistance. Still, there was something else that needed to be considered here. He turned to face Vala. "Look, you are right. Those down there are idiots and we are not obligated to help them, but there's another problem that we need to consider."

"What else could we possibly have to consider except for the fact that shooting at that thing will inevitably expose us?"

"What do you think that monster will do once he's finished with them?" Daniel asked, waiting for Vala to find the answer.

I took a while for Vala to reply. Realizing the sad truth, she took a deep breath. "He'll start searching the area for more prey."

"Exactly. There's no way that monster is going to leave this place the moment he's done with them, and with his sense of smell that we know that thing has, I'm sure he'll pick up our scent in no time," Daniel explained.

"All right, all right. How are we going to kill it?" Vala asked.

"We do it the way those marines who managed to kill a bunch of them told us how they did it. Do you remember?"

"Yes, Daniel. Those are the things you don't forget when you're at war with these things," Vala responded.

"Good. Let's get ready then."

Both Daniel and Vala got their grav-rifles out and pointed them toward the alien. Their scopes were raised and they were already steadying their rifles. Yet, they were not going to shoot. Not yet anyway. They were waiting for the alien to make the first move. The moment when he attacks his prey, that's also the moment he's the most vulnerable and when it's the best time to shoot him from distance. There was also another step to their preparations, though.

"I'll go first," Daniel said.

"Got it," Vala replied.

The beast was already on the move, closing in on the three people in the street. It silently jumped on a balcony, now less than ten meters from them. Daniel was certain that for a Hunter this was already well inside his striking range, and he was right. The beast was getting on the balcony's edge while getting both of his knives out. Now, while gripping them in both of his hands, he was only moments away from jumping.

Daniel squeezed the trigger.

It was true after all what those who had met them in battle were saying. Those things had some kind of sixth sense. Not many believed it was true that, somehow, the aliens were able to predict what was going to happen and act accordingly in time to prevent it. And yet, that was the only explanation for how the monster was able to evade the bullet he had just fired. The bullet had traveled at more than three times the speed of sound, which meant that the alien could not have heard the shot before it hit him, much less having had the time to dodge. Nonetheless, that is exactly what had happened. The alien had stopped his attack and moved aside so that the bullet, instead of piercing his skull, hit the wall behind him. It was incredible, and at the same time very frightening to see.

It was also the reason why Daniel went first and Vala second.

Almost immediately after Daniel's shot, Vala fired as well. The alien had been able to evade the first bullet, but not the second. The second bullet hit the beast straight in the chest, which pushed the alien against the wall. Daniel didn't wait for any special invitation as he and Vala both put two more bullets in him for good measure.

The beast fell to the ground less than five meters from the three clueless people still in the process of scavenging what still remained from the dead man. Thankfully, the beast wasn't moving.

The alien had some kind of sixth sense that allowed him to escape death the first time, but even they had their limits. After having made such an abrupt movement that put it completely off balance, there wasn't much it could do to escape the second bullet fired immediately afterward.

"I can't believe this," Daniel said.

"What?" Vala asked, not knowing what the problem was.

"Those guys have put their stupor of a Hunter falling from the sky aside quickly enough. Look at what they are doing now."

It was true. The three people on the ground didn't know from where the Hunter had come from, and also didn't know who did the killing. Nevertheless, they had already gathered around the dead alien and currently in the process of stripping it of anything of any value, just the same as they had done with their recently deceased friend. They must be complete morons and at least in part insane since only such people would remain in the street unmoving, instead of running as if hellhounds straight from hell were chasing after them, which wasn't far off from the truth anyhow.

It was behavior that could cost them their lives.

"Oh-oh!" Vala said.

"What?"

"Look," Vala replied while pointing in almost the same direction as from where the Hunter had come from.

Daniel took a good look. This time it wasn't on the roof of some building, and it wasn't a Hunter either. Instead, red things were moving fast through one of the streets. At first, he saw only two. But then, there were two more, and then three more. "How glad are you that we are on the roof?"

"Very!" Vala replied. "Still, I'm not completely sure that what's coming will be only Crabs."

Daniel had to agree. However, now wasn't the time to speculate since he saw what else was coming from a completely different direction. "Look there."

From another street, more red things were marching towards them. Daniel was almost certain that those Crabs didn't have a sense of hearing, at least as far as he knew. Yet, somehow, they knew towards where to move. Maybe the Hunters were somehow able to communicate with them, or maybe they did have a sense of hearing after all. "Should we inform those idiots down there that they are being surrounded? Not that it will help them in the end. From what I've seen so far, if we tell them that Crabs are coming, they will probably run straight into them."

"I don't know, Daniel. If they discover our location while we tell them to run, I'm sure they are going to come here. And I don't want them here!" Vala explained. "How stupid can they be? Shouldn't they have figured it out already that staying there is the worst thing they can do right now?"

Again, he had to agree with her. Those people should have started running the same moment the woman had shot that man. The second sign was the Hunter falling from the sky. Daniel could not take it anymore. It simply wasn't in him to let idiots die, as they probably should. This should be a textbook case of natural selection. A way of cleansing the universe of idiots.

Daniel took a deep breath and while hidden he shouted, "RUN!"

"They are not running, Daniel," Vala replied as she was still peeking to see what was happening.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope," Vala replied. "They are just looking around to see if they can spot who shouted to run."

"Nice. Very nice. It is not easy to find morons at such a level," Daniel said while getting on his knees and beginning to peek at the street. In any case, it was probably too late for them to run. The Crabs were now only moments from entering the street those people were in.

Strangely, they were pretty quick at noticing the red Crabs as they got into visual range. From how things were going, he thought the Crabs would be able to reach them from behind and start dissecting them before they even noticed anything of any danger. And yet, even in this case, he wasn't sure if it would have been better if they noticed the aliens a little later. At least they wouldn't have started firing so soon while the aliens were still too far out to get a clean shot. The rifles those people were carrying could harm a Crab only if the bullet found some soft tissue on the monster's head. The way those people were shooting without even aiming didn't inspire much confidence in their abilities to score such a difficult hit.

Daniel took aim. It wasn't easy to hit a moving target when the only place that could kill it in an instant was their small head. If he tried to kill it by shooting at its torso, it would take an entire clip to do it.

He squeezed the trigger and a single bullet went out. Instead of hitting its head, he hit the alien in its upper torso. The thing had registered the hit and turned in his general direction. Daniel squeezed again and a good portion of the Crab's head exploded. He went for the next target.

"So what, we are now helping these idiots survive?" Vala asked, but Daniel could see from the corner of his eye that she was already taking aim and joining in the target practice.

"Apparently, we are," Daniel replied, before steadying his rifle, taking a breath and holding it while squeezing the trigger again. He was luckier this time, as the second Crab went down without the need for a second shot.

"No fair! That one was mine!" Vala demanded, just before squeezing the trigger again.

Daniel saw as another went down. Still, there were more coming from multiple sides and those three on the streets were not helping one bit. The woman was more preoccupied with shouting obscenities at the incoming aliens than to actually take aim. The second guy was shooting with his rifle, for some unknown reason, from the hip, without even aiming. At some point, he saw the man smile as one of the Crabs went down. The only problem was that it went down because Vala blew its head off and not him, but apparently, the guy thought he was the one that did the deed. Only the third one was of any help. He had a hunting rifle with a scope, and the man took the right amount of time to aim and shoot. He didn't hit the head every time, but Daniel was certain that at least one of the Crabs that went down was the man's doing.

"You remember, Daniel when you mentioned that a battle against both Crabs and Hunters was also the moment when our luck has just run out?" Vala asked.

"Yeah, I remember. However, we were very good at taking out the Hunter first, so, it's not the same thing here."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing too. At least that was until I saw more Hunters coming from the East."

Daniel turned his head so fast that he actually heard his neck pop. It was true. He too was able to see at least two Hunters coming their way. At this point, he got an urge to change targets and shoot those idiots down in the street instead. Because of them, now they were fighting what was probably going to be their last battle. Then he thought better of it than to waste bullets on those idiots. There was no reason to since the Crabs would soon eat them alive. "And it started as such a good day."

"I knew we should have gone to Bowna," Vala protested.

"In hindsight, I can't help but agree with you. It would have been better even if we went there and found nothing. It still would have been better."

"What is this sound?" Vala asked while looking at the sky in many directions.

"What sound?" Daniel asked. He was hearing only the rifles of the people down on the street firing, the woman's shouts and the Crabs' approach.

"I'm hearing some whining sound coming from above," Vala replied.

Daniel turned towards her and saw that she actually wasn't wearing her helmet. She took it off when she went to sleep and she didn't get it back on. It was also the reason why she was able to hear something that he wasn't. He decided to take the helmet off too. As he did, he almost immediately heard the same high peach sound somewhere to the north and on a much higher altitude. He could also swear that he recognized that sound.

Without saying anything, he moved to his backpack and quickly began rummaging through it. "Where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"Found it!" Daniel said as he took out a flare gun.

"Daniel, what are you doing? I know our situation is not one of the best, but telling those things exactly where they can find us isn't the solution," Vala replied, a little preoccupied.

"I'm not trying to end our lives sooner, Vala. What I'm trying to do is to get ready to signal that approaching Raptor where we are. That is after it gets a little closer," Daniel explained, immediately noticing Vala's excitement at the news.

"You're sure that's one of ours?" Vala asked. She clearly didn't want to get her hopes up only to find out it was something else.

"I have heard that sound so many times that I would be very surprised if it wasn't," Daniel asked, he too smiling. "I think it's time. They should see it if I fire it now."

"Then do it already!" Vala asked, clearly in a hurry.

Daniel fired the flare that went high into the air. When he had found the flare gun, he had almost decided to leave it there, as something that would only use up space and be of no real use to them. Now, he was so happy that he decided otherwise.

The flare was up and there was nothing else to do than to wait and shoot at anything that was coming their way. And soon a lot of things would be closing in on their position. Too many things. "Those Hunters are getting closer, and I don't think we have any advantage over them by staying on this roof. Much less now that there's a flare above our heads that is signaling our exact position."

Vala was just in the process of taking out another Crab, "And where should we go, Daniel?"

"Look at the building on the opposite side of the street," Daniel responded. He had a lot more time than her to look around while she was asleep.

On the other side, there was a much lower building. Not suited for watching over the city, but much better as a defensive position. The building was a police station and because of it, the roof didn't have any doors and the windows had metal bars on them. The only way in was through the front doors. A single entry point that would be much easier to defend than by standing on a roof when there were aliens capable of leaping from rooftop to rooftop or climb any side of a building without breaking a sweat. In any case, their chances of survival on this roof were almost nonexistent. They were simply too exposed.

"You want us to run to the other side? You think we can make it?" Vala asked.

"We must try," Daniel said already on his feet. "Leave everything behind except our rifles. If that raptor doesn't pick us up, we are dead anyway."

Both of them took off the roof and down the stairs. In a minute, they were on the ground floor and he was already opening the door. He exited outside, just enough to get the general situation. Left of them, some sixty meters, there were the three idiots still somehow alive and still with ammo left to shoot. On the other side of the street, several Crabs were nearing their position, now less than a hundred meters. Still, they were distant enough for him to get on the other side before they were upon them.

"Thank god those things move so erratically," Vala said as she followed closely behind.

It was true. The Crabs were not running towards them at full speed. They were checking every nook and cranny they could find as well as doors that led into open stores or bars. They were even bumping into each other while moving. If it weren't so terrifying to be surrounded by them, it would almost be funny to watch.

As he reached the entrance door of the police station, Daniel leaned on the wall, switched his rifle to short bursts of three and took aim. One of the Crabs went down the moment he squeezed the trigger. He turned quickly to see that Vala was already trying to open the doors. They were locked, and that was the reason why he heard a burst of bullets from Vala's rifle that blew the lock off. Daniel would have liked to have the ability to close the doors shut once inside, but, apparently, they would have to survive without that particular ability.

Daniel heard screams from the other side. The one that was shooting from his hip just got grabbed by one of the Crabs from the other side. In the beginning, Daniel thought that he saw only half a dozen Crab, but now he was certain there were many times that number. He and Vala had killed more than half a dozen on that side of the street, and those three people had managed to kill at least a few more. Still, it appeared that more were coming. The screams were ample proof of that fact. The other two must have noticed them standing in front of the police station because they were steadily retreating in their direction. They must have seen how they had dealt with the wave of incoming Crabs from the other end of the street and probably had decided that joining forces was a good idea. It was at that point that Daniel saw one of the Hunters drop from above, landing just behind the woman. It was over in an instant, as the Hunter beheaded the woman with a swift and clean motion of one of his knives. Then, the Hunter was turning to get near the other human, the one with the hunting rifle, but Vala was faster. At full burst, she emptied half of her remaining bullets at the Hunter. Even that thing wasn't capable of escaping that many bullets. Vala had reacted quickly, and that was the reason why that person was still alive. The lycanthrope, on the other hand, was lying on the ground, convulsing while dying.

It was over in an instant, as the Hunter beheaded the woman with a swift and clean motion of one of his knives. Then, the Hunter was turning to get near the other human, the one with the hunting rifle, but Vala was faster. At full burst, she emptied half of her remaining bullets at the Hunter. Even that thing wasn't capable of escaping that many bullets. Vala had reacted quickly, and that was the reason why that person was still alive. The lycanthrope, on the other hand, was lying on the ground, convulsing while dying.

The man put a bullet in the alien's head before proceeding closer to the two of them.

"I must thank you for the many times you've saved my life today," the man said as he reached them.

"You can repay us by watching that side and shooting at whatever comes your way. If you see that you are going to be overwhelmed, shout and we will get inside the station. We will then protect this entrance as our last defense line," Daniel explained.

"Sure, but, to what end? Once we get inside, there's no way out. Sooner or later, those things will be able to breach and slaughter us," the man asked for some clarification while reloading his rifle.

"Did you not see the flare I fired earlier?" Daniel asked. As the man nodded, he continued. "I signaled one of our spacecraft. Help is coming. We just need to hold out a little longer."

"I agree. That changes things," the man said.

"Umm, guys," Vala began saying, pausing while looking around. "Why are they not attacking us? I can't see even one Crab or Hunter, and I know I saw at least three Hunters coming our way."

Daniel had to agree. Not only Hunters but also the Crabs he knew were coming weren't entering the street anymore. Then, he understood why when he saw first one, then two, three, four and finally five Hunters popping up on the ledges of various buildings on the opposite side of the street. Also, even though he couldn't see them, he could hear the Crabs as they were gaining in numbers and waiting restlessly on both sides of the street. "They are preparing to take us with overwhelming numbers."

"Yeah, we must have left a very good impression on them, since we killed two of their Hunters. Little do they know how few in term of bullets we have left to defend ourselves," Vala explained. "I have seven bullets left. My sidearm has sixteen more."

"I have twelve with my rifle," Daniel said. "The same with the sidearm."

"You guys are really packing!" the new guy said, smiling, borderline to hysterical. "I have five bullets left. I should keep one for myself, though."

"Hey! We are not dead yet. There's still a chance," Daniel responded. He needed to keep this guy's spirit alive for a while longer.

"A chance for what? My world is dead. What am I even fighting for?" the man responded somberly.

Daniel couldn't imagine what the man was going through. He didn't know how many family members and friends he had lost in these two months and the fact that the population of Quiril had dropped to probably much, much less than one percent of what it once had been, it didn't help either.

"You're fighting so that you can get off of this planet and join us so that you can kill as many of these aliens as your heart desires," Daniel replied to the man's inquiry.

It took a while for the man to reply, but even before he did, Daniel knew his spirit was back and ready for a fight. "I will hold you to that."

"If we make it out of here alive, I'll make sure that you get the chance to be on the frontline, with the best equipment we have at your disposal. I'm Daniel by the way."

"And I'm Vala."

"I'm Renar," the man replied.

Daniel looked up. By now, there were eight Hunters that he could see. There were probably more of them out of sight on some other roof. In addition, from the sound of it, it appeared that the number of Crabs had increased as well. He was beginning to dread that the Raptor didn't see the flare or even worse case that what he thought was a Raptor was instead a hunter's craft. If that was the case, he would be responsible for bringing even more of them here. He almost began to laugh. He was having misgivings about his previous action in a moment like this, which, at this point, it didn't matter anymore. If there were no Terrans in the vicinity, they were dead no matter what he had or hadn't done.

There was simply no way around it.

"I think they are coming," Vala said. "I can see the Crabs are getting restless, and the Hunters have disappeared from sight, which is a bad omen."

Daniel didn't have time to reply as a large group of Crabs began marching into the street from both sides. They didn't have enough bullets to go full Rambo on them, so Daniel took his time and fired a single bullet. He then shot again and another Crab went down.

"I'm out," the man said. Without thinking, Daniel slipped him his sidearm. He then proceeded to calmly take another shot, even though the Crabs were by now at less than a hundred meters distant. He had ten more bullets and he knew the Hunters from above were just waiting to get a drop on them. Another bullet took another of the ugly Crabs. There were around three dozen more on his side alone. Too many to take them all down.

"We need to get inside," he said it, but frankly he didn't know how much they would accomplish without bullets.

Then, as he was already turning to get inside, he heard a very familiar sound. It was the sound of Asgard beaming. He quickly turned, and what he saw made him smile.

Cylons.

On both sides of the street, two of the elite type Cylons Sam had re-designed appeared. They immediately went to work. From their grav-miniguns, a stream of bullets was cutting down Crab after Crab. Still, the Crabs were so close that they were at spitting distance from the Cylons. One Crab was actually close enough to grab one of the Cylons, but apparently, these creatures weren't designed with six hundred pound machines made of some of the hardest materials known to men as their cup of tea.

The Cylon in question simply rotated his disjointed fist and grabbed the creature's pincer. Then, it simply squeezed. The pincer exploded under the pressure. At the same time, it aimed its other hand's minigun at the Crab's head. As it fired, the Crab's head simply vanished in the hail of bullets. Unfortunately, the Crabs were not the only enemy present. Daniel saw as one of the Hunters dropped just behind one of the Cylons. With his knife, it cut one hand clean off as if it was nothing. Their molecular blade was as sharp as it gets. However, his opponent wasn't a being made of flesh and blood. Since the Cylon had lost his hand and minigun in one quick moment, it immediately used its other hand and with a swift and precise turnaround, the molecular blade that was part of it cleanly cut off the hunter's head. Daniel also noticed that another Cylon had changed from firing at the Crabs to monitoring the buildings for any of the Hunters that could still prove to be a challenge. In the meantime, the other two Cylons were cutting down the Crabs on both sides of the street. The Cylon that was monitoring the buildings must have seen something since he was following something that was apparently moving from roof to roof. He wasn't firing, which to Daniel only meant that a Hunter was smartly hiding behind some cover. Still, it also meant that the Hunters were not giving up yet.

The Cylons had exhausted their miniguns and now it was time to use their blades to cut everything that would come near them. They were doing a good job too, as Crab after Crab lost their head in the unfair fight. The Crabs were not the best fighters to fight Cylons. The Crabs clearly preferred soft targets instead.

As if from nowhere, another Hunter dropped from the sky in the middle of the street, and then with a quick jump it went straight for the neck of one of the Cylons. The Hunter pushed his knife straight through. The next instant, the only remaining Cylon with a minigun, put fifty bullets in the werewolf, but it was already too late. Even though the Hunter knew he was going to die at the hand of any of the other Cylons around him, he still went for the kill. It was maddening the level of determination and self-sacrifice these aliens were displaying. The worst part was that nobody understood their motives.

Once again the sound of Asgard beaming made Daniel smile even more. This time four Marines in their new Power Armors that made them look bigger than even the Cylons appeared in front of them. The fifth arrival was Adria.

Adria's eyes were enough for Daniel to know that the remaining Hunters were going to suffer greatly before dying, in probably some very atrocious way.

It didn't take long for parts of his prediction to come through. Again, one of the Hunters jumped down behind one of the marines. The only problem was that the alien didn't reach his target. The alien didn't reach the ground either, as he was currently floating a meter above it. Then the Hunter slowly rotated in midair to face Adria who was very much smiling at the moment.

The Hunter wasn't.

The sound the Hunter made next was enough to make anyone's blood freeze. Adria was slowly but surely crushing the creature's every bone and internal organs with her telekinetic powers. Daniel also understood why she was doing it. It wasn't just anger and the will to inflict large amounts of pain to the creature. That was only a small part of it. Daniel knew how calculative Adria could be, and right now her idea was to make known to the rest of the Hunters in the vicinity what was going to happen to them too. No matter what kind of race those Hunters were, no one could hear such screams of one of their own and not feel any kind of uncertainty, if not sheer horror.

Then, suddenly, with the sound of the hunter's neck breaking, his lamentation finally ended. Daniel couldn't be sure, but suddenly the Crabs stopped their approach and there were no more Hunters dropping from buildings either. Daniel looked up and he could see at least half a dozen Hunters standing on the edge while looking down with no resolve whatsoever to jump into the fray.

Adria turned to Daniel, with a thin, angry smile. "They still think they are going to survive this day."

Daniel knew something bad was going to happen. At first, it looked as if Adria wasn't doing anything except for the fact that she had closed her eyes. Daniel knew she was concentrating, but for what purpose, that was still a mystery.

High in the sky, the clouds began changing color, progressively becoming darker and darker.

"Oh boy," Daniel said. This wasn't the first time he saw such strange weather. He instinctively pulled Vala and Renar closer to the doors of the building.

As the clouds began to converge, electrical arcs began cracking between them with increasing frequency. Now, even the Hunters were looking up into the sky with the usual what-the-fuck expression plastered all over their muzzles. They didn't have time to keep it for long, though, as lightning began hitting them one after another as if they were lightning rods only serving to attract electricity. Each hit meant one Hunter turned into a burned and lifeless husk.

The Crabs followed with the same fate shortly afterward.

Adria opened her eyes once again. Daniel could see that she was tired. He could also see how happy she was. She moved so quickly that he barely had the time to catch her as she embraced him. He embraced her back.

"I'm so happy you're alive," Adria whispered.

"I'm happy I'm alive too," Daniel replied into her ear. "Happy to see you too."

"Ah, well. I'm just the mother. Who cares about me?" Daniel heard Vala's voice say.

Adria looked at her mother, giving her a big smile, "Hello mother. I'm happy to see that you are alive as well," As she said it, Adria went to hug her mother too.

Daniel saw the strange face the only Quirilian present was making. "So, she's her mother and you two are… a couple?"

"Yep. But most importantly, we are all alive and we are leaving this planet," Daniel answered while putting a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Sure, sure, that's great. I just think that it is a good thing for me to know the various interrelationships around here so I don't piss off, well, any of you but mostly her," the man said, still having a strange expression as if he ate something sour as he was looking at Adria. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if I'm terrified more of what I saw in the last two months, or of what I saw in the last five minutes."

"That's understandable," Daniel replied, even though he didn't really know what to say to the poor guy.

One of the marines approached. "We need to leave!"

There was some urgency in the man's voice and Daniel wanted to know why that was the case. "What's the matter?"

"Our beaming on the planet and the equipment we are using is the perfect homing beacon. Our Raptor has just detected a few Reapers coming our way," the marine in his Power Armor explained.

Daniel couldn't actually see the man's face inside the armor, but only hear his amplified voice coming from speakers placed on the outside. But he could still sense the urgency in the man's voice. The Reapers were the third weapon the Vargas employed in order to purge planets of unwanted inhabitants. While the Crabs ate those who couldn't defend themselves, and while the Hunters hunted down those who were good enough or lucky enough to have escaped the Crabs, the Reapers would target any source of energy they were to detect on the planet. Even with the Cylons and the marines present, facing Reapers wasn't a very good idea.

"You won't get any argument from me. The sooner we leave, the happier I'll be," Daniel replied.

The man in front of him gave a small device. Daniel understood that it must be a transponder that used radio frequencies rather than subspace as a medium to transport signals.

The marine was giving the same device to Vala when the well-known Asgard beaming enveloped him and he was whisked away.

For the first time in two months, they were finally safe.

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