Chapter 26:

Colonial Army Bunker V-279c, Regulus Mountains

Virgon

Day 512, 21:11 VT

A harsh, groaning alarm woke Gaia as she lay tangled in scratchy blankets. It wasn't an alarm she'd heard before. The bunker's internal systems made a more high-pitched bleeping when water was low or some of the air scrubbers were getting clogged, and internal distress alarms had been a haunting wail, though she never truly believed them to be original, likely adapted by their captors instead.

She pushed herself past the two women who lay either side of her and got to her feet, hopping across the cold metal floor as she found her way to a warm gown and then coat, and finally some shoes. She fixed back the blanket across the group of them that had slept together in the room ever since the temperature controls had fried and lowered the building to a permanent 4c. Warmth was their biggest commodity here, ever since they had overthrown the convincing human Cylons that had contained them.

As she stomped her way through the corridors of the base, the sound of her boots on the metal echoed all around her. She walked across a bridge through a large open space that had once been a lush hydroponic section, before the low temperatures killed most of the plants. The smell in there got worse by the day, but without anywhere adequate to throw the dead plants, they had to leave them. They hoped it would help with fertilising the vegetables that did survive, but they all longed for the sweet taste of fruit again, real or synthetic.

Gaia finally arrived at the command hub, where several of her bunker-mates were huddled around a screen. "What is it?" She asked, pushing through. One of the men at the front, Tommy Gerwitz, just pointed at the screen. It was a security feed, showing what was just outside the vault doors that she and her sister had once entered this living nightmare through. Though the picture was grainy and only lit by the UV that the camera picked up, what it showed was unmistakable. Four camo clad soldiers, carrying Colonial rifles, stood around two people in Colonial flight suits. They seemed to be examining the door with flashlights and attempting to access the computer panels on the outside that they had long since fried off.

"We really are all seeing the same thing?" One man asked.

"Yes Jeriko, we have to be." Gaia said, taking a step back. They had been locked inside this bunker for over a year. At first, it had been a welcome home, a respite from everything happening outside. There was ample food, it was comfortable, and they worked to try and find survivors out in the wilderness. Not long after Gaia and her sister Selene had arrived, the steady stream of new blood had dried up, and their numbers settled near the 200 mark. Over the next few weeks, things had become more organised as people got more settled. There was a hope that someone would come back for them, that the Fleet must have survived. But how wrong that turned out to be. They spent so long worried about the enemy outside, that they never considered the enemy within.

At first, people had disappeared. Initially only a couple, but soon a dozen, and then another. Selene had been taken in one of the first groups, though they didn't know where to. The Doctor had told them that they were sick, that there was a fever going around and they were being quarantined. It wasn't until over a third of their number had disappeared without a hint as to where in this already large bunker they had gone, when they started making inquiries. The majority of those taken were women, though some men disappeared too. Most of them were young, late teens and early twenties mostly. Gaia was just old enough to have been spared their interest. At least for long enough until they did something about it.

One of the former marines knew how to access the weapons vault. As a Warrant Officer, it was official his job to lead the defence. Sensing that he was receiving heat, he gave up the location of the weapons store and his access code to only a few people he trusted, Gaia among them. When he disappeared, that same night Gaia and those he had told ransacked the weapons vault and arrested the Doctor and his two assistants. Within an hour or two of being arrested, while they were still attempting to question them unsuccessfully, Cylon Centurions arrived outside the gates. The alarms didn't sound that time, and it seemed that the computer system recognised them as friendly and attempted to let them in. Jeriko, who was once a computer programmer in the old world, had managed to override this, and kept them out for long enough for them to see that with these Centurions were several humans. These humans, or human like creatures, walked with an alien confidence through the massive machines and seemed to command them. If this weren't strange enough as it was, one of these leaders was an exact twin of the Doctor. They then realised that so too were there twins of his assistants, and it didn't take them long to figure out what happened.

The Doctor and his assistants were executed immediately, and Gaia led the remaining people through the vault and into a hidden, deeper vault. Inside they found all sort of equipment, surrounding and attached to the people they had lost. Many of the people in there either never recovered, or never came out. Those who did didn't come out the same. Those who never went in there were not the same either. Gaia had lost Selene, who had seemingly had her young life ended by one of these contraptions.

They destroyed the equipment and tried to establish what it was for. The best they could come up with was that it was an experiment on human fertility, and since then they had questioned why this had been.

In a rare bit of luck, the vault was sealed well enough that the Cylons outside never managed to get in, it was impenetrable enough that it had needed to be opened from the inside, presumably by the Doctor and his 'people'. Since this opportunity had passed, they had remained under guard from then on. Two or more Centurions guarded the exits from then on, and any hope of escaping quickly along with it. That was until around seven months prior, when suddenly they were gone. In the time since, they had remained inside. There was no clear place for them to go, and they didn't trust it wasn't a trap. At some point they knew they would leave, but they weren't really sure when that would be. They had hoped to communicate with other bunkers or survivors, but their communications systems they found to be completely inoperable, destroyed on the surface. Toxicity levels in the atmosphere were still too high, so it wasn't worth the risk either from the Cylons or the air itself.

But yet, here they were, all this time later and there were Colonial officers outside their gate. Together, they agreed they would open the door, and Gaia went with an armed party to meet the outsiders. The area behind the door was a wide-open space, with columns lining either side for ten metres back from the bulkhead itself. Those with weapons ducked behind these columns, Gaia among them. One of the men up front, Yemane, reached and set the door to open. They all held their weapons with shaking hands as the metal screeched open. As soon as it was open a crack, they heard shouts and panicking as the supposed Colonials on the other side of the door scrambled to cover themselves.

Just as they discussed, Gaia and her fellow survivors waited, holding their fire. After an excruciating few moments of screeching, the door came to a halt, wide open. The rush of forest air filled their lungs. It tasted humid, and rusty, but at least less stale than the air they had been cycling through the bunker for almost a year and a half. What was far tenser, however, was the silence. No one dared speak, on either side.

"This is Lieutenant Sophia Usenko of the Colonial Fleet," a voice finally called out from the darkness. "If there is someone in there, just shout back to me!"

A bright light briefly blinded Gaia as she sat still, weapon raised in front of her face. She realised that the light was coming from the rifle of a Colonial marine, pointing his flashlight down the corridor to see them. Their cover wasn't great, and despite their dark clothing they could probably still be seen. These outsiders hadn't shot them yet, so Gaia figured that it was probably as safe as it was ever going to be…

"How did you find us?" She called out.

"We've been following the records of First War military bunkers across the Colonies. Most of them are empty, but it seems we got lucky here," the same voice replied.

"How come you've only come now?" Gerwitz shouted from the row across from Gaia.

"It's just taken us this long to get back here. Look it's a long story, we can tell you later, but the short part is that we have a planet to take you to. A safe place, a new life."

Gaia exchanged looks with everyone around her. "Place your weapons down and we will all come out together."

There was silence for a moment. They could hear a quiet murmur, and then the bright lights of the marine rifles lowered to the grown, and they saw the figure of a Colonial pilot place her sidearm on the ground as she walked out. Weapons still drawn, Gaia and the others stood and stepped out. Yemane by the door reached for the controls, and turned on the dim corridor light that they had left switched off. The Lieutenant approached them cautiously. In the light, Gaia could see that she was short, lean and had tied up black hair that was far cleaner than they could hope to keep theirs underground.

As no one else took the initiative, Gaia stepped up and held out a hand to the Lieutenant and they shook. "My name's Gaia. I, like most others in here, came in the weeks following the attack. We've been holed up since there, with no sign of anyone. We'd given up hope of being rescued a long time ago."

"We gave up hope of ever seeing the Colonies again," Lieutenant Usenko said, relaxing and putting her hands on her hips as she looked around the dimly lit corridor. "How much is down here?"

"It was a storage and hydroponics facility. It's quite a large place, but we don't fill it anymore," Gerwitz explained.

"And how many is that?"

"114 souls all counted," Gaia said. "When we arrived, it was manned by Cylons, except they looked like humans. They experimented on us, many of us didn't make it. We've been living off fumes the last few months."

"Oh," the Lieutenant seemed put back a bit. She turned to the other pilot, a skinny looking lad stood behind her. "Better tell command we'll need more birds Logger."

"Aye sir," the lad replied. He nodded and stood there for a minute, looking between them and the Lieutenant.

"Well go on then, back to the Raptor!" She said. He nodded quickly again and ran back out the door and round the corner. One of the marines slowly picked up his rifle and followed him.

"You're here with Raptors?" Gaia asked. She never thought she'd see one again, let alone potentially fly in one.

"Aviation fan?" The Lieutenant said.

"Something like that. My father was in the Colonial Fleet, we used to fly in Raptors when he would come back on leave."

A smirk grew across Lieutenant Usenko's lips. "Did he? Where did he serve?"

"On a Battlestar," she replied, somewhat understating his job.

"Oh yeah? Same," the Lieutenant said, twisting her shoulder to show Gaia the ship patch on her shoulder. Gaia glanced at the golden roundel, barely giving it a proper read before Usenko turned it away again. Even in that split second though, she caught a glimpse of something familiar.

"Wait, sorry, show me that again," she asked. The Lieutenant shrugged and did so, giving her a good look at the patch. Around the emblem of the Twelve Colonies was written Battlestar Themis – BSG-53.

"That's from the old girl. She served us well," Usenko said, her face falling somewhat.

"My father served in that group. Did any of the other ships survive?" Gaia said, the slightest glint of hope lighting inside her. Surely the odds were too extraordinary? Surely her father's fleet wasn't the one that had come to rescue her?

"Oh yeah, going strong. We were out of the way of the initial attack and have been on the run ever since. What ship was your old man on?"

"The Battlestar Hyperion. My name is Gaia Jenkins…"

The Lieutenant's face was a picture. "You're joking? No please you're joking!"

Gaia laughed awkwardly. "Am I?"

"Boys boys, get a load of this. We've found the Admiral's girl. What are the odds of that?" Lieutenant Usenko said back to the marines behind her. They, similarly had an expression of awe on their faces.

"He's alive?" Gaia asked, heart suddenly pounding, tears welling up.

"He's up there somewhere," Usenko pointed up. "Get yourselves together and we'll get you all to the rally point. I've got some people there who would love to speak to you."

With that, Gaia and the others split and some headed back inside. Within the hour, most of the residents of the bunker had been roused and were at the exit ready to leave. The earliest of the morning light began to glow a faint orange in the sky as the group trekked their way out to the waiting transports, two atmospheric shuttles and a trio of Raptors. Most wasted no time in getting aboard the ships, carrying their few valuables over the shoulders. Others took more time to seemingly say goodbye to their recent home, as nightmarish as it had been at times. Gaia likewise gave it a brief look back. Not for any sentimentality for the place, but for her sister. She couldn't bring her body with them of course, and while it was no place to rest, that horrible place would forever be where he sister remained. Trying her best to put those memories out of her mind, she clambered onto Usenko's Raptor and sat down on the floor as the gullwing door shut down over her head.

Operation Prometheus Base VG-South

Virgon

Day 512, 23:23 VT

They had flown for a while, over an hour now. At Raptor speeds, that meant they had travelled a long way. They had flown mostly south east, and got a beautiful view of Helios Beta, the star Virgon orbits, as it started to rise. The world was golden as they approached a rally point based around a few transport ships, some civilian and some military. They were located in fields and had a few abandoned and destroyed homes at the centre. The Raptor and the other ships they flew with swept over the base and settled among a field full of Raptors. Some of these Raptors were being unloaded or prepared for flight, others rested. In total there must have been a couple of squadrons parked all around, a few dozen in total.

When they touched down, their pilots ushered them towards a barn. Dragging what belongings they had, they followed the pilots inside the barn, and noticed from another door that others from their bunker were being brought in. Each group was met by a Colonial officer in green uniform with a clipboard in hand. One by one, they took everyone's name and information (age, sex, former career), then ordered them on to their onwards shuttle. There was a palpable excitement in the air from the evacuees, but Gaia could sense that there was far more stress from the officers. As they walked on, following the group back out of the hangar, they passed a stressed looking woman in the centre of the room, with a bubble of officers around her. Lieutenant Usenko – who by now Gaia had heard more commonly referred to as 'Rooster' by her fellow pilots – gave her a nudge and led her away from the group and towards this officer.

As they approached and this officer spun around, assessing the room, Gaia caught a glimpse of her rank pin, though she couldn't remember what this one was. She also couldn't help but think this officer looked familiar.

"Colonel!" Rooster shouted, stepping ahead of Gaia. The Officer looked over at them, her eyes finally stopping from zipping around over their heads like they had been.

"What is it Lieutenant? I don't have time for a chat…" the Officer replied, glancing back at her clipboard.

"I have a civvie that you should meet, sir," Rooster said, gesturing for Gaia to step forward. She did so, and the Colonel looked her up and down. The Colonel gave Rooster a puzzled expression as the three stood in an awkward silence. Rooster gave Gaia a nudge with her elbow.

"My name is Gaia, sir. Gaia Jenkins," she said. The Colonel glanced between them, expression still puzzled. That was until a couple of seconds passed, and then her face, and turned to shock.

"Really?" She asked, glancing frantically between Rooster and Gaia. They both nodded back. "Really? Well then, you'd better come with me Gaia. Get her reassigned to my Raptor. Rooster, you can fly us up shortly. We're finishing up here and departing within the hour, make sure you're all ready."

Raptor 771, en route to Battlestar Hyperion

Virgon

Day 513, 00:50 VT

"And since Kobol?" Gaia asked, continuing the interrogation. It had been the opposite of a quiet flight. Gaia Jenkins had explained in great detail most things about the bunker, and their journey to it in the first place to Emily. The two were a similar age, and from their conversation it was clear to her why she and the Admiral had such a close connection. However, as much as the two of them could talk about Gaia's time on Virgon, she had been particularly insistent to hear what her father had been up to. Emily tried to persuade her to wait and let them Admiral tell her himself. Eventually she had explained most of their journey, but it had taken a while.

"Since Kobol we spent a few days just debating. You'll remember how we found the body of a pilot from the Battlestar Galactica? Well, some of the Commanders wanted to focus our efforts on following them and finding them. The only problem with that plan being: we had absolutely no clues to follow. The body we found was only near a crashed Raptor in the forest, we couldn't tell what direction it was flying in and its black box was frakked," Emily explained.

"So… you came back here?"

"No not for a while. That was over a year ago now. We decided instead to find a new home, one far away from Kobol and here. It took a while, but eventually found a suitable world, which we have called Valhallus. I'm sure you've heard it mentioned by now? It's not the most beautiful world, not like Kobol was. It's cold and much of it is quite barren. But it's habitable, it has a misty prettiness to it, and honestly it's so nice to just be outside of a ship."

"And then you wanted to come back here?"

"Just on a rescue mission. The Admiral figured that the entire human race couldn't be wiped out, and turns out he was right. Myself and Major Halway, our most senior Viper pilot, took a ship back here about seven months after we first settled on Valhallus and found a route back. It took us that long for our best mathematicians and astronomers to retrace our steps, find where home was and possible routes to get there. We then tested the route, headed to Aquaria where the Admiral suggested we start, and eventually made radio contact with a remote homestead of twelve people up in the mountains. We took them back with us as evidence, I guess, then the Admiral authorised the Fleet to come back. Oddly, in the time we've been here, we've only encountered a couple of Cylon patrols, and of those all but one have been just a Raider or two. The only time a Basestar came through here, it was all-hands-on-deck and we caught it in the middle of a few Battlestars, Hyperion included."

"How many people do you think you've rescued?"

"It's difficult to say. These civilians are spread across all of the Battlestars here, and the transports we brought back with us. We only left the Battlestar Sirius and what's left of the Eos behind, so we have a lot of space. Last count was just north of 15,000, not including the few hundred Cylon skinjobs we picked up from these two 'nature camps' we found them in up in some really remote places. One of them was in a Libran jungle and the other was on this secluded island on Picon, in the areas we usually found people. That is, if they're still alive. The Admiral is intent on bringing them back for questioning, but after we've found so many people dead and barely alive inside these fertility factories, most of us have been looking for excuses to make them disappear. They seemed not very committed to the Cylon cause, or they would've left with the others. I know there are a couple who want to reconcile and integrate them into our new home, but we might be a way off before most are convinced of that."

"You're telling me, we're the same after what we went through. I'm not sure if the fact that we weren't alone is comforting or terrifying."

"Terrifying if you ask me. I'm not sure I can forgive, and certainly not forget," Emily said quickly, looking out of the front window. Emily stood up and busied herself on the ships console behind her, the ECO now up front with Rooster. She accessed the records that she could get hold of.

"Our count is saying around 19,000, Cylons included. We left not much less than that back on Vahallus if you include all of us crew, so we're about at capacity, but I don't think we're likely to find any others. We've been out here for weeks and we're about out of places left to look. I'm sure we'll be back, one day, to make sure. But we've been gone for long enough now."

The two sat in silence again for a moment, Gaia seemingly trying to narrow down a question. "Tell me about Valhallus," she said. "What's next for us?"

"Well we've built a bit of a city. Mostly out of cabins but we're making a bit of progress on a couple of real buildings. There's some people establishing farms around. There was some livestock that fortunately ended up on the ships in our civilian fleet, so we've been trying to find them good grazing land. Luckily, the plateaus that are too empty to really live on in any real numbers are perfect for them, so there's some farms going up around rocky outcroppings and creeks that can give them shelter. We're also trying to start mining, so there's jobs going in that sort of area, but we've mostly used the asteroid belt so far. I should point out, there's beautiful rings around this planet. We're trying not to affect them too much, but they've got some useful deposits, as does the asteroid belt nearby.

"For now though, I imagine they'll try and get you settled in in the landed transports at first, then get you building tents and cabins, then you go from there. We found some seed vaults, mostly unmanned, in this trip, so there will be plants to try and grow. It's all a bit back to basics at the moment, but we're trying to build up the city enough that everyone, even us up here, have somewhere to call home in the near future."

"And the Cylons?"

"Thankfully stayed away so far. We have been staying mostly still, although Draconis intercepted some Raiders a few systems away a month or so in, but they never came by. We're always at peak readiness though, and there are contingencies and escape routes in case that does happen. The fabrication bays on Hyperion and Draconis have been hard at work making essentials we have designed, and when we're back, they'll continue to work on producing new, bigger fabricators, that will then create even larger fabricators that together can construct a space station that will be a few foundry. It's amazing what we can make modularly. We're using the hulk of the Eos, one of our original Battlestars, to build it off of. Eventually the hope it that it will become the core of this station, and it's last flight pod will be lifted down to Valhallus to act as a fortified airbase for the city."

Emily took a look once again out of the front window. Familiar shapes were beginning to become apparent. Two Battlestars, one small and lean, the other hulking and fierce, with smaller ships buzzing around. This nearest sun was in their faces with the planet hanging alongside. The direct sunlight shone down the side of Hyperion as the approached, and on a pass of the starboard flight pod, the name seemed to shine as the light glinted off of it. The battle scars across it were evident. Warped craters covered the front head of the ship in particular, with several of the guns along the central trench damaged and haphazardly repaired. Before they had left the Colonies it had been but one of a class of the best humanity could produce. A symbol of Colonial might. Now it was battered, scarred and almost alone. Its armour told its story, their story. But, like them, it wasn't alone. Around it there were others. Around Emily there were others. Off in the stars was a new home, even as this old home lay in ashes. When they had first escaped the Colonies, they didn't know what the future would bring. Emily, like many, feared that there probably was no future. But the Admiral kept them going, they kept themselves going. One fight after another, they found their allies, they found new homes, and they always kept going. Emily wasn't sure if she could ever reconcile her part in it all, though not as something to regret, but simply because she wasn't sure she could ever truly understand the bravery they had all had to keep going, no matter what.

"Valhallus could be a great home for us. I think it will be," she said, not taking her eyes off the Hyperion as they passed it, preparing for their final approach. "But even then, I'm not sure it'll be home for me. I think this ship is my home, it had been even when I didn't realise."

In this moment, Colonel Emily Jartell did not know what any of the rest of her life looked like. Two years ago, she was a Lieutenant who was promoted to a Tactical Officer on a high-ranking command Battlestar. Now, she was the Executive Officer on the grandest ship humanity had left. Anything could happen, but somehow, she sensed the old girl would be the one to see it all. Because of her they had a future, and they would all make sure Hyperion saw it.

Author's Note:

Well, I'm afraid this is where this story ends.

It's been ten years since I started Hyperion. A lot has happened in that time, I got a degree in writing for one. Looking back on this story shows my development as a writer, and I'm immensely proud of it. While I have plenty of ideas for the future, as I'm sure you can tell from the random bursts I have written it in over the past decade, I'm not sure I could ever take it onwards forever. What happens to our heroes from here can be up to you, but of course I have my own ideas. If anyone ever wants to know, just let me know.

Despite this being the end, chronologically, for Hyperion and her crew, I'm also not sure I'm done. I intend to go back to the very beginning, and completely rework the opening few chapters. I will work on this slowly, so I make no promises. I thought about trying to get it out for the exact date of the 10 year anniversary of publishing my first chapters, but I think that's unlikely, so no promises, but it will eventually happen, and likely all in one go with a full edit (I barely proofread any of the chapters and it shows!), so keep an eye out in the future for that.

Other than that, I want to thank anyone who read. It may not be the greatest literary work but it's great escapism. I will continue to write in my own original work, so who knows, maybe you'll get to read my work again in the future. For now though, I want to thank you all again, any of you who have read this story and this message. I really appreciate everything, and hopefully a new edit of the start will alleviate some of my critics!

Thank you all again. SamsterHam, signing out. Good hunting.