Earth at Last
by AJ Marks
Part 3
Starbuck and boomer touched down close to the spot that Apollo had been kidnapped. They hoped to gain a trail of where they had taken their friend. Starbuck glanced around the area, looking up and down the street.
“We were about here when they attacked us,” Starbuck said, looking around. “You know Boomer, now that I think about it, those two who were after me, they seemed to only be delaying me. They could have easily blocked me from going for my blaster.”
“A distraction?” Boomer asked, causing Starbuck to wonder about that.
“That’s entirely possible,” Starbuck replied, thinking about the situation for a few seconds.
“I see some footprints here,” Boomer said, pointing to a spot on the ground. They both looked over the area, gaining an idea of what might have happened.
“Looks like they dragged Apollo over that direction,” Starbuck said, pointing to a spot behind a nearby building.
Together they made their way towards the area, blasters drawn and waiting for anything. They saw nothing around the area, and looked around some more.
“Boomer, this is Jolly, have you heard from patrol four?” Jolly’s voice said over the radio.
“No we haven’t,” Boomer replied, sharing a glance with Starbuck, who continued to look around the area. The last thing he needed was someone sneaking up on him.
“Okay, just checking, we found a small deposit of fuel here,” Jolly said. “Not much, but it’ll allow the fleet to move on a bit more. Help out the fighters, especially if we decide to stay here, or a new colony”
Starbuck and Boomer looked at each other with some disbelief. “Well, I guess that’s the answer if we are leaving this system,” Starbuck said.
“Yeah, guess things are even worse than we thought,” Boomer replied, looking further. “Come on, let’s see where this trail leads.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Starbuck said, walking off with Boomer down the trail.
Tigh sat in the command chair listening as reports slowly trickled in. Jolly had found a small supply of fuel, and tankers were headed down to the surface. Reports of such supplies were coming in all over the planet. It would take a while to pick them all up.
“Colonel Tigh!’ Omega yelled, causing Tigh to sit up straight preparing for some bad news. He figured some more warriors went missing. “Scanners indicate inbound Cylon raiders.”
“What!” tigh said, almost falling off his chair. “Red alert, call Commander Adama to the bridge and recall all warriors from the surface.”
Tigh watched the crew race into action, as the Galactica went to red alert. All over the ship warriors raced to the hangar where vipers were ready for launch. Adama walked into the bridge to find the normal confusion of people racing to battle stations.
“Report Tigh,” Adama said.
“Inbound raiders, looks like a complement of about two basestars,” Tigh replied back, having taken a moment to look at the scanners.
“Two basestars, by the gods, we’re sitting helplessly in space,” Adama said, more to Tigh than anyone else. Both men knew the situation.
“Positive shield now,” Tigh said, watching as the shield came down blocking the weak spots on the Galactica.
“All vipers have launched,” Athena said.
“Activating all defensive turrets,” Omega said.
Adama hoped the warriors on the surface of the planet were able to make it back up in time.
Viper squadrons lined up in combat formations as they raced from the Galactica and towards the incoming raiders. They knew destroying the raiders as far away from the fleet as possible minimized damage to the fleet. Vipers from the planet’s surface would be coming up to help as they launched.
The Galactica moved away from the fleet at a conservative speed, placing itself between the fleet and the raiders. Everyone knew that there was no losing this battle. In order to survive they must win the battle, there was no other option left to them.
The lead elements of the incoming raiders engaged the first vipers, space lit up with the crossfire of lasers and exploding fighters.
“Galactica, this is red leader.”
“Galactica here, go ahead red leader,” the voice of Rigel saidi.
“These Cylons look a bit different, perhaps an improved design, they appear to be a bit more maneuverable than the older raiders,” red leader replied.
“Understood,” Rigel’s voice said, looking behind her to Adama and tigh, who appeared to think about that for a second.
Sheba took a quick look at her wingmate, and noticed he was in trouble. He tried to maneuver his viper out of the tight spot he found himself in, the Cylon stayed with him. Sheba executed a quick left turn before pressing her thumb down on her turbos. The viper quickly accelerated though the turn and fell in right behind the Cylon.
“I’m on him,” Sheba told her wingmate, before the targeting display indicated a good lock on the Cylon. She pressed down on the fire button, watching as the raider exploded. Blasts rocked her ship indicating a Cylon had gotten in behind her, and with a quick reverse thrust she switched positions with the raider and destroyed a second raider.
By now the warriors from the planet’s surface had joined in on the battle. Starbuck, Boomer, Jolly and the rest engaged the Cylons with equal vigor and skill even as the battle slowly enveloped the Galactica. The defensive turrets of the battlestar came to life, engaging the raiders as well.
Three Cylon raiders converged on the Galactica’s landing bay. Starbuck noticed the group and hit his thrusters, hoping to catch them before they reached the landing bay. He opened fire easily destroying the first raider. The second raider exploded seconds later as Boomer joined in. The third pressed on towards the landing bay, obvious that it was a suicide raider. Both Boomer and Starbuck opened fire in hopes that the raider would be destroyed before it crashed in the bay. It exploded close to the entrance, sending debris into the hangar.
“Landing bay beta hit, reporting fires, damage control is in route,” Tigh said, checking the damage.
“Where are the basestars located?” Adama asked.
“We figure outside our scanners here,” Omega said, pointing to a spot on the scanner. The battlestar rocked with another explosion sending a bridge crew over a rail. He looked over as Athena checked on the man, calling out for medics.
“Cylon raider collided, starboard side, damage to decks one through five, fire on decks two and three, damage control on the scene,” Tigh reported.
Starbuck had pulled up from his attack on the raider by the hangar when he spotted the raider hit the Galactica on the side.
“Looks like they’ve taken to suicide runs,” Starbuck said to Boomer. “And with the new raiders harder to hit, doesn’t make things any easier for us.”
“There’s a fire in beta bay,” Sheba said grimly. They all could see the interior of the bay glowing due to a fire.
“Hey, we’re still better than these tin cans,” Bojay’s voice said. “So come on, let show them our real abilities.”
Both sides continued in the engagement as the battlestar took more hits. The old battlewagon held together and gave even better. Finally the last of the raiders were destroyed. Allowing people to relax slightly, but the knowledge that the Cylons were so close did not help moral.
“How many vipers survived?” Adama asked.
“The count is seventy-three, we lost forty-seven, and we can’t house all the vipers in alpha bay,” Tigh said to Adama.
“No, have twenty sent down to the surface of the planet to refuel, and have the damage report sent to my ready room,” Adama said with a sigh.
“Of course,” Tigh replied, as Adama walk off the bridge.
Apollo lay on the bench in the cell. He still tried to figure out who his captors were, but so far all he knew was they were not Cylons. If they were then their knowledge of the Colonies was damaged. He stared at the ceiling thinking about the other possibilities. The commander he met appeared to be human, or at least seemed humanoid. Were they the winners of whatever war happened on Earth?
The cell door opened, and two new people were placed in it. He sat up recognizing two warriors from red squadron.
“Captain Apollo,” one exclaimed. “Are you all right?’
“Yeah, fine, what happened to you two?” Apollo asked, wondering if they were caught while looking for him.
“We were on our way to meet up with Patrol five, Jolly and Ehilla, when these guys came out of nowhere and attacked us,” one replied back.
“They laid out the ambush pretty well, blocked the road with debris and when we moved out to clear it, struck,” the other one said.
“Similar to Starbuck and I, on our way back to our vipers, did Starbuck make it back to the Galactica?” Apollo asked as the question came to him.
“Yeah, last I heard he and Boomer were looking for you.”
“Did you see what type of ship we might be on?” Apollo asked, changing the subject slightly.
“No, we never saw much of anything, blindfolded most of the way in.”
“Probably saw nothing to escape by either,” Apollo asked, receiving a negative reply.
“at least they are not Cylons,” one said.
Apollo had to agree there, his interactions had determined that much. “At least you were conscious at the time you came in. One got me from behind and knocked me out, next thing I knew, here I was,” Apollo said.
“The only thing they wanted to know was where we came from,” one said
“Seemed a bit strange to me, it was almost as if they could not believe we were human,” the other one said.
“Had the same experience,” Apollo said, seeing the door open. A guard came in telling them to follow him. All three shrugged and left the room. Apollo took his time to look around, hoping to find some avenue of escape.
Commander Adama sat wearily behind his desk, a worried frown on his face. The status of the Galactica and the fleet were a high priority right now. The battle had damaged the Galactica, and he waited on a report he felt would not be good news. His warriors had fought bravely, but how long could they adequately defend the fleet? Such questions swirled in his mind, and he never heard Tigh enter the room.
“Commander, I have the damage report,” Tigh said, breaking Adama’s thoughts.
“How bad?” Adama askied, almost not wanting to know.
“It’s quite extensive,” Tigh answered. “The beta landing bay suffered extensive damage and will be out of commission for a while. Forward starboard decks two and three will require some time to build and about half of our defensive turrets are damaged or destroyed at the moment.”
“And our vipers?” Adama asked.
“Sixty are operational, the rest are being worked on to bring them up to fighting status,” Tigh said.
Adama closed his eyes, pondering what course of action he had left. “What about the fuel supplies?”
“With the fuel from the planet, we can replenish most of our fuel,” Tigh said.
“Have the fuel tankers replenish the fleet, and prepare to split the fleet up,” Adama said, coming to a course of action.
“Split up, I don’t understand sir.”
“The Galactica will stay here, we’ll stall the Cylons long enough for them to escape,” Adama said, not liking the course of action, but felt he had little choice. There were few options left to him right now. Some of the faster ships might be able to flee and perhaps find a place to settle down, and hopefully avoid the Cylons.
“Stall?”
“Yes, I don’t think we can continue with all of the ships together, and be able to defend the fleet with our damage,” Adama said. ‘The best course of action will be a split of the fleet, perhaps our warrior can cause the Cylons enough problems that some will survive.”
“Sir, you are aware that some warriors might not like this decision,” Tigh replied.
“They are warriors, they know what’s at stake. Prepare to have all non-combat personal evacuated from the Galactica, and split the fuel up with the fleet,” Adama said, having made his decision, he could act now with confidence.
“Yes sir,” Tigh said, after a few seconds of silence. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, perhaps some will survive, maybe even settle down, and be overlooked by the Cylons,” Adama said. “If they remain with the Galactica, they will be destroyed.”
“Becoming the target,” Tigh said.
“Precisely,” Adama said.
He watched as Tigh walked out of the room to carry out the order. He felt the tremendous weight of responsibility crush down on him. Humanity would survive or fall based on his decision. He only hoped his decision proved correct once more.
Apollo walked into the room with the other two pilots right behind him. He spotted the same commander from earlier facing the other direction. He was looking at a monitor which Apollo could not see.
“Ah, good, you’re here. I have some more questions for you,” the commander said, turning around to face the pilots. He pushed a button allowing an image to appear. “Who are they?”
Apollo looked at the image which had appeared in shock. He wondered what the commander wanted from this new development, even as one of the others stated the name
“Cylons!”
End Part 3
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