Disclaimers: 'Battlestar Galactica' and all of its characters are owned by Universal Studio City, USA.
Earth at Last
by
AJMarks
Part 3:
Starbuck and Boomer touched down in approximately the same area that Apollo had been kidnapped. Starbuck glanced around the area, the shot up street to his right.
"We were right about here when they attacked us." Starbuck said looking around. "You know Boomer, now that I think about it the two guys after me were not very hard."
"Like a distraction?" Boomer asked.
"Exactly! They wanted to capture one of us."
"Looks like it, I can see prints here." Boomer said pointing to some tracks in the dirt. Starbuck came over to where Boomer was standing.
"Looks like the dragged Apollo over behind that building." Starbuck said pointing to the area.
They slowly walked over to the building with their blasters drawn waiting for anything to try to attack them.
"Boomer, this is Jolly, have you heard from patrol three?" Jolly's voice said over the radio.
Boomer picked up his radio and responded, "No, haven't heard anything lately Jolly."
"We've found a small deposit of fuel over here." Jolly said. "It’s not much, but it will allow the Galactica and the fighters the fuel to defend the fleet or a new colony."
Starbuck looked at Boomer with some disbelief. "I guess that the fleet won't be leaving this system."
"Doesn't sound like it." An agreeing Boomer said. "Come on, let's see where this trail leads to."
"Now that sounds like a plan." Starbuck agreed walking around the corner.
It took a few seconds for the scanner operator to realize that there were multiple contacts. Omega stared at the screen willing for the inbound fighters to disappear, but they did not. He finally realized that that the inbound fighters were Cylons.
"Colonel Tigh!" Omega almost yelled. "Inbound Cylon fighters!"
"WHAT?" Tigh said almost falling over the rail. "Sound red alert, call commander Adama to the bridge, and recall of the pilots on the planet's surface."
The familiar red lighting lit up all the areas on board the ship. Pilots raced to their vipers as flight crews raced to make sure the fighters were ready for takeoff.
Adama raced onto the bridge to find the normal confusion during battle.
"How many?" He asked.
"Scanners indicate a complement of about two basestars."
"Two basestars." Adama said in slight shock. 'By the gods, we're sitting helpless right now.'
"Positive shield, now." Tigh said. They watched as the shield came down.
"All fighters have been launched Commander." Tigh said. "Activating all defensive turrets."
Down on the planet's surface the pilots raced to get to their vipers.
Starbuck and Boomer were looking down in the dirt at where the tracks ended.
"Looks like they placed him in some sort of vehicle." Boomer said pointing to what appeared to be to tracks.
"What I can't figure out is why the scanners didn't pick them up?" Starbuck said looking around. "Especially if they were that close to us."
"All pilots red alert, the fleet is under Cylon attack." Their communicators said cutting off Boomer's reply.
Just great!" Starbuck said as both of them raced to their vipers. Starbuck jumped into his fighter and quickly ran through the takeoff list, then powered it up and hit his thrusters.
The viper squadrons from the Galactica formed up and headed out to meet the incoming Cylon fighters and bombers before they could get in range. The fighters from the surface would help the Galactica guard the fleet.
The Galactica moved at a conservative speed to put itself between the fleet and the approaching Cylon raiders. The colonial warriors knew that they had to win the battle to allow a small window of opportunity for the fleet to escape, if escape were even possible.
The leading Cylon raiders encountered the first of the vipers and space lit up with the crossfire of lasers.
"Galactica, this is red leader, over."
"Galactica control here go ahead red leader." The female voice said.
"Looks like the Cylons have improved their designs lately." Red leader said, "These fighters are faster and more maneuverable then the older raiders."
Adama and Tigh looked at each other sharing a common thought about the fleet's future.
Sheba takes a quick look around and noticed that her wing mate in trouble. He tried to jerk his viper right then left. The Cylon raider however stayed with him. Sheba executed a quick left turn and brought her thumb down on the thrusters. The viper quickly accelerated during the turn and fell in behind the Cylon.
"I'm on him." Sheba told him as she watched her targeting display line up the raider. Her thumb pressed down on the fire button and the familiar red lasers shot from her viper. Seconds later the raider exploded leaving he wing mate free. A blast rocked her ship as a Cylon had managed to get behind her. A quick reverse thrust and the Cylon was now in front of her and blown to bits.
Starbuck, Boomer, Jolly and the rest of blue squadron arrived in the battle as several of the Cylon raiders had made their way past the first wave of vipers. The space around the Galactica filled with explosions as both raiders and vipers engaged each other.
A group of three Cylon raiders converged on the Galactica's landing bay. Starbuck noticed the raiders and hit his thrusters to hopefully catch them before they reached the landing bay. Starbuck lined up the first raider and easily destroyed it. The second raider exploded seconds later as Boomer joined Starbuck. The third pressed on toward the landing bay. Both Boomer and Starbuck opened fire in the hope that they would destroy the raider before it hit the bay. The raider exploded just at the entrance and fragments of the fighter scattered throughout the bay starting fires and setting off explosions.
Everyone on the bridge felt the rocking of the ship as the explosion went off. Tigh got up off the deck and quickly checked the damage report.
"Landing bay beta is hit and reporting small fires. Damage control crews are at the scene fighting the fires, but the landing bay will be out of commission for a while." Tigh read to Adama.
"Where are the baseships located?" Adama asked.
"We figure just beyond our scanners, sir." Omega answered. Before he could say any more another explosion rocked the ship. Crewmembers were tossed around and over railings. Athena glanced around as she got back up. She found her father getting up and he appeared to be okay.
"Cylon raider collided on starboard side, damage to decks 1-5. Fire on decks two and three." Athena ported as the damage report came in.
Starbuck just finished pulling up after destroying the landing bay attackers when he saw a raider collide with the Galactica.
"Looks like they've taken to suicide runs." He said to Boomer. "And this new design is harder to hit."
"There's a fire in bay beta." Sheba grimly stated as she took a quick glance at the landing bay, lit from the inside from the burning fires.
"Come on guys, we're still better than they are one on one." Bojay's voice said over the radio. "So lets kick some Cylon butt."
The vipers and Cylon raiders continued their deadly dance around the Galactica. The battlestar, however, continued to take hits, but the old warship continued to stay together. A few minutes later the last of the raiders were destroyed.
"How many fighters survived?" Adama asked.
"The count is seventy three, we lost forty-seven. Commander, we can't house all of the fighters in alpha bay." Tigh told Adama.
"No you’re right about that." Adama agreed. "Have about twenty sent down to the surface of the planet to refuel, also have the damage report sent to my ready room."
"Of course sir!" Tigh said turning to the rest of the bridge crew as Adama walked off the bridge.
Apollo sat down on the small bench that was in the corner of the room. He tried to figure out who his kidnappers were; he knew that they were not Cylons. He leaned his head against the wall behind the bench. There were a few other possibilities. The commander he had met seemed to be human or humanoid, so Apollo figured that the kidnappers were either the winners of a war on earth, the human survivors, or the ones who attacked earth.
The cell door opened and two pilots from red squad were pushed into the cell.
"Captain Apollo, are you alright?" One of them asked.
"I'm fine, what happened to you two?" Apollo asked.
"We were on our way to meet with patrol five, Jolly and Ehilla, when all of a sudden several figures came out of nowhere." He replied.
"Same thing happened to Starbuck and I." Apollo said, and then realized something. "Starbuck, did he make it back to the Galactica?"
"Yeah, last I heard was he and Boomer were looking for you."
"Well, I think we're on a ship, and whoever they are they are not Cylons." Apollo told them. "Did either of you see anything useful that we could use for an escape?"
Both of the other two pilots nodded their head's in a negative response. "We were blindfolded on the way in so we didn't see much." They responded.
"That's okay, at least you were conscious at the time. One of them got me from behind everything went black and then I was here." Apollo said gesturing to the room with his hands. "Have they asked you any questions?"
"They just wanted to know where we came from." One said.
"Seemed a bit strange to me." The other one said. "It was almost like they couldn't believe that we were humans."
"I know, I had the same experience with them." Apollo said. Before the three pilots could continue the door opened and they were told to follow the guards.
Commander Adama sat down behind his desk. A worried frown masked his face; he was very worried about the status of the fleet and the Galactica. He knew that the Galactica was damage, but the extent of the damage still was not known. He also did not know how long his warriors could adequately defend the fleet. Adama was so deep in thought that he did not hear Tigh enter.
"Commander!" Tigh said.
"What's the damage, Tigh?" Adama asked.
"It's quite extensive, sir." Tigh answered. "The beta landing bay suffered extreme damage and will be out of commission for a while. Forward starboard decks two and three will require some time to rebuild, and about half of our defensive turrets are damage or destroyed."
"What about our fighters."
"Only about sixty are operational, sir."
Adama closed his eyes and pondered what course of action he had left. "What about our fuel and supplies?"
"With the fuel from the planet we can replenish most of our fuel."
"No," He said quietly. "Have the fuel tankers resupply the other ships."
"What do you have in mind, sir?"
"Have the fleet resupplied, then the fleet will split up."
"Split up? I don't understand sir."
"The Galactica will stay here to help stall the Cylons."
"Stall?" Tigh said with some disbelief in his voice.
"Yes, I don't think that we can continue with all the ships together and still be able to defend the fleet." Adama told him. "I believe that the best course of action will be a split up of the fleet. Perhaps our warriors will be able to delay the Cylons long enough for the fleet to scatter."
"Sir, you are aware that some of our warriors may not like this decision." Tigh said.
"They'll fight, they know what's at stake. Have all non-combat personal evacuated from the Galactica, and the fuel split up and distributed among the fleet." Adama said with confidence.
"It'll be done sir." Tigh said. "Are you sure commander?"
"Yes, perhaps with the split up of the fleet some of the ships will escape and survive."
"With the Cylons concentrating on the Galactica and her fighters it may provide the time needed for some to escape."
"Precisely."
"I know our warriors will do everything they can."
Adama could only nod in agreement, knowing that he had just condemned the Galactica to death. He also knew that some hope still would remain, it would be a slight chance but better than if the fleet remained here.
Apollo and the other two pilots walked back to the room with the commander. He had his back turned away from them watching a monitor. Apollo could not see what the commander was looking at.
"Good, you're here, I have some more questions for you." He said facing the three pilots. "Who are they?"
A holo-image popped up from the table. All three of them stared in shock at what they saw.
"Cylons!"
End Part 3
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