We used to wait. (Chapter 3/?)
title: We used to wait. (Chapter 3/?)
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 5,890
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
The room was full. Instead of just the Admiral, it was Helo and Kat, Dee and Hoshi, Mathias and Hot Dog. Even Anders was an occupant this time, though Kara could tell by the way he fidgeted in his flight suit that he was unsure of his place. For a moment, Kara wondered just who could be at the figurative helm of the two battlestars in case of emergency, but she quickly put it furthest from her mind.
Kara stood while the rest of them sat, their eyes on her in eager anticipation for expected news. It was an impromptu meeting, most of them pulled mid-shift, even off of CAP and practice missions to meet there and now.
“Everything’s changed.” Starbuck has made the vague declaration to the room, reading each of their faces before she continued on. “Admiral.” There was a pause as she nodded her head to him, her eyes and attention focused on the oldest occupant of the room. “I’ve been running my own Raptor reconnaissance missions back to New Caprica during the hours yours aren’t out there.”
“And just what were you hoping to accomplish? Attract the attention of the cylons and lead them back to us, or were you just hoping to get a couple of pilots killed?” The Admiral’s words were harsh as he sat up a little stiffer. The other occupants of the room started to shift uncomfortably.
“I requested that Sharon be transferred to Pegasus six weeks ago, sir. I told you it was for Helo and it was, but it wasn’t my only reason.” Despite what she knew the others must have been thinking, the deception she played on Adama burned inside her at that moment, especially when her sins were being confessed out in the open. “The last six weeks, Sharon and I have been working on cracking the signals the basestars have been using to jam our connection to the ground. Honestly, I didn’t know if anything would come of it. Sharon’s been out of the loop with the cylons for two years now and they know we’ve got her. But she’s still one of them and she can still think like them, sir.”
Silence consumed the room, but she could feel the tension bubbling beneath. Everyone but Helo looked surprised.
“Karl and Sharon Agathon have been jumping out every night for the last three weeks now, attempting to make contact. For a long time, we were running into the same problems that we all know about. An hour ago, Sir, Sharon overrided the signal and we received word from the people on the ground.” Her emotions betrayed her, and for once, Kara didn’t care about what the small crowd of people would think or say when they saw it on her face and heard it in the tremble of her voice. “They’re alive, Sir. There’s a resistance. And now we can begin planning how to get them back.”
-
Hours later, when Kara and Adama were left to themselves, she was quiet as she spoke. “I know I had no right to go behind your back and I’ll accept whatever the punishment is for it, sir, but wait until after we pull this off.”
The Admiral teetered on a line between anger and joy. Anger over having his direct orders disobeyed by the woman he considered his daughter, perhaps the only family he had left. But joy as well, because his daughter may have given him back the chance at finding the son he’d lost two and a half months ago.
“Sometimes you’ve got to roll the hard six.” His blue eyes lifted to meet hers and she nodded in receipt of it. The distance between them closed as Adama pulled her into a hug. “Your luck’s going to run out someday, Kara. So thank you for what you did, but don’t try it again.” He released her and held her at arm’s length, hands on her shoulders. “Let’s hope that lucky streak runs out after we see our people again.”
And although he didn’t say it, as usual, Kara knew specifically who he meant.
-
Helo slid the model Raptors forward on the table, indicating their movement from the starting position around the tiny version of New Caprica.
“Decoy Squadron A, led by Racetrack will be the first group out.” Kat began to speak and Kara couldn’t help but be impressed there was an inch of professionalism to her. “Once in range of basestars, they’ll deploy two sets of drones that the cylons will pick up on their version of DRADIS as battlestars. We’re counting on at least half of the baseships there to head from their current location to investigate. Once the job is done, the Raptors will jump away to rejoin the fleet.”
Karl pushed a second set of Raptors into position while she continued.
“Decoy Squadron B will head to their coordinates and launch their own pair of drones. The intention is to confuse the basestars. They’ll assume the second pair of battlestars will be us moving in for the kill while they’re distracted.”
It was Kara’s turn and she nodded to Kat as she took the figurative torch. She didn’t wait for Karl to sift through the unused models on on the edge of the table, instead she plucked the one they had been using to stand for Galactica and placed it beside New Caprica.
“Last message we received from the surface stated that they were now in possession of the launch keys to the ships in the shipyard, thanks to Lieutenant Agathon’s help on the ground. Mathias and her marines have also managed to make contact and luckily, we’re still running fairly undetected. The resistance on the ground is small, but they’ve got the tools and weapons they need now to start giving the cylons the runaround. They’re cylons, but they can still get overwhelmed, and that’s the crux of this plan. They don’t expect us and we aren’t playing by the rules this time.” Glancing around to the faces at the table, Kara held eye contact with each of them, one by one.
“In the past, we’ve always been about protecting ourselves. The cylons have had the upper hand because they’ve always chosen when we fight. The times that we managed to attack back first, with the tyllium mission and the resurrection ship, we’ve been at our absolute best.” Without missing a beat, she returned her focus to the planning table before her. “Galactica jumps into the atmosphere and releases her vipers to offer cover to the colonists on the ground. She’ll jump back out into orbit to monitor things on the ground, while Pegasus will be at the location of the drones initially released by our first decoy squadron. By then, the cylons are likely to have figured us out and we’re basically in the fight of our lives. Pegasus will have her vipers out there to fend off most of the raider attacks.”
She eyed the pieces laid into place now, a cluster of makeshift basestars amidst the smaller Viper figures and larger pair of battlestars.
“We’ve already plotted a series of rapid jumps around this area for Pegasus. We’ll take her in, do some damage, and jump just outside the basestars until we’ve pulled their attention. The second jump will move us around them again so we’re able to attack from another angle before they can retrain their focus on us.” Kara nodded at her handiwork before her, her arms crossed across her chest as if she was finally settled and come to peace with the plan. “She’s not made for this kind of maneuvering, but she’ll hold together as long as we need her to.” She was unsure of the promise she was making, but kept her face stiff and reassuring.
Adama, as quiet as he had been throughout the final briefing, cleared his throat and stepped in close to the table. He set his hands just over the edge of it and gave a few slow nods as he glanced to the pieces scattered across the surface. “I’d like to commit to this with less baseships already in orbit, but I don’t know if our people on the ground can hold out another month or two for us to wait to see if the cylons lift their defenses any more. We go in tomorrow and we’re not coming out unless it’s with all those people still on the ground. Dismissed.”
They all saluted in unison and filed out, each of them leaving with preparations on how to enjoy what could be the last night they had.
-
The Admiral spent his night not with the model ship he usually turned to in times of extreme inner conflict, but with the few photo albums he had stashed away in his quarters since before the Fall. They were filled mostly with pictures of his boys in all ages of their life. There was Lee in his mother’s arms, not even an hour old. Zak’s infant body swaddled up in a blanket in his older brother’s arms with Bill’s own arms helping his eldest son hold his brother for one of the first times. He flipped through the pages and passed through decades in only minutes. He noticed how the number of pictures dwindled as the years went by and the boys no longer cared to pose for all the pictures their mother wanted to take of them. It wasn’t just that, he knew, but also the fact that the happier times became fewer and far between as well.
The portraits of Lee and Zak from their first year at academy sat side by side. Bill thought about how young Lee looked in his and just how long ago it was that this picture was taken. But for Zak’s, he wasn’t much older than he was in that photo than when he died. It still ate at him to think that he would never know how Zak would look with a few years on him. He would be that young forever and with consideration to humanity’s cylon situation, he wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Adama tried not to think about what it would mean for him if they didn’t pull off the rescue tomorrow, but was soon overwhelmed with the thought of what would happen to him if they did manage to rescue their people from New Caprica and his only remaining son wasn’t one of the people with them. It had already taken such a supreme amount of self control not to request that the Raptor communicating with the resistance ask about his son’s whereabouts. He was the Admiral, he knew he had the authority, but he had long since realized that he might be better off not knowing the answer just yet.
He didn’t get any sleep that night.
-
Kara kept Helo company for the first part of her evening. They talked about Sharon and how it felt for him to be a newlywed as of a few weeks prior. He didn’t share much, instead his smile said everything. He had been worried about having his wife onboard this specific ship after what had happened between some of Cain’s unsavory crew and Sharon all those months ago, but Kara had done everything to assure her safety and improved living conditions. She’d still been kept under armed guard for her first few weeks, there was no getting around that. But the Admiral had surprised them when he asked her to take the oath and become an official member of the fleet. Now, the Agathons were one of the few to occupy space down in the married quarters.
The topic of conversation switched to better days, back before the decommissioning and end of the worlds, and the two of them reminisced and pondered over where they’d be now if the cylons hadn’t decided to upset everything. Despite the situation they were currently in and all the people they had lost, neither of them could find the energy to say they wished it had all happened any other way. Karl especially couldn’t say it and when he mentioned how beautiful his daughter was for the few hours he got to see her, Kara’s stomach clenched in a mixture of sorrow and envy. He was happy now, though, and she knew that was really all that mattered. If they died the following day, Karl Agathon would have had a life worth living.
When Kara returned to her room, Anders was already back from his own pilots’ briefing. Compared to the kind of training her first round of nuggets got, she knew Sam has been absolutely coddled. He had weeks to learn about his ship and hone what little innate ability he was gifted with. She saw him up there a few times and while he wasn’t exactly a natural, she still felt proud of him. Now, on the eve of the battle they had been waiting for, she was disgusted by that feeling of pride. Instead, a feeling of complete terror sat in its place. She was afraid he wouldn’t return from the fight. He was green through and through and all the practice dogfights he was part of wouldn’t compare at all when they were Raiders. She wouldn’t be able to protect him from inside her battlestar and a small part of her wished she could be out there with the squadrons tomorrow, at least there she could watch his back.
They were barely dressed and ready for bed and Sam seemed to think they would spend their final night in each other’s arms. He was partially right, but instead of drowning out their fears and worries with him burying himself inside of her, Kara guided him down onto the bed, his back against the wall. She sat between his legs with her back to his chest and ran her arms along the length of his own, palms rested over the backs of his hands. Their legs extended across the bed, limbs parallel to one another with as much skin to skin contact as possible. His muscles were pliant and she led the way, curling her fingers over his to force him to do the same as she made him grip the imaginary throttle between her knees. This was all the help she could give him, so Kara talked him through the routines and maneuvers, hoping to drill that instinct into him an inch further.
Kara and Sam practiced that way for hours and she became the drill instructor, asking question after question until he could parrot back the proper procedure every time. His hand guided hers as he pulled pretend move after move and she could tell just by the way his hand and arm shifted if he had it right or not. He fell asleep first and Kara laid with him halfway through the night, seeing the faces of all the people they left behind. She saw them all behind her eyelids one at a time, pulling in at herself and trying to see if there was some feeling beneath her skin as to who was still alive and who wasn’t. It was a morbid game and she hoped that tomorrow proved her wrong on all the accounts of those who she felt would not have made it. She never pictured Lee, though. She didn’t dare think about what had happened to him all this time.
With a few hours until first shift and the start of what could very well have been their final mission, Kara slipped out of bed and Sam’s arms, and sat on the carpeting just below. She tugged at her boots from a few feet away, pulled the familiar shoe polish kit out, and started navigating the familiar sense memory. Like all the other nights, she didn’t see her hands polishing at her familiar pair of shoes, but rather Lee at the edge of his bunk across the way, diligently working. It brought a smile to her face and a calm to her head. She whispered the prayer that had become part of the routine since they left New Caprica three months prior. “Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Protect the souls of your children tomorrow…especially that of Lee Adama.”
A few feet above her, Sam woke and silently watched her back in the familiar display he caught her doing for months now. Her whisper caught the breath in his lungs and Sam pulled his eyes tightly closed in an attempt to try to fall back asleep.
-
The next morning, Pegasus and Galactica said goodbye to what remained of the civilian fleet. What surprised the Admiral most was just how few and far between the complaints were from the other vessels. While there were the outspoken few that cried they were being condemned to death in a suicide mission that had no chance of being successful, the majority of hearts of the people were with the fleet. They had to try something and everyone knew it was this or nothing at all.
Kara reported to the CIC at the very start of the day cycle. With the mission only a few hours away, she was happy to find it mostly deserted with the exception of the few crew members who had been on shift throughout the night. It gave her time to think over the details of the plan, looking for holes and flaws even though she knew there wasn’t time for a single change to it now. Even she would admit that this plan went a little beyond out of the box. She was known for planning the type of missions that they’d never let someone like Lee propose in War College. They may have been non-textbook, but they at least had some security measures built in to ensure success. But this plan, Kara knew it hinged entirely on too much good luck. There were too many outside factors to plan for and all they could do was hope for the best. Try as she might to ignore it, she had a stinging feeling in her stomach that she really wouldn’t make it out of this. Like all the times she went into battle before, she wasn’t scared of facing death, at least not for herself. She was scared of what her failure here would mean for the people down on that planet.
She gave a silent nod of her head as everyone slowly reported for duty, with Karl and Hoshi being first. Karl’s tight smile both calmed and scared her all at once, but she kept a lid on what she felt brewing beneath her skin. She had failed her crew three months ago when the cylons had returned and she’d all but turned into an incompetent mess of panic, needing to be reassured and ordered by her Admiral into bringing them to safety. Even if it meant her death, Kara knew she’d go down at that CIC table, barking orders to keep her people safe.
A call from the Admiral was patched through to her personal unit and Kara lifted it from its cradle with a steady hand.
“We’ll bring them back today, Admiral.”
Karl listened in on the conversation from a few feet away, imagining what the Old Man was saying to her on the other end.
“Just remember, you promised me that when we got back you’d shave that mustache off.” Kara spoke with a smile on her face and nearby, Helo tried to hold back his own laughter. That mustache had been a bit of contention between the Admiral and both entire sets of crew. “Yes, I do remember my part of the bargain…but you’ll have to pull rank on the entire fleet to find me the universe’s last bottles of shampoo if you don’t want me to cut all this hair off.” Her free hand idly played with the ponytail of long blonde hair at the back of her head, eventually trailing up to brush aside the shorter lengths that fell across her forehead. Though she didn’t have a ship run on fear like Cain had, she had to wonder if the unconscious decision to let her hair grow out over the last year had been done with the late Admiral in mind.
Her voice was serious now, quiet, and though Adama wasn’t anywhere in sight, Kara nodded along. “Yes, Sir. We’ll see you on the other side.”
The private conversation finished, Kara straightened her uniform in preparation. Karl noticed the bright shine to her shoes and he quirked an eyebrow at her with a deliberate glance at her feet. He’d never known Kara to be the type to be in perfect uniform and it had been a few months ago over ambrosia in her quarters that she had confessed about her weekly ritual. She never said who she had in mind when doing it, but he only knew one pilot that had kept up the habit after the end of the worlds. Karl would swear on pain of death that he saw her cheeks tinge with the slightest color of pink, but she gave no response, instead tilting her head up to the DRADIS screen as Hoshi patched the Admiral through to all the speakers on Pegasus just as had been presumably done on Galactica.
“This is the Admiral. Today we return to New Caprica to bring our people back. You all know your duties, but I wanted to impress upon you how much everyone is relying on each of you. There are no contingency plans today. There will be no one behind you to catch your mistakes or pick up the slack. If your trigger is pulled a second too late, if you aren’t there to redirect a fuel line, you’ll have destroyed both our battlestars in the process and condemned the people on the ground to death. Today, more than any day, we demand perfection of each and every one of you. Trust in your fellow officers, your Commander, your Admiral, to bring you all home, and we will.”
“So say we all,” Kara whispered softly to herself and imagined all the people around the ship bowing their heads in silent prayer. She could see the deck and engine crews kissing medallions of their Gods for that extra reassurance of luck and all her pilots settled into their Raptors and Vipers. Anders was down there somewhere now, hand shaking with nervousness undoubtedly, but Kara knew she couldn’t let herself linger on thoughts of any one person too long. Pegasus was her focus now.
The clock counted down to the time for mission start and Kara assumed the role of Commander as she spoke into her handset. “Set condition one throughout the ship. All hands prepare for jump.”
One inward pull of the FTL drive engaging and Pegasus was finally back within range of New Caprica. She could hear the orders being barked around her, mostly in Karl’s voice, though she soon heard the mixtures of others over the loud speakers as the two Raptor squadrons were in place. DRADIS became the center of her focus now, praying there weren’t suddenly any unexpected blips on the screen that would signal the end to their plan already. They hadn’t even begun to fight yet. If she was going down, it would be in the heat of battle, not caught off guard by a basestar.
The first set of drones were launched, registering as another pair of battlestars. What she wouldn’t give to have those be real. For once, they wouldn’t be so alone. The screen tracked the Raiders being deployed in large numbers, heading directly for what the cylons presumed to be Pegasus and Galactica returning for the fight. The second pair were deployed to the second location further, once it was clear that the raiders had discovered the ruse of the first ones. Three of the four baseships began to pull away from where they were stationed, heading to the second location and preparing for a fight.
Galactica was the first of the true battlestar icons to disappear and reappear and Kara nearly saw and felt what they were going through in her head as the seconds ticked by and the roar of voices from Galactica’s CIC blared into her own.
“Vipers away.”
“Galactica, Hot Dog, ground resistance seems to be doing their job. Catching sight of explosions all through the city.”
“Red Wing, Hot Dog, shoot open the gates while we get these centurions out of the tower. Let’s give these people some cover.”
By now, Galactica would have jumped back into orbit to do battle with the single basestar remaining overhead and the glow of Galactica’s icon brought her comfort. Pegasus, on the other hand, had just begun her own fight. The ship headed straight into the cluster of three basestars before them, weapons blazing and not only providing cover for the departing Vipers as they launched, but also being trained on what they believed to be the most vulnerable portions of the baseships.
“First squadron away, sir.” Hoshi nodded to her and she returned it. “Second squadron is being loaded into the tubes and will be ready for launch in five minutes.”
The plan seemed to be holding firm, even as Pegasus found herself in the middle of the trio of baseships, taking on damage from all of them at once.
“Prepare the first jump.” Her voice was steady as the coordinates were loaded up and following the countdown, the jump was initiated. Pegasus blinked out of the space between the basestars and reappeared just beyond them, still within firing range but a careful enough distance away.
“Weapons readjust forty three degrees, keep firing.” Starbuck called out the order into her comm unit before turning to Karl. “Sitrep, XO.”
“FTL functional, weapons operating at 94%. Some minor hull damage, fires in one compartment on the starboard side but we’ve already vented and contained it. One viper lost from first squad-” His voice was cut off short as he squinted up at the DRADIS screen. “Oh Gods, two more basestars just jumped into orbit. No, no, make that three. Two on us and one on Galactica.”
The Admiral came over the speaker then, jarring Kara from her thoughts. “We’ve got our first baseship down over here. We’ll take care of the second. Civilian vessels are already lifting off and jumping to the safety point.” He paused before his voice returned, drowning out all the other chatter, and she knew it was a struggle for him to say it. “Kara, you’ve got five on you, you can’t hold five. Jump out of there! This is an order!”
“If we don’t stay, they’ll be on you before we’ve cleared even half the planet.” She didn’t outright say what was being implied, but everyone knew it nonetheless. “Get them to safety, sir.” Kara cut her line off and looked around the CIC, reading the faces of all the people who suddenly understood their fate.
Karl was the only one to speak. “What are your orders, Commander?”
She gritted her teeth tightly together, knuckles going white as she gripped at the table before her. “Fight ‘em until we can’t. Now get that second frakking viper squadron out of the tubes to give us some Gods damned cover. Re-plot the second jump, adjusting for the additional basestars.”
There was chaos in her CIC now, organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless. The ship shook as a particularly bad hit was taken and Kara stumbled, pulling herself back up. She heard the second set of pilots chattering eagerly as they called out their kills and offered assistance to their fellow Viper jocks.
“All hands prepare to jump. 5…4…”
Pegasus reappeared on the opposite side now and before she could even get the words out, she could see the screens showing the weapons being retargeted onto the nearest basestar. Her crew were doing their jobs.
“We’ve got one basestar down and another one to follow soon. One of the ships seems to be pulling off and heading back towards Galactica.”
“I want our third coordinates reprogrammed, put ourselves between the basestar and where Galactica is. We can’t risk any of them getting away from us.” She was deviating from the plan now, but the situation had changed entirely.
“Sir, the FTL isn’t made for jumping this quickly. We were pushing the drive to the limit as it was. We’re off course and too close to where you want us to jump to, the force of our own jump could tear the ship apart.” Hoshi was being the voice of reason in the room, she knew, but now wasn’t the time to cross her.
“I know the risks. Plot the jump!”
“FTL’s running too hot. If we do this, it could be the last one we’ve got.” Even Karl was interfering now and it burned her inside to hear his protests.
“No matter what we said when we planned this mission, we all knew this was a one way ticket. Now jump the frakking ship.”
Pegasus blinked in and out and she knew it was by the Gods’ graces that they hadn’t managed to jump partially into the basestar that had been moving full speed back towards Galactica’s distant location. Abruptly, the baseship pulled itself to a halt, preventing a full crash directly into Pegasus. The ship rattled as one of the arms of the cylon ship tore through one of the extended flight pods. The glass partitions in CIC shattered simultaneously, sending bits and pieces of glass around all the occupants of the room.
“Galactica, what’s your sitrep?” Kara held the comm fast to her ear while her other hand wiped the blood from her forehead, dragging the back of her hand along her uniform to remove the red smudges of liquid.
Dee was the voice on the other end this time and she froze at first, fearing the worst for the Old Man. “Another baseship’s jumped into orbit and we’re getting hit pretty hard. Reporting all but five civilian vessels off the ground and jumped away. Will be calling all our birds in for combat landings if we’ve got the chance to jump to safety.”
Kara looked to Karl now, hand covering the mouthpiece of the phone as she spoke. “Jump drives?”
He shook his head and she knew what it meant. “Took a hit when we jumped. If we didn’t melt the coils ourselves, cylons knocked it out anyway. With the state of the ship, I don’t think Pegasus would have a chance at surviving a jump. We’ve got fires all across the starboard now. Engines are barely running minimal weapons and life support. I’m not even sure evacuation is an option with the number of Raiders out there, sir.”
Without hesitation, her attention went back to the comm and the woman on the other end. Any and all of their differences were put aside for the time being. “I’m sending my Vipers to give you cover and ordering them for combat landings when you’re ready to pull out. Tell the Admiral to take care of my pilots.”
Galactica was still taking a beating and she hoped the old girl could hold on long enough for her Vipers to get there and offer their aid, despite leaving Pegasus fully exposed.
Hoshi was giving the order before she could even tell him to do so and the ship trembled violently.
“Send out the remaining reserve Vipers we’ve got in the tubes, tell them to head for Galactica and that they’ll be landing on her when ordered,” Kara spoke.
-
In his cockpit, Anders received the order from Hoshi to head towards the Galactica. His body chilled at the idea, despite the sweat pooling over his skin. He’d been held back from the fight with a handful of the other rookies. There was the sudden pressure of his Viper being launched into space, and although he knew not to expect the empty vastness of black he had trained in over the previous few weeks, he wasn’t expecting the kind of chaos he was flung into. Everywhere, debris floated about and he struggled to dodge it all without clipping his wings. A Raider whirled by him, narrowly missing the nose of his ship. Anders punched it, following the other Vipers on out when he noticed a Raider on the tail of the ship ahead.
“Bullseye, Longshot. You’ve got a Raider on your six, taking him out for you.”
His finger went for the trigger and he pressed at it, finding nothing happening in response. Sam panicked suddenly, trying to recall every ounce of knowledge he’d received over the last few weeks. Maybe he’d gotten clipped after all, his weapons system knocked out. He couldn’t recall feeling such a hit, but it was possible. As his mind racked over the situation, the raider flipped itself around mid-flight, now flying backwards. He was dead, he was sure of it. The metal covering over that single red eye shifted upwards and he soon found himself making eye contact with it for the smallest of moments. The covering slid back into place and the raider dropped down underneath Sam’s Viper before taking off.
-
“Engineers reporting the FTL is shot, sir. No chance of fixing her.”
“That’s it then.” Kara nodded in acceptance of the situation, biting at her lower lip. She set her view back on DRADIS, creasing her brow in confusion at what she saw. “Where the frak are all the raiders going? They’re just pulling back?”
“Getting reports from all over that the raiders have just given up the fight. It… it doesn’t make any sense.” Helo’s confusion was all over his face. “Galactica just sent word they landed the last of our Vipers and they’re jumping out.”
“This is our opening.” She breathed the words with a sigh of relief. Her hand went for the comm immediately, connecting through to the rest of the ship. “This is the Commander. All hands are to report to the evacuation Raptors immediately. We’ve completed our mission.”
Despite the state of the CIC, the red lights she saw flickering on the nearby board indicating the damage to her ship, the trickle of blood she felt running down her brow and cheek, and the warning alarms blaring through her ears, Kara couldn’t help but let the smile consume her face. “Aim us right at that basestar directly in front of us. The rest of you, get your frakking asses on a Raptor now.” She yelled amidst the commotion, pushing at each one of her officers as they left the room. Karl was the last one to go.
“You too, Commander.”
“Did you think I was actually going down with the ship? I’m not that admirable, Helo.” She spoke with a tone of voice entirely too happy for the situation, turning her attention back to the abandoned CIC. Kara raised her hand to her lips, kissed against the center of her palm and pressed her open hand to the command table. “Thank you,” she whispered and soon turned around to grasp at Karl’s hand as they ran for the nearest hangar deck, Kara laughing the whole way there.
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 5,890
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
The room was full. Instead of just the Admiral, it was Helo and Kat, Dee and Hoshi, Mathias and Hot Dog. Even Anders was an occupant this time, though Kara could tell by the way he fidgeted in his flight suit that he was unsure of his place. For a moment, Kara wondered just who could be at the figurative helm of the two battlestars in case of emergency, but she quickly put it furthest from her mind.
Kara stood while the rest of them sat, their eyes on her in eager anticipation for expected news. It was an impromptu meeting, most of them pulled mid-shift, even off of CAP and practice missions to meet there and now.
“Everything’s changed.” Starbuck has made the vague declaration to the room, reading each of their faces before she continued on. “Admiral.” There was a pause as she nodded her head to him, her eyes and attention focused on the oldest occupant of the room. “I’ve been running my own Raptor reconnaissance missions back to New Caprica during the hours yours aren’t out there.”
“And just what were you hoping to accomplish? Attract the attention of the cylons and lead them back to us, or were you just hoping to get a couple of pilots killed?” The Admiral’s words were harsh as he sat up a little stiffer. The other occupants of the room started to shift uncomfortably.
“I requested that Sharon be transferred to Pegasus six weeks ago, sir. I told you it was for Helo and it was, but it wasn’t my only reason.” Despite what she knew the others must have been thinking, the deception she played on Adama burned inside her at that moment, especially when her sins were being confessed out in the open. “The last six weeks, Sharon and I have been working on cracking the signals the basestars have been using to jam our connection to the ground. Honestly, I didn’t know if anything would come of it. Sharon’s been out of the loop with the cylons for two years now and they know we’ve got her. But she’s still one of them and she can still think like them, sir.”
Silence consumed the room, but she could feel the tension bubbling beneath. Everyone but Helo looked surprised.
“Karl and Sharon Agathon have been jumping out every night for the last three weeks now, attempting to make contact. For a long time, we were running into the same problems that we all know about. An hour ago, Sir, Sharon overrided the signal and we received word from the people on the ground.” Her emotions betrayed her, and for once, Kara didn’t care about what the small crowd of people would think or say when they saw it on her face and heard it in the tremble of her voice. “They’re alive, Sir. There’s a resistance. And now we can begin planning how to get them back.”
-
Hours later, when Kara and Adama were left to themselves, she was quiet as she spoke. “I know I had no right to go behind your back and I’ll accept whatever the punishment is for it, sir, but wait until after we pull this off.”
The Admiral teetered on a line between anger and joy. Anger over having his direct orders disobeyed by the woman he considered his daughter, perhaps the only family he had left. But joy as well, because his daughter may have given him back the chance at finding the son he’d lost two and a half months ago.
“Sometimes you’ve got to roll the hard six.” His blue eyes lifted to meet hers and she nodded in receipt of it. The distance between them closed as Adama pulled her into a hug. “Your luck’s going to run out someday, Kara. So thank you for what you did, but don’t try it again.” He released her and held her at arm’s length, hands on her shoulders. “Let’s hope that lucky streak runs out after we see our people again.”
And although he didn’t say it, as usual, Kara knew specifically who he meant.
-
Helo slid the model Raptors forward on the table, indicating their movement from the starting position around the tiny version of New Caprica.
“Decoy Squadron A, led by Racetrack will be the first group out.” Kat began to speak and Kara couldn’t help but be impressed there was an inch of professionalism to her. “Once in range of basestars, they’ll deploy two sets of drones that the cylons will pick up on their version of DRADIS as battlestars. We’re counting on at least half of the baseships there to head from their current location to investigate. Once the job is done, the Raptors will jump away to rejoin the fleet.”
Karl pushed a second set of Raptors into position while she continued.
“Decoy Squadron B will head to their coordinates and launch their own pair of drones. The intention is to confuse the basestars. They’ll assume the second pair of battlestars will be us moving in for the kill while they’re distracted.”
It was Kara’s turn and she nodded to Kat as she took the figurative torch. She didn’t wait for Karl to sift through the unused models on on the edge of the table, instead she plucked the one they had been using to stand for Galactica and placed it beside New Caprica.
“Last message we received from the surface stated that they were now in possession of the launch keys to the ships in the shipyard, thanks to Lieutenant Agathon’s help on the ground. Mathias and her marines have also managed to make contact and luckily, we’re still running fairly undetected. The resistance on the ground is small, but they’ve got the tools and weapons they need now to start giving the cylons the runaround. They’re cylons, but they can still get overwhelmed, and that’s the crux of this plan. They don’t expect us and we aren’t playing by the rules this time.” Glancing around to the faces at the table, Kara held eye contact with each of them, one by one.
“In the past, we’ve always been about protecting ourselves. The cylons have had the upper hand because they’ve always chosen when we fight. The times that we managed to attack back first, with the tyllium mission and the resurrection ship, we’ve been at our absolute best.” Without missing a beat, she returned her focus to the planning table before her. “Galactica jumps into the atmosphere and releases her vipers to offer cover to the colonists on the ground. She’ll jump back out into orbit to monitor things on the ground, while Pegasus will be at the location of the drones initially released by our first decoy squadron. By then, the cylons are likely to have figured us out and we’re basically in the fight of our lives. Pegasus will have her vipers out there to fend off most of the raider attacks.”
She eyed the pieces laid into place now, a cluster of makeshift basestars amidst the smaller Viper figures and larger pair of battlestars.
“We’ve already plotted a series of rapid jumps around this area for Pegasus. We’ll take her in, do some damage, and jump just outside the basestars until we’ve pulled their attention. The second jump will move us around them again so we’re able to attack from another angle before they can retrain their focus on us.” Kara nodded at her handiwork before her, her arms crossed across her chest as if she was finally settled and come to peace with the plan. “She’s not made for this kind of maneuvering, but she’ll hold together as long as we need her to.” She was unsure of the promise she was making, but kept her face stiff and reassuring.
Adama, as quiet as he had been throughout the final briefing, cleared his throat and stepped in close to the table. He set his hands just over the edge of it and gave a few slow nods as he glanced to the pieces scattered across the surface. “I’d like to commit to this with less baseships already in orbit, but I don’t know if our people on the ground can hold out another month or two for us to wait to see if the cylons lift their defenses any more. We go in tomorrow and we’re not coming out unless it’s with all those people still on the ground. Dismissed.”
They all saluted in unison and filed out, each of them leaving with preparations on how to enjoy what could be the last night they had.
-
The Admiral spent his night not with the model ship he usually turned to in times of extreme inner conflict, but with the few photo albums he had stashed away in his quarters since before the Fall. They were filled mostly with pictures of his boys in all ages of their life. There was Lee in his mother’s arms, not even an hour old. Zak’s infant body swaddled up in a blanket in his older brother’s arms with Bill’s own arms helping his eldest son hold his brother for one of the first times. He flipped through the pages and passed through decades in only minutes. He noticed how the number of pictures dwindled as the years went by and the boys no longer cared to pose for all the pictures their mother wanted to take of them. It wasn’t just that, he knew, but also the fact that the happier times became fewer and far between as well.
The portraits of Lee and Zak from their first year at academy sat side by side. Bill thought about how young Lee looked in his and just how long ago it was that this picture was taken. But for Zak’s, he wasn’t much older than he was in that photo than when he died. It still ate at him to think that he would never know how Zak would look with a few years on him. He would be that young forever and with consideration to humanity’s cylon situation, he wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Adama tried not to think about what it would mean for him if they didn’t pull off the rescue tomorrow, but was soon overwhelmed with the thought of what would happen to him if they did manage to rescue their people from New Caprica and his only remaining son wasn’t one of the people with them. It had already taken such a supreme amount of self control not to request that the Raptor communicating with the resistance ask about his son’s whereabouts. He was the Admiral, he knew he had the authority, but he had long since realized that he might be better off not knowing the answer just yet.
He didn’t get any sleep that night.
-
Kara kept Helo company for the first part of her evening. They talked about Sharon and how it felt for him to be a newlywed as of a few weeks prior. He didn’t share much, instead his smile said everything. He had been worried about having his wife onboard this specific ship after what had happened between some of Cain’s unsavory crew and Sharon all those months ago, but Kara had done everything to assure her safety and improved living conditions. She’d still been kept under armed guard for her first few weeks, there was no getting around that. But the Admiral had surprised them when he asked her to take the oath and become an official member of the fleet. Now, the Agathons were one of the few to occupy space down in the married quarters.
The topic of conversation switched to better days, back before the decommissioning and end of the worlds, and the two of them reminisced and pondered over where they’d be now if the cylons hadn’t decided to upset everything. Despite the situation they were currently in and all the people they had lost, neither of them could find the energy to say they wished it had all happened any other way. Karl especially couldn’t say it and when he mentioned how beautiful his daughter was for the few hours he got to see her, Kara’s stomach clenched in a mixture of sorrow and envy. He was happy now, though, and she knew that was really all that mattered. If they died the following day, Karl Agathon would have had a life worth living.
When Kara returned to her room, Anders was already back from his own pilots’ briefing. Compared to the kind of training her first round of nuggets got, she knew Sam has been absolutely coddled. He had weeks to learn about his ship and hone what little innate ability he was gifted with. She saw him up there a few times and while he wasn’t exactly a natural, she still felt proud of him. Now, on the eve of the battle they had been waiting for, she was disgusted by that feeling of pride. Instead, a feeling of complete terror sat in its place. She was afraid he wouldn’t return from the fight. He was green through and through and all the practice dogfights he was part of wouldn’t compare at all when they were Raiders. She wouldn’t be able to protect him from inside her battlestar and a small part of her wished she could be out there with the squadrons tomorrow, at least there she could watch his back.
They were barely dressed and ready for bed and Sam seemed to think they would spend their final night in each other’s arms. He was partially right, but instead of drowning out their fears and worries with him burying himself inside of her, Kara guided him down onto the bed, his back against the wall. She sat between his legs with her back to his chest and ran her arms along the length of his own, palms rested over the backs of his hands. Their legs extended across the bed, limbs parallel to one another with as much skin to skin contact as possible. His muscles were pliant and she led the way, curling her fingers over his to force him to do the same as she made him grip the imaginary throttle between her knees. This was all the help she could give him, so Kara talked him through the routines and maneuvers, hoping to drill that instinct into him an inch further.
Kara and Sam practiced that way for hours and she became the drill instructor, asking question after question until he could parrot back the proper procedure every time. His hand guided hers as he pulled pretend move after move and she could tell just by the way his hand and arm shifted if he had it right or not. He fell asleep first and Kara laid with him halfway through the night, seeing the faces of all the people they left behind. She saw them all behind her eyelids one at a time, pulling in at herself and trying to see if there was some feeling beneath her skin as to who was still alive and who wasn’t. It was a morbid game and she hoped that tomorrow proved her wrong on all the accounts of those who she felt would not have made it. She never pictured Lee, though. She didn’t dare think about what had happened to him all this time.
With a few hours until first shift and the start of what could very well have been their final mission, Kara slipped out of bed and Sam’s arms, and sat on the carpeting just below. She tugged at her boots from a few feet away, pulled the familiar shoe polish kit out, and started navigating the familiar sense memory. Like all the other nights, she didn’t see her hands polishing at her familiar pair of shoes, but rather Lee at the edge of his bunk across the way, diligently working. It brought a smile to her face and a calm to her head. She whispered the prayer that had become part of the routine since they left New Caprica three months prior. “Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Protect the souls of your children tomorrow…especially that of Lee Adama.”
A few feet above her, Sam woke and silently watched her back in the familiar display he caught her doing for months now. Her whisper caught the breath in his lungs and Sam pulled his eyes tightly closed in an attempt to try to fall back asleep.
-
The next morning, Pegasus and Galactica said goodbye to what remained of the civilian fleet. What surprised the Admiral most was just how few and far between the complaints were from the other vessels. While there were the outspoken few that cried they were being condemned to death in a suicide mission that had no chance of being successful, the majority of hearts of the people were with the fleet. They had to try something and everyone knew it was this or nothing at all.
Kara reported to the CIC at the very start of the day cycle. With the mission only a few hours away, she was happy to find it mostly deserted with the exception of the few crew members who had been on shift throughout the night. It gave her time to think over the details of the plan, looking for holes and flaws even though she knew there wasn’t time for a single change to it now. Even she would admit that this plan went a little beyond out of the box. She was known for planning the type of missions that they’d never let someone like Lee propose in War College. They may have been non-textbook, but they at least had some security measures built in to ensure success. But this plan, Kara knew it hinged entirely on too much good luck. There were too many outside factors to plan for and all they could do was hope for the best. Try as she might to ignore it, she had a stinging feeling in her stomach that she really wouldn’t make it out of this. Like all the times she went into battle before, she wasn’t scared of facing death, at least not for herself. She was scared of what her failure here would mean for the people down on that planet.
She gave a silent nod of her head as everyone slowly reported for duty, with Karl and Hoshi being first. Karl’s tight smile both calmed and scared her all at once, but she kept a lid on what she felt brewing beneath her skin. She had failed her crew three months ago when the cylons had returned and she’d all but turned into an incompetent mess of panic, needing to be reassured and ordered by her Admiral into bringing them to safety. Even if it meant her death, Kara knew she’d go down at that CIC table, barking orders to keep her people safe.
A call from the Admiral was patched through to her personal unit and Kara lifted it from its cradle with a steady hand.
“We’ll bring them back today, Admiral.”
Karl listened in on the conversation from a few feet away, imagining what the Old Man was saying to her on the other end.
“Just remember, you promised me that when we got back you’d shave that mustache off.” Kara spoke with a smile on her face and nearby, Helo tried to hold back his own laughter. That mustache had been a bit of contention between the Admiral and both entire sets of crew. “Yes, I do remember my part of the bargain…but you’ll have to pull rank on the entire fleet to find me the universe’s last bottles of shampoo if you don’t want me to cut all this hair off.” Her free hand idly played with the ponytail of long blonde hair at the back of her head, eventually trailing up to brush aside the shorter lengths that fell across her forehead. Though she didn’t have a ship run on fear like Cain had, she had to wonder if the unconscious decision to let her hair grow out over the last year had been done with the late Admiral in mind.
Her voice was serious now, quiet, and though Adama wasn’t anywhere in sight, Kara nodded along. “Yes, Sir. We’ll see you on the other side.”
The private conversation finished, Kara straightened her uniform in preparation. Karl noticed the bright shine to her shoes and he quirked an eyebrow at her with a deliberate glance at her feet. He’d never known Kara to be the type to be in perfect uniform and it had been a few months ago over ambrosia in her quarters that she had confessed about her weekly ritual. She never said who she had in mind when doing it, but he only knew one pilot that had kept up the habit after the end of the worlds. Karl would swear on pain of death that he saw her cheeks tinge with the slightest color of pink, but she gave no response, instead tilting her head up to the DRADIS screen as Hoshi patched the Admiral through to all the speakers on Pegasus just as had been presumably done on Galactica.
“This is the Admiral. Today we return to New Caprica to bring our people back. You all know your duties, but I wanted to impress upon you how much everyone is relying on each of you. There are no contingency plans today. There will be no one behind you to catch your mistakes or pick up the slack. If your trigger is pulled a second too late, if you aren’t there to redirect a fuel line, you’ll have destroyed both our battlestars in the process and condemned the people on the ground to death. Today, more than any day, we demand perfection of each and every one of you. Trust in your fellow officers, your Commander, your Admiral, to bring you all home, and we will.”
“So say we all,” Kara whispered softly to herself and imagined all the people around the ship bowing their heads in silent prayer. She could see the deck and engine crews kissing medallions of their Gods for that extra reassurance of luck and all her pilots settled into their Raptors and Vipers. Anders was down there somewhere now, hand shaking with nervousness undoubtedly, but Kara knew she couldn’t let herself linger on thoughts of any one person too long. Pegasus was her focus now.
The clock counted down to the time for mission start and Kara assumed the role of Commander as she spoke into her handset. “Set condition one throughout the ship. All hands prepare for jump.”
One inward pull of the FTL drive engaging and Pegasus was finally back within range of New Caprica. She could hear the orders being barked around her, mostly in Karl’s voice, though she soon heard the mixtures of others over the loud speakers as the two Raptor squadrons were in place. DRADIS became the center of her focus now, praying there weren’t suddenly any unexpected blips on the screen that would signal the end to their plan already. They hadn’t even begun to fight yet. If she was going down, it would be in the heat of battle, not caught off guard by a basestar.
The first set of drones were launched, registering as another pair of battlestars. What she wouldn’t give to have those be real. For once, they wouldn’t be so alone. The screen tracked the Raiders being deployed in large numbers, heading directly for what the cylons presumed to be Pegasus and Galactica returning for the fight. The second pair were deployed to the second location further, once it was clear that the raiders had discovered the ruse of the first ones. Three of the four baseships began to pull away from where they were stationed, heading to the second location and preparing for a fight.
Galactica was the first of the true battlestar icons to disappear and reappear and Kara nearly saw and felt what they were going through in her head as the seconds ticked by and the roar of voices from Galactica’s CIC blared into her own.
“Vipers away.”
“Galactica, Hot Dog, ground resistance seems to be doing their job. Catching sight of explosions all through the city.”
“Red Wing, Hot Dog, shoot open the gates while we get these centurions out of the tower. Let’s give these people some cover.”
By now, Galactica would have jumped back into orbit to do battle with the single basestar remaining overhead and the glow of Galactica’s icon brought her comfort. Pegasus, on the other hand, had just begun her own fight. The ship headed straight into the cluster of three basestars before them, weapons blazing and not only providing cover for the departing Vipers as they launched, but also being trained on what they believed to be the most vulnerable portions of the baseships.
“First squadron away, sir.” Hoshi nodded to her and she returned it. “Second squadron is being loaded into the tubes and will be ready for launch in five minutes.”
The plan seemed to be holding firm, even as Pegasus found herself in the middle of the trio of baseships, taking on damage from all of them at once.
“Prepare the first jump.” Her voice was steady as the coordinates were loaded up and following the countdown, the jump was initiated. Pegasus blinked out of the space between the basestars and reappeared just beyond them, still within firing range but a careful enough distance away.
“Weapons readjust forty three degrees, keep firing.” Starbuck called out the order into her comm unit before turning to Karl. “Sitrep, XO.”
“FTL functional, weapons operating at 94%. Some minor hull damage, fires in one compartment on the starboard side but we’ve already vented and contained it. One viper lost from first squad-” His voice was cut off short as he squinted up at the DRADIS screen. “Oh Gods, two more basestars just jumped into orbit. No, no, make that three. Two on us and one on Galactica.”
The Admiral came over the speaker then, jarring Kara from her thoughts. “We’ve got our first baseship down over here. We’ll take care of the second. Civilian vessels are already lifting off and jumping to the safety point.” He paused before his voice returned, drowning out all the other chatter, and she knew it was a struggle for him to say it. “Kara, you’ve got five on you, you can’t hold five. Jump out of there! This is an order!”
“If we don’t stay, they’ll be on you before we’ve cleared even half the planet.” She didn’t outright say what was being implied, but everyone knew it nonetheless. “Get them to safety, sir.” Kara cut her line off and looked around the CIC, reading the faces of all the people who suddenly understood their fate.
Karl was the only one to speak. “What are your orders, Commander?”
She gritted her teeth tightly together, knuckles going white as she gripped at the table before her. “Fight ‘em until we can’t. Now get that second frakking viper squadron out of the tubes to give us some Gods damned cover. Re-plot the second jump, adjusting for the additional basestars.”
There was chaos in her CIC now, organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless. The ship shook as a particularly bad hit was taken and Kara stumbled, pulling herself back up. She heard the second set of pilots chattering eagerly as they called out their kills and offered assistance to their fellow Viper jocks.
“All hands prepare to jump. 5…4…”
Pegasus reappeared on the opposite side now and before she could even get the words out, she could see the screens showing the weapons being retargeted onto the nearest basestar. Her crew were doing their jobs.
“We’ve got one basestar down and another one to follow soon. One of the ships seems to be pulling off and heading back towards Galactica.”
“I want our third coordinates reprogrammed, put ourselves between the basestar and where Galactica is. We can’t risk any of them getting away from us.” She was deviating from the plan now, but the situation had changed entirely.
“Sir, the FTL isn’t made for jumping this quickly. We were pushing the drive to the limit as it was. We’re off course and too close to where you want us to jump to, the force of our own jump could tear the ship apart.” Hoshi was being the voice of reason in the room, she knew, but now wasn’t the time to cross her.
“I know the risks. Plot the jump!”
“FTL’s running too hot. If we do this, it could be the last one we’ve got.” Even Karl was interfering now and it burned her inside to hear his protests.
“No matter what we said when we planned this mission, we all knew this was a one way ticket. Now jump the frakking ship.”
Pegasus blinked in and out and she knew it was by the Gods’ graces that they hadn’t managed to jump partially into the basestar that had been moving full speed back towards Galactica’s distant location. Abruptly, the baseship pulled itself to a halt, preventing a full crash directly into Pegasus. The ship rattled as one of the arms of the cylon ship tore through one of the extended flight pods. The glass partitions in CIC shattered simultaneously, sending bits and pieces of glass around all the occupants of the room.
“Galactica, what’s your sitrep?” Kara held the comm fast to her ear while her other hand wiped the blood from her forehead, dragging the back of her hand along her uniform to remove the red smudges of liquid.
Dee was the voice on the other end this time and she froze at first, fearing the worst for the Old Man. “Another baseship’s jumped into orbit and we’re getting hit pretty hard. Reporting all but five civilian vessels off the ground and jumped away. Will be calling all our birds in for combat landings if we’ve got the chance to jump to safety.”
Kara looked to Karl now, hand covering the mouthpiece of the phone as she spoke. “Jump drives?”
He shook his head and she knew what it meant. “Took a hit when we jumped. If we didn’t melt the coils ourselves, cylons knocked it out anyway. With the state of the ship, I don’t think Pegasus would have a chance at surviving a jump. We’ve got fires all across the starboard now. Engines are barely running minimal weapons and life support. I’m not even sure evacuation is an option with the number of Raiders out there, sir.”
Without hesitation, her attention went back to the comm and the woman on the other end. Any and all of their differences were put aside for the time being. “I’m sending my Vipers to give you cover and ordering them for combat landings when you’re ready to pull out. Tell the Admiral to take care of my pilots.”
Galactica was still taking a beating and she hoped the old girl could hold on long enough for her Vipers to get there and offer their aid, despite leaving Pegasus fully exposed.
Hoshi was giving the order before she could even tell him to do so and the ship trembled violently.
“Send out the remaining reserve Vipers we’ve got in the tubes, tell them to head for Galactica and that they’ll be landing on her when ordered,” Kara spoke.
-
In his cockpit, Anders received the order from Hoshi to head towards the Galactica. His body chilled at the idea, despite the sweat pooling over his skin. He’d been held back from the fight with a handful of the other rookies. There was the sudden pressure of his Viper being launched into space, and although he knew not to expect the empty vastness of black he had trained in over the previous few weeks, he wasn’t expecting the kind of chaos he was flung into. Everywhere, debris floated about and he struggled to dodge it all without clipping his wings. A Raider whirled by him, narrowly missing the nose of his ship. Anders punched it, following the other Vipers on out when he noticed a Raider on the tail of the ship ahead.
“Bullseye, Longshot. You’ve got a Raider on your six, taking him out for you.”
His finger went for the trigger and he pressed at it, finding nothing happening in response. Sam panicked suddenly, trying to recall every ounce of knowledge he’d received over the last few weeks. Maybe he’d gotten clipped after all, his weapons system knocked out. He couldn’t recall feeling such a hit, but it was possible. As his mind racked over the situation, the raider flipped itself around mid-flight, now flying backwards. He was dead, he was sure of it. The metal covering over that single red eye shifted upwards and he soon found himself making eye contact with it for the smallest of moments. The covering slid back into place and the raider dropped down underneath Sam’s Viper before taking off.
-
“Engineers reporting the FTL is shot, sir. No chance of fixing her.”
“That’s it then.” Kara nodded in acceptance of the situation, biting at her lower lip. She set her view back on DRADIS, creasing her brow in confusion at what she saw. “Where the frak are all the raiders going? They’re just pulling back?”
“Getting reports from all over that the raiders have just given up the fight. It… it doesn’t make any sense.” Helo’s confusion was all over his face. “Galactica just sent word they landed the last of our Vipers and they’re jumping out.”
“This is our opening.” She breathed the words with a sigh of relief. Her hand went for the comm immediately, connecting through to the rest of the ship. “This is the Commander. All hands are to report to the evacuation Raptors immediately. We’ve completed our mission.”
Despite the state of the CIC, the red lights she saw flickering on the nearby board indicating the damage to her ship, the trickle of blood she felt running down her brow and cheek, and the warning alarms blaring through her ears, Kara couldn’t help but let the smile consume her face. “Aim us right at that basestar directly in front of us. The rest of you, get your frakking asses on a Raptor now.” She yelled amidst the commotion, pushing at each one of her officers as they left the room. Karl was the last one to go.
“You too, Commander.”
“Did you think I was actually going down with the ship? I’m not that admirable, Helo.” She spoke with a tone of voice entirely too happy for the situation, turning her attention back to the abandoned CIC. Kara raised her hand to her lips, kissed against the center of her palm and pressed her open hand to the command table. “Thank you,” she whispered and soon turned around to grasp at Karl’s hand as they ran for the nearest hangar deck, Kara laughing the whole way there.