Encounter
An Robotech/BSG crossover story.
by Sharpe26
September 5, 2004

Preface; the SDF 4 mission, codenamed Voyager, runs into the Battlestar
Galactica and it's ragtag fleet. The usual characters make their return,
along with a few surprises. Read and review plz.

Part 1: Launch day

     Earth Station Hunter, later half of the 2040s
     "Good morning everyone and welcome to the launch day ceremony for
the SDF 4." UENN reporter Sandra McDowell said into her headmike.
     She stood behind the gargantuan battlecruisers number one docking
port and told her audience she was awaiting the arrival of the Hunters,
the two most famous admirals of the RDF.
     Had she known that one of those Hunters was standing several levels
up from her, she would have rushed him. Admiral Rick Hunter was looking
over the SDF4, his final command. After this mission, he and Lisa would
retire. He had a brief flashback to the time he had first met Lisa. He
had called her an old Sourpuss then.
     Claudia Grant, fianc‚e of "Big brother" Roy Fokker had later told
him everybody on the bridge had snickered unbelievably. Oh well, at least
he had made a lasting impression on her.
     He chuckled at that thought.
     "Time to go, sir." It was Tom Malone, his ADC. "Your wife's waiting
for you one floor down." Hunter nodded. "allright, let's get going."
     Even though she was in her early sixties, Admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter,
was still a sight for sore eyes. She met her husband as he came from the
elevator. She smiled "Fancy meeting a guy like you on a place like this"
Her husband smiled "It's rumored I'm not easy to avoid, especially by the
opposite sex." He embraced her. "Shall we get going?"
     Sandra McDowell was gleefull when she saw the couple approach. "Here
they are now ladies and gentlemen. The Hunters! we'll see if we can get
some parting words from them." She went over to join the flock of milling
reporters.
     Two Marines in standard security garb did their best to shield the
two admirals from the press, but they were finding it a taxing job.
Luckily it wasn't all that far to the docking port.
     They made it inside without that much difficulty.
     An Honor guard awaited them, along with Colonel Scott Bernard, the
fighter commander. After returning their salute, he fell in behind them.
     "How's Roy doing, Scott?" the colonel stayed quiet for a moment.
     "Pretty good sir. If he inherited everything you know, he'd be
taking over my slot any day now." Both Rick and Lisa laughed at that
comment. "I've arranged a fly past once we're under way." Scott added in.
"I thought you wanted to have a look at the Gammas anyway, if you'll
excuse me. I have to check the status of the fighter launch."
     Bernard left the Hunters as they took an elevator up to the bridge
level.
     In comparison to the Sdf1, 2 or even 3, the sdf4 bridge was far more
roomy. The ships commander had his own seat above the rest of the
stations. There was a threat board, updated through the scanners, and
there offense and defense stations alongside the helm controls.
     The ships commander, captain Kristen Thomas was waiting for them.
She saluted them.
     "Ready to depart on either of your orders sir." Lisa nodded. As
senior admiral, she held overall mission command. "Take us out, captain."
     Thomas gave the order for the SDF 4 to depart.
     With the battlecruiser underway, both Rick and Lisa took their
respective seats.
     The first fighters passed beside the bridge not much later. Rick
recognized them immediately. Alphas, with the jolly rogers on their fins.
The Skulls! One of them banked away from the main formation and headed
straight for the bridge. On the right time, he mechamorphed into
batlloid, winked with his right hand, mechamorphed back and rejoined his
squadron.
     Only one pilot would do such a thing.
     The two admirals briefly exchanged knowingly glances. Time to talk
to the kid again.
     With main engines flaring, the sdf4 continued on a course that would
clear if of Earth's gravity pull.
     Fold preparations for their first fold began immediately.
     "We're ready to fold, sir." Thomas reported when they cleared the
gravity pull. Lisa gave the order. "Commence fold at your pleasure,
captain."
     Thomas gave just a slight nod towards astrogation. And with the
usual lightshow, the SDF 4 vanished from Earth space.

Part 2 Learning to walk

system vxt010104

     Thanks to the new fold system, the reappearance of the SDF4 was near
instantaneous. Both Rick and Lisa were old enough to remember a couple of
different times though.
     "We've defolded sir. Ready to launch recon mission on your order."
Scott reported through Rick's headset.
     "Launch when ready." Rick ordered.
     The flight board showed four Alphas had launched. Their flightleader
was heard on an overhead speaker "Alpha scout lead to Voyager command.
We're proceeding on preplanned course. Wish us luck. Out."
     The four fighters spedd off.
     Several hours later, the first scouting mission was deep in the
system. The flight had passed several very barren planets that weren't
able to sustain life. When they had passed the fifth planet, scout two
had picked up a signal.
     Though it was very weak, scout two was able to establish a broadcast
source. Since it was part of the mission objective, scout leader changed
course.
     A trajectory analysis showed them to be heading for a small, barren,
but habitable moon. It was then that scout four picked up some new
contacts, closing fast.
     Scout leader was the first to die, followed by scout three. By then,
two and four were separated. Scout three died in a hail of fire while
attempting to chance to battloid. Scout four however had more luck. He
managed to evade the enemy fire and managed a successful conversion. Even
though the enemy was fast, the battloid was faster. Six of the enemy fell
to the buzzsaw of the autocannon. But, there were just too many. The
battloid took six hits and began to spiral down to the small moon.
     At the last minute, before entering the atmosphere, Scout four
managed to go back to fighter mode. After an eventfull reentry, scout
four finally achieved touchdown.
     Roy Hunter was relieved to have made it down in one piece. Then he
got mad. It was his first plane. It was just unbelievable. The he had a
flashback of what had happened to his father on his first combat mission.
It made him laugh. "Maybe I'll make admiral someday too." Then he
dedicated himself to assembling his survival gear.

Part 3 Stranded and Rescued 1

     The sound was the one he was expecting. He never expected three
though.
     The three Cylon raiders passed low over his dwelling and landed a
slight distance from it.
     The nine centurions disembarked from their ships, formed a line of
advance and came towards him, weapons at the ready. He pulled his own
weapon and aimed for their commander, a gold plated centurion.
     And strangely enough, this one was fast, really fast. As his shot
brought down one of the regular centurions standing next to the
commander, a shot from the laser rifle hit him in the shoulder, bringing
him down to the ground.
     When he awoke, he was bound, and looking at the command centurion
again.
     "And so it ends for you, human." The centurion hefted his sword and
was about to strike, when the sound of a lasercannon echoed across the
plain. One of the regular centurions disappeared in a pillar of flame.
The others looked up to see something pass overhead their heads, fast.
     There was a sound none of the centurions had ever heard before. But
just before that, two more went up in smoke and flames. The commander
directed two centurions to stay with him, then sent the remainder back to
their ships with instructions to chase down whatever it was from the air.
     One raider got in the air for the chase as the mysterious meddler
drew away the centurions on the ground. It didn't take the raider long to
catch up. But to the surprise of the centurions on the ground and those
in the air, the meddler turned back and headed for the spot where the
Cylons had left their victim.
     Though the raider was fast, its opponent was faster.
     From the cockpit and their scanners they could see how he raced back
and picked up their earlier target and raced off again. The first raider
went off in pursuit as the other Cylons climbed aboard the second raider
to follow.
     The command centurion was surprised to see that their opponent
easily evaded their fire. He contacted his wingman and gave new
instructions.
     They worked almost immediately.
     At first there was a series of near misses, but then a series of
shots made such an impression that both targets were thrown from the
object. The Cylon commander ordered his pilot to switch on the repulsors
and go into a hover in front of their victors.
     He could see it clearly, they were both human. The standing order
was still in effect. Automatically he started to give the order to his
gunner to fire. To his own astonishment, one of the humans suddenly
smiled.
     Then there was an explosion to his left side.
     The command centurion functioned long enough to hear the first
missile impact on his ship. When the second one hit as well. His entire
ship and crew were completely disintegrated.

Stranded and rescued 2

     Roy smiled when the two disc ships were destroyed and two Alphas
flew through the expanding debris clouds. Then he took a look at the man
he had rescued.
     The man was unconscious, but it was clear he belonged to some sort
of service. He wore a tattered, but recognizable uniform, with matching
brown jacket. The jacket looked as worn as the uniform did. On the
collar, there were two gold pins.
     In the distance, a SAR shuttle landed.
     It was Doctor Angela Eastwood, someone he had been getting close
recently, that reached him first.
     "You okay, Roy?" Hunter nodded. "Yeah, I'm allright, but this guy
ain't . At the very least he's suffering from dehydration." Eastwood
briefly examined Hunter's find. "Not much I can do for him down here.
I'll have to get him back up to the ship." With that, two corpsmen with a
stretcher came up and carried him off. Doctor Eastwood personally
escorted Roy to the shuttle.
     After returning to the ship, and being cleared to fly again,
Lieutenant Roy Hunter visited his parents for dinner.
     "It was unbelievable. They were coming from all sides. One and three
had already been shot down. Me and Zeyla were trying to fight back. Zeyla
got hit in a thruster and lost control." Much to the surprise of Rick and
Lisa there was a pause. "Dad, they shot her ejection pod." That caused a
few uneasy glances by both Rick and Lisa. The destruction by the
Zentraedi had been so complete that in most cases ejecting was pointless
the same could more or less be said for the Invid. Dana's debriefing had
told them only the Robotech masters had the practice of capture, but this
was only after attacks by Southern Cross forces had injured or killed
most of their capable pilots.
     "Well then, we're dealing with an unknown enemy, again. One we still
know nothing about." Lisa remarked as her son finished his story. Roy was
pensive for a moment. "Maybe not. I do know that these guys we're dealing
with are robots. So why would nine robots go down to a moon to execute a
guy?" Roy asked to noone in particular.
     The admirals had to admit defeat there. Rick went over to his desk.
"Just before you came in, I had a med report delivered to me. Seems Dr
Eastwood has a case of dehydration and malnutrition on her hands.
However, she expects him to be up and running within a few weeks."
     Lisa answered what they were all thinking. "So we wait."

Part 4 The waiting game

     In this way, a couple of weeks passed.
     While the two admirals waited for reports and took decisions, Roy
spent some quality time with Angela Eastwood and her patient. On day
twelve, he began to talk.
     "Nice setup you got here, doc, how about letting me run a little
game in here?" Roy was surprised. They rescued the guy nearly two weeks
ago and he wants to run a game in sickbay? This could get interesting.
     "And what game would that be?" Eastwood asked, not having seen Roy
come in
     "Why, pyramid afcourse." The doc was surprised Roy could see as he
stepped in. "I'm afraid I don't know any game called Pyramid. But you can
ask the lieutenant here about that."
     Roy stepped up. "There's something familiar about you." He grimaced.
"Yeah, I'm the motorcycle rider that saved you from those robots." At
that he got an icy glare. "Those robots..."
     Eastwood approached again. "Look, you'd better tell you skipper to
get out of the area. Those robots are trouble, serious trouble." Roy was
astounded. This guy was serious as hell.
     "Why?" the patient told him. "Those robots, are called Cylons.
They're a race of machines, bend on destroying all human life. They
nearly destroyed our civilization. But they never counted on Adama. He
assembled all he could and headed out for the stars. He wanted to find a
planet called Earth." At that part of the story, Hunter and Eastwood
exchanged meaningfull glances. Their patient caught on fast.
     "Hey wait a minute, those glances, you two wouldn't happen to know
where Earth is, would you now?" Roy sighed. "let's just say that's where
this ship departed."
     "Oh boy, Apollo's never going to believe this." The patient
muttered. "Who's Apollo?" Roy then asked. "Captain Apollo, the viper
commander from the Battlestar Galactica, I used to be his wingman,
lieutenant Starbuck."
     Roy nodded. "Well then lieutenant Starbuck, welcome aboard the SDF4.
I'm lieutenant Roy Hunter." Although Starbuck had a little difficulty
grasping what had happened, a word from Roy to his folks was enough to
allow him to be the one to debrief after lieutenant Starbuck left the
hospital.
     Three weeks later, Rick Hunter got reports on his desk about a new
gambling game showing up in town, the main character involved, lieutenant
Starbuck. Rick thought for a moment, until he realized the solution had
been staring him right in the face. He sent for Scott and Roy.
     The colonel and the lieutenant arrived at the same time.
     "Sir, do you have any idea why the admiral wants to see us?" Scott
was quiet. "I think I know, Roy. And it means we'll have our hands full."
They entered the room to find the admiral sitting at his desk.
     Hunter was as cordial as ever. "Ahh yes, just the two gentlemen I
wanted to see."
     It took no trouble at all. In a previous report Scott had mentioned
the fact that the SDF4 pilots were good, but that they needed to gain
more experience against the Cylons. Rick then asked, with the report in
hindsight, how Scott would react to setting up an aggressor course.
     Roy then realized what his dad was up to. He had no choice but to go
along now as well.
     Therefore, It was no surprise that the next game Starbuck held, was
visited by a score of MPs that delivered their cargo to hangar deck
Alpha.
     "Okay, you're all welcome to the next game." Then he saw Roy and
Scott.
     "Hey Roy, what gives?" Roy ignored the remark. "We got a problem
Starbuck."
     "If it's my gambling, I can hide it a bit better you know." Scott
sneered at that, but Roy was a bit more diplomatic "I'm afraid it's a bit
more serious then that."
     "You see, Admiral Hayes feels we could go up against the Cylons
anytime soon. She wants our troops to have a bit more experience before
the stuff really hits the thrusters." Roy took particular care to avoid
mentioning his father was admiral Hunter, while his mother was Admiral
Hayes-Hunter
     "And that's where you come in." Scott suddenly said. "I'm colonel
Scott Bernard. I'll be your flight instructor for a while, together with
lieutenant Hunter over here." Smiling he added. "Training commences now."
     Starbuck found himself without a rebuke and was directed to a small
pile of equipment in front of a peculiar looking fighter plane. There
were two similar piles besides his." Just follow our lead, we'll check
out how you did once we're finished."
     Slowly and methodically, the two REF officers put on their gear.
Starbuck followed where he could, wondering why the hell he needed so
much equipment to fly.
     When Scott and Roy checked him over, they found most of the Robotech
gear on Starbucks body to be in the proper place and properly locked. The
things that weren't, the two Robotech pilots adjusted themselves.
     The fighter that had been readied, was a doubleseater Starbuck saw
as they walked up to it. "Front seat's yours Starbuck." Roy remarked as
he climbed into the rear cockpit. He followed roy's lead and settled into
the seat. The groundcrew strapped him in.
     "Ready?" Roy asked him through the intercom. "let's get on with it."
Starbuck replied.
     They were in space not much later, to find Scott waiting for them.
He raised them on the radio. "Okay this is how it's going to go. I'm
going to go standard fighter on you guys. Starbuck, I want you to fly as
much as a Cylon as possible. Roy can take over anytime you lose control,
or something else happens that needs the hand of a trained Alpha pilot."
     Starbuck nodded. "Fight's on." He then heard in his helmet.
     He put his hands on the throttle and stick and banked the fighter as
tight as he dared to do. The kick from switching to full afterburner was
pretty tense, especially when Starbuck briefly noticed he was already
closing in on Scott.
     "Okay Starbuck, the weapons have been set to low energy, fire when
ready." His hand found the trigger easily. Out of instinct, he let the
fighter climb and dove on the other Alpha fighter from above. As he was
about to fire, there was a series of beeps in Starbuck's helmet.
     "What's going on Roy?" The backseat remained quiet for a moment.
     "Oh boy, Starbuck, according to SDF4 flight control, we've got about
200 unknown craft approaching, at high speed." It sounded familiar
enough. "Cylons?"
     "Take a look at the scanner." Roy told him where it was as Scott
pulled into formation alongside them. "That's a Cylon formation
allright." Now Scott called Starbuck "Anything else we should know?"
     Starbuck thought for a moment. "Yeah, the pinwheel attack, and
reverse thrust. The pinwheel is a series of sweeps upon a trapped
opponent, the other is just an escape used by the aces to get out of
someone's sights." As Starbuck looked around, he noticed that there were
more fighters around already.
     Aboard the SDF4, everyone had gone to battlestations. The two
admirals were on the bridge, when they received another report. "Scanners
picking up three large objects closing in fast."
     "Form scan," Lisa replied. The answer came back not much later. "
Three multideck vehicles, equipped with several kinds of lasers and
missile launchers."
     Starbuck was already reacting. "Baseships!, better watch out for
those guys, they're liable to take you out , admiral." No reply came from
the SDF4.
     Instead, Scott took charge. "Alpha leader to all fighters, standby
to engage, go to battloid if you're trapped." When Roy didn't ask any
questions, Starbuck didn't either.
     Aboard the lead raider, the centurion was surprised by the fact that
the new humans they had found also had fighters. But, following the
imperative, he ordered the attack to commence.
     Starbuck was a bit worried. He was going into battle again, this
time even in the front seat.
     "Watch this." Roy suddenly said. And without warning, six missiles
streamed from their fighter.
     They joined in a stream of converging trails that centered on the
Cylon formation. Suddenly, there was a wall of explosions.
     The Cylons broke up and went after the closest human fighters, one
of which was the one being piloted by Roy and Starbuck. And sure enough,
the Cylons tried the pinwheel attack
     Thanks to Starbuck's warning, Roy was ready for it.
     Without realizing what really happened, Starbuck suddenly found
himself looking at a screen from inside of somekind of pod.
     "What just happened?" The reply was short. "Pinwheel."
     In space, explosions blossomed as missiles from one side found the
other, as lasers found their mark, others would shriek of destruction and
debris. Through that at least one battloid stood tall, dealing out death
and destruction to all whom encroached upon its space.
     Out of nowhere, Starbuck was thrown forward. He hit his head on the
instrument panel in front of him. "Frack, what was that?" There was no
response.
     "Roy, what happened?" Again there was no response. Out of instinct,
Starbuck grabbed the two control sticks in front of him. Three Raiders
where bearing down on him, and here he was, in a fighter he knew nothing
about. Great, just great, now if he could only swing the barrel of that
gun onto the lead Cylon.
     To his own surprise the gun did just that. It leveled at the lead
raider and locked on, automatically. Without hesitation, Starbuck pulled
the trigger and let the gun follow the entire formation. He was rewarded
with three fireballs.
     "Now that's more like it." Pretty soon, Starbuck got the hang of it.
One after the other the raiders that approached where turned into flaming
debris. Other pilots that saw it, later compared the things they saw to
how Max Sterling's first mission must have been.
     But the pilots eyes weren't the only ones out there. Electronic eyes
aboard the lead ship of three Cylon baseships also observed the battle.
     The commander of that force, was an IL series by the name of Areus.
He was observing the battle through the electronic surveillance equipment
aboard his command ship.
     The first report delivered to him by the system patrol was anything
but encouraging. They had found a small tylium trace at a barren moon.
That trace turned out to belong to the wreck of a colonial Viper. Since
Areus was uncertain of the situation, he had sortied a squad of fighters.
Those fighters had run into scout one.
     Half of them had been destroyed he knew. The flight commander had
then split his forces and continued down to the planet with two ships
while three others reported back to their base. Since then there was no
word. Electronic scanning however had detected a very large vessel
entering the system. If it was the Battlestar Galactica, well Areus had a
thing or two to tell them. Especially now, with the new Megastar.
     Cylon rule over the universe would be supreme. And Areus place would
forever be secured in the Cylon history archives. A centurion stood
before him again. "Report Centurian!"
     "The ship we monitored is a human ship. Configuration does not match
anything in our data banks." Areus monitored the electronic network that
kept him in touch with his subordinate ship commanders. They offered no
opinion except attack and destroy.
     Areus gave the order to proceed forward.

Part 5 A bit of Cain and Hayes

     The scanners aboard the SDF4 picked up the incoming baseships. An
oral report through a headset said "Enemy capital ships incoming."
     The computers and scanners on the sdf4 were a whole lot more
advanced then those on the SDF 1. Although they didn't posses any
information on the baseships or the Megastar, they were able to
distinguish weapon systems.
     This intelligence was forwarded up to Lisa.
     A quick glance showed the Megastar to be the only real threat.
     At first Lisa felt prudent to let the main batteries do their work
on the basestars while more information was collected on the Megastar.
     However, the Cylons never gave them the chance and opened fire. The
SDF 4 responded in kind.
     In the meantime, Scott had gotten in touch with Starbuck when he
noticed something happening with one of the three baseships. When Scott
told him what he saw Starbuck knew they had to get moving.
     "Quickly, How do I get this thing back to fighter?" Scott told him
how "Just pull down the switch marked F on your left hand panel."
Starbuck watched and felt how the Battloid changed back to fighter. When
the change was complete, Starbuck raced off, with Scott hot on his tail.
     When the two fighters were picked up by the SDF4, Starbuck briefly
explained what the Cylons were doing And, what He was going to do about
it. Rick wished him good luck and left Lisa to handle the big battle
while he concentrated on the fighter battle.
     Scott and Starbuck closed with the three raiders, Starbuck flew as
evasively as he dared, while Scott followed closely behind. As some
raiders tried to intercept, Scott broke off and made sure Starbuck was
covered.
     He was alone again and frantically working the scanners. When he
found what he was looking for, the missile launchers, Starbuck put the
Alpha into a screaming dive. He was rewarded with the missile lock tone.
He hit the fire button and watched a series of missiles leave the
fighter. When a couple of the smaller laserbatteries opened up, Starbuck
disengaged and hurried out of the area.
     By now the SDF4 was closing with the two basestars and the Megastar.
Lasers, pulsars and reflex cannon exchanged their energy without it
either affecting the contestants. Pretty soon, Lisa decided she 'd had
enough.
     Prepare port and starboard missiles! We're going right down the
middle. Lisa stood up and approached the forward viewscreens. " Flank
speed!"
     Through her feet she felt the familiar rumble as the reflex engines
kicked in.
     Starbuck had rejoined Scott. Together, the two pilots destroyed the
raiders that had tried to intercept Starbuck.
     "Let's get the hell out of here!" It was then that Starbuck noticed
the shadow of the SDF4 looming over his cockpit. This time he followed
Scott's lead. When they reached a point where Scott felt safe, he brought
his fighter around and watched the fire works.
     The SDF4 was at full speed when the reflex missile battery ports
were opened. On the bridge, the computer was running the countdown while
the weapons officer held his trigger at the ready. Lisa stood in steady
anticipation, waiting for the moment.
     To Areus it seemed as if the humans were crazy. They came at him,
with all guns blazing, while he rushed at them. They were now almost in
missile range.
     Aboard the SDF 4, just one thing was said "Fire."
     The SDF4 fired its missiles, much to the surprise of Areus who was
about to order the same.
     The difference between Reflex missiles and Cylon explosives was
massive. The first Basestar to be hit disappeared in a massive fireworks
display. The second one followed the way of the first basestar. The
Megastar however turned out to be something different. Two missiles had
been fired at her. Both hit her at the mid junction. And yet, she never
went up like her sisters.
     The Cylons had enough sensors remaining to know what was going on,
and too much damage to do anything about it. As two more missiles hit the
Megastar, she too went like a large fireworks display.
     Rick was already ordering the fighters recalled. They still had a
lot of work to do.
     Starbuck hadn't thought about the damage for a while until it was
his turn to land. By then, something short circuited and a brief shower
of sparks flashed in the cockpit. "Great, just great." By then two Alphas
had appeared, one to each side. Scott's voice came over the radio
"Starbuck you seen to have a slight problem. Just cut your engines and
let my boys do the rest."
     Starbuck did as ordered. And to his surprise the other two Alphas
shifted into somekind of half plane mode and carried him into the bay.
     The waiting game he was used to. There had been those times aboard
the Galactica, waiting for friends, loved ones or even friends of
friends. Finally Angela Eastwood came out of the room. She looked at Rick
and Lisa. "He'll make it. Luckily his Cyclone armour held out, so there's
no brain damage due to lack of oxygen ." The two admirals both breathed
sighs of relief. They went in to see their son.
     Starbuck was in his quarters when an ensign delivered a message that
he was expected in the admirals quarters at his earliest opportunity.
     He decided to change into the standard crew uniform he saw around
him nearly everywhere he went.
     Interestingly enough, colonel Bernard showed up as well.
"Interesting to see you here, sir."
     Scott nodded. "It seems the admiral wants to discuss something with
us." He motioned for Starbuck to enter the room.
     Rick and Lisa had a plotting board in their main room, and on it,
was a course. A course heading for Earth, Scott saw immediately. Starbuck
was quiet for a moment as he studied the entire line. "That where they're
heading lieutenant."
     "Earth?"
     "Earth!" Lisa reaffirmed Ricks statement.
     Then Starbuck told them his story. At first Rick and Lisa were
emotionless. They had gone through nearly the same events as Starbuck and
his people had. Then they told him about the Zentraedi, and the invid,
and the three wars Earth had to fight.
     Starbuck was surprised at first. Instead of gradually developing
technology, Earth had technology had technology thrust upon it. He
grimaced at the thought of the Robotech Masters. Talk about stubborn. The
Invid seemed to have been a worse bunch, but the admirals both felt that
they had seen the last of them.
     Then he was told of the plan.
     And with the customary show of light, the SDF4 conducted another
spacefold and disappeared.

Part 6 Surrounded

Somewhere on the vector to Earth

     Aboard the Battlestar Galactica, two viper pilots went up to their
ships to prepare for their next scouting mission. They were saddened,
just two sectars ago, these two pilots had lost one of their closest
friends and comrades, Starbuck, in a short but intense battle with the
Cylons. And now they were on the lookout for a planet
     Sheba and Bojay hardly flew together on missions any more. So when
this one came up, they both grabbed their chance.
     "Just like old times, Sheba." Bojay remarked after the two scout
vipers had launched. Sheba snickered "Yes, only that this time, I'm
willing to bet that Apollo is monitoring us like a bird of prey." Now
Bojay chuckled. "Hey yeah, you reading us, commander?" He added a few
more good hearted ribs until Sheba demanded his attention again.
     "What's up?" Sheba told him. "We're entering the system. Keep an eye
out for trouble." The two vipers entered the newest in the rows of
unknown star systems. Both pilots had set their scanners to full power
and were looking around.
     "Not really much interesting around here, is there?" Sheba was quiet
for a moment. "Bojay are you reading what I'm reading?" Sheba was
astounded. Not again, not now! Not after all this time!
     "Do they see you Sheba?" Bojay was sure the Cylons didn't see him
since he was somewhat to the rear of Sheba. But, his wingleader found
herself in a different kind of situation. The odds were very high that
the Cylons could scan her viper very well.
     And they did. An IL entered the throne room. At the same time the
pedestal mounted chair swiveled round. The deep voice of Imperious Leader
reverberated through the room "Speak."
     "It would seem the colonials have found us, sir." The IL remained
quiet for a moment as his leaders attention was focused on something on
the far edge of the room. "So Baltar, it seems I have success where you
have failed me. Soon you will be joined by your brethren. Then order will
be complete." Baltar's severed head looked on from across the room,
staring blankly. "Launch one squadron of the new super raiders. Tell the
commander they are to hound the colonials until they reach their fleet.
Then they are to return here. Then we will begin the final battle with
the lifeform known as man."
     The IL answered with the traditional "By your command." and left the
room.
     A squadron of the Baltar designed super raiders was then launched
from the lead of five Megastars. Imperious leader then watched how they
proceeded to form up and began to chase the two colonial vipers. If a
Cylon had lips, any human would be surprised to see that the he smiled.
He then turned to another subordinate. "Order all forces to converge on
our location. We will draw a net around the colonial fleet and destroy
them!" Had he been able to, Imperious leader would have laughed like a
human madman.
     Sheba and Bojay didn't waste any time in leaving the area of the
Cylon fleet. At full turbo, they streaked off in the direction of their
own fleet.
     Sheba willed every ounce of power out of her ship. Glancing down on
her scanner, she noticed that the Cylons had sent out pursuers, who were
closing fast.
     "Bojay!" Bojay was also looking hat his scanner readout. "We're in
serious trouble, these guys are much faster then we are, we'll lead them
right back to the fleet."
     Bojay knew already. They were in serious trouble. "We gotta keep
going Sheba, there's no choice now." And with that, the two colonials led
their pursuers straight to their fleet.
     After landing, the two pilots were immediately escorted to Adama's
quarters. The old man was furious at first, demanding to know why two of
his best pilots had led their arch enemy straight to their position.
Sheba was apologethic to her father in law at first, but when into
greater detail. "We had no choice sir, the fleet need to be warned of a
far greater danger. It would seem the Cylons have new ships!" Her wingman
confirmed it.
     Adama was pensive for a moment. "We're in a bind. The Cylons could
probably destroy us at a whim now, but they haven't done so yet. We'll
just have to see what the other patrols find." Not much later, colonel
Tigh came in. His face looked grim.
     "Adama, the other patrols have returned, the situation is bad!"
Adama began to turn towards Tigh, but never completed it. He collapsed.
     Tigh made the call to the life station. Medics were there within
minutes, with doctor Salik hot on their heels. Salik briefly scanned the
commander and what he heard and saw was grim. "Get the commander to the
life station on the double." In the meantime, Apollo came running up as
well. "What happened?" He asked, trying to regain his breath.
     "I'm not sure. From the looks of it I would say that your father has
suffered a coronary." Apollo let it sink in for a moment and looked at
Sheba for hope. She looked back then came to him and embraced him. "Oh
Apollo." But before she could say anything else, Tigh was near the both
of them.
     "Apollo, we're in trouble." Colonel Tigh began "Sheba and Bojay
found a Cylon fleet on our path, new ships, ships we've never seen
before." Tigh let it sink before continueing "The other patrols found the
same thing Apollo, we've wandered into a trap. We have to prepare now."
Tigh stressed the preparations especially.
     Apollo nodded. "Let's see what we can do, colonel." His mind wasn't
in it though, Tigh realized it immediately once they started.
     But within six or seven hours, they had a working defence plan. It
was then that a call came into Adama's quarters. It was doctor Salik. The
face on screen was a bit gloomy. "Colonel, is Major Apollo near you, I'd
like to talk to him." Tigh called him over.
     "Major Apollo. I'm sorry to report that 25 centons ago, your father,
commander Adama died due to massive hart damage." Apollo collapsed into a
nearby chair. First one tear fell, but it was soon followed by more.

Part 7 The Situation

     All of the pilots were surprised when Tigh turned up to give them
their briefing instead of Apollo. Rumours had abounded earlier that Adama
was ill and Tigh had taken over.
     Those rumours disappeared when Tigh entered the officers club. All
the pilots came to attention.
     "As you were, and be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, as of this
morning, the Cylons have us surrounded again. All squadrons are currently
on Yellow alert. We're expecting one of the heaviest attack since
Gamoray." Boomer looked at Dietra with a rather intent glance. Jolly
gazed at the floor. Sheba held her thoughts to herself and kept her gaze
at colonel Tigh, who was now handing out assignements " Blue squadron
under Boomer will defend the Galactica and act as primary interceptor
force. Red squadron will back them up. Silver Spar gets the agro ships,
Yellow gets the industrials. Green squadron takes care of the passenger
fleet, together with Gold and Black squadrons."
     While colonel Tigh was handing out assignements, Imperious leader
was reviewing strike intelligence. There had been some movement with the
colonials within the last sectar. A carefull study, showed this to be
defensive moves performed at the behest of Adama.
     Imperious leader nodded. Yes, victory would be theirs this day. He
ordered one of his subordinates to pull up a screen of their own
dispositions. It was a good sight. Three Megastars held a blocking
position, preventing the Galactica moving forward. Two more were in
reserve. Their escorts, four baseships held back a little, but had good
positions to intercept any intruder should the situation warrant it.
     The situation wasn't that different on the flanks of the colonial
fleet. Two more of the new Megastars had been positioned on each flank,
each supported by two more baseships. To the rear of the colonial fleet,
there was one of the Megastars, also with two baseships in support, and
yet one other still on its way.
     If push would come to shove, Imperious leader felt that the single
megastar could take on the Galactica by itself. He wondered why there
still was no report from Areus, the Megastar commander.
     After detailing a patrol to check it out, Imperious leader ordered
his forces to begin advancing on the colonial fleet while all fighters
were readied for launch.

Part 8 Preparations

     Instead of an early warning patrol, colonel Tigh had deployed
electronic monitoring probes. Some of these probes now began sending
their ominous warnings back to the Galactica, along with visual imaging.
     One of those images was that of a Megastar. Tigh gasped. "There's no
way we can defeat such a monstrosity." Apollo's look was intense. "We
don't have a choice now, all ships, red alert." The battle illumination
shaded the bridge in red.
     In pilot country, Boomer, Jolly and Sheba lead the charge for the
helmets and the trains to the flight deck. There, they boarded their
ships and waited. There wasn't much else they could do.
     In the meantime on the bridge, Tigh and Apollo were studying the
scanner and probe data, to see if there was something they missed. In the
first instant, they noticed how the Cylons were deployed. Apollo noticed
the gap at the rear. "That's odd. It looks like they're missing a ship in
the rear. "As they watched the scanners, another group of baseships
appeared and took up position. "Running the gauntlet." Athena whispered
to herself from her station on the bridge.
     Apollo heard the remark but ignored it. "Omega, seal all
compartiments, and put Joorda and his men on standby alert." Colonel Tigh
contemplated the current situation. Were the Cylons playing with them? Or
was there something happening here that they weren't seeing.
     Rigel delivered news for the next phase of the battle. "New enemy
contacts approaching."
     Apollo ordered more power to the laser turrets as he knew what was
happening. The Cylons had launched their fighters.
     The lead Cylon fighter, was a super raider, flown by a command
centurion named Xeran. His was the job of commanding the raiders in this
mission. He was a veteran of countless battles against the humans and one
of the survivours of the Gamoray debacle. He was now continuosly
monitoring his surroundings. The human interceptors would be fast, agile
and as deadly as the pinwheel attack which was one of the standard
centurion tactics.
     There was a gagle of stars in the distance, growing brighter every
micron. The humans were coming.
     Xeran braced himself. Even though he was flying one of the super
raiders, he knew that he could expect the unexpected. The humans were
known for that. He examined the readouts on the scanner screen. "Colonial
Vipers approaching, standby to attack."
     He watched as the humans began their confusing flight patterns
again.
     The moment was there. From all sides he watched them rushing in,
firing and retreating. They destroyed regular raiders without too much
effort. "All pilots engage." The dogfight now erupted into a full blown
battle.

Part 9 WHO Will Win

     At his own request, Apollo went out to lead the squadron again.
     It was he who had formed the formation and commanded the intercept
that destroyed the first raiders. And it was at his order, that Blue
squadron retreated towards the Galactica, to await the further Cylon
onslaught.
     "Galactica bridge to Blue strike leader. Current number of raiders
current raiders exceeds two thousand." It was Athena that told her
brother. It was the rest of the pilots that nearly fell out of their
cockpit in amazement. They had never faced those odds before. But yet
they did, and yet they would, without hesitation all of the vipers
attacked the biggest attack the Cylons had ever thrown at them.
     It would be a battle both Cylons and humans would remember for a
long time to come. It was battle marked by the best mankind had to give,
and the worst.
     Two vipers that were protecting an agroship, watched helplessly as
it was attacked by a single superraider, which destroyed the ship with
one single volley. The two viper pilots at first emptied their cannons
into it, but to no avail. The raider simply flew on. It was then, that
one of the pilots took the ultimate decision. Pushing his ship into full
power, he closed with the raider and hit it at the side with his own
ships nose. The ensuing explosion did the rest. Both craft were
destroyed.
     On the Galactica bridge, Omega reported the arrival of the second
Cylon wave. He paled when he told his commanders the number of craft "
Total for the second wave is a thousand craft."
     Colonel Tigh nodded. "Tell the pilots." As the Galactica suffered
another direct hit.
     "Blue strike leader, second Cylon wave incoming." As he received the
report, Apollo nearly took a direct hit from a Superraider. A brief
series of evasive turns shook the Cylons off his tail. He glanced in the
direction of the Galactica and the fleet. They were still holding up, but
barely. Four vipers was what it took to down a superraider, Apollo
noticed as one of those fast Cylon ships shattered under the fire of four
reserve vipers.
     After shooting down a conventional raider, Apollo glanced at his
scanner. " Galactica bridge, the Cylons are bringing in their baseships!"
He then had to turn his attention at least a squad of raiders that were
bearing down on the Alpha bay.
     "We're with you Apollo." The voice in his headset belonged to Sheba.
" Yeah Strike leader, take us in." the voice of Bojay said as he came up
on Apollo's fighter from the right, while Sheba came up on his left.
     "Let's get them." With that, the three most famous colonial warriors
hit their turbos and went straight for their targets.
     Six explosions later, the threat to Alpha bay was narrowly avoided.
     Apollo looked at his scanner again. The baseships were almost upon
the fleet. And Colonel Tigh knew it too.
     "Galactica bridge to all fighters. If you get the chance, try to
make a run on their flank missile launchers."
     He then headed a call for help from Silver Spar and headed in their
direction.
     On the Galactica bridge Tigh had noticed how one of the regular
baseships had moved up somewhat in front of one of the three Megastars. A
brief vector analysis showed all of them to be on an intersect course
with the Battlestar.
     "Prepare all weapons, lock on to that single basestar."
     Electro motors whined and portals were opened as the Battlestar made
ready to deploy her ship to ship turrets.
     The daggit fights continued unabated between the fighters.
     After managing to destroy his latest opponent, Apollo realized he
had to do something. He turned his ship and headed of in the direction of
the approaching baseship. Pretty soon he had at least three raiders on
his tail.
     "Apollo to bridge, I'm going to try to... "He was interupted by a
humongous flash of light.
     "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" the com frequencies were immediately filled
with several cries of anguish as more pilots noticed what had happened.
     Apollo now became filled with hate "Blue strike leader to all, I'm
going to take out her flank missiles and her flightbay if I can." After a
pause he added "Good luck."
     Out of nowhere, came a familiar voice. "I have this sudden feeling
of d‚j… vu, mind if I come along?"
     There was a wash of explosions behind him through which a rather
large fighter flew which then fell into formation beside him. "
Starbuck?"

Part 10 Swordsmen

     On the Galactica bridge, Everybody picked themselves from the floor.
For a brief moment all the scanners had been blocked out by what could
best be described as a spatial anomaly.
     But when everything returned to normal, the first report Tigh
received, was that of a new ship. Or rather, that's what Omega was told
by the scanner techs.
     Out in space, pilots from all sides watched a like as nothing more
nor nothing less then a gargantuan robot climbed in front of the
Galactica. Suddenly, the two booms on its shoulders were lowered. All of
a sudden they were aglow with a combination of fire and light. The
combination grew brighter and brighter until finally, a wide sheeth of
flame rushed forwards.
     The flames first illuminated the baseships and Megastars until they
started to disappear. Not without their usual thundering detonation, but
with no report at all, they just disappeared from existence.
     Near the colonial fleet, things weren't that much different. The new
arrivals went after the Cylons with a skill the colonials had never seen
before. But it showed immediately. Especially the superraiders paid a
heavy price, as it turned out that every one of the newcomers could
easily outfly and outfight them.
     This became very clear once a group of four newcomers engaged a
squad of twelve superraiders. The fight was brief but intense, and in the
end, none of the superraiders returned to their already destroyed
baseships. The four newcomers flew on, undamaged and in search of new
prey.
     Apollo followed Starbuck as best as he could. Those newcomers, who
ever they were, were deadly. Where superraiders and raiders alike tried
to run, they were shot down by missiles. Where they stood to fight, they
were annihilated, either by the colonials themselves or by the newcomers.
     He watched how Starbuck shot down six raiders within the blink of an
eye. But then he noticed the two of them were trapped in a pinwheel
attack. Before he could say anything, something happened to Starbucks
plane.
     "Starbuck, you're starting to..." Apollo never finished the sentence
as he noticed how his best friends plane changed into nothing less then a
giant centurion carrying a very big laser cannon. As Apollo made himself
ready, he noticed the centurion opened fire.
     Another few moments later, the threat was gone.
     On another plain of existence, someone watched, felt and more
importantly, observed and studied Apollo. Yes, he recollected, he would
suffice indeed for the master plan. He swiftly departed his layer and
headed for the battle.
     Tigh's voice requesting Apollo's presence on the bridge was a
godsend to Starbuck.

Part 11 Conference call

     "Colonel, good to hear your voice, what happened?" Tigh briefly
explained what he thought had happened. He then repeated the request for
Apollo to join him on the Galactica bridge.
     The Cylon raiders that survived managed to withdraw. Aboard the
Galactica, everyone the bridge watched in awe as the giant robot seemed
to fall over forwards and began rearranging itsself.
     It was Omega that brought the next news. "Sir, we're being hailed,
the commander of the SDF 4 is requesting permission to board our vessel."
Tigh nodded. "Alpha bay, tell Apollo to meet us there." Omega nodded and
relayed the message to one of the com techs.
     Tigh, Sheba and Apollo were the only ones present in the bay,
together with colonial warrior security. Here they watched two of the
Alphas land, together with a shuttle.
     All of them were surprised when Starbuck jumped from the cockpit of
the first fighter with his usual flair. To his own surprise, he didn't
see Adama in the usual crowd as he walked up along with Roy Hunter. He
spotted Tigh, still wearing his colonels pips. Why wasn't Adama with
them? Then he spotted Apollo.
     The guy was as solemn as hell. But yet, embraced him as they met.
"Good to see you again, Starbuck. What happened?" Starbuck gave him the
short version as the two admirals approached Tigh.
     Lisa saluted in the usual military way. Rick was a bit more
haphazard, but did his best anyway. "Admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter. I'm
honored to meet with our supposedly long lost brothers." She extended her
left hand as Tigh took it with his right.
     The alliance was a fact. In other reality, beings clapped applause,
while others on the same level, but far from those applauding, grumbled
their discontent. They soon realized one of them was missing.
     Starbuck was surprised as Roy appeared behind him. "Well now, now
that your folks are aboard, Roy, it 'll be interesting to see how the
show plays out." An astounded Roy Hunter turned around. "you knew?"
     Starbuck chuckled "Not until just now. I suspected something,
though." And the two exchanged some more lighthearted banter while they
followed the big shots to the Galacticas council chambers. They would
probably be in for a long sit.
     The contestants, that's what a writer of history would have called
those missing from the other dimension. But things were in motion now.
     Tigh was glad he had gotten rid of council security. As a matter of
fact, he was glad he had gotten rid of the entire council for now. Things
had been put on hold till Starbucks claims that the crew of the SDF 4 was
from Earth could be verified.
     This would take time, time someone else wasn't ready to give them.
     With just a brief jump, he checked their thoughts, only to be amazed
that they really were from Earth, but according to their rules, the
colonials couldn't set foot on Earth. Realising this, he laughed, letting
the sound echo through the corners of the universe.
     "Then we are agreed." the voice interupted his thoughts, it had been
the woman admiral. He watched Tigh nodd. " I'm not to happy about this,
but at least our people will have a home again. I will however still have
to deal with my governing body. It would suit our purposes as they would
see you, the representatives of Earths governement."
     Before the two admirals could react, the alert klaxons wailed
throughout the Battlestar and was Tigh summoned to the bridge. The
scanners had picked up something again.
     At the same time, Ricks communicator also beeped.
     "Sir, incoming message, for you and Lisa, Old Blue sends his regards
and says he has found something the colonials will find very
interesting."
     That same moment, Tigh and the others got the update from the
bridge.

Part 12 Hope

     Both Rick and Lisa had joined the crowd that had rushed for the
Galactica Alpha bay. All of them were in time to see the shuttle come to
a stop. The figure that exited first everyone of the colonials knew,
Cain, their greatest military mind had come back.
     He raised his trademark swagger stick to a heros applause as the RDF
officers looked on, wondering what was going on. Starbuck briefly told
Roy about some of Cains antics.
     "Wow, he did that and survived, impressive." Roy nodded not fully
understanding. "I just wonder where Adama is." He hadn't really though
about it but, a page requesting his presence in the commanders quarters
reminded him that bigger things were going on.
     As he got there, a crewman let him in.
     Cain was there, as were Apollo, Tigh, Athena, Sheba and Cassie.
Cassie seemed to be consoling the commander of the Pegasus and Apollos
sister at the same time. The Galactica strike captain was a little
downcast to say the least. They all looked up to see him come in.
     "Oh Starbuck" sobbing, Athena ran and embraced him.
     "What happened?" He looked at all of them, including Cain. Cain
looked at Starbuck, tears welling up in his eyes. "Son, you might wanna
sit down for this." Starbuck objected at first, but finally took the
seat. "So, what's going on?"
     It was Cain that told him. "Son, commander Adama has died." Starbuck
slumped down in the chair.
     That was the one thing he never really expected to hear, the one
thing he thought would never happen. The one thing he betted on would
never happen. He felt a tear starting to run.
     "I know, I know, just let it go." Starbuck began to retreat., still
sobbing. Cassie went after him. The two colonials were too late to see
Max Sterling, AKA Old Blue enter the chambers, with wife Miriya and
daughter Dana in tow.
     Max and Rick had known each other for so long but were still equally
pleased to run into each other. "Long time no see Max." Sterling smiled
"Same here admiral." Rick noticed his longtime wingman carrying an
envelope "sealed orders?" This time, the query came from Lisa.
     Max nodded. "yup, my orders are assist you guys in relocating the
colonials so, admirals it seems I work for you again."
     Max looked at Cain "Commander, from what you've told me, you are
currently the highest ranking officer around the colonial fleet..."
     Cain shook his head "I'm sorry ambassador Sterling, but I won't do
it. I've dedicated my life to fighting the Cylons. Those battles I can
win. The battles with the council are an entirely different matter." The
commander of the Pegasus placed particularly emphasis on his last words.
     Both Rick and Lisa wanted to say something, but at a glare from Max
they withheld their comments. Again there was a knock at the door. The
regal woman in white robes was a site to behold. All of the colonials
with the exception of Cain bowed for her.
     "Siress Tinia, what brings us the honour of your presence?" Tinia
looked scoldingly at Cain "So it seems the wolf returns to the fold."
Athena and Tigh looked at each other not understanding. She then looked
at Apollo and Athena "Doctor Salik told me. I came here to express my
grief to the both of you, major, captain. He was a wise man and will be
sorely missed." For the assembled crew it seemed as if she was posing
herself for something bigger to come.
     "We will hold a short period of national mourning. After that, there
will be some changes. Colonel Tigh, front and center please." As Tigh
stepped up to the council member she took out a box from her robes.
     "Congratulations on your new command, commander Tigh." She stepped
back as the others approached to congratulate him. "Major Apollo, please
join me for a moment." Apollo and Tinia briefly left the room as Cain
explained to the RDF officials what was going on.
     As an extra he added "I'd give a sectans pay to find out what those
twelve are up to."
     From the corner of the room and unvisible to all, Iblis smiled. The
pawns were in position. From the beyond, a voice spoke to him "It seems
you play this game well. Now, When will we strike?"
     Iblis looked angered for a moment "In time, things are not yet
complete."

Part 13 End of the wagon train

     Adama's funeral was simple yet it seemed as if everyone wanted to
eulogize one of the most famous commanders the colonials ever had. At
first Roy didn't want to go, but when it turned out everyone was going,
he went together with Starbuck and Cassi.
     Starbuck still seemed a little down but in a brief moment alone,
Cassi told the young lieutenant that she was keeping close tabs on the
newly promoted captain. Roy thanked her "You know, lifesaver things, I
want him to be around to save my life. Besides, the way he plays
cards..." The colonial doctor had to laugh at that comment. " That's
Starbuck for you. He never asked me to play though."
     With that, the admiral's son and the lead doctor struck up one hell
of a long conversation.
     In the meantime the two admirals and the ambassador were in a
meeting of their own. And neither Rick nor Lisa liked their orders. "They
come all this way, and command wants to ship them to Tirol!!!!, come on
Max!!" Rick slammed his fist on his desk. Lisa was quiet for a moment.
     "Look, I know it isn't up to their interests, but its orders, Rick."
Max remained calm as Lisa suddenly got up and walked to one of com
panels. "Bridge this is Admiral Hayes. How far are we from any of the com
satellites?"
     The reply was short. "We're currently five lightyears from satellite
router twentythree mam."
     Her husband and the ambassador looked at her stoically. "If you
don't mind me asking, but what the hell are you up to?" Lisa told them "
I plan to make a broadcast directly to the entire Earth, to show them who
these people are, what happened to them, why they're here. I have a
feeling we'll need them in the times to come."
     Rick was stoical at first "You told me you and your father watched
the Max and Miriyas wedding on Alaska base. And that it had no effect on
him." Lisa silenced him by raising her hand "Do you remember Gloval's
speech?"
     Boy did he ever, at first it had seemed Rick, then himself the Skull
squadron commander, that Gloval voiced strong objections that the pair
shouldn't be married only to turn it to a rabblerousing speech in which
he basically told everyone that the war with the Zentraedi would end and
that each and everyone would have to work together, just because things
had changed, or face the consequences.
     The first UEC faced the consequences.
     In a sense, the second UEC did as well. The third UEC never got of
the ground. It seemed that the fourth was bringing some very much needed
work and security to the planet.
     At first he never imagined how the Colonials would fit in. Then it
him.
     "Could these Cylons were seeing be a consequence of something?" Max
then asked. "Colonial history doesn't mention it being an event like
that. I wonder what really happened?"
     Lisa had begun working on her speech as the diplomat and the admiral
discussed history.
     "Unlike many of you, I was on our world the day the ship we now know
as the SDF 1 arrived. I was there the day the Zentraedi came and
destroyed our world. That day they nearly made us refugees from our own
homes. But we survived, and we rebuild.
     She paused for a minute to think, then wrote "We build our homes to
shelter us. We rebuild the homes of Tirol and aided those in need to find
shelter as well. Tirol we sought, the Invid we found. We rebuild our
homes again after defeating the Invid and opened up to the stars. Now the
stars bring something home to us, long lost brothers who hope to find
shelter with us again."
     Lisa then wrote some of the things a camera crew was have to going
to display. A few hours later, she felt contend. Her speech would be a
Gloval on a scale never seen before. Lisa had any and all reason to laugh
heartily as she approached her husband and ambassador Sterling.
     "Remember the speech Gloval held the day you and Miriya married,
Max?" The two men gawked at Lisa awkwardly. "Boy do I ever, so does
Miriya by the way." Then he noticed Lisa her face "Oh boy, she's got a
plan again, Rick."
     And so it happened, that the same evening Earth local time, a
special newscast with Sandra McDowell found its way to all the monitors
in public spaces, and to peoples sets in their homes.
     They first heard the words of admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter " "Unlike
many of you, I was on our world the day the ship we now know as the SDF 1
arrived. I was there the day the Zentraedi came and destroyed our world.
That day they nearly made us refugees from our own homes. But we
survived, and we rebuild. "
     As the camera continued its pan to show the colonial fleet, Lisa
continued with her speech "
     We rebuild our homes to shelter us. We rebuild the homes of Tirol
and aided those in need to find shelter as well. Tirol we sought, the
Invid we found. We rebuild our homes again after defeating the Invid and
opened up to the stars. Now the stars bring something home to us, long
lost brothers who hope to find shelter with us again."
     The camera now showed some of the ships and the living conditions
aboard as Lisa described some of the events and adventures the fleet
chanced upon.
     Then the camera footage changed, as did the voiceover. This part was
read by Apollo.
     "We were trapped. We thought we could defeat the Cylons and for a
millennia we did prevent them from overrunning all of us. We thought we
were undefeatable, and when the Cylons sued for peace, we were all too
happy. We were wrong."
     The footage played was everything the Galactica had picked up after
they had cleared the jamming zone the Cylons had put up at Cimtar.
     On Earth and its outposts throughout the galaxy, people watched,
awestruck.
     Things proceeded rapidly after that.
     Within a few days several small assorted taskforces began jumping
into the system. Lisa handled all the deployments of the new vessels, to
match the position onf all of the vessels of the colonial fleet. In the
middle of that work however, both she and Rick were asked to come to the
Galactica.
     They were told to wait outside the council chambers. Company came
not much later. "Starbuck, Roy, Scott. What the hell are you guys doing
here?"
     "Well, captain Starbuck here told us about what was going on. If
they called you over, I'll bet they're about to reach a decision." To
everybodies surprise, Sheba showed up as well. She immediately came over
to Starbuck "Apollo's in there, so are Tigh and Cain." Her face portrayed
a slight hint of anxiousness.
     "Why so anxious, if Apollo's and your father are half the men some
of these council members are, this shouldn't take this long." Roy
commented. "That is true. But unfortunately, some of these men were also
empowered by commander Adama and thought they could do business as usual.
They never realized things had changed after the destruction."
     This caused a few uneasy glances within the RDF circle. "Did it ever
change?" a curious Scott now asked. Sheba looked down. "No it didn't."
And she went on to tell the occurances where either her father, or
commander Adama had to face down the council.
     It was enough to make both the admirals shudder. Rick briefly
remembered the story of how senator Russo had been to the SDF 1 bridge,
ordering Gloval to launch. And the rest was history as one would say. He
wondered how Russo would have reacted when Breetai came up with the
truce.
     His thoughts were interrupted as the doors were opened. Out came
Reese, the head of council security. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Earth
forces, the council will see you now."
     Lisa, Rick and Max were escorted to their places by the guards while
Roy, Scott and Starbuck were told to leave. It was still a closed door
session.
     "Welcome, my name is Sire Geller. I am currently the council
president. We have a number of questions to ask you." The two admirals
looked to their ambassador, who nodded.
     "Sire Geller, I am ambassador Maximilian Sterling. I've been asked
to speak on the behalf of these officers and the planet they represent."
     This caused one of the other councilors, a woman by the name of
Ashira to rise "And what planet might that be, ambassador?"
     Max looked at her, not believing what he had just heard "Earth." His
reply caused some excited mumbling within the council ranks. Geller
silenced it almost immediately "Earth, it exists doesn't it?" He directed
his question to Rick. "It does. All three of us present here before you,
were born and raised there."
     Some of the councilors wrote down something on their pads. Ashira
rose again. "Earth society, can you define it?" Lisa already knew, the
question was directed at her.
     "Rebuilding, and needing to find its place." She then told the story
of the SDF 1 and how Earth became a battleground in three galactic wars.
She added the story of the Sentinels and the campaign in Tirol not much
later.
     At the end of her story, Geller was sceptic. "It would seem if we
where to go there, we could find ourselves involved in another
interstellar war."
     "It would seem that way." Another councilor remarked. Ashira was
quiet and contemplating for a moment. Then another councilor, Cravus, an
Adama supporter spoke "Earth was our goal. Now that we're nearly there,
shouldn't we be discussing how to rebuild and how to provide homes and
jobs for our people?" The question was never answered.
     Instead, the debate continued, until Ashira spoke out. "When this
journey began, our goal was Earth. Now that we're so close to completing
this goal, the time for a decision is near. This decision however isn't
ours to make. It should be our peoples!"
     All three RDF officers found themselves agreeing with the councilor.
However, Geller did not. "This debate is by no means over yet, Ashira.
There are still many things to decide."
     Rick now noticed a medallion Lisa wore. She had told him sometime
ago that it had been with her family for ages. Rick had always liked it,
telling his wife it made her look so much more the admiral then he would
ever be.
     It almost seemed as if the medal was glowing. Before Rick Hunter
could tell his wife, she stood up. "Enough of this bickering!"
     The entire room fell silent. "My dear admiral you are out of order."
     "Perhaps, but your indecision will cost lives, and I'm not willing
to risk lives again." The room grew eerily quiet. Was the admiral
challenging the council? Rick noticed that Geller would be happy to rise
to the challenge and nodded to Max.
     "Councilors, admiral, I'm sure if we all let this cool down we'll be
able to work out an arrangement."
     Lisa ignored him, as did Geller.
     "It seems you lack compassion, admiral." Now Rick began to get up,
wanting to beat the councilor senseless.
     But Lisa was prepared "It seems you have a lack of understanding of
our capabilities." This remark caused a few anxious faces amongst the
council members. Esspecially so when Lisa took something out of her coat.
     To the councilors it appeared to be a remote of somesorts. "She's
got a bomb, get her."someone cried as Lisa pushed down the single button
turning the entire room into white.
     It didn't last long.
     When everything turned normal, newly promoted commander Tigh and
colonel Apollo came rushing in with a bunch of warriors hot on their
tail.
     "What just happened?" Tigh asked. Rick told him. and pointed him to
the star view window, where they could see the fleet, still in formation
and alongside the Galactica. A couple of Alphas raced through the fleet,
Tigh looked at them and followed them as they passed over a planet, a
bright shining planet.
     "Earth?" Apollo asked, beginning to understand what happened.
     "Earth." Lisa said in a decisive voice. "Earth." Rick repeated,
along with Max.
     From the big viewer, everyone in the hall looked at the planet and
marveled at its beauty. The wagon train had come home.

Part 14 Reconstruction

     The riot between the Earth officers and the council had leaked, but
only after everyone had moved off the ships. At the first election, the
old council was completely voted out of office. In a show of support,
included amongst the winners, were Cain and Apollo.
     In a move unprecedented in colonial history, Apollo, like his father
before him, was elected council president.
     Cain, Sheba, Athena, Starbuck. All friends from time spent in space
and on planets, in battles. Along with Blue squadron as an honour guard,
stood before and alongside the platform where the ceremony would be held.
     Admirals Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes Hunter would also attend, along
with ambassador Max Sterling. UEC council president Jennifer Mckinley
would also be attending.
     The admirals had separate quarters in Caprica city, the colonial
capital on Earth. Admiral Rick Hunter found himself overlooking the city
from his balcony.
     Caprica city was a beautiful sight. Even the residential pyramids he
saw in the distance where a sight to behold. Yesterday evening, during
dinner with Lisa, Rick had looked over the city and he had sworn those
buildings had turned purple.
     Lisa had smiled and told him what she had seen. Rick had just shook
his head. The colonials were an incredible bunch, and thanks to
robotechnology, they were rebuilding their homes fast then everyone had
thought possible.
     Trade and agriculture were also booming again. And colonial
industry, Rick shuddered at what he had seen. The colonials had taken
some of their industrial base with them in their long trek through space.
That same industrial base was now producing again. And unemployment was
going down, rapidly. It seemed as if the colonials were hiring anyone
they could get their hands on to work for them.
     With Earth's economy on the rise again, it seemed as if the hopes of
her people rose as well. And it showed. Cities started rebuilding, trade
began to grow, it seemed to all as if flowers that had bloomed were now
more full of their colour then anyone noticed.
     Apollo stood in his quarters flinching at his dress uniform. He felt
stupid. But still like his father before him, he had been chosen from his
people to lead them. It wasn't something you'd turn your back on quite
easily.
     A movement from across the room startled him. But he was quick to
realize it was Sheba, his fiance. The daughter of Cain wasn't in her
dress uniform yet.
     Yet she still had an angels smile on her face.
     "Sheba?"
     Sheba approached and hugged him. "Oh Apollo." At her tone, Apollo
suddenly became worried.
     "Sheba are you allright?" Sheba hugged him closer. "I'm as fine as
can be! We're all fine."
     Apollo didn't quite understand it. "what do you mean, we're all
fine. We've been fine ever since..." It was then he suddenly understood
what his wife meant.
     She meant more to him now than ever.
     And from a shadowy corner of the great beyond a lonely figure sent
his eery laugh through the entire spectrum.
     There was an audio chime. Apollo turned to see Manuel Cortez, their
migration officer from the UEC enter.
     "Excuse me, commander, captain but seems we're running a bit late
for the ceremony. Could you please hurry up?"
     With a nod, the colonial leader and his wife heeded his words.
     They made it in the nick of time. And it went of without trouble.
     At the party afterwards, Blue squadron nearly drove both the father
and grandfather to be into bankrupcy with their drinking. But still a
good time was had by all.

Part 15 Chess

two years later

     Sheba had given birth to a daughter, named Mira, the girl afcourse
was a striking resemblance of her mother. Naturally, Apollo was there as
she took her first steps and did all those other things young children
do.
     Cain was there as well. Between the new space academy he commanded
and days aboard the Pegasus, he spend as much time as he could with his
granddaughter. Afcourse there were he tried to spoil Mira. But sheba kept
an eye on it.
     By then the Colonial Remembrance Day had come along. Especially for
Apollo, this was a day of reflection, to remember those departed on the
long journey and times before. There would be a ceremony this day at the
temple on Mount Adama, the Kobolian national monument.
     Athena, Cain, Jolly and Bojay were already present when Apollo and
Sheba arrived. As Athena looked at her chronometer, she noticed that
Starbuck and casseiopeia were fashionably late again. She did notice the
Hunters and the Sterlings again. Those guys were basically happy and had
already known each other a very long time. Much like Cain and her father
had.
     In a way she was glad they were here. Athena had also noticed they
had already brought Mira along. Part of Athena felt sad. Though she had
recently started seeing a certain pilot by the name of Nathaniel Dixon,
Athena stilt felt lonely. There was hope however. There was a tap on her
shoulder. And the brown eyes and delicious smile of Nathaniel Dixon were
impressed upon her face.
     A surprised Athena asked him how he had managed to get in. Nathan
told her "The Sterlings were old friends of the family, so it was easy to
get in." Athena smiled and put her hand on his as Apollo walked up to a
daise to begin his speech.
     "This is a day of great joy and also of great remorse. This is the
day we remember those who have gone before us in life." With that Apollo
bowed his head in brief prayer along with the other colonials.
     According to the protocol, after every colonial, one earth borne
would make a statement. Athena was pleasantly surprised when Nathan got
up and walked over to the pedestal.
     "Perhaps it is the hardest to remember someone you never met." There
was a pause. "My name is Nathaniel Dixon. My parents were John and Emma
Dixon. At the time of the SDF 1 fold mishap they had a son, Ben. Somewhat
after the mishap he enlisted and became a fighter pilot. He was killed in
the line of duty. I never met him. But I have heard stories. Thanks to
Admirals Hayes and Hunter and ambassador Sterling, I now have a
recollection of my adopted family."
     And so time passed. At one time or another each time colonials or
Earth inhabitants expressed their joy and sorrow having lost a loved one.
     At the closing stage a colonial poet and an Earth poet each recited
from their own work. After that, priests from all the colonial worlds an
all Earth religions blessed the people and send them on their way.
     When Apollo and Sheba hadn't joined some people chatting at the foot
of mount Adama, Lisa had felt the urge to get back up there. Rick tagged
along, as did Max, Miriya, Athena and Nathaniel.
     They made their way up without much effort.
     As they got to the top, they found Sheba clutching Mira, while
Apollo was facing off with Cortez, the UEC representative.
     Cortez briefly smiled when he saw them.
     And out of nowhere, a ring of fire encircled the entire group.

Part 16 The Dance pt 1

     A brief glance showed everyone that they were surrounded by a wall
of flame. Both Nathan and Athena had seen how Apollo and Cortez were
still facing off.
     "What the hell's going on here?" Rick bellowed.
     The two braggards ignored him. "You'll never have her." At that
Cortez had to laugh. It was a laugh that reflected eerily of the ring of
flame and surrounding mountain side.
     "Oh Apollo. If you could only look at the futility of your quest."
Cortez held his head at an odd angle. "And perhaps you shall." Out of
nowhere a circle appeared in the sky between all of them. An image
appeared in that circle.
     Apollo was seated on a throne. Sheba was on the throne beside him.
Behind them, were servants, shrouded. To their sides were soldiers,
holding lances. In front of them were a man and a woman. Apollo pointed
to a side and the man was lead away by other soldiers.
     The vision disappeared again.
     Apollo never looked at the vision. Sheba ignored it. Only Athena had
seen it for what it was. And now Cortez focused his attention on her.
Again a circle appeared with a vision. This time it showed new Macross
city. It was soon followed by Moscow, Washington DC and many other
cities, some of them, off earth ones. On all of them something dominated
the skyline, a statue of Athena herself, as large as a 150 story
building.
     "Or how about you, Admiral Hunter, Power beyond your wildest dreams.
The power or life or death, maybe in such way that you could even save
your friends."A vision of Ben Dixon and Roy Fokker appeared.
     Rick turned away. "Roy and Ben are gone. Nothing I can do will bring
them back." Cortez looked at Lisa Hayes. "Your husband doesn't seem to
care about his friends."
     Lisa remained silent.
     "So what about you, Admiral Hayes. How would you feel about a chance
to rescue your father?" Again an image appeared. This time it was Admiral
Donald Hayes. He stood before a monitor, looking at his daughter. Then
there was the explosion that took her father from her.
     "As for you, ambassador Sterling. It seems you consider yourself a
warrior. And you gave the most worthy opponent you ever defeated a chance
to live." Max stayed silent and moved to help Sheba up. Nathaniel and
Athena brushed her off as Rick and Lisa halted beside Apollo.
     Suddenly a jet shrieked through the flames. The two admirals, the
lieutenant and the colonials each recognized the fighter as being an
Alpha.
     The Alpha made short circle, then went into guardian mode and
touched down near the group.
     Cortez continued to look at the assembled group. "Captain Starbuck,
how nice of you to make it to our reaquaintence."
     Starbuck put his helmet over the HUD.
     Starbuck ignored him. "Everyone okay?" when it turned out that
everyone was okay, he explained. "Ladies and gentlemen, I take it you all
have just met Diabolis."
     "Diabolis?" this was Nathan.
     "Oh yeah. There's a big lot of references to him in your culture as
well. You'll love the similarities, Lucifer, Satan, the devil." Apollo
looked at Starbuck incrediously.
     "Oh yeah, Cortez over here is none other then count Iblis." Now
Apollo's anger grew.
     "Iblis!" Apollo looked ready to rush him.
     "Join me, Apollo, Sheba, all of you." He was met by utter silence
from all of them, except Nathan, who laughed.
     It was a hearty laugh. He then turned to the admirals and the
ambassador. "Guys, do you remember Christ on the mountain?" Rick and Lisa
looked at each other knowingly. As did Max and Miriya. They now began to
laugh as well.
     And they didn't stop.
     "Enough!" From Iblis extended hand flame shot towards all of them.
     Rick jumped in front of Lisa and closed his eyes. Max and Miriya
just held hands and flinched. Apollo tried to shield Sheba, while
Nathaniel Dixon tried to pull Athena out of the way.
     The flames never reached them.
     They just shot up into the sky and dissipated harmlessly.
     As everyone dared to glance at Cortez/Iblis again, there was a
bright white light present. It stood in a direct line between themselves
and the evil one.
     At first it seemed at ease. But then there was movement. The light
briefly rose and began to hover at a certain height.
     Out of nowhere a voice began to speak "These are my children. As
long as they believe in the goodness of humanity, they will not stray
from their destiny. You should know that by now... Iblis." Nathan
suddenly felt a feminine hand clenching his right hand.
     Rick and Lisa were now standing besides each other. They were joined
by Max and Miriya and Nathan and Athena. Finally, Apollo helped up his
wife and daughter and brought them to the group.
     He then turned to the light. "Thank you father."
     A brief glimpse of commander Adama turned towards the assembled
people. "Know this Apollo, the road ahead is long and perilous. Trust
what you've learned and trust the lords they'll keep you safe. Iblis will
not harm you, Sheba or Mira ever again."
     Again there was the sound of thrusters that filled the air.
     Rick and Lisa looked suddenly aghast and flinched as a single well
aimed salvo from a Zentraedi officers battle pod hit the temple and sent
debris flying everywhere. A second salvo destroyed Starbucks Alpha. By
the time the debris cleared that same pod had landed.
     Now Iblis smiled. "So be it then. If you will not join me of your
own free will. My apprentice will destroy you." He then shimmered out of
view.
     The laughter that filled the air made everyone flinch. "And a
pleasure it shall be to destroy those inferior puny Micronians." There
was a repeat of mad laughter.
     "Khyron," Miriya hissed.
     "Khyron," Lisa whispered, remembering a certain day over thirty
years ago.
     "Khyron," Max and Rick said to each other, knowing, understanding.
     With a whisper Adama's light also faded away.
     The two RDF admirals, the ambassador and his wife and the colonials,
all of them just watched as Khyron the destroyer got out of his pod and
came over towards them. The ground trembled in anticipation of his next
step.
     As he noticed his opponents, he kneeled down to give one his
particular attention.
     "You never were a worthy opponent Miriya." He paused a moment to
study Max. "Nor where you." The two of them watched as Khyron's boot
descended upon them.
     "Care to pick on someone your own size?" A female voice asked.
     This time the sky was filled with the thunder of metal boots. A
battloid approached the scene. Max and Miriya recognized the voice
immediately. "Dana!" They shouted in unison.
     Dana ignored it and concentrated on the task at hand. Khyron had
apparently thought it fit to bring a sidearm along. Figuring Dana to be
distracted, he decided to pull.
     A single shot from the battloid rifle sent the blaster spinning.
Khyron however still looked uninjured. That became clear as he charged.
     He was too fast to shoot.
     Khyron tackled the battloid in a flying jump. Robot and Alien alike
tumbled down the hill.
     Dana considered herself lucky to have strapped in well and wearing a
helmet. A brief systems check showed the battloid to be in pretty good
shape. In the distance Khyron got up.
     "You're nothing." He sneered. The battloid didn't move. Instead
there was a reply. "You're a has been."
     Khyron felt the rage boiling up inside of him. From his battle
armour he pulled a pair of Zentraedi daggers. The battloid didn't carry
such a weapon.
     But Dana put the battloid in a fighting stance never the less.
     Out of nowhere came two shots of cannon fire.
     Each of those two shots knocked the daggers squarely from his hands.
Two more Alphas touched down.
     "So you're Khyron. You don't look so though." Scott taunted through
the externals. Khyron stood still, to observe them.
     "Hah!" He produced two more daggers and threw them. This forced each
of the battloids into evasive action.
     Scott was ready to take a shot when he saw Khyron pass in front of
his commanders. He withheld firing. He told his wing man to do the same.
     Khyron ran for his pod and took off. The two Alphas morphed back to
fighter mode and went after him.

Part 17 The Dance pt2

     The two Alphas sped off after the battle pod.
     In the meantime out in space, near Hunter station, a supervisor was
called to one of the sensor stations where an operator had difficulty
understanding what was happening in space.
     She pointed out the peculiarities and added in that nothing was
wrong with the equipment nor with her training. The supervisor was an
experienced hand however who recognized what he was dealing with.
     He called his commanding officer. "Sir, if you would, please take a
look at sector four one two." The lieutenant put the requested sector up
on screen. Slight disturbances were already visible within the fabric of
space itself.
     The lieutenant remembered his history classes. The ensign that
manned the station knew some stuff but not the particulars. So it was the
lieutenant who ordered Hunter station to Red alert, thereby giving Earth
some much needed warning.
     In the meantime, Scott and his wingman were hot on Khyron's tail.
Each time they though they had him, the Zentraedi warlord evaded his
opponents fire.
     In the middle of space, Khyron changed course to a heading to would
bring him to sector four one two.
     The lieutenant in the Hunter station command center held his breath.
If it was a massive fold indeed, there would be trouble, huge trouble.
     Khyron ignored Hunter station and vice versa. They had focused too
much on the new event taking place not too far away. It was at the same
time Khyron neared the edge of the sector.
     The time was then.
     And with a dazzling flash of light, the fleet arrived. And it was
all Khyron needed. He managed to wraggle a few more bits of speed from
his ship. He reached his command ship safely.
     Scott banked his fighter when he saw the fleet. He wasn't really
thinking about getting Khyron anymore. There was too much at stake now.
     The two alphas returned to the nearby Hunter station.
     Back on Earth, rescue and security vehicles had pulled up to the
site of the battle. A brief medical examination had shown that all were
okay.
     It was then the shuttles came in.

Part 18 Matchup

     During the flight to their respective ships, everyone got briefed.
Lisa ordered the SDF 4 ready to launch as Max did the same with SDF 5.
Cain and Apollo and his family were on the way to their respective ships.
     Aboard Hunter station, everyone was working feverishly to identify
the huge fleet now in the sector. Some of the shapes were known. Others
were not. That was until another officer had the foresight to run
pictures of the ships they were seeing back through the Galactica and
Pegasus database.
     Sirens went off on Earth soon thereafter.
     The calls came into the SDF4 command center not much later. Soon
thereafter, more EDF force ships joined the two battlecruisers and the
two Battlestars which were now on their way to Hunter station as well.
The comlines to the two battle cruisers and the two Battlestars were
humming almost immediately.
     Lisa got to the bridge first. Rick arrived not much later. The first
report the two admirals heard was the commanders of the two Battlestars
wanting to talk to both of them.
     "Well, admiral Hunter, it seems we have gatecrashers in our yard.
What shall we do with them." This was Cain's typical brash reaction. " I
know one thing. We can't let them get to Earth. "Rick looked at Lisa and
nodded.
     "Here's what we'll do. Sdf 4 and Galactica will stay in position and
defend Earth. Pegasus and SDF 5 will try to flank the enemy forces.
Should either of you not make it, return to Earth and help us out."
     The two faces on the SDF4 command screen nodded.
     In the meantime, Khyron had docked with his flagship and had gone
straight to the bridge. Here he found a subordinate looking over a
tactical display. The micronian forces were already moving to their
defensive positions. A thin smile shaped his lips. "Move us in closer,
ready all ships for launch."
     The warlords fleet began to close. The human fleet stayed in
formation.
     "Scanners report two enemy ships closing." A voice echoed through
the command bubble. Khyron laughed. "Destroy them, then move on and take
the planet." The subordinate complied. Khyrons fleet consisted of a small
number of Zentraedi ships along with six baseships. Half of the Zentraedi
ships and all of the baseships were now moving in on the SDF5 and the
Pegasus.
     On the bridge of the Pegasus commander Cain received the report that
the Cylons had launched their raiders. At the same time Max heard the
Zentraedi had launched as well. He nodded. "Launch all fighters."
     Not much later, Cain did the same.

Part 19 Locking Horns.

     The first Alphas cut the Zentraedi to shreds. It took them a mere
ten minutes to finish off all the pods launched. At the order from SDF 5
flight control, they joined the colonial vipers in their fight against
the Cylon raiders.
     Aboard the Galactica and the SDF 4, the six baseships had been
noticed on the scanner. After a short analysis, Lisa determined the best
option would be to have the Pegasus and the SDF 5 regroup with them. She
ordered the recall.
     Cain nodded, a message soon went over to the SDF-5, requesting them
to provide cover as the Pegasus recovered her vipers. The fight was brief
but intense, but in the end, all of the vipers managed to land safely,
allowing the two ships to return to Earth.
     Here they fell into formation with the other two vessels.
     "Let's see what Khyron 'll do now" Lisa commented on the situation.

The End