VIII
Thirty-six hours after Enoch had been turned loose, three Raptors landed about five hundred yards south of the dead Raptor. Lee and eight men emerged and headed towards the bird that had carried Nick, Rick, and Annabel.
He was surprised that near the prescribed time a group of about ten men emerged from the north, wary but calmly, to where the UED people were standing. Lee said nothing as the man approached. The other man simply looked at him, unimpressed.
"You must be this Admiral that Enoch told me about?" The man almost spat the words out.
"I'm Admiral Lee Adama, Commander of The Fleet that has entered Colonial space." The mention of that name put a flash of anger in the other man's eyes.
"Adama!" He almost choked on the name. "One of those cowards who ran away and left us here to die and to live on almost nothing!" The men backing up Lee raised their weapons slightly. That got Clevin's attention and he calmed down. "My apologies Admiral, that's old news and doesn't mean a lick here right now."
"I'll get right to it", Lee said with urgent business-like tones. "Enoch said you know about the pilot and your people have been here before, is that correct."
"That is correct", the man said evenly.
"Do you have our pilot?"
"If I had your pilot, Admiral", The Crown said with a wry smile, "we wouldn't be in a spot that you chose; we'd be in a spot of my choosing."
That made sense and Lee accepted it. "I'm here to give you notice about several things", he said, not dignifying the man with a title. "First, The Fleet is back. All but two Battlestars were destroyed the day of the attack. But The Fleet has been rebuilt."
"What does 'rebuilt' mean, exactly, Admiral?", the man again wasn't impressed.
"Above us here are twenty-seven ships. One Battlestar, which is twice as large as any Battlestar that has ever been built; three other main ships; as well as other ship."
The man nodded and smiled. "That's a lot of firepower, I have to give you that."
Lee let the other shoe drop. "That comprises only half The Fleet that is in the Colonial System. Another Battlestar of the same size is here as well. I command several thousand Vipers and about a thousand Raptors like this one. Plus I have a thousand nuclear-tipped missiles at my disposal."
That staggered the man but Lee continued.
"Plans are for an eight-hundred ship fleet, and another fleet of about fifty-six will be here a few years from now. This is the beginning of a new, permanent Fleet presence in The Twelve Colonies."
"And, ah, what is the second point, Admiral?"
"We will not tolerate anyone holding others against their will, here nor on any other planet. We want to restore Caprica and make Caprica City the Capital once again; your group's presence is not welcome nor will it be accepted. I give you notice now that unless you peacefully leave your stronghold, release your prisoners, and allow the people on this planet to live in peace, we will terminate your presence here."
Lee didn't tell him that he hardly had any more people than he did, but he would put his trained soldiers and airmen up against this group, even in unknown territory, and he knew he'd win. It would cost him but he would win.
"With all respect, Admiral", the man smiled, "you can go to bloody hell", which made his minions laugh. "I like what we have yonder and I think you're bluffing."
"You'll do so probably at the forfeit of your own life", Lee looked at his new adversary with cold, unblinking eyes.
"We have nothing more to say to each other, sir", the man said, bowing his head slightly. "You try to take us out, and see what it costs you."
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It was just a few hours before sunrise on the fifteenth day of his solitude. Nick Bond was staggering along, barely able to stand up. He couldn't eat; he had lost at least forty pounds; the infection was becoming so bad that he thought he would lose his leg, that is if he lived. His fever was around 105 degrees.
He dragged himself on, but after about fifteen minutes, he couldn't go any further, and fell, unconscious at that point. He wasn't under the tree line. He was in the open.
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Back on board the William Adama, Lee was as nervous as anyone could remember seeing him. His first priority was still Nicholas Bond's return, be he dead or alive. But now he had a possible shooting war in his near future, and he would have to start making plans for that.
He called his staff together, along with Governor Bond and Kara. The time for finding Nick Bond was running out.
"Brevin I want Raptor patrols doubled along that break in the trees that come down the slopes. We still have to believe Nick is in there, somewhere." He looked over at Kara. "Starbuck, do you want to lead the missions?"
"Do you even have to ask, Lee?" There was a deadly seriousness in her voice. She was losing hope for her little brother. But she wouldn't abandon it until she knew.
"Good, you go up right at dawn. I want you further south in an oval pattern. Dalbott and Solis are beyond where the Raptor took out those idiots. If Nick is within our search area, we should find him, one way or the other."
The Other is what frightened Kara to no end.
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The hint of dawn had started on the Horizon Northeast of where Talbot and Solis were. That sneaking suspicion Grey had felt increased as they continued westward.
"Thomas, I'm not superstitious, nor do I get premonitions, but something's about to happen. I can't shake this feeling."
"I hope you're right because if Nick isn't dead by now, he's got to be damned close."
The forty men who had left on Clevin Monteith's orders the afternoon before were about two thousand yards from the tree line to the north as the first streak of dawn began to appear. Unlike the other undisciplined groups before them, they had kept deathly quiet the whole march. They didn't want anyone to know they were there until they were "there".
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Nick Bond came out of his unplanned sleep at about the same time. His vision was blurry. His leg was almost numb; the infection was sapping the last bits of life out of him. But he had to try...
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Captain Abdullah had put Kara in charge of the Raptors that would be out in force that morning. Her position would be over the Spec Ops teams that were coming down the western slope of the mountain.
Blondie and Sunshine boarded the Raptor without a word, looking as grim as both had ever felt.
When they were strapped in, Kara called for clearance. "Adama Actual, Starbuck, requesting clearance for our birds."
"Starbuck, Actual, clearance granted vector 249 mark 067 to your patrol stations. Good luck. Actual out."
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Dalbott and Solis were between the tree lines with their forces spread out on either side of them. They were in the open, clearly on the down-slope towards friendly areas. Solis was looking down the hill when something caught his eyes to the edge of the tree line to the south...
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Nicholas Bond staggered to his feet, not knowing where the strength had come to stand up and was looking west, down the hill that seemed to run for an eternity. Despite his desperate condition, he began to hear voices to his right.
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"I'll be godsdamned, Bob", Solis said, raising his Big Eyes to Dalbott, "that's frackin' Nick Bond!" He depressed his mike. "Adama Actual, Captain Solis! We have our MIA sighted about seven-hundred yards to our front!" The troops began to run.
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Kara and her jocks heard the call. She thumbed her own mike. "Solis, Raptor 339, Tally Ho will be there in thirty seconds!" She didn't celebrate, not yet. This could be the most dangerous moment of the entire search.
And she was right.
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The group that The Crown had sent was just breaking the northern treeline when one of their numbers shouted. "It's the fracking pilot!" He pointed directly south. Nicholas Bond was about five hundred yards directly in front of them.
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Nick heard the shouts, his eyes going wide. He simply couldn't move at any great speed, but he veered towards the southwest, trying to separate from the crowd headed toward him.
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Solis was back on the radio. "Adama, enemies to our front four hundred yards distance, they see our pilot, we're closing to interdict!" Whether they could get there in time was another story.
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Kara heard the alarm Solis had given. Her Raptor was just turning toward the opening between the trees when she saw it...
To her left was a crowd of people who were clearly not friendly. Directly in front of her, running down the hill as if their lives depended on it were the Spec Ops forces...
......and to her right she spotted a solitary figure, desperately trying to move away from the coming collision.
Hold on, little brother...
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Captain Bond looked in front of him and skyward-a Raptor was barreling down towards the hostile forces that were closing on him. He still had no idea UED troops were behind him.
"Come on, you Goddamned bird, fry them!"
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About a thousand feet from the forces in front of them, the UED troops went to one knee and begin firing their high-powered assault weapons at the onrushing people with shotguns. Almost at once more than a few of them went down.
Kara let loose her forward guns towards the people directly in front of her, her teeth gritting in rage. Behind her, Kelsey Graham had moved behind and between the two pilot's seats, and saw the insanity unfold.
"Come on, Admiral!" she shouted, "get those motherfuckers!"
Kara didn't need the urging.
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Nick now saw the UED forces closing on him as well as the posse of bad guys. A second Raptor raced overhead, firing as it went. The number of unfriendlies again dropped. The UED troops were closing fast. A third Raptor whizzed by.
He willed his beaten, exhausted body to move a little faster.
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Kara swung the Raptor back in the other direction. She saw the same scene in a mirror image of what she had first seen. The bad guy's numbers had been cut by more than half; the UED troops were closing on them, and she could see Nick moving desperately away from it all.
"Support Raptors this is the Admiral", she said, taking up her rank again, "need cover overhead while I land this thing and try to grab our soldier!"
"Be there in ten seconds Boss", one of them barked.
Kara began to bring the Raptor down to Nick's right, hoping to shield him from the firefight that was going on.
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Nick heard the Raptor approaching and turned to look up at it, seeing the most beautiful sight he had seen in his whole life: it was the face of his sister Kara.
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One of the invaders had been shot nearby and was on the ground, but still alive. He looked in front of him and saw the pilot, no more than one hundred yards in front of him with a Raptor approaching from his left. It was a long shot and he knew it, but he was going to take it anyway.
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Kara was about fifteen feet from touching down, and she could see her brother who was looking right back at her. She didn't dare smile yet.
Suddenly, she saw her brother's body being flung backward-a bullet had struck him. "No Goddammit!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. He couldn't die on her now...
The bullet hit Nick Bond between his thigh and his groin on the right side, and he collapsed, with blood coming out of the wound. His eyes closed...
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Dalbott had seen the entire horror unfold in front of him, and raced towards the pilot as fast as he had ever moved just as the Raptor touched down. He saw the hatch open, and two jocks jump out and go around the nose of the aircraft.
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Kelsey Graham and Ito Genda came around the front of the bird and saw the assailant in front of them, letting go with a burst of gunfire, lowering the man's head to the ground for eternity.
"Nicholas!" Kara sprinted for him, practically in hysterics as tears cascaded down her cheeks. "Don't die on me, damn you!"
At that moment Thomas Dalbott arrived. His forces had cut down most of the rest of the bandits and he could concentrate on the wounded man in front of him.
Starbuck held Nick's head in her hands, in a state of shock. "Stay with me, little brother! Goddammit, hang on!"
Dalbott reached her side. "Admiral, I'm a trained medic, let's get him the hell in the Raptor and I'll do what first aid I can on board." He got on his headset and told Solis he was going up with the Raptor.
Kara and Dalbott got Nick onboard. Blondie and Sunshine had been standing guard, ready to kill anyone, not in uniform. They scurried back on the Raptor.
"Blondie", Ito Genda said, "you take the right seat. Admiral, you're staying back there with your brother, and that's an order." The two junior jocks strapped in and prepped the bird for takeoff.
Kara cradled her brother's head, still crying. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, trying to keep life in him. "Oh, God Nick, I'm so sorry", she lamented. "Hang on little brother, we're going home." She laid her forehead on his.
Dalbott was working on the wound and had given the Captain some morphine near the wound in both his groin and his buttock. He glanced at his other wounds.
"Lieutenant, let's get him up there as fast as we humanly can, he's in bad shape!" Ito lifted the Raptor up and gunned it towards the William Adama.
"Admiral, I think I have this bleeding staunched. Looking at him, he's got a gangrenous wound in his buttock that looks really bad, and he's still got a makeshift splint on her forearm here", he was sweating nervously now, "We need to get there quickly."
Kara again put her forehead on Nick's. "We're going home, little brother...we're going home."