"Sit-rep"
Adama stormed into the CIC, his fingers working furiously at the buttons of his lapel. His well-trained eyes darted instinctively up to the dradas monitors. Years of experience instantly identified the three flashing base star images that had appeared directly ahead of the fleet. They were in trouble.
Before the answer had arrived, Adama's tactical mind was already working furiously, having instantly established several battle plans and strategies. The alarm was blaring and crew were darting back and forth all eager to do their job. The commander knew they would do it well.
"They came out of no-where, Sir" Young lieutenant Felix Gaeta replied from his console across the center of the room. "Three Basestars"
Adama gritted his teeth and gripped the tactical table ahead of him. Galactica could take a base star in a fight, maybe. But three was out of the question.
"They're launching raiders" The predictable statement arrived. The crew of Galactica had been through fights like these dozens of times, delay and escape was the only way forward.
"Launch vipers and spin up the FTL" Saul Tigh snapped out a reply for Adama. The XO was well versed at giving voice to his oldest friend's thoughts. Adama stared back up at the dradas, saying nothing.
…..
"Let's go! Come on!" Petty Chief Tyrol uselessly pointed at the stationary vipers, screaming and barking orders at his deck crew to get them moving, the pilots were on their way and it was their job to make sure those fighters were up and ready to launch.
Tyrol had no idea what was going on, for all he knew there could be a single ship in range, it could even be a hundred. He found that he didn't care. All he cared about was getting his birds to fly.
Viper pilots ran into the hangar, pulling their jumpsuits on and climbing the stairs to their personal ships. Tyrol rolled his eyes as several of the pilots strolled bleary eyed onto the deck, no doubt sleeping on the job. He decided to ignore it.
Tyrol felt the familiar vibrations in the metal as Galatica fired her batteries toward the enemy. The thudding was frequent. So it was a big one, he supposed. He watched the pilots leap into their ships and begin to launch one by one. Silently, he was glad he was staying put. He liked his feet on the ground.
"Chief! We got a problem here!" a deck hand yelled out, waking Tyrol from his thoughts. He turned quickly to see Cally, wrench in hand opening up a raptor, with a frustrated pilot in tow.
"Frak me" He muttered, grabbing his tool belt and running toward the problem.
….
Bill Adama adjusted the rim of his glasses and his second in command shifted uncomfortably.
"How're we doing, lieutenant?" He growled, not taking his eyes off the rapidly changing map. Swarms of cylon raiders were now getting unnervingly close.
"FTL is three minutes, Sir" Felix quickly responded, "But Colonial one is reporting problems with her jump drive. They're trying to get it online." Felix looked helpless for a moment.
Adama sighed, the fleet won't be going anywhere quickly. The fleet wouldn't jump away without its President, and Galactica wouldn't run while there were any civilian ships still in the field.
"Maintain battery-shield" Adama ordered. Then added, almost as an afterthought "Get our birds in the air"
….
"Apollo here" The radio chimed in "Everybody call in"
Kara Thrace rolled her viper, putting her acceleration into full throttle, heading directly towards the enemy. She gripped her flight stick with ferocious energy. She had been dying to get into action for weeks now. The best pilot in the fleet grinned as her ship screamed into range of the enemy. And she would be damned if anyone was going to get there before her.
"Starbuck here" She replied, after the other pilots had called in their presence. "Coming in wild"
"Damn it Starbuck, you're too far ahead, pull back with the rest of the squad" Apollo called over the radio. She hesitated. "That's an order, Kara" Apollo added, almost reading her mind.
Kara rolled her eyes, "You're the CAG" She responded with a shrug. She pulled back her acceleration. But only a little. Her smile grew wider in anticipation of the upcoming kills.
"Here we go..." She muttered as she opened fire, instantly destroying the nearest cylon, and claiming the first kill. She spun her ship in an excessive evasive maneuver and came back for another pass…
….
Adama listened to the radio chatter of his pilots; there were simply too many enemy cylons. The gun barrages could defend the battlestar from missiles or raiders that got too close, but it was Galactica's vipers that had the real job of defending the carrier. Adama grew frustrated. It had been two miniutes since the vipers had been launched. Too long.
"FTL?" He called out. Anastasia Dualla, the comm. Officer on duty touched a head to her ear in response to her commander.
"Colonial one, this is Galactica actual", Dualla spoke into the mic, to the captain of the president's ship. "The commander requires an immediate status update on your jump drive."
A few moments passed before the captain replied "Spinning up the drive now, Galactica" Dualla drew a sigh of relief. "one minute"
If Adama was relieved by the news he didn't show it. "Okay, we're jumping out. Get our pilots home"
….
"This is Galactica actual. Jump drives are now ready, you are ordered to return to Galactica immediately"
Dualla's words rang like sweet music in Apollo's ears, things were getting very busy and they were heavily outnumbered. He fired a burst at a raider chasing a fellow pilot, destroying it in a spectacular explosion. Young Lee Adama violently threw his viper in full reverse, accelerating toward Galactica
"You heard them, guys. Let's get home" He called out over the radio and watched as his pilots eagerly followed his orders, returning to the hanger at dangerous, but necessary speeds. He groaned as he realized that not all his pilots had followed his direction.
"Let's go Starbuck. Enough frakking around" he shouted as he watched Starbucks ship continue to fly at the enemy, ducking and dodging attacks and giving a few of her own.
Starbuck didn't reply.
"The fleet is waiting for us, Starbuck! We're getting out of here, now!"
She finally replied with a signature Starbuck laugh after destroying her target, twisting her viper towards the hanger. The pilots flew side by side, dodging missiles and aiming for a tough landing. Sweat was forming on Apollo's brow as he concentrated on the landing. He could see ships from all over the fleet making their faster than light jump to their new coordinates. Soon only Galactica was left.
The two slammed on the deck, damaging the undercarriage of their vipers, but ultimately landing safetly.
….
"All ships have landed, commander" Gaeta shouted over the din of emergency alarms. "The fleet has left"
Adama wasted no time in issuing the order he had been longing to give.
"Jump!"
….
Galactica breathed a sigh of relief as it disappeared from view and arrived at its new destination in the blink of an eye, narrowly avoiding the missiles and raiders heading towards it. The Shepard was surrounded by its flock again.
Its crew had done their jobs, protecting themselves and the rest of the fleet yet again. Apollo would pat Kara on the back, she in turn would hug him, Chief Tyrol would smirk at his deck crew. Dualla would breathe quick sigh of relief and Adama would nod appreciatively to his closest friend.
The crew had done their jobs.