Battlestar Valkyrie, CIC
The crew was quiet in the CIC and frankly Commander Adama liked it that way. This mission was beyond tricky and he wanted to be able to concentrate. The stealthstar was new, as far as he knew, and it was in the Commander's nature not to trust new equipment until he had seen it proven.
"Valkyrie, Bulldog I am exactly two clicks past the line, repeat two clicks and I have negative DRADIS contacts there's uh nothing here sir" Daniel 'Bulldog' Novacek reported, his nervousness clear in his voice "which is just fine by me, if company wants to go for a joyride through they came to the right driver"
If it were any other pilot Adama probably would have told him to stay off the radio, but in this situation he was willing to let Bulldog have a little comfort.
"DRADIS contact, unknown vessel just jumped in" a Lieutenant Sadio, the Valkyrie's DRADIS operator, reported.
Grabbing the phone that linked directly to the stealthstar Adama quickly ordered "Bulldog go dark"
"Already on it Valkyrie, DRADIS is shut down and engines are baffled"
"Good work bulldog, we'll keep you posted, Valkyrie out" Adama said before he placed the phone back in it's cradle
"Sir, the contact just jumped away" Sadio reported before turning back to his screen
"What do you think Saul" Adama asked his ever loyal XO
"Probably some toaster version of the Raptor. Probably dozens of them, making randomised jumps along the line every few minutes. If one picks our fleet moving across the line, it would probably be gone before any of our ships could destroy it, next thing we know that patrol ship is back and it's brought a Cylon fleet with it" Colonel Tigh replied
"I agree it would be the best strategy for defending the line. Let's a small number of capital ships cover a much larger portion of space" Adama then spoke up "Lieutenant Wisp, bring Bulldog back but tell him to take it slow and stealthy"
"Aye sir" Wisp replied "Bulldog, Valkyrie come on home, repeat come one home but run silent"
Bulldogs voice rang out from the speakers a moment later "Roger Valkyrie, coming home"
As the CIC crew watched on the DRADIS console, the stealthstar began to move back towards the Valkyrie at slow pace, Bulldog was trading speed for stealth. To crew in the CIC though, already on edge and who were used to the lighting speed and manoeuvres of ships like the Viper, it was like watching a snail try to catch up with a hare.
"Contact, Contact. Twenty unidentified vessels, same ships as before though. All within five clicks of Bulldog" Sadio yelled "Sir, they appear to be searching for the stealthstar, they're formed into ten, two ship formations"
"Get Blue squadron ready for launch and prep all our batteries, set condition one throughout the ship" Adama ordered before picking up the phone to the stealthstar as the phone clicked Adama heard the echo of Saul Tigh's voice over the speaker as he relayed the Commander's orders.
"Bulldog, Valkyrie Actual. How's your egress look"
"Not good Actual, with the way these toasters appear to be searching, I'll probably run into one on my way out the door. I think an FTL jump may be in order sir" the Pilot replied, in between words his breath was heavy and Adama wasn't sure but he could have sworn that he heard a slight tremble in Bulldog's speech
Stealthstar, Cockpit
"Agreed Bulldog, we'll format a solution and transmit it to you. Just get your ship ready to jump, Valkyrie Actual out"
'Good Fraking Gods, there is no way this could get any worse' Bulldog thought to himself as he started to spin up the FTL drive. Although he'd jumped at the chance to fly the new stealthstar at first, Bulldog had suddenly come to the realisation that he hated being surrounded by enemies and not having anything to shoot with.
Next time the Valkyrie got assigned to a mission like this, he would force the Chief to strap at least two missiles into the stealthstar's internal weapons hold. Otherwise someone else could fly the ship.
Bulldog nearly leapt straight through his canopy when he heard a ping in his helmet a moment later but it was just the stealthstar informing him that the FTL drive was ready to go.
"Valkyrie, Bulldog I'm ready to receive coordinates" the pilot quickly radioed. He was taking a risk, communicating like he had been throughout this mission, but it was a small comfort to hear the Old Man when he was this nervous. No matter what Bulldog knew that if something happened to him, Bill Adama would tear the armistice apart to come and get him out of the Cylon zone.
Glancing up Bulldog caught sight of two of the ships that were hunting him. Currently half a click away, the looked like a crescent moon with a long ovoid through the middle. Tilted on an angle it's silhouette would probably look like the moon and comet emblem of the Marine orbital assault division. What surprised him though was it's size, they appeared to be about the size of a Viper and yet they had FTL capability.
As Bulldog watched the two craft turned towards him and a shrill deedle deedle deedle rang in his helmet.
"Valkyrie, Bulldog. Contacts have missile lock" he reported. At first his hands began to move towards the ejection lever but Bulldog instead placed one of his hands on the FTL jump switch'
Battlestar Valkyrie, CIC
"This isn't going to end well" Tigh muttered as soon as Bulldog finished his report
"I know Saul" Adama replied, "Wisp, what's the status of our guns and vipers"
"Blue squadron is ready for launch at your go sir, except for Lieutenant Dualla, his Viper has suffered some kind of engine malfunction" the lieutenant replied, his voice showing traces of excitement "All batteries are online Sir both defensive and offensive"
A moment passed a officers raced around the CIC preparing for possible combat. Half of them were dreading what was about to happen, the others were excited in a minute they might have a chance to live up to the legendary deeds of the previous generation, that had sat in their spots during the Cylon war.
"Valkyrie, Bulldog. Missile inbound, I repeat missile inbound. I'm going for an unplotted jump" the pilots panicked voice rang over the speaker.
"Wisp, get me a line to the stealthstar" Adama ordered, Bulldog had done some crazy things in his time but an unplotted jump was another and a pilot was not going to materialise inside a sun on his watch.
"It's no good sir" Lieutenant Wisp replied solemnly as she pointed at the DRADIS console in the centre of the CIC. Adama looked up to find that the Lieutenant was right, the stealthstar and Bulldog were already gone…
Stealthstar, Cockpit
Bulldog was rare in that he was one of only a few people who actually enjoyed FTL jumps and were willing to admit. The combination of nausea and the adrenaline rush it gave him were one of his favourite parts of being in the fleet and seeing as he was currently in a random location, with no contacts on his DRADIS and he had definitely not emerged inside a sun of a planet he revelled in the feeling, spending a good five minutes just laughing with glee as the tension of the past half hour evaporated.
When it had subsided though Bulldog settled into the task of figuring out where he was. The stealthstar was currently locked in a decaying orbit around a bluish-red gas giant with a large ring, something he quickly corrected. He then set the computer to reversing the course that had brought him here, once it was done he would simply adjust the destination by a few clicks and hopefully he would emerge at least half a click from the Valkyrie. On the off chance Adama wasn't there though he would only be about four of five jumps from Aquaria.
Once he had the instructions programmed in Bulldog was dismayed to find that the computed estimated that it would take three hours to assemble the coordinates and unlike what some of Valkyrie's Raptor pilots did, he had no form of entertainment available. Bulldog therefore adjusted his seat for the long wait.
"Well, here I am" he muttered
After ten minutes of waiting though it dawned on him. He was sitting in a ship, a new ship, a ship that he had yet to truly push to it's limits.
Powering up the engines and disengaging the stealth baffles, Bulldog grinned as he felt the roar of the stealthstar's engines and setting up the computer to track his flight so that he could find his jump point, he sent the stealthstar hurtling towards the asteroid ring below his ship.
Although he wouldn't be stupid enough to risk the stealthstar by flying through the ring itself, Bulldog was enough of a risk taker to skirt the edge, dodging the occasional asteroid that strayed slightly outside the main belt. Pushing the stealthstar's engines to their maximum thrust Bulldog raced along, with what someone might describe as an impossibly large grin on his face.
Within an hour the stealthstar had begun nearing the other side of the gas giant and as he passed over the horizon, Bulldog spotted the northern pole of a small mon from his canopy. As he got closer the sensors began to light up, the atmosphere was made up of a mix of nitrogen, oxygen and argon and the current temperature was a chilly 2 degrees Celsius. Still with the right equipment it would probably be liveable.
However while Bulldog was focused on the moon (and his delusions of having a small colony named after him) he didn't notice the far greater object in the area until his DRADIS pinged, bringing his attention to it. Pulling his ship closer towards the object that was caught between the gravity of the moon and the gas giant Bulldog made sure that his gun cams, minus the guns, were filming. The object looked vaguely like a tuning fork, blue and with a series of rings in the centre. It looked like it had been powered down.
Bulldog's first thought was that he had discovered some kind of weapon left over from the war but as he glanced over the odd design that matched nothing he had ever seen, Colonial or Cylon, Bulldog realised that what he had found was alien. He, Captain Daniel 'Bulldog' Novacek of the Colonial fleet had just made first contact.
Swinging the stealthstar around and gunning the engines further then what he had during his little "test" Bulldog hightailed it back to where he had originally jumped into this area. He was just a pilot, admittedly a skilled one, but still just a pilot he was neither qualified nor trained to make contact with an alien race. Something like that was best left to the Commander.
If anyone would know what to do, it would be the Old Man.
Author's Notes
Well here I am with my story to tell, before I get into it though I have some things I would like to point out so that there won't be any flame/hate reviews and to cut down on the number of questions.
1-Shepard and co will not be appearing in this fic (although I do have an idea for a sequel to this where they would appear but that is far off in the future).
2-This is going to be the first contact war with a few major differences. The most obvious being that it will feature the 12 Colonies instead of humans from Earth. The Turians are going to get a lot more into this with more ships and soldiers but of course they have less to deal with then in ME cannon.
3-This one may be a bit obvious, but those veteran BSG fans reading this fic will know that the screw up with the stealthstar mission is what landed Bill Adama in command of the Galactica for her decommissioning. Now seeing as the mission has instead branched off into a major success in this fic, you may think that the Admiral will be staying with the Valkyrie but no. I fully intend for Admiral Adama to fight the First Contact War from the CIC of the Galactica.
4-The Cylons will most certainly be making an appearance but not in the way you think.
5-The story of the Final Five Cylons will be present (and will in fact play a major role in the story line eventually) but I'll be changing a few identities around. This has more to do with the fact that I'm throwing all that divine intervention crap out the window and two to three of the final five Cylons on the one ship does not fit in with my plans at all.
So enjoy and review.