Chapter 1: A Leap of Faith

Galactica – Attack on the Cylon Colony:

The Galactica shook under the weight of the Cylon bombardment.

"Starbuck... Jump the ship!"

Starbuck staggered over to the FTL control console.

"I don't have the rendezvous coordinates!" she yelled.

"It doesn't matter... just jump us out of here now."

She glanced above her as the ship shuddered ominously around them, the sounds of creaking, cracking metal and heavy gunfire filled the air... it was all she could hear...

"There must be away out of here" she whispered to herself.

It was almost immediate... all other sounds faded to almost nothing... music... the song that had haunted her since her return to the fleet began to play in her head... drowning out the carnage around her. Memory flashes filled her senses... the numbers came to her... she typed them into the console, not knowing where they would lead... she didn't care... they were right. She grabbed the command key, jammed it into the hole and turned it.

"Jump!" she screamed.

The ship lurched away in a blinding flash of light, and re-materialised. Groaning and heaving under the stress from the jump. The damage from countless battles taking its toll on her damaged frame. Sparks flew from a nearby navigation screen as a heavy beam fell from the ceiling, smashing straight into the deck. Her entire structure was buckling and twisting dangerously, threatening to fall apart completely... but the old girl stayed whole... stubborn as its commander... refusing to break. She had more or less... survived.

Back in the control room, acrid smoke swirled through the air. Adama pulled himself up from the floor.

"What's the damage" he asked.

Struggling for breath, he knelt there holding himself and Roslin steady, as Tigh limped to the damage control console.

"She's got red lights across the board, her backs broken..." he turned and looked mournfully at the commander, "...she'll never jump again."

"Then... where we are, is where we're gonna stay." said the admiral.

"Where have you brought us, Kera?" asked Roslin.

Starbuck looked up from the FTL console and stared vacantly at the president, " I don't know madame president..." she said, "I just don't know..."

SSV Shanghai – Alliance Salvage & Re-con – Ruined Arcturus Station:

"Beginning stage two scan on the starboard side of the station Commander, so far no active energy signatures detected" said the lieutenant.

"Carry on Lieutenant," he replied, "report to me if there are any changes."

"There won't be, just like the last ten times we scanned." whispered the Colonel "You know anything of use would have been taken, or destroyed in the initial attack."

"Our orders from Alliance Command are to completely investigate the remains of this place for ANYTHING worth salvaging, before they close of this sector as a war grave."

The Colonel stared sceptically, "Our orders are a wordy way of asking us to babysit the new pups. Anyone can tell the only things coming out of there are scrap metal and body-bags."

Arcturus station was once the seat of parliament for the Earth Systems Alliance. A centre of government for democracy and military throughout all Alliance controlled space. It was the first target hit by the Reapers during the war, and was completely destroyed, all life aboard the station was killed. With the war now over, it was time to recover, and rebuild everything that was lost during those dark times.

The SSV Shanghai, after its mission to evacuate the colony of Uqbar, was the closest available ship to undertake a salvage and reconnaissance mission on the ruined station, and the surrounding wreckage of the second fleet, who bravely sacrificed their lives to allow the first and third fleets to escape. The orders were to search for any salvageable materials and technology, and to recover the bodies of any personnel possible, without risking the safety of the ship and its crew. The crew was mainly comprised of new recruits, after a mass increase in people enlisting after the war to help protect and rebuild, with a few veteran officers to train and monitor their progress. It was a low risk operation, the perfect opportunity to give them more experience on a ship, and completing missions in space.

The Commander glared, "Irrelevant of what our 'personal opinions' are, orders are orders... Colonel."

The Colonel rolled his eyes once again, "I know, I know… doesn't stop it being about as much fun as a Geth birthday party."

"They have those?"

"Commander!" the Lieutenant shouted.

"You've found something?"

"Not on the station, short-range scanners have detected a large, unknown object approaching our position, Dreadnought size by our estimates... it appeared out of nowhere Commander. No energy signatures to suggest Element Zero use, or Mass Effect fields."

"God damn it, alert Alliance Command, set the ship to condition one, all hands to battle stations," yelled the Commander, sirens sounded throughout the ship, and officers scrambled to their assigned stations, "Where is this thing Lieutenant... do we have a visual!?"

"Visual in 3... 2... 1..."

An enormous ship floated past the main observation deck. It appeared to be drifting, no thrusters were engaged, and was showing obvious signs of heavy battle damage.

"Sir, preliminary scans of the ship show multiple hull ruptures across the ship. Thrusters do not appear to be operational at this time, although I am picking up faint life signatures across the board. Awaiting further instructions Commander."

"From the damage reports my 'professional opinion' is that they won't be picking any fights with us any time soon." said the Colonel.

"I'm more concerned about whatever it is that caused the damage," the Commander turned to the Colonel, a look of concern on his face, "and what kind of life is left on that ship."

"Secondary scans are complete... they appear... human?"

"There are no registered Alliance vessels scheduled to be in this system for the next two months, and I have never seen any ship of this design before.."

"Commander," she says, cutting him off mid sentence, "they appear to be trying to communicate with us... however, its on a short-wave signal... it appears to be audio only."

"Patch it through."

The speakers crackled, then as the static cleared a voice, speaking strange unknown language could be heard.

"... Αυτό είναι το πλοίο γαλαξία μας είναι σε μεγάλο βαθμό καταστραφεί και απαιτούν δικαστική συνδρομή..."

"Anyone care to tell me what this is?" said the Colonel.

"Hold on sir, I'm attempting to re-calibrate our translation software, currently running through all known languages."

The lights on the console flashed and shifted as the data was being processed. After a few seconds, the dials on the screen aligned and turned green.

"We have a match... it appears to be... ancient greek? I will attempt a new translation using the new data."

"... και απαιτούν δικαστική συνδρομή... I repeat... this is the Galactica... our ship has suffered heavy damage, and we require immediate assistance... please respond..."

"Well... we can understand them now," said the Colonel, "but if they are human... I would like to know where the hell they came from!"

Galactica – CIC

Another shower of sparks spray across the room as a circuit box overloaded. Galen flitted from console to console, trying to limit the damage as much as he could using the ships systems, whilst barking orders to his surviving maintenance teams through the comm's system.

"How're we doing chief?" Adama asked, looking more battle-worn than ever.

"Better than I hoped sir, but at the moment its taking everything we have just to keep her stable. We lost a lot of good guys down there, and we don't have nearly enough to keep up."

Galen looked sadly around the damaged CIC. Beams hanging, or missing from the ceiling. Panels and screens shattered, with debris strewn across the floor. Lights flickering on and off from the damaged power systems throughout the ship. Even with a full team of Knuckledraggers, this kind of damage would have taken months to repair... even in dry dock.

"Just do the best you can chief," said Adama, laying his hand on the chiefs shoulder, "thats all anyone can ask. The longer we can stay afloat out here, the better our chances are of getting back with the rest of the fleet."

He turned to Tigh, who was staring intently at the navigation console. "Any word on that ship we picked up on DRADIS?" he asked.

"Not a frackin' word Bill," he replied, "but they haven't blown us out of the sky yet, so I'm taking that as a good sign so far. We still ain't got a response to our hails."

"Any idea where we might have ended up Sol?"

"No idea... but looks like we jumped into a debris field... with a weird looking ship just parked out there staring at us."

"It's possible they can't understand us. What's our status, is there anything we can do if they decide to attack?"

Tigh stood up and looked at Adama, "To be honest, they got us with our asses hanging out Bill, her main guns are down, most of our defences are blown to hell, and to be honest i'm not sure how her hull is still holdin' together," he smiled at the Commander, "Look on the bright side... if they open fire on us, we ain't gonna have to worry about it for too long!"

Suddenly crackling came through from the ships speakers.

"... Vessel identifying as 'Galactica'... This is the commander of the SSV Shanghai... you have entered Alliance controlled space... we have no record of your ship, or any reference to its design... confirm your status and intentions..."

"Took them long enough," muttered Tigh, "Least they 'sound' human."

"If they are human," pondered Adama, "Then where the frack did we jump to?"

"Frack... me..." said Starbuck.

SSV Shanghai – CIC

The radio crackled again...

"... SSV Shanghai... this is the Galactica... we are receiving you loud and clear. Our intentions are peaceful... we have sustained heavy damage... and currently adrift in space... requesting urgent assistance... we have civilians on board..."

"... Galactica... request received... we are sending a scouting party to assess your situation... if everything checks out, we will try to assist as best we can until additional support arrives... do you understand?"

"... Message received... awaiting your team... we will comply as much as possible..."

"... Acknowledged... be aware our officers will be armed... however... they will not fire unless fired upon..."

"... Understood... similar orders will be issued to my own crew..."

"End the transmission Lieutenant... get a four man fire team and a medic, prepped and ready to leave for the other ship a.s.a.p." the Commander ordered. "Lieutenant Vega is to go with them as squad leader."

"Right away Commander."

"Orders are to dock with the ship, assess the situation and intent of the crew, then report back to us. Should they appear hostile, and are fired upon, they are to retreat back to the shuttle and return here."

"Affirmative."

"This is Vega we are talking about sir?" whispered the Colonel. "After everything that happened in the Reaper War... any hostilities are probably gonna end... quickly..."

"We need to send someone who is going to be able to deal with the situation if things go sour," he replied, "however... I'm getting too old to deal with another 'First Contact War.'" he sighs.

SSV Shanghai – Hanger Bay

Vega stood at the armoury supervising the recruits prepare for the assignment, wishing that 'for the love of god' he was back on the Normandy with people who knew which end of the gun was the 'noisy' end.

Whilst the others were helping each other into their combat armour, he noticed one of the recruits trying to lift his favourite weapon from the rack.

"Whoa whoa whoa... hold on there Chico..." Vega says as he slowly pulls the M76 Revenant out of the recruits hands, "... you've only just had your training wheels taken off... let Daddy handle the big toys... ok?"

Across the hanger bay, the pilot leant out from around the door of the awaiting Kodiak shuttle. "Lieutenant Vega? We are prepped and ready for take-off!"

"Hear that kids? Mom's waiting and ready to go!" he calls to the recruits. "If you ain't ready in two minutes... I'm leaving you here!"

The recruits scrambled to collect their gear, and piled into the shuttle. Vega climbed in, and knocked twice on the wall.

"Ok... lets go!"

END OF CHAPTER