Collision Course: Chapter 4

"All right, here's the plan," said 'Marksman' "We jump into the last known sector of the Battlestar Galactica and send out the Hawk, one of our hospital ships, and it will begin broadcasting unfiltered radio broadcasts." He indicated the board behind him, showing the main fleet quite a ways away from the Hawk. "Once the area is confirmed hostile free, we will bring in the Home Away From Home and set up base. After that, our primary objective is finding the Galactica, or the liberation of Caprica. Any questions?" The answer was a resounding silence.

Adama POV

"Sir, we really must move on, we can't wait for Starbuck forever." Said Lieutenant Gaeta. The Galactica and the ragtag fleet had been sitting a few kliks away from that sector, hoping for Starbuck to reappear. The loss of Kara Thrace had dealt a crippling blow to the Galactica's already floundering morale. She was their best pilot, and a close friend of both Adama and his son.

"Sir, DRADIS contact, rapidly approaching the area that Starbuck disappeared at, it has no transponder and its frakking massive!" Said the DRADIS officer, panicking.

"Do we have a visual?" Adama said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yes sir!" Said one of the bridge crew, and up on the screen was one of the most ugly ships the commander had ever seen. It looked like a massive ship sandwiched between two other, smaller ships. "Wait, sir we are lucking up radio transmissions!" As the officer said this, a voice crackled onto the radio.

"Good to be back home after such a long mission isn't it Joe!" Said a cheerful voice as whistling was heard in the background.

"Yup! I think I owe this whole bridge a drink when we get back to Caprica!" Adama froze. Could these be civilian deep space explorers, unaware of what had happened? Or was it a Cylon trap? Adama got his answer only a few seconds later, when a Cylons Basestar and several Raiders jumped into the system, and started forming up on the hapless ship.

"Gaeta, plot a course-" Adama was cut off as his lieutenant pointed out what should have been obvious.

"Sir, I'm sorry for interrupting, but there is no way the Galactica can survive a one on one fight against a Basestar." Interjected Gaeta. Adama pushed up his glasses and sighed.

"Set ship to High Alert, I want to be able to jump in if the Basestar jumps out." Said Adama, defeated.

"Yes sir!" Said Gaeta as alarms began to blare throughout the ship. "Wait! Sir I have 15 new DRADIS contacts sir! They all share some design aspects with the civilian vessel, I would assume they are built by the same people. I didn't get any jump signature, they just kind of appeared through some anomaly. We-" Gaeta said was cut off as one of the smaller ships, one that had the name SAPPHIRE emblazoned on its side, fired what looked to be a massive rail-gun, splitting the Basestar in two pieces.

"My god..." Muttered Colonel Tigh, standing next to Adama, "And that was one of their smaller ships..."

"Gaeta, plot a jump course in." Adama said, steel in his voice.

"Sir?" Gaeta asked, obviously confused.

"We are going to assist these newcomers in the fight, they still have the Raiders to deal with"

Starbuck POV:

"All hands man your battlestations, pilots to your ships." The message blared over the speakers, then repeated.

"You heard the man! Let's go!" Said Marksman, the CAG of Mobius-1, the interceptor squadron Kara had been assigned to. The Crossbow Interceptor was a beautiful ship. It was fast, and unlike most items in the UNSC arsenal, it was sleek, and heavily armed with two chain guns and several missiles.

A/N: Think of the United States Warthog bomber, but more angular.

As the other pilots of Mobius-1 climbed into their Crossbows however, Kara climbed into her Viper. The Viper had some advantages over the Crossbows, and some disadvantages. It was far more maneuverable, able to do flips & fly backwards, and it's chainguns had a slightly larger calibre than the guns on the Crossbows. However, it didn't carry as many missiles and was slightly slower and less armored. As she slid back the canopy, she put on her flight helmet. She had swapped her old colonial helmet and flight suit in favor of the more advanced and comfortable UNSC version. Her new helmet was less obtrusive, had more oxygen, and was linked up to her ships HUD. Her ship was then wheeled over to the launch tubes to prep for launch.

A/N- I have no idea how the UNSC launches or recovers their fighters, so until I figure out, I'm gonna make it like it is in BSG.

As her ship entered the tube, she slid on her helmet, and a plethora of different messages appeared, including an option to boot up the launch sequence. She quickly selected this, and was greeted by a monotone female voice.

"Hello, I am UNSC non-sentient AI-3987 AKA Mariko, specialty: Anti Hacking, would you like to launch your ship?" Kara was momentarily taken aback, she had known that all the big ships had been AI equipped, but she hadn't known that they had put them in the fighter pilots suits too. Then she had to crack a grin as she realized the pointlessness of it, her ship was hack-proof.

"Yes, launch." Said Kara. Almost before she finished saying this, she got her response in be form of a clacking coming from the tube. Then she was propelled into space, already nearing maximum speed for her fighter. The rest of Mobius-1 was already circling around the Scythe, their twin engines at only a fraction of full speed.

"Glad you could finally make it Starbuck!" Exclaimed Marksman, her squadron leader, "Ready to go kick some metal ass?"

"Negative, according to notes, Cylons have no asses." Replied Starbucks AI before she herself had a chance to reply. She raised an eyebrow, she thought that the so called "Dumb" AI's were incapable of jokes. Marksman just laughed it off and said:

"It's actually pretty cool, even the 'Dumb' AI's are starting to make jokes! Alright, Bishop and Skid, take the left flank, Rook and Theory, you take the right, Starbuck you are with me in the center, let's go!" Mobius-1 then accelerated towards the oncoming Raiders, just as the Galactica flashed into exsistence.

General POV

"Alright, Vipers, form up." Said Apollo, the lead pilot of Galactica's flightwing. Unlike the tight, disciplined formations of the UNSC fighters, the Viper pilots idea of 'Formin up' was to make a massive swarm of fighters, with uneven spacing, making it harder for the Cylons to predict their movement.

Meanwhile, several kilometers away, the flightwing of the UNSC SCYTHE was still rapidly accelerating towards the Raiders.

"Alright," said Marksman "Squadron leaders, form up and maneuver as you deem necessary."