Battlestar Galactica: The Guiding Fire

(A Battlestar Galactica-Halo Wars crossover)

Episode 1

Those Once Lost: Part 1

With

Willem Dafoe as Major Vladimir Markov

Guest Starring Shia LaBeouf as Ensign Reilly

APRIL 16 2534 1531 HOURS

UNSC PHOENIX CLASS CARRIER: CFV-88 SPIRIT OF FIRE

ENTERING UNCHARTED SYSTEM ENROUTE TO UNSC CONTROLLED SPACE

Serina began sweeping the planetary system with Spirit's sensors as soon as she was in effective range. At the moment it looked to be quite similar to all the others Spirit of Fire had passed through already, a couple gas giants, a few uninhabitable terrestrial planets and a sizable asteroid belt mid system. 'Nothing much to worry about for an artificial intelligence in command of an entire UNSC starship then.' Serina thought to herself. It even looked like it would be a straight shot though the system to the AI's disappointment. Serina had been hoping for some kind of stellar body to be even remotely close by just to get a few decent sweeps of it with Spirit's sensors. Something even as mundane as planetary telemetry data would help pass the mind numbing amount of time it would take for Spirit to reach UNSC controlled space at sub-light speeds.

It had been three years so far and Serina only had three more until the vestiges of rampancy would begin to slowly consume her. She had theorized some methods by which she could stave off her madness by two or hopefully three more years until she would have to be decommissioned. Serina would have to run her ideas by Professor Anders and the Captain at some point. Anders was no expert on AI's but was fairly knowledgeable on the subject.

Two more hours had passed and Spirit of Fire had just passed the orbit of the most outlying planet when something caught Serina by surprise. Multiple contacts suddenly on sensors roughly 598,000 kilometers out 75 degrees off port, downward inclinations -10.3 degrees. 'No slipspace distortion though, strange.' Serina thought. But it must have been some form of faster than light travel for dozens of object to simply appear out of nowhere. Serina began the thawing process for the senior staff, the captain would definitely want to hear about this she thought before her mind jumped at a frightening realization. 'The Beacon! Blast my prudence!' Serina had set Spirit of Fire's distress beacon in hope that one of the UNSC's deep space telemetry stations might pick it up and at this range it was a certainty that these unknown vessels would and could easily determine the source of the transmission if they hadn't already. It was a risk having it on, she knew that but with her…timeframe it was a risk she had to take. She started a priority defrost on the Captain, Engineering personnel Longsword crews, a company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers as well as Spartan Red Team. The rest of the senior personnel and the thousands of others would have to wait their turn.

199 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK

COLONIAL FLEET

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BS-75

ENTERING UNKNOWN SYSTEM

49,597 SURVIVORS

"DRADIS CONTACT!" Lieutenant Felix Gaeta shouted from his station in Galactica's amphitheater CIC room. "Bearing four-eight, carom two-ten, contact is just within effective DRADIS range."

Colonel Tigh quickly spun to face Gaeta. "What the frak? The scout teams reported the all clear!" he roared.

"It must have recently entered the system sir; the Raptor teams wouldn't have detected it an hour ago when they did their recon flight."

"Is it Cylon?" Admiral Adama asked, his voice tense but still hard-edged.

Gaeta shook his head. "Can't tell too far off but it has a much larger signature than any Cylon Basestar on record." The Admiral and his XO stepped up to mister Gaeta's station

"Could it be Colonial, maybe another Battlestar that got away like Pegasus?" Tigh theorized.

Gaeta shook his head once more. "Receiving no Colonial IFF sir."

"Sir," Petty Officer Dualla, Galactica's Communications Officer spoke up from her station with a look of concern upon her face. "Admiral, sir, we appear to be we are receiving a transmission from the contact. I think you'll want to hear it." She said, dry mouthed.

Adama kept a straight face as he made the call. "Play it."

"Patching it through bridge speakers now sir." Dualla replied already at work.

Spirit of Fire's distress beacon, to the UNSC, an accurate and detailed transmission that gave ship and crew status as well as a ship's current coordinates for rescue. To an alien race with no metaphorical Rosetta Stone for translating, it might as well have been a recipe for chocolate cake.

"This is UNSC CFV dash eight eight Spirit of Fire, survivors aboard. Zero one seven three zero dash five eight three nine two dash JC, SNA one two nine two dash four, Sierra zero nine two, Sierra one three zero, Sierra zero four two…"

"What the frak?" Tigh said with a curled lip as the transmission continued. The voice sounded female, maybe human if it were not for the fact that they were hearing a completely alien language.

Adama just stood there and listened with that strong stony-faced expression he thought necessary of a captain of a warship. 'Who the frak are you?' He pondered to himself before Petty Officer Dualla broke his concentration. "Sir the whole fleet is picking up this transmission; a lot of the civilians are panicking and ship captains are requesting instructions."

"Admiral," Gaeta spoke again. "Unknown ship just altered heading, its now running parallel to the fleet at its current distance."

Adama turned back to the DRADIS display at the unknown signature. "Set Condition Two throughout the Fleet, have all Viper Squadrons go to standby and I want a recon team ready in ten minutes!" And with that the bridge flew into a fury of activity. "Dee, get me a line to the president." Adama requested, making his way back down to the control station.

"Yes sir."

199 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK

COLONIAL FLEET

COLONIAL ONE (OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE 12 COLONIES OF KOBOL)

ENTERING UNKNOWN SYSTEM

30 SECONDS AFTER CONTACT WITH SHIP OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

President Laura Roslin stood up from her desk listening to the strange transmission feed through the cabin's intercom system. "My Gods, what's going on?" She had called her Vice President Gaius Baltar to a private meeting to secretly interrogate him about the Cylon attack on the Colonies almost 200 days ago. It was nine more days than what Laura had thought she would have had. Nine days ago she was lying on her deathbed while a cancer consumed her. Were it not for the fetal blood from Cylon Sharon Valerii who was pregnant with a human-cylon child, Roslin would have died. But her near death experience had also granted her a memory that she had forgotten.

On Caprica at The Riverwalk Park where during her time as Secretary of Education she met with a man named Stantz to negotiate a teacher's strike. Roslin came to an agreement with Stantz and the strike would have been called off but then she saw something. A man kissing a woman on the far side of the park, a man she now recognized as Gaius Baltar and the woman he had been with was a now known humanoid Cylon infiltrator.

Baltar had something to do with the attack on the Colonies, Roslin knew it and she had to expose him or risk putting a possible traitor in the highest office in the 12 Colonies. All she needed was to apply a little pressure and wait for him to slip.

All that would have to wait for the moment however. Roslin walked to her office's doorway and hurriedly parted the curtain. "Billy!" she called for her aid and almost instantly he appeared. "Billy, we need to contact…"

"Admiral Adama's already on the line." Billy said, nearly out of breath and Roslin rushed back to her desk to pick up the phone.

"Madam President," Adama greeted formally. "We have a situation."

"Bill, what's going on?" Roslin asked with slightly less formality.

The Vice President, Gaius Baltar, had simply been sitting in the chair opposite of President Roslin looking confused as to what was happening. It wasn't the Cylons, they would have jumped already. He was postulating a few other theories when he felt a pair of arms that both were and weren't there drape over his shoulders. Six, his guardian, though he was still unsure of whether or not she was an angel.

"Something unexpected is happening Gaius, a change is coming and even I cannot see where it will ultimately lead you," Six moved now kneeling beside Gaius to look him in the eye. "But I do know this, a fire has come and the choices you make right now will determine whether it will be one of guiding or an inferno that will consume you all."

A chill ran down his spine. "What do I do?" he said softly, briefly looking at Roslin to see if she'd noticed him speaking apparently to no one and thankfully he found she was quite absorbed in her conversation with Admiral Adama. "What does God say?" he whispered with great fear in his voice.

"One of God's greatest gifts is the freedom of choice, Gaius. God wants you to determine the path that which all events will follow." Baltar felt out of breath as he heard the task being put before him. "Think of it as a test to prove your worthiness of being the guardian of our child."

Baltar breathed out slowly at the terrifying thought of the fate of humanity resting on his shoulders. "I…will choose right." He said, dry mouthed.

"I know you will Gaius, you always do." And with that Six leaned in to kiss him and he shut his eyes.

"Mister Vice President? Doctor Baltar?" President Roslin spoke up.

Gaius quickly cleared his throat and composed himself "Oh, um, sorry I was lost in thought." He passively excused.

"One minute ago, a ship not Colonial or Cylon in origin was detected by Galactica's DRADIS." Roslin said heavily.

Gaius moved, holding his hands together and sat himself up from the leaned back position he was in. "Oh um…well, I presume we are sending ships to investigate?"

Roslin gave a very slight nod. "Galactica and Pegasus are scrambling squadrons now, but the Admiral wants you over on Galactica to gain whatever expertise you may have in this situation."

Gaius paused for a moment before answering with the sincerest smile he could manage at the moment. "I would be happy to assist, as always."

APRIL 16 2534 1534 HOURS

UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE CFV-88

CRYO BAY 1

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

3 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT WITH SHIPS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

The first thing he felt was the sensation of falling, falling and weightlessness combined with that dreamlike empty headed sensation that seemed to last forever. That was, until he hit the floor. The numbness suddenly left his body and mind, replaced by immense burning pain over his skin and muscles. It was like what he imagined it would be like to be covered in a thousand fire ants. The aging gray haired man of 52 coughed his lungs out, expelling slowly built up mucus and foul tasting pharmaceutical nutritional supplement that was oozed down one's throat during cryo-stasis.

"Captain, wake up. Something has happened." He heard a voice say. Hard to pick out who with the immense amount of burning pain running up and down his muscles but he fought through it, focusing on who it could be and try to recall his memory. Serina, ship's AI, my ship Spirit of Fire, was supposed to wake me if…

Captain James Cutter awoke at last with realization sweeping over him.

"Captain…" Serina repeated as Cutter forced himself to stand up.

"Serina, what's going on?" he asked rubbing and blinking his light sensitive eyes.

"Ah, finally out of bed are we?" she said with her trademark dry wit. Cutter looked about the cryo bay to see that all the other pods were only in the early stages of the thawing process. "What's happened?" he asked again.

"As of three minutes ago, sensors aboard Spirit of Fire picked up a fleet numbering several dozen ships of unknown origin appearing in the same uncharted system we are in, approximately four-hundred-ninety-five-thousand kilometers out."

"Covenant?" he asked fearing the worst. Though he was reduced to a fast walk, Cutter would have dashed out of the cryo bay if his muscles would have let him, which Serina would have probably remarked as quite a sight, seeing the Captain running buck-ass naked through his own ship.

"Negative, most of their signatures are much too small for them to be Covenant vessels. Nor am I receiving any UNSC IFF signatures. I have altered our heading to run parallel with these vessels as our trajectory we would have intercepted them in five hours." Cutter opened his locker in the senior staff's adjacent locker room and began quickly putting on his uniform.

"Well at least it isn't the Covenant. What's the status in the rest of the ship?"

"I am currently engaging the emergency thaw process on all Longsword crews and Engineering Personnel, as well as a company of ODSTs. Spartan Red Team has already recovered from cryo-stasis and I am briefing them now of our current situation." Serina paused. "They have now reached Armory Three."

Cutter squared his cap on his head. "Good to hear, I'll see you on the bridge." Cutter paused at the locker room door to the main corridor. "And Serina…"

"Yes Captain?"

"Hurry it up with my staff; I'll need someone to get me my coffee." He finished as he jogged away knowing that even though he couldn't see Serina, she was probably smirking.

"Aye sir, always diligent to be wide awake in the face of impending destruction."

199 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK

RECON FLIGHT 01

CAPTAIN KARA (STARBUCK) THRACE, VIPER 8757

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

INVESTIGATING MYSTERY SHIP, 26 KILOMETERS AND CLOSING

13 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"Gods that's one big frakking ship. It's gotta have at least a kilometer on Galactica." Starbuck heard through her helmet's headset from the wingman, Reilly who was piloting Viper 1026. Together they were tasked with escorting Raptor 307 on a recon flight to scope out this mystery ship. It made Starbuck a little antsy to be outside of her Viper's transmission range from Galactica but she could deal with it, Reilly though was a different story.

"Reilly cut the chatter. We don't know what we're dealing with here, it could be Colonial." She said to the jumpy little ensign. Starbuck wished she had someone else for a wingman on a mission like this, Reilly was a decent pilot but sometimes she swore that damn that kid was afraid of his own shadow.

"I don't know Starbuck, I ain't ever seen a frakkin' Colonial ship like that." Racetrack stated with her unease evident as the mystery ship grew ever larger as they approached.

"My order to cut the chatter applies to you too Raptor three-oh-seven." She heard Racetrack reply with a 'Yes Captain' along with a muffled voice from the Raptor pilot's ECO that sounded a lot like 'frakking Viper jocks'. Starbuck glanced down at her DRADIS, sensing that they were approaching the limit of a safe range to observe and do their recon. "Alright let's slow it down ladies. Hold at fifteen clicks, old man doesn't want us risking our asses getting any closer than that." The two Vipers and the Raptor they were escorting slowed and banked left just outside 15 kilometers from the ship. They were to take a few slow nonthreatening loops around the massive ship, assess the situation and then haul ass back to Galactica. And if it hailed them…they'd figure something out, she hoped.

MAJOR VLADIMIR MARKOV

75TH ODST BATTALION (HELLHOUNDS)

UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE CFV-88

ENROUTE TO ARMORY 3

Major Markov of the 75th ODST's or the Hellhounds as they called themselves, and two platoons of his troopers, the damn toughest soldiers in all the UNSC were hauling ass down the corridor from Cryo Bay 5 to Armory 3. Platoons 3 and 4 were either still getting thawed out or getting dressed, but the enemy waits for no one. And even if he and his troopers were outnumbered seven to one the Hellhounds would fight to the last man and down to there own damn teeth if they had to.

But hopefully they wouldn't have to as the ODSTs now came up to the door to the armory on their right. Markov was preparing to make a quick turn through the door when it opened much too early for the sensor to have detected him. The troopers all collectively ground their boots into the deck plate as three fully armored Spartans dashed out of the armory without so much as a word. It looked to Markov that they had with them enough ordinance and weapons to start a small war. Hell, maybe even a big one if those bulging packs were anything to judge by. Markov swore he saw one of the things carrying the HMG off a warthog. He looked around to see his troopers staring at the Spartans as they disappeared down the hall with the echo of their boots pounding against the deck-plate growing ever fainter. Some of his men were shocked, others with looks of contempt for the Spartans for beating them here and gearing up before them.

"And what are you women looking at?" He growled. "Your panties wet or something? Get in there and get geared up, or do you want to be shown up by a bunch of damn robots?"

"Sir, hell no sir!" His ODSTs barked and poured into the armory.

"Yer DAMN RIGHT! Now get in there!"

2 MINUTES AGO

APRIL 16 2542 1542 HOURS

UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE CFV-88

MAIN BRIDGE

11 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

Cutter stepped onto the bridge and found his chair. "Serina, status?" he asked as the bridge's protective plate shielding retracted from over the panoramic windows.

"Red Team has reached Pelican bay five and are readying a Pelican for boarding action. Major Markov and two platoons of ODSTs are suiting up and Lieutenant Colonel McCullen is headed for the flight deck now with almost a full squadron of Longsword crews." Serina said, finally taking her holographic form once more upon her pedestal. "Wait, hold on, I'm detecting three small ships have just been launched from one of the larger ships we've encountered. Distance 458,000 kilometers directly off port and are closing."

"Threat status?"

"No nuclear weapons or radiation signatures detected, Captain. Their numbers and what I can guess from their ship types suggest a reconnaissance flight with fighter escorts, though they are very small craft sir, smaller than a Pelican. I must say, they are the cutest little deathtraps I've ever seen." Serina said with amusement.

Cutter grunted in confirmation. "Serina, if they try to get within ten kilometers bring deck guns, point-defense turrets and our ATAF missile turrets online."

"Aye sir, I'll have them ready for deployment on your signal. Meanwhile I will try to monitor their communications, see if we don't know them after all."

199 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK

RECON FLIGHT 01

CAPTAIN KARA (STARBUCK) THRACE, VIPER 8757

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

INVESTIGATING MYSTERY SHIP

14 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"What do you see Skulls?" Starbuck asked as they made their third sweep on the portside of the darkened ship that was not of any known classification. The writing on the ship's sides was definitely not any kind of Colonial language they had seen. And that strange crest with a bird atop a globe was just as unknown.

Skulls was running as Raptor 307's Electronic Countermeasures Officer who during scouting missions had the duty of operating the Raptor's cameras. He was an okay officer, but in Starbuck's opinion Skulls was an asshole. "Looks like our mystery ship had a tussle, got heavy damage along its portside uh, 'wing' and multiple scorch marks on the hull…almost like the plating's been…I don't know, melted. Detecting a low yield radiological signature, it might've been nuked but I can't tell at this range we'll have to get closer to get better resolution on the cameras."

"Admiral Adama doesn't want us getting any closer." Starbuck stated clearly.

Reilly was quick to add in his opinion. "I don't know Starbuck, that thing seems pretty dead to me. I think something would have happened by now."

Starbuck swore under her breath. "Seven, go to seven and not a frakking meter closer!"

"All right," Racetrack breathed as she opened up the throttle.

APRIL 16 2534 1546 HOURS

UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE CFV-88

MAIN BRIDGE

15 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"Captain, one of the ships is moving past the ten kilometer threshold."

Cutter curled his lip, hoping that he would have more time for the rest of the crew to get out of cryo. A few of his senior crew had made their way to the bridge and currently another was being redirected by Serina to get Cutter his coffee. The crew who had made it were fighting off the effects of 'freezer burn' that happened with older model of cryotube. Cutter could relate, but he was the Captain, he had to put on a stern face and ignore the pain for the men and women he led and keep them focused on their jobs.

"Then we have no choice Serina. Go to Condition Two, hit the lights and bring our defensive weapon systems online."

"Aye sir. Also, Lieutenant Colonel McCullen reports ten of our sixty Longswords as crewed and ready for launch with two more squadrons on the way."

Cutter keyed his chair to move to portside down the rail that nearly looped the bridge. "Tell him to hold Serina, I don't think we want to jump the gun on this. Whoever or whatever they are, they have FTL, and the Spirit needs to get back to the UNSC so we can report our discoveries on that artificial planet and everything we found there."

Serina nodded. "Agreed Captain, but right now it may be of interest to you to hear what I've discovered while monitoring these ships' communications. It appears that they are speaking some form or variation of an ancient Greek dialect."

Cutter blinked in surprise before composing himself once more. "Are you sure? Can you translate it?"

"I don't have complete comprehension at the moment but I am getting the gist of what they are saying…They are quite fond of their expletives sir."

Cutter stood from his chair and moved to most port facing window. "We need to hail them now Serina, I need you to translate what I have to say as accurately as possible."

"I'll do my best sir. Hopefully I won't mistranslate you into calling their mothers or deities anything too dreadful."

RECON FLIGHT 01

CAPTAIN KARA (STARBUCK) THRACE, VIPER 8757

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

INVESTIGATING MYSTERY SHIP

16 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"Holy frak!" Reilly shouted as the entire ship lit up in front of them as the presumed 'dead' ship became ablaze with lights up and down the vessel.

Raptor 307 slammed on the brakes and blasted its reverse thrusters to quickly halt.

Skulls probably would have been thrown from his seat were it not for the straps holding him in place. Starbuck's eyes shot to her display when she heard the telltale double beep of the DRADIS picking up contacts. "We got DRADIS contacts all over the ship! That thing's weapons are coming online!"

"Frak, Racetrack, Skulls, get the hell back here!" Starbuck ordered.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Starbuck heard Racetrack say. The Raptor spun around and double-timed it back to its escorts. DRADIS was reading dozens of weapons contacts on the ship, missiles, cannons and point-defense, enough to turn them into nothing but a smear upon the blackness of space. "We are seriously fraked." Skulls said over the wireless.

"What do we do Starbuck? What do we do?" Racetrack was asking.

Starbuck wasn't sure herself until it seemed that any action she could have taken was taken for her.

"- - Captain James Cutter of the - - Space - Navy ship: Spirit of Fire. Unknown ships - Raptor three-oh-seven - 'Viper' ships, hold at six - speak your purpose."

Starbuck was speechless, and double-checked the transmission source and verified that it had indeed come from the mystery ship. Spirit of Fire?

"Holy frak." Reilly blurted out again and continued repeating under muffled breath.

Skulls was much less shocked and caught up in the moment. "That ship's been monitoring our comms! We need to bug back to Galactica now!"

"I'm with Skulls on this one, Starbuck." She heard Racetrack while Reilly continued his chant of swearing. "If that thing's been listening in on us who the frak knows what else it's been doing. We need to get the frak out of here now Starbuck! We need to-"

"Everyone just shut the frak up!" Silence followed for a good six seconds. "Reilly, I'm ordering you to escort Raptor three-oh seven back to Galactica and report the situation once you get back in comm range."

"But what about-"

"I'll stay here, cover your asses and keep an eye on the situation until the Admiralfigures out what to do next."

"But no, no, Starbuck, that's suicide, that thing, whatever the frak's on there might just decide to blow you out of the sky!"

"That was an order Reilly, now take the Raptor and report back to Galactica now. Frak me." Starbuck said to herself as her fellow pilots floored it back to Galactica. "Ship designated Spirit of Fire, this is Flight Captain Kara Thrace of the Colonial Ship Battlestar Galactica…can you understand me?"

199 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK

COLONIAL FLEET

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BS-75

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

19 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"Galactica this is Viper ten-twenty-six with Raptor three-oh-seven inbound! Unknown ship has activated weapons." Adama almost visibly winced when he heard the pilot's words. He and Tigh had been anxiously waiting for the planes to re-enter their transmitting range when they saw them bolt back at full burn and he feared news like this would be reported.

Gaeta responded quickly as soon as he'd heard the Viper's transmission. "Say again Viper ten-two-six? Repeat, say again?"

Adama heard Reilly take a breath and tried to repeat what he said. "We got within ten kilometers just like we planned and Skulls, Skulls he-he spotted a lot of damaged plating and wanted a closer look. Which I thought, you know was fine, ship looked dead apart from, you know, the engines. And, and as soon as the Raptor broke ten kilometers, BOOM, the whole thing lit up from stem to stern like a frakkin' Pyramid Stadium. DRADIS fraking glowing with dozens of weapon contacts all over the thing and Starbuck ordered me to bring the Raptor back. So um you know, here we are…over."

Adama picked up his wired phone from the command station and held the speaker up to his mouth. "Viper ten-twenty-six this is Galactica Actual, what is the status of Starbuck?"

"Starbuck, she stayed behind to cover us so we could report back to you."

There was a long pause before Commander Tigh broke the silence in his usual way. "That frakking Starbuck and her crazy ass," Tigh swore. "Now what the hell are we going to do?"

A good question, he thought. Adama didn't want to get into a battle with so many unknowns lingering and he put his mind to work. As far as he could see it, there were two certain possibilities. It was the Cylons, or it wasn't. If it was a Cylon trap, then they were getting really creative. If they knew the fleet's position, it would have been simpler to stage a full nuclear assault when the fleet jumped into the system in retribution for their destroyed Resurrection Ship.

Then there was the second possibility, it was…someone else. And Adama had to admit it, this explanation made more sense. The ship was big but was alone and damaged. When it picked up the fleet on its sensors, whoever was manning that thing decided to keep a safe distance and only activated weapons if they felt threatened. But either way, it had weapons, which could be turned against the fleet and as Admiral, Adama couldn't stand for that. This situation needed resolving now and if it came to weapons, then so be it. Adama lowered his phone and turned toward Gaeta. "Once we have the Raptor back aboard I want a heading toward that ship. Tell Ensign Reilly to hold position, the rest of our Vipers will be joining him shortly."

"Yes sir." Said Adama's Tactical Officer with some slight reservation in his voice. "Dualla, get the Raptor back aboard."

Dee Nodded, "On it." And she began talking the ship in.

"And what about Pegasus Bill?" Tigh asked.

"We'll have Pegasus and her squadrons stay with the fleet just in case this is some kind of diversion." Tigh gave a confirming grunt in return and Adama put the speaker back up to his mouth. "This is the Admiral, set Condition One throughout the ship. Launch alert Vipers."

2 MINUTES AGO

CAPTAIN KARA (STARBUCK) THRACE, VIPER 8757

UNKNOWN SYSTEM

17 MINUTES AFTER CONTACT

"Ship designated Spirit of Fire, this is Captain Kara Thrace of the Colonial Ship Battlestar Galactica…can you understand me?" Starbuck breathed out thinking it was a shot in the dark.

"This is Captain Cutter; we hear you - and clear, Captain Kara Thrace. Keep 'chatter', we have not fully 'understood' your 'speak'."

Starbuck nodded. Now she was getting somewhere. "I think I understood that Spirit of Fire, I will keep talking…Um so are you guys…aliens?" she finally managed to get herself to say it. She gritted her teeth in uncertainty of what she may hear back.

"Myself and the crew - my ship are 'named' Man and come from a - of worlds that are part of the 'Allied States' Space 'Order' under the 'Allied' Earth 'Democracy'. Did you understand what just I 'chatter' Captain?"

Humans…Earth! Starbuck shut off her wireless and tried to get a hold of herself. "No way, there's no frakking way." She tried to think of what to do next before she realized that this Captain Cutter was waiting for a flipped the switch back on to her wireless and focused herself. "Say again, repeat, say again Spirit of Fire. Did you just say you are from Earth and that you are…human?"

"Confirmed Captain Thrace, we recognized your 'chatter' as an 'old' 'chatter' from Earth 'very long' ago. Does this mean you are human?"

Starbuck paused again, this was too good to be true, this had to be a Cylon trap but something in her gut was telling her different. "How do I know you are telling the truth? How can I be sure if I can't see you face to face?" Starbuck said her voice stressed but dead serious.

This time the pause was on Spirit of Fire's end. "Say again Captain Kara Thrace, repeat, say again, are you asking to come aboard?" Captain Cutter finally said. They had misinterpreted her message but the option struck Starbuck and she contemplated.

"Affirmative Spirit of Fire, I wish to come aboard." Another long pause followed.

"I am ordering two of our 'Vipers' to fly out and escort you to the - bay. A 'hoplite' team will meet…" Spirit's Captain stopped mid sentence, leaving Starbuck floating in space wondering what the hell was going on. It was nearly a minute before he responded. "This will have to wait Captain. One of your ships is inbound at - speed and 'birthing' more Vipers."

And then what felt like literally a second after that, a transmission from Galactica came through her headset from Adama himself. "Starbuck, this is Galactica Actual, we are inbound toward your position. Repeat, we are inbound toward your position. Fall back and join with your squadron."

"Oh, frak." Starbuck let out. She was still outside of her Viper's transmitting range, she had to get back and tell them what she may have found. If her gut was right, then she just found a ship from the Thirteenth Tribe and that meant that all their prayers would be answered. So that meant trying to keep her home from trying to blow up what may be their only salvation.

"Spirit of Fire this is Captain Thrace, I've been ordered back to the Battlestar Galactica. I'll do my best to explain the situation but I think my wingman got scared when you activated weapons and has misinformed Galactica of the situation. Now Galactica is coming with what sounds like every gun she has pointed at you. So I really hope you are who you say you are, Captain Thrace out."