The [i]Columbia[/i] moved out of the Scorpio shipyards. "This is Columbia Actual we're away."Columbia Actual, all reports are green. Happy hunting."" Lorne looked around to the CIC full of people at their stations, some of their faces he knew well. However there were new faces among them. Rooks straight out of War College io Caprica. People who had never seen action outside of simulation. However he was confident that they would manage to pull through in the end. After all their very survival depended on it and if he could not depend on his officers and his crew, there was no-one he could depend upon. He turned to his XO, a man he had only known for four years however he had quickly learned to trust and heavily depended upon. "Give me ship wide." A horn blew throughout the ship, letting everyone at their stations pause to listen to a message from the commander. He picked up the phone from off its hook and raised the microphone to his mouth. "This is the Commander. Word has reached the admiralty about a world outside of the Colonies being used as a Cylon testing site. Several colonial refugee convoys have been lost in nearby space without even being able to let off a distress beacon. We will jump into a polar orbit above the planet and rendezvous with the Galactica and the Atlantia. Recon reports there are three enemy baystars in orbit, Galactica and the Columbia will move on a full frontal attack while the Atlantia will move in behind. I have faith in our ability to take on this mission, we're trained for this and we're ready after our time in drydock. Acton stations, prepare for combat jump." He put the phone down as the alarm began to ring through the ship. He turned to Phillips and nodded, as he then picked up the comms. "All stations report in for combat jump, Navigation-""Go.""-Tactical-""Go.""-Combat-""Go.""-Damage Control-""Go.""-Medical-""Go""-Marine Teams-""Go.""-Viper Wings-""Go.""-Gunnery teams-""Go." Phillips turned back to Lorne. "- Ship reports ready to jump, sir.""Good, start the clock." There was a hum that shrunk as a navigation officer began counting down "Jumping in 5,4,3,2, Jump." Usually a jump was instant, and it felt instant. Or rather you didn't really notice any passing in time you only really noticed a flashed and felt as if you had your intestines turned inside out as space was folded and you disappeared from one place and then instantly re-appeared in another. Though this time, for reasons beyond comprehension it didn't. With a wave of blue light in the ship they found themselves in orbit above a strange desert world. The ship shuddered as the lights flicked due to power disruptions, on the damage control board behind him he cast a glance and saw several red light. Decompression alerts. "Status?" The tactical officer was walking between stations writing on a clipboard and talking as he went. The screens on the DRADIS console finally stabilized stating that the FTL was offline. "Multiple contacts on DRADIS none of them bearing Colonial Transponders or transponders that we recognize, we have several hull breaches near engineering and reports indicate FTL is offline." He gripped his fist on the edge of the table as he looked at DRADIS, they were surrounded and with FTL offline they were vulnerable. "Engines all ahead full, bring us out of this mix. Bring all batteries to full power and launch vipers, get me an eye on those ships." There was the brief change in inertia as the engines at the rear of the Battlestar began pushing it away from the planet and into a further orbit, out from the other ships. --- Pheonix sat in his Viper as he was thrown back into his seat as the catapult threw him out of the battlestar. Twenty vipers in his flight, eighty vipers in all launched and likely there would be another eighty not far behind them. "Red flight, form in. Counter clockwise turn around the Columbia, we're escorting her out of here-" He cast a glance at the planet and noticed that it was a desert, the briefing said ice. "This is Pheonix requesting a line with Columbia Actual." A couple of minutes later the harsh voice of the commander came online. "This is Actual.""Commander, we're not at the designated co-ordinates. The planetary body is a desert not an ice world, and these ships. I've never seen ships of these configurations.""Copy that, weapons hold. Continue circling the Columbia and keep an eye on possible hostiles.""Yes sir." The line clicked as the Commander went off the line. "All right boys and girls, weapons hold. Keep formation and keep an eye out on those other ships. Something weird is going on and we don't know [/i]what.[/i]" And to think, he was supposed to be on frakking leave. --- Lorne looked at Phillips. "Get on Damage control. I'm going to find out what is going on here." He looked around the rest of CIC. "Stand down to condition two." With that he moved over to his tactical officer. "What have you got for me Lieutenant Sanders?""Well sir, our navigational computer can't pin point our position. Astrometics don't recognize any of the local star constellations, frankly sir. We don't have a clue where we are.""How is this possible? " The young lieutenant, who had been the source of many answers just looked at him. "I have no clue sir. I verified the co-ordinates and watched them being input and preliminary reports indicate nothing is wrong with the system.""I would disagree Lieutenant.""I know sir, but at this moment I simply don't have any answers for you.""Keep on it." Lorne moved back to the main table where he could keep an eye on DRADIS and these other ships. --- Phillips walked over to the Damage control panel. "Captain, report." A female Captain stood and pointed at some of the red lights. "We've got a hull breach from sections 63-69 along the outer edges off the hull and are venting into space, no sign of fires. The problem is we have a coolant leek from the FTL drives." Phillips looked at the damage control panel. "Get two DC teams. One to seal the breach with temporary materials and a second to escort engineers down to seal the leak. We need that system prepared in case we need to get out of here.""Copy that.""Right, get too it." He turned to see the commander returning to the main station and moved back over to him, standing beside him he spoke in a hushed tone. "What the frak is going on?"I don't know, navigation has no idea where we are. The planet isn't where we're supposed to be and we don't recognize any of the ships out there." Phillips looked back at the screen, over thirty contacts. "By the Gods, if they all turn on us we won't stand a chance.""That is just what I was thinking which is why we're sitting on the defensive right now.""We can't jump, you know that. If we have no data on the local systems we can't risk jumping until we have a good navigational chart and it could take hours.""I know that, so I'm going to send a squawk ident and challenge. See what we get.""Thats a risky move, they might not take too kindly to the challenge.""I know, lets just hope that the fact we are offering the challenge makes us look big and imposing." They both looked up at the DRADIS. "How long until the FTL is online?""DC teams are on their way, but the hull breach is going to slow them down a bit. I'm having them seal the breach closest to the leak so that should be able to speed them up a bit but it could be a good half an hour before we can make a [i]small[/i] jump.""Have astronomical and navigation get working on co-ordinates for a nearby system so that we are able to jump if need be.""Yessir." With that Phillips walked over to the tactical station as he moved around closer to communications. "Johnson, on all frequency perform a Squawk ident and challenge to all unidentified vessels.""Yes sir." As he walked away he could hear the Petty Officer. "Attention unidentified vessels this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourselves or we will be forced to take hostile action. I repeat, this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourselves or we will be forced to take hostile action." Lorne sighed, at least they had just came back from a resupply and repair, a full Viper compliment was always handy in these situations. With Eighty out and 160 more in waiting if this was some kind of trap they wouldn't go down easily. --- [i]Several Minutes Ago[/i] "Everyone okay?""Yes Chief." There was a minor change in the air as the Launch tubes opened back up. "All right lets move, move move! Get these Vipers in the tubes-" That was one thing that always got him. Despite the racks and the hydrolic platforms that moved the Vipers all around the Hanger deck into the dark recesses of the flight pod they still had to manually push Vipers into the Launch tube. In a way it was safer however it always seemed a bit inconvenient, however there was the bonus that it kept people on their feet. He himself moved behind a Viper as it was lowered onto the main hanger deck floor and then helped push it into the hanger, moving below the landing gear he clipped it onto the hydraulic pulley that would bring it up to speed to fire it out into Space if need be. Then he moved back out as the door was sealed behind him and the chamber was opened to space. He looked around briefly at the hanger deck as everyone else checked the seals on the launch tubes. "All right people, don't go patting yourself on the backs yet. The CAG wants all his birds ready. Move it, move it, move it!" Once again the hanger deck was a hustle and bustle of activity. --- Once in the spacesuit Petty Officer First Class Simmons closed the Hatch behind him and walked past everyone else to the Hatch that would take them into the damaged engineering sections, luckily it was one of the sections that rarely had people in it so they hadn't lost anyone. However some people in the surrounding areas had been injured. "All right, hard seal. Let's go." He spun open the bulkhead on front of him and lead the team in. Despite the fact that they were in space suits he noticed the slightest dip in temperature as all the heat from this section had been vented out into space. He lead them down the corridor, his boots magnetically keeping him on the floor as he noticed a crack in the sealing and looked up through it, the crack appeared to go up several decks and got thicker as it did. This was the hull breach. He clicked on his radio before speaking. "All right. Harvey, Parcey and Regent you three get to work patching up this hole. We'll continue up and see about blocking the coolant leak." With that three stayed behind and he and two others continued on wards until they reached a large pipe with a crack in it, now and then a droplet of a thick blue liquid would leak out and move towards the breach. "All right, it doesn't look too bad. Once we've sealed it we'll just need to pressurize the system which shouldn't take more of an hour." He moved his hand back for the welding kit. "Lets get started."