A United Land

"Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn."

                                                             - Unknown

       Galactica lay silently in the upper atmosphere of gas giant Ragnar. She had radioed to all surviving ships to jump to the area, and after waiting for a week, several straggles, including Colonial One, Colonial Movers, Monarch, and the Greenhouse Ship had appeared.

        As part of her scheduled decommissioning, she had destroyed her own ammunition. She was also running low on tylium ore, the material that powered her FTL engines.

        But, the Cylons, being stubborn little mules they are, had placed two basestars over the planet to stop the ships from breaking out. Due to the electromagnetic distortion of the FTL jump computers, the ships would have to go above the atmosphere. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Galactica would have to hold off the Basestars.

         The flight pods retracted for the jump. The entire ship was tense; this would be her first jump in over two decades. In the CIC, the FTL coordinates were entered and the engines powered up.

          "Here goes nothing..."

           The 4700 foot ship disappeared in a flash of light, then reappeared below the Basestars several miles away. The main batteries immediately traversed to face the two ninja-star-like menaces. Vipers launched out of their tubes, while their Cylon counterparts, the Raider where shoved out of small hangers leaving them to maneuver their way to the last known Battlestar.

           Flak batteries opened up, stopping any missiles from reaching the ship. After several minutes of intense battle, Galactica recalled all fighters, and the ship retracted her pods. The ship disappeared in a flash of light, appearing in the midst of the fleet.

          For the next couple of days, the fleet make 236 jumps successfully, with a 33 minute countdown for every Cylon attack. On the 237 jump, the Olympic Carrier, a luxury liner that had 1000 people on board failed to appear along with the cylon attacks.

           Getting suspicious, Adama ordered the countdown to continue as the Carrier closed in. Scanners detecting nuclear warheads, President Roslin ordered for the ship to be destroyed.

          Later, she wrote the name in a piece of paper and left it in her desk on Colonial One.