"Sir, we have Orion at long range, not responding to hails, I think his comm system is down.."
"Very well, inform the flight deck we have a code blue."
"Yes sir."
-Galactica's Port flight deck
"MOVE PEOPLE, we have a bleedin snake commin in!" Shouted the crew chief.
Deckhands scrambled to fire control stations, Medics stood at the ready, and everyone staired down the flight deck, trying to see the damaged Viper on its final approach.
"There!" Someone pointed. "Looks like she's commin in too hot!"
Indeed, the flailing viper was going way too fast and it was also too low.
"This is gonna be ugly," said the crew chief.
-Galactica CIC
"Ensign why don't we have ALS on him yet?"
"Either his transponder is malfunctioning or his main computer is down sir, ALS cant get a pulse from Orion's guidance system."
"Then hes flying blind and dead stick, are the fire suppression teams in place?"
"Yes sir."
-Orion on approach
Luckily, the nav computer had quit just after David Helion saw Galactica on his long range sensors.
"Galactica, this is Viper two zero requesting code blue clearance."
No responce. David tapped his comm gear, it was dead. He glanced at the crack in his canopy,
"Is that getting bigger?" he thought to himself. He next looked at his guidance computer, it was gone too.
"Well, at least I have my own two eyes."
As he staired out of his cockpit at the growing Battlestar his left ear blossomed with pain and started bleeding. At the same time he noticed his canopy beginning to fog up as the microatmosphere in his cockpit began to condence. the viper was beginning to decompress.
David squirmed and struggled to get a hold of the control stick with his broken left arm. With his right arm free he wiped away the condensation from his canopy and only then noticed how quickly he was approaching the flight deck.
"FRACK!"
-Galactica Flight deck
Less than half a kilometer from the flight deck, Orion's dieing viper violently righted its course but showed no signs of slowing.
"My Gods, his forward reverse thruster must be gone too."
The viper slammed into hard decking and began careening towards a crowd of deckhands in the number 2 hangar. Balloon-like anti collision barriers popped out from the deck protecting the hangar and its fuel stores and stopped the screaching spacecraft, ripping its topside wing off of the frame. Klaxons blaired throughout the flight deck, and crews rushed to the damaged fighter.
-Galactica sick bay, 4 hours later
Admiral Adama surveyed the injuries to one of his irreplaceable viper pilots. "What happened out there Lieutenant?"
"Smuggler, sir."
"A smuggler did this?"
"He was no ordinary smuggler, sir. He was in a pirate fighter."
"Sir, Venus, did she make it back?"
"We haven't heard from Lieutenant Atalante yet."
"She held off a group of Corsairs while I retreated, we need to go back for her."
"We're doing everything possible right now, tell me about the battle."
"Venus and I had recieved a report from SFBS Magnificent that there was pirate activity in New London so we investigated. We detected the fighter approaching Planet New London with a hold full of military prisoners and Cardamine. I ordered him to spill his bay and he refused. We engaged him. After I dropped his sheilds and landed a few hull shots he retreated across the system and we pursued. After 10 minutes of evading us we returned to Canterbury for refuel and thats when he returned. Venus suffered a hydrolics malfunction so I had to take him myself this time. We fought for a long time. I don't remmember how long but it seemed like hours. I would get his sheilds down, then he would get mine...over and over again until both our hulls were buckeling. I thought I was dead many times but I finally cracked his ships core. I didn't have time to see if he ejected and Venus was too busy with a wing of Corsairs to see either."
"Alright thats enough," said the Doctor. "He needs rest now. He can file his report after 8 hours of rack time Admiral."
![[Image: Tex3.jpg]](http://free-sk.t-com.hr/Freelancer/Tex3.jpg)