A preview of Volume Four of Battlestar Victorious:

Ragan System:

In a bright flash of light, the Victorious completed its jump into the Ragan System.

Commander Andre Graystone and Colonel Celina Cruz looked up at the DRADIS display above the Command and Control Station. Each one mentally prayed that if there were any DRADIS contacts that it would be the Colossus or some other friendly ship.

"Negative contacts," Ensign Jared Simons reported from Tactical.

"Perhaps there is something interfering with our DRADIS. Do you think we should launch Vipers for a visual search?" Cruz asked.

Graystone nodded, "We need to be as thorough as we can with this search. Get me the CAG; I want to brief him on what is going on."

Cruz nodded and walked over to Communications and relayed Graystone's request to Lieutenant Enid Branwen. Minutes later the doors to the CIC slid open and in walked Major Rockwell Alston. Alston had recently become the CAG of Victorious and had led the air group into battle when the battlestar had jumped into the fray at Ostarsis.

"You sent for me, Commander?" Alston asked once he was over to the Command and Control Station.

"I'm ordering the air group launched. I want some of our flyers to stay behind in case the Cylons show up, I'll leave who stays behind up to you but most of the pilots are going to be out searching this system for any sign of the Colossus."

"Understood, sir, if either my pilots or I come across any of sign of debris you'll be among the first to know," Alston said as he turned to leave the CIC.

"I prefer we run into the Colossus instead of the Cylons. At Ostarsis we had safety in numbers but out here…not so much," Cruz said.

"If we don't run into them here I may expand the search to the neighboring systems, perhaps the FTL malfunctioned and they jumped to one of those," Graystone said as he looked at the map of the Ragan system and its neighbors.

"I hope so; we have to assume that they're out there somewhere."

Cruz thought about how she was going to phrase her next statement before she said, "How much time and resources are you willing to invest on this search?"

Graystone looked at her with a shocked expression, "Is there a reason behind asking that?"

"You saw how many baseships the Cylons had thrown into the fray at Ostarsis, and the Colossus was the only ship that was unable to jump away. There may be a chance that Admiral Tolan and the crew are not even out here. We can't risk losing this ship or getting separated from the rest of the fleet searching for someone who could very well be dead."

"I owe it to Scott to look for him; he dragged our asses out of the Atlantia when we could have very well died. He's family, Celina, and I can't abandon family, especially at a time like this. I'll spend every minute I can searching for him," Graystone saw Cruz about to argue and cut her off, "I won't risk this ship and its crew needlessly, but I am going to use every chance to search for the Colossus. I refuse to leave our people behind."

"Unless you have to," Cruz finally said after a long pause.

"Unless I have to," Graystone said quietly.

Viper Squadron One Ready Room:

"The orders are for us to use stims if we need them," Captain Brant 'Wizard' Martin said to the pilots that composed the Victorious' Viper Squadron One.

"Any word on what we can expect to find out there?" Lieutenant Jamaal 'Big Daddy' Powers

"The CAG mentioned that we may find the Colossus out there, wreckage of some sort, or even nothing at all. This system was the fallback location for the task force and that's why we're going to search it thoroughly, just in case," Martin said.

"Where is the CAG?" Ensign Weston 'Riddler' Zimmerman asked before any of the other pilots had a chance to speak.

"He's coordinating with the other Captain Lokrum of Raptor Squadron One. The plan right now," Martin said as he brought a map of the Ragan System up on the view screen, "is to divide the system into sections that each of the Raptors will be responsible for. The Viper squadrons will be responsible for protecting the Raptors as well as keeping a visual for any wreckage."

"What are the chances of the Cylons showing up?" Lieutenant Willis 'Wise Guy' Sykes asked.

"No telling; but if the Cylons by some chance show up then alert the Victorious and come back here immediately. Do not engage the enemy."

"I guess that's going to take the fun out the assignment," Ensign Maurice 'Slick' Price joked.

Martin shook his head, "Yeah, that is going to take away your fun, but I think it's safe to say that right now survival is more important than having fun. We just got some hits in against the toasters at Ostarsis, which should be enough to hold us for a little while."

"How long until we launch?" Lieutenant Merlin 'Magician' O'Neill asked.

"We launch in twenty minutes, the deck gang is currently busy doing some repairs and maintenance on our Vipers. When I get the okay from Chief Vance we'll head to the hangar deck and prepare to launch," Martin said as he left the lectern and headed out of the ready room to confer with Major Alston and then with Chief Avis Vance.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Lieutenant Douglas 'Sandman' Exeter when Martin left the room.

"The Admiral has to be one tough son of a bitch to knock off, you'd think after all this time the Cylons would have learned that," Lieutenant William 'Wraith' Llewellyn commented though his tone did not quite match the bravado of his statement.

"If I had my way we'd find the Colossus and Admiral Tolan quickly. He's one of the officers I would hate to lose," Ensign Raquel 'Gold' Maddox said.

"I agree. Though it looked like the Colossus was taking one hell of a pounding before we got the order to land back on the Vic and jump out," Ensign Alejandra 'Grass' Santos said with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, that ship was probably targeted by every baseship there at Ostarsis," Ensign Zhen 'Hipshot' Yang added.

"Suit up and get ready to fly," Martin said. Now was the time for him to leave the squad room and see if the Raptors were ready to do their part.

Thirty-Seven Minutes Later:

Raptor Eight-Two-One:

"Still nothing," Captain Frederick 'Spider' Lokrum said.

"What are the odds that we'll find something in this sector?" Lieutenant Douglas Gillette, the pilot of Raptor Seven-Nine-One, asked.

"It's probably the same as it is in the other sectors," Lieutenant Edward London, the pilot of Raptor Eight-One-Eight, said.

"Keep the chatter down you two," Lokrum chided the two pilots, the last thing he wanted to do was clog the communications channel with unnecessary talk.

"I'm seeing something off to the left," London reported.

"Can you tell what it is?" Lokrum asked.

"It looks like a piece of wreckage, that's all I can tell right now," London said.

"Let's get the Raptors in close and turn on our search lights," Lokrum said to his pilots.

"Copy that, Spider, we'll stay where we are unless the toasters show up," Lieutenant O'Neill said.

The three Raptors moved in close and turned on their searchlights. The large piece of wreckage was decidedly manmade and bore the black scars of fire damage. To the right of it were the remains of a Viper Mark VII.

"I'll run a scan on the wreckage to see if it matches with any Colonial designs," Ensign Alfred Trajan said as he entered the image scan of the wreckage to see what ships in the Colonial Fleet database it would match.

"London, I want you to get a closer look at that Viper so we can see what battlestar it may have come from," Lokrum said and watched as London's Raptor moved in.

"Captain, we've run the tail number on the Viper and it comes up as belonging to Viper Squadron One of the Battlestar Hermes," London said after he had received the information from his ECO.

"Let's see if our wreckage matches the Jupiter class," Lokrum said as a small feeling of relief began to come over him. If that Viper was from another battlestar, then just maybe, the wreckage was from the Hermes and not the Colossus.

"We have a match," Trajan exclaimed as the computer showed the type of ship the wreckage had come from.

"What is it?" Lokrum asked.

Trajan's voice held a grave tone when he said, "It's a Mark 48 Rangefinder from the Colossus, it was the only ship of the class to receive this type."

Trajan looked at the scan of the wreckage and the line drawing below it. In blinking red letters was the word 'Match' and above the line drawing in black letters was 'Battlestar Colossus'.

Lokrum's heart sank and the idea that the Colossus had been lost suddenly became a reality in his eyes, "Let's see if Commander Graystone wants us to search for more wreckage. I don't think we're going to find an intact battlestar out here."