I DO NOT OWN Battlestar Galactica

This story was suggested to me by 'Just a Crazy Man' who asked me to write this, it is based on another story he found. This is based on the Original Battlestar Galactica Series from 1978 but with elements of the new series as well

AOE – Arrival on Earth

Tales of the 13th Tribe

Chapter 1 – Arrival on Earth

0 AOE…

The devastation of Kobol by solar flare activity from its own star rendered the once verdant and habitable world to a desert were little could survive. Its inhabitants were forced to load whatever and whoever they could into the great star ships they called star caravans and left in their individual tribes to rebuild out there amongst the stars. Twelve tribes would travel together and found the Twelve Colonies while the thirteenth tribe went out further and further into deep space. As time passed, worlds that could be habitable were discovered by the thirteenth tribe but while some stayed to colonise these worlds many kept going to try and find another world like the one they'd first left to start life again and eventually their faith and endurance was rewarded.

The star caravans moved across the great expanse of space, on the bridge of the lead ship the commander of the tribe stood proudly as he watched the ship's approach a planet that had discovered which could support life. It was a pleasant looking world with large bodies of water, nearly 70% of the planet was covered by it and large land masses of fertile earth that were lush with wildlife. It was perfect for the 13th tribe of Kobol. Its star system had eight planets, four of them gas giants who had many moons and on the outer edge of the system many dwarf planets all orbiting a large yellow star.

They chose one of the continents that had been christened Africa for their landing and soon the people who had spent so many years on ships with artificial gravity and processed air marvelled in the clean natural oxygen and incredible feeling of earth beneath their feet. The sensation was so incredible after so long in space that the settlers decided to name their new world Earth.

A city called Atlantis was set up in the centre of the country as their first capital while other groups set out to make their own settlements elsewhere on the planet so that one large disaster was less likely to wipe them out. They set up their hydroponics gardens to grow food while taking steps to protect the amazing wildlife and natural beauty around them. Their technology allowed the settlements to spring up quickly and before long babies started being born.

As the population of original settlers aged and died the younger generations rose to take over their world at making their home as perfect a paradise as possible. Glorious stone buildings and decorations rose as new cities were built and older ones grew in size but they were careful to preserve nature.

Their technology advanced and soon they started to look to the stars especially wondering about the fate of their brother and sister tribes that had left Kobol at the same time as them. Space stations were constructed in orbit with powerful telescopes to see what might be out there but there didn't seem to be any sign of life anywhere else around so Earth's moon was colonised in a great effort, building huge domed cities in the craters of the smaller astral body. The next step was a nearby world called Mars where more domed cities where built.

Moons were colonised and asteroid facilities were built inside hallowed out asteroids, what had once been a small collection of ships with only a few thousand people had over two thousand years grown to number in the millions.

2083 AOE…

The grand council chamber centred in the bustling metropolis of Atlantis was crowded with senators from each settlement on the planet and one from each of its colonies. They sat in their seats talking about whatever subject came into their heads as they waited or the President of the newly named Earth Republic to arrive. The immediately fell silent as the older woman arrived in the room and took her place on the centre platform to address the representatives of all Earth's territories. She was a stern looking woman with iron grey hair and flowing white robes of office, she activated the voice amplifier in front of her as she addressed the assembled politicians

"My fellow representatives" she began as her voice filled the enormous room "Since our forefathers arrived on this planet two millennia ago we have built a civilisation to be proud of, but we may well be the last of our kind" she said and a quiet rumbling started amongst those assembled

"We have had no contact with either our fellow tribes or those our forefathers split with on their way to this beautiful world. This could well be the last outpost of humanity left in the universe so we must take no chances in ensuring humanity's future" she continued and once she had let her statement sink in brought forward the reason she had called this assembly

"I therefore propose the Amterno Project named after the first president of this civilisation, great ships will be built to carry our people back out into the galaxy again for the first time in two thousand yahrens. We will seek out planets to colonise, new resources and even other life to spread the reach of humanity back out into the stars" she declared and a rousing applause of yells answered her as her proposal was accepted.

So the great project began, the shipyards that Earth had built began to construct great leviathans that could carry explorers out into deep space again. These great ships were so large that they exceeded any ships they'd ever built before; measuring over four thousand feet in length carried the best weapons that their society could produce including the new Railgun weapons, both large and small as well as the fastest engines they could build and the latest scientific equipment to study the universe their orders were to go out into the depths of space.

2097 AOE…

The Exploration Star as they had become known cruised through the inky black night of space, passing a glorious yellow and blue nebula. This particular ship, one of the six built was named after the capital of Earth, Atlantis. On its bridge the commanding officer of this vessel Commander Solis was standing tall as proud as his crew beneath him went about carrying out the many tasks that needed to be done to make this leviathan of a ship go on.

He was proud to have earned the exalted position as commander of one of these great ships and to have been given this great mission, his family back on Earth had been so proud and although he was excited about the mission still after the last few months he missed his family greatly.

"Commander" called one of the officers of the watch "The planet we detected is Earth type with 80% water and 20% land and it appears uninhabited. It has three moons and they resemble Jungle like environments"

The Commander turned to the junior officer manning the station and asked him "Are we within raptor range?"

"Yes sir" he said and the Commander nodded before giving his orders

"Send five raptors to scout them out while we move closer, I want a full survey of all four of them" and the junior officer sent the orders.

Two days later….

The commander sat down in his office as he reviewed the data collected by the Raptors. The planet which had been named Celesta and its three moons were all Earth type planets and could easily support human life. They possessed little in the way of animal life but had a lot of plant life which had the botanist section dancing for joy.

All were prime candidates for colonisation

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These explorations went on for nearly ten years, finding five other planets where found that could support human life as well as thirty two moons. A huge asteroid belt was discovered near Celesta that possessed almost unlimited deposits of Tylium which they had named the Atlas belt, providing Earth ships with the fuel to go further.

But then the Atlantis made a huge discovery

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The star system the ship was charting just before it ended its assigned exploration corridor and the crew were happy to finally be going home when Lieutenant Corsairs the same officer who had discovered Celesta detected another planet on his long range sensors and above, what looked like primitive artificial satellites.