Another Way

by burmafrd

Earth discovers the Colonials en route. Glen Larson created a universe and I just want to play in it a little for some fun.

Col John Williams, United Earth Space Force, commander, Fighters, Task Group 2, 3rd Fleet, fought to keep control. The attack had come as a complete surprise(but it shouldn't have, he thought grimly). The Silingree had fooled the Group Commander into not launching a full force of fighters. Only his Wing had launched- because of his own suspicions. He had never trusted the Silingree- and he had just been proven completely correct- in the worst possible way. The so called "honor guard" had been disguised kamikazes- they had crashed all 4 carriers and destroyed them. Fleet carriers are tough ships- but when shuttles fully loaded with explosives smash directly into the main engines any ship will go up like a huge firecracker. 16,000 officers and enlisted personnel had just died like that- but Williams was determined to get revenge. Cutting through the curses, crys and wails he gave crisp orders: head for the Silingree home world just ahead.

"form up for attack run" were the first words he had spoken in the last half hour as the ships had moved into position for an attack on the Silingree home world. "target all their main power generating centers-that should pretty much draw any teeth they might have.

After we do that we will pick an uninhabited area of their planet to land and await the relief force. I heard the distress signal go out before the Yorktown blew- and I am pretty sure the Langley got one off as well. Do not think the Ark Royal or the Akagi managed to get signals off- but Earth knows what has happened and the rest of the 3rd fleet should be here in less then a week. We just make sure the Silingree are all wrapped up in a pretty bundle for them to collect." A fairly savage feeling of anticipation washed through his veins as he prepared to make the attack run.

"Look at that one burn, Boss!" came from Jonesy, his deputy commander and VMF 122's CO. "Does seem to be roasting merrily" he returned. There were now fires in dozens of areas on the planet- and his sensors indicated that power levels down there were almost flat lined. He was amazed that the Silingree apparently had no planetary defenses- or at least if they did they were not operational. They had counted on destroying all the fighters with the carriers, and had no response when that failed. He shook his head- this bunch is as stupid as you can get. Ambush a much stronger and nastier force and get mostly lucky= but have no fall back if you fail.

"Colonel, my sensors are picking up some weird energy readings. VERY strong, but the computer has no idea what it is." Came from Lizzy, VMF 102's XO and someone who had made a point of studying weird energies and such as a hobby. He turned his own sensors on to scan the planet- and the readings worried him. Virtually as soon as the power stations had been destroyed, these strange readings had started and were getting stronger-FAST. Worried that this was some kind of weapon, he ordered the Wing to punch it and get out of orbit RIGHT NOW.

Just as the group reached the level of one of the worlds moons, it went up. The entire planet just exploded. Everyone just had time to yell "SHIT" when the energy wave rushed over them. All lost consciousness. So no one saw the rip in space/time/fabric/whatever it was open up and swallow them.

He groaned-man, someone get the number of that truck that just ran over my head about 20 times. He blinked, and looked around. Remembering where he was he immediately checked his status. Systems were all on standby- default when the computer suddenly shuts down. He checked the systems as he brought them online one by one. No permanent damage appeared= so he was lucky. He looked around- could just barely spot some of the fighters= his sensors slowly id'd all of them. He sighed with relief- he had not lost anyone. But what had happened- and where were they. There was no planet or even a sun around to get a fix on. His Nav computer stubbornly refused to give a position. Luckily he still had almost half full fuel tanks so they could probably make to a nearby system-if it was not too far away.

As the squadrons checked in, it appeared no one had any problems. Except for wondering what had happened and where they were and what were they going to do. "OK everyone, lets get it together. We have to find an inhabitable world fast as possible. So we need to conserve fuel. By squadrons we will scan in all directions to cover the quadrant as quickly as we can." The Wing woke up and started to move with purpose. BUT then..

"Colonel!" came from Willie, commander of VMF 112. "I am getting what looks to be weapons fire at 23 slot 876 vector 11".

Commander Cain cursed the stars= the cylons had found them! With only a skeleton crew, the Pegasus had escaped and made it to a nearby star system to refuel and start repairs. The refueling was accomplished=and so were the repairs. Unfortunately, Cain had only started to train replacement pilots- and they only had a few Vipers anyway.

Now a cylon base ship had gotten lucky and found them and launched its raiders.

Had his luck finally run out? Stuck near the asteroid belt of this system, they could not hit full power and run- not where they were. "Commander!" shouted Tolen. "I have unidentified craft coming in at high speed. They do not match anything we have ever seen!" Cain ran to Tolens console- it was true. The readings the long range scanners showed were completely unknown.

"My sensors agree sir- none of those fighter type craft have life signs. They appear to be drones or something else." Lizzy's confirmation decided him. That huge ship they were attacking, though, did have life signs- humans! "OK people, we don't really know what this is about but when you have what looks like either machines or drones attacking ships with humans in them, we know which way to go. Jonesy, take 102 and 122, hit them from the right; I will take 112 and 132 and hit them from the left. LETS GO!"

Cain watched with narrowed eyes as the unknown ships tore into the surprised Cylons.

These people-whoever whatever they are- are good. Their ships did not appear to be as fast as Vipers, but were more maneuverable and their pilots were very good. Also, it appeared that their weapons had a longer range. They were taking out raiders at half again the range vipers had. In just a few centons, there was not a raider left. Cain looked at Tolen and ordered "see if you can contact them. We owe them pretty big- and we need to know who they are. "

Williams looked at his com- he was stunned to see a face on the screen that looked just like any human he had ever seen. Their language was pretty close to English- just how could that happen. Some words were unusual and usage was a little strange- but he could understand them.

Cain could not believe it- they spoke Standard; not quite normal, but close.

Then his eyes widened as he asked again – to confirm something that he could not quite

Believe: THEY WERE FROM EARTH! Quickly making his decision- he told them to land in Alpha Bay. He then ran for the lift.

Williams led his group in- slowly since apparently this BATTLESTAR did not have tractor beams- so they would have to land hot. They managed to land without anyone denting anything- barely. He opened his canopy and stood up- climbed out to meet the tall older officer=commander? That was waiting for him.

Deciding to be proper about it- he stood at attention, saluted, and said"

Col John Williams, commander Fighters, task group 2, 3rd Fleet, United Earth Space Command".

Cain nodded to the younger officer- he looked solid and straight."Welcome to the Battlestar Pegasus, Fifth Fleet, Colonial Fleet. Since there is only one other battlestar, and it is with the rest of our people, we are glad to see someone from Earth- many of us doubted the existence of Earth."

Sitting in Cain's quarters with his second, Tolen, Williams and his deputy, Jonesy, tried to make sense of the situation. Cain and Tolen had no idea of how what had happened to the Wing could happen. They were looking at the space maps and comparing them to the Nav Computer aboard Williams fighter- they had been transported hundreds of light years away from where the Silingree home world had been. It looked like it would take years to make it to Earth. Cain had told them about Adama's quest- and amazingly the secret base course he had used would indeed take them to Earth. Doing the computations, Tolen had figured out that they would intercept the Fleets course in about 1-2 yahrens.

Long range scans had shown that the Cylon base ship was on the other side of the system- and would soon be out of scanning range. Cain was pretty sure the Pegasus had a lot more fuel- so he was going to make a fairly high speed run to the next system- gambling that he could find solium there. Williams used his own hand held computer to come up with the same data Tolen had had to use the Pegasus's main computer. It was apparent that at least as computers went, the colonials were far behind earth.

Cain had not felt so confident in a long time. He now had fighters again- actually more then the Pegasus had ever had before- he knew where earth was- AND he knew that Earth was powerful enough to take on pretty much the whole Cylon fleet right NOW.

5 fleets, he thought, and enough fighters to sweep the cylons from the skies. Not to mention support ships for planetary assaults and long range strikes. He ordered Tolen to figure the fastest route to find the Galactica and the fleet- this news had to get back to Adama as soon as possible. AND he wanted to see his daughter again.

Williams relaxed aboard his cabin. A pretty nice one, he thought, not far from Cains.

He sat and contemplated the events of the last day. Just incredible. Cain's story of the colonies, the Cylons, and the rest of it was just so hard to believe- but he knew it was true. Good thing we just finished a war, he thought. We are ready for another- and the Wellorters were just a warm up. The Cylons look like they will be a lot harder to take down- not to mention we are going to have to go a long ways to find and destroy their home world. THIS war will take a lot longer then 4 years.

It took awhile, but gradually things sorted themselves out-sometimes with a little help.

Cain and the crew of the Pegasus had to get used to the different word usage and units of measurement and time, and vice versa for the pilots. Fighter tactics turned out to be pretty much the same no matter where you came from- no real problems there. Since Tolen was pretty much welded to the Bridge due to Cain's tendency to wander, Williams found himself drafted to be the Pegasus's XO. Cain still intended to lead at least half the missions himself= sighting commanders prerogative- so Williams could not go at the same time. So one or the other was always left behind. So Cain put Williams through a crash course on commanding a Battlestar. He found that it was complicated, and yet relatively simple at the same time- at least in battle. Now the paperwork-another universal constant- was another story. Since they had pretty much outran the Cylon pursuit, battles were not an issue. At least for a while.

More then 3 months had passed since arriving on the Pegasus, and Williams was just reaching the stage of starting to get comfortable on the Bridge. He found it interesting that the crew of the Pegasus seemed to have no trouble with him commanding when Cain was away on scouting missions. Cain still used his viper- for scouting missions it made sense since a Viper had longer range. The fuel and spare parts problems with the Starfighters turned out to be not as tough as originally thought. The solium that the Vipers used was a very close chemical mix to the juice the Starfighters used, so only minor modification was needed for them to run on it. The only area that looked like it was going to be a problem was replacing parts of the computer systems; Colonial computers were much more bulky and less sophisticated- and the software-what there was of it- was hopelessly outdated. Colonial computer systems were still mainly hardware based- unlike Earth computer systems which had been software based for over a century and a half. Luckily there were a couple of techs aboard the Pegasus that were near geniuses at fabrication- so that problem was on the road to being solved. As a matter of fact, using the computers aboard the Starfighters as a base of knowledge, they were busy designing an earth type of main computer that would be several magnitudes beyond the capability of the present main computer system- and that would go a long way towards relieving the work load on the sparse crew. The real problem would be designing the software to run it- but Lizzy was a software ace and was already deep into the process. They were of the opinion that they would have it ready in 6 months.

The latest estimate of how long it would take to find the Colonial Fleet was now around 1 year; give or take if they had to throw off any Cylon pursuit. There were hints that that pursuit was still there- but nobody was able to prove it. Cain was of the opinion that there probably still was at least one base star tailing them- and probably more. But that the commander of that base star was apparently a little smarter and more creative then the average tin head. In the discussion that he, Tolen, Williams and the tactical section had about it, it was more then once bandied about finding a place to hide and letting the Cylons get close enough to take out- of course the problem with that was what happened if there were several base ships instead of one. Williams suggested the construction of more ship to ship missiles= at least to replace the ones the Pegasus had used at the Battle of Gomoray. Cain had asked the techies how hard would that be and they had told him not that hard but that it would take some time- he told them to get on it. Williams wanted to have missiles that could be fired from either Vipers or Starfighters- so that they could do more damage to a base star quicker and easier then the usual strafing runs normally used. After looking at the data that the Colonials had on Base Stars, it was quickly apparent that they were very vulnerable to missile fire- they virtual had no defense against them. Cain had said that it was something neither side used much. The main lasers that the Battlestars had had such a limited range that you had to be right up to them to use it; and the Base Stars had never bothered to have either main weapons or missiles. There were still 4 other Vipers left on board the Pegasus besides Cain's own- and he had managed to train come replacement pilots. It was decided to build missiles just big enough for Vipers to carry- and to use them as launch platforms against base stars.

One thing that had amazed the Earth Pilots is that neither the colonials or the Cylons had ever used nuclear weapons. Nuclear power was something that neither side had ever researched. Nuclear tipped missiles were still standard issue for Earth's Space Fleet, though energy weapons were more useful due to their longer range and ease of use.

After explaining the concept, Cain was equally amazed that neither they nor the Cylons had ever looked at it. He ordered the techs to start working on them as well. Luckily the computers on board the starfighters had basic designs and other useful info. Getting the fissionable material appeared to be the only thing that would be difficult. Putting together an enrichment process would take some time. Cain was intrigued by the possibility of nuclear power for the Pegasus- it would reduce the need for Solium to only being needed for the main engines, instead of having to burn so much of it in the main energizers. It was explained to him that the Space Fleet main carriers, and most larger ships, had a hybrid nuclear fusion reactor that burned virtually anything- hydrogen being the usual fuel- to power the main engines. That would be so much easier to use then the current main engines of the Pegasus that used solium as well. Not to mention more efficient.

More then a year had gone by since the merging of the two groups- and much had been accomplished. The Pegasus now had a main computer that was able to relieve the crew of many tasks that took more time and manpower then they had. The enrichment process had finally began after many glitches and the first warheads for the new missiles had just been completed. The next time they had to take on a cylon base star the tin heads were going to be in a for a very big (1 megaton) surprise. It was figured that one would be sufficient to damage a base star beyond its capacity to repair itself- not to mention the EMP which the techies felt would fry the whole ships circuits anyway. The Vipers that would carry them had had their electronics hardened- it was actually simpler on computers and electronics of that type to do so then the more complicated and fragile earth systems- so the EMP would not bother them much at all. The Pegasus herself also now had nuclear tipped missiles of her own- many times more powerful then the solium explosive mix that they had previously used- though those warheads actually had more explosive power then any conventional explosive the Earth force pilots had ever heard of.

Cain was now confident with the missiles and other upgrades to the Pegasus that she could take on several base stars and win. The computer controlled laser turrets were much more capable then they had been before- and the idea of polarizing the main hull to partially absorb laser shots had been tested and found to be promising. Thought this would require a great deal of power, and work on the main hull, it was almost done.

Careful scouting had shown that there were indeed several base stars following them- so the decision was made to ambush them once the upgrades to the Pegasus were completed. Since it was accepted by all that the Cylon commander was under orders to follow the Pegasus- obviously hoping she would lead them to the main fleet- the Pegasus did not have to worry about the cylons forcing the issue. So it was up to them to pick the time and the place for the ambush.

Williams sat in his cockpit and waited for the signal to launch. It had been a near knock down drag out between him and Cain on who would lead the attack. It was finally admitted by Cain that since he knew the Cylons a lot better it was more important that he be on the bridge. The 73 Star fighters and 4 Vipers were all waiting. They had decided that this system would be the place for the ambush. It was a binary with a total of 16 planets and two large asteroid belts-plenty of places to hide and wait. The Pegasus was hugging the largest gas giant in as low an orbit as possible- totally invisible to Cylon long range scans. A drone with passive scans and set to send a directional pulse that would be very difficult to pickup was put near one of the binaries- positioned so that it would see the Cylons very early as they neared the system. It was set to pulse 3 times then shut down. Once the signal was received the StarFighters and Vipers would launch- then use the gas giants gravity to slingshot around and enter the nearby asteroid belt. The tricky part was to prevent detection they had to shut down their engines while still behind the planet- and coast into the belt. There they would wait- until the Base Stars neared the gas giant. Then the Pegasus would vault out and appear to be trying to escape. The Cylons would of course launch their fighters- it would be a total automatic reaction – and once they were launched then the StarFighters and Vipers would attack the Base Stars. With any luck at all the Base Stars would be quickly destroyed and the Pegasus would head out to rendezvous with the fighters outside the system. It was all calculated to have the Cylons raiders chase the Pegasus and use up their fuel quickly- then the fighters would pick them off at leisure.

Cain paced the bridge restlessly. He badly wanted to be out there to lead the attack, but the logic of staying on the bridge was undeniable. Tolen watched him impassively- used to the Commanders actions. A beeping on his console distracted him. "Commander- the drone has signaled- there are 3 base ships. Heading exactly as we had hoped." Cain straightened up- his restlessness gone in an instant. "Launch fighters. Bring engines to standby. Battle alert". The alarm klaxon sounded as the ship prepared herself.

Williams sighed in relief- it had worked. Everyone was hiding in the asteroid belt and in position. Now they had to wait- it would be the better part of an hour at least. He occupied himself by running through the alternatives and exit plans they had made if it all went into the toilet. Luckily it seemed things were going as planned. Williams always got suspicious when a plan seemed to be going well- it never seemed to last.

Cain was watching the clock- they had no way of knowing if the Cylons had continued on the same course- the plan was built on that assumption. By all odds, it was a safe assumption. Cylons were machines- they maintained a pattern unless forced to change it.

They traveled through a system at a set speed every time- and the course was always one that used the fewest number of course corrections. They had entered the system exactly where they had planned for them to- so there was no reason to change anything.

Cain took one last look at the clock- it was time. "Main engine start- prepare for full speed." Forcing himself to wait the necessary time- the engines took a while to warm up for safe usage at full speed. At last they were ready. "Full speed ahead on projected course!".

Williams watched the Pegasus shoot out from the low orbit of the gas giant and use one of its moons as cover until they were well away. The Base ships reacted just as expected- they turned to pursue and launched their raiders. Williams forced himself to wait- the minutes ticked by and the Base Ships moved away. At last-"Engines start-prepare for full speed!" He waited the necessary minute- then "Lets GO!"

Tolen checked his scanners- the raiders were closing steadily- the Pegasus while at full speed still had a little in reserve – they wanted to wait as long as possible before using it.

"Commander- I show the fighters have made their move. Estimate 5 centons until they are in range of the base ships. Estimate 10 centons until the Raiders are in range of us".

Cain smiled- this plan was going very well. "Prepare for flank speed in 5 centons. We want them to get a little closer."

Williams led the attack group toward the first base ship. Looking at his scanners, he noted they would be within range of the base ships lasers in 3 minutes. He had decided to hit them all at once- he had split of the 102 and 1 viper, the 112 and 1 viper, and kept the 122 and 1 Viper in reserve while he led the 132 with the last viper and its missile. Since the base ships were still in their standard triangle formation, it was not hard to coordinate the attack. The base ships started firing their lasers- very inaccurate at this range, he thought. Bobbing and weaving- the reaction of every fighter to incoming fire the same now as it was back in WW1 with the first fighters-he led the first attack group towards the center base ship. At full speed this would not take long. And it didn't. The Viper pilot put the missile in a perfect heading for the very core of the base ship- the center pylon that held the two halves together. "Pull out and run" he ordered. And they did. The explosion was beautiful to see- watching the feed from the drone they had left behind. The warhead split the ship in two and only a second or so went by before both halves exploded . And no losses. GOOD ONE.

Cain watched the scans- smiling as he saw the first Base Ship explode, soon followed by two more. The raiders had kept coming after the Pegasus- surprising Cain a little since he figured the panicked base ship commander would have called them back. This one was apparently counting on holding off the attack until his raiders caught and destroyed the Pegasus. Well, that plan did not work, Cain thought with a smirk. It would be interesting to see what the Raider commander would do with his base ships destroyed. So far they were still chasing the Pegasus- slowly catching up but using a lot of fuel in the process.

They were almost in range- and they were about to get another surprise when the laser turrets opened up.

Williams was very satisfied- all 3 base ships destroyed and no losses for the good guys. He had thought that pure bad luck would cause at least a couple to be lost- but it hadn't happened. They had not had to get too close and the base ships lasers had not gotten lucky. The last one had noticed the missile coming and had tried to hit it but failed. The nuclear warheads had done as expected and pretty much destroyed the base ships- and also had indeed, according to the scanners, had fried their circuitry before they blew up.

Checking his long range sensors, he saw that some of the raiders had caught the Pegasus only to find out that the turbo laser turrets were a whole lot better then they used to be.

None of them looked like they would get close enough to ram- and they really could not do that much damage with their lasers at that range. He decided to keep with the plan and avoid combat with them.

Cain was looking at the scanners and smiling widely. None of the Cylons had gotten close enough to ram and the new polarization protected the hull completely at the range they were able to get when they fired their lasers. The Pegasus was completely undamaged and the raiders- at full power from the moment they launched- were almost out of fuel. He waited until the last of them ran out then slowed the Pegasus down and ordered the laser turrets to finish them off. It would take a while- there were still more then 250 of them left.

Williams brought his fighter in to land, feeling very good indeed. As he climbed out and accepted the congratulations of the jubilant crews, he headed for the Bridge. Once there he grinned at first Tolen then Cain: "I thought you said these Cylons were tough- it was a piece of cake!" Tolen rolled his eyes and Cain grinned. "My plans always makes the Cylons look totally incompetent." He sobered slightly. "We used up a little more fuel then I had hoped- so we will have to take time and mine that solium we found on the third planet of the first binary." Williams grimaced slightly- he had hoped they would be able to high tail it out of there right away. But that was they way it was.

It took 2 weeks to mine the solium- they could wait to process it on the fly. They left a few drones that had long range transmitters- there to see if any more base ships showed up. Cain felt that there was a larger number of base ships following those three- but just how far behind was the question. Though he felt pretty sure that they would be unable to trace the Pegasus's course once he finished the snake dance he had planned to throw off any tracking pursuer.

More then a month had passed since they left the system- and no signals had reached them from the drones indicating pursuit. This of course could not be considered 100% reliable since it was certainly possible the Cylons did not go through the system- or had been able to spot the drones and avoid them. Still, it gave everyone a certain amount of confidence or at least some relief from the tension of wondering. Cain had put together an intricate zig zag course through several systems using every natural phenomena to mask their course- and in the last system had left several more drones to act as sentries.

They would do another series of course changes before starting their move to rejoin the fleet. It was agreed that it was time to make their move. Solium had been found in fairly plentiful amounts in that last system- so the Pegasus had full tanks. Cain now intended to bypass the next several systems and stretch their fuel as far as possible- a straight speed run for as far as they could go.

The only upgrade that had not been accomplished was the building of the fusion reactor on the Pegasus- there just was not enough knowledge and resources to do it. Precise calculations and even more precise machinery was needed- and it could not be done on the fly. It would have to wait until the fleet reached Earth. But all other possible improvements had been made. With a much more capable computer system, a hull polarized that was a lot harder to damage with lasers, the nuclear tipped missiles added to its armory, and more fighters then she had ever carried before, the Pegasus was more capable then any battle star in Colonial history. And Cain was just about spoiling for a fight.

Tolen rechecked his console to be sure- it was there without a doubt. "Commander, receiving a signal from one of our drones back from the system we ambushed the Cylons in." Cain rushed over to look over his shoulder. "Damn. I was hoping we had lost them completely. Still, this long after we left there will give us a huge lead- and that is if they are able to track us. Does it give a number of ships?" "At least 5 sir, and then the signal ends- probably destroyed by the Cylons." Cane pondered that. "Makes sense. Once it began transmitting it would be easy to find. I doubt that more then 5 Base Stars would be in that group= more then enough to destroy 2 Battle Stars in their minds. Its possible they might have more- but not likely. And almost certainly not near this group. These ships were clearly the long range reinforcement. Any other base stars would be following the Gallactica and the fleet. This far away from the Cylon empire its almost certain that there just is not any ships available. Now we wait and see if they are able to track us to the last system we left drones. At the rate they are moving, that is going to be a while."

It was a year and a half since the Earth fighters had encountered the Pegasus. Almost 5 months since the signal from the drones. It was felt that either the Cylons had not encountered the drones or they had not found their way too them. Calculations indicated that they should soon be crossing the path of the Fleet. They had tried to figure it so that they would either meet them or be behind them- able to trace the elements solium left after it was burned. It had been a somewhat boring time. Nothing to do but maintain the ship and patrol- the patrols had found very little in the systems they had passed. No intelligent life- but at least enough solium to keep the Pegasus tanks full. They had been able to do more research and development of the Earth forces technology to help out the Pegasus. Nothing important had been added, but some little things here and there had improved things somewhat. The fusion reactor situation had clarified itself – they now were fairly certain that they could build a safe working version- not as advanced as the Earth's current models, but a solid unit. Once they reached the fleet, there seemed to be a good chance that the necessary materials and technicians could be found to do it.

Williams was leading this patrol himself- boredom will do that to you, he felt. Even a really boring patrol is better then just sitting around the ship. At least it had been boring: sensors had just picked up traces of processed and burned solium. He was on his way back to the Pegasus= communications silence was an absolute unless it was an emergency. The fact that he was returning, alone and at full speed was a tipoff that something was up. As he landed, he saw that Cain was waiting for him. The techs were already downloading his sensor data to the main computer even before he got out of his ship. The head tech told the commander that it would take a little while to determine if the data indicated either Cylon or Colonial identification. The technologies used by both while similar was different enough to be clear under careful examination.

Tolen was giving the report from the techs to Cain and Williams. "There is no doubt that it was Colonial ships that burned this solium- furthermore we were able to positively identify the Gallactica as one of them. Total number of ships seems to be very close to the last known strength of the fleet. It appears that we are about a quarter yahren behind them- maybe less- our techs indicate that that is the most we could be behind- and it could be as little as a tenth of a yahren." Doing the math in his head, Williams realized that it was probably only 2-3 months at most and maybe as little as one. Cain was thoughtful- so close. "prepare a couple of drones to be positioned at the next system the trail takes us too- an early warning of pursuit would be helpful. We have not put out any for a long time-and with no word from our last drones it not likely we will here anything by now."

At the next system they found an unusual pulsar= its emissions were not that far off from standard com signals. The techs had carefully programmed the drone to send a burst transmission that would look very much like natural emissions from the star. There was a good chance that the Cylons would not notice it. It was also programmed to wait for a period of time then send another burst. That would then let them know that the Cylons had not found the drone. That would facilitate setting up an ambush- something that Cain was determined to do.

Anticipation of catching up to the fleet permeated the Pegasus. Sensors had steadily picked up solium traces- and the readings were getting stronger. The fleet was moving at a fairly good rate- faster then Cain had anticipated. Which was good since the faster they moved the quicker they would get to Earth. The data in the fighters nav computers indicated that the Fleet should encounter the first Earth patrols within the next few months. Cain badly wanted to catch up to the Fleet before then. Cain and Williams had debated outfitting one of the Vipers for a long range voyage to catch the fleet- but had decided to wait until they were more sure just how far ahead the fleet was.

Williams had decided to lead this patrol- and was going to push the range out to the Starfighter maximum for a long range sensor probe. His ship had been tweaked in regards its sensors to pretty much ignore short range in favor of long range. He and Cain hoped it would show the tail end of the fleet. Williams watched as the fuel level required to return to the Pegasus got closer and closer. Just before he reached that level he turned the sensor suite to maximum range.

Cain was pacing the Pegasus's Alpha landing bay as he awaited the patrols return. Comm silence was still the watchword- no point in taking any chances even though there had been no hint of Cylon pursuit. The last drones left by the pulsar had been totally silent.

It was looking more and more like they had lost that pursuit. Cain realized that while this was a very good thing, his very nature badly wanted to have the Cylons within range so that he could hurt them some more. He stopped pacing as he heard the approach of the star fighters.

Williams slowly stepped out of his cockpit- it had been a long patrol and he was stiff. The techs had already downloaded the data and the main computer was looking at it right now. He looked at Cain and shrugged- he had no idea if the very detailed examination of the data would show the fleet. They got into the turbo elevator and headed for the bridge. Tolen would have the data analyzed by the time they got there.

Tolen looked at the data= ordered the main computer to rerun its analysis. He marveled once again how much more powerful and useful the main computer was now that it had been upgraded. The work load on the crew was much reduced due to that upgrade. He personally felt that the present crew size of the Pegasus would be the norm for battle stars that had been upgraded in the future. He looked up as Cain and Williams stepped onto the bridge.

"Well?" barked Cain, never a very patient man at the best of times. Tolen smiled- "Its definite, sir. We are just barely within range of the last ships of the fleet." Cain slowly sat down in the command chair. For something that he had anticipated for so long he found himself strangely ambivalent. He knew part of it was that he actually liked being by himself with just the Pegasus and what amounted to a private war. He would lose that by rejoining the fleet. BUT it also meant seeing his daughter again. And Cassi, and Adama and Apollo and Athena and Tigh and that young pilot that reminded himself so much of a young Cain; Starbuck. And so Cain smiled and looked at Williams. Then he looked at Tolen. "Prepare the Viper for a long range mission. I want it to get to the fleet and contact Adama without using any comm emissions. No point of taking any risks of detection now. It really looks like we have outrun the Cylon pursuit- lets not hand them anything easily. " Tolen looked at him. "Who will the pilot be, Commander?"

Cain smiled" Who else?"

Adama sat in the command chair of the Gallactica and pondered the latest long range scans. IT was definite that some space faring nation/world/system was not too far ahead. No doubt about it. But there was also indications that someone was following them- but he could not tell if it was Cylons or not. Obviously the most logical possibility, but something was telling him it was not them. They had had no contact with any cylons for almost 2 yahren. Not since Gomoray. Remembering that battle still haunted Adama, as it did most of the fleet. To have Cain and the Pegasus come back from the dead only to apparently lose them again had hurt them a lot. Sheba especially. Never having to have spent much time apart from her father since leaving the Academy, it had been hard on her. Luckily the growing closeness with the Gallactica crew and especially Apollo had helped quite a bit there. Adama smiled. He was so happy to see Apollo finally move beyond Serina's death and get closer to Sheba. Starbuck and Athena finally seemed to be coming to grips with their feelings as well. Cassiopea had stepped away from Starbuck after the Gomoray battle- it was clear to all that seeing Cain again had deeply affected her- more then she would admit. That had allowed Athena and Starbuck time to really get to know each other better- and it seemed like they had finally come together. The supply situation in the fleet was good at the moment- most of the systems they had gone through in the last 2 yahrens, while devoid of intelligent life had had sufficient solium and other resources to keep the fleet in good condition. The nagging concern about pursuit was the only real worry he had right now. The scans showing intelligent and advanced technology ahead of them meant only one thing to Adama: they had to be near earth, or one of its colonies. He was sure of it. It was just a question of how far away and how long it would take. Adama looked up as Tigh approached him- a look of concern and disbelief on his face.

Tigh was trying to keep his voice under control- this news was incredible. "Commander, long range scans show a Viper is approaching us from the rear. It is without a doubt a viper." Adama looked at Tigh in shock- a Viper – from the rear? Then he knew without a doubt where the Viper had come from and he was just as sure who was in it. A wide smile graced his face. "Colonel Tigh, have Major Sheba report to me in Alpha Landing bay- let the Viper know that is where we want him to land. Keep it short range- no point in risking any longer range comm traffic." Adama then headed briskly towards the elevator to the landing bays. Tigh stared after him, startled. Adama appeared to know who was coming- how could that be? And why Sheba- why not Apollo? Both Sheba and Apollo had been promoted after Gomoray. Appolo was still strike leader but now Sheba was his second and usually commanded half the force in any battle- not that they had had any battles since Gomoray. With Gold and Silver Spar squadrons now on the Gallactica, she was actually over capacity for fighters- but with fewer shuttles then normal there was still room. Red, Blue and the other two squadrons gave the Gallactica over 60 Vipers- a formidable force if not quite 4 full squadrons. Resources to replicate more Vipers was just too short right now- it was more important to make sure the other ships could keep up the pace.

Adama found it hard to maintain his calm demeanor in Landing Bay Alpha. He looked over at the turbo elevator as Sheba got off of it. She walked up to Adama and asked:" What is going on Commander? Colonel Tigh just said report to you in Alpha Bay- no other explanation." Adama smiled at her. "Sheba, there is a Viper coming to us from outside the fleet. It came from behind. Its maintaining comm silence to prevent anything reaching the Cylons- just in case." Sheba's eyes widened. She thought about it- then looked at Adama in comprehension. If Adama had wanted her there- then he had a strong inkling at who was in it- and she suddenly realized who that probably was. Lords of Kobol, she prayed- please let it be true.

The Viper landed neatly and easily, clearly a very experienced pilot. The canopy opened and the pilot stood up and took off his helmet. Cain smiled at the shocked techs- and noted that not only was Adama waiting for him, but Sheba as well. He smiled at them- leave it to Adama to figure it out and make sure Sheba was here waiting for him. He stepped down to the floor of the landing bay and engulfed his daughter in a huge hug.

Sheba was crying and laughing and shaking her head, too overcome to talk. Adama calmly waited. Looking at Sheba Cain said" You look very good, baby. I guess being here on the Gallactica agreed with you. And I see you got promoted as well. Hopefully no one thinks that is because of who your father is." Sheba swatted his shoulder- "Apollo and I got promoted at the same time- with four squadrons it was felt that they needed more rank. And we were the logical choices. No one made a fuss at all." Cain smiled at her, overjoyed to see how healthy and happy she looked. Then he stepped towards Adama.

Adama grabbed Cain in a huge hug of his own and told him. "You have got to stop running off and doing insane things- seeing you coming back from the dead time and again is getting too hard on us." Cain grinned at him- "You know there is the right way and the wrong way and the Cain way- I am too old to change now." Adama smiled. "You certainly haven't changed. I take it the Pegasus is the ship that has been following us for a while. We had some indications that someone was- most thought it was Cylons but somehow I knew it wasn't." Cain said:"You always was good at pulling things out of thin air- as far as we can tell we lost the Cylons almost half a yahren ago. There has been no signals at all from some drones we left behind. Now I don't know about your trail- but all the patrols we sent and the scans we did show nothing along this route behind you except us." Adama sighed in relief. "that is very good news the council will be happy to hear. Now lets head to my quarters- I still have some vintage ambrosia left." Cain smiled at that-"We ran out of the last of our Ambrosia almost a yahren ago- it will be good to sample some good stuff again. The Pegasus should be coming up within the next secton or so." Adama nodded. "I will order the fleet to slow down to half speed and let her catch up. No point in delaying it."

Sitting in Adama's quarters with Sheba at his side and drinking very good ambrosia with Adama, Cain had not felt this relaxed in a long time. He looked at Adama and said. "I have not even gotten to the real news – news that is about as good as it gets."

Adama looked at him." You know where Earth is?" he breathed. Cain smiled "yes and even better then that I have a whole wing of Earth Fighters aboard the Pegasus."

Adama stared at him in shock- mirrored by Tigh and Sheba. Cain was enjoying himself."By absolute chance they were transported though a singularity made up when a very nasty race blew their planet up instead of surrendering. Of course they probably felt that they were going to get wiped out anyway after ambushing and murdering a whole task group under a so called peace conference." The other colonials looked at each other at the relating of a situation eerily like the loss of the colonies. "Yes when I heard it for the first time the parallel struck me much the same. They appeared just when a Base Ship had caught up to us- and we had no vipers to fight back with. They took out the raiders with ease. Then they landed on the Pegasus and we found out where they came from. We have been chasing you since then- with the exception of the ambush we set up to take out the 3 Base Ships that were following us. After we destroyed them we made it a point to catch you while at the same time muddying up our route and trail as much as possible. I am pretty sure that no ships are still able to follow us- less sure that they are not following you. I guess we will see."

Adama signaled the bridge to let them know that there would be a council meeting soon. This would have to be presented to the council as soon as possible. He looked at Cain. "so just how close are we to earth?" Cain grinned. "Closer then you think. You should run into the first patrols in the next tenth of a yahren at the latest- and we are about a quarter of a yahren from Earth. They have a fairly extensive empire carved out of the immediate quadrant." Adama looked at Cain. "they are that strong?" Cain nodded. "From what Col Williams has told me, they have a fleet at least as big as the Cylons have, and they have some serious technological advantages that frankly will enable them to have the Cylons for a morning meal." "We will have a fair amount of time at least to upgrade our ships- the Pegasus already has several upgrades that increases her combat capability decidedly. Several more will be installed once we reach one of the main earth bases. By the time they are done both battlestars will be twice as capable as they were before."

Adama looked at Cain in shock. "This is more than I had ever truly hoped for. I had hoped Earth would be advanced and strong enough to stand with us against the Cylons- I had never hoped that they would be so strong as to be able to take the Cylons with ease."

Cain nodded. "When you think about it, its not surprising. A long war like we had tends to dampen research and such and keep it narrowed on refining and improving what you have rather then looking at totally new technologies. They have just come off of a very sharp but short war- and are just about in as good a shape for another as you could ask. Enough time to think over the lessons and adapt to them, but not enough time to get soft and start retiring ships and crews."

Adama sat back and contemplated the news he had gotten. "I hope they are not too angry with us for bringing this problem to them- if we had not come this way it is probable that the Cylons might never have found them. Or at least it would have been hundreds of yahrens perhaps." Cain shook his head. "The Cylons would have come here sooner or later- they want to eliminate humans from the entire galaxy. Its just a matter of time. From what Williams has told me Earth people believe that what will happen will happen. Does not matter if it is now or much later. The Cylons would come for them sometime- so why not now?" Adama's door swished open to bring forward Apollo, Starbuck, Bojay, Athena and …. Cassiopea. Cain stood up and hugged each one of them- then noticed that Starbuck sat next to Apollo holding Athena's hand. And that Sheba and Apollo were doing the same. Bojay sat next to Sheba. Making a quick decision, Cain took Cassiopea's hand and sat down beside Adama. Her eyes opened wide for a moment, then quietly responded to his handclasp and sat next to him. Adama smiled at the placement of everyone. Things seem to be sorting themselves out rather well, he thought.

Cain looked at Sheba and Apollo- "It seems to me that there have been some personal developments since I was last here." Sheba blushed – then smiled brightly. "Father, we came to agreement just a little while ago- we want to be sealed." Everyone in the room cheered at that. Starbuck reached over and poked Apollo "I figured that- but that you two were reluctant to come out and admit it." Athena reached over and hugged Apollo- saying "Its about time!". Apollo smiled – then grinned evilly. "So sister mine, do you have an announcement of your own?" Athena blushed-then held up her head and looked challengingly at Starbuck- who had the look of someone just ambushed. Everyone in the room laughed- then Starbuck startled then all and stood up and said "Well, we have danced around it for a while, but since we have one sealing about to happen- why not 2?"

Jaws dropped all around the room- was this the master playboy actually settling down?

Adama was laughing quietly at all this.

Adama shooed everyone except Cain out the door- telling them that they had to get ready for the council meeting. Cassiopea was the last one out the door- and Cain quietly said. "I would really like to talk to you soon, Cassi." She smiled at him- "I would like that" then walked quickly down the hall to catch up with the rest of them. Adama smiled at Cain as he sat down "it looks like things are settling down rather well there." Cain smiled. "I hope so."

Williams stood on the bridge of the Pegasus. Long range scanners had picked up the fleet earlier that morning- it had slowed down considerably but was still moving steadily. Tolen had checked the numbers and agreed that clearly they had slowed down to let them catch up. Long range communications was still closed down- it would be a while before short range com was possible. Williams looked at the screen- 225 ships were now identified- exactly the number the fleet had at Gomoray. So there had been no losses since then. That was good news. Williams had looked at the star charts and estimated that they would run into earth patrols in less then a month; probably only a couple of weeks.

They had rigged up a Earth long range transmitter for the Pegasus- it would not be scrambled but it would be on a tight beam and should be very hard for anyone to pick up beyond the immediate vicinity. It had been decided that when they got closer they would use it. There were diplomatic niceties to be observed. Humans or not, the Colonials would be treated as separate people and the forms of protocol would be followed.

Williams had no real concerns about the Cylons. He was confident that Earth combined with the colonials would soon put paid to any pursuit force. The real battles would come when they decided to go after the Cylons. And he had no doubt that that would occur. Earth had no delusions about the so called let sleeping dogs lie- since everyone knew that sooner or later they would wake up and try and take a bite out of you. So you put them down as soon as you could. The rabid dogs that were the Cylons were no different- negotiations and such was not possible- co habitation and getting along was not going to happen. One or the other had to be totally defeated. There was no other way.

Adama walked back towards his quarters with Cain after the council meeting. Cain was shaking his head "I never realized how tough you had it dealing with the politicians. I never would have been able to put up with that for very long. Sooner or later I would have thrown them out of the airlock. Adama, you have to be the one to open communications with the Earth forces. They will take one look at that group and tell us to get out of the galaxy. And I wouldn't blame them at all." Adama smiled a little. "they are not too bad actually- since Sire Uress died they have really not been all that much of a problem. I agree they do not make a great impression- but when do politicians make a great impression? I doubt that Col Williams has anything better to say about Earth politicians." Cain smiled. "Actually their system of government is designed to prevent any one group or one person from getting too much power. A very sensible form of representative government. Apparently they took the form that the one most powerful nation had- The United States I think it was- and modified it a little to run the entire Federation as they call it. With colonies in a dozen or more systems, with the limits you have on communications, a central government cannot be too powerful anyway. The colonies are virtually independent worlds- still tied to the whole but running their day to day business on their own. That's what we will probably do. He mentioned that there are several systems that have been surveyed with multiple inhabitable worlds that would suit us very well. We will just have to pick one and settle down to rebuilding the civilization that we once had. Though the real question will be how we handle the Cylons"

It had been decided that Cain would head back to the Pegasus the next morning. They would be within short range comm by then. They would alter course slightly- Williams had indentified the course and range to the nearest Earth Force base and it was figured that that would be where they would go anyway once communications was opened.

Might as well start in that direction. The Pegasus would open the communications, but that Adama would be the one to start negotiations. That could take a while. In the meantime, the council had wanted to speak to Williams- so he would pass Cain in the process as Cain went back to the Pegasus. Cain had chuckled that Williams did not like politicians any better then he did- but that he probably had a lot more patience. Adama told him that was a good thing. Cain agreed.

Williams was on final approach to the Gallactica. Interesting how similar they were, he pondered, thought the Gallactica was considerably older. He found it hard to believe how little the colonials had progressed over time as regards technology. He understood, to a certain extent , how such a long war could retard research. BUT still for no real advances in a thousand years- he just could not see it happening to Earth forces. It had only been a little over 250 years since the Wright brothers first flew- only a little over 100 years since the first manned probe to Alpha Centauri. We have progressed so far so fast- while they have been treading water. I hope they can change. Williams got out of his fighter and looked down at the imposing figure waiting for him. So that is Adama. He looks the part. Cain is a very impressive person – but Adama just dominates the area he is in. He stood at attention for a moment then put out his hand- and Adama shook it then gave him a shoulder clasp. Williams smiled at him. "I have heard so much about you, sir. Just amazes me that you are actually not big enough to put a viper under your arm and carry it away." Adama laughed at that. "Colonel, I should be now used to stories being told about me. I just am never able to understand why. After all the time you have spent with Cain, I find it hard to believe you could be overwhelmed by me." Williams looked at him and said "Two totally different people. But enough of that. I guess I am wanted to speak in front of your council. Commander Cain had explained to me how things are. I am not a diplomat or a politician. " Adama shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Colonel. I am sure you will do fine. "

Walking back to Adama's quarters after the meeting, Williams shook his head. "Never thought I would realize what if felt like to be a monkey at a zoo before. I think some of them expected me to levitate around the room or something like that. I have to agree with Commander Cain- YOU have to be the one that opens negotiations with Earth – NOT them." Adama shook his head. "You two are a lot alike- never want to have to deal with paperwork or politicians." Williams grinned."Never liked either one and always tried to avoid both as much as possible."

Williams made his first appearance on the bridge of the Gallactica, once again noting the similarities. As he looked around, his gaze was drawn to the beautiful brunette manning the main scanner. He walked over to her and looked over her shoulder. "Everyone where they are supposed to be?" He asked. Startled, Rigel looked around and gulped. Here was someone from earth talking to her- it took her a moment to adjust and respond. Williams was appreciating her- very lovely with a real nice figure and deep doe like brown eyes. He smiled at her- this is someone I want to get to know better.

Adama was watching this from his command chair. He smiled at the way Rigel blushed, stammered and stuttered. It usually took a lot to knock her off balance. Tigh leaned over and whispered to him." Do we have another Starbuck here?" Adama smiled and shook his head. "From my impression, and what Cain has said about him, not even close. He apparently is very slow to make advances to any women- his impression is that he had a bad experience once and has been very cautious since then. But Rigel is very lovely and a very sweet young woman. It is good to see her opening up. And he appears very taken with her." Tigh shook his head. "Good- one Starbuck is MORE then enough." Both men quietly laughed at that truism- one was MORE then enough.

Williams was a little reluctant to return to the Pegasus- Rigel had been very sweet and he had enjoyed their time together. When they parted the night before after a very good meal, he let her know in no uncertain terms that he was very interested and would be back. Her blushes and stammers had been very sweet. It had been a long time since he had enjoyed any woman's company as much. Rigel, meanwhile, had been undergoing a lot of teasing by her friends. Comments about bagging the first Earthman and such had made her blush rosily- and that of course spurred them on even more. She finally was able to escape back to her duty station- only to find that all those around her kept it up.

Adama finally stepped in and had Tigh remind everyone that they were on duty. Though even he had gone so far as to say "NO matter how interesting this maybe to everyone, the bridge is not the place for it".

A little over 2 weeks later the scanners showed the first Earth patrol ships. Williams (who had managed to find a reason to visit the Gallactica twice more – and meet Rigel both times- much to everyone's amusement) sat before the main comm screen and activated the jury rigged transmitter. "Earth force patrol, this is Colonel Williams of Task Group 2, 3rd fleet. Come in." The patrol, needless to say, was very dubious. So Williams proceeded to give them the skinny and details. Then offered to come out to them in his fighter to verify it. That was agreed on. So he did. The patrol ship was not much bigger then a colonial shuttle, but it had very good sensors. So they were able to confirm, after a detailed exam and query of his computer, that he was indeed who he said he was. Williams had expected skepticism. More then a year after he and his whole group being supposedly destroyed his sudden reappearance would make the most trusting people suspicious. They had commed back and had been ordered to hold the fleet where it was and send Williams back to be debriefed. Williams had expected that and had come prepared. It took only half a day to make it back to the forward base at full speed. The shuttle had been able to refuel him. The starfighter had been converted back to using Earth force fuels so that was not a problem. It had actually been harder to manufacture the necessary fuel to get him there.

Williams sighed. Enough was enough. The debriefing had bogged down due to the absolute density of a security minion. He stood up." Listen, you moron, enough is enough. You have asked the same question five or six times. Now you either escort me to the main comm system so I can get the ball rolling with negotiations or you are going to be pulling patrol duty in the dingiest darkest hole Space Force can find. Understand?" He then walked out of the room and headed for the main com room. He looked at the bases XO, who had been designated his escort. "Major, how in the world do you put up with that idiot?" Major Thomas smiled and said. "Basically we just ignore him."

Williams chuckled. "Sounds good to me. Lets go to the com room. I need to get a message to the Pegasus that we are wading through red tape and it will be while yet."

Cain acknowledged the transmission from Williams. He was not surprised at the caution the Earth Forces were using- he would be suspicious too. He turned and told Tolen."Get me the Gallactica. I have to let Adama know that its going to be a while." Adama agreed that it was not surprising- just frustrating. So they would need some patience.

Williams had managed to get through to Earth and get them to agree to let the fleet move into the system that the advanced base was in. They could use the one semi-inhabitable world to gather some supplies- and it had some solium as well so they could refuel. Already supply ships were on their way with foodstuffs and such –but it would take a week or so for them to get there.

The fleet slowly moved into the system- the base was on the second planet- actually it was a big space station above the second planet- which was uninhabitable due to a poisonous atmosphere. The third planet was inhabitable- barely. A thin atmosphere and a lack of water had prevented much of anything from developing there. But it had solium and would allow them to do a couple of other resupply operations. So they settled down to wait and at the same time do some maintenance on the ships.

Williams finally was able to relax. A high commissioner was on his way from Earth to start negotiations. He would be there within a week. In the 3 weeks that they had been in contact with earth, things had started to settle down. Preliminary contact from Adama had begun the process, and Williams had kept prodding Earth to get off its butt and get moving. He had managed to convince the authorities to start looking at which system would be best for the Colonials to go to. Luckily, there was a system not far away- about a months travel- that had 3 worlds that were quite good. Stable, temperate, with a fair amount of life, flora and fauna, and no intelligent life to worry about. He had gotten the details and the surface scans along with the other scans and sent them to the Gallactica where the colonials could look them over. They had responded that it seemed pretty close to ideal for what they wanted. The 12 separate tribes had agreed to split up with 4 to each world. There was more then enough room for them to grow for a long time- at least a century or two. Williams had been in contact with the Settlement Ministry- the Federation department charged with coordinating and looking after settlements in systems that were not yet to the stage of admittance as part of the Federation. While that would not really apply here- it was certain that the Colonials would become part of the Federation fairly quickly- that department had the knowhow and experience with colonizing new worlds. Not to mention they had supplies and building materials that would be needed to start construction. They were best suited to help out with the beginning.

Williams stood at the landing bay of the base and waited for the Commissioners ship to dock. He felt pretty good about things. This commissioner, while about to retire, was known as a straight shooter who did not suffer fools at all, and had little patience with bureaucratic types. He and Adama ought to get along well. Once he arrived, then Adama would shuttle to the base for the first meeting. The second meeting would take place aboard the Gallactica so that the Commissioner could meet the council. Williams was glad that the commissioner would meet Adama first. As the ship docked, he remembered his last visit to the Gallactica. After briefing Adama, then the council, he had managed to find time to have a quick meal with Rigel. He smiled warmly at that. He felt sure that things would be very good there- he was already thinking of making preparations to take the relationship a lot further. He now knew that what he had felt those years ago was nothing to what he felt now. And the pain from that was gone. He looked up as the door opened and he stood at attention and saluted the commissioner.

Adama was practicing his meditation as the shuttle headed towards the base. He knew he needed to make a good impression on this commissioner, to make up for what he knew would NOT be a good impression by the council. Williams had assured him that they could not really have done any better about which commissioner to get- this one was just about perfect for the situation. Adama was somewhat relieved about that, but knew that he had to be very careful. First impressions are almost always the one that sticks- good or bad. He had decided to not even bring an aide- no point. As president of the Council, he had full authority to make an agreement- and he intended to have one far along before this meeting was over. He had studied the Federation government- and fully approved of its form. Very logical, from a human stand point, and very flexible. They had room to bargain and put things together so that for all intents and purposes the colonials would have self rule in all ways that matter. The fleet had realized that they would have to give up some of their independence- and there had been very little dissent about that. These 5 years in ships had made everyone eager just to find a planet and settle down- so any arguments had been put paid to very quickly by acclamation. Adama knew that in time that would change and there would be those wanting more- but that was then and this was now.

The Commissioner observed the Colonial shuttle as it landed. He was very interested in meeting this Adama- from all he could gather from the info available he was very much in the mold of the US's founder, George Washington. A military leader who had had to also lead a government. Only this Adama had had to basically wear both hats at the same time- a much harder job. He actually did not see much problem with the negotiations= it seemed pretty straightforward and unless they brought up some real quirks it should proceed at a brisk pace. All of Earth was in an uproar now that it had been made public.

Ancient texts were being examined to see if any trace of the 13 tribe could be found. From what the historians and anthropologists could tell, added to the medical and genetic scans they had obtained, it did not seem like any trace of the 13th tribe was left on earth, or in its people. The thinking was that they had made it here, but had soon died off due to some disease or just being unable to acclimate to earth for some reason. The medical branch was puzzled at that- they could see no reason for the tribe dying off- unless they had some basic problem with earth itself. A theory had been advanced that they were in bad shape before they got to earth, and had been weakened to the point that earths natural diseases had finished them off. BUT if that was the case why had no trace of their ships ever been found? The commissioner was of the view that they had stopped off at earth and finding that there were already intelligent life there (the dating was of about 3000 BC) as near as the colonials could make it- and had gone on. The drawing of people in suits supported that-not wanting to either contaminate or be contaminated. But no trace had been found at any inhabitable planet in Earth's vicinity- and there were more then a dozen close by that would been easy to settle. The theory now was that they had run into some hostile force and been destroyed after they left earth. That seemed to make the most sense. Odds were they would never know for sure. What really had many scratching their heads was how close genetically Earth humans were to Colonial humans- the basic structure, organs, etc were the same. But the differences were clearly more then could be accounted for in 5000 years- or even 10000. So there was no way that current Earth Humans had come from the colonials- and vice versa. BUT the odds of two virtually identical species developing so far apart at just about the same time- were absurd. Now the theory was making the rounds that some more advanced older race had "seeded" both ancient Kobol and Earth with the same basic stock. BUT that of course ran counter to the Earth's Neanderthal species- clearly the immediate predecessor to modern man, or cro magnon. That was traced back more then 30,000 years – so the question was how did all this happen. One theory that seemed to answer most of the questions was that some race did seed Kobol with cro magnon from earth. So that in actuality the colonials had come from earth initially. This would be debated and argued for decades- and probably never be settled.

The meeting had gone well according to both sides. A basic agreement was already well on its way, and should be finalized at the next meeting aboard the Gallactica. Once it was signed and sealed, the fleet would move to its designated settlement area, already called the New Colonies by the people of the fleet Everyone was eager to get started. The bigger question for Earth was the Cylons. While some paranoid types were not so sure the Cylons could be as evil as described, the fact that Earth force personnel had already fought them, and had lived with the Colonials long enough to be able to see through any disguise or deception, had pretty much shot that down early on. Earth force was busy looking over all the data on the Cylon forces, and looking at their weaknesses. It was thought it would probably be several years at the least before they were encountered, and most Earth force officers were of the opinion that while it might not be an easy fight, they saw nothing that really worried them. Also ideas were springing up to find ways to jam their systems- after all they were basically computers- and any computer can be scrambled. Their relatively low level of computer capability surprised some that wondered how they could possibly be sentient- but after finding out about the organic brains that were used it all fell into place. While the brains themselves probably could not be effected, the networks, com systems and everything else they needed to function probably could. Especially by those that had much more advanced computer capability.

The fact that neither the colonials nor the cylons had ever developed nuclear weapons amazed everyone- and since Earth was well on the way to developing anti matter and gravimetric warheads it was felt that in reality the Cylons might not be all that much bother to take out. The real question was whether to put together a force that would backtrack and destroy the cylons in totality. There were quite a few arguments about that. On a philosophical basis, to destroy an entire species was unthinkable to many- but if that species had as its primary goal YOUR extinction then you had very little choice. It was also felt that if they did not totally destroy them, then they could learn to adapt to new weapons and continue to be a menace. A compromise was being bandied about- destroy their fleet and quarantine them to their home world- that way you did not destroy them but also you did not have to worry about them as long as you kept an eye on them. The Commissioner felt that was taking a Pollyanna type view of things. He himself would have no problem wiping them out- the whole bloody business with the Silingree had taught him that fanatical races like them and the Cylons had to be taken care of completely or you risked big problems down the road.

Adama gazed at the world on his scanner- it was the 2nd world where the Capricans would settle. It had been decided that after things were started, first the Gallactica then the Pegasus would travel to the main Earth Space force building yards at New Europe for upgrading. A new main reactor- actually two for redundancy- would replace the energizers. A third reactor for the main drive; converting from solium to hydrogen for that-plus a new computer and other upgrades including a new thing called shields- even more advanced then hull polarization. That should make the main hull completely invulnerable to cylon energy weapons. Not to mention the Vipers would be upgraded as well. New communications, etc. More changes in one year then she had had in the last 500.

Williams relaxed as he looked at the window of his cabin. He had decided to emigrate to New Caprica, as this continent of the 2nd world was called, so that he could be near Rigel and the rest of the Gallactica and Pegasus's people that had settled there. They still had not decided what to name the worlds, no agreement possible between each of the 4 tribes that settled each. Now everyone was just beginning to call them Racious 1 2 or 3, since the star was named Racious. Since everyone had named their new continents after their home words, it seemed that the planet name did not really matter. Williams had filed for homestead on a piece of land up in the hills, away from most of the settlements. He intended that to be his getaway place. Rigel, meanwhile, had filed for land near the river, that could be farmed. Coming from a farmers family originally, that had seemed to make sense. Williams was quite happy either way- he had formally asked Rigel to marry him(or be sealed in her terms) only a few months after settlement had begun. To his surprise she had immediately agreed- he thought he would have to wear her down. Apolo and Sheba and Starbuck and Athena had already been sealed; and it was interesting to watch Cain with Cassiopea. He was reluctant to ask her, thinking that his age had to be taken into account, when she had seized the bull by the horns at the party following the twin seals. Right in front of everyone "Well, Cain, you were never hesitant about battle so why are you dragging your feet now?" Cain had literally gaped at her= caught totally by surprise for one of the few times in his life. "Well- are we going to be sealed or not?"

Everyone had just about burst laughing- when Cain walked to her and swept her up in his arms and turned to a laughing Adama and said. "Got it in you to do another seal now?"

That had stunned Cassiopea- but never one to let anyone beat her- she said "Yes- right now before he gets cold feet!" That engendered another uproarious round of laughter.

And so they were – right then and there. Cassi had filed on land up in the hills not far from where Williams had his place- it was decided that that would be where they retired to after Cain was done with the Pegasus. Until then they would live aboard her.

A fair number of people aboard both battlestars had decided to leave the ships- so getting and training new personnel had taken a while. Williams had decided to stay in Earth Force- a new Task Group 2 had been built and he was once again fighter commander. He knew that a promotion was coming soon- and that would be a desk job. He did not yet know what he was going to do about it. Rigel was for the moment staying with the Gallactica- until they were sealed she had decided to stay there. Upgraded Vipers were now aboard both battle stars- and new pilots were being trained. Gold and Silver Spar squadrons had returned to the Pegasus- so she was as she was before the battle of Gomoray. Both battlestars had been tremendously upgraded.

Williams looked over the patrol roster- the new ships still had that not quite broken in feature that you always got- but they were good ships. All four destroyed by the Silingree had been rebuilt and re named in remembrance. He was once again aboard the Yorktown.

The whole of 3rd fleet was gathered together for maneuvers- all 16 ships and over 800 fighters. Plus they had some bombardment BB's and some assault cruisers for landings. It was a little difficult to get used to being in a much smaller ship then a battle star- one that was less then a quarter of the size. Both battlestars had had the number of laser turrets doubled, and a new phased laser main gun added= it took a lot of energy and a lot of room to put it in- but that was something the battle stars had in spades was power and room. That main battery was not even installed in any Earth Force ship- previously it had only been mounted in space stations, and only the biggest of them. This series of exercises included both battlestars- it had been decided to start working them in with the fleet so both sides could get used to each other. No cylons had been sighted or even sniffed- and it had been more then a year and a half since they had had any word at all- but no one was getting complacent.

The patrol ship was just finishing its most extended probe when the sensors started beeping. The tech examined his board carefully then called for his captain. "Sir, you need to look at this. Looks like we have Cylons coming." The captain glared at the screen- it was undeniable- they were coming. And not just a couple of base stars- there were at least 5 and maybe a couple more. "Get off a signal right away. Helm, take us close to the star- we need to watch this bunch for a little longer to ascertain hard numbers. But we don't want to be spotted. We will use the start to mask us then the inner planets and hopefully we will get away without them knowing they have been spotted.

Williams was wondering what was up- he had just been called to the bridge. Once there he was told a signal was coming in from command. Once he heard it, he dropped his head and cursed- he had hoped that this would not come for some years- but that was the way it was. He immediately contacted the Gallactica. As Adama came on the screen Williams gave it to him straight. "A patrol ship has spotted Cylons heading towards the base – I guess they must have figured out your base course finally and took it to its logical conclusion. A total of 7 Base Stars were sighted. We do not think the patrol ship was spotted so they are probably coming in fat dumb and happy. I do not doubt that orders will come in for the 3rd fleet to take them out. We will of course give them the option of not coming ahead- but they are Cylons. I am going to try and convince command for us to lag behind out of sensor range and let you and the Pegasus make initial contact with maybe just one group of the 3rd fleet. The rest can wait in ambush.

Actually, one group with the Gallactica and the Pegasus could probably handle this group of cylons. But we want to wipe them out so that might not be enough to make sure there are no escapees.

Adama closed his eyes for a moment- hope that the Cylons might never come died- but now they could really hurt them. "Understood and agreed. Try and clear that with your superiors. We do want to make sure there are no survivors- that would probably buy us another yahren before any more show up. This is almost certainly all the ships left that were pursuing both the Pegasus and the Fleet- it is highly doubtful that any more are within a yahren of getting here- if that."

Cain was listening in- trapping the Cylons and wiping them out really appealed to him. And keeping the full capability of the Earth Forces a continuing secret was also a good idea. Let the Cylons keep coming in small groups- we keep wiping them out and get stronger and better at the same time.

Williams had asked the 3rd fleet commander, Vice Admiral Jones, for permission to fake out the Cylons and also keep them unaware of Earth Forces strength. He was all for that- and he liked the thought of taking most of the fleet around to cut off the cylons retreat.

He had the authority to do so and intended to do it. But first he was duty bound to give the Cylons a chance to leave. Not that they would. He told the rear admiral in charge of Task Group 2 to give them a chance to leave and then take them out.

The Cylon commander looked at the scanner with interest. So the colonials had found help- could they be from Earth- that had to be determined. The force that confronted him did not seem that imposing. He had after all 7 Base ships- those other ships were only a fraction of the size of battle stars- so they could not carry too many fighters. He should have at least a 3-1 advantage. That should be sufficient. He sent a signal back to the Imperious Leader that they were about to engage both Battle Stars and some other human ships – where those ships came from was unknown. The message sent to them to leave in peace was of course ignored- there could be no peace as long as any human remained. After doing that he looked at the readouts- noticing right away that the power readings from both battle stars were much higher then normal. Perhaps they had improved those ships- that was information worth getting- they might be better with help from those other ships. After the battle the wreckage would have to be examined. There was no trace of the rest of the human survivors. No matter- they could be tracked down and removed later.

Adama looked at the oncoming Cylon Base stars with hatred - but also confidence. You have no idea what you have just encountered- and by the time you do it will be too late.

The Pegasus and Gallactica were side by side as they advanced towards the base ships.

He was waiting for them to launch before he did the same. The Admiral commanding the task group had agreed to let the battle stars lead the fight. It made sense since they were much bigger and able to handle more punishment. The Cylons of course had no idea that their energy weapons would have no effect on any of the ships they faced- nor that nuclear tipped weapons would be soon headed their way as well. Fully a dozen vipers were going to be carrying missiles- and this would be a good opportunity to test out the main batteries aboard the battle stars. Cain had proposed they destroy 5 of the base stars quickly and then let the Pegasus and Gallactica close and use their main guns.

Williams waited aboard the Yorktown- eager to get at it but forced to wait. He knew this battle would not last long- the rest of the 3rd fleet should already be in position to cut off any retreat. He doubted that any of the base ships would last that long but you never knew.

The Cylon commander launched his raiders- 700 flowing out, forming up, and heading towards the enemy. It should be interesting to see how long they last. And what kind of fighters those other ships have. They should last even less time.

Adama gave the order and both battle stars launched. The task group waited for a couple of minutes then launched as well. 130 Vipers and 204 Star fighters flew towards the Cylons.

The Cylon commander noted that the other ships carried more fighters then had been estimated- but they were smaller then colonial fighters and probably not as capable.

Readings from the vipers and the other fighters indicated that they were using something other then solium- that was worth noting. The scanners noted that some of the Vipers appeared to be carrying some kind of bomb or something like that. Not that they would get close enough to use it but any data is valuable.

The Vipers fired first- their longer ranged new weapons immediately taking out dozens of raiders. They then dove into the middle of the cylons- followed by most of the Star Fighters- except for the Squadron designated to escort the missile carrying Vipers.

The Cylon commander began to get concerned- those Vipers had been upgraded- their weapon range was much longer then before. And those other fighters were armed just as well and were very maneuverable. Already raider losses were more then estimated. And those other vipers plus a group of the other fighters were heading towards the leading base ships. He ordered the raiders to break through and attack the battlestars directly- that should draw their vipers back. He also ordered another group to attack the other ships- time to see how much of a threat they were.

Williams grinned- he had taken dibs on escorting the missile carrying vipers- he really wanted to be close to the Cylons when the big surprises hit. It had been decided to keep the anti matter warheads a secret- just in case the cylons managed to get off a report. So these just had nukes. They had decided to concentrate on the 4 leading base ships and take them out first while the Pegasus and Gallactica closed range. He watched as the Vipers sent out 3 missiles towards each base ship.

The Cylon commander was getting worried. Raider losses were getting critical and only a few vipers and other fighters had been destroyed. They were much more capable then they used to be. He watched as a squadron of raiders closed on one of the Battle Stars and fired their weapons- and they had no effect! It was as if the hulls had absorbed the energy. At almost the same time he saw the vipers near the first 4 base ships launch missiles= that was something the Vipers had never been capable of before! Then all four base ships exploded. Now the Cylon commander realized he had been ambushed. Knowing it was critical to get back all available info to the Imperious Leader, he ordered two of his remaining base stars to advance to buy time for him to make the report.

Looking at the scanners he saw that most of the raiders were destroyed- less then a hundred left. He ordered them to ram the battle stars- if only a couple got through a lot of damage could be done. Then he was stunned to see the battle stars destroy the two forward base ships with some kind of long range energy weapon. Now only his base ship and a few raiders were left- and none of them appeared likely to survive long enough to ram anyone. Then his scanners beeped again- another shock- more ships behind him- many more like the other ships. The Cylon commander realized that here was a great risk to the entire empire- these humans the colonials had found were very powerful and very advanced! He had to get a message off- but his comm was jammed- even the direct link to the Imperious Leader was being jammed- the colonials had never had that capability before- it must be these new enemies. That was the last thing he thought as at that moment both the Gallactica and the Pegasus fired their main battery and destroyed the last base ship.

Williams looked over the final report of the battle. The new jamming techniques appeared to have prevented any report from the Cylon commander- they had even found a way to jam the direct link to the Imperious Leader. All he would know is that the Colonials had found allies and that that force had destroyed his. The rest of the 3rd fleet had been disappointed that they had not gotten any scalps- but that was the way it was sometimes. Only 8 fighters and 5 Vipers had been destroyed- and they had managed to save 4 pilots. Such a small loss, regrettable as they were, was incredible when you looked at the forces involved. The Vipers and Star Fighters had totally outclassed the raiders, and the base ships had been meat on the table. Of course one had to hedge a little and figure that maybe there were more advanced raiders and base ships- since these had been a long time away from the empire- but it was doubtful that any advances were more then incremental. Still it was good to keep in mind it prevent any serious outbreak of overconfidence- though that was going to be hard to stop. The new shields had shown themselves to be totally invulnerable to the cylon lasers. The new main battery had worked as advertised. Everything had worked well. The Cylons had been totally outclassed.

On the cylon home world, the Imperious Leader was thinking. With all three of his brains concentrating on the question of the humans. The loss of contact with the advanced force of base ships could only mean one thing- their total destruction. The last incomplete report had indicated that the humans had found allies. Obviously capable allies if they had helped just 2 battle stars destroy 7 base ships so quickly. The proclamation laid down by previous Imperious Leaders- the last 2 had been killed by humans- one at carolon and the other died of wounds received at Gomoray-remained in effect: the total extermination of the life form known as human . That they had been able to kill 2 Imperious Leaders was enough of an indication of the threat they posed in addition to just the general chaos they generated by just existing. So now how to finish it? They were a long way from the home world and the bulk of the fleet. It would take considerable time to send a strong force that far. Just how strong a force would be needed. If 7 Base Ships- albeit older versions not upgraded to the latest standard- could be destroyed that quickly then clearly more would be needed. Twice as many- no that might not be enough. 3 times as many- no. 4 times as many. 28 Base ships of the latest model. That was also the most that could be reasonably spared- a force that was almost one third of the entire fleet.

Immediately orders were sent out. It would still take some time for them to get there. More then one full time unit.

Williams lay there, holding Rigel who was sound asleep. Here in the cabin, on their honeymoon, he was as happy as he had ever been. 6 months had passed since the battle. So far no sign had been found of any more Cylons. But everyone figured they would come. It had been decided to make sure that a full fleet was in the vicinity at all times. It was figured that at least twice as many base ships would be coming- probably 3 times as many. That would mean over 2000 raiders. So a full fleet would still be outnumbered 2-1 even with both battle stars. So a second fleet was stationed nearby- able to reinforce within a week. Another fleet was in the process of forming- it would take a year to get it together. That would give them 6 fleets plus the battle stars. More then 100 carriers, plus other ships, and almost 5000 fighters. The Colonials had never been able to get a hard fix on the number of base ships in the Cylon fleet- they figured it was less then 100. Considering over the last 3 years they had lost more then a dozen to the colonials and earth force, it was not likely they had even that many any more. The real question was were they being upgraded to any substantial degree. That was a question that nagged everyone. Even though there had been great celebrations after the victory, everyone knew that it was not over yet. Still, it had felt good. Williams held his wife and smiled into the darkness- one took the joy one could when one could. He had to laugh- Sheba had just had a son; Boxey was overjoyed to finally have a brother. Athena had already had a daughter and was working on another- as she put it. Starbuck claimed that he was too. And he looked just as happy. The real surprise was Cassiopea having a boy; some had wondered how Sheba would take it- but her old resentment of Cassi had long since gone and she was just happy her father was happy. Things were going well.

The patrol ships was keeping a close eye on the sector that pretty much everyone figured the cylons would come from- it was on a direct route from their empire and since the only location they could be sure to find humans was here that that logical bunch of mechanical tin heads would come here first. It had been over a year since the last battle. Almost 16 months- so if they were coming in force it should not be too long.

Cain laughed as his son tried to grab at his Golden Star Burst- which Cain liked to dangle in front of him. Using his peoples highest award as a baby's toy might strike some as wrong, but Cain did not care. He had missed so much of his daughters early years that he was determined not to miss any of his sons. Cassi walked into their quarters and watched her husband play with their son; who would have ever thought that the great commander Cain was such a softy for a baby. She smiled. She was happier then she had ever been before in her life.

Adama watched as his daughter played with his grand daughter. She looked so relaxed and happy- hard to contrast with the strong willed and decisive bridge officer that she normally was. And Starbuck, maybe it was no surprise that the little lady already had him all wrapped around her thumb. Adama smiled as Apollo came in with Sheba and his other grandson, who was being carried by Boxey. Adama was very happy to see that Boxey had no worries about being over looked. Of course, he was getting close to the age where he could enter the academy-something time had not dimmed his desire for. Adama still had pangs of grief for his dead wife and youngest son, but the pain had eased over time, and with his new grandchildren it was no longer that bad.

Williams made sure he was keeping a poker face as his wife slowly made her way back to the main room of the new home they had built to be the center piece of the farm. She was not due for another few weeks, but she was very vocal about how big she was getting and how hard it was to move around at all. All his protests that she was lovelier then ever were met with looks of amazement. But he meant it- to him she never appeared more beautiful. That he meant it helped, but she still was tired of it.

The Patrol ship re checked their sensors. Yes, the results were the same. A force of Cylon base ships were on the long range scanners, and there were a lot of them. At least 20, and probably more. The captain decided to slowly retreat- while trying to get a hard count. Meanwhile the alert had gone out. Almost a year and a half it had taken them.

The alert reached all concerned. The number of base ships was not a shock- everyone had figured that the cylons would at the very least double the number, and probably triple it and maybe more. Still the number was sobering. Also it was figured that these ships might have been upgraded- maybe their raiders too- so no one was really over confident.

The Cylon commander was very aware of his responsibility. There had never been such a large concentration of base ships in the Empires history. HE was responsible for finishing the humans off-both the colonials and these new allies they found. It did not matter if they were from earth or somewhere else- they were human therefore they must die. He checked his long range scanners- they were supposed to be an upgrade and have a longer range. For the last centon there had been just a bare flicker of something = perhaps a patrol ship – at the extreme limit of the scanners. Perhaps a probe was in order. A section of raiders was sent out to investigate. The last Cylon force had been ambushed and destroyed- he was determined it would not happen again.

The Patrol ship noted the launch of raiders. Perhaps the cylons had picked up his transmissions. If so, it was time to go into full stealth mode. All systems except passive sensors and life support were shut down. This was a dangerous tactic, but they needed all the data they could get on the Cylons- especially if they were upgrades over the last group. The raiders headed right towards his last position- before he shut down and moved. So there was no doubt they had heard or seen something. There sensors were better then the last group= not by a great deal, but an improvement. The emissions from the raiders was higher as well- they had been upgraded somewhat- but it did not appear to be a lot. He continued to watch as the raiders meticulously examined the area. But they did not come close enough to him to discover him. Which was a good thing- since he doubted he could out run them. The full stealth mode worked.

After the cylon raiders had gone back to the base ship, the patrol ship waited until the whole force moved on. Carefully counting them and getting the most possible data he could on them- he waited until he was sure they were out of range before carefully moving to put the star between himself and the Cylons before starting his main engine and heading off to make his report.

The Cylon commander was puzzled – this appeared to be where the last battle had occurred- there was still some trace debris from the base ships drifting in the vicinity- but there was no trace of any other ships around. Deciding to maintain the same heading- the force moved on.

The 1st and 3rd Fleets were moving into position. By mere chance, the 4th Fleet happened to be close enough to respond- so it was being sent in a round about route to bring it in behind the Cylons. The other two fleets plus the Battlestars would confront the Cylons head on. They were taking their time in order for the 4th fleet to have the time to get into position.

The Cylon commander looked in satisfaction at his scanners. At last – there were the two battle stars. And what appeared to be 32 other ships. They were much smaller then a battlestar- these must be the new human allies. No matter- they would be destroyed as well.

Williams had been promoted – finally kicked upstairs and out of his fighter. So he had pushed and prodded and gotten the position of military liaison to the Colonial fleet from Earth Space Force. Which meant he was aboard the Gallactica. He would have preferred Rigel to stay planet side- but she refused. Like all the old hands- they wanted in on this one. He stood behind her at her console and watched the Cylons advance. 28 base ships- more then they really thought they would send. But from what Adama and Cain thought, this had to comprise a fair amount of their fleet- they probably could not afford to send any more then this. The patrol ships data had been gone over with a fine tooth comb. It was clear that their sensors were better- but that appeared to be all that was improved on the base ships- at least as far as they could tell right now. The Raiders had been upgraded some- appeared to be a little faster and probably a little longer range. Not certain about their weapons. Not that that would matter- they would have to have had huge upgrades to be able to defeat the new shields on all the ships they were facing now. It had been decided, once the number of base ships had been confirmed, to use the new anti matter warheads on the missiles. These warheads were tiny- but had 10 times the power of the largest nuclear warheads. That allowed them to use smaller missiles that the Star fighters could carry. One full squadron of Vipers were carrying standard nuclear tipped missiles; and one full squadron of Star fighters were carrying the AM tipped missiles. That should take care of the base ships. It was also decided to send four missiles into the middle of the raiders when they massed- all AM missiles. Everyone wanted to see what that would do to a large formation.

Adama looked at his scanners. Then he contacted the full admiral in command of the Earth Forces. "Admiral, I am thinking that we should launch the same time they do. They will mass in response to us- and that will give us a chance to see what the AM missiles do to their formation". "I agree- then we launch the missile carriers and send them right on a direct shot at the base ships. Use our missiles and fighters to blow a hole through their formations and go for the kill right up." Adama agreed to that as well.

The Cylon commander decided it was time and launched his raiders. He was sending back continuous data feeds to the Imperious Leader. The link was stronger then it was last time- and it would be much harder to jam.

2800 raiders launched. Moments later 1600 fighters and 130 Vipers launched. The missile carriers lagging at the rear- except for the 4 designated to blow a hole in the Cylon formation.

The Cylon commander was startled at the number of fighters the other ships contained. But they were smaller- probably less capable. He had sufficient forces to accomplish his mission. He ordered the raiders to head for the battlestars first- destroy them then the rest of the ships.

Apollo looked at the oncoming cylon raiders- it was hard not to. Never had he seen so many- even at the battle of Caprica there had been less then half these numbers. But this time it is us who are setting up the ambush. He watched the 4 missile carrying star fighters get into position- then fire. The results were fairly spectacular. A nice big hole was blown in the cylon formation- probably 200 or more destroyed. And a fair number damaged. Good first move. Now it was time to open the hole wider and escort the missile carrying vipers and star fighters through.

The Cylon commander was looking at his scanners in concern. Whatever was in those missile warheads was far more powerful then anything ever seen before. And there were more of those missile carrying fighters coming. He ordered the formation to loosen up- almost 7% of his ships had been destroyed already. Then the opposing fighters went right through the holes in his formations but did not turn and fight- they kept coming. They were coming for the base ships. Immediately they were recalled to protect the base ships. They could not allow those missiles to get within range- they had no real defense for them.

Williams was smiling. So far so good. Nice big hole- 200 knocked off already- and now the Cylon commander had panicked and ordered the raiders to return to protect the base ships. It was too late for that- and that would leave them out in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go.

The Cylon commander now realized that his force was in critical danger. He had to save it- the empire could not afford to lose all these base ships. He ordered the first 6 base ships to move forward and sacrifice themselves to protect the rest. He would have to retreat- those warheads and fighters and the other advantages his sensors had spotted- the Gallactica and Pegasus were showing power levels off the scale compared to previous battlestars. And those other ships- their power levels seemed too high for their size. It was not the expected result- but this force must be saved. It would be the nucleus for a larger force that would be needed to win this war. Then he was stunned to see all 6 of his forward base ships destroyed almost simultaneously by those missiles. Then another shock- sensors indicated another enemy force closing on his rear. He was cut off. They were already launching their fighters and they had those missiles as well. The Cylon commander realized that he had lost the battle and the force would be destroyed. He knew it would take many yahrens to replace them- all was lost here. He sent out the latest update to the Imperious Leader- BUT then he found that it was being jammed. His last update had not mentioned the upgrades to the battlestars nor the missiles and their terrible warheads. That information had to get back. But how? The cylon was trying to find a way to do that when the star fighters and vipers from ahead and the star fighters from behind launched their missiles. And then all 22 remaining base ships exploded. All that were left were about 1500 raiders- who were immediately hit with a dozen more missiles that reduced that number down to about half- most of them destroyed, the rest damaged.

Then flying in formations of an entire group at a time- almost 250 fighters at a time- salvo's of lasers carved through the remaining raiders. It hardly took any time at all.

28 base ships and 2800 raiders. All destroyed. In a little less then an hour. And only 10 vipers and 22 fighters were lost. And almost half of the pilots were saved.

The celebration in the new colonies went on for quite a while. It was felt that finally the battle of Caprica had been at least partially avenged. Now on earth and in the rest of the Federation, it was finally faced that they were going to have to launch an invasion of the Cylon empire and take the war to them. And finish it.

In the cylon home world the Imperious Leader sat thinking. All contact had been lost with the fleet- which could only mean one thing. 28 base ships- destroyed. A defeat the likes of which the empire had never come close to having before. More then 40 base ships had been lost in the last 2 time periods. Almost half of the fleet. There were no ships available to send now. The home world fleet- 16 base ships- could not be sent. That force must always be here to protect the home world. That left only 32 other base ships- and they were scattered throughout the empire watching the borders. Only a quarter of them could possibly be spared- and that left the borders very thinly watched. But it would take almost 5 complete time periods to replace the lost ships- and then only if that was given top priority. The expansion and upgrading of the empire would have to be delayed. EVERYTHING would have to be delayed. The new base ships would have to be upgrades over the last group- but there was very little that could be done to do that.

It was not known how strong the enemies were- but clearly they were very strong.

However it must be done –the losses would be replaced. A much stronger force would be sent. Meanwhile some scout ships must be built that could get close enough to the enemies to get an accurate reading of their strengths and weaknesses. That would take time but it had to be done. He would cut the home world fleet in half. And he would take one quarter of the rest and send them. That would give the strike force 12 base ships to start with. Perhaps more of the border ships could be sent. Yes- another 4 of those. That raised it to 16. If all efforts were put to make new base ships and raiders the total of 28 would be reached in 2 time periods. In four it would have 44. By then they would have data on the strengths and weaknesses of their enemies. That would then be a force strong enough to win. Yes – that would work.

It had taken time to decide to go after the Cylons instead of waiting for them to come. Many had argued that the distance they had to come would limit how many base ships they could send and that was the safer way to go. If we went looking for them the battles would get closer to the cylon home world and they would be able to gather more strength to fight with. But it was also argued that the way the Cylons were they would keep coming and coming – and they just might be able to develop new weapons and maybe win sometime. Right now they had lost a significant part of their fleet and they were technologically behind Earth. THAT could change if they were given time to gather information and develop new weapons. The safest thing was to go after them and finish it once and for all. Then the debate was just how strong a force to leave behind and how strong a force to take hunting them down. There had to be a significant force left behind just in case another Cylon attack force came from a different direction then the Earth force went into Cylon space. While not likely, it had to be considered a possibility. The accounts of the destruction of the colonies did not go unnoticed. It was eventually decided to send the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th fleets and the 2 battlestars. At the same time a 7th fleet was created and the ships and crews to staff it were begun. It would take over a year, probably a year and a half for it to be ready. But that could take place while the task force took it to the Cylons. The task force would also have most of Earth Forces bombardment and assault ships- they would be needed if planets had to be taken. Bombardment ships were the space forces version of Battleships- heavily armed with missiles, energy weapons and kinetic weapons(rail guns); they were also heavily armored and shielded in order to be able to take a lot of punishment. Assault ships were basically large transports that could carry more then a division of troops and the heavy shuttles to put them down under fire. The task force consisted of over 100 ships, more then 3000 fighters, 150,000 troops, with a total of 300,000 crewmen.

It was decided to backtrack the route the Cylons had taken as far as they could, then figure out the most direct route into the Cylon empire. Unfortunately the Colonials only had a vague idea of the layout of that empire, and virtually no idea of where the Cylon home world was. They would just have to figure it out as they went along, concentrating on destroying as many cylons, ships, outposts, etc as they could. It was a fairly safe bet that the more damage they did, the more cylons they would draw.

6 months after the Cylon defeat, the task force left Earth space and began to track the Cylons. Scout ships were sent in several different directions looking for signs of Cylon activity. It took almost a month to find some- and the Task Force headed in that direction. Another month went by before they came upon a Cylon outpost. It was small and hardly worth the trouble to destroy- but by luck a Cylon freighter appeared and after its destruction they were able to backtrack it by its course and that took them to a cylon world- which did have an appreciable force on it. After its raiders were destroyed and its ground defenses wiped out, the planet was taken fairly easily. Better yet, they were able to take the main post mostly intact, and the records and computer data they were able to find showed details on the cylon empire, though not yet the home world. Main fleet bases were identified- and they were considered the primary targets. There were 4 main bases in that part of the empire, so a fleet and some support ships were assigned to take each one out. Meanwhile, the Gallactica and the Pegasus would start moving straight through the middle of the empire. Enough details had been found to accurately figure the strength of the cylon fleet- and at the same time show how scattered it was. It would be impossible for the Cylons to concentrate enough strength to take out any one of the 4 fleets without running into one of the others. And it was thought that the 2 battlestars would be able to decoy a fair number of ships anyway. They would have the mission of keeping the cylons busy while the fleet bases were destroyed; since that was also where new base ships were built, that would prevent the cylons from significantly increasing their strength.

On the cylon home world, the Imperious Leader received the bad news. The humans had attacked the empire- and were moving steadily through its center, destroying everything within their reach. Their numbers were huge- much larger then the most pessimistic estimates. Worse, they had found out where the fleet bases were and had already destroyed 2 of them, and more then a dozen new and partially built base ships. This must be stopped- all forces must be concentrated to destroy them. But there were only 44 base ships left in the fleet-not that much more combat force then was currently attacking the empire. Worse then that was the data that indicated the enemy was more advanced, with better weapons and most of all some kind of shield that all but neutralized energy weapons. The empire was being threatened with destruction- unthinkable but true.

So far the assault had gone as planned. The last two fleet bases in that part of the empire had been destroyed, and their building yards and half completed base ships as well. But the base ships that had been supposed to defend those bases had fled. Clearly the order had come from the Imperious Leader to concentrate all available strength in one place. It was a safe bet that that place was the Cylon Home World. And now they knew where it was- courtesy of a base ship that had been crippled but not destroyed; the task force commander had ordered it taken intact in order to seize its core computer data. Cylons had never thought to have self destruct procedures for base ships- since they never had had to worry about anyone trying to take one intact. This lack of foresight would cost them dearly.

The Imperious Leader knew that the analysis indicated that defeat was probable. But he refused to believe it. He had ordered every single base ship to concentrate at the Home World. Also every available raider was also brought to the home world. That would help offset the lack of base ships. 44 base ships with their 4400 raiders would be reinforced with over 1500 raiders based on the home world. The disadvantage was that the range of the home world raiders would be limited by their need to take off and reach orbit. Which would burn up 20% of their fuel to reach the base ships. So the base ships would launch and then refuel the home world raiders. That would put almost 6000 raiders there to defend the home world- surely enough to win.

The task force had concentrated just outside the Home Worlds system. Scout ships had observed the gathering of Base Ships, and the arrival of extra raiders on the home world.

It was calculated that the cylons would send the raiders from the home world up to the base ships to be refueled once the task force arrived for battle. So it was decided to throw a monkey wrench into those plans. The 2 battlestars and all the bombardment ships would circle around and come into the system from the opposite direction- and force the home world to commit its raiders to attacking them- while the task force forced the base ships to confront THEM. The plan was to draw the home world raiders up to directly attack the battlestars and bombardment ships- the cylons knew what the bombardment ships could do to the home world so they could not afford to ignore them. Then they would draw the raiders into following them and burning up their fuel.

The Imperious Leader could not believe the humans were so foolish as to risk the battle stars and those other ships without more support; obviously they thought they could make it to the Home World without detection. They had made a mistake and they would pay; the Imperious Leader thought that now the empire had a good chance to win. He ordered the home world raiders to launch and destroy the enemy.

Adama saw the large force of raiders take off, form up and head for the two battlestars and the 12 bombardment ships. Without stopping to refuel; Adama saw that and smiled. They had them now. He gave the order and the 14 ships turned and fled- just fast enough to allow the raiders to close range- but not too fast; they wanted the raiders to keep coming.

The Imperious Leader realized that he had been tricked- the humans had WANTED the raiders from the home world to chase them off- to follow them and use up their fuel. Now it was too late to recall them- if he did, they would run out of fuel before they reached the Home World; and if he ordered enough base ships to pull out to refuel them, he risked the other part of the enemy fleet attacking the weakened force left behind. So he ordered the raiders to attack at full speed and ram the enemy ships- all that mattered was their destruction.

Adama saw the sudden increase in the raider's speed- just what he had been waiting for.

He gave the order for flank speed- he dared not risk any raiders getting close enough to ram. The Shields were only good against energy weapons- they would not protect the ships against ramming. Luckily, they were fast enough to prevent that from happening.

The Task Force had waited until the planet based raiders had gotten to the point of no return then had advanced, forcing the base ships to launch. Fully 100 star fighters were carrying anti matter missiles- they were shot into the very middle of the cylon formations and destroyed or damaged nearly 1000 raiders. Then another 100 launched enhanced EMP nuclear warheads- and that crippled almost 1000 other raiders. Then the 3000 fighters swept into the less then 2000 or so raiders that were left. It took only half an hour to destroy them all. By then the 200 missile carrying star fighters had re loaded and made their attack on the base ships. In less then one hour the entire cylon force was destroyed- with only a little over 100 casualties.

Adama had reversed course as soon as the cylons began to run out of fuel and the two battle stars and the bombardment ships made quick work of them. Then the Vipers were launched, carrying nuclear missiles. They swept towards the Home World and used them.

Each missile had an enhanced radiation warhead; these missiles were designed to ir radiate a world to destroy all life. 135 nuclear explosions swept the planet, their 50 megaton warheads spreading death everywhere. The bombardment ships moved into position, using their rail guns to launch one ton boulders at speeds approaching 10% of light speed, which leant the big rocks sufficient kinetic energy to rival the nuclear warheads. Every installation not hit by a nuke got a big rock dropped on it.

Deep in the home world, the Imperious Leader sat and brooded as the entire complex shook from the impact of the kinetic energy weapons, and the volcanic and seismic reactions to those impacts. The Imperious Leader knew that the empire was doomed. The Fleet was destroyed and soon the home world would be devoid of all life. It was just a matter of time. He could not believe that the humans had triumphed- it should not have been possible. The Cylons were superior in every way- more efficient, stronger, more intelligent, more organized. But they had lost. HOW? The LAST Imperious Leader had not come up with an answer when the complex collapsed, killing him and all who were left.

Adama checked the scanners. The results of the attack were clear; no energy readings on the planet, and the radiation levels there would kill any living thing- even the half cybernetic cylons. The Cylon Home World was dead. The Cylon Fleet was destroyed. Only some bases and outposts at the far reaches of the empire were left. And the 4th and 5th fleets were heading off to finish them. The 2nd and 3rd were doing a sweep on the rest of the empire to make sure nothing was over looked. The bombardment ships were with them. The Gallactica and the Pegasus were going home. There had been some inquiries about whether the battlestars should visit the former colonies; Adama had said no-no point in opening old wounds. There was nothing left there. They had gotten the information that after the destruction, the colonies had been abandoned only after the cylons had searched each world carefully to make sure no human survived. It was possible, barely, that some humans had been able to hide; but it did not matter, since the cylons had let loose biological poisons loose when they left; there would be no life on those worlds now.

Williams stood on the bridge of the Gallactica with his arm around Rigel; as they looked at the burning and smoking and glowing Cylon Home world. "What they have sowed, now shall they reap" he said. Rigel looked up at him" what does that mean?" He hugged her "it means that what they started ended for them in the way that they had intended for us." Rigel smiled. " yes that is true." Adama gave the order. They were going home.