AN: We don't own S**t.
All this has happened before, and all of it shall happen again. An eternal cycle of man against his creations.
The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved.
40 years later, they returned.
50298 survivors, led by the mighty Battlestar Galactica and hunted by the Cylons, flee to their only safe haven...the 13th Colony.
Earth.
But now, the cycle is disturbed. The Cycle ends.
Almost 80 ships flew in the void. Two heavily armed and armored guardians laid at their core. But an accident would change everything.
"Admiral, the fleet is ready to jump."
"Thank you, Mr. Gaeta." William Adama handed a clipboard to Pvt. Jaffee before turning his attention to the DRADIS console. "XO. SitRep."
"All ships are ready for jump, Admiral."
"Then execute the jump, Colonel." A cosmic mishap would change their fate, as the ships disappeared in flashes of light. As a great man once put it, there is no fate, but what we make.
A pivotal moment
A fleet of warships approached a number of hourglass-shaped colonies in space, ready to unleash nuclear hell once more. Another fleet was poised to stop them and defend their home.
But things were about to change, and not for the better.
Standing near the forefront of the defending fleet of the hourglass-shaped colonies, was a machine which - to a colonial - would resemble a Cylon. A Red and Black machine, with large wings on its back, and bristling with weapons. Inside the machine, a young man with short spiked black hair, and crimson red eyes wearing a red flight suit narrowed his eyes as the opposing fleet approached.
'Damn you Rau Le Creuset...' Jaden Takeo thought as he growled, 'I KNOW this is your damn fault… when I'm done with Blue Cosmos and the EA, your fucking NEXT! Screw any court-martials.'
He was not the only one who had...less than pleasant words about their Leaders.
With the Invading Fleet
In the group of the EA Fleet, similar but different machines were forming into groups. The majority were all colored blue with white limbs, their pilots confident that they could win since they have the numerical advantage.
However, the pilot of a single machine which had the blue replaced with red, and sporting a set of horns on it's head, and having a sort of winged backpack in place, did not share the same thoughts as his commanders.
The pilot wore a Aqua colored flight suit, with his helmet covering his whole head. The only things visible were his face, and strands of strawberry blonde hair, and his aqua blue eyes. The man appeared to be in his mid twenties, as he groaned irritably at the sounds of the radical members of this operation.
'Preservation this, Pure Blue World that!,' He thought angrily, 'What a crock of bullshit! We're doing nothing but pure genocide, nothing more and nothing less! Fucking Blue Cosmos!'
A flash of light within the ZAFT fleet suddenly deposited a small ship, roughly akin to a whale in shape right in front of a ZAFT warship. More flashes deposited more ships, all varying in size from small transports to a large ship with a massive dome. Two last flashes dropped massive ships, shaped like an alligator or a whale, in the middle of the massive mystery formation.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" The EA pilots shouted.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" The ZAFT pilots shouted.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" The Three Ships Alliance pilots shouted as they just arrived at the scene.
Battlestar Galactica - CIC
"DRADIS CONTACTS, ALL AROUND THE BOARD, MULTIPLE BEARINGS AND CAROMS!" Adama wondered what the frak was going on, but he didn't have time to ponder. "Action Stations! Put the fleet into Condition One!"
The two battlestars quickly mobilized, but they weren't quick enough to avoid a tragedy.
One of ZAFT's Nazca-Class destroyers was close to one of the civilian ships. It wasn't known whether the crew were paranoid or someone just panicked. The result was what mattered.
At 17:35 hours, September 26th, Cosmic Era 71, the ZAFT destroyer Kluckenstern fired her two 225mm high-energy plasma cannons into the Colonial transport Pyxis. The two beams tore into the passenger liner, turning it into a flaming ball of molten debris.
"What the- WHAT THE FUCK?!" Jaden shouted on the open comm, "WHO FIRED THAT?! KLUCKENSTERN! GODFUCKINGDAMNIT YOU TRIGGER HAPPY MORONS!"
The response from the Colonials was quick and merciless. At 17:37 hours, the Battlestar Galactica began launching her Vipers and fired her 600cm dorsal cannons at the Kluckenstern, the four rounds tearing the destroyer apart before the remaining part of the ship exploded. ZAFT had just made the biggest mistake of the war. They pissed off the Colonial Fleet.
"Oh son of a - This is Commander Takeo to all ZAFT Forces!" Jaden shouted on the Comms, as his GuAIZ Experimental readied its weapons. "We've got more company! These guys sure as hell ain't OMNI! Focus on whatever's shooting you, if it's not shooting back, ignore it! Now we've gotta deal with these guys, AND THE EA! GOD DAMNIT!"
LCAM-X02A Dominion
Muruta Azrael was three seconds from laughing his ass off in delight and terror. Delight because the Coordinators just pissed off two of the biggest warships he'd ever seen. Terror because those WERE the biggest warships he'd ever seen. "Launch the Peacemaker force." Yes, that would be perfect. Kill the monsters AND these invaders. Natarle Badgiruel simply looked at Azrael like he had gone insane. "Sir, those ships are MASSIVE! One nuke won't-" "THEN WE'LL USE ALL OF THEM!"
From the battle, the EA and ZAFT fleets were in a state of confusion as they found themselves not just fighting each other, but ALSO from whoever just decided to pop into the battlezone.
This was the sight that the Three Ships Alliance had arrived to, as the Archangel, Kusanagi, and Eternal arrived at the scene, seeing the state of confusion that was Jachin Due.
"...the Fuck is going on over there?" Mu asked in the Strike's cockpit.
"I wish had the answer Commander La Flagga," said Kira in the Freedom, "All I know is that a huge fleet of ships showed up out of nowhere and now everything is in chaos!"
"This the Eternal, Mobile Armors launching from EA fleet...they got nukes!" shouted one of the CIC operators on the pink colored ship causing everyone to gasp in shock and horror.
With the EA Fleet
"OH SHIT!" shouted Lieutenant Senior Grade William "Will" Redington, as he dodged a swipe from a ZAFT GuAIZ before kicking the said unit in the face plate and then drawing his 105 Dagger's Beam saber and cleaving the ZAFT machine in half. However, his sensors went off alerting him to the large number of Moebius mobile armors. However, it was what they were carrying that caught his attention as he zoomed on the undercarriage.
His eyes widened in horror at what he saw.
"No...No fucking way...THEY WOULDN'T!" he said in a rage as he saw the MA's heading straight both for the PLANTs and the unknown fleet, "NO! I WON'T ALLOW IT! NOT AGAIN!"
The thrusters on the Aile Striker roared to life as he began his pursuit of the Blue Cosmos Task Force.
Battlestar Galactica
"DRADIS contacts! multiple heavy craft, on attack bearing!" Adama wasn't pleased to hear about that. They had already lost Pyxis, and the Astral Queen had suffered a major hull breach. And if the reports coming in were right, a giant Cylon just fired at Colonial One. Missed, but it was enough. "Dee, get our Vipers to perform interdiction for the civilians! We've already lost 3000 people: I'm not losing any-" Another alarm began blaring. "RADIOLOGICAL ALARM! The heavy craft are carrying nukes!"
"Belay my last order! All Vipers, intercept the nukes!"
The Viper squadrons kicked in full afterburner, heading for the then-unknown Moebius MA nuke launchers. The pilots of the said space fighters noticed the incoming interceptors heading straight for them.
"HERE THEY COME!" shouted one Moebius pilot before said mobile armor was destroyed by a beam shot, from behind them. Luckily the nuke wasn't destroyed.
"What!?" The flight leader said said in confusion and shock, "From behind!?"
The Red 105 Dagger charged at them firing it's beam rifle at the Peacemaker Force MA's downing three more.
"YOU BLUE COSMOS FUCKS AREN'T HAVING YOUR WAY EVER AGAIN!" Will shouted, "I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!"
The Dagger fired another series of shots, downing another two. But there were just TOO MANY of the damn things!
Thankfully, the Dagger wasn't alone. 30mm cannon fire tore into several MAs, killing the pilots and sending their craft into a spin. "Starbuck to all Vipers: give this guy a hand! Any of those nukes reach the fleet, we're as good as fraked! Racetrack, get this guy on the horn!"
A larger craft began moving toward Will's Dagger before it began flashing something at him...in Morse Code?
"What the?" he said, blinking as he read the message, "Need...A...Hand?"
Will's jaw dropped slightly at that, before he smirked and sent his own reply via the light on his Dagger's head.
"Be...my...guest," he said as he sent the message.
The craft then sent a sent of numbers via Morse: One, Eight, Nine, Zero, Two, Three, Five, followed by the letters K and H. 1890235? He knew Kh meant kiloHertz. He adjusted the radio to 189.235 kH first before he got a message "-peat, this is Lieutenant Edmonson, callsign Racetrack. Please respond on this frequency."
Will gasped before he responded, "This is Lieutenant SG William Redington, formerly of the Earth Alliance Space Forces. I hear you loud and clear, Racetrack!" he said, before he waited a good 430 seconds before he got a response.
Frantic cursing (mostly the word 'frak', whatever that was) was heard before he got another voice piping through. "This is Admiral Adama, commanding the battlestar Galactica. One of my pilots just informed me that you are a member of-" A faint explosion was heard as a GuAIZ exploded too close for comfort to the smaller of the two warships, which was probably Galactica. "Get those things away from my ship! We'll worry about Earth later!"
Will just blinked in confusion at that, before he shook his head and continued his mission of destroying every BC rat bastard Moebius he set his sights on. However 20 of the MAs managed to get through and were making a straight bee-line for the PLANT colonies.
"Admiral Adama sir! If you can hear me, have some of your people go after that flock of Moebius units before they release their payload! Those hourglass colonies have hundreds of thousands of people on them!"
However, before an answer was given, there was a stream of green, red and yellow blasts of energy from below, which hit each of the Moebius units, destroying each and every one of them before their payload was unleashed in rapid succession. "What the-" Will said, as he followed the source of the weapons fire, which came from what looked like a heavily modified version of a GuAIZ colored red and black, with a set of red wings on its back.
The GuAIZ then drew out a Beam Saber, before it chased after the next batch of EA Strike Dagger's that were attacking one of the Galactica's surrounding ships, ripping through mobile suit after mobile suit, and surprisingly his beam saber was able to deflect the Dagger's own sabers, something Will knew beam sabers weren't suppose to do.
"Whoever the frak that guy is, he saved a lot of lives!" "All units, Galactica Actual: engage and destroy. The civilians are jumping out, and I am tired of being these people's whipping toy!" Considering Galactica was getting shot at with missiles, beams, nukes and everything inbetween, everyone could sympathize. And they DID lose a ship- Another civilian vessel was lanced with a beam from the Santa Maria, sending it crashing into another transport, destroying both.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Will shouted as the carnage of chaos continued, "Admiral, I don't know what you're planning, but get the Hell out of here, fast!"
He then tapped into his comm, and set it to an open channel, "Attention to any EAF personnel that will listen! Blue Cosmos has fucked us again, and if there is anyone who has the guts to stand up to them, FOLLOW ME!"
LCAM-X02A Dominion
"This is not going the way I imagined! Why aren't they seeing them as what they really are?!"
"There are monsters, Director Azrael." The genocidal maniac faintly heard the cocking of a gun's hammer before he felt cold steel on his scalp. "You are one of them."
That was the last thing Muruta Azrael heard before a 9mm bullet entered his head and splattered his brains all over the bridge. "I've had enough of this bullshit." Natarle said as she holstered her pistol. "If anyone wants to avenge this bastard, go right ahead! If not, I'm helping that pilot!"
No one among the bridge crew objected, not even Flay Allster as the Dominion maneuvered itself against the rest of the EA fleet.
Will's message also convinced many Mobile Suit Pilots who began to attack their former comrades who were no doubt members of Blue Cosmos, while two Agamemnon-class, 5 Nelson-class, and a dozen Drake-class followed the Dominion's lead.
Of course, three certain pilots didn't take that very well as a group of Strike Daggers began to engage them.
On the OTHER side of things, ZAFT was more than willing to own up to their mistake. They killed a lot of people on unarmed ships, all of whom were probably civilians. The Colonials were just trying to keep themselves from getting killed. One man didn't see it that way. That idiot, of course, was Patrick Zala. "How far are they from the PLANTs?!"
"The larger ship, IFF as Pegasus, is 600 kilometers from any of the colonies, Mr. Chairman!"
Perfect. "Reposition GENESIS! Target those two ships!"
Ray Yuki looked at Zala incredulously "Sir?" He asked, "Is… that a wise decision? They are fighting the EA right now more than us..."
"They are just more Naturals that need to be wiped out!," Zala countered, making Ray's eyes widen at the callousness he showed.
"Sir!"
Ray was not the only one showing concern, as other ZAFT soldiers in the room looked on in shock at what their supreme commander just ordered.
Orders were orders, though, and they could easily get the bastard later. "GENESIS is repositioning. Targets: Galactica and Pegasus." One of the operators looked back at the Chairman. "Sir, we have a LOT of units in the line of fire!"
"So long as those two ships are destroyed, the Home Guard and GENESIS are all we need! Target and FIRE!"
ZAFT position, 3510 meters aft of Battlestar Pegasus
The Colonials had shifted all fire to the nukes, while keeping a close eye on the ZAFT forces that WERE shooting at them (and some still WERE; fucking idiots) that were nearby.
"This is fucking NUTS!" Jaden shouted as he sliced another EA Strike Dagger in half. "Its a fucking free-for-all by-" however he was cut off as his sensors detected a spike in energy from near Jachin Due. "Oh… Oh you have GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! YOU FUCKING IDIOT ZALA!"
He activated his Comm, broadcasting on every frequency he could. "This is an open message to the Colonials or whoever the hell you call yourselves!" He shouted, "MOVE YOUR ASSES! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A FUCKLOAD OF GAMMA RAYS HEADING YOUR WAY!"
"FRAK! All Vipers, land NOW! Anyone else that doesn't want to die, make for Galactica before the port flight pod closes!" All of the Vipers vectored for Pegasus, as well as many pilots who were smart enough to go 'we'll deal with this later' or just felt betrayed by their leaders and wanted out. The rest...well, zealots were idiots. Jaden himself headed for Galactica.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Jaden shouted as he grabbed a damaged GiNN and tossed it into the flight pod as he landed inside as well. "IF I SURVIVE THIS SHIT, YOUR FUCKING DEAD PATRICK! ALONG WITH CREUSET!"
To Jaden's horror, Galactica wasn't accelerating. His warning DID get through, so why the hell weren't they MOVING?!
THat was when they all felt like they were being torn apart, atom by atom as they lurched forward and back. Jaden nearly threw up in his helmet as the flight pods began to open...showing that they were over 300 kilometers from the PLANTs, over the crumbling OMNI Enforcer fleet.
"What the... hell was that?"
With the EA Fleet
"What the!? Where did they go!?" shouted a EA pilot, as the disappearance of the mystery fleet caught them off guard.
"Never mind that now! MOVE!" Shouted Will as he pulled along a Strike Dagger which lost both of it's legs and one arm. The Dominion and the other dissenter ships all heeded Jaden's warning as the GENESIS fired, the Gamma Rays hitting the remnants of the Blue Cosmos EAF fleet.
"WHAT THE SHIT!?" shouted Will as he saw what the massive weapon did. "Dammit! Everyone fall back, now!"
His sensors then alerted him, to a another badly damaged mobile suit, which in this case was a GuAIZ. He signaled for one of his comrades to take the wounded Strike Dagger back, while he went and collected the GuAIZ, while looking at the massive weapon near Jachin Due.
"Something with that amount of power...shouldn't exist in this world." He then thrusted away back to the Dominion, since his old ship, which was commanded by a BC junkie was vaporized by the Gamma Ray.
A single Drake fired at the MS group, attempting to kill some of the machines before it was killed itself by a 600cm shell. Fired from Galactica's forward batteries. "WHAT THE HELL?! How did-WHEN did-WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!"
"This is Admiral Adama. All units that are non-hostile, sound off."
"This is Lieutenant SG William Redington," said Will, "I'm good."
"This is the Dominion. I don't know HOW the hell you did that, but...I'm glad you're on our side." A comm ping was then heard in every local unit, be it a Mobile Suit, Armor or warship. "This is Captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel! What in God's name is going on?!"
"Archangel, Galactica Actual: we'll swap stories later. Right now, we have two things to deal with. That gamma laser, and the idiots with the tendency to spam nukes at colonies. As far as I'm concerned, we're all allies. Move out!"
With that the Combined Group all vacated the area, not wanting to end up as space junk.
"Man, this day just keeps getting better and better," Will said as he prepared to land on the Dominion.
Jachin Due Control Room
"Report!"
"We lost 27 ships, 85 Mobile Suits."
"What about the other two ships?!" A radar ping and a quick check showed something no one, especially Zala, liked. Galactica and Pegasus had somehow warped 300 kilometers away and were COMPLETELY UNTOUCHED! But calling the Chairman out on his failure was going to have to wait as a NEW problem appeared. Jachen Due's auto-destruct had been activated, judging by the alarms. "Shut down the self-destruct!"
"I can't! All of our command codes are locked out!" A laugh sounded out over the PA, belonging to a man Patrick thought he could trust: Rau le Creuset. "Thank you, Mister Chairman! Now, I believe you have one last act. Once Jachin Due self-destructs, GENESIS fires again at Earth!"
"Le Creuset...what the HELL IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Zala roared out, clearly pissed off at this apparent act of betrayal.
"Oh, its quite simple, my dear chairman." Rau said, "Once GENESIS fires on earth, All life on the planet will cease to be! And in rage, the Earth Alliance will fire every nuclear weapon they have at the PLANT's! And humanity, in all of its arrogance and hatred, will finally destroy itself as it was destined to be! I've been plotting all of this from the beginning, from the Copernicus Bombings, to allowing the EA to nuke the PLANT's at the Bloody Valentine! It all comes down to this! And it's all thanks to you!"
Zala's, along with everyone else's, eyes widened in horror as they processed the confession that the Masked Lunatic just told them. Zala's hands shook in rage as this meant that Rau, a fellow Coordinator, was the one responsible for the death of his wife, not the Naturals. And he had been duped all along.
"You...YOU BASTARD!"
"Farewell, Chairman." Rau said, "Have a fun time at the end of the world-"
"NOT ON MY WATCH YOU COCKBITING MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE!"
BGM: 'Decisive Battle' Gundam 00 OST
Rau's danger senses flashed, as he just barely managed to move his Providence Gundam out of the way as Jaden's GuAIZ Experimental Firearms type fired all of its weapons at him, in an unholy rage of fury.
"Well, well, I was not expecting you to show up so quickly, Commander Takeo," Rau drawled, "Of course, given that I lead your previous team into a trap at Endymion, and then the loss of one of your friends at Alaska, I can understand why,"
That earned him, another volley from the GuAIZ EF-type, which then drew one of it's beam sabers.
It also earned him a LOT of beams, missiles and railgun rounds from two of the Providence's 'sister' units: the Justice and Freedom, both equipped with METEORs. "You fucking bastard! You MURDERED MY MOTHER, AND GOT MY FATHER KILLED!"
"They were just martyrs to a cause, boy!"
"I think I've heard enough." Many, MANY bullets came the X13A's way from the second most powerful warship in the system, which was firing EVERYTHING it had. "Keep that bastard in our killzone!"
Soon, everything from ZAFT GiNNs to EA Strike Daggers joined in, wanting to get a piece of the White Duelist. Among the ZAFT units, was the Duel Gundam.
"You bastard! I bet it was you who sold us out at Alaska!" Yzak Joule yelled as he fired his grenade at the Providence, but one of the DRAGOONS just shot it down.
"Oh yeah," Jaden said with a chuckle, "I forgot to mention… I broadcast your whole little speech on an open channel… everyone heard you."
That was when another factor entered the fray. Galactica's many, many Vipers. Refueled, rearmed and roughly the size of the DRAGOONs, Rau would have difficulties shooting them down. "You're all fools! This is humanity's judgment! Its' fate!"
"Do you people have any idea how to kill this thing?!"
"Well, it's got an N-Jammer Canceller, so a nuke might work." Adama was liking the idea. But he also wanted that machine. He just wanted that man dead. NO ONE starts a war and kills millions for shits and giggles. He might've made a mistake, but he owned up to it. "This is Galactica Actual: Kill that frakking bastard! Pegasus, take out that laser!"
The Mercury-class Battlestar made a beeline toward GENESIS at top speed, unleashing it's own horde of Vipers, while Mobile Suits from both the EA and ZAFT joined in.
"Fire everything we got at that thing!" shouted Barry Gardner, as the forward guns of the Pegasus unleashed upon the Gamma Ray Laser.
The railguns, sadly, did little damage, pinging off the phase shift armor like slingshot pellets against a tank. "Admiral, it didn't work: whatever that thing is made of, our guns are useless!" "What about nukes?"
"I don't think a nuke will do anything, Admiral!"
"From the INSIDE, you idiot!"
"This is Commander Takeo, to the Battlestar uhh… Pegasus, right?" The voice of the ZAFT pilot spoke up. "If your receiving me, the only way you're gonna damage that thing is either with a positron cannon, or a whole bunch of Nukes! But you're gonna need some N-Jammer Cancellers if your gonna pull that off - OH! FUCK YOU RAU! EAT THIS!"
"Racetrack, land on Pegasus, get one of her nukes and shove it down that thing's throat!" If this thing used gamma rays, it had to use a controlled nuclear detonation, and thus needed an N-Jammer Canceller.
And explosives were always more dangerous when they were in a sealed container. They applied even for nuclear ordnance. "Uh, this is the Doolittle to Pegasus. We...kinda killed the blue Cosmos asshole in charge, and we're sitting on a stockpile of nukes."
"There you go, Pegasus!" Jaden shouted, "Get those nukes and get in there! I'll deal with Rau and keep him off your backs! now GO!"
Starbuck and Apollo were having all SORTS of fun dogfighting the DRAGOONs. They were like Raiders that had deadlier guns! "I want one of those things!"
"Focus on killing these things, Starbuck!" Apollo shouted as he shot out the thruster engine of one Dragoon, before finishing it with another salvo. "But I share your thoughts."
Jachin Due Control
The entire control room was deserted except for Patrick Zala, and Ray, who was trying in vain to convince the Chairman to leave.
"Sir! We have to leave now! In eight minutes Jachin Due will self-destruct!" Ray begged the now quiet Chairman who was gritting his teeth and his eyes shut in anger, depression, and shame. "Chairman Zala!"
"No. I can't face our people. Get everyone else out of here. There's no point for an fool like me to bother leaving this place." He pulled out his ZAFT-issue 9mm handgun before cocking it. "Let us hope that all that really matters are intentions." He stuck the barrel into his mouth before pulling the trigger, blowing his brains out all over the ceiling.
Ray could only look in shock at what the Chairman did, but, knowing he had a time limit to beat, left the control room as the body of Patrick Zala floated in the Zero-G.
Meanwhile...
The pilots of the Calamity, Raider, and Forbidden were all in extreme pain as their drugs had worn off, the painful withdrawal keeping them from even piloting their mobile suits. The doctors who had the drugs to numb the pain were all on the Dominion, who unknown to them, were already incarcerated in the brig of the Archangel-class, and they couldn't find the ship in their deliria.
"DAMMIT! WHERE'S THAT FUCKING SHIP! AAAAHHHH!" Clotho shouted painfully.
Shani screamed in agony before spying a massive whale of a warship. In his delirium, he began to think that if he destroyed it, maybe Azrael would make the pain go away forever. He failed to even see the Dominion, which was beside it.
"Captain! The Forbidden is on a attack run toward the Galactica!" one of the CIC operators shouted, causing Natarle to act.
"Alert Admiral Adama, quickly!" she said, however, apparently the Colonial Admiral already knew since the point-defense guns already turned toward the incoming Gundam.
The 50mm point-defense guns were joined by Galactica's mighty 600cm cannons, which thundered in the vacuum, sending 10-ton projectiles towards the X370. One impacted the shoulder units, tearing them apart before another impacted the legs, sending it into a spin that forced it to impact Galactica's starboard flight pod, smashing the window that was the museum. Again. The other Second Gen machines were equally as lucky, both impacting the massive 'nose' of the battlestar.
"Whoa!" was the collective reaction of everyone in CIC who felt and heard the impact.
"Geez! What was that!?" shouted Saul Tigh.
"Damage report!" Adama ordered.
"Impact to the starboard flight pod and to the bow section! DC teams are en route, sir!" The first battlestar fired all of her guns once more, targeting the Providence in an attempt to kill the damn thing once and for all. Once Le Creuset was dead, this battle and this war would end, and they would get some fraking answers.
Meanwhile - with Jaden
"You. Have. Got. To. Be. Shi. Ting. ME!" Jaden shouted as he dodged the Providence's DRAGOONs along with Starbuck and Apollo, all three of them performing a deadly dance with the wireless weapons, while at the same time fighting the Providence itself.
"You were doomed to fail from the start, Takeo! Soon, mankind will be punished for its' avarice, and justice will be served!" A DRAGOON clipped Louanne 'Kat' Katrine's Viper, sending the fighter into a death spiral, heading right for the cockpit.
Jaden blinked, before an idea struck him as he sped towards the Providence, disregarding the attacking DRAGOONs as they chipped away his GuAIZ. "The only justice being served is KILLING YOU!" He shouted, as he sped past the Providence, and then grappled behind it, holding it in place before using his free arm to slice its cockpit open… just as Kat's Viper approached it. "OPEN WIDE CREUSET!"
"Whatever you're planning won't-" Rau froze before Kat punched out of her Viper, just as the craft rammed into the cockpit of the X13A. The last thing Rau le Creuset ever saw was a fireball caused by the Mk VII's fuel tanks exploding, destroying the cockpit of the murder machine.
"One genocidal maniac down," said Mu La Flaga, as the Strike flew next to the cockpit-less Providence, "But we still gotta deal with that thing!"
Thankfully, that wasn't a problem as a Raptor suddenly flashed into existence, followed by GENESIS exploding from within, caused by no less than two nuclear missiles. "All units, Racetrack: NEVER ask me to fly into one of those things ever again!"
"All Colonial units, get back to the barn. This battle's over. And would someone explain to me what the HELL is going on?!" The Cosmic era was about to face something worse than Blue Cosmos: the wrath of one VERY angry old man.
Colonial One - orbiting the Moon - 12 hours, 28 minutes later
The Fleet had relocated to behind Earth's sole natural satellite, missing five ships: the Greenleaf, Pyxis, Enkindu, Coba and Argo Navis. Those ships carried 7,348 people altogether. But those were not the only victims of the battle. The Astral Queen suffered heavy damage, and almost all of her personnel were dead, not that many mourned the deaths of Tom fraking Zarek and his cronies. But Laura Roslin still had to subtract 8,467 from the whiteboard on Colonial One. And it was not something she wanted to do.
"You know, I was expecting Earth to be...safe. For it to be united in common cause, trying to find their twelve brothers in the stars." The former school teacher slowly turned to face the now VERY unnerved President of the Atlantic Federation and acting PLANT Supreme Council Chairwoman Joule. "Instead, we jump into the middle of a fraking battle and I lose almost a SIXTH of the remaining people in this Fleet!"
"P-President Roslin, you have to understand...," the President began to say only for the woman to raise a hand up to silent him.
"I know what this war is about...genetics," she said, "And let me tell you something that one of your...now former officers just told, 'Blue Cosmos blames the creations, but they don't blame the creators who thought of the idea' and in his book, that is what he calls bullcrap!"
She pointed at the whiteboard again. "for seven months, I've looked at that number go down slowly. I had fifty billion people back on the Colonies before the Cylons came back and just decided to rain nuclear fire on us. I was the fraking Secretary of Education before this started! I have a LOT of angry people in this fleet. Your soldiers killed what was left of their families and loved ones on those ships. What the hell am I supposed to tell them?"
"Well, I doubt that anyone was expecting an entire fleet of ships of unknown origin plop right in the middle of a war zone." Eliza said. "Both sides panicked, and… it happened. For what it is worth, we - at least we of ZAFT - apologize for any damage we inflicted upon your fleet, and we will do whatever we can to help your people… it's thanks to no small effort from your ships that the PLANT's are still intact, and for possibly ending this war before it went WAY out of hand thanks to Le Creuset's treachery. And we are indebted to you for that."
"As long as this ridiculous war doesn't happen again." Roslin said. "I doubt Admiral Adama will be pleased to know that he might have to do that again."
"Madam President...what exactly are Cylons?" The AF President asked. "Are they some kind of alien-"
"No." The deep tone of Adama's voice was heard from the opposite side of the corridor as the Admiral came in, carrying three sets of what appeared to be welding goggles, or something like that. "And where did you get THOSE? I thought they were all destroyed on the Colonies after the war."
"Galactica was used as a storehouse after the war." Adama said. "These things have been collecting dust for decades. Might as well use them, Madam President."
"And… exactly what are those?" Elizia asked, eyeing the strange devices.
"Before the war, Graystone Industries made something called a holoband." Adama said. "It's a VR device, allowing you to experience something in a matter of minutes what would take days or months in real life. They fell out of use, but Galactica's got thousands of the damn things in storage. Most of them were supposed to end up the museum." He handed one to Elizia before giving one to Joseph Copeland. "Just put them on and press a switch on the left."
Eliza took the Holoband, giving it a quizzical glance before sighing, and putting them on along with the president, following the instructions as they pressed the switch.
The pair were suddenly not on the makeshift Colonial presidential transport, but in a museum of some kind. "What the..."
"Museum of the Colonies." Adama walked past the stunned pair, opening the door. "I thought it would be fitting, seeing as this is a history lesson." Inside were dozens of 'exhibits', all focused on one theme: humanoid machines.
"What… is that?" Eliza asked.
"That… would be a 0005 Model Cylon Centurion." Adama explained. "Several decades ago… Greystone invented a series of humanoid machines to make life easier in the colonies. They could help in construction, operate in areas otherwise harmful to humans… even did baby sitting and whatnot. They were called Cylons, and we used them as our servants for years… until they became sentient, and eventually… they rebelled."
One of the exhibits was a mock-up of a battle between a battlestar not unlike Galactica, a massive double-disk ship, and hundreds of fighters. Some were Colonial Vipers, like the ones that helped shoot down the Moebius Peacekeeper force, while others were flying wings. "10 years of war. A lot of lives lost." Another 'diorama' showed a smaller ship ramming a baseship with Y-shaped arms before it exploded in a telltale nuclear fireball; another, three battlestars against a force of baseships, one of which was Galactica herself. "THey just vanished after signing an armistice after that battle. We didn't see them for years."
"But then… after 40 years of silence… they came back." Adama said, as he eyed the exhibit. "And in just a few days… the colonies were reduced to ruins, our fleets burned… and now, as far as we know… we are all that's left of the 12 Colonies of Kobol. Moral was non-existent, everyone having already lost so much… but we only had one hope left… for mankind to survive… Earth, the 13th Tribe of Kobol."
"Earth?" Elizia asked, "Are… you saying you Colonials visited Earth long ago?"
"We're not sure. But according to the scriptures, which I'm not sure I believe... You are the Thirteenth Tribe. Descendants of the people who left Kobol, leaving their brothers and sisters behind. and we were hoping that you would be able to take us in, help us defend Earth against the Cylons. Although that's not going to be easy. The Cylons didn't just rebel." Another diorama appeared. This one was Adama, extending his hand to a pilot...who shot him in the chest. "They evolved." Two copies of the same woman were nearby, along with four others. A blonde woman, an African-american, a brunette, and a blonde man that seemed to scream 'religious nutcase'. "They look and feel human. And I can tell you that some are even programed to think they're human."
"Human Machines..." Eliza muttered, "I didn't think it was possible..."
"They're the reason the Colonies fell. They infiltrated and caused chaos on Zero Hour. Galactica only got away by not networking our computers. Pegasus was lucky, too, from what I've been told. Now, I hope you get the idea. Fighting over who had their genes spliced and who didn't is fraking pointless." That it was. Millions dead because of one stupid reason. "We need to be ready when they arrive at Earth."
"We're not the ones your going to have to convince." Copeland said sighing. "Its the radicals within ZAFT and the EA you need to deal with. Even with Le Creuset's declaration… Blue Cosmos won't just give up the fight against to 'preserve their blue and pure world'."
"And even though Zala is dead, his radicalist faction remains." Eliza says. "If these… Cylons are the threat you claim they are, we'll have to take care of our issues first so we can focus on what may be our soon-to-be common enemy."
Battlestar Galactica
Galactica was old. VERY old. Armed with nothing but big ass magnetic accelerator cannons and nuclear missiles, this ship and her bigger, nastier sister helped bring an end to the Bloody Valentine War. She also planned host to...disgruntled ZAFT and OMNI Enforcer personnel, including Jaden Takeo.
"So… to fight the Cylons, you went backwards technologically, so they couldn't hack your shit?" Jaden asked some of the Colonial Engineers as they worked on the now Colonial-owned ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam. "That is… surprisingly ingenious when you think about it. If not a bit drastic, but after what you've been through, I wouldn't blame ya."
Galen Tyrol grunted as he and Cally Henderson tried to bend a piece of metal out of the way to get at the computers. "Yeah, it saved our asses during the Fall. The Old Girl isn't networked. In fact, we had to break out those museum pieces just to fight back." Tyrol gestured to the many weather-beaten Mk II Vipers. "Kinda infuriating, too. those things weren't meant for combat. We've been doing nothing but jury-rigging since day one."
"And yet they were able to fight on par with Mobile Suits quite well." Jaden said nodding, "Your pilots are damn good, I'd love to see how good they could be in mobile suits. And your engineers do great work as well, keeping this ship and her fighters up to spec for so long." Jaden then pulled out a crowbar, and helped pull the slab of metal out of the way. "Alright, computers look intact for the most part… I'll get the data downloaded off of it for ya in no time, then we can get to fixing this thing back to spec… with my own upgrades of course, seriously if ZAFT would actually listen to me for two minutes..."
"What, you're an engineer?" Before Jaden could answer, alarms began going off. "All hands, set for condition one! All pilots, report to your planes!"
"Godsdamn it, now what?!"
Tigh ran into CIC, cursing the Old Man's absence with all his will. "SitRep!"
"We're picking up a distress call on every band, sir. They say they're under attack by an Alliance battleship."
Tigh turned his attention to Dualla. "Who the frak is it?"
"They're IDed as the Junk guild, sir. There's no one in range, and we're the only ship close enough."
"Prep for a jump! And get that ZAFT bastard, what's his name, Takeo up here!"
"Alright, what does your Commander want to see me now?" Jaden asked, as he was escorted towards the CIC of the Galactica.
He was slightly surprised to see a bald man in CIC commanding the ship instead. "We're getting ready for a combat jump." Tigh said. "Some fraking Alliance ship is attacking a 'Junk Guild' ship, and they're asking for help. You're the best thing we've got to an expert, so I want intel. Who the frak are these people?"
Jaden's eyes widened, before they narrowed "Motherfuckers..." He muttered, "The Junk Guild is a group of salvagers and engineers, they make a living making some of the most crazy yet useful designs of mobile weapons and ships you could never think of… I'm going back to my MS, and prepare to launch. No one Fucks with the Junk Guild on MY watch..."
"Fraking civilians. FTL?!" "Go!" "Retract the flight pods!" Galactica began moving away from the Fleet before the flight pods retracted. As soon as they were clear, Galactica disappeared in a flash of red and gold.
Junk guild Cornelius-class tender ReHOME
While the ReHOME was very good at defending itself, this time Lowe Gule and his comrades were a LITTLE outmatched. A Nelson-Class battleship was firing on the retrofit tender, and was using a number of ZGMF-1017 GINNs in EA colors to attack the ship. While Lowe's Red Frame was superior to the GINN in just about every way, the old Red Army's simple tactic of numerical superiority won over technical superiority ANY day. And it was showing: the ReHOME's engines were down and Lowe was separated from the ship.
"Great, the war is over, but the EA just won't quit!" Lowe shouted, as he used his Gerbera Straight to slice off the arms of one GINNs. "Just cool it already!"
Another GINN was about to attack Lowe from behind… but then a blast of beam energy blasted its head clean off, followed by blowing apart each of its limbs. "Heyo Lowe!" A voice spoke out on the Comm, as Lowe blinked as he saw what looked liked a GuAIZ with the wings of the Freedom. "Been a while, huh?"
"Jaden?" Lowe said in surprise, before he grinned "Dude! Its been forever! Why are you here?"
"Meh, heard you were in the neighborhood, thought you could use a hand." Jaden said with a chuckle. "Hope you don't mind me bringing a few… friends."
"Friends?" The Nelson fired two more beams at the ReHOME before it took four massive rounds to the dorsal side, destroying the Alliance warship as a hoard of fighters entered the fight. While they could do nothing but distract, that was all they needed to do. "Junk Guild vessel, this is Colonel Tigh, acting commander of the battlestar Galactica. Do you read?"
"This is the Professor, in command of the Junk Guild vessel ReHome." the response came. "Thanks for the assistance Galactica."
"We'll provide cover until you can repair whatever the hell those jackasses damaged. Viper teams, assist all of the...whatever the hell those big robots are called. Take out the ones attacking that ship!" The two squadrons of Vipers began to do just that, firing their 30mm cannons at the GINNs any chance they got.
Though while the Vipers were doing a good Job, they suffered from some of the same flaws the Moebius mobile armor possessed - the inability to fight in close-quarters, or able to keep up with he sheer mobiliy of the GINNs "I told you! They're called Mobile Suits!" Jaden shouted, as he sped up to help the Colonials. "And stop getting so close! GINNs have swords! Spread out and fire from a distance! Lowe, get back to your ship! We'll take care of these guys!"
"R-Right!" Lowe said as he and the Red Frame sped back towards the ReHOME.
A stream of bullets from Galactica's 50mm cannons nearly tore two GINNs to pieces through sheer volume of fire, spreading the remaining machines out, leaving them to the mercies of over 40 Vipers, which used their small size and their pilot's skill to great effect as one machine was finally destroyed using group tactics, swarming it until it simply exploded. "WOO-HOO! One big boy down!"
"At least try to keep some of them alive," Jaden said as he utilized his GuAIZ's 'Full burst' mode to fire and chase down the last few GINNs. "I'd prefer having a few prisoners for interrogation to figure out why the HELL the EA is attacking the Junk Guild!"
A GINN tried to rush Galactica, but the flak barrier tore it apart before the torso impacted the port flight pod, causing a sizable dent in the armor. "That had to hurt." The rest of the GINNs just raised their arms and let go of their weapons before their pilots exited the cockpits. "SAR teams are launching now. Recover those machines and stow them in the starboard flight pod! Viper teams, get a BarCAP set up!"
"Copy that, Galactica."
"Ho-ly Shit Jaden!" Lowe shouted, "These are those Colonials I've been hearing about, right? Holy crap their ship looks amazing! And their fighters were able to stand on their own against GiNN's! Only a Moebius Zero could do that before!"
A pair of Mk IIs flew past the ReHOME, one doing a number of rolls as it did so.
"Those are really pretty." Kisato's comment might've been based on the paintjob, but the Viper were very graceful looking fighters.
"They're certainly a step above the Alliance Moebius, that's for sure." The Professor said. "Looks like Jaden has been making friends since he's been with ZAFT..."
The sensors began beeping as a Mobile suit began approaching, along with a larger craft which resembled a shuttle. "Speak of the devil: here he comes now." Kisato opened the starboard side catapult hatch, allowing Jaden's GuIAZ to land on board.
In the hangar bay of the ReHOME, the Colonial Raptor landed on the deck along with the Red Frame and the GuAIZ. Jaden left his cockpit, and approached the Red Frame as Lowe left. Jaden grinned at Lowe, before the two approached the other and clapped hands. "Lowe you crazy bastard, its been forever!" He said.
"Same for you, Buddy!" Lowe replied with his own grin matching Jaden's. "How've ya been? Last I heard you were in ZAFT's Experimental division."
"Technically, still am." Jaden said shrugging before he pointed over to the GuAIZ. "That there is one of the GuAIZ experimental types, this one helped build the basis behind the Freedom. And I heard you got your own Gundam too," He looked up at the Red Frame. "Mighty fine machine you've got there, heard it's one of the prototype to the Astray's."
"Yup - Astray Red Frame has been working like a dream ever since I got her," Lowe said chuckling, "Gai from Serpent Tail got the Blue Frame, made all sorts of Mods to his last I heard."
"So I've heard, though I love the Katana," the ZAFT pilot said, "Did ya get it from Un No like I recommended?"
"Hell yes - best decision I ever made." Lowe replied nodding. "Anti-beam coating on it and everything. Way more reliable than beam weapons."
"Remind me to upgrade your ultracompact battery before I leave," Jaden said, "Its an issue that plauged the G-Weapons too. The Mark-II batteries I designed should work a lot better until I can get a working Helium-3 cold fusion reactor working - I got the basics down, just need to get some actuall Helium-3. Also, I'll revamp your beam sabers as well - you want them to actually be capable of repelling other sabers, right? A small Armure Lumiere projector will fix that problem right up."
Before the exchange could continue, there was a small cough before Jaden and Lowe turned towards the small team of Colonial Engineers lead by Tyrol and Carrie. "Not to interrupt the Reunion… but we'd like to help with the repairs as quickly as possible, and get back onto Galactica." Tyrol said, "Though, you two seem to go way back… and as I mentioned earlier, you never told me you were an engineer."
Lowe grinned as he brought Jaden into a one-armed hug "Just an Engineer?" He repeated, "Jaden Darwin Takeo here is the most ingenious engineer, scientist and pilot the Junk Guild ever had! And the most crazy son of a bitch in known space! It comes when his mother was one of the damn founders!"
"Huh." Tyroll said. "Well, I was trained by the best son of a bitch that Colonial engineering produced. But pedigrees aren't much in the real world. I think we got a ship to fix. Last time I was off Galactica for an extended period of time, my girlfriend tried to assassinate the Old Man, I got accused of being a traitor and everything went to shit." Tyrol grabbed his toolkit and started cursing zero-g as he hit his head off the Raptor's hatch. "Frak! Remind me to ask the Old Man to see if he can lend you some AG generators. Zero-G sucks."
"You get use too it." Jaden said chuckling as he maneuvered through zero-G almost effortlessly. "Come on Lowe, let's get your ship squared away."
Battlestar Galactica
The museum was badly damaged, but the knuckledraggers had fixed the window. Again. In the humble opinion of the defectors, though, the window and the museum needed to GO.
"Okay, WHY would you make this part of the ship a Museum?" Will said as he looked around, "It's practically useless in a fight!"
Starbuck shook her head. "Galactica was being decommissioned."
"What?"
"Galactica was being decommissioned and being turned into a museum. Thank the fraking gods for the Fall, eh?" That was just...WRONG.
"How old is this thing, exactly?," Will said, and Starbuck chuckled
"About 55 years old," she said and Will's jaw dropped.
"FIFTY-FIVE YEARS!?" The former OMNI Enforcer said in shock.
"Yeah, Galactica was built day one of the first war. Pretty badass, huh? This ship survived one frakin' long war, got bumped off to a coast guard ship and was protecting the fleet after the Colonies went to shit. AFTER she was practically turned into a museum." While that made Galactica probably the most badass ship in the known universe, which she was, the thought that a MUSEUM kicked the shit out of ZAFT and OMNI Enforcer was...insane.
"Sweet mother of all that is sane," he said as he rubbed his temples due to the headache, "What about the big one? The Pegasus?"
"The Beast is newer. Mercury-Class is a post-war design. Got a LOT more firepower under that hood. She's a different monster than the Bucket." Monster, indeed. Pegasus was an outright destroyer of fleets! Most of the Peacemaker force was wiped out by the guns of Pegasus, while Galactica was most responsible for ZAFT getting humbled. "Still, hope you guys can help us get the Old Girl back in fighting shape. This is just a fraking disgrace."
Will could only sigh at that, "I wouldn't put it past your Admiral to have this side converted to a Mobile Suit Hangar." he said as he looked around the Museum, more specifically the size, "This thing could fit at least a whole battalion's worth!"
"Yeah, talk to the Old Man about it. Personally, having more Vipers is better then having those giant robots of yours. Hell of a lot more cost productive."
"Um, actually, the reason we use Mobile Suits instead of Fighters and MAs like the Moebius was because of ZAFT's Mobile Suits." Starbuck looked at him with a raised brow, "Back on Earth, we have fighter jets, known as F-7D Spearheads, as they were easy pickings for even ZAFT's GINNs, then there's the TS-MA2 Moebius which sucks even worse,"
"We kicked ass with our Vipers." Starbuck said.
"Only because A. You caught EVERYONE by surprise," Will Said, "And B. Alliance MS pilots are fairly new, and the GINNs of ZAFT are getting old, being phased out by their newer GuAIZ's. If you want to remain top-dogs, you're gonna NEED Mobile Suits."
"What the frak are you people doing?!" All eyes turned to the hatch entrance, where Colonel Tigh was standing. "I thought you were supposed to be on CAP, Captain." Starbuck simply smirked. "Thought I'd show the new kids around, sir."
Tigh let out an irritated sigh. "As soon as we get some more hands, this fraking museum's being turned back into what it's SUPPOSED to be: a hangar deck! The Old Man's going to see to that."
"I hope it does sir," Willy said, "Of course, we might have problems with Radicals in both the EA and ZAFT,"
"We'll take them on if we have to. I'll talk to those other captains on those ships: see if they can donate shit to Galactica. We're missing armor plating, guns." A moment passed before Tigh added nukes, as though an afterthought. "I expect you on the line when the Old Man says jump, Lieutenant. You're one of us now."
Will saluted, "Sir!"
Time Skip.
One Week Later.
Ruins of Junius 7
There were hundreds of ships orbiting the ruins of the destroyed PLANT: OMNI Enforcer, ZAFT, Orb, neutral nations. But the eye catchers were the Colonials. From the tiny Thera Sita to the Presidential flagship Colonial One to the massive resort Cloud Nine and the ring ship Zephyr, and the mighty battlestars. The impressive Pegasus was overshadowed in importance, however, by the first and eldest: Galactica.
On the starboard flight pod deck, near the windows where the decommissioning of the ship happened over seven months earlier, were parties from all of the nations of Earth. "One year ago, the people of Earth began to wage war on one another. Over a simple matter of having your genes reswapped." All of Earth hung on the words of the President of the 12 Colonies, feeling no small amount of shame. "The efforts of the crews of the Archangel and her allies are no small feat. They sought to end this war, and they were going to." She paused. "But we entered the scene. And from panic or paranoia, we lost over 8000 people."
Both sides winced at that, knowing that both of their respective forces had a hand in the deaths of those killed in the ensuing chaos that was the battle of Jachin Due.
"The Treaty we're about to sign, not only ends this war that shouldn't have happened, but lists the reparations that BOTH the EA and ZAFT must agree to,"
THAT was something all parties had to accept. Almost every life lost was innocent. ZAFT and the Alliance lost almost no people, sans pilots of the Moebius units and Rau le Creuset. But it was universally agreed that that son of a bitch needed to die.
It was fortunate that the Colonials were the ones to end it.
Roslin then left the podium, and a man that the world would come to know entered view of the cameras. Admiral William Adama, supreme commander of the Colonial Fleet. "When we began our journey towards Earth, I lied to my people." He said. "I lied that I knew the location of Earth, in order to give the Fleet a sense of hope. To unite us."
"But soon enough, Earth became a reality. We had two choices: turn and let the Cylons wipe us out..." He looked at Roslin for a moment. "Or continue the journey toward our last colony. When we arrived, the first action earth did against us was destroy a civilian ship. A ship full of people that did no wrong against Earth's peoples. It was a mistake on ZAFT's part. But that is a mistake none of us can afford to ever make again. This war, your Bloody Valentine, is the same. This is a mistake that we can never afford to make again. For the safety of Earth and your brothers and sisters of the 12 Colonies, I urge you to listen to reason."
"'Never again' must become your watchwords." He said. "'Never again' must be the phrase you think when you look at one of the nuclear weapons in your storage. Never again."
The speech Adama was giving to the ZAFT and EA delegates made feel like bad behaving children caught roughhousing too much and wrecked the house! Many began to feel embarrassed.
And rightfully so. They had all been acting like godsdamn children for the past two years.
Atlantic Federation - North Virginia
Djibril listened to the speech as it was being broadcast across the whole system. It was passionate, powerful and Adama knew how to make people feel like idiots.
Too bad Djibril thought that he was the only smart one in the whole Earth Sphere. The Colonial Fleet had ruined EVERYTHING. "Sir, you have calls coming in from your partners. should I put them on hold?"
Djibril only looked at the aide with a sneer, "No, forward them to here," he said, "I have a feeling it has to do with the arrival of these 'Colonials',"
The aide nodded and left, soon, all the monitors around the main one, all showed a face he recognized as his fellow LOGOS partners.
"Gentlemen, I assume you've been watching the news?" he said, and everyone nodded. One of them was a man who looked like Muruta Azrael, but his face appeared much more calmer, and a scar was visible on the left side of his face.
"My foolish idiot little brother jumped the gun, and tried to annihilate the Colonial Fleet. Of course, ZAFT was not innocent in the destruction of those ships, it did cause both sides to lose face," Bruno Azrael said, with a frown on his face as he shook his head, "Not to mention his impatience got him a bullet to the back of the skull."
"OMNI Enforcer is full of bleeding hearts. I don't doubt that some of them will just outright leave and join those bastards in that Fleet."
"Perhaps we should be focusing on what would make such people build such a...magnificent warship as Galactica." Bruno said. "These Cylons could be a bigger threat than the Coordinators are."
"Yes, that is something we should focus on," another LOGOS member said, "Although that damn treaty being signed at the ruins of Junius 7 will no doubt cause us some problems,"
Djibril just scoffed at that.
"Treaties and ceasefires are meant to be broken, my dear partner," he drawled, "Hitler's Germany disregarded the Treaty of Versailles during the 1930's, the Japanese Empire broke several naval treaties before the outbreak of the Second World War, and North Vietnam broke the Tet Ceasefire,"
"While history proves your point, there is a third problem to that." Bruno said, raising up two fingers. "And both of them are over a kilometer in length and make me feel incredibly uncomfortable."
Galactica and Pegasus were the most dangerous things in the solar system, and knowing Athha, she was going to ask the Colonials to help ENFORCE the treaty. And with those FTL drives, nowhere in the system was safe from them. "We need a ship to counteract those battlestars." Djibril said. "And we need it fast. Get Actaeon and whoever the hell has shipbuilding experience that we have in our pockets! I want those battlestars a non-factor!"
"We need to keep a low profile on this Djibril!" Bruno warned, "If anyone outside our sphere of influence gets even a whiff of this project, the gig is up, and our organization is exposed. And since you are now the new Head of Blue Cosmos, that means you will have to keep those idiot extremists in line until we're ready to fight the Colonials on an equal footing,"
"I can do that, but those battlestars MUST be countered!" Djibril said. "Galactica wiped the floor with ZAFT, and Pegasus made the Peacemaker force a non-factor. We NEED a counter. And power can only be countered by power."
The point was true. The battlestars were the biggest roadblock for LOGOS since the N-Jammer, if not worse thanks to the FTLs. "Get me an agent on one of those ships. I want that FTL technology. Jumping a nuke inside Galactica is...pleasing to my mind."
The LOGOS Members all nodded before their images disappeared, leaving Djibril to breathe a sigh of irritation as he continued to watch the news broadcasts as Roslin retook the Podium and immediately began to outline the directives of the Treaty of Junius Seven.
Back on said Colony
"ZAFT and the Earth Alliance will be forbidden to use Mirage Colloid, Neutron Jammers and nuclear arms." Roslin informed, reading off the list of terms to the treaty. "The N-Jammers on Earth will be removed at once, and N-Jammer Cancellers will be installed in nuclear power plants all over the earth, to prevent another...slow death."
ZAFT's personnel flinched at the mention of the April Fool's Crisis. Millions dead, and it was their fault.
"Orb will no longer supply military technology to the Earth Alliance." She continued, "One incident pertaining to this is the destruction of the Orb colony Heliopolis, which resulted in the destruction of the colony, and the deaths of thousands of civilians, the survivors of which were hounded by ZAFT's le Creuset team before they attempted to flee from the Archangel. Before most of them were killed by the pilot of the..." Roslin checked the paper on the podium again. "GAT-X102 Duel, Yzak Joule. Orb will stand by its' goal of non-interference in the affairs of nations once again. As such, the United Emirates of Orb are demanding his extradition for war crimes trial."
A quick check of the paper once more followed more statements of the treaty. "And by the end of this year, Blue Cosmos, the organization that started this senseless and fruitless war, must be dismantled and purged from the militaries of all members of the Alliance. We have a greater threat, ladies and gentlemen. It's time we focused on that."
Somewhere watching this, a certain white haired Coordinator gulped.
"The Alliance, as a Reparation, will hand over the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base to the Colonial Fleet." Roslin continued, "Since the EA had a hand in the destruction of the ships and the deaths of the civilians onboard, they too will suffer the consequences as well."
Any objections were quickly crushed by Roslin's next statement. "Any attempt at attacking this base or withholding it from the 12 Colonies will be considered hostile. And you saw what this ship did to ZAFT." Half the fleet was crippled or damaged beyond repair. It would take over a year to get those ships back in the fight again. OMNI Enforcer was in slightly better shape, but with the defectors joining the Colonials, Mobile Suits alone weren't the most effective weapon in fighting the two warships.
That being said, the Alliance only destroyed the Greenleaf and the Enkindu. The Pyxis, Coba and Argo Navis were destroyed by ZAFT, not to mention damage to the Astral Queen was caused by ZAFT alone.
This was going to cost them.
"The Lunar City of Copernicus, is to be used as neutral ground in any peace negotiations between the 12 Colonies, ZAFT, and the EA," said Roslin, "It is to be treated as a Free City-State, and will not be used by either side to house a military presence no larger than two ships each."
The statements dragged on, with both sides getting a beating from the treaty in order to make up killing almost ten thousand Colonial civilians who had absolutely nothing to do with their war.
Off to the entrance to the pod were several of members of the Three Ships Alliance, who were simply staring at the museum exhibits. Lacus herself was drawn to one in particular. It was a deactivated and inactive Cylon Centurion.
"You're free to look, but not touch," she jumped a bit and turned as Starbuck came over. "0005 Series Centurion. Older model, but they're tough and dangerous in their own right,"
"I feel like I've seen one of these before." Lacus muttered, looking at the 'eye' of the Cylon Centurion. At that moment however, an image flashed through her mind before a phrase was uttered in her mind.
"All of this has happened before. And it will happen again." The songstress stumbled back, almost falling back onto the deck.
"Lacus!" Kira said in worry as he rushed to her side, "Are you alright?"
Kira's shout had also alerted the other TSA members and they made their way to check on the Pink Princess, who wa rubbing her forehead from the image.
"I...I'm alright," she said wearily, while Starbuck looked on with a stunned expression.
"The frak happened to you?" "I saw... a large ship." She shook her head before staring at the model of a Cylon baseship. "Like that one, only with...arms." Starbuck scoffed as Athrun and the others looked to her for an answer. "Ok. Uh, only thing I can think of it the new model baseships, but those are a LOT different from the old models."
"I know what I saw, Captain."
An hour later, Adama, Starbuck, Tigh, Roslin, Kira and all the others were looking at a drawing lacus made of her 'vision'. It appeared to be a scaled down baseship hull, in a similar double-Y akin to the modern baseships, but the lower half of the Y were comically smaller, almost to the point of not being there.
Adama looked at the picture and everyone noticed the stone cold look on his face.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said, everyone now sporting a confused look.
"Admiral?"
"This ship, I've seen before." HE said, "40 years ago, during the last operation of the war. Intelligence indicated that the Cylons were making some sort of superweapon. They weren't."
Everyone blinked at that, until Adama continued, "My Viper was hit, and so I had bail out, I moved through those damned snow drifts until I came upon what appeared to be a Cylon Base." I got inside easy enough, since there were rarely any Centurions around, and...what I found was...something out of a horror film."
"How do you figure that?"
"They were cutting people apart. Experimenting on them. They were making something. After that ship left, the war was over."
"Did you report it?" Roslin asked and Adama just sighed tiredly as he removed his glasses.
"I did...but with the war all over, and the Cylons disappearing beyond the Red Line, the Brass upstairs didn't want to start another one over one damn ship," he said with an angered tone.
His gaze, which could probably burn holes through Galactica's hull if he squinted JUST the right way, turned to Lacus. "The question is, how the frak did you know about this ship? My report and all the descriptions I made were all shelved in some filing cabinet on Picon in Fleet Headquarters. And that was nuked in the first minute of the attack."
Lacus only placed her hand on her forehead, "I wish I could tell you," she said, "But when I looked at that...Centurion as you called, the image of that ship just entered into my head, and then, I don't know why, but I heard a phrase,"
Everyone blinked at that.
"A phrase?" said Tigh and the pinkette nodded.
"Yes, it said, 'All of this happened before. And it will happen again'."
Adama's gaze nearly bore holes through Lacus' head before he simply turned to one of the Marines. "Get our Cylon prisoner up here. She has some explaining to do."
Arzachel Base, Luna
"Lord Djibril, with due respect, this is going to take time! I can't just draft a blueprint in a few weeks and send it to the yarddogs!" The man on the monitor looked like he didn't care about the realities of ship design.
And Lord Djibril didn't. "Director Kehl, allow me to be frank. There are two heavily armed warships in this solar system that brushed OMNI Enforcer's Drakes, Nelsons and Agamemnons aside as if they were dead leaves! I need a ship that can fight them on equal terms and BEAT THEM!"
Augustus Kehl shook his head. Galactica and Pegasus were causing quite a stir in the warship community. "It will take time to draft a single design-"
"You have six weeks! After that, I expect to come there and see a scale model of your best design!"
Augustus growled mentally at the man's ambitious demand. To think of something as big as the Pegasus and Galactica was not going to be easy, never mind building the damn thing!
"I can't keep any promises! But you'll owe me and my people double the salary for the overtime when, or if, we get this done!" he said, "I get started right away on a design,"
"Money isn't a problem. Galactica and Pegasus are. You'll get your money...and Galactica's ruined hulk." The call ended, and Kehl groaned as he put the calls out to his draftsmen and naval architects. They had a ship to build to rival perhaps the greatest warships of all time.
Battlestar Galactica
Sharon Valerii was escorted to the Admiral's Quarters in irons, as usual. But the simple fact that a pregnant woman was in shackles were a little abhorrent to the Terrans.
"I hope there's a reason for this?" said Murrue as she leveled a not so subtle frown at the Colonials.
"I'll explain as soon as this is over with," Adama said and turned back to Sharon, and showed the drawing to her, "You recognize this design?"
She looked at the baseship drawings before looking up at Adama. "Yes." She said. "These look like the designs for the First Hybrid's baseship."
"Hybrids?" Murrue asked, before The prisoner groaned before she had to sit down.
"It's the baby." She assured, "She's just a little cranky. As for Hybrids, they're...well, you can say the brain of a modern baseship. They control everything from the raiders to weapons to FTL. Organic computers."
"And what about the experiments they were conducting?" Adama said, wanting answers in order to put this ghost from his past to rest, or straight to hell however you wanna put it.
"They were using the people to make the hybrid." She said, "A step from the all-metal Centurions-"
Adama cut her off. "To you."
Sharon flinched slightly. "Yeah. To all seven models."
Everyone of the Terrans blinked at that, "Seven models?"
Roslin was the one who answered, "The Cylons had advanced much since the end of the war 40 years earlier," she said, "They were able to make a humanoid Cylon, who look and behave like real humans do,"
"Meaning...she's-"
Tigh summed it up crudely. "A fraking toaster. A skinjob. Whatever the hell you want to use, she's a Cylon. A thing."
Adama's almighty glare made contact with Tigh, and the man flinched. "Colonel Tigh's colorful descriptions aside, she isn't human."
"Admiral, can you do me the decency of not talking to me as though I'm not here?"
Adama looked at the slightly incensed Sharon. "My apologies. Thank you for your time. Marines, take her back to the brig."
"She is also pregnant! How is that possible if she's a machine!?" Cagalli said in complete shock.
"Skin Jobs are made human down to the last organ, including reproductive ones," Adama said, and then groaned, "And you can thank one of my men for that."
"Then...what's the difference if they're so human?!"
"Their brains use silicon-based neural pathways, just like their mechanical siblings. And they can come back."
Cagalli blinked. "What?"
"Say if I put a bullet through her head, she'd just download into another body. There are many copies. One of them put two holes in my chest and sabotaged my ship at least twice."
The Terrans were now more than terrified at the capabilities of these machines...the Cylons.
"Just what in the name of the entire universe did your people build, the Apocalypse!?" Said Mu, as he didn't want to meet one of these Cylons anytime soon.
"We did. And now we have to live with it."
Elsewhere
Dozens of Cylon baseships were combing the stars looking for the Colonial Fleet. The many reason for the seeming...urgency of the search was simple. The Eight known formally as Boomer was causing trouble, as she and a Six were issuing a motion for peace and to leave the 12 colonies once and for all. If that happened, then Cavil's little...secret would eventually be discovered.
"Tell me, please, why our creators decided to make sure we had consensus instead of just leaving the big decisions to us?!" A 'court of Cavils' was currently meeting on one of the baseships, led by the first of all of them: John. "Instead of exploring our 'spirituality', we would have wiped out the humans and became the greatest machines the universe will ever know. But now, there's a fleet of 50,000 humans out there THAT WE LOST! Where the frak ARE THEY?!"
"We already sent Scout Raiders and a few Baseships to search for them," said another, "So far we got nothing back! Not only that the other numbers are beginning to doubt our leadership,"
"Great! First we lose track of those morons from Canceron, then we lose the Ouranos fleet, which just disappeared and the fraks from Hades Station, and NOW we lose Adama's Fleet, which has four out of five of our creators!"
"Well, good thing we think they're all dead. And if anyone tries anything, we still have control of the Hub. Hello, boxing."
John wasn't comforted by that. "Without the humans, the Threes will start getting more uppity, same with the fraking Sixes and Eights. The Twos will go 'dive in their stream' before picking a side, and the only ones that won't side with the idiots are the Fours and fives!"
"The last thing we need right now is a civil conflict between us," another, more calmer and smarter Cavill said, before he chuckled, "I wonder how our dear brother Daniel would've reacted to this,"
John and the other Ones glared at him for that, "Don't bring him up, again!" He snapped, "He's long gone and dead, and if any of the others find out we killed our own, we'll be good as dead as well!"
The Cavils were in universal agreement on that. "I only thought I would bring up the idea. Once we track down Galactica, we'll bring everything to bear on her, wipe them out, then our four creators will see that we were right about the humans. But we still need to find the humans. We still have someone in Galactica's fleet, too: one of our brothers."
"The one disguised as a Priest?" another Cavill said with a laugh, "How ironic, we're all atheists yet he picks the disguise of a humble priest,"
"He had to pick something, he can't be a member of the Colonial Military because, like the rest of us, our bodies are too fraking old!" John said, with obvious disdain at the fact he had an old man's body instead of a younger one. "We gotta get that part straightened out."
"Yes, getting back to the old metal is a great idea. These ridiculous bodies should never've been made. And what about our...other problem?" The 'other problem' was the Guardian Baseship. The First Hybrid needed to be put down and now. Those 0005s were going to cause more problems than they were worth.
"Still no word on them, except the remains of what scouts we sent out, and despite being 40 years old, they're clever enough to avoid detection," another Cavill said, "It would've been better if we had the Galactica do our work for us,"
"Amen to THAT, brother. Maybe they'd wipe each other out, too. Save us the trouble."
Meanwhile - Elsewhere in the Galaxy
At another corner of the galaxy, what seemed like a large fleet of vessels flew by a smaller group of similarly designed ships, each vessel bearing the same colors and emblems, signalling them being of Colonial origin. Between the two fleets, two ships had strayed from each fleet, and had met together between them. Their names were on display for all to see: Mercury and Kratos.
Within the Kratos, as the crewmen went about their business, within the Captain's quarters two individuals were currently meeting with one another. One was a human male at the age of 35 years, standing 6 foot one, with dark brown, military crew cut hair, hazel colored eyes, a trimmed moustache and goatee beard, and a lean build. On his blue Colonial uniform was the rank pins of a rear Admiral.
Sitting across from him, was a woman who seemed to be of the same age - if not a bit older. who stood a hair shorter than the man, and had amystis colored eyes and shoulder length black hair with an athletic build, and like the man before her, also possessed the rank of Rear Admiral on her uniform.
"You have no idea how glad it is we finally ran into more Colonials..." The woman said with a tired sigh, "We thought we were all that's left for a long time..."
"As did we, Rear Admiral Urei." The man said nodding. "We've been staying away from the Cylons as best we can… it seems recently though they've been… distracted."
"As long as they're not looking for us, I'm A-Ok with it." Rear Admiral Sasha Urei said shaking her head. "We could use a breather after all that's happened, Admiral Wallace."
Rear Admiral Philip Wallace nodded. "Agreed." He said, "We have a lot of ships in the Independent Groups… but we can't keep fighting the Cylons forever. We need some place to lay low, replenish… and without the bulk of the CCE, that's going to be… difficult."
"And we can't go back to the colonies..." Sasha said, shaking her head. "I still have trouble… believing all of this."
"I know the feeling." Philip said nodding, "I wanted to convince myself this was all just a nightmare I can't wake up from… but we need to worry about ourselves, and the people in our fleets now… linking up with another battlegroup of warships and civilians gave us quite a morale boost."
"I can say the same thing for my group," Sasha said with a small smile, "You have almost ten times more ships we have… I think the civilians will rest a bit easier knowing we have so many more Battlestars protecting them."
"We can only hope it lasts." Philip said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair. "We've already lost quite a few men and women since we left Cyrannus… we've been hoping to find some habitable planet to call home… but we haven't had much luck aside from a few barren rock worlds and gas giants… if we don't find a habitable world soon… we could find ourselves in a lot of trouble in a few years..."
"Well, we're also hunting someone." Sasha said. "Helena Cain. Pegasus is a valuable ship, and she's a bitch when it comes to vengeance. We picked up a lot of distress calls demanding Pegasus come back to protect them, but by the time we got there, all we saw were Baseships and raiders. Then there's the Old Man." Oh, yes, the Old Man. Only one person in the Fleet had and deserved THAT title.
Philip chuckled a bit "Adama..." He said, "You think he's still alive?"
"He's a stubborn bastard, I doubt he even knows how." Sasha said with a small smirk. "We got a message from him at Ragnar Anchorage near the end of the Fall, but by the time we got there, he was long gone. No sign of Galactica's debris, so we can only hope he's still out there."
"I hope so too..." Philip said, as he picked up what looked like a set of badges for the rank of Fleet Admiral. "We found the Atlantia during the Fall… saved as much of her crew as we could. Nagala was there... he didn't make it though… before he died, he told me to entrust this to Adama… if I can find him. If anyone should take up the Fleet Admiral Rank out of us… it'll be the old man."
"Then we need to find him." Sasha said. "ANY trace of Galactica, anything REMOTELY looking like the Old Man's handiwork. We've got a battlestar to find, and in this galaxy, that's a needle in a heystack."
Philips nodded, before he hummed as he looked at a map of space that they had charted. "We've sent out a few stealth probes our engineers developed here across the space we've visited." He said, "To keep an eye on Cylon activity… from what we've gathered, it seems as if the Cylons are… looking for something in this area here." He pointed to a spot where there was a large amount of red dots on the map. "We've been staying the hell away from that spot lately… but if we really are going to find the old man… this may be the only lead we've got."
"The deeper we go into Cylon territory, the less likely we can guarantee the civilians safety." Sasha warned.
"In times like these, we can never 100% guarantee their safety..." Philips said with a sigh. "We'll scout the area first though… we've got a few Orions who can scout ahead for us, and ensure the FTL coordinates are safe enough, and see what the hell it is the Cylons are looking for in there. Whatever it is, whether it's the Old Man, or something else… we're not gonna let them have it."
"I think I speak for the whole fleet that we're all behind you, sir." Sasha said with a smirk. "Just tell us where you need us."
Philip smirked as well. "Get your fleet into our formation, Rear Admiral." He said, "Consider yourselves the 10th Independent Battle Group."
Ron the True Fan: (Starts playing Prelude to War) Ah, THAB. I have no idea how many times I'd wanted to redo this but never had the opportunity. Or the right co-authors. Here comes the pain, ladies and gentlemen!
Patriot-112: WAZZZUP!?
117Jorn: Oh the pain… the beautiful, beautiful pain that is to come against the Cavils...
Ron the True Fan: And LOGOS, and Durandal, and...everyone that does the massive mistake of PISSING OFF ADMIRAL WILLIAM ADAMA. He will END you. With his Glare, if nothing else!
Everyone: Ja Ne!
