Prologue

The Cylons were created by Man.

They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.

And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.

After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.

The Cylons left for another world to call their own.

A remote space station was built...

...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.

Every year, the Colonials send an officer.

The Cylons send no one.

No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years...

.

Until Now.

Fifteen Years before the fall

Since the armistice treaty with the Cylons twenty five years ago, the people of the twelve colonies of Kobal started to forget about the Cylons. The citizens began to expand once again and technology had started to become more sophisticated. More civilian projects started up and the economy started to balloon. Presidential administrations began to support more public projects. Some of the older warships were being decommissioned and many of the admiralty started to protest. All protest were met with a silent stare as a firm no as the president needed to gain more public favor. As a result, the military was starting to be reduced.

In the previous five years, the government had begun to reduce the military budget from the amount it had at the war's end. As a result, many military members were being retired or had been denied re-enlistment. Among these was Colonel Richard Sherman.

Colonel Sherman had enlisted in the middle of the Cylon War and had seen multiple engagements against the centurions. He had been promoted to lieutenant by the end of the war. In the seven years after the war, he had returned to fleet command where he had returned to flight school and became a pilot. After becoming a pilot, he returned for more specialized training in engineering, communications, and command. In a matter of eighteen years after finishing his studies, he had been posted on seven different battlestars including the Galactica. During those eighteen years, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and had been in-charge of engineering and the CIC multiple times. It was a blessing for many commanders that he served under in that he could help in any emergency if key personnel were injured. Many times, he was summoned to Picon for reassignment as this was the case. Once again, he was summoned to Picon.

In route to Picon, he began to remember everything since he had left home. As a child, he had been incredibly smart but had been incredibly adept at hiding his capabilities. He also came from a wealthy family being the eldest son of the CEO and President of a premier construction company as well as a tenured professor of computer science at the University of Caprica. He portrayed an average child and used much of his free time to study extracurricular material. He also did not let many people know that he was the son of a CEO and was a down to earth person. He had one sister eight years younger than him and did a lot to help her. When the Cylon war started, he was fifteen and began to notice the massive issues at hand.

Several of the Issues at hand were that the people were too reckless. They did not think things through when designing new technology. This allowed the Cylons become a threat to the people of the twelve colonies. Second. They didn't include many of the necessary fail-safe procedures that would have stopped the Cylon threat such as designing firewall procedures, data encryption, etc… This also made the people scared of much of the advanced technology. Finally, he saw that the people took advantage of the Cylons without seeing the threat they posed and allowed them to be involved all around. Seeing these issues and how they were address, Richard took remembering four edicts: Always be careful and take safety precautions before you attempt to accomplish a task; always research in depth about the topics at hand; always remember history in an attempt to not repeat it; never become complacent.

He had taken these edicts into his studies and wanted to help his people in any way he could. It was then that he decided that he needed to enlist in the military to help his people survive. It took him several years to finish school as well as become fit enough for the military. By the time he enlisted, he had already taken courses on the side in computer programming and new that it was a field that he wanted to expand in when the war was over. He also wanted to dedicate himself to whatever he could do to keep his sister safe.

It had taken him little time before he had completed boot camp and sent to the front lines. There were many engagements that he took part in that were highly dangerous and yet, necessary for the survival of the people. He had been involved in evacuations, in massive Cylon skirmishes, and as part of relief aid and security. He understood the people and understood the general facts that there were many things that could happen at any time. Remembering some of these memories helped to influence his dedication to the advancement of the people in the future.

All of a sudden, he had entered Picon space as they had completed FTL jump. Once at fleet command, he had been summoned to meet with the admiralty and escorted to an empty office room. As soon as the admirals had entered the room, he snapped to attention. "At ease, lieutenant colonel" stated Admiral Nagala. "You have been brought to us due to the recent military cutback."

"Sir?" Richard replied.

"As you well know, the government has been reducing the budget allocated to the military. This budget includes paying for establishment, upkeep, and the staffing of all vessels in the fleet. As of now, the budget has been reduced to 65% of the amount that was used at the end of the Cylon war. We of the Admiralty have been protesting this decision but we have been met with deaf ears. It is to our sad disappointment that we have to have many of our distinguished soldiers retire from the service. As you are one of this demographic, we are sad to say that we have to deactivate you from active duty" Nagala replied. "I hate having to do this because we understand exactly how much effort you have contributed to the safety of the twelve colonies."

Richard, shocked at the decision, didn't know what to say. Eventually he asked, "Admiral, may I know why I'm being deactivated?"

"As I had said earlier, you are one of the more distinguished military members. You have been in the service for seven years in the war itself as well as twenty-five years afterwards. You also are a multi-specialty officer in multiple areas of the fleet. Because of this, you also command more pay than many other officers including many colonels and some of the low ranking commanders. If it was my choice, I would have promoted you to commander and given you your own battlestar a couple of years ago but due to the cutback of the military, we haven't been able to give you your own command. Also, I have it on great intelligence that because of your expertise, you will be given multiple offers in the civilian military construction industry if you are discharged. Another is that by discharging you, we can afford to keep three or more lower ranking officers" Nagala replied. "I hope you can see that we want to be able to keep as many military soldiers as possible by sacrificing as few as possible. Plus we are choosing those that can help in other fields as rapidly as possible."

"I understand" Richard replied. "It has been my pleasure to have served in the military and to safeguard the people. I just hope that those that will take my place will understand that we must be ever vigilant to look at any threats to the people and continue to safeguard the people. Admiral, it has been a pleasure to serve and protect. So say we all."

"So say we all." Nagala replied.

As Richard left the room, he hoped that the future will be safeguarded for generations to come.

Authors Message: After reading many of the Battlestar Galactica fanfics, I became interested in writing my own story. I hope for any feedback that you may give me and hope that you enjoy the story. I also do not own the Battlestar Galactica series. I take no profit in this story.