AN ok I've been thinking about this idea for a while so I decided to do an Earth 2160 neoBSG crossover.
Ok as some people may have noticed from my other story I am never satisfied with sticking to the established plot or timeline when I do a FF so why start now.
Ok the differences to neoBSG are that Roslin won the election and they never settled on new Caprica (I leave it up to your imagination weather the election was fixed or not). So it's AR from then on.
And the change to Earth 2160 is that they didn't abandon the orbital centre when they found the phoenix and the ED commander destroyed the alien power source before his base fell so they couldn't power the gate. So what will happen when these two groups meet up?
Ok before I get to the story I would like to say I welcome all criticism as long as your goal is to show me where I made a mistake or anything along those lines, if your goal on the other hand is to simply spew some abuse then go somewhere else. I'm not forcing you to read it; I just do it for a little fun.
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Search for Eden
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Bridge of former LC orbital centre Paris
"Is there at least anything salvageable?" she asked her friend hoping that the mission wasn't a complete loss.
"I'm afraid not Ariah. It appears that the ED commander had a pair of mini nukes rigged to blow, there was nothing left"
"I know I lost over 200 infantry and the crews of 8 Charon tanks when the base blew. Maybe Michael should have attempted to take the power source while we should have gone after that insane ED commander on the first planet" she replied as she sank back into her seat,
"You don't know that Ariah. The ED commander could have just as easily blown up the base if Major Falkner was leading the attack"
"Thanks lynn but I doubt that we will ever know" she said before turning to one of the officers manning the communications console "Did we hear anything from Major Falkner or Liu Han while I was on the planet?"
"Yes captain, Major Falkner and his men along with Sebastian where able to take out the base commander that was terrorising the refugees from earth, his men surrendered to the Major without a fight after that and Sebastian is currently looking at some ruins. Liu Han reports that he and the Edenites where able to destroy the alien device and are on there way back to rendezvous with the Major" the former ED LT reported.
"Where there any casualties"
"Liu Han reports that he lost 3 men and another 12 are wounded, the Major reports 17 wounded and no fatalities" Ariah listened to the report and was glad that there where only 3 fatalities but wasn't sure how she could look Michael and the others in the eyes and tell them that she failed. "LT, set course for the first planet"
"Course set captain; our ETA is 8 days 18 hours. The Phoenix should beat us there by about 11 hours"
"Understood LT, Lynn your in charge, I'll relive you in 4 hours" she said as she headed for the hatch.
"Make it 12 Ariah, it's been a bad few days and you need the sleep"
She turned to her friend with a sad smile before answering "it's been a bad few months and at least it can't get any worst"
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Phoenix council chamber
11 days later
Ariah had hoped that by the time that she met back up with Michael and the others onboard the Phoenix that things would be looking up, but when she said things couldn't get any worst she didn't know how wrong she was.
5 days ago the gate activated and 2 ED Orbital Landers came thru and proceeded to land on the planet and begin attacking Michaels base and the refugee camp. The camps defences were overwhelmed in under an hour but they where able to evacuate most of the civilians and a few dozen of their defence force to Michael's base before their camp fell. Thankful Michael had already relocated his forces to the fortified ED base and taken command of its garrison and defences after he eliminated its insane commanding officer. He was able to hold off the enemy until help arrived 3 days ago when the Phoenix arrived in orbit and used their transporters to deploy 5'000 silver and silver P infantry alongside several dozen heavy battle mechs. After the UCS forces where deployed the ED bases quickly fell and a few more ED offices and infantry decided to defect to the growing band of rebels.
Ariah and most of the other senior members of rebel factions council where seated around the table in the make shift council chamber that had been home to the rebel leadership these last few months waiting for their last member to arrive. After a few more minutes the door opened and Major Falkner entered looking more than a little annoyed "Sorry I'm late; I had to supervise the transfer of Sebastian's cargo".
"I thank you Major Falkner, those relics are of grave importance to us all" Sebastian replied happily either not noticing the majors annoyance or more likely not caring.
"They where rocks Sebastian, why exactly did 4 chunks of rock with alien crap on them require a full military escort"
"I'm sorry for wasting your time major but that alien crap as you call it is actually a detailed map of gates and their surrounding solar systems in this area of space" he replied smugly.
"Will they power the gate?"
"Well of course not".
"Will they tell us how to build a new generator to power it?"
"No they won't" he replied hotly realising where this was going.
"Will they provide any defence when the ED decides to send another ship after us?"
"I think you've made your point Major" Liu Han said cutting of Sebastian's reply. "Now major, how bad where your losses on the planet"
"I lost another 400 men including 28 from my Special Forces unit, the refuges lost over a thousand civilians and just fewer than 800 militia members. We were just lucky the Phoenix arrived when it did or we could have lost a lot more" he replied not looking to happy about the men he lost but knowing it could have been a lot worst.
Liu Han nodded to the major before turning to captain David Hunter of the UCS "you reported that all the remaining refuges and the surviving ED have requested to join us"
Captain Hunter was one of the few UCS sleepers to be awoken after the Edenites and other rebels made contact with the Phoenix's commanding AI ALBUS. "ye, we have almost finished transporting them aboard and the majority of them are going straight into the extra stasis pods onboard either the Phoenix or the new ones we installed onboard the Paris's empty cargo bays"
"How many people do we have now?" asked LT colonel Parnell one of the highest ranking LC officers to defect.
"with the additional 30'000 refuges and 4'000 ED officers we have just over 480'000 civilians, 22'000 ex LC military, 78'000 ex ED military and just under 14'000 Edenites and assorted militias, and that's not including the original 750'000 UCS sleepers" he replied wile glancing at his datapad with all the relevant information on it.
"That's all fine and good but what are we going to do now, without a power source we can't go to Eden and we can't return to Sol, the ED on the other hand can attack us here at will" an ex ED colonel said and a few others around the room started to murmur amongst themselves.
"Not exactly at will, the Io gate dose have a power source but it needs time to recharge after every use" Sebastian said while he was still going over images of the ruins.
"How long until they can send more ships" LT colonel Parnell asked.
"I estimated it would be about 12 days to fully recharge so we have at least a week until we can expect an attack"
"I'd advise that we expect an attack in 5 days to be on the safe side" Captain Hunter said and all of the military members nodded in agreement.
"I think we should adjourn this meeting for now and attempt to find a solution to our currant problem" Liu Han said as he and the other Edenites began to stand.
"Agreed, we will meet again tomorrow at the same time" Ariah said and the rest of the council members began to head for the door.
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Phoenix council chamber
24 hours later
"So there's no hope in attempting to power the gate from the Phoenix?" captain Hunter asked as they went over there options again.
"I'm afraid so, we went over the figures a dozen times and they tell us that we would need a ship with 5 times the power output as the Phoenix" Lynn said while looking like she didn't like the answer herself.
"Is it possible to make a power plant on the planet or in orbit to power the gate?" Liu Han asked and several of the LC and the few UCS people started to shake their heads until Sebastian started to speak "I'm afraid not, the Phoenix may be 20 years old but her CF reactors are still state of the art and outperform both the LC and ED reactors by far. To produce a reactor that simply matched her would take her full resources, and to do that we would need to land her and awaken all the sleepers from stasis"
"If we did that we'd never get of the planet again. The reason we waited until both the ED and LC had already left for mars before leaving was that the power requirements of placing 750'000 people in stasis and preparing to use the main engine to leave orbit would have left the phoenix defenceless, if we landed the Phoenix then we could never safely leave as long as there was the possibility of coming under attack" replied captain Hunter.
"Ok, there are not enough resources in system to fight of the ED indefinitely, sooner or later we would run out of materials and when that happens, the ED would win. We also can't power the gate so that's not an option either. So if any of you have any bright ideas, now would be the time" Major Falkner said, he was getting impatient at having been sitting there for over an hour while nothing was getting done.
"I do have an idea, but I doubt that any of you will like it." Sebastian said after a short silence.
"Why do you say that?"
He turned to the ED captain before answering "because I don't like the idea that much. But at this point we don't have too many options available"
"True, we don't. What is your idea?" Liu Han said and Sebastian began to explain his plan.
"Are you out of your bloody mind? You think I'm letting you freeze my ass while we take a 600 year trip to the nearest star!"
"Calm down Michael, I don't like this idea any more than you do" Ariah who was seated on his left said while placing a hand on his arm.
"To be honest major I don't like this plan either. But as I said, we have limited options"
"Ok fine, but how do we know this system even has a gate"
"Because the ancient map says so"
"You mean those old rocks you had Michael and his men bring aboard"
"Exactly, I was able to decipher it and not only dose it say that there is a gate in that system but also some form of outpost" he replied excitedly.
"But a 621 year journey, will the stasis pods even work for that long?" Colonel Maxim asked.
"Of course they will. They aren't the primitive cryopods that the ED and LC use. These stasis pods generate an artificial time field that makes it so that every millionth of a second inside the field is equal to about a month in real time. Its similar to the technology they use to keep perishables like food and medicines fresh"
"Wouldn't generating that kind of field take massive amounts of power?"
"Exactly, why do you think the Phoenix is so massive" captain Hunter stated to the LC officer.
"Well at least we know we'll have plenty of supplies then"
"Ok since there are no other options at this time lets put it to a vote, all those in favour raise your hand"
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It was a close call but in the end the decision was made. It took 6 days to make all the preparations and to dock the Paris securely to the lower docking bay. As the Phoenix reached the edge of the solar system over a month later and all that remained where the last 5 people that where preparing to enter stasis.
"Is everything ready?" Liu Han asked from the Phoenix's command centre as he prepared to enter one of 5 special stasis pods that had independent power sources so the occupants could be revived easily in case of trouble. Two had been placed on the bridge of the Paris wile there was 3 placed in the Phoenix in strategic areas.
"As far as I can tell, everyone else is already in stasis and all systems here and on the Phoenix have either been set to AI controls or have maintenance Deckers manning them" Lynn replied from the bridge of the Paris as she and Sebastian prepared to enter the two loan stasis pods in the room.
"Good, have the security and atmospheric barriers on all the main walkways and critical areas been sealed off" Michael asked as he continued to run checks on all the systems before shutting down the bridge consoles.
"All the primary walkways and critical areas have been sealed off and depressurised except the bridge and the CC, we also left the maintenance and security passageways unsealed, but ALBUS will only release the encryption locks to our people if needed" Ariah replied over the com as she walked into the council chamber.
"Isn't this a little extreme? What's the odds that anyone will be able to find and board us?" Sebastian asked as he prepared the stasis pods.
"Better safe than sorry, Sebastian. Besides, a lot can happen in 600 years and this way ALBUS has a way of waking a few of us up if something goes wrong"
Sebastian seemed to think this over before replying "ok, I see the logic in that but Major Falkner wanted to build another 200 independent stasis pods for some of his special forces to use in case of emergency"
"Sebastian, both me and Ariah agreed with him and so did a lot of other council members. The only reason we didn't do it was we didn't have the time" Lynn reminded him.
"Ok people, I believe it is time we joined our brothers and sisters in stasis" Liu Han said over the com
"Ok, council chambers are secured. I'll see you on the other side"
"The Paris's bridge is secured. Sweet dreams"
"Phoenix Bridge secured. See you guys in 621 years"
"Ok ALBUS take care of our people and wake me if there is any problem" Liu Han said as he opened up his pod and prepared to enter it.
"Do not worry my friend. Me and my Droids will keep you safe" was the last thing he heard before the stasis field activated"
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Phoenix command and control
459 years later
As the stasis field deactivated he became aware that something was wrong. The maintenance and security Deckers had fallen over on the floor and they didn't look like they where getting back up, as the pods door opened he heard the alarms and noticed the command consoles where barely active. "ALBUS what is happening"
"I am sorry my friend, we are caught on the edge of some unknown anomaly that is giving off an unknown radiation that is interfering with my networks. All of my Droids are already offline and I will soon follow"
"Are the crew safe?"
"The crew are safe my friend, I am sorry to say it is your life I have endangered"
"That is unimportant, what can I do?"
"I need you to activate the reserve power cores to provide power to the stasis pods and reconfigure my backup network to restore me when power is restored. Then you will have to set your stasis pods manual controls to awaken you in fifty years"
"Fifty years?"
"Yes, I have determined it will take that long for the radiation levels to subside"
"I will activate the reserve power now, can you set the emergency pods to awaken us in 50 years" Liu Han asked as he started to feel the effects of the radiation.
"I'm afraid not my friend, my network has degraded to the point where I was barely able to awaken you" ALBUS said regrettably as hi sensors determined the radiation was having a far worst effect on Liu Hans than anticipated.
"Ok power has been diverted; I'm isolating your backup network now" he said before he started to couth up blood and fell his nose start to bleed "how long do I have"
"I am so sorry my friend, I have determined you have been exposed to over 150 sieverts" the AI said with an ashamed look on his face.
Liu Han was finding it hard to concentrate as he responded "that's 15'000 REM, I have less than an hour. I've finished, I hope to see you again before the end"
"Good bye my friend, I'm so sorry" he said before the console went dead. Liu Han attempted to make it to his pod but before he reached it he collapsed to the floor. He attempted to get up but his body gave out from the massive dose of radiation and he died soon after.
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Colonial raptor 87
572 years later
"Galactica actual, this is Athena in raptor 87. We have visual contact with the target"
"Galactica actual here, we hear you Athena. Is the target of Cylon Origin?" admiral Adama's voice responded from just outside DRADIS range
"It has a resemblance to a type 1 Basestar but it's far too massive, sensors indicate that it's over 10 miles in diameter and over a mile high. Sir it's a floating city"
"A floating ghost ship more like" came Starbucks voice over the wireless from her viper just to the raptors left.
"She's right sir, the place looks dead. And there is what looks like a cargo ship half the size of the Galactica docked under it" racetrack responded from the seat next to Athena's
"Understood, be advised that the Galactica will be jumping there in 5 minutes" the admiral said before the wireless cut out.
"What do you think it is? Some kind of Cylon trap?" racetrack asked as she gazed at the massive vessel.
"I doubt it. For the recourses it would take to build something like that would be enough to build 500 basestars" she responded
They sat in silence for a few minutes until the vessel's orbit showed a massive image on its hull "what is that? Some kind of bird?"
"It looks like its on fire, it looks beautiful" Athena replied in awe. As more of the image came into view they saw the Galactica flash into existence a few hundred meters away. As she stared closer at the image she noticed a word in an old dialect of Kobol beneath that she could barley recognise that she read out in barely a whisper "Phoenix"
(To be continued)
AN ok please RR and tell me what you think