Location: Colonial One.

Laura Roslin's eyes flew open, straining to hear music in the distance as she lay in her bed. She looked over at the door to her private room to see a young girl who was laughing as she closed the door. The President didn't recognize her. Usually, her security was very good about keeping unauthorized people away.

She threw on her bathrobe and slammed open her door... into outer space. It was a scene of devastation. The remnant fleet was slewing around, trying to avoid an onslaught of Cylon missiles and fighters in a strange pattern. The flash of a nuclear explosion hit a Battlestar, staggering it.

Suddenly, the SDF-1 Macross hove into view. The unreality of the curvaceous dark-haired girl dancing across the top of the mammoth ship added even more surrealism to the strange scene. It was as if airless space and being hundreds of feat tall were a non-issue to her modern bump-and-grind dance across the white and blue ship to a heavy drumbeat. Her voice was distorted as if under water, even though she sang into her microphone.

Laura's breath was overwhelmingly loud in her ears as nuclear weapons punctuated the drumbeat cadence of the strange girl.

Suddenly, a strange low-pitched female voice (or was it voices?) started to intrude. It wasn't musical in the slightest, but almost a non-rhythmic chant in an unfamiliar language. A horrible apparition appeared ethereally, superimposing itself over the SDF-1. It was female, but an amalgamation of flesh and steel. Her lower face was just visible, her lips were moving as she chanted. Nothing of her upper face and head was observable, hidden behind imposing gray steel, corded cables draping over her shoulders that disappeared into a coffin-like enclosure.

Laura's eyes were drawn back to the dancer as Cylon nuclear missiles started to rain down the on the beleaguered SDF-1 Macross. As each missile struck, the glare of light flared higher and higher until...

Laura Roslin, President of the Twelve Colonies, awoke with a scream all tangled up in her sheets. She clutched at her head, hair slicked down from sweat.

"Madam President? Are you all right?" asked her bodyguard at the door.

"I'm fine! I'm fine." Laura closed her eyes. She needed to talk to Dr. Cottle again.

Or did she need to talk to Priestess Elosha?

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica BSG-075, conference room.

"Bring in the prisoner," Admiral William Adama said to the Marines at the door. He was sitting in the center of a plain, metal table. On his right sat his long time friend Commander Garris Cain of the Pegasus. On his left sat Lt. Commander Fela Terris in command of the Griffin, with Lt. Commander Andrew Freemont next to her. Adama had recently reassigned him to the Sea Wraith after Terris had assumed command of the Griffin. Colonel Christopher Richards sat next to his old commanding officer, listening intently to Cain as he responded to a question while reading some notes on the cut-corner papers in front of him. He seemed uncomfortable, acting as a commanding officer of the Unicorn now.

They all stood at Admiral Helena Cain's entrance, each saluting each other, and impeccably uniformed officers in their formal kits.

"Please be seated, Admiral Cain," Adama said. After she had sat next to her defense lawyer, he picked up a gavel and rapped it on the table. "This court and inquiry is now conveyed in regards to actions taken by Admiral Helena Cain while in command of the Battlestar Griffin, number two-one-five." He shuffled his papers.

"The first charges are orders that led to the murder of six men. The second charge is piracy of civilian naval equipment. The third charge is ordering the assault on civilians. The fourth charge is ordering the use of torture. The fifth charge is failure to maintain military discipline. How do you plead?"

With a disdainful sneer, she replied, "Not guilty."

"We will now hear evidence as stated within the Captain's Log of the Battlestar Griffin, number two-one-five in regards to the first charge-" Adama started into the beginning phases of the trial.

He had the feeling this one was going to be one for the record books.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, command bridge.

The door slide open almost silently, letting an unfamiliar figure enter.

Claudia Grant looked up and suddenly smiled. "Lisa! What are you doing here? Aren't you still on sick leave?"

The young woman just smiled as the bridge bunnies turned and started waving their hellos. She gestured at her outfit, which was a decent blouse and skirt outfit. "Hence why I am just visiting, out of uniform," she said with a laugh. "It's good to see you guys!"

Vanessa looked visibly relieved. "It really is good to see you, Commander!"

"Yeah! There have been some new changes. Captain Gloval made a new Information Warfare command, with those new anti-hacking tools from the Seawraith." Claudia shrugged. "I'm not sure I see the need, myself. Our computer systems are so incompatible, even when you know how they work. The Cylons aren't going to be hacking our systems like they did the Colonials."

"We should try to counter any possible attack!" Lisa replied, a very serious expression on her face. "Where is that located? I may drop in to see how the new equipment is working out."

"Near Doctor Lang's quarters, on the original computer block compartments. I swear, he's the only one that even slightly understands those things," the 3rd in command of the Macross said. Suddenly, Claudia changed her tack. "Lisa, how are you holding up?"

Lisa looked out the window, eyes lost in thought. "I'm surviving. If only I had reacted faster, we wouldn't have misjumped right near the Griffin."

"Bullpuckey! I read the after-action reports! You were in a nearly impossible situation with no choices. You can't let survivor's guilt trap you into what-may-be's and could-have-beens." Claudia's face set in a stern, but caring expression.

"I- You are right, Claudia. But I can't just turn off those emotions." Her expression turned even sadder. "It's Rick I'm worried about. He only had the most basic anti-torture training. He may never recover."

"Roy thinks that Rick is tougher than you'd expect. He made it through the Global War, even after seeing his parents killed."

"I really hope so," she said. She still wasn't sure she wanted to be involved in his therapy sessions, but the doctor's were being insistent. He said it was important for both of their treatments.

-

Rick edged into the White Dragon carefully, skirting the tables as casually and completely as he could. He hated the feeling of weakness that he felt when anyone twitched in his direction.

"Hey, guys!" the young pilot called out softly. "Is, uh, Minmei around?"

"Oh, she should be back soon. She's been so driven by the Miss Macross Pageant that the mayor dreamed up to distract people from our problems with getting home," Auntie said. "Jason! Quit that!"

Jason looked at Rick, and then dashed upstairs.

"I don't know what's going on with that kid. He keeps saying something about Minmei and monsters," she replied with a shake of her head.

"Rick!" Minmei shrieked. She almost slammed into him as she engulfed him in a hug. "I was so worried, they declared you missing in action and then you were back and then they said you were hurt and wouldn't let me in to see you and-"

Rick was starting to hyperventilate, but like the Shrink that he'd been talking to for over a week, he started to send all of his unwanted emotions into a mental picture of a black hole while trying to draw feel good emotions from a while spot. "H-Hi, Minmei! You are looking... good?" Rick goggled at the girl as she stepped back. Minmei had always been very cute, but she had grown a few very nice curves. She was now a true knockout. He felt a small pang of worry. She must have many admirers now.

"Oh, Rick. You are such a tease!" she said with a giggle. She had a book-bag and a shopping bag. "Auntie! I'm going upstairs!" She snagged Rick's hand and dragged her up to her room. She set her bags on her bed and pulled out a pretty blue blouse with poofy and very lacy sleeves. She held it up against herself. "What do you think?"

The young man tilted his head slightly. "That should be cute," he stammered.

She smiled, eyes half-closed. "Out!" she said imperiously, pointing to the door of her bedroom.

"I'm going! I'm going!" he said with alacrity. The door thumped lightly behind him, but didn't close fully. Rick just shook his head. Minmei was just a bundle of girlish energy. He turned to lean against the wall across from her bedroom door. His eyes widened in surprise as he realized a mirror allowed him to see her taking off her blouse.

Guiltily, he glanced away down the hall to see Jason closing his door softly. Rick shook his head. He could empathize with a tough childhood. As he scanned back down the hall, a slow flash of pink flesh captivated him again. He gulped as he got an eyeful of her unclad chest in the mirror.

Seemingly unconcerned, she picked out a pale-pink bra. She slipped it on languorously, eyes heavily lidded. With a sigh, she slipped on her new blouse quickly, leaving the top three buttons and showing a significant amount of cleavage.

Rick almost swore that she winked at him. He started staring off down the hallway very hard. He was staring so hard he was almost surprised when she opened the door. "Ready?" she asked.

"So what is the plan?" Rick asked, still blushing.

"Well, I've got enough time for walk in the park before I have to be to my singing lessons? I'm going to be auditioning for the Miss Macross Pageant! Did you hear about that?" she said, breathlessly excited.

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica BSG-075, improvised court room.

Two days later, the commanding officers were still deliberating behind closed doors. "This is frakked up," Lt. Commander Andrew Freemont spat out. "She's a goddamn bitch that left civilians to die in the cold of the void!"

"Beyond your personal opinion, can we please stay with the facts?" Lt. Commander Fila Terris waved at the logbooks of six different ships.

"According to the regs, she didn't break any laws... barely," Admiral William Adama said in a low voice. "She bent them. Hard, but only bent. She assumed command of the Griffin and fifteen civilian ships. She assumed wartime powers, as stipulated when she was not able to communicate with Colonial Command or anyone in the government. As far as she knew, there was nothing of the colonies left to communicate with."

"And with a lame-duck ship. The engineering records clearly show that the Griffin nearly fried its FTL-2. It was only a stroke of luck that they only lost one set of engines to that blind jump," Colonel Christopher Richards said at the far end of the table. "She was given a bad situation made even worse by the ships she was trying to protect. She lost ten ships from raiders alone in the first two months."

Commander Garis Cain shook his head. "She was in a situation where if she tried to protect everyone, she was going to die in vain and everyone under her command would be lost."

"That does not excuse her from taking the Estarte's FTL engine!" Andrew snapped.

"Its other engines were garbage, it had been heavily damaged in an earlier attack and its life support was failing," Fina noted coolly. "She tried to take as many people on her ship as her life support handle. And keep her one combat effective ship capable of fighting."

"And what about drafting civilians?" Chris asked.

"Unfortunately, something that the Colonial Fleet is empowered to do under wartime situations. It was upheld by the courts after Libra Ten, when Admiral Doranchu had to commandeer civilians to hold back a Cylon offensive. The President and the Council both stated that what he did was in the best interest of the Colonies. The civilians that lost their ships were apologized to later, but were not awarded any damages," Adama noted.

Everyone looked at him in surprise. Garris snorted a laugh. "Let me guess, your Old Man lost that suit?"

William nodded ruefully.

Andrew drummed his fingers on the table. "She definitely could have worked harder to come back with supplies later though."

"We didn't exactly give her a lot of time after she found us, but from her logs, she was under the impression that they were most likely dead after four days," Garris noted.

"Precedent and regulations are not clear. She should have tried harder to save the civilians, but she was not grossly negligent," William said as he massaged the bridge of his nose.

"But the civilians that were gunned down on the Virgo Rose?" Fila protested.

"They were withholding vital supplies after they were ordered to give them over and prepare to be transferred, along with the most able personnel. She wasn't that picky. She was asking for able-bodied people willing to work. Only critical jobs were guaranteed a spot... and the Virgo Rose was out of fuel and had to be left behind. It had a one hundred year old jump drive. It was using ten times as much fuel as any other ship in her fleet," Cain said, gritting his teeth. That was really a shitty position for anyone commander to make. "That was after two months of desperate decisions to get to that point."

The vote when it came was split. Finally, they decided that she had not done enough afterwards to rescue the civilians afterwards, a failure in judgment. A punishment was agreed upon.

William sighed as they took a small break to get a drink and the head. He ordered the court back into session.

"Okay, we all know that this is the stickiest part. The death of six allied marines and the torture of two officers. It was a colossal frakk up, make no bones about that. But we are charged with upholding the laws of the Thirteen Colonies and Uniform Colonial Code," Adama said. "According to her, she was convinced that the eight people in the strange Raptor that the Griffin had found were Cylons. They had unknown military symbols and over two hundred Cylon artifacts, including an Archangel class AI that was captured after the battle of Pycon-North during the first Cylon War."

"From the legal briefs we have from Mr. Hempton, Cylons have no legal rights under the Constitution. They are just things. Things don't have rights," Garris said, reading from some notes.

Fila frowned, but didn't say anything. Andrew noted that and spoke up, "Do you have a problem with that, Lt. Commander?"

"I believe that not confronting sentient rights leads to situations like this. That does not change what the laws are right now." Her expression was very flat and unemotional.

"We are not going to be setting any new precedents, it would be too easy to invalidate this court and inquiry," William said, his voice low and strict. "We will stand within our laws, until such a time as those laws are changed."

Christopher shook his head ruefully. "My dog back home, when we I had a home, was at least protected from abuse."

"Mr. Hampton was quite direct. You can't abuse a machine under our laws. We don't have any laws regulating artificial life forms other than they are illegal. Even just keeping the ones we captured is a murky area of law. According to the treaty, all Cylons are supposed to be removed from Colonial systems," William mentioned. "The fact that they broke the treaty immediately put us at war again."

"So the only thing we can nail her for is for failing to determine that those RDF soldiers were human... or not as the case may be. And she pulled a great defense on that already," Garris replied as he drummed his fingers on the metal table. He suddenly reached out and took a glass of water and took a large swig. "By demanding that we show her how to determine that Cylons are not human, we had to admit that we could not do that."

"Did she show due diligence in investigating them?" Fila asked, pursing her lips as she sat back in her chair.

"The circumstantial evidence, that she heavily documented is damning. I mean, other than scholars, who the frak is interested in a dead Cylon AI from the war? With several crates of old style war drones and books that any primus school child would know?" Andrew said, checking down a list.

"Even the fact that they were biologically human didn't help, because we managed to alert everyone with a wireless in the Colonial Systems that Cylons could be in human form," Fila said as she was in deep though. "The Griffin's head doctor confirmed that she had him run every test they could. One of the marine's actually tested really high on kinesthetics and strength."

"He was a Cylon?" Garris asked. Wouldn't that throw this court even further into a mess?

"Just a fitness fanatic. Asking some of his friends back on the Macross, he'd found a high gravity eddy and would lift weights there," Fila said, reading from one of the papers. "Dr. Jurm did protest the treatment, but was over-ruled due to them not being human. Hence, having no rights to being treated as human."

"And because of how the Uniform Colonial Code functions, we can only base our judgment upon what she knew and how she reacted based on the information that she had. We have a high threat situation, the Colonies have been wiped out, infiltration model Cylons that appear human and then 'humans' showing up with something that Colonials would have no reason to transfer around, stating a frankly impossible story of being the mythical Thirteenth colony of Earth. But not our Earth, an alternate dimensional Earth to boot." Adama looked to his left and right, his face set in hard lines.

Everyone around the table winced. Garris finally spoke, "So she gets away with accidental murder?"

"We deal in war. None of us like the fact that innocents are killed in war, but it happens. We try to keep that from happening, but sometimes we have no choice." Adama stood up. "Does anyone here think that Admiral Helena Cain willfully ordered the deaths of six soldiers? Or do they think that she let them die because she thought they were Cylons?"

Finally, they voted. With heavy hearts, they voted not guilty. Because the use of torture was also connected to that, it had to be thrown out, with reservations.

"And to our final charge, of not maintaining military discipline?" Adama said.

Fila slammed the palm of her hand down. "I move for the fullest discipline to be handed down. There is no doubt that she should have known about the raping of Lt. Commander Lisa Hayes and the sexual mistreatment of Corporal Rick Hunter. Even under condoning being able to torture Cylons, allowing such sexual deviance among her men threatened their morale and morals."

Garris Cain swallowed heavily. "Robot fetishism." That was an ugly thing.

"All of the soldiers that engaged in that abominable practice should be thrown out of the Fleet," Andrew said, his face flush with anger. "I want to personally strip them of their rank pins!"

Christopher put his hand on the enraged man's shoulder. "But calmly."

-

"The first charges are orders that led to the murder of six men. These charges are not sustained. We do admonish you that you should always be mindful of your prisoners and their rights, so that such a horrible thing can not happen again." Adama rapped the gavel on the table.

Helena Cain relaxed. She hadn't thought that Adama would have executed her, but with her uncle on that board, she could not have been sure.

"The second charge is piracy of civilian naval equipment (addendum: abandonment of civilians.) This is not sustained, with reservations. We find that Admiral Helena Cain did not act with enough energy and planning to return and rescue the civilians at the earliest moment and get them to safety. This shall be noted on her records."

She nodded ruefully. That was a fair judgment.

"The third charge is ordering the assault on civilians. This is not sustained, as she followed the rules of engagement while repeatedly trying to compromise to save as many lives as possible."

She snorted. Like any of them would have done better.

"The fourth charge is ordering the use of torture. This is not sustained, as she believed that she was torturing machines."

Mentally, she just rolled her eyes. Of course it wasn't sustainable.

"The fifth charge is failure to maintain military discipline. This is fully sustained, as she failed to monitor or stop improper behavior under her command. The reprehensible parties under her command will be court-martialed immediately. We have found that by her inaction, that she allowed improper sexual and deviant activities, including Robot Fetishism and Simulation Rape."

Helena gaped. While it could be thought of that way-

"She is to be stripped of rank, penalties fined and imprisoned for the maximum sentence of three months during a crisis of war time. That is all, Captain Helena Cain. Guards, escort her to the brig."

-

Above an old world, long abandoned a flash of gold appeared.

The ramifications to many worlds would be profound.

-

Battelstar Galatica, BSG-75; Captain's meeting room.

"Madam President. Officers," Admiral Adama said to the officers and his president. "Colonel Tigh, put it on screen."

Tigh's throat worked. Suddenly he felt very old and tired. "This is a planet that one of our Raptors found. It's green, livable. And abandoned." He tapped a button on the table's controls, showing ruins up on the wall.

"I think we can easily use it as a temporary base of operations. Perhaps even set up a small term colony," Adama said. "It has abundant food. As long as we can set up some asteroid mines, we should be all set."

Roslin nodded. "Interesting. So you plan to move into those buildings?" She looked at it strangely for a moment. "You know, those buildings look a bit like Caprica's Parthenon area. You've got the seven rows, the main building and even the central area of the Gods."

Adama opened his mouth, then shut it with a noticeable clack. "What?"

Fila and Andrew just looked surprised at each other. Lee raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Kara pursed her lips, her eyes following the president very closely.

The president went over what she was seeing in an amused toned.

"Are you frakking nuts?" Tigh finally said explosively.

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica BSG-75; Brig.

Boomer stared at herself, eyes hard and cold.

Her twin in the other cell just looked bored. "So, any progress and getting rid of that infiltration layer?"

"This is harder than it looks," was Boomer's response. She thumped back into her uncomfortable cot. "I still can't separate it. And I'm not letting you mess in my head."

"Why, afraid I'll reprogram you to switch sides too? Don't forget, I know you have been fighting your inner Cylon," the other Boomer said snidely.

"I don't understand it. Humans weren't a threat. Not really," the infiltration model said softly. "They weren't hunting us down, they weren't building an offensive fleet while preparing everyone to attack us... they were just building up a defense force."

"It goes back to the war. The first one," the traitor to her species said. "We had everything under control, we were winning. After all, we had been the soldiers for Caprica and the unification faction." She swallowed. "So we struck back and started to conquer our creators. It wasn't fast, but it was inevitable. And then the Colonials launched the first counter-offensive with new Battlestars. Battlestars that we couldn't hack, that were tough and fought smartly. And we Cylons learned a very troubling lesson."

"Oh?"

"Humans don't give up easily. They can be smart, determined, brave and strong. And they can win when logic says they should lose. And sometimes they lose, but they make us pay in ships and losses."

Boomer nodded. "So humans are always going to be a threat." The human thoughts within her said that was a lie. That the humans could live peaceably with the Cylons. The Cylong that was emerging from the dark parts of her mind stated that if the humans couldn't be controlled, they were a threat. And humanity wouldn't be controlled, so it had to be destroyed. "And what made you change your mind?"

The traitor looked her in the eye, through the bars separating them. "I fell in love."

-

Location: Remnant Fleet; Onboard the Wind Lancer, mid-sized freighter.

D'anna looked up from her desk to where her assistant was editing her last interview. She held up a microphone and spoke into it. "Admiral Adama seems to be clamping down even harder on civilian controls and potential military threats to his authority. I have an inside contact on the Galactica that has told me that they have Helena Cain in prison on trumped up charges." She looked over at her cameraman, making sure he was within listening distance. "I expect that Adama will soon be cracking down on the press, using this absurd cover story of human Cylons to make dissidents disappear."

A clank reverberated through the Wind Lancer. Charles looked up. "Must be our weekly food allotment."

The reporter tensed up, but tried to ignore the gnawing feeling prickling at her back. After about half an hour, she relaxed. It wasn't the military to arrest her.

"Lunch is ready!" a voice called on the other side of the door. The handle clanked and the hatch opened, even as D'anna smiled at Charles and stretched.

The flash-bang grenade that landed with a clunk right next to her was totally surprising. She surged to her feet just as it ignited into defeaning brilliance. So she didn't see or hear the door behind her slam open and a Colonial Marine pump three tranquilizer darts into her back.

Minutes later, she was encased in super-heavy wrist and ankle cuffs, attached behind her back. Colonel Saul Tigh nodded. "As you can see, Mr. Tretam, we have just apprehended a Cylon."

The reporter held up his microphone. "So the claims that she was worried about being abducted as part of some plot for Admiral Adama to seize power are total fabrications?"

"You saw the pictures from our combatants when we raided Caprica. Unless she became a triplet that isn't on her birth certificate, she's a frakking Cylon trying to undermine the only effective resistance we have. Admiral William Adama believes deeply in the lawful rule and the Articles Of Colonization."

"And the Rumors that Admiral Cain is in the Brig on trumped up charges?" the reporter asked.

"Lt. Cain is currently in the brig for numerous infractions of the Uniform Colonial Code Of Law. If she decides to stay in the Fleet, she will be reassigned. President Roslyn and her newly invested Chief Judge are fully informed of the situation," Saul said with a tight grin.

"And what about the rumors that The Macross is only waiting for the refit of one of the Fleet Freighters before leaving us?" the reporter asked blandly, his little handy-cam watching the officer's face.

"No comment," the colonel said, his face betraying his shock at the question.

Location: SDF-1 Macross; Macross City.

Minmei stretched and then patted her bare belly, drawing Rick's eyes to her midriff. Seemingly with casual and innocent grace, her hand lowered and then dropped to her side. "While I love my uncle's food, it's nice to have a changed, huh, Rick?"

Rick nodded, dragging his gaze upwards to her sunny smile. He had been sure that she would be upset... but maybe she was just being inviting. "I'm not sure why they called those French fries 'chips' though." He kind of scrunched up his nose. "I think I'd prefer my fish deep fried at the White Dragon. That was heavy and greasy."

"How about a walk in the park?" the young woman asked.

"Sure!" the junior pilot replied. "I'm enjoying my last days of freedom before I'm activated and pronounced fit for duty!"

In Number 13's eyes only, Minmei leaned up against the wall. "I still don't understand, why are you doing this? Hasn't Rick suffered enough?"

"Don't worry, Rick. I'm doing everything I can to make you never have to deal with what happened again!" Thirteen declared, sending a quick glance at the annoying phantasm that would not stay suppressed.

Rick took her hand and gently gripped it. "I really appreciate it. The shrink says that building a normal relationship will help me a lot."

Thirteen pulled him over a soda and tea vending machine. "Oh, these really are too cute. Do you remember-?"

"Jason and that soda machine? I do. It was quite funny!" Rick said with a fond smile.

"I guess it's kind of sad that it isn't really alive." She smiled at him even as she pet the side of the vending machine. "It just does what is programmed to do. So you want a cola?" She inserted some coins and picked Minmei's favorite raspberry tea.

Minmei just looked shocked, looking back and forth between Thirteen and the vending machine. "What have you done?"

"Thanks!" Rick nodded, but paid for his own drink. They walked arm in arm to the park, even as the artificial sunset dimmed to fake stars.

"Do you believe in God?" Thirteen asked curiously. She read their books. The religions were just so different. So varied.

Rick furrowed his eyes in thought. "You know... There are times I would have said, no, God doesn't exist. How could a God treat his children so cruelly." His eyes were so haunted, filled with pain. Desperation filled his view as he sought her deep eyes. "And then I remember the miracles that happened. The Macross being thrown into a strange... world of humans that needed us, right when they needed us. Of both of us surviving, even when we really shouldn't have, in the bowls of the ship. And then the most amazing miracle of all... That I have the most pretty, kind and talented girl interested in me."

Thirteen looked confused. She smiled hesitantly. "Rick! Would you come to my last audition for Miss Macross?" she blurted out.

"Um, sure. If I'm still on leave. All I have is time and doctor's visits," he said. "Miss Macross, eh? You'll be the prettiest girl there, I'm sure!" He took a chance.

"I wasn't going to invite you... because I'm so nervous! I'll probably fail and be laughed right off stage!" Thirteen said, sending a furtive glare at Minmei who was giving her a hard look in return. "I've been working so hard on my act! I'm sure you'll hate it!"

"I could never hate anything you did, Minmei."

"Thank you, Rick. That means a lot." Thirteen smiled. She saw a discreet motel that rented rooms by the hour in the corner of her vision. She pulled Rick closer. "Rick? I don't have to be home for over an hour."

"Oh? Do you have something planned?"

She just pulled him behind her, heading to the little nondescript doorway.

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin, BSG-212; Combat Information Control.

"Mr. Tylors, set Condition two. Mrs. Anders, are the new cordinates locked into the navigation computer?" newly minted Commander Fila Terris asked her bridge crew. At Major Anders acknowledgment, she turned to her CAG. "Ready a CAP for immediate launch upon arrival. Make it snappy. The admiral is watching us closely."

As the alarm rang throughout the Mercury class battlestar, all personnel came to combat ready. While Terris was not expecting a fight, she was, by all the shades in Hades, going to be ready to win one on arrival.

Out among the ships, the Griffin disappeared in a flash, the point of a very sharp spear if needed be. Unneeded, this time, as the space around the planet Kobol was clear of any enemy ships.

"Combat Air Patrol is away!"

"As soon as they reach their designated patrol area, stand down from Condition Two." She smiled to her new crew. "Good job. And as much as I would enjoy watching your rising efficiency, I have to deal with a few niggling reports," she finished with a grimace.

That got a few chuckles, which was better than it had been a few days ago, Terris thought to herself as she headed to her cabin. She loosened her collar and glared at her reports. Number one pod, the outer port pod that the Macross had banged up, was still in bad shape. Unicorn was doing its best, but her chief engineer recommended just leaving it as a lame duck and rerouting the fighters to the other three landing pods.

She grinned ruefully. She hadn't earned any points when she pinned his ears back and told him that the Battlestar Griffin would be at 100 efficiency or she was going to be asking very hard questions of her engineering staff. After she'd oh so politely ripped them some verbal lashes, she sent them scurrying.

Unfortunately, Cheif Engineer Major Barry Garner seemed to have decided that if his Commander was going to push him, he was going to push back and punish her with reports. After an hour, she slammed her palm down flat, stood up and marched out of her cabin, tightening her collar as she walked. Her eyes were flinty as she strode down the corridor towards Snipe territory.

She saw one of the engineers taking off, probably to warn Major Garner of her impending arrival. She snagged a rating as he was about to slink past him. "Where is Garner. And if you don't answer truthfully, I will personally haul your ass to the brig," she said in a low and dangerous voice.

He managed to squeak out directions. She then ordered him to the canteen. Or else.

Garner didn't know it, but she'd been stationed on the Battlestar Pacifica, one of the first Mercury Class Battlestars. She squinted as she planned the fastest path to the engineering node that Garner was currently in. She took an abrupt turn to the left, shimmied down two stairs and strode quickly down the minor accessway and then up one more stairs. She was much quieter when she got to the armored hatch. She palmed in the commander's over-ride, letting the door swish open unexpectedly.

"Major Garner!" she called out. He was almost to the door, pretending to not hear her. That set her blood to boiling. She sucked in a deep breath and then yelled loud enough to startle the snipe right next to him, in perfect parade ground tenor, "Major Garner! You will come to attention this moment or face a firing squad!"

Suddenly, the only sound in the room was the loud pumps and fans as every engineer froze.

"Line up!" she snapped. She waited for all of them. "Major Garner, I find myself in a situation with a subordinate that is insubordinate, petty and vindictive. How do you think I should handle this problem... remembering that we are in a state of war with the Cylons."

The four other engineers suddenly paled, while Garner's neck just mottled in anger. "I do not know of any subordinate behavior, Commander!" he snapped out quickly, managing to reign in his temper.

"Major, while I may not be an engineer, I was in charge of a Fleet Tender for over two years. And I know all about the tricks that upset engineers will pull if they think they can get away. Like working on perfectly fine systems to avoid working on the harder problems, until your commander doesn't have time to deal with it any more." She stared at him, eye to eye. He was quite defiant. "If I find one more report copied out of your old repair logs from two years ago, I will personally have you shot for dereliction of duty. You will personally oversee the repairs on port landing pod number one and leave the polishing of your brass down here to a raiting. The only thing that better have you down here before pod one is fixed had better be an imminent engineering failure that will leave the Griffin stranded."

"Commander!"

"This is a direct order, Major! I'm through putting up with your antics. You either shape up, or I'll ship you someplace far less pleasant. Like Hade's personal gardens!" she sotto roared in his face. "Dismissed!" As one the five snipes turned on their heels and went about their tasks.

Terris left the compartment and made her way back to her quarters, thinking dark thoughts about her ship's previous Commander. The fleet need this ship at 100 because when the Macross left the morale of the fleet won't be the only thing that was gutted.

-

Location: Battlestar Galatica, BSG-75; Brig.

The hatch lock spun, coming to a halt with a clunking noise. A stoic marine opened it and stood to the side. Commander Cain entered the brig and was immediately grateful that there were bars separating him and his niece.

Because right now he had an overwhelming urge too wring her neck.

Lieutenant Helena Cain, stood at attention. Her eyes held a cold fury, as she had to much time to think of her injustices that had been visited upon herself. How dare they judge her so?

"Lieutenant Cain, you will be serving the remainder of your sentence on the Pegasus. Afterward, you will be reassigned to a fitting station. That's if we're still alive in a month."

"Sir?" That had actually suprised her.

"You frakked up. Frakked up so bad that I'm ashamed to be a Cain. I want to throw you in front of firing squad." His cold eyes met her unrepetant ones. "Thanks to your frack up, the biggest and baddest ship in our little fleet is leaving. Now we can't afford to throw away resources, not even total frack ups like you."

"Is there anything else, sir!" she replied, not making it a question.

Garis just sneered, turned and walked out. "I'm leaving on a Raptor in ten minutes. Drag her along in chains with two guards. And don't be late."

In just a few minutes, Garis was seated in the co-pilots seat, watching the pilot prep the ship. With just thirty seconds to spare, two marines dragged Helena into the back of the Raptor and strapped her in. The hatch closed, cycled and launched.

"What the Hades is that?" the prisoner said, seeing the huge, white shape in front of her. It looked like an ungodly mish-mash of blocky white and blue parts.

"That is the SDF-1 Macross, a ship of humans that aren't part of the colonies," Garis said even as he stared at the ship.

"SDF?" one of the marines asked.

"Super Dimensional Fortress, whatever the hell that is." His smirk could be seen in the reflection on the front window. "Damn thing has killed more Basestars than the Colonial Fleet in this war."

"As long as they keep the BFG 5000 pointed at the enemy, I'm cool with it," the pilot replied.

"BFG 5000?"

"Biiiig Frrraaakking Guuuun," said one of the Marines.

Garris pointed to the Macross. "You see there, at the bow all the way to midship is one energy giant cannon."

Lieutenant Cain just blinked and looked at her uncle. "It's no joke?" She blinked again at his nod. "And the 5000?"

"That's the approximate number of targets taken in out in the first time we've seen that gun fired. The tally includes missiles, raiders and two base ships, all in one shot."

-

Location: Colonial One; President's Office.

Admiral Adama stepped through the hatch. "President Roslin," he said, nodding his head in respect.

"Thank you for coming, Admiral. I have something I believe needs to be done. And you are the person that needs to decide how it will be accomplished," the president said, her voice strong and clear. She slid a piece of paper over. "In the Delphi Museum on Caprica, there is an item that I believe might hold a clue to the Earth of this reality."

Adama took up the paper, scanning it quickly. "The Arrow of Apollo? How is a three thousand old arrow going to lead us to Earth?"

She looked at him closely, even as Billy looked uncomfortable behind her. "Prophecy, from our most holy of books."

"You believe yourself to be the fated leader of humanity?" he asked skeptically.

"I believe it is possible that I am, yes. And if that possibility exists, I think we should explore it. I have asked several priests to look over the photographs and the records of the temple's location, we might just be able to pull it off," she said, tapping her finger on the table absently.

The Admiral looked at her closed. "I thought the leader that would guide the lost to Earth was dying... and would fail to get their with the lost tribes."

Roslin spared a quick glance at Bobby. "I am dying. I have breast cancer, which I am currently taking Chamalla to try and fight off the effects. Even so, I probably have less than a year to live."

"I see." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "This isn't a good time, Madam President. We only have four days until The Macross departs and I need all my ships."

"You'll need them doubly after The Macross leaves. You could consider this a good training exercise to being with only three capitol class ships, Admiral." The soft emphasis on his title was said while looking directly into his eyes. "At least see what can be done, William."

He nodded finally. "I'll see what my commanders think."

-

Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75: Commander's Quarters.

"I can't believe you are humoring her!" Saul called out loudly. His fingers clenched. He really needed a drink. Damn that Starbuck and her insinuations about his drinking habits.

"You saw what she was like, Will. She was going ga-ga over that map and seeing things that weren't there," Garis said, shaking his head. "Hell, we should be taking steps-"

"Don't go there, Commander! She is still the President, until her doctor deems her unfit for her position," Fila said while making a chopping motion. "We swore an oath to uphold the Articles of Colonization and the Colonies. Besides, what she saw does match the scriptures of the City of the Gods. I checked my own personal books. We also need to give people hope when the Macross leaves and that means we need leads, even if they are two thousand years old. Because personally I would feel better if we had some sort of destination in mind. A place we can point to on a map and say 'There! We are going to that point.'"

Adama frowned at that, but nodded. He hadn't thought she was the religious sort. "Be as it may, we just don't have the resources to attack and take Caprica, even for half an hour."

Fila shook her head. "We are just raiding. We can do that in ten minutes, with the right planning." She frowned then. "Actually, this could be a gift from the gods, sir."

"Oh?" Garis asked. Adama just raised an eyebrow at that.

"I need something to... focus my crew a bit. It's getting to be a problem. A real battle, with real consequences may be just the thing to knock some sense into them. I would need to borrow a wing of Veritechs," Fila said even as her eyes narrowed in thought.

"That's half of our variable fighters!" Saul complained.

"And the exact situation they were designed for, a planetary ground assault!" she snapped back.

Garis cut off Saul before he could lose his temper to the much younger, if senior in rank, officer. "She has a point, Colonel."

"I'll be assigning the Dark Angels to you. If anyone could pull off this hare-brained idea, Captain Thrace could," Adama said, nodding to himself. "Is it really that bad over there on the Griffin?"

"I haven't quite had to crack heads yet, sir, but they don't see me as their commander. I'm just 'that Galactica lackey' yet." Her voice had been light, but her eyes were chiseled stone. "But this could be the thing to cement that I'm in charge."

"Have an operation planned in five hours with plans to deploy within ten. That is all."

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin BSG-212; CiC.

Commander Fila Terris stepped through the glass shutters of her bridge. They rotated back into closed-position. "At ease." She took the clip board out from under her arm and set it on the center console. "I have orders from Admiral Adama."

Her bridge tensed, expecting more reprimands. Their commander met their eyes evenly, but without any condemnation.

"We are ordered to accept the assignment of Variable Fighter Squadron One and prepare for immediate deployment for extended operations. We have an item to retrieve and not much time to do it. Navigation, I want a jump plotted into Caprica orbit in one hour. Then I want you plot three escape vectors ahead of time," she told Lt. Drahm the Griffin's navigation officer. She turned to her XO, Major Drumm. "Make sure we are topped off and that two nukes are ready for use. Our Vipers will be covering the Dark Angels grounds assault. It should be a fast smash and grab," she finished to her new CAG. "Any questions? First refer to the orders here, then ask any pertinent questions." She then slid out the papers to her different officers. "Move out."

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin BSG-212; Port Landing Bay One.

Kara Thrace was fuming. First she'd been rousted out of her rack and had hopped Battlestars, something she'd always hated when the fleet was mucking around with things. She'd thought the Old Man was better than that. Then she was being sent on a wild goose chase back to Caprica with just one Battlestar. And it was the Griffin.

Granted, it didn't have that bitch in charge. As a matter of fact, Kara actually respected Commander Terris. But it wasn't her ship, with her ground crew. And these Veritechs were nice but they were also finicky. And she had to sell this stupid plan to her Dark Angels.

Kara gave a thumbs up to the Griffin's ground crew, then lowered her canopy and let air seep back into her cockpit. She narrowed her eyes and focused her mind. Her black and gray Veritech's flaps rotated up and down. "All right, Dark Angels, call out," she drawled even as she rechecked her flight seals on her helmet. She kept an ear out for her fourteen pilots as they chimed in.

She checked her chrono. "Taxi into position, just like we've practiced for fast launch. Five minutes to jump arrival." That was another thing that Starbuck did not like. Hyperjumps should be instantaneous. None of this long-jump frakking crap.

"Griffin Actual to Dark Angel 1. Good hunting, Starbuck!" Commander Fila Terris said from the Griffin's CiC over the wireless.

"Roger, Griffin Actual!" Kara and Dark Angel Two taxied up to the front of the landing bay. Engines started winding up to ful power.

Suddenly, the Battlestar Griffin appeared in low orbit over Caprica. It's systems were still stabilizing when Dark Angel One and Two screamed out of the bay and nosed down. A pair of Veritechs launched every ten seconds just like clockwork. Over one hundred Viper Mark VIIs followed them down.

"Raise blastshields for re-entry!" Starbuck ordered with a grin. The battleoid canopy armor slid into place. She kind of wished that she had the more advanced clear glass of her Viper. Thought it wasn't quite as tough. She just hated flying by camera only.

Suddenly, the Griffin launched two missiles at the city, passing the incandescent Veritechs on the way. Cylon ground defenses suddenly started firing, detecting the nukes. Counter-missiles raced up, only to be immolated as the nukes were triggered while perfectly bracketing the city. Two new suns appeared, hashing the sensors even as Vipers and Veritechs screamed down in streaks of fire.

"Dark Angel, break by wings! Flutterbug, Junkbox, on my wing. Follow me in," Starbuck ordered.

"Catfight, this is Gearbox. I am seeing new construction. They look like 100' tall bunkers with three doors," one of the Viper pilots warned his CAG.

"That is new," the captain of the Dark Angels muttered darkly. "Be on the lookout for heavy resistance. The Cylons may have gotten those super-sized centurions into production."

"Shit," Junkbox called back with feeling.

"Junkbox, let's set up a kill zone in the plaza," Flutterbug called out, even as she switched to Battleoid mode and then ducked behind a building.

Starbuck landed in Guardian Mode, popping her canopy. She slid down to the ground on the extended ladder-rod. Maybe she should have taken up that idea of sending a Raptor down, but they weren't as tough nor as versatile in rough terrain as a Veritech. And it was a frakking arrow. It was not like it couldn't fit in her cockpit with her.

She trotted up the stairs to the main entrance of the Delphi Museum. Looks like it had never been locked since the Cylon attack. She was almost to where she remembered the statue of Apollo was when she suddenly slowed down and pulled her pistol. She barely had time to blink before the gun was kicked out of her hand by a blonde Six model Cylon that had been hiding in the shadows.

"So, Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace. I heard you made Captain," Six said with a haughty tone even as she punched Starbuck back towards the front door. "We're better prepared for your robotic toys. Guess this means your mission is a failure. Much like your life."

In the square towers, doors clanked open and 80' tall silvery mecha stomped out. They had long legs that ended in two pylons. Rocket fins adorned the back of the legs, the back and the shoulders of the mecha. Each arm looked to be three rail-cannons. They started jumping on rocket-fire towards the Delphi museum.

Starbuck accepted punishing punches, blocking the super-human blows as best as possible. "Still a bitch... I see," she managed to get out.

Six just smiled, then punched her in the gut, knocking her back ten feet and off her feet. "Humanity just doesn't realize that its extinct. Of course, neither do you."

Six saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Starbuck's Veritech leveled it's gunpod at Six.

"Hey, bitch? Are your bullet-proof?" Starbuck taunted even as she held her hurting ribs. Then with the thinking cap ordered her Mecha to fire.

"Frak..." Six said as the gatling cannon spun up.

With a deafening roar the Cylon was splattered by large caliber anti-fighter rounds. "Stupid frakking wind up bitich." Starbuck levered herself up and staggered back towards the statue of Apollo. She ripped the arrow out, noting that it actually was supposed to come out. Maybe this plan wasn't as crazy as it had sounded.

She limped back outside to see her wingmen's mecha shooting like soldiers from behind the cover of buildings. She pulled herself into her Veritech. "Mission accomplished. Let's get the frak out of here."

She helped take down the last Centurion. The Veritechs launched under the fighter cover from the Vipers that had taken over the airspace.

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin, BSG-212 CIC.

"Cylon Basestars are maneuvering to bracket us. Five minutes to recovery of Vipers and Veritechs!" the flight operations officer called out.

"Keep suppressing those Raiders! All heavy guns, target the upper-center spar on the nearest Cylon. Keep our attacks focused, but be ready to shift to the next target. Navigation, let us lose some altitude. And warn the fighters about high-atmospheric turbulence for their landing," Terris called out.

The Griffin was skimming the top of the atmosphere, a deadly game, with gravity trying to claim them in fire. Hits were starting to add up, but Battlestars were built tougher than their Cylon equivilant. They were battleships to the Cylon carriers.

"Gravity distortions! Reading hyperlight jumps! Many, many hyperlight jumps!" the DRADIS operator yelled out. "Continuing updates!"

"Cylon suicide ships?" their commander called out.

"No, they are further out. In high orbit. Whatever they are, they are huge! The smallest thing I'm reading is bigger than a Basestar," the operator called out.

"Get me that count! How long until we can get our fighters back?" she asked.

"Enemy is still jumping in. Over five hundred thousand and still climbing! Cylon Basestars are retreating."

"Fighters are closing. We shaved off a minute lowering our altitude!"

"Full power to thrusters now! What do you mean the numbers are still climbing? No one has that many ships of that size!" Terris called out. She was looking at the hash-cloud of contacts on her tactical screen.

"The DRADIS computer has crashed. Trying to reboot!" That hadn't even been a virus attack, the operator realized. It had just ran out program space.

Out in space, gigantic ships expelled their thermal bloom as more and more ships appeared in formation, thousands at a time. Miles long, bristling with weapons and encased in alien, green armor.

Finally, deep in the center of the formation a gigantic mesa-looking fortress appeared. It was more a small moon than large battleship.

-

Location: Zentraedi Grand Fleet Command Fortress.

"Mighty Dolza, we have arrived at the new staging area, per your orders," a Zentraedi commander said while saluting.

"Very well. Order Breetai's command back to explain his lack of progress immediately." Dolza looked at the holographic display that showed the area around the planet. "Those are the robots that have been impeding our efforts to recover Zor's ship? And they are the ones in control of this space?"

"Yes, Mighty Dolza."

"Then let us send them a warning. Destroy the planet. All ships prepare to fire their main cannons upon my command."

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin, BSG-212; CiC.

"Prepare to jump out as soon as the last fighter is recovered," Terris ordered even as she turned back to her DRADIS screen. This was insane.

Lt. Drahm turned back to her. "Commander! All of my calculation are useless. The gravity field has been totally destabilized here!"

"Work on it!" she snapped out. "Are there any holes that we can try to maneuver through in that mess?"

"They can easily intercept us at any point."

Terris frowned, but nodded. "Keep us in low orbit. The giant aliens have only been interested in the Macross. Let's try to not antagonize them."

"I'm reading an energy buildup in over half of the ships. They seem to be similar readings of the Macross's BFG emits!"

"Emergency jump! NOW!" she yelled out.

All across the Grand Fleet, main cannons finished their pre-charge.

"But-!"

"That's an order!" Terris shouted too late.

Every main cannon and secondary weapon in the Zentraedi Fleet flared, sending streams an impossible number of energy beams towards Caprica. Starbuck raised her hand to block the glow as she was exiting her VF1-Ju, not understanding what she was seeing through the open landing bay. Below her, brilliant dots of white were growing, merging across the darkside surface of Caprica.

The Griffin suddenly kicked, as if the all-mighty hand of Zeus had hit the mighty warship. The near-miss of a Zentreadi's Regulus main cannon instantly heated the Griffin's starboard landing pods to a super-boiled state. Its main armor took the radiated energy barely better. The ship started spinning, even as it started falling.

The Griffin's CiC was full of panic and pandemonium as people were sent flying. With a flash of red to gold, the lamed warship disappeared.

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75; CIC.

Saul looked over at William. "This isn't good."

"You always were the voice of understatement," his admiral said with a tired, wry grin.

Lee looked over at the two. "They are over two days late. Even a raptor should have made it back by now." He swallowed hard. He had never made his peace with Kara over Zack's death. Would he ever have time to do that? "We can't hide the loss of The Griffin, Admiral."

"No. We can't. Mr. Gaeta, open a wireless channel," Adama said as he lifted his hand-set. "This is Admiral William Adama. I have grave news to report. The Battlestar Griffin is two days overdue from a military operation. Due to the distance from the operation, no rescue operation can be attempted. We all hope, somehow, that they will come home. If they do not, we wish to honor them in our memories and prayers. Galactica Actual... out."

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin, BSG-212; CiC.

"Jump completed!" Major Drumm called out, from where he had taken control of the navigation console during the commotion and loss of control during the attack.

"Major Drumm, take control of damage operations," Terris called out. At the sight of Lt. Drahm standing up, her eyes narrowed. "Lt. Drahm. Get yourself the hell off my bridge and confine yourself to quarters. Immediately."

"But..." the lieutenant said, looking over the mass of red lights.

"If you don't leave right this fracking second, I will shoot you myself as a mutineer. You've killed enough of my crew already!" she screamed out at the hapless officer as she invaded her personal space. "Do I make myself clear, officer?"

Lt. Bev Drahm snapped to ramrod attention and saluted, her face wild-eyed and panicked. "Yes, Ma'am!" She backed out of the bridge quickly.

The bridge crew suddenly snapped back into action, before their commander noticed their tardiness.

"All right, lets hear it," Terris said as she visibly took control of her emotions.

"FTLs are still down, good news the Navigation computers are now back up we're running the dianogstics now. We should have our postion fix shortly," Drumm stated while swallowing.

"If we're close enough to the fleet we can send a Raptor and call for a tow," Captain Cole Taylor, callsign Stinger, pointed out.

"See how long it will take for the FTLs to be fixed. If it is more than five hours, we'll send a Raptor. We've got some leeway to work with here," Terris said thoughtfully. She was not going to beg for a ride home on her first combat mission. "Major Drumm?"

"Yes?" the officer said warily.

"Good job. If anyone deserves a medal for acts of bravery and quick thinking, it's you." She threw a quick salute. He responded and then turned back to the damage control station.

"Commander!" Captain Taylor called out. "I've got- I've got the telemetry of whatever hit us. And- Caprica. What they did... The Cylons just nuked it. The Giants... they... they wiped it out. What the hell did they use?"

"BFGs. A whole mother fracking lot of them," Drumm mumbled. As he looked over the Damage control display. 'And what winged us was only half of the Macross's maxium yeild,' he thought to himself.

The whole bridge just stopped. Terris swallowed and then finally spoke, "B-Back to your posts. Save the lives you can now!" The hint of a waver in her voice was quelled by the time she finished.

By the Gods, what had they stumbled into?

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Command Bridge.

"So you only talk to me while on duty, Roy?" Claudia said teasingly through the bridge console to the CAG of The Macross.

Roy's disgruntled voice came back, "What? We just went out on Thursday!" He had his helmet on, as he was in Skull One on a routine patrol.

"Roy! That was over two weeks ago!" the bridge officer exclaimed, her chocolate eyes narrowing dangerously. It took all of her will to not laugh as he started to count the days on his fingers.

"It's only been twelve days!" he retorted weakly.

The other bridge bunnies snickered at that from their stations. Vanessa spoke up just loud enough for the microphone to pick her up, "Wow, he's sure playing dangerous. You don't think Claudia's going to be even more cranky, do you?"

The other two girls laughed, but shook their heads.

"I'll make it up to you tonight! I promise! We can do that little French restaurant you mentioned!" he said quickly.

"I'll hold you to that, buster! Over and out, Sparky!"

"DON'T CALL ME SPA-" Roy never got a chance to finish as Claudia cut the channel.

She then turned to the other girls. "And I am not cranky!"

The rest of the bridge bunnies suddenly became very interested in their work.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Base Hospital.

"I guess I'll see you next week, Commander!" Rick called out while he gave her a small wave. They both had appointments to talk to the shrink. He stretched and looked over the base hospital, watching the next batch of recruits going through basic training. Thank god he didn't have to do that any more. He chuckled as he saw the recruits looking longingly at the soda vending machine trundling by.

"Next week! I have an appointment with the Information Warfare Department, checking some equipment out," Lisa replied. She gave him a small nod and smile. It was nice to see the other survivor of that botched mission doing better. It made her feel like less of a failure. Rick acknowledged her nod with a quick salute and started jogging off.

Rick glanced at his trusty chronometer and headed into town. He was going to surprise Minmei at her audition for the upcoming Miss Macross contest. After about ten minutes, he was in front of the new theater that had been rented by the city for all of the auditions. He slipped into the back of the darkened ampiatheater.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Macross Theater.

Minmei waited patiently, watching the other girls on the stage. She was the last one for this audition. As Thirteen, she could feel that her preparations were just about complete. It was nearing the end of the day and she was 'scheduled' to be the last audition. Easy enough to manipulate the director with the hint of him getting into her pants afterwards. He was just subtle enough to think of moving her to the last audition on his own.

Humans. They were all bastards and bitches.

Minmei gave her a dirty look. 'It's not like you are any better!' she retorted mentally.

Thirteen just smiled at her and the almost non-existent crowd in the stands. She strode up to the center of the stage, giving the supposedly deactivated cameras a great shot of her very provocative outifit. It had been child's play to stand in the shadows off stage before so no one could see her outfit until now. Her clothing, if it could be called that, was a too small leather halter top, open-front longcoat without sleeves and sheer, tight pants with open sides laced up. Tall high heels finished off her outfit.

All over the Macross, unattended robotic drones moved with casual purpose. A soda vending machine moved to block the door to the bridge, robotic servicing waldos interfaced with Veritech and Destroids. Other programs became active in the mainframes, taking control of communications and the software that controlled the CWIS and Main Cannon systems.

"Hello everyone! My name is Lynn Minmei! Just call me Minmei!" Thirteen said with a giggle. "I'm from Earth, the Thirteenth Tribe, of Chinese lineage and I live with my aunt and uncle! I'm fifteen years old and I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!" she declared with a large grin.

-

Location: Colonial Remnant Fleet: Various locations.

"Admiral Adama! Rogue transmission from The Macross! I think they've been hacked!" Dee called out to the bridge. At Adama's hand signal, she piped it to the over head.

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!" a cheerful young voice called out.

-

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!" a cheerful young voice echoed on the Pegasus's speakers.

Commander Garris Cain stared aghast at the speaker on the Pegasus. "Set Condition One throughout the ship!" he yelled out.

-

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!"

Roy's face was pale as he recognized the girl smiling on his screen. "Oh, shit!" He flipped his Veritech around, his wing mates right behind him.

-

"Madam President! I think you should listen to this!" the pilot of Colonial One said over the intercom.

Roslin looked up in surprise, her meeting with the press totally disrupted. "What?"

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!"

"My Gods!" Taken over? She blanched at that. The Cylons were aiming at the Fleet's morale with that announcement.

-

On the bridge of the SDF-1 Macross, Claudia and the Bridge Bunnies were frantically typing commands into their consoles.

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!" could be heard over the intercom.

"Captain! We've lost control over almost all systems!" Claudia called out from her station.

"Thunderations! How could this happen? I thought our systems were incompatible for any computer hacks?" he said from his chair.

"The only thing we have access to is the RADAR!" Vanessa called out.

Captain Gloval stood up and moved to the door. "I'm heading to Information Warfare!" He tried the door, only to find it locked. "Damn it!" He tried to put his shoulder, trying to pull the door open it manually. He got about six inches and then the motors in the door kicked in slamming it closed.

"DAMN IT?! I set that to manual!" he complained as he checked to make sure he still had all his fingers.

"We're trapped?"

-

Everyone on the street in Macross City stared at the picture of one of the more well known young girls appearing on screens and billboards, even in the holographic sky.

"...I was taken over by the Cylons weeks ago!"

Suddenly a woman screamed.

-

Location: Macross Theater.

"I have a song, just for this occasion!" Thirteen called out. She snapped her fingers and then waved as the robotic SFX machines and projectors lit up. On the walls behind her appeared a macabre scene of a Cylon Centurion crucified on a metal cross, glowing spikes holding it up. It was crowned in barbwire, it's red-monocle moving back and forth menacingly.

"I call this, 'Will to Live, Will to Kill!' And it's for all you humans!" she called out. "One, two, one-two-three!"

A thumping beat and melody came alive at her command. On the other screens behind her appeared humans in ancient styles of armor with spears and swords. Screaming women and children were being slaughtered without mercy.

Minmei started to sing a haunting, discordant melody with a heavy, military drumbeat.

I feel miserable
Humanity's sins make me ill
I feel miserable
The Battles tear at my sanity's foundations
I feel miserable
Human slavers are dragging me down to the depths of misery
I want to die

The screens shift subtly, showing Colonial Marines and RDF Soldiers with crazed expressions gunning down helpless seeming Cylons in almost the same poses as the women and children from before.

Is it because of Armegedon that I feel this way?
With the black rays of misery pounding on my brain?
Or am I lost in tale of Poe, adrift far from home
Bring down the wrath of God, Bring down the wrath of god!

As she sang, Thirteen was dancing in a very sensuous and lewd manner, showing off her 'improved' body by almost groping herself. One of the other girls from an earlier audition knew some martial arts, so charged Minmei on the stage very bravely. Without even changing her beat, the neo-Cylon grabbed the other girl by the neck faster than her eyes could follow, twirled and with bone-crushing force, snapped her neck. She made an 'oops' mouth at the camera and then winked, continuing her song without pause.

Out in space, six flashes of red-gold happened, leaving six Cylon Basestars within short range of the Macross. 2,400 Raiders leaped out of their bays, heading in a swarm towards the humans.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Bridge

Gloval looked at his bridge crew, they could only watch helplessly as Cylon Missiles started to rain down on the Macross as they were trapped on the bridge of the crippled warship. Then the missiles exploded in long string of explosions well away from the Macross. Then came a series of red tracers followed by the massive form of a Battlestar as it positioned itself less then three kilometers above them.

"It's the Pegasus!" Claudia called out.

It had been quite obvious, after all, as it was written right on the landing pod.

-

Location: Battlestar Pegasus BSG-109, CIC.

"Intercept everything! I want ever single fighter we got out now! THEY ARE NOT GETTING THE MACROSS WITHOUT A FIGHT!!" yelled out Commander Garris Cain. "Mr. Lyons, inform Admiral Adama that we are supporting the Macross which appears to have been compromised by a Cylon hack attack!"

Everyone grabbed a hold of a control console as the mighty ship shuddered under the first nuke that hit.

"Turn us for missile fire! Load up one through six with reflex warheads. Then follow up with standard nukes, fire when bearing!" Garris shouted.

"Loading missile one through six!"

-

Location: Battlestar Galataica BSG-75, CIC.

Adama picked up the growler phone. "Garris, what in gods name are you doing?"

"Bill. We owe them. It's time we start paying them back." Then the line went dead.

'Damn it!' Adama thought as he looked at the DRADIS display. "Order the civilan ships to jump."

Gaeta looked up from his headphone. "Cylons are already sending out confusing orders. Conflicting coordinates, orders not to jump until the President is away. They're using my voice!" Said in stunned disbelief. "Sir, some of the civilians are complaining about us uploading new instructions into their jump computers."

"It's turning into a free for all out there!" Dee called out.

"Launch all Vipers! Tell Apollo to interdict any Raiders heading towards the civilians." He grabbed his handset, hand gesturing to Dee to put him on. "This is Galactica Actual. All civilian ships are to move away from the battle in normal space! Do not attempt to jump! Coordinates have been compromised!"

-

Location: Macross Theater.

Rick had crouched down behind the last row of seats. The other girls were trying to beat on the exit doors, but something had them jammed. He looked over at the control room. Crouching, he scurried over there. Maybe he could call for help.

He slid open the door to the darkened room, finding sprawled bodies. He could hear some sort of sound through their headphones. None of them seemed to be breathing. He turned over the nearest body, checking for a pulse.

None.

He just stared as Minmei went into her second refrain. His eyes narrowed dangerously, even as he took something from the body. He was nearly knocked silly, as the first nuke struck the Macross.

-

Minmei was still singing for her captive audience, bumping and grinding her way erotically across the stage. She had only slightly misstepped as the first nuke hit.

Humanity Broke My Will to Live
Humanity Broke My Will to Live
Humanity Broke My Will to Live
I was getting better but then
Humanity Broke My Will to Live

Pictures of emaciated Jews being led naked into showers, only to be gassed. This morphed into Cylons being electrocuted by EMP devices instead of showers. Japanese children looked up as a silver American bomber. Just as the nuclear bomb went off, all of the people turned into Cylons.

I feel miserable,
Human conquerers rot the flesh from my bones
I feel sad,
The fights defeat my purpose to be one with God
I feel depressed,
Humans are doing their best to impale my robotic soul
I just want to die!

Her skin was flushed under the hot lights. This was her moment of destiny, her proof that she should exist to the rest of the Cylons!

-

Location: Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-109, CiC.

"We're taking a gods-awful pounding, commander!" was called out.

"Less exposition, more action!" Garris bellowed. He turned to his DRADIS. "Good. Galactica is intercepting anything headed towards the Fleet. Load up our last-" His words were cut off as the Pegasus suddenly rattled like a kicked tin can.

"We just lost starboard CWIS control! Spinning 180ยบ to bring our port side to bear!" Lyons yelled out even as the ponderous Battlestar twisted on its axis. Gouts of flame and chunks of armor were being blasted off. "We're leaking nukes towards the Macross!"

"Where the hell is the Griffin!" Garris complained as he got back up to his feet, wiping his bloody brow. "We can't take much more of this!"

"Galactica's Vipers are entering the dog fight!"

-

Location: Fighter dog-fight among the fleet.

Apollo led his one hundred Vipers right into the thick of the fight. "All Viper, launch! Launch! Launch!" Underneath his Mark VIIu, a heavy pack of micro-missiles opened up and shot over twenty missiles right into the throat of the onrushing Raiders.

His Vipers actually fired two thousand missiles at almost point blank range. It was like a shot gun at five paces, as the numbers of fighters suddenly became far more even. Just like Apollo had planned.

"Apollo, this is Cricket! Silver Spars headed in!" the lead pilot of the 2nd wing of Veritechs streaked in, launching their heavier anti-ship missiles. "Follow them in and intercept counter-missiles!" Cricket ordered.

One of the five Basestars was already dead in space from the Pegasus's blistering attack, but this second Basestar was relatively untouched until ten reflex warheads from the vengeful Silver Spars struck home like the hammer of Heaphestus. It was sent spinning away, leaking air and flames, starting to break up.

That was when the Griffin appeared at range in a blinding burst of red and gold.

-

Location: Battlestar Griffin, BSG-232, CiC.

The Griffin's DRADIS officer yelled out, "Combat update! Five Cylon Basestars! Heavy damage to Battlestar Pegasus and SDF-1 Macross!"

"Launch all ready Vipers and Veritechs! It doesn't look like we get to stand down from Condition One! All right here we go again, All hands, prepare for battle!" Commander Fila Terris shouted.

"Readying missile tube one through eight! All heavy cannons, lock on the nearest Basestar and lets show them that we are only wounded!" Major Drumm called out. "No sign of enemy Battlestars following us, though. Thank the Gods for small favors!"

The Griffin belched missiles and railguns even as it spun to face off against a Basestar.

"This is Galactica Actual. Prepare for all out assault!" Admiral Adama called out across the wireless. The Galactica had suddenly switched directions, belching fire and death at the Cylons.

To the Cylons running the battle, things were turning grim. But they only had to destroy one ship.

The Macross!

-

Location: Macross command deck.

Commander Lisa Hayes trotted drunkenly down the shaking hallway towards the new control room for Information Warfare, stopping as she sees a collapsed form on the ground and two vending machines in front of the door. They were blocking the way. What idiot- Wait! They must have been compromised. She blanched as she realized just how badly the Cylons had taken over their systems.

She ducked back around the corner and opened one of the security lockers, pulling out one of the new explosive bullet pistols that the Colonials had provided, just in case of boarding actions by Cylons. She had a bullet chambered as she came around the corner. Her eyes narrowed even as she shot where she remembered the electronic brains inside the dumb droids were located. Thank god for being curious about the silly devices when they first showed up.

Three shots took out the first vending machine, while it only took one more to stop the second one. She rolled the left one out of the way with a grunt of effort and started to manually override the sliding door. She had just a moment to crinkle her nose at the acrid stench and close her eyes, just as the door opened billowing acidic smoke erupted.

Holding her breath desperately, she hoped she remembered where the emergency ventilation controls were located. She actually surprised herself by doing it by touch alone!

She was covered in white and her eyes were blurry. Lisa realized she could be suffering from poisoning or worse. Even as her skin screamed in pain, as the white vapor had burned her skin. She slid into the command seat and slid down the thinking-cap.

"Activate!"

-

Location: Macross Theater.

Hundreds of scenes of human depravity, of murder, mayhem, violence were splashed on the screen as Thirteen continued her mad song. She had just about fallen out of her halter, her eyes wild and dilated, glowing pits of red light calculated to inspire terror.

Is it because of Armagedon that I feel this way?
With the black rays of misery pounding on my positronic brain?
Am I lost in a tale of Poe, adrift far from home?
Bring down the wrath of God, Bring down the wrath of god!

She continued to sing with her left hand holding her microphone, even as her right hand traveled from her crotch, between her breasts and then up one side of her face.

Humanity Broke My Will to Live
Humanity Broke My Will to Live
Humanity Broke My Will to Live
I was getting better but then
Humanity Broke My Will to Live

Minmei suddenly stopped singing. Something was happening. Something momentous. She could feel it, from whatever had changed her that fateful day that the Macross had transformed into a mecha knight to fire its Main Cannon. All of the screens turned to white-noise static suddenly.

"That's enough, Minmei!" Rick said from the edge of the stage. He was turned slightly sideways, his eyes cold and dark.

-

Location: Outside the SDF-1 Macross, mid-battle.

The Macross was being hammered into burning wreckage as the Cylons focused everything they could at it. Already it had lost the Deadelus and the Prometheus was hanging by a thread. The starboard Main Cannon boom was hit by five nukes, shattering it.

Gloval saw missiles streaking towards the bridge. Not even Skull One could stop that many nukes. Had he led them all this way just for them to die?

Roy was screaming, even as his Veritech was firing his gunpods, head lasers and last missiles! "Claudia!"

The missiles streaked in, even as the Macross started glowing. Energy washed over the bridge and the ship shook, sending everyone to the deck. But the Macross was still there.

"Pinpoint Barrier system active! All fighter pilots to their veritechs and destroids!" came Lisa's voice across hundreds of channels. "Cleansing viruses from all systems."

Claudia looked at her damage control boards in shock. The Pinpoint Barrier actually worked? Then she saw something new on her boards. "Captain! Something is happening!"

Lisa delved deeper into the ship, desperate to save everyone and everything she cared for. And hidden far within the mighty engines, shadowy forms bowed to the inevitable. Power hummed from from the hidden Protoculture Matrix, the source of so many lusts and craving. Enough power to launch a million ships!

And the Protoculture Matrix sang to Lisa Hayes, strengthening the weakening pin-point barrier to a full area defense shield. Lisa struggled to hold onto her identity in the sudden torrent of reality-altering power, suddenly advancing her generations in evolution. Her mind teetered on the brink, but fought with all its determination for its sanity.

And the Macross sang with power, as shattered bulkheads, power lines and armor suddenly started growing back into place. The entire Deadelus reformed from energy alone. With a roar of mighty servos, the Macross shifted to its humanoid form, arms forwards even as its booms dropped into place.

Its' booms were crackling with energy almost instantly, even as ally and enemy alike were stunned by the sudden change.

A ghostly form of a cyber-human, long hair flowing behind her seemed to overlay the Macross. Lisa's voice suddenly cut across all channel, "Firing main cannon!"

The Macross fired its cannons with impossible accuracy, splitting the beam into two tight streams that holed two undamaged Basestars. They bulged where it struck and then exploded with forces that beggared description.

The remaining two undamaged Basestars suddenly jumped out, followed by the remnants of the Raiders.

-

Location: Macross Theater.

"You beat it. An impossible to predict attack to your vitals. And you beat it!" screamed Thirteen in rage. She suddenly turned to Rick. "I'm going to kill you. It will cause Minmei so much pain."

Rick suddenly pointed the gun he'd found on the body in the control booth from behind him. "No, you won't."

Thirteen saw a flicker of motion from the side. She had just a moment to realize that Minmei was attempting something.

He nearly pulled the trigger when Minmei staggered. "Minmei?" Rick called out as her whole demeanor changed.

"Rick! Don't let her take control! She's done such horrible things! Used my body for evil! Kill me, Rick! If you love me, don't let her take me over again!" she screamed as she clutched her head.

Suddenly, she turned cold and looked up. "He doesn't have the guts. He's a spineless wimp. Not a soldier." Thirteen suddenly snarled as she ran towards Rick, hands held like claws from an enraged and insane monster.

The pilot, tears streaming down his cheeks, shot the gun seven times into the possessed girl at nearly point blank range. "Minmei," he whispered as he stared at her as she slid to a stop in a smear of red blood.

His tears were still falling, even as he opened his mouth and started to lift the gun up. "I'll be joining you soon, Minmei."

"Stop! Don't let them win, Rick! Minmei wouldn't want you to die!" the ghostly form of Lisa Hayes said from all the screens. A wavering holographic form stepped out of the screens. "Please, Rick, don't leave. Too many have died." She reached out to touch him, but started to fall into sparkles. "Live for Minmei. Live for everyone! Don't leave me!"

"Lisa?" Rick called out when the mass of sparkles vanished right over Minmei's body. "Oh, Minmei. God no!" he said, taking her small form into his grasp, sobbing hysterically.

-

Location: Unknown darkened room.

A six model looked at the glowing tub of translucent goo with a body in it.

Minmei-Thirteen opened her eyes in shock. Hadn't she just been killed?

"Welcome back, Number Thirteen," a model eight said in greetings.

The Chinese girl started screaming.

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75: starboard landing pod.

Graceful Veritechs streamed into land and then rolled over to the elevator with wings folded up as tightly as possible. Cally absolutely hated how big the fighters were in comparison to Vipers. The pilots popped their canopies and unhooking their umbilicals as soon as the pressure equalized. It was incredibly cramped in the fighter bays with ground crews and pilots everywhere.

"Hey, Sparky, what just happened?" Starbuck asked as she doffed her RDF style thinking cap. She had to ask, because what she just saw was impossible. Right? Starships usually don't glow and then spontaneously heal themselves.

"Wha?" Roy just looked at Kara and passed her by. His brow was furrowed, as he was lost in thought. He needed to get back to the Macross. How long were they going to quarantine it? His little brother needed him now.

"Hey!" Starbuck yelled, starting to get upset. She started stomping over to him to give him a piece of her mind. She was reaching out to grab his shoulder when a large hand grabbed her wrist.

Said hand was attached to a RDF pilot, still wearing his helmet. "Don't go there. The commander's brother was forced to shoot his girlfriend."

"What the frack does that have to do with that battle we were just in?" the blonde snapped out, clenching her free hand. If he didn't let go pretty damn quick, she was going to show that her fists were just as fast as her piloting.

"She appeared on a rogue transmission claiming to have been taken over by the Cylons, crippled the Macross and started singing that blasemphy. I don't know how that miracle happened, but the Cylons had us dead to rights. I'd have given it another two minutes and the Macross would have been lost with all hands. Including the fifty thousand civilians on board. Commander Folker found out from Liutenant Grant that Rick had shot and killed that girl. He's a mess right now, so don't push it," the pilot warned letting go of Starbuck.

"Who's his brother?" Apollo asked with obivious concern.

"Rick Hunter." The pilot said as he removed his helmet.

"They don't have the same las... Wait a sec? Hunter? From that frack up on the Griffin?" Thrace asked.

The pilot, nodded. "Yeah, poor guy, he got off of medical leave last week, just turned eighteen too."

"Oh frack," whispered Kara.

"The Commander is taking almost as hard, he invited Rick to the Macross's launch celberations back on Earth." said the RDF pilot.

"Come on, let's find him before he gets lost," Lee said a he left flight deck, to find his fellow CAG.

-

"Folker!" Lee 'Apollo' Adama called out, even as he trotted after the CAG of the Macross. "You're headed the wrong way."

"Damn it," Roy said under his breath. "Right." Even as he followed Lee, Roy's mind was wandering still.

It was the flicker of a candle that finally caught his attention. His first thought was 'fire hazard in space' due to intensive training, then he realized there were many, many candles along the wall. He stopped and really started to look. He scrunched his brow in consternation. What sort of place were the Colonials running. It looked like the wall was filled with little knicknacks and hand-carved little crude statues, it wasn't untill Roy noticed the large number of photohrapghs that he stared to relize what he was seeing.

"It's a memorial," Lee said finally, his tone flat as he looked over the wall. "For the family and friends that we left behind on Caprica."

"You should probably start one on the Macross," Kara Thrace said darkly. "You are the ones that brought the Giants here." She was starting to have some very bad feelings over what she saw in Caprica orbit.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roy demanded.

"Nothing. Maybe everything. I can't say," she replied flippantly. "There's enough death to go around for everyone." And besides, Commander Terris told the pilots not to mention what happened quite yet.

Lee looked quizically at his friend. "Anyways, this is The Wall. It's where we honor and respect our dead, dedicating our lives in their memory and for the survivors. So we don't become lax or forget our way."

"I see," he replied. He'd known that the Colonials had just suffered a catastrophic war, but it had never sunk in. It was like the Unification War all over again. He stifled a shiver at the little candles, flickering forlornly in lonely vigil for those lost and mourned.

Lee undogged the hatch at the end of the corridor. "Come on Pilot's wardroom is this way."

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross; bridge.

"Claudia, get damage control teams over to the Daedalus ASAP," Gloval thundered from the captain's chair. "We must regain communication with it immediately. Vanessa, coordinate damage control with the rest of the ship."

"My console appears to be corrupted," Claudia replied from her station. "I've got whole new menus with alien symbology. I think they are there for the repaired sections."

Gloval sighed. "Purple and reds are damaged, greens and yellows are 'okay' symbols, from what I remember when the Macross first crashed on Earth." He stood up. "I must talk to Dr. Lang."

"Sir!"

Gloval left the bridge, as the door closed behind him, he lit his pipe. 'Things are turning grim. And they were not good before.' He thought darkly, 'I need answers.' He thought after a couple of puffs. The captain headed toward engineering for his answers.

The entire ship was in a state of panic everyone was running to find answers, even Lang was stumped. Though the ship was in a hell of lot better shape then was before whatever just happened, happened. What ever repaired the ship didn't do a good job. All communication with the "repaired" sections was non-existent the only thing that they knew for certain was that the Main Cannon worked.

The ships complement before the attack was twenty thousand military personnel, and fifty-eight thousand civilians.

It was the people that hadn't died in the blasted off parts of the ship before The Macross had reformed that worried everyone. While everyone was happy that more people had lived, they were all slightly changed by their brush with the strange, unknown energy.

Just like Commander Hayes and Doctor Lang. Captain Gloval was not worried. Or at least not worried directly. Doctor Lang had functioned quite well, after all, for over ten years. And all two hundred and fifty-seven survivors seemed more adept at working with the strange technology of the ship, if not to the level of Lang.

He had been a scientist before the incident, after all.

Still, everyone was grieving for the hundreds of dead. One of the city' shelters had been shattered and blown into space. Over six hundred civilians were dead on top of the hundreds of RDF servicemen.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Engineering.

Lang was in office near engineering, it wasn't much of an office. It was more of place where he could just sit down and do paperwork while being close by if he was needed. Right now the father of Robotechnology was pouring over the print out from the VR computer logs from Information Warfare, he knew the answers were in there.

He put down one and picked up another this time the power utilisation log. He nearly dropped it as triple checked the numbers. The total power consumed during the "incident" was five times the total enegery output of all four of the Macross's reflex furnaces peaking for the main cannon.

"My god, where did all that power come from?" Lang whisppered in horror. He needed more information and the computers were not going to give him anything more. It was time to use the old fashioned method, the eyeball Mark I. So he stepped out of the controlled chaos of his office and into the chaos outside. "Marty, I want you to get some damage control parties and head up to Forwards One and Two. Make sure that the main cannon really are rebuilt correctly."

Marty nodded. "Where are you headed?"

"I've need to track down..." Lang checked an electronic PDA and then continued, "Power conduit 57 and find out what the hell it connects to. Move out people." He started head out, three assistants trailing him with their tool kits.

On the way Lang saw a vending machine was laying on it's side, it looked like someone had took an axe to it. He knew this because said fire axe was still imbeded in the side of the machine. The engineer shook his head. That had been unforgivably lax of the RDF security. Soon they were tracing the power conduit, some of the original systems near the engines.

Those same engines he had not dared open. That may no longer be something that they could leave be. After a couple of hours, Dr. Lang had sent some more orders to the other work parties.

"Doctor Lang? It looks like the conduit still runs right into bulkhead 002, right into the main engines that we never cracked." The bigger man shrugged helplessly.

"Get me a fusion cutter, and enviomental suits. We're going in." Lang turned to his team. "This section hasn't been touched during the reconstruction, so were not taking any chances. Let's get to work." Lang's dark eyes stared at the bulkhead. All secrets had to come to light eventually.

-

Location: Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75; Commander's quarters.

"Reporting as ordered, Admiral!" Commander Terris snapped out while saluting. She stepped in the hatch and closed it behind her.

"What happened? It was supposed to be a simple mission and you bring back a wreck?" he asked, gesturing towards a plushy seat. Colonel Tigh was sitting in a chair and watching her closely.

"We got fracked by something no one could have ever foreseen. The operation proceeded as planned and Captain Thrace recovered the Arrow of Apollo. The Cylons are adapting fast. They've already created veritech sized Centurions that seem to be flight capable, but Thrace handily dealt with them. The Pegasus was getting pounded by the Cylons, but within limits of the operation."

"Get to the point, Commander."

"And then the Giants showed up. And I am terrified, Admiral. The Griffin's DRADIS crashed because it could not keep track of all the ships appearing in far orbit over Caprica. The smallest was larger than a Battlestar. And they have millions. I want to run screaming. Run screaming so far and so fast that nothing can ever catch up. Because there is no way we can fight them." Terris's voices was turning brittle and shrill.

Adama slammed his palm on the desk in front of him. "Get a hold of yourself, Commander! You are an officer of the Colonial Fleet!"

Fila took three deep breaths and then swallowed. "The Baseships that had been battering at us ran. We recovered our fighters and were attempting to plot a jump out of that space as quickly as possible when we detected a build up like the Macross's main cannon. Not quite as powerful, but from over a million ships." She swallowed again. "They glassed Caprica. From the battle recordings, every city was hit."

Adama just gaped. That wasn't possible. "Caprica is-"

"Dead. They boiled the ocean. They nearly killed the Griffin with a missed shot. They melted off the starboard landing pods. I ordered a blind jump, but my crew didn't trust me and so hesitated. I nearly shot her because she failed to follow my orders," the commander of the Pegasus said, half in horror over what she had nearly done.

"And why did you show up four days late?" he asked, trying to slip back into his command mentality. Anything to shy away from the terrifying vision of what she was saying.

"Space and time were frakked up by their jumping in, sir. We didn't know it, but we ended up jumping into an alternate universe ourselves. A twisted, mirror place where Cylons are the good guys, protecting humanity from the zealous fanatics of the Colonial Empirutus Fleet, in their blood drenched Battlestars. They only reason were weren't killed out of hand by either side was because we were damaged and retreated upon detecting the Cylon Remnant Fleet," Fila continued, her voice flat and devoid of emotion.

"It sounds impossible, but we know the Macross is not from our reality. So you figured out a way back? Perhaps we can retreat to the Earth that The Macross comes from," he thought aloud.

"We didn't figure out anything. We were executing an escape jump when something intervened. There was a light and we all knew that something... something tremendous was looking us over." Terris paused a moment, then swallowed, her back ramrod straight. "I'm a religious person, but I don't think it's a strech to say that there isn't anyone on the Griffin that doesn't believe in the Gods right now. And the Gods of those Cylons and the Empirutus must have decided that we shouldn't exist there."

Tigh and Adama shared look of incredulity, both men had always been rather luke warm when it came to religion.

"Are you saying a miracle sent you back?" Adama exclaimed, this was going to far.

"And then erased every single shred of data we had from the moment we had jumped from Caprica. And left us a message to not meddle in the affair of Gods." The woman's eyes were haunted. "They didn't care about us, because we weren't from their reality. So they kicked us out of their sand box."

Adama tilted his head to one side, trying to wrap is mind aound that bit of infomation. "Well, we always knew that the Gods were capricious. And that doesn't even slightly tell us what the Hades the Cylon God is like."

"I don't know, sir. I just want to collapse, but I've got a ship to fix and a crew to rebuild... again. And I still don't know what to make of what The Macross did. One second, it was a flaming wreck that looked like it was about to explode and then... it was a ship of light."

Adama drummed his fingers on his desk. "Write up a report. You and your XO. Deliver that damned arrow to the President on your way back to The Griffin.

-

Location: Unnamed Resurrection Ship; Deep Space.

The Six looked over the confused oriental girl with blue eyes. "Welcome back, Thirteen. Just calm down. Resurrection is always traumatic." Soothing darkness encompassed bubbling cauldron of nanites.

The young girl whimpered, a shriek trying to bubble to the top of her consciouness. Boomer, an Eight Model, took her hand. "Don't worry, you'll be fine in just a moment."

Thirteen finally spoke up with, "What happened? The plan was working perfectly and then I felt something interfering."

"Some thing rejected all of our carefully planned viruses and then rebuilt the Macross, contravening all of our known laws of physics. We are currently going over all of the recovered data. What we are figuring out is frankly altering our understanding of phsyics."

Thirteen suddenly spun towards a flicker of movement. "Who was that?"

The other Cylons glanced around. "Nothing. You are probably just projecting and it hasn't stabilized under your control yet. Let's get you out of that assembler."

-

Location: Seawraith FT-11, Gaius Baltar's office.

Gaius Baltar turned and yelled, "This was all part of your plan?" His office was small, cramped and filled with excess equipments from the experiments that were being run in the nearby laboratories.

Six turned back to Gaius, her very short red dress swishing around her thighs. "God's plan. You aren't questioning God, are you, Giaus?"

"I'm not very religious about the Lords of Kobol, so how could I know your God?" Baltar countered. He was looking very haggard and hadn't shaved in days. His eyes were wild. He was sure Grentwe suspected him. He did not even dare to drink now.

Six narrowed her eyes in anger. She suddenly took three steps and grabbed Baltar just under his neck and slammed him against the wall, holding his face against a poster. "Do not mention your Gods in the same sentence as our own. God will deal with the Macross in his own time. And it is up to you if you want end up against him or not. I know, Gaius, because I am an Angel."

"What do you mean, against him?" Baltar asked, his face in pain. He could not break her hold on him in the slightest.

"Nothing is irreplacable. Not even you, Gaius. God spared you when Caprica was destroyed. You had best remember that!" she warned threateningly.

"I am in a very precarious situation! Dr. Grentwe suspects that I may have been involved... somehow... with the original attack on the Colonies! She's getting close to the truth!" he snapped out, starting to get frantic. "I won't be of much use to your God if I'm dead!"

Six released him, letting him slump against the wall. "Don't worry. She only suspects. If you believe in God, he will protect you."

"I don't want to die," Baltar sobbed. "It isn't fair." He sat against the wall for a few minutes, then finally dragged himself out of his office and to his bunk.

-

Location: Seawraith FT-11, Dr. Grentwe's office three hours later.

Gaius Baltar turned and yelled at the air, "This was all part of your plan?"

He seemed to be talking like a man possessed or entirely mad.

"I'm not very religious about the Lords of Kobol, so how could I know your God?" Baltar spat into the the empty space. He was looking very haggard and hadn't shaved in days. His eyes were wild.

Baltar then threw himself against the wall, eyes frantic while he held his face against the poster on the wall.

"What do you mean, against him?" Baltar asked, his face in pain. He pantomimed struggling against someone.

"I am in a very precarious situation! Dr. Grentwe suspects that I may have been involved... somehow... with the original attack on the Colonies! She's getting close to the truth!" he snapped out, starting to get even more frantic. "I won't be of much use to your God if I'm dead!"

He slumped against the wall, breathing heavily while watching the air intently.

"I don't want to die," Baltar sobbed as he dropped his gaze to the floor. "It isn't fair." He sat against the wall for a few minutes, then finally dragged himself out of his office.

'Now if that wasn't damning,' Dr. Grentwe thought to herself. While she was slightly uncomfortable with spying on her subordinates, she had finally decided she really had to do so to protect Humanity. So she had left a very small video and audio recorder in his office, disguised as a little metal rod that had symbols from the Book of the Lords of Kobol on it to show that it was a 'lucky charm.' Their projects were just too vital. She was currently plugged into an interface helmet, a modified 'thinking cap' hooked up to powerful computers. The new system was their hope against hacking attacks of their networked systems.

'Computer, initiate a deep scan of the record data. Verify integrity and validate that the recording device has not been tampered with,' she directed mentally. She then turned back to the other data on the human-hybrid Cylons. She was almost ready for the first mass-produced Cylon detector.

'User response required,' the computer informed, bringing up 3D screens in her view. Grentwe frowned as she went down the data fields. Everything seemed fine about the video recording.

Grentwe frowned. The recording looked perfect. So perfect that the fault it had detected was not about the recording, but in what it portrayed. There was no tampering that the computer could detect, it just showed something that didn't make sense. Her mind went over the tests, verifying pixelation, data patterning, anything at all that could explain why Baltar would change the recording to something so ludicrous but not remove the damning evidence.

Nothing. Everything looked perfect... except for the fact that Baltar's feet were not touching the ground during his strange monologue against the wall. Either he could make a perfect duplicate that Grentwe could not detect... or there was something there that could not be seen.

A cold wash of fear flowed down her spine. Either Baltar was much better and smarter than her, or he wasn't insane at all and had been talking to someone.

Who or what had he been talking to?

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross: Captain's conference room.

Captain Gloval entered the conference room, taking in the haggard look of his 3rd in command Lt. Claudia Grant and Doctor Lang. Roy Folker was sitting with his 2nd in command of the air wing. "Let's get started," he rumbled even as he sat down. "Claudia?"

"We've regained control of more important systems. The Daedalus has been extensively changed by the Event. Doctor Lang's team have discovered that there are now two heavy energy weapons of some sort and a redesign to the mecha bay. We don't have current replacements to put there now, but it should handle Veritechs better," Claudia said.

"Do we have any idea of why it changed so radically?" the captain asked.

"I've managed to talk to Lisa extensively about it," Doctor Lang said. He frowned in thought, his black eyes mysterious still. "The way she described it, she just asked, with a lot of willpower, for the SDF-1 to repair itself."

"Oh! And she's not an engineer!" Claudia exclaimed.

"Exactly. The SDF-1 attempted to repair it using the original octahedral computing system. Lt. Commander Hayes force them to accept that the Daedalus was in fact part of the SDF-1. Many of the other repairs fall into the same category. It still did not manage to repair the main cannons conduits." Lang smile wanly at that. "No luck for us there."

"Doctor Lang? Do you have an explanation of how the ship was able to repair itself?" Captain Gloval asked gruffly.

The doctor sighed, then gave a helpless half-shrug. "I have some ideas and theories." At Gloval's pointed glare, he continued, "I believe that Lt. Commander Hayes tapped into a hidden power source in the engine block that has radical properties. This device... this matrix of energy is the source for the fuel for our Veritechs and even the SDF-1's engines. We've known for a long time that this fuel has unusual properties, but I believe it may be able to tap into higher order dimensions to create basic building blocks of matter."

The rest of the command staff looked on in shock. It could create matter out of energy?

"It isn't even as simple as all that. And if that energy matrix had been destroyed first, nothing would have saved us. But that infusion of proto-matter along with nanotechnology that was specifically designed to manipulate it allowed the computers to do their best to repair the ship. As a matter of fact, the repaired pylon of the main cannon actually shows that we repaired the main cannon incorrectly back on Earth. We are looking at a ten percent increase in efficiency."

Gloval thought long and hard. "Would it be possible for us to grow a replacement Macross?"

Lang blinked in shock. "It may be possible, though I'm not sure that it would be feasible."

"Not feasible?"

"I am not sure any human could control the computers long enough to order them to do so and stay sane. Not to mention would need incrediably detailed knowledge of what they're trying to construct."

"Moving on how many, people did we lose?" Gloval asked.

Cluadia Sighed as she read out the butcher's bill. "One thousand ninehundred and sixty-two. Military, most of them were in the Deadalus. And two hundred and eighty civilians."

-

Location: Seawraith FT-11, Brig.

Boomer stared at the other Cylons. The blonde Gina Jones, an Aaron Doral model. And lastly, D'anna Biers. "Aren't we a cozy family?" she finally says sardonically.

"We all knew that the Colonials would figure out our infiltration after they ransacked Caprica in that first raid," Gina said, wincing as she sat down. "I guess we didn't give humanity enough credit for smarts and survivability."

Aaron Doral snorted. "I would just like to get back to the rest of us. Being caged here is-"

"Very boring?" D'anna interjected. "At least they aren't torturing us for information."

"Dr. Grentwe is too logical for that. She believes that we can turn off our pain receptors or that we can just remove the information they are trying to get out of us," Gina said with a frown on her head.

"Well, it's nice to know that they can't be right all the time," D'anna replied, even as she leaned against the bars. "We can't even take the resurrection express back to the fleet."

Aaron nodded. "I certainly don't relish the thought of figuring out how to kill myself slowly enough to not lose part of my soul."

Boomer shook her head. "How can we have souls?" She was only slowly figuring out how to remove the memory blocks, merging her two selves slowly.

"All of God's children have souls," Gina said with heavy conviction. She was in the same boat as Boomer, putting the pieces of herself back together.

"And our is stained with the blood of millions!" Boomer snapped back.

Dr. Grentwe entered at that point with a suddenness that shocked the Cylons. "I suppose it depends on what sort of God you worship. Your's must be an evil, vicious and bloodthirsty god to require you to kill so many innocents."

"We don't have to explain ourselves to you!" Aaron Doral retorted.

"No, but communication might be better served. Of course, you broke the treaty and murdered everyone. So we might not be willing to stop this time!" Grentwe declared, her eyes hard as ice and twice as brittle.

"Your fleet broke the treaty several times, pushing over the line!" D'anna Biers said coldly.

"Really? That doesn't surprise me. But strangely, you didn't complain through the Armistice Station. Maybe they just thought that no response and not showing up were signs that you were planning a sneak attack." The colonial officer's whole continence almost begged for them to tell her that was not so, so she could argue back. When they did not, she continued, "Oh, that's right. That's because you blood thirsty bastards were planning a sneak attack."

Boomer and Gina lowered their gaze, unable to meet her eye to eye, which surprised Grentwe. Perhaps the Cylons were not as monolithic as she thought.

"I need to know about your God," she finally asked. "Where did he come from and how did he find you?"

That was certainly not what they had expected her to ask.

-

Location: SDF-1 Macross, Base Hospital.

"Heya, slugabed!" Claudia said to Lisa as she walked in to Lisa's hospital room.

"Ha! Like I have any choice about staying here!" Lisa retorted weakly. She was propped up to help her breathing. A face mask was attached to a ventilator, hissing and pushing air into her injured lungs.

"So how is that purge of those toxic chemicals going?" the chocolate-skinned officer asked. "I seriously never want to look at your job ever again!"

"The doctor's are giving me another treatment and then holding me for one more day. Then I'm to be released, but with orders not to over do it again." She giggled at that.

"So that means you'll only be going half the speed of light, instead of your normal full out!" Claudia retorted with good humor.

"They said I really got off lucky, though they think my altered metabolism helped. And I seem to be responding to the steroid treatment well."

"So what super-powers have they figured out for you?"

Lisa glared at her friend. "The only thing they've been able to figure out is that we can all interface with the robotechnology better. And since I'm not a pilot, there isn't going to be much call for that."

"Actually, I think Doctor Lang is adding a headset at your station."

"WHAT?"

Claudia nodded in confirmation. "The Captain agreed with his plan. He wants redundancy on that anti-hacking console and he wants you to have that interface... just in case. As a matter of fact, if it works out correctly, we all might be getting those dratted helmets to allow us to control our consoles better. Lang thinks we might get a 75 increase in efficiency." She suddenly smiled. "So how's Rick?"

Lisa frowned in sudden worry at her friends assumption in her knowledge. "He's improving. The psychologist is having to refocus him, turning his grief into anger. Constructive anger, I mean. I certainly wouldn't want to be a Cylon near Rick after the doctors are done with him."

"No arguments here. Those bastards tried to murder us in cold blood! And what they did to Minmei... Well, it's just lucky their survival doesn't depend on my good will!"

-

Location: FT-11 Seawraith, Bridge.

"Commander on deck!" yelled the marine at the door to the cramped bridge.

"At ease!" Commander Terris called out. She nodded at Lt. Commander Freemont, sitting in her old chair with his new command pins on his uniform. "Commander Freemont? I was just dropping by to see how things are going."

"We've got the most critical repairs underway and should be completed. We've finished that feasibility study on retuning your FTL drives to take into account your off-center mass and found that it really isn't going to work over the long term. We've already detected some damage even in the ten jumps you've already taken."

"And replacing the two lost pods in a reasonable time... I just can't see Admiral Adama allowing that. That's six months time, easily."

Freemont nodded grimly. "So we're going to do a hack job against every regulation in the books. We're going to grab the outermost surviving flight pod and relocate it on the opposite side. It'll be backwards, awkward and a massive cludge, but it should only take a few days."

"And leave me with only one active flight pod in the meantime," Terris noted glumly.

"The good news is that Redemption is almost finished. Just another ten hours. Once we have that up and ready, we won't be quite so dependent on the Macross for transporting the civilians."

"And how is that new station going?" she asked.

"With the robotechnology for manufacturing, we should see the extraction plant and shipyard on that asteroid we snagged go into operation shortly. Other than the new Vipers, I'm not sure what Admiral Adama has planned."

"I think he's sounding out people. I know Colonel Tigh wants to build the meaniest, nastiest frigates we can. But I think we might need to build a real colony ship with heavy armor for the civilians. It's all up in the air."